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SantaCon, the annual excuse for excessive day drinking in fur-lined red suits, is happening around San Francisco once again this Saturday, December 10.

This year's rampage is due to start at Union Square, and then tear through bars in North Beach, Civic Center, the Castro, and the Mission.
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador  In one of the worlds most deadly countries, a Swedish development organization is trying to turn a source of death into a resource that combats gun violence.

The Humanium Metal Initiative was started in El Salvador in November. It seeks to take guns off the streets and have the metal recycled and sold, with the revenue being funneled back into antiviolence programs, according to IM Swedish Development Partner, the group behind the initiative. Humanium is the name it gives to the metal produced from recycled guns.

Hans Blix, the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency and a supporter of the gun initiative, said that when you see an ingot of the recycled gun metal you understand how it can be used for different purposes.

You can make a pistol or a revolver of it and its lethal, Blix said. But the same metal also can be used for very good purposes.

In 2015, gang violence pushed El Salvadors homicide rate to 103 killings for every 100,000 residents. In neighboring Honduras, it was 64 per 100,000 in 2015. A 2012 report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime found that 77 percent of the murders in Central America were committed with a firearm. Last year in El Salvador, 83 percent of the 6,071 murders were committed with a firearm, according to the government.

The weapons come from various sources. Some are legally registered then filter into the underworld. Others are leftover from the regions civil wars. And still others are smuggled from the United States.

IM Swedish Development Partner so far has several tons of the metal between existing stockpiles in El Salvador and Guatemala. The last weapon destruction in El Salvador destroyed 1,825 guns. The organization plans to scale up its work as demand grows for the metal.

The guns are either seized or collected from gun holders by local authorities, who then melt them down into ingots, wire or pellets, depending on what the buyer needs, according to the organization.

The organization says it is currently negotiating with several global brands. The metal could be used for items ranging from jewelry to smartphone cases.
Time was you could drop acid on Bedford Avenue and wander around for miles, tripping the light fantastic in quirky mom and pop stores, far away from the foul stench of Subway and fluorescent-lit satanic ritual that is CVS self-checkout. But alas, those unfettered days are gone: according to a new report from the New York City Center for an Urban Future, chain stores are swarming the outer boroughs.

Each of the four outer boroughs saw sharp upticks in chain retail stores during 2016, with the Bronx getting the worst of it. 36 new national chain storefronts opened in the borough, amounting to a 4.2 percent increase. Brooklyn has taken on 35 new chains during the same period, which given its large size only amounts to a 2.3 percent uptick, but damn those Munchkins are everywhere.

For the eighth year in a row, Dunkin Donuts tops the CUF list for worst capitalist virus most popular national chain in NYC, and with 24 new stores this year its total now sits at 596 locations. Coming in second is Subway, which (mercifully) downsized its local operations and now has "only" 433 locations, 12 less than last year.

Also suspiciously buried deep in the report is the revelation that Staten Island is home to NYC's only Build-A-Bear location. Do with that knowledge what you will.

Rounding out the top ten national retailers extracting wages and alienating across the five boroughs are MetroPCS, Starbucks, Duane Reade/Walgreens, T-Mobile, Baskin Robbins, McDonald's, Rite Aid, and CVS. The one bright spot? Retail chain store presence actually shrunk in Manhattan over the past year, although the borough still hosts double the amount of any other borough. The final total of national chains in NYC stands at 7,154.

Still, a few national chains have chosen to close all their local outposts, pack their bags, and move back to Wisconsin to live with their parents. Those quitters include Gordon's Jewelers, OfficeMax, Benetton, and Hollywood Tans.

In a separate report, the CUF has detailed how the hyper-expensive real estate market and competition for busy locations is the greatest hurdle for small businesses trying to get a foothold in NYC. Hey, at least we're getting a Wegman's, maybe?
NEW YORK  President-elect Donald Trump is calling the survivors of last weeks attack at Ohio State University great people, amazing people.

Trump flew to Columbus, Ohio, to meet Thursday with several people who were slashed by Ohio State student Abdul Razak Ali Artan. The attacker first rammed a campus crowd with his car before getting out with a knife and stabbing students. He was fatally shot by police.

The president-elect spent about 30 minutes with some of the victims and their families.

He says, The families have come through this so well. He is also paying tribute to the first responders who tended to the victims and subdued the attacker.

Trump met with the families privately and aides did not immediately provide an accounting of what was discussed.

Earlier, Trump announced his plans to nominate fast food executive Andy Puzder as his labor secretary.

In a statement, Trump says Puzder will fight to make American workers safer and more prosperous. The president-elect also says he expects Puzder to protect small businesses from unnecessary regulations.

Puzder is the CEO of CKE Restaurants, the parent company of Carls Jr., Hardees and other chains. He says the right government policies can result in more jobs and better wages for the American worker.

Meanwhile, a local union president slammed by Donald Trump on Twitter says he wont stop saying the president-elect is inflating the number of jobs being saved in a deal with Carrier Corp. to stop the closing of an Indianapolis factory.

United Steelworkers Local 1999 President Chuck Jones says that he finds Trumps barbs amusing and that wont back off despite harassing phone calls since Trump criticized him on Twitter Wednesday night.

Jones says hes grateful Trump intervened to stop about 800 jobs from being outsourced to Mexico. But Jones says Trump gave workers false hope by saying 1,100 jobs were being saved. That figure includes positions which the company had always said would remain in Indianapolis.

Trump tweeted that Jones has done a terrible job representing workers.
EAST PALO ALTO (BCN)

A two-alarm fire at an apartment complex in East Palo Alto displaced 21 residents Thursday, firefighters said.

The Menlo Park Fire Protection District responded around 11 a.m. to the Royal Oaks Apartment Complex at 1928 Cooley Avenue on a report of a fire.

The fire broke out in a unit on the third floor of the three-story, 70-unit building.

Firefighters were able to bring the fire under control in about 20 minutes.

The apartment where the fire started sustained fire damage, two units sustained water damage and one sustained smoke damage, firefighters said.

The unit where the fire broke out was not occupied when the blaze started, and there were no reported injuries.

Of the 21 residents displaced by the fire, 12 were adults and nine were children.

Investigators determined the fire started in the living room of one of the units and was likely caused by a faulty extension cord, firefighters said.

The fire did an estimated $70,000 in damage to the structure, and about $12,500 worth of contents was lost in the blaze, firefighters said.

The displaced residents were relocated to other apartments in the complex.
A Helena judge has vacated the conviction of a man a jury found guilty of sexual assault and ordered a new trial to take place. The main argument for the reversal was ineffective counsel from an attorney, who was later disbarred.

A jury found Jeffrey Edward Baker guilty of felony sexual assault after a four-day trial in January 2012. Baker, who was 39 and living in East Helena at the time, allegedly molested a young girl while serving as her babysitter.

Baker is serving a sentence of 40 years in prison with 20 years suspended.

In 2013, Baker filed for a petition for post-conviction relief. After various filings and hearings, District Judge DeeAnn Cooney granted the petition last week.

During the same time as his trial, his attorney Martin Eveland was on probation by the Commission of Practice, according to court documents. Eveland failed to inform his client and the district court of his probationary status and that the Montana Supreme Court had ordered a psychological evaluation into his mental fitness to practice law.

Eveland was disbarred in 2014.

Baker's new attorney, Palmer Hoovestal, argued Eveland made numerous fundamental errors that resulted in severe prejudice to Baker.

In her ruling, Cooney agreed Eveland's performance during trial was sufficient.

"In not advising Baker of his status before the Bar, Eveland did not conduct himself honestly," Cooney wrote. "It was neither a critical lie of omission to advise his client nor the court of his mental health issues or the terms of his probationary license. Eveland's failure to share such information with his client demonstrates a lack of professionalism and leads the Court to question his overall effectiveness."

Eveland also failed to investigate potential evidence denoting Baker's innocence, including a motive that a family member may have implanted memories into the girl's mind, Cooney wrote. She also noted Eveland failed to present testimony by a doctor who found no signs of sexual abuse when he examined the girl.

"In the interests of justice, a full presentation of the case is the successful presentation for which Baker is entitled," Cooney wrote in her order.

A new trial date has not been set.
The number of geese that died after landing in the Berkeley Pit last week could exceed 3,000, proof that not enough has been done to prevent such tragedies, Butte-Silver Bow Chief Executive Matt Vincent said Wednesday night.

He said steps taken after more than 300 geese died after landing in the giant pit of toxic mine water in 1995 were, in retrospect, obviously not enough.

Its a tragedy plain and simple, Vincent said. Every party that is still involved today was given a wake-up call.

Vincent made the strong comments and criticisms during opening minutes of the Council of Commissioners meeting, one of the last he will lead as chief executive. Commissioner Dave Palmer defeated Vincent in the November election and will take over in January.

Vincent said regulators from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service met with officials from Montana Resources (MR) and British Petroleum (BP) earlier Wednesday.

MR mines the area now and BP  through the old Atlantic Richfield Co. subsidiary  mined the area when water pumps were turned off in the 1980s, flooding the pit with water polluted by decades of copper mining.

MR and BP have not announced a final death toll of birds, Vincent noted, in part because they cannot get onto the pit water safely to do an up-close count. They are instead relying on images, some from drones, to determine how many geese have washed up on the sides of the pit.

But Vincent said they expect the number to exceed 3,000 in the coming days. That would be nearly 10 times the number that died during a landing in 1995.

Vincent said hazing and other steps taken to prevent future landings were followed religiously by MR.

Unfortunately we know that wasnt good enough, Vincent said.

Instead of staying on top of the issue and striving for new technologies to prevent another mass bird landing, Vincent said, Everyone went back to sleep after that wake-up call.

Unlike other parts of Butte under Superfund pollution management, the county has not had direct involvement with the Berkeley Pit, he said. Regardless, not nearly enough has been done, he said.

The only thing that has really happened is the surface area of the pit is continuing to get larger and larger, providing a larger target for those birds to hit, he said.

The rising pit water was approaching a critical stage, he said, and time is no longer a luxury on our side.

Vincent said he visited separately with officials from the EPA and BP ARCO on Wednesday.

What I can say is they were conciliatory, he said. They agreed, in light of this, that we have to do more.

Vincent said MR officials and employees were devastated.

You can see it in the faces of the individuals, he said. They did everything they could. There were tears shed down their faces. This is not anything that is being taken lightly.

He said federal regulators and BP need to get more information out to the public as soon as possible, and should establish a web site and social media site to update the number of dead birds and actions being taken.

We need to make this a wake-up call where we dont go back to sleep, he said.
Many Montanans have been writing legislators about the Electoral College. They want the legislature to change Montana law to require our three Electoral College electors to vote in accordance with the national popular vote.

It does seem undemocratic that Hillary Clinton won the national popular vote by approximately 2.5 million votes this year, but the Electoral College will probably elect Donald Trump on Dec. 19. Al Gore won in 2000, yet the Electoral College overturned our decision in that election as well. The power of the Electoral College means Montanans votes never really matter. Presidential winners are declared long before Montana poll results are tallied.

Should Montana law require our electoral representatives to vote to uphold the national popular vote? Whats the purpose of the Electoral College?

At the 1787 Philadelphia constitutional convention, James Madison argued, The people at large are the fittest source of presidential election  as likely as any that could be devised to produce an Executive Magistrate of distinguished character.

However, in 1787, although most men were eligible to vote in Northern states, many were not eligible in the South. Southern states argued that unfairly limited their influence in the choice of president. The Electoral College was created to give the South power without penalizing it for keeping slaves and for denying poor white men the right to vote.

So, Article II, Section 1, Clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution was written: Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress

Montana law addressing the Electoral College was amended in 2011. Electors nominated by political parties or independent candidates are now required to sign the following pledge: If selected for the position of elector, I agree to serve and to mark my ballots for president and vice president for the nominees of the political party that nominated me.

In 1787 discussions of the Electoral College, constitution delegates contended that well-respected representatives elected from each district of a state could override a bad decision by voters. The Electoral College was to practice independent judgement regardless of the popular vote to avoid election of an unqualified president.

Today, most of us believe all Americans of legal age should practice their responsibility as citizens to vote. Montana voting rights laws are strong compared to states like North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania, where voters have been blocked from voting through discriminatory laws and redistricting plans that are slowly being overridden by courts. In the meantime, Americans have been deprived of the right to vote.

The Montana Legislature could amend our electoral law to read, I agree to serve and to mark my ballots in accordance with the national popular vote. If we truly want the Electoral College to be merely ceremonial, as Montana Republican Party Chair Jeff Essmann has said, lets make it purely ceremonial to confirm the national popular vote.

Thereafter, my vote and the votes of all Montanans will count. Only 55 percent of eligible Americans voted in the 2016 presidential election. Less than half of that 55 percent voted for the man who is on track to become our next president. Its time to put slavery and disenfranchisement behind us. Its time to encourage all Americans to vote and to let every vote count. Electoral College electors should uphold the national popular vote. Then, well confirm our pledge that we are one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Sen. Sue Malek, D-Missoula, represents Senate District 46 in the Montana Legislature.
CAIRO  A bombing on a main Cairo road leading to the Giza pyramids killed six police and wounded another three on Friday, the deadliest attack on security forces in the capital in more than six months.

The bombing, near a mosque on a wide avenue often used by tour buses, hit a police checkpoint, smashing several cars and blowing the windows out of police sport utility vehicles. Gravel, debris, and leaves littered the ground, as investigators inspected the area and masked troops stood guard with automatic weapons.

We heard the blast and rushed to the scene and found police vehicles damaged, said Abdel Hamid Abdulla, who was nearby. We saw some police were injured, and some of their legs had been cut off, he said.

State-run news agency MENA said the blast targeted security forces but did not elaborate on what caused the explosion. A security official said that two bombs placed in the area exploded during a security patrol. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief journalists.

A shadowy group called Hasm, or Decisiveness, which the government suspects is linked to the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood, claimed responsibility for the attack. It has claimed previous attacks in Cairo, including a shooting against the countrys former chief Muslim theologian and a car bomb against the chief prosecutors deputy. Both escaped unhurt.

There is no safety or security for you as long as we hold our weapons in jihad for God, there is either victory or martyrdom, the group said in a statement posted online.

Insurgents have carried out a number of attacks in Egypt since the 2013 military ouster of an elected Islamist president. The violence has been concentrated in the northern Sinai Peninsula, where Islamic State-linked militants are battling the army.

Fridays attack was the deadliest in Cairo since May, when gunmen opened fire on a microbus filled with plainclothes police in the suburb of Helwan, killing eight of them. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack.

Most of the attacks in Cairo have been small-scale bombings, including one in October that targeted a police convoy and killed a pedestrian bystander.
SEOUL  South Korean lawmakers on Friday voted to impeach President Park Geun-hye, a stunning and swift fall for the countrys first female leader amid protests that drew millions into the streets in united fury.

Once formal documents are handed over to the presidential Blue House later Friday, Park will be stripped of her power and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn will assume leadership until the countrys Constitutional Court rules on whether Park must permanently step down.

The court has up to 180 days to decide. Park will be formally removed from office if six of the courts nine justices support her impeachment, and the country would then hold a presidential election within 60 days.

National Assembly speaker Chung Sye-kyun said the bill on Parks impeachment was passed by a vote of 236 for and 56 opposed, with 9 invalid votes and abstentions. That well surpassed the necessary two-thirds support in the 300-seat assembly. The opposition needed help from members of Parks party to get the needed votes, and it got it.

Relatives of the victims from a 2014 ferry disaster that killed more than 300 and was blamed in part on government incompetence and corruption, who were in the parliament observing the vote, cheered and clapped after the outcome was announced. Most lawmakers left the hall quietly, though some could be seen taking selfies as they waited to vote.

Once called the Queen of Elections for her ability to pull off wins for her party, Park has been surrounded in the presidential Blue House in recent weeks by millions of South Koreans who have taken to the streets in protest. They are furious over what prosecutors say was collusion by Park with a longtime friend to extort money from companies and to give that confidante extraordinary sway over government decisions.

Her approval ratings had plunged to 4 percent, the lowest among South Korean leaders since democracy came in the late 1980s, and even elderly conservatives who once made up her political base have distanced themselves from her. An opinion survey released Thursday showed about 78 percent of respondents supported Parks impeachment.

South Korean lawmakers last voted to impeach a president in 2004, when they accused late liberal President Roh Moo-hyun of minor election law violations and incompetence. The court restored Rohs powers about two months later, ruling that his wrongdoings werent serious enough to justify his unseating.

The chances of the court reinstating Park are considered low because her charges are much graver. However, some legal experts say the court might need more than a couple of months to decide. This is because Parks case is much more complicated than Rohs and because her lawyers will likely press the court not to uphold the impeachment unless the suspicions against her are proven.

Fridays vote was a remarkable fall for Park, the daughter of slain military dictator Park Chung-hee who convincingly beat her liberal opponent in 2012. Parks single, five-year term was originally set to end Feb. 24, 2018.

The political turmoil around Park comes after years of frustration over a leadership style that inspired comparisons to her fathers. Critics saw in Park an unwillingness to tolerate dissent as her government cracked down on press freedom, pushed to dissolve a leftist party and allowed aggressive police suppression of anti-government protests, which saw the death of an activist in 2016.
BEIRUT  Hundreds of Syrian men who escaped rebel-held areas of eastern Aleppo to go to government-controlled parts of the city are missing, U.N. officials said on Friday, adding that they had received reports of government reprisals, including numerous arrests and several cases of summary killings of suspected supporters of the opposition.

At the same time, the officials said, some rebel groups have prevented civilians from leaving and even killed or kidnapped those who demanded that insurgents leave their neighborhoods.

The United Nations reports largely reflect what residents of East Aleppo have told the New York Times in recent days as Syrian government forces retook control of most of the city. Several have said family members were detained, arrested or conscripted after crossing into government-held areas, and one resident recounted how rebels in the Bustan al-Qasr neighborhood stopped people from leaving.

Other residents, however, said rebels had helped them cross the front lines or warned them not to go at certain times or in certain places because of the danger. Rebel groups inside east Aleppo are fragmented and do not always act in concert.

As government forces continued to advance Friday, panic was growing among those still trapped inside, who either could not make their way out or were afraid to enter government territory.

More than 10,500 people have left rebel-held areas in the last 24 hours, Russian officials said Friday, nearly half of them children, while others have moved deeper into the rebel-held district under intense bombardment.

Many people who escaped eastern Aleppo have been filmed thanking government troops and their ally, Russia, and chanting praise for Assad.

But for those viewed as opposing the government and men wanted for army service, there is a riskier side to entering government territory.

Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said family members had reported that they had lost contact with men aged 30 to 50, echoing several interviews the Times conducted in which Aleppo residents said their males relatives were arrested or forced to join the army.
HONG KONG  The territorys Beijing-backed leader, deeply unpopular because of his hard-line response to huge 2014 pro-democracy protests and an ensuing separatist movement, said Friday he wont seek another term in office, citing family reasons.

In a surprise announcement, Leung Chun-ying said he will step aside after his five-year term ends in June.

If I run for the next term of the chief executive, Im afraid my family will come under unbearable pressure in the coming months, he said. I must protect them.

Hong Kongs Apple Daily newspaper reported earlier in the day that one of his daughters has been in a hospital for a month.

As a father, as a husband, I have a responsibility, said Leung, who has two other children. In my family, my children only have one father, my wife only has one husband, he said.

Leung, a divisive figure who was chosen by a panel of Beijing-friendly tycoons and other Hong Kong elites, is loathed because of the tough stance his government has taken against pro-democracy lawmakers, activists and supporters, as well as because of his ties to Chinas Communist leaders that many believe are deeper than his predecessors had.

His popularity has steadily dwindled since he took office. His approval rating stood at 23 percent in late November, according to Hong Kong University pollsters carrying out regular phone surveys of about 1,000 people. The error margin was 4 percentage points.

In 2014, Leung refused to negotiate with student pro-democracy activists who led protests occupying the Asian financial hubs streets for nearly three months. They demanded changes to the system that put Leung in office, but authorities did not back down. Police fired dozens of tear gas canisters in an attempt to disperse them, in a move that drew world headlines.
The right to suspend payments to KiwiSaver schemes should be reduced from five years to one and the so-called 'contributions holiday' should be renamed a 'savings suspension' to "remove the positive connection with a holiday," Retirement Commissioner Diane Maxwell says in her tri-ennial review of retirement income policies.

"Stopping contributions for five years has a significant impact and disrupts long-term savings," Maxwell's Commission for Financial Capability concludes among a raft of immediate and longer term changes proposed for the KiwiSaver regime. "For many people, five years is likely to be longer than necessary and a one-year renewal provides a prompt to reconsider their position."

The commission expressed concern that some 127,360 KiwiSaver accounts were on the so-called 'contribution holiday', with 84 percent of those set at the maximum threshold. An unlimited number of suspension renewals would still be permitted, but would require annual action.

Among other recommendations is that the "total dollar cost of all fees paid each year" should be disclosed on annual statements from KiwiSaver providers, reflecting concern that administration and management cost, along with underlying performance fees, are disclosed in a variety of ways by different KiwiSaver providers.

Policy work is already under way to regulate this requirement and to require funds to project future balances.

Maxwell also proposes an automated system for increasing contributions by both employers and employees to KiwiSaver from 3 percent at present to 4 percent, by a series of 0.25 percentage point increases from 2018 over four years, to take the standard contribution rate for KiwiSaver to 8 percent of annual income. New options to increase annual contributions by a larger amount, up to a cap, should also be introduced.

To allow even more choice about faster savings, employee contribution rates of 6 percent and 10 percent should also be made available.

In a nod to the stalled political debate on whether the age of entitlement for New Zealand Superannuation - the universally paid state pension - should be raised above 65, the commission proposes decoupling the age of entitlement to KiwiSaver funds from the Super entitlement age, as well as allowing people over the age of 65 to join KiwiSaver schemes.

Maxwell acknowledges in a video presentation on the commission's website that 65 is too soon to retire for some, and too late for others.

Looking further into the future, the commission recommends improving public information about the availability of $521.50 in annual tax credits attached to making KiwiSaver contributions up to $1,043 a year, which nearly half of the country's 2.3 million KiwiSaver contributors did not fully exploit last year, with 580,000 making no contribution at all.

"While affordability is recognised as a key reason, it is not fully clear why such a large number have made no contribution at all," the recommendations say, suggesting a more descriptive name for the credit might help.

Also on the commission's agenda is the growing practice of writing 'total remuneration' employment contracts that negate the incentive for an employee to join KiwiSaver created by requiring employers to make contributions on top of their agreed wage or salary. A review in 2011 recommended against that approach.

While there may be arguments for allowing people to belong to more than one KiwiSaver scheme, the issue is not a priority for the commission, the review says.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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Mercer Group, the unprofitable stainless steel fabricator, has issued 130.8 million new shares at 1 cent each to fund its purchase of the assets and business of Hastings-based Haden & Custance.

In November, it announced the conditional $2.25 million deal, which adds a robotics system used to prepare bulk products such as cheese and butter for processing, and offices in Melbourne, Australia, and Wisconsin in the US.

Christchurch-based Mercer raised $7 million through an underwritten rights issue this year, going towards repaying debt and providing the firm with working capital, though the H&C acquisition needed new funding. The company wants to reposition the steel business's focus to food processing and packaging technology, giving it exposure to higher-value export business.

Some 44.5 million shares from the placement were sold to company management. Chief financial officer Ian McGregor bought 17.5 million shares, chief executive Richard Rookes bought 12 million shares, director John Dennehy bought 10 million shares and director Paul Smart bought 5 million, according to NZX filings.

Adding the US office is expected to help sell Mercer's Titan slicer and Beta cheese processing products, with the acquisition projected to deliver "material" savings and set up "the platform for sustainable profitability", Rookes told BusinessDesk in November. Rookes said there was an opportunity to roll-up medium-sized food processing and packaging exporters generating revenue of $10 million-to-$20 million which struggle to achieve scale, and while Mercer doesn't have any other acquisitions on the cards, it is open to more.

The company hasn't yet quantified any costs it may face as the result of the collapse of a silo at Fonterra Cooperative Group's Edendale factory, which it designed and built in 2009. The cause of the collapse is being investigated. The bill has been put at as much as $45 million, although Mercer hasn't yet determined whether it has any liability, or how much would be covered by its professional indemnity and public and products liability insurance.

The shares last traded at 1.5 cents, having dropped 65 percent this year.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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Texas-based oil and gas explorer and producer Andarko has joined a string of other oil majors in dropping an exploration licence in lightly explored offshore areas of New Zealand, although continues to hold interests in two other areas.

Anadarko has dropped its prospecting licence in the Pegasus Basin, offshore east coast of the lower North Island, but is continuing to reprocess seismic survey information from its Canterbury Basin prospect, where it is seeking a delay from the government on its drilling programme.

Instead of drilling next year, Anadarko wants to be allowed to wait until January 2018 before making a decision whether or not to drill one or more exploratory wells in deep water off the Canterbury coast.

Anadarko also holds a 25 percent interest in a prospecting licence in the frontier New Caledonia Basin, which is operated by Shell New Zealand, which has been in the process of reviewing all its New Zealand operations for sale as the Dutch-based multi-national seeks to reduce costs around the globe.

Anadarko had previously quit a deepwater Taranaki Basin prospect, where exploratory drilling failed to turn up commercially viable oil or gas deposits.

Since the explosion of onshore shale oil and gas production in the United States helped collapse the global price of oil, previous interest by global oil companies in deepwater oil exploration has been waning. That has been spurred further by the costs and negative global publicity of the Deepwater Horizon deepwater rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010, in which Andarko was a financial partner.

Brazilian firm Petrobras, Norwegian explorer/producer Statoil and Mobil have all abandoned prospects in the last couple of years.

Environmental groups hailed the withdrawal.

Theyre dropping like flies, said Greenpeace climate change campaigner Steve Abel. One of the supposed cornerstones of this Governments economic strategy is its oil programme, but it is totally failing with no new oil found in eight years of searching."

An Anadarko spokesman, Alan Seay, said: "We remain committed to New Zealand."

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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MISSOULA -- A long-term financing fix for wildland firefighting stumbled in the final days of the lame-duck session of Congress.

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican, announced late Wednesday that conference talks on the Energy Policy Modernization Act had failed and were unlikely to resume until 2017.

That omnibus package included the Wildfire Disaster Funding measure to fix the U.S. Forest Services fire borrowing budget problem as well as a permanent reauthorization of the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Both programs were supported by all of Montanas congressional delegation.

The Wildfire Disaster Funding bill would have allowed the Forest Service to pay for forest firefighting expenses in a similar way to how the federal government responds to other natural disasters like hurricanes and tornadoes.

Currently, the Forest Service has to cover firefighting within its annual appropriation, and extreme fire activity can force it to borrow money from other routine duties to pay for the overruns.

The House's political games have killed a bipartisan bill and hurt Montanas energy future and outdoor economy, Sen. Jon Tester, D-Montana, wrote in an email on Thursday. Montanans deserve more from their elected officials and Ill keep working with Republicans, Democrats and Independents to create energy jobs, increase public access to public land, ensure Glacier and Yellowstone remain strong economic drivers, and invest in renewables.

Sen. Steve Daines, R-Montana, said through his staff that he would resume pushing on wildfire funding in January.

The Land and Water Conservation Fund collects a portion of federal royalties from offshore oil and gas leases to buy or maintain public lands for recreation and wildlife habitat. The fund has endured short-term reauthorizations for the past couple years and this bill was to have given it permanent budget status.

LWCF funds have paid for road safety improvements in wildlife corridors along Salmon Lake and public open space in Missoula, among other things.

Although two or three other pieces of legislation remain alive in Congress, none of Montanas congressional offices knew of plans to try use them to revive the wildfire or conservation fund initiatives.

Although no action is expected this year, Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, introduced legislation Thursday to designate 13,900 acres of the Scotchman Peaks mountain range on the border with Montana as federal wilderness. The unusual landscape includes both rugged cliff ridges and low-elevation rainforest groves with a unique range of rare plant and animal species.

If passed, this legislation would allow future generations of Idahoans to enjoy Scotchman Peaks, while at the same time protecting the needs and rights of local communities and tribes, Risch wrote in a email on Thursday. This bill was introduced today to start the public process, and will not move forward until I hear from Idahoans directly about this topic. I look forward to holding a public hearing in the next Congress to receive input.

The move excited Montana members of the Friends of Scotchman Peaks Wilderness organization, who have spent 12 years advocating for a cross-border protected area. The Scotchmans also cover 47,900 acres in Montana north of Trout Creek.

We hope and expect to have a Montana bill ready to go forward and have the entire rugged area kept wild and natural for future generations, said Doug Farrell, FSPW chairman. The reality with the whole Scotchmans is theres no conflicting uses there  no opposition. The support from Sandpoint and Bonner is really overwhelming from the county commissioners and chamber of commerce.

While the bill has been introduced in the 2016 congressional year, its unlikely it will get a committee hearing or be up for a vote before this session expires. However, such bills are commonly reintroduced in succeeding sessions as they work through the approval process.
New Zealand shares fell, led lower by Spark New Zealand and Scales Corp, while Orion Health Group rose from its record low.

The S&P/NZX 50 Index dipped 22.71 points, or 0.3 percent, to 6,893.3. Within the index, 24 stocks fell, 22 rose and five were unchanged. Turnover was $155.8 million.

"The local market has underperformed somewhat today, bucking the trend of offshore markets," said Grant Williamson, director at Hamilton Hindin Greene. "It looks a bit tired for the end of the week - a bit of profit taking in place, possibly the political scene does create a little more uncertainty for next year as we head into another general election but there's a lot of water to go under the bridge yet."

The best performer on the index was Orion Health, which gained 13.3 percent to $1.96, after hitting a record low of $1.65 on Wednesday.

"It's a major reversal, it had a key reversal day yesterday which means when it makes a new all-time low and then closes above the previous day's close, it's a sure sign it is going to make a pretty big short-term bounce, and that's exactly what we've seen today," Williamson said. "We did see a pretty large cross go through the market yesterday as well, which I think reduced the selling quantity and there was one main seller in the market that was pushing that stock down for thirteen, fourteen days in a row so it was certainly a turning point there yesterday. It'll be interesting to see what the stock does from these levels - it's down 46 for the year, following on from last year when it was down 45 percent, so it's been a bit of a shocker really."

Spark New Zealand was the worst performer, down 2.8 percent to $3.435, while Scales Corp dropped 2.7 percent to $3.29 and Vista Group International fell 2.4 percent to $5.80.

Tower gained 3.7 percent to 84 cents and Kathmandu Holdings advanced 1.6 percent to $1.93.

Fletcher Building rose 1.7 percent to $10.73, and has gained 4.6 percent this week and 43.5 percent this year.

"It keeps coming in for good demand, I think it's one stock investors will be paying pretty good attention to next year with a lot of rebuilding in Wellington CBD and the Auckland residential scene as well," Williamson said. "From an investor point of view, it's sitting in a pretty sweet spot at the moment."

Sky Network Television was unchanged at $4.80.

There's a new bill in front of Parliament at the moment regarding major sporting events being given free-to-air access which would probably have a pretty serious effect on Sky TV, if that was to go through," Williamson said. "That doesn't get voted on until early in the new year, but I think investors will be keeping a pretty close eye on what happens there."

Outside the benchmark index, Abano Healthcare Group fell 1.2 percent to $8. The company said it received notice that Healthcare Partners Holdings, associated with Peter and Anya Hutson and James Reeves, has sent its partial takeover offer to Abano shareholders. The board said the partial nature of the offer wasn't in shareholders' best interests and advised shareholders to wait.

Burger Fuel Worldwide was unchanged at $1.49. The fast food retailer narrowed its first-half loss to $115,328 and says it wants to buy more stores and is still looking to expand into the US though its sales and option and collaboration agreements with investor Franchise Brands have ended. The company has 51 stores operating in New Zealand where it's the third largest burger concept in the market.

Cooks Global Foods was unchanged at 9 cents. The Esquires Coffee chain franchise rights owner doubled its first-half loss to $3.8 million and says it's in negotiations with its Chinese shareholders about raising equity to fund growth.

Mercer Group gained 13.3 percent to 1.7 cents. The unprofitable stainless steel fabricator has issued 130.8 million new shares at 1 cent each to fund its purchase of the assets and business of Hastings-based Haden & Custance.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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The New Zealand dollar rose to an 18-month high against the euro after the European Central Bank extended its asset purchase programme but is seen at more risk of falling against the greenback as its yield advantage shrinks.

The kiwi dollar traded at 67.56 euro cents as at 5pm in Wellington and earlier touched 67.73 cents, the highest since May 2015, from 66.89 cents late yesterday. The local currency fell to 71.69 US cents from 72.10 cents yesterday as the ECB's decision also helped lift the greenback.

Both the kiwi and the Australian dollar gained against the euro on the prospect of European stimulus helping global growth at a time the US economy is picking up. ECB President Mario Draghi surprised financial markets by extending the bank's bond-buying programme longer than expected to the end of 2017, while trimming the overall target to 60 billion euros a month from 80 billion euros starting April. At question time he indicated there was no thought at the central bank to ending the programme early.

"There'll be a bit more stimulus in the world from the Euro zone" which has helped the kiwi to be "relatively better bid", said Graham Parlane, private client manager at OMF.

Parlane sees the kiwi declining against US dollar to below its recent range of about 70 US cents to 73 cents "eventually" as New Zealand's yield advantage shrinks. He cited a 325 basis point premium for the official cash rate against the Federal Reserve's key rate in May 2015. The premium has since narrowed to 1.25 basis points and is set to shrink further next week, when the Fed is widely expected to hike the rate.

"We're not the high yielder we were for most of the time in the 2000s," Parlane said.

The kiwi was little changed at 96.06 Australian cents, having climbed to a month high of 96.36 cents yesterday, as the Treasury's stronger economic growth forecasts and Wheeler's upbeat comments contrasted with views of the Australian economy, which shrank a greater-than-expected 0.5 percent in the third quarter.

The trade-weighted index was at 78.77 from 78.86 yesterday. The kiwi dollar was little changed at 56.91 British pence, fell to 4.9459 yuan from 4.9586 yuan and rose to 81.99 yen from 81.77 yen.

The two-year swap rate rose 2 basis points to 2.25 percent and the 10-year swap rate jumped 7 basis points to 3.35 percent.

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Operation Sun Run: Setting a new high score

On Nov. 27, 1957, six pilots from the 17th and 18th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadrons assigned to Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina, rocketed into the history books.



With their new RF-101C Voodoos, an improved version of the RF-101A reconnaissance airframe, those pilots were set to establish three official speed records: from Los Angeles, California, to New York, New York  once each way, and finally a round trip.



At that time the Air Force was only 10 years old, and this operation was an early endeavor to showcase the capabilities, speed and range of the first supersonic photo reconnaissance aircraft refueling from the first jet tanker, said Christopher Koonce, 20th Fighter Wing historian. It was an early display of the three effects of airpower: global vigilance, global reach and global power.



The pilots participating in Operation Sun Run were: Capt. Robert Sweet, 17th TRS; Capt. Ray Schrecengost, 18th TRS; Capt. Robert Kilpatrick, 17th TRS; Capt. Donald Hawkins, 17th TRS; Capt. Robert Burkhart, 18th TRS; and 1st Lt. Gustav Klatt, 18th TRS. Only four of the pilots made the actual run, with Burkhart and Hawkins acting as backup in case of emergency.



Meticulous planning went into the successful implementation of the operation. The jets were painted brightly for easy identification by official timers, in-flight refueling tests were run, and in early November, the pilots flew their jets to George AFB, California, to begin practicing. In only two months, the crews were ready to go.



It was thanks to the Air Forces first aerial refueler, the KC-135 Stratotanker, which could refuel at an altitude of 35,000 feet and speed of Mach 0.8, that the RF-101C was able to keep its pace. Without the efforts of the KC-135s and their crews, it would have been impossible for the Sun Run pilots to complete their journeys.



In the end, three new records were set. The first was by Klatt, who established the new speed record from Los Angeles to New York as 3 hours, 7 minutes, 43.63 seconds. The other two, from New York to Los Angeles and a round trip between both, were set by Sweet with times of 3 hours, 36 minutes, 32.33 seconds and 6 hours, 46 minutes, 36.21 seconds, respectively.
BILLINGS -- It can be tough to place student teachers in rural schools. The trainees often struggle to find housing and can be daunted by rural isolation. With fewer student teachers, rural schools miss out on a major source of employees.

A Montana education advocacy group and the Montana University System hope a new scholarship program can draw more people into small towns that typically struggle to hire teachers. The Montana Rural Education Association will offer about 20 $1,000 scholarships to college students to student teach in schools with projected teacher shortages, funded from MREA school membership fees.

Rural schools in Montana have had difficulty recruiting and retaining teachers for years, but as talk of a national teacher shortage ramps up, rural administrators have said their schools are reaching crisis levels.

One way to recruit more teachers to rural schools is simply exposure; student teaching gives potential employees a taste of small-school teaching and small-town life. For future educators with family or friends who can find room in the inn for a few months, it can be a convenient arrangement.

If not, things like lack of housing, lifestyle unfamiliarity and college-town roots can deter students from taking a several-month hiatus in a new town.

We do place a fair amount of students in rural schools, said Montana State University Billings assistant professor and clinical practice coordinator Kathy Holt. (But) we have difficulty with them unless they have some kind of connection there.

Across Montana, about three-quarters of 559 student teachers from Montana universities were placed in urban districts or small districts near urban areas last school year.

Five counties in Montana account for more than half the students in the state despite having a fraction of the schools, but student teaching figures are still skewed toward urban areas. Small, rural schools also often require more staff for fewer students, as class sizes are smaller.

Students who do train in rural schools often have the option to stay, Holt said.

Most of the time, they get great experiences and can get a job, she said. But low salaries  beginning teacher pay in Montana is lower than any other state, and rural districts typically pay less than bigger districts  can deter job seekers.

No one expects an extra 20 student teaching slots in rural schools to be a magic bullet. Teacher shortage solutions, from alternative certification to school-owned housing, resemble bricks in a wall: each of them help, but none fixes things on their own.

There has been considerable work done recently around the state to explore a wide variety of possibilities to assist in addressing the teacher shortage being faced by all schools across the state, said MREA executive director Dennis Parman in a news release. The Rural Educator Fellows Program is just one of several initiatives being moved forward and MREA wanted to be able to directly help the rural schools it serves.

The scholarships will be offered for a pilot year beginning in the fall 2017. The program was created, in part, with recommendations from the Montana University System Rural Educator Taskforce, a group of educational experts aiming to find teacher shortage solutions for rural schools.
BILLINGS - State prosecutors filed to revoke the suspended sentence of Barry Beach on Thursday, following his arrest in early November for allegedly violating a protection order in Billings.

The revocation petition was filed in the 15th District Court, which includes Roosevelt County, where Beach was sentenced for deliberate homicide in 1979.

After he was granted clemency by Gov. Steve Bullock last year, Beach has been serving a 10-year suspended sentence. A revocation could send him back to prison.

The petition was filed by Brant Light and Ole Olson, assistant Montana attorneys general who are assisting in the case. It draws upon an alleged violation of a protection order this fall, for which Beach faces a misdemeanor charge in Billings Municipal Court.

Prosecutors asked that Beach be able to admit or deny the allegations during hearings on the misdemeanor charge in Billings.

"If the defendant denies, the state requests that an evidentiary hearing be stayed until after that offense has been resolved in Billings Municipal Court," the petition states.

A woman filed for a protection order against Beach on Oct. 28, saying that she was the mother of a child she had with Beach during his brief release from prison in 2011. In filing for the protection order, she said Beach had repeatedly contacted her to have a relationship, which the woman did not want.

The protection order was granted. The woman later told police that on Nov. 5, Beach had parked outside of her home and followed them to other locations. A GPS monitoring unit attached to Beach as part of his probation backed up those claims, according to court documents.

She said she recognized Beach's truck because the license plate reads, "BBFREE," court documents state.

This served as the basis for prosecutors' petition for revocation.

"Based upon the attached report of violation, the state asserts that there is probable cause that the defendant has violated the terms of this court's sentence," the document states.

A court hearing has not yet been set in Roosevelt County, according to the clerk of court's office.
BENGALURU: Recently, Microsoft unveiled a crucial update for Windows 10. The updates are mainly focused on providing software benefits to the end users during its scheduled launch next year. Now, Microsoft disclosed another major patch of Windows 10 having helpful features for the IT professionals. These features will help Microsoft in increasing their client base to more organizations. PCWorld reported about the new features that are helpful for the enterprises.

Most of the new features are mainly focused on device management, upgrade improvements, and security. The biggest beneficiary of the new update will be Advanced Threat Protection. The advanced security suite in Windows 10 is coming with extra detection, remediation, and threat detection tools. It will provide ability to look at the kernel and memory level exploits that was used by the most advanced malware. Administrators will get new analytics to know how the company is using the new OS.

Microsoft is joining hands with FireEye iSIGHT Threat Intelligence to display their information on the WDATP dashboard, so users can access information about Microsoft offerings. Additionally, IT administrators can create make a customised list of blocked behaviours and share it with other administrators. It will enable IT person to share the best of the security configurations for WDATP as they are sharing Group Policy settings. WDATP will enable IT folks to remotely isolate any unknown device in the network. Admins can block whole incoming and outgoing traffic except WDATP, which means they can defend any data exfilteration.

New update also supports mobile application management, so IT pros can authenticate users to access important documents from any other Windows 10 device. In case of any security breach, IT admins can lock down the protected files shared with the user. Companies will get a new tool to automate UEFI deployment. These updates are expected to be launched in the first half of 2017.

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MUMBAI: The special package for the made ups sector approved by the Union Cabinet may help in generating large scale direct and indirect employment of up to 11 lakh people over the next three years in this sector, an industry body said today.



"The much-awaited package for the made ups sector approved by the Union Cabinet with the primary objective of creating large scale direct and indirect employment to employ upto 11 lakh persons over the next three years in this sector," the Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council (TEXPROCIL) Chairman Ujwal Lahoti said here.

Welcoming the package, Lahoti said, "This a positive move by the Government which will give a big boost to exports of made ups and also generate employment opportunities."



Lahoti pointed out that this announcement has come as a relief to exporters of made ups who are passing through a difficult phase as their products face duty disadvantage in the main market of EU as compared to products from competing countries on account of preferential tariffs given to some of them.



The package includes similar measures given to apparels such as additional 10 per cent subsidy under Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (TUFS), additional contribution under Pradhan Mantri Rozgar Protsahan Yojana (PMRPY) and the Rebate of State Levies (ROSL).



The made ups sector generates employment opportunities for women and in rural areas and the Government has recognised this potential while announcing the measures, he said.



The permissible overtime has been increased upto 100 hours per quarter and the employees' contribution to EPF has been made optional for employees earning less than Rs 15,000 per month.



According to Lahoti, these measures will go a long way in bringing about labour reforms in the sector besides enhancing the benefits to the workers.

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BENGALURU: Donald Trumps plans to strip NASAs Earth Science program of funding has taken everyone by surprise. "We see NASA in an exploration role, in deep space research," Bob Walker, Senior Advisor to President-Elect Donald Trump, told the Guardian's Oliver Milman. "Earth-centric science is better placed at other agencies where it is their prime mission."

But the fact remains that Earth Science goes well beyond climate changes and includes everything from the health of the oceans to the threat of devastating solar storms in the upper atmosphere. The academia world has been in a state of shock at this announcement, and many noted that cutting Earth Science would mark a radical change in NASAs mission that they have carried out successfully for nearly six decades.

"If you go to the Space Act that founded NASA in 1958 and then was amended under President Reagan in 1985, the very first responsibility ascribed to NASA is to understand the Earth and the atmosphere," said Waleed Abdalati, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado, as reported by Business Insider.

So far, NASA has carried out its work with remarkable finesse and now they are unsure about the amount of data to use before they lose it all. According to a report by Business Insider, NASA climate scientist Gavin Schmidt, said that he thought NASAs climate research program was immune from any such intervention and was safe from any such tampering.

This move would cut down NASAs spending by 40 percent and mark the end of an era, which is simply referred to as the Satellite Era. Many believe that if this happens, it could lead to the loss of valuable data, which will be lost forever.

Julienne Stroeve, a researcher with the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), said that this move would undermine our ability to make even basic judgments about the health of the planet, and that would be a big loss for everyone.

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NEW YORK: U.S. President-elect Donald Trump was today named by Time magazine as its 'Person of the Year 2016' for his stunning victory in the presidential polls, describing him as "President of the Divided States of America".



Trump was chosen by Time editors for the annual honour from among world leaders, artists, corporate tycoons and path-breaking organisations as the person who had the greatest influence, for better or worse, on the events of the year.

Trump, who has appeared on various covers of Time magazine, will now be on its cover as 'Person of the Year', with the sub-headline 'President of the Divided States of America.'



"It's a great honour. It means a lot. I have grown up reading Time magazine, it's a very important magazine. It is a tremendous honour, I am lucky to be on the cover of Time in the past," Trump told NBC's news program Today minutes after Time announced on the show he was 'Person of the Year 2016'.



However on the tagline that he will be the president of the "Divided States of America," Trump said he has not done anything to divide the country.



"I didn't divide America. We are going to put it back together. We are going to build up our military and we are going to be an economic powerhouse," he said.



The first runner-up is Trump's rival in the presidential elections and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, who Time said made history for three decades as an advocate, a First Lady, a Senator, and a Secretary of State, but she will now be remembered as much for what she didn't do as what she did.



Prime Minister Narendra Modi was among the 11 candidates shortlisted by Time for its annual honour.



Modi won the online readers' poll conducted by Time magazine for Person of the Year 2016, the second time he emerged winner of the reader's choice poll.



The other runner-ups are the online hackers, who in 2016 "took aim at American democracy itself," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who "survived a coup attempt to emerge stronger than ever", CRISPR Scientists who developed a groundbreaking new technology that can edit DNA and pop icon Beyonce who "publicly embraced explicitly feminist blackness at a politically risky moment."



Time Editor-in-Chief Nancy Gibbs said Trump is TIME's 2016 Person of the Year "for reminding America that demagoguery feeds on despair and that truth is only as powerful as the trust in those who speak it, for empowering a hidden electorate by mainstreaming its furies and live-streaming its fears, and for framing tomorrow's political culture by demolishing yesterday's."



Time said Trump's "next test" will be delivering upon the voters' expectations on bringing about change in the country.



"The year 2016 was the year of his rise; 2017 will be the year of his rule, and like all newly elected leaders, he has a chance to fulfill promises and defy expectations," it said.

(Reopens FGN 30)



On Obama, Trump said he "really likes" the incumbent US leader and "we have a really good chemistry together. We disagree on certain policies but I really like him. I love getting his ideas."



Trump said he occasionally speaks with Obama, asking him "what he thinks are the biggest problems" as well as discussing some of his future Cabinet appointments.



"I have talked to him about some possible appointments. I take his recommendations very seriously," Trump said, adding that in one instance, while deciding on a Cabinet pick, he decided on an individual whom Obama "thought very highly of."



When asked about his sudden tweet about suggesting canceling Air Force One orders with Boeing, Trump said he will negotiate prices.



"We are going to the prices down. If we are not going to get the prices down, we are not going to order," he said.



In Trump's refusal so far to acknowledge established diplomatic boundaries, Time cited Trump's call with Pakistani leader Nawaz Sharif, in which the future US leader had described the South Asian nation as a "fantastic country."



"When the Pakistani government gave a long, apparently verbatim readout of its President's call with Trump, India's leaders reacted with strained nerves," it said.



Time added that it is going to be Trump's America, for better and worse.



"It's an America of renewed hope and paralyzing fear, a country few expected less than a year ago. Because of Donald John Trump, whatever happens next, it will never be like it was before," Time said in its profile of Trump.



It quoted Trump as saying that it is "a very exciting time. It's really been an amazing time. Hopefully we can take some of the drama out.

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Source: PTI
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Commuters headed from Staten Island to Manhattan have never had it easy.

But local residents who depend on the Staten Island Ferry are at their wit's end, as many say they are cutting it close as they wait for shuttles each morning from the New York Wheel parking garage to catch the boat.

Susan McNamara says she's considering ending her commute to Manhattan each day and seeking a job closer to home due to the parking problems that have arisen since construction began on the New York Wheel and Empire Outlets.

"They gave no thought to the commuters with this," said McNamara, referring to the problems with construction, ranging from extra time spent commuting to pot-hole ridden roads as drivers enter the parking lot.

While some commuters are allotting extra time in the morning to take into account time spent waiting for shuttles to the ferry, McNamara -- like many -- has obligations.

"I can't leave any earlier. I drop my son at the bus stop," she said.

New York Wheel CEO Rich Marin said on Friday that "shuttle frequency is significantly higher than prior years for the lot and waits are within the industry average for valet parking."

However, many commuters contend the commute for ferry riders has become chaotic with valet parking.

"I live 10 minutes from here and sometimes I still miss the boat," said Agnes Russo, a Rosebank resident.

Kristi Draper, a West Brighton resident, said she's been cutting it close for the boat each day.

"The ticket handlers are the same ones moving the car so I barely made my boat today waiting to get a ticket and then to run to the shuttle," Draper said on Wednesday.

Councilwoman Debi Rose, who took to Facebook on Thursday to respond to frustrated commuters, said she had reached out to the New York Wheel and Impark, the Canada-based parking company who manages the garage, and they promptly agreed to increase the number of shuttles during rush hour from three to four.

Last month, my office began receiving calls about longer and longer wait times for shuttles at the New York Wheel... Posted by Debi Rose on Wednesday, December 7, 2016

Marin confirmed they had added an extra shuttle for commuters' convenience.

"Shuttles between the terminal and garage run every five to seven minutes during peak hours. There is plenty of capacity available for customers, and rather, we agreed to add another shuttle during rush hour as an added customer convenience resulting from our conversation with the councilmember's office," Marin said.

However, commuters at the ferry on Friday morning said the wait time for a shuttle can be up to 20 minutes some mornings, and insisted additional shuttles are still needed.

They also spoke about the commute home, which they say is "horrible" due to long waits for their cars from the valet-only parking garage, which opened in August.

While commuters are able to arrange pickup of their cars in advance of their arrival at the garage with the shuttle driver or by sending a text message to 917-696-3751, many say they still wait another 20 to 30 minutes at the terminal for parking attendants to retrieve their car.

"It's horrible--the whole system," said Russo. "I'll text them my parking ticket number and when I get there, a half hour later, the car's still not there."

Chuck Cernera, who also uses the parking garage, agrees.

"They need more people working...and now it's starting to get cold," Cernera said.

Commuters say that there is anywhere from two to four parking attendants at the garage each night--not enough to handle the hundreds of commuters getting off the boat.

Draper says the problems with parking is "such an added stress added on to everyone's day" and like many commuters, is hopeful her parking woes will go away when they are able to self-park at the lot.

While Marin noted earlier this month that the garage has plenty of parking on a daily basis, he said the "ability for significant self-parking" has been pushed back. He could not offer a new date when self-parking would be available.
21159733-mmmain.jpg

his 2011 file photo shows Joseph Percoco of Huguenot with Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Election Day in Mount Kisco, N.Y. At the time, he was serving as deputy press secretary to the governor. Percoco, who left the the governor's office shortly after, was indicted in September on charges he sought bribes from companies that do business with New York State. (Staten Island Advance)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Governor Andrew Cuomo said he's been in touch with federal prosecutors about corruption charges brought against Joseph Percoco, his longtime aide with ties to Staten Island.

Cuomo -- who has not been accused of any wrong-doing -- told the New York Times he had been in touch with the office of Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, who brought the charges.

"As part of our continuing cooperation, the governor voluntarily made himself available and shared his knowledge of facts potentially relevant to the case," Cuomo's chief of staff, Melissa DeRosa, said in a statement released to the Times.

She said the governor could not comment further on the case while charges are still pending.

Percoco was indicted in September on charges he "willfully and knowingly" conspired to solicit and take more than $315,000 in bribes from companies doing business with New York State.

According to the indictment, Percoco referred to the bribes as "ziti," and used the name "Herb" while discussing the arrangements. The indictment charges he also used his influence to arrange for no-show job for his wife, a former city teacher.

Percoco, a 1991 Wagner College graduate from Huguenot, had served as executive deputy secretary to the governor, and had been described by Albany observers as Cuomo's "right-hand man."

Percoco left the Cuomo administration earlier this year.
Grimm and Giuliani.jpg

Michael Grimm and Rudy Giuliani in 2010. Both got a few write-in votes in the Nov. 8 elections. (Staten Island Advance/Hilton Flores)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - You know that Donald Trump won the election, that he took 56 percent of the vote on Staten Island and that Hillary Clinton won New York state and the popular vote.

But did you know there were 871 other write-in votes that were deemed "unattributable" on Staten Island?

Folks who couldn't bear voting for the candidates on the ballot in other races decided to get creative and select someone else.

In the Congressional race, Rep. Daniel Donovan was re-elected to his first full term, winning 65 percent of the vote to Democrat Richard Reichard's 33 percent.

Here's some write-in names from that race you might recognize:

Former Rep. Michael Grimm - 7 votes

Assemb. Nicole Malliotakis - 4

Eric Garner - 4

Erica Garner - 2

DA Michael McMahon - 2

Donald Trump - 2

Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani - 1

Rev. Al Sharpton - 1

Councilman Joe Borelli - 1

Assemb. Michael Cusick -1

Former Assemb. Janelle Hyer-Spencer -1

Late Assemb. John LaVelle - 1

Late Sen. John Marchi - 1

Julian Assange - 1

Barack Obama - 1

Bernie Sanders - 1

Mark Murphy - 1

Matt Damon - 1

Mike Tyson - 1

Ron Paul - 1

Stephen Hawking - 1

Ellen DeGeneres - 1

Richard Bell - 1

Janine Materna - 1

Joe Piscopo - 1

Tony Evans - 1

Sen. Charles Schumer was re-elected with 62 percent of the vote on Staten Island, compared to Republican Wendy Long's 36 percent.

Write-in votes in that race include:

Bernie Sanders - 5

Curtis Sliwa - 1

Edward Snowden - 1

Ken Bone - 1

Marco Rubio - 1

Martin Luther King - 1

Michael Bloomberg - 1

Former Rep. Michael Grimm - 1

Rev. Al Sharpton - 1

Joe Rogan - 1

Unfortunately for the presidential race, New York requires write-in candidates to register with the state to be official write-in campaigns.

Any other names that were written in, say Bernie Sanders or John Kasich, don't count. They're also not listed by the Board of elections.

On Staten Island, official write-in candidates "Rocky" Rogue De La Fuente, Chris Keniston, Darrell Castle, Emidio Soltysik, Gloria La Riva, Michael A. Maturen, Monica Moorehead, Clifton Roberts and Neer R. Asherie collectively got 39 votes.

On the Island, Evan McMullin got 141 write-in votes.

There were 871 other write-in votes that were deemed "unattributable."

Click here to see all the certified election results.
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STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A Staten Island Technical High School student is among 25 New York State high school seniors nominated for the U.S. Presidential Scholars Program.

"The Presidential Scholar recognition is one of the nation's top honors for high school students," explained State Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia, who announced the state nominees Friday in Albany.

"All of these nominees have demonstrated exceptional academic success, artistic excellence or career skills development. They represent the best of New York's future and show a real drive to make the world a better place," she said.

The state's nominees are selected from among names of high school seniors submitted by legislators from schools in their districts.

Tech senior Evan Batov was nominated by Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis (R-East Shore).

"I'm so very thrilled with Evan's nomination to be a Presidential Scholar," Malliotakis said. "He's proven himself to be an academic top gun, with a sense of social responsibility uncommon in people his age. I wish him the best of luck in the next round with the understanding that, no matter what happens, he's done Staten Island Tech and all of Staten Island proud."

Evan is involved in the Staten Island Chamber of Commerce's Young Entrepreneurs Academy. His company, Lab for Us, seeks to provide mentorship and guidance to both high school and middle school students in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) fields.

The teen is also passionate about helping others and dedicating time to various public services, campaigns and organizations to help those in need.

The U.S. Presidential Scholars Program was established in 1964, by executive order of the president, to recognize and honor some of the nation's most distinguished graduating high school seniors.



Every year 100 students -- one young man and one young woman from each state -- are named Presidential Scholars. They receive an expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C., in June and a U.S. Presidential Scholars medallion at a ceremony sponsored by the White House.

For more information on the U.S. Scholars Program visit the U.S. Department of Education's website.


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The conversation I recently enjoyed with a small group of mothers was like many Ive experienced before. Love shining in their eyes, they shared universal hopes for their children.

The first mother shared her hope that her child would be healthy. The second shared her desire for her child to be safe. The third spoke of wanting her child to do well in school. These hopes and dreams for children are on the lips and in the hearts of every parent I know.

What made these parents comments unique were their context. All three of them are recent refugees from Syria being resettled by RefugeeOne in Chicago.

When the first mother spoke about her desire for her son to be healthy, she shared that he is paralyzed from a snipers bullet. Unable to find physical therapy for him in their country, she and her husband left everything they owned and escaped Syria in order to reach a refugee camp, carrying their son.

After a long wait, they arrived in Chicago where his medical treatment has finally begun.

The second mother who longed for safety shared that their family experienced near-daily bombing in their home city of Aleppo. One day, she and her two little boys were running towards their home, dodging bombs. Her older son was holding her younger sons hand. Just as they broke free of the bombs, her younger son was shot in the head by a sniper and was killed.

This womans older son is tormented by recurrent dreams of this traumatic event and loss. Her great hope for him is that he will one day feel safe again.

The third mother shared that her home village was taken over by terrorists and villagers were forced to flee. The refugee camp where her family was housed for more than three years was the site of bullying and intimidation. Most girls and women were routinely raped. Their daughter learned to be silent in an effort to stay out of harms way.

Now that they are in the United States, they are relieved to be in a safer environment. But her little girl is struggling in school. While her teacher is making a great effort to accommodate her limited English skills, she never asks for clarification when she is confused. She is failing in school because of her own reticence to speak up.

No one chooses to be a refugee. These families stories tell us about fear, loss, and having no choice but to leave their home countries in search of safety, opportunities and a better life. And while many of us will never have to experience the perils of being a refugee, we are connected in our universal role of parents. With each story, I heard a little of myself in these Syrian women who have experienced hardship to protect their children and advocate for their best opportunities. They are willing to face difficult sacrifices made in hope the next generation will have a chance to leave the world better than it is today. While their life experiences are completely different from mine, we are universally bonded by our role as parents and protectors of our children's future.

We parents love our children dearly and would give up most anything for their health, safety, and success. The realization of my own good fortune does not escape me when I recognize how the country I was born in has made it so much easier for me to provide these things for my children.
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DECATUR  The signature feature of No Child Left Behind was the escalating consequences dealt to schools that did not meet the expectation of adequate yearly progress.

That federal education reform law expired and has been replaced with the Every Student Succeeds Act, which has not yet been implemented, because each state has to figure out the details of its own plan.

The Illinois State Board of Education has been holding a series of meetings on a listening tour to gather suggestions on how to proceed. The implementation plan has gone through two drafts during those months. A third and final draft will be submitted to the governor's office for review in January.

The governor has 30 days to review it, when it will be sent back to the state board for a formal vote to be held in March. After that, it will be send to the U.S. Department of Education.

Jason Helfer, deputy superintendent of teaching and learning, held one of those listening tour meetings at Eisenhower High School on Thursday, the last such meeting before the third draft is written.

(ESSA's) contours are different, Helfer said. There's more freedom for the state and districts with their local plans to think programatically about what's best for kids.

"No Child Left Behind was a one-size-fits-all model. If (the first consequence) didn't work, we try another one, and if it didn't work, we try another one," he continued. "This is based on the school's learning profile and here are the supports that work best for you, but to be clear, that's a determination that the district or school is making for itself.

Accountability has been a priority at all the listening tour stops, he said, and in the online comments the board has received. The board is deciding among four proposed student growth measures and committed to a system that uses multiple measures to determine if students are progressing.

Goals will be set in three-year increments, and baseline data will be collected during the first three years of implementation from which to measure growth, he said. One big change in the new law is that states will have the flexibility to determine if their implementation is working, and if it's not, to make changes, something No Child Left Behind did not allow.

Rebecca Wattleworth, a high school math and science teacher in Warrensburg-Latham schools, said she hopes teachers will be a significant part of creating the final plan. They're the ones in the classroom who know the real challenges they and students face every day, and one size does not fit all, in a classroom or in professional development training for teachers.

Comments are still being collected and further information on the ESSA is available at www.isbe.net/essa.
CHICAGO -- Long ago in a faraway land called Post-Election East Coast, the major media companies published mea culpas about having overlooked "real people" with economic anxieties not reflected in aggregate national unemployment and GDP numbers.

After incorrectly projecting that Hillary Clinton had the presidency in the bag, they vowed to do better reporting on communities in the so-called fly-over states and to not discount the views and circumstances of the people living there.

Unfortunately, the media never vowed to stop condescending to them.

Last week, in reference to Manitowoc Foodservice, a manufacturer whose Indiana factory is laying off 84 workers and moving production to Mexico, a New York Times article noted, "The truth across the Rust Belt is that there are more Manitowoc Foodservices than Carriers. ... In Indiana, in particular, as in other so-called Rust Belt states, there are a lot of people who are less educated: Just 16.5 percent of the state's residents ages 25 to 64 have a bachelor's degree, half the rate for the country over all. And while about 30 percent have an associate degree or some college, the bulk of Indiana residents, 44 percent, have only a high school diploma -- or less."

This sort of reporting, while factual and impartial to most East Coast media types, is the kind of looking-down-your-nose journalism that working-class and rural people feel is elitist. This implication of rube-ishness through low educational attainment makes people living in what used to be referred to more positively as America's Heartland believe that the media do not tell the whole truth about them -- or about anything else.

Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, writing recently in the op-ed pages of the Times, noted, "Start with this: When you call us the Rust Belt, you demean our work and diminish who we are. ... Ohio workers know they toil harder and are paid less than their parents, and have less power to control the hours they work and their share of the wealth they create for their employer. This diverse force feels betrayed by trade and tax policies that create immense affluence at the top and take wealth from workers. Much of Washington -- and that now includes Donald J. Trump -- doesn't seem to understand this."

Even though the election is barely in our rearview mirror, the same news agencies that vowed to "do better" continue to rely on overly broad interpretations of statistics and a detached attitude about working people in the middle of the country.

A Wall Street Journal blog post last week carried this headline: "1,000 Carrier Jobs Trump Celebrates Are Drop in the Bucket of Manufacturing Losses -- Indiana alone has lost over 150,000 manufacturing jobs since 2000."

Though Indiana's manufacturing slide is often cited to add context to the Carrier deal -- which may actually save only about 800 jobs in Indiana through a tax deal that has drawn ire from both conservatives and liberals -- its reference can come off as dismissive and cold.

In the grand scheme of things, 800 jobs may not be much to speak of when you look at national manufacturing trends. But to people in Indiana who feel as though the reality of having their family's livelihood snatched from them and sent down to Mexico was just halted by a benevolent savior, the bucket metaphor is belittling.

For people like T.J. Bray, a 14-year employee of Carrier, who is married and supporting his wife and two kids, there's no "drop" -- it's his whole life.

"I was completely devastated," Bray told Fox News host Megyn Kelly about when he heard initially that he would lose his job. "This is the only adult job I've ever had. I've had this job since I was 18, so to have this ripped away from me with no warning or no red flags that anything was going on ... I was absolutely disgusted." He said that when he learned his job had been saved, "I was shocked and still am to this day. ... It seems like I'm a part of history that's being made right now with a president being able to put his foot down and being able to save some American jobs."

This sentiment may seem inconsequential coming from people who don't matter much by the present-day standards of celebrity and influence. But, for better or worse, working-class Americans with this worldview were just a part of presidential history.

If the media can't muster up true respect for such people, the least we can do is treat them, their issues and concerns with a measure of dignity and empathy.
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Dominic Boynton during the production of Kim Beamish's Oyster. Moving back to Australia in the late 1990s, the young chef started experimenting with video and filmmaking, and eventually landed himself a job at Melbourne's Channel 31 on an alternative news program. "This is where I cut my teeth, learning from everybody there skills like cinematography and editing," he says. Kim Beamish and his subject Dominic Boynton during the production of Oyster. "The first editing system I learned on, Media100, didn't even have a hard drive so you had to edit a film from beginning to end in one sitting, even if it took you the whole night because if you turned it off you would lose it."

Beamish talked his way into a post-graduate position at VCA, successfully arguing his four-year chef's apprenticeship should have equal weight to a university undergraduate degree, and immersed himself in studying filmmaking, with a particular love for documentary. He went on to teach film, including at Melbourne's Open Channel, a training and production not-for-profit. It was here that he was approached by the lawyer for Van Nguyen, the Australian citizen caught with 400 grams of heroin at Singapore Airport in December 2002. "Julian McMahon [Nguyen's lawyer] was looking for a film crew to make a documentary he thought might help save his [Nguyen's] life," Beamish says. "We said we wouldn't make some fluff piece, that we wanted to make something that told the full story, and they didn't like that initially but said yes to that," he says. Beamish and fellow filmmakers Shannon Owen and Liz Burke spent considerable time in Australia and Singapore with Van Nguyen and his family, with the legal team, making Just Punishment which aired on the ABC in 2006, a year after Nguyen's execution in Changi Prison.

Beamish says the experience took a major toll on him. "It cost me a lot more than I thought it would, emotionally, I mean we were with Van the evening before his execution, and afterwards," he says. "What I did come away with was the desire to work on films about social justice and those kinds of issues." When Beamish's wife was posted to Egypt, he stumbled on his next subject. The Tentmakers of Cairo began its life as an ethnographic study of the businessmen working in Cairo's garment district, but Beamish's time with them coincided with the Arab Spring, and his film captures the spirit and impact of that great social change on these men and their families. Tentmakers won Beamish the top prize at the American Museum of Natural History's Margaret Mead Film Festival, a prize he almost missed out on collecting.

"We were all sitting around chatting about who might win at this gala awards dinner and I dropped my glass and went under the table to pick it up," Beamish says. "Everyone was staring at me  they'd just announced my name and I'd completely missed it." With their posting over, Beamish and his wife now live in Canberra where he taught film at the University of Canberra and has now started work on his next project. "I was in this great position as a filmmaker in Egypt because we had a nanny and I had the time to be out there and filming and spending time with people," he says. "But here I have to be more practical."

After toying with the idea for a series looking at social issues, he decided to focus on just one  climate change  and particularly his childhood friend's family oyster business. He's interested in how the family are preparing for and reacting to the current and future impact of climate change on their oysters and, by extension, their income. "I have tried to approach this the same way I did Tentmakers," Beamish says. "In that film I didn't look at the politics but the people dealing with it on a daily basis, and here similarly we're not focusing on the scientists or the science but the famers and the community." His subjects are Dom and Pip Boyton, second-generation owners of Merimbula Gourmet Oysters, whose family farm Beamish spent many of his school holidays with as a child.

"I remember as a child my mother talking with the (elder) Boytons about their farm and it was always fire, drought, flooding rains, one trial after the other and rarely about bumper crops or amazing sales," Beamish says. "I wanted to tell that story, but as they're now dealing with the environment in more challenging ways it was a great way to also explore the social justice side of that." Working with Beamish is Pat Fiske, producer of the 1992 Fred Hollows documentary For All The World To See and the 1985 history of the Builders' Labourers' Federation Rocking The Foundations, and whose work Beamish had studied at university. "It's great to have this sounding board, this person who has usually gone through the problems and challenges I come across as I'm making this film," he says. Together they have been experimenting with crowd-funding for their film, thus far raising $25,000 with the rest of their budget coming from the Documentary Australia Foundation and agencies like Screen ACT.
Don't call Matthew Peet - who works under the name Mistery - a graffiti artist. The 46-year-old Sydneysider said he preferred the term graffiti writer for the work he had been doing throughout the past 33 years in Australia and internationally - which in addition to his own work included education and promoting legal graffiti sites in cities around the world.

The ACT government went along with this project. Peet, together with Yuin artist Brett David Carpenter and street artist James Smalls, spent Thursday and Friday with 17 Indigenous Charles Kingsford Smith students aged between 12 and 16 planning and painting a mural on the walls of a toilet block in Kippax.

Brett David Carpenter, left and Matthew Peet at the Kippax shops toilet block they have helped paint with involvement from young Indigenous Canberrans. Credit:Rohan Thomson

They used spray paint over an acrylic base with colours predominantly from the Aboriginal flag - red, yellow and black - and made use of Indigenous motifs and designs.

"We spent one day of design and drawing, one day of painting," Peet said. The work will be completed on Monday in time for the launch at 1pm.
Love the feeling of walking barefoot on fresh grass? Then get a load of these beauties.

Forget Maseurs, Havaianas or metallic sandals - Kusa flip flops are the must-have footwear for Christmas 2016.

No need to keep your Kusa flip flops watered and mown, the grass is fake (but feels very real!) Credit:Shane Talbot

Created by Canberra man Yash Radhakrishnan, Kusa flip flops are thongs with lawn underfoot. They've been a success overseas, and now Yash wants to get them on local feet.

The former University of Canberra industrial design student has so far sold 40,000 pairs of thongs to customers as far the United Arab Emirates and even Kazakhstan. Now he's looking for local stockists so Canberrans can start wearing them these summer holidays.
In talking about the point of The Screwtape Letters, Lawry cites an apposite quotation from the American theologian A. W, Tozer: "The devil is a better theologian than any of us and a devil still." Screwtape, he says, has of necessity a shrewd understanding both of the Enemy  that is, God  and of human nature in the battle for the soul of "The Patient", a representative of souls of all humans.

For the play, McQueen removed many of the references to World War II, which was going on when it was published. Other seemingly dated references have acquired new meaning: at one point reference is made to writing a "post" about something, which in the 1940s might have referred to a telegram, Lawry says, but now can be taken to refer to the digital age, even though that wasn't the original intention  pointing to the underlying timelessness of the text.

While The Screwtape Letters will obviously be of particular interest to Christians and Lewis fans, Lawry says audience members have come up to him after performances and said that even though they aren't believers, the play has given them a lot of food for thought.

He says he and McQueen met a few years ago while working on a play and she told him about her ambition to adapt The Screwtape Letters for the stage. Although, as a Christian himself, he had heard of it, he had never read it until then. He was "captivated" by the book, which he found was still extremely relevant and even, in some ways, confronting, raising questions about how much power people have over their lives and decisions. But evil isn't an entirely external force to blame for everything that goes wrong, Lawry says: humans may not be able to control what tempts them or when or how, but they can control how they deal with it.

It took a few drafts before the Lewis estate and the creators were happy with the adaptation but it was finally produced last year  first, in a pilot production financed partly through an alumni loan from McQueen's old college, now as fledgling theatre company Clock & Spiel's first production. After a return season in Sydney this year, The Screwtape Letters is going on tour, beginning with Melbourne then Canberra.
A Canberra man cannot have his adoption reversed because the ACT assembly inadvertently amended the relevant law.

The ACT Supreme Court judge who heard the man's case has called on the assembly to quickly fix the problem.

"Sometimes when cleaning up you throw out something useful," Associate Justice David Mossop said in a decision on Friday.

"It is a matter deserving of prompt legislative attention."

The problem arose after adopted man John* reconnected with his biological father in Germany and sought to have the relationship formally recognised in the European country.
Clubs ACT is selling its commercial property in Deakin to pay for its failed election campaign against poker machines in the casino.

The campaign wash-up has also seen some of its fiercest critics return to the fold and effectively take over the industry group, with Burns Club head Athol Chalmers made president of the new Clubs ACT board, and Tradies chief Rob Docker made vice-president.

Burns Club president Athol Chalmers, heading a breakaway clubs group. Credit:Jay Cronan

CLubs ACT spent about $240,000 fighting the return of the Labor government and bankrolling Richard Farmer's team of candidates, in a strategy deeply opposed by some.

Ultimately, the Farmer team polled poorly and Labor was returned, clearing the way for the casino to get 200 poker machines which will end the clubs' monopoly on Canberra's most lucrative form of gambling.
In 1644, the English poet John Milton made an eloquent case against censorship. Freedom of thought and inquiry was not only a God-given prerogative but also the best protection against error: "Let her and Falsehood grapple; who ever knew Truth put to the worse, in a free and open encounter?"

Milton was fortunate enough to live before the internet. It has shown that among many people, truth doesn't have a chance in an encounter with manufactured falsehoods aimed at not only smearing enemies but obliterating the idea of objective reality.

There is now a bustling industry of websites and Twitter accounts whose chief product is fiction masquerading as fact. Their success was both cause and effect of the rise of Donald Trump, who went beyond any previous major presidential candidate in saying things that were utterly baseless and easily refutable.

He didn't have to wait to reach the White House to fulfill his promise to create new jobs. His campaign generated a new demand for fact-checkers, who found that trying to expose his lies was like trying to stay dry in a hurricane. The torrent was too big, fierce and persistent to overcome.

Trump peddled bogus information and profited from that spread by others. Of the 20 most read phony election-related stories circulated on Facebook during the campaign, 17 made him look good or Hillary Clinton look bad. The top two: the pope's endorsement of Trump and Clinton's selling arms to the Islamic State, neither of which contained a particle of truth.

Trump voters are not the only ones with a penchant for believing things purely because they are convenient. The website Vox reported that most of Bernie Sanders' followers want universal health care and free public college tuition but aren't willing to pay anything close to what they would cost in higher taxes. Most Americans can't name their member of Congress or the three branches of government.

It's no accident that so many Americans choose to be uninformed or misinformed. Educating yourself about candidates and their platforms by getting reliable information has little payoff. Your vote, wise or foolish, rarely makes a difference in the policies that affect you.

Being wrong about candidates generally costs you nothing, unlike being deluded about more practical matters. If you think you can fly, you will get a painful lesson when you leap off your roof. But if you believe that Barack Obama is a Muslim -- as more than half of Republican primary voters did -- you suffer no injury from indulging that fantasy.

In fact, you gain something: a powerful sense of connection with others who share your outlook. For most people who have great interest in politics, argued George Mason University economist Bryan Caplan in his 2007 book, "The Myth of the Rational Voter," ideology is a form of religion, and its disciples act more on faith than on evidence.

"Human beings want their religion's answers to be true," he wrote, and stick to them in the face of contradictory information. We have little reason to behave differently on Election Day. "Why control your knee-jerk emotional and ideological reactions if you can't change the outcome?" asked Caplan.

Conventional politicians shade and embellish the truth, but within established bounds. They have enough respect for voters to ration their deceptions.

What made Trump different was his conviction that most people are happy to be fed nonsense as long as it is palatable. He lied without reservation or limit, about topics big and small, and he got away with it. Among his followers, some believed he was telling the truth and some didn't care.

"Fake news" sources exploit the same cynical strategy, confident that many readers will seek out anything that confirms their prejudices and reject anything that doesn't. The news media have discovered that while there is a demand for accurate information, there is also a market, possibly bigger, for malignant myths. No lie is too big or absurd to find a gullible audience.

Not only that, fake news sites have a competitive advantage. Honest press outlets often present information their readers find unwelcome. Dishonest ones offer their customers the promise that their illusions will be preserved no matter what.

Our system of government rests on the assumption that in the long run, the truth will prevail over falsehoods. We have yet to consider what to do if our faith in the truth turns out to be false.
Police in Canberra are monitoring known arsonists as the forecast for bushfire season takes a turn for the worse.

ACT Emergency Services Agency Commissioner Dominic Lane said while a cooler and milder season was initially forecast, conditions have deteriorated.

Kambah farmer John Lilleyman and Rivers bushfire brigade firefighter Martin Harris talk about the necessary steps property owners need to take to minimise the threat of bushfire. Credit:Karleen Minney

A high fuel load and hot conditions have put the territory's emergency services on high alert.

"The conditions are turning very quickly now. While things are still relatively green now around Canberra, we do anticipate over the next two or three weeks that it will go from this relatively green state to very dry very quickly and everyone needs to be ready for it," Commissioner Lane said.
Mr Smith blamed ongoing maintenance costs and red tape for the July sale of his jet.

Canberra institutions to benefit from Mr Smith include the Australian War Memorial, the National Museum, the National Library and the National Film and Sound Archive, each receiving $50,000. Snowy Hydro SouthCare was given $20,000.

But the millions of dollars from its sale will be poured back into aviation causes in a display of goodwill to the industry.

"I didn't really have to have it - a bit of sacrifice is good sometimes - so at least I'll get some satisfaction out of doing some worthwhile with the money," he said.

"With the money to the four organisations in Canberra I said I'd prefer it to be used - it's up to them - on the aviation side. It'll all be geared to aviation if possible."

Airservices Australia will receive a significant chunk of the carve-up with $160,000 going to the organisation.

Mr Smith hopes the air navigation service provider will use the funds to install weather cams for pilots to monitor conditions in their planned destination.

It's a cause close to his heart: his friend Richard Green was one of three people killed in a Cessnock helicopter crash in poor weather last year.
A male student with hypothermia was flown from from Kosciusko National Park to the Canberra Hospital on Friday morning.

The Snowy Hydro South Care helicopter was tasked to a primary mission to the site of Australia's highest peak at about 10.30am for a patient with a medical condition.

A Snowy Hydro spokeswoman said the male, who was in a school group, was airlifted to Canberra Hospital with hypothermia.

More to come.
Primary school students in Canberra could be subject to NAPLAN-syle testing of health and fitness in an effort to curb childhood obesity.

Graphic design students from the University of Canberra teamed up with third and fourth graders from Giralang Primary School to create a "report card" aimed at helping students reach healthy fitness levels and body weight.

Students from Giralang Primary School teamed up with graphic design students at the University of Canberra to create a report card aimed at curbing childhood obesity. University of Canberra professor of public health Tom Cochran is with some of the students in an art and craft workshop encouraging healthy lifestyles. Credit:Clare Sibthorpe

The Physical Activity and Lifestyle Management (PALM) card system works by measuring students on cardiovascular endurance, body fat, elastic leg strength and other muscle strength.

The results of students in grades three and upwards would be tested at the beginning and end of each year and compared with the rest of the class and country.
Bulk grain handler Cooperative Bulk Handling, Australia's largest agribusiness, has ruled out a share market listing on Friday, ending the prospect of what would have been the country's largest IPO in more than two years.

CBH in March rejected an offer from a consortium backed by GrainCorp that would have seen the cooperative bought and then listed in a deal estimated by analysts to be worth up to $3 billion.

NSW grain growers had warned WA growers against a float, saying future farming generations would end up paying a hefty price as a listed company would put shareholder interests ahead of theirs.

The rejection stirred some discontent from its 4,200 farmer members, prompting CBH to commit to explore a model similar to the GrainCorp-backed consortium's proposal if a survey of farmers backed the move.

But CBH said on Friday the majority of its members wanted to maintain its cooperative structure.
The sale of the cattle empire S. Kidman & Co to Australia's richest woman has passed its final hurdle, with the Australian government approving the deal after blocking a previous bid by Chinese buyers.

Treasurer Scott Morrison has approved a joint bid from mining magnate Gina Rinehart and Chinese partner, Shanghai CRED.

Hancock Prospecting chairwoman Gina Rinehart.

Mr Morrison said on Friday that the largest station in the Kidman group, Anna Creek and its outstation The Peake, will be acquired by a neighbouring farming family  the Williams.

The rest will be acquired by Outback Beef, which is majority owned (67 per cent) by Rinehart's Hancock Beef with a minority interest (33 per cent) held by Shanghai CRED.
Even for the deepest pockets in the mining industry, diamonds are hard to find.

Rio Tinto Group chief executive Jean-Sebastien Jacques said this week he's on the hunt for new diamond mines, but with more than half of the industry controlled by just two companies and new discoveries rare, it's going to be a tall order.

Rio Tinto chief executive Jean-Sebastien Jacques, who became CEO of the world's second-biggest miner in July, this week called diamonds a priority area. Credit:Bloomberg

"There's not a great deal available," said Des Kilalea, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets in London. "It's got to be big, but there are not a lot of those."

Jacques, who became CEO of the world's second-biggest miner in July, called diamonds a priority area in a Bloomberg Television interview on Tuesday. The strategy, part of a drive to improve the quality of Rio's mining assets, marks a turnaround for the company that mulled exiting the diamond business several years ago.
It's the day Dreamworld's owners and operators are probably both anxiously anticipating and mildly dreading.

More than six weeks after a tragic accident which claimed the lives of four visitors to the Gold Coast theme park, the gates will reopen with an "Open Hearts Open Doors" charity weekend.

The 10am opening will be the first step towards rebuilding public confidence in the tourist mecca following the accident on the Thunder River Rapids on October 25 that killed siblings Kate Goodchild, 32, and Luke Dorsett, 35, his partner Roozbeh Araghi and Sydney mother Cindy Low.

Dreamworld's chief executive Craig Davidson said the park, which will honour all existing pass holders with a six-month extension, will reopen with a "respectful" day.
"If I can match last Christmas I'd be happy, bearing in mind last Christmas was down on the Christmas before, which was down on the Christmas before that," she says from behind a gift-wrapping station. As a woman wanders in after browsing dresses on display on the footpath, Ms de Szoeke explains that although almost all retailers are hurting at the moment, she has an edge by providing more personalised customer service. But this has only softened the blow rather than fixing the problem. "Our takings have gone down but our rents haven't," she says. She says there's little incentive for landlords to reduce rents and they instead rely on capital gains.

Local policy also affects retailers, and with parking meters being disproportionately spread across the newly amalgamated Inner West Council, Ms de Szoeke feels as if her loss of foot traffic is paying for the services of other areas without parking meters. To solve this, the local chamber of commerce is preparing to make its voice heard ahead of the upcoming local election. "Forget the council, forget the state government, forget the federal government; what we're trying to do at the moment is get together as a community of retailers and say what we want." Hospitality getting tougher Although the hospitality industry has posted slight gains, the food retail sector is shrinking. Credit:Glenn Hunt

Cafe owner Joe Kitsana has watched his business decline over the year. "It's not that good at the moment, it's been quiet this year," he says from inside his trendy Darlinghurst cafe Republic Sandwiches and Salads. Although the hospitality industry  including accommodation  has posted slight gains, the food retail sector is shrinking. Mr Kitsana says many cafes and restaurants in the area have also suffered from fewer customers. "We don't have enough customers to go out and spend money," he says, adding that many of his former customers have moved out of the area because the cost of living has become too expensive.

One way the hospitality industry is combating a fall in foot traffic is through online delivery services such as Foodora, Deliveroo and UberEATS. These platforms have connected cafes and restaurants with customers from further afield, however, for Mr Kitsana this has not offset a decline in traditional customers. He says that while the delivery service Foodora has helped his business "a little bit", most customers are daunted by the wide variety of food available and typically order what they already know. Having worked in the hospitality industry for 22 years, he says confidently that "lots of business owners are complaining that this year is worse than any other year". With no end in sight to shrinking patronage, Mr Kitsana is unsure what the future holds.

"It's quite concerning," he says. "What's going to happen next year?" Agriculture booming Rain has boosted demand for cattle breeders, particularly as appetite for grass-fed beef grows. Credit:Peter Braig Agriculture has had the biggest gains over the past quarter, with grains, cotton and livestock farming leading the way. Ashwood Devons is based in Bulahdelah on the NSW mid north coast and breeds Ruby Red Devons, an ancient breed of cattle marketed as being suitable "for all seasons and for all reasons".

The farm's owner, Malcolm Wood, says gains in the agricultural sector are a welcome rebound. "There's been a big improvement in sales of livestock," he says. "It's where it should be, it's been down for a long time." It's been keeping him busy, he explains over the growl of his truck. But although much of the industry's uptick can be attributed to increased rainfalls, Mr Wood has not experienced such fortune. "It's been pretty dry over the past few months here on the coast, we badly need substantial falls of rain where I am at the moment," he says.

Nevertheless, rains elsewhere in the country have boosted demand for cattle breeders like Mr Wood, particularly as appetite for grass-fed beef grows. The agricultural industry is up both on the quarter and the year, with gross added value at its highest level since June 2015. It was the largest offset to the September quarter's overall decrease of 0.5 per cent. Construction perseveres For many construction companies in Sydney, business could not be better. Credit:iStock

The construction industry has experienced falls across the board thanks to reduced growth in private and public investment. But for many construction companies of all sizes in Sydney, business could not be better. "It's crazy, we're probably busier than ever," says Matt Wong, co-owner of Benchmark Homes in Castle Hill. "It's been constant for a while, our books are full." This sentiment was echoed by business owners and professionals across the construction industry.

Mr Wong says his business doesn't need to advertise because it has so many customers coming in, through word of mouth or from seeing the company name on construction sites across Sydney. Most of his clients are not first-home buyers, with developments usually selling for more than $1 million. But government policy hasn't helped, he says. The home building insurance fund, formerly known as the homeowners warranty insurance scheme, is intended to protect homeowners from faulty workmanship or non-completion of a contract. But in Mr Wong's case, this has done more harm than good.

"They're restricting your turnover and wanting you to give up your children to be able to work," he says. Costs have also risen for everything from raw materials such as concrete and bricks to labour and waste management. But although this has made things more difficult, it's not had a large impact on earnings, nor has it been passed on to homebuyers, Mr Wong says. "It's been pretty smooth sailing." Real estate finds a silver lining

"If anything in the past few months has been quite dramatic growth, particularly in housing": Danny Grant. Credit:Josh Robenstone A shortage of homes has seen the real estate sector decline over the past quarter, but for some agents this has been more of a blessing than a curse. "In the second half of the year compared to the first half, for us it's been the opposite," says Danny Grant, partner and co-director at Province Agents in Neutral Bay. "If anything in the past few months has been quite dramatic growth, particularly in housing." Mr Grant says that in certain marketplaces on the lower north shore, stock has been down by up to 40 per cent.

He says that for some real estate agents, this could cut earnings by half, a disruption that could have a major impact on how agents are paid. Government policy hasn't helped this situation, Mr Grant says, citing a need for more development opportunities, stamp duty and restrictions on foreign investment, adding "we've had some impact, but not a major impact". But for Province Agents, the shortage of stock has had a positive effect since around August. Loading "You always notice when you've got buyers' agents hunting you down, seeing if you've got anything off-market, I have a lot of buyers calling me constantly seeing what's around, because there's just not the stock there."
A showdown between the Australian Taxation Office and the nation's largest companies including Chevron, Crown and BHP Billiton is looming as the tax man hits seven large companies with tax bills amounting to $2 billion.

On Friday, the ATO released its corporate tax transparency report for 2014-15, which includes limited tax information for 1904 companies.

Damage control: Tax Commissioner Chris Jordan. Credit:Wayne Taylor

The report includes 1579 Australian public and foreign-owned companies with an income of $100 million or more, and 325 Australian-owned resident private companies with an income of $200 million or more. It accounts for $42 billion, or 53 per cent, of tax payable.

But it is hard to extrapolate which taxpayers did not pay their fair share of tax, as the data reports company losses as "nil tax payable". More than a third of large public and private companies paid no tax in 2014-15, with 36 per cent of large firms reporting zero tax payable.
All office workers have their pet hates, whether it's that annoying colleague munching their lunch at their desk, or the lack of privacy in an open-plan space. But it's a cold war when it comes to the biggest office gripe, a new survey has shown. It's either too hot or too cold: Office temperature is a source of workplace complaints. More than 1200 full-time office workers in the US were asked to identify what they hated most about their office space, in a survey commissioned by the International Interior Design Association and the Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturers Association. "Ability to adjust your workplace temperature" topped the list of most complained about office qualities, with 46 per cent of workers saying they were unsatisfied with that aspect of their work.

"Temperature" also made the list, coming in fifth place, with 36 per cent of workers saying they were unhappy with it. Of those surveyed, 44 per cent didn't like the sound privacy in their offices, 37 per cent were unhappy with their ability to control the light, and 37 per cent were unsatisfied with the level of visual privacy. Other aspects that workers complained about were the colours and textures in their office (35 per cent were unsatisfied), the lack of natural light (34 per cent), the availability of adjustable furniture (32 per cent) and the level of noise (31 per cent). The survey follows a Dutch study last year that revealed most office buildings set temperatures based on a decades-old formula that used the metabolic rates of men. That study, titled Energy Consumption in Buildings and Female Thermal Demand, said the average man weighed about 70 kilograms in the 1960s, so it was no surprise that today's larger men complained of feeling hot in the office while petite women found themselves shivering.
McDonald's Corp said on Thursday it would move its international tax base to the United Kingdom from Luxembourg after coming under increased scrutiny from European Union regulators over its tax arrangements in the small country.

McDonald's said it would create a new international holding company domiciled in the UK that would receive the majority of royalties from licensing deals outside the United States.

"We are aligning our corporate structure with the way we do business, which is no longer in geographies, but in segments that group together countries with common market and growth characteristics," McDonald's said in a statement.

The move would also help to cut costs, McDonald's said.
WorkSafe ACT Commissioner Greg Jones would not be human if he said he wasn't feeling frustrated at the spike in serious safety incidents in the Territory's construction industry in recent weeks.

In 2012, an ACT government-commissioned report revealed the Territory had the worst construction site safety record in Australia, with a rate of serious injury almost double the national average. It also had the highest proportion of workplace deaths per head of population.

The Gallagher government responded by increasing WorkSafe ACT's funding to enable more frequent inspections of construction sites, and promising to pursue negligent employers and contactors through the courts with greater timeliness and energy. In spite of these and other commitments, however, there have been three serious construction-site accidents since October  two of which could easily have proved fatal.

In situations like this, where the regulators' best efforts have apparently proved in vain, a natural inclination is to look for scapegoats and to double down on efforts to police construction sites and punish miscreants. And it may be that investigations into these accidents reveal lapses in supervision or site indoctrination requiring disciplinary action, although it's too early to know if this is the case.
Big old Monterey cypress trees, 191 of them, line the highway into the town of Mortlake, screening out the sun.

If you were to pull up and hunt around, you might find tree number 64. It is dedicated to a soft-eyed boy who never grew out of his teens.

The Avenue of Honour in Mortlake. Credit:Amy Paton

His name was Jack Peoples.

If you continue down the avenue of honour, which is the purpose of this handsome, melancholy boulevard, you will find his name inscribed on Mortlake's war memorial, a monument in granite topped with the figure of a soldier sculpted from white marble.
For all its epic warfare and upheaval, the 20th century did produce one happy ending: the emergence of the Federal Republic of Germany as the first German state in modern history that was united, democratic, secure, prosperous and peaceful.

And so, when hundreds of thousands of refugees flocked to Europe from Syria and other distressed places in the summer of 2015, German Chancellor Angela Merkel framed her decision to admit them as a chance to bring her country's postwar spirit of achievement to bear in favour of needy newcomers others in Europe had shut out.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, pictured wearing an Islamic headscarf, has been criticised for her migrant-friendly stance.

"Germany is a strong country," she declared. "The motive with which we approach these matters must be: We have done so much  we'll get this done!"

This would have been a bold gesture in any political culture. In postwar Germany, where acts of risk-taking political leadership had been frowned upon, even for ostensibly good causes, Merkel's move was downright dramatic.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg are pushing taxpayer funding of "clean coal" power stations. Credit:Andrew Meares Frydenberg could have, and should have, pointed out that, while many experts support a form of carbon pricing in the energy sector, which produces one third of emissions, there are strong and credible advocates of other approaches. Among them is industrialist John White, who argues that the combination of smarter planning, engineering and delivery of energy infrastructure and agricultural soil carbon sequestration could result in zero net emissions by 2050 and lower real power prices. If Frydenberg's initial comments were measured and reflected a strong grasp of deeply complex issues, his dismount had the panache of a belly flop from the 10-metre diving tower. He denied even canvassing an EIS, said it would not be considered and split for Antarctica. It was Turnbull's response, however, that told us more about why the Prime Minister is in such deep trouble.

Downplaying the review as "business as usual", asserting that the government was on track to meet its emission reduction target and vowing that the Coalition would do nothing to put upward pressure on electricity prices, he declared: "If you vote Labor at the next election and Labor wins, you will pay more for electricity." The only problem here is that the election is more than two and a half years away and his comments did not address the view of experts, including his own chief scientist, Alan Finkel, that an EIS could be the best way of keeping downward pressure on prices and meeting the target of reducing emissions by 26 per cent to 28 per cent on 2005 levels by 2030. Nor did they do anything to allay the concern, also addressed by Finkel's interim report on the security of Australia's energy market, that "policy instability and uncertainty" has stalled investment in the electricity sector. This failure is all the more worrying against the backdrop of the latest national accounts, where a 3.2 per cent fall in new business investment was the dominant cause of real GDP going backwards in the September quarter. Nor was there a convincing answer to Finkel's assessment that "current policy settings do not provide a clear pathway to the level of reduction required to meet Australia's Paris commitments"  aside from the bald assertion that we will get there.

Finally, Turnbull failed to rebut the view of experts, including the Grattan Institute's Tony Wood, that scuttling the idea of even looking at an EIS in the power sector could result in the very things he is determined to avoid: higher prices and less energy security. So why was the conversation so limited, so disrespectful to the intelligence of the electorate? One reason is that the Prime Minister thinks it more important to prosecute an energy price campaign against Labor. Another is that he is constrained by the hard-Right of his party room, led by the climate sceptic Cory Bernardi, who is now demanding a retreat from the Paris agreement that Turnbull ratified the day after Trump was elected. "Some people want to get rid of Malcolm, no matter what," is how one insider characterised the forces ready to pounce at any opportunity. The hope of many voters was that Turnbull would find his voice once he was elected in his own right, but the sad truth is that he is more constrained than he was before the election, thanks to the Coalition's one-seat majority.

Yes, there are hints that he is not simply Abbott in a better suit, as the critics assert, but they are just that: hints. This week, for instance, Turnbull declined multiple invitations from 3AW's Neil Mitchell to comment on a seven-year sentence given to a teenager convicted of planning a terrorist attack in Melbourne in 2015. Can you imagine Abbott being so restrained? More revealing is the deal with the United States to resettle those who are about to spend their fourth Christmas on Nauru and Manus, which Turnbull is convinced will hold even after Trump succeeds Barack Obama. Only Turnbull could have got it done. But the picture this week was of a leader prepared to lose battles without even fighting them. It isn't a lack of courage that constrains him, as some suggest, but the pragmatic judgment that he will lose if he takes the ideologues on. Loading
The fate of the Sydney Light Rail project demonstrates that that we need to get scientific about estimating projects' cost risks. Cost estimates for Australian transport infrastructure projects are systematically optimistic  over the past 15 years, these projects have cost 24 per cent more than first estimated.

The NSW government's estimates of cost risk on their current megaprojects seem implausible. For example, the WestConnex "worst case" cost estimate is only 6 per cent above the "likely" cost  less than a quarter of what it should be if the experience of the past 15 years is any guide. If the kinds of problems that have pushed past Australian transport into "worst case" scenarios materialise, WestConnex's costs could keep rising, by as much as a further $3.4 billion more than the "worst case" the NSW government has envisaged.

Construction of the light rail project in George Street, Sydney. Credit:Steven Siewert

And that's precisely the problem. In the absence of detailed historical data on projects' cost outcomes, the cost estimators are expected to arrive at realistic estimates of projects' risks with good information on the costs of concrete, wages and equipment, but in the dark about the "unknown unknowns" that, in practice, can make up a substantial component of project costs.

The saga of the Sydney Light Rail is a perfect illustration of this problem. For a large project that is announced prematurely, expect the cost to be substantially higher  38 per cent on average  by the time a contract is signed. Nor are the overruns over and done with at that point. Projects with troubled beginnings like the Sydney Light Rail typically incur an additional 10 per cent cost overrun during the construction period. If this were to occur on the Sydney Light Rail, the project's benefit cost ratio would fall further, to below 1.3.
Stanley Reynolds, the journalist and novelist who has died aged 82, was one of old Fleet Street's most convivial figures, and with his friend the cartoonist Michael Heath one of the last editors of the venerable weekly Punch. "Stan" was a notable dandy and wit. An American from Massachusetts  he called himself "a swamp Yankee"  he affected the elaborate outfits of an old-fashioned English gentleman: a Savile Row suit with a silk handkerchief in the breast pocket and a watch chain looped across the waistcoat; handmade shoes; a Jermyn Street shirt with a detachable collar; a monogrammed umbrella and spectacles with frames he said were made of teak. His wit, delivered in a rapid growling drawl, was combative, perverse and provocative, and although he was essentially kind it could also sometimes be cruel. While he reduced some to tears of laughter, others  the drama critic Sheridan Morley was one  wept tears of pain; and nowadays his sexism and racism would result in his arrest.

John Glenn, a freckle-faced son of Ohio who was hailed as a national hero and a symbol of the space age as the first American to orbit Earth, then became a national political figure for 24 years in the Senate, died in Columbus, Ohio, aged 95. In just five hours on February 20, 1962, Glenn joined a select roster of Americans whose feats have seized the country's imagination and come to embody a moment in its history, figures like Lewis and Clark, the Wright brothers and Charles Lindbergh. It was an anxious nation that watched and listened that February morning, as Glenn, 40 years old, a Marine Corps test pilot and one of the seven original American astronauts, climbed into Friendship 7, the tiny Mercury capsule atop an Atlas rocket rising from the concrete flats of Cape Canaveral in Florida.

John Glenn pilots the "Friendship 7" Mercury spacecraft during his historic flight as the first American to orbit the Earth. Credit:AP

Anne Wall, who has died aged 88, was the Queen's stalwart assistant press secretary from 1958 until 1981. She was described by the writer Joan Woollcombe as "the best of press officers" and by one Royal Household official as "a walking directory and frightfully good at her job". Unfailingly polite, she took no nonsense from journalists, in an era when a mild rebuke from the Buckingham Palace Press Office had the desired effect in the offices of Fleet Street. "Nobody was particularly pleased by your article" was one such, and on another occasion, she had merely to remark: "We read your article in the Toronto Star", where some facetious writer thought he was safe to let his hair down, for the man to know he had been reprimanded.
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson visited the Great Barrier Reef a fortnight ago, with two of her fellow senators  Malcolm "I respect the Jews" Roberts, a man whose climate change denial is so intricate you need a PhD to understand it; and poor Brian Burston, who didn't join his colleagues for a snorkel because they couldn't find a wetsuit to fit him.

It appears no invitation was extended to fellow One Nation senator Rod Culleton, who is enjoying his legal adventures far too much for his leader's liking. They left the limelight-hogger back down south.

Finally the spotlight was back where it should be  on Hanson, who donned a wetsuit, inspected the coral in the waters off Great Keppel Island, and declared the reef ship-shape.

She could see no bleached coral, and the water, alleged by climate activists to be too hot, felt exactly as warm as it should.
New Braunfels, TX (78130)

Today

Cloudy early with partial sunshine expected late. Slight chance of a rain shower. High near 85F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Partial cloudiness early, with scattered showers and thunderstorms later during the night. Low 71F. Winds SSE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
I was asked this week why the right/centre right/conservatives in the Turnbull government, as they are variously called, don't believe in climate change, and/or don't accept the need for urgent and decisive action.

Is it ideological (that is, anti-government; anti-regulation; a view that if it mattered the private sector would have addressed it, and so on); or is it merely politically opportunistic, an effective issue on which to score short-term political points on opponents, mostly the Opposition and the Greens; or is it because they assume that any transition from fossil fuels to renewables will cost jobs and growth; or is there a genuine denial of the science; or some awkward combination of all these?

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is beholden to the right. Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg was rolled by the right and the Nationals. Credit:Andrew Meares

John Howard, widely lauded by these "conservatives" as a "conviction politician", has answered this question from his personal perspective. Speaking at a climate deniers' meeting organised by the ex-British Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson, in late 2013, while admitting that he had consciously played short-term politics on the issue, Howard stated that he was an "agnostic" on climate, and preferred to rely on his "instincts".

This, of course, ignores the fact that none of us non-climate scientists would even know that there was an issue except that some 97 per cent of peer-assessed climate scientists (now joined by a host of non-climate scientists) have, atypically, agreed on the magnitude and the urgency of the challenge. I say "atypical" because it is the very essence of scientific endeavour that they disagree, that they contest each other's hypotheses and research conclusions.
This, of course, refers to the Portuguese poet, Fernando Pessoa (1883-1935), who famously wrote two thirds of his work under at least 44 "heteronyms" with three of them predominating. Michelle Cahill's life story so far has equipped her well for such an approach. Born in Kenya, of Goan/Anglo-Indian ancestry, she went to primary school in London before emigrating to Australia with her family in her teens. Later, she graduated in Medicine and Arts and, like many Australian writers, has also travelled widely.

Michelle Cahill, author of four poetry collections so far, has now produced a sizeable short story collection which ranges extraordinarily in geography and considerably in manner. Although the title story is not the best one it is a clue to the book's protean use of narrators and protagonists. In an end-note Cahill lists eight of them and says that they "can be read as other selves, heteronyms in the Pessoan sense".

For most followers of Australian poetry there is probably a feeling of unease when a poet they've read with interest and/or approval moves to prose fiction. Sometimes, as in the case of the novelist Roger McDonald, they are lost to poetry forever. Others, such as Alan Gould or David Malouf, successfully develop parallel careers.

All this has given Cahill the confidence to set her stories in widely different locations and cultural contexts. As one of her narrators says in the last lines of the last story: "If you are passing through me for the first time please enjoy my characters, disguises, sabotages and micro-prose. I offer you my candles and my bowl. It is here that I whittled away at my perspectives amid the mayhem and stupor of the world." ("A Miko Coda")

Several of the stories seem to square with what is publicly known of Cahill's life story. One story ("Letter to Tadeusz Rosewicz") even mentions her daughter, Tegan, and thus can perhaps be taken as memoir or travelogue rather than fiction. While these may occasionally be dangerous games to play, there is no doubt about the cumulative impact of Cahill's shape-shifting. We are in the hands of a clever and empathetic writer who can transport the reader at will from one milieu to another.

While titles such as "Letter to Virginia Woolf", "Letter to John Coetzee" and "Borges and I" may suggest a preference for literary game-playing over evocation or commentary, it's nearly always the case that Cahill has some tangential moral to make (downsides of Hinduism and Buddhism, for instance, in "The Sadhu" and "Finding the Buddha").

Other stories can be disconcerting in different ways. "Chasing Nabokov", for instance, re-locates Nabokov and his wife, Vera, in space and time to contemporary Sydney, and is narrated by a somewhat incautious and self-indulgent female narrator. "The Nabokovs lived in the art-deco block of flats next door to my mother's house in Willoughby". Half a page on our narrator is revealing that, "After the barbeque he called me on the pretext of the essay. I dropped a flirtatious clue and, with the prerequisite knowledge that Mum was at work, he was over in a flash". I'm not sure that the real-life Nabokov was ever "over in a flash" but our narrator is disturbingly convincing about the novelist's Antipodean namesake.

One of the most memorable of the stories is "Borges and I". Though it may be hubristic of Cahill to steal the title of one of Borges' best creations, the story is a light-hearted and vertiginously successful melange of some of the Argentinian's most famous stories, all set in a quasi-metaphysical framework not unlike those employed by the master himself.
Malcolm Turnbull faces pressure from state and territory leaders for an effective national energy policy on Friday, with South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill raising the prospect of climate change costing the Prime Minister his job for a second time.

Premiers and chief ministers arrived at Parliament House for a meeting of the Council of Australian Governments calling for action on power security, while homelessness, domestic violence and national security also set to dominate a packed agenda.

Mr Weatherill appeared to have limited support for his calls this week for the states to go it alone on a consistent carbon intensity scheme, while Mr Turnbull made a combative start to proceedings by accusing Mr Weatherill of giving frequent lectures to other leaders while overseeing the most expensive and least secure electricity system in Australia.

"I am not interested in lecturing anyone. I just want to have the discussion the Prime Minister promised us," Mr Weatherill said.
Labor's successful Mediscare strategy could see Australia's political campaign laws changed to require all election materials carry consistent authorisation statements, with the same rules applying to text messages, social media posts, print and broadcast ads.

A parliamentary committee considering the 2016 election has recommended all campaign materials should meet the same standards, sparked in part by Queensland Labor's election-day text messages to voters, which appeared to come from a sender under the name "Medicare".

The messages warned: "Mr Turnbull's plans to privatise Medicare will take us down the road of no return. Time is running out to Save Medicare".

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has railed against the tactics since the Coalition's poor election result, calling the messages "an extraordinary act of dishonesty" and arguing they falsely targeted elderly and vulnerable Australians.
Just four days into the job, it was clear Michelle Guthrie was in for a bumpy start as managing director of the ABC.

Guthrie was appearing at the May Senate estimates hearings and had told the committee she wanted to make her 7pm flight to Sydney. This left less than an hour for questions. The senators were not impressed. "Our response: you finish when we stop asking questions," one angry senator texted journalists. "My goal is to make her miss her flight."

In her past life as a senior executive at Google and News Corp, one suspects meetings ended when Guthrie wanted them to end. Not any more. The senators strung out the questioning until 6.45pm - long enough to ensure Guthrie would miss the last flight out of Canberra.

Since then it's only become more difficult.
It was shortly after midnight on August 20 when a former submariner turned political staffer stood in an Adelaide office and scanned copied pages of classified Indian submarine plans.

A little over a week later, details of the leak were splashed across the front page of a national newspaper, triggering an international furore that embarrassed India and the French government-owned submarine builder DCNS. It also sparked questions in Australia about whether our $50 billion submarine building program could be fully secure under its partnership with DCNS.

Fairfax Media can now reveal the man who triggered the storm was Rex Patrick, an adviser to the powerful South Australian crossbench senator Nick Xenophon. It can also be revealed the Senate kingmaker knew what his staffer was doing and supported him.

The leak of thousands of pages of information about the Indian Scorpene submarines included stealth capabilities and sensitive data related to diving, sonar, noise and the combat system. The plans had been swiped from Paris in 2011 by a contractor before making their way to Australia via Mr Patrick.
They were the beloved, cashed-up Chinese "whales" James Packer had gambled so much of his empire on, but signs are emerging that the southern migration to the poker tables of Sydney may have come to an abrupt end. From private jet charters to luxury limousine transfers, Sydney-based operators have quietly been discussing the loss of the once lucrative Chinese high rollers who had been visiting The Star, as well as Packer's Crown Melbourne, on their gambling holidays. James Packer's people say he remains very much an 'active' business force despite the tribulations of 2016. Credit:Justin Chin "It's completely dried up in the past month, they are too scared to come here," one operator divulged to PS this week. "A lot of them were buying expensive life insurance policies in the mainland, and cashing them in in Hong Kong, then using that money to come and gamble in Australia. It was harder for the Chinese to trace where the money was going. But ever since the government cracked down on them over there, they are avoiding Sydney and Australia big time."

The knock-on effect will no doubt also be felt across parts of Sydney's luxury goods sector, which has experienced boom years largely thanks to increasing patronage from status-obsessed Chinese visitors. It was not uncommon for wealthy Chinese visitors to drop $15,000 on a designer handbag between their sessions in the high roller's rooms, reassured the product was genuine rather than one of the knock-offs that flood the Chinese homeland. Packer's Crown is still desperately trying to contain the fallout from the arrest in mid-October of 18 of its employees by Chinese authorities. Formally detained on what the Chinese have called "gambling crimes", only one of the 18 has been released, while Crown's international VIP boss, Jason O'Connor, and two Australian colleagues remain in custody and could remain there for up to six months. Meanwhile Packer, who has weathered a storm of negative press about his personal life since his engagement to Mariah Carey imploded in full public view, has been conspicuously absent from the global social radar ever since.
PUPPY LOVE

It's been more than 40 years since millionaire Sydney luxury car and superyacht dealer Neville Crichton was diagnosed with terminal throat cancer, aged just 29. Amazingly he has hardly skipped a beat ever since, despite having his voice box and oesophagus removed, and an artificial one implanted. These days he presses a small hole in his neck that allows him to communicate with a husky voice, hence his nickname 'Croaky'. However PS hears that despite years of good health, Crichton, 71, has recently experienced a few setbacks which have resulted in delaying his wedding to his beautiful bride-to-be, Nadi Hasandedic. Not that she is too concerned, apparently the 30-something beauty has taken delivery of a new "fur baby" in the shape of a fluffy puppy which has been giving Croaky a bit of grief when it sits on his very, very, VERY expensive car seats.

Neville Crichton and his fiancee Nadi Hasandedic. Credit:Belinda Rolland

PARTY ANIMAL

If you think your Christmas party season is hectic, spare a thought for Sydney's drug dogs, who have been sniffing their way across some of the best soirees in the city. According to the @SniffOff Twitter feed, it has been quite a social itinerary. On one night last week the Sniffer Dog was spotted enjoying the innocent delights of Luna Park at 7pm, mixing it with the suits at the Argyle at the Rocks at 9pm then working the room at Rag and Famish in North Sydney at 9.30pm before a quick stop off at the Mt Whalan Shops in Mt Druitt at 10:56pm and finally, finishing the night under the disco lights at the Chinese Laundry on Sussex Street at 11.42pm. Such stamina!


In a world where we're constantly told to "Give 110 per cent!" and "Take it to the limit!" it's no wonder people have such a hard time accepting mediocrity. But by the time you've reached adulthood, you've probably learned to accept mediocrity in at least some aspects of your life. Because, hey, you're never going to be perfect at everything. (Unless you're Bradley Cooper - man, that guy is handsome.) Here are some moments where it's totally OK to be just OK.

1. STAYING IN BED UNTIL THE LAST SECOND

A comfortable relationship? Bring it. Credit:iStock

Some mornings, you're up at the crack of dawn working on that side hustle, hitting the gym or journaling like a freakin' pro. Other mornings? You hit the snooze button until it breaks, staying in that warm, womb-like bed until you're forced to race around your room and dash out the door without brushing your hair. It's called balance, people.

2. EATING THE SAME SAD DESK LUNCH EVERY DAY
Anything can be improved through good design, says architect Simon Knott. Your first home?

My first home was a small timber worker's cottage in South Yarra. I was single, in my early 30s, and it suited me very well as a bachelor pad. I did a minor renovation, which all architects should do at some stage on their own house. I learnt a lot about efficient design, flexibility and maximising the spend. Simon Knott's Northcote home. Credit:Shannon McGrath Period home or contemporary?

My first house was a Victorian cottage. I now live in an Edwardian bungalow that has had a major contemporary renovation. We did it with the idea that we did not want to move for 20 years. Describe your home style

A doll's house for a creative family. We live in a contemporary take on a doll's house with flexible, non-prescribed space where anything and everything is possible.

Simon Knott, director of BKK Architects. Best design tip?

Anything can be improved through good design. We've drawn inspiration from the inner-city context for some townhouses that we're designing (No. 108 Fitzroy by FourSQ), yet they are thoroughly progressive and contemporary. We were never content and kept on returning to the drawing board  you should never stop designing. The suburb you love?

Northcote. I'm very lucky to live right on Merri Creek in Westgarth so I get the beauty of the creek combined with the vibrant inner-city lifestyle that I love. We still have a good mix of public housing and the original, older Greeks and Italians living on our street. You can't manufacture that sort of diversity and I hope it never goes. The most iconic house?

It's difficult to go past Robin Boyd's houses. His Featherston House (1967) is still one of the most progressive houses in Melbourne and it's almost 50 years old. Roy Grounds' Hill House (1953) is one of my favourites and a more contemporary master work is Barrie Marshall of DCM's Phillip Island House (1983). There are currently many talented young (and not so young) architects producing iconic architecture here. Your next home?

I'd like to design and build a country retreat. I think every architect wants to build a new house for themselves but that can wait. It's a later-in-life thing.
Nearly one-quarter of the world's children live in conflict or disaster zones, according to new figures from international children's charity UNICEF, released on Friday.

The UNICEF research found 535 million children live in countries stricken by war or natural catastrophes such as drought or flooding.

Children living in sub-Saharan Africa were most likely to be affected by war or disaster, followed by children in the Middle East and North Africa.

The figures have been released to mark the 70th anniversary of UNICEF's work supporting children in some of the world's most dangerous countries.
A Sydney man, who was allegedly in contact with a notorious Australian fighter in Syria, has been found guilty of trying to send thousands of dollars to support Islamic State.

Following police raids in 2014, Ali al-Talebi denied two counts of attempting to give resources to a terrorist organisation and one of knowingly making funds available to a terrorist organisation.

But on Friday, a Sydney District Court jury found the 27-year-old guilty of all offences.

The Crown had alleged al-Talebi helped recruit a younger Muslim man to send $6000 to Pakistan to be used for sending fighters to Syria.

It was also alleged he tried to have more than $US9000 in US bank notes sent to a man in Turkey, who had been nominated by Australian IS member Mohammad Ali Baryalei.
The NSW government is leading a push for national laws to allow people to sue for damages for serious invasions of privacy, as it pursues separate state-based reforms to criminalise revenge porn.

Attorney-General Gabrielle Upton called for submissions this year on a new criminal offence in NSW to tackle revenge porn, where intimate or sexually explicit images of a person are shared without their consent.

There is widespread support for the move and the government plans to introduce a bill in the first half of next year.

But Ms Upton said this was "only one piece of the puzzle and NSW is leading the way to work out what a civil remedy would look like so victims right across Australia have access to justice".
People headed to the Gold Coast are facing long travel times after roadworks on the Logan Motorway eastbound caused major delays early in the afternoon.

Emergency repairs on the motorway in Drewvale shut down one lane to traffic, with delays all the way back to Gailes.

There have been delays on the Logan Motorway.

An Australian Traffic Network spokeswoman said traffic on surrounding roads was also being impacted.

Commuters were experiencing a slow run on the M1 southbound from Daisy Hill, but congestion on the Gateway Motorway is now easing.
The booming Sunshine Coast has caught up with south-east Queensland and now has $10 billion in the committed project pipeline and halved its unemployment to 4.5 per cent since 2012.

And Sunshine Coast mayor Mark Jamieson could not be happier.

Sunshine Coast Mayor Mark Jamieson delivered his state of the region report on Friday. Credit:Tony Moore

"To have halved our unemployment means roughly 10,000 extra people in a job," he said on Friday.

The Sunshine Coast had an unemployment rate of over 10 per cent in 2012.
Brisbane residents are cautioned to be on the alert for measles, after a case was diagnosed in a man who recently returned from overseas.

Metro North Public Health Unit confirmed the case, and it was believed the man visited Coles in Kenmore on Tuesday and Thursday while infectious.

A case of measles. Credit:US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention

Symptoms of the highly infectious usually start 10 days after contact with infected saliva which is spread through coughing and sneezing.

Initial symptoms included a fever, cough, lethargy, runny nose and sore eyes, followed a few days later by a red rash.
Police who are conducting a line search in Melbourne's outer south-east are believed to be looking for a body.

Police and SES search teams were combing an area of a busy highway in Frankston on Friday afternoon looking for buried remains.

They were searching under bushes, digging up dirt and even in drains.

Forensic police were also on scene and spray paint marks were made on the road.
Summer snow fell in Victoria's high country early on Friday, with Mount Baw Baw, Hotham, Buller and Falls Creek all receiving a dusting.

Melburnians struggling to embrace an unpredictable start to the summer can rest easy though; snow at this time of year isn't exactly out of the ordinary, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

The light dusting of snow in Victoria. Credit:Photo: Twitter/@_hotham.

Forecaster Keris Arndt said Victoria has copped snow right up until Christmas in the past.

"It definitely does happen, especially behind strong cold fronts like we saw come through overnight," Mr Arndt said.
A community group fighting to stop the demolishment of a century-old pub once used by the ANZACs has won the first stage in their battle.

The former Darling Range Hotel in Bellevue in Perth's east, built in 1903 on Great Eastern Highway, was a popular watering hole for World War I diggers and their families stationed at Blackboy Hill military training camp.

The community has won its first battle in the fight to save an old diggers pub from being demolished. Credit:Dianne Arvino

The Federation-style hotel, which is now divided into two businesses - an Indian restaurant and skimpy's bar - is under threat of being bulldozed after an application to have the building demolished and replaced with a service station was lodged.

Locals claimed if the pub was knocked down, it would become one of several historic hotels in the Midland area to be lost to fire or bulldozed for development, with hundreds rallying to protect the site.
A Perth man who complained Uber unfairly deactivated his driver account has lost his $500,000 damages claim against the global ride-sharing service.

Nigerian-born father-of-two Mike Oze-Igiehon, 40, maintained a high rating with the service and earned up to $10,000 a month, but lost his job after just seven months based on passenger complaints.

Mike Oze in one of his two cars that he bought on loan as an Uber driver. Credit:Philip Gostelow

They alleged he drove dangerously as he looked tired and even appeared to fall asleep while driving them to their destinations, which Mr Oze-Igiehon denied.

He admitted, however, driving passengers in a car that had a yellow defect sticker because the tyres were bald.
HAMBURG, 8 December 2016 - We, the Heads of Delegation of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries  Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov, Secretary of State of the United States John Kerry, and Foreign Minister of France Jean-Marc Ayrault - remain fully committed to a negotiated settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

In light of the dramatic escalation in violence along the Line of Contact in April, we express concern over continuing armed incidents, including reports on the use of heavy weapons, and strongly condemn the use of force or the threat of the use of force. There is no military solution to this conflict and no justification for the death and injury of civilians. We are also aware of allegations of atrocities committed on the field of battle in April, which we condemn in the strongest terms. We appeal to the sides to confirm their commitment to the peaceful resolution of the conflict as the only way to bring real reconciliation to the peoples of the region. We also urge them to adhere strictly to the 1994/95 ceasefire agreements that make up the foundation of the cessation of hostilities in the conflict zone.

We call on Baku and Yerevan to honor the agreements reflected in the Joint Statements of the 16 May Summit in Vienna and the 20 June Summit in St. Petersburg. We welcome the sides progress in implementing the exchange of data on missing persons under the auspices of the International Committee of the Red Cross. We urge the parties to remove all remaining obstacles to expanding the mission of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and to make progress on a proposal to establish an OSCE investigative mechanism. The proposals should be implemented together with the immediate resumption of negotiations on a settlement. We would like to reiterate our call to the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to demonstrate flexibility and to return to the negotiation table with the firm aim of moving toward a sustainable peace on the basis of the current working proposals. Unless progress can be made on negotiations, the prospects for renewed violence will only increase, and the parties will bear full responsibility.

We remind the sides that the settlement must be based on the core principles of the Helsinki Final Act, namely: non-use of force, territorial integrity, and the equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and additional elements as proposed by the Presidents of the Co-Chair countries, including return of the territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijani control; an interim status for Nagorno-Karabakh providing guarantees for security and self-governance; a corridor linking Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh; future determination of the final legal status of Nagorno-Karabakh through a legally binding expression of will; the right of all internally displaced persons and refugees to return to their former places of residence; and international security guarantees that would include a peacekeeping operation. Our countries will continue to work closely with the sides, and we call upon them to make full use of the assistance of the Minsk Group Co-Chairs as mediators.

The Co-Chair countries are prepared to host a meeting of the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan when they are ready. We firmly believe that the Presidents need to engage in negotiations in good faith at the earliest opportunity. Continuous and direct dialogue between the Presidents, conducted under the auspices of the Co-Chairs, remains an essential element in building confidence and moving the peace process forward.
Washington: The CIA has concluded in a secret assessment that Russia intervened in the 2016 election to help Donald Trump win the presidency, rather than just to undermine confidence in the US electoral system, according to officials briefed on the matter.

Intelligence agencies have identified individuals with connections to the Russian government who provided WikiLeaks with thousands of hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee and others, including Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman, according to US officials. Those officials described the individuals as actors known to the intelligence community and part of a wider Russian operation to boost Trump and hurt Clinton's chances.

"It is the assessment of the intelligence community that Russia's goal here was to favour one candidate over the other, to help Trump get elected," said a senior US official briefed on an intelligence presentation made to US senators. "That's the consensus view."

The Obama administration has been debating for months how to respond to the alleged Russian intrusions, with White House officials concerned about escalating tensions with Moscow and being accused of trying to boost Clinton's campaign.
London: British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has been rebuked by his Prime Minister Theresa May for saying that Saudi Arabia has been "playing proxy wars" in the Middle East.

Mrs May's official spokesman said that his comments about Saudi Arabia "are not the Government's position".

Mr Johnson will have an opportunity to travel to the Middle Eastern country where he will "set out the Government's position this weekend", the spokesman added, in comments that will inflame tensions between the two senior Conservative Party figures.

Mr Johnson's comments are hardly shocking, considering that before his appointment as foreign secretary he suggested that US President Barack Obama harboured an "ancestral dislike of the British Empire".
Dutch politician Geert Wilders has been found guilty of hate speech for leading a chant against Moroccans in a 2014 campaign rally.

Attendees at the rally chanted they wanted "Fewer! Fewer! Fewer!" Moroccans in the Netherlands. A smiling Wilders concluded: "we're going to take care of that."

Geert Wilders, pictured in June, was found guilty of discrimination and inciting hatred. Credit:Bloomberg

A court in Amsterdam found the right-wing populist, who is anti-Islam, guilty on charges of discrimination and inciting hatred in a speech that it said abused the boundaries of free speech.

However, Wilders will not face a penalty for the ruling and he will be able to keep his role as a member of the Dutch parliament.
Cairo: A recently emerged militant group called the Hasm Movement claimed responsibility for a car bomb attack in Cairo on Friday that killed six policemen.

Six policemen were killed and three wounded owhen a roadside bomb exploded near a security checkpoint, the interior ministry said.

Egyptian explosives experts look for evidence at the site of the bomb explosion in Cairo. Credit:AMR NABIL

The attack, close to a government building in a middle class neighborhood of Cairo, was the latest in a series of security incidents in Egypt.

The Hasm Movement, which has claimed several attacks in Egypt in recent months, said it set off the bomb which security sources said also injured four civilians.
The empty seat, bottom right, of Choi Soon-sil, who is accused of colluding with South Korean President Park Geun-hye to control government affairs and extort companies, is seen during a hearing at the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday December 7. Credit:AP She was said to have heard the weekly protests calling for her to leave office. Those protests have grown from 20,000 people in central Seoul six weeks ago to about 1.7 million on Saturday, who came within a few hundred feet of her compound, shouting, "Evict her!" "The president heard the people's voices with a heavy heart," Jung Youn-kuk, Park's spokesman, said after one of the protests, though he did not clarify whether she heard the protesters' shouts through her window or, as one South Korean news outlet has reported, watched them on TV. A protester wearing a mask of South Korean President Park Geun-hye performs during a rally calling for Park to step down in Seoul, South Korea on November 30. Credit:AP Beyond that, her aides have declined to discuss her daily routine or her mood these days, except to say that she was taking the crisis gravely and was doing her best to deal with it.

They said she had invited Christian leaders and a top Buddhist monk to visit her last month to offer advice on the crisis. Her office did not disclose what they told her, except that the monk had quoted Buddhist scripture, saying, "A tree bears fruit when it sheds flowers." South Korean President Park Geun-hye has said that at times, she regrets becoming president. Credit:AP For many in South Korea, the flower has already fallen. As Park's approval rating has plummeted, shop owners across the country have pulled down pictures of her they once hung proudly on the wall. Even in her hometown, Daegu, where she made a brief visit last week, she was confronted by protesters demanding her resignation. After visiting a century-old market that had been heavily damaged in a fire, her office said, she returned to her car and wept. Protesters gather and occupy major streets in the city centre for a rally against South Korean President Park Geun-hye. Credit:Pool

Possibly the last time a South Korean leader was this isolated was in 2008, when massive crowds had rallied in central Seoul for weeks to protest President Lee Myung-bak's decision to lift a ban on US beef imports amid fears of mad cow disease. At the time, Lee said he climbed Mount Bugak, the cool green peak that rises above the Blue House, in the evening, saw the protesters' candlelight filling the city centre and wept. For Park, the Blue House itself is ablaze with memories. She first moved there at age nine, when her father, Major General Park Chung-hee, seized power in a military coup in 1961. At 22, after her mother was killed in an assassination attempt against her father, she became his acting first lady. In 1979, after her father was assassinated amid widespread protests against his dictatorship, she left the presidential palace, only to return as president in 2013. In between, she lived a secluded life in southern Seoul, in a house plastered with photos of her dead parents and adorned with their relics. "Her home was more like a museum for Park Chung-hee," Choi Sang-yeon, an editorial writer at the South Korean daily JoongAng Ilbo, wrote recently of his visit there a decade ago. "It looked as if her clock had stopped in the 1970s and she spent much time communicating with her dead father."

Choi described the atmosphere there as "heavy and dark." In her 1993 memoir, What If I Were Born in an Ordinary Family, Park wrote of her tragic family history and her sadness: "In my life's scale, the worthwhile times have never outweighed painful ones." In the end, Park's cloistered life may have set the stage for her political implosion. She has said she often spends evenings alone reading government reports. She shuns one-on-one meetings with senior aides. Her former cook told a South Korean magazine that she usually ate alone, watching TV. She has said she cut ties with her brother and sister to prevent nepotism, a bane of past South Korean presidents. She has two dogs, white Jindos, a Korean breed prized for its loyalty.

But in an episode that has haunted her presidency, when the ferry Sewol sank in 2014, killing more than 300 people in one of the country's biggest disasters in decades, her chief of staff said he could not locate her for seven hours. Where she was during those crucial hours has been one of the most jealously guarded secrets of her office, spawning lurid rumours. Her office recently said that she was in her residence, not in her main work office, at the time and that she did receive reports about the sinking. In testimony before a parliamentary hearing on Wednesday, her former chief of staff, Kim Ki-choon, said only that he did not know where in the sprawling compound she was. "I only knew that she was somewhere in the Blue House," he said. "I didn't know well what was going on in her personal life in her residence." Her trusted friend and adviser all these years was Choi Soon-sil, whose family had befriended her while her father was still in power.

After becoming president, Park has said that she continued to rely on Choi to look after her wardrobe and other personal affairs. Prosecutors said Choi did far more than that, and they have indicted her on extortion and other charges. While Park cannot be indicted while she holds office, the indictment of Choi identified Park as a criminal accomplice, a first for a president. In her apologies, a grim-faced Park has said she could not forgive herself for letting her guard down with Choi, who she said had helped her during her "lonely" and "difficult times." But she admitted no legal wrongdoing. By this time, few Koreans trusted her. According to opinion polls, she had become the least popular president since South Korea began democratising in the late 1980s. She has tried to restore a semblance of normalcy to her besieged administration by making appointments of ambassadors and deputy Cabinet ministers. Her government also pressed ahead with signing a controversial military intelligence sharing pact with Japan.
Donald Trump now has more that 17 million Twitter followers. Credit:Bloomberg For Batchelder, who studies history and gender studies at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, the abuse continues more than a year later. Five days before the election, she received a Facebook message that read: "Wishing I could f---ing punch you in the face. id then proceed to stomp your head on the curb and urinate in your bloodied mouth and i know where you live, so watch your f---ing back punk." During her first semester at Saint Anselm in autumn 2015, Batchelder decided to volunteer for former Florida governor Jeb Bush's campaign, even though her views were much more liberal than his. To her, it was just an enjoyable opportunity to learn more about the Republican Party. She listed the volunteer position on her online resume but later realised that she truly is a Democrat. Batchelder volunteered for Jeb Bush. Credit:Frank Franklin On October 12, 2015, Batchelder attended a bipartisan forum in Manchester and said to Trump: "So, maybe I'm wrong, maybe you can prove me wrong, but I don't think you're a friend to women."

Trump defended himself, saying he gave women positions of power at his construction sites, has influential women in his life and will fund women's health initiatives. "I love women, I respect women, I cherish women," Trump said at one point. Batchelder asked for the microphone again. "I want to get paid the same as a man, and I think you understand that, so if you become president, will a woman make the same as a man, and do I get to choose what I do with my body?" she said, then throwing her arms up in a questioning gesture. Trump answered curtly: "You're going to make the same if you do as good of a job, and I happen to be pro-life, OK?"

CNN and other media outlets covered the striking exchange, which generated conversation online. But Batchelder went to bed that night thinking her moment in the spotlight was over. After midnight, Trump's director of social media tweeted out screen grabs of Batchelder's social-media accounts. Trump's supporters launched investigations of their own. At 7:39 am, Trump tweeted: "The arrogant young woman who questioned me in such a nasty fashion at No Labels yesterday was a Jeb staffer! HOW CAN HE BEAT RUSSIA & CHINA?" Later that morning, Trump tweeted again: "How can Jeb Bush expect to deal with China, Russia + Iran if he gets caught doing a 'plant' during my speech yesterday in NH?" Tim Miller, Bush's former spokesman, said the campaign had nothing to do with Batchelder's asking the question. While the staff was accustomed to Trump's attacking Bush, they were stunned that he went after a college student. "If I was going to plant a question, I would have planted a better question," Miller said on Thursday.

Batchelder agreed: "Why would they ever send me out to do a pro-choice question? Guys, [Bush] is pro-life, which was one of my biggest problems with the Republican Party. And so I was like: 'Why would they ever send me to do that?' " Logic doesn't matter to online trolls, who rated Batchelder's physical appearance, threatened to rape or otherwise hurt her and called her vulgar names. A Photoshopped picture popped up online depicting her face covered in semen. "I love social media, but I also saw the terrible side of social media," she said. "I definitely tried to focus on something else because when you're seeing your life being played out in front of you and people are judging it and people are making assumptions about you, you kind of just want to stay away." Batchelder turned down interview requests, ignored the nasty messages and threw herself into playing rugby. She became even more interested in women's issues and wants to be a human rights lawyer. She voted for Hillary Clinton for president. Trump's Twitter account says it was created in March 2009, but Trump really started to use the account as a key communication tool in 2012 when he seriously considered running for president, said longtime friend Roger Stone.

"He loves it," Stone said pn Thursday. "This is what got him elected - being outspoken." Trump dictates many of his tweets to "one of the young ladies" who work in his office. "So they'll type it out for me, real fast, bring it in - I'll be in a meeting. 'Blah, blah, blah, boom!' Put an exclamation point here, and they'll send it out," Trump said in a May interview on Fox News. But on weekends, evenings and during early-morning hours - such as when the first tweet about Batchelder was posted - Trump says he writes and sends his own tweets. The messages will often come seconds or minutes after the topic is covered on a major news network. Melania Trump said during an April town hall with CNN's Anderson Cooper that she has repeatedly told her husband to get off Twitter, especially after midnight. "Anderson, if he would only listen," she said. "I did many times. And I just say: 'OK, do whatever you want.' He's an adult. He knows the consequences."
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PHILIPSBURG:--- Ambulance and police rushed to Gladiola Road Marys Fancy on Thursday afternoon when a construction worker fell and died on the spot. Even though police and ambulance personnel was on the scene, interim police spokesman Steven Carty said he was not aware of the incident.

Based on information SMN News received from bystanders is that some construction workers were working on a property located at Gladiola Road and one of the workers who was busy mixing cement across the street fell down and died on the spot. The dead mans body was seen covered with a white cloth in front of the home of the Secretary General of the Justice Ministry Ruben Thomson.

Details on the incident and the health conditions of the deceased could not be obtained at the time this article is published.
GREAT BAY Sint Maarten (DCOMM):--- Ministry of Public Housing, Environment, Spatial Development and Infrastructure (Ministry VROMI), announces that there will be a partial road closure on Saturday, December 10 of the C.A. Cannegieter Street.

The temporary closure will be between 8.00am to 11.00pm. The section of the street from Kentucky Fried Chicken up to Zout Steeg will be closed to motorized traffic while Zout Steeg will remain open.

The partial road closure is in connection with the 4th Annual Christmas Street Fair hosted by the Chamber of Commerce & Industry.

Ministry VROMI apologizes for any inconveniences this may cause.
PHILIPSBURG:--- Since the arrest of Checkmate Security boss who was transferred to Curacao shortly after his arrest last week the security company has lost some major companies that they provided services for as long as 20 years even though one of the managers of the company chose to say the company is doing well.

Well-placed sources have informed SMN News that Cost U Less was with Checkmate for 15 years but the contract will be terminated on January 1st, USZV have been with Checkmate for 17 years that contract will also be terminated in January, another location that will be terminating their services with Checkmate in January is the St. Maartens Home who have been with company for 14 years.

Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) worked with Checkmate Security for 19 years but they terminated their contract on December 1st and has replaced the security with First Response. ORCO bank a client of Checkmate who worked with the company for 6 years terminated their contract on November 1st 2016.

There are a number of companies that are negotiating with other security companies in order to terminate their contracts with Checkmate by January 2017.

SMN News spoke to some of the companies who said that the security company that is securing their companies should have a clean record and integrity in order to promote and protect their property.

SMN News have also learned that workers of Checkmate who worked for the company for a number of years are busy seeking employment with other security companies simply because they feel that the owner has disgraced the company and they are simply embarrassed to wear the companys uniform at this time.

SMN News will continue to follow the slow fall of Checkmate Security and will update its readers when the information becomes available.
Bless our families and our children,

and choose from our homes those who you desire for this holy work.

Heavenly Father,your divine Son taught usto pray to the Lord of the harvestto send laborers into His vineyard.We earnestly beg youto bless our Diocese and our worldwith many priests and religiouswho will love you fervently and gladlyand courageously spend their livesin service to your Son's Church,especially the poor and the needy.Teach them to respond generouslyand keep them ever faithfulin following your Son Jesus Christ,that under the guidance of the HolySpiritand with the inspiration ofSaint Damien and Blessed Mariannethe Good News of redemptionmay be brought to all.We ask this through Christ our Lord.
PHILIPSBURG: --- The four suspects that were arrested in the Pompeii investigation on November 1st has been released by the Court of Appeals on Friday. Attorney at Law Shaira Bommel confirmed to SMN News on Friday that the four suspects namely Etienne Toochie Meyers, and his employees Dulcia Florentina, Louella Rog and Ramphis Rondei were all released on Friday.

The judge of instruction had extended the pretrial detention of the four suspects to 60 days but the Meyers family filed an injunction against the decision of the judge of instruction to have the suspects released. The case was heard on Wednesday but the Court handed down its ruling on Friday. SMN News could not reach the Meyers family for a comment on Friday afternoon.

Prosecutor's Office Press Bulletin

The Joint Court of Justice has suspended the pre-trial detention of the suspects in the Pompei-investigation E.R.M. (65) and D.F. (54) based on personal grounds of the suspects. They remain suspect in the ongoing investigation and must remain available for the investigators. M. and F. appealed the decision of the Judge of Instruction not to suspend their detention. This appeal was handled by the Joint Court of Justice on Tuesday, December 6, 2016. On Friday, December 9, 2016, the Joint Court of Justice decided to render this decision.

The Prosecutors Office also requested the Joint Court of Justice to annul the decision of the Judge of Instruction to suspend the pre-trial detention of a third suspect in the Pompei-investigation, L.M.A.R. (50). The Joint Court of Justice did not grant this request. R. remains a suspect in the ongoing investigation.
Sauce Labs Acquires TestObject to Expand Real Device Mobile App Testing Platform

SAN FRANCISCO, CA  (Marketwired)  12/08/16  , provider of the worlds largest cloud-based platform for automated testing of web and mobile applications, today announced its acquisition of , a real device mobile app testing platform. The combined solution positions Sauce Labs as the only vendor providing automated testing coverage across desktops, emulators, simulators, and real devices for web applications and mobile, web, hybrid and native apps.

We were attracted to TestObject for its high speed and reliable real device testing for mobile applications, as well as the amazing engineering team behind it, said Charles Ramsey, CEO of Sauce Labs. This strategic acquisition accelerates our ability to provide the most comprehensive web and mobile testing solution in the market today. Our customers will benefit from a single platform for all their web and mobile automated testing needs.

According to Gartner, a recommended approach to testing mobile apps is to find a healthy mix of emulators, simulators and real devices to get the best out of your test automation.(1) Sauce Labs says the combination of its technology and TestObject fulfills this criteria. Sauce Labs already offers the largest, cloud based automated testing platform on the market, running more than one million tests per day and more than 800 million tests run to date across desktop, emulators, simulators, and real devices. The TestObject acquisition brings additional real device coverage (200+ device types), a private cloud solution for enterprises that require the highest level of security, and high-speed manual testing on real devices. Combine that with Sauce Labs existing Real Device Cloud for automated mobile app testing in high concurrency, and Sauce Labs cements its position as the most comprehensive web and mobile testing platform.

Were tremendously excited to join Sauce Labs during this transformational time in the software development industry, said Hannes Lenke, CEO of TestObject. Sauce Labs is the industry leader in the automated testing market with great brand awareness, thought leadership, and a global customer base. Our customers will not only benefit from our newly combined offering, but also our ability to innovate faster with additional resources and expertise. We are most pleased with the people of Sauce Labs and the great cultural match between our teams, and we are excited to help the company grow their market share in Europe.

TestObject is headquartered in Berlin, Germany and will provide a new European headquarters for Sauce Labs with Hannes Lenke serving as the General Manager for EMEA operations.

Sauce Labs provides a high-performance, cloud-based automated testing platform that is optimized for continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD) workflows. When tests are automated and run in parallel on virtual machines and/or real devices, testing time is significantly reduced and IT teams no longer need to devote time to managing testing infrastructure. Sauce currently supports more than 800 browser, operating system and device platform combinations, including mobile emulators, simulators and real devices.

Sauce Labs provides the worlds largest cloud-based platform for the automated testing of web and mobile applications. Its award-winning service eliminates the time and expense of maintaining an in-house testing infrastructure, freeing development teams of any size to innovate and release better software, faster.

Sauce Labs is a privately held company funded by Toba Capital, Salesforce Ventures, Centerview Capital Technology, IVP and Adams Street Partners. For more information, please visit .

(1) Gartner, Market Guide for Mobile App Test Automation Tools by Maritess Sobejana, and Adrian Leow. April 25, 2016

Scott Lechner

Kulesa Faul for Sauce Labs

(530) 521-3095
SCSI Trade Association Announces SAS: The Proven Storage Platform Webinar

SAN FRANCISCO, CA  (Marketwired)  12/08/16  The (STA) (), a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the understanding and use of Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) technology, today announced a new webinar titled SAS: The Proven Storage Platform.

Join STAs president Rick Kutcipal and TRENDFOCUS Vice President Don Jeanette, in a timely webcast on the advantages of using SAS as a device interface, and how its capabilities as a connectivity solution are changing the way data centers are being deployed.

Why SAS has a per-lane performance advantage over NVMe

The architectural flexibility of SAS which provides for continuous technological advancements and further storage innovation

Why and where SAS is being deployed and why some hyperscale applications will deploy PCIe over SATA

The forecasted SAS capacity shipment with discussion on multiple market segments and storage device types and growth specifics for each

How SAS devices continue to push the envelope on capacities, with endurance and lower pricing

The webinar will take place on Thursday, December 15, 2016 from 1:00 p.m.  1:45 p.m. PST.

To register for the webinar, please visit:

The SCSI Trade Association (STA) was established in 1996 to provide a focal point for members to communicate the benefits of SCSI to the industry. STA promotes the understanding and use of Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) technology and influences the evolution of SCSI standards to meet future industry needs. The Association has a nine-member Board of Directors, which oversees the Marketing Communications and Technology Committees and all STA activities. For more information, please visit the STA web site at , send an email to or call the STA office at (415) 561-6273.

TRENDFOCUS is the Data Storage Industrys most trusted provider of market intelligence covering HDDs, NAND, SSDs, and the storage supply chain. Founded in 1993, our experienced team provides global clients with the exacting analysis needed to make complex decisions in todays environment. Our competitive advantages include our methodology, our focus on developing deep relationships with clients, and our time-to-data agility.

Linda Capcara

TechTHiNQ

480-229-7090

Michael LoBue

SCSI Trade Association

415-561-6273
MEMS & Sensors Industry Group Invites OEMs to Get Personal with MEMS and Sensors at CES 2017

PITTSBURGH, PA  (Marketwired)  12/08/16  (MSIGs) conference track at CES 2017, , will help original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and embedded systems integrators to get more creative with microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and sensors in personalizing smartphones, wearables, virtual reality (VR) headsets and smart home devices.

MEMS and sensors give manufacturers and integrators the essential enabling technology to add context and cognition to electronic devices, endowing consumers with more natural and personal experiences, said Karen Lightman, executive director, MEMS & Sensors Industry Group. A wearable that makes you feel safer, a smart home hub that turns down the lights and turns up the temperature, a VR headset that doesnt make you feel nauseous, and perception systems that augment your reality  all show the personalizing power of MEMS and sensors. During our CES 2017 conference track, MSIGs speakers will share compelling advancements in MEMS and sensors, giving consumer-products makers the information they need to succeed in a fiercely competitive marketplace.

Cognitive Technologies  Machines Thinking Like People  Jeff Gehlhaar, vice president of technology, Qualcomm

Virtual Reality Head Tracking Sans Motion Sickness  Jack McCauley, founder, McCauley Labs

Real Solutions for IoT and Smart Cities  Alex Mateo, sales and operations planning & industry manager for smart cities, Libelium

Personal Health Monitoring  Dr. Steven LeBouef, CEO, Valencell

The Future Is Bright for MEMS-based Displays in Consumer Electronics  Kent Novak, senior vice president and general manager, DLP Products at Texas Instruments

Looking Good and Staying Safe with Wearables  Dr. Jerry Wilmink, CEO and founder, WiseWear

Living the Marketing Dream: Knowing Everything  Josh Knauer, CEO, Rhiza

Panel: Where are Consumer Electronics Taking the Sensors Industry?  Moderated by Jon Melnick, principal researcher, LUX Research, with panelists:

Behrooz Abdi, CEO, InvenSense

Alexis Bernard, CTO, Knowles

Stefan Finkbeiner, CEO, Bosch Sensortec

Brian Faith, CEO, Quicklogic

Benedetto Vigna, executive vice president, STMicroelectronics

Reducing Workplace Injury & Increasing Productivity  Cleopatra Cabuz, PhD, vice president of engineering, Honeywell Industrial Safety

MEMS & Sensors Industry Group will host a Member Pavilion on the show floor, featuring Flex Tech Alliance, IDT, Interlink Electronics, InvenSense and mCube.

MEMS & Sensors Industry Groups booth and the MSIG Member Pavilion are located in Booth #40736, Tech West, Sands Expo, Level 2, Halls A-D and will be open January 5-8, 2017 during CES 2017 exhibition hours.

MEMS & Sensors Industry Groups full-day conference, , will take place January 5, 2017 from 9:00 a.m.  4:00 p.m. in Venetian Level 4, Marcello 4501 in Las Vegas, NV. Register via:

MEMS & Sensors Industry Group members receive a discount. Please contact: for more information.

MEMS & Sensors Industry Group (MSIG), a  Strategic Association Partner as of January 1, 2017, advocates for near-term commercialization of MEMS/sensors-based products through a wide range of activities, such as conferences, technical working groups and education. Through its TSensors (Trillion Sensors) initiative, MSIG also increases worldwide awareness of emerging MEMS/sensors-based applications with huge commercialization potential in the next decade and beyond. For more information, visit: and follow MSIG on and (use @MEMSGroup).

MEMS & Sensors Industry Group, the MEMS & Sensors Industry Group logo and TSensors are trademarks of MEMS & Sensors Industry Group. All other product and company names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

Ellen Saksen

MEMS & Sensors Industry Group

Phone: +1 412/390-1644

Email: esaksen[at]memsindustrygroup.org

Maria Vetrano

Vetrano Communications

Phone: +1 617/876-2770

Email: maria[at]vetrano.com
Cogeco Inc. and Cogeco Communications Inc. Schedule the Release of Their Financial Results for the First Quarter of Fiscal 2017 and Related Conference Call

MONTREAL, QUEBEC  (Marketwired)  12/08/16  Cogeco Inc. and Cogeco Communications Inc. plan to release their financial results for the first quarter of fiscal 2017, ended November 30, 2016, on Wednesday, January 11, 2017, after market closing.

The companies will hold a conference call on Thursday, January 12, 2017 at 9:30 a.m. (Eastern Time) to discuss their financial and operating results. The conference call will be followed by the Annual Shareholders Meetings at 11:30 a.m. at the Centre Mont-Royal in Montreal, Quebec (2200 Mansfield Street).

A live audio webcast will be available on Cogecos web site at . The webcast will be available on Cogecos website for a three-month period. Members of the financial community will be able to access the conference call and ask questions. Media representatives may attend as listeners only.

Please use the following dial-in number to have access to the conference call 5 to 10 minutes before the start of the conference:

Canada/USA Access Number: 1-800-347-6311

International Access Number: +1-438-968-3557

Confirmation Code: 3838378

Contacts:

SOURCE:

Patrice Ouimet

Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Cogeco Inc. and Cogeco Communications Inc.

514-764-4700

INFORMATION:

Rene Guimond

Senior Vice President, Public Affairs and

Communications

Cogeco Inc. and Cogeco Communications Inc.

514-764-4700
China approves .XYZ

The Chinese government has accredited .XYZ, distributed exclusively by CentralNic, to host Chinese websites.

London UK, Thursday 8th December 2016. .XYZ, the planets most popular new generic Top Level Domain (new gTLD) has been accredited by the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). This approval, which is one of the first for new gTLDs, allows companies and people in China to use .XYZ web-addresses to host their websites.

Since its launch in 2014, .XYZ has dominated the new Top-Level Domain space. One in every four new-style web-addresses registered ends in .XYZ. The popularity of .XYZ is such that, not only do millions of small business use them, but so do Google, Mark Zuckerberg and the founders of Skype.

CentralNic Plc, .XYZs exclusive global distributor, is also the world-leader in new gTLDs. CentralNic has worked closely with .XYZ to put in place a customised technology platform. The global internet regulator ICANN and Chinas MIIT both approved this leading-edge solution. This secures .XYZs place among the first batch of non-Chinese not-COM domains approved for Chinese citizens.

Accreditation in China is one of .XYZs most significant milestones to date said Daniel Negari, CEO of .XYZ. CentralNic has been an amazing back end partner of XYZ. It went above and beyond its contractual requirements to help navigate through foreign policies and technical requirements.

More retailers (registrars) sell XYZ than any other new Top-Level Domain name. It is already a multi-million seller in China. Many Chinese citizens have obtained the .XYZ they wanted in anticipation of the MIIT accreditation.

I am delighted that our partner .XYZ has received its MIIT accreditation, said Ben Crawford, CEO at CentralNic. .XYZ has always been the dominant new TLD, and China the biggest new TLD market. Its an exciting moment that should see .XYZ grow even faster.

With over 6.5 million domain names already registered, .XYZ is leading the field in this new but high growth area of the Internet. The addition of MIIT accreditation will make .XYZ web-addresses even more accessible in China.

CentralNic worked hard to get our solution approved by ICANN and pass critical ICANN testing which is required to implement the solution we developed together Negari added. We look forward to our continued partnership with CentralNic to make .XYZ the go-to domain extension for every business and individual in China.

MIIT-accredited .XYZ web addresses will be available via Chinese domain registrars from the 16th of December 2016.
iovation Hosts Webinar: Creating a Winning Player Experience While Battling Online Fraud

PORTLAND, OR  (Marketwired)  12/08/16  , the leading provider of device intelligence for authentication and fraud prevention, today announced it will host a webinar entitled  on Dec. 13 at 7am and 10am PST. The webinar will provide online gambling operators a roadmap of how to combine device intelligence, , and predictive and adaptive to stop fraud  while attracting new players and retaining existing ones by improving the user experience. iovation Product Marketing Manager Eddie Glenn will lead the webinar.

Putting up a wall to stop the bad guys may help eliminate fraud but it can be bad for business, said Glenn. By combining different transaction analysis tools, not only can gambling sites stop fraud but they can also gain valuable insight into good customers in order to offer incentives, provide expedited service and reduce transactional friction.

The webinar will specifically address how gambling sites can:

Distinguish good, trusted players from fraudsters even if theyve never seen them before

Use emerging technology to incentivize their best and most trusted players

Minimize friction for common activities like player login in order to significantly improve the player experience

For more details and to register for the webinar, go to .

iovation protects online businesses and their end users against fraud and abuse, and identifies trustworthy customers through a combination of advanced device identification, shared device reputation, device-based authentication and real-time risk evaluation. More than 3,500 fraud managers representing global retail, financial services, insurance, social network, gaming and other companies leverage iovations database of billions of Internet devices and the relationships between them to determine the level of risk associated with online transactions. The companys device reputation database is the worlds largest, used to protect 18 million transactions and stop an average of 300,000 fraudulent activities every day. The worlds foremost fraud experts share intelligence, cybercrime tips and online fraud prevention techniques in iovations Fraud Force Community, an exclusive virtual crime-fighting network. For more information, visit .

iovation Inc.

Connie Gougler

503-943-6748
Global IT-as-a-Service Market Estimated to Grow at a CAGR of 31.0% during 2014-2019

Albany, New York, December 9, 2016: A recent forecast report has been added to the vast archive of report offerings belonging to Market Research Hub (MRH). This research study is titled as Global IT-as-a-service (ITaaS) Market 2015-2019, and has been prepared using in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. It also covers the market landscape and growth prospects in the coming years. Research analysts have forecasted the Global IT-as-a-Service Market to grow at a CAGR of 31.0 % over the period 2014-2019.

Request for Sample Report: http://www.marketresearchhub.com/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=879262

The report firstly explains the ITaaS technology market overview during 2014-2019 in the global sector. It is an IT delivery method which provides an enterprise with the required amount of hardware, software and support. In this context, IT includes all of the technologies for creating, storing, exchanging, and using business data. ITaaS is basically designed to solve the challenges with current-state architectural approach to providing IT resources in a business friendly way. Nowadays, companies have been using the ITaaS model to rise the usage of virtualization as it is not limited to cloud computing technology models such as Software as a service (SaaS), Platform as a service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a service (IaaS). There are various benefits linked with the ITaaS model such as the simplification and standardization of products and services delivered by IT, reduces cost of consumption, increases IT efficiency & improved financial transparency which further leads to an increase in business liveliness and flexibility at the same time.

Geographically, key regions covered in the report are APAC, EMEA and Americas. In addition to this, key countries focused in the report are UK and US. The report further analyzed that, increased demand for ITaaS from the public sector is one of the key trends in the market. Moreover, the financial crisis has forced many governmental organizations to think in terms of reducing IT-related expenses. Further, the report also states about the major challenges faced by the market i.e. issues related to data security. It happens because end-users across the industry verticals are concerned about the data security policies that govern the cloud-based solutions of vendors.

The report also lists key vendors operating in the market and their details along with market share analysis of the global Iaas, Saas and Paas markets. Key vendors include:

 Amazon Web Services

 Microsoft

 Cisco Systems

 IBM

 HP

 Rackspace

Browse Full Report with TOC: http://www.marketresearchhub.com/report/global-it-as-a-service-itaas-market-2015-2019-report.html

Some other prominent vendors are Akamai, AT&T, Cherwell Software, Sunguard, Cloud9, FinnacialForce.com, GoGrid, Citrix Systems, SalesForce.Com, SAP and others.




Opening of Stowell's Pharmacy in 1907





One of the earliest pharmacies to open in the tiny Village of Pelham Manor was "Stowell's Pharmacy" operated by J. S. Stowell. It was not Pelham's first pharmacy. That distinction belongs to a tiny pharmacy opened by a member of the Roosevelt family in the 1890s. That pharmacy quickly failed. Its fixtures were sold to Seth T. Lyman of the Village of North Pelham who opened his pharmacy at Fifth Avenue and First Street with those fixtures.





Before opening his Pelham Manor pharmacy, J. S. Stowell was with the Chambers Pharmacy operated by James Chambers in Bronxville. In 1907 Stowell decided to strike out on his own and open a pharmacy in the region. He settled on the Village of Pelham Manor which had about 450 residents but no pharmacy.





First Stowell had to locate the building to house his new business. He was in luck. A building at a prime location had just become available -- the old Pelham Manor Post Office.





The story of that old Pelham Manor Post Office building is interesting in and of itself. In 1897, the Village Clerk of the Village of Pelham Manor, Gervas H. Kerr, became Pelham Manor postmaster. He oversaw the post office in the Pelham Manor Depot until 1904, when it was moved out of the Depot to a nearby residence on Terrace avenue, a roadway that no longer exists due to the construction of Interstate 95 during the 1950s. The post office remained in that residence (a home later owned by F.C. Allen, Jr. of Pelham Manor) for only three years. In 1907, Postmaster Kerr oversaw construction of a new post-office building nearby, near the front entrance to the nearly-new Pelham Manor Train Station built of stone, designed by noted architect Cass Gilbert and opened in about 1907. Stowell seized on the opportunity and took over the vacant Terrace Avenue residence formerly used as the Post Office.









Detail from 1908 Map Showing Likely Location of the

Old Post Office Building That Became Stowell's Pharmacy

in Lower Right Corner on Property Owned by Mrs. Emma

J. Roosevelt. Source: Fairchild, John F., Atlas of the City

of Mount Vernon and the Town of Pelham Compiled from

Official Records, Personal Surveys, and Other Private Plans

and Surveys, Plate 35 (Mount Vernon, NY: John F. Fairchild,

1908). NOTE: Click on Image to Enlarge.





Stowell successfully opened his new business. A brief newspaper reference published before he opened Stowell's Pharmacy indicated plans for a "first class" and "attractive pharmacy" with an "up to date prescription department" as well as a classic soda fountain. According to the same reference, the soda fountain would serve not only "ice cream sodas and sundaes," but also "

a long list of popular drinks such as egg phosphate, malted milk and egg, vishy and milk, lemonade to order, etc."





It is not known with certainty how long Stowell's Pharmacy operated in Pelham Manor. It certainly operated for at least three years. References to the pharmacy in 1910 can be found in a variety of sources. In the short time that the pharmacy existed, it seems, it left one fascinating, historic, and beautiful legacy.





The Stowell's Pharmacy Real Photo Postcards





At about the time J. S. Stowell was opening his pharmacy, the golden age of American Postcards was underway. More significantly, a recent development in the creation of such postcards was generating excitement throughout the country. Stowell's Pharmacy, it seems, took advantage of this excitement.





In 1903, Kodak introduced a camera (the 3A Folding Pocket Kodak Camera) designed to use film that produced postcard-size images to allow consumers to take photographs and have them printed on postcard paper with postcard backs. The camera was such a success that Kodak introduced a new service in 1907 that it named "Real Photo Postcards." The service enabled customers to make postcards from any photograph they took regardless of the camera used.





At about the same time, Federal law changed to permit -- for the first time -- the inclusion of a message on a portion of the back of a postcard. Until that change in the law, only the address was allowed on the back of a postcard. Any message had to be included on the front of the postcard where, typically, an image of some sort appeared.





These two developments combined to create a boon in the creation and use of Real Photo Postcards (often known to collectors as RPPs or RPPCs). According to one source: "No other single format has provided such a massive photo history of America, particularly of small-town and rural America where photography was often a luxury." " Real Photo Postcard " in Wikipedia -- The Free Encyclopedia (visited Dec. 3, 2016).





A fascinating series of Real Photo Postcards created in about 1909 seems to be connected to Stowell's Pharmacy. Although only one in the series uncovered so far has a Stowell's Pharmacy designation on it, the images are remarkably similar and contain handwritten titles that appear to be in the same handwriting in each instance -- handwriting that matches that on the only example in the series uncovered so far that includes a Stowell's Pharmacy reference.





The Stowell Pharmacy postcards represent an important and fascinating group of RPP images taken at about the same time. The images reveal, if nothing else, long-gone views of Pelham that were deemed significant enough to capture as part of an entrepreneurial scheme to profit from those views through postcard sales. It now seems certain that among the many things one could purchase in Stowell's Pharmacy were these lovely postcards to collect or to mail to family and friends.





Below are the Real Photo Postcard images I have been able to identify so far that likely are part of the Stowell's Pharmacy series of such cards. Since not all are labeled as "Stowell's Pharmacy" cards, there is no definitive way to determine if they all are part of the same series. However, you may judge for yourself based on the "look" of each postcard and the handwritten titles in identical handwriting whether they seem to be part of a series of cards prepared by (or for sale at) the pharmacy. Most importantly, since some of the cards have legible postmarks that seem to compare favorably with the time we know Stowell's Pharmacy existed, it is now even easier to assign a narrow date range for all the images including those without postmarks (or without legible postmarks).









This undated postcard shows the "RES. [i.e., Residence of] MUNROE CRANE PELHAM MANOR, N.Y. 5981." The note on the left contains the following reference important for present purposes "FROM STOWELL'S PHARMACY." Pay close attention to the h andwritten titles as you will see similar handwriting o n each of the following postcards as well. (Click on image to enlarge.)









This undated postcard shows the "R.R. STATION. PELHAM MANOR, N.Y." This is the Pelham Manor Depot designed by famed architect Cass Gilbert that opened in about 1907 when Stowell opened his new pharmacy only a few steps away from where this photographer stood. The postmark is somewhat illegible, but the card clearly was postmarked in 1910 when Stowell's Pharmacy was known to be operating. This photograph was taken from one of the station platforms opposite the station. The Pelham Depot Plaza is on the other side of the station. The station obscures the view of the new Pelham Manor Post Office and Grocery that is entirely "behind" and, thus, blocked by the station in this photograph. Stowell's Pharmacy would have been located to the right in this image, somewhat behind the photographer. Note that the handwriting used for the title as well as the "look and feel" of the image is the same as before. (Click on image to enlarge.)







This undated postcard shows the "POST OFFICE PELHAM MANOR, N.Y." This is the Post Office building built by postmaster Gervas H. Kerr in 1907 almost directly adjacent to the Pelham Manor Depot. The shadow of the roof and lightning rod of the Pelham Manor Depot can be seen in the foreground of the photograph. This photograph was taken with the Pelham Manor Depot behind and to the left of the photographer. The photographer would have had to walk through the underground tunnel that connected the station area to the platform from which the photograph immediately above was taken. Stowell's Pharmacy would have been almost directly behind the photographer, a few dozen feet away. Note that the handwriting used for the titles as well as the "look and feel" of the image is the same as before. (Click on image to enlarge.)













This postcard view of the "Little Red Church" (the original Huguenot Memorial Presbyterian Church) located at Four Corners (the intersection of Boston Post Road and Pelhamdale Avenue) is titled "5819 PRESBT. CHURCH. PELHAM MANOR, N.Y." The postcard is postmarked November 3, 1911. Stowell's Pharmacy is known to have been operating in 1910 and may have been operating in 1911 as well. This image was taken from Boston Post Road facing the church which stands essentially where the sanctuary of today's Huguenot Memorial Presbyterian Church is located. Note the same handwriting for the title and the same "look and feel" of the image. (Click on image to enlarge.) Note that there is a handwritten four digit number "5819" on the postcard very similar to the four digit number in the same handwriting (5981) on the Munro Crane postcard. The purpose of the number is not known.













This is a postcard view of "ESPLANADE PELHAM MANOR, N.Y." postmarked November 2, 1909 during the time Stowell's Pharmacy was operating. This image, taken on the Esplanade (with the dividing median between the Esplanade lanes on the left), shows the rear of the horse watering fountain at the intersection of Esplanade and Boston Post Road. Note the same handwriting for the titles and the same "look and feel" of the image. This image was taken just off of Boston Post Road a few hundred feet west from where the photographer took the image of the Little Red Church included above. On the extreme right, the buildings of Mrs. Hazen's School for Girls may be seen. (Click on image to enlarge.)







This is a postcard view of "MRS. HAZEN'S SCHOOL PELHAM MANOR, N.Y." with an illegible postmark. All three "houses" of Mrs. Hazen's School for Girls that stood on the Esplanade at Boston Post Road are depicted in the photograph which was taken from across the Esplanade (both lanes visible in the foreground). Chester House is on the left. Edgewood House is in the center, slightly in the rear (it was named after the street it was closest to). Marbury House, named after Anne Marbury Hutchinson, is on the right. This image was taken just off of Boston Post Road on the opposite side of the horse drinking fountain, once again only a few hundred feet away from where the photographer took the image of the Esplanade showing the rear of the horse drinking fountain included above. (Click on image to enlarge.)













This is a postcard view of "BOSTON POST ROAD PELHAM PELHAM MANOR, N.Y." postmarked September 4, 1909 when Stowell's Pharmacy was operating. This image, taken on Boston Post Road facing its intersection with Esplanade, shows the horse watering fountain in the distance on the left. Once again the same handwriting is used in the title and the photograph has the same "look and feel" of the other images. This image was taken from Boston Post Road a few hundred feet west from where the photographer took the images of the rear of the horse watering fountain and the buildings of Mrs. Hazen's School for Girls included above. (Click on image to enlarge.)













This is a postcard view of "'RES. [i.e., Residence of] MONT D. ROGERS PELHAM MANOR, N.Y." postmarked June 7, 1910 when

Stowell's Pharmacy is known to have been operating. This residence (which no longer exists) was located near the intersection of Wolfs Lane and Secor. Thus, the photograph

was taken only a few hundred feet away from the photograph of Boston Post Road immediately above.

The

same handwriting is used in the titles and the photograph has the same "look and feel" of the other images. (Click on image to enlarge.)









This is an undated postcard view of "WOLFS LANE. PELHAM MANOR, N.Y." This image was taken on Wolfs Lane (likely somewhat near Boston Post Road but further along Wolfs Lane than Secor). Admittedly, though, it has not yet been placed geographically with certainty. It seems likely, however, that it was taken only a few hundred to a few thousand feet away from the photograph of the residence of Mont D. Rogers immediately above. Note the same handwriting and the same "look and feel" once again. (Click on image to enlarge.)









This is a postcard view of "'THE RESERVOIR.' NO. PELHAM, N.Y." postmarked January 8, 1911.

Stowell's Pharmacy is known to have been operating in 1910 and may have been operating in 1911 as well.

This image seems to have been taken from the New Haven Line railroad embankment looking down over the reservoir showing the facilities of the New York Inter-Urban Water Company that provided drinking water from the reservoir to Pelham at the time. Once again the same handwriting is used in the titles and the photograph has the same "look and feel" of the other images. (Click on image to enlarge.) For more on the history of the Pelham Reservoir, see:









This is an undated postcard view of "R.R. STATION. PELHAM, N.Y." This image was taken from near the western end of the Connecticut-bound platform of the New Haven Line Pelham Station. Note the same handwriting and the same "look and feel" once again. (Click on image to enlarge.)









This is an undated postcard of "L. EPPLE NORTH PELHAM, N.Y." It shows the home, florist business, and greenhouses of Louis Charles Epple once located at Seventh Street near Fifth Avenue. The photographer was standing on 7th Street near its intersection with Sixth Avenue facing toward Fifth Avenue.

As with the earlier postcards in the series, the same handwriting is used in the title and the photograph has the same "look and feel" of the other images. (Click on image to enlarge.) To read more about this postcard and Louis Charles Epple, see:









This is an undated postcard view of the "CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH. NO. PELHAM, N.Y." It shows the tiny clapboard chapel of the Church of the Covenant, Congregational that was known as the "Congregational Church" in the Village of North Pelham. It was located on Second Avenue between Third and Fourth Streets. The photographer was located on Second Avenue in front of the chapel. Again,

the same handwriting is used in the title and the photograph has the same "look and feel" of the other images. (Click on image to enlarge.) To learn more about this postcard and the Congregational Church, see:





Conclusion





These thirteen postcards seem to be part of a series of related postcards with a possible connection to Stowell's Pharmacy in Pelham Manor. It seems almost positive that there are other examples out there of similar postcards in the same series that have the same handwriting and the same "look and feel" as these thirteen examples. Although it is impossible to know with certainty, it seems most likely that the photographs used in these postcards were taken in 1909 given the historical context of all these images and given that the earliest postmark on any of them (at least as known for now) is September 4, 1909.





Most likely the photographs were taken on different dates. However, the shadows and greenery suggest that the images were taken on a spring day (or on spring days) with the sun nearly directly overhead in most images.





It is easy to imagine, at times, how the photographer may have walked along a particular route to snap some of the photographs. For example, it may have been the case that on one occasion the photographer took a photograph of the Pelham Manor Depot, then wandered in the tunnel beneath the tracks and emerged to photograph the Pelham Manor Post Office adjacent to the Depot. The photographer, we imagine, then walked a few thousand feet up Pelhamdale Avenue to Four Corners.





At Four Corners, the photographer took a photograph of the Little Red Church and turned west on Boston Post Road, stepping briefly onto the Esplanade to take a picture of that roadway (showing the rear of the horse watering fountain). Next the photographer remained on the Esplanade, but crossed Boston Post Road to photograph Mrs. Hazen's School for Girls on Boston Post Road at the Esplanade on the side of Boston Post Road opposite the horse drinking fountain.





The photographer next took the few steps back onto Boston Post Road and walked a few hundred feet west. Standing in the middle of Boston Post Road, the photographer turned around toward the Esplanade and took a photograph of Boston Post Road (with a dog seated in the roadway and the horse watering trough in the distance). The photographer next turned onto Wolfs Lane and walked a few hundred feet to the intersection of Wolfs Lane and Secor and photographed the monumental mansion of Mont D. Rogers (one of a number of nearby monumental mansions).





Next, the photographer walked a few hundred to a few thousand feet further on Wolfs Lane and took a picture showing a few homes on Wolfs Lane. Then the photographer continued on Wolfs Lane to the Pelham Station on the New Haven Line and took a picture there. Thereafter the photographer would have taken a brief detour along the railroad right-of-way to take a photograph of the nearby Pelham Reservoir. (And so on, and so on.)





These photographs are rare images of a Pelham that no longer exists: Pelham in 1909. They are beautiful. There are so many clues in each that have yet to be explored.





* * * * *





Below is the text of a number of items that shed some light on Stowell's Pharmacy. Each is followed by a citation and link to its source.





"-- J. S. Stowell, recently of the Chambers Pharmacy, is going into business for himself in Pelham Manor. That happens to be the one prosperous village in the heart of things that has no drug store. It likewise has a new post office building which leaves the old one vacant. Mr. Stowell has taken this building and will put it in first class shape for an attractive pharmacy, with an up to date prescription department and a soda fountain where a long list of popular drinks such as egg phosphate, malted milk and egg, vishy and milk, lemonade to order, etc. will be on tap for the automobilist in addition to the ice cream sodas and sundaes for home consumption. E. S. Sawyer of New York has taken Mr. Stowell's place at Chambers'."









"PELHAM MANOR, Westchester Co. . . . . [Population 638] Stowell's Pharmacy"













Fascinating Advertisement that Included Local Businesses

Including Stowell's Pharmacy in Pelham Manor that Sold

"ELECTRIC DEATH," A "1000 Volts Strong" Way to Destroy

Cockroaches, Bedbugs, Waterbugs, Ants and Fleas. And, it was

"Warranted to do the Work." Source: ELECTRIC DEATH

3-4. NOTE: Click on Image to Enlarge.

Labels: 1907, 1908, 1909, 1910, Boston Post Road, Esplanade, Horse Drinking Fountain, J. S. Stowell, Little Red Church, Munro Crane, Pelham Manor Depot, Pharmacy, Post Card, Stowell's Pharmacy, Terrace Avenue
Recently, I received a dairy product promotion email. The title was How do nut milks compare to cows milk?

First of all, stop calling it nut milk! It is nut juice or beverage or drink. Juice, beverage, or drink . . . Not milk! I replied to the email sender with my concern about their choice of words, but I am but one person.

When we, as dairy producers and promoters of dairy milk, use the terminology of our competitors, we are embracing their product as one of ours.

Earlier this spring, I was at a graduation party. I was speaking with a professional from the Chicago area. He did not have an agricultural background, but his spouse was from a farm and his brother-in-law was a dairy farmer (at whose house the party was held). He mentioned that he puts soy milk on his cereal. I was quick to clarify that it is not milk. I was not irritated that he chose to purchase that product, that is his food choice, but at least get the name correct.

Our conversation continued and he was very aware that I took this matter very seriously. The next time he has a conversation with anyone about his food options, I know he will think about his word choices and how passionate I was in clarifying the products attributes that has provided my family and me our livelihood for generations.

The same liberal use of the word milk recently appeared in a local paper  one that is typically an agriculture-friendly news source. It was an article that the editors picked up off the Associated Press news wire. The article was talking about how dairy milks competitors were taking market share. We cannot deny those trends, but calling them milks irritates me more than the trend itself.

Promoting dairy milks nutrition value is easy. The nine essential nutrients, as determined by the USDA, that are in milk include calcium, potassium, phosphorus, protein, vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin B12, riboflavin, and niacin.

While milks nutritional profile is readily available, the same isnt true for its beverage competitors. Ten pages of Google search results could not produce even one dairy-based web link comparing them. And searching milk alternatives on our national dairy promotion website, produced no results either.

Back to the word milk.

I often chuckle when I hear pet owners call themselves pet parents or call their animals fur babies. As animal caretakers, they are responsible for its food, shelter, and health. But, as a parent to a human child, the depth and breadth of the word parent is far more involved than being a parent to a house cat or dog.

And in the same understanding, the work milk is far more than being just a white liquid.

The author is the online media manager and is responsible for the website, webinars, and social media. A graduate of Modesto Junior College and Fresno State, she was raised on a California dairy and frequently blogs on youth programs and consumer issues.
Free family fun was on the agenda Tuesday night in Clinton Township, as the popular Sledding Hill was the place to be on a splendid fall evening.
A guide to voter rights in Indiana. What you need to know before you cast a ballot

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Godspeed, John Glenn

NASA

Editor's note: John Glenn, a legendary NASA astronaut and American hero, died on Dec. 8, 2016 at age 95. Read our full obituary here.

John Glenn Enters Friendship 7

NASA

On Feb. 20, 1962, John Glenn rode the Friendship 7 capsule into space, the first time an American orbited the Earth. In this image, Glenn enters the capsule with assistance from technicians.

Glenn Suits-Up for Launch

NASA

Astronaut John H. Glenn Jr. dons his silver Mercury pressure suit in preparation for launch. On February 20, 1962 Glenn lifted off into space aboard his Mercury Atlas (MA-6) rocket and became the first American to orbit the Earth. After orbiting the Earth 3 times, Friendship 7 landed in the Atlantic Ocean 4 hours, 55 minutes and 23 seconds later, just East of Grand Turk Island in the Bahamas. Glenn and his capsule were recovered by the Navy Destroyer Noa, 21 minutes after splashdown.

Launch of Friendship 7

NASA

This image shows the launch of Friendship 7, the first American manned orbital space flight. With astronaut John Glenn aboard, the Mercury-Atlas rocket is launched from Pad 14, February 20, 1962.

50 Years After Original 7: New Astronauts Don't Need The Right Stuff

NASA.

Project Mercury Astronauts, whose selection was announced on April 9, 1959. They are: front row, left to right, Walter H. Schirra, Jr., Donald K. Slayton, John H. Glenn, Jr., and Scott Carpenter; back row, Alan B. Shepard, Jr., Virgil I. Gus Grissom, and L. Gordon Cooper.

Have a Good Trip

NASA

Fellow Mercury astronaut Gus Grissom (in suit) wishes Shepard good luck as he gets set to climb into his Mercury capsule, dubbed Freedom 7, on the morning of May 5, 1961. Glenn looks on in the background.

The Original Seven

NASA

Bearded, with makeshift clothing, the seven original Mercury astronauts participated in U.S. Air Force survival training at Stead Air Force Base in Nevada. Pictured in this 1960 photograph are (l to r): L. Gordon Cooper, M. Scott Carpenter, John Glenn, Alan Shepard, Virgil I. Grissom, Walter Schirra and Donald K. Slayton.

Looking Back on Friendship 7

John Glenn on Feb. 20, 2002 -- the 40th anniversary of his Project Mercury flight aboard Friendship 7.

AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta

Former astronaut and retired Ohio Sen. John Glenn testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington before the House Science and Technology Committee hearing on NASA's past accomplishments, and future opportunities and challenges, marking 50th anniversary of NASA.

John Glenn, Oldest Astronaut

NASA

The seven crew members in training for the STS-95 mission aboard Discovery pose for photographers prior to participating in a training session at NASA's Johnson Space Center. Pictured, from the left, are Pedro Duque, Curtis Brown, Chiaki Nauto-Mukai, then-U.S. Sen. John H. Glenn Jr. (D.-Ohio), Stephen Robinson, Steven Lindsey and Scott Parazynski.

In the White Room with John Glenn

NASA

In the launch pad's White Room, STS-95 Payload Specialist John H. Glenn Jr., U.S. Senator from Ohio, has his flight suit checked by closeout crew members before climbing into space shuttle Discovery for his second flight into space, which came 36 years after his Mercury launch. Glenn was the first American to orbit the Earth. The image was taken Oct. 29, 1998.
Illustration of an Orion spacecraft in the vicinity of the moon. Orion will go around the moon, but not orbit it, during its first crewed mission.

WASHINGTON  The first crewed flight of NASA's Orion spacecraft may fly a shorter mission than previously considered, with only a loop around the moon rather than an extended stay there.

In a presentation to a Nov. 30 meeting of the NASA Advisory Council in Palmdale, California, Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA associate administrator for human exploration and operations, discussed what he described as a new proposal for Exploration Mission 2 (EM-2) that would last eight days.

The concept, called the multi-translunar injection free minimum mission, would initially place the the Orion spacecraft and its Exploration Upper Stage (EUS) into an elliptical orbit around the Earth with an apogee of 35,000 kilometers. After spending one day in that orbit, the spacecraft would separate from the EUS and use its service module engine for a final burn to send the spacecraft towards the moon. [Orion Explained: NASA's Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (Infographic)]

Orion would fly on a "free return" trajectory around the moon without going into orbit and without requiring another engine burn. The mission would end with a return to Earth eight days after launch, but with an option to extend the mission to up to 21 days.

This approach differs from earlier concepts for EM-2. A design reference mission for EM-2 presented by NASA at an American Astronautical Society conference in February discussed a concept for a mission lasting 9 to 13 days. The Orion would spend three to six days going out to the moon, entering a high lunar orbit for three days before a trip back of three to six days.

The new mission plan, Gerstenmaier said, is based on a better understanding of the risks associated with the flight. "We've effectively designed this mission to be commensurate with the amount of risk we're taking with crew on the vehicle for the first time," he said. "We've tailored the mission to be appropriate with the risk we're willing to take."

Proposed flight plan for EM-2, taking Orion around the moon and back to Earth eight days after launch. (Image credit: NASA)

One specific issue with EM-2 he mentioned is the spacecraft's life support system. "This is the first time this life support system will be used," he said. Testing it in Earth orbit first, he said, reduces the risks of problems if it malfunctions. "If something goes wrong with the life support system, we have a graceful way to abort."

The use of a free return trajectory also minimizes risk, as it takes Orion around the moon and back to Earth without the need to perform an engine burn in the vicinity of the moon. "That's why we consciously did a free return," Gerstenmaier said.

That approach appeared to have support from members of the committee. "In our minds, we were thinking we might go to lunar distant retrograde orbit on this mission. There was some thought we might just go immediately from low Earth orbit all the way to the moon and stay there for a while in orbit," said former astronaut Ken Bowersox, interim chair of the NASA Advisory Council, of EM-2.

Bowersox said he saw benefits of the revised approach, noting it offered "more vigorous" test of the vehicle and upper stage with safety for the crew. "Anywhere after you've established an orbit, if you have an EUS failure, the service module should be able to do the burn to get you home."

The new approach for EM-2 does not affect plans for the initial SLS/Orion mission, EM-1, scheduled for launch without a crew in late 2018. Gerstenmaier said that mission will go into a distant retrograde orbit around the moon and stay there for several days before returning. That mission is currently planned to last 25 or 26 days.

"The idea is to really stress the heck out of this Orion capsule and the service module," Gerstenmaier said of the EM-1 mission plan. "We want to really wring out this vehicle without a crew on board."

A successful EM-2 mission, he added, would allow for more ambitious crewed missions in cislunar space on subsequent flight. A chart he showed at the meeting listed plans for missions EM-3 through EM-10, flying at a rate of one a year from 2023 to 2030. EM-6, in 2026, was earmarked for a crewed mission to the boulder returned to cislunar space as part of the Asteroid Redirect Mission. The others were listed as "Proving Ground" missions, which will likely involve a series of missions of increasing duration to a habitat in cislunar space.

Gerstenmaier said he would like to move up EM-3 to 2022, assuming EM-2 launches in 2021, but can't fit that into projected budgets. "We're working to understand our production and operations costs to see if we can get that down to move that to 2022," he said.

As part of that effort, NASA issued a request for information (RFI) Nov. 17 regarding the "long term efficiency and sustainability" of NASA's exploration programs, including SLS and Orion as well as associated ground systems. "Given NASA's assumption of flat funding levels," the document states, minimizing costs for those systems "is critical to free resources for re-investment" in other exploration capabilities.

The release of the RFI attracted some industry attention because it appeared to suggest NASA would be open to replacing SLS or Orion with alternatives. "Competing exploration services in the mid-2020s timeframe and beyond if the market demonstrates such services are available, reliable, and consistent with NASA architectural needs" was one suggested idea included in the document.

However, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said at the council meeting that was not the intent of the document. "This RFI turned out to be somewhat controversial because I don't think people understood it fully," he said.

He compared it to the mid-1990s creation of United Space Alliance, the Boeing-Lockheed Martin joint venture that took over space shuttle operations in an effort to reduce costs. "That's kind of the same system that we're looking at, if it's feasible, for SLS and Orion and the ground systems," Bolden said. "We're always looking for efficiencies, and that was the purpose of the RFI."

This story was provided by SpaceNews, dedicated to covering all aspects of the space industry.
For several decades now (opens in new tab), scientists from around the world have been pursuing a ridiculously ambitious goal: They hope to develop a nuclear fusion reactor that would generate energy in the same manner as the sun and other stars, but down here on Earth.

Incorporated into terrestrial power plants, this "star in a jar" technology would essentially provide Earth with limitless clean energy, forever. And according to new reports out of Europe this week, we just took another big step toward making it happen.

In a study published in the latest edition of the journal Nature Communications (opens in new tab), researchers confirmed that Germany's Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) fusion energy device is on track and working as planned. The space-age system, known as a stellerator, generated its first batch of hydrogen plasma when it was first fired up earlier this year. The new tests basically give scientists the green light to proceed to the next stage of the process.

It works like this: Unlike a traditional fission reactor, which splits atoms of heavy elements to generate energy, a fusion reactor works by fusing the nuclei of lighter atoms into heavier atoms. The process releases massive amounts of energy and produces no radioactive waste. The "fuel" used in a fusion reactor is simple hydrogen, which can be extracted from water.

RELATED: How Nuclear Fusion Holds Our Solar System Together

However, to achieve fusion, scientists must generate enormously high temperatures to heat the hydrogen into a plasma state. The plasma is so hot, in fact, that it would instantly burn material used to contain it. That's where the stellerator design comes in. The W7-X device confines the plasma within magnetic fields generated by superconducting coils cooled down to near absolute zero. The plasma  at temperatures upwards of 80 million degrees Celsius  never comes into contact with the walls of the containment chamber. Neat trick, that.

The W7-X is the world's largest and most sophisticated stellerator and is currently operated by Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Germany. But development of the W7-X has been an ongoing, international effort. The latest tests were conducted in collaboration with scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL).

David Gates, principal research physicist for the advanced projects division of PPPL, leads the agency's collaborative efforts in regard to the W7-X project. In an email exchange from his offices at Princeton, Gates said the latest tests verify that the W7-X magnetic "cage" is working as planned.

"This lays the groundwork for the exciting high-performance plasma operations expected in the near future," Gates said.

RELATED: Nuclear Waste and Diamonds Make Batteries That Last 5,000 Years

In terms of the big-picture goal, Gates said that nuclear fusion reactors, if properly developed and deployed, would provide the planet with safe, clean and virtually inexhaustible energy.

"The fuel source is found in seawater in quantities sufficient to last tens of thousands of years," he said. "The waste product is helium, an inert gas. A viable fusion reactor would provide a secure, plentiful and environmentally benign energy resource to all nations."

That last part is critical. Gates said he's encouraged by fact that the W7-X project, and nuclear fusion research in general, is the result of close collaboration among scientists from around the world.

'Fusion is a problem best solved by the peoples of all nations working together, since the entire world will benefit from it."

Originally published on Seeker.
Ellen Stofan, current NASA chief scientist, said sending humans to Mars would be a powerful step in the search for life beyond Earth.

"I am someone who believes it is going to take humans on the surface [of Mars]  to really get at the question of not just did life evolve on Mars, but what is the nature of that life," Stofan said at a scientific workshop in Irvine, California, hosted by the National Academy of Sciences. "To me, we're going to go Mars because Mars holds the answers to such fundamental scientific questions that we're trying to ask."

The workshop, titled "Searching for Life Across Space and Time," drew together leading scientists who are, through various avenues, working to find signs of alien life in Earth's solar system and beyond. Stofan has argued before for the scientific benefits of a human mission to the Red Planet. [A Manned Mission to Mars: How NASA Could Do It]

Stofan said she believes strongly in sending humans to Mars to search for signs of life because humans can perform tasks that would be difficult for a rover. Humans can operate drills that could go deeper than the few inches plumbed by the Curiosity rover, or even beyond a depth of 6.5 feet (2 meters), which is the expected limit for the ExoMars rover, a joint mission between the European Space Agency and Russia's Roscosmos. Humans could potentially explore more locations than a rover could and perform deeper scientific analysis than what is possible using a remote, robotic scientific laboratory, she said.

"We now know water was stable for long periods of time on the surface [of Mars], and Mars' potential for habitability, I think, is huge," Stofan said. "I do believe that we need  brave people to spend time on Mars, to have a scientific laboratory on Mars, to do the work that we need to do to truly understand what life on Mars tells us about life beyond Earth."

NASA Chief Scientist Ellen Stofan argued for the scientific merits of a human mission to Mars, speaking at a workshop hosted by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) titled "Searching for Life Across Space and Time." (Image credit: NAS)

Multiple sessions at the meeting focused on the search for signs of ancient life or even present-day life on Mars. Today, the surface of the Red Planet appears to be inhospitable to the kind of life that exists on Earth, mainly because liquid water exists only in very small amounts, and is extremely salty. Other factors would also make life hard on the Red Planet, including high doses of space radiation (because Mars lacks the protective atmosphere and magnetic field that Earth has),and wildly oscillating surface temperatures: During the Martian summer months, the surface of the planet might be 70 degrees Fahrenheit (21 degrees Celsius) during the day, but plummet to minus 100 F (minus 73 C) at night.

There are examples of extreme life-forms on Earth that can survive in some of those conditions, including frigid temperatures and exposure to high doses of radiation. However, liquid water is a necessity for all known Earth-based life-forms. But based on the discovery of brines on the surface of Mars, some people think it's possible that life exists on the Red Planet today. With that in mind, some people are concerned that sending rovers and humans to Mars could risk contaminating the planet with Earth-based microbes.

Right now, NASA has plans that could allow scientists to bring rock samples back to Earth from Mars, Stofan said. An in-depth analysis of a Martian rock might help the scientific community make a more informed decision about whether life likely exists on Mars today, and thus what steps would be needed to prevent biological contamination from a human visit to the Red Planet, Stofan said.

"I think these are questions that should be in the hands of the science community via the [NAS]," she said.

Stofan briefly addressed concerns about whether NASA could actually pull off its plan to send humans into orbit around Mars by the early 2030s and onto the planet's surface by the late 2030s, saying that she is an "incredible optimist on this."

The scientist added that she has also heard people say that there is "no real reason" to send humans to the surface of Mars (as opposed to robotic missions), and she called on members of the science community to "speak up" if they disagree.

The scientific interest in Mars extends beyond NASA. The European, Indian and Chinese space agencies are all sending probes or rovers to Mars. Private companies (primarily Elon Musk's SpaceX) are also working on plans related to Mars. Someone in the audience asked Stofan if she thought the global scientific community is engaged in a sort of "soft space race" to Mars.

"I really don't see it as a soft race. I see it as this amazing confluence of interests," Stofan said. "I think Mars has incredible public appeal. .... It engages the public in a way that very few other things do, which is great.

"I think this is a great opportunity to sort of explore Mars with humans in a very different way than we went to the moon with humans, where it really was a race. [Mars], I think, is going to be motivated by cooperation and collaboration. That's how we're going to move forward, rather than competition."

Editor's Note: This article previously stated that the Mars 2020 rover will be able to drill to a depth of 6.5 feet (2 meters); it is the ExoMars rover that will drill to that depth.

Follow Calla Cofield @callacofield. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
Vice president-elect Mike Pence speaks to supporters at Republican president-elect Donald Trump's election night event at the New York Hilton Midtown in the early morning hours of November 9, 2016 in New York City.

WASHINGTON  The space policy adviser during the campaign of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said Dec. 7 that he foresees Vice President-elect Mike Pence being involved in shaping the space policy of the next administration.

Robert Walker, former chairman of the House Science Committee, used a speech at the 11th Annual Eilene M. Galloway Symposium on Critical Issues in Space Law here to discuss the space policy he developed for the Trump campaign and to emphasize some issues, like the future of Earth science research, that have been sharply criticized by scientists and others.

One element of that policy is to re-establish the National Space Council, which last operated in the administration of President George H. W. Bush. Traditionally, that council has been chaired by the vice president, and Walker said in an interview after his speech that Pence was interested in chairing a revived council. [Related: What a Trump Administration Means for NASA]

"He is excited about doing the space council," Walker said of Pence. "He has expressed absolute excitement about that particular role. I think that will be a place where he will find time for it."

Walker added that having Pence taking an active role in the council will ensure that all government stakeholders, including the military, participate in the council, something Walker said was a problem the last time the council was active. "The vice president being there will basically assure that the military takes part," he said.

Walker, in his speech, praised Pence in general, including for taking over leadership of the transition in the days after the Nov. 8 election. "That's a signal for exactly what the character of this administration is going to be," he said. Walker said he expected Pence to serve as a "prime minister" handling the day-to-day operations of the government, with Trump being a "world and national figure."

The revived National Space Council, Walker said, would emphasize coordination of space-related activities across the government. "It's clear that the government missions in space have become bifurcated, that there is too much overlap, there is too much spending in areas where we could, in fact, use common assets."

One example of that overlap he cited was in the development of heavy-lift launch vehicles. "You have NASA building heavy-lift capacity, you have the Air Force building heavy-lift capacity, and you have at least two commercial companies building heavy-lift capacity," he said, referring to the Space Launch System, Air Force efforts to support development of launch systems, and work by Blue Origin and SpaceX on their own vehicles.

"Somebody should be looking at that and deciding whether or not all those various technologies are needed," he said of those efforts. "Commercial can do whatever they want in this regard, but the fact is we ought to know whether or not we'd be better off buying services from them our building our own systems. That's a role the National Space Council could play."

Walker reviewed other elements of the space policy the campaign released in the weeks before the general election, including a call to move Earth sciences research from NASA to other agencies. "Operation of the Earth-centric government missions will be turned over to more appropriate agencies under our plan," he said. "NASA is to focus on deep space, both in terms of its science and its exploration. The idea here is that NASA will turn its full attention back to its early goals of being an agency of exploration and learning about space writ large."

That particular aspect of the proposed policy has been widely criticized by many scientists and other space advocates, concerned that the incoming administration seeks to end research particularly in controversial areas like climate change. Walker, asked about that issue, said that was not the intent of the policy.

"We're not talking about ending the programs. We're talking about transferring the programs, lock, stock and barrel, to another agency," he said. "I've seen some misinterpretation saying that we were looking at ending the whole business of climate science. That wasn't the concept at all. The concept here is to put it in places like NSF, NOAA and places that have vast expertise in those areas."

Walker did not discuss the details of how such a transfer, including that of personnel and facilities, would be carried out. Other government agencies, even those that operate their own Earth science satellites today, often rely on NASA for its expertise and other resources to develop and launch those spacecraft.

Walker, who said he is advising the transition team but not formally serving on it, said elements of that policy could change. "This is not exactly where the team will go," he said of the policy, which Walker quickly developed in early October at the request of the Trump campaign. "There are a lot of things that are happening, and of course, ultimately, personnel make policy."

Walker also said he had no interest in being among those personnel making policy. Asked if he was interested in the position of NASA administrator, Walker quickly replied, "I am not. I am interested in finding a good person who can do all of these things that I just talked about, but it isn't going to be me."

This story was provided by SpaceNews, dedicated to covering all aspects of the space industry.
John Glenn really wanted to be the first man in space. And from the moment he was selected as one of the Mercury astronauts, he worked diligently to stand out among his peers in the eyes of NASA's top decision makers. But in the end, it was pure luck that Glenn ended up being the first American to orbit the Earth on Feb. 20, 1962.

Glenn was the quintessential 1950s astronaut. He was a decorated Marine veteran of the Second World War and the Korean War. He was a celebrated pilot; on July 16, 1957, he broke the trans-America speed record in a Vought F8U Crusader jet aircraft when he flew from from Los Alamitos Naval Air Station in California to Floyd Bennett Field in New York in 3 hours 23 minutes 8.4 seconds, averaging 725.55 miles per hour.

He was charming, something the nation saw first hand when he appeared on Name That Tune" alongside child star Eddie Hodges the same night the Soviet Union launched Sputnik. He was a Presbyterian. He was a family man, married to his childhood sweetheart Annie. And above all he was fiercely patriotic.

RELATED: John Glenn, American Hero and NASA Astronaut, Has Died

The media loved Glenn, and Glenn could only hope the NASA brass would feel the same way. Publicly and privately, he embodied what he thought the agency would want to put forward as its first astronaut.

He might have gone too far. In the course of their training, Glenn isolated himself from his fellow astronauts. He put work first, studied diligently and exercised daily to keep his weight under the 180 pound cutoff. He assumed the role of the group's spokesman and representative, often leaning on his media contacts to cover the other astronauts' indiscretions.

Glenn undergoes a simulated orbital flightas part of his training for NASA's Project Mercury (Image credit: NASA)

But it was all for naught. On Jan. 19, 1961, the director of NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center Robert Gilruth called the seven Mercury astronauts into his office. He asked each man to write on a slip of paper the name of the man other than himself he'd like to see make the first flight. After all his good behavior and diligent hard work, the first flight was coming down to a peer vote. A popularity contest was the one kind Glenn couldn't win in that group.

PHOTOS: Apollo 18: Myths of the Moon Missions

Gilruth collected the astronauts' votes, and without saying how much their votes matter he announced that Alan Shepard would be first to fly. Gus Grissom would fly second. Glenn would be third. For privacy's sake, NASA told the media that all three astronauts were in the running for the first flight. The plan was to keep the secret until the morning Shepard walked out to the launch pad.

Glenn was furious, and he wouldn't let it lie. The next day he wrote a letter to Gilruth urging him to reconsider the flight lineup. His performance in training and classroom sessions ought to weigh heavier than his popularity, he argued. Glenn went so far as to appealed directly to NASA administrator Jim Webb, urging him to overrule Gilruth's decision. Webb outright rejected Glenn's plea. The letter to Gilruth went unacknowledged. Glenn watched as Shepard became the first American in space in space on May 5, 1961. He watched as Grissom followed suit on July 21. Then Glenn's luck changed.

Guenter Wendt, the original pad leader for NASA's manned space program, coaxes a smile out of astronaut John Glenn after a launch scrub the month before his historic orbital flight in February 1962 (Image credit: NASA)

The first two Mercury flights were short suborbital hops, and the plan had been for all seven astronauts to make the same mission before the first orbital flight. But with pressure mounting to keep pace with the Soviets and match Yuri Gagarin's orbital flight, NASA decided on Aug. 18 that it had gathered all the experience it could from suborbital missions. The next flight would go into orbit.

Suddenly, Glenn, the third American in line for a ride into space, had the first orbital mission dropped right in his lap.

Editor's note: On Dec. 8, 2016, John Glenn died at the age of 95 in his home state of Ohio. This article was originally published in 2013.

Originally published on Seeker.
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From Sullen Minority to Angry Majority

Kaczynski has skillfully leveraged such cliches to assemble a heterogeneous movement of outrage. But what really motivates Kaczynski and his PiS supporters? Why is Poland, a country that has benefited from globalization and EU membership to a greater degree than most, listening.

The economy has grown by almost 27 percent in the last nine years, partly as a result of the estimated 60 billion ($64 billion) Poland has received in structural aid from Brussels since it joined the EU in 2004. But many people in the country have not benefited from those blessings, and today almost one in eight Poles of working age still earns only about 1300 zloty a month, or roughly 290. Over the years, a sullen minority has turned into an angry majority.

Yet the success of the PiS is actually a middle-class phenomenon, say election researchers and sociologists. They note that the PiS can count on the votes of the disadvantaged, such as those from impoverished industrial regions. But these people were ultimately not the key to the PiS majority. The middle class helped put Kaczynski in power - people like white-collar workers, store owners and craftsmen, especially those living far from major cities.

To understand the PiS phenomenon, it is worth taking a trip to provincial Poland, to a small city called Nowy Scz, where the PiS achieved its largest urban result in the 2015 election, receiving 60.5 percent of votes cast.

Nowy Sacz, with a population of 82,000, is part of a self-sufficient world, a model for the new Poland of Jaroslaw Kaczynski. The city's median strips are mowed and the facades of prewar buildings in the pedestrian zone are freshly painted.

It isn't difficult for Nowy Sacz to appear well-tended and charming, because it's an affluent city. There are probably more millionaires per capita here than anywhere else in the country. There are many rags-to-riches accounts of millionaires who started out in their garages and now run large companies. One of them is Ryszard Florek, who founded Europe's largest window manufacturer. And there are Marian and Jozef Koral, whose company makes ice cream. Unemployment is at 6 percent in Nowy Sacz, economic growth is robust and Patryk Wicher couldn't be happier.

More Polish

Wicher teaches marketing at the university in Nowy Sacz, is a member of the city council and has been a PiS supporter right from the start. As he takes us on a tour of the neo-Baroque city hall, he says that he is very satisfied with the new direction in Warsaw.

Wicher agrees with the PiS that the EU should stay out of Polish politics. He says that Brussels should relinquish rights and that national competencies should be expanded. Poland does not want to become more European -- in fact, he says, Europe should become more Polish.

Kaczynski's administration is also unwilling to honor a commitment by the previous government to accept at least a few thousand refugees. And Wicher agrees with that, too. Migrants should be helped, says Wicher, just not in Poland. "The objective of aid should be to stabilize their countries of origin. Refugees should be housed in transit centers in countries that are linguistically and culturally similar to their own."

He goes on to provide further insight into his worldview, his belief, for instance, that the EU should not stick its nose into everything. Repeating a PiS campaign slogan, he adds that Poles should stop crawling around on their knees in front of others.

Nowy Sacz is a model of the small, manageable world many Poles yearn for: Polish nationalist and safe from the impositions of globalization, but otherwise Western and deeply subsidized by the EU.

PiS promised its voters something of a sociopolitical filter, saying that it wants to preserve Poland as an intact and uncomplicated Eden. At the same time, however, Poles should be able to travel abroad, and the country should, of course, continue to receive subsidies. Kaczynski promised all of that.

Wicher joined the PiS because he admired its founders, twin brothers Lech and Jaroslaw Kaczynski. The Kaczynskis were involved in the Solidarnosc movement, but only on the fringes. They were too radical with their repeated and angry demands for a harsh reckoning with the communists.

A Russian Conspiracy

The fight against the old communist insiders remained their primary thrust, but they were motivated by personal affronts as well. From the very beginning, the Kaczynskis portrayed themselves as the downtrodden, and as fighters for the rights of devout, ordinary citizens. They also attacked the intellectuals in big cities, who they accused of sacrificing Poland's values to please the West.

Wicher now takes us into the town hall's plenary chamber, where a bust of Lech Kaczynski stands at the front of the room. Many Poles practically worship Jaroslaw's deceased twin brother as a saint. In 2010, the then president died in a plane crash in Smolensk as he was traveling to a commemorative event near Katyn, where Stalin's secret police shot and killed some 22,000 Poles in 1940.

Two investigative panels concluded that Kaczynski's presidential plane brushed against treetops as it approached Smolensk in foggy weather, causing it to crash and the Russian tower and the Polish crew were blamed for the accident. But many Poles believe it was a Russian conspiracy. After all the wars of the past and the years under the heel of Russian or Soviet imperialism, there is still deep-seated mistrust and hatred of the powerful country.

Smolensk was more than a national trauma. It also cast the PiS in a new, saintly light, given the presumed possibility that one of the party's founders may have been shot down by Poland's arch-enemy Russia. The exhumation of those who died in the Smolensk plane crash began two weeks ago. There is almost no chance that an investigation taking place six years after the accident will bring anything to light, such as traces of explosives. But Kaczynski's team uses such political maneuvers, instinctively staged by the PiS, to prevent people from forgetting.

Wicher suggests we go to the cinema to watch an important, patriotic film: "Smolensk." The evening show is almost sold out.

A Deep Truth

The film is part-documentary, part fictional account. Its underlying message is that the Russians planted a bomb on the plane to kill the president, because he had sharply criticized their imperialist machinations. The liberal government in Poland at the time did nothing.

The film promotes the unifying notion of a Poland that is always the victim, that the country cannot depend on European solidarity, because the hodgepodge of nations is too disunited and weak.

Towards the end, the film becomes ludicrous. The closing scene depicts the ghosts of the murdered soldiers, wearing uniforms and sporting proud mustaches, standing in front of the open graves of Katyn in 1940. Suddenly Lech Kaczynski emerges from the fog. The dead soldiers of the past and the dead president embrace. The film couldn't be more melodramatic.

When the film is over, the audience members stumble into the street. A light rain is falling on glistening cobblestones. Some moviegoers talk about the film in hushed voices, while others are silent, as if they had just experienced a deep truth.

A man many Poles also see as a hero is from Nowy Sacz, although he prefers to keep a low profile. He is one of the most important PiS supporters, and perhaps the most influential economic adviser to PiS President Andrzej Duda. His name is Roman Kluska, a former IT entrepreneur worth hundreds of millions, and an acquaintance of Bill Gates.

In his first life, in the 1990s, Kluska set out to make his fortune. He refuted Poland's eternal inferiority complex and proved that "Polak potrafi," the Pole can do it.

And then, in his second life, after he had sold his empire at a large profit, Kluska set out to save Poland - by recommending that the PiS pursue a different policy, one which would lead Poland away from Europe.

'Wrong and Dangerous'

Kluska receives us in his villa, which he had built on a mountainside at an altitude of about 700 meters (2,297 feet). In his company's heyday, Kluska repeatedly tangled with bureaucrats and government officials and he was even sent to prison. But all the allegations made against him turned out to be fictitious. His story apparently proves what the Kaczynskis have always said - that the old post-communist alliances were still at work. To this day, says Kluska, he hates the bureaucrats, who constantly dream up new rules and laws and are then given the responsibility of enforcing them.

"We have the same system today, except that the rules are coming from Brussels," says Kluska. He leans back and talks about how complicated it has become, for example, when a lamb is born on a farm. According to Kluska, the farmer is required to fill out an unimaginable number of forms, and small businesses are inundated with regulations upon regulations. Leaning forward, he says: "The system has distanced itself from ordinary farmers and ordinary people. This is wrong and dangerous!"

And the subsidies?

"Well, then Poland will simply have to make do without the subsidies. It's better than a society where inequality keeps growing."

Kluska and Wicher are not resolute haters of Europe. They know that Poland needs the economic and, more importantly, military ties. But their words reveal a sense of disillusionment, as well as the political will to oppose what they see as a heavy-handed Brussels. This, in a nutshell, is the Polish reaction to the European crisis.

The series of tremors that have rocked Europe in recent years - the financial crisis, the refugee crisis and Brexit - have left their mark on Poland. Europe looked weak, helpless and divided. And it seemed that globalization was apparently not a friendly fairytale after all, but rather an erratic process, unclear and unpredictable.

"This process of globalization has magnified inequality," says Mateusz Kijowski, the opposition leader. "Even though it is mainly a perceived sense of inequality. The majority of Poles are not worse off than they were before the fall of communism. But they see the glittering downtown areas, the elegant office towers and the shopping malls, and yet they are still living in apartments in prefabricated buildings. They are looking for someone to blame."

Picking Up the Porcelain

In the eyes of many Poles, the blame rests squarely with Brussels technocrats and liberals like Kijowski. His movement can call for demonstrations, but it doesn't stand a chance against the PiS. Kaczynski, after all, relies on emotions, which are stronger than arguments. Take, for example, the mistrust of any form of centralism, a skepticism that was acquired under socialism. Centralism, in this case, is European hegemony.

So what is the remedy? For the PiS, it's very simple. Bring out the old values: family, nation and religion.

Does that mean withdrawing from the EU?

"Absolutely not," says Konrad Szymanski with a smile. "Poland is one of the few countries where that is not even up for debate! The European Union is very useful for all its members, including Poland."

Szymanski, a state secretary in the Polish foreign ministry, plays the role of a minister for Europe. As such, his job is to continually pick up the porcelain that Kaczynski occasionally sweeps off the table.

Unfortunately, says Szymanski, Poland is not treated very well in the European committees. Poland, he explains, is the eternal supplicant. "Western politicians criticize us in a tone of voice they would never use with one another."

Martin Schulz, for instance, the German president of the European Parliament, warned against a "Putin-style controlled democracy" in Poland. "This choice of words poisons the mood, which makes communication more challenging," says Szymanski.

But where exactly is Poland headed? What will the country look like when the next election rolls around?

Poland will probably be a country in which the government is able to rule without checks and balances. The legal system and the security apparatus have already been brought into line, down to the last provincial judge. Poland's eternal complex of feeling short-changed is also likely to shape its relationship with the EU. In other words, Poland will be a difficult partner. Warsaw will not want the euro, and it will treat foreign investors with suspicion.

The Bulwark

It is also very likely that the PiS will retain a tight hold over the country, given the way it buys its supporters. The government already pays families a child subsidy of 500 zloty for their second and subsequent children, and housing construction programs are in the works. Two weeks ago, the PiS majority decided to lower the retirement age from 67 to 65 for men and to 60 for women, even though the government actually lacks the money to pay for the change. It is also very likely that Kaczynski's acolytes will continue to foment nationalism, pitting Warsaw against Brussels, and even more so against Poland's archenemy to the east, Russia.

A group of young men are lying in the grass in a forest southeast of Nowy Sacz. They have taken cover. It's cold outside, but the uniformed men, armed with pistols, Kalashnikovs and knives, have been guarding the banks of the Krynica River against the enemy to the east for hours.

One of the men is Jerzy, 17, a blonde, thin student at High School No. 3. He rubs his shoulders -- today, it is his turn to carry the machine gun. He can't fire the weapon; the barrel has been filled with lead and the trigger is locked with a screw. But that could soon change.

Jerzy is a member of a paramilitary force of about 60,000 Poles who spend their free time training to defend their country. The government wants to integrate these volunteers into the army. Jerzy believes in his mission. "Poland needs us. After all, we don't live embedded in the middle of the continent. We are the bulwark."
Many in the party agree. Armin Laschet, head of the CDU state chapter in North Rhine-Westphalia, says that in the industrial Ruhr Valley, the AfD is primarily going after former Left Party and SPD voters. "Those who believe the CDU can gain followers by shifting to the right are mistaken," he says. "Conservatives will only win elections if they recognize people's concerns, solve problems and remain loyal to their Christian roots."

But this position is controversial even in North Rhine-Westphalia. "It was important for the CDU at the convention to once again remind people of what it stands for," says Gunter Krings, a parliamentarian from the state who is also a parliamentary state secretary in the German Interior Ministry. "That is the best way for us to show that there is no need for the conservative positions held by the AfD."

That's the same line espoused by the Christian Social Union (CSU), the Bavarian sister party to the CDU. The CSU still adheres to the maxim of its former leader Franz Josef Strauss, who famously once stated that no democratically legitimate party should be allowed to develop to the right of the CSU or CDU. This week, CSU head Horst Seehofer was unsurprisingly one of the first to publicly welcome the resolutions passed during the CDU convention.

There are also important members of the CDU leadership who agree that their party unnecessarily pushed some voters into the arms of the far right during the refugee crisis. Indeed, there is an influential quartet of senior CDU members that is hoping to force the CDU to return to a more conservative course when it comes to refugees and immigration. Spahn and Strobl both belong to the quartet, as does Martin Jager, a state secretary in the Baden-Wurttemberg state Interior Ministry.

The doyen of the group is Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble, the most important internal critic of the chancellor's political course. As early as November 2015, he was warning of the "avalanche" that Merkel's refugee policies might trigger. Schauble also knows the other three members of the quartet quite well: Strobl is his son-in-law, Jager once served as his spokesman and head of planning in the Finance Ministry and he brought Spahn into the Finance Ministry as parliamentary state secretary.

Party Lore

Schauble thinks it is important for the CDU to show its core supporters that their fears and concerns are not being ignored. He wouldn't be prepared to lead an uprising against the chancellor, but Schauble is happy to use his influence within the party to change things as he sees fit. People close to him say that prior to the convention earlier this week, he had expressed sympathy for the proposal to reverse course on dual citizenship.

That sympathy would make sense. Internally, Schauble has often lauded himself for being the originator of the 1999 signature-gathering campaign against dual citizenship. Schauble was head of the CDU at the time and the German government under the leadership of Chancellor Gerhard Schroder in coalition with the Green Party wanted to change Germany's citizenship laws. With Schauble's support, Hesse opposition leader Roland Koch launched the signature drive and managed to unexpectedly win state elections as a result and become governor.

The incident has become part of CDU lore, at least within the conservative wing of the party. There was also plenty of internal critique due to the xenophobic undertones associated with the campaign and much of that critique came from Angela Merkel, who was Schauble's general secretary at the time. Now, she has once again lost a battle pertaining to German citizenship laws.

Schauble views one of his tasks as that of protecting those who voice opposition to Merkel's refugee policies. Within the CDU, Schauble said in an interview given prior to the convention, there are "extremely competent colleagues from the younger generation, like Jens Spahn." Among Merkel's confidants, the comment was seen as a provocation.

Still, Schauble -- like the other members of the quartet -- is not interested in completely turning back the clock on Merkel's course of modernization. But when it comes to refugees and domestic security, he is a hardliner. On the one hand, Schauble thought that the images showing Germans enthusiastically welcoming refugees at Munich Central Station were good for Germany's image abroad. On the other, though, he believes it was a cardinal error for Merkel to allow the weeks of chaos in late summer of 2015 to become normality as more and more refugees arrived in the country.

A Danger to Merkel

When his son-in-law Strobl became interior minister of Baden-Wurttemberg, Schauble allowed him to hire away Martin Jager, one of his most important aides, as his state secretary. The paper on refugee policy that Strobl presented shortly before the convention to the chagrin of Merkel was largely written by Jager.

A former diplomat, Jager had also been a proponent of a stricter approach to refugee policies when he had worked in Schauble's ministry, including throwing his support behind the mass deportations of asylum-seekers. He considers it justifiable to repatriate refugees to Afghanistan, believing that they do not face danger in every part of the country. And Jager is intimately familiar with Afghanistan, having served there as German ambassador.

Jager has no problem referring to himself as a statist, someone who believes in the power of the central government. He believes the state should be strong and effective -- and that public order can only be guaranteed if the state and its organs enjoy the respect of its citizens. That explains his dismay in late 2015 as he watched Germany's political leaders lose control of the refugee crisis. Like Schauble, he came to the conclusion early on that such a thing could not be allowed to recur.

Spahn, who Merkel declined to appoint to an office as she was assembling her government in 2013, agrees. Schauble appointed the ambitious young man as parliamentary state secretary in the Finance Ministry and values Spahn's free-market approach to health and retirement policy. Last year, the two realized that their conservative approach to refugees likewise overlapped.

The fact that three of the four members of the quartet are members of the party's most important leadership panel presents a danger to Merkel. Strobl is a deputy member of the executive committee while Schauble and Spahn are full members. They don't even need to explicitly plan ahead together to push through important positions. They know they have allies. Merkel's deputy Julia Klockner, for example, and executive committee member Volker Bouffier share many of the Schauble quartet's concerns.

No Further

Merkel is intent on sticking to her guns and is opposed to moving the party to the right. In her convention speech, she said she will not participate in "a rhetorical competition of escalation and one-upsmanship." The chancellor believes that if the CDU were now to accede to AfD demands, it would only help the populists and while she has made significant concessions to her critics, she won't go any further.

Merkel's hope is that the vote on dual citizenship at the convention was just a one-time slip-up, a knee-jerk grumbling from the party's conservative gut. But what if it wasn't? Among Merkel critics, the fate suffered by the Social Democrats is seen as a warning. In the early 2000s, then-Chancellor Gerhard Schroder pushed through tough welfare cuts that were ultimately good for the country, but which drove a wedge through the SPD's left wing, a divide which still hasn't been overcome today . Conservatives would like to avoid seeing the same thing happen to the CDU.

Those close to Merkel also see the SPD as an example of what can go wrong, though they point to an altogether different episode. In the last general election campaign in 2012, the party campaigned on a platform that its candidate Peer Steinbruck didn't support. "If we want to suffer the same fate, then all we have to do is continue down the path we are currently on," says one party leadership member.

Merkel, in any case, does not want to be led through the campaign on a leash by the party's conservative wing. Her patience is "finite," says a Chancellery source. If the CDU wants to shift to the right, the source says, then "it has to find a person that fits the platform."

Things haven't yet gone that far, say Chancellery officials. But the fact that Merkel's possible withdrawal from the race is even being openly discussed shows just how seriously the chancellor views the situation.

She isn't just concerned about the approaching campaign, she also believes her legacy could be in danger. After all, outgoing US President Barack Obama was just in Berlin for a farewell visit. She is well aware that his eight-year tenure could be all but erased by a couple of strokes of his successor's pen.
Together, France and Britain have around 450 nuclear warheads. France uses four strategic ballistic missile submarines, with each capable of carrying 16 missiles with four to six multiple warheads. The country also has around 50 nuclear strike-capable Mirage 2000N and Rafale fighter jets that are each equipped with nuclear-armed cruise missiles.

Britain has four strategic Vanguard-class missile submarines that also hold Trident II (D5) missiles that can carry up to 160 nuclear warheads. Technologically, however, the British are dependent on the Americans.

'Sufficient for Defending Germany'

"Viewed entirely from a military perspective, the nuclear weapons held by France and Britain would likely be sufficient for defending Germany," says the American Academy's Techau. The fact that they don't have the same number of nuclear weapons as Russia doesn't really matter. "The second-strike capability, which is decisive for deterrence, exists."

Politically, though, things get more complicated. France has always viewed its nuclear capability as a national asset and has never placed its weapons under a NATO mandate. It coordinates with Brussels, but would decide independently of the alliance on any potential deployment of its nuclear weapons.

Even during the Cold War, several political efforts were made to establish German-French nuclear cooperation, but nothing ever came of them.

Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and Defense Minister Franz Josef Strauss had hoped to work together with Paris. But Charles de Gaulle immediately halted the secret project as soon as he was elected in 1958.

Later, two years after he got voted out of office, former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) also proposed a deal. He suggested that France expand its nuclear deterrent to include Germany. In exchange, West Germany would offer its "capital and financial strength" in order to help finance the French nuclear weapons program.

France Shunned Germany

Helmut Kohl, who was chancellor at the time, dismissed the idea as an "intellectual gimmick." A secret protocol dating from December 1985 -- and only made public at the beginning of this year -- showed why Kohl's distrust had been justified. In it, French President Francois Mitterrand admits to Kohl that France would be unwilling to "provide Germany with nuclear protection." He said France's nuclear potential could only serve to protect "a small territory" -- in other words, France. If Paris were to extend its protection, the French leader said, it would expose his country to a "lethal threat." In other words, Mitterrand did not want to risk dying to defend Germany.

Even if France were to change its position, it would be tricky under international law for Germany to participate militarily in a European nuclear shield. Whether or not Germany's participation in NATO's nuclear shield is permitted under international law has already been the subject of considerable debate. An actual German bomb would violate the terms of both the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the Two Plus Four Agreement, the treaty which resulted in Germany's reunification.

By becoming a signatory to the NPT in 1975, the Germans committed "not to receive the transfer from any transferor of nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices or of control over such weapons or explosive devices directly, or indirectly." During negotiations over German reunification in 1990, then-Chancellor Kohl also affirmed Germany's "renunciation" of the manufacture, possession and control of nuclear weapons. The provision became an integral part of the Two Plus Four Agreement.

A European Nuclear Power?

But the Germans always left a few loopholes open. In diplomatic notes attached to German NPT ratification documents, the government in Bonn stated at the time it had signed it "convinced that no stipulation in the treaty can be construed to hinder the further development European unification, especially the creation of a European Union with appropriate capabilities." Wolfgang Mischnick, parliamentary floor leader of the Free Democratic Party, which shared power with Kohl's Christian Democrats at the time of reunification, publicly clarified what that meant during a session of the Bundestag on February 20, 1974: "It is still possible to develop a European nuclear power," he said.

Forty years later the issue is actually now being raised for the first time. With it also comes the question of the degree to which Europeans actually trust each other. The real test will come if the United States decides to withdraw its nuclear support from Europe. Then Europeans would be forced to ask whether Paris and London were prepared to guarantee security for Germany and other Europeans. And also: Would Germans place their trust in a nuclear shield provided by their European partners?

For France, which always found Europe's reliance on NATO to be suspect, a European nuclear shield could also present an opportunity. A nuclear arsenal under French leadership, but large parts of which were financed by the Germans, would place the economically weakened country in a dominant position in terms of European security.
So Donald Trump has won the presidential election, and many people including some Democrats and a few very hopeful commentators seem to be holding their breath that he will pivot at some point.

A small group of the so-called political elite says that the billionaire will become a tame and selfless leader working for the little guys. These people are still holding out hope despite the fact that Trump has declined to attend many intelligence briefings and is not completely parting ways with his business empire.

Americas next president is also making some very controversial picks for his cabinet and is always fighting on Twitter with leaders, politicians, and companies who dare to criticize him. One person, who is not changing his mind on the real estate mogul, is Bernie Sanders.

The senator from Vermont, who is rumored to be preparing for another presidential run in 2020, had some very harsh words for Trump. In a new interview, Sanders called the former reality star a pathological liar.

Talking to MSNBC, Sanders said the president-elect is a pathological liar, who changes his mind every single day. The self-proclaimed socialist said:

What do you do when you have a president-elect, soon to be president, who  and I say this not happily, but I think most people who observe him would agree  is a pathological liar, who changes his mind every single day.

The former presidential candidate went on to say that he is hoping that a majority of the American population will join his political movement and fight for real change. He added:

I am working very hard on this, and we need the help of the American people obviously  to build a movement of millions of people who are following reality. And thats the challenge. Real change in this country, I am more and more convinced of it, is not going to come from Capitol Hill, its got to come from grassroots America.

Sanders might be heading on a listening tour to sit down with Americans and ask them why did they support Trump over Hillary Clinton. He stated:

I want the truth. I really want to hear why people voted the way they voted. I want to hear why people voted for Donald Trump, what their expectations were, why they didnt vote for Secretary Clinton.

Mr. Sanders went to say that he also wants to convince Middle America that progressive policies will help them. He explained:

Second of all, I want to bounce off the people their views about what a progressive agenda is. I wants to know if the progressive policies are attractive to the working class.

The interview is very surprising to some because after the election Sanders said that he would be willing to work with Trump.
The community group took ownership of Tiroran Forest on the southern part of the Island of Mull in late 2015 after Forestry Commission Scotland took the decision to sell the forest. Tilhill Forestry was awarded the harvesting contract early in 2016 and also helps with managing the forest on behalf of the community.

Each year, Kilfinichen and Kilvickeon Agricultural Society holds an agricultural show in Bunessan which Tilhill Forestry actively supports. This year, Tilhill offered to commission a carving that would be created during the show and could be installed in the forest upon completion. One of the best chain-saw carvers in the UK, who also works for Tilhill Forestry, was asked to produce the carving.

Pete Bowsher, Harvesting Manager for Tilhill Forestry, carved a sea eagle from an oak log on the day of the show in August. Pete has been chainsaw carving for more than 30 years and is the current and eight times Scottish Open Chainsaw carving champion. He carves at numerous shows around the country from the Outer Hebrides, north east Scotland to north England and the Royal Highland Show.

The finished carving has been looked after by Bunessan Primary School children who have been drawing it as part of a competition. The children have named the eagle Eilean - the gaelic word for Island.

The sea eagle is the fourth largest eagle in the world, and is our largest bird of prey, with a wingspan of nearly two and a half metres. The white-tailed eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla) or sea eagle was driven to extinction in Britain earlier this century. Now, thanks to a reintroduction programme run jointly by Scottish Natural Heritage and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the sea eagle has returned to some of its former haunts. Sea eagles nest in Tiroran Forest and have to be carefully considered when forestry work is being carried out which is why Tilhill Forestry is working closely with the RSPB so that harvesting can continue without disturbing the birds.

Iain Moody, the local Harvesting Manager for Tilhill Forestry explains: The relationship between the community, the RSPB and our team has worked really well. Each nesting season will see us liaising with the RSPB so our work can continue.

The sea eagle is a very strong symbol for the area and many people come to the island to see them. The carving will be placed close to the hide that nature lovers use to view the birds. Community leaders are keen to improve access, recreation, education and wellbeing uses of the forest for the local community and visitors, while avoiding conflict with forest management and wildlife. Petes sculpture will complement the sculptures of giant heads made out of willow already erected in the forest.
STAMFORD  Four years after authorities took an adopted child away from a North Stamford woman, her custody battle has reached Connecticuts highest court.

The state Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday on Maria Gonzalezs request to involve herself in proceedings to strip parental rights from the boys mother, a homeless rape victim from Guatemala who was 14 when she gave birth in 2009.

The child has been in the custody of the Department of Children and Families since Gonzalez lost custody in 2012 following allegations she and her former husband were involved in human trafficking and had abused the boy.

The charges were later dropped and, although DCF reversed its stance on the case in 2013, courts have repeatedly ruled against Gonzalezs efforts to get the child back.

The woman, an Argentinian citizen and legal U.S. resident, claims that she has a right to intervene in the termination of parental rights proceeding because she has a direct interest in issues surrounding (the childs) custody and care, because no other party to the proceeding can protect her direct interest, and because her participation in the termination proceeding will not cause undue delay or prejudice the other parties to the proceeding, according to court records.

Gonzalez could not be reached for comment, and her attorney did not return a call seeking comment.

Jaclyn Falkowski, a spokeswoman for the state Office of the Attorney General, said her office would not discuss the case because it involves juvenile matters.

DCF spokesman Ken Mysogland said his agency would not comment because of the pending litigation. The child remains in state custody until the outcome of the proceedings, he said.

According to court documents, the legal battle is riddled with errors and misjudgments. DCF has conceded there was never a proper cause to remove the child from Gonzalezs custody, according to an appeals supplement filed in Sept. 12, 2014.

In 2014, the trial court rejected the DCFs plan to permanently place the child, called Santiago, with Gonzalez. After the judgment was affirmed in 2015, DCF began the process of terminating the birth mothers parental rights.

Gonzalez moved to intervene in the proceeding, but the state Appellate Court denied her motion earlier this year, which is why she has taken her appeal to the states highest court.

As of late 2014, was living with a foster family in West Hartford.

noliveira@hearstmediact.com, 203-964-2265, @olivnelson
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B ritish banks are demanding a politically explosive Brexit buffer to allow them to remain under European laws for up to five years after pulling out of the EU, it emerged on Friday.

The UKs financial institutions, who trade on the Continent under EU passporting rules, are calling for the current set-up to stay in place in a transitional deal lasting between three and five years in a confidential document submitted to the Treasury.

Most controversially, the banks are also pressing the Government to accept the rule of the European Court of Justice over the transition period.

That demand is likely to enrage Brexiteers and set the finance industry against the stance of Prime Minister Theresa May, who said in October that we are not leaving only to return to the jurisdiction of the ECJ.

We well understand the political sensitivity to that proposition, says the document, seen by Reuters and drawn up by magic circle law firms Linklaters, Freshfields and Clifford Chance.

The document was penned to provide technical support to those developing a negotiating position for the UK.

It warns of the potential shock to the British and European economy from a loss of critical financial services if banks do not secure a transition phase beyond the two-year withdrawal period that will begin when the government invokes Article 50 leaving negotiations next year.

Without an interim arrangement, it claims some banks may not be able to move parts of their operations out of Britain or set up new British subsidiaries in time, threatening an abrupt halt to EU business.

Transitional arrangements are likely essential, the document says. This is important in order to avoid potential damage to the real economy that is reliant upon uninterrupted access to financial services.

The Bank of England Governor Mark Carney also said this week that it would be advantageous for firms to have a transition period to restructure after striking a Brexit deal with the EU.

But the calls put the financial sector on a collision course with the eurosceptics, who want a legal break with the EU as soon as possible.

Richard Tice, co-chairman of the Leave Means Leave campaign, which is pushing for a hard Brexit, said the banks were exaggerating the potential disruption.

This is a nonsense. It is just the banks, frankly, not dealing with the issue. The country voted for change, and the sooner they wake up and accept it the better, he said.
A 114-year-old bananas dynasty came to an end today as Irelands Fyffes agreed to a 751 million takeover by Japanese trading company Sumitomo Corporation.

The McCann family, whose connection with Fyffes dates to 1902, will sell its 11.8% stake in Fyffes to Sumitomo in exchange for 2.23 per share in cash and a 0.02 per share dividend.

David McCann, grandson of Fyffes first agent in Ireland and its chairman, said the deal with Sumitomo, Asias leading bananas company, was compelling.

Our employees, customers, suppliers and joint-venture partners will benefit from Fyffes being part of an enlarged group with greater scale, reach and resources, he said.

The takeover comes two years after Fyffes attempt to become the worlds biggest bananas group through a merger with US rival Chiquita collapsed.

It has since been on the acquisition trail, moving into new fresh food markets like mushrooms.

Shares in Fyffes, listed on AIM, leapt 57.5p to 186.55p.
L ondons office landlords have hardly been safe houses for investors this year, but the City found shelter in Derwent London on hopes its bold bets in the capital will pay off.

The FTSE 250 company, known for putting up hip tech companies in trendy digs, has endured a torrid year on the stock market, tumbling almost 30% on fears that Brexit will hit demand for offices.

Despite the concerns, it has plans to spend big in the capital, with two significant projects in the pipeline: the 485 million block on Charlotte Street in Fitzrovia, its largest-ever scheme, and the 240 million Brunel Building opposite Paddington.

Credit Suisse today called those plans compelling even in the midst of a downturn, and decided the shares were worth upgrading from underperform to outperform, lifting the stock 77p to 2659p.

The excitement from yesterdays European Central Bank announcement, that it will keep buying bonds for longer to prop up the European economy, died down, but the FTSE 100 still advanced 10.11 points to 6941.66, putting it on track for its biggest weekly gain since February.

Analysts took aim at troubled outsourcer Capita after another profit warning yesterday, dragging the shares down another 20.85p or 4.3% to 464.45p.

Barclays cut its target price and argued that the company, which is mulling a sale of its share registrar business, is selling the wrong bit, adding: Management credibility is on the line and investors may speculate on possible management change next year.

The spreadbetters recovered slightly after another hammering yesterday as Germany joined the regulatory clampdown.

CMC Markets, run by former Tory party co-treasurer Peter Cruddas, is the CFD (contract for difference) market leader in Germany. The company, which improved 2.88p to 108.18p today, said it would respond to the proposals by the January deadline.

Elsewhere on the mid-cap index, paving slabs firm Marshalls dipped 14.8p to 302.2p as investors were sceptical of its ability to meet full-year forecasts, while commercial laundry group Berendsen slipped 24.5p to 815.5p after it emerged the Competition and Markets Authority is probing its cleanroom business, which makes NHS overalls.
T his, reader, is my little present to you. Its a concept which could transform your house, your way of life, your cushions and throws, cakes, decor and Christmas decorations.

Its cosiness, the warmth of the hearth, the simple pleasure of red and green napkins, a wooden settle in the corner of your kitchen, a ceramic stove. Its a cluster of candles brightening your living room. Its a concept that rejoices in the simple pleasures of home and family, and its especially potent at Christmas.

I have, of course, in mind that familiar German concept of gemutlichkeit.

Now the mystery is that a rival and inferior notion of domestic bliss has taken off in the past year and almost certainly occupies the window of your nearest bookstore because there have been some 14 books published on the subject this season. Im talking hygge  pronounced hooger  which is the Danish notion of the cosy good life.

We are invited to bake hygge cakes and buy hygge throws; I have been offered hygge bouquets. Among this companys tips for turning your home into hygge heaven is: You can never have enough candles. Picture candlelit dinners with your family, gently glowing mantelpieces and corner tables filled with flickering light. Anywhere that is safe in your home for a candle to sit should have a candle sat there.

The genius ideas dont stop there: Fill your favourite mug and get cosy in a corner with a book. Thats right: hygge is a book and a cup of tea.

Hygge, having taken over Britain, is now set to sweep the US, according to Time magazine. But before it takes over the world, may I put in a word for the original concept of cosy, viz, the German one: gemutlichkeit. It is arguably more pronounceable than hygge and has the benefit of being Christmassy.

Think gluhwein, think Advent markets, think Christmas trees with straw or carved decorations, think wooden painted furniture, and youre there.

Moreover, it has cake: Im thinking stollen. Im thinking lebkuchen, the original Christmas biscuit.

Leonard was just a cut above the rest

It wasnt just David Bowie and Leonard Cohen, you know, who embodied the spirit of the Seventies. For me it was Leonard Lewis, whose funeral is on Monday.

He was once Leonard of Mayfair, the hairdresser who created the defining looks of two decades. Forget Vidal Sassoon  he had one cut  Leonard created Twiggy, restyled The Beatles, did Mick Jagger, Duran Duran and Bob Marley, trained every celebrity hairdresser youve ever heard of and liberated women from the dictatorship of just one style. He would comb your hair to see which way it fell naturally, and cut it accordingly. Revolutionary.

I know because he cut mine after I went to interview him, and saw him often afterwards. He was a shadow of his old self then, crippled by a brain tumour, but even with one working hand he could do miracles. Just for fun Id bring up the names of pretty well any famous person of the era I could think of: all clients. The Kray twins?  they behaved themselves in his salon. John F Kennedy? Frank Sinatra sent him. Michael Jackson? Weird. Anthony Hopkins? Horrid.

Yet he ended up a solitary figure, supported by a wonderful carer, Lena, visited by a few of his famous friends, and with a Bible always open before him. What a man; what a life.

To set the scene, youd have Advent candles and wooden Nutcracker figures: I mean, the Germans transformed our notion of Christmas with that useful concept of gemutlichkeit: the hearth in winter. When Prince Albert brought the Christmas tree to England and distributed pics of him and Victoria with their children clustered around them, that was homely gemutlichkeit. So is the carol Silent Night. So are Christmas stockings, another German idea.

Its a fundamentally democratic, unelitist thing, the peoples aesthetic, the egalitarianism of the domestic.

So there you go: the next big thing for 2017. You read it here first. Shove over, Danes  its the Germans turn.

You'll need deep pockets for a grand hotel tea

A Frozen Fantasia is how the Savoy hotel bills its festive tea, and thats how it is. You enter through snow, the foyer is a white-and-silver blur, a sparkling mannequin revolves in the centre, a pianist plays in the corner.

And the tea! The best turkey sandwiches. Scones with lemon curd and cranberries! Four kinds of fancy cake! Ad lib! The children I took were saucer-eyed.

Then theres Christmas tea at Claridges: smoked salmon sandwiches with a pine-infused cream; cranberries in the mini-Eccles cakes, gold leaf on the macarons. Traditional or what! Well, sort of. The price at the Savoy tea is 68; at Claridges its 82. Per person. I was not, thank God, paying. Time was, afternoon tea was a cheap way into the grand hotels of London. No longer. But, as my son said happily, you can eat all you like.

* There are times when Mick Jagger brings to mind another patriarch: Moses, who, in the Bible, died at 120: his eye was not dimmed nor his natural force abated, a euphemism, some say, for being sexually potent.

Jagger, now a father for the eighth time, is only 73, his girlfriend Melanie Hamrick 29. He could still add to his tally, including five grandchildren and a great grandchild. But another version of Mick comes to mind. At the National Theatre, Peter Pan is being played by a 45-year-old. He takes on successive generations of Wendys to mind him. That sounds familiar.
Review at a glance









O liver Stone has found a real-life story that encompasses corruption, sexual paranoia, epilepsy and a truly great escape. Hes also attracted a fine cast (including Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Shailene Woodley, Nicolas Cage, Rhys Ifans and Ben Schnetzer) and an edgy crew (British cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle shot Festen and Lars von Triers Antichrist). What happened? Stones film is about as suspenseful as a trip to Ikea.

The script interweaves two narratives about the NSA whistle-blower. One casts Snowden (Gordon-Levitt, right, doing his best) as a sort of geeky but gifted Harry Potter type, who joins the CIA because he wants to protect his country, falls in love with a liberal, Lindsay (Woodley) and, all too soon, becomes disillusioned with the US governments barely legal surveillance techniques. The other narrative begins with a jaunty Snowden meeting Laura Poitras (Melissa Leo) in a Hong Kong hotel and allowing her to film him as the world digests his revelations.

If youve seen Poitrass devastating documentary, Citizen Four, you already know what happened in Hong Kong. Meanwhile, Skype interviews with The Guardians Janine Gibson (Joely Richardson) confirm that journalists have to think on their feet. Sorry but that aint news.

Meanwhile, Snowdens relationship with Lindsay makes for the dreariest kind of melodrama (unless you enjoy watching passive-aggressive yuppies row their way around the globe) and his mentors at the CIA are impossible to take seriously (poor Ifans, poor Cage). The only plausible individuals are the sweetly charming bods at the NSA, who seem to share Snowdens uneasy excitement at being at the heart of an often bloody cyber war. When Snowden says goodbye to these guys (and skips off with the smoking gun) its genuinely involving.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt: I hope Obama pardons Snowden

With a bit more care, Snowden the film could have been another Born on the Fourth of July, an atmospheric thumbs-up for an alt-patriot who put his neck on the line. As it stands, it may wind up damaging his image.

Age 33, the real Snowden has an uncertain future. Now, on top of everything else, hes been made to look like yesterdays man.

Cert 15, 134 mins

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T he Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time will close next summer nearly five years of performances.

The National Theatre announced the show's final performance will be on June 3, 2017, by which time it will have played over 1,600 performances and been seen by over a million people in London.

The play, adapted from Mark Haddons best-selling novel by playwright Simon Stephens, transferred to the West End from the National Theatres Cottesloe (now known as the Dorfman) after rave reviews and a sell out run.

It was performed at the Apollo Theatre, and moved to the Gielgud in July 2014, after the roof of the Apollo collapsed during a performance and the theatre was closed for repair.

The lead role of Christopher Boone, who wants to solve the mystery of who killed his neighbours dog and loves prime numbers, has been played by 18 actors. It was originated by Luke Treadaway, who has since made the move into films and stars in A Streetcat Named Bob.

The show will continue a tour of the UK and Ireland, which starts in January 2017, with a tour of North America continuing until September 2017.

Buy tickets for Curious Incident with Evening Standard Tickets

Visit standard.co.uk/theatre for the latest news and reviews from Londons theatre scene.

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State Debate: Paul Soglin doesn't need an apology from 'ignorant' congressman; Beloit editor wants press to fight back
I n a city flush with nightly parties, one street stands above all others as the centre of revelry  in London all roads lead to Dean Street. Its to this short stretch in the heart of Soho that Londons leading creative minds flock to network and flirt in three of the capitals most renowned members clubs: the Groucho, Blacks and Soho House. Countless hazy nights have begun in one of these drinking dens; countless dawns seen through smoke-bleary yet jubilant eyes.

Its a mad cornucopia, says Sam, a young regular on the Soho club circuit, mostly because many of its essential clientele  journalists, writers, artists  dont have to be up in the morning.

But the mood on Londons most social street is shifting. Wagamama has just signed a 25-year lease for number 81, at 600,000 a year. Charlotte, a member of the Groucho since its 1990s mayhem years, remembers when YBAs and proper A-list people would zigzag along the streets between the Groucho (at 45), Blacks (at 67) and other less salubrious haunts. Now, no one has seen Tracey Emin at the Groucho in weeks.

Part of the reason is a recent change in management at Blacks and the Groucho: the new guards attempts to modernise have been causing ripples of disquiet. Following outrage from members at attempts to introduce wi-fi, Blacks has changed hands twice in the past two years. The current owner, known as a Soho entrepreneur and bon viveur, wishes to remain anonymous.

The Groucho, meanwhile, which was owned from 2006 to 2015 by Graphite Capital, was sold last year to a group of investors led by Isfield Investments and Alcuin Capital Partners. Matt Hobbs has been managing director since 2010 and although hes the best manager the club has ever had, according to one member of 21 years, 2016 has been marked by membership fury over changes to the beloved club lobby.

The Groucho and Blacks have long had strong ties  Groucho members used to be able to use Blacks if the former was closed for maintenance, and vice versa  but now someone close to the current Blacks owner plays down their ties.

Soho House's Nick Jones / Dave Benett

Then Nick Joness scene-stealing, millennial-centric Soho House opened at No 76 last year. While Soho House and the Groucho have long been friendly  Hobbs opened Soho House New Yorks restaurant in 2001, and the two clubs help and advise each other  theres no denying that the opening at 76 Dean Street introduced a competitive edge to the area.

The tension between the clubs may have something to do with the fact that all are competing for new  and crucially, young  members, and currently its Soho House that is coming out on top.

London's modern private members clubs 1 /13 London's modern private members clubs The Devonshire Club Opened: June 2016



Whos behind it? Property consultancy SUSD and Brian Clivaz, co-founder of Home House and chief executive of Sohos LEscargot.



Whos it for? This is the focal point where those with Mayfair style and glamour meet East-End chic, says Clivaz. That means financiers and city professionals but also creative executives from Shoreditch and Hoxton.



Where is it? An 18th-century former East India Company warehouse and large Georgian townhouse on Devonshire Square in the City. The Devonshire Club What do you get? A library and private meeting rooms; secret garden; blow-dry and brow bar, gym and yoga studio, and 68 bedrooms. Theres curious-sounding St Jamess meets St Tropez with an Asian twist food from former LEscargot head chef Oliver Lesnik in the brasserie restaurant.



And besides the facilities? Events include a Monthly Tech Mingle networking party and private events. Whats more, they proclaim that rules are made to be broken, which means that mobile phone usage is permitted, theres no dress code and dogs are allowed.



Membership fees: 2,400 a year, 2,400 joining fee. Quo Vadis (Re)opened: September 2016



Whos behind it? Brothers Sam and Eddie Hart and chef Jeremy Lee, who also own the Barrafina chain.



Where is it? Quo Vadis has been on Sohos Dean Street since 1926 and Karl Marx lived in the building in the 19th century. Its re-opening after a big refurb for its 90th birthday.



Whos it for? Foodie types. Barrafina serves the finest tapas in London and its former outpost in Frith Street is moving into the building. Lee, meanwhile, is all about seasonal British cuisine. While the downstairs restaurant is open to all, members will have an additional 26-cover dining room upstairs. And this is Soho, so expect maximum eclecticism alongside the media types. Quo Vadis What do you get? The private restaurant, a late-night bar serving Dukes infamous martinis, and the chance to admire works by resident artist John Broadly.



And besides the facilities? Food events  from special dinners with Angela Hartnett to a Negroni championship later this year and foraging trips.



Membership fees: 500 a year or 650 for couples. Neuehouse Opening: late 2016



Whos behind it? American tech entrepreneurs Joshua Abram and Alan Murray, founders of Neuehouse New York and LA.



Whos it for? Collaborators and networkers: this is shared office space for creative freelancers. The first rule is to be nice and have manners, says Abram. Whats not nice or good-mannered is sloppy dressing. Michelle Grey, NeueHouses global creative director, says: Its important in life to dress well...fashion is a great template for expressing your inner creativity. Gym kit isnt permitted and shoes must be worn at all times (sorry, Steve Hilton).



Where is it? The Art Deco Adelphi building just off the Strand, once home to Thomas Hardy. Neuehouse What do you get? Every tool a start-up, social media co-ordinator or vlogger could need: rentable private offices, studios, event spaces, screening room  and a florist, for getting in touch with your inner petunia.



And besides the facilities? If you dont have time to go to the gallery or museum, well bring it to you, Abram has said. The New York branch has hosted talks by Sir Salman Rushdie and designer Sir Paul Smith.



Membership fees: Its New York rates start at $200 a month. Neds Club at The Ned Opening: early 2017



Whos behind it? Soho Houses Nick Jones and the Sydell Group, owner of Manhattans NoMad. The Ned is independent from the Soho House Group.



Whos it for? While Soho house has a policy of only admitting members with creative backgrounds, The Ned welcomes anyone appreciative of their gorgeous decor, food, and general vibes.



Where is it? The 1920s former Midland Bank building in the City designed by Sir Edwin Ned Lutyens. Neds Club at The Ned What do you get? Everything you could possibly need under one roof, and loads of it: 252 bedrooms; seven restaurants serving everything from ramen to Reubens; eight beauty treatment rooms; two swimming pools; a gym with a boxing ring and a Turkish hammam. The building also houses the original bank vault, with a 2m-wide, 20-ton door, which will be turned into a late-night bar.



And besides the facilities? Given that the likes of Victoria Beckham have previously hosted fashion breakfasts at Soho House, you can expect a seriously impressive range of top-notch cultural events.



Membership fees: Not confirmed, but membership for Soho House starts at 1,000 a year. Chess Club Mayfair Opening: December 2016



Whos behind it? Expect extreme debauchery and even more extreme cocktails: this is a collaboration between the Experimental Cocktail Club brothers and Francesca Chess Zampi of The Box.



Where is it? Chesterfield Street, in the heart of old-school Mayfair clubland. The building was previously home to the Rags Club.



Whos it for? Zampi wants people from all walks of life  we dont want people who think the same way as us. Chess Club Mayfair What do you get? Somewhere designed for the user, which ECCs Romee de Goriainoff reckons isnt always the case in members clubs. That means a brilliant drinks list, with ECC classics and affordable wine. It also means stellar food, courtesy of Zampis pal Jackson Boxer. The Brunswick House chef will be plating up vegetable-centric seasonal ingredients, although Chess Club philosophy is that the most delicious part of any meal should be the company shared.



And besides the facilities? Besides the awesome cocktails, you mean? Comedy nights and, given the name, it would be rude not to crack out a late-night board game.



Membership fees: About 500 a year.

Yes, the loyal old guard is still faithfully propping up the bar  at the Groucho Peter Blake has two seats by the piano, and theyll kick anyone off when they want a singalong, while Mark Hix is always holding court in the corner surrounded by people, according to one frequenter. Blacks, according to Sam, is the sort of place where youll suddenly see Ian McEwan in the corner eating pie or something.

But enticing millennials is proving difficult. Blacks and the Groucho were originally set up as an alternative to stuffy gentlemens clubs, as the latters website puts it, yet theyre in danger of becoming just that if they dont get a rapid increase in younger members, and the clubs thrive on their non-conformist, creative reputations. With a fervent desire to stay relevant and not fossilise into Whites or the Garrick, millennials are prized and given vastly reduced membership fees.

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Millennials not only eat out more frequently, theyre more discerning about food and where they go, explains Jonathan Moradoff, a leisure property agent at Davis Coffer Lyons. The under-23s have grown up where eating out is totally ingrained in culture, and theyre also driven by customisation  something members clubs can provide by giving them something special. Everything is experience-led for the under-30s: going out defines them, thanks to social media, and so Blacks, Soho House and the Groucho will inevitably want to tap into that.

Groucho club / Mark Robert Milan / Stringer / Getty Images

Crucially, and perhaps surprisingly, the younger generation also has more disposable income. Getting on the property ladder has become so much more challenging for their generation, he says. Why save for an unattainable deposit when you can have a home from home with plusher cushions and a fully stocked bar?

Blacks, the candlelit Georgian townhouse once home to Samuel Johnsons supper club which counts Benedict Cumberbatch, Rhys Ifans and John Culshaw as members, is alternately described as a blast from the past and completely timeless. Its where Sam Smith gave his first live performance and Tom Hiddleston read poetry, long before The Night Manager. But they cant escape the millennial tug either: there too the under-30s pay 250 to older members 500. Soho House, meanwhile is renowned for eternally seeking youth: not only do the under-27s get half-price membership until 30 (600 a year compared to 1,200) but there are legendary culls of those deemed no longer to fit the vibe.

But to court youth too slavishly is to risk backlash from older, loyal members who feel sidelined. The Groucho  long synonymous with Soho debauchery and hedonism, thanks to members such as Damien Hirst (who famously put his 20,000 Turner Prize winnings behind the bar), Kate Moss and Alex James, who has a penchant for sleeping under the Christmas tree during the festive season  has faced incandescent rage from many members because of a subscription increase to 950 for long-standing members  an increase of 43 per cent  which was not passed onto the under-30s, who pay 350. One member, reported the Londoners Diary, raged in a letter: You say you want to keep it relevant and [attract] young members. A rather revolting turn of phrase... but pricing out the long-term members is not the way to do this. Fury has also been eloquently expressed over plans for a new rustic Italian restaurant downstairs with informal seating and open kitchen  an unnecessary addition, feel long-time members, given the classic British restaurant serving veal escalope and shepherds pie upstairs.

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Soho House has tens of thousands clamouring to join, and the hotel and restaurant offshoot at 76 Dean Street is continually heaving. All those Ubers clogging up the road are theirs, insists a Groucho regular, 76 just has a ridiculously huge fan base. Its hard to deny that Nick Jones has nailed it when it comes to millennials.

Things are set to change still further: the original Greek Street Soho House re-opens in 2018, which will draw more of Londons bright young things, such as Nick Grimshaw, Jaime Winstone and Professor Green. Still, the Groucho and Blacks neednt worry. Davis Coffer Lyonss Moradoff insists: We do think that three clubs is viable in this part of Soho as footfall is only going to increase, particularly with the introduction of Crossrail imminent. And despite the grumbles and the complaints  members prerogative, as regular Sam puts it, we feel like we own it somehow  Charlotte insists that Clubstreet will continue to shine bright. Blacks and the Groucho are coming into their own again, she says. Theyre back in their groove.

Follow Frankie McCoy on Twitter: @franklymccoy
H ow, why and with whom we fall in love is one of lifes greatest mysteries  and never more so than today, as technology renders romance and all its possibilities seemingly boundless. As the in-house sociologist of revolutionary dating app Tinder, Dr. Jessica Carbino is one of the most qualified experts on the subject of modern love. And by 'love' I dont mean one-night stands: as Carbino is swift to inform me, when we meet over coffee at the Rosewood Hotel in London, 88 per cent of Tinders current users are looking for a relationship thats more serious in nature.

In fact, it was while using the app herself to try and find a partner that Carbino stumbled across Sean Rad, Tinder's CEO, and inadvertently secured her current role. I was finishing my dissertation work at UCLA in 2013 and was single and on Tinder, she explains. I came across Sean and thought, Wow, hes really cute, and then I noticed that he was the founder of Tinder and was even more interested because at the time I was studying online dating and facial attractiveness and so many other things that were directly related to Tinder.

As it turned out, Sean was in a relationship and was simply using the app to better understand the user experience; but while he wasnt looking for a girlfriend, he was looking for a sociologist. He said, Jess, you seem really interesting. Id love for you to come to the office and meet me. So I went to the office, had an interview and had a job about 30 minutes later. It was my best match on Tinder! Carbino laughs. Since then, she has been busy exploring what users want from their digital dating experience, and the complex psychology behind the left and right swipe.

We spoke to the 30-year-old Philadelphia native to find out exactly what her job entails, how dating habits change around Christmas time and whether or not there is a science to attraction.

What does your job entail on a day-to-day basis?

Its variable. My research is very content analytic in nature, but I really specialise in trying to understand the experience of the people who are using Tinder. So I do content analyses of photos and messages (we take the privacy of our users incredibly seriously so every time I am conducting my research I get the users permission); I conduct focus groups and interviews with our users, and generally try to understand how the user is interacting with the product and how we can improve it.

So what kind of studies do you conduct?

I recently finished a study where I was trying to understand what makes the most successful profile photo. Because there are so many things that we do in photographs or can learn about others through photographs that were not necessarily aware of. So I analysed over 150 variables in over 12,000 profile photographs  ranging from whether or not the user was seated with other people, if they were at a bar or outside, or if they were exercising to how their head was tilted or whether it wasnt tilted  and one of the really interesting findings was that so many of the characteristics that make a profile photo more successful are really consistent with what we would expect to find in daily life. So for example, smiling is a really critical factor in creating a successful profile photo because it makes you seem more approachable. So the duckface is out, it doesnt work  but smiling does!

How do you notice peoples dating habits changing around Christmas time?

Interestingly, on November 25th, we usually begin to see a 10% spike in the use of Tinder, which persists throughout the middle of December. Then we see this really big spike beginning around the New Year and continuing through Valentines Day, so clearly during the holiday season and around this time of year, people are really thinking about forming a relationship or making meaningful connections.

Why do you think that is? Social pressures, the cold weather...

Its really related to this idea that when people are going home for the holidays they are going to be exposed to a lot of couples. People see how other people are coupled and they want to be as well. Its curious to think about other factors that may be motivating as well, and certainly this idea of people having concerns regarding the weather and acting in a way thats more consistent with finding a partner  someone to hibernate with  could be a contributing factor.

How would you say the digital age has affected our ideas about love and our approach to dating?

People are definitely thinking about love differently today. Historically, weve thought about it on the basis of two paradigms: the idea of romantic love, which is what we see in film, literature, television; and the idea of prosaic love  of how love operates in our daily lives, whether its through our own lived experiences or the observations weve made about others. And both of those perceptions of love were believed to inform our relationships. However, when those studies were done to try and understand how people think and talk about love, they were only looking at couples that were already partnered. Today, so many couples have delayed partnership that that concept really misses the market perspective, whereby young people now have the opportunity to encounter thousands or even millions of potential partners, whom they otherwise never would have met, because of Tinder and other apps. Its absolutely fascinating to think how peoples preferences and behaviours can theoretically be influenced by so many more options.

So are peoples expectations a lot higher nowadays, in terms of what they look for in a partner?

Well, whats interesting is that the real shift in terms of increased expectations of a partner began in the 1960s, so its been happening for quite some time  because of there being more liberal attitudes regarding partnership and womens roles and so forth. So thats not just to do with modern dating, but expectations have definitely increased.

Can there be any science to attraction if it's all run on algorithm?

Absolutely, Tinders algorithm is based upon the science of attraction. It primarily operates on the basis of intelligent swiping so the more you use Tinder, the more we are able to learn about you, and then we base our recommendations on the preferences youre selecting via swiping left or right. So while you will see everyone that youve selected within the subset of our users who meet the criteria youve set  age, gender, geography  in terms of the prioritisation of those potential matches, we are presenting users to you who are more consistent with who you believe is attractive based upon your swiping.

How would you describe the science of attraction, then, in laymans terms?

Well, I cant really say how the algorithm works, only that its very much based upon how you are swiping already, but in terms of how we as humans assess people and who interests us, there are so many scientific processes behind it. One of the major processes in the analysis of attraction is 'thin-slicing', whereby we take very small slices of information based upon cues from photographs or seeing someone in person and very quickly make a judgment about who we believe this person is, whether or not we believe theyre somebody who would be compatible with us, and whether or not we believe the person would also find us to be compatible with them. So its a very rich process that is actually highly accurate. In fact a great deal of research indicates that the judgment you make within three seconds of seeing somebody is the same judgment you would make after speaking with them for three minutes or speaking with them for 30 minutes!

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A blind man was robbed of 450 after his bank card was snatched at a busy Tube station, police said.

The partially sighted victim was using a cash machine at Angel station when a man interrupted him from behind and told him to re-enter his pin number so his card would be returned.

The man persisted in trying to get the victim to enter his details but left after he refused to do so.

However, the blind victim realised his card had been stolen after the machine did not return it.

Minutes later, 450 was fraudulently withdrawn from the account, police said.

CCTV footage captured two men around the victim, who carries a white cane, at the time of the offence on October 17 at around 6.20pm.

British Transport Police have issued an appeal for information following the theft.

Anyone who can help can contact police on 0800 40 50 40 or text 61016, quoting 342 of 9/12
A supporter of hate preacher Anjem Choudary who posted a propaganda video on Facebook glorifying Islamic State has been jailed for two years.

Abdul Hamid, 31, was a committed extremist who branded moderate Muslims as sell-outs and called for them to be exterminated under Sharia Law.

He insisted women could not be political leaders and told his Facebook friends to Be like Anjem, over a picture of convicted extremist Choudary.

Hamid was arrested in February this year after he posted a four-minute-long Isis propaganda video called No Respite, which was viewed more than 400 times on his Facebook page.

Judge Peter Rook QC, sentencing at the Old Bailey, accepted Hamid has significant physical and mental health problems and prison will be tough for him.

But he said the video was dangerous and may have encouraged others to support terrorism.

There must be a significant element of deterrence, he said.

You made the misguided decision to post this film on Facebook, you well appreciated the nature of the film.

The full film is quite clearly designed to glorify Daesh, and you held extremist views at the time.

When he was first quizzed over the post, Hamid claimed he thought he could post the video as he had seen a snippet of it on the Daily Mail news website.

But Judge Rook said the Mail had put it in the context of a critical news article, while the full video had been recklessly posted online by Hamid and could have persuaded some to support terrorism.

Support: Radical preacher Anjem Choudary ( EPA/ANDY RAIN) / EPA/ANDY RAIN

In his online rants, Hamid said women know you place and position, and said no people will ever succeed who appoint a woman as their leader.

In another post, he suggested: Moderate Muslims are really non-Muslims, pure sell-outs and traitors. When Sharia is implemented worldwide, moderate cockroaches will be smoked out, they will be exterminated, and incinerated.

He posted a picture of hate preacher Anjem Choudary , who was jailed earlier this year for encouraging his followers to support Islamic State.

Hamid also branded Western people as evil, hypocrites, narcissists, arrogant, and devils on his Facebook page.

Naeem Mian, defending, urged the judge to pass a suspended sentence so that Hamid could attended programmes aimed at de-radicalisation.

He said Hamid needed to get out more and a spell behind bars may make the problem worse, as he will be locked up with other Muslim extremists.

He will be exposed to individuals far more entrenched in the extremist ideological approach, presenting us with a greater problems so far as Mr Hamid is concerned, he said.

Mr Mian also said Hamid, who has obsessive compulsive disorder and depression, has medical conditions that would make prison a living nightmare.

Hamid, of Harts Lane, Barking, moved to the UK from Bangladesh as a small child and left school with no qualifications, the court heard.

He pleaded guilty to disseminating a terrorist publication, and will serve half his sentence before being considered for release.
T wo "prolific" thieves who snatched dozens of high-performance vehicles from upmarket homes have been jailed for eight years.

Nathan Dale, 30, of East Ham and Jordan McKenzie-Pryce, 31 of Streatham swiped BMWs, Audis and Porsches after they raided 26 properties across south London within the space of a year.

Police said the burglars crept into affluent homes while residents slept and swiped their car keys before they fled in the stolen vehicles.

The men were arrested at Dales home in St Georges Court in August after detectives identified them driving stolen cars on false registration plates.

Jailed: Nathan Dale was sentenced to eight years in prison at Kingston Crown Court / Met Police

McKenzie-Pryce was arrested when police arrived at the property but Dale fled to a nearby block of flats and made a bid to evade police five hours later before he was detained.

Three high-powered stolen motorbikes with plates were also recovered at the home.

Sentenced: Jordan McKenzie-Pryce received the same jail term / Met Police

Five months before the arrest, officers from the London Crime Squad launched Operation Chavanel in response to a series of linked raids across Merton, Kingston, Sutton, Wandsworth and Surrey.

On Friday, the pair were jailed for eight years after they admitted conspiracy to commit 26 residential burglaries and handling stolen goods at Kingston Crown Court.

Recovered: Police found three stolen motorbikes when they arrested the pair / Met Police

The crimes took place between August 25 last year and August 2.

Detective sergeant Damian Hill, from the London Crime Squad, said: "Dale and McKenzie-Pryce were prolific burglars, creeping into homes across south-east London while the occupants were asleep to steal expensive and powerful vehicles.

"They caused a great deal of distress and inconvenience to their victims and I am pleased they have been imprisoned."
A young man died after being gunned down in front of horrified shoppers in Kilburn as he crossed a busy high street.

Witnesses described how the victim, aged in his early 20s, staggered to the pavement and collapsed outside a cafe after being shot in the stomach yesterday.

Police sealed off a 200 yard stretch of Kilburn High Road as paramedics battled to save his life for 20 minutes, while scores of armed officers swarmed surrounding streets as they hunted the gunmen who were seen to flee down a side road into a housing estate.

The victim, named locally as Yasir, was said to have been accompanied by an older woman and a younger boy - thought to be relatives - when he was struck by a single shot.

A witness decribes the aftermath of the shooting in Kilburn

One witness, takeaway worker Yosif, 27, said there was a single loud bang.

He said: I assumed hed been hit by a car because he looked disorientated and was wobbling.

Police at the scene of the shooting in Kilburn / Lucy Young

He was with an older woman and a younger boy. They were crying around his body, utterly distraught.

A friend of the victim said he had been trying to turn his life around after being stabbed in a separate violent incident in Kilburn last year.

Bruno Tampo, 22, who runs a charity mentoring young people into work, said: He got stabbed last year. Hed just recovered from that and I think hed just moved in to a new place.

Shooting: Police and paramedics at the scene / Swift Cars

When I found out hed been shot I crumbled.

Yasir had such a good heart. Its crazy what happened to him. He was a good friend.

A spokesman for the Met said detectives from the Homicide and Major Crime Command are investigating, and no-one had yet been arrested.

The killing comes three days after trainee gas engineer Salim Coulter, 24, was shot dead as he climbed into the passenger seat of a friends car in Fulham, four miles away.

Police said the gunman was lying in wait for Mr Coulter outside Jerkys Jamaican restaurant in Walham Grove before blasting him in the head at close range.

Anyone with information is asked to call officers via 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111
A Tube pervert has been handed a suspended sentence after using a homemade camera hidden in a glasses case to film up the skirts of 34 women.

Martin Seaman roamed the Underground system, placing his camera between women's legs to snap the filthy footage.

The 55-year-old, of Rectory Road, Dagenham, was snared by undercover police who saw him acting oddly on the Piccadilly Line.

Officers noticed that, each time he got on board a train, it was behind a woman wearing a short skirt or dress.

Following him onto a train, they noticed him sliding his rucksack with a camera sticking out of the top between a victim's legs.

When he was arrested, shocked officers discovered he had created the camera himself using a phone battery and a glasses case.

After downloading the contents of his camera, they found a hoard of 17 videos showing upskirt footage of 34 women.

Checks revealed Seaman had previously been banned from travelling on the Underground with a camera.

On Wednesday at Blackfriars Crown Court, he was handed an eight-month sentence for breaching that order, and another eight months after admitting outraging public decency. Both were suspended for two years.

Officer in charge of the investigation PC Graham Evans, from British Transport Police, said: This man clearly set out with an aim to use his own homemade device that he had created for this vile purpose to pry on women in an extremely intrusive way."

Siwan Hayward, TfLs Head of Transport Policing, said: No one should be subjected to unwanted sexual behaviour and anyone who does experience it should report it immediately.

"It is due to the hard work with our policing colleagues, including specialist investigations and increasing presence, that this man was caught and convicted."
S adiq Khan praised London as a global capital of filmmaking as he said 50 productions were being made here on any given day.

The mayor presented the Editors Award to the Harry Potter spin-off Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them - a film he said that speaks for London.

He said: This film may be set on the streets of 1920s New York but it was filmed right here in the UK as more and more films are every year.

"On any given day there are around 50 productions being filmed in London. It is the third biggest film making city in the world after LA and New York.

Award winners: Mayor of London Sadiq Khan poses with Josh Berger and David Heyman, accepting the Editor's Award for "Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them" / Dave Benett

"Tonights award goes to a film that is full of technical innovations and achieved huge commercial success, which most importantly speaks to the values Londoners hold dear. The values of diversity, openness and acceptance.

Evening Standard Film Awards 2016: Winners 1 /22 Evening Standard Film Awards 2016: Winners Kate Beckinsale, winner of the Best Actress award for "Love & Friendship" Dave Benett Hugh Grant, winner of the Best Actor award for "Florence Foster Jenkins" Dave Benett Florence Pugh, winner of the Breakthrough Of The Year award Dave Benett Presenters Luke Treadaway (L) and Vanessa Kirby (R) pose with Hayley Squires, Rebecca O'Brien and David Johns, accepting the Best Film award for "I, Daniel Blake" Dave Benett/Getty Images Harvey Weinstein (C), accepting the Best International Film of the Year award for "Lion" Dave Benett Kate Beckinsale, winner of the Best Actress award for "Love & Friendship" Dave Benett/Getty Images Kate Beckinsale, winner of the Best Actress award for "Love & Friendship" Dave Benett Kate Beckinsale, winner of the Best Actress award for "Love & Friendship" Dave Benett Natalie Dormer (L) and Arinze Kene, winner of the Best Supporting Actor award for "The Pass" Dave Benett Mayor of London Sadiq Khan (C) poses with Josh Berger (L) and David Heyman, accepting the Editor's Award for "Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them" Dave Benett Guy Hibbert, winner of the Best Screenplay award for "Eye In The Sky", and presenter Suki Waterhouse Dave Benett Helen Fielding, winner of the Peter Sellers Award for Comedy, and presenter Ed Balls Dave Benett Sir Bob Geldof (L) and Fisher Stevens, winner of the Best Documentary award for "Before The Flood" Dave Benett Florence Pugh, winner of the Breakthrough of the Year award, and presenter Zawe Ashton Dave Benett Max Richter, winner of the Technical Achievement award Dave Benett Hayley Squires, winner of the Best Supporting Actress award for "I, Daniel Blake" Dave Benett Kate Beckinsale, winner of the Best Actress award for "Love & Friendship", and presenter Danny Huston Dave Benett

He also heaped praise on its creator JK Rowling, describing her as one of our countrys finest ambassadors.

He said: She is also someone who has used her talents for the public good. Im delighted her screenwriting debut has turned out to be such a success.

Handing over the award to Warner Bros UK boss Josh Berger, the mayor told the audience: Josh is originally from the United States. So Josh if there are any more talented Americans like you who for whatever reason might feel more at home here in London. My message is simple - London is open.
A Londoner has shot to internet fame after recording his trips to fried chicken shops in search of the capital's "pengest munch".

The reviewer, known as The Chicken Connoisseur, visits fast-food restaurants around the city and gives suprisingly detailed feedback on their food in a series of hilarious YouTube videos.

Sampling a standard meal of wings, burger and chips in each eatery, he describes himself as "a food critic for mandem who care to know what the finest chicken restaurants in London are and where to find them."

He appears to avoid the big-name chains and instead chooses smaller, independent fried chicken shops for his reviews.

When the Connoisseur is a fan of a particular item, he brands it "peng" - a slang word for great.

With a passion for BBQ sauce and "creps" - slang for trainers - his blunt and entertaining critiques have totted up tens of thousands of views.

Chicken fan: The fast food enthusiast has racked up thousands of hits / @4wings_please

He slammed one shop in Tottenham for not having his choice condiment, saying: "Man didn't even have burger sauce. How can I respect you?"

And added: "The Hotspurs aren't the only mediocre disappointment in Tottenham.

"The highly spoken of Chick King really wasn't saying much. Been gassed up for years so my expectations were high and the delivery was lacking all kinds of flavour."

He published a particularly scathing review of a restaurant in Edgware Road where he described the service as "shambolic".

"I asked man for BBQ sauce," he said. "He was like yeh how much do you want. I asked for three, he said I'll give you one. Wagwan?

"The chips were okay. They were pretty crisp I cant lie about that. Bare different sizes so there was a bit of hassle getting them in the BBQ sauce."

His top quotes Chick King, Tottenham: "Flavour was dead. And something that did catch me off-guard, man definitely chewed on a bone." Chicken Valley, Edgware Road: "Bare hype in the shop, but everything was dead." Dallas, Waterloo: "The wings were seriously a peng ting. The chips were nang. Burger was sick  the assembly was on point." Dixy, Tufnell Park: "#Deadting Need I say more." Edens Cottage, Finsbury Park: "The wings:that flaky crispy skin on them  the way man breaded, he knows his business." Taste of Tenessee, Old Street: "Two wings  bossman blessed it, gave me a third."

The "flaky" wings covered in pepper were likened to "dead hair" and the shop was dismissed as being "dead".

"If you got your hair freshly trimmed lets say a week ago and you havent combed it since," The Chicken Connoisseur says to the camera.

"Them ones, them pepper grains is what the wings look like.

"The burger? Bare lettuce. First time it came out there was bare mayo as well. I told him no mayo. Wasteman. Man takes me for a dunce."

A shop in Waterloo was rated much more highly.

He said: "The wings were seriously a peng ting. The chips were nang. Burger was sick  the assembly was on point.

"The fillet was a serious ting  the thickness was there. Bossman did well."

And offering practical advice for eager visitors, he added: "Slight issue - you cant turn up here with a squad coz there's no space.

"Then again they have stuff outside but if its raining outside or the weather is peak then its just a myth."

The witty food critic has been inundated with praise on his YouTube account and Twitter - with one viewer describing him as an "innovative, enterprising, witty, likeable young man".

Another fan wrote: "I'm dying just from the description of this vid. You've got genuine comedic talent g hope you go far."
C HRISTMAS is coming, the goose is getting fat, please put a penny in a poor hacks hat. The new issue of Right-wing mag Standpoint features a leader penned by editor Daniel Johnson which advises readers to give Donald Trump the benefit of the doubt. Then comes the crunch: Johnson writes that Standpoints survival is threatened by a lack of funds and asks for donors. It would be a pity if 2017, which promises to be no less dramatic than 2016, were to be our last after 10 years. In case you are wondering where you should send your coppers, the plea goes on: Donors should contact Michael Mosbacher, our managing editor. His email address is given.

Two things are curious about this. The first is that Standpoints own advisory board is pretty prominent  it includes names such as David Hockney, Tom Stoppard, the entrepreneur Luke Johnson (a relative), Lord Lawson and Michael Gove, and if they didnt have the money themselves for the cause, surely they have some rich friends.

The second is that Standpoint is one of the few publications to have sung the praises of Trump. Its contributors have included former UN ambassador John Bolton and climate sceptic Myron Ebell among them, yet this didnt translate into a rise in sales.

The Londoner also wondered if the New Statesman was struggling. It recently sent out an email pushing for more subscribers but editor Jason Cowley says his is not a begging cap. Magazine circulation at a four-decade high at 35k, web traffic at record high  20 million page views in June alone  and we have just posted our first profit in a long while at Companies House. Even better, we are hiring four new journalists. He even adds that Brexit has done wonders for the NSs numbers  an upside at last?

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Yvette Cooper must have no nails left after her husband Ed Balls took to the dancefloor every week on Strictly, hilariously beating the odds and staying in despite his unorthodox style. It always had that edge of danger  you never knew quite what might go wrong, Yvette told me at last nights British Film Awards. Will you make history by being the first husband and wife to feature in consecutive years? That would be fabulous to do, said Yvette. But I dont think its possible for anyone to keep up with what Eds done.

Gentlemens club tackles troublemakers

THE Garrick Club has one reason to keep out female members: they cause too much trouble. The latest club magazine reports that CCTV picked up an unfortunate incident involving an invited woman guest.The club installed the cameras in the Irving Room, named after actor and member Henry Irving, in a recent revamp. It came in handy in the summer to [record] a bizarre incident, the article notes. A lady guest who was rather the worse for wear [performed] a... rugby tackle on a distinguished club member, bringing him to the ground. If anyone can identify this female Owen Farrell, do drop us an email.

After the show, let drink flow

Fuelled by the magnums of Moet & Chandon at Claridges, the Standards British Film Awards moved on for a late-night gathering at Soho House on Dean Street. Among those who arrived for the after-party clutching their Jo Loves candle goodie-bag were entrepreneur Jean-Bernard Fernandez-Versini, actors Danny Huston, Luke Treadaway, Emma Greenwell and Paul Donovan. Greenwell was rocking the Heidi look: The hair is detracting from my dress, she commented. Versini proved that hes more than just a pretty face. Im familiar with whats going on in the world. Like in France, people voted for Francois Hollande because he spoke their language  I wont be surprised if Marine Le Pen gets elected. Fresh off the stage after appearing in The Libertine, Ophelia Lovibond was understanding after we accidentally confused her name. Dont worry  my own mother calls me Olivia sometimes. Im like Mum  its Ophelia.

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LAST night staff and friends of The Tablet, the Catholic weekly newspaper, held their Christmas party at The Travellers Club, with attendees including former editor John Wilkins, Andrew Brown from The Guardian and author John Cornwell knocking back unconsecrated wine. The Londoner was reminded that this was the party at which legendary journalist Paul Johnson once commented it was the one party in London where you stand any chance of finding a virgin.

Why Gove is not for Turnering on arts

MICHAEL Goves attack on the Turner Prize in his Times column today is only the latest in a series of run-ins with the art world. The MP called the prize modish crap for neglecting painting.Gove, right, a former Education Secretary, faced the scorn of Sir Nicholas Serota for his attempts to marginalise arts in the curriculum.Also, artist Patrick Brill, known as Bob and Roberta Smith, challenged Gove as an independent candidate in his Surrey Heath constituency in the general election but only won 273 votes. The Turner loves controversy: We are delighted that this years exhibition continues to inspire discussion.

Champers all round (Soho) for Ludovic

TO THE glitz and glamour of 1920s New York last night for the opening of The Great Gatsby at the Leicester Square Theatre. Cressida Bonas stars as Daisy Buchanan, while Ludovic Hughes is Jay Gatsby. Hughes has come a long way: last year he was winner of the annual Soho Waiters Race, in which local staff carry a tray of champagne around the streets of Soho. Now the champagne is chasing him.
B oris Johnsons allies reacted furiously today after a Tory grandee suggested he should be axed as Foreign Secretary if he does not rein in his outspoken public comments.

Former Foreign Secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind backed Theresa May for rebuking Mr Johnson after he accused British ally Saudi Arabia of being behind proxy wars.

He hinted that the former Mayor of London is more dangerous than dull as Foreign Secretary and that he might end up being more comfortable in another senior Cabinet position.

While praising Mr Johnson for his intellect, Sir Malcolm stressed: As a Foreign Secretary you cant be a celebrity.

The jurys out, if I can put it that way. This is early days. Its a question of his temperament.

But the intervention by the former Kensington MP drew a stinging riposte from Mr Johnsons allies.

One said: Mr Rifkind wasnt exactly the best Foreign Secretary this country has ever had and should go back to whatever he is doing these days and stop sniping from the sidelines.

Another Johnson ally said: Sir Malcolms suggestion to move him would be nonsensical.

What Boris has to say about Saudi Arabia is spot on and 99 per cent of the country will agree with him.

Its quite refreshing to have a senior politician who from time to time is prepared to speak his mind and tell the truth.

Mr Johnson was heading to Bahrain today to deliver a speech at a major regional conference before flying on to Saudi Arabia on Sunday.

British diplomats will be keen to smooth over any turbulence with Riyadh after the Foreign Secretary told an event in Rome last week that both Saudi Arabia and Iran were puppeteering and playing proxy wars.

Downing Street insisted this was his personal view and not the Governments, while saying the Prime Minister still had full confidence in him.

Mr Johnsons allies criticised No10s distancing itself from his comments, with one saying it was a ridiculous attempt to belittle a member of the Cabinet.

Mrs May spoke with Saudi King Salman during her visit to the Persian Gulf this week and assured him of the Governments commitment to enhancing and strengthening this relationship, despite the desert kingdoms controversial military intervention in Yemen.

Sir Malcolm said appointing Mr Johnson as Foreign Secretary had been a gamble by Mrs May, though most of his embarrassments so far have been down to comments made before he took up the post.

However, the Tory grandee added: If Boris has views which are not currently Government policy, then he is in a better position than almost anyone else in the United Kingdom to change that foreign policy, or to try and persuade the Prime Minister to change it.

What he is not entitled to do is to make public statements, at a major event in Rome, which are completely at variance with what the Governments line is.

He must have known that - at least he ought to have known that - and he shouldnt have done it.

The Foreign Office has stressed that Mr Johnson had made clear that Britain is an ally of Saudi Arabia and supported it in its efforts to secure its borders and protect its people.
T he Duchess of York has pleaded with people to "stop bullying her daughters Beatrice and Eugenie during a visit to London.

She was speaking as her daughters became patrons of the Teenage Cancer Trust, calling their "hard work" an example of "good parenting".

The Duchess and the two princesses visited a specialist teen cancer unit in London to mark the occasion, meeting young people with the disease.

But, during the appearance, Sarah sought to defend her daughters from people who have criticised their public roles.

Visit: The trio met young cancer patients and their families / PA

She said: Let's focus more on this and less on tittle-tattle gossip.

"Stop bullying the York family, please."

Her plea came just a month after Prince Harry made an appeal for people to leave new girlfriend Meghan Markle in peace.

The Prince claimed Miss Markle been the subject to a wave of abuse and harassment including racist and sexist slurs by social media trolls.

On Friday, Sarah said: "Both the Duke and myself, we could not be more proud of this moment because these are two girls that work so hard in their own careers, have taken time off today to spread the word of teen cancer, which is so important, and then go back to work.

The plea came after Prince Harry warned about the treatment of girlfriend Meghan Markle (Getty Images) / Robin Marchant/Getty Images

"It's really an extraordinary example that, I think, good parenting and listening to your children and getting them to take responsibility for their own actions."

The Teenage Cancer Trust provides specialist care and support for young people with cancer, giving them the chance to connect with others of the same age.

Beatrice spent time talking to Harry Sadler at the University College Hospital unit, who has been diagnosed with a rare form of brain cancer.

They visited the Teenage Cancer Trust's young persons unit at University College Hospital, London / PA

The 17-year-old said the princess was polite and "vibrant", and he added: "She listened to me."

Beatrice was in turn inspired by the Colchester student, saying: "His strength taught me so much. I learnt a huge lesson today from Harry."

Mr Sadler said he likes to think positively, and does not listen to everything doctors say. "I'm a very strong believer in mind over matter," he said. "Statistics are just numbers. Humans are so much more than numbers."

Patient Elias Taylor, 20, said of the visit: "I didn't feel like I was talking to royalty. It's nice because they're quite similar in age to me."

The student relapsed after originally being diagnosed with cancer aged 16, and has been undergoing treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. He has taken a break from his business management degree in Birmingham to have the treatment.

The unit where Mr Taylor has been staying is designed for young people, with a living room, gaming equipment and a jukebox.

He joked: "I would love to meet a couple of Arsenal players but I'll take royalty."

Teenage Cancer Trust chief Siobhan Dunn said it is crucial for the charity to raise more funds.

"Right now, for every young person we reach there's another we can't, but we are determined to change that," she said.

"Sarah, Duchess of York, has been the most extraordinary supporter of Teenage Cancer Trust over the years.

"She has been with us from day one and we're so grateful for her introducing Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie to the charity."
A Times journalist claims he is being deported by Kenyan authorities after he was detained at Nairobi airport "without explanation".

Jerome Starkey, the newspapers Africa correspondent, said he was arrested at Nairobi airport on Thursday and held overnight in a series of tweets.

He said he was given no explanation behind his detention as his phone was confiscated while he claimed officials told him security agencies had put a "block" on his passport.

On Friday, he tweeted he was being deported from the country after more than 24 hours in detention without access to a lawyer.

In a statement published by the Sun, he said: The immigration officer noticed something on her computer and led me to a side room.

They said there was a security block on my passport, which had been put there by Kenyan security services.

I have no idea why I am being held, nor has anyone proffered any kind of explanation. As far as I am aware, I havent been charged.

Rono Burnei, the deputy police chief in charge of all Kenyan airports, said Mr Starkey was held over immigration issues.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) described the detention as outrageous and demanded Mr Starkey to be released immediately.

Murithi Mutiga, the groups East Africa representative, said: It is utterly outrageous to arrest a journalist without any explanation or clear cause.

Mr Starkey has lived in Kenya since 2012 when he was appointed Africa correspondent after years working in Afghanistan.

The Times has not responded to requests for a comment.

Additional reporting by Associated Press
A merican actor Judge Reinhold has been arrested after clashing with police at an airport in Dallas.

The 59-year-old star of 80s cult films including Beverley Hills Cop was held over disorderly conduct at Dallas Love Field, police said.

Officers claimed he refused to go through security screening and resisted a pat-down search.

The actors lawyers have disputed the allegations and said he successfully passed the Transportation Security Administration scanner and was stopped only after his bag raised an alarm, according to the Dallas Morning News.

Loading....

The attorney added that the actor did not understand why he needed to be searched after he had gone through the scanner without incident.

Film star: Judge Reinhold starred in Beverley Hills Cop / Paramount

If convicted Reinhold could be slapped with a $500 (395) fine.
Review at a glance









 Well, I cant stop working cause I like to work when nothing else is going on, is how Neil Young explains his restless creativity on his 37th studio album (and 88th addition to his archive).

Its bad for the body but its good for the soul/ Might even keep you breathing when you lose control.

The Canadian songwriter has been prolific to the point of scattershot in recent years but after his recent field recordings of amphibians (Earth, 2016) and album-length screeds against agribusiness (The Monsanto Years, 2015) here is a return to the sort of angry, soulful, scrappy mode of Zuma or Rust Never Sleeps  thick, thrashy, minor-chord rock interspersed with deceptive acoustic ballads.

The battle raging on the sacred land at Standing Rock in North Dakota has re-animated his Native American sympathies; Indian Givers aims straight at the corporate greed and hypocrisy that occasioned the Dakota Access Pipeline protests.

John Oak is one of those pick-up-truck tales you know will end in someone pulling a gun, while Terrorist Suicide Hang Gliders is an account of white paranoia in Trumpland.

Heavy-handed? A touch. But Young goes straight for the conscience and spirit  and that in the end is what leaves its mark.

New bassist Paul Bushnell and drummer Jim Keltner play like kindred spirits, and if the whole thing sounds like it was recorded in one take in a toolshed, well thats no bad thing.

(Reprise)
C arrie Fisher has denied saying that Harrison Ford is bad in bed after it emerged the pair had an affair.

The actress, who played Princess Leia Organa in the original Star Wars trilogy, revealed that she had an intense relationship with her co-star during the making of the 1977 film when she published her book The Princess Diarist.

Ford was married to his first wife Mary Marquardt at the time of the affair.

I had no idea it would cause such a sensation, she told Graham Norton.

Carrie Fisher on the Graham Norton Show / So TV

400,000 news sites picked up on it and it became a little embarrassing.

[The press] made a lot of things up which Ive now have to talk about  I never said he was bad in bed!"

Fisher told Norton that she feels guilty about taking their former romance public.

I do feel guilty, she said. I never thought about it before, but I guess he will be asked about the affair for the rest of his life!

Fisher said she sent Ford a copy of the book before it was published, and maintains that it paints him in a positive light.

He joked about sending for a lawyer, so he was aware of [the diaries] and I told him that if there was anything he didnt like he should let me know, she explained.

ES visit the new Star Wars Identities exhibition at the o2 Arena

I sent them to him and waited for him to get back to me. He is incredibly private and I am sure the whole thing bugged him but he comes out of it well.

Also on Nortons sofa in the latest instalment is artist Grayson Perry, Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain, QI presenter Sandi Toksvig, with music from Busted.

BBC One, 10.35pm
If youre an early bird, Al Shea has a hobby for you.

Shea, a birdwatcher for decades, will lead his annual winter tour Saturday morning to scout for birds along the shores of area lakes.

The no-cost, all-are-welcome tour is one of several ways this weekend to learn how to look and listen for the birds that share our Wisconsin winter.

Birding is one of the most popular hobbies in America, and according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Wisconsins rate of people who identify as birders is the second highest in the nation (tied with West Virginia). Madisons lakes, more specifically, attract birds in winter looking for meals in waters that have not yet frozen.

Sheas birdwatching trip, sponsored by Madison Audubon Society, focuses on those creatures.

Called Birding Madisons Lakes, the tour is designed for all levels, beginners through experts. Participants should meet at 7:30 a.m. Saturday in UW Parking Lot 60, located near UW Hospital, and will then carpool to several prime birding spots, returning to the lot at 11 a.m.

Shea has led the annual trip for more than 30 Decembers  rain, shine or snow.

It can be balmy, or it can be terrible weather-wise on these annual explorations, the retired Department of Natural Resources official said. The field trip notes say Dress warmly, to ward off a chill from winter winds off the lake. And bring something to view the birds with if you can.

Everybodys welcome. I especially like to get beginners and young folks, he said. Families are welcome. We usually have several expert birders besides myself on the trip, so weve got lots of folks that can help out beginners.

And thats really one of the purposes of Madison Audubon field trips  to introduce young and old to the wonders of nature, he said. Id really encourage new folks, even if they dont have binoculars, (because) I always bring an extra pair. People have field guides, so you dont need to know anything about birds  just have an interest.

Sheas birding tour is a prelude to the Christmas Bird Count, a yearly project sponsored by the national Audubon Society to count birds across North America. In Wisconsin, the effort is headed up by the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology, which helps to coordinate more than 100 Christmas Bird Count circles across the state.

Members of those circles fan out across assigned territories  this year from Wednesday through Jan. 5  to document the birds they see.

Less commitment is required on the guided, 90-minute Winter Birds Walk happening this Sunday at the arboretum.wisc.edu/" href="https://arboretum.wisc.edu/" target="_blank">UW Arboretum. No registration is required; participants should meet at the arboretums Visitor Center at 1 p.m. A second, 60-minute walk called Our Feathered Friends is geared toward families and is a great introduction to birding for children. It is also Sunday, starting at the Visitor Center at 1:30 p.m. More information is available online at arboretum.wisc.edu.

Madison Parks also sponsors a free Bird and Nature walk at Turville Point from 1:30-3:30 p.m. this Sunday. Learn about seeds that plants produce and their strategies for propagation.

Bird and Nature walks will also be held from 10-11:30 a.m. Dec. 17, in the Starkweather Creek area, starting at Goodman Community Center, and Dec. 18, from 1:30-3 p.m. at Warner Park. Details are online at www.cityofmadison.com/parks.

Madison Audubon welcomes in the new year with a Jan. 1 outing from 1:30 to 3 p.m. at Faville Grove, near Lake Mills. The free nature walk is family-friendly. More information on that and other Madison Audubon field trips is online at www.madisonaudubon.org/field-trips.

Shea plans out his Birding Madisons Lakes event each year by pre-scouting locations for birds. He might guide visitors to different lakeside sites each year, depending on where birds are most likely to be, but its never strenuous walking, he said. Usually our walks are from the parking lot, 10, 20 or 50 yards. If we walk out Picnic Point, thats a bit more of a walk, but not strenuous at all.

In 30-plus years weve seen over 100 species of birds, which for December is pretty impressive, he said.

We have seen harlequin ducks, which is an uncommon duck species in the state, as well as long-tailed duck, an uncommon migrant in the inland part of the state, Shea said. We have seen snowy owls, peregrine falcons. Bald eagles are routine on the trip. It didnt use to be that way, but with the resurgence of bald eagles in the state, Id say we see them every year along the lake shore. Weve (also) seen some uncommon gull species.

While a birding excursion can be fun and fascinating, Shea stresses that plenty of birds can be spotted even in urban backyards  just take the time to observe. Thats how Shea got interested  watching birds in the backyard with his mother when he was a boy growing up in Rochester, New York.

In college he roomed with an expert birder and really got hooked.

He and his roommate sometimes got up in the middle of the night and went owling, he said.

The cool thing about this field trip, and birding in general, is wherever you go, whenever you go, there are birds around.

Thats what makes birding so much fun and fascinating. You dont even have to leave your yard, said Shea, who has spotted or heard 138 different species in the yard of his own home, located in a subdivision north of Sun Prairie.

You dont have to go on an exotic trip, he said. Birds are everywhere.
A Columbus couple were arrested in a string of armed robberies across multiple jurisdictions over a month, ending with a robbery Sunday night, the Dane County Sheriff's Office said Friday.

Jacob Scheel, 32, and accomplice Nicole Nichols, 36, were arrested Monday, following a robbery the previous night at a Columbus Subway restaurant, according to the sheriff's office.

The string of robberies began Oct. 15 at a BP gas station in the town of Burke. Other armed robberies occurred in Marshall, Sun Prairie, DeForest, McFarland and the town of Dunn.

The Columbus police began investigating the Subway robbery and, finding almost no leads, turned to the Wisconsin Crime Alert Network, which is used to communicate between agencies, said Lt. Dennis Weiner. Within minutes, the Sun Prairie Police Department responded, saying officers there knew who had committed the robbery.

The two departments, along with others affected by the string of robberies, worked together to issue a search warrant for Scheel and Nichols' residence Monday night. The pair were arrested and taken to Columbia County Jail, Weiner said.

The suspects were identified after their blue Chrysler Sebring was spotted leaving McFarland moments after a BP station robbery, according to the Dane County Sheriff's Office.

Scheel is tentatively charged with 10 counts of armed robbery, while Nichols faces tentative charges of eight counts of being party to the crime of armed robbery. She admitted to driving Scheel to and from most of the robberies, the Dane County Sheriff's Office reported.

Speaking at a news conference Friday morning, Dane County Sheriff Dave Mahoney said Scheel has been truthful with investigators and believes he has not been involved in other robberies. Scheel admitted to committing an additional robbery in February 2015 in the town of Burke, Mahoney said.

Mahoney highlighted the importance of surveillance video in solving the crimes and encouraged businesses to install such equipment.

"Many of these cases could never be solved without businesses with video in them," Mahoney said.
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A strong smell of gasoline prompted a Walmart employee to call 911 Thursday, but the incident quickly became a non-incident when a customer said it was he who smelled of fuel.

It happened at about 4:30 p.m. at the store at 4198 Nakoosa Trail in Madison, the Fire Department said.

The smell was near the service desk, so the employee thought it could be a possible leak or a spill somewhere.

Arriving firefighters went up to the service desk at about the same time the customer met up with them.

"The gas smell is from me," the customer said.

"He told firefighters he was awaiting service at the counter when the Walmart employee reported the gasoline odor to 911," said fire department spokeswoman Cynthia Schuster. "He tried to grab her attention before the fire department was notified, but his attempts were unsuccessful."

The unidentified customer told firefighters he spilled some gasoline on the sleeve of his shirt when filling his car.

"Engine 8 confirmed the smell seemed to originate from his sleeve," Schuster said.

Air quality was checked at the service counter and no carbon monoxide, natural gas or oxygen displacement was found.
The only noticeable change at the old Davis Hospital site in the past four months has been the height of the weeds.

A sturdy fence is up now and the piles of asbestos-filled rubble are gone, thanks to the efforts of the Environmental Protection Agency, which completed its efforts on Aug. 5.

But the Superfund site on West End Avenue continues to be an eyesore and potential health hazard in the community.

We are continuing to work on it, said Iredell County Manager Ron Smith. Although weve primarily been dealing with the EPA and (property owner) Mr. (Fred) Godley, were in continuing talks to get this thing resolved.

Godley refused to comment for this story.

Iredell County, the City of Statesville and Mitchell Community College jointly agreed to purchase the property from Godley for $404,000 in March 2015 with the intent to build a new health science center for the college.

State inspectors are requiring Godley to remove all debris and buildings, which contain a large amount of asbestos, from the site before allowing construction to begin.

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, which shut down demolition in October 2015, has not received any asbestos abatement permit applications for the property, according to Kate Murphy, media relations manager for DHHS.

The EPA became involved in the project in June to help remove the hazardous waste from the portion of the building that was demolished. Nearly $2 million was allocated for the cleanup efforts, but the organization only spent $500,000.

Any future EPA involvement isnt known, but the unused money is no longer budgeted for old Davis, according to the Public Affairs Specialist for U.S. EPA Region 4, Davina Marraccini.

The EPA has completed the removal action, Marraccini said. Any leftover funding is returned to the region and allocated to address other sites.

Earlier this year, the county agreed to provide $50,000 of the $404,000 sale price to help Godley clear the land. Godley has used $20,000 of that money for a fence, project design, labor and materials, according to invoices sent to the county in January and February.

No further invoices have been submitted, Smith said.
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The Miracle of The Kurds

By: Stephen Mansfield

Worthy Publishing; First Edition (third printing) edition (October 14, 2014)

272 pages

The Miracle of The Kurds is, in some ways, a love story. It is one writers encounter and experiences with a people that he has come to love. The Kurds are an ancient people, that have endured one atrocity after another. The world talks little about them, and no modern state will claim them. Yet they preserve, and flourish, in a culture that is all their own. Read this book, and fall in love with a beautiful people.

Two of my favorite quotes:

I slowly began to understand something of what had allowed the Kurds to endure the horrendous seasons of their history. Each of them belonged to a system of human connections that had come before them and would survive them, something living and God-given and more important than any one of their lives at any one point in time.

It was what the young writer said next, as he shook my hand at the entrance to my hotel, that has never left me. He could tell I was swimming in a million facts and a thousand bits of conversation. He wanted to cut through it all. What you must know he said kindly, but with piercing seriousness, is that Kurdistan is what America wanted Iraq to be. Kurdistan is Americas reward.
Coast Guard policemen tackled on Thursday evening a group of 28 Iraqis, among whom nine minors, who were trying to illegally cross the border from Bulgaria, on foot, through a forested area, at about 75 km south-west of Constanta.

According to a press release sent to agerpres on Friday, on 8 December 2016, around 18:30, Coast Guard - Negru Voda Sector policemen detained a group made up of 28 persons who were going on foot, in the field, from Bulgaria to Romania, near the Dumbraveni border locality.

"In the first check-ups, the persons in question declared they are Iraqi citizens, 19 adults aged between 18 and 41, and 9 minors, the youngest being 1 year old, and that they planned on reaching a state in Western Europe," the Coast Guard release reads.

According to the source, at the end of the specific check-ups, the necessary measures will be taken to enforce the bilateral protocol, aimed at handing over the Iraqi citizens to the Bulgarian authorities, to continue the investigations and take the legal measures.
A man who was convicted of buying heroin that caused the death of a Waupun man, who was left unconscious to die in a van along a rural Stoughton road in February, was sentenced Thursday to four years in prison.

The sentence for Wyatt Staff, 21, delivered by Dane County Circuit Judge Josann Reynolds, equaled the one that she gave the man who sold the fatal heroin dose to Staff on Feb. 10. Staff then shared it with Joshua M. Strate, 32, and David J. Beloungy, 21, both of Waupun.

Strate and Beloungy both became unconscious immediately. Staff told police he panicked, pulled Strate from the drivers seat of the van they were in and drove the van back to the town of Pleasant Springs. He left it on a side road, where it was found by a passer-by early the next morning. Beloungy survived his overdose, while Strate died.

To be able to push someone out of the drivers seat, and then not go to the hospital, said Strates brother, Jordan Strate. Then drive 30 minutes and leave them for dead. Thats not right.

Strate and Beloungy, traveling from Waupun, had called Staff to help them find heroin. He took them to the Microtel Inn, 2139 East Springs Drive, where he bought heroin from Christopher T. Jenkins, and took it outside to the parking lot, where Strate and Beloungy used it and fell unconscious.

Police quickly arrested Staff, who lived near where the van was found. He agreed to wear a wire during a controlled heroin purchase from Jenkins. In June, he testified at Jenkins trial. Jenkins was convicted of first-degree reckless homicide, second-degree reckless endangerment and drug delivery. He received a four-year prison sentence.

Staff drew praise for his help in convicting Jenkins. But a week after pleading guilty in August to first-degree reckless homicide as part of a plea agreement, Staff was arrested while arranging another heroin sale while he was free on bail.

Mr. Staff, you are a challenge, Reynolds said. I share your attorneys and the states admiration for your willingness to wear a wire and for testifying at Mr. Jenkins trial. None of that had to be easy.

But she said she was disappointed in his arrest a week after his guilty plea, for doing the exact same thing that brought you here.

I can tell you, any hope of probation went down the drain with that, Reynolds said.

Staffs lawyer, Chris Van Wagner, asked for probation with a year in the Dane County Jail as a condition of probation. He said sending Staff to prison after he had testified against Jenkins would be dangerous for Staff.

Assistant District Attorney Adrienne Blais asked for a sentence between three and five years. She said Staff committed an utterly selfish act and a cowardly act and an ugly, ugly thing by abandoning Strate and Beloungy. Blais also said it was a monstrous thing that Staff did, but what heroin does is creates monsters.

Staff, who is addicted to heroin, has been in and out of treatment several times in recent years. Van Wagner said Staff began abusing drugs at 14, but after time in jail awaiting his sentence, hes become clean.

Staff said that now that hes clean, his emotion is back and my head is straight. I dont want to lose this feeling. He said he did not want to go to prison, and would work hard to stay sober.

Reynolds also ordered Staff to spend 10 years on extended supervision after his release from prison and said he must write letters of apology to each of Strates six children, who run in age from 4 months to 13 years.
Bob Sullivan thinks Peabody Energys executives are poor-mouthing their own company.

Sullivan, a longtime energy investor based in Massachusetts, owns 358,100 shares and worries that Peabodys management is in a hurry to declare those shares worthless.

In an attempt to keep that from happening, Sullivan and Kopernik Global Advisors, a Tampa, Fla., hedge fund, asked a U.S. bankruptcy trustee to appoint a committee to represent shareholders. Their request was turned down this week, as was a separate request on behalf of Mangrove Partners, a New York hedge fund.

Sullivan called the trustees ruling disappointing but added, It doesnt change anything in terms of the value thats there. Were going to have to look at how we react to it.

He and other shareholders could still file a motion asking Judge Barry Schermer, whos overseeing Peabodys Chapter 11 bankruptcy, to appoint a committee to represent them. Nathaniel August, Mangroves president, said he had no comment on the trustees ruling.

Peabody has been in bankruptcy since April and is due to file a reorganization plan next week. It has said it expects existing shares to be canceled.

Equity committee appointments are rare because when a company goes broke theres usually no value for shareholders. In a few recent cases, however, judges recognized that rising energy prices have changed things in shareholders favor.

Martin Bienenstock, the New York lawyer representing Sullivan and Kopernik, was successful in getting an equity committee appointed two months ago at Breitburn Energy Partners, a bankrupt oil and gas producer.

Sullivan argues that rising coal prices have created substantial value at Peabody.

His analysis, contained in Bienenstocks letter to the trustees office, starts with a business plan that Peabody filed this summer. That plan, he says, dramatically understates the companys worth.

Metallurgical coal prices in Asia, a key market for Peabodys Australian mines, have tripled since April. Thermal coal, which is burned in power plants, also is sharply higher.

In my view, theres quite a bit of value for equity holders, Sullivan said in a telephone interview. Its clear based on where the market has moved.

His estimates are astounding. He says Peabodys shares could be worth from $243 to $558 a share, compared with Thursdays price of $13.62. The shares were under $2 until October, when Mangrove disclosed its interest.

Sullivans arithmetic implies a value of up to $10 billion for a company that, until recently, appeared hopelessly insolvent. Whats more, he says management knew the market was improving when it wrote the business plan.

If you look at the business plan, and compare it with what they were looking at prior to bankruptcy  theyve really lowered their expectations in the face of a better coal market, Sullivan says.

Why would Peabody executives lowball the value? Sullivan didnt want to speculate about motive, but executives typically are rewarded for a speedy exit from bankruptcy. Keeping pesky shareholders out of the process would help move things along.

Then theres the possibility of a payday later on. If executives receive new shares or options at a depressed price, their potential gains are larger.

Whatever the reason, Bienenstocks letter argues that managements actions have been entirely inconsistent with the interests of the debtors shareholders.

The only remedy, he says, is to appoint an equity committee.

Such a decision would make the bankruptcy more adversarial and could delay Peabodys reorganization, which the company had hoped to complete next spring.

In extreme cases, such as chemical company Solutia a decade ago, haggling with an equity committee can drag things out for years.

Sullivan insists that Peabody contains plenty of value for creditors and shareholders alike. If hes right, his shares could be worth up to $200 million. For now, hes fighting to keep them from being worth zero.
When executives from Chipotle Mexican Grill delivered a bleak outlook for the chain during an investment conference Tuesday, attendees steered the discussion toward a would-be savior: Bill Ackman.

The activist investor, who runs hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management, became Chipotles largest shareholder in September, with an almost 10 percent stake. Hes working with the company to remake the board and reverse a roughly 50 percent stock drop following a food-safety crisis last year.

In stepping in to help turn around a restaurant brand, Ackman is following an increasingly common script. About 14 percent of the industrys publicly traded companies with a market value of at least $100 million have attracted an activist shareholder, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That group includes Buffalo Wild Wings, Yum Brands and Bob Evans Farms.

Poor performance has given activists a problem they think they can fix. U.S. same-store sales dropped 0.6 percent at restaurants in October, following the worst third quarter in six years, according to MillerPulse data.

Activists get involved in the restaurant space because, in many cases, theres a playbook thats been written on creating value, said Peter Saleh, an analyst at BTIG in New York. Dining companies are easy to understand, and a lot of them have seen their value decline, he said.

Such investors typically buy a large number of a public companys shares and pressure management to make changes they believe will boost shareholder returns. Globally, activist hedge funds managed about $123 billion last year, almost double the amount in 2012, according to Hedge Fund Research Inc.

Several see promise in restaurants:

 Marcato Capital Management, a hedge fund run by Mick McGuire, has a stake of about 5.2 percent in Buffalo Wild Wings. The firm reiterated this week that it would push for changes at the eatery, which has suffered declining same-store sales. The stock, down 12 percent this year before the stake was announced, rebounded and was up 6.2 percent for the year through Tuesday.

 Sandell Asset Management has called for Bob Evans to split off its packaged-foods business. Sandell, which won a proxy fight with the company in 2014 leading to a board and management shake-up, said the unit could be worth $1.2 billion and selling it would let Bob Evans focus on core assets. Bob Evans said this week that it is working with JPMorgan Chase to evaluate opportunities.

 Keith Meisters Corvex Management successfully campaigned Yum Brands to separate its struggling China unit to focus on improving U.S. operations. At the end of October, the owner of KFC spun off the new company, Yum China Holdings Inc., which trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker YUMC.

 Engaged Capital, which along with JCP Investment Management pushed smoothie maker Jamba almost two years ago to cut expenses and find more franchisees, increased its stake over the summer. Fiesta Restaurant Group Inc. and Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Inc. are also currently dealing with activist shareholders.

Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, whose stock has tumbled 24 percent in the past year, may be the next target, BTIGs Saleh said. Denny Marie Post was named CEO in August, and the company more recently said its either closing or rebranding its fast-casual locations, after failing to keep pace with peers.

Other U.S. dining chains have seen their stock slide in value during the past 12 months including Noodles & Co., Papa Murphys Holdings and Ruby Tuesday. Fast-food and casual-dining eateries reported slowing sales last quarter, with many citing anxiety over the U.S. presidential election and cheaper prices at the supermarket.

That may spark more activist interest, according to Jim Sanderson, managing director and analyst at Arthur W. Wood Co.

Youve got grocery price deflation and a lot more choice in packaged foods, Sanderson said. It really replaces a lot of meals consumers might have turned to restaurants in the past for.

Private equity firms, which typically have a three- to five-year term on their investments, often look for a distressed company that has stabilized, so youre not bleeding cash dramatically and theres a core business thats still viable, he said.

Ackman is no stranger to the restaurant business. In 2012, two years after Brazilian billionaire Jorge Paulo Lemanns 3G Capital took the struggling Burger King chain private, Ackman helped it go public again.

3G strove to boost profit by shaking up management, franchising restaurants and belt tightening. When the chain returned to the public market it handed 3G $1.4 billion. The buyout firms current stake of about 218 million shares is worth about $10 billion. Ackmans Pershing Square is the largest shareholder after 3G in Burger Kings current parent company, Restaurant Brands International Inc.

Selling to franchisees

Restaurant Brands has sold almost all its locations to franchisees, a strategy pushed more and more by activist shareholders. The company, which bought the Canadian doughnut chain Tim Hortons in 2014 for about $11 billion, counted just 100 company locations at the end of last year. More than 19,000 restaurants of the two brands are franchised. 3G argued that independent owners would run the stores better than corporate.

Others chains have followed suit. As a part of a turnaround plan, McDonalds said a year ago that it plans to reduce its ownership of restaurants to about 5 percent globally from about 18 percent at that time. Yum is taking its company-owned stores down to 2 percent or less.

Marcato is pushing Buffalo Wild Wings to do the same. The beer-and-chicken company should sell hundreds of locations with a 90 percent franchised goal, compared with 49 percent now, Marcato said in a statement this week. Doing so would lead to higher margins and cash flow, while also enabling stock buybacks, the firm said. This would reverse the companys recent moves to buy out franchisees.

That strategy may not fly for Chipotle because it doesnt franchise its restaurants. Co-Chief Executive Officer Steve Ells said at the investment conference Tuesday that Ackman asked for a role on the board, which has been criticized for its slow response to the food-poisoning outbreak that sickened hundreds.

It will take time to rebuild trust and loyalty from customers, said Joe Dennison, a portfolio manager at Zevenbergen Capital Investments, which owned about 99,800 Chipotle shares as of September.

I dont know if theres anything an activist or really any investor can do for that, he said.
A 36-story, strikingly modern apartment tower is expected to rise next year from a Central West End parking lot and top out as the city of St. Louis tallest residential building.

The projects architect is Studio Gang, headed by Jeanne Gang, a 2011 MacArthur Foundation fellow whose designs include the acclaimed Aqua Tower in Chicago.

At 385 feet, the mostly glass St. Louis building overlooking Forest Park at 100 North Kingshighway is set to be 75 feet taller than the Chase Park Plaza just to the north and 55 feet taller than the Park East Tower two blocks away. It also will be 65 feet taller than the apartment building planned for Ballpark Village downtown, according to Emporis, a building information firm in Hamburg, Germany.

Aside from the 630-foot Gateway Arch, the Kingshighway apartment building  named One Hundred  will look up in St. Louis to only the Metropolitan Square, One AT&T Center, Eagleton U.S. Courthouse, U.S. Bank Plaza, Laclede Gas, Southwestern Bell and Civil Courts buildings.

Still, it will not be the tallest residential building in metro St. Louis. That distinction goes to the 409-foot Plaza in Clayton condo tower in Clayton. Missouris tallest residential building is the 481-foot Kansas City Power & Light building, a 1930s Art Deco office tower undergoing an apartment conversion in downtown Kansas City.

One Hundreds developer is Mac Properties, of Englewood, N.J. The private real estate firm plans to begin construction within a year and complete the approximately $130 million project in 2019.

Under founding principal Gang, Chicago-based Studio Gangs emphasis on nature produced Aqua Tower and Solstice in the Park, among others. Studio Gang describes the 82-story Aqua Tower as a vertical landscape of hills, valleys and pools. Solstice, also in Chicago, is underway as a 26-story residential building with angled exterior windows that maximize winter daylight and minimize summer heat.

Gang said Thursday that One Hundred is designed to give its residents wide views of Forest Park to the west and the Arch to the east. Each of its 305 apartments will have a corner living room to increase the amount of interior daylight. One Hundreds facade of angled glass is intended to enhance residents views and to save energy.

In a climate with four distinct seasons, we wanted to make it possible for residents to enjoy the different views and natural changes in light over the course of the year, Gang said. By experimenting with the geometry of the facade and refining the apartment layouts, we were able to make every apartment into a corner unit perched above the park and city.

Tiers of four stories will repeat over the height of the building, with the facades angles producing outdoor terraces for a fourth of the apartments. Working with opportunities provided by the site orientation and environmental forces, the buildings leaflike shape and tiered design will cut energy use and increase residents comfort, Gang said.

Glass walls sloped outward will make the apartments seem larger, said the architect, adding that One Hundreds design also is intended to show that people live in the building.

It doesnt look like a corporate office building, she added. It looks like a residential building.

One Hundred is Studio Gangs first project in St. Louis and the fifth project for Mac Properties, following two historic renovations and two new residential towers in Chicagos Hyde Park neighborhood.

Gang is likely the most celebrated architect to work in St. Louis since Philip Johnson and Tadao Ando.

Ando designed the Pulitzer Arts Foundation building that opened in Grand Center in 2001. Johnson was the architect of the 1970s General American Life Insurance Co. headquarters downtown. Spire, formerly Laclede Group, now occupies the renovated and restored building.

Newest and shiniest

One Hundreds design has a 355-vehicle parking garage, including one level underground. In addition to parking, the buildings five-story base will have 882 square feet of shop space and 6,756 square feet of amenity space.

Eli Ungar, founder of Mac Properties, said about 40 percent of the apartments will have one bedroom. About 40 percent will have two bedrooms and the remainder will be divided equally between studio and three-bedroom units. Rents near $3 per square foot per month, high for St. Louis, are possible in a neighborhood as exquisite as the Central West End, he said.

One Hundred will be the growing neighborhoods newest and shiniest development and will be in line with the nicest stuff in Clayton, Ungar said.

Mac Properties, founded in 2002, already owns St. Louis apartment buildings, including the Dorchester, at 665 South Skinker Boulevard, and the Montclair and Parc Frontenac apartments on Kingshighway near the One Hundred site. The company has owned the site for years and has long wanted to build on it.

Another Mac Properties project in St. Louis is the 220-unit apartment building planned as part of the latest expansion at the Cortex tech district in the Central West End.

Mac Properties portfolio  concentrated in St. Louis Central West End, Chicagos Hyde Park, and midtown Kansas City  consists of about 7,000 apartments and 400,000 square feet of commercial space.

The company specializes in new construction and historic renovation of apartment buildings.

Tax abatement

One Hundred is in line for property tax abatement from the city. After months of negotiations with Mac Properties, city development officials and Alderman Joe Roddy, whose 17th Ward includes One Hundreds site, agreed to support the project with 95 percent tax abatement for 10 years and 50 percent tax abatement for five years. The subsidy would represent about 8 percent of the projects cost, officials said.

The citys Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority is scheduled to consider One Hundreds tax abatement plan at its meeting Tuesday.

Mac Properties initially sought 20 years of full tax abatement, officials said. Pushback by city officials prompted the developer to increase One Hundreds height by seven floors to accommodate about 50 more apartments and spread out the projects cost, Roddy said.

At 95 percent abatement, One Hundreds city property tax bill will average $322 per apartment per year, he said. The average household property tax bill in the city is $911.

Roddy said One Hundred will further the Central West End as the citys primary car-optional neighborhood.

I think the project will become an overnight landmark for St. Louis, he said.

Roddy has scheduled a public meeting for 7 p.m. Monday at the Schlafly branch library, 225 North Euclid Avenue, to discuss One Hundred with neighborhood residents. Mac Properties and Studio Gang representatives are scheduled to attend.
MEXICO CITY  Donald Trump's threats to battle Mexico over trade, investment and jobs have pushed a growing number of companies operating in the country to put expansion plans on hold until the president-elect fleshes out his policies, business leaders have told Reuters since the Nov. 8 election.

Pledging to recast a joint trade deal and protect U.S. industry from outsourcing to Mexico, Trump landed his first blow last week, announcing a deal with United Technologies Corp.'s Carrier unit to stop it shifting about 1,000 jobs south of the border.

Trump's unorthodox move, involving state tax breaks, sent a chill through executives still uncertain which policies the president-elect would pursue upon assuming office on Jan. 20. On the campaign trail, he threatened to levy hefty tariffs on Chinese and Mexican-made products.

"If he puts an import duty on Mexican goods, it's going to be a total disaster," said Maurizio Rosa, chief executive of Codan Rubber Mexico, a maker of hoses for the auto industry with annual sales of some 200 million pesos ($10 million).

Codan and other companies in Mexico are plugged into the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between the United States, Mexico and Canada, which Trump has threatened to dismantle if he cannot renegotiate it.

Over half of Codan's output goes directly to the United States, and "probably the rest" indirectly through other firms, said Rosa, whose clients include automakers Nissan Motor Co. Ltd., Volkswagen AG and tractor maker Kubota Corp.

Until it becomes clear what Trump means for business, new investment at the firm has been put on hold, he said.

U.S. dependency

Mexico wants to reduce its economic dependency on the United States, and a recent auction of deep-water oil fields was notable for the pledges made by investors from China, Australia, Malaysia and elsewhere.

But most big investments made since NAFTA have served to further integrate Mexican manufacturing with the United States.

The Friday after Trump's election victory, the Mexican Association of Industrial Parks (AMPIP) surveyed members internally on what implications it had for business, getting eight replies.

The as-yet-unpublished survey found that 37.5 percent of pending projects  eight in total  had been put on hold, mostly until 2017. The rest were still going ahead.

Nearly half of the $425.7 billion foreign direct investment (FDI) in Mexico between 1999 and 2015 came from the United States. Such investment has been a cornerstone of U.S.-Mexican trade, today worth $500 billion annually.

But Trump's renewed threats of punitive tariffs on goods made abroad by U.S. companies may threaten that flow of investment. Shortly after his deal with Carrier, Trump revived his campaign on Twitter to slap a 35 percent tariff on such goods coming into the United States.

Mexico is more immediately exposed to the risk of a trade war, given it sends 80 percent of its exports to U.S. buyers, five times the U.S. proportion going to Mexico.

Economists have already highlighted the risks.

After Trump's win, HSBC slashed its 2017 Mexican growth forecast to 1.7 percent from 2.3 percent, saying most of the hit would likely come from reduced FDI and private investment.

Credit rating firm Fitch on Friday flagged the risks Trump posed to trade and investment as it revised down Mexico's outlook to negative from stable.

Smaller firms exposed

Emilio Cadena, CEO of Grupo Prodensa, a specialist in helping foreign companies move to Mexico, estimated one in 10 such businesses  all "smaller firms"  had put investments on hold while uncertainty persisted over U.S.-Mexico relations.

Business lobbies said major investments are still proceeding as planned, but smaller firms focused on the U.S. market are less able to absorb potential shocks.

Bosco de la Vega, a partner in Agro Groppo, a potato producer in the northern state of Sinaloa, said his firm has now put off a $5 million investment for at least four to six months.

The company and its partners had planned to purchase a Mexican firm to help them export more to the United States.

Luis Aguirre, vice president of industry confederation Concamin, said some smaller foreign manufacturers were also in a holding pattern because of uncertainty caused by Trump. A survey of German companies in Mexico published on Wednesday showed that 83 percent expected Trump's trade policy to have a negative impact on business.

Carlo Bonfante, economy minister of the border state of Baja California, said that none of the 2017 investment already in the pipeline for the state was on hold yet, but that firms would likely wait until April before making their next move.

"There'll be a pause for analysis that there wouldn't have been if Trump hadn't won," he said. ($1 = 20.3020 Mexican pesos)

Additional reporting by Gabriel Stargardter, Joanna Zuckerman Bernstein, Christine Murray, Alexandra Alper and Michael O'Boyle.
CLAYTON  A Nov. 1 dine-out event in which 200 restaurants donated proceeds to the family of slain St. Louis County police Officer Blake Snyder's family netted $175,000.

Organizer Katie Zaitz-Fink presented a check to the St. Louis County Police Welfare Association on Wednesday during the monthly police board meeting. The organization accepted on behalf of Snyder's wife, Elizabeth, 24, and son, Malachi, 2.

Attendees gave Zaitz-Fink a standing ovation for her efforts.

"You all are true heroes and I'm so grateful for every day that you all go out and serve our community," she told them.

Volunteers also are trying to attract restaurants to participate in a fundraiser on Jan. 12 for paralyzed Rock Hill Officer Mathew Crosby, who was injured six years ago.

The welfare association is planning a fundraiser at The LiUNA Event Center in Sunset Hills to raise money to send Snyder's family to Washington, D.C., where his name will be etched into The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial.

The Concerns of Police Survivors group will pay for airfare for Snyder's widow and son, but the welfare association wants to raise money to send more members of the family.

Johnny Cash impersonator Bill Forness will perform at the event dubbed, "Folsom Prison Experience," and tickets cost $49.50. For more information, call 314-226-1010, or visit www.liunaeventcenter.com.
UPDATED at 1:25 a.m. Friday with more details

ST. LOUIS  Several dozen firefighters worked throughout the night battling a warehouse fire Thursday at the Cementland property along the Mississippi River on the north edge of the city.

One firefighter had minor injuries after battling the fire.

Firefighters were called to the fire about 5:40 p.m. and initially had difficulty getting water to the warehouse, which sits on private property at the sprawling 55-acre site of the proposed Cementland playground.

More than 60 firefighters, including those assisting from Riverview, were called to the scene. The heavy fire caused the warehouse roof to collapse.

Flammable liquids in side the warehouse triggered several small explosions and caused the flames to spread, St. Louis Fire Department Captain Garon Mosby said.

Falling temperatures and difficulty in getting water to the warehouse posed challenges for firefighters.

The warehouse was located toward the rear of the cement plant, Mosby said. Firefighters had to roll out thousands of feet of high-pressure firehose from to get water to the warehouse.

Most of the fire was put out by midnight Friday, but a few flames endured about 6 hours after the fire began.

At least 16 firefighters were at the scene in the early hours of Friday to battle what remained of the fire.

Investigators on the scene had no indication of the cause of the fire late Thursday night.
ST. LOUIS  The owner of a fitness company and three others waived a hearing Friday on whether they could be eligible for bail on federal charges that they kidnapped and tortured a man for ransom.

The U.S. attorneys office asked that Todd Beckman, Kerry Roades and brothers Blake and Caleb Laubinger be held without bail until trial. The hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Noelle Collins was their opportunity to contest it.

They were charged last week with kidnapping for allegedly holding a man against his will while repeatedly beating, kicking and choking him and shocking him with a Taser over three days, mainly in Pacific. He also was confined in a shipping container, officials said.

All four defendants appeared in court wearing prisoner jumpsuits. They all waved and smiled to friends and family who attended their hearings, which all concluded within about 20 minutes.

A somewhat gaunt Beckman appeared with a close-clipped haircut and a tuft of longer hair styled on top. He juggled the chains shackling his hands to his waistband when the judge was not speaking.

His attorney, Travis Noble, left without speaking to reporters.

Scott Rosenblum, who is representing Blake Laubinger, did not say how his client is connected to Beckman. Patrick Kilgore, who is representing Caleb Laubinger, declined to comment.

Rosenblum said, Both of these young men have, and are very fortunate to have, a strong support structure, including their mother, their grandmother and family.

Beckman founded St. Louis-based BAM Brands, the parent company of Tan Company/TanCo, MassageLuXe, Xist Fitness and LifeXist brands. It has operations in 11 states, including more than a dozen St. Louis area MassageLuXe locations. The company named a new chief operating officer to oversee operations after Beckmans arrest.

The men allegedly accused the victim of stealing money from Blake Laubinger, who lists himself on Facebook as an investor with Xist Fitness. But the court documents do not provide clear details of how the men are connected.

There is no mention of drugs, although an affidavit accompanying the initial charging complaint was written by a Drug Enforcement Administration special agent, Brent Nanney.

U.S. Attorney Richard Callahan has called the crime one of the nastiest kidnappings Ive ever seen.

Court documents said the victim was released in south St. Louis County on Nov. 23 after his parents paid a $27,000 ransom. Officials said that in some ransom calls with the captives mother in Florida, she could hear him screaming in the background.

There is reference to a fifth man, not charged, who may have recorded some of the ordeal.
UNIVERSITY CITY  A Northwoods man was sentenced Thursday to two concurrent life terms in prison in the ambush killing of his ex-girlfriend at work here last year.

Michael McAfee had been convicted by a jury of first-degree murder and armed criminal action.

Officials said McAfee stalked and harassed Keisha Powell, 43, of Northwoods, after they broke up. Three months later, on March 24, 2015, he shot her as she arrived at work at the Home Instead Senior Care office at 8147 Delmar Boulevard. She was then dating a police officer.

McAfee fled to Memphis then drove to Arizona, where he was arrested after a police chase. He reportedly was angry that Powell broke off their nine-year relationship, and he had threatened to kill her if she "cheated" on him.

Police made a video of him confessing to detectives, but he later claimed it was coerced.

McAfee was removed from St. Louis County Circuit Judge Ellen Siwak's courtroom in Clayton during his trial because of repeated disruptive outbursts.
FENTON  Police said Thursday they believe Mike Oppermann, 65, stabbed his wife, Denise, 64, to death before turning the knife on himself in a murder-suicide in their home here this week.

St. Louis County police found the couple dead from multiple stab wounds inside their locked home in the 800 block of San Sebastian Drive at about 7 p.m. Monday after a relative called officers to check on them.

Officials had not previously identified which was believed to be the aggressor.

The violent deaths left friends and colleagues stunned. Police said officers had answered only one other call to the address in the past two years, in November for a "sick case."

Oppermann was retired as director of parks and recreation for Webster Groves.
ST. LOUIS  Police released surveillance photos of two men suspected of a theft and shooting that left a store owner in critical condition Thursday morning.

The men stole two cellphones from the GoWireless Verizon store in the Southtown Centre, 4647 Chippewa Street, and shot the owner when he confronted them, police said.

The store owner, a 25-year-old man, told police he saw two men steal two Galaxy Edge cellphones at about 10:30 a.m. Thursday. He followed them into the parking lot and confronted them.

One of the men turned around and fired a shot at the owner, striking him in the back, police said. The men entered a white, newer-model Mercedes-Benz and fled.

The owner was taken to a hospital in critical but stable condition.

Police believe the suspects jumped into a white, newer-model Mercedes Benz (coupe style) and sped off, possibly heading south on Ridgewood Avenue. Surveillance photos released Thursday afternoon show a man dressed in all black suspected of shooting the owner.

Anyone with information is asked to call CrimeStoppers at 866-371-8477.
UPDATED at 3:40 p.m. with more details.

ST. CLAIR COUNTY  Officials said three people were killed and one critically injured in a head-on crash early Friday afternoon on Illinois Route 158 south of Belleville.

St. Clair County Chief Deputy Coroner Danny Haskenhoff said two were dead in one vehicle and one in another. He said an Illinois State Police reconstruction expert was on the scene.

The collision, south of Concordia Church Road, involved an SUV and a pickup truck. That part of Illinois 158 is also called Centreville Road.

Trooper Calvin Dye Jr. said a northbound green 2006 Ford Escape crossed the center line without explanation at about 12:14 p.m. and struck an oncoming maroon 2010 Chevrolet Colorado pickup truck.

The driver of the Escape, who was alone, died at the scene, as did two of the three people in the pickup. The remaining pickup occupant was taken by helicopter to a St. Louis hospital.

Police were withholding identification of the Escape driver pending notification of family. They said they have not identified the pickup driver, the lone survivor of the crash. Front and rear seat passengers in the pickup died at the scene.
LADUE  One of the St. Louis regions most prestigious schools is acting on the concerns of a student who says she and her peers were discriminated against for supporting President-elect Donald Trump and Governor-elect Eric Greitens.

Now, Mary Institute and St. Louis Country Day School is engaging in what its top leader says is an effort to ensure that students of all viewpoints are respected.

My message to the community is that its not okay for any group to be marginalized, Head of School Lisa Lyle said in an interview.

Lyle was prompted to act when a high school senior at MICDS sent a letter to her principal the week after Thanksgiving. The letter alleged that she and other Republican-supporting students havent been treated fairly, especially since Election Day.

A 17-year-old student wrote that it had been impossible for the recently formed Young Americans for Freedom Club to find a faculty sponsor.

The student, whose mother asked that she be identified only by her first name, Rose, included written statements from students who she said have felt victimized or unwelcome at school because they support the Republican party.

One of the students wrote: Every day I pass a different student wearing a Black Lives Matter shirt and that goes unacknowledged, but the moment I attempt to voice my opinion it is abruptly shut down by the left sided environment that our school has overwhelmingly supported this school year. Another student wrote: I got called a racist, misogynistic pig.

The letter also included screenshots of what Rose said are offensive tweets by an MICDS teacher, who is Hispanic, dated to Election Day and the day after.

One of the tweets read: Youre a nation full of fearful little boys chanting kill the beast! There is a beast. And it is you. #USElection2016. Another tweet quoted an article about Greitens being elected governor and read, I really hate this state today.

Rose wrote in her letter:

Imagine if the word white in some of these tweets was changed to black and how much more hideous and racist they would be deemed. It is being assumed that the current election results are all white peoples faults (sic) and that because individuals support trump (sic), that automatically means that all white people have a deep hatred for all other people, which is just simply untrue along with extremely unfair.

Rose said in an interview that her letter was not meant to discount the feelings of minority groups, and she doesnt even count herself as an avid supporter of Trump, who she acknowledges has said many offensive things.

Im not saying that because we are feeling this way, that must mean they are not feeling this way also. Because they obviously have been mistreated to a whole different scale, she said. But this is a new sort of thing that people have not realized is also occurring.

Our school has fallen short

Roses letter comes at a time when MICDS administrators have been working to increase racial and socioeconomic diversity of the school.

Now this letter raises the voice of conservatives on the campus, a group that is not typically counted among those thought to be marginalized.

The letter also reveals what MICDS head of school calls the delicate territory of balancing teachers freedom of expression and their duty to support all students, despite differing points of view.

Lyle lauds Rose for standing up for her beliefs and calls the letter an act of student leadership. Lyle even produced a four-and-a-half minute video of herself addressing the letter, because she said simply writing a response couldnt convey the emotions or sincerity that the situation was due.

I want every kid, regardless of political affiliation, to feel like this is a school thats going to help them hone their thinking and their skills so that they too can ascend to those roles of responsibilities, Lyle said in the video. If our school has fallen short  as clearly it has, as Rose and her peers have expressed  we have to figure this out.

Lyle has also promised to review the schools social media policy, which doesnt clearly specify what a staff member can say on social media.

The reality is, our teachers are teachers in the classroom, in the hallways and on social media, and its easy to forget that, and weve had two teachers misstep this year in that way, she said in the video.

Lyle has said the teacher regrets that her Tweets were not consistent with the learning environment she works so hard to create for her students. She wouldnt say whether the teacher was disciplined, but the teacher still works at the school and has been addressing her students about what happened.

The teachers Twitter account has been deleted.

Stepping on toes

MICDS has been working to keep its student body diverse in spite of hefty tuition, which exceeds $26,000 a year for grades 7 to 12.

The school is known for educating some of the regions richest families and sending graduates to elite universities. Caleb Pultman, a high school senior from Chesterfield who is a member of the Campus Democrats student club, said he felt like a minority as a liberal student. His club has about eight regular members, while the Campus Republicans group has more like 50, he said.

About a quarter of the schools 1,250 students receive need-based financial aid. About 34 percent are students of color. Students come from 65 different ZIP codes.

The more heterogeneous the community, the more likely we are to step on each others toes, kick each other in the shins, or say something that offends somebody, Lyle said.

Lyle became head of school in 2007 and has been credited with introducing a number of diversity efforts.

She spearheaded the creation of Courageous Conversations at the school last year, which is a series of events for families to talk candidly about race. Racial and ethnic diversity programs at MICDS include minority speaker forums, an international expo and classroom lessons on inclusion.

Lyle said MICDS did not intend to impose a liberal climate on students. But she acknowledged that its not surprising that some teachers were more deeply upset by the election than others.

The day after the election, Lyle sent an email to student families that began: Today has not been an easy one on our campus. She called for civility, kindness and a school climate that is welcoming to all students regardless of gender, race, religion or socioeconomic status.

Rose is now starting a new Cross-Political Commission student club with Caleb and about six other self-identified conservative and liberal students in the wake of her letter.

We wanted to create this commission under Roses leadership to have a safe space and to discuss issues and our political ideologies, whether it be liberal or conservative, Caleb said, just to have an open area for dialogue, and seeking to listen rather than to argue.
Duluth Holdings Inc. on Thursday reported third-quarter net sales of $67 million, up 21.2 percent when compared to the same quarter last year.

The Belleville-based outdoor clothing company said its latest net sales figure marked its 27th consecutive quarter of positive net sales.

The company reported a third-quarter profit of $462,000, which is down from $1.5 million when compared to the same quarter last year.

Analysts had expected Duluth Holdings third-quarter revenues to hit $69 million. Company executives said extended periods of warmer weather across the country in late September may have impacted its sales.

During its third quarter, which ended Oct. 30, Duluth Holdings, which operates the Duluth Trading Co., opened three new retail stores, two in the Chicago area and one in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.

The company now operates 12 retail stores and two outlet stores around the country.

On Wednesday, the company announced plans to build a new five-story, $20 million headquarters in downtown Mount Horeb. The project could bring between 100 and 150 additional jobs to the villages downtown when it opens in 2018.

Duluths warehouse, distribution center and call center would remain in Belleville, where the company completed a 75,000-square-foot addition earlier this year.
JEFFERSON CITY  Gov. Jay Nixon will join the Clayton law firm Dowd Bennett when he leaves office in January, a spokesman for the governor said Friday.

Nixons return to the private sector, first reported by Missouri Lawyers Weekly, is a move hed been pondering for a while. He said in November that he was likely to go into private practice after his second term as Missouris chief executive, explaining that he felt hed journeyed as far as he wanted to go in elective office.

I think that once youve been governor of a state, as far as running for office, theres really nothing else in the state that would, for me at least, interest me, Nixon said.

Dowd Bennett, a Clayton law firm that handles white-collar criminal cases, regulatory matters and internal investigations, represents some of the nations biggest companies.

The firm also made headlines last year for giving St. Louis free representation, defending the citys minimum wage ordinance in court.

Nixon, a Democrat, earned both his undergraduate and his law degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He served as a legislator and as Missouri attorney general before his two terms as governor.

Edward Dowd Jr., a founding partner, told the Post-Dispatch Friday that the firm was ecstatic to hire someone with Nixons resume.

His experience is just going to be invaluable to us, Dowd said.

Theyd been in talks with Nixon very recently and moved quickly to get him on the team, Dowd said.

Dowd also said he anticipated Nixon would take an active role in handling internal investigations and responding to investigations by government agencies like the Department of Justice, Attorney Generals office or the Federal Election Commission.

Nixon is far from the first official to join the firm after leaving office. Former U.S. Sen. John Danforth will be among the governors new colleagues. Dowd is a former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri.

Nixons term will end Jan. 9, when Gov.-elect Eric Greitens, a Republican, is sworn into office.
JEFFERSON CITY  Gov. Jay Nixons administration has settled another seven-figure gender discrimination lawsuit brought by a longtime state employee.

Documents obtained by the Post-Dispatch note that the state will pay out $1.2 million to former Department of Labor employee Gracia Backer to settle a case she filed in 2014 alleging her former boss had created a hostile work environment for women and older workers.

It is the second time in six months that the state has paid or been ordered to pay a significant sum of money after female workers said they were discriminated against.

And it comes as Missouri is paying out millions of dollars in damages to employees of the state Department of Corrections who alleged they were harassed at work because of sex, religion or disability, and retaliated against for speaking out.

The reports have triggered calls for review from lawmakers and statewide officials.

On Friday, State Auditor Nicole Galloway, a Democrat, said she would audit the states Legal Expense Fund, which is the pool of money used to make payments stemming from lawsuits against the state.

Like many of my colleagues in state government I was alarmed and dismayed by recent reporting on sexual harassment and discrimination involving Department of Corrections employees, and by the troubling amount of taxpayer money the state is spending to settle these lawsuits, Galloway said in a prepared statement.

House Speaker Todd Richardson, R-Poplar Bluff, also has called for a review of the harassment cases. House Minority Leader Gail McCann Beatty, D-Kansas City, is urging Richardson to establish a special investigative committee to launch a probe.

In addition to the money the state owes to Backer, the state must pay her Jefferson City attorney $800,000, records show.

Backer, a resident of New Bloomfield, told the Post-Dispatch she was satisfied with the outcome of the settlement.

It was a long road, she said Thursday night, adding that she could not comment further under terms of the settlement.

Her attorney, Roger Brown, confirmed Friday that the case had been resolved.

Nixon spokesman Scott Holste said the governor would not be commenting on the matter. Attorney General Chris Kosters office did not respond to a request for comment.

Backers case began in 2013 when she was fired from the Missouri Department of Labor. In her 2014 lawsuit, she alleged her firing was because she complained to Nixons office that her boss, former agency head Larry Rebman, was creating a hostile work environment and discriminating against older female employees.

In her initial complaint, Backer included a resignation letter from former Human Rights Commission chairman Alvin Carter, who alleged Rebman was openly hostile to the director of the commission, Alisa Warren.

Backer also said she made Nixons office aware of all of the allegations verbally and in writing. She also said she gave the Nixon administration a list of 20 women ready to verify their complaints against Rebman. She was fired 17 days after she submitted a formal letter outlining her complaints.

On the same day she was dismissed, Nixon appointed Rebman as an administrative law judge.

A trial had been set to start in September, but was delayed until February. Records show the states legal expense fund approved the payout on Nov. 28.

The settlement is just the latest case in which taxpayers have been put on the hook to pay for allegations of age and gender discrimination during Nixons tenure as chief executive.

In July, a Cole County jury agreed with a woman who sued Veterans Commission Director Larry Kay and the state, alleging age discrimination in her 2009 firing.

Jurors recommended $1.3 million in actual damages and $1.575 million in punitive damages for Pat Rowe Kerr, who was 56 when she was fired from her position as the commissions senior adviser of veterans outreach. She claimed she lost a job not because of poor performance, but because Kay has a problem with older, successful women.

Kay contended he had to fire Kerr because of budget cuts after the economic strain of the Great Recession.

Kay was briefly put on leave but is back on the job as director of the commission. Nixon doesnt have direct hiring or firing power over Kay, but appoints members of the commission who do.
WASHINGTON  President-elect Donald Trump said Thursday he would nominate St. Louis lawyer Andrew Andy Puzder, the current CEO of the fast-food chain CKE Restaurants, to be the next labor secretary.

Trump told the Associated Press that Puzder will fight to make American workers safer and more prosperous by enforcing fair occupational safety standards and ensuring workers receive the benefits they deserve, and he will save small businesses from the crushing burdens of unnecessary regulations.

Puzder said in a statement that he was honored to help President-elect Trump restore Americas global economic leadership.

Puzders nomination will require Senate confirmation, and he is already drawing opposition from Democrats and labor groups who favor higher minimum wages and who defend the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

In that way, Puzders nomination hearings could become a proxy battle for many of the early policy debates in the Trump administration.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has said repealing and replacing Obamacare  President Barack Obamas signature domestic legislative accomplishment  will be among the first priorities of a new Congress in January.

Puzder has been an outspoken critic of Obamacares impact on businesses. He is also a frequent critic of what he calls excessive federal regulations on business, and he opposes raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.

Citing his view on those issues, labor representatives reacted negatively.

Communications Workers of America President Chris Shelton said that Puzder would be a fine choice to head a government agency responsible for looking out for millionaires.

But those who know Puzder say the attacks misstate his position and underestimate his ability to listen, and to bring people of different ideologies together.

Nancy Staudt, dean of the Washington University law school, where Puzder serves on an advisory council, calls him an interesting and thoughtful man who frequently mentions his working-class upbringing in Cleveland.

He talks a lot about this whole idea of hard work and opportunity, and thinks they are linked and that everybody needs a chance to succeed, Staudt told the Post-Dispatch.

She said the attacks on Puzders positions do not reflect their nuance, and she predicted that Puzders critics will see a far more complex person than has been portrayed. On the minimum wage, for instance, Staudt said Puzder has time and again said he favors gradual raises to benefit workers, but opposes abrupt and dramatic raises proposed by some labor advocates because they would hurt businesses enough to cost jobs.

Puzder is a 1978 Washington University law school graduate and served as a trial lawyer in St. Louis through 1991. He practiced commercial law in the St. Louis law offices of Morris A. Shenker, a lawyer for teamsters union boss Jimmy Hoffa, through 1984. Puzder then moved to the Stolar Partnership law practice.

In the 1980s and early 1990s, Puzder was considered the top anti-abortion lawyers in Missouri. He helped write and get passed a state law declaring life begins at conception and prohibiting state money being used in abortions. He often represented, pro bono, anti-abortion protestors, one activist said.

Bill Hannegan, a St. Louis painter and activist, said he was one of the protesters, although he doesnt think Puzder ever represented him.

Andy was friendly, Hannegan said. A regular guy who worked cutting trees to pay his way through school. When he found out that I was painting as a sole proprietor he offered to incorporate me for free. Worried that I would be sued, as most people eventually are. Class.

Puzder was known as a fierce opponent of abortion, but he also helped lead an effort to find common ground with those favoring abortion rights. Starting in the early 1990s, they focused on helping women and children and trying to find ways to avoid unintended pregnancies.

If you have a poor woman who cant support another baby, and she goes to an abortion clinic, you dont have a woman whos exercising her constitutional right, you have a woman who has a problem, Puzder said at the time.

He is proud of his work in this context, Staudt, the Washington University dean said, and used it as an example of Puzders ability to listen to different opinions.

But Puzder was not without controversy while in St. Louis.

In 1989, it was widely reported that Puzders ex-wife, Lisa, alleged in legal divorce filings that she had been abused by her ex-husband. Puzder, who headed then-Gov. John Ashcrofts abortion task force, denied the allegations.

A spokesman for Puzder late Thursday issued a copy of an email sent by Puzders ex-wife on Nov. 30 in which she recanted those allegations.

I impulsively filed for a divorce without your knowledge and was counseled then to file an allegation of abuse, the email says. I regretted and still regret that decision and I withdrew those allegations over thirty years ago. You were not abusive. I will most definitely confirm to anyone who may ask that in no way was there abuse.

Attempts to reach Puzders ex-wife Thursday were not successful.

But Steven Cheung, a spokesman for the Trump transition office, issued a statement he said came from Lisa Fierstein, Puzders ex-wife, that repeated part of the email, and added: Andy is one of the finest men I have ever known.  Andy is a wonderful father, a great person, and was a good husband.

In 1991, Puzder met Carl Karcher, founder of Carls Jr., who was embroiled in serious financial difficulties, according to the CKE website. Puzder helped resolve Karchers financial problems, and he now heads CKE.

Puzder was an economic adviser and donor to Trumps presidential campaign.

Puzder has been a prolific donor to Republican politicians and committees, according to Federal Election Commission records. Locally, he has donated to the Missouri Republican Party; Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo.; Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-St. Elizabeth; and Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-St. Louis.

The Carls Jr. and Hardees chains, which are part of CKE, run racy ads of supermodels eating burgers that have drawn criticism in some quarters. Puzder defended them in an interview with Entrepreneur magazine last year, saying they were, in part, an extension of his personality. He said the ads were aimed at hungry guys ages 18-34.

I like beautiful women eating burgers in bikinis. I think its very American, he told Entrepreneur. I used to hear brands take on the personality of the CEO. And I rarely thought that was true, but I think this one, in this case, it kind of did take on my personality.

In March, Hardees said it would move its headquarters and about 75 jobs from downtown St. Louis to Nashville.

Liberal groups and organized labor have been critical of Puzders push to replace some workers in his chain with automated kiosks, and to Puzders opposition to Obama doubling, to more than $47,000, the annual salary of workers who would be eligible for overtime.

The labor secretary is supposed to be the advocate-in-chief for Americas working men and women, Brad Woodhouse, president of the liberal activist group Americans United for Change, said. Instead, this is a guy who cant wait to make workers obsolete in his own restaurants by replacing them with robots.

Clay said he would keep an open mind on the nomination, even though the two disagree on Obamacare and other issues.

We dont agree on a lot of things when it comes to labor-management relations, but he is approachable and he keeps an open mind, Clay said.

Blunt called Puzder a good friend and forward thinker. The Department of Labor will benefit from his dynamic leadership, he said.
ST. LOUIS  In the crowded gymnasium, interpreters were spread throughout the room, each holding up a sign.

Farsi read one, Arabic another. Among the other languages written on signs: Russian, Soomaali, Vietnamese, Espanol, Kiswahili and Burmese. The signs served as guides for where the immigrants and refugees were to sit for a presentation on how to become a U.S. citizen.

The International Institute of St. Louis offers the tutorial once a year, but Thursdays session marked the first time since Donald Trump was elected as the countrys next president. His hard-line stance on immigrants and Muslims has brought anxiety to many new Americans as Trump puts together his Cabinet and prepares to officially take office next month.

There is a belief that if you achieve U.S. citizenship, it will provide them with protections, said Anna Crosslin, the institutes president and chief executive.

She and others at the institute, the largest refugee resettlement agency in the region, say there is an increased interest in applying for U.S. citizenship. But since it can take a year or more to complete an application and have it processed, its too early to know if there has been any kind of uptick since Trumps November victory, Crosslin said.

From October 2015 to June 2016, 718,430 people applied to become naturalized citizens, a 26 percent increase over the same period a year earlier, based on data from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. These applications were made during a heated race for the presidency but before Trump had secured the Republican nomination.

Members of the agency were on hand Thursday to explain the citizenship process and dole out affirmation.

Raise your hand if you are part of the American experience, said Shawn Spicer an immigration services officer who interviews those seeking citizenship. Spicer waited a few seconds while the room of interpreters repeated what he said. Eventually, every hand went up.

Raise your hand if you are a part of American history, Spicer said. Again, after interpretation, all hands went up.

You are carrying on a tradition of the U.S. as a country of immigrants, he said.

But those in the room also were cautioned about the laborious process to citizenship. It includes gathering paperwork, staying out of legal trouble and studying to be able to correctly answer questions on American history and government, both in writing and in an interview. The cost to process an application is $725 per person. Add in the cost for fingerprinting and a medical exam and the cost easily hits $1,000.

The 21-page application asks questions about country of origin, travel patterns and family history. But it also asks about any nefarious activity.

Have you ever been associated with the Communist Party? Any other totalitarian party? A terrorist organization?

Page 12 asks this: Between March 23, 1933 and May 8, 1945, did you work for or associate in any way (either directly or indirectly) with the Nazi government of Germany?

Applicants also must detail any run-ins with the law, from criminal convictions to speeding tickets. Those who commit felonies are at risk of deportation. Those convicted of lesser crimes typically have the application process delayed, but each case is weighed individually.

Whats most important is that they tell the truth, said Anita Barker, the institutes director of education. They (the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services employees) have all that information in front of them and want to know if you are honest about it.

To be eligible for citizenship, a person must be in the country legally, typically five years. That includes refugees who apply for resettlement through the State Department. Also those who come here as immigrants to go to school or work are eligible. Those who have come into the country illegally are not.

The U.S. admitted 84,995 refugees in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, the most since 1999. President Barack Obama increased the maximum number of refugees to 85,000 in fiscal 2016, a bump of 15,000 from the prior year, according to the Pew Research Center.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo was the top country of origin among refugees resettled in 2016, with 16,370. Syrians were second, with 12,587.

Crosslin said Trump could greatly reduce the number of refugees allowed into the country, either as a general population or by targeting a specific country or group.

Last year, 31 governors, including Bruce Rauner of Illinois, said they opposed resettling Syrians in their states, at least temporarily, although such a decision rests with the federal government. While Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon did not join them, Gov.-elect Eric Greitens during his campaign called for an end to resettling Syrians without a better screening process.

Barker told the crowd Thursday that there has been an increase in the amount of bogus information about the path to citizenship, including websites that look to be government related, but are not.

There are also very bad people who try to tell you bad information to get money, Barker told the room of about 200 people.

Chester Moyer, field office director for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, told the crowd the best way to participate in society is to become a citizen of the U.S. Those who are citizens can vote, apply for a passport and file paperwork for immediate family members to come to the United States.

Those are three big reasons, Moyer said.

Hari Budathoki, 37, has been in the United States for five years and five months, she said. Her citizenship interview is next week. She looks forward to having a passport so that she can travel freely. Budathoki, who is Bhutanese, spent 20 years in a refugee camp in Nepal, where she met her husband. They have four children.

She says she is American now but becoming a naturalized citizen makes it official: My country is the U.S.
It is unacceptable for the Missouri Department of Corrections to continue withholding information about reported payments of about $7.6 million to employees who say they were harassed and targeted for retaliation when they spoke out. The departments leadership must answer for not fixing the problem, attempting to sweep it under the rug, and failing to provide a full accounting to Missouri taxpayers  the people who are actually footing the bill for the payments.

Missouri House Speaker Todd Richardson, R-Poplar Bluff, apparently was alerted to the problem because of a Nov. 24 story in The Pitch, a Kansas City alternative weekly newspaper. Richardson is moving in the right direction, calling Wednesday for a thorough investigation and pledging to root out what he said appears to be a pervasive culture of sexual harassment in the prison system that has gone on for four years.

During that time, Department of Corrections senior officials paid jury awards, lawsuit settlements and legal fees out of a fund overseen by the Missouri Attorney Generals Office. But they failed to correct the harassment and retaliation problem. And, by avoiding any accounting within their own departmental budget, they succeeded in minimizing public scrutiny.

And theyre still stonewalling. George Lombardi, appointed by Gov. Jay Nixon in 2008 to head the department, denied multiple interview requests from The Pitch. Before taking the top job, Lombardi had spent the previous 18 years in charge of Corrections employee discipline. On Wednesday he also refused a Post-Dispatch request for comment.

So did Gov.-elect Eric Greitens and a spokeswoman for Attorney General Chris Koster. Attorney General-elect Josh Hawley said he was reviewing the matter. Nixon said he was unwilling to discuss lawsuits that didnt involve him but would get prepped up and address it at a later date.

The states Sunshine Law, the linchpin to openness in government, gives government officials leeway to maintain confidentiality in some circumstances, particularly regarding employment issues and litigation. The last time we checked, avoiding public embarrassment is not among the exceptions for full compliance.

Nothing we can find in the Sunshine Law excuses the states top officials from coming clean about the extent of the scandal and why it went uncorrected.

Are these elected officials and appointed leaders forgetting that they work for the taxpayers of Missouri? When $7.6 million is reportedly siphoned out of a legal expense fund in the attorney generals office, taxpayers should have the ability to track it. After all, its their money.

Note that, according to a report released by Nixon in July, the states 10,958 corrections employees are the lowest paid in the nation. Imagine the boost in morale and performance that might have resulted had $7.6 million gone toward addressing their abysmal pay scale.

The Pitch reported that the department paid out $340,612 in settlements and judgments from 2002 through 2006, and then payments escalated dramatically to $3.6 million from 2012 through 2016. During the first six months of 2016, the department was ordered to pay more than $4 million to victims.

There could be more payouts coming, with 33 lawsuits still awaiting trial and more pending approval from the Missouri Commission on Human Rights to go to trial. The Pitch reporter Karen Dillons story says the Department of Corrections also offered some employees up to $500,000 to make their lawsuits disappear.

Dillon examined more than 60 lawsuits and interviewed current and former Corrections employees. She wrote that lawsuits, court transcripts and sources paint a startling picture of repeated and overt sexual comments, groping, and pressure from supervisors and co-workers to have sex.

The report said that when employees complained or reported to higher authorities, they were answered with threats, retaliation and even physical assaults. Employees allege they also were harassed because of religion or disability.

Lashonda Reid, an employee who quit and sued the department, was awarded $166,000. Reid said that among names and sexual slurs directed at her, she was called the n-word and sexual chocolate. She said a Hispanic workmate and friend was called a Tijuana crack whore and wetback.

One of Reids bosses, Maj. Maurice Guerin, testified that the racial slurs were not isolated to Reid and her colleague. Its the American way, he said.

Another employee, Debra Hesse, a corrections officer in Kansas City and Tipton, Mo., won a jury verdict of nearly $2 million in a discrimination lawsuit. The jury was so troubled by how the department treated Hesse that jurors asked to meet with her after the trial to applaud her for being a whistleblower.

Lawmakers say they were blindsided by the report and that Lombardi, the Corrections director, never informed them about the issue. Now that its been made public, the Legislature must waste no time demanding answers and prompting a house cleaning when the new legislative session begins Jan. 4.
So my question is, if the department is defunded, and low pay continues, what will happen the next time the police are desperately needed and only a handful of them are available?
Dane Countys proposed Day Resource Center on Madisons Near East Side meets standards for a required city permit, city staff say, but some nearby businesses want more restrictions on the facility for people who are homeless.

The county, which earlier this year bought the former Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce building, 615 E. Washington Ave., for $1.75 million, needs a city conditional use permit to transform the office building into a long-sought resource center for the homeless scheduled to open in fall 2017.

The citys Plan Commission is scheduled to consider the countys 41-page application on Monday.

In a 12-page memo, Planning Division staff said converting the office building to a day resource center is consistent with plans for the area and that its well located to meet needs of the homeless population who will use it.

The center  to be operated by Catholic Charities Madison and be open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., 365 days a year  is intended to meet basic needs with shelter, showers and laundry, and provide connections to community resources, such as case management, housing search assistance, employment and training.

The detailed analysis and recommendation offered by city planning staff this week confirms our long-standing belief the former chamber building is by far the best fit for a day resource center over any of the places considered in the past several years, said Stephanie Miller, communications director for County Executive Joe Parisi.

The Plan Commissions review and hopeful approval is the closest this important project has ever been to becoming reality, making Monday a significant milestone of progress, she said.

But the newly formed East Washington Business Coalition, an informal group of nearby businesses and property owners, is concerned about the facility being a magnet for drinking, drugs and other problems and recommended a set of 14 conditions, several beyond those outlined in the countys permit application and city staff report.

Were not opposing the creation of the facility, said attorney William White, who represents the group. This is gonna happen. But its very important we do it absolutely correctly right out of the box. Make this a model of how a day shelter should be run.

Some business and property owners point to episodes of drunkenness and violence around a temporary day resource center at the former Don Miller dealership showroom at 754 E. Washington Ave.  now redeveloped with housing and commercial space  in the winter of 2012, White said.

The proposed conditions include:

No recreational activities on site.

Full security, preferably an off-duty Sheriffs deputy with authority to make arrests.

No inter-mixing with Salvation Army homeless shelter clients across the street.

No loitering inside or outside the facility.

Transportation to be provided from the day center to night shelters to keep people from wandering through neighborhoods.

Limiting the permit to two years with review every two years.

Covering additional costs for the center in the city and county budgets.

The group is encouraged that Catholic Charities has been selected to run the facility, White said. We see Catholic Charities as a no-nonsense, experienced operator, he said.

Former Ald. Brenda Konkel, an outspoken advocate for the homeless, said she has concerns the center wont do enough for the homeless but will support the permit.

Im in support (of the permit) but Im expecting modifications will be needed, she said, contending the center lacks needed overnight storage, has inadequate laundry facilities, and has too much office space.

Konkel said shes confused by or opposes many of the business and property owner groups proposals, especially preventing inter-mixing with Salvation Army clients, police officers with authority to make arrests for violations of permit conditions and the law, and prohibiting recreation activities on site.

Theyre fundamentally missing the point of the whole building, she said. There are some very backward things here. Its definitely misinformed. Its based on a lot of negative stereotypes. Its rather disturbing.

The two-story, 12,836-square-foot building with a 3,175-square-foot outdoor area will offer daytime shelter, a computer lab, kitchen, laundry, mail/message center and outdoor activities. It will have private office space for meetings, case management, employment and training, and separate indoor and outdoor spaces for families, showers, temporary storage, vital document storage and phone access.

An unarmed security guard will be present during all hours of operation and a private shuttle will be provided daily at the close of operations to transport patrons to nearby destinations, including overnight and drop-in shelters.

Catholic Charities will have 7.5 full-time staff. The county has budgeted $330,000 for 2017, including $100,000 from the city, $130,000 from the county and $100,000 from United Way of Dane County. It is unclear how increased costs will be funded for a full year of operations in 2018. The funding breakdown has not been determined for 2018.

The partners on this project have worked the past several months, reaching out to neighbors, listening to those in the area, to not only fine tune the product coming before the Plan Commission, but to ensure also the resource center moves forward as a good neighbor, Miller said. While we feel many of the concepts are already addressed in the (conditional use permit), county staff plan to attend Mondays meeting prepared to discuss any of the late suggestions put forward by the neighboring landowner.
A federal judge has tossed out a request by supporters of President-elect Donald Trump to halt Wisconsins ongoing presidential election recount.

By Fridays court hearing, the recount was nearly 90 percent complete and showed only minuscule changes to Trumps narrow margin of victory.

Great America PAC, Stop Hillary PAC and Wisconsin voter Ronald R. Johnson filed in Wisconsins Western District court last week to halt the recount.

The PACs attorneys argued in court Friday that the recount could jeopardize Wisconsins ability to meet a Dec. 13 federal deadline to resolve disputes about the presidential election. The deadline is meant to ensure all states can participate in the Dec. 19 Electoral College vote, which formally picks the next president.

Judge James D. Peterson last week rejected the plaintiffs bid for an immediate halt to the recount. In a court hearing Friday lasting only about 20 minutes, Peterson quickly dismissed the plaintiffs claims, saying they are predicated all on rank speculation.

I dont have the basis for stopping the recount, Peterson told the plaintiffs attorneys.

The plaintiffs attorneys argued that a potential appeal of the recount by the campaign of Green Party candidate Jill Stein, who requested the recount, could jeopardize Wisconsins ability to have its electoral votes counted.

Peterson brushed aside those concerns, saying the law clearly ensures that Wisconsins electoral votes are going to count.

Assistant Attorney General Michael Murphy, who defended the state in the court hearing and argued the recount should continue, told Peterson the recount is on time; it is going smoothly.

Theres no evidence of a problem here on either the timeline or the mechanics, Murphy said.

State Elections Commission director Michael Haas told reporters after the hearing that he expects all counties to complete the recount no later than Monday afternoon.

So far, the recount has shown a negligible change in Wisconsins presidential vote, which favored Trump on the initial count by about 22,000 votes, or less than one percentage point.

About 88.5 percent of Wisconsins votes had been recounted, according to a Friday afternoon report from the Elections Commission. Democrat Hillary Clinton had netted a gain of 49 votes on her margin with Trump, according to figures provided by the commission that did not include city of Milwaukee vote totals.

Stein requested recounts in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania  three states that tipped the Electoral College to Trump, and where polls did not predict his victories.

Her campaign paid Wisconsin state officials $3.5 million to cover recount costs.

Trump supporters have gone to court to halt the recounts in all three states. They scored a win in Michigan, where a federal judge has halted that states recount. The Michigan Supreme Court was set to review an appeal in the case, prompting recusals from two judges on the court, Robert Young and Joan Larsen, who were on Trumps list as prospective U.S. Supreme Court nominees.

Michael White, the co-chairman of the Wisconsin Green Party who has coordinated recount volunteers for the Stein campaign, told reporters Friday that Steins request for a Wisconsin recount is not motivated by a desire to change the elections outcome.

Instead, White said its about examining the discrepancy between exit polls and election results.

A recount, he said, will allay concerns that those discrepancies could be due to problems in how votes were counted.

We dont have anything to gain except assuring election integrity, White said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Award-winning author, Kazuo Ishiguro, visited Chipping Campden School on Friday, 18th November, to be interviewed by five Year 11 English Literature students. The interviewers chatting with Mr Ishiguro in preparation were, left to right: Archie Santer, Eliot Reaney, Isabella Clarke, Abi Akerman and Holly Lishman

AWARD-WINNING British novelist Kazuo Ishiguro has visited Chipping Campden School to answer questions about his book Never Let Me Go, writes year 12 student, Emily Hartley. Offering a fascinating insight into one of his most famous works, Ishiguro discussed the deeper meaning of the work, including its symbolism and analysis of the characters with year 10 and 11 students, who are studying Never Let Me Go as part of their GCSE English course. Afterwards Ishiguro spoke with students in the library while signing books, and answering any queries they had left. His visit took place on Friday, 18th November. The school library also received signed copies of his 1989 novel, The Remains of the Day, which was made into a film starring Anthony Hopkins, and his latest work, The Buried Giant. The books were kindly donated to the school by a local independent business, Emilys Bookshop.
Briery Belle clears the last in the Lady Godiva Mare's Chase at Warwick Racecourse on Thursday. Photo: David Pratt (dwprattracingphotography.co.uk)

IT proved an afternoon to remember for Helen Plumbly, breeder and part-owner of Briery Belle, as her seven-year-old, ridden by Tom OBrien, landed the feature 25,000 Lady Godiva Mares Novices Chase (Listed Race) at Warwicks Eventmasters Christmas Raceday on Thursday, writes David Hucker.

Despite two non-runners reducing the field to six, this still looked a competitive contest with Desert Queen, a winner of four races under Rules, as well as two point-to-points, carrying a 6lb penalty for her success in a similar race at Market Rasen.

Led into the start by her trainer Harry Fry, she bounded away from the tape and was soon setting a good pace with Noel Fehily, clearing her fences in some style.

Favourite Briery Belle, an impressive winner at Carlisle on her re-appearance, was the only one able to keep pace with the leader and, after closing her down going to the second-last fence, went to the front approaching the final obstacle to win by six lengths.

There was a big gap back to The Organist and Rock On The Moor, the only other finishers on ground that had been officially changed to soft by clerk of the course Jane Hedley after the first two races.

After early morning rain, blue sky and sunshine greeted racegoers for the opening eventmasters.co.uk Juvenile Hurdle, in which the fourteen runners were well strung out from halfway. Market leader Tyrell had jumped into a clear lead at the second flight and was never headed as, one by one, his challengers fell away.

With Newmarket raiders Port Paradise and Singapore Sling both pulling up and Don Bersy falling at the fourth-last flight when upsides the leader, it was left to Final Choice, bred by The Queen and having his first run for the newly-formed Jockey Club Ownership South West syndicate, to chase him home, with 50-1 shot Unblinking back in third.

Seas Of Green jumps the final flight in the Vendman Handicap Hurdle. Photo: David Pratt

Despite a maximum field of 18 facing the starter, Westend Story, fifth at the Cheltenham Festival on his last appearance, was a hot 6-5 favourite to make a winning debut over jumps in the Wrights Of Campden Maiden Hurdle for the Mick Fitzgerald Racing Club.

But, some untidy jumps down the back straight saw him lose ground behind leader Willoughby Court, whose slick hurdling kept him at the head of affairs and he ran on strongly for David Bass to see off the challenge of Tommy Rapper, who looks a promising prospect for the Skelton team.

Sixth place on his comeback run at Uttoxeter after a 22-month lay-off had seen Brandon Hill dropped 2lbs by the handicapper to a new rating of 120, allowing him to creep into the John Gallagher Handicap Chase with top weight.

The three-mile trip proved to be a real test of stamina, but Brandon Hill made much of the running to grind out victory by a length from Talk Of The South, who couldnt quite close the gap over the last two fences.

Seas Of Green is just one four horses to have run this season for the small Banbury stable of trainer Paul Cowley and she chalked up his first win when taking the Vendman Handicap Hurdle in the hands of conditional jockey Ciaran Gethings.

This was the first success for Seas Of Green since landing the same race two years ago and, after leading into the home straight, she ran on strongly to beat Baron Du Plessis by nine lengths, a result that caught the attention of the stewards who enquired into the apparent improvement in form compared with her previous run at Chepstow where she finished ninth of ten runners. They noted the trainers explanation that she had benefited from her seasonal reappearance run and appreciated the step up in trip.

Although only six had set out in the TFG Group Handicap Chase, four were still in contention as the runners approached the final fence but, with Mercian King making a mistake, it was Arquebusier and James Banks who took advantage to come away and win by a length and a quarter.

Those who stayed to the seventh and final race saw the most impressive performance of the afternoon when 5-2 favourite Cause Toujours, having his first outing for trainer Dan Skelton, ran away with the eventmasters.co.uk Standard Open National Hunt Flat Race, earning a 16-1 quote from bookmakers Paddy Power for the Cheltenham Festival in March.
Heres how members of Wisconsins congressional delegation voted on major issues this week.

Note: Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, R-Janesville, did not vote. By custom, the speaker does not vote except in rare circumstances.

Guarding U.S. Embassies: The House on Tuesday voted, 374-16, to give the U.S. Department of State more flexibility in hiring firms to guard American embassies in high-risk locales. A yes vote was to pass S 1635.

Voting yes: Mark Pocan, D-2, Ron Kind, D-3, Gwen Moore, D-4, Reid Ribble, R-8

Voting no: James Sensenbrenner, R-5, Glenn Grothman, R-6

Not voting: Sean Duffy, R-7

International Insurance Regulations: The House on Wednesday passed, 239-170, a bill that would effectively block U.S. involvement in international talks aimed at setting stricter capital standards for large insurance holding companies, such as Met Life and AIG, that sell financial services globally. A yes vote was to pass HR 5143.

Voting yes: Kind, Sensenbrenner, Grothman, Duffy, Ribble

Voting no: Pocan, Moore

Bringing Jobs to America: Voting 231-178, the House on Wednesday blocked a procedural bid by Democrats to bring to the floor a bill now in committee that would allow companies a 20 percent tax credit against the cost of moving foreign-based jobs to the U.S. A yes vote opposed the Democrats parliamentary maneuver. (HR 5143)

Voting yes: Sensenbrenner, Grothman, Duffy, Ribble

Voting no: Pocan, Kind, Moore

Impeachment of IRS Commissioner: The House on Tuesday voted, 342-72, to refer to committee, and thus kill, a resolution by the hard-right Freedom Caucus to impeach John Koskinen, IRS commissioner, on charges related to his agencys alleged targeting of conservative political organizations. A yes vote was to shelve the resolution. (H Res 328)

Voting yes: Pocan, Kind, Moore, Sensenbrenner, Grothman, Duffy

Voting no: Ribble

Stopgap Spending, Flint Water: The House on Thursday passed, 326-96, a bill that would fund government agencies through April 28 at an annualized level of $1.07 trillion, including $170 million for projects to help Flint, Michigan, and other cities replace lead-contaminated drinking-water pipes. A yes vote was to pass HR 2028.

Voting yes: Sensenbrenner, Grothman, Duffy, Pocan, Kind, Moore, Ribble

Federal Water Projects: The House on Thursday appropriated, 360-61, $5 billion for hundreds of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers water projects. A yes vote was to approve the conference report on S 612.

Voting yes: Kind, Grothman, Duffy

Voting no: Pocan, Moore, Sensenbrenner, Ribble

Grants for Alzheimers Care: The House on Thursday passed, 346-66, a bill to further community programs for individuals with Alzheimers and related brain diseases. A yes vote was to authorize grants to non-profit groups with an emphasis on protecting patients with dementia and locating them if they go missing. (HR 4919)

Voting yes: Pocan, Kind, Moore, Sensenbrenner, Grothman, Duffy, Ribble

Cancer Research, Drug Approvals: Voting 94-5, the Senate on Wednesday sent President Barack Obama a bill (HR 34) that would revamp mental health programs, speed federal approval of new drugs, combat opioid addiction and boost spending for biomedical research, including the hunt for cancer cures. A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Voting yes: Tammy Baldwin, D, Ron Johnson, R

$611 Billion for U.S. Military: The Senate on Thursday adopted, 92-7, the conference report on a $611 billion military budget for fiscal 2017. A yes vote was to pass a bill (S 2943) that would authorize $67.8 billion for combat actions overseas and raise pay by 2.1 percent for uniformed personnel.

Voting yes: Baldwin, Johnson

The House and Senate have adjourned until the 115th Congress convenes on January 3.

 Thomas Voting Reports Inc.
Emily Brunsdon took to the exercise bike this morning. Photo: Mark Williamson

STAFF at the Tesco Express store on the Banbury Road in Stratford-upon-Avon have today taken to an exercise bike as part of a festive push to raise money for two charities.

The Rudolf Race got underway earlier this morning with Emily Brunsdon, left, taking to the saddle in her festive onesie here supported by colleagues Sim Sharma, right, and Helen Moseley, deputy manager, who are also doing their bit during the day for which customers are being invited to make a donation in return for a mince pie or sweet.

Money raised by the race, which ends at 11pm tonight, will go to the Tesco National Charity Partnership fund which is supporting Diabetics UK and the British Heart Foundation.
GSE's Fannie Mae (OTC: FNMA) and Freddie Mac (OTC: FMCC) are higher Friday in part on positive commentary from Cowen Washington Research Group analyst Jaret Seiberg. The analyst believes new bill HR 6487 is bullish for GSE reform as it suggests bipartisan support for expanding credit risk transfers.

The bill from Reps. Ed Royce and Gwen Moore requires FHFA to impose a broader credit risk transfer requirement on Fannie and Freddie. What makes the bill noteworthy is that it is bipartisan as Royce is a California Republican and Moore is a Wisconsin Democrat.

"This suggests there is at least the starting point for housing finance reform," he said. "The legislation won't advance in this Congress, but Royce said he would re-introduce it early next year to set the stage for action."

Seiberg comments that they understand that some in the market believe that Fannie and Freddie should not engage in risk sharing because they give up too much economics with each transaction. There is also the argument that Fannie and Freddie historically have been adept at managing mortgage credit risk so there is no need for such transactions.

For the point of their argument, it does not matter if those contentions have merit. What counts, he said, is that there is a bipartisan push to diversify the holders of mortgage credit risk.

"Once there is acceptance of credit risk transfer as a way to put private capital at risk, then it is easier to see how Fannie and Freddie could emerge from conservatorship to play some role in a future housing finance system," he said. "This is because advocates can argue that Fannie and Freddie are fundamentally different because there is more private capital ahead of them."

They believe the legislation reflects a broad consensus on Capitol Hill that risk transfers should proceed. The legislation is especially beneficial for mortgage REITS -- which could participate in credit risk transfer deals -- and mortgage insurers as it would require an experiment with deep MI.

FNMA is up 3.5%, FMCC is up 3%.
By Catherine Ngai

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil rebounded from the week's lows to close above $50 a barrel on Thursday, on growing optimism that non-OPEC producers might agree to cut output following a cartel agreement to limit production.

Both Brent and U.S. benchmarks rallied after the former secretary general of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries made comments supportive of non-member production cuts. The benchmarks remain more than $1 below the highs reached Dec. 5 in the wake of the OPEC deal.

Brent settled up 89 cents, or 1.7 percent, at $53.89 a barrel. U.S. light, sweet crude settled up $1.07, or 2.2 percent, at $50.84 a barrel.

Oil producers will meet in Vienna on Saturday to see if non-OPEC countries will cut production to reduce a global supply glut that has pressured prices for more than two years.

At a conference in New York, former OPEC Secretary General Abdalla El-Badri said a non-OPEC production cut of about 600,000 barrels per day (bpd) was "a must."

OPEC has agreed to slash production by 1.2 million bpd in the first half of 2017, a deal that bolstered crude futures despite doubts over whether the amount was enough and whether the cuts would be effectively implemented.

"There will be a significant amount of slippage in the amount of cuts that occur as we get into first part of 2017," said Andrew Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates in Houston.

Russia, which is not an OPEC member, has signaled it was ready to cut production by 300,000 bpd and on Thursday Azerbaijan said it would come to Vienna armed with proposals for its own reduction.

Given the rally to $50 a barrel, non-OPEC members may not be persuaded to cut output, said Tim Evans, energy futures specialist at Citigroup.

"Further effective cooperation between oil producers seems unlikely in our view, as OPEC and Russia have already agreed on policy, reducing the leverage they have with other countries in our view," he said in a note.

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said on Thursday that OPEC members should work with non-OPEC nations to implement the deal reached last month, according to Iran's state TV.

Late Thursday morning, Brent flipped into negative territory while U.S. prices pared gains briefly on reports that Russia saw a risk that the meeting could be moved due to questions that have come up. A Russian energy ministry spokeswoman, however, said the meeting would continue as planned.

(Additional reporting by Sabina Zawadski and Christopher Johnson in London, Jane Chung in Seoul and Keith Wallis in Singapore; Editing by David Gregorio and Richard Chang)
A gas flame is seen in the desert near the Khurais oilfield, Saudi Arabia June 23, 2008. REUTERS/Ali Jarekji/File Photo

By Devika Krishna Kumar

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices rose about 1 percent on Friday on hopes that non-OPEC producers meeting in Vienna over the weekend would agree to output restrictions following limits OPEC announced last week to curb an oil glut.

Both Brent and U.S crude futures, however, notched their first weekly loss in four weeks.

A strong U.S. dollar that makes greenback-denominated crude more expensive to many buyers, pressured oil, keeping both benchmarks nearly 2 percent below the highs reached late last month after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) announced plans to cut production. [USD/]

On Saturday, OPEC oil ministers will meet non-OPEC producers in Vienna to seek help in curbing a global glut.

Saudi Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih said he was very optimistic about meeting with non-OPEC producers on Saturday and expected 10 to 11 Non-OPEC countries to contribute specific numbers during the meeting.

Russia plans to hold more talks on Friday with some OPEC and non-OPEC nations about unresolved issues, two Russian sources told Reuters. However, Energy Minister Alexander Novak said he expected non-OPEC oil producers to fully contribute to production cuts agreed earlier with OPEC.

Price gains were slightly pared after data showed U.S. energy companies this week added 21 oil drilling rigs, the biggest weekly increase since July 2015. [RIG/U]

U.S. crude's West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures ended the session at $51.50 a barrel, up 66 cents or 1.30 percent, after trading narrowly between $50.86 and $51.66.

Brent crude closed up 44 cents, or 0.82 percent, at $54.33 per barrel after dealing between $53.77 and $54.46.

Many market watchers questioned how willing non-OPEC countries could be to cut output. Russia has said it would cut 300,000 barrels per day, meaning other non-OPEC producers combined would need to pledge the same amount to lower output by the 600,000 bpd OPEC wants. Russia's No. 2 oil producer Lukoil said it was ready to take part in output cuts.

Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan have also expressed willingness to cut output.

"We see event odds as skewing towards a slightly positive price impact," Macquarie Research analysts said in a note.

"That said, we believe a status quo outcome that keeps the November deal intact is the most probable scenario and hinges on a repeated commitment from Russia (300,000 bpd). In addition to potential cuts from Oman, this scenario could also include softer commitments due to natural declines (e.g. Mexico) or other less credible cuts."

Mexico could contribute as much as 150,000 bpd to the non-OPEC oil cuts, a source told Reuters.

OPEC last week agreed to slash production by 1.2 million bpd in the first half of 2017.

After the deal, hedge fund and money mangers piled into bullish bets on U.S. crude by near-record numbers, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data released on Friday showed.

Speculators also piled into bullish bets on heating oil , pushing the net long position to the highest level since July 2014 on forecasts for a colder winter.

Saudi Arabia and Iraq plan to supply full contracted volumes of crude to Asia in January, in an effort to retain market share in Asia, but Saudi Arabia ordered supply cuts to U.S. and European buyers.

(Additional reporting by Libby George in London, Osamu Tsukimori; in Tokyo; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Richard Chang)
F.N.B. Corporation (NYSE: FNB) announced that the shareholders of both FNB and Yadkin Financial Corporation (NYSE: YDKN) adopted the necessary approvals to complete the previously announced Agreement and Plan of Merger (Merger Agreement) between the two companies.

Under the terms of the Merger Agreement, shareholders of Yadkin will be entitled to receive 2.16 shares of FNB common stock for each common share of Yadkin. The exchange ratio is fixed and the transaction is expected to qualify as a tax-free exchange for shareholders of Yadkin.

FNB has also received approval for the merger from the North Carolina Commissioner of Banks. The merger is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2017.
Stillwater Mining Company (NYSE: SWC) December call option implied volatility is at 46, January is at 43; compared to its 52-week range of 43 to 73 Into Sibanye Gold (SBGL) announcing it has entered into an agreement to acquire for $18 per share.
Digital platform may represent new, non-invasive method to screen for amyloid deposits in asymptomatic and early disease populations for Alzheimers drug research and treatment

Data presented at the International Conference on Clinical Trials for Alzheimers Disease

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Akili Interactive Labs, Inc. and Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) today presented positive topline data showing that Akilis proprietary technology platform detected a statistically significant difference between subjects with and without brain amyloidosis, the primary biomarker for Alzheimers risk. The study was part of a collaborative trial designed by Pfizer and Akili, and topline results were presented at the International Conference on Clinical Trials for Alzheimers Disease in San Diego, CA.

The technology, derived from the companys patent-pending cognitive measurement platform, differentiated between older healthy subjects positive for amyloid deposits in their brains versus an age-matched comparison group of amyloid-negative subjects, both in change over time (p=0.04) and at the completion visit after 28-day remote self-administration protocol (p

These initial results suggest that our digital biomarkers may have the potential to serve as non-invasive options to screening procedures such as PET imaging scans requiring the administration of radioactive ligands or lumbar punctures, said Eddie Martucci, President and CEO of Akili. Were also excited by the potential for early detection of neurological dysfunction, and were looking forward to further exploring that potential on our own and with strategic partners.

We are encouraged by the results of this trial, and we look forward to exploring ways that we might be able to implement innovative new technologies like the Akili platform into the clinical trial process, said Ole Isacson, Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer, Neuroscience, Pfizer. Alzheimers disease is a particularly complex disease about which we still have much to learn. These results are a step in the right direction in our mission of making a difference in the lives of Alzheimers patients and their families.

The non-exclusive collaboration between Akili and Pfizer was established in 2014 to assess the potential correlation between Akilis proprietary digital biomarkers and one or more of the accepted neurological markers for asymptomatic Alzheimers Disease.

The double-blind study was conducted as a parallel protocol where individuals were accepted into the study only if they were judged healthy by screening criteria. All accepted individuals were then given a quantitative PET scan to determine brain amyloid presence, as amyloid accumulation is generally considered to be a biomarker and risk factor for eventual development of Alzheimers disease. All participants also received a full neurological work-up including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and non-Akili cognitive endpoints including measures of memory and attention. Further analyses of a variety of digital metrics from this study that correlate with the PET, MRI and other patient data are underway.

About Alzheimers DiseaseAlzheimers Disease is a chronic, progressive, neurodegenerative disorder characterized by loss of memory and other important mental functions. The type, severity, sequence, and progression of mental changes vary widely, and It represents an enormous burden on victims of the disease and their family. Alzheimers is the most common form of dementia in people over the age of 65, and it is estimated to affect more than 5 million Americans. It is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States, and there is currently no cure.

About Akilis TechnologyAkili's technologies are based on a proprietary neuroscience approach developed to target specific neurological systems through sensory and digital mechanics. The company's lead, patent-pending technology platform (used in this trial) is based on cognitive science exclusively licensed from the lab of Dr. Adam Gazzaley at the University of California, San Francisco, and proprietary adaptive algorithms developed at Akili, all built into action video game interfaces. The platform powers both assessment and treatment products, which deploy real-time, adaptive cognitive challenges and interventions, respectively. Both products target the brain's interference processing system (an individual's core ability to process multiple streams of information), a key function underlying cognitive control.

Akili is currently conducting multiple clinical trials of its leading digital medicine platform across a variety of patient populations, including pediatric ADHD, autism spectrum disorder (in collaboration with Autism Speaks), depression, Alzheimers disease and traumatic brain injury.

About Akili Interactive Labs, Inc.Akili is building clinically validated cognitive treatments and assessments that are delivered in an action video game interface. Leveraging medical-grade science and consumer-grade software technology, the company is seeking to produce a new type of medical product that can offer safe and effective scalable treatment and better monitoring for patients across a range of mental health and neurological conditions. The company was founded by PureTech Health (PRTC.L), together with leading neuroscientists and game designers. Akili has garnered investment from Shire PLC, Amgen Ventures and Merck Ventures BV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, a subsidiary of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany (known as M Ventures in the United States and Canada), and it has strategic partnerships with Pfizer Inc. and Autism Speaks.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161209005095/en/

Akili Interactive Labs, Inc.

Allison Mead, +1 617-651-3156

Director, Communications and Investor Relations

[email protected]

Source: Akili Interactive Labs, Inc.
WEST CHESTER, Pa., Dec. 09, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- This past week, President and CEO of Key Financial Inc. Patti Brennan attended the Barrons Top Women Advisors Summit held in Palm Beach, Florida. This years conference (2016) marked her 10th year listed on the Barrons Top 100 Advisors list, a distinction held by only a handful of women in the field.

President & CEO Patti Brennan

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/c18b3cba-b2cf-4f97-8677-ccb72dbb9411

Patti first earned her spot on the Top 100 nearly a decade ago in 2006. Our team was pleasantly surprised to have been placed in the rankings. It was a wonderful statement of support for the way that we run the business and the service we provide our clients. Ten years later, Key Financial continues to apply an exceptional level of service, utilizing the elements of financial planning tailored to their clients specific goals.

The Barrons Top 100 ranking is based on assets under management, revenue generated for the advisors firms, and also the advisors quality of practice. Earning a spot on the Top 100 places the nominees on a distinctive list of wealth management firms, managing more than $3.4 billion in assets under management.

This award was not awarded to Patti alone, as she is quick to credit the efforts of her dedicated team, led by her Chief Planning Officer Eric Fuhrman:

The Barrons award is highly coveted because it recognizes those who champion industry best practices. Pattis perennial recognition is a testament to her collaborative leadership style, as well as her penchant for developing internal talent with a client centric focus. When asked about the hallmarks of her success, Pattis self-effacing nature is always to assign credit squarely to her deep bench of passionate and caring associates.

Boilerplate:

A graduate of Georgetown University, Patti is a Certified Financial Planner with almost 30 years of experience providing financial advice in West Chester, PA. In addition to being President and CEO of Key Financial, Inc. she also serves on the National Advisory Board, is a Board Member of the YMCA of Greater Brandywine and Cuddle My Kids. She formerly served on the Boards of the Chester County Economic Development Council, SEEDCO and Penn Medicine Chester County Hospital.

Securities offered through Royal Alliance Associates, Inc., member FINRA/SIPC. Insurance services offered through Patricia Brennan are independent of Royal Alliance Associates, Inc. Advisory services offered through Key Financial, Inc., a registered investment advisor not affiliated with Royal Alliance Associates, Inc.

The Barrons Winners Circle Top 100 and the Barrons Winners Circle Top 1200 are select groups of individuals who are screened on a number of different criteria. Among factors the survey takes into consideration are the overall size and success of practices, the quality of service provided to clients, adherence to high standards of industry regulatory compliance, and leadership in best practices of wealth management. Portfolio performance is not a factor. Please see www.barrons.com for more information.

Source: Key Financial, Inc.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Carlisle Companies Incorporated (NYSE: CSL) announced that the Crew of the American Spirit will begin to row across the Atlantic Ocean on December 14 in the Atlantic Challenge, known as the Worlds Toughest Row. Carlisle has a website in support of Carlisles American Spirit for employees and all supporters to track the teams progress, which can be found at: www.teamcarlislecrew.com. The teams progress can also be followed on many social media sites, including Facebook, throughout the race.

This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161209005368/en/

Carlisle Crew in La Gomera preparing for the race. L-R: Matt Brown, Alex Simpson, Angus Collins, Jason Caldwell

D. Christian Chris Koch, Carlisle's President and Chief Executive Officer commented on the race, We are again honored to partner with the crew of Carlisle's American Spirit for the 2nd year in their quest to win the Atlantic Challenge. We are very proud of these incredible athletes and courageous competitors. We will be monitoring their progress and cheering them on in their efforts through our website."

Rowing across the Atlantic Ocean requires an extreme amount of courage and stamina. No one embodies courage more than the American Spirit's Captain Jason Caldwell, and his crew members Angus Collins, Alex Nelson and Matt Brown. Organizing and managing this effort is Tom Magarov, last year's American Spirit crew member, whose experience as a racer and attention to detail adds a unique advantage to the team. All competition-level rowers, these men are experienced in open sea events and will share the cramped space aboard, never leaving the vessel for the duration of the race. With two rowing positions, these athletes will be pulling Carlisles American Spirit 24 hours a day through ocean waves, often 12-16 feet or higher, in an attempt to achieve a new Atlantic world record crossing time under natures relentless and intense conditions. At just 28 feet (8.64 meters) long and less than 6 feet (1.74 meters) wide, the compact craft will hold the latest technology, safety equipment and rations to support American Spirit's crew in the Atlantic Challenge fours event.

Carlisles American Spirit sets off from San Sebastian de La Gomera in the Canary Islands on December 14, 2016, and expects to arrive at Nelsons Dockyard English Harbour, Antigua approximately 5-6 weeks later, hoping to secure several new performance records.

Why Carlisle

The expertise within Carlisle Companies supports the extreme needs Carlisles American Spirit will have preparing for and experiencing the 2016 Atlantic Challenge. Carlisle is ready to provide high performance solutions to ensure the success of the American Spirit team during the race, and also provide high performance solutions for Carlisles customers worldwide in their own races to meet the challenges of their businesses every day.

About Carlisle Companies Incorporated

Carlisle Companies Incorporated diversified global company with a portfolio of businesses focused on the manufacture and distribution of highly engineered products for both original equipment and aftermarket channels. Carlisles markets include: commercial roofing, energy, agriculture, mining, construction, aerospace, defense, foodservice, healthcare, sanitary maintenance, transportation, industrial, protective coating and auto refinishing. Leveraging the Carlisle Operating System (COS) and an entrepreneurial spirit to drive continuous improvement, Carlisles worldwide team of employees generated $3.5 billion in net sales in 2015. Learn more about Carlisle at www.carlisle.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161209005368/en/

Carlisle Companies Incorporated

Steven J. Ford, 704-501-1100

Vice President & Chief Financial Officer

www.carlisle.com

Source: Carlisle Companies Incorporated
SAN DIEGO, Dec. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Forge Therapeutics, Inc. today announced a strategic alliance with Evotec AG (Frankfurt Stock Exchange: EVT, TecDAX, ISIN: DE0005664809) to advance its novel Gram-negative antibiotic program targeting 'LpxC' for the treatment of bacterial infections including those caused by drug resistant 'superbugs'. LpxC has been recognized as an attractive antibacterial target for more than the past 15 years; however, a lack of suitable chemical starting points has hampered its progress. Forge has been applying its proprietary metal-binding pharmacophores ("MBP") library and processes and has been able to identify potent druggable inhibitors of LpxC.

The alliance will be focused on lead optimization of these inhibitors with the goal of identifying a development candidate in the next couple of years. Evotec will, through a team of more than 10 scientists, contribute cutting-edge biochemistry, microbiology, medicinal chemistry, structural biology, computational chemistry, ADME/PK/analytical, and program management.

"Antibacterials that act via novel mechanisms of action are desperately needed to address untreatable infections that arise from drug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria," said Zachary A. Zimmerman, Ph.D., CEO of Forge Therapeutics. "Our LpxC inhibitors have proven to be stable, potent in vitro, and shown preliminary efficacy in vivo. We are thrilled to partner with Evotec during lead optimization as they provide significant pre-clinical expertise and added horsepower to rapidly advance our novel antibiotic to address this growing unmet global issue."

"The antibiotic field has been suffering from an innovation void over the last 30 years and requires significant intellectual and financial stimulus to address the issues of resistance", said Dr Mario Polywka, Chief Operating Officer of Evotec. "Importantly, Forge's novel LpxC program coupled with Evotec's unrivalled drug discovery platform and expertise offers significant promise in addressing this issue. We look forward to working with our new partners at Forge."

About LpxCLpxC is conserved across Gram-negative bacteria and not found in Gram-positive bacteria or human cells. Other LpxC inhibitors have been evaluated by biopharma in the past but chemistry limitations (e.g. hydroxamic acid) have yielded ineffective compounds that suffer from poor drug-like properties. Thus, there are no approved therapeutics targeting LpxC. Forge, using its innovative chemistry platform, has developed novel non-hydroxamate inhibitors of LpxC that are safe and effective in an animal model of Gram-negative infection and are able to kill Gram-negative superbugs where other antibiotics are ineffective.

About Evotec AGEvotec is a drug discovery alliance and development partnership company focused on rapidly progressing innovative product approaches with leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, academics, patient advocacy groups and venture capitalists. We operate worldwide providing the highest quality stand-alone and integrated drug discovery solutions, covering all activities from target-to-clinic to meet the industry's need for innovation and efficiency in drug discovery (EVT Execute). The Company has established a unique position by assembling top-class scientific experts and integrating state-of-the-art technologies as well as substantial experience and expertise in key therapeutic areas including neuroscience, diabetes and complications of diabetes, pain and inflammation, oncology and infectious diseases. On this basis, Evotec has built a broad and deep pipeline of more than 70 partnered product opportunities at clinical, pre-clinical and discovery stages (EVT Innovate). Evotec has established multiple long-term discovery alliances with partners including Bayer, CHDI, Sanofi or UCB and development partnerships with e.g. Janssen Pharmaceuticals in the field of Alzheimer's disease, with Sanofi in the field of diabetes and with Pfizer in the field of tissue fibrosis. For additional information please go to www.evotec.com.

About Forge Therapeutics, Inc.Forge Therapeutics, Inc. ("Forge") is a biotechnology start-up that leverages its novel chemistry platform to develop small molecule inhibitors to target metalloproteins. Metalloproteins are proteins that require metal ions for their biological function and make up over 1/3 of the proteins in the human body. Forge uses a proprietary approach comprised of molecular modeling for rational drug design along with fundamental knowledge and expertise in bioinorganic chemistry to target metalloproteins. The name Forge Therapeutics comes from two definitions for forge: to manipulate (inhibit) a metal object (metalloprotein) and to move forward steadily with a purpose (the Forge team). Forge Therapeutics, Inc., maintains its headquarters in San Diego, California. To learn more please visit www.ForgeTherapeutics.com.

Contact:[email protected]

Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150807/256906LOGO

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/forge-therapeutics-and-evotec-form-strategic-superbug-alliance-300375723.html

SOURCE Forge Therapeutics, Inc.
Donald Trumps comments on the media resonated with voters because the news media stopped being an honest broker between competing interests in our civic life.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, says our Constitutions First Amendment.

By placing press freedom within the very first of 10 very important amendments, and third in the enumerated list of rights within that, the Founding Fathers signaled how very important freedom of the press would be if our republic were to survive long, and in reasonable harmony.

Ask most working journalists today why the Founders were so enthusiastic, and theyll say its because the press serves as a watchdog on powerful politicians, corrupt institutions, greedy businesses and out-of-control government agencies.

Speaking truth to power, some will say, invoking for their profession not only value and virtue, but a hint of courage, as if editorial writers for the New York Times and the lonely student who stood before the line of tanks in Tiananmen Square have little to separate them but language and distance.

Theyre not wrong  except mostly about the courage  but theyre missing something vital, and something key to understanding why what Donald Trump said resonated with voters.

And theyre also missing what very likely is the most important reason ever for a free press.

A functioning, reasonably honest news media dedicated to covering the circumstances and concerns of all the diverse groups in society is probably the largest reason free societies like our own are not in a near-constant state of unrest, even violent revolution.

People who believe their concerns are being heard (which in a country this large requires them to be reported), and that others care about their concerns (which the fact that they are receiving a fair amount of news coverage tends to prove), have reason to hope their concerns will be addressed.

The safety value of a fair press, covering everybodys concerns and views fairly, is at least as key as fair elections to keeping us all reasonably satisfied with the way our country works.

The press provides a metaphorical grease to our civic life by giving a safe platform for competing voices to interact without excessive friction.

When the press elevates peoples genuine concerns and shares them fairly and objectively with others, it prevents almost everyone from feeling compelled to engage in risk-taking, violence or revolution to have their concerns addressed.

But what does the public do when news reports are overwhelmingly one-sided, and/or all-but-ignore the issues millions of Americans care deeply about?

When perhaps a persons economic circumstances are dire and as far as he can tell, no one outside his circle of family, friends and acquaintances even cares?

Its common to see major media news stories about the concerns of illegal immigrants who hope not to be deported. Compare that to the number of stories you saw, especially before Trumps candidacy, about an unemployed citizen or legal resident who cant find a job, or can only find a job with artificially-depressed wages, in a field employing many illegal immigrants.

It wasnt 50-50, was it? The press mostly overlooked the citizens concerns.

The construction or hospitality worker with depressed wages, a struggling taxpayer who sees 20 percent of New York City residents receive food stamps, a longtime factory worker who sees her job go abroad, all the Americans whose stories didnt appeal to the press  their stories rarely got told.

Until Donald J. Trump. He told their stories. And called out the media for not telling those stories first, and often.

In response, the established politicians, the editorial boards of 57 out of 59 major newspapers, all told the public to avoid Donald J. Trump.

He was a risk, they said. We dont know his views, they said. Hes probably just promoting his brand, they said.

But tens of millions of Americans had already lost hope, and people who have lost hope are willing to take risks.

Electing Donald J. Trump was a risk. But when he described the news media, his concerns were theirs.

He got it.

His comments resonated with voters because they agreed with him. The press had ignored their concerns. It had stopped carrying out its vital function in American civic life. It had stopped being an honest broker between competing interests.

The public noticed. It cared. And Trump also noticed, and as far as they could tell, he cared.
Transaction includes 3M Cogent Inc., Document Reader and Secure Materials Businesses

This strategic acquisition rounds out Gemalto Government Programs offering by adding biometric technology and ideally positions the Company to provide solutions for the promising commercial biometrics market

The purchase price of US$850 million will be financed with cash and existing credit facilities

Closing is expected to occur in the first half of 2017

This acquisition will be accretive to adjusted Earnings Per Share from the first year on a pro-forma basis

AMSTERDAM, Dec. 09, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Gemalto (Euronext NL0000400653 - GTO), the world leader in digital security, today announced that it has entered into agreements to acquire 3M's Identity Management Business for US$850 million. 3M's Identity Management Business is comprised of 3M Cogent Inc., which provides a full spectrum of biometric solutions with a focus in civil identification, border control and law enforcement, and 3M's Document Reader and Secure Materials Businesses.

Headquartered in the United States and present on 3 continents, 3M's Identity Management Business is a trusted partner to governments, law enforcement, border control and civil identification bodies worldwide. It offers world-class biometric based end-to-end solutions enabling identity verification and user-friendly authentication. 3M's Identity Management experienced and highly-skilled team of approximately 450 experts has developed proven biometrics algorithms (finger, face, iris, etc.) and is at the forefront of innovation with the latest multi-modal biometric solutions. Annual revenue of the business is approximately US$215M and profit from operations at US$58M[1].

As Gemalto pursues its expansion and prepares for the future, this acquisition both completes Gemalto Government Programs offer by in-sourcing biometric technology and ideally positions the Company to provide solutions for the promising commercial biometrics market. Our combined offers and experience in the Public sector to manage the enrolment, identification of individuals, flow of passengers and border control should contribute to stronger national security. On the commercial side, as online and mobile transactions grow, new forms of multi-factor authentication and identification are needed to complement physical ID documents. Combining market access and technologies from 3M's Identity Management Business and Gemalto will allow trusted national identities and strong biometric authentication to develop throughout the digital economy.

Once the acquisition is completed, 3M's Identity Management Business will become part of Gemalto Government Programs business which recorded a revenue of 391 million in 2015.

The closing of the transaction is expected to occur in the first half of 2017, after approval from the relevant regulatory and anti-trust authorities and employee consultation where required. After the acquisition is completed, Gemalto will retain a strong financial structure with a net debt/adjusted EBITDA ratio below 1.5. The transaction will be accretive to adjusted Earnings Per Share. As part of our long term strategy and the development of this core technology across our businesses, the acquired business revenue is expected to grow at +10% CAGR with EBITDA margins above 20% by 2020.

"Gemalto is delighted to welcome new members to its international team. 3M's Identity Management Business and Gemalto perfectly fit, solving authentication and identity management pain points across our customer segments, creating immediate increased differentiation and offering additional long term growth perspectives", said Philippe Vallee, Gemalto CEO.

Live Audio Webcast and Conference call

Gemalto presentation on this announcement will be webcast in English today at 3pm Amsterdam and Paris time (2pm London time and 9am New York time).

This listen-only live audio webcast of the presentation and the Q&A session will be accessible from our Investor Relations web site:

www.gemalto.com/investors

Questions will be taken by way of conference call. Investors and financial analysts wishing to ask questions should join the presentation by dialing:

(UK) +44 203 367 9454 or (US) +1 855 402 7761 or (FR) +33 1 7077 0943

The accompanying presentation slide set is also available for download on our Investor Relations web site.

Replays of the presentation and Q&A session will be available in webcast format on our Investor Relations web site approximately 3 hours after the conclusion of the presentation. Replays will be available for one year.

Investor Relations Corporate Communication Media Relations Agency Winston Yeo Isabelle Marand Suzanne Bakker M.: +33 6 2947 0814 M.: +33 6 1489 1817 M. : +31 6 1136 8659 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Sebastien Liagre M.: +33 6 1751 4467 [email protected]

About Gemalto

Gemalto (Euronext NL0000400653 GTO) is the global leader in digital security, with 2015 annual revenues of 3.1 billion and customers in over 180 countries. We bring trust to an increasingly connected world.

Our technologies and services enable businesses and governments to authenticate identities and protect data so they stay safe and enable services in personal devices, connected objects, the cloud and in between.

Gemalto's solutions are at the heart of modern life, from payment to enterprise security and the internet of things. We authenticate people, transactions and objects, encrypt data and create value for software - enabling our clients to deliver secure digital services for billions of individuals and things.

Our 14,000+ employees operate out of 118 offices, 45 personalization and data centers, and 27 research and software development centers located in 49 countries.

For more information visit

www.gemalto.com, or follow @gemalto on Twitter.

This communication does not constitute an offer to purchase or exchange or the solicitation of an offer to sell or exchange any securities of Gemalto.

This communication contains certain statements that are neither reported financial results nor other historical information and other statements concerning Gemalto. These statements include financial projections and estimates and their underlying assumptions, statements regarding plans, objectives and expectations with respect to future operations, events, products and services and future performance. Forward-looking statements are generally identified by the words "expects", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates" and similar expressions. These and other information and statements contained in this communication constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of applicable securities laws. Although management of the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, investors and security holders are cautioned that forward-looking information and statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties, many of which are difficult to predict and generally beyond the control of the Company, that could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied or projected by the forward-looking information and statements, and the Company cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those estimated by the forward-looking statements contained in this communication include, but are not limited to: trends in wireless communication and mobile commerce markets; the Company's ability to develop new technology and the effects of competing technologies developed; effects of the intense competition in the Company's main markets; challenges to or loss of intellectual property rights; ability to establish and maintain strategic relationships in its major businesses; ability to develop and take advantage of new software, platforms and services; profitability of the expansion strategy; effects of acquisitions and investments; ability of the Company's to integrate acquired businesses, activities and companies according to expectations; ability of the Company to achieve the expected synergies from acquisitions; and changes in global, political, economic, business, competitive, market and regulatory forces. Moreover, neither the Company nor any other person assumes responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of such forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this communication speak only as of the date of this communication and the Company or its representatives are under no duty, and do not undertake, to update any of the forward-looking statements after this date to conform such statements to actual results, to reflect the occurrence of anticipated results or otherwise except as required by applicable law or regulations.

[1] Source: Proforma carve-out unaudited financials based on due diligence - 12 months ending June 2016

Attachments:

http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/256eb623-8407-42e0-80d6-99515e9c5e8c

Source: GEMALTO SA
VANCOUVER, BC -- (Marketwired) -- 12/09/16 -- Millrock Resources Inc. (TSX VENTURE: MRO) ("Millrock") announces that it has completed an initial drilling program at its Los Chinos gold project in Sonora State, Mexico. The project is the subject of a previously-announced option to joint venture agreement with Centerra Gold Inc. ("Centerra"). Under the option agreement, Centerra can earn a 70% interest by funding US$5.0 million in exploration expenditures over a five year period. Millrock manages the exploration work in close consultation with Centerra.

The drilling program consisted of ten holes totaling 1,990 meters. Three target areas were tested; the El Camino zone, La Tinaja prospect, and Pitalla zone. Anomalous surface geochemical values detected at surface with induced polarization anomalies were targeted. The induced polarization anomalies were explained by fault structures with oxidized sulfide minerals. Weakly anomalous gold assay results were encountered in two of the drill holes, but no significantly mineralized intervals were drilled.

The best intersections were from hole 16-04 which returned 4.0 meters grading 0.69 grams per tonne gold and hole 16-09 which returned 6.3 meters grading 0.185 grams per tonne gold.

Millrock and Centerra are evaluating options for further exploration of the Los Chinos property.

Located just 100 kilometers north of Millrock's office in the city of Hermosillo, Mexico, the Los Chinos property is immediately adjacent to Highway 15. The Los Chinos property is located approximately 50 kilometers south of the San Francisco gold mine which is operated by Timmins Gold Corp. The Los Chinos property is in a very similar geological setting as the San Francisco mine and is prospective for mesothermal, orogenic gold deposits. Three zones of mineralization have so far been delineated by Millrock; El Camino, La Tinaja and Pitalla zone. This link leads to a description of the project with maps.

The technical information within this document has been reviewed and approved by Gregory A. Beischer, President, CEO and a director of Millrock Resources. Mr. Beischer is a Qualified Person as defined in NI 43-101.

Millrock adheres to stringent Quality Control - Quality Assurance standards. Drill core was delivered from the drill hole location by Millrock personnel to Millrock's secure facility in Hermosillo, Mexico. In this drilling program 1141 core samples were collected by splitting the core in half with an electric rock saw. Half of the core was retained as a geological record in Millrock's facility. Regular samples were collected over two meter intervals except when a lithologic contact or fault zone was encountered. No samples were smaller than one meter wide. For every 20 core samples, a blank sample known to contain no gold and a standard sample of known gold concentration were also analyzed. Three different standards were utilized including MEG-Au 11.15 (3.4 ppm Au), MEG-Au 12.11 (1.5 ppm Au) MEG-Au 13.01 (0.31 ppm Au). Additionally, a duplicate sample was collected every 30 samples by quartering the core. Two quarter samples from the same depth were then sent to the lab with different sample numbers. All results from blanks, standards and duplicates were reviewed and found to be accurate within acceptable tolerances. Core samples were placed in plastic sample bags and inventoried before delivery to Bureau Veritas lab in Hermosillo, Mexico for analysis. Sample were kept in a secure location prior to delivery to the laboratory. Analysis methods used include FA430 (30 gr/Fire Assay/AAS) and AQ-200 (Aqua Regia  ICP/MS). As a further precaution 117 samples were selected for re-analysis using FA-450 (50 gr/Fire Assay/AAS) and 37 samples were selected for re-analyses using FS631-1kg (Screen Metallics). Results have not yet been received for the 37 samples submitted for screen metallics. All samples were stored in Millrock's core shed in a secure area until deliver to the laboratory could be made.

ABOUT MILLROCK RESOURCES:

Millrock Resources Inc. is a premier project generator to the mining industry. Millrock identifies, packages and operates large-scale projects for joint venture, thereby exposing its shareholders to the benefits of mineral discovery without the usual financial risk taken on by most exploration companies. The company is active in Alaska, British Columbia, the southwest USA and Sonora State, Mexico. Funding for drilling at Millrock's exploration projects primarily comes from its joint venture partners. Business partners of Millrock have included some of the leading names in the mining industry: Centerra Gold, First Quantum, Teck, Kinross, Vale, Inmet and Altius.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

"Gregory Beischer"

Gregory Beischer, President & CEO

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS:

Some statements in this news release contain forward-looking information. These statements address future events and conditions and, as such, involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the statements. Such factors include without limitation the completion of planned expenditures, the ability to complete exploration programs on schedule and the success of exploration programs.

"NEITHER TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE."

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:Melanee HendersonInvestor RelationsPhone: (604) 638-3164Toll-Free: (877) [email protected] Resources Inc.2300  1177 West Hastings St.Vancouver, BC V6E 2K3Canada

Source: Millrock Resources Inc.
CINCINNATI and NEW YORK, Dec. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR) today announced that Murray's Cheese has opened its 350th store location in Bloomington, IN, through its special partnership with the Kroger family of stores. New York's most iconic cheese shop, opened in 1940, delivers the finest selection of cheese, meat and specialty food items to Kroger, which includes Fred Meyer, King Soopers, Ralph's and QFC locations in more than 30 states.

"This is an exciting milestone for Murray's and the specialty cheese industry," said Rob Kaufelt, Murray's Owner and President. "In 2008, we pioneered a store-within-a-store concept at a handful of Kroger stores. Between 2008 and 2012, we opened 38 stores, and in 2016 we opened nearly 100.This partnership has exceeded our wildest expectations!"

"Our customers are excited about the opportunity to buy the unique offerings of Murray's Cheese right in our store," said Robert Clark, Kroger's senior vice president of merchandising. "We continue to see high demand and great buzz in new communities as the shops come to town."

Murray's Cheese shops in Kroger stores replicate the same experience customers enjoy at its Greenwich Village flagship store. Each carries hundreds of cheeses, charcuterie, olives, crackers and specialty food items from all over the world. Murray's is deeply involved with product selection, staff training & development, merchandising and promotions. Murray's staff has trained thousands of Cheese Mongers and Certified Cheese Professionals throughout its relationship with Kroger.

About Murray's Cheese:Since its founding in 1940, the mission of Murray's Cheese is to bring the best cheese selection to the United States and to educate customers about cheese. Murray's Bleecker Street and Grand Central Terminal flagship stores offer hundreds of domestic and imported artisan cheeses, along with a large selection of charcuterie and specialty goods. Follow Murray's on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @MurraysCheese. For a list of locations, visit murrayscheese.com/locations.

About Kroger:Every day, the Kroger Family of Companies makes a difference in the lives of eight and a half million customers and 431,000 associates who shop or serve in 2,796 retail food stores under a variety of local banner names in 35 states and the District of Columbia. Kroger and its subsidiaries operate an expanding ClickList offering  a personalized, order online, pick up at the store service  in addition to 2,253 pharmacies, 787 convenience stores, 324 fine jewelry stores, 1,439 supermarket fuel centers and 38 food production plants in the United States. Kroger is recognized as one of America's most generous companies for its support of more than 100 Feeding America food bank partners, breast cancer research and awareness, the military and their families, and more than 145,000 community organizations including schools. A leader in supplier diversity, Kroger is a proud member of the Billion Dollar Roundtable.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150408/197347LOGO

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/murrays-cheese-reaches-milestone-350th-store-300375988.html

SOURCE The Kroger Co.
COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho, Dec. 09, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- New Jersey Mining Company (OTCQB: NJMC) (NJMC or the Company) announced today that it will target the drill-tested Paymaster and Joe Dandy Ore Shoots as its top exploration priority for future expansion at its Golden Chest Mine in north Idaho.

Initially recognized through core drilling and further defined through more in-depth geologic modeling in preparation for an internal scoping study earlier this year, the Paymaster and Joe Dandy are two of seven ore shoots that demonstrate strong periodicity and consistent width and spacing along the Idaho Fault. Their similar geologic setting and being on strike and adjacent to existing underground development make these two areas highly attractive targets for future underground development and extraction.

NJMC President John Swallow stated, The location and impressive grades of the Paymaster and Joe Dandy Shoots make them logical areas for us to consider beyond our currently defined resources and planned production from the Skookum Shoot area of the property. With underground development in place and an operating mill, the value of our exploration dollars are directly leveraged toward extending mine life and future cash flow.

The Paymaster Shoot was originally intercepted in 2012 by core drill holes GC 12-106 and GC 12-107 which extended gold mineralization nearly 100 meters south of the Skookum Shoot.

GC 12-106 returned 8.22 grams per tonne (g/t) (0.24 ounces per ton (opt)) gold over 3.7 meters (12.1 feet).

GC 12-107 returned 12.4 g/t (0.35 opt) gold over 5.2 meters (17.6 feet) and 7.74 g/t (0.23 opt) gold over 2.5 meters (8.2 feet).

Recent modeling affirms this potential and indicates that on-strike mineralization may continue further south to the Joe Dandy Shoot and into Ophir Gulch, which adjoins other historic high-grade gold producing properties.

The Paymaster and Joe Dandy shoots share a similar geologic setting that is unique to the property with two thick, high-grade, banded veins separated by an intrusive quartz monzonite sill, the competency of which is favorable for underground mining. Both veins are well-banded and not brecciated, a potential indicator of higher gold grades. Both shoots are also located in relatively flat terrain, favorable for drilling as the lack of relief makes target depths much shorter.

NJMC President John Swallow continued, Our study of the property over the last several years leads us to believe there are structural similarities between the Golden Chest and deposits of the nearby Coeur dAlene District, including potential for extending the vertical continuity of the identified ore shoots. If the vertical continuity of the shoots is established, the potential of the property may greatly exceed our prior estimates.

Golden Chest LLC completed an NI 43-101 technical report in 2012 and published an updated NI 43-101 compliant open pit Resource Estimate the following year. The 2013 Resource Estimate includes 4.63-million tonnes grading 1.71 gpt gold (totaling 254,000 ounces of gold) in the Measured and Indicated categories and 3.86-million tonnes grading 1.80 gpt gold (totaling 223,000 ounces of gold) in the Inferred category.

Company management believes the Golden Chest property has district-scale production potential for the longer term, not only near the recently constructed mine, but in areas of past exploration and historic production.

About New Jersey Mining Company

New Jersey Mining Company is headquartered in north Idaho, where it is currently in production at its Golden Chest Mine. It is deploying its mining and milling expertise to build a portfolio of advanced-stage assets with near-term cash flow potential and leverage to higher gold prices.

NJMC built and is majority owner and operator of the New Jersey Mill, a 360-tonne per day flotation mill and cyanide leach plant.

NJMC owns and operates the Golden Chest Mine project where open pit mining is underway and underground mining is expected to resume in early 2017.

NJMC also holds a 50-percent interest in the fully-permitted Butte Highlands Gold Project.

Company assets were developed with more than $50-million of investment dollars from New Jersey and other companies. Management owns more than 15-percent of NJMC stock and has participated in prior financings and made purchases in the open market.

The Companys common stock trades on the OTC-QB Market under the symbol NJMC.

For more information on New Jersey Mining Company, please contact:

Del Steiner, Chairman & CEOEmail: [email protected]

Forward Looking Statements

This release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended that are intended to be covered by the safe harbor created by such sections. Such statements are based on good faith assumptions that New Jersey Mining Company believes are reasonable but which are subject to a wide range of uncertainties and business risks that could cause actual results to differ materially from future results expressed, projected or implied by such forward-looking statements.

Such factors include, among others, the risk that anticipated production levels are not attained, the risk that the mine plan changes due to rising costs or other operational details, the risk that the Company is unable to obtain sufficient funds necessary to resume underground mining at the Golden Chest, and the expectation that the exploration will add significantly to the Golden Chest mine life and the eventual development of the Paymaster and Joe Dandy ore shoots, the risk that gold recovery percentages are lower than expected, the risk that oxidization levels remain the same or increase as the pit deepens, the risk that different portions of the mineral deposit respond differently to processing, the risks and hazards inherent in the mining business (including risks inherent in developing mining projects, environmental hazards, industrial accidents, weather or geologically related conditions), changes in the market prices of gold and silver and the potential impact on revenues from changes in the market price of gold and cash costs, a sustained lower price environment, as well as other uncertainties and risk factors. Actual results, developments and timetables could vary significantly from the estimates presented. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements. NJMC disclaims any intent or obligation to update publicly such forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Source: New Jersey Mining Company
By Sylvain Andzongo

YAOUNDE (Reuters) - Police in Cameroon shot dead four anti-government demonstrators in one of the Central African nation's minority anglophone regions on Thursday, police sources said, after a month of sometimes violent protests in the area.

The protesters were marching on a meeting of the ruling Cameroon People's Democratic Movement (RDPC) in Bamenda, a city in the northwest that is a traditional opposition stronghold when they were confronted by police.

Officers initially tried to scatter the demonstrators using tear gas. A Reuters reporter then saw the police open fire on the crowd, which had continued to grow in size.

Protests first broke out in early November in Bamenda when lawyers and teachers demanded better working conditions in a rare act of defiance against President Paul Biya, 83, who has ruled Cameroon since 1982.

Some demonstrators were armed with steel bars and stones, said one police official, adding that officers had acted in self-defense. One police officer was wounded in the unrest, he said.

"Some of our elements were surrounded by thugs," the officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters. "They had come to kill. The police defended themselves."

"Four hostile targets were neutralized. It's possible there were more," the police source said.

A second officer confirmed four deaths.

A local journalist at the scene, Brenda Kiven, said the ruling party meeting was seen by the protesters as a provocation.

(Writing by Joe Bavier; editing by Richard Lough)
Dutch Parliamentarian Geert Wilders speaks at the Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest sponsored by the American Freedom Defense Initiative in Garland, Texas May 3, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Stone/File Photo

By Toby Sterling and Anthony Deutsch

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Judges on Friday convicted Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders of discrimination against Moroccans but levied no punishment in a ruling that could influence elections just three months away.

It was the first time that Wilders, whose anti-Islam comments have forced him to live under 24-hour protection for a decade, has been convicted for his outspoken views.

Wilders, who is leading in some polls before national parliamentary elections on March 15, said he would appeal the "totally insane" verdict and accused the court of bias.

The charges against Wilders stem from a 2014 campaign rally, when he led a group of supporters to chant they wanted "Fewer! Fewer! Fewer!" Moroccans in the Netherlands. A smiling Wilders concluded: "we're going to take care of that."

Reading the decision of a three-judge panel, Presiding Judge Hendrik Steenhuis said "no one is above the law", including politicians. Wilder had planned the inflammatory remarks beforehand and insulted the entire group of people of Moroccan origin in the Netherlands, he said.

"If a politician crosses the line, that doesn't mean free speech is being restricted," he said. "A crime cannot be protected by the right to free speech."

In a videotaped response to the verdict, which he did not attend in person, Wilders said: "I will never be silenced".

He said the ruling was an attempt to "neutralize the leader of the largest and most popular opposition party in the Netherlands."

Moroccan-Dutch organizations welcomed the verdict for drawing a clear line about the limits of free speech.

"This ruling protects minorities in our country from the racist poison that is seeping into our society," said anti-discriminatiin platform NBK, which previously filed a failed lawsuit against Wilder in 2007.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte declined to comment on the ruling because the case is under appeal. But he said his liberal VVD party, which is virtually tied with Wilders in opinion polls, ruled out sharing power with him unless he takes back the comments about Moroccans.

Steenhuis said Moroccans form a clearly defined population within the Netherlands that Wilders had singled out as having less rights to reside in the Netherlands. About 400,000 people of Moroccan origin live in the Netherlands.

"This statement can be regarded as affecting the dignity of this group as a whole. It is insulting for the entire group," the ruling said.

In closing remarks on Nov. 23, Wilders told judges his remarks were obviously not intended as a call to genocide -- he has never advocated violence -- but rather a reference to his official party platform.

Measures he endorses that could lead to fewer Moroccans include a ban on immigration, expelling Moroccans with dual nationality who commit crimes, and a "voluntary repatriation" policy.

Prosecutors, who rejected Wilders' assertions the trial was politically motivated and an unfair attempt to limit his right to free speech, had asked that a fine of 5,000 euros ($5,300), but no prison sentence, be imposed.

Wilders appeal is likely to last throughout the parliamentary election campaign, which runs for six weeks before voting on March 15.

A previous attempt to prosecute Wilders for anti-Islam remarks, such as likening the religion to Nazism and calling for a ban on the Koran, ended in acquittal in 2011. That process was widely seen as strengthening his reputation as a defender of freedom of speech and increased his popularity.

(Additional reporting by Thomas Escritt, editing by Larry King)
Sven Mikser stands in front of a F-22 Raptor fighter jet of the 95th Fighter Squadron from Tyndall at the newly established NATO airbase of Aemari near Tallinn, Estonia September 4, 2015. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay

By Andrea Shalal

HAMBURG (Reuters) - Estonian Foreign Minister Sven Mikser said he was "quite encouraged" that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump would maintain a strong U.S. commitment to European security despite comments that had sparked concern during the election campaign.

Mikser said he was still waiting to see whom Trump would nominate as secretary of state, but said recent remarks by Trump and his transition team had helped assuage concerns raised when the Republican candidate said he would consider a country's contributions to the NATO alliance before coming to its defense.

"We don't have a complete picture yet, but ... I'm quite encouraged by the tone that the incoming administration has taken since the election," Mikser told Reuters in an interview during a meeting in Hamburg of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

"There will be continuity when it comes to the U.S. commitment to its alliances," he said, adding that there could be more significant changes in U.S. trade and climate policy than in defense. "I haven't seen or heard anything that would suggest that there's going to be a radical departure."

Trump's comments had unnerved many in Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, where Russian military involvement in Ukraine and Georgia has stoked fears that their former Soviet master might eventually try to intervene in the Baltic area.

Moscow says such fears are unfounded and based on anti-Russian sentiment.

Mikser said it was critical for NATO members to make good on their pledges to boost defense spending to 2 percent of gross domestic product, a target Estonia already meets, and said his country remained concerned about Russian military exercises and actions.

"We have to put our money where our mouth is. Everyone should do their part," Mikser said, adding that NATO's plans to deploy 4,000 ground troops next year to the region next year to deter Russia remained on track.

Top British and NATO officials have spoken with Trump about the alliance and his commitment to European security, and said they do not expect any significant changes.

Mikser said he was skeptical about Trump's pledge to reset ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin, noting that previous leaders, including former President George W. Bush, had entertained similar hopes.

"We've seen those attempts to charm Russia into behaving better before, but they haven't led anywhere. I really cannot see any reason for any great optimism," he said, citing continued military maneuvers and snap exercises across the region, as well as a wide array of disinformation campaigns.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Toby Chopra)
Sigmar Gabriel, Germany's Minister of Economic Affairs and Energy, speaks during a news conference at the 15th Asia-Pacific Conference of German Business in Hong Kong, China November 4, 2016. REUTERS/Bobby Yip

BERLIN (Reuters) - The European Union should aim to keep as close a relationship with Britain as possible after Brexit, German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel said on Thursday.

Germany, the EU's largest economy, is concerned about the likely financial costs of Brexit but has also stressed the need for a unified stance among member states in the divorce talks, warning Britain against trying to "cherry-pick" the bits of EU membership it would like to preserve.

"My personal point of view is: We should do everything, as far as this is politically justifiable, to keep the Britons as close as possible to Europe," Gabriel told foreign reporters, without elaborating.

Gabriel, who is also head of the Social Democrats (SPD), the junior partner of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives in Germany's ruling coalition, said the Brexit negotiations must not be allowed to drag on too long.

"This won't be easy. But above all, we must get this done quickly. The uncertainty is the biggest problem," Gabriel said.

British Prime Minister Theresa May has said she will invoke Article 50 of the EU's Lisbon Treaty that triggers the exit negotiations by the end of March 2017.

Merkel repeated on Tuesday her view that access to the EU's single market of nearly 500 million people hinged on respect for the bloc's four basic freedoms - of movement of people, goods, services and financial market products.

Controlling immigration was a major issue for many of the 52 percent of Britons who backed leaving the EU in the June referendum.

(Reporting by Michael Nienaber and Joseph Nasr; Editing by Gareth Jones)
Demonstrators protest against the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement CETA, a planned EU-Canada free trade agreement, outside the European Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, October 27, 2016. REUTERS/Yves Herman

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - An EU-Canada free trade deal will destroy jobs in Europe and should be rejected, a committee of the European Parliament concluded on Thursday.

The European Union and Canada signed the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) in October, but only after hesitation in Austria other countries and opposition from a region of Belgium.and

CETA needs backing from the European Parliament and that vote is expected in February.

The employment committee voted 27-24 for a motion saying the 751-seat parliament should not give its approval to the deal, saying studies showed it could lead to 204,000 EU job losses.

Parliament's trade committee is the lead body responsible for CETA, but before it holds a vote in January, other committees are allowed to offer their opinions. The environment and foreign affairs committees are also expected to give a view, with the latter expected to be in favor.

CETA has struggled to secure approval in Europe some two years after the two sides reached a deal.

Even after the European Parliament vote, CETA would only enter force provisionally, most likely in the form of import tariff removal, as it needs approval from the EU's 28 member states and Belgium's regions.

Supporters say CETA will increase Canadian-EU trade by 20 percent and boost the EU economy by 12 billion euros ($13 billion) a year and Canada's by C$12 billion ($9 billion).

The main focus of protests against CETA is the system to protect foreign company's investments against state intervention. Critics say its arbitration panels to rule on disputes allow multinational companies to dictate public policy, such as on environmental standards.

(Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
Commuters pass by the front of the Bangladesh central bank building in Dhaka March 8, 2016. REUTERS/Ashikur Rahman/File Photo

By Serajul Quadir

DHAKA (Reuters) - A Bangladesh government-appointed panel investigating the cyber-heist of $81 million from its central bank in February found five officials at the bank were guilty of negligence and carelessness, the head of the panel told Reuters on Thursday.

In his first detailed comments on the inquiry since a report was submitted to the government in May, former central bank governor Mohammed Farashuddin said the officials were low to mid-level and were not directly involved in the crime.

"They were negligent, careless and indirect accomplices," he said in an interview in his office. "The committee came to the conclusion that the heist was essentially committed by external elements."

Bangladesh has so far refused to make the inquiry report public saying it wanted to deny perpetrators knowledge of the investigation into one of the world's biggest cyber-heists.

It was not immediately known if Bangladesh had shared the report with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, the main agency investigating the crime.

Farashuddin did not name the officials he found were negligent. A senior central bank official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said no action had been taken against any employee since the inquiry report had not been made public.

Bangladesh Bank spokesman Subhankar Saha declined comment.

Although over 10 months have passed since the heist, there have been no arrests and no word on who carried out the complex heist.

Hackers used stolen credentials to try to transfer nearly $1 billion from Bangladesh Bank's account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York through the SWIFT transaction system. Many of the transfer orders were blocked or reversed but $81 million was sent to accounts in a branch of Rizal Commercial Banking Corp (RCBC) in the Philippines.

The money eventually went into the sprawling casino industry in the Philippines and most of it remains untraced.

Like Bangladesh police investigators, Farashuddin said the inquiry panel also found the hackers may have exploited loopholes in the bank's online security when technicians hooked up the central bank's local money transfer system with SWIFT's international payments network late last year.

SWIFT has denied charges that its technicians were responsible for exposing Bangladesh Bank's systems to hackers.

Reuters has reported earlier that Bangladesh Bank had not protected its computer system with a firewall, and used second-hand $10 electronic switches to network computers linked to SWIFT, weaknesses that the hackers may also have exploited.

Farashuddin said that RCBC was responsible for allowing the stolen funds to be withdrawn and disbursed into the casino industry. Bangladesh has said it wants RCBC to compensate it for its losses.

RCBC has said Bangladesh Bank was "negligent" in letting the initial security breach take place there, and hence the Manila-based bank need not pay any compensation. So far only about $15 million of the stolen funds have been recovered.

Farashuddin said his personal opinion was it would be better to make the inquiry report public, since it would make clear that some local officials were negligent but not responsible for the heist.

"If the government would publish, then Bangladesh Bank's position would be strengthened," he said.

Bangladesh's law minister said earlier this week that his government would share the findings of the inquiry with Philippine authorities.

(Writing by Krishna N. Das; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
Sudan's President Omar Al-Bashir speaks during joint news conference with Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta (not pictured) at the palace in Khartoum, Sudan, October 30, 2016. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - International Criminal Court judges asked South Africa on Thursday to send representatives to a hearing next year to determine whether it had breached its obligation to arrest Sudan's President Omar Al Bashir in June.

The public hearing will further strain already frayed relations between the war crimes court and African leaders, many of whom accuse the mainly European-backed institution of singling out Africa for prosecution.

The decision of South Africa's President Jacob Zuma to let Bashir depart after an African Union summit unleashed a storm of protest in June, prompting legal challenges against the government and leading indirectly to South Africa's and later Gambia's decision to withdraw from the court.

In a ruling issued on Thursday, pre-trial judges at the court scheduled for April 7 a hearing at which the court's prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, South Africa's government and the United Nations could discuss the alleged non-compliance.

In 2010, the court charged Bashir with genocide in connection with the conflict in South Sudan. The ICC's arrest warrants are binding on all member states, including South Africa, but in practice Bashir has visited many members, especially in Africa, without being arrested.

South Africa had previously asked the court to suspend its legal action over the visit until all domestic litigation on the matter was complete. The country remains under legal obligation to attend the April hearing despite its planned withdrawal.

More than two-thirds of the court's members are African countries, but a series of politically sensitive cases, particularly those against Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy, both since shelved, have severely tested Africa's support for the court.

The court has no enforcement powers and no police force of its own. A finding of non-compliance would likely leave any sanctions against South Africa in the hands of the United Nations Security Council, which originally asked the court to investigate alleged war crimes in Sudan.

(Reporting by Thomas Escritt; Editing by Tom Heneghan)
The logo for LinkedIn Corporation is shown in Mountain View, California, U.S. February 6, 2013. REUTERS/Robert Galbraith/File Photo

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's communications regulator said on Thursday it had a constructive meeting with representatives of LinkedIn Corp., a social networking website it blocked last month over its failure to comply with a data storage law.

"The meeting with LinkedIn was constructive. The parties agreed to continue dialogue," Vadim Ampelonsky, a spokesman for the Roskomnadzor watchdog, told Reuters.

LinkedIn, which has its headquarters in the United States, became the first major social network to be blocked in Russia under a new law that requires firms holding Russian citizens' data to store it on servers on Russian soil.

LinkedIn confirmed the meeting took place on Thursday but did not elaborate.

"We appreciated the meeting and will continue to evaluate the matter. We look forward to engaging further with Roskomnadzor on this," a spokeswoman said in emailed comments.

(Reporting by Maria Kiselyova; Editing by Alexander Winning)
JUBA (Reuters) - South Sudan has expelled the country director of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) after security agents held him for over 24 hours without charge, the agency said.

Government officials in Juba were not available to comment.

NRC, which has operated in South Sudan since 2004 and provides services such as food distribution and construction of emergency shelters in remote areas, said no reason was given for the action.

"The expulsion of our Country Director is a serious setback to our humanitarian work for civilians in dire need of support," NRC's Secretary General Jan Egeland said in a statement.

"To undermine our relief to vulnerable citizens' is an affront to the international humanitarian community in South Sudan," he added.

NRC, which did not disclose the name or nationality of its director, urged the government to reverse its decision.

South Sudan has been wracked by violence since a political rift between its President Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, and his former deputy Riek Machar, a Nuer, led to civil war in 2013 that has often followed ethnic lines.

The pair signed a peace agreement last year but fighting has continued and Machar fled the country in July.

Aid agencies say violence has displaced more than three million people, a third of whom have sought refuge in neighboring countries.

(reporting by Denis Dumo,; writing by Aaron Maasho, editing by Angus MacSwan)
MANAMA (Reuters) - British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said on Friday he understood Saudi Arabia's concerns about upheaval in neighboring Yemen but he had "profound concern" about the suffering of Yemeni people after 20 months of war.

Johnson was speaking at a conference in Bahrain a day after footage was published of him accusing Saudi Arabia, an important ally for Britain, of stoking proxy wars across the Middle East.

He said he understood Saudi Arabia's security was of "paramount importance".

"But I must share my profound concern about the present suffering of the people of Yemen," Johnson said in a speech at the Manama Dialogue on Middle East security.

A Saudi-led coalition began a military campaign in March last year to prevent the Iran-allied Houthi movement from taking complete control of Yemen after it seized much of the north.

The conflict has killed more than 10,000 people, half of them civilians, and unleashed a humanitarian crisis in the poorest country in the Middle East.

Johnson said that "force alone" would not bring about a stable Yemen and emphasized the need for a negotiated political solution.

He added that the "hand of Iran is clearly visible in Yemen."

(Reporting by William Maclean; Writing by Tom Finn; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 8-A

FOR REGISTRATION OF CERTAIN CLASSES OF SECURITIES

PURSUANT TO SECTION 12(b) or (g) OF THE

SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

John Hancock Exchange-Traded Fund Trust

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

Massachusetts See Below (State of incorporation or organization) (I.R.S. Employer Identification No.)

601 Congress Street

Boston, MA 02210-2805

(Address of principal executive offices)

Securities to be registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Title of Each Class to be so Registered Name of the Exchange on Which Each Class

is to be so Registered I.R.S. Employer Identification

Number Shares of beneficial interest, no par value per share, of: John Hancock Multifactor Developed International ETF NYSE Arca, Inc. 81-4092929

If this form relates to the registration of a class of securities pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Exchange Act and is effective pursuant to General Instruction A.(c), check the following box. x

If this form relates to the registration of a class of securities pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Exchange Act and is effective pursuant to General Instruction A.(d), check the following box. 

Securities Act registration statement file number to which this form relates: 333-183173

Securities to be registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Exchange Act: None.

INFORMATION REQUIRED IN REGISTRATION STATEMENT

Item 1. Description of Registrants Securities to be Registered.

A description of the shares of beneficial interest, no par value per share, of John Hancock Multifactor Developed International ETF, a series of John Hancock Exchange-Traded Fund Trust (the Trust), to be registered hereunder, is set forth in Post-Effective Amendment No. 11 to the Trusts Registration Statement on Form N-1A (Commission File Nos. 333-183173; 811-22733) filed on December 9, 2016, which description is incorporated herein by reference as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Any form of amendment or supplement to the registration statement that is subsequently filed is hereby also incorporated by reference herein.

Item 2. Exhibits.

1. The Trusts Amended and Restated Agreement and Declaration of Trust dated January 22, 2016, is included as Exhibit (a)(3) to Post-Effective Amendment No. 7 to the Trusts Registration Statement on For -1A (File Nos. 333-183173; 811-22733), as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 24, 2016.

2. The Trusts By-Laws dated November 24, 2009 as amended June 25, 2015, (By-Laws) are included as Exhibit (b)(1) to Pre-Effective Amendment No. 2 to the Trusts Registration Statement on Form N-1A (File Nos. 333-183173; 811-22733), as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on July 13, 2015.

3. The Amendment dated March 10, 2016 to the Trusts By-Laws is included as Exhibit (b)(1)(A) to Post-Effective Amendment No. 6 to the Trusts Registration Statement on Form N-1A (File Nos. 333-183173; 811-22733), as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 10, 2016.

SIGNATURE

Pursuant to the requirements of Section 12 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the Registrant has duly caused this registration statement to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereto duly authorized, as of this 9th day of December, 2016.
UNITED STATES* SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION Washington, D.C. 20549 SCHEDULE 13G Under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (Amendment No. 6)* VanEck Vectors AMT-Free Long Municipal Index ETF ------------------------------------------------ (Name of Issuer) Common ------------------------------ (Title of Class of Securities) 92189F536 -------------- (CUSIP Number) November 30, 2016 ------------------------------------------------------- (Date of Event Which Requires Filing of this Statement) Check the appropriate box to designate the rule pursuant to which this Schedule is filed: [ X ] Rule 13d-1(b) [ ] Rule 13d-1(c) [ ] Rule 13d-1(d) *The remainder of this cover page shall be filled out for a reporting person's initial filing on this form with respect to the subject class of securities, and for any subsequent amendment containing information which would alter the disclosures provided in a prior cover page. The information required in the remainder of this cover page shall not be deemed to be "filed" for the purpose of Section 18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 ("Act") or otherwise subject to the liabilities of that section of the Act but shall be subject to all other provisions of the Act (however, see the Notes). - 1 - CUSIP No. 92189F536 1. Names of Reporting Persons, I.R.S. Identification Nos. of above persons (entities only): First Trust Portfolios L.P.: 36-3768815 First Trust Advisors L.P.: 36-3788904 The Charger Corporation: 36-3772451 2. Check the Appropriate Box if a Member of a Group (See Instructions) (a) [ ] (b) [ ] 3. SEC Use Only 4. Citizenship or Place of Organization of each Reporting Person: Illinois, U.S.A. Number of 5. Sole Voting Power: 0 Shares Bene- ficially Owned by Each 6. Shared Voting Power: Reporting Such shares are held by the following entities in the Person With: respective amounts listed: First Trust Portfolios L.P.: 0 First Trust Advisors L.P.: 0 The Charger Corporation: 0 7. Sole Dispositive Power: 0 8. Shared Dispositive Power: Such shares are held by the following entities in the respective amounts listed: First Trust Portfolios L.P.: 839,719 First Trust Advisors L.P.: 839,719 The Charger Corporation: 839,719 9. Aggregate Amount Beneficially Owned by Each Reporting Person: 839,719 10. Check if the Aggregate Amount in Row (9) Excludes Certain Shares (See Instructions) - 2 - 11. Percent of Class Represented by Amount in Row (9): 10.37% 12. Type of Reporting Person (See Instructions) First Trust Portfolios L.P. - BD First Trust Advisors L.P. - IA The Charger Corporation - HC ITEM 1. (a) Name of Issuer: VanEck Vectors AMT-Free Long Municipal Index ETF (b) Address of Issuer's Principal Executive Offices Attn: Legal Department 666 Third Avenue 9th Floor New York, NY 10017 USA ITEM 2. (a) Name of Person Filing First Trust Portfolios L.P. First Trust Advisors L.P. The Charger Corporation (b) Address of Principal Business Office or, if none, Residence First Trust Portfolios L.P. 120 East Liberty Drive, Suite 400 Wheaton, Illinois 60187 First Trust Advisors L.P. 120 East Liberty Drive, Suite 400 Wheaton, Illinois 60187 The Charger Corporation 120 East Liberty Drive, Suite 400 Wheaton, Illinois 60187 (c) Citizenship of each Reporting Person: Illinois, U.S.A. (d) Title of Class of Securities Common Stock (e) CUSIP Number 92189F536 - 3 - ITEM 3. If this statement is filed pursuant to Sec. 240.13d-1(b) or 240.13d-2(b) or (c), check whether the person filing is a: (a) x Broker or dealer registered under section 15 of the Act (15 U.S.C. 78o); (b) Bank as defined in section 3(a)(6) of the Act (15 U.S.C. 78c); (c) Insurance company as defined in section 3(a)(19) of the Act (15 U.S.C. 78c); (d) Investment company registered under section 8 of the Investment Company Act of 1940 (15 U.S.C. 80a-8); (e) x An investment adviser in accordance with Sec. 240.13d-1(b)(1)(ii)(E); (f) An employee benefit plant or endowment fund in accordance with Sec. 240.13d-1(b)(1)(ii)(F); (g) x A parent holding company or control person in accordance with Sec. 240.13d-1(b)(1)(ii)(G); (h) A savings associations as defined in Section 3(b) of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act (12 U.S.C. 1813); (i) A church plan that is excluded from the definition of an investment company under section 3(c)(14) of the Investment Company Act of 1940 (15 U.S.C. 80a-3); (j) A non-U.S. institution in accordance with Sec. 240.13d-1(b)(1)(ii)(J); (k) Group, in accordance with Sec. 240.13d-1(b)1(ii)(K). If filing as a non-U.S. institution in accordance with Sec. 204.13d-1(b)(1)(ii)(J), please specify the type of institution: _____________________________________________ ITEM 4. Ownership Provide the following information regarding the aggregate number and percentage of the class of securities of the issuer identified in Item 1. (a) Amount beneficially owned: 839,719 (b) Percent of class: 10.37% (c) Number of shares as to which the person has: (i) Sole power to vote or to direct the vote: 0 (ii) Shared power to vote or to direct the vote: 0 (iii) Sole power to dispose or to direct the disposition of: 0 (iv) Shared power to dispose or to direct the disposition of: 839,719 - 4 - Instruction. For computations regarding securities which represent a right to acquire an underlying security see Sec. 204.13d-3(d)(1). ITEM 5. Ownership of Five Percent or Less of a Class If this statement is being filed to report the fact that as of the date hereof the reporting person has ceased to be the beneficial owner of more than five percent of the class of securities, check the following [ ]. Instruction: Dissolution of a group requires a response to this item. ITEM 6. Ownership of More than Five Percent on Behalf of Another Person This Schedule 13G filing is jointly filed by The Charger Corporation, First Trust Portfolios L.P. and First Trust Advisors L.P. pursuant to Rule 13d-1(k)(1). The Charger Corporation is the General Partner of both First Trust Portfolios L.P. and First Trust Advisors L.P. First Trust Portfolios L.P. acts as sponsor of certain unit investment trusts which hold shares of the issuer. The total number of shares of the issuer held by these unit investment trusts is set forth in Row (8) above with respect to First Trust Portfolios L.P. No individual unit investment trust sponsored by First Trust Portfolios L.P. holds more than 3% of any registered investment company issuer's shares. First Trust Advisors L.P., an affiliate of First Trust Portfolios L.P., acts as portfolio supervisor of the unit investment trusts sponsored by First Trust Portfolios L.P., certain of which hold shares of the issuer. Neither First Trust Portfolios L.P., First Trust Advisors L.P. nor The Charger Corporation have the power to vote the shares of the issuer held by these unit investment trusts sponsored by First Trust Portfolios L.P. These shares are voted by the trustee of such unit investment trusts so as to insure that the shares are voted as closely as possible in the same manner and in the same general proportion as are the shares held by owners other than such unit investment trusts. The difference, if any, between the aggregate amount of shares beneficially owned by each reporting person, as set forth in Row (9) above, and the number of shares of the issuer held by the unit investment trusts sponsored by First Trust Portfolios L.P. represents shares of the issuer which are either held in other registered investment companies, pooled investment vehicles and/or separately managed accounts for which First Trust Advisors L.P. serves as investment advisor and/or investment sub-advisor. Each of First Trust Portfolios L.P., First Trust Advisors L.P. and The Charger Corporation disclaims beneficial ownership of the shares of the issuer identified in this filing. ITEM 7. Identification and Classification of the Subsidiary Which Acquired the Security Being Reported on By the Parent Holding Company or Control Person See Item 6. ITEM 8. Identification and Classification of Members of the Group Not Applicable. - 5 - ITEM 9. Notice of Dissolution of Group Not Applicable. ITEM 10. Certifications By signing below I certify that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, the securities referred to above were acquired and are held in the ordinary course of business and were not acquired and are not held for the purpose of or with the effect of changing or influencing the control of the issuer of the securities and were not acquired and are not held in connection with or as a participant in any transaction having that purpose or effect other than activities solely in connection with a nomination under Sec. 240.14a-11. SIGNATURE After reasonable inquiry and to the best of my knowledge and belief, I certify that the information set forth in this statement is true, complete and correct. FIRST TRUST PORTFOLIOS L.P., FIRST TRUST ADVISORS L.P. and THE CHARGER CORPORATION Date: December 9, 2016 By: /s/ James M. Dykas --------------------------- Name: James M. Dykas Title: Chief Financial Officer of First Trust Portfolios L.P. and First Trust Advisors L.P., and Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer of The Charger Corporation - 6 -

Exhibit 99.1 EXHIBIT 99.1 - JOINT FILING AGREEMENT The undersigned hereby agree that they are filing this statement jointly pursuant to Rule 13d-1(k)(1). Each of them is responsible for the timely filing of such Schedule 13G and any amendments thereto, and for the completeness and accuracy of the information concerning such person contained therein; but none of them is responsible for the completeness or accuracy of the information concerning the other persons making the filing, unless such person knows or has reason to believe that such information is inaccurate. In accordance with Rule 13d-1(k)(1) promulgated under the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, the undersigned hereby agree to the joint filing with each other on behalf of each of them of such a statement on Schedule 13G and any amendments thereto with respect to the equity securities (as defined in Rule 13d-1(i)) of the issuer, beneficially owned by each of them. This Joint Filing Agreement shall be included as an exhibit to such Schedule 13G and any amendments thereto. Date: December 9, 2016 First Trust Portfolios L.P., First Trust Advisors L.P. and The Charger Corporation By: /s/ James M. Dykas --------------------------- Name: James M. Dykas Title: Chief Financial Officer of First Trust Portfolios L.P. and First Trust Advisors L.P., and Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer of The Charger Corporation
The Panama Papers case adjourned, to be heard again in January under a new bench, in light of the incumbent Chief Justice of the Supreme Court retiring at the end of this year, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan told journalists that he hoped the same bench would hear the case in the first week of January.

Speaking to journalists in Islamabad, Imran Khan said no matter what happens he will take the Panama case to its logical end.

He expressed hopes that the same bench would resume hearing the case in the first week of January.

Imran Khan reiterated his stance that a commission is not needed in this case. With Awami Muslim League chief Sheikh Rasheed adding that so far all the commissions which had been created had not met expectations of the public.

Khan told journalists, that the Panama case would decide if there are laws for the rich and powerful as well.

The PTI chairman added that the prime minister had claimed all documents regarding finances are available, but the prime minister's counsel told the court he is unable to locate such old documents.
If someone read you a page out of the Bible and a page out of Playboy magazine, would you be able to tell the difference?

If your answer is yes, then according to Walter Cronkite, you should have no problem telling the difference between objective journalism and an opinion column. He once said, objective journalism and an opinion column are about as similar as the Bible and Playboy magazine.

Cronkite, a legend and respected force in journalism, once known as the most trusted man in America, had a point, one that most would probably have agreed with  that is, until the internet and social media came along.

During the 2016 presidential election, the American public experienced an election where lies were common and fake news stories reigned supreme. Journalists were called scum and disgusting by the man who is set to become the next president of the United States of America.

While the presidential race may be over, the wounds are still healing. And while President-elect Donald Trump seems to be softening on some of his campaign promises, he has yet to back off the media.

Like me, most working journalists have probably experienced public sentiment mirroring what Trump said on the campaign trail or on Twitter about journalism and the media. The comments and the sentiment can be troubling for any journalist but more important they could be threatening the foundation of our democracy.

As journalists we seek truth and report it. We do so by minimizing harm to those involved. We act independently. We are transparent. We hold ourselves accountable.

These ethics help us uphold our responsibility to the public. That responsibility, among other things, is to inform, provide a voice to the voiceless and hold the powerful accountable. To do this we have to be able to function free and without fear of prosecution, as intended by our Founding Fathers.

Trump is no longer a private citizen. He is president-elect and will soon become the most powerful person in this country. The public deserves and is entitled to access and information about what he does and where he goes.

It is important the access is not limited to press releases, videos, images, etc. that are taken by his staff, supporters or the government, because in this country we do not live under a dictatorship where the government controls the message.

This is not about journalists and news organizations having access. Its about allowing the American people access. The public has a right to facts and original sources of information, such as government documents. It is the role of journalists and news organizations to provide that to them.

If journalists dont, who will?

Will it all come from the government via press releases or Trumps Twitter feed? Will the American people be lied to? Are the American people OK with being lied to? Are they OK with not being allowed access to the information that belongs to them?

If journalists are forced out of the White House, state houses, city council meetings, denied access to Trump or other officials, the public will be forced to receive news about this countrys leaders and the decisions they are making through one lens: that of the government.

In that case, who will stop the government from pushing an agenda, something they already try to do?

Public enlightenment is the forerunner of justice and the foundation of democracy. Public opinion may not be in journalists favor right now, but the public needs real, accurate and unbiased reporting. More important, they deserve it.

Oscar Wilde once said, In America the president reigns for four years, and journalism governs forever and ever.

Journalists and news organizations have worked tirelessly to protect the First Amendment and will continue to. And it is hoped one day it will once again be as easy to tell the difference between an opinion column and objective journalism as it is the Bible and Playboy magazine.
Former information minister Parvez Rasheed said on Friday that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will not even give a button from his clothes, much less his resignation following the Panamagate revelations.

Rasheed criticised Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan, saying the PTI chief is taking a "U-turn" from his own demand for a commission to be set up to investigate Panamagate case.

This was the first time the former information minister had addressed the media after being asked to step down following the publication of Dawn's story.

"Instead of providing evidence for the Panama case, he is calling for a boycott of the commission," the PMNL-N senator said, accusing Khan of going back on his words.

"The case was already closed when the court declared PTI's evidence against PM Nawaz bogus," he said.

Rasheed was referring to the Supreme Court's judgment of Nov 16 where Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed had said that it seemed as if the petitioners were trying to bury the truth under their evidence that consisted mostly of newspaper clippings.

The PML-N senator further said, "It is our right to sue Imran Khan for his baseless allegations against the prime minister," and that he must apologise to the public for wasting its time.

Earlier today, a five-judge larger bench of the Supreme Court adjourned hearing of the Panamagate case till the first week of January 2017.

The decision was taken after a short session of the court in which Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) counsel Naeem Bokhari announced the party's decision to boycott a commission, if it is formed, to probe the Panamagate scam.

Justice Asif Saeed Khosa remarked during the hearing that the court will be on vacation from Dec 15 to Dec 30, and it will not be possible for the bench to reach a verdict after just two more hearings, hence the hearing should be adjourned till January.

The SC's decision to adjourn the Panamagate proceedings till January means that the new chief justice Mian Saqib Nisar, who will take oath on Dec 31, will form a new larger bench to hear the case.
Betsy DeVos, President-elect Donald Trumps choice for secretary of Education, has spent a lifetime fighting to siphon public money into private schools.

Described as the four-star general of the pro-voucher movement, she  along with her husband, Dick DeVos, who is heir to the Amway fortune  has poured millions of dollars into lobbying for school voucher programs across the country.

Since 2009, Betsy DeVos has been the chair of the American Federation for Children, or AFC, the nations leading school-choice advocacy group.

Billing itself as the nations voice for educational choice, the American Federation for Children has an electoral arm that supports pro-school-choice politicians. The groups 2012 Election Impact Report featured charming photos of black and Latino kids, as though these kids were the beneficiaries of its lobbying work. But the politicians the group supports are not exactly heroes of the civil rights movement.

The biggest recipients of AFC funds are Republican state legislators who are busy enacting plans to slash funding for public schools and, at the same time, redirecting tax dollars to private-school families  many of whom have kids who have never attended public school.

When former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson started the nations first private-school voucher program in Milwaukee in 1990, the plan pitted African-American parents who wanted to get their kids out of crumbling schools against teachers unions, civil libertarians and public-school advocates who objected to sending tax money to private schools, including religious schools.

Nearly three decades later, vouchers have not proven to be a ticket out for poor kids of color. Voucher students in Milwaukee have lower test scores in reading and math than their public-school peers. The ACLU is still concerned tax dollars are going to teach voucher students creationism in voucher-funded religious schools.

Fly-by-night voucher schools have popped up in corner stores and rundown strip malls to take advantage of school voucher money in Wisconsin. This educational dystopia is the plan Betsy DeVos would like to take nationwide.

When Wisconsin expanded Milwaukees voucher program to the city of Racine, half of all new voucher recipients were students who had never attended public school.

Lutheran and Catholic schools saw their enrollment jump when Wisconsin eliminated caps on the number of students who could get vouchers and raised the income cap to 300 percent of the federal poverty line.

The bottom line: Families that never used the public schools, that are neither poor nor living in a neighborhood with a failing school, can get taxpayer dollars to reduce their tuition, even as the public schools are facing a budget crisis.

Forget the school privatizers misleading catch phrase, that school choice is the civil rights issue of our time.

The real question is whether we will continue to have public schools, or a pay-as-you-go system that means you get the education you can afford.

This fundamental question is being debated right as Trump attempts to appoint Betsy DeVos.
NC court committee to legislators: Forgo NC Supreme Court expansion plan. Anne Blythe of The News & Observer of Raleigh, North Carolina has this report.







Supreme Court Refuses to Stay Execution of Alabama Inmate: Adam Liptak of The New York Times has this report.







Access the audio of yesterdays Fourth Circuit oral argument in American Humanist Assn v. Maryland-National Capital Park: Via this link (35.4 MB mp3 audio file). My earlier post linking to coverage of the oral argument can be accessed here.







Five Things to Know About SCOTUS Short-Lister Pryor: Patrick Gregory of Bloomberg BNA has this report.







3rd Circuit sticks up for publics interest in deal between whistleblowers: Alison Frankels On the Case from Thomson Reuters News & Insight has this post today.







Wikipedias NSA lawsuit heads to federal appeals court; With rights groups, suing over agencys internet snooping: Andrea Noble of The Washington Times has this article previewing a case argued today before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. The Fourth Circuit has already posted the audio of the oral argument online, and you can access it via this link (29.4 MB mp3 audio file).







Arkansas court upholds gay marriage birth certificate law: Jill Bleed of The Associated Press has an article that begins, Arkansas highest court on Thursday threw out a judges ruling that could have allowed all married same-sex couples to get the names of both spouses on their childrens birth certificates without a court order, saying it doesnt violate equal protection to acknowledge basic biological truths.' You can access todays ruling of the Supreme Court of Arkansas at this link.







Reid predicts death of filibuster; In a POLITICO interview, the departing Democratic leader blamed his partys 2016 debacle on Jim Comey and said no big changes are needed: Seung Min Kim, Burgess Everett, and John Bresnahan of Politico.com have this report.







No, Senate Democrats Cant Use The Nuclear Option To Confirm Merrick Garland; Struggling to accept the consequences of electoral defeat, progressive activists are now desperately clinging to a wild conspiracy theory about how they can retain control of the Supreme Court: Sean Davis has this post at The Federalist.







Bench Brackets: The Battle for the Next SCOTUS Justice (Part 2). Bloomberg BNA has posted online this video segment featuring Kimberly Robinson and Patrick Gregory.







SCOTUSDaily interviews Tony Mauro of The National Law Journal: You can read the interview at this link.







Changing schedule for transgender case at Supreme Court: Lyle Denniston has this post at the Constitution Daily blog of the National Constitution Center.







Four Takeaways From this Terms 2016 SCOTUS Oral Arguments: Adam Feldman has this post today at his Empirical SCOTUS blog.







Under Trump, the Federal Courts Will Be Up For Grabs: Linda Greenhouse has this essay online today at The New York Times.







Appeals Court Reviews Lawsuit Claiming The Purge Was Stolen; Douglas Jordan-Benel scored a victory for those alleging idea theft, but can Universal reverse it? Ashley Cullins has this post at the THR, Esq. blog of The Hollywood Reporter. You can access on YouTube at this link the video of Mondays oral argument before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Douglas Jordan-Benel v. Universal City Studios, Inc.






Clayton Mitchell

New Zealand First MP

The Prime Minister has abandoned his post. New Zealand First is the only party that can offer both, stable leadership in government and positive change.

Bill English has already had a national referendum on his leadership and was rejected by the country in 2002, with the largest defeat in blue party history. Key is backing a losing horse in supporting his Finance Minister Bill English to be the next Prime Minister.

NZ First Party leader Winston Peters does not believe the reasons given in Keys announcement to be credible. The actual state of the country is clearly much worse than this blue government has been spinning us for the last eight years.

How does a so-called stable leader spring his departure on the country like this? Has he agreed to take up a lucrative position offshore with one of his much-supported multi-national corporations? All we have is conjecture, and a decided lack of care shown for the emotional and economic state of the country.

Key has expended a lot of political capital trying to take Mt Roskill from Labour, after losing Northland to New Zealand First. He tried to spin it as a safe Labour seat story, after previously calling it a referendum on Andrew Littles leadership.

No matter what the reasons, Key is going, and New Zealand is now looking for strong leadership, with a change mandate, and the ability to steady the ship of state. We humbly submit that a leader with a proven track record of consistency, and care for the needs of all New Zealanders, with a commitment to positive change, is ready to lead the country, as he has similarly led the party he founded.

No dead wood will be tolerated, we need a straight-talker unafraid to speak the truth whether its currently fashionable or popular; and everything done with high expectations of himself and all he works with.

We need Winston. New Zealand needs New Zealand First.
Simon Bridges

National MP

simonbridges.co.nz

Our diversified, strong economy is an important buffer in challenging times.

This week our Prime Minister announced he will be resigning and New Zealand will have a new leader in the coming weeks.

John Keys legacy will be as one of the greatest leaders this country and the National Party has ever seen. His leadership of National has been exceptional and he leaves an amazing legacy of a country that is now the envy of many others in the world. I wish John and his family all the best for the future.

Currently, government ministers are working on developing, then rolling out, support packages for people affected by the Kaikoura earthquake and its aftershocks.

But the recent display of the force of nature has been a timely reminder to all New Zealanders about the need to be prepared for potential natural disaster events. It is important we ensure we are prepared not just for ourselves, but for the ones we care for  families, friends, elderly neighbours or the young family next door.

We cant be shy about sitting down with family to talk about a plan and how we might work together and check-up on each other in the event of an earthquake. Just as it is prudent to have a personal plan of action for challenging times, it is the same with the economy.

The best-performing societies in the world dont get there by luck. They get there by adopting polices which reward investment in job-creating, and income growth-supporting enterprises.

And in these times of somewhat turbulent geopolitical events in parts of the world, weve also been reminded in recent weeks of the benefit of living in a country with a strong and increasingly diversified economy.

New Zealands regional economies are reaping significant employment and income growth opportunities due to the success of the National Governments tourism strategy.

In this years budget, we invested a further $45 million in tourism during the next four years, on top of more than $130 million National was already investing every year to facilitate tourism sector growth.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment has confirmed tourism expenditure grew in every single region in the 12 months to October 31, 2016. Tourism spending in the Bay was up 10 per cent to stand at $1.7 billion in the same period. This is helping to grow our local economy and businesses in the region are seeing huge benefits from this.

MBIEs analysis indicates Nationals strategy to ensure all regions benefit from the exceptional growth happening right now in tourism is working to diversify our economy and strengthen its resilience to deal with any unexpected local or global challenges on the horizon.
Smoke could be seen coming from a vehicle after it crashed into a light pole on Fraser Street in Tauranga.

A caller to the 0800 SUNLIVE news hotline says the driver had come around the corner of 11th Ave and Fraser Street and lost control.

"Its really slippery there, I have slipped myself coming around the corner. I dont think speed was a factor.

"The vehicle is wasted."

Emergency services are at the scene and motorists are being warned to drive with care in the area.

No one is believed to have been injured in the crash.
Tauranga airline Sunair has been grounded for 10 days after a complaint was made to the Civil Aviation Authority.

The nature of the complaint is not known at this stage.

Sunair co-owner Bev Power says she is unable to go into details at this time, as the investigation is ongoing.

We are working closely with the Civil Aviation Authority to satisfy their concerns. The CEO has gone to Wellington today to attend meetings this afternoon.

Its our view, and the view of other experienced people in the industry, the suspension of the certificate is an over-reaction to the matters being considered. The proficiency of the companys flight crew and the air worthiness of the aeroplane fleet is not in question.

Its our hope, and belief, that our airline operation will be back flying shortly.

In a statement, the Civil Aviation Authority says the Director of Civil Aviation has suspended Sunair Aviation Ltds Air Operator Certificate, effective from December 6, due to serious concerns about the safety of Sunairs operation.

The suspension is an initial 10 days suspension, however, it remains in force if the safety issues are not addressed to the satisfaction of the Director of Civil Aviation.

The actions follows the launch of a Section 15 A investigation, which is ongoing.

The Sunair AOC has been suspended under section 17 of the Civil Aviation Act because this operator poses an imminent and unacceptable risk to public safety.

The suspension will result in disruption to public travel but other flight options are available on the main routes flown by Sunair. Travel to places such as Motiti Island may be affected in the short term, but it is possible another operator may fly these routes in future.

The Authority says the suspension of Sunairs AOC is ongoing until the operator addresses the concerns that have been raised as a result of the investigation.
Mount Maunganui schoolteacher Leisa Renwick has been nominated for New Zealander of the Year.

Last year she fought and survived stage four melanoma after being given just weeks to live. She puts her survival down to the breakthrough drug Keytruda which costs over $10,000 a month.

Leisa Renwick took up the fight to get public funding for the drug and gathered an 11,000 signature petition in support of her cause and took it to the steps of parliament.

"Only those with the means to pay can access medicines that can save our lives. The wealthy are offered treatment and the poor are sent home to die and thats a fact," she said.

"I would say that while youre making your commercial decisions, while youre negotiating with those two drug companies, someone is dying every single day she said at the time.

Her campaign for public funding of Keytruda was successful and today she is back at work "and paying taxes". Its estimated the funding will save 120 lives a year. To vote in the Peoples Choice go to

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/new-zealanders-of-the-year/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501017&objectid=11756183

Voting closes midnight next Saturday, December 10.

The winner will be announced together with the New Zealander of the Year on December 31.
The Coastguards Old4New lifejacket swap is going to be at Sulphur Point from 8am till 11am.

Regional Council staff will demonstrate how to service lifejackets and Coastguard will be encouraging boaties and members of the public to trade in their old lifejackets for discounts on new ones.

Skippers must carry a correctly sized and fit for purpose lifejacket for each person on board. With sheds across the country littered with old lifejackets that no longer work, and inflatables people have no idea how to operate, this is a great opportunity to upgrade your safety kit at a reasonable price and learn some tips at the same time, says Safer Boating Officer Tony Pearce.

We will also have free safer boating resources and waterproof cell phone bags to give away too.

Its great to see Coastguard taking practical steps to address issues around lifejackets no longer being fit for purpose and hats off to Maritime New Zealand for funding this great initiative, says Tony.

Safer Boating staff and Coastguard will be at Sulphur Point Boat Ramp this Sunday 11 December between 8am - 11am. Coastguard will also be at Whakatane Boat Ramp between 1pm  4pm.

People can visit the Old4New Lifejacket Upgrade van and trade in their old, damaged or worn lifejacket for a significant discount on a brand new, modern Hutchwilco lifejacket. There are five lifejacket styles to choose from including one for kids.

Two lifejacket campaigns are resulting in a big pre-Christmas uptake on lifejacket sales says Marine New Zealand.

A 20 per cent price reduction has seen nation-wide retailer, Rebel Sport double its sales of lifejackets in the first week of the month, and the Coastguard sold 300 lifejackets in the first weekend of its Old4New promotion.

About half the lifejackets used by recreational boaties are sold in the few weeks before Christmas and it is great news to see even more sales this year, says Maritime NZ Education and Communications Manager, Pania Shingleton.

Wearing your lifejacket is the most important thing boaties can do to keep themselves safer on the water, says Pania.

Our tragic statistic is that about two-thirds of recreational boating deaths could be prevented by taking the simple step of wearing a lifejacket.

If you plan to go boating, then buying the right-sized lifejackets can be a practical family Christmas present.

Maritime NZ is making buying lifejackets easier this year by providing $75,000 for Coastguard to run the Old4New lifejacket upgrade programme sponsored by Hutchwilco, and has joined up with Rebel Sport to offer 20 per cent off lifejackets in a promotion sponsored by media publisher News Works.

New Zealand is a nation of boaties. It seems about one-third to half of our population takes to the water in one million recreational craft, says Pania.

Those big numbers  and we know they are increasing  mean boat safety is really important.

By law every boat has a skipper and the skipper is in charge.

If youre the skipper taking friends or family out on the water, take two waterproof ways to call for help, check the marine weather forecast, avoid alcohol and, above all, make sure everyone wears a lifejacket.

The Old4New Lifejacket campaign is based on a concept run in Australia by Transport New South Wales and has been adapted for New Zealand. More information at https://www.coastguard.nz/boating-safely/life-jackets/old4new/
Calle Larios in Malaga, after the declaration of the Second Republic in 1931. :: SUR

The year 1931 was a time of change for Spain. The previous year had seen an end to the dictatorial government led by General Miguel Primo de Rivera. King Alfonso XIII made an attempt to restore constitutional freedoms, but his support for the previous dictatorship had discredited the monarchy and republican opposition thrived. By the end of that year, republican, socialists and other opposition groups had vowed to overthrow the monarchy and establish a democratic regime in the San Sebastian pact, and factions of the military were starting to support the republican idea.

The results of the municipal elections on 12 April 1931 threw up republican and socialist victories in the main Spanish cities. Alfonso XIII went into voluntary exile, paving the way for the declaration of Spains Second Republic two days later.

There followed an interim period with a provincial government while a new constitution was debated and drawn up. Spains 1931 Constitution was approved on 9 December that year and remained in force until the end of the Spanish Civil War in 1939.

The Republican Constitution, albeit shortlived, was the countrys most progressive so far. As well as popular sovereignty, it introduced universal suffrage and an extensive declaration on rights and liberties. These included the right to education, freedom of association and expression, civil marriage and divorce and the equality of illegitimate and legitimate children.

For the first time Spains regions were allowed to draw up their own home rule or autonomy statutes.

Furthermore Church and State were separated to form a secular regime. The Catholic Church was no longer subsidised and was banned from running educational institutions; freedom of worship was established.

The extent to which the 1931 Constitution promoted a secular state had caused controversy and division, leading to the resignation from the government of conservative Catholic republicans before it was approved. It nationalised Church properties and declared that public manifestations of Catholicism such as religious processions and funerals, had to be authorised by mayors.
When he was 19 Usama travelled to Afghanistan to join the Jihad, and Adam was one of the principal recruiters at British universities. After reconverting, they now train police officers and intelligence services on prevention of terrorism

Nikita Malik of the Quilliam Foundation, between Usama Hasan (left) and Adam Deen. :: FERNANDO GONZALEZ

They are under threat of death. For Daesh, their reconversion is a betrayal of the badly-named Islamic State. For them, if you leave the organisation you are leaving Islam, they say.

Adam Deen and Usama Hasan were recruited by extremist groups and they in turn recruited young people for the Jihad. They managed to escape in time and now run Quilliam, a non profit-making foundation which collaborates with security and intelligence services in different countries and has become a vaccination against the poison of radicalism.

They are normally accompanied by bodyguards and surrounded by security measures, and when they travel, they do so in secret. This week they were in Malaga to hold anti-terrorism training days - organised for the first time in Spain, with the approval of the Centre of Intelligence against Terrorism and Organised Crime (CITCO) for carefully selected police officers, social workers and members of NGOs. There were about 50 people present. For security reasons, we cant talk openly to the public, they say.

On Friday, after finishing their talks at Malaga councils Public Safety School (ESPAM), they came to the officers of SUR newspaper to talk about their experiences on the journey to and from extremism. They didnt avoid any questions, no matter how delicate. The only restriction was time: at 1pm a van from the municipal Social Rights department, which had organised the talks, took them to catch a plane to their next destination. They only imposed one condition: that the interview should not be published until after they had left the city.

Adam Deen - Head of training

I even celebrated the attack on the Twin Towers

Nothing about his well cared-for appearance - green eyes, pale complexion, neat hairstyle - suggests that Adam Deen, a baby-faced 39 year old with a short beard, was one of the biggest organisers of activities for the extremist Al-Muhajiroun organisation, with whom he is linked with more than 50 acts of terrorism. Although this white man of Islam, as those of his physical characteristics are called, says he did not participate directly in any attacks, he was present at secret meetings when an explosives attack was planned on London underground stations. These were not carried out because the leader of the group disappeared, says Adam, but he admits that I was prepared mentally for it. Years later, in 2005, four bombs (three on undergound trains and the fourth on a bus) went off in London, causing 56 deaths and injuring more than 700 people. Although the attack was attributed to a secret faction of Al-Qaeda on an Islamist website, the Al-Muhajiroun organisation was banned after these attacks.

Deen, who is now general director and head of training at the Quilliam Foundation, discovered extremism through a leaflet which a young man gave him in the street, which detailed the obligations of what was called Islamic State. He was a 19 year old Muslim, brought up in London by his Turkish parents, who was looking for answers and believed he would find them in the mosque. His appearance did not alter with his radicalisation, but he changed intellectually. At university - he is a computer engineer - he met different people from extremist groups and soon became a recruiter. Everything seemed to make sense. Youre Muslim, the Koran is your book and Muslims should be in an Islamic society which has to be set up. I believed all that to be true, he says.

America, they believed, was the enemy of Islam. On 11 September 2001, when the attack on the Twin Towers took place, he was delighted at the blow this symbolised against the West. I went out into the street to celebrate, sounding the horn. Afterwards, I realised it was actually a blow against humanity, he says.

A new family

For eight years, the group became a family which replaced his own. I used to eat with them, live with them, go out with them... until I became disillusioned and realised that I wasnt happy, that something wasnt right. But it had some very important social effects , and affected my family badly he says. One of the people who had joined the organisation at the same time later became his instructor in the process of reconversion. He taught me other perspectives and philosophical ideas which were unknown to me. I discovered Kant, Socrates, Plato... I was able to open my mind again and understand the messages that were behind everything they said.

He lost contact with his co-religionists, who all travelled to Afghanistan to join the Jihad. If I hadnt changed, I would have ended up in ISIS as well. I felt empathy for them, he says. He knew nothing more about them for a decade, until he decided to embark on the Quilliam project so that other young Muslims would not go through the same experience that he had.

In the last two years, during which Deen has visited more than 40 university campuses in the UK and his work has given him a public dimension, he has received death threats by the same person who originally captured him for the organisation. The problem is that in order to communicate I have to give a conference and show myself, he says. Nor is it an equal fight. I am taking on a risk factor which for others doesnt exist. Their message is spread massively via social media, quickly and effectively. And its easier to recruit. Now, the enemy could be anyone.

Usama Hasan - Head of Theology

After two members of ISIS attacked me, I started to realise they could kill me

At the age of 11, Usama Hassan had already learned the entire Koran off by heart and he became an iman when he was still a teenager. The strict conception of the religion pushed him towards extremism at the age of 13. Doctor Usama, as his colleagues at Quilliam refer to him, says two other factors contributed to his radicalisation: Racism - I was attacked on the street at times - and the political situation in the world, with the conflicts in Afghanistan, Israel and Palestine.

Although he was born in Kenya, Usamas family, who were migrants from India and Pakistan, moved to London when he was four years old. In Jihadist-Salafism he found a brotherhood and camaraderie which he had never known before. For the first time, I felt safe in public. My group protected me, he says.

His two older brothers, aged 19 and 17, also joined this radical trend, but they left before I did. In fact, in 1990, when he was studying at Cambridge University, he put his books aside temporarily to become a foreign fighter and travelled to Afghanistan to join the Jihad against the communist forces. There he discovered hundreds of people who, like him, were prepared to fight. Most of them ended up in Al Qaeda. Some of my friends did. But I knew how to separate myself from it and look for peace, he says.

The turning point, 7-J

The 7-J attacks in London also marked a turning point in his life. From that moment Usama Hasan, who is a doctor in Physics and Artificial Intelligence and has worked as a university lecturer in the UK, began to campaign in Muslim circles against extremism and religious reform.

After his reconversion, he began to receive death threats and was even attacked by two members of ISIS. I was with my wife, my children and several relatives. They tried to attack me. I defended myself as best I could and called the police. It was awful, because it happened in front of my children. Thats when I started to realise they could kill me, says this 45 year old, who has appeared as an expert witness at three trials of terrorists.

Since the attack, Dr Usama has a bodyguard and has installed security protection at his home. When he gives a talk at the university, he is surrounded by police, and his office is in a secret place that does not appear on the Internet.
Brexit means uncertainty and opportunities for Malaga, but there is a historically important relationship between the UK and the Costa del Sol

Participants listen to Deputy Mayor Maria del Mar Martin Rojo. :: JENNIE RHODES

Last Thursday and Friday the Rectorado building of the University of Malaga hosted an interdisciplinary seminar on the subject of Brexit.

The two-day event explored the important historical relationship that the Costa del Sol has with the UK, not only in terms of the number of British people who live in the province of Malaga, but also with regard to trade.

The seminar attracted around thirty people, from academics, to lawyers, journalists and representatives from Foreigners departments in the province. The British consul for Andalucia, Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla, Charmaine Arbouin, participated in some of the presentations, as did Malaga City Halls deputy mayor and councillor for economic productivity, business promotion and employment, Maria del Mar Martin Rojo.

The first presentation given on Thursday looked at the effect that Brexit is already having and will potentially have in the future, on the many British pensioners living not just in Malaga, but in Spain in general, under the title of From European pensioners to nonmember state pensioners. Charmaine Arbouin participated in the talk, along with Mayte Echezarreta Ferrer, Director of the European Observatory on Gerontomigration and representatives from the University of Malaga, who gave a further talk on rights and obligations of European pensioners living in other member states.

Other presentations on day one of the seminar included the result of the referendum and the prickly subject of political management behind the UKs departure and the rights and political participation of foreign residents living in Spain.

Martin Rojo started off Fridays session with an informative presentation about the concerns and uncertainties for business, tourism and the sociopolitical importance of the UK and Malaga. She also highlighted the potential opportunity for Malaga to attract businesses which may have previously thought of setting up in the UK, but wish to base themselves in a EU member state.

Further presentations were given about the justice system and how Brexit would affect British citizens rights and access to healthcare.

Questions were raised about the potential fall in tourism to the Costa linked to the weak pound as well as rights of British people as tourists and consumers once the UK is no longer party to EUconsumer protection laws.
Alicia was staying at the venue while flat hunting, owner says, as rains brought tragedy from Estepona to Campo de Gibraltar

Rescue workers attempt to find the victim at the Club California. :: SUR

More details have emerged this week of the last hours of a 23-year-old Romanian woman who drowned in an Estepona nightclub last Sunday when the water levels rose in the basement premises and she was unable to escape.

Friends and colleagues of the woman, known as Alicia, have told police that she had been sleeping at the Club California after finishing work there earlier on Sunday morning.

The club is behind the Costasol shopping centre, east of Estepona on the A-7,in the area known as the New Golden Mile and is below ground level near an incline.

According to Natalia, a friend and the girlfriend of Francisco, one of the club owners, Alicia had decided to stay in the club after work in order to go and see a flat that she was interested in renting on Sunday morning in nearby La Cancelada.

The co-owner has also testified to police that, The night before the storm the manager and barman offered to take Alicia to a friends house in Marbella so she wouldnt be alone. When they saw the storm they warned her that the premises had been flooded nine years ago and the water had reached the level of the bar, however Alicia had turned down the offer as she wanted to see the flat.

He claims that the woman had lived in the area a couple of years ago and had only been back for a few days. He told police that he only sells drinks and what the girls do in the rooms is up to them, he added.

Alicia called both the bar manger and Natalia shortly after 9.30am on Sunday morning, as the water came in, to ask for help. Natalia said, She said she couldnt get out and Itold her to get on to the bar, which is quite high. They were then cut off and the victims phone went dead.

Although emergency services were quick on the scene, the water had reached as high as the clubs sign and they were unable to save Alicia. Her body was later found by divers who managed to get in through a window.

Police are investigating what happened, including inspecting the club in detail in attempts to understand what exactly led to Alicias death. A post mortem has confirmed that the victim drowned.

Estepona hit again by rain

Estepona had also suffered heavy rain on Thursday, December 1st and was just recovering when Sundays torrential downpour struck the town.

In total, the municipality had 305mm rainfall in three days, which is more than it received in the 11 months so far of this year. On Sunday alone 236mm had fallen up to 8pm.

Some 300 calls were made by locals in the Estepona area to the emergency services. Many were related to people trapped in their cars. The local police headquarters were also flooded again, for the second time in a week.

Spains interior minister, Juan Ignacio Zoido, visited the towns fire station on Sunday evening to see first hand the coordination of the rescue effort, expressing his sorrow at the death of the nightclub worker and promising to provide government aid to those affected by the storm.

Further tragedy in La Linea

Nearby Manilva and Casares also suffered dramatically due to the rain. The mayor of Manilva asked for Sabinillas to be declared a disaster zone as the A-7underpass was totally flooded to street level as the Manilva river burst its banks.

Neighbouring Cadiz province was also affected badly by the rains. The storm claimed its second victim in La Linea de la Concepcion in the Campo de Gibraltar. An electricity worker was attending an emergency with colleagues whenthe car he was travelling in was swept away by a torrent of water. La Linea declared three days of mourning.
At what was described as a "fruitful and successful" meeting, the Joint Ministerial Council discussed the way forward for Gibraltar

The Joint Ministerial Council met for the first time in London. :: SUR

Ministers from the UK and Gibraltar governments met formally as the Joint Ministerial Council for the first time in London on Wednesday, and discussions focused on the Gibraltar and Brexit report which was submitted to the UK government by Gibraltar a few months ago.

After the meeting with Robin Walker, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, and Sir Alan Duncan, Minister of State for Europe and the Americas, Gibraltars chief minister Fabian Picardo described Sir Alan Duncan as a keen supporter of Gibraltar and said he is a keen ally in the Brexit process.

The Joint Ministerial Council will continue to meet regularly, and a number of inter-governmental working groups will be set up to examine specific areas in more detail.
David and Judy in Uganda. :: SUR > When: Sunday 11 December, 1-11pm > Where. Table Mountain restaurant, Comares > Info: Facebook - Christmas Market Fundraiser for Nabugabo orphanage, Uganda

On Sunday residents of Comares will be holding a Christmas market to raise funds for the Nabugabo orphanage in Uganda. The event will be held at Table Mountain restaurant in the town, from 1 until 11pm. There will be stalls selling Christmas goods, crafts, mulled wine and Father Christmas will be making an appearance. There will be live music from The Three Stooges, Meigan, Jazzie Jools and others from 3pm as well as a raffle with prizes including a dress made by a local designer, Cabra Azul craft beer and Zumba classes.

The orphanage was founded by David and Judy Batten who left their home in Spain to move to Uganda in 2012 where they founded the Nabugabo Community Development Association (NCDA). This grassroots, initiative was formed principally to serve the community, especially through education. It receives no government funding and depends on donations from around the world. To date, NCDA has built a primary school (The Nabugabo Community Learning Centre) for over 100 children who receive free education, clothing, uniforms, food and health care. Additionally, there is a dedicated free boarding facility on site called The Ark, for children who were living in a very distressed environment, and local houses for elderly people living in abject poverty. Immunisation programmes, health and hygiene workshops and typhoid/malaria sensitisation sessions have been carried out in cooperation with village health teams and local clinics. Malaria nets have been distributed to every child at the school. The schools infirmary extends its work to the community, helping people with HIV/AIDS, teenage pregnancies and other issues.
Cuomo.JPG

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announces the 2016 Regional Economic Development Council awards at the Egg Center for Performing Arts in Albany on Thursday, Dec. 8, 2016.

(Provided photo)

Syracuse, N.Y.  Steri-Pharma LLC, a maker of antibiotics used to treat complicated bacterial infections, will receive a $3 million grant from the state to expand its operations on South West Street in Syracuse.

The grant is the largest among the $62.2 million in state money that was awarded today to 77 development projects in Central New York under the 2016 round of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's Regional Economic Development Council initiative.

In addition to the $3 million grant, Steri-Pharma will receive $1 million in Excelsior Jobs Program tax credits.

Steri-Pharma will add a second sterile powder filling line and expand its warehouse capacity with the construction of new clean rooms, sterile production and filling area, and a new building, according to the governor's office. The expansion would help retain 48 current jobs at the plant and create 77 new ones, according to state officials.

The New Jersey-based company bought the facility at 429 S. West St. from Hanford Pharmaceuticals in September 2009 and began production of antibiotics in 2010.

Le Moyne College will receive a $1.2 million state grant to help create a $7.5 million "quantitative reasoning center" in the college's library and in St. Mary and Reilly Halls. The center will include computer labs, corporate class facilities, peer learning labs, tutoring facilities, film and video presentation equipment, and video conferencing.

"The QRC will play a major role in developing a key competency not only for Le Moyne students but also for community and business partners throughout the Central New York region," Le Moyne President Linda LeMura said in a statement. "The skills that will be taught through the QRC are absolutely vital to this region as we seek to educate individuals with solid analytical and mathematical aptitude, as well as higher-level thinking and reasoning."

Among the other Central New York grants approved by the state today:

 Beak Skiff Holding Co. will receive a $598,000 grant and $100,000 in tax credits to expand and upgrade its fresh cider operation in Lafayette, including construction of a new facility for storing and pressing fresh apple to cider, converting its existing facility to include an upgraded bottling line and product cooler, and construction of a pole barn to stage fresh apples before moving them to the cooler.

The project would help retain 59 jobs and create six new ones, state officials said.

 SB Lattimore Inc. will received a $1.19 million grant to build an lakeview hotel comprised of three buildings totaling 55 rooms, a bar and event facilities in Fleming in Cayuga County. The hotel will be across from Owasco Lake and Emerson Park, adjacent to The Point at Sand Beach event center. The project would create 30 jobs, according to the state.

 Crouse Health Hospital Inc. will receive a $1 million grant to relocate its prompt care facility, which is currently across the street from the main hospital, to an existing space adjacent to its emergency department, which is being expanded.

 Onondaga County will receive a $975,000 grant to upgrade the Nicholas J. Pirro Convention Center.

 The city of Auburn will receive a $2 million grant to turn a strip mall into a new regional public safety complex housing the city's fire department emergency services and the Cayuga County Emergency Management Office.

Below is the complete list of projects in Central New York receiving grants and tax credits.

2016 REDC Central New York Awards by rickmoriarty on Scribd

Contact Rick Moriarty anytime: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 315-470-3148
stacey castor.jpg

Stacey Castor in Onondaga County Court in 2009.

(Dick Blume | The Post-Standard)

Syracuse, NY -- After months of follow-up tests, authorities have concluded that notorious anti-freeze murderer Stacey Castor died of natural causes from a heart attack, according to Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick.

Castor, 48, was found dead the morning of June 11 at Bedford Hills, the state's maximum security prison for women in Westchester County.

The Westchester County medical examiner's office said at the time that there were no obvious cause of death, but lab tests could take several months.

In the end, Castor was determined to have died from heart disease with no sign of suicide or foul play, Fitzpatrick confirmed today.

Castor was serving a 51 1/3 years-to-life sentence for poisoning her husband, David Castor, to death in 2005 and attempting to murder her daughter, Ashley Wallace, in 2007. She was also convicted of forging her husband's will.

Her 2009 trial was considered one of the biggest in Central New York history, spawning her nickname "The Black Widow."

Castor, of Wetzel Road in Clay, killed her husband by administering antifreeze to him with a turkey baster; his death was originally considered a suicide. She then attempted to kill her daughter with pills mixed in a concoction of soda, juice and alcohol.

Castor planted a fake suicide note with her dying daughter, in which she tried to blame her daughter for David Castor's death and the death of Stacey's first husband in 2000.

Though never proven, Castor is believed to have also poisoned her first husband, Michael Wallace, in a death originally attributed to a heart attack.

Castor would have been first eligible for parole in 2055 at age 87.
PHOENIX, N.Y. -- Multiple fire departments from two counties battled a house fire Friday afternoon in southern Oswego County.

At 12:09 p.m. Enterprise firefighters responded to a fire at ranch style house at 174 State St. in the village of Phoenix.

Firefighters from Caughdenoy, Cody, Pennellville, Volney, Moyers Corners, Liverpool, Baldwinsville, and Belgium Cold Springs were called in to help. The fire was knocked down at 1:39 p.m., Oswego County 911 said. Crews remained to overhaul and look for hot spots.

Phoenix police said State Street was closed between Davis and Oswego River roads. Police said the family that lives at the home is safe, though two dogs perished in the fire. The American Red Cross of Central New York said it assisted two adults from the fire.

Property records list the owner of the house where the fire occurred as Herbert DeVaul.
Are you looking for a special gift, or want to treat yourself to a one-of-a-kind piece of art or a handcrafted item? Consider a visit to one of Central New York's many artists' cooperatives.

It's a win-win for both the buyer and the seller. Co-ops provide an unusual shopping experience, offering handmade fine arts and crafts usually created by local artists. The artisans and fine artists who comprise the membership of the co-op have an opportunity to show their works in less formal settings than traditional gallery environments. Members also benefit from sharing the costs of renting a space to show their works and the expenses of marketing and publicity. In return, members they staff the facility and/or pay a fee or dues.

Central New York can lay claim to many fine artists' cooperatives. Here is a guide to some of them.

Cazenovia Artisans

39 Albany St., Cazenovia, (adjacent to Kinney Drugs); 655-2225; cazenoviaartisans.com.

Hours: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday-Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, 11 a.m.to 4 p.m. Sunday.

The interior of Cazenovia Artisans.

About: Cazenovia Artisans began in 2002 with 14 local artists and crafters, but that original group has changed with the times. Today, Cazenovia Artisans, located within the village's historic commercial district, provides shoppers with a bevy of handcrafted items created by 20 full members and several consignment artists.

Shopping: Entrance to Cazenovia Artisans is through a main door shared by the restaurant Les Pates et Les Nouilles, adjacent to Kinney Drugs. The co-op is on your right. Visitors can choose from works by ceramists, jewelers, fiber artists, painters, glassmakers and a woodworker. The works range from functional to fanciful, with heavy doses of decorative and wearable in the mix. The product mix emphasizes works by artists/artisans from the Cazenovia area, but it extends to artists from Herkimer and Chenango counties, as well as Utica, Clinton and the greater Syracuse area. Product is organized by artist, and product categories are intermingled. Jewelry is under a glass case at the cashier counter.

Membership: Potential new members are selected by a jury committee that invites the candidate to show their works at a monthly general meeting. Three-quarters of the membership must vote to accept the artist into the co-op on a trial basis. Like most co-ops, members must work monthly volunteer shifts and contribute a monthly assessment that covers rent and utilities. The co-op claims 4 percent of the sales to cover expenses. Each month the works by an artist, or artists, are singled out and featured.

Gallery 54

54 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles; 685-5470; gallery54cny.com.

Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Thursday and Sunday; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Gallery 54 in Skaneateles.

About: Gallery 54 is one of the newest additions to the Central New York cooperative scene, opening its doors in 2009. There are eight member/owner artists in the co-op, all of whom are local to CNY and the Finger Lakes. There is also a substantial roster of about 45 consignment artists; those who provide the co-op with a sales commission when their works are sold without committing to staffing hours.

Shopping: Gallery 54 enjoys the benefit of the excellent foot traffic typical of Skaneateles' East Genesee Street at virtually any time of the year. When you step inside, expect to find fiber arts, ceramics, jewelry, photography, painting, glass and woodworking. The gallery is comprised of a series of small rooms, each filled chock-a-block with a mixture of mediums, with the walls of the main hallway supporting additional works. Gallery 54 draws the artists from the greater Central New York region, but have looked as far as Old Forge if the work is distinctive and of high quality. Each month Gallery 54 features a guest artist and hosts a variety of artists' demonstrations throughout the year.

Membership: Artists can initially join Gallery 54 as consignment artists and if their work generates adequate sales, they can be asked to join the cooperative as an owner. This will require a financial investment as well as a commitment to join the other owners staffing the shop and fulfilling additional administrative duties. Gallery 54 also participates in the monthly First Friday gallery walk throughout the village.

Skaneateles Artisans

3 Fennell St., Skaneateles, located under the Old Stone Mill, a block off of Genesee Street in the village; 685-8560; skaneatelesartisans.com.

Winter Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.

About: Skaneateles Artisans is owned and operated by Teresa Vitale, a painter of fine finishes whose work is included among the 150-plus artists and crafters on view in her well-stocked venue. Vitale took over the business from the original co-op about a year ago and has changed the cooperative structure to an all-consignment business.

Shopping: Skaneateles Artisans can claim one of the most charming locations of the area's co-ops. Located under the Old Stone Mill in the heart of the village, Vitale has pulled together an eclectic mix of products. Vitale's assortment is one of the most innovative among the co-ops and goes beyond the usual visual media by including published works by poets, writers and publicists. There's also a broad sampling of works by ceramists, jewelers, woodworkers, painters, photographers, glassworkers (including stained glass), fiber artists, metal workers and a wildlife artist who crafts wildlife in their habitats from metal and wood. Another artist creates intricate floral arrangements from paper and another uses the humble gourd as a source of inspiration. Products are organized by artist, but Vitale isn't afraid to mix things up. It's not unusual to see a grouping of ceramics sitting on a shelf below an assortment of watercolors. Ninety percent of the artists represented hail from New York state, with about half of those based in Central New York, but there are others from Pennsylvania and as far away as Texas.

Membership: Artists who Vitale accepts on a consignment basis contribute 45 percent of their sales to the Artisans, but she cuts the commission by 5 percent for each day they work in the shop up to four days. The co-op provides openings and receptions for new and/or featured artists and participates in the monthly First Friday gallery walk throughout the village.

Eureka Crafts

210 Walton St., Syracuse, located in Armory Square; 866-471-4601; theeureka.company.

Hours: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday-Thursday; 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.

About: Eureka Crafts was one of the trailblazing businesses to open in Armory Square back in the 1970s. The building it calls home, originally built in 1850 as a horse stable, is one of the oldest structures in the neighborhood. While Eureka was originally conceived as an artists' cooperative, it operates now as a retail store. Co-owner Fiona Cipiti says Eureka's original mission continues to influence how the store is operated, working directly with the more than 300 artists and artisans it represents from across the United States.

Shopping: Eureka's well-stocked windows, facing Walton Street, make it easy to spot. Artists, including some from Central New York, work in ceramics, metalwork, jewelry, woodwork, paper and more. There's a heavy emphasis on jewelry with Eureka offering a wide variety of price points and styles shown in a bevy of glass cases. It also carries an extensive ceramics assortment with a nice selection of works by the highly acclaimed, Syracuse-based ceramist David MacDonald. You can also find small-gift items such as candles and note cards.

Membership: Because Eureka operates as a retail establishment, membership is no longer part of its business model.

Imagine

38 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles; 685-6263; imagineskaneateles.com.

Hours: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday-Wednesday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

About: Imagine has had a presence in Skaneateles for the last 23 years. Established by Joseph Panzarella, Imagine was recently taken over by his daughter Sarah. It is a handcraft gallery, operating as a retail store that specializes in American handcrafts.

Shopping: You can spot Imagine by the handblown glass figures and ornaments hanging in the window. Step inside and you are greeted by a broad range of high-quality craft items that span the full range of price points -- from the $10 impulse purchase to one-of-a-kind handmade, fine jewelry. Imagine also carries a good assortment of unique glass and stemware, handmade soaps, ceramics, fiber arts, wood work and mixed media. There's also plenty of wearable art from unique jackets and hats to decorative scarves. Imagine also represents established brands such as Danforth Pewter and Solmate Socks.

Membership: Imagine operates as a full retail establishment. There is no membership.

Handwork Co-op

102 W. State St., Ithaca, located on the Ithaca Commons in downtown Ithaca; 607-273-9400; handwork.coop.

Hours: Hours change during holiday season with extended hours in December. Check website for updates.

The Handwork art cooperative in Ithaca, NY.

About: Handwork, formerly known as Cooperative Craft Store, is one of the oldest artist co-ops in the region, celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. It began in 1976 with 12 local craftspeople looking to pool their resources as an affordable way to sell their works. It has since grown its membership, hired a full-time manager, and purchased the three-story old brick building where it is located at Cayuga and State streets. Handwork receives additional revenue by renting out the structure's top two floors.

Shopping: Handwork is comprised of 45 artists/members from the Center New York region who own and operate the business, but the co-op also represents additional consignment and wholesale artists from across the United States as a way to flesh out specific product categories. Its high-quality merchandising mix is one of the broadest among the co-ops and includes pottery, woodworking, jewelry, fiber arts, glass, fine art, photography, leather and dried flowers. There are also portfolios of unframed prints and paintings to be found and lower price-point items such as candles and notecards. There are three rooms to shop in, with each highlighting a few individual mediums.

Membership: Acceptance into the co-op is not easy. You have to be recommended by two members and bring examples of your work to a meeting for review. There's a follow-up meeting where you are questioned about your work. If you're accepted, it's on a six-month trial membership. The co-op takes 25 percent of your sales and you must work four half-day shifts per month. The co-op does not review new membership applications between October and December due to the holiday crunch. Handwork hosts a steady stream of in-store events including demonstrations by members.

Lakeside Artisans

Lakeside Artisans in Oswego, NY

191 W. First St., Oswego, located near the waterfront in downtown Oswego on the ground floor of Canal Commons; 342-8880; lakesideartisans.com.

Hours: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday to Saturday, noon to 4 p.m. Sunday.

About: Lakeside Artisans opened inside Canal Commons in 2011, moving to the sunny street-front space it now occupies in 2012. The co-op began in 2010 as the winning business plan in an Oswego County-sponsored competition designed to foster the entrepreneurial spirit within the community. The $25,000 winning prize for "The Next Great Idea," provided the co-op with the seed money to get started. It now has 12 full members and 11 consignment members, most of whom are from Central New York.

Shopping: Members work in wood, ceramics, paint, jewelry, fabrics, glass, printmaking and mixed media. There are also notecards, candles and small prints available for small gift occasions. The retail space is brightly lit and there's plenty of room to walk around, step back and survey the merchandise, which is organized by medium.

Membership: Consignment members pay a yearly fee and Lakeside Artisans takes a 45 percent commission of their sales. Co-op members must commit to a minimum of 20 hours per month staffing the store, serving on a committee and participating in monthly meetings. Lakeside Artisans offers classes conducted by its members and has a revolving schedule of in-store events. To see what is offered, go to its website or Facebook page.

Additional suggestions for artful shopping

Several of Central New York's museums and art galleries have small retail shops, where you can purchase arts and crafts made by Central New Yorkers. Here is a selection:

* Edgewood Gallery: 216 Tecumseh Road, Syracuse; 445-8111; edgewoodartandframe.com; 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday-Friday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday

* Everson Museum of Art: 401 Harrison St., Syracuse; 474-6064; everson.org; noon to 5 p.m. Sunday, Wednesday and Friday; Noon to 8 p.m. Thursday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday

* Onondaga Historical Association: 321 Montgomery St., Syracuse; 428-1864; cnyhistory.org; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday-Friday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday

* Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center: 205 Genesee St., Auburn; 255-1533; schweinfurthartcenter.org; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday

* Munson Williams Proctor Arts Institute: 310 Genesee St., Utica; 797-0000; mwpai.org; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday

* Clayscapes Pottery: 1003 W. Fayette St. Suite L1, Syracuse; 424-6868; clayscapespottery.com; 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday-Friday and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday.
Vault.JPG

The entrance to the former Vault art space at 451 S. Warren St.

(Chris Baker | cbaker@syracuse.com)

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- The City of Syracuse shut down a downtown concert venue in October for violating occupancy limits. The closure was an effort to prevent a tragedy like the warehouse fire that left 36 people dead in California last week.

Syracuse shut down The Vault on South Warren Street for lacking proper exits. The circumstances at the Syracuse night spot differ from those that led to the warehouse fire, but demonstrate the need for code enforcement, a city official said.

On Friday, Dec. 2, a warehouse in Oakland commonly called "Ghost Ship" burned down during an electronic music concert, killing 36 people. The warehouse lacked proper exits, had no sprinklers and was riddled with other code violations, including people living in the building.

The Vault -- though dissimilar to the warehouse in many ways -- was shut down over an occupancy violation. It was hosting concerts with more people than codes allowed for, often as many as 200.

Ken Towsley, director of code enforcement for the City of Syracuse, said fires like the one in Oakland demonstrate why the city strictly enforces codes.

"That's the exact reason," he said. "There was the Rhode Island fire a few years back -- the majority of our state rules were adopted because of that fire."

Towsley was referring to a 2003 night club fire in Rhode Island that left 96 people dead.

Fans enjoy a concert at The Vault, 451 S. Warren St.

City codes cited the space for illegal occupancy on Oct. 19. The site was registered as office space and not set up for public assembly.

Towsley said his office received an anonymous complaint that prompted an investigation.

"With assembly of public there are so many safety rules," he said. "You need two means of egress. Imagine you've got 200 people trying to get out an exit."

Justin Pellingra, who operated The Vault, said he tried for several months to find a way to stay open. Codes require him to have two viable exits in the case of an emergency.

The building has a clear second exit, but it empties almost directly onto a neighbor's property. Should the neighbor block that exit -- temporarily or permanently -- it would create a hazard. Pellingra sought an easement from the neighbor, but was unsuccessful.

Pellingra said he is glad he had the chance to provide a space for artists to share their talents. The Vault hosted semi-regular concerts, as well as art exhibits and improv comedy shows. He stressed that he does not feel like a victim of the city and appreciates the fire department and codes officials doing their jobs.

"I think what they do is very important, especially in light of what happened at Ghost Ship," he said. "I own the responsibility of The Vault and what happened down there. It didn't work out. It's okay. I'm going to move forward and find a new location."

Pellingra applied for a business license for "Live from the Vault" in November, 2015.

Towsley said the city had no problems with Pellingra's operation. But he didn't meet the code for hosting as many people as he did.

"People may think we shut it down because we didn't want it, but it's the safety concern," Towsley said. "When you start compromising what is required you risk a tragedy."
101203 FATHER PAUL GW.JPG

Rev. Paul Angelicchio (right), conducts a Mass at Holy Family Church in Fairmount in October 2003. This week the Syracuse Catholic Diocese put The Rev. Paul F. Angelicchio, pastor of St. John the Baptist and Transfiguration parish in Rome, on administrative leave as church officials investigate an allegation of abuse involving a minor 27 years ago.

(Gary Walts | Syracuse.com, file photo, 2003)

SYRACUSE, NY - Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick said today his office investigated an allegation against Rev. Paul F. Angelicchio and found no proof, evidence or corroborating witness to back up the allegation.

Angelicchio, a priest for decades in the Syracuse area and more recently in Rome in Oneida County, has been placed on leave by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse while it investigates a claim of abuse that is alleged to have happened 27 years ago, a diocese spokeswoman confirmed this week. Angelicchio is pastor of St. John the Baptist and Transfiguration parish in Rome.

Fitzpatrick said when the allegation against Angelicchio surfaced, his office investigated and found nothing to back up the claim - no physical evidence, no crime and no corroborating witness. In addition, the alleged crime was decades old, thus the statute of limitations had run out, he said.

In addition, Angelicchio vehemently denied the allegation, Fitzpatrick said.

Fitzpatrick said his office determined Angelicchio "was not a clear and present danger to any minors,'' and turned the allegation over to the Syracuse diocese, the DA's normal practice.

The DA said he concluded there was no reason to institute any safeguards with regard to Angelicchio. "That speaks to my opinion'' of the allegation made against the priest, he said.

The allegation involving Angelicchio is that he was aware of an instance of sex abuse involving a minor, but was not the perpetrator, according to a source close to the investigation.

The priest is well known in the Syracuse area.

Before Angelicchio became pastor in Rome in 2011, the priest worked for years at Our Lady of Pompei/St. Peter Church in Syracuse and Holy Family Church in Fairmount. He also was a parish priest at Our Lady of Lourdes Church on Valley Drive in Syracuse during the the 1980s. From 1977 to 1999, he also served as police chaplain for the Syracuse department.

The decision to turn accusations or allegations over to the diocese is common practice for the DA's office, and in part stems from a 2015 memorandum of understanding between Catholic Bishop Robert Cunningham and the seven district attorneys in the diocese. In that agreement, the diocese agreed to report all accusations against priests to the prosecutors.

Although not specifically spelled out in the agreement, the Onondaga County DA's office informs the diocese of allegations in the spirit of cooperation, said Rick Trunfio, Onondaga County's first chief assistant district attorney.

The DA's office typically informs an institution such as the diocese or a school if there are allegations involving an employee as a matter of courtesy, he said.
Disabled Animal Farm

In this March 22, 2013 photo, Deborah Devlin, left, feeds Lulu the pig a treat while Baby, right, a blind cow, stands by at Don't Forget Us Pet Us, a 14-acre farm for animals that have been neglected or have special needs, in Dartmouth, Mass. When the pig died, the cow was inconsolable -- until a rescued calf showed up to take the pig's place.

(Dave Souza / The Herald News via AP)

Jackie Warren-Moore, a poet, playwright, theatrical director and freelance writer, writes regularly for syracuse.com and The Post-Standard. Her new book is "Where I Come From" (Nine Mile Books, 2016).

I'm very fortunate to have great friends. Some I see or speak with more often than others, but I know they are always there. This column is about friendship and all the positivity it can bring to a sometime crazy world. I've been speaking more frequently to my friends these days.

There is a friend of mine currently living in Massachusetts. She is Caucasian, of Irish ancestry, and has been one of my best friends for 45 years. We talk about everything and have always been able to do so. We talked a lot about the impending election and since have talked about the anxiety and fear run rampant in the nation and in our own hearts.

My friend, Jean Briggs, always puts a positive spin on things. After we take a few minutes to bemoan what is happening in our world, Jeannie points out something positive in the situation.

She often says, "It is what you are listening for that you hear." She credits that wisdom to the early teaching of Werner Erhard, being in a 12-step recovery program and more recently surviving cancer.

If you Google "Blind cow, rogue calf," you'll find a story that has a uniquely Jeannie, cross-species positivity.

Three calves escaped from a feedlot in Dartmouth, Massachusetts. Jeannie saw it on the news. Two of the male calves were killed by cars on Interstate 195. The female calf survived for weeks and eluded capture. Jeannie called the authorities and asked if she could buy the calf when it was found. They referred her to the feedlot. When the calf was found, the feedlot sold it to her by the pound. Jeannie placed the calf in a small animal rescue farm.

This rescue farm just so happened to be the home of a blind cow and a pig who acted like a seeing-eye dog for the cow. (Really, I'm not making this up!) The pig, Lulu, died shortly after Amorette, Jeannie and Bob's calf, arrived at the farm. The blind cow, Baby, and Amorette (the name means "Little Love" in French) have adopted each other. Jeannie, a retired schoolteacher, goes "just down the road a little bit" every morning to feed Amorette and Baby. "Of course, you can't feed one and not the other," she says. Jeannie talks about the calf "lighting up" and running to her every morning.

Jeannie believes all living things have a soul, and when souls connect, they can do great things together, whether they are people or animals. "Too much hate and anger hardens the heart. People have so much goodness inside them. We have to make a conscious choice to connect and listen."

Every time I'm fearful or anxious, I reach out to a friend and try to connect with what binds us. We connect around certain issues or causes or hobbies. I'm going to borrow some of Jeannie's positivity and spread it around, not just to my friends and people who think like I do. I want to find a way to connect "across the aisle" to make things better for us all.

We are all connected whether we like it or not. In these trying uncertain times, it is our connections that I believe will see us through. If you doubt it, think of Jeannie and me; Baby, the blind cow, and Amorette, the rogue calf.
Comet Pin Pong

The front door of Comet Ping Pong pizza shop, in Washington, Monday, Dec. 5, 2016. A fake news story prompted a man to fire a rifle inside a popular Washington, D.C., pizza place as he attempted to "self-investigate" a conspiracy theory that Hillary Clinton was running a child sex ring from there, police said.

(Jose Luis Magana / AP)

A lot of news this past week was about fake news.

Acting on a false internet conspiracy theory that a Washington, D.C., pizza place harbored a child sex abuse ring, a person fired a gun inside the restaurant while "self-investigating." The Trump transition team sacked the son of a cabinet nominee for sharing the baseless story on Twitter. Facebook faced growing pressure to flag false information, amid revelations of content mills that pumped out fake news about the presidential election. Hillary Clinton pressed Congress to do something about fake news, calling it a threat to democracy and to people's lives.

Fake news -- defined in this context as deliberately fabricated misinformation -- is a real problem. But the answer to it does not lie in legislating speech or regulating the technology platforms that host it. The answer lies both in you, the consumers of news, and we who produce it.

Journalists know our responsibility when we see fake news: We challenge it, fact-check it and debunk it. A lot of fake news never even makes it into the news because it simply doesn't check out. But journalists can't be the only line of defense; there aren't enough fire hoses in the world to put out fake news wildfires spreading on social media.

Consumers also have a role to play -- by reading a story critically, with healthy doses of skepticism and common sense, before they endorse it by sharing it to their network of friends. The key concept here is reading before sharing. Doing that one thing would starve many fake news stories of the oxygen they need to live.

After reading a story, it only takes a few more clicks to do a quick Google search or to check Snopes.com, Politifact or Buzzfeed, whose stock in trade is tracking and debunking internet hoaxes. Facebook "fake news" posts often have links to these sites in the comments, as other users try to nip hoaxes in the bud.

Also, consider the source. Trust matters. Brands matter. Otherwise, fake news sites wouldn't try so hard to look and sound like the established (and much-maligned) mainstream media. Our forebears have been publishing news in Syracuse and Central New York since 1829, giving us a unique and precious stake in the community that we would not dare to compromise by trafficking in fake news.

Fake news can't be stopped. There always will be people who are determined to spread fake news because it aligns with their views, or because they find it entertaining, or because they want to cause trouble. And there always will be gullible people who fall for it.

Nor is it legal or advisable to suppress speech, even false speech, under the First Amendment of the Constitution. The answer to hate speech, false speech and speech we disagree with is more speech, not less.

Honest, fact-based public discourse makes our democracy function. We all have a part to play in protecting it.
HFW advises APAX Partners on Telemar deal

Law firm Holman Fenwick Willans (HFW) multi-disciplinary team led by Diane de Mouy, Partner, assisted by Olivia Crouzat, advised Apax Partners on the financial transaction of the recent Telemar acquisition.

In June, 2016, Apax Partners completed the acquisition of Marlink. By combining Telemar and Marlink, Apax will become the world's leading maritime communications, digital solutions and servicing specialist for all customer segments at sea. The newly combined group will generate $450 mill in revenues with more than 800 employees worldwide, serving at least one in three vessels operating globally. English law aspects of the acquisition was led by HFWs Timothy Clemens-Jones, Partner and Francois Cado, Associate. Apax Partners were also advised by Weil, Gotshal & Manges (Alexandre Dugay) for the equity aspects of the deal. Commercial law firm, Hill Dickinson has announced that Julian Clark will be joining as global head of shipping. Clark, who starts his new job in January, is a founding partner of Campbell Johnston Clark (CJC) and specialises in both wet and dry shipping. Prior to founding CJC, he spent seven years as a partner at Holman Fenwick Willan. He will be based in Hill Dickinsons City of London office but will travel between the firms offices in Piraeus, Monaco, Hong Kong and Singapore.




The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) has welcomed the extension of EUNAVFOR Operation Atalanta.

This continuation follows a decision by the EU Council, which will continue to see military forces deployed for counter piracy operations in the Western Indian Ocean until December, 2018.

ICS secretary general, Peter Hinchliffe, said: The presence of military forces is an essential component of the package of government actions that has helped to suppress the activities of Somali pirates, in support of the protective measures that continue to be taken by the shipping industry. Ship operators and seafarers will be very pleased that EUNAVFOR has announced its ongoing commitment to these vital counter piracy activities.

While other security concerns now draw the attention of the international community, it is a fact that the threat which Somali piracy presents to international trade is still extremely high, as the secretary general of the IMO has recently observed.

Alongside a strong military deterrent, it remains essential that ships maintain compliance with the industrys Best Management Practices to prevent a resurgence of hijacks and kidnappings by these violent criminal gangs. The extension of the EUNAVFOR mandate will also play a critical role in achieving this, he said.
International Seaways in the red

International Seaways (INSW), the recently divested international shipping sector of Overseas Shipholding Group (OSG), said TCE revenues had decreased in the third quarter of this year by $49 mill, or 39%, to $77.2 mill, compared to $126.2 mill in 3Q15.

The fall was primarily due to a decline in average daily rates in the VLCC, MR, Aframax and LR2 sectors, aggregating about $53.8 mill, of the overall decrease. Partially offsetting the decreases were increased revenue days in the VLCC and Aframax fleets, which resulted principally from lower drydock and repair days in the current period, and accounted for an increase in TCE revenues of $6.3 mill. During 3Q16, income from vessel operations also decreased by $100.7 mill to a loss of $47.8 mill from income of $53 mill in 3Q15. This decrease reflects the impact of vessel impairment charges of $49.6 mill recorded in the third quarter and lower TCE revenues. INSWs net loss for 3Q16 was $50.9 mill, compared with net income of $51.9 mill in 3Q15. Adjusted EBITDA was $35 mill for the quarter, a decrease of $46.2 mill compared with the third quarter of 2015, driven by lower daily rates. The decrease in TCE revenues in the first nine months of this year of $53.1 mill, or 15%, to $302.8 mill from $355.9 mill in the corresponding period of 2015, was due to (i) a decline in rates in the MR, Aframax, VLCC and LR2 sectors, which accounted for $68 mill of the overall decrease and (ii) a decrease in MR revenue days, which reflected the sale of a 1998-built MR in July, 2015 and the redelivery of an MR to its owners at the expiry of its timecharter in March, 2015, and accounted for $6.3 mill of the overall decrease. These negative factors were partially offset by increased revenue days in the VLCC and Aframax fleets due to fewer drydock and repair days, which accounted for a $12.2 mill increase in revenue, along with a $4.7 mill increase in revenue resulting from the companys ULCC being taken out of lay-up in the first quarter of 2015. During the first nine months of 2016, income from vessel operations decreased by $102.3 mill to $34.5 mill from $136.7 mill in the first nine months of 2015. This decrease resulted from the same factors which drove the quarter-over-quarter variance described above, including vessel impairment charges of $49.6 mill recorded in the third quarter. Net Income for the first nine months of 2016 was $39.5 mill, compared with net income of $135.6 mill in the first nine months of 2015. Adjusted EBITDA was $181.1 mill for the period, a decrease of $47 mill compared with the first nine months of 2015. Meanwhile, OSG has announced that Christopher Wolf will become the senior vice president and CFO on 29th December, 2016, taking over from Rick Oricchio. From 1st-29th December, Wolf will serve as the CFO of OSGs subsidiary, Overseas Bulk Ships. In addition, Susan Allan has been appointed to serve as vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary of OSG. Ms Allan replaces James Small III, who became the chief administrative officer, secretary and general counsel of INSW, following the completion of its spin-off from OSG on 30th November, 2016. OSG has also moved its corporate headquarters to Tampa. Sam Norton, OSGs SVP & president and CEO of the US Flag Strategic Business Unit said, I am pleased to welcome both Chris and Susan to OSG. It is an exciting time in the companys history, and their experience and fresh perspective will complement and enhance our existing management teams strengths and capabilities.




ISS expands services to NORDEN and Stolt

Inchcape Shipping Services (ISS) has expanded its global business with NORDEN with a new contract for crew logistics and husbandry services.

Under the additional agreement for the drycargo and tanker owner, ISS will co-ordinate over 2,800 crew changes per year across 32 vessels worldwide, as well as husbandry and disbursement account processing. The arrangement with ISS will support NORDENs operations and accounting teams and provide a single point of contact and remittance, negating the need for multiple, regional agents.



ISS will help improve cost scheduling for core services and ensure greater transparency. NORDEN will also benefit from cost savings as a result of ISS global vendor agreements and volume.



Managed from the ISS vessel supply chain hub in Mumbai, the company will work with NORDEN in key locations across Europe, the Americas and the Middle East, including Rotterdam, Houston and Fujairah.



In addition, ISS has won an additional contract with Stolt-Nielsen for port agency in South Africa. Under the new agency agreement, ISS South Africa is handling the port calls of Stolt Tankers at Durban, Richards Bay, Cape Town and Mossel Bay. With cutting port time and increasing efficiency a major business focus of Stolt Tankers, ISS South Africa is helping to ensure quick vessel turnaround at the ports, along with fast, accurate and detailed port accounting, despatching of cargo documents and full port call management control. It is also providing full cost control, financial visibility and performance information to Stolt Tankers. According to Tim Whitmore, ISS key account manager, liquid & gas specialist: We are delighted to be developing our relationship with Stolt-Nielsen with this contract, protecting its interests during the port calls in South Africa through our established policies and procedures to provide the appropriate level of port call management control. This includes three-times-a-day reporting, frequent visits to vessels, problem solving, and assistance to principals and Masters. Our goal is always to turn around customers vessels quickly, anticipate issues before they happen and ensure first class communication. As a major global agent we offer security and peace of mind to our customers in South Africa, as well as across the region and network. We work to defined QMS & HSSE procedures and conduct extensive internal and external audits. Our experience is key to the efficient turnaround of vessels and our staff help to minimise unplanned costs and identify actual savings, he said.




Newbuildings - making a come back

There have been a few more tanker newbuilding inquiries of late.

For example, Kuwait Oil Tanker Co (KOTC) has circulated shipyards in a pre-qualification process for the design, construction and delivery of up to eight vessels, including three VLGCs, one VLCC and four MRs. KOTC said that the VLCGs should have a capacity of 82,000 - 84,000 cu m and a maximum length of 230 m. The VLCC is to be of around 317,000 dwt, while the MRs should be of 50,000 dwt each. Shipyards interested in taking part in the process have been invited to register by filling in the applications and forms for the pre-qualification process by 20th December, KOTC said. Elsewhere, Hyundai Heavy Industries is believed to be close to a $650 mill order from Iran. The Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) is expected to sign a deal for four containerships and six MRs with deliveries starting in the third quarter of 2018. Broking sources reported that the MRs would cost around $35 mill each and are due for delivery in 2018-2019. It was also rumoured that Sovcomflot was close to signing a contract with South Korean Shipbuilders for four tankers. No other details were revealed by the time this news service was circulated. As well as taking delivery of a series of VLCCs this year and next, Gener8 Maritime has reportedly sold three tankers. SBM was said to have taken the 2003-built VLCC Gener8 Ulysses for a conversion project for $31 mill. This deal was on about six week subjects at the time of writing. The company also reportedly sold to the 2000-built Suezmax Gener8 Spyridon to Greek interests for $15 mill and the 2003-built Aframax Gener8 Pericles for about $14.5 mill to Hong Kong Chinese interests. Four India Steamship Aframaxes were believed to be committed to unspecified interests for in excess of $90 mill en bloc, while BP was believed to have sold three 2004-built MRs in an en bloc deal worth about $12.4 mill each to Greek interests. Finally, Wilmar of Singapore was said to have purchased the 1998-built MR Welwitschia for a price reported to be in the low $5 mills.




Oil lubricated prop systems damaging environment

Representatives of international organisations, government agencies, industry and academia attending the World Ocean Councils fourth Sustainable Ocean Summit (SOS16) last week were left in no doubt about the damage oil lubricated propeller shaft systems are having on the marine environment.

In addressing more than 200 SOS16 delegates, Thordon Bearings director of marketing and customer service, Craig Carter, explained that the 45,000 ocean-going vessels that continue to operate oil-lubricated shaft bearings are estimated to be leaking the equivalent of five Exxon Valdez oil spills into the ocean year-on-year. Acknowledging the raft of environmental challenges shipowners are already faced with, he said that the shipping industry must decide whether ocean sustainability can really be achieved with the continued use of a system that discharges between 130 mill and 244 mill litres of operational oil into the ocean every year. Falling short of calling for an outright ban on these systems, Carter said: Shipowners have a decision to make  continue to use oil systems that have the potential to pollute and may not meet pollution regulations or return to seawater lubrication. Since we started installing seawater lubricated bearing systems in the early 1990s, we have prevented over 62 mill litres of oil being discharged into our oceans and seas. A seawater lubricated propeller shaft bearing system is the only system that guarantees compliance with all pollution regulations and has zero impact on environment. Isnt it time we prevented propeller shaft discharges of oil from all commercial ships? he stressed. In his presentation, Sustainable Practices from the Past Benefiting Shipowners and the Oceans, Carter gave the history of the water-lubricated stern tube bearing system, a technology that has considerably advanced from the problematic days of Lignum Vitae bearings and stuffing boxes. Polymer materials and bearing designs have advanced to ensure long life performance with very low operating costs. All of the major classification societies have now revised their shaft withdrawal and inspection regimes due to the new technology allowing full monitoring of a seawater system. The technology now offers the technical equivalent of an oil lubricated stern tube but without the risk of pollution and associated fines. Shipowners now have a viable, cost-effective option, he said. Carters address on the final day of the four-day conference, which took place in Rotterdam, followed this years underlying theme Ocean 2030: Sustainable Development Goals and the Ocean Business Community. Presentations were also given on 15-year projections for 14 ocean business sectors, many of which were delivered by the heads of global industry associations, including UNESCO, the World Bank, IMO, WWF and the European Commission. The results of the Ocean 2030 sessions will now feed into WOC and ocean business community efforts to address ocean sustainable development and the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN, especially for SDG 14 on the Ocean.




Optimarin wins USCG race

Norwegian ballast water treatment (BWT) specialist Optimarin has become the first system supplier to gain full USCG type approval.

This development, which adds to IMO approval and certification from many class societies, means Optimarins UV-based technology now leads the market in terms of global compliance, the company claimed. This is a huge day for our company, and our customers, said Optimarin CEO, Tore Andersen. USCG has the worlds most stringent testing standards, meaning that once a system has approval it is assured of total global compliance, now and into the future. There are numerous units with USCG Alternate Management Systems (AMS) certification, but this is a temporary measure to allow trading in US waters. At some point, if they havent met full USCG approval standards, they will have to be changed. So, it really pays for shipowners to invest in fully compliant systems today for their entire fleets. The peace of mind that provides cannot be overstated, he stressed. The Optimarin Ballast System (OBS) combines filtration and powerful 35kW UV lamps to treat ballast water without the need for chemicals. DNV GL tested the system to USCG standards for fresh, brackish and marine water at the NIVA test facility in Norway. The confirmation of approval comes just weeks after John Mauger, Commanding Officer of the Coast Guards Marine Safety Centre (MSC), described Optimarins application - the first in the industry - as a milestone in the fight to protect marine biodiversity in US waters. Weve been working on developing simple, flexible and reliable BWT technology for over 20 years now, said Andersen. In that time weve built unrivalled expertise and a system that is market proven and easy to install on any vessel, newbuild or retrofit. From our perspective, this approval from USCG is a reward for all that hard work, and for our customers it provides confirmation that theyve made the right choice in investing in an ambitious team that are solely dedicated to this segment. We now have over 300 systems installed worldwide and have received almost 500 unit orders. With this approval confirmation we expect the business to move even further ahead and consolidate our leading position, he concluded. This year has proved to be Optimarins best year, taking orders from a wide range of shipowners, operators and yards.Of the OBS units installed, over 60 have been retrofitted in conjunction with global engineering partners Goltens and Zeppelin Power Systems. Optimarins technology, designed for vessels of up to Panamax size, is certified by a range of class societies, including DNV GL, Lloyds Register, Bureau Veritas, MLIT Japan, and American Bureau of Shipping. In addition, Ballast Water Containers said that its patent pending BWC SEAFORTH and BWC BUTE mobile BWMS, are now available with full USCG type approved technologies, including components from manufacturers Optimarin & Wartsila.



The USCG type approved technologies make the BWC products the worlds first mobile ballast water management solutions suitable for guaranteed compliance worldwide, the company claimed.



While confirming the type approval, the USSC explained that under the Title 33, Code of Federal Regulations Part 151, it is able to grant an extension to a vessels compliance date if the Master, owner, operator, agent, or person in charge documents that, despite all efforts, compliance with one of the approved ballast water management methods, including installation of a Coast Guard type approved BWMS, is not possible. Now that a type approved BWMS is available, any owner/operator requesting an extension must provide the USCG with an explicit statement supported by documentary evidence (eg, a delay in commercial availability) that installation of the type approved system is not possible for purposes of compliance with the regulatory implementation schedule. Extension letters will remain valid until the extended compliance date specified in the extension letter. Upon expiration of the extension, a vessel must have implemented one of the approved ballast water management methods specified. Supplementary extensions may be requested; however, if a type approved BWMS is available, requests must provide the necessary evidence to show why compliance is not possible. Commercial seagoing ships operating in US waters (within 12 nautical miles) and not otherwise exempted are required to manage ballast water in one of five ways: 1) Use a US type-approved BWMS to meet the discharge standard; 2)Temporarily use a foreign type-approved BWMS that has been accepted by the USCG as an Alternate Management System (AMS); 3) Use and discharge ballast water obtained exclusively from a US Public Water System (PWS); 4) Discharge ballast water to a reception facility; 5) Do not discharge ballast water inside 12 nautical miles, the USCG explained.




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The governor of Michigan today signed into law a series of bills that allows fully autonomous vehicles, including those without drivers and steering wheels, to begin using public roadways.

Flanked by a Ford Model T and a self-driving Ford Fusion, Gov. Rick Snyder signed four bills as part of the autonomous vehicles legislative package that allows the operation of autonomous vehicles on Michigan public roads. Before, only testing of the vehicles by manufacturers was permitted.

"As far as I know, Michigan is the first state to make it official that these types of vehicles can be used on public roads," said Brandon Schoettle, a project manager with the University of Michigan's Transportation Research Institute.

"California is also planning to enact similar legislation soon. Obviously, the general act of vehicles driving around like this on any public roads is somewhat unprecedented anywhere, given the very recent introduction of such technology," Schoettle said.

Earlier this year, Pittsburgh began allowing real-world tests of a self-driving, Uber-owned Ford Fusion.

Uber An Uber autonomous car prototype in Pittsburgh.

Several states and Washington D.C. have passed autonomous vehicle legislation that allows for testing of the cars and trucks on public roadways. Since 2012, at least 34 states and D.C. have considered legislation related to autonomous vehicles.

In September, the National Highway Transportation and Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued guidelines for autonomous vehicles that included a checklist for carmakers developing the technology, as well as guidelines for states on creating a common framework for regulating self-driving cars and trucks.

I believe regulation is now the biggest obstacle to the introduction of autonomous vehicles -- even more than cost or technology. The only other competing factor is societal acceptance, which will relate to the laws in the end," said Andy Schmahl, a partner and consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers.

A news release from Snyder's office said the new laws will ensure "Michigan continues to be the world leader in autonomous, driverless and connected vehicle technology.

"Michigan put the world on wheels and now we are leading the way in transforming the auto industry," Snyder said in the statement. "We are becoming the mobility industry, shaped around technology that makes us more aware and safer as we're driving. By recognizing that and aligning our state's policies as new technology is developed, we will continue as the leader the rest of the world sees as its biggest competition."

At the bill signing, Snyder was joined by a primary bill sponsor, Sen. Mike Kowall, and executives from Ford and GM.

Along with enabling fully-autonomous vehicles to use public roadways, the bills also outlined specific parameters for companies such as Google and Uber, who are developing on-demand autonomous vehicle networks.

NHTSA Vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) electronic communications technology is helping to advance autonomous vehicles.

Another bill signed into law exempts mechanics from any damages to vehicles that result from repairs, if the repairs were made in accordance with manufacturer specifications.

All safety requirements that pertain to the testing of autonomous vehicles will apply to autonomous vehicle operation, the governor's office said.

The primary bill, SB 995, also allows automated vehicle platooning, where vehicles travel together at electronically coordinated speeds. Additionally, the legislation creates the Michigan Council on Future Mobility within the state's Department of Transportation. It's designed to make future recommendations on statewide policy "that will keep Michigan ahead of the curve on regulatory issues that could impede new development."

In addition to enabling autonomous fleet delivery tricks and on-demand ride services, one of the main benefits of fully autonomous vehicles will be that owners can summon them when needed so that they don't waste parking spaces, Schoettle said in an email to Computerworld.

"For example, driver A only needs to get to and from work, otherwise the vehicle sits in a parking lot all day. This way, it can return home to driver B for them to use throughout the day before returning to pick up driver A at 5 p.m.," Schoettle said. "As you can imagine, there are quite a variety of ways a vehicle could be shared like this."

Ford, GM and other companies developing autonomous driving technology have been using Michigan's Mcity, a 32-acre, full-scale simulated real-world urban environment where vehicles self-drive in every condition, including snow.

Michigan is also home to the largest deployment of vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) electronic communications technology in its Smart Corridor. The corridor is a series of public highways -- more than 120 miles in all -- in Southeast Michigan that have more than 100 Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) transponder units. The DSRC units share traffic information with cars and trucks that have V2I and vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications technology and alert drivers to potential problems to prevent accidents.

For example, if a V2V-enabled car makes a sudden stop in heavy fog or its stability control engages on a rain-slicked road, every V2V-enabled car around it will know almost instantly, giving drivers time to react.
Can a new smartwatch operating system based on Linux breathe some new life into the smart wearables market? Florent Revest hopes so.

Revest, a French computer science student, on Wednesday announced the alpha release of AsteroidOS, an open source operating system that will run on several Android smartwatch models.

Many users believe that the current proprietary platforms can not guarantee a satisfactory level of control over their privacy and hardware, noted Revest, who has been working on his OS for two years. Hence, I noticed a need for an open wearable platform and AsteroidOS is my attempt to address this issue.

The alpha edition of AsteroidOS contains some basic apps: agenda, for scheduling events to remember; an alarm clock; a calcuator; music, for controlling the music player on a phone; a stopwatch; a timer and a weather app.

The OS will run, more or less, on the LG G Watch, LG G Urbane, Asus ZenWatch 2 and Sony Smartwatch 3, Revest noted. Bluetooth works only on the G Watch, though.

Uphill Battle

Launching an open source mobile operating system can be a daunting and seemingly futile task.

This has been tried repeatedly in the past and has failed, said Jack E. Gold, principal analyst at J.Gold Associates.

So far theres only been one open source success story in the mobile market, and thats been Android  which eventually was consumed by Google and closed off, noted Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy.

Firefox, Meego and Ubuntu have tried this and, unfortunately, havent met with success, he told LinuxInsider.

Breaking From Past

However, Revests focus on smartwatches may give his OS a better chance of success than past open source efforts had, said Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT.

Theres certainly no guarantee that AsteroidOS can breathe life into so stagnant a market  but at the same time, the new OS wont encounter the barriers it would in more mature markets, such as smartphones, he told LinuxInsider.

Theres a hole in the market for this, said Ross Rubin, principal analyst at Reticle Research.

Unlike the phone and tablet market, where you can use the Android open source platform and build something based on that, there really hasnt been much for smartwatches, he told LinuxInsider.

Google offers a form of Android for wearables, but it cant be modified the way the open source version of Android can.

Narrow Appeal

While Revest envisions growth of AsteroidOS as an open source community builds around it and it becomes compatible with more devices, broad adoption may be a long shot.

Manufacturers who produce custom phones for target markets, such as low cost phones for emerging markets, might be interested in AsteroidOS, suggested Gold.

However, you can do this with Android-Linux already, he told LinuxInsider, and with a new OS, there will be no availability of apps, so the devices will be very unattractive.

Chinese phone makers who use open source Android may use AsteroidOS to produce very inexpensive smartwatches, said Rubin, but inexpensive smartwatches havent been driving the market. Pebble was an inexpensive smartwatch, and look what happened to it.

The early adopters of the OS will be Linux enthusiasts and hobbyists, King said. Since the OS can work on older watches, early users likely will run the software on second-hand hardware.

Thats a dynamic that drove significant early interest in Linux during the mid- to late-1990s, when people ported the OS to a wide variety of x86-based PCs and servers that were well past their prime, King recalled.

Many of the initial users of AsteroidOS likely will be developers and Linux evangelists, he said. If AsteroidOS can gain a foothold with them, it could well spark commercial interest and adoption further down the road.

Pebble Crushed

Revests announcement came on the same day that news broke that one of the pioneers in the smartwatch market, Pebble, has been purchased by Fitbit, reportedly for US$40 million.

Fitbit, a fitness band maker, made the purchase to acquire key personnel and intellectual property. The deal does not include Fitbits hardware, which will be discontinued.

The smartwatch market took a tumble in the third quarter, according to IDC.

Shipments of wearable products were up 3.1 percent  to 23.0 million from 22.3 million in the same quarter a year ago  the firm reported earlier this week.

Its still early days, but were already seeing a notable shift in the market, observed IDC Senior Research Analyst Jitesh Ubrani. Where smartwatches were once expected to take the lead, basic wearables now reign supreme.
I had a fascinating experience last week. I got to see and experience the new Jaguar I-Pace, the companys electric answer to the as-yet-unannounced Tesla Y SUV, long before Ill actually get to see the prototype. I didnt just get to see the car  I got to understand intimately why the car was created and what went into its design. I got to experience aspects of the vehicle viscerally, without actually getting into it.

My experience was possible due to an alliance between Dell, HTC and Jaguar. It dovetails with a project that Nvidia and Audi have undertaken to showcase cars in dealerships without the dealerships actually having to floor the car. It opens the door, ironically, to an even more localized experience than Tesla has with its store front dealerships.

I think VR eventually will change how we buy most physical things, and I find it amazing that it is starting with cars first. Ill focus on that this week and close with my product of the week, which has to be this amazing new car from Jaguar. I loved it so much I got on a list to order it.

Virtual Reality

There are three visual technologies in the process of coming to market right now. Theres augmented reality, which Google Glass showcased and nearly killed. AR overlays information over the real world  usually through some kind of small head-mounted projector muck like a heads-up display. Like heads-up displays, AR doesnt really change what you see  it enhances or augments it.

The newest of the new visual technologies is mixed-reality, which uses massive computing power to render and blend the real world with what is rendered. In its final form, you cant tell the difference. It is pretty rough and more proof-of-concept now, with Microsofts Hololens the closest to production. Thats largely because it cheats, though  it is more an augmented reality device.

Virtual Reality is a fully rendered technology that places you in an environment. There are low-end offerings that use smartphones, which actually are surprisingly good. High-end versions use high-end PCs, as well as workstations and headsets from firms like HTC and Facebook subsidiary Oculus Rift. They now can create experiences that are ever harder to distinguish from reality. This is the technology that Jaguar, Dell and HTC demonstrated.

Car Showcase

Firms like Audi and Jaguar are working to figure out how to get people more excited about new cars, how to find new ways to engage and drive purchases, and how to assist in the car ordering process. This last is where Audi and Nvidia focused their effort.

Their project enables a space in dealerships where a prospective buyer can put on a VR headset and then see the full range of options. Its as if the customers perfect car were right there. Options include not only interior and exterior finishes and colors, but also features. Customers then can experience each feature or package as they would if they actually were driving the car. They can figure out, before paying for it, whether the car is worth their money.

This is particularly important for newly launched cars. Mistakes often are made in ordering, because people either dont realize they want a feature or it accidentally gets left out. That happened to me last month, when I got the Mercedes Id ordered. A feature Id asked for was left off the final order sheet due to changes made to the ordering system.

Had I been able to see the rendering of the car Id ordered, I would have caught the omission and not have missed this important feature (built in garage door opener and self-dimming mirrors).

This is just the start, though, and Jaguar, Dell and HTC took it further. (I should point out that the Dell workstations used to create and show this technology used Nvidia graphics solutions, so Nvidia is in both systems.)

VR on Steroids

What Jaguar did was add significantly to this experience by changing the presentation from just a showcase for the car to a showcase for the whole story that surrounds the car. Manufacturers can hope we fall in love with a car at first sight, and some of us certainly do, but a far more powerful way to sell us on a car is to build a compelling story around it. Its like the difference between seeing actors head shots vs. getting to know them and experiencing their art.

They started our tour by taking us up above Earth to about where the Space Station orbits. That gave us an amazing, almost god-like view as they walked us through the birth of the car and built the car out with each storied major component, while both showcasing and telling us the back story.

We then plunged to Earth were we could see the rendered car perform on roads. We got to sit in the car and have each major feature showcased, with Jaguars top designer explaining why each feature existed and, in some cases, why particular decisions were made.

As a result, the car wasnt two dimensional for us. We left understanding deeply why the car was the way it was, and that helped drive a higher level of lust in us.

The Future

I think this is only the tip of the iceberg, because VR will allow you to do this wherever VR capability exists, potentially turning your future living room into a dealership. In addition, you could build driving experiences into presentations and embed cars into other content  like VR games.

The next time you play a driving game, might actually play it with the car you own or the car the advertiser wants to sell you. Finally, they could actually give cars virtual personalities, much like in the movie Cars. Your car, or the car the firm wants to sell you, could be the hero of a coming virtual movie. That would get your kids wedded to the cars you drive and go well beyond what many of us did when young and named them (yes, I did that).

Wrapping Up: Massive Change

This is only one of the massive changes we will see  not only in the automotive market, but also in the appliance market, the home market, and anyplace where seeing something rendered could assist in the offerings sale or use.

These experiences wont be limited to VR. As we move to mixed reality, well be able to see products as they would exist in our homes and cities long before they are actually built.

As we move to self-driving cars, this may be how we gain back the fun of driving  by virtually driving in game-like settings while the real-world car were riding in safely transports us to where we want to go. Ive seen the future of cars  and most of everything else  and that future is virtual!!

It is rare I get this excited about a car that doesnt yet exists. The last time it happened was when Infiniti brought out the FX-45 and made it look just like the amazing show car. I fell in love and bought the first one that came to Silicon Valley.

Well, it happened again with the Jaguar I-Pace, an amazing all-electric SUV that makes the Tesla X look stupid.

Granted, one reason the I-Pace makes the Tesla X look stupid is that Tesla apparently missed the meeting that explained SUV means sport utility vehicle. The X is not sporty  youd never take it off-road  and it has poor utility, because the back seat doesnt fold down.

The X is also incredibly unreliable because of an excess of tech, like the electric gull wing doors, which not only are wicked expensive, but also seem to break constantly.

The I-Pace, in contrast, uses more advanced batteries that help give it a range of 300-plus miles. Its focus is on performance: Its zero-to-60 time is 4 seconds, and if delivers far improved on- and off-road handling. Its all wrapped in an extremely attractive body.

Jaguar I-Pace ConceptCar

The only sad thing for me is that this car likely wont have the advanced rain and snow eliminating headlights Jaguar has been developing with Intel. Theyre due in 2020, while the car arrives in 2018.

Although this is a concept car, I spoke with some of the engineers, and it is almost identical to the final car. The only big difference is that it will have a fold-down back seat, so Jaguar clearly didnt miss the utility part of the SUV class name.

One of the interesting aspects of the I-Pace is that it uses water cooling. Heat is the enemy of batteries, so that decision allows the company not only to make the car look more like others, but also to gain value as a result.

In the end, the I-Pace is a drop-dead gorgeous car. I loved it so much I signed up to order one. Further, it is a showcase for how VR can be used to sell cars, so I had two reasons for making it my product of the week.
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It looked as if Spotify was about to tighten its grip on the music streaming industry back in September, following reports that the Swedish company was in "advanced talks" to acquire SoundCloud. But according to TechCrunch, the deal is now off the table.

Buying SoundCloud looked like a good move for Spotify. The acquisition would have given it access to the audio distribution platform's user-created tracks and songs from independent artists, while simultaneously removing a competitor from the market. But TechCrunch's source say Spotify walked away from the deal over fears that it could have a negative impact on its IPO plans. "It [Spotify] doesn't need an additional licensing headache in a potential IPO year," said the anonymous insider.

Spotify is widely expected to go public sometime next year and doesn't want the process to be hampered by the costs and licensing headaches that a $700 million SoundCloud purchase would bring.

Calling off the deal may be bad news for music fans, who could have benefitted from an expanded Spotify catalog, TechCrunch notes that the site could always try to reignite the deal at a later date, as a public company. The Financial Times reports that Spotify declined to acquire SoundCloud two other times in the last two years due to objections over the asking price.

It was revealed September that Spotify topped the music streaming industry with 40 million paid subscribers, marking an increase of 10 million new premium users in under six months. When including those on its free tier, the service has over 100 million active monthly users. Apple Music, which has no free option, boasts around 20 million subscribers.
Despite the risk of it catching fire and burning their home/body/pants, some people are still clinging to their Galaxy Note 7 handset. Samsung doesn't want this, and has decided the best way to stop owners from using the Smartphone is to send out an update that completely prevents it from charging.

The news come from The Verge, which shared an image of an alert sent to one Note 7 owner stating that, "As of December 15th, Samsung will modify the software to prevent the Galaxy Note 7 from charging. The phone will no longer work."

Nothing's been confirmed yet by Samsung or any of the US carriers, but the move wouldn't come as a huge surprise. The company has already tried other methods of getting owners to hand over their Note 7s, such as limiting charging past 60 percent. That same update also introduced a popup every time the phone was turned on, reminding people that the handset had been recalled.

Samsung has already turned the remaining Note 7s in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand into expensive paperweights by disabling their cell and data services. If that wasn't enough, owners also found their Bluetooth and Wi-Fi capabilities had been removed.

There are still an estimated 285,000 Note 7s in the US. Samsung will doubtlessly hope that bricking them will convince people to hand the handsets in for a replacement device or full refund. But don't expect all of them to be returned; a few will probably turn up on eBay in a few years time.
Sony's Project Field is expected to change the way gamers play card games.

In March this year Sony announced the formation of a new game studio called ForwardWorks, which is aimed to create mobile games based on PlayStation franchises.

"ForwardWorks will leverage the intellectual property of the numerous PlayStation dedicated software titles and its gaming characters as well as the knowledge and know-how of gaming development expertise which was acquired over the years with PlayStation business to provide gaming application optimized for smart devices including smartphones to users in Japan and Asia. The company will aim to deliver users with opportunity to casually enjoy full-fledged game titles in the new filed of the smart device market," said Sony.

ForwardWorks has now announced a new initiative called Project Field, which is basically a trading card platform developed by Sony. Project Field works with an app and ForwardWorks will develop content for Project Field.

How Will The New Platform Work

Card games are very popular among gamers of all age groups, and a wide array of card games is available for mobile devices. The newly launched Project Field is expected to change how card games are played.

The card platform, which can be played with a mobile device such as a smartphone or a tablet, includes an IC reader, LED, Bluetooth and sensors that allow the pad's connection to the user's mobile device.

Gamers will have to move their cards on the Sony pad and these movements will interact with the in-game actions. Although similar technology is being used by IC-based card pads for playing Japanese arcade games, the integration with a smartphone or a tablet is a new feature, which will bring enhanced gaming experience to players.

Games For Project Field

Sony revealed that the title that will be released under Project Field will be Yo-kai Watch game, a role playing video game developed by Level-5 for the Nintendo DS in 2013. It is likely that Sony will release more games under Project Field in the near term.

International Launch Of Project Field

The Project Field pad is currently meant for the Japanese market. Sony has not revealed any information on its plans to introduce the pad in other markets outside Japan.

The latest development as part of Project Field could just be the beginning of a new gaming platform. In the future, physical and digital versions of games can be clubbed to enhance the gaming experience. An example would be the fusion of the digital and physical versions of Pokemon Trading Card Game.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
People looking to be part of the first human colony on Mars may have to wait a while longer after Mars One placed the mission on hold for a few more years.

The British-Dutch company announced on Wednesday, Dec. 7, that it has moved the target date for the Mars colonization mission from 2026 to 2031. It has also delayed the launch of its unmanned mission to the red planet by four more years.

Mars One CEO Bas Lansdorp explained that the postponement was made to give the venture enough time to raise funds to cover the large expenses associated with such a mission.

The company is also in the process of being taken over by Swiss financial services firm InFin Innovative Finance AG, which bought Mars One for 87 million (about $94 million).

Mars One is currently made up of two entities: the Dutch non-profit group Mars One Foundation and the British for-profit company Mars One Ventures PLC.

Building Human Colonies On Mars

Mars One made headlines back in 2012 after announcing its plan to send people to the red planet with the intent to colonize it. The company will first send a robotic precursor mission to Mars to explore the planet before transporting the initial batch of human colonizers.

The venture has attracted some 200,000 people from 140 different countries eager to be sent to the red planet as its pioneering colonizers. However, the number has since been trimmed down to 100.

From the remaining group of hopefuls, Mars One will handpick 24 individuals who will be part of the seven-month journey.

The participants will be sent to Mars in six groups made up of four individuals each. They are expected to extract water, produce food and generate their own oxygen supply once they reach the red planet.

The 24 candidates will also have to build their own permanent settlement on the surface of Mars.

Mars One could very well become the first-ever Mars mission to feature human explorers. All of the NASA missions to the red planet so far have been unmanned probes.

The venture, however, has had its fair share of struggles over the years since its announcement. Mars One has shifted its timetable a few times in the past, which many believe could be a sign that the mission may not be feasible after all.

Lansdorp admitted that the venture has been slower to get off the ground than expected, but said the new strategy will help increase their chances of seeing it through.

"Of course the whole Mars One team would have preferred to be able to stick to the original schedule, but this new timeline significantly improves our odds of successfully achieving this mission road map," the Mars One chief said.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
If you are still latching on to your Galaxy Note 7 phablet for some unexplained reason and are yet to exchange the device, we suggest you get to it pronto - especially if you're in Canada.

Why? On Wednesday, Dec. 7, Samsung Canada revealed that it will stop network access to all unreturned Galaxy Note 7 devices, rendering them unusable.

So unless you want to hold on to what may become just a piece of metal, we suggest you return the handset quickly. The deadline from Samsung Canada to cut off carrier connectivity for the Galaxy Note 7 in the country is Dec. 15, which gives people a week to spin into action.

"Effective December 15th, 2016, customers still using the Note 7 will no longer be able to connect to any Canadian mobile network services to make calls, use data or send text messages," revealed the company. "We strongly urge any customers still using their Note 7 to return their device to the place of purchase for a refund or exchange between December 7th and December 15th."

Samsung Canada's Plan Of Action

Come Dec. 12, the company will put into place certain "functional limitations" on the Galaxy Note 7. These limitations include the disabling of the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, as well as a cap on the battery charge level.

While the handset will switch on, a user will not be able to connect to Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or any cellular network. Limiting the battery of the Galaxy Note 7 will cut down the duration the device can be switched on.

Samsung has not mentioned the limit for the battery, but considering the move is reminiscent of the action the company took in New Zealand in November, the battery limit could be reduced to 60 percent.

Who Do The Changes Apply To?

The changes will be applicable only to a handful of Galaxy Note 7 units - 10 percent or 4,000 units to be exact - as Samsung Canada has disclosed that nearly 90 percent of the handsets bought in the country have been exchanged.

The additional measures being introduced by Samsung Canada are in a bid to get the handful holding on to the units to return them.

Samsung has already been constantly communicating to Galaxy Note 7 customers, reminding them to return the handset via a push notification. Since the device is a recalled product, owners are legally debarred from giving away or selling the handset.

Will The Limitation Be Extended To The United States?

It is not clear at this juncture if Samsung will extend the limitation and take the same measures in the U.S. market. Whether a Galaxy Note 7 owner in Canada will be able to avoid the withdrawal of access to a network operator, as well as the functional limitations by bypassing the update is unclear. Perhaps Samsung will just push out the changes to any active Galaxy Note 7 unit to avoid any hiccups.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
It appears that Samsung is planning to shut down the remaining Galaxy Note 7 units in the United States through an update that will prevent the smartphones from charging.

For stubborn customers who have so far refused to send back their recalled Galaxy Note 7 smartphones to have them replaced with another device, time is running out.

Upcoming Galaxy Note 7 Update

According to a report by The Verge, it was able to acquire an image of an alert that was received by a Galaxy Note 7 owner who is a subscriber of U.S. Cellular.

The alert states that, on Dec. 15, Samsung will be modifying the software of the Galaxy Note 7 to prevent the smartphone from charging.

"The phone will no longer work," the message stated, presumably meaning that after the current battery charge of the device runs out, users will no longer be able to recharge the Galaxy Note 7 to use it.

Samsung has so far declined to comment, while U.S. Cellular has not responded to a request for comment. It is also unclear whether all major carriers in the United States will release the same update, but that is likely the case.

Samsung's Efforts To Recall All Galaxy Note 7 Units

In September, Samsung released an update that places a limit of a 60 percent charge on Galaxy Note 7 batteries, in a bid to prevent the batteries of the smartphones from overheating and causing an explosion.

The upcoming update for the smartphone might seem somewhat drastic, but it shows how serious Samsung is in retrieving all remaining Galaxy Note 7 smartphones that are still out in the wild. The devices are fire hazards due to the risk they carry in their batteries prone to overheating and catching fire, and so the company is looking to ensure the safety of customers and the people around them by replacing the recalled device with another model.

The update that will prevent the smartphone from being charged is different from what Samsung will do in Canada though. Beginning Dec. 15, Samsung Canada will stop all network access to all the unreturned Galaxy Note 7 smartphones in the country.

For people who are still holding on to their Galaxy Note 7 smartphones, it is highly recommended that you take up Samsung's recall program offer and have the device replaced.

The Galaxy Note 7 you might own right now might not have exploded yet, but as hardware engineers have recently reported, the aggressive design of the smartphone's battery will eventually lead to massive swelling for the device's battery.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Microsoft now officially owns LinkedIn, a popular social networking platform geared toward employers and professionals.

The multi-billion acquisition first made headlines in June, and the European Commission has given the acquisition a go-ahead earlier this week, joining the approval of other regulators around the globe, including those in the United States, Canada, Brazil, and South Africa.

"This deal will allow us to keep growing, investing in and innovating on LinkedIn to drive value for our members and our customers," Jeff Weiner, LinkedIn's chief executive, said back in June.

Microsoft Buys LinkedIn

Microsoft's $26.2 billion LinkedIn purchase is touted as one of the biggest tech acquisitions in history, behind Avago Technologies' $37 billion Broadcom purchase, which in turn is behind Dell's' acquisition of EMC for $67 billion in 2015. LinkedIn is Microsoft's biggest purchase in its history, eclipsing its $8.5 billion Skype acquisition in 2011.

"This is a major milestone for the company, one that we believe will accelerate how we connect the world's professionals to make them more productive and successful," Weiner wrote in a blog post.

How Microsoft Plans To Use LinkedIn

Microsoft's plans [PDF] for LinkedIn include "a specific set of integration scenarios," according to Satya Nadella, Microsoft's chief executive. Among these scenarios involve the application of LinkedIn's identity and network in Microsoft Outlook and Office Suite, two of the company's proprietary productivity software.

Another implementation of LinkedIn within Microsoft's ecosystem is the ability for users to draft resumes in Microsoft Word, which simultaneously updates their profiles for LinkedIn discoverability, which can be used for job application prospects. The plans outlined by Nadella aim to fuse its products and LinkedIn's vast network together, conflating the two into a synergy.

"Microsoft  inclusive of LinkedIn  can take steps to help people develop new skills online, find new jobs and easily connect and collaborate with colleagues," Nadella said.

LinkedIn was founded in 2002 and has garnered over 400 million members globally to date. LinkedIn is billed as the grab-bag go-to social networking platform for professionals, especially since it's embedded with features that foreground connections within a person's given professional topography. LinkedIn has stood as the prime hub for users to get started with possible job ventures.

Facebook At Work, a forthcoming social network and workplace communication toolkit, is ways away from surpassing LinkedIn, but the platform, along with rapidly growing corporate communication tool Slack, should make for interesting competitors for Microsoft, assuming the company implements LinkedIn properly.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
The Federal Trade Commission revealed that it will now be giving out $88 million in refunds to over 2.7 million customers of AT&T who were charged for third-party fees without their consent.

The money, according to the FTC, represents that largest amount that will be returned to customers so far in relation to mobile cramming.

AT&T's Mobile Cramming Case

The refunds that the FTC will give out to AT&T customers relate to a settlement that the carrier made back in October 2014, when it paid a $105 million fine for mobile cramming.

Mobile cramming is described as the practice of charging customers on a recurring basis, with customers not agreeing to be billed for such charges most of the time.

AT&T was involved in the practice with two companies, namely Acquinity and Tatto, as the carrier charged customers $9.99 per month for things such as ringtones, horoscopes, love tips, and fun facts. AT&T then kept 35 percent of the amounts that customers paid.

FTC Refund Program For AT&T Customers

For current and former AT&T customers who believe that they should be among the subscribers who should be getting a refund, it is great to know that you actually do not have to do anything to get back money from AT&T.

Through the refund program of the FTC, 2.5 million customers who are still signed up for AT&T's services will be receiving a credit on their bill over the next 75 days. In addition, for more than 300,000 former customers of AT&T who were affected by the mobile cramming case, they will be receiving a check in their mail containing their portion of the refund.

According to the FTC, the average refund amount is $31. The credits to AT&T bills and the refund checks will begin to be sent out by Epiq Systems, the administrator for the refund program.

Mobile Cramming Comes To An End

AT&T is not the only company to have received mobile cramming charges, as in December 2014, T-Mobile also agreed to pay at least $90 million in refunds as a settlement over the practice, while Sprint was slapped with a $105 million fine for doing the same thing.

Companies that have been charged with mobile cramming practices have also been required to change how they process third-party billing, which has put an end to the scam and has saved subscribers from the unwanted charges.

As for AT&T, it is once again under scrutiny by the FCC, as the company's Zero Rating DirecTV plans could be in violation of net neutrality regulations.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Asus Zenfone 3 Zoom With Dual Camera Surfaces Online | TechTree.com

We recently shared that Asus has sent out media invites for its Zenovation event that is happening on Jan 4, 2017, at the CES 2017, in Las Vegas. However, the invite gave us no clue about the smartphone that would be launched during the press conference.

But, going a little back in time, we have come across reports that hint at a smartphone powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor being launched at the CES 2017 event. However, no further details do we know yet.

But, today, Android Authority has shared a couple of pictures of a new Asus smartphone that comes with dual camera setup in the rear portion. The post states that the smartphone, claimed as Zenfone 3 Zoom was recently listed on TENAA, the Chinese certification website.

According to the same report, the Zenfone 3 Zoom may pack a two 16 MP sensors in the rear camera module, while a 13 MP front facing shooter may be integrated for better selfies.

The smartphone is also expected to feature a 5.5 inch screen with 2.5D glass and Full HD resolution. Interestingly, under the hood, the smartphone is expected to come with a 2.0 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor, probably coupled with either 2, 3, or 4 GB of RAM. Also, we may accordingly see three storage options - 16, 32, and 64 GB.

TAGS: ASUS Zenfone 3
On the other hand, Indian company Bharat Petroleum voted worlds least empathetic company

In a study published by Harvard Business Review (HBR), Facebook has been ranked the most empathetic company in the world. The recently released Global Empathy Index has published two different lists of companies: 20 companies on a most empathetic list and 20 on a least empathetic one.

The list has been made by comparing 170 companies, based on an analysis of the internal culture, CEO performances, ethics, and social media presence on major financial indexes. Two million tweets between September 27 and October 16th 2016 too were analysed for this survey.

The newly released 2016 Empathy Index demonstrates, empathy, which is about understanding our emotional impact on others and making change as a result, is more important to a successful business than it has ever been, correlating to growth, productivity, and earnings per employee, says author-activist Belinda Parmar of The Empathy Business, a London-based consultancy that publishes the survey annually.

The way we define empathy is through a companys ethics, leadership, internal culture, brand perception, and public messaging via social media.

These are the companies that retain the best people, create environments where diverse teams thrive, and ultimately reap the greatest financial rewards, she added.

In HBRs list of most empathetic companies, Facebook, Google Alphabet, and LinkedIn clinch the top 3 positions, while Indian firms like Bharat Petroleum, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries and ICICI Bank topped the list of least empathetic companies. Bharat Petroleum is followed by Sun Pharmaceutical Industries and ICICI Bank. Bharti Airtel is at the fifth place followed by Larsen & Toubro and Indian Oil. State Bank of India has been placed at the 11th position while Reliance Industries got the 13th position on the list.

The Global Empathy Index studied global companies but a majority of them were from the U.S., UK and India. However, Chinese companies were not included in the survey due to lack of publicly available data.
Qualcomm Unveils Snapdragon Chip Supporting Full Windows 10

In a huge announcement made by Qualcomm and Microsoft at WinHEC event in Shenzhen, China yesterday, the two companies are collaborating to enable a full Windows 10 experience on mobile computing devices powered by next-generation Qualcomm Snapdragon processors. Qualcomms Snapdragon processors will be the first ARM-based processors to support full Windows 10, which is definitely massive.

Qualcomm Snapdragon processors offer one of the worlds most advanced mobile computing features, including Gigabit LTE connectivity, advanced multimedia support, machine learning and superior hardware security features, all while supporting thin, fan-less designs and long battery life, said Cristiano Amon, executive vice president of Qualcomm Technologies, in a statement. With full compatibility with the Windows 10 ecosystem, the Qualcomm Snapdragon platform is expected to support mobility to cloud computing and redefine how people will use their compute devices.

Qualcomm officials said the new processors would provide a PC-like experience, without any impact on performance or security.

Hardware partners will be able to build a range of new Qualcomm Snapdragon-powered Windows 10 PCs that run x86 Win32 and universal Windows apps, including Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Office and popular Windows games, Microsoft announced.

For the first time ever, our customers will be able to experience the Windows they know with all the apps, peripherals, and enterprise capabilities they require, on a truly mobile, power efficient, always-connected cellular PC.

Windows 10 PCs powered by Snapdragon processors could be commercially available as early as next year and that they will leverage touch, pen, and Windows Hello. These devices will also support Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps and Win32 apps through emulation, providing users with a wide selection of full-featured applications. Windows 10 on ARM will be available for Enterprise and Consumer editions.

We are excited to bring Windows 10 to the ARM ecosystem with our partner, Qualcomm Technologies, said Terry Myerson, executive vice president of the Windows and Devices Group at Microsoft, in a statement. We continue to look for ways to empower our customers to create wherever they are. Bringing Windows 10 to life with a range of thin, light, power-efficient and always-connected devices, powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon platform, is the next step in delivering the innovations our customers love  touch, pen, Windows Hello, and more  anytime, anywhere.
CHICAGO - Chicago native Valerie Jarrett has been at President Barack Obama's side as one of his closest White House advisors for the past eight years. Her power and influence is rarely mentioned, but there's no question she was fairly confident the Obama Administration's policies would continue with Hillary Clinton as Obama's successor.

Except a wrench was thrown into their plan by voters in America's Heartland (except her deep blue hometown and state) when they elected Donald Trump November 8th.

Trump's win was devastating, Jarrett told a group this week. Actually, she said "soul-crushing" and "like a punch in the stomach."
The President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro Moros, received with honors his peer from Guinea Bissau, Umaro Sissoco Embalo, at the Miraflores Palace in Caracas, on... | Read More
For too long, the Environmental Protection Agency has spent taxpayer dollars on an out-of-control anti-energy agenda that has destroyed millions of jobs, while also undermining our incredible farmers and many other businesses and industries at every turn. As my EPA Administrator, Scott Pruitt, the highly respected Attorney General from the state of Oklahoma, will reverse this trend and restore the EPAs essential mission of keeping our air and our water clean and safe, said President-elect Donald Trump. My administration strongly believes in environmental protection, and Scott Pruitt will be a powerful advocate for that mission while promoting jobs, safety and opportunity."

NEW YORK  Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt will be Donald Trump's pick to serve as the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, a cabinet-level position.

I am deeply grateful and honored to serve as President-elect Trumps EPA Administrator, said Mr. Pruitt. The American people are tired of seeing billions of dollars drained from our economy due to unnecessary EPA regulations, and I intend to run this agency in a way that fosters both responsible protection of the environment and freedom for American businesses.

Pruitt is to be involved in the implementation of President-elect Trumps energy plan, which will move America toward energy independence, create millions of new jobs and protect clean air and water.

The campaign said in a press release that Pruitt "will ensure that we conserve our natural habitats, reserves and resources, while unleashing an energy revolution that will bring vast new wealth to our country." He agrees with Trump that "we must rescind all job-destroying executive actions and eliminate all barriers to responsible energy production."

That, the campaign says, will create at least a half million jobs each year and produce $30 billion in higher wages.

Mr. Pruitt has been a national leader against the EPAs job-killing war on coal. As Oklahomas Attorney General, Pruitt established the states first federalism unit to combat unwarranted regulation and overreach by the federal government.

He also agrees with President-elect Trump that states should have the sovereignty to make many regulatory decisions for their own markets.
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PLAQUEMINE  An Iberville Parish grand jury on Thursday indicted a 61-year-old man on two counts of second-degree murder for the slayings of two men, one of whom was killed 25 years ago.

Tommy Francise is accused of killing Curtis "Cochise" Smith, who was last seen alive on Feb. 21, 1991, in Plaquemine; and George Barrett, who was discovered dead in his Plaquemine home on March 2, 2002, with two bullet wounds to his head. Both men had previously worked for Francise in varying capacities.

Francise, of 22330 Talbot Drive in Plaquemine, was arrested in October and was later denied bail by a state district court judge based on testimony from two ex-girlfriends who described him as a dangerous man who would kill anyone who crossed him.

"The wheels of justice turn slow, but they always turn," Iberville Parish Sheriff Brett Stassi said Thursday in response to the grand jury proceedings.

The Sheriff's Office believes Francise shot and killed Smith while confronting the 30-year-old victim on suspicions Smith had stolen some of Francise's tools while working as a roofer for him.

Investigators believe Francise picked Smith up from grocery store, took the victim back to his house and then killed him. He then disposed of Smith's body by stuffing it into a 55-gallon drum that he weighted down and dumped into Bayou Pigeon, authorities have said.

Francise is suspected of having killed again, in 2002. He is accused of entering Barrett's home and fatally shooting because Barrett, 53, had filed a workman's comp lawsuit against Francise. Barrett's body was discovered after the victim didn't appear in court to present testimony in the case.

Authorities revealed that Francise has 20 prior arrests dating back to 1985, most of which were misdemeanor offenses.

The investigation of Francise's case and his arrest will be prominently featured on the second season of "Killing Fields," a Discovery Channel docudrama series that was mostly filmed this summer with detectives from the Sheriff's Office's Criminal Division.
Presidential candidate Donald Trump signs the back of Denham Springs flood victim Jeff Nolan's shirt, after Trump Vice-Presidential candidate Mike Pence visited inside Baton Rouge's Greenwell Springs Baptist Church, and outside with disaster relief cooks, background, during stops at area sites sheltering flood victims, Friday, Aug. 19, 2016. Nolan, who 'lost everything' in the flood, said he is a Trump supporter, one of many who appeared at the church to see the candidates.
A whimper of a campaign season will end with a bang Friday, when President-elect Donald Trump swoops into Baton Rouge to lend his personal support to Republican U.S. Senate candidate John Kennedy.

As if there were any doubt.

Trump's visit, just like a similar all-hands-on-deck airport hangar rally last week featuring Vice President-elect Mike Pence, is designed to send one message: Kennedy would be the chamber's 52nd Republican vote.

Indeed, the rhetoric at the Pence event focused hardly at all on Kennedy's credentials as veteran state treasurer, and almost exclusively on his inevitable support for Trump's as-yet unnamed nominee to replace Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court and other GOP priorities. Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser told the crowd that electing Kennedy would give Trump one more tool in the toolbox, and Pence himself said it would put an "exclamation point" on end of the Republicans' successful season.

Kennedy's ad campaign has reinforced the same baseline argument.

His main commercials have shown him walking in a suit on a country road, expounding on God, guns, and the evils of government regulation and overspending. His signature lines from the long campaign centered on how he thinks the government shouldn't waste money on Swedish bunny massage  in reality, a less-than-ridiculous expenditure to research injury recovery  and how Obamacare simply "sucks." Not exactly trenchant policy analysis, but apparently enough to get the message across.

Runoff opponent Foster Campbell, the Democrat, faces an uphill climb given the state's leanings, and his partisan posturing is by necessity more nuanced. But in the end, it serves the same purpose.

The longtime public service commissioner is pushing select Democratic agenda items, while pointedly dodging others.

Throughout the campaign, Campbell has been talking about raising the minimum wage, for example, and making the oil and gas industry pay for coastal land loss its activities cost, which is really a state-level issue. Since the Republicans gained control over the presidency and Congress, he's been emphasizing his staunch opposition to privatizing Medicare, a likely priority of Congressional Republicans even though Trump said during the campaign that he'd protect entitlements.

Elsewhere, he stresses his disagreements with the national party's agenda. In an on-the-nose effort to communicate his support for gun rights, Campbell fires off a shotgun in some commercials. And not only does he emphasize his opposition to abortion, but a pro-Campbell SuperPAC has run an ad highlighting Kennedy's alleged past support for abortion rights. Despite decades-old news reports and testimonials, Kennedy denies he was ever pro-choice and touts his support in the Senate race from National Right to Life.

Campbell's effort hasn't attracted national surrogates or money, which is a sure sign that Democratic leaders think Louisiana, which gave 58 percent of its vote to Trump, is a lost cause. But he's managed to tap into an impromptu network of out-of-state disappointed Democrats looking for one last chance to send some sort of message.

But if they see a Campbell victory as a rebuke to Trump, Campbell's definitely not playing it that way. Instead, he's promising to "stand with the new president when he's right for Louisiana," but have the "courage to say no when he's wrong," as Campbell's highest-profile supporter, Gov. John Bel Edwards, put it in a closing ad.

It's pretty superficial stuff around, even more so because the two runoff contestants never met one-on-one in a debate. So voters never got to hear Kennedy talk in detail about how he'd rewrite the controversial Affordable Care Act he so enthusiastically bashes, what he'd do to keep popular provisions and what he'd say to the more than 300,000 working poor Louisianans who are now receiving Medicaid under the ACA's expansion. Nor did they get to hear Campbell explain how he'd pursue his more progressive goals as part of the minority.

Voters will go the polls Saturday knowing a lot about who the two candidates stand with. It would have been nice to hear more about where they stand.
Like most Louisiana congressional races, the U.S. Senate contest and the race for the 4th Congressional District, both on Saturday's runoff ballot, are shaping up as predicable Republican-versus-Democrat affairs. But the same can't be said for the third federal race on the ballot, in the 3rd Congressional District that includes Lafayette, Lake Charles, and the rest of southwestern Louisiana.

That's because both runoff contestants there are Republicans. Even more, it's because one of them is a guy named Clay Higgins.

+6 3rd Congressional District race pitting Scott Angelle against Clay Higgins seen as tossup Public Service Commission Chairman Scott Angelle was supposed to walk away with the race for

Higgins, a former St. Landry Parish deputy often referred to as the Cajun John Wayne, is giving political veteran, 2015 gubernatorial candidate and Public Service Commissioner Scott Angelle a major run for his money. And despite the lack of a typical partisan storyline, this contest does echo national politics in some ways.

While Higgins is no glitzy New York real estate developer, his campaign is clearly channeling Donald Trump's.

Like the president-elect, Higgins is a newcomer to politics who emerged from a crowded field with the help of an established media profile. Before he declared for office, Higgins was already locally famous for his viral Crime Stoppers videos in which he talked directly to wanted suspects; in one such video, Higgins promised to celebrate the perp's arrest by enjoying a burger at the family-owned establishment he'd burglarized.

+2 3rd Congressional District debate discuss nasty issues The race for Acadianas congressional seat has focused more on accusations than on policies 

Like Trump, Higgins is selling the plain-spoken, blow-it-up populism that's clearly striking a nerve these days. Like Trump, he may get a pass from voters on his personal shortcomings, which in his case include more than $100,000 in back child support and interest.

Before it all started, Angelle was supposed to be the easy frontrunner, as well as the guy with the winning Cajun charm. But if Higgins is the Trump in this analogy, Angelle risks being the Jeb Bush, the guy with the long government resume and establishment support who just isn't resonating the way people like him have in the past. Even worse, maybe he's his former boss, unpopular ex-Gov. Bobby Jindal.

If the 3rd District race carries a whiff of the GOP presidential primaries, it also has a bit of last year's governor's race thrown in. Angelle refused to endorse fellow Republican David Vitter in the runoff following his bitter primary loss, and now a SuperPAC headed by the retiring U.S. Senator's onetime top aide is running anti-Angelle ads in the district.

The ultimate outcome of the race will hinge on a couple of factors, including whether Higgins draws enthusiastic Trump voters back to the polls for a second round, and which candidate appeals to more Democrats.

The outcome won't affect the balance of power in Washington. But it could tell us more about the voters' current mood than any other race on the ballot.
Police are concerned for the welfare of a 27-year-old man who fled Calvary Hospital early Friday morning.

Garry Gordon was described by police as 189cm tall with a heavy build and short brown hair.

ACT Policing searched for Garry Gordon after he allegedly fled Calvary Hospital. Credit:ACT Policing

He was last seen 3am Friday at Calvary, where he was receiving medical treatment while in police custody for alleged minor theft.

Police have asked for assistance in finding Mr Gordon. He may be wearing blue knee-length shorts and one white sock.
An interim board has been appointed for the Snowy Hydro Southcare Trust although a new naming rights sponsor is still under negotiation.

Snowy Hydro Southcare chief executive Carol Bennett confirmed current naming rights sponsor Snowy Hydro was one of the corporate partners under consideration but said the aeromedical service was "exploring all options".

The Snowy Hydro Southcare rescue helicopter could be getting a new naming rights sponsor.

The arrival of a new helicopter in April next year could spell the end of Snowy Hydro's 15-year naming-rights sponsorship of the service.

The helicopter is one of a fleet of eight AW139 helicopters arriving in Australia next year after Toll Group was given the emergency helicopter service contract for the ACT and southern NSW, starting next April.
Banned until 2018: Former Commonwealth financial planner Don Nguyen. For instance, financial planner Graeme Cowper, doesn't appear on the register at all. Cowper hit the headlines this week when he paid $200,000 in legal costs to Fairfax Media and the ABC as well as agreeing that a judgment should be made in the media companies' favour. In his defamation case  which he surrendered - he complained it was said of him that he "ruthlessly exploited his clients for his own gain", "misconducted himself" by giving inappropriate and aggressive financial advice and manipulated documents including forging clients' signatures. Financial Services Minister Kelly O'Dwyer's new independent standards body to govern professional standards for financial advisers needs to be properly resourced. Credit:Josh Robenstone Cowper has had a checkered history. His former employer NAB filed a breach report to ASIC in relation to his misconduct in 2010 and in 2015 his then employer AMP suspended him, investigated his files then terminated him.

Cowper could theoretically go to a licensee of last resort and practice as a financial adviser and his customers would be none the wiser. The national financial planning register is worse than useless. Stuart Jamieson, who was banned by ASIC in October 2015 for five years for misconduct, is another name missing from the register. So too is Hardik Bhimani, a NAB planner banned eight months ago, as well as Amanda Ritchie, an adviser from Magnitude, who was banned in October. According to ASIC, they wouldn't be on the register if they weren't financial advisers at or since March last year. That isn't necessarily the case and it makes it confusing. It means high-profile CBA former star planner, "dodgy" Don Nguyen, isn't there either. Nguyen's banning order will be lifted next year.

Some others do appear on the register. For instance, Alfie Chong, who was banned for five years for misleading and deceptive conduct, is on the register with a banning order. This lack of consistency makes it hard to trust the integrity of the information. Industry expert and the former Financial Planning Association chairman Matthew Rowe says in the US when an adviser leaves a firm the firm must lodge a signed declaration with the regulator containing detailed reasons why they left. "It is a weakness in our system that licensees, who at the end of the day are responsible for the conduct and competence of advisers, do not inform the regulator or the register process  and hence the consumer  on whether an adviser has left for reasons of incompetence, poor compliance, professional misconduct, dishonesty or at a minimum level  breaking the law," he said. In the case of Cowper, NAB allowed him to resign instead of sacking him, which enabled him to turn up at other financial institutions  and he did. Cowper isn't the only one who was quietly moved on instead of being sacked, effectively making the problem someone else's, without regard for the public or their social obligation.

Former CBA financial planning whistleblower Jeff Morris describes the adviser register as a placebo rather than a panacea. "It is one of a number of half measures being put forward by a government desperate to avoid the real solution of a royal commission," he said. Another measure put forward by the government under Financial Services Minister Kelly O'Dwyer's watch is a new independent standards body to govern professional standards for financial advisers, including setting a code of ethics, developing and setting a national industry exam, including the content and process. The big banks and AMP will bankroll the establishment of the statutory body and the minister will appoint members of the board. Both will be critical to its success or otherwise. If it isn't properly resourced, it will fall short and if the wrong people run it, it will be little more than a smokescreen. Not surprisingly there is a lot of lobbying going on. The licencees are funding it, so Minister O'Dwyer will have to be careful not to get caught up with their aggressive lobbying of list of preferred candidates such as recently retired executives. The problem with picking such people is many have never worked as financial advisers and were part of the very system that created the problems this body is trying to fix. Wealth is big business and the banks and AMP are the dominant players, owning or controlling more than half the financial planning industry. Over the past few years, they have been embroiled in a string of scandals, including the Commonwealth Bank financial planning scandal, cheating on professional exams at Macquarie Group by some of its advisers, and the NAB scandal, which included instances of forgery, file reconstructions and the "resignations" of financial advisers inside its financial advice arm due to conflicts of interest, inappropriate advice, inappropriate practices or repeated compliance breaches.
Retail veteran Mark McInnes describes Amazon as the best retailer in the world.

So when the US giant plans to launch both an online grocery site and unusual bricks and mortar stores in Australia within two years, the $90 billion-plus grocery industry takes notice.

Australia's biggest supermarket chain Woolworths has set up a special unit to prepare for new players, describing Amazon as a "formidable competitor".

No. 2 chain Coles says it should have "lower distribution costs than anyone". Richard Goyder, the boss of its parent company Wesfarmers, said Coles needed to be just as prepared to battle Amazon as Wesfarmers had been to battle Woolworths' ultimately unsuccessful hardware business, Masters.
The salesman posted a vulgar message on Facebook during work hours. Credit: AP However, a spokesman for Facebook said it does not allow deceptive advertising and removed the posts as soon as it became aware of them. The scam tells consumers free samples from that retailer are available due to overstocked warehouses. When Fairfax Media investigated the Chemist Warehouse offer it ended up on a website offering free samples of Christie Brinkley Authentic Skincare. Credit:Laura Cavanaugh The ads use the Australian company's logo on boxes and appear as a sponsored post bearing the company's web address in newsfeeds.

After clicking, consumers are taken to another website where they are asked to provide credit card details to cover the cost of posting the samples. The criminals then continue to deduct monthly fees or charge for full-priced products. Fake ad that appears to come from Coles. Credit:Facebook Chemist Warehouse has received multiple complaints from consumers who thought the sales tactics were unethical. It struggled to find any way to contact Facebook because it does not spend a lot of money on Facebook advertising and has no account manager. The retailer's requests for help were brushed off by Facebook staff who said they were powerless to take down the offending account and suggested Chemist Warehouse submit a claim to its legal team instead. Facebook post that appears to come from Chemist Warehouse, but leads consumers into a scam. Credit:Facebook

One Facebook employee suggested submitting a "request for impersonating your page" then replied: "Unfortunately our pages team wasn't able to remove the page. Due to privacy reasons they are not able to share how they evaluate requests like this, but the best option moving forward is to report this page as violating your intellectual property." Once Chemist Warehouse submitted a legal claim for taking its intellectual property it waited weeks for a response. Then it was told that because the scam post "represents a business, [Facebook] must take appropriate steps to ensure they look at all details before they are able to make a decision". One of the founders of Chemist Warehouse, Damien Gance, said the company was upset it had been targeted. "We were very disappointed to learn that scammers were using our brand and our reputation to aid their efforts to defraud Australians. We encourage Facebook to do all it can to remove scams from their site, to stop scams from getting onto Facebook and finally to stop accepting and placing ads for these scams." The promoted posts and shell accounts were finally removed following inquiries by Fairfax Media, but soon resurfaced under a different shell account.

A spokesman for Facebook said it prohibits advertisements, which includes boosted posts, that are deceptive, false, or misleading, including deceptive claims, offers, or business practices. He also denied media queries prompted Facebook to act, saying it took action as soon as it became aware of the false posts. He could not explain why Chemist Warehouse struggled to get a quicker resolution. "People can use the reporting links found on every piece of content on the site, and our dedicated teams of reviewers will promptly review reports and take action where content violates our policies," he told BusinessDay. However, consumers would have to realise the post was a scam and know that clicking on "hide ad" leads to a reporting function. Large department store Myer has been more successful getting Facebook's help when it was targeted. "Myer takes scams seriously," a spokeswoman said, adding it reports scams to the competition watchdog and publishes examples of current scams on its website.

"We have a good relationship with Facebook and they have worked with us to remove scam posts in a timely manner," she said. Con Frantzeskos from digital agency PENSO said advertisers want Facebook to be vigilant about people passing off as their brand. However, the ease and speed of Facebook's self-service advertising platform removes a lot of the hurdles that would prevent a scam ad appearing in other medium like print or television. "Because you don't have any human gatekeepers, it can be open to abuse," Mr Frantzeskos said. However, if it already has the technology to detect and block nipples in photos, or block ads with more than 20 per cent writing, it should be able to detect when a company logo is used without approval, he added. When Fairfax Media investigated the Chemist Warehouse offer it ended up on a website offering free samples of Christie Brinkley Authentic Skincare. The website copies all the information from the genuine Christie Brinkley site, but credit card details go to an unknown party.
Embattled organic baby formula maker Bellamy's Australia has stood down chief executive Laura McBain following weeks of speculation around her future with the company. Credit:Mark Jesser Confidential supermarket and pharmacy sales data seen by Fairfax Media reveals that Bellamy's market share plunged from 25 per cent of the domestic infant formula sales in April to just 12 per cent by October. In dollar terms, that means Bellamy's went from earning one in every four dollars spent on baby formula in the country to just one in nine. Such was the slump, the company went from being the second-biggest player in the Australian infant formula market to fourth. Despite the massive decline, Bellamy's failed to issue a single update to the market or investors that warned of issues that may impact the company's bottom line.

According to company insiders, all of this was "well known" within the walls of Bellamy's corporate headquarters, as consumers switched to rival brand A2, but nothing was announced to the sharemarket. It's little wonder the ASX is asking questions. In a letter to the company on Tuesday, the ASX reminded Bellamy's of its disclosure obligations, and referred the company to Listing Rule 3.1. It "requires a listed entity to give the ASX immediately any information concerning it that a reasonable person would expect to have a material effect on the price or value of the entity's securities". The ASX quizzed Bellamy's about when it became aware of the bad news. According to the reply, the company's monthly sales data was "considered" at a board meeting on November 22. The board then asked management to prepare a revised forecast for revenue for both the full-year and half-year.

Those updates were presented at a board meeting at 8am on December 2. The numbers were dire, and a market update was quickly prepared. According to Ms McBain, despite more than doubling its year-on-year sales for the Chinese shopping event called "single's day" on November 11, the $93 million worth of revenue the company banked "fell short of expectations". The board meeting "concluded at 9.09am and the CEO finalised the announcement", the ASX was told. According to company secretary Brian Green, who drafted the response to the ASX, "the company confirms it is in compliance with the listing rules, in particular listing rule 3.1". The market quickly savaged Bellamy's. After opening at $12.09, the shares were placed in a trading halt. It re-opened at $8.50 at 10.26am, and closed the day at $6.85.

Aztec data tells all Every time a product is scanned and sold at a supermarket or pharmacy in Australia, that data by uploaded by a company called Aztec. It can provide real-time sales data to the supermarkets and its major suppliers, for a fee, but the majority of its customers buy weekly or monthly reports. "I doubt there is a major supermarket supplier in the country that doesn't take a look at the Aztec data," said the chief executive of one of Australia's largest dairy conglomerates. "In my view, it borders on the negligent not to, but even if you don't, your own internal sales data and warehouse data tells you what is going on. I doubt anyone could lose significant market share and not know about it."

Aztec's scan data for infant formula is particularly accurate. More than 95 per cent of the formula sold in the country is bought from supermarkets or pharmacies, and more than half of it ends up in China. What the Aztec data shows for Bellamy's is that its sales woes began in April, and its woes are far greater than one bad "singles day". At the end of April, Bellamy's controlled 25.6 per cent of infant formula sales in the country. The company was worth almost $1.2 billion, but all that was soon to change. Industry insiders say Bellamy's downfall stemmed from failing to understand and protect the interests of daigou  influential personal shoppers, many of which are recent Chinese migrants or international students, who buy infant formula off supermarket and pharmacy shelves in Australia and sell to their networks of customers in China via online stores and social media applications like WeChat. Livia Wang, director of strategic consulting firm Access CN, said daigou accounted for as much as half of Bellamy's total sales in Australian supermarkets.

Unfortunately, she says, the company overestimated the ease at which it could maintain its sales growth to China, and then compounded its errors by slashing its prices on its direct online sales channels including JD.com and Taobao due to oversupply. With daigou in Australia forced to discount their sales prices to remain competitive, their profit margins were eviscerated. "Daigou felt like, 'I'm someone who helped you become famous, but now you ignore us'," Ms Wang said. "The reality is if they can't make money, it is easier to turn against the brand." And turn they did, It's no accident that the downturn in Bellamy's sales is matched by a sudden surge in the performance of rival A2 Platinum.

With sales down, Bellamy's began discounting markedly on JD and Taobao mid-year, and pushed prices down further. Unfortunately, it seems the brand damage was done. "It's often a fad with overseas products, once the novelty wears off then it's hard to win that back," said one daigou, who goes by the name "Cola", in a discussion with Fairfax Media on WeChat. "Most daigou now are selling other infant formula like A2." In some cases, Bellamy's prices online in China are even cheaper than if bought off the shelf in Australia. The average price of Bellamy's range of infant formula is between $22 and $25 on JD, compared to $32 to $36 for rival brands like A2. "We are concerned the cheaper pricing is creating a consumer perception of inferior quality," Citi analyst Sam Teeger, who predicted Bellamy's troubles in China back in October and maintains a sell call on the stock, said in a note to clients. "We prefer to see Bellamy's holding or increasing pricing, and investing in  marketing or a brand ambassador as opposed to discounting its product."

Another to pick the decline of Bellamy's was Melbourne-based investment adviser Boyd Peters, managing director of Investment Company Services, who has been working in China since the 1980s. In an email note dated October 28, just days after Bega announced its infant formula joint venture in China with Blackmores was failing, he warned his inner circle of clients of the impending doom awaiting Bellamy's in China. "Bellamys are screwed," he wrote. "I can't believe the fund managers didn't see this coming. For Barry Irvin (Bega) to come out and say they didn't foresee the oversupply and discounting is laughable. Your local daigou knew this." Mr Peters added: "A huge percentage of those in the formula, milk and vitamins game have absolutely no idea what is about to hit them." Among them, it would seem, was the management at Bellamy's.

Between April and August this year, Bellamy's had lost 10 per cent of the Australian infant formula market to its rivals. But there was no announcement of that decline when Ms McBain and her chairman, Rob Woolley, sold down their investment portfolios in August this year. Ms McBain clinched a sale price of $14.55 a share for her parcel. Mr Woolley did a little better at $14.60 for nearly half his stake in the company, and the pair realised a 1450 per cent gain on their stock since the company listed in 2014. "Laura and Rob will be investing in personal assets and supporting private family investments," the company said at the time. Ms McBain's remaining shares in Bellamy's have fallen in value by $19 million since her big sale in August. Loading
Eliminating the scourge of family and domestic violence is the responsibility of all of us, and advocates have worked tirelessly to bring the issue out of the corners of living rooms and into the public spotlight. But it can't end there. Our efforts must continue in the workplace, where two thirds of those people experiencing domestic violence spend most of their days.

Modern workplaces are much more than just somewhere we go to earn a living; they are our homes away from home  often full of people who care about us. For many women, workplaces become a refuge from what they go home to. But being affected by domestic violence can take a huge toll on women's ability to work.

Domestic violence can affect people's ability to work. Credit:iStock

Sally, a teacher from Victoria, was the victim of domestic violence. Her ultimately successful attempt to escape an abusive relationship took not just an emotional and physical toll, but also affected her financially and nearly cost her job.

Dealing with the situation meant she quickly exhausted all her annual leave and sick leave, forcing her to take unpaid leave and risk her financial security. Once she missed a court appearance because she simply couldn't afford to forgo a day's pay, resulting in her abusive ex-partner escaping an AVO unchallenged, further endangering her safety. It wasn't until she contacted her union that they were able to negotiate paid domestic violence leave. It proved an invaluable resource that helped her begin a new life.
Brother Matt Ryan, East St Kilda Putting patients' needs and wishes first As the Australian Medical Association represents less than 40per cent of Australia's registered doctors, it is misleading and impertinent for it to claim that doctors, generally, oppose euthanasia. No doctor wants to terminate a life but many of us believe that the wishes and needs of our patients take precedence over our personal feelings. When a patient in incurable pain says, "Doctor, if I were a dog, you would put me down. Why do you continue to make me suffer?", how can any humane person answer that? It is notable that most of those who oppose voluntary euthanasia have never faced the indignity of someone in incurable pain and had to watch that person die in agony. When the nay-sayers are forced to face reality, they invariably change their minds. No doctor should be forced to terminate a life and even those of us who are in favour of euthanasia keep hoping that we will not be asked to do this. David Corbett, Albury, NSW

If the pain become too much, choosing to die As someone with advanced oesophageal cancer, my hope is to die at home surrounded by my family and friends, and pain-free due to palliative care. But if my life becomes unbearable, I definitely want the option to end it on my own terms. Ian Bell, Fitzroy THE FORUM When living is hell

A goal of assisted dying is to limit horrific and intractable pain and suffering among those who freely and competently express a wish to escape it by means of death. Typically, a person experiencing such suffering from a non-terminal illness will do so for many more years than a person with a terminal illness experiencing the same suffering. Why will the former be denied the option of assisted dying? Their suffering may not be "terminal" to life according to its medical definition, but it can be "terminal" to truly living. The terminal illness criteria has nothing to do with limiting suffering. It has everything to do with our squeamishness about the ethics of death, which is partially assuaged by the empty technicality that the person "would have died anyway". We will all die anyway. But some will do so after an average lifespan, marred by unbearable suffering. Jennifer Morris, Ringwood North Seeing, hearing infants Hooray for the report, conducted by the Commission for Children and Young People, into 127 child deaths (The Age, 8/12). More than half of these children had experienced family violence and this increased to more than 70per cent for Aboriginal children. For too long infants, their experiences and emotional wellbeing, have been ignored. Our early family experiences strongly influence the blueprint for the rest of our lives, for good or ill. Let us work together to ensure that our youngest and most vulnerable are seen and heard, and their emotional lives attended to.

Dr Julie Stone, infant, child and family psychiatrist, Richmond A blunt instrument All murder is abhorrent, Jenny Hobbs (Letters, 8/12), but I question whether the murder of a police officer "tears at the very fabric of our society" any more than, say, the murder of a child (I think of Daniel Valerio, the Farquharson children, Luke Batty). Laws that attempt to assign different sentences for different classes of murder must be based on community standards. However, community opinion can be swayed by high-profile cases and their treatment in the media. And any such law will come up against instances that do not fit the template. Sometimes even the murder of a child has extenuating circumstances, and one could imagine a case where the murder of a police officer does too. Judges weigh up the seriousness of the crime among all the circumstances they consider when sentencing, as carefully and objectively as they can. This seems a more precisely targeted way of doing things than the blunt instrument of legislation. Danny Neumann, Port Melbourne Not in my suburb

Alison Clarke of Clifton Hill calls on the Victorian government to provide "a local supervised injecting room" in Richmond (Letters, 9/12). As a Richmond resident, I am more than happy to be denied the benefits of a "safe" injecting room in Victoria Street. Perhaps it could be established in Queens Parade, Clifton Hill with signs proclaiming "Drug dealers welcome". Kevin Fox, Richmond 21st-century learning Too often, learning and assessment is done to students, rather than with us. The news that some year12 students received their ATAR results early underlines that approaching ATAR as "make or break" for the future is misguided and harmful. The blunder was unfortunate because students who received their results were hit unexpectedly. It came one day after a survey by Mission Australia found 15 to 19-year-olds named mental health as the biggest challenge facing Australia. It does not matter if students' ATARs are not great; it is how they get back up that counts. This leak should generate discussion about how transparent the system is, and the need for assessment methods to keep up with 21st-century learners.

Chester Ngan and Matthew Sievers, Victorian Student Representative Council What's the big issue? How devastating that some students got their results early. Some even accessed the site, looking for their results. What is the big issue? No one will be disadvantaged, tertiary places won't be allocated early and no inaccurate results were released. The only concern is that supportive infrastructure was not in place. Not everything goes to plan. These students need to grow up and develop some resilience. Their ATAR will be the same whether they get it this week or next week. Kethly Fallon, Northcote Is it me or the world?

Yesterday, the Age (9/12) reported: the Turnbull government has rejected a carbon emissions policy that could save consumers up to $15billion dollars on their electricity bills; a Macquarie University graduate who grew up speaking English and passed a required test twice has been asked to leave Australia because some bureaucrat does not believe she is "competent" in English; and, to take the cake, students who got their ATARs early will require "counselling". The world really has gone mad. Gabrielle Gardner, Montmorency Action needed  now It is beyond comprehension that the Coalition in state and federal parliaments cannot accept scientific evidence that climate change must be addressed. They have no plans for our environment's future. We need to transition now to renewable energy and leave coal in the ground. It is a toxic fuel and millions of lives and property are under threat if we continue to use it. The Coalition's attitude suggests stupidity. Chris Bakewell, Mount Eliza

Farewell to our future The Australian Electricity Market Commission, Energy Market Operator, Climate Change Authority, Prime Minister's chief scientist, economic experts and the power industry all support for an emissions intensity scheme. Meanwhile we limp along with no sustainable national energy or climate policy, face the prospect of antiquated coal-based, carbon-emitting power, rising electricity prices, a deteriorating climate outlook and international ridicule. Malcolm Turnbull is so gormless and wedded to his ambition of being prime minister that he ditches his own views and expert advice and allows backward-looking ideologues to dictate the future, hence casting aside the prosperity and future of all Australians. Helen Russell, Murrumbeena The 'anti-fact' brigade It is a grave concern that Malcolm Turnbull can rapidly reverse his position to avoid upsetting his government's right-wing. Now he has rejected expert advice before it is delivered. How can we hope to have a rational, well thought out response to something as complicated as climate change if we have a government with a tin ear to everything but the increasingly strident demands of the "anti-fact" right?

Denny Meadows, Hawthorn My battle to touch on I have a disability and do not drive. This week I touched on my myki at the beginning of a journey. When I disembarked, it would not touch off despite my attempting this at different machines. There were no staff on the platform. On the return journey, I touched on but no machine would read my card. When I got to my home station, officers said I did not have a valid myki. I felt pressured to pay the on-the-spot fine. When I elected to wait for the infringement notice, it was distressing to have my rights read to me like a criminal. The penalty system needs review. Tegan Lewis, Box Hill Try filtering it out

Why, with all the comments on the asthma thunderstorm, has there been no mention of the wearing of breathing masks to filter out pollen and dust? Medical clinics often advise patients to wear them if they have a cold so as not to infect others. On heavy pollution days in cities like Beijing, nearly everybody wears face masks or stays indoors. And it is not uncommon to see someone (often not a local) wearing one in Melbourne. Keep a breathing mask in your handbag or wallet just in case. Barrie Pittock, Brighton East Where's our money? I was incensed when I heard Australian Taxation Office officials say they were doing all they could to act on complaints that spiv employers are ripping off their employees' superannuation. A few years ago, I made every effort to recover my own and others' entitlements from a serial offender in corporate crime. The ATO did nothing. Its Inspector-General did nothing. The Ombudsman did nothing. A plague on all their houses. Ian Cunliffe, Moonee Ponds

AND ANOTHER THING Turnbull Malcolm Turnbull always bows to the ABC: the Abbott Bernardi Christensen ruling group. Sandra Shaw, Bulleen

Why would I vote for a non-functional government? Malcolm, wake up. There is a real world here. Glenn Brotchie, Echuca Can Malcolm do anything without first getting the approval of the Coalition's right-wing? Fethon Naoum, Portland Turnbull epitomises the Peter Principle: in achieving his goal, he has reached his level of incompetence.

Colin Reeves, Northcote Carbon price "Scheme 'could save $15b"' (8/12). Carlton could win the 2017 Premiership, too. David Wright, Albert Park An emissions schedule that could save $15 billion? It sounds fantastic, but not according to Prime Minister Bernardi.

Tim Douglas, Blairgowrie If Cory wants to see something "dumber", he should read Malcolm's comments about electricity prices and carbon pricing. Mark Ruseler, Lara Furthermore Imagine being Woolies' suppliers now that, legally, it can tell them to "cough up extra cash" (9/12).

Alan Williams, Port Melbourne Counselling for receiving VCE results early? Generation "professional help" won't survive in the real world. Kerry Cooper, Alphington Caroline Stinear (8/12), atheists should wear an exclamation mark, not a question mark, above their heads. Raymond Kenyon, Camberwell
Malcolm Turnbull and John Key kayaking in Sydney Harbour in February. Turnbull has done neither. Too frightened of Labor on his left to touch the GST and too intimidated by his own colleagues on his right to take the initiative on same-sex marriage, he has contented himself with a second-order agenda. The two affable investment bankers-turned-politicians are alike in their personal makeup. "We're both economic conservatives. I think we're both pretty socially liberal," Key has pointed out in comparing himself to his Australian counterpart: Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has chosen the course of a timid survivalism. Credit:Andrew Meares Yet the political characteristics of their governments are quite divergent. Like Key's own outlook, his government was unmistakably conservative on economics and liberal on social policy. You can't say the same of Turnbull's.

Key was once described as "the Malcolm Turnbull of NZ" by a former Merrill Lynch employer, Greg Bundy. That was before Turnbull took the prime ministership. No one would say that now. And the gold standard advice for a new prime minister? When Turnbull was still new and still popular, John Howard had this guidance for him: "An iron law of politics is that if you have a lot of political capital at some point, you can be certain it will disappear. The question is, do you dissipate it through trying to do something for the long-term benefit of the country or do you dissipate it by sitting around and doing nothing?"Key took option A. He acted on this fundamental principle of political power. He took bold political chances on big, unpopular reforms and succeeded. The NZ economy had been battered. It didn't have a mining boom. The global financial crisis hit it hard. The country found that it didn't have the borrowing power to use fiscal stimulus against downturn. Recession hit. The three-decade long net migration to Australia, the notorious "brain drain" accelerated.

Among other initiatives, Key raised the GST rate from 12.5 per cent to 15. He sold minority government stakes in electricity companies to free the money for reinvestment. He liberalised trade. None of these was a popular move. But they succeeded. The country's prospects are brighter. The exodus to Australia halted and has now reversed. Initially, the national spirit soared on hopes that Turnbull as prime minister would be the same Turnbull that the people had grown to admire in his three decades in public life. Turnbull took Option B. Letdown soon set in. It continues to this day.

In fairness to Turnbull, there's a respectable argument that the task of national reform in NZ is simpler than in Australia. Our Australasian cousin has no states, no federalist constitution and no upper house to frustrate the House of Representatives. On the other hand, NZ's mixed member proportional electoral system undercuts the major parties and is less manageable for an incumbent. And some of the conservative reform items of privatisations and GST-based tax reform were in far worse order in NZ than in Australia. Key chose bold reform and it delivered increasing returns. He's fought for unpopular change in the national interest, he won the votes in the parliament and went on to win vindication in results in the real world. Public trust and public respect in grew accordingly. Key achieved an extraordinary political reward  he won three consecutive election, each with a bigger parliamentary majority than the last. Turnbull chose the course of a timid survivalism. This is a path of diminishing returns.

It has led him to an increasingly timid and desperate day-to-day scramble to preserve any authority or credibility. This week was a case study. A cabinet minister announced that the government would proceed with a long-scheduled policy review. The review of climate policy, mandated by the Abbott government, would be an open minded exercise to review progress to existing national goals, Josh Frydenberg said. A day and a half of squawks of protest by a handful of conservative members of his Coalition proved unbearable pressure.

A confident leader would have defended his cabinet minister, stood firm in defence of a scheduled policy review and proceeded with rational policymaking. This is what himself Turnbull, in the early days of his prime ministership, said he'd do:"We have got to be able to consider policy options in an unfettered way," he said in a Fairfax Media interview, speaking about tax. "We've got to have the maturity to have a debate that is not throwing things off the table... "Because what happens is politicians who get intimidated by their opponents or by the media or whatever, they say, 'Oh that's off the table, that's off the table, that's off the table' and suddenly there's nothing left on the table." But that was Old Malcolm. New Malcolm panicked and took options off the table. He did it on tax. This week he did it on climate policy. In doing so he humiliated his cabinet minister, ignored expert advice, and overruled the electricity industry.

There is no maturity and no rationality. All because he's fearful of his conservative colleagues. So if the government can't manage to conduct a scheduled policy review, how can it possibly respond to big, real problems that emerge? Like the stark proof that Australia's schools are failing their students and the country? This is a first-rate national crisis with profound consequences. The evidence is that deterioration of the schools, public and private, means that today's students have lost the equivalent of a year's learning in key subjects compared to Australian kids a dozen years ago. Other countries improve; Australia goes backwards. But Turnbull was preoccupied with a faux crisis over routine policy processes. The problem is 30 years in the making; it's not Turnbull's fault. But as Prime Minister it is his problem. Yet he had nothing to say to the country when the two most authoritative international measurement bodies delivered damning reports on Australia's schools. After losing 14 seats at the election and with serial blunders since, Turnbull is fast losing the confidence of his colleagues.

His job is safe for now not because of his performance but simply because the party has no ready alternative. An Essential poll asked voters to rate the performance of six of his ministers. Only one, Julie Bishop, had an approval rating above 50 per cent. She is the only potential leader who could actually improve the government's standing with the public. She's also the candidate that the Liberals' conservatives would try to veto. She isn't conservative enough, they say, and they are still angry at her for alleged disloyalty to Abbott. They'd continue their wrecking tactics rather than accept Bishop as leader.

And the candidates that the conservatives would prefer? Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton, men with much lower public approval ratings. On current standings, they'd represent a change without an improvement. This succession dilemma is Turnbull's protection against challenge. He will have next year to recover and to improve. But if he cannot, he will likely go the way of all prime ministers since John Howard, cut down before he can finish a single term. It's not fair to compare the achievements of a PM of 15 months' standing with one of eight years. But if he hopes to succeed he will need to model himself on Key in deed, not just in word. Remember the old joke about NZ? "Would the last one to leave please turn out the lights?" On Friday morning Turnbull paused before the TV cameras to assume a look of great seriousness and declare: " We are committed to ensuring that Australia keeps the lights on."
Klein's prize came largely off the back of her most recent book, This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs the Climate. The book, which The New York Times called "the most momentous and contentious environmental book since Silent Spring", is both denunciation and diagnosis, a 566-page dissection of the climate crisis and what Klein reckons we should do about it. Its thesis is simple: capitalism is killing the planet, so we need to get rid of capitalism. Predicated on ceaseless growth and powered by fossil fuels, free market fundamentalism is plundering the Earth, ravaging local communities and killing the ecology. This is, of course, hardly news. (Long-time clean energy analyst Tristan Edis has called Klein "a johnny-come-lately" to the climate debate.) What Klein does, however, is link the climate crisis to human rights and social justice, thereby framing global warming as a political and ethical challenge, rather than solely an environmental one. The book has been criticised by some as markedly ideological, not to mention naive. (At one stage she says the world will be saved by "ferocious love", and that "caring for one another and caring for the planet could be the economy's fastest-growing sectors".) And yet the principal arguments seem hard to refute. "It makes sense to link the climate issue to things like inequality," says author and economist Richard Denniss, "because the people who are causing climate change have more power, financially and politically, than the people who are being most affected by it." Denniss describes Klein's book as a "watershed" for many in the climate movement. "She has captured the scale of the problem and the scale of the action required to address it, as well as the power of the 'climate blockers,' or those opposed to change." People are angry. The system is failing them. If ever there was a moment for transformative change, its now.

According to Klein, the "blockers" aren't who you might expect. There's the fossil fuel industry, of course, and right-wing think tanks such as the US Heartland Institute, which believes climate change will be good for humanity and that nothing should be done about it. Politicians are similarly obstructive, or simply powerless. But Klein also implicates the big green groups, many of which have long-standing links to oil and gas companies. She cites the world's richest environmental group, the US-based Nature Conservancy, which has, since 1955, been buying up ecologically sensitive tracts of land in order to protect them from development. In 2002, however, the group was found to have allowed oil drilling in one of its Texas preserves, home to the endangered Attwater's prairie chicken. The Nature Conservancy claimed that the terms of the agreement whereby it acquired the land gave it no option but to permit the drilling. But Klein is unforgiving: "For traditional conservationists, it was a little like finding out that Amnesty International had opened its own prison wing in Guantanamo." She is equally dismissive of solutions. Geo-engineering  deflecting the sun's rays with space-based mirrors, for example  is "magical thinking". Emission-trading schemes are a shell game, easily exploited by profiteers and frauds. Then there are the "philanthro-capitalists"  Richard Branson, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett  all of whom have, at various times, promised to use their billions to help save the planet but thus far delivered little. The only alternative, then, is to throw the whole system out and begin again. Replace the profit motive with the justice motive. It sounds radical, she says, and it is. But we have our backs up against the climate wall. There is no time for tinkering, no room for compromise. "People are angry," she says. "The system is failing them on multiple levels. If ever there was a moment for transformative change, it's now." Klein is small, and light on her feet. She smiles a lot. Black seems to be her preferred dress colour, with white shirts underneath, and the occasional scarf. Born in Montreal in 1970, Klein grew up in a secular Jewish family with a long history of social activism. Her paternal grandparents, Philip and Anne, were communists. (Philip worked as an illustrator for Disney, but was fired after participating in a strike.) Klein's parents, Michael and Bonnie, were American, but moved to Canada during the Vietnam War to dodge the draft. Michael was a paediatrician who worked in public health; Bonnie made feminist documentaries.

As a teenager Klein hung out at the mall and wore make-up, which pissed off her parents no end. "It must have been hard, seeing your kids in this culture that is everything you fought against," she tells me. After high school she studied philosophy and literature at the University of Toronto, where she edited the university newspaper, Varsity. In 1993 she dropped out to become a "youth columnist" at The Globe and Mail newspaper, writing about topics such as job insecurity and "outsourcing", the increasing tendency of big companies to cut costs by sending manufacturing and other jobs overseas, often to Third World "sweatshops". She also noticed something else: advertisements. They seemed to be everywhere, popping up like toadstools in what had previously been considered public spaces: schools, museums, parks. Returning to university in 1996, she saw how it, too, had become a canvas for marketers, with ads even appearing in the bathrooms. The creeping reach of corporations was producing a post-national world, she believed, one where brands and logos were the new lingua franca. Dropping out of university for a second time, she set herself the task of writing about this new reality, producing what would become No Logo. "In the 1990s you have this narrative spreading across the world that neoliberal capitalism has won, it's the only show left, and it's going to spread prosperity and progress inevitably all over the globe," British author and journalist Johann Hari tells me. "No Logo pricked that bubble by bringing together two different but related trends. It showed how corporations had hijacked the consciousness of a whole generation of kids like Naomi and I, who had been trained to believe that buying more stuff would give our lives meaning. And it showed how  even more poisonously  neoliberalism was built on an archipelago of sweatshops and oppression across the developing world." The book's release in 1999 coincided with large, chaotic protests against the World Trade Organisation, the staunchly free trade body that had gathered in the US city of Seattle for a round of trade negotiations. The Battle of Seattle, as it became known, saw police clash with a loose coalition of labour, human rights and green groups, all of whom blamed globalisation for spreading inequality, trashing the environment and exploiting the poor.

Klein would later describe the confluence of No Logo and the Seattle protests as "good luck", but it gave her a reputation for almost oracular prescience. "Naomi sees what the rest of us can't," Hari says. "If we had listened then to what she was saying  about how neoliberal trade deals were gutting the working class in the West and enslaving the poor elsewhere  we wouldn't have Trump now." The last time Klein was in Australia, in 2015, she came alone. This time she has brought her husband, Avi Lewis, and their four-year-old son, Toma. The good thing about being new to a country, Lewis tells me, is seeing things afresh. He is particularly taken aback by how the Australian national anthem contains the line, "We've boundless plains to share". "Really?" he says. "How does your government show its face in the morning?" Friends describe Klein and Lewis as devoted, funloving and essentially normal (they are big fans of the science-fiction thriller series Orphan Black). They swear a lot and are unpretentious. But they are also prone to the occasional, devastating bout of Canadian earnestness. In This Changes Everything, Klein writes about how climate change has made it all but impossible for her to enjoy nature: "The more beautiful the experience, the more I found myself grieving its inevitable loss  like someone unable to fall fully in love because she can't stop imagining the inevitable heartbreak." Like Klein, Lewis descends from a long line of leftwing troublemakers. In 1932 his grandfather helped found Canada's democratic socialist party, now known as the New Democratic Party. His father, Stephen, led the NDP in Ontario in the 1970s; his mother, Michele Landsberg, was for several decades Canada's leading feminist newspaper columnist. "The talk at our house was about social justice issues: funding for women's shelters, strikes, the minimum wage," Lewis says. After working as a host for Canada's TV music channel MuchMusic, Lewis moved to the current affairs program CounterSpin and the baldly partisan On the Map with Avi Lewis. He and Klein met in 1993, when they were covering the Canadian election. They have since collaborated on numerous projects, the first of which was The Take, a documentary about Argentina's economic collapse in 2001. The film centres on a group of unemployed auto workers who decide to retake their factory in defiance of its owner, a lizardy oligarch with a rich tan and Napoleonic sense of entitlement. With its focus on shop floor democracy and direct action, The Take embodied Klein and Lewis's theory of change: that it only ever happens from the ground up, when individuals band together to challenge authority, and, with any luck, take down the system.

Despite this, Klein has never herself been a frontline campaigner: she got arrested once, in front of the White House, in 2013, while protesting the Keystone XL oil pipeline, but as she puts it, "I don't walk around holding placards." She's more of a back room warrior: "Naomi and I hatched the fossil fuel divestment strategy together, and I'm pretty sure it was more her idea than mine," Bill McKibben, founder of the climate organisation 350.org, tells me in an email. In many ways, though, Klein remains a reporter, travelling widely and writing prolifically. According to Lewis, she gets most of her ideas in the field. In 2004, she was on just such a trip, reporting from Baghdad for Harper's Magazine. The city was in ruins following the 2003 US invasion of Iraq; thousands had died, people were in shock. Rather than rebuild infrastructure and restore the state, however, George W. Bush's administration began instituting what amounted to a neoliberal wish list of economic "reforms": mass privatisation, free trade, a 15 per cent flat tax and a dramatically downsized government. The agenda, as Klein saw it, was nothing less than the creation of "a gleaming showroom for laissez-faire economics". Out of this came The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, an expose of how free-market fundamentalists exploit catastrophes, natural or man-made, to deliver themselves grand profits at the expense of the people. After the book came out, Bernie Sanders invited Klein to his DC office, and asked her to give a speech. The San Francisco Chronicle wrote that The Shock Doctrine "revealed the master narrative of our time". Otherwise, the book was more or less napalmed. "A muddle," wrote The Times of London. "Deeply flawed," according to The Financial Times. Klein was dangerously simplistic and intellectually dishonest, they claimed, and had consistently ignored facts that didn't fit her thesis. As The Economist magazine put it: "Ms Klein is to serious social thought what a dog is to dancing. It's pathetic but it's hard to look away." Of course, such push back is part of Klein's appeal. Her work thrives on an air of conspiracy, the sense that she is taking us on a journey to the dark heart of some awful "ism": capitalism, globalism, consumerism. What we see is merely a mask, she tells us, nothing can be taken for granted, there are always ulterior motives.
A man who sexually assaulted a 77-year-old grandmother and used a hammer to cave in her skull will become eligible for parole after nine years and four months in jail.

The woman's two sons were at Parramatta District Court on Thursday to see 40-year-old Christopher Coombs answer for the unprovoked attack at their mother's home in inner Wollongong last year. They left the courthouse dismayed.

A CT scan of the victim's skull following the attack.

Coombs will serve a maximum 14 years behind bars, including time for four assault and larceny offences unrelated to the "heinous" July 6, 2015 home invasion.

"[The sentence] doesn't reflect the devastating effect it's had on the victim," said one of the sons, who cannot be named for ethical reasons.
The top five Artarmon on Sydney's north shore scraped into the $2 million dollar club this year but one in 10 houses still sold for less than $990,000, or 49 per cent of the median. Similarly, in Strathfield in the inner west, which boasts a median price of $2.1 million, the cheapest houses sold for $1.1 million, or 54 per cent of the median. The cheapest houses also went for about half the median in Rose Bay and Woollahra in Sydney's east, and Mosman on the lower north shore. With median prices between $2.7 and $3.8 million, however, the cheapest houses were still priced up to $1.9 million in Rose Bay, $1.7 million in Mosman and $1.4 million in Woollahra.

Suburbs with a median below $2 million In each of the top 20 suburbs, one in 10 buyers paid less than 65 per cent of the suburb-wide median, the analysis shows. Ashfield and Matraville were among the most affordable suburbs with median prices around the $1.5 million mark, with the cheapest houses going for less than $890,000, or 61 per cent of the median price. In Sans Souci and Asquith, which both have median prices around $1.2 million, the cheapest houses sold for less than $766,000 or 63 per cent of the median.

Among the suburbs with a median price of $1.1 million, Campsie and Lidcombe were among the most affordable, with the cheapest houses selling for less than $675,000 or about 60 per cent of the median price. "House price diversity is a good measure for social diversity within a locality," said UNSW professor of housing research and policy Hal Pawson. "Local price disparity can increase when a new development brings higher value properties into the market. But a single big development can make a big difference to a local property price profile in the year the new homes are sold." How Sydney prices have changed

Between 2012 and 2016, the price rise among Sydney's cheapest houses closely followed the median price rise. The median for suburbs within 30km of the CBD rose by 73 per cent to $1.2 million, while the cheapest houses rose by 71 per cent to about $700,000. But in some suburbs the price of the cheapest houses increased far more quickly than the median, putting these suburbs even further beyond the reach of the average income-earner. For example, in Kensington in Sydney's east, the price of the cheapest houses rose 1.5 times faster than the median price, surging 209 per cent, from $750,000 to $1.6 million.

Similarly, in Fairlight near Manly, and South Coogee, in Sydney's east, the cheapest houses increased 1.3 times faster than the median price: from $700,000 in Fairlight and $970,000 in South Coogee to $1.6 million. By contrast, in other parts of Sydney, the change in median price outpaced the change among the cheapest houses, making these suburbs more affordable than the median price suggests. In Artarmon, for example, the median price rose 1.6 times faster than the price of the cheapest houses, while in Campsie it rose 1.3 times faster. The cheapest way into a million-dollar neighbourhood Buying a unit is the cheapest way into the million-dollar club of suburbs.
A nurse found to have taken money from a mental health patient under her care in England has been working in Queensland for four years despite concerns she could offend again.

Jean Chipo Mberi, 36, was struck off the UK nurse register in 2013 after the Nursing and Midwifery Council found she twice used a patient's bank card to withdraw money for her own use.

A nurse deregistered after she was found to have stolen from a patient in the UK has been working in Queensland. Credit:Peter Braig

The total amount taken was only 170 ($290) but authorities noted a "real risk of repetition of the misconduct".

Ms Mberi has been registered in Queensland since 2012. She was understood to have been working in Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital mental health department for about three years and to have previously worked in Townsville.
A nine-year-old girl could lose the ligaments in her foot after being hit by a bus outside her central Queensland school. The Agnes Water State School student was airlifted to Brisbane on Thursday afternoon with serious leg and foot injuries and underwent surgery overnight, her school announced. A girl is airlifted to hospital after being hit by a bus at Agnes Water, near Bundaberg. Credit:RACQ LifeFlight In a Facebook post on Friday, the school said the girl's family had been warned to expect a "lengthy recovery" and multiple surgeries. Paramedics rushed to the Donohue Drive facility about 3.10pm after a school bus hit the girl as she tried to cross the road.

Her school said she had stepped out from in front of a parked vehicle during the afternoon pickup. The RACQ LifeFlight Rescue Helicopter was quickly called to transport the girl and her mother to the Lady Cilento Children's Hospital, where she was in a stable condition. "This is a sad event for all involved and my thoughts go out to the family of the child, the driver of the bus, staff of Scifleet buses and staff and parents of our school that were involved in assisting with this accident," the school said. "This accident reinforces the importance of how quickly events can happen and the need to be ever cautious around school zones when collecting children or crossing the road." Students would be warned about road safety and given the chance to speak to guidance officers as part of a school parade on Friday morning.
A Rockhampton doctor has been charged with sexually assaulting five patients at two of the city's medical facilities.

The women, aged between 37 and 57, were allegedly assaulted between 2009 and 2013 and police have called for any other women with complaints to come forward.

Rockhampton detectives have charged a doctor with indecent assault. Credit:Nic Walker

After a lengthy investigation, detectives charged a 53-year-old man on November 30 with six counts of indecent assault.

A police spokeswoman said he appeared in the Southport Magistrates Court on that date and would reappear in the Rockhampton Magistrates Court on December 21.
A destructive prawn disease outbreak has sent three Queensland prawn farms into lock down and banned the public from catching wild prawns, crabs and worms from the Logan and Albert Rivers.

Biosecurity Queensland first detected white spot disease, a highly contagious viral prawn disease, at an aquaculture farm south of Brisbane on December 1.

The disease appears as white spots on the prawn's body.

The discovery, which has since spread to wild prawns in the Logan River and two other prawn farms in the area, is the first confirmed case in an aquaculture setting in Australia, which had been considered free of the virus until now.

The disease is in all major prawn growing areas of the world and once it takes hold, can kill off up to 90 per cent of farm stock.
A 99-million-year-old dinosaur tail has been found trapped in a piece of amber at a market in northern Myanmar, near the Chinese border.

Chinese palaeontologist Lida Xing bought the apricot-sized nugget from an unsuspecting trader in 2015.

He told CNN that he realised immediately that he was looking at a vertebrate, rather than a fossilised plant.

"I was not sure that [the trader] really understood how important this specimen was, but he did not raise the price," Dr Xing, who is a palaeontologist at China University of Geosciences in Beijing, said.
State Children's Minister Jenny Mikakos has acknowledged children have been kept in "isolation" and lockdown at the adult maximum-security Barwon Prison.

The statement came as the incoming president of the Law Council of Australia, Fiona McLeod, SC, said the continued detention of children could place Victoria in breach of international conventions to which Australia is a signatory.

On Thursday, Ms Mikakos provided written responses to Greens children and families spokeswoman Nina Springle on the conditions in which children were being held.

Previously, the minister and her department had said only that "standard management" of young people in detention did not involve 20-hour lockdowns.
Has the bell tolled for priests who run Catholic schools?

A push to overhaul Catholic schools is gaining momentum, with principals and pastors saying that priests do not have the training, time or expertise to manage schools.

Has the bell tolled for priests who run Catholic schools? Credit:Fairfax Media

The Victorian Association of Catholic Primary Schools recently asked Australian Catholic University academics to review the governance of Catholic schools.

"We believe it is becoming more common that the parish priest is just feeling overwhelmed by the responsibilities," said Professor Chris Branson, who is leading the review.
Victoria's public watchdog can now probe allegations Labor rorted taxpayer funds before the state election after the government's court challenge to stop the investigation was rejected.

In a blow to Premier Daniel Andrews, the Court of Appeal on Friday dismissed the government's second attempt to block Ombudsman Deborah Glass from investigating the so-called "rorts-for-votes" scandal. The decision paves the way for a potentially damaging inquiry ahead of the next state election.

Labor has attempted to block an investigation by Ombudsman Deborah Glass. Credit:Damian White

Labor had been accused of rorting taxpayer funds by diverting staff paid by the Parliament to work on the 2014 election campaign.

In June this year police determined that no criminal offence had been committed but left open the possibility that there may have been a breach of parliamentary rules.
Vision Australia will not provide Auslan interpreters at its popular Carols by Candlelight event this year, despite calls from the deaf community.

Statewide service provider Vicdeaf, which also offers community Auslan classes, contacted Vision Australia to urge them to provide interpreting services on Friday.

Marina Prior and David Hobson perform at the 2014 Carols By Candlelight event. Credit:Luis Ascui

But Vision Australia chief executive officer Ron Hooton told Fairfax Media they would be unable to organise an interpreter in time for this year's event.

"Unfortunately, the logistics for the 2016 event are now complete," Mr Hooton said.
Two men have been charged with drug and firearms offences after police discovered more than 60 cannabis plants at properties in Victoria's south-east on Thursday.

Detectives from Wellington Crime Investigation Unit and Yarram police executed warrants at two Carrajung Lower properties just after 9am, arresting a 41-year-old Carrajung Lower man at the first property where cannabis plants and a firearm were located.

Police charged two men with drug and firearms offences in Victoria's south-east. Credit:Cathryn Tremain

He has been charged with a range of drug and firearms offences.

Police then raided a neighbouring property where they uncovered a hydroponic cannabis crop with 60 plants in a garage.
Conservationists are ringing alarm bells, saying animal trapping continues despite soaring temperatures at Beeliar Wetlands as part of Roe 8 site works.

"There are traps there that have been left open in 35-degree heat when the fauna management plan requires them not to continue trapping in temperatures above 30 degrees," Conservation Council of WA director Piers Verstegen said.

Conservationists say animal trapping continues despite soaring temperatures at Beeliar Wetlands. Credit:CCWA

"Animals trapped in such heat are likely to die through heat exhaustion and dehydration so it appears they might be in breach of the FMP; but more importantly they are not exercising a duty of care."

He said the traps were intended to catch lizards and snakes but there were also southern brown bandicoots in the area and they, or other native animals could easily fall in.
New York: Maybe you're wandering around one of Spain's leafy plazas when you get that guilty itch. Perhaps you were being covetous, or taking the Lord's name in vain; maybe you just forgot to call your mother again.

Or maybe you've been busy retweeting fake news (which Pope Francis himself compared to eating excrement). You've strayed from the path and given into sin - and need to confess.

Priests sign on to the app to signal when they are available to take confessions. Credit:Michele Mossop

Luckily, Spanish priests have your back. On Thursday, a new app called Confesor Go launched, allowing remorseful Catholic users to order up a confession as easily as an Uber or a Tinder date.

The app, developed by Father Ricardo Latorre, detects a user's location and plots a route to the nearest priest who's signed up with the service. You can confess in a church, or, for convenience's sake, in a public place, like a plaza, park, or even right on the street.
Atlantic Theater Company celebrated the opening night of David Yazbek and Itamar Moses' musical The Band's Visit on December 8. Directed by David Cromer, the production runs at the Linda Gross Theatre through January 1.

The company is led by Emmy winner Tony Shalhoub, alongside George Abud (The Visit), Bill Army (Act One), Tony nominee John Cariani (Something Rotten!), Katrina Lenk (Once), Erik Liberman (War Paint), Andrew Polk (House of Cards), Rachel Prather (Once), Jonathan Raviv (The Ragged Claws), Sharone Sayegh (Mamma Mia!), Kristen Sieh (Men on Boats), Alok Tewari (Awake and Sing!), Ari'el Stachel (Blue Bloods), and Daniel David Stewart (Spring Awakening). The production has choreography by Patrick McCollum and movement by Lee Sher.

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Based on Eran Kolirin's film The Band's Visit, which won the Jury Coup de Couer prize at the Cannes Film Festival, the work tells the story of the Alexandria Ceremonial Police Band. When they arrive in Israel to play at the opening of a cultural center, their hosts don't show, and an error in communication sends them in the wrong direction. Soon, the band finds themselves in a small settlement in the heart of the Negev desert with no transportation out until morning and no hotel in sight.

For tickets and more information, click here.
Auto Lab Radio Talk - LIVE From NYC Saturday December 10, 2016 7-9 AM (Eastern)







The Auto Lab Radio Show is Broadcast every Saturday 7 to 9 AM On New York City's WNYM Radio AM 970 and Streamed Worldwide On The Auto Channel

Broadcast Date: December 10, 2016

Car Question or Concern? Call Toll Free 888-692-7234

Auto Lab is a 28 year old interactive automotive-focused New York area radio call-in show hosted by Professor Harold Wolchok. Each week a cadre of experienced hands-on automotive experts are in-studio with advice for the New York area's 12 million people, providing listeners with honest, practical and street-smart car repair and buying advice.

Auto Lab is also about the automotive industry, its history, and its culture, presenting the ideas and advice of leading college faculty, authors, and automotive practitioners in a relaxed, conversational interactive format.

Listeners can hear the past 18 years of archived Auto Lab shows as simulcast on www.theautochannel.com.

Listen - Auto Lab Page (Includes Audio-on-Demand Archives, Auto Programs at Community College Database, Guests Pictures

Broadcast Date: December 10, 2016

Auto Lab In-Studio Experts Discuss - Repair Second Opinion, Regular Maintenance, How To's, Safety, Used and New Car Buying, Ombudsmen Suggestions

Harold Bendell- Major Auto

Fred Bordoff-Bronx Community College, CUNY

Tim Cacace-Master Mechanix

David Goldsmith - Urban Classics Auto Repairs

Libby Demarco-Broadway Sunoco

Joanne Porcelli, Esq

Michael Porcelli - Central Avenue Auto Repairs & I-CAR

Nicholas Prague- MTA and Rockland Community College, SUNY

Auto Lab Correspondents Report Auto Safety News, New Car Reviews, Technology and Latest Auto World Information That May effect You!

Broadcast Date: December 10, 2016

Robert Erskine, Senior European Correspondent, Suffolk England

SCIENTIFIC BREAKTHROUGH REVEALS UNPRECEDENTED ALTERNATIVE TO BATTERY POWER STORAGE

Doug Berven- POET

ETHANOL: AMERICA'S ENERGY

Russ Rader, Vice President Insurance Institute for Highway Safety

HEADLIGHTS PUT "PLUS" IN TOP SAFETY PICK AS 38 MODELS WIN HIGHEST IIHS AWARD

Sharon Sudol & John Russell Senior Correspondents

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Hospital offers safe option to dispose of meds, narcotics Los Robles Health System is working to crush the opioid drug crisis by raising awareness about the dangers of opioid misuse and the importance of safe and proper disposal of unused or expired medications. Crush the Crisis will take place...

Alzheimers Foundation to host free conference The Alzheimers Foundation of America will host a free virtual educational conference from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tues., Nov. 15. The event is part of the foundations 2022 national Educating America Tour. The conference, which is free and open...

Authorities warn about rainbow fentanyl Victims often arent aware theyre taking it

The Ventura County Office of Education and state health officials have issued a warning to schools and families about rainbow fentanyl, a form of the potentially fatal synthetic opioid that comes in bright colors. Rainbow fentanyl can be found in...

Cancer support community to host remembrance event Cancer Support Community Valley/Ventura/Santa Barbara invites family members and friends of those who have died from cancer to attend the second annual Evening of Remembrance from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Thurs., Nov. 3 at Cancer Support Communitys Garden of Hope,...
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 09/12/2016 (2155 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Bothwell Cheese has chosen to offer products that are verified and labelled non-GMO.

The New Bothwell business is the first Canadian cheese manufacturer to receive non-GMO project status, which Mike Raftis, Bothwell Cheeses vice president of marketing, sales, and communications, said is a choice the company made after listening to their customers.

The Non-GMO Project Verification is North Americas only third party program to verify a projects ingredients. The projects seal assures customers the product has completed third party verification in compliance with the non-GMO project standard.

ADRIANA MINGO | THE CARILLON Mike Raftis, vice president of marketing, sales, and communications, stands in the Bothwell Cheese shop in New Bothwell.

GMOs, or genetically-modified organisms, have been altered by the techniques of genetic engineering and their DNA contains one or more genes not normally found there. GMOs are often seen across the food industry.

Its not a GMO-free claim, but it provides assurance that a product has undergone comprehensive testing to ensure the GMO presence is below .09 percent, said Raftis.

Its the fastest growing label in the natural foods industry. Theyre at over $19 billion in sales and over 30,000 labels that are part of the program.

For 80 years, Bothwell Cheese has only used milk from local farms in their products. This wont change, but instead some farms will be subject to the verification process.

There are four approved technical administrators for the Non-GMO Project, so we work with one of the administrators to verify and ensure we meet the needs of the needs of the projects standards.

Raftis said part of the verification process is ensuring the cows are fed feeds that come from non-GMO crops. Other steps include segregating the milk when it comes into Bothwells facility.

We work with administrators to verify each load of feed that is brought in to the farm. Each crop that is purchased outside of the farm is tested. Thats looking for any presence of GMOs whether the truck wasnt cleaned and there were GMO crops in it and they put non-GMO crops in after.

Crops grown on the farms are tested at harvest time, Raftis said.

The choice to join the project came from listening to Bothwell Cheeses customers and providing more transparency within the market.

A lot of success and growth across Canada has been based on unique varieties and listening to our customers when they say, hey, we want a hotter cheese, so we added chili pepper, said Raftis.

We listen to our customers and what the market is telling us we need. Based on research, theres a recent poll that suggest nine in ten Canadians want more GMO labelling and they say that because they want more transparency in their food.

Raftis said in Europe many countries have mandatory labelling or they ban GMOs all together. Its also in the United States, as well.

People are saying they want this product and they want to know where their food comes from, said Raftis.

Big companies like Whole Foods are making the pledge to have mandatory GMO labelling on all their products by 2018. Campbells Soup is another one. We see the trend and listen to our customers who want this offering.

Bothwell Cheese has been working in partnership with Dairy Farmers of Manitoba on the project for over a year, Raftis said. The cheese manufacturer announced theyre now in compliance with the project at the end of November.

Were in the process getting ready operationally to accept non-GMO milk said Raftis. We will be launching products in the new year.

Bothwell Cheese will still offer non-verified products, as there is still a market for them, Raftis said.

The first Bothwell Cheese products to have the verified non-GMO label will be their medium white cheddar and medium coloured cheddar cheeses.

Its really about GMO avoidance and having a third party looking at the supply chain and all the critical control points and giving customers and consumers the assurance that weve gone through all the steps, said Raftis.
First they came for Starbucks and the Broadway play Hamilton, and now Star Wars.

Yes, a group of no-sex-having, basement-dwelling neo-Nazis who fancy themselves the alt-right have once again taken to their favorite medium, Twitter, to air their grievances. This time, their ire is aimed at Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, with a deluge of mostly anonymous trolls sharing the hashtag #DumpStarWars.

If that weren't enough, a fake chyron claiming that the Rogue One writers branded Trump a Nazi was circulated by Jack Posobiec, a prominent pro-Trump conspiracy theorist who also recently made (and then deleted) the claim that the Comet Pizza gunman was an actor (the insinuation being that this is some sort of conspiracy). The bogus chyron has been retweeted and shared by many Trump supporters.

You see, the blockbuster movie, due in theaters Dec. 16, shares many of the franchises anti-fascism themes, and back in November, Rogue One writer Chris Weitz tweeted: Please note that the Empire is a white supremacist (human organization), to which co-writer Gary Whitta replied, Opposed by a multi-cultural group led by brave women. After getting trolled by neo-Nazi Trump supporters, Weitz followed it up with this tweet, which was retweeted by none other than Mark Hamill, who plays Rebel hero Luke Skywalker:

Both Weitz and Whitta subsequently changed their Twitter avatars to the above Rebel insignia with a safety pin through ita symbol promoting solidarity with oppressed minorities that resurfaced in the wake of Donald Trumps shock election victory.

Though Weitzs and Whittas initial month-old tweets were deleted, screengrabs of them were recently dug up on the Reddit board r/altright, with many of its neo-Nazi users calling for a boycott of the upcoming filmand the franchise as a whole. They are brainwashing kids into hating white men, wrote one user about the film. All the villains are white and all the good guys are minorities and women.

The great irony, of course, is that an online hate group (the alt-right) that constantly accuses liberals of silencing free speech, often slandering them as snowflakes who cower in their safe spaces, are here trying to boycott a childrens movie over themes they deem offensive.

Rogue One, which stars the Oscar-nominated actress Felicity Jones as the leader of a group of multicultural Rebel fighters tasked with stealing the blueprints to the Empires planet-destroying superweapon the Death Star, is far from the first film in the series with an anti-Nazi message.The first movie in the franchise, 1977s Star Wars: Episode IV  A New Hope, carried a number of explicit anti-Nazi references. The Empires stormtroopers were named after Nazi stormtroopers, or Sturmabteilung; the Empires uniforms, from Imperial officers coats on down to the insignias, were modeled after Nazi SS officers; and the Great Jedi Purge, or the efforts of Sith Lord Darth Sidious to commit genocide against the Jedi Order, parallels the Holocaust. Furthermore, the icy planet Hoth from The Empire Strikes Back is named after Nazi General Hermann Hoth, and filmmaker George Lucas modeled the space battles on World War II dogfights, as well as the films final medal ceremony on Leni Riefenstahls Triumph of the Will. Thats just the tip of the iceberg.

Despite receiving a PG rating stateside, Star Wars initially received a 12 ratingindicating content unsuitable for childrenin Germany in part due to parallels between the Empire and Nazi Germany.

Last October, when Star Wars reboot The Force Awakens rolled out its new trailer, online racistsmany of whom had Trump-supporting messages in their biostook to Twitter to spread the hashtag #BoycottStarWarsVII, calling the inclusion of a black lead character anti-white propaganda.

Needless to say, the hacktivism campaign was far from successful. The Force Awakens ended up grossing more than $2.06 billion worldwide, making it the third highest-grossing movie of all time after Avatar and Titanic. The same thing occurred when angry right-wingers went after Hamilton, with the play setting a new Broadway record for highest-grossing week following the online backlash.
Its been exactly one month since Donald Trump was elected president, and for Trevor Noah, every day has felt like an emotional roller coaster.

What makes it worse than a roller coaster is that this ride is going to be four years long, Noah said on The Daily Show Thursday night. And the scariest thing is, were still just waiting in the line. The ride hasnt even started yet!

Among the things making Noah throw his hands in the air and scream was Trumps selection of Scott Pruitt, a climate change-denying friend of the fossil-fuel industry, as his Environmental Protection Ageny chief, and Andy Puzder, an anti-minimum-wage fast-food executive, as his labor secretary.

You know, sometimes I think Trump is trolling us, people, the host said. Its like the ultimate troll! Because you realize, every single person hes picked for his Cabinet wants to destroy the thing that theyve been put in charge of.

That includes Trumps pick for national security adviser, a job thats all about assessing intelligence, which went to Michael Flynn, who is now perhaps best known for believing conspiracy theories like #Pizzagate.

Its almost like before Trump hires anyone, he googles opposite of and then just gets that person, Noah suggested. Fuck it! Why dont we all just live in this world and do the same thing. He threw out Osama bin Laden for the head of homeland security and Game of Thrones Hodor for communications director.

Noah said you know were in trouble when one of Trumps most sensible hires is WWE co-founder Linda McMahon to head the Small Business Administration. Welcome to the Trump administration, he added, where climate change is fake and wrestling is real.
Donald Trump, the supposed voice for the forgotten man who descended from his gold-encrusted New York City shrine to speak to the American voter who had been left behind, bullied a union boss by name on Wednesday night.

Chuck Jones, who is President of United Steelworkers 1999, has done a terrible job representing workers. No wonder companies flee country! his tiny fingers tapped out to millions at 7:41 p.m.

What seems to have set Trump off at this particular moment was a segment on CNN where Jones said that in all the noise about the president-elects triumphant deal with the air conditioner manufacturer Carrier, What nobodys mentioning is 550 people are losing their jobs.

Jones was simply expounding on an earlier point that he made which was that when Trump traveled to the Indianapolis plant last week, triumphantly flouting his deal-making prowess, he wasnt telling the whole story.

Trump lied his ass off, as Jones put it, during the Dec. 1 visit.

The discrepancy at play here is the number of jobs Trump claimed he would be saving the company in exchange for a total of $7 million in tax credits from Indiana. He said hed reach a deal with United Technologies, Carriers parent company, to keep 1,100 jobs from leaving the state and going to Mexico. Jones was told that only 730 of the production jobs would stick around and 550 members of his union would end up losing theirs.

For daring to tell the truth, Trump decided to treat Jones like any one of his political opponents throughout the election, turning his supporters on him when Trump didnt like what Jones had to say. When the Carrier deal seemed beneficial to Trump, he acted as if he had single-handedly been a savior. Yet when Jones dared challenge the simple facts at play, the disappearing jobs were no longer Trumps responsibility. It was all Joness fault.

The tweet resulted in threats and concerns from Jones for the safety of his children. Im getting threats and everything else from some of his supporters, he told NBC News on Wednesday night. Im getting them all day longnow theyre kicked up a notch.

Jones, who didnt immediately respond to a request for comment from The Daily Beast, has taken it in stride and emphasized that he simply doesnt want to be lied to.

But on Thursday, a number of unions throughout the country, who had kept close watch on the situation, expressed disappointment and anger with a future leader of the free world using his position to bash one of their own. After all, Trump put up the best numbers in union households since Ronald Reagan won his second term in 1984.

The attacks on Chuck Jones, president of United Steelworkers Local 1999, must stop immediately, Elaine Kim, of 32BJ SEIU, the largest building service workers union in the country, said in a statement to The Daily Beast.

Jones was doing his job defending working men and women and the families that depend on them by speaking out and sharing the facts about the deal with Carrier. To attack Jones and his family is not only beyond the pale but anti-worker and un-American. To speak the truth is a freedom generations of Americans died for, and worth defending today and forever. We call on those who cherish that freedom, including those in positions of influence, to join us in standing with Chuck Jones, loudly and publicly.

The message of solidarity was apparently heard loud and clear.

We stand in solidarity with the Steelworkers, Bethany Khan of Nevadas Culinary Workers Union Local 226, told The Daily Beast. With their statement came a warning for their own cause.

Donald Trump should stop attacking workers and negotiate with his own employees at the Trump Hotel Las Vegas who voted last December to unionize. The President-elect is legally required to negotiate and he is breaking federal labor law.

Beyond the sheer disgust of witnessing a powerful figure personally demonize a private citizen, there is a sense that Trump is letting down the very people who put stock in his populist economic message. The man who campaigned on saving jobs was criticizing the jobs of the very people who were supposed to be saved.

What do I have to say about a person with their finger on the nuclear button going after someone who has a flip phone, RoseAnn DeMoro, executive director of National Nurses United, laughingly said in a phone interview. Its just too crazy. Its sort of surreal really. (Jones has said that he has a flip phone and didnt even see the tweet when it happened.)

DeMoro, who is also vice president of the AFL-CIO, was and remains very critical of both parties and endorsed Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary. In her eyes, Trump is the result of a co-opted populist message for which the Democrats did not have a real answer.

He essentially ripped off Bernies campaign after the Democrats did Bernie in, DeMoro said. He saw that populist message and he ran on that. The problem is that Bernie actually knew what he was talking about.

The disproportionality of power is just stunning. I just wish it was me, she said seemingly willing to fight with the president-elect.

Beyond this individual incident, DeMoro sees an overwhelming political crisis: that Trump used a message which he has since abandoned to build a cabinet stocked with billionaires and that, Sanders aside, Democrats may not have any real answer.

What you see is David Brock and the corporate Democrats try to circle the wagon, DeMoro said of early efforts to oppose Trump. Everyone knows theyre not the alternative.

For now though, some unions are emphasizing that they must stand for themselves in a climate where anyone among them could be a target.

Chuck Jones is a man of passion, conviction and integrity who would do anything for his union brothers and sisters, AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka said in a statement. An attack on him is an attack on all working people.

And in the age of Trump, solidarity might be the best defense.
With more than 50 residents being killed per day by everything from airstrikes to barrel bombs to chemical gas, Syrias Aleppo is not a city most people living in the safety of western Europe would seek to visit at the present time.

Yet that is exactly what a group of Berlin-based activists is currently planning to do, in a march on foot across the European continent to the Turkish-Syrian border, and thence onward to the besieged center stage of the 21st centurys deadliest conflict.

The #CivilMarchForAleppo, as its being called, was born from the frustration of one woman witnessing the carnage inflicted on the citys civilians by the Bashar al-Assad regime and its Russian, Iranian, and other allies, with apparent total impunity and indifference from the international community.

When all the hospital bombings started, when my [Syrian] friends were telling me more and more stories, when I was watching all those little videos (which most of us just scroll down), I had enough, said Anna Alboth, a Polish journalist and humanitarian activist living in Berlin, in an email exchange with The Daily Beast. I imagined myself in it and I was shaking. And then I said it loud: what if all of us from in front of [our] computers would do that? And in the next 24 hours I had an amazing group ready to work.

The exact details of the plan are still being finalized, but as it currently stands Alboth and those accompanying her will set off from Berlins Tempelhofer Feld at 10 a.m. on Dec. 26, heading south to the Czech Republic, then Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia, Greece, and Turkey. The more than 2,000-mile trek could take as long as six months, the initial phase coinciding with winters bitterest cold.

Alboth says she and a team of volunteers are working to find hostels, campsites, schools, churches, and any other accommodation facilities along the route, but warns marchers on the campaign website that at times they may need to sleep wild in the outdoors. Given the conditions and timescale involved, Alboth doesnt expect every participant to join them all the way, but rather encourages people to show up wherever and for however long they can.

If people from all the countries on the way join for one hour, or four, or just two days, we will be big.

An obvious concern will be security, not only inside Syria itself, but also in Turkey, where a series of suicide bombings and shootings (to say nothing of an attempted military coup) have killed scores of civilians this year.

In 2008, an Italian activist, Pippa Bacca, was murdered in Turkeys Gebze while hitchhiking for peace from Europe to the Middle East. Alboths hope is that the Turkish authorities might provide security assistance, adding the campaign was in touch with people in the country. As for physically reaching Aleppowhich would require traversing terrain held by Syrian rebels, and/or Kurdish militias, as well as pro-regime forces, with Islamic State jihadists never far awayAlboth acknowledged it might not ultimately be possible. Her hope, however, is that making it as far as the Syrian border would still raise sufficient awareness about the citys suffering to compel the world to alleviate it.

The aim of the march is that the civilians in Aleppo have access to humanitarian help, she told The Daily Beast. Will it be needed that we really reach Aleppo itself? Lets see [] we just have one aim, and we would like to, while walking step by step from Berlin, [put] pressure on the decisive people to find the solutions.

Hopeless idealism? Sheer insanity? Call it what you will, though for their part, residents of Aleppos besieged neighborhoods told The Daily Beast they thought the march a welcome initiative.

Its really amazing and a great thing, what theyre doing, said Lina Shamy in a Facebook voice message. They proved humanity still exists in this world. And such actions do affect the world public opinion, and attract attention to our just cause. So, really, amazing what these brave and free people are doing.

Similarly, while Bahaa al-Halabi in western Aleppo Province told The Daily Beast he feared completing the march would be impossible, he nonetheless concurred the attempt by itself would be worthwhile.

We hope for everyone to show solidarity with Aleppo and its people, to stop this hell. When the Arab and Western peoples show solidarity, that will pressure their governments to stand with the people of Aleppo and pressure Russia. Certainly, any solidarity from other peoples will pressure governments, and if those governments stirred they could stop Russias crimes.

Time, however, is not on their side. The Assad regime and its allies have recaptured at least half of the oppositions territory inside Aleppo city in the past fortnight, leading rebels to issue a proposal Wednesday for a five-day ceasefire to be followed by negotiations over the future of the city. At the UN Security Council Monday, Russia and China vetoed a draft resolution that called for a seven-day ceasefire, raising fears the pro-Assad coalition seeks to annihilate Aleppo Citys opposition entirely. Meanwhile, life for the more than 100,000 residents remaining in the besieged neighborhoods grows worse by the hour.

Its a siege, so every day is worse than before. Every day means less food, less medicine, the resident Shamy told The Daily Beast. The rapid loss of territory and corresponding influx of internally displaced neighbors has added further desperation to living conditions already described last month by the UNs humanitarian chief as barely survivable.

Many of the recently-lost neighborhoods contained patches of land on which residents had grown their own food to survive the siege, said Shamy. As well as meaning more mouths to feed with less food, the increased population density means every shell now, every hit causes a greater number of deaths and injuries. With no more functioning hospitals, survivors of attacks are treated by field doctors who increasingly have to operate without anesthetics or oxygen.

Six months, in other words, is a long time for Aleppos residents to wait for help to arrivea fact Alboth fully acknowledges.

I got a message from Aleppo yesterday: Anna, no idea how long we gonna still survive. Yes, we are aware that its late, that it would be great to [have] started this months or years ago.

But we started now, and were going to do what we are able to do to make the life of civilians better.
A Minnesota couple with a video company wants to make it their official policy: Gay couples can take their business elsewhere.

Carl and Angel Larsen of St. Cloud are suing the state for the right to deny service to LGBTQ customers. The couple, who run a film company that does not currently advertise wedding services, say the states anti-discrimination laws would infringe on their freedom of speech, in the event that they were ever asked to film a same-sex wedding. Their suit is backed by the Alliance Defending Freedom, an explicitly anti-gay, anti-trans, organization with a conservative Christian agenda.

In order to safeguard themselves from the possibility of ever being asked to film a same-sex wedding, the Larsens are trying to overturn state laws that protect Minnesotas LGBTQ community from discrimination.

The Larsens are not currently in the wedding photography business. They run Telescope Media Group (tagline: We want to magnify Christ like a telescope) a small production firm that currently advertises commercial event filming. They want to enter the (heterosexual-only) wedding business, because they feel that governments across the country and other powerful cultural forces are punishing and marginalizing people who believe that marriage should be between one man and one woman, ADF wrote on its website.

But the wedding industry is a problem for the Larsens, because gay people can get married, and the couple fears they might be asked to film gay weddings.

The Larsens desire to enter the wedding cinematography field has hit a huge obstaclea speech coercing state law, the ADF wrote of Minnesotas anti-discrimination laws on its website. According to Minnesota officials, the States Human Rights Act mandates that if the Larsens make films celebrating marriage between one man and one woman, then they must make films celebrating same-sex marriages as well.

Minnesotas Human Rights Act does not require filmmakers to cover same-sex weddings, despite the ADFs insinuation that it does. Instead, it makes it illegal for businesses to intentionally refuse to do business because of a persons race, national origin, color, sex, sexual orientation, or disability, unless the alleged refusal or discrimination is because of a legitimate business purpose.

There is no legitimate business reason for refusing service to LGBTQ people, but the ADF has made anti-gay lawsuits a lucrative business.

The ADF is a lavishly funded organization, with fingerprints on some of the most controversial court rulings in recent years, including Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, the 2014 ruling that allowed for-profit corporations to claim religious beliefs and deny employees health care according to those beliefs. The group once sued on behalf of a student who was suspended for wearing a T-shirt that read Be Ashamed and Homosexuality is Shameful.

Their last reported annual revenue $61,864,483, some $430,000 of which went to the groups president and CEO Alan Sears. Sears has co-authored the books The Homosexual Agenda: Exposing the Principal Threat to Religious Freedom Today and The ACLU vs. America: Exposing the Agenda to Redefine Moral Values.

The ADF brought a similar lawsuit on behalf of a wedding photographer who refused to photograph same-sex couples in 2013. A New Mexico court ruled against the photographer, and the Supreme Court declined to hear the case.

Minnesota officials pledged to take a similar stand against the new anti-gay lawsuit.

This lawsuit is part of a pattern of nationwide litigation that is now aimed at eroding the rights of LGBTQ Minnesotans, Minnesota Human Rights Commissioner Kevin Lindsey told Minnesotas Star Tribune, adding that the state would ensure that sexual orientation will remain protected.
If youre wondering if the new normal in American politics includes a president-elect rage-tweeting at companies he dislikes, engaging in near-daily hissy-fits over media coverage he finds insufficiently obsequious, and engaging in constant social media warfare over slights to his ego, youd be right. Witness the emerging gangster capitalism of Donald Trump.

No one has felt much genuine shock that Donald Trump refuses to divest his control over his empire in a real, legally binding way. Only a fool would believe Trump would draw a sharp, bright line between his personal and family financial interests and the interests of the nation. Since the election, hes demonstrated in both word and deed that he intends to fully monetize the presidency to benefit his companies, integrate his children into consequential government decisions, and put the bully in the bully pulpit.

Those things were expected as part of the skeezy, venal radiation Trump gives off when it comes to his business dealings. Like many, I still expect that Trump is going to make Americans aware of the phrase emoluments clause like no one else in history.

For all that, the crony-capitalist (and bogus) Carrier deal and his new war on Boeing should make Washingtons dwindling tribe of conservatives dedicated to economic freedom take notice. This isnt just the wrong policy direction; its a preview of a new, dark economic populism that many warned was coming.

This weeks tweet war against Boeing came just 20 minutes after the aviation giants CEO Dennis Muilenburg was quoted expressing mild concern over the impending trade-war disaster Trump has promised. You couldnt miss the president-elects repsonse:

In the interests of not normalizing post-truthiness, I must note that Trumps statement was a lie from top to bottom. Boeing isnt over-budget on the new AF1 contract, Trump has no idea what hes talking about, and arguing the point of his tweet misses his intent.

Three weeks after the election, every day is another day of the Theater of Trump, showing the contours of his extraordinary willingness to shatter Republican free-market ideals on the altar of his version of gangster capitalism. It wasnt that Boeing went to war with Trump, or shipped jobs overseas. Its that the bizarre, delicate ego of Donald J. Trump was offended by Muilenburgs oblique worry about the trade war our next president seems determined to launch.

The tweet was one more piece of evidence that the next president isnt going to even give the free market the time of day; instead, hes embracing a state-capitalist flavor of populism where the president of the United States directly and personally intervenes in the governance of private businesses. Trumps new reality show is You Bet Your Market Cap!

Republicans and conservatives routinely engaged in fits of high dudgeon when Obama picked winners and losers on his favored green energy companies. They stamped their feet when he attacked the CEOs of energy companies, insurance executives, and amputation-happy doctors. Before the GOP became the party of Trumps gangster capitalism, they werent perfect capitalists, but they at least paid lip service to the power of markets and capitalism. Entire sectors of the Washington, D.C., conservative think-tank universe that exist entirely to defend and promote the values of economic liberty over the control of the economy by the state are booking events in Trumps hotels and are remarkably silent over his daily apostasies to market economics.

We have a speaker of the House who until Trump was an admitted devotee of Ayn Rand. We have members of the Senate and the House who have railed for not years, or decades, but for generations against crony capitalism, government intervention in markets, excessive regulation, and corporate welfare. Today, they are born-again to the cult of Trumponomics. They were often hypocritical about free markets, but now theyre not even pretending.

This is how the slippery slope looks: Trump blurts out a new attack outrage, and members of Congress with an R after their names either agree because hes got one too, or tacitly allow it to slide. Many of them hope theyll be dealing with Pence, or some other relatively sane member of his cabinet. Theyre looking at Trump as a vector to pass the House agenda, as someone who they can puppet, in the words of one member of the House leadership. The moral rot and compromise with Trumps statist economics are already quite far gone.

Corporate leaders are making almost exactly the same mistake, hoping to flatter Trump or to at least avoid his wrath. Some think their industry isnt in his sights. Some think theyre good with the House and Senate, and can avoid trouble. Some believe their D.C. interest groups and lobbyists will have influence and can protect them. Even Silicon Valley, which loves to believe it exists in a separate, parallel political universe thinks Trump is only interested in old-tech, legacy industries and will ignore them.

Some perhaps believe that hell be business-as-usual, a transactional politician who plays nicely in the D.C. lobbying ecosystem despite his public bluster. Theyre wrong, of course. Trump and Steve Bannon, in particular, see the business class as the enemy. They see corporate CEOs as either peers or foes, and the peers fall under the Machiavellian enemies closer rule. Those confident they can buy, flatter, or avoid Trump are playing a game, unlike anything Americas corporate world has seen before.

Theyre not reading Trumps history. Once Trump has won a feud (or an election) the normal rules of politics would be to return to the status quo ante. Not Trump. He continues to attack, belittle, and torture his victims long after theres any political utility to it. It will be the same with his thug populism and attacks on American businesses. The fight wont be over; capitulation isnt enough. He demands abject humiliation. (Take a look at the dead eyes of Mitt Romney during this secretary of State charade and tell me he hasnt suffered enough.)

This behavior isnt without precedent in the hands of authoritarians. In the early days of Vladimir Putins reign, a number of billionaire oligarchs like Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev of the massive Yukos oil concern crossed the Russian strongman. Putin first turned the Russian media and propaganda machine against the men, then the power of the Russian courts, whichhandily enoughhe controlled. At first, this was greeted as a populist new leader draining the swamp (where have I heard that lately?) and teaching the hated oligarch class a stiff lesson.

It didnt stop there, though. The already shaky post-Soviet commitment to reducing the terrible power of the state over the lives of its citizens was swiftly forgotten and as Putins attacks on his enemies were backed up by a media dedicated to his aggrandizement and protections, many bowed to the inevitable. The reporters, civic activists, and others started to die, disappear, or be imprisoned. Putins personal wealth grew as he destroyed his political opponents. His image as a celebrity despot was carefully cultivated and polished. A rigid core of Putin voters loves him as the man who Made Russia Great Again. Sound familiar?

Were not there yet, but the signs are clear enough, even before Trump has taken the oath of the most powerful office in the land. Political, corporate, and media leaders who refuse to seeand speak out aboutwhats coming, whats etched in the behavior and character of this man, deserve their fates.
Dear Working-Class White Trump Voter,

Youre probably going to read this as sour grapes, and I certainly am sour about a family of kleptocrats moving into the White House because 80,000 of your votes in states that get more federal tax dollars than they put in trump 2.7 million of ours, even though we carry you financially, and California and New York could function just fine as our own countries, without you.

But the reality is, I do live in a blue state. My governor and mayor are Democrats. Undocumented immigrants are safe where I live. Two of my kids attend a private college, so they wouldnt have gotten free tuition anyway, and the third goes to a really good public school, where they teach science. I have a job (actually, multiple jobs) that cant be outsourced to Mexico. And Ill probably get a tax cut. So Ill be fine over the next four years, as long as I dont encounter an angry cop whos had a bad day. But allow me to be blunt, since I dont have any desire to pander to you, and it wouldnt work to pander to you anyway.

You voted for Donald Trump, thinking that he was on your side; that he will save your jobs and your way of life, whatever you imagine that is. Well, you got played.

Over the course of his decades in business, Donald Trump has never given a damn about people like you. When he tore down the old Bonwit Teller buildingwhere my Jamaican godmother was one of the few black women allowed to work as a cashier in the 1960s (her big claim to fame was meeting Troy Donahue)to build Trump Tower, Trump used undocumented white laborers, mostly Polish, to do it. When his company forced them to work in deplorable, dangerous conditions and even failed to pay them the meager wages they were promised and they complained, Trump threatened to have them deported.

Trump built Trump Tower using mob concrete, not Bethlehem steel. In fact, he has rarely used American steel in the few buildings hes actually built; opting for Chinese steel instead. That includes two of his last three projects: the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas and the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago. Then again, Nevada and Illinois voted with us in the anti-Trump majority, so the joke wasnt exactly on them.

I wish to God the Clinton campaign had spent every waking month telling you guys about this stuff, instead of allowing the moving and cinematic Man of Steel TV adby a pro-Trump super PAC probably funded by the same billionaires to whom hes about to give massive top-rate and corporate tax cuts, to stand. But they didnt. And here we are.

Now, your supposed hero of the working class, the blue collar billionaire who you insisted both during the campaign and afterward heard you, understood you, spoke to you, and cared about you, is attacking one of you. Trump used his Twitter account this week to savage United Steelworkers 1999 of Indiana and its president, Chuck Jones, an ordinary working man who dared to tell the truth about the phony Carrier deal that the media shamefully allowed Trump to ride to glowing headlines and boosted poll numbers.

To review, Trump used his Twitter feed to credit himself for saving 1,100 jobs at Indiana furnace and air conditioning manufacturer Carrier. In fact, it was still-governor Mike Pence, Trumps soon-to-be vice president, who cut the deal to hand over $7 million in state tax abatements to Carrier in exchange for delaying the movement of 770 jobs to the companys new plant in Monterrey, Mexico. That move, over the next three years, and the shutdown of the Indianapolis plant, is still planned. Another 300 white collar jobs Trump claimed credit for, meaning researchers and administrators, not steel workers, were not being moved to Mexico in the first place. And an additional 600 jobs at that plant, plus 700 at a plant in nearby Huntington, Indiana, plus 350 more at a ball bearings factory owned by Rexnord Corp., are still being shipped south of the border.

Meanwhile, despite the willingness of the incoming Trump-Pence administration to bribe a company with your tax dollars, theres no guarantee that the small number of jobs saved are more than temporary. For all you know, Carrier only agreed to delay moving those 770 jobs until Christmas, to get the good press. And unlike President Obamas deal to save literally millions of auto industry jobs in 2009, theres no agreement for Carrier to pay taxpayers back with interest.

When Jones pointed out that Trump used Carrier employees as props and lied his ass off about the jobs he was supposedly saving, Trump got mad. He tweeted at Jones, blaming him, and US1999, for driving jobs out of Indiana and out of the United States. Think about that for a momentyour next president doesnt think corporate greed and the pursuit of low wages are driving jobs out; he thinks unions are. That means he thinks your health care benefits and retirement package are the problem, not your CEO and the singular goal of enhancing shareholder value at your expense. Sounds like a proper plutocrat to me. Well, Trump went after Mr. Jones, and now Mr. Jones is getting death threats.

You see, Trump is for you, as long as youre quiet and obedient. The moment you step out of line and stop praising him, its on. Hell treat you no differently from how he treated the Gold Star family, the Khans, or former Miss Universe Alicia Machado for criticizing him during the campaign. You didnt care much about them, since they belonged to groups you were voting to sidelinethe Muslims and the Hispanics you think are taking over your country. But you might want to give a damn about Mr. Jones. Because what Trump is doing to him is a sign of things to come for you.

Meanwhile, Trump torched the stock of another American manufacturing company, Boeing, in retaliation for its CEO criticizing him; first inflating the size of their new contract to upgrade the Air Force One fleet, and then threatening to cancel the deal altogether, which would cost American jobs and help Boeings only competitor: Airbus, of France.

Trump is a big businessman. Hes your boss or CEO, not one of your brothers on the line.

He is on record saying that in his view, wages in the U.S. are too high. Trumps pick for labor secretary, fast-food CEO Andy Puzder, is against raising the federal minimum wage, too.

Trump the CEO manufacturers his tacky suits and ties in Mexico and his daughter manufactures her clothes and shoes in China. But neither of them plan to set the example for their fellow tycoons by moving those jobs to the U.S.A. Ivanka is moving some of her production to Ethiopia. And she just struck a new production deal in Japan, while on the phone with her dad and the Japanese prime minister. The Trumps have spent exactly zero percent of their lives caring about anyone other than themselves. Dont expect that to change now, especially since they can now enrich themselves on international bribes, courtesy of daddys new job.

Trumps threat (again via Twitter) of a 35 percent tax on companies who ship jobs overseas is complete bull. Its never going to happen, and he knows it. Its Congress, not the president, that moves legislation. And this Congress, which you voted for, is controlled by Republicans like House Speaker Paul Ryan, who dont want to take the country back to the 1950s, where you want to go, but rather to the 1920s. You might want to Google Calvin Coolidge or order the collected works of Aldous Huxley for Christmas if you need a primer.

Many of you voted based on the fiction that Hillary Clinton was going to take your gunsthe way Barack Obama sent fleets of black helicopters to take them, right? Just pause for a moment to think about how ridiculous that sounds; sending who, the military, door to door to collect your silly firearms? Wake up, people. That idea is as foolish as the notion that before Nov. 9 you werent allowed to say Merry Christmas.

So Merry Christmas, Trump voters. Your guns are safe. They always were. Instead, while Trump is entertaining you by hiring white generals named Mad Dog to make you feel powerful again, the Republicans in Congress fully intend to take away every program that saved your parents and grandparents from the Great Depression.

Sure, theyre coming for Obamacare first. And youre happy about that because you think thats just free insurance for black Obama phone users and so-called illegals. But its not. Its the access to insurance covering 20 million people, including millions of people like you; including 400,000 of you in very-not-black Kentucky. Its covering disabled kids and people with pre-existing conditions, many who are too sick to get insurance without it. And Ryan and his friends want to cancel it, and then take three years to replace it, probably with Ryans favorite thing: vouchers.

But thats not all. Ryan is also coming for Medicare. He wants to privatize that, too, and not for your mom and dadthey vote in midterms. Hes going to privatize it for you. So when you retire, working stiff in your forties or fifties, youre going to get a handful of vouchers, instead of Medicare. And hes also coming for Medicaid, to turn it into a block grant. Thats not a problem for me, since my blue state will keep caring for our poor. Your statewith its Republican governor and legislature? Not so much. Your emergency rooms are going to fill up with the sick, and your bankruptcy courts will fill up with their cases when they cant pay the bills. And your rural hospitals are going to close.

Youve turned your country over the top tenth of 1 percent. Talk about establishment. Their interest is not in helping you. Its in further enriching themselves, by privatizing every public programSocial Security cant be far behinddropping the corporate and top income tax brackets as close to zero as possible, and making you pay, for everything from privatized roads owned by multinational corporations to elementary school. Theyre into taking land, including our public lands and parks, or using another Trump favoritepublic domainto drill and frack, endangering your water just as surely as they poisoned Flints. And when they cant steal any more from the Native Americanswho have shown they still have some fight lefttheyll come for your farms.

In Michigan, Republicans have already gotten started. They voted to further gut unions ability to bargain for decent health care and retirement through the use of strikes, and congressional Republicans have already voted to strip the buy American clause out of a bill to repair the nations water infrastructure.

As for black Trump supporters, dont be fooled. Remember when Trump said he didnt want black people counting his money, only Jewish people? Well look at his appointments. He didnt even respect neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson enough to insist that he take over Health and Human Services. Instead, hes tossing the black guy in the urban chair.

So good luck, Trump voters. I hope at some point you realize whats happening and fight back. Your choices, unfortunately, do affect us all, and they will until we wake up and junk the Electoral College, which puts rural states zeal for Christian rule ahead of blue states desire for good government.

Until then, all I can do is try to warn you, and then wish you good luck.
A concerned congregant called the Department of Homeland Security to a Rochester, New York, church on Sunday after spotting two Muslims in their midst.

The Muslims werent terrorists, they were students.

The two men were students from nearby Nazareth College, whose sociology course asked them to visit a house of worship from a religion other than their own. They picked the evangelical Browncroft Community Church in a Rochester suburb, and had already been there once before. During their second visit they went to the coffee hour and talked to congregants, and someone apparently contacted the feds and the state police.

Then on Monday morning, Religious Studies Department head Susan Nowak got a surprising message.

I had a message from our campus safety, saying that the State Police had contacted us and that there was a cause for concern over a Nazareth assignment, Nowak told The Daily Beast.

The assignment was the two young men engaging with their Christian neighbors, Nowak confirmed. (The school is not releasing their names out of respect for their privacy.)

Nazareth, despite what the biblical name might evoke, is not a religiously affiliated college; it dropped its Roman Catholic affiliation in the 1970s, Nowak told The Daily Beast. Instead, the college picked up a commitment to religious pluralism: Every undergraduate is required to take a religious studies course, and engage with faith traditions other than their own.

Often, that engagement includes attending religious services belonging to another faith, be it at a mosque or a synagogueor what Nowak describes as the closest thing to a megachurch around. They introduce themselves as students and ask probing questions: What are your core values? How do you see them as the same or different from those of other religions?

This is what we say about Nazareth: Our president is Jewish. The executive director of our interfaith center is Muslim, she said. And I, the director of our religious studies program, am a Roman Catholic nun.

So if you want to know if Nazareth is committed to pluralism, there it is, she added.

Nowak says engaging with other religious communities is often frightening for students at the start of the year, but becomes one of the most rewarding parts of their courses. So many from the small college have been out on such excursions that Nowak joked religious leaders ask, jokingly, which of three professors sent them out.

The same was true for the two Muslim men, who returned to the Browncroft Community Church for their second visit on Sunday. Their first visit earlier in the semester had passed without incident.

What they said, and what was really one of the most difficult things for them to process, is that they felt very well received, Nowak said. They left feeling that this was a very good encounter, and a rich, positive learning experience.

Some of the church members hugged them before they left, Nazareth President Daan Braveman told The Daily Beast.

Braveman told The Daily Beast that he spoke to Browncrofts senior pastor, Rob Cattalani, on Thursday.

He is very interested in continuing the dialogue, and the faculty member who teaches the course at issue is going to the church on Wednesday to talk to one of the pastors, Braveman said. So there may be some good that comes out of this, too.

Nowak, the director of religious studies, said that until now, Browncroft Community Church has not been an active member of the interfaith dialogue happening on campus through the colleges well-funded interfaith center. But she added that she hopes this incident may serve as a tipping point to push Browncroft into the conversation.

The [Muslim Students Association] students, as hard hit as they were by this example, instead of calling for a protest at the church, theyre calling for a dialogue. The two students involved have said, we do not want a protest, we want a dialogue, Nowak said. We need to commit ourselves to dialogue, to get to know each other.

Its hard work, but it may be the most important work that we do in this point in our history, she said.
Kate Middletons sister, Pippa Middleton, has set the date for a May wedding to her multimillionaire hedge-fund fiance James Matthews by sending out save the date cards.

And while her sister Kate wont be a bridesmaid, it seems likely that Prince George and Princess Charlotte will be in the wedding.

Pippa, 33, sprang to fame after she wore a figure-hugging dress as a bridesmaid at her sisters nuptials.

However, reports that Kate is not going to be acting as bridesmaid for Pippas wedding, purportedly because Pippa wants to make sure Kate does not get her own back on her scene-stealing role at the royal wedding by hogging the spotlight, should be taken with a pinch of salt.

While Kate surely would not wish to upstage her sister on her big day, the real reason Kate wont be a bridesmaid at Pippas wedding to her 41-year-old city whiz-kid boyfriend is because British tradition dictates that bridesmaids should always be unmarried as well as younger than the bride.

Despite having the option to get married in some of the worlds most remarkable locationsMatthews parents own the super-luxury Eden Roc hotel chain, which has properties on St. Barths in the Caribbean and in the South of France to name a fewPippa will be tying the knot in a village church in the English countryside.

Ever a stickler for tradition, Pippa has sent out save the date cards for May 20, 2017, stating that the ceremony will take place at St Marks Church in Englefield, Berkshireseven miles from her parents house, where the reception will be held.

The Duchess of Cambridge will likely serve as a reader at the ceremony.
AMSTERDAMIt was a very Trumpian moment years before Donald Trump was PEOTUS, or even close. In fact, he played no direct role in it. But it tells you a lot about why and how his message has such surprising reach in what we previously thought were the civilized nations of Europe.

Dutch populist leader Geert Wilders, a long-time favorite of the alt-right in America who actually stumped for Trump at the Republican Convention this year, was giving a speech in 2014 in The Hague filled with his usual all-encompassing denunciations of Islam (not radical Islam, but all Islam) when he decided to cut to the racist chase. He said he wanted to ask his audience questions that define his Party of Freedom (PVV).

The first was, Do you want more, or less European Union?

Less! answered the crowd.

And then, Do you want more or less Moroccans?

Less, less, less! they roared back. To which Wilders responded, Well take care of that.

People in the United States these days may be getting used to such rhetoric. But in the Netherlands, once savagely occupied by the Nazis, the kind of talk that echoes Hitlers propagandist Joseph Goebbels, inciting discrimination and hatred, is against the law.

So, Wilders was put on trial for discriminatory speech and insulting ethnic, religious or other identifiable groups of people, and on Friday he was found guilty.

The three judges of the Dutch court in this case hold firm to the verdict: You cannot appeal to the freedom of speech in order to insult groups or incite to discrimination. This also applies to a politician.

For the leader of the populist PVV party the guilty verdict seems to carry little penalty, however.

The 5,000 fine asked for by the public prosecutor was not imposed.

Even so, Wilders says he will appeal the sentence, since a criminal record will make it more difficult for him to travel to the United States, where he has so many fans.

Wilders was quick to post videos on his Twitter account in English and Dutch responding to the verdict. The clips had been prepared in advance, are subtitled in English, and were posted almost as soon as the verdict was announced.

Wilders throughout the case has been calling the prosecution part of a campaign intended to silence him. Today I was convicted in a political trial, he tweeted, which, shortly before the elections [for parliament in March], attempts to neutralize the leader of the largest and most popular opposition party. But they will not succeed.

Theres no question that the trial became political. Wilders did his best to make it that way. And in many respects, it only burnished his political anti-establishment persona. He got lots of free publicity, which he exploited well to further his own political agenda.

This conviction only makes me stronger, he tweeted, and he could well be right about that.

Wilders doesn't pull his punches when he says in his video: The Netherlands have become a sick country. And I have a message for the judges:  No one trusts you anymore, but fortunately truth and liberty are stronger than you. And so am I.

POTEUS would be proud.
MOSCOWDeep wrinkles covered Ramazan Dzhalaldinovs face. His big, sad eyes under the glasses were swimming in bitterness. But in spite of the story he told about living in hell these last seven months, the 56-year-old man did not appear to be broken. His voice sounded firm as he told of his escape across the mountains, fleeing Chechnya to tell the press the truth about years of ferocious repression in the North Caucasus republic.

On Friday Dzhalaldinov spoke at a closed press conference amid unprecedented security measures. He came to talk about Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov and the totalitarian repression imposed by local militias.

Before the press conference Dzhalaldinov told The Daily Beast, that the price he has paid for honesty has been horrifying.

Local police have tried everything to silence me. They burned my house, they beat my wife and three daughters, deported us, humiliated us and threatened me, told me they would take me down, he told The Daily Beast. But I did not stop telling the truth because at least once in your lifetime you have to have courage to stay human.

In the past two years Chechen militia have forced several whistleblowers both in the North Caucasus and in the central regions of Russia to take their words back and apologize after they revealed the abuses of Chechen leader, Ramzan Kadyrov.

No Russian law enforcement interferes in Chechen state crimes, no Russian law punishes Chechen interrogators. Chechen civilians live in constant fear of disappearances, the abductions from which no one returns.

The official line is that life in Chechnya is perfect and Kadyrov, ferociously loyal to Russian President Vladimir Putin, is the best. Chechnya lives by its own rules, dictated by one man, the ostentatiously religious and authoritarian Muslim Kadyrov, and nobody is allowed to criticize Kadyrovs policy.

But Dzhalaldinov is different. He is an Avar, an ethnic group that counts almost one million people, and the Avar are ready to support each other like brothers.

In April he took a video of ruins in his Kenkhi village, houses destroyed by wars with Russia or by floods. He went to Dagestan, which neighbors Chechnya and where the majority of Russian Avars live, and he posted the recording to his Vkontakte account as a video letter addressed to President Putin. In it, Dzhalaldinov described his multiple appeals to authorities, requests to compensate the Kenkhi civilians, who lost their houses during past military operations in Chechnya.

The video had immediate effect. Kadyrov personally traveled to Kenkhi village and posed with locals in front of cameras. Terrified village men told the leader that Dzhalaldinov was a liar.

Chechen officials forced Kenkhi village men to deny everything, Elena Milashina, a reporter for the Russian independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, told The Daily Beast. They made their own video of his neighbors saying that he was unstable. The video was broadcast on local television. But Milashina had been interviewing Dzhalaldinov since 2014 and knew him as a very sane, very brave man.

The discrediting video did not stop the whistle-blower. On May 2, Dzhalaldinov filed a complaint with Russian Prosecutor General Yury Chaika against Kadyrov for publically insulting him and rejecting his criticism.

Chechen officials were furious. How could this man dare complain to Moscow about Kadyrov? He didnt look like much of a threat. He had three daughters and two sons, and that can make a man vulnerable. On May 13, just after Dzhalaldinovs children went to bed, a dozen masked men broke into his house in Kenkhi village.

The officials ordered the whistle-blowers wife Nazirat, their daughters 17-year-old Muslimat, 12-year-old Sabirat and 10-year-old Tabarak to dress and come to the police station with them. By now it was midnight. Nazirat begged the officials not to scare children. Beatings followed.

Later somebody burned the house where the family lived and ordered Nazirat and the children to leave the republic. So now Chechen authorities were deporting citizens.

The same month, a TV crew from Russias only independent channel, Rain TV, managed to take a video of the ruined village, so that everybody in Russia could see that the whistle-blower was actually telling the truth about the ruins.

The case was rapidly turning into a scandal.

On one side, Chechen officials realized that their Avar critic was supported by neighboring Dagestan, with its 2.9 million people, twice as many as in Chechnya. On the other, the complaint could be taken to court.

By late May, Kadyrov decided to make a deal with Dzhalaldinov. He gave his personal word that he would pay compensations to all our village families and fix the village; in exchange, I had to publically apologize, Dzhalaldinov told The Daily Beast.

I did. I publically admitted that I had made a mistake, so we could return home to Chechnya, to our village; but Kadyrov has not kept his word, our village is still badly ruined, people are still waiting for the compensations.

Last month Dzhalaldinov bought a plane ticket to travel to Moscow. Kadyrovs militia immediately picked him up and took him and his wife to the Chechen capital of Grozny for one more interrogation.

Dzhalaldinovs defense lawyer, Petr Zaikin, described the scene for The Daily Beast: Deputy Interior Minister Gen. Apty Alaudinov threatened my clients life and the life of Yelena Milashina, the journalist of Novaya Gazeta who covered his case; Alaudinov said they were next on the list after Anna Politkovskaya, the Yamadayev brothers and Boris Nemtsovall infamous political assassinations traced to Chechen killers, but not to those who ordered them. The senior Chechen official admitted that he knew something about the most famous contract murdersthis is sensational and we are going to demand that Alaudinov gets investigated, Zaikin said.

That day police took Dzhalaldinovs passport from him, so he could not travel to Moscow. After such a severe threat against his life, Dzhalaldinov decided to escape from Chechnya any way he could. Without any belongings, without proper warm clothes, the whistleblower crossed the mountains into Dagestan and then made his way to Moscow, where he hoped to find justice.

Over 20,000 Chechens have escaped from that hellish republic in the last couple or years, the head of the NGO called Civil Assistance, Svetlana Gannushkina, told The Daily Beast. That place reminds of North Korea, where no official cares about the truth people try to tell them, all they care about is how to shut down whistleblowers.

After the press conference, Ramazan Dzhalaldinov looked tired and calm, like somebody who had fulfilled his difficult duty. He turned to his defenders and a few reporters remaining in the room and said: You know why Chechens escape this country? Because they know that the roof for Kadyrovhis cover, his protectionis in Moscow; that if Putin did not allow him, he would never, never have done this to us.
New Federal Elections Commission filings show that a pro-Trump super PAC funded in part by Peter Thiel paid more than $134,000 to a company helmed by Steve Bannon in the final weeks of the presidential campaigna set-up the watchdog group Campaign Legal Center says may have been illegal.

The super PAC, called Make America Number 1, is bankrolled largely by Robert Mercer, a New York hedge-fund billionaire with a very low public profile. His daughter Rebekah has quickly become one of the conservative movements most powerful financial backers; shes on the board of the Heritage Foundation and the Manhattan Institute, and helps fund a host of right-wing media projects. She is also a close and longtime associate of Bannon, who is now one of Trumps top White House advisers.

Mercer is also one of the 16 members of the Trump transition teams executive committee. And a GOP fundraising source told Politico that it would be difficult to overstate Rebekahs influence in Trump world right now.

The Daily Beast reported in November that Glittering Steel, a film company with virtually no online presence, is essentially a front for Bannon. We also reported that watchdogs say the payments the Make America Number 1 super PAC made to Bannons group could have violated campaign-finance rules, potentially by paying Bannons salary so the campaign wouldnt have to. The new filings show that the super PAC was paying Bannons company all the way up through Election Day.

Alexandra Preate, Bannons spokesperson, told The Daily Beast on Friday that Bannon took a leave of absence from all his businesses when he joined Trumps campaign.

The latest FEC filings, which became public a few minutes before the turn of midnight Friday, show the super PAC paid Glittering Steel $134,500 four payments total, from Oct. 26 to Nov. 4.

The Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan campaign-finance watchdog group, has urged the FEC to investigate Make America Number 1s payments to Bannons company. It wrote that the Make America Number 1 super PAC is inextricably intertwined with the campaign, and that the two entities may have engaged in illegal coordination.

The new filings also show that Peter Thiel, the Silicon Valley billionaire who covertly bankrolled Hulk Hogans lawsuit against Gawker, gave $1 million to the super PAC on Oct. 26, less than two weeks before Election Day. Thiel isnt the PACs only controversial funder. Older FEC filings show that Erik Prince, of Blackwater infamy, gave the PAC $100,000 on Sept. 21 and $50,000 on Aug. 21. Trump recently named Princes sister, Betsy DeVos, as his nominee for secretary of Education.

Make America Number 1 played a major role in the 2016 campaign; before backing Trump, the PAC was called Keep the Promise 1, and it boosted Ted Cruz. Kellyanne Conway, who went on to become Trumps campaign manager and is now one of his top advisers, worked for it during that time. Conway left the super PAC after Cruzs loss, and David Bossie, who headed Citizens United, stepped in to helm it before he too joined the Trump campaign.

The Mercers role in 2016 presidential politics drew attention right from the start. And while they generously backed the top two Republican contenders, they have also used their ample cash to take on other GOPersmost prominently Sen. John McCain. Robert Mercer and his wife spent $200,000 to boost his long-shot, conspiracy-theorizing primary opponent, Kelli Ward. As a member of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, the senator ripped into Mercers hedge fund for allegedly dodging more than $6 billion in taxes, and McCain said he believed the Mercers helped his opponent as payback.

Regardless of whether their super PACs payments to Bannons company were legal or not, its clear the Mercers were among the most powerful players in the 2016 presidential election. With Trump in the White House, their clout will only grow.
In the spring of 1966, Tom Wolfe was working on a story for New York magazine about Ken Kesey, the novelist and counterculture icon who had faked his own suicide and fled to Mexico to avoid going to trial on marijuana charges. As would become a hallmark of his style of new journalism, Wolfe, resplendent in his tailored white suit and speaking with a subtle Virginian lilt, embedded with the Merry Pranksters and documented the emerging hippie movement.

Two years later, Wolfe published The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, his now-classic account of Kesey and companys psychedelic, cross-country bus tourand Keseys transformation from celebrated author to LSD evangelist and FBI fugitive.

Fifty years after Keseys first Acid Test parties, Taschen has reissued Wolfes book in a handsome, limited edition (1,968 signed copies) illustrated with sumptuous photographs from Life magazines Lawrence Schiller, the man who first introduced Wolfe to the LSD scene in 1966, and Ted Streshinsky, a photojournalist who documented the 1960s protest movement. (Schiller had never heard of Wolfe at the time, and wouldnt hear of him again until he read The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test in 1968.) It also includes the authors hand-written notes, scribbled alongside his own psychedelic illustrations.

On Wednesday night, Wolfe and Schiller were reunited in the small gallery-like basement of the Taschen book store in Soho (Streshinsky died in 2003), where a small, packed crowd heard them tell stories about their journalistic past and muse about the future.

Resplendent as ever on Wednesday in his trademark white suit, robins egg-blue shirt, and grey socks with a skyscraper pattern on the sides, Wolfe discussed his writing and reporting style, rejecting the idea that hes a particularly adept interviewer. When paid attention to, he argued, interview subjects will suffer from logorrhea.

Everybody loves to tell people things that they dont know. Im the same way. If Im walking down the street and someone asks me for directionsif I know, you cant shut me up. By the time I finish theyre just out cold. They dont want to go to Mason Street any longer. If I dont know Ill go away muttering, Who the hell do they think I am, the town geographer?

Wolfe also rejected the idea, so commonly held by young readers of Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, that psychedelic drugs expand the mind and improve creativity.

Kesey once said he wrote on LSD but that, Im sure, did not happen. No drug helps a writer write. Except maybe aspirin. No acid [when Kesey wrote] One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, I dont think. And too beautifully structured, he told the audience. (Unsurprisingly, the conservative southerner considered LSD too dangerous for casual consumption, he said, claiming that back in the 1960s, 1 in 6 people admitted to California psychiatric hospitals were there because of a bad LSD trip.)

But what of Wolfes heterodox political views, frequently out of step with the views of his fellow writers?

Even if he doesnt exactly share his politicsand thats unclearWolfe doubtless revels in the election of Donald Trump, whom he has called a lovable megalomaniac, just for his ability to annoy all of those who promised to flee the country if he was elected. In 2004, Wolfe told The Guardian that he would vote for [George W.] Bush if for no other reason than to be at the airport waving off all the people who say they are going to London if he wins again. Someone has got to stay behind.

And Trump could be easily confused with one of Wolfes fictional creations: garishly wealthy, a distinct creation of the New York City class system, and someone who loves powerand tweaking powerful liberals.

But above all elsenovelist, political provocateur, observer of social moresWolfe is still a journalist. So what does he make of the Trump-era of journalism, with its penchant for fake news and Breitbart.com conspiracies?

Ive been reading about [fake news] and I do think its because theres almost no fact-checking, whereas with newspapers, even if theyre lame, theyll have someone on the court beat every single day, for example. I dont know whos covering beats these days, he later told The Daily Beast.

Earlier, when an audience member quizzed Wolfe on the state of modern journalism, he lamentedand expressed amusement withthe lack of professionalism that has overwhelmed his former profession: Marshall McLuhan made a prediction in 1968 and it was the wackiest thing Id ever heard at the time, but it turned out to be true. He said that the new generation, people in their twenties, had been raised on television and it has changed the neural order of their perceptions. Its turned them tribal [and] its outstripping what journalism used to be. Nothing is checked anymore in those mediums. Im not surprised that this great moment of fake news has arrived, which I think is a laugh and a half.

Asked about so-called Pizzagatethe debunked conspiracy theory that prominent Democrats were involved in a satanic, pedophile ringWolfe was unfamiliar with the specifics of the story, but acknowledged the perniciousness of such conspiracies, telling The Daily Beast that he never connected [fake news] with Trump. It may be but I cant make the link.

There was a time when the novelistic journalism of The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test was criticized by more traditional journalists, accused of substituting rigor with flash and relying too heavily on fictional elements to tell a true story.

In the 1960s, writer Dwight MacDonald excoriated Wolfes journalism, their ideas bogus, their information largely misinformation, their facts often non-facts, predicting that he will not be read with pleasure, or at all, years from now, and perhaps not even next year.

But of course now the genre Wolfe helped create is heralded, and his journalism is worthy of $350 illustrated editions to be purchased by the very upper-middle class he so skillfully mocked.

And now the journalists enemy isnt the stylistic flourish of the novel disrupting non-fiction, but non-fiction devoid of both style and truth.

Marshall McLuhan might have predicted the tribalized media. But Dwight MacDonald could never have guessed the impact of actual non-facts on modern journalism.
Donald Trump picked a fox to guard the American workers hen house.

On Thursday, the president-elect tapped Andrew Puzder, chief executive of CKE Restaurants, owner fast-food chains Carl's Jr. and Hardees, as his choice to be his administrations labor secretary.

Under Puzder, CKE Restaurants has been a magnet for controversy over its treatment of employeeshardly the background for an executive whos supposed to ensure worker safety, prevent discrimination in the workplace, and address federal disputes between employees and management.

Since Puzder became CEO in 2000, CKE has been accused of not providing required breaks for employees and a party to numerous wage disputes. The U.S. Department of Labor found that more than half of Hardee's and Carl's Jr. locations had wage violations, according to a Bloomberg BNA analysis this year.

In his time there, Puzders CKE has been accused of discriminating against a female applicant with a disability; having general managers on call 24 hours a daywithout overtime pay; failing to reimburse general managers for work-related expenses; allowing a work environment in which sexual harassment was permitted; and being a workplace that did not provide sufficient safety gear to prevent severe burns during cooking.

In 2013, CKE Restaurants Inc. was hit with a class-action lawsuit that claimed it violated California labor law for not paying Carls Jr. managers for on-call work. (The case is ongoing, according to court records.)

In a negligence lawsuit filed in September 2014, an employee alleged he suffered first- and second-degree burns while attempting to clean a hot fryer box without proper training or appropriate safety equipment. The franchisee and Hardees, for its role in the operation and management of the restaurant, were found to be liable.

While Hardees argued its wasnt responsible because it did not directly employ the man or control daily operations at the restaurant, the court found CKE liable for the working conditions at its franchise locations.

In 2005, CKE was forced to pay $34,000 to settle a discrimination suit brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on behalf of a Missouri woman who suffered from Treacher-Collin syndrome, a disorder that causes severe facial abnormalities. The EEOC asserted that a Hardees had failed to hire the woman based on her physiological deformities, violating the Americans With Disabilities Act and the Missouri Human Rights Act.

While the court documents obtained by The Daily Beast state that the settlement by Hardees should not be viewed as an admission of guilt, a Hardees vice president of human resources did issue a formal apology, expressing regret regarding any conduct by our staff that caused [her] any distress.

And although past cases brought against Hardees Food Systems Inc. and CKE Restaurants may have been resolved, in a recent disclosure to the Securities and Exchange Commission the company admitted to being the subject of several potential class-action lawsuits, the most significant of which relate to meal and rest breaks, wages, and hours disputes.

But its not just employees that may have reason to be concerned about Puzders appointment.

The selection of Puzder has alienated everyone from pro-immigration reform Democrats, who are concerned that about his views on labor laws, to restrictionist groups who are concerned he is too friendly to foreign workers.

I am deeply concerned by Mr. Puzders record of standing in the way of progress on issues that would make an immediate difference in the lives of working families, in particular raising the minimum wage and ensuring equal pay for equal work, said Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) , the top Democrat on the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.

Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, an immigration restrictionist organization, had the opposite problem: He accused Puzder of being a key figure in an industry that values cheap labor.

Puzder has served as an executive of a fast-food conglomeratean industry that has thrived on low-wage labor, illegal workers, and which has lobbied for greater access to foreign guest workers to maximize corporate profits, he said. Based on Puzders support for increased guest workers, can struggling American workers count on him to maintain tight labor markets that promote wage increases?

Puzder will likely be grilled during confirmation hearings about his companys treatment of women. The labor secretary will need to enforce gender non-discrimination and sexual-harassment laws, though his company is best known for its shocking advertisements that feature bikini-clad women eating fast food. (Hes described it as  very American.)

I have serious questions about whether a CEO who is comfortable reinforcing harmful stereotypes about women and who is so dismissive of workplace-discrimination issues can be trusted to uphold core missions of the department, Murray said.

CKE Restaurants did not respond to a request for comment on the labor complaints, but congratulated Puzder on his nomination, claiming that he has distinguished himself as a tireless advocate for economic policies that create jobs and opportunities.
MOSCOWA young entrepreneur named Vladimir Khrykov listened attentively to every word President Vladimir Putin said last week in his address to Russias Federal Assembly. And the 30-year-old was hugely disappointed by what he heard.

For Khrykov, who runs a diaper company on Sakhalin Island in Russias Far East, foreign investors are key to his business. And his clients are eager to know just one thing before they invest: Will Russia see more profits in the next few years? And so Khrykov tuned in to hear Putins economic plan, so he could divine the future for his firm.

Putin has no strategy, Khrykov told The Daily Beast on Wednesday, as he despaired over the contents of the presidents speech, which seemed fragmented at best. It is impossible for us to convince our foreign investors to spend money on technologies here, as nobody can be sure that the population will be able to afford the product in the future.

Recently, Khrykovs Japanese partners asked him whether Russias economy would improve in the next 50 years. He didnt know what to tell them.

Foreign investors are indeed suspicious about sinking money into the country without some firm guarantees. As one academic, Alexander Abramov of the National Research University Higher School of Economics, explained to The Daily Beast, It looks suspicious to foreign investors, to see that up to $200 billion stays in Russian banks. They wonder why local investors do not invest in businesses here.

The answer is simple, Abramov added. Most Russian investors feel uncertain about their countrys future.

Under economic sanctions, in place since 2014, its been difficult for Russia to find foreign buyers even for the countrys biggest company, the oil giant Rosneft. Then, earlier this week, the Swiss commodity trading firm Glencore and Qatars sovereign wealth fund announced they were buying a 19.5 percent stake in Rosneft, to the tune of $11.3 billion. The Kremlin and Rosneft celebrated the successful dealbut experts told The Daily Beast that Russia could have sold Rosneft for a 30 percent or 40 percent stake or more, were it not for the sanctions.

It was the lowest price, Abramov said before conceding, but something is better than nothing. For a long time there was no hope that Rosneft would be able to sell even that.

Even as the government celebrated the sale of Rosneft, bad domestic news kept trickling out last week. First, the Education and Science Ministry fired the entire science department without any explanation. Then, the government informed Russians it would be running background checks on all college and university students to screen for extremism. By law, students cannot be forced to fill out these questionnaires, said Tanya Lokshina, the Russia program director and a senior researcher for Human Rights Watch. But then its easy to imagine students being pressured by faculty members to give their consent.

She added that no one had any idea how [the questionnaires] will be processed and what will be done with the findings.

The stifling atmosphere for civil rights is among the factors contributing to a record number of Russians applying for political asylum in the U.S.1,912 people this year, a 31 percent increase over 2015 and the largest number of asylum seekers since 1994. I cannot stand the atmosphere of no freedom, no oxygen here, Vitaly Mansky, the founder of the documentary film festival Artdokfest, told The Daily Beast. Only a few countries, including Syria and North Korea, have recognized that Crimea is Russias. Now the authorities are cuddling up to them while the rest of the country is left without any hope of a better future.

Mansky had just finished a film, Under the Sun, about life in North Koreas totalitarian state. There, teachers brainwash North Korean children with the bogeymen of Japan and America. The film was very successful among Russian intellectuals, who see certain similarities with their own society.

Meanwhile, Putin continues to blame the West for Russias troubles. We found ourselves facing sanctions that were an attempt to get us to dance to anothers tune and ignore our own fundamental national interests, the president announced in his speech to the Federal Assembly. He then acknowledged that the countrys serious economic challenges had domestic roots, including the lack of investment resources, modern technology, professional human resources, insufficient competition, and shortcomings in our business climate.

When it came to Russias values, the presidential address sounded confusing even to pro-Kremlin officials. I understand why, for young people, it is difficult to figure out where we are goingthere is no ideology, our values are blurry, one day we talk about the Russian World [the ideology in rebel-controlled Donbas and Crimea], Orthodox Christianity, and the next day about Stalinism, because the world has become unpredictable, things are changing so fast, we do not have enough time to react, a member of Russias Public Chamber and an adviser to the presidential administration, Sergei Markov, told The Daily Beast.

Still, Markov was optimistic. The center of power is already moving to Russia, our society has consolidated, there is 86 percent support for the president, and Russia is becoming a powerful factor. The NATO summit this week talked about Russia, the U.N. Security Council talked about Russia, even coverage of presidential elections in the United States had Russia in their headlines. Everybody is talking about Russia.

Markov also dismissed concerns that foreign investors would be skittish. There is great potential for Russia in terms of cooperation with the Asia-Pacific region, as we saw at this years Eastern Economic Forum, he said, before adding that Putin still prefers to have a partnership with the West, rather than with Asiawe are closer to Europe historically and by our mentality.

Yet to businessmen like Vladmir Khrykov, Putins economic address laid bare the mismanagement of his country and made them doubt Russias future. Even Russian bloggers were busy comparing Putins address to Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnevs speeches during the era of stagnation between 1965 and 1982. There is no ideology, Khrykov said again. Russia lives by the rules of capitalism but pretends to be a center of power when its economy is weakand all we have are nuclear bombs.
The Washington Postwhose coverage of Watergate four decades ago angered the powers that be, toppled a president, and defined courageous journalismhas unleashed a hornets nest of a different sort, one unlikely to earn a Pulitzer Prize.

Indeed, Washingtons newspaper of recordwhich was purchased in 2013 by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos from the storied Graham familyis uncomfortably weathering a barrage of criticism from fellow journalists and others for a front-page story published over the Thanksgiving holiday.

The story, by Post technology reporter Craig Timberg and published Nov. 24, purported to reveal how sophisticated Russian propagandists had spread fake news through hundreds of web sites to destabilize American democracy, thwart Hillary Clinton and elect Donald Trump to the White House.

So far the storywhich has attracted millions of page views and more than 14,000 commentshas provoked lawsuit threats from at least two of the web sites, notably the widely respected financial blog Naked Capitalism, which fired off a legal letter demanding a retraction and apology even though the Post story does not specifically mention Naked Capitalism or any of the other allegedly Russian-influenced websites.

There has also been a fusillade of disparaging commentary in publications ranging from The Intercept to The New Yorker.

I thought it was completely ridiculous that the Post would put this sorry piece of trash on the front page, Andrew Cockburn, the Washington editor of Harpers magazine, told The Daily Beast in a typically vehement slam.

The Washington Post Blacklist Story Is Shameful and Disgusting, was the headline on Rolling Stone writer Matt Taibbis takedown.

The critics panned the Post storys heavy reliance on the judgments of unnamed researchers for PropOrNot.com, a shadowy website launched three months ago ostensibly to expose Russian influence operations targeted at US audiences, distinguish between propaganda and commercial clickbait, and help identify propaganda and push back.

Granting PropOrNots executive director anonymity to save him from being targeted by Russias legions of skilled hackers, the Post credulously cited the groups assessment of more than 200 websites as routine peddlers of Russian propaganda during the election seasona list that included not only Naked Capitalism, but also such independent enterprises as Counterpunch.org (founded by Alexander Cockburn, Andrews late brother), the right-leaning DrudgeReport.com, the libertarian website of former Reagan administration assistant treasury secretary and ex-Wall Street Journal editor Paul Craig Roberts, and the left-leaning Truthdig.com and Truth-out.org.

Political satirist and sometime journalist Harry Shearerbest known as the voice of Mr. Burns, Ned Flanders and dozens of other characters on The Simpsonshas been regularly tweeting about the controversy.

In an interview with The Daily Beast, he especially praised the journalism of Naked Capitalism during the 2008 financial meltdown. My first reaction when I saw it [the Post story] was that theyre going to be walking this story back within a week, he said.

Naked Capitalisms editor Yves Smith, the pen name of investment advisor Susan Webber who launched the blog in 2006, has so far not threatened to sue PropOrNot, whose so-called blacklist went online a few days after the group launched its Twitter feed on Nov. 5. The secretive group, which lists its business address in Santa Fe, New Mexico but has apparently registered, if at all, under an unknown name, had enjoyed negligible traffic until the Post trumpeted its existence.

I really dont want to discuss our possible litigation strategy, Webber told The Daily Beast, when asked why she was focusing her legal firepower on the Post and not PropOrNot. The real damage here was done by the Washington Posts amplification of a group that had no backgroundthat was non-existent before it announced itself on Twitter.

She added: That does not mean that we were not significantly harmed by PropOrNot, the originator of this false tale, but I had chosen not to respond to them when I first saw their site, which was several days before the Post story ran, because they had no traffic. Theres no point in calling attention to a site that has no traffic.

But after the Post published its story, they got traffic and their Twitter lit up immediately, Webber said, and it was very clear the reputational damage was done.

Timberg declined to comment on the controversy, and PropOrNot didnt respond to an email. The Post has yet to walk back Timbergs story, and maybe never will. But amid the storm of condemnation and an open letter from Naked Capitalisms attorney demanding a retraction and apology, the paper appended a highly unusual editors note to the online version, attempting to distance the Post from PropOrNot.

The note claimed that PropOrNotby most accounts the dominant source of the Posts reportwas only one of four sets of researchers [consulted for the story] who have examined what they say are Russian propaganda efforts to undermine American democracy and interests.

The note added that while the story cited PropOrNots report identifying more than 200 websites that, in its view, wittingly or unwittingly published or echoed Russian propaganda, it didnt name any of the sites.

Astonishingly, considering the Posts respectful treatment of PropOrNot and the storys front-page play, the editors note argued that the paper does not itself vouch for the validity of PropOrNots findings regarding any individual media outlet, nor did the article purport to do so.

That surprising assertion seemed to conflict with a statement the paper issued the previous week, as the criticisms were gaining traction, that The Post reviewed [PropOrNots] findings, and our questions about them were answered satisfactorily during the course of multiple interviewsWe granted PropOrNot anonymity in this case because of a credible fear of reprisal.

The Post declined to comment further. But in a letter to an attorney for Truthdig.com, the leftist news and commentary site founded by investigative reporter Robert Scheer, the Posts lawyer said the paper wont retract the story, as Truthdig also has demanded, because, among other reasons, Timbergs story didnt mention Truthdig or link to PropOrNots list, and thus had no basic journalistic obligation to contact the site for a response.

If it were truly basic journalistic practice to contact every entity named in an unflattering way in any document about which the press reports, wrote Post attorney James A. McLaughlin, it would be all but impossible for the news media to function.

Webber, meanwhile, said the papers explanations are not satisfactory, and shes keeping open her options for legal redress.

Writing as Yves Smith, she argued: The Post is being disingenuous in trying to take the position that its featuring of a newbie group with no track record whatsoever was not tantamount to an endorsement The fact that journalists almost immediately found the blacklisted sites and took the Post to task on Twitter and shortly thereafter in news stories shows that the Post did damage to Naked Capitalism and other publishers vastly beyond the original publication of the [PropOrNot] list by amplifying it

Paul Craig Roberts, meanwhile, told The Daily Beast that hes ready to join a potential lawsuit against the newspaper.

Why dont we just get all 200 of us to sue, Roberts said, so we can get all of Bezoss billions?
Inside Sources Say Twitter Changes Coming Next Week: Report

AS SOON AS MONDAY

Elon Musk, keen to make changes after his purchase of the platform, is set to change up the way verification works as soon as possible.
Carlsberg to revamp Export from January

Carlsberg is revamping its flagship brand to better connect with millennials through a 15million spend and by relaunching Carlsberg Export from January 2017.

The look and feel of Carlsberg Export will be changed with a new design from Taxi, that reflects the brands Danish heritage and reinforces its premium credentials. All consumer touch points have been refreshed, including a new bar font and glassware, through to a new 330ml-sized bottle.

The new design has been influenced by the cross from the Danish flag, while the signature of founder, J.C. Jacobsen, and the word Kbenhavn, underline the brands roots.

The premiumisation of the Carlsberg brand will continue into early summer 2017, when limited-edition packaging will be launched for the Carlsberg 3.8% ABV beer and the bottle increased to a 330ml size.

The new approach has been developed following a year-long project comprising consumer research, category analysis and trends monitoring. Its aim is to confront the long-term decline seen in the lager category by engaging with the consumer group identified as the most influential and responsible for driving key trends; millennials.

Liam Newton, vice president of marketing, Carlsberg UK says: The fundamental reason for the decline in the beer category is the fact the biggest segments, standard and premium lager, are losing relevance with millennial consumers. In our eyes, the dramatic change in the UK beer market requires bold action, and an even bolder approach, and this lies at the heart of our revitalisation of Carlsberg.

Standard and premium lagers recruit new drinkers, and if consumers dont enter through these segments, it is unlikely they will move into world and craft. This means brands like Carlsberg and premium beers like Carlsberg Export remain vital to the long-term health of the entire beer category.

The relaunch of the Carlsberg brand will be supported by a 15million campaign incorporating media and integrated consumer activity. The campaign will celebrate the brands Danish heritage and taps into consumer demand for authenticity and the trend towards premiumisation in the beer category.

Newton says: By reminding people of where Carlsberg comes from and adopting some of the positive attributes from the people of Denmark, we believe we will have a powerful platform from which to connect with millennials in a meaningful way.

9 December 2016 - Sam Coyne The Drinks Report, editorial assistant
While out shopping about three years ago, Amber Simms picked up a bottle of lemon olive oil. She thought it sounded delicious and was eager to use it to cook with.

She came across a cookie in her search for a recipe that featured the flavored olive oil, so she gave it a try.

People think theyre amazing, said Simms of Tulsa about her Lemon Olive Oil Cookies. Theyre chewy, yet crispy on the outside.

The cookies have a bright flavor from the lemon juice, zest and flavored olive oil. Simms recipe includes Mecca Coffee Co. lemon-infused olive oil, which she said must be used, as no other olive oil has the same flavor.

The unique cookie is one of the winners of the Tulsa Worlds 12 Days of Cookies contest, sponsored by the Made In Oklahoma Coalition and its member companies.

Simms said the cookies are a favorite in the attorneys office where she works. She even passed the recipe on to a co-worker who loves the cookies and has made it a household favorite, too.

Thats one way to know its a good recipe, Simms said about sharing the cookie recipe. A few of her other favorite recipes include mint crinkle cookies and old-fashioned molasses cookies.

Be careful not to bake the cookies too long, and dont make them any larger than walnut-size as they wont cook well. And keep an eye on them if they start to brown around the edges.

Its an all-the-time cookie, and especially when citrus is in season. It has such a vibrant flavor, she said.

Simms recommends eating them the same day you bake them, but that its usually not a problem.

LEMON OLIVE OIL COOKIES

2 cups flour

1 cup organic sugar

 teaspoon sea salt

 cup lemon olive oil from Mecca Coffee Co.

4 heaping teaspoons grated lemon zest, about 2 lemons

Juice of 1 lemons, about ? cup

1 teaspoon real vanilla extract

Extra granulated sugar for rolling

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Whisk dry ingredients in one medium bowl and stir wet ingredients in a separate small bowl.

3. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, then combine lightly until mixture looks like wet sand; do not over mix. You can refrigerate the dough if you think its too soft to roll.

4. Hand roll the dough into walnut-sized balls and roll in sugar. The cookies will spread as they bake so they need about 2 inches of space on the cookie sheet. Bake for 12 minutes; careful not to let them brown. They will harden when cooling.

 Recipe submitted by Amber Simms
Yet the US Army's decision on 4th December - based on environmental concerns - came as a big surprise. Until that time, the authorities policing Standing Rock showed little appreciation of the obligations of law, including civil rights and the freedom of expression - let alone the importance of the lands and waters to indigenous peoples.

Violence and threats

Resistance to the pipeline was met not only with official violence, but also suppression of opponents from voicing the environmental, land rights and indigenous self-determination conflicts at stake. This was evident when we visited the Oceti Sakowin camp with a delegation from the University of Wyoming in late November.

To stop people accessing the area where a stretch of the pipeline was to be built, police and National Guard units erected a crude barrier of concrete, razor wire and two burnt out trucks. Many protectors had attempted to remove the barriers, successfully towing off one of the burnt out trucks. As spokespeople for the protectors have said, the barricades were dangerous and prevented a lawful protest.

We witnessed police respond with tear gas, sound cannons, high velocity rubber bullets (which wounded one of our delegation) and, most menacingly, water cannons which doused protectors in subzero temperatures. Armoured vehicles, helicopters, and planes were clearly visible and several American Indian Veterans said they had seen snipers in the hills.

A young woman named Sophia Wilansky went to hospital facing possible amputation of her arm. A statement by her father alleged it was caused by a concussion grenade lobbed by police at the bridge. She, along with about 400 others at the scene were unarmed.

As well as this violence by the state authorities, even more disturbing acts of suppression were used over that fateful weekend of November 20-21.

A plane continuously circled the camps, flying at night without lights. NBC reported what many water protectors were saying; that the mysterious plane had been jamming signals so that witnesses could not disseminate what they saw, heard and felt. Several people mentioned in the NBC report as well as one of our party had their mobile phones rendered permanently unusable, possibly through interference of this kind.

The threat of arrest, the megaphones bellowing warnings that "munitions will be utilised to effect arrests" and the massed ranks of police and National Guard, all spread fear and discouraged the taking of photos because anyone considered a protester could be criminalised. Since our visit, even those who donate to the camps have been threatened with US$1,000 fines by North Dakota officials.

A long history

These acts of suppression contradict the freedom of expression enshrined in the First Amendment of the US Constitution (though it is not the first time that Native Americans have had this freedom denied them specifically). Equally humiliating and not unrelated to civil rights is that the DAPL traverses tribal lands that have been continuously confiscated.

The Great Sioux Reservation, which once stretched from the Missouri to the North Platte River in Wyoming, was marked out for "absolute and undisturbed use and occupation" for the Lakota Sioux in a treaty with the US government back in 1868. It has since been reduced to four reservations in the Dakotas. Standing Rock Reservation, the home of great chief Sitting Bull, is one of these remnant spots that still belongs to the Lakota.

Land grabbing continued in the 1940s when the government dispossessed the Lakota and other tribes of their homes for a series of dam projects. This led to the flooding of burial sites, which caused human remains to float to the surface and was the precursor to many other acts of desecration of indigenous remains and sacred sites.

Uncertain future

It had looked like DAPL would be approved via the same legal process (and with similar consequences) to these dam projects. However, the Army has called for a more lengthy environmental impact assessment and it has recommended that routes away from Standing Rock be explored. Whether any of this will happen is open to question.

The company that is building DAPL, Energy Transfer Partners, has sizeable investments from numerous important backers, including Donald Trump. Trump himself assumes the presidency next month, and has a set of advisers already urging him to privatise oil-rich indigenous lands. The company may still go ahead with constructing the pipeline under the lake, having previously disregarded an Army Corps of Engineers request to cease construction.

What's been clear from the outset is a lack of meaningful consultation with indigenous people over the use of their ancestral lands. US security forces have been literally shielding Energy Transfer Partners and the state has discouraged those opposing it from expressing their views.

Perhaps the most egregious act of suppression is that the area where the pipeline is being built is made inaccessible for those who want to see what's going on. The freedom of the press is severely restricted by this concealment. Keeping informed about the environmental assessment, if it goes ahead, could prove equally difficult.

Where is the justice? The US has committed itself to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Both require free, prior and informed consent for any intrusions on indigenous lands and stipulate that indigenous peoples shall own and control their traditional lands.

This has not taken place at Standing Rock, and despite the army's decision, the threats, the surveillance, the barricades and intimidation of those opposing the oil pipeline continues.

Colin Samson is Professor of Sociology, Indigenous Peoples, University of Essex.

yvind Ravna is Professor of Law, University of Troms .

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
Millennial Moms Review: 2022 Acura MDX is pretty close to the perfect family car

I dont know if perfect is attainable, especially considering weve got the world of options when it comes to modern vehicles. Were spoiled and, as such, we have very specific needs and wants. Driving-wise, the 2022 Acura MDX is one of my favourite ...
Enjoy music, art and more this weekend in Southeast Iowa

Your guide to getting off the couch and out the door this weekend in Southeast Iowa.
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STAMFORD  Kenny Sun and Tiffany Tian are taking orders in a new space, but they are still serving old friends.

The married couple last month opened Blue Ginger, the Asian fusion restaurant that they own, in a 2,500-square-foot storefront at 1132 East Main St .on the citys East Side. They sought another location after the lease expired earlier this year at Blue Gingers former location at 587 Elm St.

Blue Ginger stood as a South End mainstay for some 25 years. But Sun and Tian said they have had no trouble persuading their customers to fill the approximately 60 seats in the restaurants new home.

I like to see all my old customers, and we have a lot of the old customers here, Tian said in this week at the establishment. The customers are our treasure.

Sun and Tian looked at downtown locations before moving, but they foresaw a lack of parking in those spots. Their new address has its own parking lot.

The relocated restaurant stands yards from Exit 9 of Interstate 95. In recent years, takeout orders accounted for about 80 percent of the restaurants business on Elm Street.

Its close to the highway here, so its good for the delivery drivers, Sun said. And we live on River View, one block away. I dont even need to drive. In good weather, I can just walk here.

Sun also works as one of the restaurants chefs. He leads a staff of 17.

Blue Gingers menu features many items that are cooked in the Cantonese style that dominates in Chinese restaurants in the U.S. Sun has sought to diversify the fare by adding offerings that reflect other Chinese culinary influences, with new entries including rock shrimp, Sichuan-style cabbage, Hunan-style long hot peppers and dry and crispy chicken in Sichuan sauce.

Before opening Blue Ginger in its new location, Sun returned to his hometown, Qingdao, in the eastern province of Shandong in China, where he learned new dishes. He wants the restaurants menu to feature more Shandong dishes, which he describes as less sugary and more spicy than Cantonese specialties.

Im trying to bring the type of Chinese food that you cant find anywhere else here, Sun said.

Sun, 32, did not originally plan to become a restaurateur. He moved to the U.S. in 2007 to pursue a masters degree in electrical engineering at the University of Bridgeport. Shortly after enrolling, he took a job at the Hong Kong Tokyo restaurant in Stratford. Within a few months, he had become a partner in the restaurant.

After graduating from the University of Bridgeport in 2010, he tried several jobs in computer science in Ohio, Florida and New Jersey. But he missed the restaurant business.

Youre just sitting with a computer, not talking with people, Sun said. Its not my style. I like talking and working with people. So I realized that maybe I should go back to the restaurant business.

Sun would return to the dining industry when he was hired at Blue Ginger. He has owned the restaurant for about four years, taking over from his predecessor, who retired.

The restaurants name refers to a magical ingredient featured in southeast Asian storytelling that gives food a savory taste, Sun said.

Sun and Tian said they would like to open a restaurant in Greenwich, where they generate a lot of orders from financial-services firms.

For Sun, the success of Blue Ginger has validated his decision to pursue

his passion.

In China, I didnt think about my interests; the teacher just selected for me, Sun said. Here, I found that I like business with food. In this country, if youre doing this and youre successful, you can also make a lot of money. And you can support a family and buy a house.

pschott@scni.com; 203-964-2236; twitter: @paulschott
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NORWALK  As the state gears up to replace the Walk Bridge, sentimentality is growing among local people over the iconic structure that has marked Norwalks skyline for 120 years.

The loss of the existing bridge, its catenaries and high towers, as well as its brownstone structural elements would forever change the character of the area, wrote the Norwalk Preservation Trust in its response to the Connecticut Department of Transportations report on the project. We respectfully request that the repair and retention of the existing bridge be given further study in the hopes that demolition can be avoided.

If the railroad bridge and its associated elements must be demolished, the NPT wants the DOT take a number of mitigation measures such as leaving the historic granite or brownstone abutments in place, or reusing them as part of the new bridge.

In addition, the NPT has asked the state to fully fund the listing of nearby Liberty Square and the former Norwalk Lock Company building in the National Register of Historic Places, create a curriculum that addresses the impacts of the railroad on Norwalk and Connecticuts coast, and pay for a multiday event to celebrate the bridge and the high towers.

DOT: We will try

DOT spokesman Judd Everhart, when asked if the state will be able to preserve parts, or at least the legacy of the Walk Bridge, answered, we will try.

He noted that the DOT, Federal Transit Administration and Connecticut State Historic Preservation Office are required under federal law to consult on the project. The law further stipulates that projects with federal funding and permitting consider the impacts to properties listed on the National Historic Register. The Walk Bridge was added to the register in 1987. As part of the consultation process, a Memorandum of Agreement is prepared and agreed upon by all three parties.

In the development of the MOA, the Connecticut SHPO will consult with, among others, the Norwalk Preservation Trust and the Norwalk Historic(al) Society to gain concurrence that the proposed mitigation measures meet their expectations of celebrating the historic significance of the existing bridge and to pay homage to its role in the development and growth of the City of Norwalk, Everhart said.

While specific mitigation measures havent yet been established, Everhart continued, common strategies used on other historic bridge replacement projects include repurposing existing elements into the new design or placing salvaged elements in areas adjacent to the project location as a means of historic interpretation, Everhart said.

State of art in 1896

When built in 1896, the bridge was both state-of-the-art and also the last of its breed.

In its wide proportions and heavy steel construction, the Norwalk bridge exemplifies the railroad swing bridge at its height of development: after the mid- 1890s, nearly all movable bridges were bascules of one type or another, reads a portion of the nomination report that landed the bridge on the register.

After the mid-1890s, swing bridges underwent little further evolution. And although such bridges were relatively inexpensive to build, operate and maintain, they became increasingly rare for larger railroad bridges after 1900, according to the report.

Dick Carpenter of East Norwalk, author of A Railroad Atlas of the United States in 1946, said the Walk Bridge is the only four-track swing bridge that he knows of on a major rail line in the nation. That and its age are its distinguishing characteristics, he said.

I would be surprised if it doesnt need complete replacement, Carpenter said.

Carpenter said he doesnt know if the abutments might be saved and used for the new bridge. At the very least, the bridges legacy can be preserved through photography and a scale model.

Im sure models of bridges have been built by others, Carpenter said. And if you take a lot of pictures of it, thats an adequate way of preserving the memory of the bridge.

Chris Brown, bridge engineer and senior project manager with HNTB Corp., the consultant firm engaged by the DOT in the Walk Bridge project, assessed the late 19th-century technology during a recent public information meeting at the Maritime Aquarium IMAX Theater.

At the turn of the last century, swing spans were the state of the art and different movable span types didnt really start to surface until you got into the 20th century, Brown said. A swing span at the time was great and it was an efficient structure.

At the same time, swing bridges required large pier-protection systems that protruded into water channels and thus caused a little bit of hindrance to navigation, Brown said.

Brown said the DOT, after considering more than 70 design concepts, ruled out repairing the existing bridge or replacing it with a fixed-bridge. The states preferred replacement is a 240-foot vertical lift bridge that would cost $425 million to $460 million to build. Work is slated to start in mid-2018.

History extends beyond bridge

In early September, the DOT and Federal Transit Administration released a report outlining the project necessity, design alternatives and anticipated local impacts of each option. Friday marked the close of the public comment period on the report.

In its response to the report, the Norwalk Historical Commission wrote that repairing the bridge wasnt sufficiently explored.

We are aware of numerous other century old bridges across the country that have been repaired and maintained and are expected to last for another century and beyond, such as the Williamsburg Bridge in New York, the NHC wrote.

In addition, the NHC concluded that the DOT understated the impact of the bridge replacement project in terms of historic districts that would be affected by the project.

The bridge is at a low point in the Norwalk River Valley, which is surrounded by densely developed ridges to the East and West that have many historic structures, the NHC wrote. The massive proposed lift bridge will become the single defining characteristic for all of Norwalk south of I-95. The (impact) area should include the other historic districts in the area such as the Golden Hill Historic District that are clearly in the view shed of the proposed massive lift bridge.

The NHC has asked the DOT to salvage and reuse the brownstone abutments and incorporate them into the new bridge in place of stamped concrete, even if just used as a veneer.

The NHC also has recommended that Lockwood Mathews Mansion Museum host exhibits and education programs associated with the Walk Bridge and the development of Connecticuts railroad system. LeGrand Lockwood, builder of the mansion, developed the Danbury Line of the railroad.

Saving pieces, creating landmark

Mayor Harry W. Rilling said the Walk Bridge has become part of Norwalks identity. If parts of it cannot be incorporated into the new bridge, they should be given a home elsewhere in Norwalk. He has suggested using a city park as a venue.

If we are able to save any of it in some area of a park  obviously not the whole thing  but some part of it that will be used as a decorative or artistic display someplace, that would be something that we would be interested in, Rilling said. Id hate to think it would be dismantled and put in the scrap heap.

Still others are asking that Walk Bridge  if it must go  be replaced with a structure of equal historic stature. They remind that the new bridge will be in place for at least a century.

Steve Kleppin, Norwalks new director of planning and zoning, has asked the DOT to take the bridges iconic nature into consideration as it moves forward with the project.

The opportunity is there to not only improve and repair the bridge, because we understand thats needed, but to establish a landmark, Kleppin said.
NORWALK  Families across Norwalk are fed up.

Parental disappointment with the public school district's issue-laden special education programming seemed to reach a new peak Thursday as news spread that Lynn Toper, the public school districts chief of special education, tendered her resignation.

It was slap in the face to many who believed Toper, who repeatedly touted a failure is not an option mantra, was the districts saving grace to take the reigns in a position that has been treated like a revolving door in the last half-decade.

Toper started with the school district in July and went on partial leave in October to, she said, provide ongoing assistance to her family following an unexpected family illness that took place in August.

As her leave of absence was approaching  scheduled to end in mid-December  Toper told district officials Wednesday that Dec. 23 would be her last day on the job.

Every year, I hear promises that things for our special needs children will change. Every year, I see nothing change, said Melissa Perisanidis, a parent and member of Norwalk SPED partners. It's the same old, same old.

Perisanidis said she was impressed when Toper began in the role after a lengthy search.

I actually thought that something was going to change, she said.

After attending several of Topers meetings, she and many in the Norwalk community waited to see what would happen.

Within months of her appointment, she goes part time and then resigns after five months, Perisanidis said. What I remember most from all of her talks was her saying that failure was not an option ... I believe she has failed, she has failed our children with all of her empty promises.

Mike Lyons, chair of the Board of Education, said the whole board is deeply disappointed at this turn of events.

Unfortunately, sometimes life events happen to people that make it impossible for them to stay on the job, which is what has happened with Dr. Toper, Lyons said.

He added that the district has worked hard to turn its special education around, citing negotiating support from the city government for a $3.6 million SPED turnaround plan, doing a professional search that brought Toper into the district and developing a detailed three-year SPED rebuilding plan based on the latest Capitol Region Education Council report.

This will definitely slow us on progress in rebuilding our special education program, he said, but only slow us.

A nationwide professional search for Topers replacement has already begun.

Lyon said the district has already taken significant steps toward implementing the SPED rebuilding plan and more steps will follow.

Adverse events happen in all big programs; the choice is between giving up and trying again. We will try again.

Kimberly Tromba, a parent of a special needs child in Norwalk schools, seemed to believe Topers departure was a result of the system.

The NPS SPED system is terribly broken, I believe it scared Dr. Toper away, Tromba said. How can we expect an intelligent director to turn a blind eye to children not being taught, (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) being violated, SPED outside providers not been paid since June, and our teaching staff not trained to do the SPED job hired? Why are we losing so many qualified directors?

Tromba questioned whether Toper was unsupported and starting to feel the blame game like the previous special education head.

Quite frankly I don't think I can fault her (Toper) for leaving, but I can fault her for making false promises to our most special children and breaking the hearts of mom's and dad's across the city.

As to how the search will go, many were eager to find a qualified candidate who will stick around  and to do so quickly.

I am hoping that this next search finds someone who is able to take this big task on of fixing and helping our SPED department and do something with it, Perisanidis said. Our children cannot wait any longer. They deserve better.

KSchultz@thehour.com; 203-354-1049; @kevinedschultz
WILTON  Nearly 13,000 meals will be distributed to developing countries around the world, after Wilton High School hosted its first Stop Hunger Now meal-packaging event on Sunday.

The event was organized by Wilton sophomores Lily Kepner, Ava Kaplan and Zoe Weiss, who just one month ago were more than $2,000 short of the $3,000 fundraising goal to bring the event to the high school.

I just cant believe it was shaped into a reality, Kepner said. Theres so many people in the community who want to help out and Im so thankful all three of us found those people to make it happen.

The three high school students not only raised enough money to host the event but exceeded the second fundraising goal that allowed for more meals to be packaged.

With the help of more than 70 volunteers  from the high school, Boy Scouts and community  more than 12,960 meals were packaged, about $3,879 was raised, and any overflow money will be donated to Stop Hunger Now, Kaplan said.

With the combination of all our forces, we made all of this happen, she said. This is not just something that the three of us did. It takes a village.

Nick Dimare, program coordinator at Stop Hunger Nows New York metro office, said he was excited to be part of the high schools first Stop Hunger Now event. He was in charge of directing the group in packaging meals and keeping morale high by inviting volunteers to ring the gong after every meal milestone they reached.

We wanted to come out here when we heard it was a high school, he said. Especially getting young kids involved, thats really what we want to do just to help end hunger by the year 2030.

Weiss said this aspect, of helping others learn more about the cause of Stop Hunger Now and witnessing the community come together to play its part in ending world hunger, made the months of planning and fundraising worthwhile.

My grandma showed up, just to see what was going on, and my mom and my aunt, and they all started crying when they walked in and saw everyone packaging the meals, she said. Thats whats giving me goosebumps.

The three sophomores hope to make the event an annual sophomore tradition by introducing it to the lower classes and mentoring them on how to host the event, which Kepner looks to spearhead.

I want to share that feeling of being overjoyed with the rest of the school, Kepner. You just have to remember the end result and push for what you believe in. And thats what we did and now were here.

SKim@hearstmediact.com; 203-354-1044; @stephaniehnkim
Brewing ones own beer helps the conservative settle back into a habitual patience and a dedication to process and institutions that are assurances of good government in any republic

For the Christmas of 2016, I recommend you get the conservative in your life a homebrewing kit, such as the starter kit available from Northern Brewer. Now, before you click away because your conservative is a teetotaler, has a taste only for the kind of merlot served at the dinners of conservative academic conferences, or who just drinks good Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey, hear me out.

Sure, you can homebrew and drink the results yourself, but you can also brew beer for your friends and loved ones. There are few things more truly conservative than giving away the produce of ones own hands and toiling for friends will keep the brewers imagination on healthy communions to come.

But, beyond the beer, the lessons one can glean while homebrewing will be more valuable than ever in the months ahead. It may help keep your conservative politically balanced and properly focused in the months to come as we transition into the unknown world of a Trump presidency and Republican dominance in Washington. Let me offer homebrewing as an object lesson for being conservative in modern American politics.

First, the mega lesson of homebrewing is conservative, indeed. By homebrewing your conservative will be taking part in an ancient practice. Our ancestors didnt buy cans of barely-flavored hoppy water at the supermarket. Instead, they brewed their own from grains grown on their own farm or nearby. Or they purchased or traded for it with neighbors or were given it for their labors. Brewing beer in ones own kitchen and fermenting it in the basement calls one back to those ancient ways and reminds one of the vital connections that unite the generations.

As we come into 2017, however, it might be the process of brewing your own beer that holds the most value to the conservative. For the great temptation to come in 2017 will be the eternal temptation of efficiency and the greed of pent-up policy desires. Republicans now have control of both Congress and the American presidency. Not all their policies will pass muster as conservative, but enough will that many conservatives will rally to the cause. After eight years of the Obama presidency, conservatives are hungry for policy change. We are in danger, however, as Tocqueville warned us all democrats are, of falling into the trap of seeking the goal without scrutinizing the process.

Globalization has put the finest beers of the world as close to us as a quick trip to the liquor store. Mass production has put cheap beer into nearly every grocery store and most gas stations. The great temptation we will face in 2017 is allowing our greed for policy gains to trump our fidelity to constitutional norms and Madisonian deliberative government. We will be tempted to permit President Trump more leeway to use his phone and pen than we did President Obama. We will be tempted to encourage Congress to pass legislation quickly and maybe even to eliminate long-standing norms and processes that stand in our way. But when your conservative turns to brew, let him remember that good government is not efficient government. Let him remember that liberty is long in the winning and thrives when the government remains within its proper bounds, observing its proper procedures. To paraphrase James Madison in The Federalist Papers, the more policy is discussed, deliberated and frustrated along its path to fruition, the more likely we are to have good results.

Like good government, homebrewing is slow and takes time. Like all things human, homebrewed beer cant always be predicted and can go very wrong when one takes shortcuts or is otherwise impatient. In its simplest form, the homebrewer steeps the malted grains, adds the hops, stirs in the extract, and cooks the raw ingredients. This liquid becomes the wort that must be cooled and then added to a fermentation bucket with more cool water being added. The proper yeast strain is sprinkled on top before the bucket is sealed. The elections of 2016 functioned to prepare the wort of government within the institutional buckets of the Constitutional order. Now its time to cool the heat and get to work.

Within hours, the yeast come to life and begin their own work. They eat the sugars in the wort and transform them into alcohol. The wort becomes beer as bills become law. Like politicians who occasionally need to emerge from their deliberations to vent in front of cameras or on Twitter, the yeast casts off carbon dioxide, which is released slowly out of an airlock to keep the pressure from building up and risking an accident. Like types of legislation, different beers take differing amounts of time. A simple British Bitter might be through the first fermentation stage in a week, for instance. But, I would buy your conservative a dark stout or perhaps a Belgian Quad to remind him that good legislation is slow legislation. Both will take considerably longer to ferment and then to mature.

The Northy 12, an attempted clone of the world-famous Trappist masterpiece Westvleteren 12 will take a few weeks in the first fermentation (think House of Representatives). Then another three months in a secondary fermentation (think Senate) before its put in bottles for at least another few weeks (think presidents veto period). Preferably, though, this complex Belgian-type strong ale would bottle condition for at least six months. In brewing, time is essential to allow proper flavors to develop and also allow the impurities and less desirable particles to fall out.

This is the process of good legislation, too. Ideas germinate and legislation is drafted. Legislation is debated and honed. Objections are raised, research is done and bad ideas fall away while new ideas are added. After a time, if all goes according to our Founders plan, we are left with good legislation that will be more likely to do good and less likely to do harm than if one person (president, party leader, Supreme Court Justice or talk radio host) or one party was considered to have a mandate and quickly and immoderately enacted their will.

Like brewing, our Founding Fathers gave us a complex system that takes time to turn raw ingredients into a worthwhile finished product. Our Founders warned us of the dangers of quick decision-making and Alexis de Tocqueville later came along to give strong warnings against a democratic peoples falling in love with their own desires and undermining our vital institutions in order to get what they want most efficiently. We should also remember the lessons of the Obama mistakespolicy passed by one party or through simple executive fiat will be overturned just as simply when the tides of fortune change.

True conservatives have long understood these basic truths and are best when they insist on constitutional processes and institutional norms even when the temptation is strong to cut corners to get the policies and people we want. Perhaps a new home-brew kit will help the conservative in your life settle back into a habitual patience and a dedication to process and institutions that are assurances of good government in any republic.

The author wishes to dedicate this essay to Colonel Tom Russell-Tutty (U.S. Army), who is currently serving in the Middle East but who homebrews when he is not on deployment.

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 by PeterKraayvanger from pixabay.
In early November, we presented at a tax symposium in York with Mike Lucas, superintendent of York Public Schools. Not surprisingly, there was considerable frustration expressed by the local agricultural landowners who  like many farmers and ranchers across Nebraska have seen their property taxes skyrocket in recent years. We have seen the data regarding these increases and are sympathetic.

We were encouraged to see that the landowners frustration wasnt directed at Yorks schools. The landowners in attendance understood that like other school districts across the state, Yorks school district has kept spending increases to a minimum, and provides an important service.

But as property valuation in York and many other rural communities has increased, state aid to schools in these same communities has fallen. Significantly. As a result, local property taxpayers are left to pick up increasing larger shares of the public school bill. This is how our K-12 education funding formula works in Nebraska. And so, over time, as agricultural land valuation growth has outpaced that of residential and commercial property, more and more of the cost of K-12 funding has fallen on agricultural land owners. And now that commodity prices are down, our agricultural producers feel the pinch even more.

While it was encouraging that the audience at the York symposium wasnt blaming their local schools, there was a lot of animosity toward the urban schools, who receive the majority of state funding for K-12 because they dont have as much property value from which to raise revenue. Truth be told, however, the state K-12 funding formula isnt working that well for urban districts either.

What urban school district leaders will tell you is that they are at or above their state-set property tax levy limit of $1.05, while many rural school districts have significantly lower rates.

They will tell you they have growing enrollment, and growing needs. They will tell you that state aid isnt predictable or stable, creating budgeting uncertainty that property-rich districts dont have to worry about.

Our K-12 funding formula in Nebraska is complex and more than a quarter century old. While tweaks have been made along the way, the level of frustration about the formula from both rural and urban districts signifies that it is time for a new formula.

In the upcoming legislative session, we expect to see many proposed changes to our K-12 funding formula. We are likely to see a variety of proposals that would send state aid to those districts that are heavily reliant on property taxes to support their local schools. While this would help reduce property taxes for agricultural land owners, it would likely mean funding cuts for growing urban districts, who are at their property tax levy limits. The consequence of such a change would mean larger class sizes, older text books, and crumbling school buildings for two-thirds of Nebraskas public school children.

Nebraskas public schools are among the best in the country and they contribute to an educated workforce, which in turn leads to more and higher paying jobs. It is too important to the future of our state to put public education in the crosshairs of a rural-urban battle, particularly in a year when resources will be scarce as the Legislature grapples with falling revenues, and uncertainty about federal funding of K-12 education. For this reason, we believe the best path forward is a study of our education funding system that results in a formula that works for all of Nebraska.
WASHINGTON  Whatever his other considerable achievements, our president-elect is not known for his broad reading in American history. But Donald Trump is about to enter that history. And in the spirit of new beginnings, he might view this as an opportunity to accumulate some inspiration, both for his inaugural address and his manner of governing.

So here is an exercise: If you were to recommend three American texts for our president-elect to read and ponder before taking the oath of office, what would they be?

The smart asses in the back of the room have already said the Constitution, so lets exclude that one. There are, of course, so many possibilities that any proposed list is almost entirely subjective. In a casual survey of friends, I got strong options by Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan.

But since (in my entirely artificial construct) I have to choose, here are my selections:

First, Martin Luther King Jr.s Letter from a Birmingham Jail. Written in 1963 from solitary confinement, it was a response to local white clergymen who had condemned protests and accused King of being an outside agitator.

For King, no one is an outsider when it comes to confronting injustice because injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. King based a vision of human dignity on moral law, which takes precedence over unjust human laws. And King urges  actually demands  that white America see events from a different perspective. When you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will ... when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters ... then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait.

The lessons here? The limits of law and order, set at the boundaries of conscience; the importance of protest in a free society; the need for empathy as the basis for justice.

Second, Id propose Franklin D. Roosevelts Four Freedoms speech to Congress in 1941. America had not yet been attacked at Pearl Harbor. But Roosevelt knew that the country would eventually be engulfed by the disorders of the world. So he set out to overcome isolationist sentiment and build public support for military aid to a beleaguered Britain.

In his view, America opposes any attempt to lock us in behind an ancient Chinese wall. Instead, the future and the safety of our country and of our democracy are overwhelmingly involved in events far beyond our borders. The engagement and sacrifice of Americans, he realized, had to be rooted in an unshakable belief in the manner of life which they are defending. And so he set out the goals of freedom of speech and expression  everywhere in the world ... freedom of every person to worship God in his own way  everywhere in the world ... freedom from want ... freedom from fear.

That theory of Americas global role has been embraced by Democratic and Republican presidents since World War II, helping defend the American people from grave dangers and stabilizing large portions of the world.

It is the great power of historical texts that they speak to us differently, in different times. We read certain speeches and documents again and again. But then, in a new light, they speak across the years, as close as a voice over your shoulder.

This is true of my third choice: George Washingtons Letter to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, Rhode Island. Washington was responding to a letter of thanks from representatives of the largest Jewish community in colonial America.

It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, replied Washington, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens. Washington continued: May the Children of the Stock of Abraham who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants; while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.

This is the proper response to anger and division. We are not a nation that grants tolerance; we are a nation that recognizes inherent rights, held equally by all the Children of Abraham, and everyone else. And when we come back to our deepest values, as we always do, there shall be none to make them afraid.
The latest flashpoint in the environmental movements North American battle against fossil fuel development is rooted in an encampment near Cannon Ball, N.D., on the northern edge of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation.

On the surface, the protest pits the Standing Rock Sioux against big oils intrusion into their world. This week the Obama administration directed the U.S. Corps of Engineers to deny the final permit needed to complete the $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline (DAP) project. The pipeline is sited to connect the Bakken shale oil fields in North Dakota to Illinois via a 1,172-mile route. Construction of the pipeline is 22 percent complete.

The protest has drawn support from Native Americans from around the country, entertainers, and the usual cast of environmental activists, including Earth Justice, the Sierra Club, Bold Nebraska and a host of other green special interests.

Paid consultants and activists have crafted a compelling narrative based on a number of fables. Despite the poignant appeals and the staged dramatic images, the issue isnt about despoiling sovereign native lands, contamination of tribal water supplies or protecting indigenous cultural resources.

The facts are these: From an environmental standpoint, the pipeline is the safest option. The 500,000 barrels of oil that will traverse the pipeline daily is now being transported in more carbon-intensive modes  rail tanker cars or long-haul tanker trucks. Both modes have been prone to catastrophic, sometimes deadly failures. So blocking this pipeline in the interest of reducing greenhouse gases is a bogus notion. The greater environmental risks come with surface transport.

The pipeline doesnt cross tribal land, nor does it harm cultural resources. The pipeline does not cross any land owned by the Standing Rock Sioux. The land sited in North Dakota belongs to private owners and the U.S. government. A dangerous precedent will be set if the Standing Rock tribe were allowed to block the pipeline on land outside its jurisdiction. The due diligence to site the DAP was thorough and inclusive, involving 389 recorded meetings between the Army Corps and 55 tribes to review the DAP. The pipelines route parallels existing infrastructure that includes high-voltage transmission towers and the Northern Border Pipeline, a route carefully plotted on private land to minimize environmental impact and avoid encroachment on areas of potential cultural importance.

The argument about potential harm to the water supply doesnt hold water. Long before the DAP was conceived, the Standing Rock tribe collaborated with the Army Corps to relocate its drinking-water intake 70 miles downstream of where the proposed pipeline will cross the Missouri River. The high-tech pipeline built to exceed federal safety standards will be embedded 100 feet below the surface of the river. Automatic shutoff valves will be affixed on either side of the river as an added precaution. Little mention is made of eight gas and oil pipelines that already safely cross the Missouri River.

Certainly, it is heartening to see broad support and attention given to any legitimate cause that would help Americas native peoples.

But the DAP has been legally permitted and the fight to stop it is being miscast as a battle to protect native sovereign interests. In reality, the showdown is a political line in the shifting sands pitting energy development against the green movement. President Obamas gesture was an 11th hour payback to the environmental groups who helped him get elected. The incoming administration will focus on the facts and the sufficiency of the process already in place.
World Series no-hitter! Astros combine for Fall Classic's first no-no since 1956

Cristian Javier and three relievers combined to no-hit the Phillies in a 5-0 win, evening the World Series at 2-2.
Katie Stuart is a start. But will she be enough?

The new 112th District State Representative is headed to Springfield where she will find a mess.

Muddying the waters in the state capitol is a lawsuit filed by six lawmakers demanding former Illinois Comptroller Leslie Munger for having not issued them paychecks since may.

Now, keep in mind that the state has a pile of overdue bills that total $10.4 billion.

Jobs have been lost, services have been cut, education is on life support.

One of the plaintiffs in the case, Chris Welch, said in a recent interview: "People are suffering. People have mortgages to pay, tuition to take care of. We've gone to work every day for six months. There are financial hardships for many."

Yes, Chris there are hardships  hardships for many hard working people in Illinois, hardships for aspiring students, hardships for those in need of services.

Munger's replacement, Susana Mendoza, has pledged to continue Munger's paycheck holdout.

Funny, isn't it? When people don't do their jobs, they don't get paid.

Which brings us back to Katie Stuart.

Illinois government is broken, the butt of jokes across the nation.

It needs to be fixed and we're quite sure many who voted on Nov. 8 did so knowing that the same-old, same-old just isn't cutting it.

That's why Stuart is headed to Springfield.

She's just one person, although there are others around the state who were elected because of the similar circumstances.

We wish them well.

The state is a disaster and it needs some fresh ideas and new solutions.

Some of us  the real people  are, in fact, facing legitimate hardships.
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville School of Pharmacy students received national accolades during the American Society of Hospital Pharmacists (ASHP) Midyear Clinical Meeting including all Student Societies of Health-System Pharmacy (SSHP) held Dec. 3-4 in Las Vegas.

Fourth-year pharmacy students Abby Buchman, of Springfield, and Jessica Lorenson, of Chatham, earned third place in the Clinical Skills Competition among 129 teams from across the country. Competing teams were given a complex patient case, with two hours to formulate a complete care plan, followed by a brief presentation, and a question and answer period with a panel of judges.

Abby and I were fortunate to compete in this competition last year in New Orleans, which gave us invaluable experience and confidence coming into this years competition, said Lorenson, whose interests are in both critical care and emergency medicine.

This experience has given us the opportunity to apply our classroom knowledge to real-life patient scenarios, added Buchman, who aspires to be a psychiatric pharmacist in an outpatient clinic. Working in teams has prepared us for collaborative environments, as pharmacists are becoming integral members of healthcare teams.

Students also represented the School of Pharmacy during the ASHP-SSHP recognition program where the group was awarded the Outstanding Professional Development Project Award. The award honors the success of the student organizations Pharmacy Practice Model Initiative (PPMI) that provides education and guidance for pharmacy students prior to starting their required Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experiences (APPE).

This is an impactful project, because not only does it increase pharmacy students knowledge about the PAI (formerly known as PPMI), but it also may indirectly improve patient care through promoting the PAI at our hospital experience sites, said Lisa Lubsch, PharmD, clinical associate professor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice and faculty advisor for the SIUE SSHP.

My involvement with SSHP has given me vast insight into the world of health system pharmacy, added Mallory Belcher, third-year pharmacy student and president of SIUE SSHP. I've also been able to develop my leadership skills and make great connections through this organization since my first year. My involvement with the PPMI project has enhanced my knowledge of the ASHP Practice Advancement Initiative, so I can work towards bettering patient care in the hospital setting in the future.

According to Lubsch, the PPMI project will continue for all students during their experiences. Additionally, the SSHP will begin a new professional development project with the goal of increasing knowledge about end stage renal disease.

SIUE School of Pharmacy: Todays pharmacists improve patients lives through the medication and education they provide. Dedicated to developing a community of caring pharmacists, the SIUE School of Pharmacy curriculum is nationally recognized as a model that offers students a unique combination of classroom education, research, community service and patient care. The School of Pharmacys areas of excellence include a drug design and discovery core; pediatric practice; chronic pain research and practice; and diabetes research and practice. As the only downstate Illinois pharmacy doctorate program, the SIUE School of Pharmacy is addressing the growing need for highly trained pharmacists in a rapidly growing field.
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Linkedin Yury Fedotov (The Jakarta Post) Vienna  Fri, December 9, 2016

Each year, on Dec. 9, the world marks International Anti-Corruption Day. We treat this not only as a means to raise awareness, but also as an opportunity to showcase innovative ways that people and organizations can work together to counter this scourge.



Corruption affects each and every one of us: our healthcare suffers when funds for medical equipment are stolen; our education systems are hit when school budgets are illegally siphoned off; and our political institutions are undermined when bribes are paid and kickbacks sought.



The transformative 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, to which the world committed last year, has put efforts to fight corruption in context and has given us a new perspective. Preventing and fighting corruption is an essential investment to the infrastructure that we need to put in place to achieve the 2030 Agenda. Our challenge is to create and sustain effective, transparent and accountable institutions at all levels.



The task that we have ahead of us therefore is to develop a new norm  one where corruption is not seen as part of life, or as a part of doing business, or where impunity is accepted.

(Read also: Questioning perceptions of corruption)



But what can we do to achieve this?



Last year, the worlds key policymakers and practitioners dealing with crime prevention and criminal justice gathered in Doha for the 13th United Nations Crime Congress. Over 5,000 people from across the globe attended the Congress which adopted the Doha Declaration, a solemn and robust commitment by the worlds Governments to promote peaceful, corruption-free and inclusive societies because they are essential to achieving sustainable

development.



My office, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, has rolled out a set of concrete actions to help countries build up the institutions and put in place the measures necessary to implement the Doha Declaration and thus prevent and fight crime, including corruption.



One of the pillars of this programme is the Education for Justice initiative which works with primary, secondary and tertiary education institutions. It looks to prevent crime through education activities and curricula which will help educators teach the next generation to understand and address problems that undermine the rule of law.



We believe that the best way to achieve the peaceful, corruption-free and inclusive societies the world needs for sustainable development is to ultimately promote a culture of lawfulness.



Building respect for the rule of law, and instilling its core values among the worlds future adults directly complements our activities concerning strengthening todays legal and institutional frameworks. As the guardian of the United Nations Convention against Corruption, UNODC works with States on a daily basis to devise responses to this crime. The Convention is the worlds only legally binding international anti-corruption instrument.



With 180 States parties having ratified the convention, it is nearing universal participation and is bolstered by a peer review mechanism, where States parties assess progress towards effective implementation.



This International Anti-Corruption Day, lets work together to build a new norm, one of respect for the rule of law and rooting out corruption.

***

The writer is executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

---------------

We are looking for information, opinions, and in-depth analysis from experts or scholars in a variety of fields. We choose articles based on facts or opinions about general news, as well as quality analysis and commentary about Indonesia or international events. Send your piece to community@jakpost.com. For more information click here.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post.
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Linkedin Good Indonesian Food (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, December 9, 2016

The sound of water splashing from the fishpond and the gentle gending (Javanese gamelan music) ditties wafting from the speakers made me feel like in a Balinese village  where people are still spoilt by nature, far from the bustling foreign tourist crowd. This was my first impression of Smarapura Traditional Resto. It was a pleasant surprise to discover such a homey, traditional eatery among the modern cafes in Tebet, South Jakarta.

Owner Made Repel Sandji established this Balinese restaurant in 2010. Its moniker, Smarapura, which is also the name of Made Repel Sandjis hometown, means a beautiful and happy place, and it has more or less hit the mark with its mission to provide such a venue. Another aspect that lends an authentic Balinese touch to the atmosphere is the gapura (gateway) that decorates the frontage of the building, which was sent from Bali.

Besides the semi-alfresco area that is decked with wooden chairs and tables, customers are able to sit lesehan-style on the floor with a mat at one of the saung (huts) that surround the pond. I chose to settle myself at one of the huts right next to the fishpond.

(Read also: 6 recommended Balinese restaurants in Jakarta)

Nasi ayam Betutu at Smarapura.(Good Indonesian Food/File)

The menu here is divided into sections with names like Denpasar, Jimbaran and Ubud, with honest-to-goodness Balinese dishes, such as bebek garing (deep-fried duck), nasi campur Bali (Balinese mixed rice), nasi ayam betutu (steamed or roasted chicken in Betutu spices with rice), sate lilit (minced meat satay), pisang rai (boiled banana with grated coconut) and rujak gobet (sweet-and-sour mixed fruits in sambal).

As my tummy was crying out for a spot of dinner, I ordered a set of its nasi ayam Betutu. Comprising of rice, shallots, sambal matah (shallots and lemongrass sambal), ayam Betutu and sup nangka (jackfruit soup), it was the delicious and savory ayam Betutu that took center stage with its tender meat. If you prefer your food hot and spicy, then dab your chicken with a bit of the sambal matah. However, those who dont enjoy the taste of raw onions should give it a pass. The most unique feature from the meal is the presence of the succulent sup nangka, which consists of two velvety cuts of jackfruit that perfectly complement the ayam Betutu and rice. (kes)

Explore more about Indonesian cuisine here.

Jl. Tebet Timur Dalam II, No. 43, Tebet, South Jakarta

Contact: 021 8370 2402

Open daily from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Rp 60,000 (US$4.50) per person

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post.
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Linkedin Masajeng Rahmiasri (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, December 9, 2016

An exhibition that focuses on two United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)-designated cultural sites, namely the Borobudur temple in Magelang, Central Java and the Bamiyan Valley in Afghanistan, is being held at the National Museum in Jakarta until Dec. 28.

Arief Rachman, the executive chairman of the Indonesian National Commission for UNESCO, said during the Crossroad of Cultures: Bamiyan and Borobudur exhibitions opening ceremony on Thursday, Hopefully we could share our concerns for cultural development and have more appreciation toward historical culture and archaeological sites."

Meanwhile, Afghanistan Ambassador to Indonesia Roya Rahmani said, "It's our responsibility not only to protect and promote such heritage sites, but also educate our youth about the value and relevance of these sites. We must also encourage them to take an interest and uphold the values which these sites carry, such as cultural diversity."

(Read also: Ceramics biennale features works by artists from 20 countries)

Roya also mentioned how cultural heritage sites were prone to looting, as well as natural and manmade destruction. She suggested that an international law criminalizing the destruction of world heritage sites and historical treasures should be created to tackle these issues.

Similar to how Borobudur embodies Buddhist culture in Indonesia, Bamiyan Valley is also rich with the historical information of the religion in Afghanistan, as two gigantic Buddha statues, which are said to reach 55 and 38 meters, used to remain on the site. The statues are currently being reconstructed after being destroyed in 2001 by the Taliban.

The exhibition is part of an ongoing UNESCO project that promotes intercultural dialogue or museum developments, in collaboration with Indonesia and Afghanistan governments.

Prior to the event, workshops for Indonesian and Afghanistan museum curators were held between 2015 and 2016.

The exhibition will continue at the Galleria shopping mall Yogyakarta on Jan. 10 to 16 and Karmawibangga Museum in Magelang, Central Java from Jan. 20 to Feb. 2, 2017. (kes)
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Linkedin Seth Borenstein (Associated Press) Washington  Fri, December 9, 2016

John Glenn, whose 1962 flight as the first U.S. astronaut to orbit the Earth made him an all-American hero and propelled him to a long career in the U.S. Senate, died Thursday. The last survivor of the original Mercury 7 astronauts was 95.

Glenn died at the James Cancer Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, where he was hospitalized for more than a week, said Hank Wilson, communications director for the John Glenn School of Public Affairs.

(Read also: What do astronauts eat in space?)

John Herschel Glenn Jr. had two major career paths that often intersected: flying and politics, and he soared in both of them.

Before he gained fame orbiting the world, he was a fighter pilot in two wars, and as a test pilot, he set a transcontinental speed record. He later served 24 years in the Senate from Ohio. A rare setback was a failed 1984 run for the Democratic presidential nomination.

His long political career enabled him to return to space in the shuttle Discovery at age 77 in 1998, a cosmic victory lap that he relished and turned into a teachable moment about growing old. He holds the record for the oldest person in space.

More than anything, Glenn was the ultimate and uniquely American space hero: a combat veteran with an easy smile, a strong marriage of 70 years and nerves of steel. Schools, a space center and the Columbus airport were named after him. So were children.

The Soviet Union leaped ahead in space exploration by putting the Sputnik 1 satellite in orbit in 1957, and then launched the first man in space, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, in a 108-minute orbital flight on April 12, 1961. After two suborbital flights by Alan Shepard Jr. and Gus Grissom, it was up to Glenn to be the first American to orbit the Earth.

"Godspeed, John Glenn," fellow astronaut Scott Carpenter radioed just before Glenn thundered off a Cape Canaveral launch pad, now a National Historic Landmark, to a place America had never been. At the time of that Feb. 20, 1962, flight, Glenn was 40 years old.

During the four-hour, 55-minute flight, Glenn uttered a phrase that he would repeat frequently throughout life: "Zero G, and I feel fine."

"It still seems so vivid to me," Glenn said in a 2012 interview with The Associated Press on the 50th anniversary of the flight. "I still can sort of pseudo feel some of those same sensations I had back in those days during launch and all."

Glenn's ride in the cramped Friendship 7 capsule had its scary moments. Sensors showed his heat shield was loose after three orbits, and Mission Control worried he might burn up during re-entry when temperatures reached 3,000 degrees. But the heat shield held.

(Read also: Chinese astronauts enter space station following docking)

Glenn was born July 18, 1921, in Cambridge, Ohio, and grew up in New Concord, Ohio. His love of flight was lifelong; John Glenn Sr. spoke of the many summer evenings he arrived home to find his son running around the yard with outstretched arms, pretending he was piloting a plane.

Glenn's goal of becoming a commercial pilot was changed by World War II. He left Muskingum College to join the Naval Air Corps and soon after, the Marines.

He became a successful fighter pilot who ran 59 hazardous missions, often as a volunteer or as the requested backup of assigned pilots. A war later, in Korea, he earned the nickname "MiG-Mad Marine."

Glenn's public life began when he broke the transcontinental airspeed record, bursting from Los Angeles to New York City in three hours, 23 minutes and eight seconds. With his Crusader averaging 725 mph, the 1957 flight proved the jet could endure stress when pushed to maximum speeds over long distances.

In New York, he got a hero's welcome  his first tickertape parade. He got another after his flight on Friendship 7.

He first ran for the U.S. Senate in 1964 but left the race when he suffered a concussion after slipping in the bathroom and hitting his head on the tub. He tried again in 1970 but was defeated in the primary.

For the next four years, Glenn devoted his attention to business and investments that made him a multimillionaire. In 1974, Glenn ran for the Senate again and won.

Glenn represented Ohio in the Senate longer than any other senator in the state's history. He became an expert on nuclear weaponry and was the Senate's most dogged advocate of nonproliferation. He was the leading supporter of the B-1 bomber when many in Congress doubted the need for it.

Glenn said the lowest point of his life was 1990, when he and four other senators came under scrutiny for their connections to Charles Keating, the notorious financier who eventually served prison time for his role in the costly savings and loan failure of the 1980s. The Senate Ethics Committee cleared Glenn of serious wrongdoing but said he "exercised poor judgment."

He announced his impending retirement in 1997, 35 years to the day after he became the first American in orbit, saying, "There is still no cure for the common birthday."

Glenn returned to space in a long-awaited second flight in 1998 aboard the space shuttle Discovery. He got to move around aboard the shuttle for far longer  nine days, compared with just under five hours in 1962  as well as sleep and experiment with bubbles in weightlessness.

In 1943, Glenn married his childhood sweetheart, Anna Margaret Castor. They had two children, Carolyn and John David.

The couple spent their later years between Washington and Columbus. Both served as trustees at their alma mater, Muskingum College. Glenn spent time promoting the John Glenn School of Public Affairs at Ohio State University, which also houses an archive of his private papers and photographs.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, December 9, 2016

Singaporean students came out on top in science, math and reading subjects among their peers from 72 countries, according to a survey conducted by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).

Published on Tuesday by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECDA), the survey tested the academic skills of 500,000 15-year-old students.

Based on the survey, students in Singapore obtained the highest scores, followed by Japan, Estonia, Taiwan, Finland, Macau, Canada, Vietnam, Hong Kong, China and South Korea, while Western European countries England, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland ranked 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th, respectively.

Singapores accomplishment is consistent with how high the academic bars are set in the country. Nanyang Technology University Professor and Vice President Sing Kong Lee said, Singapore invested heavily in a quality teaching force to raise up the prestige and status of teaching and to attract the best graduates.

(Read also: Indonesian student among 2016 Diabetes Award winners)

According to the BBC, the country is known to recruit teachers using a highly-centralized system, in which only the top 5 percent of graduates are chosen. They are all trained at the National Institute of Education, a single route that ensures quality control.

Meanwhile, Indonesia ranked only above Brazil, Peru, Lebanon, Tunisia, Kosovo, Aljazair and the Dominican Republic. Despite the low ranking, OECD and PISA have released a statement based on a survey carried out since 2000 that claims Indonesia has shown outstanding improvement, During the period of 2012-2015, the science results for 15-year-olds rose by 21 points. This has made Indonesia one of the countries with the fastest development."

Hence, if this progression continues, kompas.com reported, the scientific academic abilities Indonesian students could match those of students in more advanced countries by 2030. (mra/kes)
The Jakarta General Elections Commission (KPU Jakarta) stated on Thursday that 7.1 million people would be eligible to exercise their voting rights in the 2017 gubernatorial election.

From the results of the KPU recapitulation on Dec. 6, the number of voters included on the final voter list [DPT] is 7,108,589," KPU Jakarta head Sumarno said after a meeting in Jakarta on Thursday evening.

He said 3,561,690 of the total were male voters while female voters amounted to 3,546,899. The voters deemed eligible were from 44 subdistricts and 267 districts across Jakarta, he added.

According to the KPU Jakarta, 2,006,397 voters are from East Jakarta, making it the area with the highest number of voters. West Jakarta ranks second with 1,652,051 voters, followed by 1,593,700 voters from South Jakarta, 1,091,874 from North Jakarta, 747,152 from Central Jakarta and 17,415 from Thousand Islands.

Sumarno added that 13,023 polling stations would be set up to accommodate voters across the capital.

Moch Siddik Sabri, head of the KPU Jakarta working group assigned to renewing voter data, said the commission determined the figures by using a potential voters list issued by the Home Ministry and the DPT for the 2014 presidential election as its base data.

Deploying more than 16,000 personnel, the working group updated the DPT by holding data checks across Jakarta, including in apartments, low-cost apartments and prisons, he added. (ebf)
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Linkedin Haeril Halim, Marguerite Afra Sapiie, Nurul Fitri Ramadhani, and Bambang Muryanto (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta/Yogyakarta  Fri, December 9, 2016

The National Police have come under fire for failing to uphold the law in the face of intolerant actions by hard-line groups, which have become more assertive in the midst of rising conservatism in the country.

In the past three days, the country has seen at least two incidents where hard-line Muslims intimidated people of other faiths and forced them to give in to their demands.

A day after an Islamic group called the Ahlu Sunnah Defenders (PAS) in Bandung forced a Christian community to cancel a Christmas service on Tuesday, the Muslim People Forum (FUI) of Yogyakarta forced Duta Wacana Christian University (UKDW) to take down billboards that feature a student wearing a hijab on Wednesday.

The billboards show three female students, one of whom is wearing a hijab, studying in a library as a symbol of religious pluralism on the campus. The billboards have stood for about three months in a number of spots in Yogyakarta, including one on the campus compound, to welcome prospective freshmen.

It was not until Wednesday that the hard-line group claimed the billboards insulted Islam.

(Read also: FUI forces Christian university to drop billboard with hijab-clad student)

UKDW rector Henry Feriadi said campus management had no choice but to bow to the demands of the hard-line group because the university did not want to create noise that could disrupt activities at the campus and in Yogyakarta.

The group said the billboards were misleading because it [hijab] is a symbol of Islam, and we did not ask permission from the mass organization to display such billboards. We never engage in proselytization [as accused] because we respect pluralism, Henry told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

After the UKDW incident, other Christian universities in Yogyakarta fear they could be the next targets.

Atmajaya University in Yogyakarta may take down a billboard depicting a student wearing a hijab on Jl. Urip Sumoharjo in the city. Meanwhile, the Catholic Sanata Dharma University in Yogyakarta is also on alert following circulating information on social media that the FUI will pay a visit because the campus has a similar billboard displayed in front of the university.

The brazen acts of intimidation by hard-line groups has sparked concerns that the police are too soft in dealing with their antics.

Setara Institute chairman Hendardi criticized the police for failing to uphold the law and instead acting as a mediator when handling acts of intolerance. Sometimes the police get confused over what they need to do in such a situation, so they always bow to pressure from intolerant groups, Hendardi said.

(Read also: Catholic university refuses to remove billboards with hijab-clad student)

The police should take firm action against intolerant groups, National Awakening Party (PKB) lawmaker Maman Imanulhaq said.

Those groups think they are free to do anything they want. Thats because law enforcers have never been firm, he added.

National Police spokesperson Insp. Gen. Boy Rafli Amar dismissed accusations that the force had bowed to hard-line groups and defended their approach of mediating conflicting parties rather than enforcing the law.

If the intolerant groups violate the law and move to conduct violence such as torture or destruction, they will be punished for sure.For now , mediation is important to find the root cause of the problems, Boy said.

Police have been under pressure from hard-line Islamic groups following the blasphemy accusation against Jakarta Governor Basuki Ahok Tjahaja Purnama.

After speeding up the investigation into Ahoks blasphemy case, the police are pushing the North Jakarta District Court to move the location of Ahoks trial for fear that it could attract protesters, including hard-line groups, potentially triggering security problems.

The court, however, has said that it may ignore the polices recommendations.
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Linkedin Anton Hermansyah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, December 9, 2016

Indonesia's largest thermal coal miner Bumi Resources will convert some of its debt, worth US$1.99 billion, into equity after securing approval from its creditors.

Director Andrew Christopher Beckham said the conversion would be carried out next year through a preemptive rights issue, in which some of the stocks would be first offered to existing shareholders and the remainder to creditors.

"After we get approval from the Financial Services Authority [OJK], we will hold the rights issue around the second quarter next year," Beckham said on Thursday in a public expose.

He added that the company would issue 29.1 billion new stocks valued at Rp 926 (7 US cents) apiece.

As of September, Bumi had around $4.2 billion debt from 10 creditors, with two Chinese institutions, China Investment Corporation (CIC) and China Development Bank (CDB), having the biggest portions of the figure with $1.06 billion and $550 million, respectively.

CIC, for example, would get 22.6 percent of the companys share after the debt-to-equity swaps, Beckham said.

Beckham added that another $639 million of Bumis debt would be converted into mandatory convertible bonds, making it able to reduce its total debt to $1.6 billion after conversions.

During a boom in the countrys coal industry, Bumi was able to increase its coal production to 80 million tons in 2013 from 54 million tons in 2008.

However, a drop in coal prices in recent years due to the global economic slowdown, particularly in China, led to Bumis coal production stagnating at around 84 million tons in the 2014 to 2015 period.

On Thursday, Bumis share price dropped by 0.68 percent to Rp 294 apiece. (hwa)
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Linkedin Denise Lavoie (Associated Press) Brockton, Mass., United States  Fri, December 9, 2016

Hundreds of houses of worship are offering sanctuary to people who could face deportation if President-elect Donald Trump follows through on his campaign pledge to remove millions of immigrants living in the country illegally.

To some churches, sanctuary means spiritual support or legal assistance to fight deportation. Others promise or already are extending physical sanctuary by housing immigrants.

In Brockton, a poor city of about 95,000 people south of Boston, four churches have pledged to take in immigrants fearful of being deported.

"If you need a safe place, once you enter the doors of this building, you are safe," said the Rev. Abraham Waya, pastor of Central United Methodist Church, who said his church can shelter as many as 100 people. "We will host you and take care of you for as long as it takes."

During the campaign, Trump pledged to "immediately terminate" President Barack Obama's executive actions on immigration, including the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which has extended work permits and temporary deportation relief to more than 700,000 immigrants brought here illegally as youths.

In an interview with Time magazine published this week, Trump adopted a more sympathetic tone toward young immigrants, saying, "We're going to work something out that's going to make people happy and proud."

A spokesman for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the agency follows a 2011 policy to generally avoid entering "sensitive locations" such as schools, places of worship and hospitals to take custody of undocumented immigrants. The policy says enforcement actions can be conducted in those locations in cases of terrorism or when there are "exigent circumstances."

About 450 houses of worship of various denominations nationwide have offered to provide some form of sanctuary, including living space, financial assistance or rides for schoolchildren, said Alison Harrington, pastor of Southside Presbyterian Church in Tucson, Arizona.

Immigrants have been fearful for decades, particularly as deportations increased during the Obama administration, said Harrington, who is involved in the sanctuary movement on a national scale. But Trump's campaign promises to build a wall along the Mexican border, to bar Muslims from entering the country and to deport millions "has really galvanized people," she said.

The Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, with more than 140 congregations, has adopted a resolution calling for "holy resistance" to Trump's immigration proposals and declaring itself a "sanctuary diocese."

In Philadelphia, a coalition of 17 churches and two synagogues said it has seen a huge uptick in the number of volunteers for a program offering support to immigrants when ICE raids their homes. The program had 65 volunteers in May. In the two weeks following Trump's win, more than 1,000 new volunteers signed up, said Peter Pedemonti, executive director of the New Sanctuary Movement of Philadelphia.

"We know that we're in a different historical moment right now and that our faith compels us to take increasingly bold actions," Harrington said.

Some churches have already made good on their promises.

In Philadelphia, a 40-year-old man from Mexico has been living in the Arch Street United Methodist Church for three weeks.

Javier Flores entered the US illegally in 1997 and has been deported and re-entered several times since then. After being held in an ICE detention center for over a year, the agency released him for 90 days so he could prepare for deportation. He did not want to be separated from his wife and three children, so he sought refuge, said the Rev. Robin Hynicka, senior pastor.

"For us, we feel it's a moral obligation to keep families together," Hynicka said.

Ingrid Encalata Latorre, an immigrant from Peru, took sanctuary last week with her year-old son, Anibal, at a Quaker meeting house in Denver.

Latorre, 32, has exhausted appeals of a deportation order and is awaiting a decision on a final, discretional appeal to immigration officials in Washington.

She left her native Cusco, Peru, in 2000 to join an aunt in Colorado, where she found work as a dishwasher, cared for kids, cleaned homes and worked at assisted living centers, she said. In 2002, she bought fake papers from an unscrupulous street seller.

She was arrested in 2010 and pleaded guilty to a felony ID theft charge. She paid US$11,500 in back taxes and successfully completed parole, but her guilty felony plea brought her to ICE's attention. Advocates arranged for LaTorre and Anibal to stay in the meeting house.

Anibal, a US citizen, is being treated at Denver's Childrens Hospital for a congenital twisted neck condition; her other son, 8-year-old Bryant, is also a US citizen and attends a bilingual school in suburban Westminster.

"I have lived half of my life here," she said. "Don't be afraid. Just fight and keep going."

___

Associated Press writer Jim Anderson in Denver contributed to this report.
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Linkedin Desy Nurhayati (The Jakarta Post) Nusa Dua, Bali  Fri, December 9 2016

President Joko Jokowi Widodo opened on Thursday the ninth Bali Democracy Forum, reiterating the importance of democracy as a system that guarantees the rights of citizens in the diverse nation and protects their religious freedom.

He also met with former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, who recently visited Myanmars Rakhine state, to pledge humanitarian aid for victims of the recent violence there.

Throughout history, Indonesians have persistently fought for democracy [where] everyone has the same rights and obligations, the checks-and-balance system works, and every single voice matters. Indonesians believe that through democracy, our nation will be better, the President said, addressing participants, including delegates of 95 nations and international organizations.

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Linkedin Fedina S. Sundaryani (The Jakarta Post) Bojonegoro  Fri, December 9, 2016

One of the countrys biggest oil producing fields, Banyu Urip in the ExxonMobil-operated Cepu block in East Java, may start increasing production next year.

The local unit of the US oil and gas giant has proposed a production increase to 200,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd) from the current 185,000 bpod in its 2017 work plan and budget draft, says ExxonMobil Indonesia vice president for public and government affairs Erwin Maryoto.

Erwin claimed the draft submitted by ExxonMobil Indonesias subsidiary, ExxonMobil Cepu Limited (EMCL), had largely been accepted by the Upstream Oil and Gas Regulatory Special Task Force (SKKMigas) as long as it passed a reevaluation of its environmental impact analysis by the Environment and Forestry Ministry.

Even so, the company was confident that it would pass with flying colors since its own evaluation concluded that there was no need to construct new facilities to reach the target production.

We dont see this as something critical since there should not be any environmental impact because there will be no construction of new facilities, Erwin said at the Banyu Urip field site on Thursday.

He added that it had obtained approval from its partners in the block, including Pertamina EP Cepu (PEPC), a subsidiary of state-owned oil and gas firm Pertamina.

This is not the first time EMCL has requested to push up its production rate to 200,000 bopd.

Although SKKMigas allowed the company to start producing 185,000 bopd from 165,000 barrels originally listed in its 2016 work plan and budget, the oil and gas supervision body brushed off further hikes despite the countrys declining production rates. This rejection was based on geological issues.

SKKMigas head Amien Sunaryadi also argued earlier that maintaining the present production rate would be more profitable for the government.

At the current pace, Banyu Urip generates around 20 percent of all national crude output, and has produced up to 120 million barrels since it was first established in 2008 with total investment of US$4 billion.

Based on the companys estimate, it has contributed $44 billion to state coffers under the assumption of oil prices at $50 per barrel.

Even though the original plan of development indicates that 450 million out of 1 billion barrels of crude reserves are recoverable, EMCL has since estimated that recoverable oil stands closer to 700 million barrels.

This was why, Erwin explained, the company was confident enough to propose a significant addition to production.

SKKMigas could not be reached for comment on the issue.

Any increase in Banyu Urips production could be a boon to Indonesia, where aging wells and lack of new oil discoveries have caused shrinking domestic output of around 20 percent every year.

The slow rising crude prices have not helped much either and next years ready-to-sell production target has been set at 815,000 bopd from 820,000 bpod this year, despite the governments original proposal of 780,000 bopd.

Despite EMCLs enthusiasm to jack up production, other oil and gas companies remain wary about the seemingly rising prices.

Total E&P Indonesia recently confirmed that it had proposed to cut its total production next year.

Vice president for corporate communications Arividya Noviyanto said that, if approved, it would decrease oil and condensate production to 53,000 bopd from this years 64,000 bpod. The company has committed to invest $900 million in upstream oil and gas activities.

Oil prices will remain a challenge next year. [Domestically], the Mahakam block transition will also be a challenge, Noviyanto said, citing Pertaminas impending takeover of the block in 2018.
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Linkedin Moses Omposunggu (The Jakarta Post) Banda Aceh  Fri, December 9, 2016

The Social Affairs Ministry has deployed special teams to Aceh to help local residents who experienced trauma after a 6.5-magnitude earthquake hit the province, killing at least 102 people.

The team, which consists of psychologists and ministry officials, will focus on providing post-disaster counseling for adults and activities to cheer up children following the disaster.

Around 7,500 residents have sought refuge in ministry-managed shelters, Social Affairs Minister Khofifah Indar Parawansa said in a statement on Friday.

"The majority of [those seeking refuge] are women and children [...] hopefully [with the help of the trauma teams] they will recover and forget the bad experiences from the disaster," she said.

The earthquake hit Aceh early on Wednesday morning, destroying buildings in Pidie Jaya regency. It occurred at 5:03 a.m. local time at a depth of 10 kilometers, about 106 km southeast of the provincial capital of Banda Aceh.

The trauma teams have set up in seven temporary shelters managed by the ministry in Bireun and Pidie Jaya regencies. The latter is the worst-affected area following the quake. (hwa)
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Linkedin Anton Hermansyah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, December 9, 2016

The Manpower Ministry will facilitate mediation between US-based oil and gas company Chevron and its labor union related to the divestment of Chevron Geothermal Indonesia (CGI) and Chevron Geothermal Salak (CGS).

Chevron Indonesia labor union chairman Indra Kurniawan said that the first official mediation would be held on Dec. 13. The government reportedly agreed to hold the mediation to avoid a union strike.

"Despite the divestment plan being almost final, problems between the labor union and company are not yet solved. Some workers have even pushed for the union to strike," Indra said in an official statement on Friday.

Indra added that the union hoped the dispute could be settled through mediation, saying that if the dispute had to be brought to court it would drain a lot of money, time, and energy from both parties.

Chevron Indonesia started the divestment process of CGI and CGS in February. Indra said that 600 workers were still worried about their future as company's post-divestment labor plan was still unclear.

"It has been nine months since our first discussion with the company. We hope the government's mediation can help," Indra said. (evi)
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Linkedin Stefani Ribka (The Jakarta Post)  Fri, December 9 2016

The government aims to achieve an average nationwide electrification ratio of 92.75 percent next year from the estimated 90.15 percent in 2016 by expanding its electricity network to over 2,000 villages without light.



Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry Director General for Electricity Jarman said his side was optimistic about achieving the goal. By September, the ratio was 89.86 percent and it projects the figure will reach 90.15 percent by year-end.



To reach the target, the ministry plans to light up 2,500 villages with zero electrification mostly located in Papua province.



"There are 2,500 villages with no electricity at all and 10,000 villages with limited electricity, but we will focus on the 2,500 first. Equal spread is important," Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Ignasius Jonan said in a discussion on Thursday.



There is a huge gap presently in terms of electrification ratio between the eastern and western parts of the country. Papua province, for example, only has a 46.47 percent ratio and more than half of its households have yet to enjoy light.



Java, on the other hand, has more than a 90 percent ratio on average across the island.



Jonan acknowledged that building power plants in remote areas was costly and that such a process needed guarantees.



The ministry recently issued a regulation to accelerate the electrification ratio in underdeveloped areas. It becomes a legal basis for firms interested in building power generators in remote regions.



Jarman said it expected to see companies venture into the business, including regional firms. Regional firms can tap into it too, as we know many provinces and areas have much unused budget or income. They can actually consider venturing into this sector," he said.



Meanwhile, the government is also gearing up to continue subsidizing low-income people by offering discounted rates for 450 volt ampere (VA) customers and selected 900 VA customers starting January.



It is paving the way as well for the establishment of 4,487 megawatt (MW) plants in 2017, comprising 2,838 MW by state electricity company PLN and 1,649 MW by independent investors.



The electricity consumption per capita is expected to reach 1,058 kilowatt per hour (kWh) by 2017 from 947.7 kWh as of August and 956 kWh this year-end.



Institute for Essential Services Reform (IESR) executive director Fabby Tumiwa lauded the governments decision to focus on providing electricity in the 2,500 villages, but argued the program lacked a concrete plan.



"I haven't seen a comprehensive master plan from the ministry on lighting up the villages. A broad strategic plan is not enough," he said.



He said the ministry must formulate in detail the feed-in rates to allow investors to calculate their own pricing. "Too many changes in feed-in rates will present investors with uncertainty," he said.



JP/ Stefani Ribka

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Linkedin Anton Hermansyah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, December 9, 2016

The government pledged on Thursday to immediately stop illegal potato imports that have put local farmers at risk.

Speaking after a meeting with representatives of local potato farmers at his office, Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukita said the government only allowed imports of Atlantic potatoes, a variety used to make French fries and chips. Thus, imports of Granola potatoes, which are planted by most local farmers, are prohibited.

Some importers have violated their permits by importing Granola potatoes; it is illegal. We already told the police to investigate, said Enggartiasto.

Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman, who was also present at the meeting, said the government would speed up efforts to help farmers boost productivity. The ministry, for example, will soon deploy over 1,000 agriculture experts to help potato farmers across the archipelago.

According to Central Statistics Agency (BPS) data, potato imports reached 18,674 tons during the first nine months of 2016, with a total import value of US$8.82 million.

Amran said potato prices were around Rp 5,000 (37 US cents) per kilogram last month but had bounced back to Rp 8,500 per kg this week. Low prices, he said, would put local farmers in danger, as the cost of production for potatoes currently stands at Rp 5,000 per kg. (hwa)
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Linkedin Viriya P. Singgih (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, December 9, 2016

Indonesias victory in a case brought by London-listed miner Churchill Mining Plc. at an international tribunal is expected to become a precedent for future international disputes.

The International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) announced on Wednesday that it rejected Churchills claim for compensation against Indonesia of Rp 26 trillion (US$1.95 billion) and even ordered the company to pay a total of $9.45 million in costs to the country.

We were worried, but we kept fighting over and over again because we were sure that we had a solid argument to win this case. Now, Im proud to say that we did it, Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly told journalists on Thursday.

Churchill and its Australian subsidiary Planet Mining Pty. Ltd. took Indonesia to the ICSID in 2012 after the East Kutai administration in East Kalimantan province revoked its coal-mining permits for what had been billed as the worlds seventh-largest undeveloped coal resource.

Churchill began operating in Indonesia in 2008 by acquiring a 75 percent stake in its local partner, the Ridlatama Group.

Two years later, the East Kutai administration revoked Ridlatamas mining permits over its alleged involvement in illegal logging and operations, and for forging permits.

Churchill claimed that such actions had resulted in losses amounting to $1.3 billion.

However, the ICSID, which is part of and funded by the World Bank, found that as many as 34 disputed documents were not authentic and were most likely forged by a person or persons acting for or on behalf of Churchills Indonesian partner the Ridlatama group in collusion with a person inside the East Kutai regency.

In the end, the ICSID found that Churchills due diligence investigations conducted at the time of acquiring the East Kutai Coal licenses were insufficient, the claims brought by Churchill in the arbitration were therefore dismissed.

As a result, Churchill was ordered to pay $8.64 million, or 75 percent of Indonesias total legal costs, plus $800,000 in arbitration tribunal fees paid by the country over the past four years.

Many foreign investors come to Indonesia with malevolent intentions, as they try to benefit from regulatory loopholes and want to make a fortune from it. Therefore, the decision made by the ICSID should be a good warning to them, Yasonna said.

However, he acknowledged that such situations could arise because regional administrations across the archipelago often issued problematic mining permits.

Many analysts believe the 2009 Mining Law is the source of authority misuse at the regional level because it grants local administrations the authority to issue licenses, even to inexperienced mining companies.

Renowned legal expert Frans Hendra Winata said the ICSIDs decision would restore the faith of global investors in the country. It shows the world that Indonesia is still a favorable place to invest in, as it manages businesses fairly, including that involving Churchill, Frans said.

University of Indonesia international legal expert Hikmahanto Juwana, however, said the irresponsible issuance of permits by regional administrations could not be tolerated as they created a mess for the central government to deal with.

Maybe its about time for Indonesia to exit the ICSID. There will be too many mischievous investors that want to trick Indonesia with false claims. Just look at the Churchill case, he warned.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, December 9, 2016

President Joko Jokowi Widodo has announced the governments plan to rebuild the At-Taqarrub Grand Mosque in Keude village, Trienggadeng, Pidie Jaya regency, Aceh.

The mosque has been used as a temporary shelter for Pidie Jaya residents following the 6.4-magnitude earthquake on Wednesday, even though it sustained some damage itself.

Ive seen At-Taqarrubs condition, and Ive decided that this mosque will be rebuilt. We will work on it together. God willing, we will start to clean it up tomorrow and immediately rebuild it, the President said on his visit to the earthquake-torn area on Friday, according to a press statement.

Jokowi and his entourage received a warm welcome from local residents on their visit. As soon as he arrived in the front yard of the mosque, dozens of children sang a famous Indonesian childrens song, with some lyrics replaced to express their admiration for the President.

President Jokowi belongs to whom,

President Jokowi belongs to whom,

President Jokowi belongs to whom,

He belongs to Indonesian children.

Prompt response  President Joko Jokowi Widodo during his visit on Friday hands over assistance to representatives of Pidie Jaya residents killed in a massive earthquake on Wednesday. (Courtesy of the Presidential Office/File)

Addressing the children, Jokowi said they had to stay cheerful despite the difficulties they were facing because of the natural disaster.

I do hope that you, all of my children, can stay enthusiastic about studying. You must keep enthusiastic to sing and you have to stay happy, he told the children, accompanied by child counselor Seto Mulyadi. At the same location, Jokowi also handed over financial assistance to representatives of the families of earthquake victims.

Several Cabinet ministers accompanied the President on the trip. They included Health Minister Nila Moeloke, Public Works and Public Housing Minister Basuki Hadimuljono, Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung and Presidential Chief of Staff Teten Masduki. Indonesian Military commander Gen. Gatot Nurmantyo, National Police chief Gen. Tito Karnavian, National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) head Willem Rampangilei and acting Aceh Governor Soedarmo were also present. (ebf)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, December 9, 2016

President Joko Jokowi Widodo says the handling of victims of a serious earthquake that hit Pidie Jaya, Aceh, on Wednesday, is going well.

During a visit to Dr. Zainoel Abidin Hospital in Banda Aceh on Thursday evening, he said rescue efforts had been 99 percent completed.

According to data, 23 victims, mostly suffering fractures, are receiving treatment at the hospital. Previously, 19 people were treated but four more victims were brought here. So far, eight of the patients have undergone surgery, Jokowi said as quoted by a statement from the Presidential Office.

Jokowi is scheduled to visit Pidie Jaya on Friday to observe the handling of victims, including the distribution of humanitarian assistance.

This is especially for reconstruction activities, which will be conducted after we observe the situation in the field. The most important thing is that the handling of victims taken to this hospital has been running well, the President said.

In a coordination meeting, presidential chief of staff Teten Masduki reported to the President and Cabinet members on the impacts of the massive earthquake.

He said the quake impacted three regencies: Bireuen, Pidie and Pidie Jaya.

The number of people killed in the earthquake has reached 102 while one resident is still reported missing. Meanwhile, 136 people have suffered severe injuries and 616 others have light wounds. As many as 10,029 people have taken refuge in 28 shelters in three regencies, Teten said.

The Aceh administration has set a 14-day emergency response period from Dec. 7 through Dec. 20. (ebf)
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Linkedin Margareth S. Aritonang (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, December 9, 2016

After two years of running the country, President Joko Jokowi Widodo has still not fulfilled his campaign promise to address long-unresolved human rights abuse cases, a promise that is thought to have sealed his victory against his former contender Prabowo Subianto, who is implicated in the forced disappearances of pro-democracy activists in 1998.

The government must fulfill its obligation to solve all cases of gross human rights violations that occurred in the past, prominent human rights lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis said at a discussion on Friday. The President will forever owe us that promise unless he keeps his word.

The unresolved cases that Jokowi promised to address consist of the 1989 Talangsari massacre, the forced disappearance of anti-Soeharto activists in 1997 and 1998, the Trisakti University shootings, the Semanggi I and Semanggi II student shootings in 1998 and 1999, the mysterious killing of alleged criminals in the 1980s, the anticommunist massacres of 1965 and various abuses that took place in Wasior and Wamena in Papua in 2001 and 2003, respectively.

Activist Al Araf from the Jakarta-based human rights watchdog Imparsial cited a lack of political will to prioritize human rights among Jokowis administration as a core reason behind the lagging attempts to address the issues during Jokowis two-year presidency.

As the world will commemorate International Human Rights Day on Dec. 10, Al Araf called for Jokowi and his subordinates to make the resolution of human rights abuse cases one of the governments priority programs. Otherwise Jokowis regime will be no different to his predecessors, he said. (evi)
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Linkedin Eesha Muneeb (The Jakarta Post) Singapore  Fri, December 9 2016

November lived up to 2016s theme of cliff-hangers, opening with Donald Trumps surprise victory in the US elections and concluding with Organization Of the Petroleum Exporting Countriess (OPEC) plan to hold production at 32.5 million b/d starting Jan. 1, 2017.

The 1.2 million b/d reduction  the groups first coordinated cut since the 2008  exempts Libya and Nigeria, and is contingent on key non-OPEC producers also agreeing to cut 600,000 b/d.

While the market had more or less expected a successful OPEC deal with oil prices rising since the Algiers Accord in September, doubts lingered as to whether internal sparring could be reined in to allow an agreement.

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, December 9, 2016

Global payments and technology company MasterCard is intensifying efforts to tap opportunities in the Indonesian premium market segments by offering a variety of exclusive rewards and services for its premium card holders.

Among the select opportunities are wine privileges for the holders of MasterCard Platinum cards, access to passenger lounges at 750 airports for MasterCard World card holders and concierge services and exclusive dining for holders of MasterCard World Elite cards.

Premium customers currently want payment solutions that provide exclusivity and special access, and can be accepted globally and providing a variety of special services, MasterCards president for Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei, Safdar Khan, said recently.

MasterCard is aiming for double-digit growth in debit and credit cards users in Indonesia next year, amid low credit card penetration in the country.

Data from Bank Indonesia show that, as of September, there were around 123 million active ATM cards and debit cards in Indonesia. The number of credit card holders, meanwhile, reached 17.22 million in October, up 2.85 percent on the year.

MasterCard has also recently sealed collaboration with domestic lender Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) Syariah to provide ATM cards for the banks customers who go on the haj and umrah. They have cooperated with a private bank in Saudi Arabia to provide special ATMs to better assist Indonesian pilgrims.

As the country with the largest Muslim population, Indonesia sees nearly 200,000 people go on the haj every year. (hwa)
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Linkedin Margareth S. Aritonang (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, December 9, 2016

The medias role in protecting multiculturalism and pluralism in the country is at a crossroads, as some publications are believed to be endorsing religious fundamentalism.

Human rights advocates say the media has encouraged anti-democratic moves by publishing reports on religion-motivated incidents without covering different perspectives.

The media lacks a sense of responsibility, human rights lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis told a discussion in Jakarta on Friday. Todung explained that such irresponsibility could be seen from the absence of the endorsement of law enforcement in stories of religion-motivated violence, which is rampant in the country.

Covering both sides is of course important. But, we must remember that the spirit of reporting [religious violence] is to call for law enforcement, Todung said. All media need to self-criticize and reexamine the purpose of their publishing.

Activist MM Billah concurs. The former commissioner of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) has called on the media to highlight poor law enforcement as well as corrupt behavior that has consequently hampered the full implementation of human rights in the country.

And this applies to the activists as well as institution in charge of upholding human rights in the country, he said. (evi)
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Linkedin Bambang Muryanto (The Jakarta Post) Yogyakarta  Fri, December 9, 2016

Universities in Yogyakarta with billboards featuring hijab-clad students do not violate ethical codes of advertising, a communications expert has said.

"A hijab-clad student featured in the Duta Wacana Christian University [UKDW] admission ad in fact aims to show the spirit of multiculturalism," Gadjah Mada University communications lecturer Pulung S. Perbawani told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

Pulung was asked to respond to the demands of hard-line group the Muslim Peoples Forum (FUI), which called on the university to take down the billboards, claiming the ad might be misleading for Muslim students considering enrolling in the university.

Pulung said through such ads, universities wanted to communicate that educational institutions did not subscribe to favoritism based on ethnicity, race or religion.

"UKDW is definitely not the first to make such an ad. Some universities in the US and Britain also display ads using hijab-clad models to emphasize that they embrace multiculturalism," she asserted.

In Yogyakarta, aside from UKDW, Sanata Dharma University and Atma Jaya, both managed by Catholic foundations, also have similar ads.

UKDW rector Henry Feriadi said many of the universitys students were Muslims.

At least 7 percent or around 3,800 of our students are Muslim, Henry said.

Meanwhile, Atma Jaya Yogyakarta University spokesperson RA Vita Noor Prima Astuti said the university allowed students to wear the hijab as it was an inclusive institution.

Many [Muslim students] have asked whether they are allowed to wear the hijab while on campus. We said they are allowed, she said. (dmr)
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Linkedin Andrew Welsh-Huggins (Associated Press) Columbus, Ohio, United States  Fri, December 9, 2016

Abortions would be banned after 20 weeks under a bill Republican lawmakers passed Thursday, adding to legislation already on its way to Republican Gov. John Kasich that would prohibit abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected.

The House voted 64-29 to pass the bill already approved by the Senate.

During early debate the House rejected a Democratic proposal to add rape and incest to exceptions in the bill.

Rep. Greta Johnson, an Akron Democrat, asked the House to add the amendment, saying it would honor women who show the courage to go on after sexual assaults. Rep. Ron Hood, a Republican from Ashville, opposed the amendment, saying children conceived in assaults shouldn't be punished.

The House Community and Family Advancement Committee voted Wednesday to pass the 20-week ban. That followed House approval Tuesday of the so-called Heartbeat Bill, clearing the way for what would be one of the nation's most stringent abortion restrictions.

That legislation would prohibit most abortions as early as six weeks into pregnancy after the first detectable fetal heartbeat.

Kasich, who opposes abortion rights, has voiced concerns about whether such a move would be constitutional, but he has not said whether he plans to sign either measure.

Similar 20-week bans are on the books in 17 states, including South Dakota, whose governor signed it into law in March, and South Carolina, whose governor signed it in June. Arizona and Idaho's bans are blocked from enforcement by the federal courts, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights.

Earlier this week, Republican lawmakers in New Jersey introduced a similar 20-week ban, with its outcome uncertain in that state's Democrat-led Legislature.

Ohio's proposed 20-week ban would allow for abortion in some cases to protect a woman's life and health.

State Senate President Keith Faber, a Republican from Celina, said the twice-defeated Heartbeat Bill came back up because of Republican Donald Trump's presidential victory and the expectation he will fill Supreme Court vacancies with justices who are more likely to uphold stricter abortion bans.

Faber, asked if he expects the Ohio proposal to survive a legal challenge, said Tuesday: "I think it has a better chance than it did before."

The ban would make an exception if the mother's life is in danger but not in cases of rape or incest, he said.

NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio said the move would block access to abortion before most women even know they're pregnant.

Federal courts have rejected similar Heartbeat Bills in Arkansas and North Dakota.

Under the US Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling establishing a nationwide right to abortion, states were permitted to restrict abortion after viability, the point when the fetus has a reasonable chance of surviving under normal conditions outside the uterus.

The ruling offered no legal definition of viability, saying it could range from 24 to 28 weeks into a pregnancy.
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Linkedin Fadli and Djemi Amnifu (The Jakarta Post) Batam/Kupang  Fri, December 9 2016

The Western Fleet Quick Response team operating from the Region IV Main Naval Base in Tanjung Pinang, Riau Islands, seized three small boats in the waters off Batam on Tuesday night as they were allegedly being used to smuggle 40 Indonesians to Malaysia.

It is believed the people on board the boats were to be illegally employed cleaning the tanks of ships moored in Malaysian territorial waters.

Commander of the Tanjung Pinang base, First Adm. S. Irawan, told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday that the arrests were made near Jodoh Beach, Batam, not long after the boats departed for Malaysian waters. Two of the boats, however, managed to escape into the outer port limit area.

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Linkedin Moses Omposunggu (The Jakarta Post) Aceh Besar, Aceh  Fri, December 9, 2016

Philanthropists have offered their support to rebuild structures destroyed by a recent earthquake in Aceh, Social Affairs Minister Khofifah Indar Parawansa said on Friday.

Khofifah said "a number of philanthropists" had spoken to her privately to convey their commitment to rebuilding damaged infrastructure in the Aceh regencies of Pidie Jaya, Pidie and Bireun, after a 6.5-magnitude earthquake hit the southeastern parts of the province early on Wednesday.

"God willing, I will return to the site to accompany the philanthropists after [the emergency response period ends on] Dec. 20," Khofifah said during a visit to a State Logistics Agency (Bulog) rice warehouse in Aceh Besar regency.

(Read also: Jokowi orders maximum relief effort)

The earthquake, with an epicenter located at a depth of 10 kilometers, hit about 106 km southeast of the provincial capital of Banda Aceh at 5:03 a.m. on Wednesday, killing more than 100 people.

Among the three affected regencies, Pidie Jaya was the worst-hit by the disaster, with 96 deaths confirmed as of Friday.

The Aceh administration has declared a 14-day emergency response period from Dec. 7 through Dec. 20.

National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) data showed that the tremor had damaged at least 10,000 houses, with a quarter of them categorized as seriously damaged. (hwa)
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Linkedin Safrin La Batu and Ahmad Junaidi (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, December 9, 2016

Cases of religious intolerance could increase in Indonesia amid Jakarta Governor Basuki Ahok Tjahaja Purnamas blasphemy trial and ahead of Christmas celebrations.

Setara Institute research director Ismail Hasani said intolerant groups had grown more confident after a large-scale rally against Ahok in the National Monument (Monas) area, Central Jakarta, on Dec. 2. And its now heading toward Christmas, Ismail told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

A few days after the rally, he said a conservative group dispersed a Christmas event held at Sasana Budaya Ganesha in Bandung.

West Java Governor Ahmad Heryawan and Bandung Mayor Ridwan Kamil apologized for the incident on Tuesday.

The following morning, in Yogyakarta, members of the Muslim Peoples Forum (FUI) visited Duta Wacana Christian University and asked the university to take down billboards depicting a female student wearing a hijab.

(Read also: Catholic university refuses to remove billboards with hijab-clad student)

On Thursday, the university decided to remove the billboards. The move prompted fears that the group would ask other universities to remove similar billboards.

However, Sanata Dharma Catholic University said it would refuse to remove its billboards, which also depict a female student in a hijab, if the group visited the university. (jun)
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Linkedin Christopher Bodeen (Associated Press) Beijing  Fri, December 9, 2016

A Tibetan Buddhist monk has set himself on fire in western China in what appeared to be the latest such radical protest against Beijing's rule, a US government-backed radio station and rights monitoring group said.

The unidentified monk set himself alight on a road outside the town of Machu in a traditionally Tibetan area of Gansu province at around 7 p.m. Thursday, Radio Free Asia and London-based Free Tibet reported.

Police who arrived shortly afterward took the monk away and there was no immediate word on his condition, they said.

A man who answered the phone at a regional police station hung up immediately after the caller asked for information. Calls to other government offices rang unanswered.

While information from the isolated area is incomplete, the incident is believed to bring to at least 146 the number of Tibetans who have self-immolated in recent years, about 125 of whom have died, according to monitoring groups.

Eyewitnesses have been quoted as saying that many of those who self-immolated cried out for Tibetan independence or prayed for the return of the Dalai Lama. Tibet's Buddhist leader fled Tibet in 1959 amid an abortive uprising against Chinese forces who had occupied the Himalayan region a decade earlier.

While China claims Tibet has been part of its territory for more than seven centuries, many Tibetans say they were essentially independent for most of that time.

Thursday's self-immolation was the first known to have occurred since either March or May, perhaps reflecting stepped-up security measures in Tibetan areas of western China where most such incidents have occurred.

The protests are seen as an extreme expression of the anger and frustration felt by many Tibetans  both lay people and members of the Buddhist clergy  living under heavy-handed Chinese rule.

In a new book on the self-immolations, Tibetan writer and rights activist Tsering Woeser describes them as forming a "broad protest movement that continues to this day."

"Because no other method is available for Tibetans to voice their protests, and because only the horror of self-immolation is able to capture the attention of the world, it has become the choice of the bravest protesters in Tibet," Woeser writes in "Tibet on Fire: Self-Immolations Against Chinese Rule."

Tibetan monks and nuns are among the most active opponents of Chinese rule in the region and the strongest proponents of Tibet's independent identity, prompting the authorities to subject them to some of the harshest and most intrusive restrictions.

Those include the stationing of police and informers inside monasteries and a 2007 regulation stating that reincarnations of high-ranking lamas  a central feature of Tibet's unique tantric strain of Buddhism  must be subject to Communist Party approval.

Beijing blames the Dalai Lama and others for inciting the immolations and says it has made vast investments to develop the region's economy and improve quality of life. The Dalai Lama says he opposes all violence but has neither publicly condemned nor encouraged the self-immolations.
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Linkedin Viriya P. Singgih (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, December 9 2016

Indonesias victory in a case brought by London-listed miner Churchill Mining Plc. at an international tribunal is expected to become a precedent for future international disputes.

The International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) announced on Wednesday that it rejected Churchills claim for compensation against Indonesia of Rp 26 trillion (US$1.95 billion) and even ordered the company to pay a total of $9.45 million in costs to the country.

We were worried, but we kept fighting over and over again because we were sure that we had a solid argument to win this case. Now, Im proud to say that we did it, Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly told journalists on Thursday.

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Linkedin Safrin La Batu (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, December 9, 2016

Moving the venue of Jakarta Governor Basuki Ahok Tjahaja Purnamas blasphemy trial to a safer location is necessary both to maintain the independence of judges and to avoid a trial by the mob, a human rights organization has said.

Setara Institute chairman Hendardi said on Friday that the Criminal Law Procedures Code (KUHAP) allowed the moving of the trial to a new location from its initial venue if threats to security were anticipated.

The moving of a trial venue is necessary not only to maintain the independence of the judges but also to ensure the security of the trial, he said in a statement.

The possibility of a trial by the mob has presented itself ever since this case was reported to the National Police, he went on.

Ahoks alleged blasphemy has triggered a nationwide uproar, with thousands of people staging a massive rally on Dec. 2 to demand the immediate arrest of the governor.

With growing rumors about another massive rally during the non-active governors trial, which is scheduled to begin on Dec. 13, National Police chief Gen. Tito Karnavian said on Tuesday that the police were looking for a safer venue for the trial. Among alternative locations they suggested was Cibubur, an area in the outskirts of Jakarta.

On Friday, the Jakarta Police confirmed that the authorities had eventually decided to hold the first hearing of Ahoks trial at the North Jakarta District Court, which is temporarily located at the former Central Jakarta District Court building on Jl. Gajah Mada No.17, Central Jakarta, next Tuesday. However, they will later discuss whether they will hold the following hearings at the same court after observing the situation during the first hearing. (ebf)
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Linkedin Hyung-Jin Kim (Associated Press) Seoul  Fri, December 9, 2016

South Korean President Park Geun-hye's impeachment Friday means she has been stripped of power  but not the perks.

Even as her prime minister governs in her stead, Park gets to keep living at the presidential Blue House, using her official car and plane, collecting the same monthly salary (about $15,000 reportedly) and receiving round-the-clock security.

She also holds onto the title "President."

But with nothing officially to do, it's uncertain how she'll spend her days during the up-to-six months the country's Constitutional Court has to decide whether to accept the impeachment and formally end her presidency.

In 2004, when President Roh Moo-hyun was impeached by lawmakers, he spent his time at the Blue House reading books and newspapers and mountain-climbing with journalists, according to South Korean media.

The bureaucratic machinery that suspended Park and transferred her powers to Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn began churning as soon as the impeachment motion passed Friday.

National Assembly Speaker Chung Se-kyun ordered the chairman of the assembly's legislation and judiciary committee to convey the original version of the motion to the Constitutional Court. Upon receiving the motion, the court will begin its deliberations.

Chung also sent parliamentary officials to deliver copies of the impeachment motion and an official document on the motion's passage to both the Blue House and the Constitutional Court. Technically, the president's powers are transferred to the prime minister the moment one of the president's aides receives the papers.

Hwang will handle the president's duties until the Constitutional Court rules on Park's fate. If the court removes her, he would continue to serve that role until a presidential election is held; that vote would have to take place within 60 days of Park's removal. Through it all, his title will remain prime minister.

Park loses her powers as commander-in-chief of South Korea's 630,000-member military, and her ability to appoint officials, sign treaties with foreign countries and carry out special pardons of inmates. Park also cannot preside over meetings of presidential secretaries.

With Park allowed to stay at the Blue House, Hwang is to govern the country from his Seoul office.
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Linkedin Hans Nicholas Jong (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, December 9 2016

With Indonesian students lagging behind their ASEAN peers when it comes to communicating verbally in English, the government has decided to change the way the language is taught in the country.

Indonesian students, the government said, spoke English poorly as they spent too much time studying grammar in classrooms and not enough time actually speaking the language. That style of learning, according to the Culture and Education Ministry, has to change.

Realizing that English communication skills are crucial if the countrys workforce wants to compete with other ASEAN countries, especially now the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) has begun, the ministry plans to overhaul formal English education in Indonesia.

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Linkedin Nani Afrida (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, December 9, 2016

The Indonesian Army announced on Thursday evening that it had located another survivor from a military helicopter crash in North Kalimantan, two weeks after he was declared missing.

Alhamdullilah [thank God], we have found one survivor from the Army helicopter that crashed in Malinau [regency] last month. His name is First Lt. Yohannes Syahputra, Army spokesperson Brig. Gen. Sabrar Fadhillah told The Jakarta Post in a text message.

A Bell-412 EP helicopter carrying five Army personnel disappeared in Malinau on Nov. 24. It was last detected approximately 40 kilometers east of Long Bawan in Nunukan regency.

A search and rescue team found one survivor and the bodies of three victims after the incident. Yohannes, meanwhile, remained missing in the remote and mountainous area.

Sabrar said Yohannes had been found by villagers on Thursday in an area between Long Sulit and Long Berang village at 3:20 p.m. local time.

The survivor was found with injuries to his hands, waist and legs. He was very weak, as he hadnt eaten for several days, he said.

The ill-fated helicopter, which departed from Juata Airport in the provincial capital of Tarakan, was en route to Yuvai Semaring Airport in Long Bawan, carrying 400 kilograms of supplies for a border security team. (hwa)
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Linkedin Nani Afrida (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, December 9, 2016

The Indonesian Military (TNI) has deployed more personnel and heavy equipment to assist and evacuate victims of the earthquake that struck Acehs Pidie Jaya regency on Wednesday.

The personnel and heavy equipment from the Bukit Barisan Military Command (Kodam) has arrived in Lhok Sukon, North Aceh. Now they are on the way to the disaster area in Pidie Jaya, Army spokesman Brig. Gen Sabrar Fadhillah told reporters in Jakarta on Friday.

Kodam Bukit Barisan deployed an additional 215 personnel and several pieces of heavy equipment, including dump trucks, excavators and backhoe loaders.

The Army and the Navy have established a field clinic, including a surgery room and treatment ward, for quake survivors in anticipation of more earthquakes in the next few days.

The powerful earthquake, which measured 6.4 on the Richter scale, affected three regencies in Aceh. The Aceh administration has declared a 14-day emergency response period from Dec. 7 to Dec. 20.

Relief efforts have focused on Pidie Jaya, which saw at least 200 buildings collapse.

The National Disaster Mitigation Agency reported that more than 100 people have been killed and about 700 others injured, while more than 11,000 people were taking refuge in 28 temporary shelters and mosques. (dmr)
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Linkedin Juthathip Lucksanawong (The Nation/ANN) Bangkok  Fri, December 9, 2016

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is willing to cooperate with police in their investigation of a royal defamation case against a student activist who is charged with sharing a Thai-language article about the monarchy, a source at the Bangkok office of the UK-based media outlet said.

The BBCs local office has not received any notification from the police or government agencies regarding an investigation into the lese majeste case, said the source, who sought anonymity.

If they [authorities] send an official letter or ask for cooperation, we hope to establish cooperation with them, the source told The Nation on Wednesday.

(Read also: Thai PM warns media of action without exception)

Investigators from the Royal Thai Polices Technology Crime Suppression Division (TCSD) visited BBCs Thai office in Bangkok on Tuesday and found it was closed.

The source said that BBCs Thai staff members normally work remotely and rarely come to the office.

The news agency would probably reach out to the authorities to make its position clear on the matter if it does not hear from the officials, the source added.

The controversial article widely shared on social media was translated from the original English version and published from the UK, the source said. None of BBCs Thailand-based staff members were involved in the article and the agency stood by its employees rights, the source added.

Chatupat Bunpat-taraksa, more commonly known as 'Pai Dao Din,' a student activist based in Khon Kaen, is charged with breaching Article 112 of the Penal Code on lese majeste and the Computer Crime Act. He has been released on bail.

If the police want to interrogate the concerned staff, they have to contact those based in the UK. Any police move against BBCs Thai office would make the staff panic for no reason, the source said.

Meanwhile, Pol Maj-General Chayapon Chatchaidej, acting chief of the Special Branch Police Division 4, had said Wednesday that the Khon Kaen police station was investigating the case in collaboration with the TCSD.

The Khon Kaen investigators are collecting evidence. They also need help from the TCSD and certain organizations in areas that are beyond their capacity, he said, referring to the TCSDs visit to BBCs Bangkok office.

If the investigators find sufficient evidence, they would press charges against the wrongdoers, he said.

A source at the British Embassy said it had not been notified of any moves by the Thai government against BBCs Thai office.

Earlier, a junta spokesperson had remarked that the government would issue a letter to the embassy.
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Linkedin (Associated Press) Samut Sakhon, Thailand  Fri, December 9, 2016

Thailand's navy is showing off new technology to monitor fishing boats in a renewed effort to crack down on illegal fishing, forced labor and corruption in the seafood industry.

New equipment the navy has been testing includes a GPS tracking system to monitor fishing vessels, a central database and a scanner for officials to check documents.

The system, demonstrated Friday to reporters, won't fully be in place until April, but outside groups are already skeptical it will achieve what it's set out to do unless more human enforcement is put into place.

Thailand has been under pressure from the European Union after revelations that it relied heavily on forced labor, facing a potential total EU ban on seafood imports unless the country reforms its fishing industry.
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Linkedin (Associated Press) Koh Samui, Thailand  Fri, December 9, 2016

Police in Thailand have arrested three French nationals in connection with the killing of one of their countrymen on the southern resort island of Samui.

Samui police chief Col. Paitoon Krajajang said Friday the three had confessed to involvement in the Wednesday night shooting at a restaurant of 44-year-old Laurent Lacques Jean Delacherie. Police believe a business dispute was the cause.

Surat Thani provincial police chief Maj. Gen Apichart Boonsriroj said the man suspected of carrying out the shooting, identified by his passport as Georges Michel, was captured Thursday after fleeing to the mainland.

The other two suspects  Cyrille Jean Paul Larignon, owner of the restaurant where the killing took place, and Yves Claude Daniel Climent  are accused of helping to dispose of the body, which was found floating near a waterfall.

Larignon's Thai girlfriend, Nudeang Nakote, said she was present with her child when she heard the men arguing and then heard the shooting.
In an article posted online today (Trying to Undo a Lower East Side Diaspora), the New York Times looks at the prospect of displaced residents of the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area (SPURA) coming back to the site.

The development project now underway on four of the nine Seward Park parcels will eventually produce 500 affordable apartments. Around 2,000 people were forced from the SPURA site in 1967. They are being given preference in the housing lotteries for the first batch of apartments. Those lotteries take place next summer.

A Times reporter spoke with 55-year-old Beatriz Torres Guzman, who was six years old when the bulldozers arrived on the Lower East Side. She currently lives in the Campos Plaza public housing complex on East 12th Street. While Guzman would like to come back, that might not be possible:

Because she lives on $15,300 a year in disability income, though, she does not meet the income requirements. Essex Crossings affordable apartments are available to New Yorkers earning from 37 percent to 165 percent of the area median income  or $23,495 to $104,775 a year for a single person. Ms. Guzman argues that the city has a special obligation to her, regardless of her income. I just feel that they should accommodate us, she said.

All of these years, Guzman has kept a letter from the city that her mother received in 1978. It says she, should have a priority to return to the area.

About 200 ex-SPURA residents have been identified by local activists. Heres a fact sheet for former site tenants, outlining whos eligible and what they need to do before the lottery takes place.
The first trailer for Spider-Man: Homecoming, the latest addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, has finally been released.

Following a deal in February 2015, Marvel Studios and Sony reached an agreement to share the character rights of Spider-Man, which meant that Spider-Man would be integrated into the MCU.

After Spidys Marvel debut in Captain American: Civil War, the new film is taking Spider-Man back to his high school roots, as he tries to live his ordinary life while also fighting crime in his secret Spider-Man alter-ego. Holland has said that he would like to take inspiration from his Spider-Man predecessors Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, but hopes to also bring something new to the character.

Under the direction of Jon Watts the film also features Iron Man himself Robert Downey Jr, Marisa Tomei, Jon Favreau, Zendaya and Michael Keaton. Rising star Tom Holland seems to fit completely naturally into this role, and overall Spider-Man: Homecoming, is looking rather promising.


Becoming Air Arabias first female pilot might not be on most peoples career prospects, but Ghada Al Rousi is not most people.

Not that its always been part of her plans.

Ghada Al Rousi, Alpha Aviation Academy graduate and Air Arabia First Officer started her path in life by studying Tourism Management in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and before aviation she worked for one of the government ministries.

Piloting was not something I was dreaming of when I was a child, she freely admits.

However, Ghada is now extremely proud to be the first female Emirati to have a MPL licence, but she also hopes she can be an inspiration to other women considering a career in piloting.

The most important thing to remember is that being a good pilot doesnt depend on being a woman or man. What matters is how much you love your job and how hard you are willing to work.

She flies with both male and female pilots and the most important thing, in her view, is their professionalism, not their gender.

The same rule applies for any career, whether it be a pilot or another profession in a male dominated environment, for example, another STEM-based career, she says, As long as you believe in yourself, are confident, and are willing to work hard, you can succeed.

For a woman in a male-dominated industry, Ghada has had a lot of support.

Some people are so happy about it and proud, asking me about my experiences. Some people in the beginning said What?! A woman becoming a pilot?! This is mans job! I wont get in the plane with you!

But she reassures me that these people are very much in the minority. If you believe in yourself, you can do this job, irrespective of gender.

The desire for becoming a pilot came a few years ago, it seems.

The first time I entered a cockpit, she shares, I just had a sense that I could do this  become a pilot.

As soon as she realised this, starting a pilot training course became her new ambition.

After considering the different options available, Al Rousi settled on Alpha Aviation Academy in Sharjah, because they offered the training programme she wanted: the Air Arabia Multi-Crew Pilots License (MPL) programme.

For the entry requirements, she was assessed in English, maths, physics, motor skills and also had to take a psychometric test. She also sat an Aeronautical Medical exam and the end of the assessment had a personal interview with the management.

Once she had sat and passed the exams and interviews, she was accepted and started her training.

Al Rousi says that although there werent any setbacks, the training was tough. In her view, the hardest part of her career has been to complete her training and become First Officer.

Now that this part is done I'm looking forward for new exciting challenges, she shares, I learnt so many lessons.

She also admits that her course was incredibly hard at the beginning:

I knew there were a lot of people waiting for me to finish and to pass, and not to be behind with my course. So I had to focus a lot.

She also had to be away from her family for a while when she did the basic flight training in Greece.

As part of her course, Al Rousi also had to participate in ground school, learning subjects relevant to future aviators, like aerodynamics and map making.

Her work became so much at that time that she would go home and continue studying, without being able to see her family for days on end.

With the ground school, I was not used to so much information in such a short time. The programme is not easy, but I was doing my best. I was studying a lot and constantly thinking that I had to pass.

After a gruelling 18 months at Alpha Aviation, Ghada hoped to spend some time at home, but the academy and Air Arabia asked her to take part in their marketing activities.

She had to go to Bahrain for a media event, and then to Dubai Air Show after that.

There wasnt much time between her finishing the course and starting her flying career. A few weeks after receiving her licence, Ghada was up in the air.

Since then, her experience has been amazing:

When you enter the cockpit, you dont think about anything else in the world. You are just thinking about your flight. It doesnt matter what mood you are in, because, for a few hours you enter a different world, where you only think about what youre doing.

In her experience, shes been lucky that her job has enabled me to travel to many places. She flies the Airbus A320, which seats between 150 and 180 people. Air Arabia offers a lot of destinations, and she has been to places like Moscow, Bombay, Pakistan, Nairobi, Alexandria, Istanbul, Bahrain and Kuwait.

Regarding her plans for the future, she says she wants to be a captain, but the road to that title is even longer than her initial course. To become a captain, you must first be a Senior Officer. Shes also thinking of trying her hand as an instructor further on.

You never jump positions though. I need more experience, I need more hours, and I need to make sure that I am ready to be a Captain. So I just need to work up one step at a time.
Picture this: Youre at a music festival, in a castle, in Romania, and you still managed to pay your rent.

This July, you could be celebrating the end of another university year in Electric Castle.

Hosted in the legendary Versailles of Transylvania, the Banffy Castle in Bontina has its walls surrounding the twenty four hour festival.

To help them celebrate their fifth birthday, the festival have announced their first wave of artists including Alt J as headliners.

Joining the melodic, indie, Mercury Prize winners, is techno Berlin outfit Moderat. Alongside Nero, Noisia, Dixon, DJ Sneak, Crazy P Soundsystem, Ame Live, Architects and more, spanning across seven stages.

Combining innovation with music, the festival sees that youll be entertained around the clock; whether youre testing out the virtual reality kits in the day, watching the 3D projections, getting competitive in the gaming area or visiting the on-site cinema or yoga classes.

With plenty of food stalls on offer, and the average meal costing about 3, by night you'll have the energy to enjoy the plethora of world renowned acts. Fuelled of course, by the 1 pints and 2.50 spirits and mixers.

Whats more, you can pay for your ticket this year by putting down about a tenner a month for the coming six. Flights from London start from 30.

Find out more
So-called fake news has come into ultra-sharp focus following the election of Donald Trump.

You could be forgiven for thinking it is a wholly new phenomenon, something that has only recently crawled out of the digital woodwork.

But, hoax news is as old as news itself.

Here are three major scandals in the pre-social media age that had profound consequences for journalism.

Janet Cooke and Jimmys World, 1980

Cooke throws up her arms after winning the Pulitzer (Charles Tasnadi/AP)

Janet Cooke won world acclaim with an incredibly moving account of an eight-year-old heroin addict called Jimmy living with needle marks freckling the baby-smooth skin of his thin, brown arms.

The Washington Post front page story tugged at the heartstrings and provoked rage that a child was living in Americas capital in this condition.

The only problem? Jimmy didnt exist.

It created such a storm that the Washington mayor and health officials rushed to find and help the drug-addicted 4th grader who reportedly lived in a smack shooting gallery.

But, the Post invoked source protection rights.

(Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP)

The colourful, bright and absorbing writing won the 25-year-old Cooke a Pulitzer and went around the world in the 1980s equivalent of going viral.

Yet, suspicions were raised about her honesty after discrepancies were noticed in her CV.

Under intense questioning from editors, she finally cracked: There is no Jimmy and no family.

Her resignation note apologised to my newspaper, my profession, the Pulitzer board and all seekers of the truth.

Walter Duranty and the Ukraine famine, 1933

Duranty during a foreign correspondents lunch (AP)

The New York Times Moscow Correspondent wrote a story in 1933 titled Russians hungry, but not starving, dismissing a famine that killed millions of Ukrainians as a big scare story.

Duranty conceded there was a serious food shortage but denied reports of mass starvation as a direct result of the failed Soviet collective farming policy.

The respected correspondent wrote: There is no actual starvation or deaths from starvation, but there is widespread mortality from diseases due to malnutrition.

These conditions are bad, but there is no famine  to put it brutally  you cant make an omelette without breaking eggs.

People read the name of deceased residents who died of hunger in 1932-33 (Efrem Lukatsky/AP)

The chronic famine, called the Holodomor, is estimated to have killed as many as seven million people.

In a statement decades later, the New York Times said the most significant flaw in his coverage was his consistent underestimation of Stalins brutality, citing the dictators omnipresent propaganda machine.

A typist hammers away at keys (Rajanish Kakade/AP)

But historians and commentators have argued he knew what was happening and suppressed the truth because of his admiration for Communism.

Duranty had received a Pulitzer prize for his writing the year before, which has not been revoked despite repeated protests.

The Stephen Glass Affair, 1998

Stephen Glass was a young rising star reporter at the respected liberal New Republic magazine in the late 1990s.

The 25-year old made his name writing dazzling features and glittering exclusives that made their way into publications like Rolling Stone and Harpers and were the envy of his colleagues.

But, he was also a serial fantasist who simply dreamt up the details of his reports.

His deceit unravelled in 1998 when, aged 25, he published a story called Hack Heaven.

The tale focused on a 15-year-old boy called Ian Restil who hacked a big-time software firm called Jukt Micronics and posted employees salaries on the company website along with nude pictures.

Bosses were so impressed they decided to hire the teenage kid, who looked like an even more adolescent version of Bill Gates, rather than call the cops.

Glass made up fantastic details in the tale including the totally fictitious Centre for Interstate Online Investigations; a super-agent to super-nerds called Joe Hiert; and a Nevada police radio campaign discouraging hiring hackers.

It was an astonishing web of deception that collapsed when Forbes grew suspicious and investigated the article, finding it totally unverifiable.

The saga led to New Republic editors finding many of his other stories were complete fabrications.

The drama was played out in a 2003 film called Shattered Glass starring Hayden Christensen and preceded other high-profile serial hoax affairs such as Jayson Blair at The New York Times in 2003 and Jack Kelley at USA Today a year later.

All of these episodes had a huge bearing on the debate around journalistic ethics and the use of anonymous sources, shaping how the newspaper industry operates today.

Well before the Trump phenomenon and social media, fake news was duping people and causing havoc.
The concept of freedom of speech, like that other three-letter phrase, I love you, is deceptive in its simplicity.

Though easy to understand, freedom of speech is in fact very difficult to believe in.

It endures all sorts of attacks all of the time by many different people. In countries less fortunate than ours, it does not exist at all.

Shamefully, it is now under serious threat in Britain, specifically at our universities.

They are supposed to be hot-beds of dissent, where controversial ideas are allowed to flourish, but in recent years, universities have been more concerned about upsetting the feelings of other people.

This concern has manifested itself in calls for safe spaces and trigger warnings, perhaps the most infantile ideas I have encountered since nursery school.

I dont know what it is liked to be triggered, but I do get pissed off at just how willing other students are to throw away rights which previous generations fought to defend.

Earlier this year, London's City University, supposedly the training ground for journalists of the future, decided to ban the distribution of certain right-wing tabloid newspapers on campus.

These rags, cried the student counsellors who made the decision, demonised refugees and minorities, fanned the flames and racism and, as if that wasn't bad enough, were sexist, too.

Just a year previously, one of the worlds most famous feminists, Germaine Greer, was told she would not be welcome at Cardiff University because she'd dared to speak her mind about transgender people.

Now my own campus is at it as well. The University of Strathclyde's Student Association (USSA) has decreed that pro-life campaigners will not be allowed to set up their own student organisation, which would entitle them to funding from the university and accommodation in which to hold meetings.

The USSA's reasoning - if it can be called that - is that pro-life groups have a penchant for resorting to violence and intimidation tactics outside abortion clinics, of which, it has to be said, there are quite a few in Glasgow. They seem to fear that such a group would harass other students, whose feelings are obviously paramount.

It doesnt seem to have occurred to the USSA that many of those who are against the idea of abortion take that stance on religious grounds. Usually a student union is keen to be seen defending freedom of faith.

The pro-life group may also wish to raise awareness about contraception, the best way of preventing abortions from happening in the first place.

But no. Instead, the USSA board employed the excuse of concern for the sensibilities of others in order to shut down something to which its members objected.

"Allowing an anti-choice group to form", they said, "would be a barrier to freedom, equality and body autonomy for those with uteruses on campus and therefore not only violate existing standing policy, but also acting against the interests of a large amount of the student population."

Neither those "with uteruses on campus," as it is weirdly phrased, nor anybody else for that matter, have actually been consulted on the issue. Thus a union acting in the name of freedom has succeeded in its attempt to censor.

The USSA's president, Raj Jeyaraj, defended the decision. I emailed him with a couple of polite but pointed questions, to which, at the time of writing, he has not replied.

In his own statement, he added for good measure that were the British National Party to attempt to establish their own committee on the union, they would also be barred.

There are two reasons why such a decision would be unwise.

Firstly, banning such groups usually puts rocket-boosters on their own determination to cause havoc.

Secondly, allowing them to organise on campus may shake many students out of the complacent belief that racism is just a thing that happens to other people in other places.

So what are the USSA, and other student unions, really afraid of? In any case, they have their safe spaces to go to if they are called something mean.

Freedom of speech, and its related rights such as the right to organise and protest, are so difficult to believe in because they compel you to defend the right of people with whom you profoundly disagree, or may even hate, to speak as they wish.

It's really not that hard, but defending it takes a bit of courage, something which is clearly in short supply on British campus' today.

What I cant personally get my head around is why universities welcome, even celebrate, cultural and racial diversity, but draw the line at diversity of opinion  the only thing that truly divides human beings.

Students are supposed to rebel, and not just in pathetic ways like smoking or wearing bad clothes. Universities are where they should be allowed to develop their political and social views, no matter how unpopular an authoritarian union deems them to be.

You may think Im being fussy, but if we do not grow out of this censorious attitude, we will endanger our most fundamental rights.

The era of hurt feelings has to end.
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I am a public school teacher. I am highly educated in my field, holding five degrees from the University of Michigan; all education degrees. I am writing this open letter of thanks to President-elect Donald Trump to show my appreciation for appointing me as the overseer of all medical institutions in this country. I believe this nomination is partly due to the fact that I donated $245,000 to his campaign fund, but hey, that is how the American political scene plays!

I have always been fascinated by the medical field. Hospitals and health care have interested me very much since I was a young girl. I care deeply about our national health and am thrilled that now I will be put in a position to oversee their daily operations and to make sure that the best medical care is available to all of you. I have been outspoken about my feelings on traditional health care. Never mind that the likes of me (and my family and friends) have never stepped foot inside a public hospital or a traditional doctors office.

You see, I believe deeply in alternative medicines to fix what ails you. I firmly believe in holistic medicines, herbal medications and have a personal shaman who I visit whenever an ailment plagues me. But, I want you to know that I am passionate about public health care, mainly public hospitals and physicians who earn degrees from traditional public colleges. I will take good care of the public health system even if I dont personally honor any of their practices, I will take good care of them (wink, wink).

I know some of you are concerned about my lack of qualifications to take on such a position. After all, my degrees are all in the education field. Hey, I am asking you to throw caution to the wind once again as you did on Nov. 8 and pick someone who has no qualifications for the job and help me and our next president make America great again!

Of course, the above is a satire.

Yes, I am referring to Betsy DeVos.

DeVos comes from privilege. Her father owned and employed one-quarter of Holland, Michigans, residents. She attended parochial schools and then moved on to Calvin College, a product of the Christian Reformed Church. Mrs. DeVos has a degree in political science and business administration. One degree in a field that is not related to the education field at all. One degree only.

She came from money and married into money. Her husband ran for governor in our state and lost. Her own children also attended private schools. Not public. Yet, this woman has been said (self-acclaimed) to have a strong passion for public education. She has never worked for a public school, for that matter, she has never worked for or in any school. She does not believe in or support public education. She believes that public school teachers are overpaid (heck yeah, I laugh all the way to the bank every two weeks and take vacations in my private villa in the coast of Monaco).

She is a strong for-profit education proponent. She has invested millions of dollars in Christian education. She strongly believes in taking public school funds and placing them into Christian schools or other such private schools. She is a strong proponent of Common Core, a system that has taken down the public schools ability to succeed.

There, in a nutshell, you have her beliefs and background. Her nomination makes sense to the president elect because ?

The history of public school in this country dates back to the 1700s. The public school system was created to assure that children, no matter their social status, would be able to obtain an education in a free school system. The decline of public school education became evident in the last decades. Teachers like myself and their unions are often blamed. I have argued before the fallacy of this belief, but will once again for the sake of argument spell out the real reasons why we are failing American students.

No one who cant come in my classroom and do my job with their eyes closed should tell me how to do my job. I went to a prestigious college to obtain my education, passed classes and earned my degrees with perfect grades while working full-time and raising four children alone. I passed every single state test to obtain my state-approved certificates. I take classes and professional developments and pay money to keep this certificate current. I dance the dance to appease our state regulations.

I know my content areas. I know special education. I know how to write an IEP to suit individual students needs and test them for deficits using a complex test and by filling out paperwork that the state created. I can co-teach and re-teach every content area to my students. I know them personally; I know their lives  I know their needs.

I have worked in less than ideal conditions. In classrooms that have windows that are painted shut, and when in the heat of early summer and late fall, the heat actually makes students sick. In the winter, I wear coats and sometimes gloves. My students are freezing while learning. The plumbing in these buildings lets out a stench that my nose has become immune to. I have to forgo teaching content daily to test, test and then test some more. Never mind that Johnny and Mary cant do simple math and have basic reading skills because of their chronic absenteeism or other factors I cant control. They must be fluent in algebra according to Common Core or else I am not doing my job and will not get to keep my job because a huge component of my evaluation is how well Johnny and Mary do on such tests.

I dont have time to go back and teach important concepts to my students no matter how hard I try because what I do each teaching moment is dictated by someones ideas on how and what I should be teaching. Someone who, like DeVos, has no clue on what my students know and need to know before I get them to the step the state and the DeVos-like people believe my students should be in. You want me to produce high-scoring students? Let me do my damn job people. The way I was taught to do it is represented by the over $150,000 in student loans I incurred and pay for monthly.

The AFT and MEA represents teachers in this state as their unions. Blame them all you want; again, you know nothing about them if you do. They take whatever little dignity they can scrape off the floor that Congress and state level houses of governments leave behind after their sessions and work with it to bring some respect to my profession. I pay for their existence out of pocket, not you. So, it is my choice.

I could no more oversee public health care than the likes of DeVos can oversee public education. This is the ever-loving truth that no one sees. Self-serving career politicians with their hidden agendas is what has ruined the public school system. Tell me, would you go to a school teacher for treatment for heart disease? I think not. The question that begs an answer is why would you rejoice to see a career politician run your local public school systems?

Oh, lets talk about Detroit Public Schools for a moment. In a not-so-distant past, those who were appointed by Lansing to clean up the mess proved to be corrupt and pocketed tons of education dollars  another example why politicians dont belong in the education component.

I hope that all of you who are happy with the appointment have plenty in the bank to pay for private schooling for your children and grandchildren because this appointment will be the proverbial nail in the coffin of public schools. I am going to use a part of one of your favorite quotes in closing: Keep drinking that tea in the name of making this country great again!

Sandra Parker of Allen Park is a Downriver special education teacher. She can be reached at allenpark7@yahoo.com.
Events: Kata Rock superyachts set to sail

Preparations for the inaugural Kata Rocks Superyacht Rendezvous (KRSR) are all squared away, with the glamorous event set to kick off today, December 10.



By The Phuket News

Saturday 10 December 2016, 12:00AM

The three-day event will focus on the social side of the high-end yachting industry. The KRSR is by invitation only and open to both sailing and motor yachts measuring over 24 metres in length, either visiting or based in Phuket  Southeast Asias leading luxury destination and fast-rising superyacht hot spot.

The rendezvous will bring like-minded people together with a personally curated guest list featuring Kata Rocks villa owners, superyacht owners, yachting industry professionals, and an influential mix of international and regional luxury lifestyle media, for three days of celebration in a relaxed social environment.

Kata Rocks and Infinite Luxury CEO Richard Pope, said, We are delighted with the universally positive response and support regarding the Kata Rocks Superyacht Rendezvous from the yachting industry and luxury media.

Kata Rocks is often referred to as the worlds first superyacht-inspired resort and the KRSR continues to extend its long association with the yachting industry.

Sponsored by Infinite Luxury, the resort developer, and hosted by the award-winning Kata Rocks  which recently had the honour of being named one of the 25 best hotels in Southeast Asia by the prestigious Conde Nast Traveler2016 Readers Choice Awards  the KRSR signals the opening of Phukets luxurious charter season and offers superyacht owners a prime opportunity to showcase their flagship vessels.

Participating yachting partners include, but are not limited to, Feadship Royal Dutch Shipyards  with roots dating back to 1849  who will host the prestigious owners dinner on day two, bringing history, class and the superyacht brands trademark relentless pursuit of perfection to the event.

Other yachting partners include Burgess, Benetti, Northrop & Johnson, Edmiston, Princess Yachts Southeast Asia, Bristol Charter, Simpson Marine, PMYA Asia Yachting, Seal Superyachts, Yacht Solutions, Hemisphere Crew Solutions Monaco, 77 Design, with many more to be announced soon. The Phuket Newsis also delighted to support the KRSR as a media partner.

Highlights from the rendezvous will include a welcome reception on a superyacht plus a cruise with the fleet to a secluded beach for a gourmet BBQ. There is also a Gins of the World sunset cocktail event, a yacht hop and big boys toys on the water showcase followed by the exclusive Infinite Luxury Feadship Owners Dinner in Kata Rocks iconic Sky Villa Penthouse and a grand finale that concludes with the Kata Rocks Charter Season Opening Party.

Michael Nurbatlian, Marketing Director of Infinite Luxury, agreed that the event offered a different level of opportunity and a new type of exclusivity for owners and charter brokers to showcase their yachts for leading yachting, lifestyle and luxury media publications. Guests will enjoy a firstclass program of events and award winning hospitality.

The KRSR is part of a series of coordinated yachting events starting with the Phuket Kings Cup Regatta, running from December 3 to 10. This year the Kings Cup will be followed by the inaugural KRSR from December 10 to 12.

All the latest KRSR news and updates can be found at www.katarockssuperyachtrendezvous.com. Superyachts can register by expressing their interest with Michael Nurbatlian at: michael@infiniteluxury.com

The Phuket News is a proud sponsor of the Kata Rocks Superyacht Rendevous
Frenchman arrested over death of compatriot on Samui

SURAT THANI: Police have arrested a French man on suspicion of killing a compatriot whose body was found near a waterfall on Koh Samui on Thursday morning.



By Bangkok Post

Friday 9 December 2016, 09:40AM

The body of a 44-year-old Frenchman is found near Tan Rua waterfall on Koh Samui on Thursday morning. (Photo from the RTP spokesmen Facebook page)

The suspect, identified as Paul, was the owner of a restaurant on the tourist island. Police are searching for two other men identified as Yves and Michael who are suspected of being accomplices, Daily News quoted Pol Col Paitoon Krajajang, chief of Samul police station as saying.

Pol Col Paitoon said an initial investigation into the killing of the French national, who was in his 40s, indicated there had been a conflict over the restaurant business.

The victim was shot dead before being dumped in a stream about 2km from Tan Rua waterfall in T ambon Mae Nam of Koh Samui district.

Mr Paul was the last person to see the dead man before he disappeared, Pol Col Paitoon said.

The discovery was reported to Koh Samui police at around 9.30am on Thursday.

Police called to the scene said the dead man had three injuries similar to gunshot wounds on his neck and a 4-centimetre-long gash on the forehead.

His wife and a friend told police the dead man went to a restaurant not very far from where his body was found on Wednesday night and they had no contact from him since.

A witness said he heard a dog barking near the spot at 11pm and when he left his house to check he saw a car drive in and park nearby for about 20 minutes before leaving. He could not give details of the car as it was too dark.
His Majesty to visit Krabi

PHUKET: Tens of thousands of people in Krabi and neighbouring provinces are waiting in eager anticipation for a royal visit by His Majesty the King Maha Vajiralongkorn.



By Bangkok Post

Friday 9 December 2016, 08:51AM

His Majesty the King Maha Vajiralongkorn will visit Krabi today (Dec 9). Photo: AFP / file

It will be His Majesty the Kings first upcountry visit since his accession to the throne on Dec 1.

Krabi Governor Phinit Boonlert said His Majesty today (Dec 9) will preside over a ceremony to open a new provincial hall in the province, scheduled for 3pm.

Local people are delighted that the southern province of Krabi will be the first province to be visited by His Majesty the King.

Mr Phinit said that residents from Krabis eight districts and nearby provinces are expected to turn up and welcome His Majesty the King along the roads from the Krabi airport to the provincial hall.

Preparations and security arrangements are now ready for the royal visit, Mr Phinit said, adding that officials had rehearsed the ceremony to welcome the King.

The provincial governor asked that local residents, and state agencies adorn their houses and buildings with national flags and portraits of His Majesty during the royal visit.

Mr Phinit expected a turnout of at least 36,000 people, and added that local fruits, One Tambon One Product (Otop) products, as well as a total of 10 lobsters will be presented to the King.

Krabi Town Mayor Kiratisak Phukaoluan said Krabi residents are grateful that His Majestys first official visit as king will be to their province. The late King visited Krabi in 1959, 1970 and 1973.

People in Krabi and surrounding provinces are waiting eagerly for His Majesty the King to arrive, Mr Kiratisak said, adding that local people were helping to tidy up buildings in the city to prepare for the royal visit.

His Majesty is the unifying force of all Thais. Thailand has the three major institutions  nation, religion, and the monarch  and the country cannot be without any of the three institutions, particularly the monarchy which has existed for a long time.

We, the people of Krabi, would like to make a pledge of allegiance to His Majesty King Rama X, Mr Kiratisak said.

Under the guidance of the King, the province will develop and prosper, the Krabi mayor said.

Duan Dumdee, president of the Krabi provincial cultural council, said he was determined to welcome the King.

Today, many people from all walks of life and state officials will welcome the King, he said.

Meanwhile, His Majesty the King on Wednesday (Dec 7) granted the 10 newly appointed members of the Privy Council an audience to make an oath of allegiance at the Ambara Villa at the Dusit Palace.

Privy Council President Prem Tinsulanonda led the 10 Privy Council members in swearing a pledge of allegiance before His Majesty the King.

After the oath-taking ceremony, the King extended his thanks to the privy councillors for their intention to help with his work.

The King said the privy councillors will be given assignments, as well as an opportunity to provide him with advice. They will also help to maintain the security of the country in line with policies regarding the royal institution.

The King also said he appreciated that Gen Prem has become Privy Council president again.

The monarch also thanked the privy councillors for the work they had done for the late King.

His Majesty said the privy councillors have his full trust. He also wished them happiness and the ability to work well.

Meanwhile, Thai tourists are showing increasing interest in visiting royal projects following the passing of King Bhumibol Adulyadej in October.

The number of visitors to the Chang Hua Man royal project in Tha Yang district of Phetchaburi had doubled from 26,308 in November last year to 54,707 in November this year, Tourism Minister Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul said yesterday.

Read original story here.
Korean woman charged over fatal collision, two Russians killed

PHUKET: Wichit Police have confirmed that Korean national Lee Hyemi, 38, has been charged for the fatal collision that killed two Russian men on Chao Fa West Rd in the early hours of Tuesday (Dec 6).

accidentstransportdeath

By Yutthawat Lekmak

Friday 9 December 2016, 09:06AM

Korean national Lee Hyemi, 38, has been charged for the fatal collision that killed two Russian men early Tuesday Morning (Dec 6). Photo: Darawan Naknakhon

The two men killed in the accident were riding northbound on a motorbike near the King Power duty-free store when they collided head-on with a Toyota Vios driven by Ms Lee just before 3am. (See story here.)

Ms Lee has been charged with reckless driving causing death, Lt Khwansirinart Thairat of the Wichit Police confirm with The Phuket News yesterday (Dec 8).

When police arrived at the scene, Ms Lees car was on the right-hand side of the road, but she was heading southbound, Lt Khwansirinart said.

We were told she lost control of her car and it spun out of control from left side to right side of the road, causing it to crash into the motorbike, she added.

Ms Lee was tested for alcohol. We expected to receive the results next Tuesday, Lt Khwansirinart said.

If found guilty, Ms Lee faces up to 10 years in jail or a fine of no more than B200,000, or both, Lt Khwansirinart said, adding that Ms Lee is in the country as a tourist.

The two men killed in the accident have been identified as Evgeny Ostrovskiy, 25, who was driving the motorbike, and Dmitrii Likhtin, 26.

Both men were identified by a relative and a friend, Lt Khwansirinart said.
No charges over Aussie tourist injured in Patong parasail plunge

PHUKET: Police have yet to conclude their investigation into what caused Australian tourist to fall out of her parasail harness at Patong Beach on Wednesday afternoon (Dec 7).

patongaccidentstourismmarinepolice

By Yutthawat Lekmak

Friday 9 December 2016, 01:40PM

Australian tourist Sally-Ann Popovic, 26, fell about five metres into the water below while parasailing at Patong Beach. Photo: Patong lifeguards

Sally-Ann Popovic, 26, fell about five metres and landed in the water below while parasailing at the popular beach.

She suffered an ear injury and a sore neck, but has already been discharged from Patong Hospital, Lt Yingyong Chuykit of the Patong Police told The Phuket News today (Dec 9).

I was told she was released from hospital yesterday evening. She is doing well and is going back to her country tomorrow, Lt Yingyong said.

All medical expenses have been paid for by the parasail operators insurance company. Both parties discussed the matter and the victim said that she will not file a complaint, he added.

We questioned parasail business owner Waewta Srithongkul about the safety of their equipment and inspected the harness in question on the day of the incident. The equipment looked fine, nothing was broken.

We have yet to conclude what caused her to fall since everything seemed to be intact. It is possible that she slipped out of the harness while she was turning or moving around while in the air, Lt Yingyong noted.

Ms Waewta was very sorry for what happened to Ms Popovic, he added.

After the incident, she confirmed that she checked all her parasail equipment and insists that she will have all the equipment checked thoroughly for safety every time before using it to provide parasail flights to the public.
Patong Mayor unveils plans for Loma food centre as vendors agree delayed eviction

PHUKET: Vendors at the Loma Food Centre have until April 30 next year to vacate the building so Patong Municipality can begin redeveloping the building into a monument to honour the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

patongtourismeconomicscultureconstruction

By The Phuket News

Friday 9 December 2016, 07:34PM

The building will be renovated to resemble a Micro Moth dinghy, which the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej designed and built by hand himself. Photo: Patong Municipality

The building will be renovated to resemble a Micro Moth dinghy, which the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej designed and built by hand himself. Photo: Patong Municipality

Patong Mayor Chalermluck Kebsup explained that the building will be renovated into a monument honouring the late king Bhumibol Adulyadej. Photo: Patong Municipality

The final date was agreed at a meeting between Patong Mayor Chalermluck Kebsup and the final 17 remaining vendors yesterday afternoon (Dec 8).

Also present at the meeting was Phuket Provincial Chief Administrative Officer (Palad) Poonsak Naksaena, officials from Damrongdhama Centre (Ombudsmans Office) and Capt Boontop Lanthong from the Office of Phuket Public Prosecution.

We will turn the building into a new landmark, Mayor Chalermluck said.

The new building will be in the shape of a Micro Mod boat, which is a dinghy that the late King Bhumibol designed and made by hand himself, she explained.

Vendors may continue to use the building until April 30, Mayor Chalermluck said.

But they must clear away everything at the end of each day. They cannot leave anything behind, she said.

After the building is complete, Patong Municipality will find a location for the vendors to set up again, she added.

Of the 17 vendors present at the meeting, 16 agreed and one disagreed with the resolution.

The delayed eviction date brings to a close a long-running dispute between Patong Municipality and vendors at the centre, which is popular among tourist along the Patong beachfront, with many vendors facing eviction one by one since last year for failing to comply with lease coinditions, and some refusing to pay rent. (See story here.)

Late last month, Phuket Governor Chockchai Dejamornthan gave a stay of execution of eviction as vendors pleaded to stay at the Food Centre. (See story here.)
Samkong Underpass to partially close for grand opening ceremony

PHUKET: Despite previous confirmation to the contrary, the Samkong Underpass will have a grand opening ceremony after all  a year and eight months after its initial completion date.

constructiontransport

By The Phuket News

Friday 9 December 2016, 01:07PM

Workers complete finishing touches to the Samkong Underpass in October. The northbound lanes will be closed from 10pm Dec 19 through to about 11am Dec 20 for the underpass grand opening ceremony. Photo: Chris Husted

Phuket Highways Chief Patiwetwoottisak Sookkhee announced this week that the northbound lanes will be closed for the ceremony, to be held on Tuesday, Dec 20.

We received an order from the Highways Department head office to hold an official opening for Samkong Underpass this month because the project is now complete, Chief Patiwetwoottisak said.

The event will start with a blessing ceremony from at 6am to 9:30am.

We will close the northbound lanes only for the ceremony. The southbound lanes will be open as normal on that day so traffic will not back up, said Chief Patiwetwoottisak.

Samkong Underpass will reopen to traffic at about 11am after the event is over.

We apologise for any inconvenience during this time and please be advised that we will close northbound lanes of the underpass from 10pm Dec 19 so we can prepare the area for the ceremony.

The plague of problems encountered during construction  including flooding, a road collapse and workers having to move water mains pipes that the construction teams apparently were not informed of  forced back the completion date time and again.

At last report, Vivat Construction Co Ltd, the contractor tasked with building the Samkong Underpass and now beginning construction of the Chalong Underpass, stood to be fined some B570 million for the late completion.

The nightmare project saw Phuket Highways Office Project Engineer Chalermpon Wongkietkun, who was tasked with overseeing the construction, resigning his post in Phuket. (See story here.)

Speaking to The Phuket News from his new post in Songkhla, Mr Chalermpon explained, The concept behind this grand opening, from the Bureau of Bridges Construction of the Department of Rural Roads, which operates under the Highways Department, is to give this underpass to the people of Phuket as a New Years gift.

Life is better for him in Songkhla, he added.

My life is better than it's ever been. I am still involved in highways construction, but I no longer feel like I am stuck in a never-ending loop of suffering, he said.
Second French suspect held for Samui Frenchman's murder

SURAT THANI: A Frenchman who allegedly shot dead a compatriot whose body was found in a stream near a waterfall on Koh Samui has been arrested, the second suspect to be caught in the case.

crimemurderpolicetourism

By Bangkok Post

Friday 9 December 2016, 06:18PM

Georges Michel, 65, accused of shooting dead a fellow Frenchman during a late night argument at a restaurant on Koh Samui, is caught in Don Sak district of Surat Thani on Thursday afternoon. Photo: Bangkok Post / Supapong Chaolan

A man identified by police as Georges Michel, 65, was apprehended at Ban Nai junction in Don Sak district on the mainland around 4pm on Thursday while driving a pickup truck, allegedly fleeing arrest. Bloodstains were found in the back of the vehicle, police said. He was taken to Koh Samui police station.

He was among three Frenchmen allegedly in the murder of Delacherie Laurent Lacques Jean at a restaurant on Koh Samui on Wednesday night (Dec 7).

The body of the 44-year-old victim was found in a creek at Tarzan waterfall (Nam Tok Mae Nam Soi 5) in tambon Mae Nam, near Tarn Rua waterfall, on Koh Samui district, on Thursday morning.

Shortly after the body was reported, police arrested Larignon Cyrille Jean Paul, 43, owner of the restaurant, where the victim was shot dead. The suspect was arrested at his restaurant.

Surat Thani Police Chief Maj Gen Apichart Boonsriroj went to Koh Samui Police Station to jointly interrogate Mr Michel.

Investigators said Mr Jean had talked with Mr Michel and another Frenchman, identified only as Yves, at Pauls restaurant, on Wednesday night.

A quarrel erupted between the victim and Mr Michel, who walked out of the restaurant and returned about five minutes later with a gun. He then allegedly fired three shots at Mr Jean.

Assisted by Mr Yves and Mr Paul, he then took the body to Tarzan waterfall, where it was dropped in the stream, police said.

The 65-year-old suspect allegedly fled in the pickup truck, which has a Surat Thani licence plate. He drove the vehicle to Raja Ferry Port and crossed from Koh Samui to Don Sak on the mainland, where he was caught.

Police were hunting down the third suspect.

Read original story here.
How to watch, what to know about South Dakota State at Northern Iowa
A sign that reads "GODSPEED JOHN GLENN" is displayed in honor of the American astronaut at a local supermarket in his hometown, Friday, Dec. 9, 2016, in New Concord, Ohio. Glenn was the first American to orbit Earth, piloting Friendship 7 around the planet three times in 1962. Glenn, as a U.S. senator at age 77, also became the oldest person in space by orbiting Earth with six astronauts aboard shuttle Discovery in 1998. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
Women sue groom, say he flew drone that hit them at wedding
ATLANTIC SKIES: Stellar asterisms  eye-catching pretenders to the constellation throne and just part of the bigger picture

Most everyone, or at least most amateur astronomers, are familiar with the constellations in the night sky to some degree. Many, however, may not be familiar with the numerous asterisms in the night sky. What is the difference between a constellation ...
But the tribe has a long way to go
A parliamentary standing committee has questioned the present system of `judges appointing judges', stating that the appointment of judges to the higher judiciary is essentially an executive function and is envisaged as a participatory Constitutional function to be jointly performed by the judiciary and the executive.

"The committee is of the view that judicial appointments are shared responsibility of the executive and the judiciary, to be exercised jointly with neither organ of the State having a primacy over the other," the parliamentary standing committee on law and justice said in its report on the 'Inordinate delay in filling up the vacancies in the Supreme Court and High Courts'.

It said that only "consultation" with the Chief Justice of India for appointment of judges to the higher judiciary was provided for in the Constitution. The Supreme Court has interpreted it as "concurrence". It also said that the judiciary had interpreted in the same context, the 'Chief Justice of India' in Article 124 of the Constitution, as a collegium comprising the CJI and four senior-most judges of the Supreme Court for appointment of judges to the apex court.

"It is also observed that plain language of the Article shows that the word 'Chief Justice of India' refers to 'Chief Justice of India' individually and not as representing collective opinion of judiciary," the report said. It further emphasised that Article 124 empowers the President to consult with judges of the Supreme Court and the High Courts as he deems necessary for the purpose of appointment of judges.

The committee said it strongly recommends that the distortion in the original mandate of the Constitution arising out of the judgments of the apex court needs to be reversed and the original Constitutional position needs to be replaced in letter and spirit.

And in what may mean legislative measures, the committee headed by Congress leader and Rajya Sabha Deputy Leader of the House Anand Sharma said the government may take appropriate measures in that regard.

The questioning of the present system of appointment of judges to the higher judiciary assumes significance in the backdrop of the ongoing tussle between the government and the collegium with regard to the appointments process. After the Supreme Court struck down the National Judicial Appointments Commission, which was envisaged as a replacement of the collegium system, and for which a law was passed by Parliament with political unanimity, the apex court had asked the government to come up with a new Memorandum of Procedure for appointment of judges. It did so even as it revived the collegium.
Former Indian Air Force chief, Air Chief Marshal S.P. Tyagi, has been arrested by the CBI in the VVIP helicopter deal scam. He is accused of having helped tweak the specifications of the required helicopter in such a way as to favour AgustaWestland company, which got the Rs 3600 crore deal.

The total kickbacks in the deal is said to have been around Rs 360 crore.

This is the first time in India that a military chief has been arrested for any crime.

The crime is alleged to have taken place in 2004, more than a year before Tyagi became air chief in December 2005. His cousins are alleged to have entered into a deal with the company, knowing that he would become the next chief and favour them. His cousin Sanjeev alias Julie Tyagi and a Delhi lawyer Gautam Khaitan too have been arrested. All three have been arrested for accepting illegal gratification for exercising influence though corrupt and illegal means, said a CBI officer. Tyagi retired in 2007.

Tyagi had been under probe by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate since 2015 when the scam broke. The Enforcement Directorate had also questioned his role, as also that of 24 others, in money-laundering last April.

Tyagi is alleged to to have reduced the height of the VVIP helicopters, and its operational ceiling, in such a way that AgustaWestland could be included in the competition.

The helicopters, 12 in number, were required for transporting VVIPs over short distances or to otherwise inaccessible areas. The air force had orginally asked for helicopters that could ferry VVIPs even up to Siachen, considering that the VVIPs could be visiting the high-altitude area. However, this, as well as other specifications, were allegedly lowered at the insistence of Tyagi.

Meanwhile, Tyagi's defence had been that the specifications had already been lowered at the insistence of former National Security Advisor Brajesh Mishra on the ground that there was no need to spend so much for a transport requirement that was rarely asked for.
In an attempt to boost the state's intelligence department, West Bengal government is building up its intelligence unit at par with the central government guidelines.

Like the central IB, Mamata Banerjee has decided to set up separate intelligence offices in all districts in the state.

At present, crucial information gathering is done in West Bengal by one DIB (District Intelligence Branch) officer in each police station in the state. They report to officer in-charge of the station who report to the superintendent of police in district. SPs send the report to West Bengal polices intelligence branch in Kolkata.

Kolkata police, however, has a special intelligence branch called special branch (SB).

Now, the government has decided to have a parallel intelligence unit which will work in tandem with the DIB in all districts.

The idea was first mooted by Basudeb Banerjee, present chief secretary of West Bengal, who was the home secretary in 2012. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee recently approved the proposal and asked the administration concerned to build up a solid intelligence network in the state.

Chief Secretary Banerjee held a meeting with senior officers of the state intelligence branch and asked them to create a conducive intelligence network in the state to deal with ISIS and other terrorist organisations based in Bangladesh.

Sources said the CM took up the proposal of Banerjee after the Burdwan blast in 2014 which opened up the terror plot of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB). The JMB had plotted to kill prime minister of Bangladesh Seikh Hasina. At least 50 terror modules were traced in seven border districts of the state. The intelligence units would first come up in these seven districts from Siliguri to Siliguri to South 24 Parganas.

The CM had also asked the finance department to fund the setting up of the intelligence units.

Like Intelligence Bureau of central governmentwhich has its offices in all districts of the countrystate IB would have offices in all districts and special officers would be recruited from the West Bengal police cadres. The officers would also be chosen from state cadres and would be sent outside the country for special training.

The chief secretary has asked all of us to be ready to face the challenge in the coming days. He also said that officers would be rewarded for sharp and prudent intelligence gathering, said an officer of state IB.
His house may be in the 30km zone of Mount Maunganui, but Gareth Morgan isnt slowing down. Hes put his pedal to the metal and plans to hit the political highway with a clear destination in mind.

But the map has changed significantly in the last week. Two days after Prime Minister John Keys jolting announcement he is resigning, Gareth and his newly-formed The Opportunities Party announced their first policy in Auckland on Wednesday.

Its a fairly ballsy one about tax reform. And Gareth isnt too concerned about who is running the country. He thinks the current bunch of politicians have cemented themselves to the short-term or three-year goal of getting re-elected.

They avoid the tough decisions, says Gareth. Half of the time they propose policies that wont even achieve what they say they will.

This [tax reform] policy is the one which will make the biggest difference to our lives. Its all about making New Zealand fair again, says Gareth.

The end result of this policy will be more jobs, more affordable housing, more business growth and tax cuts that leave 80 per cent of the population better off.

And hes clear about what he wants to achieve. We are simply changing who pays the tax. The Government needs money to pay for things.

Unperturbed by his past deliberate provocations, Gareth wants to start a new robust conversation amongst the average Kiwi.

Hes laying out what he believes is an aspirational blueprint for both those who are benefitting from the property prices, and those who find themselves stymied from home ownership. He wants to light a fuse, and influence the Government of the day.

We want to change what is taxed, not the amount of tax collected, says Gareth.

Any increase in revenue will be used to reduce income rates. Under the reform we propose, around 80 per cent of the public will be better off, the 20 per cent that arent can well afford it.

The tax policy advances a minimum rate of return on assets such as housing and land. He references John Key and himself as examples of those wholl end up paying more tax from this policy.

Gareths outlined how the large pool of untaxed income was benefiting people who owned assets theyd accumulated.

The growing wealth to homeowners from the increasing house prices produced no or very little taxable income.

This isnt viewed by him as a capital gains tax but as an efficient and fair way to ensure everyone has the same opportunity.

Our policies aim to make most New Zealanders better off in the long-term, says Gareth. Our country needs to make hard choices, but in the short-term people are afraid of change.
Two recently-published studies at the University of Haifa examined the connection between work routine and stress during the Second Lebanon War. The studies found that work routine reduced stress among residents of northern Israel during the war. The strongest effect was found among women and those obliged to come to their places of work.

The calming power of work: adhering to work routine during the Second Lebanon War (2006) contributed to a reduction in stress. The strongest effect was found among women and, surprisingly, among people who were obliged to come to work. These findings emerged from two recently-published studies conducted at the University of Haifa. Dr. Michal Biron, who undertook the studies together with Dr. Sharon Link and Dr. Carmit Rapaport, explains: Traditionally, women were those who stayed at home to look after the children during emergencies such as wars, and employers evidently found it easier to allow them to do so. However, the study findings, particularly in the realm of gender, show that it is very important to create conditions that enable women to maintain their work routine during wars or protracted states of emergencies.

Numerous studies have attempted to identify activities or factors that have a positive or negative influence on the level of stress people experience during wars or protracted emergencies. In two studies conducted during the Second Lebanon War, and published recently, Dr. Biron and her colleagues sought to examine whether various factors relating to work influenced psychological resilience. The first study, undertaken together with Dr. Sharon Link of the University of Haifa, she examined the impact according to gender. The second, conducted with Dr. Carmit Rapaport of the University of Haifa and Jezreel Valley College, examined various aspects, including the amount of work imposed on employees during war, whether coming to work was optional or imposed on the worker by the employer, and so forth.

The key finding of both studies is that an inverse correlation can be seen between going to work and stress levels due to protracted states of emergency. In other words  the more people went out to their work regularly, the lower their stress level.

This effect was strongest among women. Maintaining any kind of routine, including work routine, is an important tool in coping with the uncertainty and insecurity of war, Dr. Biron explains. Accordingly, maintaining work routine is a resource that helped both men and women. However, previous studies have shown that during crises women are more likely than men to draw on the resources at their disposal. This may be one of the reasons why maintaining a work routine was particularly helpful in their case.

Dr. Biron points out that during the Second Lebanon War, as during other protracted emergencies, women are usually more likely to stay at home and look after the children, in part because men are more likely to be required to continue to come to work. The findings of the new studies suggest that the state should try to make sure that women can also maintain a work routine, as far as possible, and should even encourage women to maintain their work routine.

Who else benefits most from maintaining a work routine? Surprisingly, people who were obliged to come to work by their employers also show a strong effect. Dr. Biron suggests that those who were obliged to come to work may have turned up physically to clock on, but not felt obliged to do much actual work. Accordingly, simply being present at their place of work may not have taken up their resources, thereby allowing them to maintain a routine, meet with people, and so forth. Interestingly, in the case of people who felt that they were coming to work voluntarily (of their own free will), no positive impact was found in terms of reduced pressure. The same was true of those who worked more than usual during the period of war and stress.

An additional factor relating to work routine and the reduction of stress it provides relates to the individuals level of preparation for war situations. People who prepared properly for the war  stocking up food or other emergency supplies, keeping themselves informed as to how to act in any particular situation, and so forth  showed a sharper fall in stress levels than those who did not do so. Apart from the peace of mind factor (someone who has prepared properly acts more calmly), another possible explanation for this is that those who prepare properly are people who tend to use various resources more successfully in order to reduce stress; accordingly, they were also better placed to use the resource of work routine.

Dr. Biron concluded: In situations of protracted security danger, people look for ways to maintain routine in order to cope as well as possible with the situation of uncertainty. Our studies showed that maintaining work routine is another important tool in this context. But it is important to bear in mind that this strategy applies to any crisis or state of uncertainty. Accordingly, employers should take into account that in any crisis or state of uncertainty  including the threat of closure, concerns ahead of mergers, mass redundancies, and so on  maintaining work routine can help reduce stress among the employees.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
Despite the threat of expulsion hanging over the heads of some residents, 81% of residents of the Shomron express satisfaction with living in their community.

The survey was conducted by Magar Mochot headed by Professor Yitzchak Katz last month involving 1,072 respondents, all residents of yishuvim in the Shomron Regional Council to assist the regional council in determining the level of satisfaction among its citizens.

Residents were asked to rate the performance of the regional council when they seek assistance and services and 85% expressed satisfaction. The council has in the paced year placed an emphasis on improving in this area.

When asked if they are satisfied with their communities, 74% responded they feel safe or very safe.

The council invests a great deal of time, money and resources in lobbying politicians and PR in general. 93% of the residents feel this is important and should be continued in the future. 93% responded they are also pleased with the councils handling of the many new immigrants from France.

96% prefer a policy of chessed including food distribution once monthly and for yomim tovim, a policy that has been adopted by the regional council. 74% of respondents are satisfied with the overall performance of the council in the past year and 92% feel council leader Yossi Dagan is headed in the correct direction.

Prof. Katz conducts such surveys for councils and municipalities nationwide. He points out the level of satisfaction with the Shomron Regional Council is among the highest in Israel as well as the number of residents expressing a feeling of security despite the security threats facing them.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
The Rabbinical Congress for Peace (RCP) has lashed out against the ministers and MKs of the Bayit Yehudi Party for agreeing to the evacuation of Amona saying that you cant bribe HKBH with a Regulation Bill.

Over 400 rabbis who are members of the RCP have called on the government to immediately stop talking of evacuation of any settlement because the mere verbal expressions of evacuation energizes the terrorists to increase their terrorist activity.

The Torah states that G-d does not take bribes, you cannot chase Jews out of their homes in one area for whatever good intention you may have because our enemies do not differentiate between a withdrawal from ten kilometers or ten meters. To them the message is clear: Jews dont feel that they are the rightful owners of the Land of Israel and are prepared to cave in under pressure, said Rabbi Joseph Gerlitzky, Chairman of the RCP.

The rabbis reiterated the Halachic Ruling in Shulchan Aruch (Orach Chaim Chapter 329) that any withdrawal from land currently controlled by Jews is a danger to life and will serve as a tailwind to increased terrorist activities. This is not a mystical or metaphysical concept detached from reality but unfortunately has been witnessed physically by the residents of Israel ever since Oslo.

In an interview with the Israeli media today, Rabbi Gerlitzky said that the claim that the world expects us to evacuate Amona is false and deceptive. All nations of the world, especially the USA, who are confronted with Islamic terrorism expects Israel to stand strong and firm and not to be deterred by the so-called enlightened political correct establishment.

The rabbi asserted that the government in Israel has been gripped with an imaginary fear that the world is pressuring it and this itself precipitates pressure. This is the fulfillment of the curse mentioned in the Torah you will flee with no one pursuing you. Is there anyone in their right mind that thinks Israel ought to evacuate Jews from parts of their homeland and give it over to sworn enemies who seek their destruction? We ourselves have convinced the world that this is an item on the agenda, said Rabbi Gerlitzky.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
A man suspected of fatally shooting a Georgia police officer and wounding another is dead, authorities said Thursday after a SWAT team stormed a home where a tipster had told police the suspect was hiding.

The manhunt for 32-year-old Minquell Lembrick ended a day after a gunman killed Americus police Officer Nicholas Smarr and critically wounded Officer Jody Smith of Georgia Southwestern State University. Both officers were shot as they responded to a domestic disturbance call in Americus, a rural city 130 miles south of Atlanta. The shooting happened near campus, prompting university officials to place the school on lockdown.

Police identified Lembrick as a suspect in the shootings and offered a $70,000 reward for information leading to his capture. The SWAT team was dispatched to the house in Americus after authorities received a tip, said Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman Nelly Miles.

SWAT officers emerged from the home a short time after entering, and police said the manhunt was over.

Its confirmed that the suspect is dead, Americus police spokeswoman Phyllis Banks told The Associated Press.

She gave no further details, including whether police shot Lembrick or found him dead. Americus Police Chief Mark Scott planned a news conference Thursday afternoon.

Scott said Wednesday that Lembrick had an outstanding arrest warrant charging him with kidnapping and other counts when the two officers encountered him at an apartment complex where a domestic dispute had been reported. But officers didnt know whom they were dealing with when they responded to the 911 call.

After the shootings, Smith was airlifted to a hospital in Macon with critical injuries. Banks said Thursday morning the wounded officer remained in critical condition after undergoing surgery.

Fellow officers who knew them werent surprised that Smith, who worked on a college campus near the shooting scene, went to assist Smarr when he was dispatched to a domestic dispute call at an apartment complex. The two men had been lifelong friends.

Theyve been close friends since grade school, said Lt. Chuck Hanks of the Sumter County Sheriffs Office, where both officers had previously worked as deputies. Hanks said the two men were still roommates, sharing a home in the county.

Sumter County Sheriff Pete Smith told reporters both officers were engaged to be married in the coming months.

Its tough, Hanks said. Were a small community. You see these people every day. You work with them every day.

Authorities initially gave different spellings for the first names of both Smith and Lembrick, but said Thursday that they had confirmed corrected spellings for each.

Within an hour of the shootings Wednesday, posts on Lembricks Facebook page appeared to indicate he didnt want to be taken alive. One message posted from the account read: other life gone not going to jail.

It was soon followed by a four-second Facebook Live video showing a young man partly concealed by shadows saying, Im gonna miss yall folk, man.

Miles with the GBI confirmed the Facebook page was Lembricks. It was taken down soon after the messages were posted.

(AP)
Jaguars  spotted, stocky and stealthy  once roamed freely throughout the wilds of the Western United States. But like many species before them, the big cats resident population in America was hunted to death. For several decades, there have been only occasional sightings of jaguars near the Mexico border.

So it was with great excitement that wildlife conservationists announced earlier this year that for the first time in six years, a jaguar had been caught on video creeping around the thick vegetation of Arizonas Santa Rita Mountains. They dubbed the male El Jefe, and for months it has been believed that he is the sole jaguar in the United States.

That changed this week. On Wednesday, the Arizona Game and Fish Department announced that a possible second jaguar had been photographed by a trail camera in Fort Huachuca, a U.S. Army installation in the Huachuca Mountains, not far from the Santa Ritas. Benjamin Tuggle, director for the Southwest Region of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said in a statement that preliminary indications suggest that the cat is a male.

That would mean, of course, that even if this cat crossed paths with El Jefe, no mewing jaguar kittens would result to increase the population. But no matter the gender, officials urged jaguar fans to suspend celebrations for the time being.

While this is exciting news, we are examining photographic evidence to determine if were seeing a new cat here, or if this is an animal that has been seen in Arizona before, said Jim deVos, assistant director of the Arizona Game and Fish Departments Wildlife Management division.

A few jaguars have been seen in the United States in recent decades. Biologists say they are probably visitors from a neighboring population in Sonora, Mexico. Theyve been fatally shot or have returned to Mexico, Alan Rabinowitz, a big-cat expert, told The Washington Post in 2014. Some conservationists warn that a border barrier like the one President-elect Donald Trump has proposed could disrupt cross-border migration of wildlife, including El Jefe and his fellow jaguars.

News of a possible second jaguar made a splash among biologists on Twitter, who noted that the process of identifying the jaguar should actually be fairly quick. Thats because each cat has its own pattern of spots, so its a simple matter of comparison.

The Wildlife Habitat and Population Analysis Lab at Virginia Tech put on social media the recently sighted cats photo next to a photo of El Jefe.

Votes poured in, and most seemed to think that the images do, indeed, depict two different jaguars.

(c) 2016, The Washington Post  Karin Brulliard
Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn) garnered the support of 35 major rabbis, principals and school administrators on Friday, who sent a letter to Governor Cuomo in an effort to prevent traffic changes from going into effect on Ocean Parkway.

We are writing to express our deep concern over proposed changes that will eliminate certain right turns along Ocean Parkway, and that we feel will be detrimental to the safety of our community residents, particularly the elderly and children, the letter read. As local rabbis, school principals and administrators, we, more than anyone else, know how densely populated the community is.

The letter went on to describe Ocean Parkway as a major thoroughfare that is utilized by tens of thousands of motorists at any given time. Forcing more traffic onto surrounding streets will pose a tremendous risk to the safety of the residents. By diverting traffic onto the service roads and nearby streets, the likelihood of an accident, G-d forbid, will increase dramatically.

As a result of a communitywide uproar over the impending traffic changes, Assemblyman Hikind scheduled a meeting with NYS DOT Deputy Commissioner Phil Eng, elected officials and community leaders on Monday to discuss safety concerns. The meeting was scheduled shortly after Assemblyman Hikinds petition to stop the madness and postpone the traffic changes went viral, receiving over 1,000 signatures in just one day.

We must continue to express our frustration and do all we can to prevent these dangerous traffic changes from going into effect, Hikind said. I want to thank all of the wonderful community leaders and outraged residents who have fought to suspend these changes, and I look forward to meeting with NYS DOT officials to resolve this issue.

While optimistic about Mondays meeting with NYS DOT officials, Assemblyman Hikind requests that the community continue calling Governor Cuomos office at 212-681-4580 and ask him to immediately suspend the traffic changes until further review.

(YWN Desk  NYC)
For the first time in close to 50 years a member of the orthodox Jewish community affirmed the oath of office as a member of the 72nd Baltimore City Council.

With thousands of citizens, family and friends, looking on, Isaac Yitzy Schleifer, raised his right hand affirming to represent the 5th District of Baltimore City.

The community is beaming with pride over Yitzys accomplishments and looks forward to creative initiatives and leadership during the many years ahead.

The city bid farewell this week to eight council members, who left with a combined 125 years of experience, and to former Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. Mayor Catherine E. Pugh took office Tuesday.

New to the council are Zeke Cohen in the 1st District, Ryan Dorsey in the 3rd District, Isaac Yitzy Schleifer in the 5th District, Leon F. Pinkett III in the 7th District, Kristerfer Burnett in the 8th District, John T. Bullock in the 9th District, Robert Stokes Sr. in the 12th District and Shannon Sneed in the 13th District.

All are Democrats. Most are younger than the members they replace. Some have pledged to push a more progressive agenda than the council members they replaced.

(Source: Baltimore Jewish Life / Baltimore Sun)
After submitting our claim 11 months ago, we've still had no response from Thomson

Four years ago we went on a cruise around Barbados, but our flight from the UK to Barbados was delayed, by just over three hours.

As the delay was more than three hours, I applied for compensation from Thomson in January this year, but I have not heard anything back from them since then.

I've sent details of the flight, including proof from the cruise company that it was delayed arriving, but I've yet to hear back.

I have chased the claim up but have still had nothing back, apart from emails to say my emails have been received.

How can I get Thomson to reply? I feel they just disregard any attempts I make to get a response from them, Elaine Matthews, via email

Rebecca Rutt, of This is Money, replies: As you rightly say, as you were delayed for more than three hours, so you are entitled compensation for the delay.

You sent Thomson proof the flight arrived more than three hours late, from your cruise company P&O, and therefore you should be entitled to 300 (252) in compensation per passenger.

There's no reason for it to take this long, as you applied 11 months ago now, so we got in contact with the airline to find out what had happened.

After looking into your case, a spokesperson came back to us and said: 'We would like to apologise to Mrs Matthews for the delay in processing her claim. We can confirm the matter is now resolved.

'We would like to reassure customers that we do everything possible to minimise delays and we are committed to maintaining an excellent on-time performance across our flying programme.'

You have since received confirmation from Thomson that the claim has been accepted and a cheque is on its way but the fact it took 11 months to arrive, and was only paid after we got in contact, isn't a good sign.

We asked Thomson the reason for the delay but it could not give us an answer.

If your flight's been delayed by more than three hours you are entitled to claim compensation

Ever since passengers have been able to claim for delays in 2012, there have been accusations of airlines trying to wriggle out of paying compensation by rejecting claims or putting them on hold.

Your other option would have been to complain to the airline directly, and if you still didn't get anywhere you could have approached the UK's airline regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority. It looks after several alternative dispute resolution schemes which airlines are required to sign up to.

Thomson is registered with CEDR so you would need to contact it to escalate the complaint, if the airline had still refused to accept or acknowledge your claim.

Any passenger whose flight is heavily delayed or cancelled has the right to ask for compensation.

This comes under regulation (EC) 261/2004 which requires airlines to compensate passengers if their flight is cancelled or heavily delayed. It's only applicable on flights which have departed from an airport within the European Union but it doesn't matter what airline you've flown with or where you're going.

Flight delays can be claimed back to 2010 so if you've been delayed any time in the past six years you may be entitled to compensation. In order to claim compensation, there are a few rules you need to follow, the most important being that it needs to have been the airline's fault.
A critical UK gas pipeline supplying 11m homes and businesses has been sold for 13.8billion to a consortium of investors from Australia, China and Qatar.

The sell-off of a majority stake in the National Grid gas network will trigger a bumper payday for shareholders, who will split 4billion from the deal.

And it will mean a massive payout for investment bankers and lawyers involved in the deal, who will share millions.

The sell-off of a majority stake in the National Grid gas network will be a bumper payday for shareholders, who will split 4bn from the deal.

But the sale has raised huge concerns about a major part of UK infrastructure being sold to foreign investors.

It comes months after Prime Minister Theresa May said she wanted the Government to be able to intervene in foreign investment in crucial industries, and announced a review into relevant law.

Yesterday, though, asked whether the proposed takeover of the National Grid by a Chinese firm raised concerns, the PM's official spokesman said: 'I don't have anything specific to say on that case.

'There are already a number of processes and checks in place and we have set out how we will strengthen those.'

Concerns have been raised about the investors involved in the deal.

The consortium that has taken a 61 per cent stake in National Grid includes Australian investment bankers Macquarie; China's sovereign wealth fund, the China Investment Corporation; and Qatari wealth fund Qatar Investment Authority.

The rest are financial services group Allianz Capital Partners, UK-based Hermes Investment Management and British fund managers Dalmore Capital and Amber Infrastructure Limited/International Public Partnerships.

A stretch of national grid gas pipeline winds it way across the countryside near Skipton, Yorkshire

Particular worries are related to China's stake in the UK's power networks, and the intentions of Macquarie, which already owns Thames Water.

Its ownership of that firm has been heavily criticised because it has been accused of stripping millions of pounds of dividends from the business while failing to properly invest in infrastructure.

In 2013 alone, despite achieving a turnover of 1.8billion and profits of 550million, it paid no corporation tax.

The Unison union said its ownership had led to poorer customer service and higher bills, and officials fear the same at National Grid.

Thames Water said under current ownership 1billion had been invested every year for the past ten years.

Dave Prentis, general secretary of Unison, said: 'Once again the Government's done nothing to encourage a transfer to British hands.'

John Pettigrew, chief executive of National Grid, stressed that the consortium 'has a long-term commitment to the UK with significant experience in owning infrastructure assets'.
Shoppers buying on a whim when they get to big stores have given a boost to packaging firm DS Smith.

The manufacturer, which supplies giants such as Procter & Gamble, which is behind household brands including Oral-B and Fairy, and Cadburys-owner Mondelez, saw revenues lifted because stores were having to put more thought into how their products are presented on supermarket shelves.

This is because more consumers are making on-the-spot decisions about what to buy, rather than planning ahead.

DS Smith said retailers are now investing in packaging and presentation to shift stock and moving away from traditional television advertising.

Up: DS Smith supplies giants such as Procter and Gamble, which is behind household brands including Oral-B and Fairy, and Cadburys-owner Mondelez

But the business said it was also a beneficiary of the rise in internet shopping, which increased demand for postal packages that make sure products reach customers in good condition.

The firm said sales in the first half were up 21 per cent on last year at 2.36billion, while pre-tax profit climbed 60 per cent to 146million.

Shareholders are set for a pay-out of 4.6p a share, an increase of 15 per cent from last year's interim dividend. Shares soared 5.8 per cent, or 23.1p, to 419.1p.

A stockbroker upgrade gave Berendsen a lift. HSBC said management at the industrial laundry service provider was capable of addressing the issues at the company, which earlier this year issued a profit warning.

Analysts upped the stock to a buy and said that there were already signs of improvement across the group, which offers linen and workwear cleaning, and it has enough cash to make further acquisitions.

STOCK WATCH - SERVICEPOWER TECHNOLOGIES A cash bid sent ServicePower Technologies shares soaring. The software company has received an offer from US private equity firm Diversis Capital valuing the business at 13.65million. Under the deal, shareholders will receive 6p in cash for each ServicePower share they hold. The offer is equivalent to a 129 per cent premium to the 2.62p price shares closed at on November 21  the day the bid was made. ServicePower said it was fair and reasonable. The board has unanimously agreed to recommend it to shareholders. Shares shot up 33.3 per cent, or 1.4p, to 5.5p.

HSBC said that the third of operating profits that come from the UK could be at risk from slower economic growth, but international earnings should help offset that. It has a target price of 1070p on the stock. The vote of confidence was enough to send shares up 6.9 per cent, or 54p, to 840p.

Specialist insurance firm Novae Group plunged as it revealed it had been dogged by large individual and catastrophe losses in the second half of year.

The company specialises in reinsurance for the property, marine and aviation sectors.

It said it now expects its full-year combined ratio to be 98-100 per cent  a ratio below 100pc means an insurer earns more in premiums than it pays out in claims, so the lower the ratio the more profitable the business.

Canaccord Genuity cut the stock from a 'buy' to a 'hold' after it announced its preliminary results for the year, while RBC shaved 25p off its target price to 900p. Shares plunged 24.4 per cent, or 204p, to 631p.

The FTSE 100 finished in positive territory, up 0.4 per cent, or 29.3 points to 6931.55. Communications firm WPP was the highest riser of the day after stock broker Jefferies slapped a 'buy' rating on the stock.

Shares climbed 1.7 per cent, or 29p, to 1723p.

At the other end of the market was Capita, which slumped as it cut its profit forecast for the second time in just three months. Shares plunged 14 per cent, or 78.7p, to 485.3p.

While the financial trading firms had tried to regain some of their losses, they were back down again yesterday as worries about the future of the sector persevered.

CMC Markets lost 9.6 per cent, or 11.2p, to, 105.3p and IG Group dropped a further 1.3 per cent, or 6.3p, to 478.8p.

Car finance lender S&U revved up as it reported customer numbers had climbed 34 per cent. The lender said customer applications for car finance were at near record levels, with 42,000 live customers.
Target: Barclays is lining up chairman of Debenhams Sir Ian Cheshire for its top job

Campaigners have attacked Barclays for offering a top job to a former non-executive director at failed lender Bradford & Bingley.

Barclays is lining up chairman of Debenhams Sir Ian Cheshire to run its ring-fenced unit overseeing consumer and small business operations, and has asked regulators to give their approval.

Cheshire made his name as boss of B&Q owner Kingfisher. But he was also at B&B for five years  quitting as it collapsed in 2008.

He is now a non-executive at Whitbread, where he angered shareholders this year for poor attendance at meetings, missing three out of 11.

Labour MP John Mann, said: 'Same old failed bankers. When will they ever learn?'

Justin Modray, of Candid Money, said: 'You would expect Barclays to opt for an ultra-safe pair of hands. Given this guy's track record, it perhaps isn't the most sensible appointment.'
By PTI: From K J M Varma

Beijing, Dec 9 (PTI) Ten people have been arrested, including top officials of a coal mining company, in connection with a colliery blast in northern Chinas Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region that killed 32 workers last week.

Board chairman of Chifeng Baoma Group (CBG) Qiu Zetian, CBG General Manager Zhang Xiaodong, General Manager of CBG subsidiary Baoma Mining Company Liu Haijun, and head of the mine Lyu Guoyou were among those arrested, according to the investigation team sent by the State Council.

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The officials were arrested for alleged illegal mining and dereliction of duty following the accident on Saturday at Baoma Mining Company in Chifeng city.

A total of 181 people were working underground at the time of the blast, with 149 workers managing to escape to safety.

There were "serious violations of laws and regulations" before the blast, State Administration of Work Safety said.

The mine was ordered to stop production in March for illegal mining, but operations continued, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. PTI KJV ABH

--- ENDS ---
MBABANE  Destiny Music and Sound has come handy to the gospel music artists who will be participating in the Swaziland Gospel Music Awards.



The company, directed by Tom Lin, has sponsored the Association of Christian Artists in Swaziland (ACASWA) with sound equipment worth E50 000 to be used tomorrow night.



Ronnie Dlamini, ACASWA Public Relations Officer (PRO), said they were grateful to Destiny Music for the support the company has given to ACASWA.



The awards are on Saturday (tomorrow). This is one event that is going to be the best. A number of corporate companies have sponsored the event, which we appreciate. We are hoping that others will join before the events main day, he said.

He said they were ready to host what he said would be one of the best events in the country.



Tickets are still available and therefore gospel music lovers should make it a point that they buy them as soon as possible to avoid disappointments, he said.
The Superintendent of Mumbai prison on Friday urged the special PMLA court in Mumbai to take a decision on the issue of Bhujbal's stay at the government hospital.

By Vidya : A special court in Mumbai has reserved till December 15 its order on an intervention application filed by activist Anjali Damania alleging overstay of NCP leader and former Maharashtra Minister Chhagan Bhujbal, an accused in a money laundering case, in a private hospital in the city.

The Superintendent of Mumbai prison on Friday urged the special PMLA court in Mumbai to take a decision on the issue of Bhujbal's stay at the government hospital. In a letter written to this effect, the suprintendent said that Bhujbal had been councelled by doctors to undergo angiography on Thursday but he was not giving his consent for the same. This counselling session was conducted after activist Anjali Damania had pointed out the tardy approach of both the Superintendent of prison as well as the dean of JJ hospital in pursuing money-laundering charges against Bhujbal.

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MONEY LAUNDERING, GRAFT CASES AGAINST BHUJBAL

Bhujbal has been in judicial custody as the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is still investigating a money laundering case against him. The Anti-Corruption Bureau of Maharashtra too has filed cases against him for corruption. Bhujbal, on his third visit out of jail, has been at a private hospital and only after much uproar has he now been sent back to the government hospital.

Also read | Chaggan Bhujbal held political meetings in Bombay hospital: ED

Damania argued in court, "If Bhujbal has been advised an angiography by doctors and if he is still not giving his consent, he should be sent back to prison. Why should he be put up in hospital just because he himself is not giving his consent." Damania also pointed out that while Bhujbal was at the private hospital, he had booked two rooms for himself, which was not right as he was depriving another patient a bed. What was worse was that he was there for doing a test that got over in just half-an-hour."

Bhujbal's lawyer argued in court that activist Damania had no locus standi in the case to intervene but ED seemed to support her stand by saying that Bhujbal had been illegally staying in the hospital. ED had on Thursday also produced a list of NCP leaders who had been visiting him at the hospital. The agency had managed to procure CCTV footage of the lift of the Mumbai hospital which led to Bhujbal's room.

COURT PERMISSION MUST TO MEET ACCUSED

ED lawyer Hiten Venegaonkar had told the court, "Even for the relatives of an accused to meet him at the hospital, a court permission is needed. But here Bhujbal is holding political party meetings without any permission."

Also read | Bhujbal illegal detention case: ED officers do not have to follow rules of police, says agency

The CCTV clip clearly shows political leaders like Vishwas Thakur from Nashik, who heads the Urban Cooperative Bank in Nashik, coming in to meet him after demonetisation. Bhujbal's son Pankaj and his wife Vishakha are also seen a number of times along with Shefali Bhujbal, who is wife of Chaggan's nephew Sameer Bhujbal, who is also an accused in the case and is in judicial custody.

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Shefali's driver is seen entering and exiting the lift along with a police officer. Bhujbal's advocate Sajal Yadav is also seen visiting him a number of times. With these people visiting Bhujbal freely, Damania has now asked for CCTV cameras to be installed at the government hospital as well.

--- ENDS ---
MANZINI  A Hope House patient, who has a disability and confined to a wheelchair, was on Wednesday charged with a drink-driving offence.



Sibonginkhosi Magagula (33) who came to court in diapers and a catheter to pass urine was nabbed by the police and later taken to court.

The Matsapha traffic police officers arrested him near Swazi Auto Truck along the Seventh Street Avenue while he was driving his specially designed vehicle, which was donated to him recently at the Hope House.

When his alcohol content was tested, it was found to be 1.39mg/l per litre when the legal limit stands 0.37mg/l per litre. When he was ordered to produce his drivers licence, he failed to do so and was further slapped with another traffic offence. Magagula was, however, released on his own recognisance and ordered to return to court in the morning.



Upon his return at the Matsapha Circuit Court, Magistrate Lucia Lukhele had to leave her chambers upstairs and trial the matter inside one of the Traffic Department offices.



During his appearance in court, Magagula pleaded guilty to both charges and told the court that he got injured while on duty in a company situated in Matsapha. He further stated that he had developed an infection on his buttocks and had blisters due to his condition and used a catheter to relieve himself.



He was sentenced to one year imprisonment with an option of a E2 000 fine. He was further sentenced to one month imprisonment with an option of E500 fine for failing to produce his drivers licence.
The wrecked car of the woman who died on the spot when she lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a house during a dramatic chase with her husband, who was in the company of another woman at Extension 3 on Wednesday. (File pic)



MBABANE  The woman who died after her car rammed into a house at Extension 3 while chasing after her husband has been confirmed as a teacher.



*Thobile from Nhlangano taught in one of the primary schools in the outskirts of the capital city.

She died following a high speed chase between herself, while driving in a Pajero, and her husband who was driving in a Honda Fit with a female companion.



She is said to have left the house after receiving a call from a friend, informing her to visit one of the drinking spots where her husband was.

She is said to have left her two children in the flat she shared with her husband at Mobeni and went to check on him.

Information gathered is that her husband saw her first and quickly jumped into his vehicle with the female companion and drove away at high speed.



Seeing that her husband was running away from her, Thobile pursued the Honda Fit.

While chasing after them, she would occasionally knock the Honda Fit from behind in an attempt to force it to stop.

One of the Honda Fits tyres is said to have burst in the process but the husband continued driving.



This continued for a few metres on Vunte Street at Extension 3 until Thobile lost control of the Pajero she was driving, resulting in it going through a closed gate before stopping on impact against a house wall.



Neighbours were drawn by the loud sound to the scene of the accident and they found Thobile with serious injuries, from which she died.

After the crash, the husband also stopped his vehicle with the intention of going to the police to report the accident.
Rohan and Manveer don't exactly get along well on the show, but this latest video shot by the latter's fans is shocking.

By India Today Web Desk: All was well between Rohan and Manveer in the first few weeks of BB 10. But things started to turn ugly for the two after they had a huge fight during the lockdown task. In fact in the Bigg Boss 10 press conference that was organised outside the house yesterday, the vibe between the two was far from healthy.

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When quizzed about their equation in the house, this is what Manveer had to say about Rohan. "We used to get along well initially but since the time I nominated him saying that I was getting negative vibes from him, he took it to heart and all is not well between us from that time."

Also read: 5 things contestants will say about each other in the BB 10 press conference

Now we all know that Manveer has a strong fanbase in Delhi and Noida, since he hails from there. His fans are running a campaign of sorts and leaving no stone unturned to make sure he wins. In a video uploaded on YouTube for vote appeal, Manveer's supporters (mostly from his community) have threatened Rohan Mehra with dire consequences if he ever sets his foot in Delhi.

Also read: BB10: Woah! Bani Judge shows middle finger to Lopamudra at a press conference

While it is okay to support your favourite contestant, it is completely unacceptable on their part to upload such distasteful video.

We hope, Manveer clears the air in the Weekend Ka Vaar episode and request his fans to take it easy.

--- ENDS ---
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By Bill Parry

After protesting the citys plan to convert the Holiday Inn Express into a homeless shelter every weeknight since mid-August, the Maspeth-Middle Village Task Force announced a change in strategy Sunday.

The group will no longer hold rallies in front of the 55th Road location. Instead they will continue to take road trips to protest at hotel owner Harshad Patels home and those of his business partners as well as other communities that are part of its growing coalition of anti-shelter civic associations.

We realized that we were keeping paying customers away from the hotel, which in turn freed up more rooms for DHS to rent, Juniper Park Civic Association President Bob Holden said. By bringing the protests to the doorsteps of Harshad Patel and his cronies, we will let them know that we are not backing down until they end their relationship with the city and the Acacia Network at the Maspeth Holiday Inn Express.

Patels New Ram Realty is facing a lawsuit by property owner KCM Realty after Patel rented 30 rooms to the Department of Homeless Services to house 30 single men beginning Oct. 10. DHS is now renting 39 rooms to house 78 homeless individuals.

On Saturday, Holden and the task force rented a bus and traveled to Windsor Terrace in Brooklyn for their fourth visit to the home of Department of Social Services Commissioner Steven Banks, who oversees DHS. They were joined by representatives of other neighborhoods in the coalition, including Elmhurst, South Jamaica, Ozone Park and Richmond Hill.

As of this morning, the NYC Department of Social Services reported a total of 60,579 people living in the shelter system. This figure is much higher than the day Commissioner Banks took over the office a year ago, Holden said. Just like in the 80s, hotel shelters, such as Maspeths Holiday Inn Express, do not work  theyre expensive, they are not designed to function as shelters, and they have neither the adequate security to protect nor the social services to help the residents.

Protester after protester demanded Banks come up with real solutions to alleviating the homeless problem, including construction of affordable housing on unused city land, or else resign.

Holden dismissed Banks latest program known as Home For the Holidays, in which the city would pay family and friends of homeless families to house them.

I think its strange offering money to take in families, Holden said. Its another sign of him doing damage control with programs to reduce the number of people in the system. Look, Banks is not a bad man, hes just not a good manager.

Another issue raised during the rally was the calibre of people in the system. Two men from Park Slope in Brooklyn told a cautionary tale of the city converting hotels into shelters in their neighborhood.

Delvis Valdes recalled that in the first 30 years he lived in the neighborhood their were only two hotels. In the last five years a dozen more have opened with another currently under construction.

You tell me thats for tourists? Last I checked Sunset Park, although its a wonderful neighborhood, is not at the top of the list of tourist attractions in New York City, Valdes said. We dont have a need for all these hotels in Sunset Park unless its for the mayor to come in and contract out those rooms. This nonsense has got to stop.

Richard Villar said more of these hotels would be converted into shelters presenting a danger to the community.

There was a child molester living at the 49th Street Sleep and (provider) Samaritan Village said no way  they lied, he said. The city refused to admit it had placed convicted child molester Daunte Gonzales in the facility near three public schools, but officials with the states Division of Criminal Justice Services, which tracks predators for the states sex-offender registry, confirmed he was living there in early November and since moved to Manhattan.

State Sen. Jose Peralta (D-East Elmhurst) discovered a Level 2 sex offender living in the Corona Holiday Inn Express in late October. DHS began renting rooms at that location in September and moved quickly to transfer the individual. Also in October, DHS began renting a small number of rooms at the LaGuardia Marriott in East Elmhurst, which means Peralta has to keep an eye on seven such facilities now sheltering the homeless in his district.

Here we go again with DHS. Another hotel in the district housing homeless people, and as usual, DHS is allergic to transparency, and they did not notify the community, Peralta said. I understand we are in the midst of a crisis in the city as the homelessness population continues to rise, but acting unilaterally is wrong.

Banks assured Queens Borough President Melinda Katz and other elected officials in October that he would announce when homeless New Yorkers would be housed in hotels or similar facilities, Peralta recalled.

I am wondering what happened to that project, as we didnt know anything about it, he said.
By Merle Exit

The Jackson Heights Orchestra, led by Artistic Director and Founder Patricia Glunt, will kick off its fifth season with a concert Wednesday, Dec. 14. In addition to playing music by Bach, Krommer and Mozart, the orchestra will perform a piece, Peri Mauers All Along the Heights, that was commissioned to celebrate its fifth birthday. Also featured is soloist Thomas Piercy on clarinet.

For Glunt, who serves as the conductor, the Jackson Heights Orchestra is the realization of a longtime goal. Its something Ive always wanted to do, she said. Having some free moments in my life, I decided to conduct a local orchestra in Jackson Heights through the Jackson Heights Beautification Group, whose mission is to preserve, restore, revitalize and maintain the community of Jackson Heights.

Glunt, a former assistant principal from Long Island City High School and president of the Music Educators Association of New York, said she wanted a venue where the amateur musicians could meet with like-minded people, rehearse and come together to play. It has now become a great journey for me and the community. The orchestra practices once a week on a Tuesday evening with two months of rehearsals prior to a performance.

She describes the members of this adult community orchestra as a mixed bag of semi-professionals and amateurs, as well as those who have played instruments during their high school or college education. When Glunt first held auditions back in 2012, the orchestra only had nine members, leaving them scrambling to find nine more to be able to play their first concert.

Since then, the orchestra has expanded. Presently, we have about 30 members, she said, with a focus on building up the string sections and filling up the lesser ones such as the bassoon, trombone and French horn. Woodwinds and brass tend to have two on each instrument. There are times that she further reaches out when another instrumentalist is needed.

Glunts musical careet got started when she learned to play the violin as a small child. She attended a conservatory in California for her college education and attained her masters degree in Music at Queens College. Having always played first violin, she preferred playing second violin for the inner voicing of the instrument and parts in later years.

At times she takes a break when her assistant, Dr. Steven L. Rosenhaus, conducts the orchestra. It is important for the orchestra to see different people in front of it as well as being good for the audience to see the orchestra as its own entity, she said.

That sense of seeing the musicians and the conductor as equal partners extends to her approach when she is the one holding the baton. Usually a conductor dictates exactly how thing are to be done. Glunts approach is to work with the possible interpretations that a soloist might want to bring to the table and then work from there. Ultimately, she said, the group plays as one instrument.

The concert will take place at 7:30 p.m.at St. Marks Episcopal Church, located at 82nd Street and 34th Avenue in Jackson Heights. All are invited to the reception afterward. The concert is free, but there is a suggested donation of $10, $5 for seniors and students.
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By Patrick Donachie

The Legal Hand Projects Jamaica clinic, which marks one year in the neighborhood this month, moved into a new space more conducive to the services the group offers in October.

Jennie G. Kim, the projects staff attorney, stressed that all were welcome.

Everyone is a walk-in, she said. We are a great first place to come to.

Legal Hand operates in Queens and Brooklyn and is run by the Center for Court Innovation via a collaboration with the Legal Aid Society, Legal Services NYC and New York Legal Assistance Group. The clinics occupy storefronts in New York neighborhoods, offering referrals and assistance as needed on a range of issues. Kim said housing was a primary concern in Jamaica, estimating that about 60 percent of walk-ins had questions about their rights as tenants and homeowners.

Kim said southeast Queens residents often faced eviction issues. Some landlords, Kim said, illegally refused to accept Section 8 vouchers or other government issued-subsidies, while other landlords would refuse to make necessary fixes to tenants apartments in the hopes that they would leave.

In rent-stabilized places we see this on a regular basis. Though in New York, we have more means to deal with landlords, its still a very slow process, she said, noting that the elderly were particularly endangered by unscrupulous practices by landlords. They deliberately target these folks and look to not do repairs to force them out.

The clinic shared space with Community Mediation Services at 89-64 163rd St. after opening on Dec. 18 last year, but acquired a spacious store at 149-13 Jamaica Ave. and opened there in October. The new space is a block from Rufus King Park and a few steps from Queens County Family Court. Jose Torres, the volunteer coordinator for the site, said about 10 volunteers worked at the center, with a range of expertise to assist people who walk in.

We want the community to assist the community, he said. If you teach one, youll teach multiple people, and the community becomes their own empowering source.

Kim and Torres said they are continuing to do outreach in the surrounding area, from handing out fliers to coordinating with community boards and the Jamaica Community Partnership. Kim said she also spoke to local mosques about potential issues of discrimination. Torres said the clinic was hoping to prepare city sanctuary maps for individuals to help them learn where they can obtain social services and plans to begin hosting regular Know Your Rights seminars in January.

Kim said they were also intending to hold information sessions on next years Inauguration Day to inform people of their rights, particularly when it comes to the status of undocumented New Yorkers.

We are one of the sanctuary cities, so one thing we need to be talking about is how do we protect our people. We are seeing a lot of people with fear and we want to make sure we dont give out any misinformation, she said. We are here to help people regardless of their immigration status.

Torres noted the Jamaica clinic was the only Legal Hand site in Queens, and he wanted to make sure more affected residents of the borough were aware of their services.

The issues affecting this area are not only here, he said, speaking about Jamaica. Its a microcosm of the borough and New York City.
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By Patrick Donachie

Parts of New York City, including significant sections of the Rockaways and other parts of southern Queens, could potentially be inundated by a possible sea level rise projected for the coming century, according to a new study from the Regional Plan Association.

The study contends that while much attention has been paid to the damage that can be wrought by a severe, fast-moving storm such as Hurricane Sandy, the more gradual but permanent damage caused by a rise in the sea level has not been adequately addressed.

Intermittent flooding recedes once a storm passes while sea level rise flooding is permanent and can be expected to encroach further inland over time, the report stated in its introductory summary. Sea level rise not only permanently alters the coast line. It also widens the area vulnerable to storm surge.

The RPA is an independent research and advocacy organization that attempts to measure the health and economic stability of New Yorks metropolitan region. The report analyses the potential threats to the New York, New Jersey and Connecticut metropolitan areas that are most at risk of permanent flooding, measuring the potential impact a 1, 3 or 6 foot rise in the sea level could have on communities. The report indicates sea levels could rise by one foot as early as the 2030s, with three feet possible as early as the 2080s and six feet conceivable by early next century.

In Queens, a handful of areas around Jamaica Bay could be endangered by sea level rise, particularly the Broad Channel neighborhood, which was battered during Hurricane Sandy. The report indicates that LaGuardia Airport could potentially see nuisance flooding during high tides if sea level rose one foot.

At a 3-foot-rise, communities along Jamaica Bays shores could be affected. The subway connection with the Rockaways would be endangered, and areas that were not inundated would be more susceptible to storm surge. At a 6-foot rise, Broad Channel would be entirely inundated, and much of the Rockaways would be in danger by the increased sea level. The report states more than 200,000 New Yorkers in Brooklyn and Queens live in areas that would be affected by the 6-foot sea level rise. Runways and terminals at LaGuardia could be entirely inundated, as well.

The report stressed the difference between the consequences of a storm like Sandy and a sea level rise, noting that while storms can leave momentous damage in their wake, their effects can be temporary. With a sea level rise, the process is slower but the water will not recede. The report urged local, state and federal government to consider the effects of a sea rise while planning to mitigate the destructive effects of any future superstorms.
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By Mark Hallum

Entertainer Nick Cannon and Grammy-nominated musician Gavin DeGraw toured the St. Marys Hospital for Children facility in Bayside Wednesday in a lead up to their annual benefit concert in Manhattan.

Cannon, who serves on the board of directors, hosted a brief performance in the lobby of the hospital at 29-01 216th St. by artists Confidence and The Craig Lewis Band from Americas Got Talent and later handed out gifts to the patients.

I get to come here every couple of months, I wish I could come more. But to see the smiles on everyones faces, from the children to the amazing staff, to the amazing families that support these amazing children  it truly is special, Cannon said. No matter what is going on in the world, I can come in here and actually see a smile on these kids faces. It puts everything in the proper perspective.

According to Victoria Falcone, a spokeswoman for St. Marys, Cannon is familiar with the patients to the point of knowing many of them by name, but the frequency of his visits does not diminish the childrens enthusiasm for spending time with the celebrity.

Our kids dont really get to leave here and this is their home, so being able to bring something special like this, where Nick will come and see them in their home  Its so special because they dont get this often. Falcone said, He knows these kids by name. Its so special because these kids, they have rough lives, so being able to bring this much joy and happiness really helps

Wednesday mornings event was followed by a benefit concert by Cannon and DeGraw at Mercedes-Benz Manhattan.

St. Marys is the largest provider of long-term care for children with complex medical conditions in New York. This concert is a great way to celebrate our achievements while pushing ourselves to continue providing the very best care, said Dr. Edwin Simpser, the CEO. Quality health care is expensive. Through our generous donors our patients have one less [thing] to worry about. They can focus on what is important  their children.

The benefit concert will raise money for St. Marys so that the not-for-profit health-care organization can continue providing intensive rehabilitation, specialized care and education to children with life-limiting conditions.

St. Marys treats children throughout the metropolitan area through a network of inpatient, home care and community programs through their pediatric health system.
By India Today Web Desk: Have you ever imagined there could be a god who is worshipped by both Hindus and Muslims?

Yes, such a god exists right here in India.

Bonbibi is a unique deity who brings together Hindus and Muslims residing in Bengal's Sunderbans.

Unlike Hindus, Muslims do not worship idols, but in Sunderbans, you can see the rare sight of Muslims offering 'bhog', a predominantly Hindu custom, to Bonbibi. It is an equally beautiful and rare situation where the god's name if suffixed with 'bibi' -- a revered, sacred name among Muslims -- and is worshipped by Hindus of the region as well.

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The devotional story of Bonbibi is one that finds place in ancient sacred texts like Banbibir Keramati (magical deeds of bonbibi) and Banbibir Jahuranama (glory to Banbibi).

THE STORY OF BONBIBI

Bonbibi is believed to be born to Berahim, a poor man from Mecca and his second wife Golabibi. But the belief is that her birth was not an ordinary one, and that she was sent from the heavens to fulfill a duty to help mankind. After her birth, she visited the holy city of Mecca again with her parents, and two spiritual hats fell on her. The myth has it that these hats helped her travel all the way to the Sunderbans.

At this time, the deep dark jungle, known for its dangerous man-eater tigers, was ruled by a ghostly shrewd tyrant named 'Dakhin Rai' (the god of South). He is the one responsible for human sacrifices to tigers.

After reaching Sunderbans, Bonbibi tried to overthrow Dakhin Rai and rule the forest. Meanwhile, a honey and wax collector in the dense jungle sent a poor shepherd for sacrifice in the hands of Dakhin Rai, to please the tyrant and let him take lots of honey and wax.

Bonbibi rescued the shepherd named Dukhe, and defeated Dakhin Rai. She then agreed to not kill Dakhin Rai after he vowed to stop letting tigers kill people and accept Bonbibi as the supreme power ruler of the forest. Since then, Bonbibi has been worshipped in the village.

THE DEITY

Bonbibi's deity has a boy in her hands,and people think the boy is Dukhe, the shepherd who she saved.She stands on a tiger, wears a garland, a crown, a ghagra like Krishna's Radha, and even carries a trishul.She is worshipped by every person who enters the forest.Her idol is kept at many places, even deep inside the jungle by the villagers.

HINDU-MUSLIM CAMARADERIE

Members of both Hindu and Muslim communities believe that if their god does not discriminate when it comes to protecting humans based on religion, they shouldn't too.

Villagers believe that Bonbibi guards them and that her kind, helpful reign in the forest continues.

--- ENDS ---

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Times' Game of the Week Preview: No. 7 Beaver Area vs. No. 10 Deer Lakes

Beaver enters the WPIAL Class 3A playoffs riding high after closing the regular season strong. Up next: Deer Lakes for had coach Cort Rowse's Bobcats.
On a recent weekday afternoon, about a dozen American Airlines employees gathered in a backroom at a Ruth's Chris Steak House in Dallas to taste their way through an array of champagnes, whites and reds in search of wines worthy of being served at 35,000 feet in the air.

Just like with food, the dry, pressurized cabin of a modern airliner has a warping effect on the palate, leading American's wine experts to favor bold, expressive vintages that epitomize what people expect when they order a merlot or sauvignon blanc.

"The wine tastes different, even though nothing happens to the wine itself as you sit in the plane longer, your palate begins to deceive you," said Ken Chase, a wine consultant for American.

The wines chosen at Ruth's Chris will make their way on board flights starting next year, where they'll be served alongside new gourmet dishes created by four chefs, including Julian Barsotti of Dallas, to elevate the in-flight dining experience.

Gone are the rubbery chicken and dry mashed potatoes of yesteryear. In their place are dishes such as saffron orzo salad, coconut curry, peppercorn crusted tenderloin and melon manchego carpaccio.

Despite being the butt of jokes since the early 1960s, the in-flight meal is serious business for U.S. airlines and an increasingly major front in the battle for the high-spending customers who sit in first and business class.

At American, the most frequent fliers account for about 13 percent of total passengers, but provide about half of the airline's revenue in a given year. After waves of bankruptcy and consolidation, the three remaining legacy U.S. carriers offer essentially the same product  a seat on a plane  to mostly the same places, heightening the importance of the in-flight experience as a competitive differentiator.

Airlines have responded to this shift by investing in all aspects of their product  from improved airport lounges, faster in-flight Wi-Fi, more entertainment options and lie-flat business-class seats  with premium meals emerging as a crowd-pleasing way to make a flight a bit more enjoyable.

"It's a big part of the journey and the experience. Especially on international flights, our customers spend a significant amount of time with us," said Fern Fernandez, American's vice president of global marketing. "We bring some of these great chefs that are either up and coming or have established themselves to be unique Our end goal is not necessarily for them to design one menu but to bring different elements of what they're really great at, whether it's a starter or a main plate, and to start infusing that throughout the global network."

In-flight meals trace their history back to sandwiches served to airmen during World War I, according to historian Richard Foss, but didn't reach peak luxury until the middle of the 20th century.

"The standard of service in all aircraft after World War II was more like what we would think of as first-class service now. Flying was still an elite thing and elites wanted the kinds of foods they knew and liked," said Foss, author of "Food in the Air and Space: The Surprising History of Food and Drink in the Skies."

He recalled a time when Pan American World Airways roasted beef aboard intercontinental flights.

Things began to change after the airline industry was deregulated in 1978, thrusting existing carriers into a new world where they were forced to compete on price as much as service.

As airlines fought to maintain profitability in this new age, meal budgets were one of the early casualties, culminating in the possibly apocryphal tale of American's CEO Robert Crandall ordering the removal of a single olive from salads in 1987 in order to save tens of thousands of dollars.

While the decline in service was felt especially hard in coach, Foss said meals in premium cabins didn't suffer as much because of the high margins the more expensive fares provided to airlines.

As far back as 1988, American was employing what it called its "Chefs Conclave" to help design its menus.

Today, that expertise has taken on the form of celebrity chefs such as Gordon Ramsay and Joel Robuchon, who have helped create menus for Singapore Airlines and Air France, as well as up-and-coming regional chefs such as Barsotti and Nashville, Tenn.'s Maneet Chauhan, who help bring local flair to the process.

New technologies have made the flash-freezing and reheating process employed by airlines less ruinous to food, preserving textures and enabling new food options that would have been impossible with older equipment.

Newer menus have also drawn on other culinary trends by incorporating organic and locally sourced ingredients where possible. Nik Loukas, who runs the airline food review website Inflight Feed, recalls a recent trip on Delta Air Lines from Seattle that featured ingredients from the city's famed Pike Place Fish Market.

"If I asked you what was your most memorable airline meal, you could probably go back five or 10 years and say to me 'I was on this flight. I was going on a holiday. I was with my wife, partner, children whatever and I had this great steak.'" Loukas said. "I think airlines are starting to understand they're playing a role in creating that memory."
ALBANY  Friday marks the 13th anniversary of the sinking of the Stellamare, a cargo ship that capsized in the Port of Albany, killing three Russian seamen who were trapped inside.

During a routine loading of two large General Electric Co. generators aboard a Dutch-flagged heavy-lift ship on Dec. 9, 2003, a problem with an internal ballast system occurred. There was a miscue with pipes and valves that flood portions of the ship with tons of water to compensate for the weight of a heavy generator in order to keep the ship on an even keel.
Things are not going well for Bani Judge in the house. But she seems to have got an old friend back.

By India Today Web Desk: All is not going well for BB 10 contestant Bani Judge of late. Yesterday, she staged a walkout from the press conference organised outside the house. Tonight an ugly brawl with Om Swami during the captaincy task will test her limits again.

Priyanka and Gaurav will be chosen as the contenders for captaincy in tonight's episode. Both the contestants will be suspended in air with the help of a harness. The contestants will be allowed to choose four supporters each who will keep them afloat.

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Also read: These 3 Bigg Boss 9 contestants are getting married this month!

Gaurav's team will comprise of Rahul, Mona, Rohan and Lopa, while Priyanka will choose Bani, Om Swami, Sahil and Nitibha. Manveer will be given the duty of the Sanchaalak. Now Bani will choose to withdraw from the task soon after it starts. This will infuriate Swami and he will utter unimaginable words about her mother. Bani will lose her head post that and face an emotional meltdown. She will bang on the main door of BB 10 house requesting to withdraw.

Later in the day, Wajah Tum Ho cast Gurmeet Choudhary, Sana Khan and Sharman Joshi will enter the BB 10 house, and this give housemates the reason to cheer. Bani and Gaurav will choose each other as the Wajah of their happiness in the house, and bury the hatchet. Lopa and Rahul will patch up by feeding each other brownie. Manveer and Nitibha also emerge as the newest pals in the house.

Bigg Boss 10 airs Mon-Fri at 10:20pm and Sat-Sun at 9pm on Colors TV

--- ENDS ---
COLONIE  A 9-year-old Make-A-Wish recipient delivered more than 40,000 letters to Santa Friday as part of Macy's annual Believe campaign

Luke Hoag, who was diagnosed with a brain tumor as an infant, went on a wish trip to Walt Disney World resort to meet the characters from his favorite movie, "Cars."
ALBANY (AP)  A woman accused of killing her twin sister by driving their SUV off a cliff in Hawaii is expected to clear the way for her extradition from upstate New York.

Alexandria Duval is expected to waive her right to an extradition hearing in an Albany court on Friday morning. Duval's lawyer says she wants to get back to Hawaii and defend herself against a second-degree murder charge.
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John Glenn, a freckle-faced son of Ohio who was hailed as a national hero and a symbol of the Space Age as the first American to orbit the Earth, then became a national political figure for 24 years in the Senate, died on Thursday in Columbus, Ohio. He was 95.

His death was announced on Twitter by Gov. John Kasich of Ohio.

Glenn had recently been hospitalized at the James Cancer Center at Ohio State University in Columbus, though university officials said at the time that admission there did not necessarily mean he had cancer. He had heart-valve replacement surgery in 2014 and a stroke around that time.

In just five hours on Feb. 20, 1962, Glenn joined a select roster of Americans whose feats have seized the country's imagination and come to embody a moment in its history, figures like Lewis and Clark, the Wright brothers and Charles Lindbergh.

It was a short flight, just three orbits. But when Glenn was safely back, flashing the world a triumphant grin, doubts were replaced by a broad, new faith that the United States could indeed hold its own against the Soviet Union in the Cold War and might someday prevail.

Glenn was reluctant to talk about himself as a hero. "I figure I'm the same person who grew up in New Concord, Ohio, and went off through the years to participate in a lot of events of importance," he said in an interview years later.

Glenn did not return to space for a long time. President John F. Kennedy thought him too valuable as a hero to risk losing in an accident. So Glenn resigned from the astronaut corps in 1964, became an executive in private industry and entered politics, serving four full terms as a Democratic senator from Ohio and in 1984 running unsuccessfully for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Finally, 36 years after his Mercury flight, in the last months of his final Senate term, he got his wish for a return to orbit. Despite some criticism that his presence on the mission was a political payoff, a waste of money and of doubtful scientific merit, he was launched aboard the space shuttle Discovery on Oct. 29, 1998. At 77, he became the oldest person to go into space.

In retirement from the Senate, Glenn lived with his wife of 73 years, Anna (he always called her Annie), in a suburb of Washington in addition to Columbus.

John Herschel Glenn Jr. was born on July 18, 1921, in Cambridge, Ohio, the only son of a railroad conductor who also owned a plumbing business, and the former Clara Sproat.

Glenn began his journey to fame in World War II. As a fighter pilot, he flew 59 combat missions in the Pacific, earning two Distinguished Flying Crosses and other decorations. Glenn saw more action in the Korean War, flying 90 combat missions and winning more medals.

Then, in 1959, newly promoted to lieutenant colonel, he heeded a call for test pilots to apply to be astronauts for the fledgling National Aeronautics and Space Administration. He and six other pilots were selected in April of that year.

One night in December 1962, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy invited the Glenns to dinner at his home in McLean, Virginia. In the course of the evening, the attorney general suggested that Glenn run for public office.

Glenn eventually took the advice. As a senator, Glenn developed an expertise in weapons systems, nuclear proliferation issues and most legislation related to technology and bureaucratic reform.

The one blemish on Glenn's squeaky-clean political reputation came in the 1980s, when he was one of five senators present at a meeting with federal regulators concerning accusations of savings and loan association fraud against Charles H. Keating Jr., a former Ohioan.

In recent years, honors continued to come his way: the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Congressional Gold Medal and election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Glenn is survived by his wife; two children, Carolyn Ann Glenn of St. Paul, Minnesota, and John David Glenn of Berkeley, California; and two grandsons, Daniel and Zach Glenn.
David Plouffe, political insider and former key adviser to President Barack Obama, has paid $7,625,000 for a 6,000-square-foot house in San Francisco, where he now works as Ubers strategic adviser.

Constructed in 1903, the recently renovated home has seven bedrooms and 5.5 baths on four levels. Its nestled right between two of the most expensive neighborhoods in the city: Pacific Heights and the Presidio.
Bethlehem

If you drive along New Scotland Road in the hamlet of Slingerlands at night and catch sight of the Slingerlands Methodist Church with its stained glass glowing, you might assume it was a place of worship. That's the way Dr. Peter Forman, the physician who owns the building and operates his medical practice there, likes it.

Forman was looking for new office space in 2014 for Delmar Family Medicine around the same time the church closed after 143 years, leaving its small congregation devastated and nervous about the future of the building. They worried it could end up like so many churches, empty, crumbling and neglected.

Ferne Horn, 87, joined the church with her husband in 1953 after the couple moved to town from Pennsylvania. Horn was an active member, frequently cooking food for fundraisers and helping to host bazaars and yard sales. The proceeds supported the church's mission work. Horn's children were baptized and raised in the church and her daughter was married there. The congregation was a close-knit group, Horn said, but eventually it shrank as members died and young people didn't replace them.

More Information To learn more For more information on the church, read our Faces of Faith column from June 27, 2014. http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Faces-of-Faith-End-of-the-run-for-historic-church-5585572.php See More Collapse

Forman and his partner, John Fontanella, bought the building in 2015 for $465,000 and spent a million dollars transforming the 7,500 square feet that had been the fellowship hall and offices into treatment rooms and a lobby. There are 11 exam rooms, an area for pediatrics and a procedure room. Three providers, four nurses and four front desk staffers work at the practice, which opened in February. Forman and Fontanella worked with an architect to turn the soaring sanctuary space into four apartments, 1,300 to 1,400 square feet each, now all rented.

Forman wants his medical practice to be part of the community and has the same view of the building.

"This is their church," he said.

With that in mind, he tried to preserve as much as he could. He had the carillon reinstalled and the bells chime every day. It is a perk of owning a church that Forman can ring the bell  donated by the women's group in 1877  whenever he wants.

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He donated or sold the pews and when possible put them outside for former parishioners to take home. He saved all the plaques that had been placed around the church through the years in memory of long-gone members and plans to have them mounted on a board for display. A janitor's closet holds a surprise  a large fireplace and mantle engraved with a portion of Psalm 39:3, "while I was musing, the fire burned." It was once the anchor of the fellowship hall. Forman had the stage enclosed and used the choir rehearsal room as a break room. The church's commercial kitchen, where Horn once prepared take-out meals for people waiting in their cars outside, is now the nurses' station.

The most striking aspect of the preservation is the stained glass. Forman designed the apartments so drywall covered the windows from the inside and installed lights so at nighttime they glow from within.

Horn has joined the First United Methodist Church of Voorheesville and she's happy there. But she watched the renovations at her former spiritual home closely  and much to Forman's relief, she's happy with the outcome. "He kept the flavor of the church and we're all so grateful because it meant so much to us," she said.

lhornbeck@timesunion.com  518-454-5352  @leighhornbeck
By PTI: Mumbai, Dec 8 (PTI) The Bombay High Court today asked the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) to hold a meeting with other government agencies by January 5 and take a decision about a comprehensive road repair plan.

A division bench headed by Justice Shantunu Kemkar was hearing a suo motu PIL on the poor condition of roads in Mumbai and the civic bodys alleged failure to prevent formation of potholes every monsoon.

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The bench asked the civic body to coordinate with other agencies such as Public Works Department, Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA), Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation and Mumbai Port Trust, and decide on a comprehensive road repair plan by January 5.

All these agencies are responsible for maintaining city roads within their respective jurisdictions.

The high court asked the MCGM to inform on February 17 what decision they had taken.

Two months ago, MCGM had assured the court that it would make all roads in the city pothole-free by October 31.

The MCGM lawyer Anil Sakhare had stated that the civic body would take help of experts from the IIT-Mumbai to prepare a preventive plan by February 2017 to ensure that the city did not face the problem of water-logging and potholes during the next monsoon. PTI SVS KRK ZMN SRE

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[December 09, 2016] How Virtual Reality Will Save Lives

NEW YORK, Dec. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- On Friday, December 9th, 2016, the National Crime Scene Cleanup Association announced their plans on developing and marketing a first of it's kind VR Training software designed to teach professionals courses on how to properly and safely clean up everything from blood borne pathogens, bodily fluids, chemical spills and viruses/bacteria - without ever being in harm's way. This initiative, dubbed 'Safe Training VR' or 'STVR', will put hazmat workers, doctors, nurses, EMTs, or firefighters in a virtual space where they are required to remediate biohazard chemical spills, crime scenes, asbestos, or even dangerous viruses, such as Ebola or MRSA. This enables professionals to get out of the standard 'text book' classroom and into a dynamic virtual environment with no safety concerns. The announcement comes just months after another National Crime Scene Cleanup Association project named 'Safeguar' went into beta testing. Safeguard is a Virtual Crime Scene Cleanup simulator, designed to educate and teach the public about the hazards of crime scene cleanup, a very little know industry, and educate them on what equipment, techniques, standard operating procedures and chemicals go into a cleanup. Due to an overwhelming response to Safeguard, the National Crime Scene Cleanup Association decided to venture into how virtual reality could also help educate people in the industry.



The real world applications for such software will come to the interest of hospitals, law enforcement, paramedics, hazmat workers and future employees. An Authentic training experience is crucial. STVR currently has two Rutgers University OSHA 501C Outreach Trainers help develop it. Professionals in each specialized field as well will be contracted to help make sure the software is accurate down to every intricate detail. "STVR encompasses many courses and situations that I have learned over the years, as well as a plethora of scenarios I never thought I'd encounter," says National Crime Scene Cleanup Association president and one of the OSHA 501C Outreach Trainers, James Michel. "We finally have developed a way to minimize risk while teaching real world applications."

STVR will undergo internal development and testing over the next couple of months, and then company has plans in the future to license and market the software so that other companies and organizations can take advantage of this breaking new technology. Everywhere, People in the field will be safer as a result. ABOUT NATIONAL CRIME SCENE CLEANUP ASSOCIATION (NCSCA)  NCSCA is owned and operated by parent company, Prestige Worldwide Group. The company is based in Patchogue, New York. They specialize in removing crime scene debris and contaminants as well as suicide cleanup and medical waste removal. For more information about NCSCA, visit www.crimescenecleanup.com or call 1-844-255-2461. Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160316/345140LOGO To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/how-virtual-reality-will-save-lives-300375732.html SOURCE National Crime Scene Cleanup Association

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[December 08, 2016] Leverage Digital Wins Three Awards of Excellence from the Tampa Bay Builders Association

TAMPA, Fla., Dec. 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Adding to what's already been an award-winning year, Leverage Digital was honored with three Awards of Excellence from the Tampa Bay Builders Association. The Tampa digital marketing agency received awards for "Best Website," "Best Mobile Website," and "Best Billboard" for its work with a multi-family developer, in branding their newest luxury apartment community, [email protected] in St. Petersburg, FL. Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161208/447275 The Awards of Excellence are presented by the Sales and Marketing Council of the Tampa Bay Builders Association, and honor the best work of marketing, design and sales professionals in Tampa Bay's building industry. Awards were given at a stunning and festive ceremony in front of an audience of over 360 guests, held at the Renaissance Tampa International Plaza Hotel. "We are very proud of the work that we've done for [email protected], and are honored to receive these awards from the Tampa Bay Builders Association," said Jay Taylor, Managing Director at Leverage Digital. "Our team works tirelessly on every project and campaign to ensure that we exceed our clients' expectations, and it's wonderful when great organizations like the Tampa Bay Builders Association recognize our efforts." About the Tampa Bay Builders Association The Tampa Bay Builders Association is a trade organization affiliated with the Florida Home Builders Association and the National Associatio of Home Builders, which works diligently to fulfill its mission by providing important services to enhance the building industry in Pasco, Pinellas and Hillsborough Counties. The TBBA is comprised of volunteers from a number of professions, including builders, developers, trade contractors, suppliers, lending institutions, title companies, engineers, attorneys and other types of businesses that have a relationship to the building industry.



For more information, please visit http://www.tbba.net/. About Leverage Digital

Leverage Digital is an award-winning branding and digital marketing agency that partners with brands to successfully engage their audiences and achieve measurable results. Its team of digital marketing experts, UI/UX designers, developers and content specialists, create intelligent campaigns that capture the minds of consumers. The agency is a Certified Google Partner, and its work has garnered numerous industry accolades over the years, receiving honors from the International Davey Awards, Hermes Awards, W3 Awards, and Communicator Awards. In 2016, Leverage Digital was named the 14th fastest growing company owned or led by a University of South Florida alumnus. To learn more about Leverage Digital, please visit http://www.leveragedigital.com/. Contact Johnny Crosskey

Leverage Digital

813-489-4494

[email protected] Related Images image1.jpg image2.jpg image3.jpg Related Links Leverage Digital Leverage Digital Facebook This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. For more info visit: http://www.newswire.com. To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/leverage-digital-wins-three-awards-of-excellence-from-the-tampa-bay-builders-association-300375657.html SOURCE Leverage Digital

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[December 08, 2016] Codesters Expands Partnership with Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams on CodeBrooklyn Initiative to Make Coding Accessible in Every Brooklyn Public School

BROOKLYN, N.Y., Dec. 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Codesters (@icodeinschool), a leading platform for K-12 computer science instruction, announced today its expanded partnership with CodeBrooklyn (@codebrooklyn), an initiative with Borough President Eric Adams (@BPEricAdams) to bring a computer science programs to every school in Brooklyn within seven years. "I am proud to be working with Codesters to bring computer science to every Brooklyn student." said Borough President Adams. "Codesters is a valuable partner in our CodeBrooklyn initiative, helping us engage underserved schools and their communities. Codesters' dedication to every student's future sets the standard on how to bring coding and computer science to schools throughout Brooklyn and New York City." Codesters CEO Gordon Smith (@gordomsmith) participated today in a press conference during which Borough President Adams announced the findings from his 2016 CodeBrooklyn School Technology Report. The report highlights the need for increased investment in computer hardware and infrastructure in the borough's schools.



"Today's report further catalyzes our commitment to bring computer science to schools in underserved areas of Brooklyn, New York City, and the nation," said Gordon Smith, CEO of Codesters. "We share the vision of Borough President Adams and CodeBrooklyn that computer science must be taught to every student in every school, regardless of the economic circumstances of the surrounding community." During Computer Science Education Week (December 5 - 11), Codesters will deliver Hour of Code activities to over 5,000 students, across nearly 100 schools in Brooklyn, as part of CodeBrooklyn. Nationally, Codesters will deliver more than 100,000 Hour of Code activities, driven in part by its inclusion in the recommended curriculum list on Code.org.

"Code.org has been a critical advocate for computer science, particularly through Hour of Code events happening around the globe during CS Ed Week." said Gordon Smith. In September, Codesters announced its commitment to Title I schools at the White House Summit on Computer Science Education. Codesters is a founding content partner of the new national CSForAll Consortium (@CSforAll) and was recently added to DonorsChoose.org. Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160914/407464LOGO To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/codesters-expands-partnership-with-brooklyn-borough-president-eric-adams-on-codebrooklyn-initiative-to-make-coding-accessible-in-every-brooklyn-public-school-300375774.html SOURCE Codesters

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[December 08, 2016] Sofia Connect Extends Network Reach via Strategic Partnership with Megaport to Enable Elastic Interconnectivity Throughout Eastern Europe



Partnership Pairs Sofia Connect's Deep Footprint with Megaport's Software Defined Network and Cloud Onramp Capabilities. BRISBANE, Australia, Dec. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Megaport Limited (ASX: MP1) ("Megaport"), the global leader in Software Defined Network (SDN) - based elastic interconnection, announces that Omnix Group EAD whom it acquired earlier this year, has entered into a strategic partnership with Sofia Connect EOOD ("Sofia Connect"), a leading wholesale carrier with headquarters in Bulgaria acting as a gateway provider, linking carriers from the Balkans, Caucasus region, and the Middle East to Western Internet hubs. The partnership enables Sofia Connect to sell Megaport's SDN services to their extensive customer base across their vast European network. Megaport pioneered the first platform that allows companies to instantly manage their connectivity from anywhere, on any device. With Megaport's SDN, customers can consume elastic bandwidth, pay for what they use, and adjust it as their business demands change. Sofia Connect provides broadband and telecommunications services in Central and Western Europe countries as well as the Balkan Area, Ukraine, Georgia, and Armenia. Services include data transport, internet access, colocation, and hosting solutions. Sofia Connect customers will have direct, instant, scalable access to Megaport's global ecosystem of over 200 service providers, including major cloud services like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform. Megaport also provides connectivity to leading internet exchange service providers. "Sofia Connect is a network leader in Europe and beyond," said Denver Maddux, CEO of Megaport. "Their experience and credibility make them a trusted enabler of network services in locations that extend well beyond the current Megaport footprint, reaching into cities with increasing demand for cloud networking services. Our respective footprints are very complementary and provide excellent coverage across Europe. Enabling Sofia Connect's customers with our SDN services ad global footprint opens the door for new cloud use cases. It is an absolute pleasure to work with such an amazing team."



"Megaport's cloud service provider ecosystem is substantial," said Yuliy Nushev, CEO of Sofia Connect. "We are impressed with the growth of their cloud service provider ecosystem and the number of regional cloud on ramps across their network. Not only does this provide significant choice of service providers, it also enables a greater ability to localize traffic for cloud application performance and address issues of data sovereignty. Our customers demand high performance cloud connects. We are excited to empower our customers with industry-leading elastic interconnection services via Megaport." For more information about Sofia Connect, visit http://www.sofia-connect.net/.

For more information about Megaport, please visit www.Megaport.com.

About Sofia Connect Sofia Connect is a leading wholesale carrier with headquarters in Bulgaria, specialized in providing comprehensive connectivity solutions to carriers, ISPs and content providers of all sizes throughout the Balkans, the Caucasus and increasingly in the Middle East regions. Sofia Connect's service portfolio includes the whole range from BGP transit, remote peering, managed bandwidth, wavelength services, down to dark fibre provisioning.

Through the Caucasus Cable System, a state-of-the-art submarine cable across the Black Sea, Sofia Connect provides the fastest and safest route from the Caucasus and the northern Middle East to Europe. An increasing number of carriers in the region, including from Georgia, Armenia and Iraq count on Sofia Connect's services. With an upstream capacity in excess of 200 Gbps Sofia Connect ranks among the biggest IP transit providers in the region. About Megaport Megaport is the global leading provider of Elastic Interconnection services. Megaport's global Software Defined Network enables customers to rapidly connect their network to other services and data centres across the world. Services can be directly controlled by customers via their mobile devices, computer, or our open API. Megaport's extensive footprint in Australia, Asia Pacific, North America, and Europe provides a neutral platform that spans many key data centre providers across various cities. Led by industry veteran Denver Maddux, Megaport has been built by a highly experienced team with extensive knowledge in building large scale global carrier networks and cloud connectivity. Megaport connects over 550 customers throughout its 140+ locations in 36 markets in 19 countries. Megaport is an Amazon AWS Technology Partner, Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute Partner, and Google Cloud Interconnect Partner. If you would like to learn more about Megaport, please visit megaport.com. Supporting Resources: Visit Megaport: https://megaport.com/

Follow Megaport on Twitter: @megaportnetwork

Like Megaport on Facebook

Follow Megaport on LinkedIn MEDIA INQUIRIES Megaport Contact:

Wendy Hill

[email protected]

Sapphire Communications for Megaport

(M) +61 427 173 203 Sofia Connect Contacts: MEDIA INQUIRIES : [email protected]

Supporting resources:

Visit Sofia Connect at www.sofia-connect.net

Follow Sofia Connect on LinkedIn Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160510/365602LOGO

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[December 09, 2016] Excella Consulting Expands Student Center in Blacksburg

ARLINGTON, Va, Dec. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Excella Consulting, a leading provider of technology solutions to government agencies, commercial organizations and non-profits, celebrated the opening of its expanded student center in Blacksburg yesterday. The ribbon-cutting ceremony took place at the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center and included members of the local business community, students, faculty, Excella executives and Virginia Tech President Tim Sands. "This expansion is great news for Virginia Tech, as we seek to provide meaningful experiential learning opportunities, and advance our connections with the National Capital Region," said Sands. "We're fortunate to have a partner such as Excella Consulting working with us to develop tomorrow's technology leaders." Excella's internship program, called the "Extension Center" or XC, started in 2009 as a way to give high-achievin technical students the opportunity to develop critical skills outside the classroom by working on software development projects for Excella's clients. Students work side-by-side with experienced consultants through part-time paid internships and solve problems for clients including Marriott International, Motley Fool Asset Management, the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance and the CloseUp Foundation.



"This is a huge leap forward for a program we are wildly proud of," said Steve Cooper, Founding partner at Excella. "We built this program to create the next generation of technology innovators in Virginia and this new office will give them the space and resources to do amazing things." The new space includes 2,100 square feet of dedicated office space in the VT Corporate Research Center that will accommodate six full-time managers and 24 students.

"Our proximity to Virginia Tech gives us access to some of the most talented STEM students in the world," said Margaret Archer, Director of the Extension Center. Since its inception, over 60 students have graduated from the XC program and gone on to pursue careers at startups, consultancies and Fortune 500 companies. The program was ranked among Vault.com's "Best Internships" for 2016, earning the #4 spot for "Best Consulting Internship". About Excella Consulting Excella Consulting is a leading provider of Agile software development and data and analytics solutions to clients in the federal, commercial and non-profit sectors. Since 2002, we have provided innovative solutions to DC's leading organizations including Marriott International, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the U.S. Census Bureau, CustomInk and the National Rural Electric Cooperative (NRECA). Our experts measure success by the positive impact we make on our clients, community, and colleagues. For more information, visit: www.excella.com. Media Contact:

Erin Grace

Excella Consulting

(703) 840-8600

[email protected] Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161208/447378

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160921/410287LOGO To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/excella-consulting-expands-student-center-in-blacksburg-300375857.html SOURCE Excella Consulting

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[December 09, 2016] Happy Holidata! Cambridge Analytica Number Crunches Christmas

NEW YORK, Dec. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- In which state are you most likely to receive an expensive gift? Where should you spend the holidays if you're looking for winter romance? Which part of the country sees the biggest baby boom in December? Cambridge Analytica has a database of demographic, consumer, lifestyle and psychographic data on over 220 million Americans and today launched a website that shows what the holidays have in store for you. Maryland tops the charts for people on six figures, so holiday spending could be big. Next door in DC you'll find the highest number of extraverted singles, and December brings a birth rate spike for Texas. "Our Holidata provides an excellent example of Cambridge Analytica's ability to hone in on key consumer trends that marketers can leverage for their own business objectives," said Alexander Nix, CEO of Cambridge Analytica. "With up to 5,000 data points on every individual in our database, we provide unparallelled insights into American consumers and holiday shoppers." Cambridge Analytica's methodology helps businesses identify the individuals most likely to engage with a product, craft the right message and pinpoint the best channel through which to deliver that message. It has been used across busines sectors, from a global magazine searching for new subscribers, to a restaurant group looking to tailor its menus to individual customers.



To view Cambridge Analytica's full Holidata map, please visit: https://holidata.cambridgeanalytica.org Cambridge Analytica scored each state plus Washington DC as high, medium or low in six festive categories:

Mistletoe Mischief is based on individual level data on extroverted personality types and the highest numbers of singles who might be looking for a holiday romance.

is based on individual level data on extroverted personality types and the highest numbers of singles who might be looking for a holiday romance. Big Spenders uses data on household income to calculate state averages for earnings, identifying where the biggest holiday spenders are most likely to be.

uses data on household income to calculate state averages for earnings, identifying where the biggest holiday spenders are most likely to be. Super Parents shows the likely level of holiday preparation by parents on the basis of data on conscientious personality types.

shows the likely level of holiday preparation by parents on the basis of data on conscientious personality types. Christmas Miracles shows by state how much more or less likely it is that a baby will be born in December than in the average month.

shows by state how much more or less likely it is that a baby will be born in December than in the average month. Jetsetters uses unique data models based on travel habits and expenditure, giving an insight into where in the US people might opt to spend the holidays away from home.

uses unique data models based on travel habits and expenditure, giving an insight into where in the US people might opt to spend the holidays away from home. White Christmas is based on public data sources on climate and our own data on winter sports. About Cambridge Analytica: Cambridge Analytica, the U.S. affiliate of SCL Group, is the market leader in the provision of data analytics and behavioral communications for political campaigns, issue groups and commercial enterprises. With cutting-edge technology, pioneering data science, and 25 years of experience in behavior change, CA provides advertisers with unparalleled insight into their audiences. More information can be found at:https://cambridgeanalytica.org. Media Contact:

North 6th Agency (for Cambridge Analytica)

212-334-9753

[email protected] To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/happy-holidata-cambridge-analytica-number-crunches-christmas-300375875.html SOURCE Cambridge Analytica

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[December 09, 2016]

ReadyTech Makes 1M Investment in Dutch Startup Surfly

OAKLAND, Calif., Dec. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- ReadyTech (www.readytech.com), a global IT training solution provider, today announced it has made a 1M investment in startup Surfly (www.surfly.com), a provider of real-time web sharing technology solutions. ReadyTech will use the Surfly co-browsing product as a key technology component in its market-leading online training software. In addition, the companies have signed a wide ranging cooperation agreement under which they will share resources and jointly contribute to the development of the Surfly product.

"Co-browsing is a critical technology for providing innovative training solutions to the online training market. We looked at the different co-browsig solutions available and it became clear that Surfly's co-browsing technology would be an ideal complement to our existing training solutions," said Kevin Woodward, CEO of ReadyTech. "This investment and relationship allows both companies to focus our efforts on a single co-browsing product and provide better solutions in less time to each of our markets."







"We are very excited about this investment and relationship with ReadyTech because it will allow Surfly to accelerate product development and scale our sales and marketing," said Nicholas Piel, CEO of Surfly. "ReadyTech has a great track record as a successful software company and an impressive customer list. As a startup, Surfly stands to benefit greatly from this close relationship."

About ReadyTech

ReadyTech is a California-based software company and market leader that provides online training software to many of the largest technology companies in the world. For more information, visit www.readytech.com.

About Surfly

Surfly is an Amsterdam-based startup that provides a technically superior co-browsing solutions primarily to technical support organizations. For more information, visit www.surfly.com.

Contacts

ReadyTech

Miguel Palma

(510) 480-3106

Marketing Manager

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/readytech-makes-1m-investment-in-dutch-startup-surfly-300375893.html

SOURCE ReadyTech Corporation
[December 09, 2016] Stories and Wishlists from Homeless and Refugees at Homelesspartners.com and Refugeepartners.com

"Mobilizing Every Community As A Resource" VICTORIA, Dec. 9, 2016 /CNW/ - This holiday season, people anywhere can connect in a safe, meaningful way through two websites containing the personal stories and wishlists of the homeless and refugees. This registered Canadian charity provides a structure that can be used by any community - for free, by clicking on "Add Your City." Communities everywhere are encouraged to join.







Media are invited to an event for gift-giving with homeless and refugees and potential employers at St. Aidan's United Church, 3703 St. Aidan's Street, Victoria, December 13, Tuesday, 9:30 a.m.

In Victoria, BC, the homeless staying in four shelters operated by the Cool Aid Society, are interviewed by volunteers. Then those stories and wishlists are posted on the website. Then community members read the stories, pledge gifts and deliver or mail them to the shelter or designated location. The homeless are looking for items such as boots, coats, clothing, and bus tickets. The purposes of www.homelesspartners.com are to foster empathy and help the homeless feel encouraged when they receive a requested gift, or a caring message. Refugees are looking for employment leads, assistance to bring relatives to Canada from difficult conditions, and also clothing and common household items. Some of the stories shared include horrors of war such as a bomb falling on the breakfast table and a five-year old being shielded between the legs of his father running from bullets. The purpose of www.refugeepartners.com is to help refugees feel welcomed and included when they connect and receive a personal gift from a local resident. Homelesspartners.com was founded in 2005, and is now in ten cities: Regina, Salmon Arm, Vernon, Victoria, Winnipeg and five cities in the Lower Mainland Vancouver. This is the first year refugee stories and gifts have been posted. This approach enables a unique personal connection, based on the value of empathy that helps fulfill the meaning of being human. It mobilizes the community as a resource to touch the lives of those who feel ignored or separate from their neighbours. Read the personal story of a homeless person at www.homelesspartners.com or a refugee at www.refugeepartners.com and pledge a gift, then deliver or mail your gift before December 22 from anywhere online (e.g. www.amazon.ca), using the story ID number as the person's name and the shelter or drop-off as the shipping address. These are "everybody wins" programs practicing empathy and encouraging the homeless, the refugees, and the interviewers who collected their stories, as well as the donors who give a gift. Co-founder Daniel Keeran says: "Our approach is to harness the internet to create a structure that facilitates a safe and empathic connection with those in any trouble, such as the homeless and refugees." Homelesspartners.com is a registered Canadian charity: 843548777RR0001 SOURCE homelesspartners.com

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Government today informed Parliament that a decision has been taken to print plastic currency notes and procurement of material has started.

By Press Trust of India: Government today informed Parliament that a decision has been taken to print plastic currency notes and procurement of material has started.

"It has been decided to print banknotes based on plastic or polymer substrate. The process of procurement has been initiated," Minister of State for Finance Arjun Ram Meghwal said in a written reply in Lok Sabha to a query whether RBI proposes to print plastic currency notes in place of paper ones.

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The Reserve Bank for long has been planning to launch plastic currency note after field trials.

In February 2014, the government had informed Parliament that one billion plastic notes of Rs 10 denomination would be introduced in a field trial in five cities selected for their geographical and climatic diversity. The selected cities were Kochi, Mysore, Jaipur, Shimla and Bhubaneswar.

Plastic notes have an average life span of about five years and are difficult to imitate. Also, currency notes made of plastic are cleaner than paper ones. Such notes were first introduced in Australia to safeguard against counterfeiting.

Replying to another question, Meghwal said it was informed by RBI in December 2015 that they have received some banknotes of Rs 1,000 without having security thread which were printed at Currency Note Press (CNP), Nashik, on paper supplied by Security Paper Mill (SPM), Hoshangabad.

An enquiry has been initiated by Security Printing and Minting Corporation (SPMCIL) and the units involved (SPM and CNP).

"Major penalty chargesheet has been issued to the personnel concerned. Disciplinary proceedings have been initiated as per departmental rules," the minister said.

Meghwal further said action has been taken to strengthen quality procedure and online inspection system in manufacturing process and special training has been given to the persons concerned to avoid such types of mistakes in future.

"Additional inspections have been introduced to ensure defect-free production," he said.

--- ENDS ---
[December 09, 2016] The Canadian Cyber Threat Exchange (CCTX) is operational and reaching out to Canadian businesses

OTTAWA, Dec. 9, 2016 /CNW/ - One year after its founders unveiled plans for an independent, not-for-profit organization that would help Canadian companies guard against cyber attacks, the new Canadian Cyber Threat Exchange (CCTX) is up and running. At its inaugural annual symposium on December 7th, the CCTX briefed businesses, government, and academics on its activities and announced the release of its first Cyber Trends and Analysis Summary for CCTX members.



The symposium drew a range of Canadian and U.S. cyber-security experts who provided the latest information on current threats and trends, risks associated with the Internet of Things, the evolving legal landscape, and operational advice on defending networks. Attendees also had an opportunity to provide recommendations to Defence Research and Development Canada on how it should direct its research to address technology gaps facing the private sector.



CCTX Executive Director Bob Gordon also announced the selection of EWA-Canada as its Managed Security Service Provider, responsible for infrastructure and analytical capability. "EWA-Canada is a leading provider of security solutions to governments and the private sector and is our trusted partner to help propel CCTX to the next level," said Gordon. "EWA-Canada will enable the CCTX to achieve full operational capability quickly while taking advantage of best-in-class private sector capabilities.







EWA -Canada President Dennis Weiss took part in the symposium, briefing participants on the progress achieved to date, including hiring the team of cyber threat analysts, setting up the technical tools and infrastructure, and launching CCTX's first monthly cyber threat report.



Over the past few months, Working Groups composed of technical experts from member companies have been active in defining and developing the range of products and services that the CCTX will provide.





"The next wave of CCTX products and services will be made available in early February," added Gordon. "This will include an online portal for near real time exchange of threat information as well as the setup of a collaborative space where participants can come in to learn, share and take action with other CCTX participants."



Marc Duchesne , CCTX Board Chair and Chief Security Officer for Bell Canada , told symposium attendees that the CCTX is living up to the expectations of participating companies. "With more than 30 organizations from various industry sectors across Canada in varying stages of becoming part of CCTX, we have exceeded our membership target," he said. "That is a clear testament to the need for an effective cyber threat exchange capability in Canada and how effective the CCTX has been in moving the issue of cyber security forward."



Mr. Gordon noted that the rising incidence of cyber attacks affects small and medium firms as well as large companies. For smaller firms in particular, the cost of sophisticated cyber defenses can be a significant challenge. Recognizing this, the CCTX announced the development of a targeted package for participation by small businesses who will be able to join for as low as $2,000 a year. The CCTX also recognizes the critical role of Canadian academic institutions as part of Canada's critical digital infrastructure, in developing the next generation of cyber security experts and in conducting world-class research on cyber security challenges. For that reason, and to assist such institutions in better defending their networks, the CCTX announced that it is also creating a special category for academic organizations. The CCTX will work with groups such as CUCCIO (Canadian University Council of Chief Information Officers) to further develop this initiative.



If you are interested in joining this group of leading organizations that are shaping the future of cyber security in Canada , please go to www.cctx.ca and fill in your application form. For any inquiries, please contact us at [email protected] .



SOURCE Canadian Cyber Threat Exchange.

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[December 09, 2016] Fitch Affirms Maryville University of Saint Louis, MO Bonds at 'BBB+'

Fitch Ratings has affirmed its 'BBB+' rating on the outstanding $21 million series 2015 Missouri Health and Educational Facilities Authority educational facilities revenue bonds, issued on behalf of Maryville University of Saint Louis (Maryville). The Rating Outlook is Stable. SECURITY The bonds are secured by a mortgage and security interest in Maryville's campus property and its unrestricted receivables (UR). UR includes all unrestricted revenue, tuition and unrestricted gifts and is equivalent to a general obligation of the university. The bonds have a fully funded debt service reserve. KEY RATING DRIVERS STRONG FINANCIAL OPERATIONS: The university continued positive operating margins in fiscal 2016, supported by enrollment growth and expense management. The fiscal 2016 operating margin was solid at 6.7%, and management projects positive results for fiscal 2017. ENROLLMENT AND NET (News - Alert) TUITION REVENUE GROWTH: FTE enrollment increased about 9% to 4,151 in fall 2016 (fiscal 2017), continuing a growth trend from new on-line and graduate programs. Undergraduate enrollment - most of which is full-time - also grew. Net tuition revenue has increased in each of the last six fiscal years. ADEQUATE BALANCE SHEET: Maryville's fiscal 2016 balance sheet ratios remain consistent with those of peer private universities rated by Fitch. Available funds were 68% of expenses and 79% of debt. MODERATELY HIGH DEBT BURDEN: The university's maximum annual debt service (MADS) burden is moderately high but manageable, and is moderating over time. Strong operating results and pro forma MADS coverage, as well as limited additional debt plans, are partially mitigating factors. RATING SENSITIVITIES ENROLLMENT SUPPORTS OPERATIONS: The rating assumes stable to modest enrollment increases at Maryville University of St. Louis, MO that support growth in net tuition revenue and positive operating margins. Revenues remain highly dependent on net student revenue, making the university vulnerable to enrollment shifts. BALANCE SHEET STABLE: Significant reduction of Maryville's balance sheet ratios relative to either debt or expenses could lead to a negative rating action. CREDIT PROFILE Maryville is a non-profit private university affiliated with the Religious of the Sacred Heart. The institution was established in St. Louis in 1872, moved to suburban St. Louis County in 1961, and converted to university status in 1991. The main campus is located about 22 miles from St. Louis, and the university also leases academic space for evening and non-traditional programs. ENROLLMENT DRIVES OPERATIONS FTE enrollment in fall 2016 was 4,151, up more than 8% from fall 2015 and up about 60% since fall 2011. Growth has primarily come from the graduate and non-traditional programs, including on-line and professional offerings. Undergraduate enrollment has been fairly stable, with modest growth over time at around 2,400 FTE students. Maryville is historically a commuter institution, with a mix of full-time and part-time students. Over the last nine years, undergraduate enrollment has become more residential. A new dormitory opened in fall 2016, and management reports that 69% of traditional freshmen live on campus. The college of health professions enrolls the largest proportion of students, about 64% of FTE enrollment. Undergraduate and graduate programs include nursing, occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech and language pathology, and healthcare practice management. Among its online programs, the college includes various business, accounting, cyber security and advanced practice nursing degrees. POSITIVE OPERATING PERFORMANCE Maryville's operations rely heavily on student-generated revenues, typically over 90%, which is similar to other liberal arts colleges. The growing graduate/on-line enrollment component adds both revenue diversity and potential cyclicality. GAAP operating results have been strong in recent years. Operating margins were 6.7% in fiscal 2016, 6.2% in fiscal 2015, and 6.4% in 2014. Similar results are projected for the fiscal year ending May 31, 2017. Net tuition revenue increased in each of the last six years, with another increase projected for fiscal 2017. Revenue growth has been driven largely by graduate and on-line enrollment. Management chose not to increase undergraduate tuition in fiscal 2017 and also simplified its fee structure; recent tuition increases had been in the 2.5%-4.5% range. The university budgets conservatively; budgets include depreciation expense, conservative enrollment assumptions, and various expense contingencies. Maryville has posted sound annual MADS coverage for the last seven years, including 2.5x in fiscal 2016, and 2.0x in fiscal 2015. The university has no additional debt plans at this time, and anticipates funding capital projects from gifts and capital budget allocations. ADEQUATE AVAILABLE FUNDS Available funds (AF), defined by Fitch as cash and investments less permanently restricted net assets, remain consistent with the rating category. The university has funded various capital improvements with gifts and internal revenues in recent years, including fiscal 2016, essentially constraining AF ratios. AF was $52 million in fiscal 2016, down from $59 million in 2015. This calculation includes quasi endowment (about $30.5 million), but not restricted endowment (about $16 million). Fiscal 2016 AF was 68% of expenses and 79% of outstanding debt (about $65 million). These ratios are consistent with peer Fitch-rated private colleges and universities. DEBT BURDEN ABOVE AVERAGE BUT MANAGEABLE MADS is $5.6 million in 2031 due to a double-maturity; this amount will decrease slightly when the series 2006 refunding becomes effective in calendar 2017. Before the 2031 MADS date, however, annual debt service is closer to $4.4 million. MADS burden represented a moderately high 6.8% of fiscal 2016 operating revenues (moderating from 7.5% in fiscal 2015, and 8.3% in fscal 2014 due to significant budget growth). Annual debt service of $4.4 million was more moderate at 4.4%. Fitch considers the university's debt burden to be mitigated in part by strong operating margins and debt service coverage.



In 2015 the university refunded its fixed-rate series 2006 bonds in a fixed-rate private placement. The pricing is locked in but does not become effective until 2017, at the time of the series 2006 call date. The private placement is on parity with the series 2015 bonds and management confirms there are no additional bond covenants. BOND SECURITY

The series 2015 bonds are on parity with outstanding debt, secured under a Master Trust Indenture. Outstanding debt, including some leases but excluding a forward refunding, is about $65 million. Bond covenants include a 1.lx annual debt service coverage covenant, an additional bonds test of two-year historical net income covering pro forma debt service by 1.2x, and a liquidity covenant of 65%. Additionally, the series 2015 bonds have a debt service reserve. When the forward-refunding of the series 2006 bonds becomes effective in calendar 2017, a liquidity escalation provision required by a bond insurance policy will be eliminated. The escalation would have started in fiscal 2018, building by 5% annually from 65% until 100% is achieved. University bonds are fixed-rate with the exception of a privately placed $13.2 million series 2010 variable-rate bond (about 21% of debt is variable rate). The series 2010 bonds are also issued under the Master Trust Indenture, and have a variable- to fixed rate swap contract through 2022 (no collateral posting is required). The bond's variable index rate is fixed through March 2017, at which time a mandatory index tender is possible. Fitch views Maryville as having sufficient liquidity (AF of $52 million in fiscal 2016) relative to a potential put of about $12.6 million at that time. Additional information is available at www.fitchratings.com Applicable Criteria Revenue-Supported Rating Criteria (pub. 16 Jun 2014) https://www.fitchratings.com/site/re/750012 U.S. College and University Rating Criteria (pub. 12 May 2014) https://www.fitchratings.com/site/re/748013 Additional Disclosures Dodd-Frank Rating Information Disclosure Form https://www.fitchratings.com/creditdesk/press_releases/content/ridf_frame.cfm?pr_id=1016257 Solicitation Status https://www.fitchratings.com/gws/en/disclosure/solicitation?pr_id=1016257 Endorsement Policy https://www.fitchratings.com/regulatory ALL FITCH CREDIT RATINGS ARE SUBJECT TO CERTAIN LIMITATIONS AND DISCLAIMERS. PLEASE READ THESE LIMITATIONS AND DISCLAIMERS BY FOLLOWING THIS LINK: HTTPS://WWW.FITCHRATINGS.COM/UNDERSTANDINGCREDITRATINGS. IN ADDITION, RATING DEFINITIONS AND THE TERMS OF USE OF SUCH RATINGS ARE AVAILABLE ON (News - Alert) THE AGENCY'S PUBLIC WEB SITE AT WWW.FITCHRATINGS.COM. PUBLISHED RATINGS, CRITERIA, AND METHODOLOGIES ARE AVAILABLE FROM THIS SITE AT ALL TIMES. FITCH'S CODE OF CONDUCT, CONFIDENTIALITY, CONFLICTS OF INTEREST, AFFILIATE FIREWALL, COMPLIANCE, AND OTHER RELEVANT POLICIES AND PROCEDURES ARE ALSO AVAILABLE FROM THE CODE OF CONDUCT SECTION OF THIS SITE. FITCH MAY HAVE PROVIDED ANOTHER PERMISSIBLE SERVICE TO THE RATED ENTITY OR ITS RELATED THIRD PARTIES. DETAILS OF THIS SERVICE FOR RATINGS FOR WHICH THE LEAD ANALYST IS BASED IN AN EU-REGISTERED ENTITY CAN BE FOUND ON THE ENTITY SUMMARY PAGE FOR THIS ISSUER ON THE FITCH WEBSITE. Copyright  2016 by Fitch Ratings, Inc., Fitch Ratings Ltd. and its subsidiaries. 33 Whitehall Street, NY, NY 10004. Telephone: 1-800-753-4824, (212) 908-0500. Fax: (212) 480-4435. Reproduction or retransmission in whole or in part is prohibited except by permission. All rights reserved. In issuing and maintaining its ratings and in making other reports (including forecast information), Fitch relies on factual information it receives from issuers and underwriters and from other sources Fitch believes to be credible. Fitch conducts a reasonable investigation of the factual information relied upon by it in accordance with its ratings methodology, and obtains reasonable verification of that information from independent sources, to the extent such sources are available for a given security or in a given jurisdiction. The manner of Fitch's factual investigation and the scope of the third-party verification it obtains will vary depending on the nature of the rated security and its issuer, the requirements and practices in the jurisdiction in which the rated security is offered and sold and/or the issuer is located, the availability and nature of relevant public information, access to the management of the issuer and its advisers, the availability of pre-existing third-party verifications such as audit reports, agreed-upon procedures letters, appraisals, actuarial reports, engineering reports, legal opinions and other reports provided by third parties, the availability of independent and competent third- party verification sources with respect to the particular security or in the particular jurisdiction of the issuer, and a variety of other factors. Users of Fitch's ratings and reports should understand that neither an enhanced factual investigation nor any third-party verification can ensure that all of the information Fitch relies on in connection with a rating or a report will be accurate and complete. Ultimately, the issuer and its advisers are responsible for the accuracy of the information they provide to Fitch and to the market in offering documents and other reports. In issuing its ratings and its reports, Fitch must rely on the work of experts, including independent auditors with respect to financial statements and attorneys with respect to legal and tax matters. Further, ratings and forecasts of financial and other information are inherently forward-looking and embody assumptions and predictions about future events that by their nature cannot be verified as facts. As a result, despite any verification of current facts, ratings and forecasts can be affected by future events or conditions that were not anticipated at the time a rating or forecast was issued or affirmed. The information in this report is provided "as is" without any representation or warranty of any kind, and Fitch does not represent or warrant that the report or any of its contents will meet any of the requirements of a recipient of the report. A Fitch rating is an opinion as to the creditworthiness of a security. This opinion and reports made by Fitch are based on established criteria and methodologies that Fitch is continuously evaluating and updating. Therefore, ratings and reports are the collective work product of Fitch and no individual, or group of individuals, is solely responsible for a rating or a report. The rating does not address the risk of loss due to risks other than credit risk, unless such risk is specifically mentioned. Fitch is not engaged in the offer or sale of any security. All Fitch reports have shared authorship. Individuals identified in a Fitch report were involved in, but are not solely responsible for, the opinions stated therein. The individuals are named for contact purposes only. A report providing a Fitch rating is neither a prospectus nor a substitute for the information assembled, verified and presented to investors by the issuer and its agents in connection with the sale of the securities. Ratings may be changed or withdrawn at any time for any reason in the sole discretion of Fitch. Fitch does not provide investment advice of any sort. Ratings are not a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security. Ratings do not comment on the adequacy of market price, the suitability of any security for a particular investor, or the tax-exempt nature or taxability of payments made in respect to any security. Fitch receives fees from issuers, insurers, guarantors, other obligors, and underwriters for rating securities. Such fees generally vary from US$1,000 to US$750,000 (or the applicable currency equivalent) per issue. In certain cases, Fitch will rate all or a number of issues issued by a particular issuer, or insured or guaranteed by a particular insurer or guarantor, for a single annual fee. Such fees are expected to vary from US$10,000 to US$1,500,000 (or the applicable currency equivalent). The assignment, publication, or dissemination of a rating by Fitch shall not constitute a consent by Fitch to use its name as an expert in connection with any registration statement filed under the United States securities laws, the Financial Services and Markets Act of 2000 of the United Kingdom, or the securities laws of any particular jurisdiction. Due to the relative efficiency of electronic publishing and distribution, Fitch research may be available to electronic subscribers up to three days earlier than to print subscribers. For Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan and South Korea only: Fitch Australia Pty Ltd holds an Australian financial services license (AFS license no. 337123) which authorizes it to provide credit ratings to wholesale clients only. Credit ratings information published by Fitch is not intended to be used by persons who are retail clients within the meaning of the Corporations Act 2001. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161209005740/en/

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Constellation and the Iowa Medical Society Announce Dispute Resolution

Constellation, Inc., and the Iowa Medical Society (IMS) today announced the resolution of a dispute concerning a trademark licensing agreement between the parties. Terms of the resolution were not disclosed.

Constellation and IMS expressed appreciation for the contributions each has made over the many years of their working relationship, and a commitment to continue their efforts independently to advance improved patient safety and the practice of good medicine. With the resolution, the business relationship has concluded.

About Constellation

Minneapolis-based Constellation is a holding company of policyholder-owned insurers and other organizations providing medical liability insurance and services that support physicians and other health care providers. Through partnerships offering solutions that hlp providers deliver better quality patient care, a better patient experience and lower costs of care, Constellation, founded in 2012, is a leader in health care provider support and risk solutions. For more information, visit www.ConstellationMutual.com.







About the Iowa Medical Society

The Iowa Medical Society (IMS) is the state's largest professional association for allopathic and osteopathic physicians. Established in 1850, IMS represents more than 6,500 Iowa physicians, residents and medical students. IMS exists to assure the highest quality healthcare in Iowa through our role as physician and patient advocate. For more information, visit www.iowamedical.org.

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Why court docs for Delphi murder suspect Richard Allen are sealed

Court records in the case of a man charged in the killings of Abigail Williams and Liberty German have been sealed. Experts explain why.
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By PTI: Chennai, Dec 8 (PTI) The Income Tax department today recovered at least Rs 73 crore cash, including Rs 8 crore in new currency, and 100 kgs of gold bars in searches at multiple locations in the city here to check instances of tax evasion post demonetisation.

Officials said the department has called in for additional staff, auditors, counting machines and banking personnel to ascertain the final figures of the recovered assets and formalise the seizure process under tax laws.

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They said the I-T teams launched operations on at least five locations of a "syndicate" involved in currency conversion and recovered Rs 8 crore in cash in new currency notes, Rs 65 core cash in old notes and 100 gold bars of 1kg each.

They said a number of documents related to financial transactions, entries of gold sale and records of sale/purchase are being scrutinised by the tax sleuths.

They added at least three people of the alleged syndicate are being questioned by the taxmen who are still in operations.

The tax department had made the largest seizure of Rs 5.7 crore cash in new notes in Bengaluru few days back after which two other central probe agencies, the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate, had taken over the cases to probe instances of corruption, money laundering and large-scale hawala transactions in the wake of the currency scrap on November 8. PTI NES TIR

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: From K J M Varma

Beijing, Dec 9 (PTI) Chinese official media today warned Mongolia that it is "politically harebrained" to seek Indias help as the move will further complicate bilateral ties, amid reports that Ulan Bator sought New Delhis support to overcome financial difficulties arising out of many factors including the imposition of border tariffs against it by China.

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Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kangyesterday declined to respond to a question on Mongolian envoy to New Delhi Gonchig Ganholds reported comments on seeking Indias support to counter Chinese measures, saying he has not heard of any such remarks.

However, state-run Global Times today criticised Mongolia for approaching India.

"Sandwiched between Russia and China, Mongolia vows to remain a neutral state to benefit from both sides without having to get involved in a major-power competition," it said in an article.

"However, it also hopes it could seek a third neighbour, which can enable the country to reap more profits by gaining more bargaining chips. But Mongolia should be alerted that it cannot afford the risks of such geopolitical games," it said.

"Mongolia seems naive about the way international relations work - you cannot harm a countrys interests while hoping it can reciprocate nicely," it said, adding "Mongolia should know that mutual respect is the precondition to develop bilateral relationships and hitch a ride on Chinas economic development".

"It is even more politically harebrained to ask for support from India, a move that will only complicate the situation and leave a narrower space to sort the issue out. We hope the crisis-hit Mongolia will learn its lessons," it said.

Mongolia caught China by surprise by hosting the Dalai Lama last month for four days, saying that it was purely religious visit.

China protested with its Foreign Ministry spokesman saying the Tibetan spiritual leader is a "political exile who has long been engaging in splitting China activities in the name of religion with the aim of alienating Tibet from China".

The spokesman, however, didnt confirm or deny a number of countermeasures including hiking over-land transit charges cancelling key bilateral talks to punish Mongolia for its "erroneous action" in defiance of Chinas warning.

Buddhism, which is widely followed in Mongolia, derives much of its characteristics from Tibetan Buddhism.

While Mongolia says it is purely a religious visit by Dalai Lama and there was nopolitical strings attached to it, "since he fled to India in 1959 after his separatist revolt was upset, the Dalai Lama has become a political advocate calling for the separation of Tibet under the guise of religion," the article said.

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"In Chinas narrative, he is much more a separatist than a religious figure. Receiving him implies endorsement of his deeds, which is highly disapproved of in both government and public discourses in China," it said.

"Whether Chinas countermeasures are real or not, Mongolia should reflect on its ill-considered handling of the case, lacking diplomatic sophistication and making trouble for in-depth cooperation between both sides," it added. PTI KJV ZH

--- ENDS ---
In 2014, Dead Letter Circus circled the country for their Reimagined tour, interpreting their own hits in a completely different way. Since then, fans have demanded a reprise of these shape-shifting shows, and with 2017 marking then ten-year anniversary of the bands now-legendary debut self-titled EP, it seemed like the perfect time to dust the old songs off and reinvent them for a national tour.

The Endless Mile tour will see the band play to the fans that have held this EP in their hearts for the past 10 years, as well as showcasing the songs in a completely new light.

I still remember pulling over the car yelling and screaming when I heard Disconnect and Apply on triple j for the first time, frontman Kim Benzie recalls. The fact that people connected so deeply with our frantic hyper rock to this day still blows my mind.

We thought the most fitting way to honour the 10 year anniversary of the EP and the people in the audience who became our road family was to completely re-invent and invert the songs in a new studio form, and take them on road to some of our favourite venues.

The band will also release a limited-edited EP featuring new versions of these songs, available only at the shows.

Tickets for the below dates will go on sale on Wednesday, December 14, at deadlettercircus.com

Dead Letter Circus Tour Dates

Thursday 2nd March  New Globe Theatre, Brisbane, QLD

Friday 3rd March  The Factory Theatre, Sydney, NSW

Saturday 4th March  Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle NSW

Friday 10th March  Max Watts, Melbourne VIC

Saturday 11th March  Uni Bar, Adelaide SA
Sometimes its really all about taking the plunge towards success. Making a conscious decision to venture outside of anyones expectation and strive for something youre really passionate about. Nina Las Vegas is no exception.

Striving for a passionate place in the music industry with her record label NLV Records and associated endeavours, Nina did just that. And honestly shes killing it. So its only right that Nina and her crew take the time to celebrate, and what better way to celebrate than to throw not one, but three parties throughout the country in celebration of a very successful year  kicking off with a show in Melbourne on Saturday with Swick, Lewis Cancut, Airmax 97 and more.

Thankfully, in the wake of what will be a string of incredible shows, Nina took the time to chat with Tone Deaf about the very foundation of her label, talking the talk, and what we can expect from the NLV parties.

I was winding up at Triple J and I felt like there was a lot of music coming out of Australia that wasnt getting represented in the way that it deserved, Nina commented when asked about why she decided to begin her label NLV Records.

Here in Australia, success often means getting played on the radio  thats just not my background. I ended up on radio, but its not really where I came from. I just wanted to go back to putting out music that was meant for the clubs or for your jogging soundtrack or dancing at home or whatever. Because it doesnt necessarily mean you need a vocalist or pretty chords, or stuff like that. Sometimes you have to push people to listen to different stuff.

In terms of what she looks for in welcoming an artist over to the NLV family, I like challenging music and interesting stuff, sometimes tough sounds and dark club music, and I felt like that was getting lost.

Taking a stance towards the mainstream, Nina is incredibly clear about her agenda for both her own music and the sound of her label, especially in terms of really prioritising the music. Its really easy to play it safe if you want to be popular its really easy to mix something that generally might please everybody, but it might not please you, and thats what Im starting to notice.

I kind of didnt want to please everyone, I wanted to set up a little community that had a niche. Of course, I still want people to like the music were putting out  I definitely dont want to isolate people.

Talking more about the music shes focusing on at the moment, as both an artist and with her label, Nina comments, everything comes from a progression of something else Pop music right now is getting weirder, and thats because of the evolution of dance music. What I want to do with the label is push things even further to incorporate great pop elements and cool EDM elements to make something new and thats what Ive really always wanted to do.

We definitely live in a world where people are often striving for that immediacy, and those newer to the industry will often excel at talking the talk, so to speak, but there are very few who are actually intent on putting these words into action. Always the exception to the rule, Nina believes, in a world where so many people are talkers, its kind of nice to know and realise hey, I actually did it. I stuck to my guns and put out music and made a label. That alone is something that Im really happy with.

With this in mind, what are her current ambitions for 2017? See, Im a pretty impatient person, I wanted the label to be where it might be in ten years from now. But I think one year is great, we had a really busy first year, we put out seven or eight different releases and almost twenty tracks. When I look back at that and think wow, half my set now is music Ive released  that makes me so happy.

Looking more at measurable goals and projected trajectories, Nina muses further about 2017. Songs come and go so quick, you have to give them life. I think in the next year I really want to make some sort of physical releases. Eventually it would be nice to have a print or a vinyl, so people can enjoy the music and that it can have a longer life.

Back to the parties as Nina draws us back into the upcoming gigs. Im doing my first parties this year, and thats the best thing. Its acknowledging yep, this is our end of year celebration for everyone involved. The lineup includes the heavy hitters from NLV records such as Air Max 97, Lewis Cancut, Swick, Strict Face and of course Nina herself as they head to Brisbane this Saturday followed by Melbourne and Sydney.

But, as Nina reveals, theres more than just celebration on her mind as she comments, I want to make sure were a physical presence as well. Nina is so passionate about not only her brand but the music and artists that she gets to champion through her label, adding that the best thing about music is that you want to be able to do what you love. Playing shows is such a gift and you want to be able to experience that.

These parties are a chance for Nina and her crew to take the opportunity to really acknowledge their achievements, and theres no better way than to charge through to 2017 than with a red hot bang.

Photo by: @w_i_l_k  Styling: @monoffeepie  Hair + Makeup: @desiree_wise  Production: @networkagency
"Jackson County legislators are discussing going to the voters for a bond issue to pay for major work on the county jail and perhaps other projects. Legislators point out that they are nowhere near having enough information to even decide whether to stick with the current building at 13th and Cherry in downtown Kansas City  which officials say is built in a way that makes operations inefficient  or to look at a new facility."

After a year of tragic sexual assault allegations against female inmates and repeated allegations of corruption . . . The County is ready to start over, with help from the taxpayers of course . . .Developing . . .
"The horse was trapped under the carriage and was heavily sedated . . . Medical staff along with KCFD helped load the horse into horse trailer and taken away for evaluation."

DESPITE STRANGE CULTURE WAR BICKERING . . . THERE HASN'T BEEN ANY CONVINCING ARGUMENT TO KEEP PLAZA HORSE CARRIAGE RIDES OPEN AS BOTH DRIVERS AND ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS SEEM TO WANT TO KEEP THE ANIMALS SAFE ON THE FARM!!!

As thea SHOCKING DEETS during the disaster is burred in a report but should spur animal rights activists forward in their continued criticism . . .Take a look:Money line . . .And so . . .You decide . . .
CHECK THE STATEMENT FROM ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS EXCLUSIVELY ON TKC BECAUSE NO OTHER MEDIA OUTLES OFFERS DEETS LIKE OUR KICK-ASS BLOG COMMUNITY!!!

"Because horse drawn carriages constitute a danger to people in vehicles, on bicycles and on foot; and Because they impede the flow of traffic, particularly with respect to emergency vehicles; and Because it is inhumane and unbecoming to a great city like Kansas City and the renowned Country Club plaza to force these beautiful sentient animals to work in dangerous, unhealthy and unnatural conditions.





"Because of the accident on December 3rd we want to see these horses retired and only horse-less carriages on the Country Club Plaza.





"Come make it loud and clear that Kansas City wants a ban of the KC horse-drawn carriages! Tell them NOT TO TAKE THAT RIDE.





"We want big numbers to show that Kansas City citzens are ashamed of this industry and that we want to see change after the incident on December 3rd!





"Please keep in mind that these demonstrations are meant to educate the public, so be respectful, obey all local laws (we must stay on the sidewalk!), dress appropriately (it will be cold), and be the best voice you can be for the animals . . ."

Once again the American culture war will be fought on the Kansas City Country Club Plaza amid controversy betwixt allegations of animal cruelty vs a beloved local tradition.First just a bit of news . . .Better still . . .Here's the word . . .You decide . . .
Mayor James' $800,000,000 Blank Check

Whilstoffers a whimsical look at money management, these Kansas City tax fighters take the topic of finance far more seriously.Checkit:Dear Council-Members:Kansas City, MO is a city that does need millions of dollars in infrastructure improvements. What Kansas City does not need is another multi-million dollar bilking- in this case an $800,000,000 one, coming out of City Hall.The request for citizens to approve, via the ballot this spring, an $800,000,000 bond and a very hefty increase in property taxes for "infrastructure improvements" prima facie sounds intriguing -however- when one digs in to look for the pertinent details of these "infrastructure improvements"- pertinent details such as a list of projects, the actual cost of these projects, and their priority- one finds that their are no details- at least none the Mayor wants to disclose. When questioned about the pertinent details City Manager Troy Schulte replied, "You'll just have to trust us".The mayor and city manager want what amounts to an $800,000,000 blank check. Sorry, that dog dont hunt. If the mayor and city manager continue to refuse to provide full details of what they will do with our money the council should say no. With no details, Citizens for Responsible Government certainly will actively oppose it.############You decide . . .
The already tense relations between Turkey and Germany were strained even more, after the Turkish Foreign Ministry summoned the German Ambassador to officially remonstrate over the 1-hour detention of the Vice-President of the Turkish parliament, Ayse Nur Bahcekapili at Cologne airport by German police. The diplomatic incident occurred when the Turkish Vice President reported her handbag, which contained her passport, had been stolen at the lobby of the hotel she was staying. Bahcekapili then visited the Turkish Consulate to have a temporary travel document issued to in order to depart.

Upon arriving at the Cologne airport she was escorted to a check point for passport control by German authorities, where she claims German police detained and mistreated her for an hour, as she was forced to sit with undocumented people. I had a difficult day. I was transferred to a police station as if I had illegally entered the county, she told said.

Irritated over the incident, Turkish President Recep Erdogan said: Then they call me a dictator. If you do that to the Vice President of my parliament, then I have to do the same to yours. Following the uproar, Cologne police released a statement saying airport security had mistreated no-one and did not detain the Turkish parliament Vice President. It was a routine search. The rest does not correspond to reality.

Read more here.

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Greek Migration Policy Minister Yiannis Mouzalas asked that Greece be allowed to transfer excess migrants and asylum seekers now crowded in hotspots on the Greek islands to centres on the mainland

In a letter sent to the interior ministers of the European Union and Schengen states, as well as European Commissioner for Migration Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos, Greek Migration Policy Minister Yiannis Mouzalas asked that Greece be allowed to transfer excess migrants and asylum seekers now crowded in hotspots on the Greek islands to centres on the mainland.

In the letter sent on Thursday, Mouzalas suggests that migrants with problematic behaviour or a low chance of having their asylum applications approved should be transferred to pre-removal centres pending their return to Turkey, via the islands, in order to alleviate overcrowding and address the concerns of the local population.

Under the current terms of the EU-Turkey statement, migrants arriving in Greece must stay in hotspots on the island while their asylum applications are processed. The full letter is given below:

The EU-Turkey Statement is a key element of our collective response to address the challenges generated by the migration crisis. It is our main instrument for returning migrants back to Turkey and thus, stop the flows to Greece and the rest of Europe.

But some important challenges remain. Indeed, the overpopulation problem in the hotspots of Lesvos, Chios, Samos, Leros and Kos (due mainly to the growing number of asylum seekers whose applications tend in majority to be manifestly unfounded) endangers the success of the Statement and needs to be tackled urgently. It is important to address the concerns of the local population and curb the adverse reactions already noted in many islands where the situation is difficult. As you can imagine, the creation of closed centers on the islands requires time and does not address the issue in the immediate short run as needed.

It is for that reason that we believe that some of the migrants from countries with low recognition rates who arrived in Greece after the entry into force of the Statement and who were identified and registered in one of the five hotspots in Lesbos, Chios, Samos, Leros and Kos, should be temporarily transferred to pre-removal centers in the mainland. Without prejudice to the application of the Statement, all migrants concerned (approximately 100-150 persons per week, migrants with infringing conduct or whose asylum claims are manifestly unfounded, i.e from countries with low recognition rates such as Pakistan, Morocco, Algeria when there is a high risk of absconding) will be moved and kept in closed facilities in order to be returned to Turkey (via the islands) as soon as their asylum claim is rejected (if granted refugee status they will of course remain in Greece). Such an urgent measure will only be short-term until the above-mentioned islands are equipped with the necessary closed structures. Moreover, it could not create any pull factor as migrants will stay in preremoval centers while their applications will be speedily processed. To that end, the Greek Asylum Service will deploy special units within the preremoval centers so that a final asylum decision is taken within three weeks. Temporary transfers from the islands to the mainland will allow us to tackle public order issues on the islands and will surely accelerate the asylum processes.

To ensure the smooth running and the success of the readmission operations to Turkey, all necessary information regarding the migrants about to be returned from the islands will be duly shared with the competent Turkish authorities several days beforehand (personal details, fingerprints, photographs, reference number of the readmission request, etc?).

Your support is requested to make the above mentioned emergency action possible, to help decongest the islands smoothly, effectively and immediately.

Read more here.

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The short-term measures adopted by the Eurogroup this week to relieve Greeces debt could start being implemented from January 2017, the managing director of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), Klaus Regling, said in an interview with Greek news website capital.gr, published on Friday.

Eurogroup adopted the proposals I made on Monday - the whole package. It will start being implemented from this point onward. We need some formal legal decisions by our boards, but this will happen in the next few weeks. And then the implementation will start. Some of the measures that can be implemented quickly are to extend the weighted average maturity of loans from 28 to 32.5 years. We can probably do this in January, he was quoted as telling the financial news website.

Asked whether Greece will be able to gradually return to the markets in 2017, Regling reiterated his view that this could happen if the implementation of the program is continued.

I have said before that there is a good possibility for this. I cannot say exactly when. I agree with what Ive heard from the Greek government. That there must be a bond issue before the end of the [bailout] program, which is in August 2018, he said.

Concerning the progress in the ongoing second program review and why there was no staff-level agreement at the Eurogroup, the head of the ESM said significant progress was made and institutions will continue their work with the Greek government.

We already have a common view on some issues, as the Eurogroup made clear in its statement and as the president of the Eurogroup said in the press conference. In particular, there is agreement with the European institutions on the 2017 budget which confirms the main target for a surplus of 1.75 percent of GDP, he noted.

But we still dont have a full agreement on 2018. Theres a small fiscal gap for the achievement of the agreed targets for 2018. And we have to see more reforms for boosting growth and cost competitiveness, such as opening closed professions and removing obstacles to investment. Also, the administration of the privatization fund is not yet in place, he added.

Read more here.

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By PTI: after HC decision

New Delhi, Dec 9 (PTI) Global publishing houses like Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press and Taylor & Francis today said they are fully committed to the ongoing creation of high quality knowledge and learning materials across all disciplines and subjects.

The publishers earlier in the day got partial relief from the Delhi High Court which restored their lawsuit which was dismissed by a single judge.

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A division bench of justices Pradeep Nandrajog and Yogesh Khanna setting aside part of the September 16 judgement of the single judge, who had allowed sale of photocopies of textbooks by saying there was "no triable issue" arising out of the dispute.

In a joint statement after the high court decision, the publishers said they are also committed to finding ways to enable students and researchers around the world to access these materials on an equitable basis.

"We believe that such access can only be ensured on a long term and sustainable basis with the support of a fair and balanced framework of reciprocal rights and obligations that enables all those involved in the provision of learning and communication of scholarly research to be acknowledged for the contribution they have made.

"Through this appeal, we had sought to clarify that Indian copyright law did indeed support such a framework, and in so doing balance the interests of those creating learning materials here in India, with those requiring access to them in a fair and sustainable manner," it said.

The publishers said they will consider this judgement in more detail over the coming days.

"In the meantime, we wish to reiterate that all publishers continue to work on models that will enable equitable access to knowledge," they said.

The publishers had approached the division bench against the single judge order which had allowed the shop, Rameshwari photocopy services, to sell photocopies of their textbooks saying copyright in literary works does not confer "absolute ownership" to the authors.

Rameshwari photocopy service runs a shop in the precincts of Delhi School of Economics in the Delhi University campus.

The publishers had argued before the bench that sale of photocopies of books published by them affected their market share and it was infringing upon their copyright over the text books. PTI ZMN

--- ENDS ---
The Greek seamen's union federation PNO on Monday said it will continue strike action after the breakdown of talks with Shipping and Island Policy Minister

The Greek seamen's union federation PNO on Monday said it will continue strike action after the breakdown of talks with Shipping and Island Policy Minister Panagiotis Kouroumblis to end their 48-hour strike. The strike began at 6:00 on Sunday and is scheduled to end at 6:00 on Tuesday.

PNO representatives had earlier met the minister, following a rally and march to the ministry, in order to discuss the problems faced by sailors, as well as the problems created as a result of their strike action.

There are currently thousands of school children stranded on Greek islands, unable to return from planned school trips, and farmers are unable to send their produce to market. Another 24-hour strike by seamen is scheduled for December 8.

In statements after the meeting, Kouroumblis noted the problem with the school children stranded on Crete, as well as the potential loss of European market share for farmers, saying that neither PNO nor the government could just ignore these problems.

Social insurance and pension issues

He said he had asked PNO to set a date to discuss social insurance and pension issues with the labour minister within the week, in order to find solutions.

"The assurances they were given by the government do not give PNO room to continue the strike. I await its decision and, based on this, I will meet my own responsibilities to the children and the farmers," the minister said.

He also sought to reassure PNO that the government would not bow to pressure to further increase taxes on sailors, making them equal to other categories of employees, and that the current 10 pct and 15 pct tax rates will remain.

PNO's Secretary General Yiannis Chalas declined to comment on the results of the meeting, while noting that there was no firm commitment from the minister. He noted that the stranded school children "could be sent home in two airplanes." Other trade unionists also pointed out that Kouroumblis had been unable to make any firm promises on the issues of the strike.

Read more here.

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Mondays Eurogroup meeting resulted in a staff-level agreement between the Greek government and the institutions on the second bailout program review. Following the meeting in Brussels, the chairman of the Eurogroup Jeroen Dijsselbloem commented that "we were informed by the institutions on the on-going work to reach a full staff-level agreement between Greece and the institutions. It was clear that more work has to be done. The institutions are prepared and stand ready to return to Athens to work on it. That is the state of play".

"The second part of our discussion was about debt relief, in particular about the short term package. As you remember in May 2016, we reached an agreement on the way forward on debt sustainability. We distinguished short term measures which the ESM, within its mandate, could design and implement, and medium term measures which we are ready to use, if and when necessary, at the end of the programme (the second half of 2018)" he further added in the press conference that follwed.

The Eurogroup's official statement is as follows:

The Eurogroup welcomes the progress that has been made in reaching full staff-level agreement between Greece and the institutions in the context of the second review of the ESM programme. In particular, the Eurogroup welcomes the agreement with the European institutions on a budget for 2017, which confirms the agreed primary balance target of 1.75% of GDP and which allows for the national rollout of the Guaranteed Minimum Income (GMI), which establishes a genuine social safety net. The Eurogroup notes that staff-level agreement should include measures to reach the agreed fiscal target for 2018 (a primary balance of 3.5% of GDP), as well as reforms to enhance growth and cost competitiveness, including further substantial reforms of the labour market, the opening up of closed professions and the removal of barriers for investment.

In particular, the Eurogroup recalls that the appointment of the members of the Board of Directors of the Hellenic Corporation of Assets and Participations (HCAP) should be implemented before the end of January 2017 to make the fund fully operational.

The Eurogroup recalled that the primary surplus target of 3.5% of GDP reached by 2018 should be maintained for the medium-term. We also recalled the importance of a fiscal trajectory that is consistent with the fiscal commitments under the EU framework. In order to ensure compliance with the fiscal targets in a sustainable manner after the completion of the programme, the Greek authorities commit to agree with the institutions on a mechanism and structural measures that would ensure this.

Today the Eurogroup discussed again the sustainability of Greek public debt with the objective to regain market access. In this context, the Eurogroup endorsed today the full set of short-term measures on the basis of proposals by the ESM and preparatory work by the EWG, which will be implemented by the ESM following this meeting. Those measures will consist of:

The smoothening of the EFSF repayment profile within the current weighted average maturity of up to 32,5 years;

The waiver of the step-up interest rate margin amounting to 200 bps related to the debt buy-back tranche of the 2nd Greek programme for the year 2017;

The use of the EFSF/ESM funding strategy as markets allow to reduce interest rate risk without incurring any additional costs for former programme countries. This measure will be implemented through: (i) exchanging the EFSF/ESM back-to back notes supporting the bank recapitalization loans to Greece, (ii) the ESM entering into interest rate swaps to mitigate the risk of higher market rates and (iii) introducing matched funding for future disbursements to Greece under the current programme.

The short-term debt measures will have a significant positive impact on the sustainability of Greek debt.

The Eurogroup calls upon the institutions and Greece to swiftly resume negotiations in order to reach staff-level agreement as soon as possible, based on a shared conditionality, as agreed in August 2015, and mandates the EWG to assess this. The Eurogroup stands ready, in line with usual practice, to support the completion of future reviews provided that the policy package, including the contingency fiscal mechanism as agreed in the context of the first review, is implemented as planned. The Eurogroup confirms that the programme implementation, as well as policy conditionality and targets, will be reviewed regularly based on input from the institutions.

The IMF staff reconfirmed today its intention to recommend to the Fund's Executive Board a new financing arrangement for Greece as soon as possible once staff-level agreement is reached in accordance with established Fund policies.

The full implementation of all prior actions related to the second review and the completion of national procedures would pave the way for the ESM governing bodies to approve the supplemental Memorandum of Understanding.

Read more here.

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The future of teh EU-Turkey agreement and revisionist rhetoric from Turkish offcials is a source of concern

The President of the European Peoples Party Joseph Daul and Chairperson of the EPP Group in European Parliament Manfred Weber met with New Democracys Giorgos Koumoutsakos.

Mr. Koumoutsakos informed the EPP officials on the latest developments in the eastern Mediterranean, with an emphasis on the aggressive rhetoric from Turkish officials and the prospects of resolving the Cypriot dispute. The ND officer noted that the refugee crisis and EU-Turkey agreement were greatly discussed.

As he told journalists, there is a major concern over the situation in Turkey, regarding the state of democracy and decline of European values and principles, as well as the revisionist statements repeated by Turkish leaders.

Read more here.

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Greek PM Alexis Tsipras attended a one-day visit to Israel on Thursday, attending a scheduled trilateral meeting between Greece, Israel and Cyprus. The leaders of the three countries cosigned a declaration touching on a number of matter of common interest, including the support under the UN auspices of a just solution to the Cypriot problem. The full declaration is a follows:

"We, Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of the State of Israel, Nikos Anastasiades, President of the Republic of Cyprus, and Alexis Tsipras, Prime Minister of the Hellenic Republic, having met in Jerusalem today, 8th December 2016, have agreed to continue strengthening the cooperation between our three countries in order to promote a trilateral partnership in various fields of common interest and to continue working together towards promoting peace, stability, security and prosperity in the Eastern Mediterranean and the wider region.

In light of the underlying challenges and opportunities, and given the fluid and unstable situation in the region, our three countries, which share common democratic values, principles, and interests, have, agreed on the importance of closer cooperation and of a coordinated set of policies.

Though our partnership is special, it is not exclusive in design or nature, and we are ready to welcome other like-minded parties to join our efforts of promoting coordination and cooperation, as well as regional peace and stability.Over the past eleven months since the first trilateral meeting held in Nicosia (28.1.2016), we have been exploring potential collaboration opportunities in a wide range of fields, including issues pertaining to foreign policy, cooperation in R&D, energy, environmental protection projects and joint emergency responses to natural disasters. We continued to exchange information in emergency situations.

Our collaboration went beyond joint fire-fighting exercises as we joined forces and fought the fire, hand in hand, both in Cyprus and in Israel. We shall continue our efforts to support and enhance our successful cooperation in this field.

Following the January 2016 Nicosia Declaration, we welcome the establishment of the Permanent Ministerial Committee on Energy designed to consider strategic and practical aspects of joint action in the field of energy cooperation.

In this context, trilateral meetings were held at Ministerial and Directors General level.

We wish to reemphasize that the trilateral energy projects, East-Med pipeline to Europe as well as EuroAsia Interconnector, both are of strategic importance to us all, through the creation of economic and political benefits for Israel, Greece and Cyprus, as well as for the rest of Europe, enhancing energy security and further diversification of energy sources and routes

The three sides have discussed the important positive developments with regards to these projects, in joint discussions held in Jerusalem, April 2016, in Athens, in September 2016 and October 2016. .

In this context the ministers have agreed to hold a joint ministerial meeting of the three countries in Jerusalem in January 2017 and to invite the Energy minister of Italy and the Commissioner Energy of the EU in order to continue the discussion on the promotion of the East Med pipeline project.

A Memorandum of Understanding is signed today between our three countries on Research and Development and Technology, in order to enhance cooperation in these fields, including multilateral research and innovation projects.

Following the signing of the MOU, the three parties will take coordinated initiatives in order to proceed within 2017 with a joint Call for Proposals for Industrial research and development projects between Israel, Greece and Cyprus aiming to create collaborative projects in fields such as agriculture, water, environment and solar energy,.

In light of its trans-boundary nature, environment and its protection should receive special attention, with extra focus on our common marine environment, water and wastewater management and effects of climate change on our region.

As agreed by the Ministers responsible for the Environment of our three countries in their meeting of April 2016 in Jerusalem, we reaffirm our commitment to hold a trilateral ministerial meeting once a year and a trilateral working group meeting three times a year.

We stress the importance of cooperation on marine and coastal environment protection and joint capacity building activities on the impacts of the olive oil sector on the environment as well as the exchange of information in the field of climate change adaptation, foreseen to take place in 2017.The three countries acknowledge the importance of tourism and the vast potential for a comprehensive collaboration on joint tourist projects and synergies involving private and public stake holders in the field of tourism towards encouraging the influx of tourists to the region, especially from China, USA and Russia, by offering joint packages, including cruises, religious, cultural and other thematic tourism. We agree to explore ways of sharing information and know-how about tourism innovation and digitalization in order to support local small tourism businesses, joint initiatives and more. Our three Ministers competent for Tourism agree to meet and examine the various facets of the cooperation of our countries in this sector.

In the framework of our cooperation we acknowledge the high importance of the collaboration between our parliaments. In this regard, we see the trilateral meeting of the Speakers of the parliaments scheduled for the 26th of January 2017 and a planned meeting of the Chairmen of the Foreign Affairs and Defense committees, as an important step towards cementing the relations and cooperation.

The Ministries of Foreign Affairs hold a pivotal role in managing the special trilateral relations and orchestrating the mosaic of issues we are promoting together. In this regard, we have asked the Directors General of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs to hold annual trilateral meetings, to take stock of the implementation of the issues we have discussed today.

We stressed the importance of the trilateral cooperation in the field of maritime transport and our willingness to strengthen our cooperation on all issues of mutual interest within the context of the relevant International Conventions and the International Maritime Organization (IMO).

We recognize the importance of maritime Search and Rescue cooperation between the three countries, with any applicable means. We are convinced that collaboration in this field will facilitate fast and efficient response. We are interested in further strengthening our countries cooperation in this area through trilateral understandings, including exchanges of experiences and common SAR exercises, in accordance with the provisions of relevant applicable Agreements already concluded between Cyprus and Israel and Cyprus and Greece, according to international maritime conventions.

We encourage collaboration in the health sector. Collaboration may include joint research on health effects of desalinated water and air pollution, emergency preparedness for joint activity during disease outbreaks and natural and man-made disasters, as well as actions for the protection of public health, mutual stockpiling and back-up inventories of pharmaceuticals, blood products and vaccines, are all of great lifesaving importance. Furthermore, efforts should be exerted for the exchange of expertise and know-how between health professionals from the three countries.

We are committed to holding a trilateral ministerial meeting in the health sector, which will be followed by professional working groups on selected issues.

The three Governments support the establishment of a formal dialogue and ongoing cooperation between the diaspora communities, in parallel to the inter-governmental dialogue, as an appropriate expression of the deep friendship among our peoples both in our countries and in our Diasporas around the world.

We will act to encourage a trilateral gathering between the representatives of the diaspora communities in the coming year to plan future cooperation.

We remain steadfastly committed to working together towards the enhancement of the relations between the European Union and the State of Israel in areas of mutual interest and concern, including continued cooperation on strategic and regional issues, based on our shared values. . To this end, we underline the need to promote a new and updated Partnership Priorities Program between the State of Israel and the European Union.

We stress our willingness to join efforts for the protection of cultural properties including the preservation and development of historical and archaeological and religious sites, aiming at safeguarding the historical memory of our peoples and the common heritage of mankind, as well as our readiness to cooperate for the protection of cultural heritage, including underwater heritage and to promote such cooperation with neighboring countries in the Eastern Mediterranean.

We underline the need for an even closer cooperation in the field of security, also in order to confront new threats. We recognize that such threats, due to their transnational nature and differences in methods and approaches, can only be effectively countered jointly through increased trilateral as well as regional and international cooperation and engagement of all reliable regional actors.

We acknowledge the grave dangers posed by terrorism, both regionally and globally, and have agreed to continue joining forces with the international community to tackle these challenges by focusing, among other things, on radicalization and the prevention of violent extremism leading to terrorism. We strongly and unequivocally condemn all actions of terrorism and call upon all States to confront this threat, including through closer security cooperation. In light of the above, we have agreed to enhance our cooperation in this sphere, by initiating trilateral dialogues between our expert authorities. Efforts to curb the flow of foreign fighters, to restrict financial and military support to terrorist groups, and to counter extremist propaganda should intensify. Incitement to violence should be condemned and stopped.

The expert authorities will hold consultations in Cyprus on the first quarter of 2017.

The ongoing turmoil in our region poses a challenge that can be met only by joint action through comprehensive and holistic planning and strategies. It should address ways to end hostilities, eradicate poverty and improve the social and economic fabric as well as life conditions through development. We are also committed to contribute to efforts designed to address the humanitarian aspects of the unfolding crisis in our area, in close cooperation with all concerned parties. Above all, we reiterate our full condemnation of any type of violent extremism and any form of hate.

In the light of recent increased mixed migratory flows in our region, we agree that a comprehensive approach dealing with all aspects related to migration should be applied, including fighting migrant smuggling, and trafficking in human beings, addressing the root causes of the current crisis and promoting development. We also emphasize that the current situation is a global challenge requiring global solutions, recalling the recently adopted New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants which underlines the need to address the matter based on the principles of solidarity and global responsibility-sharing among all actors.

We express our full and unwavering support to the ongoing negotiation process, under the United Nations Good Offices Mission, for a just, comprehensive and viable settlement of the Cyprus problem, based on international law and the relevant UN Security Council Resolutions. Such a solution, which will reunify the island, based on the respect of democratic principles, human rights and fundamental freedoms of all Cypriots, would not only benefit the people of Cyprus in its entirety, but also significantly contribute to the peace and stability of the region, through Cyprus independent foreign policy.

The Governments express their hope that the resumption of negotiations of the MEPP will conclude in a just and lasting solution.

We are convinced of the strategic nature and necessity of our trilateral cooperation and will continue working closely together in order to realize its full potential, to the benefit of our countries and peoples, and to that of the wider region. The three leaders have agreed that the next trilateral Summit will be held in a years time in Thessaloniki.

Read more here.

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Hotel News Now published the following feature in which the leading hospitality site explains why there is hope for better days in Greek tourism

Hotel News Now published the following feature in which the leading hospitality site explains why there is hope for better days in Greek tourism despite the challenges:

"It might be too early to say Greece has turned its tourism sector around, but a bright side does appear to be slowly emerging, according to sources.

Still, sources said, huge macro-economic considerations remain to be resolved, and no one is under the impression that all the pain has subsided.

Aris Ikkos, research director of Greeces Research Institute of Greek Tourism Confederation (known by its Greek initials, SETE), said the next step for Greece is the restructuring of debt and addressing non-performing loans, which he said would take place soon.

He added that the Bank of Greece reported at the end of the first half of 2016 that more than 54% of all loans in the tourism sector were deemed to be non-performing, as opposed to a little more than 45% across all Greek industry.

Ikkos said Greece is still under a stabilization and adjustment program, which since summer 2015 is being implemented by the government rather consistently, even if often reluctantly.

He said that as a result the Greek economy is considerably more extroverted and competitive, despite the major impediment (still being) an adverse financial environment that creates a competitive disadvantage for many enterprises.

Hotels, meanwhile, carry on, with some markets performing better than others.

Katerina Santikou, business development director of Greek hotel chain Santikos Collection, said the government has not necessarily supported the tourism sector  despite tourism being number one in terms of employer and gross domestic product. Her company has one countryside and three beach resorts, all in Greece.

Industries such as mining benefit more, as they have organized labor, and most tourism labor is part-time. It was the private sector that moved forward the hotel sector, and it still is, she said.

Santikou said while news and immigration in and from Turkey has hurt business, Greece has benefitted from the drop in tourism to other Mediterranean markets, such as Tunisia and Egypt.

Weve had two great years with visitors from the U.K. and Germany being stable, she said. And while Russia is a traditional, unstable, if not mature market, we saw more Russians when Russia halted diplomatic relations with Turkey.

Greek tourism could be more competitive if it wasnt hit by 29% tax, she added, pointing out that the west coast of Turkey has 0% tax.

According to STR, parent company of Hotel News Now, Greece recorded occupancy of approximately 70.2% year-to-date through October, up 2.2% in year-over-year comparisons. At the same time, average daily rate improved by 3.2% to 118.91 ($127.99), and revenue per available room rose 5.5% to 83.42 ($89.79).

The principal Greek cities, Athens and Thessaloniki, have shown notable improvement in ADR and RevPAR so far in 2016. The Greek capital posted a 4.1% rise in ADR to 121.52 ($130.80) and RevPAR of 5.5% to 89.10 ($95.91), while Thessaloniki, Greeces second largest with a population of 320,000, saw ADR rise 3.1% to 68.46 ($73.69) and RevPAR increase 7.1% to 46.43 ($49.98).

Regional Greece, which includes numerous resort islands, saw moderate growth driven by occupancy in year-over-year comparisons, with a 2.1% increase in occupancy to 58.1%, an ADR drop of 0.1% to 164.07 ($176.60) and a 2% RevPAR jump 95.29 ($102.57).

Greece in three

To understand the Greek market, Ikkos said, there are three important things to keep in mind:

Internationally known destinations with international airportssuch as Crete, Rhodes and Mykonoshave performed well in the midst of the crisis.

Destinations addressing the domestic market, such as mainland areas in the Peloponnese or smaller islands in the Cyclades, have been greatly affected by the deep recession, with vacation spending down from 3.8 billion ($4.1 billion) pre-crisis to 1.3 billion ($1.4 billion) currently.

Athens suffered between 2009 and 2013 from social unrest, but since then has been doing very well, mainly with city breakers. The big challenge there remains the need to considerably return meetings incentives, conferencing and exhibitions business.

Add to the above the considerable restructuring that is taking place in favor of larger structured companies, and you can get closer to the truth, Ikkos said. Better-organized businesses in international destinations and in Athens are doing well. For the rest, it is a mixed bag.

In terms of price point, the luxury and midscale are seeing the most recovery, he said.

The restructuring of the market has also seen an increase in lower-budget tourists from the Balkans and Eastern European, Ikkos said.

Themis Trakas, director of business consultancy HVSs Greek office, added that the country has also been hurt by a lack of direct flights and weak positioning in niche tourism sectors such as health and wellness.

Ikkos said political and economic instability, strikes and other bad publicity have often led to tourists canceling or postponing trips to Greece and taking advantage of discounts on travel.

That was particularly the case during the first five months of this year, he said, with adverse publicity due to migration/refugee waves and disagreement with creditors.

Still, he said, hoteliers could be encouraged by the fact that spending per night remained stable.

Hellenic turnaround

Trakas said in his firms October In Focus: Greece report that preliminary estimates for (full-year) 2016 indicate 25 million total foreign tourist arrivals, excluding cruise ship passengersand 15 billion in tourism receipts.

He added that a lack of appropriate infrastructure was hampering improvement. But in December 2015, he said, the Greek government signed a 1.2 billion ($1.3 billion) privatization deal with a German airport operator to manage 14 regional Greek airports that by the end of the 40-year lease  will increase the number of passenger movements to around 52 million.

Ikkos also championed the airport deal, saying he expects it to benefit Greek tourism for two reasons: Better management and maintenance of the airport, and, for islands, an airport is one of the few, if not the only, economic agent that has aligned interests with all sectors in the value-adding chain of tourism.

Risks still litter the landscape

The risk is that the International Monetary Fund and European institutionsthat is, the German governmentwill not be able to agree on the next step, and the debt question will linger on for a few more years. Regarding the NPL issue, the risk is that the Greek government will delay reaching an agreement with creditors as to how to solve the situation, Ikkos said.

He added that, following the recapitalization of banks, bank finance is again available, although investment appetite is very restricted due to continuing uncertainty and anti-entrepreneurial policies, mainly in the form of excessive taxation.

Ikkos said the Greek government needs to help tourism by:

Lowering taxes;

doing a better job promoting Greeces unique cultural heritage, especially in the off season;

coordinating central government, regional government and business marketing programs;

forcing accommodation suppliers through sharing economy platforms to have a level playing field in terms of taxation; and

opening up more to the Asian, American and Canadian markest, for which there are no direct connections in the off season.

Glimmers of sunshine

Signs of very recent robust life in the Greek hotel market include:
By PTI: Hisar, Dec 9 (PTI) Six years after two people were burnt alive in an inter-caste violence in Mirchpur village in the district, the CRPF troops deployed there to maintain peace were withdrawn by Union Home Ministry today, with the consent of state government.

Superintendent of Police (SP) Rajender Singh Meena said that a 20-member committee has been formed to maintain harmony in the village.

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CRPF was deployed in Mirchpur when a group of villagers belonging to upper caste torched over a dozen houses belonging to dalits on April 21, 2010 in which a 17-year-old polio-stricken girl Suman and her aged father Tara Chand were charred to death.

The incident was triggered by an argument between some dalit youths and upper caste men after a person from the latter faction had thrown a stone at a dog which was barking at him. He was passing through a dalit locality in the village.

An armed group of villagers stormed the locality housing dalit families and set about a dozen houses ablaze.

While the able-bodied fled, the disabled girl Suman was trapped inside. Her body was recovered by firemen.

The girls father Tara Chand, who was badly burnt in the incident, died in the hospital later.

Haryana Police was deployed in the village after the incident, said the SP.

Members of Valmiki community have confirmed that brotherhood prevails in the village and now there is no need of CRPF, he said.

Following an assurance given by both communities, CRPF has been withdrawn, he added.

75 CRPF personnels were deployed in the village after the incident. PTI COR VJ ARK

--- ENDS ---
Hong Kong has been home for some of the most prestigious restaurants in the world. Six of the prestigious three Michelin-starred restaurants are from Hong Kong, including L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon, which also has a branch in London, as well as Lung King Heen, which "trumps-all claim to fame" is being "the first [Chinese restaurant] in the world to be awarded three Michelin stars" describes Telegraph Travel's Hong Kong expert Fionnuala McHugh, and T'ang Court.

According to South China Morning Post, eight restaurants kept their three stars this year: Alvin Leung's Bo Innovation, L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon, Lung King Heen in the Four Seasons Hong Kong, 8 Otto e Mezzo - Bombana, Sushi Shikon and T'ang Court in the Langham Hong Kong. Its sister restaurant in Shanghai was the only restaurant to receive three stars in the first dining guide on the mainland last month. While none of the guide's eight three-starred restaurants were new entries this year, new venues in the two-star category include Kashiwaya, a Japanese restaurant in Osaka which opened its first overseas outpost in Hong Kong last November, as well as the Japanese-French restaurant Ta Vie in Hong Kong, which was bumped up from its one-star ranking last year and Sushi Tokami, another Tokyo establishment.

Michael Ellis, international director of the Michelin Guides, says Hong Kong was stable this year, and the city continues to be an attraction for Chinese and foreign cuisine, in particular Japanese. "It has a market for that and people here appreciate high quality sushi."

Seventy-five eateries across Hong Kong and Macau were also distinguished with a Bib Gourmand rating, which awards establishments offering "quality menus featuring three dishes for a maximum price of HKD 300 (31)". The Telegraph reported that earlier this year, two modest food stalls in Singapore - Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken Rice and Noodle as well as Hill Street Tai Hwa Pork Noodle - made history by becoming the first street vendors to be recognised by the Michelin guide.

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People might think that romance in a desert place like Abu Dhabi will only be possible if you're Aladdin with a magic lamp. Little do some of us know that Abu Dhabi is also home to fine romantic activities couples will surely enjoy. Make sure to plan a trip with your significant other and try out at least one of these activities.

Dining in the desert- This romantic meal, set amid rolling sand dunes underneath a starry sky that's attended by a private butler, offers decadent Arabic food just for two. It's hosted at one of the UAE's incredibly luxurious hotels, so be warned that the experience won't come cheap.

Dolphin watching- Captain Tony's eco tour to Dolphin Bay, a tidal sandbank half an hour's boat ride from Yas Island. Dhs500pp. You can also swim with them on a dive with Dive Mahara. The team can also laminate the question, 'Will you marry me?' and provide a heart frame to stick your heads in for a photo. Choose from a five-hour wreck dive for certified divers or a 45-minute pool dive for beginners at 10am, 11am or noon, both Dhs450.

Pearl diving- Abu Dhabi's pearl-diving industry may have all but disappeared over the years, but it's still possible to sample this bit of Emirati heritage through a pearl-focused mangrove tour. Hosted on a traditional Arabic pearling dhow, the trip includes a guide, traditional dates and tea and an oyster-opening demonstration. Any pearls found are for keeps says CNN.

Sunset beach- Pack a cool box, bubbly and blankets. At 9km, you're bound to find a quiet spot on Saadiyat beach. Don't like finding sand in unusual places? According to Timeout Abu Dhabi, you can also spend the evening at beachside bar Turquoiz at The St Regis Saadiyat Island Resort or the rooftop of Beach House at Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi.

A night at the cinema- To fully reinvent the idea of "dinner and a movie," Vox Cinemas' Theatre by Rhodes features food by Michelin-starred chef Gary Rhodes. Tickets also come with access to an exclusive lounge, in-cinema waiter service and reclining posh seats.

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From caves, to puppet shows, and food trips in different cities, it might be difficult for some to travel around with only a limited number of days. Here are five of the things one should not miss out when in Vietnam.

Food tour in Hanoi- Bun cha (pork with rice noodles), mi quang (fantastic noodle dish), happy pancakes, spring rolls, pho, beautiful steamed fish, sticky rice and egg coffee (yes, you read it correctly) were some of the highlights which cost just $15.

Chu Chi Tunnels- One of Ho Chi Minh's most iconic attractions where visitors can enjoy activities such as following the claustrophobia-inducing routes of the underground army. The tunnels have been coated with cement and widened so it is not quite the harrowing experience it would have been all those years ago, plus there are emergency exit points every ten metres for safety.

Water puppet shows- This really is something you can only experience in Vietnam, but is an activity that seems to get overlooked by many visitors, says The Guardian. The stage is a large pool of water in which the puppets act out tales from Vietnamese folklore with a traditional Vietnamese orchestra playing throughout. The puppeteers are extremely skilled and great artistry goes into the puppets themselves.

Hoi An Old Town- Hoi An is known for its great food, fun shopping, skilled tailors, friendly people and cosy atmosphere. Hoi An Riverside is the best place to be at night as the area is lit by quaint and old-fashioned lanterns, making it an atmospheric and beautiful spot. For those who love sea, sun and sand, according to Vietnam Guide, Hoi An offers two lovely beaches five kilometres away.

Da Nang mountain bike tour- This trip starts as the sun rises over Da Nang and it takes in the Dragon bridge and the stunning countryside. Pedalling through villages and mountains with a small group and a knowledgeable local guide is a really fun way to see this beautiful and historic area. Half or full days and some of three to four days.

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Amidst the good tourist turnout, citizens are calling for action to avoid the out-of-control crowding and short term housing boom due to the influx of peer-to-peer online homestay network in the Netherlands. With this, Airbnb, the biggest marketplace for this had just sealed an agreement with Amsterdam.

Reports from Telegraph UK site that last year alone, about 5.2 million tourists made their way to Amsterdam, which is alarming the government and its citizen. This number is quite huge considering the city like "The Venice of the North" has only 800,000 in population. As it happens, locals appreciate the tourists venturing into their city, but they do not like what is happening in terms of security and normality, especially during weekends and peak season.

One catalyst that the locals distinguish as the cause of this imbalance in when it comes to tourist and local interaction is the popularity of Airbnb, which is a channel for accommodations in the recent years. This startup company has provided many customers a means to circumvent the exorbitant hotel rates by offering private home listings that offer short-term or even long-term stay. As it grows in popularity, more and more residential areas had become a tourist flock mostly on weekends where the concept of "Disneyfication" originated, which are places are adapted to tourism demands. The Guardian reports that Airbnb has been battling with local authorities for eating into the housing stock, but also the technicalities of the accommodation present a gray area in law enforcement.

Due to this, an agreement was struck between Airbnb and Amsterdam wherein, Airbnb's responsibility of making sure to limit the number of hosting they a person can accommodate, and the number is 60 per year in Amsterdam. Unless the owner gets a proper license to be a full-on home stay business, they cannot exceed the limit. In addition, the peer-to-peer platform will also be introducing additional options and alerts on their site and app to enable better security measures and incident reporting.

Many people are skeptical about the change, but experts say that this is a good move by Airbnb to reinforce its tie-ups with cities, and avoid further problems that may lead to bigger issues. Accordingly, London also made a similar agreement with Airbnb that puts a listing limit to 90 per year.

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Apple makes its newest step to futurism as the company acknowledge the investment of self-driving cars for the first time. The company clearly indicated to make the plans a reality.

In a letter to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in Washington, Apple said it utilizes machine figuring out how to make its items and administrations more astute. The company is putting intensely in the investigation of machine learning and automation and is amped up for the capability of robotized frameworks in numerous zones, including transportation.

The remarks were made in light of the proposed Federal Automated Vehicles Policy and were distributed on November 22. Apple trusts this strategy will be principal to guaranteeing the security and open acknowledgment of robotized vehicles while giving an adaptable way to development.

The five-page letter holds back before unequivocally conceding. Apple is taking a shot at a self-driving auto, however, regardless of a few features proposing this was the situation. The firm stresses it trusts new contestants to the business will have indistinguishable open doors from makers with regards to testing the innovation on open streets.

In a report by BBC, the tech firm has already registered several car related internet domains, including apple.car and apple.auto. Additionally, the company is also "excited about the potential of automated systems in many areas, including transportation."

According to The Guardian, Apple is looking forward to collaborating with NHTSA and other stakeholders as well, so that automated vehicles can be realized safe, responsibly and expeditiously. Several huge tech companies are also looking forward into building this futuristic car including Tesla and Google.

Although we are still waiting for Apple to officially confirm its first steps in making the self-driving car, the excitement inside us is surely overwhelming. How about you? Share your thoughts below on what you think about Apple's Self-Driving Car.

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If there is a country you want to visit without proper reasons, then Thailand is the place for you. Named as "The Land of Smiles", the place that never baffles and surpasses anybody's desire. This country is one of the hottest places to visit by tourists and solo travelers alike.

However, if doubts still fill your minds, then here are top five reasons why Thailand is the place to be during vacation courtesy of Huffington Post and Telegraph.

The Thai food tops the list of reasons why Thailand is the place to be during vacation. Their food is as fresh as can be, which are mostly spicy and there are so many dishes to try too whipped by their street vendors.

Great Adventures can be done here by walking through the world's prettiest lake in Udon Thani, Red Lotus Lake and a range of heavenly islands to choose from. Thailand also has a lot of great beaches to offer, white sands and aquamarine seas are truly sights to see.

Cheap Shopping is a must to do when in Thailand. Aside from budget-friendly food, Bangkok is also a shopper's paradise since there are clothes, bags, watches, and even cameras sold anywhere at a very low price. With the city's skilled tailors made-to-order clothes are also readily available.

The Country's Culture is all around Thailand. You can find Buddhist temples that are worth your visit. Since most of the country's population are Buddhists, you can even come across monks walking around. There are also numerous festivals in the country to immerse yourself in.

Low-Cost Travel is what Thailand is best known for. Luxury hotels and restaurants can be found all over the country but staying and eating with the locals are more "wallet-friendly" and can make your money last for a longer time.

Vacation time is almost here and we can't wait to hear your thoughts on your whereabouts this vacation. Tell us by leaving your comments below.

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People of Asheville in North Carolina should prepare more booze as their beloved town snagged the top spot being America's No. 1 Destination For 2017. The "America's Beer City" has been chosen because of its vibrant artistic community, spectacular architecture, and booming reputation when it comes to food and a set against a mountain backdrop.

According to DailyMail, Asheville was in tight competition for the number one spot against Western Washington. The birthplace of the youngest Pulitzer prize winner, Audrey Wurdemann, is a photographer's dream according to The Culture Trip.

Western Washington does not only hold brimming picturesque sceneries but also the best farm-to-table dining restaurants. Not to mention, the lovely cities brings us back to the exciting American television series "Twin Peaks."

The travel experts of Lonely Planet nonetheless had chosen the beer lover's paradise. The charming enclave of Asheville captures the creative spirit shaping the entirety of North Carolina. According to Lonely Planet magazine managing editor, Rebecca Warren "this year's list is incredibly diverse, spanning from coast to coast, giving a panoramic tour of America."

The other magnificent contenders on the top ten are Lincoln, Nebraska for the courthouse and jail rock formations, California's panoramic Low Desert. Montana's Flathead Valley, Atlanta, Georgia's Tallulah Gorge, and the Adirondack Mountains. Texas Hill Country wine region, Denver, Colorado, and Florida's Emerald Coast made it to the top ten.

These captivating, picture-perfect places are tourist magnets and predicted to gain more visitors from abroad by 2017. Each state has a slice of spectacular natural and historical beauty that made them all golden treasures of the United States Of America. So thanks to its caring community for maintaining its stunning landscapes and mountains.

This is no surprise, Real Estate Scorecard reported that Asheville earned the name "land in the sky" and won the ultimate beauty contest in 2011 due to its water-colored mountain terrain. Now that we know the A-lister cities in the United States Of America, time to plan the itineraries.

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Here's how are cyclones Vardah, Hudhud, Aila and others got their names.

By India Today Web Desk: Rising near the Andaman Islands, officials expect cyclone Vardah to become more severe by tomorrow morning. They said the cyclone, which is lying 240-km west-southwest of Port Blair, is "likely to intensify into a severe cyclone by around 5 AM," said an official statement.

Vardah is the fourth major cyclone to spin out of the Bay of Bengal and hit India this year, after Roanu, Kyant and Nada. And while Vardah originates from the Bay of Bengal, we wonder where its name originated from!

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HOW ARE CYCLONES NAMED?

The tradition of christening cyclones started with hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean, where tropical storms that reach sustained wind speeds of 39 miles per hour were given names.

Names have been given to Atlantic storms for the past few hundreds of years. Initially, people living in the Caribbean Islands would name the storms after the saint of the day from the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar for the day on which the hurricane/cyclone occurred.

This tradition continued till World War II, when forecasters and meteorologists started using female names to identify the storms. In 1953, the US weather service officially adopted the idea and created a new phonetic alphabet (international) of women's names from A to W, leaving out Q, U, X, Y and Z.

Finally, protests by women's liberation bodies in the 60s and 70s helped change the naming procedure for the storms to include male names in 1978.

Henceforth, the first tropical storm of any year was given the name beginning with the letter "A", the second with the letter "B" and so on. In even-numbered years, odd-numbered storms got men's names and in odd-numbered years, odd-numbered storms got women's names.

The naming of tropical cyclones is a recent phenomenon. The process of naming cyclones involves several countries in the region and is done under the aegis of the World Meteorological Organization.

WHAT ABOUT CYCLONES IN INDIA?

For the Indian Ocean region, deliberations for naming cyclones began in 2000 and a formula was fixed in 2004.

Eight countries in the region -- Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Thailand -- all contributed a set of names which are assigned sequentially whenever a cyclonic storm develops.

The list of names India added to the database includes Agni, Akash, Bijli, Jal (cyclones which have all occurred since 2004).

WHY NAME A CYCLONE AT ALL?

It's easier and less confusing to say "Cyclone Phailin" than remember the storm's number or its longitude and latitude. It's also easier when you have more than one storm to track.

WHAT HAPPENS TO THE NAMES OF THE STORMS WITH BAD HISTORY?

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Names of some storms that cause widespread damage and deaths are usually retired and are not brought back or reused later, at least for another 10 years. These names are then replaced with new names. The names are retired as a mark of respect to the dead.

However, there are a number of variations, for example, Hurricane Mark and Hurricane Marc. Once a name is officially retired, it is then replaced with a name of the same gender and beginning with the same letter.

So far, since 1972, there have been 50 names that have been retired. And, since the names in the beginning of the alphabet get used more than those at the end, it's more likely that those will be retired names first.

DO THEY RUN OUT OF NAMES?

Not really. The World Meteorological Organization maintains the lists.

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Since December 1 this year, Korean Air has launched a new direct flight from South Korea to Delhi, India. They are currently operating on a five-flights-weekly basis in their Delhi Seoul-Incheon route.

The airline uses an Airbus A330-200 that can seat up to 218 passengers. This flight name is KE481, and has already touched the ground at Delhi's Indira Gandhi Airport, where they were met with a water canon event courtesy by the airport.

Passengers worldwide have greatly welcomed this new addition to Korean Air routes, as this convenience will allow them to have more choices when traveling to the US West Coast. This new flight is part of the airlines' continuous international expansion, as part of their mandate to give their customers "Excellence in Flight."

Mohan Ranganathan, a Chennai-based aviation analyst, said: "They will be able to tap the San Francisco traffic. And if they give a good connection to Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai, other airlines will have a hard time." He also said that other airlines such as Cathay Pacific Airways and Singapore Airlines are currently aware and looking in at the said traffic.

This direct flight will leave Delhi at 7:40 pm every day for 5 times a week, and will land in Incheon at 5:50 am the following day. Meanwhile, the return flight from Incheon will leave at 12:45 pm, and will land in Delhi at 6:20 pm, according to Korean Air's website.

This new route was also a result of an enhanced South Korea-India international trade relations. As of now, the bilateral annual trade between both countries is estimated to be around $16.59 billion. The two countries are also highly endorsing their country-based products, with LG, Samsung and Hyundai currently popular in India, as well as India's Tata group, Mahindra and Aditya Birla Group likewise familiar in the Korean soil.

In the future, we can expect Korean Air to expand more on their current flights to 127 cities worldwide. After the launch of the Incheon-Delhi daily service flights, they are now looking into providing a direct flight to Tehran.

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The first family has accumulated a bill worth at least $85 million on vacation expenses ever since they moved in to the White House. But the family isn't done just yet as reports are now coming in saying they will spend one last tax payer-funded getaway in Hawaii later this month.

Judicial Watch, an organization that has been chronicling the vacations of presidents for years, said that the Obamas' 2015 Hawaii trip cost nearly $5 million. The organization has calculated the first family's flight going to and from Washington costing approximately $3,590,313.60. Judicial Watch also discovered that the bill for the rooms where the Secret Service agents stayed in was $1,000,458.63.

The family also rented around 103 cars from three different rental agencies and accumulated a bill worth $165.893.88. Records obtained from the Department of Homeland Security also revealed that they spent an additional $67,964.16 on flights and other travel expenses.

Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, says that both the Air Force and Secret Service have been "abused by unnecessary travel." He also added that tax payer-funded luxury vacations and "unnecessary presidential travels for fundraisers" would be good targets for reform once the Trump administration takes over.

According to the Huffington Post, the Obama family stayed at the Hale Reena Estate during their trips to Hawaii. The estate is notable for being the rental homes of many Hollywood celebrities including Angelina Jolie, Emily Blunt, and Bradley Cooper. It is unknown how much the first family spent during their stay there, but the property has been listed at around $5000 to $10,000 per night.

Another cause for concern is how much the Obamas spent on their meals. It is said the first family went out to eat their meals in high-end restaurants at least five times during their two week vacation. Some of the restaurants that the first family dined at include Alan Wong's, Halekulani, MW Restaurant, Morimoto, and Hoku's.

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According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the 6.5 magnitude shallow earthquake struck Indonesia on Wednesday at exactly 5:03 AM (5:03 PM Tue ET) and was centered 12 miles of Sigli's southeast, a town near Aceh's northern tip, at a depth of about 11 miles. They had initially placed its epicenter undersea and stated that it did not generate a tsunami, NBC News reported.

Rescuers used bare hands and earth movers to look for survivors in piles of toppled buildings. Medical volunteers rushed to get people to hospitals, which were trying to accommodate hundreds of injured individuals. According to Indonesia's national disaster management agency spokesperson Sutopo Nugroo, Aceh had been declared in a state of emergency. Nugroho said that they are now focusing on searching for possible survivors and victims. His agency declared the death toll at 94 and may soon rise as the search and rescue operation continues, Reuters reported.

Police officials urged citizens to sleep outdoors as twilight fell since aftershocks can cause more damage to already shaken buildings. President Joko Widodo's deputy told media that he was expected to visit the affected area on Thursday. The quake on Wednesday struck the east coast of the province, which is about 105 miles (170 km) from Banda Aceh. According to Nugroho, the Pidie Jaya regency in Aceh is the most affected. It has a population of around 140,000.

According to witnesses, many victims suffered gashes and broken bones and had to be treated in the corridors of the hospital and hastily erected disaster tents, and medical staff are not enough as well. Television showed footage of fallen electricity poles, flattened mosques and crushed cars. On December 26, 2004, Aceh was devastated by a massive tsunami and earthquake centered on its western coast near the Banda Aceh provincial capital. That horrifying incident killed 226,000 individuals along Indian Ocean shorelines.

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Who says traveling should be expensive? Anyone can travel to different places around the world without the requirement of having a huge amount of money. Planning for a budget trip is quite fun and easy in some ways.

The Student Universe and Telegraph listed down some of the cheapest country anyone can visit. These countries provide cheap and affordable accommodation and products to suit the needs of backpacking travelers or for those having a tight budget. So for tourists looking for a budget travel, here are some of the cheapest country a travel can visit.

1. Indonesia- Indonesia is a country close to nature. It has thousands of islands tourists can visit to. With forests, waterfalls, oceans, mountains and animals, tourists get to discover and see more of nature. Tourists' average spending in Indonesia is $1,036.

2. India- India is a budget friendly country. With lots of affordable backpackers that offer enough for travelers to survive and enjoy their travel, India is indeed a wonderful travel choice despite the tight budget. The average spending of tourists in India is about $2,640.2.

3. Thailand- Thailand is a country rich in culture and tradition and is filled with cheap and affordable finds. With its delicious street foods, high-quality yet affordable clothes and architectural wonders, Thailand is a very interesting place to travel. The best part is that you don't need to spend too much in the country.

4. Costa Rica- Costa Rica is one of the best places any traveler could go to. The country is rich in animals, biodiversities, hot springs and other offerings form nature. It may not be as cheap as in other countries but narrowing down your travel expenses will you keep your budget.

5. Peru- Peru offers amazing beaches, rainforests and ruins to travelers even in a tight budget. Experience a different kind of travel by exploring through the mountains and having a great adventure in different parts of the country.

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With then-President Barack Obama first easing the travel restrictions between Cuba and the United States back in 2014, the cruise line industry was hopeful for the possibility that they could finally get a chance to include Cuba in their routes.

Their wishes were granted last Wednesday, December 7,when they announced that the Cuban authorities have finally approved for the sail of the two of the biggest cruise line companies in the world, the Norwegian Cruise Lines and Royal Caribbean, in Cuban waters.

Carnival Corp. was actually the first cruise line company to get approval from the Cuban government. Its ship Fathom has already sailed between Miami and Havana last May. Since then, rival companies Norwegian Cruise and Royal Caribbean have been working nonstop in order to get their turns as well.

For Royal Caribbean, full details concerning their maiden voyage to the Cuban seas haven't been provided yet, with the Royal Caribbean team saying everything will be announced "in the future." What they confirmed, however, is that they will offer multiple itineraries in their brands Royal Caribbean International and the more high-end Azamara Club Cruises Lines, according to Skift.

But for Norwegian Cruise Lines, they didn't hold any details back. In their announcement last Wednesday, they revealed their plans to send all of their three brands ashore Cuba next year namely, Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises. But according to Bloomberg, Norwegian brands can only sail to Cuba for a month.

"We are tremendously excited to have all three of our award-winning brands receive approval from the Cuban authorities to offer cruises to Cuba from the United States. As a Cuban-American and founder of Oceania Cruises, I am incredibly proud that one of Oceania's vessels will be our company's first to sail to Cuba," Frank Del Rio, the CEO of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings said in a statement.

"This is truly a dream come true for me, and I cannot wait for our loyal guests to experience the sights and sounds of my hometown of Havana and get to know its rich culture and its warm and welcoming residents," he added.

This is an excellent opportunity for travelers who want to experience Cuba. There will still be a lot of announcements in store, so stay tuned for more updates.

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Literary tourists will rejoice and drool over this book hotel - the biggest of its kind in the world. The Literary Man Hotel in Obidos, Portugal, offers a unique getaway for tourists who consider themselves as bookies.

And where do bookies usually go? They go to the library or bookstore, then go home and off to read on their beds. Well, this is a dream come true for them if they get to visit Portugal. In fact, the entire hotel is already a bookstore, and you can just snuggle those borrowed books in your arms off to bed.

Located beside Obidos Castle, this former convent opened its wings in October and be called as The Literary Man Hotel which boasts of having 45,000 books on its walls and shelves. They have 30 rooms each decorated with a chic, eco feel to it. The rooms come with heating and air conditioning, free WIFI, coffee and tea machine.

One can come down to the converted cellar and have a drink, read a book or have a romantic dinner for two. The Literary Man's Bibliotherapy and relaxation services take tourists to have a massage or a hot ventosa getaway down there.

For a meal, guests are welcomed to the restaurant and enjoy a wide array of cuisines from Portuguese to Japanese. The room is also filled with books in every nook, which bibliophiles can read while relaxing.

People get to lift their "spirits" when drinking their wines and liquors in the Gin Bar with the possibility of talking poetry and essays a few moments after in the lounge by the fireplace. And speaking of the different kinds of literature, the hotel's bookstore and library can be utilized for meetings and presentations.

Anyone up for an open mic discussions or poetry reading sessions? Moreover, guests can enjoy the Book Nature ride down the lagoon with a book and gin on their hands. For the literary tourist, here's what's in store for you at The Literary Man Boutique Hotel.

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By Virendrasingh Ghunawat: On Wednesday, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had carried out surprise enquiries at more than 50 branches of 10 banks (both public and private) in India to unearth any huge deviation found in the pattern of deposits after demonetisation.

Sources told Indiatoday.in that the Mumbai zonal office has unearthed suspicious transactions of around Rs 75 crore in 8-9 branches.

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SUSPICIOUS HIGH VALUE TRANSACTIONS

"On the basis of information we received from Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), we conducted verification in few bank branches in Mumbai. In these branches, we came across with suspicious high value transactions in the range of Rs 2-3 crore. Till now, deposits of 15-20 crore in these branches are now under probe. But there is one single transaction of Rs 56 crore that needs to be verified again, as it is linked with Fixed Deposit (FD). Whether it is a genuine money or an unaccounted one that needs to be examined", the source said.

ALSO READ: Demonetisation: New notes worth Rs 70 crore, 100 kg gold seized in Chennai

The ED teams were accompanied by auditors deputed by Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance. The action has been taken in wake of allegations to the effect that certain bank officials are involved in conversion of black money into white in lieu of their commission for facilitating the same.

INVESTIGATION

ED teams enquired the accounts which showed a sudden spike in deposits and thereafter corresponding transfers have taken place. Special accounts like Jan-Dhan accounts, student's accounts, dormant accounts, HNIs would also be the focus area of investigations by ED.

Examination of Cash Book and Ledger of Banks on random basis were done to see which denomination notes and how much came out when business of the day started, notes deposited and received till the end of the day were analyzed and verified. Special attention was paid to third party deposits with or without authority letters including scrutiny of shell companies

"The enquiries were made to determine transactions in light of RBI Notification of 8th Nov, 2016, which required every bank to submit details of exchange of currency in Annexure-6 on daily basis", the ED official said.

ALSO READ: Month after demonetisation: Real estate prices tumble, registrations plunge

--- ENDS ---
No matter where I travel, I always bring a backpack with me; its my favorite travel buddy. Here are some backpacks perfect for travel.

Yeti

Dont be fooled, Yeti isnt only for tumblers and water bottles, they also have comfortable, stylish backpacks perfect for everyday use or travel. They offer two different styles,you just have to pick the one thats right for you. The Crossroads backpack has great space, a laptop slot and many pockets to keep you organized. The other option is the Panga Backpack, slightly bigger but offering the same functions, and completely waterproof.

North Face

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Away

Away is known for its reliable luggage, but they also offer great backpacks for travel. The Daypack is the smaller option of the two and great for an everyday carry, but also very useful for travel. The Daypack has a key clip, slots for your phone, laptop, passport and more. The bigger option is called the Backpack, which features the same functions as the Daypack but is a little bigger. It has a seperate pocket perfect for fitting clothes and other bulkier items. Both options have a slot on the back that makes it easy to attach to your luggage.
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Indrani had submitted an application to deposit Rs 50,000 in old Rs 500 notes to bank in last hearing. The application was allowed and the money was deposited on her behalf by her lawyers.

By Vidya : Sheena Bora murder accused Indrani Mukerjea too had to file an application before the special CBI court in Mumbai to prevent her money from turning into scrap.

Indrani had submitted an application to deposit Rs 50,000 in old Rs 500 notes to bank in last hearing. The application was allowed and the money was deposited on her behalf by her lawyers.

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In jail, both Indrani and Peter Mukerjea, co-accused in the case are entitled to Rs 2000 like other jail inmates. This money is sent by relatives of an under trial prisoner through money order. This money is used by jail inmates to buy food of choice apart from regular jail food that is provided or things that they might need.

Also read:

Sheena Bora case: Peter Mukerjea turns author in jail, demands laptop, dry fruits

Though Peter has his family to fall back on who have been sending the money order every month, Indrani does not have a family to do that for her. Her own daughter Vidhie, who was adopted by Peter, has been studying in United Kingdom while her other husband, Sanjeev Khanna, too is behind bars as co-accused in the same case.

Also read:

Peter Mukerjea was misled by Indrani completely unbelievable, says Bombay High Court

So to get Rs 2000 money order every month what Indrani had done was that she deposited a large amount with her lawyers who were instructed to send the specific amount per month. Indrani's Rs 50,000 were in cash with her lawyers. That was the reason she had to instruct someone to deposit the money on her behalf in the bank.

Indrani is accused of killing Sheena Bora and both her ex and current husband are also accused in the case.

Also read:

India Today cover story: Life, loves and lies of Indrani

--- ENDS ---
Hasmukh Adhia, the bureaucrat, and five others privy to the plan were sworn to utmost secrecy, say sources with knowledge of the matter.

Modi has staked his reputation and popularity on the move.

By Reuters: Prime Minister Narendra Modi handpicked a trusted bureaucrat, little known outside India's financial circles, to spearhead a radical move to abolish 86 per cent of the country's cash overnight and take aim at the huge shadow economy.

Hasmukh Adhia, the bureaucrat, and five others privy to the plan were sworn to utmost secrecy, say sources with knowledge of the matter. They were supported by a young team of researchers working in two rooms at Modi's New Delhi residence, as he plotted his boldest reform since coming to power in 2014.

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When announced, the abolition of high-value banknotes of 500 and 1,000 rupees came as a bolt from the blue.

The secrecy was aimed at outflanking those who might profit from prior knowledge, by pouring cash into gold, property and other assets and hide illicit wealth.

Previously unreported details of Modi's handling of the so-called "demonetisation" open a window onto the hands-on role he played in implementing a key policy, and how he was willing to act quickly even when the risks were high.

While some advocates say the scrapping of the banknotes will bring more money into the banking system and raise tax revenues, millions of Indians are furious at having to queue for hours outside banks to exchange or deposit their old money.

Labourers have also been unpaid and produce has rotted in markets as cash stopped changing hands. Not enough replacement notes were printed in preparation for the upheaval, and it could take months for things to return to normal.

With India's most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, holding an election in early 2017 that could decide Modi's chances of a second term in office, there is little time for the hoped-for benefits of his cash swap to outweigh short-term pain.

How Modi changed (and changed) the demonetisation narrative

Modi has staked his reputation and popularity on the move.

"I have done all the research and, if it fails, then I am to blame," Modi told a cabinet meeting on November 8 shortly before the move was announced, according to three ministers who attended.

DIRECT LINE TO MODI

Overseeing the campaign, with support from the backroom team camped out at Modi's sprawling bungalow in the capital, was Adhia, a top finance ministry official.

The 58-year-old served as principal secretary to Modi from 2003-06 when he was chief minister of Gujarat state, establishing a relationship of trust with his boss and introducing him to yoga.

Colleagues interviewed by Reuters said he had a reputation for integrity and discretion.

Adhia was named revenue secretary in September 2015, reporting formally to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. In reality, he had a direct line to Modi and they would speak in their native Gujarati when they met to discuss issues in depth.

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In the world's largest democracy the demonetisation was revolutionary: it called into question the state's promise to "pay the bearer" the face value on every banknote.

At a stroke, Modi scrapped money worth 15.4 trillion rupees ($220 billion), equal to 86 per cent of cash in Asia's third-largest economy.

The idea is backed by some economists, although the speed of its implementation is widely seen as radical.

"One is never ready for this kind of disruption - but it is a constructive disruption," said Narendra Jadhav, a 31-year veteran and former chief economist of India's central bank who now represents Modi's party in the upper house of parliament.

Modi, in his TV address to the nation, cautioned that people could face temporary hardship as replacement 500 and 2,000 rupee notes were introduced. Calling for an act of collective sacrifice, he promised steps to soften the blow for the nine in 10 Indians who live in the cash economy.

"BIGGEST, BOLDEST STEP"

Immediately after the address, Adhia sent a tweet: "This is the biggest and the boldest step by the Government for containing black money."

The boast harked back to Modi's election vow to recover black money from abroad that had resonated with voters fed up with the corruption scandals that plagued the last Congress government. Yet in office, he struggled to keep his promise.

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Over more than a year, Modi commissioned research from officials at the finance ministry, the central bank and think-tanks on how to advance his fight against black money, a close aide said.

He demanded answers to questions such as: How quickly India could print new banknotes; how to distribute them; would state banks benefit if they received a rush of new deposits; and who would gain from demonetisation?

READ: Demonetisation completes a tumultuous month: All you need to know in 7 points

The topics were broken up to prevent anyone from joining the dots and concluding that a cash swap was in the offing.

"We didn't want to let the cat out of the bag," said a senior official directly involved. "Had people got a whiff of the decision, the whole exercise would have been meaningless."

Under Adhia's oversight, the team of researchers assembled and modeled the findings in what was, for it, a theoretical exercise.

It was made up of young experts in data and financial analysis; some ran Modi's social media accounts and a smartphone app that he used to solicit public feedback.

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Yet for all the planning, Modi and Adhia knew they could not foresee every eventuality, and were willing to move swiftly.

The announcement caused chaos, with huge queues forming at banks when they reopened after a short holiday.

New 2,000 rupee notes were hard to come by and barely any new 500 rupee notes had been printed. India's 200,000 cash dispensers could not handle the new, smaller, notes and it would take weeks to reconfigure them.

Filling ATMs with the 8 trillion rupees ($117 billion) in new banknotes that the finance ministry reckons are needed to restore liquidity to the economy is even trickier.

In a best-case scenario, in which India's four banknote presses churned out new 500 and 2,000 rupee notes designed to replace the abolished ones, it would take at least three months to hit that target.

SECRECY PARAMOUNT

Secrecy was paramount, but clues had been left.

Back in April, analysts at State Bank of India said that demonetisation of large-denomination notes was possible.

The Reserve Bank of India, the central bank, also disclosed in May that it was making preparations for a new series of banknotes that were confirmed in August when it announced it had approved a design for a new 2,000 rupee note.

The printing presses had only just started turning when the media finally started to run with the story in late October.

Also read: Demonetisation a good start in crackdown on black money: Here are the other challenges

"The plan was to introduce it around Nov. 18, but there was a clear sign that it could get leaked," said one person with direct knowledge who, like others interviewed by Reuters, asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.

Some officials in the finance ministry had expressed doubts about scrapping high-value notes when the idea came up for discussion. They now feel resentment at the secrecy in which Adhia rammed through the plan on Modi's orders.

They also say the plan was flawed because of a failure to ramp up printing of new notes ahead of time.

Other critics say the Adhia team fell prey to a form of "group think" that ignored outside advice.

In the words of one former top official who has worked at the finance ministry and central bank: "They don't know what's happening in the real world."

--- ENDS ---
Tribune news service

Amritsar, December 9

Dr Amarjit Singh Sethi, senior Professor in the Punjab School of Economics at GNDU was one of the panelist in the recently-held Heart of Asia (HoA) and Connectivity meet. He was the only expert from the region to have represented the country in the discussion.

The meet was organised jointly by RIS  a research organ of the Ministry of External affairs, Government of India - and FICCI. Nearly 100 academicians, exporters, industrialists and trade professionals from India and other Heart of Asia nations (including Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan) attended the meet.

In his presentation on Trade Among HoA countries: some empirical revelations, Professor Sethi said India had been playing a very crucial role towards economic upliftment of Afghanistan and said our country had the largest share in Afghanistans total exports. He made a glaring revelation that during the last 20 years, China has consolidated its relative share among HoA countries aggregated exports from 32 to 50 per cent. While that of India has merely increased from 9.5 to 11.5 per cent during the same period. The share of war-torn Afghanistan has continued to hover around a depressed level of nearly 0.12 per cent.

According to Prof Sethi, the Indo-Afghan volume of trade via land-route has suffered a huge set-back, since Pakistan has been debarring land access to Indian trucks bound for Afghanistan. Unilaterally, Pakistan has disallowed MFN status to India, as a result of which the ratio of actual to the potential trade between the two economies (in spite of sharing common border, availability of good road infrastructure and common language) is just 1:52. This, indeed, is very unfortunate. Under these circumstances, the proposed connectivity between India, Afghanistan, Iran and other parts of Central Asia via Chabahar Port assumes high significance, but the project needs be accomplished within the stipulated time frame, emphasised Professor Sethi.

In the light of the importance of Amritsar as trade hub right since early times, he stressed upon re-launching of the Kabul-Amritsar flight, apart from introducing new direct flights to countries like Turkey, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan for exporting fresh vegetables, kinnow, Basmati rice, milk and milk products etc. Since Punjab is blessed with the availability of surplus agricultural, horticultural and olericultural produce, the value-addition therein (through public-private partnership modelling) is need of the hour. Consolidation of food processing industrialisation, with strict quality control measures, so as to make them exportable would prove beneficial for the country in general and for Punjab in particular, opined Prof Sethi.

At this occasion, a co-authored book of Prof Sethi (with Dr Supreet Kaur) on Sources of Economic Growth in India: Evidence from Punjab and Haryana States was also released. The book was released by Manpreet Vohra (Indian Ambassador to the Government of Afghanistan) and Prof (Dr) Sachin Chaturvedi (Director General, RIS).
Ruchika M. Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 9

US firm Augmedix, a smartglass-based physician productivity platform, will scale up its operations in India. The company, which is into medical scribing, is also looking at setting up base in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

The company has also closed a strategic round of funding worth $23 million from new investors  McKesson Ventures and OrbiMed. The company will use these funds to further scale up its service nationwide and build its platform to drive improvements in physician productivity and patient care.

Companys CEO and co-founder Ian Shakil today said after Augmedix pioneered the first and largest remote scribe service in the world and built a robust and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA)-secure enterprise platform which is used by physicians in some of the largest, most innovative health systems in the US, they are now looking at opening a new facility in Coimbatore. The company is also in the final stages of opening a facility in Bangladesh, along with its India partners  Chandigarh-based IDS Infotech Ltd. and a Bangladesh-based entity. We are also exploring the possibility of setting up the facility at Colombo in Sri Lanka, he said.

Shakil said they were looking at these ventures because a qualified workforce was available here and the attrition rate was also much lower.

Using Augmedix and Google Glass, physicians in the US retrieve patients medical history and document the patient visit without having to interact with a computer. The chart note is created in real time by remote scribes based in highly secured HIPAA-compliant facilities. The physician is then able to review the note and a summary of the visit can be provided to the patient with care instructions.
Nitin Jain

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 8

It was this day last month that Prime Minister Narendra Modi dropped the bombshell of demonetising currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denomination.

The government may gloat over its decision ostensibly taken to suck out black money but the ground reality remains that people are suffering and the hardest hit are those who are at the bottom rung of the economic ladder.

Many a worker has lost jobs, families have gone without food for days, hundreds and thousands of man hours are being lost standing in queues outside banks and ATMs everyday and traders, both big and small, are ruing the fact that their sales are down by 40 to 50 per cent.

Rubbing salt on their wounds, banks are refusing to allow them to draw money even up to the ceiling announced by the Central Government. They may not be at fault for the RBI is not able to supply them their requirement of currency but again the harsh reality remains that people cannot lay hands on their hard-earned money they had parked in banks to meet their day-to-day needs.

This sums up the sentiment in the tricity one month after the demonetisation announcement made by the Prime Minister.

Another major reason behind the public hardship is the Rs 2,000 note, which cannot be used to buy milk, bread, fruits, vegetables or other daily needs.

A majority of the vendors and traders refuse to accept the Rs 2,000 note for any purchases below Rs 500 for want of currency notes of smaller denomination.

One month was enough to wipe out the shortage of lower denomination notes in the market but the government has failed miserably, said an irate Roshan Lal, a retail fruit and vegetable trader in Sector 26.

A tea seller in Sector 17, Suresh Kumar, said, People have stopped having tea and snacks despite winter setting in. Nobody wants to shell out whatever cash he has even after a month.

Even as the UT Administration is pressing hard for a cashless economy, people have not been so enthusiastic to pay by cards, mobile apps or other e-modes. In the absence of ample smaller denomination currency, we have to daily turn away many customers, who come with a Rs 2,000 note for paying bills ranging between Rs 100 and Rs 500, said Gurpal Singh, a dhaba owner in Sector 34.

A housewife from Panchkula, Rupali Tyagi, who sounded frustrated, said, Modi had sought 50 days, and now 30 days have passed but the sad part is there has been no significant improvement in the circulation of money.

With serpentine queues outside banks and ATMs refusing to thin out, people have been rendered cashless and are finding it extremely difficult to meet their daily expenses, leave aside making any purchases.

A visit to different parts of the tricity this morning revealed that people were still queued up outside banks and ATMs to meet their cash requirements.

Upset about banks refusing payments due to the cash crunch, an NRI from the USA, Krishan Lal Aggarwal, said, For the past four days, I have been returning empty-handed from the Central Bank branch in Sector 22, which runs out of cash each time my turn comes after waiting for over an hour everyday.

We even stand in long queues outside banks and ATMs where there is no cash hoping that cash may arrive, rued a student, Amanjot, who was also queued up outside a bank branch in Sector 17.

A senior bank officer, who did not wished to be named, said, Our blood has been sucked by the note ban as we are the ones who are facing the anger and frustration of people everyday despite working overtime for the past 30 days.

An NRI, Aravindakshan, who landed here on Tuesday, said a forex dealer at the airport exchanged his $200 at the rate of Rs 61 per USD against the market rate of over Rs 67. This shows how forex dealers are also making hay while demonetisation blues shine, he rued.

Rs 500 note prized possession

Its been 30 days now, but I havent yet seen the new Rs 500 note, said Aradhika, who was able to withdraw Rs 10,000 on Thursday. She is one of the many who are still vying to lay their hands on the new Rs 500 notes. SBoP DGM Fanish Gupta said due to scarcity, several bank branches were yet to get the new Rs 500 notes. We have been assured extra new currency on Friday, he added.
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 8

An 11-year-old boy riding a bicycle was killed after his bicycle was hit by a speeding truck at the Sector 33/32/20/30 roundabout yesterday. The victim, a Class VI student, was returning home from tuition when the mishap took place.

According to the police, the victim has been identified as Gaurav Kumar, a student of St Annes Convent School, Sector 32.

Gaurav was returning to his house in Sector 20 after attending tuition classes in Sector 32 when the speeding truck hit the bicycle at Gurdwara Chowk.

The victim, who was profusely bleeding, was rushed to the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMSH), Sector 32, where he succumbed to his injuries. Relatives of the victim said he died of a head injury. The victims father, Rajesh Kumar, works as a superintendent at the Haryana Secretariat.

Gaurav was the elder son of Rajesh Kumar. The autopsy was conducted today after which the body was handed over to the family.

The truck driver, Partap Singh, a native of Amritsar, has been arrested by the police. A case under Sections 279 (rash driving), 304-A (causing death by negligence) and 337 (causing hurt by an act endangering the life or personal safety of others) of the IPC has been registered against the accused at the Sector 34 police station.

Father was already hospitalised

The victims father, Rajesh Kumar, who was already admitted to the GMCH, due to some illness, had to get himself discharged from the hospital to perform the last rites. He was later again admitted to the hospital.

Kith and kin offer condolences

A pall of gloom descended on the victim, Gauravs house in Sector 20 where relatives and friends arrived to offer condolences.
The government had informed Parliament that one billion plastic notes of Rs 10 denomination would be introduced in a field trial in five cities selected for their geographical and climatic diversity. The selected cities were Kochi, Mysore, Jaipur, Shimla and Bhubaneswar.

By Press Trust of India: Government on Friday informed Parliament that a decision has been taken to print plastic currency notes and procurement of material has started.

"It has been decided to print banknotes based on plastic or polymer substrate. The process of procurement has been initiated," Minister of State for Finance Arjun Ram Meghwal said in a written reply in Lok Sabha to a query whether RBI proposes to print plastic currency notes in place of paper ones.

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The Reserve Bank for long has been planning to launch plastic currency note after field trials.

ALSO READ: Demonetisation problems will end in 10-15 days: Centre to Supreme Court

In February 2014, the government had informed Parliament that one billion plastic notes of Rs 10 denomination would be introduced in a field trial in five cities selected for their geographical and climatic diversity. The selected cities were Kochi, Mysore, Jaipur, Shimla and Bhubaneswar.

Plastic notes have an average life span of about five years and are difficult to imitate. Also, currency notes made of plastic are cleaner than paper ones. Such notes were first introduced in Australia to safeguard against counterfeiting.

Replying to another question, Meghwal said it was informed by RBI in December 2015 that they have received some banknotes of Rs 1,000 without having security thread which were printed at Currency Note Press (CNP), Nashik, on paper supplied by Security Paper Mill (SPM), Hoshangabad.

ALSO READ: Supreme Court asks 9 questions from government over demonetisation

An enquiry has been initiated by Security Printing and Minting Corporation (SPMCIL) and the units involved (SPM and CNP).

"Major penalty chargesheet has been issued to the personnel concerned. Disciplinary proceedings have been initiated as per departmental rules," the minister said.

Meghwal further said action has been taken to strengthen quality procedure and online inspection system in manufacturing process and special training has been given to the persons concerned to avoid such types of mistakes in future.

"Additional inspections have been introduced to ensure defect-free production," he said.

ALSO READ: Demonetisation completes a tumultuous month: All you need to know in 7 points

--- ENDS ---
Gautam Kaul

BALRAJ Sahni has remained a ghostly figure in the history of Indian cinema. This is because he was for most of the time away from the gossip circuit. He hardly gave any personalised interviews and there was no publicist who promoted him to producers. He found work from those who belonged to the theatre movement in the country and from friends who respected his talent.

Garam Hawa

He is remembered best today for his last film, Garam Hawa. But his innings in cinema have been long and meritorious. Balraj was not his original name. His parents named him Yudhishthir and the name remained until he went to school. His ancestral home was in Amritsar, where he spent his early years with his brother Bhisham, and his sister. Balraj was a studious child and studied long for his first postgraduate degree in English from the Panjab University, Lahore. He followed this with a graduation course in Hindi and moved up to get another postgraduate degree in Hindi. In 1936 the "over educated" Balraj married Damyanti, and moved to Shantiniketan to work as a teacher in both English and Hindi.

In 1938, Balraj was noticed by Mahatma Gandhi who asked him to join his secretariat. In 1939, Gandhiji recommended him for a job in the BBC in London in the Hindi language broadcast section. He sailed from Bombay and joined his new duties just before things became less certain in Europe and England. When War broke out in 1939, Balraj was telling his Indian listeners in India on the rise of Hitler in Germany and his campaigns.

It was while he was a staff broadcaster in BBC, that he was joined by another woman broadcaster, the daughter of wealthy parents and a bohemian. She had moved out of her parents home early in life to roam the world becoming a failed actress, a better pamphleteer and a well-respected film editor. That was Marie Seton.Within BBC, the erudite Balraj caught Marie's attention, and she invited him to meet her friends. The only thing that interested Balraj was her film connection, and Marie obliged. She introduced to Balraj Sahni the world of Soviet Cinema and the works of the film maker S. Eisenstein. There was also more European cinema, which Balraj saw. The more he saw the cinema of cause, Balraj was hooked in his search to study the works of Marx and Engels. Between 1941 and 1943, he was transformed into a committed communist worker and returned to India in the end of 1943. He joined the Indian People Theatre Association (IPTA) as a regular worker and a card holder of the CPI.

Leftist thinkers

Through IPTA, Sahni entered the circle of Leftist thinkers, writers and artists and became an associate of Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, Munshi Prem Chand, Salil Chowdhury, Tripti Mitra, Badal Sircar and others. He acted in plays created by IPTA members, but found he had limited audiences for the messages that were important. IPTA also started making feature films. The first IPTA production, Insaaf, in which Balraj performed failed. IPTA moved to Calcutta for the next production and made Dharti Ke Lal in1946. The film was directed by K.A. Abbas and narrated the real story behind the Great Famine of Bengal in which more than one million poor people died of hunger.

In 1947, Balraj lost his wife Damyanti to death. It was the first big loss that he suffered. His relatives suggested he remarry for the sake of his small children and he married one of his cousins, Santosh Chandhok. But Balraj did not forget the famine. He became more determined to use the medium of cinema to move further into the masses and kept a minimum time devoted to working amidst labour and peasants. During the shooting of the film Dharti ke Lal, Balraj Sahni came to know more leftist artists working in Calcutta. His associates in IPTA were equally involved in theatre and pamphleteering and Balraj eked out a small living from these activities.

Do Bigha Zameen

In 1952, when the first International Film Festival was organised, Balraj was also present in many of these film shows. Some of the film themes fortified his resolve to engage with meaningful cinema. Salil Chowdhury, also from the IPTA repertoire, wrote a short story and Balraj was asked to play the main role of a farmer who had to abandon his fields due to poverty and move to Calcutta to work as a rickshaw-puller. The film was Do Bigha Zameen.

Balraj practised for a whole week to perfect the style of pulling the rickshaw properly and in the crucial scene he also got injured. This film rode to a silver jubilee run, and won at the state awards. It was shown in 1955 to Marshall Stalin in Moscow, who was less impressed and called the film, a pseudo-socialist documentary. The remark hurt Balraj who expected a more sympathetic observation from his communist icon.

The 1950s saw Balraj portraying varied roles. He was associated with some silver jubilee or important films, like Seema (1954), Aulad (1954) Pardesi (1957), Sone ki Chidiya, Kathputli (1958), Choti behan and Satta Bazaar (1959). Pardesi, an Indo-Soviet film production anchored by K.A. Abbas, despite being in colour and cinemascope, failed to impress the Indian audiences but had a good commercial run in Soviet Russia.

Balraj Sahni the writer

He wrote a series of books in Punjabi. Mera Pakistani Safarnama and Mera Russia Safarnama are considered good writing. Balraj also took to directing IPTA plays and his most successful directional work was Zubaida. He also attempted a film as director in Lal Batti, which was a failed venture. However, writing of the screenplay of film Baazi, directed by Guru Dutt, brought him prominence. Balraj was interested in improving the working conditions of the labour involved in film studios. He took issues with the government on matters that agitated him. He also suffered imprisonment for his Leftist views.

During the post Sino-Indian war, Balraj found himself in a dissenting position to that of the the CPI on the war. He accepted a role in Haqeeqat (1963-64), which depicted a pro-India position and his leftist colleagues resented his participation. When Jawaharlal Nehru died, Balraj was vocal in his praise for Nehru's contribution to nation building. Balraj was criticised for this praise within IPTA. Balraj continued to be associated with meaningful cinema from Bombay, but he was not much in demand for commercial films.

He remained dependent on the goodwill of his leftist friends for his livelihood. As we look back on his film career, we find that he is present in most of important films of the era. In 1969, the actor was given the Padma Shri, the only official award. However, popular awards still eluded Balraj.

Political work & fruitful decade

In 1970, he worked with P.K. Vasudevan Nair to create a new Leftist youth organisation, the All-India Youth Federation, the youth wing of the CPI, with him as its first president. In 1972, he was invited by the student's union of Jawaharlal Nehru University, a leftist stronghold, to address the annual student's convocation. His speech is considered a landmark event in the University's campus politics.

The decade of the 1960s was most the fruitful for him and he played character roles. Big and small films like Waqt, Ek Phool Do Maali, Ghar Sansaar, Hindustan Ki Kasam, Pavitra Paapi, Aman, Naunihal, Aaye Din Bahaar Ke, and two Punjabi films  Satluj De Kande and Nanak Dhukhiya Sab Sansaar. Anuradha, Kabuliwala and Garam Hawa are Indian cinemas top-of-the shelf classics. He acted in a total of 93 films, including two which were released after his untimely death. As work in cinema tapered off, Balraj also took a backseat in life.

He died of a broken heart

Following the India-Pakistan War of 1972, he took the vocal political position & endorsed Indira Gandhi's waging a war against Pakistan to liberate East Pakistan. The CPI strongly disapproved of this and felt Balraj was not a faithful and loyal member of the Communist Party of India. A resolution was passed to throw him out. The job to inform Balraj that he was no more a member of the CPI, was given to some of his closest friends in Bombay. They came to him and handed over the copy of the resolution. He had recently suffered an emotional setback due to the untimely death of his daughter, Shabnam. He suffered a massive heart attack from the compounded stress. As he lay on his deathbed, Balraj asked his wife to get a copy of Das Kapital, the communist movement's bible and put it beside his pillow. The same night, Balraj died of a broken heart!

The writer is a veteran film historian
Tribune News Service/PTI

Srinagar, December 9

Three Lashkar-e-Toiba militants were killed in a 42-hour gun battle with security forces in the Bijbehara area of Anantnag district which ended today. A civilian was also killed by a stray bullet yesterday as locals clashed with security personnel near the encounter site.

Three holed-up terrorists eliminated; bodies of two terrorists and three weapons recovered, said the Northern Command in a tweet. Army officials at the Srinagar-based 15 Corps Headquarters, however, refused to comment on the operation.

The encounter in Hassanpora, located some 45 km from Srinagar city and less than 5 km from the Chief Ministers hometown, Bijbehara, started on Wednesday evening after the area was cordoned off following specific inputs regarding the presence of Lashkar-e-Toiba militants there.

A police official said two bodies were recovered from the debris of the house where the militants were hiding. The slain militants were both locals and identified as Majid Mohiuddin Zargar of Qoimoh in the neighbouring Kulgam district and Ruhul Amin Dar of Vessu in Anantnag district.

The bodies have been handed over to their kin for last rites, the police official said, adding that one of the bodies was severely burnt. One Army jawan was injured in the gunfight.

Anantnag SP, Zubair Khan, said: Only two bodies have been recovered, and that is what the number of killed militants will remain officially for now. Our inputs had said three militants were holed up but unless another body is retrieved (from the debris), the number of militants killed will remain two.

A 24-year-old man was killed after allegedly being hit by a stray bullet near the site of the encounter. Arif Shah, a resident of the Sangam area of Anantnag district, was allegedly hit by the stray bullet when the security forces were dealing with a group which was indulging in stone-throwing near the encounter site, the official said.

However, locals alleged that Shah was killed in the security forces action against protesters. They also claimed that several other persons were injured in the clashes between protesters and the security forces.

Meanwhile, Special Director General of Police, Coordination, Law and Order, SP Vaid termed the killing of Lashkar militants as a major success. Both the killed militants were district commanders of the Lashkar and with their killing, the backbone of Lashkar has been broken, Vaid said. It is a major success for the security forces, he said.

A police spokesman, giving details of the operation, said policemen received information about the presence of militants in the house of one Mushtaq Ahmad Ganie at Hassanpora in Arwani on December 7.

As per the information, Ganie works as an overground worker for the LeT outfit and he not only harbours terrorists in his house but also provides all sort of logistical support to them, the spokesman said.

Based on this input, an operation was launched by a joint team of the police, Army and the CRPF, he said.

The house was cordoned off and when the security forces party entered the house for searching, terrorist fired on them. The fire was retaliated and the ensuing gun battle lasted almost two days.

The operation concluded today when a joint team of the police and CRPF quick action team stormed the house and cleared it. The cover fire to the storming team was given by Army troops, the spokesman added.

In the search operation, two bodies of militants and three AK-rifles along with other incriminating material has been recovered so far, he said.

Several houses were damaged in the mortar shelling during the encounter. The militants kept changing their position from one house to another amid shelling by the security forces, sources said.

Meanwhile militant Zargars parents admitted their son had joined the LeT some three years back. Zargar had since climbed the ladder and was calling the shots within the LeT, otherwise dominated by foreigners. Zargar was wanted in many cases by the security agencies.

Today, soon after the encounter was declared over, clashes erupted in many parts of south Kashmir, including Bijbehara, Anantnag, Khodweni and Qaimoh. Mobile services, barring BSNL and Bharti Airtel, remained suspended for the second consecutive day today in the wake of the encounter. Train services between Banihal and Baramulla could not be resumed today as well.
Arteev Sharma

Tribune News Service

Jammu, December 6

On a revival mode after the five-month unrest in the Kashmir valley, the states tourism sector has again suffered a serious blow due to demonetisation with the number of visiting tourists and honeymoon couples witnessing a sharp decline in the state since November 8.

The number of Vaishno Devi pilgrims, too, has come down significantly after the ban on Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 old currency notes.

To check the declining footfall and encourage tourists, the state Tourism Department and J&K Tourism Development Corporation (JKTDC) have offered significant discounts for the visitors on all its properties and accommodations across the state to encourage more tourists. Besides, it has decided to have the facility of e-payment at its properties and accommodations.

No doubt, demonetisation has made an impact on tourist inflow in the state but this is a temporary loss. We have initiated the process of online payment for tourists. We will soon have the facility of e-transaction at all our accommodations to facilitate the hassle-free payments, saidShahid Iqbal Chaudhary, Managing Director, JKTDC.

He said most of the properties of the JKTDC in Kashmir and other parts of the state had two-four per cent occupancy since July which ought to have been 90-100 per cent. Nearly 95 per cent bookings were cancelled after the trouble broke out in Kashmir. We have announced a 50 per cent discount in all accommodations across the Valley and 20-35 per cent discount in the Jammu region to encourage more tourists, he said.

Official sources said the number of tourists, both domestic and foreign, had witnessed a steep decline in the state since the eruption of the unrest following the killing of militant commander Burhan Wani in an encounter with security forces on July 8. The visitors, especially honeymoon couples, are opting for tourist destinations in neighbouring states, such as Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

Mahmood Ahmad Shah, Director Tourism Kashmir, said they had lined up a number of activities to rebuild the trust among the visitors. The JKTDC and Tourism Department are going all-out for publicity. Our packages and special discounts are already there. Hoteliers, too, have special offers for tourists. We will do our best to rebuild trust and restore confidence among tourists to visit the Kashmir valley, Shah said.

He, however, said the demonetisation made little or no impact on the tourist arrival in Kashmir. This is our lean season. We are satisfied with the current tourist inflow in Kashmir. Foreigners from South Asia are also reaching in good numbers, he said.
Samaan Lateef

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, December 9

Hardline Hurriyat Conference leader Syed Ali Geelanis attempt to keep the separatist leadership within his family has suffered a setback as his eldest sons attempt to seek the Tehreek-e-Hurriyat (TeH) membership has been rejected.

Naeem Zaffar, Geelanis eldest son, who is emerging as the successor to his father, had applied for the membership of the TeH  Geelanis parent organisation and a constituent party of his Hurriyat Conference (G)  which was rejected on procedural grounds.

Zaffars application was rejected by Mohammad Ashraf Sehrai, TeH general secretary and Geelanis long-time close aide.

For becoming a member of the TeH, a person needs to be a pious Muslim and a pro-freedom activist, Sehrai said. And, to seek the membership, a person has to follow a procedure which includes the approval of the tehsil president of the TeH followed by the approval of its district president, general secretary and then finally by Geelani, he added.

However, Zaffar had sent his application without the approval reports of the tehsil and district presidents.

There was no report from the tehsil and district presidents. I was under house arrest and to interview him (Zaffar), which is part of the procedure for seeking the membership, was not possible, said Sehrai.

Zaffar had sent the membership form through Shah Wali, at present the in charge Baramulla president of the party, in place of Amir Hamza, who was detained under the Public Safety Act in February this year.

Sources close to Sehrai say that he has become increasingly sceptical of the functioning of the separatist group in which members of Geelanis family are having a greater role. Sehrai, the sources said, had been largely isolated from the partys decision-making, which was being heavily influenced by Geelanis family.

Zaffar, a doctor by profession, returned from Pakistan in 2010. Hurriyat insiders say he has been aiming to replace his father as the chairman of the Hurriyat Conference (G).

In 2014, a controversy had erupted after reports surfaced that Geelani had named Zaffar as his heir.

A senior party leader had then said that Geelanis son could not become the successor as he had not been a member of any constituent group of the Hurriyat Conference (G). Zaffars attempt to seek TeH membership is seen as an attempt to clear his path for becoming the chairman of the Hurriyat Conference (G).

Zaffar confirmed that he had applied for the membership, adding that it was pending before the TeH.

Geelani was re-elected as the chairman of the Hurriyat Conference (G) for the fourth consecutive three-year term on October 26, 2013. He is also the chairman of the TeH and represents it in the Hurriyat Conference (G).
R Sedhuraman

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, December 9

The Supreme Court today asked the Centre to ensure that banks let account holders withdraw the maximum weekly limit of Rs 24,000 each and address the problems of district cooperative banks barred from accepting the demonetised notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000.

A Bench headed by Chief Justice TS Thakur gave the instructions when PIL petitioners against demonetisation pleaded that most of the banks were not letting their clients to take out Rs 24,000 citing inadequate cash while account holders in district cooperative banks did not know what to do with the invalidated cash. All the banks should be in a position to meet the withdrawal cap set by the Centre, it said.

The Bench slated the next hearing for December 14. Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi said the government had taken a conscious decision to keep district cooperative banks away from mopping up the demonetised currency as they were not equipped to detect fake notes and did not maintain know your customer (KYC) details.

The account holders were cooperative societies which in turn had members. The societies collected money from their members and deposited in such banks. In the absence of KYC, the management was not in a position to pump black money into the banking system, he said.

Appearing for some of the PIL petitioners, senior counsel P Chidambaram and Kapil Sibal disputed Rohatgis contention. The KYC norms were being met to the extent of over 95 per cent, they pleaded.

The Bench asked the government to address all the problems without diluting the avowed purpose of dealing with black money, terror funds and fake currency.

It said it was ready to set up a Constitution Bench to hear the PILs after framing issues that would include the validity of demonetisation, peoples hardship, cooperative banks and restrictions on withdrawals affecting normal life.

Rohatgi said the issues should include the judiciarys power to interfere in policy matters and the logic behind parties filing PILs instead of dealing with it in Parliament.

Biggest seizure: Rs 142 crore in cash, gold in Chennai

Chennai: In the biggest seizure of cash and gold post-demonetisation, the I-T Department on Friday said it had seized unaccounted assets worth over Rs 142 crore, including Rs 10 crore in new notes, and gold bars weighing 127 kg, during raids on eight premises of a group engaged in sand mining in Tamil Nadu on Thursday. During the search, Rs 96.89 crore cash in old notes, Rs 9.63 crore in new Rs 2,000 notes and gold worth Rs 36.29 crore were found and seized, the Central Board of Direct Taxes said in a statement issued in Delhi. PTI

Rs 100 crore in 44 Axis Bank fake accounts

New Delhi: The Income-Tax Department has unearthed 44 fake accounts during a raid on an Axis Bank branch in central Delhis Chandni Chowk area. Around Rs 100 crore in old notes were deposited since November 8. The accounts were created using forged papers. We suspect the money was routed to buy gold, said an official. The bank said strict action would be taken. IANS

Rlys, buses wont accept old Rs 500

New Delhi: Making a U-turn within a few hours, the government on Friday advanced by a day the last date for using the old Rs 500 notes to purchase tickets for travel by train, government or public sector undertaking-run buses and commuting on suburban and Metro rail services. Effective December 9 midnight, old Rs 500 notes can no longer be used for these services. TNS

Now, govt to print plastic notes

New Delhi: The government has decided to print plastic currency notes and the procurement of material has already begun, said Minister of State for Finance Arjun Ram Meghwal in reply to a query in the Lok Sabha on Reserve Bank of Indias move to print plastic currency notes in place of paper ones. In 2014, the government had informed Parliament that one billion plastic notes of Rs 10 denomination would be introduced in a field trial in five cities  Kochi, Mysore, Jaipur, Shimla and Bhubaneswar. Plastic notes have an average life span of five years and are difficult to imitate. TNS
Yash Goyal

Our Correspondent

Jaipur, December 9

A Division Bench of Rajasthan High Court on Friday struck down the Special Backward Classes (SBC) reservation in the state given to Gujjars and five other communities.

The Division Bench, comprising of Justice M N Bhandari and Justice J K Ranka, pronounced the judgement on a petition by Capt Gurvinder Singh.

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The decision to provide reservation was taken on November 28, 2012.

A separate five per cent quota to the SBCs without touching the 21 per cent reservation available to Other Backward Classes took the overall reservation in jobs and education to 54 per cent in the state.

It had left the Gujjars dissatisfied as it was susceptible to judicial rejection since its inception.

An attempt was made in 2008 to grant five per cent reservation to SBCs which was struck down by the High Court in 2009.

In 2010, the High Court had asked the OBC Commission of the state to revisit the decision.

After deliberations, the OBC Commission granted the Gurjars and 5 other communities five per cent extra reservation.

The state has witnessed violence several times since 2007 when during the Gujjar agitation, the community members blocked national highways and railway tracks and were fired upon by the police.

The community, presently enjoying OBC status, had initially demanded its inclusion in the Scheduled Tribes and was later persuaded to accept the creation of a new reserved category for it.

The court held that the special reservation beyond the permissible limit of 50 per cent cannot be made and the report of the OBC Commission of the state was a calculated one to favour these communities.
Vibha sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 9

The Rajya Sabha was adjourned twice on Friday following uproar by the Opposition over slashing of import duty on wheat to zero per cent. Opposition members shouted slogans like "anti-farmer government will not be allowed to function".

There is no shortage of wheat, Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan insisted. The decision, Paswan said, had been taken keeping in mind the rising prices.

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He said: "Whenever there is an increase in prices in domestic market, such interventions are required." The international prices of the wheat are down, reasoned BJP leader Purushottam Rupala. However, Opposition leaders refused to buy the argument.



Speaking in the Zero Hour, CPM leader Sitaram Yechury termed the government's decision to reduce the import duty on wheat to zero as "shameful " .



As per Yechury , the government was "afraid that because of demonetisation, there may be food riots in the country." "This is shameful, Yechury said "condemning" the decision.

While his plea moving a motion on the issue was struck down by Deputy Chairman Kurien, he was joined in by other Opposition parties who too called the decision anti-farmer and a serious matter.

"The issue is not of prices, but buffer stocks. If buffer stock is so high why is import duty been reduced to zero. This is a complete slap on the faces of Indian farmers. They have no cash for fertlisers and seeds and now this," Jairam Ramesh of the Congress said.

Sitaram Yechury of the CPI (M) raised the issue, which was supported by the Congress, the Bahujan Samaj Party and others.

Kurien asked the members to maintain silence and let the House function, but they did not pay any attention to his pleas. The house was then adjourned till noon.

The protest over the issue continued with Opposition shouting slogans like kisan virodhi ye sarkar nhi chalegi forcing Ansari to adjourn the House again till 2.30 pm.
New Delhi, December 9

The Supreme Court on Friday sought response of the Centre on the issues including whether the district cooperative banks can be allowed to accept deposits with certain conditions and can there be a minimum assured withdrawal from banks.

A Bench headed by Chief Justice T S Thakur asked Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi to seek instruction and apprise it about the stand of the government on issues including the bar on district cooperative banks from accepting deposits in demonetised currency notes.

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The bench also comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud said that when the minimum weekly withdrawal limit has been fixed, then why people are not able to get that amount.

Can we say that this will be the minimum assured weekly withdrawal amount that a person can get from the bank, the Bench asked and while fixing the batch of petitions for further hearing on December 14.

The Bench, meanwhile, proposed to frame various legal questions to be deliberated upon in the future hearing.

Rohatgi sought a direction that cases in various high courts on the demonetisation issue be stayed.

The Bench said that it would take up this issue on next date of hearing.

The top court had on December 2 asked the Centre to spell out the measures taken to ease suffering of and inconvenience to the people in rural areas.

While hearing a batch of pleas challenging various aspects of demonetisation, the court had said that all parties should sit together and prepare a list of categories of cases which could be referred to high courts and those that could be heard by the apex court.

The AG had said that the government was aware of the situation in cooperative banks which lack proper infrastructure and mechanism as compared to scheduled banks.

The Centre had on November 24 filed an affidavit in the apex court on demonetisation and had said that the bold move would eradicate black money and slush funds operating since Independence which cast a parallel economy hitting the poor and the middle class.

On November 29, the apex court had agreed to hear pleas of 14 cooperative banks of Kerala seeking its nod to transact business like banks and others seeking demonetisation of any currency note higher than Rs 100 denomination.  PTI
New Delhi, December 9

As Parliament remained gridlocked over demonetisation, Rahul Gandhi on Friday thundered that there would be an earthquake if he was allowed to speak on the biggest scam, drawing ridicule from the BJP which said the Congress leader is best known for political quackery, not quakes.

With earthquake being invoked metaphorically by the rival parties in an escalation of exchanges on note ban, BJP leader Sambit Patra scoffed at the Congress vice-president, remarking that those who were the epicentre of scams for the last 60 years are now talking about earthquakes.

Gandhi accused the government of not allowing him to speak in Parliament on demonetisation, which he dubbed as the biggest scam, and said he would reveal in the House what was behind the move to scrap high denomination notes.

If they allow me to speak in Parliament, you will see what an earthquake is going to happen, he said.

Speaking to reporters outside Parliament, Gandhi said that his party wants debate on demonetisation so that the truth can come to the fore, but the government is running away from it.

Gandhi said that when he gets a chance to speak about demonetisation in the House, the Prime Minister will not be able to even sit there.

The Prime Minister is giving speeches across the country but is afraid of coming to the Lok Sabha and is not willing to sit there, Gandhi said and asked what could be the reason for this nervousness.

Demonetisation is the biggest scam in the history of India.... I want to speak in Lok Sabha. I will tell everything there, Gandhi said.

The Congress leader was speaking after his party said in Lok Sabha that it was ready to debate the issue but the government demanded that it should first apologise to the people of the country for stalling Parliament proceedings for 16 days, leading to uproar and adjournment of the House.

Gandhi said initially the government spoke about black-money, then moved to counterfeit currency and then again to a cashless society campaign.

He said, I want to tell about the biggest scam committed by Narendra Modi single handedly and present the voice of people, specially poor, who have suffered due to this move.

He said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should come to the House so that it can be discussed what demonetisation is, who has benefited from this decision and what it means for whom.

He added that the government had initially proposed debate on demonetisation to which his party agreed but then the government backtracked.

Those who were Epicentre of SCAMS for the last 60 years talk of Earthquake today!!, Patra tweeted. He is to be reminded that He is best known for Political Quackery, not Quakes.

Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu and fellow minister Smriti Irani also took a swipe at Gandhi.

May this quake happen when we are not present in Parliament, Naidu told reporters in Bengaluru.

Rahulji thinks too highly about his oratory skills and he himself knows how much his speeches appeal...As far as tremors are concerned. I think when he speaks there are tremors within Congress not outside, Irani said.  PTI
Rajmeet Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 8

Ahead of the meeting of the Congress central election committee (CEC), the issue of inducting turncoats into the party and giving them tickets at the cost of the party leaders was today raised by Rajya Sabha MP Shamsher Singh Dullo with Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi.

Dullo, a former PPCC president, also met Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

Another Rajya Sabha MP Partap Singh Bajwa also met Rahul but the context of his discussion could not be ascertained.

Sources said senior party leaders had urged the party president to first decide on the tickets for the aspirants within the party before taking a call on the turncoats.

A few days ago, besides Dullo, Partap Singh Bajwa, Ambika Soni, Ravneet Bittu and Chaudhary Santokh had raised the issue with the Congress vice-president, much to the annoyance of the Capt Amarinder Singh camp that has been favouring and fielding new-comers to improve the wining prospects of the party.

In the last two days, some prominent leaders of the Dalit community from the party have met Rahul, members of the screening committee and CEC to air their grievances over induction of outsiders.
From December 9-midnight, the discontinued currency of Rs 500 won't be used to buy tickets for travel in a train, government bus, suburban and metro trains.

By India Today Web Desk: The government has formally withdrawn the exemptions given for use of Rs 500 old notes from December 9 midnight for making payments at railway and government bus ticketing counters.

Earlier, the government had allowed the demonetised Rs 500 notes to be used at railways and government bus ticket counters.

On December 7, the government announced to withdraw the exemption from December 10.

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READ| Coming soon: Plastic Rs 10 notes. Last long, cleaner; trial in 5 cities

WITHDRAWN EXEMPTIONS

With the latest decision, the old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes will also not be valid for making payments for railway catering services or for purchasing suburban and metro rail services from Friday midnight.

Government withdraws exemptions given for the use of Rs.500/- old notes, from the mid night of December 9, 2016,? https://t.co/93NEd8aWEC PIB India (@PIB_India) December 9, 2016

Before the December 7-announcement, the demonetised currency notes were supposed to be used at exempted places for specified purposes till December 15.

WATCH:

READ| Supreme Court asks 9 questions from government over demonetisation

In its latest order the government said, "There has been a declining trend in the receipt of these old currency notes of Rs.500/- and Rs.1000/-. Further, a number of steps have been taken for promoting digital transactions."

THESE EXEMPTIONS CONTINUE

However, there are still certain places where the old notes can be used for specific services till December 15.

Such exemptions include making payments at government hospitals, pharmacies, government run milk booths, consumer cooperative stores, at crematoria and burial grounds.

WATCH:

Discontinued currency can also be used for making payments for LPG cylinders, buying tickets for monuments maintained by the Archaeological Survey of India, paying taxes or penalties, purchase of seeds from government outlets, school-college fees up to Rs 2,000 and to recharge pre-paid mobile up to Rs 500.

ALSO READ|

Demonetisation problems will end in 10-15 days: Centre to Supreme Court

--- ENDS ---
Himanshu Kumar Lall

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, December 9

The only thing that distinguishes the Indian Army from other professions is the unique leadership ability that demands tough physical and mental fitness throughout life. This is the reason that the Indian Army is one of the most decorated armed forces of the world. The pre-commission training at the Indian Military Academy (IMA) is of such high level that Gentlemen Cadets (GCs) and Foreign Gentlemen Cadets (FGCs) from friendly foreign countries undergo the same training schedule to become well-trained young Army officers in their armed forces.

The IMA, which is one of the most prestigious military institutions, has transformed 2,014) FGCs from 31 friendly countries so far ito able army officers. The maximum number of FGCs (558) passed out were from Bhutan, followed by Afghanistan (448), and Sri Lanka (265) till December 2016. One FGC each from Botswana and Fiji had been trained so far, while two FGCs each from Ethiopia, Myanmar, Mongolia, Philippines, Tonga, and Yemen had passed out after successfully completing their pre-commission training at the IMA. A total of 1,416 FGCs from neighbouring countries, including Afghanistan, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar, had been imparted military training at the IMA. Officials say the training module of IMA is one of the best in the world and there is no discrimination between GCs and FGCs.

Major Dinesh Sharma, official spokesman for the IMA, told The Tribune that GCs and FGCs were required to achieve specified minimum physical fitness standards before passing out from the academy. He added the GCs were put through a systematic and progressive physical training to attain the desired standards. The training for young officers is divided into different terms for ensuring a gradual development of GCs in order to ensure transformation of a civilian candidate to an effective leader of the forces. The aim of the pre-commission training is to prepare GCs to command troops even in an adverse situation like war or during peace time. The training enables GCs to assume command of men in battle, obtain standards of physical fitness and drill higher than soldier recruits.
London, December 9

A fascination with spies and scandals, combined with deep patience and persistence, made Phillip Knightley a legend among investigative journalists.

Knightley, who has died aged 87, helped gain compensation for the victims of thalidomide through a landmark probe for Londons Sunday Times, and shone light on the murky world of Cold War espionage.

Born in Sydney in 1929, Knightley worked for publications in Australia, Fiji and India before joining Londons Sunday Times in the 1960s.

Under Evans, the paper became renowned for its investigations. Knightley was a key part of the team that during the 1970s exposed the failings that led to thalidomide, a drug marketed as a remedy for morning sickness but caused major deformities in thousands of babies.

The stories, published after years of digging and court battles, helped bring millions in compensation for the affected children from the drugs British distributor, and led to tighter drug-licensing rules.

Knightley also uncovered previously secret details of the career of Kim Philby, a senior British intelligence official who was also a KGB mole. Knightley interviewed Philby in Moscow shortly before his death in 1988, his only audience with a Western journalist since defecting in 1963.  AP
SYDNEY/HONG KONG, December 9

Vietnam has begun dredging work on a disputed reef in the South China Sea, satellite imagery shows, the latest move by the Communist state to bolster its claims in the strategic waterway.

Activity visible on Ladd Reef in the Spratly Islands could anger Hanoi's main South China Sea rival, Beijing, which claims sovereignty over the group and most of the resource-rich sea.

Ladd Reef, on the southwestern fringe of the Spratlys, is completely submerged at high tide but has a lighthouse and an outpost housing a small contingent of Vietnamese soldiers. The reef is also claimed by Taiwan.

In an image taken on November 30 and provided by US-based satellite firm Planet Labs, several vessels can be seen in a newly dug channel between the lagoon and open sea.

While the purpose of the activity cannot be determined for certain, analysts say similar dredging work has been the precursor to more extensive construction on other reefs.

"We can see that, in this environment, Vietnam's strategic mistrust is total ... and they are rapidly improving their defences," said Trevor Hollingsbee, a retired naval intelligence analyst with Britain's defence ministry.

"They're doing everything they can to fix any vulnerabilities  and that outpost at Ladd Reef does look a vulnerability."

Reuters reported in August that Vietnam had fortified several islands with mobile rocket artillery launchers capable of striking China's holdings across the vital trade route.

Vietnam's foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a regular press briefing on Friday that China had "indisputable sovereignty over the Nansha islands, including Riji reef", using Beijing's terms for the Spratlys and Ladd Reef.

"We urge the relevant countries to respect China's sovereignty and rights, end their illegal occupation and illegal operations, and not take any actions that may complicate the situation," he said.

Defensive positions

The vessels at Ladd Reef cannot be identified in the images, but Vietnam would be extremely unlikely to allow another country to challenge its control of the reef.

Greg Poling, a South China Sea expert at Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said it remained unclear how far the work on Ladd Reef would go. Rather than a reclamation and a base, it could be an attempt to simply boost access for supply ships and fishing boats.

Ladd could also theoretically play a role in helping to defend Vietnam's nearby holding of Spratly Island, where a runway is being improved and new hangars built, he said.

"Vietnam's knows it can't compete with China but it does want to improve its ability to keep an eye on them," Poling said.

Vietnam has long been fearful of renewed Chinese military action to drive it off its 21 holdings in the Spratlys  worries that have escalated amid Beijing's build-up and its anger at the recent Philippines legal action challenging its claims.

China occupied its first Spratlys possessions after a sea battle against Vietnam's then-weak navy in 1988. Vietnam said 64 soldiers were killed as they tried to protect a flag on South Johnson reef  an incident still acutely felt in Hanoi.

Building burst

The United States has repeatedly called on claimants to avoid actions that increase tensions in the South China Sea, through which some $5 trillion in world trade is shipped every year.

A spokeswoman for the US State Department, Anna Richey-Allen, said it was aware of reports of reclamation work by Vietnam and said the United States regularly raised concerns about such activity by claimants.

"We've consistently warned that reclamation and militarisation in contested areas of the South China Sea will risk driving a destabilising and escalatory trend," she said.

"We encourage all claimants to take steps to lower tensions and peacefully resolve differences."

Vietnam has emerged as China's main rival in the South China Sea, actively asserting sovereignty over both the Paracel and the Spratly groupings in their entirety and undergoing its own naval modernisation. Taiwan also claims both, but its position is historically aligned with Beijing's.

The Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, run by the CSIS, says Vietnam has added about 120 acres (49 hectares) of land to its South China Sea holdings in recent years.

Regional military attaches say Vietnam's key holdings are well fortified, some with tunnels and bunkers, appearing geared to deterring easy invasion.

Vietnam's reclamation work remains modest by Chinese standards, however.

The United States, which has criticised China for militarising the waterway, estimates Beijing has added more than 3,200 acres (1,300 hectares) of land on seven features in the South China Sea over the past three years, building runways, ports, aircraft hangars and communications equipment.

Beijing says it is entitled to "limited and necessary self-defensive facilities" on its territory and has reacted angrily to "freedom of navigation" operations by US warships near Chinese-held islands.

Chinese reclamation work damaged

In another image provided by Planet Labs, reclamation work in the Chinese-held Paracel Island chain appears to have been damaged by recent storms.

China began dredging and land filling earlier this year at North Island, about 12 km (7 miles) north of Woody Island, where it has a large military base and this year stationed surface-to-air missiles.

Satellite images in February and March showed dredging vessels working to build a 700-metre (2,300 ft) sand bridge connecting low-lying North Island with neighbouring Middle Island.

But images taken after two powerful storms spun through the region in October show the narrow sand strip has been largely swept away.

The Paracels have been under Chinese control for more than 40 years after a battle towards the end of the Vietnam War, when Chinese forces removed the then-South Vietnamese navy. Analysts say they play a key part in protecting China's nuclear-armed submarine fleet on Hainan Island, to the north.

China has not commented publicly on the work at North Island.  Reuters
ISTANBUL, December 9

Turkish-backed rebels launched an assault on the Islamic State-held city of al-Bab in northern Syria on Friday, opposition fighters said, and Turkish warplanes hit dozens of jihadist targets in support of the offensive.

Hundreds of Arab and Turkmen fighters involved in the assault took control of at least two villages west of al-Bab, the fighters said. Turkish state media said late on Thursday that Ankara had sent 300 Turkish commandos to northern Syria as reinforcement.

The operations are the latest in Turkey's "Operation Euphrates Shield", a military incursion launched three-and-a-half months ago in support of the rebels, and meant to push both Islamic State militants and Kurdish fighters back from the border.

The Turkish army said its air strikes on Friday morning destroyed 34 Islamic State targets, including militant bases, shelters, vehicles mounted with guns, and ammunition depots. Ten targets had also been hit the day before.

The military also said the rebels it backs had seized control of an important highway between the towns of al-Bab and Manbij, around 50 km (30 miles) to the east.

"There is a major assault under way," a fighter with the Turkmen Sultan Murad brigade speaking from inside Syria said. "God willing we will break (IS) resistance this time. Very powerful troops were sent last night."

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict through a network of sources in the country, confirmed there was an increase in the number of Turkish troops with the Euphrates Shield forces and that they were shelling heavily on Friday as they attempted to advance on al-Bab.

The Observatory said explosions triggered by Islamic State had caused casualties in a village close to al-Bab. It also said it had received information that 12 civilians were killed and 10 wounded as a result of air strikes and bombardment by Turkish forces targeting al-Bab.

The advance of the Turkish-backed forces potentially pits them against both Kurdish fighters and Syrian government forces in an increasingly messy battlefield.

Al-Bab is of particular strategic importance to Turkey, partly because Kurdish-dominated militias have also been pursuing a campaign to seize it.

Ankara is determined to prevent the Kurdish YPG militia, which it sees as a hostile force, from joining up cantons it controls along the Turkish border, for fear that would stoke Kurdish separatism at home.  Reuters
Congress president Sonia Gandhi met BJP patriarch LK Advani before the Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day.

By Reema Parashar: Amid allegations and counter-allegations over continued disruption in both houses of Parliament, Congress president Sonia Gandhi called on veteran BJP leader LK Advani in Parliament.

Sonia Gandhi is understood to have conveyed her gratitude to the BJP patriarch for sending her birthday greetings.

Earlier, Advani called Sonia Gandhi to wish her on 70th birthday. But, Sonia Gandhi was unavailable. She met him in Parliament to express her gratitude for the wishes.

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However, the meeting looked significant in the wake of Advani lashing out at both the government and the opposition for not letting the Lok Sabha function.

READ| Happy Birthday Sonia Gandhi: A look at some of her rare pictures

Advani's outbursts were followed by an expression of anguish from President Pranab Mukherjee, who told the MPs to do their job.

SONIA MEETS SPEAKER

Sonia Gandhi also met Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan over the disruption in the House. She is learnt to have conveyed her party's willingness to allow proceedings of the lower house without disruption.

However, that did not happen as the uproar continued in the House following which the Speaker adjourned it for the day.

READ| Demonetisation: My speech will cause earthquake, says Rahul Gandhi

ADVANI STILL FURIOUS

Meanwhile, Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia met Advani to tell him that the Congress was ready for debate in the Lok Sabha after the former deputy prime minister's appeal but the members from the ruling coalition did not let the House proceed.

According to sources, Advani told Scindia that debate over demonetisaion should happen in the Lok Sabha but there was no need for a division of vote- a demand that the Congress has persisted upon.

READ| Saying it publicly, both sides not interested in running Parliament: LK Advani

In a related development, Advani and senior BJP leader Shanta Kumar again expressed their displeasure over ruckus in the Lok Sabha.

Advani is learnt to have told Finance Minister Arun Jaitley that disruption by the BJP MPs was not appropriate.

ALSO WATCH:

--- ENDS ---
Braydon Martin is all smiles in a Make-A-Wish Convoy truck. (Photo courtesy RoadPro Family of Brands)

Who can resist a feel-good story about helping others, especially this time of year? We've gotten several announcements about companies helping ensure a happy holiday for disadvantaged kids. But here's a story about an event that helps kids every year that happens in May.

When Brayton Martin gets behind the wheel of a semi in the Mothers Day Truck Convoy, anyone within earshot knows it. He lays on the horn. The longer and louder, the better.

I mean, he honks the horn the entire time, says Braytons mom, Lisa Martin. God bless the truck driver, he lets (Brayton) honk.

Lisa had heard the horns before as a volunteer for the convoy in her hometown of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, but she never imagined that one day that her son would be a Make-A-Wish child, riding in the cab with a trucker.

The annual Make-A-Wish Mothers Day Convoy in Lancaster raises money for Make-A-Wish of Philadelphia, Northern Delaware and Susquehanna Valley. This year, 590 trucks participated and many of them had special passengers in the cab. The folks at RoadPro, the primary sponsor, shared this story about how the truckers generosity has helped one family.

Born in 2009, Brayton was diagnosed at two months old with a rare immunodeficiency called Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis (HLH). In his first year, he underwent a bone marrow transplant and months of chemotherapy as he battled the incurable condition and side effects.

The best care available was at Cincinnati Childrens Hospital Medical Center, which is where Brayton spent much of his first three years of life. His compromised immune system limited contact with everyone but family and medical personnel.

When he was 4 years old, his doctors said it would be safe for the family to take a trip. They chose Disney World, and Make-A-Wish of Philadelphia, Northern Delaware and Susquehanna Valley, the beneficiary of the Mothers Day Convoy, made it happen in December 2013.

It was Braytons first time out in a crowd, first time seeing the Disney characters hed come to know through TV and DVDs, first time on vacation with his family.

He embraced it, he loved it, Lisa says. He wasnt overwhelmed at all. And Make-A-Wish made it possible for us to just relax and enjoy it. They took care of everything for us. It was almost like starting over as a family; this is the way we wanted to live.

His strengthened immune system also meant Brayton could return home to Lancaster, where he got to ride in the Mothers Day Convoy. In 2013 and 2014, he rode with Larry Witters, a driver for Crowe Transportation Services in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, and a convoy veteran.

Brayton dressed as a pirate the first year, so Witters flew a Jolly Roger flag, which he later gave to the boy. On the second year, Witters added train horns and rigged a bungee cord so Brayton could sound them from the passengers seat.

He wore his little arm out pulling on those train horns, Witters says. He and I had a great time. To me, thats what this thing is about. Its all about the little guys and how much they love the big trucks.

Witters and Brayton keep in touch on Facebook and hope to reunite at the 2017 convoy.

HLH is incurable, but Brayton, now 7, is in remission and doing better than anyone thought he would. Hes in first grade and loves school. Monthly infusions, daily injections and medications, and regular medical appointments do not slow him down.

Hes a very social kid, Lisa says. He likes people and adventures.

The family now lives in North Carolina because the physician in charge of Braytons treatment relocated there, but they hope to be back in Lancaster in May for the convoy.

Brayton is looking forward to it, Lisa said. He wants to blow the horn again and hes become friends with the truckers.

For more information about the convoy: http://philasv.wish.org/ways-to-help/convoy
Germanys Daimler Trucks this year announced that it is pushing its global platform strategy beyond the existing modular drivetrain components. Photos: Daimler Trucks

"Think globally, act locally could well be the mantra of any large-scale builder of trucks, engines, and major components headquartered anywhere in the world today. The same could be said of every type of top supplier in the global marketplace, from oil companies to tire makers.

Increasingly, automotive manufacturers and associated industries are becoming intertwined on a global level in unprecedented ways. Consolidation has swept through both the passenger and trucking segments of the industry, creating massive corporate entities designing and selling products that serve every corner of the globe. At the same time, skyrocketing research and development costs and new, globally coordinated emissions standards have forced OEMs to move to global products platforms to contain costs and meet varying levels of emission regulations effectively.

And yet, trucks sold in North America today differ widely from models sold in Europe or Asia. The more you pop the industrys hood and poke about looking for signs of a global truck, the more you may think such a machine may never get built. Moreover, if you talk to North America OEMs, you quickly discover that not everyone can even agree on what a global truck is, or ought to be.

From my experience, the term global truck is often thought of as a truck that meets the needs of all markets across the globe, says Scott Newhouse, Peterbilts chief engineer. He says where we are now involves leveraging technologies that are being developed globally and applying them most appropriately to each individual market to benefit customers.

Wade Long, Volvo Trucks North Americas director of product marketing, says that from an OEMs perspective, a global truck comes down to working with a common architecture and shared technologies. For instance, he says, We can share lessons learned about safety on our products across the globe. We know, for example, based on the engines location in the cab how to best protect the driver in a collision. Another example is whether the truck is a cabover or a conventional, we use high-strength steel due to its effective strength-to-weight ratio as a global feature. But, he cautions, we are a long way from a global truck.

While its impossible to build a single global truck that will work around the world, truck builders speak more precisely of having a global manufacturing, research and engineering presence that supplies products tailored for specific markets. Such strategies include debuting innovative technology in the most advanced markets, including North America, Western Europe, and Japan. At the same time, OEMs must counter-balance cutting-edge technology with long-proven components and systems to work and survive in second-tier markets, such as Russia and China, while taking enough sophistication and complexity out of the design mix to ensure the success of products operating in developing global markets, such as India, Africa and parts of Asia.

Weve used the word glocal to describe thinking globally and acting locally, explains Kary Schaefer, general manager of marketing and strategy, Daimler Trucks North America. The understanding of the different markets and customer applications in your region and how global development has to consider those requirements up front.

Cummins is another manufacturer with a broad global footprint. Mario Sanchez, director of on-highway marketing communications for the company, notes that while we work within an increasingly global business environment, if you stand back and look at the worlds truck industry with a wide perspective, you soon get a picture of a far more diverse scenario than is typically characterized.

Were very familiar with our own North American market, he notes, but the dynamics can often be very different when you look at specific markets. It soon becomes apparent that what is described as global, is in fact, made up of a multiplicity of OEMs, vehicle types, market differences and, of course, emissions standards.

Across global markets, factors such as efficiency and reliability are universally influential, says Steve Slesinski, Danas director of global product strategy, planning and management. But every region has distinct needs driven by varying regulations and preferences. With this diversity in mind, the term global truck does not mean a single, identical solution for every part of the world. Instead, this trend is more about OEMs and suppliers working together to leverage global knowledge and engineering capabilities.

Phil Christman, Navistar senior vice president of joint strategic operations and planning, says rather than a global truck, I think you see the supply chain for the heavy truck business more global than it ever has been in the past. The trucks may not be global trucks, but there are components of the truck that are coming off of global platforms.

Regardless of how its parsed, the upshot for truck OEMs juggling these conflicting demands is complex: A reality that demands designing products up front that will meet the needs of these various markets, while customizing those products  often down to minute levels  to meet specific local needs.

Whats driving the trend

A European Volvo truck like this one might not look like an American Volvo truck on the surface, but under the skin, both are made with high-strength steel Volvo uses to help protect truck drivers in a collision; its featured in all the cabs it builds for global markets. Photo: Volvo Trucks

For truck, engine and component makers, one of the benefits of this approach is avoiding the need to reinvent the wheel  investing dollars in engineering or capital on different products that meet the same need.

Volvos Long says there is technology that can be shared everywhere, but where its offered must be based on local requirements. Its about adapting the technology to the market. With the cost of developing truck technology so high, he says Volvo places it on the shelf so it can be drawn on by different business units.

DTNAS Schaefer points to speed to market as a benefit to both the manufacturer and the end user, especially with how fast technology is moving today.

Were more easily able to bring [products] to market by leveraging development work that happens across different regions than by doing it from scratch within our own region or with a third party. And when you have a large global operation such as Daimler, there is a lot of experience and resources to draw on, she says.

Danas Slesinski agrees that the need to reduce duplication of efforts is driving global cooperation. Vehicles are becoming increasingly complex machines run by advanced systems. Globalization allows us to leverage expertise on everything from electronics to emissions to telematics across all markets.

Another benefit is economies of scale. It allows you to leverage the volumes from these other regions and generate some scale, explains Meritors John Bennet, general manager, global product strategy. The commercial truck industry doesnt have the same type of volumes that, say, the passenger car industry does, he says. We can generate a lot of savings with global volumes. It helps our cost and the customer has a similar benefit. It reduces complexity in their business as well. Especially customers that act globally like Volvo  they want global platforms.

Those economies of scale end up in lower cost and complexity for truck buyers, as well, says Schaefer  and also the potential for more reliability due to broader testing. I think you get a wider range of validation and reliability results, she says. In the case of the DD5 [engine], we were able to bring a platform [to North America] that already had millions of miles of testing and production and use in the European market.

Also bear in mind that technologies are adopted at varying rates around the globe. Peterbilts Newhouse points out that disc-brake adoption on heavy trucks was strong in Europe, which helped pave its way here.

Other technologies, such as for emissions, have been developed in either Europe or North America ahead of the other continent, which has mutually benefited each, he says. I think future technologies in visibility and other safety systems could trend in the same manner.

In addition, Schaefer points out that global customers such as UPS or FedEx often see technologies in other regions and ask if they can get them on their North American trucks  or vice versa, as technologies developed in North America are requested for European or Asian trucks.

Paccars ownership of the European truck brand DAF (shown here at the IAA Commercial Vehicle Show) led to a global engine platform that gave North America the Paccar MX engine. Photo: Deborah Lockridge

The rise of 'platformization

Manufacturers talk about working off global vehicle platforms that are designed to have the same core product, but the ability to be distinctly adapted to the operating conditions and regulatory requirements of specific markets. Global research firm Frost & Sullivan recently identified platformization as one of the top trends affecting the future of commercial trucks worldwide.

Global platforms have been seen for years on the automotive side, but its a more recent trend in commercial trucks. And for trucks, this platformization is most often seen in powertrains.

For instance, Daimler Trucks North America adapted an automated manual transmission used in Europe to bring to North America as the DT12. More recently, it introduced the DD5 engine for medium-duty trucks, again based on a proven design from Europe. Mack and Volvo engines and transmissions are based on those developed by their Swedish parent, and Paccars MX engines are available not only in Kenworth and Peterbilt trucks here, but also in DAF trucks in Europe.

Those components get customized for local markets. For example, A lot of the powertrain components will have different validation requirements because our duty cycles are slightly different, Schaefer explains, and they may have different software calibrations.

The physical way powertrain components are actually integrated into the chassis must be accounted for, in terms of things such as electrical systems, plumbing, wiring, and mounting. For the DD5, for instance, some of the main integration challenges involved reducing noise and vibration. The chassis geometrys different, the engine-to-cab interface is different, she explains.

Cummins Sanchez explains that while we design our engines as global platforms to reflect our market position, they each come with the inherent adaptability to reflect varying market needs and emissions timing.

He cites the next-generation 12-liter Cummins engine as an example. The engine being introduced to the North American market as the X12 is derived from the ISG platform, first introduced in 2013 as a global engine platform. It made its first appearance a year later in a joint venture with the worlds largest independent engine maker, Beiqi Foton Motor Co. Ltd. of China. Foton now uses the ISG diesel in a new truck series developed with Daimler of Germany.

Beyond that it will go forward to meet Euro 6 equivalent regulations as they take effect in many countries worldwide commencing 2019, Sanchez says.

An example Danas Slesinski gives of technology transfer afforded by global relationships is the drivetrain package Dana designed to enable engine downspeeding. European truck manufacturers were the first to require faster axle ratios to support an engine running at lower rpms, generating higher torque stresses on the drivetrain, he explains. We saw this trend ahead of its North American introduction, and were the first to market with a drivetrain solution for downsped engines.

Eaton also points to downsped drivetrains as a prime example of global technology convergence.

We are seeing intelligence being baked into the drivetrain, says Mihai Dorobantu, director of technology planning and government affairs for Eatons vehicle group. He notes that regulations in North America, Europe and other parts of the globe related to vehicle emissions and greenhouse gas are helping to drive these trends alongside customer demands for efficiency.

Meritors Bennet says that over the past five years, as part of its M2016 strategic plan, Meritor has taken a much bigger role in developing and using products globally.

We start out with, What are the customer needs in each region, and look for areas of common need, common interest, in terms of durability, life expectations, efficiency, serviceability; all those things come into play. What we often find is theres absolutely an opportunity for similar products in multiple regions. In a lot of cases there is some local customization thats needed, but some large percentage of that product can be the same.

As an example, he cites the P600 axle, a heavy planetary hub reduction product initially developed in Europe that Meritor has since deployed to South America, India and North America. It is truly a global platform, he says. There have been some local customizations in each region, but about 90% of the base product is identical.

Some of those customizations are needed to accommodate differences in things such as suspensions, brakes, and axle ratios, as well as different expectations. India may not have the same durability expectations, so we may design a larger bearing for the U.S. and a smaller one for India so its less expensive, he explains.

Of course, the U.S. has its own unique characteristics that must be designed for. Cummins Sanchez notes that the role of the driver in optimizing truck productivity and the importance of driver retention is perhaps better recognized in the U.S. and Canada than anywhere else in the world  something that Cummins recognizes in the way out engines are configured and specified. North America also diverges from other regions in terms of EPA regulations incorporating greenhouse gas-fuel efficiency standards, an element that drives significant differences for both the vehicle and the engine.

Daimlers Detroit DT12 automated manual transmission, originally produced in this plant in Gagganau, Germany, was adapted from the successful automated manual transmission that had been launched two years earlier in Europe with the Mercedes Actros truck.

Beyond powertrains

Global platforms and technology sharing are increasingly reaching out beyond the powertrain arena.

Daimler, for instance, says its branching out into other areas with its platform strategy, especially where it comes to connectivity. For one thing, it is introducing standardized connectivity hardware for all of its trucks. This mobile router, where all real-time data is received and transmitted, is the heart of the Detroit Connect telematics system in North America and FleetBoard in Europe.

Navistars Christman notes that other areas where we are seeing more global commonalities can be grouped under the general term safety systems. When I say that, I think of brake systems, stability control systems, things like that, where theyre able to leverage the kind of common architecture.

Germanys ZF sees the drive to advance safety already leading to greater cooperation between suppliers. EU regulations now require newly registered trucks to be fitted with electronic stability control, advanced emergency-braking and lane-departure warning systems, points out Bryan Johnson, spokesman for ZF North America. To help develop safety critical technologies globally, it is important for companies to find partners much like ZF did when we partnered with Wabco. He says that cooperation resulted in our Highway Driving Assist and the development of Evasive Maneuver Assist, both of which were introduced for the first time in the prototype ZF Innovation Truck 2016.

Many of those same types of technologies are being used to demonstrate the potential of autonomous vehicle technologies that can be adapted to different markets. For instance, Daimler Trucks has developed trucks using its Highway Pilot system and tested them on highways in both Europe and the U.S.

Over the past five years, as part of its M2016 strategic plan, Meritor (shown here at the IAA Commercial Vehicle Show in Germany this year) has taken a much larger role in developing and using products globally. Photo: Deborah Lockridge

Facing challenges

When OEMs speak of the limits to globalization, its about the range of factors that keep their various markets distinct. There are constraints that start to play against globalizing, says Govi Kannan, Mack Trucks senior vice president, brand and product.

He says trucks are designed to meet different regulations, including size and weight restrictions and engine emissions. Then there are such factors as local fuel quality, speed limits, condition of infrastructure, delivery ranges, and geographic and weather-related operating conditions. Each market started from somewhere, he says. So, [technological] progress in each is going to be different according to the constraints at work there.

There are economies of scale to benefit from, says John Gurley, Mack Trucks vice president, product management. But at the same time, we have to make investments to meet specific market requirements.

For example, Slesinski says Dana recognizes that its U.S. fleet customers often want to spec their own trucks, and maintain the ability to choose components and vehicle types that provide the most efficient results for their specific applications in their region of the United States.

At the IAA Commercial Vehicles Show in Germany, exhibitors talked up connectivity and digitalization, but it must always be tailored to local market capabilities and acceptance. Photo: David Cullen

One example of how differences in global regions can affect adoption of technologies worldwide was the introduction of selective catalytic reduction in the U.S. to meet emissions requirements. Although global truck makers had already been using SCR to meet European emissions rules, when the technology was adopted in North America, there were many problems with reliability. DTNAs Schaefer explains that in hindsight, the early challenges in adapting that technology to our market were related to differences in duty cycles between North American and European operations and how regeneration cycles were triggered.

As Peterbilts Newhouse sees it, just as in our personal lives every day, the world is getting smaller, and technologies do jump borders quickly. Taking a global approach toward new technologies benefits customers by lowering costs through economic scale as well as helping bring technology to market faster and optimized at the time of launch.

Eatons Dorobantu observes, As solutions develop in other parts of the world and are brought into the U.S., at the end of the day it is the U.S. trucker who benefits from them. They get new features that might otherwise be very expensive or take a very long time to develop locally.

People want products that perform, and that means uptime and durability and fuel economy and availability of parts and service, says Navistars Christman. I think the U.S. or Canadian or Mexican consumer is no different from anywhere else in the world  they want products that meet their expectations.

And if drawing upon global expertise and supply chains helps manufacturers meet those expectations, thats what they will do.
Hall Estill named in Vaults top 150 under 150

Hall Estill, Oklahomas leading regional law firm, has been named one of Vaults Top 150 under 150 mid-sized law firms in the United States.

The list is selected from the best-known and most sought-after U.S. firms with fewer than 150 attorneys. The rankings in the Best To Work For list include firm culture, diversity, satisfaction, substantive work, and compensation.

Hall Estill ranked sixth in firm culture and 11th in satisfaction in all mid-sized firms considered. It was also ranked 17th among best mid-sized firms to work for.

Autumn Wood, Wood Manor fills out staff

ER Senior Management OK, an operator of upscale senior living communities, named five people to new positions, the company announced recently.

Will Otjen III was named executive director of both the Autumn Wood and Wood Manor nursing homes. Otjen has a collective 30 years of experience in senior living.

Other staffing changes at the Autumn Wood/Wood Manor campus staff include Keri McDonald-Oliver as the director of health services, Charlie Redding as clinical liason, Julie Edwards and Jeffery Cowen as speech pathologists.

The company assumed management of Autumn Wood and Wood Manor in Claremore last month. Autumn Wood specializes in Alzheimers and dementia patients, while Wood Manor offers both short-term rehab and long-term care for seniors.

ER Senior Management OK is a subsidiary of Evergreen Senior Living Properties, LLC, an owner and operator of senior living communities based in Nashville, Tenn.

CSC names two to Leadership Team

The Community Service Council has expanded its leadership team to include Heather Hope-Hernandez as chief of external affairs and John Gonsalves as chief financial officer.

Hope-Hernandez is a veteran communications and public affairs professional, a Tulsa native and a graduate of the University of Oklahoma. Gonsalves has more than 15 years of nonprofit leadership experience and had a bachelors degree from Oklahoma Wesleyan and an MBA from Northeastern State University.

Gonsalves will oversee the intricate finances of a $12 million annual budget, which includes grant reporting requirements and a staff of 140.

Working with area partners, CSC confronts challenges to health, social, education and economic opportunities and strategically advances effective community-based solutions.

Four bankers graduate from banking school

Four Tulsa-area bankers recently graduated from the Oklahoma Bankers Association Operations School in Oklahoma City.

Graduates include Jason Holman, teller supervisor at Security Bank; Brenda Seago, bank operations manager at Blue Sky Bank; Kevin Harper, operations manager at First Bank of Owasso, and Jenna Louderback, assistant vice president at RCB Bank in Claremore.

The school, conducted annually, prepares junior-level operations managers to operate functions effectively and efficiently within a bank. Students develop a thorough understanding of key operations areas, develop and apply analytical skills, strengthen management skills in relations to human resource planning and motivational techniques, study regulatory and competitive factors that affect banking and learn about state-of-the-art banking technologies.

Prairie House of BA fills six staff positions

Prairie House Assisted Living and Memory Care, a new senior living community being built in collaboration with St. John Broken Arrow, has named six employees to fill key positions.

Staff changes include Deborah Covert as executive director, Jennifer Bagzis as director of community relations, Stacey Adams as sales counselor, One Hannah as business office manager, Amy Haggard as life enrichment director, Jeff Ogle as environmental services director, Art Escobar as director of culinary services, and Gail Gresham as director of health services.

Prairie House is a 93,000-square-foot, two-story senior lifestyle community that offers private residences with private baths for more than 100 area seniors. Residents have a choice of 73 alcove, one-bedroom, or two-bedroom floor plans for assisted living and 32 suites for memory care.

Crowe & Dunlevy names chairs to diversity panel

Crowe & Dunlevy has named attorneys Andre Caldwell and Susan Huntsman as chair and co-chair for the firms diversity committee.

The committee was formed in 2000 to promote the strength that women, minority and LGBTQ lawyers add to the fabric of the firm and to the legal environment.

Caldwell serves in the criminal defense, compliance and investigations and litigation and trial practice groups in the firms Oklahoma City office. Huntsman serves in the appellate, energy, environment and natural resources and Indian law and gaming practice groups in the firms Tulsa office.

Nabholz announces internal promotion

Nabholz Construction recently promoted Doyle Phillips to executive vice president of preconstruction for the companys southwest operation.

Phillips is a 30-year veteran of the construction industry with extensive experience in all aspects of commercial construction. He holds a bachelors degree in construction management, a masters in education and an educational doctoral degree in leadership and management.

Nabholz has offices in Tulsa, Oklahoma City and in Arkansas, Kansas, Mississippi, and Missouri and provides construction, industrial, civil, environmental and specialty Services.

Byers Creative reports growth, nearly doubles staff

A Tulsa-based design and marketing firm has nearly doubled its staff size after experiencing a record-setting year.

Byers Creative has added seven to its staff, including Chris Calvert as vice president of marketing and client services. Calvert has more than 20 years experience in marketing, brand development, mass communication and client services.

Byers is well known for their excellent design services and extreme focus on serving the customer, said Calvert. As we look for new ways to serve those partners, we are continually adding new marketing services to our tool kit. By offering graphic design, web design, social media and more, we have become a singular resource, built to meet almost any marketing need our customers might have.

Byers clients include Wal-Mart, Williams Cos., Flintco, Tulsa Regional Chamber, Hilti, WPX Energy, Oklahoma Cancer Specialists & Research Institute and SemGroup. Angela Byers founded the company in her home office in 2003.

We set high standards for our employees and Chris experience in marketing and corporate communications is a big part of that, said Byers. Most important of all is the impact for our clients. Were here to help them grow and excel, and all of our new employees are crucial in that pursuit.

Collinsville group designs Chicago taproom fixtures

Chicago-based Dovetail Brewerys taproom now features custom-created copper lighting fixtures designed and created by Walking Bird USA, a small artisan company based in Collinsville.

The shades of the fixtures were hand-hammered from copper and serve as an homage to the copper brewing vessels that have been the mainstay of traditional breweries for centuries, according to a statement from Dovetail.

Dovetails copper vessels are more than 100 years old and from Germany.

Copper is the soul of the brewery, said Wade Creighton, owner of Walking Bird USA. We wanted to carry this theme forward as we designed the lighting fixtures for the taproom. They are hand-crafted, one of a kind items that will withstand the test of time.

Four local companies score high in HRC report

Four Tulsa companies scored high on the 2017 Corporate Equality Index, the Human Rights Commissions annual report assessing LGBT inclusion in major companies and law firms across the nation

The Bama Cos., ONEOK, Williams Cos., ONE Gas and NGL Energy Partners were among seven companies in Oklahoma and 887 companies nationwide rated in the report, the national benchmarking tool on corporate policies and practices related to LGBT workplace equality.

Bama and ONEOK each scored 85, Williams scored 80 and ONE Gas 70.

A record 517 businesses earned a top score of 100 percent and the coveted distinction of Best Places to Work for LGBT Equality.

That record number of perfect scores was achieved despite demanding new criteria requiring that companies with global operations extend non-discrimination protections for their LGBT workers worldwide.

CEI rates companies and top law firms on non-discrimination policies, employment benefits, demonstrated organizational competency and accountability around LGBT diversity and inclusion, public commitment to LGBT equality and responsible citizenship.

BBB awards recognize 25-year businesses

The Better Business Bureau serving Eastern Oklahoma honored businesses that had outstanding ethical practices or have been with the agency for more than 25 years during a Friday ceremony.

Those honored for 25 years were A&N Trailer Parts, AAA Oklahoma, Air Service Management, Barron & Hart, Bowens Discount Carpet, Burnett, Inc. Windows & Siding, ESPO Fire & Water Restoration, Parkhill/Fikes Center Liquors and Wine, Heatwave Supply, Murray Electric Services, Pro Overhead Door, and Williams & Williams Marketing Services.

BBB Torch Award finalists for outstanding ethical practices were Career Development Partners, Exterior Solutions by Craigs Roofing, Luxa Enterprises, Robinson Glass of Tulsa, Shredders, Inc. and Windows by Jeff.
The Supreme Court framed nine questions for adjudication to decide if demonetisation move was unconstitutional or not.

By Ahmad Azeem: The Supreme Court today framed nine questions for adjudication to decide whether demonetisation was unconstitutional or not.

Hearing the matter, a three-judge bench of the apex court said it will take time to adjudicate. Though the next hearing in the matter has been fixed for December 14, it is likely that it may further be posted to January. The court said it can even refer it to a five-judge bench if it deemed fit.

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Asked about the benefits and objectives of demonetisation, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi said it had been implemented to fight black money and illegal money used for terror activities. The Centre said it is not going to relax ban on cooperative banks from accepting deposits in old notes nor allow them to issue new notes.

The court asked whether the district cooperative banks should be allowed to deposit or exchange old currency notes. It also sought to know the reason behind the government not able to give Rs 24,000 to every customer per week. "Should there be a minimum amount the bank should give to customer?" it asked.

Also read:

Demonetisation a mammoth tragedy: Manmohan Singh

The apex court sought suggestions from petitioners and the government over the measures to reduce the inconvenience post demonetisation without affecting the objectives of the policy. It said, "If you (government) had fixed the withdrawal limit of Rs 24,000 per week per account, then it should not be denied by banks."

The AG told the court that Rs 24,000 was the upper limit of withdrawal from a savings account. On this, the CJI questioned the AG that why a limit of minimum amount, say Rs 10,000, must be fixed, which must be adhered to by the banks.

Also read:

Demonetisation problems will end in 10-15 days: Centre to Supreme Court

The issue was raised when petitioners said that even in the national capital banks are out of cash. The AG told the court that he will take instructions from government on the issue of minimum withdrawal limit per week.

The CJI also asked Rohatgi, "When you prepared the policy it was confidential but now can you tell us the estimates, how much time will it take?"

Meanwhile, the lawyer petitioners shouted over each other during the course of the hearing to get heard by the court, leading Chief Justice of India TS Thakur to say it had become a fish market. He cited P Chidambaram, who was seen waiting patiently for his turn. He said he has served 23 years on bench and never seen such unruly behaviour from the advocates. He said there was no decorum despite it being the CJI's court.

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Also read:

Demonetisation: Who knew? Modi's black money move kept a closely guarded secret

Lamenting the unruly behavior, the CJI said this was his last week as a Judge and that he would be going with a heavy heart that the lawyers behaved in this manner even on a sensitive issue like demonetisation.

Chidambaram told the apex court that the government has got back Rs 12 lakh crore old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes and put back Rs 3 lakh crore new notes. "Hence there is serious rationing of withdrawal limits," he said.

The former finance minister further said it will take minimum five months for the government to print adequate new notes to bring normalcy. He argued that the limit on withdrawal should go.

Watch the video

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One former PNM stalwart says there is only one fit to head the political entity and it's not
Trump's hardline stance on immigration during his presidential election campaign, including a promise to build a wall along the US-Mexico border, has drawn anger from Latin Americans in the United States and around the world.

By Reuters: Revellers in Guatemala set ablaze cardboard representations of US President-elect Donald Trump wearing devil horns during a traditional ceremony, "La Quema del Diablo", or the Burning of the Devil, held ahead of Christmas every year.

Trump's hardline stance on immigration during his presidential election campaign, including a promise to build a wall along the US-Mexico border, has drawn anger from Latin Americans in the United States and around the world.

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"We are against this person in many respects, regarding deportations, the wall he wants to build. We do not agree," said participant Astrid Soto, just before setting fire to the Trump figures, which clutched fistfuls of fake cash, and a US flag.

Participants believe the practice of torching the devil helps banish bad spirits from their homes and neighbourhoods. The custom began in the 16th century, but has spread out from various towns since the 1990s to become popular nationwide.

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In Prison Dogs, hardened New York criminals are part of a program raising puppies as part of their rehabilitation.

In this inspirational documentary, three selected prisoners battle self-doubt, anger and regret in their attempt to transform dependent pups into service dogs for injured US veterans. Bound together by fate, this uniquely vulnerable trio of puppy, prisoner and veteran come to discover the redemptive power of second chances.

For prisoners like Luis Diaz, who is looking for forgiveness for past crimes, and veteran Mark Beam who is recovering from PTSD, rehabilitation is at the heart of the Puppies Behind Bars program. And the stakes couldnt be higher for everyone involved. The inmates, all guilty of violent crimes, must succeed.

Unlikely friendships are forged throughout the gruelling project, and while the prisoners gain something priceless, they must learn to accept loss.

10.55pm Sunday, 11 December at on SBS
The Australian Cinematographers Society has sided with the Australian Directors Guild in the row over the importing of Canadian director Larysa Kondracki for Picnic at Hanging Rock.

ACS National President, Ron Johanson OAM ACS said, Quite frankly we are astounded that, given the wealth of directorial talent in Australia, someone from overseas has been given the honour to helm the majority of this new version of Joan Lindsays novel. So with that in mind I would like to publicly state that the ACS is fully supportive of the ADGs condemnation. His comments follow ADG CEO Kingston Anderson slamming the move by FremantleMedia Australia following a successful 420 Visa application with the Dept. of Immigration.
Aussie Daniel MacPherson has landed his biggest US role to date, featuring in a reboot of action series Strike Back.

Cinemax and Sky UK are refreshing the series for a fifth season with an all-new team sent to track down a notorious terrorist following a brutal prison break.

As the team journey across the Middle East and Europe, they uncover a deadly conspiracy which threatens to overwhelm them.

Alin Sumarwata stars as Gracie Novin, a gearhead who is looking to make the step up. Genuine, honest to the point of bluntness, shes the heart and soul of the team.

Daniel MacPherson plays Samuel Wyatt, a barroom philosopher who works best alone. Wyatt has no intention of being dragged into a team situation. But what he wants and what he gets are rarely the same thing.

Roxanne McKee will portray Natalie Roberts, a woman who comes from a military family and excels at psychological profiles and seeing weaknesses in others, though she might be blinded to her own fault-lines.

Warren Brown rounds out the cast as Daniel Mac Macallister, a man of his word, physically capable, driven by a desire to avenge the team hes lost. Hes easygoing, affable  and utterly deadly.

Jack Lothian, who penned episodes in the fourth season, will serve as head writer and showrunner.

Daniel MacPherson, best known for Dancing with the Stars, City Homicide and Neighbours, has recently featured in the NZ-filmed fantasy The Shannara Chronicles for MTV, and appears in the upcoming FOX series APB alongside Caitlin Stacey.

On Instagram he wrote, Im beyond stoked to be a part of it. I cant tell you the mixture of emotions that went along with landing the gig. Its been tough turning my back on my career back home, but 2016 has been a breakthrough year and Im excited to start 2017. But make no mistake, the boys have already been hard at work.

He has already been training with Warren Brown (pictured), in California.

Great guy, loved him in Luther and we clicked as soon as we met. Will be an honour to go into battle alongside him in 2017 in Strike Back. Took him up some solid trails into the hills today. Guy is as strong as an ox, he wrote.

Strike Back last concluded in the US in October 2015 with fellow Aussie Sullivan Stapleton.

Source: Hollywood Reporter
Legendary television presenter Caroline Jones is stepping down from her role as presenter of Australian Story, departing the ABC after more than 50 years.

She has presented Australian Story since its launch in 1996 and ABC confirms she will not be replaced.

This is not an easy decision for me. The ABC is in my DNA. So is Australian Story, and that will not change, Ms Jones said.

Its been a joy and a privilege to have 20-plus years with the program, with the fine team who produce it, and with the generous Australians who tell us their stories, giving profound insights into the complexity of our human condition in a speedily evolving world.

Im far too busy to retire, but now there are some other loyalties claiming my attention, and I move on to the next phase of my life with gratitude. Theres always another adventure ahead.

And Ill continue to be number one Australian Story fan, along with the rest of the country.

Director of News Gaven Morris paid tribute to Ms Jones tremendous contribution to the ABC and to the Australian media as a whole.

Caroline is simply a legend of Australian journalism, a trailblazer, an inspiration and a role model for so many women in the media, he said. She is also a fine journalist and broadcaster, one of Australias best communicators, and a terrific human being.

We will miss her deeply at the ABC.

Executive Producer Deb Masters said: From the beginning, Caroline helped shape Australian Story. She has a unique capacity to recognise the tone and the heart of a story.

Carolines insights have been invaluable, and her enduring grace and wisdom appreciated by all. We will miss her.

Australian Story returns to air on 6 February.

Caroline Jones AO

Caroline Jones is a journalist, broadcaster and writer who has had a 50-year association with the ABC, first joining ABC Canberra in 1963.

Among other achievements, she was the first woman reporter on Australias first national nightly current affairs program, This Day Tonight (1968-72), and the first woman to anchor Four Corners (1972-81), a job she combined with presenting current affairs on ABC Sydney morning radio.

For eight years (1987-1994) Caroline presented The Search For Meaning on ABC Radio National, in which hundreds of Australian men and women told of their lives. Four books were published by ABC Books from transcripts of those programs. Carolines fifth book, An Authentic Life  Finding Meaning And Spirituality In Everyday Life, was a top 10 bestseller in 1998.

Carolines gently prising, confessional interview style in The Search For Meaning became a template for the highly successful Australian Story, which she has presented and contributed to since its launch in May 1996.

Caroline has received numerous awards for her work in broadcasting, reporting, producing and writing, including a Logie Award and a Walkley Award recognising her outstanding contribution to journalism. In 1988 she was made an Officer of the Order of Australia and in 1997 she was voted one of Australias National Living Treasures.

Some of her other key roles have included being a foundation member of the Australian Council for the Arts and being appointed an Ambassador for Reconciliation by the Aboriginal Council for Reconciliation. She is also an Ambassador for the Mary MacKillop Foundation and since 2013 has been National Patron of mentoring and networking program Women in Media.

Caroline was raised in the NSW country town of Murrurundi. Much of her work has been dedicated to listening to her fellow Australians and drawing out their stories.
Giant headstones of Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond have arrived in Sydney fuelling speculation that The Grand Tour presenters could be Australia-bound .with confirmation that a full series launch is also due.

First seen leaving a boat at White Bay, the three eight foot tall stone statues were craned onto a freight truck bearing The Grand Tour logos, before beginning a tour of Sydney, raising speculation that a colossal statue could be erected somewhere in the country. Trucks containing other body parts including Jeremy, James and Richards arms, legs and even crotch have also been spotted.

The series has so far seen episodes filmed in the US, UK and South Africa with The Netherlands, Finland, Germany and Dubai to follow.

While the show has so far only been accessible streaming Amazon from the US, an official tweet will further speculation that Amazon could launch a full streaming service in Australia.

Turns out the Space Needle didn't quite work out statues diverted to a country where the show will launch very soon. pic.twitter.com/yjNuxQJqAz  The Grand Tour (@thegrandtour) December 8, 2016

An Amazon spokesperson said, As announced by Jeremy, Richard and James in November we will be launching the show globally which means you will be able to watch The Grand Tour in over 200 countries and territories very soon in December.
By PTI: New Delhi, Dec 9 (PTI) The highest Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama today called for educational reforms to effectively eliminate "fear and violence" from society.

Stressing on the need for greater sensitivity of teachers rather than students, the Dalai Lama said education is meant for harmony, tolerance and love which it was not able to achieve in its present form.

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"The ultimate goal of education is to promote social harmony, tolerance, which is not the case with its present form," he said, delivering a convocation address at Ambedkar University where he was chief guest.

He suggested teachers should research and include methods in their teaching which could inculcate values of social development among their students.

"India with its ancient knowledge and philosophy can do this for which a combination of it with latest technology will be needed," the Dalai Lama said.

He exhorted students to not be deterred by "adversities" and work for equality in the society.

Speaking on the occasion, Lt Governor Najeeb Jung said that besides Gandhi, India is also the land of Dalai Lama.

A total of 530 students received degrees in graduation, post graduation, MPhil and PhD. The degree recipients included more than 66 per cent girls.

At another event in the city, the spiritual leader advocated the revival of ancient Indian knowledge which still holds relevance in todays world.

Delivering a lecture on the "Meaning of Life and Secular Ethics", the Dalai Lama also said Indians should pay more attention to their traditional knowledge.

On the occasion, Union Minister Kiren Rijiju said Tibetans should never feel that they are refugees in India.

"India is your home," he said, adding that the government must do everything for Tibetans living in Delhi. L-G Jung was also present at this event.

Rijiju said, "Although the Dalai Lama says he is the chella of India, and the relation of India and Tibet is that of a guru and a chella (teacher and student), but for Indians and humanity, he will always be a guru." VIT/PR BSA

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What do you think of our choices? What stood out for you? Let us know using #UCL on @ChampionsLeague

Highlights: Porto 5-0 Leicester

Group A

Paris Saint-Germain 2-2 Ludogorets Razgrad

Basel 1-4 Arsenal

Group B

Dynamo Kyiv 6-0 Besiktas

Benfica 1-2 Napoli

Group C

Barcelona 4-0 Borussia Monchengladbach

Manchester City 1-1 Celtic

Group D

Bayern Munchen 1-0 Atletico Madrid

PSV Eindhoven 0-0 Rostov

Watch Arda Turan's treble for Barcelona

Group E

Tottenham Hotspur 3-1 CSKA Moskva

Bayer Leverkusen 3-0 Monaco

Group F

Real Madrid 2-2 Borussia Dortmund

Legia Warszawa 1-0 Sporting CP

Group G

Porto 5-0 Leicester City

Club Brugge 0-2 Kbenhavn

Group H

Lyon 0-0 Sevilla

Juventus 2-0 Dinamo Zagreb

Round of 16 draw: streamed live at 12CET on Monday



Watch how Dortmund stunned Madrid

Dortmund outdo Madrid and Barcelona



The comeback from 2-0 down at Real Madrid to equalise with two minutes left didn't just give Borussia Dortmund first place in Group F and seeding in Monday's round of 16 draw. Marco Reus's leveller was their 21st goal in the group, a new competition record, just 24 hours after Barcelona had become only the fourth team to reach 20 with their 4-0 defeat of Borussia Monchengladbach.

Thirteen different players shared the 21 Dortmund goals while their 8-4 defeat of Legia Warszawa was the highest-scoring game in UEFA Champions League history. The 51 goals in Group F overall was the most in competition history and, although Cristiano Ronaldo managed only two of those, Lionel Messi fell one short of taking away the Madrid's forward's record of 11 in a group stage.

Watch: Sevilla make progress

Sevilla not unhappy to be dethroned



Sevilla will be unable to add to their three consecutive UEFA Europa League wins after a 0-0 draw at Lyon on Wednesday kept them second in their group and through to the UEFA Champions League knockouts for the first time since 2009/10.

Despite the loss of their title, Adil Rami seemed relatively sanguine. "I had a great time in the Europa League and winning the trophy was magnificent," he said. "We wanted to progress and keep playing against the top European clubs and that's what's going to happen now that we've gone through."

Download the UEFA Champions League podcast

Watch Lucas Perez's brilliant hat-trick for Arsenal

Londoners lift hoodoos



When Arsenal let a lead slip to draw 2-2 with Paris a couple of weeks ago, it looked like the Gunners had blown their chance to win their group for the first time since 2011/12. But Ludogorets' surprise draw in the French capital allowed Arsenal to overtake Paris with victory in Basel, and give themselves seeding in Monday's draw as they attempt to end a run of six straight round of 16 defeats.

The following night it was too late for Spurs to save their UEFA Champions League bid but by coming from behind to beat CSKA they at least sealed a UEFA Europa League berth and ensured Tottenham tasted victory at their temporary European home of Wembley following costly defeats by Monaco and Leverkusen.

Highlights: Legia 1-0 Sporting

Legia's presidential pardon



Having conceded a group-stage record-equalling 24 goals even before their last match against Sporting kicked off, Legia perhaps had the right to be nervous. But instead they kept a clean sheet and secured a 1-0 win that pipped their opponents to third place and ensured a happy ending to their first group campaign in 21 years.

Joining in the post-match celebrations in the Legia dressing room was the president of Poland, Andrzej Duda. Forward Aleksandar Prijovic said: "The fact the Polish president came to congratulate us means we did something really good. I have never met him before, this was the first time for me. The atmosphere in the dressing room was great; the president was even singing with us."

Goal of the week vote

Ludogorets surprise Paris

Seeding a poisoned chalice



While Dortmund, Arsenal and the rest were right to celebrate clinching first places this week, it doesn't exactly ensure an easy tie come the round of 16. Not only did BVB and the Gunners pip Madrid and Paris, but Manchester City and Bayern are also among the group runners-up that will be unseeded on Monday.

Paris might be particular team to avoid, having been unseeded in the last two years and knocked out Chelsea each time. That is at least not a worry for Monaco (the rules mean two teams from the same country cannot meet at this stage), who have now topped their group at the last four attempts.

What do you think of our choices? What stood out for you? Let us know using #UCL on @ChampionsLeague
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin met with OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier at the OSCE Ministerial Council in Hamburg on December 8.

This is reported by the press service of the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine.

"The parties discussed possibilities of strengthening security component of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine in order to ensure effective monitoring and verification of implementation of the Minsk agreements," the statement reads.

Klimkin stressed the need for continuous SMM monitoring on the line of separation and presence of the monitors on to the uncontrolled area of the Ukrainian-Russian border in certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

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U.S. Senate approved the US defense budget for 2017 fiscal year, which among other things provides for allocation of $350 million in assistance to Ukraine in defense and security field.

The vote took place on Thursday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

The budget was supported by 92 senators, while seven legislators voted against it. The document provides for allocation of $618.7 billion to Pentagon for next year, including $67.8 billion for foreign operations and emergency response.

In particular, $350 million are budgeted for Ukraine, covering financing of arms (including lethal), equipment, exercises, technical support for development of the system of monitoring of the state border of Ukraine, assistance in preparing staff officers and high command of Ukrainian troops.

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No Ukrainian soldiers were killed, but two servicemen were wounded in the anti-terrorist operation area in eastern Ukraine over the last day.

Ukrainian Defense Ministry's Spokesperson for ATO Colonel Andriy Lysenko said this at a press briefing in Kyiv on Wednesday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

No Ukrainian soldiers were killed, but two servicemen were wounded as a result of combat actions over the past day, Lysenko said.

He added that 14 militants had been killed over the past day.

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On Friday, December 9, trilateral talks between the European Commission, Russia and Ukraine on deliveries of Russian gas will be held.

On Friday, the European Commission is hosting a trilateral meeting with Russia and Ukraine on gas deliveries and gas transit. The talks will be chaired by Vice-President in charge of the Energy Union Maros Sefcovic. Russia and Ukraine will be represented by Energy Ministers Alexander Novak and Ihor Nasalyk, as well as senior officials of Naftogaz and Gazprom, reads a statement released by the European Commission.

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US, EU and Canada call on the Ukrainian authorities to complete establishment of the Asset Recovery and Management Office and the State Bureau of Investigations in a transparent manner.

This said in the joint statement of the Embassy of Canada, the Embassy of the United States and the EU Delegation to Ukraine on the occasion of International Anti-Corruption Day on December 9.

"On International Anti-Corruption Day, the Embassy of Canada, the Embassy of the United States and the EU Delegation to Ukraine congratulate Ukraine on the important achievements it has made in the fight against corruption and encourage it to continue on the path of ambitious reforms," the statement reads.

The embassies of the three countries also praised "the impressive steps taken since the Revolution of Dignity, including the adoption of constitutional amendments on the judiciary and of anti-corruption legislation, the establishment of specialised anti-corruption bodies, and the successful launch of the electronic asset declaration system."

At the same time, the document emphasizes that these gains are still consolidating and require the continued, focused efforts of all Ukrainian stakeholders working together to sustain and build on this positive momentum into 2017.

"We strongly encourage the independent and credible verification of submitted e-declarations. We also look to Ukrainian authorities to ensure the independence and adequate resourcing of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU), the Specialised Anti-corruption Prosecutor Office (SAPO), and the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (NAPC)," the statement notes.

USA, Canada and the EU also called on the Ukrainian government to complete the process of establishment of the new Asset Recovery and Management Office (AMRO) so that this institution can commence its operations in early 2017 and fulfill its critical tasks.

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Canada will not recognize illegal occupation of Crimea, which is an invariable part of the Ukrainian territory.

Foreign Minister of Canada Stephane Dion said this at the OSCE Ministerial Council, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"I confidently affirm that Canada has not recognized and will not recognize the illegal occupation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, which is an integral part of the territory of Ukraine," Dion said.

He stressed that the search for solutions to settlement of the crisis in Ukraine should be among the priorities of the OSCE's activity.

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US investigative agency FBI has sent a seven member team to Kolkata to interrogate ISIS terrorist Musa.

By Manogya Loiwal : The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the intelligence and security service of the United States of America has sent a seven member team to Kolkata to interrogate ISIS terrorist Mohammad Musiruddin commonly known as Musa.

The team arrived at the National Investigation Agency (NIA) office in Kolkata on Thursday afternoon and has taken custody of Musa from the court for two days.

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Camouflaging as a resident of Birbhum district, Musa was arrested in July this year by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) from Burdwan railway station.

Musa was one of the six operatives of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) who were arrested by Kolkata Police's Special Task Force (STF) and CID in connection to the Khagragarh blast incident.

The probe was taken over by NIA and the agency has been probing his links to JMB and the attacks. Officials in the agency highlighted that he had been in touch with several ISIS operatives in Syria and JMB operatives in Bangladesh through social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, e-mails and even mobile.

25-year-old Musa is known to influence youngsters to join ISIS. Earlier in August this year, an intelligence team of Bangladesh from Dhaka had come to Kolkata in order to interrogate Musa.

Now, FBI is determined to find whether there is and what is the interconnection between Musa and the Daesh leaders. The interrogation began on Thursday evening and will go on for two days.

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Russia leaves open the possibility of exchange Ukrainian prisoners, who stay on the territory of Russia, for Russians, who stay in Ukraine.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said this at a press conference at the OSCE Ministerial Meeting, Yevropeiska Pravda reports.

So Lavrov commented on the question whether it is possible to release Ukrainian hostages, among whom the journalist mentioned Oleg Sentsov, Roman Sushchenko, and Stanislav Klykh.

"As for these people, there is a legal possibility, used when Nadiya Savchenko had been exchanged. There are Russian citizens in Ukrainian prisons, too," he said.

However, the Russian Foreign Minister refrained from specific forecasts about those or other hostages. "It depends on how these opportunities will be used," he said.

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The International Labor Organization (ILO) has expressed its support for Ukraines achievements in implementing European standards in the social and labor sphere.

ILO representatives stated this during a meeting with Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Pavlo Rozenko in Geneva, the government portal reports.

The ILO leadership highly praised the achievements of the Ukrainian side on implementing European standards in the social and labor sphere by introducing modern labor laws and raising labor costs, and expressed hope for further efficient cooperation, reads a statement.

Vice Prime Minister Rozenko during the meeting stated that the Ukrainian government paid special attention to the social protection of population. In particular, he said that Ukraine on November 11, 2016 signed the European Code of Social Security, and added that the Verkhovna Rada on December 6, 2016 adopted a bill on wage system reform.

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French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development has provided medical equipment worth about EUR 15,000 to the Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedics of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine.

This was stated by Ambassador of France to Ukraine Isabelle Dumont, who made a visit to the Institute, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

The French Ambassador talked with the wounded Ukrainian soldiers, who underwent surgery in the hospital, and met with the doctors, who take care of ATO fighters.

The assistance includes medical furniture, surgical equipment, and essential medical supplies.

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Migrant workers from Ukraine, whose number in Poland increases annually, help save the Polish social security system amid demographic crisis and the increase in number of Polish seniors due to lowered retirement age in the country.

This is stated in the Dziennik Gazeta Prawna Polish newspaper.

The article reads that the number of Ukrainians, who pay contributions to the Polish social security system, increased by 70% last year  from 101,000 to 172,000. Ukrainians now make up 64% of all foreigners who pay social contributions in Poland.

Last year, Poland issued work permits to 813,000 Ukrainians. This year, this figure has already reached 938,000.

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I met Jayalalithaa Jayaram just once during the 1990s and was impressed by her command over herself and her government, as she reeled off facts and figures. By then, she had become quite a favourite with the magazine. Since india today's inception in 1975, we have done 10 covers on her. The first one, in 1988, featured her holding on tearfully to M.G. Ramachandran's bier, and the last in April 2016 when she became chief minister of Tamil Nadu for the fourth time. Through this period, we chronicled her incredible rise from being a former actor, popular in AIADMK for her oratorical skills, to indomitable chief minister, to politician accused of corruption whose collection of personal assets earned her the title of Booty Queen. Then again from her role as kingmaker in the first shortlived NDA government in 1999 to Comeback Amma whose party AIADMK won a landslide in 2001, though she personally could not get elected because of her conviction.

The narrative of tragedy following triumph remained constant in her life. She would achieve victory, only to have it tainted either by charges of corruption or by imperious behaviour. She became increasingly intolerant of criticism, completely autocratic in her style of functioning and happily accepting of slavish devotion from her ministers and bureaucrats. She was also convicted thrice and forced to step down twice as chief minister.

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She was nevertheless a tough administrator, who has left Tamil Nadu with good indicators. It has the second largest economy among all states and the third highest per capita income. In the india today State of the States study, 2016, it emerged as the most improved state among big states, being among the top five in five categories-agriculture, education, inclusive development, health and e-governance. But equally, its freebie culture since the days of MGR has seen tremendous strain on the state's finances. In the last five years, with Jayalalithaa in office, the debt level of Tamil Nadu rose 105 per cent from Rs 1.14 lakh crore to Rs 2.35 lakh crore.

But Jayalalithaa, like her politics, was never just about numbers. Amma to her voters, she had a tremendous ability to connect with them at an emotive level. She was a popular film star since the age of 15 and one half of a wildly successful pairing with MGR in 28 films. Add to that her tremendous articulation and never-say-die spirit. It's not easy being a woman politician-not just in India but in the West too as the failure of Hillary Clinton in the US presidential elections has shown. Jayalalithaa had to weather many barbs, torments and rumours. But she soldiered on with the same determination that made her do well in studies in school and made her do films despite her initial reluctance, only because her mother's acting career was failing. Coming from a middle-class background, raised by a single mother, with no political connection, it is quite remarkable that she rose to the top of two professions-cinema and politics. She, in many ways, epitomises the nationwide phenomenon of cult parties, which extend from the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party in the north to Janata Dal (United) and Trinamool Congress in the east. It's also true of the ruling party to some extent, where the thoughts and actions of one leader hold sway.

Jayalalithaa's end illustrates the trouble that ensues when there is no clear line of succession. When such a towering person passes away, temporary compromises are made, which eventually lead to realignments, with subalterns fighting one another. In the case of the AIADMK, it is not clear whether the chief minister is the true heir. It is also not clear what role Jayalalithaa's friend and aide Sasikala will play.

Whoever runs the state will find that Jayalalithaa has left several challenges in her wake. There is a widespread problem of power distribution shortage, urban decay after the floods of 2015, water scarcity, and most importantly, a financially unsustainable culture of subsidies and sops. She has also left her party vulnerable to overtures from the BJP, which may not be interested so much in the 37 AIADMK MPs in the Lok Sabha, given their hefty majority, but certainly in the 13 Rajya Sabha MPs, whose support could help them get crucial legislation through. Our cover story this week looks at the extraordinary life and times of the incomparable Jayalalithaa and, most importantly, at what happens next. Even in death, she will keep us on our toes.

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Winterization moves forward and the first prefab houses are ready to be transferred to Northern Greece.  UNHCR/Yorgos Kyvernitis

With the onset of winter, improving living conditions for asylum-seekers and migrants continues to be the number one priority for humanitarian actors in Greece. It is also still a major challenge. People living in tents out in the open have been moved to alternative accommodation and UNHCRs accommodation scheme, funded by the European Commission, has provided 20,000 badly-needed places for refugees and asylum seekers. But serious challenges remain and many others are in substandard shelters lacking proper protection from winter conditions.

Conditions vary greatly. Some sites are in a poor state and lack services such as psychosocial counselling, health care and interpretation, or even proper security. Over the past months, in a joint effort by humanitarian organizations and authorities under the coordination of Greeces Ministry of Migration Policy, conditions have been improved in the majority of the over 40 official sites, including through upgrades of infrastructure. UNHCR was involved in carrying out improvements and maintenance at 15 of these sites.

In addition, in eight government-run sites people living in tents have been moved into UNHCR prefabricated houses. So far, over 2,600 people have been moved into the prefabs and by the end of the year this figure will rise to 4,000. To help matters in all sites, UNHCR and non-governmental organizations have been working to keep people warm and dry. This has involved delivering over 200,000 sleeping bags, blankets and clothes, and other winter relief items.

The UNHCR accommodation programme, which reached its targeted goal of 20,000 places this week, provides housing for candidates for the EU Emergency Relocation Mechanism and for asylum-seekers considered especially vulnerable. The programme, which started in January, supports the Greek Governments response.

Some 58 per cent of the accommodation is small temporary apartments, run by UNHCRs partners. A further 25 per cent is hotel rooms at special rates. With funding mainly from the European Union, the programme also hosts asylum-seekers in buildings rented for this purpose as well as with Greek host families. Beneficiaries are also provided with psychosocial, legal and interpretation services. Many of those accommodated are waiting to be relocated. As of 7 December, only 6,259 asylum seekers had left Greece under the EU Relocation Mechanism, less than 10 per cent of the 66,400 agreed last year. This is an unacceptably poor response, causing unnecessary uncertainty for people, affecting children including those who are unaccompanied, and prolonging a humanitarian situation for Europe that should have been resolved months ago and which risks encouraging people to move on with the help of smugglers. UNHCR appeals to European countries to do the right thing, by ending this situation without further delay.

As the programme also benefits those who are considered especially vulnerable, UNHCR has been asked to move people out of government-run sites that have not been readied for winter in time. Last week, 1,300 men, women and children were transferred from the windy camps in Petra Olympou in Northern Greece and Malakasa in the Attica region to accommodation under UNHCRs programme. Earlier in the autumn, some 300 people were moved out of Kipselochori in central Greece and Tsepelovo in western Greece. These were unsuitable for winter and have been closed for the cold season.

Children who are unaccompanied or separated from their families are particularly vulnerable to the accommodation and protection gaps in Greece. We are currently providing over 600 places for unaccompanied children in specialized shelters where they get care and counselling. According to official figures, 1,200 girls and boys live in such shelters, with another 1,200 children urgently needing appropriate accommodation.

Another challenge is continued overcrowding and inadequate conditions in official shelters, including the Reception and Identification Centres such as those at Moria or Vathy on the islands of Lesvos and Samos. There increased tension and violence exposes people to further risk. UNHCR continues to urge that finding alternative accommodation be made a priority. This is important for easing the deplorable condition and we are supporting these efforts in coordination with the authorities. In addition, to improve the living conditions, it is of paramount importance that the UNHCR-assisted transfers of asylum-seekers admitted to the procedure to the mainland continue, in close cooperation with the Greek Reception Service and Police. In the past two months, we identified, informed and moved some 900 people from overcrowded island sites to our accommodation programme. All asylum-seekers should have their claims fully registered and processed in time and stronger support from the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) to Greece is needed for this.

For more information on this topic, please contact:
UN Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees Kelly T. Clements (seated, left); Minna Aila, Nokia's Vice President for Marketing and Corporate Affairs (centre) and Omar (right) inside the virtual reality 'igloo' at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.  UNHCR/Jean-Marc Ferre

GENEVA  It is called the igloo, conjuring up the frozen Arctic wastes. This one, however, is not a place in which to live but a space in which to watch, learn and experience.

Inside this igloo, there is a video which does tell a story of travel to the North, a story of a small Syrian refugee boy, Omar, and his resettlement in Finland.

It is called Life in the Time of Refuge, and is a 360-degree virtual reality projection on the walls of the structure rented from the British company Igloo, and using a new, prototype camera developed by Nokia.

This first showing helped launch the UN High Commissioners Dialogue on Protection Challenges. This year it is devoted to the theme of "Children on the Move."

Making the 360-degree video for the 'igloo'

Omar is nine years old. He was born with a hormone deficiency and needs daily injections if he is to grow. When his family fled Syria to Lebanon, his parents could no longer afford the injections. He stopped growing.

In 2015 his family was resettled in Finland. Omar is now in school, he is getting daily injections, and he is growing again. There is a scene of excitement in the video when the nurse tells him he now weighs more than 20 kilograms. But it is still not fast enough for him.

I have the smallest desk in the class, he says in the film. At the swimming pool my feet dont touch the bottom. The other kids tease me. But I swim faster than all of them.

Omar watched himself along with his father, UNHCR Deputy High Commissioner Kelly Clements and executives from Nokia, which provided the camera and underwrote much of the cost of the project.

A story like this one makes the two days of the conference more real, Clements said. It shows people the positive impact of refugee resettlement.

The UN Refugee Agency is already talking to Nokia about further videos, not just to be shown to policy makers but also to people in communities, to bring home the impact of displacement.

It was an emotional moment for me, said Minna Aila, Nokias Vice President for Marketing and Corporate Affairs. Its a happy story among so many sad ones. If we can bring a feeling of empathy to the forefront to people, its a good investment for us.

After the video, Aila chatted to Omar in Finnish. His Finnish is good. Hes a smart boy.

For director David Gough and cameraperson Thomas Maddens, the video was both a first and a challenge.

Because of the nature of the cam, each shot took an average of an hour to set up. One took four hours.

Its an exciting way to tell a story, Gough said.

And Omar? He particularly liked a scene where he threw stones in a lake. It made me laugh.
The accused hurled the grenade at the house of Akoijam Brojen, a head constable of Manipur police, near Singjamei. All victims are now out of danger.

By Manogya Loiwal : 5 people, including a pregnant woman, were injured in a grenade blast outside the house of a policeman in Imphal West district of Manipur on Friday evening, police said.

The accused hurled the grenade at the residence of Akoijam Brojen, a head constable of Manipur police, near Singjamei.

The explosion occurred at around 6.25 pm, police said, adding that all the victims were out of danger.

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Also read | Another bomb found in Manipur after Friday blast

However, the identity of the victims was yet to be established. Locals caught the accused and thrashed him, injuring him seriously. He was also hospitalised.

The motive behind his hurling the grenade was yet to be ascertained, police said.

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With virtually no business being transacted in either House, since the commencement of the Winter session on November 16, the chances of any legislations being passed in the final three days appear bleak.

By Reema Parashar: Parliament today announced a long weekend for its members. Both Houses will now meet only on Wednesday and the session will wrap up by next Friday.

With virtually no business being transacted in either House, since the commencement of the Winter session on November 16, the chances of any legislations being passed in the final three days appear bleak.

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Three crucial legislations related to the Goods and Services Tax Bill are currently awaiting Parliament's approval, so that roll-out of the new tax regime can be a reality by April 1, 2017. But before reaching the doorsteps of Parliament, they need a crucial nod from the GST Council. And that is where the glitch is.

The GST Council so far has been unable to move forward on these legislations in the wake of the states and the Centre reaching no consensus on the latter's insistence on a dual tax regime under GST. Five Council meetings have yielded no results. The sixth time the Council is to meet is on December 11 and 12. If the GST related legislations are to become a reality then this meeting has to see a breakthrough. Given the adamant stand of some states like Kerala and West Bengal, that looks highly unlikely.

Also read:

Demonetisation: My speech will cause earthquake, says Rahul Gandhi

Even if miraculously, the states and the Centre see eye to eye in this final meeting before close of Parliament session, the government will have to push them through Lok Sabha in the form of Money Bills. With the demonetisation debate holding up work in Parliament for 18 days, and the ego tussle threatening to consume even the last three days, there is a slim chance the government will find that easy.

This will derail the implementation of GST. Given the groundwork that needs to be done ahead of roll-out, a breakthrough in the upcoming budget session next year will only add pressure on the government in terms of a tight deadline.

Also read:

Demonetisation: Oppn should apologise to people for disrupting Parliament, says Venkaiah Naidu

It is true that a window for implementation exists until September 16, 2017, after which the Constitutional Amendment moved by the Centre and ratified by the states becomes invalid, a missed deadline (April 1, 2017) would still be a loss of face for the Centre and the BJP.

It's a race against time and it ain't looking pretty at present.

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Also read:

BJP does a Congress in Lok Sabha; Winter Session of Parliament staring at wash out

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Sofia Vergara is known for her role in "Modern Family" as Gloria. But what many do not know is that she is an educated woman. Her role on the hit television series is stereotypical but when she was young, she enrolled at the University of Colombia and took dentistry as her major. However, she needed to pursue further opportunities. She was not able to graduate as she was two semesters short.

Actress Sofia Vergara went into modeling and show business and eventually moved to Miami, Florida to get away from the upheavals in Colombia.

Now, the actress also prepared the future of her children. According to Baby Center, Sofia Vergara and her former boyfriend, Nick Loeb, had produced two embryos via in vitro fertilization. She already named the two embryos as "Emma" and "Isabella." Because both of them are not yet ready to become parents but tried to prepare the future of their kids, they set up a trust which will ensure that both daughters will have a bright future ahead.

Sofia Vergara's trust ensure that the children will be taken cared of. They will have access to health care and education. It is not clear if it includes access to higher education, but the combined income of Sofia Vergara and Nick Loeb can afford their college education.

Many parents are opting to do the same when it comes to preparing for their kids' future. However, most of them do not have in vitro fertilized kids at the beginning. But Sofia Vergara is facing challenges right now when it comes to the future of her children.

Her former fiance, Loeb, is disputing that the embryos should be handed over to him so they can be developed via a surrogate. A lawsuit tries to wedge the contract between Sofia Vergara and Nick Loeb which states that the embryos will be used with both parties' consent.

If Sofia Vergara's daughters, Emma and Isabella were to go to college someday, which university would they choose?
The BJP MPs stood up and demanded that in light of President Pranab Mukherjee's statement, Opposition should apologise to the nation for not letting the house function for 17 days.

By Brijesh Pandey: Today it was the turn of the BJP MPs in Lok Sabha. There has been an outreach working out between the government and the Opposition parties since yesterday and by the end of the day the stage was set for a smooth discussion. Till President Pranab Mukherjee happened.

In a blistering attack at the Opposition parties, President Mukherjee said, "Disruption amounts to gagging the majority as it is the minority which disrupts and the chair has no option but to adjourn the house. For Gods sake, do your job."

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Today the Opposition parties met in Parliament and it was decided that if the question hour is adjourned in the Lok Sabha, then the Opposition is ready for debate without any precondition. Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi said that he is ready with his speech and will speak if he is allowed to. It looked like finally on the 18th day of the Winter session we may finally see some work.

But as soon as the Lok Sabha was convened and Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge stood to speak, there was a chorus of protest from the treasury benches. The BJP MPs stood up and demanded that in light of President Pranab Mukherjee's statement, Opposition should apologise to the nation for not letting the house function for 17 days. Speaker adjourned the House twice before adjourning it till Wednesday.

BLAME GAME

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi said that demonetisation is one of the biggest scam and he is not being allowed to speak as he would expose the Modi government. "If I get to speak then there will be an earthquake," he said.

On predictability lines, the BJP MPs dismissed the statement with derision. Law Minister Ravishankar Prasad said that they have been waiting for Rahul Gandhi to speak but they don't want to speak. "We are ready, provided he also let us speak and not speak and go," he said.

Sources in the government said that they were wary of the fact that the Congress and other Opposition parties will wait till Rahul Gandhi spoke, and after that they will disrupt the House and not let the government speak, and it is one situation which they want to avoid at all cost.

However, in an interesting turnaround, LK Advani and Shanta Kumar expressed displeasure over the ruckus inside the Lok Sabha. They told Finance Minister Arun Jaitley that the ruckus created by BJP MPs was not right. Even the Congress was quick to add to the embarrassment of the BJP.

Congress leader Jyotiraditya Madhavrao Scindia met Advani and said that after the senior BJP leader expressed displeasure they were ready for debate, but it is the BJP MPs who are not letting the House function.

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With just three days remaining the fate of GST bill and Winter Session of Parliament is more than clear.

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The University of Maiduguri has been able to successfully continue operations even in the midst of Boko Haram's insurgency attacks. The institution was able to protect its students from the terrorist group.

Quartz reported that the University of Maiduguri is one of Nigeria's major higher institutions of learning. The school has continued to operate in spite of the fact that the city where it is located is best known nowadays as the place where Boko Haram was created.

University authorities and officials of the Civilian Joint Task Force, Borno Command, noted that the school has not experienced an incident of violent extremism in its campus. Habu Kale Tijjani, a local and State Coordinator of Borno Social Media Frontiers confirmed that the University of Maiduguri has continued to run undisturbed.

It was clarified that the peace and order was not caused by Boko Haram's indifference to the school. Young men from universities are prime candidates for terrorist organizations since they are both intelligent and impressionable. This means that they can carry out complicated commands in the name of a cause.

One student from the university revealed that Boko Haram has tried to attack the campus several times. The student revealed that intelligence agents were scattered across the campus and worked with university guards and the military to thwart the terrorist group's takeover.

Boko Haram was able to get students to join them off-campus, though. "Some UNIMAID students followed and converted to the Boko Haram sect. Many even destroyed their university documents," Habu Kale Tijjani, a civil society activist, revealed.

Prof. Aliyu Shugaba, the university's deputy vice chancellor in charge of Academic Services, added that the school decided to continue operations because they did not want students to return to their homes where Boko Haram militants were already in charge. If the school did shut down, it would mean that their students would be forced to join the group or killed if they resisted.
Mamata had read out an excerpt of the CAG report yesterday at a press conference and said that the scam happened while Narendra Modi was chief minister of Gujarat and RBI Governor was member of GSPC.

By Romita Datta: The Gujarat government today has rubbished allegations heaped by Mamata Banerjee on Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation.

Banerjee had alleged that the loan of Rs 19,000 crore taken by GSPC for drilling gas has been converted to a NPA as there has been no repayment of the loan and no production.

WHAT HAPPENED

Mamata had read out an excerpt of the CAG report yesterday at a press conference and said that the scam happened while Narendra Modi was chief minister of Gujarat and RBI Governor was member of GSPC.

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An official of Gujarat, who was part of the Vibrant Guujarat road show in Kolkata said that such allegations were baseless as GSPC had been into production for the last one and a half year. Out of its target of 25 wells, it has constructed seven wells and it has been repaying the loan to a consortium of banks to the tune of Rs 1800 crore every year for the last three years.

The official also said the CAG report has made a note that the project had been delayed and nothing more than.

Mamata Banerjee had raised the allegations to attack Modi on the demonetisation issue.

However, the officials have maintained that the allegations were blatant lies. A minister of Gujarat, B Chudasama said that business men of Bengal have made a beeline to Gujarat because there is no political interference and there is ease of doing business.

Also Read

After demonetisation, Mamata now attacks PM Modi over GSPC scam, says he has lost credibility to continue in office

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UW Begins Reorganization with Focus on Excellence

Aiming to improve student enrollment, retention and completion, the University of Wyoming is moving forward with a reorganization that will bring campus units focused on student services together with the universitys academic functions.

Additionally, in an effort to expand its off-campus offerings, units of UWs Outreach School will be assimilated into a new structure within the Office of Academic Affairs.

The new structure will not only retain, but in many cases greatly enhance, existing functions at the university, including those currently residing in the Office of Student Affairs and the Outreach School, says Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Kate Miller. From my perspective, perhaps the most exciting aspect of this change is the way it will foster expansion of the mission of our Outreach School, including distance education programming and community college partnerships.

The plan, outlined in a message from the provost to the UW community today (Thursday), has an overall objective of fostering academic excellence and careful stewardship of public funds. The administrations timeline calls for examination of the restructuring, including feedback from university stakeholders, between now and March, with implementation taking place from March to the start of the new fiscal year July 1, 2017.

The restructuring will bring together functions focused on students -- from recruitment and enrollment to graduation and job placement -- under the provost and Office of Academic Affairs.

Functions that directly involve enrollment management -- including Admissions and Recruiting, Registration and Records, Scholarships and Financial Aid, Summer School, and Summer Outreach Programs -- will report directly to the provost through a new associate vice president. A number of these units currently reside in both the Office of Student Affairs and the Outreach School.

Student retention efforts including STEP, Student Educational Opportunity, and the Center for Advising and Career Services -- which currently reside in both the offices of Student Affairs and Academic Affairs -- will be brought under one umbrella under an associate vice president for academics.

These moves are designed to provide focused, intentional infrastructure that more effectively promotes success for all student populations, Miller says. Simultaneously, the Center for Advising and Career Services is undergoing a redesign to work with colleges to coordinate and train all student academic advisers in better working with first-year, transfer and continuing students; provide a more immersive approach to career development; and shepherd exploratory studies majors.

The associate dean overseeing UWs branch campus in Casper and the regional centers, who currently reports to the Outreach School, will report directly to the provost.

This will boost our efforts to provide a seamless transition across higher education in Wyoming and reinforce our ability to both work with Wyoming transfer students and to provide more educational opportunities to students who choose to pursue their education outside of Laramie via UW distance courses online and other technological delivery methods, Miller says. We will examine the possible addition of new degree programs, certificates, endorsements and not-for-credit opportunities that enhance workforce development and reach new populations of traditional and nontraditional students.

Existing units and programs in Student Affairs and the Outreach School that have an international focus, including the English Language Center, International Programs, and International Students and Scholars, will be brought together under one executive director who will report to the provost.

This will strengthen our ability to provide students, faculty, staff and extended UW community members access to transformative international opportunities -- and help them share and build the knowledge and skills needed to lead and excel in a globally interconnected world, Miller says.

With respect to graduate education, Interim Associate Vice President Ann Hild will soon assemble a task force that will conceptualize a newly designed Graduate School. This task force will be composed of university leaders who are committed to research and graduate education and have insights into the types of support needed for graduate student success.

The objectives of the reorganization include:

-- More directly tying student recruitment, retention, learning and success to the work of faculty and academic administration, and significantly increasing enrollment, retention and graduation rates.

-- Ensuring that the university fully embraces the 21st century instructional environment including online, hybrid, distance and outreach teaching approaches, along with strong partnerships with community colleges.

-- Expanding opportunities for transformative learning experiences that extend beyond the classroom including internships, research and international experiences.

-- Strengthening support for research and economic development by promoting new degree offerings and graduate and undergraduate student experiences that align with state, national and international demand for research of societal importance and graduates who are well prepared to enter the workforce.

-- Improving efficiency and effectiveness of operations to include achievement of budget reduction targets for the 2017-18 fiscal year.

-- Encouraging innovative and entrepreneurial approaches to funding the universitys mission.

We expect that this reorganization will lead to an overall reduction in cost, and, importantly, we expect that UW students will retain, persist and graduate at higher rates, and our faculty will be better supported in their instructional and research activities, Miller says. Most employees will retain their jobs; we will rely on their expertise as we move forward.
UW Researcher Studies Increased Predation of Sagebrush Songbirds in Natural Gas Fields

A Brewers sparrow incubates eggs in its nest. Anna Chalfoun, a University of Wyoming associate professor in the Department of Zoology and Physiology, and assistant unit leader of the Wyoming Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Unit, and her graduate students have been studying increased nest predation of three types of sagebrush-obligate birds by rodents in the vicinity of oil and gas wells. (Anna Chalfoun Photo)

Arid land bird populations are in decline around the vicinity of oil and gas wells in Wyoming -- but, not for the reasons you might initially think.

While such development has encroached on and hindered nesting habitat for three types of sagebrush-obligate birds, predation of these birds has increased because rodent populations in the vicinity of oil and gas wells have increased, which has, in turn, increased nest predation.

Anna Chalfoun, a University of Wyoming associate professor in the Department of Zoology and Physiology, and assistant unit leader of the Wyoming Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Unit, and her graduate students have been studying and collecting data about three species -- the Brewers sparrow, sagebrush sparrow and sage thrasher -- in Wyoming for seven years. These birds use sagebrush for cover to build their nests on the ground or low to the ground within the sagebrush.

The study, which began seven years ago, has taken place at six sites in Jonah Field and six more at the Pinedale Anticline in western Wyoming.

We found the majority of nest predators at the nests are rodents. Rodents are more abundant where there is natural gas development, Chalfoun says. We tested the hypothesis that rodents were more abundant surrounding gas fields because their main predators (raptors, coyotes and badgers) avoided gas fields, but our data did not support this idea.

Lindsey Sanders, a UW masters student in zoology and physiology from Boulder Creek, Calif., conducted work on the above hypothesis, Chalfoun says.

Besides mice, these rodents include two species of squirrels -- Uinta ground squirrels and the 13-striped ground squirrel.

We are now continuing to try to figure out why the rodents are in the natural gas development areas where there is (nesting) habitat loss, Chalfoun says. We are seeing more rodents. We are not sure why they are drawn to those areas. Another hypothesis is that they are receiving food subsidies from the sometimes novel types of plants that establish in the reclaimed areas surrounding well pads and along pipeline scars.

Anna Chalfoun swaps out batteries for a nest camera setup on a Brewer's sparrow nest at the Jonah Field outside Pinedale. (Dave Showalter Photo)

The studys findings show:

-- Sagebrush songbirds settled areas with more surrounding natural gas development, simultaneously or earlier than areas with less natural gas development. The birds settled there even though nest predation rates were higher. Their nesting period runs from May through late July.

Do songbirds prefer to settle in habitats that are not in gas fields? The answer is no, Chalfoun says. Birds come from their wintering grounds just to breed. Songbirds apparently are not able to assess they are going to have higher nest predation there.

Weve found that birds select sites with less energy development and lots of energy development at the same time. Theres no pattern to settling areas with zero surrounding wells and areas that have tons of wells. As long as there are patches of significant sage, they are there. Yet, the birds are less successful at reproducing in gas well areas, suggesting these areas may be serving as ecological traps.

-- Detection of most rodent species increased with natural gas development.

One current hypothesis is that a number of sheds on property where natural gas fields exist have drawn in the rodents, who use the structures for protection, warmth and to build nests for their young. This behavior, in turn, may be attracting more predators of the rodents, Chalfoun says.

In places like the Jonah Field, there are lots of little sheds and structures, she says. What if this is providing a source of rodents that depredate nests? If the infrastructure is harboring the rodents, do we go and put out traps?

-- Rates of nest predation increased with local rodent abundance.

From 2011-16, 93 percent of predation to Brewers sparrows was caused by rodents. Of 44 predation events captured on infrared video camera, 24 were by deer mice. Chipmunks accounted for 11 nest deaths, while ground squirrels were responsible for six casualties. The loggerhead shrike, a type of bird, was responsible for the other three deaths.

During the same time period, 60 percent of predation of 23 sage thrasher nest depredations caught on camera was caused by rodents, including deer mice (eight), chipmunks (eight) and ground squirrels (four). Badgers were responsible for six deaths and magpies two. A raccoon, loggerhead shrike, American kestrel, short-eared owl and northern harrier each accounted for one death.

I get jazzed to know whats going on, she says. The mice are so aggressive. They sometimes suffocate and take the nestlings out one at a time. Weve found the majority of nest predators at the nests are rodents.

We started this because state and federal agencies, such as the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, and the U.S. Geological Survey, were interested in the effects of habitat change on nongame species of wildlife, she says.
By PTI: New Delhi, Dec 9 (PTI) A Delhi court would pronounce on December 26 its order on whether to summon certain documents from Congress party and Associated Journals Ltd (AJL), as sought by BJP MP Subramanian Swamy, in the National Herald case filed against Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and others.

Metropolitan Magistrate Lovleen reserved his order after hearing the arguments of complainant Swamy and the accused, also including Congress leaders like Motilal Vora, Oscar Fernandes, Suman Dubey and Sam Pitroda.

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During the hearing today, the counsel appearing for the accused told the court that Swamy was seeking a "fishing and roving enquiry" in the case by calling for the documents from the party and the AJL as he wanted to make out a "new case" against them.

Swamy, however, termed the allegation as baseless and said his demand was legitimate.

In the present application, Swamy has sought documents relating to a loan given by the Congress to the AJL, the holding firm of the National Herald, saying these were necessary for the purpose of trial.

Swamy has accused the Gandhis and others of conspiring to cheat and misappropriate funds by paying just Rs 50 lakh by which Young Indian Pvt Ltd (YI) obtained the right to recover Rs 90.25 crore which AJL owed to the Congress party. All accused have denied the allegations levelled against them. PTI UK SKV SK

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Wyoming Business Tips for Dec. 18-24

A weekly look at Wyoming business questions from the Wyoming Small Business Development Center (WSBDC), part of WyomingEntrepreneur.Biz, a collection of business assistance programs at the University of Wyoming.

By Sarah Hamlin, WSBDC Network business adviser

Do you have any strategies for how to provide the best customer service during this busy season? Paula, Riverton

We all know that good customer service is important. Regardless of whether you own a bricks and mortar, online or service-based business, good customer service is vital to your success.

Interacting with your customers and potential customers in a way that is helpful and informed is one of the quickest ways for you to build relationships, creating repeat customers. Its busy for small-business owners during the holiday season. Here are some strategies to help put your best foot forward:

-- Make sure your staff is informed about the ads that are running, updates in your catalog and any online promotions. An uninformed salesperson cannot address the questions and concerns of your customer. This is the perfect opportunity to show off your knowledgeable staff as one asset over the competition.

-- Make your store comfortable. Experiment with lowering the temperature of your store to accommodate customers wearing their winter clothing. Offer cold or hot drinks, based on the weather. Allow customers to leave items up front while they continue to shop, or provide them with a basket as they walk around your store.

-- Greet everyone who walks through the door. Challenge your employees to make this fun, inviting and engaging for your customer.

-- Encourage your staff members to introduce themselves to customers (by name) when they walk in or answer the phone. This provides an extra special touch that helps build a trusting relationship between your staff and customers.

-- Educate your staff on what other events and sales are happening around town. For every $100 spent in our communities, $68 stays locally. By reminding customers what other products or services they can get locally, you are helping to encourage the shop small mentality that makes all of us successful.

-- Good customer service, especially in a busy season, is what customers will remember about you. It is one of the reasons that they will come back and shop with you again.

Take this holiday season to build good customer service habits that will benefit you all year long.

A blog version of this article and an opportunity to post comments are available at www.wyomingsbdc.org/blog1/.

The WSBDC is a partnership of the U.S. Small Business Administration, the Wyoming Business Council and the University of Wyoming. To ask a question, call 1-800-348-5194, email wsbdc@uwyo.edu, or write 1000 E. University Ave., Dept. 3922, Laramie, WY, 82071-3922.
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By Pramod Madhav: Senior Tamil actor Gautami Tadimalla, in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has raised various questions about the lack of transparency on the hospitalisation and treatment given to late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa after she was admitted to Chennai's Apollo Hospitals on September 22.

Jayalalithaa, popularly known as Amma, was rushed to the hospital on the night of September 22 after she complained of breathlessness.

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A sense of panic and fear gripped the state immediately until the moment the hospital management released a statement, saying that she was suffering from fever and dehydration and that she needed some rest.

But Jayalalithaa stayed for 75 days in the hospital until December 5 when it was declared by the hospital that she passed away at 11.30pm.

Both the hospital and the state government were not transparent about her health and the only updates were provided by the hospital.

READ: What exactly happened to Jayalalithaa? We got this from doctors who know

JAYALALITHAA'S SUDDEN DEATH WAS TRAGIC

In her letter to Modi, Gautami has claimed that Jayalalithaa's sudden death - though tragic and unsettling - pointed out that there was "a sheer volume of unanswered questions" about her hospitalisation, treatment, reported recovery and sudden death.

"Her demise is all the more tragic and unsettling because of the circumstances over the past few months and the sheer volume of unanswered questions about our late Chief Minister's hospitalisation, treatment, reported recovery and very sudden passing. There has been a near total blanketing of information regarding these matters," she writes.

Gautami questions as to why there was "such secrecy and isolation" of a leader loved by the people. She asks who restricted the partymen's and the people's access to her?

Gautami says she is also surprised about the fact that some people were making decisions about the Chief Minister's treatment when she was in a delicate state.

Also read: Jayalalithaa's property: From Toyota Prado, farm land to gold and silver jewellery

"No doubt, some might say that it is a moot point because it has happened as it has, but that, Sir, is my precise fear," Gautami says in her letter to Modi.

With the unexpected death of the Jayalalithaa, the fate of AIADMK hangs in balance.

An unsettling confusion also prevails in the minds of the people of Tamil Nadu as to how Jayalalithaa could die suddenly when the hospital management and AIADMK spokespersons were repeatedly claiming that she has recovered.

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Full text of Gautami's letter to PM Modi:

The Honourable Prime Minister of India,

Shri Narendra Modiji

Dear Sir,

I write this letter to you today as an ordinary citizen of India. I am a homemaker, a mother and a working woman. My concerns and priorities in my life are those that are shared by many of my fellow countrymen, primarily to build a safe and nurturing environment for my family that will allow them to live a safe and fulfilled life.

I am also one among the crores who are mourning the recent shocking demise of our late Chief Minister, Selvi Dr. J Jayalalithaa ji. She was a towering personality in Indian politics and was a great inspiration for women from all walks of life. Her leadership of Tamil Nadu, over several terms in office, has brought us to the forefront in many spheres of development. Selvi Dr. Jayalalithaa ji's undeniable strength and determination to persevere against all odds are a lasting legacy that will continue to inspire individuals of every gender to persist in pursuit of their dreams in life.

Her demise is all the more tragic and unsettling because of the circumstances over the past few months and the sheer volume of unanswered questions about our late Chief Minister's hospitalisation, treatment, reported recovery and very sudden passing. There has been a near total blanketing of information regarding these matters.

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Nobody had been allowed access to her and many dignitaries who visited her with deep concern were denied an opportunity to convey their wishes in person. Why this secrecy and isolation of a beloved public leader and the head of the Tamil Nadu government?

What/whose authority restricted access to the late Chief Minister? Who were the concerned persons who were making the decisions about Selvi Dr. J Jayalalithaa ji's treatment and care when her health was apparently in such a delicate state? And who is responsible for these answers to the people? These and many other burning questions are being asked by the people of Tamil Nadu and I echo their voice in bringing them to your ears, sir.

No doubt some might say that it is a moot point because it has happened as it has, but that, sir, is precisely my fear. I ask these questions now because it is a primary concern and right of every citizen of India to be aware of and informed about their democratically elected leaders. To be aware of their state of health and ability to perform their duties for the larger good of the people. To be concerned for the wellness and comfort of a beloved leader of the masses. And the fact that a tragedy of such tremendous scale should not go unquestioned and definitely, not unanswered, under any circumstances. If this be the case with a public figure of this magnitude, then what chance doesthe common citizen of India have when he fights for his personal rights? The confidence of every Indian in the democratic process that makes our nation so great is precious and must be protected against all odds.

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I am writing to you now, sir, with the complete confidence that you share my anxiety and determination to uphold the rights of every Indian to be aware and informed of any factor that impacts our day to day life. You have proven yourself in many ways to be a leader who is unafraid to stand up for the rights of the common man and I am confident that you will heed the call of your fellow countrymen.

With my deepest respects and trust

Jai Hind!

Gautami Tadimalla

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By PTI: From Sajjad Hussain

Islamabad, Dec 9 (PTI) The differences over formation of a probe commission took centre stage at a hearing into the Panamagate case in the Supreme Court today with Imran Khan- led Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf saying it will boycott such a panel and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharifs family agreeing to it.

The Supreme Court adjourned the hearing in the case till first week of January as differences over formation of a probe commission dominated the procedings.

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A five-judge larger bench is hearing the Panamagate case after Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and four other petitioners approached the apex court, alleging that ill-gotten money was used by Sharifs family to buy flats in London, which were run through offshore companies as shown in Panama papers leak.

The court sought opinion about setting up an independent commission as it said that the evidence presented by the parties was not enough to decide the case.

But PTI counsel Naeem Bokhari announced the partys decision to boycott a commission to probe the Panamagate scam.

However, Sharifs lawyer Salman Aslam and his childrens counsel Akram Sheikh told the court their clients would accept the decision to set up a commission.

Meanwhile, Awami Muslim League (AML) leader Sheikh Rashid, presenting his own stance in the absence of a lawyer, asked the court to give a decision instead of waiting for winter break or setting up a commission.

After these arguments, the court adjourned the case till first week of January as Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali said that the two-week court vacations will start from December 15.

Significantly, chief justice Jamali would retire on December 30 and the current bench would become dysfunctional.

According to the court, a new bench would be formed headed by the new chief justice Mian Saqib Nisar, who will take oath on December 31, and the case will be heard from the beginning before the new bench. PTI SH ASK AKJ ASK

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President Tran Dai Quang (R) meets with Vietnamese Honourary Consul in Madagascar Eric Andry Ramiandrasoa

Ramiandrasoa, who is leading a trade delegation to Vietnam, said the current trip offers a good opportunity for Madagascan businesses to study cooperation agreements with Vietnamese partners such as the military-run telecom group Viettel and the national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines.



The recent visit to Madagascar by President Tran Dai Quang to attend the 16th Francophone Summit has created a premise for collaboration between the two countries business communities, he added.

For his part, President Quang affirmed that the Vietnamese State always supports the development of equal and win-win business cooperation based on national and international law.



Vietnam is home to over 600,000 enterprises, including numerous groups and companies operating effectively abroad, he noted.



The Southeast Asian country is ready to partner with Madagascan firms in agriculture, aquaculture, garment-textile, cement production, and construction materials, he said.



It also boasts strength in other fields such as aviation, telecommunication, hydropower, infrastructure investment  seaport, and accommodation for low-income earners.



Vietnam pledged to create optimal conditions for Madagascan companies to build bilateral business partnership, he affirmed.
"Tape Art Collective Berlin" has been being fascinated by Tape Art since 2011 and their artwork is made from tapes of all colours, sizes, and materials, ranging from room-filling installations to abstract structures which can be found in a variety of places, such as underground night clubs, abandoned buildings, showrooms, and galleries.

"Tape That Collective Berlin" has been working on different projects in various countries such as Egypt, Spain, Qatar, Bulgaria, Cambodia, and the UK. In the interest of introducing "Tape Art" to Vietnamese artists, other interested parties, and in collaboration with the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany in Ho Chi Minh City, "Tape Art Collective Berlin" will run two workshops "Tape Art around the world - Vietnam".

The first workshop will be launched on December 15, at Mais Gallery - 3A Station (3A Ton Duc Thang, Ben Nghe, District 1) and is expected to attract local, foreign artists based in Ho Chi Minh City and other interested parties as well.

The second one on December 16 at the International German School IGS  12 Vo Truong Toan, An Phu, District 02 will be for IGSs students and some of their staff.

At both workshops, all the participants are going to have a chance to discover their own creativity just by working with tapes in different colours and sizes from Germany.

Following the aforementioned workshops, a Live Performance will be held on December 17 at 3A Station where the German artists are going to create their own artworks on a white wall which will surely attrackt a large audience.

The last day of the event will be an exhibition day at Mais Gallery  3A Station from on December 18 where the best artworks produced at the two workshops will be shown.

In Hanoi, Tape art around the world-Vietnam will take place from December 11 to 14.

The participation in the entire event is free of charge.
The flood situation in the central provinces from Quang Ngai to Ninh Thuan has continued to worsen because of the influence of consecutive heavy downpours and water release from the local irrigation reservoirs in the recent days, reported the Department of Natural Disaster Prevention in the Central and Central Highlands region.

Flood level on the river systems is rising rapidly due to heavy rains and water release from the local irrigation reservoirs.

More than 1,000 houses are damaged

The floodwater caused serious damages to people and the property, 17 people died from December 5- 7.

Yesterday, the water level on local river systems of Quang Ngai and Binh Dinh reached up to level 3.

The floodwater inundated more than 1,000 houses under 0.5- 1meter water, made landfall of ten interprovincial traffic roads.

Rising water on Tra Khuc River caused 20 kilometers of talus landslide in Quang Ngai. In the face of the breakdown, the Peoples Committee in Quang Ngai and functional forces cleaned up stone embankment and repaired dyke systems.

Irrigation reservoirs respectively open water release

Long- lasting medium- heavy rains occurred in the south central region in the past three days.

The highest rainfall in Khanh Hoa and Ninh Thuan reached at 80- 150 mm, even up to 300 mm in some places while local irrigation reservoirs continued to release water. It is forecast that localities in two provinces will continue to facing floods.

In Ninh Thuan, around ten irrigation reservoirs started releasing water with a volume of 100 meter cubic per seconds.

Statistics showed that the heavy rain and flood destroyed over 600 hectares of rice crops, 70 hectares of shrimp ponds, 1.2 hectares of fishing farming and 40 hectares of salty crops and 100 houses.

Heavy rain in parallel with water release from nine irrigation reservoirs caused devastating flood in the low areas of Khanh Hoa.

Adopting anti-flooding measures

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has just sent an emergency message to the flood affected localities to quickly overcome the consequences and help keep stability to people's lives.

The PM condoled with the victims families and shared with difficulties of local authorities. He asked the Peoples Committee of the provinces and relevant agencies should adopt necessary measures for anti-flooding, instructing residents out of damaged zones.

In addition, Mr. Nguyen Xuan Phuc also asked the Ministry of Trade and Industry to control the operation of reservoirs and hydropower plants; and Ministry of Transportation quickly overcome consequences of the landslide to ensure smooth traffic.

Quang Nam village isolated as road swept away in flood

Nearly 350 families in Dong Binh Village have been isolated for the last few days after a new flood in Quang Nam Province damaged a bridge and the only road to the outside.

Nearly 90m of bridge and road that local people contributed and helped build three years ago to connect Dong Binh Village with the outside world were destroyed in the flood on December 4. On December 7, hundreds of people and local security forces attempted to rapidly repair the bridge and the road despite heavy rain.

Villager Nguyen Van Anh said, "We raised the funds and built this bridge and road. But the rain and hydropower discharge caused the water to rapidly rise. If we don't repair the bridge quickly, Dong Binh Village will be isolated for a long time."

It also caused erosion in Ha My Village. Villager Nguyen Duy Cuong said when the road connecting Ha My and Dong Binh villages was damaged, the water broke in and swept away his newly-built convenient store and some palm trees.

Pham Thi Cuc, another local said she suffered a loss of VND20m (USD883) after her store was swept away.

Nguyen Sau, chairman of Duy Vinh Commune, said the road was vital for Dong Binh villagers to trade with other places.

"We sent about 500 police, local security guards and police from neighbouring communes too, to repair the road. We are also encouraging people to use their boats to carry Dong Binh villagers," he said.

He went on to say that the damage was estimated at VND6bn (USD265,000).

Reports from the Department of Natural Disaster Prevention in the Central and Highlands on December 8 showed that since December 6, four people have died, two are missing and three are injured during the floods.

Many districts in Binh Dinh Province have been left submerged under 1-1.5 metres of water. Quang Ngai Province asked for VND7bn in urgent support to buy seeds for the coming cultivation season and 300kg of rice for the flood victims.
A Cambodian woman decants rice wine into a water bottle for sale in Phnom Penh (AFP)

Residents started falling ill after drinking the traditional spirit at a series of funerals in a village in central Kampong Chhnang province, according to the director of the local hospital.

"From (late) November until now, 10 people have died and around 50 have come here to get treatment," said Sorin Ravuthy.

The ceremonial drink is a staple at Cambodian festivals, funerals and weddings. But it can be deadly if brewed improperly with methanol.

The province's deputy police chief Ly Virak said authorities believed tainted wine was responsible for the recent wave of deaths.

"Yes, it was rice wine poisoning, but we have not yet received all the details," he told AFP.

Deaths from bad batches of rice wine - which is cheap and often locally brewed - are fairly common in Cambodia, a poor country with lax health and safety standards.

One year ago at least 19 people were killed and 200 hospitalised in northeast Cambodia after drinking wine with toxic levels of methanol.
The local telecommunications market is the scene of fierce 3G competition

The prime minister last week gave in-principle approval to FPT Group and FPT Telecom being strategic investors of EVN Telecom.

EVN Telecom will this month announce its strategic investors after its negotiations with FPT and its affiliate FPT Telecom are finalised.

An EVN Telecom source revealed that the stake to be sold to FPT and FPT Telecom would be more than 50 per cent.

FPT Telecom was already licenced to be a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) and is piloting LTE TDD technology.

Mobile business is what we want in our business portfolio and we are enthusiastic in our negotiations with partners. Our investment capital will be 10-times the amount we previously planned to invest in EVN Telecom, said FPT deputy general director Phan Duc Trung Trung.

FPT previously planned to invest VND400 billion ($21 million) in EVN Telecom as the former wanted to use the latters facility to provide mobile service.

The upcoming involvement of FPT and FPT Telecom in EVN Telecom means there would be no chance for foreign entities to be the mobile operators strategic partners.

Previously, EVN Telecom, which is expected to be the first mobile operator to be equitised in Vietnam, announced its plan to sell a 30 per cent stake to a foreign strategic investor. Details of the plan were not revealed then, except that the strategic investor would be a Singaporean or Malaysian firm.

EVN Telecom then also said the foreign strategic investors name would be made public after the company completed its equitisation process in September, this year.

Meanwhile, MobiFones long-awaited equitisation has seen many delays. The company was converted into a one-member company in early July and is still waiting for new government directions. The company planned to sell a 30 per cent stake to investors, including 15 per cent to strategic partners.

Viettel Telecom does not have a clear equitisation plan, as it is trying to complete a restructuring proposal by expanding into other business segments such as mobile handset production.

The long-awaited VinaPhone equitisation is still distant, as VNPT Groups restructuring proposal has not yet been approved by the Ministry of Information and Communications.
Photo: VGP

PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc made the remarks while addressing the 2016 ASEAN Business Summit in Ha Noi on December 8.

In its third year, the annual conference featured the attendance of ASEAN leaders across the business, and finance sectors and government for the first time.

In his speech, PM Phuc noted that implementing the ASEAN Community Vision 2025, Viet Nam and other ASEAN nations are determined to continue strengthening the ASEAN connectivity and building a people-oriented ASEAN Community that operates by law, ensure the rights and interest of the people, expands relations with partners and holds an increasingly important position in the region and around the globe.

As a large market with a population of over 600 million and a dynamic and creative business community, the central role of ASEAN in the region, particularly economic cooperation, trade and investment, has drawn engagement and support from the international business community, even including the worlds leading corporations, he said.

Viet Nam has always been a responsible and active member in building a strong and cohesive ASEAN since it joined the bloc in 1995, the government leader affirmed, speaking highly of ASEAN member countries support for Viet Nam and the effective cooperation from ASEAN businesses, investors and partners during the countrys renewal, open door and integration process.

Despite facing tough challenges in an array of areas, including security, economics, food, currency, climate change and the possible return of protectionism, ASEAN still enjoys numerous opportunities for development, which stem from the fourth industrial revolution, the formation of the ASEAN Community and the establishment of large-scale free trade blocs of high standards, he noted.

In that context, the PM called on the ASEAN nations to unite together to facilitate economic connectivity and develop transport infrastructure and elastic connection, aiming to facilitate the cross-border flow of commercial goods, investment and services, and build a united and effective ASEAN market.

To ensure development, each ASEAN member country needs to boost innovation, improve competitiveness, further participate in global supply chains and work towards greater added values, he said, hailing the ASEAN business community as a driving force for the regional economic connectivity process contributing startup initiatives and creating a new impulse in trade and investment development.

The leader expressed his hope that investors outside the region would discover cooperation opportunities with ASEAN partners in the spirit of mutual benefits.

At the 2016 summit, major topics of discussion included a review of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) and intra-regional policy to date, Viet Nam and ASEANs next stage of development, and cross-border investment and trade in the region. Specific panel discussions focused on growth sectors such as consumer goods, infrastructure, commodities and energy, banking and finance, and media and technology.


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By PTI: Munger (Bihar), Dec 9 (PTI) Munger Police has come up with an idea as part of which people will share information relating to crime in their area with the patrol party over a cup of tea.

The idea is the brainchild of Munger Superintendent of Police Ashish Bharti to effectively deal with crime in the district notorious for illegal arms trade.

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As part of the programme, residents and alerts about crime in their area will share information with the patrolling party over tea, the SP said.

The patrol party will get a form signed by the residents of the locality they visit which will serve as evidence of their visit to the area.

The residents will be given a "police mitra card", bearing the SPs signature, acknowledging their efforts to cut down on crime.

"The idea would help police forge a better relationship with the residents and personnel awake in the dead of the night," the SP said, adding the programme starts tonight.

Three patrolling parties have been deployed in town police station area, two in Kasimbazar police station area and one in Jamalpur. PTI CORR SNS NN GVS

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A shortfin mako shark such as this one was caught near Manns Harbor off North Carolina last month after it traveled more than 8,500 miles, according to an ocean research group. A tracking device noted the shark traveled an average of 15 miles a day over 557 days.
Is it possible that TV cooking shows are a recipe for trouble?

A new study by researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst sheds some not-so-positive light on what happens in the kitchens ruled by TV chefs. With that study as a jumping-off point, here are six lessons from TV cooking shows that you should put on your home-cooking menu.

1. Be mindful of food safety.

The study by the University of Massachusetts Amherst researchers examined food safety on 39 episodes of 10 popular TV cooking shows.

While the majority of the episodes complied with good practices for using and storing utensils, preventing contamination and caring for fingernails, the study says, most lacked proper attention to using gloves, and maintaining proper time and temperature controls. Furthermore, food safety practices were mentioned in just three of the 39 episodes.

Nancy Cohen, lead author of the study, says: For most behaviors observed, the percentage of shows in conformance with recommended practices was much lower than that seen in restaurant employees and consumers in general.

Given that 48 million cases of foodborne illness are reported each year in the U.S., the researchers were disappointed that, in general, the TV chefs didnt take the opportunity to model and teach good food safety practices for millions of viewers.

2. Watch the salt.

Food blogger Krysten Dornik says she loves cooking shows and even has picked up great recipe ideas from them, although she cant eat many of the dishes they fix due to food allergies. What she doesnt love, however, is how TV chefs pour on the salt.

The amount of salt that all of these chefs use in their dishes is insane. It seems like they use one-fourth of a cup of table salt in each and every dish, Dornik says. People are eating too much salt as it is, and TV chefs have such an incredible platform to teach people that you can make a dish taste amazing without adding all the extra salt. Spices and fresh herbs can go a long way.

3. Ditch the refined ingredients.

Cookbook author Jorj Morgan says too many unwanted preservatives, in the form of processed ingredients, find their way into food thats prepared on TV cooking shows.

With this in mind, consider having the freshest version of featured ingredients possible, Morgan says. Its not hard to find unrefined ingredients. Just shop the periphery of the grocery store  where the healthier groceries are  and ask specialists at the meat, produce and bakery counters if they can help.

4. Know the (test) score.

Morgan recommends watching only those TV cooking shows that test their recipes before theyre made on the air. You can find out which TV chefs do preshow testing by searching online or posing a question on social media, she says.

Cooking-show recipes often arent tested ahead of time, so when everyday cooks try to replicate them at home, they dont turn out like the cooking-show version, Morgan says.

5. Take your time.

Cooking shows speed up the process, and if you take what you see too literally, it can lead to an unrealistic result, Morgan says. You cant cook even a snack in 90 seconds!

6. Dont be discouraged.

It can be intimidating to see Rachel Ray or Jamie Oliver perform kitchen magic on TV. You shouldnt let that stop you from aspiring to be a home-cooking star, though.

I am here to tell you that cooking is not some mysterious dark art, a skill that is born not taught. Cooking can absolutely be learned, cooking-show aficionado Lane Whitaker, an author and sportswriter, says on GQ.com.

Whitaker says hes honed his home-cooking craft by studying and practicing, along with watching hours and hours of cooking shows on TV.

When I started out, I treated every recipe as gospel, following the recommended steps with militant fervor, Whitaker says. Once I had developed the requisite knowledge base, I began to see spots where I could flex a little bit, and realized stuff like maybe some capers would be a nice addition to that potato salad.
Rong Chhun, a former activist and frequent face at workers protests in Cambodia, whose advocacy even occasionally landed him in jail, is today a far less public or controversial figure than before.

It has been almost two years since Chhun, former president of the Cambodian Independent Teachers Association, left the advocacy group he had led for over 15 years to serve as a member of the National Election Committee (NEC).

The move marked a significant change in the work of the activist, who made his name through street protests and relentless criticism of the government.

Now as part of the reformed nine-member NEC founded in 2015, he works alongside fellow nominees of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party, as well as members nominated by the Cambodian Peoples Party and a civil society representative to organize the upcoming elections.

Despite the shift in career, Chhun says his fundamental position hasnt changed.

My position before and now remains the same, but only the nature of the work is slightly different, he told VOA Khmer.

When I see a thing as white, Id say its white; and black as black, not the other way around, he said. Im still honest to the people and the nation.

In his previous role Chhun advocated for better rights for teachers, whereas now he seeks to make sure the NEC is free, fair, transparent, and independent; and delivers a result where all parties can accept, he said.

Opposition protests following the 2013 election results dragged on for almost a year, with the blame centered on the chief of the election body Im Sousdey and his secretary general, Tep Nitha.

Protests against the results, which gave a narrow victory to Prime Minister Hun Sens ruling party, were joined by Chhun and his supporters.

However, the new NEC still offered Nitha the same job despite reports that not all members supported him.

Chhun played down the significance of Nithas job.

Actually, Tep Nitha received major support so in a democratic practice I have to respect the majority, he said. His job as the secretary general will handle technical issues. He is simply playing a supporting role to the NEC.

Chhun, however, acknowledged that his own new role landed him in the difficult position of not being able to speak to the press on issues he advocated for in the past.

My new job does not permit me to give an interview to the media because we have to respect NEC law and election law; and the job is being handled by a spokesman, he said, adding that initially I felt stressed, too.

The difficulty in separating the rules of his new job and his personal activism was seen through his participation in the International Labor Day celebrations in Phnom Penh in May, where NEC chair Sik Bunhok had to warn him to stay neutral.

Chhun was born in 1969 in Talon commune, Kandal province, as the fourth of five siblings.

Soon after graduating in 1993 from the Royal University of Phnom Penh with a bachelor degree in mathematics he began teaching at a high school in his hometown.

It was the same year that Cambodia organized its first democratic elections sponsored by the United Nations and later opened its garment industry for export to Western markets. Rural people, mostly young women, flocked to the capital to seek factory jobs. They received low pay and had to work in poor conditions.

While holding down the teaching job, from 1996 Chhun and his friends - including the slain union boss Chea Vichea - organized several worker protests to demand better pay and working conditions.

In 2000, Chhun and more than 30 teachers formed the Cambodian Independent Teachers Association to demand better pay and rights in the sector.

The association grew rapidly and now boasts more than 10,000 members across the country.

Since the establishment of the teachers association until now weve seen that living conditions of teachers are improving, though not to the satisfactory level that we want, said Ouk Chhayavy, who has taken over the leadership role since Chhuns departure.

The biggest success is that our teachers have more freedom than before.

Another fellow teacher, Kim Tarany, who joined Chhuns association in 2002, said the activist had stolen all teachers hearts, and his career move had been met with disappointment.

But, Tarany added, We have now turned our disappointment for losing a hard-found leader to hoping that he will help our country to have justice in elections.

We place hope on our leader because we know that he is not biased and fair, she said, adding that Chhuns supporters are constantly concerned about his safety.

The concerns stem from Chhuns past run-ins with authorities.

In 2005, he was charged with defamation against the prime minister and incitement for a statement he made about a border agreement between Cambodia and Vietnam. He was imprisoned until his release on bail in January 2006.

Years later, in 2014, he was detained for leading a demonstration to demand the release of 23 people who were arrested for taking part in protests against the election results.

Threat also came from elsewhere.

Factory owners called up and threatened him to leave the country; and said if he refused, his life would be in danger, recalled Ouk Chhayavy of an incident five years ago.

But he replied that if he advocated for workers and teachers and had to die, he preferred to die in Cambodia. He didnt want to run away from the country and let the country fall into disaster.

While Chhun is adapting to his new job, his former colleague Kim Tarany remains concerned about the challenges that may arise as the elections near.

We want him to continue his work for the nation. He has been working without thinking of his own health or safety. Therefore, all Khmers should gather around our hero because no matter how brave he is or how hard he works, if he is alone he cannot help our country much, said Tarany.

The NEC just finished registering 7.8 million of 9.6 million eligible voters, and with all eyes on the new election body, Chhun admits that every step he takes must be with caution.
The South Korean National Assembly has voted to impeach President Park Geun-hye.

With 234 of the parliament's 300 members voting Friday for impeachment, the measure gained more than the two-thirds majority support needed.

The stunning and sudden collapse of Parks presidency was caused by recent allegations that a multi-million dollar influence peddling scandal was being run out of the Blue House.

After the vote, Chung Se-kyun, the speaker of the National Assembly, urged the government to heal the divisions and political turmoil that has paralyzed it over the scandal.

"By passing of the impeachment motion, political uncertainty has been considerably settled down. The government officials should steadfastly put utmost effort into caring for the lives of our people," said Chung.

The South Korean Defense Ministry has ordered the military on a heightened surveillance and readiness posture.

Tarnished image

The presidents image as a strong and incorruptible leader crumbled under allegations that her longtime friend, Choi Soon-sil, secretly exploited her close relationship with Park to force Korean conglomerates to donate nearly $65 million to two dubious foundations, while at the same time funneling some of the funds and lucrative side contracts to companies she and her friends owned.

With the impeachment vote's passage, Park has been immediately suspended from office. Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn has become acting head of state.

The Constitutional Court will have six months to review the legitimacy of the impeachment motion. If the court affirms, a new presidential election will be scheduled within two months of the ruling.

Park met with her Cabinet in the Blue House following the impeachment vote and afterward read a statement to the press.

"I gravely accept voice of the National Assembly and our people, and I am sincerely wishing this crisis to be finished well, Park said.

Park had refused to resign, but said she would abide by the impeachment vote's outcome and plead her case before the Constitutional Court.

Prior to the vote

She maintains the actions she took were in the national interest and insists she never personally benefited during her 18 years of public service. She also offered three public apologies for not being aware that some of her close associates may have been involved in wrongdoing.

On Friday, Park apologized once again.

"Thinking of the heart of our people who are looking at the current situation, I am very agonized and sorry," she said.

The 64-year-old Park was the daughter of a military ruler who led the country for 18 years before being assassinated in 1979. She now becomes South Koreas first democratically elected leader to be removed from office.

After Parks impeachment was announced, demonstrators in front of the National Assembly celebrated. The scandal had sparked weeks of massive public protests across the country demanding Parks removal from office. Her approval rating plummeted to just 5 percent.

In addition to a Justice Ministry investigation into the corruption scandal, the National Assembly has authorized an independent counsel to investigate the president and is conducting televised committee hearings as well.

Inter-Korean relations

South Korea will now be without a strong leader while regional tensions are high over North Koreas increasing nuclear threat, and with disruptive change in American leadership under way that could test the countrys close alliance with the United States.

North Korea has refrained in the last two months from conducting missile tests or other provocations that could shift attention from Parks political turmoil.

The North Korean media have portrayed the scandal as an example of widespread corruption in the South Korean government, but have downplayed the power of public protests to force a change in leadership.

I think North Korea is worried the candlelight vigils in South Korea could be a stimulant for a similar case that could happen in North Korea, said North Korean defector Ahn Chan-il with the World Institute for North Korean Studies.

With Park impeached, Ahn says, Pyongyang likely will try to test the new leadership in Seoul by conducting a missile test or staging a cross-border military provocation.

Few expect any immediate policy change from the interim government, but the presidents fall will likely bring a reexamination of her hard-line approach to dealing with the authoritarian and repressive Kim Jong Un government.

Some opposition leaders were critical of the presidents decision to sever all remaining ties and channels of communications with Pyongyang, including closing the jointly run Kaesong industrial complex, after the North conducted a nuclear test in January.

The track record of the past 4 1/2 years is a rather clear testimony that pressure only would not work. And it gives all the related parties reason to doubt whether continuation of the same policy is the best policy, said analyst Bong Young-shik with Yonsei University Institute for North Korean Studies in Seoul.

US alliance

The turmoil in Seoul may also complicate relations with the incoming administration in January of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.

During the campaign, Trump had been critical of South Korea for what he said was not fairly reimbursing the U.S. for the cost of stationing 28,000 American troops in country, and for unfair trade practices. After the election, the president-elect did offer some reassurance he will continue to uphold U.S. regional security commitments.

Trumps views on North Korea are unclear. Some hawkish Republicans are urging him to take a tougher stand against Pyongyangs continued testing of ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons.

President Park enjoyed a very close relationship with Washington. Both sides embraced the same tough polices of sanctions and deterrence against North Korea. This year Park agreed to deploy the controversial THAAD American missile defense system in the country over the objections of China.

Without the conservative Park in office, the divided South Korean government may move away somewhat from its close ties with the U.S. to try to reduce tensions with North Korea and China.

But regional security analyst Daniel Pinkston with Troy University in Seoul expects the common national concerns over North Koreas advancing nuclear program to keep the alliance intact.

We do go through these turbulent times, but Im confident that the national interests will not change fundamentally or significantly. So I expect the two countries to maintain a close relationship, said Pinkston.

Bong Young-shik, however, expects the interim government to postpone the deployment of THAAD to appease Beijings concerns about the perceived American military build-up on the Korean Peninsula.

It takes a great deal of time to actually carry out the decision. So there will be a reasonable amount of time available to both sides to coordinate the actual deployment of THAAD, he said.
South Korean lawmakers have introduced a motion to impeach embattled President Park Geun-hye over a multimillion dollar corruption scandal.

The motion was introduced Thursday during a session of the 300-member parliament. Lawmakers must vote on the motion between 24 and 72 hours, meaning a formal vote will take place Friday, the last day of parliaments regular session.

Park is under fire for her relationship to Choi Soon-sil, a longtime confidante who has been charged with attempted fraud and other charges. Prosecutors say Choi forced South Koreas biggest corporations to donate tens of millions of dollars to two foundations she controlled.

Choi is alleged to have funneled some of the funds to her private companies and to side contracts for friends.

Park maintains she never personally benefited from these fundraising efforts and was unaware of any illegal actions taken by those around her.

As of now, we are assured that more than 200 lawmakers will vote for impeachment and pass the impeachment motion, said Na Kyoung-chae, Korean Justice Party leader, but if by any chance there occurs a situation in which the impeachment motion is voted down, our citizens will not forgive the parliament, we believe.

If the impeachment motion is approved, the countrys Constitutional Court will have six months to determine whether the president should be removed from office. She could be the first democratically elected president in South Koreas history to be removed from office.
As part of the operation to nab the culprits, Income Tax investigation team sent out a few decoy customers seeking to exchange banned currency notes into new notes. The syndicate, acting through its mediator, agreed to the exchange for a 35% commission.

By Virendrasingh Ghunawat: Income tax investigations at Mumbai led to the revelation of a syndicate of ground level operators active in converting banned currency notes into legal tenders for a commission.

As part of the operation to nab the culprits, Income Tax investigation team sent out a few decoy customers seeking to exchange banned currency notes into new notes.

DECOY USED TO NAB CULPRITS

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The syndicate, acting through its mediator, agreed to the exchange for a 35% commission. The exchange was to take place at the mediator's residence.

The mediator was caught red handed and new currency notes aggregating to Rs 29.5 lakh was seized.

It has now emerged that the syndicate comprised of many ground level operators (GLOs) - mainly local youths led by a master aggregator and a mediator. The mediator would seek customers.

The GLOs would withdraw new currency in their own names or names of friends and family within the prescribed weekly limits, pass it on to the aggregator for a commission and deposit the old notes in their own accounts or accounts of family or friends in small sums.

NAGPUR CASE

Another investigation into cash deposits in a bank account in Nagpur revealed that the account holder had no knowledge of the existence of her account where Rs 3.29 crore had been deposited after 8th November, 2016.

Enquiries by the Department revealed 6 more such accounts in her and her parents' names.

ALSO READ: Demonetisation: New notes worth Rs 70 crore, 100 kg gold seized in Chennai

The 7 accounts were opened and operated by unknown persons to launder cash of Rs.4.25 crore.

Evidences gathered seem to suggest that copies of PAN and other personal documents that she handed over to a friend a few years back, were used to fraudulently open these accounts in Kolkata, which were operated to channel suspicious funds to 8 beneficiaries, all of whom are now being investigated.

AHMEDABAD CASE

In an interesting case at Ahmedabad, discrete intelligence gathered by the IT investigation team led to a survey at the premises of a transporter in the late hours of 3rd December, 2016.

Twenty four cartons in the godown of the transporter meant for transport to Delhi were found. Lorry receipts declared these to contain fire crackers.

When the cartons were opened and examined, two cartons were found to conceal currencies in the denomination of Rs 100 aggregating Rs 27 lakhs.

On interrogation, the consigner claimed that the cash was on account of sale of fire crackers being transported to Delhi for purchase of fire crackers. The cash was seized on 5th December, 2016.

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ALSO READ: We have seized 120 crore in hard cash and detected 1500 crore of undisclosed income so far: CBDT chief, Sushil Chandra

--- ENDS ---
A Vietnamese man accused of torturing a toddler in Mondulkiri province was arrested in Ho Chi Minh city late Wednesday after fleeing to his home country, according to police.

The arrest of Nguyen Thanh Dung, 25, came after a graphic video circulated on Facebook allegedly showing him torturing the two-year-old child, sparking outrage across Cambodia.

Deputy Mondulkiri Police Chief So Sovan told VOA Khmer Cambodian police had temporarily concluded that Nguyen was the only suspect in the case.

According to our temporary conclusion, we think that he captured that video by himself. But we need to wait for the answer from the suspect whether there was another person who helped capture the video or only him, he said.

In the nearly three-minute video, the child is seen blindfolded with his hands tied behind his back, while the suspect tortures him with a taser on his ears, legs, back and nose.

The childs mother, 30-year-old Neng Chen, who works on a cacao farm in Mondulkiri, told VOA Khmer that the Vietnamese man was always playing with her child.

When I go to work, I bring my boy with me. That guy always played with him when I was there ... When I took my kid back, I saw bruises. He said my kid stumbled. I did not pay much attention, she said.

Deputy National Police Commissioner Kirth Chantharith said Cambodian and Vietnamese authorities cooperated to arrest the suspect.

He added that Cambodia is asking Vietnam to send the suspect back to Cambodia.

We dont know how Vietnam will interrogate the suspect, but we want them to send the man here to file the document by our legal process and proceed to the court. But we have not received the response back from Vietnam, he said.

Officials at the Vietnamese Embassy in Phnom Penh could not be reached for comment on Thursday.

Sok Ratha, a human rights coordinator for local NGO Adhoc in Mondulkiri, said that despite being guaranteed safety under national and international law, Cambodian children still suffer torture, violence and child abuse.

Under Cambodian law, Nguyen could be charged with aggravated torture and acts of cruelty, which carries a sentence of 10 to 20 years imprisonment.
Since the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act was passed, the percentage of foreign born Americans jumped in the US from 4% to nearly 14%. Carol Castiel and Tonette Seitz, assistant producer in the VOA English Service talk with Tom Gjelten, NPR News Correspondent and author of A Nation of Nations: A Great American Immigration Story about a makeup of the latest waves of immigrants to the United States and what awaits them during Trump administration.
Silicon Valley, known for its innovative tech companies and startups, is also the birthplace of a private primary and middle school that is disrupting the traditional concept of education. Khan Lab School looks to the past for a new way of teaching children to prepare them for the future. Elizabeth Lee reports from Mountain View, California.
As many as 3.5 million people in Africa were uprooted from their homes in 2015 because of conflict and natural disasters and left stranded in their own countries, with many governments overlooking this growing problem, a report released Friday said.

Figures from the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center showed an average of 9,500 people fled their homes daily last year, bringing the total number of Africans displaced internally to 12.4 million, with the number set to rise in 2016.

The country affected most was Nigeria, with as many as 736,000 fleeing their homes in 2015 as a result of violence associated with the Boko Haram militant Islamist insurgency.

The report calculated that the number of internally displaced people was double the number of the continent's refugees, estimated by the United Nations to have reached 5.4 million in 2015, highlighting the scale of Africa's comparatively overlooked "internal displacement crisis."

While refugees are the responsibility of the international community, people displaced within their own country are the responsibility of national governments.

"Many of these governments are not even aware of the scale of the problem within their own borders," said Alexandra Bilak, IDMC director, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an interview. "They need to take up their responsibilities and actually keep track of these people."

Continuing crises

The figures for the first half of 2016 were likely to be at least as high, with ongoing conflicts in countries like South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Nigeria, Bilak said.

The report's publication marked the anniversary of the Kampala Convention, Africa's landmark commitment to preventing displacement and protecting the rights of IDPs, signed in 2009 and now ratified by 25 countries.

It argued better data were needed, especially on people driven from their homes by slow-onset crises such as a drought, and that this was crucial if governments were to meet their commitments. "Reliable data on population movements is vital to ensure a timely and well-targeted operational and policy response," the report said.

The IDMC hoped the report would be a reminder that while the continent's refugee crisis has attracted international attention in recent years, the problem of huge numbers of Africans uprooted from their homes but temporarily settled in their own countries was not new.

"The same people remain on our books, year in, year out. The numbers are not going down," said Bilak.

'Blind spots'

The report drew attention to "off-the-radar" displacement in countries like Ethiopia and Malawi, which, while relatively stable, suffer slow-moving environmental challenges such as drought that are "blind spots" for policymakers.

A third of African countries are prone to drought, and most are increasingly vulnerable as result of climate change. The report also highlighted the role of southern Africa's worst agricultural drought in 35 years  and resulting severe food shortages  in driving people from their homes in 2015.

The report also emphasized the need for African governments to recognize the role of development projects in causing the sort of "off-the-radar" displacement, with people evicted from slums to make way for infrastucture.

All too often "the impact of development projects and business activities on the people they force from their homes and livelihoods is not visible to policymakers," the report said.
Mexico's top military officer said Thursday that the army is uncomfortable with the law-enforcement role it was given a decade ago when the government launched an offensive against drug cartels.

The defense secretary, Gen. Salvador Cienfuegos, said the army's presence was supposed to be temporary while new police forces were built, but that hasn't happened.

Many local police in Mexico are corrupt, poorly trained or unreliable.

We would love the police forces to do their job ... but they don't, Cienfuegos said.

Ten years ago it was decided that the police should be rebuilt, and we still haven't seen that reconstruction, he said. To sum it up, there are a large number of deaths that shouldn't be happening, there is a lack of commitment on the part of a lot of sectors. This isn't something that can be solved with bullets; it takes other measures and there hasn't been decisive action on budgets to make that happen.

The army has both been the target of attacks by criminals but also has been accused of killing unarmed suspected cartel gunmen.

Cienfuegos said at a year-end meeting that the army needs clearer rules to govern its work in supporting civilian law enforcement, like rules of engagement and the appropriate use of force. Congress has been considering legislation, but has not yet passed it.

If you want us to go back to our bases, fine, I'll be the first to raise both my hands, Cienfuegos said. We didn't ask to be here. We don't like it here. None of us here today went go to school to chase criminals.
Brazilian President Michel Temer plans to call U.S. President-elect Donald Trump next week as Brazil looks for business opportunities that could open up if Trump follows through on campaign promises to rewrite a trade deal with Mexico.

A senior Brazilian official said on Thursday that Temer would call Trump for their first conversation since the New York businessman was elected to the White House last month.

Temer sent a telegram of congratulations to Trump, instead of calling him soon after his election as some other Latin American leaders did.

Trump's vows during the campaign to protect U.S. companies by limiting trade worried Brazilian investors, but the Temer administration, under pressure to rescue an economy stuck in a two-year recession, sees a silver lining for local businesses.

Brazilian industries, benefiting from a weaker real currency, could increase their market share in the United States if Trump makes good on his threats to rework or withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement with neighboring Mexico and Canada. Trump takes office on Jan. 20.

"We still don't know what Trump's strategy will be toward Brazil but there could be opportunities," said the official who asked for anonymity to speak freely. "This is our initial outreach."

Ties between the Western Hemisphere's two largest economies were rocked in recent years by trade disputes and disclosures that the U.S. National Security Agency spied on former leftist President Dilma Rousseff.

Temer, who formally replaced Rousseff in August after her impeachment, has vowed to bolster international trade and increase the productivity of Brazilian businesses struggling with high taxes and deficient infrastructure.

A former Brazilian ambassador to the United States, Rubens Barbosa, said opening a line of communication with Trump was a step in the right direction toward increasing Brazilian exports.

He said he believed, however, that Mexico would remain a key trade partner for Washington.

"There are opportunities if Brazil gets its house in order with reforms and we make an effort to enter that market," Barbosa said. "But Trump cannot distance Washington from Mexico because the business interests are too big."

Outcry in recent weeks over an attempt by lawmakers to shield themselves from corruption probes by curbing the power of the judiciary has deepened institutional rifts in Brazil and raised doubts over Temer's capacity to revive the former emerging market star.

Trump's surprise election win added further volatility to Brazilian assets, some of the hardest-hit along with Mexico among emerging economies, amid uncertainty over his policy direction.
The U.N. Security Council discussed the situation of human rights in North Korea on Friday, despite efforts by China to block it.

It was only the third time the 15-nation council has taken up the issue, usually reserved for other bodies, including the Human Rights Council and the General Assembly. The council has held what has become an annual meeting on the topic since December 2014.

China is against deliberations by the Security Council on DPRKs human rights situation, Chinas ambassador Liu Jieyi said as he tried to stop the public discussion going ahead. The Security Council is not a forum for discussing human rights issues, and still less for the politicization of the human rights issue, he said.

China failed to secure the necessary nine votes to derail the meeting. Only Russia, Venezuela, Angola and Egypt objected to the session.

While China objects to the discussion of Pyongyangs human rights abuses in the council, it has not objected to additional targeted sanctions on the rogue regime for its nuclear and ballistic missile tests. Last week, Beijing joined the rest of the council in unanimously approving the latest round of tough measures aimed at bringing North Korea in line with its international obligations.

Rights Abuses

A 2014 Commission of Inquiry Report commissioned by the U.N. Human Rights Council, detailed widespread, systematic and gross human rights violations in the DPRK, including torture, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, executions and inhumane treatment.

"The deplorable human rights situation in the DPRK remains unchanged," U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power told council members.

WATCH: Power on North Korea's rights abuses



She said that 2016 has seen an increasingly aggressive North Korea, with numerous ballistic missile launches and two nuclear tests. This behavior affirms what we have long stated - when governments flagrantly violate the human rights of their own people, they almost always show similar disdain for the international norms that help ensure our shared security, Power said.

The people in North Korea, as such, are destined to live a miserable life from the very moment of their birth, trapped in the state machinery that systematically tramples on their basic human rights, said South Koreas newly arrived U.N. Ambassador Cho Tae-yul. The leadership in Pyongyang shamelessly employs a reign of terror merely for the sake of the survival of his regime, he said in reference to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

History teaches us that serious human rights violations are warning signs of instability and conflict, U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson told the council.

The patterns of grave violations of human rights in the DPRK have repeatedly been established, Eliasson said. The authorities have given no effective commitment to remedy the situation, he added.

North Korea continues to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on its illicit nuclear and ballistic missile programs. Meanwhile, the U.N. says some 70 percent of the population  about 18 million people  are food insecure. The U.N. says about $145 million are required to address the countrys critical humanitarian needs.
China is showing no sign of easing its crackdown on the nations rights defenders.

Earlier this week, rights lawyer Li Heping was officially indicted, and the whereabouts of three other rights activists, including public interest lawyer Jiang Tianyong, are unknown more than two weeks after they disappeared.

Lis wife, Wang Qianling, learned of her husbands indictment days after she and attorney Ma Lianshun began pressing authorities in Tianjin for an answer.

Treason charge

Today [on Thursday], Ms. Wang went to [the procuratorate in] Tianjin again and confirmed that Li is formally charged with treason. No more details were given, Ma told VOA.

Wang hired Ma to defend Li, one of the countrys best-known lawyers, who was taken away from his home in Beijing during the Communist Partys sweeping crackdown on rights activists last July.

But the lawyer has never been allowed to meet his client, and the authorities, by putting Li in detention where he is incommunicado, have not followed due process of law.

Ma said Lis situation is like a boiling black pot with its lid on for no one to see clearly.

Guilty verdict expected

Whats clear, however, may be Lis fate. Experience shows that he may soon be put on trial and most likely be forced to plead guilty even before a verdict is reached.

But Ma called the treason charge against Li ridiculous, arguing that the detained lawyer has done nothing other than advocate for basic human rights.

The attorney suspects Lis anti-torture, anti-death-penalty studies, funded by overseas organizations, are the main reason behind his treason charge, although the offense is hard to justify.

In our view, human rights should transcend sovereignty, Ma said, Our countrys record of human rights hasnt been ideal. Thus, the nature of [Lis] studies, which aimed to promote human rights, should have been academic, rational and peaceful. That was far from subverting state power.

Over the past few years, Li had defended underground Christians, political dissidents and followers of the banned group Falun Gong, as well as the blind barefoot lawyer Chen Guangcheng, all of which have irked Chinese authorities, Ma said.

Ineffective crackdown

Ma argued that the governments crackdown has done the opposite of silencing outspoken lawyers. Instead, it has revealed the fallacy of those in power as the support for detained members of the countrys civil rights community has grown domestically and internationally.

Despite that, authorities continue to suppress dissident lawyers and rights activists. Jiang and two other rights campaigners, Huang Qi and Liu Feiyue, have been missing since late November. And their whereabouts remain unknown, said Chen Jinxue, who represents Jiang.

Jiangs enforced disappearance

Over the past two weeks, Chen has accompanied Jiangs father to file a police report on Jiangs disappearance. But the public security apparatus has either refused to launch an investigation or made things difficult for them, Chen said.

Among other things, police have asked Jiangs father to prove his relationship with his son or retrieve surveillance camera footage in Changsha himself, signs of deliberate inaction by police, according to Chen.

Jiang allegedly went missing after November 21 while boarding a train from Changsha in Hunan province. Jiang was traveling to Hunan to try to arrange a meeting with Xie Yang, a lawyer arrested in last years crackdown of rights activists, and was accompanied by Xies wife and lawyers.

Jiang never made it back to Beijing and is suspected to have been forcefully detained.

The overall trend of arresting rights lawyers has apparently continued. Jiang is another target of the massive crackdown since July 9, 2015, Chen said.

By law, police should have informed Jiangs family of his whereabouts within 24 hours of his arrest.

At risk of torture

If he is under secret detention, Jiang would be at risk of torture. He had been beaten repeatedly during his previous enforced disappearances, which hurt his memory and hearing abilities, his wife Jin Bianling told VOA.

Im extremely worried that he may be tortured again. Also, he needs medication to lower his blood pressure. Without his medicines, he will be in a bad shape, Jin said.

Jin, who lives in the U.S. with her daughter, has initiated a campaign online, urging Chinas public security to investigate Jiangs disappearance soon or hold those responsible for his secret detention accountable.

The campaign has, so far, garnered hundreds of signatures from supporters in an open letter addressed to head of Chinas Public Security Bureau.

Jin also expressed concerns over her husbands disappearance at a hearing organized by the State Council in Washington on Wednesday.

Rights groups, including experts from the United Nations and Freedom House, have also issued statements to express similar concerns.
Some U.S. lawmakers are urging President-elect Donald Trump and his incoming administration to recalibrate U.S.-China relations with a harder line on human rights.

"It is increasingly clear that there is direct link between China's domestic human-rights problems and the security and prosperity of the United States," Congressman Chris Smith said at a hearing of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC).

Smith, a committee co-chairman, spoke on Wednesday, ahead of International Human Rights Day on Saturday.

"Losing sight of these facts leads to bad policy, bad diplomacy and the needless juxtaposition of values and interests," Smith said. "It also sends the wrong message to those in China standing courageously for greater freedoms, human rights and the rule of law."

"Tepid responses" to Beijing on rights

Slamming what he said were "tepid responses" by the U.S. government to Chinese President Xi Jinping's crackdown this year on reformers, dissident publishers and human-rights lawyers, the Republican lawmaker called on the incoming administration to formulate policies based on improved human rights.

"I fully expect President Donald Trump will solemnly and consistently raise human-rights issues, and President Obama has not done so," Smith told VOA. "I hope the president will make it a core issue of our relationship with China, not just mixed in a number of topics."

Smith also urged Trump to sanction Chinese officials who commit serious abuses.

"We need to impose sanctions on Chinese dictators, not on the Chinese people, but on leading officials who practice torture, coercive abortion and religious persecution," he said.

New U.S. ambassador welcomed

President-elect Trump announced the nomination of Iowa Governor Terry Branstad as the next U.S. ambassador to China just hours before the hearing began Wednesday.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson in Beijing welcomed the appointment of Branstad, described as "an old friend of China."

Wei Jingsheng, a prominent Chinese dissident in exile in the United States, believes Branstad will need to tie trade policy to human-rights issues.

"I do not think he's going to give up on human-rights goals," he told VOA. "A trend in the United States is to focus on human rights and to balance trade, which are very important goals. He will make them his mission."

Activists who testified

Chinese dissidents and rights activists including Yang Jianli, Wei Jingsheng, Chen Guangcheng, Fu Xiqiu, and Rebiya Kadeer testified at Wednesday's hearing by the CECC, along with multiple Falun Gong practitioners and Wang Xiaoan, daughter of Chinese political prisoner Wang Zhiwen.

Penpa Tsering, former speaker of the Tibetan parliament in exile and the current representative of the Dalai Lama at the Washington-based Office of Tibet, also addressed the hearing.

Tsering called on the incoming administration to implement the Tibetan Policy Act of 2002, which would direct the State Department to establish and fill a senior-level post of Special Coordinator for Tibet.

Commission created in 2000

After the hearing, lawmakers joined with those who had testified for a group photo with a large image of prominent Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo in the background. Liu, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, was sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2009 for advocating democracy in China.

The Congressional-Executive Commission on China was created by Congress in October 2000 to monitor human rights and the development of the rule of law in China, and to submit an annual report to the president and the Congress.

Members of the commission include up to nine members of the House of Representatives and nine senators from both parties, along with five senior officials representing the Departments of State, Labor and Commerce.
Fourteen diplomatic missions including the United States urged Myanmar to allow humanitarian aid into troubled Rakhine state, where tens of thousands of people in need have not had access to medicine or other assistance since a military operation began two months ago.



"The assistance is desperately needed to address serious humanitarian needs but also to begin to restore the confidence and hope that are essential to a restoration of peace and stability," the joint statement released Friday said, calling for "full and unfettered access" to aid.



The government has denied most journalists and aid access to Rakhine state since its counterinsurgency operation began two months ago, following the killing of nine border guards by unidentified attackers.



The government has, however, stated multiple times their intention to allow aid to be delivered to the area, where more than 80 people have died and over 20,000 have fled to Bangladesh.



"We have welcomed the Government's agreement to allow a resumption of humanitarian assistance and initial deliveries to some villages," said the statement. "But we are concerned by delays and urge all Myanmar authorities to overcome the obstacles that have so far prevented a full resumption, noting that tens of thousands of people who need humanitarian aid, including children with acute malnutrition, have been without it now for nearly two months."



After violence in 2012, more than 120,000 Muslim Rohingya were forced to live in holding camps amid reports of squalid conditions and tough restrictions on mobility.



Myanmar's state counselor and democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi has faced growing criticism for failing to tackle the violence. Human rights groups allege widespread abuses, including rape by Myanmar forces and the torching of hundreds of homes during the crackdown.



The joint statement was signed by Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Turkey,
By PTI: Vietnam is the 14th country with which India signed the

Vietnam is the 14th country with which India signed the civil nuclear deal.

From the Indian side, the MoU on civil nuclear cooperation was signed by Sekhar Basu, Secretary of Department of Atomic Energy, while Pham Cong Tac, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology, signed it from the Vietnamese side.

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The two countries had earlier in 1986 signed a pact in the civil nuclear field which was limited to training. However, the new agreement is broadbased and encompasses research on nuclear reactors, sources said.

The cooperation in research on nuclear reactors will get activated once India gets membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, they added.

An MoU on Promotion of traffic between Vietnam and India and sharing of best practices in airline operation, ground handling procedure and management was also signed between Air India and Vietjet Aviation Joint Stock Company. Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), a PSU under the Power Ministry, and Vietnam Electricity (EVN) signed an MoU on Developing a Partnership to Jointly Work in the Area of Energy Efficiency.

It was signed by Satish C Mehta, Senior Advisor in EESL, and Duong Quang Thanh, Chairman of Vietnam Electricity.

Mahajan said the Agreement on Cooperation in Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy is a "remarkable development" and a "testimony to two countries willingness to give greater substance to their recently upgraded Comprehensive Strategic Partnership." The Speaker pitched for enhanced engagement between the two countries and specified sectors like defence, security, energy, exploration, non conventional energy as some of the key areas of mutual benefit.

"India and Vietnam can mutually benefit from each other?s strength," she said.

Referring to South China Sea over which China is laying an absolute claim and is in confrontation with Vietnam and some other East Asian countries, Mahajan said India has persistently maintained that sea lanes of communication passing through that maritime area are critical for peace, stability, prosperity and development. She recalled Indias statement following the recent award of Arbitral Tribunal on South China Sea issue and reiterated its known position for resolving disputes through peaceful means without threat or use of force and by exercising self- restraint in the conduct of activities that could complicate or escalate disputes affecting peace and stability.

"As a State Party to the UNCLOS (UN Convention on the Law of the Sea), India has called on all parties to show utmost respect for the UNCLOS, which establishes the international legal order of the seas and oceans," Mahajan said. PTI PR/AKK AKK

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U.N. investigators on Wednesday accused the Eritrean government of a quarter-century of widespread, systematic violations amounting to crimes against humanity.

The U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in Eritrea released its second report on alleged violations of human rights in Eritrea, which painted a disturbing picture of a society in which abusive conditions and the use of conscripts as forced labor are the norm, rather than the exception.

The commission of three independent experts regarded Eritrea as an authoritarian state, with no independent judiciary, national assembly or democratic institutions. Commission Chairman Mike Smith said there was a vacuum in governance and the rule of law, resulting in a climate of impunity for crimes against humanity to be perpetrated over a quarter of a century.

He added that these crimes are still occurring today.

According to the report, crimes of enslavement, imprisonment, enforced disappearances and other inhumane acts are committed to instill fear in the population and deter political opposition.

Calm facade

The investigators said people should not be fooled by what they called the facade of calm and normality that visitors to Eritrea see. Smith told VOA many visitors to the capital, Asmara, and even foreigners living there, describe a situation that is very different from the apparent reality.

Human rights abuses of the type that we describe do not generally happen in the streets of Asmara," he said. "They are happening in detention centers across the country. They are happening in military camps. They are happening in training centers where foreigners simply do not have access.

Smith said violations, including torture, rape and murder, occur in hidden places. He estimated between 300,000 and 400,000 people have been enslaved during the past 25 years, doomed to serve indefinitely in the countrys system of national service.

Total loss of choice

The principal elements are the complete loss of choice  the fact that you are having to work and that you are not remunerated for your work; that you have to work, come what may, he said.

Smith said the military and national service programs are of indefinite duration and are frequently cited as a main reason for people fleeing the country. He said he thought Eritrea was still operating under a shoot-to-kill policy to stop people from crossing its borders.

He noted, however, that there has been "some relaxation, certainly at the local level, as to whether the soldiers really do shoot or not, or shoot all the time."

So people risk their lives just crossing the border, he said. They then risk their lives crossing the desert to get to the southern Mediterranean. That is the north of Africa, to Libya and similar places, from where they can then get a boat and risk that journey across to Europe, which is extremely dangerous.

The U.N. refugee agency said 47,025 Eritreans applied for asylum in Europe last year. Many others died while making the risky sea crossing. In one particularly tragic event, 366 people drowned when their boat capsized in October off the Italian island of Lampedusa. The UNHCR said nearly all the victims were Eritreans.

Refusal to cooperate

For a second year, Eritrean authorities refused to allow the commissioners to visit the country, so the U.N. officials gathered their information from 833 interviews with Eritreans abroad and 160 written submissions received from mid-2014 to mid-2015.

The commission also received 45,000 written submissions, which were largely critical of the commissions first report. The independent experts said these submissions were the direct result of an organized government campaign to attempt to discredit the inquiry.

Yemane Gebreab, adviser to Eritreas president, rejected this claim. He said members of the Eritrean diaspora have mounted a global campaign to oppose the unsubstantiated allegations of the Commission of Inquiry.

He said testimonies of those in the diaspora were given to the Commission of Inquiry secretariat. It is very strange that the commission that is set up to investigate into the human rights situation in the country would dismiss offhand the testimony of 42,000 people, he said.

Gebreab offered a lengthy, methodical rebuttal of the report, attempting to refute each accusation made and calling the report seriously flawed, unprofessional and one-sided. He dismissed the commissions charge that Eritrea had committed crimes against humanity since it gained its independence in 1991 as being without merit.

'No solid evidence'

The COI has no solid evidence or firm legal basis to support this extreme and unfounded charge, " he said. "The report of the COI fails to meet the principles of impartiality, objectivity and nonselectivity.

When asked by VOA to justify his criticism of the report as being one-sided, given that his government had refused the commission entry into the country, he said, We have not allowed the members of the Commission of Inquiry to visit Eritrea because from the very get-go, they have shown that they lack independence, impartiality and objectivity.

The investigators said they had compiled dossiers of evidence against a number of individuals they think bear responsibility for crimes against humanity. They said the evidence would be made available at the appropriate time to relevant institutions to ensure there is justice for the Eritrean people.

They called for the U.N. Security Council to refer Eritrea to the International Criminal Court. The commission will formally present its findings to the U.N. Human Rights Council on June 21.
Scientists examining the jawbone of a saber-toothed, mammal-like beast that prowled Tanzania 255 million years ago have come across a remarkable fossil rarity: one of the oldest-known tumors.

University of Washington researchers on Thursday described a benign tumor composed of miniature toothlike structures they found embedded next to the root of the creature's enlarged canine tooth while studying an unrelated aspect of the jaw.

The animal was a member of an extinct group of four-legged carnivores called gorgonopsians that mixed mammal-like and reptilelike traits. They reached up to 10 feet (3 meters) long and appeared early in the evolutionary lineage that led to mammals. The jawbone came from one of the smaller gorgonopsian species.

Gorgonopsians were among the top predators of their time, thriving from about 270 million to 252 million years ago, when they were wiped out during Earth's worst mass extinction at the end of the Permian Period. Their demise came roughly 20 million years before the first dinosaurs.

When the researchers sliced into the mandible fossil from Tanzania's Ruhuhu Valley, they found a benign dental tumor called a compound odontoma that grows within the gums or other jaw soft tissues. When people get one, surgery is sometimes used to remove it.

"There was no indication that there was a tumor in this jaw. It looked normal before we cut it open. It was pure luck that we found the tumor," University of Washington paleobiologist Megan Whitney said.

Until now, this type of tumor was known only in mammals, including some Ice Age fossils tens of thousands of years old.

The new discovery shows such a tumor existed in mammal ancestors that lived tens of millions of years before the first mammals appeared.

Tumors, malignant and benign, typically involve soft tissue, and rarely fossilize.

"Ancient tumors generally need to affect hard parts such as bones and teeth in order to be preserved in the fossil record," University of Washington paleobiologist Christian Sidor added.

This tumor included hard enamel and dentin.

Few tumor fossils are older. A 300 million-year-old fish was found with a tumor, and a 350 million-year-old armored fish was found with an apparent tumor.

"Fossils allow us to understand the evolution of diseases in deep time and have the potential to provide clues as to the causes of diseases that afflict humans," Whitney said.

The research appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association Oncology.
Green Party supporters rallied in freezing temperatures in Michigan's capital Thursday and urged its high court to revive a recount of presidential votes in one of three states where the party wants ballots re-examined.

About 50 people marched in a circle for about an hour in front of the Michigan Supreme Court, where Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein has asked the justices to hear an appeal. As a light snow fell, they beat on pots and pans and shouted, "Come out of hiding and start recounting!"

Even if recounts were completed in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin as Stein has asked, they would be extremely unlikely to change the outcome of the November 8 election in which Republican Donald Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Although Clinton won the national popular vote, she lost to Trump in the Electoral College, the 538-person body chosen state by state that actually selects the president. Trump, who won a projected 306 electoral votes, takes office January 20. Stein won no Electoral College votes.

The three Rust Belt states narrowly supported Trump, reversing their recent history of backing Democratic candidates for president.

A recount is ongoing in Wisconsin, where a federal judge has scheduled a hearing for Friday in a lawsuit by Trump's supporters who wish to halt it.

In Pennsylvania, a federal judge is scheduled to hear arguments Friday in a lawsuit brought by Stein asking to begin a statewide recount there.

No ground to challenge

A federal judge on Wednesday halted the Michigan recount in its third day by siding with a state appeals court that found Stein did not have ground to mount the challenge. Stein said the recount was aimed at reinforcing the integrity of Michigan's voting system, while Trump supporters called it a waste of money.

Looking at paper ballots is the only way to ensure voting machines were not hacked, Alex Halderman, a University of Michigan computer scientist, said at Thursday's rally.

"I know Michigan's voting system can be hacked. The only security measure Michigan has is the paper ballot," he said.

The state's Supreme Court could rule at any time on Stein's appeal. Stein has also asked two of the court's justices to disqualify themselves because they are on Trump's list of potential U.S. Supreme Court nominees.

Federal law requires states to resolve disputes over the appointment of Electoral College voters by December 13.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called "fake news" a danger that must be addressed quickly, in a rare public appearance on Thursday, a month after she lost the presidential election in a campaign marked by a flood of such propaganda.

"We must stand up for our democracy," Clinton said during a tribute to retiring Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, referring to what she called "the epidemic of malicious fake news and false propaganda that flooded social media over the past year."

Clinton urged action from both the private and public sectors to combat the false reports.

"It's now clear that so-called 'fake news' can have real-world consequences. This isn't about politics or partisanship. Lives are at risk. Lives of ordinary people just trying to go about their days, to do their jobs, contribute to their communities," she said.

Clinton herself has been a target of fake news, with internet postings claiming that Comet Ping Pong, a pizza restaurant in Washington, was fronting a child sex ring run by Clinton.

On Sunday, a North Carolina man wielding an assault rifle fired a gun inside the restaurant, located in northwest Washington just a few miles from Thursday's ceremony, according to police, who said the suspect told them he had come to "investigate" a fake news report.

Clinton's appearance at the Thursday event, packed with mostly Democratic elected officials including Vice President Joe Biden, was greeted with a standing ovation and raucous applause.

Clinton, also a former senator who served with Reid, made a wry reference to the relatively low profile she has kept since Republican Donald Trump won the Nov. 8 presidential election, referring to "a few weeks of taking selfies in the woods."

She indirectly acknowledged her defeat as she began her tribute to Reid: "This is not exactly the speech at the Capitol I hoped to be making after the election."

The new U.S. president delivers an inaugural address on Jan. 20, standing on a large platform erected every four years on the west front of the Capitol building.
Women who have escaped Mosul, Iraq, where military forces have been battling Islamic State fighters, say amid the terror and suffering imposed on them by IS rule are more subtle, but deeply disturbing abuses.

It was worth risking their lives, they say, to escape a world where strange men hurl insults and punishments at them for even the slightest infraction of IS 'rules.'



An ordinary shopping trip, for example, could be dangerous, says Issra, a 30-year-old mother of two from Mosul.



I was dressed according to their laws in all black, she said, describing a day at her local bazaar several months back, before snipers and mortar fire kept everyone inside. I was wearing a veil, gloves and my feet were covered.



An IS militant approached her outside a shop and ordered her to put on a second veil, so her eyes  the only part of her visible  also were covered. Then, under the loose-fitting black robes covering her from head to toe, the militant noticed the outline of trousers, forbidden to women even if they are unseen.



He said, Why are you wearing trousers? Shame on you, she recalled. The militant then followed her home.



My father repeated the insults, telling me I was shameful for wearing pants, she said. He apologized to the militant and promised it would not happen again.



When the militant left, her father apologized to her. He said he was simply trying to avoid being beaten or whipped. Commonly, husbands and fathers are punished for female dress code violations under IS rules, says Issra.



Even brides are not allowed to wear white," she added.

Female guards



In parts of IS-held Mosul, stores are completely gender-segregated and female IS members patrol the shoppers, notes Issras husband, Abdel Hadi, standing outside a tent they moved into last week after finally fleeing the city.



We called them The Biters, he said, because they bite women who break rules.



Infractions were not just punished with biting, he said.

One elderly woman from his neighborhood brushed her veil aside in a shop to have a closer look at the fabric she was considering buying, he said. A female guard saw the infraction and the woman was sentenced to a public whipping of 50 lashes.



Other punishments sound so harsh they are difficult to believe, and many women say they have heard of beatings, killings and imprisonment for dress code violations, but have not seen it happen.



What they have seen, says Hadi, is enough to make them believe anything.



When they found someone with a mobile phone, they chopped off his head and left it on the bridge, he said. Written in red near the head was writing that said, He was calling the Iraqi army.



The escape



Despite the daily indignities and the dangers, many families have lived under IS in Iraq for two-and-a-half years. Since the Mosul offensive began in mid-October, however, more than 85,000 people have fled their homes.



After a month of living as a battle raged around them, Hadi and Issra finally fled last week with their children, nine-year-old Mohammad and five-year-old Saad, as the Iraqi army closed in on their neighborhood.



Militants gathered 45 families and told us they would kill anyone that doesnt retreat with them, Issra said. Mine and one other family climbed onto the roof and passed over seven rooftops before we got close enough to the Iraqi army to go down.



The rest of the families, she says, remained with the militants, fearing slaughter.



At another refugee camp a few kilometers away, women tell similar stories of humiliation and horrors, saying they never had a chance to flee, so they waited for the Iraqi army to enter their neighborhood.



And while the army encouraged women to throw away their veils, says Fateeha, a mother of four from the Mosul suburbs, they fled gun and mortar fire, as well as the extreme poverty that appeared to have descended upon the entire region ruled by Islamic State.



We were very happy when they told us to toss out our veils, she said, smiling. There are no words to explain it.
Tensions between Turkey and Iran appear to be on the rise, with the two jostling for influence in war-torn Syria and Iraq.

Officially, Ankara says it enjoys good relations with Tehran. But an escalating war of words in Turkey's pro-government media tells a different story,

"It's very telling that we have what appears to be an intense anti-Iranian campaign in the pro-government Islamist media," said political columnist Semih Idiz of Al Monitor website and Turkey's Hurriyet Daily News. "I have been reading commentary by key figures on that side of the fence suggesting Iran as one of Turkey's prime enemies, not just rivals in the region, because it's promoting its brand of islam, Shia Islam."

Yeni Safak, a leading pro-government newspaper, on Thursday accused the prominent Tehran-backed Hashd al-Shaabi Shi'ite militia in Iraq of providing heavy weapons, including anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles, to the Kurdish rebel group PKK, which is fighting the Turkish state.

Idiz said he didn't think the rivalry would spill into direct conflict. "I don't actually see a direct confrontation, although I do see a confrontation through proxies, and in many ways that is already going on," he said.

Erdogan opposes Shi'ite militias

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is a Sunni Muslim who derives much of his support from the country's large and pious Sunni voting base.

Erdogan is increasingly condemning the actions of Iraqi Shi'ite militias backed by Tehran, accusing them of targeting Sunnis. He also has indirectly accused Tehran of seeking to expand its influence, through its ties with Iraq's Shi'ites, at the expense of Sunni Muslims in the country.

The situation is causing unease, with some analysts warning it breaks an unwritten rule of avoiding religious agendas in the region.

"Turkey always refrained [from] intervening in any sectarian conflict. They even refrained at hinting at some sectarian approach," said Haldun Solmazturk, head of the Ankara-based 21st Century Institute. "Now this has all changed, to a self-declared right or authority or even obligation to intervene if Sunnis are threatened or against Shi'ite domination as they read it."

Ankara denies it is following a sectarian policy, insisting it is driven rather by humanitarian concerns.

"We are seeing that, after all these militia operations in the region, we are seeing some demographic changes," said Ayse Sozen Usluer chief of international relations for the Turkish presidency. "We are not against Shia militias because they are Shia, but we would like to maintain the demography of the region  [in] Tel Afar, Mosul, Jarabulus, al-Bab, wherever."

An 'unholy alliance' with US?

Erdogan has sent tanks to the Iraqi border and warned that Turkey will not stand idle if Shi'ite militias force out Sunnis during operations against the Islamic State group in Mosul and Tel Afar. Some analysts warn Turkey's neighbors would see such a situation as a sectarian policy putting Ankara on a collision course with Tehran.

However, any increase in tensions between Turkey and Iran could be a basis for cooperation with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. U.S.-Turkish relations have been deeply strained, but with Trump vowing to take a tough line with Iran, a reset could be in the offing.

"They could be an unholy alliance of sorts," columnist Idiz said. "But Trump going after Iran is really based on Trump's anti-Islamism. It's not based on any strategic ideological difference. And anti-Islamism also splashes onto Turkey, depending on what Turkey's policies are."

Turks also look to Israel

After the restoration of diplomatic relations between Turkey and Israel last month, Ankara could also find common ground with Israel, whose leaders take a tough stance against Tehran.

Turkish-Iranian relations are traditionally characterized by a delicate balance, between rivalry and cooperation. Some analysts warn Ankara could be in danger of overplaying its ambitions.

"Turkey is not a big power; Turkey is even not a middle power. Turkey is a regional power, and there are the limits to what Turkey can do," analyst Solmazturk said. "Once Turkey crosses those limits, and I am afraid they are on the verge of doing this, then Turkey will find itself in a situation it cannot control. And this is a process happening now."

Iran is widely recognized as an adept regional player in using proxies to destabilize its rivals, so cautious analysts are warning that Ankara could pay a heavy price for any confrontation with Tehran.
This Sunday marks the 15-year anniversary of Chinas entry into the World Trade Organization, a milestone originally anticipated to mark the communist-ruled countrys rise as a market economy.

Beijing sees the date as the moment where it will become a market economy by default, as provisions in its accession agreement to the trade body will no longer apply. But the European Union, United States and other countries do not agree.

Japan and India are unlikely to immediately adopt the label. Some believe the EU eventually may give China market economy status (MES), but may take steps to dilute the Chinese markets influence.

A real market economy?

The milestone comes at a testing time for the world's second-largest economy, which is experiencing its slowest economic growth in a quarter-century. While China in October reported its economy expanded by 6.7 percent for a third straight quarter, that rate lags years of double-digit growth after the country joined the global trade body. By comparison, the U.S. economy  the world's largest  grew at an annual rate of 3.2 percent in the last quarter, the Commerce Department reported.

The market economy label is an important one for China, not only because of the prestige and status it carries, but also because it would dramatically reduce resistance to Chinese trade and anti-dumping tariffs.

Many analysts contend that China heavily subsidizes state-owned enterprises and encourages its companies to engage in price cutting and dumping goods across the world. Beijing challenges this view, arguing that Chinese companies operate freely without any government support.

"The most neutral judge of whether China is complying with its WTO commitments is the WTO," said Scott Kennedy, who directs the Project on Chinese Business and Political Economy at the Washington-based Center for Strategic & International Studies.

So far, China has lost a majority of its cases at the WTO, Kennedy said. Verdicts have been reached on 16 out of 24 cases involving Beijing.

"By my count, China lost outright in 13 of those cases, and it received a split decision in three of the cases, Kennedy said. Cases against China primarily involve various aspects of Chinese industrial policy, which the WTO has repeatedly found inconsistent with Chinas commitments.

But Beijing has a different take on that. A recent editorial in the People's Daily, the mouthpiece for the Communist Party, said that China is entitled to automatically be regarded as a market economy from the anniversary forward and that it is the obligation of the EU and other WTO members to do so, not because it is some favor for China.

Larger battle

The tussle over China's trade status could add to an already bitter global battle over free trade. Protectionist views have emerged in Europe since the Brexit vote in June, and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to slap heavy import tariffs on Chinese goods.

The great irony of Trump's victory is that China is now the world's most important proponent of free trade, said Eli Friedman, an associate professor at Cornell Universitys Industrial and Labor Relations School.

He said the possibility of a protectionist turn in the West would really spell trouble for China's exporters, still a mainstay of the Chinese economy.

Many countries are now looking to China to push forward on free trade, an agenda that is increasingly unpopular among voters globally, Friedman said.

Feeling the stones

Getting the WTO label would seem to fulfill part of Chinese President Xi Jinping's Chinese Dream, a larger project aimed at raising China's global prestige. But so far, Beijing has been muted about opposition to the label. China seems likely to take Deng Xiaopings famous advice and cross the river by feeling the stones.

Ethan Cramer-Flood, associate director of The Conference Boards China Center and Asia Programs, China is unlikely to launch litigation against its trading partners a day after the anniversary. It could start with slow-rolling retribution such as countervailing duties and taxes against foreign companies and on foreign goods going into China, he said.

"I would be very surprised if it turns into a massive international fight, particularly with the new leadership in the U.S.," Cramer-Flood said. "This hardly seems the time to start something."

David Dollar, a senior fellow at The Brookings Institution in Washington, agrees. He said China may bring a case to the WTO over its status, but its likely wait to see the full range of trade measures unveiled by the Trump administration.

Market economy status "is an important symbolic issue but not that important in practice," Dollar said. "Some of the measures that Trump talked about in the campaign, such as a 45 percent tariff on imports from China, are much more serious, and it makes sense for China to take a cautious approach with the new administration in the hope that this was just campaign rhetoric."
In his psychological drama, Jackie, Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larrain paints an impressionistic portrait of First Lady Jackie Kennedy during the first days after her husbands assassination on November 22, 1963.

The film relies on anecdotal stories, newspaper clippings and archival footage and it is a cinematic attempt to peel off Jackies complex personality rather than to document JFKs assassination. Larrain uses the tragedy to reveal Jackies complexities. He reconstructs her different faces: the innocent debutante, the fashion icon, the wife, the mother, the artful White House decorator, and the widow determined to maintain her husbands legacy.

This is Larrains first English feature film. A member of a political family himself, he understands how political realities shape a family. Also, his Chilean identity allows him a certain emotional detachment from the Kennedy family, as opposed to the attachment American filmmakers might feel. He told VOA that his portrait of the first lady is a composite of facts and fiction. There are many things that we know that we produced from different sources, he says. But there are a lot of things that we do not know and we created them. This is why this is a movie, it is fiction, it is not a documentary.

Poetic license aside, Jackie script writer Noah Oppenheim penned Jackie Kennedys different personas based on archival material and his own memories of her. Ive been fascinated by Jackie Kennedy my whole life," he told VOA. "My mother was a big admirer of her. She saved all the newspapers and magazines. I would look through them when I was a little kid and I am a student of politics and American history and I have always admired her.

Academy award-winning Natalie Portman offers a tour de force performance as the enigmatic First Lady, sometimes vulnerable and demure, other times, cunning, ambitious and angry.

You obviously have to achieve the way they talk, the way they move, they look, so to get people to believe you enough to get into the movie, she says, explaining the challenge of portraying such a well-known figure. And then, of course, emotionally, its such an extreme experience that she went through, its almost impossible to relate to because you have grief in your life, you have tragedy, but this is such an epic scale and such a worldwide stage that she is really probably the only person in history whos had this kind of experience, so, to really sort of try and get into that mindset was very extreme."

Pablo Larrain mixes Jackies harrowing moments with flashbacks of happier days during the two years of her husbands presidency. The movie shows slices of memory, he says. Pieces of ideas; we all remember things about emotional things more than real facts and these memories, in the film are emotional memories. Not all of them make sense, not all of them are connected and that is why it feels real.

Jackie feels more like a psychological drama than a biopic. Jackies flashbacks of Camelot -- an idealized representation of President John F. Kennedys administration -- reveal happier moments but under the varnish of style, opulence and young ambition, they also hint at a darker side of the couples union, marked by infidelity and political pressures.

But in the days after JFKs assassination, Larrain reveals a much stronger Jackie, who quietly undertakes consoling her children, while having to move out of the White House, and creating a lasting image of John F. Kennedy with a legendary funeral procession. In moments of national grief, fear and uncertainty, Pablo Larrains Jackie was a First Lady who did not flinch, collecting her husbands brain matter after he was shot dead and fell limp on her lap. She wore her bloody clothes all the way to Washington, DC, for the world to see, and walked next to her husbands casket with her two small children by her side.

A hard act to follow, especially when the line between fiction and reality is blurred.
The Khan Lab School, founded by Salman Khan, is an experimental school in Silicon Valley, California, that disrupts the conventional educational model. His Khan Academy, which offers free online education to anyone, anywhere, is reaching out to tens of millions of learners through its online lectures. VOA reporter Saqib Ul Islam visited Khan to find out more.
At first glance, the Tsukamoto kindergarten looks like any other school in Japan, but its unique curriculum is reminiscent of pre-war Japan.

The private school, which has been visited by Akie Abe, wife of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, aims to instill in its 3- to 5-year-old students a sense of patriotism with a curriculum focused on Japanese traditions and culture.

Its mornings start with uniformed children singing the national anthem in front of the country's flag and reciting in stilted Japanese the pre-war Imperial Rescript on Education, containing commandments set out in 1890 to nurture "ideal" citizens under the Emperor Meiji. These embody Confucian virtues and demanded devotion to the emperor and sacrifice for the country.

"Be filial to your parents, affectionate to your brothers and sisters," they chant. "Should emergencies arise, offer yourselves courageously to the state."

Fueling nationalism

After World War II, occupying U.S. forces abolished the rescript, which many saw as a source of the obedience and moral certitude that helped fuel Japanese militarism.

In 1947, the postwar government passed the Fundamental Law on Education to bolster the liberal and democratic values of the postwar pacifist constitution.

Tsukamoto kindergarten, in Osaka, introduced the rescript 15 years ago, although school officials say it is not intended to fuel nationalism.

"What we're aiming to foster in education is patriotism or 'Japanese-ism,' expanding Japan's spirit all over the world, not so-called nationalism. These are totally different," said Yasunori Kagoike, principal of the kindergarten.

Kagoike heads the Osaka branch of Nippon Kaigi, or the Japan Conference, a nationalist lobby group with close ties to Abe and his Cabinet and for which education reform is a key tenet.

Protecting nation

Cultural activities at the school, where the walls are lined with images of the imperial family to which students bow throughout the day, include learning traditional Japanese musical instruments, martial arts and board games. Students also take trips to military bases.

Kagoike said he hoped other schools would adopt their curriculum so children are prepared to protect their nation against potential threats from other countries.

"If an imperialist nation is trying to harm Japan, we need to fight against it. For that, revising Article 9 of Japan's Constitution is indeed necessary and should be carried out as soon as possible," he said.

Article 9 of the U.S.-drafted constitution renounces war and, if read literally, bans the maintenance of armed forces, although Japan's military, called the Self-Defense Forces, has over 200,000 personnel and is equipped with high-tech weapons.

Revising the constitution is one of the key policy targets of Abe's Liberal Democratic Party. His government has already stretched its limits to give the military a bigger role.

Necessity of fighting

Using an analogy of stopping a burglar getting into the house, teacher Chinami Kagoike  the principal's daughter  said she teaches students it is necessary to fight against such threats to protect themselves and their families.

"Strengthening Japan would be subject to severe criticism from various countries," she said. "But instead of pulling away from this, I teach children that the Japanese government has clearly demonstrated its will, so you also need to break silence and go forward and say you want to protect your family."

The kindergarten plans to open a primary school next year, and Akie Abe will be the honorary principal, according to school brochures.

Michael Cucek, an adjunct professor at Temple University's Tokyo campus, said Abe's wife is often seen as a proxy for the prime minister, who during his first, 2006-07 term oversaw the revision of the education law to put patriotism back in school curricula.
By PTI: New Delhi, Dec 9 (PTI) In a significant development, India and influential East Asian nation Vietnam today signed a civil nuclear cooperation agreement, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserting that it will further strengthen the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries.

The two countries also signed three other agreements -- to enhance aviation links, to jointly work in the area of energy efficiency and promotion of parliamentary cooperation.

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The four pacts, aimed at boosting the relations, were signed here in presence of Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and visiting President of Vietnams National Assembly Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan after their talks on enhancing the ties.

Ngan, who is leading a Vietnamese Parliamentary delegation, also met the Prime Minister who said the Agreement on Cooperation in Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy "will further strengthen the comprehensive strategic partnership between India and Vietnam."

Modi recalled his earlier meeting with Ngan in Hanoi during his visit to Vietnam in September. He said that Ngan, as the first woman to head the National Assembly of Vietnam, is a source of inspiration to women across the world. Modi welcomed increased Parliamentary interactions between India and Vietnam, and called for instituting an exchange programme for young parliamentarians of the two countries.

Cooperation Agreement between the Lok Sabha of the Republic of India and the National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam The civil nuclear agreement with Vietnam, an influential East Asian nation, comes close on the heels of India signing a similar pact with Japan. (MORE) PTI PR/AKK AKK

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Researchers have discovered a perfectly preserved dinosaur tail in a piece of amber in Myanmar.

The find could help researchers better figure out how the giant creatures actually looked before they became extinct some 160 million years ago. This particular dinosaur was feathered and about the size of a small bird.

The tail, which is about 99 million years old, appears to be brown on the top and white underneath.

The amber piece already was slated to become jewelry, as it also contains well preserved plant material. However, on closer inspection, the tail was apparent.

"We can be sure of the source because the vertebrae are not fused into a rod or pygostyle as in modern birds and their closest relatives," said co-author Ryan McKellar, of the Royal Saskatchewan Museum in Canada in an interview with the BBC. "Instead, the tail is long and flexible, with keels of feathers running down each side."

On one portion of the amber, the tail is exposed, allowing chemists to analyze it. They found traces of ferrous iron, a leftover of blood. He added that the dinosaur likely was still filled with fluid when it was trapped in the resin that eventually became amber. That suggests the creature may have been alive when trapped.

The discovery is expected to shed light on how the feathers of dinosaurs formed and evolved. The feathers on this sample lack a central shaft found in todays feathers.

The tail was described in depth in the journal Current Biology.
North Korea now has the capability to launch a nuclear weapon, but it may not be able to hit its intended target, according to a senior U.S. military official.

The Pentagon believes Pyongyang can mount a warhead on a missile, but North Korea has not developed the capabilities needed for the warhead to re-enter Earth's atmosphere and strike a specific area, the official told reporters Thursday, speaking on condition of anonymity.

It is the threat that keeps me awake at night, the senior military official said. And that's why they continue to test their systems out there.

Army's I Corps ready to fight

In March, a top U.S. admiral said that North Korea may have figured out how to make a nuclear warhead small enough to fit on a long-range missile, bringing Pyongyang closer to its goal of developing a weapon capable of reaching continental U.S.

Pyongyang has conducted two nuclear tests so far this year and the country has made steady progress since Kim Jong Un came to power in 2011.

In the event of a North Korean attack, Lt. General Stephen Lanza, the commander of the Army's I Corps based on the U.S. Pacific coast, said his troops are ready to fight tonight.

Multinational exercises a must

I Corps is headquartered in Washington state, but Lanza said the corps has several troops positioned forward in Hawaii to aid tens of thousands of U.S. troops already stationed in Korea should an attack arise.

In an interview with VOA, Lanza stressed the importance of multinational military exercises to prepare nations on how to work together in critical times.

The U.S. Army conducts heavy-equipment military exercises known as Pacific Pathways each year in the region. Lanza says that South Korea will be one of four stops on the next Pacific Pathway, which is scheduled in 2017.

I Corps also plans to conduct annual war games called Ulchi-Freedom Guardian with South Korea in August.
A rising tide of automation and some trade deals have cost the United States millions of manufacturing jobs in recent years, leaving many people unemployed or in jobs with poor pay, few benefits, and no future.

At the same time, many U.S. companies say they cannot find enough people with technical skills to fill critical jobs that pay well. Many advanced nations, like Germany and Denmark, make wide use of apprenticeships, but U.S. firms have cut back sharply on them.

One major U.S. firm, however, is using old school techniques that blend classwork and practical experience to build and maintain its high-tech workforce. Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia has been training apprentices for nearly a century in the many skills needed to build the world's most advanced warships. Those skills range from welding to making computer models to old-style drafting.



Nuclear-powered submarines

Apprentice Jordan Lacy is part of a large crew that is building a nuclear-powered attack submarine, the USS New Jersey. He has been busy sorting out complex steel parts, welding them together, and grinding them smooth so they fit just right.

He says his work "starts as a pile of pieces. When it leaves, it is a finished unit [piece of a ship].

Lacy, a first-year apprentice, also has worked on a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, and looks forward to switching from paper plans to computer drawings.

He works in the shipyard a couple of days a week, and spends the rest of his time in classrooms, studying technical topics. He aspires to learn how to design projects, not just assemble them.

Lacy and more than 700 fellow students at the site's Apprentice School are paid for their work while they learn advanced skills.



Practical training

Everett Jordan, who graduated from the Apprentice School decades ago, is now the director of education. He says the school's mix of classroom and practical training pays for the company.

That graduate has been down in the tanks, the bowels of these ships; they know these complex pipe assemblies; they know what it takes to be a test electrician, they've done it and they take that experience with them the rest of their career, said Jordan.

Efforts to boost workforce skills through apprenticeships are more common in Germany, Denmark and other nations than the United States, says Edward Alden, author of Failure to Adjust, a new book about problems in the U.S. workforce.

Apprenticeships are essentially an investment by companies into their future, and the future of their communities," said Alden. "We saw over the decade of the 2000's a 40 percent decline in apprenticeships being offered by [American] private companies."

As ships become more complex, the kinds of skills needed by builders are also growing. The Apprentice School offers 19 basic programs and many advanced ones for workers who display strong skills and aptitude.

Computer modeling is one example. Recent projects included one that showed workers how to deal with a potentially devastating radiation emergency. Another program helps engineers and officers figure out how to speed refueling and rearming of planes on the crowded deck of an aircraft carrier to get them back into combat.

Apprentice Elise Feldt works on another computer modeling project that helps guide workers in the process of removing worn out nuclear reactors from the USS Enterprise. It was the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and now, after decades of service, is being disassembled.



Academics, experience



Its eight nuclear reactors weigh tons and could emit dangerous radiation, so figuring out the right sequence for the process of safely handing them is crucial.



Feldt, who earlier trained as a pipefitter, relishes the new challenges.

I love what I do and I think the best part about it is the problem-solving and having to learn and understand so much of what Im getting into, said Feldt.

Many apprentices rise to the top or their craft, and a few become top managers. All are informed by practical experience as well as academic skills.

School director Jordan observes that this recipe absolutely could help many Americans displaced from manufacturing jobs.

The shipyard employs about 20,000 people  3,000 of them from the Apprentice School.
Earlier this month, a U.N. human rights monitor warned that "ethnic cleansing" is under way in parts of South Sudan, and warned the country is on the brink of a genocide.

After a 10-day visit to South Sudan, Yasmin Sooka, head of a U.N. Human Rights Council team, said people are being displaced from their homes through a process of starvation and gang rape, and the burning of villages.

On Thursday, panelists gathered by the United States Institute of Peace and the Holocaust Memorial Museum discussed how to prevent mass atrocities in the country where many observers have said that type of violence is being used for ethnic cleansing.

Justin Lynch, an Associated Press reporter who has been covering the South Sudan conflict since July, was deported by South Sudan to Uganda on Tuesday.

Appearing via Skype, Lynch told the audience in Washington that he recently witnessed several acts of brutality and deadly violence in Yei, a former Central Equatoria state town, which forced tens of thousands of civilians to flee.

"It's not only Yei that is at risk of further violence, it's also happening in Unity state, Lynch said. I was scheduled to go to Leer tomorrow. We've seen that most of the civilians are fleeing that area as well, and they're talking about the same things that I saw in Yei.

Fear of genocide

Cameron Hudson, director of the Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide at the Holocaust museum, cautioned observers on the scenarios that could trigger a genocide in the country. Hudson said one trigger is the vacuum being created in Washington with President Barack Obama leaving office next month, as well as United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon leaving office.

"There's a huge vacuum across Africa, across the international community, and certainly in Washington," Hudson said.

John Prendergast, founding director of the Washington-based Enough Project, said U.S. policy on South Sudan is not working. He urged Obama to take action before he leaves office by sending in a new, high-level, bipartisan diplomat to Juba who could "shake things up."

"Now when [former] President [Bill] Clinton saw the Eritrea war break out, he sent his former National Security Adviser Tony Lake. That's the kind of level we need to see there," Prendergast said.

Duty of peacekeepers

Panelist Akshaya Kumar, deputy U.N. director at Human Rights Watch, said the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in South Sudan has been forced to take a long, hard look at itself after making mistakes in the country.

"If peacekeepers are not willing to do basic things like get out of their armored vehicles and patrol on foot, engage with communities, work to dispel rumors, make their way to places like Yei, challenge the arbitrary restrictions that are being put on them by the SPLA or the government of South Sudan, then there really is no hope for them to have an impact on the situation in South Sudan," Kumar said.

Kumar added that even if a regional protection force is deployed to South Sudan, they're not going to have results unless they are "able to get out there and have an impact."

Efforts to establish a Transitional Government of National Unity have largely failed after a surge in fighting broke out in July between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and former First Vice President Riek Machar in the capitol Juba.

An increase in hate speech and threats against certain ethnic groups in the greater Equatoria region has increased the risk of targeted mass violence in South Sudan, according to the United States Institute of Peace website.
Schools in Kenya are out for a holiday, but a group of 10 volunteers in Mathare, one of Nairobi's most dangerous slums, is encouraging children to come to pop-up centers to read donated storybooks. The goal of the program, called Sauti ya Vitabu, which is Swahili for Voice of the Books, is to get children to dream big and broaden their minds.

Betty Mutua and a group of friends started Sauti ya Vitabu to help schoolchildren in Mathare improve their learning and broaden their minds through books.



What started as a visit to a slum by a group of university postgraduate students led to the creation of mobile pop up-libraries that opens their doors to more than 30 children on Saturdays and school holidays.



Mutua and her friends wanted to expose the youngsters to a world far different from what they were used to experiencing.



"I thought books are the most interesting; they give you a journey; you play parts, she said. When you read a book, you are playing a part. It's like you are inside. I love reading books. When I read a book I always think I am the girl in that book. I just picture myself. It takes you so far. Even if you have never been to Paris, you will really think you are in Paris with that book."



In January, volunteers collected books, carried them into Mathare and set up the first library in a church hall.



Since then the reading sessions have been packed.

Sauti ya Vitabu relies on donations of books from well-wishers.



With the number of readers growing, the volunteers hope that they can find a more permanent structure for their library and help more kids advance their education.





Right now, with only a small number of books on hand, sometimes one book is shared between two children.



The volunteers select books that the children can relate to, such as books that touch on slum life and what the kids are likely to go through in the slums.



The book that they are currently reading is One Last Chance. The setting is in Huruma, also a Kenya slum. The lead character is a young girl who is raped on her way to school to pick up her grades.



The girl, Waridi, is determined to go to high school despite the resulting unplanned pregnancy. She approaches various schools but none is willing to admit her.

In the last chapter, Waridi finally has her baby, goes to school and eventually, graduates with a law degree.



Before joining Sauti ya Vitabu, Abraham Omondi was a poor reader. Ten months into the program, he is able to read with little help from the volunteers. The 10-year-old clearly understands the lesson Waridis story has for young boys and girls facing hardship.



"One more chance means that even if you are poor and you do not have courage, never give up, he said. You never know how close you are."
Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders has been found guilty of insulting Moroccans and inciting discrimination; but, he will not face any penalty or jail sentence  leaving him free to run in elections due next March. Observers say the trial could actually boost Wilders chances of victory as he seeks to ride a wave of right-wing populism in Europe.



During the trial, the court was shown a video of the political rally in 2014 when Geert Wilders made the remarks that led to his conviction. Wilders asked the crowd of supporters if they wanted fewer or more Moroccans in your city and in the Netherlands. The crowd shouted back: "Fewer! Fewer!" Wilders replied, "We're going to take care of that."



After a three-week trial, judges found him guilty of insulting a group and inciting discrimination  but cleared him of inciting hatred. In a video posted online after the verdict, Wilders accused the court of political bias.



You can count on it. I will never be silent, and this conviction only makes me stronger," he said. "This is a shameful sentence, which, of course, I will appeal; but, I can tell you, I am now more vigorous than ever.



Party leadership



Despite the conviction, Wilders can lead his Freedom Party into parliamentary elections due in March  and his chances of victory are high, says Andrea Mammone, an expert on far-right politics at Royal Holloway, University of London.

There is no one else that is so popular as him. Really, this is a one-man show," Mammone said. " Elections will run as usual and he might actually win.



Wilders' comments triggered anti-racist protests in 2014 and police received more than 6,000 complaints. Around 2 percent of the Dutch population are of Moroccan origin.



During the trial, Wilders said that it was legitimate to debate how many Moroccans should live in the country.



He told the court that worldwide, a movement has started which puts an end to the politically correct doctrines from those elites and the media dependent on them. Brexit proved this, as the U.S. elections, he added.



Anti-Islam views

Wilders used the trial as a platform to spread his anti-Islam views  and Mammone says the court appearances may actually help Wilders' election chances.



I think a lot of this has to do with the fear of the population, with the perception that the country is losing something as a nation state, that there are too many immigrants, that there are too many refugees, that there is too much inequality  even when there is no inequality," Mammone said.



Wilders Freedom Party leads Dutch polls by as much as 10 percent. He is a strong opponent of the European Union  and a victory for him in one of the EUs founding member states would plunge the bloc deeper into political crisis.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday that Russia and Syrian government forces would continue their bombing raids in Aleppo until rebels vacated the city.

"After a humanitarian pause, [the strikes] have resumed and will continue for as long as the bandits are still in Aleppo," Lavrov told reporters while attending a security meeting in Hamburg, Germany.

Lavrov's comments came a day after he said the Syrian government had stopped all active military operations in eastern Aleppo. When asked about the seemingly contradictory statements Friday, Lavrov said: "I did not say that the military operations were completely stopped. I said they were suspended for a certain time to allow civilians wishing to leave to do so."

"Everyone understands it, our American partners understand it," he added.

Lavrov said that he hoped there could be a permanent agreement reached soon, but that American diplomats were exhibiting "strange" behavior. He accused them of backtracking on a proposal that would have allowed rebels to leave Aleppo if they laid down their weapons.

"If the American experts do not change their mind again as they did a few days ago ... then there is a good chance for an agreement on a final settlement of the situation in Aleppo," he said.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry confirmed Friday that U.S. and Russian officials would meet in Geneva on Saturday, along with U.N. officials, to discuss the situation in Aleppo. Speaking in Paris, Kerry said the destruction in Aleppo was the worst "since World War II itself."

"We are working hard with people that we even have disagreements with, in order to see if we can find a way in the name of humanity and decency to be able to protect those lives," Kerry said.

At the U.N., U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power called on the warring parties to "remember their humanity" and allow safe passage for civilians who want to leave.

WATCH: Power on Aleppo civilians

The General Assembly was to meet later Friday to vote on a nonbinding resolution calling for an immediate end to sieges and a cessation of hostilities, as well as access for humanitarian aid convoys.

The assembly has been seeking ways to circumvent the divided 15-nation Security Council.





In the latest show of disunity, on Monday, Russia and China blocked adoption of resolution calling for a seven-day cease-fire to get aid in and the sick and wounded out.

"Well, sadly, I suspect it will be too little, too late," British Ambassador Matthew Rycroft told reporters

"But what I hope that it will do is to demonstrate that there is a moral majority here," he said. "There are states who are not on the Security Council but have very strong views about peace and security and who are distressed that through a series of vetoes, the Security Council has failed to provide the unity necessary to change the situation in Syria."

A General Assembly resolution cannot force action, but it would send a message of moral outrage from the international community.

Tens of thousands of civilians are thought to be trapped in eastern Aleppo despite a surge of refugees during the past two weeks heading for the relative safety of government-controlled western districts.





Monitors last week estimated that 18,000 civilians in the east had moved into western neighborhoods, and more than 9,000 others into a Kurdish-controlled district.

VOA's Steve Herman and Margaret Besheer contributed to this report.
U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter has praised the "growing capabilities and resilience" that Afghan security forces have demonstrated this year in battling the Taliban insurgency and conducting joint operations with American partners against Islamic State terrorists.



During his final visit to Afghanistan as head of the Pentagon before President-elect Donald Trump takes command of America's longest war, Carter emphasized that Washington remains committed to Afghanistan's future.



"The United States presence and continued support to Afghan forces and strategic partnership with the government of Afghanistan demonstrates to the world that America is and will remain committed to a sovereign and secure Afghanistan," said Carter during a joint news conference with President Ashraf Ghani.



Around 10,000 American troops are in Afghanistan. They are tasked to conduct counterterrorism operations against Al Qaeda and IS terrorists, and to train and advise Afghan forces under the larger NATO mission called Resolute Support.



President-elect Trump has given little indication of his foreign policy plans. Afghanistan in particular was not a frequent point of discussion during his campaign.



Secretary Carter praised successes Afghan security forces have made this year against Taliban insurgents with the help of U.S. and its NATO partners.



"They demonstrated their growing capabilities and resilience. And they denied the Taliban its own stated goal of seizing a major population center," he said.



Carter added that U.S. forces together with Afghan partners have recently conducted two large-scale operations against IS, killing its top leader in the country and significantly degrading its capabilities in Afghanistan. Carter is expected to discuss ongoing efforts to continue building Afghan combat capacity, including the country's growing Air Force.





Tough Year for Afghan forces



The Taliban has inflicted record casualties on Afghan security forces during this year's fighting and have made territorial advances, particularly in southern Afghan regions.



The insurgents control roughly 10 percent territory while two-thirds is controlled by the Afghan government and the remainder of the population is contested.



Carter also addressed and thanked American troops for their services and sacrifices while addressing them at Bagram, the largest U.S. military base in Afghanistan. Commander of the Resolute Support mission also spoke on the occasion.



"Our policy of having an enduring counterterrorism effort alongside Afghan partners is, in my view, very sound  something that we need to continue," said Nicholson.



Incoming President Trump has nominated retired Marine General James Mattis to be the next Pentagon chief. Afghanistan will be one of the major challenges facing the new administration, say analysts.



Taliban insurgents allegedly continue to use sanctuaries in neighboring Pakistan to plot and guide insurgent attacks in Afghanistan. Islamabad denies the charges.



Russia-Taliban ties



Afghan and American officials are also increasingly worried about Russia's growing ties with the Taliban amid concerns it could further complicate the Afghan war.



Russian ambassador to Kabul, Alexander Mantytskiy on Thursday acknowledged Moscow's contacts with the Islamist insurgency.



However, Mantytskiy insisted, the contacts with the Taliban are aimed at ensuring the safety of Russian citizens and diplomatic missions in Afghanistan, and encouraging the insurgents to come to the table for peace talks with Kabul.



He also dismissed U.S.allegations that Moscow is arming the Taliban, saying they are aimed at distracting attention from the worsening Afghan conflict.
Relations between the United States and one of its oldest allies, the Philippines, show signs of returning to normal after a crisis in September when the president in Manila demanded Washington withdraw military support and talked of a deeper break in ties with the superpower.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump congratulated Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte in a call this month on his deadly campaign to squelch the drug trade, according to the Philippine side. The government of U.S. President Barack Obama had angered Duterte, who took office in June, by criticizing the effort because of suspected extrajudicial killings.

Trump also invited Duterte to visit the White House, part of a chain of overtures to traditional U.S. allies in Asia, including Japan.

What Trump is doing is trying to (take back) the ground that the U.S. has lost in the last phase of the Obama presidency and strengthen partnerships and alliances that the U.S. already has in the region, said Fabrizio Bozzato, an associate researcher specialized in international affairs at Tamkang University in Taiwan.

Ambassador's talk 'fruitful'

The Philippine presidents office cited a fruitful one-hour discussion between Duterte and new U.S. Ambassador Sung Kim this week, media in Manila reported.

In a Facebook video posted by the U.S. embassy in Manila, Kim called the encounter terrific and said it covered a range of issues.

My hope and my plan and my commitment is to make sure to strengthen and deepen all aspects of our relationship, so I think you can expect the relationship will continue to grow, he said.

Rough patch not that rough

In September, Duterte called Obama a vulgar name, suggested scaling back economic ties and demanded that U.S. military personnel leave the country.

Manila has been one of Washingtons chief Asian allies since the two sides signed a mutual defense treaty in 1951.

Since 2002, 50 to 100 American advisers have worked in the archipelagos southwest helping keep Muslim rebels in check. Since the two sides signed an agreement in 2014, American naval personnel have visited to help the country watch for Chinese ships in contested waters.

The United States, a former colonizer of the Philippines, also gives many work visas to Filipinos and was the countrys No. 2 source of foreign direct investment after Japan in 2013.

Analysts expect the upswing in ties to continue. Duterte has not scrapped any agreements with the United States, and the two sides weathered an even deeper falling out in the early 1990s with the closure of two U.S. military bases, said Christian de Guzman, vice president and senior credit officer with Moodys in Singapore.

Theyve gone through rough patches before, and by no means do we think that the rough patch between Duterte and latter months of the Obama administration was the roughest, de Guzman said.

In September, the notoriously rough-spoken Duterte was seeking only less dependence on U.S. aid rather than a complete cut, part of a multicountry foreign policy, analysts say. He has visited China and Japan and contacted Russias prime minister since taking office.

Dutertes objective was never to completely shift to China and abandon the kind of relationship the Philippines have had with the U.S. for decades, Bozzato said. Rather Duterte is trying to balance between China and the U.S. in order to maximize the kind of aid or political support he can get from both of the big guys in the region.

Strong Philippine-U.S. ties should bring factory investment from American companies, said Jonathan Ravelas, chief market strategist with Banco de Oro UniBank in Metro Manila.

In 2013 the United States invested $1.3 billion in the Philippines.

The warming relationship between the U.S. and the Philippines could create that new spark similarly to that of President Ramos during his term, Ravelas said. His relationship with the U.S. was strong, and it was during those times you had seen the likes of FedEx being here in the Philippines.

Brace for Trump

But experts warn that the Philippines should brace for more protectionist trade and investment policies under Trump.

Those policies might make it harder for people in the still largely impoverished country to get U.S. work visas and discourage American firms from using offshore bases such as call centers, a driver for the fast-growing Philippine economy.

About 1.8 million Filipinos work in the United States, sending back a major chunk of the $20 billion-plus in remittances from other countries each year.

The Philippine call center industry began in 2004 with an American investor and has expanded to employ about 1 million people, with expected revenues of $25 billion in 2016.

I think that the source of concern in financial markets at the moment is Trump economic policy, de Guzman said. He says he may have incentives or disincentives for American companies looking to offshore jobs or place overseas investment.
At least 30 people are dead in northeast Nigeria after a pair of female suicide bombers struck the busy market Friday morning, Nigeria's army said.

The army blamed the attack on the Boko Haram Islamist group, which has been known to use women and young girls to launch suicide attacks, though the group did not immediately claim responsibility for the bombing.

"The two bombers, who [were] disguised as customers, detonated their suicide belts at the section of the market selling grains and second-hand clothing," said Yusuf Muhammad, of the Madagali local government.

Army spokesman Maj. Badere Akintoye said that, in addition to those who were killed, 67 wounded people were transported to a local hospital.

The Madagali area had been under Boko Haram control for several months last year before it was liberated by Nigeria's military. Boko Haram still keeps a stronghold in the nearby Sambisa Forest.

Boko Haram has launched several similar attacks in the Madagali area over the past year. In December 2015, two female suicide bombers killed 30 people at a bus station near the same market, and in June, a militant attack on a funeral left 18 people dead.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said Boko Haram had been "technically defeated" in December 2015, but the attacks continue.
Even though the so-called Islamic State has the potential to replace its fighters quickly, it's losing those whom they have, rapidly.

By India Today Web Desk: A US-led coalition was initiated to fight in Iraq and Syria two years ago. According to a US military official, since then, as many as 50,000 militants from so-called Islamic State have been killed.

Not talking in excess, the senior official described the figure as a "conservative estimate".

The figure showed air power and a small number of the US figures supporting local forces were having an impact, the official said, according to a BBC report .

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Past being the evidence, the US has, however, repeatedly warned that the IS can replace fighters rapidly.

Militant Islamist fighters take part in a military parade along the streets of northern Raqqa province - REUTERS/Stringer

Iraqi troops have been battling to recapture the city of Mosul and a US official told BBC that coalition air strikes could be intensified but the strikes have to be made out of line where there are no civilian casualties.

Fighters of Libyan forces allied with the U.N. - backed government gather in their military vehicles after they recaptured houses from Islamic State militants in Ghiza Bahriya district in Sirte, Libya - REUTERS/Ismail Zitouny

The campaign was beginning to damage the so-called Islamic State, the official said.

"I am not into morbid counts but that kind of volume matters, that kind of impact on the enemy."

Smoke and flames rise over a hill near the Syrian town of Kobani after an airstrike - REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach

The US has, on multiple occasions, been reluctant to provide figures on enemy casualties. But in August, Lt Gen Sean MacFarland was quoted by the Associated Press as saying that about 45,000 enemy combatants had been killed.

In February, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said IS had about 25,000 fighters operating in Syria and Iraq, citing a US intelligence estimate.

Iraqi army fires towards Islamic State militant positions in Mosul from the village of Adhbah, south of Mosul Iraq - REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani

IS which started its expansion in 2014, had a lot of ground to hold, but is now taking heavy fire from forces of Russia, Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Kurdish forces, which is further supported by the US and British air power.

--- ENDS ---
Islamic State militants entered Palmyra in central Syria Saturday, nine months after being pushed out of the city by Syrian government troops backed by the Russian military.

The Associated Press, quoting reports by a Palmyra activist group, said IS had seized a military warehouse as well as the city's northern and western neighborhoods.

The militants are also pushing toward a nearby Syrian military airbase that the Russian military has been using to support Syrian forces, Reuters reported.

The intensification of fighting came after IS fighters captured at least a dozen government-held positions in eastern Homs, including strategic areas around Palmyra.



"IS took complete control of al-Mohur [oil] field in northwest of Palmyra," the pro-rebel Palmyra Coordination Committee said in a tweet on Friday.



IS has reportedly seized a significant amount of weapons and ammunition from retreating Syrian soldiers in the area, local reports said. Syrian warplane on Friday bombarded the area in an attempt to push IS fighters back.



The IS-led offensive on eastern Homs was so swift it took pro-regime forces by surprise, activists said.



IS "was so quick in capturing all these areas," said Hussein al-Homsi, a pro-opposition media activist in Homs. "The [Syrian] regime forces had to retreat and perhaps regroup to fight back in some of the recently captured areas."



Syrian troops took heavy casualties since Thursday, said the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group that monitors Syria's civil war with activists on the ground.



"If the [IS] advancement continues this way, it could take control of Palmyra at any moment," said Rami Abdulrahman, spokesman for the group.

It seems "IS has planned for this assault for a long time," he added.





Syrian government forces recaptured Palmyra in March after IS controlled and destroyed key parts of the city's UNESCO World Heritage ruins.



IS "is interested in Palmyra for its international importance" and it is a way for them to distract the world's attention from what is going on in Mosul and Raqqa," Abdulrahman told VOA.



Analysts say with its Iraqi stronghold of Mosul coming under siege from Iraq-led forces and Raqqa, its de facto capital in Syria, being targeted by a Kurdish-led offensive, IS is likely setting its sights to create a new stronghold.



IS is using the Syrian desert as a route to resupply and reinforce its fighters in Homs. The sprawling desert connects Homs to its strongholds of Raqqa and Deir Ezzor in eastern Syria.



The Pentagon said on Friday a U.S. airstrike destroyed 168 oil tanker trucks near Palmyra used by IS.



The central province of Homs is largely controlled by Syrian government troops. Some pockets in the north are under the control of rebels battling the regime while other areas in the east are under IS control.



IS wants to move toward the central city of Homs where pro-Assad troops have been in charge since pushing out the last remaining groups of rebels in 2015.



"Homs is a natural area of operations for [IS]," said Nicholas A. Heras, a Middle East researcher at the Center for a New American Security in Washington. "[IS] already has a long-established military presence in the contested areas [of Homs]."
China and the United States are sniping at each other over President-elect Donald Trumps phone call last week with the president of Taiwan, but the exchange of hard words between them has largely missed Taiwan itself, and the island may ultimately gain from long-term closer contact with Washington.

That afterglow from the December 2 phone call between Trump and Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen could ease Taiwans diplomatic isolation, bolster trade ties and give it a new edge in military defense against Beijing  its most likely foe in any conflict.

I think from the outset (the call with Trump) is good for Taiwan, said Shane Lee, political scientist at Chang Jung Christian University in Taiwan. Tsai Ing-wen will have better access to the White House or to the administration in general. In what way, its hard to say. When Trump steps into the White House, he will have to talk with his advisers.

Communist Party newspaper mocks the President-elect

Chinas Communist Party-run Global Times newspaper expects more trouble than ever between the two superpowers after Trump takes office and says a lot of his words wont turn into action. On Thursday, the papers website called him a political rookie in wake of a protocol-smashing phone call with Taiwan.

But tighter relations with the United States would also put Taiwan at risk of a backlash from China, which already distrusts Tsai. Taiwan has been self-ruled since the 1940s and polls show most Taiwanese oppose Beijings goal of unification with China. To isolate Taiwans government, China asks its 170-plus diplomatic allies to avoid formal contact with Taipei.

Washington broke ties with Taiwan in 1979 and switched to the larger, fast-growing China. But it has remained a staunch informal supporter of Taiwan since then.

Phone call from Trump may help Taiwan's military

Following the Trump phone call, Taiwan should expect more arms sales and better quality weaponry for its defense against China, said Ross Feingold, Taipei-based senior adviser with the American political risk manager DC International Advisory. Trumps Asia advisers will want more military-to-military contact as well, he forecasted.

There is also going to be people who are very supportive of higher-level military contact, said Feingold. The people who are advising on Asia policy, these are people who made it very clear they are very supportive of reducing the restriction on military-to-military contact.

Taiwan has the worlds 19th biggest military compared to China at number three, according to the statistical database GlobalFirePower.com. It looks to Washington as its chief weapons supplier, though Chinas pressure on the U.S. government to stop arms sales has spawned a homegrown defense industry in Taiwan.

Phone call could also have an economic effect

The 12-minute call to Trump may lead to deeper discussion of trade and investment cooperation than what President Barack Obama has offered, some experts say.

Trumps administration may also try to help Taiwan open doors to international agencies where China blocks its access.

On the call, Tsai asked for American help in participating and contributing to those agencies.

More strategically, the Tsai government that took office in May should have the ear of Trumps administration as needed, analysts say. Trump transition team member Ed Feulner pushed for the phone call, per media reports in Taipei. Taiwans foreign ministry on Wednesday thanked former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole for his deep support, though the presidents office says that contrary to some media reports, Dole's company did not arrange the phone call.

Tsai has expressed hope for meeting members of Trumps transition team during a proposed stopover in the United States en route to Guatemala, a diplomatic ally, next month.

The phone call has excited the people of Taiwan

Taiwanese are excited about the phone call as a sign that a U.S. leader cares about their homeland, said Ku Chung-hwa, standing committee member with the Taipei advocacy group Citizens Congress Watch.

People on the island have also made psychological preparation for a Beijing backlash since Tsai won the presidential election in January, he said.

May be a price to pay

Beijing resents Tsai for not seeing Taiwan as part of China, a precondition for any dialogue. Since her election over a candidate who took a friendlier view toward China, travel agents say Beijing has discouraged tour groups from traveling to the island and the Communist leadership has formed relations with a former Taiwan ally in Africa. China has also put Taiwanese fraud suspects on trial after being arrested abroad.

But China has avoided action that would upset Taiwanese to the point of pushing for constitutional independence. The constitution, written before the Chinese civil war, identifies Taiwan and China as part of the same country.

Scholars in Taipei warn of a stronger backlash, such as military threats or picking off some of Taiwans remaining 22 diplomatic allies, if Taiwan gets too close to the United States.

A high expectation is not realistic politically and peacefully, said Liu Yi-jian, public affairs professor at Fo Guang University in Taiwan. I just dont see (that) this thing will do Taiwan any good at this moment. I just dont see the kind of high expectation on the part of the Taiwan people will help the peaceful resolution of the political conflict between two different sides of Taiwan Strait.
The Catholic Church is hosting last-minute negotiations in the Democratic Republic of Congo in hopes a crisis can be avoided when President Joseph Kabilas second term ends December 19.

On December 8, Archbishop Marcel Utembi, the archbishop of Kisangani, told 30 Congolese politicians that their mission is to forge a larger consensus around the electoral process.

In less than two weeks, Kabilas second and, under the constitution, final term will end. But he will not be giving up power. Elections slated for last month were not organized, and in October Kabilas political alliance, the presidential majority, struck an agreement with an opposition faction that permits the president to stay in office until polls can be held. They have been provisionally scheduled for April 2018.

However, most opposition parties, most notably a large coalition called the Rassemblement, reject this arrangement. They want Kabila to step down as scheduled and for elections to be held next year.

Shuttle diplomacy

At Kabilas instigation, CENCO, the influential body that represents the Catholic Church and is headed by Utembi, has been shuttling between the two sides since late October. It has taken more than five weeks to get the parties to nominate representatives and talk face to face.

Together we must find a solution to Congos problems, said Olivier Kamitatu, a senior Rassemblement official, among which the most important remain respecting the constitution, in other words a democratic handover of power.

Martin Fayulu, another Rassemblement delegate, told VOA the question of who will rule the DRC after December 19 is on the table.

After Kabila finishes his mandate, Fayulu said, there will be a vacuum. He said the talks must determine how to fill that vacuum.

Kabila not backing down

Until now, however, neither Kabila nor his political alliance have given the impression that the president has any intention of relinquishing power before 2018 at the earliest, or that they are willing to contemplate having elections in 2017.

Kamitatu told VOA time is fast running out for the negotiators. If a compromise cannot be found before December 19, many fear a repeat of September 19, when a Rassemblement demonstration turned violent. According to the U.N., security forces killed more than 50 people over two days.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump spoke Friday at a rally in the southern state of Louisiana, campaigning for Republican candidate John Kennedy in the nation's final Senate race to be decided in this cycle.

Trump told supporters in the state capital, Baton Rouge, that "we need John in Washington," and urged them to turn out to vote Saturday.

Kennedy, currently the state treasurer, is in a runoff election against Democrat Foster Campbell for the Senate seat vacated by Republican David Vitter, who is retiring. The two men were the top finishers in last month's general election, but neither won a majority of the vote since there were more than 20 candidates in the race.

A win for Kennedy would keep the party's majority in the upper house of Congress at 52 seats to 48.

In New York on Friday, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani said he'd taken himself out of consideration for a place in the Trump Cabinet.

Giuliani, long a Trump supporter, was considered a front-runner in the race for secretary of state but would have faced tough questions about his overseas business ties.

Trump responded to Giuliani's announcement by saying he would have been an "outstanding" Cabinet secretary, but that he respected Giuliani's decision not to seek a government job.

Trump has yet to choose his nominee for secretary of state. Even with Giuliani's withdrawal, there are multiple candidates for the position.

Separately, reports Friday said Trump most likely would name senior Goldman Sachs banker Gary Cohn to head the White House Council of Economic Advisers, where he would be expected to coordinate the president's economic policy.

In the past, Trump has bitterly criticized the Goldman Sachs firm for engaging in economic activity that he said had hurt middle-class workers, and for furthering what he called a "global power structure" that favors the wealthy.

Also Friday, the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Paul Ryan, met with Trump in New York and said he was excited about "getting to work and hitting the ground running in 2017" when the new administration takes over in Washington.

Ryan distanced himself from Trump at various times during the presidential campaign, after disagreeing with controversial public comments by the New York real estate magnate. Now, however, Ryan says their relationship has improved and that he speaks almost daily with the incoming president.

Meanwhile, the Indiana union leader who drew an angry response from Trump after criticizing the president-elect's characterization of his efforts to keep hundreds of jobs in the United States, rather than transferring them to Mexico, suggested a face-to-face meeting with Trump on the jobs issue.

"If Trump is sincere about keeping jobs in the country  and you guys have heard him numerous times, that's what his goal is  we'll sit down, we'll work out something to keep these damn jobs here," Chuck Jones, head of United Steelworkers Local 1999, told reporters. The national leader of the United Steelworkers has supported Jones in the dispute with Trump.

In another development Friday, producers of U.S. television's "Celebrity Apprentice," the latest version of a popular reality show that catapulted Trump to nationwide prominence years ago, disclosed that he would continue to be credited on screen as an executive producer of the program even after he becomes the nation's commander in chief.

A "Celebrity Apprentice" representative would not disclose whether or how much Trump would be paid for his work as a producer after he enters the White House, but the president-elect has said he retains an ownership stake in the show and intends to keep it as an investment.
Michigan Republican Party Chair Ronna Romney McDaniel has emerged as the consensus favorite to head the party with President-elect Donald Trump

headed to Michigan on Friday as part of his post-election "thank you" tour.

The Republican National Committee will soon have a vacancy at the top of the party when current chairman Reince Priebus becomes White House chief of staff when Trump takes office on January 20.

With Trump to attend a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Friday night, party officials said he may signal his support for McDaniel, a niece of 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.

McDaniel helped deliver the state of Michigan for Trump in the November 8 election.

Until this year, Michigan had not voted Republican since 1988. Trump won the Midwestern state by little more than 10,000 votes, and the state's 16 electoral votes were critical to his victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton.

The Republican National Committee's 168 elected members will choose their next chair at a meeting in mid-January, but they will be influenced by Trump's view on who should head the party.

Another popular choice among party regulars is Matt Pinnell, the former chairman of the Oklahoma Republican Party.

Trump also is to visit Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on Friday to campaign for U.S. Senate candidate John Kennedy, a Republican who is to face off in a runoff election on Saturday against Democrat Foster Campbell.

Trump is using his tour to thank supporters who backed his candidacy and lay out some policy ideas for his presidency. He has a handful of cabinet appointments still to make, including secretary of state.
When Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, the man dubbed "Trump of the East," told U.S. businesses to pack their bags if they didn't like his anti-American rhetoric, the huge and growing outsourcing industry got a little nervous.

It's now the real Donald Trump who has businesses worried here, after the U.S. president-elect vowed to bring offshored jobs home from places such as the Philippines, a big provider of back-office services for corporate America.

The Southeast Asian country accounts for 12.6 percent of the global market for business-process outsourcing (BPO), which has been growing 10 percent a year for the past decade, according to the IT & Business Process Association of the Philippines.

The industry body predicts the BPO industry could be adding 100,000 jobs annually, earning revenues of $38.9 billion, by 2022, although global outsourcing consultants believe that could even reach $48 billion within four years.

Three-quarters of the $23 billion sector services U.S. firms.

"It's a U.S.-centric business," said Manuel Pangilinan, president of PLDT, which provides telecoms for the sector. "To the extent that Trump compels, persuades or incentivizes the BPO businesses to return ... it will impact our business or the industry as a whole.

"It's going to be a tough one, not only for us, but for the economy as a whole," he added.

Trump tweets

In a string of tweets Sunday, Trump threatened "retribution or consequences" for companies that moved operations out of the country, as well as a 35 percent tariff on their goods sold back to the United States.

That could leave the Philippines exposed, with companies such as Citibank, JPMorgan, Verizon, Convergys, Genpact and Sutherland Global Services key to jobs that were forecast to increase to 1.8 million full-time Filipinos by 2022.

It's not just companies in the Philippines that are worried.

Anticipating a more protectionist U.S. technology visa program under a Trump administration, India's $150 billion IT services sector will speed up acquisitions in the United States, industry sources there say.

Companies also plan to recruit more heavily from college campuses, expecting the Trump administration to tighten up on temporary visas for India's high-tech workers.

Some firms rattled

Philippine businesses and BPO firms that spoke to Reuters said some trade delegations had deferred visits and potential foreign investors in the industry were taking longer with their due-diligence procedures.

And they were doing so even before Trump won the U.S. presidential election on November 9.

Duterte's volatility has drawn comparisons to Trump and his hostility toward Manila's longtime ally the United States has shocked investors and even his own cabinet.

He told President Barack Obama to "go to hell" over the U.S. president's concern about Duterte's war on drugs, threatened to scrap U.S.-Philippines defense pacts, and in October announced before China's political elite his "separation" from the United States.

That remark rattled some U.S. firms, said Juan Victor Hernandez, an IBPAP trustee, who told Reuters that four companies put their decisions on hold immediately. He declined to name them.

Hernandez said uncertainties over Trump's policies affected potential investors rather than existing ones, such as JPMorgan, which is staying put.

"So far, they are still hell-bent on the Philippines, number one," he added.

Duterte defiant

Philip Goldberg, who until recently was the U.S. ambassador in Manila, said he took more calls from investors in his last three months than during his whole tenure. All were about Duterte's anti-American vitriol.

"They are very nervous," Goldberg told news channel ANC. "They don't know what it means."

While aware of those concerns about him, Duterte was defiant: "Go ahead. Pack your bags," he told reporters before flying to Japan in October. "We will sacrifice. We will recover."

Julius Guevara, head of research at Colliers Philippines, said while U.S. investors were concerned about Duterte and Trump, firms already in the Philippines were unlikely to leave.

"If it's more profitable for them to continue having operations here in the Philippines, I don't think Trump can do anything about it," he said.

Charito Plaza, an ally of the president and director general of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority, said Duterte would ask Trump to be kind to U.S. firms looking at the Philippines.

But it wasn't clear whether Duterte did that when the two spoke last Friday. Duterte said he felt a rapport with Trump and "assured him of our ties."

But the only policy issue Duterte mentioned afterward was his drug crackdown, which he said Trump understood.

Challenge of automation

Policymakers have been banking on BPO overtaking remittances as the mainstay of one of the world's fastest-growing economies.

The BPO sector's recent growth plan said it wasn't Trump or Duterte that posed the biggest challenge to the industry but automation.

The plan aims to boost mid- to high-skilled labor from 53 percent of the workforce to 73 percent by 2022 to meet that challenge. That would push annual incomes from $19,100 to $21,600 with jobs that diversify beyond voice services and focus on higher-value IT support.

The economic planning minister, Ernesto Pernia, told Reuters he was optimistic the Philippines' competitive costs and services would insulate its BPO sector from Trump, and the BPO jobs that Filipinos do might not appeal to Americans.

Duterte's talk shouldn't be taken too seriously, either, Pernia said.

"I think investors should listen to the economic planners and not the president," he said.
Turkish troops and Ankara-backed Free Syrian Army rebel fighters launched an assault Friday on al-Bab, a strategic Syrian town northeast of Aleppo which rival Kurdish militias aligned with the U.S. also want to seize from the Islamic State terror group.



Syrian opposition sources on the ground told VOA that 20 civilians were killed in the town Friday by airstrikes, which they believe were carried out by both Turkish and Russian military jets. Such a joint action, if true, would be a major development suggesting that Damascus and Moscow have reached some kind of agreement about Turkish military intervention in northern Syria.





Al-Bab is the Islamic State's last major stronghold in the eastern Aleppo countryside. An assault on the town has been expected for months, part of Turkey's four-month-old Euphrates Shield operation to push both jihadists and Kurdish militia fighters away from the Syrian border area. Ankara fears the Kurdish militiamen of the People's Protection Units, or YPG, are determined to carve out an independent state in northern Syria.



In a statement, Turkish military officials said their warplanes destroyed nearly a dozen IS targets and that their forces had seized control of a highway linking al-Bab, 46 kilometers from Aleppo, and Manbij, another major regional town, currently held by Kurdish-led forces. On Thursday, Turkish media reported that Ankara had deployed an extra 300 commandos to the eastern Aleppo countryside.



For weeks, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has signaled his eagerness for Euphrates Shield forces to seize al-Bab from IS, saying that once it is taken, Turkish forces will then turn their attention to ejecting Kurdish-dominated militias from Manbij.



"About 20 civilians were killed in airstrikes," Barry Abdulattif, an opposition activist, told VOA. He said sources in the town reported that Russian jets also carried out airstrikes.



The London-based monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has a network of activists and observers inside the war-torn country, confirmed there had been civilian deaths, including "no less than 12 civilians from three families [who] were killed, while others were wounded."



However, the group made no mention of the participation of Russian jets. It believes "Turkish warplanes and a bombardment by Turkish forces" from the outskirts of the besieged town were to blame for the civilian deaths.



Ever since Erdogan and Russian leader Vladimir Putin discussed the Syrian war by telephone late last month, there has been increasing conjecture about the possibility of a covert agreement over the fate of al-Bab between Ankara and Moscow, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's main foreign backer.



The two presidents spoke after the Turkish military claimed a Syrian warplane targeted Turkish soldiers in northern Syria, killing three of them. That incident had raised fears of an escalation, or even a direct fight between Syria and Turkey on an already complex battlefield.



Turkish officials issued dire warnings after the claimed airstrikes and threatened retaliation. But after Erdogan and Putin spoke on November 25, talk of retaliation stopped. A Kremlin statement said their discussion on Syria was constructive, and that they agreed to continue an active dialogue "to coordinate efforts against international terrorism."



"My suspicion since August has been that Putin and Erdogan have a partition deal," said James Miller, a Syria and Russia analyst and managing editor of the online magazine The Interpreter. He said he thinks Erdogan and Putin have "cut a deal where Turkey gets to control the area north of Aleppo, and Assad and Putin get to recapture Aleppo, and Syria gets carved up.

"Since Assad does not have enough ground troops to capture and hold all of Syria anyway, it seems that both sides are getting at least part of what they want," he added.



Turkey's Euphrates Shield operation has complicated Washington's bid to use Kurdish-led forces to launch a full-scale assault on the jihadists' self-proclaimed Syrian capital of Raqqa, and has maneuvered the U.S. and Turkey into ever greater cross-purposes in Syria, say Western diplomats and analysts.



The Turks disapprove of American support for the YPG, which it sees as a terrorist militia and an offshoot of an outlawed separatist Kurdish movement in Turkey. Clashes have intensified in recent weeks in northern Syria between anti-Assad Arab Syrian rebels backed by Turkey and the Kurds, aggravating already strained relations between Washington and Ankara, undermining the push on Raqqa and further complicating a multi-player battlefield.



On Thursday, U.S. Air Force Colonel John Dorrian, spokesman for the anti-IS coalition, told reporters in a video briefing from Baghdad that the coalition is facilitating joint talks with Turkey and the Syrian Kurdish forces in order to calm tensions. "Every party to these discussions has an overriding interest in common. This is the defeat of ISIS, an enemy that threatens us all," Dorrian added.



"These meetings are the starting points in addressing a challenging situation," Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency quoted Dorrian as saying.



A senior U.S. military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that Kurdish forces had slowed their advance toward Raqqa because they were worried Turks would attack them. "Their biggest concern is the Turks behind them ... and that's what caused them to hesitate to move forward," the American official was quoted as saying.
When Iraqi troops began the operation to retake Mosul last month, it was Americas F-22 Raptor jets that struck the first Islamic State targets there. But as American pilots keep flying missions abroad, theres been a quiet crisis brewing at home. Some of the Air Forces top generals tell our Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb that, if left unchecked, the crisis could degrade the Air Forces frontline capabilities in the coming year.
The U.S. Army has opened a criminal investigation of a soldier who confessed on national television to killing an unarmed Taliban detainee, a senior Army official told VOA Thursday.

The investigation of former Major Mathew Golsteyn, first reported by The Washington Post, began earlier this month, according to the senior Army official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

In an October interview, Golsteyn admitted to Fox News Channel that he had killed the alleged bomb maker while in Marja in 2010.

"This is a criminal case that was opened up because of a public confession," a U.S. official told VOA. "It is incumbent upon the Army to investigate that."

In the interview, the show host asks, "Did you kill the Taliban bomb maker?"

"Yes," Golsteyn replied.

Honor removed

Golsteyn initially acknowledged killing the detainee - who was accused of making a bomb that killed two Marines serving under Golsteyn's command - during a polygraph test while applying for a job with the CIA in 2011.

According to The Washington Post report, Golsteyn said a tribal leader who had identified the detainee as a Taliban member said he feared that if the American unit let the detainee go, the detainee would kill the tribal leader and his family.

A U.S. official said the CIA alerted the Army of the statement, and the Army launched an administrative board of inquiry into the killing.

The administrative review ended in 2014 without the Army finding evidence to charge Golsteyn; none of his fellow soldiers corroborated the story of the killing and Army officials weren't in the room to confirm the CIA confession.

But then-Army Secretary John McHugh decided to revoke Golsteyn's Silver Star Medal, the U.S. military's third-highest decoration for valor in combat, which he had earned in Afghanistan.

The U.S. official said an Army administrative review is different from an Army criminal case, and added that the October confession provides new evidence about the incident.

"So double jeopardy doesn't apply," the official said, referring to a law in the United States that prohibits citizens from being retried for the same crime using the same evidence.

Golsteyn told The Washington Post in an email Thursday that the Defense Department and Army have viciously pursued me without a discernible cause or a stated goal for over five years.

A senior Army official said there is currently a complaint on the Armys handling of the case that was filed with the Defense Department Inspector General. There cannot be any results released from the case until the complaint is resolved.
U.S. veterans, thousands of whom last week helped stop a contested oil pipeline running through North Dakota, could become important partners of activists on the environment, the economy, race and other issues that divide Americans.

Several academics said the effort to support the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and others opposed to the pipeline project was likely the biggest gathering of its kind of former military personnel since the early 1970s when U.S. veterans marched against the Vietnam War.

That so many veterans mobilized in less than two weeks to rural North Dakota speaks to the power they may have on public opinion, because of their status as having put their lives on the line for their country, veterans and academics said.

"The sense that vets are distinctively American figures, regardless of political beliefs, always seems to have currency, even when they are working on different sides of an issue," said Stephen Ortiz, a history professor at the State University of Binghamton in New York.

Many veterans who went to Cannon Ball, North Dakota, to join the months-long protests by Native Americans and environmentalists against the 1,172-mile (1,885-km) Dakota Access Pipeline said they were already looking for their next issue to support.

"Militarily-trained soldiers have now discerned, on their own, a genuine, just cause for which to promote and defend, and this time without being under orders to do so," said Brian Willson, whose 2011 memoir Blood on the Tracks: The Life and Times of S. Brian Willson, described how after serving in the Vietnam War, he became a non-violent protester for social change in the United States.

Law enforcement tactics, particularly the use of water cannons, against the protesters had been considered extreme by some. Veterans said in interviews they felt galvanized to act as a human shield, providing a respite for those who had been at the protest camp for months.

The pipeline owned by Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners LP, is routed adjacent to the Standing Rock Sioux's reservation. Protesters have said the $3.8 billion project could contaminate the water supply and damage sacred tribal lands.

The veterans at Standing Rock were led by former Marine Michael Wood Jr. and Army veteran Wes Clark Jr., son of retired U.S. general Wesley Clark, former commander of NATO. The group raised $1.1 million through online crowdfunding to help transport, house and feed veterans at the camp.

Battle resumes with Trump presidency

On Sunday, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it turned down a permit for the pipeline's completion, handing a victory to the protesters.

But the saga will not end there. Republican President-elect Donald Trump has said he wants the pipeline built; his team said he would review the decision when he takes office.

Even though the fight is not over in North Dakota, some see this as a way forward on other issues.

"There's a lot of these pipelines being built around the county. Flint [Michigan] has a water crisis. So we're going to see if we can keep this movement going and really change some things in America," said Matthew Crane, 32, from Buffalo, New York, who served in the U.S. Navy from 2002 to 2006.

Clark's group, called Veterans Stand with Standing Rock (VSSR), asked for 2,000 volunteers but said twice as many arrived. Comments on the VSSR Facebook page criticized Clark for a lack of planning and for not having contingencies in place for North Dakota's harsh winters.

As a blizzard blew in Monday, many hunkered down at the main protest camp. Hundreds more slept in the pavilion of the Prairie Knights Casino in Fort Yates, roughly 10 miles away on the Standing Rock reservation.

Clark, who himself was snowed-in at the casino, said in a Facebook video posted Wednesday night that the response meant "a huge tax on the supply chain and on accommodations."

Asking forgiveness

As part of their journey to North Dakota, many veterans asked forgiveness in two ceremonies for what they considered crimes and mistreatment of Native Americans by the U.S. government and military over the past 150 years.

One ceremony took place Monday on Backwater Bridge near the camp, the site of two heated confrontations with law enforcement earlier this fall. Thousands of veterans and tribal members prayed, emoting war cries on the bridge's southern cusp.

One veteran, wearing a flak jacket and a Veterans for Peace flag, yelled to the crowd from atop a horse.

"We didn't serve this country to see our brothers and sisters here persecuted," said the man, whose name was inaudible in the fury of the arriving blizzard. "Are we not all human?"

Some veterans said they planned to remain in North Dakota, unwilling to trust that Energy Transfer Partners would abide by the federal government's decision. Most had left by Wednesday, however, said Heather O'Malley, a U.S. Army veteran who monitored news for the group. She said it was unclear if they would return to the area in January if needed.

Clark and others said this was a way for veterans to address other efforts around the country.

"This is a small battleground in a larger war that is developing in our country that has to do with race, the economy and the powers that be taking advantage of those who really don't have a voice," said Anthony Murtha, 29, from Detroit, who served in the U.S. Navy from 2009 to 2013.
"The broad basing of the nuclear technology control group is also helpful to a more representative international order. Keeping in mind this solidarity of major developing states, it is important that China views this as a developmental aspiration and not give it a political colouring," said S Jaishankar.

By Smita Sharma: Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar who was speaking at the first India-China Think-Tanks Forum on Friday send out a message to Beijing stressing that civilian nuclear energy technology is key to India's growth said that China must not give a political colour to India's aspirations for a seat on the 48 member elite Nuclear Suppliers Group,

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"The broad basing of the nuclear technology control group is also helpful to a more representative international order. Keeping in mind this solidarity of major developing states, it is important that China views this as a developmental aspiration and not give it a political colouring," said S Jaishankar.

Also Read: NSG: The Great Wall of Xi

Without naming Pakistan, Jaishankar also asked China to be on the same page on the subject of terrorism in the multilateral forums, hinting at the Chinese blocking the resolution for a security council ban on terrorists like Masood Azhar.

"As diverse and pluralistic societies, we both face threats from fundamentalist terrorism. Yet, we do not seem to be able to cooperate as effectively we should in some critical international forums dealing with this subject. Even on sovereignty, surely there can be more sensitivity and understanding," said Jaishankar

Also Read: NSG entry: How China stonewalled India

NSG membership: How foreign secretary Jaishankar made secret trip to China

--- ENDS ---
A newly released survey of U.S. voters and poll workers suggests that a slender majority of Americans say they generally trust the accuracy of voting systems and the count, but fully 20 percent do not have confidence in the national election voting tally.

The survey of some 1,000 voters and more than 500 polling place workers and volunteers was sponsored by Smartmatic, one of the worlds oldest and largest providers of electronic voting systems.

In addition to the one-fifth of voters who said they do not trust the national vote count, a whopping one-third of all voters surveyed said they have concerns about the voting technologies in their specific voting location.

Its an interesting combination [of results], said Antonio Mugica, the founder and CEO of Smartmatic. The U.S. is a pioneer in voting technology, but at the same time it has let its infrastructure age beyond what would be advisable. You have now systems that are 10 to 15 years old in many counties, so the time is right for an upgrade  thats been widely agreed to by election officials, said Mugica.

Both voters and poll workers apparently agree. Eighty percent of voters, and 90 percent of elections officials, said they believe upgrading and improving voting systems nationwide would strengthen confidence in the national vote - no doubt music to the ears of companies like Smartmatic, which could stand to profit from such an investment.

Regarding the near unanimity of poll workers responses, Mugica says hes not surprised. Poll workers are extremely important; theyre the ones running the elections on Election Day, he told VOA. Theyre the ones in the front lines, so theyre views are extremely important to any voting system.

African-Americans, more than any other group surveyed, said the voting system and process where they vote was time-consuming and inefficient, by 35 percent. That compared to just 25 percent of voters overall  a figure that surprised Mugica.



That wasnt necessarily something that we expected, he said.

In an interesting turn, voters expressed the greatest confidence in the voting system that they specifically use. For example, voters who use paper ballots have the most confidence in that system, while 86 percent of voters who use electronic systems said those were the most trustworthy.

The good news is that people feel more comfortable using voting machines; they like it better and they have more trust in counting, even recounts, Smartmatic CEO Antonio Mugica said. Machines are very precise; people are very inaccurate.

Many cyber-analysts are considerably less sanguine about the security of electronic systems. One analyst recently told VOA that such systems in the U.S. are painfully vulnerable to hacking and cyber-attack.

But Mugica dismisses such statements by self-appointed experts.

They say look how easy it is to hack the machine, but essentially theyre replacing the guts of the machine with a new set of guts, Mugica told VOA. In reality, thats not hacking. Thats like taking a Boeing plane and swapping the engine out with a popcorn maker. But because it does strike to the fears of the public it gets repeated by the media.
Several people were killed and hundreds more were arrested or are missing Thursday in northwest Cameroon in violence that followed rallies by the country's English-speaking minority. They were protesting what they call the overbearing influence of French in the bilingual country. Some are demanding a return to federalism while others are asking for secession from the Republic of Cameroon.

Protesters in Bamenda, the capital of the northwest region of Cameroon, came out to stop the ruling CPDM party and the prime minister of Cameroon, Philemon Yang, from organizing a so-called "Peace rally," intended to halt Anglophone protests that started last month.

Yewong Petra, a resident of Bamenda, says the military shot at protesters who were hoisting blue and white flags that are an symbols of the English speaking regions that want to separate from the French speaking parts of Cameroon.

"The people of Bamenda are hoisting a flag that is not recognized," Petra said. "You cannot, in a nation, hoist a flag that is not recognized by the people. If it was a white flag, I would understand it is for peace. Hoisting a flag that symbolizes something like a secessionist attitude is going to provoke the military."

The government said two people were killed, but some residents and media outlets reported there were at least seven deaths.

In 1961, a vote was held in what are today's northwest and southwest English speaking regions of Cameroon. The referendum was over whether to join Nigeria, which had already obtained independence from Britain, or the Republic of Cameroon, which had obtained independence from France. Voters elected to become part of French speaking Cameroon, and the country practiced a federal system of government. English and French became the official languages of Cameroon.

Ebune Charles, historian at the University of Yaounde, says since 1972, when a new constitution was adopted replacing a federal state with a unitary state, French speaking Cameroonians have failed to respect the linguistic and cultural nature of the minority English speaking Cameroonians.

"We were supposed to have predominantly English speaking administrators in the predominantly English speaking regions of the northwest and the southwest, and that is not the case," Ebune said. "We were expecting official documents signed in both languages; that is not the case. Presidential decrees come only in one language. If you look at the level of the military, that is where it is so scandalous. It is just in one language but we are in a bilingual country."

Charles also pointed out that the country's currency is printed only in French, notice boards even in the English speaking regions are mostly in French, and more than 70 percent of radio and TV programs in the state media are in French.

The ongoing protests started when lawyers in the English speaking regions asked for French speaking judges who are not of the common law system to be transferred out of courts in those regions. They declared that justice can't be rendered when the judge, the advocate and the suspect can't communicate.

They also asked that the OHADA business law used by French African countries be translated into English.

When those requests were not granted, they refused to defend clients in court.

Teachers also went on strike to protest what they said was an overbearing influence of French in schools.

Professor George Dopgima Nyamdi, politician and former presidential aspirant, says the situation degenerated because the government has refused to listen to the cries of English speaking Cameroonians.

"If things like this happen to a country, it means there is something fundamentally wrong that must be addressed," Nyamdi said.

As the strikes continue, with violence closing schools, universities and markets, the Catholic Church has been calling for dialogue.

"The prime minister  is setting up a committee, he has appointed the chairperson of the committee so why not give him a chance," Cornelius Esua Fontem, the archbiship of Bamenda said. "There is a move of dialogue and we should not refuse that move. We want the government to prove that they too are coherent."

It is not the first time English speaking Cameroonians have protested. In 1984, they created the "Cameroon Anglophone Movement" to press for a return to the federal system, which eventually started calling for independence.
Three Tajima embroidery machines whirl frenetically, completing a gold letter "C" in three minutes. Printer Luis Bustos repositions the T-shirts and presses the switch. The machine surges.

Florist Veronica Alday wraps Christmas poinsettias in red tissue paper to display for workers at the Carrier Corp.

Which of these small-business owners is in Monterrey, Mexico? Which is in Indianapolis, Indiana?

The cities and their surrounding areas have been in the news lately because of a deal struck by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to prevent 800 Carrier furnace manufacturing jobs from moving to the outskirts of Monterrey from Indianapolis. Another 550 Indiana union jobs will still go to Mexico.

"If there is no work in the factories, then there's going to be unemployment, so who is going to have money to buy flowers, right?" Alday asked, expressing a universal anxiety about manufacturing.

Carrier effect

A few hundred jobs will not change the overall prosperity of either of these two metropolitan areas. Monterrey is at the center of the second-richest area in Mexico. In 2010, it had 13,000 manufacturing companies. The number has since grown.

Indianapolis is thriving, too. Its metropolitan area is the 26th-largest economic region in the United States. While manufacturing is still among its biggest industries, the region has diversified. And even manufacturing, which took a dive during the 2008 recession, has recovered better here than in other places.

But the Carrier decision will impact individual workers - and what VOA learned when it traveled to both metropolitan areas is how their working climates differ, yet workers' concerns don't.

Will Cornett is keeping his $23-an-hour job at the Indianapolis plant after fearing he would lose it.

"Praying every night," he said, "just believing in Trump, pretty much."

Chuck Jones, who for 30 years has been president of United Steelworkers Local 1999, representing employees at Carrier's Indianapolis plant, put no faith in Trump; his union endorsed neither the businessman nor his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, in the presidential election. And late Wednesday, Jones was the target of a pair of Trump tweets.

Jones' anger is all over his face. He knows too well what will happen to Carrier workers who still face layoffs, having been through numerous plant closures.

"When everything's over and done with, very few people's lives are going to be as good economically as they were when they were working," he said, chain-smoking Marlboros.

Zahid Gonzalez-Trevino, 19, made about $73 a week at Carrier's plant in Santa Catarina, near Monterrey, about 230 kilometers southwest of the border town of Laredo, Texas. But he shrugged off the loss of his job during a production layoff. "It's not hard to find a job around there," he said.

In addition to lower wages, U.S. companies move to Monterrey for its proximity to the U.S., two airports, good telecommunications and a young workforce. Mexico's median age is 28.

The companies come "because the people work. Because the human resources are here. Because the people are welcoming. Because the people work hard," Santa Catarina Mayor Hector Castillo-Olivares said proudly.

The florist and the printer

Veronica Alday's small floral and gift shop is across from the Carrier plant in Santa Catarina. Even in Mexico, her experience teaches her to worry about the future of her customer base at Carrier. She used to work in a Dutch factory, Hortimex, that cooked and processed U.S.-bound broccoli and cauliflower. Her job was to cut the vegetables into quarters.

"The factory no longer exists.There's a lot of uncertainty here," Alday said. "We hope that Trump doesn't do all that he promised, but there's really no doubt that he will."

Printer Luis Bustos came to the U.S. to start his own business, something he said was not easy in Mexico, where his brother still struggles with the status quo.

"[Shoppers] choose, like, big companies or big names, or that kind of stuff," he said. "Here ... you don't have to be Superman to set up a business. And people will follow you as long as you have quality and a few things that people look for."

In Indiana, Bustos registered the name "Print and Save" online in 45 minutes, got his business license in a few hours and the key to his office space after one interview. He had a business plan and within three months was paying back his initial investment. His customers are other small businesses, so the ebbs and flows of manufacturing don't hurt him.

He stands in front of the wall he built  his first investment  to divide his shop. It is now lined with shelves of brightly colored T-shirts.

"To be honest, I'm not the kind of person who thinks it is hard to live here," Bustos said. "I think it's more like mind things than really happening."

The metal cooker

Next week, the Rexnord ball bearing company will begin severance negotiations with its 300 employees.Less than three kilometers from Carrier in Indianapolis, the factory is closing in March and its jobs are going to Mexico. The only help that Trump has offered is another of his tweets.

Heat treatment operator Joshua Shartzer will be losing his job, which he described as cooking metal. He works at it 10 hours a day, seven days a week, with overtime and double time on Sundays.

"I spend more time with my co-workers than my family. But my wife and children realize this is not forever. If the money's there, I'm going to take advantage of it. Got college coming up," he said, referring to education costs for his children.

Shartzer thought the Carrier deal was "awesome." But he said he didn't foresee help for Rexnard.

"We don't do $10 billion in defense contracts," he said. "We're not in almost every house in America with our air-conditioning and furnace units."

In any case, Rexnord's move is a done deal, said Oscar Cantu Garcia, mayor of the Mexican town where Rexnord is relocating. The corporation "made an investment of $56 million to work here, and that's something that no one is going to stop," he said.

Four men recently huddled on bar stools at Sully's Bar and Grill in a strip mall near the Carrier plant in Indianapolis. In all, they'd worked 126 years for Carrier. Under a frieze of red Christmas stockings, they agreed the future of the United States depended on a manufacturing base.

"We have to make things and trade things," one said. "That's what makes up a society, or else we flirt with collapse."

But Shartzer said he was no longer counting on big companies. He wants the freedom to control his own fate. He is thinking about "going into real estate investing."
Ghana's President John Mahama has conceded defeat in Wednesday's national election to opposition leader Nana Akufo-Addo, several sources said on Friday.

The concession quelled tensions at the end of a day in which independent voting tallies showing an Akufo-Addo victory in the presidential and parliamentary election had been broadly accepted but there were no official results.

"The call (from Mahama) came just a few minutes ago," Boakye Agyarko, a senior aide to Akufo-Addo, told Reuters.

Supporters of Akufo-Addo's New Patriotic Party (NPP) broke into cheers and dancing at his residence in the capital, Accra, when news of the call broke on local media. Car horns blared and fireworks erupted across the city, witnesses said.

The electoral commission has said it will announce official results later on Friday.

Ghana has been a beacon of democracy in a region that has seen a series of civil wars and coups, with a record of peaceful elections in which power has alternated between two main parties. It is the third time since 2000 that voters have ejected a government.

Akufo-Addo, 72, served as foreign minister and attorney general in the previous NPP government that ruled between 2001 and 2009 but has twice narrowly lost battles for the presidency.

The economy has suffered a slowdown since Mahama took power in 2012, which left his government vulnerable to opposition charges that it had mismanaged national finances.

(Reporting by Matthew Mpoke Bigg; Editing by John Stonestreet)
A member of the Marine City Area Chamber of Commerce recently represented the community at the largest Connecting Entrepreneurial Communities conference in state history.

Chamber member Georgia Phelan served as a presenter at this years conference, which is hosted by Michigan State University Extension. The event took place in Port Huron in October.

Phelan said she was asked to share how Marine City used the program to advance entrepreneur and new business efforts in the community. Marine City was one of the first communities to take advantage of the program and participated in 2007 and 2008.

It was great to be able to share the beginnings of Marine Citys renaissance,' Phelan said. I think most people dont realize that it was over 10 years ago when a group formed to encourage and support new businesses coming into the city. That said, 10 years is really fast to see the kind of turnaround the city is experiencing. Im sure thats what has other communities and MSUE interested in our story.

Nearly 150 participants representing two countries, five states, 27 counties and 58 communities were in attendance, making it the biggest conference in its history, she noted.

Programming included 26 breakout sessions and three keynote speakers, as well as an evening networking event. A signature of the conference is embedding the sessions into local businesses, creating a walkable conference. Phelans sessions were held at Kates Downtown in Port Huron.

For more information about the conference, go to msue.anr.msu.edu/program/info/cec.

 Katelyn Larese, The Voice
The St. Clair County RESA Board of Education recently accepted the retirement of Superintendent Dan DeGrow, effective March 31, 2017. The board also approved its intent to hire Dr. Kevin Miller, currently RESAs director of administrative services, as his replacement, pending the successful negotiation of a contract with Miller.

Miller is scheduled to take over as superintendent at RESA, the Regional Educational Service Agency, on April 1, 2017. DeGrow will continue on staff during a three-month transition period, leaving RESA on June 30, 2017, the agency said in a press release.

Board President Marshall Campbell said the transition marks the successful conclusion of the boards succession management plan initiated several years ago.

Miller, 56, most recently served as the superintendent of Croswell-Lexington Schools. Campbell said his hiring as a director in January 2015 was done with the succession plan in mind.

He said the board wanted a smooth transition to ensure the next superintendent would continue to build upon the many innovative programs and services developed and expanded under DeGrows 14-and-a-half-year tenure.

RESAs focus under Dans leadership has been unwavering, Campbell said in the release. His dedication and commitment to education has given RESA the ability to provide many unique and immensely valuable programs to students of all types across the county.

I speak for the board as a whole when I say how much we have respected Dans commitment to innovative educational approaches for all students countywide, he added.

Miller will take over combined budgets of some $50 million for vocational education, special education and general education.

In my past two years at RESA, I have seen first-hand the quality and commitment of all our RESA employees, Miller said. While at Cros-Lex, I saw the value RESA offers. I am excited and humbled by the opportunity to continue the legacy left by Superintendent DeGrow.

DeGrow, a 63-year-old Port Huron native, is the son of former Port Huron Superintendent Gerald S. DeGrow. Dan DeGrow graduated from Port Huron Northern High School and attended St. Clair County Community College. He later attended Michigan State University before earning a law degree from Wayne State University.

He was in private practice in Port Huron before winning the election for a state House of Representatives seat in 1980, the press releases states. Two years later, he won a seat in the state Senate and served until 2002. He ended his legislative career as senate majority leader.

During his time in the Legislature, DeGrows legislative focus was public education. He spent 14 years as a main draftsman of the annual state aid budget for schools.

He was hired as RESA superintendent effective January 2003.

Under his watch, RESA initiated or expanded many valuable programs that Campbell said reflect RESAs mission to provide opportunities for all students. Among those Campbell cited are the Blue Water College Access Network  formerly KnowHow2GO  the Blue Water Middle College Academy, the Virtual Learning Academy, the Classroom 4 the Future program to promote 21st century teaching methods, the MOVE program for students at Woodland Developmental Center with special needs, consistently highly rated programs at RESAs Technical Education Center, RESAs monthly distinguished teacher award and the universally accessible treehouse at the Pine River Nature Center.

Also during DeGrows tenure, the board changed the name of the agency from the St. Clair County Intermediate School District to the current St. Clair County Regional Educational Service Agency. The change, he said, was an effort to more accurately reflect the agencys mission.

Campbell said DeGrows unique experience in state government and education has made St. Clair County RESA a model for innovation among the states other 55 intermediate school districts.

Most intermediate school districts do not provide nearly the number of extra services and programs that St. Clair County RESA delivers to our local school districts and students, Campbell said. These services are a direct result of Dans leadership and his ability to surround himself with excellent people.

In addition, Dan has encouraged RESA to forge new, strong working relationships with businesses, industry and community agencies countywide.

DeGrow said he has no specific plans for retirement beyond spending more time with his grandchildren.

Now is a good time to leave, he said. We have a great board of trustees, and an unbelievable staff that has allowed us to accomplish amazing things for the countys schools and students.

We also have a budget that is in good shape, and a clear direction for the future. I thank everyone for these 14 and a half years. Its been a great opportunity.

Miller would become RESAs sixth superintendent since 1962, when intermediate school districts across the state were legislatively created in their current form. In addition to DeGrow, past RESA superintendents include: Roland Grein, 1962 to 1968; Robert Ashby, 1968 to 1969; John Mader, 1969 to 1989, and Joseph Caimi, 1989 to 2003.

RESA is one of 56 intermediate school districts in Michigan. It provides unique, cost-efficient support services to St. Clair Countys seven public school districts. The agencys mission is to help the roughly 22,500 students in the county reach their potential by operating programs, such as Woodland Developmental Center and St. Clair TEC, and by assisting local districts in their efforts. For more information, call 810-364-8990 or go to sccresa.org.

 Katelyn Larese, The Voice
By PTI: From Aditi Khanna

London, Dec 9 (PTI) Worlds most famous fictional spy James Bond with all his bravado, wit and oodles of charm would still not make the cut as a real world special agent, according to the new chief of Britains secret service MI6.

Chief of Britains Secret Intelligence Service Alex Younger said that while Ian Flemings famous character had helped popularise Britains secret service brand, it bore no resemblance to reality.

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Younger, the 16th chief since MI6 was founded in 1909, is known as "C", rather than "M" as in the Bond films.

"I am conflicted about Bond. He has created a powerful brand for MI6: as C, the real-life version of M, there are few people who will not come to lunch if I invite them. Many of our counterparts envy the sheer global recognition of our acronym," Younger said.

"And to be fair, there are a few aspects of the genre that do resonate in real life: fierce dedication to the defence of Britain, for example. The real life Q would want me to say that we too enjoy ? and, indeed, need ? a deep grasp of gadgetry. But thats pretty much where the similarity ends. And, were Bond to apply to join MI6 now, he would have to change his ways," he said in a speech at MI6 headquarters on the banks of the river Thames in London.

C is the only member of MI6 who can be publicly identified.

The 53-year-old former army officer who joined MI6 in 1991also revealed that UK intelligence and security services had disrupted 12 terrorist plots since June 2013.

"The risks at stake are profound and represent a fundamental threat to our sovereignty. They should be a concern to all those who share democratic values," he said in reference to the terror threat faced by Britain.

"In defining as a terrorist anyone who opposes a brutal regime they alienate precisely that group that has to be onside if the extremists are to be defeated. We cannot be safe from the threats that emanate from that land unless the civil war is brought to an end," he added.

The Islamic State (ISIS) group had exploited the situation in Syria to fortify its stronghold in the region and wage a war on the West, he warned. PTI AK PMS ASK ASK

--- ENDS ---
Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Harrison Township has been named a finalist to serve as the home base of the nations newest fighting aircraft  the F-35 Lightning II.

Tech. Sgt. Dan Heaton said 127th Wing Public Affairs, the Air Force conducted a review of all existing Air Force bases in making the selection for the locations of the F-35, ranking the bases on criteria such as existing infrastructure, environmental concerns, training opportunities and cost factors.

The other base finalists include Dannelly Field Air Guard Station in Montgomery, Alabama; Gowen Field Air Guard Station in Boise, Idaho; Jacksonville Air Guard Station in Florida, and Truax Air Guard Station in Madison, Wisconsin, Heaton said.

A review team will now visit the bases selected as finalists and submit a final recommendation to the Secretary of the Air Force by spring 2017, officials said.

Were excited about this initial selection. Selfridge clearly represents the first, best choice to house the worlds most advanced multi-role fighter, said Brig. Gen. John D. Slocum, commander of the 127th Wing. Couple that with the proven war-fighting capability of our Michigan citizen-airmen  battle-tested pilots, maintainers, and support personnel  and Selfridge is the clear choice for this new mission.

The F-35, also known as the F-35A, is the U.S. Air Forces latest fifth-generation fighter. It will replace the U.S. Air Forces aging fleet of F-16 Fighting Falcons and the A-10 Thunderbolt IIs (currently based at Selfridge), which have been the primary fighter aircraft for more than 20 years, military officials said. Additionally, it will bring an enhanced capability to survive in the advanced threat environment in which it was designed to operate, officials said. With its aerodynamic performance and advanced integrated avionics, the F-35A will provide next-generation stealth, enhanced situational awareness, and reduced vulnerability for the United States and allied nations.

GOP Congresswoman Candice Miller, a Harrison Township resident who once served as the township supervisor, was thrilled to hear Selfridge is a finalist for the F-35A.

Throughout my entire career, I have fought to ensure that the A-10 fleet was not retired until the Air Force could put forward an equally capable follow-on platform, and there is no better place to host this follow-on platform, the F-35, than Selfridge Air National Guard Base, said Miller, the Macomb County public works commissioner-elect.

If Selfridge is selected as a home station for the F-35, the aircraft would likely begin to arrive at the base in 2022 and replace the A-10, an attack aircraft flown at Selfridge since 2009.

 Don Gardner, Digital First Media
On Dec. 6, St. Clair County Community College, also known as SC4, and Northwood University signed three articulation agreements that will allow students to earn a bachelors degree from Northwood with the cost, comfort and location of SC4 for their first three years.

Under the new agreements, bachelor of business administration degrees from Northwood in management, marketing and computer information management will be available to SC4 students, a press release from the St. Clair County college states. Students can complete 90 credit hours in marketing or 92 in management and computer information management while at SC4 that will transfer to Northwood, where they can complete their bachelors degree in their fourth year.

This offers students another option with a guided pathway where they can maximize the amount of credits they can take at their home college, SC4, where they can experience lower costs and can stay with professors they are comfortable with, SC4 Dean of Occupational Studies Julie Armstrong said in the press release. Then they will have this pathway that takes them elsewhere to finish.

For more information, call SC4 Director of Advising and Articulation Scott Watson at 810-989-5824 or visit sc4.edu/articulation.

 Emily Pauling, The Voice
Upon instruction from my Government, I would like to draw your attention to the following information.

On 27 November 2016, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Qatari regime, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, stated in an interview with Reuters, in his office in Doha, that: Qatar will continue to arm Syrian rebels even if Donald Trump ends U.S. backing for the multinational effort. He also stated in the same interview that: This support is going to continue, we are not going to stop it. It doesnt mean that if Aleppo falls we will give up  Even if the regime captures it [Aleppo], I am sure they [the rebels] will have the ability to capture it back from the regime ... We need more military support.

It is well known that the royal family in Qatar is the foremost supporter of the Nusrah Front terrorist group in Syria. In this regard, I would like to refer to a statement made on 12 May 2015, by the current Minister of State for Defence of the Qatari regime, Khalid bin Mohammad al-Atiyah, when he was Minister for Foreign Affairs, in an interview with the French newspaper Le Monde. In his answer to a question about his Governments position towards Nusrah front and whether it considered it a terrorist group, Mr. Al-Atiyah stated: We are clearly against any kind of extremism. However, with the exception of Daesh, all of those groups fight to overthrow the regime. Moderates cannot say to Nusrah Front: stay home, because we do not want to work with you. Field conditions must be taken into consideration and we should be realistic.

The official statements made by both the current and former Ministers for Foreign Affairs of the Qatari regime constitute public confessions of the Qatari regimes involvement in supporting terrorists in Syria and providing terrorist groups with weapons and finance, in particular the Nusrah Front terrorist organization, in violation of the relevant resolutions of the Security Council, in a challenge to the will of the international community to combat terrorism and in contravention of the Councils unanimous designation of Nusrah Front as a terrorist entity.

According to paragraphs 3 to 8 of Security Council resolution 2253 (2015), adopted pursuant to Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations, it befalls on the Security Council and its Committee established pursuant to resolutions 1267 (1999), 1989 (2011) concerning Al-Qaida and associated individuals and entities to immediately act and take the measures appropriate and necessary for holding these individuals and the Government that they represent fully accountable for supporting terrorism, challenging the international community, violating the Councils resolutions and threatening international peace and security.

Resolution 2253 (2015) and other relevant resolutions have been decisive and clear in deciding that sanctions should be imposed on individuals and entities linked to ISIL (Daesh) and Nusrah Front. On that basis, I request that you take the measures necessary for applying resolutions 1267 (1999), 1989 (2011) and 2253 (2015) against those who support Nusrah Front in Syria, including the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Qatari regime, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, the Minister of State for Defence of the Qatari regime, Khalid bin Mohammad al-Atiyah, and the Qatari regime, as individuals and an entity in association with the Nusrah Front terrorist group.

It would be highly appreciated if the present letter were circulated as a document of the Security Council.
CAB Raises Awareness on Mediation During the Festive Period

Members of the Citizens Advice Bureau were at the Piazza yesterday morning, distributing leaflets to raise awareness on the importance of Mediation during the Festive Period.

"Christmas is a time of the year that is usually very family orientated. Family members get together to spend some quality time together, share in good cheer and exchange gifts. Family togetherness should be a key theme for all families.

For some families where the parents are separated it can be a difficult time, especially if the relationship is strained and there are difficulties arranging time for both parents to spend time with their children.

Many separating couples in Gibraltar struggle to negotiate fair arrangements for their children when their relationship has broken down. There can often be disagreements about where the children live, how much time they spend with each parent, and issues as to what happens during the holidays.

Mediation is a way to bring the parents together in a calm, and constructive setting, to support them to reach an amicable agreement for residence, access and visits.

How many times have we heard children say so many sleeps to Christmas" on the run up to the festive holiday? Of course they are usually counting down to a break from school, Santa Claus, presents and celebrations with their family.

Children want and deserve happy memories of their childhood, and Christmas is one of the most important times for those memories to be made.

The best present you can give your child is peace, harmony and good relations particularly during the festive period."

If you want more information on Mediation services which are also available throughout the year, contact the Citizens Advice Bureau at 10 Governors Lane at:

Telephone: 200 40006

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or via Facebook.
GSLP Celebrates 40th Anniversary Year and Five Years in Government

The Gibraltar Socialist Labour Party celebrated yesterday its fortieth anniversary and five years in Government since it won the 2011 General Election with the Liberal Party of Gibraltar. The party is celebrating with a function on Friday 9th December for 500 members and guests at the Tercentenary Hall, as there was not another venue big enough for the numbers wanting to attend.

The Leader of the GSLP and Chief Minister of Gibraltar, the Hon Fabian Picardo QC MP, said the following in a message to members and supporters in respect of this anniversary:

"Today, on the 9th December, we are celebrating four decades of existence as a political party. That is a huge achievement for which we have to thank every member and every activist. You are the ones that keep the party thriving as a living organisation with a bright future.

Additionally, we have the privilege of celebrating this important anniversary from Government. Tonight we mark exactly 5 years since we won the 2011 General Election and were returned to power in coalition with the Liberal Party of Gibraltar.

The times in which we are living are as challenging politically as the times when our party was first created by Joe and his trade union colleagues in the Transport and General Workers' Union, the precursor of Unite the Union. These are times when Gibraltar needs the GSLP more than ever. Our firm commitment to continued British Sovereignty of Gibraltar and our deep understanding of the need for economic self sufficiency are crucial to our endurance and success as a people. Today, Gibraltar needs the GSLP in Government and it is a privilege for us to be given the opportunity to serve our small but great nation in Government.

Let us also be proud today of everything we have achieved from Government and Opposition. From the introduction of non-mandatory scholarships, the massive land reclamation projects and the co-ownership schemes for new homes, the GSLP has been transformational for Gibraltar. We have been responsible for giving our country it's lease of modern life and for facilitating the modern Gibraltar. In all of these areas, we have also maintained our socialist principles at the core of decision making and in the policy objectives of everything we have done as party.

As a result of those achievements, politically, in the nineties we reached a majority of 72% in the general election of 1992, the highest ever win in a three horse race. In 2015 we achieved a majority of 68%, the highest ever win in a two horse race.  Those brilliant and enviable results which no other party has ever been near to, demonstrate that the electorate know we can be trusted to deliver and to have the best interests of our people at heart in the work that we do.

In the international arena, we have been right on all the big issues affecting our nation. On the Brussels Agreement of 1984 we were right on what it's hidden dangers were. On the Airport Agreement of 1987 we were right on what it meant in terms of concessions being made by the UK. On the Cordoba Agreements we were right on the arguments about "cherry picking" which were shown to be a nonsense when the Spanish Government decided to choose the bits it liked and leaved the bits it didn't. And Joe Bossano was absolutely right to return to the United Nations in New York in the early nineties to assert our right to self-determination before the Committee of Twenty Four and the Fourth Committee of the United Nations. The fight for the recognition and exercise of our right to self-determination have been the defining ideal of our party's foreign policy.

But we will not rest on our achievements to date. People expect more from us. They expect us to look forward and to make even greater progress.

There are still homes to be built for those that need them.

There are still jobs to be found for those who don't yet have them.

There is still a claim to our Sovereignty that we will defeat together.

The core of the party's philosophy and direction has been Joe Bossano and so much of what we celebrate today is down to his ability, ingenuity and relentless work ethic. Today we are also therefore celebrating his achievements and his legacy to us as proud members of the GSLP and to Gibraltar, the homeland he has repeatedly demonstrated he loves more than anything else.Even his greatest detractors accept that without his exceptional leadership Gibraltar would not have been able to reinvent itself economically in the post-MOD era. Today we must also say a big "Thank You" to Joe for his tenacity, courage and determination.

It is also right to thank every GSLP Minister, Member of Parliament, activist, member, supporter and voter. You are the ones who deliver the work that makes us the party that we proudly are.

Finally, let us remember with humility that despite out many achievements, we have still got a lot of work to do and that, with the benefit of hindsight, we have also made mistakes. We do not pretend to be perfect or infallible, but we do learn from our mistakes and we do not repeat them.

Let us also recall that Gibraltar needs us to be the political rock that keeps our nation British. Let us recommit to the work we have to do for the party to keep it strong for future elections and to remain fit for Government for many years to come.

So thank you for your continued support. Together, we are an unbeatable political force."
CM to Address House of Lords Select Committee on European Union & Will Make Appearance on Top TV & Radio Shows in London

The Chief Minister is travelling to London this weekend to appear on several top television and radio political live shows.

On Sunday, Mr. Picardo will be interviewed in the prestigious Andrew Marr Show on BBC1 which goes on the air from 10 to 11 am, Gibraltar Time. Straight after that appearance, the Chief Minister is a guest on the Sky News weekly interview programme hosted by Dermot Murnaghan. The show is on the air between 11 am and 1 pm, Gibraltar Time.

On Monday, Mr Picardo is also being interviewed on Radio by Iain Dale from the London Broadcasting Company.

On Tuesday morning, the Chief Minister will be at the House of Lords. Together with the Deputy Chief Minister Dr Joseph Garcia and the Attorney General, Michael Llamas, he is answering questions from the House of Lords Select Committee on the European Union.

The main subject will be the implications of Brexit for Gibraltar. The Chief Minister returns to the Rock on Tuesday evening
Sniff the air. Go on, do it. Do you smell that? Thats the gentle, tempting scent of a new superhero-movie trailer. Can you detect the aromatic notes of comic-book references? The intoxicating dashes of callbacks to previous movies? The refreshing spritz of a barely disguised English accent? All these charms and more are to be found in the first promotional clip for next years hotly anticipated Spider-Man re-reboot, Spider-Man: Homecoming, starring diminutive Brit Tom Holland as the titular tussler and noted Hot Dad Michael Keaton as his nemesis, the Vulture. Lets take a sip of this heady brew, shall we?

Photo: Marvel Entertainment

We begin, oddly enough, in Brooklyn, which is not the New York City borough that Peter Parker lives in. Hey, any chance to see the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge at sunset is worth a little geographic inconsistency.*

Some dudes are robbing an ATM in the neighboring borough of Queens, using a handheld device that looks like a cross between a crystal ball and the gun from Portal. Im willing to bet my near-mint copy of Secret Wars No. 8 that this sucker shares some of its guts with the Infinity Stonepowered weaponry used by Lokis minions in The Avengers. Items from that botched invasion have popped up throughout the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so theres precedent.

The thugs have gone full Point Break, albeit with Avengers instead of former U.S. presidents. I love Spideys pose here, which is a fantastic riff on the limber way his co-creator, Steve Ditko, used to draw him.

Sony owns the film rights to the Spider-Man intellectual property, and they put out all the previous Spidey flicks, none of which were related to the MCU. But after 2014s dismal The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and the humiliation of the Sony WikiLeaks emails, the studio agreed to partner up with 

 Disney-owned Marvel Studios, custodians of the MCU. In an unprecedented turn of events, the former rivals made up early last year, pooled their efforts, and put a rebooted Peter Parker in the same universe as Tony Stark. Mommy and Daddy arent fighting anymore, guys!

This heres Liz Allan, a longtime minor Spider-Man supporting character, as played by newcomer Laura Harrier. Traditionally, Liz has been something of a dull milquetoast, little more than a pretty face at Peters high school. In Homecoming, shell be Peters initial love interest, as well as, apparently, someone involved in setting up the titular homecoming.

These lovesick puppies are Ned Leeds (Jacob Batalon) and Peter Parker, taking a break from their tater tots to stare longingly at the aforementioned Liz. Theyre best buds, and although a character named Ned Leeds has been a Spider-Man D-lister since the heros earliest days, hes never been portrayed as a pal of Peters. This version of Ned seems to be heavily influenced by the wholly separate comics character of Ganke Lee, the zaftig BFF of alternate-universe Spider-Man Miles Morales. Im not sure why they didnt just use Ganke, but theres probably some weird legal reason.

Ah, now were getting to the good stuff. This is Michelle, a bookish and blunt fellow high-schooler. Shes played by Zendaya, but dont let her characters name fool you  theres more to her than meets the stinkfaced eye. We can lay it all out for you, but be prepared for spoilers.

Elevated trains actually are a thing in Queens, but they are not actually a thing in Midtown Manhattan.

Robert Downey Jr.s ungracefully aging Tony Stark is the main connection this film will have to the rest of the MCU, which is unsurprising, given that Tonys the one who recruited Peter in this years Captain America: Civil War. Boy, that facial hair is really something, aint it? I hope I have the guts to do something that stupid when Im 51!

It would appear that this is supposed to be Peters high school, but man, if that exterior was actually shot in the five boroughs, then you can wrap my high heels in webbing and call me Gwen Stacy. Hm? Whats that? You say its actually Franklin K. Lane High School, a real New York City building that has resided on the Brooklyn/Queens border since 1923? Sigh. Fine, let me put this blonde wig and headband on and well get it over with.

Peter is watching footage of his participation in that big airport fight from Captain America: Civil War, during which he went all snowspeeders-on-Hoth on Paul Rudds giant-ified Ant-Man.

Oh, snap, its Orange Is the New Blacks Selenis Leyva! Get that superhero-movie money, girl!

During some kind of confrontation in Washington, D.C., Spidey scales the side of the Washington Monument, which is just about the only way you can get up there, these days.

Well, well, well, who do we have here? Why, its vulture.coms official mascot, the Vulture! This classic Spider-Man villain has been around since the very second issue of the webslingers solo series, and is usually portrayed as a vengeful scientist who constructs a flight suit for himself. Hes being played in this movie by Michael Keaton, but that is not Michael Keaton in this photo; it is a computer-generated image.

Jesus, that is some really good costume design.

As is typical, Spider-Man is an innocent victim of police persecution. Just one of the many reasons why Walter Mosley thinks Spidey was the first black superhero.

The Vulture without his costume, unless you count Keatons inimitable eyebrows as a costume. In his alter ego, hes a dude named Adrian Toomes, and given that he threatens to murder someones entire family (presumably Peters, but we dont know), hes creepy as shit in the suit or out of it.

Spidey and Vulture do battle on Brooklyns Coney Island. Crossing my fingers that fsociety headquarters is safe.

Peters doting Aunt May, as portrayed by Marisa Tomei. Fun fact: Shes almost exactly the same age as Robert Downey Jr.  but because shes a woman, she has to play the heros mother figure! Ha, ha, ha, oh, man. Thats great.

The Vulture attacks the Staten Island Ferry, which is one of this citys greatest underappreciated treasures. Sir, you have gone too far.

Remember how the end of Iron Man 3 was Tony Stark deciding to never be Iron Man again? Great follow-through on that, Tony.

*This post has been updated to correctly identify the geographic location of the opening shot.
Photo-Illustration: Vulture

Ryan Gosling is the complete package: decorated actor, meme source material, funny-face-maker, and canvas upon which we may project our dreamiest fantasies. Now you can add to that list accomplished showman, as Gosling is earning raves for his song-and-dance performance in Damien Chazelles old-school musical La La Land. As hangdog jazz cat Sebastian, Gosling soft-shoes his way through a fantasy Los Angeles with down-on-her-luck actress Mia (Emma Stone), and as romance blossoms, their emotions tend to explode into euphoric production set pieces complete with all the classical trimmings. From elaborate tap numbers to a ballroom pas de deux across the cosmos to one showstopper of a piano solo, Gosling does it all  or does he?

Watching Gosling flex his triple-threat muscles, its easy to wonder how much of his bravura performance is the genuine article and how much is movie magic. Ambitious actors have always pushed the boundaries of their skill set in pursuit of a more truthful or impressive performance; it wasnt too long ago that Natalie Portman wowed audiences by undergoing ballet training for Black Swan, and then landed in hot water when it came out that a dance double had stepped in for some scenes. In dogged pursuit of the truth, Vulture has mounted a through investigation of Ryan Goslings showbiz bona fides to find out.

Exhibit A: Gosling taking part in an amateur dance competition, 1992

This low-quality camcorder footage documents a 12-year-old Gosling busting a move in a pair of silver MC Hammer pants as the soloist with his local dance company. In a gloriously choreographed routine set to Cathy Denniss cover of 80s club staple Touch Me, Gosling shimmies and vogues with the confidence of a seasoned pro. Look at his tiny face as he hops downstage; he knows something we dont. His eyes say, I know Im not gonna land the Oscar for Half Nelson, but securing the nomination will provide a crucial bump to my profile and open up a lot of avenues for me in critically acclaimed indies down the road. Hes so small, but so wise. The video is a strong start to the case, and moreover, incontrovertible evidence that society started going downhill the moment we abandoned the Hammer pant as an acceptable garment.

Exhibit B: Gosling performing Jodecis Cry for You on The All-New Mickey Mouse Club



Ryan Gosling is not Justin Timberlake, but he couldve been. Goslings two-year stint on the Mickey Mouse Club revival saw him perform alongside such future luminaries as Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and none other than Mr. 20/20 Experience himself. He appears here with Timberlake, JC Chasez ,and Dale Godboldo for a rendition of Jodecis signature hit, and wouldnt you know? Gosling eclipses them all. Marvel at how comfortable he is onstage, even while doing that Mariah Carey thing with his hand. As a child star, Gosling had serious pipes, and yet this cant be ruled conclusive proof for his skills today  the ravages of puberty have mangled many a singing career.

Exhibit C: Gosling playing In the Room Where You Sleep with a childrens choir, 2009

While he was dating Rachel McAdams, Gosling got chummy with her sister, Kayleen, and Kayleens boyfriend, Zach Shields, and the two men wound up forming the duo Dead Mans Bones, for which Gosling served as vocalist and played piano, guitar, bass guitar, and cello. The bands lone studio album dropped in 2009, earning mostly positive reviews as Gosling and Shields played a handful of shows to breathless crowds in New York and Los Angeles. In the clip above, he performs the groups debut single with a choir of kids acting suspiciously calm for a group of people in the same room as Ryan Gosling. Its not as complicated as his million-miles-an-hour finger work in La La Land, but its clear theres a base level of skill there.

Exhibit D: Gosling on the ukulele in Blue Valentine



Watching Gosling whisked through a candy-colored Los Angeles in search of fame and love, some viewers may recall a scene on a much smaller scale from the 2010 romantic drama Blue Valentine. Another moment in which Gosling woos via melody, this time he strums a threadbare rhythm on a ukulele while warbling the Mills Brothers You Always Hurt the One You Love to his crush Cindy (Michelle Williams). Its the most perfectly tidy meeting point of Goslings dual screen personae  the tormented, wounded lover and the eager-to-please performer. As Williams awkwardly tap dances, Gosling connects to her in the language of song, tapping into the same intimacy that animates Chazelles spectacle-size showstoppers. Before he starts playing, he warns Cindy: I cant really sing. I have to sing goofy in order to sing. I have to sing stupid. It is an uncharacteristically unconvincing line read. We all know better than that.

Exhibit E: Gosling hosting Saturday Night Live, 2015

Gosling assumes a familiar expression when he breaks into dance during a sketch in which he plays a former high-school loser still tormented by his childhood bully (Kyle Mooney). He wears the same face he donned as the real human being/real hero in Drive: Hes defeated, but hes made peace with it. Returning to the boyhood dance routine that brought him reluctant viral traction earlier that year, a humbled Gosling goes through his steps and demonstrates that hes both got a sense of humor about his career and still retains the fleet-footedness of his tween self. He accomplishes the rare feat of making dance moves designed for children seem something almost like cool.

Exhibit F: Gosling talking about La La Land in a behind-the-scenes featurette, 2016



The most open-and-shut support for Goslings talent comes in the form of a brief promo that offers some background on the making of La La Land, with comments from the stars that illuminate how they prepared for the musical. In Goslings case, that apparently meant spending two hours a day practicing piano, six days a week. In the clip above, he confides that hed always wanted to play the instrument: In what other job is it a part of your job to just sit behind a piano for three months and play? It was really one of the most fulfilling preproduction periods Ive ever had. Gosling also worked extensively with choreographer Mandy Moore (not that one) to learn tap, ballroom, and jazz dancing. They rehearsed every day for three months prior to the beginning of shooting, and it shows.

With all that in mind, its time to turn in our verdict: Though all the Ryan Gosling Truthers may grumble, its clear beyond a reasonable doubt that Ryan Gosling really is as talented as La La Land makes him seem. Theres some kind of magic onscreen that simply cant be faked.
Photo: Getty Images

Its happened to all of us: You open the newspaper, looking to check out when the new movie Lion is playing at the local movie theater, because you heard the little kid in it is really adorable. And then you see the directors name: Garth Davis. Wait, you say to yourself  isnt that the guy who directed Rogue One? Or is he the one who directed Sing?

Its an understandable mistake. Weve entered a golden age of directors with the name Gareth or Garth, and three of them alone have films coming out in the next month. As such, we decided to provide a handy guide to help you through any confusion. Heres your first lesson: None of them are this guy.

Photo: Andreas Rentz/Getty Images

GARTH DAVIS  THE CUTE ONE

Our first Gar(e)th is Garth Davis, the director of Lion. This Garth is an Australian who rose to prominence when he co-directed four episodes of Top of the Lake with Jane Campion. Lion  which is based on the real-life tale of Saroo Brierly, an Indian man who used Google Earth to track down his birth family  is his first feature. The film posed such directorial challenges as working with a 6-year-old non-actor and successfully dramatizing scenes in which a man stares at Google Earth on his laptop. Daviss next film is Mary Magdalene, with Lion actor Rooney Mara as Mary Magdalene, Joaquin Phoenix as Jesus, and Chiwetel Ejiofor as Peter. Just like you, Garth Davis pictures Jesus as Joaquin Phoenix.

Photo: Ben A. Pruchnie/Getty Images

GARETH EDWARDS  THE BLOCKBUSTER ONE

Our second Gar(e)th is Gareth Edwards, the director of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Edwards is British, and his first film was a $500,000 monster movie called Monsters, a name that, like the name Gareth, might be easily confused. That film proved distinct enough to land Edwards the job of directing the 2014 Godzilla reboot, and after that movie became a critical (and mild commercial) success, he landed the Rogue One gig. Since then, hes been mired in rumors that another filmmaker took over some of his movie. Fortunately for us, that director was not also named Gareth.

Photo: VALERIE MACON/AFP/Getty Images

GARTH JENNINGS  THE COZY ONE

Our third Gar(e)th is Garth Jennings, the director of the upcoming animated film Sing. Jennings is also British, and hes made two other features since 2005: the very British adaptation of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, and the moderately British Son of Rambow. If you had any remaining doubts that Jennings is our most British Gar(e)th, look at this picture. Helpfully, Jennings is the only Gar(e)th this year involved in an animated film. He is also the only one who gets to work with Matthew McConaughey, making him, by extension, the coolest Gar(e)th.

Photo: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images

GARETH EVANS  THE EDGY ONE

Bonus Gar(e)th! Gareth Evans might not have a movie coming out this fall, but youd be forgiven for thinking he did, considering his name is uncomfortably similar to Gareth Edwardss. Evans is Welsh, and his claims to fame are the incredibly insane Indonesian action movies The Raid: Redemption and The Raid 2. His next project is a thriller about Dan Stevens infiltrating a cult to rescue his sister, which, if youve seen The Guest or either Raid movie, should make you very excited. Evans is probably the hippest Gar(e)th, as well as the least mainstream; hes certainly the Gar(e)th most into hammers.
When J. Jayalalithaa, chief minister of Tamil Nadu four times in 25 years, was convicted in 2014 of accumulating disproportionate wealth, posters brandished by her supporters asked, "Can a mortal punish God?" It was a reasonable question in a state in which Amma iconography could be found everywhere from billboards to household appliances. A reasonable question in a state in which politicians would prostrate themselves when her helicopter passed overhead, in which supporters set themselves on fire when she was sentenced to prison, in which thousands waited fretfully outside the hospital where she had lain for weeks and where she finally succumbed to a heart attack near midnight on December 5.

Gods must have their mythology. And Amma had hers. Through their tears, devotees spoke of her munificence, her beneficence, the sops and schemes derided as handouts and freebies but which made concrete differences in the lives of the poor. There is too the mythical quality of her life story-this golden child, clever and beautiful, turned into a film star by her mother, an actress herself, and groomed for political glory by M.G. Ramachandran (MGR), an idol picking out his celestial consort. In return for the worship of the crowds, Jayalalithaa gave herself up completely, forsook a private life becoming, like Elizabeth I, the 'virgin queen', an alabaster ideal who lived for 'the people' rather than any people in particular.

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But the myth-making, while intrinsic to the appeal of Jayalalithaa, also does her a disservice. "She evolved by breaking all gender stereotypes to be a tall and powerful leader with an amazing intellect," said Congress leader Jayanthi Natarajan, who attended the same prestigious Chennai convent school as Jayalalithaa. To talk about her solely as a phenomenon of the cult of personality is to underplay her administrative talent, her political acumen, and her growth as a leader since her first term in 1991, when she was in her early 40s, young and female in an arena dominated by older, culturally sanctioned men. In the schemes that were her trademark, Jayalalithaa managed to be both crowd-pleasing and brave, combating female infanticide, for instance, or creating all-women police stations and spaces for women to feed their babies at train stations. Her Amma canteens are an international case study in ways to feed the poor. Warnings about Tamil Nadu's fast-spiralling debt, as a result of her liberal spending, are accurate while ignoring the fact that the state's fiscal deficit remains below (albeit by a hair), the recommended threshold of 3 per cent of GSDP.

The allegations of corruption against her have played out in courtroom sagas resulting in convictions and the overturning of those convictions, in bans from contesting elections or taking office as chief minister and the overturning of those strictures. But the most severe rebukes were dealt by voters, the people she had held in her thrall since she was an actress in the 1960s and early 1970s. The flaunting of mysterious wealth in 1995 towards the end of her first term in office, as she stood bedizened in gold alongside her equally gaudy crony-companion Sasikala Natarajan, at the wedding of the latter's nephew, a wedding at which tens of thousands were fed at the chief minister's expense, resulted in a resounding rejection at the polls. It was her spendthrift behaviour in this period that led to Subramanian Swamy filing a lawsuit accusing her of misusing her office to develop a property portfolio worth about Rs 67 crore; the case resulted in a conviction 18 years later and a four-year prison term before being acquitted of all charges by the Karnataka High Court in 2015.

That last acquittal paved the way for Jayalalithaa's decisive victory in the state elections in May, breaking the pattern of alternating governments with her great political rival, the 92-year-old Karunanidhi, chief of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), himself currently in the intensive care unit of a Chennai hospital. The great Dravidian parties of Tamil Nadu must both confront the end of an era, an era that was begun by MGR, who left the DMK to found the All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), and whose death left a vacuum only his protege Jayalalithaa proved equipped to fill.

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Jayalalithaa was born on February 24, 1948, in Mysore state where her paternal grandfather had been a court physician. Her father, Jayaram, was a lawyer who died when Jayalalithaa was just two. "That dark, sad night," wrote Vaasanthi, in Amma published by Juggernaut in August, "remains vivid still in Jayalalithaa's memory, haunting her at times of despair throughout her turbulent life." With allowances for poetic licence, it is an early example of the kind of setback from which Jayalalithaa made it a life-long habit to bounce back.

Her father's death forced her mother, Vedavalli, to move with her children into her parents' home in Bangalore. Veda's good looks, a family trait, led to an offer to act in Kannada films that was turned down by her Iyengar Brahmin father. He had already lost one daughter to the film industry and he would lose Veda to it too, as she left her father's house to stay with her sister. Soon, her filming schedule became so demanding she sent her children back to Bangalore to live with her parents and another sister. That sister's death resulted in Veda, by then known onscreen as Sandhya, moving the children to live with her in Chennai. Jayalalithaa inherited her mother's complexion and from an early age was enrolled in classical dance classes, her time so rigorously apportioned she once claimed in an interview to "being free and carefree only until the age of four". Despite her looks and her training, Jayalalithaa had little interest in her mother's world, preferring school instead where her essays won prizes and her academic promise was fiercely defended by her teachers. Instead of going to college, though, despite winning a government scholarship for her brilliant results, Jayalalithaa signed her first film. She said it was because her mother was not as financially comfortable as it appeared and were it up to Jayalalithaa she would have become a doctor, a lawyer, or would have joined the Indian Administrative Services. Her acting career, then, was Jayalalithaa's first great sacrifice.

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Whatever her feelings about the industry, Jayalalithaa was a success, starring in dozens of hit films, many with MGR, whose tender feelings toward her were an open secret. MGR became the Tamil Nadu chief minister in 1977 and introduced Jayalalithaa to the party in 1982, giving a well-received speech at a party conference and taking a prominent position on a float parading the streets-it was, sniffed the DMK disapprovingly, the "Cuddalore cabaret". A year after she joined the AIADMK, Jayalalithaa became the party's propaganda secretary. If Jayalalithaa could count on MGR's political patronage, other members of the party were more suspicious. Jayalalithaa had enemies within who looked for opportunities to sideline her. The antipathy towards her was at its most apparent when MGR died in 1987. She stood vigil by his body, lying in state in Rajaji Hall where Jayalalithaa herself lay in state, for two full days despite attempts by supporters of MGR's widow to force her to leave. "She willed herself," writes Vaasanthi, "not to give way to physical exhaustion." Later, as the body was being taken away on a gun carriage she tried to accompany it only to be physically pushed away by MGR's nephew. It was a public humiliation. She would suffer more, as MGR's widow, Janaki Ramachandran, sought to take over the party. Ramachandran formed the government, only for it to be dissolved in three weeks, the shortest reign of any Tamil Nadu chief minister. Rajiv Gandhi ordered a state of emergency, and when elections were held, her faction of the AIADMK lost. Jayalalithaa brought the factions back together in 1989.

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The first woman to lead the opposition in the state, she was subjected to further indignity when, she claimed, members of the ruling DMK tore at her sari in the Assembly. According to reports at the time, she left the House in her ripped sari vowing not to return while Karunanidhi was in power. The imagery is powerful-the wronged woman in the torn sari would strike any Indian, never mind one traditionally-minded, as Draupadi-esque. In 1991, following the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi by an LTTE suicide bomber in Sriperumbudur, about 40 km from Chennai, an AIADMK-Congress alliance won 224 out of 234 Assembly seats.

Her first term ended in ignominy. She spent 30 days in jail in 1996, accused of profiting from a scam to buy some 45,000 colour TVs as sops at thousands of rupees over the market rate. Her kickback was said to top Rs 10 crore; other cases filed against her included charges about a sweetheart deal with a hotel to flout construction laws and a deal to purchase land from a government agency at below-market rates. The latter led to a conviction and she was barred from contesting the 2001 assembly elections by the Election Commission, though she won anyway, forcing the Supreme Court to declare her appointment illegal.

She was acquitted of the charges in 2003 and took her place as chief minister, having temporarily handed charge to O. Panneerselvam. Inducted into office just an hour or two after Jayalalithaa's death was announced, Panneerselvam has served as temporary chief minister twice before while Jayalalithaa was battling corruption charges; he is a trusted lieutenant, so careful not to offend that he even refused to sit at her desk when he acted in her stead. His reputation as a proxy leader has resulted in speculation about Sasikala's political future and current behind-the-scenes control and unabashed discussion of the leadership vacuum despite the AIADMK's swift 'coronation'.

As a national figure, Jayalalithaa was perhaps most prominent when she in effect brought down the A.B. Vajpayee-led government in 1999, withdrawing support for him after tea with Sonia Gandhi. It was an exquisite example of the power wielded by regional satraps. In the 2014 general election, the AIADMK, without allies, won 37 out of 39 seats, emerging as the third largest party in the Lok Sabha. It was a position that made Jayalalithaa a valuable partner, accorded exaggerated respect by the prime minister and the BJP, eager to earn political relevance in a state in which it does not have a single assembly seat. Her most significant political years were undoubtedly ahead of her. She had been cleared of most of the corruption charges dogging her for 20 years, she had a substantial mandate in her state, and the ear of the government; if there was a regional leader in place to make a powerful ally at the centre in 2019, surely it was Jayalalithaa.

There is now, after her death at the still young age of 68, the question of legacy. Jayalalithaa, when MGR died, was already a significant public figure, known to people from her film career and from her eye-catching political debut. This is not true of Panneerselvam, known as the most enthusiastic of the many, chiefly male, prostrators Jayalalithaa surrounded herself with (a sight that afforded women considerable amusement). And it is certainly not true of Sasikala, a figure plucked out of obscurity to be Jayalalitaa's designated friend. It would have been hard to replace a personality of Jayalalithaa's stature, a Brahmin woman leading a Dravidian party; it is a task made harder still by the vice in which she held the hearts of the people of Tamil Nadu.

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Photo: David Crotty/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images

Like many others, Good Girls Revolt star Genevieve Angelson was blindsided last week when Amazon unceremoniously pulled the plug on the Mad Menesque 60s newsroom drama shortly into its first season.

It doesnt make any sense, Angelson, who starred on the show as aspiring reporter Patti, said on Monday at Equality Nows 3rd Annual Make Equality Reality gala at the Montage Hotel in Los Angeles. I am a New Yorker, I am not naive. I know sometimes shows get canceled. Ive been on canceled shows before. This one didnt make any sense because the numbers that were linked to us show that by every measure our show was a hit. Like, a total hit.

The numbers Angelson cites were compiled by Symphony Advanced Media, a third-party streaming monitor. (Like Netflix, Amazon does not share its ratings.) Series creator Dana Calvo told The Hollywood Reporter, We were all so surprised because we were a hit. In the same Hollywood Reporter piece, Amazons head of comedy and drama Joe Lewis rebutted, I can tell you that the Symphony numbers being reported are wrong and that the show wasnt performing at the levels we had hoped for  either in total viewership or completion rates.

As Calvo mentioned in the THR piece, Angelson was also suspect of how familiar Amazon execs were with the show. When higher-ups claim they didnt know the names of any of the characters on the show, it makes me wonder if the demographic we were successful with even matters to them, she said, referring to Symphonys assessment that the show was doing well with the female 1849 demo.

Since news broke that the show wont be moving forward at Amazon, fans have rallied to resurrect it at another network. Should they get a second season, Angelson has some ideas for the period show that would also reflect our current political reality.

We have to find a way in the storytelling of season two to bring in the inner sexism of women, she said. It was women who elected Donald Trump, so if we can find a way to incorporate that narrative into the show, the way that we hate ourselves before men can hate us, and sometimes even more. We can hate ourselves in a really willing and active way.
Photo: NRK

May Skam be safe from the fate of the American Skins. The Norwegian teen show, which is causing many an obsessive devotion in Scandinavia and beyond, is getting an English-language adaptation, according to the New York Times. The adaptation, to be shepherded by Simon Fuller (American Idol), will be called Shame (the English meaning of skam) and looks to air in the U.S. and Canada. Itll feature new characters and actors, but retain Skams intimate approach and novel format, with its buzziest component being an intuitive real-time structure. The high-school-set show, which switches protagonists and thus points of view, each season, releases clips online throughout the week, always at the time the action wouldve actually occurred; for example, a scene set during a Friday night party will in turn drop and ruin your Friday night. The clips are then bundled into that weeks episode. Skam also takes a natural approach to social media, setting up accounts for the characters and releasing their posts and texts, all in a bid to make you miss the quaint slavish absorption of regular bingeing. News of the adaptation comes as Skams ongoing third season reaches unprecedented popularity in Norway and Tumblr vortexes everywhere, thanks to a story line that follows the reserved Isak (Tarjei Sandvik Moe) as he grows comfortable with his sexuality and falls for the mysterious Even (Henrik Holm). Fingers crossed that Skams love of hoodies and cozy knitwear jumps the cultural barrier successfully.
Its been months since La La Land hit the fall festival circuit and emerged the Best Picture front-runner, and now, as the film finally enters limited release, it still feels well-positioned to go to the distance. It will have to fight for every Oscar it wants to win  categories like Director, Actress, and Song offer serious threats to a La La Land sweep, and Moonlight is mounting a dark-horse push to steal away Best Picture  but a warm, embraceable contender like La La Land feels exactly like what the Academy will respond to right now.

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Silence

Martin Scorseses story of Jesuit priests pilloried for their faith in 17th-century Japan has earned rapturous tweets from the critics most partial to the director, and I do expect it to figure into a few Oscar categories  its dreamy, smoke-suffused cinematography is marvelous, for one. Still, this is not going to be an easy sell or a mainstream box-office play. A nearly three-hour recursive epic of suffering, it has no interest in wedding its more grueling aspects to genre, as The Revenant did last year, and its likely too esoteric to score with the faith-based crowd. I am curious to see how it performs beyond the Scorsese squad, but fortunately for the film, the Academy is well-stocked with his devotees.
Cause no one lets Dolly down. Photo: Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images

Following Dolly Partons generous lead, more country superstars are putting their money back into the heart of Tennessee. Both Taylor Swift and Kenny Chesney have joined the relief efforts to aid the victims of the devastating Smoky Mountains wildfires, which killed 14 people and destroyed thousands of homes and businesses. Swift, who hasnt forgotten her country roots, has offered to match the Academy of Country Musics $100,000 donation to Partons My People Fund, set up for those who lost their homes in the fires; Swift also donated $1 million to Louisiana flood relief back in August. Chesney, an East Tennessee native, has teamed up with the Country Music Association to collectively donate $500,000 to Partons fund and help with overall assistance in the affected areas. Other country artists have also pledged to donate their time: Reba McEntire, Alison Krauss, Kenny Rogers, Chris Stapleton, Big & Rich, Chris Young, and more have signed up to perform at Partons telethon on December 13. Because when Dolly works 9 to 5 for a good cause, everyone else better put in overtime.
Donald Trump. Photo: Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images

NBC may have ended its business relationship with Donald Trump last summer, but Trumps name will still linger over NBCs Celebrity Apprentice, even after he assumes the presidency. According to a report from Variety, MGM, which produces the Apprentice series, confirmed that Trump is keeping his executive producer credit on the series when it returns this January with new host Arnold Schwarzenegger. Trumps name will appear between that of Apprentice creator Mark Burnett and new host Schwarzenegger, who is an executive producer, in the credits. NBC hasnt commented on the news, and its unclear at this moment whether, and how much, Trump will be paid for the series. Variety estimates that his per-episode fee, which would be paid through MGM, is in the low five-figures, at minimum, and notes that NBC has ordered eight episodes of The New Celebrity Apprentice. Trump is also a profit participant in the Apprentice franchise, which is sold as a format around the world. Mr. Trump has a big stake in the show and conceived of it with [executive producer] Mark Burnett, Trumps press secretary Hope Hicks told Politico. In a response to a question about royalties from the show, she added, Additional details regarding his business interests will be shared December 15th.

As Variety notes, previous presidents have published books in office, so there is some precedent for the commander-in-chief to earn royalties while in office. Still, Trumps continued relationship with a large broadcasting corporation like NBC, if only in name alone, raises a dizzying number of potential conflicts of interest for his presidency. So too does his continued relationship with Burnett, who continues to be actively involved in producing the series. Burnett, along with MGM, has resisted calls to release footage of Trump on the set of The Apprentice that some have speculated could reveal actions and opinions akin to the endorsement and description of sexual harassment that came to light in Access Hollywood tapes that leaked in October. After that incident, Burnett disavowed the the hatred, division, and misogyny that has been a very unfortunate part of [Trumps] campaign. Now, according to several reports, Burnett is actively involved in planning Trumps inauguration festivities.
Justice Markandey Katju has offered unconditional apology to the Supreme Court in a contempt case for criticising the apex court judges.

By Anusha Soni: Former Supreme Court judge Markandey Katju on Friday offered unconditional apology to Jusitice Ranjan Gogoi in connection with the Soumya rape case.

An apex court bench of justices Gogoi, Prafulla C Pant and Uday Umesh Lalit had issued a show cause notice to Justice Katju asking him "why contempt proceedings should not be drawn up" him.

Writing in his blog, Justice Katju had criticised the Supreme Court judges saying that they committed an error in judgement in dispensing the case.

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READ| SC summons Justice Katju over his blog on Soumya verdict

THE SOUMYA CASE

Soumya was an employee at a mall in Kochi, Kerala. She was died on February 6, 2011 at a hospital in Thrissur.

Soumya had suffered fatal injuries after a fall from a moving train on February 1, 2011.

The prosecution said that the incident took place when Soumya was travelling in women's coach on the Ernakulam-Shoranpur passenger train. It claimed that Govindachamy, the accused, attacked and pushed Soumya off the moving train.

According to the prosecution, Govindachamy also jumped off the train and took an injured Soumya to a nearby forest and raped her.Soumya succumbed to her injuries five days later at a hospital.

READ| Katju issued contempt notice after heated exchange with Supreme Court judge

THE SUPREME COURT JUDGEMENT

The case moved from Kerala courts to the Supreme Court in due process. In the final judgement, the apex court bench found the accused Govindachamy guilty of assault and rape. He was sentenced to life imprisonment.

But, the Supreme Court acquitted him of the charges of murder. Justice Katju criticised the judgement in his blog.

WATCH:

At one point, Justice Katju wrote in his blog, "Justice Gogoi, who is in line to become the Chief Justice of India on the basis of seniority, has shown that he does not know an elementary principle of law, namely that hearsay evidence is not admissible."

The apex court took cognizance of Justice Katju's comment and called him for an audience, during which bitter arguments ensued between the bench and the former Supreme Court judge. In the end, the apex court issued a contempt notice to Justice Katju.

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By PTI: New Delhi, Dec 9 (PTI) Congress today said Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had no role in getting separate statehood for the region, where only a few families are prospering.

"Neither K Chandrashekar Rao nor his party Telangana Rashtra Samithi had any role in bringing separate statehood for Telangana," Congress General Secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad told reporters here.

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"It was the Congress that fulfilled the long-pending wish of people of Telangana," Azad said.

Speaking on the sidelines of an event to celebrate AICC president Sonia Gandhis birthday organised by its cadres from Telangana, Azad said, "Telangana is not witnessing any development, but just a section of families is developing."

Commenting on chances of TRS merging with a national party, Azad said, "It is an old development. Whatever it is, im sure in the next parliament or assembly election people of Telangana will realise meagre role of TRS and vote for the Congress."

Rapolu Ananda Bhaskar, Rajya Sabha MP from Telangana, the organiser of the celebrations, said, "People of Telangana have in mind that it is because of the efforts of Congress President Sonia Gandhi that Telangana was able to become a separate state. As a mark of gratitude around 100 Congress cadres from Telangana have marched to the capital for celebrating Gandhis birthday." PTI CPB KIS

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A Mart man was arrested Wednesday afternoon on a charge of possession of a controlled substance after Mart police stopped a vehicle for a traffic violation, an incident report states.

Kristopher Coty Herring, 28, was arrested at about 2:10 p.m., after an officer made a traffic stop of a truck in the 200 block of West Texas Avenue. Herring was found to be in possession of about 10 grams of methamphetamine after he allegedly flagged down an officer and told the officer about a damaged tail light on the back of his truck.

Thinking out loud, it didnt make sense for him to come across the street to advise me of this, which I told him and he walked away, the incident report stated.

The officer reported that the encounter was odd, and led the officer to observe his actions. After Herring, who was traveling with his business partner as a passenger, left a Mart gas station, the officer saw the severely damaged left tail light.

Based on the severity and the odd encounter, I initiated a traffic stop on the vehicle for the defective equipment, the officer said in the incident report. Before I exited my patrol car I noticed the driver acting very erratic, but his passenger ... was calm.

The incident report states that Herring was angry after the stop and stated that he did not know why he was being pulled over. Herring allegedly asked to talk with city hall workers or the police chief, all of which were unavailable.

Herring did not have a valid drivers license at the time of the stop.

The incident report states that Herring continued to act erratically about the stop. He was asked to step out of the vehicle before the passenger was released from the stop.

Herring initially gave the officer consent to search the truck before he allegedly retracted the search. That prompted the officer to call for a McLennan County Sheriffs Office for a K9 unit, who conducted an external search of the vehicle. The K9 was allegedly alert to the presence of possible narcotics after Herring reportedly told officers there was nothing hidden inside the vehicle.

A blue and silver metal box hidden behind a bag of pretzels was found in the truck. Inside the box, the officer found two glass pipes, a small bag of crystal methamphetamine and other drug paraphernalia, the incident report stated.

Officers stated that the substance tested positive for methamphetamine and placed Herring into custody. He was taken to McLennan County Jail on a charge of possession of a controlled substance.

According to jail records, Herring was released on bond Thursday.
The congregation of Lake Shore Baptist Church in Waco has approved a statement accepting all people into its membership, including those in the LGBT community, a move that puts it at odds with the Baptist General Convention of Texas and its pledge to expel churches that break fellowship with the BGCT on this issue.

Meeting in Waco last month, messengers to the convention passed two motions relating to member churches and the acceptance of the LGBT lifestyle. One motion reaffirmed the belief that any church affirming a sexual relationship outside of marriage between a man and a woman is considered out of harmonious cooperation with the BGCT.

The convention apparently was taking aim at such churches as Lake Shore Baptist, which describes itself as a welcoming body that accepts all believers, regardless of sexual orientation. The church for eight months went through what it called a process of discernment, in which members met in groups to discuss church policy.

Then, during a meeting last week, the congregation approved a change to the churchs bylaws. It read: Lake Shore Baptist Church is a welcoming and affirming community of Christians attempting to discover, articulate, and embody the meaning of the Gospel in the world today. We affirm each individual as a child of God and created in Gods image. Our welcome holds no bounds; we welcome all persons into membership and full participation in the life and ministry of our congregation.

David Mosley, 65, a 12-year member of Lake Shore Baptist, said in a phone interview about 140 members were present at the meeting, and 118 voted in favor of the change.

It was a rather general statement that never mentions the LGBT directly, but we had discussed it extensively for months and considered what the Bible had to say, Mosley said. Our church, quite frankly, has a fair number of gay people, and the basic question that arises is, Did Jesus come for them, too? We believe he brought a message of love and affirmation and not condemnation. Its not that we are attempting to become specifically a gay-friendly church, but a friendly church extending its boundaries.

He added, An essential tenet of being a Baptist is the personal nature of ones relationship with God. I think I speak for a lot of people when I say I have no window into the soul of God. Those choosing to take communion with us are welcome to do so. That would be their decision, and we would create no barriers.

Pastor Kyndall Rothaus, 31, a graduate of George W. Truett Theological Seminary at Baylor University, said she became pastor of Lake Shore Baptist Church about a year ago. She said she was attracted to the churchs commitment to love your neighbor and work for social justice.

During an interview Thursday, she said Lake Shore Baptist began considering its stance on the LGBT community long before her arrival and the BGCT convention.

Discussing people

In the spring, we held a seminar series which we called a compassionate conversations about LGBT lives, and we felt it was important to discuss people and not issues, she said. The sessions were well attended, and we had very positive and civil discussions, worked really hard to be respectful and loving toward each other.

Rothaus said she was pleased the congregation chose to pass the amendment to the churchs bylaws, which reflects its dedication to inclusiveness.

In my ministry, I have spoken with countless people who are either gay or lesbian or have family members who are, and they have felt rejected by the church. They are misunderstood and basically not welcome, Rothaus said. I see this decision as an extension of the ministry we already have to people who are hurting or feel ostracized.

Still, she said in light of actions taken at the BGCT convention in Waco, Its likely Lake Shore will be asked to leave the convention.

That could create problems for a handful of people who attend the church while also receiving BGCT-backed scholarships to attend Baylors Truett Seminary.

I know they would very much like to stay, but it would be a huge financial burden if they lost those scholarships, she said, adding the church is exploring alternative methods to replace the financial assistance the BGCT now provides. We will have to see what we can do.

Rothaus said she hopes Lake Shore will remain in Christian relationship with other BGCT churches in an informal capacity and hold onto the many things we have in common, including work to advance the kingdom of Christ and to serve the needy, which Rothaus considers the churchs calling.

Rothaus said she hopes other Baptist churches will at least become open to a conversation about what were learning about our LGBT neighbors.

She added she believes the churchs stance will produce growth, saying, Ive met a number of people in the Waco community, just in the last year, who had left churches because they felt like the message they were hearing was one of judgment and exclusion. I have people approach me frequently who say they are experiencing spiritual healing when they see a church like Lake Shore that preaches the gospel of love that extends to everyone.

BGCT communications director Joshua Minatrea said, We appreciate the church. Any decision regarding how this church relates to the BGCT will be determined by the BGCT executive board.

Removal of churches from the BGCT does not affect their being Baptist, but it does prohibit them from contributing funds to the BGCT, which is involved in education and social ministries, in addition to evangelism and missions. In 2010, the executive board voted to cut ties with Royal Lane Baptist Church of Dallas over its stance on LGBT people. That same year, Broadway Baptist Church of Fort Worth severed its ties with the group, saying it would go its separate way over the BGCT issue.

In 1998, the BGCT declined funds from an Austin church over the issued and asked that the church remove its name from its website.
OMAHA  The American Red Cross urges eligible donors to give the perfect gift this holiday season  a lifesaving blood or platelet donation. By rolling up a sleeve, donors can help ensure patients continue to receive treatment throughout the holiday season.

Busy holiday schedules and travel plans make it more challenging for regular donors to give, and many businesses and organizations postpone hosting blood drives during the holiday season for these same reasons. This can lead to a decline in blood donations, but the need is constant.

Blood donors with type O, B negative and A negative blood can help more patients with one appointment by making a Power Red donation at select Red Cross blood donation centers and blood drives. Power Red donors give a concentrated dose of red blood cells  the most commonly transfused blood component. Red blood cells carry oxygen throughout the body and are frequently given to trauma and surgery patients. During a Power Red donation, red blood cells are separated from other blood components, and plasma and platelets are then safely and comfortably returned to the donor.

Upcoming blood donation opportunities in Saunders County are in Ashland on Dec. 14 from 11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., at the Ashland VFW, 102 S. 24th St.

To donate blood, download the American Red Cross Blood Donor App, visit redcrossblood.org or call 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767) to make an appointment or for more information.

All blood types are needed to ensure a reliable supply for patients. A blood donor card or drivers license or two other forms of identification are required at check-in. Individuals who are 17 years of age in most states (16 with parental consent where allowed by state law), weigh at least 110 pounds and are in generally good health may be eligible to donate blood. High school students and other donors 18 years of age and younger also have to meet certain height and weight requirements.
WAHOO  Funeral services for a long-time member of the Bishop Neumann community will be held Monday in Omaha, with a Memorial Mass planned next Wednesday at St. Wencelsaus Catholic Church in Wahoo.

St. Michelle Hayek, N.D. died Dec. 7. Hayek moved to Seven Oaks at Notre Dame in Omaha this past January, after fully retiring from service at Neumann.

Her heart was at Neumann, Neumann Principal Fr. Jeremy Hazuka said about her.

He said her legacy will be the connections she made over the years with Neumann students, families and faculty, as well as the entire community.

She made so many connections in so many ways. She had the pulse of Neumann, he said.

Hayek joined the Neumann faculty in 1978, as principal of the Catholic high school.

After serving for two decades as principal, Hayek took a yearlong sabbatical in Missouri.

Hayek told the Wahoo Newspaper in June that, for most of her sabbatical, she didnt know what next for her after the stay at the renewal center was over.

Toward the end of her sabbatical, Neumann began looking for a new development director.

It looked like God opened the door, Hayek said.

She served in that capacity at Neumann for a number of years. She then got lone-some for the classroom and taught ninth grade religion class at Neumann for several years.

For the past few years, she continued to live at the con-vent in Wahoo and still volunteered her time and service at the school.

All during this time, she continued to be involved with the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton group, a group she started at Neumann that focuses on growth in spiritual life and service.

No matter her position at the school, she said the Seton group and its members were always near and dear to her heart.

Hazuka said the Seaton group is a fine example of the good work that Hayek saw could be accomplished by Neumann students.

I think it is a good re-minder that everyone is called to holiness, including the high school girls, he said.

Hazuka credited Hayek for being a dedicated member of the schools faculty and always willing to offer support and encouragement.

It was not uncommon, he said, for her to attend faculty meetings, even after her retirement.

Afterwards, she would offer words of encouragement and advice, he said.

Despite the long list of known activities that Hayek took part in at Neumann, Hazuka said there was an equal list of little, behind the scenes service too.

Her devotion to cleaning up the faculty lunch room or helping to set up for a big mass, he said, didnt really become noticeable until after she left the community last winter.

Hayek was also active with the St. Wenceslaus Catholic Church parish in Wahoo, including teaching CCD classes, assisting in RCIA classes and leading of the Lenten discussion groups.

A vigil service at Notre Dame Chapel, 2501 State Street in Omaha, will be held at 7 p.m. Sunday. Mass of Christian will be 10 a.m. Monday at the chapel.

A Memorial Mass will be celebrated 7 p.m. Wednesday at St. Wenceslaus in Wahoo.

Memorial have been suggested to the Notre Dame Sisters.
Going against Najeeb Jung's choice, the chief minister of Delhi has directed PP Dhal to hold the charge of the post.

By Ashutosh Mishra: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has locked horns with Lieutenant-General (L-G) Najeeb Jung over the appointment of member secretary of the capital territory's women's commission. He has rejected the appointment of Dilraj Kaur as member secretary of Delhi Commission for Women (DCW). Kejriwal has written to the L-G to appoint PP Dhal member secretary instead.

Kejriwal had recommended Dhal's name for the post in August 2016. Going against Jung's choice, the chief minister of Delhi has directed Dhal to hold the charge of officiating member secretary of DCW. This is likely to snowball into an intense war between the two top constitutional authorities of Delhi.

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Also read | Najeeb Jung acting like Hitler, Modi won't make a Muslim India's Vice-President: Kejriwal

KEJRIWAL LIKENS KAUR TO HITLER

On December 8, a day after the L-G had appointed Women and Child Development Secretary Dilraj Kaur as the member secretary of DCW, Kejriwal likened the former to Hitler. He also accused Jung of nursing ambitions of becoming the vice-president of the country.

He had alleged in a tweet that L-G was acting like Hitler and was following in the footsteps of his "masters" Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah. He went on to say that even if Jung sold his soul to Modi, his hope of becoming the country's Vice-President would never be fulfilled because PM Modi would "never make a Muslim the Vice-President".

Also read | DCW seeks status report on job provision for acid attack survivors

DEWAN'S APPOINTMENT UNCONSTITUTIONAL: DELHI CM

Kejriwal had raised objections a fortnight ago over the appointment of Alka Dewan on the same post. He had termed the move "illegal and unconstitutional". He stated that the L-G did not consider the names suggested by the Delhi government.

The latest development has added more fuel to the long-simmering tensions between Kejriwal and Jung.

Also read | Former DCW chiefs slam incumbent Swati Maliwal for lodging corruption case

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The host city for the Summer Olympic Games 2024 will be chosen in September 2017 in Lima, Peru.

By Indo-Asian News Service: Los Angeles, Budapest and Paris have successfully passed the second round of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Candidature Process for the 2024 Summer Olympics, the IOC has said.

During the IOC Executive Board meeting in Lausanne on Thursday, Frank Fredericks, the IOC Evaluation Commission Chair, informed the Board on details of stage 2 of the Candidature Process which was devoted to Governance, Legal and Venue Funding, reports Sputnik. (India target to win 50 medals in 2024 Olympic Games)

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As the official IOC website states, the deadline for submission of the candidates' profiles for the next stage devoted to games delivery, experience and venue legacy is February 3, 2017.

During Stage 3 in April and May 2017 the commission will visit each candidate city and publish a following report as well as hold in July 2017 a briefing for IOC members and summer Olympic international federations. (Italy withdraws bid to stage 2024 Olympics in Rome)

The IOC Candidature Process consists of three stages spread over the period of two years. The host city for the Summer Olympic Games 2024 will be chosen in September 2017 in Lima, Peru.

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By PTI: Colombo, Dec 9 (PTI) Sri Lanka today seized over 800 kg of cocaine from an India-bound ship docked at the islands main Colombo Port, the largest ever haul of the narcotics discovered in South Asia.

The cocaine was detected aboard a ship that arrived in the capital Colombo from Ecuador and was bound to India, police spokesman and Deputy Inspector General Ajith Rohana said.

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Sri Lanka Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB) acting on a tip-off seized over 800 kilograms of cocaine concealed inside a container loaded with teak logs, Rohana said.

"This is the largest drugs haul ever in South Asia," Rohana said. The street value of the cocaine haul is estimated at Rs 12 billion.

The ship had left Ecuador on October 2 and had reached Belgium on October 20 and was on its way to India through a circuitous sea route, police said.

"The drugs were concealed in a container of timber and addressed to a company in India," Rohana said.

Further investigations are being carried out with the help of intelligence units in Ecuador Belgium, Saudi Arabia and India.

During the last one year, there have been several detections of cocaine by Sri Lankan narcotics officials in sugar shipments from Brazil mainly.

In June, Sri Lanka seized 90 kilos of cocaine originating from Brazil. CORR PMS

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1. That assisted dying is "state sanctioned killing". This phrase will be hammered again and again and it will dishonestly avoid the central fact that the law is to help those already being killed by an incurable disease. Being voluntary, it is entirely up to the patient whether or not they choose to end the suffering caused by that disease.

2. The slippery slope. That passing a conservative law will inevitably lead to wider ones over time. This argument says yes, we know that real people in our community are dying in agony or suiciding to avoid it, but we refuse to do anything about it for fear that, somewhere in the future, a parliament may decide to help hypothetical other people.

It is also contradicted by North American laws, on which the committee have largely modelled theirs, that have been unchanged since their introduction 20 years ago.

3. More resources for palliative care will solve all suffering at the end of life. While the inquiry, quite rightly, recommends greater resourcing for palliative care, it is clear that this alone won't fix the problem. In Palliative Care Australia 's own words, "even with optimal care we cannot relieve all pain and suffering". Their statistics, collected every year from 106 palliative care units around Australia, prove it. The Victorian inquiry found the same.

This is not a criticism. Australia has one of the best palliative care systems in the world. It simply reflects the reality of modern medicine, which can keep us alive longer but can't always treat what comes with that.
State and territory leaders have agreed to slap the seven-shot Adler shotgun with a tough category D classification, the most restricted category, paving the way for imports to resume.

In a decision that will anger the pro-gun lobby and the Nationals, the higher-capacity Adler will essentially be limited to professional shooters with an occupational need for the gun.

The impasse - which saw the federal government ban imports of the gun until a classification could be agreed - ended after NSW joined the other states in backing a category D rating.

As part of a strengthened National Firearms Agreement, all lever action shotguns with capacity up to five rounds will be moved from category A to category B.
The winemakers behind the private label bottles at Coles, Woolworths and Aldi are a closely guarded secret.

Private label wines, which are increasingly coming to dominate wine-store shelves, are almost impossible to distinguish. They have labels that point to an exclusive provenance  there's nothing to hint at ownership by a major grocery store.

What only a few knew, until now, is that some of the best wine sold at Aldi and Coles  award-winning vintages that are just $5 a bottle  is being made in Victoria. By an award-winning winery.

At the same time as its own brands are winning big awards, this winery has been producing some of Australia's best and most-affordable wines.
One video show the Coffs Coast Pedo Hunter confronting a man in a park after dark and accusing him of grooming a 14-year-old girl. Credit:YouTube The Coffs Coast Pedo Hunter says he poses as a young girl on dating sites, exchanges messages with men and then agrees to meet them. At the meeting, he confronts them on camera. He has uploaded videos showing their full names and faces and says he passes chat logs on to the police. Another video shows him confronting a man in a car park in Coffs Harbour after messaging him and pretending to be a schoolgirl. Credit:YouTube "You've been messaging me the whole time, mate. I do this all the time, mate. I catch paedophiles and ... you're a f---ing deadset paedophile!" he yells at one man who allegedly thought he was meeting a 14-year-old girl for a "sleepover".

In one video, he films a man walking into a police station, apparently after a confrontation, and saying "Ah, I've made a few bad decisions." A screenshot from a video in which the Coffs Coast Pedo Hunter accuses a Taree man of sending explicit photos to a girl he believed was under 18. Credit:YouTube In two others, the men claim they didn't know the girls were underage. Coffs Harbour men Trent Collins, 24, and Nigel McKee, 31, have subsequently been charged with using a carriage service to procure someone under 16 for sexual activity and using a carriage service to send indecent material to a person under 16. However, Coffs/Clarence Local Area Command crime manager, Detective Inspector Darren Jameson, insisted the arrests were not based on the Pedo Hunter's work, much of which would be inadmissable evidence in court.

"Unfortunately the actions of this person, however well meaning, do not assist NSW Police in our causes," he said. "Our focus in this command in relation to suspected paedophiles is about catching them and putting them before the courts. This type of vigilante behaviour ignores those rules of evidence so ... it puts at strong risk the capability for us to obtain a prosecution or conviction in the future." He said the man might be compromising police operations that are already under way or putting himself in danger. "I have concerns over mistaken identities, people using other people's social media accounts, identity theft and fraud ... all these could mean an innocent person is publicly humiliated," he said. East, who is serving a 12-month suspended sentence for a home invasion, said he started posing as an underage girl while "mucking around" on Tinder one night.

He was also motivated by a close family friend, who raised him and carries scars from child abuse. "The numbers that are out there, there's no way the police would keep tabs on them all," he said. "I just want people to be aware." He isn't worried about being sued because "I've got no money" but he was almost run over last Friday during one confrontation. Many comments on his videos express a belief that police are not doing enough to catch paedophiles. However, Michael Salter, a criminologist at Western Sydney University, said three out of four prosecutions involving men soliciting sex with minors involve covert police entrapment.

"That means only one in four times is the man actually speaking to a child online," he said. "This is an area in which the police have a lot of resources and are very active." Dr Salter said civilian vigilantism is growing in the digital age but there is no evidence that it helps keep children safe. The Coffs Coast Pedo Hunter appears to be more about macho grandstanding than protecting children, he said. "When I think about my heroes in this space, they are working really hard, often behind the scenes, trying to get real change for child abuse victims," he said. "They're not the ones painting a big Superman symbol on their chests."
9/20

Peter Taylor talks with the kids while they have their lunch at the Da Bac Kindergarten which is supported by the Vung Tau Veterans & Friends Childrens Fund. Credit:Kate Geraghty
A WA couple who sued police after they were arrested and tasered in Fremantle eight years ago have been awarded more than $1 million in damages.

Robert Cunningham, an Associate Law Professor, and his wife Catherine Atoms sued the state of WA and three police officers for malicious prosecution, false imprisonment, assault and battery over an incident outside the Esplanade Hotel in November 2008.

The pair were arrested outside the hotel during a birthday party. They were both tasered and later charged with obstructing a public officer.

But the charges were dismissed in 2010 after a magistrate described evidence given by one of the arresting officers as "extremely evasive", "imprecise" and "unconvincing."
Patrick Norman Pat Chapman is a 34-year-old, Caucasian male who was last known to be in Piedmont which is near the area of Greenville, Missouri on May 10, 2020.

Pat had stayed the night with a friend and his wife at their home. In the early morning when the friend woke to go to work.

Pat was gone in his own Burgundy color 1995 Ford Escort. That is the last anyone was known to have seen him. The vehicle was later recovered on May 29, 2020 in Mill Spring, Missouri.
This is the second time when a leopard is spotted in the area. Earlier a male big cat entered Mandawar village where villagers chased and killed the animal.

Officials from the wildlife and forest departments, who were informed by villagers, were camping in the area to prevent any man-animal conflict.

By Ajay Kumar: Forest officials in Gurgaon found themselves in the midst of leopard conflict mediation on Thursday with a big cat and its cubs straying near human habitat on the foothills of the Aravalli mountains.

The incident reported from a Harchandpur villager comes days after residents of neighbouring Mandawar hacked a three-year-old leopard to death and paraded its body around the village, even as wildlife department officers and police watched silently. The area is on the frontline of an escalating human-animal conflict as both often compete for the same natural resources.

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Residents of Harchandpur, located next to the Sohna-Ballabhgarh expressway and about 30km away from Gurgaon city were in a state of panic after spotting a full-grown female leopard and two cubs near human population around 7am on Thursday.

"NO DOUBT ABOUT LEOPARD PRESENCE IN THE VICINITY"

Villagers equipped with traditional arms were raring to take on the felines but the family managed to escape into the forests. Officials from the wildlife and forest departments, who were informed by villagers, were camping in the area to prevent any man-animal conflict.

"We were told by the villagers that a leopard and its cubs were sighted near the village. We immediately reached the village to prevent any untoward incident between the big cats and villagers," said Shyam Sundar Kaushik, divisional forest officer of Gurgaon range.

Also read: Gurgaon villagers beat leopard to death: How the forest department failed to save the animal's life

"We have spotted pug marks of leopards on the outskirts of the village. There is no doubt about leopard presence in the vicinity. They may stray into human settlements in search of food and water." The DFO pointed out that as the leopard was seen with cubs, the adult animal was likely a female. They generally reside in their own territorial jurisdictions marked by themselves and intrude into each other spaces only after the demise of one of them.

PREVIOUS VIOLENT ENCOUNTER

The wildlife officials were also relieved that the situation did not take a violent turn like Mandawar on November 25 when over a thousand locals equipped with axes and batons cornered a male leopard in a house.

They did not allow the big cat to escape into the forest and killed it brutally. The wildlife department recommended to the Gurgaon police commissioner that an FIR be lodged against unknown people, but sources say this has been ignored.

The incident took place at Mandawar village under Sohna tehsil in Gurgaon district. The ill-prepared officials of the wildlife department failed to rescue the three-year old leopard from the wrath of the villagers even as the animal tried to escape from the human settlement for over three hours. The "victory march" that followed also disrupted traffic on the Sohna-Faridabad Expressway for about 20 minutes.

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Also Read: After two weeks of hide and seek, Yamuna Biodiversity Park scientists capture stray leopard on camera

The conservator had added that the leopard required an open space and it kept trying to escape from the village. But facing the ruthless crowd, the big cat had instinctively attacked the villagers.

The leopard's postmortem was conducted in the presence of three doctors and it was later cremated. As per the existing law, the wildlife department has recommended the case to the Gurgaon police commissioner for registering an FIR against unidentified people.

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The newly-created districts are Tengnoupal, bifurcated from Channel district, Kampong from Ukhrul, Pherzawl from Churachandpur, Kangpokpi from Senapati and Jiribam from Imphal East districts.

By Manogya Loiwal : Manipur has now become a 16-district state, after 7 new districts were formed by dividing the 9 existing ones.

The newly-created districts are Tengnoupal, bifurcated from Channel district, Kampong from Ukhrul, Pherzawl from Churachandpur, Kangpokpi from Senapati and Jiribam from Imphal East districts. The deputy commissioners and Superintendents of Police of the newly-created districts have also been posted.

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The creation of these districts comes in the wake of the ongoing indefinite economic blockade enforced by the United Naga Council (UNC), protesting against the creation of two districts, Sadar and Jiribam, alleging that the new districts would encroach the ancestral land of the Nagas.

List of districts.

The state government denies the charge, stating that the move was purely aimed for administrative convenience and with no ulterior motives.

CM BACKS DECISION

Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh has been himself in favour of the decision and at the helm of affairs of all meetings in the past held on the issue.

Also read | Sonia Gandhi names TN Haokip as Manipur PCC chief "For people residing in Sadar Hills, the news of the creation of Kangpokpi district is a long-cherished dream having come true. The people of Kangpokpi ecstatically danced all night, on the national highway that runs through Kangpokpi," said Kamboi, a Kangpokpi-based journalist.

For the residents of Sadar Hills, the creation of the new district comes after a long struggle and at the cost of 7 lives lost during the agitation for the same.

After the announcement, people remain anxious as they are not ruling out the possibility of repercussions from the UNC that has spearheaded the agitation against the move, on the pretext that new district borders have divided the ancestral Naga areas.

NAGA DOCTOR WELCOMES MOVE

Meanwhile, a Naga doctor working in the state's health directorate has welcomed the government's move and said that it is good for all if it is done for administrative convenience.

"I welcome it. The people of the state will benefit from this. However, people may react adversely if the regions are not demarcated sensitively, even if it's for achieving administrative convenience. Ironically, if seen purely from an administrative point of view, the state needs to reorganise all its districts," said the doctor.

Also read | BJP took to street protest demanding resignation of CM and Home Minister in Manipur

While the masses have accepted the creation of the districts, there are chances that those opposing the move could create problems to the already strife-torn state, which is reeling under the ongoing economic blockade for the past 38 days.

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(With Jit Ningomba in Manipur)

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Manmohan Singh alleged that the dishonest and the black money hoarders will get away without suffering any severe punishment.

By India Today Web Desk: Former prime minister Manmohan Singh has made a scathing attack on the Narendra Modi government's demonetisation move and said the decision will cause "grievous injury" to the honest people who earn in cash.

In an article published in The Hindu newspaper today, Manmohan Singh alleged that the dishonest and the black money hoarders will get away without suffering any severe punishment.

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Calling the demonetisation move as an "impetuous decision", Singh said it had shattered the trust reposed by hundreds of millions of people in the BJP-led NDA government.

ALSO READ | Was demonetisation policy confidential, Supreme Court asks Centre

The Prime Minister in his address to the nation said, "There comes a time in the history of a country's development when a need is felt for a strong and decisive step," and propounded two primary reasons for this decision. One was to check "enemies from across the border...using fake currency notes". The other was to "break the grip of corruption and black money".

He said the notion that "all cash is black money and all black money is in cash" is false and far from reality. To buttress his point, Singh said more than 90 per cent of India's workforce, including agriculture workers and construction workers, earn their wages in cash. More than 600 million Indians who live in a town or village do not have any bank, he said.

The former prime minister condemned tarnishing this cash as 'black money'. Calling it a "mammoth tragedy", he said the move had thrown the lives of these poor people in disarray. "The recent decision by the Prime Minister is a travesty of this fundamental duty," he said.

He said black money was a genuine concern but all black money was not in cash. Only a tiny fraction was so. He faulted the government over the introduction of Rs 2,000 currency notes and said it would be easier to generate unaccounted wealth in the future. "This brazen policy measure has neither tackled the stock of black money holistically nor has it stemmed the flow of it" he said.

Singh gave his own example and said he had experienced long lines for rationed food during war time. But he never imagined that one day he would find men and women waiting endlessly for "rationed money". "That all of this suffering is due to one hasty decision makes it even more disconcerting," he said.

He said the scars of an overnight depletion of the honest wealth of a vast majority combined with their ordeal of rationed access to new currency will be too deep to heal quickly. This can have ripple effects on GDP growth and job creation. "It is my humble opinion that we as a nation should brace ourselves for a tough period over the coming months, needlessly so," he said.

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The former prime minister said the government should have taken into account the risks of unintended consequences. The risks and the potential benefits of such decisions should have been deftly balanced. "Waging a war on black money may sound enticing. But it cannot entail even a single loss of life of an honest Indian," he said, obviously referring to the death of about 80 people whose death the Opposition is associating with demonetisation.

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Mamata Banerjee is protesting against the presence of the Army at toll plazas in several parts of the state, saying the permissions were not taken for the same.

By Manjeet Negi, India Today Web Desk: Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has expressed pain in a letter written to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over dragging the Army into controversy related to an "Army coup" in the state.

Mamata Banerjee is protesting against the presence of the Army at toll plazas in several parts of the state, saying the permissions were not taken for the same.

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In a letter dated December 08, 2016, Parrikar wrote, "I am deeply pained by your allegation as reported in the media. If only you had inquired with the concerned Agencies of the state government, you would have come to know the extensive correspondence between the Army and the state agencies including the joint inspection of sites carried out by them."

Manohar Parrikar's letter to Mamata Banerjee.

Manohar Parrikar's letter to Mamata Banerjee.

Earlier, Parrikar rubbished the allegations by calling it "political frustration".

"I am very sad that such routine exercise by Army is being used for controversy," Parrikar told Parliament, adding it was a standard practice. "It is only political frustration."

The defence minister said the Army had rescheduled its exercise after West Bengal police suggested they conduct this on 1-2 December instead of the original scheduled date of 28-30 November.

READ| Army rejects Mamata Banerjee's toll plaza allegations, shows papers

The Army also held a press conference in Kolkata on Friday, terming the allegations of Army intervention and coup as "baseless".

"We deny this charge," Major General Sunil Yadav said, adding the ongoing exercise simply involves collection of data in all northeastern states.

This was being done not just in West Bengal but nine north-eastern states at 80 such data collection points.

It was an annual exercise and was carried out at same locations last year too, he said, adding all the Army officials were unarmed.

READ| Mamata Banerjee locks herself in office to protest Army's presence at toll plazas in state

The Army also recently conducted similar data collection in the states of Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

Banerjee had on Thursday night said that she "will stay at the secretariat to guard our democracy", even asking if it was a "military coup".

"The Army is deployed without informing the State government. This is unprecedented and a very serious matter," she said.

The Army said the exercise will come to an end on Friday, as planned.

(With inputs from PTI)

WATCH VIDEO

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Also Read:

Kolkata Police, Army spar on Twitter over deployment of forces at toll plazas

Mamata vs Centre continues in Rajya Sabha over Army presence in West Bengal

Peace is fine but no compromises due to fear of war, says Manohar Parrikar at Agenda Aaj Tak

Navy says INS Betwa will be reused, Parrikar seeks report

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Aviva plc provides various insurance, retirement, investment, and savings products in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, and internationally. The company offers life insurance, long-term health and accident insurance, savings, pension, and annuity products, as well as pension fund business and lifetime mortgage products. It also provides insurance cover to individuals, small and medium-sized businesses for risks associated with motor vehicles and medical expenses, as well as property and liability, such as employers' and professional indemnity liabilities. In addition, the company provides investment management services for institutional pension fund mandates; and manages various retail investment products, including investment funds, unit trusts, open-ended investment companies, and individual savings accounts for third-party financial institutions, pension funds, public sector organizations, investment professionals, and private investors. It markets its products through a network of insurance brokers, as well as MyAviva platform. The company was formerly known as CGNU plc and changed its name to Aviva plc in July 2002. Aviva plc was founded in 1696 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.
A birthday party that was supposed to be a private affair for close friends and family turned into a public party, and police protection had to be requested.

By India Today Web Desk: A birthday party with 'millions' of guests!

Even Princess Diana's birthday party would not be as GRAND as Rubi Ibarra Garcia's, and add to it the fact that this to-be-15-year-old Mexican girl did not even want this.

Rubi Ibarra Garcia's father made a sweet video and posted it on Facebook. The video was made to invite his daughter's close friends and a few family members to a birthday bash. It was just a simple invite that said "Rubi's 'quinceanera'".

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It also said, "Hello, how are you? We invite you this 26 of December to the 15th birthday party of our daughter, Rubi Ibarra Garcia.(sic)".

He was generous to end it by saying "hereby everyone is cordially invited. (sic)"

What happened next is unbelievable!

Ibarra left the Facebook invite open to the public (Dad problems) and it went viral. To his astonishment, 1.2 million signed up for attending his daughter's birthday party.

The small village of La Joya in Mexico might have to host a birthday-mob and we hope it turns out an exciting affair. Help from police has been requested to 'handle' the guests and other appropriate measures are being taken to prepare for it.

On the other hand, social media users are having a blast. It is flooded with memes, where more than 1.2 million people are joking that they will attend the almost-royal bash in a field.

Some cannot stop laughing, others are being kind to the girl.

Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal even did a comical skit impersonating the girl's father. It seems a 30 per cent discount is being offered by an airline to the nearest airport to La Joya with the tagline "Are you going to Rubi's party?"

Despite the initial shock, Ruby's dad has sportingly made fun arrangements for the party.

The young Mexican girl's plans were surely not to throw this Great Gatsby-like bash. But it has been reported that those who do turn up will get to enjoy music by three bands and the winner of a horse race will win 10,000 pesos (Rs. 39,000).

We are too, looking forward to this event, which has become an internet sensation.

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The following companies are subsidiares of Becton, Dickinson and: Accuri Cytometers, Accuri Cytometers Inc., Alverix Inc, Alverix Inc., Atto Bioscience Inc, BD Holding S. de R.L. de C.V., BD Infection Prevention BV, BD Kiestra BV, BD Kiestra Total Lab Automation, BD Rapid Diagnostic (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., BD San Luis Potosi S.A. de C.V., BD Switzerland Sarl, BD Ventures LLC, BD West Africa Limited, BDX INO LLC, Bard (Thailand) Limited, Bard ASDI Inc., Bard Access Systems Inc., Bard Acquisition Sub Inc., Bard Australia Pty. Limited, Bard Benelux N.V., Bard Brachytherapy Inc., Bard Brasil Industria e Comercio de Produtos Para a Saude Ltda., Bard Canada Inc., Bard Chile S.p.A., Bard Czech Republic s.r.o., Bard Devices Inc., Bard Dublin ITC Limited, Bard EMEA Finance Center Sp.z o.o., Bard European Distribution Center N.V., Bard Finance B.V. & Co. KG., Bard Financial Services Ltd., Bard Finland OY, Bard France S.A.S., Bard Global Holdings I LLC, Bard Global Holdings II LLC, Bard Global Holdings III LLC, Bard Healthcare Inc., Bard Healthcare Science (Shanghai) Limited, Bard Hellas S.A., Bard Holding SAS, Bard Holdings Limited, Bard Holdings Netherlands B.V., Bard Hong Kong Limited, Bard IP Holdings Inc., Bard India Healthcare Pvt. Ltd., Bard International Holdings B.V., Bard International Inc., Bard Istanbul Healthcare Limited Company, Bard Korea Ltd., Bard Limited, Bard MRL Acquisition Corp., Bard Malaysia Healthcare Sdn. Bhd., Bard Medica SA, Bard Medical Devices (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Bard Medical R&D (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Bard Medical SA (Proprietary) Limited, Bard Mexico Realty S. de R.L. de C.V., Bard Norden AB, Bard Norway AS, Bard Pacific Health Care Company Ltd., Bard Peripheral Vascular Inc., Bard Poland Sp. z.o.o., Bard Productos Plasticos e Medicos Ltda., Bard Reynosa S.A. de C.V., Bard S.r.l., Bard Sdn. Bhd., Bard Shannon Limited, Bard Singapore Private Limited, Bard Sourcing Office Singapore Pte. Ltd., Bard Sweden AB, Bard UK Newco Limited, Bard de Espana S.A., Becton Dickinson (Gibraltar) Holdings Ltd., Becton Dickinson (Gibraltar) Limited, Becton Dickinson (Gibraltar) Management Limited, Becton Dickinson (Mauritius) Limited, Becton Dickinson (Pty) Ltd., Becton Dickinson (Thailand) Limited, Becton Dickinson A.G., Becton Dickinson A/S, Becton Dickinson Argentina S.R.L., Becton Dickinson Asia Holdings Ltd., Becton Dickinson Asia Limited, Becton Dickinson Austria GmbH, Becton Dickinson Austria Holdings GmbH, Becton Dickinson B.V., Becton Dickinson B.V. Saudi Limited Company, Becton Dickinson Benelux N.V., Becton Dickinson Biosciences Systems and Reagents Inc., Becton Dickinson Canada Inc., Becton Dickinson Caribe Ltd., Becton Dickinson Croatia d.o.o., Becton Dickinson Czechia s.r.o., Becton Dickinson Dispensing Belgium BVBA, Becton Dickinson Dispensing Denmark A/S, Becton Dickinson Dispensing France SAS, Becton Dickinson Dispensing Ireland Limited, Becton Dickinson Dispensing Norway, Becton Dickinson Dispensing Spain S.L.U., Becton Dickinson Dispensing UK Ltd., Becton Dickinson Distribution Center N.V., Becton Dickinson East Africa Ltd., Becton Dickinson Euro Finance Sarl, Becton Dickinson Europe Holdings S.A.S., Becton Dickinson France S.A.S., Becton Dickinson GSA Beteilgungs GmbH, Becton Dickinson Global Holdings I Inc., Becton Dickinson Global Holdings II LLC, Becton Dickinson Global Holdings IV LLC, Becton Dickinson Global Holdings V LLC, Becton Dickinson Global Holdings VII LLC, Becton Dickinson Global Holdings VIII LLC, Becton Dickinson Global Services Centre Sdn. Bhd, Becton Dickinson GmbH, Becton Dickinson Guatemala S.A., Becton Dickinson Hellas S.A., Becton Dickinson Holdings Limited, Becton Dickinson Holdings Ltd., Becton Dickinson Holdings Pte Ltd., Becton Dickinson Hungary Kft., Becton Dickinson India Private Limited, Becton Dickinson Industrias Cirurgicas Ltda., Becton Dickinson Infusion Therapy AB, Becton Dickinson Infusion Therapy Holdings UK Limited, Becton Dickinson Infusion Therapy Systems Inc., Becton Dickinson Infusion Therapy Systems Inc. S.A. de C.V., Becton Dickinson Infusion Therapy UK, Becton Dickinson Insulin Syringe Ltd., Becton Dickinson International Holdings II Pte Ltd., Becton Dickinson International Holdings III Pte Ltd., Becton Dickinson International Holdings Pte Ltd., Becton Dickinson Israel Ltd., Becton Dickinson Italia S.p.A., Becton Dickinson Ithalat Ihracat Limited Sirketi, Becton Dickinson Korea Holding Inc., Becton Dickinson Korea Ltd., Becton Dickinson Ltd., Becton Dickinson Luxembourg Finance S.a.r.L., Becton Dickinson Luxembourg Global Holdings Sarl, Becton Dickinson Luxembourg Holdings II S.a.r.L, Becton Dickinson Luxembourg Holdings III S.a.r.L, Becton Dickinson Luxembourg Holdings V S.a.r.L., Becton Dickinson Malaysia Inc., Becton Dickinson Management GmbH & Co. KG, Becton Dickinson Matrex Holdings Inc., Becton Dickinson Medical (S) Pte Ltd., Becton Dickinson Medical Devices (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Becton Dickinson Medical Devices (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., Becton Dickinson Medical Products Pte. Ltd., Becton Dickinson Medical Technology (Jiangsu) Co. Ltd., Becton Dickinson Netherlands Global Holdings II C.V., Becton Dickinson Netherlands Holdings B.V., Becton Dickinson Netherlands Holdings II B.V., Becton Dickinson Norway AS, Becton Dickinson O.Y., Becton Dickinson Overseas Services Ltd., Becton Dickinson Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd., Becton Dickinson Penel Limited, Becton Dickinson Philippines Inc., Becton Dickinson Polska Sp.z.o.o., Becton Dickinson Portugal Unipessoal Lda., Becton Dickinson Pty. Ltd., Becton Dickinson Research Centre Ireland Limited, Becton Dickinson Rowa Germany GmbH, Becton Dickinson Rowa Italy Srl, Becton Dickinson S.A., Becton Dickinson Sample Collection GmbH, Becton Dickinson Scot Financing L.L.P., Becton Dickinson Scot Financing L.P., Becton Dickinson Sdn. Bhd., Becton Dickinson Slovakia s.r.o., Becton Dickinson Sweden AB, Becton Dickinson Sweden Holdings AB, Becton Dickinson Switzerland Global Holdings SarL, Becton Dickinson Technology Campus India, Becton Dickinson U.K. Limited, Becton Dickinson UK Financing I Limited, Becton Dickinson UK Financing II Limited, Becton Dickinson Venezuela C.A., Becton Dickinson Venture LLC, Becton Dickinson Verwaltungs GmbH, Becton Dickinson Vostok LLC, Becton Dickinson Worldwide Investments Sa.r.L., Becton Dickinson Zambia Limited, Becton Dickinson and Company Ltd., Becton Dickinson de Colombia Ltda., Becton Dickinson de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Becton Dickinson del Uruguay S.A., Bee IT Solutions, Benex Ltd., Biometric Imaging, Bridger Biomed Inc., C. R. Bard (Portugal) - Produtos e Artigos Medicos e Farmaceuticos, C. R. Bard Do Brasil Productos Medicos Ltda., C. R. Bard GmbH, C. R. Bard Inc., C. R. Bard Netherlands Sales B.V., C.R. Bard Inc, CME America LLC, CME Ltd., CME Medical (UK) Limited, CME UK (Holdings) Limited, CRISI Medical Systems, CRISI Medical Systems Inc., Caesarea Medical Electronics, Cardal II LLC, Care Fusion Development Private Limited, CareFusion (Barbados) SrL, CareFusion (Shanghai) Commercial and Trading Co. Limited, CareFusion 213 LLC, CareFusion 2200 Inc., CareFusion 2201 Inc., CareFusion 302 LLC, CareFusion 303 Inc., CareFusion Asia (HK) Limited, CareFusion Corporation, CareFusion Corporation., CareFusion D.R. 203 Ltd., CareFusion France 309 S.A.S., CareFusion Israel 330 Ltd., CareFusion Italy 312 S.p.A., CareFusion Manufacturing LLC, CareFusion Mexico 215 S.A. de C.V., CareFusion Netherlands 328 B.V., CareFusion Netherlands 503 B.V., CareFusion Netherlands 504 B.V., CareFusion Netherlands Financing 283 C.V., CareFusion Resources LLC, CareFusion S.A. 319 (Proprietary) Limited, CareFusion Solutions LLC, CareFusion U.K. 244 Limited, CareFusion U.K. 305 Limited, CareFusion U.K. 306 Limited, Carmel Pharma AB, Carmel Pharma Inc, Cato Software Solutions, Cell Analysis Systems Inc, Cellular Research, Cellular Research Inc., Clearstream Technologies Group Limited, Clearstream Technologies Limited, Clontech Laboratories Inc, Corporativo BD de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Critical Device Corporation, Cubex, Cytognos, Cytopeia Inc, DLD (Bermuda) Ltd., DVL Acquisition Sub Inc., Davol Inc., Davol International Limited, Davol Surgical Innovations S.A. de C.V., Difco Laboratories Incorporated, Distribuidora BD Mexico S.A. de C.V., Dutch American Manufacturers (D.A.M.) B.V., Dymax Corporation, Embo Medical Limited, Enturia de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Enturican Inc., FJ International Inc., FlowCardia Inc., FlowCardia LLC, FlowJo LLC, Franklin Lakes Enterprises L.L.C., GSL Solutions, Gamer Lasertechnik GmbH, GenCell Biosystems, GenCell Biosystems Ltd., GeneOhm Sciences Canada ULC, GeneOhm Sciences Inc, Gentest Corporation, Gesco International Inc., Gesco International LLC, Glentech Inc, HandyLab Inc, HandyLab Inc., IBD Holdings LLC, Iontophoretics Corporation, JoHome LLC, Kabushiki Kaisha Medicon (Medicon Inc.), Liberator Health and Education Services Inc., Liberator Health and Wellness Inc., Liberator Medical Holdings Inc., Liberator Medical Supply Inc., Limited Liability Company Bard Rus, Loma Vista Medical Inc., Loma Vista Medical LLC, Luther Medical Products Inc, Lutonix Inc., Med-Design Corporation, Med-Design Investment Holdings Inc., Med-Safe Systems Inc, Med-Safe Systems Inc., MedChem Products Inc., Medafor Inc., Medegen LLC, Medinservice.com Inc., Medivance Inc., NAT Diagnostics Inc., NAT Diagnostics Inc., NOW Medical Distribution Inc., NOW Medical Distribution LLC, Navarre Biomedical LLC, Navarre Biomedical Ltd., Neomend Inc., Nippon Becton Dickinson Company Ltd., Omega Biosystems Incorporated, P.R.C. (Isialys) Societe a responsabilitie limitee, PT Becton Dickinson Indonesia, PharMingen, PharMingen., Plasso Technology Ltd, PreAnalytiX GmbH, Pristine Access Technologies Inc., ProSeed Inc., Procesos para Esterilizacion S.A. de C.V., Productos Bard de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Productos Para el Cuidado de la Salud S.A. de C.V., Puls Medical Devices AS LC, PureWick Corporation, Roberts Laboratories Inc., Rochester Medical Corporation, Rochester Medical Ltd., Saf-T-Med Inc, Safety Syringes Inc., Scanwell Health Inc., Sendal S.L.U., SenoRx Inc., SenoRx LLC, Shield Healthcare Centers Inc., Sirigen Group Limited, Sirigen II Limited, Sirigen Inc., Sistemas Medicos ALARIS S.A. de C.V., Specialized Cooperative Corporation, Specialized Health Products Inc., Specialized Health Products International Inc., Specialized Health Products International LLC, Staged Diabetes Management LLC, Straub Medical AG, Straub Medical AG, Surgical Site Solutions Inc., TVA Medical Inc, TVA Medical Inc., Tepha Inc, Tepha Inc., Tissuemed Ltd., Tri-County Medical & Ostomy Supplies Inc., TriPath Imaging Inc., Tru-Fit Marketing Corporation, Vas-Cath Incorporated, Vascular Pathways Inc., Velano Vascular, Velano Vascular Inc., Venclose Inc., Venetec International Inc., Venetec International LLC, Visitec, Y-Med Inc., Y-Med LLC, and ZebraSci Inc..

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The following companies are subsidiares of Cummins: Anvl, Apollo FC Holdings Ltd., Atlantis Acquisitionco Canada Corporation, Atlantis Holdco UK Limited, Brammo, CIFC Worldwide Partner C.V., CMI Africa Holdings BV, CMI CGT Holdings LLC, CMI Canada Financing Ltd., CMI Canada LP, CMI Foreign Holdings B.V., CMI Global Equity Holdings B.V., CMI Global Equity Holdings C.V., CMI Global Holdings B.V., CMI Global Partner 2 C.V., CMI Global Partners B.V., CMI Group Holdings B.V., CMI Group Holdings Cooperatief U.A., CMI International Finance Partner 1 LLC, CMI International Finance Partner 2 LLC, CMI International Finance Partner 3 LLC, CMI International Finance Partner 4 LLC, CMI International Finance Partner 5 LLC, CMI Mexico LLC, CMI Netherlands Holdings B.V., CMI PGI Holdings LLC, CMI PGI International Holdings LLC, CMI Turkish Holdings B.V., CMI UK Finance LP, CMI UK Financing LP, Cherry Island Renewable Energy LLC, Consolidated Diesel Company, Consolidated Diesel Inc., Consolidated Diesel of North Carolina Inc., Cummins (China) Investment Co. Ltd., Cummins (Xiangyang) Machining Co. Ltd., Cummins Africa Middle East (Pty) Ltd., Cummins Afrique de l'Ouest, Cummins Americas Inc., Cummins Angola Lda., Cummins Argentina-Servicios Mineros S.A., Cummins Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., Cummins Aust Technologies Pty. Ltd., Cummins BLR LLC, Cummins Battery Systems North America LLC, Cummins Belgium N.V., Cummins Botswana (Pty.) Ltd., Cummins Brasil Ltda., Cummins Burkina Faso SARL, Cummins CDC Holding Inc., Cummins CV Member LLC, Cummins Canada ULC, Cummins Caribbean LLC, Cummins Center of Excellence Singapore Pte. Ltd., Cummins Centroamerica Holding S.de R.L., Cummins Child Development Center Inc., Cummins Colombia S.A.S., Cummins Comercializadora S. de R.L. de C.V., Cummins Corporation, Cummins Cote d'Ivoire SARL, Cummins Czech Republic s.r.o., Cummins Deutschland GmbH, Cummins Diesel International Ltd., Cummins Distribution Holdco Inc., Cummins EMEA Holdings Limited, Cummins East Asia Research & Development Co. Ltd., Cummins Eastern Marine Inc., Cummins Electrified Power Europe Ltd., Cummins Electrified Power NA Inc., Cummins Emission Solutions (China) Co. Ltd., Cummins Emission Solutions Inc., Cummins Empresas Filantropicas, Cummins Energetica Ltda., Cummins Engine (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Cummins Engine (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Cummins Engine (Shanghai) Trading & Services Co. Ltd., Cummins Engine Holding Company Inc., Cummins Engine IP Inc., Cummins Engine Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Cummins Engine Venture Corporation, Cummins Enterprise LLC, Cummins Filtration (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Cummins Filtration GmbH, Cummins Filtration IP Inc., Cummins Filtration Inc., Cummins Filtration International Corp., Cummins Filtration Ltd., Cummins Filtration SARL, Cummins Filtration Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Cummins Filtros Ltda., Cummins Franchise Holdco LLC, Cummins Fuel Systems (Wuhan) Co. Ltd., Cummins Generator Technologies (China) Co. Ltd., Cummins Generator Technologies Americas Inc., Cummins Generator Technologies Germany GmbH, Cummins Generator Technologies India Private Ltd., Cummins Generator Technologies Italy SRL, Cummins Generator Technologies Limited, Cummins Generator Technologies Romania S.A., Cummins Generator Technologies Singapore Pte Ltd., Cummins Ghana Limited, Cummins Ghana Mining Limited, Cummins Global Financing LP, Cummins Global Technologies LLP, Cummins Grupo Comercial Y. de Servicios S. de R.L. de C.V., Cummins Grupo Industrial S. de R.L. de C.V., Cummins Holland B.V., Cummins Hong Kong Ltd., Cummins India Ltd., Cummins Intellectual Property Inc., Cummins International Finance LLC, Cummins International Holdings Cooperatief U.A., Cummins International Holdings LLC, Cummins Italia S.P.A., Cummins Japan Ltd., Cummins Korea Co. Ltd., Cummins LLC Member Inc., Cummins Ltd., Cummins Maroc SARL, Cummins Middle East FZE, Cummins Mining Services S. de R.L. de C.V., Cummins Mobility Services Inc., Cummins Mongolia Investment LLC, Cummins Mozambique Ltda., Cummins NV, Cummins Namibia Engine Sales and Service PTY LTD, Cummins Natural Gas Engines Inc., Cummins New Zealand Limited, Cummins Nigeria Ltd., Cummins Norte de Colombia S.A.S., Cummins North Africa Regional Office SARL, Cummins Norway AS, Cummins PGI Holdings Ltd., Cummins Power Generation (China) Co. Ltd., Cummins Power Generation (S) Pte. Ltd., Cummins Power Generation (U.K.) Limited, Cummins Power Generation Deutschland GmbH, Cummins Power Generation Inc., Cummins Power Generation Limited, Cummins PowerGen IP Inc., Cummins Research and Technology India Private Ltd., Cummins Romania Srl, Cummins S. de R.L. de C.V., Cummins Sales and Service Korea Co. Ltd., Cummins Sales and Service Philippines Inc., Cummins Sales and Service Private Limited, Cummins Sales and Service Sdn. Bhd., Cummins Sales and Service Singapore Pte. Ltd., Cummins Sinai ve Otomotiv Urunleri Sanayi ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Cummins South Africa (Pty.) Ltd., Cummins South Pacific Pty. Limited, Cummins Southern Plains LLC, Cummins Spain S.L., Cummins Sweden AB, Cummins Technologies India, Cummins Trade Receivables LLC, Cummins Turbo Technologies Limited, Cummins Turkey Motor Guc Sistemleri Sats Servis Limited Sirketi, Cummins U.K. Holdings Ltd., Cummins U.K. Pension Plan Trustee Ltd., Cummins UK Global Holdings Ltd., Cummins UK Holdings LLC, Cummins Vendas e Servicos de Motores e Geradores Ltda., Cummins Venture Corporation, Cummins West Africa Limited, Cummins West Balkans d.o.o. Nova Pasova, Cummins XBorder Operations (Pty) Ltd, Cummins Zambia Ltd., Cummins Zimbabwe Pvt. Ltd., Distribuidora Cummins Centroamerica Costa Rica S.de R.L., Distribuidora Cummins Centroamerica El Salvador S.de R.L., Distribuidora Cummins Centroamerica Guatemala Ltda., Distribuidora Cummins Centroamerica Honduras S.de R.L., Distribuidora Cummins S.A., Distribuidora Cummins Sucursal Paraguay SRL, Distribuidora Cummins de Panama S. de R.L., Dynamo Insurance Company Inc., Efficient Drivetrains, Efficient Drivetrains (Beijing) New Power Technology Co. Ltd., Efficient Drivetrains (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Hilite International, Hydrogenics, Hydrogenics Corporation, Hydrogenics Europe N.V., Hydrogenics GmbH, Hydrogenics Holding GmbH, Hydrogenics USA Inc., Markon Engineering Company Ltd., Nelson Burgess Ltd., Nelson Industries, Newage Engineers GmbH, Newage Ltd. (U.K.), Newage Machine Tools Ltd., OOO Cummins, Petbow Limited, Power Group International (Overseas Holdings) B.V., Power Group International (Overseas Holdings) Ltd., Power Group International Ltd., Quickstart Energy Projects SpA, Shanghai Cummins Trade Co. Ltd., TOO Cummins, Taiwan Cummins Sales & Services Co. Ltd., Worldwide Partner CV Member LLC, Wuxi Cummins Turbo Technologies Co. Ltd., Wuxi New Energy Automotive Technologies Co. Ltd., and ZED Connect Inc..

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The following companies are subsidiares of D.R. Horton: 10700 Pecan Park Austin Inc., 11241 Slater Avenue NE LLC, 2 C Development Company LLC, 8800 Roswell Road Bldg. B LLC, 91st Avenue & Happy Valley L.L.C., ANN & 215 LLC, Austin Data Inc., BP456 Inc., C. Richard Dobson Builders Inc., CH Funding LLC, CH Investments of Texas Inc., CHI Construction Company, CHM Partners L.P., CHTEX of Texas Inc., CV Mountain View 25 Inv LLC, Cane Island LLC, Continental Homes Inc., Continental Homes of Texas L.P., Continental Residential Inc., Continental Traditions LLC, Crown Operating Company Inc., Cypress Road L.P., D.R. Horton - CHAustin LLC, D.R. Horton - Colorado LLC, D.R. Horton - Crown LLC, D.R. Horton - Emerald Ltd., D.R. Horton - Georgia LLC, D.R. Horton - Hawaii LLC, D.R. Horton - Highland LLC, D.R. Horton - Indiana LLC, D.R. Horton - Iowa LLC, D.R. Horton - MV LLC, D.R. Horton - Nebraska LLC, D.R. Horton - Permian LLC, D.R. Horton - Regent LLC, D.R. Horton - Terramor LLC, D.R. Horton - Texas Ltd., D.R. Horton - WPH LLC, D.R. Horton - Wyoming LLC, D.R. Horton BAY Inc., D.R. Horton CA2 Inc., D.R. Horton CA3 Inc., D.R. Horton CA4 LLC, D.R. Horton Commercial Inc., D.R. Horton Cruces Construction Inc., D.R. Horton Inc. - Birmingham, D.R. Horton Inc. - Chicago, D.R. Horton Inc. - Denver, D.R. Horton Inc. - Dietz-Crane, D.R. Horton Inc. - Greensboro, D.R. Horton Inc. - Gulf Coast, D.R. Horton Inc. - Huntsville, D.R. Horton Inc. - Jacksonville, D.R. Horton Inc. - Louisville, D.R. Horton Inc. - Midwest, D.R. Horton Inc. - Minnesota, D.R. Horton Inc. - NNV, D.R. Horton Inc. - New Jersey, D.R. Horton Inc. - Portland, D.R. Horton Inc. - Torrey, D.R. Horton Inc. Foundation, D.R. Horton Insurance Agency Inc., D.R. Horton LA North Inc., D.R. Horton Life Insurance Agency Inc., D.R. Horton Los Angeles Holding Company Inc., D.R. Horton Management Company Ltd., D.R. Horton Materials Inc., D.R. Horton Realty LLC, D.R. Horton Realty of Atlantic County LLC, D.R. Horton Realty of Central Florida LLC, D.R. Horton Realty of Delaware LLC, D.R. Horton Realty of Georgia Inc., D.R. Horton Realty of Melbourne LLC, D.R. Horton Realty of Northwest Florida LLC, D.R. Horton Realty of Southeast Florida LLC, D.R. Horton Realty of Southwest Florida LLC, D.R. Horton Realty of Tampa LLC, D.R. Horton Realty of Virginia LLC, D.R. Horton Seabridge Marina Inc., D.R. Horton Serenity Construction LLC, D.R. Horton Urban Renewal LLC, D.R. Horton VEN Inc., D.R. Horton  Corpus Christi LLC, DBC54 LLC, DHI Commercial - Lakeview LLC, DHI Commercial - Signal Butte LLC, DHI Commercial - Tamarron LLC, DHI Commercial Inc., DHI Communities Construction LLC, DHI Communities Construction of Arizona LLC, DHI Communities Construction of Colorado LLC, DHI Communities Construction of Florida LLC, DHI Communities Construction of Iowa LLC, DHI Communities Construction of Nevada LLC, DHI Communities Construction of North Carolina LLC, DHI Communities Construction of South Carolina LLC, DHI Communities Construction of Texas LLC, DHI Communities Construction of Utah LLC, DHI Communities Construction of Virginia LLC, DHI Communities II LLC, DHI Communities Inc., DHI Engineering LLC, DHI Insurance Inc., DHI Mortgage Company, DHI Mortgage Company GP Inc., DHI Mortgage Company LP Inc., DHI Mortgage Company Ltd., DHI Ranch Ltd., DHI Realty of Alabama LLC, DHI Realty of Mississippi LLC, DHI Title GP Inc., DHI Title LP Inc., DHI Title of Alabama Inc., DHI Title of Arizona Inc., DHI Title of Florida Inc., DHI Title of Minnesota Inc., DHI Title of Nevada Inc., DHI Title of Texas Ltd., DHI Title of Washington Inc., DHI Verandah South Shores Communities LLC, DHIC - Bridges LLC, DHIC - Brittmore LLC, DHIC - Carolina Forest LLC, DHIC - Desert Peak LLC, DHIC - Durbin Creek LLC, DHIC - Freestone LLC, DHIC - Hammock Landing LLC, DHIC - Heritage LLC, DHIC - Horizon Uptown LLC, DHIC - Jacobs Reserve LLC, DHIC - Lakeview LLC, DHIC - Lipoma LLC, DHIC - Minton Cove LLC, DHIC - Mountain Vista LLC, DHIC - Naco LLC, DHIC - Northshore LLC, DHIC - Prairie Village LLC, DHIC - South Creek LLC, DHIC - Tamarron LLC, DHIC - Valley Vista LLC, DHIC - Varina Gateway LLC, DHIC - Waterleigh II LLC, DHIC - Waterleigh III LLC, DHIC - Waterleigh LLC, DHIC - Westridge LLC, DHIC LLC, DHIC  Glendale LLC, DHIC  Grove West LLC, DHIC  South Park LLC, DHIC  Westinghouse LLC, DHIR - Aspen Vista LLC, DHIR - Avian Pointe LLC, DHIR - Emerald Lakes LLC, DHIR - Fosters Ridge LLC, DHIR - Gulf Stream LLC, DHIR - Parkview at Lynn Haven LLC, DHIR - Poplar Terrace LLC, DHIR - Properties I LLC, DHIR - Rock Ridge LLC, DHIR - Sunset Village LLC, DHIR - Village at Hickory Street LLC, DRH - ARK LLC, DRH - ASG LLC, DRH - HWY 114 LLC, DRH Cambridge Homes LLC, DRH Capital Trust I, DRH Capital Trust II, DRH Capital Trust III, DRH Colorado Realty Inc., DRH Construction Inc., DRH Energy Inc., DRH FS Mortgage Reinsurance Ltd., DRH Land Opportunities I Inc., DRH Land Opportunities II Inc., DRH Mountain View LLC, DRH Oil & Gas Inc., DRH Opportunities I Inc., DRH Properties Inc., DRH Realty Company Inc., DRH Realty of Iowa LLC, DRH Regrem L LLC, DRH Regrem LI LLC, DRH Regrem LII LLC, DRH Regrem LIII LLC, DRH Regrem LIV LLC, DRH Regrem LV LLC, DRH Regrem VII LP, DRH Regrem XII LP, DRH Regrem XIV Inc., DRH Regrem XIX Inc., DRH Regrem XLIX LLC, DRH Regrem XLV LLC, DRH Regrem XLVI LLC, DRH Regrem XLVII LLC, DRH Regrem XLVIII LLC, DRH Regrem XV Inc., DRH Regrem XVI Inc., DRH Regrem XVII Inc., DRH Regrem XVIII Inc., DRH Regrem XX Inc., DRH Regrem XXI Inc., DRH Regrem XXII Inc., DRH Regrem XXIII Inc., DRH Regrem XXIV Inc., DRH Regrem XXV Inc., DRH Southwest Construction Inc., DRH Tucson Construction Inc., DRHI Inc., Deer Valley Office Park LLC, Desert Ridge Phase I Partners, Emerald Creek No. 4 L.P., Emerald Realty of Alabama LLC, Emerald Realty of Central Florida LLC, Emerald Realty of North Florida LLC, Emerald Realty of Northwest Florida LLC, Emerald Realty of Southeast Florida LLC, Emerald Realty of Southwest Florida LLC, Encore II Inc., Encore Venture Partners II (California) L.P., Encore Venture Partners II (Texas) L.P., Encore Venture Partners L.P., Express Realty of Central Florida LLC, Express Realty of North Florida LLC, Express Realty of Northwest Florida LLC, Express Realty of Southeast Florida LLC, Express Realty of Southwest Florida LLC, Forestar Group, Forestar Group Inc., Founders Oil & Gas II LLC, Founders Oil & Gas III LLC, Founders Oil & Gas IV LLC, Founders Oil & Gas LLC, Founders Oil & Gas Operating LLC, GP-Encore Inc., Georgetown Data Inc., Germann & McQueen L.L.C., Grand Title Agency LLC, Grande Realty Incorporated, Grande Realty of Pennsylvania LLC, Greywes LLC, HPH Homebuilders 2000 L.P., Hadian LLC, KDB Homes Inc., Kaomalo LLC, Lexington Homes - DRH LLC, MRLF LLC, Martin Road Lake Forest LLC, McQueen & Willis LLC, Meadows I Ltd., Meadows II Ltd., Meadows IX Inc., Meadows VIII Ltd., Meadows X Inc., Melody Homes Inc., Pacific Ridge - DRH LLC, Rielly Carlsbad LLC, Rielly Homes Madison LLC, SFTEN LLC, SGS Communities at Grand Quay L.L.C, SHA Construction LLC, SHLR of California Inc., SHLR of Nevada Inc., SHLR of Washington Inc., SRHI LLC, SSHI LLC, Schuler Homes of Arizona LLC, Schuler Homes of California Inc., Schuler Homes of Oregon Inc., Schuler Homes of Washington Inc., Summerlin Pkwy & Cimarron LLC, Surprise Village North LLC, The Club at Cobblestone LLC, The Club at Hidden River LLC, Tierra Financial Advisors LLC, Travis County Title Company, Treasure Assets LLC, Venture Management of South Carolina LLC, Vertical Construction Corporation, WPH-Camino Ruiz LLC, WPH-Copper Canyon II LLC, WPH-Copper Canyon LLC, Walker Drive LLC, Western Pacific Brea Development LLC, Western Pacific Housing - Mountaingate L.P., Western Pacific Housing - SDG LLC, Western Pacific Housing - Westlake II L.P., Western Pacific Housing Inc., Western Pacific Housing Management Inc., Western Pacific Housing-Antigua LLC, Western Pacific Housing-Broadway LLC, Western Pacific Housing-Canyon Park LLC, Western Pacific Housing-Carrillo LLC, Western Pacific Housing-Communications Hill LLC, Western Pacific Housing-Copper Canyon LLC, Western Pacific Housing-Creekside LLC, Western Pacific Housing-Lomas Verdes LLC, Western Pacific Housing-Lyons Canyon Partners LLC, Western Pacific Housing-McGonigle Canyon LLC, Western Pacific Housing-Norco Estates LLC, Western Pacific Housing-Pacific Park II LLC, Western Pacific Housing-Park Avenue East LLC, Western Pacific Housing-Park Avenue West LLC, Western Pacific Housing-Playa Vista LLC, Western Pacific Housing-River Ridge LLC, Western Pacific Housing-Terra Bay Duets LLC, Western Pacific Housing-Torrey Meadows LLC, Western Pacific Housing-Torrey Village Center LLC, Western Pacific Housing-Windemere LLC, and Wilson Parker Homes.

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Humana Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a health and well-being company in the United States. It operates through three segments: Retail, Group and Specialty, and Healthcare Services. The company offers medical and supplemental benefit plans to individuals. It also has a contract with Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to administer the Limited Income Newly Eligible Transition prescription drug plan program; and contracts with various states to provide Medicaid, dual eligible, and long-term support services benefits. In addition, the company provides commercial fully insured medical and specialty health insurance benefits comprising dental, vision, and other supplemental health benefits; and administrative services only products to individuals and employer groups, as well as military services, such as TRICARE T2017 East Region contract. Further, it offers pharmacy solutions, provider services, and home solutions services, such as home health and other services to its health plan members, as well as to third parties. As of December 31, 2021, the company had approximately 17 million members in medical benefit plans, as well as approximately 5 million members in specialty products. Humana Inc. was founded in 1961 and is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky.
The following companies are subsidiares of Illinois Tool Works: A V Co 1 Limited, A V Co 2 Limited, A V Co 3 Limited, ACCU-LUBE Manufacturing GmbH - Schmiermittel und -gerate -, AIP/BI Holdings Inc., Accessories Marketing Holding Corp., Advanced Molding Company Inc., Allen France SAS, Alpine Engineered Products, Alpine Systems Corporation, Anaerobicos S.r.l., AppliChem GmbH, Avery Berkel France, Avery India Limited, Avery Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Avery Weigh Tronix, Avery Weigh-Tronix Finance Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix International Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix LLC, Avery Weigh-Tronix Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix Properties Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix Suzhou Weighing Technology Co. Ltd., Azon Limited, B.C. Immo, Beijing Miller Electric Manufacturing Co. Ltd., Berkel Ireland Limited, Berrington UK, Brapenta Eletronica Ltda., Brooks Instrument B.V., Brooks Instrument GmbH, Brooks Instrument KFT, Brooks Instrument Korea Ltd., Brooks Instrument LLC, Brooks Instrument Shanghai Co. Ltd, Buell Industries Inc., CCI Realty Company, CFC Europe GmbH, CS Australia Pty Limited, CS Mexico Holding Company S DE RL DE CV, Calvia Spolka z Ograniczona Odpowiedzialnosci, Capital Ventures Australasia S.a r.l, Capmax Logistica S.A. de C.V., Celeste Industries Corporation, Coeur, Coeur Asia Limited, Coeur Holding Company, Coeur Inc., Coeur Shanghai Medical Appliance Trading Co. Ltd, Compagnie Hobart, Compagnie de Materiel et d'Equipements Techniques-Comet, Constructions Isothermiques Bontami C.I.B., Crane Carrier Company, Denison Mayes Group Limited, Despatch Industries, Diagraph Corporation Sdn. Bhd, Diagraph ITW Mexico S. de R.L. De C.V., Diagraph Mexico S.A. DE C.V., Dongguan Ark-Les Electric Components Co. Ltd., Dongguan CK Branding Co. Ltd., Duo Fast de Espana S.A.U., Duo-Fast Korea Co. Ltd., Duo-Fast LLC, E.C.S. d.o.o., E2M Production B.V.., E2M Technologies B.V.., E2M Technologies Inc.., ECS Cable Protection Sp. Zoo, ELRO Grosskuchen GmbH, ELRO Holding AG, ELRO-WERKE AG, Elro Group, Eltex-Elektrostatik-Gesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung, Envases Multipac S.A. de C.V., Eurotec Srl, Exhibit 21, FEG Investments L.L.C., Filtertek De Mexico Holding Inc., Filtertek De Mexico S.A. de C.V., Filtertek SAS, GC Financement SA, Gamko B.V., Gun Hwa Platech Taicang Co. Ltd., HOBART Gesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung, Hartness International, Hobart Andina S.A.S., Hobart Belgium B.V., Hobart Brothers International Chile Limitada, Hobart Brothers LLC, Hobart Dayton Mexicana S. de R.L. de C.V., Hobart Food Equipment Co. Ltd., Hobart International Singapore Pte. Ltd., Hobart Japan K.K., Hobart Korea LLC, Hobart LLC, Hobart Nederland B.V., Hobart Sales & Service Inc., Hobart Scandinavia ApS, Hobart Techniek B.V., Horis, ILC Investments Holdings Inc., ITW AEP LLC, ITW AOC LLC, ITW Aircraft Investments Inc., ITW Ampang Industries Philippines Inc., ITW Appliance Components EOOD, ITW Appliance Components S.A. de C.V., ITW Appliance Components S.r.l.a, ITW Appliance Components d.o.o., ITW Australia Holdings Pty Ltd, ITW Australia Property Holdings Pty Ltd., ITW Australia Pty Ltd, ITW Automotive Components Chongqing Co. Ltd., ITW Automotive Components Langfang Co. Ltd., ITW Automotive Japan K.K., ITW Automotive Korea LLC, ITW Automotive Parts Shanghai Co. Ltd, ITW Automotive Products GmbH, ITW Automotive Products Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., ITW Bailly Comte, ITW Befestigungssysteme GmbH, ITW Belgium B.V., ITW Brazilian Nominee L.L.C., ITW Building Components Group Inc., ITW CER, ITW CP Distribution Center Holland BV, ITW CS UK Ltd., ITW Canada Inc., ITW Celeste Inc., ITW Chemical Products Ltda, ITW Chemical Products Scandinavia ApS, ITW China Investment Company Limited, ITW Colombia S.A.S., ITW Construction Products AB, ITW Construction Products AS, ITW Construction Products ApS, ITW Construction Products CZ s.r.o., ITW Construction Products Italy Srl, ITW Construction Products OU, ITW Construction Products OY, ITW Construction Products Shanghai Co. Ltd., ITW Construction Products Singapore Pte. Ltd., ITW Construction Services Manila Inc., ITW Contamination Control B.V., ITW Contamination Control Wujiang Co. Ltd., ITW Covid Security Group Inc., ITW DS Investments Inc., ITW DelFast do Brasil Ltda., ITW Denmark ApS, ITW Deutschland GmbH, ITW Diagraph GmbH, ITW Dynatec, ITW Dynatec Adhesive Equipment Suzhou Co. Ltd., ITW Dynatec GmbH, ITW Dynatec Kabushiki Kaisha, ITW EAE B.V., ITW EAE Mexico S de RL de CV, ITW EF&C France SAS, ITW EF&C Selb GmbH, ITW EU Holdings Ltd., ITW Electronic Business Asia Co. Limited, ITW Electronic Components/Products Shanghai Co. Ltd., ITW Electronics Suzhou Co. Ltd., ITW Epsilon Sarl, ITW Espana S.L., ITW European Finance Co. Ltd., ITW European Finance II Co. Ltd., ITW European Finance III Co. Ltd., ITW FEG Hong Kong Limited, ITW FEG do Brasil Industria e Comercio Ltda., ITW Fastener Products GmbH, ITW Fluids and Hygiene Solutions Ltda., ITW Food Equipment Group LLC, ITW GH LLC, ITW GSE ApS, ITW GSE Inc., ITW Gamma Sarl, ITW German Management LLC, ITW Global Investments Holdings LLC, ITW Global Investments Holdings Y Compania Sociedad en Comandita por Acciones, ITW Global Investments Inc., ITW Global Tire Repair Europe GmbH, ITW Global Tire Repair Inc., ITW Global Tire Repair Japan K.K., ITW Graphics Asia Limited, ITW Graphics Thailand Ltd., ITW Great Britain Investment & Licensing Holding Company, ITW Group France Luxembourg S.ar.l., ITW HLP Thailand Co. Ltd., ITW Holding Quimica B.C. S.L. Sole Shareholder Company, ITW Holdings Australia L.P., ITW Holdings I Limited, ITW Holdings II Limited, ITW Holdings III Limited, ITW Holdings IV Limited, ITW Holdings IX Limited, ITW Holdings Inc., ITW Holdings V Limited, ITW Holdings VI Limited, ITW Holdings VII Limited, ITW Holdings VIII Limited, ITW Holdings X Limited, ITW Holdings XI Limited, ITW ILC Holdings I Inc., ITW IPG Investments LLC, ITW Imaden Industria e Comercio Ltda., ITW India Private Limited, ITW International Holdings LLC, ITW Invest Holding GmbH, ITW Ireland Holdings Unlimited Company, ITW Ireland Unlimited Company, ITW Italy Holding Srl, ITW Japan Ltd., ITW Korea LLC, ITW LLC & Co. KG, ITW Limited, ITW Lys Fusion S.r.l., ITW Materials Technology Shanghai Co. Ltd., ITW Meritex Sdn. Bhd., ITW Metal Fasteners S.L., ITW Mexico Holding Company S. De R.L. de C.V., ITW Mexico Holdings LLC, ITW Morlock GmbH, ITW Mortgage Investments II Inc., ITW Mortgage Investments III Inc., ITW Mortgage Investments IV Inc., ITW Netherlands Administration BV, ITW Netherlands Beta B.V., ITW Netherlands Finance Alpha BV, ITW New Universal LLC, ITW New Zealand, ITW Ningbo Components & Fastenings Systems Co. Ltd., ITW Novadan Sp. Z.o.o., ITW PPF Brasil Adesivos Ltda., ITW Packaging Technology China Co. Ltd., ITW Participations S.a r.l., ITW Pension Funds Trustee Company, ITW Performance Polymers & Fluids Japan Co. Ltd., ITW Performance Polymers & Fluids Korea Limited, ITW Performance Polymers & Fluids OOO, ITW Performance Polymers ApS, ITW Performance Polymers Wujiang Co. Ltd., ITW Performance Polymers and Fluids Group FZE, ITW Peru S.A.C., ITW Poly Mex S. de R.L. de C.V., ITW Polymers Sealants North America Inc., ITW Pronovia s.r.o., ITW Pte. Ltd., ITW Qufu Automotive Cooling Systems Co. Ltd., ITW Real Estate Germany GmbH, ITW Residuals III L.L.C., ITW Residuals IV L.L.C., ITW Rivex, ITW SMPI, ITW SPG Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., ITW Simco-Ion Shenzhen Co. Ltd., ITW Slovakia s.r.o., ITW Spain Holdings S.L., ITW Specialty Film LLC, ITW Specialty Films France, ITW Specialty Materials Suzhou Co. Ltd., ITW Sverige AB, ITW Sweden Holding AB, ITW Test & Measurement Equipment Shanghai Co. Ltd, ITW Test & Measurement GmbH, ITW Test and Measurement Italia Srl, ITW Test and Measurement Services Industry and Trade Ltd., ITW Texwipe Philippines Inc., ITW Thermal Films Shanghai Co. Ltd., ITW UK, ITW UK Finance Beta Limited, ITW UK Finance Delta Limited, ITW UK Finance Gamma Limited, ITW UK Finance Limited, ITW UK Finance Zeta Ltd., ITW UK II Limited, ITW Universal II LLC, ITW Welding, ITW Welding AB, ITW Welding GmbH, ITW Welding Products B.V., ITW Welding Products Group FZE, ITW Welding Products Group S. DE R.L. De C.V., ITW Welding Products Italy Srl, ITW Welding Products Limited Liability Company, ITW Welding Produtos Para Solgdagem Ltda., ITW Welding Singapore Pte. Ltd., ITW de France, ITW do Brasil Industrial e Comercial Ltda., Illinois Tool Works Chile Limitada, Illinois Tool Works ITW Nederland B.V., Illinois Tool Works Inc., Impar Comercio E Representacoes Ltda., Industrie Plastic Elsasser GmbH, Inmobiliaria Cit. S.A. de C.F., Innova Temperlite Servicios S.A. de C.V., Innovacion y Transformacion Automotriz S.A. de C.V., Instron Brasil Equipamentos Cientificos Ltda., Instron Foreign Sales Corp. Limited, Instron France S.A.S., Instron GmbH, Instron Japan Company Ltd., Instron Korea LLC, Instron Shanghai Ltd., Instron Thailand Limited, International Leasing Company LLC, Isolenge - ITW Sistemas de Isolamento Termico Ltda., Itw Spraytec, KCPL Mauritius Holdings, Kester, Kleinmann GmbH, Krafft S.L., Loma Systems, Loma Systems BV, Loma Systems Canada Inc., Loma Systems sro, Lombard Pressings Limited, Lumex Inc., Lys Fusion Poland Sp. z.o.o., M&C Specialties Co., MAGNAFLUX GmbH, MEHB Holdings Limited, MGHG Property LLC, MTS 2 LLC., MTS 3 LLC., MTS China Holdings LLC, MTS Europe Holdings LLC, MTS Holdings France S.a.r.l., MTS Japan Ltd.., MTS Korea Inc.., MTS Systems China Co. Ltd., MTS Systems Corporation, MTS Systems Danmark ApS., MTS Systems Europe B.V., MTS Systems Finance C.V.., MTS Systems Germany GmbH, MTS Systems Holding B.V.., MTS Systems Hong Kong Incorporated, MTS Systems Limited, MTS Systems Norden Aktiebolag, MTS Systems S.r.l, MTS Systems., MTS Systems.., MTS Sytems Do Brazil, MTS Testing Solutions India Private Limited., MTS Testing Systems Canada Ltd., Manufacturing Avancee S.A., Meritex Technology Suzhou Co. Ltd., Meurer Verpackungssysteme GmbH, Miller Electric Mfg. LLC, Miller Insurance Ltd., NDT Holding LLC, NOVADAN APS, North Star Imaging Inc., Nova Chimica S.r.l., Orbitalum Tools GmbH, PENTA-91 OOO, PR. A. I. Srl, PT ITW Construction Products Indonesia, Pacific Concept Industries Limited Enping, Panreac Quimica S.L., Paslode Fasteners Shanghai Co. Ltd., Peerless Machinery Corp., Polyrey, Premark FEG L.L.C., Premark HII Holdings LLC, Premark International, Premark International LLC, Prolex Sociedad Anonima, QSA Global Inc., Quimica Industrial Mediterranea S.L., R&D Engineering A/S., R&D Prague s.r.o., R&D Steel ApS., R&D Test Systems A/S., R&D Tools and Structures A/S., RDGDK Engineering Private Limited, Ramset Fasteners Hong Kong Ltd., Rapid Cook LLC, Refrigeration France, S.E.E. Sistemas Industria E Comercio Ltda., ST Mexico Holdings LLC, Sealant Systems International Inc., Sentinel Asia Yuhan Hoesa, Shanghai ITW Plastic & Metal Co. Ltd, Simco Japan Inc., Simco Nederland B.V., Societe de Prospection et dInventions Techniques  SPIT, Speedline Holdings I Inc., Speedline Holdings I LLC, Speedline Technologies GmbH, Speedline Technologies Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Speedline Technologies Mexico Services S. de R.L. de C.V., Stokvis Celix Portugal Unipessoal LDA, Stokvis Danmark ApS, Stokvis Holdings S.A.R.L., Stokvis Promi s.r.o, Stokvis Prostick Tapes Private Limited, Stokvis Tapes B.V., Stokvis Tapes Benelux B.V., Stokvis Tapes Deutschland GmbH, Stokvis Tapes France, Stokvis Tapes Hong Kong Co. Limited, Stokvis Tapes Italia s.r.l., Stokvis Tapes Limited, Stokvis Tapes Limited Liability Company, Stokvis Tapes Norge AS, Stokvis Tapes Oy, Stokvis Tapes Polska Sp Z.O.O., Stokvis Tapes Shanghai Co. Ltd., Stokvis Tapes Sverige AB, Stokvis Tapes Taiwan Co. Ltd., Stokvis Tapes Tianjin Co. Ltd., Stolvis Holdings II S.A.R.L., Subsidiaries, Technopack Industria Comercio Consultoria e Representacoes Ltda., Teknek China Limited, Teknek Japan Limited, Teksaleco Ltd., The Miller Group Ltd, Thirode Grandes Cuisines Poligny, Tien Tai Electrode Co. Ltd., Tien Tai Electrode Kunshan Co. Ltd., Unichemicals Industria e Comercio Ltda., VR-Leasing Sarita GmbH & Co. Immobilien KG, VS European Holdco BV, Valeron Strength Films B.V., Veneta Decalcogomme S.r.l., Versachem Chile S.A., Vesta, Vesta Global Limited, Vesta Guangzhou Catering Equipment Co. Ltd, Viltronics Soltec, Vitronics Soltec B.V., Wachs Canada Ltd., Wachs Subsea LLC, Weigh-Tronix Canada ULC, Weigh-Tronix UK Limited, Wilsonart International Holdings LLC, Wynn Oil South Africa Pty Ltd., Wynn's Automotive France, Wynn's Belgium BVBA, Wynn's Italia Srl, Wynn's Mekuba India Pvt Ltd, and Zip-Pak International B.V..

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This is a current list of the top 250 companies by market capitalization on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Learn more .

The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is one of the largest, and most recognizable, stock exchanges in the world. The NYSE is in New York City, New York at 11 Wall Street. The NYSE has been in existence since the earliest days of the United States becoming a nation, in 1792 and is primarily made up of blue-chip companies with large market capitalizations. In fact, many of the stocks that make up the Dow Jones Composite Index (i.e. The Dow) are listed on the NYSE.

This article gives a brief history of the New York Stock Exchange. In addition, it covers topics such as what kind of stocks trade on the exchange, what are the listing requirements, how trading is performed, and what the daily price movement of the NYSE tells investors about investor sentiment.

What Were the Origins of the NYSE?

Today, the New York Stock Exchange is known as the center of the financial universe. However, the exchanges origin is far more humble. On May 17, 1792, 24 stockbrokers signed the Buttonwood Agreement creating a centralized exchange to help provide order to the securities market in what was still a young nation. The "Buttonwood Agreement comes from the tree of the same name under which the founders signed the agreement.

An initial benefit of the exchange was how it removed the need for auctioneers when trading commodities like wheat and tobacco and to set a commission rate. The exchange initially focused on government bonds.

However, the exchange had no formal home. Business was usually conducted informally in the local coffeehouses. In 1817, the exchange changed its name to the New York Stock & Exchange Board which later became the New York Stock Exchange. At this time, the exchange adopted a constitution that set the rules for trading. A group of stockbrokers met twice a day at 40 Wall Street to trade 30 stocks and bonds.

Over time, the exchange moved became the financial hub of the country and moved to its current location in 1865.

What Kind of Stocks Trade on the NYSE?

As of June 2022, the NYSE includes approximately 2,400 companies with a market capitalization of over $28.2 trillion. Although the NYSE trades stocks of all market capitalizations, its best known for trading the stocks of large cap companies. These have the benefit of being mature companies in mature industries. And many of these companies reward shareholders with dividends.

However, that also means that many of these companies are better suited for value investors as opposed to growth investors. In bear markets this stability can be a benefit for investors as these stocks tend to perform less bad than more volatile stocks. But in a bull market, these stocks are not likely to provide investors with the growth that they look for.

An interesting fact about how the NYSE and NASDAQ operate is that the companies with the five largest market caps on the NYSE are also listed on the NASDAQ exchange.

What Are the Listing Requirements For the NYSE?

The NYSE has strict guidelines that govern the types of companies that can list on the exchange. Here are the major requirements that all companies must meet:

The company must have at least 2,200 shareholders

The company must trade over 100,000 shares per month

The company must have a market valuation of over $100 million

The company must generate more than $75 million in annual revenue

However, there is at least one advantage of having such stringent requirements. That is the companies that meet the requirements generally find it easier to get more investors funds when they hold their initial public offering (IPO).

Once a company begins trading on the NYSE, it must continue to meet these requirements. If it doesnt it can be delisted. In addition to these requirements, the stock must continue to trade above $1. If the price of a stock drops below $1 for more than 29 consecutive trading days, the stock receives an Initial Price Violation Notice.

At that point, the company has 10 days to provide the exchange with a plan for bringing their shares above $1.

How are Trades Executed on the NYSE?

For over a century, the floor of the NYSE was the place for investors to be. This meant trades were conducted by traders who ran buy and sell orders across the trading floor looking to broker a deal for their clients. But with the birth of the NASDAQ exchange in 1971, the New York Stock Exchange began conducting electronic trading.

However, the NYSE continues to conduct trades in an auction style. Brokers purchase stocks on behalf of their clients or firms. Every order features a broker who will enter the order electronically and a specialist who serves as the market maker for that stock. The specialist posts bid and ask prices and manages the actual execution of the trades. And there are still a handful of stockbrokers who still traffic buy and sell orders physically on the floor of the exchange.

How Does the NYSE Signal Investor Sentiment?

Like its counterpart, the NASDAQ, the NYSE measures the risk appetite of investors. When the NYSE is moving higher over a length of time, it signals that a risk on environment. Conversely when the NYSE moves lower over a significant period, it signals that investors are moving to a risk off position.

Some Final Thoughts on the NYSE

Financial news networks plan their programming schedule around the opening and closing bell of the New York Stock Exchange. Its still considered a distinguished honor when individuals or groups are invited to ring the opening bell. In fact, Warren Buffett is attributed with saying that in the short term, the stock market acts like a voting machine. A fact that many U.S. presidents will attest to.

The NYSE is the oldest and most recognizable of all the stock exchanges. It also has the most stringent requirements for inclusion. And those requirements must be maintained even after a stock begins publicly trading on the exchange.

Although the NYSE still has a small in-person Trading Floor, much of the trading is done electronically to provide traders with the speed to execute trades.
Owens & Minor, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a healthcare solutions company in the United States and internationally. It operates through two segments, Global Solutions and Global Products. The Global Solutions segment offers a portfolio of products and services to healthcare providers and manufacturers. Its portfolio of medical and surgical supplies includes branded products and its proprietary products. This segment also offers services to healthcare providers, which include supplier management, analytics, inventory management, and clinical supply management; and various programs to provide logistics and marketing solutions to its suppliers. The Global Products segment manufactures and sources medical surgical products for the prevention of healthcare-associated infections across the acute and alternate site channels. This segments products portfolio includes sterilization wraps, surgical drapes and gowns, facial protection products, protective apparel, medical exam gloves, custom and minor procedure kits, and other medical products. It provides its products and services to multi-facility networks of healthcare providers, independent hospitals, surgery centers, physicians' practices, and networks of hospitals directly, as well as indirectly through third-party distributors. The company was founded in 1882 and is headquartered in Richmond, Virginia.
The Boeing Company is the worlds largest manufacturer of airplanes and commands more than 50% of the market in some channels and categories. The company and its family of subsidiaries design, develops, manufacture, sell, service, and supports commercial jetliners, military aircraft, satellites, missile defense, human space flight, and related services worldwide. The company operates through four segments including Commercial Airplanes; Defense, Space & Security; Global Services; and Boeing Capital providing products and services to end-users in 150 countries.

Boeing got its start in 1910 when William E. Boeing developed a love for aircraft. Soon after he takes his first plane ride which leads him to build a hangar and begin construction of his first plane. The onset of WWI helped spur the companys growth but business was cut drastically in its wake. The start of WWII was another milestone for the company and one that led to its current position of dominance. The company was incorporated in 1916 and is based in Chicago, Illinois. Boeing employs over 140,000 people in 65 countries making it one of the most diverse employers on the planet.

The Commercial Airplanes segment is built around the iconic 7-series which includes the 737, 747, and 787. The segment provides commercial jet aircraft for passenger and cargo requirements, as well as fleet support services for regional, national, and international air carriers and logistics and freight companies. In terms of global volume, the company estimates about 90% of all air freight is carried aboard one of its jets. This segment also includes the Dreamliner family of planes. The Dreamliner is a game-changing airplane for many carriers as it opens up the potential for new one-stop destinations because of its capacity and range.

The Defense, Space & Security segment develops and manufactures a range of systems including manned and unmanned aircraft, missiles, missile defense systems, satellites, communications equipment, and intelligence systems for governments. Among the many iconic brands within this segment are the AH-64 Apache, Air Force One, B-52, C-17 Globemaster, Chinook, F/A-18, and the V-22 Osprey VTOL aircraft used by the Marines.

The Global Services segment offers a range of products and services that include supply chain and logistics management, engineering, maintenance, upgrades, conversions, spare parts, pilot and maintenance training, technical and maintenance documents, and data analytics to its commercial and defense customers.

Boeing is also a leader in innovation, leveraging its many decades and avenues of experience to further aerospace and defense technology. Among the many innovations is the MQ-25 Stingray which will be the worlds first autonomous aircraft. The Stingray is only one of many areas of research that also include drones and undersea vehicles.
Reducing cash can have a sizeable impact on violent crime rates, but we still do not know how or what will fill that void.

By Arindam De: Estimates indicate that 2016 will be the first year ever when plastic will become more popular than currency for consumers.

CASHLESS COUNTRIES

56 per cent of Swedish banks keep little cash. Bank robberies in Sweden banks has gone from 110 in 2008 to just 16 in 2011 alone. In Italy it is illegal to pay cash for anything worth more than Euro 1,000. France now has a limit of Euro 1,000. In UK - merchants accepting more than Euro 15,000 in cash per transaction must be registered with tax authorities. In South Korea government policies have encouraged people to use digital money (e.g. preferential tax rates for merchants).On the other end of the spectrum is Somaliland. Civil wars have destroyed the banking sector and the mobile phones have made cards redundant. In a country with high crime rate, the safety of cashless transactions is transforming business and lives.

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Some 1.9 crore of Kenya's 4.4 crore people subscribe to mobile waller M-Pesa. Street crimes are down but mobile phone thefts make up the largest segment of crime.

IS THERE A LINK BETWEEN CASH AND CRIME?

Cash fuels black market activities. Drugs, blood diamonds, prostitution and criminals prefer using paper money, because it is impossible to trace.Since the early 1990s, there has been a big drop in robbery and burglary in USA. New research suggested an unexpected factor. In the 1990s, the federal government started delivering welfare benefits through the Electronic Benefit Transfer system which resulted in a big reduction of cash on the street and lower crime rates.

IS ELIMINATION OF CASH LINKED TO DROPPING CRIME RATES?

It's too close to call, but there seems to be some proof that reducing the amount of cash moving freely in the streets reduces certain types of crimes.In India some experts say the violence in Kashmir and the success of the maoists is mostly due to cash dependency. Drying up cash would adversely affect them. This is not suggesting that demonetisation was a war on terror but it may turn out to be a good weapon against terror.

In the absence of cash, internet fraud, and other such crimes start to go up. As we see in developed countries. Violent crime rates were lowest in nations that had less cash on the streets. But to give all credit to digitisation would be over simplification.

Reducing cash can have a sizeable impact on violent crime rates, but we still do not know how or what will fill that void. For example cyber crime grew by almost 300% in the last 3 years in India. Most of these were non financial but overall crime rate did not show any substantial reduction.

Will the cartels disappear if we outlaw money? Will they take to hacking? Will they hire IT specialists? Any crime in a digitised economy would be easier to police. Digital crime leaves footprints. Future tech will track down rouges. Digitisation would make financial crime more visible and stoppable.

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by Adrian Gibson

In the wake of yesterdays coup detat within the Free National Movement (FNM), the political landscape in the Bahamas has shifted. The FNM is in a state of flux, it is in a state of alarm.

Yesterday, history repeated itself as the FNM - a party that has been subjected to many divisions and factions over the years - now finds itself knocking on the door of history for an encore.

Yesterday, a petition by seven of the 10 FNM MPs was moved to replace the organisations leader Dr Hubert Minnis as leader of the Her Majestys Official Opposition in the House of Assembly.

Fort Charlotte MP Dr Andre Rollins, Central and South Abaco MP Edison Key, North Eleuthera MP Theo Neilly, Long Island MP Loretta Butler-Turner, St Annes MP Hubert Chipman, Montagu MP Richard Lightbourn and Central Grand Bahama MP Neko Grant all submitted a letter of no confidence in Dr Minnis to House Speaker Dr Kendal Major and to the Governor General, Dame Marguerite Pindling, yesterday morning revealing they have voted to be led in Parliament by Mrs Butler-Turner. Whilst the constitutional manoeuvre has to be approved by the Governor General, the move has sent shock waves through our archipelago.

This was a Machiavellian plot that is likely to hamper the FNMs push towards the next general election. One wonders if this was a political plot that was devised with an end goal or merely a revenge plot to embarrass the leader and derail the party going into the next general election. Im inclined to believe the latter. Most of the seven MPs - except Mrs Butler-Turner - have not been ratified as candidates for 2017. They have no seat to lose; they simply have nothing to lose. Yesterday, they donned their political suicide vests and decided to blow the FNM to smithereens, causing the party to reset and find itself in a state of emergency.

Notably, Dr Minnis remains party leader. This creates a conundrum within the FNM as the party will have one leader in the House of Assembly and another person leading the party. There will be lots of pulling and hauling. Whats more, this manoeuvre was employed a little more than five months before the next general election.

I have heard calls to expel the rebel MPs. That is a decision for the FNM. If those MPs are expelled, one wonders if that would settle the infighting in the FNM or lead to the formation of the much talked about starfish party. As it stands, the so-called starfish party would become the new Official Opposition and the FNM would become the third force in the House of Assembly.

The Progressive Liberal Party is no doubt in jubilation today. They sense a victory at the polls. The Opposition parties are splintered. The main Opposition party is facing internal warfare.

Whilst the seven MPs pulled a constitutional lever that was lawful and fully available to them, the short term impact on the FNM will likely cause many Bahamians to doubt if the party is ready to become the next government. I truly understand why many of the MPs are disgruntled. I have been told some of their stories. I have heard stories from Dr Minnis camp as well.

Something has to break! Either the seven MPs must resign from the FNM and form a new Opposition party (or possibly merge with the Democratic National Alliance or another) or Dr Minnis would have to resign. I do not believe that Dr Minnis and Mrs Butler-Turner can harmoniously co-exist. There is no trust.

The mantra of the FNM used to be that it is a matter of trust. Today, FNMs are no longer trusting each other and everyone seems to be rightly overcome by a sense of paranoia, anxiously waiting to be backstabbed by long knives. This is not the FNM of old. The FNM must recapture the magic that made it great, that caused people to deem its governance government in the sunshine.

Yesterday, Mrs Butler-Turners camp checkmated Dr Minnis. This is undoubtedly not the end of an ongoing rivalry that - notwithstanding the dancing, the re-nomination of Mrs Butler-Turner and the promise of her support - is likely to persist for years to come.

Dr Minnis, too, is not without fault. Both of the leaders of the new FNM have contributed to the disunity we now see. The disrespect has come from both camps. That said, Mrs Butler-Turner never respected Minnis leadership and one must first learn to follow before they can lead. I have always had difficulty with what appears to be a spirit of entitlement that engulfs Mrs Butler-Turner.

The FNM last had a leader in the House and one outside the House in 2005. Then leader Tommy Turnquest lost his seat. This is perhaps the first time that both leaders will sit in the lower chamber, both serving as elected members of Parliament. I cannot wait to see how this new arrangement works.

As it stands, Mrs Butler Turner commands the respect and allegiance of the majority of her colleagues. Her grouping is a coalition of former political enemies, with Dr Andre Rollins - who she once slapped - now embracing her leadership and being one of the signatories to the letter.

Like many Bahamians I was surprised. Amazingly, these MPs managed to keep a secret and delivered a blow that no one expected. Finally, even if it was by nifty political choreography, Mrs Butler-Turner and company outfoxed Dr Minnis. During their last contest, Mrs Butler-Turner withdrew at the last minute, with Minnis on the cusp of delivering a five-to-one thumping at the partys internal run-off.

Mrs Butler-Turner has now become the first female Leader of the Opposition. Notwithstanding how that came about, in all fairness, such an achievement must be acknowledged.

Interestingly, Dr Minnis directed all of his senatorial appointees to resign their posts. Last night, there was a wave of resignations in the party. It will be interesting to see who Mrs Butler-Turner appoints and what happens next in the FNM saga.

_________________________________________________________

First published in the The Tribune under the byline, Young Man's View, here

View Adrian Gibson's archive here

____________________________________________________

The views expressed are those of the author, and not necessarily those of WeblogBahamas.com (which has no corporate view) or its Authors.
According to ATS officials, Tabrez called up his younger brother earlier this month, informing that he had joined ISIS and was currently in Libya or Iraq.

By Saurabh Vaktania: The Anti-Terrorism Squad has registered a case against a Mumbra-based man for allegedly leaving India and joining the ISIS. The man, identified as Tabrez Noor Mohammad Alam from Mumbra, was first brainwashed by a person known as Ali in a foreign land where he worked and later left to join the ISIS.

The ATS registered the case at a police station at Kalachowkie in Mumbai under the stringent UAPA (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act) on the complaint of younger brother Saud Noor Mohammad Tambe of Mumbra, who is the brother of Tabrez.

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WHAT TABREZ'S BROTHER SAID IN COMPLAINT

His brother said in his complaint to ATS that his brother first went to Egypt and then to Libya, along with his friend called Ali from Saudi Arabia, where they joined banned terrorist organisation ISIS. ATS officials said that Tabrez had met Ali during his employment in Riyadh. ATS officials suspect that Ali was the key mastermind and instrumental in brainwashing Tabrez.

Also read | Maharashtra ATS takes help of IIT students to crack whip on ISIS cyber threat

According to ATS sources, Tabrez left India early this year in January for Egypt. Tabrez is married and his family is based in Mumbra. He is a graduate and has done a certified course of cargo transport and cargo handling. On the basis of his qualifications, he had obtained job in the Gulf countries, where he had been working for the past few years.

Last year in December, Tabrez came to India with Ali. Ali visited not only several places in Mumbai, but also Tabrez's entire family in Mumbra. The ATS is more concerned as Ali has by this recceed several places in Mumbai, something that can be dangerous.

FAMILY IN TOUCH WITH TABREZ VIA SOCIAL MEDIA

The family of Tabrez was in touch with him via social media, voice and video-calling. According to ATS officials, Tabrez called up his younger brother earlier this month, informing that he had joined ISIS and was currently in Libya or Iraq.

Tabrez's is a Konkani Muslim family. A senior ATS officer said, "We are carrying out search operations at his (Tabrez) Mumbra residence. We have seized mobile phones of his family members. We have also seized a laptop and desktop from his house."

The officer added, "We are preparing Ali's sketch and finding out whether he is an Indian or foreign national and tracing his whereabouts."

IN THE PAST

Four friends from Kalyan - Areeb Majeed, Fahad Shaikh, Aman Tandel, and Saheem Tanki - had left for Iraq in 2014. The four people left for Iraq with pilgrims in May last year and did not return. Later, it became clear that they had been indoctrinated and had joined the ISIS. Of the four, Areeb, has since returned to India and is currently in jail, while there have been reports of Tanki and Tandel having died fighting for Daesh.

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Also read | NIA court frames charges against 5 ISIS accused who used matchsticks to make bombs

Four people from Malvani went missing between October and December last year. While two of the men - Wajid Sheikh and Noor Mohammed -developed cold feet, the third Ayaz Mohammad went ahead and joined the terror outfit.

The fourth youth Mohsin Shaikh, who the NIA alleged had helped Ayaz in getting air tickets and in recruiting others through social media, was arrested by the Delhi Police Special Cell in January this year. Mohsin and 20-year-old Uttar Pradesh resident Rizwan Ahmed have also been named as accused in the NIA chargesheet, which has a total of 228 witnesses, including 102 protected witnesses.

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Paducah Police make an arrest in an attempted arson
By West Kentucky Star Staff Dec. 09, 2016 | 12:34 AM | LONE OAK, KY

A two-car collision Thursday night injured a Paducah woman.According to the McCracken County Sheriff's Office, the crash happened at around 9:40 pm at the intersection of Lone Oak Road and Gilhaven Drive. Deputies said 70-year-old Rebecca Dowdy, of Paducah, was driving north in the right lane of Lone Oak Road near Gilhaven Drive. Police said 65-year-old Gladys Hickman, of Paducah, stopped at the stop sign at the intersection of Gilhaven and Lone Oak Road and began to turn left onto Lone Oak Road, pulling into the path of Dowdys vehicle.Dowdy told deputies she tried to avoid the collision by moving into the left lane of traffic, but was struck by Hickman in the drivers side.

Dowdy was transported by Mercy Regional EMS to Baptist Health Paducah for treatment of her injuries.
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By Bill Hughes

Dec. 09, 2016 | WICKLIFFE, KY

By Bill Hughes Dec. 09, 2016 | 01:37 PM | WICKLIFFE, KY

Ballard County Judge-Executive Vickie Viniard was in court Thursday, facing charges against her in an indictment from last month.



Viniard appeared in Federal Court before Judge Lanny King and plead not guilty to wire fraud, bank fraud and making a false statement on a loan application.



Ballard County Attorney Vicki Hayden told WestKentuckyStar when her office discovered evidence, she turned it over to the state Attorney General's office.



Hayden said she knows a prosecutor has been assigned to the case, and someone is coming next week to talk to her and county magistrates, so there may be state charges filed, as well. Hayden said they would probably be for malfeasance or misfeasance in office.



Regardless of the outcome from the Federal charges, Viniard can stay in her job if she wants, drawing a salary and keeping her state retirement, unless the county tries to impeach her.



If the state files charges, Viniard's financial future would depend on the verdict. If she is found guilty, she automatically loses her elected position and retirement, but if she is acquitted, she could stay and face possible impeachment from the county.



Hayden said she's sorry that this has happened, because Viniard is a nice person who has done a lot for the county. But she said the county has had financial issues for several years before the alleged frauds occurred, and Viniard didn't appear interested in finding out what was causing it.



Hayden said, "You are responsible for what happens on your watch, and you can't just bury your head in the sand and say, 'I didn't know what was going on.' We're elected officials who are responsible to keep things out in the open for all to see - the good and the bad."



Viniard, her attorney, Gorman Bradley, and U.S. Attorney Nute Bonner will next appear before Judge Thomas B. Russell on December 13.


By West Kentucky Star Staff Dec. 09, 2016 | 07:04 AM | MARSHALL COUNTY, KY

A Marshall County woman faces charges after a crash Wednesday night.

The Marshall County Sheriff's Office said the wreck happened at around 10:45 pm on Benton Briensburg Road. Deputies said a vehicle ran off the road in a curve and struck another vehicle and some other property.

The driver, 41-year-old Lora M. Wood of Benton, was transported to Marshall County Hospital for treatment of her injuries. Police said the investigation revealed that Wood had been drinking and taking prescription medications.

Wood was charged with DUI and driving on a DUI suspended license. Wood was cited to appear in Marshall District Court. She was not arrested due to being under care at the hospital.
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By West Kentucky Star Staff

Dec. 08, 2016 | MURRAY, KY

By West Kentucky Star Staff Dec. 08, 2016 | 03:11 PM | MURRAY, KY

Two men were arrested on drug charges Wednesday in Murray after one of them asked to turn himself in to police.



Murray police received a call Wednesday saying that a man came up to their car and said he wanted to turn himself in. When police arrived, they spoke to the man, later identified as Jacob Clingermayer. Police say Clingermayer had a small amount of methamphetamine on him, and they learned he might have more drugs in his home.



A search warrant was obtained for the home, where officers encountered another man who lived there, Dustin Sharp. The search led to seizure of more baggies with small amounts of meth in Sharp's room.



During the search, Clingermayer suddenly became aggressive and had to be restrained.



Both men were arrested and taken to Calloway County Jail.



Clingermayer faces charges of possession of a controlled substance, assault and resisting arrest. Sharp is charged with possession of a controlled substance.
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By PTI: Mumbai, Dec 8 (PTI) The Chief Ministers committee on digital payments, set up following the demonetisation drive and headed by Andhra Pradeshs Chandrababu Naidu, will submit its interim report to the Centre within the next 2 to 3 days.

Naidu, who is the convener of the committee, met with the Reserve Bank brass and top bankers here to review the ground-level situation following the demonetisation drive launched on November 8.

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After the maiden meeting of the panel, that was skipped by all other six Chief Ministers, mostly from the BJP States, a statement from Naidus office said they have decided to submit an interim report on the ongoing cash recall exercise to the Centre within the next 2 to 3 days.

Asked about Chief Ministers skipping the important meet, an official from Naidus office told PTI in Amaravati, APs new capital, that the member-CMs were informed of the meeting but not invited.

Apart from Naidu, the other Chief minister in the 13- member panel are Odishas Naveen Patnaik, Shivraj Singh Chouhan of MP, Sikkims Pawan Kumar Chamling, Congress chief minister of Puducherry V Narayanasamy and Maharashtras Devendra Fadnavis.

The other members/special invitees are NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagariya, and its Chief Executive Amitabh Kant, Nandan Nilekani, former chairman of UIDAI, Janmejaya Sinha of BCG, Rajesh Jain of netCore, Sharad Sharma of iSpirit and Jayant Varma, professor of finance at IIM- Ahmedabad.

The panel was formed last month-end to outline measures to promote digital payment systems to promote transparency, financial inclusion and also prepare a road-map for the same. The Centre set up the panel to suggest measures to normalise the situation in the wake of demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 banknotes.

The statement from Naidus office said the committee is exploring the possibility of adopting technology to simplify digital payment procedures. He said the best practices followed across the world will be incorporated.

Naidu said this process of consultations is on with all State Governments, banks, engineers, technologists and service providers.

Stating that a large number of cellphone users are using the Internet, Naidu called for making digital payment a mass movement.

Naidu said the main thrust of todays meeting with bankers was how to make it possible to enable the delivery of low denomination currency to the common man. (more) PTI KD DBV HV BEN NSK RSY MKJ

--- ENDS ---
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By The Associated Press

Dec. 08, 2016 | FRANKFORT, KY

By The Associated Press Dec. 08, 2016 | 06:27 PM | FRANKFORT, KY

House Speaker Greg Stumbo said he did not approve the subpoena of a Democratic lawmaker because he said the legislator's testimony is "absolutely irrelevant" in an investigation of Republican Gov. Matt Bevin.



Stumbo created a committee to investigate whether Bevin delayed a road project to punish Democratic state Rep. Russ Meyer for refusing to switch parties. Meyer did not respond to multiple requests to testify before the committee.



Committee chairman Jim Wayne said Stumbo denied his request to subpoena Meyer. Wayne then resigned in protest.



Stumbo said Wayne's resignation was "unexpected." He said the committee should have subpoenaed state transportation officials first to determine whether they did anything unusual in delaying the project. Stumbo said the committee still exists and he expects it to issue a report to him by the end of the year.
"It is over 50 days. Still police do not know about his where abouts. How can somebody vanish suddenly and police has no clue about it? Even if we think of the worst, something has to be found out. We are pained that the missing person has not been traced till date," a bench of Justices G S Sistani and Vinod Goel said.

By Press Trust of India: The Delhi High Court today slammed the police for remaining clueless about missing Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student Najeeb Ahmed, who has remained untraced for 55 days, asking how can a man just "vanish suddenly".

Maintaining that it was concerned with the recovery of the boy whose mother has been running from pillar to post to be united with her son, the Court said a situation, in which a missing person has not been traced for over 50 days, would create a sense of insecurity among the people.

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"It is over 50 days. Still police do not know about his where abouts. How can somebody vanish suddenly and police has no clue about it? Even if we think of the worst, something has to be found out. We are pained that the missing person has not been traced till date," a bench of Justices G S Sistani and Vinod Goel said.

Also read: 38 days on, JNU student Najeeb Ahmed still missing; family continues with protest march

Najeeb went missing from JNU's Mahi-Mandvi hostel on October 15 allegedly after an on-campus scuffle between him and some members of the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). The ABVP has denied involvement in his disappearance.

The bench said, "We are not concerned with the scuffle. We only want that the boy is recovered and he returns to his house. We are concerned that the mother should get her child." The court's oral observation came after the police and the JNU informed it that Najeeb has remained untraceable till date and they were making all efforts to locate him.

Also read: JNU students release Vice Chancellor, faculty from confinement of 20 hours even as Najeeb Ahmed remains missing

The varsity and the police were responding to the habeus corpus plea filed by Najeeb's 45-year-old mother Fatima Nafees who was also present in the court today. She has sought directions to the authorities to trace her 27-year-old son who was pursuing MSc in Biotechnology from JNU.

Also read: All you need to know about Najeeb Ahmed, the JNU student who is missing

During the brief hearing, senior standing counsel Rahul Mehra, appearing for the police, told the bench that the Crime Branch was exploring all angles to trace Najeeb and even issued advertisements. "We are diligent, We will do whatever is to be done at our level," Mehra said.

Also read: JNU unrest: Missing boy's mother appeals for his safety, Rajnath Singh orders SIT hunt

Also read: Missing JNU student row: Najeeb's mother among 200 detained by Delhi Police over protests

--- ENDS ---
Rita Redmond was a true lady who felt that every pupil had something to gift to the world
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December 9, 2016

Putin Orders Full Combat Alert As Obama Christmas Threat Becomes Reality

By: Sorcha Faal, and as reported to her Western Subscribers

A sobering Ministry of Defense (MoD) report circulating in the Kremlin today states that President Putins ordering to full combat alert status yesterday of the feared S-400 Triumf air defense missile systems in the Western Military District along the Federations entire border with NATO aligned nations was in direct response to the Christmas Threat issued against Russian military and civilian relief forces in Syria by President Obama. [Note: Some words and/or phrases appearing in quotes in this report are English language approximations of Russian words/phrases having no exact counterpart.]

According to this report, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his American counterpart US Secretary of State John Kerry, along with the European Union, this past week completed a working agreement for the political transition of Syria--which is a term used by all foreign stakeholders in the Syrian conflict to describe an end to hostilities and the forming of a new system of governance in the country, though various parties have vastly different views on what that transition would look like.

Just hours before this political transition was to take place, however, this report continues, Secretary Kerry informed Minister Lavrov that President Obama had rejected this working agreement and stated that he, instead, had a special Christmas present planned for President Putin.

Within 2 hours of President Obama rejecting this working agreement, this report grimly notes, American-backed Islamic terrorists in Aleppo (Syria) coordinated with their US special forces advisors a cowardly bombardment of a Russian hospital killing both doctors and patients that Minister Lavrov declared as a planned action with President Putin, also, angrily declaring that the Federation will not forget and will never accept the American excuses for their complicity in the killing of these innocent Russian medics.

With the Foreign Ministery stating that the killing and wounding of Russian medical personnel in this rocket attack on a Federation military field hospital in Aleppo raises again the question of who is actively lending support to the terrorists in Syria, this report says, the American-backed Islamic terrorists depicted in the Western fake news mainstream propaganda media as moderates has now become a monstrous inversion of the truthbut that President Putin has not been blinded to, and as he previously stated about these Islamic barbarians: To forgive the terrorists is up to God, but to send them to Him is up to me.

As President Obamas Islamic terrorists in Aleppo are preparing to meet their god, though, this report grimly continues, Americas leader has just given them the most terrifying Christmas present ever conceived ofthousands of ground-to-air portable missiles these monsters will use to sow chaos in the skies of not only Syria and Iraq, but throughout the European Union and United States too.

With Americas vetted, trained and armed Islamic terrorists now rightfully fearing that the US is going to abandon them as soon as President-elect Trump takes office, this report explains, President Obama was given unprecedented war powers to protect them by the US Congress yesterday with the passage of a 3,076 pages long new law titled S. 2943  The National Defense Authorization Act For Fiscal Year 2017 that the US House of Representatives passed by a 375-34 vote and the US Senate, likewise, passed with a vote of 92-7.

Want to know more? Click HERE.

Buried deep within this new massive law, this report details, is Section 1224 that allows Man-Portable Air Defense Systems (MANPADS) to be given to Islamic terrorists in both Syria and Iraq and allows President Obama to waive restrictions on military aid for these modern day barbarians by deeming it essential to the national security interests and further allows him to bypass the provisions in the Arms Export Control Actand with this waiver requiring a 15-day notification to the US Congress, as of tonight, Washington D.C. time, it is going to be out of session until January so that these missiles can go within hours from their storehouses in Europe were theyre readily available to the battlefields of Syria, Iraq, Europe and the United States.

This new law not only gives President Obama this extraordinary power to give these feared missiles to Islamic terrorists, this report continues, Section 1085, also, cuts President-elect Trumps National Security Council staff to just 200 intelligence experts, as opposed to the 400 Obama and other past US presidents were allowed to have.

Conversely though, MoD experts in this report note, while this new law does hamper President Trumps ability to form a National Security Council, it does give him extraordinary new powers to, basically, sanction the entire world should he wish to do soand furthers allow him the power to deny entry to the US of anyone he so chooses, revoking any and all existing US visas, and allows him to seize any property and interests that are located in the US or come within the possession or control of a United States person for any reason he so chooses.

To the farcical irony of the majority of the Democrats and Republicans in the US Congress giving to President-elect Trump these enormous dictatorial powers after they had repeatedly warned the American people of their fears that he was going to be dictator is nothing short of astounding, this report concludes, but is countered with His Holiness Patriarch Kirill (the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church) nevertheless holding out hope that Trump is the only American politician to give Russians, and Christians, hope in successfully fighting off the Islamic State terror groupbut that President Obamas Christmas Threat may undo completely.

December 9, 2016  EU and US all rights reserved. Permission to use this report in its entirety is granted under the condition it is linked back to its original source at WhatDoesItMean.Com. Freebase content licensed under CC-BY and GFDL.

[Note: Many governments and their intelligence services actively campaign against the information found in these reports so as not to alarm their citizens about the many catastrophic Earth changes and events to come, a stance that the Sisters of Sorcha Faal strongly disagree with in believing that it is every human beings right to know the truth. Due to our missions conflicts with that of those governments, the responses of their agents has been a longstanding misinformation/misdirection campaign designed to discredit us, and others like us, that is exampled in numerous places, including HERE.]

[Note: The WhatDoesItMean.com website was created for and donated to the Sisters of Sorcha Faal in 2003 by a small group of American computer experts led by the late global technology guru Wayne Green (1922-2013) to counter the propaganda being used by the West to promote their illegal 2003 invasion of Iraq.]

[Note: The word Kremlin (fortress inside a city) as used in this report refers to Russian citadels, including in Moscow , having cathedrals wherein female Schema monks (Orthodox nuns) reside, many of whom are devoted to the mission of the Sisters of Sorcha Faal.]

Donald Trump Victory Averts World War III, But Starts American Revolution

They Are Going To Come For YouWhy Are You Helping Them?

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Five travellers, lost in Wales and marooned by a storm, take refuge in a ruined pile whose grim secrets are revealed only gradually. Yes, Benighted is an old dark house mystery. And not just an' but the', for it was JB Priestley's 1927 novel that first spawned the phrase when it was adapted by Hollywood as The Old Dark House.

Good ghost stories at Christmas are second only to pantomimes, so Duncan Gates' new stage adaptation is a shrewd seasonal choice. Producer Damien Tracey has pushed the boat out with a pocket-sized cornucopia of brooding designs that evoke the novel's menacing mood, with Gregor Donnelly's crooked-house dark-wood set dragged to hell by Zia Bergin-Holly's resourceful lighting and David Gregor's forbidding soundscape.

Only, ghosts come there none. The menace in Benighted, mostly unseen and intangible, is all too human. Elderly patriarch Horace Femm (Michael Sadler) presides over the shards of his family: the sexually repressed Rebecca and the battle-damaged Saul, who is kept in check by a silent old retainer, Morgan. Unless there's gin to be had.

With nine characters played by a cast of six there's bound to be doubling, but the programme ought to have kept quiet about some of it. Thus Sadler, who is the most polished performer in a variable cast, is also the drunken servant, with two of the hapless visitors doing dual service as the other Femms.

Sadler gets the best lines ("Everywhere else is in ruins. We all are") and he savours them all. Moreover, he alone keeps over acting at bay when delivering the monologue that Gates assigns, somewhat drearily, to each character in turn.

Tom Machell and Harrie Hayes do well as the lacklustre Wavertons, Philip and Margaret. Once some dodgy motor-car miming is out of the way they give the show a solid backbone. Matt Maltby is the excitable Roger who falls for Jessica Bay's common-as-muck chorus girl, while Ross Forder sustains credibility both as Rebecca Femm and as the cuckolded William Porterhouse.

Director Stephen Whitson takes his cue from Gates's dialogue, which is tonally all over the place, and lurches from tension to slapstick in a way that suggests a lack of trust both in the material and in his own ability to tease much horror from the 70-minute script. They both need an editor.

Nevertheless, Benighted still makes for a diverting evening. Compared to Priestley's An Inspector Calls, currently running in the West End, it's a trifle, albeit one made from strange fruit and bitter dreams, but it's entertaining enough. And when Maltby and Machell as a Bane-like Saul slug it out to the death we get a glimpse of what might have been.

Benighted runs at the Old Red Lion until 7 January.
The members of BJP in Kanpur have brought out PM Narendra Modi's 'lucky chair' in hope of replicating the 2014 poll win in the upcoming UP elections.

By India Today Web Desk: The members of the Bharatiya Janata Party have brought out PM Narendra Modi's so-called lucky chair after a gap of three years in the hope of charming the upcoming UP elections of 2017.

The chair is considered lucky because Modi had used it while addressing his first 'Vijay Sankhnad' rally during his campaign for 2014 Lok Sabha elections, which BJP won.

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All this while, the chair was kept in a thick, unbreakable glass chamber specially bought from Delhi.

"The workers believe that the chair is lucky for the party," BJP district president Surendra Maithani told Indian Express. "When it was used by Modiji in the first 'Vijay Sakhnad' rally in UP, the party had recorded a thumping victory in the Lok Sabha elections."

"We believe that if the PM sits on the chair again at the 'Parivartan Yatra' rally, it will bring positive change for the party in 2017 elections and BJP will win the most number of seats,'' he added.

As if this was not crazy enough, BJP members also preserved a water tumbler which Modi had used, and a paper box in which Kanpur's famous 'Thaggu ke laddu' was offered to him.

Let's wait and see how much of a lucky charm would these objects prove to be for the BJP.

--- ENDS ---
Swekshya Neupane was the first winner of the Youth Times International Movement Global Forum. Her project was simple and necessary. As a young doctor, Swekshya joined a medical team that opened health camps in villages within the Kathmandu Valley. That is when she was struck by the lack of information and education on the very basics of hygiene and care women had. This combined with the lack of access to accessories and supplements for people in existing health institutions in the area.

Her project Health for female community leaders has recently finished its first cycle, which lasted for six months and consisted of three phases. The first phase consisted of trainings on female health care and maternal health, trainings for trainers as well as refreshers, questionnaires and medical checkups and support.

In the course of the pilot 100 women have been involved - those who were open and interested in participating, and could serve as community leaders.

The outcomes have been promising - Swekshya could already see how women became more independent and aware of various health issues and conditions. The educational campaign has also brought results and women replied more accurately to questions regarding their health and hygiene. Even more, after such a short period the results of repeated basic examinations: eye, dental, blood pressure, health of pregnant women have already improved comparing to those in the first phase.

Swekshya is now collaborating with Development Vision for Nepal, a non governmental organisation that is planning to extend this pilot by bringing it to other areas and introducing it to local doctors. They plan to implement a financing model same as the famous eye doctor from Nepal uses to provide free cataract surgeries to poor Nepali; by charging regular amount those who can afford it, and finance from the Collective pocket help for the poor patients examinations. And as I imagined the easy and affordable access to medicine in Nepal must be of great help here, it turns out the prices are still widely prohibitive for many. Swekshya is already working on fixing this aspect as well by collaborating with pharmaceutical companies directly and using their donations.
By PTI: Colombo, Dec 9 (PTI) President Maithripala Sirisena, who came to power on a pledge to root out government corruption, today conceded the menace was still widespread in Sri Lanka with more than 50 per cent of tender procurements being dodgy.

Adressing an anti-corruption meeting two years after he was elected on a campaign pledge to end corruption, Sirisena said he "regrets" that organised bribery was still prevalent.

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"I regret to say that organised bribery and corruption is still taking place in government institutions," he said.

The Sri Lanka president, who has ordered investigations into alleged widespread corruption under his predecessor Mahinda Rajapaksa, said he does not want to take names because those he would name will "go on strike from tomorrow".

Sirisena referred to a strike recently by customs officers against the installation of a CCTV system designed to discourage money changing hands illegally.

"Such is the level of resistance and I am told that officers who refuse to cooperate with organised corruption are sidelined and not given any work by their superiors," he said.

"We say call tenders to prevent corruption, but in reality we know that the tender procedures are also corrupt. It happens in over 50 per cent of the time. Even the technical evaluation committees are corrupt," Sirisena said.

Sirisena ousted Rajapaksa in January last year, accusing him and his family of corruption. He has also often criticised the national unity government under Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Rajapaksa ruled Sri Lanka for nine years beginning in 2005. He was popular among the countrys majority ethnic Sinhalese for leading the militarys brutal defeat of the Tamil Tigers, ending a 25-year civil war in 2009.

But he was increasingly criticised for failing to allow an investigation of alleged war crimes by the military, while also facing mounting allegations of corruption and nepotism. PTI CORR ABH AKJ ABH

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: 17

New Delhi, Dec 9 (PTI) Members of a panel, headed by Union Health Minister J P Nadda, tasked with shortlisting some names for the post of AIIMS Director, will meet after December 17, sources said.

With the present director of the premier medical institute, Dr M C Mishra, slated to retire in January, the process of selecting a new chief has gained momentum.

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The Search-cum-Selection Committee will finalise a few names for the post of AIIMS director, which will be sent to the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) headed by the Prime Minister for final approval.

"The Search-cum-Selection Committee Committee headed by Union Health Minister and AIIMS president J P Nadda was scheduled to meet on December 12. But Monday is a holiday. So the meeting is expected to take place after December 17," a source at AIIMS said.

The other members of the panel include the Union health secretary, the director general of health services, the secretary (higher education), the secretary of department of biotechnology, the head of Indian Council of Medical Research and two specialists from outside.

According to sources, 53 eminent doctors, including 35 candidates from outside AIIMS, have applied for the post and the screening of applications is complete.

The main contenders for the top post include, Dr V K Paul, head of the department (HOD) of paediatrics, Dr Randeep Guleria, HOD of Pulmonary Medicine and Sleep Disorders, Dr Alka Kriplani, HOD of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Dr A B Dey, HOD of Geriatric Medicine, and AIIMS medical superintendent Dr D K Sharma.

The outside candidates include KGMU Chancellor Dr Ravi Kant, ex-director of AIIMS, Rishikesh Dr Rajkumar, Director of JIPMER Dr Subhash Chandra Parija and Dr Rasik Vajpayee, the nephew of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, sources said. A few doctors, based abroad, have also applied for the post.

Dr Mirsa was appointed as AIIMS director in October, 2013 and is scheduled to retire on January 30, next year. PTI PLB NSD

--- ENDS ---
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 09/12/2016 (2155 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If there was one group of people for whom 2016 didnt totally suck, it was Manitoba beer lovers.

Theres not been a year that has offered such monumental change on the provinces beer scene as this one.

Peg Beer Co. opened its doors in April, making it the first brewpub to open in the city since River City Brewing (at Osborne Street and Stradbrook Avenue) back in the 1990s. However, technical and regulatory setbacks kept Peg from initially offering their own beers  their brews didnt begin to flow until October. Theyve recently added an on-site growler bar to the mix.

The years beer buzz took off at the Flatlanders Beer Festival, where a wide cross-section of budding breweries  none of which were open to the public at the time  first poured their lagers and ales thanks to the co-operation of established local breweries Half Pints and Fort Garry (more on them later), who allowed the upstarts use their equipment to make inaugural batches for the event.

In July, Barn Hammer became the first of the new wave of local breweries to open its doors with its own brews. The capacity of the Wall Street brewerys taproom recently expanded to accommodate 50 people  20 more than the initial occupancy limit of the facility.

TREVOR HAGAN / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Owner Dave Rudge fills a growler at the new tap room at Half Pints Brewing Co., which has a 50-person capacity.

Torque Brewing began peddling its beers earlier this fall, albeit with a focus on packaged product that hit Liquor Mart and beer-vendor shelves. Torque has four separate beers for sale, as well as a mixed 12-pack of cans.

Its King Edward Street taproom  also with a 50-person capacity  opened to the public just last week. There are at least five brews coming that will be taproom-only.

Little Brown Jugs focus is on the one beer its producing  the 1919 Belgian Pale, which is available at the taproom at 336 William Ave., in 750-millilitre, 948-ml and 1.89-litre formats, as well as on tap in various watering holes, eateries and growler-filling stations in the city. The facility (including a 30-person taproom) opened at the beginning of December.

The already-existing breweries, meanwhile, all underwent changes of one form or another as well. Farmery Estate Brewery opened their Neepawa-area brewery this summer, bringing all their brewing in-house and adding a new product, the Prairie Berry Ale. Half Pints launched their taproom at their Roseberry Street location on Dec. 3, bringing a completely revamped retail experience (complete with retro pinball machines, a beer library and more). And Fort Garry, formerly owned by Russell Brewery in B.C., was sold to a group of Prairie investors; they also added a growler-filling station at their location on Lowson Crescent.

BEN MACPHEE SIGURDSON / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Kevin Selch, Little Brown Jug brewery.

Then there was the opening of The Common, a craft beer and wine kiosk at The Forks Markets food hall. There was the expansion of growler bars in Liquor Marts and private beer vendors. (Tip: If you want to try some new local beer from the comfort of your own home, hit the beer vendor at the Quality Inn on Grant Avenue at Pembina  their 10-beer growler station is typically all local breweries.)

In a nutshell, nothing to do with Manitobas beer scene looks much like it did at this time last year.

By all accounts, 2017 is looking to be just as big a year for beer lovers, with more breweries set to open over the next 12 months. They include Brazen Hall (in the former Round Table location on Pembina Highway), One Great City (in Madison Square), Trans Canada (on Kenaston Boulevard near Fort Garry), Oxus (1180 Sanford St.), Nonsuch (at a location to be determined), Stone Angel (same), and potentially others.

Stay thirsty, my friends.

JOE BRYKSA / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ]Customers Michael Ferris, and Alastair Gillestie at Torque Brewery at 330-830 King Edward St.

Want to check out multiple tasting rooms of existing breweries but dont want to worry about driving? Winnipeg Tasting Tours offers just that option via its Brews Cruise. Guests start the four-hour tour at The Common at The Forks with a flight of local beer before heading to Peg Beer Co., as well as a couple of other stops depending on availability.

Tickets are $80 plus taxes. Check out their website at winnipegtastingtours.ca for more.

uncorked@mts.net

Twitter: @bensigurdson
By PTI: New Delhi, Dec 9 (PTI) Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar will tomorrow leave on a three-day visit to Mauritius during which he will commission a fast patrol vessel for its Coast Guard and hand over two upgraded Cheetah helicopters to the local police.

Parrikar will also meet Prime Minister of Mauritius Anerood Jugnauth who also holds the defence portfolio.

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Defence Ministry sources said both Parrikar and Jugnauth will commission the warship built by the Goa Shipyard Limited tomorrow.

The vessel is primarily designed for coastal patrolling, anti-piracy, anti-smuggling, anti-drug surveillance, anti-poaching operations, and search and rescue operations.

The minister will also hand over two upgraded Cheetah helicopters to Mauritius Polices helicopter unit.

He will meet with the President of Mauritius on Sunday and go onboard the offshore patrol vessel Barracuda, the first warship to be exported by India.

The ship was commissioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Mauritius last year.

Parrikar will also go onboard INS Darshak, a hydrographic survey ship of the Indian navy, which is at present in Mauritian waters.

The sources said the visit is aimed at deepening close political and bilateral strategic ties between the two countries. PTI SAP SMN

--- ENDS ---
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 09/12/2016 (2155 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The launch of several new apartment projects and an increase in the number of single-family homes under construction helped to fuel a surge in housing starts last month in the Winnipeg area.

In its November housing-starts report released Thursday, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC) said there were 457 new single- and multi-family starts recorded in November in the Winnipeg Census Metropolitan Area (CMA). That was an 80 per cent increase from the 254 starts in November 2015.

The increase left starts trending at 4,657 units for the month, compared with 4,515 units in October.

PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES An apartment building under construction on Market Avenue. Multi-family units such as apartments and single-family units boosted housing-start figures for November.

CMHC uses the trend measure as a complement to the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates data for housing starts to account for considerable swings in monthly estimates and obtain a more complete picture of the state of the market. In some situations, analyzing only seasonally adjusted data can be misleading, as they are largely driven by the multiples segment of the markets, which can be quite variable from one month to the next.

The CMHC data show the main reason for last months surge in housing-start activity was a 162 per cent increase in multi-family starts  291 units compared with 111 in November of last year.

Theres still a lot of rental construction in Winnipeg. That seems to be an ongoing theme, which is good for the renters, said Lai Sing Louie, CMHCs regional economist for the Prairies and Territories.

Louie noted the apartment vacancy rate in Winnipeg is still less than three per cent, and some government incentives are helping to spur new rental projects downtown.

So we expect a lot of rental (units) to continue to come on stream in Winnipeg over the year (2017), he added.

While the biggest increase last month was in multi-family starts such as apartments, Louie noted the single-family homes side of the market was also humming along, with starts up 16 per cent to 166 units from 143 a year earlier.

He noted Novembers surge in activity left total starts running seven per cent behind last years pace after the first 11 months of the year  3,824 units compared to 4,114 during the same period last year.

SUPPLIED Riverstone Terrace Condominiums at 1926 St. Marys Rd.

The CMHC report was one of several housing reports released Thursday. Re/Max also released its 2017 Housing Market Outlook Report. It estimates the average price of a home in Winnipeg increased by three per cent this year and it predicts it will rise by another three per cent in 2017.

The real estate firm said the average price climbed to $288,500 from $281,022 in 2015 and is expected to rise to $297,155 in 2017.

Winnipegs housing market was balanced in 2016 and is expected to shift slightly to a buyers market in 2017 as new development projects gradually come onto the market, it added.

It said new city-imposed fee on new homes built in select suburban areas, which is scheduled to come into effect on May 1, could also prompt more people to buy a resale property next year, rather than a new home.

Statistics Canada also released the new housing-price index numbers for October, which showed a 0.6 per cent increase in the cost of a new home in Winnipeg from September to October.

It was the largest monthly increase in the city since April 2013, and Statistics Canada said local builders attributed it to a rise in construction costs.

The Winnipeg Realtors Association reported a new record has now been set for the most homes sold in a single year through the local Multiple Listing Service.

BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Developers deny new homes place a financial burden on the city.

The previous record was 13,079 set in 2007, and earlier this week, the MLS recorded its 13,080th sale  a new two-bedroom, 1,351-square-foot condo in the Riverstone Terrace Condominiums complex at 1926 St. Marys Rd. The unit sold for $362,900.

murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 09/12/2016 (2155 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Just in time for International Human Rights Day, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights has been internationally honoured with the Gold Award from the International Association of Universal Design at a ceremony in Nagoya, Japan.

The award, which was presented Friday, is given on an annual basis for outstanding contributions toward building an inclusive world where everyone can live together comfortably and without barriers to participation in daily life, regardless of ability, age, gender, ethnicity or other factors, a news release stated.

The museum was recognized for its efforts at being accessible to people of all abilities  in wayfinding and physical accessibility, exhibition design, visitor services, public programming and interactions with both digital and non-digital content.

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES The Canadian Museum For Human Rights

We committed to a design-for-all approach at the earliest stages in our development, and our standards continue to evolve as we work with the disability community and our visitors, learning what works and what doesnt, museum president John Young said in a statement.

Being internationally recognized helps build awareness and sensitivity across our entire industry, which can help improve accessibility standards everywhere.

Corey Timpson, the museums vice-president of exhibitions, research and design, is delivering a presentation on the museums inclusive approach to 5,000 delegates from more than 30 countries who are attending the conference in Japan.

The association, which is based in Japan, promotes the creation, through products and services, of a society where more people feel comfortable to live.

Today, which is International Human Rights Day, the museum will not charge admission. The theme is showcasing the capabilities of people who have various disabilities.

The Canadian National Institute for the Blind will show visitors how technology helps people with vision challenges overcome obstacles to employment and independent living. Assistive technologies will be demonstrated all day in the Level 2 Canadian Journeys gallery, along with an opportunity to learn the Braille alphabet.

Also, CNIB independent living skills specialist Tracy Garbutt and his guide dog Kurt will give a presentation on their relationship and answer questions at 2 p.m. on the Level 6 terrace.

The Open Access Resource Centre will lead a family activity with devices that enable people who are non-verbal to communicate. Visitors will be shown how to use the technology to purchase items from a mock storefront set up on the Level 5 terrace from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS WEATHER STANDUP - A view of the top of the Canadian Museum for Human Right seen through the trees from The Forks river walk. Nov 14, 2016

The renowned 100 Decibels troupe will present a deaf mime performance at noon near the main entrance on Level 1.

The Society of Manitobans with Disabilities All Abilities Dance Troupe, consisting of performers with different abilities including those with mobility challenges, will present a dance performance at 1 p.m., followed by a discussion with the audience.

Seven American Sign Language interpreters  and two intervenors who help people with hearing and/or vision impairments to communicate through touch signals  will be positioned throughout the museum during the day to assist visitors and answer questions about their work.

A quiet space will be designated on Level 4 to serve the needs of visitors with autism spectrum disorder and others who may need a non-stimulating environment.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 09/12/2016 (2155 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

This is the first of a two-part series investigating the impact the Winnipeg Art Gallerys Inuit Art Centre, with the worlds largest collection of Inuit art forms, will have on Winnipeg and on the Nunavut commnities that have filled the WAGs vaults for generations. Read Part II, which focuses on the IACs mission and how those behind the project believe it will redefine the role of galleries and museums.

RANKIN INLET  Noah Tiktak has these brown, smiling eyes. They light up when he talks about the generations of his family  his father, his daughters  who have told the story of the Inuit using their voice, their hands, their paint.

Art is in my blood, he says. Its who I am.

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS 'You want to survive in this world? You have to share your catch, share your knowledge,' says Noah Tiktak

Tiktak, now 55, is seated in a small shack just outside his home in Rankin Inlet, where he comes to create his jewelry and dancing drums. Its late September, and the weather is starting to turn in the Arctic community, on the northwest shore of Hudsons Bay.

In that shack, Tiktak tells of two experiences that synthesize the brutally beautiful existence of an Inuit people steeped in mysticism, mistreatment and, ultimately, an innate desire to tell their own stories.

The first: While serving as a counsellor at a youth camp years ago, Tiktak was taught how to drum by an elder. It was in a small tent, holding about 25 mostly young campers, and everybody took a turn.

As a boy, Tiktak remembers being too small to hold up a drum, but he would try anyway. His late father, John, a well-known soapstone carver, would help by holding up one end of the instrument.

When it was Tiktaks turn to take the drum, he was nervous. All these strangers. And then

Everybody disappeared in the tent, he says. Who popped up? My uncles and aunties. My grandparents. And Id never seen them. They passed on before I was born. But I recognized them. Theyre smiling, theyre happy, theyre singing.

Thats the best high Ive ever had in my life. It was nothing to do with Shamanism but powerful. I was the happiest man. And then when the song ended where am I? Im back to reality. But Im smiling away. That was the best thing ever.

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Noah Tiktak, stone caver and drum maker.

The second story: Tiktak is a boy in grade school. Like other Inuit children, he must attend a school operated by the federal government. If not, his parents wont receive a childrens allowance.

He remembers the teachers strap was burgundy, about five centimetres wide. He remembers one classmate, a girl, being dragged by her braids for a minor infraction.

They tried to make sure we didnt use our language in school, he says. Anything I said in Inuktitut, Id get punished. Imagine a Grade 2 child or a Grade 1 child getting the rubber strap or getting hit (because) he just didnt understand a foreign language, a different way of living.

Mostly, he remembers the pain in the faces of his parents, John and Atangat.

Tiktaks mother died in 1977. His father passed in 1981. To this day, he breaks down when discussing a system that made his parents feel so powerless.

They saw what was being done to us, he says, wiping away tears. They could do nothing. They were afraid of the officials. It bothers me because I know how much it hurt them.

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS The cemetery overlooks Baker Lake and a departing cargo ship.

Its not that the Inuit just didnt have a voice. Most didnt have names, at least not their own. To the federal government, they were numbers. Literally.

Under the Eskimo Identification Tag System, first implemented in the early 1940s  and abolished in 1978  Inuit were given a letter (E for eastern, W for western), then a number for their community, followed by a personal ID number.

The numbers were engraved on a copper or leather disc, 2.5 centimetres in diameter, with a crown in the middle. If you needed medical attention, show your number. Federal assistance? Show your number.

Tiktak still has his disc, E3-1457. And he can still recite the numbers of his mother (E1-267) and father (E1-266).

In fact, one striking revelation of spending a week in Rankin Inlet and Baker Lake interviewing dozens of Inuit is how many have their identification numbers seared into their consciousness.

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS The now-abolished Eskimo Identification Tag has long been a source of anger for Noah Tiktak and other Inuit.

Yet, at the same time, Inuit scholars note how most Canadians arent even aware of a practice that critics long ago described as frighteningly dehumanizing. Non-Inuit often referred to the discs as dog-tags.

Its shocking, says Heather Igloliorte, an assistant professor at Concordia University and research chair of Indigenous Art History.

This is what blows my mind. We have this serialized history of categorizing people by codes and numbers, and thats how they (Inuit) had to be known. But nobody knows that in Canada. Its really like a hidden history.

IMAGES COURTESY OF BORIS KOTELEWETZ The resettlement of the Inuit to Baker Lake, circa 1960. The move ended a way of life that thrived in the Arctic for thousands of years.

Relocation is just one aspect of the Inuit experience foreign to so many Canadians.

How many know, for example, that much of the commercial art being imported south for last the 60 years  soapstone carvings, wall hangings, print-making  was non-existent prior to the Second World War?

Thats right, the modern Inuit art movement was founded when some white guys started traveling around the Arctic promoting it as a new way to make a living in the late 1940s.

The Inuit dont even have a word for art. Or artist.

Yet in a matter of years, men and women born in tents or igloos were being hailed in galleries all over North America and Europe. They became stars.

Igloliorte says the lack of general awareness of the Inuit story is largely a function of isolation and distance.

Were just not close to the North, she says. We are, geographically, so far apart.

Tiktak would agree.

Were the forgotten ones, he says.

Not for long, perhaps. Sometime in 2020, the Winnipeg Art Gallery is expected to open Canadas first Inuit Art Centre, a four-storey, 40,000-square-foot building adjacent to the WAGs downtown location. The $65-million project will be unprecedented, and WAG director and CEO Stephen Borys believes the centre will become a world-class beacon for showcasing Inuit art and culture.

MICHAEL MALTZAN ARCHITECTURE An artist rendering of the Inuit Art Centre and Winnipeg Art Gallery.

The centre will be designed to link Canadas Far North to the south. It will feature the worlds largest collection of Inuit art, studio space, performance theatre and, most important, the voices of Inuit telling their stories.

This is going to be our Smithsonian for Inuit, says Fred Ford, a former Baker Lake resident, WAG board member and president of the Manitoba Inuit Association.

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Fred Ford, president of the Manitoba Inuit Association, lived in Baker Lake for 25 years.

So what kind of impact will the centre have on Winnipeg? The Inuit community? Or even on the way museums and galleries will have to reinvent themselves?

And who are these artists? How did the Inuit, without any formal training, produce works that to this day can sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars on auction?

To find out, the Free Press recently visited the communities of Baker Lake and Rankin Inlet for a week, speaking with dozens of artists, both young and old, in an effort to not only trace the beginning of the modern Inuit art movement, but look at its future, as well. Will it survive?

The result is a two-part series; this first instalment focusing on the artists of the North in their own environment and the second on the vision for the Inuit Art Centre, an ambitious mission to tell stories centuries in the making, most of which have been passed down from generation to generation.

Art is not just in Tiktaks blood. It was in the blood of his father, a renowned stone carver who in 1973 became an elected member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. And its in the blood of his daughter, Becky Okatsiaq, a painter.

The art is in the drums he makes in his little shed, which Tiktak uses to perform and express who we are as Inuit.

I was just a number before, E3-1457 says. Now Im a taxpayer. I have a voice. Its a reminder for how far weve come being a number to governing ourselves and having a vote.

The way we were treated back then holy smokes. Weve come a long way.

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS William Noah says resettlement was an extremely difficult time.

BAKER LAKE  Its no small irony that the birth of the modern Inuit art movement arose just around the time Jessie Oonark almost died.

It was the mid-1950s, when Oonarks family  who had hunted and fished for years in the Back River region, located deep in the heart of Nunavut (then part of the Northwest Territories)  was forced to split up and scrounge for food.

My stomach was completely empty most of the time, recalls Oonarks son William, now in his 70s. There were too many of us and (his parents) couldnt feed us properly anymore.

Forest fires had disrupted migration routes of the caribou in the area. Caches of meat had run dry.

William, about 10 years old at the time, said he and his siblings lived off dried sinew they found in caribou hooves lying on the tundra. We would walk all day looking for them when the snow would melt, he says.

Oonark and her youngest daughter, on foot in mid-winter, almost froze to death while attempting to reach a relatives camp.

Eventually, the family would be reunited in Baker Lake, then a tiny inland hamlet that included little more than an Hudsons Bay Co. trading post, an RCMP detachment and a few dozen Inuit families at the mouth of the Thelon River.

What transpired next for the Oonark family was a microcosm of the seismic cultural displacement experienced by Inuit over the next two decades, as the federal government systematically relocated a semi-nomadic people  who had for millenia survived on a lifestyle of hunting and fishing  into anglo-based communities.

IMAGE COURTESY BORIS KOTELEWETZ Jessie Oonark in an undated photo.

They were assigned numbers. They were given Christian names. (For, example, William was originally named Noah by his mother and now goes by William Noah.) They were baptized by the Anglican or Catholic church. The children were forced to attend schools where Inuktituk was a forbidden language. Many were sent to residential schools in far-away communities.

It was hard, William recalls. I was wearing caribou skin from head to toe and the next day I had to wear these western clothes with no heat. It was awful.

Classes and communities were now composed of Inuit from several tribes, who William calls strange people with different dialects.

The majority of parents, such as Jessie Oonark, stayed in the community to keep close watch over their children. Without traditional means of seasonal hunting and trapping, Inuit became more and more dependent on federal assistance.

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS The original settlement church still stands in Baker Lake.

As a result, according to Igloliorte, where colonization of First Nations people in North America occurred over centuries, the Oonarks of the North faced such upheaval over decades.

With the Inuit in the Arctic all of those same things, or similar things, happened in a really compressed time period, she says. So you had people that within a space of 30 or 40 years went from living entirely independently on the land to being settled into new communities.

SUPPLIED The Inuit were like human flagpoles": Heather Igloliorte

At the time, the federal government reasoned the Inuit required settlement for their own good, since many were facing starvation, which Igloliorte says represented the patrimonial attitudes of the time.

They thought indigenous people needed to be cared for, even though they had survived in the Arctic for millenia, she says. It was like, We know whats best for you and now were going to do it.

Another reason for resettlement, critics have long contended, was over sovereignty, especially the disastrous relocations of Inuit families to the High Arctic in the 1950s.

The Inuit, Igloliorte says, were like human flagpoles.

Igloliorte, an Inuk from Nunatsiavut (northern Labrador), believes the federal governments relocation motives were neither purely ulterior nor in the best interests of the Inuit. Probably both, she says, adding, Its complex.

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS The cemetery overlooks Baker Lake.

Regardless, the all-too-human experiment was past the point of no return. Not only had the Inuit been relocated, but thousands of their sled dogs  their primary mode of transportation for hunting  had been shot by RCMP and provincial police. (The RCMP claim the dogs were shot for health and safety reasons. Inuit elders contend it was to intimidate and disrupt their way of life.)

You dont hear about all this stuff, but that was part of how they were treated, said Ford, whose Inuit grandfather, Henry Ford, operated and built the first Hudson Bay Co. trading post in 1915. And they worked for a pittance for the Bay or police or the churches. Good little Inuit. The impact of that

So youve got this whole generation of people who were elders who knew where to be and how to live, how to make tools and how to survive, added Ford, who returned to Baker Lake in 1980 to run the Igloo Hotel. All of a sudden they were relegated to sitting in those old matchbox houses (a wooden house consisting of one 12-by-24-foot room provided by federal government). That was a poor life.

The problem: Thousands of displaced Inuit now living in settlements with virtually no available full-time employment or means of financial support. So much time on their hands.

And that was the answer, perhaps. Their hands.

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS The art and stories of the Inuit are passed down through generations, including today's children of Rankin Inlet, Tiktak says.

For centuries, the Inuit had been entirely self-sufficient, surviving in one of the planets most hostile environments because of their extraordinary ability to make almost anything  shelter, clothes, sleds, tools  with their own imagination and two hands.

Artistic genius isnt created out of the blue, says Marie Bouchard, who moved to Baker Lake in the mid-1980s after completing a masters degree in Canadian art at the University of Manitoba. It seems like these artists became stars overnight, but thats not the case.

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Art historian Marie Bouchard literally wrote the book on Inuk artist Jessie Oonark. Bouchard lived and worked with artists in Baker Lake for over a decade and ran a co-op.

They have years and years and years of honing their traditional skills; in cutting patterns for clothing, in sewing, in designing. Fashioning tools by hand. They learned how to choose the right materials for the right project.

As part of their esthetic, everything that they made, although functional, had to be beautiful, added Bouchard, now community grants associate at the Winnipeg Foundation.

And it had to be distinct. You could tell at a glance where someone was from based on the design of their parka. And then you could look at it more closely and think, Thats how so-and-so does her caribou skin trim, or how she combines colours.

But that took years. The women started sewing at a very young age. That accounts for their amazing ability, once they were introduced to new materials, to be able to produce art.

Bouchard, who now lives in Winnipeg, spent 11 years in Baker Lake, eventually starting a sewing co-operative with her husband after the federal government closed the communitys local operation.

In 1986, she curated an exhibition of Jessie Oonarks work for the WAG, and has since produced other Inuit art essays, exhibition catalogues and shows, in addition to her work as a historian.

Its somewhat ironic that there is no word for art in the Inuk language. They call it visual expression.

The men were experts at spacial reasoning. They had intimate knowledge of their surroundings and the animals they hunted. Memory was key to survival. Nothing was written down.

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Boris Kotelewetz was stunned by the creativity and ingenuity when he arrived in Baker Lake in the 1960s.

They had to make their own sleds, their own kayaks, their own mittens, their own parkas. Everything, says Baker Lake businessman Boris Kotelewetz.

When there was no wood on the tundra, Inuit would use frozen fish wrapped in caribou skins for sled skis. Then they would eat the fish after arriving at their destination. It shows you how inventive they were, Kotelewetz says.

After all, the Inuit had made carvings of walrus ivory with whalers dating back to the 1880s.

So when pioneering artist James Houston, who lived in the Arctic after returning from the Second World War, began bringing Inuit small carvings south in the late 1940s and early 50s, it convinced federal officials to introduce craft officers into the new Inuit settlements.

When (federal officials) were looking for an industry to introduce, they realized that they could use the art market as one way they could possibly help the Inuit to regain self-sufficiency, says Igloliorte.

Kotelewetz, 75, is a businessman now. His companies include a lodge, an earth-moving business and charter air service. The walls of his lodge office feature a collage of photos of Inuit and artists stretching over a century.

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Baker Lake

But back in 1966 he was a free spirit who arrived in Baker Lake as an arts-and-crafts officer after serving with the Exhibition Commission that marketed Canada to the world.

First impressions?

It was mostly tents and igloos, he says. The biggest thing I learned when I came here was how much the government didnt know about the country and the people. The intention was good, but a lot of times it didnt turn out to be the best.

Notwithstanding the myriad harmful, force-fed policies that would leave generational scars still visible to this day, the establishment of arts programs in the North was an unqualified success, almost immediately.

In Baker Lake, Oonark was given coloured pencils and paper in 1958 by a biologist named Andrew Macpherson, says Bouchard.

Already in her 50s, Oonark was a natural. Within a couple years, her drawings  mostly images of a lifetime in Back River country  were in print collections in the south, then around the world.

Strange Huge Inuk by Jessie Oonark

When Kotelewetz arrived in the mid-60s, he provided Oonark with a studio. He provided her with more materials, markers and paint.

I just turned her loose, he says. There was no stopping her mind. I gave her the freedom to explore herself.

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Distinguished artist Nancy Aupaluktuq, daughter of Jessie Oonark, holds one of her mother's sculptures.

When I saw her work, I thought, Holy crap, man! You could go to school, but you couldnt learn that. You have to have a born sense of that.

Oonark became one of the first true stars of Inuit art. Her work appeared in galleries and publications around the world. The money she earned mostly went to raising her 13 children.

But Oonark never moved away from Baker Lake. She died in 1985, one year after being made an Officer of the Order of Canada.

She just stayed the same Jessie that she was, Kotelewetz says. She was a real character. She liked lingerie and thought they were classy dresses.

And she oozed of confidence.

There was a mountain of it. You couldnt move it, he says.

When Oonark travelled south to the big cities where her art was being exhibited, hosts expected her to be in awe of skyscrapers and waited for her reaction.

Your air stinks, she sniffed, at least once.

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Salomonie Pootoogook's income is from carving, a skill he first learned in 1980 in Cape Dorset, a hotbed for Inuit artists.

Its an unusually warm evening when Salomonie Pootoogook ventures to his work table behind his wood-framed home to begin carving a five-pound hunk of soapstone into life.

Pootoogook (Big Toe) is 62 years old. The first question hes asked: How did he get here?

He smiles before replying.

Because of the girl, thats why. She brought me here. Its always a girl, right?

The girl is Polly, his wife. Together, they have raised five children in Baker Lake, now home to about 2,000 residents.

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS The days of tents and igloos are long gone.

The days of tents and igloos are long gone. There are modern schools, government offices (one has the only elevator in town) and the two major retail outlets can provide most anything offered in the south. The Internet can take care of the rest.

Theres even a Tim Hortons coming soon to the Northern Store.

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS A cargo ship with goods destined for the mine is unloaded just outside Baker Lake.

But some things never change. Baker Lake is still populated by dozens of working artists, the second and third generations of the original pioneers.

Pootoogooks only source of income is from his carvings, a trade he first learned in 1980 on Cape Dorset  long a treasure trove of Inuit artists on the southern tip of Baffin Island.

Over the next two hours, Pootoogook meticulously transforms the rock into a polar bear while the sun sets over a barely rippling lake. The stone bear will net him $100 from someone who works at the nearby gold mine. Some pocket money.

Pootoogook is seated on a wooden chair, his feet planted in a bed of splintered rock and antlers, remnants of other carvings. His tools are electric chisels and grinders that produce a fine green powder that floats away like smoke.

And it leaves green splotches on parts of his face not covered with goggles and mask. One tooth is green.

He says the rocks, their shape, tell him what they want to be. Picking up another nearby chunk of soapstone, he declares: Its a woman. I can see it.

He has five children to feed and realized many years ago, no work, no money.

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Wall hanging artist Fanny Avatituq works with her grandchildren Desiree and Mike at her home in Baker Lake.

Next door, Fanny Avatituq is sitting on the floor of her living room, stretching out a square of black felt that will become her latest wall hanging.

She has yet to decide what objects she will incorporate into the image. Maybe polar bears, maybe swans. Then Avatituq will painstakingly embroider a colourful background and frame. She can spend weeks on one wall hanging.

I dont mind, she says. Its something to do instead of just sitting around. When I have nothing to do, I start sewing. Even if theres no one to buy.

She sells most of her work on Facebook now, fetching between $250 and $800 for one of her creations. She also has mouths to feed: 12 children, 27 grandchildren and two great grandchildren.

No work, no money.

But its getting more difficult. In the past, most artists in Baker Lake sold their works through the towns Jessie Oonark Centre, one of a handful of arts-and-crafts studios scattered throughout Nunavut. The studio offers workspace for jewelry-makers, print-makers, carvers and seamstresses.

For years, the centre has purchased and sold a bulk of the art produced in the town.

David Ford has operated the centre since 2008, after running his own gallery in Baker Lake, beginning in 1984. Ford says the amount of art purchased  and the number of artists  has declined considerably during the last two decades.

The Inuit art market is not what it used to be, Ford says. A lot of the artists have died, a lot of galleries (in major cities such as Toronto and Vancouver) have closed. Its been harder and harder to sell Inuit art.

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS David Ford, who operates the Jessie Oonark Centre, says it has become more difficult to market the artwork.

In the 1990s, for example, Ford would spend up to $300,000 a year on local art. Five years ago, that figure was between $100,000 and $120,000. Last year, Ford spent about $35,000.

Wall hangings that once sold for several thousand dollars now fetch a fraction of that, he says.

Remember Jessie Oonarks youngest daughter, who along with her mother was rescued near starvation by RCMP in the winter of 1958? Her name is Nancy Aupaluqtuq, and she now has 11 children of her own.

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS The ATV is the life blood in the community of Baker Lake.

Aupaluqtuq also became a distinguished artist and sculpturer, whose creations would retail for up to $10,000.

I had galleries lined up to buy them, Ford says. (Now) almost all of those galleries are closed. I dont have any place to market her work anymore. Its still beautiful, but theres no galleries calling.

Such examples abound in Baker Lake. During one visit to the centre, a tiny, elderly woman walked in and spoke quietly with Ford. She left after a brief visit.

Shes always looking for money every day, or fish, he explains.

The womans name is Ruth Nuilaaik, 84, whose wall hangings have graced the National Art Gallery and the WAG. She is the daughter of the legendary Inuit artist Luke Anguhadluq and widow of Jessie Oonarks son, Josiah Nuilaalik, a well-known sculptor.

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Ruth Nuilaalik, 84, whose wall hangings have graced the National Art Gallery and Winnipeg Art Gallery.

In fact, it has long been a source of unfortunate irony to Ford that the Inuit artists who have produced works through the years that continue to sell for tens of thousands of dollars in auction spent the bulk of their initial profits at the Northern Store. And that was during the good times.

Their works hang in galleries alongside Van Goghs and Picassos, but most live in modest homes and still live largely off meals of caribou and fish, which they hunt and catch themselves.

Every one of them is poor, Ford says. But you go into southern galleries and theyre like gods on the wall. They see their stuff in galleries for thousands of dollars and they got hundreds. Theyre feeling theyre taken advantage of sometimes.

It is sad. Sometimes people cry in front of me. Im dealing with artists who are hungry and they need diapers for their grandchildren. Its awful.

However, others in the Inuit art industry bristle at any notion the art form is dying.

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Debbie Jones, vice president of art marketing for Arctic Co-Operatives, which has 32 stores across the north that purchase art, then fly it to a wholesale outlet in Mississauga.

Debbie Jones, vice-president of art marketing for Arctic Co-operatives  the largest purchaser and wholesaler of Inuit art in the north  says Baker Lake is particularly affected by the loss of artists, not only to time but to the lure of jobs at a nearby gold mine that opened in the last decade.

(Baker Lake) is one small community from a production perspective, says Jones. There are many communities that continue to produce at a very high level. Its a sliver of whats really happening in the market place.

For example, Jones says there are communities such as Iqaluit and Pangnirtung where art production is increasing.

Arctic Co-operatives has 32 stores across the Nunavut, the Northwest Territories and the Yukon, where the art is purchased, then flown to the companys wholesale outlet in Mississauga. The outlet still attracts buyers from around the globe: museums, collectors, galleries, gift shops. From where? Paris, London, the U.S., Switzerland.

Were holding our own, because there are new players coming into the market place, Jones says, when asked about sales. Where weve seen a drop off is those dedicated galleries that have closed in the last number of years.

Jones acknowledges the co-ops purchases have declined about 15 per cent in the last five years  not due to a lack of galleries or collectors  but to simple attrition of older artists.

Further, Jones adds, theres a distinct difference between traditional art still being produced for collectors versus more marketable contemporary art forms, including fashion and jewelry.

Its important to note the industry has many different facets, she says.

Still, in Baker Lake, its fair to begin questioning the future of an art industry that once provided the bread and butter for a community going on three generations.

Martha Noah will continue to trek to the Jessie Oonark Centre to make jewelry 'as long as I walk or see.'

Then you meet Mary Yuusapiq Singaqti, 80, who is moving gingerly. She seems frail at first before you find out shes nursing two broken ribs from a recent ATV accident while out hunting with her husband Norman, who is in his 70s.

We were up on the land, she explains, in Inuktitut. Were going to go hunting until we can no longer walk. My husband says, If I die out there, leave me out there. Bury me right there and then.

This is the same Mary Yuusapiq Singaqti, another daughter of Oonark, whose wall hangings will soon be featured in a WAG solo exhibition.

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Wall hangings by Mary Yuusapiq Singaqti will be featured in a solo show at the WAG. 'I worry if people are going to like them,' she says.

Is she looking forward to such a distinguished honour?

I worry if people are going to like them, she says. We were brought up like that. We were always brought up to not thinking youre too famous or too proud.

Her answer echoes what Ford describes as a personality trait shared by many Inuit artists.

They dont recognize themselves as being famous, he says. Things are no different for them. Everybody still goes hunting and fishing. Thats their main source of food.

People here are very modest. They dont like to show that theyre proud. Most of them would say theyre not good artists even though theyre amazing artists. They always think they could have done better.

But then theyve never had much. Rarely wanted more.

Over 50 years after surviving on the sinew of rotting caribou hooves, William Noah, 72, is perched on his favourite chair in a house in Baker Lake he built with his own two hands. Noah and his wife, Martha, have been married almost 55 years and raised six children.

Noahs paintings depicting images of his youth in Back River have been shown in galleries in Toronto and Ottawa. But these days he has about 20 more paintings waiting unsold in a spare room and hasnt had an exhibit in more than three years.

Some days you get discouraged but you just keep on working, he says.

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS William and Martha Noah have been married almost 55 years and raised six children.

Martha, 73, was raised about 100 kilometres north of where William did, but the two met only after their families were relocated to Baker Lake in the late 1950s. When they started dating, Martha says, the priests watched them like guard dogs.

Martha is an acclaimed jewelry-maker whose work has appeared in galleries from Vancouver to New Brunswick. And almost every day she walks a couple of kilometres to the Jessie Oonark Centre to work.

Im an old woman, she says. If I get tired, I go home.

Marthas specialty is earrings  Whatever hangs, I make it  and she works for some bread-and-butter money along with, she strongly believes, an extended lease on life.

I like it, she says. Its myself. Coming from me.

So by the time Martha is asked how long she will continue to trek on foot to make her earrings, the answer is obvious.

As long as I walk or see.

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Scenes from the shore just south of Baker Lake. Canada's Far North is stark, harsh and breathtakingly beautiful.

The Arctic is beautiful. It is open. It can hide pain beneath a serene exterior.

The Arctic demands that you survive.

For visitors such as Boris Kotelewetz, who never left, it explains why the inhabitants who settled an unforgiving land more than 1,000 years ago  who traded with Norsemen and European explorers and whalers  always had within them the modern art produced in the last 60 years.

They had made necklaces out of caribou teeth. Women in some tribes wore face tattoos and adorned their braids with sticks.

The skill was always there, Kotelewetz says. It was an innate thing. If we didnt have something of beauty, I dont know what kind of life we would live, or even if we could survive. We need that, just as much as we need the wilderness.

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS The sun sets over Baker Lake

The art, he believes, is essential to see how the work reflects the environment, how an artist sees their world.

How important is that, not just for art but for us as Canadians? he asks, citing soapstone carvings as a prime example. The first thing you notice is the pride oozing out of the rock. How do you capture that? How do you carve pride?

David Ford, whose Inuit heritage dates back three generations reasons: Look, it was a big change of life for them. Theyre coming in off the land and now living in modern civilization. The church was quick at recruiting them and saving their souls. They were told their Shamanism was wrong and they had to be Christians if they wanted to go to heaven. Its like they were shot from the Stone Age into modern civilization.

Elders born in tents or igloos now watch satellite TV and check their iPhones for texts.

So how have Inuit people managed to survive, as best they can, in a world not of their own making? How to they tell their stories?

Noah Tiktak has one answer: Ask them.

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS With his friends reflected in his glasses Simon Wiseman grins for the camera in Rankin Inlet.

With all these modern technologies, if we want to learn something we just Google it or go on Facebook, he says back in his shed in Rankin Inlet.

Come north and learn from the heart, learn from the person. All too often, people who dont know about us teach others about us. You want to learn about Inuit culture, go to the source.

Were here. Weve always been here. Even before Christopher who? in 1492.

Tiktaks eyes are smiling again.

Inuit humour, he says.

And what would Tiktak tell those who asked?

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Noah Tiktak, stone caver and drum maker

Were very open, he says. Were very strong. Our culture is very rich. Even in this year, 2016. Were still doing something that our ancestors have been doing for thousands of years: sharing.

You want to survive in this world? You have to share your catch, share your knowledge. Thats what we love to do, is share a part of who we are. Because when you look at the world, there arent very many Inuit. And we want to teach the world about ourselves, whether its through our art, our songs.

That will to teach is still there. That will to learn is still there. It will never die. The government tried to kill us off. They tried to make sure we didnt use our language in school.

But no matter what they did to us, we never died. They did not break me.

The Arctic is beautiful.

The Arctic demands that you survive.

randy.turner@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @randyturner15

About this project



Ground will be broken on the WAGs Inuit Art Centre in 2017. The ambitious project, which will feature the worlds largest collection of Inuit art forms, is scheduled to open in 2020. In anticipation, the Winnipeg Free Press wanted to investigate the impact the centre might have, not just on Winnipeg but on the Nunavut communities that have for generations filled the WAG vaults.



In Part I, the Free Press looked at the Inuits often painful history and how it is told through art. Part II focuses on the Inuit Art Centres mission, and how those behind the project believe it will redefine the role of galleries and museums.

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS An Inukshuk looks over the town of Rankin Inlet. JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS House lights shine bright on Baker Lake. JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS The cemetery overlooks Baker Lake. JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS The ATV is the life blood of Baker Lake. JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Archived photos of people coming off the land and settling in Baker Lake around 1960. JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Life in Baker Lake. JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Baker Lake street scene. JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Street signs in Rankin Inlet.
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 08/12/2016 (2156 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There are two sure things you can count on every December.

First, that the premier of the day will deliver a state of the province address at a luncheon hosted by the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce.

And second, even though very little news is generated by the speech, just about every news organization in the city sends someone to cover it. Largely, that reflects a secondary fact: even when the premier doesnt say much newsworthy, the state of the province signals an important change of season in the political calendar.

WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Premier Brian Pallister gives his State of the Province address at the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce luncheon in the RBC Convention Centre Thursday.

The address typically marks the transition from the legislative season to a period in which the budget is the primary focus. Following a brief fall session of the legislature, when nothing important was accomplished, the Tory government has turned its attention to number-crunching and other budget-related tasks that should enable Premier Brian Pallister to start making some of the hard decisions he has been talking about, literally, for years.

Its not that Pallister and his government have not accomplished anything to date. The premier shared a list of accomplishments from his first eight months with the more than 1,200 gathered at the RBC Winnipeg Convention Centre Thursday to hear what he had to say. Some were impactful, but many were appropriately modest for a government at this stage of its development. All will pale in comparison to Pallisters second budget.

When that plan is tabled, many of Pallisters ideas for improving the operation of government and reducing costs will go from the purely theoretical to the practical. In other words, it will be time for the premier to take action, not just talk about taking action.

What should be on the premiers to-do list?

First and foremost, Pallister must show progress on reducing the deficit. His governments first eight months have certainly carried the blush of austerity. Spending requests, particularly for new programs or initiatives, have been turned aside. Some programs have been cancelled, others have been delayed indefinitely. The number of departments has been reduced, and more than 100 senior management positions have been eliminated.

None of these decisions  either on its own or cumulatively  delivers much in the way of savings. Pallister is generating solutions measured in the millions of dollars in an attempt to tackle a fiscal challenge measured in hundreds of millions of dollars. They are, however, important symbolic gestures that serve as an action memo to the bureaucracy to start finding ways of doing the same  or more  with less.

The principal challenge that Pallister has faced  and the reason why so many have viewed his fiscal agenda with such skepticism  is the fact that he is now governing through one of the longest periods of anemic economic growth in modern history. In the past, political leaders carrying the burden of an underperforming economy had the comfort of knowing that if they could hang on long enough, what went down would come back up again. That is no longer a certainty.

Pallister talks quite often about fixing Manitobas economy as one of his main goals. What he does not acknowledge is that Manitobas economy is outperforming most of the country right now. Even so, is not producing the revenues necessary to protect services and balance the budget.

The skepticism that Pallister has faced is not the result of partisan analysis, its pure and simple mathematics. He continues to argue that he will succeed in curbing expenses and eliminating the deficit through sheer force of will. In reality, having decided that he will not raise taxes in any way, only austerity can help him get where he wants to go. He used Thursdays speech to once again deny that assertion, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to avoid the term austerity after announcing in the recent throne speech that he wants to roll back civil servants wages.

At the heart of Pallisters strategy is the assertion that Manitobas fiscal woes are the result of the previous governments inability to control spending, not a drop in revenue. Unfortunately, math is not on his side.

Over the past 10 years, the province has spent about the same amount of money relative to GDP. In 2005-06, expenses as a share of GDP were 24 per cent; in the 2015-16 year, it was 24.1 per cent.

However, on the revenue side its a different story. Revenues as a percentage of GDP have fallen significantly, from 24.5 per cent in 2005-06 to 22.8 in the 2015-16 fiscal year. Pallister can argue that Manitoba has a spending problem, but the metrics show that revenues are dropping in relation to the output of the economy. That is a macro trend he will have to conquer if he is to balance the budget.

With his state of the province address in the rear-view mirror, Pallister now enters the first truly critical stage of his mandate. His speech was very heavy on doom and gloom at the outset, supplying the audience with the provinces lengthy list of problems, including rampant violent crime, poor educational outcomes and shaky government services.

It is common practice for a politician campaigning to win an election to paint the glass as half-empty to stoke a desire for change among voters.

But the campaign ended a long time ago, and he will have nearly a year on the job when his second budget is tabled. That will be the moment he will have to stop talking about the failures of the past and start delivering the solutions he has for the future.

dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 09/12/2016 (2155 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Bradley Errol Greenes family will get a chance to find out what led to his death last May while he was in custody at the Winnipeg Remand Centre.

Dr. John K. Younes, Manitobas acting chief medical examiner, called an inquest into Greenes death Friday. The date of the inquest will be determined by the provincial courts chief judge.

The move comes after internal reviews of Greenes death and four others this year alone  three men and a woman  at the jail, a sharp increase from previous years.

WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Protesters held a 24-hour vigil in August across the street from the Remand Centre for Bradley Errol Greene, 26, who died in custody May 1 after suffering an epileptic seizure.

Hollie Hall, 38, died March 17; Robert McAdam, 53, died Sept. 6; Russell Spence, 31, died Oct. 12; and another man, not yet publicly identified, died Oct. 25.

Greene, 26, was a father of three children whose partner, Rochelle Pranteau, was pregnant with their fourth child.

Pranteau and Greenes family have held three vigils and lobbied officials to release the details surrounding his death. They allege jail staff denied Greene his epilepsy medication.

Pranteau said inmates have told her paramedics pronounced Greene dead at the remand centre at about 3 p.m., but officials told her he died several hours later in hospital.

So what is the story? Did he die at the hospital or did he die at the remand centre? Its not matching up, she said.

I want to know what happened to him  every damn detail.

Greene was taken into custody April 30 on a warrant for a breach of recognizance relating to alcohol consumption.

He had a seizure while on the phone in the jail on May 1. After the seizure, he was returned to his cell, where authorities maintain he was under constant watch.

About 45 minutes later, he had a second seizure in his cell.

Greene became unresponsive while being attended to by medical staff, who had already called for an ambulance.

He was taken to Health Sciences Centre, where he regained a pulse and was admitted to the intensive care unit but remained comatose until his death.

Pranteau told The Canadian Press Green was speaking with her when the first seizure began.

He said he could feel the numbing feeling in his hands, and his jaw started locking and grinding, and then he could hardly talk, she said.

I heard him fall, and then the phone dropped and was just dangling there.

Pranteau, 27, told media she listened helplessly for 20 minutes while guards and inmates responded.

She said it sounded like he was on his stomach and being held down.

They were trying to tell Errol to calm down, but how could he calm down? Hes having his episode, let him have it, she said.

An autopsy listed the immediate cause of death to be acute hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy  a brain injury caused by lack of oxygen.

The report listed a sub-therapeutic level of valproic acid  an anti-convulsant medication  as contributing to his death.

Corey Shefman, a human rights lawyer and board member of the Manitoba Association of Rights and Liberties, said only full inquests into each case  or a more expansive, system-wide public inquiry  will truly provide answers about what happened.

Even when information is released to families, its released in a very heavily redacted form, he said.

Too often the families are treated as an afterthought.

 staff with files from The Canadian Press
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 09/12/2016 (2155 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Did you know that when you put Viola Desmond on the $10 bill, all other tributes to Sir John A. Macdonald vanish into thin air?

Thats the conclusion you might reach if you listened to the people whining on social media Thursday. While many people were pleased when it was announced that the Nova Scotia civil rights pioneer and businesswoman will be the first Canadian woman to be featured in a portrait on our currency, others were incensed that the first prime minister of Canada was being stripped of his honour.

That sound you hear is me, sighing the worlds longest sigh. Because, you know, Sir John A. Macdonald is at risk of fading into irrelevance and obscurity because his face is no longer on the $10 bill.

JOE BRYKSA / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS The Viola Desmond exhibit in the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. Desmond will be the first Canadian woman to be celebrated on the face of her countrys currency.

In addition to his many statues, here is a short list of things named after Sir John A. Macdonald: schools, a parkway, a freeway, a Manitoba municipality, Ottawas airport and a peak in the Rocky Mountains. He also has a day named after him  Jan. 11 is Sir John A Macdonald day  but, as his Wikipedia entry notes, it is not a federal holiday and generally passes unremarked.

Macdonald has been featured on the $10 bill since 1971. Last year, he was featured on the toonie for his 200th birthday. As far as currency is concerned, hes had a good run. Besides  and its as though people are deliberately choosing to ignore this point  Sir John A. Macdonald will still be featured on a banknote.

According to the Bank of Canada, Macdonald and Wilfred Laurier, who is currently on the $5, will be honoured on our higher-value banknotes when they are redesigned. Which prompted National Post columnist Andrew Coyne to tweet: And were going to banish Macdonald and Laurier to bills nobody uses? This is a travesty.

Besides having very different criteria for what constitutes a travesty, Id argue that the bills nobody uses is all of them, but nothing makes people pretend they carry cash quite like putting a woman on the $10. Maybe banks should consider rolling out a series of debit cards featuring famous Canadians. That way, people can choose their own and we never have to talk about this issue again.

Still, joking aside, it is about time we had the portrait of a Canadian woman on our money, and Desmond is most deserving of that honour. Nine years before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on that bus, Desmond refused to give up her seat in a whites-only section of a Nova Scotia movie theatre. She was forcibly removed and jailed overnight. She was unjustly convicted, and her court case made history: she became the first known legal challenge against racial segregation brought forth by a black woman in Canada.

Now, shes made history again as the first Canadian woman to be featured on a Canadian banknote.

Its possible that the first time you heard Viola Desmonds name was on Thursday when the Bank of Canada announced her as the winner of its #bankNOTEable campaign. But perhaps having her face on our money will lead to discussions about who she was and what her fight represents. Maybe her story will be taught in schools. Maybe more pieces of our culture will eventually bear her name.

Getting a woman on a banknote isnt an end  it never was. Its a start. Its an opportunity to honour, recognize and say the names of people too often forgotten by history.

Somehow, I think Sir John A. Macdonald will keep his place in the history books.

jen.zoratti@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @JenZoratti
By PTI: New Delhi, Dec 9 (PTI) Police have debunked theories making rounds about a "serial killer" on the prowl in south and southeast Delhi, calling the murders a "coincidence" with probes into each of them unearthing different motives and murderers.

However, two cases have come to light where the police claim that they might be related.

After six bodies were found within a radius of 10 kilometre of each other in south and southeast Delhi with their body parts missing, theories had emerged that the deaths are related to each other.

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"Its a coincidence that they have happened in the same time. One of the cases has been solved and in the other cases the investigation is at an advanced stage," Delhi Police spokesperson and Joint Commissioner (southwest) Dependra Pathak said.

"The discussion about serial killings is bereft of truth. There are different intentions, different motives and murderers that have emerged during our investigation," he said.

The body of a woman, wrapped in a black polythene, with a tattoo mark was found lying outside Ganganath Mandir near Vasant Vihar. In the second incident, headless body of a woman was found in a sewer tank in Munirka.

Police claim that these two murders that took place last month might be related.

Based on their tattoos, police questioned several tattoo artists in the area and identified the women.

Both of them hailed from the same village and were working at a spa, sources said.

They had allegedly been lured into escort services and had some fallout with their employer who allegedly murdered them with the help of his accomplices, they said.

Police has identified the accused and they are likely to be arrested soon. The bodys head hasnt been recovered and police is waiting for the arrest to find the missing part, sources added.

In another incident, body of a woman, in her 20s, with injury marks on the neck was found lying under a car near Khanpur T-point on November 30. The woman has been identified and no link in that case has been established with the other two murders, police said.

A case where a womans body was hacked into two parts in Amar Colony area, her live-in partner was arrested on Wednesday.

In Sangam Vihar, the mutilated body of a man was found with injuries and lower limbs chopped off on December 2.

In a shocking incident on December 4, a 24-year-old man was arrested for allegedly having "unnatural sex" with corpse of a woman near Sarai Kale Khan bus stand along the bank of Yamuna river. The womans face was smashed due to which no identification has been done yet.

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The police is investigating whether the man arrested was the one who killed her. PTI SLB ASV

--- ENDS ---
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 08/12/2016 (2156 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

One year after an influential seafood watchdog told people to avoid buying fish caught in Lake Winnipeg, Lake Manitoba and Lake Winnipegosis, Manitobas fisheries are no closer to getting the thumbs up from SeaChoice.

It is also still years, if not decades, away from eco-certification, explained Scott Wallace, a David Suzuki Foundation research scientist and SeaChoice member.

Right now it seems like an impossibility, said Wallace. If there is the industry will, then I would say they could achieve it sometime in the next five to 10 years, if they actually truly thought out a process.

PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Langford Saunders, President of the Norway House Fisher's Co-op, voices his issues to Minister Cathy Cox at a board meeting Thursday.

Monterey, Calif.-based Seafood Watch and its Vancouver partner SeaChoice conducted an assessment last year of the lakes and released a statement in December 2015 alleging Manitobas lakes are among the worst-managed in the world. It urged consumers to boycott buying white fish, pike, walleye and perch caught in the lakes.

One year later, Wallace said there has been no movement in improving the way the fisheries are managed. He argues there is little data verifying how many fish are being caught, how many are being thrown back in the lake dead or alive and little calculations on how many species of a fish exist in a given lake.

There is resentment against an organization coming here and saying, Oh you guys are doing it wrong, but under any metric, this fishery does not meet basic policies of the federal government, Wallace said. I dont see an easy way right now for the fishery to crawl out of that red zone, there is not a lot of co-operation with the industry to want to improve.

In response to criticism, the province has been pushing for the eco-certification  a label that assures consumers seafood is fished in a sustainable manner  of Manitobas lakes. In a mandate letter given to Sustainable Development Minister Cathy Cox by Premier Brian Pallister, it instructed her to develop and implement a credible strategy to secure certification of Manitobas commercial fisheries.

Its an uphill struggle for the rookie minister, who faces a battle with fishers on two fronts. First, she has to convince anglers the end of the provinces fish monopoly will not gut the industry of independent fishers. Second, she has to sell eco-certification to a group vehemently opposed to it, who see it as series of regulatory hurdles that will bankrupt the industry.

Cox received an earful on both topics Thursday when she briefly attended the Lake Winnipeg Fishery Co-Management Board boards annual meeting.

Its never going to happen, this fishery will collapse before eco-certification was actually, finally brought through it is too big of a change, said Kris Isfeld, the Gimli representative for the board. Our fishery has self-managed for over 100 years and it has been successful for all of those 100 years we are a traditional, old-school fishery where we are one man on one boat.

Wallace said with improvements to the way the fisheries are managed, will come eco-certification. Both will lead to the lakes getting taken off the avoid list by Seafood Watch.

PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Cathy Cox takes in loud, vocal criticism at a board meeting of the provincial fisher's association, Thursday.

Cox told the Free Press she remains committed to creating a sustainable fish population and moving towards eco-certification.

I know it is going to be a challenge, but I think it is part of my mandate and we need to ensure we have a healthy fish population, she said. We are committed to working with the fishers.

kristin.annable@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @kristinannable
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 08/12/2016 (2156 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

IN 1946, Viola Desmond refused to move from the whites-only section of the movie theatre. In 2018, her face will be printed on the Canadian $10 bill.

Desmond was chosen Thursday as the winner of the Bank of Canadas bank note-able Canadian woman campaign, and will be the first woman  other than the Queen  to be pictured on a banknote. She was chosen over four other women, including poet E. Pauline Johnson, Elsie MacGill, who received an electrical engineering degree from the University of Toronto in 1927, Quebec suffragette Idola Saint-Jean and 1928 Olympic track and field medallist Fanny Rosenfeld.

who was Viola Desmond?

Desmond was an African-Canadian business woman from Halifax. She was born in 1914, and died when she was 50 years old in 1965. Most well-known for her refusal to leave a racially segregated movie theatre in New Glasgow, N.S., Desmond is recognized as a Canadian civil rights icon.

JOE BRYKSA / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Viola Desmond, featured at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, will be the first Canadian woman to be celebrated on the face of her country's currency.

Desmond was trained as a teacher, but decided to attend beauty school after she became fed up with the absence of beauty products for black women. After attending the Field Beauty Culture School in Montreal, she continued her training in Atlantic City and New York. Finally, she opened Vis Studio of Beauty Culture in Halifax, where she sold her own line of beauty products that catered to black women. After that, she opened Desmonds School of Beauty Culture, where students from across Eastern Canada went to study.

What happened in the theatre?

Desmond was travelling through Nova Scotia on business in November 1946. She encountered car trouble, and while her car was being fixed, she decided to see a movie at the Roseland Theatre in New Glasgow.

Desmond bought her ticket and went to sit on the main floor of the Roseland, where an usher promptly told her she was not allowed. The main-floor ticket, according to the usher, was more expensive. So Desmond went back to the ticket booth to pay the difference for a main-floor ticket. The cashier told her the theatre would not sell main-floor tickets to black people. Theatre staff told her she could only sit on the balcony, which was reserved for blacks.

After having offered to pay the difference for the main-floor ticket, Desmond decided to sit on the main floor anyway. She refused to leave, at which point theatre staff called for police assistance. Police dragged Desmond out of the theatre, jailed her overnight and charged her for not paying the difference of tax between a main-floor ticket and a balcony ticket  a roughly one-cent difference.

What happened at trial?

Desmond went to trial and had to pay a $26 fine. She wasnt made aware of her legal rights, and as a result never sought legal counsel.

They didnt make it an issue of race, said Canadian Museum for Human Rights curator Travis Tomchuk. It was a lot more vague and fluid because Canadian laws didnt explicitly say where black people could and couldnt go like they did in the states.

Tomchuk said even in the black community Desmond lacked support at the time of her trial.

At the time, there were folks in the black community who just thought (the trial) was going to cause trouble, said Tomchuk. It sounds like her husband was one of those people. I think their marriage deteriorated after the trial.

The Nova Scotia government granted her a posthumous pardon in 2010.

What does Desmonds story mean to our nation?

Viola Desmond was a pretty incredible person in a lot of ways, said Tomchuk. Shes an important symbol of resistance to white supremacy. Also, this was 1946. She had her own business, a line of products and she was travelling around in a car on her own. As a feminist role model she is quite important.

Desmond is often referred to as the Canadian Rosa Parks, but Desmond refused to move from her theatre seat in Halifax nine years before Parks stayed put at the front of the bus in Alabama. Desmond represents a crucial time in the human rights and freedoms movement in Canada, and her story continues to inspire racial equality.

Desmond and her story are commemorated in an exhibit at the human rights museum.

rebecca.dahl@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @rebeccadaahl
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 08/12/2016 (2156 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg School Division trustees have challenged the city in court over the assessment of five large division properties not used as schools  with $750,000 a year in property taxes at stake.

Were trying to do the responsible thing, as would any property owner, board chairwoman Sherri Rollins said Thursday. It was something we talked about at budget last year.

The first challenge is the assessed value. Were trying to get it reassessed, Rollins said.

BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS The Winnipeg School Division wants the designation of five propertie changed from "other" to institutional, so it wouldn't have to pay any tax to the city.

But WSD also seeks to get the properties designation changed from other to institutional, so it wouldnt have to pay any tax to the city.

Any money wed recoup on behalf of the division would be good, Rollins said.

If the division wins, Rollins said, she is unsure if any taxes could be recovered retroactively.

City officials declined to comment on matters before the court.

The Court of Queens Bench has not yet set a date to hear the five separate legal actions.

It was not immediately clear Thursday why WSD has not challenged this before; some of the properties have been paying city taxes since the 1980s.

Theres six new trustees, and maybe were interested in new things, Rollins said.

Division officials say WSD paid about $750,000 in property taxes last year. Coming up with that money amounts to about a 0.44 per cent property tax increase for WSD ratepayers.

The five properties are assessed at a value of more than $5.4 million. Two are former schools, and the five are used for a variety of division offices, program staff, services and equipment.

The building department has two adjoining properties at 1395 and 1397 Spruce Street that were converted from an office building which WSD purchased.

The property at 1180 Notre Dame Ave. sits across a small side street from the main division headquarters and is popularly known as The Annex.

The property at 700 Elgin Ave. is a former school turned into division offices (which is for sale) and 1075 Wellington Ave. is a former school similarly housing offices for division programs and services. The Elgin site lost its institutional status in 1985 and the Wellington property in 1989.

Rollins could not say what the division pays on other non-school properties such as the Dafoe School on Grant Avenue, leased by two day care centres for several decades, or the school bus compound on Selkirk Avenue, or why they arent included in the challenge.

Were going to see what happens to those five, she said.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 09/12/2016 (2155 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Its been almost nine years since Gareth Henry fled Jamaica. Its not that he wanted to leave home. Its that if he hadnt, theres a chance hed now be dead, caught by the shocks of homophobic violence that stalked him and his friends.

Instead, hes long since settled in to the Hogtown hustle. Every day, he gets up and goes to work at a Toronto not-for-profit. This week, he celebrated his second anniversary with his partner; before that, he was married in Canada and later divorced.

In a way, the mundanity of that fact is also a blessing. It is a gift, Henry says, to be able to make those choices, to ride the roller-coaster of everyday life. This is what people do when theyre safe: they fall in love, break up, move on, try again.

JOE BRYKSA / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Gareth Henry was a marked man in his home country of Jamaica. He fled to Canada where he now helps others who are being persecuted for their sexual identity.

Too many of Henrys friends never got the chance to live safe like that. Too many of them died hoping.

The 39-year-old advocate could have been one of them. Its been almost a decade since that Valentines Day in 2007 when Henry and two other men were cornered by a mob at a pharmacy in the Jamaican capital of Kingston. Two hundred people wanted them dead.

The police, Henry says, were not on his side then. He was a gay man, a member of the pioneering LGBTTQ* rights group the Jamaican Forum of Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays (J-FLAG) in a country where human rights groups have documented intense homophobic oppression and violence.

(Officials) tend to try to normalize the experience of violence in the community, saying its gay-on-gay hate, Henry says. If officials dont denounce the violence, dont name it as homophobia, then that hate is being perpetuated by their silence.

So that is why Henry keeps working, trying to get more people around the world to safety. Today, he is a co-chairman of Rainbow Railroad, which helps LGBTTQ* people reach safe houses and countries where they can claim refugee status.

In the nine years since he left Jamaica, that work hasnt changed. If anything, its only grown more urgent. As Rainbow Railroads international visibility grows, more people contact the organization seeking help to escape danger at home.

Recently, a mother contacted Rainbow Railroad, hoping it could help her son escape. In another case, Henry supported a lesbian couple that had been brutalized with corrective rape. Their neighbours were threatening to rape them again.

Its not that people want to leave their home country thinking Canada is much better, or the U.S. or Europe, Henry says. Its that they dont have options. If they stay home the chance of them being murdered is very high.

Last year, 235 people from 70 countries reached out to Rainbow Railroad, looking for help. The group, which is largely run by volunteers, was able to provide 29 of them with money and support to reach safety and assisted another 48 with planning.

This year, those figures have skyrocketed. In just the first four months of 2016, Rainbow Railroad funded over 30 people on their way to safety; it has also worked to help resettle five LGBTTQ* people from Syria in Canada. The global need is great.

On Saturday  International Human Rights Day  Henry will be in Winnipeg to attend a private fundraiser for the Upside Down Tree Foundation, a Winnipeg not-for-profit that supports small charities with large cash infusions.

Last year, the group made a record $405,000 donation to Rainbow Railroad and is continuing that relationship this year.

The visit will be the first time Henry sees the Canadian Human Rights Museum exhibit in his honour, which features a large photograph of him and one of his quotes. Its an honour to be included, Henry says, but it makes him think of the people he knows who lost their lives.

That is for my community and my friends and people Ive worked with who died because theyre gay, he says. That is about them, their experience, their journey. They are the ones Im ever so grateful to.

Having escaped the threat to his own life, he now goes back to engage it again through someone elses eyes. But his own experiences give him a well of understanding with which to help others find a path.

Those who flee sometimes leave behind family who may also be at risk; Henrys own mother and sister followed him to Canada, with their own livelihoods in Jamaica endangered by their support for him.

Other refugees may successfully claim asylum in a safer country only to realize they will have to rebuild their lives from scratch. Their education or work experience may not be counted. They may have nothing but the clothes on their backs.

Meanwhile, homophobia doesnt vanish on the other side of any one border. Its easy to paint international LGBTTQ* rights as a sort of litmus test of right and wrong, but the realities are more complex.

Here, too, Henry has faced homophobia. Hes heard slurs thrown his way when hes walking down the street holding his partners hand. The difference, he says, is here he feels he can pick up the phone and get support and protection.

Meanwhile, there are things he left behind in Jamaica he misses; a love born of oppression but no less precious for that fact. Back home, we had a cause, he says. That was motivation. That was inspiration. We partied as if this was the last.

For many of our brothers and sisters, it was their last, he continues. There was this sense of community and camaraderie because we didnt know who is going to make it to tomorrow. So we just enjoyed and celebrated life. I miss that.

So the work goes on, and Henrys appeal to Canadians does too: he hopes the country will continue to capitalize on its position as a leader in LGBTTQ* rights and Canadians will press our leaders and communities to uphold that view.

Maybe we will think about the people we pass on the street each day and realize some of them may have come from a life of incredible oppression and pain. And that, Henry hopes, will move us all toward more compassion.

It will be with us for a lifetime because its two lives we have lived, he says. One that was lived in oppression and marred by violence and hatred and loss, and one where we have a second chance and are able to live free and be our authentic self.

For those interested in supporting Rainbow Railroad, they can be found at RainbowRailroad.ca. The Upside Down Tree, the Winnipeg not-for-profit that is sponsoring Henrys visit and supporting Rainbow Railroad, is at UpsideDownTree.ca.

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca
Opinion

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This article was published 09/12/2016 (2155 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If youre wondering what file is going to be the most important file for Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister and his Tories in 2017, Thursdays state-of-the-province address to the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce removed all doubt. Its health care, and its a smart move because there are few that would argue health care isnt an issue in Manitoba with the longest ER wait times in Canada.

As Mr. Pallister wrapped up his talk with the chamber, he and his newly named advisory panel are off to Ottawa, to attend a first ministers meeting hosted by the prime minister that begins today. On paper, the meeting is to discuss climate change, but Mr. Pallister has signalled his concerns about funding from Ottawa, putting pressure on provinces attempting to balance their budgets and provide quality health care.

The premier also talked Thursday about health care as a way of streamlining the bargaining process. In Manitobas health-care system alone, Mr. Pallister said, there are 169 bargaining units while in the rest of the Prairie provinces, there are less than 20 bargaining units combined. How the premier sold this idea to the crowd is really indicative of his skill as a speaker. Instead of talking dry numbers and cutbacks, which are sure to get peoples backs up, he focused instead on the fact that there are 47 bereavement clauses available within 169 bargaining agreements in the provinces health-care system. What this means, he pointed out, is that two members of the same family working in different bargaining units in health care, would have different levels of leave available if their mother died. Now, how could a union leader stand up and say they are against changing that? Answer: they couldnt.

WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Premier Brian Pallister

There could have been an informal drinking game for the chamber audience on Thursday requiring members to take a drink every time the premier mentioned the word team. Few would have left sober, frankly. Mr. Pallister talked about the need for everyone to work together to make Manitoba the most improved province  all hands on deck as he put it.

He proved his dedication to teamwork by interrupting his address several times in order to have audience members stand up for recognition, including not only MLAs of all political stripes, but his newly named members of his enterprise team as well as groups of students who were also attending and members of the government advisory panel. Everyone is on his team was the subtle message. They all can take part in the work ahead.

He also paused to hold back tears as he described his emotions while playing on a fastball team at an international tournament and hearing the Canadian anthem. His team, the underdogs won its first game against the first-ranked home team. The message there: you cant underestimate a Canadian or a Manitoban.

But Mr. Pallister is still missing some key team members. Namely, organized labour. He brushed off concerns that those named to his inner circle do no appear to include union leaders. Instead, he says he has talked to labour, including front-line workers as the Tories consult with Manitobans in preparation for the 2017 budget.

This was the premiers first state-of-the-province address and around 1,300 chamber members showed up to hear his vision as the province moves toward 2017. It ended with a standing ovation from a friendly crowd interested in buying Mr. Pallisters vision. Lets see if the unions will.
The Minnesota City Historical Association is hosting its annual Community Caroling event on Saturday, Dec. 10 at 6 p.m. at the Historic Baptist Church site, 140 Mill St. in Minnesota City. The event features, music, drama, community caroling, horse drawn wagon rides, and refreshments. There is no charge.
For her big day, Megan Kafer bought two caps.

One will go with the gown shell be wearing Friday as she receives her diploma from Winona State University. The other will be worn by Kaiser, the dog who almost never leaves her side.

I wouldnt be graduating without him, Kafer said of the 3-year-old German shepherd, who is among the elite few of his subspecies to have earned the title of service dog  and as of Friday, to trot across a graduation stage.

I probably wouldnt be here at all.

Kafer credits the dog for making her feel safe again, for slowly freeing her from the grip of post-traumatic stress, which shes had ever since her involvement in a fatal car accident four years ago.

She turned to medication in the months after the accident, fell into a cycle of self-harm and tried to take her own life.

Then she started reading about service dogs. She learned that they arent just for those who are blind, that they can also help those who are psychologically troubled.

Id always liked dogs, she said.

Kafer got in touch with Paws 4 Independence, a nonprofit in Caledonia that trains service dogs. The group told her they had a puppy.

Kafer took Kaiser to obedience classes, and he soon learned the skills that separate service dogs from the mutt down the street.

When Kafer approaches a large group of people, a trigger for her stress, Kaiser will act as a canine shield as they make their way through.

When Kafer is about to have a panic attack, Kaiser knows before she does and will press his body against hers to help calm her down.

Things got a million times better after I got him, Kafer said. He gave me my life back. For a while, I wouldnt leave the house without him.

Big-eared and black-snouted, Kaiser became a four-legged socialite at Winona State when Kafer started taking him to all of her classes.

More students know his name, she said, than know hers.

Kaiser has a chance to be a normal dog, to run and to play, when the two go home and his red vest comes off. But he is never truly off the clock.

Two years ago, Kafer was beginning a workout when Kaiser started pawing at her, forcing her to sit down.

He knew I was pregnant before I did, Kafer said, adding that Kaiser is as sweet as can be with 1-year-old Anneliese.

Theyre buddies, she said.

Kafer said that before her daughter came along, Kaiser gave her a reason to lift herself out of bed. There were mornings she would have liked to have stayed there, but that was impossible with a puppy tumbling all over the place.

He is perhaps the biggest reason she was able to earn her degree, she said  and now that she has, Kafer is already planning to return to school. She hopes to get a masters degree and become a registered nurse.

In every way, she is doing better.

Her panic attacks are getting seldom.

She is no longer afraid to leave the house without Kaiser.

And even with all of the eyes that will follow her Friday, Kafer probably wont need the help of her service dog as she crosses the stage and grabs her diploma.

But it will be nice, she said, to have him there.

Things got a million times better after I got him. He gave me my life back. For a while, I wouldnt leave the house without him. Megan Kafer
On Dec. 2, budget officials unveiled Minnesotas latest economic projection. The number, as it has been in the past few forecasts, demonstrated a significant over-collection of the peoples money.

For the 2016-17 budget cycle that ends this summer, state government has a $678 million surplus. For the 2018-19 biennium  or the period in which lawmakers will craft a budget during the upcoming legislative session  we have a $1.4 billion projected balance. With the trend projected to continue, were also on track to see this surplus more than double to over $2.8 billion during the 2020-21 budget cycle.

Its worth noting that revenue collections are down from a previous analysis, but were still projected to collect more than $45 billion from taxpayers over the next two years.

To quote the name of a game played on The Price is Right, thats too much!

Its time for government to yield to the people. They are the ones who continue to create any state budget surplus though their payment of taxes to the state, and we need to give them a long overdue financial break.

Youll recall thats what we attempted to do last session. Under the plan approved by 90 percent of Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate, we prioritized low to middle class Minnesotans by passing tax relief for working families, farmers, college students, Main Street business owners, and others.

In an unreal display of political gamesmanship, Governor Mark Dayton ignored the overwhelmingly bipartisan will of the legislature and vetoed the proposal. With yet another projected budget surplus, its a certainty that during the 2017 session well approve a similar plan.

As chair of the Minnesota House Property Tax and Local Government Finance Division, I once again look forward to finding ways to reduce your tax obligations. These consecutive, rapidly growing surpluses are proof that our state does not need more of your money. My goal moving forward is to reduce the amount that government takes from you, allowing you to keep more of what you earn.
25 years ago

this week (1991)

A Reedsburg man is dead after the car he was driving struck an embankment in heavy fog early Sunday in the town of La Valle. Marvin R. Schuette, 66, of E4597 Schuette Road, was taken by ambulance to Reedsburg Memorial Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 2:30 a.m. Schuette had been northbound on Decker Road. He traveled through the intersection of Decker Road and Pearson Road. His car struck the north side embankment beyond the intersection. The jaws of life were required to remove the door to evacuate Schuette. He was not wearing a seat belt.

A survivor of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Kenneth Harvey, 71, is in Pearl Harbor today for the 50th anniversary observance of the attack. As a naval Petty Officer 3rd Class on Pearl Harbor, he was an aviation metal smith, repairing PBY Flying Bullet warplanes.

The Village Board of West Baraboo is unhappy with Heritage Cablevisions services and rate increases and agreed Thursday to do something about it. The board will send a letter to the company expressing its dissatisfaction with the service and a Jan. 1, 1992 rate increase. Village Trustee Randy Refsland suggested sending a letter to Heritage Cablevision telling them that the village was unhappy with their service. Basic cable service will increase 84 cents in 1992 from $16.85 to $17.69. Expanded basic service will also increase by $1.10 from 65 cents to $1.75 after Jan 1, 1992. Premium movie channel service remains the same at $10.95.

50 years ago

this week (1966)

A barn on the Kern Weiland farm in Greenfield was destroyed by fire Sunday afternoon, together with a quantity of hay owned by Arthur Bailey, who rents the farm, while a number of pieces of machinery was also destroyed. The blaze was discovered about 3:45 p.m. and it was possible to get out of the building a tractor, drag and trailer and a few other tools but the plow, disc, road grader and other articles burned. It was fortunate that the wind was in the right direction and the ground fairly damp, for blazing embers were carried as far as the lawn of the Bailey home which adjoins the Weiland property. There was not damage to the house on the Weiland farm either.

Fire was discovered about 10 oclock last night and destroyed the barn on the William Harrison farm, located midway between Baraboo and Reedsburg on Highway 33. Firemen were able to save the granary which was somewhat damaged, and the silo, also somewhat damaged but it is believed the contents can be salvaged. All of the Harrisons hay was lost, together with some thousand bales of hay belonging to the Eugene Kedings who reside on an adjoining farm and had the hay stored in the Harrison barn. The Lawrence Giebels have an extensive pine planting nearby and it was feared that the heat might damage these but apparently they were untouched today. A corn picker which was standing next to the barn was moved to safety before the flames consumed the barn.

75 years ago

this week (1941)

News of the bombings in the Hawaiian and Philippine Islands brought anxiety to many a Baraboo home for there are unusually many Baraboo and former Baraboo men and boys located in those islands. So far as is known, Kenneth Harvey, son of Mr. and Mrs. Sam Harvey and Harry Hanson Jr., son of Mr. and Mrs. Harry L. Hanson, and Leroy Church, son of Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Church, are the only Baraboo boys actually at Pearl Harbor, which received one of the heaviest bombings. There are several others in the areas of the bombings, including, Roy Thomas, son of Mr. and Mrs. Herbert R. Thomas, who is located with the marines at Wake Island; Don H. Fauska, son of Mr. and Mrs. H. G. Fauska of Glenville, is also probably at Pearl Harbor for his last address was aboard the USS Cummings in Hawaii; Robert Springen, brother of Mrs. Walter Case, is stationed at Hickem Field. There is no word at this time regarding our Sauk county boys.

Still travelling into Baraboo are the many persons seeking work and information of every type relative to the huge powder plant. The file of cards at the local Chamber of Commerce office is steadily mounting in numbers, there being an estimated 1,800 filled out and waiting for mailing at the proper time. Those cards are being prepared to notify those interested as to when and where they can make a personal application to the regular employment office. Although there are some 1800 ready to mail, the actual number of person these will notify may be increased by at least several hundred. In many instances, one card will suffice for several persons, perhaps an entire party of men from one locality or a family where the father and sons are seeking work. In the meantime, the appraisal work in the Merrimac-Sauk Prairie area is rapidly being brought to a close and will be completed by the end of this week.

100 years ago

this week (1916)

A young man, Joe Pikel, died Monday night at the Reedsburg hospital following an operation. Last Saturday he was going to look at some traps and carried a gun. He fell and the gun discharged, entered the right arm, tore away the muscles, and cut the bone. He was taken to Reedsburg and the doctors tried to save the arm, but gangrene set in and the arm was amputated at the shoulder Monday night. He died soon afterwards.

A tree forty feet high will stand in all its glory at Christmas time in the courthouse square. The tree will be lighted with electricity; the band will play and the pupils of the public schools will sing under the direction of Mrs. Hyde of Madison. There will be about five hundred children gathered about the tree to sing, see the lights turned on, and Santa Claus arrive from the North Pole. The Elks are arranging to give baskets and when the Elks undertake anything of this nature the community may rest assured it will be done. Christmas falls on a Monday this year and the program in connection with the tree will probably be given on Saturday evening.

The two-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. Lee Cleveland fell backward into a childs bathtub of hot water. The child was seriously burned but will recover.
Members of parliament voted by secret ballot with 234 in favour and 56 opposed, meaning dozens of members of Park's own conservative Saenuri Party backed the motion to remove her. At least 200 members of the 300-seat chamber needed to vote for the motion for it to pass.

By Reuters: South Korean lawmakers on Friday voted overwhelmingly to impeach President Park Geun-hye over an influence-peddling scandal, setting the stage for her to become the country's first elected leader to be pushed from office in disgrace.

Members of parliament voted by secret ballot with 234 in favour and 56 opposed, meaning dozens of members of Park's own conservative Saenuri Party backed the motion to remove her. At least 200 members of the 300-seat chamber needed to vote for the motion for it to pass.

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Seven votes were disqualified, two members abstained and one member did not participate, the parliament speaker said.

The Constitutional Court must decide whether to uphold the motion, a process that could take up to 180 days. Park's duties were immediately assumed by Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn on an interim basis.

Park, 64, is accused of colluding with a friend and a former aide, both of whom have been indicted by prosecutors, to pressure big businesses to donate to two foundations set up to back her policy initiatives.

Park, who is serving a single five-year term that was set to end in February 2018, has denied wrongdoing but apologised for carelessness in her ties with her friend, Choi Soon-sil.

Park has been under heavy pressure to quit but this week said she would await the court's ruling on the impeachment vote.

Mass rallies have been held in the capital, Seoul, every Saturday for the past six weeks to press her to quit. Opinion polls show overwhelming public support for her impeachment.

Parliament was closed to the public on Friday on the orders of the speaker.

Hours before the vote, anti-Park activists scuffled with police as they tried to drive two tractors up to parliament's main gate, where more than a 1,000 protesters were gathered.

Police subsequently shut down traffic on a 10-lane highway in front of the parliament's grounds and blockaded a bridge leading to the area.

POLITICAL, ECONOMIC WORRIES

The daughter of a military ruler who led the country for 18 years before being assassinated by his disgruntled spy chief in 1979, Park would lose presidential immunity if she left office early, and could be prosecuted for abuse of power and bribery, among other charges.

A poll released on Friday showed her approval rating at 5 percent, a slight improvement from a record low 4 percent.

The survey by Gallup Korea - which is not affiliated with U.S.-based Gallup, Inc. - showed 81 percent of respondents supported impeachment.

If the motion passes, the Constitutional Court will determine whether parliament followed due process and whether there are sufficient grounds for impeachment, a process that will involve arguments from the two sides in public hearings.

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Prime Minister Hwang, who post is largely ceremonial, will assume interim presidential powers while the court deliberates.

Hwang takes the helm at a time of heightened tension with North Korea.

South Korea's economic outlook is also worsening, in part because of the internal political uncertainty, as well as worry about the impact of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's policies on trade and foreign affairs.

The 9-member Constitutional Court is considered conservative in its makeup but some of its former judges have said the case against Park is strong and was likely to be approved.

In 2004, parliament impeached then-president Roh Moo-hyun, suspending his powers for 63 days while the court reviewed the decision, which it overturned.

The most-searched items on leading web portal Naver on Friday were related to what happened around Roh's impeachment.

The prime minister at the time, Goh Kun, said in a 2013 memoir that he had decided to stay "low key" while he held the reins of power.

"Even if his duty was suspended, President Roh was staying at the Blue House residence. There was no need to create unnecessary tension," Goh wrote.

--- ENDS ---

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NORTH FREEDOM  The local public library here has once again been named a five-star institution by the Library Journal Index of Public Library Service. The North Freedom Public Library is the only Wisconsin institution to receive the top mark in the report.

Two hundred and sixty libraries across the country were ranked, with each receiving a three, four or five-star rating. This marks the third consecutive year the North Freedom Public Library has earned five stars.

Its one more reason to be proud of the library, said Library Director Raina Roloff.

Library board president Kathy Andreasen said the library is honored to receive a top rating and thankful for support from the community.

Were very proud of the programs that are offered, she said. We have a very supportive library board, our village board is also very supportive, and so is the community.

This year North Freedom Public Library moved from the under $50,000 expenditure group to the $50,000 to $100,000 category.

Roloff said the increased operating budget was the result of more fundraising measures.

We were the big fish in the little pond, and now were the little fish in the bigger pond, Roloff said. And were still a five-star.

The Library Journal Index ranks libraries based on per capita output measures.

Eligible libraries are put in groups based on their total operating budget and then rated on how five different output measures compare to the group averages. The measures are library visits, circulation, program attendance, public internet use and  new this year  electronic circulation. To participate, a library must send in the relevant information.

Like most rural community libraries, Roloff said North Freedoms eBook circulation is small compared to urban areas, but it is growing. Im seeing more usage of it, she said.

Andreasen said Roloff played an integral role in earning the five-star designation.

Were really lucky to have Raina Roloff as our library director, she said. Shes very innovative  shes always bringing in different things for the kids, as well as the adults.
MADISON - Two people from Columbus were arrested Monday in a string of armed robberies across multiple counties, the Dane County Sheriff's Office said Friday.

Jacob Scheel, 32, and Nicole Nichols, 36, were arrested following a robbery Sunday night at a Columbus Subway restaurant, according to the sheriff's office.

The string of robberies began Oct. 15 at a BP gas station in the Dane County town of Burke. Other armed robberies occurred in Marshall, Sun Prairie, DeForest, McFarland and the Dane County town of Dunn.

The Columbus police began investigating the Subway robbery and, finding almost no leads, turned to the Wisconsin Crime Alert Network, which is used to communicate between agencies, said Columbus Police Lt. Dennis Weiner. Within minutes the Sun Prairie Police Department responded, saying officers there knew who had committed the robbery.

The two departments, along with others affected by the string of robberies, worked together to issue a search warrant for Scheel and Nichols' residence Monday night. The pair were arrested and taken to Columbia County Jail, Weiner said.

Scheel was charged with 10 counts of armed robbery, while Nichols faces tentative charges of eight counts of being party to the crime of armed robbery. She admitted to driving Scheel to and from most of the robberies.
Theft  Wednesday at 12:36 p.m., someone at Fleet Farm, 1815 N. Spring St., told police an employee stole cash.

Theft  Wednesday at 3:40 p.m., a woman reported the theft of her debit card in the 800 block of West Street.

Theft  Wednesday at 6:01 p.m., a woman reported the theft of a projector light in the 400 block of West Mackie Street.

Drugs  Wednesday at 7:52 p.m., someone in the 900 block of North Spring Street reported smelling the strong odor of marijuana.

Person with a weapon  Wednesday at 9:15 p.m., a mother told police that while her daughter was at the mailbox in the 200 block of Industrial Drive, a man came from the overpass and pointed a weapon at her.

Suspicious  Thursday at 3 a.m., an employee at Wal-Mart Supercenter, 120 Frances Lane, told police that two children were hiding in a bin in the back room. One child took off and the other person was cited with violating curfew hours and was released to her/his father.

Disorderly conduct  Thursday at 4:59 a.m., a man told police that he could hear people screaming outside in the 300 block of North Lincoln Avenue. Police received many other calls reporting a woman screaming. Two people were cited for disorderly conduct.
Juneau County was among the first counties in the state to complete the historic presidential election recount.

On Wednesday, the Wisconsin Elections Commission reported that Juneau County was among 34 counties to finish recounting votes cast in the Nov. 8 election. Green Party candidate Jill Stein requested a recount in Wisconsin, along with Michigan and Pennsylvania. As of Thursday night, 82 percent of counties had reported recount totals.

Juneau County Clerk Kathleen Kobylski said her canvassers finished the countys recount on Monday at 10:30 a.m.

Because of hand recounting I was worried it was going to take longer, Kobylski said. Everything went very well; the crew we had working were very good. We learned from experience.

The longtime clerk, who will retire on Dec. 31, said she learned a more efficient recounting process after the last statewide recount in 2011.

The only changes were that (Donald) Trump received seven more votes and (Hillary) Clintons total stayed the same, Kobylski said.

Trump received 7,130 votes, while Clinton picked up 4,073. Steins total remained at 105 votes with no change from the countywide canvass that occurred a week after the election.

For the recount, Kobylski had nine workers tallying votes throughout last week.

Deadline to complete the recount is Monday, Dec. 12 at 8 p.m., and all counties are on pace to finish by Monday evening.

Most of the counties that finished early are rural counties, including Adams, Jackson, Vernon and Columbia. Kobylski didnt know Juneau County was among the first to finish until being notified on Friday.

Well, we had a good system in place and it went really smooth this time, Kobylski said.

According to the commission, election totals havent changed much. Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence originally led Clinton and running mate Tim Kaine by 22,177 votes. Through Wednesday, Trump and Pence were up 410 votes and Clinton/Kaine gained 492 votes. Stein and running mate Ajamu Baraka gained 60 votes.

Not including the City of Milwaukee, Clinton and Kaine gained 82 more votes than Trump and Pence, but were still behind. The commission said when a county reports a difference of 10 or more votes in a ward or combination of wards, the board of canvassers is providing an explanation to the commission.

Most changes in results from Nov. 8 are the result of human error.

For instance, in the City of Marinette, the countys board of canvassers found out that the use of nonstandard ink pens caused about 309 absentee ballots to be undercounted. The commission said because the ballots were absentee, poll workers should have identified the error and remade the ballots with standard pens that could be read by an optical scanner. All ballots in Marinette County were recounted by hand. Trump/Pence gained 118 votes, while Clinton/Kaine picked up 166 more votes.

The commission also addressed a few stories released on the internet through fake news outlets. In Waukesha County, votes for Trump and Pence are not being recounted twice. Ballots can be placed into scanners face up or down. Before they are scanned, campaign representatives have an opportunity to review the ballots and ask questions.

St. Croix County was in the news after an authorized technician broke warranty seals on some scanners while doing maintenance work. The technician didnt have replacement seals available, but the commission is confident voting equipment in St. Croix County is accurately tabulating and reporting results.

For updated information on the Wisconsin recount, go to www.elections.wi.gov.
Two Madison police officers who used expletives and vulgar language to counter critics of the department on social media were disciplined in response to a citizen complaint about their posts.

Additionally, four officers who made inappropriate suggestions for dealing with the homeless population Downtown were sanctioned.

A July 18 complaint from former Madison Ald. Brenda Konkel questioned the comments made by Officers Dean Baldukas and Scott McConnell on two Change.org petitions.

One petition supported the department, the other one called for increased accountability from it. Both circulated online, collecting hundreds of signatures during a tense summer for community- police relations over concerns about officers use of force and alleged racial bias, as well as bad blood between Chief Mike Koval and the City Council over an outside review of the department.

McConnells two posts, one on each of the petitions, coarsely insulted progressives in one remark, while the other said, You people go (expletive) yourselves.

Baldukas posted his comment defending his fellow officers only on the pro-police petition.

Glory-holing nincompoops who are out of touch with reality and common sense should focus on the good work done by officers on a daily basis, rather than whoring themselves to the media in order to stroke their egos and justify their puny existence, said Baldukas, who sought the police chiefs position in 2013, claiming low officer morale. Time to smell the salts, you dolts.

An investigation by Professional Standards and Internal Affairs Lt. Amy Chamberlin found the officers violated a city administrative rule concerning inappropriate use of computer network resources  for using their city-issued email addresses in the posts  and police department procedure governing rules for off-duty social media use.

Those rules require personnel to represent the core values of the police department even while using the internet for personal purposes and whether an officer is on or off-duty, according to Chamberlins letter to Konkel reporting the results of the internal investigation, which Konkel shared Thursday with the Wisconsin State Journal.

The content of the officers comments to both of the Change.org petitions did not reflect (the departments) Core Values, Chamberlin said, adding that, even though the officers were off-duty and not using the departments computers, (they) were not professional in their representation of the department in their statements.

A separate review by City Attorney Michael May found the discipline for the infractions ordered by the department did not violate the two officers free speech rights. The range of possible sanctions were verbal counseling, documented counseling, a letter of reprimand, suspension/reduction in rank and being fired, according to Sgt. Erik Fuhremann.

Based in part on prior discipline history for each officer, Koval gave McConnell two sanctions of documented counseling and Baldukas one sanction each of documented counseling and a letter of reprimand.

Im glad they acknowledged the activities of the officers were not acceptable and in fact a violation of the policy, but it seems like there are no real consequences for the behavior, Konkel said. Sounds like they got a stern talking to and thats about it. No retraining or corrective behaviors are required. If that is all that happens, what prevents them, or others from doing this again in a year?

In a separate matter, Central District Patrol Lt. Brian Austin investigated a so-called whiteboard incident, which took place in late August during a brainstorming session by officers in a common briefing room in the Central District station.

Using a dry-erase board, various officers posted ideas for dealing with problems involving homeless people congregating at the top of State Street.

The list started with serious ideas for discouraging loitering in the area, such as removing a low wall and installing decorative spikes in planters, according to a Sept. 7 Isthmus article. But later in the list, the suggestions became facetious, including what police leaders later described as attempts at dark humor such as Burmese tiger pits, quicksand and lava.

Some of these suggestions violated the Madison Police Departments Code of Conduct for Courtesy, Respect and Professional Conduct, Austin wrote to Konkel.

Four officers found to have made inappropriate suggestions received documented counseling, said Austin, who declined to name them, citing long-standing policy for this type of internal ... incident.

That didnt sit well with Konkel, an outspoken advocate for the homeless.

Im really worried that it was the Community Policing Team  the district problem-solvers  that made the notes on the white board, Konkel said. If so, that is significant and I think the public deserves to know (their names).
Parents like Kate Nelson and Jamie Kling find many misconceptions surrounding Type 1 diabetes. The diagnosis is always devastating, more common than youd think and it challenges everyone involved, from the parents and children to school nurses.

Education, they said, saves lives.

Symptoms of T1 diabetes often mimic the flu, Nelson and Kling cautioned. Their 7-year-old son, Henry, is one of eight students with T1 diabetes in the Portage Community School District. A week before his diagnosis, in March, Henry had influenza. But his parents noticed he was going to the bathroom more than usual and brought him to the hospital for testing. The tests confirmed he had the disease, one that affects 1.25 million Americans including 200,000 youth.

Symptoms can be very subtle, said Kling, a family practice physician at Dean Clinic in Baraboo. They could be hungry, losing weight  packing food in but not gaining (weight). Those are things to talk to your doctor about.

Not catching the early signs of T1 diabetes can be fatal. According to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, warning signs also include extreme thirst, drowsiness, sudden vision changes and labored breathing.

The biggest misconception, Nelson said, is people think its the same as Type 2 diabetes, brought on by poor eating, being overweight.

Its an autoimmune disease and has nothing to do with that.

While T2 diabetes is the most common form of the disease  affecting more than 27 million Americans, according to the American Diabetes Association  schools more often see T1 in students. Portage elementary school nurse Valerie Hon said T1 diabetes affects 1 in 335 students in the district, which currently does not have any students diagnosed with T2. The national average for T1 diabetes is 1 in 400 to 500 children.

T1 diabetes is when the pancreas no longer makes insulin, Hon explained. The body needs insulin in order to process food into usable energy. T2 diabetes is a metabolic disorder where the pancreas might not make enough insulin or the body is unable to use what is made appropriately. T1 diabetes occurs often in children and some adults up to age 30, while T2 occurs typically in people over 40, though thats changing.

Hon on a regular basis works with three elementary students who have T1 diabetes, and Suzanne Van Hoof works with the five middle and high school students who have the disease.

The most important thing for folks to know, Hon said, is related to the working relationship between parents, school and medical providers in order to create a safe, functional plan for each student with health issues.

The child is at the center of this relationship. The safety of the child is the center point. We must work together. And if things come up, we talk together to work through situations as they happen.

Round-the-clock support

Erin and Philip ORourke of Portage learned their 4-year-old daughter, Amelia, had T1 diabetes when she was 15 months old.

Amelia was going to the bathroom a lot, had lost weight and was breathing heavy before her parents rushed her to the emergency room. When doctors determined Amelia had T1 diabetes, she was taken by ambulance to University of Wisconsin Hospital, as is protocol.

Parents should know theres no cure, and to know the signs, said Erin ORourke. Parents who dont have children should know the signs too, to catch it early.

Amelias blood sugar is checked several times a day. In August she was put on an insulin pump, which the family and doctors are still testing and tweaking. Amelia is tested before meals and during activities to see if she goes too high or low. Our main worry is catching the lows at night, ORourke said. Were still getting up at 3 a.m. to check her because our fear is she wont wake up because shes so low.

Henry, now transitioning to the pump, needs a shot for every meal and before bed, Nelson said. He averages five shots a day. During school he meets with Hon two to three times a day.

Its 24-7, Nelson said. We never stop.

Its a lot more complex than people think, Nelson added. Its a very serious, lifelong disease and takes careful management.

When Amelia starts school, shell go to Woodridge because the ORourkes live close by.

Nelson and Kling live in Baraboo, but theyll soon move to Portage to get closer.

The families know each other from a support group that had been meeting once a month at St. Johns in Portage, but the group is determining a new calendar. Parents interested in learning more about local support should contact the schools.

There are people who are there to help you along the way, which is nice to know, ORourke said. Youre not alone.

School relationships

Each childs needs are unique, Hon said, and may change at any time. Considerations are many for nurses, including the insulin administration, the medication orders for insulin changing for the carbohydrate ratio in meals or snacks, and whether a child has been ill, going through a growth sport or has had blood sugar running high or low.

School nurses need to have very active relationships with the families and clinicians, especially for students whove been recently diagnosed or are experiencing changes. The process involves an understanding of state law, a lot of paperwork, physician orders and a trained staff to assist with emergency care plans unique to each student, among other procedures.

I feel strongly that the care of students with diabetes requires no interruptions, Hon said. Enough staff, of various sorts, is needed to safely complete the tasks for each student when the need arises.

Care tasks at mealtime are just one focus for nurses. If one student needs more time than expected, Hon said, that can impact the next student located in another building.

You cannot just walk away in the middle, Hon said. As student needs rise, more school nurses are needed to meet those needs. You just cant split a nurse in half to cover tasks that happen at the exact same time.

Insulin injections at school are recorded in communication books both for the parents and for the schools own records, including how much insulin was used, at what time and where on the body.

Real-time information is critical, Hon said.

Other diseases school nurses deal with include seizure disorders, food allergies and asthma. Moreover, the general administration of any medication, Hon said, is serious.

Ask questions

Parents of children with T1 diabetes are often met with a phrase like, at least its not cancer, Nelson said. But thats an unfair assumption. While the family does try to keep things in perspective, T1 diabetes is both exhaustive and potentially fatal.

Its not as easy as counting carbs, Nelson said. It changes all the time, is very hard to control and depends on the day.

One problem we have, is people will sometimes say, Oh, my grandma has diabetes so I know how to take care of it, Kling said.

(But) people need to ask questions and know Type 1 is not the same as Type 2.

Kids are difficult. Theyre going to be active and show examples of low blood sugar  theyll look tired and confused  but after recess, most kids look tired. So it really is a difficult disease.

The biggest misconception is people think its the same as Type 2 diabetes, brought on by poor eating, being overweight. Its an autoimmune disease and has nothing to do with that.  Kate Nelson, parent of 7-year-old son with Type 1 diabetes
God rules over the affairs of mankind and the nations of the earth. At this time God is showing mercy over all flesh. The Lord will judge all people when Jesus returns to set up his earthly kingdom. Satan will be destroyed in the lake of fire and all the fallen angels that follow him, as well as the people who refuse to follow Jesus. Those who choose to follow Jesus will receive eternal life. Romans 6:23 says For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Jesus defeated death, he rose from the grave no longer flesh and blood. He now has a body of flesh and bone. Luke 24:39 says Behold my hands and my feet that it is I myself. Handle me and see, for spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have. This is why the Bible says that Jesus became the second Adam, for the first Adam fell into sin and death that day on Earth.

When Jesus returns there will be no more death, the Lord will bring life to all that trust in Him. The Bible says that the dead in Christ will rise first and those alive on Earth will be changed.

In 1 Corinthians 15:52 it says In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

When Jesus returns there will be no more liars, wickedness, murders and no more elections, for our God reigns.
Government by tweeting is a new and potentially perilous tack.

President-elect Donald Trump is proving that to be the case with a couple of tweets that have raised eyebrows when he claimed to have won the U.S. popular vote for president if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally and caused a flap with China in the past week.

And, once again, the president-elect was quick to rip on Alec Baldwin and his Saturday Night Live skit, demonstrating a less-than-thick skin.

House Speaker Paul Ryan was quick to excuse Trumps tweeting tendencies, commenting on CBS 60 Minutes, Who cares what he tweeted on some Thursday night (about the election results) if we fix this countrys big problems?

Well, that depends on the tweet.

China cares, obviously, and Trumps tweet on taking a congratulatory message from Taiwan leader Tsai Ing-wen and then a follow-up tweet accusing Beijing of manipulating its currency, unfairly taxing U.S. products and militarizing the South China Sea, sent diplomats scurrying for cover.

Chinas Foreign Ministry lodged a diplomatic complaint with U.S. officials, warning that the One China principle was the political basis of bilateral ties, Reuters news agency reported.

Was this a call for a tough new China policy? Or just a tweeting accident?

It was hard to tell from the follow-up explanations from Trumps team. Incoming White House chief of staff Reince Priebus said Trump knew exactly what was happening when he spoke with Tsai, but Vice President-elect Mike Pence said it was nothing more than taking a courtesy call of congratulations from the Taiwanese president.

The problem is that tweets  like elections  have consequences. China and the U.S. are the two largest economies in the world with an estimated $660 billion in annual trade together, but the two countries also have fractured relations over Chinas island-building encroachments in the South China Sea and alleged Chinese cybertheft of U.S. commercial secrets.

Those dealings and difficulties should not be undone by a pre-presidential tweet that is  as one news report put it  either a calculated shift in U.S. foreign policy, a geopolitical game, or simply a rookie mistake.

It would be in the national interest if Trump put down his smartphone and focused on developing clear national policies with his transition team and putting them forth in a diplomatic fashion.

And for gosh sakes, just stop watching SNL.
By India Today Web Desk: The Supreme Court on Friday sought the Centre's response on the appointment of senior Gujarat cadre officer Rakesh Asthana as CBI's interim director.

Hearing the matter, the apex court issued a notice to the Centre and sought a reply by December 16. It asked the Centre to explain why Asthana was appointed as the interim CBI director. It asked the Centre to explain why Special Director RK Dutta's tenure was cut short and transferred to the Home Ministry without the recommendations of the committee. It sought to know whether proper procedures were followed to transfer Dutta who was the most senior officer in CBI.

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Under the rules, it is necessary to get the CVC's approval to reduce the tenure of any CBI officer.

ALSO READ | Rakesh Asthana appointed as Interim CBI director: 'Team Gujarat' strengthens itself in Delhi

Dutta was a part of the team which investigated the 2G and coal block allocation scams. The apex court had asked the Centre to seek its permission before transferring the officers associated with these two cases. But this has not been followed in Dutta's case.

Representing NGO Common Cause, senior advocate Prashant Bhushan said the Centre wanted to finish off the CBI.

The Centre informed that the process to select a new CBI director has been initiated. A meeting of the prime minister, Leader of Opposition and Chief Justice of India in this regard will be held shortly.

--- ENDS ---
A flooring center, a lighting shop and a dollar store have opened in Reedsburg in recent weeks.

This handful of new businesses has set up shop in existing buildings. Heres a look at the latest additions.

Reedsburg Flooring

The Reedsburg Flooring Store, 101 W. Main St., sells and installs tile, wood, carpet and other types of surfaces. Showroom Manager and Interior Designer Pamela Holtz said the store offers its services as far away as Madison and Richland Center or communities that are about an hour to an hour and a halfs drive from Reedsburg.

She said many of the owners and employees have prior experience working with flooring. Two of the owners, Nick McPherson and Matt LaRowe, have discussed opening a store for years and decided to partner on the effort. Freeman Decorah is also an owner.

The store opened in October.

Reedsburg Flooring also offers custom showers, which have grown in popularity as customers remodel and modernize their bathrooms. Holtz said specialty showers include such features as heated floors and attractive shelves.

The store also sells numerous name brands and is an exclusive Mohawk dealer in Reedsburg, she said.

Holtz added that the owners and employees are happy to be in the area. Many have lived and worked here for years and feel at home in Reedsburg.

Reedsburg Flooring is open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. For more information find The Reedsburg Flooring Store on Facebook.

Reedsburg Lighting

Reedsburg Lighting and Home has opened in a building once occupied by The Lemonade Workshop. The lighting and accessories store, 46 E. Main St., specializes in selling fixtures at affordable prices, said co-owner Mark Waldon.

He runs the store with his sister-in-law Rebecca Waldon. Mark said he worked as a representative for a lighting manufacturer for years in Denver. He owns some property near Hillsboro so he frequently visits the area. When he saw the building available for rent he decided to leave the corporate life behind and start his own business, he said.

Rebecca said she lives in Reedsburg so she knows the area and understand its needs. She said the Internet offers some terrific prices but customer service is a concern for customers. If theres a problem with merchandise, people like having a physical location for returns and exchanges.

Were bringing Internet pricing to Main Street, Mark said.

Mark said he has experience with both residential and commercial lighting and knows how to help a variety of customers whether they are remodeling an entire home or business or just installing a new light.

The store also tries to set itself apart with its setup. Instead of lining up rows of lighting, the Waldons have arranged store displays in quaint compartments. Rebecca said it helps customers see how the light will look in their rooms at home.

She added that they are glad to be part of Reedsburg. The community has so much to offer between flooring and cabinetry stores as well as contractors and do-it-yourself places.

Everybody can do everything they need right here, she said.

Reedsburg Lighting and Home is open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday and Wednesday through Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. For more information find Reedsburg Lighting and Home on Facebook.

Dollar Tree

Dollar Tree has opened in the former Family Dollar, 2670 E. Main St. Suite J. This dollar-store chain is open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday. For more information visit www.dollartree.com.
The following companies are subsidiares of SAP: Abakus, Abakus Europe Limited, Abakus Ukraine Limited Liability Company, Adatfeldolgozasban Informatikai Kft., Altiscale, Ambin Properties Proprietary Limited, AppGyver, Ariba, Ariba Czech s.r.o., Ariba Inc. Palo Alto, Ariba India Private Limited, Ariba International, Ariba International Holdings, Ariba International Singapore Pte Ltd, Ariba Slovak Republic s.r.o., Ariba Software Technology Services (Shanghai) Co., Ariba Technologies India Private Limited, Ariba Technologies Netherlands B.V., Beijing Zhang Zhong Hu Dong Information Technology, Business Objects, Business Objects Holding B.V., Business Objects Option LLC, Business Objects Software Limited, CNQR Operations Mexico S. de. R.L. de. C.V., Callidus Software, CallidusCloud, Christie Partners Holding C.V., Clear Standards, ClearTrip Inc., ClearTrip Inc. (Mauritius), Cleartrip MEA FZ LLC, Cleartrip Private Limited, Coghead, ConTgo Consulting Limited, ConTgo Pty. Ltd., Concur (Austria) GmbH, Concur (Canada), Concur (France) SAS, Concur (Germany) GmbH, Concur (Japan) Ltd., Concur (New Zealand) Limited, Concur (Philippines) Inc., Concur (Switzerland) GmbH, Concur Czech (s.r.o.), Concur Holdings (France) SAS, Concur Holdings (Netherlands) B.V., Concur Technologies (Australia) Pty. Limited, Concur Technologies (Hong Kong) Limited, Concur Technologies (India) Private Limited, Concur Technologies (Singapore) Pte Ltd, Concur Technologies (UK) Limited, Concur Technologies Inc. Bellevue, Contextor, Coresystems, Crystal Decisions (Ireland) Limited, Crystal Decisions Holdings Limited, Crystal Decisions UK Limited, Emarsys, EssCubed Procurement Pty. Ltd., Extended Systems, Factory Logic, Fedem Technology AS, Fieldglass Europe Limited, Financial Fusion, FreeMarkets Ltda., Frictionless Commerce, Gigya, Gigya Australia Pty Ltd, Gigya Ltd., Gigya UK Ltd, GlobalExpense Limited, Highdeal, Hipmunk, Hybris (US) Corp., Hybris GmbH, Inxight Federal Systems Group, KXEN, Khimetrics, LLC "SAP Labs", LLC "SAP Ukraine", LLC SAP CIS, MaXware, Merlin Systems Oy, Multiposting Sp.z o.o., Nihon Ariba K.K., OpTier, OutlookSoft, OutlookSoft Deutschland GmbH, PLAT.ONE, PT SAP Indonesia, PT Sybase 365 Indonesia, Pilot Software Inc., Plat.One Inc., Plat.One Lab Srl, Plateau Systems LLC, Quadrem Africa Pty. Ltd., Quadrem Brazil Ltda., Quadrem Chile Ltda., Quadrem Colombia SAS, Quadrem International Ltd., Quadrem Netherlands B.V., Quadrem Overseas Cooperatief U.A., Quadrem Peru S.A.C., Qualtrics, Recast.AI, Right Hemisphere, Roambi, Ruan Lian Technologies (Beijing) Co., SAF, SAP (Beijing) Software System Co., SAP (Schweiz) AG, SAP (Schweiz) AG Biel, SAP (UK) Limited, SAP (UK) Limited Feltham, SAP AZ LLC, SAP America, SAP America Inc. Newtown Square, SAP Andina y del Caribe, SAP Argentina S.A., SAP Asia (Vietnam) Co., SAP Asia Pte Ltd, SAP Australia Pty Ltd, SAP Australia Pty Ltd. Sydney, SAP Belgium NV/SA, SAP Beteiligungs GmbH, SAP Brasil Ltda, SAP Brasil Ltda Sao Paulo, SAP Bulgaria EOOD, SAP Business Compliance Services GmbH, SAP Business Services Center Nederland B.V., SAP CR, SAP Canada, SAP Chile Limitada, SAP China Co., SAP China Co. Ltd. Shanghai, SAP China Holding Co., SAP Colombia S.A.S., SAP Commercial Services Ltd., SAP Concur, SAP Costa Rica, SAP Customer Experience, SAP Cyprus Limited, SAP Danmark A/S, SAP Deutschland SE & Co. KG, SAP Deutschland SE & Co. KG Walldorf, SAP Dritte Beteiligungs- und Vermogensverwaltungs GmbH, SAP EMEA Inside Sales S.L., SAP East Africa Limited, SAP Egypt LLC, SAP Erste Beteiligungs- und Vermogensverwaltungs GmbH, SAP Espana - Sistemas Informatica, SAP Estonia OU, SAP Fieldglass, SAP Financial, SAP Finland Oy, SAP Foreign Holdings GmbH, SAP France, SAP France Holding, SAP France Levallois Perret, SAP Global Marketing, SAP Hellas S.A., SAP Holdings (UK) Limited, SAP Hong Kong Co., SAP Hosting Beteiligungs GmbH, SAP Hungary Rendszerek, SAP India (Holding) Pte Ltd, SAP India Private Limited, SAP India Private Limited Bangalore, SAP Industries, SAP Industries Inc. Newtown Square, SAP International, SAP International Panama, SAP Investments, SAP Ireland Limited, SAP Ireland US - Financial Services Designated Activity Company, SAP Israel Ltd., SAP Italia Sistemi Applicazioni Prodotti in Data Processing S.p.A., SAP Italia Sistemi Applicazioni Prodotti in Data Processing S.p.A. Vimercate, SAP Japan Co., SAP Japan Co. Ltd. Tokyo, SAP Kazakhstan LLP, SAP Korea Ltd., SAP Labs, SAP Labs Bulgaria EOOD, SAP Labs Finland Oy, SAP Labs France SAS, SAP Labs India Private Limited, SAP Labs Israel Ltd., SAP Labs Korea, SAP Latvia SIA, SAP MENA FZ L.L.C., SAP Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., SAP Malta Investments Ltd., SAP Mxico S.A. de C.V., SAP National Security Services PA, SAP Nederland B.V., SAP Nederland B.V. s-Hertogenbosch, SAP Service and Support Centre (Ireland) Limited, SAP SuccessFactors, SAP d.o.o., SeeWhy, Signavio, SuccessFactors, SuccessFactors Inc. South San Francisco, SwoopTalent, Sybase, Syclo, TopTier Software, Triversity, Vimercate, Virsa Systems, Visiprise, Wicom Communications, and conTgo limited.

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Vipshop Holdings Limited operates online platforms for various brands in the People's Republic of China. It operates in Vip.com, Shan Shan Outlets, and Others segments. The company offers women's apparel, such as casual wear, jeans, dresses, outerwear, lingerie, pajamas, and maternity clothes; men's apparel comprising casual and smart-casual T-shirts, polo shirts, jackets, pants, and underwear; and skin care and cosmetic products, including cleansers, lotions, face and body creams, face masks, sunscreen, foundations, lipsticks, eye shadows, and other cosmetics-related items. It also provides shoes and bags, which comprises casual and formal shoes, purses, satchels, luggage, duffel bags, and wallets; handbags; apparel, gears and accessories, furnishings and decor, toys, and games for boys, girls, infants, and toddlers; sportswear, sports gear, and footwear for various sporting activities; home furnishings, such as bed and bath products, home decor, kitchen and tabletop items, and home appliances; and consumer electronic products. In addition, the company offers food and snacks, beverages, fresh produce, and pet goods; beauty products; and internet finance services, including consumer and supplier financing, and microcredit. Vipshop Holdings Limited provides its branded products through its vip.com and vipshop.com online platforms, as well as through its internet website and cellular phone application. Further, it offers warehousing, logistics, product procurement, research and development, technology development, and consulting services; software development and information technology support solutions; and supply chain services. Vipshop Holdings Limited was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Guangzhou, the People's Republic of China.
The following companies are subsidiares of Quanta Services: (De) Lazy Q Ranch LLC, 1 Diamond LLC, 1Diamond AS, 618232 Alberta Ltd., 8246408 Canada Inc., Advanced Electric Systems, Advanced Electric Systems LLC, Advanced Utility Testing & Maintenance LLC, Alexander Publications LLC, Allteck GP Ltd., Allteck Limited Partnership, Apprenticeship Programs Inc., Arby Construction, Arcanum Chemicals LLC, Arnett & Burgess Oil Field Construction Limited, Arnett & Burgess Pipeliners (Rockies) LLC, Arnett & Burgess Pipeliners Ltd., B&N Clearing and Environmental LLC, Banister Pipelines Constructors Corp., Banister Pipelines Constructors GP Ltd., Banister Pipelines Limited Partnership, Brent Woodward Inc., Brink Constructors Inc., Brink Constructors Inc. A Corporation Of South Dakota, Brown Engineering and Testing, CAT SPEC Ltd., CAT-SPEC Limited Partnership, CAT-SPEC Limited Partnership (Regd Name) CAT SPEC Ltd., CAT-Spec Limited Partnership, Canadian Utility Construction Corp., Cat Spec Limited LP, Cat Spec Ltd, Cat Spec Ltd. L.P., Cat Spec Ltd. LP, Cat Spec. Ltd. LP, Cat-Spec Ltd (A Domestic limited Partnership), Cat-Spec Ltd LP, Cat-Spec Ltd., Cat-Spec Ltd. L.P., Cat-Spec Ltd. LP, Cat-Spec Ltd. Limited Partnership, Catalyst Changers Inc., Chatham Electric, Citadel Industrial Services L.P., Citadel Industrial Services Ltd., Citadel Industrial Services Ltd. L.P., Citadel Industrial Services Ltd. Limited Partnership, Coe Drilling Pty Ltd., Computapole, Conam Construction Co., Consolidated Power Projects Australia Pty Ltd, Conti Communications Inc., Crux Subsurface Canada Ltd., Crux Subsurface Inc., Cutting Technology - 1 Diamond LLC, DB Utilities Inc., DE Lazy Q Ranch LLC, DNR Pressure Welding Ltd., Dacon Corporation, Dashiell (DE) Corporation (Dashiell Corporation), Dashiell Corporation, Dashiell Corporation DBA Dashiell (DE) Corporation, De Mears Group, De Mears Group Inc., Delaware Quanta Technology LLC, Delaware Underground Construction Co., Didado Utility Company Inc., Digco Utility Construction L.P. Digco Utility Construction Limited Partnership, Dorado Specialty Services L.P., Dorado Specialty Services Ltd., Dorado Specialty Services Ltd. L.P., Dorado Specialty Services Ltd. Limited Partnership, Dorado Specialty Services. Ltd. L.P., Driftwood Electrical Contractors, EHV Power ULC, ELITE PIPING & CIVIL L.P., ELITE TURNAROUND SPECIALISTS LTD, Elite Fabrication Ltd. Elite Fabrication LP, Elite Piping & Civil Limited Partnership, Elite Piping & Civil Limited Partnership, Elite Piping & Civil Lp, Elite Piping & Civil Ltd L.P., Elite Piping & Civil Ltd., Elite Piping & Civil Ltd. L.P., Elite Piping & Civil Ltd. Limited Partnership, Elite Piping and Civil L.P., Elite Turnaround Specialists L.p., Elite Turnaround Specialists Limited Lp, Elite Turnaround Specialists Limited Partnership, Elite Turnaround Specialists Limited Partnership, Elite Turnaround Specialists Ltd Lp, Elite Turnaround Specialists Ltd., Elite Turnaround Specialists Ltd. L.P., Elite Turnaround Specialists Ltd. LP, Elite Turnaround Specialists Ltd. Limited Partnership, Energy Consulting Group LLC, Enscope, Enscope Pty Ltd, FIC GP LLC, Field Personnel Services LLC, First Infrastructure Capital Advisors LLC, First Infrastructure Capital GP L.P., Five Points Construction Co., G-Tek, G-Vac, GEM Engineering Co., Grand Electric Inc., Great Lakes Line Builders, Grid Creative Inc., Grid Manufacturing Corporation, Grid Training Corporation, H.L. Chapman Pipeline Construction Inc., Haverfield Aviation, Haverfield Aviation Inc., Haverfield International Incorporated, Heritage Midstream LLC, IM Electric Inc., IUC ILLINOIS LLC, IUC Nebraska LLC, InfraSource Construction LLC, InfraSource Field Services LLC, InfraSource Services LLC, InfraSources Construction LLC, Infraestructura ETP de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V, Infrasource Engineering Company PC, Infrasource Iowa Underground LLC, Infrasource Of Pa LLC, Integracion Tecnologica del Peru SAC, Intermountain Electric Inc., Intermountain Electric Inc. A Corporation of Colorado, IonEarth LLC, Irby Construction Company, Irby Construction Company Inc., Iron Mountain M.J. Electric LLC, Island Mechanical Corporation, J.C.R. Construction Co. Inc., J.C.R. Utility Construction Co., J.W. Didado Electric Inc., J.W. Didado Electric LLC, J.w. Didado Electric, JBT Electric LLC, Kingston Contracting Inc., Lazy Q Ranch LLC, Lazy Q Training Center LLC The Lazy Q Lineman School, Legend Foundation Services, Lex Engineering Ltd., Lindsey Electric L.P., Logical Link, Longfellow Drilling, M. G. Dyess Inc., M. J. ELECTRIC LLC IRON MOUNTAIN, M. J. Electric LLC, M. J. Electric LLC - Iron Mountain, M. J. Electric LLC DBA M. J. Electric Iron Mountain LLC, M.J. Electric LLC DBA M.J. Electric Iron Mountain, M.J. Electric LLC Iron Mountain, MTS Field Services, MTS Field Services (Richmond Co), MTS Quanta LLC, Manuel Bros. Inc., Marathon Construction Services, Mears Canada Corp., Mears Equipment Services LLC, Mears Group Inc., Mears Group Pty Ltd, Mears Installation LLC, Mearsmex S. de R.L. de C.V., Mejia Personnel Services LLC, Mercer Technical Services, Microline Technology Corporation, Mid America Energy Services Inc., NACAP Niugini Ltd., NC Northstar Energy Services Inc, NGI Construction, NGI Construction Inc., NGI Construction Inc. (FN), NLC CA. Inc., NLC FL. Inc. Northwest Lineman Center, NLC ID. Inc. Northwest Lineman College, NLC TX. Inc., NPC Energy Services LLC, Nacap Australia, Nacap PNG Limited, Network Communication Services, North Houston Pole Line L.P., North Houston Pole Line Limited Partnership, North Sky Communications, NorthStar Energy Services Inc., Northern Powerline Constructors Inc., Northstar Energy Solutions LLC, Northwest Lineman Center, Northwest Lineman College, Northwest Lineman Training Center, Northwest Lineman Training Center Inc., Nova Constructors LLC, Nova Constructors LTD, Nova Equipment Leasing LLC, Nova Group Inc, Nova Group Inc (CA), Nova Group Inc., Nova Group Inc. DBA NGI Construction, Nova NextGen Solutions LLC, O. J. Pipelines Canada Corporation, O. J. Pipelines Canada Limited Partnership, O.J. Industrial Maintenance, O.J. Pipelines Canada, One Call Locators Canada Ltd., P.D.G. Electric, PAR Electrical Contractors Inc., PDG Electric Co., Par Internacional S. de R.L. de C.V., Performance Energy Services Guyana Ltd., Performance Energy Services L.L.C., Phasor Engineering Inc., Phoenix North Constructors Inc., Phoenix Power Group Inc., Potelco Inc., Potelco Incorporated, Power Delivery Program Inc., Price Gregory International Inc., Price Gregory Services LLC, Probst Construction Inc., Probst Electric Inc., QEPC, QEPC Power Solutions LLC, QES GP LLC, QP Energy Services LLC, QPS Engineering LLC, QPS Engineering LTD., QPS Engineering PLLC, QPS Environmental, QPS Flint Construction, QPS Flint Tank Services, QPS Global, QPS Global Services, QPS Global Services (Richmond Ci), QPS Professional Services, QPSE, QS Mats, QSI Engineering Inc., QSI Finance (Australia) Pty Ltd., QSI Finance (Cayman) Pvt. Ltd., QSI Finance Canada ULC, QSI Finance GP (US) LLC, QSI Finance I (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., QSI Finance I (US) LP, QSI Finance II (Australia) Pty Ltd., QSI Finance II (Lux) S.a r.l, QSI Finance II (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., QSI Finance III (Canada) ULC, QSI Finance III (Lux) SARL, QSI Finance IV (Canada) ULC, QSI Finance IX (Canada) Limited Partnership, QSI Finance V (US) L.P., QSI Finance VI (Canada) ULC, QSI Finance VII (Canada) Limited Partnership, QSI Finance VIII (Canada) ULC, QSI Finance X (Canada) ULC, QSI Inc., QSN Lux Holdings I SCSp, QSN Lux Holdings II SCSp, QSN Lux Holdings III SCSp, QSN Lux Holdings IV SCSp, QTSL LLC, QUANTA FOUNDATION SERVICES, Quanta APL GP II Ltd., Quanta Asset Management LLC, Quanta Associates L.P., Quanta Aviation Services LLC, Quanta Canada GP ULC, Quanta Canada Holdings III Limited Partnership, Quanta Canada Holdings LP, Quanta Canada III GP Ltd., Quanta Capital GP LLC, Quanta Capital LP L.P., Quanta Capital Solutions Inc., Quanta Cares, Quanta EPC Services, Quanta Electric Power Construction LLC, Quanta Electric Power Construction Management Inc., Quanta Electric Power Services LLC, Quanta Electric Power Services West LLC, Quanta Energized Innovations Ltd., Quanta Energized Services U.S. LLC, Quanta Energized Services of Canada Ltd., Quanta Energy Services LLC, Quanta Environmental Solutions, Quanta Equipment Company LLC, Quanta Government Solutions Inc., Quanta Holdings I (Netherlands) B.V., Quanta Holdings II (Netherlands) B.V., Quanta Infraestructura de Chile SpA, Quanta Infrastructure Services LLC, Quanta Infrastructure Services S. de R.L. de C.V., Quanta Inline Devices LLC, Quanta Inspection Services, Quanta Insurance Company Inc., Quanta International Holdings (US) LLC, Quanta International Holdings II Ltd., Quanta International Holdings Ltd., Quanta International Limited, Quanta Kingsvale LP Ltd., Quanta Lines Pty Ltd., Quanta Maine Services LLC, Quanta Middle East LLC, Quanta Pipeline Services Inc., Quanta Power Australia Pty Ltd, Quanta Power Generation Inc., Quanta Power Inc., Quanta Power Solutions India Private Limited, Quanta Resource Development, Quanta Services Africa (PTY) Ltd., Quanta Services Australia Pty Ltd., Quanta Services Chile SpA, Quanta Services Colombia S.A.S., Quanta Services Costa Rica Ltda., Quanta Services Guatemala Ltda., Quanta Services International Holdings II LP, Quanta Services International Holdings LP, Quanta Services Management Partnership L.P., Quanta Services Netherlands B.V., Quanta Services Panama S. de R.L., Quanta Services Peru S.A.C., Quanta Services Puerto Rico LLC, Quanta Services of Canada Ltd., Quanta Subsurface Canada Ltd., Quanta Subsurface LLC, Quanta Tank Services, Quanta Technology Canada ULC, Quanta Technology LLC, Quanta Technology UK Ltd., Quanta Tecnologia do Brasil Ltda., Quanta Telecom, Quanta Telecom Services, Quanta Telecommunication Services, Quanta Telecommunication Services LLC, Quanta Telecommunications Services LLC, Quanta Underground Services, Quanta Underground Services (Culpeper Co), Quanta Underground Services (Spotsylvania Co), Quanta Underground Services Inc., Quanta Utility Engineering Services Inc., Quanta Utility Installation Company Inc., Quanta Utility Operation LLC, Quanta West LLC, Quantecua Cia. Ltda., R. R. Cassidy Inc., RMS Holdings LLC, RMS Holdings LLC (Delaware), RMS Welding Systems, RMS Welding Systems LLC, Ranger Directional, Realtime Engineers Inc., Realtime Utility Engineers Inc., Redes Andinas de Comunicaciones S.R.L., Riggin & Diggin Line Construction, Rms Welding LLC, Rms Welding Systems LLC, Road Bore Corporation, Ryan Company Inc. The, Ryan Company Inc. of Massachusetts, Ryan Company Inc.(The), Seaward, Seaward Corp, Seaward Corporation, Service EC (DE) Inc., Service Electric Company (DE), Service Electric Company Inc., Service Electric Company of Delaware, Servicios Par Electric S. de R.L. de C.V., Servicios de Infraestructura del Peru S.A.C., Southwest Trenching Company Inc., Specialty Tank Services L.P., Specialty Tank Services LP, Specialty Tank Services Limited Partnership, Specialty Tank Services Limited Partnership, Specialty Tank Services Ltd., Specialty Tank Services Ltd. (LP), Specialty Tank Services Ltd. L.P., Specialty Tank Services Ltd. LP, Specialty Tank Services Ltd. LP, Specialty Tank Services Ltd. Limited Partnership, Stronghold General LLC, Stronghold Holdings (BVI) Limited, Stronghold Inspection L.P., Stronghold Inspection Limited Partnership, Stronghold Inspection Limited Partnership, Stronghold Inspection Lp, Stronghold Inspection Ltd L.P., Stronghold Inspection Ltd., Stronghold Inspection Ltd. L.P., Stronghold Inspection Ltd. Limited Partnership, Stronghold Limited Partnership, Stronghold Ltd., Stronghold Ltd. Limited Partnership, Stronghold Management Holdings LP, Stronghold Specialty General LLC, Stronghold Specialty Ltd., Stronghold Specialty Ltd., Stronghold Specialty Ltd. Limited Partnership, Stronghold Tower Group LP, Stronghold Tower Group Ltd LP, Stronghold Tower Group Ltd., Stronghold Tower Group Ltd. LP, Stronghold VI LLC, Subterra Damage Prevention Specialists Ltd., Summit Line Construction, Sumter Utilities Inc., T. G. Mercer Consulting Services Inc., TA Construction, TC Infrastructure Services Ltd., Taylor Built, Texas Specialty Tank Services Ltd. LP, The Aspen Utility Company LLC, The ComTran Group Inc., The Hallen Construction Co. Inc., The Massachusetts Ryan Company Inc., The Ryan Company Inc Of Massachusetts, The Ryan Company Inc., The Ryan Company Inc. (Massachusetts), The Ryan Company Inc. of Massachusetts, The Ryan Company Incorporated of Massachusetts, The Ryan Company Of Massachusetts Inc., The Ryan Company of Massachusetts, The Ryan Company of Massachusetts (FN), Tom Allen Construction Company Inc., Tom Allen Construction Company of Delaware, Trans Tech Electric, TurnKey Automation Limited Partnership, TurnKey Automation Limited Partnership, TurnKey Automation Ltd., TurnKey Automation Ltd. Limited Partnership, TurnKey Automation Ltd. Limited Partnership, TurnKey I&E Ltd., Turnkey Automation Ltd. L.P., Turnkey Automation Ltd. LP., UCC Underground Construction Co. Inc., Ucc - Underground Construction Co., Underground Construction Co. Inc., Underground Construction Co. Inc. (Delaware), Underground Electric Construction Company LLC, Utilco Inc., Utility Fleet Services, Utility Line Management Services Inc., Utility Testing & Maintenance LLC, Utility Training Services Corporation, VALARD Polska sp. Z o.o., Valard, Valard, Valard Construction (Ontario) Ltd., Valard Construction (Quebec) Inc., Valard Construction 2008 Ltd., Valard Construction Australia Pty Ltd, Valard Construction LLC, Valard Equipment (AB) Ltd., Valard Equipment GP Ltd., Valard Equipment Limited Partnership, Valard Geomatics (Ontario) Ltd., Valard Geomatics BC Ltd., Valard Geomatics Ltd., Valard Mechanical Ltd., Valard Norway AS, Valard Sweden AB, Valard Zagreb d. o. o., Wade D. Taylor Inc., West Coast Communications, Winco Helicopters, Winco Inc., Winco Inc. an Oregon Based Corporation, Winco Powerline Services, Winco Powerline Services Inc., Winco Powerline Services Inc., Winco Services Inc., World Fiber Inc., and mmit Line Construction Inc..

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Rajinikanth has asked his fans to not celebrate his 66th birthday supposedly as a mark of respect to former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, who passed away on Monday after a cardiac arrest.

By India Today Web Desk: Superstar Rajinikanth, who will turn 66 on December 12, has requested his fans not to celebrate his birthday.

"Rajinikanth requests his fans not to celebrate his birthday," his manager Riaz Ahmed tweeted on Friday.

He added that Rajinikanth asked his fans not to put up posters and banners.

Announcement :- #Thalaivar @superstarrajini requests his fans not to celebrate his birthday and avoid keeping banners & posters. RIAZ K AHMED (@RIAZtheboss) December 9, 2016

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It is believed that Rajinikanth has taken this decision as a mark of respect to former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, who passed away this Monday after a cardiac arrest.

ALSO READ: Rajinikanth and family pay their respects to Jayalalithaa

ALSO READ: Rajinikanth to Mohanlal, celebs mourn Jayalalithaa's death

Rajinikanth paid his homage to the late chief minister on December 7. Along with the superstar, his wife Latha Rajinikanth, daughter Aishwaryaa R Dhanush and son-in-law Dhanush were also present.

On the career front, the 65-year-old actor is busy shooting for Shankar's magnum opus, Enthiran 2.0.

ALSO WATCH: All you need to know about Rajinikanth's Enthiran 2.0

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Derwent London plc owns 83 buildings in a commercial real estate portfolio predominantly in central London valued at 5.4 billion (including joint ventures) as at 30 June 2020, making it the largest London-focused real estate investment trust (REIT). Our experienced team has a long track record of creating value throughout the property cycle by regenerating our buildings via development or refurbishment, effective asset management and capital recycling. We typically acquire central London properties off-market with low capital values and modest rents in improving locations, most of which are either in the West End or the Tech Belt. We capitalise on the unique qualities of each of our properties - taking a fresh approach to the regeneration of every building with a focus on anticipating tenant requirements and an emphasis on design. Reflecting and supporting our long-term success, the business has a strong balance sheet with modest leverage, a robust income stream and flexible financing. As part of our commitment to lead the industry in mitigating climate change, in October 2019, Derwent London became the first UK REIT to sign a Green Revolving Credit Facility. At the same time, we also launched our Green Finance Framework and signed the Better Buildings Partnership's climate change commitment. The Group is a member of the 'RE100' which recognises Derwent London as an influential company, committed to 100% renewable power by purchasing renewable energy, a key step in becoming a net zero carbon business. Derwent London is one of only a few property companies worldwide to have science-based carbon targets validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). Landmark schemes in our 5.6 million sq ft portfolio include 80 Charlotte Street W1, Brunel Building W2, White Collar Factory EC1, Angel Building EC1, 1-2 Stephen Street W1, Horseferry House SW1 and Tea Building E1. In 2019, the Group won several awards including EG Offices Company of the Year, the CoStar West End Deal of the Year for Brunel Building, Westminster Business Council's Best Achievement in Sustainability award and topped the real estate sector and was placed ninth overall in the Management Today 2019 awards for 'Britain's Most Admired Companies'. In 2013 the Company launched a voluntary Community Fund and has to date supported over 100 community projects in the West End and the Tech Belt. The Company is a public limited company, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange and incorporated and domiciled in the UK. The address of its registered office is 25 Savile Row, London,
First Horizon Corporation operates as the bank holding company for First Horizon Bank that provides various financial services. The company operates through three segments: Regional Banking, Specialty Banking, and Corporate. It offers general banking services for consumers, businesses, financial institutions, and governments. The company also underwrites bank-eligible securities and other fixed-income securities eligible for underwriting by financial subsidiaries; sells loans and derivatives; and offers advisory services. In addition, it offers various services, such as mortgage banking; title insurance and loan-closing; brokerage; correspondent banking; nationwide check clearing and remittance processing; trust, fiduciary, and agency; equipment finance; and investment and financial advisory services. Further, the company sells mutual fund and retail insurance products; and credit cards. It operates approximately 500 banking offices in 22 states under the First Horizon Bank brand; and 400 banking centers in 12 states under the FHN Financial brand in the United States. The company was formerly known as First Horizon National Corporation and changed its name to First Horizon Corporation in November 2020. First Horizon Corporation was founded in 1864 and is headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee.
Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. provides investor communications and technology-driven solutions for the financial services industry. The company's Investor Communication Solutions segment processes and distributes proxy materials to investors in equity securities and mutual funds, as well as facilitates related vote processing services; and distributes regulatory reports, class action, and corporate action/reorganization event information, as well as tax reporting solutions. It also offers ProxyEdge, an electronic proxy delivery and voting solution; data-driven solutions and an end-to-end platform for content management, composition, and omni-channel distribution of regulatory, marketing, and transactional information, as well as mutual fund trade processing services; data and analytics solutions; solutions for public corporations and mutual funds; SEC filing and capital markets transaction services; registrar, stock transfer, and record-keeping services; and omni-channel customer communications solutions, as well as operates Broadridge Communications Cloud platform that creates, delivers, and manages communications and customer engagement activities. The company's Global Technology and Operations segment provides solutions that automate the front-to-back transaction lifecycle of equity, mutual fund, fixed income, foreign exchange and exchange-traded derivatives, order capture and execution, trade confirmation, margin, cash management, clearance and settlement, reference data management, reconciliations, securities financing and collateral management, asset servicing, compliance and regulatory reporting, portfolio accounting, and custody-related services. This segment also offers business process outsourcing services; technology solutions, such portfolio management, compliance, fee billing, and operational support solutions; and capital market and wealth management solutions. The company was founded in 1962 and is headquartered in Lake Success, New York.
A man was caught with banned Rs 1000 notes worth Rs 1,10,000 in Dantewada district.

The man has been arrested. Source: ANI/ Twitter

By India Today Web Desk: An unnamed man in Dantewada, Chhattisgarh, was caught with Rs 1,10,000, all in Rs 1000 notes. He has been arrested.

Rs 1000 notes were banned last month, along with old Rs 500 notes, and is now illegal for tender.

Chhattisgarh: Man arrested with 1000 notes worth Rs 1 lakh 10 thousand in Dantewada #DeMonetisation pic.twitter.com/9Fni5KbS91 ANI (@ANI_news) December 9, 2016

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SunTrust Banks, Inc. operates as the holding company for SunTrust Bank that provides various financial services for consumers, businesses, corporations, institutions, and not-for-profit entities in the United States. It operates in two segments, Consumer and Wholesale. The Consumer segment provides deposits and payments; home equity and personal credit lines; auto, student, and other lending products; credit cards; discount/online and full-service brokerage products; professional investment advisory products and services; and trust services, as well as family office solutions. This segment also offers residential mortgage products in the secondary market. The Wholesale segment provides capital markets solutions, including advisory, capital raising, and financial risk management; asset-based financing solutions, such as securitizations, asset-based lending, equipment financing, and structured real estate arrangements; cash management services and auto dealer financing solutions; investment banking solutions; and credit and deposit, fee-based product offering, multi-family agency lending, advisory, commercial mortgage brokerage, and tailored financing and equity investment solutions. This segment also offers treasury and payment solutions, such as operating various electronic and paper payment types, which comprise card, wire transfer, automated clearing house, check, and cash; and provides services clients to manage their accounts online. The company offers its products and services through a network of traditional and in-store branches, automated teller machines, Internet, mobile, and telephone banking channels. As of December 31, 2018, it operated 1,218 full-service banking offices located in Florida, Georgia, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Maryland, South Carolina, and the District of Columbia. SunTrust Banks, Inc. was founded in 1891 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
National Grid plc transmits and distributes electricity and gas. The company operates through UK Electricity Transmission, UK Electricity Distribution, UK Electricity System Operator, New England, and New York segments. The UK Electricity Transmission segment provides electricity transmission and construction work services in England and Wales. The UK Electricity Distribution segment offers electricity distribution services in Midlands, and South West of England and South Wales. The UK Electricity System Operator segment provides balancing services for supply and demand of electricity on Great Britain's electricity transmission system; and acts as an agent on behalf of transmission operators. The New England segment offers electricity and gas distribution, and electricity transmission services in New England. The New York segment provides electricity and gas distribution, and electricity transmission services in New York. It also engages in the provision of transmission services through electricity interconnectors and LNG importation at the Isle of Grain; sale of renewables projects; and leasing and sale of commercial property, as well as insurance activities in the United Kingdom. The company was founded in 1990 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.
By PTI: Chennai, Dec 9 (PTI) The Income Tax department has seized at least Rs 106 crore in cash, including Rs 10 crore in new currency, and gold bars weighing 127 kg in searches at multiple locations in the city to check tax evasion post demonetization.

This is the largest seizure of new currency notes after the old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes were scrapped on November 8. The I-T operation had been launched yesterday here.

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Officials said S Reddy, a contractor working with the state government, has claimed the entire money and the gold as his own and is being questioned.

"127 kg gold in 1 kg bars and Rs 96 crore in old currency and Rs 10 crore in Rs 2,000 notes have been seized by the sleuths after the operation," top I-T department officials said, adding "this is an unprecedented amount that the tax department has seized in recent times".

The department carried out the searches based on intelligence inputs about the activities of Reddy and few others for the last few days.

Officials said the agency was investigating how the new notes in such a large quantity were stashed by the individual. The bundles of the new Rs 2,000 had no banking slips on them.

They said the I-T teams had launched operations on at least eight locations of a "syndicate" involved in currency conversion.

The officials said a number of documents related to financial transactions, entries of gold sale and records of sale/purchase have also been seized by the tax sleuths.

At least three people of the alleged syndicate are being questioned while few others are under the radar, they said.

"He (Reddy) is a contractor working with the state government. He is claiming the entire cash and gold to be his own. Further probe is on," they said.

The I-T department, they said, will share the case details with the Enforcement Directorate and CBI for further probe into money laundering and corruption angles.

Some bank officials are also under the scanner of the taxman.

The tax department had made the largest seizure of Rs 5.7 crore cash in new notes in Bengaluru few days back after which two other central probe agencies, the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate, had taken over the cases to probe instances of corruption, money laundering and large-scale hawala transactions in the wake of the currency scrap on November 8. PTI NES RT

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By PTI: Amritsar, Dec 8 (PTI) SAARC nations are keen to further strengthen their trade relations with India by overcoming certain internal challenges.

South East Asia is a major consumer market and India had been the a supporter in all terms to which they always look upon.

These were the sentiments of visiting delegates of SAARC nations during the Buyer and Seller Meet on Trade Between South Asian Countries - Opportunities and Challenges being organised by PHD Chambers under the aegis of PITEX 2016 here.

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Afghanistan with delegates of 30 members are taking part in meet. Bangladesh with its 36 while Sri Lanka with 38 delegates are taking part in this five day long expo. Bhutan and Nepal are represented by 12 and 15 delegates respectively. Welcoming the delegates, R S Sachdeva, Co-Chairman, Punjab Committee, PHDCCI said today the focus of exposition was promotion of bilateral trade relations and strengthening of global economic linkages with the participating SAARC countries. According to Hassib Rahimi, CEO, Kabul Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), Afganistan has a trade deficit of 90 per cent where import is far more than exporting potential. Countrys possesses the consumer economy rather than manufacturing, he said. Therefore, there is a plenty of opportunities not only for trading but also in form of investment, he said. "Afganistan expects expertise and technology from India. Also, the recent change in the government policy has made Afghanistan more inclined toward to the economic oriented system than political one," he said. In his deliverables, Kesang Wangi, Deputy Secretary General, Bhutan Chamber of Commerce and Industry who is participating second time in PITEX realized the importance of such platforms for building the economies of SAARC nations. Business networking plays an important role in such forums, he said. Bhutan import edible products to heavy machinery from India lieu of Hydel Power, he said. "India is biggest business partner with Bhutan and Bhutan always look upon investing on their basic infrastructure," he said. Wangi appealed fellow nation members for investments as Bhutan is open its economy for SAARC nations. In his address, Mohd Abu Naser, Director, Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry said, "Bangladesh Govternments ?Vision ? 2021? will take Bangladesh to a middle income country by 2021 and developed country by 2041, therefore nation is keen to build healthy global trade". Bangladesh has taken the ?Open Door Policy? for promoting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), he said. The private sector has been identified as the main vehicle for the development of the economy, he said adding that Country is working to establishing 100 Special Economic Zone (SEZs) across the country where investor can target both domestic and export market. PTI Corr VJ MKJ

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By Chayyanika Nigam: When Prime Minister Narendra Modi pushed for a cashless economy after the demonetisation announcement, he, too, may not have thought that his action would modernise the world's oldest profession. After going through a major decline in the past month, the cash-intensive flesh trade in the Capital is once again booming as high-end escort agencies as well as brothels in red light areas turn to e-payment systems and plastic money to attract clients who were unable to pony up hard cash.

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Speaking to Mail Today, many sex workers and agents on the condition of anonymity said that though they accepted the scrapped Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes for some time after the currency switch and offered big discounts, it was a desperate measure and they had to shift to using mobile wallets to sustain the business.

One agent said that he has provided many new sim cards to the sex workers and asked them to create accounts on e-wallet apps. "To provide better facilities to the clients and to digitise the operation, we are providing Wi-Fi facility to our clients so they can download the app in case they don't have it," said an agent.

Another agent told Mail Today that they are not using the popular e-wallet apps, but obscure ones so they can stay out of government scrutiny.

HOW ARE THE AGENTS PREPARING?

Sex workers on the lower end of the spectrum earn anywhere between Rs 3,000 and 4,500 daily, while the posh ones can charge amounts starting from Rs 15,000 for one client. But most mobile wallets allow transactions only up to a certain limit without banking privileges. So, to sidestep this, agents have stocked a bunch of numbers and dual SIM phones to register several accounts on the apps.

Since most of the sex workers in the red-light district in Delhi, GB Road, are from outside the Capital and have no identity documents to open bank accounts, they are also relying exclusively on these digital payment platforms for their daily needs. A sex worker told Mail Today that she used an e-wallet to pay for utility bills like electricity, gas, and water. Phone and internet bills are also being paid using these digital payment services.

READ | Month after demonetisation: Real estate prices tumble, registrations plunge

But some clients are still uneasy about using a digital platform to pay for pleasure as it can be linked back to them due to the online trail. A representative of a popular mobile wallet company said that all transactions using their platform are mapped, but chances of getting caught are miniscule as they do millions of transactions every day.

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"The information is only shared with the RBI or any other concerned authority once they officially ask about the details of a particular handle," he said. To ease these concerns, some agents who facilitate high-profile customers have also bought point of sale terminals and registered them in the name of restaurants or grocery stores to maintain privacy of the clients. So when a client swipes his card, he receives a message that the amount has been credited to that store. Agents said they are also using social messaging apps to lure new and loyal customers.

READ | Cash crisis: Chief Justice Thakur flooded with petitions against demonetisation, says there's 'too much chaos'

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Shah Rukh Khan thinks that Koffee with Karan is not that "open" as it used to be, thanks to the celebs.

By India Today Web Desk: Koffee with Karan is one popular show alright. But many people have been complaining that this time the show is not so much fun, thanks to the celeb guests who are guarded and do not want to reveal much about their personal lives on the chat show.

Also read-- Koffee with Karan Season 5: Priyanka Chopra tweeted THIS about her appearance on the show

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This opinion has now been backed by both the host Karan Johar and superstar Shah Rukh Khan, who has made numerous appearances on the show.

"I (still) think it's brilliant...(But) Now, it's a little held back. Even Karan has noticed that," the actor told the Hindustan Times.

Get some Koffee sooooon tune in at 9pm :) #KoffeeWithKaran #DearZindagi A photo posted by Alia ??? (@aliaabhatt) on Nov 6, 2016 at 6:16am PST

"At this point in time, there's no differentiating one media from another. You say a word - it can be talked, published, reported in any way. So, everybody is wary," Shah Rukh added.

And the star badly longs for the days when people didn't take things too seriously:

"I wish we had times when we could just have fun. I think sense of humour is diluting a little bit. At times people take themselves too seriously."

But SRK still thinks that the show rocks because people are genuinely fond of each other.

"Even if held back (in a way), it's one of the most open shows because everybody loves each other," the publication quoted the actor as saying.

We agree, SRK!

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Japanese reactor resumes operation after periodic inspection

09 December 2016

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Kyushu Electric Power Company yesterday began the process of restarting the reactor of unit 1 at its Sendai nuclear power plant in Japan's Kagoshima prefecture following a periodic inspection. The prefectural governor had opposed the restart of the unit, which resumed operation in August 2015 following a shutdown of the country's nuclear fleet.

Kyushu's two-unit Sendai plant (Image: JAIF)

Sendai 1 was the first of Japan's idled reactors to be restarted after confirmation that it meets new safety standards introduced in mid-2013 following the March 2011 accident at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. Unit 1 was restarted August 2015, followed by Sendai 2 last October. Sendai 1 was taken offline on 6 October for a routine outage.

Kyushu began the operation to extract the control rods from the reactor's core at 9.30pm yesterday, allowing the fission process to begin, the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum (JAIF) reported today.

The utility said in a 7 December statement it expected Sendai 1 to achieve criticality - a controlled self-sustaining nuclear fission chain reaction - today and that power generation would resume on 11 December. Kyushu will then gradually increase output from the unit, with normal operation scheduled to be resumed in early January.

It is the first unit to undergo a periodic inspection following its restart after meeting new regulatory standards, JAIF noted.

Satoshi Mitazono, the recently-elected governor of Kagoshima prefecture, made a request on 26 August that the operation of the two Sendai units be suspended immediately for safety checks. However, Kyushu rejected this request in early September, saying it would carry out additional safety checks during planned routine outages. The governor repeated his request, but Kyushu again rejected it. Mitazono conceded in October he does not actually have the authority to tell Kyushu to keep Sendai 1 offline.

Sendai 2 is scheduled to be taken offline for a periodic inspection, together with additional safety checks, on 16 December.

To date, five Japanese reactors have been given final approval to restart, although two of these - units 3 and 4 of Kansai Electric Power Company's Takahama plant - have remained offline due to a legal challenge. Another 20 reactors are moving through the restart process, which has been prioritised to bring on the most-needed reactors first, in the localities and prefectures more supportive of restart.

Researched and written

by World Nuclear News

Related topics
Malaysia, a tropical country in South Asia, is home to a high level of rich biodiversity, including many unique and endemic species of reptiles. These reptiles are under constant threat to their population with some already extinct in their natural ranges. The reptiles form a major tourist attraction while some are exploited for food and others bred as pets. For some of the reptiles, conservation measures have been put up while for others, and no effort has been made.

White-Fronted Water Snake (Amphiesma flavifrons)

The white-fronted water snake is a non venomous colubrid endemic to Borneo in Sabah and Sarawak. The snake is mainly seen swimming in rivers with its head above the water. Its total body length is about 21 inches with the tail about 7 inches of the total body length. The snake has a slender body with around 19 mid-body scales, about 19 ventrals, and subcaudals numbering between 92 and 101. The dorsal body has an olive-gray coloration with a cream-yellow spot on the snout. The snake feeds on frogs, frog eggs, and tadpoles.

Alfreds Blind Skink (Dibamus alfredi)

Alfreds blind skink is a species of blind lizard which occupies tropical and subtropical forests occurring at high altitudes of above 1,000 meters. In Malaysia, the lizard is found in the Malayan rain forests, Bukit Besar, Na Prado, and Palau Tioman. The lizard is limbless, but males have short hind legs for mating. The lizard lacks exposed ears. Their bodies are tiny, and they live mainly underground making them look like worms.

Malayan Snail-Eating Turtle (Malayemys macrocephala)

The turtle is a carnivorous reptile that feeds mainly on snails, and sometimes dines on earthworms, aquatic insects, crustaceans, and small fish as well. In Malaysia, the turtle occupies the extreme northern Peninsula. The turtle lays a clutch of 4 to 6 eggs which are incubated for about 167 days. The turtle takes about three years for males to reach maturity and about five years for females. The habitats for this turtle include muddy bottoms of freshwater sources where there is plenty of vegetation and very little currents such as streams, canals marshes, and rice puddles. The snail eating turtle has been ranked as vulnerable due to over-exploitation for food and habitat destruction due to pollution. The export of the turtle has been regulated in Malaysia to conserve it.

Twin-Barred Tree Snake (Chrysopelea pelias)

This tree snake is a rarely seen, terrestrial, oviparous snake with beautiful patterns on its reddish upper body, and has black-edged white bars, white-speckled light brown flanks, and a yellow-white ventral surface. The snake has a quiet temperament and is mildly venomous. The snake glides by stretching its body into a flattened strip using its ribs and can cover a horizontal distance of 100 meters in a single glide. In Malaysia, the snake is found in Malaya, Penang Island, Palau Tioman, and East Malaysia. Though the species is rare, it is considered under least concern category due to its wide distribution across the Malayan peninsula and its tolerance to altered habitats. Threats to its population include habitat loss and degradation, and no conservation measures have been put up.

Other Notable Reptiles of Malaysia

Peninsular and archipelagic Malaysia alike house many species of snakes, lizards, turtles, crocodiles, and other reptiles. Agricultural activities, hunting, and over-exploitation, are the major threats facing the reptiles in Malaysia. Other reptiles native to Malaysia include the Siamese crocodile (which is a critically endangered species), the checkered keelback, the reticulated python, Dumerils monitor, the Malayan forest gecko, and the false gharial.
Hasina was scheduled to leave for India on December 18 to discuss a wide range of bilateral issues with her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi.

By Sahidul Hasan Khokon: Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's proposed visit to India has been postponed, officials of the foreign affairs ministry confirmed on Thursday.

"The tour has been postponed," a senior official at the foreign ministry told India Today, but declined to give any reason for the postponement. Hasina was scheduled to leave for India on December 18 to discuss a wide range of bilateral issues with her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi.

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The Indian authorities had earlier said Dhaka and New Delhi were working on finalising the dates and itinerary of the visit after the Bangladesh PM accepted the invitation from PM Modi.ALSO READ: India's demonetisation drive leaves Bangladeshi businessmen in a fix

With this visit, both the sides are expecting that relations between Bangladesh and India will see a newer dimension as there will be fresh initiatives to take forward the ties to the next level.

"There is no question of postponement or deferring of Sheikh Hasina's visit when dates have not yet been finalized or officially announced," foreign affairs ministry officials said yesterday. But the Indian government is now planning to invite Hasina to India's Republic Day parade on January 26 as the chief guest, sources at the Prime Minister's Office in Bangladesh said.

Meanwhile, Minister of Foreign Affairs AH Mahmood Ali had also said the two countries were expecting 'newer efforts' and productive discussion of issues of bilateral interest to deepen their existing good relations.ALSO READ: Bilateral trade collapses, thousands of trucks queued up on India, Bangladesh Border

However, there has been no indication that the long-pending Teesta water-sharing deal will be signed when the visit goes ahead. A senior official, however, said Bangladesh could not agree on a date with India, which is the reason for the postponement.

The two leaders last met in Goa on October 16 on the sidelines of the BRICS summit, when Modi reassured Hasina that Bangladesh and India would remain together for the sake of development. Modi visited Bangladesh from June 6 to 7 last year and issued a joint declaration with Hasina aimed at launching a new beginning 'Notun Projonmo - Nayi Disha'.

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Assurances Medical Centre Will Not Close After GPs Announce Plans to Terminate Their Contracts

This article is old - Published: Friday, Dec 9th, 2016

General Practitioners at a village medical centre have announced they are to terminate their contracts following issues filling vacant posts  however assurances have given that the surgery will not close.

The GP Partners at Ruabon Medical Centre have given notice that they will be terminating their contract with Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board with effect from 31 March 2017.

A letter sent out to patients cites difficulties in the recruitment of partner GPs as the reason for their decision.

The medical centre has 9,299 people on its books and serves people from Ruabon and the surrounding areas.

However within the letter sent out by Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board assures patients that the medical centre will not close and that there is no need to register with a different GP Practice.

The letter reads: The Health Board is responsible for ensuring that all patients have access to a GP. We want to reassure you that we are working closely with GPs at Ruabon Medical Centre for some time now to plan how GP services will be delivered from the Practice from 1 April 2017.

The Health Board is currently advertising for GPs to take over the practice. In the event that the Health Board is unsuccessful in securing a new GP Partnership to take over the management of the practice, Ruabon Medical Centre will be managed by the Health Board from 1 April 2017.

During this period normal services will continue to be available as usual from now until the end of March 2017, at which time we will have worked with the practice to best plan future services for you and your family.

The letter concludes: Over the next few months we will keep you informed of our progress and will respond to any concerns and questions. We welcome your opinion on the future arrangements for GP and primary care services in your area.

Despite the assurances offered within the letter North Wales Assembly Member Mark Isherwood this week challenged the Cabinet Secretary for Health after Ruabon Medical Centre announced that it will end its contract.

Asking an Urgent Question in the Assembly Chamber this week, Mr Isherwood spoke of the GP crisis facing North Wales and called on the Cabinet Secretary to respond to the latest announcement of a closure in Wrexham.

He said: This surgery, the Ruabon Medical Centre, is only the latest to announce that it will be ending its NHS contract with the Health Board because its unable to fill two vacant doctor posts. Last month, it was the Rashmi practice in Old Colwyn.

Over the last year, weve seen the same in Prestatyn, Rhuddlan, Wrexham, Conwy, and the British Medical Associations Dr Charlotte Jones, General Practice Committee Chair, has said: Surgeries handing back their contracts to the Health Board is a real time demonstration of how some General Practices are at breaking point and see this as the only solution open to them.

Early this year, GPs in North Wales wrote to the First Minister, accusing him of being out of touch with the reality of the challenges facing them. How, therefore, do you respond to the concern expressed by the Royal College of General Practitioners in the Assembly in June this year, that the Multidisciplinary Team Model being introduced instead in North Wales by the Health Board is needed, but its based on an overseas model with a higher ratio of GPs to other disciplines, that it will lose the holistic view and continuity provided by GPs, damaging the well-being of patients, and that the Health Board shouldnt wait for a crisis to step up?

It should have stepped up well in advance, as should the Welsh Government, given the years of warnings it has received.

In his response the Health Secretary said we recognise that primary care needs to change and we want to work with partners to deliver that to make sure people receive high-quality primary care, but added there are significant challenges that are out of our hands.

A spokesman for the Health Board said: Ruabon Medical Centre has 9,299 patients. This is a high performing practice, which is very popular and well thought of by patients, and the GPs can take pride in their ability to sustain a high level of service.

However, they have not been successful in recruiting doctors to replace two full time partners who left the practice earlier this year.

In light of this the remaining GP partners have taken the decision to end their contract with effect from 31st March 2017.

The spokesperson added: The Health Board wants to reassure patients that we are working closely with the GPs at the surgery to determine how services will be delivered from the Practice from 1st April 2017.

Please be assured that the practice will not be closing and there is no need for patients to register elsewhere.

We have written to notify patients. A dedicated phone line and email address has been established for patients to voice concerns and have queries answered, and we would also welcome patients opinions on the future arrangements for GP and primary care services in the area. Over the next few months the Health Board will keep patients informed of progress.

Earlier this year a similar letter announcing that the GPs at Pen Y Maes Surgery in Summerhill were also terminating their contracts, was sent to patients. The surgery was taken over by the Health Board in October, with a spokesperson at the time saying they remain committed to recruiting more GPs on a full time basis.
Struck by a cyclonic depression in the Bay of Bengal on Dec 6, tourists, both domestic and foreign, were stranded on the island.

By Manogya Loiwal : A group of tourists who were stranded at Havelock and Neil islands in Andaman and Nicobar Islands today breathed a sigh of relief as they finally flew back home.

Struck by a cyclonic depression in the Bay of Bengal on Dec 6, tourists, both domestic and foreign, were stranded on the island.

The Raut family of Kolkata had gone to the islands for a holiday, however they spent all their time in the hotel just to stay safe.

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Also Read: Heavy rains in Andaman strands 1400 tourists, Indian Navy dispatches 4 ships for evacuation

"The people who had come for holidays for 4-5 days were forced to stay in the hotel. They were not able to visit the tourists spots," expressed Pratibha Raut, who returned home safely along with her family.

"The flights have started working now, I took the morning Air India flight. However, through the journey we were worried if we will reach safely or not. We are now relieved," said Vishwa Kumar.

Another tourist Satish Chand thanked the administration for their co-operation.

"It was raining a lot there, as such there was no problem. The government provided enough facilities so there was no other problem. I went there on the December 3 and stayed there for two days. I cannot forget these two days all my life," said Satish.

"Everything was under a standstill, no one was able to go anywhere that is why we had to come early. We preponed our flight and came back early. We had gone as tourists. We wanted to go to Havelock and various other beaches but everything was closed. We were not able to go to cellular jail also as that was also closed. I can feel what it muat have been like," said Arpan, a tourist from Kolkata

The safe homecoming of many tourists has brought immense happiness to family members, and now all they wish for is every one on the island to reach their abode safe and sound.

Also Read: No cancellation charge on AI, IndiGo flights to/fro Port Blair

(With inputs from Arindam Bhattacharya)

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On the occasion of her 70th birthday, here's a look at some of Sonia Gandhi's rare pictures.

On the occasion of her birthday, here's a look at some of Sonia Gandhi's rare pictures.

By India Today Web Desk: Today, December 9, happens to be Congress President Sonia Gandhi's 70th birthday. And even Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not pass on the opportunity to wish her.

Birthday wishes to Smt. Sonia Gandhi. May Almighty bless her with a long life filled with good health. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) December 9, 2016

Born Antonia Edvige Albina Maino in a small village named Lusiana, Gandhi was raised in a traditional Roman Catholic family. Reports have it, her father was a "loyal supporter of Benito Mussolini".

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In 1965, a fresh-faced 18-year-old Sonia met Rajiv Gandhi, an engineering student at the University of Cambridge back then. Describing their meeting, a report in the Times London said:

"Mrs Gandhi was an 18-year-old student at a small language college in Cambridge in 1965, making ends meet by working as a waitress in the Varsity restaurant, when she met a handsome young engineering student."

Also read: The Blossoming of Sonia Gandhi: A review of RD Pradhan's book My Years with Rajiv and Sonia

The two got married in 1968 in a Hindu ceremony, making the Italian born 22-year-old 'Mrs Sonia Gandhi', a new member of the Nehru-Gandhi family.

After staying away from politics for quite some time, even after her husband's death, Gandhi finally joined the Indian National Congress party in 1997, becoming the party president in 1998. Sonia Gandhi is the first foreign-born individual to lead the Congress party since Independence.

Also see: Rare pics of Rahul Gandhi

On the occasion of her birthday, here's a look at some of her rare pictures:

Sonia Gandhi with mother-in-law Indira Gandhi, son Rahul (centre) and daughter Priyanka.

Sonia Gandhi with baby Rahul in arms.

Sonia Gandhi with baby Rahul in arms.

Gandhi with son Rahul (extreme left), daughter Priyanka and husband Rajiv at Indira Gandhi's death anniversary.

Sonia Gandhi with family.

The family strikes a pose for the lens.

Gandhi with former Pakistan President Asif Zardari in 1989 in Moscow.

Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi with former Pakistan PM Benazir Bhutt, president Ishaq Khan and Bhutto's husband Zardari in Islamabad in 1989.

Sonia Gandhi poses with husband Rajiv.

1985::PM Shri Rajiv Gandhi & Smt.Sonia Gandhi With US President Mr. Ronald Reagan & Mrs Reagan (Photo Division) #HappyBirthdaySoniaGandhi pic.twitter.com/XwKtq1AD5l indianhistorypics (@IndiaHistorypic) December 9, 2016

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Later this month the German government will begin the mass deportations of asylum seekers back to Afghanistan. Charter planes are to be used for the first time, with the German Interior Ministry announcing it would deport 50 Afghan refugees in the coming days.

Formerly asylum seekers from Afghanistan whose applications to stay in Germany had been denied were deported individually on regular flightsa procedure which led to a series of protests by pilots and passengers.

Until now the deportation of Afghan asylum seekers, the second largest refugee group in Germany after Syrians, has been limited due to the disastrous security situation in large parts of Afghanistan. On its web site, the German Foreign Office describes the situation in the country as follows: There is a high risk of being kidnapped or the victim of criminal violence. The recent attacks carried out in Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif, where the German Consul General was targeted, confirm the prevailing insecurity.

In a striking disregard for this assessment, the German Interior Minister, Thomas de Maiziere (CDU), is pressing for mass, forced deportations. The basis for the project of the Interior Ministry is the shabby deal struck by Germany and the European Union with the government in Kabul. They have signed an agreement which obliges Afghanistan to accept rejected asylum seekers in exchange for financial compensation. The EU wants to buy its way out of its obligation to provide shelter and support for refugees.

On the fringe of the EUs interior ministry meeting in early November, de Maiziere denounced the growing number of Afghan refugees. Our concern, he said, is the large number of refugees from Afghanistan at the moment. We want the signal to arrive in Afghanistan: Stay there! We will send you back directly to Afghanistan from Europe!

Last week, German diplomats traveled to Kabul to clarify the final details. It is planned, among other things, to set up a separate terminal for the mass deportations at the airport in Kabul. The existing infrastructure of the Bundeswehr in northern Afghanistan is also to be used to repatriate refugees.

According to the current situation, approximately 12,500 refugees from Afghanistan now in Germany have been earmarked for deportation. About 80,000 out of a total of 213,000 Afghan refugees across the EU have also had their applications for refugee status denied. De Maiziere made it clear that, in his view, nothing stood in the way of deporting tens of thousands back to the country, despite the fact that it has been ruined by decades of war incited by the Western imperialist powersincluding Germany. Cynically he remarked, We cannot send German soldiers and policemen into the country to provide more security, and then allow Afghan asylum seekers to stay in Germany.

In other words, when the Bundeswehr is involved in NATOs deployment in the country, the victims of their military operations have no right to seek security for themselves and their families.

Other leading Union politicians such as CDU General Secretary Peter Tauber echoed the Interior Minister and glossed over the precarious security situation in Afghanistan. The deputy CDU chairman Thomas Strobl, who is also a minister in the Green Party-CDU coalition in the state of Baden-Wurttemberg, issued a statement in which he advocated the relentless deportation of Afghan refugees. The first planes with returnees to the Hindu Kush have to take off quickly. We must not be dependent on Kabul, Strobl declared. In an interview with Die Welt Strobl continued, If there is no other way, then the repatriation must be carried out by force.

The situation in Afghanistan has worsened considerably over the past twelve months. According to the United Nations, more than 2,500 civilians died in the current civil war during the first nine months of this year. In the period from 2009 to 2015, more than 21,300 civilians have been killed and some 37,400 have been injured in the course of fighting by Afghan security forces and Western occupation forces with the the Islamic Taliban movement and other rebel groups.

Despite this, the German government considers the security situation to be sufficiently controllable in the majority of the 34 provincial capitals in Afghanistan. In response to the public television news program Fakt, a government spokesman explained that the situation was less dangerous for civilians than for representatives of Western organizations or troops. The Taliban leadership has repeatedly stated credibly and clearly, it would avoid civilian casualties and spare civilian infrastructure.

The guidelines for countries of origin (HKL), which assess the situation of refugees for the German Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), paint a much gloomier picture. There is internal armed conflict in all parts of Afghanistan in the form of civil war and guerrilla fighting between Afghan security forces and the Taliban, as well as other opposition forces.

Human rights violations are also widespread and are largely ignored. The food supply chain is insufficient and half of all children in Afghanistan have been harmed by long-term malnutrition.

Since the second half of 2012, the number of civilian casualties has increased, and an end to this increase is not in sight, the HKL concludes.

In order to reject the asylum applications of Afghan refugees and classify them as required to leave the country, a supplementary sentence has been inserted at the beginning of the HKL guidelines calling for consideration to be given to: The basic rules on internal protection for young, single and working men. According to a report in Die Zeit Kabul, Balkh, Herat, Bamiyan, Takhar, Samangan and Panjshir are all regarded as consistently sufficiently safe areas. According to BAMF male returnees could work in these areas without undue risk.

In doing so, the BAMF is using a fraudulent system to refuse asylum applications from Afghans. It calculates a theoretical risk density, a kind of probability calculation for possible death due to violent conflicts. On this basis 20,000 people killed in 2015 from a total population of 27 million for Afghanistan results in a mortality probability of 0.074 percent. BAMK concludes this is far from a considerable probability and thus poses no real danger.

This argument has been strongly criticized by former judge Paul Tiedemann. He wrote in the German magazine for immigration rights and foreign policy (Zeitschrift fur Auslanderrecht and Auslanderpolitik) that the risk density in the bombardments of Coventry or Frankfurt in the Second World War was under one percent. Throughout the Second World War, with its tens of millions of victims, the official risk density for civilians was just 0.3 percent, according to Die Zeit.

The cynical calculations aimed at reducing the number of refugees from Afghanistan are also being used to put pressure on the BAMF staff to reject more asylum seekers. The recognition rate for Afghan refugees has already fallen sharply. In 2015, 78 percent received a positive decision from the BAMF; this year it is down to 52 percent.

One BAMF employee told Die Zeit: You get to know how management presents the current decision-making practice. Whoever makes untypical recommendations or takes decisions must report to his team leader. Another explained: Actually, the basic law and the right to asylum specify who can stay and who can not. The fact that so many Afghans are being rejected now is entirely political.
The pro-company, anti-worker character of the recently announced deal between President elect Donald Trump and heating and cooling manufacturer Carrier is quickly being exposed.

As opposed to initial claims by President-elect Trump and the United Steelworkers that 1,100 jobs would be saved, only 730 production jobs and 70 maintenance jobs out of 1,400 current positions would remain in Indianapolis. The deal also sanctions the shutdown of Carriers Huntington, Indiana, plant and the elimination of 700 more jobs. The jobs of more than 500 production workers would still be affected by outsourcing to Mexico.

For its part, Carriers parent, United Technologies (UTC), will profit enormously, pocketing $7 million in state tax breaks over the next ten years. In addition, Trump promised the UTC boss, Gregory Hayes, that he would reform federal tax codes and regulations that would allow Hayes to print money.

The United Steelworkers had initially bestowed effusive praise on the deal brokered by Trump. However, facing growing worker anger as details became available, the USW Local 1999 president who oversees the Indianapolis Carrier plant, Chuck Jones, told the Washington Post Tuesday that Trump lied his ass off about the number of jobs saved at the factory.

The next day, Trump, in his characteristic thuggish manner, responded with several Twitter posts attacking Jones. In the first post, he wrote, "Chuck Jones, who is President of United Steelworkers 1999, has done a terrible job representing workers. No wonder companies flee country!" Later he followed up with, "If United Steelworkers 1999 was any good, they would have kept those jobs in Indiana. Spend more time working-less time talking. Reduce dues."

Following Trumps outburst, Jones reported receiving phone threats, including against his wife and children.

In an interview with MSNBC News following the exchange between Trump and Jones, USW President Leo Gerard said he would not let Trumps attack stand in the way of forging closer collaboration with the incoming administration. Expressing disappointment with Trumps comments, he called Jones a hero.

Gerard went on to defend the record of the USW against Trumps suggestion that excessive wage demands were responsible for driving companies like Carrier to seek cheaper labor overseas.

The steelworkers chief noted that the USW had offered massive concessions to Carrier, only to be rebuffed. Our union offered Carrier what would it take to keep you here and they said, there is nothing you could do to keep us here unless you would work for under $5 an hour. As it stood, the USW accepted huge concessions at Carrier, including a three-tier wage scale with starting pay at the near poverty level of $14 an hour.

Gerard went on to complain, The USW has been fighting the export of jobs to developing countries for more than 35 years. We could not work low enough in wages and benefits to maintain jobs against Mexican workers, against Chinese workers, against Bangladeshi workers or Vietnamese workers.

These remarks demonstrate that the USW functions as a fifth column for management. If the USW has not yet been able to force down wages to third world levels, it has not been for lack of effort, but due to the bitter resistance of US workers to poverty wages.

In recent contracts at ArcelorMittal and US Steel, the USW forced through concession-laden deals imposing higher out of pocket health care costs, an effective wage freeze and other cuts. At Allegheny Technologies (ATI), the USW forced through a concessions deal after deliberately isolating workers during a six-month lockout.

While the USW claims it has fought to defend jobs, the reality is the union collaborated with billionaire asset stripper Wilbur Ross, recently named as Trumps Commerce Secretary, to shut down whole sections of the steel industry. In the process, workers were robbed of their pensions while the financial assets of the USW were preserved.

In his remarks to MSNBC, Gerard went on to complain that Trump had never responded to a fawning letter addressed to him by the USW declaring the readiness of the union to work with the new administration on repealing the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and other trade deals on the basis of a shared program of America First economic nationalism.

He then praised the threat by Trump to impose a 35 percent tariff on US companies that shift production outside the country. We are willing to sit down and work with this president, Gerard insisted.

For his part, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka issued a statement Thursday defending Jones, while at the same time pleading with President-elect Trump to engage with local union leaders at Carrier. In earlier statements, Trumka had insisted that the AFL-CIO stood ready to work with Trump on the repeal of NAFTA and other trade issues.

While the unions have generally allied themselves with the Democratic Party, which has tended to be more open to using their services to police the working class, they are more than open to working with the Republicans as long as the interests of the labor bureaucracy are respected. In any case, they are in many regards closer to Trump, who has adopted the America-First nationalist rhetoric that the USW and other unions have spewed for decades.

These comments make it clear that the unions view the attack by Trump on the president of the Carrier local as an unfortunate misunderstanding that must not be allowed to stand in the way of their collaboration with the extreme-right-wing nationalist program of the new administration. The affinity of the unions for the semi-fascist Trump has a definite logic rooted in the corporatist evolution of the unions over the past 40 years.

As organizations based on the defense of the capitalist profit system and tied to the capitalist nation state, the unions preach the identity of interests of American workers with the American government and corporate owners. On this basis the unions insist workers must secure the competitiveness of US industry against its overseas rivals. Under conditions of deepening capitalist crisis and intensifying trade conflicts, this signifies a drive to destroy every gain the working class has achieved in a century of struggle. Ultimately this requires force and violence.

The program of the unions offers no way forward. Far from having common interests with the corporate bosses, workerswhether they are American, Mexican or Chineseare locked in a bitter class struggle against the billionaire owners of industry. A worker at Carrier in Indianapolis has far more in common with a Carrier worker in Monterrey, Mexico, than with Donald Trump or UTC CEO Gregory Hayes.

The tariff barriers advocated by the USW would inevitably lead to all out trade war as the economic rivals of the US retaliate. Just as in the 1930s, this is a recipe for economic collapse, full-scale depression and world war.

As opposed to the nationalist program of the unions, the World Socialist Web Site and the Socialist Equality Party fight for the working class to adopt a global strategy, forging common bonds with workers overseas in a fight against the transnational companies. This must be based on the fight for socialism, the transformation of giant corporations like UTC into public enterprises under the democratic ownership and control of the working class, and the reorganization of economy to meet human needs, not private profit.
The New South Wales Teachers Federation (NSWTF) rammed through a new Salaries and Conditions agreement, covering thousands of public school teachers across the state, at stop work meetings yesterday morning.

The meetings, which were held in dozens of separate locations, lasted less than an hour. They underscored the NSWTFs contempt for the basic democratic rights of the teachers it falsely claims to represent. Union members were given a one page heads of agreement as they entered the meetings, containing five points that supposedly summarised the content of the deal reached, in closed door negotiations, between the union and the Department of Education. NSWTF officials insisted that teachers ratify the agreement, without any opportunity to scrutinise its contents.

In the days preceding the meetings, the Socialist Equality Party (SEP) issued two statements demanding that the full agreement be circulated in advance of the vote, and that the stop work meetings be delayed until at least December 15, to allow teachers time to study and discuss its contents of the deal.

An SEP statement on December 5 noted that, Every aspect of the unions arrangements: the total lack of information, the preposterous amount of time allocated for debate and discussion, and the splitting up of teachers at hundreds of separate venues, underscores the class character of the agenda it is trying to impose.

A December 7 SEP statement detailed the complicity of the union in the introduction of a host of new regressive measures targeting public education. These have included greater powers for principals to hire temporary teachers; Bump It up, which represents a vast expansion in the hated standardised testing regime; Stronger HSC Standards, which excludes underperforming students from the HSC; and the reintroduction of school inspectors.

Yesterdays meetings confirmed the SEPs warnings. After being given the agreement, teachers were shown a telecast, featuring NSWTF officials interviewing one another, and making statements.

The unions president, Maurie Mulheron, declared that the deal ensured the preservation of all working conditions. In other words, all of the previous attacks agreed by the union are carried over into the current agreement.

There are also indications that the new deal contains a further erosion of conditions. The heads of agreement included an amendment to the Alternative Work Clause to continue to trial and review pilots on work organisation... to facilitate flexibility in order to respond to increasing student enrollments. This vaguely-worded provision will undoubtedly be used to place the burden of skyrocketing student numbers on teachers who already face substantial time pressures and a serious lack of resources.

Mulheron and the other officials touted the paltry 2.5 percent salary increase as the best that could be secured given the difficulties faced by the federation, invoking as justification the state and federal governments pay cap for public sector workers.

In his concluding remarks, Mulheron threatened that if the deal were not endorsed today there would be no salary increase.

The union tied the vote on the heads of agreement to a resolution to wage a campaign against the Baird government over its public sector wages cap, funding for the Gonski agreement and unresolved industrial and professional matters. The resolution committed the union to nothing, and failed to include even a single detail of its so-called campaign.

The NSWTFs continuing promotion of the Gonski funding model as a boon for public education is an utter fraud. The scheme, introduced by the former federal Labor government of Julia Gillard, provides for woefully inadequate increases in funding, the bulk of which have been consigned to the distant future. The Gonski model, named after David Gonski, a prominent businessman and chairman of the Australian Stock Exchange, is aimed at further eroding public education by tying funding to continuous annual performance reviews.

The unions resolution denounced the state Liberal-National government, but was silent on the central role of successive Labor governments in slashing funding and conditions in public schools. Mulheron and other officials pointed out that their campaign would extend to the next state election. In other words, it will be aimed at installing yet another business-union backed Labor government.

In the meeting at Baulkham Hills in Sydney, Erika Laslett, a long-standing teacher and SEP member, challenged the unions anti-democratic proceedings in the limited period allowed for debate. She moved a procedural motion, calling for the agreement to be published in full and the meeting postponed until teachers had been given the time to carefully review it.

Laslett declared that teachers need to read it line by line given the unions past betrayals. In the last salaries agreement we were told there had been no concessions. Yet that deal introduced a faster method of sacking teachers under the Teacher Improvement Program and brought in Standards Based Pay with its Professional Development Plans that are turning into top down directives to show improvement in students test results.

We never voted on Bump It Up, Stronger HSC Standards, or inspectors, but they are now part of our working conditions. They should be abolished forthwith. If we let the union get away with pulling the wool over our eyes again, what will they agree to next?

The motion was seconded by another teacher, before being voted down. During the discussion period, one teacher raised that the Alternative Work Organisation clause provided the Department with scope to introduce further cuts to conditions.

Another teacher called for a no vote, stating, The union says you have to accept this or its nothing. The union says our hands are tied. The teacher denounced the unions announcement of an independent inquiry into the impact of the state Liberal-National governments Local Schools, Local Decisions program, aimed at slashing education costs. The teacher commented, Weve already got plenty of evidence. Its not about evidence, its about strength.

At another meeting in Ashfield, attended by reporters from the WSWS, a teacher demanded to know why the agreement had not been circulated prior to the meeting. In reply, Anna Uren, the unions womens coordinator, contemptuously stated that this was not necessary because there was not a lot of detail to work your way through. Revealing the unions real motiveto avoid its manoeuvres with the government from being scrutinised and exposedUren said that if the agreement were published media organisations could make a big deal about it.

Her remarks, and the entire conduct of the meetings, highlighted the role of the NSWTF as an adjunct of the Department of Education, which works to keep teachers in the dark in order to push through ever deeper attacks on their working conditions. The anti-democratic character of the meetings underscored the fact that nothing less than a rebellion by teachers against the union is necessary, even to secure the basic right to information.

A genuine struggle against the unending assault on public education can only proceed through the formation of independent rank and file committees in every school, committed to organising teachers in a political and industrial fight against the accelerating attacks on teachers and students alike, and in defence of the fundamental social right to a high-quality, free public education for all.

A number of teachers spoke to WSWS reporters after the meetings. Malu, a 29 year-old first-year teacher, said, I felt unhappy going out of the meeting. I thought there would be more of a militant atmosphere. I felt demoralised. I felt thered be more passion.

I think education should be about empowerment, critical thinking. A lot of the kids at my school are treated like automatons. The lessons are content heavy and there is little scope for kids general capabilities.

What you said and your leaflet definitely resonated with me. I think we werent given enough time. The union doesnt necessarily represent us. I used to have faith in the union but what you were raising was for me a healthy critique, healthy questioning.

Another teacher, Greg, commented, I dont agree with the union rushing this agreement through. Your request to read the fine print was perfectly reasonable. Id love to read the fine print. We need to read it because they are bringing in changes we dont know about. How did Stronger HSC Standards come in? The union is just saying trust us.

I teach art and they are taking kids out of the art classes to teach them literacy and numeracy. The union just accepts things that change our working conditions. I see teachers react to every new attack by rolling their eyes and saying they cant wait to retire.

Paul, a history, geography and economics teacher said, Im troubled about the fact we havent had more information. Its been a very rapid process, a last minute thing. Its been a bit rushed. Theyve got all our emails, they can email us at any time. Its not like they have a meeting to do that, so I dont know why they havent.

Paul agreed that the meeting should be postponed, stating, I absolutely think we need to do that. It seems to me that as a matter of general principle we should not be voting on something that we havent had adequate time to look over and reflect upon.

At Ashfield, one primary school teacher commented, There wasnt a lot of information given in the meeting about whether there were any trade-offs in conditions. I dont think the Federation informs its members of everything thats going on.

It happened to me where teachers on leave without pay before 2012 werent informed that if they werent given a job by third term 2013 they had to relinquish their position. The federation didnt inform anyone and thousands of teachers were affected.

The question about why the agreement wasnt circulated wasnt answered. They just fluffed over that question. Either they dont know themselves or were being deceived yet again. Ive had some time off school, and now, teaching and learning is out the window. Its all about testing and collecting data. I believe now that the union works with the department.
City officials concluded the search for bodies Wednesday with a final count of 36 dead in the Oakland Ghost Ship fire. The immediate cause of the fire is as yet unknown, but details are emerging about long-term official negligence that left the building uninspected for decades.

The warehouse that burned down had been operating without permits for three years as a set of artist studios, which doubled as informal housing and a music venue. The fire broke out during a music show and those attending were quickly trapped in the building that lacked basic fire safety measures like exit signs, extinguishers, or sprinklers.

Such a large death toll is the result of a confluence of factors: soaring housing costs driving artists and youth to seek low rents in substandard housing; property owners renting out old and poorly maintained buildings; and city officials leaving inspection departments understaffed and underfunded.

The citys interim Director of Planning and Building told reporters Wednesday that there had been no inspections because we had no applications for permits in the last 30 years, and there were no violations that were submitted for interior work within the main building. The city has only 11 building code inspectors.

Several complaints had been filed against the building in the past three years, and inspectors were sent to the building as recently as a few weeks before the fire, but according to the inspectors' report, they did not gain access to the building.

Separately from building code inspections, every commercial building and multiunit residence in the city is supposed to receive a fire inspection each year. But an anonymous city employee told the East Bay Times that the warehouse is not on the inspection rolls, and that there is no record in their database of it ever being inspected.

An Alameda County grand jury report in 2014 estimated that of the 11,000 commercial buildings in Oakland as many as 4,000 are not inspected in a given year. The citys Fire Prevention Bureau responsible for scrutinizing these properties has only nine inspectors.

The Oakland fire department has been criticized over the past few years by Zac Unger, the vice president of the local 55 of the International Association of Fire Fighters. Unger told the New York Times that he had complained regularly about the lack of inspectors and criticized the Fire Chief for going several years without a Fire Marshal to oversee inspections.

I said specifically, he told the Times, the mismanagement of the Fire Department is going to lead to a tragedy and you need to do something about it now, and I am heartbroken to have been proven right and to have all of these people dead.

Police department records show that officers had also repeatedly gone to the Ghost Ship to investigate criminal complaints but at no point did that result in a referral to the citys inspectors. Sgt. Barry Donelan denied that officers had any responsibility in the matter. You cant be effective in arrests and imposing building codes, he told the Times thats ludicrous.

While the precise cause of the fire remains unknown, fire investigators stated that it broke out in a part of the warehouse with several appliances, suggesting a possible electrical fire.

Much of the national media has focused its search for someone to blame on the master tenants, a married couple Derick Ion Almena and Micah Allison, who rented the warehouse from the landlady, Chor Ng, and then sublet parts of it to roughly 20 others.

So far, Almena has given one emotional interview on the Today show where the hosts asked him provocative questions about whether he was a profiteer who should be held accountable. Almena refused to respond other than by emphasizing that he himself lived in the warehouse with his three children and had tried to make a nurturing place for artists.

Whatever decisions tenants may have made that contributed to the fire, the basic cause remains the lack of affordable housing, which drives people into a gray market of repurposed buildings. Rental prices have been skyrocketing, with the median rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Oakland jumping 19 percent between 2015 and 2016 to $2,700 a month. In these conditions the alternative to surreptitiously living in an industrial warehouse is often homelessness.

One Oakland city councilor estimated that there are roughly 200 warehouses that people live in that have no papers, no permit, no fire code, nothing.

Since the Oakland fire, city officials across the country have launched a crackdown on informal housing that is resulting in evictions of the generally young and poor residents. Oakland public records show inspectors have been to five different warehouses this week examining old complaints of potentially illegal housing.

Other cities with high rents and abandoned industrial centers are following suit. The city attorney of Los Angeles announced he was citing a commercial building that had been converted to residences without a permit. City officials in Baltimore announced they had condemned a building housing dozens of artists.

These evictions are punishing those too poor to afford safe housing while doing nothing to alleviate the underlying social causes.
Greek workers struck Thursday in a one-day strike against plans by the Syriza-led coalition government to impose yet deeper attacks on living standards and increase taxes on the working class.

The strike was called by the Adedy public sector trade union and the General Confederation of Greek Workers (GSEE), which covers the private sector. The stoppage affected public transport, with no metro or suburban services in the capital, Athens. National rail services were cancelled as rail operator Trainose was forced to halt its service.

State-run schools and universities were closed. Public health workers also supported the strike, with hospitals kept open with emergency staff only. Bank workers took part.

On Wednesday, journalists had held a 24-hour strike, pulling all television and radio news broadcasts off the air. This meant that no newspapers were published Thursday and news websites were not updated until Thursday morning. The journalists were protesting social security cuts that will affect pension funds. Due to Greeces economic crisis, and a general fall in newspaper sales globally, many journalists have been unpaid for months, despite continuing to work.

Seamen have also been striking throughout this week in protest against proposed tax hikes on their income, bringing passenger and cargo lines to a standstill.

Around 7,000 people protested in several demonstrations in Athens, with the main one beginning at Pedion tou Areos Square and ending at Syntagma Square, in front of the parliament building. Some of the banners on the march read, We wont compromise! and We want jobs. One of the factory workers at the demonstration, Nikos Spanopoulos, told the media, This leftist government was elected to make things better, but from what I seethey are going to take everything including our underwear.

Speaking to Euronews, another participant said, There is depression in almost every family, adding, There are huge difficulties not only economically but in the social sphere as well. A pensioner said, Our pensions have been cut by at least 40 percent. People have no money to pay more taxes. They have worked hard and paid a lot in social security contributions. It was all taken from them in advance.

PAME, the trade union federation of the Stalinist Communist Party of Greece (KKE), held a separate demonstration in Athens.

Protests were held nationwide, including around 5,000 who demonstrated in Greeces second city, Thessaloniki. No public transport ran in the city.

Since mass austerity began in Greece in 2009, the population has lost almost a third of their income. Unemployment remains above 23 percent (1.1 million people) with youth unemployment at more than 46 percent.

In calling the 24-hour general strike, the aim of the union federations was to allow Greek workers to let off steam while the barrage of austerity measures continues unabated. There is a sense, however, that this well-worn tactic, which has been employed countless times since the first bailout package was signed in 2010, has run its course. In an effort to maintain its stranglehold over the working class and to cover its own complicity in facilitating the imposition of austerity during the last six years, the bureaucracy adopted a more combative tone in the run-up to this strike. In its statement, Adedy declared the need for a unified all-worker escalation of strikes, demonstrations and occupations in a common struggle with young people and the suffering sections of the middle class.

The on-going implementation of austerity measures by the government has also sparked a crisis within Syriza, with nine out of ten voters now expressing dissatisfaction with the pseudo-left party. In an attempt to offset this hostility, the strike was supported by Syrizas Labour Policy Department, which issued a statement railing against neoliberal policies, which are dismantling labour rights and calling on workers, the unemployed and young people to dynamically participate in the strike directed against their own party!

The strike took place just days after a meeting of European Union (EU) finance ministers, at which Greece had sought reductions in the 3.5 percent primary surplus target that it is expected to run after 2018, and some debt relief. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble responded by threatening Athens that if it wished to remain in the euro, it would have to deepen its austerity agenda. Debt forgiveness would not help Greece, he said. Athens must finally carry out the necessary reforms. If Greece wants to stay in the euro, there is no way past thatcompletely independently of the debt level.

For its part, the International Monetary Fund considers the 3.5 percent target as unrealistic and is in favour of some debt reliefbut only in return for an extra 4.2 billion in austerity savings and further labour reforms, including abolishing collective bargaining and making it easier to sack workers.

The Greek parliament is expected to vote on the budget Saturday. Briefing parliament on the Eurogroup meeting yesterday, Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos stated, there is no way that we will legislate the measures [demanded by the IMF]. He expressed his hope that a compromise could be reached on the primary surplus target, with one percent from the total target being set aside for stimulating the economy.

Given Syrizas record of signing a third bailout agreement eight months after coming to power in January 2015 with a massive mandate to end austerity, even such mealy-mouthed appeals are worthless. Their aim is simply to give the government enough room for manoeuvre while they prepare the ground for implementing the attacks demanded by the countrys creditors.

According to sources cited by online publication TheToc.gr, the IMF insists on imposing wage cuts and even sackings in the public sector in parallel with the abolishing of various public sector bodies. According to the TheToc.gr article, the IMF proposes that such measures be imposed automatically if payroll costs exceed a predefined percentage of GDP.

A few days ago a poll commissioned by pro-Syriza daily I Efimerida Ton Syntakton (Ef.Syn.) , which asked a loaded question, found that 6 in 10 Greeks are in favour of public sector workers who have had a negative performance assessment being sacked. The new performance assessment regime is due to start next year with an aim to provide an objective and scientific veneer to the predetermined agenda of gutting Greeces public sector.

The propaganda-dictated Ef.Syns poll is aimed at softening up the public prior to mass sackings in the public sector, which is part of the wider agenda of driving down wages and conditions for the entire working class.
A new report from the federal Center for Disease Control and Prevention found that between 2014 and 2015 life expectancy fell in the US, the first time this has happened since 1993, at the height of the AIDS epidemic.

Life expectancy at birth decreased 0.1 years, from 78.9 years in 2014 to 78.8 years in 2015. This leaves the United States behind Cuba and Costa Rica and well behind Japan, Germany, France and other industrialized countries where life expectancy is still on the rise.

In 2015, just over 2.7 million deaths were registered in the US86,212, or 1.2 percent, more than in 2014. White males and females and black males experienced higher death rates last year.

After declining for years, deaths increased from heart disease and stroke, as well as from chronic lower respiratory diseases, Alzheimers disease and diabetes. Mortality also rose from kidney disease, unintentional injuries and suicide.

The report also showed a rise in the infant mortality rate, from 582.1 infant deaths per 100,000 live births in 2014, to 589.5 in 2015. The US already ranks 26th out of the 35 nations in the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in infant mortality. For infant deaths, the economically hard hit industrial states like Ohio and West Virginia rank just above the traditionally poorest states in the Deep South.

These figures are very disturbing, University of Pennsylvania sociology professor Irma T. Elo told the World Socialist Web Site. Life expectancy declined for those under the age of 65, particularly from unintentional injuries, and that may be related to drug-induced mortality. Unintentional injuries and suicide had already increased from 2013 to 2014, and the trend continued last year.

Life expectancy is declining in the US but not in other developed countries, Professor Ilo added. The US does a very poor job on this. If you look at the disparities in life expectancy according to income and in parts of the country where there has been a loss of jobs, this might give you the greatest clues as to why this disturbing downward trend is happening.

A study by Harvard professors published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in April 2016 found a 15-year difference between the life expectancy of men in the richest 1 percent of the population and those in the poorest 1 percent. For women, the gap was 10 years. Life expectancy for the most impoverished American men is roughly the same as it is in Sudan and Pakistan.

The Harvard study also found that low life expectancy is not concentrated in the Deep South, but is prevalent across the so-called Rust Belt states in the US Midwest. These are the areas where Trump was able to able to exploit immense social anger over decades of deindustrialization, declining living standards and the Democrats hostility to the social concerns of working-class voters.

The decline in life expectancy is a verdict on eight years of the Obama administration. Obamas signature domestic reform, the Affordable Care Act, has, in fact, made access to adequate heath care even less affordable for workers whose real wages have stagnated or fallen since Obamas economic recovery began in 2009.

The past eight years are a continuation of a decades-long process of social counter-revolution. The American ruling class never reconciled itself to the gains won by workers during the labor wars waged by industrial workers between the 1930s and 1970s. The right to employer-paid health care and pension benefits, along with Medicare and Medicaid, led to a great improvement in life expectancy, which rose from 59.7 in 1930 to 69.7 in 1960 and to 77 by 2000.

The class war policies initiated under the Democratic Carter administration (1977-81) and accelerated under the Reagan years (1981-89) were aimed at clawing back everything the working class had achieved. In the face of this, the United Auto Workers, United Steelworkers and other unions abandoned any resistance, transforming themselves into appendages of corporate management. In the name of making American capitalism more competitive, the unions sabotaged every struggle by workers to defend their jobs and living standards.

By the mid-2000s, there was a steady drumbeat of complaints within corporate and political circles that workers were living too long, and that defined-benefit programsi.e., employer-paid pensions and health carewere unaffordable.

Summing up the attitude of the ruling class, Steve Miller, the CEO of automotive parts maker Delphi, declared in 2005, Back in the days when you worked for one employer till age 65 and then died at age 70, and when health care was unsophisticated and inexpensive, the social contract inherent in defined-benefit programs perhaps made some economic sense.

He continued, People are living longer these days. And medical science is rapidly expanding the capability to spend vast amounts of money keeping you alive for decades. Of course, that is a good thing. But the question is, how can we afford it? Similarly, Miller said, the government could no long sustain Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

The Obama administration was tasked with carrying out the unfinished businesses from the Reagan years, particularly in sharply reducing health care costs for corporate America by shifting the burden to workers and driving them into substandard plans that would shorten their lives.

The incoming Trump administration is assembling a government of billionaires, generals and ultra-reactionaries committed to dismantling whatever restraints on the exploitation of the working class remain. Trumps pick for the US Department of Health and Human Services, Georgia Representative Tom Price, is a longstanding opponent of Medicare and Medicaid. These government health insurance programs for the elderly, the handicapped and the poor cover a combined total of 130 million people, or nearly half of the US population.

Prices appointment is part of a scheme to use the total or partial repeal of Obamacare to begin the dismantling of both Medicare and Medicaid as government-run, universal entitlement programs, and their transformation into voucher programs, in which seniors and poor people would be given government subsidies that would cover only a fraction of the cost of private insurance.
The selection Wednesday of Marine Gen. John Kelly, the former head of US Southern Command, to head the Department of Homeland Security brings to three the number of recently retired generals tapped by president-elect Donald Trump for his incoming cabinet.

Before nominating Kelly, Trump named the rabidly anti-Muslim Lieut. Gen. Mike Flynn, the retired former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, as his national security adviser.

He has also announced his choice of the former head of US Central Command, retired Marine Gen. James Mattis, nicknamed Mad Dog for his repeated statements expressing a love for killing, to head the Defense Department. Securing the nomination of Mattis as defense secretary requires congressional approval of a waiver exempting him from a law barring commissioned military officers who have served in uniform over the previous seven years from taking the post. Mattis retired in 2013 and took a seat on the board of directors of major military contractor General Dynamics.

There are other so-called flag officers waiting in the wings. Retired Gen. David Petraeus, also a former US Central Command chief who briefly served as director of the Central Intelligence Agency, is reportedly under consideration for Secretary of State. He would have to secure permission from his probation officer to work in Washington or travel outside the US. Petraeus was sentenced to two years probation last year after pleading guilty to handing over top secret intelligence documents to his mistress.

Retired Adm. James Stavridis, the former supreme allied commander of NATO, who met with Trump in New York Thursday, is also reportedly being vetted for the post of Secretary of State. Previously, he was considered a possible running mate for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. And Adm. Michael Rogers, currently head of the National Security Agency, is said to be a contender for Director of National Intelligence.

The number of senior military officers being assembled in the Trump cabinet makes the incoming administration resemble more and more a Latin American military junta. The placing of both the Defense Department, overseeing the massive US war machine, and the Department of Homeland Security, which coordinates a ballooning police-state apparatus, in the hands of two recently retired Marine Corps generals is particularly chilling, suggesting a government that aims to seamlessly coordinate war abroad and repression at home under the tight control of a military camarilla.

Trump, the billionaire conman who secured five deferments to avoid the draft during the Vietnam war, appears to revel in surrounding himself with military brass, shouting out idiotically Mad Dog Mattis at rallies, as if association with the architect of the slaughter of Fallujah will somehow strengthen his image. But there is an objective source of the rise of the military into the top positions of the government.

It is now more than 55 years since President Dwight D. Eisenhower, the former senior allied commander in World War II, made a farewell speech in which he cautioned against the conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry whose influenceeconomic, political, even spiritualis felt in every city, every statehouse, every office of the federal government.

Eisenhower warned, We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist.

It is highly unlikely that Eisenhower could have imagined in his wildest dreams either the scale of the disastrous rise of misplaced power expressed in the incoming Trump administration or the vast growth of the US military apparatus.

At $580 billion, the Pentagons budget consumes more than half of the discretionary spending of the federal government each year. Adding on the slush fund for unending overseas wars, money spent on atomic weapons and other military expenses, the real cost of Washingtons war machine is more like $1 trillion a year.

Along with the Pentagon budget, the power of the military brass has grown uninterruptedly, particularly over the past quarter century of unending wars. The creation of a professional all-volunteer armed forces has increasingly isolated the military from civilian society, creating a distinct social caste that has asserted its independent political interests in the affairs of state ever more aggressively. So-called unified combatant commanders, like Mattis, Kelly, Petraeus and Stavridis, exercise vast power over entire regions of the globe, far overshadowing any ambassador or other civilian representative of the US government.

While the rank-and-file of the US military appears to have heavily favored Trump in the electionpartly out of the misguided hope that he would halt the unending wars in Afghanistan and the Middle EastDemocrat Hillary Clinton was the favorite of the top US military brass, who considered her a veteran supporter of militarism and a more reliable backer of their strategic preparations for war against Russia.

Outside of Flynn, none of the ex-military commanders being nominated or considered for top posts had endorsed Trump. Some of them had clashed with the Obama administration, Mattis over Iran and Kelly over Guantanamo, for example.

As much as Trump is choosing ex-generals, the generals may themselves be choosing to join his administration, confident that they can ultimately dictate policy.

The Obama administration and congressional Democrats signaled Thursday that they will place no obstacles in the path of Mattis appointment as defense secretary. A measure has been added to a stopgap spending bill set for approval before Congress adjourns this weekend that will fast-track the waiving of the legal ban on recently serving officers taking the post. Debate on the waiver in the Senate is to be limited to 10 hours, even though this will be the first time such a waiver has been granted in over 60 years.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said that Trump should be given wide latitude in assembling his team, and that Obama believes this is an important principle.

More important, apparently, than civilian control of the military. That this bedrock constitutional principle has been transformed into all but a dead letter, supported by no significant section of the political establishment, is among the starkest manifestations of the decay and collapse of bourgeois democratic institutions in the United States, which have found their consummate political expression in the advent of the Trump presidency.

What is being assembled in the ongoing sessions at New York Citys Trump Towers is a government of class war, comprised of billionaires and generals. It is turning to the military as it prepares to implement policies of social reaction at home and war abroad, and to confront the massive popular opposition that these policies will provoke from within the working class and the youth.
Seventy five years ago, on December 8, 1941, 18 Trotskyists were sentenced to prison terms for advocating the overthrow of the US government. The following two-part article is based on information gathered from the valuable book Trotskyists on Trial: Free Speech and Political Persecution Since the Age of FDR, by Donna T. Haverty-Stacke. In addition, the articles draw from the World Socialist Web Sites independent investigation of thousands of pages of trial transcripts, SWP archive material, and previously unavailable FBI records brought to light by Haverty-Stacke.

In 1941, the Roosevelt administration launched one of the most important political trials in the history of the United States when it charged 29 members of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) with sedition and conspiracy to overthrow the government. FBI agents raided the partys offices in Minneapolis on June 27 and prosecutors convened a grand jury shortly thereafter. On October 27, the trial began in federal court. Its proceedings lasted more than one month.

The Socialist Workers Party was aligned politically with the Fourth International at the time of the trial. It was singled out for prosecution as the United States prepared to enter the world war in Europe and East Asia.

The defendants used the trial to present the partys socialist principles to a broad audience. They defended the SWPs opposition to imperialist war from the witness stand and refuted the prosecutions attempt to portray socialist revolution as a conspiratorial coup detat. They conducted themselves in a courageous and principled manner, with federal prison sentences hanging over their heads. The SWP published the trial transcript of SWP National Chairman James P. Cannons spirited testimony in the 1942 pamphlet Socialism on Trial.

On December 1, the jury found 18 of the defendants guilty of violating the newly enacted Smith Act, but recommended leniency in sentencing. On December 8, one day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the trial judge read the 18 their sentences, which ranged from 12 to 16 months. On November 22, 1943, the Supreme Court refused to take the appeal lodged by the defendants. The next month, the 18 surrendered themselves to federal authorities and began serving their sentences. Despite a national campaign that generated support from thousands of workers and many prominent intellectuals and attorneys, Roosevelt refused to pardon the defendants. Six of the 18 were released after six months, and the remaining 12 were released in January 1945 after serving one year.

This significant event in the history of the socialist movement is the subject of a new book published 75 years after the trial by Hunter College Professor Donna Haverty-Stacke. The book, titled Trotskyists on Trial: Free Speech and Political Persecution Since the Age of FDR (New York University Press, 2016), is a significant work and its author is to be congratulated on her accomplishment. Haverty-Stacke has not only taken up a subject that has been ignored by academia, she has also brought to light many previously unknown details of the prosecution and its political and legal ramifications.

Haverty-Stacke has undertaken a painstaking review of previously unexamined or unavailable archived material from the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. This material has been largely unexplored by academics, who have all but ignored (with the notable exception of Bryan Palmers biography of James P. Cannon and his history of the 1934 Minneapolis General Strike) the significant role of Trotskyism in American political life.

It is a welcome development that Haverty-Stackes book provides a wealth of new information regarding the extent of the penetration of the Trotskyist movement by FBI agents and informants. She presents the discussions taking place within the Roosevelt administration as it prepared the first peacetime sedition prosecution since those following the passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798. She addresses the legal issues involved in the trial, the appeal before the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the cases precedential role in laying the foundation for further anti-communist trials in the 1940s and 1950s. She begins by providing the backdrop to the trial and biographical sketches of the defendants.

The selection of the defendants

The Socialist Workers Party was a major force within the American left. This was the product not only of its leadership of key strikes during the 1930s, but also, and above all, its identification with the political conceptions of Leon Trotsky. His enormous stature as leader, along with Vladimir Lenin, of the 1917 October Revolution; implacable opponent of the Stalinist degeneration of the Soviet Union; and one of the greatest writers of his time made Trotsky, even in exile, a major presence in world politics. Even after his assassination in August 1940, the lasting influence of Trotskys ideas was feared by his enemies among the Stalinists, the fascists and the democratic imperialists. First and foremost among those in the latter category was the US government under the leadership of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

There were two sets of defendants amongst the 29 charged: the partys political leadership based in the SWPs national headquarters in New York City, and the SWPs representatives in Minneapolis, Minnesota who occupied positions of leadership in the regions Teamsters union, Local 544.

The first group of defendants consisted of long-standing leaders of the SWP, professional revolutionaries whose convictions were forged in the class struggles of the early 20th century.

Haverty-Stacke notes that foremost among these defendants was James P. Cannon, the national chairman of the SWP and the founder of Trotskyism in the United States. Born in 1890 in Rosedale, Kansas, Cannon read Trotskys critique of Stalinist policies while attending the Sixth Congress of the Communist International, held in Moscow in 1928. Upon returning to the United States, he declared his agreement with Trotsky. Expelled from the Communist Party, he founded the American section of the Left Opposition and established contact with Trotsky.

Felix Morrow, born in 1906 in New York City, was an SWP political committee member and revolutionary journalist who wrote for the party press. He was respected as the author of the book Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Spain. At trial, the prosecution emphasized Morrows position on the editorial board of Fourth International, the partys theoretical journal.

Albert Goldman, another leading figure in the SWP, migrated to the United States from Belorussia at the age of seven in 1904. Goldman was best known for serving as Leon Trotskys attorney before the Dewey Commission of Inquirys hearings on the Stalinist show trials in 1937. The Roosevelt administration sought the indictment of these three men because their political and, in the case of Cannon and Goldman, personal association, was central to establishing, in accordance with the law, a conspiracy to overthrow the government. One significant omission from the list of defendants was Joseph Hansen, who served as Trotskys secretary for three years. It would seem logical for the government to have considered him the ideal defendant. His absence from the list will be discussed later.

The second group of defendants served in the SWP leadership in Minneapolis, where the partys direction of the Teamsters union had established the Trotskyist movement as a significant political force commanding the respect of thousands of workers. Many of the Trotskyist defendants had personally led the victorious 1934 general truckers strike in the Twin Cities and fought to recruit 200,000 members to the union across the Midwestern states.

Haverty-Stacke describes the history of the Communist movement in the area, noting how Minneapolis became a center of support for the Left Opposition after the Stalinist Communist Party expelled the Trotskyists from the party in 1928: Along with [Cannon] went other future Smith Act defendants in Minneapolis, including Vincent Dunne, Carl Skoglund, and Oscar Coover. [1]

In the years following the general strike, the national Teamsters union under the leadership of close Roosevelt confidant Daniel Tobin unsuccessfully sought to purge Local 544 (and its predecessor, Local 574) of its Trotskyist leadership, employing the most vicious anti-communist propaganda.

In the weeks before the government initiated its prosecution, Local 544 was engaged in a renewed political battle over control of the Minneapolis Teamsters union. When Tobin and the Teamster leadership launched a new attempt to remove the Trotskyists from their positions, in part due to the SWPs opposition to US entry into World War II, thousands of truck drivers voted to abandon the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and re-certify the local with the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO).

The Minneapolis defendants had played key roles in the decertification efforts. Vincent Dunne was one of them, and he was joined in the defendants dock by his brothers Miles and Grant. All three had led the general strike alongside Skoglund. Grant was unable to bear the immense pressure of the prosecution and took his own life on October 4.

Harry DeBoer, a truck driver, was active during the general strike and was shot by the police. A key member of the SWP in Minneapolis, he visited Trotsky in Mexico City several years later.

Grace Carlson was a social service worker and former professor at the University of Minnesota who ran as the partys candidate for US Senate on an anti-war platform in 1940, garnering over 8,500 votes.

Jake Cooper, also from Minneapolis, served as Trotskys guard at Coyoacan for a four-month period in 1940.

Farrell Dobbs, a former coal yard worker, was appointed national labor secretary of the SWP in 1939 after organizing strikes of hundreds of thousands of truck drivers in the Midwest. Other Minneapolis-based defendants who were ultimately convicted included Max Geldman, Clarence Hamel, Emil Hansen, Carlos Hudson, Karl Kuehn, Edward Palmquist and Oscar Schoenfeld.

The editorial board of the partys Fourth International magazine wrote in July 1941 after the indictment list was published: Yes, there is a profound logic in the fact that these persecutions and prosecutions are instigated by the Gestapo-FBI at this time and in this place and against the specifically-designated victims. [2]

This logic would play out at trial when the prosecution submitted evidence of the close connection several of the defendants had to Leon Trotsky in Mexico. The visits of Cooper, DeBoer, Vincent Dunne, Cannon and Dobbs to Mexico were presented as evidence of an anti-government conspiracy, as was Goldmans close relation to Trotsky in the years preceding the trial. The government selected each specifically-designated victim with an eye to proving that a conspiratorial connection existed between Trotsky and the SWPs alleged preparations for social revolution.

The Smith Act

The defendants were charged with two criminal counts. The first of the two charges against the 29 defendants was unlawful conspiracy from and before July 18, 1938 to date of the indictment [June 23, 1941]  to destroy by force the government of the United States in violation of 18 US Code Section 6, a Civil War-era statute written to suppress the slaveholders rebellion. [3]

The second charge alleged that those indicted advised insubordination in the armed forces with intent and distributed literature to the same effect, and knowingly and willfully would, and they did, advocate, abet, advise and teach the duty, necessity, desirability and propriety of overthrowing and destroying the government of the United States by force and violence in violation of the Alien Registration Act, also known as the Smith Act after the bills congressional sponsor, Howard Smith (Democrat of Virginia). [4]

Haverty-Stacke describes in detail the anti-communist predecessors to the Smith Act, from the criminal syndicate statutes of the Red Scare-era following World War I to the 1938 House Committee Investigating Un-American Activities, established by Texas Democratic Congressman Martin Dies.

The Smith Acts criminal sedition sections made it a crime to advocate, write or organize for the overthrow of the US government, punishable by a jail term of up to 20 years. Its sections relating to immigration required the immediate registration of 5 million immigrants, 900,000 of whom were soon after categorized as enemy aliens subject to internment and/or immediate deportation. This same law used to target socialists and communists was also used to intern 120,000 Japanese-Americans on the West Coast during the war. In contrast to efforts to portray Roosevelt as a defender of democratic rights, he was at the very center of the intensification of repressive police measures.

The Communist Party, which took its political instructions from Moscow and the Soviet secret police, the GPU, wholeheartedly supported the Smith Act prosecution of the Trotskyists (as it later supported the internment of Japanese-Americans). CP leader Milton Howard supported the prosecution of the fascist fifth column on the grounds that the defendants deserve no more support from labor and friends of national security than do the Nazis. [5] Speaking in Minneapolis, Stalinist functionary Robert Minor said the Roosevelt administration should follow the example set by Moscow during the Great Terror of 1936-39 in dealing with the American Trotskyists. [6]

The passage of the Smith Act marked a drastic expansion of the surveillance powers of the state, aimed at socialist groups operating in the United States. Haverty-Stacke points out that in 1939, three days before the House sent H.R. 5138, now known as the Alien Registration Bill, to the Senate, President Roosevelt issued a secret order placing all domestic investigations [of espionage, counterespionage, and sabotage] under the FBI, Military Intelligence Division, and Office of Naval Intelligence, with the FBI as the central coordinating agency. [7]

As early as 1936, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover was sending Roosevelt reports on domestic subversives, which included the Trotskyist leadership. [8] Hoover continued to pressure the president for the authority to intensify his surveillance, and Roosevelt signed the bill into law on June 29, 1940. Haverty-Stacke writes that by the time the bill became law, the FBIs infiltration of the SWP was already well underway: By late 1939, both Teamsters Local 544 in Minneapolis and the Socialist Workers Party headquartered in New York became targets of the bureaus investigations. [9]

The decision to prosecute

As the US prepared actively for entry into the war, Roosevelt faced the challenge of imposing the type of class discipline needed for the war effort. For the previous 22 months, the Stalinist Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) had opposed US involvement in the war in Europe, in keeping with the August 1939 Stalin-Hitler pact. But with the German invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, the CPUSA pivoted from opposition to US intervention in the war to full support for the Roosevelt administrations war drive. The Stalinists immediately began transforming their apparatus into a mechanism to police the working class and enforce a nationwide no strike policy.

The Roosevelt administration decided to prosecute the Trotskyists on June 23, 1941, the day after the German invasion of the Soviet Union. With the CPUSA reversing its previous stance to become a pro-war party, the SWP became the most significant socialist anti-war party in the United States. The Roosevelt administration was concerned that the movements principled opposition to imperialist war would make it a pole of attraction for anti-war sentiment in the American working class.

The decision to prosecute followed months of intense discussion at the highest levels of the Department of Justice and the FBI. Haverty-Stacke examines the contentious legal and political problems that confronted the government.

FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover

Hoover was an early advocate of prosecution. But for the Department of Justice and Roosevelt himself, prosecution entailed a series of risks. Leading administration officials such as Department of Justice lawyer Francis Biddle were concerned that the prosecution could generate broad opposition, galvanizing the SWP and alienating the Roosevelt administrations liberal base.

In June 1941, Hoover attempted to pressure Roosevelt, claiming that should the US enter the war, the Socialist Workers Party could cause a tie-up of materials flowing to and from plants in that vicinity having National Defense contracts. [10] That same month, US Attorneys Victor Anderson and Wendell Berge indicated their support for prosecution. [11] On June 12, Teamsters President Tobin sent Roosevelt a telegram requesting prosecution. Haverty-Stacke writes: Tobin argued that the Trotskyists, who had succeeded in organizing drivers across the central states, were in a position to disrupt the nations commercial transportation networks, and, if they took advantage of the war crisis, could overthrow the government and set up a socialist state. [12]

The SWP claimed during the trial and in its aftermath that Roosevelt decided to prosecute the SWP as a result of Tobins June 12 telegram. But this was only partially true. Haverty-Stacke explains:

Because of this telegram, Tobin has been accused of setting in motion the chain of events that led to the arrest of twenty-nine members of the SWP and Local 544. At the time of those arrests and during the trial, the defense argued that Tobin called in a political favor from Roosevelt and that the president intervened in an internal union dispute, launching the first Smith Act prosecution. This political debt argument has survived in varying degrees in the limited scholarly literature on the case and has informed the popular memory of the prosecution within the SWP. The Department of Justice, however, had already been seriously considering such prosecution as early as April 1941, based on the independent investigation of the FBI dating back to the fall of 1940. [13] (Emphasis added)

Ultimately, according to Haverty-Stacke, Francis Biddle made the move in this case largely because of the intelligence he received from the FBI. [14]

The centrality of Leon Trotsky to the prosecutions case

Though Haverty-Stacke does not focus on this issue in her book, the WSWS investigation of the trial record makes clear that the prosecutions theory of the case is centered on establishing the connection between the SWP defendants and Leon Trotsky. This became the crucial legal issue around which the entire case revolved. Under this theory, Trotsky was the architect, instructor and director of the SWPs activities in Minneapolis and across the country. So central was Trotsky to the prosecutions case that he was listed as a co-conspirator at the grand jury phase, despite the fact that he had been killed the prior August.

The experienced US attorneys from the Department of Justice, aware that a verdict of not guilty on both counts would be an immense embarrassment for the administration, laid out a strategy aimed at securing convictions. Their theory of the case revolved around showing the connection between Trotsky and the SWP defendants.

The prosecutors searched for any evidence that tended to show the defendants had met or corresponded with Trotsky or traveled to Mexico City. They submitted evidence of even the slightest connections between the SWP and Trotsky to advance their theory.

In the prosecutions opening argument, the US attorneys claimed that the SWP:

 was an instrumentality framed by a man who departed this life in August 1940, by the name of Leon Trotsky, who at the time of his departure, I believe, was in exile in the Republic of Mexico, and that this party was the Trotsky Party, or the party was dedicated to carry into effect the ideas and the plans and the views of Leon Trotsky with respect to the establishment of a government here on earth, and particularly as this refers to the United States of America, and that the program of this party, or the ideas that were basic in this party, represented the views of Leon Trotsky, and those of his contemporary, the first executive head of the Soviet Union, V.I. Lenin, and that their philosophy was that they could reach a solution of all their problems by the establishment of a workers state and that the defendants, or a large number of them, with the knowledge of all these defendants here on trial, made trips to Leon Trotsky in Mexico for the purpose of receiving his counsel and guidance and direction from time to time, not only in furnishing a personal bodyguard and in furnishing protection to Leon Trotsky, for his personal safety, but otherwise contributing to Leon Trotsky and his activities while he was at the outskirts of Mexico City, in Mexico, until the time of his assassination, and that these ideas of Leon Trotskys are the ideas of the Socialist Workers Party, and so far as the evidence in this case will show, the affirmative and positive ideas of all the defendants upon trial. [15]

Even a single visit to Trotsky in Coyoacan was flaunted by the prosecutors as proof of conspiracy. So brazen were the state prosecutors that SWP attorney and defendant Albert Goldman raised legal objections to the prosecutions excessive reliance on evidence of SWP visits to Mexico. The government, Goldman claimed, made it seem that visiting Trotsky was itself a conspiratorial act. US Attorney Schweinhaut replied:

The law, I am certain, as counsel knows, with respect to a conspiracy, is that a conspiracy can be accomplished not alone by doing an illegal act but by the doing of, for example, legal acts for an unlawful purpose. The testimony here has already shown and it will be shown again that these men held out Trotsky as their leader. It becomes an important matter to show the association of the defendants personally with Trotsky and in doing so it can be shown what the nature of the association was. [16]

In particular, the prosecution sought to show that Trotsky elaborated two of the SWPs conspiratorial policiesthe SWPs proletarian military policy and the Union Defense Guard.

The proletarian military policy was developed by Trotsky and communicated to the SWP leadership through personal meetings and extensive correspondence in the years that preceded Trotskys assassination in August 1940. [17] The proposal for a Union Defense Guard was initiated by Trotsky for the purposes of defending workers and socialists from attacks by fascist paramilitary organizations, which had established a presence in Minneapolis.

The prosecutions theory of the case relied on showing (a) that such programs existed and were being implemented by the SWP in Minneapolis, (b) that they were conceived of by Trotsky, and (c) that Trotskys suggestions were conveyed to the SWP via personal communication with several of the defendants. The US attorneys spent five weeks at trial using evidence gathered through months of investigation to prove each link.

The previously unknown extent of government infiltration of the SWP

Haverty-Stackes book reveals that by late 1940, the FBI had acquired extensive knowledge of the SWPs activities and had access to high-level informants within the partys New York headquarters.

The surveillance of the Trotskyist movement had begun in the mid-1930s, when the FBI began placing certain party leaders under surveillance. Haverty-Stacke notes: The Trotskyists found themselves targets of both the SDUs [Special Defense Units] recommendations and the FBIs Custodial Detention list. A few of the 18 had already been categorized by Hoover in the most dangerous groupingA1before their prosecution. [18]

By late 1939, as Haverty-Stacke notes, the FBI had already targeted the SWP in Minneapolis and New York. But even the following year the infiltration was still somewhat primitive. In April 1940, the FBI resorted to paying a janitor at a Chicago event center to retrieve information from trashcans regarding delegates to the SWP congress.

In this period, Haverty-Stacke explains, there were two essential elements to the government infiltration. First, the government obtained informants from a minority faction of Local 544 that was opposed to the Trotskyist leadership on an anti-communist basis. James Bartlett, the governments star witness at trial, represented this reactionary element. Second, the government based its infiltration program on the acquisition of informants from within the SWP.

According to Haverty-Stacke, the FBI sought to recruit agents from within the SWP leadership. They attempted to contact and recruit SWP leaders in the months before the Roosevelt administration made the decision to prosecute.

According to the testimony of FBI informant Henry Harris, FBI Agent Perrin asked Harris to convey an offer to SWP defendant Carl Skoglund in early 1941. [19] Skoglund, a Swedish-born socialist, was living in the US without proper immigration papers. The FBI offer was for Skoglund to provide information to the FBI in return for impunity and a permanent resolution of his immigration problems. Skoglund refused the offer. A central element of the FBIs infiltration was offering key figures an impunity incentive to become informants and aid the prosecution. [20]

FBI Agent Roy Noonan testified that the FBI obtained a major new source of information in the autumn of 1940. Noonan played the role of lead investigator, tasked with overseeing the evidence-gathering operation against the SWP in Minnesota.

US Attorney Henry Albert Schweinhaut and SWP Attorney Albert Goldman questioned Agent Noonan. Noonan noted that by 1941, the FBI had several investigations of the Socialist Workers Party in their files for the past years. [21]

Schweinhaut asked Noonan when the FBI began its investigation into the SWP defendants and Noonan replied: [W]e have had several of them in our files in past years, but in the latter part of 1940, two or three specifically. [22] (Emphasis added)

On cross-examination, Goldman and Noonan had the following exchange:

Goldman: And how long before that did the investigation start, as far as you know? Noonan: I know that the investigation was being conducted in February and March [1941], and I know that we have had information regarding some of the defendants long before that. G: How long before that? N: I know we had it in November, 1940. [23]

The November 1940 date corresponds with Haverty-Stackes finding that the decision to prosecute was based on the independent investigation of the FBI dating back to the fall of 1940. [24]

After the FBI obtained a higher degree of information regarding the defendants in November 1940, the FBI was able to oversee a vast expansion of its infiltration network. Noonan testified at trial that the surveillance was intensified in February and March of this year [1941]. [25]

Recently declassified FBI communications show a qualitative development in the FBIs infiltration network from November 1940 to mid-1941. The FBI files include dozens of reports by agents located in Omaha, Kansas City, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Seattle, Los Angeles, Mississippi, New York, New Jersey and elsewhere, quoting from confidential informants. The FBI files from the year 1941 include transcripts of branch meetings and full subscription lists to the party press. The FBI knew how much money each branch was raising and when it was holding meetings. The FBI had full schedules of the national speaking tours before they were publicly announced, as well as minutes from Political Committee meetings. It was aware of who was elected to serve on what national board, including the Control Commission. The FBI had also acquired substantial information about foreign affiliates to the Fourth International, indicating a high degree of infiltration of the New York headquarters.

By the spring of 1941, Haverty-Stacke writes, the investigation thus had broadened out beyond the Teamsters in Minneapolis to mesh with the existing investigations of national SWP leaders in New York. By that time, the partys two most active branches [Minneapolis and New York] remained under heavy FBI surveillance, riddled with well-placed informants. [26] (Emphasis added). According to Haverty-Stacke, The FBI watched the SWPs national headquarters in New York in particular very closely. [27]

Hoovers priority at trial: Preventing the exposure of the SWP informant network

Internal government documents uncovered by Haverty-Stacke also shed light on the qualities Hoover was looking for in an informant. Haverty-Stacke points to a June 1941 conversation between Hoover, leading Department of Justice lawyer Francis Biddle and US Attorneys Schweinhaut and Berge. In the course of this discussion, the Department of Justice lawyers suggested the FBI place its own agents in SWP headquarters in New York to gather evidence in preparation for trial.

Schweinhaut was first to propose this plan of action to Hoover. Berge seconded Schweinhaut, writing Hoover in mid-June 1941: If you think there is information which, from the investigative standpoint, can be best secured by the method you discussed with me on the telephone, you are authorized to order such an investigation, noting that the administration attorneys agree that it would not amount to entrapment so long as the government agents do not inspire the doing of illegal acts merely for the purpose of getting evidence. [28]

Hoovers response revealingly sheds light on his strategy for infiltrating the SWP. His concerns were two-fold.

Replying to the Justice Department attorneys, he first expressed a fear that FBI agents placed in headquarters for the purpose of gathering evidence for trial could pose a serious possibility of embarrassment to the Bureau  if the agent were later used as a witness and required to testify in open court. [29]

In an additional section of his response letter (a section to which Haverty-Stacke does not make reference), Hoover explains that not only was the Justice Department suggestion risky, it would also be ineffective from an information gathering standpoint.

Hoover wrote: The possibilities of obtaining important evidence in the immediate future through such an arrangement are very doubtful, inasmuch as a new member of the Party would necessarily have to establish himself and satisfy the Party leaders as to his reliability prior to being the recipient of confidential information, and that this would take a considerable amount of time, probably months. [30]

From these quotations, the following conclusion can be inferred. To Hoover, an informant was valuable insofar as he (a) could be protected from being exposed publicly by testifying at trial, (b) was already operating at the highest levels of the SWP and with the confidence of the SWP leadership, and (c) could provide the FBI with information immediately without the risks and delays associated with an outside agent ingratiating himself into the party leadership.

This discussion took place in mid-June 1941. Eight months earlier, Hoover had begun personally monitoring discussions between B.E. Sackett, the FBIs chief agent in New York City, and Joseph Hansen, a key leader of the SWP who had served as Trotskys secretary in Mexico City.

Hansen met all of Hoovers criteria. He had already won the confidence of the party leadership and was in a position to provide important evidence to the FBI without delay and with minimal risk of exposure. As the prosecution unfolded over the following months, Hansens name was almost inexplicably absent from the list of SWP defendants.

Seventy-five years ago, on December 8, 1941, 18 Trotskyists were sentenced to prison for advocating the overthrow of the US government. Below is the second part of a two-part article based on information gathered from the valuable book Trotskyists on Trial: Free Speech and Political Persecution Since the Age of FDR, by Donna T. Haverty-Stacke. In addition, the article draws from the World Socialist Web Sites independent investigation of thousands of pages of trial transcripts, SWP archive material, and previously unavailable FBI records brought to light by Haverty-Stacke.

In her recently published book Trotskyists on Trial, Professor Donna Haverty-Stacke makes use of trial records and newly available FBI records to investigate how the FBI prepared for the prosecution of 29 members of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) in the Smith Act trial of 1941.

The material presented by Haverty-Stacke provides a much clearer picture of this key period in the history of the socialist movement. It lends enormous weight to documents uncovered by the International Committee of the Fourth International in 1975 as part of its Security and the Fourth International investigation, which revealed that the State Department and FBI held meetings, beginning in September 1940, with a leading figure in the SWP, Joseph Hansen. In the context of the new material published by Haverty-Stacke, one central question arises: Why was Joseph Hansen absent from the list of defendants in the Smith Act trial?

Joseph Hansens secret meetings with the US government

The documents published in the initial Security and the Fourth International investigation show that Joseph Hansen established communication with the US government after Trotskys assassination. Between 1975 and 1978, the investigation raised the question: why would Hansen have been interested in contacting the government, and why did he do so without notifying the SWP leadership? Hansen claimed in Healys Big Lie that he met with the FBI just once. [31] This was proven to be untrue.

Hansen had spent three years as Trotskys personal assistant in Coyoacan, Mexico. Of the small handful of Americans residing at Trotskys compound, Hansen was the most politically involved and had the closest connections with the leadership of the SWP in the US. Ten days after Trotskys death on August 21, 1940, Hansen contacted the US Embassy in Mexico City with the hope of opening up a confidential relationship with the US government.

Hansens meetings were carefully followed by the highest levels of the American government. Figures such as George P. Shaw, Robert McGregor and B.E. Sackett were assigned to lead and follow the investigation. Shaw, a high-ranking State Department diplomat, had worked at the US consulate in Tegucigalpa, Honduras; San Luis Potosi, Mexico; and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico and was later to serve as ambassador to Nicaragua, El Salvador and Paraguay. [32] McGregor served as secretary of the US consulate in Mexico, and Sackett was the special agent in charge of the New York division of the FBI. Within weeks of Hansens first contact, J. Edgar Hoover was personally monitoring the meetings between Hansen and government officials.

Other officials following Hansens case included Raymond E. Murphy of the State Department and H.H. Clegg of the FBI. Murphy was a well-connected State Department officer who was later to champion prosecution of suspected spy J. Alger Hiss. Murphy was the State Department official who first made information about Whittaker Chambers available to Congressman Richard M. Nixon of the House Un-American Activities Committee. [33] Clegg was a veteran FBI agent who later served as assistant director of the FBI. [34] Government officials handled the matter with great delicacy and interest.

A September 1, 1940 letter from US Embassy official George P. Shaw to the State Department includes a memorandum of a conversation which took place on August 31, 1940, between Consul [Robert G.] McGregor of this office and Mr. Joseph Hansen, secretary to the late Mr. Leon Trotsky. [35]

The memorandum reads: Mr. Joseph Hansen, secretary to the late Mr. Trotsky, came in on Saturday morning in order to discuss matters connected with the assassination of Mr. Trotsky. [36]

During this first meeting, Hansen provided the government with information surrounding the assassination. At this time, Hansen communicated to the US government that he had met for three months in 1938 with agents of Stalins secret police, the GPU. McGregors report from the August 31 meeting notes that Hansen said he was himself approached by an agent of the GPU and asked to desert the Fourth International and join the Third. The report states that Hansen met with a GPU handler named John for three months. [37] Hansens astonishing admission brought heightened attention to these meetings.

Several days later, on September 4, Hansen returned to the US Embassy and provided the government with a memorandum of conversation. A second report from George P. Shaw to the US secretary of state was labeled Strictly Confidential and dated September 4. It reads: I have the honor to enclose as of particular interest to the Department a copy of a memorandum of conversation handed in at this office by Mr. Joseph Hansen, secretary to the late Mr. Trotsky, on September 4, 1940. [38]

The September 4 report notes that Mr. Hansen informed a member of my staff regarding details behind the August 20 attack on Trotsky. A memorandum attached to the report notes that Hansen said he would be very glad to have a copy [of unpublished writings by Trotsky] furnished to the Consulate General. [39]

On September 14, embassy official McGregor sent another strictly confidential letter to the State Department noting that Hansen had returned to the consulate that day to turn over confidential information to the US government. The report begins: Mr. Joseph Hansen, Secretary to the late Leon Trotsky, called this morning and exhibited a memorandum, a photo stat of which is attached. [40] This was the W Memoranduma list of names of GPU agents the SWP had received from Whittaker Chambers, a former member of the Communist Party who later aided the US government in the anti-communist witch-hunt of the late 1940s and early 1950s.

The September 14 report also notes that Hansen provided the government with information regarding Albert Goldman, who was later to become a defendant in the Smith Act trial. The report notes: Hansen said that Albert Goldman, lawyer for the late Leon Trotsky, questioned Jacson yesterday [Jacson was an alias of Ramon Mercader, Trotskys assassin]. Jacson told him that he had forwarded a suitcase on June 13, 1940 in bond via Railway Express to the Customshouse in New York in his own name [41]

On September 25, 1940, another letter from the US Embassy in Mexico to the State Department informed Washington that Mr. Joseph Hansen, Secretary to the late Mr. Trotsky, called at this office yesterday Hansen then provided information which he obtained as a result of questioning individuals connected to Ramon Mercader, including Sylvia Ageloff, a young SWP member whom Mercader had seduced in an attempt to gain access to Trotskys home in Coyoacan. [42]

Another letter dated September 25, sent by George P. Shaw to Raymond E. Murphy of the US State Department, includes the following passages: I am resorting again to a personal letter in order to acquaint you with a desire of Mr. Joseph Hansen, secretary to the late Mr. Trotsky, to establish confidential means by which he may be able to communicate with you and through you to this office from New York City. [43]

George P. Shaw further notes that Hansen believes it possible that certain information may become available to him in which the Department will be interested  For this reason he wishes to be put in touch with someone in your confidence located in New York to whom confidential information could be imparted with impunity. [44]

In response to Shaws letter conveying Hansens request to impart confidential information in return for impunity, Raymond E. Murphy phoned J.B. Little of the FBI on September 28. In a follow-up letter dated that same day, Murphy wrote to his FBI contact: It is further understood that Hansen is desirous of ascertaining the name of some person with whom he may communicate in the event he develops any information. Consequently, it would be appreciated if your New York office would send an agent to interview him in about ten days by which time he should be located in New York. [45]

Also on September 28, Raymond Murphy of the State Department wrote to George P. Shaw of the US Embassy regarding the desire of Mr. Joseph Hansen to establish means by which he may communicate with me and through me to your office  I would suggest that Mr. Hansen be informed that he get in touch with Mr. B.E. Sackett, Room 607, United States Court House, Foley Square, New York City, and use that office as a liaison. Mr. Sackett, agent in charge of the New York District of the Federal Bureau of Investigation through its office in Washington, is developing the investigation of the Trotsky case in the United States. The Department much prefers that these channels be employed as, strictly speaking, it has no means of its own to go into the extensive investigation needed for a case of this character The Federal Bureau of Investigation has been appraised of Mr. Hansens departure and will undoubtedly contact him in New York. [46]

On September 30, George P. Shaw wrote to Hansen in answer to the inquiry you made here [in Mexico City] prior to leaving for the United States. Shaw informed Hansen that B.E. Sackett was to be his intermediary. In a handwritten note, McGregor said: Dear Joe: Please acknowledge receipt of this and indicate condition received in, so as to ensure that nobody, SWP member or otherwise, had opened the letter intended for Joe. [47]

News that Hansen sought to impart information with impunity soon made its way to J. Edgar Hoover, who became personally involved in overseeing the governments meetings with Hansen and the management of his status as an informant.

In an October 1, 1940 letter to B.E. Sackett, J. Edgar Hoover acknowledged that Joseph Hansen, Secretary to the late Leon Trotsky, is leaving Mexico City shortly for New York City where he intends to conduct some independent investigation into the assassination of Trotsky. He has requested advice from the state Department as to whom he can contact to furnish any information that he may develop. [48]

Hoover ordered the FBI to accept Hansens offer to impart information with impunity: Should Hansen call at the New York Office, he should be handled tactfully and all information which he can supply and his assistance in this investigation should be obtained. No information, of course, should be furnished him concerning the progress of the investigation by the Bureau. [49]

On October 23, Hansen replied to George P. Shaw. I received your letter concerning Mr. Sackett in good condition and shall visit him shortly, Hansen wrote in response to Shaws September 30 letter. [50] Hansen was notifying the government that no members of the SWP had intercepted the letter.

The SWP leaderships testimony regarding Hansens communications

Hansen carried out his meetings with the US government behind the backs of the leadership of the SWP. Several leading figures of the SWP denied having any knowledge of Hansens communications with the government and insisted that the leadership did not consider approaching the FBI after Trotskys death.

On June 2, 1977, David North, the national secretary of the Workers League, the predecessor of the Socialist Equality Party, interviewed Felix Morrow, a Smith Act defendant who served on the SWP Political Committee in 1940.

Q: I was wondering whether or not you had any recollection about the steps taken by the Socialist Workers Party at the time to learn more about the assassination, how it was carried out. Particularly whether it received any assistance from the American government in any way. Morrow: None. Q: None whatsoever? Morrow: None. Q: Well, what was the attitude of the FBI, in your opinion, toward the assassination? Morrow: They werent involved in any way. Q: Well, did the SWP to your knowledge have any policy of trying to obtain the assistance of the FBI? Morrow: There would be no reason. It was an open and shut case. Jacson had done it. The only problem was to establish that Jacson was a GPU agent. Q: I see. Then to your knowledge the SWP made no initiative at any time toward establishing contact with the FBI? Morrow: None. None. Q: Nothing at all? Morrow: Im sure of that. Q: Youre sure of that? Morrow: Yes. Q: Let me ask you something. Who was more or less in charge in the party with investigating the death of Trotsky? I know that Goldman wrote a book on the assassination. Morrow: Well, all involvedyou know, the whole Pol-Com (Political Committee). Q: I see. How about Joseph Hansen? Morrow: He was down in Mexico. Q: And when he came back in late September 1940? Morrow: He was not a member of the Pol-Com. Q: And therefore he would not have been given a special responsibility? Morrow: No. Q: Does the name Sackett mean anything to you? Morrow: No. Q: It means nothing to you? Morrow: Nothing. Q: Politically speaking, in that period of time, as I recall there was some serious problem in terms of repression against the SWP and the labor movement by the FBI. This was before the war. Morrow: Uh-huh. Q: In 1940, around the period of August, had the repression already started, building up toward the Minneapolis case? Morrow: I would say so. Q: In what particular way? Morrow: I couldnt really remember the details, but you know Q: The heat was on? Morrow: Yes, the heat was on. Q: And by the beginning of 1941, it probably became quite serious? Morrow: Yes. Q: In light of that, how would the party have looked upon an attitudegiven Trotskys political positions on defense of the workers state, his attitude toward imperialism and Stalinhow would the SWP leadership at that point, the Political Committee, have looked upon reliance on the FBI in terms of Morrow: There was no reliance on the FBI. Q: I see. Morrow: It just didnt exist. Q: But politically speaking, it would have been considered out of the ordinary Morrow: Of course! Q:  for someone to suggest that be done? Morrow: Yes. Q: Im asking this because the question has come up in documentation, but to you that would be complete news. Morrow: Thats right. Q: I see, and youre quite sure that there was never any authorization. Morrow: None. [51]

Morrows statements were supported by the depositions taken of SWP Political Committee members Farrell Dobbs and Morris Lewit, and of Morrow, during the Gelfand Case. [52] Each of these leading SWP officials testified that he had no knowledge of Hansens secret meetings with the FBI.

On April 11, 1982, Dobbs was questioned by Gelfands attorney, John Burton:

Burton: Did you know that in 1940 Mr. Hansen had face-to-face meetings with the FBI in New York City? Dobbs: I did not Q: Did you ever talk to Mr. Hansen about his meetings with the FBI? A: I told you I know nothing about it. [53]

Morris Lewit led the SWP while Cannon, Morrow, Dobbs and others were imprisoned. He was deposed on April 13, 1982 and gave similar testimony.

Burton: At that time did you know whether or not Hansen had met with the FBI in New York City following Trotskys assassination? Lewit: I might have known it from the Healyites statements, the documents. I dont know. Q: Did you consider at that time that allegation to be a lie? A: Not a lie, but ifI knew if anything Joe did was done with the knowledge of the party leaders and under their direction. He was that type of person. [54]

Hansen did not inform the leadership of the SWP about his meetings with the FBI. A December 9, 1940 report by FBI Special Agent M.R. Griffin details the agents visit to SWP headquarters:

The writer interviewed James P. Cannon and Joseph Hansen regarding the Trotsky affair and was advised by them that they had no information to offer. They appeared very reluctant to discuss the matter and gave very brief answers to questions put to them by the reporting agent.

The internal US government reports indicate that Hansen evinced no reluctance to talk to government officials in private. It was only when confronted by the FBI in the presence of James P. Cannon that Hansen kept silent.

The timing of Hansens meetings with the US government

In Trotskyists on Trial, Donna Haverty-Stacke lays out evidence that the FBIs infiltration of the SWP underwent a fundamental change in the autumn of 1940, at precisely the time Hansen established contact with the FBI. FBI Agent Roy T. Noonan testified at trial that the agency developed specific files on key SWP leaders in the latter part of 1940. [55] (Emphasis added).

On cross-examination, SWP attorney Goldman and Noonan had the following exchange:

Goldman: And how long before that did the investigation start, as far as you know? Noonan: I know that the investigation was being conducted in February and March [1941], and I know that we have had information regarding some of the defendants long before that. G: How long before that? N: I know we had it in November, 1940. [56]

The November 1940 date corresponds with Haverty-Stackes finding that the decision to prosecute was based on the independent investigation of the FBI dating back to the fall of 1940. [57]

Haverty-Stacke notes that this infiltration was intensified in the spring of 1941, at which time the SWPs New York headquarters was riddled with well-placed informants. [58] The FBI watched the SWPs national headquarters in New York in particular very closely. [59]

Hansen wrote to George P. Shaw on October 23, 1940 that he shall visit [FBI Agent B.E. Sackett] shortly at his office in New York. Hansen had requested the meeting earlier for the express purpose of imparting information with impunity to the government.

Hansen returned to New York City in the fall of 1940, and Agent Noonan placed emphasis on November 1940 as the date the infiltration reached a higher stage. Such a date strongly correlates with Hansens return to the US and the fact that he promised on October 23 that he would visit with B.E. Sackett shortly, i.e., at the end of October or early November 1940.

The public record of the communications between Hansen and the FBI stops after the October 23, 1940 note. This indicates that after Hansen returned to New York, the relationship took on a higher level of confidentiality and was subject to more stringent classification rules, which have hidden the communications from public view.

Joseph Hansens request for impunity

Haverty-Stackes book provides a context for the peculiar language included in the agreement Hansen sought, in which he would receive impunity in return for sharing information with the government. According to Blacks Law Dictionary, impunity means: Exemption from punishment; immunity from the detrimental effects of ones actions. Cf. Immunity. [60] Hansens request for personal legal protection had a purely individual character. He would not have made such a request if he had been contacting the FBI with the approval of the SWP.

There are two likely reasons why Hansen would have sought exemption from punishment by the government.

The first related to the disappearance of George Mink. J. Edgar Hoover stated specifically that Hansen was to be questioned concerning the disappearance of Mink, a Stalinist agent who vanished in the early part of 1940 and was presumed murdered. Hansens admitted ties to the GPU gave the FBI reason to believe he was linked to Minks disappearance.

In his October 1, 1940 letter to B.E. Sackett, J. Edgar Hoover provided his agent with background information surrounding Hansens ties to the GPU and his possible knowledge of Minks disappearance.

Hoover wrote: Information has further been supplied by the State Department to the effect that Hansen and his associates liquidated George Mink six months ago, shortly before the first attack on Trotsky in May of 1940, by tying Mink up and throwing him into a crater some thirty miles from Mexico City he should be handled tactfully and all information which he can supply and his assistance in this investigation should be obtained. No information, of course, should be furnished him concerning the progress of the investigation by the Bureau. However, every attempt should be made to determine the truth of the report concerning George Mink. [61]

The FBI was interested in Mink because he was a well known GPU agent and a US citizen. Mink, a former Philadelphia taxi driver, had traveled back and forth to Moscow and throughout Europe, where he was imprisoned in Denmark in 1935 as a Stalinist spy. Upon his release, Mink worked for the GPU in Spain during the Civil War. The Anarchist Carlo Tresca accused Mink of murdering the anarchist professor Camillo Berneri on behalf of the GPU in Barcelona. [62] His whereabouts and disappearance were of high importance to the FBI.

There is nothing to suggest that Hoover thought the Trotskyists were responsible for Minks death. Hoovers use of the term Hansen and his associates is a reference to the GPU, which Hoover suspected of killing Mink. The Trotskyists did not engage in assassination of opponents as a matter of political principle and could not have been responsible. Moreover, they had neither the manpower nor the skill to carry out the assassination of a skilled GPU killer. The breach of Trotskys residence in Coyoacan by the Stalinist assassination team in May 1940 and the failure of the guards to return fire give an indication of the inexperienced character of Trotskys defense guard.

A second reason for Hansen to seek exemption from punishment stemmed from the possibility that the government would prosecute the SWP. Hansen used Trotskys assassination as a pretext to establish ties with the government. At this point, the FBI was already active in monitoring the SWP and was considering the possibility of prosecution. By requesting legal impunity, Hansen sought to ensure that neither his past actions nor the information he provided would be used against him as grounds for indictment or prosecution. The fact that he did not appear as a defendant or even as a witness in the trial indicates that he did, in fact, receive impunity.

Joseph Hansens absence from the Smith Act trial

During the trial of the 29 members of the Socialist Workers Party, the prosecutions theory of the case was based on showing a connection between the chief conspirator, Leon Trotsky, and the Socialist Workers Party. This required a detailed showing of each and every connection between Trotsky, who was living in exile in Mexico City, and the Socialist Workers Party.

The prosecution spent days at trial attempting to show the connection between the defendants and Trotsky in Coyoacan. They brought forward the entire weight of evidence collected after months of investigation involving hundreds of witnesses and countless undercover agents to establish the connection between Trotsky in Mexico City and the SWP defendants. Beyond the hundreds of pages of documents showing the SWPs political support for Trotskys program, the evidence included:

A March 1939 photograph showing James Bartlett, defendant Harry DeBoer and their wives posing with Trotsky in Mexico

Testimony that defendant Emil Hansen had traveled to Mexico City to receive advice from Trotsky about establishing union defense guards

Testimony that defendants Vincent R. Dunne and James Cannon had visited Trotsky in early 1939, along with Max Shachtman, also for the purpose of discussing union defense guards

Testimony that defendant Jake Cooper served as a guard for Trotsky in Coyoacan

Evidence that defendant Carl Skoglund drove to Texas in early 1938 with a group of SWP leaders who then visited Trotsky

Records from a Texas auto body shop showing that a Pontiac car owned by Local 544 and driven by Vincent R. Dunne broke down in January 1938 en route to Mexico from Minneapolis

Testimony that defendant Farrell Dobbs told Minneapolis SWP members in early 1938 that guards were needed to defend Trotsky in Mexico City

Testimony that Dobbs himself visited Trotsky in Mexico City

A photograph of Trotsky from August 1, 1938, signed by Trotsky and addressed to Vincent R. Dunne

Testimony that defendant Albert Russell had a photograph of Trotsky in his work office

A reference in Cannons memorial address after Trotskys assassination in which he notes visiting Mexico to help strengthen Trotskys guard.

One name emerges as an obvious evidentiary keystone to the prosecutions case: Joseph Hansen. Hansen lived with Trotsky in the latters compound in Coyoacan and served as his political secretary from 1937 until Trotskys assassination by a Stalinist agent on August 20, 1940. He participated in daily political discussions with Trotsky and was chiefly responsible for overseeing communication between the SWP and Coyoacan. Many of Trotskys communications to the SWP dating from this period were signed J. Hansen for security purposes.

Hansen personified the connection between the SWP and Trotsky, the precise legal issue the prosecution sought to prove. He was intimately familiar with the discussions between the SWP leadership and Trotsky regarding the split with the Burnham-Shachtman faction of the SWP in 1939-40, the development of the partys policy toward conscription in World War Two, and the development of the policy for the establishment of union defense guards. Each of these issues, and, in particular, the latter two, were repeatedly used by the prosecution to show that the SWP and Trotsky were engaging in a conspiratorial plan to overthrow the US government.

The US attorneys were aware of Hansens position as Trotskys secretary and Hansens name is referenced multiple times in the course of the trial. From a prosecutorial standpoint, the fact that Hansen was not even subpoenaed to testify defies explanation.

Had the SWP leadership known of Hansens visits with the FBI, the SWPs defense attorneys would have made heavy use of this key fact at trial.

First, it would have been a major political embarrassment for the Roosevelt administration if it became known that it had held secret meetings with a group it was now prosecuting for conspiracy to overthrow the government.

Second, the fact that the FBI had infiltrated the SWP leadership in advance of the trial would have served as evidence of the anti-democratic, frame-up character of the trial. The defense attorneys could have moved for a mistrial on the grounds that the secret meetings made it impossible to differentiate between the genuine plans of the SWP and suggestions made by government agents and FBI officials. Proof of Hansens meetings could have been used to show that the FBI sought to entrap the SWP into advancing conspiratorial demands, rendering the whole trial illegitimate.

Third, the SWP could have used the meetings to expose the FBIs infiltration network by calling government witnesses and asking them, under oath, about any agents and informants operating within the party. The SWP could have turned the trial into an exposure of state surveillance. The issue of government infiltration of the labor movement was a major one in the late 1930s and early 1940s. The question occupied thousands of pages of testimony before the subcommittee on civil liberties of the Senate Committee on Education and Labor. The subcommittee was led by Wisconsin Senator Robert LaFollette. [63]

The prosecutions definition of a conspirator

In the course of his argument, US Attorney Anderson asserted defendant Albert Goldmans guilt on the grounds that he was a member of the Editorial Board of the Fourth International [Magazine], with James P. Cannon, with Felix Morrow, with Joe HansenSecretary for Leon Trotskyand others [64]

Given that the prosecution claimed Goldman was implicated in the alleged conspiracy against the government by virtue of his serving on an editorial board with Hansen, Secretary for Leon Trotsky, it follows legally that Hansen himself met the prosecutions definition of a conspirator. In addition, the prosecution introduced into evidence an article penned by Hansen and titled Wall Streets War, Not Ours. [65] In other words, the prosecution felt that the writings of Hansen advanced the criminal conspiracy to overthrow the government. Whats more, the prosecution referred to Hansen by the familiar name Joe, despite the fact that he was listed as Joseph Hansen in the party press. Albert Goldman, James Cannon and Felix Morrow were not referred to as Al, Jim, or Fritz, yet the government called Joseph Hansen Joe.

In criminal law, those engaged in a conspiracy are responsible for all acts of the other conspirators in furtherance of that conspiracy, with one exception. As the prosecution noted in its argument at trial, a conspirator can absolve himself of complicity only by taking some affirmative and effective act to disassociate himself from that criminal group. [66]

The most common form of such an affirmative act in American criminal law is to inform on other members of the conspiracy.

The post-war FBI infiltration of the SWP

Even with the SWPs main leadership in jail, the FBI remained concerned that the party was a significant revolutionary force. The infiltration that began with the preparation for the 1941 prosecution was greatly expanded. Based on the acquisition of new information in the autumn of 1940, the FBI began to lay the foundation for a network of informants that gave the government a clear view into the inner workings of the SWP and the Fourth International.

During the Second World War, Hoover believed the SWP remained a significant political force. His nervousness is exemplified by a letter he sent to Assistant Attorney General Wendell Berge in May 1943 in which he notes that the SWP picketed a showing of the pro-Stalinist propaganda film Mission to Moscow.

Information has been received that on the evening of April 30, 1943, members of the subject organization [the SWP] picketed the opening of the film Mission to Moscow playing at the Hollywood Theater, Times Square, New York City, the memo reads.

Hoover reports the exact wording of the SWPs slogans and cites a pamphlet distributed at the picket. James P. Cannon, National Secretary of the Socialist Workers Party, and approximately twenty other members of the Party were present at the picketing but did not participate. Many of the pamphlets mentioned above were distributed to members of the Armed Forces.

In 1945, Hoover disobeyed a Justice Department order that no further investigations of the SWP be carried out. It appears that the sources gained in November 1940 through the spring of 1941 stayed on as long-term assets of the FBI. Hoover successfully shielded his assets from being exposed at trial.

In July 1945, the FBI went after the SWP with a vengeance, Haverty-Stacke explains. [Hoover] continued to gather reports on the party from agents stationed around the country, who worked closely with well-placed informants. [67] In the late 1940s, Hoover maintained the steady flow of memos to the attorney general highlighting the possible dangers and alleged criminal activity of the party and of individual members, like Cannon and Carlson, found in the agents reports that he also forwarded to the Justice Department on a regular basis. [68]

The well-placed informants within the leadership of the SWP remained in their positions and were not exposed by giving testimony during the trial.

Informants in the SWPs New York City headquarters and elsewhere seemingly had access to all correspondence that passed through the headquarters and branch leaderships. FBI reports include detailed descriptions of every major party plenum and conference as well as the positions that were taken by individual comrades. Informants provided the government with a laundry list of the work of Trotskyists internationally, including in the Eastern bloc and in countries run by military dictatorships. [69]

Reports composed by agents in 1946-48 on branches of the SWP in the US were sometimes 60 to 80 pages long. These reports included detailed, multi-paragraph reports on individual party members, their home addresses, the ages of their children, their places of employment, their places of birth, their citizenship status and details regarding personal relationships and affairs.

Throughout this period, FBI agents prepared detailed reports on the activities of key members. There were long reports regarding Cannon, Vincent Dunne, Grace Carlson and Farrell Dobbs, just some of those who remained subject to close monitoring after their release from prison.

The degree to which the FBI was able to intensify its infiltration of the SWP is exemplified by a June 12, 1948 letter from J. Edgar Hoover to the attorney general. Hoover writes: At the present time an extensive investigation is being conducted of the Socialist Workers Party and the coverage of this National Convention is believed desirable. It is requested, therefore, that you authorize the use of technical equipment in connection with our surveillance work of the national Convention of the Socialist Workers Party at the Irving Plaza Hotel, New York City, from July 1 through 5, 1948. [70]

The structure of the FBIs post-war infiltration was as follows: The highest-level information came from at least 20 Confidential Informants who were in personal communication with FBI officials on a regular basis. FBI records indicate that these informants provided information about political meetings, disagreements and the state of the movement internationally. Certain agents, code-named T-1 through T-4, T-14, T-19 and ND 452, had intimate knowledge of the leadership of all branches and clearly occupied key roles in the SWP leadership.

So valuable were a certain number of these agents that the FBI notes they were not in a position to testify in case the government decided to bring further prosecution. The fact that the FBI received full reports of Political Committee meetings and party plenums from different confidential informant sources shows that the highest levels of leadership were compromised by agents of the state.

A rung below the confidential informants was a network of lower-level sources and agents who were members of the SWP in local areas and reported to their specified handlers on local party activities, political disagreements, and the lives of individual members. The FBI had a ring of agents in place in all areas where the party had a presence.

Haverty-Stacke notes that the infiltration of the SWP during 1938-41 laid the foundation for a decades-long infiltration program. Hoovers requests for surveillance were granted by the Justice Department through 1948 and beyond. Further, as the Cold War heated up, Hoovers pursuit of the SWP took on added intensity. The investigation of the party expanded with the growth of anti-communist sentiment and the new mechanisms created to facilitate such sentiment during the early 1950s that became hallmarks of the Second Red Scare. [71]

Haverty-Stacke makes reference to the Socialist Workers Partys 1973 lawsuit against the FBIs launching of COINTELPRO operations against the SWP in 1961. She notes that the FBI used 1,300 agents against the SWP between 1961 and 1976, stealing over 20,000 SWP documents and conducting over 200 illegal break-ins. In 1986, a federal judge ruled that the FBI was guilty of violations of the constitutional rights of the SWP and of its members, and granted the SWP a judgment of $264,000. [72] Haverty-Stacke writes that with access to the FBIs files, [District Court Judge Thomas Griesa] substantiated the SWPs contention that the bureaus investigations of its activities and members began in 1940. [73]

Yet even as the SWPs lawsuit dragged on, the party expelled one of its own members, Alan Gelfand, because he asked the SWP to explain the communications between Hansen and the FBI in 1940. The SWP denounced Gelfand, called the Security and the Fourth International investigation a big lie, and collaborated with the government to protect known agents of the Soviet secret policethe GPUfrom testifying as to the Stalinists role in infiltrating the SWP. Hansen himself died in the weeks before the Gelfand Case began.

There is an overwhelming body of circumstantial and direct evidence pointing to the role of Joseph Hansen as a government informant. During the Gelfand trial, Gelfands lawyer gave the following description of the evidence against Hansen:

The proof depends on an intricate web of circumstantial evidence which leads inexorably to the nexus between the infiltration of the SWP by agents of the federal government and the expulsion of plaintiff. The facts of this case are embedded in great historical events. Their ever-widening spiral sweeps back into the past, embracing within its bounds an increasing number of individuals, including Trotsky himself and those closest to him during his last heroic exile. If a more direct and less arduous road to truth were available, plaintiff gladly would have taken it. Nonetheless, when fact is added to fact, and each is evaluated in its proper relationship to the other, the conclusion becomes inescapable that something is very, very wrong with the leadership of the Socialist Workers Party.

While documentary records exist proving the beginning of Hansens confidential relationship with the FBI, no documents have yet surfaced showing that this relationship ended.

None of this evidence has been answered by Hansens defenders.

Notes:

[1] Haverty-Stacke, Donna T. Trotskyists on Trial: Free Speech and Political Persecution since the Age of FDR. (New York, New York: New York UP, 2016), Print. p. 77. FDR. (New York, New York: New York UP, 2016), Print. p. 11.

[2] The Editors, ed. The FBI-Gestapo Attack on the Socialist Workers Party, Fourth International 2.6 (1941): 163-66. Marxists.org.

[3] Haverty-Stacke at 77.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Id. at 79.

[6] Id. at 108.

[7] Id. at 34. (Citing Confidential Memo for the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of War, the Attorney General, the Postmaster General, the Secretary of the Navy and the Secretary of Commerce from President Roosevelt, June 26, 1939, OF 10b, box10, FDRPL).

[8] Id. at 41.

[9] Id. at 30.

[10] Id. at 62.

[11] Id. at 61.

[12] Id. at 60.

[13] Id. at 61.

[14] Id. at 73.

[15] Prosecutions Opening Statement, US v. Dunne et al., 26-27.

[16] Testimony of James Bartlett, US v. Dunne et al., 130.

[17] For a detailed explanation of the character of the proletarian military policy, see The Heritage We Defend, Ch. 6: Trotskys Proletarian Military Policy, accessible here. Also available at Mehring Books.

[18] Haverty-Stacke at 153. (Citing J. Edgar Hoover to Special Agent in Charge, New York, June 16, 1942, re. Farrell Dobbs, Internal Security, in Farrell Dobbss FBI file 100-21226, FOIA, in the authors possession; Joseph Prendergast, Acting Chief SDU, to Wendell Berge, January 31, 1942, and Wendell Berge to J. Edgar Hoover, April 25, 1942 in Farrell Dobbss FBI file 146-7-1355, FOIA, in the authors possession; Chief of SDU to J. Edgar Hoover, February 26, 1942, in Dunnes FBI file 100-18341, and Edward Palmquists Custodial Detention Card, in Palmquists FBI file 146-7-1213; J. Edgar Hoover to Chief of SDU, March 31, 1941, in Dunnes FBI file 100-18341).

[19] Testimony of Henry Harris, US v. Dunne et al., 507.

[20] Id. at 78.

[21] Cross Examination of Agent Roy T. Noonan, US v. Dunne et al., 371.

[22] Id. at 372.

[23] Id. at 371.

[24] Haverty-Stacke at 61.

[25] Id. at 371-372.

[26] Haverty-Stacke at 155.

[27] Id. at 154. (Citing FBI report 100-413, NYC 10/20/42 and 12/3/42, f. 7, box 108, SWP 146-1-10).

[28] Id. at 63. (Citing J. Edgar Hoover to Matthew McGuire, June 25, 1941, f. 2, box 108, SWP 146-1-10; Wendell Burge to Henry Schweinhaut, June 25, 1941, f. 2, box 108, SWP 146-1-10; J. Edgar Hoover to Matthew McGuire, June 25, 1941, f. 2, box 108, SWP 146-1-10).

[29] Ibid.

[30] J. Edgar Hoover to Matthew McGuire, June 25, 1941, f. 2, box 108, SWP 146-1-10.

[31] Hansen, Joseph, Healys Big Lie: The Slander Campaign Against Joseph Hansen, George Novack, and the Fourth International: Statements and Articles, (New York: National Education Dept., Socialist Workers Party, 1976), Print, p. 14.

[32] Political Graveyard Entry for George Price Shaw, accessible at http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/shaw.html; US State Department History Office of the Historian Entry for George Price Shaw, accessible at https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/shaw-george-price?

[33] Morgan, Ted. A Covert Life: Jay Lovestone: Communist, Anti-Communist, and Spymaster, (New York, New York: Random House, 1999), Print, p. 149.

[34] Historical G-Men: 1930s FBI Biographies and More. Entry for H. H. Clegg, accessible at http://historicalgmen.squarespace.com/agents-of-the-30s-biographie/.

[35] Letter from George P. Shaw to US Secretary of State Enclosing Memorandum of Conversation Between Robert G. McGregor and Hansen, September 1, 1940. (Cited in The Gelfand Case: A Legal History of the Exposure of U.S. Government Agents in the Leadership of the Socialist Workers Party. Vol. 1. Detroit, MI: Labor Publications, 1985. Print, p. 7).

[36] Id. (The Gelfand Case at 8).

[37] Ibid.

[38] Letter from George P. Shaw to US Secretary of State Enclosing Memorandum for File of Robert G. McGregor, September 4, 1940 (The Gelfand Case at 10).

[39] Ibid.

[40] Memorandum of Robert G. McGregor of Conversation with Joseph Hansen, September 14, 1940 (The Gelfand Case at 13).

[41] Id. (The Gelfand Case at 14).

[42] Letter from George P. Shaw to US Secretary of State, September 25, 1940 (The Gelfand Case at 19).

[43] Letter from George P. Shaw to Raymond Murphy, US State Department, September 25, 1940 (The Gelfand Case at 21).

[44] Ibid.

[45] Letter from Raymond E. Murphy to Mr. J.B. Little, Federal Bureau of Investigation, September 28, 1940 (The Gelfand Case at 23).

[46] Letter from Raymond E. Murphy to George P. Shaw, September 28, 1940 (The Gelfand Case at 24-25).

[47] Letter from George P. Shaw to Joseph Hansen, September 30, 1940 (The Gelfand Case at 26).

[48] Letter from J. Edgar Hoover to B.E. Sackett, Special Agent in Charge, October 1, 1949 (The Gelfand Case at 29).

[49] Id. (The Gelfand Case at 29-30).

[50] Letter from Joseph Hansen to George P. Shaw, October 23, 1949 (The Gelfan d Case at 31).

[51] Interview by David North of Felix Morrow, June 2, 1977.

[52] The Gelfand case was a civil lawsuit brought by Alan Gelfand, a member of the SWP who was expelled for raising questions about Hansens communications with the FBI and GPU. Gelfand sued alleging that the US government was violating his First Amendment rights by using its agents in the SWP to expel him from a political organization.

[53] Deposition of Farrell Dobbs, Gelfand v. Smith et al., 178, 182.

[54] Deposition of Morris Lewit, Gelfand v. Smith et al., 144.

[55] Cross Examination of Agent Roy T. Noonan, US v. Dunne et al., 372.

[56] Cross Examination of Agent Roy T. Noonan, US v. Dunne et al., 371-372.

[57] Haverty-Stacke at 61.

[58] Id. at 155.

[59] Id. at 154.

[60] Blacks Law Dictionary (9th ed.) at 826.

[61] Letter from J. Edgar Hoover to B.E. Sackett, Special Agent in Charge, October 1, 1940 (The Gelfand Case at 29-30).

[62] Dewar, Hugo. Chapter 7: The Lady Vanishes. Assassins at Large, Being a Fully Documented and Hitherto Unpublished Account of the Executions Outside Russia Ordered by the GPU, (Boston: Beacon, 1952), Print.

[63] For further details, see The Labor Spy Racket, by Leo Huberman, U.S. Congress Senate Committee on Education and Labor, Modern Age Books, NY, NY, 1937.

[64] Closing argument of US Attorney Anderson, US v. Dunne et al., 2492.

[65] Testimony of James Bartlett, US v. Dunne et al., 228.

[66] Closing Argument of US Attorney Anderson, US v. Dunne et al., 2457.

[67] Haverty-Stacke at 204.

[68] Ibid.

[69] See Boxes 109 and 110, SWP 146-1-10, including, for example, FBI Report 100-4013, New York.

[70] June 12, 1948 Memorandum For the Attorney General, RE: Socialist Workers PartyInternal SecuritySWP, Box 110 SWP 146-1-10.

[71] Haverty-Stacke at 204.

[72] Id. at 220.

[73] Ibid.
By India Today Web Desk: While we already know about Suyyash Rai and Kishwer Merchantt's impending wedding on December 16 this year, the news of Aman Verma tying the knot on December 14 has just come in.

The BB 9 contestant who postponed his April 20 wedding indefinitely after his father passed away, has re-scheduled his nuptials with fiancee Vandana Lalwani.

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"We decided to postpone the wedding for a year after the tragedy in the family, but my mother didn't want to wait for a year and we decided to have a December wedding," Aman told TOI.

Also read: BB 10 contestant Rohan Mehra gets death threat from Manveer Gurjar's supporters!

Interestingly, the couple will celebrate their wedding and engagement anniversary on the same day-- Dec 14, as Aman and Vandana exchanged rings on the same day last year. Vandana wanted to get married on the same day, and luckily they got the hotel booking. "Due to non-availability of hotels earlier, we'd planned the wedding on December 13, but Vandana wasn't very happy with that. It was just by chance that just a few days back we got a call from the hotel saying that we can have the wedding on December 14, so everything has fallen in place the way we wanted," added Aman.

Hope everything falls in place for the couple this time around.

--- ENDS ---
After the European Parliaments vote on November 24 to freeze talks on Turkeys accession to the European Union (EU), tensions between the EU and the Turkish government are escalating to unprecedented dimensions.

This conflict is a continuation of the tensions between Ankara and its NATO allies that led the major imperialist powers to tacitly back the failed July 15 coup against Erdogan. The motion freezing the talksadopted by 479 for, 37 against, and 107 abstentionscriticized the state of emergency President Recep Tayyip Erdogan imposed after the coup.

The Turkish government responded by lashing out with criticisms of the EU. On November 26, Erdogan said, The [Turkish] government and parliament can extend the length of the state of emergency. Whats it to you? Does the European Parliament rule this country or the government [of Turkey]? Know your limits! Those days are over.

Apparently referring to EU support for exiled Turkish preacher Fethullah Gulen, whose supporters Erdogan accuses of launching the coup, and for Kurdish nationalists, whom he claims are terrorists, the Turkish president denounced the European Parliament for inviting terrorist groups. He added that Turkey would continue to go its own way no matter what they say.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim echoed Erdogans accusations of EU complicity in terrorism, saying: First of all, the EU should decide on whether it will ally with Turkey or terrorist organizations that are freely wandering around Europe.

Even before the EU Parliament vote, Erdogan had threatened that Turkey could respond to EU pressure by opening its western border and letting Syrian refugees go to Europe en masse. You cried out and began to say What will we do when Turkey opens the border gates?, when 50,000 refugees turned up at the Kapikule [Turkeys border with Bulgaria]. Look here, if you go further, those border gates will be opened. You should know that, he said.

Erdogan also threatened the EU in 2015 that Turkey could open its borders with Greece and Bulgaria and send Syrian refugees to Europe, if a Turkey-EU deal was not reached. A few months later, in March 2016, the Turkish government reached an understanding with the EU. In this dirty deal, Ankara agreed to take back refugees from Greece in exchange for EU financial aid and a pledge of visa-free travel for Turks to Europe. The visa-free deal has not come about, however.

Erdogan had also threatened on November 20 that he might ally with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)a China-led security alliance including Russia and several Central Asian states originally called the Shanghai Fiveand break with the EU and NATO. Turkey should first of all feel relaxed about the EU and not be fixated on joining it, Erdogan said. Some may criticize me but I express my opinion. For example, I have said, why shouldnt Turkey be in the Shanghai Five?

The Turkish state of emergency is deeply reactionary. Erdogan has used it to arrest tens of thousands of peoplenot only coup supporters inside the state machine, but journalists and opposition politicians. However, the EUs criticisms of the Erdogan regimes policies are not motivated by democratic or humanitarian concerns, but the geopolitical interests of the major European imperialist powers.

One of the first responses to Ankaras threats came from Germanys Foreign Ministry, whose spokeswoman Sawsan Chebli declared in a November 25 news conference that the EU should not freeze Turkeys negotiations. It is important that we do not freeze the accession negotiations because that would only further damage the relationship between Turkey and Europe, and that would not be in the interest of Turkey or of Europe, she said.

German Prime Minister Angela Merkels spokeswoman Ulrike Demmer has also voiced growing concern, saying: We see the EU-Turkey agreement ... as a success for both sides. And the continuation of this agreement is in the interest of all parties.

Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, said that Europe should refrain from giving lessons to Turkey on the issue of migration, while urging Erdogan to carry out necessary reforms. Speaking to Euronews on November 26, Juncker described Turkey as a crucial ally and added that this was not only because of the refugee crisis.

The EU has tried to lay the main burden of the Syrian war on Turkey, while Ankara is pursuing its own reactionary and expansionist agenda by using Syrian refugees for political leverage.

The escalating dispute between Ankara and its Western allies, however, is not limited to Turkeys EU membership, or to one or another tactical consideration in the Syrian war. It is a result of a fundamental international process: the breakdown of world capitalism and the imperialist drive to war, which has its own objective economic and social laws, independent of the will of this or that leader.

Deep relations between the Turkish bourgeoisie and its NATO imperialist allies were forged during the Cold War. Turkey has been a member of the Council of Europe since 1949 and of NATO, the US-led anti-Communist and anti-Soviet military alliance, since 1952. It was a founding member of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development in 1961, and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe in 1973. Ankara first applied for membership to the European Economic Community, the predecessor of the EU, in April 1987.

Twenty-five years after the collapse of the USSR, however, amid an ever-deepening global capitalist crisis and after a quarter century of US-led wars from the Balkans to Africa and the Middle East, these relations are in deep crisis.

Ankaras involvement in the US-led war in Syria and Iraq has not resolved but only escalated the difficulties it faces at home, with deepening mass unemployment, rising prices, growing indebtedness and poverty. Moreover, the regime-change operation led by the United States in Syria, where it is allied with Syrian Kurdish militias, has brought Ankaras main concern, the century-long Kurdish question, to the fore.

On the brink of an economic collapse that it feared would trigger an explosion of anger that has been accumulating in the working class for years, Ankara also felt threatened by Western-backed Kurdish secessionism. It was in this context of deepening international and social tensions, and after Turkey nearly provoked a war with Russia by shooting down a Russian jet over Syria last year, that the attempted military coup took place on July 15.

The attempted coup against Erdogan, backed, or at least acquiesced to, by the main imperialist powers, notably Washington and Berlin, was a major blow to Turkish-Western relations. Parallel to the imperialist drive to re-divide the Middle East through ongoing wars in Iraq and Syria, it played a great role in Ankaras recent decision to embark on a quest for new partners in the SCO, and the collapse of Turkeys attempts to join the EU.
Europe

Greek seamen hold 48-hour strike

Greek seamen began a 48-hour strike at 6 a.m. on Sunday, ending Tuesday. Panhellenic Seamens Federation (PNO) members struck in opposition to the latest round of pension cuts and increasing job insecurity being imposed by the Syriza-led coalition government.

On Monday, the seamen marched to the Shipping Ministry where PNO representatives held talks with the Shipping and Island Policy Minister. The talks broke down without agreement.

Further strike by the Southern Rail workers in England

Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) working on the Southern Rail network, operated by Govia Thameslink, took further strike action Tuesday. The action was scheduled to last three days, with staff protesting plans by the company to extend the use of driver only operated trains, eliminating the safety role of conductors who currently have responsibility for closing the doors and other safety measures.

At the same time, train drivers working for Southern who are members of the ASLEF union began an overtime ban.

By Wednesday, the current action had led to the cancellation of over 1,000 trains.

Glasgow council IT staff strike

Glasgow Council IT staff, employed by contractor firm Access, began a three-week strike December 1. An initial 39 members of the Unison union came out in response to the Labour-controlled city councils 400 million proposal to privatize the IT service.

Access is employed by Glasgow city council as an arms-length company in conjunction with Serco.

Another three-week strike is planned for January. Unison accuses the council of seeking to replace the striking IT workers with agency staff after an IT recruitment firm published details of vacancies exactly matching those of the 39 on strike. Those on strike cover business-critical IT roles the council would find difficult to cover using other in-house staff.

Scottish university staff strike

Members of the University and College Union (UCU) at Aberdeen University held a one-day strike Wednesday. They were protesting plans by the universitys medical school to cut staff. Four members of the medical school staff have been told they must either accept redundancy or be re-employed on reduced contracts. The strike ballot showed a large majority in favour of action.

UK atomic weapons staff strike and lobby parliament

Workers employed at Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) sites at Aldermaston and Burghfield in Berkshire held a further strike Tuesday. The Unite union members are opposing AWEs plans to phase out the defined benefit pension scheme.

AWE workers also lobbied Parliament on Tuesday to press their case. Unite said further strikes are planned for the New Year if AWE continue with its plans to scrap the pension scheme.

Strike of public transport workers in Lyon, France

The selective strike of Metro and funicular rail workers in the city of Lyon, which began last week, was extended this week to bus drivers. The walkouts are in response to the stalling of negotiations over a new contract for underground staff.

The public transport staff are members of the CGT union. Bus drivers stopped work between 7 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. and again between 5 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. each day.

Strike threat by Swiss airport staff

Airport workers at Geneva airport have threatened to strike following the breakdown of talks with employer Swissport. The members of the Public Service Union are seeking a pay increase, saying they carry out a difficult job and live in one of the most expensive cities in the world.

The strike could go ahead with just two hours' notice. Swissport claims any such action would be illegal as the current collective agreement applies until 2019.

Strike threat by Irish optics workers

Staff employed by Bausch and Lomb at the Valeant plant in Waterford, southeast Ireland, are threatening to strike in the run-up to Christmas. The company manufactures contact lenses and other eye care products. A strike ballot has been organised by the Services Industrial Professional and Technical Union (SIPTU).

Workers are seeking a restoration of pay and conditions to a pre-2014 level. In June 2014 SIPTU agreed a cost-cutting deal, which saw cuts in pay, lower bonuses, the introduction of a new lower pay grade and around 200 staff made redundant.

The company says failure to come to an agreement with SIPTU before December 16 will result in further attacks on jobs and conditions. It says it will lay off newly hired workers and stop plans to open up a further production line, if strikes are planned.

Strike threat by Irish bus workers

Drivers employed by Irish national bus company, Bus Eireann, are being consulted over possible strike action in the New Year. The bus workers are pushing for a 21 percent pay rise in line with Dublin Bus and Luas (Dublin tram system) workers.

The workers union made the announcement after the company pulled out of a Labour Court hearing Tuesday. Bus Eireann claims it needs to make further savings and may have to make 5 million cuts in the wage bill, similar to those made in 2013.

Hungarian water workers plan nationwide strike

On December 1, water workers organised by the national federation of water workers unions (VSZOASZ) announced they were preparing to launch a nationwide strike in support of a 30 percent pay claim. The workers say they have only received a 2.5 percent rise over the last six years.

If the strike goes ahead, around one-third of Hungarys water utilities would be affected.

Middle East

Israeli airline pilots settle their dispute

Israeli pilots employed by the El Al airline ended their work to rule Sunday, following the intervention of the labour federation Histadrut. Under the agreement, pilots will get an 8.75 percent increase but the union also agreed that pilots will have shorter rest periods between flights. El Al also agreed to stop using leased flights to replace El Al scheduled flights.

Strike by Libyan airport ground staff

Staff working for the Libyan Ground Handling Company at Lebrag and Tobruk struck December 2. They were protesting the several months arrears of wages owed to them.

Strike and protest by Tunisian lawyers

Tunisian lawyers launched an open-ended strike Tuesday and held a protest outside the prime ministers office in Tunis. The lawyers are protesting a tax being imposed of between $8 and $20 on each file they present to court. The government is imposing the tax as part of its austerity measures.

General strike by Tunisian public sector workers called off

The Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT) called off a general strike of public sector staff due to have taken place on Thursday. The cancellation followed talks between the UGTT president and the Tunisian prime minister that took place in the government palace in Kasbah on Wednesday.

As a result, the union agreed public sector workers would only receive 50 percent of a planned pay rise from January to November 2017 and 50 percent of a planned premium between April and November next year. Both additional payments will cease in December 2017. The original pay increase, which has now been cut back, was initially agreed on September 22 this year.

Africa

Striking Kenyan plantation worker shot dead by police

A striking tea picker in Nandi County, Kenya was shot dead Monday for demanding the implementation of a court-ordered pay rise. Two others were wounded when armed riot police attacked the strike on the pretext that workers were setting alight their place of work.

Injured workers were taken to Nandi public hospital, which is involved in a national strike, but only private hospitals were operating and they did not get treated.

Workers came out on strike when 15 percent of an agreed 30 percent court-ordered pay rise was not forthcoming. Plantation workers held a hunger strike in June and 20,000 workers went out on strike in July.

Kenyan medical staff implements threatened strike

Medical employees throughout Kenya held a strike Sunday. The action is a response to unheeded demands, with some going back to 2013. Doctors and nurses have been demanding the implementation of a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) for three years. The government attempted to halt the strike by imposing a court injunction but workers ignored it.

The outstanding CBA covers promotions, job evaluation, wages, and conditions. Central to the medical staff concerns is the shortage of doctors throughout the public hospitals. Doctors estimate public hospitals need to recruit an extra 1,200 doctors each year. The ratio of doctors to the population stands at one to 16,000.

The strike affected around 2,700 hospitals, with patients being discharged home or to private facilities if able to afford it.

Nigerian dockworkers drops wage claim

A Nigerian dockworkers' wage claim has been abandoned by the National Joint Industrial Council (NJIC). A spokesman for the NJIC said this was due to concern for the economic state of the maritime industry and the general condition of the Nigerian economy.

The NJIC is made up of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) and several employers organisations. They carry out negotiations under the auspices of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA). The MWUN general president told the Nigerian Guardian that the union understands the economic situation and there is no need to push for a pay rise.

Malawi judiciary support workers end strike empty handed

Malawi judiciary support workers struck on December 2 over salaries, promotions and housing allowances. They are demanding a wage increase of 28 percent to bring them into line with a settlement reached with civil servants in 2014. The judiciary staff union had demanded negotiations with the Chief Justice but he did not respond, prompting the strike.

The strike was suspended on the basis of an undertaking by the authorities to look into the workers grievances. The Judiciary Members of Staff Union called off the strike while grovelling to the Chief Justice to grant them an audience, which is still pending.

Although civil servants received a pay increase of around 45 percent in 2014, workers in the legal system only received 18 percent. The support workers went on strike at that time demanding pay parity with the civil service, but their demands were not met.
Mandira Bedi reminisces her good old childhood days when she could eat rasgullas without feeling guilty.

By India Today Web Desk: TV actress and host Mandira Bedi's chiselled body is the source of inspiration for many fitness enthusiasts. The lady is close to her mid forties, but her fit bod and glowing face doesn't give away this fact.

She might be enjoying her fitness regime, but she surely misses her childhood days sometimes when she could gorge on loads of sweets without feeling any guilt.

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Also read: Mandira Bedi shares her childhood pic; isn't she looking cute?

Mandira recently shared a throwback pic from her childhood where she is seen eating from a bowl filled with rasgullas. "Aaaaah those were the days. I could eat rasgullas and still be able to wear tiny little shorts!" the caption of the pic reads.

Aaaaah those were the days. I could eat rasgullas and still be able to wear tiny little shorts! ?? #throwbackthursday #throwback to the #goodolddays A photo posted by Mandira Bedi (@mandirabedi) on Dec 8, 2016 at 3:37am PST

We must say Mandy looked super-cute as a kid and quite mischievous.

Besides turning a new page in Indian television by acting in the first-ever daily soap of India Shanti, Mandira has also been a trend-sette--be it her noodle-strap blouses or Shanti bindi. A verstaile actor, she can fit in a saas-bahu serial like Kyunki as well as the desi adaptation of 24 with equal ease.

At @gqindia #fashionNights styled by my lovely lovely @aparnabadlani ??wearing @namratajoshipura @atosa_mumbai A photo posted by Mandira Bedi (@mandirabedi) on Dec 4, 2016 at 4:51am PST

The child in her however is still craving for that one bowl of rasgulla. We will say, go ahead and have it Mandira, you deserve it.

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - A Duval County man serving a 45-year prison sentence for crimes committed as a teenager will have his sentence reconsidered.

A sharply divided Florida Supreme Court on Thursday ruled Thomas Kelsey should be resentenced due to changes in law dealing with juveniles.

Kelsey was 15 when he broke into an apartment and raped a pregnant woman at knifepoint in front of her two young children.

He was identified six years later through DNA evidence. In 2010, he was sentenced to two life sentences and two 25-year terms. He turns 30 on Saturday.

Kelsey was resentenced to two 45-year-long terms after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling dealing with juveniles.

The court ruled 4-3 margin that Kelsey needs to be resentenced again, but concluded there are ways the state could seek a life sentence.

(Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
MIDWAY, Fla. (WTXL) -- A more-active late-fall weather pattern impacting the Southeast provided generous rain, backing many areas away from the worst of the drought classifications in north Florida and southern Georgia.

Rain totals exceeding two inches since late last week put a dent in the Moderate and Severe drought levels across the Big Bend. Areas just east of the Ochlockonee River through the St. Johns River region are still Abnormally Dry in this week's Drought Monitor info release.

Drought conditions remain significant in south Georgia, but also improved from previous weeks. Severe drought classification continues in the interior along U.S. 82, but it is an improvement from the Extreme range that covered many areas around the Flint River and the tri-state junction.

Extreme and spotty Exceptional drought conditions persist in west-central Georgia near the Chattahoochee River.

Parts of the parched and fire-ravaged interior Southeast and mountainous regions also received beneficial rainfall since early last week, resulting in at least a one-category improvement in drought levels.
MADISON COUNTY, Fla. (WTXL) - As the anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor passes, we remember the first hero of World War II, Army Air Corps Captain Colin P. Kelly, Jr. of Madison, Florida.

He and his crew on the B-17 bomber were among the first to retaliate against the Japanese after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Captain Kelly was only able to load three 500 pound bombs before taking off under threat of additional strafings by enemy aircraft. He and his crew bombed a Japanese heavy cruiser and were flying to Clark Field in the Philippines when their B-17 was hit by enemy aircraft fire.

Captain Kelly ordered his crew to bailout and he was able to steady the plane for their escape prior to the on-board explosion that took the craft down. Captain Kelly went down with his aircraft and was killed December 9, 1941, 75 years ago.

His example of patriotism, service and sacrifice is an example to all Americans, especially those who carry the name Colin. Captain Kelly is buried in the Oakridge Cemetery in Madison, Florida.

U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent the Four Freedoms Monument to Madison, Florida in honor of Captain Kelly and that monument stands today in Four Freedoms Park on Highway 90 across from the Madison County Courthouse in downtown Madison.
TALLAHASSEE, FL (WTXL) -- A road rage incident in Tallahassee was caught on camera, showing a man yelling racial slurs at another driver who was recording the incident.

Due to the sensitive nature of this issue, some language may be offensive.

It happened on the night of December 2. A car with two people inside stopped traffic on Gaines Street approaching Gay Street. The driver started cursing at Jean Vilpin, an Uber driver who had just dropped off a rider.

"He was waiting for me to move past the stop sign," Vilpin said. "He got impatient, and he was inebriated."

Vilpin said he's never experienced an incident like this in his two months driving for Uber in Tallahassee.

The 22-year-old said he started working for the company to supplement his part-time job as assistant band director at Godby High School.

STORY CONTINUES BELOW VIDEO:

"I decided I'm not even going to do nothing," he said. "I'm just going to, 'Hey, man. Get out my way.' Honked at him."

That reaction is what law enforcement officials suggest.

"If you cannot drive away, our advice is do not get out of your vehicle, because typically, worse things happen when you get out of your vehicle," said Lt. Grady Jordan of the Leon County Sheriff's Office.

Vilpin, who graduated from FAMU in April, said the incident wasn't just road rage -- it was racism.

"You don't yell out 'n*****', 'coon,' 'porch monkey' in the middle of Gaines Street in front of everybody and not be racist," he said.

With Gaines Street being one lane each way, Vilpin couldn't drive around the situation. He said he had a small blade inside his vehicle, but instead of pulling out a weapon, he pulled out his phone.

"The world has to see this," he said. "The world definitely has to see this."

The video got more than 100,000 views on Facebook, but he said the site removed it for failing to meet "community guidelines."

Vilpin said racist incidents are nothing new to him.

"I've been stopped and the first thing that they ask me, "Did you steal the car? Are there drugs in the car?" he said, adding his race has prompted him to think twice before reacting to situations.

"I'm a young black 22-year-old man, and this is a young white inebriated man out in the streets," Vilpin said. "The first thing that they would've said is, 'Why did they attack this drunk man?'"

Vilpin filed a police report but chose not to press charges.

"I was the bigger person, so whatever happened to him after that, God got it," he said. "I ain't worried about it."
By India Today Web Desk: Tiger Shroff and Disha Patani's closeness has been the fodder for gossip mills for quite some time now. From dinner dates to movie dates to secret holidays, the rumoured lovebirds have been spotted more than often. Despite their public spotting, the two maintain that they are just good friends and a relationship more than that is just out of question right now.

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ALSO READ: Lovebirds Tiger Shroff and Disha Patani spotted on a not-so-secret night out

ALSO READ: Tiger-Disha's dinner date puts to rest all breakup rumours

Tiger, who was recently spotted with Disha at Manish Malhotra's 50th birthday bash, has denied an "affair" and says that he enjoys her company a lot.

In an interview to Mumbai Mirror, the Heropanti actor said that they both are too busy with their careers to have a relationship. He was quoted as telling the daily, "She is a pretty girl and it feels good to take a pretty girl around. It makes you look better. Both of us are so busy with our careers and for a relationship you need to take out time."

He added, "But yes, when we are not shooting, I do meet up with her since we have a common friend circle. But every time we do, we end up getting clicked by the paparazzi."

The dating rumours strengthened when the reports of Tiger pushing Disha's name as his co-star in SOTY 2 came out. But the Baaghi actor has rubbihsed the rumours, "I 'm in no position to pitch actors to directors. Hey, I have to pitch myself. I'm still building my own career and have to become an established actor first. So why would I waste my time doing all this."

On the work front, Tiger will soon begin shooting for Sabbir Khan's Munna Michael.

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Jose Martinez-Cuevas, left, and Patricia Aguilar filed a class action lawsuit against DeRuyter Brothers Dairy in Outlook, claiming that it was not given mandatory rest breaks, meal periods or overtime pay despite working nine to 12 hours a day, six days a week. (Photo courtesy of Columbia Legal Services)
The label of Mill Lane Winery's The Big O. The red table wine blend includes Aronia berries grown in West Valley by Ron Mehelich. (Courtesy of Mill Lane Winery)
The nearly 40-hour-long gunfight between security forces and militants in south Kashmir's Hassanpoora village ended on Friday morning.

By Indo-Asian News Service: A nearly 40-hour-long gunfight between security forces and militants in south Kashmir's Hassanpoora village ended on Friday morning, said police officials. Two bodies were recovered from the militants' hideout.

"Firing between the security forces and the militants has stopped. Two dead bodies were recovered," said the officer, adding the combing operations were ongoing.

Security forces used explosives to demolish a house that had been at the centre of the firing since Wednesday night, said a police officer. The terrorists were using is as a fortified bunker.

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Security forces used bulldozers to remove the rubble of the demolished house, under which the bodies and two AK-47 assault rifles were recovered. Residents said at least five other houses were damaged in the village in south Kashmir's Anantnag district.

PROLONGED BATTLE

Police claimed three Lashkar-e-Taiba militants were killed in the gunfight.

The fighting resumed early on Friday when the combing operation was re-started and the cordon around the shootout site further tightened.

The killings of militants triggered clashes between mobs and the security forces on Thursday evening. The clashes continued on Friday. A protesting youth was killed and another critically injured on Thursday some distance away from the gunfight site.

THE AFTERRMATH

All mobile phone and internet services have been suspended in Anantnag and Kulgam districts to prevent spread of rumours.

LeT commander Abu Dujana, one of the most wanted militants in the state, was earlier rumoured to be among the gunmen holed up in the house that was targeted by the security forces.

Locals said he escaped from the hideout in Hassanpoora village, which lies close to Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti's ancestral Bijbehara town.

Security officials, however, have neither confirmed nor denied if he was among the trapped militants.

--- ENDS ---
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South Korea's President Park Geun-hye has reportedly called members of her cabinet for a meeting at 5 p.m. (0800 GMT) on Friday.

South Korea's parliament passed a motion to impeach Park earlier on Friday over an influence-peddling scandal that could lead to her becoming South Korea's first democratically elected leader to be removed from office.

There have been mass rallies every Saturday for the past six weeks calling for Park to quit, and opinion polls show overwhelming public support for her impeachment.
In an interview with US conservative think tank the Hudson Institute, journalist Joseph Braude interviewed Saudi journalist Abdulrahman Al-Rashed, who suggested that hiring Israeli Arabs in Arab countries could be a positive step toward establishing official relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

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Al-Rashed was the editor of London-based Arab paper Asharq al-Awsat and had previously run Saudi-owned, pan-Arab television news channel Al Arabiya. In his interview, he spoke about how Saudi Arabia should take a more tolerant and open position toward non-Muslim residents within its borders who reside in the country for work. When Braude asked him whether his position also extends to Jews, Al-Rashed reflected on Saudi-Israeli relations, stipulating that in order to achieve warmer, official ties between the two countries, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must first be settled.

Abdulrahman Al-Rashed

"To begin with, without resolving the Palestinian-Israeli issue, its not possible to address this problem substantively. I see the brunt of the issue as political and not religious: Before Jews and Israelis were our obsession, there was anti-Portuguese sentiment in the eighteenth century, anti-Turkish sentiment in the nineteenth century, and anti-British sentiment in the twentieth century. As the underlying conflicts were resolved politically, the cultural clashes subsided," said Al-Rashed.

Al-Rashed also said that "Without a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian issue, prospects to do so are severely constrained. A resolution of that conflict, whether along the lines of the Arab Peace Initiative presented by the late King Abdullah or some other approach, will make it much easier to improve relations among Saudis, other Arabs, Jews generally, and Israelis.

Reflecting on how to progress relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel, Al-Rashed suggested a creative, economic-based incentive that could also work to make the ties between both countries more official, through incorporating Israeli Arabs into the Arab world's work force. "If the question is specifically what can be done nowbefore the conflict is resolvedto increase connectivity, perhaps a new step would be for Saudi Arabia to formally lift its ban on work visas for Israels Arab citizens, and for Israel to welcome and foster Arab Israelis professional deployment to any Arab country. From a Saudi perspective, the case for doing so can be made openly in terms of the virtue of empowering all Palestinians, on either side of the Green Line. In seeking out the most qualified Arabs in Israel to work anywhere in the Gulf, moreover, we will inevitably find those who have achieved success in the mainstream of Israels economy and societythe tech sector, manufacturing, medicine, and so on. When they travel to the GCC states (Gulf Cooperation Council ed.), their human networks and professional partnerships will effectively travel with them. Thus, they can serve as a human bridge, as Israel moves toward a political solution, gradually enabling partnerships between the broader populations of both sides."

"Normalization with Arab Israelis should be initiated by the Arab League in Cairo, which historically has been the lions den of resistance to normalization," continued Al-Rashed. "To them we might say that, after all, many Jewish Israelis hold dual citizenship and are free to work almost anywhere in the region with their non-Israeli passport. Meanwhile, most Arab Israelis are banned from working in Arab countries because they hold only Israeli citizenship. In a similar vein, many Israeli companies are already exporting goods to Arab markets through foreign corporate entities, while Arab farmers in Israel cannot sell their tomatoes in the Gulf market."

The interview has already garnered interest from certain bodies in Israel. Officials within the Israeli Peace Initiative, which aims to help develop relationships in the form of a conciliatory agreement between Israel, the Palestinians and other countries in the region, said that the idea of beginning to legitimize Israeli-Saudi relations is a refreshing change. The added that now is the time to signal Israelis and neighboring people to carefully progress forward with a diplomatic process, and that such creative ideas are a good way in which this could be achieved.
The Russian military said on Friday it had helped more than 8,000 Syrian citizens flee parts of eastern Aleppo still controlled by rebels in the last 24 hours, including almost 3,000 children.

The Russian military said in a statement that 14 rebels had also surrendered to Syrian government forces, laying down their weapons and crossing into western Aleppo. They had all been pardoned, it said.Russia's RIA news agency quoted Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday as saying that the Syrian army, which has captured territory including Aleppo's historic Old City in recent days, had halted military activity to let civilians leave rebel-held territory.

However, Reuters reporters in a government-held part of the city said bombardment could still be heard after his remarks were published. Washington said it had no confirmation that the army had ceased fire.
Searching for Israel's Open University on Google opens a sidebar with a row of pictures of notable alumni, such as bronze-medal Olympiad Yarden Gerbi and former MK Yael Dayan. Alongside them is an infamous alumnus, Lebanese terrorist Samir Kuntar, which the university has repeatedly sought to have removed by Google.

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Sources in the university told Ynet on Wednesday that they had contacted Google several times asking them to change the list of notable alumni in their Knowledge Graph, but the search engine has declined their request, as Kuntar did indeed attain his bachelor's degree from the institution.

Kuntar with Hezbollah leader Nasrallah after being freed in the prisoner exchange swap in 2008 (Photo: AP)

Then 16-year-old Kuntar carried out a terrorist attack in Nahariya in 1979 in which a father and two daughters were killed along with two police officers Kuntar and three other terrorists infiltrated Israel from Lebanon by sea and broke into the apartment of the Haran family, taking the father, Danny, and his four-year-old daughter, Einat, to the beach, where Kuntar shot Danny dead in the back and murdered Einat by smashing her skull with his rifle.

The mother, Smadar, was hiding at this time in the apartment with their two-year-old daughter, Yael. Trying to silence the child's cries to avoid detection, Smadar suffocated her own daughter. The two police officers were killed in an exchange of fire where two of the terrorists were also killed.

Samir Kuntar (bottom right) in Google's Knowledge Graph

Kuntar was apprehended and sentenced to an Israeli prison from which he was released in an exchange in 2008 that returned the corpses of slain IDF soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev. In 2015, Arab media reported that the Israeli Air Force attacked a Damascus suburb and assassinated Kuntar. During his imprisonment, Kuntar obtained an undergraduate degree from the Open University.

A current student of the university said, "It's outrageous to see this. As a student at the university, I feel ashamed that they even agreed to allow such a despicable person with blood on his hands to study and get an education at an Israeli university, and further the fact that he appears amongst the notable alumni. This information is known; why does he also need to show up when people search? What pride does he give to the institution exactly? In my opinion, it should be immediately removed."

Google replied on the matter, "The information included in Google's Knowledge Graph comes from open and accessible sources of information, like Wikipedia, Freebase and others, and in addition we also take into account the searches that are done on Google on a subject. If there are inaccuracies in the information, one can inform Google by clicking on the link located in the Knowledge Bar box."

The Open University clarified that the Knowledge Graph information is not part of their website, "so sadly, we are unable to change it. Google's algorithm automatically selects whom to post, without any entity being able to influence or control it. According to a governmental decision, security prisoners no longer study at the Open University."
The Shin Bet and Israel Police cleared for publication on Friday that they arrested Arab Israelis in eastern Jerusalem on suspicion of being part of a terrorist cell that was planning attacks in the capital and at an IDF base.

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The uncovered terrorist network was located in the neighborhoods of Sur Bahar and Sheikh Jarrah. The authorities suspect that their plans included shooting attacks at an IDF base and in northern Jerusalem. Amongst those detained, most of whom are minors, were Hamas operatives.

Shooting attack in Jerusalem in October (Photo: Gil Yohanan)

The Shin Bet's investigation revealed that during 2015, while serving prison sentences for violent disturbances of public order, the eight members of the network established a cell to carry out shooting attacks in Jerusalem. The IDF base that they were targeting is on Mount Scopus, adjacent to Hebrew University.

Some members of the cell observed the army base after their release from prison to evaluate the options for a plan of attack. In addition to this, it became clear that some members of the cell were involved in violent riots in the Old City of Jerusalem and on the Temple Mount last Ramadan and during days in memory of terrorists who were recently killed in the capital.

The Shin Bet stated, "Thwarting the network prevented the realization of serious terrorist attacks in Jerusalem, and its exposure again demonstrates the great risks of terrorists with Israeli identity cards who enjoy freedom of movement, access to means of warfare, and the relative ease of carrying out attacks."
By PTI: From Yoshita Singh

United Nations, Dec 9 (PTI) Worried over the Rohingya crisis in Myanmars northern Rakhine state, a former top Indian diplomat with the UN has urged the countrys leader Aung San Suu Kyi to listen to her "inner voice" and reassure the people there that they will be protected.

"I am persuaded that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi hears and understands the concerns of the international community," UN special adviser on Myanmar Vijay Nambiar said.

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"However, the refusal by the Myanmar authorities to take a strong stance against hardliners, and the adoption of a generally defensive rather than proactive approach to providing security to the local population, have caused frustration locally and disappointment internationally.

"Only by responding concretely to these concerns will the government be able to resolve the crisis and preserve its international standing," he said.

Northern Rakhine, home to the Muslim Rohingya minority, has been under military lockdown since surprise raids on border posts killed nine policemen last month. Soldiers have killed scores and arrested many more in their hunt for the attackers, who the government says are radicalised militants.

Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace prize winner, has faced growing global criticism for not stopping the military campaign, which has sent nearly 20,000 Rohingya over the border to Bangladesh.

In a note to correspondentsissued by the Office of the UN spokesperson, Nambiar yesterday said the UN is "seriously concerned" by the developing situation in Rakhine state and has called on the security forces to act in accordance with the "rule of law and accepted international norms."

Nambiar, who has served as Chef de Cabinet to the secretary-general and was Indias permanent representative to the UN, called on Suu Kyi to reflect on the situation, listen to her "inner voice" and speak directly to the people of Myanmar, asking them to rise above their ethnic, religious and other differences and to advance human dignity, harmony and mutual cooperation between all communities.

"I also appeal to Daw Suu to visit Maungdaw and Buthidaung and reassure the civilian population there that they will be protected," he said, calling on all communities in Myanmar to jointly oppose the violence, disunity and division being instigated by a group of criminal elements in the region.

The UNs latest call follows last months visit by nine local ambassadors, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, and various UN agencies to the Rakhine state.

Nambiar also supported former UN chief Kofi Annans call for "unimpeded humanitarian and media access and strengthened efforts to defuse tensions" in the country.

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He underscored that those who fled or suffered displacement should be allowed to return. "In this volatile situation," he warned, "it is everyones responsibility to handle allegations and rumours with great care."

He emphasised on Suu Kyis promise to address the root causes of the crisis ? namely, citizenship and status. "I call upon all parties, groups and stakeholders to engage in urgent consultations to defuse the situation and get back to the negotiating table," he said. PTI YAS ABH AKJ ABH

--- ENDS ---
Hundreds of men from eastern Aleppo have gone missing after leaving rebel-held areas, the United Nations' human rights office said on Friday, voicing deep concern over their fate at the hands of government forces.

UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville told a news briefing the office had heard "worrying allegations that hundreds of men have gone missing after crossing into government-controlled areas" of Aleppo. "Given the terrible record of arbitrary detention, torture and disappearances, we are of course deeply concerned," he said.

Some 100,000 civilians are believed to remain in the "ever-shrinking" opposition-held areas of the city, he said, also citing reports that rebels had prevented some civilians from fleeing to safety, which would be a potential war crime.
The United States will "remain committed" to Afghanistan, US Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Friday, amid questions about what President-elect Donald Trump's foreign policy will mean for the South Asian nation.

Carter made the comments during an unannounced visit to the Afghan capital to meet US troops and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.
Following Arab media reports that Hezbollah and Iran have pledged to Russia not to respond to attacks attributed to Israel on Syrian targets, the Lebanese terrorist organization has clarified that no such promise has been made.

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The exceptional clarification, deeming such reports "incorrect and completely invented," appeared on the public relations site of Hezbollah's military wing.

Strike in Syria this week

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The organization's secretary general, Hassan Nasrallah, is to give a televised speech on Friday night discussing the recent developments, and he may address the issue. However, it seems that the speech will focus more on the difficulties in establishing a new government in Lebanon and the impending victory of the Syrian Army, aided by Hezbollah, in Aleppo.

Wednesday, after the attack, a Syrian military official accused Israel of being responsible for the strke on the Mezzeh Air Base in western Damascus, causing a series of explosions in the early hours of the morning.

Explosions in Syrian airport this week

"The Israeli enemy launched at 3am several surface-to-surface missiles from Lebanese territory towards western Tel Abu Al Nada. The missiles fell in the area of the Mezzeh Air Base. As a result, fires broke out at the base with no injuries," the official told SANA, the Assad regime's official news agency.

Hassan Nasrallah

Israeli Minister of Defense Avigdor Lieberman addressed the Syrian accusations this week, saying, "We act primarily to protect the safety of our citizens and defend our sovereignty, and we're trying to prevent the smuggling of sophisticated weapons, military equipment and weapons of mass destruction from Syria to Hezbollah."

He reiterated that Israel had no intention of interfering in the civil war in Syria, but noted that "when I am asked, time and time again, what should be the nature of a possible future accord in Syria, I say and repeat that it doesn't matter what accord it reached because in any case, the Iranians and Assad cannot be part of the accord."
Former "Queen of Porn" Jenna Jameson, now a businesswoman and entrepreneur, wrote on Twitter earlier this week that she holds a strong admiration for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (whom she referred to as BeBe), for both political and personal reasons.

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A stalwart Republican, Jameson voted for now-President-elect Donald Trump during the latest US elections. After linking to a prerecorded speech by Netanyahu screened at annual Saban Forum for Middle East Policy earlier this week, Jameson tweeted, "It's so apparent Trump and BeBe are going to be great friends.... I have to admit I have a massive crush on @netanyahu."

Jenna Jameson (Getty Images)

Jameson continued her Twitter confession by saying, "I only have eyes for @netanyahu." Referring to her Israeli fiance diamond dealer, Lior Bitton, she ended by describing Netanyahu as "Definitely the definition of a hot Israeli man . I'm luck (sic) to have one of my own."

After converting to Judaism, Jameson has expressed her wish to move to Israel with Bitton and then marry. She is currently pregnant and is reportedly planning to move to the city of Herzliya after the baby is born. Jameson frequently displays her love for Judaism and Israel on social media, tweeting that she is a Zionist and displaying home-cooked Shabbat meals.
The families of ten deceased terrorists from the Judea and Samaria region in the West Bank have petitioned the High Court of Justice (HCJ), asking that the IDF release the terrorists' bodies and return them to their families, so that they could be buried.

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The HCJ has three different petitions regarding all ten terrorist bodies pending. The Security Cabinet discussed the matter during a meeting on Thursday. As present, it has been agreed upon that seven bodies will be returned to the families for burial, as long as their burials will not become a public display of incitement and support of terrorism.

Mohammed Traireh

A decision has yet to be made regarding the remaining three bodies, as the these terrorists were affiliated with the Hamas terrorist group, and in one case due to the extreme cruelty in which the act was carried out. This was the case of 17-year-old Mohammed Traireh, who stabbed to death 13-year-old Hallel Ariel while she slept last June. Traireh's family's house, it should be noted, was demolished in reactio to his murder of Yaffa.

Traireh's victim, Hallel Yaffa

The state requests 60 days to look into the last three cases before reaching a decision.
YOLA- Two explosions ripped through a bustling market in northeast Nigeria's Madagali town Friday morning, and a survivor says they killed at least 10 people.

Boko Haram fighters are blamed for the attack on the edge of the Islamic extremist group's Sambisa Forest stronghold, which Nigeria's military has been bombing ahead of ground assaults. Since the military has dislodged the extremists from towns and villages this year, the insurgents have been attacking soft targets.

Madagali was liberated last year after months in the hands of Boko Haram. It is 150 kilometers (95 miles) southeast of the biggest northeastern city, Maiduguri.

Friday's blasts struck simultaneously at opposite ends of the market selling grains and vegetables, according to Ahmadu Gulak, a driver who was buying tea there. He told The Associated Press he counted at least 10 bodies and dozens of wounded being ferried to a nearby hospital.
DAKAR - Algerian authorities have deported hundreds of West African migrants to Niger this week, trucking them thousands of miles across the desert in one of the biggest roundups seen this year, according to officials and human rights groups.

Algeria has often sent migrants back to Niger since 2014 as the number of people taking the dangerous route to Europe from West Africa has swelled. But the latest group is different because it involves people from across the region, not just Niger, officials said, suggesting a more determined effort to remove immigrants.

Over the last two days, at least 1,000 migrants came in a convoy of about 50 trucks to Agadez in central Niger, a desert town where migrants from all over West Africa pay smugglers to take them on the treacherous journey north through the Sahara, according to officials in Agadez, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and Human Rights Watch.

"They are about 1,000, 271 from Niger, the rest from West African countries, mainly Mali and Guinea Conakry," said Giuseppe Loprete, the head of IOM's mission in Niger.
Talks have begun between the Israel Airports Authority and Thai Airways to possibly create a new direct route between Ben Gurion International and Bangkok.

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At the same time, Israeli airline Arkia is looking into creating a direct flight between Israel and Thailand as well.

These developments are due to an "open skies" agreement signed between Israel and Thailand. This agreement enables airlines, such as Arkia and Thai Airways, to have more direct flights, thereby increasing competition and reducing prices.

Thai Airways A380 (Photo: Thai Airways)

The open skies agreement itself was signed in Bangkok following lengthy negotiations. According to the agreement, each country will be able to fly up to 28 flights a week on the route, using any plane they choose. This will increase the number of flights, up from the eight a week which El Al currently flies.

El Al 747 (Photo: Danny Sadeh)

The agreement will also enable commercial partnerships between the both countries' airlines, such as codeshare agreements.

Thailand is one of the most popular destinations for Israeli travelers, with over 165,000 Israelis travelling to Thailand in 2016 alone. Israeli Transport Minister Yisrael Katz says that the open skies agreement will increase the number of people travelling between the two countries, and will lead in a reduction in prices.

Arkia A330-900 (Photo: Arkia)

Arkia CEO Nir Dagan said "the Israeli Civilian Airports Authority and the Israeli Ministry of Transportation did excellent work. We've been trying to make changes to the original agreement (between the two countries) and now it has happened. Following this agreement, we are now in the initial stages of planning flights to Thailand. We want to be able to have flights not only to Bangkok, but to the popular tourist islands as well."

He continued, saying "we will need to buy wide body aircraft suitable for flights of this distance  but buying planes is the easy part. What's important is opening the door for other airlines (to fly to Thailand)."
AMSTERDAM- Police acting on a tip-off from the Dutch intelligence agency arrested a 30-year-old "terrorist" suspect and seized an arsenal of weapons in the port city of Rotterdam on Friday afternoon, prosecutors said.

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Detectives found a Kalashnikov AK-47 rifle, four boxes of illegal highly explosive fireworks, a large depiction of the ISIS flag, several mobile phones and 1,600 euros in cash when they searched the suspect's apartment.

"He is suspected of preparing a terrorist crime," prosecutors said in a statement. Judges ordered the suspect remanded in custody.

Dutch police officer (Photo: AFP)

The Netherlands' terrorism threat level has been at one below the highest level since March 2013, meaning that officials believe there is a realistic chance of an attack.

As in many European countries, intelligence officials have repeatedly warned of the threat posed by Dutch citizens who have returned from fighting alongside ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

The investigation was "still in full progress," national prosecution spokesman Wim de Bruin said. "At this moment we have only one suspect," he said, adding that he could not rule out further arrests. He did not expect prosecutors to release further details on Friday.

After attacks by Islamist militants in France, Belgium and Germany, the Netherlands is considered a potential target, because it supports US-led military operations against ISIS in Syria and Iraq.

Europe's largest port, Rotterdam is home to a diverse and transient populations as well as to one of the Netherlands' largest Muslim communities.
ISTANBUL - A Turkish court on Friday halted a case brought by victims of an Israeli raid on an aid flotilla that killed 10 people in 2010, a lawyer for the victims' families said, following a deal in June to restore ties between Israel and Turkey.

Israeli-Turkish relations broke down in 2010 when Turkish pro-Palestinian activists were killed by Israeli commandos enforcing a naval blockade of the Gaza Strip. The soldiers had raided a ship, the Mavi Marmara, leading a flotilla to the Hamas Islamist-run Palestinian territory.

Israel agreed to pay out $20 million to the families of those killed on the vessel, a crucial element in the restoration of ties.
ALEPPO - At the side of the road sat a woman in her late 20s, veiled, dressed in black, and weeping as she cradled her baby.

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"My son was born after three months of siege. There were no hospitals, no diapers, no milk," she said. "My milk is dry from fear and panic."

Aleppo in ruins ()

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After the Syrian army fought rebels in Aleppo's Old City, hungry and terrified civilians have emerged from their cellars into a wasteland of ruins.

Destruction in Aleppo

The rubble and shrapnel on the streets around Bab al-Hadeed district on Friday revealed the ferocity of the battle this week that gave

Syria's army control of the historic area, bringing it close to its biggest victory after nearly six years of war.

Fighting continues in Aleppo, where rebels fighting to oust President Bashar al-Assad have lost most of the territory they have held in the city for years.





Destruction in Aleppo

The booms from air strikes, smell of gunpowder and sight of rising smoke from nearby districts testified to the ongoing violence on Friday as the army and allied militias press their assault.

The commander of a volunteer group in the Tiger Force, the Syrian army's best-known unit, said his troops had suffered heavy losses in the narrow lanes around Bab al-Hadeed, one of the Old City's historic gates near the towering Aleppo Citadel.

"The militants had sophisticated weapons, especially sniper rifles, and they were professionals," said the commander who gave his name only as Ismail. "Their resistance was very fierce. We had a lot of martyrs."

"We approached them from several directions," he added, standing in front of a cracked building with burn marks. "They were attacking us, killing us, and then running away ... this area took us two days to liberate completely."

Destruction in Aleppo (Photo: AFP)

Rebels had held this part of the Old City for four years and it bore widespread evidence of their presence, as well as of the prolonged siege and the ferocious battle before it fell.

Behind buildings in one street, wood from traditional ornate windows clogged an alleyway. Political slogans and the names of armed opposition groups were scrawled on the side of a bakery.

A graffiti warning said: "beware snipers" and gave instructions on dodging bombardment. "We will not fall. Down with Assad," was another slogan.

Injured Syrians (Photo: AP)

Inside a former furniture shop lay materials for producing shells: household gas cylinders loaded with explosives and fired by rebels from guns known as "hell cannons" that caused many civilian casualties in government-held parts of the city.

DEVASTATION

The rebel-held area of Aleppo was entirely besieged since the summer and pounded by government and Russian air strikes, shelling and barrels of explosives dropped from helicopters.

In one neighbourhood, the minaret of a mosque had been shelled, while its dome had suffered great damage. In the streets around, some shop fronts had been walled in with concrete blocks after their metal shutters had been smashed. Outside a school textbook outlet, discarded tomes lay strewn on the ground.

At one point, a group of soldiers marched past, escorting two recently captured rebel fighters.

Injured in Aleppo (Photo: AP)

For civilians, the sudden eruption of pitched battle in the area had come as a terrifying conclusion to years of deprivation and bombardment.

Dozens of displaced civilians, including children, had gathered in the road with their belongings after fleeing the Saliheen district, where fierce battles continued.

Maher Tashtash, aged nine, said the bombardment had been frightening and that rebels had told them they faced death if caught by the army. His brother Mohammed, 12, said they had hidden in the basement of the building until the fighting passed.

Syrian rebels in Aleppo (Photo: Reuters)

Both the rebels and the government side have accused each other of manipulating Aleppo residents' fears for their own advantage by warning of atrocities.

Even the dead were not spared the carnage. In the Dar al-Islam cemetery near Ibn Sina street in al-Hamdaniya, graves were destroyed. People were instead burying corpses in open public ground.

Ismail, the Tiger Force commander, said he was confident of a swift victory for Assad's forces.

"I think the operation needs a week at most to be concluded," he said.
The Obama administration has asked Israel to take in one of Guantanamo Bay's "forever prisoners," according to the Miami Herald on Friday.

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The man in question, Mohammed Abdul Malik Bajabu, 43, is linked to a car-bombing of an Israeli hotel in Mombasa, Kenya, as well as a plot to shoot down an Israeli Arkia airliner flying from Mombassa to Israel carrying 271 passengers in 2002. The car-bombing of the Israeli-owned Paradise Hotel killed 13 people, mostly Kenyans.

The attacks occurred on the same day.

A "forever prisoner" is a prisoner sitting in indefinite administrative detention in the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.

Guantanamo Bay (Photo: AFP)

The Miami Herald reports that Abdul Malik was incarcerated in Guantanamo in 2007 and was interrogated by the FBI.

Israel is willing to take the prisoner, but negotiations on his transfer to the Jewish state were suspended when the FBI refused to hand over information it had obtained about the prisoner during its interrogations.

A US government official speaking to the Miami Herald was quoted as saying "The government of Israel has repeatedly asked for information to support their possible prosecution. But, for reasons that are unclear, the FBI has declined to provide the information that has been requested by senior Israeli prosecutors,

(The Israelis) want to see the incriminating statements. And thats where we are stuck  and have been for many months which is frustrating, the official continued.

Negotiations over the proposed transfer of the inmate were conducted by the State Department's Special Envoy for the closure of Guantanamo, Ambasssador Lee Wolosky.

When asked by Miami Herald reporters about the incident, FBI Spokesman Andy Ames said "we have no comment on our communications with foreign governments."

The Israeli Embassy to the US also declined to comment.
ISTANBUL- A Turkish court on Friday dismissed a case brought by victims of an Israeli raid on an aid flotilla that killed 10 people in 2010, said a lawyer for the victims' families, who stormed out of the courtroom as the judge ordered one co-plaintiff to be ejected.

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The judge accepted the prosecutor's plea that there was no case to examine following a deal in June between Israel and Turkey in which the victims' families received compensation from Israel and the two countries restored relations.

Israeli-Turkish relations had broken down in 2010 when Turkish pro-Palestinian activists were killed by Israeli commandos enforcing a naval blockade of the Gaza Strip. The soldiers raided a ship, the Mavi Marmara, leading a flotilla towards the Hamas Islamist-run Palestinian territory.

Passengers on the Mavi Marmara attacking soldiers with metal rods (Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)

The summer's rare rapprochement in the divided Middle East was driven as much by the prospect of lucrative Mediterranean gas deals as by mutual concern over growing security risks.

Israel, which had already offered apologies for the raid - one of Ankara's three conditions for a deal - agreed to pay out $20 million to the families of those killed, another key element in the restoration of ties.

The case was brought on behalf of 740 victims of the Israeli raid, with Israel's chief of staff, naval commander, head of intelligence for the air force and head of military intelligence - all absent from the court - as the defendants.

Israeli MK Hanin Zoabi who participated in the flotilla

At the final hearing on Friday, too many of the plaintiffs' lawyers and victims' families had gathered to fit in the courtroom. Tensions rose when some were not allowed inside, leading to protests and shouts of 'Allahu akbar' (God is greatest).

The judge called in the riot police to remove one co-plaintiff who refused to leave the courtroom. The families of the victims and lawyers chanted in protest and walked out before the verdict was read.

Prosecutor Huseyin Aslan argued that the case had no legal foundation after Turkey and Israel's deal, according to broadcaster CNN Turk.

Israel had demanded that its military officers and government officials be indemnified against prosecution on war crimes allegations. With Friday's court decision, arrest warrants for the four Israeli defendants have been lifted.
ACCRA- Ghana's President John Mahama called opposition leader Nana Akufo-Addo to concede defeat in Wednesday's national election, a senior aide to Akufo-Addo told Reuters on Friday.

The concession will quell uncertainty at the end of a day in which independent voting tallies showing an Akufo-Addo victory were broadly accepted.

The electoral commission has said it will announce official results by Saturday.
Not all property investors are successful.

Some fall on hard times because they dont research the market, some ignore good advice and make a serious error of judgment, while others listen to self-professed experts who dont know what they are talking about and have very little experience.

If you are looking for bad advice as a property investor, you wont have to go far to get it.

Some of the people doling out this bad advice do so because they are trying to sell a lemon and sometimes it is because they simply dont know any better.

Here are some of the most common examples of bad advice that property investors hear time and time again.

The good ones dont listen.

1. INVEST OVERSEAS

Why buy a one-bedroom apartment in Sydney for $700,000 when you can purchase a charming villa in the foothills of Florence?

Many an investor has been seduced by the idea of buying up overseas, but unless you are familiar with the area, speak the language and are extremely experienced in the local market, I would exercise a high degree of caution.

There is a good reason Sydney apartments are so expensive: they are in high demand. When it comes time to sell your romantic Tuscan villa you may struggle to make a profit.

Then there are the local laws and language barriers to consider. Seems like too much of a headache to me.

2. BUY OFF THE PLAN

Many investors who signed contracts for off-the-plan apartments in Melbourne or Brisbane over the past 12 months have good reason to be concerned.

There is a large glut of new releases due to come onto the market over the coming years and it will take a very long time for this stock to be absorbed.

Buying off the plan is never a great idea as this style of apartment is far from being in short supply.

That means there is no scarcity factor and when it comes time to sell the property you are competing with similar properties  sometimes even within the same complex.

Established properties in established areas that are held for a long period of time tend to do very well indeed. These are the areas that investors should be looking.

3. FOCUS ON RENTAL YIELD

Many investors become fixated on positively gearing their properties to the point that they will focus on rental yield over capital growth.

It is very rare to find a property offering both, and a lot of the time the properties that offer high yields can turn out to be poor investments. Hotels and serviced apartments fall into this category.

There is nothing wrong with ensuring a healthy rental yield, in fact, it is extremely important, but just make sure it is not at the expense of capital growth.

By the waya similar rule applies to rental guarantees.

Dont be tempted to buy for this factor alone. You should never buy a property because of kickers, tax set-ups or inducements. The fundamental driver behind every purchase should be whether or not it is a good investment.

4. FIND A HOT SPOT

If I had a dollar for every time someone gave me a tip on the next hot suburb about to boom  or asked me for one  I would be an obscenely wealthy man by now.

Investment is not about trying to guess what suburb is about to gentrify: this is risky business and investors stand to lose quite a bit of money once the heat leaves the market.

Take, for example, the investors who bought in towns such as Karratha during the Western Australian mining boom. Some of these investors stand to lose, or have lost, hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Speculation is a high-risk strategy and not one I would ever recommend in the property market.

5. SIT BACK AND WATCH YOUR MONEY GROW

Some people think property investment is a simple case of snaring a bargain, renting it out and watching their money grow.

If you want to be a highly successful property investor in charge of a growing portfolio, you will have to do a lot of hands-on work.

This means research, regular valuations to assess the worth of your portfolio (and subsequent borrowing power), rent reviews, tax and cash flow management, and checking in with the professionals you hire to help manage your assets.

Not to mention keeping up to date with the property market news and the latest government policy in relation to negative gearing and investment.

Sounds exhausting?

It can be, and it is also very rewarding. So if anyone has ever told you that making money in property is easy then they are lying.

Even if you have a natural interest in property, and many investors do, it still requires a lot of effort and attention.

Like everything in life, really. The best rewards are the ones you have to work hard for.

..........................................................
Dobra, k. Szczecina 900 m2

40 miejsc parkingowych



Atut: Dodatkowe dochody z paczkomatow InPostu, a juz niedugo i z myjni samoobsugowej.



Tradycyjny zakup nieruchomosci, mozliwosc wykupienia uzytkowania wieczystego.
Chonmipem Horam `Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent`- Victor Hugo Can you imagine a life void of music? Absolutely NOT! Whether you admit it or not, music permeates our daily life, weaving its beauty and emotion through our thoughts, activities and memories. Music is harmony and music is beauty. Music has the quality of expressing the inexpressible. One cannot approach music with ones own peculiar likes, dislikes or tastes, which are all a part of ones own conditioning. Music is something both extraordinarily complex and incredibly simple at the same time.Roots of World Music day World Music Day also known as Fete de la Musique, was a music festival that began in France in 1982.The idea was conceived by French Minister of Culture, Jack Lang in 1981. Since then June 21st has been celebrated every year as World Music Day. Today, it has spread to Argentina, Australia, Britain, Luxemburg, Germany, Switzerland, Costa Rica, China, India, Lebanon, Pakistan and many other countries. On this day, the musicians perform for free in open areas. Free concerts are organized in parks, museums, train stations, castles etc. This is done to promote music, making all genres of music accessible to the public. It gives an opportunity to communicate and share special bond through music. The term World Music includes traditional as well as non-western music. It is folk music of any culture, created and played by indigenous people. It is a classical form of music accompanied by traditional ethnic instruments, some prominent forms are  Japanese Koto music, India raga music, Tibetan chants and South African `township music`. Genres India, being a land of unity in diversity with various cultures, traditions, art forms, every region has its own unique musical form. While there are various genres, Indian classical music has been divided into North Indian tradition known as Hindustani music and Carnatic music belonging to South India. But apart from these, there are varied forms such as  Bhangra, Bhajans or devotional, Ghazals and Qawwalis, Indi-pop, Folk, Tribal, Film songs, Remixes, Fusion. While, Bhangra is a dance oriented folk music, Bhavageete (literally `devotional song`) is a form of expressionist poetry and light music. Qawwali is a Sufi form of devotional music based on Hindustani classical. And in the West, we have Metal, Punk, Rock, Hip-Hop, Hard Rock, alternative, Experimental, Country, Disco, Funk, Classical, Progressive, Trance, Techno, Ska, Reggae music. Trance Music was developed in early quarters of 20th century and is generally played in club houses and dance floors. Indigenous Country Music born of the US is in form of folk, Celtic, church, gospels and tribal music, while, Pop Music is both classical and folk. Reggae is a music genre developed in late 1960`s. Its lyrics deal with faith, love, sexuality, relationships, injustice etc. Hip-hop is both a cultural movement and genre of music developed in New York City in 1970`s by African Americans and Latin Americans.The good, the bad and the ugly Music is an important form of communication. Its a reflection of society in a particular time and place. Music needs no boundaries, it bonds us irrespective of who we are, and where are we from. Not only its a source of entertainment but it also acts as a medium to convey messages, of how things are, and what lies ahead in the future. Michael Jackson`s song `Heal the world sounds beautiful as well as inspiring as it echoes noble thoughts. There`s A Place In Your Heart, And I Know That It Is Love, And This Place Could Be Much Brighter Than Tomorrow, And If You Really Try You`ll Find There`s No Need To Cry,In This Place You`ll Feel There`s No Hurt Or Sorrow There Are Ways To Get There If You Care Enough For The Living Make A Little Space, Make A Better Place... Heal The World, Make It A Better Place, For You And For Me And The Entire Human Race There Are People Dying, If You Care Enough For The Living, Make A Better Place For You And For Me If You Want To Know Why There`s A Love That Cannot Lie Love Is Strong, It Only Cares For Joyful Giving If We Try, We Shall See In This Bliss We Cannot Feel, Fear Or Dread We Stop Existing And Start Living Then It Feels That Always Love`s Enough For Us Growing So Make A Better World Make A Better World... And The Dream We Were Conceived In, Will Reveal A Joyful Face And The World We Once Believed In Will Shine Again In Grace Then Why Do We Keep Strangling Life Wound This Earth, Crucify Its Soul Though It`s Plain To See, This World Is Heavenly Be God`s Glow We Could Fly So High Let Our Spirits Never Die In My Heart, I Feel You Are All My Brothers Create A World With No Fear Together We`ll Cry Happy Tears See The Nations Turn their Swords Into Plowshares We Could Really Get There If You Cared Enough for The Living Make A Little Space, To Make A Better Place... You And For Me Music also grants us the freedom of expression. Like in late 1980`s and 90`s, young black Americans coming out of the Civil Rights Movement used this to show the limitation of the movement. It used Hip-hop to voice their issues. It lets them the world to be noticed. But inspite of all these social impacts, there have been negative aspects as well. Some of the most popular songs in Hip-hop genre have negatively influenced violence, drugs, alcohol, sex and disrespect for authorities, which is detrimental to the lives and education of the youngsters.Festivals There are many World Music festivals and jazz/folk/roots/new age crossover events. The Ariano Folkfestival is the biggest World Music festival in southern Italy, is held in mid August. The California World Music Festival is held each July at Nevada County Fairgrounds. The World Sacred Music Festival is held annually in Olympia, Washington State. FloydFest in Floyd, Virginia, USA. The Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance in Trumansburg, New York, USA. Rainforest World Music Festival is another world music festival held in Malaysia. Stern Grove festival is a San Francisco celebration of musical and cultural diversity. The Starwood Festival in New York has been held in July every year since 1981.
Kano: At least 30 people were killed on Friday when two female suicide bombers detonated their explosives in a busy market in northeast Nigeria, the Military said.

"At least 30 people have been killed in the suicide blasts carried out by two female suicide bombers in the market" in the town of Madagali, Military spokesman major Badare Akintoye told AFP.
Washington: Donald Trump on Thursday vigorously defended his incoming cabinet against uproar from Democrats, green activists and workers unions who said his nominees for the environment and labor signalled a sharp shift to the right.

The 70-year-old president-elect, who has never previously held elective office, on Thursday announced Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, a climate skeptic, as environment chief and fast food executive Andy Puzder as labor secretary.

More than half his cabinet positions have now been filled, 43 days before the Republican is sworn in as the 45th president of the United States, the oldest man ever inaugurated into the office.

"I believe we`re in the process of putting together one of the great cabinets that has ever been assembled in the history of our nation," Trump told a victory rally in Des Moines, Iowa.

It was the third of his unorthodox "thank you" rallies feting his shock electoral defeat of Hillary Clinton in key swing states that have propelled him into the leadership of the most powerful democracy on earth.

"In filling my cabinet I`m looking for people who fully understand the meaning of service and who are committed to advancing the common good," he added, defending his appointment of a string of billionaires and millionaires.

His nominees, he said, had given up fortunes "to make one dollar a year," hailing them as "talented people, smart people."

The incoming president triggered criticism by tapping a fossil fuel industry ally to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) -- outraging many who fear that he will reverse President Barack Obama`s efforts to combat climate change.

"We`re going to end the EPA intrusion into your lives," he told the Iowa crowd.In announcing the nomination of Pruitt -- who will need Senate approval -- Trump complained that "for too long," the EPA had spent "taxpayer dollars on an out-of-control anti-energy agenda that has destroyed millions of jobs."

Steny Hoyer, the number two Democrat in the House of Representatives, said Pruitt had spent years "fighting tooth and nail to help polluters erase or circumvent the critical environmental protections our nation has put in place."

Ken Kimmell, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists, described Pruitt as someone "on the outer extreme edge, and putting him in charge of EPA could really have devastating consequences."

The appointment was made despite Trump`s meeting this week with former Democratic vice president-turned-climate campaigner Al Gore and actor Leonardo DiCaprio, who is an active environmentalist.

There was similar uproar over his nomination of Andy Puzder, CEO of CKE Restaurants which owns fast food chain Hardees, as secretary of labor.

Puzder opposes a Democratic Party push to raise the minimum wage to $15. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed this year he backed increasing use of automated technology instead of workers to keep down labor costs, complaining about the USD 15 wage, mandatory paid sick leave and the burden of Obamacare for employers.

"The president-elect believes, as do I, the right government policies can result in more jobs and better wages for the American worker," he said Thursday.

"Trump has once again shown how out-of-touch he is with what working Americans need," hit back Service Employees International Union head Mary Kay Henry, whose organization has two million members.

"We will stay in the streets to fight back against anti-worker extremism."In a move that fanned concerns about his conflict of interest as a business tycoon, Trump is to stay on as executive producer on NBC`s "Celebrity Apprentice" when it returns after a two-year absence, the show confirmed.

The real estate tycoon has promised to set out a plan next week to put aside his "great business in total," although he has not revealed who will take over his multi-billion-dollar global property and luxury branding interests.

In Iowa he invited onto the stage Governor Terry Branstad, a long-time Trump supporter and personal friend of Chinese President Xi Jinping who has been nominated to serve as ambassador to Beijing.

"One of the most important relations we must improve and we have to improve, is our relationship with China," Trump said.

He flew in from Ohio, another state which helped secure his victory, to meet privately with victims and first responders of an apparent jihadist-inspired November 28 attack at Ohio State University.

The assailant, Abdul Razak Ali Artan, was shot and killed by police after driving into a crowd and then slashing several people with a knife. Officials said 11 people were treated for injuries.

"This horrific assault is yet one more tragic reminder that immigration security is now national security," he said later in Iowa.

Last week he tweeted that Artan, who migrated from Somalia, should not have been in the country.

At least one of the victims refused to attend. Professor William Clark told CNN that he didn`t feel the need from a "healing standpoint" and that he was "frankly a little put off" by Trump`s initial reaction in blaming immigration.
Hyderabad: The death toll in Hyderabad building collapse has risen to six on Friday, according to latest media report.

Earlier, four people had succumbed to their injuries when an under construction multi-storey building collapsed in Nanakramguda area of Hyderabad late on Thursday, officials said.

The bodies were recovered on Friday morning.

An accused has been arrested in connection with the building collapse. Police is looking for another accused who is absconding.

According to reports, ten to twelve people are being feared trapped, Deputy Mayor Baba Fasiuddin told media.

A woman and her three-year-old son from Chhattisgarh were pulled out alive from the debris and shifted to a hospital. Her husband is still missing.

The government has suspended a deputy commissioner of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corp (GHMC) and an assistant town planning officer over lapses.

National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams along with police and fire fighting personnel were participating in the rescue work. The labourers from Vijayanagaram district in Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh were asleep when the building collapsed.
Washington: The US Congress has said that USD 400 million in aid to Pakistan cannot be released unless the defence secretary certifies that Islamabad is taking "demonstrable steps" against the Haqqani network, which is accused of targeting American interests.

The 2017 National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA) imposes four conditions on Pakistan to be eligible for USD 400 million of the USD 900 million of the Coalition Support Fund (CSF).

The US House of Representatives passed (by 375 to 34 votes) last week, NDAA 2017 now heads to the White House for President Barack Obama to sign it into law.

As per NDAA 2017, the defence secretary needs to certify to the Congress that Pakistan continues to conduct military operations that are contributing to significantly disrupting the safe haven and freedom of movement of the Haqqani network.

The defence secretary also needs to certify that Pakistan actively coordinates with Afghanistan to restrict the movement of militants, such as the Haqqani network, along with the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

Finally, Pakistan has shown progress in arresting and prosecuting Haqqani network senior leaders and mid-level operatives.

US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter had refused to give a similar certification to Pakistan this year as a result of which Islamabad was not given a USD 300 million under CSF.

The Haqqani network has carried out a number of kidnappings and attacks against US interests in Afghanistan.

The Haqqani group is also blamed for several deadly attacks against Indian interests in Afghanistan, including the 2008 bombing of the Indian mission in Kabul that killed 58 people.

Senator John McCain, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said, NDAA-2017 "refocuses security assistance to Pakistan on activities that directly support US national security interests and conditions a significant portion of funding on a certification from the secretary of defence that Pakistan is taking demonstrable steps against the Haqqani Network in Pakistani territory."

NDAA allows compensating Pakistan for security activities along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, including providing training and equipment for the Pakistan Frontier Corps in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The members of the Conference Committee expressed concern that Pakistan continues to delay or deny visas for US personnel that could assist with the provision of such training.

Given this situation, the report recommends the Pentagon to condition reimbursements for training and equipment with appropriate access by US personnel.

It also expressed concern about the persecution of groups seeking political or religious freedom in Pakistan, including the Balochi, Sindhi and Hazara ethnic groups, as well as religious groups, including Christian, Hindu and Ahmadiyyas.

It said the defence secretary should continue to closely monitor the provision of its security assistance to Pakistan and ensure that it is not using its military or any assistance provided by the US to persecute minority groups.
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Friday came down on the state police for remaining clueless about missing Jawaharlal Nehru University student Najeeb Ahmed, asking how can a man just 'vanish suddenly'.

The HC bench comprising of Justice GS Sistani and Justice Vinod Goel said, "It is over 50 days still Delhi Police do not know about his wherebouts. How can a man just vanish suddenly and police have no clue about it. Even if we think of the worst, something has to be found out. We are pained that the missing person has not been traced till date."

Ahmed has remained untraceble since 55 days.

His mother Fatima Nafees had on November 26 moved the Delhi High Court seeking a direction to the government and police to produce him before the court. Before approaching the court, Nafees had met Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who had assured her of his intervention to find out the youth.

Delhi Police has also raised the reward amount from Rs 50,000 to Rs 5 lakh for anyone providing information that could help locate Ahmed.

Following Ahmeds disappearance, JNU students and teachers have been protesting against the university administration and Delhi Police.

In October, the Delhi Police had set up an SIT on the orders of Union home minister Rajnath Singh. The case was later transferred to the crime branch.

Najeeb, a student of school of biotechnology and a native of Badaun in Uttar Pradesh, went missing from the hostel on October 15 a day after an alleged scuffle with the members of ABVP.
Ahmedabad: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address a farmers' rally and also inaugurate an Amul cheese factory in Gujarat on Saturday.

He will address the farmers in Banaskantha district during his day-long visit to Gujarat, PTI reported.

He will also make his first trip to the state BJP headquarters in Gandhinagar since assuming the top office in May 2014.

"A rally of farmers and cooperative movement activists will be addressed by the Prime Minister tomorrow in Deesa town of Banaskantha district.

We expect over two lakh people at the rally," the report quoted Gujarat BJP spokesperson Bharat Pandya as saying.

PM Modi will also inaugurate a new Amul cheese factory at Banas Dairy in Banaskantha district and also launch 'Amul Deshi' A2 cow milk, the report added.

The factory has been built with an investment of Rs 350 crore.
Hyderabad: Four people have died when an under construction multi-storey building collapsed here, officials said on Friday.

The bodies were recovered on Friday morning.

The victims included a woman and her daughter.

The structure collapsed when the labourers from Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh were asleep, IANS reported.

A woman and her three-year-old son from Chhattisgarh were pulled out alive from the debris and shifted to a hospital. Her husband is still missing.

The government has suspended a deputy commissioner of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corp (GHMC) and an assistant town planning officer over lapses.
New Delhi: Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has written a letter to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee expressing pain over her claim of Army coup.

In his letter Parrikar writes: "Your allegations in this regard run the risk of adversely impacting the morale of the country's armed forces."

Banerjee had triggered a controversy after questioning presence of Army personnel at state toll plazas and asking was it an "Army coup".

The drama unfolded last Thursday when the Trinamool Congress supremo alleged the Army has been deployed at the Dankuni and Palsit toll plazas on National Highway 2 (connecting Delhi and Kolkata) without informing the state government.

Denying Banerjee's charges, the Defence Minister and the Eastern Command of the Army had claimed it was a routine annual data collection exercise carried out to assess the availability of load carriers at all the major entry points in various states.

Banerjee's claim of military coup was exposed when the Army rejected the West Bengal Chief Minister's allegations that its personnel were deployed at toll plazas without informing the state government and were collecting money.

"This is being done in coordination with local police authorities. The exercise was earlier planned for November 27 and 28. The dates were changed to November 30 to December 2 on a specific request by the Kolkata Police due to Bharat Bandh called on November 28," said GOC Bengal area (officiating) Maj Gen Sunil Yadav.

Speaking in the Lok Sabha, Parrikar had said the Army was conducting a routine exercise in Kolkata. The Eastern Command showed papers detailing the correspondence between the Army and the local police on the issue and said the state government and the police knew about it in advance.
New Delhi: Attacking the government, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, Friday, said that he wants to speak in the Lok Sabha but the government is not allowing him to do so.

Speaking to reporters outside the Parliament, Rahul said, For one month we have been wanting to debate demonetisation, we want the government to debate in the House. PM is giving speeches across the country, but he fears coming to the Lok Sabha. He is the House, but he is not willing to sit in the Lok Sabha.

What is the reason, why is he so worried? (He) First talked about black money, then ran towards counterfeit currency and now is talking about cash less... come in (to Lok Sabha) and talk to us, Rahul said.

Making a direct charge on the PM, Rahul said, This is the biggest scam in India's history. I will speak inside (the Lok Sabha) and the PM will not being able to sit.

When a scribe asked him whether he felt that government is against him speaking in the Parliament, Rahul said, They are not allowing me to speak. When we said let's debate, the government ran away...I will talk about the scam carried out by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

An earthquake will happen when I speak in the Parliament, Rahul said emphatically.

Rahul's frontal attack on the government amid high drama in the Parliament. In the Lok Sabha, Leader of Opposition Mallikarjuna Kharge informed that the Opposition is ready for debate under a rule that does not entail voting.

However, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar responded by saying that the government is also ready for a debate but for that to happen the Opposition will have to first apologise for disrupting the house all through the Winter Session.

Soon, there was pandemonium in the house with members from both the Treasury and Opposition resorting to slogan shouting.

Speaker Sumitra Mahajan had to adjourn the house two times to being some order back.
New Delhi: In an unprecedented move, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday arrested former Air Force chief SP Tyagi and two others in the AgustaWestland case.

The arrested accused will be produced tomorrow (Saturday) before a competent court in Delhi, CBI spokeswoman Devpreet Singh told the media here to officially announce the arrests.

Besides Tyagi, Delhi-based lawyer Gautam Khaitan and Sanjeev Tyagi, alias Julie Tyagi, were also arrested by the agency.

All three were arrested on the allegations of "accepting illegal gratification for exercising influence through corrupt or illegal means",

Investigators have accused the retired Air Marshal of helping AgustaWestland bag the Rs. 3,727 crore chopper contract by tailoring specifications at the instance of his cousins.

Also Read: Delhi court issues fresh arrest warrant in UPA-era AgustaWestland case

The former Air Force chief provided "unique favours" to AgustaWestland and channelised funds for bribe, it has been alleged.

He is also being accused of changing the "official parameters" in order to favour the firm.

Tyagi, who retired in 2007 and was questioned by the CBI extensively in the recent past, has denied allegations that he had influenced the multi-crore deal.

Earlier in August, key middleman Christian James Michel had written to CBI to withdraw an Interpol red corner notice against him in return for cooperation.

In the letter dated August 25, the English law firm representing him said Michel is ready to assist the CBI and requested for a meeting.

He claimed that he is innocent and he can help the agency with information.

This was the first official communication by the middleman in AgustaWestland case to an investigating agency in India.

Michel had allegedly played a key role in the gustaWestland deal to supply 12 VVIP choppers to India in 2010.

AgustaWestland, a subsidiary of Italian defence giant Finmeccanica, allegedly paid over Rs 370 crore as kickbacks to secure the deal.
New Delhi: Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) Jitendra Singh said on Friday that it is a matter of shame that President Pranab Mukherjee has been compelled to comment on the impasse in parliament.

"This is politics at its worst. The irony and the shame is that no less than Rashtrapati ji was compelled to make certain observations in the manner in which the house got disrupted and the entire session almost quashed out, he said.

Applauding Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his decision to demonetise, Singh said the opposition is feeling uncomfortable and insecure.

"The opposition is not feeling comfortable with the manner in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi`s decision of demonetisation has elicited country-wide support, cooperation and appreciation," he said.

Responding to Rahul Gandhi`s allegation that demonetisation is the biggest scam, Singh said it is a perfect example of 'pot calling the kettle black'.

"On Rahul Gandhi's 'earthquake' comment, he said it is the opposition which is disrupting both houses of parliament and not allowing them to function.

"People of the country will not forgive those who have allowed an entire session of parliament to go waste," he added.

The daily disruption in parliament compelled President Pranab Mukherjee issue a strong statement, asking Members of Parliament.

"For God's sake, do your job. You are meant to transact business in Parliament," he said on Thursday.
Suri: The West Bengal Police on Friday recovered around 100 crude bombs from Baliguni village under Nanoor police station of Birbhum district of the state.

The bombs, kept in two plastic containers in a field behind a house, were found late last night and defused on Friday, a police official told media.

No arrest has been made so far in this connection, police said.
New Delhi: Former Supreme Court judge Justice Markandey Katju on Friday offered to tender an unconditional apology in a contempt case for criticising judges and their judgment in the sensational Saumya rape-murder case.

As per the report, Katju's lawyer on Friday told the court that the former Supreme Court judge was ready to tender an unconditional apology on the matter.

In an application, that was mentioned on Friday before a bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Katju said that he has deleted all the Facebook posts and respects the judicial process and judiciary in the rape-murder case.

After senior counsel Rajeev Dhavan mentioned the application for an early hearing, Justice Gogoi said that they would consider an early hearing of the same.

Requesting the hearing of his application before court closes for winter vacations, Justice Katju, in the application, has said: "I am ready to read out the apology before the court."

A bench of Justice Gogoi, Justice Prafulla C. Pant and Justice Uday Umesh Lalit had on November 11 issued a notice to Justice Katju as to why contempt proceedings cannot be initiated against him for casting aspersion against the judges in his social media pages.

Initially, Katju was asked by the court to appear personally and assist the court during the hearing of the review petition. At the end of the hearing, the court dismissed the review petition and issued a notice of contempt to Justice Katju.

Justice Katju had said that top court had erred in setting aside the death sentence merely on the grounds that prosecution could not establish whether the victim had jumped from the train or was pushed out of it by the assailant.

The top court, while setting aside the death sentence, had also noted the doctors' opinion which said that injuries caused by the assailant alone could not have been the cause of the death.
Kolkata: Hours after Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar snubbed West Bengal Chief Minister in a letter over her army coup remark', Mamata Banerjee on Friday responded saying she spoke only about government policy.

She said she is not happy with the language of the letter and that her criticism only directed at the government policy and not the army.

Not happy with the language used by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar in the letter; I spoke about govt policy, not army, ANI quoted her as saying.

Parrikar had shot off a letter to West Bengal chief minister expressing pain over her army coup remark.

"Your allegations in this regard run the risk of adversely impacting the morale of the country's armed forces," Parrikar wrote in the letter.

The Trinamool Congress supremo triggered a row last Thursday after she questioned the presence of army on the toll plazas of the state.

She alleged that the army was deployed at Dankuni and Palsit toll plazas without informing the state government.
Beijing: China's state media warned Mongolia of dire consequences for seeking financial help from India and described the move as "politically harebrained".

Global Times on Friday criticised Mongolia for approaching India and said it will further complicate bilateral ties.

Mongolian envoy to New Delhi Gonchig Ganhold had sought India's support to overcome the country's financial difficulties as a result of Chinese measures.

But China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang on Thursday declined to respond on the issue, saying he hasn't heard of any such remark, PTI reported.

"Sandwiched between Russia and China, Mongolia vows to remain a neutral state to benefit from both sides without having to get involved in a major-power competition," the article said.

"However, it also hopes it could seek a third neighbour, which can enable the country to reap more profits by gaining more bargaining chips.

But Mongolia should be alerted that it cannot afford the risks of such geopolitical games," it said.

"Mongolia seems naive about the way international relations work - you cannot harm a country's interests while hoping it can reciprocate nicely.

"Mongolia should know that mutual respect is the precondition to develop bilateral relationships and hitch a ride on China's economic development.

"It is even more politically harebrained to ask for support from India, a move that will only complicate the situation and leave a narrower space to sort the issue out.

We hope the crisis-hit Mongolia will learn its lessons," PTI quoted the article as saying.

Mongolia caught China by surprise by hosting the Dalai Lama last month for four days, saying that it was purely religious visit.
New Delhi: The Patiala House Court is likely to pronounce an order in the National Herald case on December 26, a media report said on Friday.

The court reserved its order on Friday after BJP leader Subramanian Swamy in an application sought documents and ledger books from the Congress party and the Associated Journals Limited (AJL).

Swamy alleged that Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi got hold of AJL through "dishonest means".

"They have been saying that I don't have a case, how can that be when the court has issued summons for them.

So they are buying time and delaying, but they will not escape it," ANI quoted Swamy as saying.

"The National Herald is being used by the Nehru family to collect funds and aggrandize them.

I wanted to know whether Sonia and Rahul Gandhi got hold of Associated journals limited by honest means or dishonest means.

My allegations is that they acquired through dishonest means which is criminal misappropriation and criminal breach of trust," he was quoted as saying.
New Delhi: A day after President Pranab Mukherjee expressed displeasure over the stalemate in the Parliament, the Opposition parties on Friday agreed to debate the demonetisation issue without a rule that entails voting.

The climb down by the Opposition came after 15 consecutive days of disruption in the Parliament. The Opposition has also been demanding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi be present in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha when they take up demonetisation for debate.

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi is expected to lead the Opposition charge in the Lok Sabha. The government has also indicated that PM Modi will speak in the debate.

Yesterday, in a stinging attack on the Opposition over Parliamentary paralysis, President Pranab Mukherjee said the House is not a place for dharna and disruption which amounts to "gagging of majority" by the minority.

He told Parliamentarians that they are meant to discuss and transact business and not to disrupt.

Disruption is totally unacceptable in Parliamentary system. People send representatives to speak and not to sit on dharna and not to create any trouble on the floor," he said speaking on "Electoral reforms for a stronger democracy" on the occasion of Defence Estates Day Lecture in New Delhi.

Himself a veteran Parliamentarian before he became the President, Mukherjee said, "Disruption means you are hurt, you are gagging majority. Majority never participates in this disruption. Only minority comes to the well, shouts slogans, stops the proceedings and creates a situation in which the Chair has no option but to adjourn the House. This is totally unacceptable".

"For demonstration, you can choose any other places. But for God's sake, do your job. You are meant to transact business. You are meant to devote your time for exercising the authority of members, particularly Lok Sabha members over money and finance," he said.

Maintaining that he is not targeting any single party or individuals, he said the responsibility is of everyone.

With agency innputs
Live footwear production gains ground at Fimec

Brazil

The organisers of Fimec, Latin Americas biggest international trade event dedicated to leather, chemicals, components and accessories for footwear, machinery and equipment, to be held in March 2017 have announced the participation of around 500 exhibiting companies, and the extension of its Factory Concept area to include four different footwear production lines.

To be held on March 14-16, 2017, in Novo Hamburgo, Brazil, the 41st edition of Fimec will showcase over 900 different brands from around 500 exhibiting companies. For this upcoming edition, the Factory Concept area, which presents visitors with the opportunity to see footwear production in real time, has been extended by 25% to include four different leather shoe production lines and is to focus on technology as the key to optimising productivity. The organisers have partnered with Brazilian shoe manufacturers Usaflex, for womens shoes, and Pegada, for the live production of mens footwear, as well as over 60 brands of machinery and components.

Other highlights of the trade show include the Fimec Studio, which focusses on fashion and novelties for 2018, showcasing finished products developed from research based on consumer behaviour. In 2016, over five thousand qualified visitors and buyers visited the Studio looking for up-to-date information and business opportunities, say the organisers.
New Delhi: Launching a frontal attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi said that the government is scared of holding a debate on demonetisation in the Parliament. Rahul said that government is not allowing him to speak as he is determined to expose them on demonetisation.
Srinagar: Separatists have called for a day-long strike in Kashmir on Friday, affecting normal life, a media report said.

However in Srinagar, public transport were seen plying in some parts of the city. Business establishments and educational institutions remained closed.

The situation was similar in other district headquarters of the Valley.

The separatists strike is called as part of the ongoing agitation since the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani on July 8.

PTI reported separatists have been issuing weekly protest programmes.

The five-month unrest in the Valley has left 86 people dead.
Khunti: An elderly woman whose black magic led to the death of the latter's newly born twins was burnt to death allegedly by another woman on the suspicion of being a witch, in Khunti district, police said on Friday.

Anita Soy of Anantpur village delivered twin girls on November 15.

One of them died on December 3 and the other one last night, Superintendent of Police Ashwini Kumar Sinha said.

After the death of one child, the another one was also not keeping well.

Anita asked her neighbour, Susari Buru (62), to cure the girl but she too died last night, the police officer said.

Following this, Anita suspected that Buru was a witch and her black magic was responsible for the death of her daughters, Sinha said.

Enraged, Anita poured kerosene on Buru and set her on fire on Friday night leading to her death, the SP said, adding Anita has been detained.

In another incident in West Singhbhum district, a mentally unsound girl was injured after she was beaten up by a 'witch doctor' in Raghunathpur village on Thursday, police said.

The villagers had taken the 20-year-old girl to the Gram Sabha, where the 'witch doctor' assured the villagers that he would cure the girl and started to beat her up badly, they said.

On being informed about the incident, BDO Mukesh Machua rushed to the spot and took the girl to a hospital.

Police said they have started an investigation into the incident.
Kochi: A Ernakulam court on Thursday sentenced a Catholic priest, attached to the Lourdes Matha Church, to double life-term for raping a 14-year-old girl several times.

The 41-year-old Catholic priest was sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for "remainder of his life, with the court saying he had misused his position, had gone to extent of attributing bad character to the victim and betrayed the believers of the Church.

While convicting Edwin Pigarez, Additional District and Sessions Court Judge KT Nisar Ahammed said, the priest not only assaulted the 14-year-old child "but also betrayed the entire believers of Church. It is pertinent to note that he has gone to extent of attributing bad character to the victim --a small girl."

The court also imposed a fine of Rs 2,15,000 on Pigarez.

The judge in its order said: "He should be a model for believers and also for general public. He is expected to live a life which could be emulated by others. But contrary to that the first accused has misused his position as a vicar for the church."

A gynaecologist of a government hospital was also also found guilty for not reporting the crime to police.

The girl's mother had alleged that the priest abused her daughter many times when she sought his services for confession.
Chennai: Actor Gautami Tadimalla has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi raising various queries about late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaas hospitalisation, treatment, reported recovery and very sudden passing.

In her letter, the southern actress raised several questions, as to why there was a near total blanketing of information regarding Jayalalithaa's health.

In her letter to PM Modi Gautami writes: Nobody had been allowed access to her and many dignitaries who visited her with deep concern were denied an opportunity to convey their wishes in person. Why this secrecy and isolation of a beloved public leader and the head of the Tamil Nadu government? What/whose authority restricted access to the late Chief Minister? Who were the concerned persons who were making the decisions about Selvi Dr. J Jayalalithaa jis treatment and care when her health was apparently in such a delicate state? And who is responsible for these answers to the people? These and many other burning questions are being asked by the people of Tamil Nadu and I echo their voice in bringing them to your ears, sir.has addressed a letter to PM Modi bemoaning the lack of transparency about #Amma's health.

Jayalalithaa, 68, who died shortly after midnight on Monday following a 74-day battle with illness was laid to rest at the Marina Beach here on Tuesday. She was admitted at Apollo Hospital on September 22.

Urging the Prime Minister to look into the death of the former AIADMK supremo, the actor wrote: I ask these questions now because it is a primary concern and right of every citizen of India to be aware of and informed about their democratically elected leaders. To be aware of their state of health and ability to perform their duties for the larger good of the people. To be concerned for the wellness and comfort of a beloved leader of the masses. And the fact that a tragedy of such tremendous scale should not go unquestioned and definitely, not unanswered, under any circumstances. If this be the case with a public figure of this magnitude, then what chance does the common citizen of India have when he fights for his personal rights? The confidence of every Indian in the democratic process that makes our nation so great is precious and must be protected against all odds.

Expecting replies to her queries from the PM, Gautami described him as a leader who is unafraid to stand up for the rights of the common man.

Also Read: Posters in Chennai hail Sasikala Natarajan, say 'golden period of Ammas govt must continue under you'

I am writing to you now, sir, with the complete confidence that you share my anxiety and determination to uphold the rights of every Indian to be aware and informed of any factor that impacts our day to day life. You have proven yourself in many ways to be a leader who is unafraid to stand up for the rights of the common man and I am confident that you will heed the call of your fellow countrymen.
Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister O Pannerselvam will chair the first meeting of his cabinet on Saturday following the death of AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa a few days ago.

The meeting is expected to adopt a resolution condoling the death of four-time ex-CM Jayalalithaa on December 5.

"Tamil Nadu Cabinet meeting tomorrow (Saturday) at 11.30 am," PTI quoted AIADMK as saying.

The 68-year-old Tamil leader and former CM died after suffering a cardiac arrest at the Apollo Hospitals where she was undergoing treatment for ailments since Sept 22.
Hyderabad: At least three people died after a multi-storied, underconstruction building collapsed here Thursday night.

The incident occurred in Nanakramguda, an information technology suburb under the limits of Cyberabad police commissionerate limits.

Baba Fasiuddin, Deputy Mayor Hyderabad said, rescue operations are underway and 10-12 people are still feared to be trapped under the rubble.

Police said a seven-storied building collapsed. Construction workers and their families who were asleep were trapped under the rubble.

Police and fire brigade personnel launched rescue operation. National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams also joined the rescue work.

Telangana Home Minister N Narasimha Reddy, Excise Minister Padma Rao and senior officials had visited the scene to supervise the rescue work.
Bogota: Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos travelled to Norway to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, together with representatives of the thousands of victims of the country`s half-century conflict, the media reported on Friday.

Santos on Thursday invited "some 40 people, many of them close friends and relatives, but also (peace) negotiators and about 10 representatives of the victims of the conflict", Xinhua news agency reported.

"I will accept the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of all Colombians, but especially the victims of the conflict," Santos said.

Among those accompanying the President were Pastora Mira Garcia, a community activist who lost much of her family and still helped both the victims and those fighting the civil war, Leiner Palacios, a survivor of massacre, Fabiola Perdomo, a widow of a deputy who was kidnapped and killed by the rebels, and Ingrid Betancourt, a former presidential candidate and high-profile kidnapped victim.

According to the presidency, besides her personal pains, "Mira`s struggle for others, her social activism, her infinite capacity for forgiveness and reconciliation (to the point of providing shelter and first aid to the attacker of one of her relatives)... make her stand out among those invited to the Nobel" ceremony.

Santos was awarded the Nobel prize for his role in the peace process to end the decades long civil war in Colombia.

He and the leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, Rodrigo Londono, signed a revised peace agreement in November, in efforts to end the country`s half-century conflict, which has left 220,000 people dead, and millions of people homeless.


Geneva: The UN voiced concern Friday that hundreds of men may have gone missing after fleeing into government-controlled parts of Aleppo and said armed groups were reportedly blocking civilians from leaving the shrinking areas under their control.

"While it`s very difficult to establish the facts in such a fluid and dangerous situation, we have received very worrying allegations that hundreds of men have gone missing after crossing into government-controlled areas," UN rights office spokesman Rupert Colville told reporters in Geneva.

He said the men were between the ages of 30 and 50, and their family members said they had lost contact with them after they fled opposition-controlled areas of Aleppo around a week or ten days ago.

"Given the terrible record of arbitrary detention, torture and enforced disappearances by the Syrian government, we are of course deeply concerned about the fate of these individuals," Colville said.

His comments came as Syrian government artillery bombarded the fast-shrinking rebel enclave in the heart of Aleppo on Friday despite its ally Russia`s announcement of a new humanitarian pause, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The army has recaptured 85 percent of the eastern sector of the city which the rebels had held since summer 2012.

The assault has prompted a mass exodus from east Aleppo where at least 80,000 people have fled their homes, according to the monitor.

Colville warned that "there have been allegations of reprisals against civilians who are perceived to have supported armed opposition groups" as they fled into government-held areas.

It is unclear how many civilians remain in rebel territory, but there were an estimated 250,000 in east Aleppo prior to the latest offensive.

Colville said Friday that more than 100,000 people were believed to remain inside the areas controlled by the opposition in east Aleppo, but warned the situation was very fluid and the numbers were unclear.

He said armed Syrian opposition groups were reportedly blocking civilians from leaving their shrinking enclave, and had allegedly abducted and killed people who protested their presence.

"Some of the civilians who are attempting to flee are reportedly being blocked by armed opposition groups," he said.

"During the last two weeks, Fatah al-Sham Front (formerly al-Nusra Front) and the Abu Amara Battalion are alleged to have abducted and killed an unknown number of civilians who requested the armed groups to leave their neighbourhoods, to spare the lives of civilians," he added.

In addition, the groups had reportedly "demanded that activists inform them of civilians attempting to leave, along with the names of those who participated in protests against the presence of Fatah al-Sham Front and groups affiliated with them" in several neighbourhoods a few weeks ago, Colville said.
Beirut: Amid fierce clashes that raged for the second day, the Islamic State (ISIS) seized more territory from Syrian government forces near the ancient city of Palmyra on Friday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said today.

The jihadists launched an attack late on Thursday in which they took control of grain silos northeast of Palmyra and have since taken at least partial control of oil and gas fields to its northwest.

Dozens of Syrian troops have been killed in the fighting, the British-based Observatory, which tracks the war using sources on the ground, said.

Syrian warplanes were carrying out air raids in the area in an effort to take back positions lost.

The fighting was some of the fiercest in the area since the Syrian army recaptured Palmyra after nearly two years in March, driving out the ultra-hardline militants who had destroyed large parts of the city`s UNESCO World Heritage ruins.

Islamic State has been on the back foot in both Syria and Iraq since late last year, losing much of its territory in both countries as well as some of its most senior figures, killed in air strikes.

The group took advantage of chaos during Syria`s civil war to seize territory there and in Iraq in the summer of 2014.

Syria`s civil war pits President Bashar al-Assad, backed by Iran, Russia and Shi`ite militias against mostly Sunni rebels.
* PermaKat Eleonora Rosati received the 2022 Adepi Award

* PermaKat Eleonora Rosati listed as one of the World Intellectual Property Review's "Influential Women in IP" of 2020.

* PermaKat Eleonora Rosati listed as one of the Managing Intellectual Property magazine's "Fifty Most Influential People" of 2018.

* IPKat founder and Blogmeister Emeritus Jeremy Phillips listed as one of the Managing Intellectual Property magazine's "Fifty Most Influential People" of 2005, 2011, 2013, and 2014.

* Recommended by the European Patent Office as reading material for candidates for the European Qualifying Examinations, 2013.

* Listed as "Top Legal Blog" in The Times Online, March 2011.

2010 ABA Journal 100. * One of the only two non-US blogs listed in the Blawg100.

* Court Reporter Top Copyright Blog award winner, November 2010.

* Number 1 in the 2010 Top Copyright Blog list compiled by the Copyright Litigation Blog, July 2010.

* Selected by the United States Library of Congress for inclusion in its historic collections of Internet materials related to Legal Blawgs as of 2010.

* Top Patent Blog poll 2009: 3rd out of 50 in the "Favourite Patent Blog" poll and 2nd out of 50 in the "Most-read" poll.

Blog of the Year, 20 August 2008. * ComputerWeekly IT Law and Governance, 20 August 2008.
Cairo: The Islamic State group has threatened Egyptian followers of the mystical Sufi strand of Islam after claiming it beheaded two of their clerics in its Sinai Peninsula stronghold.

The group`s affiliate in Egypt released pictures last month of a scimitar-wielding executioner beheading two elderly men it accused of "divination," a practice traditional Islam forbids.

Relatives identified one of the two men as Suleiman Abu Heraz, a Sufi sheikh in his late 90s. The second man was identified as one of his disciples.

Their bodies have not been found.

In the latest edition of the IS weekly newsletter Al-Nabaa issued on Thursday, a militant identified as the head of the jihadists` "morality police" in the Sinai warned Sufis to renounce their beliefs.

He said Abu Heraz and fellow cleric Qatifan Breik Eid Mansour were executed for "professing knowledge of the occult".

"We tell all Sufi lodges, sheikhs and followers inside Sinai and outside that we will not allow the presence of Sufi orders in the Sinai or Egypt," he was quoted as saying.

Reports of Abu Heraz`s murder drew condemnation from Muslim clerics in Egypt and abroad.

Egypt`s top Sunni authority, Al-Azhar, denounced his killing as "an ugly crime."

The Islamic State group follows the puritanical Salafist school of thought -- the dominant one in Saudi Arabia -- which views some Sufi practices as heretical.

Salafists accuse the Sufis of polytheism -- the greatest sin in Islam -- for seeking the intercession of saints and visiting their graves.

Jihadists have blown up Sufi mausoleums across the Islamic world from Afghanistan to Mali.

Many Muslims in Egypt and elsewhere regard the Sufis as part of the mainstream.

The head of Al-Azhar, Ahmed al-Tayeb, practises Sufism, as have many leading Sunni Muslim clerics over the centuries.
Seoul: To impeach South Korean President Park Geun-hye, South Korean lawmakers has began voting on Friday over an influence-peddling scandal, setting the stage for her to become the country`s first elected leader to be pushed out of office in disgrace.

Parliament was expected to vote in favour of impeachment, with support from some members of Park`s conservative Saenuri Party, according to opposition parties, but the Constitutional Court must decide whether to uphold the motion, a process that could take up to 180 days.

There have been mass rallies every Saturday for the past six weeks calling for Park to quit, and opinion polls show overwhelming public support for her impeachment.

The secret balloting and counting was expected to take roughly one hour.

"If Parliament is unable to bring the situation to a resolution according to the will of the people, there will be a crisis that is beyond our imagination," the leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, Choo Mi-ae told a party meeting ahead of the vote.

Parliament was closed to the public on Friday on orders of the speaker, and hours ahead of the scheduled vote, anti-Park activists scuffled with police as they tried to drive two tractors up to the main gate, where more than a 1,000 protesters were gathered.

Police subsequently shut down traffic on a 10-lane highway in front of the parliament`s grounds and blockaded a bridge leading to the area.

Park, 64, is accused of colluding with a friend and a former aide, both of whom have been indicted by prosecutors, to pressure big businesses to donate to two foundations set up to back her policy initiatives.

She has denied wrongdoing but apologised for carelessness in her ties with her friend, Choi Soon-sil.

Park, who is serving a single five-year term that was set to end in February 2018, said this week she would await the court`s ruling, signalling that political crisis could drag on.

The daughter of a military ruler who led the country for 18 years before being assassinated by his disgruntled spy chief in 1979, Park is under intense pressure to step down immediately.

If Park leaves office she would lose presidential immunity and could be prosecuted for abuse of power and bribery, among other charges.

A poll released on Friday showed her approval rating stood at 5 percent, a slight improvement from a record low 4 percent.

The survey by Gallup Korea - which is not affiliated with U.S.-based Gallup, Inc. - also showed 81 percent of respondents supported impeachment.

Parliament introduced the impeachment bill on Thursday and it must be voted on within 24 to 72 hours at the domed National Assembly building that sits on an island on the south side of the Han River.

If the motion passes, the Constitutional Court will determine whether parliament followed due process and whether there are sufficient grounds for impeachment, a process that will involve arguments from the two sides in public hearings.

The leaders of the two main opposition parties said their 159 members would all resign if the impeachment motion failed, taking responsibility for their inability to follow through on the demands of the public.

Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, who holds what is largely a ceremonial role, would assume interim presidential powers while the court deliberates.

Hwang would take the helm at a time of heightened tension with North Korea.

South Korea`s economic outlook is worsening too, in part due to the internal political uncertainty, as well as worries about the potential impact of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump`s policies on trade and foreign affairs.

The 9-member Constitutional Court is considered conservative in its makeup but some of its former judges have said the case against Park is strong and was likely to be approved.

In 2004, parliament impeached then-president Roh Moo-hyun, suspending his powers for 63 days while the court reviewed the decision, which it overturned.

The most-searched items on leading web portal Naver on Friday were related to what happened around Roh`s impeachment.

The prime minister at the time, Goh Kun, said in a 2013 memoir that he had decided to stay "low key" while he held the reins of power.

"Even if his duty was suspended, President Roh was staying at the Blue House residence. There was no need to create unnecessary tension, Goh wrote.
Sydney: Two men who planned to bomb a Shia prayer hall in Sydney and had threatened to stab people in the kidneys were sentenced today to 20 years in prison.

Omar Al-Kutobi, 25, and Mohammad Kiad, 27, had previously pleaded guilty to preparing for a terrorist act over their failed plot.

New South Wales Supreme Court Justice Peter Garling said both men were equal participants in the plot, which was thwarted when police raided their home in February 2015.

Officers found a hunting knife, a machete and a homemade flag associated with the Islamic State group. Then-Prime Minister Tony Abbott said at the time that police also seized a video in which one of the men threatened to stab the kidneys and necks of their victims.

Police said the men had planned to launch the attack the same day as the raid.

They will be eligible for parole in 15 years
Aleppo/Beirut: Syrian government forces pressed an offensive in Aleppo on Thursday night and into Friday with ground fighting and air strikes, Reuters witnesses, rebels and a monitoring group said, part of a push to retake all of the city`s besieged rebel-held east.

"Helicopters, warplanes and rocket bombardment like every day. Nothing has changed," a Turkish-based official with the Jabha Shamiya rebel group told Reuters, describing the situation as of 9:30 a.m. on Friday.

The official added that despite the bombardment, "the guys are steadfast".

The Syrian government and allied forces have in the last two weeks driven rebels from most of their territory in what was once Syria`s most populous city. The rebels have controlled the eastern section since 2012, and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said in an interview published on Thursday that retaking Aleppo would change the course of the civil war across the whole country.

A military source told Reuters: "Until now 32 neighbourhoods have been liberated out of an original 40 in east Aleppo... The advance is going according to plan and is sometimes faster than expected."

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict, said government rocket attacks continued overnight into Friday morning on frontline areas of east Aleppo.

During a tour of Old Aleppo, Reuters journalists counted the sound of nine air raids in about half an hour.

A Reuters witness in rebel-held Aleppo said there were intense clashes in Sheikh Saeed on Friday. That is in the south of the eastern sector, where the Observatory and a Syrian military source said government forces advanced on Thursday.

Russia`s RIA news agency quoted Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov late on Thursday as saying the Syrian army had halted military activity to let civilians leave rebel-held territory. Russia`s air force and Shi`ite militias from Arab countries are also fighting in Aleppo on the government side.
Istanbul: To reinforce military campaign inside Syria, Turkey is sending hundreds of commandos where the Turkish army has suffered increasing casualties in its fight to capture a key town from Islamic State jihadists, reports said on Friday.

In the western Turkish province of Denizli where 300 commandos from a base were first taken in buses to a military airport and then to the border region in military planes to join the Turkish-led operation, Turkish newspapers and the Anadolu news agency reported.

In August, Ankara had launched an operation dubbed Euphrates Shield to back up Syrian rebels seeking to oust jihadists from the border zone.

The Syrian towns of Jarabulus, Al Rai and Dabiq were retaken from the Islamic State jihadists in lightning moves in the early weeks of the operation.

But the Syrian fighters and Turkish troops have found far greater resistance in the fight for Al Bab -- 25 kilometres (15 miles) from the Turkish border -- where the jihadists have reportedly regrouped after fleeing an earlier offensive.

So far, nineteen Turkish soldiers have lost their lives in the Syria campaign, with the government wary of any sign it could become a focus of public concern.

Since summer 2015, the army has already been waging an offensive against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in the southeast that has claimed the lives of hundreds of members of the security forces.

Most of the attacks in the Syria campaign have been blamed on the IS extemists.

But four Turkish soldiers were killed last month by an air strike the Turkish army blamed on the Syrian regime.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said last week neither Moscow nor its ally Damascus were behind the deadly strike.

The Turkish army also said it lost contact with two Turkish soldiers in Syria, and an IS-affiliated news agency claimed they were taken hostage by the jihadist group.

As well as seeking to root out IS, Turkey also wants to expel a Syrian Kurdish militia from its frontier and form a safe zone to shelter some of the 2.7 million Syrian refugees who sought safety in the country.



Hundreds of Turkish troops, tanks and artillery are involved in the offensive but Ankara has not given precise numbers over the size of the contingent.
United Nations: The UN has urged Myanmar`s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi to visit northern Rakhine state, where the army is accused of carrying out a brutal crackdown on the Muslim Rohingya minority.

The Nobel peace prize winner has faced growing international criticism for not stopping the military`s campaign, which has pushed more than 20,000 Rohingya over the border to Bangladesh, bringing tales of mass rape, murder and arson.

The crackdown was launched in response to deadly raids on police posts in October.

Malaysia has accused the army of "genocide" -- charges Myanmar officials have vehemently denied.

Suu Kyi has described the situation as "under control" and asked the international community to stop stoking the "fires of resentment".

In a statement released in New York on Thursday, UN special adviser on Myanmar Vijay Nambiar appealed directly to the peace icon to intervene.

"The adoption of a generally defensive rather than proactive approach to providing security to the local population, have caused frustration locally and disappointment internationally," he said.

"I also appeal to Daw Suu to visit Maungdaw and Buthidaung and reassure the civilian population there that they will be protected," he added, referring to the locked down area in Rakhine.

The bloodshed presents the biggest challenge to Suu Kyi since her party won Myanmar`s first democratic elections in a generation last year.

It has galvanised Muslim nations around the region, with protesters decrying the latest crackdown as the culmination of years discrimination and abuse suffered by the stateless Rohingya.

On Sunday Malaysia`s Prime Minister Najib Razak taunted Suu Kyi, who the former junta kept under house arrest for almost 20 years, before a crowd of some 5,000 protesters in Kuala Lumpur.

"What`s the use of Aung San Suu Kyi having a Nobel prize?" he asked the protesters.

"The world cannot sit and watch genocide taking place."

Activists say Buddhist-majority Myanmar`s stateless Muslim Rohingya minority are among the most persecuted in the world.

More than 120,000 have been trapped in squalid displacement camps since the last major outbreak of violence erupted in Rakhine in 2012.
Washington: The US Senate has passed a whopping $618.7 annual defence bill with some compromises, a media report said on Friday.

National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) had the support of 92 senators while seven members opposed it.

President Barack Obama will now decide whether to veto it or approve it, Reuters reported.

The 2016 bill includes a $3.2 billion increase in military spending when there has been no similar increase in non-defense funding.

The bill also bars closures of military bases.
The AmeriKat never loves in haste, unless

you happen to be a tasty little mouse...

Lord Byron, Lothario of the Romantic movement and one of the greatest British poets. Not the figure that would naturally come to mind in a post about the Unified Patent Court, but bear with the AmeriKat. In 1819, in his most famous work, Don Juan, Lord Byron wrote:

"Now hatred is by the far the longest pleasure;

Men love in haste, but they detest at leisure".

".... a legally secure route by which the UK can remain in the UPC after Brexit. If this work also makes it possible for other states which are not part of the EU but which are part of the European Patent Organisation to join the UPC this would be welcomed.".

"[t]he UK government needs to provide assurances that any Unitary Patents will be recognised as UK national patents. The UK and other contracting states will also need to produce transitional arrangements to govern what will happen to ongoing litigation at the UPC and to ensure the continued functioning of the court.

Given that the clock is now ticking for the commencement of the UP and UPC, the IP Federation calls on both the UK and the other contracting states to commence work on the legal framework that will be needed for both of these options as soon as possible. It will be vital for the UK and other contracting states to provide opportunities for industry to provide input into the shape of this legal framework. The IP Federation looks forward to playing a constructive part in this process."

It is a wonderful quote, illustrating that the speed in which decisions are made can mask, temporarily, the ultimate sorry fate for having made such a decision. As a keen observer of people, the AmeriKat has seen this in action in various guises. From the banal - watching the regret soaking down someone's face as their hastily ordered dish is placed next to their dining companion's more riveting platter - to the more serious. Then there are those who Lord Byron need never worry about where a decision, much less a hasty one, is unlikely to ever be forthcoming (you know who you are...).However, where on the spectrum will the UK's announcement of their intention to ratify the Unified Patent Court Agreement fall? Does it fall into the "ratify in haste, repent at leisure" camp?As IPKat readers will be aware there has been significant discussion, albeit a lack of concrete action (as of yet), about the need to ensure that, if the UK does ratify, it can continue to participate post-Brexit. However, the UPCA is silent on the scenario where a signatory ceases to be a EU Member State and the ambiguity (or stone cold clarity, depending who you ask) of Opinion 1/09 does not help matters.Over the past several months on the European patent law conference circuit, prior to the UK's announcement, everyone was agreed that continued UK involvement was desired. However, two factions began to emerge. One faction was cooing that UK industry need not worry, everything would be fine - the UK need just ratify. The litigators among you who have ever received an 11PM cold call from a transactional colleague asking whether you can "just approve this IP-heavy transaction, we are signing tomorrow" will have experienced the nervousness of the second faction. "If I have to sign this off, I just know that in a few years I or some other litigator will be cleaning up a mess...." Cue Lord Byron's "love in haste, detest at leisure" adage.Against this backdrop, the question of what happens when the UK ceases being a EU Member State was subject to the commissioning of the Gordon-Pascoe opinion . That opinion suggested that for the UK to remain part of the UPC, additional agreements and amendments would be needed. A key issue concerns the power of courts of EU Member States to refer matters to the CJEU under Article 267 TFEU . The UPC, as a court common to EU MS, also has this power to refer questions to the CJEU (see Article 1 and 21 UPCA ). However, if a contracting party to the UPCA ceases to be a Member of the European Union, the court is not common to EU MS - it will include a non-EU MS interloper, the UK. Does this mean that the UPC will not be able to refer questions to the CJEU contrary to the UPCA and EU law (see Article 20 UPCA )? The UPCA does not deal with this at all. Indeed, the UPCA does not even contemplate that a signatory will be a non-EU Member State. The UPCA refers to a party to the agreement as a "Contracting Member State" defined as "a Member State of the European Union party to the Agreement" (see Article 2(b) and (c) UPCA). This is not surprising given that, in 2013 when the UPCA was signed, no one had envisaged that the UK would, in the very near future, cease being a Member of the European Union.So something further seems to be needed to ensure, with "sufficient degree of certainty" (to adopt the language of Article 62(4) UPCA), the UK's continued UPC participation post-Brexit. Without such measures, the impact on UK industry could be significant. For example, if the UK can no longer participate in the UPC, what happens to the coverage of Unitary Patents in the UK? What about pending UPC litigation or the enforcement of orders already granted by the UPC in the UK? Yet when the UK Government published its announcement at the end of November, no reference was made for the need for a transitional protocol to be prepared as part of its steps towards ratification.Last week, the IP Federation published their response to the UK's announcement to ratify. In the statement, the IP Federation expressed the need to ensure that the "UPC functions effectively in the long term". They have importantly called on the UK and the other contracting Member States to urgently start work to ensure there is:If, for whatever reason, the UK cannot remain part of the UPC on Brexit, then:The AmeriKat agrees Given that the purpose of the UPC is to "enhance legal certainty" in the enforcement of patents (see Recital 5 of the UPCA), it would seem perverse that the UK's ratification of the UPC would result in increased uncertainty for industry post-Brexit in patent law. So for those wishing for a quiet holiday period, get your sleeves rolled up and quills at the ready....
It is very amusing for our generation that grew up on the overdose of SRKs mushy romance to understand a dialogue as cliched as Mere paas maa hai. So, as a kid, I never understood what the hero meant by that, after all, we all have a mother, so what is there to make a statement about it. <br><br> But later in my life, like everyone else, I understood the significance of not only the dialogue, but also of my mother who is not only a privilege, rather also a boon. <br><br> As the eldest child of my family, I was very naughty and the credit goes to my mother. I dont have very vivid memories of childhood, but as my mother puts it, my school at first refused to admit me in nursery class because I had created havoc in the Principals chamber at the time of my admission. My Dad refused to give me chocolate before going for the interview and the Principals desk bore the brunt of my anger. <br><br> So, now I can very well imagine how difficult it would have been for my mother to bring me up. She was there all the time saving me from being punished by my Dad, and I cant recall a single incident when she was not there to intervene on my behalf. <br><br> Here, I have to mention a stupendous incident. Once, while playing cricket, I had a fight with a friend and I hit him. His father complained to mine, and here I was, in front of my Dads court waiting for chastisement and penalty. But just then came the rescue, my mother, whose argument I can never forget. She said, He is a kid, at least he was not the one who got beaten up! <br><br> We have our share of disagreements with her, but she is the one who always gives up just for our sake. <br><br> I was sent to a boarding very early in my life, and I held her responsible for that. I used to argue with her that she didnt love me well enough and that I was unwanted. Sometimes, I even refused to talk to her when she called up at my hostel. But in spite of all my rudeness, the love and affection always remained the same. She never complained that I showed disrespect. She never expected anything in return. She was there with all her warmth, always. This is mother. <br><br> If you look around, you will see my mother is not an exception. All mothers are like that. They are strange creatures. They would be awake all night just to make sure that the kid has a sound sleep. They would wake up early for your school. They are there to cover all your mistakes. <br><br> Nobody can deny that the first person you want near you when you fall ill is your mother. Because you know, no matter in which condition you are or whatever your errors, she would only love you. A mother can do what no medicine is capable of. <br><br> We hardly understand her importance when she is there, but when you live alone, you know how difficult life would have been without her. <br><br> I dont know if it is true that Heaven lies beneath mothers feet, but I am sure of one thing, Heaven is where your mother is! <br><br> Salute to motherhood! Salute to Mother!
Although Mattis retired from active duty in 2013, he will require a congressional waiver in order to serve. There has already been enmity to the waiver. New Yorks junior senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, says she will oppose the waiver.

The Trump team is shaping up to be an administration of die-hard Iran hawks, with the decision to put retired Gen. Michael Flynn at the NSC and Mattis in the Pentagon. This all aligns with Trumps campaign rhetoric.

In September 2015, Trump addressed a rally opposing the the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and declared that the deal allows Iran to rip us off, take our money, and make us look like fools. The United States is going to get nothing from the deal, he said, because we are led by very, very stupid people. His contempt for the Iran Deal extends to US non-proliferation policy in general. During his campaign he told CNN that he wouldnt object if Saudi Arabia, Japan, or South Korea obtained nuclear weapons, since proliferation is going to happen anyway.

Iran is viewed by the foreign-policy establishment as the worlds leading state sponsor of terror, because of AIPAC sponsored agitprop. With Mattis installed as Secretary of Defense, Trumps inclination to scrap the Iran deal, and pursue policy to isolate, contain, and punish Iran would be encouraged.

Mattis already declared that Iran is the single most enduring threat to stability and peace in the Middle East. He seeks links to connect the Salafi terror network ISIS to Iran. In April, he tried to make the link explicit, saying, I consider ISIS nothing more than an excuse for Iran to continue its mischief. Iran is not an enemy of ISIS; they have a lot to gain from the turmoil that ISIS creates. What, he asked, is the one country in the Middle East that has not been attacked by ISIS? One. And its Iran. That is just more than happenstance, Im sure.

His soon to be colleague, Michael Flynn, sought to tie the Benghazi attacks to Tehran, when he was director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Coming of the heels of the the unanimously vote for the Iran Sanctions Act (ISA), which extends the sanctions on Iran by 10 years, the Mattis nomination proves that theres a new climate for Iranian policy in Washington.

Irans reaction was swift, as head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Ali Akbar Salehi, called the extension a clear violation of the deal.

Surely the JCPOA is in jeopardy, especially since the plan had the support of only 42 Democratic senators. And Trump filled his national-security team with hard-line Iran hawks, determined to see Iran and what is said to be its sphere of influence, the so-called Shia crescent, as the primary threat to peace and stability in the Middle East, while turning a blind eye to the influence of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and saying nothing about the presence of Israeli settlements in Jerusalem and the West Bank.

If the nomination of Mattis is any indication of things to come, Trumps promise to pursue an America First foreign policy may prove to be, like much else about the president-elect, just talk.
An unstable political situation for the regime has been created by the large gap in power, the prospect of Khameneis death and the succession dispute. Additionally, the coming Presidential Election in the spring of 2017 has affected the economy of the country.

With the disclosure that bank managers, insurance companies, and the government seniors that have salaries reaching to hundreds of thousands dollars each, the issues characterize the regimes bureaucracy and is part of the power struggle between the two factions of the regime.

This struggle is also going on in the economic field. New oil contracts signed by the government have become a battleground between military and political forces. The military commanders believe that the Ministry of Petroleum has ignored the national security and the right of ownership of these contracts while the Minister of Petroleum, Bijan Zangeneh states that his opponents are worried about losing their own benefits, writes the NCRI, and adds, The Minister of Petroleum started his tenure by sacking a wide range of managers since he took the office. He immediately dismissed 60 directors and assigned his former colleagues into office.

IRGC opposed the governments approach, especially in the field of oil and related industries. Some MPs intended to reopen the controversial Crescent oil contract in which Bijan Zangeneh had a significant role in previous years.The dispute caused Bijan Zangene ito state that he would voluntarily resign from the Oil Ministry by the end of the current government.

In order to make a concession to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, the government has assigned one of the senior commanders, Rostam Ghasemi as the vice president. He is the former head of a giant contracting cartel of Khatam Brigade. Nevertheless, on February 1, 2016, the government decided to dismiss Rostam Ghasemi since he actively prevented the implementation of oil contracts. Two days earlier, a number of IRGC and Basij forces rallied in front of the Ministry of Petroleum and protested against the new agreements on oil projects which have been signed between Iran and the West.38 protesters were arrested and then released, writes the NCRI.

That the oil contracts are the centre of dispute between the sides, is clear. Rouhanis government finally surrendered and approved the Persian Oil Company and Khatam Brigade as the Iranian companies which partake with foreign companies in new oil contracts, after several months. Rouhani gave another concession to the IRGC for handing over 50 development projects to Khatam Brigade in June 2016.
Seeking the truth, even if it hurts, in the depressingly dank Cave of Adullam
US retail giant JC Penney is among the stores facing lawsuits from Los Angeles over "false-reference pricing," or advertising an item on sale, down from an original price, even if the item was never actually on sale for that price

Los Angeles prosecutors on Thursday announced they had filed lawsuits against retail giants JC Penney, Sears, Kohl's and Macy's for misleading shoppers into believing thousands of products were on sale at deep discounts.

The suits allege the retailers illegally engaged in the business practice known as "false-reference pricing" to make customers believe they are "getting a good deal."

For example an item can be advertised as being on sale for 50 percent of the original price, even though the retailer never sold it at that original price.

"Customers have the right to be told the truth about the prices they're paying -- and to know if a bargain is really a bargain," said Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer in a statement.

"My office will fight to hold retailers responsible for their practices and to ensure consumers can make informed choices when spending their hard-earned money."

Sears and JC Penney representatives declined comment on the litigation. Kohl's and Macy's did not reply to a request for comment.

The lawsuits said that the alleged false advertising schemes used by the four companies were part of their overall marketing and business strategies to boost earnings.

Under California law, retailers are banned from advertising a higher original price for an item unless the product was actually sold at that price within three months of the advertisement.

Stores can also tout a higher original price if an ad "clearly, exactly and conspicuously" mentions the date of said price.

The lawsuits list many of the items offered at phantom discounts including purses, maternity clothes, jewelry and household items.

In April, for example, Sears started selling a Kenmore washing machine with a "regular" price of $1,179.99 and a "sale" price of $999.99, even though the appliance was never on sale at the higher price.

In May, Macy's for its part offered a sterling-silver necklace for $30, down from the "original" price of $120. However the necklace was never on sale for $120.

Story continues

The lawsuits seek injunctions to prohibit such advertising and civil penalties of up $2,500 for each violation.

JC Penney and Kohl's were previously hit with similar lawsuits in California that accused them of fake markdowns on retail items to trick customers into believing they were getting big discounts.

JC Penney in 2015 settled a class-action suit by agreeing to pay $50 million. The funds were distributed to affected California customers in the form of cash or store credit.

Kohl's earlier this year agreed to a $6.15 million settlement in a similar case.
We are excited to shine the Global Ocean Refuge System Partner Spotlight on Joakim Odelberg ! Joakim is one of the most contracted and respected photographers/filmers/underwater filmmakers in Sweden. His devotion to nature, both on land and in the sea, has reached beyond Swedish borders. He is frequently booked for lectures in Sweden and around the world. Marine Conservation Institute is absolutely thrilled to receive his support as a GLORES Partner!



Joakims passion for nature started when he had his first dive experience as a 10-year-old with a manta ray in Thailand, It was one of the best underwater experiences I ever had. It was 45 lovely minutes with gentle giants, said Joakim. That dive completely changed Joakims life and relationship with the ocean; he has been diving ever since. Joakim now works full-time as a conservation filmmaker/photographer. Two years ago, he was headhunted by Swedish TV to host the most popular nature show in Scandinavia, Mitt i naturen, which means Surrounded by Nature. Joakims passion for nature started when he had his first dive experience as a 10-year-old with a manta ray in Thailand, It was one of the best underwater experiences I ever had. It was 45 lovely minutes with gentle giants, said Joakim. That dive completely changed Joakims life and relationship with the ocean; he has been diving ever since. Joakim now works full-time as a conservation filmmaker/photographer. Two years ago, he was headhunted by Swedish TV to host the most popular nature show in Scandinavia, Mitt i naturen, which means Surrounded by Nature.

Joakim has also worked with numerous foundations and companies including WWF Sweden, Baltic Sea 2020, TV4, SVT, Fundament Film, Folke Ryden Production, Keep Sweden Tidy Foundation, Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management and Nordic Council, among others. Joakim received the EUIFA Environmental Award in 2011, the Swedish TV AWARD Kristallen in 2012 and the Anemone Foundation Environmental Impact Award in 2012.


Apple  which is one of the multinational poster children for tax dodging, along with Google, Amazon, Ikea and others  has billions of dollars "offshore" and in theory they can't bring that money into the USA without paying tax on it; but thanks to some fancy accounting, much of that money is sunk into US Treasury Bills (floated by the government Apple is starving through tax evasion), and the US taxpayers pay Apple, about $600M so far.

This trick is legal.





Donald Trump has promised to allow companies like Apple to bring their profits back to the USA at very low tax rates  not available to law-abiding firms that lacked the accounting sophistication or the unpatriotic sentiment to avail themselves of this loophole.

Apple typically directs Wall Street bond dealers and big money managers like BlackRock Inc. and Pimco to buy Treasuries at debt auctions and in the secondary market on behalf of its Irish subsidiaries, all from a nondescript, three-story building in Reno, Nevadaa state with no corporate taxes, the people said. That's where its internal investment firm, Braeburn Capital, is housed. Apple established the unit in 2005 to manage its cash and short-term investments.



As for Ireland, Apple isn't alone. Nine of the 10 U.S. companies with the most cash abroad have foreign subsidiaries there. Over the years, lax Irish regulations have encouraged multinationals to pursue aggressive accounting practices that enabled them to shift much of their profits to those subsidiaries and minimize U.S. tax liabilities, according to tax experts. In one of the more notable examples that's drawn particular scrutiny, companies will book a disproportionate amount of revenue as "offshore" by claiming the underlying technologies are owned by their Irish unitseven if the intellectual property originated in the U.S. Apple went even further. According to a 2013 report by the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, it exploited gaps in U.S. and Irish laws so that it didn't have a tax home anywhere. The company is already in hot water with the European Union. Regulators ordered Apple to pay $14.5 billion in back taxes in August after concluding it paid an effective tax rate of 0.005 percent in 2014 because of preferential Irish treatment. Last week, Apple called the EU decision "seriously flawed."

Americans Are Paying Apple Millions to Shelter Overseas Profits

[Andrea Wong/Bloomberg]
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani takes part in a news conference near the United Nations General Assembly in the Manhattan borough of New York, U.S., September 22, 2016. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo

By Parisa Hafezi

ANKARA (Reuters) - Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said on Thursday that members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) should work together to secure implementation of a deal reached last month aimed at stabilizing the oil market, Iran's state TV reported.

Oil rebounded from the week's lows and hovered above $50 a barrel on Thursday ahead of a meeting on Saturday in Vienna between OPEC and non-OPEC producers that may result in an agreement to cut crude output further.

Rouhani said Tehran backed measures aimed at stabilising the market that could led to an oil price increase.

"Close cooperation among OPEC and non-OPEC countries is key to stabilizing the oil prices and their increase, Rouhani said in a telephone conversation with Venezuelas President Nicolas Maduro, according to Iran's state TV.

"It will pave the way for implementation of deals reached during meetings in Algiers and Vienna this year."

OPEC agreed last month in Vienna to reduce output by around 1.2 million bpd from January 2017, a move that bolstered crude prices.

Iran was exempted from the cut, being allowed to boost production slightly from its October level - a victory for Tehran, which has long argued it needs to regain market share lost under Western sanctions.

The sanctions were lifted in January under a nuclear deal reached in 2015 with six major powers aimed at curbing the country's nuclear programme.

Oil producers in Vienna will see whether those outside OPEC will cut production to reduce a global supply glut that has pressured prices for more than two years.

Non-OPEC countries are expected to contribute a reduction of 600,000 bpd as part of the wider agreement. Non-OPEC Russia has signalled it was ready to cut production by 300,000 bpd.

Venezuela's oil minister said on Wednesday OPEC was aiming for a moderate but not too high oil price.

"Oil brokers should not be allowed by OPEC to determine the crude prices ... Iran and Venezuela's cooperation can help bringing crude prices to a real and fair level," Maduro said, according to state TV.

(Writing by Parisa Hafezi; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
The 29 year old activist, was beaten and interrogated during her agonising years behind bars. She was forced to listen from solitary confinement as female inmates were raped, as well as made to watch male guards beat and electrocute her brother Farzad, while they demanded that she tell them about opposition group the Peoples Mojaheidn Organisation of Iran (MEK).

This brother and sister were charged by Intelligence authorities for speaking out against Irans regime. Ms. Madadzadeh arrested in 2009 on her way to Tehrans Tarbiat Moalem University where she studied computer science.

Once release from solitary confinement, Ms. Madadzadeh sent letters to Ahmed Shaheed, the UN Special Rapporteur on Iran, from the secrecy of her cell, to draw attention to prison brutality.

She refused to speak during interrogations, which wet on for eight to ten hours every day, following which, she found herself subject to increasingly violent and lengthy interrogations. She said, They pushed me and they hit me a lot. They grabbed my hair and pushed my head and wanted me to say what they wanted to hear. They tortured my brother in front of my eyes.

Further she says, They increased the pressure and even more in the interrogation they said they would kill me and threatened to execute me. Nobody knew where I was, I was alone and I heard the sounds of other prisoners being tortured. They would cry out and it was the most horrible sound. She claims other female prisoners were being raped by guards and routinely sexually assaulted.

Ms. Madadzadeh was released at the end of her sentence, and fled the country, evading intelligence and surveillance teams.

She now urges Western governments to stand against Iran and its President Hassan Rouhani and to back the National Council of Resistance of Iran which works alongside the MEK. She said, The West cannot negotiate with the regime. Its the most criminal in the world. The face of the regime is not the smiling faces and shaking of hands.

She says, further, My message to European leaders is stop negotiating with the regime. The number of executions is increasing. Executions last year are estimated at somewhere between 966 to 1,025 people, the highest number in a decade, with 170 recorded executions in the first six months of 2016.

Speaking to the European Parliament, Ms. Madadzadeh, said, During my five year imprisonment I witnessed numerous crimes of this regime particularly against Irans innocent women and girls and today I am here to be the voice of the voiceless, the voice of those being crushed in the clutches of this misogynist regime in face of the worlds silence and inaction. She added, The message of the Iranian people to western governments, and my message today is that you must adhere to the three decades of struggle by the Iranian people to break free from the clutches of this regime and accept the true freedom fighters, the National Council of Resistance of Iran as the true representative of the Iranian people, and refrain from any type of negotiations or deals with this notorious regime, because the true price of your deals is human lives, gallows in the streets of Iran. This is a reality which I learned and felt in the university, in the prison and after my release in Iranian society. They have the desire and potential to bring about change in Iran. The Iranian people have the will power to overthrow this regime, and with the tireless efforts of the Iranian resistance they will overthrow this regime.
(Picture YouTube)

A huge fireball burned across the sky in Siberia  turning night into day for thousands of locals as whats thought to be a meteor burnt up in Earths atmosphere.

The meteor passed over the southern Siberian republic of Khakassia on Tuesday evening earlier this week.

The meteor is not thought to have hit the surface  and some eyewitness reports suggest it exploded during its descent.

I went for a walk with my friends. We stopped by the shop and my friend screamed when she saw a bright flash, and then there was an explosion, said a local woman in an interview with The Siberian Times.

Residents in the Russian city of Sayanogorsk witnessed a dazzling sight when a meteor streaked through the night sky https://t.co/ZxPP6kdyyV pic.twitter.com/98zHSqTnjT  ABC News (@ABC) December 7, 2016

All the car alarms immediately went off. We were so scared. My father said windows were vibrating.

At 6:50pm in southern districts of Khakassia republic, a shining object was visible in the sky, the Emergencies Ministry said in a statement to media.

Local experts said that the meteorite was significantly smaller than the one which exploded over Chelyabinsk in 2013.

During the 2013 Chelyabinsk event, an asteroid, with a mass of about 12 000 tonnes and a size of 60 feet, hit the upper atmosphere at a about 12 miles per second, exploding with the energy of 480 kilotons of TNT at an altitude of 16 to 18 miles.

More than 1500 people were injured and 7300 buildings damaged by the intense overpressure generated by the shockwave at Earths surface.
FRIDAY, Dec. 9, 2016 (HealthDay News) -- The tragedy of hundreds of babies born with devastating birth defects linked to the Zika virus is no longer confined to Brazil, a new report confirms.

Colombia is now also experiencing a surge in these cases of infant microcephaly. It's a birth defect where newborns whose mothers contracted the mosquito-borne virus in pregnancy are born with too-small skulls and underdeveloped brains.

A team led by Margaret Honein, of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reported that between Jan. 31, 2016 and mid-November 2016, there were 476 cases of microcephaly in Colombia, a fourfold increase from the same period in 2015.

There were nine times as many cases of microcephaly in July 2016 than in July 2015, the researchers said.

And because Colombia's surveillance of birth defects relies on voluntary reporting, the new data "likely underestimates the actual prevalence of birth defects, including those defects associated with Zika virus infection during pregnancy," Honein's team said.

The findings show that an increase in microcephaly cases is not restricted to Brazil, and that other countries with Zika outbreaks are likely to have large increases in microcephaly and other Zika-related birth defects, the CDC said.

The study also found that the peak in cases of microcephaly in Colombia occurred about six months after the highest number of new Zika infections were reported. This suggests that the greatest risk for Zika-related microcephaly likely arises in the first half of pregnancy -- especially the first trimester and early in the second trimester.

Between Aug. 9, 2015 and Nov. 12, 2016, there were about 105,000 cases of Zika virus in Colombia, including nearly 20,000 cases involving pregnant women.

According to the latest figures from the CDC, there have so far been 32 cases of Zika-related birth defects to live-born infants in the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.

However, there's also some good news on Zika in the United States: On Friday the CDC declared that the state of Florida is now free of the Zika virus.

One area in south Miami Beach had remained an active zone for local transmission of the virus. But the CDC said in a statement Friday that there have been no new cases of local Zika transmission in south Miami Beach for more than 45 days, so that neighborhood is no longer considered an active zone.

But, Texas officials, who recently reported a suspected case of local infection, said Friday that they have identified four more cases of suspected locally transmitted Zika virus in Cameron County, near the border with Mexico.

The Colombian study was published Dec. 9 in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on the Zika virus.
Golrokh and her husband Arash were arrested in September of 2014 by unknown men from the Revolutionary Guard. The front door of their residence was broken down, with no warrant, and their personal belongings were confiscated. The story, in which an imagined character protests the stoning of a woman by burning the Koran, was found on their laptop.

Golrokh was immediately sentenced to 6 years in prison for a fictional story that the judge believed would have been an insult to the Supreme Leader if it were to be published. To be clear, she was sent to prison in Iran for 6 years, for imagining a story which was never published, on her personal laptop, which was confiscated illegally.

Her husband, Arash Sadeghi, is in critical condition after staging a hunger strike in protest of his wifes sentence, which has now passed 40 days. Arash himself has been sentenced to 15 years in prison on charges of spreading propaganda against the regime. As absurd as it may sound, his Facebook private messages were presented by the prosecutor as evidence! Not surprisingly, he was denied access to a lawyer.

Unfortunately this is the reality the face of a moderate Islamic regime that Iran tries to present to the world. However, it is a country what jails its citizens for crimes of the imagination, that has no tolerance for criticism or challenges, especially during these times of a crippled society and economy, even at a fictional idea level.

Sobhani writes, In a power struggle among the different regime factions, news of million dollar embezzlements (or at times even billions!), massive financial and sexual corruptions, and even serious environmental destruction are the norm. Yet no one  not a single authority  has been held responsible in the very same judicial courts that hands out severe sentences routinely. Corruption is not the enemy of the Islamic Republic. Its what makes it stronger. What threatens it is the existence and imagination of people like Golrokh, who as many other Iranians, dare to be human in the supposedly Islamic Republic. The regime masquerades as a legitimate state where the will of the republic is an Islamic regime. Nothing is further from the truth. For those of us who have experienced it, it is an extremely shrewd version of ISIS that has learned how to suppress efficiently, violently, and silently over the past three decades while convincing the world otherwise. It is the reason why we witness such harsh treatment of Iranians by the regime that goes unnoticed in the rest of the world. At least with ISIS everyone knows where they stand.

The nuclear deal emboldened the Islamic regime to act with impunity both within and outside the Iranian borders. We have witnessed more direct military involvement in countries like Syria, Iraq and Yemen, and witnessed the utter destruction brought to the people of these nations.

Human rights remains the single most important issue absent from all dialogue between Western countries and the Islamic Republic, often set aside for more expedient security, economic, or policy interests. People of Iran continue to suffer as diplomats in the West chase a mirage of peace in what is tantamount to a hostage situation for the Iranian people which has spanned well over 30 years. As is evident from world affairs today, this is a problem that if not addressed in Iran can engulf the whole neighborhood  and perhaps beyond, Arash Sobhani concludes.
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In May, Mohammadi was sentenced to 16 years in prison for her peaceful activism, of which she will serve a minimum of 10 years, unless the Iranian judiciary takes highly unusual action to commute her sentence. Although such action seems unlikely, there has been virtually unprecedented advocacy among Iranian politicians for a review of her case. A number of members of the Iranian parliament, for instance, sent a letter to the head of the judiciary, urging Islamic mercy. But there has been pushback against these efforts, both from conservative MPs and from the judiciary itself.

Furthermore, hardline news outlets have sought to expose Mohammadis defenders, as in the case of Alireza Rahmani. His Telegram post asking friends to sign a petition on her behalf was published online, presumably contributing to his subsequent arrest. Rahmani, the director of public relations for the Qazvin governors office, was quickly released on bail, but still faces possible national security charges for supporting a provocateur.

The sentencing of Mohammadi and the backlash against her defenders can both be regarded as examples of an ongoing crackdown on dissent and activism. Political imprisonment has long been recognized as a common phenomenon in the Islamic Republic, but human rights defenders tend to see a greater degree and intensity of enforcement in current circumstances, compared to recent years and particularly the period prior to negotiations over the Iranian nuclear program.

This apparent intensification was highlighted in another report which described a series of arrests that took place at an event commemorating the victims of a series of assassination carried out by the Iranian government against dissidents in the 1990s. These attacks are known as the chain murders, and dissident or reformist groups have taken to commemorating the victims every year.

Iranian security agencies seek to disrupt these gatherings every year, but the latest gathering, which took place on December 2, was met with considerably more force than is usual. Several members of the Writers Association of Iran were arrested by plainclothes officers who failed to identify which security agency they represented. The writers association quickly released a statement saying that the memorial event had been prevented by overwhelming force and violence a continuation of the same policies that led to the chain murders.

A board member of the organization said that various members were called by security agents in advance of the gathering and told not to attend. When the event was set to begin, anyone who seemed connected to the commemoration was stopped, and eventually the participants were beaten and taken into custody in a way we had not seen before.

This is not the first incident this year in which the Iranian regime has sought to obstruct public recognition of the chain murders. And those killings are certainly not the only topic about which the regime has sought to enforce public silence. On Tuesday, the National Council of Resistance of Iran reported that the mother of political prisoner Asou Rostami had faced threats from security officials after she spoke to the media about the violent nature of his arrest.

Rostamis family has had no contact with him or new information about him since his transfer to Gohardasht Prison on November 4, at which time prison officials threatened to place him in conditions that would make his previous cell seem like a hotel. After his mother spoke to the media, security officials called her to declare that the newfound publicity would only make Rostamis situation worse.

The initial case against this political prisoner was itself connected to the regimes efforts to keep restraints on the public discussion of Iranian human rights issues. He has been sentenced to two years in prison for using the internet to disseminate information about such things as communication among human rights defenders and statistics regarding the Islamic Republics world-leading rates of executions.

This latter topic was the focus of a report published by the Human Rights Activists News Agency. It examined available information about death sentences that were announced and that were carried out in the period between October of 2015 and October of 2016. HRANA finds that at least 504 executions were carried out during that kind, though it also notes that the reports is very likely incomplete, thanks in large part to the secrecy that surrounds the regimes own reporting of those executions.

But even among those executions that can already be confirmed, HRANA notes that 39 of them were carried out in public and that four involved persons who had been convicted for crimes committed when they were younger than 18 years old. Although the total number of executions was reportedly lower than in the previous 12 month period, the number of public decrees of execution was higher, with 84 sentences apparently having not been carried out by the time of the report.

Various human rights organizations and the United Nations agree that during the 2015 calendar year, approximately 1,000 Iranians were put to death, mostly for non-violent drug-related crimes. HRANA finds that for the period it examined, these sorts of crimes accounted for more than 50 percent of the executions. Another seven percent were related to political charges, and four percent could not be placed into this category or into the categories of murder, rape, or drug charges.

Naturally, Irans abuse of the death penalty and its penchant for taking political prisoners help to contribute to the overall sense of the country as an unsafe place, not only for Iranian citizens living under the thumb of the regime but also for visitors and potential visitors, including those who fled the country earlier in the history of the Islamic Republic. In fact, according to the Los Angeles Times, the current conditions have indeed led to diminished interest in traveling back to Iran to visit family or conduct business.

Although the article highlights different perspectives from different members of the Iranian expatriate community, it is clear that many of those expatriates believe that the situation for dual nationals has actually gotten worse after the election of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. While some maintain that the danger is limited only to those who are engaged in political activities, others recognize the considerable paranoia that has taken hold among the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and other hardliners, regarding dual nationals and anyone with connections to the hated West.

Whats more, anti-Western rhetoric has also been observed among the supposedly more moderate officials in the Rouhani administration. Indeed, the US Congress recent reauthorization of the Iran Sanctions Act has spurred Rouhani himself to repeatedly express a perspective that seems well in line with that of his hardline critics. Agence-France Presse reported on Tuesday that Rouhani had declared the ISA renewal to be proof that the US is still Irans enemy.

Even before adopting this rhetoric, Rouhani had done little to nothing in order to fulfill his promise that Iranian expatriates would be permitted to return to the Islamic Republic without fear of reprisal. Various recent arrests belie that claim, as well as underscoring the idea that the regime is still in the midst of an aggressive crackdown on dissent and supposed threats to Irans hardline Islamic identity.
Regarding expansion of diplomatic or economic relationship with Iran, she urged European nations not to expand their unless major improvements in Irans human rights situation took place. Do not deal with the IRGC companies, she said, referring to businesses tied to Irans military and intelligence services. Such businesses only fuel the regimes repressive machine in Iran and the war machine in Syria.

President of European Parliaments subcommittee on security and defense and former minister of foreign affairs of Poland (ECR), Anna Fotyga, shared her experiences to draw parallels between living under communist rule in Poland and the current situation in Iran. I have my own experience of combating a regime that was vicious, and I know how difficult it is. Many other Polish officials have also spoken at events urging human rights reforms in Iran.

Shabnam Madadzadeh spoke at the event. You must hear the calls for justice of the mothers of the victims of the 1988 massacre. It is time to stand on the right side of history. Madadzadeh, 29, was a political prisoner in Iran before her recent escape. And unfortunately, the war crimes being committed in Syria and the situation of men, women and children in Aleppo is an inevitable shame in modern history. It is time to put an end to our silence

MEP from France and a member of the Green party in parliament, Jose Bove, spoke to the Iranians present at the event, Your place now is in Europe, and in this parliament you are welcome. He added, The government of Iran has a heavy responsibility for what is happening in Syria. The Syrian government would not have sustained itself without the support of Iran. The role of Hezbollah is well-known; today, Iran is one of the greatest generators of trouble in the Middle East.

We have heard a great deal of support for a principled approach to the Iranian regime, like a recent report that said that any political or economic progress in Iran must be linked to improvements in human rights; this has not happened. And your governments have ignored this insistence. Otherwise, human rights will fall victim to trade and realpolitik, and this is not our aim, Tunne Kelam, a MEP from Estonia, said. Do we prefer to continue daydreaming, assuming that some deals could be concluded with dictators whose regime has not changed? Our excuse has been that, look, this is a reality, we have no alternatives; we have to deal with this regime. I can tell you that this is an illusion, and we are betraying not only Iranian people; we are betraying and deluding our own citizens, Kelam added, There is an alternative, and it is here; it is the only alternative I acknowledge. A clear alternative for a secular, non-religious Iran based on equality between women and men, based on friendship with all neighboring countries, and renouncing the nuclear weapons program. I think if we are really interested in peace and stability in the region, here at the European Union we have a moral commitment to support this alternative.

Kelam concluded, Making business must end when thousands and thousands of human beings die. We cannot not just go on condemning the actions; we have to become proactive and take steps to show the mollahs that we mean everything seriously, and we are serious. Therefore the first step must be the recognition of the democratic opposition to the rules of Iran, which is that National Council of Resistance of Iran led by Ms. Maryam Rajavi.

Guilio Terzi, of the advisory Board of United Against Nuclear Iran and Italian Foreign Affairs Minister, also spoke at the event. Ive always been proud to promote the wisdom of my country and government in foreign policy, but in this occasion I cannot do this. The Italian government has taken a lead in the wrong direction. Each minister of Italys governmenthas announced over the last few months new programs with their Iranian counterparts. Terzi continued, According to [the false narrative spread by Iran], Rouhani is no longer a threatand this has emboldened the Iranian regime.

Maryam Rajavis speech at the conference, was published by the National Council of Resistance of Iran.

It is also published here, as follows:

Dear Mrs. McIntyre, Mr. Alejo-Vidal Quadras,

Honorable Members of the European Parliament,

Dear friends,

My gratitude to the Friends of a Free Iran inter-parliamentary group for organizing this conference.

In three days, we will be marking the anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

For my country, Iran, the Human Rights Day is a reminder of the deep scar on my nations body and soul, with 120,000 executed dissidents and hundreds of thousands of tortured political prisoners.

With at least 5000 prisoners who are presently on the death row and human rights activists and followers of different faiths in prison.

Under the mullahs there is no respect for human rights.

For the world community and the European Union, unfortunately human rights in Iran is a victim of diplomacy and trade.

Under the rule of the Iranian regime every single article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has been violated.

The right to life, the right to freedom, the right to security, the right to protection from torture and arbitrary arrests, the right to freedom of religion and faith

The most horrific page in the record of this regime is the massacre of 30,000 political prisoners in only a few months in 1988. This genocide was carried out upon a written edict by Khomeini.

The main perpetrators of this massacre are now among the regimes leaders and senior officials.

In recent months, a growing movement has begun in Iran, demanding accountability and brining those responsible for the massacre to justice.

Last month, the Iranian Resistance made public the names of 110 individuals in charge of making decisions on the executions in Tehran and other provinces.

We also revealed information about 213 officials involved in the massacre in 35 cities, as well as the addresses of a number of secret mass graves in 12 provinces.

Dear friends,

The European Union is now engaged in further expanding its diplomatic and business engagements with the Iranian regime.

The right approach, however, is to first assess the outcome of their present policy so far.

Let us review the outcome of the EU policy of recent years, from this standpoint:

Firstly, the European Union has stood aside and only watched the ongoing repression in Iran since Hassan Rouhani took office, justifying this approach as giving support to the moderates in Iran.

But did such silence lead to the progress of moderation in Iran? NO!

The outcome has been more executions under Rouhani and more aggressive policy in the region.

Secondly, the policy of ignoring the destructive role of the Iranian regime in Syria let alone cooperating with it, has proved to be a total failure in the fight against Daesh.

Thirdly, the mullahs were forced to take a step back in the nuclear negotiations under the pressure of social discontent in Iran, and international sanctions and because of their extreme weakness.

The P5+1 countries, however, gave so many illegitimate concessions to the mullahs.

They allowed the mullahs to maintain the structure of their bomb making system.

In addition, in return for the JCPOA, Western governments accepted some unwritten agreements with the mullahs, such as:

Freedom of sending IRGC troops to Syria,

Overlooking the regimes ballistic missile tests despite UNSC resolution 2231,

Overlooking the Quds Forces destructive role in Iraq,

And remaining silent on the violations of human rights in Iran.

Now, in their talks with the EU, senior officials of the Iranian regime declare that retribution and the death penalty are red lines for Tehran and could not be set aside in any form.

Is it not shameful to remain silent on such aggressive attitude of a criminal regime?

Dear friends,

Governments excuse for their silence is to avoid meddling in Irans internal affairs.

If they oppose meddling in Iran, then they should not intervene in the interest of the Iranian regime, either.

Let me also add that such relations with this regime are counter to global peace and security and even the long term interests of the West.

This regime is surrounded by explosive social discontent in the country.

It lacks funds and is paralyzed.

The countrys banking system is bankrupt.

The economy is engulfed in fraud and money laundering and is not able to pull out of recession for a long time.

In addition, it is engulfed in expensive wars in the region with massive casualties.

Those who advocate such policy are not mindful of the extent to which the mullahs are vulnerable, and how much they need these deals with the West.

Therefore, no matter how much the mullahs are pressured to account for violations of human rights, they will not abandon Europe because of their urgent economic needs.

Dear friends,

The mullahs regime has enjoyed huge concessions by the US government, for many years.

The US policy on Iran and the region had been based on rapprochement with the mullahs.

The disastrous consequences of this policy have been countless:

It destroyed Iraq/ created a human catastrophe in Syria /and blocked the road to change in Iran.

It is not without reason, that the ruling mullahs are so afraid of the end of this era, which they called, a golden era.

We have repeated this over the years, and I repeat, that the United States worst mistake in the region was appeasing the mullahs.

Today, the Iranian people and Resistance and the nations and governments in the region expect this policy to be revised and the U.S. stand firm against grave violation of human rights in Iran and its efforts to obtain nuclear bomb and meddling in the countries of the region.

From now on, the more the US and the EU distance themselves from this policy, the region would get closer to peace and tranquility.

We specifically urge the EU and its member states to:

1. Refer the Iranian regimes 37-year record of crimes against humanity to the UN Security Council, and in the first step, condition expansion of their economic relations with Iran on end to executions.

2. Do not deal with the IRGC companies. Such businesses only fuel the regimes repressive machine in Iran and the war machine in Syria.

3. Recognize the Iranian peoples desire to achieve freedom and democracy.

4. The Iranian regime is equally responsible for crime against humanity in Syria. The world must not remain silent about Iranian regimes meddling in the region especially in Syria and should demand its immediate eviction.

I appreciate your continued support for the Iranian people in their struggle for freedom and democracy in Iran.

I would also like to sincerely thank you for your role in the successful relocation of PMOI members from Iraq to Europe.

We are confident that you will stand up to any form of appeasement of the religious dictatorship in Iran by ever stronger defense of freedom and human rights in our country.

You are on the right side of history.

It would not take long before the people of Iran and Europe would appreciate you for your principled policies.

I thank you all very much.
But in addition to exposing domestic human rights abuses in the Saudi Kingdom, the report also serves as another example of the mutually escalating tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Although Saudi prosecutions of members of the countrys Shiite minority are often questionable, Iran is subject to similar accusations about its treatment of its Sunni minority. And this situation has permitted both countries leaders to inflame sectarian passions within their own populations and within the corresponding minority in the other nation.

As well as contributing to instability across the region, this seems to encourage domestic crackdowns, since Saudi Arabias Shiite minorities are viewed as potential affiliates of Tehran and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, which has a notable role in various foreign conflicts. At the beginning of this year, Saudi Arabia executed a Shiite dissident cleric named Nimr al-Nimr. While the Saudis claimed that he had been instigating violence, the Iranians insisted that the incident was purely an attack on Shiism. Whatever the case, the Iranian response led directly to the Saudi embassy and consulate being burned, and then to the severance of diplomatic relations between the two regional rivals.

Various subsequent Iranian activities seem to have inflamed the Saudi paranoia about Iranian influence, spying, and imperialism. Prominent among these activities is the IRGCs ongoing participation in the Syrian and Yemeni Civil Wars. The latter conflict has effectively led to Iranian proxy forces taking positions close to the border with Saudi Arabia, from which they have fired Iranian-made missiles into Saudi territory.

But the fear of Irans actual domestic influence in Saudi Arabia may be uniquely bolstered in the wake of reports of likely Iranian hacking. These reports were detailed in an article by McClatchy, which noted that a number of computers in two Saudi government agencies had been effectively rendered useless in attacks that began on November 17. The attacks bear signatures that are similar to those of a series of 2012 attacks known to have originated in Iran, and security experts rejected the possibility of the more recent incidents being false flag operations.

Incidents like these can be expected to amplify the anxiety that Saudi Arabia and its regional allies are feeling in the wake of the nuclear agreement between Iran and six world powers including the United States. Critics of that deal, who see it as being inadequate to constrain Irans progress toward a nuclear weapon, have speculated that it could lead to a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. Others have simply anticipated a more traditional arms race as the nuclear deal opens up Iran to certain arms deals, including the recently completed purchase of the advanced S-300 missile defense system from Russia.

Still others have expressed concern that Iran has the potential to threaten its adversaries with other weapons of mass destruction that are not mentioned by the nuclear deal. On Tuesday, The Tower pointed to reports claiming that Iran has developed the capability to produce chemical and biological weapons. The article went on to recommend that the US and its allies apply sanctions to these fields of activity, even as sanctions remain suspended on Irans nuclear program.

Such reports may further stoke Saudi anxieties. But if the incoming American presidential administration takes the warnings seriously, it may have the opposite effect, convincing the Saudis that they can rely on American leadership to constrain the growth of Iranian power and influence. And indeed, the latter outcome appears likely, as President-elect Donald Trump has already expressed interest in expanding non-nuclear sanctions on Iran, even before the emergence of the reports regarding possible chemical weapons.

There are also various other ways in which the Trump administration may counteract the effects of the nuclear agreement or otherwise strengthen Iran policy, relative to the Obama administration. The Daily Beast reported on Tuesday that Trump was tentatively expected to make public three sets of documents related to the nuclear deal, thereby making it more transparent. Insofar as one of these sets of documents details exemptions to the deals restrictions and another describes assessments of Irans nuclear development, their publication may not only help the American public to clarify their opinions of the agreement, but may also help the Saudis and others to assess the specific risk that Iran poses in some areas.
Many Democrats and Republicans agree on upgrading sanctions on Iran. President-elect Donald Trump is expected to place his support behind this initiative, as well.

The Iran Sanctions Act (ISA) extended Congressional prohibitions for another decade, a move that had bipartisan support, a 99-0 vote in the Senate and 419-1 in the House, infuriated the leadership in Tehran.

There have also been discussions within the Trump camp regarding new, non-nuclear sanctions against Iran.

From Irans perspective, the ISA passage, following the election of Donald Trump and the Republicans taking full control over Congress, is a blow that signals an end to the permissiveness of President Obamas approach to Iran.

The favor shown to this new extension points out the major faults that existed in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and the entire negotiation process from 2012 to 2015.

The West was blinded to how Iran continues to push forward other disruptions. The horrendous human rights violations, the efforts to obtain long range ballistic missiles, and the devastation occurring in the entire Middle East, have been glossed over, ignored. Iran remains the leading state sponsor of terrorism, providing support for Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, Shiite militias in Iraq, the Houthis in Yemen, and the Lebanese Hezbollah. Eleven Middle East governments issued an unprecedented letter to the outgoing United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warning of Irans meddling in the Middle East.

Alavi writes, With Democrats joining their Republican colleagues in passing the ISA, one can sense the pressure they had to endure under Obama to pledge their support for his foreign policy of waiving Iran sanctions. He adds, In the meantime, Tehran took full advantage to elevate its proxy influence, network of terrorists and rendering a completely destabilized, flashpoint-style, crisis-riddled Middle East.

Iran considered the Obama foreign policy a green light to continue its conglomerate of devious activities jeopardizing peace and security across the region, especially as Obama repeatedly had the legitimate right to inflict sanctions, and refused to do so, according to Alavi, who continues, Team Obama provided Irans mullahs the leverage of threatening to walk away from first the nuclear talks, then the JCPOA, to make sure the Obama administration remained reticent from considering new sanctions. Obama had a major weak-point of specifying the JCPOA as his legacy, allowing Tehran to continuously utilize this to the fullest.

The Trump Doctrine has yet to unfold, but the list of candidates he has placed forward provide a hint. Certainly, the incoming administration will bring change to Iran, and most likely the entire Middle East.

Already, the Trump Team has a encouraged Congress to extend sanctions on Iran. General James Mattis is on the path to the Pentagon, and the Central Intelligence Agency is to be directed by Michael Pompeo, who is a fierce critic of the Iran nuclear deal.

Team Trump and the new Republican Congress have options and targets on how to handle Tehran. A realistic measure is to stand alongside the Iranian people and their democratic opposition, the National Council of Resistance of Iran.

The reality is that Tehran is the sole party who is in need of the JCPOA. Iran may threaten to restart its nuclear activities, but it has gained too much under the deal, that abandoning it would not be in their best interests. However, the nuclear deal falling apart is a possibility.

Push back on the Iranians in Iraq. Push back on them in Syria. Push back on them in the Gulf, said former CIA Director Michael Hayden told ABCs This Week last month.

Time will tell if the Trump administration will tear apart or further enforce the Iran nuclear deal. Both options spell disaster for the mullahs, Alavi says, and concludes, With the mullahs out of power in Tehran, the cure for the dilemmas they caused, diseasing the Middle East and beyond, will begin to spread instead.
The Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, purged the ranks of the Shahs old military, as well as many of the groups that had helped bring the Shah down, but later turned on him, when they began to oppose his rule. The Supreme Leader restored order with the formation of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, an elite military unit which he created and kept under his control. However, though loyal to the Supreme Leader, the Guards do not always follow orders in matters of internal strife, such as orders to crack down on dissenters in street protests, or demonstrating in public places such as universities.

A violent entity created in 1979, who Khomeini named the Basij Mostazafan, or mobilisation of the oppressed. The Basij militia became useful to the Iranian leadership, trained by the IRCG and indoctrinated with the Supreme Leaders Shia ideology, they are willing to sacrifice their lives for both leadership and state, and have no qualms about going against their fellow countrymen.

The Basij drive motorbikes into anti-regime protests and beat the participants with clubs and chains. If necessary, they open fire on peaceful demonstrations, something the Guards balked at, as its commanders preferred to stay a popular force amongst the people.

In August 1994, the Guards were ordered to open fire on protestors in Qazvin, who were demonstrating against living conditions, during Irans worsening economic crisis. The Guards refused to leave their barracks, not wanting to be involved in cutting down unarmed protestors with automatic weapons. The Basij was called in to confront the crowds.

Their devotion to Khamenei is fanatical and they show no mercy towards those the regime class as dissidents, and in the case of the Qazvin protest, Basij units killed an estimated 40 people, and injured at least 400.

The need for the Basij first became apparent to Khomeini at the end of the revolution, when he needed a militia that would be totally loyal to him to back up the IRGC, after he had purged the Iranian armed forces, feeling that many were still loyal to Shah Pahlavi, and that they might conspire to overthrow him.

This resulted in a severely weakened military, which turned out to be a catastrophic mistake in those times of constant upheaval, which in a short while would lead up to the Iran/Iraq War.
COLLECTIVE MADNESS



Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."
This blog generally follows traditional journalistic standards. It's not about opinions, though you may read one here occasionally. It's about facts that we think will be useful to rural journalists, non-rural journalists who do rural stories, and others interested in rural issues. We don't try to be provocative, so we don't generate as many comments as most blogs with the level of traffic we have, but we certainly invite comments -- and contributions, to

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REPUBLICATION
[December 08, 2016]

SRDx - The Smart Dust and Scratch Removal for Photoshop Users

SARASOTA, Fla., Dec. 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- When digitizing images with a scanner or with a digital camera, it is possible that dust and scratches from the analog original appear in the digital image. Such defects are usually quite difficult to remove.

SRDx - Smart Removal of Defects - is the ideal Photoshop plug-in, allowing for both manual control of image correction and automatic recognition of image defects. Specifically designed for the removal of small defects, SRDx is seamlessly integrated with already established workflows while complementing Photoshop's already existing correction stamp tool.

High performance, graphics processor based calculations ensure top performance.

With the SRDx plug-in, Photoshop users have a tool at their disposal suitable for the correction of all types of image defects. As a result, image retouching is executed with speed nearing that of hardware-based solutions.
Social Media

As we have been told a hundred times over, this is the age of social media. Norwich campaigner Sam Avery described it as essential to his campaign. A strong online following can translate into signatures, donations, merchandise sales and physical support at key events and protests. The Black Blocks Campaign describe it as their amplifier. Skateboarders worldwide look out for each other with Instagram and Facebook, you can push (it) from a local issue into an international issue.

Different platforms reach different audiences so try and use as many as manageable. Create posts that tackle the issue, and convey the sense of space, the people and the history. People want to understand and identify with the cause and the people it affects. Most of all, gather attention by being as creative with your posts as possible.

Contacting the Right People

There is a far broader spectrum of people to contact than you would imagine at first. Here is a taste: the press (national, local, skate magazines and specialists publications including both campaign and town planning orientated), politicians from the level of local councillors right up to senior politicians whose remit is communities and culture focused. Also, engage with the body that wishes to oust skateboarding and try and find someone there to negotiate with. Contact all organisations it is beholden to (including its funders, its board and its landowners), other campaigning organisations, especially those concerned with free public space, as many interested influential people as possible, as many people in the skateboarding industry and community as possible and, of course, the general public.

Support can be found in unlikely places

Getting to speak directly to the decision makers and the person or people who can make the call to stop or reverse the redevelopment or ban as quickly as possible is key. Dont get caught up in lengthy back and forth dialogue with anyone who cannot make or influence final decisions.

The Save Black Blocks campaign did an exceptionally good job at getting the message to the right people in a pressured time frame, as Andrew explained. We had contacts at Thrasher and the local news From there, we kicked off the fundraiser, which was a fantastic way to spread word of the spots demise while covering overhead costs. With the basic social media network set up, we were able to corral followers into letting their disappointment be known on the proper officials emails and public Facebook pages via short, respectful messages.

Support can be found in unlikely places. Amanda spoke of the importance in finding that sympathetic voice on the local council, who can alert you to the mechanics. LLSB actively sought out and received strong support from a wide variety of organisations; architectural, cultural, artistic, local businesses and community groups. Having allies and supporters as far and wide across society as possible will help build a wide network that could approach the issue from multiple angles.
If you bought a Galaxy Note 7 smartphone and havent returned it yet you really should. Not only is the phone prone to catching fire, subject to a massive recall, and barred from boarding airplanes with you, but soon you may not even be able to turn the thing on.

The Verge reports that Samsung and US wireless carriers may be planning to issue a software update next week that will stop the phone from charging.

Update: Its official. Samsung says itll remotely disable all Note 7 phones by sending out an update that stops the phones from charging. The company encourages US customers that still have a Note 7 to refund or exchange their phones.

Update 2: AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint all plan to issue the update soon, but Verizon does not.

According to The Verge, at least one US Cellular customer received a text message saying that Samsung will modify the software on the phone to keep it from charging on December 15th and that after that time the phone will no longer work.

Thats a pretty dramatic move, but it follows a widely publicized recall, instructions from Samsung to stop using the phone altogether, and an earlier update that stopped the phone from holding more than a 60 percent battery charge.

The company has taken a pretty major financial hit after sinking billions of dollars into the Note 7. And to be fair, a lot of people were pleased with the phones design and performance until reports of exploding phones started to come in.

Itll be interesting to see what Samsungs 2017 smartphone lineup looks like as the company looks to restore trust in the brand.
[December 08, 2016] OSNEXUS QuantaStor SDS Achieves VMware Ready Status

BELLEVUE, Wash., Dec. 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- OSNEXUS today announced that its QuantaStor Software Defined Storage (SDS) solution has achieved VMware Ready status. This designation indicates that after a detailed validation process QuantaStor SDS version 4.0 has achieved VMware's highest level of endorsement and is supported on VMware vSphere 6.5 for production environments. "We are pleased that OSNEXUS QuantaStor SDS qualifies for the VMware Ready logo, signifying to customers that it has met specific VMware interoperability standards and works effectively with VMware cloud infrastructure. This signifies to customers that QuantaStor SDS can be deployed in production environments with confidence and can speed time to value within customer environments," said Kristen Edwards, Director, Technology Alliance Partner Program, VMware. "By using QuantaStor SDS with vSphere 6.5, organizations can deploy highly-available block storage that delivers consistent performance with minimal downtime for mission-critical desktop and server virtualization deployments as well as databases and online transaction processing applications," said Steve Umbehocker, CEO of OSNEXUS. The VMware Ready program is a co-branding benefit of the Technology Alliance Partner (TAP) program that makes it easy for customers to identify partner products certified to work with VMware cloud infrastructure. Customers can use these producs and solutions to lower project risks and realize cost savings over custom built solutions. With thousands of members worldwide, the VMware TAP program includes best-of-breed technology partners with the shared commitment to bring the best expertise and business solution for each unique customer need.



OSNEXUS QuantaStor SDS can be found within the online VMware Solution Exchange (VSX) at https://solutionexchange.vmware.com/store/products/quantastor-sds-virtualization-solution-for-block-storage. The VMware Solution Exchange is an online marketplace where VMware partners and developers can publish rich marketing content and downloadable software for our customers. About OSNEXUS

OSNEXUS enables organizations to manage their storage ranging from small sites to hyper-scale deployments across global datacenters with its QuantaStor SDS industry-leading Software Defined Storage (SDS) platform. The QuantaStor platform provides scale-out file, block, and object storage technology as a single, easy-to-manage solution. QuantaStor SDS, deployed by Global 500 companies worldwide, addresses a broad set of storage use cases including server virtualization, big data, cloud computing, and high performance applications through scale-out physical and virtual storage appliances. About QuantaStor SDS QuantaStor is a unified Software Defined Storage (SDS) platform designed to scale up and out to make storage management easy while reducing overall enterprise storage costs. QuantaStor SDS, deployed in datacenters worldwide, addresses a broad set of storage use cases including server virtualization, big data, cloud computing, and high performance applications through scale-out physical and virtual storage appliances. With support for all major SAN/NAS protocols including iSCSI/FC and NFS/CIFS/SMB and a high availability scale up and out file system with fault-tolerant technologies, QuantaStor SDS delivers a complete array of enterprise features and capabilities for file, block and object storage that can be installed on any 64-bit Intel or AMD server or virtual machine. VMware, vSphere and VMware Ready are registered trademarks or trademarks of VMware, Inc. in the United States and other jurisdictions. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies. To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/osnexus-quantastor-sds-achieves-vmware-ready-status-300375572.html SOURCE OSNEXUS

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The area near the cemetery Shengavit, on the outskirts of Yerevan, is unlikely to attract the attention of passers-by. This location is near the ruins of the Urartu fortress town Teishebaini located on Karmir Bloor hill, which has been used since the 90s as a city dump.

In 2010-2011, the Union of Architects during the meeting devoted to the issues related to the construction of a highway passing through that area, concluded that this area was no longer of any interest to archaeologists. However, the director of the research center of cultural heritage under the Ministry of Culture Hakob Simonyan did not agree with that opinion and insisted on conducting an examination in that area, which at that time seemed to be a waste of time.

In 2013, after 40 sq. m. area had been cleaned up from the waste accumulated for years, archaeologists began their work. The results were not long in coming: soon they discovered necropolis Teishebaini. "It was a major discovery, since the expedition of Boris Piotrovsky found about a dozen tombs years ago, but the question of the location of the necropolis of the walled city remained open," said Hakob Simonyan in an interview with Armenian NEWS.am.

Large-scale excavations began in the summer of 2015. Archeologists had a difficult task: to finish excavations before the start of construction works planned for December. "We developed a special methodology for excavation works. Within a short period, we managed to dig out 300 tombs. Today we can surely say, that no single burial is left in that territory. We managed to excavate them all, said Simonyan.

One of the most important foundlings is the tomb of a high official, presumably, the governor of the tsar. The reason for this view is that there was found a rod with a knob in the form of a bull and a crescent tip. Such rods were common belongings of Hittite, Assyrian kings, and Egyptian pharaohs.

According to Simonyan, Urartu (Kingdom of Van) perhaps had administrative-territorial divisions, with their own governors in each administrative unit. And, Teishebaini was the residence of one of them.

In total, more than 1,000 skeletons have been discovered during the excavations. This is the largest anthropological collection of Armenia, Simonyan noted, thanks to which it will be possible to find answers to many questions, the scientists face.

Skulls have different shapes - round and elongated. This suggests that there lived different peoples in Van. However, the ones who dominated had round shaped skulls, which means that it was not settlers but aborigines who inhabited Teishebaini. It is noteworthy, that the knees of the skeletons discovered were bent. Women were buried lying on their left side, whereas men on their right side. In addition, there were many slaves in Teysheybani. They were often interred with their masters to serve them in the afterlife. The servants at that time were believed to be walking instruments. Thus, people did not see any problem of sacrificing them, " said Simonyan.

Archaeologists were much surprised to find graves of children, since it is known, that in ancient societies a child was considered a full-fledged member of the community only after becoming six years old. Excavations were carried out at such a high level, he added, that we even managed to dig out an embryo. The woman probably died before or during the child delivery and was buried with the embryo.

The bones of sacrificial animals, weapons, jewelry, all kinds of household utensils were found in tombs. The total number of discovered artefacts is several thousand. This collection will help get an idea of how the ancient inhabitants of Teishebaini dressed, what kind of funeral rites they had, what they ate, and even what diseases they had.

"The most common decorations were necklaces and bracelets. Their number depended on the social status of a woman. Sometimes a woman wore 5-6 bracelets, so that they rang in a dance and attracted more attention, " said Simonyan.

However, of the upmost importance, according to Simonyan, is that the discovered artifacts can bring clarity to which civilization and culture the inhabitants of Teishebaini, which was founded by king Rusa II, belonged to. For this, it is necessary to make DNA tests of ancient skeletons and compare these data with the DNA of modern Armenians. Some samples from the graves have already been sent to the laboratories in Copenhagen and Boston.

"Think of this, what if the tests reveal, that we have similar or the same genetics? In this case, all the rumors that Urartu is not related to Armenia will cease, " concluded Simonyan.

However, a complete investigation of all the anthropological materials from Teishebaini graves might cost several thousand dollars. Scientists rely on the support of the state or sponsors in this issue, as this study is of great importance not only for the history of Armenia but also for the entire world.
Azerbaijan has been intentionally and constantly burning bridges between the two peoples.

Foreign Minister of Armenia, Edward Nalbandian, on Thursday noted the aforesaid in his statement at the 23rd Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Ministerial Council meeting in Hamburg, Germany.

Large scale military offensive of Azerbaijan against Nagorno-Karabakh in April was the most dangerous escalation of the conflict since 1994 when trilateral cease-fire agreement was signed without time limitations between Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia.

The Azerbaijani aggression was accompanied by gross violations of the international humanitarian law in an apparent attempt to terrorize the people of Nagorno-Karabakh. When many OSCE participating States have been condemning in strongest terms the brutalities committed by DAESH, most of them could not even imagine that the same kind of despicable crimes could be committed in the OSCE area, by an OSCE participating State. The images of those atrocities, including the beheadings, were circulated in the Azerbaijani media in a self-congratulatory manner. The perpetrators were publically decorated by the authorities.

These inhumane brutalities reminded the horrors of the past. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the deportation of the population of 24 Armenian villages from Nagorno-Karabakh and its surroundings. The deportation and massacres of Armenians in Sumgait, Baku, Kirovabad preceded it and followed in Shahumian and Mardakert regions of Nagorno-Karabakh. The atrocities against civilians in April vividly demonstrated that nothing has been changed in Azerbaijani approaches. This once again reconfirms that the aspiration of people of Nagorno-Karabakh for self-determination was right then and it remains right now.

The four days military offensive in April was the culmination of longstanding policy pursued by Baku. Many factors clearly demonstrate that Azerbaijan has long before embarked on the path of hostilities and we have been constantly reminding about them, including at the Ministerial Council level.

First, instead of preparing the population to peace, as the Co-Chairs of the Minsk group have been calling for, Baku has for years fueled anti-Armenian propaganda. The books of the renowned Azerbaijani novelist were burnt on the streets of Baku just for speaking the truth about Armenian massacres and calling for reconciliation. Its not just the books, but the bridges between the people that Azerbaijan has been intentionally and constantly burning. Where they burn books, they will ultimately burn people. So many times the words of German classic proved to be true. The 2016 report of the European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance states: Political leaders, educational institutions and media have continued using hate speech against Armenians; an entire generation of Azerbaijanis has now grown up listening to this hateful rhetoric.

On the eve of the Hamburg Ministerial the leadership of Azerbaijan repeated its claim alleging that not just Nagorno-Karabakh but the territories of the Republic of Armenia, including its capital are native Azerbaijani lands and one day they will return there. What is this if not a territorial claim against the neighboring OSCE participating State in a sheer defiance to our joint commitments and values that lay in the foundation of this Organization?

Second, the skyrocketing accumulation of heavy weaponry in gross violation of international arms control agreements have been pointing to Azerbaijans inclination to the military solution. According to the international reports in 2015 Azerbaijan was the largest importer of major weapons in Europe.

Third, the rejection to establish confidence building measures proposed by the Co-Chairs, such as the mechanism for investigating the cease-fire violations and the expansion of the OSCE monitoring capacities shows that Azerbaijan has been striving to limit the international permanent presence in the conflict zone to keep its hands free for military operations. Here, in the OSCE, this should be known better than elsewhere, since proposals on these CSBMs have been consistently blocked by Azerbaijan once they required the OSCE consensus for allocating appropriate funds.

Fourth, in their militarist stance and bellicose rhetoric Azerbaijani leadership has never shied away to claim that war is a viable option. The more one goes deeply in extreme statements and uncompromising positions, the more one becomes hostage of own rhetoric. At the end of the day the words can act. The threat of use of force has been going hand-in-hand with increasingly dangerous escalation on the line of contact with Nagorno-Karabakh and border with Armenia through more frequent ceasefire violations, use of heavy weaponry and incursions.

Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh have always exerted efforts together with the Co-Chairs for the exclusively peaceful settlement to the conflict. Both Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh have always been against the use of force. This is the fundamental difference between the Armenian and Azerbaijani positions.

In response to the condemnation by the Co-Chair countries of the threat or use of force the leadership of Azerbaijan keeps claiming that the international law is void and it is only possible to solve the issues through force. This was once again repeated before Hamburg meeting. On the eve of the OSCE Ministerial the bellicose rhetoric of Azerbaijan was accompanied by large scale military exercises involving 60 thousand troops, almost entire personnel of the armed forces, more than 150 tanks, 700 rocket and artillery systems and more than 50 units of military aviation, in gross violation of the OSCE Vienna document.

Fifth, the maximalist and uncompromising stance at the negotiation table, rejection of the proposals of the Co-Chair countries even at their final stages, like at Kazan summit in 2011, almost constant profanation of the Co-Chairs efforts and the attempts to do mediation shopping in other formats have been illustrative of Azerbaijans intentions to derail the negotiations and buy time to continue its military buildup. It does not come as a surprise that the Co-Chairs in their public statements called on Baku to reverse this stance.

It is our conviction that April aggression was so far the culmination of Azerbaijans destructive policy but not the end. Baku has been carefully hiding its military casualties of April aggression in an attempt to justify huge price of its adventurism but certainly it cannot hide the fact that together with human losses the peace process became its casualty.

The Co-Chair countries organized two summits with the participation of the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan in May in Vienna and in June in St. Petersburg to address the consequences of April aggression and create conditions conducive for the advancement of the peace process.

It is imperative to implement what was particularly emphasized and agreed upon in the framework of these Summits on exclusively peaceful settlement of the conflict, full adherence to the 1994-1995 trilateral ceasefire agreements, which do not have time limitations, creation of mechanism for the investigation of ceasefire violations, expansion of the team of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office.

Armenia has agreed to proceed on this basis. These agreements have yet to be honored by Azerbaijan. From the very beginning Baku refused to implement the agreement on the investigative mechanism. As for the expansion of the capacities of the PR CiOs office, Baku tries not only to curtail the implementation of the proposal but even impede mission's current activities in the conflict zone in violation of its OSCE mandate and further complicate the work of the monitors by attempting to keep them as far from the conflict zone as possible and diminishing their ability of rapid reaction. Strengthening of capacities of the Office of PR CiO does not mean mere arithmetical increase of its staff, but rather deployment along the Line of Contact and increase of frequency and efficiency of its monitoring activities on the ground. When it comes to the security of the people residing in the conflict area there is no place for petty bargaining.

Azerbaijan failed to question the validity of the cease-fire agreements of 1994 and 1995, since the Co-Chair countries clearly and boldly reaffirmed that the terms of these agreements do not expire and they should be strictly adhered to. The use of force against the right of people of Nagorno-Karabakh to self-determination created this conflict. Continued threat to use force with its materialization in April seriously undermined the peace process and heavily contributed to the sustention of status quo. Thus, going beyond status quo first of all requires renouncing the threat or use of force.

When Azerbaijan stubbornly refuses to implement the agreements reached in Vienna, St. Petersburg or elsewhere before, it undermines not just those agreements; it damages the peace process as a whole, since it contributes to eliminating the slightest hopes that anything agreed with Baku could ever be implemented. In the current circumstances of lack of trust and confidence the Co-Chair countries have to even more assertively pursue Azerbaijan to comply with its commitments. The implementation of the agreements in a good faith and without preconditions may open the door for starting to rebuild the trust  an essential prerequisite for a durable settlement - based on three principles of international law  non use of force or threat of use of force, equal rights and self-determination of people, territorial integrity, which together with the elements for conflict resolution were consistently proposed by the Co-Chair countries as an integrated and indivisible whole.

Armenia is hosting the only OSCE full-fledged Office in South Caucasus which demonstrates our strong adherence to the implementation of the OSCE commitments in all three dimensions. The continued attempts to hinder the implementation of the mandate of the Yerevan Office by Azerbaijan who already closed its field mission in Baku once again reveals true attitude of that country not only towards Armenia but the OSCE and its commitments. We are convinced that Azerbaijan should not be in a position to export its repressive perception of human rights in the region. Baku should be boldly reminded that it cannot count on the complicity of others to this end, the Armenian FM specifically noted in his statement.
STEPANAKERT.  The adversary violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between the Karabakh and Azerbaijani opposing forces around 65 times, from late Thursday night to early Friday morning.

During this time the Azerbaijani armed forces fired more than 1,000 shots toward the Armenian position-holders, and by way of various caliber small arms, the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR/Artsakh) Defense Army informed Armenian News-NEWS.am.

More intense violations were recorded in the eastern (Akn) section of the frontline.

Aside from small arms, however, the adversary also fired from sniper rifles, whereas with an automatic grenade launcher toward the southeastern (Martuni) defense.

But the NKR Defense Army vanguard units primarily refrained from taking actions in response, and continued confidently carrying out the military task set before them.
WASHINGTON, D.C.  Regardless of domestic political developments, the United States should remain Armenias best friend in the international arena, Senator Mark Kirk told Voice of America Armenian service.

He noted that they need to be convinced that the US always remains the best friend of Armenia.

Senator Kirk added that the American-Armenian community is their inseparable part, and the US must do everything to assist Armenia which is in a complex region.

As per the senator, this assistance comprises more major efforts toward Washingtons ensuring the security of Armenia, and the high level of US assistance to Armenia.

Kirk noted that for him, as a senator, it is always important to be sure that the voice of Armenians is always heard in the US Senate.

Mark Kirk also stressed that the Armenian people, who have survived genocide and numerous trials, can teach a lot to the US. As per the senator, the American-Armenian community plays a unique role by not allowing America to stay asleep, as it happened in the 1930s.

Senator Mark Kirk is convinced that Armenia teaches the US to include the lessons from the past in its foreign policy, and be convinced that America plays a positive role in the world.
Those who consider the use of force as an opportunity to pursue one sided advantages should be boldly reminded that it is a zero sum game.

Foreign Minister of Armenia, Edward Nalbandian, on Thursday said the abovementioned in his statement at the 23rd Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Ministerial Council meeting in Hamburg, Germany.

We appreciate the strong commitment of the German Chairmanship to dialogue and cooperation which was demonstrated since the assumption of the OSCE gavel. The renewed spirit of dialogue is more than ever essential in overcoming the current challenges to European security. The OSCE with its historic commitment to the prevention of large-scale conflicts and building confidence should be the main platform for reconciling different approaches and perceptions of security. After all, this is the raison detre of this organization founded on the very essential agreement on inadmissibility of war in Europe.

Thus, the Chairperson-in-Office assumes a leading role in calling for dialogue on the future of the arms control. Armenia has always been a staunch supporter of improved cooperative security arrangements aimed at enhanced transparency and predictability in the OSCE area based on the principles of restraint, inclusivity and risk reduction. We would like to reiterate our readiness to engage in the discussion on the future of arms control based on these principles.

The main objective of arms control regimes is the prevention of use of force. Any significant threat or use of force is a challenge to the indivisible security in the OSCE area since it can undermine the very foundation of our common commitments and core values which inseparably tie us together. The use of force is even more disastrous in the environment of peace processes. Those who consider the use of force as an opportunity to pursue one sided advantages should be boldly reminded that it is a zero sum game which can likely destroy what had been built through long years of negotiations and may seriously undermine further efforts of building bridges between the parties concerned, Nalbandian specifically noted in his statement.
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YEREVAN.  Foreign Minister of Armenia, Edward Nalbandian, on Thursday met with his Estonian colleague, Sven Mikser.

They met on the sidelines of the 23rd Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Ministerial Council meeting in Hamburg, Germany, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed Armenian News-NEWS.am.

First, Nalbandian congratulated Mikser on assuming the office of Foreign Minister of Estonia, and expressed the hope that through joint efforts new impetus will be given to bilateral cooperation.

The FM of Armenia commended the positive dynamics in the political dialogue between the two countries, and stressed Armenias interest in developing and strengthening its relations with Estonia. The need to expand the legal framework was emphasized as a respective important step.

During the meeting, the process of negotiations over the Armenia-European Union new framework agreement was discussed, and the importance of launching dialogue on visa liberalization was stressed.

Upon request of his Estonian counterpart, the FM of Armenia presented the efforts by Armenia and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs aimed at creating conducive conditions for the advancement of the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process. In this context, Edward Nalbandian noted that Armenia highly values Estonias balanced stance with regard to settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
YEREVAN.  The Armenian side is always ready for a war, head of RPA parliamentary group Vahram Baghdasaryan told reporters on Friday.

The Azerbaijani side makes a statement and later change their position entirely, he said.

If there is a meeting between Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents, I do not think it will register progress. We are always ready for war, but I do not think that Azerbaijan is ready, Baghdasryan said.

The head of parliamentary majority reminded of a priority task  determination of the status of Nagorno-Karabakh.
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YEREVAN.  There are no grounds for the leader of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) not to be able to head this ruling partys proportional election list for the forthcoming parliamentary election.

Head of the RPA National Assembly Faction, Vahram Baghdasaryan, stated about the aforesaid at Fridays parliamentary briefings.

When asked in which place President Serzh Sargsyan will be on the RPA election list, Baghdasaryan recalled that Sargsyan is also chairman of this party.

There are no grounds for the RPA leader not to be able to head their election proportional list, stressed Vahram Baghdasaryan.
STEPANAKERT.  Direct obligation of the Azerbaijani authorities is to investigate crimes committed by servicemen of Azerbaijani army in April, Ombudsman of Nagorno-Karabakh Ruben Melikyan said during a media conference on Friday.

Ruben Melikyan arrived in the village of Talish where he presented the second interim report on atrocities of Azerbaijan during the April war. During the April events Talish village was badly damaged as a result of the aggression unleashed by Azerbaijan against Karabakh.

The limited version of the report contains more detailed data, including images of the crimes. The Ombudsman emphasized that key point is the issue of responsibility, of both executors and their commanders.

The Ombudsman revealed footage from Azerbaijani sources that later disappeared. One of the videos presented in the report shows an Azerbaijani serviceman talking to a villager. The villager thanks him for cutting off the head. Thus, either he was the real perpetrator, or he just showed up as the perpetrator aiming to receive a public accolade for a barbaric war crime in a deeply dehumanized environment. The alleged perpetrator is also depicted in a picture while receiving military awards from Ilham Aliyev, the President of Azerbaijan, standing in a row of ten Azerbaijani Armed Forces servicemen.

Ruben Melikyan said he would use any opportunity to spread the report. He did not rule out that the report will be sent to Azerbaijani human rights defender as well.
There is no consensus on deploying OSCE observers at the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated the aforementioned, based on results of the 23rd Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Ministerial Council meeting in Hamburg, Germany.

We have already commented on the situation of the process of the status of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, including in light of the agreements that were reached, noted Lavrov.

In his words, first and foremost, these agreements relate to the need for reaffirmation of the agreement with respect to maintaining ceasefire. The Russian minister added that even though this was done, the violations continue, and they appreciate the OSCEs role in monitoring the situation at the line of contact.

We believe that the agreements need to be specified by OSCE decisions; but consensus is needed to do so, stated Sergei Lavrov. There is consensus on the physical, numerical increase [in the OSCE observers], but there is no consensus on where they will be deployed. I, like many others, believe that they should be deployed at the line of contact.
Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian disclosed some details of his meeting with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov.

It has been five months since their previous meeting in Washington, Mr. Nalbandian said during a media briefing in Hamburg.

The Minister said the statement issued by the foreign ministers of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing countries directly point at problems that they want to discuss with the parties or to bring to the agenda.

What Azerbaijani Foreign Minister is doing is his own business. It is important what is said by Armenian Foreign Minister and the Co-Chairs. And they strongly condemn the use of force and threat of force. It is clear to whom it is addressed, because we are committed to non-use of force and threat of force. Azerbaijan is trying by all means to avoid references to it, and even committed a crime against peace, as there was a large-scale aggression during which there were cases of outrageous barbarism in April. In their statement the Co-Chairs condemned the April events, he said.
The meeting of Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents is not ruled out, Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said during a media briefing in Hamburg.

We have to prepare more thoroughly, because there are statements from the neighboring state that were voiced prior to the Hamburg meeting, namely that the international law is nothing and the use of force is important, the Minister said.

Similar statements made by leadership in the 21st century show that people are far from reality. Minister Nalbandian added that the approaches of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing countries on Karabakh settlement and the approaches of Azerbaijan are different and contradict each other more and more.
The Azerbaijani side is always trying to make it look that no arrangement has been reached on any issue related to the introduction of investigation mechanisms and expansion of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzys office

Foreign Minster of Armenia Edward Nalbandian said the aforementioned at a briefing after the 23rd OSCE Ministerial Council meeting held in Hamburg, Germany on Friday.

To the observation that Russian FM Sergey Lavrov noted that there is an argument on where Kasprzys expanded team will be allocated in case of its expansion, and that Russia is for their being on the Contact Line, Nalbandian noted: The Azerbaijani side is always trying to make it look that no arrangement has been reached on any issue related to the introduction of investigation mechanisms and expansion of Kasprzys office, and they continue insisting on that. But the [OSCE Minsk Group] Co-Chairs not only mentioned the agreement reached but also noted it is necessary to record progress in regard to the arrangement to create an investigation mechanism. They also noted that it is necessary to remove the obstacles aimed at the expansion of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Offices team. Of course, nothing will change if we add their number by a few people. Nothing will change since there are conflict situations which require not 5-10 or twenty people, but 200-300, which again doesnt change much. But it is very important that a symbolic step is made showing they are moving forward: the observation missions should increase their number, quality and efficiency.

According to Nalbandian, Azerbaijan was entirely against the expansion, but then it said that the team could be expanded by 7 people, but it should not be allocated on the Contact Line. As per Azerbaijan, they should be sent to Baku, Tbilisi and Yerevan and ask permission from Azerbaijan to come to the Contact Line.

There are other obstacles too: so far various committee sessions have taken place, which only Azerbaijan hindered. I think Lavrov said the same, and as to the mechanism, Azerbaijan says it is completely against it. According to them, they can introduce the mechanism after the normalization, but what is the meaning of the investigation mechanism then? They have got themselves in a bind. The whole world is talking one thing, but they understand that in a different way. This is a false mirror kingdom, and they are trying to compel others to follow their standpoints, the FM said.
Armenia could join the statement made by the foreign ministers of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing states on Thursday, but that would be 3+1, since Azerbaijan wouldnt join it.

Foreign Minster of Armenia Edward Nalbandian said the aforementioned at a briefing after the 23rd OSCE Ministerial Council meeting held in Hamburg, Germany on Friday.

Asked whether there had been a proposal for Armenian and Azerbaijani FMs to join the statement, Nalbandian noted: But could Azerbaijan join a statement which the co-chairs made yesterday? Of course, not. We could join it but that would be 3+1. For this reason Azerbaijans positions have been contradicting those of the international community for a long time. This doesnt mean that one should get disillusioned: it is always necessary to get disposed to continuing the negotiation process. There is no alternative to this. Armenia will continue exerting joint efforts with the co-chairs towards the peaceful settlement of the conflict.
[December 09, 2016] 5 Quick Tips for Redeeming Your Loyalty Points or Miles for Holiday Gift Cards

CRYSTAL LAKE, Ill., Dec. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Looking to use some gift cards for last minute shopping? Or, maybe you want to hand out gift cards as presents for the holiday? For consumers who redeem points or miles for gift cards during the holidays, National Gift Card shares important tips on how to make the experience easier: Tip 1: Redeem points for physical Gift Cards as soon as possible. If you want your physical gift cards in time to wrap and give to your family for the holidays, or to use yourself for last minute shopping, there is a chain of events that occurs behind the scenes that most consumers don't plan for when cashing out their points for gift card rewards. This includes your order being received by your loyalty program and the fulfillment steps for processing the gift card order to you via courier or First Class mail, not to mention the shipping transit time. This process can take up to two weeks depending on your program, so redeeming your points soon is the best bet for in-hand delivery before Christmas. Tip 2: You have more time to redeem points for eGift Cards. While wrapping a piece of paper printed from your home computer containing the eGift card number might not hae the same gifting effect as a physical card, an eGift card redemption will get you your reward quicker. As a part of this process, make sure to double-check the terms and conditions of your loyalty program. For some programs, you can redeem points or miles on Christmas Day and receive your eGift card reward within seconds if your program is connected to a secure gift card API.



However, some loyalty programs may manage eGift card reward fulfillment manually. If that's the case, redeeming your points for an eGift card during a holiday weekend could occur when those agencies or fulfillment houses are not open, and thus your eGift card won't be emailed until the next business day, which could push your gift giving past the holiday. It's best to redeem your points for digital gift cards by Dec. 22nd, and remember to watch your Spam or Clutter folders. Tip 3: Have a back-up card choice in mind. Looking for a Target card, iTunes card, Amazon card, or other popular merchant in your program, but find those brand options out of stock or missing when you log in to redeem your points for those rewards? Those cards could be in back-order status. Popular national merchant cards go quickly, and if your rewards program gift card inventory doesn't have enough cards, your ideal Christmas gift card gift may not be available. If that's the case, have a back-up selection ready.

"Maintaining an active inventory of both popular retail and niche gift cards is important to our clients," stated Eric Thiegs, President at National Gift Card. "Our mission is to fulfill a gift card from point A to point Z as quickly, securely, and accurately as possible, and having the cards available is mission critical as step one in that process." Tip 4: Reward selection is important. Does your loyalty program carry the gift card brands you want? It can be frustrating to have the points to use for a gift card reward, but not having the merchant options you want when you go to redeem. If that's the case, call your loyalty program and request the brands you want to see as rewards. Loyalty programs are designed to do one thing  keep you loyal. If the program doesn't provide you the rewards you want or need, your loyalty could be better placed with a different program that offers the rewards you want. "This is one of the key reasons many incentive, loyalty and reward programs use National Gift Card for gift card fulfillment," stated Thiegs. "We carry over 450 global merchant brands that support a variety of physical and eGift card reward options for the U.S., Canada, and UK/Europe."

Tip 5: Ask Questions. Because fulfillment turn-around times for every program are unique, if you have questions about when you will receive your physical or digital gift card after redeeming your points - call or email your loyalty program. They will be able to help you. After following these tips for getting the cards you want in time for holiday gift giving, lean back and take satisfaction in knowing that you put your points/miles to good use. By giving those on your Christmas list a physical or eGift card, your loved ones are bound to enjoy the freedom of choosing their gift themselves with the gift card you provided. About National Gift Card Corp.: National Gift Card Corp. (NGC) is the leading marketer and supplier of gift cards for use in loyalty, incentive and rewards programs. The agency offers a wide variety of retail, restaurant and prepaid cards along with secure online ordering, distribution, fulfillment services, a Gift Card API and customized gift card programs designed to reach each client's specific objectives. NGC continues to develop innovative fulfillment technology solutions and delivers the best value to its customers. NGC operates globally across the U.S., Canada, and Europe. National Gift Card Corp. is headquartered in Illinois. To learn more about NGC, visit https://www.ngc-group.com/ or call +1.888.472.8747. CONTACT: Sue Voyles  Logos Communications

734.667.2005

[email protected] Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161208/447303 To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/5-quick-tips-for-redeeming-your-loyalty-points-or-miles-for-holiday-gift-cards-300375667.html SOURCE National Gift Card Corp.

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The statement of the Azerbaijani FM Elmar Mammadyarov, which attempts to shuffle off the responsibility for the non-implementation of the Vienna agreements on the Armenian side, is nothing but empty words.

Russian political analyst Alexander Skakov told the aforementioned to Armenian News  NEWS.am.

In his words, Baku has been conducting such policy for already 25 years. Since the 90s, Azerbaijan refuses to implement all of its obligations on the settlement of the Karabakh conflict, placing the entire responsibility on Yerevan, the analyst noted.

Speaking at the 23rd OSCE Ministerial Council session in Hamburg, Azerbaijani FM stated that the attempts of the Armenian side to advance preconditions in the framework of the substantive talks on Nagorno-Karabakh undermine the Vienna and Saint Petersburg agreements and the entire peace process.
The new meeting between the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders will not be groundbreaking in terms of the Karabakh conflict settlement.

Russian political analyst Alexander Skakov told the aforementioned to Armenian News  NEWS.am.

The expert didnt rule out the possibility that the presidential format meeting may take place in the upcoming 2-3 months. Apparently, against the backdrop of the current situation, when a conflict escalation is observed, the mediators are interested in holding a new meeting between the heads of states but even if such a meeting takes place, it wont lead to productive decisions on the conflict settlement, the analyst noted.

On Thursday, the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs came up with a statement in which they expressed readiness to hold a new meeting between the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents.
YEREVAN. - The position of the Armenian side on the current situation round the Karabakh conflict settlement is the following: the esumption of real talks parallel to the implementation of agreements reached earlier will not lead to any results.

Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) MP Mikayel Melkumyan stated the aforementioned at the traditional briefings at the National Assembly (NA) Friday.

He recalled that after the April military actions the issue was not the talks but insurance of conditions for their resumption.

This meant establishment of relevant mechanisms for revealing the violators of the ceasefire regime at the Line of Contact. Unfortunately, this hasnt been done. Our Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated correctly that it is first necessary to ensure the implementation of the reached agreements. How is it possible to hold talks and violate the ceasefire regime at the Contact Line an hour later? Melkumyan said.

Aliyevs criminal regime does everything to distract the attention of its own society, the MP stressed. Apparently, the OSCE Minsk Group wants to show a result, but our position is the following: this will not lead to any results, Melkumyan added.

The heads of the delegations of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing statesRussian FM Sergey Lavrov, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and French FM Jean-Marc Ayrault adopted a statement on Thursday. They called on Baku and Yerevan to honor the agreements reflected in the Joint Statements of the 16 May Summit in Vienna and the 20 June Summit in St. Petersburg. We welcome the sides progress in implementing the exchange of data on missing persons under the auspices of the International Committee of the Red Cross. We urge the parties to remove all remaining obstacles to expanding the mission of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and to make progress on a proposal to establish an OSCE investigative mechanism. The proposals should be implemented together with the immediate resumption of negotiations on a settlement. We would like to reiterate our call to the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to demonstrate flexibility and to return to the negotiation table with the firm aim of moving toward a sustainable peace on the basis of the current working proposals. Unless progress can be made on negotiations, the prospects for renewed violence will only increase, and the parties will bear full responsibility, the statement reads, in part.
The European Union and Armenia have put quality ahead of speed and are rather close to concluding the talks on the new agreement.

Spokesperson for EU Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Maja Kocijancic told the aforementioned to Armenian News  NEWS.am.

In her words, the negotiations are well on track. At the end of October, we have had a fruitful 6th round of negotiations on the political parts of the agreement and concluded the 4th round related to its trade parts. Parallel negotiations on the cooperation in various other sectors are also progressing well via video-conferences, the latest being held on 30 October and related to energy cooperation, Kocijancic said.

She also added: We put quality ahead of speed and, without venturing into mentioning a concrete date for their conclusion, I would say that we are rather close to this goal. In negotiations you may know exactly when you start but cannot predict 100 per cent the date of their conclusion and the signature of the agreement. It very much depends on the Armenian government's will to finalise the negotiations.

According to her, the agreement can be initialed quickly after the end of the negotiations.

Earlier, Head of the EU Delegation to Armenia, Ambassador Piotr Switalski stated that the 7th round of talks will be held in Brussels on Friday.
[December 09, 2016] Fitch: Outlook for U.S. Colleges and Universities in 2017 Stable; New Admin Creates Uncertainty

Link to Fitch Ratings' Report: 2017 Outlook: U.S. Colleges and Universities (Pressures Mount for Select Segments) https://www.fitchratings.com/site/re/891236 Both the sector and rating outlook for U.S. colleges and universities remain stable for 2017, despite uncertainty about policy changes that could be enacted by the new federal administration, according to a Fitch Ratings report. "Even prior to the election, the largest institutional endowments were under scrutiny, with some members of Congress interested in tying endowment earnings to increased student aid or student access," said Joanne Ferrigan, Senior Director at Fitch. "Student loans are another area expected to be addressed by the new administration that could have significant financial and enrollment repercussions." Regardless of the outcome of potential policy changes, Fitch expects affordability concerns to continue to affect all institutions, with smaller, regional institutions that are heavily tuition dependent likely to be most affected. Overall, Fitch expects ongoing competitive pressures to limit tuition and fee increases for both public and private institutions. While this may help keep tuition more affordable and sustain enrollment at some colleges and universities, it may also pressure budgets by constraining net tuition revenue growth and potentially limiting necessary capital spending. Fitch anticipates the sector will continue bifurcating, with the stronger institutions maintaining or strengthening their financial and academic positions and the weaker institutions experiencing enrollment and operating pressures. Fitch will hold a teleconference on Jan. 11 at 3:00pm Eastern to discuss its 2017 Outlook for U.S. Colleges and Universities. To register for the call, please visit http://dpregister.com/10097568. For more information, a special report titled "2017 Outlook: U.S. Colleges and Universities" is available on the Fitch Ratings web site at www.fitchratings.com or by clicking on the link. Additional information is available at www.fitchratings.com ALL FITCH CREDIT RATINGS ARE SUBJECT TO CERTAIN LIMITATIONS AND DISCLAIMERS. PLEASE READ THESE LIMITATIONS AND DISCLAIMERS BY FOLLOWING THIS LINK: HTTPS://WWW.FITCHRATINGS.COM/UNDERSTANDINGCREDITRATINGS. IN ADDITION, RATING DEFINITIONS AND THE TERMS OF USE OF SUCH RATINGS ARE AVAILABLE ON (News - Alert) THE AGENCY'S PUBLIC WEB SITE AT WWW.FITCHRATINGS.COM. PUBLISHED RATINGS, CRITERIA, AND METHODOLOGIES ARE AVAILABLE FROM THIS SITE AT ALL TIMES. FITCH'S CODE OF CONDUCT, CONFIDENTIALITY, CONFLICTS OF INTEREST, AFFILIATE FIREWALL, COMPLIANCE, AND OTHER RELEVANT POLICIES AND PROCEDURES ARE ALSO AVAILABLE FROM THE CODE OF CONDUCT SECTION OF THIS SITE. FITCH MAY HAVE PROVIDED ANOTHER PERMISSIBLE SERVICE TO THE RATED ENTITY OR ITS RELATED THIRD PARTIES. DETAILS OF THIS SERVICE FOR RATINGS FOR WHICH THE LEAD ANALYST IS BASED IN AN EU-REGISTERED ENTITY CAN BE FOUND ON THE ENTITY SUMMARY PAGE FOR THIS ISSUER ON THE FITCH WEBSITE.



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Users of Fitch's ratings and reports should understand that neither an enhanced factual investigation nor any third-party verification can ensure that all of the information Fitch relies on in connection with a rating or a report will be accurate and complete. Ultimately, the issuer and its advisers are responsible for the accuracy of the information they provide to Fitch and to the market in offering documents and other reports. In issuing its ratings and its reports, Fitch must rely on the work of experts, including independent auditors with respect to financial statements and attorneys with respect to legal and tax matters. Further, ratings and forecasts of financial and other information are inherently forward-looking and embody assumptions and predictions about future events that by their nature cannot be verified as facts. As a result, despite any verification of current facts, ratings and forecasts can be affected by future events or conditions that were not anticipated at the time a rating or forecast was issued or affirmed. The information in this report is provided "as is" without any representation or warranty of any kind, and Fitch does not represent or warrant that the report or any of its contents will meet any of the requirements of a recipient of the report. A Fitch rating is an opinion as to the creditworthiness of a security. This opinion and reports made by Fitch are based on established criteria and methodologies that Fitch is continuously evaluating and updating. Therefore, ratings and reports are the collective work product of Fitch and no individual, or group of individuals, is solely responsible for a rating or a report. The rating does not address the risk of loss due to risks other than credit risk, unless such risk is specifically mentioned. Fitch is not engaged in the offer or sale of any security. All Fitch reports have shared authorship. Individuals identified in a Fitch report were involved in, but are not solely responsible for, the opinions stated therein. The individuals are named for contact purposes only. A report providing a Fitch rating is neither a prospectus nor a substitute for the information assembled, verified and presented to investors by the issuer and its agents in connection with the sale of the securities. Ratings may be changed or withdrawn at any time for any reason in the sole discretion of Fitch. Fitch does not provide investment advice of any sort. Ratings are not a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security. Ratings do not comment on the adequacy of market price, the suitability of any security for a particular investor, or the tax-exempt nature or taxability of payments made in respect to any security. Fitch receives fees from issuers, insurers, guarantors, other obligors, and underwriters for rating securities. Such fees generally vary from US$1,000 to US$750,000 (or the applicable currency equivalent) per issue. In certain cases, Fitch will rate all or a number of issues issued by a particular issuer, or insured or guaranteed by a particular insurer or guarantor, for a single annual fee. Such fees are expected to vary from US$10,000 to US$1,500,000 (or the applicable currency equivalent). The assignment, publication, or dissemination of a rating by Fitch shall not constitute a consent by Fitch to use its name as an expert in connection with any registration statement filed under the United States securities laws, the Financial Services and Markets Act of 2000 of the United Kingdom, or the securities laws of any particular jurisdiction. 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CKE Restaurants CEO Picked as Labor Secretary

The immediate speculation is that Andrew Puzder, if confirmed, will abandon the Department of Labor's rule that would raise the salary threshold for eligibility for overtime. A federal judge enjoined DOL from enforcing it as planned Dec. 1, 2016, and the Obama administration then appealed that injunction.

Continuing to move quickly on naming his choices for executive departments and some cabinet positions, President-elect Donald J. Trump's team announced Dec. 8 that he has chosen Andrew F. Puzder, CEO of CKE Restaurants, Inc., to be the next secretary of Labor. The immediate speculation when Puzder's selection became known was that he will, if confirmed, abandon the overtime rule proposed by the Obama administration and the current Labor secretary, Tom Perez.

CKE Restaurants is based in Carpinteria, Calif. It owns owns, operates, and franchises quick-service restaurants, including the Carl's Jr., Hardee's, Green Burrito, and Red Burrito restaurant brands.

Puzder is a lawyer. He was a commercial trial lawyer in St. Louis from 1978 through 1991 and during that period met Carl Karcher, the founder of the Carl's Jr. chain, according to the bio of Puzder available on the CKE website. "Karcher was embroiled in serious financial difficulties and asked Puzder to move to California as his personal attorney. In 1991, Puzder relocated to Orange County, Calif. He is credited with resolving Karcher's financial dilemma, allowing Karcher to avoid bankruptcy and retain a significant ownership interest in the company he founded, CKE Restaurants, Inc.," it says, adding that Puzder helped to resolve those financial problems and ultimately became executive vice president and general counsel for CKE in 1997. The company bought Hardee's Food Systems, Inc. that year.

He wrote an op-ed column for Forbes in May 2016 criticizing the overtime rule. "Labor Secretary Tom Perez is promoting it as a means to increase middle-class wages claiming that 'the overtime rule could help millions of workers get back into the middle class.' As with the Obama Administration's other efforts to regulate their way to economic prosperity, it will not deliver as promised," Puzder wrote. He predicted the rule would force some businesses to turn entry-level management careers with salaries and performance-based bonuses into hourly jobs. "For most businesses it will be just another added regulatory cost they must look to offset. For their employees, it will be another barrier to the middle class rather than a springboard. One can only wonder when the advocates of progressive economics will realize that, despite their best efforts, you cannot regulate your way to economic prosperity," he wrote.
Former Serb military commander Ratko Mladic was "not a monster" and should be acquitted of genocide and war crimes, his defence argued Friday, insisting the prosecution had failed to prove his role in the Bosnian war. Once dubbed "the Butcher of Bosnia", Mladic, 74, has denied 11 charges including two of genocide, as well as war crimes and crimes against humanity arising out of the bloody 1992-95 Bosnian conflict. "Ratko Mladic is not a monster, he was a soldier defending against a monster, that was the Islamic war machine," his lawyer Branko Lukic told the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). The defence is spending three days presenting their closing arguments to end a trial which opened in May 2012. His case is the last before the UN's ICTY which closes next year, and a verdict is expected sometime before late November 2017. Prosecutors urged the judges on Wednesday to jail Mladic for life, accusing him of leading a ruthless campaign of ethnic cleansing to create a Greater Serbia in the 1990s Balkans wars. "The time has come for General Mladic to be held accountable for those crimes against each of his victims and the communities he destroyed," prosecutor Alan Tieger told the tribunal. But his defence team shot back on Friday that Mladic was "an innocent man" who had constantly sought a ceasefire and had ordered that Muslims be protected. - 'An innocent man' - The prosecution had attempted "to pump General Mladic up to superhuman proportions and abilities as if he was all-knowing and all-powerful," said Lukic. "It is our job to remind your honours, remind the prosecution and remind the public, not only watching today but future generations who will judge these proceedings as a part of history, that Ratko Mladic is a person, not a superhuman being," Lukic said. "Ratko Mladic is an accused, who stands before you an innocent man." He alleged that the prosecution's reasoning would see every soldier in every war found guilty, and urged the judges to find that the prosecution had failed to prove Mladic's guilt beyond all reasonable doubt. "He is guilty for the prosecution just because he is a Serb and tried to defend his country, first Yugoslavia, and then Republika Srpska, from attacks and wars that were started and pursued by others, not by Serbs." Mladic is notably accused of being behind the punishing 44-month siege of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo, which claimed an estimated 10,000 lives in a relentless campaign of shelling and sniping. - Wants to die at home - He is also charged with genocide for his role in the 1995 killing of almost 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica, Europe's worst bloodshed since World War II. But another defence lawyer Dragan Ivatic said the prosecution was trying to get the court to view the evidence through "a peephole" and had shown a "lack of actual evidence", adding the prosecution's "case is weak and impudent." "What is at stake here: the ability of General Mladic to go home, spend time with his loved ones and then die at home surrounded by his family, and not in a concrete cage in jail," added Ivatic. "He did his job to defend his people and country and tried not to meddle in politics." More than 100,000 people died and 2.2 million others were left homeless during the Bosnian war, one of several conflicts which erupted in the death throes of the former Yugoslavia. After living openly in Serbia despite an international arrest warrant against him, Mladic was finally captured in 2011 after 16 years on the run and transferred to a UN detention centre in The Hague.
By Lincoln Feast and Greg Torode SYDNEY/HONG KONG (Reuters) - Vietnam has begun dredging work on a disputed reef in the South China Sea, satellite imagery shows, the latest move by the Communist state to bolster its claims in the strategic waterway. Activity visible on Ladd Reef in the Spratly Islands could anger Hanoi's main South China Sea rival, Beijing, which claims sovereignty over the group and most of the resource-rich sea. Ladd Reef, on the southwestern fringe of the Spratlys, is completely submerged at high tide but has a lighthouse and an outpost housing a small contingent of Vietnamese soldiers. The reef is also claimed by Taiwan. In an image taken on Nov. 30 and provided by U.S.-based satellite firm Planet Labs, several vessels can be seen in a newly dug channel between the lagoon and open sea. While the purpose of the activity cannot be determined for certain, analysts say similar dredging work has been the precursor to more extensive construction on other reefs. "We can see that, in this environment, Vietnam's strategic mistrust is total ... and they are rapidly improving their defences," said Trevor Hollingsbee, a retired naval intelligence analyst with Britain's defence ministry. "They're doing everything they can to fix any vulnerabilities - and that outpost at Ladd Reef does look a vulnerability." Reuters reported in August that Vietnam had fortified several islands with mobile rocket artillery launchers capable of striking China's holdings across the vital trade route. Vietnam's foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment. The vessels at Ladd Reef cannot be identified in the images, but Vietnam would be extremely unlikely to allow another country to challenge its control of the reef. Greg Poling, a South China Sea expert at Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said it remained unclear how far the work on Ladd Reef would go. Rather than a reclamation and a base, it could be an attempt to simply boost access for supply ships and fishing boats. Ladd could also theoretically play a role in helping to defend Vietnam's nearby holding of Spratly Island, where a runway is being improved and new hangars built, he said. "Vietnam's knows it can't compete with China but it does want to improve its ability to keep an eye on them," Poling said. Vietnam has long been fearful of renewed Chinese military action to drive it off its 21 holdings in the Spratlys - worries that have escalated amid Beijing's build-up and its anger at the recent Philippines legal action challenging its claims. China occupied its first Spratlys possessions after a sea battle against Vietnam's then-weak navy in 1988. Vietnam said 64 soldiers were killed as they tried to protect a flag on South Johnson reef - an incident still acutely felt in Hanoi. BUILDING BURST The United States has repeatedly called on claimants to avoid actions that increase tensions in the South China Sea, through which some $5 trillion in world trade is shipped every year. A spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department, Anna Richey-Allen, said it was aware of reports of reclamation work by Vietnam and said the United States regularly raised concerns about such activity by claimants. "Weve consistently warned that reclamation and militarization in contested areas of the South China Sea will risk driving a destabilising and escalatory trend," she said. "We encourage all claimants to take steps to lower tensions and peacefully resolve differences." Vietnam has emerged as China's main rival in the South China Sea, actively asserting sovereignty over both the Paracel and the Spratly groupings in their entirety and undergoing its own naval modernisation. Taiwan also claims both, but its position is historically aligned with Beijing's. The Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, run by the CSIS, says Vietnam has added about 120 acres (49 hectares) of land to its South China Sea holdings in recent years. Regional military attaches say Vietnam's key holdings are well fortified, some with tunnels and bunkers, appearing geared to deterring easy invasion. Vietnam's reclamation work remains modest by Chinese standards, however. The United States, which has criticised China for militarising the waterway, estimates Beijing has added more than 3,200 acres (1,300 hectares) of land on seven features in the South China Sea over the past three years, building runways, ports, aircraft hangars and communications equipment. Beijing says it is entitled to "limited and necessary self-defensive facilities" on its territory and has reacted angrily to "freedom of navigation" operations by U.S. warships near Chinese-held islands. CHINESE RECLAMATION WORK DAMAGED In another image provided by Planet Labs, reclamation work in the Chinese-held Paracel Island chain appears to have been damaged by recent storms. China began dredging and land filling earlier this year at North Island, about 12 km (7 miles) north of Woody Island, where it has a large military base and this year stationed surface-to-air missiles. Satellite images in February and March showed dredging vessels working to build a 700-metre (2,300 ft) sand bridge connecting low-lying North Island with neighbouring Middle Island. But images taken after two powerful storms spun through the region in October show the narrow sand strip has been largely swept away. The Paracels have been under Chinese control for more than 40 years after a battle towards the end of the Vietnam War, when Chinese forces removed the then-South Vietnamese navy. Analysts say they play a key part in protecting China's nuclear armed submarine fleet on Hainan Island, to the north. China has not commented publicly on the work at North Island and the foreign ministry did not respond to requests for comment. (Additional reporting by Martin Petty in Hanoi, Ben Blanchard in Beijing and David Brunnstrom in Washington; Editing by Alex Richardson and Leslie Adler)
By Lincoln Feast and Greg Torode SYDNEY/HONG KONG (Reuters) - Vietnam has begun dredging work on a disputed reef in the South China Sea, satellite imagery shows, the latest move by the Communist state to bolster its claims in the strategic waterway. Activity visible on Ladd Reef in the Spratly Islands could anger Hanoi's main South China Sea rival, Beijing, which claims sovereignty over the group and most of the resource-rich sea. Ladd Reef, on the southwestern fringe of the Spratlys, is completely submerged at high tide but has a lighthouse and an outpost housing a small contingent of Vietnamese soldiers. The reef is also claimed by Taiwan. In an image taken on Nov. 30 and provided by U.S.-based satellite firm Planet Labs, several vessels can be seen in a newly dug channel between the lagoon and open sea. While the purpose of the activity cannot be determined for certain, analysts say similar dredging work has been the precursor to more extensive construction on other reefs. "We can see that, in this environment, Vietnam's strategic mistrust is total ... and they are rapidly improving their defences," said Trevor Hollingsbee, a retired naval intelligence analyst with Britain's defence ministry. "They're doing everything they can to fix any vulnerabilities - and that outpost at Ladd Reef does look a vulnerability." Reuters reported in August that Vietnam had fortified several islands with mobile rocket artillery launchers capable of striking China's holdings across the vital trade route. Vietnam's foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a regular press briefing on Friday that China had "indisputable sovereignty over the Nansha islands, including Riji reef", using Beijing's terms for the Spratlys and Ladd Reef. "We urge the relevant countries to respect China's sovereignty and rights, end their illegal occupation and illegal operations, and not take any actions that may complicate the situation," he said. DEFENSIVE POSITIONS The vessels at Ladd Reef cannot be identified in the images, but Vietnam would be extremely unlikely to allow another country to challenge its control of the reef. Greg Poling, a South China Sea expert at Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said it remained unclear how far the work on Ladd Reef would go. Rather than a reclamation and a base, it could be an attempt to simply boost access for supply ships and fishing boats. Ladd could also theoretically play a role in helping to defend Vietnam's nearby holding of Spratly Island, where a runway is being improved and new hangars built, he said. "Vietnam's knows it can't compete with China but it does want to improve its ability to keep an eye on them," Poling said. Vietnam has long been fearful of renewed Chinese military action to drive it off its 21 holdings in the Spratlys - worries that have escalated amid Beijing's build-up and its anger at the recent Philippines legal action challenging its claims. China occupied its first Spratlys possessions after a sea battle against Vietnam's then-weak navy in 1988. Vietnam said 64 soldiers were killed as they tried to protect a flag on South Johnson reef - an incident still acutely felt in Hanoi. BUILDING BURST The United States has repeatedly called on claimants to avoid actions that increase tensions in the South China Sea, through which some $5 trillion in world trade is shipped every year. A spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department, Anna Richey-Allen, said it was aware of reports of reclamation work by Vietnam and said the United States regularly raised concerns about such activity by claimants. "We've consistently warned that reclamation and militarization in contested areas of the South China Sea will risk driving a destabilizing and escalatory trend," she said. "We encourage all claimants to take steps to lower tensions and peacefully resolve differences." Vietnam has emerged as China's main rival in the South China Sea, actively asserting sovereignty over both the Paracel and the Spratly groupings in their entirety and undergoing its own naval modernisation. Taiwan also claims both, but its position is historically aligned with Beijing's. The Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, run by the CSIS, says Vietnam has added about 120 acres (49 hectares) of land to its South China Sea holdings in recent years. Regional military attaches say Vietnam's key holdings are well fortified, some with tunnels and bunkers, appearing geared to deterring easy invasion. Vietnam's reclamation work remains modest by Chinese standards, however. The United States, which has criticised China for militarising the waterway, estimates Beijing has added more than 3,200 acres (1,300 hectares) of land on seven features in the South China Sea over the past three years, building runways, ports, aircraft hangars and communications equipment. Beijing says it is entitled to "limited and necessary self-defensive facilities" on its territory and has reacted angrily to "freedom of navigation" operations by U.S. warships near Chinese-held islands. CHINESE RECLAMATION WORK DAMAGED In another image provided by Planet Labs, reclamation work in the Chinese-held Paracel Island chain appears to have been damaged by recent storms. China began dredging and land filling earlier this year at North Island, about 12 km (7 miles) north of Woody Island, where it has a large military base and this year stationed surface-to-air missiles. Satellite images in February and March showed dredging vessels working to build a 700-metre (2,300 ft) sand bridge connecting low-lying North Island with neighbouring Middle Island. But images taken after two powerful storms spun through the region in October show the narrow sand strip has been largely swept away. The Paracels have been under Chinese control for more than 40 years after a battle towards the end of the Vietnam War, when Chinese forces removed the then-South Vietnamese navy. Analysts say they play a key part in protecting China's nuclear armed submarine fleet on Hainan Island, to the north. China has not commented publicly on the work at North Island. (Additional reporting by Martin Petty in Hanoi, Ben Blanchard in Beijing and David Brunnstrom in Washington; Editing by Alex Richardson and Leslie Adler)
On the eve of the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said Friday the award was a "gift from heaven" that gave a "tremendous push" to reach a new agreement with FARC rebels. Santos said the prestigious honour, which was announced just days after a major setback in the peace process, "came like a gift from heaven because it gave us a tremendous push" to achieve a new peace deal with FARC. "People in Colombia interpreted it as a mandate from the international community to persevere, to continue striving to achieve a peace agreement," Santos said. "It encouraged me, it encouraged our negotiators, but particularly it encouraged the Colombian people to press" for a new deal, he told a press conference in Oslo. The initial deal, signed with pens made from bullet casings on September 26 after nearly four years of talks, was supposed to be ratified in an October 2 referendum. But voters narrowly rejected it, leaving Colombia teetering just short of ending a five-decade conflict that has killed more than 260,000 people, left 45,000 missing and forced nearly seven million to flee their homes. As she announced Santos as the 2016 Nobel Laureate, Nobel committee chairwoman Kaci Kullman Five said voters rejecting a peace accord does not mean an end to the peace process itself. "It shows that peace is not made in one day," Berit Reiss-Andersen, deputy chairwoman of the Nobel committee, told reporters in Oslo on Friday. Santos' government and the Marxist FARC rebels then renegotiated a new peace accord signed on November 24. - Impossible dream 'now a reality' - "Something that was for many Colombians and for many Latin-Americans and for the world an impossible dream just a few years ago is now reality," Santos said. "The FARC are already moving to the zones where they will concentrate and disarm." The peace deal calls for the disarming of the rebel group and its transformation into a political party. But right-wing hardliners led a campaign against the accord, arguing it offered the rebels impunity for massacres, kidnappings and other crimes committed during the conflict. Santos' will formally receive his Peace Prize on Saturday at a glittering ceremony at Oslo's City Hall in the presence of the Norwegian king, members of the government, as well as two of the FARC's most high-profile ex-hostages, Franco-Colombian Ingrid Betancourt and Clara Rojas. The award consists of a gold medal, a diploma and a check for eight million Swedish kronor (about 824,000 euros, $871,000), a sum that Santos promised to donate to the victims of the war. Another ceremony will be held on the same day in Stockholm where this year's Nobel laureates in the sciences, economics and literature will be honoured, marked by the notable absence of this year's literature laureate Bob Dylan. The first songwriter to win the prestigious award, declined to attend the ceremony due to "pre-existing commitments". According to the Nobel Foundation, the prize should be handed to the American music icon in person in 2017, in Sweden or abroad. Dylan has sent a thank-you speech to be read aloud on Saturday evening at a gala banquet, the foundation said, but the name of the person who is expected to read his message has not been revealed.
AFP News

Denmark's left-wing Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen on Wednesday kicked off the process of forming a new, broader government one day after scoring a narrow election victory. The Social Democrats, the largest party in parliament with 50 of 179 seats and accustomed to leading minority governments, now want to govern across the political divide after Frederiksen secured their best election win since 2001. "It will be very, very difficult. We don't know if it will be possible, but we will try our utmost", she told a party debate on Wednesday. Earlier in the day, the prime minister formally presented the resignation of her outgoing government to Queen Margrethe. The leaders of Denmark's 11 other parties in parliament were each meeting the queen individually on Wednesday before the monarch formally tasks Frederiksen with trying to form a new government. Frederiksen will then "enter into negotiations to form a broader government and that will probably take a while," political scientist Rune Stubager, a professor at Aarhus University, told AFP. Her left-wing bloc, which includes five parties plus three seats from the autonomous territories Greenland and the Faroe Islands, won a majority of 90 seats, compared to 73 for the right and far-right, and 16 for the centre. It was the Social Democrats' best election outcome in two decades, gaining two seats and securing over 27 percent of the vote, and allows Frederiksen to enter negotiations from a position of strength. Frederiksen's photo-finish win scuppered hopes of former two-time prime minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, who founded a new Moderates party just months earlier, of becoming kingmaker in the new administration. - Broken dreams - The Moderates won more than nine percent of votes and Lokke Rasmussen insisted he wanted to be "the bridge" between the left and right, but daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten concluded that "in theory, Mette can do without Lars Lokke". While the Moderates will be part of negotiations, Stubager expressed doubt that they would be willing to "compromise sufficiently" to secure posts in the cabinet. A "more realistic" plan for Frederiksen would be a coalition government with various parties on the left, he said. While Frederiksen's government was largely hailed for handling the Covid-19 pandemic, the election was triggered by the country's so-called mink crisis. The affair erupted after the government decided in November 2020 to cull the country's 15 million minks over fears of a mutated strain of the novel coronavirus. The decision turned out to be illegal, and the Social Liberal party propping up Frederiksen's minority government threatened to topple it unless she called early elections to regain voters' confidence. The Social Liberals paid a price for the gamble, losing nine of their 16 seats and on Wednesday their party leader resigned. - 'Zero refugees' - To rule, the Social Democrats will still need to depend on support from the Social Liberals, which has made clear it will not support another minority one-party government. Broad consensus for Denmark's restrictive migration policy left the issue largely absent from the election campaign, but it could resurge in government negotiations. Advocating a "zero refugee" policy, the outgoing government had worked on setting up a centre to house asylum seekers in Rwanda while their applications are processed. The Social Liberals oppose the plan. "It will be very difficult for the Social Democrats to turn soft or to the left on immigration, because that has been a very pivotal point in their strategy over the past five, six years," Stubager said. "To give up on that would have dramatic consequences for them." The far-right has heavily influenced Danish politics in recent decades, but three populist parties together won just 14.4 percent of votes and are not expected to play a key role in the upcoming negotiations. The anti-immigration Danish People's Party, which hovered above 20 percent a few years ago, fell to 2.6 percent, its worst result since entering parliament in 1998. A new party founded by former immigration minister Inger Stojberg, the Denmark Democrats, instead won 8.1 percent, on a platform of less centralisation, less influence from Europe and fewer immigrants. cbw-jll/po/jm
Kevin Baekkel, Willis Kimbel and Chris Russell give some Danish DIY a right seeing too in this clip from a summer session.

Press play for the Creature crew hitting one of the raddest places in Copenhagen in High Time at Hullet
The world is changing, and the world economy  and how we operate within it  has shifted drastically in the past few years. The traditional 9-5 full-time career is being sidestepped and passed by more and more as the gig economy increases.

Gig jobs and self-employment arent just for young Millennials trying to get their foot in the door. Highly qualified professionals are choosing to become and remain self-employed for a large number of reasons, and were seeing increasing numbers of contracted workers internationally as individuals are finding new ways to make the gig economy work for them. In fact, nearly 54 million Americans participated in some type of contracted work in 2015, which is over 33 percent of the entire American workforce.

This presents both new challenges and new opportunities. According to Orly Izhaki, founder of Wisestamp and recently named one of the leading women in Israeli startups, these challenges will fall mostly on the self-employed sector, who will need access to new tools and resources in order to navigate them to find long-term success. Enterprise grade tools are available for enterprise grade prices, but theres not much there for the independent workers. As this niche in our workforce grows, the resources and tools we offer must change  or be built  to accommodate them.

The gig economy will directly affect us and our businesses, no matter what side of it youre on. In order to understand how exactly it will impact everyone involved, its important to take a look at whats brought us here in the first place and the tools that will be needed to aid the success of contracted workers.

The Origin and Effects of the Gig Economy

What Led to the Growing Gig Economy

A number of factors led to the growing gig economy. The easiest and most obvious factor we can immediately flag down is the rapid development of the internet.

The internet has made it possible for independent contracts offering services in everything from outdoor landscaping to speech writing to advertise themselves in a cost-effective way. Services that can be sold remotely  like web design, writing, and even accounting  can now reach clients that were previously outside their geographic range prior. In many cases, contracted workers are now working remotely for clients all across the globe. Social media makes it even easier to connect with clients that freelancers never would have met otherwise.

The recession that hit the Western world hard in the 2000s was also a major contributing factor to the popularity of self-employment. As Gregory Fernstein says, Folks were less likely to switch jobs and fewer companies were hiring. As a result, the unemployed turned to Silicon Valley for a quick paycheck. The demand for jobs vastly outranked the supply, and highly qualified but unemployed laborers took any job they could to pay the bills.

In the majority of cases, its more expensive to hire a fulltime (or even part-time) employee than a temporary contract worker. In the United States, businesses need to pay additional taxes for their part time employees. When they hire a contractor, theyre only charged for the services. They also dont have to worry about training costs, benefits, or finding enough work to regularly keep the contracted worker on staff. Its often quick and easy, and theyre likely to find someone who can hit the ground running.

Since its typically more cost effective for businesses to pay higher short-term rates to contracted workers instead of hiring any type of employee long term, freelancers could charge slightly higher hourly fees and keep more of the profit (business taxes aside). They also saw a surge of independence; many could choose their own clients, their work hours, and the projects they wanted to work on.

Its no surprise that, given these combination of factors, the gig economy is booming.

What Does This Mean for Us?

The independent contractors that make up the workforce of the gig economy are still only a small percentage of laborers, with most workers working in employed positions. Its likely that self-employment and the gig economy will continue to grow. One study even estimated that approximately half of the U.S. population will actually move into the gig economy within the next five years.

The gig economy isnt just for the U.S. workforce; its also estimated that half of the United Kingdoms workforce will also join the gig economy in the next five years, and the European Union saw a 45 percent increase in independent workers from 2012 to 2013 alone. This growth spans across the globe, proven by the fact that Indias independent workforce of a whopping 15 million fills approximately 40% percent of the entire worlds freelance jobs. The gig economy is a phenomenon thats growing everywhere.

Izhaki expects that the results of this growth are going to continue to be positive, stating that: Independent workers will be able to continue to extend their reach to large corporations and even international clients. Self-employment allows individuals the freedom to avoid some types of corporate red tape, and choose when, where, and for whom they want to work.

Companies will, in turn, be able to hire talented, already-trained workers for one contract instead of an entire career, she continues. This can mean lowered expenses, which can result in either more profits or lower product costs for consumers  or both.

Aside from finding and recruiting talented contractors to work for them, this may be easy for businesses to adapt to. Freelancers, however, have some additional challenges that they will have to face to be successful in the gig economy.

Challenges Freelancers Face and How to Overcome Them

Many contracted workers start out their self-employed careers by being very, very good at their chosen profession. The problem is that self-employment requires freelancers to function as if theyre operating a small business to be successful, and many dont have the training or know where to start for this particular aspect.

There are several specific challenges that can hinder the gig economy and the self-employment niche. One of the biggest is to find, connect with, and build a reliable client base. This requires self-employed workers to market themselves, and many dont have the tools or resources to do so. Freelancers can utilize tools like Izhakis own Wiseintro to get access to the marketing resources they need. Izkahi and her company are continuing to develop resources that will make self-employment more accessible and manageable for more independent workers, knowing that the increasing gig economy will likely rely on it.

Izhaki believes that businesses should be developing tools to help accommodate the growing independent workforce. Project management tools, for example, can be used to help freelancers manage an array of clients and projects, even when their daily schedule is constantly changing, she states, Organization is one of the most important skills all self-employed workers need to be successful, and few quality tools in this niche are affordable enough for contracted workers.

Contracted workers will also lack the benefits  including healthcare  that may come with traditional employment in some countries. As a result, freelancers must consider these costs and factor them into their hourly rates.

Many freelancers also find it difficult to handle the financial aspect of their work. It can be difficult to get paid, know how much youve made, detect financial trends, and to track business expenses. The solution to this is reliable invoicing software that allows you to input all your business income and expenses, giving you all the information you need to continue growing your client base and profit.

Final Thoughts

Whether the job marketing improves or not, the gig economy is likely going to continue to grow, and its almost certain that well see increasing numbers of laborers who choose self-employment. With contracted workers having the tools they need at their disposal to work successfully in the gig economy, this can benefit both businesses  and consumers  of all types immensely.
As legal marijuana grows in popularity, domestic beer brewers are starting to take big profit hits in states where recreational pot is legal.

People are now spending their money on weed at a similar rate to alcohol states with legalization, especially among the younger generation. The shifting landscape is digging into the profits of the major brewers and craft brewers alike. MilllerCoors saw a 4.4 percent decline in sales of Coors Light over the past two years in Colorado, Washington and Oregon, where marijuana is legal for recreation use. Anheuser Busch-InBev saw a similar drop in sales of Bud Light in those three states, while sales for the companys flagship beers, Coors and Budweiser, experienced a 2.4 percent drop, reports Time

The data from research firm Cowen & Company concluded that the beer market has collectively underperformed due to the availability of marijuana.

While marijuana retail sales opened up in these markets at different points of time, with all three of these states now having fully implemented a retail infrastructure, the underperformance of beer in these markets has worsened over the course of 2016, Vivien Azer, Cowen and Companys managing director, told Brewbound. This is perhaps not surprising, given that U.S. government data for the states of CO, WA and OR all show consistent growth in cannabis incidence among 18-25 year olds, coupled with declines in alcohol incidence.

The drop in sales comes as marijuana consumers are buying pot at a similar rate to alcohol. The average adult in the U.S. spends roughly $645 on alcohol, while the average pot consumer spends roughly $640 on marijuana each year, reports MarketWatch.

Marijuana activists won major ballot victories on Election Day in states across the country. Medical marijuana legalization passed in Florida with 71 percent support and also secured passage in Arkansas and North Dakota. Voters in California, Nevada, Massachusetts and Maine all approved measures to legalize marijuana for recreational use. Arizonas initiative is the only recreational marijuana ballot that failed to pass.

The ballot victories mark a major turning point for marijuana reform activists, who won victories in Republican states. Following the results of the election, roughly 20 percent of Americans will have access to legal marijuana.

Republished by permission. Original here.
Credit: F. De Roose et al.

(Tech Xplore)Can we look at a future smart contact lens for those with eye problems? The iris, a key part of our eyes, modulates the amount of light reaching the retina, said researchers, and an estimated 200,000 individuals worldwide suffer from iris deficiencies.

These deficiencies bring discomfort and extreme photosensitivity, such as aniridia and leiomyoma.

Some early results in addressing these deficiencies were presented at IEEE's International Electron Devices Meeting this month. IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) is a forum for reporting breakthroughs in semiconductor and electronic device areas.

"An Active Artificial Iris Controlled by a 25-W Flexible Thin-Film Driver" was presented by the group of researchers reporting on the lens, its components, and research results thus far.

Imec (a research institute in nanoelectronics and digital technologies) in Leuven, Belgium and university researchers have been exploring an artificial iris system built on a contact lens that may ameliorate some of these iris difficulties.

The researchers said it comprises an organic thin-film photovoltaic mini-module as a power supply/integrated illumination sensor; a flexible thin-film a-IGZO circuit as a driver chip; and a liquid crystal display which acts as the iris.

They reported that the system showed low power consumption for the driver chips (25W) and that initial performance was promising.

Devin Coldewey writing in TechCrunch, said that while smart contact lenses have been treated by writers of science fiction for some time, "we're still waiting on them."

He said what was noteworthy about their effort was that it showed promised in advancing the technologyand also providing some therapeutic value.

As for tech advancements, Katherine Bourzac in IEEE Spectrum said that the artificial iris was part of a larger project on smart contact lenses led by Herbert De Smet, a professor at the University of Ghent. "De Smet's group is working on putting many electronic components onto these lenses, including batteries, antennas, control electronics, and chemical sensors."

As for people with eye injuries and other problems, this could help them too. Bourzac said, "it's difficult to see in low light when wearing sunglasses. And people with damaged irises may find that daylight is still too bright despite wearing tinted lenses. A contact lens that darkens to block out light and effectively constricts the pupil could help people to see better."

Coldewey said, "A contact lens that automatically changes its shade from totally transparent to as dark as a pair of sunglasses, as required by the ambient light, would fill this role nicely. That's exactly what De Smet's team has created."

De Smet is collaborating with De Roose and other researchers to make parts for the artificial iris system. Florian De Roose, a researcher at Imec (a research institution in nanoelectronics and digital technologies) in Leuven, Belgium.

In future systems, says De Roose in IEEE Spectrum, "the photovoltaics will act both as the light-level sensors and the LCD power source. "

Regarding the future, they see ample work ahead. "The lenses themselves are stretchy, but the transistors are merely flexible," said Bourzac. "The researchers will have to account for this mismatch, either by moving to stretchy materials or being very careful about the smart lens architecture."

Coldewey similarly summarized the research stages: "The parts are in place: the LCD-infused lens and the chip that controls it are solid, and the power system, a set of tiny photovoltaic cells, captures enough energybut the two have yet to be integrated. Once they are, the lenses will still, of course, need to be tested for safety."

More information: An Active Artificial Iris Controlled by a 25-W Flexible Thin-Film Driver, F. De Roose et al. IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting, 2016. An Active Artificial Iris Controlled by a 25-W Flexible Thin-Film Driver, F. De Roose et al. IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting, 2016. ieee-iedm.org/session-32-optoe  rs-imaging-displays/

 2016 Tech Xplore
Learning Resources

Google Unveils Graduation for G Suite

Google for Education earlier this week unveiled a new product to build out its G Suite for Education offering, as well as additional features for parents and guardians.

Next year, high school students transitioning to the next chapter of their lives will be able to keep all of their digital work without the hassle. Students will be able to copy emails and Drive files from their G Suite for Education accounts into another Google account before they leave the domain, according to the Google blog post announcement. This will enable students to easily retain their emails, essays, resumes, science projects and any other files stored on Google Drive if their school removes access to their old account.

Although the feature launches early in 2017, administrators can now adjust their Admin Console settings according to the needs of their schools (i.e. allowing access for one grade level at a time). Schools with Takeout enabled will have access to this feature by default.

For parents and guardians, Google is providing easier access to email summaries of student work in Google Classroom, allowing them to receive updates without a Google account.

The updates were revealed at Googles free, online conference, Education Air, held on Dec. 3. A video recording of the Education of Air Product Keynote explaining the new G Suite for Education features is available here. Further information is available on the Google blog.
Funding

Grants Support Teachers Pushing Blended and Online Learning

One teacher is developing open physics curriculum; another is evolving a tutoring program in a blended format; and a third is working on competency-based math lessons. All three of these instructors, alongside several others, have been the recipients of teacher grants from the Foundation for Blended and Online Learning intended to help them continue creating or expanding personalized learning programs that incorporate blended and online learning components.

The foundation is a charitable organization set up by K12, an education technology company that produces online curriculum for schools and families.

Educators from 33 states submitted proposals for grant amounts of up to $10,000, according to Amy Valentine, the organization's executive director. "Applications came from a variety of school types, including full-time district-based online, parochial, online charter and blended programs, as well as from traditional schools that do not currently have technology-rich programs in place," she said. "From this pool, seven grants were awarded to teachers transforming practice in their schools and districts using technology to personalize learning."

The grants are intended to support technology, tools, curriculum, platforms, planning and professional development.

Among those who received the grants was Peter Servidio, a fifth-grade teacher and coordinator of distance learning at Holy Savior School and Saint Dominic Academy in Maine, who is implementing a roadmap for delivering digital lessons to rural students and modeling a replicable program for Catholic schools in the state. Servideo received $10,000.

Steubing Elementary School's Vanessa Jimenez in San Antonio, TX received a grant to continue development of a blended dual-language kindergarten literacy program that uses online resources and allows students to compile digital portfolio for documentation of their work and their thoughts about it.

Micah Johnson, a seventh grade history teacher at Headland Middle School in Alabama, is developing project-based modules that use blended learning to help geography students living in a farming community connect to the land and their community.

Third-grade Teacher Julia Lyles at Heritage Elementary School in Kentucky is expanding an open, competency-based blended math model and curriculum for her students.

Joshua Miranda, a teacher at Massachusetts charter school City on a Hill, is working on a tutoring program for numeracy and literacy that uses OER content and personalized instruction in a blended learning environment.

Science educator Anthony Schmidt, who teaches at Schurz High School in Chicago, is using a flipped classroom model and open physics curriculum with his 11th graders.

In Washington's Eatonville High School, Patricia Shelton is continuing the transition to online of an alternative learning center, the Cruiser Success Center (CSC), which supports at-risk and over-aged students. "Equipped with more capable hardware and infrastructure, CSC can continue [its] mission to increase the graduation rate for students who might have traditionally dropped out due to academic, social or family demands and other obstacles," noted Valentine.

"The advancement of technology-rich learning environments should not be an exclusively top-down process," she added. "Entrepreneurial classroom leaders have always sown the seeds of innovative practice, inspiring new models of instruction that connect with students as individual learners and adapt to the tools and needs of an ever-evolving school and work environment. We are so proud to support these teachers as they design 'what's next' for students."

Grantees are expected to track and report on their progress and challenges over the next year as they continue working on their programs. Eventually, all recipients will share "evaluation reports" on the grant site to help other teachers advance their own instructional practices.
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson is on a testing tour of the Middle East after he accused UK ally Saudi Arabia of "puppeteering" proxy wars in the region.

The Cabinet minister was slapped down by Downing Street over his comments, with a spokeswoman for Theresa May telling Sky News his opinions were "not the Government's views" .

The spokeswoman said Mrs May has "full confidence" in Mr Johnson and noted he will have the opportunity to set out official policy - to strengthen ties with Saudi Arabia and support for its controversial military involvement in Yemen - while he is in Saudi Arabia on Sunday.

Mrs May spoke to Saudi King Salman during her visit to the Gulf region this week , where she assured him of "her commitment and that of her Government to enhancing and strengthening this relationship", the spokeswoman added.

Mr Johnson remained on message during a keynote speech at a regional conference in Bahrain on Friday night, as he told attendees that "any crisis in the Gulf is a crisis in Britain".

The Foreign Secretary also spoke of his "profound concern" for the people of Yemen, where a Saudi-backed coalition is launching airstrikes on Iran-aligned Shia rebels.

He said: "Force alone will not bring about a stable Yemen and that's why we in London have been working so hard with all our partners to drive that political process forwards."

A video of Mr Johnson speaking at the Med 2 conference in Rome last week revealed him saying that a lack of strong leadership meant politicians in the Middle East were "twisting and abusing religion and different strains of the same religion to further their own political objectives".

He was also recorded saying "you've got the Saudis, Iran, everybody, moving in and puppeteering and playing proxy wars".

The comments, revealed by The Guardian, go against established protocol where diplomats do not publicly criticise British allies.

Story continues

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "As the Foreign Secretary made very clear on Sunday, we are allies with Saudi Arabia and support them in their efforts to secure their borders and protect their people.

"Any suggestion to the contrary is wrong and misinterpreting the facts."

Peter Ford, former British ambassador to Syria, told Sky News that Mr Johnson had been handed "a warning".

He said: "I've never seen the likes of it in my 40 years of diplomatic experience and therefore Boris is skating on thin ice. But Boris being Boris he may well survive to fight another day."

Britain backs investigations into alleged breaches of human rights by the Saudi-backed coalition in Yemen, according to the PM's spokeswoman.

:: When do Boris Johnson's 'gaffes' become a liability?

Its airstrikes against Iran-aligned Shia rebels have resulted in the deaths of hundreds of civilians as the population struggles with starvation and disease.

The UK has lent military assistance, helping the Saudis pick targets, but the Ministry of Defence insists it is to ensure the country complies with the rules of war.

Britain is also a massive exporter of arms to the country.

Mr Johnson's criticism of Gulf states is another awkward entry in his diplomatic CV which includes a number of gaffes since his appointment in July.
The night of July 15 marked a distinct moment in Turkish democratic history as hundreds of thousands of Turks took to the streets to defy a coup attempt. Yet only a few months later, Turkish police moved to detain scores of members of parliament from pro-Kurdish opposition party HDP. In the months since the failed coup, tens of thousands of academics, journalists and civil society activists have been purged from their jobs, with many imprisoned. The governments war with the PKK has escalated dramatically. A new collection, based on a Project on Middle East Political Science workshop held in collaboration with Rice Universitys Baker Institute that included more than a dozen scholars of Turkey, poses a sobering question: Do we now have conclusive evidence that Turkey should no longer be considered a democracy?

The answer is more nuanced than a simple yes or no. The dramatic post-coup developments may be the political systems evolution into a hybrid regime: competitive authoritarianism.

As defined by Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way, in competitive authoritarian regimes, formal democratic institutions are widely viewed as the principal means of obtaining and exercising political authority. Incumbents violate those rules so often and to such an extent, however, that the regime fails to meet conventional minimum standards for democracy. Such political regimes blend democratic appearance with strong authoritarian features, ruling by velvet fist.

While the procedural democratic institutions operate in form, they are entirely devoid of substance. Executive, judicial, legislative, economic and media institutions are contorted in ways that advantage the governing party. Contemporary examples of competitive authoritarianism include Putins Russia, Orbans Hungary, Maduros  and formerly Chavezs  Venezuela, Mohamads Malaysia, Sissis Egypt and now Erdogans Turkey.

Understanding Turkeys evolution into such a hybrid regime helps reconcile the continuing importance of electoral institutions with the sharp deterioration in public freedoms. Well before the failed coup attempt, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had begun pushing for constitutional changes to replace the parliamentary system in Turkey with a presidential one, which would centralize power in the presidency and weaken key checks and balances built into the parliamentary system.

Erdogans moves toward autocratic rule have little to do with his Islamism and a great deal to do with an utterly normal quest for temporal power. Erdogans autocratic tendencies, as revealed during the past half decade, look like those of any leader who has been in power too long and become incapable of imagining a state without him in charge.

Turkeys democratic deterioration did not begin with this years failed coup. After years as a thriving democracy, data from Freedom House show that beginning in 2009, Turkey has experienced a sharply downward trend. Indicators of freedom of expression, pluralism, rule of law, freedom of association suffered the sharpest declines. This trend took a sharply downward turn around the Gezi Park protests in the summer of 2013 and fell again after the government escalated its confrontation with its Kurdish citizens following the AKPs weak performance in the June 2015 parliamentary election.

But this does not mean that the failed coup had no impact. Just as the Arab uprisings drove challenged regimes to more extreme forms of repression, the failed coup triggered Erdogans extreme sense of threat from domestic enemies. His assault on state and civil society institutions, particularly against the media and academia, goes far beyond the reasonable. Unfortunately, many of the state and societal institutions that he associates with that threat are also the institutions that would traditionally provide structural defense against authoritarian descent. The very real recent coup experience makes it more difficult to parse out what is meant as defensive protection against another putsch and what is an offensive move against political enemies.

One way to determine whether Turkey should be viewed as a democracy or as a hybrid regime is if it is possible for the government to actually change through elections. The intense debate among scholars of Turkey at last months POMEPS workshop highlights that the answer is not immediately obvious. Some irregularities notwithstanding, elections are still rated as mostly free and fair. Both the government and the opposition have expressed commitment to upholding the electoral process, rejecting extra-democratic interventions and honoring the peoples will. The militarys influence on the democratic process had already been greatly reduced before the coup, and civilian oversight over the military is established. And only 18 months ago, the AKP did fail to win a parliamentary majority.

But if the June 2015 election proved that the AKP could lose, it also proved the partys ability to remain in power despite defeat. Erdogan took advantage of the inability of his opponents to form a viable coalition and in August exercised his prerogative to call snap elections after the failure of coalition negotiations. The AKP then regained its majority in the November election. While deeply frustrating to Erdogans opponents, these political maneuvers fell well within the bounds of normal parliamentary politics. Less normal, however, was Erdogans decision to escalate war with the Kurds in the intervening period, effectively changing the political context to undermine the emergent HDP opposition party.

Since the failed coup, Erdogan has gone significantly further beyond the bounds of normal democratic politics in ways that could permanently change the systemic rules. The AKP has sought to channel the overwhelming outflow of support behind the democratically elected government into a more robust consolidation of power. This has most clearly been seen in the unprecedented purge against non-loyalists in the country. The AKP has accused the Islamist Gulen movement of sponsoring the coup, launching a shockingly wide ranging purge of alleged Gulenists in the bureaucracy and elsewhere. The purge has extended far beyond Gulenists, targeting Kurds, secular and liberal groups, and other political opponents.

The Turkish governments assault on the infrastructure of democratic political life poses the sharpest challenge to the notion that the country can remain a democracy. In particular, its failure to uphold press freedom and the scale of purges of the opposition and independent civil society suggests an intention to pursue domination.

The state of press freedom and Internet freedom has suffered the most, ultimately bringing Turkey into the league of most repressive regimes around the world. Since the declaration of the State of Emergency on July 20, the number of media outlets shut down by the government soared to more than 170, including newspapers, magazines, radio stations, publishers and TV stations. Currently, 145 journalists are imprisoned, making Turkey the worst jailer of journalists globally. Reporters Without Borders ranks Turkey 151 out of 180 countries worldwide in its 2016 World Press Freedom Index. Similarly, Turkey regularly slows or shuts down the Internet to certain regions, blocks access to social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and WhatsApp, and bars VPN services that help circumvent social media bans. On both press freedom and Internet freedom, Turkey has regressed into the not free category in Freedom House ratings.

Suppression of the media and the Internet primarily serves to stifle oppositional discourse and to intimidate critical voices, both of which are vital elements of democratic governance. A society that is ill-informed and collectively manipulated by censorship lacks the means to hold the government accountable for its actions.

A Turkish descent into autocracy has long been restrained not only by a robust democratic culture and strong civil society, but also by international alliances incentivizing democratic practice. Those international restraints have also weakened in recent years. Turkish foreign policy is quickly moving away from the historical anchors of democratization. Erdogan could not have helped but notice that the Obama administration did little in the face of Egypts military coup, Bahrains brutal sectarian repression, or the autocratic backsliding in most of its other regional allies. To this point, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has shown little interest in promoting democracy. Even if he did, American reliance on Turkey for its wars in Syria and Iraq, along with a rabidly anti-American nationalist discourse that dominates Turkish media, helps deflect any U.S. pressure on human rights or democracy. Meanwhile, the European Union has edged closer to suspending the long moribund European Union-Turkey accession talks. Turkeys ties to NATO have weakened to historically low levels, while Turkish-Russian security cooperation is picking up pace. The Turkish government has indicated willingness to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

Erdogans purge of political enemies, arrest of opposition politicians, and assault on political liberties, the media and civil society pose a direct and serious threat to the underpinnings of democracy. Many have also expressed their legitimate concerns about his bid to revise the constitution, concentrating powers in the presidency. Despite all this, the electoral system remains a silver lining, demonstrating the possibility  however distant it appears at this moment  for autocratic ambitions to be checked at the ballot box. As long as that chance exists, Turkeys slide to authoritarianism will remain partial and potentially reversible. But regional and international trends suggest that any such pushback will have to come from within.

  

Yildirim is a research scholar at Rice Universitys Baker Institute for Public Policy. He is the author of Muslim Democratic Parties in the Middle East: Economy and Politics of Islamist Moderation, (Indiana University Press, 2016). Lynch is a professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University, where he is the director of the Project on Middle East Political Science. He is also a non-resident senior fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Program and the co-director of the Blogs and Bullets project at the U.S. Institute of Peace. For other commentary from The Monkey Cage, an independent blog anchored by a group of political scientists from universities around the country, see www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage.

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The start of the most recent recession in 2008 may not have seemed like the best time to start a new business endeavor, but it worked out pretty well for Mosher Enterprises when it started Consolidated Solar Technologies. At any point in time, its tough to get a new business going, said CSTs James Mosher. Whether the economy is good or bad, its hard to get a business going. But it actually wasnt too bad. It wasnt that people didnt have money. They had money, they just werent spending it.

Mosher believes people were looking for a way to save money or invest it safely. Everybody wants to save, Mosher said. And we came in with a solution. You can invest X amount of dollars in your own property and it has a return on investment. Back then, the return on investment was 14.5 to 15 percent with a 5- year payoff. Thats hard not to look at it.

Solar a natural extension for Mosher

For Mosher Enterprises, moving into the solar industry was just a natural extension of what it already did in terms of electrical contracting. Its just a natural fit to do photovoltaics, Mosher said. Its 100 percent electric. In 2008 and 2009, it had already been going pretty big in California for a couple of years but it was starting to move this way pretty quick, so we tried to jump ahead of it and here we are.

CST is considered one of the largest, locally-owned solar companies in New Mexico. The company is consistently growing as the technology becomes more available financially for people.

An average system costs about $25,000, but it carries a 30 percent tax credit, Mosher said. And local credit unions like Nusenda, U.S. Eagle and Homewise in Santa Fe are carrying the notes on many of the companys customers.

Cant-miss investment

Its less than a car and it has a return on investment, Mosher said. And were working with the board of appraisers on how to properly appraise photovoltaic units on houses so they can add that value to the property, and mortgage companies are seeing that. Mortgage companies, when somebody refinances, can roll that amount into home mortgage. Were seeing about 95 percent of our customers buy solely on a financial decision. Maybe 5 percent do it because its the right thing to do or to reduce carbon footprint.

It makes for a cant-miss investment into a homeowners property, he said. The cool thing is on financed systems, the financed payment is usually a little bit less than what the electric bill was, Mosher said. Youre getting rid of the electric bill. I cant guarantee net zero, but its pretty dang close. Were pretty good at what we do. And the cool thing about it is five or seven years later when that loan is paid off, you really dont have an electric bill anymore. How cool is that?

Advances in technology

The industry has already come a long way since CST was formed, he said, as the technology becomes more mainstream. There were the early adopters, just like in the technology industry, Mosher said. Then it gets into the masses and then you have the late bloomers. Right now, were definitely into the masses, which I see continuing to about 2020 probably, then youre going to have your late bloomers. And just like the cellphone industry its going to loop back around to the early adopters again.

Thats where advances in the technology will improve the efficiency of the systems, he said. Its going to start going into a battery and- storage realm, in my opinion, Mosher said. Thats one of the things were focusing on long term, the battery-and-storage realm, but batteries arent efficient yet. Theyre getting better. There are still some safety concerns that I feel need to be addressed before it hits the mainstream. And there are the costs involved that have to come down. But the cost will come down.

They said that about solar, too, Mosher said. In 2008, the cost of solar was astronomical but the return was fantastic. Its going to be the same thing with the batteries. As it gets to the masses, the price point will come down. But as the prices come down, its a matter of simple economics, so does the return on investment. Its still a pretty good investment though at about 9.5 percent with a six- to seven-year payoff. And free electricity forever. These panels will outlive all of us.

Wealth of local knowledge

While the industry is making inroads, theres still a wealth of opportunity in the state, Mosher said. Theres never going to come a time in our lifetime, where solar power is going to out-power the power company, he said. Its just never going to happen. Weve installed a lot of solar, but still only about 2 percent of the state gets solar power. Wind is way, way bigger than solar.

Where CST has an advantage over other companies, Mosher believes, is that the family has been here since the 1800s and are a known commodity in the community. We show them what our warranties are, who we are, and at the end of the day, were still electrical contractors and weve been doing that for 35 years in New Mexico, he said. Were New Mexico born and raised and we believe in New Mexico. Thats one of the biggest deciding factors is that were local. I dont think price is a deciding factor. I think its more about warranty and whos going to be here to take care of any issues.

That local storehouse of knowledge also plays a big role in doing the work with New Mexicos unique architecture, Mosher said. You have to be very careful, very gentle, he said. Being that weve been here, were from New Mexico and we understand New Mexico construction. That gives us an advantage over some of our national competitors. We know how to treat adobe, how to cut adobe and we know how to drill through adobe. We know how not to put leaks in peoples flat roofs.
SANTA FE  State funding for public education in New Mexico is almost certain to be reduced further next year to offset plunging state revenues, the chairman of an influential state budget committee announced Thursday.

Democratic Sen. John Arthur Smith, chairman of the Legislative Finance Committee, which drafts the state budget, said lawmakers will be hard-pressed to avoid cuts to public schools as they work to reduce deficits linked to a downturn in the oil and natural gas sectors.

Were not going to be able to hold the education people whole, said Smith, as the Public Education Department presented a funding request for the coming fiscal year. Some of that hide is going to have to come out of education.

His comments came as Public Education Secretary Hanna Skandera urged lawmakers to maintain general fund spending for public education next fiscal year, after spending for the current fiscal year was cut by 2.5 percent in October.

The administration of Republican Gov. Susana Martinez has proposed tapping into cash balances at school districts to provide the state with an additional $120 million next year.

Public education accounts for 43 percent of state general fund spending, the largest share of state expenditures.

New Mexicos oil-dependent economy is reeling from a downturn in energy markets. Earlier this week, state economists said New Mexico was expected to collect far less revenue than previously forecast this year and next, due to lagging economic growth, employment and wages.

Skandera proposed a $2.6 billion education budget that would preserve direct, per-student funding to school districts. The proposal would also maintain funding to early childhood education, including pre-kindergarten spending and a program that extends school hours for about 20,000 struggling students.

At the same time, she suggested $4.5 million in cuts to initiatives designed to improve the performance of teachers and principals, to combat truancy and dropouts, and to support higher math instruction standards.

Albuquerque Public Schools Superintendent Raquel Reedy brought up the likelihood of additional cuts this week at a school board meeting.

We already are cutting $12.5 million, Reedy said. We anticipate we may have to cut a minimum of an additional $6.5 million, but it could be even higher. We already have a committee working on ideas, and have asked departments to help determine where they could make further cuts as well.

Lawmakers indicated they will to take up legislation designed to save education dollars by placing a moratorium on new charter schools, reducing the extra funding allowance to small schools and possibly merging school districts. A 60-day legislative session begins in mid-January.

Journal Staff Writer Kim Burgess contributed to this report.
TUCSON, Ariz.  The Arizona Supreme Court has granted a motion for expedited consideration in the Tucson guns case.

Tucson will stop destroying guns seized by police while the city fights a new state law that could cost it millions of dollars in shared revenue.

The Tucson City Council on Tuesday unanimously voted for a temporary stop until a court rules on the matter.

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich immediately asked the state Supreme Court to weigh in on whether the city is violating the 2013 law banning destruction of guns.

Tucson could lose more than $170 million in yearly shared revenue if the states high court rules against it and the city keeps on destroying guns.

The court will consider whether to take the case at its Jan. 10 motions session.
ATMORE, Ala.  A man who killed an Alabama convenience store clerk more than two decades ago was put to death Thursday night, an execution that required two consciousness tests as the inmate heaved and coughed 13 minutes into the lethal injection.

Ronald Bert Smith Jr., 45, was pronounced dead at 11:05 p.m., about 30 minutes after the procedure began at the state prison in southwest Alabama.

Smith was convicted of capital murder in the Nov. 8, 1994, fatal shooting of Huntsville store clerk Casey Wilson. A jury voted 7-5 to recommend a sentence of life imprisonment, but a judge overrode that recommendation and sentenced Smith to death.

Smith heaved and coughed repeatedly, clenching his fists and raising his head at the beginning of the execution. A prison guard performed two consciousness checks before the final two lethal drugs were administered.

In a consciousness test, a prison officer says the inmates name, brushes his eyelashes and then pinches his left arm. During the first one, Smith moved his arm. He slightly raised his right arm again after the second consciousness test.

The meaning of those movements will likely be debated. One of Smiths attorneys whispered to another attorney, Hes reacting, and pointed out the inmates repeated movements.

The state prison commissioner said he did not see any reaction to the consciousness tests.

We do know we followed our protocol. We are absolutely convinced of that, Alabama Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn said Thursday evening. There will be an autopsy that will be done on Mr. Smith and if there were any irregularities those will hopefully be shown or born out in the autopsy. I think the question is probably better left to the medical experts, Dunn said when asked if the movements indicated the states process should be changed.

Alabama uses the sedative midazolam as the first drug in a three-drug lethal injection combination. Smith and other inmates argued in a court case that the drug was an unreliable sedative and could cause them to feel pain, citing its use in problematic executions. The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the use of the drug.

Smith replied, No maam when asked by the prison warden if he had any final words. A member of Wilsons family, who was not identified, witnessed the execution. The victims family did not make a statement.

Wilson was pistol-whipped and then shot in the head during the robbery, court documents show. Surveillance video showed Smith entering the store and recovering spent shell casings from the bathroom where Wilson was shot, according to the record.

In overriding the jurys recommendation at the 1995 trial, a judge likened the slaying to an execution, saying Wilson had already been pistol-whipped into submission and Smith ignored his pleas for mercy. Wilson had a newborn infant at the time of his death.

The trial court described Smiths acts as an execution style slaying. Tonight, justice was finally served, Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange said in a statement after the execution.

U.S. Supreme Court justices twice paused the execution as Smiths attorneys argued for a delay, saying a judge shouldnt have been able to impose the death penalty when a jury recommended he receive life imprisonment.

Four liberal justices said they would have halted the execution, but five were needed to do so.

Smiths attorneys had urged the nations highest court to block the planned execution to review the judges override.

Smiths lawyers argued a January decision that struck down Floridas death penalty structure because it gave too much power to judges raises legal questions about Alabamas process. In Alabama, a jury can recommend a sentence of life without parole, but a judge can override that recommendation to impose a death sentence. Alabama is the only state that allows judicial override, they argued.

Alabama is alone among the states in allowing a judge to sentence someone to death based on judicial fact finding contrary to a jurys verdict, attorneys for Smith wrote Wednesday.

Lawyers for the state argued in a court filing Tuesday that the sentence was legally sound, and that it is appropriate for judges to make the sentencing decision.

Smith, the son of a NASA contract employee, became an Eagle Scout at 15, but his life spiraled downward because of alcoholism, according to a clemency request to Alabamas governor. He had a final meal of fried chicken and french fries and was visited during the day by his parents and son.

Alabama has been attempting to resume executions after a lull caused by a shortage of execution drugs and litigation over the drugs used.

The state executed Christopher Eugene Brooks in January for the 1993 rape and beating death of a woman. It was the states first execution since 2013. Judges stayed two other executions that had been scheduled this year.
Copyright  2016 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  After an election cycle marked by the erosion of previous GOP gains in the Legislature, New Mexico Republican Party activists will gather this weekend in Albuquerque to select a new party chairman amid a backdrop of discord.

The race between Ryan Cangiolosi, who holds a high-profile position at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, and businessman John Rockwell comes after a period of infighting within the party and the loss of seats in both legislative chambers.

Cangiolosi, a former state GOP official and officer in the Navy Reserve, has touted his broad range of experience. Rockwell has cited his business acumen and compared his candidacy to that of President-elect Donald Trump.

Due to his position at the Health Sciences Center, Cangiolosi has faced questions about the appearance  and appropriateness  of simultaneously holding a high-paying job there and, if elected, a state party chairmanship.

Cangiolosis job as project director for the Health Sciences Center involves community outreach, managing key projects and advising on the centers legislative strategies. He said Thursday that his job does not include lobbying duties  Cangiolosi is not a registered lobbyist  and that he would do all his work as state GOP chairman on his own time.

In a statement, the center said that while UNM policy allows employees to participate in political activity on their own time, it would develop a conflict-of-interest management plan with Cangiolosi, should he win election, to avoid the potential for perceived conflicts.

The UNM Health Sciences Center also said in its statement that university policy allows employees to engage in political activities, so long as they do so on their own personal time and do not use UNM resources. The policy also bars UNM employees from serving in the Legislature but does not mention other elected offices. The Legislature appropriates millions of taxpayer dollars to UNM and the Health Sciences Center each year.

Mr. Cangiolosi is a valued asset for the university, and his willingness to assume a leadership role in this manner brings greater value to the community as a whole, the statement also said.

Different backgrounds

Meanwhile, Cangiolosi says his connections with county-level GOP officials around the state would allow him to quickly start preparing for the 2018 election cycle, in which New Mexico will elect a new governor. Several other statewide offices will also be on that years ballot.

Its time for all Republican leadership to work together so were victorious in 2018, he said in a Thursday interview. I understand what it takes to win.

Rockwell had a different take on the race: The choice this time is going to be between a political operative and a businessman, and there are differences. I think this is the year for change.

Rockwell, who has previously run to be state GOP chairman, owns and runs two Albuquerque-area manufacturing businesses  Sierra Peaks and Marpac, which together have about 100 employees.

In a letter to GOP central committee members, Rockwell blamed intraparty divisions for this years GOP losses at the ballot box  Democrats retook control of the state House and expanded their majority in the Senate  and called on Republicans to turn the tide against progressive liberalism in New Mexico.

And in a recent interview, Rockwell said he is not aligned with any faction of the state party, adding, When were working against each other, it makes it harder to share our values.

Before landing the UNM Health Sciences Center job, Cangiolosi worked as a deputy chief of staff for Gov. Susana Martinez and worked as her campaign manager in 2010.

But he has close ties to Harvey Yates Jr., a former state Republican Party chairman who has been critical in recent years of both Martinezs governing style and her political adviser, Jay McCleskey. Earlier this year, Yates defeated longtime incumbent Pat Rogers, who has been closely linked to the Martinez administration, for a state post on the Republican National Committee.

In addition to support from Yates, Cangiolosi has received endorsements from U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce and former U.S. Rep. Bill Redmond, among other New Mexico Republicans.

PR, organizing

The campaign fundraising influence of political parties in New Mexico has waned in recent years, due in large part to the proliferation of political committees, especially so-called super PACs, which do not have to abide by the states contribution limits.

However, parties still play a key public relations role, in addition to organizing efforts to get out the vote and other duties.

The election of the state Republican Party chairman will happen Sunday in Albuquerque. There are roughly 540 members of the GOP central committee, though not all of them are expected to be present. As of the start of this month, 31 percent of New Mexicos registered voters  or slightly more than 400,000  were Republicans, according to the Secretary of States Office.

Outgoing state GOP Chairwoman Debbie Maestas, who has held the position since late 2014, announced after the Nov. 8 election that she would not seek election to a second two-year term.

Democrats will elect state party leaders of their own at an internal meeting in April 2017.
Alex O. Romero will be leaving big shoes for someone to fill at one of the nations largest Hispanic chambers of commerce. He will be stepping down as president and CEO of the Albuquerque Hispano Chamber of Commerce in April.

Romero, a retired banker, joined the chamber in 2004. During his 12-year tenure at the helm of the organization, the second phase at the chambers $5 million facility on 4th Street was built. Over the years, the chamber has garnered several impressive awards, including being named national Chamber of the Year by the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in 2014. It is the only Hispanic chamber of commerce in the U.S. with a Convention and Tourism Department.

The chamber, which was founded in 1975 and now has almost 1,500 members, a staff of 23 and a $3 million budget, focuses on small businesses. According to its mission statement, the chamber is organized to promote economic development, to enhance economic development opportunities and to provide business and workforce education with an emphasis on the Hispanic and Small Business Community in Albuquerque and New Mexico. That said, non-Hispanic-owned businesses are welcome and make up about 30 percent of its membership.

Romero will leave an indelible imprint of excellence on the Albuquerque business community.

This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.
ACOMA PUEBLO  President Obamas careful use of federal law in designating two national monuments in New Mexico likely would withstand any attempt by President-elect Trump to abolish them, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell said Thursday.

Jewell also called on tribal leaders to speak with one voice to pressure the French government to crack down on the sale of Native American sacred objects.

Jewell defended Obamas decision to designate the 496,000-acre Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument in southern New Mexico as an area that warrants protection because of historical and tribal significance.

Obama also designated the 243,000-acre Rio Grande del Norte National Monument in Taos County under the 110-year-old Antiquities Act, which allows presidents to create monuments by presidential proclamation.

Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, head of the House Committee on Natural Resources, has criticized Obamas designation of 28 national monuments as an excessive use of power and has called on Trump to trim or abolish some monuments.

No president has undone monument designations made by a previous president, so it has not been legally tested, Jewell said after touring the Sky City Community School, an Acoma Pueblo elementary school.

We do believe that the process that weve gone through, and the careful use of the Antiquities Act by President Obama, will stand the test of time, said Jewell, whose tenure will end when Trump is inaugurated Jan. 20.

The Antiquities Act has been used by 16 presidents since it was passed in 1906, Jewell said.

I think this is an important tool that most presidents would not choose to give up or to modify, but I cant speculate on what might happen next, she said.

New Mexico Sens. Martin Heinrich and Tom Udall, and Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, all Democrats, have said they will defend the monuments from any attempts to abolish them.

But Rep. Steve Pearce, the states only Republican member of Congress, has said the size of the Organ Mountains monument should be reduced. He previously sought a 60,000-acre monument.

Jewell planned to visit Las Cruces today, where she is expected to seek public support for the Organ Mountains monument.

Also on Thursday, Jewell called the selling of Native American sacred objects a crime that has grown in scale and profitability in recent years because of the involvement of French auction houses.

Tribal communities would benefit from organizing in a way that they can speak with one voice to the French authorities to put political pressure on the French government and discourage potential buyers of sacred objects, she said.

Acoma Pueblo Gov. Kurt Riley said Thursday that an Acoma shield, considered a sacred object by the pueblo, remains in the possession of the EVE Auction House in Paris, seven months after it was first put up for sale.

The shield has become a test case in a dispute between the U.S. and France over the ownership of Native American sacred objects, Riley said.
Daniel Sena, a Santa Fe native, was named executive director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in Washington on Thursday, marking the first time that a Hispanic has held the job.

Sena was tapped for the influential post by Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, who will serve a second term as chairman of the DCCC in the next Congress. The move puts two New Mexicans in charge of the Democratic strategy to gain U.S. House seats in the 2018 mid-term elections.

Sena, 41, managed Sen. Tom Udalls successful 2014 Senate campaign and was serving as the DCCCs deputy executive director, with a focus on data and analytics, before Thursdays announcement. Under Senas leadership, the DCCCs data and analytics team doubled in size from a dozen to 24, making it the second-largest department at the political organization. Lujan described his new top lieutenant as aggressive, hardworking and inclusive in a statement released by the DCCC on Thursday.

Dan has a proven record in the toughest of House and statewide races, from West Virginia and Missouri to Nevada and New Mexico, Lujan said. He has modernized our data and voter contact programs, thanks to his unique ability to do a deep dive into district data and demographics, while also being able to translate that into action.

I know he will excel in protecting incumbents, working with members and candidates, and going on offense to hold House Republicans accountable in 2018.

For his part, Sena said it was a great honor and privilege to be asked to lead the DCCC in this exciting and challenging role. In the coming months, Sena will be responsible for helping Lujan devise a strategy to whittle away at what is now a 24-seat GOP majority in the House.

The DCCC is already getting to work, focused on protecting all members of the Democratic caucus in their re-elections, finding new opportunities for gains in our battlefield and taking on House Republicans starting Day One, Sena said. We know that the House is where the fight will be this cycle in order to put a check on Republicans, and Im excited to take on this important responsibility.

Fetal tissue: A long-standing dispute between House Republicans and Democrats over fetal tissue research  with New Mexico institutions at the center of the debate  is sure to rage on in the next Congress.

After House Republicans doubled funding for the Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives last week, Democrats countered this week by releasing a 112-page report describing the panels GOP-led work as a purely partisan witch hunt against researchers and doctors. The Democratic report is posted online at www.selectpaneldems-energycommerce.house.gov.

When Congress spends well over a million taxpayer dollars, hardworking Americans should expect that something good will result  that their lives will be made better, Rep. Jan Schakowsky of Illinois, ranking Democratic member of the select panel, in a statement. Here, the results are the exact opposite.

The panel has scrutinized the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center and its relationship with Southwestern Womens Options, an Albuquerque abortion services provider. Fetal tissue research, while aimed at medical breakthroughs, is controversial because of its use of fetal tissue procured from abortions.

Michael Coleman: mcoleman@abqjournal.com
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.  A court ruling has dashed any hopes one southern New Mexico county had to address fire danger on national forest lands due to the inaction of the federal government.

The federal appeals court in Denver found that Otero Countys resolution to treat overgrown areas of the Lincoln National Forest along with a state statute enabling counties to take action under certain circumstances conflicted with federal law.

A 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel said the case was a question of constitutional power and that federal law pre-empted both the state statute and the countys resolution.

New Mexico enacted the so called self-help law for local communities in 2001, just months after a prescribed fire on federal land escaped from managers and raced across tinder-dry mountainsides and into Los Alamos. The town was evacuated before the flames destroyed hundreds of homes and forced the temporary closure of one of the nations premiere nuclear weapons laboratories.

The statute pointed to the inaction of the federal government to reduce the risk to lives and property and enabled commissioners in those counties in which a disaster had been declared to take actions necessary to clean and thin undergrowth or remove or log trees within the disaster area after consulting with the U.S. Forest Service.

Otero County passed its resolution in May 2011. The threat of wildfire was worsening as New Mexico headed into what ultimately became an unprecedented drought.

Over three-quarters of the county is federal land, so the county declared an emergency and a disaster after federal officials closed the Sacramento Ranger District due to drought and high fire danger.

The county then hired a consultant to prepare a plan for restoring thousands of acres of forest land by thinning trees and removing dead material. The Forest Service didnt approve and took the case to court.

The appellate decision backs up a 2015 lower court ruling.

The courts stated theres no dispute that a local government can exercise its police powers to mitigate fire danger within its territorial boundaries, but federal regulation requires permission of the Forest Service before anyone can cut or otherwise damage any timber, free or other forest product in a national forest.

The appeals court pointed to precedent, saying the U.S. Supreme Court has found that the property clause of the U.S. Constitution gives the federal government legislative and police power over federal property. Although state and local governments can ordinarily exercise their police powers over federal land within their boundaries, those powers must yield when they conflict with federal law.

The court, however, declined to address questions about whether the county can hold the Forest Service liable under federal common law for maintaining a public nuisance  in this case extreme fire risk  on federal land.

County Commission chairwoman Susan Flores said she had not yet reviewed the ruling but noted that fire danger is something the county is still living with.

Some of the fires weve had have been devastating, she said.

Just this summer, on the southern edge of the Lincoln National Forest, flames destroyed dozens of homes and other buildings in the village of Timberon.
LAS CRUCES  A recent promotion designed to increase state transportation funding for Las Cruces Public Schools is being called a success. Ride the Bus to School Day, which took place Dec. 1, increased ridership by just more than five percent, district officials say.

Dec. 1 was the 80th school day of the year and the New Mexico Public Education Department allots transportation funding, in part, on the average ridership on the 80th day and 120th day  which will fall on Feb. 8. The state also factors in the mileage from that day, according to Van Wamel, general manager of STS-NM, the private company contracted to provide bus services to LCPS.

The promotion aimed to increase ridership on that audit day  and thereby increase state funding  by giving students who rode the bus a chance to win a variety of high-tech gadgets and toys. STS-NM will give away about $3,000 in prizes to students who rode the bus.

Prizes for elementary school students include five learning tablets and one Mario Kart game system. Middle- and high-school students will have a chance to win a Samsung Gear virtual reality headset, a PS4 game system, two pair of Beats wireless headphones and a Nomad wireless outdoor speaker set.

The company also purchased three grand prizes, available to all students. These include a 39-inch flat-screen TV, a $600 Phantom drone with an on-board camera and an $800 Segway, Wamel said.

Our ridership did increase  and significantly, said David Del Toro, LCPS transportation director. Last year on Dec. 1, LCPS reported 7,255 bus riders. This year we will be reporting 7,625 riders.

Historically, the district has struggled with transportation funding, in part because of low ridership on the audit days. Typically, the district must supplement state funding with about $300,000 out of its operating budget.

During this years special legislative session, transportation funding around the state was cut by about $12 million for the current fiscal year. About $515,000 of that came from reductions to the LCPS transportation budget.

At first, we thought the promotion didnt have a significant impact, Del Toro said. We didnt have any bus overloads that day, or any calls for additional drivers. But as we started entering the numbers for each bus, we began to see that it was successful. Whats more, some students are going to get some really nice Christmas gifts this year.

The prizes will be awarded next week, according to Wamel. The district must first verify that the students whose names were drawn were registered bus riders, attended school all day that day and rode on their assigned bus.

I think it was a success, Wamel said of the promotion. I dont know exactly how the formula works, but a five percent increase in riders over last year should help with the districts funding. The word got out, and we saw more students riding the bus.

Wamel said he is considering repeating the promotion for the 120th-day audit, and that he will begin working to secure sponsorships from local businesses to help provide even more prizes.

Damien Willis may be reached at 575-541-5468, dawillis@lcsun-news.com or @damienwillis on Twitter.



2016 the Las Cruces Sun-News (Las Cruces, N.M.)

Visit the Las Cruces Sun-News (Las Cruces, N.M.) at www.lcsun-news.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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EL PASO, Texas  Ramon De La Rosa predicts that itll take President-Elect Donald Trump just six months to make America great again.

The 73-year-old is enthusiastically ready to see Trump bring back jobs from places like China and to stop taxing hard-working Americans to pay for food stamps and other entitlement programs.

When Trump launched his presidential campaign and labeled Mexicans illegally entering the country as rapists, criminals and drug dealers, De La Rosa, who was born in Mexico, crossed the border and became a U.S. resident at 17, was not offended. It also didnt phase him that Trump pledged to build a massive wall along the border here in an effort to keep people just like him out.

I know he didnt mean that about all Mexicans, De La Rosa said, noting that Trump just talks like a tontito, a Spanish term meaning fool. He knows nothing about politics, and nothing about speaking politically correct.

Counter to what many polls and pundits expected, De La Rosa  who for decades was not a U.S. citizen and earned the right to vote just a decade ago  was among the 29 percent of Hispanic voters across the U.S. who chose Trump on Election Day, according to exit polls. He was one of thousands of El Pasoans here who are celebrating Trumps victory and are looking forward to his inauguration; Trump received 26 percent of the vote in this border area, which includes the city of El Paso and five small rural cities in the far west corner of Texas.

Many thought Trump would fare far worse among Latinos than he did, largely because of his anti-Mexican and anti-immigrant comments. While many in El Paso say they dont agree with all of Trumps approaches  he fared worse among Latinos than previous Republican nominees for president  many who voted for him had single issues in mind: Some chose Trump because they want to see restrictions on abortion, others said they think Trump will bring more jobs back to the United States, some hope he will limit entitlement programs. Some, not born in the United States, are against illegal immigration and believe Trump will be successful in reforming the immigration system, something they believe Democrats failed to do in the past eight years.

Trumps apparent anti-Mexican insults werent enough to turn off many voters in this border town, including Cecilia Kazhe.

Kazhe, 45 and a native of Chihuahua, Mexico, was shocked when she first encountered racism in America, that time a co-worker used a slur against her decades ago.

You are nothing but a wetback,' Kazhe recalled the colleague saying, using a derogatory term for Mexicans who illegally cross the nearby Rio Grande from Mexico into the United States. She would say wetback like it was a dirty name, but I never saw myself that way.

Did Trumps attack on Mexicans echo those insults? Kazhe said they werent a major problem for her.

At the end of the day, they are just words, said Kazhe, who became a U.S. citizen when she was 17. I know I am a productive citizen. Those words dont represent me, so it didnt bother me at all.

The fact that De La Rosa sees Trump as a better advocate for America, his adoptive home, was more important than anything Trump might have said during the campaign.

De La Rosa likes to ask educated people a simple question: Where does Santa Claus come from? He gets answers like the North Pole, Europe and the universe.

Wrong, wrong and wrong, De La Rosa replies: Santa Claus comes from China.

Everything he is wearing: shoes, socks, underwear, says made in China. That means he must be from China, De La Rosa said with a chuckle, noting that he voted for Trump because he believes he will bring jobs back to the U.S. from overseas. Hes going to make this country better. 

El Paso, a city on the southernmost point of the Rocky Mountains with more than 680,000 residents, is so close to Mexico that a wrong exit on Interstate 10 brings motorists to the port-of-entry with Juarez. Mexican students cross the border to attend local U.S. schools and the University of Texas at El Paso, which is separated from Mexico by just the highway and the Rio Grande. Popular Mexican steakhouses, seafood and taco restaurants from Cuidad Juarez have locations spread across the U.S. city.

Theres already a large rusted steel fence that hugs much of the border. Even staunch Trump supporters here laugh at the idea that building a large wall is going to stop anyone from coming in.

Adolpho Telles, the head of the Republican Party in El Paso, was surprised by how well Trump fared among Latino voters nationally and in El Paso. About 81 percent of El Paso residents are Hispanic and longtime Democrats. A Republican presidential candidate has not won in El Paso County in more than two decades.

We would be visiting people around the community and they would whisper, I am going to vote for Trump,' Telles said. People felt they had to whisper it here because you would get criticized.

Clinton won El Paso by a wide margin, garnering 68 percent of the vote.

Jenny Carrillo, 58, was among that majority, and she said she expected Clinton to receive the same overwhelming support across the country. Carrillo, whose mother came to El Paso illegally, found Trumps comments about Mexicans extremely offensive, and she feels like many Trump supporters have forgotten that the U.S. is a country of immigrants.

She is still mourning Clintons loss a month later.

I cried so much, Carrillo said. It was so discouraging, not just for me and my candidate, but I feel scared about whats going to happen to our country.

Not De La Rosa.

Still in construction, De La Rosa says he can break a concrete slab better than his 20-year-old colleagues. De La Rosa has done jobs in construction or in agriculture  picking cotton and other crops  since he was a little boy, and hes not even sure he finished the first grade.

His family moved around a lot, chasing seasonal crops in the United States. His father was a Bracero, a Mexican laborer allowed into the United States for a limited time as a seasonal agricultural worker. De La Rosa was able to get his residency when his brother became a U.S. citizen in 1960.

De La Rosa became a U.S. citizen 10 years ago. At his home on the west side of El Paso, joined by his two daughters, De La Rosa said he is tired of working hard and seeing the government raise taxes to support others who are not motivated to better themselves. His daughters agree.

The harder you work, the more the government penalizes you, said Veronica De La Rosa, 46. If you are poor, then you stay poor because the government will give you everything you need.

While De La Rosa and his daughters were drawn to Trumps economic policies, Ismael Aguayo, 31, and his wife Darlene, 30, were drawn to Trumps pro-life stance. More than half of El Pasoans are Catholic or Evangelical Christian, according to the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies.

Aguayo and his wife were both raised in Evangelical Christian households. They are now raising their two daughters, 8-year-old Darlene and 4-year-old Victoria, the same way. They attend a church in West El Paso, and Aguayo is a member of the churchs advisory council.

Aguayo, who grew up in a rural town outside of El Paso, said he and his wife are not fully supportive of Trump and his agenda, but a vote for Trump was a vote for godly principles that give unborn children a chance at life. While he and his wife love homosexuals because Jesus loved us no matter what our sin was, they also dont support same-sex marriage.

His vote for Trump was a vote for at least one conservative Supreme Court justice, he said.

Somehow or another we did feel that his principles were more aligned to that of a God-fearing person, Aguayo said.

Kazhe, who worked for 15 years as a nurse in a newborn intensive care unit, also is anxiously awaiting the appointment of a conservative Supreme Court justice because she said abortion is nothing more than murder.

Her husband Peter, who is part Mescalero Apache, also voted for Trump. He spent eight years in the Marine Corps and is now a firefighter.

They believe they have had to keep their support for Trump a bit of a secret because of the negative reaction they tend to get from friends and co-workers. Another firefighter even asked Peter how he can call himself a Christian and support the president-elect.

Their 24-year-old son, who did not vote in the presidential election, was in disbelief. He questioned how Kazhe  a woman and a Mexican immigrant  could have voted for someone who made vulgar comments about sexual assault, wants to stymie immigration and broadly insulted Mexicans.

I know thats not who I am, so his words dont offend me, Kazhe said. And I also know my people arent like that.

trump-latinos
The Armys Criminal Investigation Command has reopened its investigation of an Afghanistan war hero who Army officials said confessed to killing an unarmed Taliban detainee.

The service is again scrutinizing former Maj. Mathew Golsteyn after he appeared in a Fox News television interview in October and acknowledged that he had killed a Taliban bombmaker who had been held as a detainee during the bloody battle of Marja in February 2010. The bombmaker was not on a list of targets that U.S. forces had been cleared to kill, according to Army documents; Golsteyn said that letting go of the insurgent meant the Taliban member could later target Afghans who are helping U.S. troops.

You realize quickly that you make things worse, Golsteyn said in the interview. It is an inevitable outcome that people who are cooperating with coalition forces, when identified, will suffer some terrible torture or be killed.

Golsteyn first acknowledged killing the detainee during a polygraph test while he was interviewing for a job with the CIA in 2011. A lengthy military probe followed. Army documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act last year show that the service investigated Golsteyn on charges of murder and conspiracy but closed the case after determining that it did not have any evidence to prosecute. The results of his polygraph would not be admissible in court, defense officials said.

Lt. Col. Jennifer Johnson, an Army spokeswoman, said in a statement that it would be inappropriate to comment further regarding an ongoing investigation. A spokesman for Army Criminal Investigation Command, Christopher Grey, declined to comment.

Golsteyn said Thursday in an email to The Washington Post that he was frustrated, but not terribly surprised that the Army reopened its investigation into his actions. He declined to discuss what happened the day the bombmaker died, but said the Defense Department and Army has viciously pursued me without a discernible cause or a stated goal for over five years.

Golsteyn led a team from 3rd Special Forces Group, of Fort Bragg, North Carolina, that had a unit of Marines deployed alongside it during the bloody Battle of Marja in February 2010. Two Marines under his command  Sgt. Jeremy McQueary, 27, and Lance Cpl. Larry Johnson, 19  were killed and three more were wounded Feb. 18 after a metal sliding door booby-trapped with explosives detonated.

Two days later, Golsteyn watched a Taliban marksman nearly hit another Marine who was manning a rooftop observation post on their base. He launched an 80-man mission to hunt the shooter down, slogging through a muddy field under fire to help a wounded Afghan soldier, returning fire with an antitank weapon, and coordinating repeated airstrikes by F/A-18 Hornet fighter jets and a Predator drone. He was awarded a Silver Star, the militarys third-highest award for combat valor, and service officials later recommended an upgrade to the more prestigious Distinguished Service Cross.

Army documents show that Golsteyns unit launched a search for bombmaking supplies in the area after the deaths of Johnson and McQueary, and detained the man Golsteyn confessed to killing. A tribal leader working with the Americans identified the detainee as a member of the Taliban but worried the detainee knew who had singled him out. The tribal leaders immediate fear: If Golsteyns unit let the detainee go, he would kill him and his family.

Golsteyn told the CIA during his polygraph test that he trusted the tribal leader and had no qualms about killing the detainee because he couldnt have lived with himself if [the suspected bombmaker] killed another Soldier or Marine, Army documents said. During Golestyns interview with the CIA, according to investigators, he described taking the bombmaker off the base, shooting him and burying his remains in a shallow grave. Golsteyn added that later that night, he and two other soldiers dug up the remains, brought them back to their base and burned them in a pit used to dispose of trash.

Golsteyn and his attorneys have long maintained that the Armys characterization of events is filled with exaggerations and leaps of logic. No other service members would serve as witnesses against Golsteyn, even when investigators offered immunity from prosecution. Then-Army Secretary John McHugh stripped Golsteyn of his valor award in fall 2014, and the Army also revoked his Special Forces tab and reassigned him as a conventional infantry soldier.

Golsteyn said in his email to The Post that his case was reopened despite an Army administrative board determining last year that the murder accusation against him was unfounded. The panel did find that Golsteyn demonstrated conduct unbecoming an officer and recommended a general discharge under honorable conditions, ensuring he could keep health benefits.

Senior defense officials, Golsteyn said, continue to talk tough about the fight against the Islamic State group while they mischaracterize my combat actions as murder.' He compared his case to that of another officer, former 1st Lt. Clint Lorance, who was convicted of second-degree murder in 2013 for ordering his soldiers to open fire on village elders in Afghanistan who were approaching his unit while they were on patrol. Several member of Lorances platoon testified against him after being offered immunity.

I am filled with moral disgust that such individuals can continue to wreak such havoc on our warfighters without consequence, Golsteyn said, adding that he does not regret doing the TV interview because it was important to speak out on how soldiers are restricted in combat.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, R.-Calif., a member of the House Armed Services Committee who has clashed with the Army repeatedly about Golsteyns treatment, said Thursday that he was disgusted with the Armys decision to reopen the case. Gen. Mark Milley, the Armys top officer, and Army Secretary Eric Fanning told Hunter that they cannot stop the investigation at this point, Hunter said.

Matt Golsteyn is an American hero. Matt Golsteyn does for the American people what we ask him to do, and the Army is screwing him again, Hunter said. Im embarrassed for the U.S. Army  and they ought to be embarrassed.

In a letter sent Wednesday to Milley and Fanning, Hunter wrote that they have the ability to fix this stupidity.

A senior Army official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case, said a complaint on the Armys handling of the case has been filed with the Defense Department Inspector General. Until that is resolved, the official said, the case is on hold.

army-investigation
HENRICO, Va.  An early morning fire at a central Virginia marina destroyed about a dozen boats Friday, sinking some and sending others ablaze down the James River.

No injuries were reported in the blaze at the Richmond Yacht Basin, said Capt. Taylor Goodman of the Henrico Fire Department.

Fire officials estimate 12 to 15 boats were likely destroyed, Goodman said, along with part of a boat storage structure.

The problem is, so much of the structure over the boats has collapsed down on it, its hard to tell the extent of the damage, he said.

The blaze was first reported about 7 a.m. by a neighbor who went to the scene and alerted people staying on their boats, Goodman said.

Mitch Romig, from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, was renting a houseboat at the marina for the night, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported.

We heard someone running around saying the marina was on fire. So we got up and got off the boat as quickly as we could, he told the newspaper. It was pretty big already (when we got off the boat). I dont know how many boats on the end were all already  on fire  pretty big flames.

Images from the area show a plume of smoke visible from several miles away.

Some of the vessels were floating downriver on fire late Friday morning. Five or six boats have sunk, marina President Max Walraven said.

A Henrico County fire boat was trapped by the burning dock and sustained quite a bit of damage, Goodman said.

Its not yet clear what started the blaze.

Goodman said he expects firefighters to be at the scene the rest of the day Friday and possibly into Saturday.

The marina is in southeastern Henrico near the Chesterfield border, about 10 miles from downtown Richmond.
PHOENIX  Arizona lawmakers largely ignored a requirement to disclose large contributions made during the final days of their campaign.

An analysis of campaign finance reports shows that in 2016 at least $115,000 in contributions of $1,000 or more that were disclosed late, or not at all, violating state law, The Arizona Capitol Times reported (http://bit.ly/2hnvvp3).

Lawmakers in 2013 voted to increase the amount of money candidates can accept from a single campaign donor, balancing that increase by also requiring candidates to disclose any large, last-minute contributions in real-time. The law increased the maximum contribution an individual can make to a statewide candidate to $2,500 from $1,000 or to $2,500 from $488 for legislative candidates, and removed the cap on how much aggregate money a candidate can receive from political action committees.

Candidates have only three days to file campaign finance reports disclosing any contributions of $1,000 or more that they receive less than 20 days before the primary or general election.

This year, at the request of the Secretary of States Office, lawmakers voted to repeal the disclosure requirement. The repeal took effect after this years election.

Secretary of State Michele Reagan said her office pushed to remove the requirement because the donations were small and had little impact.

What we kept hearing from (lawmakers) about the $1,000 notifications is they dont do anything for anyone in the real world. Most campaign fundraising has been completed by that time, she said.

She said, while no complaints were filed against candidates for filing reports late, lawmakers and her office worried the requirement would become a political opportunity to file frivolous complaints against their opponents.

We looked it up, and found there had been zero complaints about this, so why do we even have it in law? Its just another catch, another gotcha, to allow one candidate to sue another candidate. The only people who were benefiting from this were attorneys, she said.

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Information from: Arizona Capitol Times, http://www.arizonacapitoltimes.com
SANTA FE  Tom Starke and Sunil Sakhalkar are part of a coalition that wants to create a campus where every homeless person in Santa Fe can have access to all needed services at one location, but a lot still has to fall into place for that to happen.

Starke, retired from Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Sakhalkar, an architect with Santa Fe firm Suby Bowden & Associates, are part of a core team proposing a One Door Campus to provide housing, health care, transportation and other essential services to Santa Fes homeless population.

The team planning One Door consists of eight to 10 people, including board members from St. Elizabeth Shelter, who meet once a week. Starke said it all began about a year ago when 23 agencies went to a kick off meeting on how to address homelessness in Santa Fe.

The campus can reasonably be up and running in four years, Starke said. Supporters still need to find a location and figure out how theyre going to secure private donations that may be needed for operational expenses.

The One Door group notes that agencies which provide services to homeless and other vulnerable citizens currently are scattered throughout town. You may have to go to one place for SNAP benefits and another office for disability benefits, for example.

All the different agencies are spread out over miles and, if youre a homeless person, you probably dont have transportation  although some of them do  getting from place to place means you take the bus or you ride a bicycle, Starke said. A huge amount of time is spent just trying to get from place to place to get the benefits that youre entitled to, so a lot of them dont get the benefits that the state government and federal government want them to have.

These kind of one-stop hubs are starting to pop up around the country. Austin has its Community First Village just outside the city limits that provides transitional housing and other support services for the chronically homeless on a 27-acre campus. One Door is modeled after Haven for Hope in San Antonio, Texas. The 6-year-old campus provides living spaces, food services, some health care and even has an outdoor sleeping area on its campus, which within the city limits.

Sakhalkar and Starke have eyed the city-owned northwest quadrant land north of N.M. 599 near Camino de las Montoyas as the ideal location for the campus. The same area has been studied previously as a site for affordable housing.

Since that location would be a ways out from downtown, a bus service to the area may be critical to the homeless centers operation. Santa Fe City Councilor Peter Ives said its too early to say whether to city would provide bus service to the northwest quadrant.

The city responds by putting in bus routes that are perceived as necessary, Ives said. I could certainly see that being done in the future.

Hank Hughes, executive director of New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness, said the one-stop hub is a good idea, but that the northwest quadrant may be a tricky spot.

I think that that location is a bit challenging, Hughes said. Not that they couldnt make it work, but youd have to rely on a bus.

Daniel Yohalem, an Interfaith Community Shelter board member, said putting the campus away from the rest of the city may cause too much separation between its clients and everybody else.

People would be segregated instead of living among other citizens in the community, Yohalem said.

Yohalem also says he doesnt see the need for One Door at this time. He said 15 different service providers go to Petes Place several times a week. A second floor can merely be put on that building to expand services, a much cheaper option than building and maintaining an all-new campus, he said. Yohalem also said Santa Feans need to come up with ways to get people out of the cycle of homelessness instead of creating more transitional housing establishments.

The reality is people need permanent housing, Yohalem said. Im concerned that, if you create a place that serves people who need transitional housing, then youll create a bottleneck.

For all his skepticism, Yohalem did say that he would be open to the idea of a campus if the concept is proven to work. Representatives from Haven for Hope came to Santa Fe last month to give a two-day workshop on how San Antonio is helping its homeless population. Starke said about 45 different agencies were in attendance.

Funding, donations are issues

On top of trying to convince people that a hub could work, Starke and the rest of the crew also may have to persuade people to help pay for it.

Haven for Hope has run on 70 percent donations, Starke said, and that may be the trick to getting a campus up and running here. A small team has already been looking at ways to solicit private donations. And in order to get federal assistance or grant money, Starke said he would need to show that he could get a bunch of different agencies to work together.

Representatives of the University of California at Riverside contacted Starke about sharing a $100 million grant from the MacArthur Foundation with other cities that are trying to get similar campuses going, but he said he had to turn down the offer.

I had to tell them that were so far from having any kind of integrated structure  we cant play, Starke said. We had to turn down the offer of money because we just dont have the organizations working together.

Sakhalkar said he has spoken with U.S. Sen. Tom Udalls office about One Door. There will be another meeting in the next month or so to help identify federal grant sources.

Starke said the plan is still in the conceptual phase, but that the interest from different people and organizations shows him that Santa Feans are very generous and caring. Even if the campus doesnt happen, the effort has made an impression.

To some degree, it reflects some of the best of Santa Fe, Councilor Ives said. Thats a strength of our community and I really applaud the efforts of the people working on this.
ESPANOLA  Richard J. Bailey Jr. eschews the use of the titles hes earned.

Call me Rick, says the retired Air Force colonel, doctor of philosophy and new president of Northern New Mexico College upon greeting a couple of visitors to his office on Wednesday.

Its that kind of disarming approach, along with what more than one person interviewed for this story described as a dynamic personality, that many people think is exactly what the embattled college needs right now.

Hes a young man with a vision, said Rosario Chayo Garcia, president of NNMCs board of regents. His resume is impressive. Hes got a dynamic personality. His enthusiasm is contagious and his love for northern New Mexico is amazing. Hes almost too good to be true.

Garcia said recently she had a nightmare that Bailey had been offered another job. She felt relief when she realized it was just a dream.

But Bailey says he has no intention of going anywhere.

This is a dream job for me, said the 46-year-old. I didnt think Id be this fortunate to have this kind of opportunity so young.

Bailey said he made a deal with his wife Diana that because she had followed him around the world during his 24-year career in the Air Force, she got to decide where theyd go when he retired from the military.

So we knew we were moving to New Mexico, no matter what, he said, explaining that Dianas mother was raised in Anton Chico, an aunt attended NNMC when it was still the Spanish-American Normal School, and they still have family living in Albuquerque, Los Alamos and Las Vegas, N.M. Then this job opened up.

Building a strategic plan

The job became vacant when Nancy Rusty Barcelo stepped down a year ago after serving for five years. While she inherited a college facing financial challenges in the midst of a recession, things did not improve during her tenure. Northern was placed on heightened cash monitoring status by the U.S. Department of Education due to financial issues and a string of late audits.

Continuing to struggle financially, the college raised tuition by 13 percent and laid off 20 employees to help close a budget gap in 2013. More layoffs came a year later and the college cut some popular trades programs. Last year, programs at the schools original El Rito campus, still the official college seat, were moved to Espanola. Enrollment declined, as did revenues.

In 2014, faculty members and students cast no confidence votes in the colleges leadership amid a series of whistleblower lawsuits and complaints that the college was being run by fear and intimidation.

Tensions lessened after Barcelos departure and the resignation of three high-level administrators.

Morale is up, regent president Garcia said. Everyone is working harder than ever. Weve had a rough couple of years, but now everything is changing.

Enrollment is on the rise again, now standing at about 1,130 students, representing a 7 percent increase from last year. Class hours are up 11 percent, she said, though Bailey, who didnt start until mid-October, can hardly be credited with those gains.

When the NNMC presidents job was advertised, Bailey was serving as dean of students, and an associate professor of strategy and security studies at the School of Advanced Air and Space Studies at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, a component of Air University, the USAFs air education and training school.

The teaching aspect of his Air Force career dates back to 1992. Since then, hes been a pilot instructor and evaluator, and taught classes in U.S. government and international relations, public speaking to State Department foreign service officers, cyberspace and cyber power, strategy and campaign planning.

In 2015, he was awarded the Muir S. Fairchild Air Force Education Award, given annually to the individual making the greatest contributions to Air Force education.

While much of his time in the military has been as an educator, he has also gone to war. From July 2008 to June 2011, he facilitated and managed all air forces, plans and projects related to the North Atlantic Treaty Organizations (NATOs) mission in Afghanistan, according to his resume.

Earlier this year, a book he co-edited, titled Strategy: Context and Adaptation from Archidamus to Airpower, was published.

So whats the strategy for turning Northern New Mexico College around?

Bailey is working on that now, but hes doing it with the help of everyone on his administrative team, faculty, students and the community.

For me, strategic thinking comes down to two things: How we understand our environment and how we adapt to the circumstances, he said. First, lets look at where we are now. Lets also talk about the past and how we got here, but the idea now is how do we go from what we all see as our current environment to where we want to be five years in the future. Thats how you build a strategic plan.

Bailey says he wants everyones input, including the janitors.

There are people who have been here 20, 30 years. If Im not asking their advice, Im failing as a college president, he said.

Contrary to military structures, Bailey says the structure he wants at the college is flat.

To me, a college is strongest when it leverages across the board. It doesnt perform optimally in a hierarchical structure, he said.

The right person for the job

Bailey was hired in April, but has been on the job at Northern for only seven weeks.

David Barton, an associate professor in Humanities at the college, vice president of the Faculty Senate and a member of the presidents advisory committee, said its too early to evaluate him so far, but hes doing all the right things.

Meeting with faculty, staff, students, government officials and members of the community is part of that. Barton said he feels good about the colleges future with Bailey in the pilots seat.

Hes faced with a long rebuilding process, but my assessment is hes the right person for the job, Barton said. Hes a very likeable person, and thats important. He exudes a sense of openness and honesty, and a willingness to work with people. He has sort of a bottom-up leadership style, which is very different from the top-down, my-way-or-the-highway approach of the previous administration, which was catastrophic.

Bailey earned praise from student Ted Koetter, a senior in Information Engineering Technology.

His first official meeting on his first official day was with the Student Senate, which is exactly what he needed to do, said Koetter, vice president of the senate and a part of the student advisory team. He didnt want to just pay lip service to students. He wanted to make sure its known that theyre valued.

Asked what the most important issues for students at the college were, Koetter said it was bringing back the programs that were eliminated, and increased transparency and communication. That had been lacking in the past, he said.

Dormitories on the Espanola campus are also something students want. The state Board of Finance in 2014 declined to act on the colleges request for a $13 million revenue bond to fund the dorm project, citing the colleges financial troubles.

I think we need more time in viewing the stability of the institution before theres continued investment, Gov. Susana Martinez said at the time. There has to be some confidence on the part of us to turn around and say this is worth the investment right now.

Bailey would like to renew the effort to build dorms, but he said we have to be fiscally responsible in how we approach it. Im not going to gamble with it.

He seems more realistic about it, Koetter said. He seems to want to go about making it happen in a more reasonable way.

Students would also like to see the El Rito campus reopened. So would residents of that area.

Its not just restoring El Rito into a functioning part of the college, but making it an asset, said Jake Arnold, part of a community group that was critical of the past administrations treatment of the El Rito campus. As we got deeper into the issues at El Rito and determined the problems at Northern New Mexico College that have led to the extremely unfortunate cancelling of programs, and began looking for ways to reverse it, we found a lot of rot.

Arnold said the closing of programs in El Rito caused a lot of dissent among students and faculty and escalated what was already a tense situation.

The college had assumed a bunker mentality, acting like they were in a bunker facing hostile opposition, he said.

Arnold credited the regents for recognizing there were real problems at the college and taking action to solve them by hiring the most qualified person for the job. He and other members of his group were pleased and impressed that Bailey and his wife chose to live at the presidents residence at the El Rito campus. Theyre also impressed with Bailey himself.

Hes incredibly accomplished and a man of impeccable integrity, Arnold said. Since hes come on board, hes been a dynamo, working seven days a week from dawn to dusk and later. He welcomes all criticism and suggestions. He believes everyone should be able to speak their mind about the college, and that wasnt the case before.

Bailey said he moved to El Rito for two reasons. One, to make it clear to the community we wanted to find a way to include El Rito as part of the college. The other reason is because its gorgeous up there.

Bailey said hes looking into ways to best utilize the El Rito campus. But first, I want to make sure we have programs that serve the community, and I want to be sure we build something there thoughtfully in a way that makes it self-sustaining, he said. There are opportunities to use El Rito as a destination in and of itself. We should celebrate El Rito for what it is.

Enhanced communication

Bailey gave the first of what could be many State of the College addresses last night. On the eve of the speech, he said there was a lot of work to be done, but also a lot to look forward to.

In a nutshell, the state of the college is healthy, he said, emphasizing that, within the past few months, the engineering, business, nursing and education programs achieved national accreditation. That speaks to the quality of education students get here. All the pieces are in place to not only serve the students, but also serve our community. Thats what the college is here for.

Bailey said in the interest of transparency and enhancing communication, he plans to give State of the College addresses every quarter. And he hopes to be doing it for a long time.

As long as theyll have me, Bailey said when asked how long he expects to remain at the college. This is where we want to be. Theres the best food, the best art, the best culture, the best music, the friendliest people. Its a joy to be here.
SANTA FE  Santa Fe officials are considering formalizing a policy or best practices guidelines for how to handle certification of immigrant applications for U visas, which grant legal status to crime victims.

U visas can be sought by undocumented immigrants who are victims of certain crimes if they assist law enforcement in the investigation or prosecution of the crime.

The visas were authorized in a 2000 federal law, the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act, with a focus on helping crime victims, and strengthening the prosecution of domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking and other offenses, including murder and manslaughter.

U visas are not rare  the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service issues up to a cap of 10,000 a year and the agency has reached the cap every year since 2009.

And there is a backlog of more than 78,000 cases pending for qualified applicants, although those on the waiting list do get some benefit  they can apply for work permits while waiting for the visas. Petitioners placed on the waiting list will be granted deferred action or parole and are eligible to apply for work authorization while waiting for additional U visas to become available, says the Immigration Services website.

One thing U visa applicants must have is certification by a law enforcement agency or someone one else in the criminal justice system, such as a prosecutor or judge, that the applicant is a crime victim and is cooperating with police.

On Tuesday, Deputy Santa Fe Police Chief Mario Salbidrez reported at a meeting of the citys Immigration Committee that, since late September, the police department had received 26 U visa certification requests and 20 were granted. The others were denied, one because it was a Santa Fe County Sheriffs Office case, outside the citys jurisdiction.

In an interview later with the Journal, Salbidrez said the police department hadnt been tracking its handling of U visa cases previously, but that the certifications requests had become something the (Immigration) Committee wanted to review.

He estimated that the SFPD gets six or eight certification cases a month, mostly from attorneys representing immigrants and, in a few instances, from individual crime victims.

Salbidrez said that, once he gets an application, he reviews the circumstances and whether there is a qualifying victim or witness who is cooperating in an investigation, and that he also investigates whether the applicant himself or herself has been arrested for committing one of the crimes listed in the federal U visa law.

He said that the police department has leeway when approving or denying the certifications. My only concern is signing off on someone who is victimizing another person, he said.

We dont want to sign off on someone who shouldnt be in the States because of their criminal background, Salbidrez said.

The federal Department of Homeland Securitys guide for U visas says police certifications are discretionary. Although a law enforcement certification is a required part of a victims petition for a U visa, law enforcement officers cannot be compelled to complete a certification, says the guide. Whether a certifying law enforcement agency signs a certification is at the discretion of that law enforcement agency and the policies and procedures it has established regarding U visa certifications.

The law enforcement certification validates the role the victim had, has, or will have in being helpful to the investigation or prosecution of the case; therefore, it is important that the law enforcement agency complete certifications on a case-by-case basis. Without a completed U visa certification, the victim will not be eligible for a U visa.

But theres another view locally that the police should leave background checks for U visa applicants to the Immigration Service.

Allegra Love, an attorney who is director of the Santa Fe Dreamers Project and whos helped people apply for U visa certifications, said, We dont want the police department being immigration agents.

Someone with a criminal record can also be victim, and be helpful in prosecuting a case, she said.

Love supports a protocol where there would be oversight from the Immigration Committee or the Somos Un Pueblo Undio advocacy group over how the certifications are handled.

Debate around the country

There has been debate elsewhere over U visas.

Last year, California enacted a law requiring local police or prosecutors to sign the certifications if victims were being helpful in prosecutions and also creating a rebuttable presumption that victims who havent refused a law enforcement request for assistance also have reached a qualifying level of helpfulness.

The California law mandates that agencies now must verify whether victims qualify for U visas within 90 days, or within 14 days if the applicant faces deportation. Investigations had found wide disparities among how various jurisdictions in California handled the certifications and that some agencies appeared to have stonewalled applicants. Some local law enforcement officials said the certifications shouldnt be issued when the statute of limitations had already run out on the crime in question.

After it was reported that the New York Police Departments Domestic Violence Unit had certified 152 of 580 applications in 2015, rule changes were proposed under pressure from advocates to establish clearer protocols.

In Texas, the states Child Protective Agency in April stopped issuing the U visa certifications sought for undocumented children, saying consideration of certifications should left to law enforcement. A Fox News report from September raised questions about whether the system is subject to fraud via false claims of criminal abuse.

A feeling of safety

Sheila Lewis, of the Santa Fe Safe program, and the citys domestic violence and sexual assault liaison, said the idea of the U visas is to have (an immigrant) population that wants to work with the police department and where victims can be given a feeling of safety.

Pretty traditionally in domestic violence situations, the perpetrator, he or she, feels like they can act with impunity because the victim feels he or she can be deported if they go to the police, and this creates a safety net for them.

Its not a golden ticket to citizenship, but they can feel safe if they come forward, she said.

The U visas are for four years and those who receive them are eligible to apply for green cards in three years. But Love, of the Dreamers Project, said that, with the time it takes to adjudicate an application and the long waiting list, it can take many years just to get the visa before making any progress toward a green card.

While Deputy Chief Salbidrez says the police department doesnt want to be in the position of having to provide U visa certification for people who might be crime victims, but are also unwelcome lawbreakers themselves, Lewis and Love say thats an issue that can be left to the background checks that the Immigration Service itself conducts as part of the U visa process.

The police departments obligation, Lewis said, is to answer three basic questions, listed by the Immigration Service as whether the applicant was a victim of a qualifying crime, whether the applicant has specific knowledge and details of crime, and whether the applicant has been, is being, or is likely to be helpful to law enforcement in the detection, investigation or prosecution of the qualifying crime.

Love says shes not being critical of the Santa Fe police and says shes never had a problem getting certifications from the SFPD. Theyve always been very responsive, she said.

But Love said the police shouldnt add more requirements, such as do we like this person, when deciding whether to issue a certification. She said that creates the potential for an abuse of power.

Salbidrez said those involved in the discussions hope to have a policy established by the end of January.
The burgeoning fight over a 33-mile power line segment proposed to run from southern Rio Arriba County to a spot north and west of Santa Fe on Old Buckman Road is just the latest example of how northern New Mexico is a different kind of place.

On the national scene, Native Americans and other people from around the country have rallied to support the Standing Rock Sioux protesters in North Dakota who, for now, have fought off plans for an oil pipeline the tribe fears could threaten its water supply and would run through a sacred tribal burial ground.

But here at home, three Native American pueblos are the biggest local supporters of another big energy project  a Texas companys proposed high-voltage Verde Transmission Line, which would carry 345 kilovolts on wires supported by five to seven 90- to 120-foot-tall towers per mile. It would run through the populated Jacona/El Rancho area west of Pojoaque, on non-pueblo land.

At a recent public hearing in Hernandez, north of Espanola and near the proposed lines northern terminus at an existing PNM substation, it was a 7-year-old Anglo girl who said the proposed transmission line would harm sacred land while standing in front of her own drawing of power line towers spoiling the view of San Ildefonso Pueblos landmark Black Mesa. Opponents say the power line will run about 1,600 feet, or about a third of a mile, north of the mesa.

The power line would not cross San Ildefonso land. Three other pueblos  Pojoaque, Ohkay Owingeh and Santa Clara  will be paid for use of right of way or easements across their land as the path for the transmission line. Leaders of those pueblos portray the line as economic development.

Opponents say it will ruin landscapes that make northern New Mexico attractive to tourists and filmmakers. And the people who would have to live near the power lines are worried about the effect on property values, and possibly on health, from the big towers.

The lines proponents make a case that this segment of transmission line will improve the movement of electrical power around the grid, eliminating a bottleneck where a lower-capacity line now serves. Whats so far less clear is how the high-voltage line would help those whod have to put up with the big towers and the power lines not far from their homes, and whether the higher voltage lines would translate into any usable infrastructure for local economic development beyond the easement payments to the pueblos.

Is this a case of not in my backyard? Well, maybe, but the prospect of 120-foot towers carrying 345 kilovolts in your backyard is pretty hard to dismiss, particularly with a dearth of specifics about how the transmission line would help you or your neighbors.

The Bureau of Land Management is involved because part of the lines route goes across BLM land. The agency would have to approve the use of its land for the project.

As the debate moves forward, the transmission lines backers must to do a better job of explaining to the people of Jacona, El Rancho and Hernandez how having the high-voltage line outside their doors is a good thing. Or this will be a bitter fight to the end.
PHOENIX  The board that oversees Arizonas three state universities voted Friday to urge president-elect Donald Trump to protect students who were illegally brought into the county when they were children, while specifically rejecting efforts to designate the schools as sanctuary campuses.

The Arizona Board of Regents voted unanimously to send a letter to Trump applauding his efforts to boost border security but saying that he should work with Congress to protect the students. Trump campaigned on ending President Barack Obamas immigration actions, including the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program known as DACA. That program has given work permits and relief from deportation to more than 700,000 young immigrants, about 27,000 in Arizona.

The letter notes that allowing the student to legally stay in the U.S. is within the rule of law because most were brought to the U.S. when they lacked meaningful capacity to have violated our immigration laws.

Board chair Greg Patterson said Arizonas university system will not do what others across the nation are doing  considering or adopting policies that give sanctuary to students living in the U.S. without authorization.

Were not going to be a sanctuary campus. Its pretty clear in here that we say were going to follow the law, Patterson said. Thats just the answer  were going to follow the law.

Northern Arizona University President Rita Chang told the board that she appreciated the board position about following the law.

Your letter helps to reinforce that were following the law, we will always follow the law and that we advocate for the DACA students but were not going to be sanctuary campuses, and I appreciate that, Chang said.

But a DACA student who attended the meeting said the boards letter essentially was throwing our parents under the bus by making a legal distinction between them and their children.

Our parents are not criminals, they brought us here for a reason, Arizona State University communications major Korina Iribe told the board. We cant be here without our families. Our families are our backbone and our strength, and we want relief for them just as much as we want it for us.

NAU, ASU and the University of Arizona collectively have 240 DACA students but many more are likely in coming years. The students have paid in-state tuition since a court ruling in mid-2015 after a judge found that the DACA program grants legal presence in the country to its recipients. Former Attorney General Tom Horne contended that a 2006 voter-enacted law known as Proposition 300 barred the state benefits.

Trump this week adopted a far more sympathetic tone toward the young immigrants known to their supporters as Dreamers.

Were going to work something out thats going to make people happy and proud, Trump told Time Magazine. They got brought here at a very young age, theyve worked here, theyve gone to school here. Some were good students. Some have wonderful jobs. And theyre in never-never land because they dont know whats going to happen.

Board member Jay Heiler said he worked to craft the letter because he wanted to offer Trump a straight-up legal analysis free of politics.

We wanted to stay focused on the issue at hand  and the individuals at hand, Heiler said. This isnt about labels and words and hot-buttons and media fandangos, this is about human beings.

___

This story has been corrected to reflect the number of DACA approvals in Arizona is about 27,000, not 53,000.
PHOENIX  Former Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne wont face criminal charges stemming from allegations that he illegally used his office staff to run his failed 2014 re-election campaign, the Maricopa County Attorneys Office confirmed Friday.

County Attorney spokeswoman Amanda Jacinto confirmed the criminal probe was closed earlier this year, but never publicly announced. Prosecutors decided there wasnt a reasonable likelihood of convicting Horne on felony charges and the statute of limitations on misdemeanor charges had passed.

The criminal probe by County Attorney Bill Montgomerys office was launched after a Horne staffer alleged in May 2014 that most of her work was for his campaign and other attorney generals office staffers did the same. Two civil investigations were then launched and Montgomerys office confirmed it was looking into possible criminal charges.

Horne steadfastly denied the allegations and criticized Montgomerys office for failing to publicly clear him. He said Friday prosecutors didnt even tell him they had closed the case.

They let this cloud hang over my head, Horne said. They publicly announced that they were doing a criminal investigation, and then when they closed it they dont say a word to anybody, so the cloud just hung over my head.

The Arizona Republic first reported the case had been closed. Jacinto said the investigation ended after a review between prosecutors and a county attorney investigator.

The lead Investigator from MCAO met with the prosecution team to review the status, Jacinto said in a statement. Unanimous decision was to end the investigation as there was no reasonable likelihood of conviction.

Horne settled a civil investigation by the Arizona Clean Elections Commission in November 2014 by paying $10,000 of his own money to settle allegations he used office staff on his failed re-election campaign.

He also agreed to amend his campaign finance reports if a separate civil investigation requested by the secretary of state concludes that is necessary. That investigation was handed over to a retired court of appeals judge and Gilberts town attorney and is ongoing.

Horne said the former staffer who made the complaint had a history of making unsubstantiated accusations against former employers. In addition, he said no one corroborated her story.

Over a dozen witnesses said theres nothing to this, including all the people who should know, Horne said. And no witnesses said there was something to it.

Separately, the Arizona Supreme Court is considering whether to hear an appeal from Horne of an order that he repay $400,000 to donors and file amended campaign finance reports for his 2010 election. Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk also could order Horne and Kathleen Winn to pay up to $1.2 million in fines  three times the amount Polk says was improperly spent.

Polk concluded that Horne and Winn illegally coordinated spending on his 2010 campaign while she ran an outside group backing his election.

An administrative law judge disagreed, but Polk overrode that decision.
NACO, Ariz.  Federal authorities say two American teens face charges after picking up a marijuana bundle launched from Mexico into Arizona.

The Border Patrol says it caught the two juveniles in Naco, Arizona, after spotting a 34-pound bundle being launched from an air cannon from Mexico.

Authorities say drug smugglers have turned to air cannons to launch large drug bundles in the past few months.

The juveniles, who havent been identified, were found with cylinder-shaped package.

The agency says smuggling organizations take advantage of teens and mislead them about what could happen if they get caught.

The teens were charged locally and face 18 months in jail if convicted.
We can help you make sense of the agribusiness industry, extending from chemicals and fertilizers used as inputs into agriculture, to the commodities, food and by-products that are an output to farming, with policy and regulation applied at every step of the value chain.
MATTOON -- The Lake Land Board of Trustees is scheduled Monday evening to consider a proposed annual levy that will seek $11.77 million in property tax revenue.

Bryan Gleckler, vice president for business services, said the proposed 2017 tax levy is based on a projected 3.75 percent increase in the equalized assessed valuation for property in Lake Land's community college district.

"If the EAV does not increase by this amount, the actual property tax revenue for Lake Land College will be lower than this projected amount," Gleckler said. "The average EAV increase for the 15-county Lake Land College district over the past 10 years has been 3.34 percent per year."

Gleckler said Lake Lands portion of an individual property tax bill is approximately 5 percent of the total bill. He said if a 3.75 percent increase in equalized assessed valuation is realized, the increased impact of the colleges portion on a tax bill for a $100,000 home, for example, will be approximately $7 per year.

The proposed levy is approximately 3.6 percent larger than the $11.36 million sought by the levy that the board approved last year.

Monday's meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. in Webb Hall 081 on the main campus in Mattoon.

In other matters, the board will consider abating Lake Land's property tax for new development in a proposed Douglas County Enterprise Zone. Pending state approved, this new zone will cover Arcola, Newman, Tuscola, Villa Grove, Arthur, and Atwood.

The Douglas County Enterprise Zone will have a 15-year term. Taxes on new industrial, manufacturing, and logistics/distribution center projects will be abated over five years; and taxes for new retail and commercial projects will be abed over three years.

Other actions that the board will consider taking include:

-- Borrowing $1.3 million from Midland States Bank to help finance energy efficiency, parking and roadway improvements on campus.

-- Hiring J.W. Terrill Inc. to provide health benefit consulting services for $65,000 in 2017 and $80,000 per year for two additional option years.

-- Purchasing new registers and software for the campus bookstore from Nebraska Book Co. for $36,618.

-- Purchasing two Kubota maintenance tractors from Niemeyer Repair Service for $28,635.

-- Accepting a $19,450 Bridging the Gap grant from the Illinois Community College Board for various academic services for students.
The eight-strong membership team of the panel which will set fundraising standards for Scotland has been named overnight.

The Independent Fundraising Standards and Adjudication Panel for Scotland will be responsible for overseeing fundraising standards and complaints about charities registered in Scotland.

The announcement was made by the Scottish Fundraising Implementation Group, which is responsible for implementing a review of fundraising regulation in Scotland.

The panel will be chaired by Alison Elliot, associate director of the Centre for Theology and Public Issues at the University of Edinburgh and a former convener of the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations from 2007 to 2013.

The seven other panel members are: Jay Butler, non-executive director of NHS 24; Sheila Logan, a data protection adviser; Cathy Bell, director of development and alumni at Glasgow University; Val Surgenor, chair of the Aberlour Child Care rust; Paul Drury, chair of the IoF Scotland Standards Committee, and Michelle Armstrong, corporate and community fundraising manager at Cancer Research UK.

SCVO said the panel members bring a collective wealth of experience and expertise, including understanding of fundraising, charities and the voluntary sector and possesses specialist knowledge of charity law, consumer law and data protection.

Jude Turbyne, head of engagement at OSCR, Scotlands charity regulator, said: We welcome the announcement of the Panel that will play a key role in ensuring that charities are both complying with the fundraising code and working to ensure high standards in terms of their complaints handing and fundraising practices. OSCR will be supporting the Panel by providing a secretariat function.

Scotland rejects UK-wide remit of Fundraising Regulator

On 30 June this year, SCVO formally recommended that the Scottish Government reject the establishment of the Fundraising Regulator in Scotland, following months of consultation with the Scottish charity sector and public.

This followed the recommendation by an SCVO working group on the fundraising question for a purely Scottish solution to regulating the industry.

The Scottish model places greater emphasis for the regulation of fundraising on the charities themselves, with OSCR taking on an enhanced ombudsman-style role, supplemented by the independent panel who will be responsible for setting the Code of Fundraising Practice in Scotland.

John Downie, director of public affairs, at the SCVO, said: Our research earlier this year demonstrated that people in Scotland trust charities and, right across the board, were seeing that people in Scotland are more closely connected to charities and are more likely to give their time and money to them than people in other parts of the UK.

We need to do everything in our power to maintain and strengthen this trust, and the new fundraising independent panel will play an important role in this by overseeing fundraising standards and fundraising complaints about charities registered in Scotland.

IoF looking to establish Memorandum of Understanding with new Scottish panel

The Institute of Fundraising has said that it will look to establish a Memorandum of Understanding with the new panel, so that it can work closely with it to ensure the experience and expertise of its members in Scotland are fully shared and considered.

The IoF also said it is in the process of establishing a new Standards Advisroy Board for Scotland, which will be put in place to respond to proposals of any changes in regulation in Scotland.

Fraser Hudghton of IoF Scotland, said: We are delighted that this new panel has such a breadth of fundraising experience and expertise at its core. This will be critical for its success in both helping to shape the regulatory framework in Scotland and also for understanding both the needs and aspirations of charities and their supporters. We look forward to working closely with the panel on behalf of the fundraising community.
CARTERVILLE (JG-TC)  The Illinois Community College Board adopted a formula Wednesday to distribute $3 million in emergency funds to community colleges in need.

The (Carbondale) Southern Illinoisan reported that under the 2017 budget implementation bill, the Illinois Board of Higher Education must consult with the Illinois Community College Board for community college financial emergencies.

At a Nov. 23 special meeting, the Illinois Board of Higher Education passed a resolution reserving $3 million for community colleges in the state.

On Wednesday, during its special meeting via a conference call at John A. Logan College and other locations, the Illinois Community College Board unanimously approved the $3 million appropriation.

Du Quoin Mayor Guy Alongi and John A. Logan Trustee Jake Rendleman, both members of the Illinois Community College Board, were present for the special meeting at John A. Logan. They said the distribution of emergency funds and the recipient community colleges will be determined after a "yes" vote from the Illinois Board of Higher Education.

"I've never known them to turn it down," Rendleman said. The Illinois Board of Higher Education is scheduled to meet at 1 p.m. Dec. 13 at Harper College in Palatine.

Mattoon's Lake Land College spokeswoman Kelly Allee provided a statement from the college on its administration being aware that the Illinois Community College Board has established a set of criteria and will ask colleges to submit applications to qualify for the emergency funds.

The Illinois Community College Board will determine who is eligible to receive funding, Lake Land reported.

Allee said Lake Land is still reviewing the information about the emergency funding. She said Lake Land does not have any estimates at this time as to how much emergency funding it might qualify or apply for through this distribution.

Lake Land reported that, earlier this year, the college received funding from the state through the stopgap appropriation in September. This $5.5 million represents 50 percent of the appropriation the college would normally receive when the state has a budget in place.

"While the 50 percent funding level was appreciated, it is not a level that can sustain the college long-term. We urge our legislators and governor to pass a budget for the state and restore our funding levels in higher education," Lake Land reported.
Bank of Montreal provides diversified financial services primarily in North America. The company's personal banking products and services include checking and savings accounts, credit cards, mortgages, and financial and investment advice services; and commercial banking products and services comprise business deposit accounts, commercial credit cards, business loans and commercial mortgages, cash management solutions, foreign exchange, specialized banking programs, treasury and payment solutions, and risk management products for small business and commercial banking customers. It also offers investment and wealth advisory services; digital investing services; financial services and solutions; and investment management, and trust and custody services. In addition, the company provides life insurance, accident and sickness insurance, and annuity products; creditor and travel insurance to bank customers; and reinsurance solutions. Further, it offers client's debt and equity capital-raising services, as well as loan origination and syndication, and treasury management; strategic advice on mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, and recapitalizations, as well as valuation and fairness opinions; and trade finance, risk mitigation, and other operating services. Additionally, the company provides research and access to markets for institutional, corporate, and retail clients; trading solutions that include debt, foreign exchange, interest rate, credit, equity, securitization and commodities; new product development and origination services, as well as risk management advice and services to hedge against fluctuations; and funding and liquidity management services to its clients. It operates through approximately 900 bank branches and 3,300 automated banking machines in Canada and the United States. Bank of Montreal was founded in 1817 and is headquartered in Montreal, Canada.
Travis Perkins plc distributes building materials to the building, construction, and home improvement markets in the United Kingdom. It operates through, Merchanting, and Toolstation segments. The Merchanting segment distributes interior building products, which include drywalls, ceilings, external envelopes, fire protection products, flooring and partitioning products, and tools and accessories to professionals within the construction industry; civil, drainage, and heavy building materials to specialist contractors and trade professionals; and pipeline and heating solutions. This segment also distributes building materials, plumbing and heating products, landscaping materials, timber and sheet materials, painting and decorating products, dry lining and insulation products, doors and joinery, and hand and power tools to trade professionals and self-builders. The Toolstation segment supplies products to the trade, home improvers, and self-builders industry through approximately 500 branches, as well as online, call centers, and a mobile website. It also offers kitchens and joinery products to specialist joiners, kitchen fitters, house builders, local authorities, and national house builders. The company was formerly known as Sandell Perkins Public Limited Company and changed its name to Travis Perkins plc in October 1988. Travis Perkins plc was founded in 1797 and is headquartered in Northampton, the United Kingdom.
Wendys restaurants, long known for its biggie size servings, might now be better known as a frequent target of biggie-sized data breaches resulting in massive credit card fraud. Since the fall of 2015, according to one industry source, 1,025 Wendys point-of-sale systems in the United States were infected with malware during a five-month-long period. While Wendys said they removed the malware, data breaches continued to reoccur in a number of locations including Jackson, Michigan, the hometown of American 1, a leading credit union in the region that vigilantly monitors member accounts for suspicious activity. American 1 says that to date, they have reached approximately $600,000 in fraud (about 150,000 doubles with cheese!) related to the Wendys breach leading to a decision that the credit union never imagined that they would have to undertake.

In a bold move, American 1 elected to decline Wendys transactions made by members on their American 1 credit and debit cards until they felt the fast food chain and the franchisee had fixed the problem. The decision to take this course of action was not taken lightly and involved approval and support by its board of directors. In addition, members had to be made aware so they would not be taken by surprise when their American 1 card was declined at Wendys. Since American 1 made this move, they have slowed the bleeding to a trickle and have received very positive response from their members as well as media coverage in local, national, and business news outlets. What American 1 accomplished has prompted CSCU member credit unions to ask the question: Should we also decline Wendys transactions?
A recent Gallup poll revealed that Americans have very little confidence in banks, only 27% of people have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in them. Banks have never recovered from the financial crisis, which began in October 2008. What does an industry do when its down? File a lawsuit of course! By now you are most likely aware of the complaints from the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA), who have filed a federal suit in Virginia over the NCUAs new Member Business Loan rules. Counsel for ICBA contends that community banks have lost millions of dollars in commercial loans to credit unions, claiming they can offer more favorable loan terms because of their tax exemption, and arguing over what they perceive as the loosening of regulatory oversight from NCUA. The reality is, individuals and businesses (especially small businesses) are beginning to replace their distrust for banks with trust for credit unions and their products, including consumer and business loans for their needs.

Credit union business loans, specifically have increased every year since the recession, says Mike Schenk, vice president of economics and statistics at the Credit Union National Association. CUs are more flexible and engaged in the market to be able to offer loans that some banks shy away from. They are more community focused, and can better gauge the potential success a business may have in the region they serve.
Once upon a time, in the kingdom of URL, there lived two identical twin Online Marketing Managers. They managed two of the kings banking websites which were the same in every way:

They looked identical.

They each had 2,000 monthly visitors to the mortgage page.

Those visits turned into clicks of apply now 3% of the time.

And of those, 25% exited the sales funnel as booked mortgages.

Each of the websites received $5,000 a month from the king to invest in getting mortgages, and at the end of each year, the king would return to reward the manager of the website that returned the most mortgage business. You see, each new mortgage brought a monthly profit of $500 to the kingdom!

The first Online Marketing Manager spent the $5,000 on online mortgage advertising and earned an unheard of Cost-Per-Click of $5. Targeted audiences from far and wide would visit its pages to gaze at its splendorous rates and apply for mortgages, which continued to happen at the ever-reliable rate of 3%.

The second Online Marketing Manager spent the money on optimization. With $5,000, he hired a vendor who increased the apply now conversion rate on the landing page by 2%, then fled the kingdom the very next day never to be heard from again.

The king felt sorry for website two because of the misfortune of the optimization vendor leaving, so at the end of the first month, he decided to once again give both websites $5,000. Again, website one spent it on advertising, and website two spent it on optimization. And once again, the optimization vendor showed up for 1 day, increased the funnel conversion rate (conversions after an apply now click) by 5%, and then ran off with the money never to be heard from again.

The king was furious at the second manager for making the same mistake twice. His leniency, it seemed, had been rewarded with carelessness. He vowed website two would not receive another dime of his money. Furthermore, the full $10,000 would now be awarded to website one each month.

The months went on as festivals and parades were held in honor of the first website, whose manager proudly displayed its cost-per-click numbers in ever more ornate dashboards and entertained crowds with his humorous and intriguing clickbait ad copy. The $10,000 per month had now doubled traffic to the mortgage page from the original 2,000 to 4,000 visitors!

At the end of the first year, the king called the two managers to his chambers.

The manager of website one rode in on a gold chariot and proudly proclaimed that the kings $110,000 had been used to generate 345 new booked mortgages! The king beamed with pride. Given $500 in monthly profit per mortgage, this means total profit was $1,083,750, of which $498,750 could be attributed to the kings monthly investment! The astounding return on investment of 353% was impressive to say the least.

The second manager humbly approached the king with a one sheet printout of the results. The king looked up in disbelief when he saw the numbers. The second website generated 355 new mortgages generating $1,140,000 in profit, of which $555,000 was directly attributable to the kings $10,000 investment. Whats more, because this manager had spent such a small amount in comparison, he achieved ROI of 5,450%.

The second Online Marketing Manager had reduced costs, increased profits, and ensured the site would maximize the value of any dollar invested in future advertising.

And thats how this humble Online Marketing Manager became the Duke of URL.
Siobhan Roberts, a journalist and biographer based in Toronto, Canada, will receive the 2017 JPBM Communications Award for Expository and Popular Books.

The Joint Policy Board for Mathematics (JPBM) represents the American Mathematical Society, the American Statistical Association, the Mathematical Association of America, and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. Presented annually, the JPBM Communications Award recognizes outstanding achievement in communicating about mathematics to non-mathematicians.

Siobhan Roberts's first book was "King of Infinite Space---Donald Coxeter, The Man Who Saved Geometry" (Walker and Company, 2006). The book received rave reviews as well as the Euler Book Prize of the Mathematical Association for America, the citation for which says: "[The book] gives a superbly readable account, in personal terms, of the search for beauty that sets mathematics in motion, and of the synergy of individual and group efforts that make it happen. It's an engaging page-turner... [that] honors the spirit of wonder and openness that Coxeter embodied in his approach to mathematics."

Roberts also wrote and produced a documentary film about Coxeter, "The Man Who Saved Geometry," for TVOntario's The View From Here. Today she writes for The New Yorker's "Elements," Nautilus, and Quanta. At various times she has contributed to The Guardian, Smithsonian, The New York Times, The Globe and Mail, and The Walrus, among other publications. She is an occasional Director's Visitor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.

Her most recent book is "Genius at Play --- The Curious Mind of John Horton Conway" (Bloomsbury, 2015), written in part while she was a Fellow at the Leon Levy Center for Biography, at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City. This book too was received to wide acclaim; one example is the Nature review by Michael Harris (Columbia University), which says: "Roberts's 'kaleidoscope of inquiry' is a marvel for its virtuoso juggling of narrative speeds, reminiscences, implausible digressions and long passages of precise, comprehensible mathematics. She packs it all into a tidy chronology framed by the story of a road movie starring Conway... In search of the best ways to talk about numbers, groups, shapes, and games, Roberts has rediscovered the power of talking about the people who dedicate their lives to their study: and what an enjoyable discovery that is."

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The award will be presented Thursday, January 5, 2017, at the Joint Mathematics Meetings in Atlanta.

Find out more about the JPBM Communications Award at http://www.ams.org/profession/prizes-awards/ams-awards/jpbm-comm-award.

The Joint Policy Board for Mathematics (JPBM) is a collaborative effort of the American Mathematical Society, the American Statistical Association, the Mathematical Association of America, and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. The JPBM oversees the JPBM Communications Award and Mathematics and Statistics Awareness Month programs.

Founded in 1888 to further mathematical research and scholarship, today the American Mathematical Society, http://www.ams.org, fulfills its mission through programs and services that promote mathematical research and its uses, strengthen mathematical education, and foster awareness and appreciation of mathematics and its connections to other disciplines and to everyday life.

The American Statistical Association, http://www.amstat.org/, is the world's largest community of statisticians and data scientists, the "Big Tent for Statistics." The ASA supports excellence in the development, application, and dissemination of statistical science through meetings, publications, membership services, education, accreditation, and advocacy.

The Mathematical Association of America, http://www.maa.org/, is the world's largest community of mathematicians, students, and enthusiasts. The MAA accelerates the understanding of our world through mathematics. This is because mathematics drives society and shapes our lives.

The Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, http://www.siam.org/, headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is an international society of more than 14,000 individual, academic and corporate members from 85 countries. SIAM helps build cooperation between mathematics and the worlds of science and technology to solve real-world problems through publications, conferences, and communities like chapters, sections and activity groups.
Leipzig, Germany - 9 December 2016: Air pollution impairs the function of blood vessels in the lungs, according to a study in more than 16 000 patients presented today at EuroEcho-Imaging 2016.1

"This is the first human study to report an influence of air pollution on pulmonary vascular function," said lead author Dr Jean-Francois Argacha, a cardiologist at the University Hospital (UZ) Brussels, Belgium. "This is a major public health issue for people living in polluted urban areas where exercise could damage the lungs and potentially lead to decompensated heart failure."

Promoting a safer environment appears to be as important as controlling conventional risk factors, like high cholesterol, in reducing cardiovascular disease.2 Air pollution consists of particles (particulate matter [PM] of different sizes) and gases (nitrogen dioxide, ozone, etc). The first vascular bed in contact with air pollutants is the pulmonary circulation yet few studies have investigated the impact.

"Such studies are important because if air pollution causes narrowing of the blood vessels in the lungs (vasoconstriction), this combined with the systemic effects of pollution could cause decompensated heart failure," said Dr Argacha.

The current study examined the effect of air pollution on pulmonary haemodynamics in a population and in individuals. The population study assessed whether common levels of outdoor air pollution influence the echocardiography parameters conventionally used to evaluate the pulmonary circulation and right ventricular function.3 Between 2009 and 2013, transthoracic echocardiography including an evaluation of pulmonary pressure was conducted in 16 295 individuals and correlated with average air pollution in Brussels on the same day and in the last five and ten days.4 The authors examined whether any patient subgroups were more susceptible to the effects of air pollution.

The individual study examined the effect of air pollution on pulmonary circulation in ten healthy male volunteers exposed to pollutants in a chamber with standardised conditions. The volunteers were exposed to ambient air or dilute diesel exhaust with a PM2.5 concentration of 300 g/m3 for two hours in a randomised, crossover study design. The effects on pulmonary vascular resistance were assessed with echocardiography at rest and during a cardiac stress test in which the drug dobutamine is given to simulate heart function during exercise.

The population study showed a negative effect of PM10, PM2.5 and ozone on pulmonary circulation on the same day and over five and ten days. Specifically, increases in these pollutants were associated with reduced pulmonary acceleration time and increased pulmonary acceleration slope. Increases in PM10 and PM2.5 over ten days were associated with worse right ventricle function. The negative impact of PM10 on pulmonary circulation was more pronounced in patients with obstructive sleep apnoea.

Dr Argacha said: "Air pollution was associated with increased pulmonary vascular tone which makes it more difficult for blood to flow to the lungs. Longer exposure to air pollution exposure seems necessary to impair right ventricular systolic function. Patients with obstructive sleep apnoea were at greater risk."

The individual study showed that exposure to diesel exhaust did not modify the pulmonary circulation compared to ambient air when the volunteers were resting but did when dobutamine was administered. "This suggests that pollution is more harmful to the lung circulation during exercise," said Dr Argacha.

He continued: "Our dual approach provides original data on the impact of air pollution on the pulmonary circulation. The individual study strengthens the plausible link emerging from the epidemiological research."

Regarding how to minimise the health risks, Dr Argacha said: "Our main advice is to limit physical activities during heavy air pollution. More studies are needed before specific recommendations on intensity and duration of exercise can be given. Emission controls such as particulate filters have reduced tailpipe emissions, but other sources such as engine crankcases, tyres and brake wear are becoming important. No strong evidence exists on effectiveness of face masks to eliminate or reduce particle exposure."

He added that legislation protecting the population from air pollution is weak. He said: "Diesel emission control has been associated with health outcomes5 but unfortunately the standards defined by the European Union differ from those of the World Health Organization."6

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20 to 40 percent of the patients with multiple myeloma - a type of leukaemia - have a defect in the ribosome, the protein factory of the cell. These patients have a poorer prognosis than patients with intact ribosomes. At the same time, they respond better to a drug that already exists. These are the findings of a study by the Laboratory for Disease Mechanisms in Cancer at KU Leuven (University of Leuven), Belgium.

Multiple myeloma (MM, also known as Kahler's disease) is a blood cancer whereby the plasma cells in the bone marrow start proliferating malignantly. MM cannot be cured and is most common among older people. Various treatments exist to temporarily suppress the disease, but the challenge is determining to which treatment the patient will respond best.

Doctoral student Isabel Hofman (KU Leuven) discovered defects in the ribosome of MM patients. "The ribosome is the protein factory of a cell. In MM patients, one part of the ribosome is produced less in 20 to 40 percent of the patients, depending on how aggressive the cancer is. We suspect that their cells are still producing protein, but that the balance is somewhat disrupted. In any case, we found that these people have a poorer prognosis than MM patients with an intact ribosome," explains Professor Kim De Keersmaecker, head of the KU Leuven Laboratory for Disease Mechanisms in Cancer.

One possible treatment for MM is the use of proteasome inhibitors. "The proteasome is the protein demolition machine in a cell. There's a type of drugs, including Bortezomib, that inhibits its functioning. How the defects in the ribosome influence the proteasome is not quite clear yet. But we discovered that patients with a defective ribosome respond better to Bortezomib. In other words, their poorer prognosis can be offset by this treatment. On the basis of these findings, we can now develop tests to identify defects in the ribosome and thus determine which therapy will have most effect in a specific patient."

The notion that cancer is related to ribosome defects is a relatively new concept in science. "A few years ago, we discovered defects in the ribosome of patients with acute lymphatic leukaemia. Now we know that the same applies to MM. In all likelihood, this will also hold true for other types of cancer. Our next research goal is finding out for which cancers this is the case, how the link between ribosome and proteasome works, and what the possibilities are of drugs that target the ribosome itself."

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This study is a collaboration between KU Leuven, University Hospitals Leuven, and the Erasmus MC Rotterdam, among others.
Francisco Duarte, a PhD Student in Transportation Systems of the MIT Portugal Program at University of Coimbra, was honored today with the first prize at the initiative promoted by Automovel Clube Portugal in a partnership with BP Portugal, National Council of Rectors and National Innovation Agency. The 10 000 will later be invested in the venture's prototype is currently under construction and it is expected that the laboratory tests will take place early next year and that the project pilot will be implemented in the second half of 2017. The project entitled VENEX presents a speed reduction system that induces the deceleration of vehicles without causing damage, noise or any discomfort to the passengers.

The VENEX - Vehicle Energy Efficient Extractor - equipment acts as in a similar fashion to a carpet that when placed on the floor actively reduces the speed of the vehicles by extracting kinetic energy, with a minimal impact on the automobile. Contrary to existing systems, this one absorbs the vehicles' energy and makes it slow down safely, without any action of the driver and even without being perceptible since it causes no discomfort. By acting directly on the vehicles, this solution can be effective in different places such as crossings, intersections, roundabouts, residential areas, schools and hospital areas, among others where it is crucial to control the speed limits. Drivers who move within the legal velocity limits will not be penalized, and the energy will just be withdrawn according to the necessity of each place.

Currently, road safety is an issue of global importance, especially due to the number of traffic-related victims, which increases annually and has high social and economic costs. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 1.24 million people lose their lives annually in road accidents, and the number of seriously injured exceeds 7.8 million. In a study carried out in Portugal in 2012, the economic costs related to traffic accidents goes up to 2.5 million euros, which represents about 1.54% of the country's GDP. A large number of accidents occur in urban areas, involving especially pedestrians. WHO has pointed out several measures to promote the decrease of the number of accidents, and being speed reduction the first and most important. Several solutions have been developed but the one that has the best results to date are still road humps, managing to decrease the number of pedestrian accidents by more than 40%.

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Discovering the most effective outreach and intervention strategies for those at high risk for HIV is key to getting 100% diagnosis rates and eliminating HIV transmission

Despite some evidence that HIV incidence rates in the United States are decreasing modestly in recent years, at least 44,000 people are still infected with HIV each year. Of concern, socioeconomically disadvantaged African American/Black and Hispanic persons are disproportionately affected by HIV, and thus over-represented in the HIV epidemic in comparison to their numbers in the general population. Overall, it is estimated that some 15% of people nation-wide living with HIV remain unaware of their infection.

"Undiagnosed HIV is a serious public health issue," said Marya Viorst Gwadz, Ph.D., the study's Principal Investigator from the Center for Drug Use and HIV Research (CDUHR) at New York University Rory Meyers College of Nursing. "At least a third of new HIV transmission events are linked to those with undiagnosed HIV, yet finding people with undiagnosed HIV is very challenging."

Nationally, heterosexual sex is the second most common route of HIV transmission after male-to-male sexual contact, accounting for an estimated 24% of newly reported infections annually and is the main route of transmission among women.

"Compared with other risk groups, heterosexuals are less likely to be tested for HIV over their lifetimes, and less likely to be tested annually, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends," notes Charles M. Cleland, PhD., a study Co-Investigator. "As many as 25% of HIV-infected heterosexuals are undiagnosed - a substantially higher rate of undiagnosed HIV than among other risk groups."

"We are interested mainly in heterosexuals considered at high-risk for HIV because they live in urban geographical areas with high rates of poverty, a primary risk factor for HIV infection, and high rates of prevalent HIV," said Noelle R. Leonard, PhD., another study Co-Investigator. "These 'heterosexuals at high-risk' for HIV, who are mainly African American/Black and Hispanic, have serious barriers to regular HIV testing. Many of the barriers are related to race/ethnicity and lower social status, including: fear of HIV stigma; distrust of medical settings; substance use problems; and the sense that heterosexuals are not at risk for HIV compared to other risk groups--such as men who have sex with men or persons who inject drugs."

"To substantially reduce the numbers of persons living with HIV who remain undiagnosed, the National Institute on Drug Abuse has spearheaded a research initiative on interventions to seek out persons with undiagnosed HIV, test them, and then, link those with HIV infection to health care in a timely fashion, called the 'Seek, Test, Treat, and Retain' (STTR) model," said Alexandra Kutnick, the study's project director.

In an effort to identify the best approaches to uncovering undiagnosed HIV, Dr. Gwadz and her research team compared the efficacy of three social/behavioral intervention strategies for heterosexual individuals at high risk (HHR) for HIV within an urban high-risk area (HRA) in central Brooklyn, New York.

The study, "Public Health Benefit of Peer-Referral Strategies for Detecting Undiagnosed HIV Infection among High-Risk Heterosexuals in New York City," published in JAIDS: Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes, looks at the relative "yield" of three Seek/Test methods: Respondent Driven Sampling with Anonymous Single-session Testing (RDS-AST); Respondent Driven Sampling with Confidential Two-session Testing (RDS-CTT); and Venue-based Sampling (VBS).

"The three interventions were designed to address the specific barriers to HIV testing that HHR experience, and all three interventions were culturally appropriate for African American/Black and Hispanic HHR," said Dr. Gwadz.

The researchers stress that efficient and potent active approaches to detect undiagnosed HIV among HHR are sorely needed to achieve the goal of elimination of HIV transmission in the U.S., and the present study addresses this gap in available HIV prevention programs.

"We examined the efficacy of these three intervention strategies to uncover undiagnosed HIV infection among HHR by seeking them out in their communities and providing HIV counseling and testing, said Dr. Gwadz. "Moreover, the CDC and others use both respondent-driven sampling (RDS), a peer-to peer recruitment method, and venue-based sampling (VBS) in their surveillance studies, but this is the first direct comparison of RDS and VBS to identify undiagnosed HIV prevalence among HHR."

Participants in all three interventions evidenced high rates of risk and behavioral factors such as poverty, unemployment, substance use, and incarceration - factors that place individuals at risk for HIV - but low rates of regular, annual HIV testing. The prevalence of confirmed newly diagnosed HIV infection was higher in the RDS-AST (4%) and RDS-CTT (1%) interventions than VBS (0.3%). Those in RDS-AST were least likely to have regular, annual HIV testing and most likely to have both sexual and substance use risk factors compared to RDS-CTT and VBS.

For example, 60% of those in RDS-AST evidenced substance use problems at a clinically significant level in the past year, compared to 37% in RDS-CTT. RDS-AST and RDS-CTT yielded comparable overall HIV prevalence rates (10.3% and 7.4%) - substantially higher than national estimates among HHR. VBS was feasible but produced a sustainability lower proportion of newly diagnosed HIV than the two RDS approaches.

"Our study findings suggest VBS is not an optimal approach for HHR, perhaps because heterosexuals at high-risk for HIV are embedded in physical spaces that include lower-risk individuals, and VBS is an inefficient means of gaining access to those at highest risk," said Dr. Leonard. "These findings, on the other hand, underscore the utility of peer-to-peer recruitment methods such as RDS, particularly in conjunction with low-threshold and easy-access interventions that provide HIV testing at the first contact, and which directly ameliorate potential barriers such as perceived HIV stigma."

The researchers note that rates of newly diagnosed HIV found in this study were lower than initially hypothesized at the time the study was planned, which may be a result of the set of effective HIV prevention strategies implemented in New York City during the study period. As of 2012, New York State had one of the lowest rates of undiagnosed HIV (7%) in the U.S. Lower rates of newly diagnosed HIV in RDS-CTT intervention compared to RDS-AST also suggest that variations in the timing and content of intervention components can impact sample composition and the intervention's efficiency with respect to uncovering undiagnosed HIV infection.

This study is the first to prospectively demonstrate the value of potentially replicable Seek and Test interventions to identify HHR with undiagnosed HIV; namely, peer-referral methods focused in large socially-networked populations with high HIV prevalence. Thus it provides further support for utility of social network approaches to identify undiagnosed HIV in vulnerable populations.

"Implemented on a continual basis in urban HRAs, such approaches can complement institutionally-based HIV testing programs and play a vital role in eliminating HIV transmission by promoting regular HIV testing among populations at high risk for HIV, including substance users," said Dr. Gwadz.

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Researchers and Affiliations (NYU CDUHR unless otherwise stated):

Marya Gwadz, PhD

Charles M Cleland, PhD

David C Perlman, MD (Mount Sinai Health System)

Holly Hagan, PhD

Samuel M Jenness, PhD (Emory University)

Noelle R Leonard, PhD

Amanda S Ritchie, MAA

Alexandra Kutnick, MA

Acknowledgements:

The study was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01DA032083; Marya Gwadz, Ph.D., Principal Investigator) and the Center for Drug Use and HIV Research (CDUHR; P30DA011041; Sherry Deren, Ph.D. and Holly Hagan, Ph.D., Co-Principal Investigators).

About CDUHR

The mission of the Center for Drug Use and HIV Research (CDUHR) is to end the HIV and HCV epidemics in drug using populations and their communities by conducting transdisciplinary research and disseminating its findings to inform programmatic, policy, and grass roots initiatives at the local, state, national and global levels. CDUHR is a Core Center of Excellence funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (Grant #P30 DA011041). It is the first center for the socio-behavioral study of substance use and HIV in the United States and is located at the New York University College of Nursing. For more information, visit http://www.cduhr.org.

About the NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing

NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing is a global leader in nursing education, research, and practice. It offers a Bachelor of Science with a major in Nursing, a Master of Science and Post-Master's Certificate Programs, a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree and a Doctor of Philosophy in nursing research and theory development. http://nursing.nyu.edu/
COLUMBUS, Ohio--With a deadly avalanche, it appears climate change may now be affecting a once stable region of the Tibetan Plateau.

That's the conclusion of an international team of researchers who have published an analysis of the July 2016 disaster in the Dec. 9 issue of the Journal of Glaciology.

On July 17, more than 70 million tons of ice broke off from the Aru glacier in the mountains of western Tibet and tumbled into a valley below, taking the lives of nine nomadic yak herders living there.

To perform a kind of forensic analysis of the avalanche, researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences joined with two glaciologists from The Ohio State University: Lonnie Thompson, Distinguished University Professor in the School of Earth Sciences and research scientist at the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center (BPCRC), and Ellen Mosley-Thompson, Distinguished University Professor in Geography and director of BPCRC.

The most important fact about the avalanche, said Thompson, is that it lasted only four or five minutes (according to witnesses), yet it managed to bury 3.7 square miles of the valley floor in that time. He said something--likely meltwater at the base of the glacier--must have lubricated the ice to speed its flow down the mountain.

"Given the rate at which the event occurred and the area covered, I think it could only happen in the presence of meltwater," Thompson said. Other nearby glaciers may be vulnerable, he added, "but unfortunately as of today, we have no ability to predict such disasters."

Researchers could not have predicted, for example, that a neighboring glacier in the same mountain range would give way just two months later, but it did in September 2016. That avalanche appears not to have resulted in any deaths, and the cause is still under investigation.

The researchers used satellite data and GPS to get precise measurements of how much ice fell in the first avalanche and the area it covered. They've since pieced together more answers by working with computer modelers who were able to replicate the avalanche virtually. In those simulations, the only condition that led to an avalanche was the presence of meltwater.

"We still don't know exactly where the meltwater came from, but given that the average temperature at the nearest weather station has risen by about 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) over the last 50 years, it makes sense that snow and ice are melting and the resulting water is seeping down beneath the glacier," Thompson said.

Glacial collapse is unprecedented in western Tibet, which for decades has resisted the effects of climate change while glaciers in southern and eastern Tibet have melted at an accelerating rate. Increased snowfall has even led to the expansion of some glaciers in western Tibet--and the extra snowfall likely played some role in the avalanche by creating additional meltwater, said Lide Tian, a glaciologist at the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and lead author of the paper.

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Co-authors of the paper include Tandong Yao, Yang Gao, Sher Muhammad, Jibiao Zong, Cheng Wang and Sengqiang Jin of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Zhiguo Li of Shangqiu Normal University. Funding was provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the "Strategic Priority Research Program (B)" of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Major Special Project-the China High-Resolution Earth Observation System.

Contact: Lonnie Thompson, 614-292-6652; Thompson.3@osu.edu

Written by Pam Frost Gorder, 614-292-9475; Gorder.1@osu.edu
Breast cancer cells break away and spread to other parts of the body relatively late on in breast tumour development, an international team of scientists has shown. The research, jointly led by Dr Peter Van Loo at the Francis Crick Institute, could help refine cancer therapy and is published in the journal Genome Biology.

The team of scientists in the UK, Belgium, Norway and the USA tracked the genetics of particular cancer cells that can go on to form secondary tumours in other parts of the body, such as the bone marrow. Such cells are known as disseminated tumour cells or DTCs.

The group's findings suggest there is a longer window than previously thought for cancer to be diagnosed and treated before it spreads. The majority of people who die from cancer lose their lives when it spreads throughout the body, a process called metastasis.

Dr Van Loo worked with colleagues from Oslo University Hospital in Norway, the University of Leuven in Belgium and the University of Chicago in the USA.

The team used the latest single-cell sequencing techniques to read out the full DNA genomes of 63 individual cells isolated from bone marrow samples donated by six breast cancer patients. The scientists have not only shown that cancer cells spread late, but also that when DTCs are present elsewhere in the body they are genetically very similar to the patient's original tumour.

This knowledge could help clinicians to choose the therapy most likely to destroy the cancer. Although the project focused on breast cancer, the team believes the results could be applied to other cancers too.

Dr Jonas Demeulemeester of the Francis Crick Institute, one of the joint first authors, said: "Although how tumours spread throughout the body is not well understood, we do know that some mutations increase a cell's ability to move about. Cells like this may leave the crowded environment of the primary tumour and enter blood vessels. Swept away by the bloodstream, they may exit the vessels again at distant sites and nest themselves in other tissues, such as the bone marrow. Cells surviving this whole process are known as disseminated tumour cells and can lay undetected and dormant for many years, often resisting therapy, before re-activating and giving rise to a new tumour, a metastasis."

The study focused on patients diagnosed with localised breast cancer - people with a tumour in their breast but no evidence of it having spread anywhere else in the body. The team took tumour and bone marrow samples when the patients were diagnosed and in one case, took samples again three years later.

Next they looked at the genetic information held in cells from both the tumour and bone marrow. The team developed sensitive methods to interrogate the genome of each sample that allowed them to spot both large and small-scale genetic changes.

Cancer happens when a series of genetic changes corrupts cell behaviour. The changes, or mutations, create a DNA signature specific to the cancer cell and the copies it makes of itself. By tracking mutations in cells from the original tumour and cells found in the bone marrow, they could compare the evolution of their DNA signatures and figure out when DTCs sprang from the tumour.

They found that when DTCs are present they are genetically very similar to the patient's original tumour.

"This knowledge is crucial to help determine the right therapy for patients. If a treatment is chosen specifically to target a mutation present in all cells of a patient's primary tumour then it is most likely the disseminated tumour cells will also carry this mutation and will also respond," explains Dr Demeulemeester.

The number of tumour cells detected in bone marrow also has a value in figuring out a patient's prognosis: the more tumour cells are found, the worse the outlook for the patient.

The new study suggests the number used as an indicator of outcome could be considerably refined.

The team discovered that some cells found in the patients' bone marrow didn't share any genetic history with the original breast tumour cells. These cells nonetheless had large-scale genetic changes and appeared to accumulate over time, suggesting that genetic mistakes can occur in normal, healthy tissues as well. The next stage of research is to look at what the relevance of these intermediate cells is to the development of cancer.

Dr Demeulemeester said: "Only a subset of those cells previously believed to be cancer cells have really spread from the patient's primary tumour. A refined indicator means a more accurate prognosis and a more tailored therapy for patients, avoiding over- or under-treatment."

Dr Justine Alford, Cancer Research UK's senior science information officer said: "Understanding more about how and when tumour cells spread is important, and this early research sheds light on the origins of these cells in breast cancer patients. When cancers spread they are often harder to treat, but this new study could help researchers develop new ways to tackle the disease more effectively."

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NOTES TO EDITORS

* Please note: the researchers' availability for interview is more restricted later in the week. We will do our best, but interviews earlier this week are easier to arrange.

* The original paper: 'Tracing the origin of disseminated tumor cells in breast cancer using single-cell sequencing' is to be published in Genome Biology at 01.00 UK time on Friday 9 December. The article DOI is 10.1186/s13059-016-1109-7 and, when published, it will be available at: http://genomebiology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13059-016-1109-7

* The study was jointly led by Dr Peter Van Loo at the Francis Crick Institute, Dr Bjrn Naume and Dr Vessela N Kristensen of the Oslo University Hospital (Norway), Dr Thierry Voet of the University of Leuven (Belgium) and Dr Kevin P White at the University of Chicago (USA).

* The research was funded by the K.G. Jebsen Centre for Breast Cancer Research in Norway, the Research Council of Norway, Norwegian Cancer Society, the South-Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority, the Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO), the Foundation against Cancer in Belgium and KU Leuven - University of Leuven.

* The Francis Crick Institute is a new and distinctive biomedical research institute. Research groups are now moving into its purpose built laboratory in the King's Cross area of London. The institute's work will help to understand why disease develops. We will find new ways to diagnose, prevent and treat a range of illnesses ? such as cancer, heart disease and stroke, infections and neurodegenerative diseases. We will bring together outstanding scientists from all disciplines, carrying out research that will help improve the health and quality of people's lives, and keeping the UK at the forefront of medical innovation. The Francis Crick Institute is a charity supported by the Medical Research Council, Cancer Research UK, Wellcome, UCL (University College London), Imperial College London and King's College.
Neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are on the rise but its underlying mechanisms are poorly understood.

Noriko Osumi, Kaichi Yoshizaki and colleagues at Tohoku University's Graduate School of Medicine collaborated with Shigeru Wakana and Tamio Furuse at RIKEN Bio-Resource Center, and Tucci Valter at Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, to conduct comprehensive behavioral analyses on how paternal aging influences the behavior of offspring that inherit a genetic risk (a mutation in Pax6 gene*).

In the experiments, in order to minimize the physical influence of the father, the male mouse was isolated and in vitro fertilization was used to impregnate the female. The researchers found that the offspring of young fathers exhibited impaired vocal communication, while the offspring of older fathers exhibited hyperlocomotion.

The results are significant for both animal researchers and the public. For researchers working on animal models, it shows that the age of male mice can influence the behavior of the offspring, so this should be a consideration when they are used to mate.

For the public, the research shows that paternal aging may exacerbate genetic risks - this could explain why there is a rapid rise in the ratio of children with ASD or ADHD, due to men having children later in life.

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This paper was published online in PLoS ONE on November 17. The research was supported in part by KAKENHI (25640002 to K.Y. and 16H06530 to N.O.) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan.

*Pax6 gene encodes a transcription factor that regulates expression of many downstream genes and is known to be related to ASD.
CLEVELAND: A researcher from University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center will discuss his upcoming immunotherapy clinical trial for triple-negative breast cancer at the 2016 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. The annual symposium is the premier meeting for more than 7,500 physicians and scientists dedicated to breast cancer treatment, featuring state-of-the-art breast cancer research such as experimental biology, etiology, prevention, diagnosis, and therapy of both breast cancer and premalignant breast disease.

Joseph Baar, MD, PhD, Director of Breast Cancer Research at UH Seidman Cancer Center and Associate Professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, will share details about a phase II clinical trial testing the effectiveness of combining the chemotherapy drugs carboplatin and nab-paclitaxel with an immunotherapeutic agent called pembrolizumab (Keytruda) for use in patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer. Dr. Baar's poster presentation will be part of the Ongoing Trials-Targeted Therapy session on December 8, 2016 from 5 pm to 7 pm.

"Up until now, women with triple-negative breast cancer have only had one treatment option, which is chemotherapy. However, more recently, we've seen that the immune modulator pembrolizumab improves outcomes in patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer," said Dr. Baar. "As a result, it is now critical to explore how the addition of pembrolizumab to chemotherapy might improve survival in patients with this type of breast cancer."

Triple-negative breast cancer is a highly aggressive form which comprises 10-15 percent of newly diagnosed early-stage breast cancer. Most triple-negative tumors are high grade and have a high incidence of recurrence and metastases (spreading to other organs). Unlike other types of breast cancer, there is no standard follow-up treatment for triple-negative breast cancer to prevent recurrence.

As triple-negative breast cancer progresses, tumor cells express a protein ligand called PD-L1, which interacts with the PD-1 receptor on T-cells. T-cells are the immune system's primary mechanism for fighting back against harmful foreign invaders. The PD-L1 to PD-1 interaction prevents the T-cell from responding to the tumor as a threat. Pembrolizumab binds to the T-cell's PD-1 receptors and therefore blocks the PD-1 to PD-L1 interaction, allowing the T-cells to be activated against the tumor cells. The research team hypothesizes that the addition of such an immunotherapeutic agent to chemotherapy will allow the body's natural immune response to reduce disease recurrence to a greater extent than either modality alone.

This is the first phase II trial to study the effectiveness of combining these two chemotherapeutic agents with the immunotherapeutic agent pembrolizumab for this type of cancer.

The trial will enroll approximately 30 patients beginning in early 2017. Eligible patients must have radiologically measurable and documented metastatic triple negative breast cancer, be mostly functional day to day as measured by an ECOG performance status of between zero and one, must not have received more than two prior therapies for this disease, and must be willing to undergo a preliminary biopsy for research purposes. The trial is sponsored by Merck, which produces pembrolizumab as Keytruda.

"Trials our faculty members present at SABCS and other research meetings around the world illustrate the remarkable advances in oncology taking place today," says Neal J. Meropol, MD, Chief, Division of Hematology and Oncology, University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center and Associate Director for Clinical Research, Case Comprehensive Cancer Center at Case Western Reserve.

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The symposium takes place December 6-10, 2016, and is hosted by The Cancer Therapy & Research Center at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, the American Association for Cancer Research, and Baylor College of Medicine.

About University Hospitals

Founded in 1866, University Hospitals serves the needs of over 1 million patients per year through an integrated network of 18 hospitals, more than 40 outpatient health centers and 200 physician offices in 15 counties throughout northern Ohio. The system's flagship academic medical center, University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, located on a 35-acre campus in Cleveland's University Circle, is affiliated with Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. The main campus also includes University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital, ranked among the top children's hospitals in the nation; University Hospitals MacDonald Women's Hospital, Ohio's only hospital for women; and University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center, part of the NCI-designated Case Comprehensive Cancer Center. UH is home to some of the most prestigious clinical and research programs in the nation, including cancer, pediatrics, women's health, orthopedics, radiology, neuroscience, cardiology and cardiovascular surgery, digestive health, dermatology, transplantation and urology. UH Cleveland Medical Center is perennially among the highest performers in national ranking surveys, including "America's Best Hospitals" from U.S. News & World Report. UH is also home to Harrington Discovery Institute at University Hospitals - part of The Harrington Project for Discovery & Development. UH is the second largest employer in northern Ohio with 26,000 employees. For more information, go to UHhospitals.org.
A research team, led by Professor Joonbum Bae of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering has recently been honored with a commendation from the Minister of Public Safety and Security (MPSS) from the 2016 Korea Disaster Safety Technology Award contest.

Professor Bae and his team received the award in recognition of their groundbreaking project to develop collaborative rescue robots that can be actually deployed on the field. The award ceremony took place at KINTEX on November 16, 2016.

Their introduced humanoid avatar robots for disaster response is comprised with a teleoperating system with a wearable interface where the robot hand replicates human hand motion, and feedback algorithm between the robot and the human.

Professor Bae is currently working on the development of next-generation robotic systems for disaster environments with emphasis on control. The research team hopes to find ways to apply fundamental robotic technologies to humanitarian assistance and disaster relief tasks in the three categories of robot platforms, human-robot interaction and control, and modeling of a disaster environment.

They expect that their tele-operation robot will play a big role in carrying out relief operations in case of natural disasters, such as nuclear accidents, conflagrations, and building collapse.

"Robotic technologies are used in various fields including the manufacturing and service sectors," Professor Bae said. "We hope to contribute to further developing and expanding bilateral cooperation in the robotics area by developing robot technologies that is capable of handling disasters that restrict human access."

The Korea Disaster Safety Technology Award recognizes scientists who have made outstanding contribution to their particular field. Three major awards are given at the contest, including the Presidential Citation, the Prime Minister's Commendation, as well as the Minister of Public Safety and Security Commendation. There were only eight organizations in the nation recognized by this year's competition.

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The award ceremony took place at the 2nd Korea International Safety & Security Expo, known as K-Safety Expo in Gyeonggi Province on November 16, 2016. Professor Bae's tale-operation robot will be displayed at K-Sategy Expo until November 18, 2016.
An international team of researchers involving the University of Adelaide is tackling the controversy over what some scientists consider to be a "harmful" hormone, arguing that it could be a game changer in the fight against recurring breast cancers that are resistant to standard treatments.

The controversy centers on the different effects in women of the naturally occurring sex steroid hormone progesterone compared with synthetic forms (i.e. progestins) designed to mimic its actions.

Some, but not all, progestins have been linked with increased breast cancer risk when used in menopausal hormone therapy, leading to concerns in the scientific community about the use of these drugs.

However, in a paper now published online ahead of print in the prestigious journal Nature Reviews Cancer, an international team - involving the University of Adelaide's Dame Roma Mitchell Cancer Research Laboratories (DRMCRL) and the Cancer Research UK (CRUK) Cambridge Institute - highlights that progesterone when used in menopausal hormone therapy does not increase breast cancer risk . Indeed, progesterone may have an important role to play in the safe and effective management of recurring breast cancer.

"Breast cancer arises because of abnormal hormone activity, with about 75% of these cancers being driven by the estrogen receptor. Unfortunately, despite good initial responses in many women, drug resistance is common, usually leading to a recurrence and lethal spread of the disease," says Professor Wayne Tilley, Director of the Dame Roma Mitchell Cancer Research Laboratories at the University of Adelaide, and a lead author of the paper.

"Moreover, current hormonal treatments that target the estrogen receptor in breast cancer, especially specific inhibitors that block estrogen production, can markedly impact quality of life, often leading women to stop taking the drugs or change their treatment."

Professor Tilley says the team's recent studies, including landmark research already published in Nature, suggest that a safe way of improving treatment - without having a deleterious effect on quality of life - does exist, through the use of natural progesterone and certain other progestins.

"There is a natural 'crosstalk' between estrogen and progesterone receptors that we strongly believe can be exploited," he says.

"In particular, progesterone can reprogram estrogen action in the breast in a way that results in estrogen receptor action improving breast cancer outcomes. Because of this unique interaction of the two natural female sex hormones in the breast, we see great potential benefits in adding progesterone to existing drugs that target the estrogen receptor, thereby helping to switch off the growth of cancer cells.

"This gives us a unique opportunity to develop a new hormonal treatment which, when used in conjunction with the current standard of care, would enhance and improve outcomes for many breast cancer patients.

"Unfortunately, there are some serious misconceptions about the role of progesterone in cancer biology that have so far prevented it from being widely used in the management of breast cancer. We hope to change that thinking," Professor Tilley says.

The team, which is highly regarded for its research into both breast and prostate cancer, believes this new paper will have a global impact on clinical, scientific and public opinion on the relative risks and benefits of using progesterone and certain progestins to treat women with breast cancer. "Ultimately, we hope this work will eventually result in saving women's lives," Professor Tilley says.

The real proof will come from two new clinical trials being conducted by the international team, with patients being recruited for the studies in the UK early next year.

One trial in collaboration with a UK group at the University of Liverpool will test the potential benefit of combining progesterone treatment with the breast cancer drug Tamoxifen in premenopausal women with breast cancer.

A second trial involving postmenopausal women with breast cancer has been initiated by collaborators at the CRUK Cambridge Institute and will evaluate whether a particular progestin, Megace, provides added therapeutic benefit when combined with a current estrogen receptor target treatment, compared to the target treatment alone.

Professor Tilley says the team's research has recently resulted in several substantial new sources of funding for Adelaide's Dame Roma Mitchell Cancer Research Laboratories to continue their ground-breaking research in breast cancer. These include:

$1 million National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Project Grant awarded to Professor Tilley and the team over four years, to better understand the clinical significance of sex hormone 'crosstalk' in the treatment of breast cancer

$400,000 four-year fellowship from Australia's National Breast Cancer Foundation, awarded to Dr Iza Denis, a postdoctoral researcher recruited to the Adelaide laboratories from France.

Professor Tilley was also awarded another NHMRC Project Grant of more than $946,000 to develop new and smarter therapies to inhibit the androgen receptor, which is the key driver of prostate cancer growth.

"Resistance to current therapies that target the androgen receptor is the main cause of lethal prostate cancer. Researchers in the Dame Roma Mitchell Cancer Research Laboratories are developing and testing a new drug that is effective against the androgen receptor in preclinical models of treatment resistant prostate cancer. It is hoped that this new drug will inhibit the growth of tumors that currently kill approximately 3,300 men in Australia each year," he says.

"Our recent funding success will ensure that South Australian research into breast and prostate cancer remains at the forefront of improving the health and quality of life for women and men afflicted by these diseases.

"More importantly, this funding will make significant inroads into improving survival rates for patients who develop resistance to current hormonal treatments for these cancer types, which are major killers of Australian women and men," Professor Tilley says.

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Media Contact:

Professor Wayne Tilley

Executive Director

Dame Roma Mitchell Cancer Research Laboratories

The University of Adelaide

wayne.tilley@adelaide.edu.au
It has been 20 years since Dolly the sheep was successfully cloned in Scotland, but cloning mammals remains a challenge. A new study by researchers from the U.S. and France of gene expression in developing clones now shows why most cloned embryos likely fail.

Dolly was cloned using the technique of "somatic cell nuclear transfer," when a nucleus from an adult cell is transferred into unfertilized egg that has had its nucleus removed, and is then shocked with electricity to start cell growth. Embryos are then transferred to recipient mothers who carry the clones to birth.

Cloning cattle is an agriculturally important technology and can be used to study mammalian development, but the success rate remains low, with typically fewer than 10 percent of the cloned animals surviving to birth. The majority of losses are due to embryonic death, a failure during the implantation process, or the development of a defective placenta.

RNA-sequencing highlights problems with gene expression in clones

In a study published Dec. 8 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Harris Lewin, professor in the UC Davis Department of Evolution and Ecology, and colleagues in France and the U.S. used RNA sequencing to look at gene expression in cloned cows during implantation in order to get a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms that lead to a high rate of pregnancy failure for clones. The study is the culmination of 12 years of collaboration and combines the French team's expertise in cloning and reproductive biology with the U.S. team's expertise in functional genomics.

"Our work tackled fundamental questions relating to the cloning process," said Lewin.

"The study has resulted in the redefinition of our understanding of how nuclear reprogramming affects gene expression in extraembryonic tissues of cloned cattle embryos, and the exquisite communication between clones and their recipient mothers."

"The large amount of data our collaboration has generated sheds light on mechanisms that account for embryonic losses at implantation," said Olivier Sandra, team leader for the study at the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique in France. "They also provide new insights on how events taking place at implantation drive the progression of pregnancy and shape the post-natal phenotype of the progeny, in cattle as well as in other mammalian species."

The researchers studied tissue from cloned cow embryos--all derived from the same cell line--at 18 and 34 days of development, as well as the corresponding endometrial lining of the pregnant cows. They also looked at non-cloned cows conceived using artificial insemination.

Using RNA sequencing, the researchers found multiple genes whose abnormal expression could lead to the high rate of death for cloned embryos, including failure to implant in the uterus and failure to develop a normal placenta. Looking at the extraembryonic tissue of the cloned cows at day 18, the researchers found anomalies in expression of more than 5,000 genes.

Lessons From Mouse Genome

When they compared the results to the Mouse Genomic Informatics Knockout database they found 123 genes that corresponded with functional annotation of abnormal extra-embryonic tissue morphology, 121 associated with embryonic lethality, and 14 with abnormal embryo implantation.

By day 34 of development, however, the pattern of gene expression was much more similar to control cows derived from artificial insemination, suggesting that these surviving clones were able to implant in the uterus and begin to form a placenta. These results indicate that the large losses of cloned cows before implantation probably result from problems with critical developmental genes in the extraembryonic tissue.

The study also revealed other points of potential failure for the clones, including problems with hormonal signaling between the developing cloned embryo and the pregnant cow. For example, the study found down-regulation of genes involved in interferon tau, the major signal of pregnancy recognition. The clones also appeared to have an effect on the gene expression of the pregnant cows themselves; on day 34, some uterus tissue showed grossly different gene expression, which could affect the placenta.

"Our data confirm that the interactions between the uterus and the extra-embryonic tissues is critical during implantation, making this step a major hurdle for the progression of pregnancy," said Sandra.

"We now understand why clones fail, which can lead to improvements in the process of cloning of animals," said Lewin. But, he cautioned, "Our discoveries also reinforce the need for a strict ban on human cloning for any purposes."

"It's amazing that the process works at all, demonstrating the great plasticity that developing animals have to adapt to extreme conditions," Lewin said.

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Collaborators and funding

The research was supported by a U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service Grant, a European Program SABRE Grant, and French National Research Agency Grants. The pregnancies were initiated at the experimental farm of the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique in France and at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The experiment was conducted in accordance with the rules and regulations of the European Convention on Animal Experimentation.

Additional authors include: Fernando H. Biase from the Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Chanaka Rabel, Kalista Andropolis, Colleen A. Olmstead, Rosane Oliveira, and Richard Wallace from the Department of Animal Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Michel Guillomot, Isabelle Hue, Daniel Le Bourhis, Evelyne Campion, Aurelie Chaulot-Talmon, Corinne Giraud-Delville, Geraldine Taghouti, Helene Jammes, and Jean-Paul Renard from UMR Biologie du Developpement et Reproduction, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, Ecole Nationale Veterinaire d'Alford, Universite Paris Saclay, Jouy en Josas, France; and Christophe Richard, Unite Commune d'Experimentation Animale de Bressonvilliers, Leudeville, France.
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- The recent suicide of Brandy Vela, a teen in Texas City, Texas, was a potent reminder of the sometimes tragic consequences of bullying. According to Vela's parents, the teen fatally shot herself Nov. 29 following months of bullying and sexual harassment, perpetrated in part through text messages and social media.

Sexual harassment is a prevalent form of victimization that most antibullying programs ignore and teachers and school officials often fail to recognize, said bullying and youth violence expert Dorothy L. Espelage.

Espelage recently led a five-year study that examined links between bullying and sexual harassment among schoolchildren in Illinois. Nearly half - 43 percent - of middle school students surveyed for the study reported they had been the victims of verbal sexual harassment such as sexual comments, jokes or gestures during the prior year.

The study followed 1,300 Illinois youths from middle school to high school, examining the risk factors associated with bullying and sexual harassment and the characteristics of the perpetrators. Students from four middle schools completed the surveys, and some of the youths and their teachers also were interviewed by the researchers.

Espelage, who conducted the research while on the faculty of the University of Illinois, is a professor of psychology at the University of Florida.

While verbal harassment was more common than physical sexual harassment or sexual assault, 21 percent of students reported having been touched, grabbed or pinched in a sexual way, and 18 percent said peers had brushed up against them in a suggestive manner.

Students also reported being forced to kiss the perpetrators, having their private areas touched without consent and being "pantsed" - having their pants or shorts jerked down by someone else in public.

About 14 percent of the students in the study reported having been the target of sexual rumors, and 9 percent had been victimized with sexually explicit graffiti in school locker rooms or bathrooms.

According to Espelage, "sexual harassment among adolescents is directly related to bullying," particularly homophobic bullying.

Homophobic name-calling emerges among fifth- and sixth-grade bullies as a means of asserting power over other students, Espelage said. Youths who are the targets of homosexual name-calling and jokes then feel compelled to demonstrate they are not gay or lesbian by sexually harassing peers of the opposite sex.

About 16 percent of students in the study reported that they had been the targets of homophobic name-calling or jokes, and nearly 5 percent of youths reported that this harassment happened to them often.

On the surveys, youths were asked an open-ended question about their most upsetting experience of sexual harassment. Fourteen percent of students who reported being victimized negated their experiences by writing that their peers' behaviors were "not really sexual harassment" because the incidents were "meaningless" or intended as jokes.

"What was most surprising and concerning was that these young people were dismissive of these experiences, even though they described them as very upsetting," Espelage said. "Students failed to recognize the seriousness of these behaviors - in part because teachers and school officials failed to address them. Prevention programs need to address what is driving this dismissiveness."

Youths who were dismissive of sexual harassment experiences also were more likely to perpetrate homophobic name-calling, the researchers found.

While students reported that large proportions of these sexual harassment incidents occurred in places such as school hallways, classrooms, gym locker rooms or gym classes where faculty and staff members ostensibly might witness them, the researchers found that many teachers, school officials and staff members failed to acknowledge that sexual harassment occurred in their schools.

Many of these adults also were unaware that they were mandated by school district or federal policies to protect students from sexual harassment, Espelage said.

"These findings highlight the importance of making sexual harassment prevention efforts a priority in U.S. school districts, and that will require the efforts of students, faculty and staff members, school administrators and practitioners such as school psychologists," Espelage said. "Schools need to have a consistently enforced policy that clearly defines sexual harassment and establishes regulations against engaging in such behavior. School officials also must provide guidelines for faculty and staff members on how to address these incidents and how to respond appropriately to student reports of sexual harassment."

Sexual harassment experiences varied across socio-demographic groups, depending on students' age, race and sex. For example, females were at greatest risk of sexual harassment, while African-American girls and boys were at greatest risk of being victimized by romantic partners, the researchers found.

Counseling techniques, interventions and prevention programs for students need to consider these socio-demographic differences and address relevant factors that contribute to sexual harassment in racially diverse school populations, Espelage said.

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Co-authors of the study were Illinois alumni Jun Sung Hong, currently a professor of social work at Wayne State University; Sarah Rinehart and Namrata Doshi.

The paper was published recently in the journal Children and Youth Services Review.
RENO, Nev. - Turning meadow restoration into cleaner air is the goal of researchers at the University of Nevada, Reno. The Soil Science Laboratory at the University recently partnered with the Earthwatch Institute, an international citizen science research organization, to better understand how restoration and plant communities relate to the soil carbon in Sierra Nevada mountain meadows.

"Since Euro-American settlement, plant and water resources in meadows have been manipulated. There aren't many pristine meadows left in much of the Sierra Nevada mountains," Ben Sullivan, soil scientist and biogeochemist with the University of Nevada, Reno, said. "As a consequence of the disturbances, meadows are losing carbon, in the form of carbon dioxide, to the atmosphere that was once stored in the soil for long periods of time."

Many meadows have been disturbed by human use, resulting in lower water tables and drier soil conditions. As a result, soil carbon can be decomposed by microbes, resulting in production of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. However, trees and shrubs take up the carbon dioxide, and dry, disturbed meadows often have trees and shrubs establishing in these formerly wet ecosystems. People often see the carbon in the trees and think that degraded meadows have more carbon. But that doesn't consider the much greater amount of carbon in the soil, and the carbon dioxide balance isn't acre for acre.

"One acre of degraded meadow releases as much carbon dioxide as 11 acres of forest takes up," Sullivan, an assistant professor in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Science, said. "We want to quantify above ground and below ground carbon stocks in meadows and know if an increase in aboveground carbon associated with trees growing in a former meadow is offset by much greater losses of soil carbon below ground."

Citizen Scientists

While the research area stretches much of the length of the Sierra Nevada from Mt. Lassen to Bishop, Calif., this recent research was performed in four meadows in the Truckee River watershed and involved about 75 volunteer participants from northern California and the Reno area, including a student organization at Hug High School in Reno; students in a University of Nevada, Reno English composition class on "Science and Society;" and students from the University of California, Berkeley Forestry Camp.

The project focused on measuring the carbon stored in plants and determining if vegetation is an important indicator of the amount of carbon below ground. Sullivan, students in his lab, and the team of citizen scientists quantified the amount of carbon in trees in the nearby forests as well as where trees and shrubs are establishing within the meadows. They measured the diameter and height of trees and shrubs and clipped small plots of grasses to measure the amount of carbon in the vegetation. Involving citizen scientists allowed the University research team to vastly increase their sampling capacity and address scientific questions at larger scales.

"We got weeks of work done in a couple of days thanks to our citizen scientist volunteers," Sullivan said. "It's a valuable program, and we're grateful for the Earthwatch collaboration. The Earthwatch Institute typically supports international research, so it's exciting to lead a research campaign that allows volunteers to learn about their own back yards and be back at work on Monday morning."

The research was designed to increase scientific literacy of area students and residents, engage citizens in the scientific method, and improve understanding of how carbon stocks in meadow vegetation change from the forest to the stream.

"The carbon builds up in the cold, wet meadow soil in the Sierra over thousands of years," Sullivan said. "But disturbed meadows may be a net source of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, like nitrous oxide and methane, to the atmosphere. We have to understand what is happening in degraded meadows, so we can quantify any positive effects of restoration."

"Restoring meadows can have many benefits, but we want to know if it can also increase the soil C sink by making the meadows wet again" Sullivan said. "Because meadows have been restored in the Sierra for the past 15 years, we can measure how carbon stocks change over time and where in the meadow the changes happen and what the levels are. We want to know if meadow restoration could increase the ability of meadow soil to retain and store carbon."

Carbon Credits Through Cap and Trade

The team aims to develop a model that can predict how much carbon is sequestered in a meadow. The data may be used by the State of California Air Resources Board to sell carbon credits through their Cap and Trade program that strives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in California to 1990 levels by 2020. If the research shows that meadow restoration locks up carbon, the program could allow landowners who restore a meadow area to sell carbon credits - potentially offsetting costs of restoration.

"In addition to Earthwatch, we are working with partners at Plumas Corporation, CalTrout, the Truckee River Watershed Council - and many more - to address these questions about Sierra meadows," Sullivan said. "We look forward to even more citizen scientists working with us in the coming summers to help measure carbon in meadows while learning about these dynamic ecosystems."

The volunteers found the work rewarding and beneficial.

"The collaboration between Earthwatch and the University of Nevada, Reno represented an unprecedented opportunity for the students to not only learn about meadows, but to interact with graduate and staff researchers," John Arsenault, teacher at Hug High who brought some of his students into the program, said. "The discussion, questions and exploration that happened was experiential and real."

The project will be presented by one of Sullivan's graduate students, Cody Reed, at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 13. Her poster presentation, titled "Anthropogenic disturbance of montane meadows may cause substantial loss of soil carbon to the atmosphere," will feature the two meadows studied this fall with the Earthwatch citizen scientists as well as an additional meadow Sullivan's team has studied.

Studying the greenhouse gases produced and consumed by soils is one of Sullivan's primary research interests. He is an assistant professor in the College of Agriculture, Biotechnology and Natural Resources and a member of the University's Global Water Center.

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To learn more about Earthwatch and their international research programs, visit Earthwatch.org, and to learn more about soils research at the University of Nevada, Reno visit SullivanLab.weebly.com.
Researchers from the University of South Carolina, Duke University, University of Alabama at Birmingham, and Metabolon Inc. Research Triangle Park have discovered a new pathway in the liver that opens the door to treat non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, a condition that affects up to 25 percent of the population and may lead to cirrhosis and eventually liver cancer or failure, and likely other liver diseases.

The study was published in Free Radical Biology & Medicine, one of the leading scientific journals in the field of oxidative stress and medicine.

The team found that a protein (TRPV4), which is a part of the body's defense system, is able to activate the release of a gas (nitric oxide). This gas then blocks one of the enzymes (CYP2E1) that is a major contributor to non-alcoholic liver disease and its progression. TRPV4 is already known to protect against cardiovascular abnormalities.

Now that this protein's capacity to block the development of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease has been discovered, the next step is to harness its preventive and treatment abilities. According to the authors, a new generation of TRPV4 agonists can now be tested to improve outcomes related to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. The agonist is a chemical that will bind to this protein and activate the release of nitric oxide to block the harmful enzyme. Once the appropriate agonist is identified, it can be incorporated into medication for clinical treatment.

"There are currently no clinically proven drugs to treat non-alcoholic fatty liver disease," says Saurabh Chatterjee, an associate professor of environmental health sciences at the University of South Carolina's Arnold School of Public Health and the director of the Environmental Health and Disease Laboratory where the research was led. "Our goal is to find novel pathways in the liver that will result in a road to a cure, and this novel internal defense mechanism within the liver offers a very promising route."

In addition to revealing the benefits of activating TRPV4, the researchers also warn against the consequences of inhibiting the TRPV4 ion channel, an approach that can enhance hepatotoxicity (i.e., liver damage caused by chemicals), which can result from acetaminophen or alcohol over-consumption.

"This means that one has to be careful when aiming to inhibit TRPV4 for therapeutic purposes, such as when treating pain, inflammation or itching, or other conditions, in particular when inhibiting TRPV4 by systemic application of TRPV4-blockers," says Wolfgang Liedtke, a professor of neurology, anesthesiology and neurobiology at Duke University School of Medicine who first described TRPV4 16 years ago. "An attractive avenue to meet this therapeutic dilemma is to use herbal-derived TRPV4-activating compounds that might be more 'gentle' or targeted genetic manipulations of liver cells aiming to facilitate TRPV4-signaling in the liver when treating non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. These methods could also be a suitable approach to balance an eventually-needed systemic inhibition of TRPV4 that one aims for in order to treat pain, inflammation, fibrotic diseases or lung edema, in order to avoid additional damage to the liver."

This groundbreaking research has the potential to have a significant impact for both individuals and public health. "This type of research, which seeks novel pathways for treatment of diseases for which there are currently no therapeutic options is vitally important," notes collaborator and USC Vice President for Research Prakash Nagarkatti. "It opens doors that lead to the breakthroughs patients rely on to improve outcomes, enhance quality of life and even save lives."

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease occurs when there is a buildup of extra fat in the liver (i.e., more that 5-10 percent of the liver's total weight) coupled with liver inflammation that is not caused by alcohol.

Affecting both children and adults, this disease tends to occur in individuals who are obese or overweight, have type II diabetes, high cholesterol and triglycerides. However, some people develop non-alcoholic fatty liver disease without any of these risk factors, possibly suggesting genetic risk factors. Healthy liver function is critical because the liver functions as a metabolic and chemical central laboratory in all vertebrate organisms including humans. For example, it processes food and drink into energy and nutrients, produces bile, blood coagulation factors and other blood proteins while processing and removing many harmful substances from blood.

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*The study was led by Ratanesh Seth, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of South Carolina Arnold School of Public Health with collaborative inputs from Suvarthi Das (USC Arnold School of Public Health), Diptadip Dattaroy (USC Arnold School of Public Health), Varun Chandrashekaran (USC Arnold School of Public Health), Firas Alhasson (USC Arnold School of Public Health), Gregory Michelotti (Metabolon Inc. Research Triangle Park), Mitzi Nagarkatti (USC School of Medicine), Prakash Nagarkatti (USC School of Medicine), Anna Mae Diehl (Duke University School of Medicine), Darwin P. Bell (University of Alabama at Birmingham), Wolfgang Liedtke (Duke University School of Medicine), Saurabh Chatterjee (USC Arnold School of Public Health, Principal Investigator).

Funding: This work has been supported by NIH Pathway to Independence Award, R00ES019875 and P01AT003961 to Saurabh Chatterjee, US Department of Defense (W81XWH-13-1-0299) and a Harrington Discovery Institute (Cleveland OH) Scholar-Innovator Award to Wolfgang Liedtke. R01DK053792 to Anna Mae Diehl, P01AT003961, P20GM103641, R01AT006888, R01ES019313, R01MH094755 and VA Merit Award BX001357 to Mitzi Nagarkatti and Prakash S. Nagarkatti.
University of Utah researchers will be among the approximately 24,000 scientists convening in San Francisco for the annual Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union Dec. 12-16. Attendees gather at the world's largest Earth and space science meeting to share recent findings and navigate the future challenges of their respective fields. Below are summaries of select presentations at the meeting, along with the time and date of the presentation and primary contact information. All times are in Pacific Standard Time.

Utah's "cosmic navel" yields insights about Mars

The Curiosity rover continues its exploration of Mars' Gale Crater and the crater's most prominent feature, Mount Sharp. Scientists hope that Curiosity's study of the mountain will help reconstruct the geological history of the area as the rover studies numerous sedimentary rock layers. The odd moat-like geology surrounding Gale Crater has an analog on Earth, a geologic feature in southern Utah dubbed the "cosmic navel" or also called the "Inselberg pit." According to University of Utah geologist Marjorie Chan, the pit features a carved moat of rock with an internal mound produced by wind erosion. This unusual example can help geologists better understand the forces that shaped Mount Sharp.

EP21A-0848: A Terrestrial Wind Erosion Analog for Mound and Moat Morphology of Gale Crater, Mars

Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2016, 8 a.m.-12:20 p.m., Moscone South - Poster Hall

Marjorie Chan, professor, Department of Geology and Geophysics, 801-581-6551, marjorie.chan@utah.edu

Tell-tale signs of manmade earthquakes

Nuclear tests, mining activity and deep wastewater disposal all cause seismic activity. To discern between manmade and natural earthquakes, researchers at the University of Utah Seismograph Stations compared two measures of an earthquake's power: the local magnitude, or amplitude of the seismic waves, and the coda duration, a measure of the duration of the shaking. Comparing those two metrics in natural seismicity with those in probable mining-related events in Utah, the researchers found a clear difference between the characteristics of deep, natural earthquakes and manmade shallow seismicity. The signature could help international observers identify nuclear test activity and could aid in forensic analysis of suspected manmade earthquakes.

S31A-2721: Magnitude Based Discrimination of Manmade Seismic Events From Naturally Occurring Earthquakes in Utah, USA Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2016, 8 a.m.-12:20 p.m., Moscone South - Poster Hall

Keith D. Koper, professor, University of Utah Seismograph Stations, 801-585-3669, koper@seis.utah.edu

Lightning can generate gamma-ray bursts

Gamma rays are the highest-energy photons, emitted from radioactive decay, nuclear explosions and massive hypernova collapses of stars. But these packets of energetic havoc are also formed, albeit briefly and weakly, by lightning. Satellites had previously observed these bursts, called Terrestrial Gamma Ray Flashes, in upward-propagating lightning high above the surface of the earth, in the lower stratosphere, lasting only a few milliseconds. Now, using the University of Utah's Telescope Array, a cosmic ray detector in west-central Utah, scientists have observed gamma-ray flashes triggered by lightning that often reached the ground. The flashes are short, only a few microseconds, but show that lightning's high energy can generate more than just a flash and bang.

AE32A-01: Ground-Based Observations of Terrestrial Gamma Ray Flashes Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2016, 10:20-10:35 a.m., Moscone West - 3001 John Belz, associate professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy, 801-585-9620, belz@physics.utah.edu

Sensors on a train

For the past two years, light rail trains crisscrossing the Salt Lake Valley have done more to help the valley's air than just keeping passengers off the road. Sensors placed on the trains by University of Utah scientists continually monitor Salt Lake's urban air, particularly levels of carbon dioxide, methane, ozone, and particulate matter. The train-mounted sensors provide repeated sampling transects across the valley, helping researchers to understand the dynamics of urban air pollution. At AGU, the team will present their initial results from methane measurements.

A51K-0247: Evaluating Urban Methane Emissions with a Light Rail Vehicle Platform in Salt Lake City, UT Friday, Dec. 16, 2016, 8 a.m.-12:20 p.m., Moscone South - Poster Hall

Logan Mitchell, postdoctoral scholar, Department of Atmospheric Sciences, 541-207-7204, logan.mitchell@utah.edu

###

More abstracts presented or co-authored by researchers from the University of Utah:

PP53B-2386: Paleoclimate and Paleoecology of Central Utah during the Past ?200,000 Years from Soil Carbonate Pendants

A51K-0248: Testing a high resolution CO2 and CO emission inventory against atmospheric observations in Salt Lake City, Utah for policy applications

H13M-1609: Nitrogen and Phosphorous Uptake in Plant Biomass of Experimental Bioretention Systems in Utah S53C-04: Using a Large N Geophone Array to Identify Hydrothermal Seismic Sources in the Upper Geyser Basin of Yellowstone National Park

A23F-0286: Relationships between Tropical Rainfall Events and Regional Annual Rainfall Anomalies

A31I-0175: Integrating wildfire plume rises within atmospheric transport models

A53M-05: Evaluating Anthropogenic Carbon Emissions in the Urban Salt Lake Valley through Inverse Modeling: Combining Long-term CO2 Observations and an Emission Inventory using a Multiple-box Atmospheric Model

B11B-0440: A direct measurement of the stable isotopes of transpired water vapor in a northern Michigan forest

H33E-1588: Evaluation of a low cost wireless heat ratio method system for measuring transpiration

H41A-1278: Application of water quality model of Jordan River to evaluate climate change effects on eutrophication

H43C-1438: A Novel Method for Simulating Stochastic Simulations of Daily Precipitation and Air Temperature at Multiple Sites

S43A-2816: Modal Analysis of Two Bridges, Bryce Canyon National Park

EP21A-0860: Aeolian Sediment Transport on the Bonneville Salt Flat

A51K-0246: A Modeling Framework for Inference of Surface Emissions Using Mobile Observations

H11H-03: Persistent Urban Impacts on Surface Water Quality Mediated by Stormwater Recharge

H33J-1702: Multidecadal comparison of stable isotope and major ion geochemistry in a shallow brine aquifer
LOGAN, UTAH, USA -- Too little water. Too much water. Pollution. Salt water. Lack of infrastructure. Encroaching sea levels.

These are challenges faced by water managers around the globe and, in particular, by the world's so-called 'megacities,' termed as such because they're inhabited by more than 10 million residents.

"Megacities face continual population growth, urban expansion and climate change, all of which create tremendous stress for water infrastructure and have implications for human health and social equity," says Utah State University graduate student Enjie Li. "Yet, each city represents varied situations with complex challenges."

With USU faculty mentors Joanna Endter-Wada, professor in the Department of Environment and Society and Shujuan Li, associate professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning, Enjie Li tackled the subject of megacity water management in a paper selected by the American Water Resources Association for its 2016 William R. Boggess Award. The honor recognizes authors of a paper published in the association's journal the previous year and selected as that year's outstanding submission.

A doctoral candidate in Human Dimensions of Ecosystem Science and Management in the Department of Environment and Society, Enjie Li is lead author of the paper, published in JAWRA in June 2015. The paper characterizes and compares, on a global scale, water challenges faced by the world's 28 United Nations-designated megacities as they face mounting pressures to provide the critical resource for their residents.

The research was supported by iUTAH through a National Science Foundation grant. The three USU researchers were recognized in a formal ceremony during the 2016 AWRA Annual Conference held Nov. 13-17, in Orlando, Fla.

"We explored these megacities from four different perspectives: geographic context, development trajectory, rate of population growth and forms of urban expansion," says Enjie Li, who received additional support from USU's Office of Research and Graduate Studies, the USU Ecology Center and the USU Center for Women and Gender to present the research in Beijing, China at the 2013 AWRA Specialty Conference, "Water Resources for Megacities: Challenges and Solutions."

Though supplying water is a major challenge for all of the study sites, she says, each city's situation is unique.

For example, Beijing and Mumbai struggle to supply sufficient drinking water, while dealing with too much stormwater. Los Angeles and Tokyo have the capability to recycle water to meet drinking water quality standards, but face social opposition to use of this water source.

"These challenges have serious implications - especially when you consider one in eight urban dwellers currently lives in one of the world's megacities," Enjie Li says. "Further, conservative growth projections by the U.N. predict another 13 cities will become megacities by 2030."

Though the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, with a population of about 1.14 million, is long from approaching megacity status, it also faces growing pressure from urbanization - especially in terms of water resources.

"There are common threads between big cities and little cities and we have much to learn from megacities," says Endter-Wada, who serves as a team member for the statewide, NSF-funded iUTAH project. "Utah is growing rapidly. It's easier to prepare for challenges, than to fix problems after the fact."

###
Hoboken, NJ-- John Wiley & Sons Inc. (NYSE: JWa and JWb), announced plans to require ORCID iDs as part of the manuscript submission process for a large number of journals. Beginning in winter 2016, more than 500 Wiley journals using ScholarOne Manuscripts will require the submitting author (only) to provide an ORCID identifier (iD) when submitting a manuscript. Wiley is proud to be the first major publisher to join other stakeholders that have signed ORCID's open letter.

ORCID is a nonprofit helping create a world in which all who participate in research, scholarship and innovation are uniquely identified and connected to their contributions and affiliations, across disciplines, borders, and time. ORCID provides unique and persistent identifiers to researchers, distinguishing them in today's increasingly competitive scholarly industry by connecting them to their contributions and affiliations. Over 2.7 million ORCID iDs have been issued around the world, a figure that continues to grow as more stakeholders integrate ORCID with their workflows. Many funders--including the Swedish Research Council and Wellcome Trust UK--now require ORCID iDs as part of the grant proposal process.

"Wiley has been a long-standing supporter of ORCID, involved from the very early days of the initiative. As a major publisher, their interest in using ORCID has translated into implementation in a number of supporting systems, which has improved the author publishing experience and benefitted the entire research community," said Laure Haak, Executive Director of ORCID. "Their actions to collect ORCID iDs will not only raise awareness among researchers, but also improve discoverability and ensure that authors and reviewers get credit for their contributions."

As a founding member of ORCID, Wiley is an avid supporter of this open system, and is deeply invested in its ability to solve the name ambiguity issue while also protecting researchers' data and privacy. Wiley currently has over 24,000 ORCID iDs in use for journal article submissions.

"Being the first major publisher to require ORCID iDs is an example of our commitment to improving the management of research data by resolving name ambiguity among the research community. We will continue to consult with society partners to expand adoption across our titles and hope that other publishers will follow our lead," said Judy Verses, Executive Vice President, Research at Wiley.

Like all scholarly publishers, Wiley has a duty to support researchers by providing tools and introducing services to help them succeed. By requiring ORCID, Wiley is creating more opportunities to recognize, reward and support authors in complying with institutional and funder mandates.

###

About Wiley

Wiley, a global company, helps people and organizations develop the skills and knowledge they need to succeed. Our online scientific, technical, medical, and scholarly journals, combined with our digital learning, assessment and certification solutions help universities, learned societies, businesses, governments and individuals increase the academic and professional impact of their work. For more than 200 years, we have delivered consistent performance to our stakeholders. The company's website can be accessed at http://www.wiley.com.
Handmade Damascus Knives Butterfly Knife Throwing Stars Site Launched

A new website specializing in knives has been launched by the Knife Dude. The Knife Dude sells handmade damascus blades, butterfly knives and throwing stars as well as many other weapons.

--

Knife Dude, a weapons expert, has launched a new website. This website showcases the Knife Dude's custom handmade and factory made weapons including damascus knives, butterfly knives and axes.

For more information please visit: https://knifedude.com.

The Knife Dude is a former Marine from Michigan and a collector of knives. He likes Damascus knives for their elegance and offers handmade ones on his website alongside many other blades and weapons.

The website explains that damascus knives were originally made from wootz steel in thirteenth century Syria and that the manufacturing process has been lost in 1750. Damascus steel has been used as part of swords, blades and gems. The Knife Dude recreates damascus edges for his online store.

The site offers a wide selection of handmade damascus knives crafted from high carbon steel. The different types include folding pocket knives, small skinner knives and large hunting knives for the outdoor enthusiast. An example knife is the custom damascus knife folder which is 8.5 inches long when opened and the knife handle is made from camel bone. There is also a built in corkscrew on the back of the handle.

The other main style of knife sold by the Knife Dude is the butterfly knife. This heavy duty type of knife is a folding knife and it comes in a variety of styles on the site and can be used for practicing martial arts. For sale is the premium butterfly knife which has a stainless steel blade and a black sheath. It utilises screws instead of pins in the folding mechanism so the tension can be adjusted.

There are a variety of other weapons and knives for sale on the site such as martial arts weapons, swords and axes. The martial arts weapons include throwing stars and nunchucks. The throwing stars come in different sizes and are sold complete with a storage pouch.

For more information, please visit http://www.knifedude.com

Contact Info:

Name: Leonard Smith

Organization: Knife Dude

Address: 301 S Cass St Berrien Springs, MI United States



Release ID: 152647

For more information visit r



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Haiti - Elections: Lavalas protesters burn a coffin front the CEP !





Wednesday in response to the appeal of Fanmi Lavalas to continue the mobilization https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-19455-haiti-news-zapping-politics.html militants, supporters and sympathizers of the Lavalas Party, took the streets, left from the Boulevard la Saline to the offices of the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) in Petion-ville.



Under heavy police surveillance, protesters on the Delmas road hanted slogans dedicated to the victory of their candidate Maryse Narcisse and threw threats to the well-off, under the eyes of a population curious but cautious massed on the sidewalks.



Arived front of the offices of the CEP, the demonstrators burned a coffin, a gesture of intimidation or threat, symbolizing the end of the electoral institution according to protesters...



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - Security : Second fire of a public market in 15 days...





Wednesday, at the National Palace, following the fire that broke out at the public market of Bizoton (Carrefour) in the night from Monday to Tuesday, whose origin is still unknown, which was completely destroyed, leaving nearly 200 merchants (of food, cosmetics, clothing, etc...) ithout resources; the de facto President Jocelerme Privert, met a delegation of small traders victims of the disaster.



The meeting took place in the presence of several personalities concerned, including among others the Deputy Jacques Beauvil and the main Mayor of Carrefour Jude Edouard Pierre, of Jude Saint-Natus the Director General of the Ministry of the Interior and Territorial Communities.



The Head of State urged the Government to take all necessary steps to solidarize and assist the victims. In this sense, he has set up a 5-member Follow-up Committee, composed of the Mayor of Carrefour, the DG of the Ministry of the Interior and three representatives of the merchants. Committee which was convened in the afternoon where representatives of the Ministry of Finance and Social Affairs have also to be present.



Recall that the same Wednesday Michel-Ange Gedeon, , the Director General of the National Police of Haiti (PNH) which was auditioned by the Senate Commission "Justice and Security" questioned on this fire, advised to avoid amalgams by linking this fire to political hands, pending the outcome of the investigation. He said the initial evidence suggests that the fire may be accidental. Asked also about the fire at the end of November of the municipal market Cocoyer (Freres/Petion-ville) https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-19299-haiti-news-zapping-politics.html , He indicated that the investigation had come to an end and that the Central Directorate of the Judicial Police should communicate its findings to the competent authorities shortly.



HL/ S/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - Elections : The BECD deliberates, awaiting verdict...





Wednesday, the Bureau of Electoral Litigation Department (BCED) was finally able to sit after the postponement of the hearings last Monday https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-19436-haiti-flash-failure-of-the-bced-what-are-the-demands-of-candidates.html



It was with great difficulty that the draw of the judges was carried out, the three complainants trying to the end to oppose it, although the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) agreed to respond to their request to draw the names of judges on the complete lists and not on a short list. After a suspension of the meeting, the BCED was composed of Judge Fritzner Duclair (Petit-Goave), Demosthene Bazelais (member of the BED of the West) and Me Emmanuel Louiceus.



Famni Lavalas was the first case of the day. Maryse Narcisse's lawyers demanded of the court that all the minutes be compared to the lists of "emargement" by evoking irregularities. Jovenel Moise's lawyers asked the court to give them all the documents filed in court by Famni Lavalas to contest the results. Affirming that there are no minutes that could serve as evidence for Maryse Narcisse's challenges, they asked the BCED to declare inadmissible the challenge of Famni Lavalas and the maintenance of the results of the presidential as published.



In the second case, lawyers of Moise Jean-Charles denounced thousands of ballots in favor of Jovenel Moise found in Cap-Haitien and demanded a verification of the minutes and exclusion of the beneficiaries of the frauds. PHTK's lawyers have again asked the court to communicate the documents in the file submitted by the party Pitit Dessalin and found that no minutes or partial electoral list has been filed by the protesters to support their accusations or confirm that Moise Jean-Charles had come in second position as he claims. In front of the empty file, they asked to declare the requests of Moise Jean-Charles inadmissible.



In the third and final case, Jude Celestin's lawyers also demanded an in-depth verifications of the minutes, the count sheets, the authenticity of the CINs, the "emargement" lists etc... The lawyers of the PHTK have stressed to the electoral judges that they are not concerned by the act of referral of Jude Celestin which was addressed not to the BCED but to the president of the BED of the West 1 and asked to resend this correspondence to the BED concerned.



After hearing all three cases, the court announced that it was considering the matter within the statutory deadline (24 hours). If this deadline is respected, the BCED should therefore render its verdict this Thursday, December 8 or Friday...



Note that if the complainants do not accept the verdicts, they can still appeal to the Office of the National Electoral Litigation (BCEN), which in principle is the last resort...



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-19436-haiti-flash-failure-of-the-bced-what-are-the-demands-of-candidates.html



SL/ TB/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - News : Zapping politics...





Death of a young man in Les Cayes, a police officer guilty

Wednesday in the Senate before the Commission "Justice and Security" Michael-Ange Gedeon, the Director General of the National Police of Haiti (PNH) in the file of the boy killed by bullets during a distribution of aid to Les Cayes last November 1st https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-19111-haiti-flash-an-aid-distribution-goes-wrong-in-les-cayes-1-dead.html reported that following the investigation, the offending officer after being interviewed was referred two days ago to the public prosecutor's office of the Court of First Instance of Les Cayes for legal proceedings.



Fecal matter in the Grand-Goave Peace Court

On the night from Monday 5 to Tuesday 6 December, unidentified individuals have brushed with fecal matter the premises of the Court of Peace of Grand-Goave. The employees who were returning to their offices were surprised of this disrespectful act. The nauseating odor has paralyzed the functioning of judicial activities.



Sunrise Airways, launches a new flight

Starting this Thursday, December 8, Sunrise Airways, launches its new flight to Las Americas (SDQ) Dominican Republic. This flight will be available on Monday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday, the current fare is 140 US dollars or 239 dollars round trip.



FNE : 138 million taxes collected

As part of National Fund for Education (FNE), of Universal Schooling Program Free and Compulsory (PSUGO), the collected revenues from 15 June 2011 to 5 December 2016 amounted to over 138 million US dollars ($138,809,189.85) including 13,630,239.61 from Natcom, 120,218,777.13 from Digicel and 4,960,173.11 from Comcel. These amounts do not include the tax of 1.50 dollars collected on remittances from the diaspora.



MHAVE changes of Minister a.i.

In the official newspaper "Le Moniteur" # 212 dated December 7, Privert issued a decree appointing citizen Pierrot Delienne, Minister a.i. of Haitians living abroad. This position was occupied by Jessy. C Petit Frere.



Gary Victor invited of honor

The 4th edition of the International Fair of the Book of Haiti (FILHA), which will take place on December 9th, 10th and 11th 2016 at the Palais Municipal de Delmas, will have as guest of honor the writer, writer and journalist Gary Victor, as special guest Philippe Rey and will take place under the theme "Je lis, je grandis".



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - Elections : The CCIO concerned about vandalism and threats...





Following the daily demonstrations of including Famni Lavalas, Bernard Craan, President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the West (CCIO) notes with concern the acts of vandalism perpetrated during these events organized in the metropolitan region and expresses its sympathies to all those who have been victims.



The CCIO is also outraged by the threats made by leaders and supporters of political parties against citizens in general and members of the Chamber and the Private Sector in particular.



Bernard Craan stresses that "these threats and attempts to intimidate are unacceptable and have no place in a rule of law," urging the authorities concerned to crack down "without complacency and with all the rigor of the law against the troublemakers as well as their sponsors."



Finally, the CCIO invites citizens to make every effort to ensure that the electoral process leads to the publication of final results and the taking office, in accordance with the Constitution, of an elected President and Parliamentarians.



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-19460-haiti-electionslavalas-protesters-burn-a-coffin-front-the-cep.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-19426-haiti-justice-troublemakers-beware.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-19418-haiti-news-zapping-politics.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-19398-haiti-news-zapping-politics.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-19383-haiti-flash-incidents-and-violence-around-preliminary-results.html



HL/ HaitiLibre


















Essen, Germany: Angela Merkel has called for a ban on full-face Muslim veils (burqas) while laying out her case for a fourth term as German chancellor on Tuesday.

Here we say show your face. So full veiling is not appropriate here. It should be prohibited wherever legally possible, she said in a speech that lasted an hour and a quarter and was followed by 11 minutes of applause.

Merkel was speaking to a party congress of her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in Essen, the western rust belt city where she won the party leadership 16 years ago. Merkel also sought to present herself as a guarantor of stability in an uncertain world.

Merkel promised a tougher stance on immigration and not to allow a repetition of last years migrant influx when nearly 900,000 migrants poured into Germany and drew cheers when she said the Muslim full-face veil was not compatible with German culture.

A year ago, the CDU rejected such a ban.

The meeting was taking place a month after Donald Trump was elected president of the United States and at a time when Europe is reeling from a surge in populism and Britains vote to leave the European Union.

Merkel has been described as the last guardian of western democratic values, a suggestion she rejected.

You must help me, she said in an impassioned appeal to 1,000 CDU delegates. No one, not even someone with great experience, can change things for the good in Germany, in Europe, in the world more or less on their own  certainly not a chancellor of Germany.

She was later re-elected head of the party by 89.5 percent of the delegates present, down from 96.7 percent two years ago.

Europes most powerful leader announced in November that she would seek to win a fourth term next autumn  a feat achieved by only two post-war chancellors, Konrad Adenauer and Helmut Kohl, both of the CDU.

Merkels decision to allow the migrant influx last year hit her popularity, triggered a damaging fight with her Bavarian allies and led to a surge in support for the anti-immigrant, eurosceptic Alternative for Germany (AfD). The party is expected to win its first seats in the federal parliament next year.

Source : F. World
Different social cultural organisations yesterday protested against the communal attacks that took place at several places across Bangladesh.

In Barisal, teachers and students of Barisal University (BU) formed a human chain in front of BU campus in the afternoon protesting attack on minority community and ransacking of Hindu temples and idols in the country, including Brahmanbaria, Habiganj and Barisal.

Dr Muhammad Muhsin Uddin, dean of humanities faculty, Safiul Alam, proctor of BU addressed the rally.

Speakers demanded speedy trial and punishment of the culprits who are involved with these crimes.

They also demanded judicial investigations for finding out master minds of such crimes and proper rehabilitation, compensation for the victims.

At Jahangirnagar University, teachers and students of the public university under the banner of Sammilito Shikhak Parishad held a human chain, protesting the recent attacks on Hindus.

Nasim Akter Hossain, professor of Government and Politics department, Syed Kamrul Ahsan,

teacher of Archeological Department and ATM Atikur Rahman, teacher of History Department, among others, took part in the protest rally.

In Narsingdi, the Bangladesh Hindu Mohajote held a rally in front of districts press club in afternoon.

Speakers at the rally threatened that they would wage a tougher movement if perpetrators of the attacks would not be brought to the book immediately.

In Khulna, teachers and students of Khulna University staged demonstration on the campus, protesting attacks in Gaibandha and Brahmanbaria, Habiganj.

Source : DhakaTribune
The UKs Competition and Markets Authority fined Pfizer 84.2m (99.7m) and Flynn Pharma 5.2m after they rose prices by as much as 2,600% in September 2012, the regulator has said.

The price increases occurred after Pfizer transferred distribution rights to Flynn, which sold the medicine by its generic name, phenytoin sodium.

A Pfizer spokeswoman here said the same drug was sold in Ireland, but Pfizer was unable to respond to questions at the time of going to press about prices for the drug in Ireland in recent years. The drugs giant employs about 3,300 people at six sites in Ireland.

The companies deliberately exploited the opportunity offered by de-branding to hike up the price for a drug which is relied upon by many thousands of patients, said Philip Marsden, chairman of the UKs Case Decision Group for the CMAs investigation.

These extraordinary price rises have cost the NHS and the taxpayer tens of millions of pounds.

Britains National Health Service spent about 50m on the anti-epilepsy capsules in 2013 and 40m 2014, the CMA said. The amount the NHS was charged for 100mg packs of the drug rocketed from 2.83 to 67.50, before dropping to 54 in May 2014, the CMA said yesterday. Pfizer said it refutes the findings of the regulator. Both companies said they will appeal.

Phenytoin capsules were a loss-making product for Pfizer and the Flynn transaction represented an opportunity to secure ongoing supply of an important medicine for patients with epilepsy, while maintaining continuity of manufacture, the company said.

When Flynn launched its product, the company set a price that was between 25% and 40% less than the price of the equivalent medicine from another supplier to the NHS... and appeared to be acceptable to, the department of health.

A Flynn spokesman said the CMA had ignored or misunderstood important aspects of its investigation.
A battle among a new generation of Real IRA members to control its drugs trade, racketeering, and money-laundering operations may have lead to the killing of dissident republican Aidan ODriscoll, garda sources believe.

Gardai were not aware of any threat to the life of Mr ODriscoll, who was gunned down on the outskirts of Cork City on Wednesday, and have appealed for help tracing the movements of three cars they believe were used by his killers.

Supt Mick Comyns, the officer leading the investigation, said they are keeping an open mind on the motive behind the murder in the Blackpool area of Cork City, write Eoin English and Sean ORiordan for the Irish Examiner.

We have no idea why this shooting took place. Mr ODriscoll is a son, a father, and we will be using all our resources to solve this murder, said Supt Comyns. We will consider anything that comes from the investigation.

However, senior sources said there is a long list of suspects given that the victim associated with several dangerous individuals and had made many enemies.

Detectives will be considering the possibility that the shooting may be linked to an internal dispute within the Real IRA, that it could be linked to a local drugs feud or turf war, that ODriscoll may have been involved in a solo extortion racket, or that he was killed in retaliation for his previous enforcer role on behalf of the dissident group.

The appeal came as a post mortem on the body of the 37-year-old father of two, from Ballyvolane in Cork City, confirmed he died after suffering four gunshot wounds from what is believed to have been a handgun.

ODriscoll was approached from behind by at least two men at around 4.45pm on Wednesday as he walked along the Old Commons Road, close to Blackpools Church of the Annunciation.

He was shot in the pelvis before collapsing. The killers then fired three shots from close range into his chest as he lay on the ground.

It is believed they fled to a silver grey Nissan Almera which was waiting nearby

ODriscoll, who was conscious, was rushed by ambulance to Cork University Hospital but despite undergoing emergency surgery, he was pronounced dead.

Gardai spent yesterday examining three crime scenes and four vehicles they believe are linked to the murder.

They recovered the Almera at the junction of Redemption Road and Seminary Road. They recovered a white Vauxhaul Astra estate van which was found partially burned out about five miles away, in Killeens.

They are examining a motorbike which was found burning on the main Cork to Mallow Road later to establish if it is connected to the shooting. And they have also appealed to the owner or driver of a red Opel Astra car which was seen in the Killeens area later to come forward.

Supt Comyns appealed for anyone who saw anything near any of the three crime scenes to contact gardai at Anglesea St.

Supt Comyns said the gunmen may have had another vehicle waiting for them, a white Vauxhaul Astra estate van, at Redemption Rd. It was later found abandoned and partially burned out about 8km away, near the Sunset Ridge in Killeens.

However, gardai have yet to establish the route the gunman took after they abandoned the Almera  whether they travelled on to the main Cork to Mallow Road, or drove past Na Piarsaighs GAA Club, via the Blackstone Bridge to Killeens. Supt Comyns said gardai are anxious to talk to anyone who saw anything or anyone acting suspiciously, or who was in or around the three crime scenes on Wednesday, particularly:

* Around Blackpool Village and on the Old Commons Road between 3.30pm and 5.30pm;

* At the junction of Redemption Road and Seminary Road around 5pm;

* Around the Lower Monard area of Killeens some time later.

Supt Comyns said gardai want to speak to the owner or driver of a red Opel Astra seen in the Lower Monard area to eliminate them from their enquiries.

The murder investigation team at Watercourse Road Garda station has a dedicated team working on the harvesting and examination of CCTV footage. Witnesses are being sought and interviewed, and house-to-house enquiries are underway.

Supt Comyns confirmed ODriscoll was known to gardai but that they had no information that his life was in danger: Mr ODriscoll is a son, a father, and we will be using all our resources to solve this murder. We will treat any information that any person wants to give us with confidentiality. I would appeal to people to come forward and contact gardai on 021 452 2000.
Russia claims the Syrian army has suspended combat operations in Aleppo to allow for the evacuation of civilians from besieged rebel-held neighbourhoods - but residents and fighters are reporting no let-up in the bombing and shelling campaign.

Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, speaking in Germany after talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry, said military experts and diplomats would meet in Geneva on Saturday to work out details of the rebels' exit from Aleppo's eastern neighbourhoods, along with civilians who were willing to leave the city.

Mr Lavrov said the Syrian army suspended combat action late on Thursday to allow some 8,000 civilians to leave the city in a convoy spreading across a five-kilometre route.

However, opposition activists said there was no halt to the government offensive.

"Battles are intense," said a message from a rebel operation room shared with The Associated Press.

Other residents reported warplanes firing from machine guns at rebel positions and artillery shells falling in the remaining rebel-controlled districts.

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said the US was focused on de-escalating the violence in Aleppo to allow aid into the city and enable people wishing to stay in their homes to do so.

She said Mr Kerry and Mr Lavrov continued talks on Thursday with the goal of securing a cease-fire and the "safe departure of those who wish to leave the city".

She said details of Saturday's US-Russian technical discussions in Geneva were still being worked out.

Earlier, in Geneva, UN special adviser Jan Egeland said efforts to evacuate hundreds of wounded people from eastern Aleppo had stalled following a deadly attack this week on a Russian military hospital in government-controlled western Aleppo that left two Russian nurses dead and a doctor seriously wounded.

"It is with bitterness and frustration that we have to report that we have not been able even to evacuate the wounded," Mr Egeland said.

"The member states that are supposed to help us get access to civilians in the cross-fire are poles apart in how they regard what is happening in Syria."

He said Syrian president Bashar Assad's government had authorised UN-organised aid shipments into eastern Aleppo for the first time.

However, he provided no details about how the aid might get in or where it would go, and past agreements have fallen through before any aid could be delivered.

Medical officials in the enclave issued a passionate plea for a ceasefire.

"Aleppo is finished. There is nothing left except a few residents and bricks," Mohammed Abu Jaafar, the head of the eastern Aleppo forensic authority, said in a recorded message shared with reporters. "This may be my last call."

By early afternoon, Mr Abu Jaafar said 14 bodies had arrived at his facility from all over eastern Aleppo, although a comprehensive death toll for the day was not possible because of the intense fighting.

Residents described streets littered with bodies as ambulances and rescue workers struggled to keep up.

The rebel defences have buckled amid the wide-ranging government offensive, which opened a number of fronts at once and was preceded by an intensive aerial campaign.

More than three-quarters of the rebel sector has now fallen, including the symbolically important ancient Aleppo quarters. More than 30,000 of the estimated 275,000 residents of the besieged eastern enclave have fled to western Aleppo.

A mother with her child and a whole family were killed by Assad and Russian warplanes in my district#StandWithAleppo#Aleppo #Syria pic.twitter.com/9EoNp1u6ox  Lina shamy (@Linashamy) December 8, 2016

The Syrian government has dismissed a proposal for a ceasefire put forward by the rebels on Wednesday.

In comments published on Thursday in the state-owned al-Watan newspaper, Mr Assad said he would no longer consider truce offers, adding that such proposals, particularly by the Americans, often come when the rebels are in a "difficult spot".

"That is why we hear wailing and screaming and pleas for truces as the only political discourse now," Mr Assad said.

He said that while a victory by Syrian government forces in the battle for Aleppo would be a "big gain", it will not end the country's civil war.

"Liberating Aleppo from the terrorists deals a blow to the whole foundation of this project," he said. But he added, "to be realistic, it doesn't mean the end of the war".

On Thursday, opposition activists reported intensive bombing in the al-Sukkari and Kallaseh neighbourhoods still under rebel control.

Al-Sukkari is in the southern part of eastern Aleppo, an area that has become home to the majority of the displaced civilians who stayed behind; Kallaseh is near the Old City.

Footage by the Syrian military showed intensive shelling of Bustan al-Qasr, a frontline neighbourhood that links the rebel-held eastern and government-controlled western parts of the divided city.

The International Committee for the Red Cross said that it had evacuated 148 disabled civilians and others in need of urgent care from a facility in Aleppo's Old City after fighting calmed down there.

The evacuation, undertaken jointly with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, was completed late on Wednesday, the Red Cross said in a statement.

The people had been trapped in a facility that was originally a home for the elderly and included mentally and physically disabled patients, as well as injured civilians who had sought refuge there.

"They were forgotten," said Pawel Krzysiek, the agency's communication co-ordinator in Damascus.

The evacuees were taken to a hospital and shelters in the western, government-held part of Aleppo.
A black woman often described as Canada's Rosa Parks for her 1946 decision to sit in a whites-only section of a Nova Scotia cinema will be the first Canadian woman to be celebrated on the face of a Canadian banknote.

Viola Desmond will grace the front of the 10 dollar bill when the next series goes into circulation in 2018, finance minister Bill Morneau said.
In an apparent vote of confidence in the UK, which decided in June to leave the EU, the fast food giant is creating a new international holding company based in the country.

The new company will be responsible for most of the royalties received from licensing McDonalds intellectual property rights outside the US.

It will pay UK corporation tax, the company said.

It will make changes to its corporate structure starting next month.

McDonalds selected the UK for the location of its new international holding structure because of the significant number of staff based in London working on our international business, language, and connections to other markets, it said.

The McDonalds announcement comes as tax arrangements in Luxembourg receive tough scrutiny from EU antitrust officials. The companys tax strategy has been targeted by trade unions and consumer groups who allege that it avoided more than 1bn in taxes in Europe between 2009 and 2013.

An EU official said earlier this year that the McDonalds case shows just how far some companies push tax authorities to avoid paying any taxes.

McDonalds pays a significant amount of corporate taxes, the company said. From 2011-2015, we paid more than $2.5bn (2.33bn) in corporate taxes in the EU, with an average tax rate approaching 27%.

It generates about two-thirds of its revenue from outside the US.

Amazon.com tax deals with Luxembourg are also being probed by the EU, which in August ordered Apple to pay back as much as 13bn plus interest over tax arrangements with Ireland that regulators said were illegal.

The Government here has appealed the ruling over Apple taxes.

While Luxembourg has a corporate tax rate of as low as 20%, many multinational corporations received tax rulings that lowered effective taxes on profits transferred to the country.

Leaked documents from 2014 showed that more than 340 companies such as PepsiCo, Ikea, and FedEx transferred profits to the country through tax arrangements.

The commission said last year that one of McDonalds units has paid no tax in Luxembourg since 2009 despite recording large profits.

The companys French offices were inspected by the countrys fiscal authorities in 2013.
Catherine Day, former EU Commission secretary general, was addressing TDs and senators about the difficulties facing Irish universities.

Fianna Fail education spokesman Thomas Byrne had said at the Oireachtas education committee meeting that some academics believe a land of milk and honey awaits when the UK leaves the EU.

There have been suggestions of less competition from our nearest neighbours for European research funding, but Ms Day said the competitive environment for Ireland is going to get more challenging once Brexit is completed.

The pressure on the UK to be competitive is going to be much more once they are outside the EU. That will make them more aggressive, and our capacity to build and maintain the kind of service economy we have is going to be very important, she said.

There will also be a smaller pool of funding if British contributions are removed, but it was also pointed out that the UK may be able to compete for a share of the EUs major Horizon 2020 research fund if it continues paying into it.

While Brexit presents a major opportunity to market Ireland as the only English-speaking destination for non-EU students, Ms Day said we need to be able to assure investors of the quality of our graduates.

The funding options being considered by the Oireachtas committee aim to reverse falling quality of third-level education caused by falling budgets to cater for growing student numbers. The UCC governing body chair said it is hard to see how a higher education system fully funded by taxpayers would materialise because of all the calls on public funding.

We do think a well-designed loan system has its place. Some of the concerns, such as emigration [of graduates], can be taken into account in the design of the system, she said.

In response to Green Party TD Catherine Martins question about prospect of non-payment by graduates who leave the country, Ms Day said people are pursued across international borders for things as small as unpaid speeding tickets.
However, the study concludes strong food control would be necessary to avoid long-term consequences.

The EPA study examined the potential radiological impact of a severe accident at the British nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in Cumbria.

It assessed the potential exposure to radiation for people and contamination of the environment for a year following an accident.

The predicted radiation doses were found to be below the levels that would require measures such as sheltering, relocation or evacuation of people.

However, people could be exposed to significant radiation doses by eating contaminated foods.

The National Emergency Plan for Nuclear Accidents provides for the introduction of food controls and on-farm measures to reduce radiation exposure and ensure food is safe to eat.

Programme manager in the EPAs Office of Radiological Protection, Dr Ciara McMahon said the agencys role was to advise the Government and the public on radiation risks.

This report concludes that severe radiological effects in Ireland are unlikely as a result of an accident at the Sellafield reprocessing plant, but food controls would be a key priority in order to protect the public, she said.

Accident scenarios used in the study included two unspecified severe events where a plume of radioactive material was released into the air.

There were two other scenarios  a meteorite hitting the plant and a large aircraft slamming into it.

Worst case weather scenarios were used, with easterly winds and rain over the east coast of Ireland during the passage of the plume from Sellafield.

The EPA points out that for almost 90% of the time, the prevailing meteorological conditions in Ireland would result in any radioactive plume travelling away from Ireland.

While the estimated radiation doses were not predicted to exceed the need for sheltering, time spent indoors during the plume passage could reduce the radiation dose significantly.

If people stayed indoors when the plume was passing over, radiation doses could be reduced by up to 80%, depending on the building type.

The radiological impact on Ireland was found to be greatest following a possible meteorite hitting the Sellafield site during the worst case weather period in May.

The EPA said there would be a noticeable increase in cancers in the decades following an accident at Sellafield if no protective measures were taken.

The main activities at the Sellafield nuclear site include the storage and reprocessing of used nuclear fuel, the storage of plutonium and uranium, and the control of high-level radioactive waste. There are no nuclear power plants in operation to generate electricity at the Sellafield site.

A recent report by the Economic and Social Research Institute found potential economic losses could range between 4bn and 161bn following a nuclear incident at Sellafield.
Both Ivita Visnevskas marriages were conducted at the civil registry office in St Camillus Hospital, Limerick, and she voluntarily returned from London yesterday to plead guilty to a charge of bigamy.

Detective Garda Oliver Foley, of Henry St, told Limerick Circuit Court the illegal marriage was not a sham and Ms Visnevska, aged 34, did not do it for financial gain.

She had a lengthy relationship with her bigamous husband and they had two children who now live here with him.

Det Garda Foley said Ms Visnevska had subsequently separated from her Latvian husband and their two daughters live with her in London.

She is expecting a fifth child having entered a new relationship with a Muslim man in London. She has converted to Islam and adopted a Muslim name.

Ms Visnevska, also known as Esala Kana, with an address at 14 Berberis Court, Ilford, London, pleaded guilty to marrying Pakistani national, Mirza Azam Baig, at the civil registry office on October 16, 2009, during the lifetime of her marriage to her Latvian husband contrary to the Offences Against the Persons Act 1861 and to giving false and misleading information to the registrar contrary to the Civil Registration Act 2004.

Brian McInerney, defending, said it was one of the most unusual cases of its kind to come before the court. There was no financial gain and it was not a sham marriage to a person she met for the first time at the registry office.

The couple had entered a relationship and had two children together.

Det Garda Foley said the accused married a fellow Latvian in Limerick in August 2005 before civil registrar Luoie Quirke.

In July 2009, she married Mr Baig, a native of Pakistan, in the same office, having made a declaration that she was not married.

Gardai became aware of the bigamous marriage when Latvian authorities contacted them in 2014 after Ms Visnevska filed papers regarding her current status abroad.

The accused had by then gone to live in London and when contacted by gardai she was most co-operative. She agreed to meet them in a London police station where she gave a statement. Det Garda Foley said the accused also agreed to come to Ireland yesterday to face the charges avoiding the hassle of gardai having to get an EU arrest and extradition warrants.

Initially she claimed she had engaged a Latvian lawyer to get her first marriage annulled in Latvia due to the long and expensive divorce process in this country. She claimed to have sent 800 to this Latvian lawyer, via Western Union, but no evidence of this transfer could be found.

She then accepted that she had married Mr Baig while she was still married to her Latvian husband.

Judge Tom ODonnell said what Ms Visnevska did was wrong, but the circumstances were most unusual.

He fined her 100 for making the false declaration at the registry office and took the charge of bigamy into account.

The case was sent forward to the circuit court for sentence.
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - Dec. 5, 2016) - Thor Explorations Ltd. (TSX VENTURE:THX) ("Thor" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the closing of a non-brokered private placement. Gross proceeds of $1,884,387.66 were raised pursuant to the private placement and the Company intends to use the gross proceeds to continue exploration and development activities on its Segilola Gold Project in Nigeria and working capital purposes. The exploration program includes a proposed 5,500m diamond drilling program to test the upside potential of the existing resource at depth and also to strengthen parts of the likely in-pit resource.

Under the terms of the private placement, the Company issued 12,995,776 common shares ("Common Shares") at a price of $0.145 per Common Share. The Company will pay $84,797.44 as finders' fees to third party finders. The Common Shares issued pursuant to the private placement are subject to a 4-month hold period in Canada expiring April 3, 2017.

Burkina Faso Update - Central Hounde Project, Acacia Mining Joint Venture

Thor is also pleased to announce the encouraging drill results from its Central Hounde Joint Venture with Acacia Mining.

Per Acacia Mining:

"As a result of these programs, we identified the Bongui - Legue Corridor, a 10km x 3km gold-in-soil anomaly with up to 5g/t gold measured in the soil sampling located in the Central Hounde Joint Venture in Burkina Faso. In late 2016, we commenced drill testing the prospect with positive initial results from the small section of the anomaly that we tested, with the best results below:

 2.0m @ 28.2g/t from 155m  6.0m @ 3.74g/t from 99m  22.0m @ 1.15g/t from 18m  12.0m @ 1.40g/t from 48m  17.0m @ 1.11g/t from 158m

The initial programmes are highly encouraging and in 2017 we will undertake a 10,000 metre reverse circulation and diamond core programme to further assess several parts of this very large gold anomaly."

Segun Lawson commented:

"We are pleased to have closed this private placement and look forward to immediately advancing the Segilola Gold Project to its next major milestone. We are also extremely encouraged by the initial drill results of the Central Hounde Project, which continues to be advanced and funded by Acacia Mining until the declaration of a Pre-Feasibility Study."

Qualified Person

Mr Alfred Gillman (F.AusIMM, CP), a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the contents of this news release.

About Thor

Thor Explorations Ltd. is a Canadian mineral exploration company engaged in the acquisition, exploration and development of mineral properties located in Nigeria, Senegal and Burkina Faso. Thor holds a 100% interest in the Segilola Gold Project in Osun State Nigeria approximately 120km northeast of Lagos. The Segilola Gold Project is considered to be the most advanced gold project in Nigeria. Thor holds a 70% interest in the Douta Gold Project located in southeastern Senegal. The Douta Gold Project lies within the Kenieba Inlier which hosts significant gold resources and has attracted major international mining companies. Thor also holds a 100% interest in the Bongui and Legue gold permits located in Hounde greenstone belt, south west Burkina Faso. Thor trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "THX".
Geomega Resources Inc. (TSX.V: GMA) ("GeoMegA" or the "Corporation") has signed a Conditional Gold Claims Sale Agreement (the "Sale Agreement") with a privately owned corporation, Groupe Ressources Geomines Inc. ("Geomines"). The Sale Agreement concerns all the non-rare earth elements ("non-REE") related assets held by GeoMegA and are comprised of the Anik, Riviere a l'Aigle, McDonald, Gaspard, Comptois, Lac Storm, 3G and Maryse properties.

The Sale Agreement will be done in conjunction with the closing of a transaction between Geomines and Black Springs Capital Corp. ("BSC") pursuant to which BSC will acquire all of the outstanding shares of Geomines (the "Acquisition"). Geomines has an exploration portfolio, comprised of the WHN and Boisvert properties located in the Province of Quebec (the "Geomines Properties"). The Acquisition will constitute the "Qualifying Transaction" ("QT") of BSC, a "capital pool company", as such terms are defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange (the "Exchange"). Subject to the Exchange's approval, upon completion of the Acquisition, the combined entity (the "Resulting Issuer") will continue to carry on the business of Geomines as currently constituted.

In connection with the closing of the Acquisition, BSC intends on obtaining shareholder approval for a continuance of BSC from the Business Corporations Act (British Colombia) to the Business Corporations Act (Quebec) (the "Continuation"), completing a capital restructuring (the "Capital Restructuring"), including the consolidation of its share capital on a basis of two (2) pre-consolidated shares (each a "BSC PreShare") for one (1) post-consolidated share (a "BSC PostShares"), and changing its name to Kintavar Exploration Inc. Upon completion of the Capital Restructuring, BSC's 6,500,000 BSC PreShares and 400,000 options currently outstanding will be consolidated respectively into 3,250,000 BSC PostShares and 200,000 post-consolidation options.

Under the terms of the Sale Agreement, an all share transaction, Geomega will receive a total of 17,857,143 BSC PostShares of the Resulting Issuer at a deemed price of $0.14 per share, a value of $2,500,000 representing the book value of the Non-REE assets as of the date of the closing.

Under the terms of the Acquisition, an all share transaction, current Geomines shareholders will receive a total of 10,714,286 BSC PostShares of the Resulting Issuer at a deemed price of $0.14 per share, a value of $1,500,000 representing the book value of the Geomines Properties as of the date of the closing.

The total value of the Sale Agreement and the Acquisition is $4,000,000, excluding any shares of Geomines issued as part of the financings described further below. The Acquisition and the Sale Agreement will be carried out by parties dealing at arm's length to one another. GeoMegA intends to distribute to its shareholders, after the closing of the QT, approximately 7,827,464 of the shares received from the sale of its non-REE assets and will hold approximately 19.9% of the issued and outstanding shares of the resulting issuer.

After the closing of the Sale Agreement, GeoMegA will retain its core assets, namely the Montviel property, its holdings and assets in Innord Inc. and its holdings of the Resulting Issuer. GeoMegA is expected to be the largest shareholder of the Resulting Issuer, post-QT and closing of the financings.

Geomines and BSC will proceed over the following weeks with all the required regulatory filings, approvals and financing initiatives.

A finder's fee of 190,476 BSC PostShares shall be paid, subject to the approval of the Exchange, to each of Ansacha Capital Inc., Hexagon Ventures Inc. and Laurentian Bank Securities for being instrumental in introducing the parties.

FINANCINGS

BSC will complete a bridge private placement financing of a minimum of $75,000 and a maximum of $100,000 (the "Bridge Financing"), of BSC PreShares at the subscription price of $0.0525 per share. The closing of the Bridge Financing will not be conditional to the closing of the Acquisition.

The Sale Agreement is conditional, as part of the QT, on the closing of a financing of a minimum of $1,400,000 and a maximum of $3,000,000 in Geomines and/or BSC, (the "Concurrent Financing"), resulting in the issuance of a maximum of 21,428,572 BSC PostShares at a deemed price of $0.14 per share (or $0.18 per share issued on a flow-through basis) and 10,714,286 BSC PostShares purchase warrants at a minimum exercise price of $0.18 for a period of 24 months.

RESULTING ISSUER MANAGEMENT

It is currently contemplated that on completion of the Acquisition, the directors and the officers of the Resulting Issuer will consist of the following persons and up to three additional directors and a Chief Financial Officer to be named by GeoMegA prior to closing:

Kiril Mugerman, President, Chief Executive Officer and Director

Alain Cayer, Vice-President Exploration

Maxime Lemieux, Director

"The signing of the Conditional Gold Claims Sale Agreement is a major step towards having the financial markets recognize the value of GeoMegA's non-REE assets," commented Mr. Kiril Mugerman, President and CEO of GeoMegA. "With the Qualifying Transaction between Geomines and BSC, we believe we will be able to raise sufficient funds to begin a more aggressive exploration program of the assembled properties portfolio and start to realize their full potential. Furthermore, with the exploration and management teams readily available for both GeoMegA and Kintavar, we see many synergies which will lead to both companies being more productive and cost efficient. In addition, with respect to our Montviel REE project and the separation technology being developed by Innord, we have made significant progress over the last 24 months. With successful demonstration of our proprietary hydrometallurgical process for the Montviel mineralization in 2015 and the development of two prototypes by Innord in 2016 with the goal of reaching 1 kg/day throughput, it is now a fitting opportunity to proceed with this transaction to isolate our gold exploration projects and grow their and GeoMegA's shareholder's value."

The BSC PreShares are currently halted from trading, and the trading of the shares is expected to remain halted pending completion of the Acquisition.

Completion of the Acquisition is subject to a number of conditions including, but not limited to, completion of the Minimum Concurrent Financing, the Continuance and the Capital Restructuring, the satisfaction of BSC, Geomines and GeoMegA in respect of the due diligence investigations to be undertaken by each party, the completion of a definitive agreement in respect of the Acquisition, closing conditions customary to transactions of the nature of the Acquisition, approvals of all regulatory bodies having jurisdiction in connection with the Acquisition, Exchange acceptance and, if required by the Exchange policies, majority of the minority shareholder approval. Where applicable, the Acquisition cannot close until the required shareholder approvals are obtained and there can be no assurance that the Acquisition will be completed as proposed or at all. Upon completion of the Acquisition the Resulting Issuer intends to be listed as a Tier 2 "mining issuer" under the rules of the Exchange.

For further information about the transaction between BSC and Geomines, GeoMegA management recommends investors to consult the publicly disseminated press release of BSC from December 9, 2016.

About the GeoMegA non-REE properties

The Anik property (approx. 8,500 hectares, 100% owned) is situated 40 km to the south-east of the town of Chapais and 55 km to the south of the town of Chibougamau, in Quebec. Located in the Opawica-Guercheville deformation corridor, host to several gold mines and deposits. The eastern portion of the property is located less than 7 km from the Joe Mann mine and the Lac Meston and Phillibert deposits. The western portion of the property is located less than 10 km to the south of the Monster Lake and Fancamp gold projects. In addition, the main gold zones of the Nelligan property, a joint venture between Vanstar Ressources and IAMGOLD, are surrounded to the north, south and east by Anik property boundaries at a distance of less than 1,500 metres.

The Riviere-a-l'aigle property (approx. 9,000 hectares, 100% owned) is located in the Lake Windfall area, 55 km to the south of the town of Chapais and 100 km to the east of the town of Lebel-sur-Quevillon. The area has seen an increase in gold exploration over the last several years, primarily by Osisko Mining. The property is characterised by very strong geochemical gold anomalies coinciding with a network of faults and shear zones. The southern border of the property is in contact with the Urban Barry property of Osisko Mining.

Other properties in GeoMegA's portfolio (approx. 13,950 hecates, 100% owned) include Maryse, Lac Storm, 3G, Gaspard, Comptois and McDonald which are gold projects with targets based on lithological and geochemical anomalies.

Except for Lac Storm, all the properties are located within the northern portion of the geological Abitibi Subprovince, are road accessible and, benefit from other public infrastructure and access to skilled workforce. All the properties are free of royalties.

About the Geomines properties

The WHN (approx. 9,056 hectares, 100% owned) and Boisvert (approx. 9,309 hectares, 100% owned) properties are adjacent to each other and are located west of the Mitchinamecus reservoir, 100 km north of the town of Mont-Laurier. The properties cover an area of almost 200 square kilometres accessible by a network of logging and gravel roads. A hydro-electric power substation is located 14 km to the east of the properties.

The properties are located in the north-western portion of the central metasedimentary belt of the Grenville geological province. Many gold, copper and silver mineralized showings have been identified on the properties to date, with many characteristics suggesting of Iron Oxide Copper Gold ore type deposit (IOCG). The mineralizing system appears to be a later stage event that has not been subject to the strong deformation forces arising from the Grenville orogeny. Multiple geophysical and geochemical surveys, conducted by Geomines and other companies, confirm the presence of multiple anomalies that have yet to be followed up on with field work. No drilling has been done on the WHN property and only one drilling campaign of 15 drill holes (386 m) was completed in 1971 by Noranda in one small sector of the Boisvert property.

Osisko Mining holds a 2% NSR on 39 claims and 1% NSR on 21 other claims of the Boisvert property. The royalty agreement, originally signed between Amixam and Niogold, will carry over with the property.

About GeoMegA

GeoMegA is a mineral exploration and evaluation company focused on the discovery and sustainable development of economic deposits of metals in Quebec. GeoMegA is committed to meeting the Canadian mining industry standards and distinguishing itself with innovative engineering, stakeholders' engagement and dedication to local transformation benefits.

78,208,049 common shares of GeoMegA are currently issued and outstanding.

About Groupe Ressources Geomines Inc.

Geomines is a privately owned junior mineral exploration company based in Quebec with a portfolio of exploration properties, comprised of WHN and Boisvert, both located in the Province of Quebec.

About Black Springs Capital Corp.

Black Springs Capital Corp is a capital pool company. The Company is engaged in identification and evaluation of assets or business with a view of completing a qualifying transaction.

Source: Geomega Resources
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 ...
Centerra Gold Inc. (TSX: CG) announced today that UniCredit Bank AG and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) have granted to Centerra's wholly owned Turkish subsidiary, Oksut Madencilik, an extension from November 30, 2016 to June 30, 2017 to satisfy various conditions to access the $150 million Oksut project credit facility. The credit facility will be used to finance a substantial portion of the construction, development and operation of the Company's Oksut gold mine and its related infrastructure in the Kayseri region of central Turkey. Oksut will continue to work to satisfy the conditions by such new deadline; however some conditions, such as the receipt of the pastureland permit, are beyond the control of Centerra and Oksut. There are no assurances that all conditions will be satisfied by June 30, 2017.

In light of the current restrictions relating to funds held at Centerra's wholly-owned Kyrgyz Republic subsidiary, Kumtor Gold Company, Centerra's Board at its regularly scheduled board meeting yesterday decided against declaring a third quarter dividend. In addition, the Board has decided to suspend future dividends for the time being. The Board will reassess the declaration of dividends once this matter is fully resolved.

About Centerra

Centerra is a Canadian-based gold mining company focused on operating, developing, exploring and acquiring gold properties in North America, Asia and other markets worldwide. Centerra is the largest Western-based gold producer in Central Asia. Centerra's shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) under the symbol CG. The Company is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Additional information on Centerra is available on the Company's web site at www.centerragold.com and at SEDAR at www.sedar.com.
Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn / Yonhap



By Ko Dong-hwan

As impeached President Park Geun-hye's exit has left a vacuum in Korea's military commander in chief post as well as the top diplomat seat, Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn has taken over the tough tasks involved in national security.

Korean lawmakers on Dec. 9 agreed to divest scandal-plagued President Park Geun-hye of the supreme power, with a majority of 300 National Assembly members voting for her impeachment.

The decision came after the President has been embroiled in corruption and influence-peddling scandals, in which she allowed her longtime civilian friend, Choi Soon-sil, to meddle in state affairs and helped Choi gain illegal assets.

As military chief, Hwang must first deal with two nations that are the most critical regarding national security: North Korea, which can threaten the South with its nuclear weapons and mid-to-long range missiles at any time, and the United States, which has been keeping the North from attacking the South by stationing troops in the South since Korean War (1950-53).

"South Korea will now have to monitor the North more stringently and relay down special mandates through military chains in case of emergencies," an experienced South Korean military official said, according to Hankook Ilbo.

"There will also be some kind of actions' between military authorities from South Korea and the U.S."

Hwang is not totally inexperienced in handling the military top job. On Sep. 9, when North Korea had conducted the fifth nuclear test, Hwang led a National Security Council meeting when Park was overseas.





The late former President Roh Moo-hyun (right) and then-Prime Minister Goh Kun at Cheong Wa Dae in 2003

/ Korea Times file



The transition of military command from Park to Hwang will mostly follow the precedent of late former President Roh Moo-hyun, who was impeached in 2004  and killed himself in 2009 following a bribery investigation  lifting Prime Minister Goh Kun in Roh's place.

On the day the National Assembly voted for Roh's impeachment in March, Goh contacted the Ministry of National Defense to order a tighter grip on military preparation.

The military group confirmed the order by setting the anti-North Korea surveillance alert Watchcon and Defcon, a five-stage combat alert level, as usual, as a precaution.

Goh also called a National Security Council meeting the next day to discuss the imminent national security risk and arranged an emergency meeting between South Korean and U.S. military authorities.

Goh had first publicly exercised his authority as military commander in chief five days after Roh's impeachment at the Republic of Korea Air Force Academy in the Cheongju. He bestowed on the school's top-performing cadets two types of award: one with the President's signature and the other with the Prime Minister's signature.

As for being the chief diplomat, Hwang's temporary administration will focus on "maintaining the status quo," meaning the nation will minimize the presidential-level meetings with other countries for the next 180 days, after which the Constitutional Court determines whether to accept the impeachment vote result.

In case of imminent diplomatic agendas, however, Korea's Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se will be given authority to take the lead.

The President's empty seat will undoubtedly downgrade the nation's diplomatic position in a global sense because Korea is reluctant to hold a summit without its chief.

This could affect involvement in the Jan. 20 inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.


By Ko Dong-hwan, Park Si-soo



South Korea's parliament has endorsed an impeachment motion against President Park Geun-hye with overwhelming support of opposition lawmakers and defiant members of Park's ruling Saenuri Party.

The motion was endorsed on Friday 4:13 p.m. by 234 lawmakers, with 56 voting against, 7 invalid and 2 abstaining in the 300-member unicameral National Assembly.



Park's presidency was formally suspended at 7:03 p.m. when she received an official letter of the result from the National Assembly. Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn has taken the post as interim leader according to the Constitution.
Rep. Choo Mi-ae, chairwoman of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, speaks to reporters after an impeachment motion against President Park Geun-hye was passed at the National Assembly, Friday. Choo said the party will launch a campaign to oust Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, the acting head of state, if he "disappoints the people."

/ Yonhap



Lawmakers call for Cabinet reshuffle



By Kang Seung-woo

Rival parties are expected to clash over the role Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn will play as acting president.

The opposition side insists that Hwang should also step down, taking joint responsibility for the current political turmoil, triggered by the corruption scandal involving President Park Geun-hye and her confidant Choi Soon-sil. However, the ruling party is opposed to the idea, citing possible political uncertainties.

Hwang assumed interim presidential power, Friday, after the National Assembly voted in favor of impeaching Park. Until the Constitutional Court finishes reviewing the legality of the impeachment, which may take up to 180 days, he will lead the scandal-rocked government.

"Hwang should resign, taking moral accountability for the scandal," said Seongnam Mayor Lee Jae-myung in a radio interview hours before the impeachment vote.

"Although the primary responsibility falls on the President, the prime minister is not immune from accountability because he failed to fulfill his duty to support her and prevent the ongoing situation."

He added: "In that respect, it is immmoral for Hwang to take over Park's job and exercise authority."

Lee's call is the latest demand from the opposition bloc for the prime minister's resignation.

Rep. Chung Dong-young of the second-largest opposition People's Party said, "It is an affront to the people that Hwang has become an acting head of state."

The four-term lawmaker even criticized him as "President Park's avatar."

Main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) Chairwoman Choo Mi-ae insisted all Cabinet members should step down; stressing the passage of the impeachment motion indicates distrust of the Cabinet.

"The people will not accept Hwang as acting president. If the impeachment motion is passed, political leaders need to discuss forming an interim Cabinet or replacing the prime minister," she said, Thursday.

However, the ruling Saenuri Party believes that such calls are like those from anarchists.

"The Constitution enables prime ministers to take over from impeached presidents," said Rep. Hong Moon-jong of the governing party.

"Should he step down, who will run the government? Such calls do not make sense at all amid growing domestic and foreign uncertainties."

Rep. Choung Byoung-gug also said the opposition's demand is irresponsible.

"Their call means a state of anarchy. Even though we should wait for the Constitutional Court's verdict for months, they made unconstitutional remarks," he said.

"It is just a political offensive."

Meanwhile, as acting president, Prime Minister Hwang is anticipated to focus on the nation's diplomacy and security to stem fallouts from the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye.

Earlier in the day, Hwang held a meeting with Cabinet members at the government complex in Seoul to discuss ways to normalize state affairs amid growing uncertainties, dented by the impeachment.

While serving as Park's proxy, Hwang is likely to set his sights on security and diplomatic issues.

On Thursday, Hwang warned that North Korea may seek to make provocations by taking advantage of the country's situation, adding the government must be thoroughly prepared to maintain national security.

"As the Prime Minister has stressed the importance of security, he is expected to prioritize dealing with threats from North Korea," said an official of the Prime Minister's Office.

In addition, he is expected to send messages to neighboring countries, including the United States, China, Japan and Russia, to ease their concerns over Seoul's uncertainties.

"Monitoring the situation at parliament, Prime Minister Hwang will prepare for a national address," said a government official ahead of the impeachment vote.

"He will show his determination to lead the country without any administrative vacuum."

When former President Roh Moo-hyun was impeached in March 2004, his premier Goh Kun first placed the military and police on high alert, and urged all economic players to commit themselves to stabilizing the economy.
Before the 1980s, many industries used asbestos. Along with other industries, the construction and automotive industries frequently exposed workers to asbestos.

Who Is at Risk of Developing Mesothelioma?

Individuals who were often in contact with asbestos are the most at risk of developing this disease. However, any amount of asbestos exposure can cause mesothelioma.

Workers in asbestos industries generally experienced higher rates of exposure. These workers may have experienced asbestos exposure at their jobsite. Veterans also faced high exposure risks. Asbestos can also be a danger to individuals who did not work with it.

For example, workers can bring home the small fibers on their clothing, hair and skin. In this way, it can expose the families and loved ones of workers to asbestos. This is called secondary exposure, or secondhand exposure. Secondary exposure is a risk factor for anyone living with asbestos workers.

High-risk occupations for exposure include:

Veterans are also at higher risk of asbestos exposure. For decades, the military used asbestos throughout the different branches. As a result, many veterans of the Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marine Corps and Navy may have encountered asbestos during their time in active service.

04. Types

Types of Mesothelioma

There are four main types of mesothelioma, each based on the location of tumors. The most common type is malignant pleural mesothelioma. These main types of mesothelioma fall into categories based upon the kinds of cells in the tumor. The three main mesothelioma cell types are:

Epithelioid mesothelioma : The tumors contain epithelioid cells that look similar to epithelial cells found in the skin and other common tissues. This is the most common mesothelioma cell type. Compared to other cell types, epithelioid mesothelioma responds well to treatment.

: The tumors contain epithelioid cells that look similar to epithelial cells found in the skin and other common tissues. This is the most common mesothelioma cell type. Compared to other cell types, epithelioid mesothelioma responds well to treatment. Sarcomatoid mesothelioma : The tumors contain epithelioid cells that look similar to epithelial cells found in the skin and other common tissues. This is the most common mesothelioma cell type. Compared to other cell types, epithelioid mesothelioma responds well to treatment.

: The tumors contain epithelioid cells that look similar to epithelial cells found in the skin and other common tissues. This is the most common mesothelioma cell type. Compared to other cell types, epithelioid mesothelioma responds well to treatment. Biphasic mesothelioma: The tumors contain a combination of epithelioid and sarcomatoid cells. In general, this type occurs in the pleura (lung lining) or peritoneum (abdominal lining). The percentage of each cell type may affect which treatment options are available.

Prognosis, symptoms and treatment options vary depending on cell type. These factors are also influenced by where the mesothelioma occurs in the body.
Were excited to announce that metalbulletin.com is now part of fastmarkets.com.

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Discover more than 2000 prices, news and analysis in primary and secondary metals markets. We cover base metals, industrial minerals, ores and alloys, steel, scrap and steel raw materials.

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Futures prices continued to directly affect the ferrous market in China.

Metal Bulletins 62% Fe Iron Ore Index ended the week at $81.66 per tonne cfr Qingdao on Friday December 9, after reaching $82.25 per tonne on Wednesday December 7  the highest value since October 15 2014  amid a sharp rise in the futures prices.

Chinas ferrous futures rose across the board during early trading on Wednesday amid speculation that tightening supply will continue to support steel prices.

Spot hot rolled coil (HRC) prices in China held steady on Friday amid a volatile paper market, though they still ended the week higher despite tumbling a day earlier.

Chinas spot rebar prices were mixed on Friday, with those in the eastern region rising while the northern market was flat amid uncertainties fuelled by rumours of a supply cut in Tangshan.

Meanwhile, in the global scrap market, Turkish players are awaiting for January bookings, US coasts are taking split paths, Taiwanese prices were up amid tight supply and Indian prices were down this week.

And finally, the pessimism in the seaborne coking coal market persisted as the week drew to a close, with offers on Global Coal falling further on Friday.

Metal Bulletins fob Australia premium coking coal index plunged $21.64 per tonne on Friday to $270.72 per tonne, while the cfr China index tumbled $20.46 per tonne to $280.85 per tonne.

The fob Australia hard coking coal index fell $9.52 per tonne to $265.45 per tonne while the cfr China equivalent shed $7.37 per tonne to $274.92 per tonne.

Prices

Despite the recent downtrend, higher coking coal costs continued to have an impact on steel prices.

Mills in Brazil and Argentina have raised flat steel prices for December due to the use of high-priced coal in their production processes, with companies in both countries eyeing a new adjustment for January 2017.

In Russia, domestic prices for flat steel products also increased this week, supported by growing export prices.

The US market saw Nucor raise its merchant bar price by $30 per tonne and local steel plate producers increase prices by $40 per tonne.

This week, Metal Bulletin proposed the discontinuation of some prices assessments for Iranian domestic and import steel prices and for Peruvian domestic rebar, following a review of its pricing portfolio.

Trade cases

In terms of trade policies, India extended the minimum import price (MIP) on 19 coated steel products until February 4, while removing 47 other goods from the restriction.

Mexico opened an anti-dumping probe into imports of welded tubes from China.

Meanwhile, on Friday, the European Commission (EC) started an anti-dumping investigation into imports of hot dipped galvanized coil (HDG) China, following a request from the European steel association, Eurofer.

On Wednesday, ArcelorMittal has called for further trade cases to be initiated against imports from China to protect European mills over the time it takes for the Asian country to reduced its excess if steelmaking capacity.

Around the world

As part of the state drive to cut excess steel capacity in China, the government has ordered Shandong Jinhaihui Technology to dismantle its stainless steel capacity in the city of Linyi, Shandong province.

Still in China, iron ore imports were up by 12% in November, just as prices hit a two-year high, totalling 91.98 million tonnes, according to preliminary Chinese customs data.

In Brazil, Vale has been granted an operating licence for its S11D iron ore project, allowing it to produce 90 million tpy in the countrys Carajas region. The first commercial ore is expected to be produced in January 2017.

In the USA, Nucor has acquired Southland Tube for $130 million, further solidifying the mini-mill operator as a major provider of structural tubing.

Metal Bulletin Research analysed the scenario for HRC prices in the US market, which are starting to rebound.

And finally, two special reports from Metal Bulletin Magazines December 2016-January 2017 issue look at the countrys ambitious plans for the steel industry and the growing potential and future challenges facing steelmakers in Iran.
Shifting Sands is an exhibition about T E Lawrence, probably known to most of us as Lawrence of Arabia. The title inevitably conjures up pictures of desert sands whipped up into fierce sandstorms by violent winds. There is, however, a subtler subtext, linked to Lawrences mindset, to the shifting sands of his personality. Both of these meanings are fully explored in this relatively small, but densely packed exhibition.

The exhibition is housed upstairs in the National Civil War Centre in Newark. There is a large window display as an invite to the public. This comprises a huge title image with the iconic photograph of Lawrence in Arab dress. Another large photograph shows Lawrence on one of his beloved Borough motorcycles; he owned seven Borough Superior S100s, and an eighth was on order when he crashed in 1935, later dying from his head injuries.

This was one side of Lawrence  his need for speed; the SS100 designation indicated that the bike had been tested at 100mph. The last of these Borough machines, appropriately enough, forms the focus of this entry display.

The exhibition is spread over three rooms, which are linked together with intermediary material. Two large, curving panels divide the first room, and these are wallpapered with huge, topographic images. They provide context for the material displayed in each section

ORIENTALISM

The first section of the exhibition covers Lawrences troubled early life and the intellectual passions of his early manhood: in particular, his interest in Gothic architecture, his venture into archaeology, and the beginnings of his love affair with the Middle East.

There is a copy of a large brass rubbing by Lawrence, which shows his interest in the Gothic. Lawrence carried this interest into his undergraduate years at Jesus College, Cambridge, during which time he travelled to France and Syria in order to research the Crusader castles that were the subject of his thesis.

So we can already see Lawrences interests beginning to focus on the Arab world. Indeed, his intellectual interests went on to be captured by a strain of Orientalism, that fascination of Western Europe with the mysterious Other that was the Middle East.

This increasing interest in the Middle East went hand-in-hand with a growing engagement with archaeology. Under the patronage of D G Hogarth, the Curator of Archaeology at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, Lawrence travelled to Palestine to work as an archaeologist. Having spent time at Jbail (Byblos) learning Arabic, he moved on to undertake fieldwork at Carchemish, in what is now northern Syria, both with Hogarth and the Syria, both with Hogarth and the renowned Leonard Woolley.

A case of finds from these excavations is included in the exhibition, as well as copies of early texts produced for the Palestine Exploration Fund, to which Lawrence contributed. There are also some small watercolour drawings of finds that show the competence of Lawrences hand.



DESERT WAR

As we move into the second part of this first room, the exhibition begins to explore the roots of early 20th-century conflict in the Middle East. Germany was trying to expand her influence in the region, and Britain sought to maintain and even extend her holdings in the area; all this against the backdrop of a declining Ottoman Empire.

One panel examines the concurrent internal conflicts in the Arab world, where there was much the Bedouin  between the settled the Bedouin  between the settled and the nomad. It was this gap that the British sought to exploit, and they went on to encourage what became known as the Great Arab Revolt. Pictures of some of the main personalities of the conflict add a human touch to this hugely influential movement.

The main focus of this section of the exhibition, however, is a full-scale representation of a Bedouin tent. It comes complete with a camel saddle, carpets, and cushions; and a platter with food bowls, drinking cups, and a coffee pot, all intricately chased. There are even keffiyehs (Arab headdresses) to try on.

MODERN CONFLICT ARCHAEOLOGY

A railway line painted on the floor takes us into the second room, which focuses on the Great Arab Revolt. Little explosions on the line give the dates of attacks on the Hijaz Railway, the supply line of Turkish forces in the Arab lands. Here archaeology and war come together, as modern conflict archaeology seeks to understand the material remains of that particular conflict.

A major driving-force behind the exhibition was the work of the Great Arab Revolt Project (GARP), conducted under the auspices of Bristol University, and led by Nicholas Saunders and MHM Editor Neil Faulkner. GARP undertook nine seasons of excavations in Jordan, and some of their finds are displayed in this room, including a small section of the railway line from one of the attacks on the Hijaz line.

One of the main exhibition pieces here is the reconstruction of Tooth Hill Camp, a camp used by Lawrence and British mobile units, which is furnished with GARP finds.

A fine model displays the ambush at Hallat Ammar on the Hijaz line on 19 September 1917. This was one of the series of attacks by Arab and British mobile forces on the supply route, and it reflects one of the conundrums of the First World War: the conflict between modern technology and traditional methods. The Bedouins understanding of the desert certainly overcame the modern, but light, mobile weapons such as the Lewis Gun and the Stokes Mortar certainly aided the latter, and full-scale replicas of these are on display.



MYTH AND REALITY

The third room primarily explores Lawrences world after his exploits in the Middle East. It goes in search of the real T E Lawrence. A series of images shows the man in various guises: as private Shaw in the Tank Corps and as Aircraftman Ross, among others.

This final section then explores the creation of the myth of Lawrence of Arabia, and no exhibition on Lawrence would be complete without a poster of the David Lean film. This room also touches on Lowell Thomass travelogues, in particular With Allenby in Palestine, which features Lawrence and helped propel him to fame in the US.

All in all, this is a deep and complex exhibition about the deep and complex man that was Lawrence of Arabia. Definitely worth a visit.

Keith Robinson

Shifting Sands: Lawrence of Arabia and the Great Arab Revolt

17 October-Summer 2017

National Civil War Centre, 14 Appletongate, Newark, NG24 1JY

www.nationalcivilwarcentre.com

01636 655 765

This review was featured in issue 76 of Military History Monthly.
1:24pm: The Nationals tried to expand the Eaton deal to include Robertson, USA Todays Bob Nightengale tweets. The White Sox turned them down, however, so the two sides will discuss a Robertson deal as a separate proposition.

11:05am: Heres the latest on the Nationals hunt for a closer, with details trickling in from various reporters, including MASNs Mark Zuckerman. A new entry to the list of possible closers the Nationals are considering: David Robertson, who Zuckerman says the Nats have discussed with the White Sox. The White Sox are by now very familiar with the Nationals farm system after the Adam Eaton deal and the Chris Sale negotiations, so one might think the two sides could piece together a deal if there are additional prospects the White Sox like. At last check, though, the White Sox planned to wait to see where Kenley Jansen landed before striking a deal.

As with the Cubs deal for Wade Davis, trading for Robertson (who has two years and $25MM left on his contract) could be a way for the Nationals to avoid paying the exorbitant prices top closers like Aroldis Chapman and Mark Melancon have received on the open market, and that Jansen will likely receive. Robertson is, however, coming off a modestly disappointing season in which he posted a 3.47 ERA and a healthy 10.8 K/9, but with 4.6 BB/9. Robertson can block trades to five teams, but according to Cots Contracts, the Nationals are not among them.

As previously noted, the Nats did bid on Jansen, and they met with Jansens representatives this week. They join the Marlins and Dodgers in pursuit of the star closer. Theyve also talked with the Rays about a deal for Alex Colome. The 27-year-old Colome just had a brilliant 1.91 ERA, 11.3 K/9, 2.4 BB/9 season while saving 37 games for Tampa Bay. Acquiring Colome would likely require a steeper prospect price than acquiring Robertson, however, due to his low cost and four years of control remaining.
After months of speculation, nominations for the 59th Grammy Awards, which will be broadcast live on February 12, 2017, is finally out! Top nominees are Boyonce, Drake, Rihanna, Kanye West and Chance The Rapper.

Beyonce, without doubt, lived up to expectations with nine (9) nominations in the most enviable categories including Album of the Year, Song of the Year and Record of the Year. She was followed by Drake and Rihanna who are each up for eight awards, and Adele five, including Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Album of the Year.

Chance the Rapper, whose album, Coloring Book, was the first streaming-only album to make the Billboard 200, has seven nominations in five categories. This comes after The Grammys changed its rules to consider stream-only releases for the 59th edition of the awards.

The 2017 Grammys is anticipated to give patrons and viewers around the world a different experience and will be hosted by presenter James Corden. The British presenter will certainly not be fazed by meeting the music industrys biggest names; he has harmonized with Adele, Stevie Wonder, Lady Gaga, Sir Elton John and Justin Bieber in the Emmy-winning Carpool Karaoke.

As the only peer-selected music award, the GRAMMY is voted on by The Recording Academy's membership body of music makers, who represent all genres and creative disciplines, including recording artists, songwriters, producers, mixers, and engineers.

"Just as we see emerging musicians experimenting, we're also seeing established artists resisting what's expected of them and, instead, embracing the creative freedom they've been afforded through their success, blurring the lines between music's mainstream and artistic edge," said Neil Portnow, President/CEO of The Recording Academy.

The dynamic range of this year's nominees is exhibited across several awards fields, including American Roots Music, R&B, Dance/Electronic Music, and Rock, but it's perhaps best showcased in the Album Of The Year category, which represents a mix of genrespop, R&B, rap, and country. Looking at the recordings nominated for Album Of The Year, an even greater degree of musical advancement and sonic experimentation is revealed: the emotion-stirring vocals of Adele, who brings a soulful depth to a collection of classically fine-tuned pop ballads; Beyonce's ability to paint a picture, layering poignant R&B vocals over a tapestry of sounds that range from blues-rock to hip-hop; Justin Bieber's growth as a songwriter and evolution as a pop powerhouse; Drake's continued genre-bending, which now invites island influences to his signature sound; and the definition-defying Sturgill Simpson who made many of us re-explore the vast territories that country abides.

For a full complete nominations list, kindly visit www.grammy.com
Ghanaian entertainers were not left out of Ghana's 2016 general elections which took place on Wednesday, December 7, 2016.

A number of them came to exercise their civic responsibility by voting.

Among those who voted were Nana Ama McBrown, Lydia Forson, Joselyn Dumas, Brenda Bonsu, Adu Safowaah, Sandra Ankobiah, Jeremy Van-Garshon, Becca, comedian DKB, Flowking Stone and M.anifest.

Go out and vote. Vote for Ghana, Nana Ama McBrown said on Instagram Wednesday afternoon when she posted a video of herself voting.

Yup! No long queues, no time wasted at all. I have voted in 4 minutesNo! no one queued for me. What are you waiting for? Go out there and vote for Ghana. #Ghanacedecides well done to Madam Charllotte Osei, Joselyn Dumas also said when she posted photos of herself in a queue.

DKB voted at the St Andrew's polling station at Madina, while actress Adu Safowaah also cast hers at the Ayawaso Central polling station at Alajo in Accra.

Ahead of the elections, a number of Ghanaian entertainers and celebrities declared open support for some particular parties.

They included John Dumelo, James Gardiner, Roselyn Ngissah, Beverly Afaglo and Mzbel who declared for the National Democratic Congress (NDC). Agya Koo, Socrate Safo, Bibi Bright and a host of others also endorsed the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

A chunk of the entertainers also remained neutral and kept urging Ghanaians and their followers to go to the polls and vote.

An example is Yvonne Nelson who has one of the biggest social media following in the country. She posted a peace messages and urged the youth to vote wisely.

Socrates Sarfo

If you are a first time voter, especially if you just turned 18, VOTE wisely.do some research about GH, read and update yourselves on whats going on.again VOTE WISELY..dont waste your vote. DON'T waste your vote on a candidates appearance and other silly things!!! The POWER is in your hands, Yvonne said on Instagram.

Polls opened across the country early Wednesday as long queues of voters cast their ballot in the 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections.

Thousands queued as early as 12:00 midnight, seven hours before polls were due to open, to vote in the highly-anticipated elections.

Some 15,703,890 registered voters were expected have cast their ballot at about 29,000 polling stations to elect a new president and 275 members of parliament.

By Francis Addo (Twitter: @fdee50 Email: [email protected] )






On Friday afternoon, the General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Asiedu Nketia was trending on various social media platforms, not for the politics of it but for the fashion sense of it.

In the midst of the political tension in the country, Mr Nketia, popularly known as General Mosquito, was trending for his decision to wear a cap during a briefing by President John Mahama at his residence.

This is not the first time the NDC General Secretarys fashion choice has come under public scrutiny.

One talked about instance was in January 2015 when he wore a female winter coat during an official assignment in Germany.

Social media did not forgive him for that and several other wardrobe malfunctioned incidents.

Friday was no different.

Interestingly, in spite of the trolling, the NDC General Secretary is unperturbed. Getting his fashion right is the least of his worries.

Reacting to his trending cap fashion, he told Joy News Israel Laryea in an exclusive interview that the cap belongs to his son.

He also disclosed that, he is a fan of wearing clothes belonging to his family members including his wife.

The cap, he said, was for the afternoon  it belongs to my son. I am a fan of wearing the dressing of my family members. At one time, it could be my wife, this one is for my son.

At least now Ghanaians know where the General gets his fashion inspiration from.

Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Ernest Dela Aglanu (Twitter: @delaXdela / email: [email protected])
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Geneva (AFP) - The UN human rights council said Friday it will hold a special session on war-ravaged South Sudan next week, following a request from 40 nations led by the United States.

The session is scheduled for December 14, two weeks after UN human rights experts said ethnic cleansing was underway in the world's youngest nation, where violence has soared since a peace deal collapsed in July.

The panel of three United Nations experts released their findings after a visit to several of South Sudan's hotspots and described the country as being on the brink of "catastrophe".

In a statement, the rights council said the call for a special session had been backed by 16 of the body's 47 members, fulfilling the one-third support threshold needed for the session to go ahead.

That group was led by the US and includes European powers like Britain, France and Germany -- as well as South Korea and several Latin American states.

A further 24 observer states to the council have also expressed support, the statement said.

The rights council has held 26 special sessions in its 10 year history, most recently an October 21 debate on the humanitarian disaster in Syria's Aleppo.

The one-day session is likely to weigh the experts' findings, which included evidence that starvation, gang rape and the burning of villages were being used as weapons during the conflict.

South Sudan's current conflict began nearly three years ago when President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy and political rival, Riek Machar, of plotting a coup.

Hopes that an August 2015 peace deal would bring peace to the young nation were dashed when fighting erupted in Juba in July, leading to a surge of violence around the country characterised by divisions between the country's 64 tribes.
Kano (Nigeria) (AFP) - At least 30 people were killed on Friday when two female suicide bombers detonated their explosives in a busy market in northeast Nigeria, the military said.

"At least 30 people have been killed in the suicide blasts carried out by two female suicide bombers in the market" in the town of Madagali, military spokesman major Badare Akintoye told AFP.

"Several people have been injured in the attack," said Akintoye on the phone from a military base in the town of Mubi, 100 kilometres (60 miles) away.

A local government official and the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) confirmed the attack, the latest in Boko Haram's seven-year insurgent campaign in the restive region.

"The two bombers who (were) disguised as customers, detonated their suicide belts at the section of the market selling grains and second-hand clothing," said Yusuf Muhammad, the chairman of Madagali local government.

"We still don't have the exact number of those injured but they are many," he added.

Ibrahim Abdulkadir, NEMA spokesman for the northeast, said rescuers had been deployed to the scene.

"We heard there was a twin-blast in a market at Madagali this morning. Our men are on (the) ground evacuating the victims," he told AFP. "We still don't have details of casualties."

He said security agents had cordoned off the scene of the explosions.

Madagali was among the territory captured by Boko Haram in 2014 before Nigerian troops, supported by a regional force, liberated it in 2015.

Friday's incident was the third in the town since two female suicide bombers attacked in December last year, killing and injuring scores.

Boko Haram is seeking to impose a hardline Islamic legal system on Nigeria's mainly-Muslim north. Its campaign of violence has killed at least 20,000 people and displaced some 2.6 million since 2009.

Nigeria's military campaign against the jihadists is increasingly bogged down as it confronts suicide attacks, looting and indiscriminate slaughter.

The United Nations has warned that the affected region faces the "largest crisis in Africa".

The UN estimates that 14 million people will need outside help in 2017 because of the ongoing violence, particularly in Borno State, the epicentre of the rebellion.


Five military officers from the Tema Navy Command and three civilians were arrested in the heat of yesterday's presidential and parliamentary elections for various electoral malpractices and irregularities.

The military officers had allegedly invaded the New Edubiase Constituency of the Ashanti Region in the company of the parliamentary candidate of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Ernest Kofi Yakah, when they were arrested by a military patrol team and detained at the police station.

ASP Martin Assenso, New Edubiase District Police Commander, who confirmed the incident, told DAILY GUIDE that the soldiers were arrested by the military command when it was discovered that the officers had no pass to undertake security duties in the constituency.

According to the police chief, one of the unidentified military officers happens to be the son of Kofi Yakah, the incumbent Member of Parliament (MP) for the area, who is seeking re-election.

In view of the volatile security situation in the region, the suspects were placed in custody until everything was calm.

One of them, identified only as Sly, however, managed to escape arrest in a strange circumstance.

The polls were marred by reported attempts to snatch ballot boxes, jumping of queues and in some areas, violence and intimidations.

The exercise, which got underway at about 7:00 am, was going ahead smoothly until some voters began to jostle one another in some polling centres in the Subin and Asawase Constituencies of Kumasi, the Ashanti Regional capital.

At the St. Theresa's Lower Primary 'B' Polling Station, Asawase in particular, misunderstanding ensued between electoral officers and voters when the former attempted to re-arrange the polling centre setting because of the sun.

Polling had to be put on hold for close to 10 minutes following confusion that broke out when some voters who had earlier joined wrong queues elsewhere were directed to come to the polling station, heightening tension.

3 Nabbed With Fake EC Accreditation Cards

Three people are in hot waters, having been arrested for allegedly printing fake Electoral Commission (EC) accreditation cards at Adum in Kumasi yesterday.

The fake accreditation cards had the name of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) and some individuals embossed on them.

The police, acting upon a tipoff, arrested them at about 1:30 pm when they were allegedly printing the fake materials at Ark Jam Printing Press, situated at Adum, the heart of Kumasi.

The arrested people included Amoah Gyasi, 37, a staffer of the printing press and Bawuah Richard, 41, who owns the Press.

Stephen Gyan, 54, who was suspected to have engaged the printing press to print the fake materials, was also apprehended by the police.

ASP Mohamed Yussif Tanko, the police PRO, said one Sly, who is said to be the main architect of the production of the fake EC accreditation cards, is still at large.

He told DAILY GUIDE that the three arrested people had been detained at the police headquarters where they were assisting in investigations.

According to him, at the time of the arrest, 32 pieces of the fake accreditation cards had been printed in the name of the ruling NDC.

ASP Tanko stated that the arrested people had not been charged, saying that all efforts were being made to arrest Sly.

The motive for printing the fake cards was not known, but it was being speculated that they were printed to help the NDC to rig the elections.

5 Grabbed With Thumb-printed Ballot Papers In Kyebi

At Kyebi in the Eastern Region, five persons were arrested in possession of thumb-printed ballot papers, police say.

The five were arrested at about 12pm at the Methodist Primary School when they were thumb-printing the papers.

They were said to have been thumb-printed in favour of the NDC parliamentary candidate, Owuraku Amofa.

The report said it's unclear if the ballot papers had serial numbers authenticating them.

The identities of the five were not disclosed by the police who said they were investigating the incident.

The arrest followed a similar report in the Ashanti Region where thousands of ballots were said to have been thumb-printed in favour of President Mahama.

5 'Machomen' Arrested In Tema

Police in Tema arrested five stoutly-built (macho) men for causing discomfort to voters at the Datus Complex School polling station yesterday.

The Tema Regional Police PRO, ASP Juliana Obeng, told Joy News that the men were picked up following complaints from voters that their presence made them feel uncomfortable and intimidated.

She said upon interrogation, the men confessed that they were not registered voters at the centre but could not tell the main reason for being at the centre.

The five were said to have gone very close to the polling centre without accreditation and were disrupting the process.

They were brought to the place by an unnamed parliamentary aspirant to help police the process.

From Ernest Kofi Adu & I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr., Kumasi
Through UNDPs ongoing support for Public Financial Management, an ongoing programme in Aweil is focusing on strengthening domestic revenue administration through establishment of a sustainable tax system at state level. The programme is assisting with the development of standardized training manuals and programs and harmonizing domestic resources mobilization system. It seeks to support government officials to gradually diversify the fiscal revenue base away from near-complete dependence on oil revenue. The programme is also devoting energy to enhance capacities to effectively operationalize financial management systems at the three levels of government; and supporting the continued development of pro-poor and gender sensitive public expenditure policies in order to improve access to quality health care, education, water and sanitation, community infrastructures and livelihoods.

What: Sequenced activities in Aweil State to Develop State-Level Policies on Tax Reform and Revenue Modernization

When: December 2-15, 2016

Where: Aweil

Programme Outline: (see the multimedia content).

For further information, please contact: Olympio Attipoe, UNDP, [email protected] and +211 955 714 276 or Kymberly Bays, UNDP, [email protected] and +211 954 396 893.
The Delegation of The European Union to Rwanda and EU Member States will hold a Human Rights Day Event on the topic of "Freedom of Expression and Media Transformation: Lessons from Africa and Europe" on 14, December 2016. The event will be part of activities to mark the International Human Rights Day which is celebrated on 10 December 2016. The half day event will attract 200 participants including; journalists, CSOs, media organisations, government officials, development partners, and diplomatic missions.

Through two panel discussions, panellists will discuss media transformation and how to build journalism that is free, fair and responsible. They will also examine the roles of public and private media, and their different functions, funding and levels of independence.

Both panels will be introduced by a presentation on experience of Czech media with transformation from a fully restricted to an open environment by renowned Czech journalist Dr. Jaromir Marek. The presentations will serve as a launch pad for debate about lessons from Europe and Africa.

The Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Rwanda, Ambassador Michael Ryan remarked; "Freedom of Expression is at the heart of the EU's human rights policy as an essential foundation for democracy, rule of law, peace, stability, sustainable inclusive development and participation in public affairs. This is therefore an opportunity to use the Human Rights Day to reflect on freedom of expression in Rwanda, and the lessons globally about supporting transformation of media and development of vibrant media culture."

Other activities that will take place alongside the EU and Member States Event are a journalism master class for journalism students to be held at the University Of Rwanda School Of Journalism on 13 December 2016. The master class will be given by Dr. Jaromir Marek. Dr. Marek will also meet news editors from different media outlets in Rwanda at Umubano Hotel to deliver a lecture on "New Trends in Media".

In November, the EU Delegation also launched an essay competition on the topic: "Freedom of media  why does it matter?" The purpose of the essay competition is to raise awareness among the general public in Rwanda about human rights and existing international legal frameworks on human rights.
A plethora of regional development bodies in Central Africa under the umbrella of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) and the Central Africa Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) have indicated their appetite for internalising and aggregating Africas Agenda 2063 and the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGS) to better respond to the needs of the sub-region. The said regional economic communities (RECs) expressed their interest in better appropriating both agendas during the seventh session of the Sub-regional Coordination Mechanism (SRCM) of the UN System Support to the African Union and its NEPAD programme in Central Africa that ended in Libreville  the Gabonese capital today.

Convened by the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) in collaboration with the ECCAS secretariat, officials of the sub-regional bodies, the African Union Commission, the African Development Bank (AfDB) and their UN system partners (including UNDP, UNESCO, UNICEF, the UN Centre for Democracy and Human Rights in Central Africa, UNOCA) agreed on the urgent need of first grasping a better understanding and appropriation of the two agendas. This would lead to a robust campaign to sensitise stakeholders to the extent that member States in the sub-region take ownership of the agendas and integrate them into their development plans.

Harbinger of a new Common Indicative programme for Central Africa

Appropriating these agendas would be the anchor points for the third Common Indicative Programme (CIP III) of the UN System, development partners and the Regional Economic Communities in the sub-region, giving the expiration of the second of such programmes in December 2016. There were strong calls to align the new programmes with the periodic segments of the implementation plan for Agenda 2063 with its seven main aspirations that match several elements of the 17 SDGs. It was generally observed that priorities for the new programme should be hinged on the convergence of development programmes that would lead to sustainable development.

Of particular interest to the Secretary General of the ECCAS Secretariat  H.E. Mr Ahmad Allam-Mi, who opened the Session, was improved trade between countries of the sub-region.

The operationalisation of the ECCAS Free Trade Area should therefore be the priority of the priorities of activities to be included in the next Common Indicative Programme, otherwise the ambitious project for the construction of a Common Market in Central Africa will remain, a pious wish for yet a long time to come, he said.

Both the Director of the Sub-regional Office for Central Africa of ECA  Mr Antonio Pedro and the Representative of the CEMAC Commission  Mr Eddie Justin MBANZA re-echoed the need for a convergence of efforts by UN agencies, other partners and sub-regional bodies to move forward with current development agendas adapted to the needs of Central Africa.

The session ended with the adoption of an 18-month a roadmap for populating and kick starting the third Common Indicative programme (CIP III) for Central Africas development.

Discussions at the session were coordinated by the Deputy Secretary General of ECCAS (in Charge of Physical, Economic and Monetary Integration Secretariat General)  Ms MFOULA Marie Therese Chantal.
Aware of the unprecedented impetus of African economies and of the potential offered by the various national and sub-regional markets, Moroccan and French companies are demonstrating new ambitions in Africa, which are expressed in their development strategies on the continent.

According to the third edition of BearingPoints ( www.BearingPoint.com ) International Development Barometer of international firms, "Developing in Africa: comparisons of Moroccan and French companies", which is produced in conjunction with the Moroccan Exporters' Association (Asmex) ( http://Asmex.org ), the five main countries where the 250 Moroccan and French companies surveyed are most established are Algeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Mali and Senegal. Senegal, Ivory Coast and Gabon are in the lead for the Moroccan companies questioned, which are mainly present in West Africa. Ivory Coast, Morocco and Cameroon hold the first three places for the French groups questioned, which are also based in some English-speaking countries (Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya).

Regarding the type of operations conducted by the companies in the group, over 60% of Moroccan responders export and distribute their production in sub-Saharan Africa, often through a network of partners, which represents the first step before considering setting up in the region. A step ahead, the French companies have more local sites, especially in the conversion and industrial sectors.

"We nevertheless see that Moroccan companies - which are in fact quite new on the continent compared with their French counterparts, some of which have been present for more than a hundred and fifty years - are starting to catch up. Afro-optimism is now a feeling which is widely shared by Moroccan and French company directors, and reflected in the growth strategies and the investments committed," explains Jean-Michel Huet, associate at BearingPoint. Five years ago, 86% of Moroccan companies questioned said that Africa represented less than 5% of their turnover. In 2016, the continent accounts for more than 5% of revenues for almost half of the respondents, and 20 % of them believe that Africa will represent more than 50% of their global turnover in the next five years. "For some years now, we have witnessed a very strong drive from the Moroccan private sector towards the sub-Saharan region. Support from the authorities in the country and the successes achieved, in particular by finance departments and real estate, have accelerated this movement," explains Mr Hassan Sentissi, President of the Moroccan Exporters' Association (Asmex).

This optimism is also observed in France. Five years ago, 49% of the companies questioned said that Africa represented less than 5% of turnover. In 2020, this figure will have dropped to 14%. In ten years, Africas share of the total turnover of respondents will have increased by 75%.

"These Moroccan and French figures confirm a major trend: the 'African risk' relating to the political situations and the business environment no longer represents an insurmountable obstacle. The potential and opportunities on the continent - which will have 2 billion inhabitants in 2050, with over 900 million of these belonging to the middle class - are much more powerful parameters for companies when defining their international development strategies," explains Jean-Michel Huet.

The potential of African markets (purchasing power and number of customers) is the first criterion accounting for the presence of French companies in Africa, and the second criterion for their Moroccan counterparts.
The South African Goverment received with shock the news that on Wednesday, 07 December 2016, members of the Israeli Knesset (Parliament) for the Jewish Home Party tabled the Regulations Bill whose purpose is to legitimise the continuing annexation of Palestinian land for settlement construction.

The Bill has already been condemned by Israels Attorney-General, stating that it breaches local and international law. Opposition parties correctly described it as a land grab move.

The Bill intends to retroactively legalise 55 illegal outposts by turning them into state-sanctioned settlements. The Bill would also open the door for the legalisation of over 3000 housing units inside existing settlements by expropriating the 5000 dunams of private Palestinian land. It seeks to legalise housing units built by settlers on private Palestinian land if the construction was carried out in good faith, including situations where settlers might not have known that the land was Palestinian and received some support from the state, be it explicit or implicit support.

South Africa reiterates that the illegal occupation of Palestinian territory is a direct obstacle to the peace negotiations and is contrary to international law. South Africa calls on all peace-loving people throughout the world to stand up in defence of the two-state solution and strongly opposes the land grab Bill.
The Director General of Bilateral Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba, Mr. Gerardo Penalver, in transit in Ghana, held a meeting with Mr. Edwin Nii Adjei, Acting Chief Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration of Ghana, who analyzed and updated aspects of common interest.

The meeting held in the headquarters of the Ghanaian Chancellery led the exchange between the two parts. As a concrete result, it was patented the maintenance of the points of contact between the diplomacy of both countries and the interest of strengthen their relations, both in the diplomatic sphere as in the general cooperation in the country.

By the Ghanaian side also participated the Director of the Americas Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Alhaji Abubakar Sadiq Abdulai, as well as for the Cuban side it was the Ambassador, Mr. Pedro L. Despaigne Gonzalez.
08.12.2016 LISTEN

SEOUL, ACCRA, Dec. 8, (UPI/GNA) - South Korean President Park Geun-hye may have less than 24 hours left to her presidency as the country's National Assembly scheduled an impeachment vote for Friday on accusations of corruption that have roiled the country for months.

Though Park said she would step down step down if the Assembly asked her to and she is now refusing, lawmakers in South Korea expect to have the votes needed to remove her from office and replace her with the country's prime minister.

Park is accused of corruption related to a confidante, Choi Soon-sil, who raked in at least $70 million, among other perks, because of a long-time friendship with the president.

After touting herself as "incorruptible" while running for office, the revelations about Park have sparked large weekly protests demanding she be thrown out of office and driven her approval ratings to around 4 percent.

"Even pro-Park lawmakers in the governing party acan't defy the wishes of the people," said Lee Nae-young, a political-science professor at Korea University. "They see that if the impeachment bill is voted down, the ruling party will suffer an even bigger political blow."

An impeachment motion was signed Dec. 3 by 171 members of three parties opposed to Park's, allowing the assembly to schedule the impeachment vote. With a requirement for 200 members to invoke impeachment, members of the assembly say they expect to pick up the 29 votes to immediately remove her from office after the vote.

Although Park now says she would stay on as president to see the outcome of impeachment proceedings at the Constitutional Court, lawmakers say they want to replace her immediately with the prime minister and have already started discussing the possibility of holding elections next year -- more than a year before the regularly scheduled presidential election.

"President Park said that even if an impeachment motion is passed as planned, she is determined to calmly and solemnly move forward for the nation and people as she watches the adjudication process of the Constitutional Court," said Chung Jin-suk, floor leader of Park's Saenuri Party in the National Assembly.

GNA
COLUMBIA, S.C., ACCRA, Dec. 8, (UPI/GNA) - An inmate escaped from a South Carolina prison Wednesday evening and is now wanted for questioning in an attack on a police officer at a Walmart.

Michael Alan Williamson escaped from McCormick Correctional Institution around 8:50 p.m. and is believed to have travelled to Columbia, where he is now being sought by police in the stabbing of an officer who was responding to a shoplifting call at the store.

Officials said they were unsure how Williamson was able to escape the medium/maximum-level prison, where he was serving a life sentence for a 1998 armed robbery conviction. He was also convicted of assault and battery with intent to kill in 1997.

Police believe Williamson went to Columbia, where he visited a local Walmart around 9:30 p.m. Around 10 p.m., a female police officer was stabbed at the store in connection with a shoplifting. The officer is in stable condition after the attack, police said.

Police are offering rewards for information on Williamson's whereabouts.

GNA
08.12.2016 LISTEN

NEW YORK, ACCRA, Dec. 8, (UPI/GNA) - President-elect Donald Trump has chosen retired four-star Marine Gen. John F. Kelly to serve as secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, people familiar with the decision said.

Kelly, a 66-year-old respected military officer who served for more than 40 years, would be in charge of overseeing Trump's proposed crackdown on illegal immigration. Trump's transition team was drawn to Kelly due to his expertise on the southern border, The Washington Post reported.

Trump has not formally offered Kelly the job because the general is out of the country, The New York Times reported.

In 2003, Kelly became the first Marine colonel serving in active combat to be promoted to brigadier general since 1951.

Lt. Robert Michael Kelly, the general's son, was killed in 2010 while serving in Afghanistan, which made Kelly the highest-ranking military officer to lose a son or daughter in the wars in Afghanistan or Iraq.

Kelly has repeatedly voiced concerns about drugs, terrorism and threats coming from south of the U.S. border.

In February, Kelly retired as commander of the U.S. Southern Command, an agency which oversees operations in 32 countries in the Caribbean, Central and South America. The agency has programs to train local militaries, and is deeply involved in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.

The Department of Homeland Security, created in 2002 under former President George W. Bush following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, employs about 240,000 people and has an annual budget of more than $40 billion - making it the third-largest Cabinet department.

It was also reported Wednesday that Trump plans to nominate Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt as head of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Pruitt, 48, took office in 2011 at the same time as Gov. Mary Fallin, who herself has also been mentioned for a Trump administration post. Pruitt often sparred legally with President Barack Obama.

Both Kelly and Pruitt must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

GNA
08.12.2016 LISTEN

By Godwill Arthur-Mensah, GNA

Shama (WR), Dec.8, GNA - Mr. Paul Evans Aidoo, the Western Regional Minister, has said having been infected with HIV was not the end of one's life and thus, encouraged persons living with the virus to take the right medication in order to live normal life like any other person.

He said the government's response to the HIV epidemic since its first discovery in the country in 1986, had been impressive with the national response strategy yielding great dividends.

Mr. Aidoo said this in a speech read on his behalf at the regional durbar held in the Shama District, in Shama, to mark this year's World AIDS Day, on Thursday.

According to the Regional Minister, the prevalence rate in the Region had reduced from 2.4 percent to 2.0 percent last year, saying although the figure was higher than the national prevalence rate of 1.8 percent; however, it required concerted efforts from all well-meaning Ghanaian to curb the menace.

The day is marked worldwide on December 1 every year to raise awareness of the disease, its impact on infected persons and encourage them to seek treatment as well as avoid risky lifestyles and stigmatization.

The theme for this year's campaign is: 'Hands Up for the HIV Prevention' and is aimed at breathing new life into HIV prevention efforts globally, and inspired people to rethink HIV prevention for a new generation.

The theme chosen by the local organizers was: '90-90-90: Providing Comprehensive Integrated Services for All towards an HIV-free Generation'.

Mr Aidoo indicated that the annual HIV/AIDS-related deaths had reduced by 43 percent, achieved 50 percent reduction of HIV transmission from mother-to-child, with 81 percent of women now receiving prevention of mother-to-child transmission services.

He said it has been targeted that by 2020, at least 90 percent of all persons infected with HIV would have been tested and know their status.

And those tested positive of the virus would have been put on antiretroviral treatment and achieve 90 percent viral suppression, he added.

The Regional Minister said 66 percent of infected pregnant women received treatment to prevent mother-to-child transmission.

'The national HIV and AIDS Strategic Plan (2016-2020) is a reflection of the nation's aspiration for the HIV/AIDS response over the next five years and contains strategies designed to fast-track the country's efforts to end AIDS by 2030,'he pointed out.

According to him, the document was in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in ensuring healthy lives and promoting the wellbeing for all persons at all ages.

Mr Aidoo gave the assurance that the Government was committed to funding the National Strategic Plan to ensure commodity security and adequate resourcing of the Health Ministry and health workers to enable them to render first-class services to all persons living with HIV.

Touching on the December 7 Elections, Mr. Aidoo, charged the political parties and all other interest groups to avoid any act of violence but rather comply with the rules and regulations governing the elections to avoid a 'brush with the law'.

The Regional Coordinator for the Ghana AIDS Commission, Mr. Kwame Oppong-Ntim, said this year's celebration was unique because it marked the first year when Ghana and the global community signed on the 90-90-90 targets to be attained in 2020 towards ending AIDS in 2030.

He said everyone screened for HIV would be given the opportunity to also screen for tuberculosis, hepatitis, cancers and family planning as well as ensuring that pregnancy and childbirths needs engage the attention of the Commission.

The event brought together traditional rulers, heads of department, civil society organizations and the media.

A sketch was performed by some pupils to emphasise the need to prevent risky lifestyles that would endanger them.

GNA
Accra, Dec. 08, GNA - The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has said it is worried that the Electoral Commission is delaying in the release of the results of the Presidential Polls through the National Coalition Centre.

According to the NPP, although the EC's officials had declared Parliamentary results across the nationwide, it was silent over the results of the Presidential Poll, more than 10 hours after the polls closed on Wednesday.

Addressing the media at the Party's headquarters, Mr Sammy Awuku, the National Youth Organiser of the NPP, noted that the Party's inability to receive any 'satisfactory answers from the EC' had resulted in tension and a sense of insecurity among the youth.

According to Mr Awuku, this was the longest delay in the release of results in the 16 years of the country's democratic dispensation.

'We deserve to an explanation from the EC,' he said. 'The Commission should come out with the results to allay fears and tension.'

He opined that the delay in the release of the polls could result in the 'overturn' of the outcome of the polls and urged the EC to clear all doubts associated with the situation.

Mr Awuku claimed that the NPP knew what the EC had received through its fax system and it was also aware of what some of the telecommunication companies started to collate the results but 'they were asked to stop' with the transmission.

The Youth Organiser said the Party was aware that it had won minimum 149 of the Parliamentary seats, adding that, 'no threat of machination could change that.'

He said to bring transparency in the results, his party was prepared to share its data with the public and called on Ghanaians to log on to www.newpatrioticparty.org and www.akufoaddo.org for further information on the polls results.

Mr Awuku claimed that the results of the 27,577 statement of polls at the polling station level (pink sheets) received by the Party indicated that their presidential candidate Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo had taken a Commanding lead in the Polls.

He held that while their candidate had polled 5,441,642 votes, the National Democratic Congress (NDC)'s John Dramani Mahama had obtained 4.497,000 votes.

The difference between the two presidential candidates is a clear non riggable margin and the NPP has won a landslide victory.'

Mr Awuku said however it was yet to record 1,690 pink sheets pointing out that that could not overturn the winning number of their candidate.

'We remain committed to credible polls and I urge the Electoral System to exhibit professionalism in their work,' he said.

He commended the youth, especially students, for their sacrifices to democracy. the electoral declaring their thoughts and asked them to remain calm.

GNA
Luanda (AFP) - Angola is expected to formally announce the end of President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos' controversial 37-year rule Saturday, and name a successor to lead the ailing African oil-producing country.

News of the veteran leader's impending retirement, announced on state radio on December 2, has made front page news in Angolan newspapers all week.

But the ruling Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), in power since 1975, has officially remained silent on the matter.

On Saturday, on the 60th anniversary of its founding, the party is expected to confirm that Dos Santos, 74, will not seek another term as president in the 2017 party elections.

It will also likely announce that he will be succeeded as head of the party by his current defence minister, Joao Lourenco, 62.

Angola does not directly elect a president, but rather the leader of the winning party automatically becomes head of state.

In all likelihood, the retired general Lourenco will succeed Dos Santos -- one of the longest ruling leaders in Africa -- after the party elections next August.

The departure, announced in a closed-door meeting of the MPLA's central committee last week, does not come as a complete surprise.

Dos Santos himself announced in March his intention to end his political career.

"President Dos Santos had been planning to step down in 2018," said Alex Vines, Africa program director at the British think tank Chatham House.

A billboard promotes the Angolan ruling party People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola in Luanda

"But I think a combination of Angola's economic conditions and less good health brought his plans forward."

After years of spectacular growth thanks to an oil boom, like many crude-producing nations Angola has suffered a sudden downturn in the last two years due to a prolonged drop in oil prices.

Last week, national oil company Sonangol, managed by Dos Santos' daughter Isabel, announced it would not be paying out dividends to the state this year -- a first for the country's main source of foreign currency.

'Nothing will change'

While it will be a new page in the history of Angola, the departure of the former Marxist guerrilla fighter is unlikely to shake up the running of the country.

This is to the chagrin of critics who have been denouncing Dos Santos' "dictatorship" for years.

"Nothing will change with people who, when they could have, didn't dare -- whether out of fear or self-interest -- to make a difference," said journalist William Tonnet, a critic of Dos Santos.

Expected successor Lourenco is an ex-artillery general who was trained in the former Soviet Union. He is seen as a true son of his party, as is interior minister Bornito de Sousa, who is expected to become his deputy.

"These are two apparatchiks, two pure products of the party who remain under its control," said Benjamin Auge of the French Institute of International Relations.

"The room to manoeuvre will be extremely limited. They will defend the president's record, without starting a revolution."

However, Angola-watchers notice both men do not have ties to the oil industry, a sector considered to be closely guarded by the president's family.

"Joao Lourenco is one of those rare leaders in the MPLA who hasn't dirtied his hands in this corruption business," said activist Nuno Alvaro Dala, who was recently convicted and then pardoned for an alleged coup attempt.

Some have suggested that Dos Santos's retirement was purposefully instigated by a hostile faction within the MPLA.

The announcement could be "the expression of discontent within the party, particularly over the position of the president's children," said Didier Peclard, a professor at the University of Geneva.

"If that were the case, then hypothetically it could be a way of precipitating a transition."

Award-winning journalist and writer Rafael Marques refuses to believe this, and disputes the idea of a more palatable faction within the inner circle of the MPLA.

"Angolans will move from one dictator to the next," he said. "Change is not coming tomorrow."
Ol Pejeta (Kenya) (AFP) - Separated from his mother shortly after birth, Manno the chimpanzee was smuggled to Iraq and spent his days smoking cigarettes handed to him by amused zoo visitors and posing for pictures.

The four-year-old would also be dressed as a child and fed soda and sweets -- giving him near permanent diarrhoea -- before being locked in a small cage every night in a private zoo in the Kurdish city of Dohuk.

Then came help from several conservation groups, and Manno's days as a spectacle -- and smoker -- are now over after arriving at a chimpanzee sanctuary in Kenya a week ago.

"On the trip between Dohuk and Erbil airport, the convoy carrying him was, at the closest, about 20 kilometres (12 miles) from Mosul," where fierce battles are under way between the Iraqi army and the Islamic State group, said Daniel Stiles of the Project to End Great Ape Slavery (PEGAS).

After several days travelling in a small wooden box, Manno arrived on November 30 at the chimpanzee sanctuary within the Ol Pejeta conservancy at the foot of Mount Kenya, which has been taking in endangered chimpanzees since 1993.

"Before joining the other chimpanzees, he has to remain in quarantine for a while," to ensure that Manno does not have any diseases that could be transmitted to the reserve's 36 other residents, said Stephen Ngulu, a veterinarian and the chimp sanctuary's director.

To avoid unsettling the delicate balance within the troop, and the creation of deadly rivalries, Manno will be slowly introduced to the other chimps before joining them in their one square kilometre of fenced territory.

British primatologist Jane Goodall feeds rescued chimpanzees at the Sweetwaters sactuary in Kenya

Manno, who is believed to have been born in a zoo in the Syrian capital of Damascus, has not had any contact with his own kind since at least the end of 2013 when he was illegally sold to the Dohuk zoo for $15,000 (14,000 euros).

In the meantime, Manno happily swings on ropes and plays with stuffed animals and balls in his room.

"He plays, he moves around constantly, he is very excited by what we give him," said Ngulu. "He doesn't seem to be depressed."

'Conservation failure'

Unfortunately for many of the other chimps in the sanctuary, that is not the case.

Many of them have been traumatised after experiences that make it impossible to return them to their natural habitat of tropical forests in the Congo basin and west Africa.

Poco, 36, one of the oldest males in the sanctuary, was rescued from a cage of less than one cubic meter in a garage in Burundi. Another called George was a pet in South Africa whose owners could no longer handle as the chimp grew older.

A rescued chimpanzee eats in an enclosure at the Sweetwaters sactuary, Kenya's only great-ape sanctuary

Others were seized in airports while being smuggled from one place to another.

The sanctuary "is not a natural environment, but it's a whole lot better than what those chimps experienced in the first part of their lives," said Richard Vigne, Ol Pejeta's director.

He sees the existence of the chimp sanctuary as a sign of "conservation failure" regarding the species, whose current population is estimated to be no more than 250,000. Chimpanzees are listed as in danger of extinction by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

'Objects of amusement'

The main threat to chimpanzees, whose genes are 98.8 percent similar to those of humans, is poaching and the destruction of their habitat.

"Adult chimps are killed for their meat in places like central Africa, and infant chimps are (captured) with the view to their being sold on," said Vigne.

He said that while in the past chimps were mainly captured for medical testing, they have more recently become sought after as pets in the Middle and Far East, and "objects of amusement to make cash for their owners."

"When they are young... they are very cute and people like them. Then they grow up and they -- particularly if they're male -- start to become more aggressive and difficult to handle.

"That is the time they're closed in small cages because no one knows what to do with them."

It cost $10,000 (9,300 euros) to bring Manno to his new life in Kenya.

Vigne said that helping a chimpanzee in a country at war does not mean one is insensitive to human suffering.

"Others have taken the responsibility to help these people. We do what we do, with money given for that purpose.

"There are thousands of chimps across the Middle East and the Far East in the same position as Manno, and by rescuing one chimp we draw attention to the issue."
The European Union and United States should expand targeted sanctions against those most responsible for recent violent repression and other serious human rights violations in the Democratic Republic of Congo , a coalition of 72 Congolese and 15 international human rights organizations said today.

Ten days before the December 19, 2016, deadline marking the end of President Joseph Kabilas constitutionally mandated two-term limit, he still has not made any clear commitment on when or even if he will step down. At the same time, government repression against pro-democracy activists , the political opposition , largely peaceful protesters, and the media has intensified at an alarming rate.

Imposing targeted sanctions on senior officials, especially before December 19, could help walk Congo back from the brink and deter further violent repression, said Me Georges Kapiamba, president of the Congolese Association for Access to Justice (ACAJ). Such action would show that with each passing day, the consequences for the government will be greater.

Opposition leaders and pro-democracy activists have called for Congolese to take to the streets if President Kabila stays in office beyond his mandate. Past protests suggest that they will be met by security forces quick to use excessive and lethal force. There are risks that political leaders could mobilize the dozens of armed groups active in eastern Congo for political ends, or that the countrys brittle security forces could fracture if Kabila relies on force to stay in power. This raises concerns that the country could descend into further repression or widespread violence and chaos, with potentially volatile repercussions across the region.

Earlier targeted sanctions imposed by the US on three security force officers at the forefront of violence against protesters had a notable deterrent effect and rattled those implicated, the organizations said. The US should impose targeted sanctions against more senior level officials.

In October, the EU Foreign Ministers stated that the EU would use all means at its disposal against individuals responsible for serious human rights violations, who promote violence, or who obstruct a consensual and peaceful solution to the crisis. In November, the European Parliament passed a resolution calling on the EU to urgently implement targeted sanctions. The EU is due to discuss Congo and possibly move forward with targeted sanctions during its next Foreign Affairs Council meeting on December 12.

Such targeted sanctions could include travel bans, asset freezes, and the blocking of bank accounts and financial transactions linked to the individuals.

President Kabila and Congolese officials need to be sent a strong message that violating the rights of the Congolese people is costly for those responsible, said Ida Sawyer , senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. Acting now to help prevent the situation in Congo from spiraling out of control will be critical to stability, the rule of law , and respect for fundamental human rights in Congo and throughout the region.

Signatories:

International organizations

1. Agir Ensemble pour les Droits de l'Homme (AEDH)

2. Ecumenical Network Central Africa (OENZ)

3. The Enough Project

4. European Network for Central Africa (EurAc)

5. Federation internationale de lAction des chretiens pour labolition de la torture (FIACAT)

6. Federation internationale des ligues des droits de lHomme (FIDH)

7. Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect

8. Global Witness

9. Human Rights Watch

10. Never Again Coalition

11. PAX

12. Protection International

13. Reporters sans Frontieres/Reporters Without Borders

14. Save the Congo

15. World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT)

Congolese organizations

1. Action Chretienne Contre la Torture (ACAT)  RDC

2. Action dAide aux Survivants de la Torture (AAST/Releve)

3. Action de Solidarite de Femmes pour la Femme et lEnfant (ASOFFE)

4. Action pour la Bienveillance Humanitaire (AB/ Humanitaire)

5. Action pour la Justice et le Developpement (AJD)

6. Action pour la Paix et la Protection de l'Enfant (APPE)

7. Action pour la Protection des Droits Humains et de Developpement Communautaire (APDHUD)

8. Agir pour la Reconstruction de notre Espace et pour la Convivialite (AGIREC)

9. Agir Rapidement pour la Femme (ARF)

10. Association africaine de defense des droits de lHomme (ASADHO)

11. Association Congolaise pour lAcces a la Justice (ACAJ)

12. Association de defense des Droits de la Femme (ADDF)

13. Association des Femmes Juristes Congolaises (AFEJUCO)

14. Association des Femmes pour le Developpement Communautaire (AFEMDECO)

15. Association des Femmes pour le Developpement Endogene Mboko/Fizi (AFDEM)

16. Association des Jeunes pour la Protection de lEnvironnement Fizi (AJPEF)

17. Association des Jeunes pour le Developpement Integral de Kalundu/Uvira (AJEDIK)

18. Association pour le Developpement des Initiatives Paysannes (ASSODIP)

19. Association pour le Developpement Integral du Haut Plateau de Fizi (ADIPF)

20. Association pour les Droits Humanitaires (ADH)

21. Bureau de Promotion Socioculturelle (BUPSOC)

22. Centre de Promotion Socio-Sanitaire (CEPROSSAN)

23. Centre de Reeducation pour lEnfance Delinquance et Defavorisee (CREDD)

24. Centre d'Observation des Droits de l'Homme et d'Assistance Sociale (CODHAS)

25. Centre Independant de Recherches et dEtudes Strategiques au Kivu (CIRESKI)

26. Centre International de Promotion et de Developpement et des Droits de l'Homme (CEIPEDHO)

27. Cercle international pour la Defense des Droits de lHomme, la Paix et lEnvironnement (CIDDHOPE)

28. Cercle National de Reflexion sur la Jeunesse (CNRJ RDC)

29. Comite de Coordination des Actions de Paix (CCAP)

30. Commission Internationale en Formation des Droits de lHomme (CIFDH)

31. Convention pour le Respect des Droits de lHomme (CRDH)

32. Congres pour le Renouveau Syndical (CORES)

33. Debout Fille de Fizi (DFF)

34. Femme en Danger (FED)

35. Femme et Enfant en Detresse (SOS FED)

36. Femme pour le Developpement des Mutuelles de Solidarites a Fizi (FDMUSOF)

37. Femme qui en Souleve une Autre (FESA)

38. Femmes Engagees pour la Promotion de la Sante Integrale (FEPSI)

39. Femmes Juristes pour la defense des Droits de la Femme (FJDF)

40. Fraternite des Prisons (FP)

41. Genre pour lAppui au Developpement (GAD)

42. Great Lakes Human Rights Program (GLHRP)

43. Groupe dAction Non-Violente Evangelique (GANVE)

44. Groupe dAssociations de Defense des Droits de lHomme et de Paix (GADHOP)

45. Groupe Lotus (GL)

46. Institut Africain de Formation en Droits Humains (INAFDH)

47. Juriste en Action (JURAC)

48. JUSTICIA Asbl

49. Ligue contre la Fraude et la Corruption (LICOF)

50. Ligue des Activistes des Droits de l'Homme (LADHO)

51. Ligue des electeurs (LE)

52. Ligue pour la Defense et la Vulgarisation des Droits Humains (LDVDH)

53. Mama Tupendane (MT)

54. Mama Tushirikiane (MATU)

55. Maniema Libertes (MALI)

56. Maniema Tuende Mbele (MTM)

57. Mobilisation, Encadrement Ecologie et Defense des Droits Humains par les Amis des Familles Demunies (MEEDAF)

58. uvre Chretienne pour la Femme (OCF)

59. Organisation Communautaire pour la Conservation de la Nature (OCCN)

60. Organisation de Paix pour les Opportunites et le Developpement (OPOD)

61. Organisation pour la Promotion et Protection des Droits Humains (OPPDH)

62. Pax Christ Butembo

63. Psychologues sans Frontieres (PSF)

64. Relance pour la Fille de Sion (RFS)

65. Reseau des Activistes des Droits Humains de Fizi

66. Reseau des Communicateurs Humanitaires (RCH)

67. Reseau des Parajuristes du Maniema (REPAJUMA)

68. Reseaux de Femmes pour le Developpement de Jeunes dItombwe (RFDJI)

69. Service Par, Pour et Avec les Femmes (SEPPAF)

70. Solidarite des Associations Feminines pour les Droits de Femmes et de lEnfant (SAFDF)

71. Solidarite des Hommes pour la Protection et la Promotion des Femmes (SHPF)

72. Wamama Tusimame (WATU)
09.12.2016 LISTEN

Election seasons in Ghana are fast becoming a time when there usually appears to be a sudden increase in what I call political prophecies. In general, although election seasons over the years have attracted a lot of these prophecies, their somewhat ever-increasing popularity and pompous audacity  at least over the last few general elections  seem to be deeply and firmly engraving them onto the political landscape at an unusually fast pace.

We are in an era where they have attached themselves so firmly to our general elections to the extent that it is almost inconceivable to imagine a period anytime soon that they would die out of the political scene. Considering the fact that even more Christian ministers and so-called prophets seem to be using their platforms, authority and trust to advance diverse partisan political propaganda, it is useful to understand that most of these prophecies could simply be driven by the set political agenda. This certainly raises a lot of questions about the authenticity of these prophecies on the one hand and the unconstitutional claim of right to leadership that it confers by reason of its assumed authority.

A prophecy, in its simple explanation, is a meant to be a very sacred Christian spiritual ministry which is administered by the by issuing of a word or statement supposed to convey a description of some sort of an event or series of events which are usually yet to happen. To be precise, it is identified as a confirmation of an event that has already taken place in the spiritual realm but yet to revealed in the physical.

They are, therefore, believed to be inspired by God himself through the Holy Spirit in the form of special privileged coded messages meant to reveal the very mind of God. Prophecies are thus supposed to be very scarce in their occurrence and revealed only through a chosen few  the prophets  as such they are elevated to the status of spiritual wisdom and undisputable truth. They are often authoritative, conclusive, and very precise in their manifestation. It appears, however, that upon critical analysis, most of the prophecies we are confronted with during our election seasons are simple imaginative expectations bordering on mere fantasies.

Considering the inherent authority given to prophesy by Christians, it is therefore quite understandable that some Christians and Christian Ministers see political prophecies as a very important part of nation building and governance at least by drawing inspiration from some very similar manifestations evidenced in the Christian holy text, The Holy Bible. Furthermore, it is reasonable to expect that any such prophecies must therefore be reflective of Christian ministerial practice, principles and protocol of the highest standards. Above all, it is equally within reason for the general public to anticipate that such prophecies would be in line with The Holy Bible and not just manipulated, orchestrated, or manufactured by party political desire or delusion. It appears, however, the latter seem the most plausible motivating force underwriting these prophecies.

The simple truth is that, these so-called prophecies seem to be acting as a springboard for large scale confusion and controversy thereby attracting a great deal of criticism from all angles, and rightly so. They seem to be completely departing from the fundamental Christian principles from which they claim to emanate. Moreover, they can be easily identified as lacking basic vision, conviction and authority.

More and more Christians, if anything at all, are speaking out against them rather than accepting them as a source of authoritative spiritual wisdom and truth which can be relied upon for guidance. The strange thing, however, is that, irrespective of the mountain of controversies and confusion arising from them, these political prophecies and their associated so called prophets still seem to maintain a an unusually large following. It is therefore obvious that some people still not only believe but base their actions during election seasons on these prophetic pronouncements.

It is no secret that numerous such prophecies about the 2016 General Elections, all of which predict different outcomes, are already circulating at an alarming rate, Dwelling on any specific one of these prophecies for the analysis would be of no meaningful use, nevertheless, it is worth mentioning the diversity of the outcomes predicted and the assumed authority with which these proclamations have been made. It is easy to conclude, without any mastery, that some of these prophecies would be fulfilled while other wouldnt. This, however, does not necessarily legitimise nor authenticate one prophecy over the other. It rather goes to validate the real possibility that what are being termed as prophecies may just be pure and dangerous trial and error mind games which needs to be approached with great scepticism.

Although these prophecies may not explicitly promote a baseless claim to the throne of the presidency, it is naive to think that the power of their sheer proliferation and mere existence could be ignored or classified as having no bearing on the elections. For some, these prophecies must be manifested just as pronounced as such any result that appears contrary to their comfortable prophetic domains are bound to be met with strong repudiation without any proper vetting of the results. This then becomes a real cause for concern.

It is right to expect your party to win but no one has the right to assume an automatic right to win in the general elections except when pronounced winner by the due process. Considering the fact that these so  called prophesies may take a long time to fade away from our political discourse, it supposes that we would have to carry the burden they bring with them for a long time yet.

As a nation, Ghana has come a very long way through a complex political history and have been shining through it all as a real beacon of hope by championing democratic governance  although not a perfect one  across the African continent. It should therefore be the desire of all Ghanaians to see this star of Africa shining brighter into to the future and continuing to lead the way. Anything, including political prophecies, which threatens or undermines the purity of our graciousness and sanctity of our democracy and peace, must, therefore, not be given any foot hole whatsoever.

They that have ears, let them hear what the spirit says to the churches. God bless our homeland Ghana.
Ghanaians went to the polls yesterday and it is clear that the vote was for change. The clearest evidence was the demeanor of NDC bigwigs at their press conference yesterday. I know that body language.

I know the E.C. has not called it but it must, quickly.

And when they do, President Mahama must thank Ghanaians, wish Nana Akufo-Addo well and exit the scene, as a gentleman and a Vandal. When he does, he must be lauded for his service, tolerance and humility.

And let nobody go to court and drag Ghana through what we went through last time.

Ghana needs its next government to be free to focus on our problems.

Democracy requires, not just constitutions, rules and regulations but democrats and patriots. It requires the grace to accept defeat and humility in victory.

Both sides must learn that democracy delivers victories and defeats. Those crying today, if they work hard, will be joyous in 4 or 8 years. Those celebrating now, if they forget who voted for them, will look like the NDC guys in yesterday's press conference.

May Ghana be the true winner of this election and may all of us be ambitious, not to be but to do, for Ghana.

God bless Ghana.

Arthur K
Charlotte Osei, Chairperson for the Electoral Commission

09.12.2016 LISTEN

I write on behalf of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

This letter is written pursuant to an address of the Press by Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the flagbearer of our party in the 2016 presidential election, at his residence in the evening of Thursday, 8th December, 2016.

The NPPs attention has been drawn to a press conference held at the office of the Electoral Commission by its Head of Communications, Mr. Eric Kofi Dzakpasu on Thursday, 8thDecember, 2016. At that press conference, Mr. Dzakpasu, among others, claimed that the Commission had noticed some cases of over-voting in the results of some constituencies, and that this would be examined before any announcement of results by your goodself.

We are baffled as to how this statement can be made in the light of the relevant provisions of Public Election Regulations, 2016 (C.I 94), which regulates the conduct of public elections in Ghana. In the first place, an incident of over-voting is polling station specific. Secondly, it is inexplicable when this issue of over-voting arose, and who made any such complaint relating to any polling station in the country. Suffice it to say that the results of the presidential election at all polling stations were duly announced by the presiding officers after the Statement of Poll for the office of the President, Form Eight EL 22B (commonly called the Pink Sheet) had been signed by each candidate or his representative or polling agent and the presiding officer himself.

Indeed no complaint of over-voting whatsoever has come to the attention of either our party, our flagbearer, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, or his agents.

The Electoral Commission, with the greatest respect, cannot, suo motu declare a case of over-voting unknown to the parties to the presidential contest. It is also pertinent to note that the provisions of Regulation 38 of C.I 94 strictly prescribe that a recount for any reason is always pursuant to a request by a candidate or his representative or agent at the polling station. This is to prevent the unhealthy situation of the Electoral Commission descending into the arena of conflict, and to preserve the status of the Electoral Commissioner as an impartial arbiter in the presidential election.

For the avoidance of doubt, we wish to remind the Commission that the primary source for the reckoning of the results of the presidential election is the Pink Sheets. The result of the presidential election in any constituency, as certified and endorsed by the presiding officer and the agents of the various Parties to the contest, are entered on the Pink Sheet. Upon the due entry of the figures obtained by each candidate at the polling station unto the Pink Sheet, the results are then announced to the general public at the polling station in accordance with Regulation 38 (3) of C.I 94. A copy of the Pink Sheet is then given to each candidate or his representative or polling agent, as demanded by law.

It is worthy of note that it is the aggregate of the results on the Pink Sheets that are duly entered unto the Presidential Election-Results Collation Form, Form One EL 23B, and filled at the Constituency Collation Centre by the returning officer for each constituency. At this stage, also, in accordance with the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Kwasi Nyame-Tease Eshun vrs The Electoral Commission & The Attorney-General, which made relevant amendment to C.I 94, the collation agent of each candidate is to be given a copy of the Presidential Elections-Result Collation Form (Form EL 23B). The provisional result of the presidential election in each of the 275 constituencies are by law no secret and are therefore expected to be known to each contesting candidate.

In view of your status as the returning officer for the presidential election, the signed constituency collation sheets are forwarded to you, based on which you declare the winner of presidential election after summing up the votes obtained by each candidate as set out in the Collation Forms from the 275 constituencies into which Ghana is presently divided.

It is correct to say, therefore, that having regard to the provision of both Pink Sheets and Collation Forms to the contesting candidates, a candidate in a presidential election is in the position to ascertain the state of the contest, even if provisionally, i.e the fundamental question as to who is in the lead at every material stage of the contest. The NPP, upon obtaining from its polling agents the Pink Sheets at each polling station, has with a degree of mathematical accuracy, ascertained that based on the results from twenty-eight thousand one hundred and eighty-two (28,182) (96.29%) polling stations, Candidate Nana Ado Dankwa Akufo-Addo is in an unassailable lead with 5,531,457 (53.52%) of valid votes cast, in contrast to the tally of his main opponent, John Dramani Mahama, of 4,617,208 (44.67%). This computation, with respect, is not illegal; neither does it in any way undermine, stultify or subvert your acknowledged constitutional mandate of declaring the result of the presidential election. The Pink Sheets are matters of public record since they are published at every polling station.

We have also noted your communication to the public in the late afternoon of Thursday, 8thDecember, 2016, of the reasons for the delay in declaring the results of the 2016 presidential election and the steps and procedures by which you intend to declare the final result. We have noted, in particular, your emphasis on the need for transparency and active participation of the candidates or their agents in the processes leading to the final declaration of the results of the presidential election. We expect, as all citizens of Ghana do, that you would abide unequivocally to the time-honoured commitment to transparency and inclusiveness in the due discharge of your constitutional mandate.

At that very press conference, you rightly and explicitly stated that the Electoral Commission cannot change the polling station results because they have already been declared at the polling station. It is our view that this statement reinforces the preceding argument in this letter.

Be assured, Madam Chairperson, that the people of Ghana expect nothing short of a declaration of the presidential election results which reflect the will of the people.

Yours Faithfully

Prof. Mike Oquaye

Chairman, NPP Constitutional and Legal Committee
President John Mahama has called on Ghanaians to exercise restraint and allow the Electoral Commission (EC) to carry out its mandate.

His call comes on the back of an earlier appeal by the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Charlotte Osei to Ghanaians and the various political parties invovled in this years elections to be patient and allow it effectively carry out its duties.

The President, in a tweet on Friday morning also assured Ghanaians well make Ghana proud no matter the outcome of the elections.

Lets allow EC to carry out its constitutional mandate. Well make Ghana proud no matter outcome.

 John Dramani Mahama (@JDMahama) December 9, 2016

Following a keenly contested general elections across the country on Wednesday, December 7, supporters of the various political parties especially the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) and major opposition party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) have been anxious ahead of the official declaration of results.

NPP declares Akufo-Addo winner

Ahead of the official declaration of results by the EC, the New Patriotic Party has insisted that its Presidential candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo has taken a significant lead in the race and thus will be the countrys next president.

Addressing a press conference at the party's national headquarters in Accra on Thursday [December 8], the National Youth Organiser of the NPP, Sammy Awuku, said the partys own analysis from the elections show Nana Akufo-Addo was leading with 5,441,642 votes ahead of NDCs President John Mahamas 4,497,477 votes.

From the declared results at the constituency alone, we can provisionally say we have won a clear parliamentary majority with a minimum of 149 seats. No threats of machinations can change this.



By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana
By Iddi Yire, GNA

Accra, Dec. 8, GNA - The Electoral Commission (EC) has noted with concern that the electronic transmission system it adopted for the transmission of the 2016 election results may have been compromised.

Mrs Charlotte Osei, the Chairperson of the EC, said due to this, officials of the Commission had to resort to the manual transmission of results.

She said in one coalition centre after the scores of each candidate had been entered, it was observed that there was a shift and as a result wrong score were allocated to each candidate.

"We have reason to believe the system has been compromised and we advised our returning officers at the collating centres to stop using it and revert solely to the manual process.

'So as we speak, we are still awaiting results through the manual process to come in and we are making efforts to make sure that we see that the polling station results before the final declaration,' Mrs Osei said at a press conference held to give an update on the December 7 polls.

She said as at 1700 hours on Thursday, only 90 constituencies' presidential and parliamentary results had reached the National Coalition Centre (NCC).

Mrs Osei congratulated those who had won their parliamentary seats and wished them well.

She said so far no result has arrived from the Volta and the Northern Regions.

She said the representatives of two leading parties - the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) at the NCC have refused to endorse the results sheets for her to certify; adding that this, however, does not invalidate the result.

She said there was the need for the Commission to be prudent and meticulous in the collation of the results in order to deliver a credible result.

Mrs Osei said the Commission owed it a duty to Ghanaians to declare accurate and credible results which reflect the will of the people.

'The history of our presidential elections in the fourth Republic of Ghana have been very close and because of that closeness, we have a duty to ensure that we take our time, we collate the results properly and the process of collation remains as inclusive and as transparent as the process of the elections," Mrs Osei said.

She cited instance in 2008 and 2012 where presidential results declarations went beyond 24 hours, but were finally declared by the Commission within the stipulated 72 hours.

Mrs Osei said the Commission would not change or manipulate the result; stating that 'the results have already been declared on a polling station by polling station basis".

'All we are doing is picking all those results that have been already been declared and putting it together, but in doing that, we must ensure accuracy,' she said.

She assured the public that the EC in line with its constitutional mandate would declare the presidential result within the stipulated 72 hours.

She urged Ghanaians to remain calm and allow the EC to do its work.

She described the conduct of the December 7 polls as generally peaceful, and that voting was extended by five hours due to late start on the Dwarf and Didza Islands in the Afraim Plains North.

She said Jaman North Constituency, which could not vote on December 7, due to a misunderstanding over the voters register had its turn on December 8.

GNA
NioCorp Developments Ltd. CEO Mark Smith said Friday he remains hopeful the company can start construction on its mine project in southeast Nebraska before the end of 2017.

Smith provided an update to the company's shareholders at its annual meeting in Denver.

NioCorp wants to build a mine and processing facilities to extract and process niobium, scandium and titanium -- rare metals that are used in a host of manufacturing and other industries -- on land near Elk Creek, which is about 70 miles southeast of Lincoln.

The company has estimated that such a mine would produce pre-tax cash flow of $438 million a year, employ 300 people on a permanent basis and have a lifespan of more than 30 years.

However, the cost to build and operate the mine is estimated at close to $1 billion, money that NioCorp will have to raise from lenders and investors.

Smith said the company raised $10.5 million in 2016, money that it has used to advance the project, including running pilot plant operations and putting together a feasibility study.

He said a final pilot plant test needed to complete study was set to wrap up Friday and hinted that the study would be ready for release early next year.

Once the feasibility study is released, NioCorp will be seeking financing to move forward with the project.

"It is difficult to assess how long that process will last," Smith said in a news release. "However, assuming that our effort bears early fruit, it is possible that we will be able to initiate onsite construction activities before the end of 2017. That is certainly my hope."
BoG has only $25m of $104m needed for imports but Bawumia has chased 'strategic partner' Abochi into hiding  Isaac Adongo
Cairo (AFP) - A bombing killed six policemen at a checkpoint in Cairo on Friday, the latest in a series of attacks in the capital targeting security forces and officials, state media reported.

The attack occurred in the western Talibiya neighbourhood of the capital, shortly before Muslim Friday prayers and when Cairo's streets are mostly empty, state television reported.

The bloodied bodies of several policemen could be seen at the blast site next to police vehicles that had been stationed there, an AFP photographer reported.

Police cordoned off the area with yellow tape as they searched for more explosives.

Militants have repeatedly attacked policemen and soldiers since the army overthrew Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 and unleashed a bloody crackdown on his followers.

Most of the attacks are conducted in the Sinai Peninsula by a branch of the Islamic State group, which has killed hundreds of soldiers and policemen there.

But militants have also targeted security forces and government officials in the capital.

An Egyptian judge in one of the trials of Morsi, who was detained after his ouster, escaped unharmed last month when a car bomb exploded as he drove by.

That attack came days after a roadside bombing targeting a police convoy killed a passerby.

In September, militants set off a car bomb as the country's deputy state prosecutor was passing. He too escaped unharmed.

Most of the Cairo attacks in recent months have been claimed by two little known militant groups, Lawaa al-Thawra and the Hassam Movement.

Police say they are affiliated with Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood movement, which was banned months after his overthrow and listed as a terrorist organisation.

The Brotherhood, which espoused grassroots work and change through elections, denies it is involved in violence.

The group had been the country's largest opposition movement under veteran strongman Hosni Mubarak and dominated polls after his overthrow in 2011.

In 2012, it won a presidential election with its candidate, Morsi, whose divisive rule led to mass protests a year later that prompted the army to overthrow him.

Hundreds of his supporters were killed in protest clashes with police and the army in the following months.

The Brotherhood now operates as an underground and splintered movement, with some of its followers believed to have embraced attacks against policemen while others insist on non-violence.

Friday's bombing came days after the interior ministry said police killed three members of the Hassam Movement in the country's south, and weeks after it announced breaking up one of the group's cells.
09.12.2016 LISTEN

In this report, Odimegwu Onwumere writes that a compassionate Nigerian rescued an insane young lady from the Abuja streets recently and admitted her to a hospital; while the Nigerian winks that many of the ladys ilks are abandoned to their fate in the streets

If not for Dr. Ray Ugba Morphy, a media expert from Cross River State based in Abuja, the anonymous insane lady in her middle 20s would have wandered the streets of Abuja without succour coming her way, at least soon. On November 28, 2016, by 5pm, at the ECOWAS building, Asokoro, Abuja, Morphy saw the scintillating beauty laced in ebony black, walking and talking to herself, and decided to help her.

In a disclosure to this writer, Morphy was compassionately curious to know what was the matter with the lady who was actually dirty, but not in shreds, with a look suggesting that she needed help, but was not articulated to seek for the help that was written on her face.

In the girl, I saw a soul crying for help. She could be my sister, your sister or even anyones daughter. So I approached her. She spoke well, an evidence of good breeding. But, then, after being initially friendly, she became very hostile when I began to probe her, Morphy narrated.

Morphys objective to approach the lady was borne out of his humanitarian gesture to save the downtrodden in the society. He was eager to know if he could reach out to the ladys people, but the lady had loss of memory of who her people were or where she was coming from. When Morphy prodded her further, he could not get a tangible result. All she would say is that she is from London and her name is Chika, the puzzled Morphy said.

When he could not gain the records of her, he decided to leave her alone, because it was already late. The following the day, Morphy who had great enthusiasm to save the lady, sent out his team of workers to the Asokoro to look out for the lady while he went online to surf for best psychiatric hospitals.

As my workers went in search for her in the street, I went online in search of a psychiatric hospital or unit. Luckily after physical visits to all government hospitals in Abuja, we finally found one at Karu, the bemused Morphy said, adding that it took his workers up till 4pm before they found the lady, a journey they started in the morning.

Meanwhile those searching the streets for her could only locate her at about 4pm in the evening being that she is mobile and ambulatory, the baffled Morphy said. To cut a long story short, I can now report that the lady is now safely admitted in a psychiatric hospital with me registered as her next of kin.

Morphy showed the ladys picture and was stunned that the gorgeous lady would have wasted in the street from a treatable mental health she had. She is simply suffering from treatable mental illness and no one should be abandoned the way our society seems to abandon the mentally ill. Sure, it cost me time and money, but it is worth every bit of it, the fulfilled Morphy said.

Contact with her family

Dr. Morphy did not just relax after signing as next-of-kin for the lady; he was bent on making sure that the family of the lady was located. On December 1, 2016, Morphy whispered that the ladys mother was contacted, but she lives outside Abuja and was expected to arrive Abuja as soon as possible.

It was the wide sharing of the ladys picture on the social media that enabled someone to see the picture and then reached her mother, Morphy informed. However, she will be handed over to her people only when the doctors certify her fit.

Many youths getting insane

The lady is one among millions of Nigerians, youths especially, suffering from mental illnesses that are abandoned in the streets. They go uncared for, drink and eat from dirt. Some are tagged witches and wizards and what not.

During the 2015 World Mental Health Day celebration in Rivers State, mental health specialists at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH) Neuro-psychiatric Hospital, Dr. Chidozie Chukujeku and Dr. Nkpobu Kennedy raised eyebrows at the rate with which young people were going insane.

Some professionals are worried that many of the youths are into drugs especially those of the tertiary institute. Yakubu Kibo, a senior personnel fighting against illicit trade and use of drugs said, Our records show that most of the mentally-ill persons in the state are young people who happen to be involved in abuse of illicit drugs.

Some authorities feared that some youths involve in terrorism activities like suicide bombing due to the imbalance state of their mental. 75% of suicides occur in low and middle-income countries. Mental disorders and harmful use of alcohol contribute to many suicides around the world, said a source.

Beliefs associated to mental health

Medical specialists are perplexed about the misunderstandings and stigmas attached to mental ill health in the country. Despite the existence of effective treatments for mental disorders, there is a belief that they are untreatable or that people with mental disorders are difficult, not intelligent, or incapable of making decisions, said a source.

The source added, This stigma can lead to abuse, rejection and isolation and exclude people from healthcare or support. Within the health system, people are too often treated in institutions which resemble human warehouses rather than places of healing.

In 2015, Medical Director of the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital (FNH), Yaba, Lagos, Rahman Lawal showed apprehension that 21 million Nigerians suffered from mental illnesses, among whom were youths. Prof. Oye Guruje, a psychiatrist with University of Ibadan, in a public presentation said that insanity outweighs the HIV/AIDs encumbrance.

Mental illness is one of the major contributors to disease burden globally. It is the sixth largest burden worldwide and this is much more burdensome than HIV. In Nigeria, one out of seven persons will have serious mental illnesses, while one in four persons will have some form of mental disorder. And this is a conservative estimate, Guruje said.

Factors contributing to insanity

Checks, however, revealed that while some of the youths are taken to the hospitals, the medical experts are paid peanuts for their services by the government. They do not even receive the peanuts for months.

Evidence is that many of the youths do not take such drugs like codeine, tramadol, cocaine, hashish and others before they go berserk, but work pressure. This was found in a research conducted by connoisseurs.

The majority of 18-year-olds we spoke to were endeavouring to find jobs and committed to the idea of work, although they are perhaps hampered by a lack of skills that would serve them well in the job market.

Compared to their peers, NEET young people are also contending with substantial mental health problems, including depression, anxiety, substance abuse and aggression control, said Professor Terrie Moffitt, co-author of the study from the IoPPN at Kings College London.

Out of the conundrum

There was a decision by psychiatric nurses in the country begging the National Assembly to pass Mental Health Bill. The Association of Psychiatric Nurses of Nigeria, Neuropsychiatric Hospital unit, Aro in Abeokuta, on October 10, 2016, said this through a mental health activist and consultant psychiatrist, Dr. Oluseun Ogunnubi at a seminar organised by the association to memorialise the 2016 World Mental Health Day in Abeokuta.

Dr. Oyewole Adeoye, the National Coordinator of Mental Health Awareness Foundation of Nigeria, thought that mental health policies should help to arrest the challenging situation. There is an increased incidence of mental illnesses in Nigeria and the society is yet to take full control of the fact. Mental disorder is associated with societal vices, socio-economic pressures, emotional problems and political injustice like terrorism, said Adeoye.

Odimegwu Onwumere is an award-winning journalist based in Rivers State. Tel: +2348032552855. E-mail: [email protected]
THE CIVIC Forum Initiative (CFI) and the Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG) have expressed dissatisfaction with the Electoral Commission's (EC's) decision to halt the publication of all collated results of the Wednesday elections over allegation of over-voting.

According to the two civil society organizations which jointly addressed the media yesterday in Accra, This decision is creating undue tension among the populace.

Maj. General Nii Carl Coleman (rtd), Chairman of CFI, delivering a joint statement by IDEG and CFI, said, The delayed publication of the results has created a vacuum which is being filled by announcements of collated results by political parties and media houses.

This is creating massive confusion and intensifying suspicions and public anxiety.

There is widespread agitations across the country, especially by supporters of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) which leader, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, is believed to have won the presidential election.

No Over-voting

The decision to halt the publication of the collated results had reportedly stemmed from allegation made by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) that there had been instances of over-voting in the stronghold of the New Patriotic Party (NPP)  the Ashanti Region.

IDEG-CFI deployed a total of 1,200 observers across the country to monitor the voting process to ensure that it's free, fair and credible.

Asked whether feedbacks from IDEG-CFI's 1,200 observers pointed to the direction of the claim by the EC and the NDC, Maj. Coleman said emphatically that Reports sent to us never indicated any over-voting in any of the constituencies.

According to Maj. Coleman, Any further delay by the EC to speed up the publication of collated results will aggravate the confusion and anxiety in the public.

This could potentially undermine the integrity of the EC's own results it has so far certified.

Provisional results declared as at press time yesterday put the NPP in a commanding lead annexing about 172 out of the 275 parliamentary seats nationwide.

President Mahama's votes appeared to have reduced significant in 2016 as compared to 2012, with reports saying he had lost over 300,000 votes nationwide.

The NPP leader, Nana Addo, on the other hand, is reportedly making comfortable gains and tipped to win the polls.

BY Melvin Tarlue
Twenty-four hours after voting in this year's presidential and parliamentary elections had ended, the Electoral Commission (EC) had not officially declared results from any of the 275 constituencies, raising anxiety among Ghanaians.

Following this, the flag bearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo  who was taking a commanding lead in the presidential race  has called on Ghanaians, especially supporters of his party, to exercise restraint.

Nana Akufo-Addo called for calm while urging them to give the Electoral Commission more time to collate the results of the presidential election before making any declaration.

I want to appeal through you members of the media to the Ghanaian public and to members of my party that this is a time we have to remain very calm and focused. The eyes of the world are on us and it is important that we behave as Ghanaians, as people who understand their own self worth and their dignity, the astute politician addressed journalists at his Nima residence where many party supporters had gathered yesterday.

Nana Addo said although it was going to be an anxious time, I think all of us are duty bound to support her and give her the time so that we have a pronouncement that is devoid of controversy and of difficulty.

He said the NPP was quite confident of winning the election, because according to him, by the tallying, the NPP had won 49 extra seats in parliament and stressed the belief that he had also won the main contest, the presidential election.

Nana Akufo-Addo gave the assurance that when officially declared winner of the presidential election, the NPP was going to bring about change that is going to see things put in place to lift the Ghanaian economy upwards, create jobs and begin to bring prosperity to our people.

He underscored, That is our main task and it is a task we are going to take with 100 per cent seriousness; there is an excellent team waiting to assume control of Ghana to work tirelessly to bring about prosperity and progress to our country.

For that to happen, he called for the support of every Ghanaian, no matter one's political persuasion, where one comes from in order to move the Ghanaian project forward.

Congratulation Messages

The NPP flagbearer, who was with his running mate, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, also used the occasion to express gratitude to some of his contenders who had sent him congratulatory messages ahead of the EC's declaration of results.

I take the opportunity to thank majority of my competitors who had sent warm words of congratulations to me. I appreciate it very much  words from Ivor Greenstreet, Nana Konadu Agyemang-Rawlings, Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom, Edward Mahama and also from Jacob Osei Yeboah. I thank them for their service to our country, he said, believing all of them are going to be part of what we are going to do to bring progress and prosperity to our country.

Nana Addo thanked members of his party, especially Dr. Bawumia and his family who had stood behind him throughout the campaign period, for their commitment.

Nana reiterated his earlier call for calm in his concluding statement, charging, Thank you very much; stay calm and let's wait for the formal announcement of what we have done together and begin to move Ghana forward.

That was moments after Chairperson of the EC, Charlotte Osei, had addressed a similar press conference at the EC headquarters during which she asked Ghanaians to give the EC time to collate results of the elections in order for the commission to declare accurate and credible results.

The EC boss claimed that it was unable to declare results for the keenly contested presidential and parliamentary elections because of complaints of over-voting at some unnamed constituency collation centres.

As at now, we have received 25 constituency collated results at the National Collation Centre. However, the two major parties represented here at the NCC have declined to sign on the collated results until they have seen the pink sheets and confirmed the accuracy of the results collated. As a result, the commission has not been able to certify any of the 25 constituency results, Ms Charlotte Osei explained.

Kufuor

Former President John Agyekum Kufuor also called for calm as tension had apparently built over the delay in the release of the election results.

Mr Kufuor told journalists at his residence yesterday that he trusts the EC to be fair in managing the entire election process.

By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri
There is simmering tension in the country as the Electoral Commission (EC) continues to hold on to the results of last Wednesday's keenly-contested presidential election.

The EC says it's delaying because its attention had been drawn to what it called several possible instances of over-voting which occurred during the crucial election.

The EC said it would conduct thorough verification process before the final declaration.

As the Charlotte Osei-led commission continues to keep the whole nation in suspense, the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) has said its parallel tally of 27,577 out of 28,992 (representing 94.23%) of the polling stations results had put its candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, in a commanding lead of 53.79% over President John Mahama's 44.42%.

Verification Process

The EC, through its Communications Director Eric Kofi Dzakpasu, had said the commission is committed to releasing the results within the 72-hour mandatory timeline but insisted the verification process would have to be completed.

Unprecedented Act

However, the NPP held a news conference in Accra yesterday describing the EC's delay as unprecedented and called on the commission to release the results without any further delay.

The party's National Youth Organiser, Sammy Awuku, who addressed a news conference in a highly charged atmosphere at the party's headquarters at Asylum Down, Accra yesterday, said, In the growth of our democratic dispensation, this has been the first time in 16 years that election results have unduly delayed in this manner.

Rising Suspicion

It raises suspicion; it creates unnecessary tension across the country; it creates unnecessary discomfort among the youth of Ghana in which we are trying to even help restrain them. This suspicion gives people the cause to suggest that the commission may be attempting to overturn the clearly expressed mandate of the majority of the Ghanaian people and the youth of Ghana through the ballot box.

This is unfortunate and we are calling on the Electoral Commission to clear all doubts by simply getting on with it. We know what they have received through their fax machines and it corresponds with what the NPP has received. What they gave to us at the polling station is what was also faxed to them so nobody can turn 6 into 9 and can turn our dancing into mourning again, Sammy Awuku charged.

Parallel Tally

He said their parallel tally was translating into some 5,441,642 votes for Nana Akufo-Addo and 4,497,477 for President Mahama, which is a clear difference of 944,165 saying, This is what we call clear non-rigable margin, no numerical gymnastics that will be employed by a South African IT expert or Israeli IT expert can undo the sovereign mandate that the Ghanaian people want to entrust to the care of the NPP.

According to Mr. Awuku, With only 1,690 pink sheets yet to be recorded from our centre, mostly from marginal polling stations, that's even if all the votes there are awarded to the incumbent NDC candidate, the provisional result will not be overturned.

We hasten to stress that any attempt to delay the inevitable will needlessly disturb what has been by and large a peaceful and democratic exercise of the will of the people.

Landslide Victory

The NPP is chalking unprecedented success in the history of Ghana's election and has been projected to win about 170 out of 275 seats in parliament.

Per our provisional results, it is absolutely clear that the NPP has won a landslide victory, this is apparent from the parliamentary results so far announced. We have at least gained an additional new seats across the country: Greater Accra: 20 seats, gained 6; Western Region: 18, gained 10; Central Region: 18, gained 11; Eastern Region: 28, gained 1; Ashanti Region: 44, gained 1; BA: 20, gained 7; Northern Region: 14, gained 4; Upper East Region: 3 seats, gained 2; Upper West Region: 5 seats, 5 gained, Mr Awuku stressed.

EC's Tactics

EC's suggestion to review all results from the collation centres and verify them against the physical pink sheets from the polling stations appears to be creating tension.

It had said, The verification process is now in several stages before results will be certified, and mentioned some of them as receipt of manual faxes from the collation centres and comparison of faxed summary results with the Electronic Results Transfer data.

Solidarity Messages

Already, all the contestants, apart from the NDC's President Mahama, have taken turns to congratulate Nana Akufo-Addo as president-elect.

The NPP candidate took to social media platform Twitter  to acknowledge receipt of the congratulatory messages, saying, Ive received words of congratulation from Mr Greenstreet, Mrs Rawlings, Dr Nduom, Dr Mahama & Mr Yeboah. I thank them. May God bless Ghana.

By William Yaw Owusu


Ethiopian Airlines, which is the fastest growing airline in Africa, has won the Airline of the Year Award for the fifth year in a row.

The award by the African Airlines Association (AFRAA) during its 48th Annual General Assembly held in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe recognizes excellence in service delivery, innovation and competitiveness in Africa's aviation industry.

Tewolde GebreMariam, Ethiopian Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO), in his remarks said, We are highly honoured for this recognition by fellow sisterly airlines in Africa for the fifth consecutive year.

He said the award underscores the continuous efforts and hard work of Ethiopian employees who are striving day and night to surpass customers' expectations.

Mr. GebreMariam also expressed appreciation to its loyal customers for giving the airline the opportunity to serve them and their continued feedback and support which in turn assisted us to enhance the airlines service excellence.

Although Africa is registering rapid economic and travel growth, this growth is primarily benefiting non-African carriers, he said.

Mr. GebreMariam reminded fellow African Airlines that African aviation holds very strong prospects with vigorous fundamentals for aviation to thrive.

We, Africans, look inwards in the continent to leverage on the available internal resources to create synergy through collaborative partnerships in the areas of training, technical and management support.

Flights To Victoria Falls

Meanwhile, Ethiopian Airlines will start four weekly flights to Victoria Falls, site of the most spectacular waterfalls in the world from March 26, 2017, with the latest B737-800 New Generation with Sky Interior.

Victoria Falls, one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the world, is the only waterfall in the world with length of more than a kilometer and height of more than hundred meters.

Mr. GebreMariam said, It's a continuation of our efforts to achieve the goal of connecting Africa to the world by adding multiple points in Africa and serving air connectivity needs of the continent.

Tourists and vacationers from major cities in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa will enjoy hassle-free connections to Victoria Falls via our strategic hub at Addis Ababa.

A Business Desk report


09.12.2016 LISTEN

The Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) has condemned attempts by political parties to declare results of the presidential election prior to the official announcement by the Electoral Commission (EC).

The group appealed to Ghanaians to remain calm and patiently wait for the EC to officially declare the results.

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) and National Democratic Party (NDC) both declared that they had won the 2016 presidential election recently.

The declaration by the two parties led to spontaneous jubilation by supporters of both the NDC and NPP, who took to the streets.

Making the appeal at a press conference at the Kofi Annan International Peace Keeping Centre (KAIPTC), CODEO urged all political parties and citizens to be law-abiding and allow the EC to discharge its duties.

CODEO can confidently confirm that the arrangement put in place by the EC for setup and opening of polls were adequate for most polling stations and that the polling and counting process were generally credible, said Justice Crabbe, Co-chair of CODEO.

He indicated that the group would continue to observe the process especially at Jaman North Constituency, 275 constituency collation centers, as well as the National Results Collation Center.

Prof Miranda Greenstreet, Co-chair of CODEO, on her part, indicated that CODEO, which has completed its Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT), has its estimates for the presidential election.

She noted that in keeping with their protocols, CODEO would release its PVT estimates for the presidential election results following the official announcement by the EC in order to provide independent verification.

CODEO's PVT serves as a powerful deterrent to help ensure that the results announced by the EC reflect the ballots cast at polling stations, Prof. Greenstreet said.

By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri


The New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentary candidates for Okaikoi South, North and Central Constituencies in Accra are going back to parliament after securing another four-year term each in this year's polls.

Patrick Boamoah, the party's parliamentary candidate for Okaikoi Central, polled 28,505 of total votes cast to edge out his closest contender, Abdul Rashid Issah of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), who had 17,630 votes.

Two other parliamentary hopefuls  Michael Miraku Sasu of the Progressive People's Party (PPP) and Sophia T. Annan, Convention People's Party (CPP), managed 246 and 94 votes respectively.

For the presidential election, Ivor Greenstret of the CPP had 73; Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, National Democratic Congress (NDP), 20; John Mahama, National Democratic Congress (NDC), 19,353; Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom, Progressive People's Party (PPP), (478); Nana Akufo-Addo, (NPP) 26,603; Dr. Edward Mahama, People's National Convention (PNC) 14 and Jacob Osei Yeboah, (independent) 9; and 206 ballots were rejected.

In the Okaikoi South Constituency, the incumbent NPP Member of Parliament (MP), Ahmed Arthur, garnered 36,000 of the total votes cast to secure another 4-year term in parliament, beating NDC's Alexander Akuako.

Mr. Boamah, speaking to newsmen, said his victory is an opportunity to serve his constituents and was grateful to God for a successful collation of the results.

He said he's optimistic that Nana Addo would finally be declared the president-elect of the country.

Earlier, confusion rocked the collation process when the NPP representative at the Ghana Telecom University collation centre raised an alarm over the disappearance of 140 ballots which were in favour of Nana Addo.

The party had identified what it termed thievery when it was handed a final copy of the print-out of the presidential results to cross-check before they were transferred to the Electoral Commission (EC).

This gave rise to minutes of heated argument between the EC officials and the IT officials and the NPP representatives compelled them to call for police officers to be deployed to the scene.

The NPP parliamentary candidate for Okaikoi North, Fuseini Issah, retained the seat for the party.

He polled 28,083, as against his closest contender, NDC's Abdul Razak Issah, who had 23, 617.

Fuseini Issah is replacing Elizabeth Sackey who decided not to seek re-election during the NPP's primary.

Ahmed Arthur is the incumbent MP for Okaikoi South.

[email protected]

By Jeffrey De-Graft Johnson


THE NEW Patriotic Party (NPP) has won all but a handful of the parliamentary seats in the Ashanti Region, including seats in 'orphan' constituencies.

The party recaptured the Ahafo-Ano North seat which was annexed by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in 2012, and took over the New Edubiase Constituency seat with 18,477 votes, representing 55.98 percent of the valid votes cast.

Richard Akuoko Adiyiah won the seat with 18,895 votes for the NPP, whiles the incumbent Member of Parliament, Akwasi Adusei of the NDC, trailed with 14,479 votes.

The party however, lost the Ejura-Sekyedumase seat to the NDC's Bawa Braimah who garnered 23,277 votes.

The NDC also retained the Asawase and Sekyere Afram Plains seats that are occupied by Muntaka Mubarak Mohammed and Alex Adomako Mensah respectively.

Many of the seats in the region had been targeted by the NDC during the electioneering campaign, with President John Dramani Mahama declaring that the party would sweep 13 seats to increase its strength in parliament.

But as it stands now, it appears the declaration was whimsical without any basis, in view of the clean sweep by the NPP.

So far, the NPP has taken 44 of the 47 seats, and also made inroads in other 'orphan' constituencies across the country, per official Electoral Commission (EC) results.

Abraham Dwuma Odoom, former Deputy Minister of Health in the erstwhile Kufuor NPP administration, won the Twifo/Atti-Morkwaa seat in the Central Region.

The 63-year-old accountant snatched the seat from the NDC's Ato Amoah, who is the incumbent MP for the area, after a vigorous campaign hinged on job creation, road infrastructure and political inclusiveness.

He won 21,231 votes as against 14,887 votes secured by Ato Amoah of the NDC, whilst the majority of the presidential votes  19,274  also went to Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

Meanwhile, the NPP MP, K T Hammond, has retained the Adansi Asokwa seat after securing 16,468 of the valid votes against 12,389 bagged by his closet contender, Evans Amankwa of the NDC.

The NDC had declared it as one of the targeted seats the party was keen to wrestle from the NPP, but that did not happen as wished.

From Ernest Kofi Adu, Kumasi
The people of La Dadekotopon Constituency after several hours of vote counting at the collation centers have chosen Vincent Sowah Odotei of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) as the new Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency.

Mr. Odotei pulled 40,126 votes out of a total of 79,678 votes to unseat the incumbent MP Nii Amasah Namoale, of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) who had 38,504 votes.

Cynthia Mensah of the Convention People's Party (CPP) had 697 votes and came in third.

However, the constituency failed to follow the trend of the parliamentary results thereby voting for NDC in the presidential election. John Dramani Mahama pulled 42,025 votes to secure his lead while Nana Addo Dankwa Addo of the NPP had 37,119 votes.

Ivor Greenstreet of the Conventions People Party (CPP) had 98 votes, Nana Kunadu Agyemang Rawlings of the National Democratic Party, (NDP) had 34, Papa Kwesi Ndoum of the Progressive People's Party (PPP) had 595, Edward Mahama of the People's National Congress (PNC) had 18 and Jacob Osei Yeboah had 15 votes.

Mr. Odotei addressing the media after the EC returning officer, Hackman-Kumi Attuah announced his victory at 12:30pm yesterday was excited at the victory expressing his appreciation to all who came out to vote for the NPP.

He also thanked his family and the youth especially for supporting him throughout the campaign and coalition of votes.

He said the future of the nation lies in the youth thus he was going to work with the youth to continue the development of the La Dadekotopon Constituency in the next four years.

Mr. Abraham Oko Kotey, Director of election for the NDC in the constituency conceding defeat said the lost came as a surprise to the Party.

'We did what we were supposed to do as a constituency but the electorate decided otherwise so we will go and prepare well for next four years, he said.

Mr. Kotey said the Party takes consolidation in retaining the NDC, as a party, in the constituency.

By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri




THE ECOWAS Observation Mission to Ghana has urged all political parties that contested this year's presidential and parliamentary elections to accept the outcome of the polls in good faith.

The Mission being led by Amos Sawyer, former interim president of Liberia, made the call in its preliminary report on the conduct of the elections held on Wednesday, December 7.

The ECOWAS Observation Mission commends the professionalism of the Electoral Commission (EC) and urges all stakeholders, in particular, the political parties and candidates, to put Ghana first by maintaining the peace, it said.

The Mission therefore calls on all candidates and parties to abide by the Accra Declaration which they all willingly adhered to and, in particular, to refrain from making any statements on the results prior to formal declaration by the Electoral Commission, which is the body statutorily empowered to do so, it added.

Presidential candidate of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) has been given a comfortable lead over incumbent President Mahama in the provisional results from about 95 constituencies as at press time yesterday.

According to the Mission, After preliminary assessment of the information forwarded to the Situation Room by observers deployed in the field and after a debriefing session with the observers upon their return from the field, the Mission noted that the voting process was conducted professionally by the polling officials, who demonstrated adequate knowledge of their roles, and in the presence of party agents, in particular those of NPP and NDC.

In addition to the provisions made by the EC, voters with special needs were assisted to cast their vote; it said.

Recommendations

The ECOWAS Observer Mission encourages the Electoral Commission to review the distribution of electorate materials among the polling centres to minimize the existing disparity in numbers assigned to polling stations across the country, the statement said.

The ECOWAS Mission urges the in-coming administration and Parliament to consider the adoption of affirmative action to enhance the capacity of women particularly their participation in elected positions.

BY Melvin Tarlue


The Chairperson

Electoral Commission

Accra

Dear Madam,

I write on behalf of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

This letter is written pursuant to an address of the Press by Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the flagbearer of our party in the 2016 presidential election, at his residence in the evening of Thursday, 8th December, 2016.

The NPPs attention has been drawn to a press conference held at the office of the Electoral Commission by its Head of Communications, Mr. Eric Kofi Dzakpasu on Thursday, 8thDecember, 2016. At that press conference, Mr. Dzakpasu, among others, claimed that the Commission had noticed some cases of over-voting in the results of some constituencies, and that this would be examined before any announcement of results by your goodself.

We are baffled as to how this statement can be made in the light of the relevant provisions of Public Election Regulations, 2016 (C.I 94), which regulates the conduct of public elections in Ghana. In the first place, an incident of over-voting is polling station specific. Secondly, it is inexplicable when this issue of over-voting arose, and who made any such complaint relating to any polling station in the country. Suffice it to say that the results of the presidential election at all polling stations were duly announced by the presiding officers after the Statement of Poll for the office of the President, Form Eight EL 22B (commonly called the Pink Sheet) had been signed by each candidate or his representative or polling agent and the presiding officer himself.

Indeed no complaint of over-voting whatsoever has come to the attention of either our party, our flagbearer, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, or his agents.

The Electoral Commission, with the greatest respect, cannot, suo motu declare a case of over-voting unknown to the parties to the presidential contest. It is also pertinent to note that the provisions of Regulation 38 of C.I 94 strictly prescribe that a recount for any reason is always pursuant to a request by a candidate or his representative or agent at the polling station. This is to prevent the unhealthy situation of the Electoral Commission descending into the arena of conflict, and to preserve the status of the Electoral Commissioner as an impartial arbiter in the presidential election.

For the avoidance of doubt, we wish to remind the Commission that the primary source for the reckoning of the results of the presidential election is the Pink Sheets. The result of the presidential election in any constituency, as certified and endorsed by the presiding officer and the agents of the various Parties to the contest, are entered on the Pink Sheet. Upon the due entry of the figures obtained by each candidate at the polling station unto the Pink Sheet, the results are then announced to the general public at the polling station in accordance with Regulation 38 (3) of C.I 94. A copy of the Pink Sheet is then given to each candidate or his representative or polling agent, as demanded by law.

It is worthy of note that it is the aggregate of the results on the Pink Sheets that are duly entered unto the Presidential Election-Results Collation Form, Form One EL 23B, and filled at the Constituency Collation Centre by the returning officer for each constituency. At this stage, also, in accordance with the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Kwasi Nyame-Tease Eshun vrs The Electoral Commission & The Attorney-General, which made relevant amendment to C.I 94, the collation agent of each candidate is to be given a copy of the Presidential Elections-Result Collation Form (Form EL 23B). The provisional result of the presidential election in each of the 275 constituencies are by law no secret and are therefore expected to be known to each contesting candidate.

In view of your status as the returning officer for the presidential election, the signed constituency collation sheets are forwarded to you, based on which you declare the winner of presidential election after summing up the votes obtained by each candidate as set out in the Collation Forms from the 275 constituencies into which Ghana is presently divided.

It is correct to say, therefore, that having regard to the provision of both Pink Sheets and Collation Forms to the contesting candidates, a candidate in a presidential election is in the position to ascertain the state of the contest, even if provisionally, i.e the fundamental question as to who is in the lead at every material stage of the contest. The NPP, upon obtaining from its polling agents the Pink Sheets at each polling station, has with a degree of mathematical accuracy, ascertained that based on the results from twenty-eight thousand one hundred and eighty-two (28,182) (96.29%) polling stations, Candidate Nana Ado Dankwa Akufo-Addo is in an unassailable lead with 5,531,457 (53.52%) of valid votes cast, in contrast to the tally of his main opponent, John Dramani Mahama, of 4,617,208 (44.67%). This computation, with respect, is not illegal; neither does it in any way undermine, stultify or subvert your acknowledged constitutional mandate of declaring the result of the presidential election. The Pink Sheets are matters of public record since they are published at every polling station.

We have also noted your communication to the public in the late afternoon of Thursday, 8thDecember, 2016, of the reasons for the delay in declaring the results of the 2016 presidential election and the steps and procedures by which you intend to declare the final result. We have noted, in particular, your emphasis on the need for transparency and active participation of the candidates or their agents in the processes leading to the final declaration of the results of the presidential election. We expect, as all citizens of Ghana do, that you would abide unequivocally to the time-honoured commitment to transparency and inclusiveness in the due discharge of your constitutional mandate.

At that very press conference, you rightly and explicitly stated that the Electoral Commission cannot change the polling station results because they have already been declared at the polling station. It is our view that this statement reinforces the preceding argument in this letter.

Be assured, Madam Chairperson, that the people of Ghana expect nothing short of a declaration of the presidential election results which reflect the will of the people.

Yours Faithfully

Prof. Mike Oquaye

Chairman, NPP Constitutional and Legal Committee
New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentary candidate for Awutu Senya West, George Andah has defeated the incumbent Member of Parliament (MP) Hanna Tetteh, who contested the seat on the ticket of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC).

Mr. Andah garnered a total of 28,867 votes, representing 52.24 percent while Madam Tetteh, who doubles as Minister of the Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, polled 25,664 votes, representing 46.45 percent.

His victory is seen as a major blow for the ruling NDC whose presidential candidate, John Mahama also trails the flagbearer of the opposition New Patriotic Party, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in the presidential race.

The third parliamentary candidate, Alan Barnes Yawson of the Convention People's Party (CPP), also polled 228 votes.

Oppey Abbey won the seat for the NPP for a term in 2004.

The NPP flagbearer won the presidential election in the Awutu West Constituency with 28,874 votes while incumbent President Mahama had 24,845 votes.

President Mahama won the constituency in the 2012 elections with 23,509 votes, representing 50.96 percent while the NPP flag bearer garnered 21,566 votes, representing 46.75 percent.

This is the second time Ms. Tetteh is exiting Parliament.

During the campaign period, George Andah accused Madam Tetteh of failing to improve the living conditions of residents in the constituency.

The constituents also accused the incumbent MP, one of the most trusted appointees of President Mahama, of embarking on several overseas trips as part of her ministerial duties.

By Melvin Tarlue


The Central Regional Branch of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has been able to capture 19 out of the 23 seats in the region.

The party which had seven seats in the region was able to increase the seats through hard work on the December 7, presidential and parliamentary elections.

The 19 constituencies were Cape Coast North, Abura-Asebu-Kwamankese (AAK) Assin North, Assin South, Assin Central, Upper Denkyira East and West, Agona West, Gomoa Central and Gomoa West, Awutu Senya East and West, Ekumfi, Atti Morkwa, Hemang-Lower-Denkyira, Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa (AOB) Effutu and Gomoa East.

Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, the regional chairman of the party, Mr Robert Kutin stated that as revealed last night by the NPP general secretary and campaign chairman for the past two years, the party has worked hard to develop tested and efficient pink-sheet collection and collation machinery.

Mr Kutin said since the close of voting yesterday, the polling agents had been sending results of each polling station pink sheet to the collation centers both electronically and manually and the result demonstrated that the NPP presidential candidate has the ever-increasing probability of being declared the winner of the presidency for the strong majority in Parliament by the Electoral Commission.

In the region as at 7 am about 80% of pink sheets had been collected and the result showed that the party was on track to secure 19 seats he said.

He indicated that the seat would help in the implementation of the party's policy to bring prosperity and equal opportunity to all Ghanaians and therefore asked for the support of all and urged them to be vigilant until the very last vote is counted.

Three regional chairmen of the party assured the people of transparency and credibility during the election to bring about the expected change.

Email:[email protected]

From Sarah Afful, Cape Coast
President John Mahama has appealed to supporters of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) to desist from acts that might affect the stability of the country.

He said the Electoral Commission (EC) should be given the opportunity to collate and declare the winner of the presidential election as constitutionally mandated.

Addressing scores of NDC supporters who massed up at his Cantonment residence following rife rumours of New Patriotic Party (NPP) victory Friday, the President said he will respect the outcome of the election being it good or bad.

Let us respect the Constitution. The EC is doing its work, he said.

-Myjoyonline
DEALERS IN paraphernalia of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) are making brisk business in Kumasi.

This follows wide reports that the NPP had won the presidential and parliamentary elections.

People in the city, especially NPP supporters, were seen very anxious to get the party's colours.

Some of the NPP supporters were even seen in long queues trying to get the paraphernalia to buy.

Reports indicated that the price of the NPP paraphernalia had suddenly been increased by about 100 percent.

However, the sudden increase in the price had not deterred enthusiastic supporters from buying the items.

Dealers of the NPP paraphernalia especially at Adum, the city center, were seen making good money on Thursday. The partys headgear, bracelets, chains and caps were being patronised by happy-looking party supporters.

DAILY GUIDE gathered that NPP supporters in other areas of Kumasi, were also rushing for the paraphernalia.

Other party loyalists were also seen dressed in the NPP party colours singing in jubilant mood.
Mr Samuel Atta Akyea, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member Of Parliament for Abuakwa South in the Eastern Region has debunked rumours being circulated by the NDC that he has imported guns into the constituency to cause mayhem on voting day.

The astute politician in a press statement issued and signed on his behalf by the Constituency Communication officer, Julius Okyere noted that, his hands are clean and that he doesnt have anything of the sort in mind claiming it was the NDC who were spewing such lies about him.

The NPP branch of the Abuakwa South Constituency also noticed with dismay the vile propaganda making the rounds that Mr Samuel Atta Akyea's vehicle had deliberately ran into masses of NDC supporters during a campaign rally at Akyem Asafo.

But according to the MP, he was on his usual constituency tour going through Asafo to Tafo and on reaching Asafo the accompanying vehicle which was carrying some NPP members stopped for some of the people to alight having driven past a crowd at a rally ground. In the process, the driver moved the vehicle without noticing that some of them had still not gotten down from the cabin. One of them by name Yaw Asiedu fell from the cabin as result and sustained some bruises.

All these drama was witnessed by onlookers at the scene some of whom happen to be family members of these victims. However, out of benevolence and utmost care, the victim had to be treated and discharged at my expense so it is not true that my vehicle intentionally ran into any crowd purported to be NDC supporters, Mr Akyea stated.

Another wild allegation had it that the Kyebi Abontendomhene Osabarima Kyeretwie Boakye Dankwa has spearheaded the destruction of NDC banners and other paraphernalia in the Kyebi community.

According to the party, these shameful acts were being perpetrated by Joyce Bawah Mogtari and her NDC propagandists would want to create fear and panic. I wish to state that none of these allegations leveled against these honourable personalities by these devious beings were true.

The Legislator, however, entreated every right thinking Ghanaian to treat the issues with the contempt they deserve and rather call on the National Peace Council as well as the House of Chiefs to duly call Joyce Bawah Mogtari and the NDC to order since no amount of these vile propaganda would fetch them votes and prevent them from losing in the upcoming elections.

FROM Daniel Bampoe, Kyebi
09.12.2016 LISTEN

Special Attention Project (SAP), a Ghanaian NGO committed to improving the lives of children with learning difficulties will launch a crowdfunding campaign on Tuesday, 13th December, 2016.

Dubbed Road to Education, the campaign aims at raising funds to help SAP reach out to a number of out-of-school-children with learning difficulties in the streets to have access to education.

Annually, SAP through its Childrens Support Programme, provides practical support to about 120 out-of-school-children with learning difficulties in the streets of Accra.

The target for the fundraising campaign is GH50,000.00 within a three-month period from December 2016 to March, 2017.

To support the initiative, donors can contribute through SAPs MTN Mobile Money on 054-4700505 or bank account number: 0130084468290801, Special Attention Project, Ecobank Darkuman Branch, Accra.

Speaking on the campaign, Mr. Richard Opoku, Programmes Manager of SAP estimated that thousands of children in Ghana risked failing to reach an appropriate level of educational and professional attainment due to learning difficulties. Children with learning difficulties have normal or even higher level of intelligence, and might perform well in one academic field, example, mathematics, but might have a difficulty in reading or spelling.

He said the abuse and discrimination faced by children with learning difficulties often forced many to drop out of school and migrate to the streets, becoming vulnerable to trafficking, violence, prostitution, drug abuse, gambling and stealing.

Mr. Opoku said despite their conditions, children with learning difficulties could learn and achieve their educational potentials if given the right assistance and direction.

The Programmes Manager outlined various programmes being undertaken by SAP for children with learning difficulties. In addition to the Childrens Support Programme, SAP also undertakes activities such as information sharing, research and training, advocacy for inclusion in mainstream education and development of learning solutions, he summarised.

Mr. Opoku called on individuals, corporate bodies, social groups and the general public to support to the campaign to help children with learning difficulties and create a safe, better Ghana.
The former Secretary General of the United Nations, His Excellency Kofi Annan has released a statement commenting on the just held general elections in Ghana.

Read the Statement below

I want to congratulate the Election Commission, its staff and the people of Ghana for conducting a good election on 7 December, worthy of our democratic tradition. I also applaud the support and the diligence of the electoral observers  national and international.

I call on the candidates, their parties and their supporters to remain calm until the announcement of the final results by the Election Commission. There is no reason for incitement.

In the spirit of democracy, I call on the losers to concede as quickly as possible to defuse tensions and allay uncertainties. Let me take this opportunity to congratulate the five candidates who have already done so in light of the preliminary results and clear trends.

The people of Ghana are waiting and watching, let's not disappoint them.
Oct. 24 became a memorable day for Butterfly Bakery owner Linda Cox.

Not only did she sell her business at 4209 S. 33rd St., she also gave birth to her second child -- three weeks early.

I had been training (the new owners) for about a month, thinking I would have this great amount of time (between the sale and birth), she said.

Cox sold Butterfly -- arguably one of the best bakeries in Lincoln for specialty cakes, pastries and more -- to Justin and Mindy Van Wart in order to focus on her family.

The first one is 18 months old and that already was hard enough, Cox said. With now having two kids 

She said she had to decide between closing the bakery, which she started in 2009 and has operated from the South 33rd Street location since 2014, or find someone to keep it going. Up stepped the Van Warts, who have a limited background in food service, but have a passion about art and beauty and desserts, according to Justin Van Wart.

The Van Warts promised Cox, who turned over her recipes over to them, to maintain Butterflys quality.

Shes a rock star, Justin Van Wart said of Cox. Its essentially taking five of us to maintain what what shes established.

The five are the Van Warts, baker Erin Graverholt, who has been at the bakery for 2 years, and new cake decorators Katie OConnor and Jessica Misner, who came to Butterfly from Hy-Vee. OConnor recently was featured in the Journal Star for a cake she decorated for comedians Steve Martin and Martin Short, who performed at Pinewood Bowl on Sept. 25.

When we found Jessica and Katie, we knew that, maybe, this could work, Justin Van Wart said.

The Van Warts have made a few minor changes since taking over, but nothing truly visible to customers.

And weve never done anything without running it by Linda first, Justin Van Wart said.

Cox is never far away, Van Wart said, and has been helping out when needed.

Not everyone likes to see change, Cox said. But they are doing a really good job, and they're working to keep it the same as much as possible.

Butterfly Bakerys hours are 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesday-Friday and 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday. For more information, call 402-499-0620.
People tend to be alarmed when the Nigerian Presidency takes certain decisions. They don't think the decision makes sense. Sometimes, they wonder if something has not gone wrong with the thinking process at that highest level of the country. I have heard people insist that there is some form of witchcraft at work in the country's seat of government. I am ordinarily not a superstitious person, but working in the Villa, I eventually became convinced that there must be something supernatural about power and closeness to it. I'll start with a personal testimony. I was given an apartment to live in inside the Villa. It was furnished and equipped. But when my son, Michael arrived, one of my brothers came with a pastor who was supposed to stay in the apartment. But the man refused claiming that the Villa was full of evil spirits and that there would soon be a fire accident in the apartment. He complained about too much human sacrifice around the Villa and advised that my family must never sleep overnight inside the Villa.

I thought the man was talking nonsense and he wanted the luxury of a hotel accommodation. But he turned out to be right. The day I hosted family friends in that apartment and they slept overnight, there was indeed a fire accident. The guests escaped and they were so thankful. Not long after, the President's physician living two compounds away had a fire accident in his home. He and his children could have died. He escaped with bruises. Around the Villa while I was there, someone always died or their relations died. I can confirm that every principal officer suffered one tragedy or the other; it was as if you needed to sacrifice something to remain on duty inside that environment. Even some of the women became merchants of dildo because they had suffered a special kind of death in their homes (I am sorry to reveal this) and many of the men complained about something that had died below their waists too. The ones who did not have such misfortune had one ailment or the other that they had to nurse. From cancer to brain and prostate surgery and whatever, the Villa was a hospital full of agonizing patients.

I recall the example of one particular man, an asset to the Jonathan Presidency who practically ran away from the Villa. He said he needed to save his life. He was quite certain that if he continued to hang around, he would die. I can't talk about colleagues who lost daughters and sons, brothers and uncles, mothers and fathers, and the many obituaries that we issued. Even the President was multiply bereaved. His wife, Mama Peace was in and out of hospital at a point, undergoing many surgeries. You may have forgotten but after her husband lost the election and he conceded victory, all her ailments vanished, all scheduled surgeries were found to be no longer necessary and since then she has been hale and hearty. By the same token, all those our colleagues who used to come to work to complain about a certain death beneath their waists and who relied on videos and other instruments to entertain wives (take it easy boys, I don't mean any harm, I am writing!), have all experienced a re-awakening.

Everyone who went under the blade has received miraculous healing, and we are happy to be out of that place. But others were not so lucky. They died. There were days when convoys ran into ditches and lives were lost. In Norway, our helicopter almost crashed into a mountain. That was the first time I saw the President panicking. The weather was all so hazy and he just kept saying it would not be nice for the President of a country to die in a helicopter crash due to pilot miscalculations. The President went into a prayer mode. We survived. In Kenya once, we had a bird strike. The plane had to be recalled and we were already airborne with the plane acting like it would crash. During the 2015 election campaigns, our aircraft refused to start on more than one occasion. The aircraft just went dead. On some other occasions, we were stoned and directly targeted for evil. I really don't envy the people who work in Aso Villa, the seat of Nigeria's Presidency. For about six months, I couldn't even breathe properly. For another two months, I was on crutches. But I considered myself far luckier than others who were either nursing a terminal disease or who could not get it up.

When Presidents make mistakes, they are probably victims of a force higher than what we can imagine. Every student of Aso Villa politics would readily admit that when people get in there, they actually become something else. They act like they are under a spell. When you issue a well- crafted statement, the public accepts it wrongly. When the President makes a speech and he truly means well, the speech is interpreted wrongly by the public. When a policy is introduced, somehow, something just goes wrong. In our days, a lot of people used to complain that the APC people were fighting us spiritually and that there was a witchcraft dimension to the governance process in Nigeria. But the APC folks now in power are dealing with the same demons. Since Buhari government assumed office, it has been one mistake after another. Those mistakes don't look normal, the same way they didn't look normal under President Jonathan. I am therefore convinced that there is an evil spell enveloping this country. We need to rescue Nigeria from the forces of darkness. Aso Villa should be converted into a spiritual museum, and abandoned.

Should I become President of Nigeria tomorrow, I will build a new Presidential Villa: a Villa that will be dedicated to the all-conquering Almighty, and where powers and principalities cannot hold sway. But it is not about buildings and space, not so? It is about the people who go to the highest levels in Nigeria. I really don't quite believe in superstitions, but I am tempted to suggest that this is indeed a country in need of prayers. We should pray before people pack their things into Aso Villa. We should ask God to guide us before we appoint ministers. We should, to put it in technocratic language, advise that the people should be very vigilant. We have all failed so far, that crucial test of vigilance. We should have a Presidential Villa where a President can afford to be human and free. In the White House, in the United States, Presidents live like normal human beings. In Aso Villa, that is impossible. They'd have to surround themselves with cooks from their villages, bodyguards from their mother's clans and friends they can trust. It should be possible to be President of Nigeria without having to look behind one's shoulders. But we are not yet there. So, how do we run a Presidency where the man in the saddle can only drink water served by his kinsman? No. How can we possibly run a Presidency where every President proclaims faith in Nigeria but they are better off in the company of relatives and kinsmen. No. We need, as Presidents, men and women who are willing to be Nigerians. No Nigerian President should be in spiritual bondage because he belongs to all of us and to nobody.

Now let me go back to the spiritual dimension. A colleague once told me that I was the most naive person around the place. I thought I was a bright, smart, professional doing my bit and enjoying the President's confidence. I spelled it out. But what I got in response was that I was coming to the villa using Lux soap, but that most people around the place always bathed in the morning with blood. Goat blood. Ram blood. Whatever animal blood. I argued. He said there were persons in the Villa walking upside down, head to the ground. I screamed. Everybody looked normal to me. But I soon began to suspect that I was in a strange environment indeed. Every position change was an opportunity for warfare. Civil servants are very nice people; they obey orders, but they are not very nice when they fight over personal interests.

The President is most affected by the atmosphere around him. He can make wrong decisions based on the cloud of evil around him. Even when he means well and he has taken time to address all possible outcomes, he could get on the wrong side of the public. A colleague called me one day and told me a story about how a decision had been taken in the spiritual realm about the Nigerian government. He talked about the spirit of error, and how every step taken by the administration would appear to the public like an error. He didn't resign on that basis but his words proved prophetic. I see the same story being re-enacted. Aso Villa is in urgent need of redemption. I never slept in the apartment they gave me in that Villa for an hour.

-By Reuben Abati, former Press Secretary to President Goodluck Jonathan
Private Drone users have been cautioned to secure written permission from their respective District and Regional police stations before using the equipment.

Defaulters of this directive risk a 5 to 30 year jail term.

The Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) has said the new directive is to protect the security and sovereignty of the country.

The Deputy Director General, Technical at the GCAA, MarteyBoyeAtokloexplains that, the new directive has nothing to do the elections as been perceived by some concerns Ghanaians.

Not at all, there is nothing to do with the elections; this is a permanent additional directive that we have issued and it has nothing to do with the elections, he said in an interview.

Mr. MarteyAtoklorather said, the directive will foster strict regulation of drones in Ghana.

We are not banning drones in Ghana like Japan and Dubai have done; we want to have control of the drones wherever they are being deployed. That is why we are asking the users of the equipment to secure permission from the respective district and regional police stations.

A statement on the new directive said implementation takes effect on Monday, 5th December 2016.

Already, the GCAA has a licensing regime that makes it compulsory for all drones to be registered before use.

The Director General of the GCAA, Simon Allotey has also explained that it is imperative for the authority to maintain sanity in Ghanas airspace to prevent loss of lives.

According to him, drones cannot fly to 400 feet since helicopters fly at 500 feet.

In addition, the GCAA contends it is unlawful for drones to fly 10km from instrument airports and 5km from non-instrument airports.

Meanwhile As part of the new directive, personnel will not be allowed to act as an RPA observer without having proof of RPA observer document issued by a training organization approved by the authority.
Ghanaians are continuously benefiting from capacity building in terms of managerial and financial support from government and private entities.

Last week, about 22 Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the print industry who received training in new imaging technologies and software were awarded certificates.

This helps to grow and formalize the SMEs sector to propel them to contribute significantly to the economy of the country as well as creating job opportunities.

The 10-day capacity building training, which was held between July and November this year, was organized by Canon Central and North Africa, a global leader in imaging solutions, in partnership with Invest In Africa (IIA) Ghana.

The SMEs, including Inkexpress Business Solutions, Bethesda Press Limited, officially completed the training on Tuesday at a short ceremony held at the British Council in Accra.

Ghana Manager of IIA, Samuel Essilfie Taylor Brandful, told the media on the sidelines of the graduation that the 22 SMEs were given skills that can help improve their productivity and efficiency within the industry.

According to him, they were taught how to use the latest imaging technologies and software and also handle papers.

He indicated that the beneficiary SMEs shall be given access to credit facilities, as well as Canon imaging technologies and software to help expand their businesses.

The collaboration between the two entities is believed to be the first of its kind and they intend to roll it to other sectors of the countrys economy.

Marketing Manager of Canon, AymanAly, in an interview with the media, expressed his satisfaction with the partnership between his outfit and IIA.

He said the collaboration would assist Canon to make a positive impact on the Ghanaian economy.

According to him, Canon has over the years contributed immensely to the economies of Africa and hope to do same in the coming years.

IIA currently has a total of 1,500 companies from different industries.
"We will write this for all to read. Anyone, soldier or not, that kills the Fulani takes a loan repayable one day no matter how long it takes" - Mallam Nasir El Rufai, 2012.

I will never forget these words. How I wish that my friend and brother, Governor Nasir El Rufai, expressed the same level of angst, cold rage, chilling resolve and passion for vengeance after the murder of millions of defenceless and innocent non-Fulanis, including women and children, in his own Kaduna state and indeed all over the country since the coming to power of the Buhari regime one year and seven months ago.

How I wish that he could have learnt a lesson or two from other Nigerian leaders of Fulani extraction who are far more restrained, mature, experienced, knowledgeable and responsible than him like Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, Hon. Minister Kabiru Turaki, Hon. Minister Hadi Sirika, Governor Sule Lamido, Col. Abubakar Dangiwa Umar, General Aliyu Gusau and countless others that careless and ill-advised assertions, vicious threats and a lack of decorum and restraint have no place in public discourse and could lead to unimaginable consequences including the loss of innocent lives. After all, we are ALL Nigerians.

Given the circumstances I am constrained to write the following for all to see: the spilling of innocent blood in the name of vengeance, religion, ethnicity or anything else is expensive and it comes with a heavy price.

Those who willfully shed it will face the consequences of their actions. They will pay a heavy price from generation to generation both in this world and in the world to come.

Given all the horror stories of murder and butchery that we hear about in Kaduna state today things have certainly got out of hand and every Nigerian, whether they be Christian or Muslim, ought to be deeply concerned.

Such is the carnage and wasting of innocent lives that I cannot but support the columnist Sam Omatseye's call on Christians in southern Kaduna to rise up and use all lawful means to defend themselves from what can, to all intents and purposes, only be described as genocide.

I also support the appeal to the Christian Association of Nigeria to use all lawful means to assist and support them and I commend the gallantry and resilience of the Southern Kaduna's People Union (SOKAPU) who have consistently spoken out and resisted the evil that the good people of southern Kaduna have been subjected to over the years.

I also commend the efforts of men like Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, Pastor Temitope Joshua, Apostle Suleiman and numerous others who have consistently urged restraint when it comes to such matters but who, at the same time, have always insisted on justice and equity for the oppressed, the poor, the weak, the vulnerable and the deprived.

For as Thomas Jefferson, one of the great founding fathers of the United States of America once said, "when injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty".

Self-defence, like self-determination, is a fundamental and inalienable human right and those that take pleasure in mass murder and carnage must be resisted and stopped.

Those that kill, maim and destroy their fellow human beings and compatriots in the name of ethnic and religious hegemony and under the guise of cattle-rearing and herding cows must be brought to justice.

When the International Global Index identified a group that they described as the "Fulani militants" and "herdsmen of Nigeria" as the "fourth most deadly terrorist organisation in the world" the international community was shocked and many world leaders expressed their concern and outrage.

It was only in Nigeria that we took it in our stride and that people found it difficult to comprehend the implications or appreciate the dangers and complexity of the challenge that we were faced with.

It was also only in Nigeria that the government brushed the matter under the carpet and refused to disarm the murderous terrorists or even condemn their actions.

It was only in Nigeria that everyone hid under their beds and ran for cover and refused to say it as it is even though they all knew the truth.

It was only in Nigeria that the blood and the lives of the numerous victims of the Janjaweed-style marauders and murderers were regarded as being less precious and less sacred than the blood of their tormentors and killers.

The fact of the matter is that this is a major issue and a collective challenge. This fight is beyond politics: it is an ancient struggle which is being fought in pursuance of an ancient cause.

Worst still it has an international and global dimension. Simply put, it is essentially about the supression and systematic destruction and humiliation of the so-called "lesser peoples" and supposedly "inferior ethnic nationalities" of the hybrid mega-nation called Nigeria.

It is about the enslavement, the breaking of the will, the total subjugation and the complete annihilation of an entire people and various ethnic nationalities within that mega-nation.

It is about the forced aquisition of the land, culture, destiny and souls of others, ethnic and religious domination and good old-fashioned conquest.

That is the monuemental challenge that we are faced with in Nigeria today by those that covertly commissioned and armed the herdsmen and that are using them to do a dirty job.

Yet few wish to admit let alone discuss, hear or publish such bitter truths in our country. And those of us that are willing to do so are insulted, attacked, maligned, persecuted, threatened, ostracised and labellled as rebels and dissidents simply because we have cultivated the strength and courage to identify the problem, speak the truth and stand up for the weak and the oppressed.

The tyrant forgets that truth and timely counsel is worth its weight in gold. He forgets that it is better to have an honest and vocal opposition than to have a false friend.

He forgets that he either controls those in his inner circle and his numerous courtiers, security chiefs, Ministers and advisors or they will end up controlling him and pushing him to fatal error.

We his subjects try our best to keep quite and ignore the commission of atrocities that we see in our nation every day by his security forces and his blood-thirsty and blood-curdling kinsmen that have constituted themselves into a well-armed reserve army and a formidable and murderous ethnic militia.

Instead of speaking out boldly and loudly or protesting in the streets we choose to keep the peace and stay at home and pray.

Yet, unabated, the horror show simply goes on and on. The nightmare continues to unfold and the black flag of death, destruction and carnage is hoisted higher every day.

No-one is spared in this bloodfest of terror and butchery. Today it is the defiant Biafrans and the good people of the south-east that are being shot, slaughtered, tormented and "cut to pieces" and tomorrow it is the good people of Agatu and the Middle Belt or the residents and farmers of the south-west and the Niger Delta.

And in all this our response is nothing but fear, trepidation and weakness. Our collective resolve to stand against evil has long been broken. We continue to bite the bullet, take the pain, reign in our rage, maintain our stoic and cowardly silence and encourage those that seek to avenge their loved ones and kinsmen to do nothing, to remain calm and to leave it all to God.

Yet there are some things that are beyond the pale and that cannot be ignored. When those that are charged with the responsibility of protecting us and bringing those that kill our kith and kin to justice are complicit in the barborous actions of the terrorists we cannot remain silent. And if we do God Himself will judge us.

When a sitting Governor like Nasir El Rufai can boldly and openly say "tell them (meaning the terrorising and murderering Fulani militants and herdsmen) that the governor is a Fulani like them and give them this money" you are encouraging murder and empowering murderers.

When you talk like that you are provoking the sensitivities and rage of every non-Fulani in your state and in the entire nation.

When you say such a thing you are rubbing raw salt in a fresh wound and you are plunging a sharp and long butchers knife deep into the hearts of the loved ones of all those that were murdered and mutilated in your state and elsewhere by those barbaric killers that you have described as your kinsmen and friends.

When you speak so callously and with such insensitivity you are murdering and butchering the murdered and burchered victims all over again, rubbishing their memory, insulting their families and pissing on their graves.

When you say that you have paid your Fulani brothers and kinsmen from Chad, the Niger Republic, Mali, Senegal, the Camerouns and God knows where else money to stop them from coming to our country and your state to kill our Christian brothers and sisters in southern Kaduna instead of bringing them to justice for shedding innocent blood it means that you are a murderer as well.

When you talk like that it means that you are what is known as an "enabler" or as an "accessory after the fact" in law and you are nothing but an accomplice to and friend, sponsor and sympathiser of mass murderers.

It means that you are not just a murderer but you are also a genocidal maniac. Worse of all you know very well that the money that you have publicly admitted to giving them will be used to buy more deadly weapons and ammunition which will then be used to slaughter, maim, kidnap and terrorise even more innocent and defenceless people from your constituency and elsewhere in Nigeria.

If it is not Shiite Muslims that are being killed in Kaduna today it is our brothers and sisters in southern Kaduna. Not only are they massacred but they are also buried in unmarked mass and shallow graves where pigs feed off their carcasses and decaying flesh.

How wicked and heartless can we be to one another? Where is the milk of human kindness? Where is compassion and mercy? Where is justice, succour and protection for the poor, the deprived, the unconnected and the needy?

For God sake the killing must stop. I implore you in the name of God to use your powerful office to defend the oppressed and to protect the voiceless in your state and not to encourage or support the predators who feed on human flesh and who take pleasure in the destruction, suffering and misery of others.

Those that bathe in the blood of the innocents and that delight in indulging in cruelty and crushing the bones of the weak may have today but tomorrow belongs to us.

As the leader of the American-based Nation of Islam movement, the respected Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, once said,

"God is on the side of the weak, the oppressed. God is never in favor of the tyrant! And fighting against tyranny really is obedience to God. So God will have His way, no matter what the jury or government does. But if they are wicked enough to deny these families justice, then God will answerand I fear the terrible nature of His chastisement. Be warned".

For those that are in power today in Kaduna and Nigeria a word is enough for the wise. Our God is alive and He rules in the affairs of men. Vengeance belongs to Him: He will repay.

Permit me to conclude the first part of this write up with the words of Senator La'ah who represents the people of southern Kaduna in the Senate.

In a statement he issued to newsmen on Wednesday 4th December the Senator asserted that Governor El-Rufai has been able to identify the killers and their locations.

He added, This will lead to their sponsors in Nigeria and other places. Nigeria should then use its diplomatic relationship and extradite these murderers of its citizens, plunders and arsonists to face justice in Nigeria.

After Governor El-Rufais term in office, it should be possible to prosecute him for being an accessory to mass murder, since he has refused to reveal these findings to the rightful authority for actions to stop the evil that is spreading to many states today.

This is from the outcome of Newspapers and online captions quoting governor El -Rufai as saying that he has had to trace some of the murderous Fulani herdsmen that have been killing defenceless innocent Southern Kaduna natives and destroying their villages, the news sources said that after tracing them, he told them that he was also a Fulani man and paid them sums of money to stop the massacre, burning and tearing down of scores of communities in Southern Kaduna.

That not done with, the Governor also uttered a very bizarre threat that he has compiled for arrest and prosecution, names of persons asking the people of Southern Kaduna to defend themselves against the obvious inability of the Chief Security Officer of the state  Governor Nasir El-Rufai  to secure their lives and property and save them the trauma of being under perpetual fear of further unprovoked violence.

Knowing how swiftly he reacts to any untoward issue unfairly thrown at him in the media, I have waited for days to hear or read a rebuttal from him but to no avail.

This therefore confirms these unfortunate utterances as truly that of the governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai.

I wish to state that these statements are not only unfortunate, callous, insensitive, crude and demeaning of his office and intelligence, it throws him up as a bigot and hater of Southern Kaduna and we are holding him as an accomplice in the ongoing genocide in Southern Kaduna. (TO BE CONTINUED).
09.12.2016 LISTEN

On Wednesday, December 07, 2016, the Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO), which consists of 42 professional, faith-based organizations and civil society groups, deployed about 8,000 trained, accredited, independent and non-partisan observers spread across the 275 constituencies located in the 10 regions of Ghana. Of this number, 1,500 were assigned to a Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT) sample and another 2,500 to over-sampled polling stations. These polling stations were carefully selected to ensure national representation. Another 1,500 observers were purposively deployed to observe the polls at polling stations in flashpoint constituencies, while 750 apiece were assigned to polling stations in stronghold and highly competitive constituencies, respectively. These observers are Ghanaians, from every walk of life, who volunteered their time to help ensure that every registered voter freely cast his or her ballot on election-day and helped ensured that the people of Ghana had independent non-partisan information on the conduct of these elections.

This Preliminary Statement provides highlights of CODEO's findings regarding the conduct of the presidential and general elections. It incorporates updates of some of the information made available to the public in the Mid-Day and Close of Polls Situational Reports released on Wednesday December 7, 2016. This Preliminary Statement is based on reports CODEO received from 1,447 of 1,500 PVT Observers (i.e. 96.5%) from every region and constituency, with the exception of Jaman North in Brong Ahafo region, as of midnight on Wednesday December 7, 2016. Due to problems with the quality transfer voters' list voting was suspended in Jaman North until Thursday December 8, 2016. CODEO deployed 19 observers, including five PVT observers, in Jaman North on Wednesday December 7, 2016 and CODEO is again deploying them today Thursday December 8, 2016.

Summary of Observations

At 99% of polling stations, electoral officials respected CODEO observers' status as the Electoral Commission (EC)'s accredited election observers and permitted them to observe the polls. Only 1% initially had challenges, which were quickly and successfully resolved. Preliminary analysis of CODEO PVT observer reports on Set-up and opening of polls, voting and counting from every region and every constituency, except Jaman North where voting has been suspended to today, show that the December 07, 2016 general elections were generally conducted in accordance with the electoral laws and procedures of Ghana. While there were some challenges, they were isolated and did not undermine the overall credibility of the process.

Arrival at Polling Stations

 CODEO Observers reported that by 8:00 am EC election official had arrived at 81% of all polling stations (see Table 1). Of note, in Greater Accra EC election officials were present at 92% of polling stations by 7:00 am.

Set Up for Polls

 By 7:15AM, over half of the polling stations (60%) had opened (see Table 2). Another 32% opened between 7:16 and 8:00AM adding up to 92% opening by 8:00AM.

 There were exactly 5 election officials present at 81% of polling stations. At 12% of the polling stations the presiding officers were women.

 90% of polling stations were set up so voters could mark their ballots in secret.

 96% of polling stations were accessible to persons with disability and the elderly.

 At the time of set up, the two main political parties had their party agents present in almost all polling stations  NDC, 99.3%; NPP, 99.5% respectively (see Table 3). The presence of party agents of the other parties fielding presidential candidates and independent presidential candidate varied from 12.3% to 28.4% of polling stations while party agents for parties only contesting the parliamentary election were present in 7.3% of polling stations.

 At the time of opening, 91% of polling stations had all election materials. Of note, the voter register was available in almost all polling stations (99%) while 96% of polling stations had two and biometric verification devices.

 At 99.9% polling stations, the presidential and parliamentary ballot boxes were shown to be empty, sealed and placed in public view before the commencement of voting.

 According to observers, in 99% of the polling stations, ballot booklets were serialized and in numeric order.

 Uniformed security personnel were at post at 88% of polling stations.

Voting

 At 99.5% of polling stations, CODEO observers report that election officials validated (i.e. stamped) ballot papers before they were issued to voters.

 The biometric verification machines failed to function properly at some point in 6% of polling stations. This problem was slightly more prevalent in polling stations in Ashanti (10%) and Upper West (10%) regions.

 At 56% of polling stations, no one with a valid voter ID card had his or her fingerprint rejected by the biometric verification device (BVD) (see Table 4) while at 37% of polling stations a few voters (1 to 5) with valid voter identity cards had their finger prints rejected by the BVD.

3

 In 95% of polling stations, no voter who could not be verified electronically was denied manual verification. Election officials in 99% of polling stations never permitted any voter to vote without being verified either electronically or manually. While in vast majority polling stations (91%), no eligible voter with a valid voter identity was denied his/her voting right.

 In 97% of polling stations, CODEO observers reported that nobody without valid voter identity card or whose name was also not on the voter list was permitted to vote. At just 2% of polling stations a few voters (1 to 5) were permitted to vote although their names were not found in the voters' register.

 At 93% of polling stations, no unauthorized persons were allowed to be present during voting.

 No major incident of harassment and intimidation of voters or polling officials was recorded at 97% of polling stations.

 In the vast majority of polling stations (96%), the elderly, pregnant women, nursing mothers and persons with disabilities were given priority to vote before others.

 In almost every polling station (98%), the fingers of voters were marked with indelible ink.

 At 13% of polling stations, no one was assisted to vote (see Table 5). However, at 54% of polling stations a few voters (1 to 5) who are elderly persons or with disability were assisted to vote while at 23% of polling station some voters (6 to 15) were assisted to vote, and at 10% of polling stations many voter (16 or more) were assisted to vote.

Counting

 At the close of polls, 52% of polling stations had no queue. Of those polling stations with queues at the close of poll (87%), all voters who were in the queue at 5:00PM were permitted to vote. At the same time, in 54% of polling stations, no voter arrived after 5:00PM. Of those polling stations at which people arrived after 5:00 pm (93%) none of these people were permitted to vote.

 CODEO observers in 98% of polling stations reported that there were no incidents of harassment and intimidation of polling officials, party/candidate agents or observers during the counting of ballots.

 No party agent was prevented from observing the vote count in 97% of polling stations. Similarly, in 96% of polling stations, no unauthorized person was permitted at the inner perimeter or cordoned area during the counting of ballots.

 In the vast majority of the polling stations (90%), no political party agent requested for a recount as far as the presidential ballot was concerned.

 Critically, at nearly all polling stations, the agents of the NDC (98%) and NPP (99%) signed the presidential result declaration form. Presiding officers in 99% of polling stations also endorsed the form. Further, at 99% of polling stations CODEO's PVT Observers also agreed with the presidential results.

 At 83% of polling stations the official results for the presidential election was posted in a visible place for the public to see (see Table 6).

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 All political party agents in 82% of polling stations as well as the presiding officer in 99.8% polling stations signed the parliamentary results declaration form. In addition, 99.6% of CODEO Observers reported they agreed with the parliamentary results at their polling station.

Reported Incidents

CODEO observers reported a total of 436 cases verified incidents during opening, voting and counting stages of the polling process throughout the country (See Tables 7A & 7B). out of this total, incidents around harassment and intimidation of polling officials, and voters was the most recorded (116) incidents of polling station either not open or opened late (66) unauthorized persons at polling stations (44) violence (34) voting or counting suspension (31) and polling stations running out of material (30). Most of these cases were quickly resolved by polling officials and key election stakeholders, such as the security services, and thereby did not affect the polling process.

Conclusion

From the foregoing, CODEO in this preliminary situational report can confidently confirm that the arrangements put in place by the EC for setup and opening of polls were adequate for most polling stations, and that the polling and counting processes were generally credible.

CODEO is continuing to observe the process. In addition, to observers deployed to the 275 constituency collation centers, as well as at the National Results Collation Center (NRCC) in Accra, CODEO deployed observers across Jaman North constituency to observe voting and counting there today.

For the 274 constituencies that voted on Wednesday December 7, 2016, CODEO has completed its PVT and has its estimates for the presidential election results. In keeping with our protocols, CODEO will release its PVT estimates for the presidential election results following the official announcement by the EC in order to provide independent verification of their accuracy. Thus, CODEO PVT serves as a powerful deterrent to help ensure that the results announced by the EC reflect the ballots cast at polling stations. Accordingly, CODEO condemns attempts by political parties to declare results prior to the official announcement by the EC. We urge all political parties and citizens to be law abiding and to allow the EC to complete its work.

In closing, CODEO again appeals to all Ghanaians to remain calm and wait for the EC to declare the official results. Voting has not yet finished in Jaman North and collation of results continues across the country.

CODEO December 7, 2016 election observation exercise was made possible with the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Embassy of the Kingdom of Netherlands.
09.12.2016 LISTEN

The Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Charlotte Osei, has said that the commission does not rely on figures from the political parties to declare results. She indicated that her outfit only works with results from its officials at the constituency collation centre sent to the national collation centre.

Addressing the media at the national collation centre yesterday, Mad. Charlotte Osei stated that the commission was silent because there was an ongoing election at Jaman North constituency, and had to allow the process go on, and that it would address the media after 5pm, when polls at the constituency had ended.

Her assertion that the commission does not rely on results of political parties followed calls from the New Patriotic Party (NPP) asking why the commission was delaying in declaring the results.

However, in a swift response to the calls of the NPP, the Chairperson said the commission had not received all the collated results from the constituencies.

According to her, as at 5pm yesterday, it had received only ninety constituency results out of the 275. Even with that, she said there were issues with some of the constituencies which had to be rectified, citing Tema East. She urged the people the country to remain calm as the commission worked to ensure it delivered credible results

On the other hand, the National Peace Council had called on Ghanaians earlier in the day to allow the Electoral Commission (EC) do its constitutional mandate of declaring the results of the this years polls.

At a press conference yesterday, the Chairman of the National Peace Council, Reverend Professor Emmanuel Asante, noted the EC had, by law, 72 hours within which to declare the election results.

His comments followed press conferences from the main political parties in the country, New Patriotic Party (NPP) and National Democratic Congress (NDC), declaring themselves winners of the presidential elections.

He urged Ghanaians to disregard any form of declaration from any of the political parties and allow the EC to do its work.

Earlier the same morning, the Campaign Manager of the opposition NPP, Peter Mac Manu, addressed a press conference to announce victory for the flagbearer of the party and the NPP at large.

According to the NPP, as at 6am yesterday, nearly 94% of the pink sheets have been received and recorded by the party. Nearly the same numbers have also been received by the EC.

The party expressed worry over the silence of the EC, citing that with the same number of pink sheets received, the NPP doesnt understand why the EC has been silent and claims it has released only one official constituency result so far. Meanwhile, more than 2/3 of the constituencies have been declared.

This is the first time in 16 years that election results have delayed so long. NPP says this raises suspicion and smacks of an attempt to overturn the mandate of the people.

Meanwhile, Eric Kofi Dzakpasu, in a press briefing, called for patience and calm from all voters, as the EC ensures that the election results were, in fact, a true reflection of the will of the people.

He revealed that the commission had noticed possible instances of over-voting in some constituencies which needed verification.

On verification of, and in line with, established administrative procedures, the EC is able to determine if any over-voting occurred in any polling station. Should any discrepancy occur, the commission will meet to determine the appropriate actions. We call for patience and calm from all voters as the EC ensures that the election results are, in fact, a true reflection of the will of the people.

Prior to the above, the National Democratic Congress had also held a press conference, addressed by its campaign manager, Ofosu Ampofo, stating that their candidate was in a comfortable lead.

The National Youth Organiser of the NPP, Sammy Awuku, also addressed a media briefing at the partys headquarters to reiterate the worry of the party over the silence if the EC, stating that the commission had to tell voters what was happening.

Meanwhile, Mad. Charlotte Osei, at the press conference, said the commission had challenges with the electronic transmission, so had to resort to manual.

As at press time, the commission had confirmed it had in its possession ninety collated results from some constituencies, but was quick to add that none of the political party agents had signed the results forms.



By Maxwell Ofori

[email protected]
09.12.2016 LISTEN



By Pascal Kafu Abotsi

([email protected])..

The mundane post-polls posture of the countrys main political parties  the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP)  prior to the Electoral Commissions declaration of the results, has witnessed a deviation this year.

With spleen, The Chronicle has observed the parties declarations of victory to their respective folds, which seem to gradually deface the beauty and peaceful conduct of last Wednesdays elections.

The National Campaign Manager of the NPP, Mr. Peter Mac Manu, at dawn yesterday, put party supporters in a festive mood with the declaration of victory for his presidential candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

Addressing the press at the NPPs Asylum Down headquarters Mr. Mac Manu said after tabulating 80 percent of polling station results, the NPP was ahead with 4.6 million votes, representing 54.91 per cent, while the NDCs President John Dramani Mahama had 3.6 million, representing 43.38 per cent.

This, however, did not auger well with the NDC, whose Director of Elections, Mr. Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, wasted no time in condemning the attitude of his opponent.

According to him, Mr. Mac Manus action was irresponsible, treasonable and on a path of jeopardising the peace and security in Ghana.

But surprisingly, at the tail end of his delivery, Mr. Ampofo committed the same 'irresponsible and treasonable act he had accused the NPPs Campaign Manager of.

His was to comfort his party supporters with the claim that the NDCs parallel voters' tabulation showed that Mahama was doing very well, explaining that the NDC, as 'a law abiding party, won't go contrary to laws of the country and declare our candidate the winner.'

In the afternoon, the Deputy General Secretary of the NDC, Koku Anyidoho, topped it up with his discomfort at the media and the NPPs projection of Nana Addo as the winner of the elections.

With the chanting of Toaso, toaso, toaso at the partys ultra modern headquarters in Accra, Mr. Anyidoho told party supporters that President Mahama was in a comfortable lead.

Mr. Anyidoho, who was in a militant mood, went on to vent his anger at the NPPs National Youth Organiser, Sammi Awuku, who had reportedly told the youth to mass up on the streets to celebrate the NPPs victory, because the EC was delaying with the declaration of the results.

Koku Anyidoho felt the NPP young man, by his action, was inviting chaos and violence from the ruling party. He thus responded that he was prepared to mobilise the young ones from his party to deal with jubilant NPP youth.

As if that was not enough, the General Secretary of the NDC, Mr. Johnson Asiedu Nketia. Wh, all along, was in faraway Jaman Constituency in the Brong Ahafo Region, following the postponement of the polls there, surfaced in the evening with a press conference to refute media figures and those of the opposition party, which had placed Nana Addo in the lead.

From the results collated so far, NDC is cruising to victory. We are, however, unable to mention results, he told the press, while advising party supporters to remain confident, because should the trend continue, President John Mahama would be retained as president.

The NPP flag bearer, Nana Addo, was not left out of the struggle for dominance. Minutes after the NDC General Secretary had put his microphone down, Nana Addo assembled journalists and party supporters at his Nima residence to assure them of his win. But the assurance did not go without the caution to remain calm as they awaited the EC to officially declare the results.

It's important that we behave as Ghanaians. We have been through this before, and we are likely to go through it again very soon, new policies are going to be introduced to change the economy. We are going to work tirelessly to bring about prosperity for all. We have to bring aboard everybody, no matter their political persuasion, he stated.

Revealing that all candidates in the election, except President Mahama, had congratulated him, he seized the opportunity to thank majority of our competitors and there is going to come a time for me to thank so many people.

Greater Accra Regional Chairman Ade Coker would not want to be left out the historic moment. He also urged his party supporters in all the regions to be bold to celebrate their victory.

To help settle the score, the National Peace Council (NPC), after expressing dissatisfaction at the developments between the two major parties, called on the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in particular, to retract its 54.91 per cent victory claim for its flagbearer, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

Speaking on Accra-based TV3 at Thursday dawn, the Chairman of the NPC, Reverend Professor Emmanuel Kwaku Asante, said, what the two parties have done is a recipe for concern, adding that it was premature for any party to declare results.

Meanwhile, the EC boss, Madam Charlotte Osei, at a press briefing in Accra later in the evening, assured the parties of accurate results, hence the delay in the collation. This was after she had made her awareness of the confusion between the parties known.

She didnt mince words in telling them that the EC does not declare results collated by political partiesTheres a process that the EC follows, which is legal.

Madam Osei, thus, asked them to remain calm as they waited for the constitutional provision of 72 hours
From Edmond Gyebi, Tamale..de

The slow tactics adopted by Electoral Commission officials in collating the presidential and parliamentary results in the Tamale Central Constituency of the Northern Region has resulted in an uneasy calm among political party candidates and their supporters within the constituency.

As at 2:30pm yesterday, only 52 out of 136 polling station results had been collated but not yet certified by the Electoral Commission.

Apart from some challenges, the agents of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) representing President John Dramani Mahama and Lawyer Inusah Fuseini reportedly refused to come along with their copies of the Pink Sheets issued by the EC.

The NDC agents, in spite of the plea by the EC officials and agents of the NPP, refused to go for their Pink Sheets to make the process more credible and smooth.

Another issue that brought some contentious delay was when the NPP candidate, Dr. Iddrisu Anyars, raised an objection to the certification of results from the Mallam Fari polling station at Tishegu.

It was alleged that the Presiding Officer in charge of that polling station, through the influence of the Assembly Member for the area, relocated the polling station without relaying the information to the candidates, which, according to the NPP candidate, had deprived him of the opportunity to monitor the elections at the Imam Faris Mosque.

Other agitations also centered around a change of polling stations codes, wrong siting of polling stations without foreknowledge of the political parties, and many more. As a result, collation of the results came to a standstill for several hours.

The EC officials, therefore, withheld the collation to allow the correction of all the anomalies.

But, both the NDC and the NPP parliamentary candidates, Lawyer Inusah Fuseini and Dr. Iddrisu Anyars, have all expressed discomfort in the collation process so far, which, they claim, was creating a lot of anxiety among their followers.

Several supporters of the candidates had stayed throughout the night expecting the final declaration of the results. Efforts to speak with the officials of the EC proved unsuccessful.

In a related development however, the joint police and military team stationed at the Tamale Central Collation Centre have saved the Presiding Officer for St. Joseph Primary AA in the Tamale Central Constituency, Mohammed Bashiru Zakaria, from being lynched by some youth of Tamale for transporting sealed ballot boxes on a motorbike without security escort.

Mohammed Bashiru Zakaria arrived at the Tamale Central Collation Centre around 3:00am, amidst suspicion from the youth, who pounced on him with an attempt to destroy the ballot boxes, but for the timely intervention of the security personnel at the entrance of the collation centre.

The police and the military, earlier, also saved two other presiding officers carrying four boxes for the presidential and parliamentary ballots from Manhalia Islamic Primary School A and Gumbihini Primary School A, which also arrived at the collation centre around 2:00am.

Some of the youth raised serious alarm about why the boxes that were expected to arrive at the Collation at 8:00pm should rather arrive after 2:00am.

Following serious agitations by the youth, who had already tampered with the boxes and were pursuing the Electoral Officials in an attempt to lynch them, but the security personnel whisked the EC officials away and kept them in a police armoured vehicle for their own safety.

But the youth succeeded in destroying the ballot boxes, which were full of thumb-printed ballot papers mainly going for President John Dramani Mahama.
09.12.2016 LISTEN



From Michael Boateng, Sunyani..

The delay in announcing certified results of both parliamentary and presidential elections held on Wednesday, December 7, 2016 has created an undue anxiety among the electorate in the Brong-Ahafo Region.

Though voting was peaceful in most of the constituencies, the delay in announcing the results seems to have created tension, as people are glued to their radio and television sets, with others arguing about who is winning based on the various provisional results being announced by the media houses.

Most of the anxious voters wondered why 19 hours after voting had closed, not a single certified result had been announced by the Electoral Commission.

Aside the Jaman North, where voting was suspended till yesterday, all the remaining 28 constituencies had a smooth voting process, with minor complaints of delays in the delivery of election materials.

As at 3:00pm yesterday, results from the constituencies were yet to be certified by the EC, but most supporters of the NPP were hopeful that their presidential candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo would win the elections, as projected by the campaign manager, Peter Mac Manu.

Though national officers of the NDC have come out to dispute the claims of the NPP of winning the elections, supporters of the NDC in parts of the Brong-Ahafo Region are still anxious, because of the NPP winning majority parliamentary seats in the region, per the provisional results.

In the year 2012, the NDC won 16 seats out of the 29 in the Brong-Ahafo Region, but per the provisional results, the NPP has maintained all the 13 seats it had, and has added almost six seats making it 19.

Brong-Ahafo, which is considered a swing region, was a major target for the NPP, and with hard work and determination, the region has fallen for them, winning majority of the parliamentary seats.

The Tano South seat, which was occupied by Hannah Bisiw, Techiman North by Alex Kyeremeh, who is the Deputy Minister of Education, Nkoranza South, Emmanuel Kwadwo Agyekum, Deputy Minister of Local Government, Tain, Kwasi Gyan-Tutu, Dormaa West, Vincent Oppong Asamoah, Deputy Minister of Sports, and Atebubu/Amantin, Sanja Nanja, have all been taken over by the NPP.

However, not all the results are certified, most of these defeated MPs have conceded per the provisional results upon their own collations.

So far, certified results available to The Chronicle are that of Sunyani East and Asunafo North, though voting was ongoing at the Jaman North Constituency, which has been invaded by top officials of both the NDC and NPP.

Sunyani East was one of the key constituencies the NPP was protecting due to the independent candidate who lost in the primaries to the incumbent with a difference of two votes.

But, despite the keen contest, the incumbent MP, Kwasi Ameyaw Cheremeh, managed to sail through with a total of 38,009 votes, as against the independent candidate, George Kumi, polling 15, 911 votes, with the NDC candidate, Kwasi Oppong Ababio, 14,549 votes.

The Sunyani Municipal Returning Officer of the EC, Yaw Badu Amaniampong, declaring the results, said the total valid votes were 69,809, rejected 536, and total ballots cast 70,345.
09.12.2016 LISTEN

Three Members of Parliament (MPs) of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Upper East Region have been booted out and will not return to parliament in January 2017.

Mr. Mark Woyongo for Navrongo Central constituency and former Upper East Regional Minister, Mr. Cletus Avoka, former Majority Leader in Parliament, and Mr. David Adakurugu of Tempane, all lost to the opposition New Patriotic Party (MPs) in the last Wednesdays presidential and parliamentary elections.

In the Zibilla constituency, Mr. Avoka lost narrowly to Dr. Frank Fuseini Adongo of the NPP, as the former polled 22,121 votes as against the latter's 22, 361 votes. In the Navrongo Central constituency, former MP Mr. Joseph Kofi Adda of the NPP recaptured the seat, after he obtained 20,667 votes, while Mr. Woyongo polled 17,203 votes.

The third loser was Mr. David Adakurugu, former District Chief Executive for Tempane and incumbent MP, who lost to a renowned lawyer in the region, Mr. Joseph Dindiok Kpemka. Mr. Kpemka polled 13, 363, while his closest contende, Adukurugu, polled 10,697 votes.



Apart from claiming these three seats, the NPP's presidential candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, also made gains by increasing his vote margin in most of the constituencies.

However, the only incumbent NPP MP in the region, Mr. Boniface Gambila of the Nabdam Constituency, lost his seat to NDC's Dr. Mark Kurt Nawaane.

One seat the NPP was tipped to win was the Bolgatanga Central constituency, where Mr. Rex Asanga was contesting with five others, including NDC's Isaac Adongo, whose win came as a surprise to many election watchers in the region and constituency.

At the end of polls on Wednesday, Mr. Adongo won the seat by polling 25,042, representing 51.41%, while Mr. Asanga polled 15,610, representing 32.04%.

Meanwhile, the mood of residents across the region was subdued, as results trickled in.

Below are results that were available at the time of filing this report.

Tempane Constituency

Parliamentary

PPP  2,306

NDC-10,697

NPP -13,363

CPP -132

Ind  2925

Rejected  885

Vote cast  30308

Total registered: 44,227

Presidential

CPP  323

NDC  14901

NDP  69

PPP  1,326

NPP- 11,737

Ind: 686

Rejected vote-1271

Total votes cast- 30,490

Parliamentary

NDC 9,250

NPP 6,360

Rejected 308

TVC 15,610

Builsa South

CPP-69

NDP-25

NDC-9,802

PPP-123

NPP-2,441

PNC-1,633

IND-91

Valid votes-14,184

Rejected-674

Parliamentary

NDC-7666

NPP-2814

PNC-4462

Valid votes-14942

Rejected-450

Mandan constituency

Presidential

CPP 65

NDP 28

NDC 9,211

PPP 87

NPP 5,983

PNC 83

IND 26

Rejected 418

Total votes cast 15,900

Parliamentary

NDC 9,250

NPP 6,360

Rejected 308

TVC 15,610

Builsa South

Presidential

CPP-69

NDP-25

NDC-9802

PPP-123

NPP-2441

PNC-1633

IND-91

VALID VOTES-14184

REJECTED-674

Parliamentary

NDC-7666

NPP-2814

PNC-4462

VALID VOTES-14942

REJECTED-450

Garu constituency

Presidential

NDC 14484,

NDP 47

NPP 8806

PNC 127

Independent 44

Parliamentary

NDC 12,899

NPP 10,856

NDP 93

CPP 48

Independent 52

From William Nlanjerbor Jalulah, Bolgatanga..
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Around Town

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Zoo News

Learn about an upcoming Lincoln Childrens Zoo-sponsored trip to Africa and its 25-year accreditation award.

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Cover Story

Silverhawk Aviation marks 25 years and introduces mid-size charter jets and a new jet card.

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Lincoln Leaders

We focus on David Haring, Lincoln Airport Authority executive director, in a new Lincoln Leaders series.

32

Travel

Hike back in time on an eight-day adventure through the English Cotswolds.

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Sesquicentennial

We celebrate Nebraskas 150th year of statehood by highlighting the Bridges traveling photo exhibit.

38

Travel Nebraska

Celebrate Nebraskas sesquicentennial by visiting destinations across the state.

44

Ask Dr. Photo

Some of the most breathtaking photo opportunities are right here in Lincoln.
Hosted by Catholic Relief Services in Addis Ababa, the consultation was the second of its kind. It drew about 40 participants, including prominent Catholic and Protestant church leaders, as well as dignitaries and representatives from the African Union Commission, United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, diplomatic community, National Independent National Electoral Commission, civil society and lecturers.

The main purpose was to raise awareness among churches about the current situation in the DRC; develop a common understanding of threats, tensions and challenges faced by the Congolese people; and mobilize partners for the ongoing international ecumenical accompaniment of DRC churches and partners. Participants also tried to reach a comparative understanding of the governance and democracy-related challenges as well as evaluate the potential role of the church in aiding and shaping democratic processes.

The opening ceremony was led by His Eminence Cardinal Berhaneyesus, metropolitan archbishop of the Ethiopian Catholic Church along with Rev. Dr Wakseyoum Idosa, president of the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus as well as a special envoy of Pope Matthias I, patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church.

In his keynote speech, Cardinal Berhaneyesus emphasized the necessity for the church leaders to pray and work together, and to unite and speak in one voice.

Idosa also spoke of unity: The kind of peace we are seeking is the peace given by Jesus Christ and the Gospel we are preaching is the one of peace and unity, Idosa said.

In a message, Pope Matthias reminded the participants that the Gospel promotes essential values and can contribute to stability in the world. The church is a source of justice and peace. Pope Matthias also pledged that such gatherings will take place so that human dignity prevails in the DRC, Uganda and Burundi.

Since the previously planned December 2016 election has already been postponed to April 2018, the consultation was considered to serve an all-round preparatory role on issues of governance, peace building and electoral processes. It was also intended to assess past attempts of the democratization processes in the DRC in comparison with other emerging African democracies.

The two-day meeting featured a series of presentations and debates as well as group discussions on the role of the Congolese church and regional ecumenical assemblies in the electoral and political transitional process.

The consultation also served as a platform for common action of churches in the DRC towards peace and stability. These common actions were described in a communique that highlights church commitment and a call for action for peace building in the central African state.
Former Secretary General of UN, Kofi Annan has called on presidential candidates who have lost the elections to concede defeat as quickly as possible to defuse tensions.

In the spirit of democracy, I call on the losers to concede as quickly as possible to defuse tensions and allay uncertainties, he said in a statement.

Kofi Annan in the statement also congratulated the five candidates who have already conceded defeat in light of the preliminary results and clear trends.

Presidential Candidates who have so far conceded defeat are Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, Ivor Greenstreet, Edward Mahama,Jacob Osei Yeboah and Papa Kwesi Nduom.

He further called on presidential candidates to remain calm until the announcement of the final results by the Electoral Commission.According to him, there is no reason for incitement.

While congratulating the Electoral Commission and its staff for conducting a good election on 7 December, worthy of our democratic tradition he also commended the support and the diligence of the electoral observers national and international.

According to him,  the people of Ghana are waiting and watching, let's not disappoint them.

Kofi Annan's plea for various candidates to concede defeat comes hours after President Mahama said the NDC will accept results of this election whether it goes in favour or against the party.



By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

Follow @EfeAnsah
I want to congratulate the Election Commission, its staff and the people of Ghana for conducting a good election on 7 December, worthy of our democratic tradition. I also applaud the support and the diligence of the electoral observers  national and international.

I call on the candidates, their parties and their supporters to remain calm until the announcement of the final results by the Election Commission. There is no reason for incitement.

In the spirit of democracy, I call on the losers to concede as quickly as possible to defuse tensions and allay uncertainties. Let me take this opportunity to congratulate the five candidates who have already done so in light of the preliminary results and clear trends.

The people of Ghana are waiting and watching, lets not disappoint them.

This statement is also available on the website of the Kofi Annan Foundation.
ACCRA, Ghana  The National Democratic Institute (NDI) today released its preliminary statement of findings and recommendations from its international election observation mission to Ghana's presidential and parliamentary elections of December 7, 2016.

The NDI delegation applauds the people of Ghana for the largely peaceful conduct of these elections, despite earlier apprehensions of political tensions and violence, said Ambassador Johnnie Carson, co-leader of NDIs observation mission. Ghana has underscored its status as a beacon for democracy in the region and, though not without challenges, remains a laudable example for the entire continent.

The delegation stresses that official election results are not yet complete, and its statement therefore is preliminary in nature. The delegation calls on Ghanaian political parties and candidates to cooperate in good faith with the Electoral Commission and for the results to be expeditiously released. Ultimately it is the people of Ghana who will determine the credibility of the elections, and political leaders should respect the peoples will expressed in the December 7 polls.

The preliminary statement commends the Electoral Commission for its notable improvements since the 2012 polls, and it expresses appreciation for the efforts of other election stakeholders, exemplified by the Accra Declaration for peaceful polls, signed on December 1 by all presidential candidates.

The preliminary statement highlights aspects of voter participation, election administration, and security. NDIs delegation notes that, overall, voting was peaceful, orderly and well-organized as executed by trained polling officials. Most voters were well-informed about the process and turned out in large numbers.

The delegations preliminary statement provides recommendations to the government of Ghana, the Electoral Commission, political parties and candidates, civil society and the media, and security forces. The recommendations focus on promoting peace, expanding communications, and increasing womens participation. These include:

political leaders calling publicly on their supporters to respond peacefully to the ECs announcement of election results and to seek redress through legal avenues should there be reason for electoral complaints or disputes;

mitigating political polarization and rancorous conflict between parties by creating mechanisms for ongoing dialogue across party lines both in and outside of the normal legislative context;

organizing a thorough post-election review of the conduct of the 2016 elections and adopting appropriate recommendations to attain and consolidate best practices;

initiating electoral reform early in the next legislature;

actively facilitating womens participation by creating an enabling environment for meaningful political leadership opportunities for women; and

disbanding vigilante groups and calling on youth to engage peacefully in political processes.

The NDI Ghana observer delegation comprised 30 political and civic leaders, elections experts, and regional specialists from 14 countries. Delegation leadership was as follows: Amb. Johnnie Carson, former assistant secretary for African Affairs, U.S. State Department, and member of the board of directors of NDI; Hon. J. Yvonne Mokgoro, former justice, South African Constitutional Court; Dr. Christopher Fomunyoh, senior associate and regional director for Africa, NDI; and Dr. Pat Merloe, senior associate and director of elections, NDI.

NDIs election observation for the December 7 elections included two pre-election assessment missions in August and October 2016, the statements of which can be found at www.ndi.org/ghana . The delegation conducted its activities in accordance with Ghanaian law and the Declaration of Principles for International Election Observation, and collaborated with other international observer missions that endorse the Declaration.

NDIs international election observation mission in Ghana is funded by a grant from the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor of the U.S. Department of State. The Institutes pre-election missions were funded by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).
Former Secretary General of UN, Kofi Annan has called on presidential candidates to remain calm until the announcement of the final results by the Electoral Commission.

According to him, there is no reason for incitement.

EC conducted good election

Kofi Annan in a statement also congratulated the Electoral Commission and its staff for conducting a good election on 7 December, worthy of our democratic tradition.

I also applaud the support and the diligence of the electoral observers national and international,he added.

According to him,  the people of Ghana are waiting and watching, let's not disappoint them.

Kofi Annan further congratulated the five candidates who had already conceded defeat in light of the preliminary results and clear trends.

In the spirit of democracy, I call on the losers to concede as quickly as possible to defuse tensions and allay uncertainties, he added.



By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

Follow @EfeAnsah
09.12.2016 LISTEN

By GNA Team

Accra, Dec. 9, GNA - President John Dramani Mahama on Friday gave the assurance that he would respect the outcome of last Wednesday's elections, 'whether positive or negative'.

He was addressing supporters of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) who had called on him at his residence in Accra.

'We are a party that respects the rule of law', President Mahama emphasised.

He said as the party in government, members and supporters of the NDC would have a lot to lose if the country was thrown into a state of instability.

He urged them to remain calm and await the final declaration of results by the Electoral Commission.

GNA
NEW YORK, ACCRA, Dec. 9, (UPI/GNA) - President-elect Donald Trump is expected to name a fast-food executive who is a critic of Obamacare and raising the federal minimum wage as secretary of labor, sources with knowledge of the decision said.

Andy Puzder, chief executive of CKE Restaurants Holdings Inc., the parent company of the Carl's Jr. and Hardee's burger chains, will be nominated for the position, sources told The Wall Street Journal. The New York Times also reported the selection from people close to Trump's transition team.

Puzer, 66, has spent his entire career in the private sector.

He opposes several policies of the Obama administration, including repealing of the Affordable Care Act, which he said has led to a "restaurant recession" because rising premiums left many people with less money to spend dining out.

He also supports reducing regulations, which he claims has hurt growth in the restaurant industry.

Puzder is on the board of the International Franchise Association, a trade group that has criticized the Obama administration.

He has served as chief executive officer at CKE since September 2000.

The burger chains have a combined 3,750 locations in 44 states, and 40 countries and U.S. territories. The company is in the process of consolidating its headquarters in Nashville, Tenn. Carl's Jr. was based in Carpinteria, Calif., near Santa Barbara, and Hardee's was in St. Louis.

CKE has about 75,000 employees in the United States, and nearly 100,000 worldwide, including franchises, with total sales of more than $4.3 billion.

Roark Capital purchased CKE from Apollo Global Management in December 2013.

Advertisements for CKE restaurants have been provocative, often featuring scantily clad models and actresses eating menu items.

"I like our ads," he told the publication Entrepreneur. "I like beautiful women eating burgers in bikinis. I think it's very American."

Puzder received his juris doctorate in 1978 from Washington University School of Law in St. Louis and he was a trial attorney from 1978 to 1991 in St. Louis, according to a bio on the CKR website. He then served as the personal attorney of Carl Karcher, the founder of the Carl's Jr., in California. Later he moved to Nashville.

GNA
By Bajin D. Pobia, GNA

Bole, (UW) Dec.9, GNA - The Department of Social Welfare in the Bole District has registered 837 Persons with Disabilities (PWDs).

Four hundred of them are males, Mr. Stephen Mensah, the District Director, announced this at this year's World Disability Day celebration, at Bole.

According to the statistics, 155 of the PWDs made of 93 males and 62 females have been to school to at least the primary level.

It indicates that 666 of the total, however, have attended school at some level before.

They comprise 108 males and 486 females.

It indicates that 50 of them have been trained in mobile phone repairs.

Mr Mensah said 23 students from the School for the Deaf and School for the Blind, in Wa, had been supported with GHE5,070.00, from the two per cent of the PWDs share of the District Assemblies Common Fund.

Twenty-eight students from both secondary and tertiary institutions were also supported to pay their fees with an amount GHE11,000.00.

Mr. Mensah said 141 PWDs from Bamboi, Tinga, Maluwe, Jama, Mankuma and Kakiasi communities received GHE39,330.00, while14 others were also assisted with GHE7,500.00 from the PWDs share of the District Assemblies Common Fund.

The Association of persons with disabilities, made up of the Gonjaland Federation of Disables, Ghana Blind Union and National Association of the Deaf, had also been provided with GHE13,540.00.

Mr. Mensah said there was the need to focus on educating, training and supporting PWDs to help empower them as many of them had talents and potentials to develop for the benefit of society.

He appealed to the public to be forthcoming to support 'PWDs but pleaded that, that support should not be in the form of sympathy'.

'It looks like society is gradually beginning to accept that disability is not spiritual,' he said.

Previously people in remote communities held the view that a disabled child was a sign of bad omen or a curse not only to the parents but the entire community.

Such disabled children were considered as 'evil children' who were not fit to live in the communities and were, therefore, abandoned in the forest or thrown into rivers or even killed.

A few who were allowed to survive face stiff stigmatisation, discrimination, abuse and exclusion.

Disability occurs as a result of birth defect or deformity due to disease or accident.

'Disability is not spiritual or a curse, therefore, the stigmatisation, discrimination and exclusion must end now,' he said.

GNA
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, ACCRA, Dec. 9, (UPI/GNA) - Populist and far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders was convicted of hate speech charges Friday near Amsterdam. The judges said no sentence will be imposed.

Wilders, 53, leader of the Party for Freedom, was found guilty by a three-judge panel of inciting discrimination and "insulting a group" for a 2014 incident broadcast on national television, in which he led a chant at a political rally in The Hague; to the question "Do you want more or fewer Moroccans in the city and in the Netherlands?" he and the crowd shouted "Fewer, fewer."

That action was enough to get Wilders convicted of hate speech charges, although Judge Hendrik Steenhuis said no sentence would be issued and that the conviction alone was sufficient punishment for a prominent politician. The trial was conducted on a military base near Amsterdam's Schiphol airport to ensure the security of Wilders, as well as that of the judges and the prosecutors; Wilders has a long history of inflammatory remarks and is under constant protection.

Wilders is the leader of a political party forecast to dramatically improve its representation in the Netherlands' legislatures in March election. Under the slogan "Make the Netherlands Great Again," his popularity has increased since the election of Donald Trump as U.S. President-elect. Inflammatory remarks regarding Islam, immigration and Dutch minority groups are typical elements of Wilders' speeches.

Wilders was not present in court when the verdict was announced. Since the trial began Oct. 31, he appeared in court only once, during his defense team's closing arguments; his comments in court, in Dutch, were published in English on his website.

"I need to use the only freedom that I still have to protect our country against Islam and against terrorism. Against immigration from Islamic countries. Against the huge problem with Moroccans in the Netherlands. I cannot remain silent about it; I have to speak out. Not a single nationality is a race. Belgians are no race, Americans are no race. Stop this nonsense, I say to the public prosecutor. I am not a racist, and my voters are neither."

GNA
09.12.2016 LISTEN

Winneba (C/R), Dec. 9, GNA - The University of Education, Winneba (UEW) has introduced new masters and degree programmes for postgraduate and undergraduate students to promote academic excellence.

Professor Mawutor Avoke, Vice Chancellor of the University, made this known at the 21st Congregation of the university.

New programmes such as M. Phil (Early Childhood Education) are running and heavily subscribed and the university intended to introduce courses such as Masters in Agriculture Education, Masters in Environment and Occupational Health, Bachelor of Science in Natural Resources, B'Sc in Agric Business Management and Entrepreneurship, B'Sc in Chemistry Education and B'Sc in Information and Communication and Technology (ICT).

Prof. Avoke said the university had also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the University Collage Capital (UCC) in Denmark where exchange programmes would be done between the two universities.

He said the MOU expanded the existing agreement between the two institutions to accommodate inbound and outbound mobility of students and faculty.

Prof. Avoke said some students from the College of Technology Education in Kumasi were in Swedru on the UEW and Hamistad University exchange programme.

He said the University of Education was expected to receive three students from Hamistad University next year as part of the MOU exchange programme.

A total of 8,578 students were awarded degrees, diplomas and certificates.

The event saw the graduation of 8,578 students at various levels: 927 Postgraduate students, 4,789 Bachelor of Education students; 2,779 Diploma and 83 certificate students. GNA
YORK A man granted a second trial in the death of his infant daughter has taken a plea deal instead.

Ryan Kozisek, formerly of Gresham, pleaded no contest this week to attempted child abuse. Prosecutors had lowered the charge and dropped another.

In March, the Nebraska Appeals Court said Kozisek should get a retrial because an admission of opinion made by his ex-wife regarding his involvement in the baby's death was prejudicial. The baby died Jan. 25, 2011, a day after Kozisek called 911 to report she wasn't breathing.

He entered the plea on Tuesday. The agreement includes a sentencing recommendation from both parties that Kozisek get 35 to 40 years in prison, rather than the 35-50 he previously faced. His sentencing is set for Jan. 9.
This weeks CNN Marketplace Africa sees host Zain Asher interview Cosmas Maduka, founder of Nigerian conglomerate Coscharis Group.

Asked about where the seeds of his success originate from, Maduka tells CNN about the apprenticeship he undertook: This apprenticeship time was the best moment of my life. My brain was open, sharp. When people were going to university I was selling auto components.

Describing his first business venture, he explains: I opened my first auto component sales, because this is my area of core competence. I had one quarter of a shop, something that is not more than this corner of a wall somebody gave me, with six months for free of charge. I started keeping merchandise here. Come into Lagos, buy it, and go to the eastern part of Nigeria, selling. I earned enough money to own a store myself.

Asked whether Nigeria will export cars in the future, Maduka says: I see Nigeria exporting cars in the next 15 years. Our neighbours would be willing to buy from us. Many car manufacturers would like to use Nigeria as a hub There's a market that exists within this country that will fill in Ghana, Gabon, Cameroon, all the neighbouring West African countries, all of them will take possession from Nigeria.
The Chief Executive Officer(CEO) of Print Aid Foundation(PAF) in Accra,Mr.Coby Asmah says his outfit is poised to partner the charity Amoah Memorial school complex at Adientem to equip the school with the state of the art technology to produce astronauts, doctors, engineers and make the school one of the best in the Western Region.

He therefore challenged the students to have the zeal and the urge to learn more about the computer and be in tune with modern technology to be able to compete favourably in a globalized village.

Mr. Asmah gave the advice when his outfit made a presentation of 10 computers and the award of scholarships to 2 students of the school at Adientem,a suburb of Takoradi in the Western Region.

The donation forms part of the first in a series of presentations to ten(10) schools in the country by PAF, a printing firm in Accra.Making the presentation,Mr.Asmah charged the students to take advantage of the computers to be part of a globalized world.

The CEO said it was the commitment of PAF to ensure that children who do not have access to education will now have to compete with the outside world through enhance modern technology.

In another development ,PAF made a scholarship package to the parents of the two students namely,Emmanuella Elorm Amo of JHS form two and Seth Dentu Gyampo,a basic four four pupil.

Under the scholarship package ,PAF is to pay GHC840 to cover the fees of Seth and GHC990 for Emmanuella for a period of one year which is subject to renewal if they continue to produce good academic results.

Presenting the cheque to both parents which covered their school fees fro the 2016/2017 academic year,Mr. Asmah appealed parents of the two students to motivate their children to learn extra harder at home.

Receiving the cheque,parents of the two, Messrs.'Victor Gyampo and Luis Amo thanked the Foundation and promised to monitor the children to learn at home to justify the package they have received.

The headmaster of the school,Mr. Mathias Broohm, a retired educationist,appealed to ICT instructors to teach the children very well to be able to access relevant information from the internet to enhance academic output.

He said the school was yet to register with the West African Examination Council(WAEC) to write its maiden Basic Education Certificate Examination(BECE) next year and used the occasion to appeal to the students to learn harder to produce better results.

The chairman of the school management board,Rev.Jonathan Yaw Amoako appealed to government to assist private schools since they play a pivotal role in national development.

He said in spite of the challenges,private schools have excelled over the years and asked government to assist the school with some basic educational inputs and a vehicle.

The Proprietress of the school, madam Faustina Amoah said the school would provide a solid foundation for children through good quality education delivery and assist them to unearth their innate potentialities to advance the cause of humanity.

The school which was established in 1996 at Sekondi with only one child, can now boast of a current population of 124 at its new location at Adientem in Takoradi.
The Commonwealth Observer Mission has given Ghana high marks for the conduct of the 2016 Presidential and Parliamentary elections.

Head of the Mission, former South African President, Thabo Mbeki, lauded the Electoral Commission (EC), the police, the National Peace Council and Civil Society Organisations (CSO) for working towards a successful process.

He said events leading to the general elections on December 7 and 8, 2016 and during the elections were peaceful.

Media coverage was balanced and journalists conducted themselves well despite occasional excesses, the mission observed.

It is our hope that by bringing the electoral process to a successful conclusion, Ghana will again serve as an inspiration and beacon as the rising tide of democracy throughout the Commonwealth, he said at a press conference Friday.

The provisional results from the keenly contested presidential and parliamentary elections on Wednesday and Thursday put opposition presidential candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo, in the lead with more than 500,000 votes, beating incumbent president John Mahama.

The EC is yet to declare final results.

Anticipation for the results is heightening tension in the camps of the incumbent National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) who are both claiming victory.

We appeal to all Ghanaians to refrain from making any utterances or performing any acts that could trigger violence or adversely affect the electoral environment.

If any dispute should arise concerning the elections, it should be addressed through the approved legal channels, Thabo Mbeki advised.

-Myjoyonline
09.12.2016 LISTEN

MATTHEW 12:22-32; EPHESIANS 4:25-32

I. BLASPHEMY AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT: MATTHEW 12:31-32

Of all the sins humans commit against the Holy Spirit none is worse than that of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. The reason for this is obvious: It is the only sin for which there is no forgiveness.

Before we consider this passage, I would like to make several observations. First, if you are a true Christian, you cannot commit the sin of the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. A saved person cannot commit the unpardonable sin. Second, Christians commit all other sins against the Holy Spirit. We can repent of them, be forgiven, and make a new start. Third, unbelievers commit the unpardonable sin. Sometimes when some Christians go through emotional distress, they conclude that they have committed the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. However, your distress and concern about it is a positive proof that you have not committed the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Evidently, those who have committed such a sin have no concern or care about it. The blasphemy against the Holy Spirit was committed by enemies of Jesus Christ when they accused Him of casting out demons by the power of Satan.

Jesus had clearly stated that He cast out the demon by the power of God. What exactly did Jesus mean when He said that there is no forgiveness for the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit? In verse 31, Jesus promises that all manner of sin and blasphemy will be forgiven you and me. He says that God will forgive all kinds of sins, some of them quite serious. You and I that are Christians know this is true. For example, David committed many sins, some of them quite serious. He committed adultery with Bathsheba. He murdered her husband Uriah. Pride caused David to organize a census of the nation of Israel and the wrath of God came upon him and the people. But David confessed his sins and God forgave him. Think about Simon Peter who boasted of his devotion and commitment to Jesus, and then denied with curses that he knew the Lord Jesus. But Peter confessed his sin and God forgave him. The Apostle Paul said he was a blasphemer. He was also involved in the persecution and murder of Christians. But Paul repented and God forgave him. You and I can even include our names and sins, but when you and I confessed and repented of our sins, God forgave us.

But Jesus said there is a sin that a person can commit for which there is no forgiveness. This sin is the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. How can you know that you have not committed the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, which is the unpardonable sin? If you continue to be under the disturbing, convicting, and drawing power of the Holy Spirit, you have not committed the unpardonable sin. But if you have continually resisted the Holy Spirit that He no longer strives with you, then there is eternal danger. The unpardonable sin involves the total and irrevocable rejection of Jesus Christ.

God has three witnesses to the human heart (soul) calling you to salvation. There is the witness of God the Father. The Jews had heard the witness of John the Baptist. This was the Fathers witness to them and they rejected it. Then there is the witness of God the Son. The Lord Jesus came to earth. He walked among us. He lived a perfect life. The Jews saw the witness of the Son but they rejected Him. Now Jesus declares that there is one more witness. The Holy Spirit bears witness. He is Gods final call to the human soul. Therefore, the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is the deliberate, defiant, and definite choice to reject Gods offer of salvation. This is often done with the words spoken against the Holy Spirit. Now here is the caution: you and I should not be going around telling people that they have committed the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Neither are we to label anybody as beyond the grace and forgiveness of God. You and I should urge people everywhere to repent and turn to Jesus, since we do not know when the Spirit has stopped dealing with them. The danger this poses for some of you who attend church is this: You may be attending church on regular basis but when the preaching of Gods word convicts you of sin, you deliberately leave the sanctuary as if you are looking for something. There are some of you that you come under the conviction of the Holy Spirit but when the invitation is given you continue to sit down instead of responding to Gods word. You know deep in your heart that you need to respond to the word of God, but you intentionally refuse. If this persists in your life, you are not far from eternal danger. After all, those who accused Jesus of casting out demons with the power of Satan were not sinners, prostitutes, murderers, and tax collectors. They were the religious people who had no room in their heart for Jesus and the supernatural. They frequented the Temple and yet they were spiritually bankrupt. Therefore, be careful that you do not resist the conviction of the Holy Spirit in your heart.

II. GRIEVING THE HOLY SPIRIT: EPHESIANS 4:30-32

We now come to the sins that Christians can commit. The first is the sin of grieving the Holy Spirit. The admonition Do not grieve the Holy Spirit is a command from God to Christians. Gods Spirit lives in believers to separate us from the world. As I have said often times, the only difference between Christians and non-Christians is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is Gods seal or mark of the believer for the day of redemption. This is what we call sanctification, which means that God has set you and me apart from the lost world. The Holy Spirit wants to make real in your life everything Jesus has done for you. The Christian experience is intended to produce a Christian life. It involves a complete overhaul on the inside. He wants to cleanse and change you. The Holy Spirit comes in with dumpster and begins hauling out the garbage of your old life. Your life begins to show those characteristics, which will produce Christlikeness. However, it is possible to hinder the Spirits work in your life. The word of God in Ephesians 4:30 addresses this danger. You can grieve the Holy Spirit to the point that He will not be able to do what He wants to do in making you like Jesus. You may hurt or anger someone who has no affection for you, but you can grieve only a person who loves you.

God shows us how we grieve the Holy Spirit by our speech (telling lies), emotions (anger), our hands (stealing), and unwholesome speech. Speech is a wonderful gift of God. It is one of our human capacities, which reflects our likeness to God. For our God speaks, and like Him we also speak. Speech distinguishes us from the animal creation. Cows can moo, dogs bark, donkeys bray, pigs grunt, lambs bleat, lions roar, monkeys squeal, and birds sing, but only humans can speak. So the word of God says, Let no unwholesome speech proceed from your mouth. The word unwholesome ( sapros ) is used of rotten trees and rotten fruit. When applied to rotten talk, whether this is dishonest, unkind, or vulgar, you may be sure that in some way it hurts the hearers. When you use your unique gift of speech destructively, you grieve the Holy Spirit. Jesus taught the great significance of speech. He said that our words reveal what is in our hearts, and He said that we have to give account on judgment day of every careless word we have uttered (Matt. 12:33-37). But the grieving of the Holy Spirit is not limited to unwholesome speech. There are many more. What Ephesians 4:30 reveals is that the Holy Spirit is a person, and as such He can be grieved. The word, grieve means to cause sorrow, pain, or distress, and only persons can feel these things. What grieves the Holy Spirit? Ungodliness grieves the Holy Spirit; disunity grieves the Holy Spirit.

However, every Spirit-filled believer desires to bring the Holy Spirit pleasure, not pain. When you grieve the Holy Spirit, He withholds His peace, joy, gladness of heart, and illumination of the things of Christ. You begin to experience a spiritual fog in the things of Christ. Job 35:6 ask a poignant question: If you have sinned what do you accomplish against Him? And if your transgressions are many, what do you do to Him? Have someone you love dearly done something that hurt you? Remember how it made you feel? When you hurt someone you love, you apologize or ask for forgiveness. Some of you need to say that to the Holy Spirit. Paul lists six things that grieve the Holy Spirit. This is not an exhaustive list. Bitterness , a sour spirit and a sour speech grieve the Holy Spirit. Wrath and anger , passionate rage and settled and sullen hostility grieve the Holy Spirit. Clamor describes people who get excited, raise their voices in a quarrel and start screaming at each other. This grieves the Holy Spirit. Slander is the speaking of evil of others, especially behind their backs to defame and destroy their reputation. The Bible says that this also grieves the Holy Spirit. Slander is the synonym of blasphemy (Blasphemia). Malice is ill will, wishing and probably plotting evil against somebody with the intention to hurt him/her. This also grieves the Holy Spirit. The list is endless. When you grieve the Holy Spirit your daily devotion and prayers are hindered.

III. QUENCHING THE HOLY SPIRIT: 1 THESS. 5:16-19

The blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is a sin that only an unbeliever can commit. Grieving and quenching the Spirit are sins that believers commit. What does it mean to quench the Spirit? Pauls terse admonition is this: Do not quench the Spirit. The word, quench means to put out, to stifle, or to smother. It can be paraphrased, dont suppress the Spirit, or stop suppressing the Spirit. The term quench is pertinent to the Scriptures reference to the Holy Spirit as fire. When you quench the Spirit, you put the fire out. This does not mean you expel the Holy Spirit from your life, but you extinguish the love and power of the Holy Spirit in such a way that He cannot carry out Gods purpose in and through your life. To put it differently, you suppress the work of the Holy Spirit in your life. In order to serve God better, the Holy Spirit gives us spiritual gifts. The Holy Spirit then provides us with power to serve in these ministries and to exercise these gifts to the glory of God and for the good of others. One beautiful biblical symbol for the Holy Spirit is fire (Matt. 3:11). In the O.T. the prophet Isaiah refers to Gods Spirit as fire burning (Isaiah 4:4). However, you may quench the Spirit in a number of ways. Let me give you two examples by way of warning. First, a fire goes out when the fuel supply is withdrawn. When you dont use the means of grace, when you fail to pray, witness, and read the Bible, the fire of the Holy Spirit is quenched. A second way to put out fire is to extinguish it by throwing water on it or smothering it with a blanket, or a shovel full of dirt. In a similar way, willful sin quenches the fire. When you criticize, act unkindly, belittle the work of others by careless and unappreciative words, you smother the fire and put it out.

You can render your service to the Lord Jesus Christ ineffective by suppressing the fire of the Spirit of God. Some believers put wet blanket of indifference and sin on the fire of the Spirit. God may have gifted you with music, as a teacher, or an encourager but you are not putting these gifts to use. Churches need more teachers to teach young boys and girls the truth of Gods Word. Churches need musicians but you are sitting on your gift. You are quenching the Holy Spirit in your life. In 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, first it says, Rejoice always. Therefore, you quench the Spirit if you fail to rejoice in the Lord, as you should. All of us have burdens, but if you are not careful you can dwell on the burdens and forget the blessings. If you are a prayerless believer, if you do not demonstrate an attitude of gratitude, you are quenching the Spirit. Grieving and quenching the Spirit are what we call the sin of commission and omission .

A boy left home to work in a city. He promised his mom he would go to church on Sundays. The first Sunday his new friends invited him to go horseback riding. Remembering his promise, he refused at first. But then he relented at their insistence. Sunday morning came. As he began his horseback ride with his new friends, he remembered church back home. He could see his parents heading to the home church and remembered his promise. As he approached the middle of town on horseback, church bell invited him to the services. He continued to ride.

As he reached the outskirts of town, the bells grew fainter and fainter. He stopped. He said, Guys, I come from a Christian home. I promised my mom I will go to church today. I noticed the bells are getting fainter the farther we go. A little more and I will ride beyond the sound of the bells. Excuse me, but Im going back while I can still hear the bells.

The bells of the Holy Spirit are ringing in your ears. Perhaps you heard them in childhood. The bells are ringing. As a young person, you heard the bells ringingCome to Jesus, come to Jesus. Now you are older and wiser. You can still hear the bells, but they are getting weaker. You may be getting close to the point where you will never hear the bells again. Come to Jesus while you can still hear the bells!
Kano (Nigeria) (AFP) - Two female suicide bombers struck at a busy market in Nigeria on Friday, killing at least 30 people, the military said, in the latest bloodshed to hit the country's restive northeast.

While there was no immediate claim of responsibility, the blasts bore all the hallmarks of Boko Haram, which regularly uses women and young girls to carry out suicide attacks in its seven-year insurgent campaign in the troubled region.

"At least 30 people have been killed in the suicide blasts carried out by two female suicide bombers in the market," military spokesman Badare Akintoye told AFP.

"Several people have been injured in the attack," said Akintoye by phone from a military base in the town of Mubi, 100 kilometres (60 miles) away.

A local government official and the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) confirmed the attack.

"The two bombers who (were) disguised as customers, detonated their suicide belts at the section of the market selling grains and second-hand clothing," said Yusuf Muhammad, the chairman of Madagali local government.

"We still don't have the exact number of those injured but they are many."

The attack on Madagali, which was recaptured by Nigerian forces from Boko Haram jihadists in 2015, was the third time the town has been targeted since December last year when two female suicide bombers killed scores.

Market trader Habu Ahmad said Friday's blasts happened around 9:30 am (0830 GMT).

"It was dead bodies and wounded people in the midst of blood, spilt grain and abandoned personal effects," he said.

'Under control'

Ibrahim Abdulkadir, NEMA spokesman for the northeast, said rescue teams had been deployed to the scene.

"We heard there was a twin-blast in a market at Madagali this morning. Our men are on (the) ground evacuating the victims," he told AFP. "We still don't have details of casualties."

He said security agents had cordoned off the scene of the explosions.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari condemned the attack in a statement on Friday, vowing to put "an end to this senseless loss of innocent lives."

"This latest attack is obviously an act of desperation, but the Nigerian military will neither be distracted nor relent," he said.

He urged Nigerians to be more vigilant and immediately report any suspicious activity to the nearest security agents.

"The battle against terrorism is a joint effort involving all citizens, both government and governed.

"Together, Nigerians can and will defeat the evil that is Boko Haram," he added.

Buhari had told a security conference in Senegal on Wednesday that the situation in the region was "under control".

Boko Haram is seeking to impose a hardline Islamic legal system on Nigeria's mainly-Muslim north. Its campaign of violence has killed at least 20,000 people and displaced some 2.6 million since 2009.

Nigeria's military campaign against the jihadists is increasingly bogged down as it confronts suicide attacks, looting and indiscriminate slaughter.

The United Nations has warned that the affected region faces the "largest crisis in Africa".

The UN estimates that 14 million people will need outside help in 2017 because of the ongoing violence, particularly in Borno State, the epicentre of the rebellion.
09.12.2016 LISTEN

By Stephen Asante, GNA

Kumasi, Dec 09, GNA - The National Peace Council (NPC) has called for all to be measured in everything they do and avoid getting carried by emotions as the nation readied for the official declaration of the outcome of the presidential polls by the Electoral Commission (EC).

It asked that everybody stepped back from engaging in taunts and making fun of their losing political opponents.

This was contained in a press statement issued by the Council and signed by its Ashanti Regional Chairman, Professor Seth Opuni Asiama, a copy of which was made available to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Kumasi.

It said nobody should overindulged or acted provocatively.

The statement advised the people to demonstrate high sense of political maturity and patriotism.

The Council expressed worry over the excessive jubilation by some people even before the official declaration of the results.

It applauded all for the different roles and contribution they made to ensure the peaceful and successful conduct of the general election.

It reminded the people to be peace-loving and reject anything, which would fuel tension.

GNA
09.12.2016 LISTEN

By Amadu Kamil Sanah, GNA

Accra, Dec. 9, GNA - Mr Tamas Meszerics, the Chief Observer of the European Union Election Observation Mission (EU EOM), says Ghana's Presidential and Parliamentary elections is generally well-administered and transparent.

He said the well-administered and transparent election held in Ghana by the Electoral Commission (EC) had escaped the violence which many had feared.

At a press conference in Accra on Friday, the Chief Observer, in a preliminary report, said Ghana held a competitive but overall well-managed election.

The EU EOM added that the misuse of incumbency including unequal access to state media and unaccountable campaign financing were areas Ghana could address in future.

Mr Meszerics, who is a member of the European Parliament, said: 'In the evolution of its democracy since 1992, Ghana has passed the benchmark for credible, inclusive and transparent elections. From now it can focus on those areas which continue to give rise for concern.'

He said the EU EOM deployed 24 long-term observers to all 10 regions of Ghana on November 6 with their activities complemented by 32 short-term observers deployed on December 4.

The observers, he said, were joined by 16 observers from EU and EU-partner embassies in Ghana and delegation of six members of the European Parliament.

Mr Eduard Kukan, the Head of the EU Parliament Delegation, said: 'The day after the results are announced, everyone has to play their respective roles, both government and opposition, in a constructive way for the benefit of all Ghanaians and the future prosperity of the country.

'We believe that the future would be better served by greater participation of women in the highest levels of Ghana's political life. From a big field of presidential and parliamentary candidates, we saw too few women, which is a symptom of culture and systemic impediment and exclusion,' Mr Kukan said.

The EU EOM observers follow the entire electoral process in Ghana before, during and after voting including any disputes that may subsequently arise.

A final report will be presented some two months after the announcement of results.

GNA
By GNA Team

Accra, Dec. 9, GNA - Information coming in from the camp of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo indicates that President John Dramani Mahama has conceded to the New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer in last Wednesday's Presidential race.

President Mahama is said to have had a telephone conversation with Nana Addo around 20:00 hours of Friday during which he congratulated the NPP leader for his outstanding performance in the just-ended polls.

President Mahama also allegedly pledged to put his expertise and support at the disposal of the next NPP Administration.

Supporters of the NPP who were gathered at the residence of the party leader are reported to have burst out in a spontaneous cheer and jubilation when news about the telephone conversation filtered out.

GNA
09.12.2016 LISTEN

Accra , Dec 09, GNA - Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was born and raised in Ga-Maami (Accra Central) and in the Nima area of Accra. His father's residence, Betty House at Korle Wokon in Accra, was effectively the headquarters of the country's first political party, the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC), after it was formed at Saltpond on 4 August 1947.

Three of the 'Big Six' - the founding fathers of Ghana - were his relatives: J.B. Danquah (grand uncle), William Ofori-Atta (uncle) and Edward Akufo-Addo (the third Chief Justice of Ghana and later ceremonial President of the Republic from 1969 to 1972), (his father).

Akufo-Addo received his primary education first at the Government Boys School, Adabraka, and later at the Rowe Road School (now Kimbu), both in Accra Central.

He went to England to study for his O-Level and A-Level examinations at Lancing College, Sussex. He returned to Ghana in 1962 to teach at Accra Academy Secondary School, before going to read Economics at the University of Ghana, Legon, in 1964, earning a BSc(Econ) degree in 1967. He subsequently studied law in the UK and was called to the English Bar (Middle Temple) in July 1971. Akufo-Addo was called to the Ghana bar in July 1975.

LEGAL AND BUSINESS CAREER

Akufo-Addo stayed in France for five years as a lawyer at the now-defunct New York-based international law firm, Coudert Brothers. Apart from the welcome exposure to the dynamics of international corporate transactions, his stay in France also made him fluent in French.

In 1975, he returned home to Accra to continue with his legal career. He joined the chambers of U.V. Campbell from 1975 to 1979, and in 1979 co-founded the law firm Akufo-Addo, Prempeh & Co., which has become one of the prominent law firms in Ghana. Some Ghanaian lawyers who passed through his law firm are among the most outstanding lawyers at the Ghanaian bar today. They include Sophia Akuffo, Justice of the Supreme Court; Joyce Darko; Daniel Afari Yeboah; Philip Addison; Joe Ghartey, a former Attorney General and Minister for Justice; Alex Quaynor; Frank Davies; Kweku Paintsil; Ursula Owusu; Atta Akyea, Akufo-Addo's successor as MP for Abuakwa South constituency; Akoto Ampaw; Yoni Kulendi; Kwame Akuffo; Kwaku Asirifi; and Godfred Dame.

Like the 'Doyen of Gold Coast politics', J. B. Danquah, and others before him, Akufo-Addo used his law practice to champion the cause of human rights, rule of law, justice, freedom, and democracy. He was well known for giving free legal assistance to the poor and fought for the rights and liberties of the Ghanaian people. Indeed, many of the important constitutional cases of the modern era, which, inter alia, protected the independence of the judiciary, the right of the citizen to demonstrate without police permit, and the right of equal access of all political parties to the State-owned media, were undertaken by him.

Akufo-Addo has served on the boards and committees of a number of political, legal, commercial, and social organizations in the country. He was the first Chairperson of DHL (GH) Ltd; Chairperson, Kinesec Communications (Co) Ltd., publishers of The Statesman; and the first Chairperson of the Ghana Committee on Human and Peoples' Rights. He was responsible, through his association with the US company, Millicom, for introducing mobile telephony into the country.

POLITICAL CAREER

In his early thirties, Akufo-Addo was the General Secretary of the broad-based People's Movement for Freedom and Justice (PMFJ), which was composed of political stalwarts such as Akwasi Amankwa Afrifa, William Ofori-Atta, Komla Agbeli Gbedemah, Albert Adu Boahen, Sam Okudzeto, Obed Asamoah, Godfrey Agama, K. S. P. Jantuah, Jones Ofori-Atta, Johnny Hanson and Nii Amaah Amartefio ("Mr. No"). This group led the "NO" campaign in the UNIGOV referendum of 1978, designed to solicit popular support for a one-party military-led State. The 'No' campaign ultimately brought about the downfall of the Acheampong military government on 5 July 1978, and the restoration of multiparty democratic rule to the country in 1979. Akufo-Addo had to go briefly into exile after the referendum, when his life was in danger. But, from Europe, he could be heard constantly on the BBC World Service, fighting against the military rulers back in Ghana and calling for a return to democracy. He is acknowledged as one of the leaders of the pro-democracy movement in Ghana.

In 1991, Akufo-Addo was the chairman of the Organising Committee of the Danquah-Busia Memorial Club, a club dedicated to the preservation of the memory and ideals of the two great advocates of Ghanaian democracy, J. B. Danquah and K.A. Busia, Prime Minister of the Progress Party government of the 2nd Republic of Ghana. Akufo-Addo travelled throughout Ghana to establish branches of the Club all over the country in the grassroots style for which he is known. These branches eventually transformed into local organs of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) prior to the elections of 1992, which heralded the reintroduction of democratic governance under the 4th Republic.

In 1992, he was the first national organiser of the NPP and, later that year, campaign manager of the party's first presidential candidate, Prof. Albert Adu Boahen, the man of courage who broke the 'culture of silence' in Ghana, and played such a crucial role in the reintroduction of democracy.

In 1992, Akufo-Addo set up and financed The Statesman newspaper, which has become the unofficial mouthpiece of the NPP.

In 1995, he led the famous 'Kume Preko' demonstrations of the Alliance For Change (AFC), a broad-based political pressure group, which mobilised millions of people onto the streets of Ghana to protest the harsh economic conditions of the Rawlings era. Some pundits in Ghana believe that this was instrumental in re-establishing the NPP as a more formidable force after Prof Adu Boahen.

Akufo-Addo was elected three times between 1996 and 2008 as Member of Parliament for the Abuakwa South constituency in the Eastern region of Ghana. From 2001 to 2007, as Cabinet Minister, first as Attorney-General and Minister for Justice for two years, and later as Foreign Minister for five years, Akufo-Addo served in the government of President Kufuor with distinction.

As Attorney-General, he was responsible for the repeal of the Criminal Libel Law, which, hitherto, had been used to intimidate the media and criminalise free speech. The repeal has enabled the Ghanaian media become one of the most vibrant and freest in Africa. Under his chairmanship of the Legal Sector Reform Committee, the implementation of the court automation programme was initiated.

As Foreign Minister, he was fully involved in the successful Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) peace efforts in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, and Guinea Bissau, and was chairman of the ECOWAS Mediation and Security Council in 2003.

In 2004, Ghana was elected one of the 15 pioneer members of the African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council, a mandate which was renewed at the AU Summit in Khartoum in January 2006. Akufo-Addo was chosen by his peers on the AU Executive Council to chair the Ministerial Committee of 15 that fashioned the Ezulwini Consensus, which defined the African Union's common position on UN Reforms. He negotiated for the 2007 AU Summit to be held in Accra as part of Ghana's Golden Jubilee celebrations, and chaired the AU Executive Council in 2007.

Ghana was elected by her peers to take the non-permanent West African seat on the UN Security Council for 2006-07. In August 2006, Akufo-Addo chaired the meeting of the Security Council which took the decision that halted Israel's massive incursions into Lebanon. Again, Ghana was elected to the new UN body, the Human Rights Council, with the highest number of votes183 out of 191of any country, and as a pioneer member of another UN body, the Peacebuilding Commission.

PRESIDENTIAL BIDS

In October 1998, Nana Akufo-Addo competed for the presidential candidacy of the NPP and lost to John Agyekum Kufuor, the man who eventually won the presidential election in Ghana in December 2000 and assumed office as President of Ghana in 2001. Akufo-Addo was the chief campaigner for candidate Kufuor in the 2000 election and became the first Attorney General and Minister for Justice of the Kufuor era.

Akufo-Addo resigned from the Kufuor Government in July 2007 to contest for the position of presidential candidate of his party, the NPP, the then ruling party of Ghana, for the 2008 elections. Competing against 16 others, he won 48% of the votes in the first round of that election, but was given a unanimous endorsement in the second round, making him the party's presidential candidate.

In the 7 December 2008 presidential race, he received, in the first round, more votes than John Atta Mills, the eventual winner. In the first round, Akufo-Addo received 4,159,439 votes representing 49.13% of the votes cast, placing him first, but not enough for the 50% needed for an outright victory. It was the best-ever performance for a first-time presidential candidate in the Fourth Republic. In the run-off, Mills received 4,521,032 votes, representing 50.23%, thus beating Akufo-Addo by the smallest margin in Ghana's, and, indeed, in Africa's political history. Akufo-Addo accepted the results without calling even for a recount, thereby helping to preserve the peace, freedom and stability of Ghana. Akufo-Addo again contested in the 2012 national elections against the NDC candidate, the late Mills' successor as President, John Mahama, and lost. That election generated considerable controversy, and was finally decided by the Supreme Court in a narrow 5/4 decision in favour of John Mahama. Akufo-Addo is credited with helping to preserve the peace of the country by the statesmanlike manner in which he accepted the adverse verdict of the Court, at a time of high tension in the country.

In March 2014, Akufo-Addo announced his decision to seek his party's nomination for the third time ahead of the 2016 election. He secured an unprecedented, landslide victory of 94.35% of the votes in the party's presidential primary in October, 2014, in a contest of seven competitors. Akufo-Addo also took time off to serve as Chair of the Commonwealth Observer Mission for the South African elections in 2014, building on his reputation as Ghana's Former Foreign Minister.

Credit: www.nanaakufoaddo.org

GNA
A Nebraska man serving life in prison for killing his 12-year-old sister when he was 14 will get a new sentence.

The Nebraska Supreme Court ordered the resentencing for Sydney L. Thieszen in a ruling issued Friday.

Thieszen had filed a motion for post-conviction relief in 2013 in light of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that declared mandatory life-without-parole sentences unconstitutional for juvenile offenders. A district court judge granted Thieszen's motion, and prosecutors appealed.

Thieszen was convicted in 1988 of killing his sister, Sacha Thieszen, at their home near Henderson. Prosecutors said he killed her because he was afraid she would tell police he was running away from home.
Reports of a shooter at the University of Nebraska Medical Center's Nursing School flew around downtown Lincoln briefly Friday afternoon, before University of Nebraska-Lincoln police said they were false.

UNL Alert:UNL Alert: The report of an active shooter incident on UNL Campus is false, said a tweet from the official university twitter account just after 4 p.m.

Apparently, reports that start about 30 minutes earlier about someone with a gun at the nursing school at 1230 O St. stemmed from the misinterpretation of a routine safety message.
Trump vs. Clinton: How did Trump win the presidential election?

A few days ago, Swiss Das Magazin published an investigation about how the technology of personalized advertising on Facebook influenced the United States presidential election. Many journalists from all over the world have already called this investigation the text of the year. You can find everything there: universal weapon, the latest technology, and daily spying on each of us.

What is Big Data?

Trump vs. Clinton: How did Trump win the presidential election?

The term Big Data means that all actions we perform on either the Web or offline leave a digital trail. Purchasing by credit card, Google search results, going to work with a smartphone, like on the social network  all this information is saved and stored carefully. For a long time, no one could understand why this data should be collected. Who will need it? How to use it in the future? It was not clear either, what Big Data for Humanity means: a great danger or a great achievement. From November 9, 2016, when Americans gave their votes for Donald Trump, we know the answer to this question. Because Trump election campaign on the Web and the campaign in Brexit support were made by a single company, which deals with Big Data. It is called Cambridge Analytica, whose director is Alexander Nix.

Trump vs. Clinton: How did Trump win the presidential election?

The father of the system, which deals with data processing, is the Deputy Director of the University of Cambridge Psychometrics Centre, Michal Kosinski. Alexander Nix simply used his achievements to help Donald Trump becoming the 45th President of the USA.

READ ALSO: Why I lost to Donald Trump  Hillary Clinton

According to German journalists, Cambridge Analytica organized numerous Internet campaigns in both Brexit and Trump support. For example, studies of Cambridge Analytica showed that the analysis of just 69 likes on Facebook is enough to determine the user`s race (96% probability), homosexuality (89%), and the commitment to either Democratic or Republican Party.

Big Data, Cambridge Analytica, and Trump

Trump vs. Clinton: How did Trump win the presidential election?

Donald Trump has always seemed to be a simpleton, who has lagged behind digital technology long ago. There is not even a computer on his desk. By contrast, Hillary Clinton relied on Barack Obama legacy as the first president of social networks. She had address lists of the Democratic Party, millions of subscribers, and Google and DreamWorks support. However, nothing helped her.

Moreover, when, in June 2016, Trump hired Cambridge Analytica specialists, many people in Washington just laughed. They were sure that Trump would never be able to cooperate with his foreign consultants effectively. Nevertheless, they all were wrong.

The director of Cambridge Analytica and his company have developed a particular model allowing a person to know the personality of each adult US citizen who is entitled to vote. Such a great marketing triumph of Cambridge Analytica is based on three key tactics:

Behavioral analysis (ocean model) Careful Big Data study Targeted advertising.

Trump vs. Clinton: How did Trump win the presidential election?

Cambridge Analytica immediately started to buy personal data of the US citizens from all possible sources: club cards, bonus programs, inventory lists, newspaper subscriptions, telephone directories, medical data, etc. Everyone can buy almost any personal information in the United States. If you want to know, for example, where women-Jewess live, you can easily purchase such a database. As a result, Cambridge Analytica crossed all the received information with lists of the Republican Party registered supporters and the data of users` likes and reposts on Facebook. As a result, they got a personal profile on the ocean model with people`s fears, relatives, interests, aspirations, and, most importantly, with the addresses of residence.

Trump vs. Clinton: How did Trump win the presidential election?

To get meaningful likes from Facebook users, Cambridge Analytica also used numerous IQ-tests and other small applications.

How to keep Clinton's electorate from voting?

The contradictory Trump`s nature and his unscrupulousness were his key advantages. Due to the latest technologies, the future president sent different messages for each voter. Therefore, for example, on the third day of debates between Trump and Clinton, his team sent more than 180 thousand different messages to Facebook. They differed just in the smallest details to adjust psychologically to the particular recipients of information. These are various titles and subtitles, use photo or video in the post, and background color.

Such a filigree performance allowed those messages resonate with the smallest social groups. Alexander Nix commented this on like the following: In this way, we can reach the applicable neighborhoods, villages, and even specific people. Thus, in Little Haiti quarter in Miami, Trump employees spread the accurate information on Clinton Foundation refusal to help Haiti to overcome aftermaths of the earthquake. It was done deliberately to dissuade Little Haiti residents to give their votes for Clinton.

Trump vs. Clinton: How did Trump win the presidential election?

Trump's team also actively used the so-called dark posts on Facebook. These are paid advertisements in the midst of news feeds that only certain groups of persons could see. For example, particular posts with video of Clinton compared the black men with predators were shown only to African Americans. Consequently, Hillary Clinton was one of the victims of anti-advertisement performed by Cambridge Analytica.

The latest technologies at the service of volunteers

Starting from July 2016, Trump campaign volunteers got a unique application that prompted political preferences and personality types of the inhabitants of any house. Accordingly, based on these data, volunteers modified their conversations with various people. After the conversation was over, volunteers recorded the reverse reaction in the same app, and the data was sent directly to the main analytical center of Cambridge Analytica.

READ ALSO: Teenage photos of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump

Owing to this data, Cambridge Analytica managed to allocate 32 psychological types of Americans, concentrating only on 17 states. In this way, for example, the specialists of the company proved that American automobile industry supporters are 100% potential Trump devotees. These discoveries also helped Donald Trump himself to see clearly what kind of messages to use in his speeches. Therefore, the important decision of Trump headquarters to dedicate last weeks to Michigan and Wisconsin was based only on data analysis. That is why Trump became the 45th US president. In particular, the result of Cambridge Analytica work let Donald Trump:

 Maximize the number of rural residents votes

 Minimize electoral activity of African Americans

 Significantly reduce the cost of the election campaign in the media, as three-quarters of all the advertising budget was sent to the digital sphere

 Get 80% of Facebook users votes.

Conclusion

Due to the fast development of the latest Internet technologies, our world has turned upside down: Brexit took place in the UK, and Donald Trump became the President of the most powerful country in the world. Having got to know how to manipulate Facebook users, the new president of the United States could convey his messages to each voter. Just remember that any of your everyday Facebook likes might help somebody become a president.

Source: Legit.ng
- The United States says it is in support of the recommendations of the White Paper that prescribed punishment for members of the military involved in the Zaria massacre

- The US spokesperson, John Kirby, however noted that it is concerned with the papers characterisation of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) as an insurgent group.

- Kirby urges the Nigerian government to protect the right to freedom of worship as cherished Nigerian constitution.

The US has urged the Nigerian government to release from prison the IMN leader, Ibrahim Zakzaky.

The United States has called on the Nigerian government to hasten action on the recommendation of the White Paper on last years killings of the Shiites in Zaria, Kaduna state.

READ ALSO: Shiites' ban: Nigerian army, Governor el-Rufai receive accolade

According to the News Agency of Nigeria, (NAN), John Kirby, the assistant secretary and department spokesperson of the bureau of public affairs, said the US was in support of the recommendations of the White Paper that members of the military involved in the killings be punished.

The US diplomat said: On Dec. 5th, the Kaduna State Government in Nigeria issued a long-awaited White Paper on clashes last year that resulted in the deaths of a reported 348 civilians and one soldier.

We fully agree with the White Papers recommendation that members of the military who were involved in the unlawful killing of civilians must be held accountable and punished appropriately."

READ ALSO: Christian youths set to revenge if attacked again in Kaduna

Kirby noted that as the one-year anniversary of the Zaria massacre approaches, the burden was on the Nigerian government to be diligent, transparent, and expeditious in following through on this recommendation of the paper.

He said the US was also concerned with the papers characterisation of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) as an insurgent group.

The spokesperson said the U.S government would also want federal government heed to the December 2 decision of the High Court which ordered the release from prison of IMN leader, Ibrahim Zakzaky, and his wife, within 45 days.

Kirby urged the Nigerian government to protect the right to freedom of worship as a stated in the Nigerian constitution.

He advocated for the different levels of government to evolve ways of non-violent engagement with all citizens, including minority religious groups.

Meanwhile, just days after the Shiite Islamic Movement of Nigeria was declared a terrorist group by the Kaduna state government, more revelations have emerged about the activities of its members led by Ibraheem El-Zakzaky who is still in detention.

The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has revealed that the group actually carried out the assassination of some Islamic clerics and attacked the Emir of Zaria, Shehu Idris.

Source: Legit.ng
The federal government will be launching an information dissemination application soon. This app will bridge the information gap between the government and the people. It help Nigerians know what the government is doing real time.

This was disclosed by the minister of information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in Abuja on Thursday, December 8, at a meeting with Resident Information Officers (RIOs) in the ministry.

Mohammed said workshops would be organized by the government, starting with 25 to 30 key ministries and agencies before others are brought in.

Though some are calling it the Buhari mobile app, report has it that it would be called the Federal Government Information App (FGIAPP).

READ ALSO: I dont accept gifts - Aisha Buhari

Here are things you need to know about the app.

1. This new app will be launched on December 15 in Abuja.

2. This unique app will put an end to the misrepresentation and dissemination of falsehood on activities the Buhari-led government.

3. It will help Nigerians monitor the activities of the present government led by President Muhammadu Buhari.

4. With this app, you can get to know what is happening in Nigeria from anywhere in the world.

5. This information dissemination app was developed by Olawole Falope.

READ ALSO: TOP 8 takeways from Femi Adesina's interview

6. The Resident Information Officers (RIOs) from ministries, departments and agencies would be the one that would feed the app with stories.

7. This new app will go on hand held devices.

8. It would function 24/7 all year round.

While addressing the staff of the Nigerian Embassy in Abu Dhabi on Monday, December 5, the minister had said some corrupt people were trying hard to spoil the good work Buhari is doing. He noted that the government was determined to rid the country of corruption.

The question on the lips of most Nigerians is will this app get Nigeria out of recession?

Source: Legit.ng
University of Nebraska-Lincoln officials have suspended the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity indefinitely, saying an investigation uncovered behavior problems both on and off campus.

Officials said in a news release they learned of a pattern of behavior that violates the UNL Student Code of Conduct.

While they didn't offer specifics, they said the investigation identified a series of likely violations involving "problematic alcohol use" in the chapter house at 1548 S St. and at off-campus parties. It also identified problems with the way pledges are treated, the release said.

Officials also fielded claims of property damage to another Greek house, according to the release, which did not say what house or how it was damaged.

The university is continuing its investigation and said additional steps may be taken.

Declining to offer specifics, UNL spokesman Steve Smith said the investigation began after a student came forward with some information about the fraternity Nov. 10. A UNL Police record indicates a student made a hazing report that day at UNLPD's station on 17th and R streets.

The report lists the case as inactive.

Smith said he was unaware of the status of that UNLPD case Thursday night but that UNL will thoroughly investigate the matter.

The fraternity's suspension is justified, Smith said, "given the facts we've learned thus far."

Under the suspension, UNL will not recognize the fraternity as a Greek organization at Nebraska and has removed its status as university-recognized housing.

That means about 20 freshmen will not be able to live there and will be placed in other university-approved housing beginning in January, Smith said. Next week is the last week of the fall semester.

Upperclassmen living in the house will be not be affected by the measure, he said.

The safety of our students is our highest priority, and this decision is with their best interests in mind, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Juan N. Franco said in the news release. The university will always act to ensure student welfare.

University officials are working with the chapter's Indiana-based national office, which is looking into whether the conduct violated national standards.

We are working with the university and will do what we can to support the investigation, the fraternity's national director of standards, James DImperio, said in the release.

The action against Phi Psi marks the fourth fraternity suspension suspension by UNL since January 2014.

This is a developing story. Stay with Journalstar.com for updates.
Editors note: Onyokoko Nyore Samuel, the Legit.ng partner blogger, explains Nigerians how to identify and secure yourself against 'One Chance.'

Samuel is blogger and poet.

He offers tips and write articles on security matters. You can get in touch with him through his email: onyokokosamuel@yahoo.com or visit his blog: http://thethirdeyecom.wordpress.com/

'One chance' business was recently closed in Lagos

'One Chance', a phrase common among the populace in Nigeria's metropolitan city, Lagos. This behavior is much dreaded among the populace and anybody caught in the trap and managed to survive the ordeal wouldn't wish his enemy the same scenario.

What is 'One Chance'? 'One Chance' is the act of using a commercial vehicle to rob passengers of their personal belongings. It can range from money, mobile phones, precious items and even using human parts for ritual purposes.

Although I haven't experience such, there're thousands of Lagosians who weren't so lucky to tell their stories.

READ ALSO: The three magic words that can transform your career

This is how they operate: The assailants identify a victim by his appearance, he could be carrying something valuable and they lure him into a vehicle (moving or stationary) disguised as a commercial bus. Main while, the victim is unaware of the intents of these men. He boards the vehicle and when it approached an isolated vicinity, the victim is ask to do away with any valuables or belongings he has in his possession. If the victim cooperate, he's allow to live, but if he refuses, they kill him. The victim is pushed out of the moving vehicle.

Unfortunately, the security agencies aren't doing anything about it; either helpless or ill-equipped. Again, even though the security agencies are present, they allowed the act to go on. Below, I'll be giving you tips on how to identify and secure yourself against this menace.

1. They reserve seats at the back

These criminals have a way of trapping their victims so that he can't call for help or escape. The victim is helpless, he's alone. There might be more than a victim and they can't over power these guys because they're armed to the teeth. LESSON: Be vigilant, look out for their body language and the sitting arrangement of the passengers.

2. They operate at the wee hours of the night or at dusk

These assailants know how to evade security agencies. Therefore, they carry out their operations when the police operatives have left their posts. LESSON: Watch the area you're situated. Is the place isolated? Does the area lacks the necessary security apparatus?

3. Follow your instinct

Our instincts could be our saving grace. What's your body language telling you? Sometimes, we ignore our instincts and when it's too late, we've ourselves to blame. God the almighty had instilled such gift in us. But we failed to listen to it. Although there're experts who are trained to teach people to master their instincts, they're very few. LESSON: Before you board that bus, stop and listen to your body language.

4. Carry security gadgets

I've mentioned this before in my previous post. Pepper sprayers can save you. But be careful. They might be well-armed. For the ladies, there're pepper sprayers shaped like lipsticks. It is portable; something that can fit into your purse. LESSON: Protect yourself; secure yourself. Armed yourself.

5. Pray, pray, pray

Before you leave for your place of work or destination, always go on your kneels and pray. He'll always rescue you. LESSON: What you believe is what you get.

READ ALSO: The surprising truth about addiction

Onyokoko Nyore Samuel is a blogger and a poet. He offers tips and write articles on security matters. You can get in touch with him through his email: onyokokosamuel@yahoo.com or visit his blog: http://thethirdeyecom.wordpress.com/

More details in Legit.ngs step-by-step guide for guest bloggers.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily represent the editorial policy of Legit.ng.

Legit.ng welcomes writers, bloggers, photographers and all sorts of noise makers to become a part of our Bloggers network. If you are a seasoned writer or a complete newbie  apply and become Nigerias next star blogger.

Send us some info about your career, interests and expertise and why youd like to contribute to the Blogger Network at blogger@corp.legit.ng Also, please send us the link to your blog and three examples of your work.

Source: Legit.ng
- The federal government is in need for money to attend to pressing needs in the nation

- The government plans to raise 20 billion naira by March 2017

- The government has several projects lined up for the funds

The federal government of Nigeria plans to raise 20 billion naira by March 2017 to fund several projects as Nigeria continues to battle recession.

Minister Mohammed says government will sell the bond in the first quarter

The government and its officials have always insisted that the government needs a lot of funds to plug Nigerias infrastructure deficit.

We are on track to sell the bond in the first quarter, a sovereign, and could have another by the end of the year.

The exchequer cant get all the money we need. Thats why we must leverage these innovative ways to get funds from the international community, minister of environment, Amina Mohammed told Bloomberg on Friday, December 9.

READ ALSO: 6 transaction managers for $1 billion Eurobond approved

Earlier this week, minister of finance, Kemi Adeosun told journalists that Nigeria will issue its third Eurobond, worth $1 billion, in January 2017.

Mohammed listed some of the projects the government is planning to undertake.

Read below:

1. Fund an electric-vehicle commuter project in some cities

2. Tree-planting projects in the north

3. Off-grid solar-power projects producing as much as 1,200 megawatts in the north

4. Support environment-friendly projects in the Niger Delta where the government aims to eliminate gas flaring by 2019

5. Continue the clean-up of the Ogoni land oil spills

READ ALSO: TSA record huge income as recession slowly disappears

Meanwhile, the federal government has dismissed some media reports claiming it is interested in obtaining a loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

According to the spokesperson for the minister of budget and national planning, Mr James Akpandem, the media reports are false.

He said his boss; Mr Udoma Udo Udoma was wrongly quoted in the reports, adding that he never mentioned the IMF in his speech.

Source: Legit.ng
- Nigeria is turning to farming in the face of dwindling oil income

- More people are going hungry as the recession bites harder

- The federal government seeks to diversify the economy with heavy focus on agriculture

The federal government and Nigerians in general are turning to agriculture as an alternative as the economic recession currently ravaging the nation gets worse.

Nigeria's minister of agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh

The government already have plans to capitalize the Bank of Agriculture with 1 trillion naira so it can lend to farming projects at less than half the commercial rate.

The government also has plans to set up staple crop-processing zones with support from the African Development Bank and the World Bank.

Successive Nigerian governments ignored farming when the country started earning majority of its revenue from oil.

READ ALSO: Rice farmers accuse corporate bodies of causing scarcity

The dwindling international oil prices and the renewed Niger Delta militancy have however made the Muhammadu Buhari government vulnerable as the government seeks to diversify the economy with heavy focus on agriculture.

The Buhari government plans to stop statistics such as Nigeria spending more than 1 trillion naira importing food last year.

Its only agriculture thats going to feed us and employ more of us, not oil, minister of agriculture, Audu Ogbeh said in an interview recently.

The Buhari government aims to use its farming to achieve self-sufficiency for most consumed foods and boost its foreign-currency position by reducing imports and exporting surplus farm produce.

The potential is there and still huge. Its time to return to the farms, and never ignore agriculture again, Cross River state based farmer Muyi Ladoja told Bloomberg.

Dimieari Von Kemedi, managing director of rice producer Alluvial Group, said: Investments are increasing in Nigerias agriculture, and will increase at an even faster rate if government can help fix these infrastructure and access to credit problems.

READ ALSO: Recession: State governments explore other sources of income

In a related development, tomato paste processing will be prioritized by the federal government next year as part its strategic implementation plan to become self-sufficient in the product.

This was disclosed by President Muhammadu Buhari through Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Monday, December 5, in Abuja while declaring open the 2016 Africa Economic Conference, NAN reports.

The theme of the conference was Feed Africa: Towards agro-allied industrialization for inclusive growth.

Source: Legit.ng
Lancaster County Board has offered its new corrections director a $106,000 annual salary plus benefits, with the possibility of a pay bump after six months.

Commissioners voted unanimously during their regular staff meeting Thursday to make the offer to Brad Johnson, who has been interim director since Mike Thurber resigned May 10 amid an undisclosed controversy.

Johnson had asked for annual pay of $110,000, citing salary levels for recent corrections directors hired in Hall County at $106,000 and Douglas County at $117,000. He also pointed out he would be leaving a class of employees with job protection rights to become employed at will, meaning he could be fired at the boards whim.

Commissioners said they will review his performance after six months, and, if its positive, bump him up to $110,000.

Commissioners decided on the $106,000 offer, which represents the midpoint between salaries for similar positions in seven comparable counties.

Last week, the five-member County Board chose Johnson to head up the Corrections Department out of 32 applicants and three other finalists.

Thurber was investigated for reasons that have not been disclosed, and the Nebraska Attorney Generals Office handed the case over to the state Accountability and Disclosure Commission, which has been mum on the issue.

Johnsons salary as interim director has been $94,000 a year. Thurbers was $113,500.
By: Whitefish Credit Union

Contact

Eldon Tilley

***@whitefishcu.com Eldon Tilley

End

-- After more than 37 years of outstanding service, Whitefish Credit Union's Senior Vice President of Operations, Zoe Gustafson, will retire at the end of this year.Gustafson began her Credit Union career in March of 1980 as a teller in Whitefish, the Credit Union's only branch at that time. Gustafson has since worked her way through nearly every position there, helping the Credit Union grow and making a lasting impression on all those who worked alongside her, said Whitefish Credit Union's President and CEO Jim Kenyon."Our credit union has grown more than a billion dollars since the arrival of Zoe," said Kenyon. "The effect she has had on this credit union and its members can't be described in a few words. It would take a book to truly capture her impact. She is a great mentor and, while she will be greatly missed, our members will continue to see Zoe's passion for member service engrained in our employees."As the senior vice president of operations, Gustafson was responsible for the implementation of all facets of member service across Whitefish Credit Union's seven branches, including their operations center. She said it's been remarkable to watch and be a part of Whitefish Credit Union's growth over the years. When she began there, the Credit Union had recently celebrated reaching $10 million in assets, had just eight employees, and transactions were still calculated by hand with pencil and paper. Today, Whitefish Credit Union operates seven branches in the four northwest counties of Montana, has nearly $1.4 billion in assets, and almost 150 employees."With all of these changes during my time here, I'm proud that our basic philosophy of providing exceptional member service still hasn't changed a bit," said Gustafson. "Looking back, the high points of my career with Whitefish Credit Union have always been the wonderful people I've had the privilege of meeting, helping and working with here."Sue Schenck, administrative assistant to the senior management team at Whitefish Credit Union, has worked with Gustafson for 15 years and known her most of her life. She said Gustafson embodies the Credit Union's values of integrity, dedication, loyalty, friendliness and reliability."Zoe is our rock. She has been a 'go to' person for every employee, no matter what their title, from the maintenance department all the way up to the CEO," said Schenck. "She has extraordinary knowledge of policies and procedures and a clear vision of what a respectable and helpful employee of Whitefish Credit Union should be. She has worked her way up the ladder of success, and as she retires, I sincerely hope she enjoys the view from the top. She's certainly earned it."Gustafson will end her career at Whitefish Credit Union on December 31, 2016. In the future, she looks forward to volunteering in her community, working with the elderly, and sharing her passion for literature with young people.Whitefish Credit Union is a respected leader in the financial services industry. State chartered in 1934, it has gone on to become the largest credit union in Montana with nearly $1.4 billion in assets. Today, Whitefish Credit Union manages seven branches throughout the state, which serve the financial cooperative's more than 58,000 members.
Fair Trade Sustainability Alliance first Licensee Partner in Italy is Fratelli Damiano, a family business that cares about the environment, sustainability and transparency, based in Torrenova, Italy.

By: Fratelli Damiano

Contact

501 State Rt. 20, Suite 203, PO Box 791

New Lebanon, NY 12125

***@fairtsp.com

518 794 0286 501 State Rt. 20, Suite 203, PO Box 791New Lebanon, NY 12125518 794 0286

End

-- New Lebanon, New York, USA. FairTSA, an innovative global Fair Trade standard holder, announces completion of a formal licensing agreement with Fratelli Damiano. Founded in 1964 in Capo D'Orlando, in the province of Messina, Damiano introduced its first organic range in 1976 before going totally organic in 2000. A pioneering decision at the time, it laid the foundation for its future commercial expansion, bolstered by its ongoing research and development process which remains one of its biggest strengths to this day. Damiano provides certified organic foods with stringent quality control and fair prices.Care for the environment, respect for the rhythms of nature, sustainability and transparency, are values inherent in the operation of their business. This approach fosters honest relationships with their consumers, along with efficient and attentive customer service.said Dr. Winfried Fuchshofen, FairTSA Executive Director.Fair TSA is a New Lebanon, NY, based innovative Fair Trade program working in world-wide partnership with established ISO/IEC 17065:2012 accredited organic certifiers to provide zero-carbon, lowest cost, fully transparent, shortest cycle certifications, incorporating a mandatory community development component and project-based accountability. For more information, go to http://www.fairtsa.org/ and http://www.damianorganic.it
New bilingual advisor to assist businesses in both Ventura and Santa Barbara counties

EDC-VC_Claudia Shah

Contact

Julie Hall

***@mayersonmarketing.com Julie Hall

End

-- The Small Business Development Center of Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties (SBDC), which provides free one-on-one consulting to help strengthen the bottom lines of area companies, has recently added a bilingual advisor with experience helping Spanish-language businesses. The new advisor, Claudia Shah, will help launch a Spanish-language program designed to strengthen the capacity of the SBDC to service Spanish-language businesses throughout Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. The SBDC is a program of the Economic Development Collaborative-Ventura County.Shah has over 23 years' experience working in different industries and internationally, from manufacturing to financial institutions, in both Colombia and in the United States. She currently works with the Lead Center SBDC in California servicing mainly the East LA area, providing consulting and outreach services, and sharing expertise in administrative, social media, marketing/sales and human resources."Claudia has extensive experience in general business which she shares with business owners working to develop a strategy for growth. She's very talented at guiding a business owner through the process of establishing a plan, and developing actionable steps to translate the company strategy into a company culture," said Ray Bowman, director of the SBDC of Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties. "Her fluency in Spanish, coupled with her years of servicing Spanish-language companies in East Los Angeles, will help us broaden our capacity to service a wider range of businesses."An alumna of Universidad EAFIT, Shah's studies included business administration, human resources, finance, internal control and marketing. Prior to her current position, Shah was an HR consultant and spent over eight years in the role of human resources vice president for a credit union.The SBDC is funded by the SBA and provides professional business assistance at no cost to businesses. Participating businesses are required to follow a well-defined scope of work and report their economic successes. These SBA milestones are defined as job creation, increase in sales, capital investment, jobs retained and business started.EDC-VC is a private, nonprofit organization that serves as a business-to-government liaison to assist businesses in Ventura County by offering programs that enhance the economic vitality of the region. For more information about the Small Business Development Center, loan programs, manufacturing outreach and international trade program, or other services available to small businesses through EDC-VC, contact Bruce Stenslie at 805-384-1800 ext. 24 or bruce.stenslie@ edc-vc.com . Or visit www.edc-vc.com.
By: Strategic Book Publishing and Rights Co, LLC

The Women of Cho

End

-- The stunning international thriller The Women of Cho: Heart and Seoul is the sequel to David C. Dagley's first novel Cale Dixon and the Moguk Murders. His first murder mystery introduces Cale Dixon, a suspended detective who is assigned to a case just prior to his reinstatement. A South Korean man has been murdered: his mouth stuffed with Moguk rubies, knifed with a weapon that has been passed down through generations of Cho Dynasty women.The second book begins when Monica Won Cho Stell, half Korean and half American, is invited by the Won family to visit South Korea from the States to learn more about her mother and her family history. Her mother committed suicide when Monica was young to protect her daughter.As a family funeral takes place, Monica is drawn further into a web of family history and international intrigue.Says reviewer E. Lind, "The highlight of this novel is definitely the characters. The Women of Cho has a full, complex cast that interacts and intersects dramatically;each hero and villain is complete and fleshed out on his or her own, but it is the interplay of these diverse personalities  and their entwined pasts  that proves most compelling. As well, Mr. Dagley has managed to capture the colors and textures of his scenes with such gripping and authentic descriptions that the various foreign locations come alive, becoming essential to the story itself. The Women of Cho, therefore, is wholly experiential  the reader is instantly captivated by all the nuance of the writing and the intensity of the characters."Watch the video at: https://youtu.be/ UskNwVIFp_4 About the Author: World traveler David C. Dagley grew up in Mill Valley, California, lived in Alaska for 24 years, and has been has been a ship captain in the Bering Sea. He has traveled primarily in Southeast Asia for the past four years. The inspiration for this book came from the four years he taught English in South Korea and his curiosity about Korean culture.Author website: http://www.davidcdagley.com "This suspenseful sequel is not only a fascinating book, but it takes readers on a mad dash around the world to solve murders with the aid of Cale Dixon, from the prequel. We are pleased to be the publisher of such fine novels," said Robert Fletcher, CEO of Strategic Book Publishing and Rights Agency.THE WOMEN OF CHO: HEART AND SEOUL(Softcover ISBN: 978-1-63135-780-0) is now available for $16.95 (Kindle ISBN: 978-1-68181-590-9, $9.99; ePub ISBN: 978-1-68181-591-6, $9.99) and can be ordered through the publisher's website:http://sbprabooks.com/davidcdagley or at www.amazon.com or www.barnesandnoble.com.WHOLESALERS:This book is distributed by Ingram Books and other wholesale distributors. Contact your representative with the ISBN for purchase. Wholesale purchase for retailers, universities, libraries, and other organizations is also available through the publisher; please email bookorder@sbpra.net.Strategic Book Publishing and Rights Co, LLCwww.SBPRA.net (http://www.strategicbookclub.com/)www.AuthorMarketingIdeas.com www.PublishOnDemandGlobal.com*About our book publishing, marketing, and distribution team  We have provided services to over 10,000 authors around the world in the last eight years. We have hybrid-published over 6,500 authors, (about 500+ in a "traditional style" contract and the remainder in a self-publishing style), and their books are for sale in all the normal Ingram distribution channels, and Amazon and B&N (US, UK, Australia, Europe), plus China, India, Malaysia and almost every country in the world. We have attended and exhibited at over 30 of the largest book fairs in the world including London, New York, Beijing, Frankfurt, Guadalajara, New Delhi, Taiwan, and more. We have been instrumental in the adoption of POD in mainland China and Korea. For our author-clients we have produced over 1,000 press releases, video book trailers and other marketing materials for authors around the world. We have created over 7,500 author websites with extended capabilities, we have over 1,200 multi-format eBooks available on Kindle, Apple, Kobo, and other eBook platforms around the world. We look forward to assisting you to the best of our ability.https://www.facebook.com/sbpra.ushttp://pinterest.com/sbpra/https://twitter.com/SBPRAhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/sbpra
NEW YORK CITY, NY., -- New Yorkers will partake in a day of fitness and self-defense classes in the effort to send much needed aid to Haitians.

Contact

Melissa Gutierrez

***@smarterbodies.com Melissa Gutierrez

End

-- It's easy to forget, however, that our neighbors in the Caribbean are still struggling to find loved ones and rebuild their homes. The small country continues to struggle from the earthquake that devastated its land 6 years ago. But in October, Hurricane Matthew aggressively swept through Haiti wreaking havoc on the fragile land and civil infrastructure that Haitians worked so hard to rebuild. Aside from the 1000+ people that have died during the storm there is now the spread of disease, like cholera, taking lives.We know it's difficult to not succumb to the inertia of global-issue overwhelm. Many of us feel powerless to help ourselves, let alone extend help to others so far away. It is important not to lose sight of those who are in desperate need. Kim, our co-founder, has done the research and made the connections to find a charitable association that you can trust to help the Caribbean's forgotten. The Haiti Development Project has a specific mission to help children in Haiti receive relief and education.Please attend the event, December 17th, 2016. Time: 9am to 1pm, Ripley Grier Studios, 520 8th Avenue. 2pm to 7pm, Vitor Shaolin Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Academy, 780 8th Avenue.You can give by clicking this link http://www.haitidevelopmentproject.org/ or by going to our charity event. It'll be a day of fitness and fun! Teachers are volunteering to teach classes that you can enjoy while giving to people who are in need. Classes will be held at 2 different locations in midtown Manhattan. Classes will be $25 each and 100% of the proceeds will go to the Haiti Development Project. Class descriptions and schedule as well as teacher bios can be found below.
Fund controlled by Lords LB Asset Management acquired concession of the M. K. Ciurlionis bridge left access transport infrastructure node in Kaunas (Lithuania, Baltic states, EU

By: Lord LB Asste Management

End

--Back in 2006, Hidrostatyba company won the tender organised by Kaunas City Municipality and constructed 300 meter long flyover over the railways, embankments and slip roads under the concession agreement. Upon completion of this project, Kaunas residents and guests can reach various parts of the city and its centre much easier, since the M.K.Ciurlionis Bridge was connected with Europa Avenue.One decade later, in the end of October the concession transaction concluded between Hidrostatyba and Kaunas City Municipality was acquired by Energy and Infrastructure SME Fund controlled by Lords LB Asset Management. Under the signed contract, Hidrostatyba will continue carrying out transport node maintenance and repair works.Until 2031, Hidrostatyba remains to be the guaranteeing company and ensures proper fulfilment of the concession agreement throughout its validity and makes its financial, technical and professional capacities available for use. According to Manager of the Fund, which acquired Ciurlionio tiltas, JSC, Jaroslavas Neverovicius, it is the first investment of this type into the private and public partnership project of the Fund."We made the decision on this long-term investment believing this to be one of the most successful projects where private capital is employed into public infrastructure development. We understand that the importance of public and private capital partnership can significantly increase in the nearest future with EU funding decreasing. Therefore, we are already offering funding for public and private partnership projects in all stages of their implementation:either submitting proposals together with strategic partners for new projects, or once developers withdraw from projects. We are pleased to have our first investment of this type made in Kaunas  a city of old traditions, science and growing opportunities for business", stated Mr. Neverovicius.Director of Kaunas City Administration Gintaras Petrauskas is pleased to see this type of partnership having already contributed to the development of Kaunas, as a convenient city."It is a usual practice in the world that private investors join large-scale city projects. It significantly facilitates the city's tasks to develop convenient infrastructure", said Mr. Petrauskas.While, according to Managing Director of Hidrostatyba Ignas Daunys the transaction with Energy and Infrastructure SME Fund gave the company an opportunity to optimise its activities and to focus on its priority fields.Lords LB Asset Management is an investment management company licensed by the Bank of Lithuania, providing services to institutional and private investors since 2008. Currently, Lords LB Asset Management controls 13 funds: nine real estate funds, two private capital funds and two energy and infrastructure funds. The total value of the assets controlled by the funds in the end of July 2016 was EUR 258 million.
President-elect Donald Trump unexpectedly made an appearance in the Trump Tower lobby Monday morning and told reporters he thought the new Air Force One program headed by Boeing was "totally out of control," citing a $4 billion price tag and indicating that maybe Boeing was taking advantage of taxpayers.

I'm not privy to the facts surrounding the new Air Force One or why Trump may have had the reaction he did, but the whole situation reminds me of when I was lobbying in support of a new presidential helicopter back in the day.

President George W. Bush began the process of looking into a redesign of Marine One, the presidential helicopter, an H-3 that was about 30 years old. It was time to upgrade. But the program quickly went way over budget -- although the problem wasn't with the manufacturers, who make great helicopters. The problem was all the requirements added on by other government agencies, which pushed up the cost dramatically.

A CBS News report from 2009, shortly before President Barack Obama made the decision to scrap the program, noted that the original contract was for 28 helicopters for $6.1 billion. But, "numerous Pentagon-mandated changes ballooned the price tag to $11.2 billion."

A very senior military official described it to me this way: "If you design an aircraft carrier and want the Marines to put a propeller on it and make it fly, it's going to cost a lot of money."

His point was that all the "improvements" and extras overwhelmed the fundamental purpose of reliable, safe transportation via helicopter for the president of the United States. In the case of the new Marine One, it was hard to determine who was in charge, and the buck never stopped anywhere. And today, those H-3s are still flying for the White House.

Again, I don't know anything about the current Air Force One situation with Boeing, but just like with the Marine One program, I'm sure Boeing is contracted to make more than one Air Force One. And surely Boeing knows how to make a first-rate 747.

I have no doubt that it is capable of making a deluxe version, with added equipment that is custom-tailored for the president. After all, Air Force One is a flying advertisement for Boeing. Why wouldn't it make the extra effort?

I suspect that the Secret Service, Air Force personnel and other emergency planners have added so many extra requirements to the updated Air Force One that it is on the brink of overwhelming the purpose of reliable transportation for the president during routine travel and under emergency circumstances.

Let's face it: The emergency requirements for Air Force One, including the president's need to launch a nuclear war from the air if necessary, haven't changed much since the 1960s. But somewhere, somehow, someone has lost track of how to keep the essential needs in check.

Trump's instincts are right. Perhaps calling everyone out in public before he had all the facts was wrong, but it seems to have been effective.

Trump had a call with Boeing Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg on Monday, and then called into NBC's "Today" show this morning to give a quick readout of that conversation, saying, "I'm going to negotiate prices. Planes are too expensive and we're going to get the prices down, and if we don't get the prices down, we're not going to order them."

Trump obviously knows extravagance when he sees it. It takes strong leadership to set boundaries, and it looks as though Trump is at least trying. Good for him.
For artists who have considered running away when America is just too much.

By: Evolutionary Press

Contact

Darnell Lamont Walker

darnell.walker@ me.com Darnell Lamont Walker

End

-- Writer, filmmaker, and artist, Darnell Lamont Walker, producer and director of Seeking Asylum, a documentary about Black Americans escaping American tyranny for safe spaces in the world, has gone into what he calls "self-imposed exile" in South Africa, using his time and energy there to create safe spaces for those like him in the United States. "There are no geographical cures," says Walker. "When I left America, I knew I wasn't truly leaving. I knew I'd still be fighting for the same equality, the same love, and the same hope my parents and grandparents and those before them fought for. So here I am on the African continent, fighting, but feeling free at the same time."In an article titled, "Darnell Lamont Walker documents journey to seek asylum from injustice" on Rolling Out, Darnell talks about the horrifying moment when Daytona Beach Police held a gun to him and his friend's head for absolutely no reason, and how that moment continues to deeply impact all work created after.In March 2016, while in Johannesburg for the Rapid Lion Film Festival, Darnell fell in love with the people, the welcoming, and the vibe, and began looking for locations to not only house himself, but the many who may need to escape the madness of America, even if only for a little while. In September 2016, he found that place in the Maboneng Precinct.Continuing his artistic expressions, Darnell is photographing life in South Africa, collecting stories, and building a strong network for himself and those who need it. In this safe space, Baldwin's Room was born.Baldwin's Room is an artist initiative that pulls artists out of America and into South Africa where they are free to work on their art in safe spaces. The aim is to support these artists' expressions and their self-care.From January 8, 2017 to March 1, 2017, Baldwin's Room organizes a short residency in Johannesburg, South Africa, inviting 4 to 8 artists to develop work in the home of Darnell Lamont Walker and local spaces available to them. Each participant will get to utilize the space for 1 week. While there is no theme, Baldwin's Room asks the artists to use South Africa as a point of departure.With this residency, Baldwin's Room wants to encourage valuable exchanges among the artists and build lasting artistic camaraderie.Baldwin's Room is excited to see what each artist will produce during their residency, but more excited to see how working in safe spaces outside of America can benefit in the artistic process. By means of this, the location can be seen as a restriction or a possibility."As an artist and an activist I understand how important a safe space is when planning a revolution. Artists have always been a major part of any revolution. The art created in this space will undoubtedly speak to the times," Walker says.With times a-changin' but America still being very anti-Black, Walker says now is a great time to escape that damaging corner of the world.Also,Director Darnell Lamont Walker has just the documentary for everyone who says they'll flee the country if Trump gets elected," says Ebony Magazine (Suede).Taking advantage of the great breezes, rains, and warmth of Johannesburg in December, Darnell Lamont Walker is working hard on his documentary, Outside the House (OutsideTheHouseDoc.Com), taking a look at Mental Health and Black folks, and working on another installment of Seeking Asylum that will take him and his colleague and friend, Dr. Kwame Edwin Otu, to Ghana.Darnell Lamont Walker can be reached via email at Darnell.Walker@Me.com.To watch Seeking Asylum or get more information, go to http://www.SeekingAsylumFilm.Com Artists interested in applying to Baldwin's Room can apply at: http://www.passportrequired.com/ baldwin
INTERNATIONAL SIGHT RESTORATION EYE BANK Hosted Four Doctors From Wuhan, China To Visit Lusk Eye Specialists To Observe and Practice The Advanced DMEK Procedures.

By: International Sight Restoration Eye Banks

Contact

Austin Whitten

***@internationalsight.com Austin Whitten

End

-- Four doctors from Wuhan, the sprawling capital of Central China's Hubei province, travelled to Shreveport Louisiana on November 11, 2016 as guests of ISR EYE BANKS (ISR). They visited the wet lab facility at Lusk Eye Specialists, where they observed and practiced the advance ophthalmic Descemet Membrane Endothelial Keratoplasty (DMEK) procedure with ISR Eye Banks' Medical Director and corneal specialist Dr. Bryan Lusk.In facilitating events, such as this, ISR is truly advancing its' missionby bringing new cutting edge technologies to over 50 countries they work with worldwide."There are few people in the world who are skilled with this technique," says ISR's President and CEO Christina Sanchez Miller, visiting Shreveport from her corporate office in Tampa, Florida. Tony Simpson, ISR's Director of Donor Services, along with Christina Sanchez Miller were responsible for arranging this two-day training event.Ophthalmologist Dr. Lingjuan Xu, who works in a 7000 bed hospital in the third largest city in China (of which 160 are for ophthalmic patients) says, "It is very difficult to work with delicate tissue that is under 20 microns thin." For reference, 500 microns is half of a millimeter.Eye surgeon Dr. Guigang Li remarked, "Dr. Bryan Lusk makes this DMEK procedure an art."International Sight Restoration, Inc. (ISR) was established in 2001 to promote donation in developing countries and to provide ocular tissue to international patients. ISR is now the largest eye bank for international ocular distribution. ISR provides over 4000 corneas per year to domestic and international surgeons. The surgeons and hospitals ISR helps are located in the United States, and over 50 countries such as Mexico, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Venezuela, Argentina, Croatia, Guatemala, El Salvador, Bahrain, and Lebanon.Lusk Eye Specialists (Lusk Eye) delivers over 30 years of excellent eye care in the ARK-LA-TEX, "treating your family like ours" with two generations of ophthalmologists. Since 1985, corneal specialist Dr. James Lusk and now with his sons', corneal specialist Dr. Bryan Lusk and glaucoma specialist Dr. Jeffrey Lusk, continues to work with primary eye care providers in the region to provide seamless co-managed comprehensive care to patients. Lusk Eye's dedication to leading edge technology in LASIK, laser cataract surgery, glaucoma, and corneal transplants is surpassed only by its commitment to personal quality care.
SecureEPLS is a subscription service provided by Edentech Solutions Group for verifying vendors and employees against the excluded parties databases of federal and state governments. This is an essential service for Healthcare Providers accepting Medicare and/or Medicaid.

Contact

Lou Liberio, Partner

***@edentech.net



Photo:

https://www.prlog.org/ 12607009/1 Lou Liberio, Partner

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-- Edentech Solutions Group LLC continues on its path to 100% coverage by announcing the addition of North Carolina and Mississippi to its base of Excluded Providers Lists. These are now choices available to subscribers on the SecureEPLS.com website. With the addition of these two states, the service now contains the EPLS lists of all Federal and all but 5 states.SecureEPLS.com is a web-based subscription service offering online validations against many Federal, State, and Local Exclusion Lists. It is one of five modules to go live in the company's new healthcare suite, CS&S: Care, Safe & Secure (the suite offers components that address care giving, safety, cost control, risk and security focused on Healthcare Providers and Facilities)."There is no doubt now that we will have all EPLS lists included by year end," according to Company Partner, Lou Liberio. "As previously promised, we continue our work on the remaining five states and we are committed to have the remainders completed by year end. For now, we look forward to welcoming providers from North Carolina and Mississippi to our service."Subscriptions are available starting as low as $11 per month. These subscriptions are particularly suitable for Medical Practices, Home Care Providers, Nursing Homes, Assisted Living Facilities, & CCRCs. Enterprise pricing and Service Level Agreements are also available for the larger organizations such as Hospitals, Agencies, and Chains.During December, the company is offering a referral program for its existing subscribers that rewards both the referred prospect and the subscriber. And for all new subscribers not referred, there is a risk free promotion that allows them to sign up, use the system for 30 days, and cancel at any time if it's not right for them and receive a full refund. Both promos are running through the end of the year.More information on the product and service is available at the website, https://www.SecureEPLS.com
Real I.S. (BGV IV Amsterdam 1 GMBH & CO. KG fund) has sold the 'Hollandia' office building in Amsterdam to La Francaise Real Estate Partners International for 60.5 million. The sale comprises approximately 9,950 sqm of office space, divided over a ground floor and 11 upper floors. The Hollandia office

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THE Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has fired a new shot in his battle to take over most suburban railways in London.

His move has come as Transport secretary Chris Grayling is under pressure to resign after he had refused to allow any more routes to become part of London Overground, saying that his new integrated approach is preferable.

However, it was revealed within 48 hours that he had told Mayor Boris Johnson in 2013 that he "would like to keep suburban rail services out of the clutches of any future Labour Mayor".

Mr Grayling had been referring in particular to services beyond the Greater London boundary, but the revelation has prompted calls for his resignation on the grounds that his decision to turn down Sadiq Khan's bid for an Overground takeover this week could have been driven by political motives.

Conservative MP Bob Neill, who is chairman of the Justice select committee, said Mr Grayling was 'unfit for office', having 'compromised his position' by acting 'for party political reasons'.

Mr Grayling has yet to comment, but minister for London and Croydon Central MP Gavin Barwell said: "This is obviously a letter that was written a long time ago. I think the decision that was taken is about what's best for passengers in London which is to bring responsibility for running the track and the services together."

Meanwhile Mayor Sadiq Khan, who was reported to have been 'angered' by Mr Grayling's refusal, has highlighted the problems on Southern in stepping up his campaign for greater Transport for London involvement.

He said: "The ongoing chaos on Southern rail services is a total disgrace that is badly failing commuters who just want to get to work and back. The unions should cancel the strikes and get back around the negotiating table, but the government are washing their hands of this crisis and abandoning commuters in the process.

The chaos on the government-run Southern services this week is in stark contrast to TfL  who successfully persuaded the unions to call off their planned strike on the Underground through engagement and negotiation.

The number of days lost to strikes has reduced by 92 per cent since I became Mayor so our approach is clearly working. This is yet another reason why the government should devolve control of commuter services like Southern, Southeastern and South West to TfL. It is absolutely clear that commuters would suffer from fewer strikes if TfL controlled these routes, and fares would be more affordable  with our four year freeze on all TfL fares.
Just a few weeks post launch, the KTM 790 Duke BS4 variant is being offered at a hefty discount of upto Rs.1 lakh; ahead of the BS6 launch.

KTM is offering a discount of Rs.1 lakhs on the 790 Duke for a limited period only. This discount is on the current BS4 variant which is priced at Rs.8,63,945. The KTM 790 Duke is the highest displacement KTM motorcycle on sale in India currently.

It is on sale in 9 cities in India. These are Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Guwahati, Surat, Delhi, Hyderabad and Chennai. The company now plans launch of the BS6 compliant 790 Duke by March 2020. The BS6 variant will be on sale in over 30 cities of India. For Dec 2019, 790 Duke sales were 0 units.

The BS4 KTM Duke 790 gets its power via a 799cc, parallel twin, liquid cooled, 8 valve DOHC engine offering 105 hp power and 87 Nm torque. It gets 4 riding modes of Sport, Street, Rain and Track and safety features that include switchable ABS, traction control, cornering ABS, and motor slip regulation. Suspension and braking is via non adjustable forks in the front and preloaded adjustable monoshock at the rear with braking via dual disc in the front and single rotors at the rear.

The BS6 KTM Duke 790 will come in as a CKD unit. It is expected to command a premium of Rs.50,000 over the current model and besides the BS6 update will see no other mechanical changes.

KTM is also updating the RC 390, 390 Duke and 250 Duke to comply with BS6 emission standards from later this month. The launch of these three BS6 bikes will be followed by launch of the KTM 200 Duke and RC200 BS6. The KTM 125 Duke and RC 125 are not yet a part of the update as the company will continue to sell these two bikes in its BS4 format till the end of February with upgrades to be introduced only just prior to the 1st April 2020 deadline.

KTM had also showcased the 790 Adventure at the 2019 IBW in Goa along with the 390 Adventure. The 790 Adventure is slated for launch in India by last quarter of 2020. It will also come in via the CKD route and will sport design cues from the 1290 Adventure. It will be powered by a 799cc, parallel twin engine from the 790 Duke. The engine offers 94 bhp power at 8,250 rpm and 88 Nm torque at 6,600 rpm mated to a 6 speed gearbox.
Husqvarna is actively testing its 401 twins in India, ahead of official launch later this year. A camouflaged test mule of the Vitpilen 401 has been spotted by Bike Dekho. The India-spec Vitpilen 401 will be notably different from the same bike sold abroad.

Husqvarna Vitpilen 401 on test sported the same alloy wheels as is seen on the Duke 390 which is on sale in India. The Vitpilen 401 on sale in Europe, gets spoke wheels. Alloys are also on offer in markets abroad, but in black shade.

The tyres on the Vitpilen 401 on test in India sported MRF tyres. Vitpilen 401 sold abroad, get Metzeler tyres. Other notable features include split LED headlamps, an engine crash guard also borrowed from the Duke 390 and a fully digital instrument cluster.

2019 Husqvarna Vitpilen 401 gets split seats, low positioned clip on handle bars. In terms of suspension, it will get premium WP 43mm USD fork in the front and monoshock suspension at the rear. Braking is via 320mm front and 230mm rear disc, with dual channel ABS offered as standard.

Husqvarna Vitpilen 401 is a neo cafe racer and commands a more dedicated riding position unlike the Svartpilen 401 which is a neo-scrambler meant for some mild off-roading riding in a more relaxed riding position.

Husqvarna 401s get their power via the same engine seen on the KTM 390 Duke. This is a 373.3cc single cylinder, liquid cooled engine offering 43 PS power and 37 Nm torque, though the engine will be tuned differently to comply with cafe racer and scrambler traits. The engine will also be tuned to comply with new BS6 emission norms coming into effect from April 2020.

In terms of pricing, the Husqvarna Vitpilen 401 and Svartpilen 401 could be priced higher than the KTM 390 Duke, in a price range of around Rs.3 lakhs. Both bikes will be produced at the Bajaj Auto plant in Chakan near Pune. They will be sold and serviced via KTM India dealers.
Crystallization is a very basic chemical process: schoolchildren can witness it with their own eyes. But scientists had not been able to observe this process on the molecular level -- that is, the instant in which molecules overcome their tendencies to float individually in a liquid solution and take their place in the rigid lattice of a solid crystal structure. Now, researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science have, for the first time, directly observed the process of crystallization on the molecular level, validating some recent theories about crystallization as well as showing that if one knows how the crystal starts growing, one can predict the end structure. This work was published in Nature Chemistry.

The research took place in the lab of Prof. Ronny Neumann of the Weizmann Institute's Department of Organic Chemistry. Prof. Neumann explains that in order to bond to one another, the molecules must overcome an energy barrier: "The prevalent theory had been that chance contacts between molecules leads to bonding, eventually creating small clusters that become nuclei for larger crystals to grow. But the molecules, which move randomly in solution, must be aligned properly to crystalize. In recent years researchers have begun to think that this process might present too high an energy barrier."

Theories proposed in the past few decades suggest that if the molecules were to congregate together in a so-called "dense phase," in which they aggregate into a sardine-like state -- close together but unorganized -- and then crystallize from this state, the energy barrier would be lower.

To test the theories, Prof. Neumann and PhD student Roy Schreiber created large, rigid molecules and froze them in place in solution. They then placed the frozen solution under an electron microscope beam that warmed up the mixture just enough to allow some movement -- and, thus, interactions between the molecules. Adjusting the makeup of the solution by adding different ions enabled the scientists to produce crystallization with and without dense phases; aided by Drs. Lothar Houben and Sharon Wolf of the Electron Microscopy Unit, they were able to observe, for the first time, dense phases forming and subsequently transforming into crystal nuclei.

While both states yielded crystals, the experimental results showed that when dense phases form, the energy barrier to formation of an orderly, crystalline arrangement of molecules is lower -- just as the theory predicted.

The scientists also found that the growth arising from dense phases results in larger, more stable crystal nuclei. In addition, they discovered that the arrangement of molecules in fully grown crystals, which they determined by X-ray crystallography with the aid of Dr. Gregory Leitus of Chemical Research Support, was in good agreement with that in the small clusters of just a few molecules in the original nuclei. "This means that the forces and factors that determine the process are constant throughout the growth of the crystal," says Prof. Neumann.

"We have really observed an elementary event in the world of chemistry," Prof. Neumann states. "The findings are also leading us into new inquiries in this area, looking at the effects and significance of dense phases on chemical reactivity."

Also participating in this research was a group led by Prof. Josep Poblet, Dr. Jorge Carbo, and PhD student Zhong-Ling Lang of the University of Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain, who assisted in the calculation of the motion of molecules in solution.
How do juvenile songbirds learn to sing in a way that preserves both the unique features of local song culture and their specifics-specific song "signature"? Researchers have begun to map the brain circuitry responsible for cultural transmission and species specificity in birdsong.

Two studies appearing in the December 9 issue of Science shed light upon the neuronal architecture of birdsong. In one experiment, Dr. Vikram Gadagkar, postdoctoral fellow and neurobiologist at Cornell University, and his colleagues found that dopaminergic neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) of the brain encode errors in singing performance. This dopaminergic error signal may also help juvenile zebra finches learn to accurately imitate the song of their tutor.

In the second study, investigators studied songbird hatchlings fostered by another species. Dr. Makoto Araki, Neuronal Mechanism of Critical Period Unit, 2 3 Collective Interactions Unit at Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, Okinawa, Japan and colleagues determined that, while juvenile zebra finches imitated the song syllables of their adoptive Bengalese finch parents, they adjusted song cadence towards the rhythm typical of their own species, whose song they had never heard, suggesting that songbirds learn rhythm from an innate template rather than from other birds.

In this same issue of Science, Drs. Ofer Tchernichovski and Dina Lipkind, psychology researchers at Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY), offer a perspective on the above studies. Drs. Tchernichovski and Lipkind, who were not affiliated with either study, propose that the findings may shed light on how songbirds maintain a species-specific song signature despite the random changes that occur in local populations and accumulate over generations. According to the Hunter researchers, two types of neurons in the auditory cortex of songbirds may code independently for the sound of song syllables and for rhythm -- with song notes likely more dependent on input from adult tutors and cadence on an innate template or "barcode."

While scientists are only beginning to understand the neural mechanisms that support vocal learning in songbirds, Drs. Tchernichovski and Lipkind point out that this research is relevant to many animal communication systems, including stable cultural transmission in humans.

Dr. Tchernichovski heads the Laboratory of Vocal Learning at Hunter College, CUNY, and uses the songbird to study the mechanisms of vocal learning. Like early speech development in the human infant, the songbird learns to imitate complex sounds during a critical period of development. The adult bird cannot imitate any more -- we do not know why. His lab studies the animal behavior and dynamics of vocal learning and sound production across different brain levels. The lab aims to uncover the specific physiological and molecular (gene expression) brain processes that underlie song learning.
Over 700 newly recognized bird species have been assessed for the latest update of The IUCN Red List of Threatened SpeciesTM, and 11% of them are threatened with extinction. The update also reveals a devastating decline for the giraffe, driven by habitat loss, civil unrest and illegal hunting. The global giraffe population has plummeted by up to 40% over the last 30 years, and the species has been listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List.

Today's IUCN Red List update also includes the first assessments of wild oats, barley, mango and other crop wild relative plants. These species are increasingly critical to food security, as their genetic diversity can help improve crop resistance to disease, drought and salinity.

The update was released at the 13th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP13) in Cancun, Mexico. The IUCN Red List now includes 85,604 species of which 24,307 are threatened with extinction.

"Many species are slipping away before we can even describe them," says IUCN Director General Inger Andersen. "This IUCN Red List update shows that the scale of the global extinction crisis may be even greater than we thought. Governments gathered at the UN biodiversity summit in Cancun have the immense responsibility to step up their efforts to protect our planet's biodiversity -- not just for its own sake but for human imperatives such as food security and sustainable development."

Birds: Newly recognized, already threatened

This IUCN Red List update includes the reassessment of all bird species. Thanks to a comprehensive taxonomic review compiled by BirdLife International, working in collaboration with the Handbook of the Birds of the World, the overall number of bird species assessed has reached 11,121.

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A total of 742 newly recognized bird species have been assessed, 11% of which are threatened. For example, the recently described Antioquia wren (Thryophilus sernai) has been listed as Endangered as more than half of its habitat could be wiped out by a single planned dam construction. Habitat loss to agriculture and degradation by invasive plants have also pushed the striking Comoro blue vanga (Cyanolanius comorensis) into the Endangered category.

Thirteen of the newly recognized bird species enter the IUCN Red List as Extinct. Several of these have been lost within the past 50 years -- such as the Pagan reed-warbler (Acrocephalus yamashinae), O'ahu akepa (Loxops wolstenholmei) and Laysan honeycreeper (Himatione fraithii). All of these species were endemic to islands, and were most likely wiped out by invasive species.

"Unfortunately, recognizing more than 700 'new' species does not mean that the world's birds are faring better," says Dr Ian Burfield, BirdLife's Global Science Coordinator. "As our knowledge deepens, so our concerns are confirmed: unsustainable agriculture, logging, invasive species and other threats -- such as the illegal trade highlighted here -- are still driving many species towards extinction."

IUCN Red List assessments also reveal that some of the world's most popular birds may soon disappear in the wild if appropriate action isn't taken. Iconic species, such as the African grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus) -- a prized pet with the ability to mimic human speech -- are facing extinction in the wild due to unsustainable trapping and habitat loss. Native to central Africa, the grey parrot has seen its conservation status deteriorate from Vulnerable to Endangered. A study led by BirdLife International discovered that in some parts of the continent numbers of grey parrots have declined by as much as 99%.

The situation is most pressing in Asia, with the rufous-fronted laughingthrush (Garrulax rufifrons), scarlet-breasted lorikeet (Trichoglossus forsteni) and Straw-headed bulbul (Pycnonotus zeylanicus) among a suite of species being uplisted to higher threat categories as a result of the impacts of illegal wildlife trade. There is now evidence that unsustainable levels of capture for the cagebird trade, largely centred on Java, are driving the deteriorating status of many species.

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However, there is good news for some of the rarest and most vulnerable birds on our planet -- those that exist only on small, isolated islands. The Azores bullfinch (Pyrrhula murina), St Helena plover (Charadrius sanctaehelenae) and Seychelles white-eye (Zosterops modestus) are among the island endemic species to move to lower categories in this IUCN Red List update, as their populations recover from the brink of extinction thanks to tireless conservation efforts.

Giraffe

The iconic giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis), one of the world's most recognisable animals and the tallest land mammal, is now threatened with extinction. The species, which is widespread across southern and eastern Africa, with smaller isolated subpopulations in west and central Africa, has moved from Least Concern to Vulnerable due to a dramatic 36-40% decline from approximately 151,702-163,452 individuals in 1985 to 97,562 in 2015.

The growing human population is having a negative impact on many giraffe subpopulations. Illegal hunting, habitat loss and changes through expanding agriculture and mining, increasing human-wildlife conflict, and civil unrest are all pushing the species towards extinction. Of the nine subspecies of giraffe, three have increasing populations, whilst five have decreasing populations and one is stable.

A resolution adopted at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in September this year called for action to reverse the decline of the giraffe.

Crop wild relatives

With this update, the first assessments of 233 wild relatives of crop plants such as barley, oats and sunflowers have been added to the IUCN Red List. Habitat loss, primarily due to agricultural expansion, is the major threat to many of these species. The assessments were completed as part of a partnership between Toyota Motor Corporation and IUCN, whose aim is to broaden the IUCN Red List to include the extinction risk of many species that are key food sources for a significant portion of the global population.

Crop wild relatives are a source of genetic material for new and existing crop species, allowing for increased disease and drought resistance, fertility, nutritional value and other desirable traits. Almost every species of plant that humans have domesticated and now cultivate has one or more crop wild relatives. However, these species have received little systematic conservation attention until now.

Four mango species have been listed as Endangered, and the Kalimantan mango (Mangifera casturi) has been listed as Extinct in the Wild. These species are relatives of the common mango (Mangifera indica) and are threatened by habitat loss. Native to South Asia, mangoes are now cultivated in many tropical and sub-tropical countries and they are one of the most commercially important fruits in these regions.

A relative of cultivated asparagus, hamatamabouki (Asparagus kiusianus), which is native to Japan, has been listed as Endangered due to habitat loss caused by urban expansion and agriculture. Loss of habitat is also the main threat to the Anomalus sunflower (Helianthus anomalus) which has been listed as Vulnerable and is a relative of the sunflower (H. annuus). Cicer bijugum, native to Iran and Turkey, is a wild relative of the chickpea (C. arietinum); it has been listed as Endangered due to habitat conversion to agriculture.

"Crop wild relative species are under increasing threat from urbanisation, habitat fragmentation and intensive farming, and probably climate change," says Mr. Kevin Butt, General Manager, Regional Environmental Sustainability Director, Toyota Motor North America. "To conserve this vital gene pool for crop improvement we need to urgently improve our knowledge about these species. Toyota is pleased to provide support for the assessment of these and other species on The IUCN Red List."

Freshwater species -- Lake Victoria

All freshwater molluscs, crabs, dragonflies and freshwater fishes native to Lake Victoria in central Africa are included in this update. Key threats to Lake Victoria -- known as Darwin's dream pond due to its high biodiversity -- include invasive species such as the Nile perch (Lates niloticus), overharvesting, sedimentation due to logging and agriculture, as well as water pollution from pesticides and herbicides.
WASHINGTON -- So, this is the new conservatism's recipe for restored greatnecarrierss: Political coercion shall supplant economic calculation in shaping decisions by companies in what is called, with diminishing accuracy, the private sector.

This will be done partly as conservatism's challenge to liberalism's supremacy in the victimhood sweepstakes, telling aggrieved groups that they are helpless victims of vast, impersonal forces, against which they can be protected only by government interventions.

Responding to political threats larded with the money of other people, Carrier has somewhat modified its planned transfers of some manufacturing to Mexico. This represents the dawn of bipartisanship: The Republican Party now shares one of progressivism's defining aspirations -- government industrial policy, with the political class picking winners and losers within, and between, economic sectors.

This always involves the essence of socialism -- capital allocation, whereby government overrides market signals about the efficient allocation of scarce resources. Therefore it inevitably subtracts from economic vitality and job creation.

When, speaking at the Carrier plant, Mike Pence said, "The free market has been sorting it out and America's been losing," Trump chimed in, "Every time, every time." When Republican leaders denounce the free market as consistently harmful to Americans, they are repudiating almost everything conservatism has affirmed: Edmund Burke taught that respect for a free society's spontaneous order would immunize politics from ruinous overreaching -- from the hubris of believing that we have the information and power to order society by political willfulness. The Republican Party is saying goodbye to all that.

Indiana's involvement in the Carrier drama exemplifies the "entrepreneurial federalism" -- states competing to lure businesses. This is neither new nor necessarily reprehensible. There are, however, distinctions to be drawn between creating a favorable climate for business generally and giving direct subsidies to alter the behavior of businesses already operating in the state. And when ad hoc corporate welfare, including tariffs, becomes national policy, it becomes a new arena of regulation, and hence of rent seeking, which inevitably corrupts politics. And by sapping economic dynamism, it injures the working class.

The most widely discussed and properly praised book germane to today's politics is J.D. Vance's "Hillbilly Elegy" about the sufferings and pathologies of the white working class, largely of Scots-Irish descent, in Appalachia and the Rust Belt. This cohort, from which Vance comes, is, he says, one of America's most distinctive subcultures, particularly in its tenacious clinging to traditional mores, many of them destructive.

His book has often been misread as primarily about the toll taken by economic forces -- globalization, automation, etc. Actually, Vance casts a cool eye on the theory that "if they only had better access to jobs, other parts of their lives would improve as well." His primary concern is with "lack of agency" and "learned helplessness" -- the passive acceptance of victim status.

One theory of the 2016 election is that the white working class rebelled not just against economic disappointments but also against condescension, demanding not just material amelioration but, even more, recognition of its dignity. It is, however, difficult for people to believe in their own dignity when they believe that their choices are powerless to alter their lives' trajectories. Eventually, they will detect the condescension in the government's message that their fortunes are determined not by things done by them but by things done to them.

Such people are susceptible to charismatic presidential leadership, with its promise that executive power without limits can deliver them from unhappiness by delivering to them public goods. In contrast, there was dignity in the Joad family (of John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath"). When the Dust Bowl smothered Oklahoma, the Joads were not enervated, they moved west in search of work.

What formerly was called conservatism resisted the permeation of society by politics, and particularly by the sort of unconstrained executive power that has been wielded by the 44th president. The man who will be the 45th forthrightly and comprehensively repudiates the traditional conservative agenda and, in reversing it, embraces his predecessor's executive swagger.
Environmental DNA (eDNA), the nuclear or mitochondrial DNA shed from an organism into its environment, is a rapidly evolving tool for monitoring the distribution of aquatic species. A new study published in Transactions of the American Fisheries Society discusses the ability of eDNA to accurately predict the presence, relative abundance, and biomass of wild Brook Trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) populations.

The study concluded that eDNA was an effective way to measure aquatic singles-species populations. eDNA correctly predicted the presence/absence of Brook Trout in 85.0-92.5% of the 40 streams where fish populations were surveyed.

The study's lead author, Barry Baldigo, a research biologist at the US Geological Survey's New York Water Science Center, said eDNA has become an increasingly important tool for quickly and accurately assessing biodiversity in aquatic habitats. The USGS, which provides unbiased scientific information to support the management of the United States' natural resources, is working to develop, improve and apply ecological monitoring methods like eDNA.

Populations of eastern brook trout, a native fish species highly sought after by anglers, have been decimated by acid rain in streams and lakes of the Adirondack Mountains where the study was conducted. The species is believed to be recovering in some areas as stream acidity declines, but confirming recovery in numerous sites across a large region using typical fish survey methods is costly and time consuming. Baldigo and his colleagues were able to evaluate brook trout abundance in 40 streams using both eDNA and standard surveys. They showed that eDNA correctly characterized brook trout populations in 10 streams where they were absent, 10 streams where they were abundant, and another 20 streams were they were present in low or moderate densities.

Improvements in eDNA sampling and analysis methods over the past decade "have increased our ability to determine if a species is present or not, and its relative abundance, in aquatic habitats by analyzing a single water sample," said Baldigo. "The potential of this tool to characterize single and multiple species populations in aquatic and terrestrial habitats appears to be unlimited."
A recently discovered galaxy is undergoing an extraordinary boom of stellar construction, revealed by a group of astronomers led by University of Florida graduate student Jingzhe Ma using NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory.

The galaxy known as SPT 034652 is 12.7 billion light years from Earth, seen at a critical stage in the evolution of galaxies about a billion years after the Big Bang.

Astronomers first discovered SPT 034652 with the National Science Foundation's South Pole Telescope, then observed it with space and ground-based telescopes. Data from the NSF/ESO Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array in Chile revealed extremely bright infrared emission, suggesting that the galaxy is undergoing a tremendous burst of star birth.

However, an alternative explanation remained: Was much of the infrared emission instead caused by a rapidly growing supermassive black hole at the galaxy's center? Gas falling towards the black hole would become much hotter and brighter, causing surrounding dust and gas to glow in infrared light. To explore this possibility, researchers used NASA's Chandra Xray Observatory and CSIRO's Australia Telescope Compact Array, a radio telescope.

No Xrays or radio waves were detected, so astronomers were able to rule out a black hole being responsible for most of the bright infrared light.

"We now know that this galaxy doesn't have a gorging black hole, but instead is shining brightly with the light from newborn stars," Ma said. "This gives us information about how galaxies and the stars within them evolve during some of the earliest times in the universe."

Stars are forming at a rate of about 4,500 times the mass of the Sun every year in SPT0346-52, one of the highest rates seen in a galaxy. This is in contrast to a galaxy like the Milky Way that only forms about one solar mass of new stars per year.

"Astronomers call galaxies with lots of star formation 'starburst' galaxies," said UF astronomy professor Anthony Gonzalez, who co-authored the study. "That term doesn't seem to do this galaxy justice, so we are calling it a 'hyper-starburst' galaxy."

The high rate of star formation implies that a large reservoir of cool gas in the galaxy is being converted into stars with unusually high efficiency.

Astronomers hope that by studying more galaxies like SPT034652 they will learn more about the formation and growth of massive galaxies and the supermassive black holes at their centers.

"For decades, astronomers have known that supermassive black holes and the stars in their host galaxies grow together," said co-author Joaquin Vieira of the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign. "Exactly why they do this is still a mystery. SPT0346-52 is interesting because we have observed an incredible burst of stars forming, and yet found no evidence for a growing supermassive black hole. We would really like to study this galaxy in greater detail and understand what triggered the star formation and how that affects the growth of the black hole."

SPT034652 is part of a population of strong gravitationally-lensed galaxies discovered with the SPT. It appears about six times brighter than it would without gravitational lensing, which enables astronomers to see more details than would otherwise be possible.
Valley National Bancorp operates as the holding company for Valley National Bank that provides various commercial, retail, insurance, and wealth management financial services products. It operates through Commercial Lending, Consumer Lending, and Investment Management segments. The company offers non-interest bearing, savings, NOW, money market, and time deposit accounts; commercial and industrial, commercial real estate, residential mortgage, and automobile loans; loans secured by the cash surrender value of life insurance; home equity loans and lines of credit; and secured and unsecured other consumer loans. It also invests in various securities and interest-bearing deposits with other banks; and provides international banking services, such as standby and documentary letters of credit, and related products, as well as foreign exchange transactions, documentary collections, foreign wire transfers services, and transaction accounts for non-resident aliens. In addition, the company offers investment services for individuals and small to medium sized businesses; and trusts and custom -tailored investment strategies for various retirement plans. Further, it provides trust services, such as living and testamentary trusts, investment management, custodial and escrow services, and estate administration to individuals; tax credit advisory services; property and casualty, life, health, and title insurance agency services; and health care equipment lending and other commercial equipment leasing services, as well as owns real estate related investments. Additionally, the company offers online, mobile, and telephone banking services; and overdraft, drive-in and night deposit, automated teller machine, remote deposit capture, and safe deposit facility services. As of December 31,2021, it operated 232 branch offices in New Jersey, New York, Florida, and Alabama. The company was incorporated in 1927 and is headquartered in New York, New York.
The following companies are subsidiares of Tyson Foods: APF Legacy Subs LLC, Advance Food Company LLC, AdvancePierre Foods, AdvancePierre Foods Holdings Inc., AdvancePierre Foods Inc., Aidells Sausage Company Inc., Allied Specialty Foods Inc., American Proteins Inc, Artisan Bread Co. LLC, Australian Food Corporation Pty Limited, Australian Food Corporation Trust, BRF, Barber Foods LLC, Bosco's Pizza Co., Bryan Foods Inc., C.S. Grain LLC, C.V. Holdings Inc., CBFA Management Corp., Central Industries Inc., Chefs Pantry LLC, Clovervale Farms LLC, Cobb (Hubei) Breeding Co. Ltd., Cobb (Shanghai) Enterprise Management Consulting Co. Ltd., Cobb Ana Damizlik Tavukculuk Sanayi Ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Cobb Columbia S.A.S., Cobb Europe B.V., Cobb Europe Limited, Cobb Peru (Andina) S.A.C., Cobb-Heritage LLC, Cobb-Vantress Brasil Ltda, Cobb-Vantress Inc., Cobb-Vantress New Zealand Limited, Cobb-Vantress Philippines Inc., Coominya AFC Pty Limited, Coominya AFC Trust, DFG Foods Inc., DFG Foods L.L.C., Don Julio, Egbert LLC, Equity Group - Georgia Division LLC, Equity Group - Kentucky Division LLC, Equity Group Eufaula Division LLC, Equity Meat Corp., Flavor Corp., Flavor Holdings Inc., Foodbrands America Inc., Foodbrands Supply Chain Services Inc., Gallo Salame Inc., Global Employment Services Inc., Grow-Out Credit LLC, Grow-Out Holdings LLC, Haimen Tyson Poultry Development Co. Ltd, Hudson Foods Company, Hudson Midwest Foods Inc., Hybro Genetics Brasil Ltda, IBP Caribbean Inc., IBP Foodservice L.L.C., IBP Inc., International Affiliates & Investment LLC, Jiangsu Tyson Foods Co. Ltd, Keydutch Finance B.V., Keydutch Holdings I LLC, Keydutch Holdings II LLC, Keydutch Investments B.V., Keystone CLJV Holdings Limited, Keystone County House Road LLC, Keystone Foods, Keystone Foods (AP) Limited, Keystone Foods Holdco LLC, Keystone Foods Intermediate LLC, Keystone Foods LLC, Keystone Foods Pty Limited, Keystone Management Inc., Keystone Trading (Shanghai) Company Limited, LD Foods LLC, M & M Express LLC, M&M Restaurant Supply (MI/OH) LLC, MFG (USA) Holdings Inc., Mac Food Services (Malaysia) SDN. BHD., Madison Foods Inc., McKey Food Services (Hong Kong) Limited, McKey Food Services (Shandong) Limited, McKey Food Services (Thailand) Limited, McKey Food Services Limited, McKey Luxembourg Holdings APMEA S.a.r.l., McKey Luxembourg Holdings S.a.r.l., McKey Luxembourg S.a.r.l., McKey VI Holdings Limited, Myung Seung Food Company Ltd., National Comp Care Inc., New Canada Holdings Inc., Oaklawn Capital Corporation, Oaklawn IT Solution Private Limited, Original Philly Holdings Inc., PBX inc., Pierre Holdco Inc., River Valley Ingredients LLC, Rizhao Tyson Foods Co. Ltd, Rizhao Tyson Poultry Co. Ltd, Rural Energy Systems Inc., Sara Lee - Kiwi Holdings LLC, Sara Lee Diversified LLC, Sara Lee Foods LLC, Sara Lee Household & Body Care Malawi Ltd., Sara Lee International LLC, Sara Lee International TM Holdings LLC, Sara Lee Mexicana Holdings Investment L.L.C., Sara Lee TM Holdings LLC, Sara Lee Trademark Holdings Australasia LLC, Saramar L.L.C., Shandong Tyson-Da Long Food Company Limited, Smart Chicken, Southern Family Foods L.L.C., Southwest Products LLC, TF 20 B.V., TF 5201 B.V., TFA Leasing LLC, TFA Opportunity Zone Fund LLC, TFI of California Inc., Tecumseh Poultry LLC, Texas Transfer Inc., The Bruss Company, The Hillshire Brands Company, The IBP Foods Co., The Pork Group Inc., TyNet Corporation, Tyson (Shanghai) Enterprise Management Consulting Co. Ltd., Tyson Americas Holding Sarl, Tyson Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., Tyson Breeders Inc., Tyson Chicken Inc., Tyson China Holding 2 Limited, Tyson China Holding 3 Limited, Tyson China Holding Limited, Tyson Deli Inc., Tyson Europe Holding Company, Tyson Farms Inc., Tyson Farms QOZB LLC, Tyson Foods Brasil Investimentos Ltda., Tyson Foods Canada Inc., Tyson Foods Europe (Netherlands) B.V., Tyson Foods Europe GmbH, Tyson Foods France S.A.R.L., Tyson Foods Germany GmbH, Tyson Foods Group Limited, Tyson Foods Holland B.V., Tyson Foods Huadong Development Co. Ltd, Tyson Foods Iberia Alimentos S.L.U., Tyson Foods Italia S.p.A., Tyson Foods Korea, Tyson Foods Netherlands B.V., Tyson Foods Products Limited, Tyson Foods Scotland Europe Limited, Tyson Foods Scotland Sales (Europe) Limited, Tyson Foods UK Limited, Tyson Foods Wrexham Limited, Tyson Foods oosterwolde B.V., Tyson Fresh Meats Inc., Tyson Fresh Meats Sales and Distribution LLC, Tyson Global Holding Sarl, Tyson Hog Markets Inc., Tyson India Holdings Ltd., Tyson International APAC Ltd., Tyson International Company Ltd., Tyson International Holding Company, Tyson International Holding Sarl, Tyson International Service Center Inc., Tyson International Service Center Inc. Asia, Tyson International Service Center Inc. Europe, Tyson Mexican Original Inc., Tyson Mexico Trading Company S. de R.L. de CV., Tyson New Ventures LLC, Tyson Opportunity Zone Fund LLC, Tyson Pet Products Inc., Tyson Poultry Inc., Tyson Prepared Foods Inc., Tyson Processing Services Inc., Tyson Refrigerated Processed Meats Inc., Tyson Sales and Distribution Inc., Tyson Service Center Corp., Tyson Shared Services Inc., Tyson Storm Lake Holdings LLC, Tyson Warehousing Services LLC, Tyson of Wisconsin LLC, Uninex SA, Universal Meats (UK) Limited, WBA Analytical Laboratories Inc., Wilton Foods Inc., Xamol Consultores e Servicos, and Zemco Industries Inc..

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The following companies are subsidiares of Eli Lilly and: 1096401 B.C. Unlimited Liability Company, ARMO BioSciences Inc, ARMO Bioscience, Advanced Cardiovascular Systems, Alnara Pharmaceuticals, Alnara Pharmaceuticals Inc., Andean Technical Operations Center, Applied Molecular Evolution Inc., AurKa Pharma, Avid Radiopharmaceuticals, Avid Radiopharmaceuticals Inc., ChemGen, CoLucid Pharmaceuticals, CoLucid Pharmaceuticals Inc., Dermira, Devices for Vascular Intervention(DVI), Disarm Therapeutics, Dista Ilac Ticaret Ltd. Sti., Dista S.A., Dista-Produtos Quimicos & Farmaceuticos LDA, ELCO Dominicana SRL, ELCO Insurance Company Limited, ELCO Management Inc., ELCO for Trade and Marketing S.A.E., ELGO Insurance Company Limited, Elanco Animal Health Ireland Limited, Elanco Switzerland Holding Sarl, Eli Lilly (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Eli Lilly (Philippines) Incorporated, Eli Lilly (S.A.) (Proprietary) Limited, Eli Lilly (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Eli Lilly (Suisse) S.A., Eli Lilly Asia Inc., Eli Lilly Asia Pacific SSC Sdn Bhd, Eli Lilly Australia Pty. Limited, Eli Lilly B-H d.o.o., Eli Lilly Benelux S.A., Eli Lilly Bienes y Servicios S de RL de CV, Eli Lilly CR s.r.o., Eli Lilly Canada Inc., Eli Lilly Cork Limited, Eli Lilly Danmark A/S, Eli Lilly Egypt for Trading, Eli Lilly European Clinical Trial Services SA, Eli Lilly Export S.A., Eli Lilly Finance S.A., Eli Lilly Ges.m.b.H., Eli Lilly Group Limited, Eli Lilly Holdings Ltd., Eli Lilly Hrvatska d.o.o., Eli Lilly Interamerica Inc., Eli Lilly Interamerica Inc. y Compania Limitada, Eli Lilly International Corporation, Eli Lilly Ireland Holdings Limited, Eli Lilly Israel Ltd., Eli Lilly Italia S.p.A., Eli Lilly Japan K.K., Eli Lilly Kinsale Limited, Eli Lilly Nederland B.V., Eli Lilly Nigeria Ltd., Eli Lilly Norge A.S., Eli Lilly Pakistan (Pvt.) Ltd., Eli Lilly Polska Sp.z.o.o. (Ltd.), Eli Lilly Regional Operations GmbH, Eli Lilly Romania SRL, Eli Lilly S.A., Eli Lilly Saudi Arabia Limited, Eli Lilly Services Inc, Eli Lilly Services India Private Limited, Eli Lilly Slovakia s.r.o., Eli Lilly Sweden AB, Eli Lilly Vostok S.A. Geneva, Eli Lilly and Company, Eli Lilly and Company (India) Pvt. Ltd., Eli Lilly and Company (Ireland) Limited, Eli Lilly and Company (N.Z.) Limited, Eli Lilly and Company (Taiwan) Inc., Eli Lilly and Company Limited, Eli Lilly de Centro America S.A., Eli Lilly do Brasil Limitada, Eli Lilly farmacevtska druzba d.o.o., Eli Lilly y Compania de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Eli Lilly y Compania de Venezuela S.A., Glycostasis Inc, Greenfield-Produtos Farmaceuticos Lda., Heart Rhythm Technologies Inc, Hybritech, Hypnion, ICOS Corporation, ImClone GmbH, ImClone LLC, ImClone Systems Holdings Inc., ImClone Systems LLC, Imclone Systems, Irisfarma S.A., Ivy Animal Health, Kinsale Financial Services Unlimited Company, Lilly (Shanghai) Management Co. Ltd, Lilly Asia Ventures Fund I L.P., Lilly Asia Ventures Fund II L.P., Lilly Asian Ventures Fund III L.P., Lilly Cayman Holdings, Lilly China Research and Development Co. Ltd., Lilly Deutschland GmbH, Lilly France S.A.S., Lilly Global Nederland Holdings B.V., Lilly Global Services Inc., Lilly Holding GmbH, Lilly Holdings B.V., Lilly Hungaria KFT, Lilly Japan Financing G.K., Lilly Korea Ltd., Lilly Nederland Finance B.V., Lilly Nederland Finance B.V. - GCC, Lilly Nederland Holding B.V., Lilly Pharma Ltd., Lilly Portugal - Produtos Farmaceuticos Lda., Lilly S.A., Lilly Suzhou Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., Lilly Trading Co. LTD, Lilly USA LLC, Lilly Ventures Fund I LLC, Lilly del Caribe Inc., Lilly ilac ticaret limited sirketi, Lohmann Animal Health, Loxo Oncology, Lylly Centre for Clinical Pharmacology PTE. LTD., Novartis Animal Health, OY Eli Lilly Finland AB, Origin Medsystems, PT. Eli Lilly Indonesia, Pacific Biotech, Pharmaserve-Lilly S.A.C.I., Physio-Control, SGX Pharmaceuticals, SGX Pharmaceuticals Inc, Spaly Bioquimica S.A., UAB Eli Lilly Lietuva, Valquifarma S.A., and Vital Pharma Productos Farmaceuticos.

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The name of the Child Advocacy Center in Lincoln shows up frequently in news stories, typically in a sentence something like this: In an interview at the Child Advocacy Center, the girl said he raped her, police said in the affidavit.

The Sunday Journal Star story Twenty questions on 20 years of vision and drive  gave a more complete picture of what the center does and how it came to be.

Its frightening to imagine the community without it. The center plays a crucial role in the justice system and in providing help and healing for victims of abuse. The scope and importance of its work deserve to be widely known.

Some of the people instrumental in founding the center  then-County Attorney Gary Lacey, then-Police Chief Tom Casady, Sheriff Terry Wagner and then-Mayor Mike Johanns  have retired or moved on to other things.

For the past 20 years, Executive Director Lynn Ayers has been at the heart of the center as it struggled in the early years to fulfill its role in a community that had yet to comprehend the extent of abuse and as the agency gradually became an integral and essential part of the city and expanded to serve other parts of Southeast Nebraska.

In the interview with Journal Star writer Cindy Lange-Kubick, Ayers recalled the early years. She started in 1996 and was the only employee until 2001. Her 8-year-old daughter was her trusted assistant. Ayers and her first full-time advocate, Debbe Andrews, recall sleeping on the couch in the little yellow house. Why go home when you had to be back at work in three hours?

The numbers from 2015 show the breadth of the centers work. During the year, center staff saw 1,028 unduplicated victims. Of those, 731 were referred for sexual abuse, 256 for neglect, 161 for physical abuse, 118 after witnessing domestic violence, and so on. Seven were referred after witnessing homicides.

The center has been the recipient of numerous private donations over the years, including $253 from the little boy who showed up at the Christmas potluck dinner with money he raised himself.

None, however, matched the $1 million gift from Larry the Cable Guy, who has a lengthening list of good deeds behind his name. The gift from Dan and Cara Whitney allowed the center to move out of its little yellow house and into a big house on Garland Street.

The success of the center is due to the passion and professionalism of people like Ayers who work there. We hope they continue to make their motto come true: Helping children thrive, not just survive.
The goat was born inside a slaughterhouse. This wasn't unusual. Barbara Jamison, founder of Puget Sound Goat Rescuein Washington state, told The Dodo that babies are born at slaughterhouses all the time. They don't usually survive.

Puget Sound Goat Rescue

"They get crushed, they get trampled, they get separated from the mothers, they butcher the mothers and the babies are left behind," Jamison said. "There's a million bad things that happen to newborns there." Thankfully for this baby goat - who'd later be named Finn - the slaughterhouse owner spotted him. He contacted Jamison, with whom he'd made an agreement: Any baby goat born at the slaughterhouse went to Jamison's rescue group.

Puget Sound Goat Rescue

A volunteer rushed to the slaughterhouse to rescue Finn. "The conditions were deplorable," Jamison said. "There wasn't enough food and water, and it was overcrowded. It was awful." The only reason Finn had survived was because of his mom. "She was protecting him from getting squashed," Jamison said.

Puget Sound Goat Rescue

Since Finn was still with his mom, the volunteer who went to the slaughterhouse to get him knew what she had to do - rescue them both. "We have to buy the adults," Jamison said. "Fortunately for us, he doesn't charge more than $10 or $20 per goat, as he has so many there and always more coming in."

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Puget Sound Goat Rescue

Finn was a tiny, fragile baby goat with soft fur and big blue eyes. "He was the size of a rabbit," Jamison said. "Maybe 4 pounds. He was gorgeous."

Puget Sound Goat Rescue

Since he was so young, Finn would need a lot of care. Fortunately, he had the best caretaker possible - his own mother, whom the volunteers named Faye.

Puget Sound Goat Rescue

As Faye cared for Finn, Jamison and the volunteers at the rescue group cared for Faye. She was actually in quite bad shape.

Faye with her back feet bandaged | Puget Sound Goat Rescue

"She was very thin and had horrible infections in both feet due to standing in the filthy muck at the slaughterhouse," Jamison said. "Faye had to have one 'toe' on each of her back feet amputated as infection had spread to the bone. It took over a year to restore her to health."

Puget Sound Goat Rescue

Despite her health issues, Faye took excellent care of Finn, letting him nurse until he was big and strong.

Puget Sound Goat Rescue

The two of them were as close as mother and son could be. "Finn was with her all the time," Jamison said. "They snuggled together at night. They'd go out in the pastures and graze together. They were inseparable."

Puget Sound Goat Rescue

As Finn grew up, he made lots of friends at the rescue, including a senior goat named Cowboy. "He followed him all around and they started sleeping together," Jamison said. "A real bromance!"

Finn with his friend Cowboy | Puget Sound Goat Rescue

Puget Sound Goat Rescue is a rescue organization, and they try and find homes for as many goats as possible so they can rescue more animals. So Jamison and the volunteers were delighted when a family (who already had several rescue goats) offered to adopt Finn. "He has a good life with his goat friends," Jamison said. "They've moved to another town far away from us, but he's doing well."

Puget Sound Goat Rescue

Faye remained at the rescue because of her medical issues. She died last year due to heart failure (an age-related issue), but she lived a happy life at the rescue.

Faye enjoying some lettuce | Puget Sound Goat Rescue

"It was wonderful to be able to be able to watch them together, and watch Finn thrive," Jamison said. "Saving the mother and baby together was extra rewarding."

Puget Sound Goat Rescue
The local fire department in Ottawa, Canada, got a strange call earlier this week - someone had spotted a dog on the roof of their neighbor's house "We do get all kinds of requests, but this one was quite perplexing," Danielle Cardinal, public information officer for Ottawa Fire Services , told The Dodo. "Everyone was asking, 'How did the dog get there?'"

It took seven firefighters who arrived at the scene to figure it out - the dog had gotten onto the roof through an upstairs window.

But getting through that window would have been tricky. "It seemed to be a very agile and adventurous dog who pushed his way out of a window by removing the screen and pushing the window open," Cardinal said. "We suspect the locking mechanism may have been malfunctioning on the window that allowed him to push through."

The firefighters extended a ladder, and lifted a man to the roof. But when he tried to catch the dog, the dog got scared and backed up toward the window.
A 30-year-old gorilla lives in a cage on the seventh floor of a high-rise department store in downtown Bangkok, Thailand. Bua Noi, which means Little Lotus, isn't the only animal there - though she might very well be the saddest. She lives all alone in her barred enclosure at Pata Zoo, which also apparently holds orangutans, chimpanzees, monkeys, leopards, reptiles and birds in cages on top of the shopping complex and is accessed via an elevator.

For years, animal activists have been trying to shut the place down. In 2015, there were reports that authorities finally recognized how abhorrent the zoo was for the animals who lived there. It seemed that things were finally going to change. Some reports even declared that Bua Noi had been "rescued."

But because there has been no official animal welfare legislation in Thailand until recently, changing the fate of animals like Bua Noi remains complicated. Some activists argue that the legislation that was passed for animal welfare is too vague to affect much change anyway.

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But when the headlines grew stale and the spotlight on the cruelty dimmed, it never became clear whether the animals were rescued, and if they were, where they ended up.

Photos posted online since then, by zoo visitors, appeared to tell a different story - that the animals remained locked up in the shopping mall. As recently as a few months ago, Bua Noi appeared to be locked behind the same bars that have held her captive since she was a baby. It's said that Bua Noi was born in the wild, then captured, and has been behind bars ever since. She's been on display at Pata Zoo since 1987.

A new petition shows a recent photo of the gorilla trapped in the zoo on top of a Bangkok shopping mall. | Change.org

Now a new petition has surfaced, demanding the gorilla's release. It shows a picture of Bua Noi, captioned that it was taken in November of this year. The Dodo received confirmation that Bua Noi is still in the shopping mall. "Little Lotus (Bua Noi) is definitely still there," Jodie Broad, who penned the latest petition, told The Dodo.

Broad is part of a group of animal advocates in Australia who are trying to send Bua Noi to a sanctuary. "There was talk that she was going to be freed as they were not going to renew the zoo license - but they did renew it and Pata Zoo remains open." A friend of Broad's went to the zoo three weeks ago and snapped the updated photo of Bua Noi. Broad recently met with Sinjira Apaitan, an advocate for Bua Noi in Thailand, who is fighting for better living conditions for all the animals at the Pata shopping mall zoo. Sinjira and Broad met with government officials last May about bettering the conditions for the animals. "But nothing was resolved," Broad said.

Gorillas are highly social and intelligent animals, but Bua Noi has nothing to do in her cage, and no companions to keep her company.

"Every animal at Pata Zoo lives in terrible conditions," Giselle Correia, a blogger and animal advocate, told The Dodo last year. Correia said the zoo was hot and the facilities were bare cages. "From the cobra snakes indoors, to the African grey parrot behind bars, they are not treated as they should be. They are not free."

The director of the zoo, Kanit Sermsirimongkhon, has said that he hasn't done anything wrong. He has said that he started the zoo 30 years ago because he loves animals.

To add your name to a petition calling for the release of Bua Noi, click here.
You never know quite what to expect when someone opens a shelter dog's kennel. Will she be a relentless face-licker? A treat-aholic? Or even ... a hero? When it came to Lady, few people took the time to find out.

BARCS

Mostly because, in so many ways, she seemed like a typical shelter dog - one of 11,000, in fact, who find their way to the Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter (BARCS) every year. "She's just one of those dogs who was very overlooked," Bailey Deacon, communications director at BARCS, tells The Dodo. "She was loved by our staff and volunteers. But she wasn't getting a lot of chances for people to get her out and see how wonderful she really was. "People weren't picking her. Everybody just walked by the brown and white pit bull."

BARCS

Even Lady's back story isn't as epic as most. She was brought in as a stray and had lived at the shelter for a few months. And she was a pit bull, the most commonly seen dog at shelters.

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BARCS

In every way, Lady seemed ... unassuming. Think Clark Kent. Because it turns out, in this dog's heart, there was a world that needed saving.

BARCS

In March, Mandy Weikert and her partner, Chris Kimple, made the two-and-a-half hour drive from Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, to the Baltimore shelter. Their last adoption was a "hospice" dog, meaning the couple signed up to give an old, sick dog a happy and peaceful home for his final days. It was a bittersweet experience, with the dog living with them for just a week. "We wanted to get them one who was a little bit younger," Deacon explains. When Lady's kennel door opened and she was brought out to meet Weikert, she practically did cartwheels.

BARCS

"When she came out she was just goofy, she was running around and falling off things and just perfect," Weikert told People magazine, who hailed her as a "superhero" this week. "She made me laugh. And I just thought, 'She is always going to make me laugh.'" Lady, so long considered just another face in a bustling shelter, went supernova. "She wasn't the sensational one," Deacon says. "She didn't get all this attention while she was here for having something terrible happen to her. She really was just a stray dog running around. "And then she turned around and was like, 'Let me show you my sensational-ness.'"

BARCS

Weikert and Kimple took her home that day. And she's been shattering myths about shelter dogs ever since.

BARCS

"People have this misconception that every dog in a shelter is broken," Deacon says. "Or there's something wrong. There must be a behavioral problem. They must be here for doing something bad. And that's just not the case."

BARCS

"I think Lady is a dog who really shows just how incredible a shelter pet can be when you give them a chance," Deacon adds.

BARCS

But Lady had even more to give. One day, Weikert, who is a nurse at a cancer treatment clinic in Mechanicsburg, brought Lady to work with her. The dog, who knew all about being sidelined and underestimated, literally leapt at the chance to cheer up patients.

BARCS

"She makes people laugh and makes people smile and makes people forget why they are there," Weikert told People. "When they are with Lady, they are not cancer patients anymore. They are just people who are happy."

BARCS
TORNGAT MOUNTAINS, N.L.-No images of rolling green hillsides, sheer cliffs, magnificent fjords or massive icebergs were taken on this day. Instead, my ears did all the work. After four days of maritime adventures on Labradors scenic but stark and rugged coast, alongside ancient rocks more than 3.8 billion years old, it was time to listen.

The Torngats had stories to tell.

The immense tree-barren beauty and remoteness of the Torngat Mountains National Park and its offerings are both an adventurers dream and pure form of cultural tourism.

Related story:5 things to do in the Torngat Mountains

Inuit gifted the park to Canada after a successful land claim in 2005. Since becoming the countrys 42nd national park, its become a major draw, where visitors can spend time with elders who call the unspoiled landscape home.

Through song, storytelling and firsthand experience, visitors learn about Inuit culture, history and the environment.

Spending time with Inuit elders reinforces the connection of people to the land and place, says Martin Lougheed, Parks Canadas visitor experience manager.

Nestled into St. Johns Harbour in Saglek Bay is the base camp, gateway to the photogenic Torngats. Hosted by all-Inuit Parks Canada staff, its also home to a mix of visitors, including elders, youth, researchers, base-camp staff, performers and guests.

Camp integration and community togetherness happens quickly here, making it feel like an adult version of summer camp.

Being in a remote location creates a sense of camaraderie among guests, adds Lougheed. Friendships are forged that continue long after their time together.

Weather-dependent excursions include hiking and venturing out to sea to take in the panorama, look for wildlife, and explore nearby islands and ancient Inuit villages.

For how incredible and vast the region is, its equally treacherous. From polar bears to raging seas, moody fog and schizophrenic weather, its not to be underestimated.

Thanks to todays non-stop rain, its too risky to leave camp, so the Parks folks gather everyone in the visitors centre to watch a video presentation on Hebron, a nearby island.

Settled by a protestant sect of German Moravians in 1830, Hebron had once been the northernmost settlement in all of Labrador, and home to a flourishing Inuit community that enjoyed a traditional life in the rich fishing village.

In 1959 however, politicians working in collusion with the Moravians gathered residents in the church and advised them theyd be relocated to southern locations, such as Nain, Hopedale and Makkovik, in order to be closer to services.

Residents had no choice but leave their homes. Families were torn apart and once resettled, left unsupported. Great hardship and tragedy followed, with repercussions still felt today.

Through storytelling and acknowledgement, healing and reconciliation have begun.

A man from the video looks familiar. Glancing over my shoulder, John Jararuse, an elder, sits three rows back.

Sophie Keelan is another elder also staying at base camp. After the video, our paths collide and she tells me shed like to share her story.

Keelan is Jararuses cousin. At 11 years old, they were separated by leaving Hebron.

At 68 years old, this memory is painfully fresh. It was a sad departure, the saddest time, Keelan says, recalling as her family left on the boat Trepassey.

They promised us good housing and jobs, but when we got to Makkovik, there was no housing at all. We had to live in a tent.

Tears begin to well in her eyes and then mine. We lost our identity. We lost our family. Sitting in silence, no words beyond Im so sorry this happened to you, can express my empathy.

Still emotional, its the second last day and a boat ride to Hebron means we will visit Keelan and Jararuses home.

My place, as its been all week, is at the top of the boats bow, eyes ahead watching for wildlife and taking in views. By now its also become my spot for introspection, perspective and internal reset.

Being here does something to you.

Arriving at Hebron, its easy to imagine the once-vibrant life that thrived along its scenic shoreline, now littered with abandoned buildings and a giant church in the distance.

We explore the beautiful island and then are summoned to the church. Jararuse is sitting at the front, where he addresses us in a soft-spoken voice. This used to be our church. Everyone was welcome here.

When I first heard we were moving to Nain, I was worried. I didnt know anything. I was excited. I thought the curfew might be later. In Hebron, it was 9 oclock, he chuckles, easing tension in the room.

Not long after, Jararuse is beside me on the boat. Watching him, his eyes are transfixed on the shoreline, as they once likely were 57 years ago.

Its my turn to say goodbye a day later and Parks Canada Supt. Gary Baikies words repeat in my head, We hope you go home with a memorable experience.

Beyond an adventurous trip that included amazing excursions, seeing polar bears and aurora borealis, the spiritually charged region and its people encouraged a truly meaningful journey.

This time, in order to soak in every last ounce of the Torngats spirit; the back of the boat beckons me.

Jenn Smith Nelson was a guest of Torngat Base Camp, Destination Labrador and Parks Canada, who neither reviewed nor approved this story.

When you go

Get there/get around:Torngat Mountains National Park operates over a six-week window from the last week of July to the end of August, and is only accessible by boat or charter plane. Visitors fly into Happy Valley-Goose Bay, N.L., and from there, transportation to and from the Torngats is included. There are several packages and four- or seven-day expeditions are available. Prices start at $5,200.

National parks admission: To mark the 150th anniversary of Canadian Confederation in 2017, Parks Canada will offer free admission to its national parks, national historic sites, and national marine conservation areas plus free lockage fees for its historic canals and waterways.

Sleep: Camping is done in comfortable tent style and/or domed accommodations that come complete with beds, dressers, heaters and electricity.

Eat: Dining takes place in a shared kitchen/dining hall with traditional offerings (such as seal and char) and Westernized food. Visitors make bagged lunches for days that are spent on the boat.

Day trips: While onsite, daytrips and natural excursions with Inuit guides and bear guards are included. Helicopter rides are extra ($3,200/hour).

Find out more:Parks Canada, The Torngats

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OTTAWABusiness leaders have joined with Canadas major airports to press Ottawa for investments to make air travel smoother and the country more competitive.

In a report released Thursday, the Canadian Global Cities Council  representing eight large chambers of commerce and boards of trade nationwide  urged the federal government to do more to nurture the growth of airports, which it said are economic powerhouses for the country.

For too long, policy-makers have overlooked the economic and employment potential of airports, said Adam Legge, president and chief executive officer of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce

Our concern is that the federal government uses airports as a cash cow and not as that enabler of global trade, global commerce, global connectivity, he told a panel discussion on the topic presented by the Economic Club of Canada on Thursday.

That message was echoed by Howard Eng, president and chief executive officer of the Greater Toronto Airports Authority, which manages Pearson airport.

Airports today are economic generators for their region. They are also economic generators for the country, he told the session.

We are in a competitive environment. We need to trade globally but in order to trade globally we need to get there . . . the way to get there is by air travel, he said.

I think its a huge economic issue if we dont get our flow, our processes right, he said.

The council is adding its voice to urge Ottawa to make immediate fixes to the security lines and border backups that are frustrating travellers.

When people enter the country, those lines are unacceptable. Those lines create this impression that Canada, perhaps, is not that efficient, said Michel Leblanc, president and chief executive officer of the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal.

The body is also calling for changes to relax visa requirements for passengers transiting through Canada from low-risk countries as a move to encourage more international travel.

As well, the council highlighted the need to integrate the biggest airports with ground transportation hubs to better move passengers and employees. Eng said such a move is critical to unlock the value of an airport.

Garneau has pledged action to reduce backlogs at airport security, saying that Canada is looking at competitive service standards to guarantee passengers are not held up at checkpoints.

But more precise details about the governments plan will likely have to wait until the spring budget and the promises of more cash to solve the problem.

The call for action on airports comes as several federal departments are weighing the findings of an independent report by Credit Suisse on the options for management of Canadian airports  and the potential upside of letting pension funds and other investors take a stake in the assets.

Officials at airports across the country are nervously watching for signals of what direction Ottawa takes. And they are quick to claim that the big airports run by not-for-profit authorities are already operating under a private sector model.

Weve made that transition to run it like a business, as a commercial enterprise, Eng said, noting that Pearson alone pays Ottawa $120 million a year in rent.

Eng said hes open to a discussion about the best management model for airports but encouraged government to consult widely.

Whats the aviation policy for the future? What do we need to do? It needs to be a thorough discussion, Eng said.

How do unlock the value of these assets over the long term, he said.

Following the morning session, business leaders headed to Parliament Hill to meet with cabinet ministers and their staff to lay out their case.

Its really trying to hit home on the message about how critically important this is to the business community, particularly at a point where the Canadian economy is searching for growth, said Jan De Silva, president and CEO of Toronto Region Board of Trade.

Our ability to get out to those growth markets is critical as is our ability to attract foreign companies, she said.

Those meetings included Tourism Minister Bardish Chagger. The group also sat down with senior officials with Transport Minister Marc Garneau. The minister had originally planned to attend too but had to skip the meeting because of parliamentary commitment, a spokesperson said.

Todd Letts, chief executive officer of the Brampton Board of Trade, said the group had a productive meeting with transport officials, whom he said showed lots of interest in the report.

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ST. JOHNS, N.L.Could a subsea tunnel under the Strait of Belle Isle finally link northern Newfoundland with Labrador?

Its a question that for decades has inspired dreams of free-flowing trade, hundreds of jobs and thousands of tourists.

Proponents say a fixed link  like the Chunnel between the U.K. and France, or the North Cape Tunnel in Norway  would unleash economic opportunity.

It could, theoretically, be a game changer, said Des Whalen, chairperson of the St. Johns Board of Trade.

But the idea is making political waves in the cash-strapped province, as critics lambaste plans to spend up to $750,000 for another feasibility report.

At a time when funding is being slashed all over the place for important programs, I really question the wisdom of spending three quarters of a million dollars, NDP Leader Earle McCurdy said in an interview.

Even if the study comes back and says, yes, this is feasible, were not in a financial position to do the project any time soon.

The tunnel under the strait, which is roughly 17 kilometres at its most narrow point, would connect about 26,000 residents of the mainland with the island of Newfoundland.

But McCurdy and other doubters stress the province is in the midst of a fiscal crisis since oil prices collapsed. Despite spending cuts and tax hikes, a $1.6-billion deficit is forecast this year as net debt mounts.

Thats on top of soaring costs linked to the Muskrat Falls hydro project now under construction in Labrador. Its estimated price tag has hit $11.4 billion, up $4 billion from four years ago.

The Liberal government says it earmarked $750,000 for the Labrador link study in its last budget as part of economic diversity efforts, but none of it has been spent.

Progressive Conservative member Barry Petten says a study commissioned more than 12 years ago by the previous Tory regime already recommended a single-lane tunnel that would move vehicles one way at a time on an electric train shuttle.

But with an estimated cost of $1.7 billion with financing  and 11 years for development  the project stalled. It never progressed despite years of hefty surplus budgets flush with offshore oil revenues.

People wanted to make this work in 2004 and 2005, Petten said in an interview. At the end of the day, they just couldnt make it feasible. I dont see what has changed now.

People familiar with the study led by former engineering consulting firm Hatch Mott MacDonald are baffled by the latest move to revisit it, he added.

They were a bit astounded why youre going to spend $750,000 in this financial climate on a study that has really already been completed but just needs minor updates.

Businessman Danny Dumaresque, a former provincial Liberal party president, said that research is outdated and never examined a proper business case.

He has been a vocal backer of the Labrador tunnel concept for years. As with the Confederation Bridge in P.E.I., Dumaresque believes private investors could be found to finance a venture that would eliminate escalating ferry costs while generating big profits over time  at no public cost.

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Well folks, the Republicans hit the jackpot this time (literally). Every money-hungry addict wants to hit a jackpot. Now they have elected the ultimate shyster. They have put the rest of the United States in great peril.

Ever since I became aware of politics, Republicans have scammed, schemed or just stolen all the money they could from people or any vulnerable institution on the planet. Just look how Kansas. Gov. Sam Brownback and his cohorts bankrupted the state and even took money from the school system. Now they are in debt and couldn't care less. Gov. Pete Ricketts would like to do that here, but we have a unicameral Legislature.

This behavior is called addiction. Anyone who is connected to some kind of addict knows the hell they cause in their families and jobs. They don't worry about anyone but themselves. Now the Republicans will take away anything that helps people, like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid or Obamacare. Privatizing everything makes the rich richer. They can raise the premiums and prices until the poor and middle class have very little left.

Congratulations voters! You think everything was so bad before? Get used to the new seven-year-old dictator. You can find him on Twitter most of the time getting even with those who have hurt his feelings. So sad, give that boy some ice cream.

Anita Crouse, Lincoln
Mayor John Tory says public safety wont be jeopardized by police budget cuts, and suggestions to the contrary are misleading.

The Toronto Police Association is currently blitzing residents with robocall invitations to participate in evening tele-town halls this week where panellists offer their views on the impact of a moratorium on hiring and promotions as recommended by a policing task force.

The so-called Transformational Task Force has released an interim report with 24 recommendations, including shrinking the number of uniform officers by about 10 per cent, from 5,235 this year to about 4,800 by 2019.

The report says that will help trim $100 million over three years from the $1 billion-plus budget as the service redefines how it delivers services, including a shift from primary to priority response so officers spend more time responding to emergency calls.

These kind of cuts impact crime, they impact community safety, TPA president Mike McCormack told listeners who dialed in. They can lead to lower response times, less success in reducing and preventing crime and low morale among our officers.

On Thursday, Tory said McCormack has a job to do as a union leader.

I have a different job to do which is protect the overall interest of the entire city, Tory told reporters. Nothing that we are going to do in the cause of reforming and modernizing policing will ever put public safety in jeopardy. Anybody who suggests otherwise is trying to mislead people.

Tory said that overhauling Toronto Police Service is important work and appealed to critics to work together to modernize policing and reduce the TPS budget in a sensible way.

People can either sit down at the table and talk to us about how to do it because it has to be done or they can adopt a different approach and follow that kind of path, Tory said. I know what I have to do. I am the mayor and I have to keep the city safe but also modernize policing and make sure the budget is reasonable.

In addition to fighting the staff reduction, the TPA is also refusing to agree to change the shift schedule which the task force says would permit the service to deploy resources more flexibly.

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Advocates, child protection workers and youth are praising the introduction of historic provincial legislation that puts the needs of Ontarios most vulnerable children at the heart of every decision about their care.

For Richard Marcano, 22, who grew up in the care of childrens aid, it was an emotional moment.

It gives me hope, he said. Not just for me, but for the youth who are still in care and for the next generations to come. Youth feel like they dont have a voice. This gives them a voice.

Young people worked hard to bring change, added Michele Farrugia, 26, a former child in care and now a youth amplifier with the Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth.

We fought for this. And were not stopping here. We will make more fundamental change, he said at Covenant House youth shelter Thursday where Michael Coteau, minister for children and youth services, announced a rewrite of Ontarios 31-year-old child protection law.

I think today is a historic day for children and youth across the province, Farrugia added.

The proposed new Child, Youth and Family Services Act, tabled in the legislature Thursday, would replace existing legislation with a modern, child-centred act, that will strengthen the rights of children and youth, Coteau said.

It will affirm the rights of children through the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, recognize the importance of diversity and inclusion and the need to continue to address systemic racism.

The new law, if passed, is consistent with Katelynns Principle which states that children should be seen, heard and respected. The principle was a key recommendation from the inquest into the murder of 7-year-old Katelynn Sampson in 2008.

For too long, the system has focused on problems facing children and youth and not enough on their voice, their opinions, their thoughts and their goals, Coteau said. This legislation is probably the most comprehensive and the biggest game-changer in child protection in decades.

The new law would also raise the age of protection from 16 to 18, offer more help to vulnerable children and families in their homes before crises arise, strengthen oversight of childrens aid societies and make services more culturally appropriate for black children and youth.

The changes are aimed at addressing the over-representation of children from black and aboriginal families in foster care and group homes. The language will also be more respectful of First Nations, Metis and Inuit people.

Coteaus proposed changes brought Irwin Elman, provincial advocate for children and youth, to tears.

This is a testament to the young peoples courage and tenacity to not back down, he said of his decades-long fight to raise the voices of children and youth in government corridors. They brought Ontario to this moment.

Coteau thanked Elman for his work on the file and the two men embraced after the news conference.

Youth representatives welcomed the governments plan to raise the age of protection.

This is a great change. Its very exciting. It will help a lot of people like me, said Macy, 23, a former Covenant House resident who left an abusive home in southwestern Ontario when she was 16 and ended up homeless in Toronto. Macy is now a first-year Ryerson University student studying to become a child and youth worker.

Currently, a youth seeking care for the first time at age 16 is not eligible for support. Raising the threshold will give all 16- and 17-year-olds access to protection services, reducing their risk of homelessness and human trafficking, Coteau said. The move is expected to help an additional 1,600 youth in its first year and would bring Ontario in line with other provinces, he added.

Its a step in the right direction, said David Rivard, chief executive officer of the Childrens Aid Society of Toronto. He said he looks forward to a deeper briefing on the proposed legislative changes.

With something so comprehensive, theyre going to need a lot of policy work, said Rivard. I guess my fear is they may not have enough people in government right now to do that because really it sounds like an overhaul of the whole legislation. But I think (Coteaus) heart is in the right place and we want to support him in that direction.

And then there is a matter of money, which was not discussed at the announcement, he added.

Youth were pleased there will be more accountability for childrens aid societies and, in particular, unannounced inspections of group homes.

I was part of group homes where it was not good, said Farrugia. The homes always knew when it was inspection time, he said, and had days to prepare.

They replaced mouldy bath mats that had been around for a year, Farrugia said. They made sure the repairs were all done and made sure we were on our best behaviour. Thats unacceptable.

The province will establish a working group of experts, including youth, to help the government implement the proposed legislation, the minister said.

In 2014-15, an average of 15,625 Ontario children were in foster or group-home care because of abuse or neglect from parents, and thousands more were investigated for possible protection. Ontarios 38 childrens aid societies and nine Indigenous child well-being societies received about $1.5 billion in government funding last year.

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Theres a quintessential jumble of Toronto shacks on the southeast corner of Church and Dundas Sts. Cheaply built, like so much of Toronto, the jumble is ugly to unsympathetic eyes. Though awaiting a hearing at the Ontario Municipal Board over design details, the buildings will eventually make way for a proposed residential development. Yet, this quotidian corner has housed more Toronto life than seems possible in one place.

A visit to the deep wells of civic memory stored in the old city directories on the second floor of the Toronto Reference Library, randomly selecting volumes about a decade apart from 1915 until 1993, revealed that life. Heres just a sliver of it.

Part of the redevelopment parcel includes an unpaved parking lot along Church, and buildings on both the north and south side of it bear ghost traces of the structures that once abutted them, addresses numbered 215 to 221. In 1915, Ebenezer Chesneys cigar shop, the Porter Plumbing Supply Company and various apartment dwellers were here.

In 1925, Porter was still a going concern but the cigar shop was vacant, Hawley Auto Supply had moved in next door, and Samuel Barrett had started selling date products. By 1936, Seto Kwan had set up his tailoring business in Ebenezers old place, and Tire Chains & Accessories had opened next door along with the Collins Printing Company next to it. Porter was still in the plumbing business.

In 1947, Kwan had become a Designing Tailor and Church Cleaners and the Lewis Fur Company had moved into the block, while Porter Plumbing had evolved into Good Specialties Plumbing and Heating. By 1958, Master Brothers Business Machines was in operation here alongside M & R Enterprises Clothing and Novelties. In 1968, the Club Coffee Company was operating where Kwan once sewed, and next to it Athens Photo Studio had opened and Art Electric Construction had slipped in here too.

In 1980, the Toronto Resale Centre, Metropolitan Coin Exchange and The Wheel Silverware and Antiques shop were operating alongside Master Brothers. By 1993, 215 was not listed and 217 was vacant, no doubt the slow birth of the parking lot we have today.

As for the buildings currently standing, they too overflowed with life and enterprises both spiritual and commercial. At 223, where you can rent a room today for $79 at the Toronto Central Hotel, the Baptist Book Room and Baptist Missions Office shared the building with the Standard Publishing Company in 1915. Floyd Robinson was the live-in caretaker in 1925, and Arthur James had taken over the job by 1936. The Baptists and their many arms (Religious Education, Publications, Foreign Missions, etc.) were here until at least 1947.

In 1958, 223 had become the Canadian Insurance Building, housing said insurers, but also, over the years, the Downtown Businessmens Association of Toronto, Talco Importers, Masterpieces of Music, Custom Elevator Services, the Top 10 theatrical agency, the Architectural Millworkers of Ontario, Felix Photo Products, Ip Ken commercial artist, Brown Security Services and Amalgamated Eye Services. By 1993, 223 Church had become the Toronto International Hostel, surely setting up the evolution into the hotel today.

At 225 Church, where the Thai restaurant Sabai Sabai most recently was (theyve moved up to Bloor St. at Church), Thos B Trumphour sold cigars and Godfrey Hattie was a dressmaker in 1915. For 1925, the listing is simply Chinese Restaurant, and it was vacant during the depression, but by 1947 it was back in action as the Arena Pool Room until sometime before 1968 when Parthenon Jewellery & Gifts was in operation. Harts Restaurant operated here in 1980.

Next door, Ethiopiques Restaurant still operates at 227, but over the decades the location saw Peter Harakass confectionary in 1925, the Liberty Lunch in 1936 (though Peter Harakas still lived at this address, so perhaps he rebranded), and later the U N I Grill. In 1993, the Amalfi Restaurant had opened and their giant A is still visible at the peak of the roof above Ethiopiques. Everything leaves a trace.

Ali Baba restaurant is on the Church and Dundas corner today, but historically its space was divided into addresses on both streets. 229 Church saw a succession of grocery, cigar, and variety shops over the decades. In 1915, Dundas was called Wilton St. along here and this block started at Number 81, where Robert Ringland operated a shoemaker business next to a Chinese laundry. By 1925, Wilton had become Dundas and renumbered so Evan Tanaseff shined shoes at 99-1/2, next to what is now TACOS 101. Chinese laundries, subsequent shoe shiners and barbers such as Percy McGovern in 1936 and Sam Ho in 1947 filled these small spaces.

In 1958, in what must be Ali Babas dining room today, the Peoples Open Kitchen operated at least into the 1980s. From the 1960s into the 1990s, the Toronto Invisible Weavers operated above where Jesmin Hair & Nails Spa is now. At 117, where Curry Kitchen currently is, numerous restaurants such as Ash, Star of Bengal, Rhodes and Sun Avon operated after Sim Ho ran his laundry here until at least 1947.

This is just a sliver of what was here. These old Toronto jumbles could adapt to all kinds of uses. Lets hope the new building can too.

Shawn Micallef writes every Saturday about where and how we live in the GTA. Wander the streets with him on Twitter @shawnmicallef

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Between flurries and freezing rain, Thursday night was the first real wintery-weather mess of Torontos seemingly never-arriving winter.

The citys streets were slick and greasy and gusts of wind made it a blustery mess.

For those driving into it, the backlog Yonge St. just south of the 401, seemed likely to be the result of some terrible accident.

But, actually, the delay was really just an effort to prevent one.

It was a two-way RIDE sobriety spot-check.

Its one of many that Torontians can expect to see in and around the city as the holiday season gets underway.

As the weather gets cold and slushy and it becomes time to gather and be merry, the police and Mothers Against Drunk Driving want to remind everyone to be responsible when they leave those boozy holiday gatherings and sloppy staff parties.

Both are working together with Reduce Impaired Driving Everywhere, better known as RIDE, to keep dangerous drivers off the road.

The roadside checking initiative was launched in the late 70s when the e initially stood for Etobicoke, but the concept is still very much the same: to discourage people from driving impaired, and catching those who do.

Since its early days, the program has expanded across the province.

At the RIDE event on Thursday night, Toronto Police Services Const. Clint Stibbe said that, as of about 10 p.m., police had not found any drivers to be impaired at the spot-check, although some had been drinking.

While the effort did slow traffic, Stibbe thought most people would be understanding of the cause for delay.

I dont think anyone will complain. We are here doing a job to make the roads safer for them, he said. If someone operates a motor vehicle while impaired and we catch them in this line, whats to say you couldnt be involved in that collision with that individual?

Quite often, Stibbe said, its the person thats impaired who survives and the one who is sober who doesnt.

We need the support of the community to recognize that impairment, whether by alcohol or drug, is not acceptable. It needs to be made socially unacceptable, he said, noting that Toronto Police have already charged more than 1,200 people with impaired driving this year. Whats it going to take to make those people understand that operating a motor vehicle [impaired] is wrong and there are consequences?

OPP Sgt. Kerry Schmidt, also at the spot check on Thursday, said the provincial police had seen 6,600 impaired charges in the province this year, as of October. He said the OPP have investigated 40 fatalities that have been drug- or alcohol-related so far this year. He said numbers are in line with what the province has seen in previous years.

That means we need to change behaviors and change attitudes, Schmidt said.

MADDs 29th yearly red-ribbon campaign is now underway and will continue until Jan. 2. The organization says that wearing one of its red ribbons is a promise to drive sober and a gesture that commemorates those who have been killed or harmed because of impaired driving.

If we can get even one impaired driver off the road . . . that is possibly one life saved, said Everilda Ratnakumar, who heads MADDs Toronto chapter. She was joined on Thursday night by four volunteers, who, alongside police, distributed ribbons and information materials about the dangers of impaired driving at the spot check.

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Just 4 years old when she boarded the ship, Ana Maria Gordon remembers little about the actual voyage or the harrowing events that prompted it.

But she hopes it is never forgotten.

Its important, especially in times like these, that people know about the St. Louis, the Toronto resident says, referring to far-right movements from the U.S. to eastern Europe.

The SS St. Louis, a transatlantic luxury liner, left the port of Hamburg on May 13, 1939  four months before the onset of war  bound for Havana.

On board were some 937 Jewish refugees from Germany and nearby countries  all of them suffering persecution during the prelude to a coming Nazi genocide.

They sailed into heartache and infamy  on a doomed voyage that would ultimately lead most of them back to Europe and its death camps.

The journey is recounted in a new novel, The German Girl, by Armando Lucas Correa. Earlier this year, Canadian writer Allison Lawlor published a historical account, The Saddest Ship Afloat.

Cuban-born Correa  editor of the popular U.S. Spanish-language magazine People en Espanol  dedicated the book to Gordon and several other St. Louis survivors.

Most of the ships passengers had bought, cajoled or begged for visas to enter the Caribbean nation and many had spent their lifes savings on those papers and their passage.

Gordons father, Richard Karman, was a travelling coffee wholesaler from Kosice, a cultural centre in what is now Slovakia, who used virtually all his modest means to get his family on the ship. It would be the last to carry Jews out of Germany.

And when Gordon, her parents and aunt and uncle came aboard in early May, they took up tourist-class quarters.

But we had visas, we had immigration papers, they paid a lot of money for (them) and they were signed by the government of Cuba.

Under the command of German Captain Gustav Schroeder, the fleeing passengers were treated with a dignity being systematically denied them in their homelands.

He was a wonderful man, a wonderful man, says Gordon, 81. He was a real captain who said my passengers come first. 

Like Oskar Schindler of Schindlers List fame, Schroder, who died in 1959, would be honoured posthumously with the title of Righteous Among the Nations by the State of Israel. He insisted his crew extend all normal services and courtesies to the refugees during the voyage, providing them with the opulent trappings offered on any luxury cruise at the time.

Reports of the first few days at sea tell of ballroom dances, swimming lessons and black-tie dinners.

Soon, however, the blithe normalcy was doused by troubling rumours that overran the ship.

As soon as the boat left Hamburg, the president of Cuba issued a decree saying that none of (the) visas were valid, says Daniel Gruner, 59, the eldest of Gordons four children.

Gordon adds: People heard things and started getting nervous, you felt the atmosphere was changing.

Gruner, a chemical physicist, says the Cuban reversal was likely based more on greed than rank anti-Semitism.

Basically what they wanted was more money, but nobody had any more money, Gruner says, noting that German laws forced emigrating Jews to leave all but a pittance of their assets behind.

Thus, when the St. Louis arrived at Havanas harbour on May 27, it was denied a docking space for six days.

They didnt let us off the ship, Gordon says. Only about 30 passengers were allowed to disembark in Cuba, and pleas for the rest to enter the U.S.  where most had hoped to settle  were also denied.

So, too, were requests to the Canadian government, fully aware of the abuse the passengers faced at home, that this country take them in. The phrase none is too many, which came to describe this countrys Jewish immigration policies of the 1930s and 40s, has become closely associated with the ship, which was forced back to Europe with 907 refugees aboard.

The phrase, and the ships history, has come up many times in the past 18 months during the debate over the countrys response to the Syrian refugee crisis.

Coincidentally, Cubas historical human rights record has also come under scrutiny following the death of Fidel Castro, including by critics of Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus message of condolence.

In June 1939, the return journey to Europe was so fraught that the St. Louis crew had to beat back a mutiny launched by a group of young passengers.

But Schroeder, who refused to return them to Germany, helped negotiate asylum for his passengers in Britain, Belgium, France and the Netherlands, where Gordons family settled.

They were not settled for long. The German invasion of the latter three countries in 1940 placed the bulk of the St. Louis passengers back in Nazi crosshairs and an estimated 250 would die in the Holocaust.

Gordons father was sent to the notorious Buchenwald concentration camp west of Leipzig, while she and her mother, Sidonie, wound up in the Ravensbruck camp for women, north of Berlin.

Because he was married to a non-Jewish German, Gordons uncle was forced to choose between sterilization and camp internment. He picked sterilization.

Her relatives survived the war. Gordons father was liberated by Soviet forces, while she and her mother were freed by the Swedish Red Cross just before the wars end.

Though her memories of the St. Louis journey are vague, those of her time in Ravensbruck, which she entered at age 8, are clear and painful.

What do I remember? Too much, she says during a recent interview at her elegant Moore Park apartment, near Yonge St. and St. Clair Ave. I was there close to two years. It was awful, just awful.

Taken to Sweden after the war, Gordon and her mother found her fathers name on a Red Cross list of camp survivors  which also placed him back in Holland.

My father was thin as a stick, she recalls of the Amsterdam reunion. They had fattened (my mother and me) up in Sweden a bit.

In 1946 the family joined an uncle who had escaped to Mexico before the war, and Gordon attended school, married a chemical engineer and raised her children in Mexico City.

After a divorce, she married a pharmaceutical manufacturer and moved with her new husband to Los Angeles, where she lived for 24 years. After her second husband died, she moved to this city seven years ago to join Gruner, who had come here in 1980 to do his graduate degree at the University of Toronto.

Asked if she still harbours resentments toward Canada and the U.S. for turning back her boat, Gordon answers softly.

At this stage after so many years, you know  she says before trailing off in a shrug and a sigh.

But you never forget and you shouldnt forget.

Remembering is particularly important now for Gordon, who hears fraught drumbeats of her childhood in the ultra-nationalist movements emerging in Europe and the U.S.

These things happen  and Im afraid that they can happen again, she says.

She points to the U.S. election, where Donald Trump rode a nasty nationalist wave to the presidency.

Its quite scary the way he talks.

A novel and a coincidence

Hannah Rosenthal is turning 12 when she boards the St. Louis on the eve of war.

Her family is first-class wealthy, shes grudgingly aware of her plight as a fleeing German Jew, and she and her mother are allowed to stay in Havana when the vast majority of the ships passengers are turned away.

In these ways, the young heroine of Armando Lucas Correas novel bears little resemblance to Gordon and her true-life tale. But the St. Louis survivor felt a profound empathy with the fictitious Hannah when she read The German Girl in its original Spanish.

This book touched me personally, Gordon writes in one of the glowing blurbs that accompanies the novel, published by Atria Paperback, a division of Simon and Shuster. Especially because it is written from the point of view of a girl, just like me, on the ship.

It was pure serendipity, however, that Correa met Gordon at all last summer, her son says.

This guy (Correa) posts on Facebook a little note: hey I wrote this book  its about the voyage of the St. Louis, Daniel Gruner says. My sister, whos been a friend of Armandos for 30 years  says hey Armando, I think my mom and my grandparents and my uncle and aunt were on that ship. 

Correa called Gordon two days later and flew to Toronto a week after.

The rest is just a whirlwind of craziness  interviews and filming all over the place, Gruner says.

After meeting Gordon, Correa held up the books publication so he could include her in his dedications, which included two other St. Louis passengers as well as his three children.

But Correa, who extensively researched the ship before writing the novel, studiously avoided interviews with any survivor until it was finished.

Everything that happened (on the St. Louis in the book), even the food, the music, is real, all the cables  and the newspapers, he says. But all the characters, I created.

While the St. Louis became a footnote in Canadian and U.S. history, it was all but eradicated from Cubas annals under Fidel Castros dictatorship, Correa says.

Nobody talked about the St. Louis in Cuba, says the Cuban-born author, who fled for the U.S. as a refugee himself in 1991. Its like a subject thats avoided in the memory of everybody.

I went to the (Cuban) national archives and all the documents related to the St. Louis (had) disappeared.

Despite it being the responsibility of an ousted, pre-communist regime, Correa believes the St. Louis debacle hit too close to the countrys repressive bone under Castro to bear official acknowledgement.

Indeed, he notes that communists in Cuba had created its own concentration camps in the 1960s that interned Jehovahs Witnesses and gays, among others.

Its the potential for such intolerance to reignite that Gordon, in her blurb at the beginning of the book, says is proof of the novels urgent message.

This tragedy, ignored for so many years, contains a lesson the world must learn and never forget: compassion for refugees.

Timeline: the 1939 voyage

May 13, Port of Hamburg:

Located on the River Elbe, it was and remains Central Europes largest port and Germanys main embarkation point for cruise ships. It was the eight-decked St. Louiss home port. Passengers were allowed to leave with just 10 Reichsmarks apiece. Tickets cost between 600 and 800 Reichsmarks.

May 15, Cherbourg, France:

The ship stops to pick up 37 passengers, bringing the total to 937. Most had paid $150 (U.S.) for each Cuban visa, not knowing they had been issued by a corrupt official, profiting from a loophole in the countrys immigration laws.

May 27, Port of Havana:

The St. Louis drops anchor off Havana harbour, having been denied permission to dock at its Hamburg-American Lines pier. Unknown to any aboard, the Cuban government had changed its immigration laws May 5, retroactively invalidating almost all of the visas. About 30 passengers were allowed to get off.

June 2, Exits Havana Harbour:

Under orders from Cuban President Federico Laredo Bru, the ship is forced out to sea. Captain Gustav Schroeder steams slowly around the island and towards the Florida coast, which he hugs for several days, hoping to gain U.S. entry for his passengers. This being denied, he considers running the ship aground but is warned off by U.S. coast guard vessels sent to shadow it.

June 7, Canadian Rejection

After the ship had turned back toward Europe the previous day, Ottawa officially rejected requests for sanctuary. The St. Louis is two days sail from Halifax, where a monument to the ships refugees by architect Daniel Libeskind would be installed at the Canadian Museum of Immigration in 2011. Now in storage, the monument, like the passengers it commemorates, is seeking a new home.

June 17, Antwerp, Belgium:

The ships remaining passengers disembark, with an agreement having been reached mid-voyage for asylum in four countries: 214 passengers would remain in Belgium, while 224 would go to France, 181 to Holland and 287 to Britain.

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What if they held a press conference on Parliament Hill and no one showed up?

Actually, thats always been a possibility, but the chances of it happening are a bit greater these days, with the dwindling ranks of reporters on the Hill.

This week, we learned some hard numbers. According to an iPolitics analysis of data provided by the parliamentary press gallery, the number of accredited journalists on the Hill is the lowest it has been in 22 years.

Gallery membership this month stands at 318, a sharp decline from its peak of 377 journalists in 2002. And as the iPolitics report notes, you have to back to 1994 to find membership numbers as low as they are today.

To put this in some context: the House of Commons has 43 more members of Parliament than it had 22 years ago, to reflect Canadas growing population in those two decades. The press gallery, on the other hand, has been cut by about 15 per cent.

No surprise, perhaps, to those of us familiar with the shrinking media industry and empty desks in newsrooms all over the country. But is there a democratic price to be paid?

Many citizens will argue that they dont need the press gallery as much these days, when they can get all kinds of online access to developments on Parliament Hill without the filter of traditional reporting.

In fact, its now possible for people to report and comment on federal political developments without ever setting foot in the foyer of the Commons and talking to MPs or ministers face to face.

But something does get lost when the only contact is virtual  civility, if were talking about Twitter; back-and-forth, nuanced conversation, if questions and answers are provided solely through email.

Ive been saying for a while now that the disconnect seems larger these days between Parliament Hill and the world outside the bubble. Some of that is the product of a fragmented media universe  we dont have millions of people gathered around the same nightly news broadcasts anymore, or even the same TV channels.

But a combination of forces  including the dwindling number of reporters  mean that journalists who work on Parliament Hill seem to be less able to get out of the bubble or even away from the big story of the day. All-day deadlines and smaller travel budgets, for instance, make it harder for reporters to get out and about in the country and see for themselves how politics is landing with the citizens. With fewer reporters, too, come fewer specialists on policy beats, so big stories come and go, like a stone skipping over the waters surface.

I can still surprise younger Parliament Hill journalists when I talk about the days, not so long ago, when reporters always travelled with the prime minister  and often cabinet ministers and opposition leaders too. During the years when the Constitution was a simmering issue in the late 1980s and early 1990s, some of us worked more outside Ottawa, for months on end, than we did on Parliament Hill.

In 2013, the Star assigned me to follow Justin Trudeau on his campaign for the Liberal leadership, and it allowed me to become one of a small handful of Parliament Hill reporters who actually saw how he was attracting crowds and attention outside Ottawa. We were the ones who werent surprised when his fortunes started to climb in the 2015 campaign.

So yes, I realize this is a kind of a weirdly circular argument  we need more reporters on Parliament Hill so they dont spend as much time on Parliament Hill. What we need, it seems, is more traffic inside and outside the bubble.

The Donald Trump victory in the United States, and the reverberating effects here in Canada (including the lock her up chants at an Alberta rally this week), have prompted a lot of conversation among reporters about the insular nature of political reporting these days.

Would the Trump victory have been less of a surprise, for example, if reporters waded more into those angry crowds of his supporters? (Recognizing that this presented some peril, even physical peril, when those chants were turned on the media.) Moreover, if traditional polls arent doing the job they once did at taking the temperature of the electorate, should the media start doing more on that score?

The parliamentary press gallery may never regain the membership it had 20 years ago and frankly, the world will still carry on with fewer press conferences. But it would be a shame if the shrinking numbers of political reporters also further frayed the connections between Parliament Hill and the lives of citizens.

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A female assistant to Jeremy Diamond complained to police that the personal injury lawyer would not assign her potential clients to vet unless she wore provocative clothing, sent naked photos or had sexual activity with him, according to a Toronto police case synopsis provided to a Crown attorney in 2011.

She only gets paid if Mr. Diamond gives her a client, detectives wrote in the case synopsis.

Police, initially acting on a complaint by Diamond, had charged the female assistant with extortion. She had threatened to expose the activities of the very public face of the Diamond & Diamond law firm.

After further investigation into the case, the detectives changed their minds. They asked a senior Crown attorney to withdraw the charge against the assistant, concluding instead that there was sufficient evidence to charge (Diamond) with extortion.

When the matter came to court, Crown attorney Michael Callaghan withdrew the charge against the assistant, saying Diamonds conduct made him conclude it was not in the public interest to pursue the case against the assistant.

There may be a reasonable prospect of conviction (of the assistant), but given the conduct of the complainant (Diamond) in the matter, I have real concerns that it was not in the publics interest to proceed, and as such thats why Im withdrawing this charge today, Callaghan told a justice of the peace hearing the case in August 2011.

Diamond was not charged with extortion.

Asked about the allegations against Diamond in the police synopsis, Diamonds lawyer, Julian Porter, told the Star his client denies them with a passion. Porter said they are from a disgruntled former contractor and he is appalled the paper would publish what he termed anonymized allegations of serious criminal conduct that did not result in charges or prosecution against his client.

The unfairness of this is monstrous, Porter wrote in a letter to the Star.

A recent Toronto Star investigation revealed that Diamond, who has been described as an award-winning personal injury lawyer, has never tried a case himself. The Star found his firm, Diamond & Diamond, has for many years been attracting thousands of would-be clients through a U.S.-style advertising campaign and then referring cases to other lawyers in return for sometimes hefty referral fees.

Porter told the Star that Diamond & Diamond has hired lawyers to handle cases in-house and currently has thousands of clients on retainer. Porter said the firm does refer out some individuals, but would not say how many.

Prior to 2013, Diamond & Diamond was mainly a referral firm. During this time period, when prospective clients called, assistants were assigned to meet with them and assess the complexity of the case before it was referred out to a lawyer at another firm.

One assistant who did this work was the woman who would become caught up in the extortion case. According to the police synopsis, she had worked for Diamond and the law firm for two years.

In May 2011, the woman wrote to Diamond complaining of harassing behaviour and demanding $60,000, or she would contact the Law Society of Upper Canada, Diamonds wife and the Toronto Sun newspaper.

Ive had enough of everything you have done to me in the last 2 years  sexual harassment (many different examples) and not giving me respect as an employee, the assistant wrote in her letter to Diamond.

I have told you several times that you are inappropriate and that I demand respect. You have severe issues and these are the consequences.

The woman said she could ruin Diamonds reputation with one phone call, telling people he cheats on his wife, speaks inappropriately about his clients and other employees, has a party house, and has relationships with paid to party girls. She gave him a May 6 deadline to pay the money.

I have pictures, emails and conversations saved that show all this, her message said. I will notify the Law Society of what you are doing.

Diamonds response was to call a Toronto lawyer, and the two showed up at an east-end Toronto police station the day before the deadline, telling detectives he was a victim of extortion.

Diamond provided detectives with the May 2 letter sent to him by the assistant, and a series of texts on his phone that he had sent to her after receiving her letter.

JD: Excuse me???

JD: Are u trying to extort me??

JD: why would u try and do such an absurd thing?

JD: I understand you need money but why start making up lies like this? Please call me to discuss this. tx

JD: I was very respectful towards you and was extremely accommodating.

JD: I understand youre going through issues but to try and extort me is not the proper way to go about things.

Diamond also told police the former employee had valuable and sensitive documents relating to his law practice that in the wrong hands could be detrimental to his confidentiality agreements with his clients, according to the police synopsis provided to the Crown attorney.

Early the next morning, detectives arrested the assistant at her home and charged her with extorting Diamond. On the drive back to the police division, the assistant said there was another side to the story. She gave a videotaped statement to police and later provided other information as police expanded their original investigation.

Among the information she turned over were text messages, emails and pictures.

The former employee told police she wrote the letter to Diamond in frustration because of what she indicated was sexual harassment she had experienced, according to the police synopsis.

She has produced emails indicating that in order to get clients she would have to wear provocative clothes, provide Mr. Diamond with naked pictures or have sexual activity with him, the document says.

The former employee told police she had spoken to two human rights lawyers who told her she could expect to get between $60,000 and $80,000 if she sued Diamond.

In the text messages provided to police, it appears that Diamond made lewd remarks as the employee rebuffed his attempts to flirt. In one exchange, Diamond commented on modelling pictures of the former employee posted to her Facebook page.

f--k I exploded so hard looking at them, he texted.

When the employee texted back xx ummm  thats inappropriate Jeremy, he responded by texting: why ur so hot babe, I think about f---ing you all the time  I want to bend you over my desk and stick my throbbing c--k inside you  you would love it babe.

The employee responded: enuff seriously.

Diamond texted: lol you are no fun.

In another text exchange, the former employee attempted to discuss a meeting for work, indicating a wish to send out invoices.

Diamond replied: okay wear some sexy lace lingerie.

Through Porter, Diamond denied the authenticity and accuracy of the text messages. He said his client was never interviewed by the police in relation to the potential charges against him described in your letter.

Porter did reference the letter the assistant sent Diamond, which in turn is referenced in the police synopsis to the Crown.

The extortion letter Mr. Diamond received is a classic example of unequivocal extortion. It is smeared with evil, Porter wrote to the Star.

The Star is not naming the woman due to the nature of the allegations and was unable to get comment from her.

Police sources said that in consultation between the police and the Crown it was suggested that the threshold to get a conviction against a lawyer is very high and it was therefore not in the public interest to pursue the case against Diamond.

Michele Henry can be reached at 416-312-5605 or mhenry@thestar.ca . Kenyon Wallace can be reached at 416-558-0645 or kwallace@thestar.ca .

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Its easier to incorporate a company in Canada than it is to get a library card, according a report released Friday by Transparency International that argues weak financial disclosure rules provide corporate cover for white-collar crime.

Opaque corporate and land registries lack the ownership information police need to catch the money launderers and fraudsters who use shell companies to buy Vancouver mansions, luxury cars and other expensive assets, states the report.

And because corporate transparency here lags other G20 countries, Canada has become a destination of choice for white-collar criminals, says the report titled, No Reason To Hide.

Anonymous ownership creates unnecessary obstacles for our law enforcement and tax authorities, fostering a climate of impunity due to low perceived risk, says Paul Lalonde, chair of Transparency International Canada, in the report.

Corporate entities  numbered companies and private trusts  act like getaway cars, says the reports lead author, Adam Ross, allowing those with ill-gotten gains to use their cash as if it were legitimate.

Its a good illustration of how anonymous companies let people behind them have access to bank accounts, take out loans and tap into the international financial system without having to put themselves forward, Ross said. (The company) acts as a shield for people who would otherwise be subject to greater scrutiny or be excluded altogether because the source of their funds is illegitimate.

Its a getaway car with tinted windows really, and they can stick a chauffeur in there  a nominee  who drives the car but might not even know who the owner is and what theyre using it for, Ross said.

As part of their research, Transparency International Canada studied the ownership of the 100 most valuable residential properties in the Vancouver area  worth over $1 billion in total  and found that almost half have murky ownership.

Many have blamed rising Vancouver real-estate prices on an influx of foreign money, something brokers have been quick to dismiss. But the reality is that it is difficult, if not impossible, to determine who is buying the highest-end homes, Ross said.

Twenty-nine of the properties were owned by shell companies (four of which were registered in offshore tax havens), at least 11 are owned by nominees (students or homemakers without the income to afford the homes) and a further six are held by trusts for anonymous beneficiaries, according to the study.

When the value gets high enough on these properties, it seems to make sense to own it through a corporate vehicle, Ross said. That way when youre transferring the property, you can transfer shares of the company rather than transferring property title and that wont trigger property transfer tax.

The report notes that police have long complained they cant get access to the financial records they need when theyre following the money in organized crime investigations.

According to government records from 2011, investigators were only able to identify a suspect in 18 per cent of money laundering cases, and only one-third of the cases that went to trial result in a guilty verdict, according to the report.

Canada is among the worlds most opaque jurisdictions with regard to legal entities and arrangements. In the midst of a global shift toward greater transparency, Canada is an increasingly attractive destination for those looking to park and invest the proceeds of crime, states the report.

Canada currently has a mishmash of disclosure rules for corporate registries in each province. None of them currently require the disclosure of the beneficial  or real owner  behind corporations.

By simply establishing a registry of beneficial owners, backed by copies of identity documents and proof of address, the report says the corporate veil would be far less useful to criminals.

Legal entities and arrangements can be transparent while still preserving what theyre intended to do, which is to limit liability, grant legitimate tax benefits and enable people to manage assets on anthers behalf. Anonymity was never intended to be part of those structures, said Ross.

Their utility to society as a whole wouldnt be hurt in any way if there was more transparency on who actually owns them. It would improve the rule of law, enable responsible business decisions  and enable journalists and civil society to hold people to account.

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CAIROA bombing on a main Cairo road leading to the Giza pyramids killed six police and wounded another three on Friday, the deadliest attack on security forces in the capital in more than six months.

The bombing, near a mosque on a wide avenue often used by tour buses, hit a police checkpoint, smashing several cars and blowing the windows out of police SUVs. Gravel, debris, and leaves littered the ground, as investigators inspected the area and masked troops stood guard with automatic weapons.

We heard the blast and rushed to the scene and found police vehicles damaged, said Abdel Hamid Abdulla, who was nearby. We saw some police were injured, and some of their legs had been cut off, he said.

State-run news agency MENA said the blast targeted security forces but did not elaborate on what caused the explosion. A security official said that two bombs placed in the area exploded during a security patrol. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief journalists.

A shadowy group called Hasm, or Decisiveness, which the government suspects is linked to the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood, claimed responsibility for the attack. It has claimed previous attacks in Cairo, including a shooting against the countrys former chief Muslim theologian and a car bomb against the chief prosecutors deputy. Both escaped unhurt.

There is no safety or security for you as long as we hold our weapons in jihad for God, there is either victory or martyrdom, the group said in a statement posted online.

Insurgents have carried out a number of attacks in Egypt since the 2013 military ouster of an elected Islamist president. The violence has been concentrated in the northern Sinai Peninsula, where Islamic State-linked militants are battling the army.

Fridays attack was the deadliest in Cairo since May, when gunmen opened fire on a microbus filled with plainclothes police in the suburb of Helwan, killing eight of them. Daesh, also known as ISIS, claimed the attack.

Most of the attacks in Cairo have been small-scale bombings, including one in October that targeted a police convoy and killed a pedestrian bystander.

Fridays attack comes as President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi is defending tough economic measures undertaken by his government to address a growing financial crisis and secure a $12 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund.

The government floated the Egyptian pound last month and slashed fuel subsidies, steps that were welcomed by the IMF and the business community but caused a spike the price of many goods, worsening the economic plight of ordinary Egyptians.

The austerity measures could fuel a backlash against el-Sissi, who rose to power after leading the military ouster of President Mohammed Morsi three years ago. Morsi had been freely elected a year earlier, but his rule proved divisive and the military stepped in amid massive protests demanding his resignation.

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WASHINGTON  About a year ago, 18-year-old college student Lauren Batchelder stood up at a political forum in New Hampshire and told Donald Trump that she didnt think he was a friend to women.

The next morning, Trump fired back on Twitter  calling Batchelder an arrogant young woman and accusing her of being a plant from a rival campaign. Her phone began ringing with callers leaving threatening messages that were often sexual in nature. Her Facebook and email inboxes filled with similar messages. As her addresses circulated on social media and her photo flashed on the news, she fled home to hide.

I didnt really know what anyone was going to do, said Batchelder, now 19, who has never discussed her experience with a reporter until now. He was only going to tweet about it and that was it, but I didnt really know what his supporters were going to do, and that to me was the scariest part.

This is what happens when Trump targets a private citizen who publicly challenges him.

When Trump tweeted about Batchelder in October 2015, he had fewer than five million followers; he now has more than 17 million and has bragged that having a Twitter account is like owning the New York Times without the losses. Twitter has become Trumps cyber-magic wand, allowing him to quickly act on a fleeting idea, a fit of anger or something he sees on television. Now that he is the president-elect, the power of Trumps tweets has only increased.

With one tweet, Trump can change headlines on cable news, move financial markets or cause world leaders to worry. With one tweet last week, Trump inflamed a conflict with China.

With another tweet on Tuesday, Trump caused Boeing stock to plummet.

With a third on Wednesday night, Trump prompted a series of threatening calls to the home of a union leader who had called him a liar.

Although Trump said months ago that he was likely to give up Twitter if elected, he has shown little sign of doing so. He will soon inherit the @POTUS account, which has 12.5 million followers.

I think I am very restrained, and I talk about important things, Trump said during an interview with the Today show this week. Frankly, its a modern-day form of communication ... I get it out much faster than a press release. I get it out much more honestly than dealing with ... dishonest reporters. So many reporters are dishonest.

For Batchelder, who studies history and gender studies at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, the abuse continues more than a year later. Five days before the election, she received a Facebook message that read: Wishing I could f---ing punch you in the face. id then proceed to stomp your head on the curb and urinate in your bloodied mouth and i know where you live, so watch your f---ing back punk.

During her first semester at Saint Anselm in fall 2015, Batchelder decided to volunteer for former Florida governor Jeb Bushs campaign, even though her views were much more liberal than his. To her, it was just an enjoyable opportunity to learn more about the Republican Party. She listed the volunteer position on her online resume but later realized that she truly is a Democrat.

On Oct. 12, 2015, Batchelder attended a bipartisan forum in Manchester and said to Trump: So, maybe Im wrong, maybe you can prove me wrong, but I dont think youre a friend to women.

Trump defended himself, saying he gave women positions of power at his construction sites, has influential women in his life and will fund womens health initiatives.

I love women, I respect women, I cherish women, Trump said at one point.

Batchelder asked for the microphone again.

I want to get paid the same as a man, and I think you understand that, so if you become president, will a woman make the same as a man, and do I get to choose what I do with my body? she said, then throwing her arms up in a questioning gesture.

Trump answered curtly: Youre going to make the same if you do as good of a job, and I happen to be pro-life, OK?

CNN and other media outlets covered the striking exchange, which generated conversation online. But Batchelder went to bed that night thinking her moment in the spotlight was over.

After midnight, Trumps director of social media tweeted out screen grabs of Batchelders social-media accounts. Trumps supporters launched investigations of their own. At 7:39 a.m., Trump tweeted:

Later that morning, Trump tweeted again:

Tim Miller, Bushs former spokesman, said the campaign had nothing to do with Batchelders asking the question. While the staff was accustomed to Trumps attacking Bush, they were stunned that he went after a college student.

If I was going to plant a question, I would have planted a better question, Miller said Thursday.

Batchelder agreed: Why would they ever send me out to do a pro-choice question? Guys, (Bush) is pro-life, which was one of my biggest problems with the Republican Party. And so I was like: Why would they ever send me to do that? 

Logic doesnt matter to online trolls, who rated Batchelders physical appearance, threatened to rape or otherwise hurt her and called her vulgar names. A Photoshopped picture popped up online depicting her face covered in semen.

I love social media, but I also saw the terrible side of social media, she said. I definitely tried to focus on something else because when youre seeing your life being played out in front of you and people are judging it and people are making assumptions about you, you kind of just want to stay away.

Batchelder turned down interview requests, ignored the nasty messages and threw herself into playing rugby. She became even more interested in womens issues and wants to be a human rights lawyer. She voted for Hillary Clinton for president.

Trumps Twitter account says it was created in March 2009, but Trump really started to use the account as a key communication tool in 2012 when he seriously considered running for president, said longtime friend Roger Stone.

He loves it, Stone said Thursday. This is what got him elected  being outspoken.

Trump dictates many of his tweets to one of the young ladies who work in his office.

So theyll type it out for me, real fast, bring it in  Ill be in a meeting. Blah, blah, blah, boom! Put an exclamation point here, and theyll send it out, Trump said in a May interview on Fox News.

But on weekends, evenings and during early-morning hours  such as when the first tweet about Batchelder was posted  Trump says he writes and sends his own tweets. The messages will often come seconds or minutes after the topic is covered on a major news network. Melania Trump said during an April town hall with CNNs Anderson Cooper that she has repeatedly told her husband to get off Twitter, especially after midnight.

Anderson, if he would only listen, she said. I did many times. And I just say: OK, do whatever you want. Hes an adult. He knows the consequences.

Batchelder hopes that Trump stops targeting people on Twitter, especially people such as she who are not public figures, and uses Twitter as President Obama has. She realizes that speaking out is likely to spark another wave of abuse, but she thinks its important for people to realize the harm that a single tweet can cause.

Twitter is such a powerful platform. He can make a difference. He can change the world, she said. And, using Twitter, I think he should use it for good. I think he should use it to uplift others.

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Betty Carstensen is 89, doesn't use a computer and can't figure out how to use the iPad where her son stored all her phone numbers.

So she keeps a hard-copy phone book tucked under her kitchen radio, a lifeline to the world outside her home on the outskirts of Fremont, where she lives alone.

Yet Carstensen, a retired grocery store butcher who started cutting meat when the men left for World War II, knows someday the iconic white pages will no longer appear at her doorstep.

"I understand that because my son never uses the phone book, he uses the smart  whatever that is  the smartphone."

The printed directory's demise might not be far off.

On Tuesday, the Nebraska Public Service Commission, which regulates phone companies in the state, gave CenturyLink permission to stop delivering phone books to homes in the many communities it serves across Nebraska. The books will still be available upon request.

Other phone companies, such as Windstream in Lincoln, will need to apply separately if they want to ditch their paper directories. A Windstream spokesman said this week the company has no current plans to do so.

But Cullen Robbins, the Public Service Commission's director of communications, said Tuesday's order sets a precedent that could soon be applied statewide.

The goal is to cut back on the material and environmental costs associated with publishing stacks of hard-copy phone books each year.

"There's an enormous expense in delivering these, and they just end up in the landfill," said Loel Brooks, regulatory counsel for Dex Media, which publishes phone books for CenturyLink.

About half of Nebraska households are now wireless-only, so their numbers aren't listed in the book, and online directories have become a more popular option for people with internet access.

That leaves gaping holes in the white pages' age-old offerings and audience.

Brooks said virtually no one complained after CenturyLink was allowed to stop delivering phone books in Omaha in 2013. Last year, less than 1 percent of customers in that area requested a print copy of the white pages.

The new order applies to CenturyLink's other Nebraska markets, including Fremont, Grand Island, Norfolk, North Platte, McCook and much of the Panhandle.

It's now up to the phone company to decide which customers will keep receiving full printed directories, which will receive only business listings  which can still generate revenue  and which will stop getting phone books altogether.

Environmental groups have bemoaned the circulation of unwanted, unused phone books for more than a decade, raising concerns with the solid waste produced when the books aren't recycled as well as with the felling of trees used to make them, although phone books are typically printed on recycled paper or paper produced using sawmill waste.

"We support waste reduction, and having a telephone book just show up on your front porch just creates waste," said Heather Creevan of the local nonprofit group WasteCap Nebraska, which seeks to eliminate waste.

The state's major telephone companies have long been required to circulate new alphabetical directories at least once a year.

The rule applied only to incumbent phone companies like Windstream, not newer competitors like Time Warner Cable (now Spectrum) or Allo.

But the written rule never specifically required doorstep delivery of phone books, only that directories be made available to all customers free of charge.

The Public Service Commission now says publishing numbers online will suffice, as long as printed copies are still available upon request.

Commissioners voted 4-0 to approve the new interpretation of its rules after CenturyLink and Dex Media requested the change this summer.

CenturyLink customers who no longer receive a directory automatically will be notified through an insert in their phone bill, which will include a toll-free number to call to request a hard copy.

It's just another sign of the times for Carstensen, who still reads her hard-copy newspaper each day  only now it arrives by mail.

"As we get older, we're going to outlive all of the stuff we're normally used to," she said. "That's the pits."
Despite our (thankfully) feminist prime minister, Canada has some serious work to do on womens human rights, according to a historic and scathing new report from the United Nations. As the international community observes Human Rights Day on Dec. 10, which also marks the end of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, Canadas position as a global leader on gender equality is now under serious scrutiny.

The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women has published its review of Canadas compliance with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. The report-back is both momentous and bleak.

The recommendations to Canada are surprising in their scope and level of detail, as well as how forceful and unequivocal the UN is in setting out how we can and must move forward. Womens right to health was front and centre, especially for some of the most marginalized women in the country, including women living with HIV, women who use drugs, women in prison, and women who sell or trade sex.

To the women who feel invisible, threatened and discriminated against on a daily basis, or who face unjust forms of criminalization, this UN report must come as little surprise. But fortunately for our federal government, these recommendations provide an opportunity to reverse some of the harms that have been done and restore the rights of all women in Canada. Its time for the government to listen up  and Human Rights Day is as good a day as any to move forward on behalf of more than half our population.

For the first time, a UN human rights treaty body has directly called attention to the issue of unjust prosecutions of people living with HIV for not disclosing their status in Canada. The Committee said that Canada should limit the use of the criminal law to cases where HIV is intentionally transmitted. The crime weve seen applied many times in HIV cases  aggravated sexual assault  is harsh, inappropriate and stigmatizing, and undermines the actual intent of the law, namely to protect survivors of sexual violence.

On World AIDS Day (Dec. 1), after the UN issued its report, Canadas Minister of Justice, Jody Wilson-Raybould, said the government would work to address the overly broad use of the criminal law against people living with HIV. This momentum cannot be lost.

When the previous federal government passed the ill-named Respect for Communities Act, it established even greater legislative and administrative barriers for women to access supervised consumption services, even as the overdose death toll continues to rise. The UN has now explicitly called for its repeal.

At the same time, the UN experts commented on the excessive use of incarceration as a drug-control measure against women and the ensuing female overpopulation in prison. They urged Canada to repeal mandatory minimum sentences for minor, non-violent drug crimes and expand treatment and support services to incarcerated women living with or vulnerable to HIV by implementing prison-based needle and syringe programs, opioid substitution therapy, condoms and other safer sex supplies. Too many women behind bars continue to lack access to these essential health measures.

The committee also called upon Canada to decriminalize sex work and examine the impact of its laws on the health and security of women engaged in sex work. While this is a welcome call for the removal of criminal laws that directly target sex workers, this particular recommendation falls short of understanding that decriminalization requires the removal of all criminal laws related to sex work, including those criminalizing clients and third parties.

With this damning and remarkable set of recommendations, the UN has zeroed in on the plight of some of the most vulnerable women in Canada. But whether another Human Rights Day comes and goes without action to address these serious failings boils down to two simple questions: Is Canada listening? And how feminist are we, really?

Nicholas Caivano is a policy analyst with the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network. Sandra Ka Hon Chu is director of research and advocacy at the Legal Network.

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After 90 years, Vaughan Road Academy  the high school where I have spent the past 17 years of my teaching career  will close at the end of this school year.

Unfortunately, Ive been down this road before. In addition to the fact that our main feeder school was closed three years ago, this will be the fourth school I have taught at that will have closed.

The string of school closures that has trailed me throughout my career is partly due to declining enrolment  a result of exploding housing costs that have priced many families out of the Toronto market  yet its also a byproduct of TDSBs optional attendance policy, which is killing the neighbourhood school.

Since 1999, the TDSB has allowed parents to opt out of sending their kids to their local school and send them out of their catchment area. Introduced in the chaos of amalgamation in the late 1990s, optional attendance bears the free-market thinking of the right-wing Harris government that created the TDSB. It was all about giving families choice and making schools compete for customers.

While this might sound good in theory, what weve seen as a result of this policy is a consolidation of students at a small number of schools perceived to be the good schools where the demographic, not surprisingly, is richer and whiter. And so while some schools are desperate for students, others are packed to the gills.

The TDSBs own data confirms this, revealing 117 elementary schools and 29 high schools at or above 100 per cent capacity. Lawrence Park Collegiate, for example, was at 146 per cent, with 1,290 students in a school that holds 882, while George Webster Elementary School, with 657 students crammed into a building that holds 299, was at 220 per cent capacity. And these are just two examples.

My own school, Vaughan Road Academy, with a capacity for 1,179 students, is currently sitting at an enrolment of 223 students, while parents in our catchment area apply for  and continue to be granted  optional attendance for their kids at neighbouring Forest Hill Collegiate, a smaller school that is currently packed at 120 per cent capacity.

System-wide, if you add up the total capacity of the buildings and the total number of students, the TDSB data showed it operating at 75 per cent capacity overall  not exactly numbers that would suggest a need for the massive off-loading of school properties, which the Wynne government has been pushing as a way to pay for the $3.5 billion needed to meet the capital repair backlog in Toronto schools. Enrolment is simply not spread out evenly.

No one would deny families have often made decisions about where to live or buy a home based on the local school, and optional attendance in some form has actually been around for a while. Even in the preamalgamation days, parents had been allowed to send their children to a school out of their catchment area if, for example, the kids had special needs that could not be accommodated by their local school. Eventually, a loosening of the rules allowed for the proliferation of alternative programs in the 1980s.

With optional attendance, however, parents are able to shop around much more freely. Consequently, sending a child to school is no longer necessarily an act of investing in ones community but about investing in ones child, period. Rather than being vital centres of their communities, schools are being reduced to mere service providers.

There are definitely good arguments to be made for allowing parents to find programs suitable to their childs interests and style of learning. Yet while granting families choice may often benefit children and families, the reality is that choice is more often likely to be accessed by those with more mobility. Families for whom even the price of TTC fare is a barrier to coming to school are far less likely than more mobile, affluent parents to take advantage of the optional attendance policy.

Not surprisingly, the proliferation of special programs and boutique schooling in TDSB over the past two decades mostly target the same shrinking pool of academic students.

Simply put, the poor have fewer options about where to live and go to school.

Its not a surprise that, as the Toronto Star reported in February 2015, the bulk of underenrolled schools happen to be located in poorer neighbourhoods.

While the Liberal government is demanding that TDSB consolidate low-enrolled schools, informally, consolidation has been happening for years based on where parents and students have been choosing to go, with those choices based sometimes on the ways in which factors such as race and class have shaped the schools reputation.

No matter how much the board or the Ministry of Education can talk about how they believe schools should be community hubs, this is what the market model does to the neighbourhood school.

Jason Kunin is a teacher at Vaughan Road Academy, which is scheduled to close in June 2017.

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I still think shes salvageable, said someone normally NDP but whos given up on provincial NDP leader Andrea Horwath. She meant Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne. Its hard to recall the hopes Wynne once inspired and how fresh she seemed. Lets refresh our memories.

When she ran for Liberal leadership in 2013, shed be asked, portentously, if she really thought someone like her could succeed in Ontario politics. What you mean, shed say brightly, is: Can a lesbian from Toronto become premier? The way she put it made you think: Perhaps. It was bracing and confident.

When she became leader against expectations, her first words to the party were, Believe it or not, this was the easy part. That made you believe, too, since she was telling the truth, and buoyantly anticipating an election.

There was also the fact shed already been through the fire in her life: coming out, successfully making the transition with her kids and ex-husband. So she had nothing to prove about her basic worth, shed done the hardest thing shed ever have to do. Then, against the odds, she won the election.

What befell her since then? Whatever it is, came into stark relief with the emergence of Toronto mayor John Tory as a leader with the guts to do what most of us assumed Wynne would and he couldnt. Hes now taken the position she should have, committing to a revenue increase in the form of road tolls. Voters arent even freaking out! Wynne has summoned the courage to merely say she wont disallow it. Ole, premier!

When she was running for leader she too talked about needing new revenue tools, such as road tolls or a gas tax, to pay for indispensable public goods like transit. (Toronto, pathetically, has just two-and-a-half grubby, Lilliputian subway lines.) Yet in power the only real tool she chose was selling Hydro One. That was the moment we knew she was no longer who we thought. Slowly she turned  (As in the great vaudeville sketch: Niagara Falls! Slowly I turned. Hydro in Ontario has been symbolically and historically associated with Niagara Falls).

Now CUPE, on behalf of the people of the province, is suing her over that sale. Her response, which I find sickening, is: Broadening the ownership of Hydro One has everything to do with investing in the infrastructure projects. As if you can expand ownership beyond the entire population of Ontario, who already own it. That statement is the measure of her capitulation. (Totally, she turned.)

Of course shes no socialist. Shes a standard issue Liberal: social justice plus conventional economics. But her broadening lingo is sheer camouflage for giveaways to bankers and financiers. Theyll create nothing; Hydro already exists. Theyll buy it and milk it, like classical parasitic rentiers. Banks will grow fleshy on brokers fees. Her chief adviser, Ed Clark, recently headed one.

Its metaphorically rich that Tory weighed in even here, rejecting the sale of Toronto Hydro for similar ends. Hes leaving Wynne in the dust and far to his right, as she left Andrea Horwath in 2014. The irony mounts when you think that Wynne defeated Tory years ago in a Toronto riding, leading to his resignation as provincial Conservative leader, in which role hed opposed tolls! Proving what? Among other things: that Canadian politics isnt dull, its lurid.

OK, that was the easy part. The hard part is figuring out what went wrong. Shes been excellent on social stuff like sticking with the new sex-ed curriculum (as McGuinty her predecessor didnt), providing basically free tuition, and pension expansion. It seems simplistic and insulting but its hard not to notice that she struck out on what seems like the guy stuff: economics, taxes, selling Hydro. She deferred to the fellas  Clark, Don Drummond  on money matters.

Can she turn this around again (Slowly  step by step, inch by inch)? If so it might start with reversing the Hydro sale. I think thats where she lost us; it seemed incomprehensible. Bill Davis reversed his own governments Spadina Expressway when he became premier in 1971 and it gave him 14 years in office. He couldve probably gone another 20. Plus Hydro has a near-Jungian archetypal status in Ontarios unconscious. Its a pretty identity-free place but water haunts it: the Great Lakes, James Bay, the northern woods, Niagara Falls  Hydro is Ontarian for water.

Rick Salutins column appears every Friday.

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Canadas privacy commissioners did a big service for all of us this week when they stood up to resist the pressure to erode traditional freedoms in the name of ever-greater security.

The federal commissioner, Daniel Therrien, was supported by all his provincial and territorial colleagues in a powerful appeal for caution as law enforcement agencies and national security officials push for more powers.

Its clear, said Therrien, that security forces need the right tools to do their job of protecting society. And its equally obvious that those tools must be updated and adapted to meet the challenges of the digital world  such as carrying out cyber-surveillance of illicit activities online.

However, theres an awfully big but that must follow these statements, and Therrien provided it in an emphatic manner that deserves to be noted by anyone concerned about striking the right balance between security and freedom.

But, he said, state powers have already been significantly expanded to counter different types of threats. At the same time, we have seen too many cases of inappropriate and sometimes illegal conduct by state officials that have impacted on the rights of ordinary citizens not suspected of criminal or terrorist activities.

And further: These key lessons from history remind us that clear safeguards are needed to protect rights and prevent abuse, that national security agencies must be subject to effective review, and that any new state powers must be justified on the basis of evidence. Government should only propose and Parliament should only approve new state powers if they are demonstrated to be necessary and proportionate  not merely convenient.

We could hardly have put it better ourselves.

More specifically, Therrien and the other privacy commissioners warn that collection of so-called metadata should be carefully monitored and subjected to approval by judges. In fact, they said, the standards for accessing metadata should be tightened and privacy protections strengthened.

Access to encrypted devices should also be done on a limited, specific basis, not made broadly available, they argue. And personal information should be shared among various agencies and with other countries only under strictly controlled circumstances.

The commissioners made their concerns known in a brief for a review of security laws being carried out by Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale. That includes a review of Bill C-51, the Harper-era law that tilted the balance too far towards security over privacy. The Liberal government has promised to fix it, and Therriens words should serve as a strong caution to correct the balance.

They are also speaking out at a time when police forces are making a public case that concerns about privacy are hobbling them in the fight against new types of cyber-crime.

Its normal for security forces to push for more tools to do their job. But the fact is that police now have access to more data than ever, and the recent trend has been to strengthen police and security powers, not weaken them.

The privacy commissioners sound a badly needed note in favour of safeguarding individual rights. Three cheers to them.

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Syrian refugee Assam Hadhads story is bitter-sweet. The bitter part was fleeing his war-ravaged country with his family, leaving behind the chocolate factory it took him 30 years to build. The sweet part is that in August, only seven months after he landed in Canada, he opened a new chocolate shop in tiny Antigonish, N.S.

Housed in a small shed, Peace by Chocolate has been so successful that Hadhad has managed not only to support his family, but to donate some of his profits to last summers Fort McMurray fire relief efforts. He understands, after all, what its like to have to flee danger with nothing.

Still, while Hadhads example is inspiring  Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shared it when he visited the United Nations  it is not representative of the harrowing stories of most of the 35,745 Syrian newcomers who have arrived in Canada over the past year.

Indeed, this past week the Senate rang a cautionary bell, suggesting in a report that the federal government is not doing enough to support them. It landed only days before the Dec. 10 anniversary of the arrival of the first wave of 25,000 Syrian refugees that Trudeau had promised would land before the end of February.

We cant abandon them, said Sen. Jim Munson. We cant let indifference set in. We need to help them in their next resettlement steps.

Among the reports recommendations: The federal government must boost access to language training, provide daycare so that parents can attend classes, increase mental health supports for those who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, and work with the Canada Revenue Agency to make sure refugees quickly qualify for the Canada Child Benefit.

All those steps should be taken.

Also of concern: Those who arrived a year ago and are still unemployed are being moved off federal support programs and onto provincial welfare rolls. Thats something that Sen. Thanh Hai Ngo, who arrived as a refugee from Vietnam in 1975, suggested is wrong-headed. He wondered if the provinces and territories are ready and able to provide support. If you help them, you help them to the end, he told the federal government.

Indeed, the numbers transferring over will prove challenging for provincial and territorial coffers. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada says only about 12 per cent of government-sponsored refugees currently have a job, while just over half of privately sponsored refugees have work.

One of the barriers to landing employment is a lack of language classes. Thats a problem the Senate raised last July, and again in its most recent report, and which refugee advocates also emphasize. As a result, just last month the government added another $18 million to language training programs for refugees. It now says 95 per cent of government-assisted refugees are finally enrolled in some kind of language training, compared to 79 per cent of privately sponsored refugees.

Thats all to the good, but the delay in providing adequate language training has cost many refugees job opportunities. And while they attend classes and search for work life can be tough, even with government supports.

Abdulwahab Alzoubi, for example, told the Stars Nicholas Keung that he, his wife and four children had been threatened with eviction from their Brampton home three times because their rent cheques bounced. The family has been living off $1,600 in monthly refugee resettlement assistance, which only covers their rent.

And its disturbing that other Syrian refugees have had to turn to food banks to make ends meet. According to an annual report, HungerCount, the number of people using food banks in Canada rose 1.3 per cent in 2016 over 2015, partly because of the influx of Syrian refugees. In some regions it was much worse. Surrey, B.C., for example, saw a 17-per-cent increase in the number of people requesting assistance, with refugees playing a huge part in that jump.

But for the most part the refugees stories are ones of resilience and determination. Indeed, some refugees are already gratefully paying it forward. Only nine months after settling in Toronto, Bedrettin Al Muhamad and seven Syrian friends launched Albayt Alsouri, or Syrian House, to help other refugees sign their kids up for schools, take them to doctors and to get groceries, and guide them to services.

They did it because they were so touched by Canadians good welcome and good heart . . . we just wanted to give others the same feeling, says the husband and father of five.

Indeed, Canadas generosity is so rare in a world shutting its doors to refugees in 2016 that it was applauded in an article in The Economist. In this company of wall-builders, door-slammers and drawbridge-raisers, Canada stands out as a heartening exception, it said.

That generosity wasnt just exhibited by the Trudeau government. A full 13,622 of the 35,745 refugees who entered Canada were sponsored privately.

Some employers, too, looked for ways to help out. Adonis Supermarket, a Middle Eastern grocery chain, brought many of the refugees onto its payroll almost as soon as they landed. Marah Khanjian was one of them. I cant believe I started my first full-time job just two weeks after I arrived in Canada, she said happily last March.

Life in Canada may be challenging. But after escaping the misery of refugee camps and a civil war that has killed 400,000, Canadas Syrian refugees say they are grateful to be here.

Canada must, as the Senate report reminds us, live up to its commitment to integrate the Syrian refugees that are already here. Then it must learn from its mistakes and do a better job as it welcomes the thousands more to come in 2017.

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Parents and community groups are urging a York Region trustee to step down while the board investigates allegations she used a racial slur while referring to a black parent.

Some are even calling on the education minister to intervene at the troubled board, which has been plagued with accusations in recent months that it does not properly deal with incidents of racism or Islamophobia.

Im disturbed. Im shocked. Im appalled, said Shernett Martin of the Vaughan African Canadian Association  which recently launched a human rights complaint against the board alongside the National Council of Canadian Muslims. They need to clean house at the York Region District School Board.

And if the allegations against longtime Trustee Nancy Elgie are true, the fact that somebody with her position and influence could feel so comfortable in the presence of colleagues to utter that word  its frightening.

In the meantime, she said, Elgie should step aside, and if not, the board or education ministry needs to force her.

The York board has brought in outside legal counsel to look into accusations that Elgie, a trustee since 2000, referred to a black parent as a n----- in front of others after a public meeting Nov. 22. A report is expected before the end of the year.

Elgie, 82, could not be reached for comment on Thursday. However, reached at her home Wednesday, she told the Star there is no merit in the accusation, but I will co-operate fully in the investigation. When asked if she was denying having uttered the slur, she responded: Im not saying anything like that... Im just saying there is no merit in the accusation.

The long-serving trustee, who is the widow of former Ontario cabinet minister Robert Elgie, represents Georgina. Her son has told the Star his mother doesnt have a racist bone in her body and in fact has fought for equality her whole life.

Education Minister Mitzie Hunter said the issues in the York board are of great concern, and I have expressed disappointment in the situation as it relates to issues of racism and Islamophobia that I have heard from parents, from students, from organizations in York Region.

She would not say if Elgie should step down. I think whats appropriate is the situation is now being reviewed by York Region; my expectation is that theres an appropriate response from the board and its leadership.

Newly elected board Chair Loralea Carruthers said the matter was dealt with immediately, with the then-chair taking statements from witnesses and staff who heard the alleged remark.

Bernie Farber of the Mosaic Institute believes the right thing for Elgie to do is to take a leave now.

She no longer has trust of the black community or anybody who values diversity, said Farber, who said he hasnt heard that word being used since the 1950s.

Carruthers told the Star I take concerns about racism extremely seriously. I have done everything I can in the few short days since the boards election to continue to reassure parents, students and the community and work with our staff towards solutions.

She said shes met with parents at the centre of this issue to reassure them that positive steps are being taken to move forward to ensure anti-racism education is available for all trustees, as well as families at the school where the principal posted anti-Muslim material on her public Facebook page.

Our board recognizes that we must do better to regain public trust, she said.

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Italy's bank stocks led broad declines for the country's benchmark index Friday after the head of Europe's permanent bailout fund said that it hadn't been approached to offer financial support.

Italy's FTSE MIB index fell more than 1.2% by 10:00 GMT Friday, led by a 3% decline for the FTSE Italy Banks Index, following a solid week of gains for the country's beaten-down financial sector after Sunday's constitutional referendum.

European Stability Mechanism Managing Director Klaus Regling told reporters in Helsinki that while Italy doesn't have a nationwide issue in terms of financial stability, certain banks need to raise more capital. Regling added that Italian authorities hadn't asked for rescue cash from the permanent bailout fund.

Italy's bank stocks had rallied hard this week, despite the crushing referendum defeat and subsequent resignation of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, in part due to speculation that authorities were ready to ask for a 15 billion ESM loan that would have been used to inject capital into failing lender Banca Monte dei Paschi di Sienna (BMDPY)

The assumption had investors betting that the state-led rescue would allow UniCredit (UNCFF) to execute its own private capital raising program, which some analysts have said will need to raise 13 billion, early next year.

UniCredit shares fell 4.5% in Milan Friday to change hands at 2.45 each, but are still holding on to 23% gains since the Sunday referendum. It will hold its capital markets day Monday in London.
Updated from 10:19 a.m.

Don't expect any dramatic changes to Coca-Cola's (KO) business from its incoming new CEO right off the bat, but best believe big changes probably lay out in the future as the company tries to roll with evolving consumer preferences.

The beverage giant said Friday that long-time CEO Muhtar Kent will step down as CEO effective May 1, 2017. He will remain chairman. Taking over for Kent as CEO will be Chief Operating Officer James Quincey. Coca-Cola's stock rose about 2.61% to $42.05 in late morning trading.

"We will push into new categories, and will get into other things," Quincey told TheStreet on a conference call. Quincey stopped short, however, of saying Coca-Cola will follow rival PepsiCo (PEP) into the snacks business as it still sees plenty of "untapped potential" in the beverage industry.

In the meantime, Quincey will likely ensure the conclusion of re-franchising Coke's bottling network in 2017 comes off without a hitch while also continuing to market new lower sugar sodas and ones in smaller packages .

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As TheStreetreported back in August last year, the ascendance of Quincey, 51, to the CEO role was more likely than not given his global resume.

Quincey was promoted to the operating chief position in August 2015 from president of Coke's European operations. At the time, Coke hadn't had a COO since 2007, signifying the importance of Quincey's promotion.

Quincey last talked with TheStreet in July

Quincey joined Coca-Cola in 1996 as a director in its Latin American group. From then until 2005, Quincey rose through the ranks in Coca-Cola's Latin America operations, finishing up as president of Coke's Mexico division. From October 2008 to January 2013, he served as president of Coke's Northwest Europe and Nordics business unit before being appointed European president in 2013 as part of an organizational shakeup.

"I will focus on long-term strategy, developing robust talent and our innovation pipeline," said Coca-Cola Chairman and CEO Muhtar Kent said in August 2015 in response to a question by TheStreet on how his day-to-day role would change with Quincey serving as COO. Kent's comment, at the time, sounded more like a veteran executive readying to transition to a chairman role, handing off the baton to a worthy successor.

On the call Friday, Kent struck a similar tone, praising Quincey for his "vast industry knowledge" and deep insights into changing consumer preferences.

Since his appointment, Quincey has focused on rounding out his expertise, leading Coke's growth strategies, overseeing the execution of an ongoing billion-dollar restructuring plan, and building Coke's portfolio of brands. "The last year and a half has allowed me an opportunity to get closer to Coke's businesses, rounding me out," said Quincey.
Shares of MGM Resorts Int'l (MGM) , Wynn Resorts (WYNN) and Las Vegas Sands (LVS) were climbing in premarket trading Friday, reversing losses the stocks suffered Thursday afternoon, after the Monetary Authority of Macau denied a report in the South China Morning Post stating that it would limit the amount of money that would be allowed to be withdrawen from ATMs in the region.

The regulatory body said that cardholders will continue to be able to withdraw up to 10,000 yuan daily ($1,450), but that the maximum amount of money to be taken out for each withdrawal would be 5,000 patacas ($626).

The Post had reported that the amount cardholders would be able to withdraw daily would be cut to 5,000 pacatas.

Wynn shares were up 6.65% Friday morning after falling 11.05% Thursday, MGM shares were up 2.44% after falling 4.34% the previous session, and Las Vegas Sands shares were up 5.62% premarket after declining 12.78%.

Investors were concerned that the new limits would derail the recovery that Macau has experienced in recent months. The gaming region, which is the area with legalized casino gambling in China, has experienced four consecutive months of year over year revenue increases after posting 26 consecutive months of decline.

Wynn and Las Vegas Sands took bigger hits in Thursday's trading than MGM because those companies have more exposure to Macau. More than 60% of Wynn's revenue is tied to Macau and 40% of Las Vegas Sands' revenue. Just 20% of MGM's revenue comes from the special administrative region.
All three global U.S. airlines have now said that unit revenue is surpassing the guidance they offered in October, and on Friday American (AAL) said fourth-quarter revenue could turn positive, ending a long-standing negative trend.

American's solid November traffic report followed a similarly positive United (UAL) report, issued late Thursday.

"United provided a solid upward guide to Q4 expectations last night, pushing consensus close the level where we initially began the quarter," JPMorgan analyst Jamie Baker wrote in a note issued Friday morning. "Meanwhile, American's updated guide this morning, also implies upside to consensus estimates and critically also opens the door to positive unit revenues in Q4."

Airline stocks rose in early trading Friday. American shares were up $2.36 to $50.41. Delta shares rose $1.32 to $52.67. United shares rose $2.97 to $75.71.

In its report, American said it expects fourth-quarter total revenue per available seat mile to range between negative 1% and positive 1%. That is ahead of prior guidance of between negative 2.5% and negative 0.5%.

American also boosted its margin guidance. The carrier said fourth-quarter pretax margin would gain 6% to 8%. Prior guidance was 5% to 7%.

Improving yield -- or average fares paid per passenger, per mile -- account for the gains, although they have been partially offset by higher estimated fuel prices, American said.

"Best November ever," said Cowen & Co. analyst Helane Becker, in a note issued Friday morning.

American shares closed Thursday at $48.05, up 18% from their opening price on the day after Election Day. Since that time, Becker said, American's multiple has gained 20%.

But "valuation likely won't matter to investors in the near-term if the airlines continue to raise unit revenue guidance, something we have been expecting for 2H16," she wrote. "The current expectation heading into 2017 is that margins will be squeezed given the increase in labor and jet fuel costs, unless air fares go up."

United released its November traffic report late Thursday and cited similar trends. It expects fourth-quarter consolidated unit revenue to decline between 3% and 4%, ahead of previous guidance towards a decline between 4% and 6%.

"The improvement from prior guidance is due to stronger than expected bookings during the second half of the quarter," United said.

For the U.S airline industry, October was the 19th consecutive month of domestic PRASM declines and the 29th consecutive month of international declines.

Investors had focused on the declines, even though they result largely from the positive impact of declining oil prices, which also drag down fares, revenue and PRASM.

Last week, Delta (DAL) said consolidated November PRASM declined 1%. That was "surprising to the upside," ahead of expectations for minus 2% to minus 5%, said Credit Suisse analyst Julie Yates. "This result should help investors feel more confident in the Q4 guide of minus 3% to minus 5%."

The November traffic reports have followed the disclosure on Nov. 14 that Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway had acquired airline shares valued on Sept. 30 at about $1.3 billion. American shares accounted for the lion's share, about $800 million.

Buffett had spent the previous 25 years decrying airline investing, even though he either broke even or made money on his best-known airline investment -- a bet on US Airways in 1989.

American CEO Doug Parker said Wednesday that the U.S. airline industry has been transformed, largely due to consolidation, and now represents a viable long-term investment vehicle for the first time. "The Berkshire Hathaway investment is as good as any validation for that," Parker told

CNBC

's "Squawk Box."

As for estimates, Baker on Friday boosted his fourth-quarter earnings estimate for United to $1.47 a share from $1.01, while Becker moved to $1.43 from $1.20. Consensus is $1.12, but likely to rise.

Baker boosted his estimate on American's earnings to 81 cents a share from 61 cents, Becker boosted her estimate to 80 cents from 59 cents. Consensus is 67 cents, but again the trend is clear.

This article is commentary by an independent contributor. At the time of publication, the author held no positions in the stocks mentioned.
Things are starting to look up for short-term home rental sharing company Airbnb.

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee on Friday vetoed a bill that would have reduced annual limits on short-term rentals in the company's own backyard.

The San Francisco bill which would have placed a hard cap of 60 days annually for short-term rentals like Airbnb instead of the current 90-day limit, was approved Tuesday by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors but then vetoed by the mayor on the grounds that it would only worsen illegal renting in the city.

"This legislation will make registration and enforcement of our short-term rental regulations less effective and risks driving even more people to illegally rent units instead of complying with current regulations," said the mayor in a statement Thursday.

"We hope Airbnb, and our host community, will be included in the new working group. We remain committed to working with city leaders on solutions that protect housing and simplify the process to enable San Franciscans to share their homes," said David Owen, Public Policy Manager at Airbnb in a statement to TheStreet.

A 60-day hard cap would have cost 1,500 hosts in San Francisco $11 million in rental income per year, according to an analysis conducted by the Bay Area Council.

The veto comes after Airbnb and New York City buried the hatchet last Friday by dropping a lawsuit in which the company challenged the city's law to punish people who post short-term apartment listings on its site.

As Airbnb sets out to transform the travel industry, it has been assailed by challenges to grow and scale up. The company has been at the receiving end of regulatory pushback from local legislators in New York and San Francisco. Just last month, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law a bill that could impose up to $7500 of fines for people who list rentals of fewer than 30 days in multiunit buildings. Airbnb's own backyard San Francisco is also anticipated to place restrictions on the number of days out of a year that a unit could be rented.

Meanwhile, outside of its U.S. legal battles, Airbnb announced on Dec. 1 that starting in January it would automatically block hosts in London and Amsterdam from renting out entire homes for more than those cities' legal yearly limits unless they are licensed to do so, the Wall Street Journal reported. This agreement with European city governments marks the first time that Airbnb will enforce legal limits on its short-term rental listings and serves as an example to the rest of its business operations all over the world, according to James McClure, Airbnb's general manager for northern Europe.

Although plagued by regulatory obstacles that seem to threaten the company's expansion, Airbnb has proven its resilience by exploring new ventures and tackling regulatory challenges to challenge established vacation booking and hospitality companies like Expedia (EXPE) , TripAdvisor (TRIP) and Pricelineundefined . The company has been working on securing 700 tax agreements in cities that generate more than 90 percent of its revenue. Currently Airbnb has 200 existing tax agreements that allow the company to collect and remit hotel taxes to local governments, but CEO Brian Chesky told The Financial Times that he aims to boost the number by another 500.
Vail Resorts (MTN) stock spiked in Friday afternoon trading, up $6.58 to $167.50, after the company indicated that it's better positioned for international growth following the October closing of its $1.06 billion purchase of Canadian ski-resort operator Whistler Blackcomb.

The "more attractive" Canadian dollar compared to the strengthening U.S. dollar could possibly draw more international travelers to British Columbia-based Whistler Blackcomb than Vail's destinations in Colorado, Northern California, Nevada, Utah and Michigan, company CEO Rob Katz said on Vail's 2017 first quarter earnings call.

Meanwhile, Canadian ski destinations are experiencing a heavy influx of skiers from Australia's Perisher resort, the largest ski resort in the Southern Hemisphere, expanding across four villages, said Credit Suisse analyst Ben Chaiken.

Australia, combined with New Zealand, represents more than 500,000 outbound visits each year to British Columbia alone, Chaiken said in a research note.

Since Vail closed on its Whistler acquisition, which was the end of Australia's spring season and a peak time for season pass sales, Katz said he expects to generate more revenue from Australia next year. Australia's spring season runs roughly from August through October.

With the help of Vail's strategies, Katz said the company will try to drive international sales at Whistler.

"Whistler was not as active in their international sales efforts much like we were a couple of years ago," Katz said. "We feel great about where we are with the Whistler Blackcomb acquisition and we look forward to the opportunity to bring them into the approaches that we do."

Vail will release further details on how it expects to operate Whistler and merge the two companies' brands in March, according to Katz.

Ahead of today's morning bell, Vail reported a 2017 first quarter net loss of $1.70 per share on $178.3 million in revenue, below Wall Street expectations of a net loss of $1.57 per share on $183 million in revenue.

Vail reiterated its 2017 full-year guidance range, predicting earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization to be between $567 million and $597 million, which includes operating results from Whistler.
U.S. oil and gas producers reacted quickly to news that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries reached an agreement to cut production in the first half of 2017 by drilling more rigs.

Houston-based Baker Hughes (BHI) reported Friday that U.S. oil and gas producers added 27 more rigs in the past week, bringing the count up to 623.

The oilfield service giant said that 21 oil rigs were added, while natural gas rigs climbed by six. Overall, the U.S. oil rig count is 498; the gas rig count totals 125.

For the second consecutive week, the Permian Basin saw the biggest increase in rigs, with 11 rigs added. That brings the overall number of rigs in the lucrative west Texas region to 246 -- the most in any major domestic basin. The DJ-Niobrara Basin, located in Northeast Colorado and Southeast Wyoming, had the second largest increase in rigs with six, bringing the total to 24 rigs in the region.

The U.S. offshore rig count held flat this week after declining by 1 to 22 rigs last week.

The Baker Hughes rig count is seen as an important industry barometer for drilling activity across the U.S. and North America, and with this week's increase in rigs can be seen as a sign of increasing domestic production.

Following the rig count report, oil prices were gaining. West Texas Intermediate crude was up by 1.2%% to $51.44, meanwhile global benchmark Brent Crude for February delivery was climbing by 0.5% to $54.16 at 1 p.m. ET.

Oil prices were supported during the day as OPEC prepares to meet with non-OPEC oil producers to discuss a deal to cut production. The cartel is hoping to get other producers to curb production by 600,000 barrels a day. Russia has said it will take on half of that burden, cutting output by 300,000 barrels a day.

In addition to Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Oman, Mexico, Russia, Sudan, Bahrain and Malaysia were set to join the meeting, Reuters reported.

The meeting this weekend follows OPEC's pledge on Nov. 30 to cap production at 32.5 million barrels a day, which represents an output reduction of 1.2 million barrels a day.

Employees of TheStreet are restricted from trading individual securities.
The following companies are subsidiares of Pfizer: AH Robins LLC, AHP Holdings B.V., AHP Manufacturing B.V., Agouron Pharmaceuticals LLC, Alacer, Alpharma Holdings LLC, Alpharma Pharmaceuticals LLC, Alpharma Specialty Pharma LLC, Alpharma USHP LLC, American Food Industries LLC, Anacor Pharmaceuticals, Anacor Pharmaceuticals Inc., Angiosyn, Array BioPharma, Ayerst-Wyeth Pharmaceuticals LLC, BIND Therapeutics Inc., BINESA 2002 S.L., Bamboo Therapeutics, Bamboo Therapeutics Inc., Baxter International - Marketed Vaccines, BioRexis, Bioren, Bioren LLC, Blue Whale Re Ltd., C.E. Commercial Holdings C.V., C.E. Commercial Investments C.V., C.P. Pharmaceuticals International C.V., CICL Corporation, COC I Corporation, Catapult Genetics, Coley Pharmaceutical GmbH, Coley Pharmaceutical Group, Coley Pharmaceutical Group Inc., Continental Pharma Inc., Covx, Covx Technologies Ireland Limited, Cyanamid Inter-American Corporation, Cyanamid de Argentina S.A., Cyanamid de Colombia S.A., Distribuidora Mercantil Centro Americana S.A., Encysive Pharmaceuticals, Encysive Pharmaceuticals Inc., Esperion LUV Development Inc., Esperion Therapeutics, Excaliard Pharmaceuticals, Excaliard Pharmaceuticals Inc., Farminova Produtos Farmaceuticos de Inovacao Lda., Farmogene Productos Farmaceuticos Lda, Ferrosan A/S, Ferrosan International A/S, Ferrosan S.R.L., FoldRx Pharmaceuticals Inc., Foldrx Pharmaceuticals, Fort Dodge Manufatura Ltda., G. D. Searle & Co. Limited, G. D. Searle International Capital LLC, G. D. Searle LLC, GI Europe Inc., GI Japan Inc., GenTrac Inc., Genetics Institute LLC, Greenstone LLC, Haptogen Limited, Hospira, Hospira (China) Enterprise Management Co. Ltd., Hospira Adelaide Pty Ltd, Hospira Aseptic Services Limited, Hospira Australia Pty Ltd, Hospira Benelux BVBA, Hospira Chile Limitada, Hospira Deutschland GmbH, Hospira Enterprises B.V., Hospira France SAS, Hospira Healthcare B.V., Hospira Healthcare Corporation, Hospira Healthcare India Private Limited, Hospira Holdings (S.A.) Pty Ltd, Hospira Inc., Hospira Invicta S.A., Hospira Ireland Holdings Unlimited Company, Hospira Ireland Sales Limited, Hospira Japan G.K., Hospira Limited, Hospira Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Hospira NZ Limited, Hospira Nordic AB, Hospira Philippines Inc., Hospira Portugal LDA, Hospira Produtos Hospitalares Ltda., Hospira Pte. Ltd., Hospira Pty Limited, Hospira Puerto Rico LLC, Hospira Singapore Pte Ltd, Hospira UK Limited, Hospira Worldwide LLC, Hospira Zagreb d.o.o., ICAgen, Idun Pharmaceuticals, Industrial Santa Agape S.A., InnoPharma, InnoPharma Inc., International Affiliated Corporation LLC, JMI-Daniels Pharmaceuticals Inc., John Wyeth & Brother Limited, Kiinteisto oy Espoon Pellavaniementie 14, King Pharmaceuticals Holdings LLC, King Pharmaceuticals LLC, King Pharmaceuticals Research and Development LLC, Korea Pharma Holding Company Limited, Laboratoires Pfizer S.A., Laboratorios Parke Davis S.L., Laboratorios Pfizer Ltda., Laboratorios Wyeth LLC, Laboratorios Wyeth S.A., Laboratorios Pfizer Lda., MTG Divestitures LLC, Mayne Pharma IP Holdings (Euro) Pty Ltd, Medivation, Medivation Field Solutions LLC, Medivation LLC, Medivation Neurology LLC, Medivation Prostate Therapeutics LLC, Medivation Services LLC, Medivation Technologies LLC, Meridian Medical Technologies Inc., Meridian Medical Technologies Limited, Monarch Pharmaceuticals LLC, Neusentis Limited, NextWave Pharmaceuticals, NextWave Pharmaceuticals Incorporated, P-D Co. LLC, PAH USA IN8 LLC, PF Americas Holding C.V., PF Asia Manufacturing B.V., PF PR Holdings C.V., PF PRISM C.V., PF PRISM Holdings S.a.r.l., PF Prism S.a.r.l., PFE Holdings G.K., PFE PHAC Holdings 1 LLC, PFE Pfizer Holdings 1 LLC, PFE Wyeth Holdings LLC, PFE Wyeth-Ayerst (Asia) LLC, PHILCO Holdings S.a r.l., PHIVCO Corp., PHIVCO Holdco S.a r.l., PHIVCO Luxembourg S.a r.l., PN Mexico LLC, PT. Pfizer Parke Davis, Parke Davis & Company LLC, Parke Davis Limited, Parke Davis Productos Farmaceuticos Lda, Parke-Davis Manufacturing Corp., Parkedale Pharmaceuticals Inc., Peak Enterprises LLC, Pfizer, Pfizer (China) Research and Development Co. Ltd., Pfizer (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Pfizer (Perth) Pty Limited, Pfizer (Thailand) Limited, Pfizer (Wuhan) Research and Development Co. Ltd., Pfizer AB, Pfizer AG, Pfizer AS, Pfizer Africa & Middle East for Pharmaceuticals Veterinarian Products & Chemicals S.A.E., Pfizer Anti-Infectives AB, Pfizer ApS, Pfizer Asia Manufacturing Pte. Ltd., Pfizer Asia Pacific Pte Ltd., Pfizer Atlantic Holdings S.a.r.l., Pfizer Australia Holdings B.V., Pfizer Australia Holdings Pty Limited, Pfizer Australia Investments Pty. Ltd., Pfizer Australia Pty Limited, Pfizer B.V., Pfizer BH D.o.o., Pfizer Baltic Holdings B.V., Pfizer Biofarmaceutica Sociedade Unipessoal Lda, Pfizer Biologics (Hangzhou) Co. Ltd, Pfizer Biologics Ireland Holdings Limited, Pfizer Biotech Corporation, Pfizer Bolivia S.A., Pfizer Canada Inc., Pfizer CentreSource Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., Pfizer Chile S.A., Pfizer Cia. Ltda., Pfizer Colombia Spinco I LLC, Pfizer Commercial Holdings Cooperatief U.A., Pfizer Commercial Holdings TRAE Kft., Pfizer Commercial TRAE Trading Kft., Pfizer Consumer Healthcare AB, Pfizer Consumer Healthcare GmbH, Pfizer Consumer Healthcare Ltd., Pfizer Consumer Manufacturing Italy S.r.l., Pfizer Corporation, Pfizer Corporation Austria Gesellschaft m.b.H., Pfizer Corporation Hong Kong Limited, Pfizer Croatia d.o.o., Pfizer Deutschland GmbH, Pfizer Development LP, Pfizer Development Services (UK) Limited, Pfizer Domestic Ventures Limited, Pfizer Dominicana S.R.L, Pfizer ESP Pty Ltd, Pfizer East India B.V., Pfizer Eastern Investments B.V., Pfizer Egypt S.A.E., Pfizer Enterprise Holdings B.V., Pfizer Enterprises LLC, Pfizer Enterprises SARL, Pfizer Europe Finance B.V., Pfizer Export B.V., Pfizer Export Company, Pfizer Export Holding Company B.V, Pfizer Finance Share Service (Dalian) Co. Ltd., Pfizer Financial Services N.V./S.A., Pfizer France International Investments, Pfizer Free Zone Panama S. de R.L., Pfizer GEP S.L., Pfizer Global Holdings B.V., Pfizer Global Supply Japan Inc., Pfizer Global Trading, Pfizer Group Luxembourg Sarl, Pfizer Gulf FZ-LLC, Pfizer H.C.P. Corporation, Pfizer HK Service Company Limited, Pfizer Health AB, Pfizer Health Solutions Inc., Pfizer Healthcare Ireland, Pfizer Hellas A.E., Pfizer Himalaya Holdings Cooperatief U.A., Pfizer Holding France, Pfizer Holding Ventures, Pfizer Holdings Corporation, Pfizer Holdings Europe Unlimited Company, Pfizer Holdings G.K., Pfizer Holdings International Corporation, Pfizer Holdings International Luxembourg (PHIL) Sarl, Pfizer Holdings North America SARL, Pfizer Hungary Holdings TRAE Kft., Pfizer Inc., Pfizer Innovations AB, Pfizer Innovations LLC, Pfizer Innovative Supply Point International BVBA, Pfizer International LLC, Pfizer International Markets Cooperatief U.A., Pfizer International Operations, Pfizer International S. de R.L., Pfizer International Trading (Shanghai) Limited, Pfizer Investment Capital Unlimited Company, Pfizer Investment Co. Ltd., Pfizer Investment Holdings S.a.r.l., Pfizer Ireland Investments Limited, Pfizer Ireland PFE Holding 1 LLC, Pfizer Ireland PFE Holding 2 LLC, Pfizer Ireland Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer Ireland Ventures Unlimited Company, Pfizer Italia S.r.l., Pfizer Italy Group Holding S.r.l., Pfizer Japan Inc., Pfizer LLC, Pfizer Laboratories (Pty) Limited, Pfizer Laboratories Limited, Pfizer Laboratories PFE (Pty) Ltd, Pfizer Leasing Ireland Limited, Pfizer Leasing UK Limited, Pfizer Limitada, Pfizer Limited, Pfizer Luxco Holdings SARL, Pfizer Luxembourg Global Holdings S.a r.l., Pfizer Luxembourg SARL, Pfizer MAP Holding Inc., Pfizer Manufacturing Austria G.m.b.H., Pfizer Manufacturing Belgium N.V., Pfizer Manufacturing Deutschland GmbH, Pfizer Manufacturing Deutschland Grundbesitz GmbH & Co. KG, Pfizer Manufacturing Holdings LLC, Pfizer Manufacturing Ireland Unlimited Company, Pfizer Manufacturing LLC, Pfizer Manufacturing Services, Pfizer Medical Technology Group (Belgium) N.V., Pfizer Medicamentos Genericos e Participacoes Ltda., Pfizer Mexico Luxco SARL, Pfizer Mexico S.A. de C.V., Pfizer Middle East for Pharmaceuticals Animal Health and Chemicals S.A.E., Pfizer New Zealand Limited, Pfizer Norge AS, Pfizer North American Holdings Inc., Pfizer OTC B.V., Pfizer Overseas LLC, Pfizer Oy, Pfizer PFE ApS, Pfizer PFE AsiaPac Holding B.V., Pfizer PFE Australia Holding B.V., Pfizer PFE Australia Pty Ltd, Pfizer PFE B.V., Pfizer PFE Baltic Holdings B.V., Pfizer PFE Belgium SPRL, Pfizer PFE Brazil Holding S.a r.l., Pfizer PFE CIA. Ltda., Pfizer PFE Chile Holding LLC, Pfizer PFE Colombia Holding Corp., Pfizer PFE Colombia S.A.S, Pfizer PFE Commercial Holdings LLC, Pfizer PFE Croatia Holding B.V., Pfizer PFE Eastern Investments B.V., Pfizer PFE Finland Oy, Pfizer PFE France, Pfizer PFE Global Holdings B.V., Pfizer PFE Ireland Pharmaceuticals Holding 1 B.V., Pfizer PFE Italy Holdco 2 S.a r.l., Pfizer PFE Italy Holdco S.a r.l., Pfizer PFE Korlatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag, Pfizer PFE Limited, Pfizer PFE Luxembourg S.a r.l., Pfizer PFE Mexico Holding 3 LLC, Pfizer PFE Netherlands Holding 1 C.V., Pfizer PFE New Zealand, Pfizer PFE New Zealand Holding B.V., Pfizer PFE Norway Holding S.a r.l., Pfizer PFE PILSA Holdco S.a r.l., Pfizer PFE Peru Holding LLC, Pfizer PFE Peru S.R.L., Pfizer PFE Pharmaceuticals Israel Holding LLC, Pfizer PFE Pharmaceuticals Israel Ltd., Pfizer PFE Private Limited, Pfizer PFE S.R.L, Pfizer PFE Service Company Holding Cooperatief U.A., Pfizer PFE Singapore Holding B.V., Pfizer PFE Singapore Pte. Ltd., Pfizer PFE Spain B.V., Pfizer PFE Spain Holding S.L., Pfizer PFE Sweden Holding 2 S.a.r.l., Pfizer PFE Sweden Holding S.a.r.l., Pfizer PFE Switzerland GmbH, Pfizer PFE Turkey Holding 1 B.V., Pfizer PFE Turkey Holding 2 B.V., Pfizer PFE UK Holding 4 LP, Pfizer PFE US Holdings 1 LLC, Pfizer PFE US Holdings 2 LLC, Pfizer PFE US Holdings 3 LLC, Pfizer PFE US Holdings 4 LLC, Pfizer PFE US Holdings 5 LLC, Pfizer PFE spol. s r.o., Pfizer PFE Ilaclar Anonim Sirketi, Pfizer Pakistan Limited, Pfizer Parke Davis (Thailand) Ltd., Pfizer Parke Davis Inc., Pfizer Parke Davis Sdn. Bhd., Pfizer Pharm Algerie, Pfizer Pharma GmbH, Pfizer Pharma PFE GmbH, Pfizer Pharmaceutical (Wuxi) Co. Ltd., Pfizer Pharmaceutical Trading Limited Liability Company (a/k/a Pfizer Kft. or Pfizer LLC), Pfizer Pharmaceuticals B.V., Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Global B.V., Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Israel Ltd., Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Korea Limited, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals LLC, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Pfizer Pigments Inc., Pfizer Polska Sp. z.o.o., Pfizer Private Limited, Pfizer Production LLC, Pfizer Products Inc., Pfizer Products India Private Limited, Pfizer Research (NC) Inc., Pfizer Romania SRL, Pfizer S.A., Pfizer S.A., Pfizer S.A. (Belgium), Pfizer S.A. de C.V., Pfizer S.A.S., Pfizer S.G.P.S. Lda., Pfizer S.L., Pfizer S.R.L., Pfizer SRB d.o.o., Pfizer Saidal Manufacturing, Pfizer Sante Familiale, Pfizer Saudi Limited, Pfizer Seiyaku K.K., Pfizer Service Company BVBA, Pfizer Service Company Ireland Unlimited Company, Pfizer Services 1, Pfizer Services LLC, Pfizer Shared Services Unlimited Company, Pfizer Shareholdings Intermediate SARL, Pfizer Singapore Holding Pte. Ltd., Pfizer Singapore Trading Pte. Ltd., Pfizer Spain Holdings Cooperatief U.A., Pfizer Specialties Limited, Pfizer Strategic Investment Holdings LLC, Pfizer Sweden Partnership KB, Pfizer TRAE Holdings Kft., Pfizer Trading Polska sp.z.o.o., Pfizer Transactions Ireland Unlimited Company, Pfizer Transactions LLC, Pfizer Transactions Luxembourg SARL, Pfizer Transport LLC, Pfizer Ukraine LLC, Pfizer Vaccines LLC, Pfizer Venezuela S.A., Pfizer Venture Investments LLC, Pfizer Ventures LLC, Pfizer Worldwide Services Unlimited Company, Pfizer Zona Franca S.A., Pfizer spol. s r.o., Pharmacia, Pharmacia & Upjohn Company Inc., Pharmacia & Upjohn Company LLC, Pharmacia & Upjohn LLC, Pharmacia & Upjohn S.A. de C.V., Pharmacia Brasil Ltda., Pharmacia Hepar LLC, Pharmacia Holding AB, Pharmacia Inter-American LLC, Pharmacia International B.V., Pharmacia LLC, Pharmacia Limited, Pharmacia Nostrum S.A., Pharmacia South Africa (Pty) Ltd, PowderJect Research Limited, PowderMed, Purepac Pharmaceutical Holdings LLC, Redvax, Renrall LLC, Rinat Neuroscience, Rinat Neuroscience Corp., Roerig Produtos Farmaceuticos Lda., Roerig S.A., Sao Cristovao Participacoes Ltda., Searle Laboratorios Lda., Serenex, Servicios P&U S. de R.L. de C.V., Shiley LLC, Sinergis Farma-Produtos Farmaceuticos Lda., Site Realty Inc., Solinor LLC, Sugen LLC, Tabor LLC, The Pfizer Incubator LLC, Therachon, Thiakis Limited, Treerly Health Co. Ltd, US Oral Pharmaceuticals Pty Ltd, Upjohn Laboratorios Lda., Vesteralens Naturprodukter A/S, Vesteralens Naturprodukter AB, Vesteralens Naturprodukter AS, Vesteralens Naturprodukter OY, Vicuron Holdings LLC, Vinci Farma S.A., W-L LLC, Warner Lambert, Warner Lambert Ilac Sanayi ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Warner Lambert del Uruguay S.A., Warner-Lambert (Thailand) Limited, Warner-Lambert Company AG, Warner-Lambert Company LLC, Warner-Lambert Guatemala Sociedad Anonima, Warner-Lambert S.A., Whitehall International Inc., Whitehall Laboratories Inc., Wyeth (Thailand) Ltd., Wyeth AB, Wyeth Australia Pty. Limited, Wyeth Ayerst Inc., Wyeth Ayerst S.a r.l., Wyeth Biopharma, Wyeth Canada ULC, Wyeth Consumer Healthcare LLC, Wyeth Europa Limited, Wyeth Farma S.A., Wyeth Holdings LLC, Wyeth Industria Farmaceutica Ltda., Wyeth KFT., Wyeth LLC, Wyeth Lederle S.r.l., Wyeth Lederle Vaccines S.A., Wyeth Pakistan Limited, Wyeth Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., Wyeth Pharmaceuticals Company, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals FZ-LLC, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals LLC, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals Limited, Wyeth Puerto Rico Inc., Wyeth S.A.S, Wyeth Subsidiary Illinois Corporation, Wyeth Whitehall Export GmbH, Wyeth Whitehall SARL, Wyeth-Ayerst (Asia) Limited, Wyeth-Ayerst International LLC, and Wyeth-Ayerst Promotions Limited.

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Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company provides solutions that allow customers to capture, analyze, and act upon data seamlessly in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, and Japan. The company offers general purpose servers for multi-workload computing and workload-optimized servers; HPE ProLiant rack and tower servers; HPE BladeSystem and HPE Synergy; and solutions for secondary workloads and traditional tape, storage networking, and disk products, such as HPE Modular Storage Arrays and HPE XP. It also offers HPE Apollo and Cray products; and HPE Superdome Flex, HPE Nonstop, HPE Integrity, and HPE Edgeline products. In addition, the company provides HPE Aruba product portfolio that includes wired and wireless local area network hardware products, such as Wi-Fi access points, switches, routers, and sensors; HPE Aruba software and services comprising cloud-based management, network management, network access control, analytics and assurance, and location; and professional and support services, as well as as-a-service and consumption models for the intelligent edge portfolio of products. Further, it offers various leasing, financing, IT consumption, and utility programs and asset management services for customers to facilitate technology deployment models and the acquisition of complete IT solutions, including hardware, software, and services from Hewlett Packard Enterprise and others. Additionally, the company invests in communications and media solutions. It has a partnership with Striim, Inc. to offer high performance and mission-critical solutions with real-time analytics. It serves commercial and large enterprise groups, such as business and public sector enterprises; and through various partners comprising resellers, distribution partners, original equipment manufacturers, independent software vendors, systems integrators, and advisory firms. Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company was founded in 1939 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.
The following companies are subsidiares of American Tower: 10 Presidential Way Associates LLC, 3267351 Nova Scotia Company, 3286208 Nova Scotia Company, 3298099 Nova Scotia Company, 52 Eighty Partners LLC, 52 Eighty Tower Partners I LLC, ACC Tower Sub LLC, AT Atlantic Holding LLC (1), AT Iberia C.V. (2), AT Kenya C.V., AT Netherlands C.V., AT Netherlands Cooperatief U.A., AT Rhine C.V. (2), AT Sher Netherlands Cooperatief U.A., AT South America C.V., ATC Africa Holding B.V., ATC Africa Shared Services (Pty) Ltd, ATC Antennas Holding LLC, ATC Antennas LLC, ATC Argentina Cooperatief U.A., ATC Argentina Holding LLC, ATC Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., ATC Atlantic C.V. (2), ATC Atlantic I B.V. (2), ATC Atlantic II B.V. (3), ATC Atlantic IV B.V. (2), ATC Backhaul LLC, ATC Brasil  Servicos de Conectividades Ltda., ATC Brazil Holding LLC, ATC Brazil I LLC, ATC Brazil II LLC, ATC Burkina Faso S.A., ATC CSR Foundation India, ATC Chile Holding LLC, ATC Colombia B.V., ATC Colombia Holding I LLC, ATC Colombia Holding LLC, ATC Colombia I LLC, ATC EH GmbH & Co. KG (2), ATC Ecuador Holding LLC, ATC Edge LLC, ATC Ethiopia Infrastructure Development Private Limited Company, ATC Europe B.V. (2), ATC Europe C.V. (1), ATC Europe Cooperatief U.A. (2), ATC Europe LLC, ATC European Holdings Inc., ATC Fibra de Colombia S.A.S., ATC France Holding II SAS, ATC France Holding SAS, ATC France Reseaux SAS, ATC France SNC, ATC France Services SAS, ATC GP GmbH, ATC Germany Holding I B.V. (3), ATC Germany Holding II B.V., ATC Germany Holdings GmbH, ATC Germany Munich GmbH, ATC Germany Services GmbH, ATC Ghana ServiceCo Limited, ATC Global Employment B.V., ATC Green Grass LLC, ATC Heston B.V., ATC Holding Fibra Mexico S. de R.L. DE C.V., ATC IP LLC, ATC Iberia Holding LLC (3), ATC India Infrastructure Private Limited (1), ATC Indoor DAS Holding LLC, ATC Indoor DAS LLC, ATC International Cooperatief U.A., ATC International Financing B.V., ATC International Financing II B.V., ATC International Financing II Holding LLC, ATC International Holding Corp., ATC Iris I LLC, ATC Kenya Operations Limited, ATC Kenya Services Limited, ATC Latin America S.A. de C.V. SOFOM E.N.R., ATC MIP III REIT Iron Holdings LLC, ATC Managed Sites Holding LLC, ATC Managed Sites LLC, ATC MexHold LLC, ATC Mexico Holding LLC, ATC Niger Wireless Infrastructure S.A., ATC Nigeria Cooperatief U.A., ATC Nigeria Holding LLC, ATC Nigeria Wireless Infrastructure Limited, ATC On Air + LLC, ATC Operations LLC, ATC Outdoor DAS LLC, ATC Paraguay Holding LLC, ATC Paraguay S.R.L., ATC Peru Holding LLC, ATC Polska sp. z o.o., ATC Ponderosa B-I LLC, ATC Ponderosa B-II LLC, ATC Ponderosa K LLC, ATC Ponderosa K-R LLC, ATC Rhine Holding LLC (3), ATC Scala Operations S.L. (3), ATC Scala Spain Holding S.L. (2), ATC Sequoia LLC, ATC Sitios Infraco S.A.S., ATC Sitios de Argentina S.A., ATC Sitios de Chile S.A., ATC Sitios de Colombia S.A.S., ATC Sitios del Peru S.R.L., ATC South Africa Investment Holdings (Proprietary) Limited, ATC South Africa Services Pty Ltd, ATC South Africa Wireless Infrastructure (Pty) Ltd, ATC South America Holding LLC, ATC South LLC, ATC TRS I LLC, ATC TRS II LLC, ATC TRS III LLC, ATC TRS IV LLC, ATC Tanzania Holding LLC, ATC Telecom Infrastructure Private Limited, ATC Tower (Ghana) LTD, ATC Tower Services LLC, ATC Uganda Limited, ATC Uganda ServiceCo (SMC) Limited, ATC Watertown LLC, ATC WiFi LLC, ATS-Needham LLC, ActiveX Telebroadband Services Private Limited, Adquisiciones y Proyectos Inalambricos S. de R. L. de C.V., Agile Airband Ohio LLC, Agile Connect LLC, Agile IWG Holdings LLC, Agile Network Builders LLC, Agile Networks Indiana LLC, Agile Networks Site Development LLC, Agile Towers LLC, Alternative Networking LLC, American Tower Asset Sub II LLC, American Tower Asset Sub LLC, American Tower Charitable Foundation Inc., American Tower Chile I S.A., American Tower Chile II S.A., American Tower Delaware Corporation, American Tower Depositor Sub LLC, American Tower Espana S.L.U. (3), American Tower Guarantor Sub LLC, American Tower Holding Sub II LLC, American Tower Holding Sub LLC, American Tower IB Participacoes Imobiliarias Ltda., American Tower Inmosites S.L.U., American Tower International Holding I LLC, American Tower International Holding II LLC, American Tower International Inc., American Tower Investments LLC, American Tower LLC, American Tower Latam SLU, American Tower Management LLC, American Tower Peru S.A.C., American Tower Servicios Fibra S. de R.L. de C.V., American Tower T. Torres do Brasil Ltda., American Tower Tanzania Operations Limited, American Tower do Brasil - Cessao de Infraestruturas Ltda., American Tower do Brasil  Communicacao Multimidia Ltda., American Towers LLC, Appleseed Holdco LLC, BR Towers, Blue Sky Towers Pty Ltd, Blue Transfer Sociedad Anonima, Broadcast Towers LLC, CNC2 Associates LLC, California Tower Inc., Cell Site NewCo II LLC, Cell Tower Lease Acquisition LLC, Central States Tower Holdings LLC, Colo ATL LLC, Colo Atl, Communications Properties Inc., Comunicaciones y Consumos S.A., Connectivity Infrastructure Services Limited, CoreSite Real Estate 12100 Sunrise Valley Drive L.L.C., CoreSite Real Estate 1656 McCarthy L.P., CoreSite Realty Corporation REIT Qualification Trust, Coresite, DCS Tower Sub LLC, Digital Access Ohio LLC (1), Eaton, Eaton Towers Ghana (M) Limited, Eaton Towers Ghana Limited, Eaton Towers Holdings Limited, Eaton Towers Kenya Limited, Eaton Towers Limited, Eaton Towers Uganda Limited, Essar Telecom Infrastructure, GTP Acquisition Partners I LLC, GTP Acquisition Partners II LLC, GTP Acquisition Partners III LLC, GTP Costa Rica Finance LLC, GTP Infrastructure I LLC, GTP Infrastructure II LLC, GTP Infrastructure III LLC, GTP Investments LLC, GTP LATAM Holdings B.V., GTP LatAm Holdings Cooperatieve U.A., GTP Operations CR S.R.L., GTP South Acquisitions II LLC, GTP Structures I LLC, GTP Structures II LLC, GTP TRS I LLC, GTP Torres CR S.R.L., GTP Towers I LLC, GTP Towers II LLC, GTP Towers III LLC, GTP Towers IV LLC, GTP Towers IX LLC, GTP Towers V LLC, GTP Towers VII LLC, GTP Towers VIII LLC, GTPI HoldCo LLC, Ghana Tower InterCo B.V., Global Tower Assets III LLC, Global Tower Assets LLC, Global Tower Holdings LLC, Global Tower LLC, Global Tower Partners, Global Tower Services LLC, Gondola Tower Holdings LLC, Grain HoldCo LLC, Grain HoldCo Parent LLC, GrainComm I LLC, GrainComm II LLC, GrainComm III LLC, GrainComm LLC, GrainComm Marketing LLC, GrainComm V LLC, Haysville Towers LLC (1), IW Equipment LLC, IWD Equipment LLC, IWG Holdings LLC, IWG II Holdings LLC, IWG II LLC, IWG Towers Assets I LLC, IWG Towers Assets II LLC, IWG-TLA Australia Pty Ltd., IWG-TLA Canada Corp., IWG-TLA Encanto 1 LLC, IWG-TLA Encanto 3 LLC, IWG-TLA Holdings LLC, IWG-TLA Media 2 LLC, IWG-TLA Media LLC, IWG-TLA Telecom LLC, InSite (BCEC) LLC, InSite (MBTA) LLC, InSite Borrower LLC, InSite Co-Issuer Corp., InSite Guarantor LLC, InSite Hawaii LLC, InSite Issuer LLC, InSite Licensing LLC, InSite Tower Services LLC, InSite Towers Development 2 LLC, InSite Towers Development LLC, InSite Towers International 2 LLC, InSite Towers International Development LLC, InSite Towers International LLC, InSite Towers LLC, InSite Towers of Puerto Rico LLC, InSite Wireless Development LLC, InSite Wireless Group, InSite Wireless Group LLC, Invisible IWG Holdings LLC, Invisible Towers LLC, JT Communications LLC, Kirtonkhola Tower Bangladesh Limited (1), LAP Inmobiliaria Limitada, LAP Inmobiliaria S.R.L., LL B Sheet 1 LLC, Lap do Brasil Empreendimentos Imobiliarios Ltda, Lease Advisors-AU PTY LTD, Loxel SAS, MATC Digital S. de R.L. de C.V., MATC Infraestructura S. de R.L. de C.V., MATC Servicios S. de R.L. de C.V., MC New Macland Properties LLC, MCSU Properties LLC, MHB Tower Rentals of America LLC, MIP III U.S. Iron LLC, Microwave Inc., Mountain Communications LLC, Municipal Bay LLC, Municipal-Bay Holdings LLC, New Towers LLC, PCS Structures Towers LLC, R-CAL I LLC, RSA Media Inc., Repeater Communications Group I LLC, Repeater Communications Group II LLC, Repeater Communications Group III LLC, Repeater Communications Group IV LLC, Repeater Communications Group LLC, Repeater Communications Group V LLC, Repeater Communications Group VI LLC, Repeater Communications Group of New York LLC, Repeater IWG Holdings LLC, Richland Towers LLC, Signum/IWG Tower Corp., Southeast Network Access Point LLC, SpectraSite Communications, SpectraSite Communications LLC, SpectraSite LLC, T8 Ulysses Site Management LLC, TLA PR-2 LLC, Telecom Lease Advisors Management 2 LLC, Tower Management Inc. (4), Towers of America L.L.L.P., Transcend Infrastructure Holdings Pte. Ltd., Transcend Towers Infrastructure (Philippines) Inc., Turris Sites Development Corp., Turris Sites IWG Corp, Tysons II DAS LLC, U.S. Colo. LLC, UNIsite, Uganda Tower Interco B.V., Ulysses Asset Sub I LLC, Ulysses Asset Sub II LLC, UniSite LLC, UniSite/Omnipoint FL Tower Venture LLC (1), UniSite/Omnipoint NE Tower Venture LLC (1), UniSite/Omnipoint PA Tower Venture LLC (1), and Viom Networks.

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Brookfield Asset Management is an alternative asset manager and REIT/Real Estate Investment Manager firm focuses on real estate, renewable power, infrastructure and venture capital and private equity assets. It manages a range of public and private investment products and services for institutional and retail clients. It typically makes investments in sizeable, premier assets across geographies and asset classes. It invests both its own capital as well as capital from other investors. Within private equity and venture capital, it focuses on acquisition, early ventures, control buyouts and financially distressed, buyouts and corporate carve-outs, recapitalizations, convertible, senior and mezzanine financings, operational and capital structure restructuring, strategic re-direction, turnaround, and under-performing midmarket companies. It invests in both public debt and equity markets. It invests in private equity sectors with focus on Business Services include infrastructure, healthcare, road fuel distribution and marketing, construction and real estate; Industrials include manufacturers of automotive batteries, graphite electrodes, returnable plastic packaging, and sanitation management and development; and Residential/ infrastructure services. It targets companies which likely possess underlying real assets, primarily in sectors such as industrial products, building materials, metals, mining, homebuilding, oil and gas, paper and packaging, manufacturing and forest product sectors. It invests globally with focus on North America including Brazil, the United States, Canada; Europe; and Australia; and Asia-Pacific. The firm considers equity investments in the range of $2 million to $500 million. It has a four-year investment period and a 10-year term with two one-year extensions. The firm prefers to take minority stake and majority stake. Brookfield Asset Management Inc. was founded in 1997 and based in Toronto, Canada with additional offices across Northern America; South America; Europe; Middle East and Asia.
The following companies are subsidiares of WPP: 24/7 Real Media UK Ltd., 41?29! Media Internet, AD Venture Worldwide Inc, AKQA, AKQA Denmark A/S, AKQA GmbH, AKQA Inc., AKQA Limited, AQuest, Acceleration, Acceleration eMarketing Inc, All Global, Always (Shanghai) Marketing Services Co Ltd, Arctouch LLC, BCW LLC, BWR PR, Beijing Benpao Century Technology Development Co. Ltd., Benenson Strategy Group LLC, Black and Deen, Blast Radius, Blast Radius Inc., Bomtempo Anahory e Ralha, Bottle Rocket, Bottle Rocket LLC, Brindfors Design AB, CB Associes S.A., CMI Media, CMI Media LLC, CONEXANCE MD, CT Finances SA, Catalyst Online LLC, Cavendish Square Holding BV, Center Partners, Cerebra, Cockpit Holdings Limited, Cognifide, Commarco, Commarco GmbH 120274, Cordiant Communications Group Limited, Dawson Integrated Marketing Communications, DeepLocal Inc., Design Bridge, Design Bridge Limited, Dewey Square Group, Ecommera, EffectiveUI, Enduring Organisation, Entreprise de Communications Tank Inc., Essence, Essence Global Group Limited, Essence Global LLC, Eurosem Belgium SA/NV, F.biz, FAST - Financial Administration Solutions & Technologies Srl, Finecast Limited, Finsbury LLC, Forward Limited, GREY Dusseldorf GmbH, GTB Agency LLC, GTB Shanghai Advertising Co. Ltd, GTB Stat LLC, GWE LLC, Geometry Global Japan GK, Geometry Global LLC, Geometry Global Limited, Glendinning Management Consultants, Go Direct Marketing Inc., Gorilla LLC, Grey, Grey Advertising Limited, Grey Global Group LLC, Group M France SAS, Group M Worldwide LLC, Group SJR LLC, GroupM (Shanghai) Advertising Co. Ltd, GroupM Argentina Trading S.A., GroupM B.V., GroupM Chile SAC, GroupM Competence Center GmbH, GroupM Denmark A/S, GroupM Japan KK, GroupM Limited, GroupM Market Advertising Co. Ltd., GroupM Media India Pvt Ltd, GroupM Pakistan (Private) Ltd, GroupM Singapore Pte Ltd, GroupM Srl, GroupM UK Digital Limited, Guangzhou Dawson Marketing Communication Co. Ltd, H-ART, HERING SCHUPPENER Consulting Strategieberatung fur Kommunikation GmbH, HeathWallace, Hill & Knowlton Limited, Hill and Knowlton Strategies LLC, Hirschen Group GmbH, Hogarth California LLC, Hogarth Worldwide Inc., Hogarth Worldwide Limited, Icon Brand Navigation Group, IntelliQuest Information Group Inc, International Meetings & Science LLC, J Walter Thompson Middle East and North Africa E.C., J Walter Thompson Publicidade Ltda, J.Walter Thompson Bridge Advertising Co. Ltd., John Street Inc., KBM Group LLC, KR Media UK Limited, KR Wavemaker SAS, Kantar TNS, Kinetic Advertising (Shanghai) Co. 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Limited, WPP Finance SA, WPP Group (UK) Ltd, WPP Group Canada Finance Inc., WPP Group U.S. Finance LLC, WPP Group USA Inc., WPP Health Limited, WPP Holdings Spain S.L., WPP Jubilee Limited, WPP Luxembourg Gamma Three Sarl, WPP Luxembourg Sarl, WPP Luxembourg Turris S.a r.l., WPP Marketing Communications (Hong Kong) Limited, WPP Marketing Communications Germany GmbH, WPP Media Ltd, WPP Montagu Square LLC, WPP Mexico S.R.L. de C.V., WPP Ottawa Ltd, WPP Samson Limited, WPP Sigma Limited, WPP Sphinx Limited, WPP Square one B.V, WPP UK Germany Holdings, WPP Unicorn Limited, WPPIH 2001 Inc., Warwicks, Wavemaker A/S, Wavemaker Australia Pty Ltd, Wavemaker BV, Wavemaker Canada ULC, Wavemaker Czech s.r.o., Wavemaker Global LLC, Wavemaker Global Limited, Wavemaker GmbH, Wavemaker Hong Kong Limited, Wavemaker Hungary Kft, Wavemaker Italia S.r.l., Wavemaker Limited, Wavemaker MENA FZ LLC, Wavemaker Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Wavemaker Publicidad Spain S.L., Wavemaker Sp.z.o.o, Wavemaker Taiwan Ltd, Wavemaker  Servicos Publicitarios Ltda, Who Digital, Witgoud Investments B.V., Worldwide Mediacom Mexico S de R.L. de C.V., Wunderman A/S, Wunderman Thompson (UK) Limited, Wunderman Thompson LLC, XMKT Group, Xaxis LLC, Xaxis US LLC, Y&R Propaganda Ltda, Young & Rubicam, Young & Rubicam LLC, clarus digital, dBOD, groupm Germany GmbH & Co. KG, mPlatform LLC, plista GmbH, thjnk, and thjnk AG.

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Tyler Technologies, Inc. provides integrated information management solutions and services for the public sector. The company operates in three segments: Enterprise Software; Appraisal and Tax; and NIC. It offers financial management solutions, including modular fund accounting systems for government agencies or not-for-profit entities; utility billing systems for the billing and collection of metered and non-metered services; products to automate city and county functions, such as municipal courts, parking tickets, equipment and project costing, animal and business licenses, permits and inspections, code enforcement, citizen complaint tracking, ambulance billing, fleet maintenance, and cemetery records management; and student information and transportation solutions for K-12 schools. The company also provides a suite of judicial solutions comprising court case management, court and law enforcement, prosecutor, and supervision systems to handle multi-jurisdictional county or statewide implementations, and single county systems; public safety software solutions; systems and software to automate the appraisal and assessment of real and personal property, as well as tax applications for agencies that bill and collect taxes; planning, regulatory, and maintenance software solutions for public sector agencies; software applications to enhance and automate operations involving records and document management; and data and insights solutions. In addition, it offers software as a service arrangements and electronic document filing solutions for courts and law offices; software and hardware installation, data conversion, training, product modification, and maintenance and support services; and property appraisal outsourcing services for taxing jurisdictions. The company has a strategic collaboration agreement with Amazon Web Services for cloud hosting services. Tyler Technologies, Inc. was founded in 1966 and is headquartered in Plano, Texas.
UNICEF/UN035311/LeMoyne

Multimedia content can be downloaded here: http://uni.cf/2fIh5KO



NEW YORK, 9 December 2016  An estimated 535 million children  nearly one in four  live in countries affected by conflict or disaster, often without access to medical care, quality education, proper nutrition and protection, UNICEF said today.



Sub-Saharan Africa is home to nearly three-quarters  393 million  of the global number of children living in countries affected by emergencies, followed by the Middle East and North Africa where 12 per cent of these children reside.



The new figures are released as UNICEF, on Sunday 11 December 2016, marks 70 years of relentless work in the worlds toughest places to bring life-saving aid, long-term support, and hope to children whose lives and futures are threatened by conflict, crises, poverty, inequality and discrimination.



UNICEF was established to bring help and hope to children whose lives and futures are endangered by conflict and deprivation, and this enormous figure  representing the individual lives of half a billion children  is a sharp reminder that our mission is becoming more urgent every day, said UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake.



The impact of conflict, natural disasters and climate change is forcing children to flee their homes, trapping them behind conflict lines, and putting them at risk of disease, violence and exploitation.



 Nearly 50 million children have been uprooted  more than half of them driven from their homes by conflicts.

 As violence continues to escalate across Syria, the number of children living under siege has doubled in less than one year. Nearly 500,000 children now live in 16 besieged areas across the country, almost completely cut off from sustained humanitarian aid and basic services.

 In northeastern Nigeria, nearly 1.8 million people are displaced, almost 1 million of them are children.

 In Afghanistan, nearly half of primary-aged children are out of school.

 In Yemen, nearly 10 million children are affected by the conflict.

 In South Sudan, 59 per cent of primary-aged children are out of school and 1 in 3 schools is closed in conflict affected areas.

 More than two months after Hurricane Matthew hit Haiti, more than 90,000 children under five remain in need of assistance.



The emergencies faced today by the most vulnerable children threaten to undermine immense progress made in recent decades: Since 1990, the number of children dying before their fifth birthday halved and hundreds of millions of children have been lifted out of poverty. Out-of-school rates among primary-school-aged children have reduced by more than 40 per cent between 1990 and 2014.



Despite significant progress, too many children are being left behind because of their gender, race, religion, ethnic group or disability; because they live in poverty or in hard-to-reach communities; or simply because they are children.



Whether children live in a country in conflict or a country in peace, their development is critical not only to their individual futures but also to the future of their societies, said Lake.

###

Notes to Editors:

Please note that the figures refer to the number of children living in countries affected by conflict, crisis and disaster. The figures have been calculated by using population data for countries where UNICEF has a humanitarian appeal.



UNICEF by numbers

Nutrition

In the 1940s, UNICEF began providing emergency nutrition aid, mainly in the form of milk, to children in post-World War II Europe. In 2015, UNICEF and partners worldwide treated 2.9 million children for severe acute malnutrition.

Health

In the 1950s, UNICEFs first immunization campaigns targeted diseases such as tuberculosis and yaws. In 2015, UNICEF procured 2.8 billion doses of vaccines, helping to protect 45 per cent of the worlds children under age 5 from deadly diseases.

In 1998, UNICEF became a founding member of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership to support malaria treatment and research, and expand prevention measures such as long-lasting insecticide-treated bed nets. In 2015, UNICEF procured 22.3 million bed nets to protect children and families in 30 countries.

Education

In 1961, UNICEF expanded its programmatic focus to include childrens education. In 2015, UNICEF provided 7.5 million children aged 3 to 18 with access to formal or non-formal basic education.

Child protection

In 1989, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which specifies that all children should be registered at birth to establish their existence under the law and safeguard many of their rights. In 2015, more than 9.7 million births were registered in 54 countries with support from UNICEF.

Water, sanitation and hygiene

In 1953, UNICEF launched its first efforts to improve access to water, sanitation and hygiene for children and families in need, and it has expanded that work with many partners over time. Between 1990 and 2015, 2.6 billion people gained access to improved drinking water sources and 2.1 billion gained access to improved sanitation facilities.

Humanitarian action

Since its founding, UNICEF has never stopped responding to humanitarian emergencies affecting children  particularly those already burdened by poverty and disadvantage.

In 2015, UNICEF and partners:

 Vaccinated 11.3 million children against measles in countries affected by crisis.

 Provided 4 million children in emergency situations with access to formal or non-formal basic education.

 Provided psychosocial support for 2 million children caught in conflicts and natural disasters.

General Comparative Facts

In 1955, UNICEF was assisting 92 countries and territories. In 2016, UNICEF works in 190 countries and territories.

The first National Committee for UNICEF was formed in the United States in 1947 to raise funds and awareness on the agencys behalf. In 2016, there are 34 National Committees around the world.

In 1972, UNICEF employed about 1,000 international and locally recruited staff members. In 2016, it has a global staff of approximately 13,000.
In between perfecting your costume for trick-or-treating and watching your favorite Halloween movies, leave time for baking some of the best pumpkin recipes around.

With a pumpkin pie spice and cream cheese center, this delicious pumpkin cake roll is sure to satisfy your sweet tooth and give you that fall feeling.
An investment firm run by former Bush administration Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff is deepening investments in firms that provide high-end cybersecurity advice to private corporations, a strategy that leverages the firms close connections to the government cybersecurity community.

Texas-based Delta Risk, which has ties to cyber-operations centers at two Air Force bases in San Antonio, is getting $3 million from a Chertoff Group affiliate fund to help expand. Coalfire, based in Colorado, got an undisclosed amount from the Chertoff Group and the D.C.-based private equity firm Carlyle Group at the end of last year.

Chertoff founded the Chertoff Group after he left government in 2009. He helped attract prominent military and intelligence insiders to the firm as they left government, including Michael Hayden, who oversaw cybersecurity operations at the National Security Agency and the CIA.

The Washington-based group has made smaller investments since its founding, but revved its engines in early 2014 through affiliated holding companies after raising money from a group of national security-minded individuals who werent disclosed.

Both companies are trying to capitalize on a well-documented dearth of analysts defending private businesses from theft.

One of the macros that helps us a lot is the shortage of cyber talent, said David Leach, principal and head of private equity at the Chertoff Group.

A 2015 analysis from Stanford University found more than 200,000 unfilled cybersecurity jobs across the United States, and a separate report by market research firm Burning Glass found more than 27,000 in the D.C. area alone.

The shortage has contributed to a wave of automation across the industry. Thousands of start-ups have popped up pushing various sorts of technology fixes designed to work in the background of a companys normal IT operations: perimeter defenses like firewalls, analytical platforms designed to make cyber analysts jobs more efficient, employee training modules, artificial intelligence algorithms that track hackers movements.

Chertoffs investment firm is trying something different: doubling down on human talent.

The big picture is theres no one way to solve the cybersecurity problem; there is no single solution thats going to make everyone safe and protected forever, Leach said.

Delta Risk, founded in 2007 by three former Air Force cyberanalysts who later sold their ownership stakes, is a prime example of the sort of high-end services work that Chertoff is steering its investors toward.

His 100-person company generates close to $20 million a year selling security advice to businesses and government agencies. Deltas solution is a suite of services  low on automation, high on expensive manpower  that find various ways of quantifying a companys cybersecurity risk and offering advice on how to handle it. The result is a company that looks more like an insurance brokerage firm than an anti-virus software provider.

Delta Risk chief executive Scott Kaine says customers often come to him in the chaos and confusion following a hack. His companys job is to figure out what went wrong and how the client can better secure its information.

The firm employs trained penetration testers (hackers) to exhaustively probe a customers network for holes and drill the companys IT managers by replicating large-scale hacks in a process known as red-teaming.

Its all made possible by the revolving door effect of cybersecurity talent between the intelligence community and the business community that supports it. Seventy percent of Deltas workers are recently retired cybersecurity analysts who are still on active National Guard duty in the Air Force. Most of them hail from one of two Air Force bases in the San Antonio area where the company is headquartered.

We have people embedded in the workforce there where they talk to their peers and get them to come over, Kaine said.

Chertoffs other big investment, Coalfire, follows a similar approach. Both firms market cybersecurity primarily as a risk-management problem and focus on labor-intensive solutions.

We dont run around saying we have a box that identifies everything and makes things go away, Kaine said. People are the key element that tends to get overshadowed by the glitz and glamour of these software and box centers out there.
Air Force One sits on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington on Dec. 6. (Kevin Dietsch/Bloomberg News)

A day before President-elect Donald Trump threatened one of Boeings most high-profile defense procurements, the deal to build the new Air Force One, the company had finalized a deal to pledge $1 million for his inaugural festivities, the company said Thursday.

Boeing has a long history of helping defray the costs of inaugurations, and the company gave the same amount for Obamas second inauguration in 2013.

The company finalized the contribution with the inaugural committee on Monday. Then on Tuesday, Trump tweeted that the cost of the Air Force One program was too high and should be canceled.

He tweeted that costs are out of control, more than $4 billion. Cancel order! Later, he told reporters that he thought the cost was ridiculous. I think Boeing is doing a little bit of a number. We want Boeing to make a lot of money, but not that much money.

Hours after the tweet, Trump spoke with Boeing chief executive Dennis A. Muilenburg, who assured him that the company would work to keep costs down and work with the administration on the program.

Trump then called Muilenburg a good man and a terrific guy on the Today show and said, Were going to work it out. Of the deal, Trump said: Were going to get the prices down, and if we dont get the prices down, were not going to order them. Were going to stay with what we have.

Despite the tension, Boeing said it is committed to supporting the festivities in January. USA Today first reported the pledge.

We are pleased to continue our tradition of supporting presidential inaugurations, said Gordon Johndroe, a Boeing spokesman.
A recalled Takata airbag inflator is shown after it was removed at the AutoNation Honda dealership service department in Miami. (Joe Skipper/Reuters)

AUTO INDUSTRY

Riskiest cars will go rst in Takata recall

Federal officials involved in the largest auto recall in history said Friday that the vehicles most at risk for deadly air-bag explosions will get replacement parts first.

With 29 million vehicles under recall and the number expected to grow to 42 million, replacements for air-bag inflaters made by the Japanese firm Takata cannot be produced fast enough to meet demand.

In all, 19 automakers are subject to the recall. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has revised its recall order to set deadlines under which the cars are to get replacements.

As Takata air bags age, they can develop a defect that can cause them to explode in a crash, spraying the vehicles occupants with shrapnel. The malfunction has been blamed for 11 deaths and 180 injuries in the United States.

Takata, among the worlds largest air-bag makers, has teetered near bankruptcy because of the massive problem.

NHTSA officials said Friday that automakers are responsible for replacing the faulty products. They said the automakers have replaced 12.5 million of the recalled inflaters so far.

 Ashley Halsey III

MEDIA

Murdoch seeks full ownership of Sky

21st Century Fox has reached a preliminary deal to acquire full control of Sky PLC for 11.2 billion pounds ($14.1 billion) as Rupert Murdoch seeks to consolidate his television empire.

Fox, which holds a 39 percent stake in Sky, proposed acquiring the rest for 10.75 pounds a share, according to a filing Friday in Britain. Thats a premium of 36 percent over Thursdays closing price. The bid revives a 2010 deal that was derailed amid a phone-hacking scandal at Murdoch newspapers.

Gaining total ownership of Sky would give Fox, which owns cable networks that include FX and National Geographic, a powerful distribution platform in Europe for pay TV and Internet. Sky, Europes top pay-TV company, provides service to 21.8 million customers across Britain, Ireland, Italy, Austria and Germany.

 Bloomberg News

Also in Business

 From news services
President-elect Donald Trumps Twitter attack this week on a union official, followed by his choice of a labor secretary who has criticized new worker protections, has rattled leaders of the American labor movement, who fear unions may be facing their gravest crisis in decades.

On Thursday, Trump announced that he would nominate as his labor secretary Andrew Puzder, a fast-food executive who has opposed additional overtime pay for workers and expressed skepticism about increasing the minimum wage. That followed a pair of Twitter messages Wednesday evening in which Trump attacked an Indiana union leader who had criticized him, saying the official had done a terrible job representing workers.

The actions, coming just four weeks after Trump won the presidency in part by wooing union voters with promises of better trade deals and a manufacturing revival, fed fears among national labor leaders that Trump was now planning a broad assault on unions.

The president-elect campaigned on reaching out to working people, and this is one of a string of nominations that run counter to that, said Eric Hauser, the AFL-CIOs strategic adviser and communications director.

The crisis for unions is a combination of direct threats from Trumps agenda and the knowledge that many rank-and-file workers are sympathetic to his populist message. Exit poll data from the Nov. 8 election shows that Hillary Clintons smaller margin of victory among union members, along with Trumps unusually strong performance, helped him win the White House.

President-elect Donald Trump is nominating fast-food executive Andrew Puzder as secretary of labor. Here's what you need to know about him. (Sarah Parnass,Osman Malik,Danielle Kunitz,Adriana Usero/The Washington Post)

The last time unions faced such an environment was when President Ronald Reagan slashed regulations, named a construction company executive as labor secretary and took on the air traffic controllers union. But, even during that onslaught, unions were in a much stronger position than today  representing 20 percent of private-sector workers compared with 7 percent today.

[He lied his a off: Carrier union leader on Trumps big deal]

The list of potential setbacks for the labor movement is daunting. Some union leaders are worried that a Trump administration would attempt to introduce a national right-to-work law  allowing any employee anywhere to exempt themselves from participating in a union  and block unions from deducting dues from paychecks.

Trump also will be able to fill two of the five spots on the National Labor Relations Board, which adjudicates disputes between unions and corporate management.

Some union leaders, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak for the unions, said that labor leaders also fear that a Republican Congress and Trump White House would launch investigations of union finances while failing to enforce labor laws when employers underpay workers or violate occupational safety rules.

The assault on unions, as institutions, is indeed unprecedented in scale, Georgetown University historian Michael Kazin said in an email. Even in the 1920s, conservative Republicans did not argue against their very legitimacy.

Union leaders also fear that Trump could reverse President Obamas executive orders and regulations aimed at improving pay and other worker conditions.

For example, the Labor Department in May finalized rules to expand overtime pay to workers earning up to $47,476, making an estimated 4 million lower-income people eligible. The rule, which was set to come into effect Dec. 1, was recently blocked by a federal judge in Texas. The Labor Department is appealing, but its unlikely that a Trump administration would continue to defend it.

Puzder, who is chief executive of CKE Restaurants, which includes fast-food chains such as Hardees and Carls Jr., has sharply criticized Obamas efforts. The overtime rule would affect many low-paying transient jobs such as those in retailing or the fast-food business.

[Donald Trumps pick for labor secretary has said machines are cheaper, easier to manage than humans]

I cant imagine someone more unsuited to the job of advancing the interest of working people in America than Andy Puzder, said Robert Reich, President Bill Clintons labor secretary and now a professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley.

The business community was, by contrast, pleased with Puzders nomination.

Andrew Puzder is someone with the real-world experience to understand workforce issues and how jobs are created, said David French, the National Retail Federations senior vice president for government relations.

John Feehery, a GOP strategist and president of communications at the lobbying firm Quinn Gillespie & Associates, said Puzder knows something about how hard the federal government made it to hire people. . . . Obama put more government controls over business and made it more difficult for them to hire.

Trumps own views on worker issues have been mixed. He has argued for infrastructure spending to create jobs and to scale back trade deals that might imperil manufacturing workers. But he has also sparred with workers  the National Labor Relations Board ruled earlier this year that Trumps Las Vegas hotel violated the law when it refused to bargain with a union representing workers there. Trump is appealing.

Likewise, he has sent a contradictory message on the minimum wage. At one point during the campaign, he argued that low minimum wages are necessary to keep the United States competitive, but he later seemed to endorse a higher minimum wage, saying he is very different from most Republicans. Later, though, he backed off that position.

A challenge for union leaders as they take on Trump is that many of their members supported him in the election.

Trump has since tried to capitalize on that. Last week, he traveled to an Indiana factory run by the air-conditioning and furnace company Carrier to celebrate a deal to keep jobs from moving to Mexico, after promising to address the offshoring plans during the campaign.

After Trumps victory lap, a local union leader at the Carrier plant, Chuck Jones, said that Trump had misled the public about how many jobs were saved at the plant, noting that hundreds would still go to Mexico. After Jones appeared on CNN to criticize Trump, the president-elect fought back on Twitter.

Union leaders are now hoping Trump will undermine whatever support he had among union rank and file.

Chuck Jones is a man of passion, conviction and integrity who would do anything for his union brothers and sisters, the AFL-CIO said in a statement. An attack on him is an attack on all working people.

Still, the results from the election are humbling for union leadership. In an Election Day survey cited by the AFL-CIO, 56 percent of union members voted for Hillary Clinton while 37 percent voted for Trump. In 2012, Obama won 65 percent of union voters while GOP nominee Mitt Romney won 33 percent.

Much of Trumps success among union workers probably came in the Rust Belt, although the AFL-CIO would not break out results by state.

In Nevada, by comparison, the Unite-HERE union, which represents hotel, casino and restaurant workers, including at Trumps hotel, waged an aggressive door-to-door campaign, and Democrats won the state Senate and House, sent the first Latina to the U.S. Senate, and defeated two incumbent GOP House members.

I dont sugarcoat things, said D. Taylor, the unions president. I think that the labor movement is very important that we get back to our roots: bread-and-

butter issues. Workers want a better deal and we have to show that were the best path to that.

With membership sagging and globalization undercutting U.S. wages, unions and their allies are girding for a tough four years.

The great and sad irony here is that one of the reasons working-class wages have stagnated and in many cases declined over the past 30 years is because of the weakening of organized labor, Reich said. Yet that stagnation and decline helped propel Donald Trump into the presidency because so many Americans are fed up with working harder and getting nowhere.

Read more:

How Trump-era trade policy threatens to send up the prices you see on store shelves

Senate Democrats threaten brief shutdown over policies they hope Trump will support

Trump victory sets off a tsunami of lobbying activity by companies


Rajeenas sister-in-law Aarifa looks out from Mohammed Sagirs home. The majority of women from both Hindu and Muslim families observe purdah  wearing a veil with older male relatives and when they step outside. (Poulomi Basu/For The Washington Post)

Not long after counselors started a gender sensitivity class in this urban village, groups of young men stopped hanging out in front of Mahinder Pals corner shop, where they used to ogle and catcall female day laborers who walked by in dusty saris.

Enrollment of girls in the local secondary school inched up. One mother asked for and received a small white Chinese-made mobile phone from her husband  and made her first telephone call. Others who had been confined to their homes in the strict Indian custom of purdah were suddenly allowed to venture outside the village boundaries for the first time.

The class was getting tangible results. And it was one of dozens of others that are happening across India in schools, police academies and villages, as the government and social service organizations team up to find ways to address the centuries-old patriarchal attitudes that still result in widespread oppression and violence against women.

In Chandan Hulla, about 30 young men  taxi drivers, shopkeepers and laborers  began gathering in July 2015 in the front hall of one of the village elders to snack on crispy samosas and ponder such questions as: What is masculinity? How would they feel if their daughters were abused or harassed? Are they threatened by the changing roles of women?

For a time, it seemed change was possible.

I was an animal before; now Im on my way to becoming a human being, said Yunus Khan, 30, one of the class participants.

But on Aug. 25, the village would be shaken by an unexpected death that would pit family member against family member and threaten to reverse the hard-won gains of the last year. A young woman was poisoned, and one of the very counselors who tried to teach the men to change their ways was accused with her husband in the case, according to a police affidavit.

Police say the young woman died in a dispute over dowry, the coercive practice of gift-giving that some say subjugates brides. The couple have not yet been formally charged, although warrants have been issued for their arrest.

In some respects, this is not such an unusual case: In 2015, police records show, dowry disputes in India led to the murders of more than 7,000 women .



The Center for Social Researchs gender sensitivity classes in Chandan Hulla target men ages 16 to 35. (Poulomi Basu/For The Washington Post)

Catalyst

Ten years ago, there was no main road in and out of Chandan Hulla, no electricity and only two televisions. A decade later, even children have cellphones, and villagers who sold farmland to developers are tearing down their mud-brick dwellings in favor of multistory homes with balconies and deluxe kitchens.

Still, the village of about 5,000, nestled in between the gated farmhouses of New Delhis elite and event palaces of the citys booming wedding industry, still occupies a tenuous space between old and new. A young girl wanders its narrow lanes swinging silver pails for buffalo milk as a shiny black Mercedes jolts by, its trunk stuffed with fodder for cattle. Its not far from the bustling shopping mall where a young student watched Life of Pi the night she was gang-raped and murdered four years ago  sparking a national movement for womens safety and fueling the demand for gender sensitivity training.

Villagers may have embraced consumer advances, but tradition retains its grip: The majority of women from both Hindu and Muslim families observe purdah  wearing a veil with older male relatives and when they step outside  and young women and girls are expected to act modestly and eschew jeans, residents said. If my sister had a boyfriend, I would cut her, one of the men outside Pals store said recently.

The village had a high rate of domestic violence, one reason counselors from the Center for Social Research were drawn to it.

The New Delhi-based nonprofit group dedicated to a violence-free gender-just society was one of the earliest to embrace sensitivity courses as a way to engage men and boys in societal change, founding its Gender Training Institute in 1997.

The group now runs programs for young men ages 16 to 35 in corporations, police academies and organizations such as UNICEF.

Such work is needed because the attitudes of men have not kept pace as Indian society has changed and women take a more prominent role in work and society, which creates tension, said Ranjana Kumari, the director.

A lot of people carry the baggage of tradition and archaic, feudal thinking because thats the way they were socialized, Kumari said. We have to change that mind-set.

The other reason Chandan Hulla appealed was it was home turf for one of the counselors, Zahida Khan, a sociable woman with a gaptoothed smile who went door-to-door to persuade residents to attend the class. Many were neighbors, and some were members of the sprawling Khan clan who knew the counselor had her own problems at home, arguing frequently with her daughter-in-law.

The building where the gender sensitivity classes take place. (Poulomi Basu/For The Washington Post)

The first session last July got off to a roiling start when the counselors suggested that the wives be present, too. The men  a mix of Muslims and Hindus  protested vigorously and said they feared the women would be led down the wrong path, as one of them described it, or would spill too much of their personal information in discussion sessions, particularly in regard to domestic violence.

The law has changed so much now that if you slap your wife, the moment you step out of the house therell be a bunch of cops standing outside your door, said Yunus Khan. This is womens empowerment.

Khan was full of bravado as he sat recently with other class members at the house where they had spent so much time together in the past year. He made his buddies hoot with laughter.

Such change has come, he said. Earlier, a man would gesture to raise his hand against a woman and the woman would cower. Now a man raises his hand and the woman just stares him in the face. This is not a bad thing. I feel good about it. Women are not going to get beaten now without reason.

Khan had more to say. Earlier I used to beat my wife a lot. If she was late in getting my medicines or something, I would beat her. Now I dont beat her to the point where she has to go to the doctor.

Khan was far more mild-mannered in a later interview with his family at his home, a one-room dwelling at the edge of a wide field, with a tin roof and two buffalo tied out front. He spoke of his frustrations as an out-of-work tailor who shelved his dreams of becoming a fashion designer after an eye injury.

Now, he devotes his attention to educating his three young children. We will make our dreams come true through them, he said.

His wife, Shalima, 25, quietly defended her husband, saying he was not abusive.



According to Yunus Khan, left, since he started the gender sensitivity classes, he has not hit his wife as hard as before. (Poulomi Basu/For The Washington Post)

Journey

After the uproar, a compromise was reached: The women could come to class, too, but they had to sit separately from men. Zahida Khan and the other counselor used a variety of discussion topics, parables and games to draw in the participants.

After a few months, a young electrician in the class named Mohammed Sagir, 25, got to thinking it was high time his wife began leaving the village on her own. She observed purdah, and he had earlier nixed her plan of tutoring a group of Nepali migrant children at a nearby farm on the theory it would expose her to too much free air. But something inside him began to soften.

His wife, Rajeena, 21, resisted the idea at first. She had lived a sheltered life growing up in a village in a neighboring state before she moved to New Delhi  no school trips, no girlfriends, an education that ended at ninth grade. And she had visions of venturing out past the village boundaries and being kidnapped by human traffickers who would knock her out by covering her mouth with some kind of ether-laced cloth, something she had seen on television.

But nevertheless, about two months ago, she found herself walking to the busy main road and climbing aboard the No. 334 bus for her first-ever ride to a nearby commercial center, where she went to a government office to order a copy of her youngest daughters birth certificate. The other commuters on the bus helped her figure out how to buy her 10-rupee bus ticket, she said.

My heart was pounding the whole time, she recalled, laughing at the memory. Scarier still was the walk to a market where she had to sort the familys paperwork for a ration card, through a wooded area populated by nilgai deer, monkeys and python. Others on the path threw bananas for the monkeys and the animals tore into the fruit with such ferocity that she said, I was afraid they would eat me, too.

Home safely, Rajeena, who uses only one name, glowed as she recounted her trip.

Now when there is any work to be done, I can do it, she said. My husband doesnt tell me not to step out, and my mother-in-law doesnt tell me not to step out. Earlier, I used to be scared. Now I feel a sort of freedom.



Rajeena, 21, sits with her baby in her home. She had lived a sheltered life before she moved to New Delhi, and about two months ago she was on her first-ever ride to a nearby commercial center. (Poulomi Basu/For The Washington Post)

Death

Despite her prominence, many in the village knew that Zahida and her husband had a complicated relationship with their daughter-in law, Arisha, a 19-year-old with hauntingly large brown eyes and dreams of becoming a model. She had eloped with Zahidas son Saif in 2012, when she was only 15. Her parents opposed the union in part because of the income disparity between the two families  Arishas father owned a copper smelting business, and Saifs father was a taxi driver.

The union was troubled from the start. Independent-minded Arisha argued with her husband and scandalized some of the more conservative young men in the village when she was spotted strolling in a nearby mall with friends. She ultimately filed two separate police complaints in 2014 alleging that her in-laws had been physically abusive toward her and were harassing her family for dowry.

The centuries-old practice of the families of Indian brides giving dowry to the groom is illegal, but it has become more prevalent across caste and religions in recent years as incomes have risen and Indian families become more status-conscious, said Kumari, the author of a book called Brides Are Not for Burning.

Dowry is also used as a method by families to extort money and other goods. Often, when there is no more money to be had, the women are burned in kitchen accidents. The country has a special classification for brides killed by their in-laws over dowry, and 7,634 women died this way last year, a growing number, according to crime records.



Arisha Khan, 19, died in an alleged dowry dispute in August. (Family photo)

After she died, police found notes on the walls of her room. I am suffocating in this house, one read. Have pity on me. Another said, Why me? (Poulomi Basu/For The Washington Post)

So many girls have been killed and we now have a very strong law preventing it, so we should have done away with it as a society by now, Kumari said. But peoples desires, aspirations and incomes have grown, and the cost is being paid by the new bride.

According to court documents, Arishas family has claimed that Zahida and her husband repeatedly pressed them for dowry, and over time her family gave them a used car and a new motorbike.

Police say strife between the young girl and her in-laws boiled over the night of Aug. 24, when Zahida and her husband arrived at the home where she lived and allegedly force-fed her.

A cousin who lives next door told police that Arisha Khan said, They fed me something, according to court documents. Arisha fell ill and the cousin took the woman to the hospital. She later died there, from ingesting a pesticide, the medical examiner ruled.

In the weeks since the incident, Zahida, her husband and son have disappeared, police say, and their cellphones are switched off. But their attorney says that they are not involved in the death, that the troubled young woman committed suicide. After she died, police found she had scrawled notes on the walls of her room. I am suffocating in this house, one read. Have pity on me. Another said, Why me?

This was a love marriage  there was no demand for dowry, the lawyer, Ajay Raj Singh, said. They are absolutely innocent. They were not even there.

Kumari said it is disturbing that one of her longtime employees would be implicated in such a scandal.

If you have been training people to be sensitive and they get into this kind of situation, then the challenge is much bigger. At what level do we need to start? she said. How much Zahida was involved in the whole thing is an issue. She may have wronged someone. We dont know. But Zahida was not like that.



Mehjabeen Khan, Arishas mother, and her family have claimed that Arishas in-laws killed her and repeatedly pressed them for dowry. (Poulomi Basu/For The Washington Post)

Hope?

No more gender sensitivity classes have been held in Chandan Hulla since Arisha Khans death. The case has divided families and cast a pall over the usually friendly lanes, which, in the evening, continue to ring with the sound of buzz saws and hammering as the villagers build new homes, new lives in the wreckage of the old. Yunus Khan and his extended family are building a three-story house, he says, bringing a part of the city to the village he will never get to leave.

You can try to improve India as much as you can, but India wont improve when it comes to womens issues, Arishas aunt, Zaara Khan, said darkly. How is it improving if in the capital of the country they are poisoning a 19-year-old? People can see it happening in the roads and in the streets, but nobody sees whats happening inside the house.

But others think differently.

Rajeena, the young woman who traveled outside the village for the first time, looks forward to expanding her horizons further  as her family expands. The couples fourth child is due early next year.

If not today, change will come eventually, her husband said. The children will grow, and the parents will age, and eventually the children will bring change for themselves.



Rajeena sits with her children and her husband, Mohammed Sagir, 25, an electrician who attends a gender sensitivity class and recently permitted her to leave the village by herself for the first time. (Poulomi Basu/For The Washington Post)

Swati Gupta contributed to this report.

Read more

Its not easy for women to own land in India. One woman died fighting for hers.

She was raped at 13. Her case has been in Indias courts for 11 years.

An Indian teen was raped by her father. Village elders had her whipped.

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news
The turn of the century was approaching, and so was the death of the book.

Thats what some were saying in the 1990s, as the Internet became ubiquitous. But in predicting prints downfall, the prognosticators were 100 years behind the times.

Phonography will probably be the destruction of printing, said the narrator of The End of Books, a story published in Scribners Magazine in 1894. Others agreed that Thomas Edisons new sound-recording machine would transform publishing. As Matthew Rubery notes in The Untold Story of the Talking Book, a number of writers of the late 1800s contended that the recorded book was not merely an alternative to the printed book. It was the realization of what the book was always meant to do.

Ruberys history of what we now call audiobooks focuses on content, creative breakthroughs and user experience. He tells memorable stories about what the technology has meant to the blind, and he explains why some authors resisted the idea of audio recordings. He also recounts the industrys enormous expansion in the second half of the 20th century. All of this is interesting.

But his reporting on the publishing worlds finances isnt as timely as it could be. Rubery says that audiobook sales, which in the late 1990s were generating less than $500 million a year, hit $1.2 billion in 2012. But if you want up-to-date information about the growth of the market, youll need to look elsewhere. According to the Audio Publishers Association, sales have increased 20 percent in each of the past two years, topping $1.75 billion in 2015.

[Best audiobooks of 2016]

Rubery, who teaches literature at Queen Mary University in London, is better at evoking the past. He traces the idea of the audiobook to a 17th-century novel by Cyrano de Bergerac. The Frenchman envisioned a book made wholly for the Ears and not for the Eyes. Two centuries passed before Edison unveiled his phonograph. The inventor suggested that recorded books could fundamentally change reading. The advantages of such books over those printed are too readily seen to need mention, he wrote in 1878.

It was the 1930s by the time sound-recording technology could accommodate full-length books on sequential phonograph records. The titles that emerged in the interwar years were funded by Congress and produced for the blind, most of whom didnt read Braille. As Rubery notes, The talking book only exists because a group of people had no access to books. The first batch included Shakespeare, the Bible and P.G. Wodehouse.

Rubery uses letters sent to the American Federation for the Blind to chronicle how the recordings were received. I cannot give you any idea of what these Talking Books mean to those of us who cannot read ordinary print, a Maryland woman wrote. An Oregon resident liked to lie down, put on my head phones, light a cigarette or pipe, and enjoy the worlds finest drama. A Georgian was pleased that The Book of Negro Humor had been recorded but wondered why the reader was some elderly white spinster who probably wears pince-nez or bifocals.

Some authors shunned the new technology. Margaret Mitchell said no to a Gone With the Wind recording because she worried that her book might be broadcast over the radio, Rubery reports. Willa Cather refused for aesthetic reasons. The vocalization, she wrote, is often done by people with horrid voices and sentimental mannerisms. Thomas Mann, however, was thrilled that Buddenbrooks would be recorded. No award has touched me more, he wrote, than the knowledge that his novel would speak to those whom fate has denied the eyesight to read it.

The consumer markets first major player was Caedmon Records, which sold more than 400,000 copies of Dylan Thomass A Childs Christmas in Wales in the 1950s. This, Rubery writes, proved that spoken word recordings could be both commercially viable and culturally significant. Others followed Caedmons lead, among them the cassette-rental company Books on Tape, founded in 1975. Industry revenue surpassed $150 million a year in the 1980s.

Rubery spends some time discussing the industrys massive growth since the 1990s, as Audible and Amazon came to dominate the downloadable audiobook business. But questions of content and narration get much more attention than recent sales trends. Given how rapidly the landscape is shifting, its hard to understand why Rubery cites three- and four-year-old data when timelier information is available.

The Untold Story of the Talking Book closes with a look at how contemporary publishers and authors are modifying the form. Novelist Orson Scott Cards Enders Game, he notes, was reinvented as an audioplay with music and sound effects, and Kathryn Stocketts The Help features a multiracial cast of four southern women.

How much realism and vocal diversity have some audiobook fans come to expect? A lot, if were to judge by the Word of Promises Audio Bible. The recording features more than 600 performers, Rubery writes, and among its many sound effects is the thud of John the Baptists beheading.

Kevin Canfield has written for Film Comment, Bookforum and other publications.
Dear Heloise: I am retired and a senior citizen. To keep my mind active, I created a blog featuring my family. It was so much fun getting together all of the funny stories, etc. Then I created a second one, and now I am on my third.

This is a good hint for someone to start an online blog. Its a great hobby and a wonderful way to keep the family connected.

JoAnn W., via email

JoAnn W.: If you are interested in creating a blog for your family, just go to your search engine and type in How to start a blog. There youll find free step-by-step instructions as well as information on reasons for creating blogs and how to use them.

Dear Heloise: A while back, a reader suggested leaving the airplane lights on for extra warmth on a long night flight. Just know that this can be distracting for those in the seats in front or in the back, as well as those in the same row who may be trying to sleep.

When they cut the lights for that long night flight, it signals quiet, rest and sleep (if possible). These lights are so bright that they can keep other people awake. I have asked attendants to turn off the light of someone behind me who fell asleep with the light on.

If youre not warm enough, why not ask for a second blanket? Thanks for publishing this opposing opinion.

A Faithful Reader, Jean H., via email

Dear Heloise: On a recent trip down South, my husband and I found ourselves needing some kind of trash-collecting receptacle. While my husband was trying to rig something up, I simply took a plastic grocery bag, opened my glove box and placed the handles of the bag inside the box before closing it back up.

The handles on the bag were large enough that we had plenty of room to place trash in it without the need to open the glove box every time we threw away trash.

We used one as we headed out and another one as we headed back home. This is just another hint for reusing those plastic grocery bags.

Jerry N., via email

Dear Heloise: As the Christmas holiday approaches, our family has what we think is a creative way of gifting family members.

Besides giving gifts, we write out a coupon of something were willing to do for a member within the next year. We include activities such as going to the movies, a dinner or two at their favorite restaurants, visiting a local winery or brewery, etc.

The coupons are placed in a basket and are randomly drawn. Whoever offers the activity on the coupon sets up dates and times with the person who drew it.

It has been a joy, and far more memorable and easy to do than buying specific gifts for specific people.

Tracy M., via email

Heloises column appears six days a week at washingtonpost.com/advice. Send a hint to Heloise , P.O. Box 795000, San Antonio, Tex. 78279-5000, or email it to Heloise@Heloise.com.
Wanted: Columnists to say nice things about Donald Trump. Must be able to make cogent arguments in favor of the president-elects policies, appointees and statements. Experience preferred but not required.

Its not an actual want ad, but it might as well be one. As they discovered during the long campaign season, the nations newspapers and major digital news sites  the dreaded mainstream media  are facing a shortage of people able, or more likely willing, to write opinion columns supportive of the president-elect.

Major newspapers, from The Washington Post to the New York Times, have struggled to find and publish pro-Trump columns for months. So have regional ones, such as the Des Moines Register and the Arizona Republic, which has a long history of supporting Republican candidates.

The newspapers have plenty of conservative writers, but thats where the problem begins. Trump, who has defied traditional left-right categories, has offered something for both liberals and conservatives to dislike. The latter never believed that Trump was a true conservative; the former were revolted by his rhetoric from the start.

Hence, he has had few friends on the nations op-ed pages.

A case in point: The New York Times regular center-right columnists, Ross Douthat and David Brooks, never got behind Trump. And despite recruiting prominent conservative figures such as Glenn Beck and Erick Erickson to write guest columns, the result was largely the same. Erickson called Trump indefensible. The best Beck could do was to say, Mr. Trump is not Hitler.

It was much the same with The Posts regular lineup of conservative voices  George Will, Charles Krauthammer, Kathleen Parker, Jennifer Rubin and Michael Gerson; none offered much support for Trump. Regular Post contributors such as Marc A. Thiessen and Ed Rogers tended to knock Hillary Clinton more than they praised Trump.

We struggled to find voices that could advocate for Donald Trumps ideas, said James Bennet, the Times editorial-page editor. It was really unusual. It didnt help that the conservative intelligentsia lined up against him. But Bennet says Trumps campaign contributed to the imbalance: He didnt have the people around him who were prepared to put together his arguments for publication.

Lynn Hicks, the Des Moines Registers opinion editor, found a parallel at his newspaper, the largest in the swing state that wound up going for Trump. Given that almost all of our Republican leadership in Iowa supported Trump, I kept waiting for [supportive op-ed] pieces to arrive, Hicks said. Im still waiting.

The Arizona Republics syndicated and staff opinion writers were all stridently anti-Trump, said Phil Boas, director of the papers editorial department. In a normal presidential election, we would have seen a strong mix of pro-con views for Republican and Democrat candidates, he said, but the Republican civil war turned a lot of traditional voices on the right into opponents of the GOP nominee. . . . A number of pro-Trump readers accused us of betraying our state and its conservative ideals.

USA Today may have been the only large newspaper to buck the general trend. It published Trump-supportive columns from law professor and Instapundit founder Glenn Reynolds and regular contributor James Robbins. It also went right to the source: It persuaded Trump; his running mate, Mike Pence; and Trump surrogate Rudolph W. Giuliani to write guest columns. As the new administration takes shape, editorial page editor Bill Sternberg said the paper is looking for more contributions from those who agree with Trump on specific issues.

The general lack of Trump-supporting columns, however, puts newspaper editorial editors in an uncomfortable position. Most newspapers try to create a rough balance between left and right opinions on their op-ed pages, which feature staff and guest columnists. The idea has been to reflect a range of viewpoints, even if the newspapers official position, as expressed in unsigned editorials, tends to go in one direction.

Trumps relationship with the news media, of course, has been unusually rocky. During the campaign, he demonized journalists, calling them dishonest, disgusting and the lowest form of life. Newspapers returned the favor by endorsing Clinton nearly across the board. The Arizona Republic abandoned 126 years of endorsing Republicans to side with her.

The cold shoulder from mainstream editorial pages and columnists may have given superficial validation to Trumps characterization of the news media as his enemy and a tool of the establishment. It may also have sharpened the prominence of a partisan alternative press, such as Breitbart.com, that regularly champions him.

An even more daring theory: The lack of advocates for Trump in the mainstream media helped create a breach that has been filled by scurrilous fake news stories. As it happens, conservatives seem to be the most receptive to fake news stories, especially those that attack liberals and Democrats.

Several newspapers tried to bridge the Trump void on their op-ed pages by recruiting supporters for one-off columns. The Boston Globe, for one, persuaded a local businessman and Trump delegate named Lou Murray to write occasional columns; it also got infrequent contributions from John Bolton, whom Trump is considering for secretary of state, and Mike Stopa, a Harvard physicist and Trump supporter, said Ellen Clegg, the Globes editorial page editor.

Newspaper editors say theyre on the lookout for more such writers. What happened this year is that many of the people who we count on for conservative commentary  many of whom have generally supported Republican candidates in the past  simply didnt support Trump, said Nicholas Goldberg, editorial page editor of the Los Angeles Times. I certainly believe our op-ed editor ought to be aggressively seeking smart, articulate people who have positive things to say about Trump, who are sympathetic to his point of view, or who are able to explain, support and justify him to our readers.

The Washington Posts editorial-page editor, Fred Hiatt, said the paper is as committed as ever to offering readers a range of smart, independent thinking, and we are always thinking about whether there are new voices we should be adding as Trump takes office.

Said the Times Bennet: We owe it to our readers to help them hear the voices that were supportive of Trump. . . . Im proud of the work we did, but we could have done better.
RACINE  A 36-year-old Racine woman is facing a felony charge after a video reportedly surfaced on social media of her allegedly having sexual relations with minors she picked up from Case High School.

According to a criminal complaint:

Rachel Lang, of the 2100 block of Carmel Avenue, is accused of picking up three students at the school at about 10:40 a.m. on Dec. 1 and taking them to her home.

One of the students, a 17-year-old, allegedly had been texting Lang and he asked if Lang wanted to hang out.

Once at the home, Lang allegedly performed sexual acts with the 17-year-old and a 15-year-old.

The third boy reportedly recorded the incident and the video was discovered making the rounds on social media when it was reported on Dec. 2.

Lang was charged on Friday with a felony count of second-degree sexual assault of a minor and a misdemeanor charge for sexual intercourse with a child. She is scheduled for a preliminary hearing at 9 a.m. Dec. 15 at the Racine County Law Enforcement Center, 717 Wisconsin Ave., according to court records.

Lang remained in custody as of Friday at the Racine County Jail, online records showed.
A student sit-in at Georgetown University in protest of the schools licensing agreement with Nike continued for a second day Friday, with the students vowing not to leave the presidents office until they receive a written commitment that the school will require Nike to allow independent monitoring of working conditions in its overseas factories.

Seventeen Georgetown undergraduates took over the offices of university president John DeGioia on Thursday morning to demand that the school cut its licensing agreement with Nike because of what they say are unfair labor practices at one of the companys factories in Vietnam. The universitys licensing agreement with Nike  which is separate from its sponsorship deal with the company  is set to end Dec. 31.

On Friday evening, seven students remained in the presidents offices. The students, who call themselves the Georgetown Solidarity Committee, said they are staging the sit-in to protest working conditions at Nike factories where Georgetown University apparel is manufactured.

Were trying to tell Nike in the clearest terms that Georgetown stands up for our values, said junior Lily Ryan, 20, a government major from New Orleans. Were a Jesuit university and upholding the dignity of work is central to our values.

The students point to a recent report by the Workers Rights Consortium, an independent international labor monitoring group, that alleges the Vietnam factory Nike operates is abusive to workers.

Weve been working on this issue for 14 months with Nike, Ryan said. But Nike is not taking responsibility for labor abuses that include temperatures in the factory that average above 90 degrees, workers being padlocked into the factory, workers not being allowed to use the bathroom and pregnant women being fired.

In a statement Thursday night, Georgetown University spokeswoman Rachel Pugh said the school is committed to protecting the rights of workers and described the WRC report about the Hansae factory as deeply troubling, and underlines the importance of the WRC and independent monitoring.

Nike has committed to extensive remediation with the WRC, Fair Labor Association (FLA) and Hansae management and they have initiated sanctions against the factory, the university statement continued. We believe the best way to address the concerns in the reports and to improve the conditions of workers is by working together with Nike. We are working to reach agreement with Nike on terms that ensure timely, independent factory monitoring by the WRC to address complaints in the future as a condition of our licensing contract moving forward.

Sabrina Oei, a Nike spokeswoman, said in a statement Thursday night that the company has been deeply committed to workers and improving conditions in contract factories for more than 20 years, and that commitment remains as strong today as ever. The statement said Nike is aware of concerns at the Hansae factory and has been working to address them, and that the company is hopeful theyll reach agreement with Georgetown on the licensing contract.

Hansae management, with Nike and FLAs oversight, has developed a comprehensive remediation plan that addresses all of the issues identified in the joint investigation, Oei said in the statement. Many corrective actions have already been implemented and we are closely monitoring Hansaes progress against its remediation plan. ... Our investment in transparency and commitment to protect workers rights is unwavering. We are committed to going far beyond simply uncovering the issues, and to working to elevate standards across not just our supply chain but the industry as a whole. Our Code of Conduct is the strongest in the industry.

The protest at DeGioias office in Healy Hall began at 10 a.m. Thursday, with the students lying down on the floor and chanting. They hung a banner outside the office window that read: Occupied until DeGioia cuts Nike. The president was not in his office at the time, a university official confirmed.

Campus police and administrators soon arrived, Ryan said, but they did not ask the students to leave at that time. Subsequently the students were asked to leave several times. Ryan said Friday that the students were running out of food and had gotten little sleep but that they were prepared to hold out until the university ends its agreement with Nike.

This story has been updated.
Antwan Wilson, who has been nominated to become the chancellor of D.C. Public Schools, speaks at a news conference at Eastern High School. (Andrew Harnik/Associated Press)

D.C. Council members on Thursday asked Antwan Wilson, the nominee to lead D.C. Public Schools, to provide details on how he plans to close achievement gaps between white and minority students, increase enrollment, and boost teacher and principal satisfaction in the citys schools.

If confirmed, Wilson said he would build on the changes put in place under the previous two school chancellors to make the system a national model for providing a high-quality education to all students, regardless of income or race.

I want families to have public school options they are proud of and recommend to their neighbors because their children are thriving, Wilson told the councils education committee.

During a question-and-answer session that lasted for more than two hours, council members asked Wilson about a variety of topics, including his plans to fix the systems relationship with the citys public charter schools and his vision for improving communication between schools and parents. But the majority of the questions focused on how Wilson would close achievement gaps between white and minority students, a perennial struggle in the District.

Wilson told council members that schools might need to invest resources in adding time for students who are struggling, perhaps in the form of tutoring programs or lengthening the school day or year.

He also wants to invest resources in programs that make school attractive to students. He said he believes that middle schools should require students to take classes such as speech, debate or choir to increase engagement.

[Report: Closing achievement gaps should be priority for D.C. schools chancellor]

Council member David Grosso (I-At Large), who leads the education committee, pressed Wilson to prove that he has been successful in closing gaps in Oakland, Calif.  where Wilson most recently served as superintendent for two years after working in Denver public schools for six years  noting that gaps in test scores there during his tenure have widened.

Wilson did not specifically address those scores, instead noting that educators need to look at multiple data points to judge whether a school system is successful.

For too long in our country, we have only looked at one indicator, Wilson said. On one stance, we are saying that we want schools to be judged fairly, and on the other stance, we are saying we only want to look at assessment scores.

[Will D.C.s new chancellor finally be able to close the achievement gap?]

Council members also wanted to know how Wilson will boost enrollment. Council member Charles Allen (D-Ward 6) asked how Wilson would address the decline in enrollment at the middle school level, a consistently challenging grade level for D.C. Public Schools and a point at which some families choose to leave for charters, private schools or neighboring jurisdictions.

Wilson said that the school system needs to create programs that are able to compete with charter schools and that it should offer parents safe middle schools where students feel welcome and are offered classes that help prepare them for high school, such as foreign language classes.

If you can offer those things, then youll be attractive to families, Wilson said.

Thursdays hearing, which also included testimony from community members, is the last meeting before council members are expected to vote Dec. 20 on Wilsons nomination.

Wilson is Mayor Muriel E. Bowsers only candidate to run the citys schools, which still struggle with achievement but have seen improvements in the past decade under Kaya Henderson and Michelle Rhee. In a statement after the hearing, Bowser, a Democrat, said that she and Wilson believe in the importance of community and parent engagement, and I am eager for him to get to work as soon as possible.

She added, I urge the council to confirm his nomination so we can begin this exciting new chapter for D.C. schools.

More than 30 people testified at Thursdays hearing, many of them speaking in support of Wilsons confirmation.

Suzanne Wells, the parent of a sixth-grader at Eliot-Hine Middle School, called Wilson a career educator who seems genuinely committed to meeting the educational needs of all students. Despite her praise, Wells said she wants to see the council incorporate a requirement in Wilsons contract that he needs to increase enrollment in D.C. schools by 3 percent each year.

[D.C. charter enrollment continues to soar as more families choose public schools]

Liz Davis, president of the Washington Teachers Union, said the union has a number of concerns with Wilsons selection. Wilson has a record of endorsing reforms that have proved to be moderately successful at best, Davis said.

Davis, who sat on a selection panel of education and community leaders, accused Bowser of violating city law because she informed the panel that Wilson was a candidate only after she decided to hire him. A statute in city law notes that the mayor shall provide the committee with resumes of individuals under consideration for the job.

Grosso wishes Bowser and her team would have done some things very differently, but said the councils attorneys found no wrongdoing in the process.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan will try to revive a plan to create manufacturing jobs in high-unemployment areas, his office said Friday, despite the measure failing during the 2016 legislative session

Hogan senior adviser Keiffer Mitchell, who spoke at a forum of government leaders here, said the Republican governors office has worked out some of the kinks that caused lawmakers to balk at the original proposal, which would have provided a 10-year tax exemption for new manufacturers and their employees in areas such as Baltimore, Western Maryland and the lower Eastern Shore.

Existing manufacturers in the state raised concerns that the legislation would cause their employees to flee to competitors to take advantage of the tax break.

Mitchell did not explain to the local officials at the forum, part of the Maryland Association of Counties winter conference, how Hogans revised plan would address that issue.

He said the governors other top priorities in the legislative session that begins Jan. 11 will include passing a bill to require businesses to provide paid sick leave to workers, an idea that failed in the legislature this year despite broad support among Democrats.

Hogans proposal, outlined this week, is different in key ways from that bill. It would require companies with at least 50 employees to provide paid sick leave for employees who work at least 30 hours a week, and offer a tax credit to smaller companies that do the same. The Democratic bill, which progressives plan to push again in 2017, applied to business with 15 or more workers and a greater share of part-time employees.

Several top lawmakers said much of the legislatures work next year will focus on dealing with the impacts on the state of the administration of President-elect Donald Trump, who has emphasized repealing the Affordable Care Act, cracking down on undocumented immigrants and cutting the federal workforce and federal spending, both of which are concentrated in the Washington suburbs.

I expect a lot of what we do will be responding to what the federal government does, state Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) said after the forum. When Trump says, Im going to drain the swamp, it affects the economy of our state.

Miller also said he does not expect the Senate to try to block Hogans recent executive order requiring public schools to extend summer break through Labor Day. Many education officials and Democrats have opposed the requirement, saying it stymies local authority and could hurt students who struggle academically, particularly poorer children who lack access to summer programs.

Miller noted that the idea has had some support in the legislature for years, although bills proposing the mandate had failed. He predicted that lawmakers would have approved the plan if Hogan had presented it as legislation instead of acting unilaterally.

If the governor had wanted it and asked people to vote for it, it would have passed, Miller said.

In his remarks, Mitchell said Hogan will push to repeal a transportation-planning law that Democrats passed this year despite a veto from the governor. The measure requires state transportation officials to rate road and transit proposals to help determine which deserve priority for state funds. The administration would have to provide an explanation for choosing lower-ranked projects over higher-ranked ones.

Critics, including many local officials, argue that the rating system favors transit proposals and projects in urban areas over those in more rural parts of the state. But supporters contend that it will improve transparency in the decision-making process.

Miller said Democrats in his chamber will not roll back the law.

We dont want to repeal it, he said. Thats not going to happen.

House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel) also spoke at the forum, saying the state needs to collaborate more with local governments to address the explosion of heroin- and opioid-related overdose deaths that have occurred throughout the state  and across the nation  in recent years.

You need to put money into some kind of long-term rehabilitation if youre going to get people off drugs, he said.

Busch said Hogan faces tough decisions about budget cuts next year, with 2016 revenue coming in about 2 percent lower than expected for both the previous and current fiscal years. He said cuts would probably have to come from spending on higher education, Medicaid and corrections.

Hogan will renew his calls to reduce mandated spending growth, Mitchell said. During the last legislative session, the governor proposed halting such increases during years when revenue is lower than projected, with exemptions for K-12 education, debt payments, the state pension system and reserves. The legislature never voted on that plan.
THE DISTRICT

Hearing delayed in pizzeria incident

A D.C. Superior Court judge Thursday delayed the preliminary hearing of a North Carolina man suspected of walking into a popular pizzeria with an assault rifle and handgun and firing at least two shots.

Public defenders for Edgar Maddison Welch, 28, told Magistrate Judge Sherry Trafford that they needed more time to investigate Sundays incident at Comet Ping Pong. The attorneys also said they wanted time to allow Welchs family to attend the hearing.

Prosectors objected to the delay, but the judge granted the request. Welch will remain in jail through at least Tuesday.

Police say Welch walked into Comet Ping Pong with the assault rifle and fired it before pointing it at an employee. The pizzeria, in Northwest Washington, had become the subject of a widely shared fake news story linking Hillary Clinton to a child sex ring.

Welch said that he was searching for child sex slaves he believed were hidden there and that he traveled to the nations capital to help rescue them, according to court documents.

 Keith L. Alexander

MARYLAND

Police: Packages

recovered, 2 arrested

Police in Howard County planned to redeliver dozens of holiday packages Thursday evening after arresting two people accused of stealing them, authorities said.

About 4:50 p.m. Wednesday, officers went to the area of Greystone Lane in Columbia after a report that people driving a box truck were taking packages from the fronts of homes, county police said in a statement.

The box truck, with 77 stolen packages inside, was located within a minute, and Ernest Ohanyan, 25, and Amjad Jaouni, 28, both of Baltimore, were arrested, the statement said.

Charges against Ohanyan and Jaouni were not specified, but both were held on $5,000 bond.

Police encouraged residents to have packages delivered to work, asked neighbors to receive packages and to report suspicious vehicles on neighborhood streets to deter thefts.

 Justin Wm. Moyer

Teacher convicted

in up-skirting case

A former Montgomery County high school science teacher was convicted on two counts of sex abuse of a minor after authorities said a student noticed the 38-year-old up-skirting her by taking pictures with his cellphone aimed under her skirt.

A judge found the teacher, Todd Michael Scriber of Gaithersburg, Md., guilty Tuesday, said a spokesman for the Montgomery County States Attorneys Office.

Authorities took Scriber into custody shortly after an Oct. 2 incident in his Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School classroom.

Police said a 14-year-old student told investigators that she stayed after school to retake a science exam and had approached Scriber to discuss the test. According to a court filing, the teen said Scriber was holding the exam on one leg and a cellphone on the other. At some point, she noticed that Scriber was pointing the phone under her skirt and pushed a button to take a picture, the document said.

Detectives investigated her complaint and also found several photos of other students on the teachers cellphone, most of which were focused on teen girls buttocks, legs and chests, a court document said.

Police interviewed a 16-year-old and two 17-year-old students who identified themselves in the pictures and told detectives that they had not given Scriber permission to take the photos, authorities said.

School officials put Scriber on leave after learning of the allegations, and he no longer is employed by Montgomery County Public Schools. His sentencing is set for Jan. 24.

 Victoria St. Martin
None of the inauguration protesters have received their required permits. Washington Post reporter Perry Stein explains why. (Priya Mathew/The Washington Post)

None of the inauguration protesters have received their required permits. Washington Post reporter Perry Stein explains why. (Priya Mathew/The Washington Post)

Groups seeking to protest in the nations capital on the day of  and the days around  the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump say they are being kept in limbo because officials have yet to issue permits for demonstrations.

About 20 groups  including the Womens March on Washington, Peoples Action and the ANSWER Coalition  have applied to demonstrate on federal property around the Jan. 20 event.

But the National Park Service, which handles permitting, said it does not grant any requests until the Presidential Inaugural Committee, which plans the parade and other events to usher in the new president, maps out where it will hold inauguration-related activities.

Although each incoming president is afforded the same courtesy, the issue is attracting special attention this year since the bitter election emboldened more people to organize to support their causes. Typically, federal officials said, only a handful of groups seek a First Amendment Permit from the Park Service for the quadrennial event.

Federal regulations essentially give priority to the inaugural committee, setting aside prime land, including the entire Mall between First and 14th streets NW and the Ellipse by the White House, for its use. Land around the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument also is included.

The Park Service, as a matter of standard practice, applies on behalf of the committee for the sweeping permits a year in advance, according to Mike Litterst, a Park Service spokesman. The committee then typically relinquishes some of them, allowing demonstrators to secure their permits.

The permits are doled out on a first-come, first-served basis. Trumps Presidential Inaugural Committee hasnt technically been issued any permits yet, but its at the front of the line to receive them. The committee, according to Litterst, has not yet rescinded any of the permits and does not have a deadline for deciding.

Alex Stroman, a spokesman for the Presidential Inaugural Committee, a private entity, said the group is still figuring out its plans for inauguration and has not yet made any decisions about which pieces of land it will use.

Were moving as quickly as possible, Stroman said. We are figuring out what events we are doing.

Litterst said it is not unusual for an inaugural committee to still have this many permit applications in early December.

This is always the way it happens, Litterst said. What makes this so complicated is that not only is this inauguration, but because there has been so much interest on both sides of this election, we are seeing all of these extra events that want to take place at the same time.

Would-be demonstrators are eager to firm up their plans for the inauguration and the days around it.

Peoples Action, a national organization promoting democracy and economic fairness, applied Nov. 14 for a permit for 2,000 people to demonstrate on the Washington Monument grounds between Jan. 19 and Jan. 21. Kathy Mulady, Peoples Actions press secretary, said she is now unsure how the group will prepare.

Since we dont have the permits, we are in a holding pattern. What can we do? she said. We dont have a plan one way or the other.

The Womens March on Washington, scheduled for the day after the inauguration, promises to draw participants from across the country. Hundreds of thousands of people have RSVPd to the event on Facebook, declaring on their social-media accounts they will travel to the District to march for human rights, justice and womens health.

[Womens March on Washington planning for big crowds on inauguration weekend]

But tucked in between comments of solidarity and celebration on the marchs main Facebook page are peoples concerns about the permitting.

Whats happening with the permit? Can you please update us! Will the date remain the same? Non-refundable airline tickets and hotels have us a bit nervous, one woman posted on the page.

Bob Bland, one of the marchs organizers, assured people that the demonstration will be held Jan. 21 and that supporters should confidently make travel arrangements to the District. On Friday, organizers said they secured as a starting point for the march Independence Avenue and Third Street SW, an intersection under the jurisdiction of D.C. police. They have applied for a permit through the police department, though arrangements have not been finalized.

The march is happening, Bland said.

The Park Service asks groups of 25 people or more wishing to rally or demonstrate to apply for a First Amendment Permit, which is free. Protesting without a permit on federal parkland does not necessarily mean a group would be asked to leave, said Sgt. Anna Rose, a spokeswoman for the Park Police.

It would depend on what else was going on at the time, Rose wrote in an email. We pride ourselves on facilitating everyones right to free speech and every effort is made to allow visitors to exercise that right.

The question of who has the right to use what land for inaugurations has been the subject of frequent litigation,

In 2005, the ANSWER Coalition  a far-left-leaning group that stands for Act Now to Stop War and End Racism  filed suit that there were so many bleachers set up on Pennsylvania Avenue for people who bought inauguration tickets that it prevented demonstrations and kept the public from being able to watch free. A U.S. District Court judge agreed, and there was more room along the prominent thoroughfare for 2009s inauguration.

Current regulations also reserve for the president-elects committee the sidewalk in front of Trump International Hotel in the Old Post Office Pavilion, in the 1100 block of Pennsylvania Avenue. The ANSWER Coalition is fighting in court for the publics right to use that space, arguing recently that the case has heightened significance at a time when thousands of people across the country are protesting Trumps election.

A U.S. district judge ruled in favor of the government in the case. It is now pending in a federal appeals court, and its unclear whether the case will be resolved before Jan. 20.

The government estimates that 84 percent of the sidewalks along the parade route are available for protest.

[When the inaugural parade passes the Trump hotel, will protesters be there, too?]

Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, a lawyer and executive director of the nonprofit Partnership for Civil Justice Fund who is representing the ANSWER Coalition, said she thinks the inauguration committee is intentionally holding on to its permits for so long to confuse protesters and prevent them from organizing. She held a news conference Wednesday saying the Park Service and the committee are acting unconstitutionally in the permitting process.

This is an extraordinary land grab, Verheyden-Hilliard said in an interview. Its having, I think, the intended stifling effect. Its having a distinctive negative on peoples ability to organize.

Stroman, the committee spokesman, said those accusations are absolutely not true.

The permits for the Mall and other spaces are valid Jan. 6 to Jan. 30, theoretically giving workers time to set up before inauguration and clean up after it.
A 26-year-old man has been identified as the victim of Thursday afternoons fatal shooting inside a home in Northeast Washington, according to D.C. police.

Victor Anthony Bolden, who had been shot several times, was pronounced dead at the scene, police said in a statement. A police report says Bolden lived in the home in which he was killed.

The shooting was first reported shortly after 5 p.m. in the 600 block of Nicholson Street NE, adjacent to the Riggs Road Playground and near the Michigan Park neighborhood.

The police report says that the inside of the house had been ransacked and property was taken. Police did not say if they believed the motive was burglary.
Momentum is building in Virginia for President-Elect Donald Trump to select departing Rep. J. Randy Forbes (R-Va.) for Navy secretary.

The congressman was spotted Monday at Trump Tower among the parade of prospective candidates for jobs in the new administration.

Some of his Republican colleagues in the House  and one Democrat  have written letters in support of Forbes to Vice President-Elect Mike Pence, who is leading the transition effort.

I think it would be good for our nation, Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.) said. Yeah, it would be good for Virginia, but Randy has the experience and know-how and experience of rebuilding the Navy as it needs to be.

Shortly after noon on Monday, Forbes waited for several minutes in the lobby at Trump Tower before being escorted upstairs. The Virginian-Pilot first reported his visit.

Spokesmen for Trump and Forbes didnt return messages seeking comment.

Forbes, 64, was defeated in a Republican primary after switching districts in a failed attempt to stay in the House. A court-imposed election map added Democrats to his original district, making it difficult for him to hold on to what had been a safe-Republican seat.

[Tiny office, minority party and little power? Its all terrific to Va. representative-elect]

Del. Scott Taylor (R-Virginia Beach), a 37-year-old former Navy SEAL, ousted Forbes.

As chair of the Armed Services subcommittee on sea power and projection forces, Forbes has pushed for a 350-ship Navy, a goal Trump endorsed on the campaign trial. At last count, the Navy had 272 ships.

In a letter to Pence, Wittman and eight other Republican members of the Armed Services committee said Forbes thorough understanding of Navy and Marine Corps programs and policy issues make him a very worthy candidate to help you with this great undertaking.

Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.), the ranking Democrat on the sea power subcommittee, said Forbes is the best Republican for the job and also advocated for him in a letter to Pence.

Theres no learning curve for him, Courtney said in an interview. He comes to the job knowing you need to get the mix right. Its not just a number that you throw up on a whiteboard. Hes been through the battles in Congress.

A native of Chesapeake, Va., Forbes spent 11 years in the Virginia General Assembly before joining Congress in 2001. He founded the Congressional Prayer Caucus.
Alicia Hicks walks with her children on Thursday in Erie, Pa. Snow began falling in Erie on Thursday morning, and the National Weather Service in Cleveland said the Erie region could get as much as two feet of lake-effect snow by Saturday. (Christopher Millette/Associated Press)

GEORGIA

Second ofcer dies; suspect found dead

A second Georgia police officer died Thursday, a day after being shot alongside a fellow officer who was a lifelong friend, and the hunt for the suspect in the shootings ended when a SWAT team found the fugitive dead  apparently by his own hand  inside a home where he was hiding.

Officer Jody Smith of Georgia Southwestern State University clung to life after being gravely wounded Wednesday while helping Americus officer Nicholas Smarr respond to a domestic dispute call at an apartment in rural Americus, about 130 miles south of Atlanta.

Both men were shot. Smarr was killed, and Smith was airlifted in critical condition to a hospital in Macon. The university that employed Smith announced Thursday evening that he had died. News of Smiths death came a few hours after the hunt for the suspect had ended. Minquell Lembrick, 32, was found dead inside a home where he was hiding.

 Associated Press

OHIO

House passes second bill limiting abortions

Abortions would be banned after 20 weeks under a bill Republican lawmakers passed Thursday, adding to legislation already on its way to Republican Gov. John Kasich that would prohibit abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected.

The House voted 64 to 29 to pass the bill, which had already been approved by the Senate.

The House Community and Family Advancement Committee voted Wednesday to pass the 20-week ban. That followed House approval Tuesday of the heartbeat bill, clearing the way for what would be one of the nations most stringent abortion restrictions.

That legislation would prohibit most abortions as early as six weeks into pregnancy after the first detectable fetal heartbeat.

Kasich, who opposes abortion rights, has voiced concerns about whether such a move would be constitutional, but he has not said whether he plans to sign either measure.

 Associated Press

ALABAMA

Supreme Court stays execution second time

The U.S. Supreme Court late Thursday temporarily paused Alabamas plans to execute a man convicted of killing a convenience store clerk, after defense lawyers argued that a judge unfairly imposed the death penalty after a jury recommended life in prison.

The court had narrowly ruled just a short while earlier Thursday evening that the execution could proceed, although four liberal justices said they would have halted the execution. However, the court then issued a temporary stay  its second of the evening  as attorneys for the condemned inmate quickly sought a reconsideration after that narrow decision.

While the whirlwind of judicial activity unfolded, Ronald Bert Smith Jr., 45, remained steps away from the prison chamber where he was scheduled to receive a lethal injection Thursday evening for the Nov. 8, 1994, shooting death of Huntsville store clerk Casey Wilson. It would be Alabamas second execution this year if carried out.

A jury convicted Smith of capital murder in 1995 and recommended life imprisonment by a 7-to-5 vote, but the judge sentenced Smith to death.

Smiths lawyers argued that a January decision that struck down Floridas death penalty structure because it gave too much power to judges raises legal questions about Alabamas process.

In Alabama, a jury can recommend a sentence of life without parole, but a judge can override that recommendation to impose a death sentence.

 Associated Press

3 killed in highway pileup in snow: Authorities said three people have died and 11 others have been injured following a pileup involving 40 vehicles on a snow-slicked Interstate 96 near Lansing, Mich. Lt. Eric Sanborn of the Livingston County Sheriff Department said westbound lanes of the interstate about 55 miles west of Detroit remained closed about 5 hours after the pileup began Thursday morning.

 Associated Press
RACINE  The exact date that Racine radio station WRJN hit the airwaves is up for debate.

Some histories say Dec. 6, 1926, others say Dec. 11, 1926.

But everyone agrees that the station has been broadcasting continuously for 90 years this month, making it the fourth-oldest radio station in Wisconsin.

News Director Tom Karkow hasnt been there for all 90 years, but he has been working at the station for three decades. He has spent the past several months piecing together the stations rich and varied nine-decade history to help commemorate the anniversary.

He has created several short on-air vignettes featuring the sounds and voices of the stations past. And at 8 a.m. Sunday, the station will present a 30-minute tribute to the early years of the station, featuring former broadcasters and engineers talking about the old days.

We have had some amazing people work here throughout the years, and they have all helped make us what we were and what we are, said Karkow, a Racine native who started at the station in 1979. They all helped us still be here after all the years.

Changes over the years

During the past 90 years, ownership has changed, the format has changed, but the commitment to provide timely and telling local news has never wavered.

We have been lucky that we have had ownership that has recognized there is a need to provide a local product, Karkow said. Very few stations do what we do with local news.

I think thats pretty amazing and unique in the state, he added. They have allowed us to continue to do that. If they didnt like it they would have changed it.

The station started as WLBG back in December 1926, quickly changed to WRRS, and then settled on WRJN when the Racine Journal News purchased the station.

The first broadcast came in December 1926 and featured live orchestra music from Memorial Hall, 72 Seventh St.

Since starting, the station has been located several spots around the city: At Memorial Hall and at the third floor of the Downtown building that now houses the Racine Art Museum, 441 Main St.

The station constructed a transmitter tower and engineering house at 4201 Victory Ave. Old photos show those buildings were among the only structures in the area at the time.

The engineers lived there, Karkow said.

In 1958, the station constructed studios and offices on Victory and moved there for good. An open house after the building was completed drew more than 5,000 visitors, according to newspaper accounts.

In the stations early days, WRJN broadcast live music, soap operas and serials.

In a 2001 Journal Times article about the stations 75th anniversary, former Journal Times photo editor Lyle Salvo remembered calling in reports to the station from the scene of a fire.

Lyman Merens was the news announcer and we would go live on the air. In those days we didnt have two-way radios, and I would find a house near the fire scene and ask to use their phone. He would interview me over the phone, Salvo said in the article.

Salvo also remembered former Journal Times Publisher Frank R. Starbuck broadcasting the noon news from the executive conference room on the newspapers second floor.

In 1969, the Journal Times sold the station to Sentry Broadcasting Inc. of Stevens Point, and WRJN-FM was sold to WRAC of Racine.

From the late 1980s until 2014, WRJN carried a talk radio format, with a combination of local and syndicated talk. For many years WRJN was affiliated with ABC and aired the popular daily commentaries from radio legend Paul Harvey.

Todays WRJN

Today, the station is owned by Magnum Communications, Inc.

Karkow keeps stations past alive in a small soundproofed room in the bowels of the station. He has collected photos, posters and other mementos.

Former station employees and their families have contributed many of the items, Karkow said.

He even has the original hard plastic call letters that were atop the buildings northeast corner. They were lit up at night from the 1958 until the 1980s, Karkow said.

I hope we can make it to 100, Karkow said. I dont know if I will make it that long, but I hope the station is still here.
For more than a century, we have used military terms  such as wars, battles, survivors and victims  to discuss our relationship with cancer. But some critics are bothered by the implicit suggestion that those who die might not have fought heroically enough.

When the Obama administration launched its anti-cancer effort earlier this year, moonshot rhetoric came to the fore, but that, too, drew dissent. Some say it suggests that curing cancer involves a massive engineering effort rather than a multitude of new insights into the biology of hundreds of different diseases.

Barron H. Lerner, author of The Breast Cancer Wars and The Good Doctor, and a professor in the division of medical ethics at New York University, has spent years thinking about these issues. He recently talked to health-care journalists about the history of cancer activism and answered some follow-up questions posed by The Washington Post.

When did Americans start focusing on cancer?

People got interested in the disease in the early 20th century because of declining rates of infectious diseases. In the 19th century, people died of TB and pneumonia. In the 20th century, heart disease and cancer begin going up. In 1913, the precursor to the American Cancer Society was formed: the American Society for the Control of Cancer (ASCC). The group stressed the importance of early detection and aggressive treatments. They talked about danger signs that people should not ignore, like irregular bleeding, sores that dont heal and lumps that got larger. People in those times tended to wait a long time to go to the doctor, so the question was: How do you change that?

How did they change that?

One strategy was the war metaphor, which was being used as early as the 1920s. The ASCC adopted the Sword of Hope as its symbol, and in the 1930s started the Womens Field Army, with khaki uniforms and insignia, to spread the word and raise money.

A big focus was on women because deaths from breast and cervical cancers were very high and women tended to be more motivated than men about their health. The ASCC seized on the Pap smear [the screening test for cervical cancer] when it became available in the 1940s, with leaders barnstorming the country urging women to get tested. It was a home run: Cervical cancer mortality plummeted. That served as a model for other cancers. In breast cancer, for example, the group began pushing for early detection through self-exam.

Was there anything wrong with that?

Not at the time, because doctors believed breast cancer was a local disease that was highly curable when found early and treated with the radical mastectomy, sometimes with radiation.

Such aggressive treatment was reinforced by the familiar military language, which was ubiquitous after World War II. We had just won a war against the Nazis and the Japanese, and the mind-set was We beat the Axis powers, and now we can beat cancer.

What was the next stage in the effort against cancer?

In 1944, the ASCC changed its name to the American Cancer Society, and Mary Lasker, the socialite wife of a prominent advertising executive, decided her goal was to make it a vibrant organization. She worked closely with journalists to publicize it. Life magazine ran a story about cured patients headlined: Victims Turned Victors.

Surgery was seen as the best bet for most patients. In 1963, Time magazine wrote: If they can operate, youre lucky. Another common phrase from this era was A chance to cut is a chance to cure.

These were the days of the mutilating super-radical mastectomy for certain breast cancers. Surgeons would remove parts of a womans rib cage and sternum in addition to the muscles of the chest wall. From our modern physiological standpoint, this makes no sense. These patients werent cured, as their cancers had already spread too far. But the idea was that if the surgeons just tried hard enough, good things would result. The surgeons were highly devoted, and their patients loved them. But at some point their zeal to help people got carried away from what the data were saying.

Still, some good things were happening. Breast cancer was increasingly being caught at stages 1 or 2, when its more curable. And in the 1960s, chemotherapy even started to cure some women with advanced disease. My mother had breast cancer in her 40s, and by great good luck got into one of the first clinical trials of chemotherapy. Shes still alive today, and thats why.

The biggest success during these years was with blood cancers. The most common childhood leukemia became a curable disease. Optimism grew about what chemo could accomplish for some cancers, with or without radiation.

What was happening with other types of malignancies?

There was no progress on certain cancers, like lung, colon and pancreas. And cancer treatment was often gruesome. Chemo and early radiation were very toxic. Surgery could be extremely disfiguring.

Then, in the early 1970s, we got the War on Cancer legislation that provided tens of millions of dollars for additional research. Mary Lasker used her connections behind the scenes to lobby Congress, and Ann Landers was the journalist who pushed the hardest. President Nixon, at the White House signing ceremony for the law, said that more Americans died every year from cancer than lost their lives in all of World War II.

Did everyone approve of the war?

No. Attitudes started to shift in the mid-1970s, just a few years after war had been declared. For example, women began challenging doctors about the need for the radical mastectomy when they had only tiny cancers.

Female journalists with breast cancer began researching the procedure and denouncing it. One of them was Rose Kushner, who colorfully wrote, Vietnam will have to wait while I finish a crusade to tell American women  and through them American doctors  what I have learned. And critics, such as the writer Susan Sontag, had begun to warn about the faulty assumptions encouraged by war metaphors.

Was the medical establishment starting to question the way breast cancer was handled?

Yes. In 1975, John Bailar, a biostatistician and head of demography at the National Cancer Institute, wrote an article titled Mammography: A Contrary View, which was highly critical of a mammography screening program being sponsored by his own agency, the NCI, along with the ACS.

He argued that the value of mammography had not been shown, especially for women under 50, and the risks of radiation may be greater than commonly understood. In other words, earlier was not necessarily better.

Bailar eventually co-authored two important pieces for the New England Journal of Medicine, one in 1986 titled Progress against Cancer? and another in 1997 called Cancer Undefeated. He argued that a quarter-century after Nixon declared war on cancer, the United States was losing badly and that mortality rates had not budged. Bailar also believed that cancer prevention, a much more promising approach, had been ignored.

But havent we made some progress against cancer since the early 1970s?

Yes, since 1971, the cancer mortality rate has gone down about 5 to 10 percent. Much of this, however, is due to the decline in smoking, although there have also been modest declines in mortality from breast and prostate cancer. Unfortunately, pancreatic, liver, kidney and other cancers are actually increasing, despite the War on Cancer and $100 billion having been put into it.

What do you think about using the moonshot analogy, as Vice President Biden has done, in talking about cancer?

The moonshot metaphor is not any more subtle than the War on Cancer, and when you use that kind of language, its easy to oversell things.

But at least Biden is acknowledging the limits of the moonshot, such as the notion that certain therapies might be used to control  as opposed to cure  cancer.

After Nixon signed the War on Cancer legislation, one cancer specialist at the time was so excited that he predicted that cancer would be wiped out by the 1976 American Bicentennial. Well, not exactly. This story reminds us to be modest about what we can hope to achieve in the next 10 to 20 years.
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. In this series, The Washington Post is exploring this trend and the forces driving it.

Respondents who took part in The Washington Post-Kaiser survey on long-term, opioid painkiller use share their experiences of living with pain. (Monica Akhtar,Erin Patrick O'Connor/The Washington Post)

One-third of Americans who have taken prescription opioids for at least two months say they became addicted to, or physically dependent on, the powerful painkillers, according to a new Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation survey.

Virtually all long-term users surveyed said that they were introduced to the drugs by a doctors prescription, not by friends or through illicit means. But more than 6 in 10 said doctors offered no advice on how or when to stop taking the drugs. And 1 in 5 said doctors provided insufficient information about the risk of side effects, including addiction.

The survey raises sharp questions about the responsibility of doctors for an epidemic of addiction and overdose that has claimed nearly 180,000 lives since 2000. Opioid deaths surged to more than 30,000 last year, according to new data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with deaths from heroin alone surpassing the toll from gun homicides.

Doctors have been widely blamed for sparking the crisis by overprescribing highly addictive opioids to treat everyday pain. The survey suggests that they are still doing too little to stop it.

Why isnt it 100 percent? demanded Gary Mendell, founder of Shatterproof, a grass-roots group dedicated to reducing addiction in the United States, referring to the share who say doctors have counseled them on stopping the medication. Its unbelievable that its not 100 percent.





Patrice A. Harris, chairwoman of the American Medical Associations Board of Trustees and chair of its task force to reduce opioid abuse, acknowledged that doctors could do more to counsel patients on avoiding addiction.

The doctors that I have talked to are discussing this with their patients, Harris said. But, citing the survey, she added: We could certainly do a better job.

Despite the high rate of dependence, the poll finds that a majority of long-term opioid users say the drugs have dramatically improved their lives. Opioids relieve pain that is otherwise intractable, they said in follow-up interviews, allowing them to walk, work and pursue other activities. Fully two-thirds of users surveyed said relief is well worth the risk of addiction.

People living with opioid users tend to have a darker view of the drugs effects. While one-third of users say they are hooked, more than half of people living with them suspect addiction, the survey found. Family members are also far more likely to say the drugs have damaged the users physical and mental health, finances and personal relationships.

Still, the surveys findings highlight a fundamental conflict: While the drugs are a scourge for many, they are a godsend to others, especially the estimated 100 million Americans who live in chronic pain. Efforts by policymakers to restrict use have been met with outrage.

Were not saying that no one should ever be on these pills, but most people would be healthier and more functional if they were off them, said CDC Director Tom Frieden, who this spring urged doctors to sharply limit the number of pills they prescribe.

The bottom line here is that prescription opiates are as addictive as heroin. Theyre dangerous drugs, Frieden said. You take a few pills, you can be addicted for life. You take a few too many and you can die.

Opioid abuse  both prescription painkillers and their chemical cousins, heroin and fentanyl  is the main cause of rising death rates among middle-aged white Americans, particularly women in rural areas. It also has contributed to the first overall decline in U.S. life expectancy at birth in more than two decades, the government reported Thursday.

[CDC issues guidelines for prescribing opioids]

In 2014, U.S. doctors wrote 240 million prescriptions for opiates, enough for every adult to have their own bottle of pills. The CDC estimated that about 2.1 million Americans are addicted to legal narcotics.

In the first-ever guidelines on opioids for physicians, the CDC in March urged doctors to try nonnarcotic methods before offering patients pills containing oxycodone, hydrocodone and other opioids. The guidelines noted that there is little evidence that opioids are effective beyond 12 weeks.

Three days or less will often be sufficient; more than seven days will rarely be needed, the guidelines say.

But many people take the drugs much longer. In the past two years, about 5 percent of American adults have used prescription opioids for at least two months, the poll found; about half of those report taking the drugs for two years or more.





For the survey, one of the most comprehensive polls of long-term opioid users to date, The Post and Kaiser interviewed 622 people who said that they had taken narcotic painkillers for at least two months over the past two years. The survey also included 187 people who said they share a household with an opioid user, usually a spouse or a parent.

The survey did not include people who were treated for cancer or a terminal illness. At the time of the interview, 45 percent of long-term users were no longer taking the drugs, while 55 percent were still taking them. Users were slightly more likely than the general public to be white and far more apt to be middle-aged.

Nearly all long-term users (95 percent) said that they began taking the drugs to relieve pain from surgery, an injury or a chronic condition. Just 3 percent said that they started as recreational users.

More than 8 in 10 said that they tried to manage their pain with nonnarcotic medication; about 7 in 10 said that they tried alternative treatments, such as physical therapy and acupuncture. More than half (57 percent) found those methods ineffective.





Charles Stonesifer, 74, a former bricklayer who lives in Baltimore, has taken Tylenol with codeine and then Tramadol over the past two years. Both my knees are shot, he said, adding that he would be unable to walk without narcotics.

Stonesifer said that he had no trouble giving up the drugs when he tried, but his pain returned and he was forced to resume taking them.

If they actually stopped you from getting the [drugs], it would be very difficult for me, Stonesifer said. It would put me in a wheelchair instead of being able to get around. And once youre in a wheelchair, you never get up.

Nancy Horton, 62, of Martinsburg, W.Va., admits that she is addicted to the 190 milligrams of oxycodone she takes daily to dull the pain of rheumatoid arthritis. Without the drugs, I get the shakes. I am very anxious, she said. I just pace constantly. I cant get comfortable.

After 15 years on opioids, she said, I look back now and think, What could I have done differently? 

[A new divide in American death]

Sizable minorities of respondents report using the drugs for purposes other than managing pain. Such behavior is much more common among people who say they are addicted or physically dependent on opioids. Among this group, 47 percent say they sometimes take the drugs for fun or to get high; 38 percent use them to deal with day-to-day stress; and 30 percent use them to relax or relieve tension.

Side effects are widespread. Over half of long-term users said that they have experienced constipation; almost as many felt indigestion, dry mouth or nausea; and 15 percent said that they have had breathing problems. One in 5 (21 percent) have taken additional medications to treat those symptoms.

More than half (52 percent) of long-term users said that they have taken other prescription medications for anxiety, depression and sleeplessness while on opioids, and 1 in 6 said that they have consumed the drugs along with alcohol  risky combinations that could have dire consequences. Overall, nearly 6 in 10 said that they take at least four prescription drugs, and about one-third said that they take seven or more medications.





The survey revealed a largely positive relationship between opioid consumers and their doctors. Large majorities said doctors have warned them to avoid alcohol, cautioned them about possible side effects and explained the risk of addiction.

But 61 percent said that their doctors did not suggest a plan for getting off the drugs when they were first prescribed, and more than half said doctors have not altered their dose or frequency. Among long-term users who stopped taking opioids, 34 percent said the termination of their prescription was a reason.

Just 4 percent said that they have a prescription for naloxone, the drug that can be administered by someone else in an emergency to reverse the effect of an overdose.





While about a quarter of long-term users said a friend or family member has suggested they stop taking the drug, two-thirds said that they are not too or not at all concerned about becoming addicted. And about 6 in 10 of those who report being addicted have not sought treatment or other help.

Yngvild Olsen, chair of the American Society of Addiction Medicines public policy committee, said doctors have a vital role to play in addressing the epidemic, not only by changing their prescribing patterns and learning a lot more about chronic pain management and addiction, but also by stepping up to the plate in learning how to treat addiction.

Emily Guskin, Monica Akhtar and Erin Patrick OConnor contributed to this report.
Nixon declared war on cancer in 71. I dont say this often: You really have to admire him because he had no army, he had no weapons, he had no strategy. But he said, Were going to do this. And now, 45 years later, we have millions of patients who are willing to help, thousands of trained doctors, brand-new therapies like immunotherapy, better radiation and less harmful [chemotherapy].

We needed a new strategy, and that means our government has to operate differently as well, which has been one of the focuses of the Cancer Moonshot. How do we redesign our systems to live in the world we are actually in, rather than the one we got after World War II, when the government took over university funding?

The money for the cures, for the Cancer Moonshot, the money for precision medicine, the money for the brain initiative by themselves will not be nearly as valuable if they werent accompanied by all the other systemic changes that were in the [21st Century Cures Act].

The money in the bill will allow the National Cancer Institute to screen people who get colorectal cancer in their 30s  and all of their family members  for something called Lynch syndrome, which causes people in their 30s to get endometrial or colorectal cancer. You can identify those people and have them start getting checked for those cancers much sooner and save thousands, if not millions, of lives. Its a huge, huge benefit.

Gregory Simon , executive director, White House Cancer Task Force

This excerpt was from the December 6 Washington Post Live program Chasing Cancer. Video of the discussions can be see at Wapo.st/chasingcancer.
Wisconsins historic (and expensive) presidential recount is close to heading into the history books. With more than 70 percent of the recount completed, the winner is: No change. Seriously? What about all the voter fraud and election-rigging that we heard was going on? To be sure, there was some evidence of voting discrepancies. According to a Wisconsin State Journal report, in Dane County, 12 absentee ballots in Monona and 23 absentee ballots in Fitchburg were left in their certificate envelopes unopened on Election night. Aha! In Eau Claire, there were 12 votes that werent counted because of of a paper jam. Aha II! And up in Marinette County, 309 absentee ballots out of more than 20,000 cast werent counted because voters used a nonstandard ink pen. See, ink pen fraud! There were a litany of such miscues across the state and the upshot of it at midweek was that Hillary Clinton had added 492 votes to her total and President-elect Donald Trump had added 410 votes to his total. (In Racine County, recount tallies showed Clinton up 146 votes and Trump up 71.) Green Party candidate Jill Stein, whose campaign picked up the estimated $3.5 million tab for the counting do-over, netted 60 more votes so far. In the Trump-Clinton totals, that meant Clinton had picked up a net 82 votes as the count went on  out of more than 3 million votes cast. That was hardly enough to dent Trumps 20,000 vote margin in Wisconsin. Pricey, though. At the cost of the recount, the 82 vote change averages out to $42,682 per vote. For that kind of money, outright vote-buying would have been more effective. At least Wisconsinites were reassured there was no widespread vote-rigging. Now, perhaps, we can put the presidential election in the rear-view mirror.

If the holiday giving spirit hasnt tickled your wallet yet, you could take a cue from the good folks and employees at Wilkomm Companies, which operates several gas, food and convenience store centers in southeast Wisconsin. Wilkomm this month donated $18,036 to two homeless centers, Racines Homeless Assistance Leadership Organization and the Shalom Center of Kenosha. Exxon Mobil contributed $1,000 to the cause. The annual charity drive  the seventh one  relies on Wilkomm customers and employees. They get a thumbs up for their kind efforts for the homeless  and a reminder to each of us to keep a buck or two handy while were out Christmas shopping to drop in a kettle or store jar to help those in need.

Chalk it up to growing pains. There is a move afoot to give Village of Caledonia residents their due and give them their own ZIP code  with a Caledonia address. The Caledonia Village Board approved a resolution requesting that action from the U.S. Postal Service last Monday and, frankly, it makes more sense than the six ZIP codes for the village  only one of which allows a resident to list Caledonia as their mailing address. Its time to shed Racine and Franksville from the home address of Caledonia residents and give them a joint ZIP number. Say it loud, say it proud, I am a Caledonian! Just as long as it doesnt cost a lot of money or confuse the mail carriers and delay the mail.

Everybody likes free. That includes parking. The Racine City Council on Tuesday approved a plan to offer free Saturday parking in Downtown, Uptown and West Racine on Saturdays in December in order to encourage shopping in those shopping areas. Itll cost the city about $8,000 to $10,000 in lost parking and ticket revenue, but hopefully it will make a few cash registers ring and, at the very least, buoy the holiday spirits of Christmas shoppers. Theres nothing like a ticket under the windshield wiper to send shoppers away from Pottersville.

Milwaukee County is getting set to put a stop to Poke stops in county parks. The board will vote next week on a proposed ordinance to require a permit before any location-based augmented reality games are allowed in county parks. The move comes after the virtual reality game Pokemon Go lured hundreds of daily game players of all ages to Lake Park on Milwaukees north side last summer  riling the owners of some of the mansions in the nearby upscale neighborhood over the increased litter and late-night game playing. My goodness, there are people in the park! Littering and after-hours use of parks can be controlled with citations for those specific infractions. But in an era of rising obesity nationwide, it seems to us a good idea to encourage people to get out and walk in the park, even if they are staring at their smart phones looking for Charizards. A little fresh air, a little exercise  thats what parks are for. Let the Pokemon fad run its course.


Trump voters Ismael Aguayo and his wife, Darlene Aguayo, worship Nov. 20 at their church in El Paso. (Ivan Pierre Aguirre/For The Washington Post)

 Ramon De La Rosa predicts itll take President-elect Donald Trump just six months to make America great again.

The 73-year-old is eager to see Trump bring back jobs from places such as China and stop taxing hard-working Americans to pay for food stamps and other entitlement programs.

When Trump launched his presidential campaign and labeled Mexicans who enter the country illegally as rapists, criminals and drug dealers, De La Rosa, who was born in Mexico and crossed the border at 17 to become a U.S. resident, was not offended. It also didnt faze him that Trump pledged to build a massive wall along the border here in an effort to keep people just like him out.

I know he didnt mean that about all Mexicans, De La Rosa said, noting that Trump just talks like a tontito, a Spanish term meaning fool. He knows nothing about politics and nothing about speaking politically correct.

[2016 election exit polls: How the vote has shifted]

Counter to what many polls and pundits expected, De La Rosa  who for decades was not a U.S. citizen and earned the right to vote just 10 years ago  was among the 29 percent of Hispanic voters across the country who chose Trump on Election Day, according to exit polls.

Here, he is one of thousands of El Pasoans celebrating Trumps victory and looking forward to his inauguration. Trump received 26 percent of the vote in El Paso County, which includes El Paso and five small rural cities in the far west corner of Texas.

Many thought Trump would fare far worse among Latinos than he did, largely because of his anti-Mexican and anti-immigrant comments. While many in El Paso say they dont agree with all of Trumps approaches  he still performed worse among Latinos than did previous Republican presidential nominees  many who voted for him had single issues in mind: Some chose Trump because they want to see restrictions on abortion; others said he will bring more jobs back to the United States; still others hope he will limit entitlement programs. Some, many not born in the United States, oppose illegal immigration and hope Trump will be successful in immigration reform, something they say Democrats failed to do in the past eight years.

[Rural Hispanic voters  like white rural voters  shifted toward Trump. Heres why.]



Ramon De La Rosa listens to a conversation on politics Nov. 19 at his El Paso home. Born in Mexico, he supports Donald Trump because he thinks Trump can bring jobs back to the United States. (Ivan Pierre Aguirre/For The Wasington Post)

Trumps anti-Mexican insults apparently werent enough to turn off many voters in this border town, including Cecilia Kazhe.

Kazhe, 45 and a native of Chihuahua, Mexico, was shocked by her first encounter with racism in America, when decades ago a co-worker used a racial slur against her.

 You are nothing but a wetback,  Kazhe recalled the colleague saying, using a derogatory term for Mexicans who cross the nearby Rio Grande from Mexico to the United States. She would say wetback like it was a dirty name, but I never saw myself that way.

Did Trumps attack on Mexicans echo those insults? Kazhe said they werent a major problem for her.

At the end of the day, they are just words, said Kazhe, who became a U.S. citizen when she was 17. I know I am a productive citizen. Those words dont represent me, so it didnt bother me at all.

Cecilia Kazhe of El Paso said Trumps comments disparaging Mexicans did not deter her from voting for him. (Ivan Pierre Aguirre/For The Wasington Post)

The fact that De La Rosa sees Trump as a better advocate for America, his adoptive home, was more important than anything Trump might have said during the campaign.

De La Rosa likes to ask educated people a simple question: Where does Santa Claus come from? He gets answers such as the North Pole, Europe and the universe.

Wrong, wrong and wrong. De La Rosa replies: Santa Claus comes from China.

Everything he is wearing  shoes, socks, underwear  says Made in China. That means he must be from China, De La Rosa said , noting that he voted for Trump because he thinks he will bring jobs back to the U.S. from overseas. Hes going to make this country better. 

El Paso, a city on the southernmost point of the Rocky Mountains with more than 680,000 residents, is so close to Mexico that a wrong exit on Interstate 10 brings motorists to the Juarez port of entry. Mexican students cross the border to attend local U.S. schools and the University of Texas at El Paso, which is separated from Mexico by just the highway and the Rio Grande. Popular Mexican steak, seafood and taco restaurants from Ciudad Juarez have locations spread across the U.S. city.

Theres already a large, rusted steel fence that skirts much of the border. Even staunch Trump supporters here laugh at the notion that building a wall is going to stop anyone from coming in.

Adolpho Telles, the head of the Republican Party in El Paso, was surprised by how well Trump fared among Latino voters nationally and in his city. About 81 percent of El Paso residents are Hispanic and longtime Democrats. A Republican presidential candidate has not won in El Paso County in more than two decades.

[Across America, high school seniors ponder life under Trump]

We would be visiting people around the community, and they would whisper, I am going to vote for Trump,  Telles said. People felt they had to whisper it here because you would get criticized.

Clinton won El Paso by a wide margin, garnering 68 percent of the vote.

Jenny Carrillo, 58, was among that majority, and she said she expected Clinton to receive the same overwhelming support across the country. Carrillo, whose mother came to El Paso illegally, found Trumps comments about Mexicans extremely offensive, and she thinks many Trump supporters have forgotten that the United States is a country of immigrants.

She is still mourning Clintons loss a month later.

I cried so much, Carillo said. It was so discouraging, not just for me and my candidate, but I feel scared about whats going to happen to our country.

Not De La Rosa.

Still employed in construction, De La Rosa says he can break a concrete slab better than his 20-year-old colleagues can. De La Rosa has worked in construction or agriculture  picking cotton and other crops  since he was a little boy, and hes not even sure he finished the first grade.

His family moved around a lot, chasing seasonal crops in the United States. His father was part of the Bracero Program, which allowed Mexicans into the country for a limited time to work as seasonal agricultural laborers. De La Rosa was able to get his residency when his brother became a U.S. citizen in 1960.

De La Rosa became a citizen 10 years ago. At his home on the west side of El Paso, joined by his two daughters, De La Rosa said he is tired of working hard and seeing the government raise taxes to support others who are not motivated to better themselves. His daughters agree.

The harder you work, the more the government penalizes you, said Veronica De La Rosa, 46. If you are poor, then you stay poor because the government will give you everything you need.



Ramon De La Rosa dances in his living room as daughter Veronica De La Rosa looks on at their family home in El Paso. Both voted for Trump. (Ivan Pierre Aguirre/For The Wasington Post)

While De La Rosa and his daughters were drawn to Trumps economic policies, Ismael Aguayo, 31, and his wife, Darlene, 30, were drawn to Trumps antiabortion stance. More than half of El Pasoans are Catholics or evangelical Christians, according to the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies.

Aguayo and his wife were both raised in evangelical Christian households. They are now raising their two daughters, 8-year-old Darlene and 4-year-old Victoria, the same way. They attend a church in west El Paso, and Aguayo is a member of the churchs advisory council.

Aguayo, who grew up in a rural town outside El Paso, said that he and his wife do not fully support Trump or his agenda, but that a vote for Trump was a vote for godly principles that give unborn children a chance at life. While he and his wife love homosexuals because Jesus loved us no matter what our sin was, they also oppose same-sex marriage.

His vote for Trump was a vote for at least one conservative Supreme Court justice, he said.

Somehow or another, we did feel that his principles were more aligned to that of a God-fearing person, Aguayo said.

Kazhe, who worked for 15 years as a nurse in a newborn intensive care unit, also anxiously awaits the appointment of a conservative Supreme Court justice because, she said, abortion is nothing short of murder.

Her husband, Peter, who is part Mescalero Apache, an indigenous tribe in the Southwest, also voted for Trump. He spent eight years in the Marine Corps and is now a firefighter.

They say they had to keep their support for Trump somewhat secret because of the negative reaction they tend to get from friends and co-workers. Another firefighter even asked Peter how he can call himself a Christian and support the president-elect.

Their 24-year-old son, who did not vote in the presidential election, was in disbelief. He questioned how Kazhe  a woman and a Mexican immigrant  could have voted for someone who made vulgar comments about sexual assault, wants to stymie immigration and broadly insulted Mexicans.

I know thats not who I am, so his words dont offend me, Kazhe said. And I also know my people arent like that.
Local residents sit beside the wreckage of a Pakistan International Airlines plane after it crashed near Havelian, Pakistan. (Sultan Dogar/European Pressphoto Agency)

PAKISTAN

Premier orders probe in deadly plane crash

Pakistan said Thursday that it will open an investigation into the plane crash that killed 47 passengers and crew a day earlier.

The small, twin-propeller aircraft was traveling from the mountain resort of Chitral to Islamabad when one of its engines failed shortly after takeoff, causing it to crash into a hillside village, said Pervez George of the Civil Aviation Authority. No one survived.

The Pakistan International Airlines plane had 42 passengers and five crew members on board, airline spokesman Daniyal Gilani said.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif called on authorities to investigate the crash Thursday, a government statement said. He also asked that DNA tests be carried out as soon as possible to identify victims.

Reporters at the crash site Thursday saw the planes blackened wreckage strewn over a 1.2-mile radius, with passenger belongings scattered about.

On Thursday, doctors gave three victims remains to their families.

 Associated Press

CANADA

Civil rights heroine to grace $10 bill

A black woman often described as Canadas Rosa Parks for her 1946 decision to sit in a whites-only section of a Nova Scotia movie theater will be the first Canadian woman to be celebrated on the face of a Canadian bank note.

Finance Minister Bill Morneau said Thursday that Viola Desmond will grace the front of the $10 bill when the next series goes into circulation in 2018.

A businesswoman turned civil libertarian, Desmond built a business as a beautician and mentored young black women in Nova Scotia.

Desmond was arrested and fined when she rejected racial discrimination by sitting in a whites-only section of a New Glasgow movie theater. Her actions inspired generations of black Canadians.

 Associated Press

JORDAN

Syrians unable to get care, aid group says

Seventy severely wounded Syrians, including 16 children, have been prevented from getting life-saving treatment since Jordan closed its border with Syria six months ago, an official from the medical aid group Doctors Without Borders said Thursday.

Some of those patients have likely died, said Marjan Besuijen, a project coordinator for the group. She urged the Jordanian government to allow evacuation of the most severely wounded Syrians to Jordan, basically giving them a chance to survive.

Jordan sealed the border in June after a deadly cross-border attack on its security forces by Islamist extremists.

Government spokesman Mohammed Momani said Thursday that Jordan allows critical cases to enter for treatment and permits medical supplies to be sent to Syria.

 Associated Press

11 protesters freed in Gambia: In Gambia, 11 people who were jailed for peacefully protesting have been released on bail, Amnesty International said Thursday. They were the last of those arrested after protests in the spring. Their release comes a week after Gambian ruler Yahya Jammeh lost elections and agreed to step aside after 22 years in power. President-elect Adama Barrow has vowed to release all political prisoners, and 31 others have also been released on bail since the Dec. 1 vote.

Archibiship of Krakow named: Archbishop Marek Jedraszewski from the Polish city of Lodz will be the new archbishop of Krakow, succeeding the retiring Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, Catholic church authorities in Poland said Thursday. Jedraszewski, 67, has stressed traditional Catholic teachings on abortion and marriage but is also considered open to dialogue and has used the Internet to communicate with the faithful.

Police kill 4 in Cameroon: Police in Cameroon shot dead four anti-government demonstrators on Thursday, police sources said, after a month of sometimes violent protests in the area. The protesters were marching on a meeting of the ruling Cameroon Peoples Democratic Movement in Bamenda, when they were confronted by police. Officers initially tried to scatter the demonstrators using tear gas. A Reuters reporter then saw the police open fire on the crowd, which had grown. Some demonstrators were armed with steel bars and stones, a police official said, adding that officers had acted in self-defense. One police officer was wounded, he said.

From news reports
Mary Lehman, a Democrat, represents Laurel on the Prince Georges County Council. George Leventhal, a Democrat, is an at-large member of the Montgomery County Council.

Maryland is nearing a turning point on energy. The moratorium on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in the state, imposed in 2015 by the General Assembly, expires in 2017, leaving two clear choices. Lawmakers can allow this drilling method in our state, potentially spreading documented environmental and health dangers to half our counties, or they can adopt a permanent, statewide fracking ban.

Widespread across Pennsylvania, fracking requires millions of gallons of pressurized water, sand and volatile organic compounds, including known carcinogens, to be pumped deep underground through cement-encased wells. Forced explosions allow the water to split shale rock and release methane gas.

Recently, the county councils in Montgomery and Prince Georges voted to permanently ban drilling within our borders. As council members, we championed these local bans and encourage lawmakers in Annapolis to pass a permanent statewide ban to protect all Marylanders.

It is a common misconception that fracking would affect only western Maryland, which is home to the Marcellus shale formation that lies beneath nine states, including much of Pennsylvania, where there are more than 10,000 active fracking wells.

Beneath a third of Prince Georges is the Taylorsville natural gas basin. The Taylorsville Basin extends into Anne Arundel, Charles, Calvert and St. Marys counties and runs under the Potomac River and into Virginia, where Texas-based Shore Exploration and Production Corp. leased 84,000 acres of land for potential drilling. The Culpeper Basin runs below northern Montgomery County. The Gettysburg and Delmarva Basins run below nine more counties.

So why ban? Fracking is far too risky and simply not worth the adverse impacts. Scientific studies by government, university and private researchers have long identified a causal link between fracking and increased rates of respiratory problems such as coughing and chronic nosebleeds, rashes and other skin conditions. In addition, some of the 632 known chemicals used in fracking have been linked to gastrointestinal and neurological problems, cancers and birth defects.

Findings of adverse impacts are mounting almost daily, as described in a February 2015 letter from more than 100 Maryland doctors and health professionals to Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) and House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel).

The letter urges lawmakers to take a conservative and precautionary path with fracking, citing overwhelming findings of risk to human health and air and water quality in peer-reviewed literature published between 2013 and 2014.

In 2016, Duke University researchers published an analysis of nearly 4,000 oil and natural gas wastewater spills in North Dakota; it found environmental impacts are both severe and lasting. Selenium was found in waters at levels as high as 35 times the federal thresholds for protecting fish and wildlife, including those that people consume.

Unlike spilled oil, which starts to break down in soil, these spilled brines consist of inorganic chemicals, metals and salts that are resistant to biodegradation, said Nancy Lauer, a PhD student and lead author of the study. This has created a legacy of radioactivity at spill sites.

Which brings us to our final concern: State regulatory agencies and local governments are not equipped to handle the environmental, human health and workplace safety complaints that accompany fracking. Pennsylvania offers a sobering case study.

In July 2014, the Pennsylvania state auditor issued a report concluding the Department of Environmental Protection was unprepared to enforce existing drinking-water regulations when the shale gas industry began growing rapidly. That same year, the department made public 248 cases of drinking water contamination directly caused by fracking, despite years of industry denial.

If Pennsylvania cannot adequately protect its more than 12 million residents from the perils of fracking, Maryland will not fare any better trying to safeguard its 6 million residents, given state staffing reductions in the Department of the Environment and increasingly lax enforcement in recent years. Eleven environmental groups in a May 5 letter assailed the department for eliminating one-third of its water quality inspectors since 2000 and for a policy that emphasizes counseling polluters rather than levying fines.

Maryland has become a national environmental leader with efforts to protect the Chesapeake Bay, reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and generate clean energy. As evidence of the adverse impacts of fracking mounts, we cannot afford to permit this unnecessary and unsafe method of energy extraction. We urge our fellow elected officials, municipalities and counties to join us in calling on the General Assembly to ban fracking once and for all in 2017.
Signs of support hang on the building at Comet Ping Pong in Washington on Dec. 6. (Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post)

Regarding the Dec. 7 front-page article Pizzagate: From rumor, to hashtag, to gunfire:

Ironically the media is adding validation to those who are spreading this depraved, completely bogus tale through adoption of the gate nomenclature.

The genesis of all gate stories is Watergate, the scandal in which then-President Richard Nixon sent his dirty tricksters to burglarize the offices of the Democratic National Committee in 1972 to get some dirt on his opponents for the upcoming election. But, unlike the completely fabricated story behind Pizzagate, Watergate actually happened.

It is important in this post-truth world in which we now live for the media not to contribute to such nonsense. Call this story False News Story-Gate or Hateful Web-Gate, or something similar. But please dont give it more credence by referring to it as a legitimate gate story.

Katherine Meyer, Washington

There have always been crazy people, and there always will be. But when you have a president-elect to whom truth is optional and policy is formed and communicated through a hashtag, the crazy people are legitimized and called to act out their delusions.

We are now as threatened from within as from outside our borders.

Elaine Schwartz, Alexandria
The president-elect saluted workers at a plant where he says he saved more than 1,000 jobs, then went to Ohio.

The president-elect saluted workers at a plant where he says he saved more than 1,000 jobs, then went to Ohio.

What are we seeing in Donald Trumps presidential transition so far? The emerging outlines of a bipolar presidency.

Im not attempting a clinical diagnosis here. Maybe a better description is a Jekyll and Hyde administration. The president-elect is alternately making good choices (such as retired Marine Gen. James N. Mattis as defense secretary) and horrible ones (Ben Carson at Housing and Urban Development); sounding themes of national reconciliation and sounding crazed on Twitter; attempting magnanimity (opposing prosecution for his vanquished opponent, Hillary Clinton) and rubbing it in (attacking presidential rival Evan McMullin and basking once again in chants of Lock her up!).

Trumps personnel choices seem designed to either reward personal loyalty or embody a certain perception of competence  the competence of generals who know how to give orders and of billionaires who know how to make money. Failed politicians, in this view, need to be schooled. Never mind that the habits of command are not immediately transferrable to some of the main tasks in a democracy  persuasion, compromise and public policy innovation.

This is clearly the direction of strong-hand democracy; just give the real leaders free rein and a few years. A little less James Madison and a little more Lee Kuan Yew. But it is Mr. Madison who still sets the rules, making a snap-your-fingers-and-demand-results approach to leadership more likely to end in frustration and failure than in lasting damage to American institutions.

Meanwhile, this theory of the Trump presidency leaves a policy environment more fluid and open than any in my political lifetime. Apart from a few vivid campaign promises on immigration and infrastructure  which have also been renegotiated since the election  Trump has radical freedom of action. He owes no one, holds no definite ideology and will be forgiven even the worst heresies by his supporters (at least for the moment).

Watch President-elect Donald Trump's "thank you" rally in Des Moines, Iowa, in two minutes. (Victoria Walker/The Washington Posto)

So, for example, it is possible that Trump will pursue the most ambitious, controversial redefinition of the federal role in helping the poor since Lyndon Johnson  block-granting Medicaid and most other welfare spending, and tying the remainder to work requirements. Or Trump could find this contentious, time-consuming debate a distraction from other priorities. He could choose, instead, to give governors more flexibility on Medicaid requirements, block-grant a few programs, increase the earned-income tax credit, experiment with enterprise zones and push for his daughter Ivankas child-care and maternity leave proposals.

There has been little real guidance from Trump himself. He has said that the welfare system provides incentives for sitting there doing nothing (which is not really true of many programs). Referring to health care for the poor, Trump told TV doctor Mehmet Oz: There is a percentage, a fairly large percentage that cant afford it. . . . Were going to take care of that through the Medicaid system. . . . Were not going to let people die on the streets. His instincts seem mixed.

And Trumps convictions on welfare policy may not even matter much in the end. His large tax cuts and commitment to a balanced budget may force nondefense discretionary spending  only about 16 percent of the budget  to be a repeated blood donor, until it is pasty white and weak.

The openness of Trumps policy options, however, is currently a boon to lobbyists, consultants and advocates of all stripes. If ever talking with the right person at the right time with the right message has been important, it is now. Almost nothing has yet been ruled in or ruled out. Tea-leaf reading is at a premium. But who can possibly predict what will be in President Trumps budget address to Congress in February? Who can know what Trump does not yet know himself? In the period between now and then, the identity of a presidential administration will be determined, in many areas from scratch.

How Trumps manner of doing business will translate to the office of the president is equally difficult to predict. He has shown a willingness to violate norms of diplomacy and dignity normally enforced by a sense of priority. He seems caught in a cycle: a few days on message, then a conspiratorial or bullying statement or tweet, then a scramble by Republicans to solicit intervention from the family, who give the president-elect the political equivalent of lithium and get him back on message before the next manic stage. Republicans are now finding strategic brilliance in this attempt to keep the whole world off balance. But what happens when President Trump can truly throw the whole world off balance?

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Given the turf wars and interagency rivalries that have long surrounded U.S. Special Operations forces, President Obama probably didnt do the commandos any favors when he delivered his last big military speech at the base in Tampa where theyre headquartered.

Obamas visit Tuesday to MacDill Air Force Base, home of U.S. Special Operations Command, or SOCOM, was in many ways an endorsement of its mission to combat terrorism. For all Obamas wariness about using conventional military power, he has embraced the role of covert commander in chief, most notably in the 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

Obamas Tampa trip came as the Pentagon and CIA were buzzing about what critics claimed was a power grab by the Joint Special Operations Command, the super-secret group that manages most military counterterrorism strikes. The flap centered on a Nov. 25 Post article that said JSOC had received expanded power to track, plan and potentially launch attacks on terrorist cells around the globe.

Military officials deny that theres any formal expansion of authority for JSOC or its parent organization, SOCOM. But the clandestine military unit has indeed become Obamas preferred instrument for killing terrorists, filling a role once played mainly by the CIAs Counterterrorism Center. The Trump administration will doubtless make its own judgments about the respective missions.

JSOCs role is rarely discussed publicly. But Defense Secretary Ashton Carter opened a window when he said at an Oct. 25 news conference in Paris: We have put our Joint Special Operations Command in the lead of countering [the Islamic States] external operations. And we have already achieved very significant results both in reducing the flow of foreign fighters and removing [Islamic State] leaders from the battlefield.

The U.S. assaults cited by Carter have been far deadlier than is generally recognized. Military sources say that drone strikes have killed between 20,000 and 25,000 Islamic State operatives in Iraq and Syria. U.S. conventional attacks have killed about 30,000, for a total body count of more than 50,000.

The interagency flap about SOCOMs expanded role is said to have begun after a National Security Council deputies committee meeting, in which a White House official asked which agency was targeting external operations by Islamic State operatives. A senior military official answered that it was JSOC. This apparently triggered protests that the CIA should have such coordinating responsibility.

The CIAs concern was apparently roused partly by a JSOC intelligence fusion operation, known as Gallant Phoenix, in an Arab country bordering Syria. That effort, begun about two years ago, now has more than a dozen member countries. It has fed information about foreign fighters to counterterrorism officials in Spain, Germany, France, Portugal and other countries, military sources said.

The CIA and JSOC both conduct roughly the same number of drone flights every day. But the sources said that the militarys drones conducted more than 20,000 strikes over the past year, in Afghanistan, Yemen and Syria, while the CIA is said to have struck fewer than a dozen targets over that period.

Since the bin Laden raid, Special Operations forces may have become too visible for their own good. The celebrity of SEAL Team 6 and other special units spawned jealousy from conventional military units that felt their role was being ignored. This sort of intra-military rivalry with commando units has existed since Gen. Maxwell Taylor helped to popularize the Green Berets as a counterinsurgency force during the early 1960s.

The CIA oversaw much of the United States drone warfare during the first half of Obamas presidency, when it was targeting al-Qaeda operatives in Pakistan. But the agencys focus on such counterterrorism direct action appears to have diminished over the past several years.

A U.S. official said the agency continues to play a very significant role in CT efforts, including targeting Islamic State external operations.

Obamas Tampa speech highlighted his preference for Special Operations forces and their small-footprint tactics, as opposed to big conventional assaults. He said the United States had attacked Islamic State fighters in Iraq and Syria not with American battalions but with local forces backed by our equipment and our advisers and, importantly, our special forces.

Obama took credit, too, for the drone attacks that have proved so deadly against extremist targets. In a dangerous world, terrorists seek out places where its often impossible to capture them. . . . And that means the best option for us to get those terrorists becomes a targeted strike.

One unlikely legacy of Obamas presidency is that he made the secret, once-impermissible tactic of targeted killing the preferred tool of American counterterrorism policy.

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Lally Weymouth is a senior associate editor for The Washington Post.

To say that Pedro Pablo Kuczynski is prepared for his new job as Perus president is an understatement. Kuczynski, 78, has been finance minister and prime minister; a technocrat at the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank; an investment banker and founder of a private-equity fund. Last year he relinquished his U.S. citizenship to run for president. A passionate believer in free trade, Kuczynski will square off against President-elect Donald Trumps protectionist stance while trying to stop a years-long conflict between mining companies  crucial to the nations export economy  and the local communities where they excavate. He talked with The Washington Posts Lally Weymouth in Lima. Edited excerpts follow.

Q. You made some caustic remarks about President-elect Donald Trump during your campaign; you even joked that Peru would grab a saw and cut off relations with the United States if he won. How will his election affect the region?

A. Id better tone down what I have been saying. There is a lot of uncertainty, especially with regard to Mexico. Everybody is worried about what is going to happen. The idea of the wall is completely crazy. I just dont understand how people continue talking about the Mexicans paying for this wall. I hope [his presidency] works out differently than what analysts expect, because the world needs a little peace and tranquility.

Q. You are coming to the U.S. in February?

A. I will come to the U.S. if the Congress here gives me permission. My old school, Princeton, is giving me a medal, which is called the James Madison Medal. If I am there, I will take the Metroliner down to Washington and say hello.

Q. Say hello to the new president?

A. Right. We have had a good relationship with the Obama administration.

Q. The question is, can you work out a good relationship with the new administration?

A. It depends a little bit on what their perception of Latin America is. If they think that Latin America is just a bunch of guys who climb walls to get illegal work, then it is not going to go well. I hope they go past that.

Q. What will you and Donald Trump say to each other when you meet?

A. The first thing I am going to try to explain to him is that the U.S. is not in the dumps because of Mexico. There is hardly any Mexican immigration into the U.S. today. . . . I am going to tell him: You are lucky you have Latin America. Sure, there are drugs and problems, thats true. But you have to look on the positive side. We are less uncivilized than you think. We actually make a big contribution to the U.S. We dont give you any real trouble. Latin immigration to the U.S.  sure, it should be done legally  makes a pretty positive contribution to the U.S. economy. Also, if you look at the actual numbers, free-trade agreements have been pretty positive for the United States. How many car part plants in the Midwest depend on the Mexican market?

Q. At one point in your life, you were the CEO of the Central Bank of Peru. Then the military took over in a coup in 1968.

A. They wanted to know where the reserves were, and they forced me at gunpoint to open the safe. I showed them the few bricks of gold that were there. They said, But thats not all the money! Most of it was at the Federal Reserve Bank in New York. So they did not like me, and eventually they sent me to jail. Ultimately, I fled.

Q. How did you get out of jail?

A. I got out of jail with the help of some friends in the military.

Q. Then you went into the jungle?

A. We crossed through northern Peru into Ecuador.

Q. How long did that take?

A. Two or three weeks. We had an air force map and a compass. We got into Ecuador, and we walked and walked. In the end, we found a military base where they came and picked us up. I went back to Washington. I had [previously] worked at the World Bank, but the World Bank didnt want me because they said I was too political. So I went to the International Monetary Fund.

Q. Your first foreign trip as president was to China. Are you looking to Asia for growth because Trump is threatening trade barriers?

A. China is our biggest market. It is about 22 percent of Peruvian exports  mostly metals but also some sophisticated agricultural products. We have no issues with China the way others may have with [its claims in the South China Sea].

Q. You are trying to get the Chinese to invest here?

A. The Chinese have two huge copper mines here. They are looking at several other projects.

Q. If the U.S. opts out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership , will China move in and ask TPP countries to join its own Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership?

A. Right. This is a group that will include India, which is important for us because India is the one country we dont have a trade treaty with. The idea we floated during the recent meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is that the Pacific Alliance countries  that is Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Chile  join the Free Trade Agreement of Asia and the Pacific (FTAAP). Basically, the FTAAP is the APEC countries without the U.S.

TPP was more ambitious, but it also had its detractors. It didnt include China, which is the bigger player in the Pacific. Also on pharmaceuticals, the period of tests would have gone from five to 10 years, which might have raised the cost of pharmaceuticals in countries like Peru. So there was some opposition to it. A lot of the business people here love TPP.

Q. How about yourself?

A. I dont love TPP so much. China is our biggest customer. So how can we support something that excludes them?

Q. You have a large informal economy.

A. It is about 40 percent of the economy and about 65 percent of the employment. If the businesses become legal, they will pay social security for their workers, and we will fill up the coffers of the pension funds a little bit. We will go down from an informal economy of 65 percent to 45 percent or 40 percent by the end of my government. If we are able to reach numbers like that, there will be a credit revolution here. The minute you become formal, you can borrow. So that will give us a big boost in growth without relying entirely on metals prices. We want to grow between 5 and 6 percent a year.

Q. Wont you also have to enact labor reforms so that employers can fire employees?

A. The constitutional court has said that you can fire people, but they have to stay in the company. We have to change that.

Q. How?

A. You appoint better people to the court. It is not like the U.S. Supreme Court where you stay until you die. Here you stay six years and then youre out.

Q. Several mines have been shut down over the past three administrations, and the situation is reportedly getting worse between the mine owners and the locals. What are you going to do to resolve these conflicts?

A. I am going in a few days to the Tia Maria mining district in the south on the coast to talk to folks there because they oppose the mine.

Q. You yourself are going?

A. I will sit in the town square. There is no water for irrigation because there is a drought, and people are ticked off, so we are building them a well. In the end, a lot of these mining conflicts boil down to water. The president has to be involved.

Q. Do you have to be tough?

A. You have to have an iron hand in a silken glove. You cannot start firing at people.

Q. It seems as if all the past presidents gave up 

A. Im not like past presidents. None of them actually went to talk to the miners. I come from the mining industry. I used to run one of Alcoas biggest mines.

Q. What do you plan to do about drug trafficking in your country, which is the second-largest cocaine producer in the world?

A. We have done quite a bit. We have started to clean up the police. We had over 80 generals in the police force; 40 were fired. We have also dismissed 1,000 police officers. The main thing we have to do with drugs is to give the people in the Valle de los Rios Apurimac region  thats the major drug area  alternatives. They have to have roads, schools, electricity and jobs.

Q. How do you see the situation in Venezuela?

A. Totally terrible. [President Nicolas] Maduro is afraid that if he yields, they will hang him from a lamppost, so he wants to stick with it. There are many rumors that the army is heavily involved in drug trafficking. . . . We have to begin thinking about it before it explodes. First of all, you should have major humanitarian relief, which Maduro doesnt want. Second, you should have a transitional government for a year. Then you can have new elections once the boat is steady again.

Twitter: @LallyWeymouth

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A century of legend has painted Rasputin in the broadest terms: a debauched holy man; a drunken lecher; the savior of the czars hemophiliac heir, Alexei; and the man who contributed to the fall of the Romanov dynasty. (Associated Press)

Greg Kings works on Imperial Russia include The Last Empress, The Fate of the Romanovs, and The Court of the Last Tsar.

The body lay on the bank of a half-frozen river: arms grotesquely extended, blue silk shirt stained crimson, right eye blackened, nose battered, hair matted with blood, and singed flesh fringing an ugly gunshot wound in the middle of the forehead. Yet the crowd lining the river was more excited than horrified: At last, the notorious Grigori Rasputin was dead.

This scene in December 1916 ended the career of Russias mad monk. A century of legend has painted him in the broadest terms: a debauched holy man; a drunken lecher; savior of the hemophiliac heir, Alexei; and the man who, together with a hysterical Empress Alexandra, destroyed the government of Czar Nicholas II and led the Romanov dynasty to revolution. The centennial of Rasputins infamous death was bound to renew interest. Thankfully, it has also brought Douglas Smiths definitive biography of this most mysterious and controversial figure.

The bare facts of Rasputins life are well known. Born in Siberia in 1869, he claimed a religious vision and left his obscure village as a pilgrim. His reputation took him to St. Petersburg where, with the backing of church officials, he met Nicholas and Alexandra. His apparent ability to cure their only sons hemophiliac attacks cemented his place as imperial favorite; thereafter, the peasant rampaged through the court and society with the decorum of a charging bull, bedding women, drinking to excess and dominating the weak-willed czar through constant orders to his obsessive wife. Tackling this accepted story is no easy task, but Smith does a remarkable job by drawing on a wealth of research revealing how the myth of Rasputin was created. Under Smiths probing eye, archives yield up impressive detail and previously unknown accounts that place Rasputins life in a new, more realistic context.

The revelations in this dark fairy tale are impressive. Smith chronicles Nicholas and Alexandras obsession with various holy men who, in embryonic form, served as precursors to Rasputin. The book richly explores the background of Orthodoxy and Russian mysticism against which Rasputin appeared, setting the peasant in context as one of many holy fools who became fashionable with a jaded aristocracy. To Smith, Rasputins religious impulse . . . was indeed sincere, even if he strayed  and often  from the higher ideals he ostensibly espoused. Letters Rasputin wrote to Nicholas and Alexandras daughters give a better sense of the man than any caricature, while Smiths revelations about the peasant and one of the imperial nurses (who later accused him of rape) disclose a previously unsuspected relationship that puts her allegations in a new light.

"Rasputin: Faith, Power, and the Twilight of the Romanovs," by Douglas Smith (FSG)

Despite the legend, Rasputin did not gain his place at court after apparently curing Alexei; rather, Nicholas and Alexandra were as drawn to Rasputin for the support and wisdom he gave them about the state of Russia as about the state of the heir. Nor did he display any miraculous abilities when it came to the hemophiliac boy. The question of Rasputins power has plagued historians, but Smith makes a convincing case that his apparent cures were probably coincidental and stemmed as much from the calm Alexandra transferred to her ailing son, literally willing him back to health, as they did from prayer.

Alexandras wartime letters to her husband leave little doubt that she was under Rasputins influence, but the case of Nicholas is more complex. The czar once described the peasant as a good, simple, religious Russian man. In minutes of doubt and spiritual turmoil I love to converse with him and after such conversations my soul is always light and calm. Yet even he tired of Rasputins notoriety. Nicholas, though, felt powerless to act against his wifes wishes: Better ten Rasputins than one of the empresss hysterical fits, he once candidly told his prime minister.

World War I escalated an already dangerous situation, as Nicholas took command of the army at the front and left ostensible control of the government in Alexandras  and thus Rasputins  hands. Rasputin had no discretion. He openly exaggerated his hold over the imperial couple and reveled in promoting his corrupt friends to the highest levels in the Orthodox Church. His drunken escapades with prostitutes and meddling in political affairs horrified many, but, as Smith shows, desperate officials often overplayed their hands in attempting to discredit him, which had the unfortunate effect of immunizing Rasputin from all criticism in the eyes of the empress.

In 1916, with revolution openly discussed, Felix Yusupov, an imperial prince, decided to act. Gathering around him a group of conspirators, he plotted Rasputins death as an act of noble patriotism, meant to save the country from ruin. The murder itself has become legend, with tales that Rasputin survived poison, numerous gunshots and severe beatings only to drown when his body was thrown into an icy river. In fact, there is no evidence he was poisoned. The first two bullets would have proved fatal, but Rasputin died instantly after being shot directly in the forehead. This hasnt stopped a century of bizarre stories, with whispers of gay orgies and castration, and allegations that the peasant was murdered by British agents  stories that Smith demolishes through impeccable research.

Putins Russia has seen not only resurgent nostalgia for the Romanovs but also efforts to rehabilitate Rasputin; there was even an unsuccessful push to have him canonized in 2004. If Rasputin wasnt the Holy Devil portrayed for much of the past century, neither was he a misunderstood saint. The Rasputin in this magnificent work is a complicated man, sincere in his religious beliefs but unable to resist power and temptation. He undoubtedly contributed to the fall of the czarist regime, though perhaps not in the ways history has recorded. In Rasputins case, as Smith shows, perception often replaced reality, spinning a narrative that fed the peasants vanity while undermining trust in the throne, the government and the church. In the end, Rasputin fell victim to his own propaganda.
SOUTH SUDAN is on the brink of catastrophe, a three-member U.N. commission on human rights declared last week after a visit. The chairman, Yasmine Sooka, warned of a repeat of the Rwandan genocide. There is already a steady process of ethnic cleansing underway in several areas of South Sudan using starvation, gang rape and the burning of villages; everywhere we went across this country we heard villagers saying they are ready to shed blood to get their land back, she said. Many told us its already reached a point of no return.

The world responded with a shrug. After long delays, the U.N. Security Council was expected to vote on a resolution Nov. 29 imposing targeted sanctions and an arms embargo, but then Russia, China and others expressed opposition in one form or another, and the vote was put off. An earlier plan to send 4,000 peacekeepers for a regional protection force to join the 12,000 already in South Sudan has yet to be implemented. South Sudan, the worlds youngest nation and an example of U.S. intervention that officials were proud to boast about just a few years ago, is careering once again into chaos. A report from the Council on Foreign Relations says the danger of genocide is real and proposed that the United Nations and African Union run the country for 10 to 15 years to help it rebuild.

Established out of the ashes of a long war in which millions died, South Sudans independence in 2011 was a moment of hope but it did not last. The forces of President Salva Kiir and his rival and former vice president Riek Machar went to war with each other in late 2013, a senseless conflict that ended with a peace agreement nearly two years later. But key aspects of the deal have not been implemented, and Mr. Machar fled the country. On July 11, armed men, identified as government forces, went on a rampage in the capital, Juba, at a compound where foreign workers lived, robbing, beating and sexually assaulting them. Mr. Kiir, who has often urged Washington to be patient, appears to no longer be listening to appeals from the United States and elsewhere to stop the violence. The United States only recently backed the arms embargo.

The report from the U.N. team was alarming. Violence is spreading through regions of South Sudan, such as Central Equatoria, that had previously been quiet. Ms. Sooka said she found an increase in hate speech, a crackdown on the media and civil society, deepening divisions between the countrys 64 tribes, and a renewed drive for conflict in a nation already flooded with guns and armed groups. She added, The scale of rape of women and girls perpetrated by all armed groups in South Sudan is utterly unacceptable and is frankly mind boggling. She said aid workers described gang rape as so prevalent that it has become normal.

The U.N. Security Council, the United States and the rest of the world must find a way to confront these atrocities and stop the downward spiral of South Sudan.
Meeting Under a Black Moon on the Plains of Despair. (Courtesy of Garry D. Harley )

Add them to the annals of No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: works of art calling attention to racism in Americas past  and its persistence in Americas present  targeted by educational censorship campaigns for being too racist.

Four such works were challenged in the past month, in fact.

This fall, Salem State University put out an open call for an exhibition titled State of the Union. Artists were asked to submit work that addresses concerns and hopes for our future, such as environmental issues, social inequities, income inequality and education.

Garry Harley, an artist in nearby Lowell, Mass., saw the notice and knew immediately what to submit: two digital paintings, both inspired by campaign rhetoric he found frightening. One was based on a photo of Ku Klux Klan members in full, menacing regalia; the other, Warsaw Jews being rounded up during World War II.

Both were accepted.

They Came for My Brother & I Turned Away - Then They Came for Me on a Sunny Day in October. (Courtesy of Garry D. Harley)

The exhibition opened the day after Election Day. And when it did, Harleys work  in particular the KKK picture  caused an uproar. Students complained that the art was insensitive, racist, upsetting, offensive.

The school held a tense public forum. Harley, who says he wanted to raise awareness but not offense, attended in the hopes of a teaching moment. He arrived with handouts: copies of Francisco Goyas The Third of May 1808 and Pablo Picassos Guernica, masterpieces that had committed traumatic events to canvas and, by extension, to public memory.

The next day, administrators sent an apology to the campus community and announced they were temporarily shuttering the exhibit. Then last week, after a second meeting, which Harley did not attend, the exhibit was reopened  with some modifications.

Among them: The KKK painting, and only that work, was curtained off, peep-show-style. This way the viewing will be clearly intentional on the part of the observer, according to a statement from President Patricia Maguire Meservey.

In a phone interview, Meservey explained this was a compromise designed to keep the work on display while helping students prepare themselves to view distressing imagery.

Harley, for his part, called it an elegant solution. It grants the students another layer of security, he told me. Plus, he said, it has added interest to the work.

Indeed, the school says this exhibition has attracted much more traffic than previous ones; everyone wants to see whats behind the curtain, it seems.

Garry Harley's artwork depicting Ku Klux Klan members is now shielded by a black curtain at Salem State University's State of the Union" art exhibit. (Courtesy of Salem State University)

Down the Eastern Seaboard, two older works addressing American bigotry found themselves in similar crosshairs.

Last month, Accomack County, Va., public schools temporarily pulled To Kill a Mockingbird and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from classrooms and libraries because a parent complained about the racial slurs they contain. After a local uproar and a formal review, the novels were reinstated Tuesday.

Meanwhile, South Carolinas Winthrop University is threatening to expel a student who created a deeply hurtful and threatening anti-lynching art installation.

These are hardly the only recent instances of anti-racist works being targeted by anti-racists for being insufficiently anti-racist.

Mockingbird and Huck Finn are frequently challenged. More recent works, lacking the protection afforded by generations of fans, are more vulnerable. Last year, students in an Alabama high school history club were forbidden from seeing the film Selma because of its use of slurs.

To be clear, calls for censorship are hardly unique to the left. But real threats to the safety and rights of people of color do seem to have led to heightened policing of the correct way to condemn bigotry and tell more diverse stories, says Joan Bertin, executive director of the National Coalition Against Censorship.

Works depicting historical events are often the casualties. The problem, alas, is that history is inevitably laden with upsetting details. Needless to say, such details are precisely why we must face our own history and protect the art that helps us process it.

Believe it or not, there are ways to prepare impressionable students for such challenges that dont involve sanitizing art, curtaining off its more difficult aspects or otherwise signaling that it might be dangerous and worth avoiding.

Coincidentally, the Maryland Institute College of Art has a gallery show opening Friday that also features Klan-related imagery: an exhibition of work by the late chronicler of rural poverty and racism William A. Christenberry. It includes the rarely shown Klan Room Tableau, a multimedia piece featuring KKK iconography and G.I. Joe dolls in white robes.

Aware of the nature of the installation, instructors had students set it up themselves. In a workshop setting, students handled the objects and discussed their artistic and historical context.

It was, in a way, a sort of cleverly preemptive exposure therapy  to art, to history and to the frightening lessons both have to offer.
Homer Hickam is the author of Rocket Boys and Carrying Albert Home.

Weve lost the last of the Mercury Seven astronauts, the prodigious test pilots chosen to be the first Americans to fly into space. In the 1960s, nearly every American youth could list them: Shepard, Grissom, Glenn, Carpenter, Schirra, Cooper and Slayton. Only Gus Grissom would die with his spacesuit on (during the Apollo program), but all were heroically willing to go into the unknown  not for themselves, not for scientific purposes, but for us, the American people, made fearful by a strutting Soviet Union not only armed to the teeth with nuclear weapons but also clearly intent on carrying its hammer-and-sickle philosophy to the moon and beyond. It was a scary time for Americans, but the Mercury men, with their swagger and big grins, projected a confidence that we could share. We reveled in their boldness, not to mention (especially for us boys) their fondness for gorgeous women, hot cars and speed.

Ironically, John Glenn, the Mercury astronaut most Americans can still name, was the quiet one. He was strong and steady and never in any manner outlandish. He touched us in a different way. There was something about that balding, red-headed Marine with his lopsided smile that just made people love him. It seemed to those of us following the space race back then that everything Glenn did, his Midwestern, aw shucks manner of speech, his obvious love for and dedication to his wife, Annie, even his daily jogs along the Cape Canaveral beach, was pure and wholesomely American. The Kennedy administration instantly picked up on his popularity and made him and Annie regulars at the White House and Hyannis Port, where Jack and Jackie treated them like old friends.

John Glenn poses for a photo with the Mercury "Friendship 7" spacecraft. (NASA/Reuters)

Once, in 2004, while I was on a book tour in Ohio, a mutual friend in Columbus organized a dinner for me and the Glenns. I was placed across from Glenn and found him to be cordial and courtly, but somewhat shy. He warmed up a little when we shared tales of our boyhood, his in Ohio, mine next door in West Virginia. I had chanced upon and spoken to Kennedy when he was running in the 1960 West Virginia presidential primary, but when I told Glenn about the encounter, he winced. He fumbled a response, but I could tell he really didnt want to talk about President Kennedy, and so I changed the subject. Decades later, it seemed, the assassination of the young, charismatic president who was also his friend still caused him some discomfort and pain.

Glenns 1962 Mercury flight was fraught with dramatics, from his Zero G and I feel fine! exultation upon entering orbit to his reentry with what was feared was a faulty heat shield. After he safely splashed down, the nation erupted with applause and gratitude not seen since Charles Lindberghs solo flight across the Atlantic. Swept into the Kennedy lifestyle, and all but made a member of the family, he was left dangling when JFK was killed and Lyndon Johnson, no friend of Kennedy friends, took over. His astronaut career over, it was only a few months after the assassination that Glenn announced a run for the Senate, apparently honoring a promise to help keep alive the New Frontier. He failed twice but kept trying, and finally made it in 1974.

But by then, the Kennedy optimism had been swept aside by Vietnam and Watergate, and Glenn the politician was unable to awaken within himself the passion and dedication he had shown as an astronaut, or to connect anew with the American people. His reputation suffered terribly in the Keating Savings and Loan scandal, when, although cleared of lawbreaking, he was reprimanded by the Senate for poor judgment. During those decades, he seemed a stranger in a strange land, a colorless man important only as a reliable vote for the Democrats in Congress.

Mark Twain famously said that God looks after fools, drunks and the United States of America. Add to that somewhat tongue-in-cheek maxim a certain American hero named John Glenn. Trudging along for years as a dispassionate politician, he caught fire again when he got it into his head to fly aboard the Space Shuttle in 1998. By all accounts, once he secured a seat, he gloried in every second of the training and his days in space. It is my hope that during that time, the optimism of the New Frontier returned to Glenns life. For the spirit he gave a beleaguered nation so long ago, it was the least we Americans could do for him.
The most amusing part of the Trump transition has been watching its effortless confounding of the media, often in fewer than 140 characters. One morning, after a Fox News report on lefty nuttiness at some obscure New England college  a flag-burning that led a more-contemptible-than-usual campus administration to take down the schools own American flag  Donald Trump tweets that flag burners should go to jail or lose their citizenship.

An epidemic of constitutional chin tugging and civil libertarian hair pulling immediately breaks out. By the time the media have exhausted their outrage over the looming abolition of free speech, judicial supremacy and affordable kale, Trump has moved on. The tempest had a shorter half-life than the one provoked in August 2015 by a Trump foray into birthright citizenship.

Trump so thoroughly owns the political stage today that the word Clinton seems positively quaint and Barack Obama, who happens to be president of the United States, is totally irrelevant. Obama gave a major national security address on Tuesday. Lt. Gen. Michael Flynns son got more attention.

Trump has mesmerized the national media not just with his elaborate Cabinet-selection production, by now Broadway-ready. But with a cluster of equally theatrical personal interventions that by traditional standards seem distinctly unpresidential.

Its a matter of size. They seem small for a president. Preventing the shutdown of a Carrier factory in Indiana. Announcing, in a contextless 45-second surprise statement, a major Japanese investment in the U.S. Calling for cancellation of the new Air Force One to be built by Boeing.

Pretty small stuff. It has the feel of a Cabinet undersecretary haggling with a contractor or a state governor drumming up business on a Central Asian trade mission. Or of candidate Trump selling Trump Steaks and Trump wine in that bizarre victory speech after the Michigan primary.

Presidents dont normally do such things. It shrinks them. But then again, Trump is not yet president. And the point here is less the substance than the symbolism.

The Carrier coup was meant to demonstrate the kind of concern for the working man that gave Trump the Rust Belt victories that carried him to the presidency. The Japanese SoftBank announcement was a down payment on his promise to be the the greatest jobs president that God ever created. (A slightly dubious claim: After all, how instrumental was Trump to that investment? Surely a financial commitment of that magnitude would have been planned long before Election Day.) And Boeing was an ostentatious declaration that he would be the zealous guardian of government spending that you would expect from a crusading outsider.

What appears as random Trumpian impulsiveness has a logic to it. Its a continuation of the campaign. Trump is acutely sensitive to his legitimacy problem, as he showed in his tweet claiming to have actually won the popular vote, despite trailing significantly in the official count. His best counter is approval ratings. In August, the Bloomberg poll had him at 33 percent. Hes now up to 50 percent. Still nowhere near Obamas stratospheric 79 percent at this point in 2008, but a substantial improvement nonetheless.

The mini-interventions are working, but theres a risk for Trump in so personalizing his coming presidency. Its a technique borrowed from Third World strongmen who specialize in demonstrating their personal connection to the ordinary citizen. In a genuine democracy, however, the endurance of any political support depends on the larger success of the country. And that doesnt come from Carrier-size fixes. It comes from policy  policy that fundamentally changes the structures and alters the trajectory of the nation.

I alone can fix it, Trump ringingly declared in his Republican National Convention speech. Indeed, alone he can do Carrier and SoftBank and Boeing. But ultimately he must deliver on tax reform, health care, economic growth and nationwide job creation. That requires Congress.

The 115th is Republican and ready to push through the legislation that gives life to the promises. On his part, Trump needs to avoid needless conflict. The Republican leadership has already signaled strong opposition on some issues, such as tariffs for job exporters. Nonetheless, there is enough common ground between Trump and his congressional majority to have an enormously productive 2017. The challenge will be to stay within the bounds of the GOP consensus.

Trump will continue to tweet and the media will continue to take the bait. Highly entertaining, but it is a sideshow. Congress is where the fate of the Trump presidency will be decided.

Read more from Charles Krauthammers archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.
Watch the video. Walter Scott, unarmed and slow of foot, tries to run away. Police officer Michael Slager calmly fires five rounds into Scotts back. Later, Slager approaches Scotts body, not to give first aid but apparently to plant evidence of a struggle that never took place.

Now tell me: How cheap is black life in these United States of America?

A jury in North Charleston, S.C., could not agree that Slager committed a crime, forcing the judge in the case to declare a mistrial. Prosecutors quickly announced they will try Slager again. In the optimistic view, this weeks stunning result, or non-result, means justice deferred rather than justice denied. Im trying to be an optimist, but at the moment its not easy.

Tell me: What does it take to get a police officer punished for killing an unarmed black man in cold blood?

The whole thing is on video, people. A passerby named Feidin Santana used his mobile phone to capture Scotts final minutes. An immigrant from the Dominican Republic, Santana gave lengthy testimony at Slagers trial.

You ask yourself, what if there was no video? What if I wasnt there? Would we have gotten this far in this trial? Santana asked in an ABC News interview after the mistrial was announced. Thats the way justice is over here, and we have to understand it. But its a little bit disappointing.

Santanas phrase over here refers to the nation that fancies itself a beacon of freedom and equality.

The fatal encounter took place April 4, 2015, when Slager, who is white, pulled Scott over for having a busted brake light. African Americans and Hispanics are used to such petty, harassing traffic stops. White Americans, perhaps not so much.

Slager testified that he feared for his life; Scott, he claimed, had wrestled away his Taser and was trying to use it on him. But Santana, who saw the whole thing, said there was no struggle  and the video appears to show Slager placing the Taser next to Scotts body, as if it had been in the dead mans possession. If he did stage the crime scene, the officer demonstrated full awareness of his own culpability. Again, I ask, what does it take?

Even if you want to believe Slagers unsupported account of a struggle, no one can dispute the fact that Scott was running away when Slager gunned him down. A heavyset 50-year-old with no weapons, running as if through molasses, is hardly a clear and present danger to society. Having a broken light on ones car is hardly a capital offense. Yet Slager shot Scott five times. In the back.

Nearly half the population of North Charleston is black; Slagers jury included 11 whites and just one African American. Notes from the jury to the judge, who is African American, suggest there may have been one lone holdout who would not vote to convict Slager of murder or manslaughter. Thats how the system works, and the outcome of Slagers next trial may be different. But still.

One miscarriage of justice, caused by one stubborn juror, would be easier to swallow if not for all the rest. Eric Garner, approached by police in Staten Island, N.Y., for selling loose cigarettes, was choked to death  again on video  but none of the officers involved has been charged. Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old boy, was playing with a toy gun; a police officer shot him dead within seconds of arriving on the scene but faced no charges. Michael Brown was unarmed when a police officer stopped him in Ferguson, Mo.; the officer fired his weapon 12 times, killing Brown, but a grand jury failed to indict the officer.

No one should wonder why the Black Lives Matter movement is so relevant and necessary. It will remain so until black lives do, in fact, matter. And conservatives who claim to champion individual liberty against abusive state power should be the movements most avid supporters.

Slager also faces federal charges for allegedly violating Scotts civil rights. That prosecution was delayed pending the completion of the state trial; now that there is to be a second state trial, presumably the federal case will be put off once again.

So it will likely fall to Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.)  President-elect Donald Trumps pick for attorney general  to decide whether to move forward with a trial in federal court. Sessions was once denied a federal judgeship because of racist remarks he had made; friends and supporters say thats all ancient history. We shall see.

Read more from Eugene Robinsons archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook. You can also join him Tuesdays at 1 p.m. for a live Q&A.
A joke among journalists is that we are taught to count: one, two, trend. But at this point, I think its fair to say that we are witnessing a populist trend around the world. The real question is, what is fueling its extraordinary rise?

Almost a month after Donald Trumps election, Europeans went to the polls, with mixed results. Italians voted against everything  the establishment, the European Union and, by extension, their centrist, reform-minded prime minister, Matteo Renzi. Austrian voters, by contrast, rejected far-right candidate Norbert Hofer. But it was still startling that his Freedom Party  whose first leader was a former Nazi minister and SS member  received 46 percent of the national vote. Over the past few years, almost everywhere in Europe  including France, the Netherlands and Germany  right-wing populist parties have gained ground.

In most of the continent, populists still seem unlikely to take power because they cannot replicate Trumps success in getting control of a mainstream political party. European parties are internally strong and have mechanisms to block such a hostile takeover. U.S. political parties, on the other hand, since the advent of primaries, have become nothing more than vessels for popular politicians. Once it was clear that Trump would win the Republican nomination, the party structure folded and became his executive arm.

Supporters of Trump and other populist movements often point to economics as the key to their success  the slow recovery, wage stagnation, the erosion of manufacturing jobs, rising inequality. These are clearly powerful contributing factors. But it is striking that we see right-wing populism in Sweden, which is doing well economically; in Germany, where manufacturing remains robust; and in France, where workers have many protections. Here in the United States, exit polls showed that the majority of voters who were most concerned about the economy cast their ballots for Hillary Clinton.

The one common factor present everywhere, however, is immigration. In fact, one statistical analysis of European Union countries found that more immigrants invariably means more populists. According to the study, if you extrapolate from current trends, as the percentage of immigrants approaches approximately 22 percent, the percentage of right-wing populist voters exceeds 50 percent. Hostility to immigration has been a core theme of every one of these populist parties.

Many far-right parties in Europe are celebrating the presidential victory of Donald J. Trump. (Jason Aldag,Ishaan Tharoor/The Washington Post)

One way to test this theory is to note that countries without large-scale immigration, such as Japan, have not seen the same rise of right-wing populism. Another interesting case is Spain, a country that has taken in many immigrants, but mostly Spanish-speaking Latinos, who are easier to assimilate. While you see traditional left-wing economic populism in Spain, you do not see right-wing nationalist movements.

The backlash against immigration is rooted in fact. As I pointed out in a Foreign Affairs essay (written in September, before Trumps victory), we are living in an age of mass migration. In the past three or four decades, Western societies have seen large influxes of people from different lands and cultures. In 1970, foreign-born people made up less than 5 percent of the U.S. population; today they are about 14 percent. The rise is even sharper in most European countries, home to 76 million international migrants, recently coming mostly from Africa and the Middle East. Austria, for example, took in almost 100,000 immigrants last year  adding 1 percent to its population in 2015 alone.

This much change can be unsettling. For most of human history, people have lived, worked and died within a few miles of the place they were born. But in recent decades, hundreds of millions of people from poorer countries have moved to wealthier ones. This reflects an economic reality. Rich countries have declining birthrates and need labor; poor countries have millions who seek better lives. But this produces anxiety, unease and a cultural backlash that we are witnessing across the Western world.

What does this mean for the future? Western societies will have to better manage immigration. They should also place much greater emphasis on assimilation. Canada should be a role model. It has devised smart policies on both fronts, with high levels of (skilled) immigration, strong assimilation and no major recoil.

Eventually, Western societies will be able to adjust to this new feature of globalization. Look at young people in Europe and the United States, most of whom deeply value the benefits of diversity and seek to live in an open and connected world. Thats the future. We just have to ensure that we dont wreck the world before we get there.

Read more from Fareed Zakarias archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.
President-elect Donald Trump is nominating fast-food executive Andrew Puzder as secretary of labor. Here's what you need to know about him. (Sarah Parnass,Osman Malik,Danielle Kunitz,Adriana Usero/The Washington Post)

President-elect Donald Trump is nominating fast-food executive Andrew Puzder as secretary of labor. Here's what you need to know about him. (Sarah Parnass,Osman Malik,Danielle Kunitz,Adriana Usero/The Washington Post)

President-elect Donald Trumps nominee to lead the Environmental Protection Agency has gone to court to stop its enforcement efforts.

His pick for secretary of education has been accused of trying to undermine traditional public schools, while his choice for Housing and Urban Development has questioned the need for the kind of safety-net programs the department administers.

And Trumps nominee for Health and Human Services has been bent on dismantling some of the agencys signature health insurance initiatives.

Presidential transitions, particularly those from one political party to another, often usher in significant changes. But even for an incoming Republican administration, Trumps personnel choices are striking for what they suggest about how fundamentally he wants to alter the aims of many Cabinet departments  in most cases moving in a sharply conservative direction.

The fact is many of these folks are at odds with the stated mission of the agencies they have been tapped to run, said Jim Manley, a former longtime aide to Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), adding that clearly elections have consequences.

The news on Thursday that Trump had picked fast-food executive Andrew Puzder as his labor secretary only added fodder for critics of the president-elects choices. Puzder, who runs CKE Restaurants, the parent company of Hardees and Carls Jr., is opposed to significantly raising the federal minimum wage and making more workers eligible for overtime pay, objectives the Obama administration has championed.

[Trump picks critic of minimum-wage hike to head Labor Dept.]

Installing Cabinet heads with agendas at odds with their predecessors is in many ways common practice, said Bruce Buchanan, a professor of government at the University of Texas. But its stronger than usual here. Trump is not a doctrinaire conservative, but he seems desirous of putting his own stamp on government. This is an effort to rebrand and steer the agencies in a new direction.

Conservatives  some of whom spent the election season suspicious of Trumps true policy aims  have cheered most of his choices, arguing they will help rein in overreaching agencies in Washington. Liberal critics, meanwhile, are sounding alarms, sometimes in hyperbolic terms.

After Trump announced Wednesday that he would nominate Scott Pruitt, Oklahomas attorney general, as his EPA administrator, Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune said that was like putting an arsonist in charge of fighting fires.

Pruitt, who hails from an oil-and-gas state, has used his current post to sue the EPA over its Clean Power Plan, the principal Obama-era policy aimed at reducing greenhouse-gas emissions.

When Trump named Betsy DeVos, a Michigan billionaire and conservative activist, as his education secretary, the resistance from some quarters was also strong.

Citing DeVoss advocacy of voucher programs that divert money from traditional public schools, Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said Trump made it clear he wants to focus on privatizing, defunding and destroying public education in America.

[Trump hires a third general, raising concerns about heavy military influence]

On Thursday, Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro (D-Conn.) said Trumps choice of Puzder at the Labor Department threatened one of our nations most successful federal agencies that has ensured every American who works hard and plays by the rules can enjoy dignified work and economic opportunity.

Citing Puzders business practices, DeLauro said that if he is confirmed, the fox is in the henhouse.

LIberal groups and lawmakers have also been critical of Trumps choice of Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) as attorney general, questioning, among other things, whether someone they say has a record of trying to restrict voting rights should preside over the agency that seeks to protect them.

To address such criticism, Sessions boosters are preparing to argue that he has worked with Democrats during his Senate career on a range of issues, including voting rights.

Trumps reach to the right for Cabinet picks has surprised some observers, who confessed they didnt know what to expect from a former Democrat whose policy positions during the campaign were not always firmly rooted in ideology.

With him, who knew what he believed on Monday, when he was apt to say something different on Tuesday? said Stephen Hess, a senior fellow emeritus at the Brookings Institution think tank.

Ari Fleischer, the former press secretary for President George W. Bush, said he thinks the nature of this election, in which voters clearly wanted change, has given Trump more latitude to make the appointments he wants.

What Im seeing is a blunt confidence in what he wants to do, Fleischer said.

He argued that Bushs election in 2000 and President Obamas in 2008 came at a time when voters were more generally satisfied with politicians and not demanding wholesale changes. As a result, the picks for both administrations represented a less-marked departure than those of Trump, he said.

If he made status-quo-type appointments, hed be criticized by the people who elected him, Fleischer said.

Marc Rotterman, a veteran North Carolina-based GOP consultant who supported Trump, is among those who say they have been heartened by the president-elects personnel picks.

I think the Republican base and the populist movement are very pleased with his progress thus far, Rotterman said. As a conservative, I think its great that his picks show he has a very bold agenda.

[The Fix: Stop trying to make moderate Trump happen]

Among Trumps picks who will arrive with a potentially bold agenda if confirmed is Tom Price, his nominee for secretary of HHS, a massive department that is tasked with providing care for more than 100 million Americans.

The congressman from Georgia has been working to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, Obamas signature health-care law, and wants to convert the popular Medicare program for seniors to one that would offer a fixed amount of money for coverage of each beneficiary that could be used to buy private insurance.

Price would also be responsible for overseeing the Childrens Health Insurance Program, the expansion of which he opposed in 2007. He also has opposed the Obama administrations initiative to require employers and insurers to provide free coverage of birth control for women.

In other cases, its less clear what direction a Cabinet nominee might head. Ben Carson, the retired pediatric neurosurgeon whom Trump has named to take over HUD, has voiced a philosophical aversion to safety-net programs.

But Carson, who ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination, has no direct experience that indicates how he might preside over a $49 billion department that assists low-income applicants in obtaining home mortgages and operates more than 3,000 local public housing authorities.

Trump Cabinet members will be able to accomplish some aims through executive action. And with Republicans in control of both chambers of Congress, they are well positioned to push other policy changes.

Yet analysts say it remains to be seen how far-reaching changes will be, given the constraints of the legislative process and inertia of a large federal bureaucracy.

Theres an awful lot written into the law and awful lot that the bureaucracy does, Hess said.

Manley said a key indication of Trumps desire to usher in change through Cabinet agencies will be his next round of picks. While secretaries serve as the public face of the departments, much of the work is done at lower levels.

Theres a serious effort going on to staff the number two and number three positions, and thats where all the action is, Manley said.
Ivanka Trump waves from the elevator after meeting with former vice president Al Gore, a leading advocate for action on climate change. (Dominick Reuter/AFP/Getty Images)

The quest to unearth the Manhattan moderate who may lie deep within Donald Trumps psyche runs directly through his daughter Ivanka.

This, at least, is the impression that she has given over the past few weeks, brokering meetings between the president-elect and environmentalists, such as former vice president Al Gore and actor Leonardo DiCaprio, and chatting about child care with prominent feminists.

But as Ivanka Trump expands her circle of allies and sorts out what kind of influence she might have over the policies of the next administration, the question arises: Are her efforts a reflection of her passions and convictions  or of a desire to extend the brand of a fashion entrepreneur whose market is primarily young women?

The two might not be mutually exclusive. The public and private outreach Ivanka Trump has made to influential liberals  and the vigor with which they are seeking her out  underscores the extent to which the Trumps political and financial interests are interwoven, even as family members are taking steps to separate themselves from aspects of their business.

Sorting out and reorganizing the Trump family enterprise is a work in progress. The president-elect has tweeted that he will be leaving my great business in total in order to fully focus on running the country, and he has promised an announcement with his children on Thursday to explain precisely how the family plans to do that.

Republican front-runner Donald Trump has kept often his oldest daughter, Ivanka, by his side on the campaign trail. Here's what you might not already know about her. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post)

Watchdog groups and ethics experts are calling for Trump to fully divest his businesses, but the family is looking at a more complicated arrangement.

While Trumps two older sons, Don Jr. and Eric, are likely to focus on running their fathers real estate empire after he takes office, Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, intend to serve as informal but influential advisers to the next president.

The likelihood is that Ivanka Trump will drastically scale back her role in her fathers commercial enterprises, but it is far from certain that she will relinquish control over the formidable lifestyle brand she has established in her own right.

One of her advisers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe an ongoing decision-making process, said that shes figuring out what her role is and knows that she will have to separate commercial interests from her issue advocacy.

Shortly before Thanksgiving, Ivanka Trump quietly separated her personal social-media accounts  a vehicle through which she plans to carry out her advocacy  from that of her business. In a letter from the editorial team on IvankaTrump.com, the company explained that, going forward, @IvankaTrump would feature her personal advocacy while @IvankaTrumpHQ on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter would include brand initiatives such as #womenwhowork and fashion stories.

This is an unprecedented time for our company and we are being intentional in how we move forward, working hard to ensure were creating the best possible community for our readers, the letter read. Weve been listening to the feedback weve received, both positive and not, and weve been taking it into consideration as we plan for the future.

Alienating young women could pose a financial risk to Ivanka Trumps business ventures. Opponents of the president-elect have targeted the brand with a boycott, and shortly after her prime-time speech at the Republican National Convention this summer  where she sported a dress from her fashion line that sold out at Macys shortly thereafter  Cosmopolitan found that millennial women held an unfavorable view of her. The Cosmopolitan-Morning Consult poll of 3,000 registered voters found that 28 percent of women ages 18 to 34 had a positive view of her, while 42 percent had a negative opinion.

Ivanka Trump is vouching for Dad with women and minorities  two groups Donald Trump has struggled to win over. (The Washington Post)

[How the campaign hurt sales of Ivana Trumps clothing line]

A more recent survey suggests that the ugly presidential campaign has not put a pall on her business. In late October, Forbes reported, the research firm Brand Keys asked 950 upscale women ages 18 to 35, In light of Ivanka Trumps involvement with the Trump campaign for president, how likely would you be to consider buying her line of shoes and clothing?

Slightly more than half responded extremely likely or very likely. Only 17 percent said they were not very or not at all likely to. The remainder  32 percent  put themselves in the somewhat likely category.

Uncharted territory

Since the election, Ivanka Trump has already raised conflict-of-interest questions. Her presence at a meeting her father had with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and her firms decision to tout the $10,800 diamond bracelet she wore during the familys post-election 60 Minutes interview, prompted a swift backlash.

Ivanka Trump is entering uncharted territory: Although several presidents daughters, and daughters-in-law, have served as White House hostesses, presidential historian William Seale said that none served as an influential public policy adviser.

A more modern woman, coming in with her own career, is a little different, said Seale, author of The Presidents House and an editor at the White House Historical Association. If theres someone there whos smart and can do it, why not?

If Hillary Clinton had won, many in Washington probably would be asking the same question, given daughter Chelsea Clintons prominent role at her familys foundation.

Several people who know Ivanka Trump and her husband say the two could prove invaluable as the new president seeks to build trust with groups that opposed his candidacy. The two have moved easily within Manhattans overwhelmingly liberal upper crust and have earned reputations as hard-working and willing to listen to others.

They are two of the most valuable people to the president-elect, in terms of making a bridge to different constituencies, said Kevin Sheekey, who managed all three of former New York mayor Michael R. Bloombergs campaigns and served as deputy mayor for government affairs. And a determination of whether the administration is successful is going to lie in their ability to build relationships in unexpected places.

Ivanka Trump plans to focus primarily on issues related to women and families, which she highlighted during her fathers campaign. Since the election, she has spoken on the topic with Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer at Facebook, and Anne-Marie Slaughter, president of the New America Foundation, but she has not connected with major policy groups, such as the Washington-based National Partnership for Women and Families.

Access vs. influence

[Trumps mothers-only parental leave plan, shaped by his daughter]

A newer interest is climate change, which led to meetings between the president-elect and Gore and then DiCaprio in the past week.

Up until this point, Ivanka Trump has been relatively quiet on environmental issues. Donald Trump and his three older children signed a December 2009 open letter in the New York Times to President Obama that urged him to forge a global climate agreement. The letter was organized by ABC Home chief executive Paulette Cole, whose home furnishing store was patronized by both Trump and his business.

Cole said in an email that while she is not familiar with how the Trumps got on the letter, Trump was a friend of her late father, ABC Carpet chairman Jerome Weinrib, as well as a store customer.

In 2012, Ivanka Trump and Kushner attended the White House correspondents dinner as Bloombergs guests and sat at the same table as Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club, which has received tens of millions of dollars from Bloomberg to shut down coal plants across the country. The group discussed climate change, Sheekey recalled, and Brune came away impressed.

But in an interview, Brune said his favorable impression of Ivanka Trump and Kushner has to be weighed against the president-elects policy positions and key appointments, including his nomination of Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency. Brune compared Pruitts appointment to putting an arsonist in charge of fighting fires.

Any advocate worth their salt will know the difference between access and influence, and its vital that we not be fooled by what this administration is doing, he said. Its great that Ivanka and Jared may, occasionally, feel that climate change is an issue. Until theyre setting policy, its a sideshow, its a distraction  at best.

With few available options, prominent progressives see Trumps daughter and son-in-law as potential allies within Trumps circle. A major supporter of Planned Parenthood, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal strategy, said some of the groups New York donors were reaching out to the couple.

But the supporter added, We have to go on the assumption theres no relief in sight, given not just the president-elects stated opposition to abortion rights but also that Vice President-elect Mike Pence and GOP congressional leaders have made targeting Planned Parenthood a top priority.

Kirk Fordham, a strategist for progressive groups who has worked for Republicans, estimated than fewer than 10 percent of these organizations developed a Trump contingency plan before the election. Now, he said, they need to mobilize their Republican members. Youve got to be power-mapping his New York relatives and his friends, because nearly all of them are liberal.
At a bipartisan convention on Oct. 12, 2015, Donald Trump fielded a question from impassioned college student Lauren Batchelder about women's rights and equal pay. (No Labels Problem Solver Convention)

At a bipartisan convention on Oct. 12, 2015, Donald Trump fielded a question from impassioned college student Lauren Batchelder about women's rights and equal pay. (No Labels Problem Solver Convention)

About a year ago, 18-year-old college student Lauren Batchelder stood up at a political forum in New Hampshire and told Donald Trump that she didnt think he was a friend to women.

The next morning, Trump fired back on Twitter  calling Batchelder an arrogant young woman and accusing her of being a plant from a rival campaign. Her phone began ringing with callers leaving threatening messages that were often sexual in nature. Her Facebook and email inboxes filled with similar messages. As her addresses circulated on social media and her photo flashed on the news, she fled home to hide.

I didnt really know what anyone was going to do, said Batchelder, now 19, who has never discussed her experience with a reporter until now. He was only going to tweet about it and that was it, but I didnt really know what his supporters were going to do, and that to me was the scariest part.

This is what happens when Trump targets a private citizen who publicly challenges him.

When Trump tweeted about Batchelder in October 2015, he had fewer than 5 million followers; he now has more than 17 million and has bragged that having a Twitter account is like owning the New York Times without the losses. Twitter has become Trumps cyber-magic wand, allowing him to quickly act on a fleeting idea, a fit of anger or something he sees on television. Now that he is the president-elect, the power of Trumps tweets has only increased.

Left, Donald Trump addresses the No Labels Problem Solver Convention in Manchester, N.H., in 2015. Right, Lauren Batchelder listens as Trump answers her question. (Reuters, AP/Reuters, AP)

With one tweet, Trump can change headlines on cable news, move financial markets or cause world leaders to worry. With one tweet last week, Trump inflamed a conflict with China. With another tweet on Tuesday, Trump caused Boeing stock to plummet. With a third on Wednesday night, Trump prompted a series of threatening calls to the home of a union leader who had called him a liar.

[Im the union leader Donald Trump attacked. Im tired of being to lied to about our jobs.]

Although Trump said months ago that he was likely to give up Twitter if elected, he has shown little sign of doing so. He will soon inherit the @POTUS account, which has 12.5 million followers.

I think I am very restrained, and I talk about important things, Trump said during an interview with the Today show this week. Frankly, its a modern-day form of communication. . . . I get it out much faster than a press release. I get it out much more honestly than dealing with . . . dishonest reporters. So many reporters are dishonest.

For Batchelder, who studies history and gender studies at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, N.H, the abuse continues more than a year later. Five days before the election, she received a Facebook message that read: Wishing I could f---ing punch you in the face. id then proceed to stomp your head on the curb and urinate in your bloodied mouth and i know where you live, so watch your f---ing back punk.

During her first semester at Saint Anselm in fall 2015, Batchelder decided to volunteer for former Florida governor Jeb Bushs campaign, even though her views were much more liberal than his. To her, it was just an enjoyable opportunity to learn more about the Republican Party. She listed the volunteer position on her online resume but later realized that she truly is a Democrat.

On Oct. 12, 2015, Batchelder attended a bipartisan forum in Manchester and said to Trump: So, maybe Im wrong, maybe you can prove me wrong, but I dont think youre a friend to women.

1 of 62 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  Trump continues his post-election thank-you tour View Photos The president-elect saluted workers at a plant where he says he saved more than 1,000 jobs, then went to Ohio. Caption The president-elect has visited Alabama, Florida, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa, North Carolina, Ohio and Indiana, where he toured the Carrier factory. Dec. 17, 2016 President-elect Donald Trump waves as he is greeted by Azalea Trail Maids on his way to a thank you tour event in Mobile, Ala. Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue.

Trump defended himself, saying he gave women positions of power at his construction sites, has influential women in his life and will fund womens health initiatives.

I love women, I respect women, I cherish women, Trump said at one point.

Batchelder asked for the microphone again.

I want to get paid the same as a man, and I think you understand that, so if you become president, will a woman make the same as a man, and do I get to choose what I do with my body? she said, then threw her arms up in a questioning gesture.

Trump answered curtly: Youre going to make the same if you do as good of a job, and I happen to be pro-life, okay?

[The art of punching down: How Trump fights back]

CNN and other media outlets covered the striking exchange, which generated conversation online. But Batchelder went to bed that night thinking her moment in the spotlight was over.

After midnight, Trumps director of social media tweeted out screengrabs of Batchelders social-media accounts. Trumps supporters launched investigations of their own. At 7:39 a.m., Trump tweeted: The arrogant young woman who questioned me in such a nasty fashion at No Labels yesterday was a Jeb staffer! HOW CAN HE BEAT RUSSIA & CHINA?

Later that morning, Trump tweeted again: How can Jeb Bush expect to deal with China, Russia + Iran if he gets caught doing a plant during my speech yesterday in NH?

Tim Miller, Bushs former spokesman, said the campaign had nothing to do with Batchelders asking the question. While the staff was accustomed to Trumps attacking Bush, they were stunned that he went after a college student.

If I was going to plant a question, I would have planted a better question, Miller said Thursday.

Batchelder agreed: Why would they ever send me out to do a pro-choice question? Guys, [Bush] is pro-life, which was one of my biggest problems with the Republican Party. And so I was like: Why would they ever send me to do that?

Logic doesnt matter to online trolls, who rated Batchelders physical appearance, threatened to rape or otherwise hurt her and called her vulgar names. A photoshopped picture popped up online depicting her face covered in semen.

I love social media, but I also saw the terrible side of social media, she said. I definitely tried to focus on something else because when youre seeing your life being played out in front of you and people are judging it and people are making assumptions about you, you kind of just want to stay away.

[In one tweet, Trump trashes two constitutional amendments]

Batchelder turned down interview requests, ignored the nasty messages and threw herself into playing rugby. She became even more interested in womens issues and wants to be a human rights lawyer. She voted for Hillary Clinton for president.

Trumps Twitter account says it was created in March 2009, but Trump really started to use the account as a key communication tool in 2012 when he seriously considered running for president, said longtime friend Roger Stone.

He loves it, Stone said Thursday. This is what got him elected  being outspoken.

Trump dictates many of his tweets to one of the young ladies who work in his office.

So theyll type it out for me, real fast, bring it in  Ill be in a meeting. Blah, blah, blah, boom! Put an exclamation point here, and theyll send it out, Trump said in a May interview on Fox News.

But on weekends, evenings and during early-morning hours  such as when the first tweet about Batchelder was posted  Trump says he writes and sends his own tweets. The messages will often come seconds or minutes after the topic is covered on a major news network. Melania Trump said during an April town hall with CNNs Anderson Cooper that she has repeatedly told her husband to get off Twitter, especially after midnight.

Anderson, if he would only listen, she said. I did many times. And I just say: Okay, do whatever you want. Hes an adult. He knows the consequences.

Batchelder hopes that Trump stops targeting people on Twitter, especially people such as she who are not public figures, and uses Twitter as President Obama has. She realizes that speaking out is likely to spark another wave of abuse, but she thinks its important for people to realize the harm that a single tweet can cause.

Twitter is such a powerful platform. He can make a difference. He can change the world, she said. And, using Twitter, I think he should use it for good. I think he should use it to uplift others.

Read more:

The trick to persuading Trump? Flattery, proximity and snappy pitches

Many Trump supporters willing to let him pick and choose what promises to fulfill

Do Trumps Cabinet picks want to run the government  or dismantle it?
The experience, Adolf Burger would later recall, was like being corpses on holiday. Imprisoned in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp north of Berlin, he was detailed to Operation Bernhard, a massive Nazi plot that relied on concentration camp inmates to forge British currency.

The fake bank notes  a total of more than 130 million pounds  were to be dropped by Luftwaffe airplanes over England in an attempt to upset the British economy. Although ultimately aborted, the top-secret plan, unknown at the time even to the camp commandant, is believed to have been one of the largest attempts ever at financial sabotage. It was a forgery factory, said Margaret Shannon, a Washington-based research historian who collaborated on a book about the episode.

Because the scheme depended on the labor and skill of inmates  craftsmen, bankers, at least one professional counterfeiter and book printers such as Mr. Burger  the prisoners received some special privileges, such as the provision of blankets, civilian clothing, cigarettes and extra food. But they knew that at any time they might be killed, and it was only amid the chaos as the Allies advanced in 1945 that they escaped execution.

In a way, it was worse than Auschwitz because we knew for certain they were going to kill us because of what we had done, Mr. Burger later told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

Mr. Burger, whose account of Operation Bernhard was later dramatized in the Oscar-winning Austrian film The Counterfeiters, died Dec. 6 in Prague. He was 99. The Associated Press reported his death, citing an announcement on the public broadcaster Czech Radio. The cause was not immediately available.

Mr. Burger was born on Aug. 12, 1917, to a Jewish family in Velka Lomnica, a village in what was then Austria-Hungary and is now northern Slovakia. Trained as a typographer, he did his earliest counterfeiting as a member of the Communist underground, producing false baptism papers in an effort to help Jews survive persecution.

Slovakia, according to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, was the first Axis partner to permit the deportation of its Jews for the Final Solution. Mr. Burger was arrested in 1942, the day before his 25th birthday, and deported with his wife, Gisela, to Auschwitz, where she perished.

I had two choices: either to go and touch the barbed wire with 1,000 voltage in it and be dead in a second, or stay alive, Mr. Burger later said in a radio interview cited by the AP. I chose life, so I can tell everyone what they have done here.

He withered to 80 pounds and was infected with typhus in a Nazi medical experiment, the Wall Street Journal reported in a 2007 profile. He said that a guard took a rifle to his face and knocked out his teeth simply because his given name was, like Hitlers, Adolf.

But in 1944, Mr. Burger was informed that he had been chosen for a special assignment. Ordered by SS chief Heinrich Himmler and named for its SS overseer, Bernhard Krueger, the project involved roughly 140 inmates selected mainly from Auschwitz on the basis of their prewar professional expertise.

They were gathered at Sachsenhausen and housed in two barracks with windows painted over so that their activities could not be observed. Inside, the men churned out millions of bank notes, adhering to the highest standards of quality, as required by the Nazis, but sometimes engaging in delaying tactics to sabotage the effort.

Britannia was hard to capture, Mr. Burger told the Journal, referring to the depiction in the top-left corner of the bank note of the toga-clad, spear-wielding symbol of Great Britain.

The inmates also forged stamps, passports and U.S. dollars, but the British bank notes accounted for the bulk of their work  a stockpile worth the modern-day equivalent of $7 billion to $10 billion, depending on the exchange rate, according to Shannon, who assisted author Lawrence Malkin on the volume Kruegers Men: The Secret Nazi Counterfeit Plot and the Prisoners of Block 19.

As the Allies closed in, the counterfeit operation was moved to camps in Austria, first Mauthausen and then Ebensee, where cases of the money were thrown into the waters of the Alpine Lake Toplitz.

Germany never managed to deliver the counterfeit money to England because of losses sustained by the Luftwaffe, Shannon said. Some of the bank notes were used to pay German spies and informants; others made their way to fleeing Nazi officials and, after the war, to refugee workers spiriting Jews into Palestine. The counterfeit cash was of such high quality that the Bank of England removed from circulation all notes worth more than 5 pounds for two decades.

Mr. Burger settled after the war in Prague, where he reportedly ran a taxi company. He wrote several memoirs, including one translated in English as The Devils Workshop: A Memoir of the Nazi Counterfeiting Operation.

That volume inspired The Counterfeiters (2007), directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky and the recipient of the Academy Award for best foreign-language film. The movie, which took liberties with the historical events, explored the morality of inmates working on behalf of the Nazi war effort.

Responding to the film, Malkin once said that camp inmates had no choice and that it was wrong to suggest that they did. He also urged caution in the reading of Mr. Burgers memoir, which Malkin said was drawn in part from unreliable, postwar East German sources, and which Malkin regards as incomplete because Mr. Burger was brought into Operation Bernhard two years after it began.

Mr. Burgers second wife died in the early 2000s. He had three daughters. A complete list of survivors could not be confirmed.

Mr. Burger spoke frequently with students about the Holocaust and was interviewed along with other survivors in the book Taking the Stand: We Have More to Say, by Bernhard Rammerstorfer.

Mr. Burger expressed conflicting emotions about his experiences in the counterfeit operation. In 2007, he told Haaretz, the important thing was to survive. We didnt care about the others in the camp. I did not sell my soul and was not a hero. I worked in order to survive.

But two years later, speaking with the Telegraph, a British newspaper, he said that of course it was terrible and I think we all felt guilty about it.

All I can say is that we never forgot what was happening outside our huts, he said, and we knew that one day we were going to be like everybody else.
A Dutch court found anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders guilty of insulting an ethnic group and inciting discrimination. His party is leading in polls ahead of the countrys general election in March. (Karla Adam,Jason Aldag/The Washington Post)

A Dutch court found anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders guilty of insulting an ethnic group and inciting discrimination. His party is leading in polls ahead of the countrys general election in March. (Karla Adam,Jason Aldag/The Washington Post)

A Dutch court found anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders guilty Friday of insulting an ethnic group and inciting discrimination after he led chants against Moroccans, a conviction he promptly denounced as madness.

Wilders, the controversial leader of the Netherlands far-right Freedom Party (PVV), said he plans to appeal the verdict delivered by a panel of three hating judges. His party is leading in polls ahead of the countrys upcoming general election in March.

Three PVV hating judges declare that Moroccans are a race and convict me and half of the Netherlands. Madness, he wrote in a Twitter message after the verdict.

[In Germany, the language of Nazism is no longer buried in the past]

In March 2014, Wilders sparked outrage at a rally in The Hague after asking supporters whether they wanted more or fewer Moroccan immigrants in the Netherlands.

The crowd chanted: Fewer! Fewer! Wilders responded, Were going to organize that. More than 6,400 people filed official complaints to the police, a sampling of which were read out in court.

The court imposed no punishment on Wilders, saying the conviction was punishment enough. The prosecution wanted to impose a fine of 5,000 euros ($5,288).

The inflammatory way statements were made at the rally encouraged others to discriminate against Moroccans, the court said, but it found there was insufficient evidence to convict Wilders of a separate charge of inciting hatred.

Wilders, 53, is one of a number of populist politicians across Europe who are riding a tide of anti-establishment anger, fueled in part by concerns over immigration and sluggish economies. The flamboyant Dutch politician has been compared to Donald Trump and sometimes uses the hashtag #MakeTheNetherlandsGreatAgain. On election night in the United States, he wrote on Twitter, The people are taking their country back, so will we.

If he becomes the next Dutch prime minister, Wilders has vowed to ban the Koran, close mosques and Islamic schools and stop immigration from Muslim countries. He has also said he would support a Nexit referendum, with the hopes that the Netherlands would follow Britains example and vote to leave the European Union.

[Meet Europes far-right leaders]

Wilders boycotted much of the trial, but during a court appearance Nov. 23, he said that he had a right to free speech and accused rival politicians of conducting a witch hunt.

Wilders has also said the conviction would do little to silence him.

Millions of Dutch are sick and tired of political correctness, he said with his usual rhetorical flair in a video posted Friday on YouTube. You can count on one thing  I will never be silent.

Read more

The other side of the global right-wing surge: Nostalgia for empire

Trumps victory places U.S. at the front of a global right-wing surge

Dutch slowly recognizing blackface tradition of Zwarte Piet is racist and weird

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news


A PEGIDA supporter holds a sign reading Hello lying press, Goebbels would be proud of you and your anti-Russian warmongering during a demonstration Sept. 25 in Dresden, Germany. (Arno Burgi/Picture-Alliance/DPA via AP)

In a recent tweet, a German lawmaker used a highly specific term to describe her anti-migrant angst. Suggesting that her countrys national identity was under threat, she cried Umvolkung  a word roughly translated as ethnic conversion.

It is also a word that was last in vogue when Adolf Hitler ruled the land, and its appropriation by a politician from Chancellor Angela Merkels ruling party sparked a raucous uproar. Yet the tweet highlighted the terms resurgence in Germany  where a half-dozen words long associated with the Nazis are making a comeback.

Hitler and his propagandists wielded a toxic lexicon in the early 20th century, deploying vocabulary meant to exalt ethnic purity and own Germanys only real truth. And the reemergence in social media, literature and political protests of words that were weaponized by the Nazis is generating a fierce debate here over the power of language in politics, especially as nationalists surge on both sides of the Atlantic.

While were at it, why dont we just give a positive meaning to the word concentration camp?  quipped television satirist Hans-Joachim Heist after a different German politician recently defended another word  volkisch  used by the Nazis to conjure images of a racially pure state.

Forces on the political right are hailing the exhumation of such words as a triumph over political correctness and war guilt  as well as a nod to free speech in Europe, which came under the spotlight after the guilty verdict Friday against Dutch nationalist Geert Wilders for inciting hate against Moroccans. Calling it time to reclaim German words tainted by the Nazis, proponents see a new tell-it-like-it-is discourse taking shape over an influx of nearly 1 million mostly Muslim migrants from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and beyond.

In a post-factual world, some reclaimed words are meant to stake ownership over truth. At least one  Lugenpresse or lying press, a slur aimed at the mainstream media  popped up among Donald Trump supporters on the U.S. campaign trail. In Germany, its become a fixture at anti-migrant protests and a word lobbed like a bomb on Twitter and Facebook against the media.

Critics, however, see heightened usage of ethnically charged terms as an attempt to detoxify them  as well as the racist notions they once represented.

As linguistic political tools, experts rank them alongside alt-right  coined in the United States to recast the white supremacy movement. Rather than mint new words, however, the Germans need only look to history for a nationalist thesaurus. Critics say those embracing such vocabulary are playing a coy game, winking at German nationalism without openly saluting Hitler.

If someone said Sieg Heil today, it would be clear this is about National Socialism, said Georg Schuppener, a noted German linguist and language historian. But the words popping up now at first dont sound like National Socialism, but nevertheless suggest it.

All the words in question predate the Nazis but became tainted in the public mind after their deployment in Nazi propaganda. After World War II, some terms lingered in beer-hall talk and neo-Nazi circles. During the Cold War, a few found a perch in communist East Germany.

But German linguists point to a resuscitation of nationalist terms in 2014, when the anti-migrant group Pegida began staging massive demonstrations nationwide. Two years later, the rapid rise of the populist, anti-migrant Alternative for Germany (AfD)  coupled with massive public skepticism of Merkels refugee policy  has these terms rolling off the tongues of politicians and flying around social media in a manner that has shocked many Germans.

In a September interview with Die Welt, the AfDs chief, Frauke Petry, declared it an undue simplification to call the German word volkisch fundamentally racist. Though used by Hitler and his lieutenants to describe a racially pure population, she argued that modern Germans should give the term a positive connotation again.

Last month, AfD lawmaker Stefan Rapple described peers from German parties as Volksverrater  or traitor of the people. Used in the Nazi era as an official charge against enemies, the term has additionally burst forth from the mouths of protesters at anti-migrant political rallies and protests. In August, for instance, right-wing demonstrators taunted Merkels deputy chancellor by calling him Volksverrater.

In a 1933 speech, Hitlers propaganda minister Joesph Goebbels used the word Uberfremdung to denounce what the Nazis saw as the infection of German intellectual life by Jews. Following losses in local elections this year, conservative dissenters in Merkels Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), used it to define citizens fears toward the migrant wave.

The concern about a loss of identity and Uberfremdung of the country has seized many citizens, they wrote in a manifesto.

Previously known for his best-selling novels about cats solving crimes, the writer Akif Pirincci published a tome this year titled Umvolkung  How the Germans are quietly being replaced. Though Turkish-born, Pirincci has now aligned himself squarely with German nationalists. His book assailed Merkels open-door policy toward asylum seekers from the Middle East and beyond, warning that Germans were becoming strangers in our own country.

Ronald Glaser, a Berlin-based politician for the AfD, called it unfair to draw any parallels between those redeploying such words now and their use in Nazi propaganda.

None of us deliberately use National Socialist vocabulary, he said. Attempting to explain the increasing popularity of such words, he added that many Germans simply fear that by 2040, Germany will be like a Third World country which doesnt consist mostly of white people.

Yet in a nation highly sensitive to any echoes of the Nazis  and where the nationalists have had a harder time gaining a foothold than in many other European nations  the use of such terms still risks a powerful backlash. In September, for instance, when Bettina Kudla, a lawmaker for Merkels CDU, used Umvolkung in her anti-migrant tweet, the retribution was swift.

Michael Grosse-Bromer, chief whip of the CDU and its sister party, the CSU, decried her tweet as unspeakable. The CDUs secretary general, Peter Tauber, denounced it as completely unacceptable in tone and content. By October, Kudlas office in her home constituency had been vandalized. Ultimately, the CDU did not nominate her for reelection next year.

But her linguistic bomb won high accolades, too.

Making a Nazi comparison because of the word Umvolkung is remarkably stupid, one supporter  Peter Martin  wrote on her Facebook page. In the 21st century, no one gives a damn about the Nazi era. . . . The future belongs to patriots.

Read more:

The ugly history of Lugenpresse, a Nazi slur shouted at a Trump rally

This reminds us of the times of Hitler: In the heart of Europe, anti-Islam politics are on the rise

Merkels refugee policy blamed for loss on her home turf

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news
Pavel Koshkin, editor in chief of Russia Direct, works at his desk at the headquarters of the Russian governments official newspaper. Though his small, analytical journal is financed by the state, Koshkin says it is not a government mouthpiece. (David Filipov/The Washington Post)

Pavel Koshkin wants you to know that he does not produce Kremlin propaganda.

Yes, Koshkin is the editor in chief of a small analytical journal that is financed by the Russian government.

Yes, he works out of a newsroom in the sprawling headquarters of the governments official newspaper.

And yes, some of the pieces he publishes support positions held by Russias leaders.

How can Koshkins publication, Russia Direct, be anything but a Kremlin propaganda outfit?

Its an oversimplification for me, Koshkin, 29, retorted in a recent interview in clipped, fluent English learned in Moscow and honed during a year studying in Tennessee. The affiliation doesnt necessarily mean the lack of integrity, the lack of quality and the presence of propaganda.

What Koshkin does admit is that running his publication is somewhat of a balancing act. Its something he embraces as part of what journalists are supposed to do.

And he does it in a country with a media environment that Freedom House ranks as not free and Reporters Without Borders describes as a stifling atmosphere for independent journalists.

A recent survey of Russian journalists published on the website OpenDemocracy found that 72 percent of respondents had encountered instances of censorship in their work. In July, journalists of the news outlet RBC were told by new management that they needed to observe in their coverage an unseen solid double line they should never cross.

So does Koshkin ever get a tap on the shoulder?

Sometimes when weve tried to raise very sensitive topics, I wasnt told you cannot do that; I was told you should be careful and you should maintain balance, Koshkin said. If you came up with something controversial, try to find the counterbalance, try to challenge this view youd like to promote.

But he says he has never been told not to publish something.

Launched in 2013, Russia Direct targets an audience outside Russia that is interested in issues pertaining to the country and its relationship with the world. Koshkin said its purpose is to present contrasting opinions in analyses and Q&A-style interviews that let our readers come up with their own conclusions.

The online site produces articles written by Russian and foreign analysts touching on such topics as: both sides of the issue of how and whether the United States should arm Ukraine; reactions to the Dutch-led report on the downing of a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet over Ukraine; and the pros and cons of a law signed by President Vladimir Putin aimed at protecting Russia from undesirables. Russia Direct also produces monthly in-depth reports. Koshkin said it has more than 9,000 subscriptions, and its reports appear as a supplement to Foreign Policy magazine.

Koshkin does take one or two very pro-Kremlin positions, such as seeing what Russia did in 2014 to acquire Crimea as incorporation, as though the Black Sea peninsula were just lying around, looking for a country to belong to. Most of the world describes what happened as annexation from Ukraine. But when Russia Direct runs a piece on Crimea, it will also run something that criticizes the Kremlins position, to create the platform for a dialogue, as Koshkin puts it. (And in that critical piece, he will leave the word annexation in.)



Russian media critics, it must be said, heap huge portions of doubt over whether anyone funded by the state can publish freely.

You cannot work for a state-owned publication and have an independent line, said Tatyana Malkina, a veteran Russian journalist.

That said, the publication has nothing like the Moscow-centric slant of the outlets usually associated with Kremlin propaganda, such as the Duran, Sputnik or RT. And every Russia Direct story comes with a box directing the reader to another story that presents an alternative  if not always opposing  point of view.

So imagine Koshkins surprise when he found his publication lumped into a blacklist with those other organizations by a website called PropOrNot. The site describes itself as an anonymous group that has compiled some 200 outlets that echo, repeat, and refer their audience to Russian propaganda. The broad list includes English-language websites such as the liberal-leaning Truthdig, as well as the right-wing Drudge Report.

A number of sites on the list, including Truthdig  as well as other news sites  have vehemently challenged the reports methodology and conclusions.

The website appeared during the U.S. presidential race, when Democrats, and later the Obama administration, accused the Kremlin of hacking the Democratic National Committee and interfering with the campaign. A report provided by PropOrNot served as part of the basis for a Washington Post report last month that described a Russian propaganda campaign that created and spread misleading articles online with the goal of punishing Democrat Hillary Clinton, helping Republican Donald Trump and undermining faith in American democracy.

The Post subsequently ran an editors note saying it did not itself vouch for the validity of PropOrNots findings regarding any individual media outlet, nor did the article purport to do so.

Koshkin said PropOrNot did not contact him before including Russia Direct in its blacklist. So instead, he contacted the anonymous group and wrote an earnest analysis about it.

I asked for a specific example where we spread false news without providing necessary background, without providing opposite opinion, Koshkin said.

PropOrNot responded by removing Russia Direct from the list, as it has with some other sites that similarly protested being included. The organization did not answer email messages from The Washington Post.

It was a victory, but not one that calls for celebration.

The fact that we have a blacklist now is a sign that we are, unfortunately, in an information war, Koshkin said. It is not a good sign for me; I have to stay above this.

This article has been updated to make it clear that several web sites named by PropOrNot challenged their inclusion and have been removed from the PropOrNot list. Also added is the reference to the editors note stating that The Post did not and does not vouch for the validity of PropOrNots findings.

Read more

U.S. officials accuse Russia of hacking campaign to influence elections

Yes We Did: Russias establishment basks in Trumps victory

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

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Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said he wouldn't run again for the job after his current term ends next year, citing family reasons. (Kin Cheung/AP)

In a surprise move, Beijing-backed Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying announced Friday that he would not seek a second term next year, citing family reasons.

Leung was narrowly elected in 2012 by an exclusive 1,200-member committee stacked with tycoons and pro-Beijing figures, but he is not a popular figure among Hong Kongs broader population.

His successor will almost certainly be pro-Beijing as well but will be confronted with an increasingly restive territory chafing under Chinas rule.

In his 4 1/2 years in office, Leung has presided over growing dissatisfaction with Beijings control over the former British colony, notably during the 2014 Occupy protests, known as the Umbrella Revolution, when tens of thousands of people took to the streets to campaign for democracy. Leung staunchly backed Beijing during the protests.

If I run, my family will suffer intolerable stress due to my electioneering, Leung told reporters outside his government office Friday, according to Bloomberg News. I must protect them.

His successor will be elected by a similar committee in March.

The Chinese government called his decision to leave office a great pity.

The central government fully affirmed and highly praised his work, an unnamed representative of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua News Agency. It hopes he can carry out the rest of his term well and continue to influence Hong Kong and national development in the future.

Political observers said that Leung has faithfully carried out Beijings orders in Hong Kong but that he has failed to represent the interests of the Hong Kong people fully or act as a bridge between Beijing and the territory.

He was the perfect hatchet man for Beijing and a very divisive figure, said Willy Wo-Lap Lam, a political expert and adjunct professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Instead of bridging the gap, he has exacerbated differences.

Polling by the University of Hong Kongs public opinion program showed that Leungs popularity is low and falling. A six-month average of polls showed that 20.7 percent of people would vote for him in a popular election, while 63.5 percent said they would not. His net score of minus-42.8 is the worst since he took on the role, and it is much worse than his predecessors score by the same point in office.

Under the One Country, Two Systems model agreed to at the time of the handover from British rule in 1997, Beijing promised to grant Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy. Leungs critics say he failed to defend that autonomy when, for example, five local men who sold books critical of the Communist Party disappeared last year. It later emerged that the men were in the custody of mainland authorities.

This year, a new controversy erupted when several candidates supporting the independence of Hong Kong were disqualified from elections to the territorys legislative council.

When two were allowed to run and then won seats, they were subsequently thrown out on Beijings orders after failing to take their oath of office properly. Last week, Leung and the justice secretary filed a legal challenge against four more pro-democracy lawmakers in an attempt to disqualify them from office because they modified their oaths.

On the barricades of the pro-democracy protests, he was sometimes portrayed as a wolf  the name Leung is similar to the Chinese word for that animal, and the nickname also refers to his reputation for ruthlessness. Others called him Dracula, in reference to his prominent eyeteeth, or Comrade Leung, for his loyalty to the Communist Party.

The son of a police sergeant, Leung studied surveying and property management in Hong Kong and at the former Bristol Polytechnic in Britain. Stressing his humble roots, he said he worked at a Chinese takeout place three nights a week while studying at the British school, serving fish and chips and chop suey to make ends meet.

On his return to Hong Kong, Leung made his fortune in the territorys booming property market before joining the political establishment. He played a leading role in drafting the Basic Law, which has served as Hong Kongs mini-constitution after the handover from British rule.

His selling points were his professionalism and competence, and during his 2012 campaign, he professed a desire to tackle poverty and stand up for the common man.

But his time in office has been overshadowed by political controversy, and he lacked the charisma and popular touch to connect with large portions of the population.

Most members of the selection committee are expected vote for the person Beijing chooses. The favorite is Regina Ip, a lawmaker and former senior official who is expected to declare her candidacy soon. Political expert Lam described her as a hard-liner trusted by Beijing.

But whoever wins could have a tough task ahead, as Leung and both of the other chief executives since the handover have found.

Although Leungs divisive personality and paternalistic style were particularly irritating to democrats, the main problem is that Beijing has made it constitutionally more and more difficult for the chief executive to speak up for Hong Kong, said Sebastian Veg, a professor at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences in Paris and an honorary assistant professor at the University of Hong Kong. So the real question is whether anyone has the ability to reintroduce some breathing space between the chief executive and the central government and speak up for Hong Kong.

Read more:

Hong Kong chief executive stands firm despite growing unpopularity

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Hundreds of men have disappeared after fleeing rebel-held districts in the Syrian city of Aleppo, the United Nations said Friday, amid allegations that armed groups on both sides have abducted and even killed civilians who tried to leave.

Tens of thousands of people have flooded out of eastern Aleppo since forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad began a final push to retake the city.

Rebel fighters appeared to have reinforced the front line of their shrunken enclave Friday, putting up their strongest fight in weeks. But an official with the armed opposition, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said their numbers were badly depleted.

In Paris, Secretary of State John F. Kerry said U.S. and Russian teams would meet Saturday in Geneva in an effort to save the city of Aleppo and discuss a plan to safely evacuate civilians and rebel fighters.

We are close; were not there yet, Kerry said of urgent talks this week with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Tomorrow, I will have the team from America, at President Obamas direction, to be in Geneva with the Russians and we will, I hope, come to some kind of arrangement where we can see how civilians may be protected and what can happen with the armed opposition.

The Geneva meeting, with diplomatic and military officials from both sides, will restart U.S.-Russia talks on Syria that Washington suspended in October in protest over Russian bombing of civilians and infrastructure.

On Saturday, Kerry plans to meet in Paris with counterparts from Europe and the Middle East who are supporting the rebels along with the United States.

Thousands of rebels and as many as 250,000 civilians had held out in eastern Aleppo for four years through bombardment and siege. But many have fled since Syrian and Iran-backed pro-Assad militia fighters swept through three-quarters of the rebel enclave in an offensive that began Nov. 15.

[The battle for Aleppo, explained]

The U.N. human rights spokesman, Rupert Coville, said Friday in Geneva that his office was hearing worrying allegations that hundreds of men had disappeared in the exodus.

Given the terrible record of arbitrary detention, torture and disappearances, we are of course deeply concerned, he said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group, estimates that some 80,000 people have left rebel areas in recent weeks as government forces have advanced. Residents have said that men of fighting age were being separated from their groups by soldiers or militiamen and that some were being taken to a nearby airport for interrogation.

[Syria suspends offensive in Aleppo to allow evacuations, Russia says]

Coville also said Friday that armed opposition groups have blocked civilians from leaving  in some cases firing at them as they tried to flee.

During the last two weeks, Fatah al-Sham Front and the Abu Amara Battalion are alleged to have abducted and killed an unknown number of civilians who requested the armed groups to leave their neighborhoods, to spare the lives of civilians, he said. He was referring respectively to the al-Qaeda-linked group formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra and to an Islamist militant group allied with it against the Assad forces.

Kerry also charged rebels with some of the civilian killings, saying that even people who are supposedly on their side [are] shooting to prevent them from leaving so they stay there as human shields.

On Thursday night, Lavrov said Syrian government military operations in Aleppo had stopped. On Friday, however, he said that it was only a temporary pause to allow some civilians to leave and that the offensive had begun again.

With the Geneva meeting, there is a very good opportunity to agree on how to finalize the settlement in eastern Aleppo by the withdrawal of all militants from there, Lavrov said at a news conference in Hamburg, where he is attending an international conference.

Lavrov, and Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov in Moscow, accused the Obama administration of strange behavior in continuing to criticize Russia while Kerry is negotiating.

Lavrov denied that Russia was delaying an agreement on Syria until Obama leaves office. But, he said, President-elect Donald Trumps statements on terrorism are more clear than those of Obama.

Officials preparing for Trumps administration met in Washington this week with members of the Syrian Opposition Coalition, the political group that the Obama administration hopes can return to the negotiating table for talks with the Assad government over a transition government in Syria.

Coalition Secretary General Abdul Ilah Fahad said in a telephone interview that his group and the Trump team agreed on the necessity of being a strong partner in countering terrorism and the necessity of countering the Iranian action in Syria, and to push for protecting civilians and [for] a political transition.

The Syrian government said Friday that it was ready to resume dialogue with the opposition but without external intervention or preconditions, according to a statement carried by the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency.

Kerry also said he hoped that an Aleppo agreement would pave the way for a wider cease-fire, the safe flow of humanitarian aid to Syria, and a resumption of political talks between the government and the opposition that were aborted last spring when the latter protested ongoing Syrian and Russian bombing of civilian areas.

Since then, their loss of territory has weakened the rebels negotiating position, which had included the insistence that Assad leave power, while U.S. demands about Assads early departure appear to have weakened.

Fahad said that any proposal to retain Assad will complicate things much more. It will increase Irans influence in Syria, he said, and will never be accepted by countries in the region who are supporting the opposition.

In statements Friday, Russia also denounced what it described as the Obama administrations decision to sent portable antiaircraft missiles to the rebels. Statements by Lavrov and Peskov apparently referred to the defense budget authorization passed this week by the House, which removed long-standing language explicitly prohibiting the provision of those weapons to any entity fighting in Syria.

While some lawmakers have pushed to send the weapons, the administration has long opposed it on grounds that the weapons might be transferred to terrorist groups.

DeYoung reported from Paris.

Read more:

The dead among the living: An Aleppo doctors lament

Darkness and fear in Aleppo as the bombs rain down

We are alone: The voices of Aleppo

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

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A bomb blast killed six policemen and injured three others Friday in what was probably the deadliest assault targeting Egyptian security forces in Cairo in recent months, according to the countrys state-run news service.

The explosion occurred on al-Haram Street, a main road leading to Egypts famed Giza pyramids, according to the Middle East News Agency. It reported that the policemen were targeted but provided no further details.

Egypts Interior Ministry, which oversees the police and security forces, said in a statement that the bombing took place near two security points and that security forces were deployed at the scene after the incident. It said three of those killed were officers.

[Suspected Islamic State attack kills 12 soldiers in Sinai in October]

News agencies said the police officers were in two vehicles and were parked along the road at a checkpoint. Four civilians were also reported wounded by the explosion.

Later Friday, a recently emerged militant group called the Hasm movement claimed responsibility for the attack. The group has said it seeks retribution for the military overthrow of the Morsi government and the violent crackdown that followed. Egyptian security officials say that the group is aligned with the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood.

In a statement, the Hasm movement said the blood of the martyrs will not go in vain, but rather this blood is the fuel to our revolution and a light that leads our resistance.

Fridays bombing came days after Egyptian security forces killed three members of the Hasm movement in southern Egypt, according to the Ministry of Interior.

The Hasm movement emerged in July, saying that it carried out the assassination of a top police chief. Since then, it has claimed responsibility for several more attacks, including assassination attempts against the countrys assistant prosecutor general and a senior cleric.

[Is the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization?]

In May, gunmen attacked a bus filled with police in the Cairo suburb of Helwan, killing eight of them. The Islamic States affiliate in Egypt, based in the northern Sinai Peninsula, claimed responsibility for that attack.

Attacks aimed at Egypts military-led government have increased since the 2013 overthrow of elected President Mohamed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood. Judges and senior officials have also been targeted by radical Islamists, largely driven by the crackdowns on the Muslim Brotherhood by President Abdel Fatah al-Sissis government.

Last month, an Egyptian general was assassinated near his home in the northern Sinai, an attack that was also claimed by the Islamic State.

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CIA briefers told the senators in a closed-door briefing it was now quite clear that electing Trump was Russias goal, according to officials. (Victoria Walker/The Washington Post)

CIA briefers told the senators in a closed-door briefing it was now quite clear that electing Trump was Russias goal, according to officials. (Victoria Walker/The Washington Post)

The CIA has concluded in a secret assessment that Russia intervened in the 2016 election to help Donald Trump win the presidency, rather than just to undermine confidence in the U.S. electoral system, according to officials briefed on the matter.

Intelligence agencies have identified individuals with connections to the Russian government who provided WikiLeaks with thousands of hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee and others, including Hillary Clintons campaign chairman, according to U.S. officials. Those officials described the individuals as actors known to the intelligence community and part of a wider Russian operation to boost Trump and hurt Clintons chances.

It is the assessment of the intelligence community that Russias goal here was to favor one candidate over the other, to help Trump get elected, said a senior U.S. official briefed on an intelligence presentation made to U.S. senators. Thats the consensus view.

The Post's Ellen Nakashima goes over the events and discusses the hacker groups responsible. (Jhaan Elker/The Washington Post)

[FBI and CIA give differing accounts to lawmakers on Russias motives in 2016 hacks]

The Obama administration has been debating for months how to respond to the alleged Russian intrusions, with White House officials concerned about escalating tensions with Moscow and being accused of trying to boost Clintons campaign.

In September, during a secret briefing for congressional leaders, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) voiced doubts about the veracity of the intelligence, according to officials present.

The Trump transition team dismissed the findings in a short statement issued Friday evening. These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. The election ended a long time ago in one of the biggest Electoral College victories in history. Its now time to move on and Make America Great Again,  the statement read.

Trump has consistently dismissed the intelligence communitys findings about Russian hacking.

I dont believe they interfered in the election, he told Time magazine this week. The hacking, he said, could be Russia. And it could be China. And it could be some guy in his home in New Jersey.

[Trump, CIA on collision course over Russias role in U.S. election]

1 of 62 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  Trump continues his post-election thank-you tour View Photos The president-elect has gone to Michigan, Iowa, North Carolina and Ohio, and saluted workers at an Indiana plant where he says he saved more than 1,000 jobs. Caption The president-elect has visited Alabama, Florida, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa, North Carolina, Ohio and Indiana, where he toured the Carrier factory. Dec. 17, 2016 President-elect Donald Trump waves as he is greeted by Azalea Trail Maids on his way to a thank you tour event in Mobile, Ala. Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue.

The CIA shared its latest assessment with key senators in a closed-door briefing on Capitol Hill last week, in which agency officials cited a growing body of intelligence from multiple sources. Agency briefers told the senators it was now quite clear that electing Trump was Russias goal, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.

The CIA presentation to senators about Russias intentions fell short of a formal U.S. assessment produced by all 17 intelligence agencies. A senior U.S. official said there were minor disagreements among intelligence officials about the agencys assessment, in part because some questions remain unanswered.

For example, intelligence agencies do not have specific intelligence showing officials in the Kremlin directing the identified individuals to pass the Democratic emails to WikiLeaks, a second senior U.S. official said. Those actors, according to the official, were one step removed from the Russian government, rather than government employees. Moscow has in the past used middlemen to participate in sensitive intelligence operations so it has plausible deniability.

Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, has said in a television interview that the Russian government is not the source.

The White House and CIA officials declined to comment.

On Friday, the White House said President Obama had ordered a full review of Russian hacking during the election campaign, as pressure from Congress has grown for greater public understanding of exactly what Moscow did to influence the electoral process.

We may have crossed into a new threshold, and it is incumbent upon us to take stock of that, to review, to conduct some after-action, to understand what has happened and to impart some lessons learned, Obamas counterterrorism and homeland security adviser, Lisa Monaco, told reporters at a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.

Obama wants the report before he leaves office Jan. 20, Monaco said. The review will be led by James Clapper, the outgoing director of national intelligence, officials said.

During her remarks, Monaco didnt address the latest CIA assessment, which hasnt been previously disclosed.

Seven Democratic senators last week asked Obama to declassify details about the intrusions and why officials believe that the Kremlin was behind the operation. Officials said Friday that the senators specifically were asking the White House to release portions of the CIAs presentation.

This week, top Democratic lawmakers in the House also sent a letter to Obama, asking for briefings on Russian interference in the election.

U.S. intelligence agencies have been cautious for months in characterizing Russias motivations, reflecting the United States long-standing struggle to collect reliable intelligence on President Vladimir Putin and those closest to him.

In previous assessments, the CIA and other intelligence agencies told the White House and congressional leaders that they believed Moscows aim was to undermine confidence in the U.S. electoral system. The assessments stopped short of saying the goal was to help elect Trump.

On Oct. 7, the intelligence community officially accused Moscow of seeking to interfere in the election through the hacking of political organizations. Though the statement never specified which party, it was clear that officials were referring to cyber-intrusions into the computers of the DNC and other Democratic groups and individuals.

Some key Republican lawmakers have continued to question the quality of evidence supporting Russian involvement.

Ill be the first one to come out and point at Russia if theres clear evidence, but there is no clear evidence  even now, said Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and a member of the Trump transition team. Theres a lot of innuendo, lots of circumstantial evidence, thats it.

[U.S. investigating potential covert Russian plan to disrupt elections]

Though Russia has long conducted cyberspying on U.S. agencies, companies and organizations, this presidential campaign marks the first time Moscow has attempted through cyber-means to interfere in, if not actively influence, the outcome of an election, the officials said.

The reluctance of the Obama White House to respond to the alleged Russian intrusions before Election Day upset Democrats on the Hill as well as members of the Clinton campaign.

Within the administration, top officials from different agencies sparred over whether and how to respond. White House officials were concerned that covert retaliatory measures might risk an escalation in which Russia, with sophisticated cyber-capabilities, might have less to lose than the United States, with its vast and vulnerable digital infrastructure.

The White Houses reluctance to take that risk left Washington weighing more-limited measures, including the naming and shaming approach of publicly blaming Moscow.

By mid-September, White House officials had decided it was time to take that step, but they worried that doing so unilaterally and without bipartisan congressional backing just weeks before the election would make Obama vulnerable to charges that he was using intelligence for political purposes.

Instead, officials devised a plan to seek bipartisan support from top lawmakers and set up a secret meeting with the Gang of 12  a group that includes House and Senate leaders, as well as the chairmen and ranking members of both chambers committees on intelligence and homeland security.

Obama dispatched Monaco, FBI Director James B. Comey and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson to make the pitch for a show of solidarity and bipartisan unity against Russian interference in the election, according to a senior administration official.

Specifically, the White House wanted congressional leaders to sign off on a bipartisan statement urging state and local officials to take federal help in protecting their voting-registration and balloting machines from Russian cyber-intrusions.

Though U.S. intelligence agencies were skeptical that hackers would be able to manipulate the election results in a systematic way, the White House feared that Russia would attempt to do so, sowing doubt about the fundamental mechanisms of democracy and potentially forcing a more dangerous confrontation between Washington and Moscow.

[Putin denies that Russia hacked the DNC but says it was for the public good]

In a secure room in the Capitol used for briefings involving classified information, administration officials broadly laid out the evidence U.S. spy agencies had collected, showing Russias role in cyber-intrusions in at least two states and in hacking the emails of the Democratic organizations and individuals.

And they made a case for a united, bipartisan front in response to what one official described as the threat posed by unprecedented meddling by a foreign power in our election process.

The Democratic leaders in the room unanimously agreed on the need to take the threat seriously. Republicans, however, were divided, with at least two GOP lawmakers reluctant to accede to the White House requests.

According to several officials, McConnell raised doubts about the underlying intelligence and made clear to the administration that he would consider any effort by the White House to challenge the Russians publicly an act of partisan politics.

Some of the Republicans in the briefing also seemed opposed to the idea of going public with such explosive allegations in the final stages of an election, a move that they argued would only rattle public confidence and play into Moscows hands.

McConnells office did not respond to a request for comment. After the election, Trump chose McConnells wife, Elaine Chao, as his nominee for transportation secretary.

Some Clinton supporters saw the White Houses reluctance to act without bipartisan support as further evidence of an excessive caution in facing adversaries.

The lack of an administration response on the Russian hacking cannot be attributed to Congress, said Rep. Adam B. Schiff (Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, who was at the September meeting. The administration has all the tools it needs to respond. They have the ability to impose sanctions. They have the ability to take clandestine means. The administration has decided not to utilize them in a way that would deter the Russians, and I think thats a problem.

Philip Rucker contributed to this report.

Read more:

As Democrats demand probe over CIA election claim, GOP senators express doubt

Kremlin defers to Trump on the CIA assessment that Moscow helped him win

The long history of the U.S. interfering with elections elsewhere
President-elect Donald Trump is assembling a national security team dominated by retired generals who share a deep distrust of Iran and have characterized the threat of militant Islam in far more dire terms than Obama administration officials and intelligence assessments.

The trio of ex-generals represents an emerging core of the Trump administration that is at odds with President Obamas efforts to convince the American public that  15 years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks  terrorism continues to pose a persistent threat to the nation, but not an existential one.

The generals views also cut against the grain of U.S. policies seeking to empower moderates in Iran and of U.S. intelligence assessments that terrorism no longer stands alone atop the rankings of global security threats now crowded by concerns about cyberattacks and renewed aggression by China and Russia.

Their views, though far from uniform, have been heavily influenced over the past 15 years by intensely personal battlefield losses, the countrys waning attention to the wars and an up-close view of a ruthless enemy.

Those experiences could lead retired Gens. Michael T. Flynn, James N. Mattis and John F. Kelly to urge caution in Trump administration debates about the use of force. But former colleagues and experts said the generals are also more likely, by virtue of their training and experience, to see malign intent or view the world as a struggle between good and evil.

President-elect Donald Trump has already tapped three former generals to serve in his administration. The Washington Post's Jenna Johnson explains what attracts Trump to these men. (Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post)

[How Trump naming Mattis as Pentagon chief would break with 65 years of U.S. history]

The nature of the job in the military is to be responsible for threats against the nation and to be blamed if the country is not prepared, said Stephen Biddle, a professor at George Washington University and frequent adviser to the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan. They tend to be very threat-focused in relation to civilians and tend to see that threat in more apocalyptic terms.

Statements and online postings by Flynn, Trumps choice for national security adviser, have drawn the most alarm among intelligence analysts and the foreign-policy establishment.

Were in a world war, but very few Americans recognize it, and fewer still have any idea how to win it, Flynn wrote in his recent book The Field of Fight. He has also repeatedly depicted Islam as a diseased religion that represents a growing danger. Fear of Muslims is rational, he wrote in a posting to his Twitter account earlier this year.

[Trumps security pick brings experience and controversy]

Mattis and Kelly  Trumps respective nominees for secretary of defense and secretary of homeland security  have been far more measured in their foreign-policy pronouncements and are widely respected within the foreign-policy establishment and among the United States Gulf Arab allies. Yet each has expressed hard-line views about Iran and the threat of terrorism.

Our country today is in a life-and-death struggle against an evil enemy, but America as a whole is certainly not at war, Kelly said in late 2010, just days after his son, an officer leading Marines in Afghanistan, was killed. Not as a country. Not as a people.

Mattiss persistent warnings about the threat posed by Iran led to tensions with the White House, which urged him when he was in uniform to tone down his rhetoric. He has criticized the Obama administration for taking too passive an approach to Iranian aggression and fostering the impression in the region that the U.S. was withdrawing.

In a speech in April, Mattis described the Iran deal as one drawn up with the expectation that Iran will cheat. He said that one of its principal advantages would be that well have better targeting data should it come to a fight at some point in the future.

Were going to have to plan for the worst, Mattis said.

Obama has mounted an aggressive campaign to kill senior al-Qaeda and Islamic State leaders and wrest back territory seized by the extremists in Iraq and Syria. But he has also emphasized that the groups are not the vanguard of a new world order.

These terrorists can never directly destroy our way of life, but we can do it for them if we lose track of who we are and the values that this nation was founded upon, the president said in a speech earlier this week.

[ISISs second-in-command hid for months in Syria. When he stepped out, the U.S. was waiting.]

The three generals also share a widely held frustration in the military that they have been fighting for 15 years without the full support of the country or its civilian leaders.

All of us who served and fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, month after month, year after year, have been too close to the human costs  our buddies killed in action and our Iraqi and Afghan partners assassinated, said J. Kael Weston, a State Department official who advised Marine officers in Iraq and Afghanistan and wrote The Mirror Test, a memoir of his service. But the policymakers in D.C. have been too far removed from the blood-red tally of war.

When Mattis retired from the Marines in 2013, he spent two weeks zigzagging across the country visiting the parents of Marines killed under his command. Kelly and his two sons have taken part in more than a dozen combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. When his sons platoon was deployed to Afghanistan in 2010, he made weekly and sometimes daily trips to visit his sons wounded Marines at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. Those trips continued after his son was killed in combat.

Flynn, who served in Afghanistan and as the Joint Special Operations Commands senior intelligence officer, has spent as much time deployed to war zones as almost any other general in the Army over the past 15 years.

The disconnect between the generals and Washington also extended to the battlefield, where military officers often felt compelled to describe the messy wars to their troops as battles between good and evil.

When you explain to a lance corporal why his best friend got horribly killed and he has to go out there again and again and again, you dont have time for geopolitics, said retired Lt. Col. John Nagl, an Iraq veteran and counterinsurgency expert. You tell him, We have to fight the enemy here so that we dont have to fight them at home. 

A big question is how the perspectives of senior military officers, serving in Cabinet-level positions, will influence the direction of a Trump administration.

Obamas deep skepticism of foreign intervention meant that he often served as a brake on discussions about how the United States might respond to hostile developments overseas. Trump has no foreign-policy or military experience to examine for insights into how he might respond, but his campaign posture was animated mainly by the promise of aggression.

I think its likely there will be terrorist attacks in the coming years, and I think Trump will feel tremendous pressure to be seen as acting very decisively, said Dan Byman, a former Middle East analyst at the CIA and a professor at Georgetown University.

Trumps advisers may be quicker to see nefarious intent because of their military experience, he said, but be more cautious about U.S. military intervention or retaliation.

Byman cited the example of the Iranian seizure of American sailors shortly before the Iran nuclear deal was signed as an example of an overseas provocation that had the potential to derail broader U.S. policy goals.

Trumps advisers have a lot of personal experience and might be more inclined to see Iranian hostility as deeply planned, rather than the act of a rogue faction or a function of chaos, Byman said. Theyre more likely to read things negatively than the Obama administration would have.

In significant ways, the chances for limited conflict with Iran go up, Byman said. But that doesnt mean, to me, we bomb them.

Read more:

Designated national security adviser and his son are among those pushing Clinton conspiracy theory

Obama administration releases memo outlining use of force rules

What Trump may not know about the generals hes eyeing for top positions
With more than 62,000 migrants and refugees stranded in Greece, European authorities have been promising for months to cut the backlog and relocate people across the continent.

But under a European Union plan announced this week, Greeces continental partners may be sending more people its way rather than helping to ease the burden.

The plan drew sharp rebukes Friday from aid organizations. The International Rescue Committee, which has been assisting people trapped in Greece by closed borders farther north, called the proposed policy change out of step with what is urgently needed on the ground.

It is absurd that rather than stepping up to meet the pledges they have already made to relocate people from Greece, E.U. countries are actively seeking to send more refugees to Greece, said Imogen Sudbery, head of the IRCs Brussels office.

[Migrant boat traffic from Libya to Europe is surging  and turning deadlier]

In a statement, Sudbery cited the thousands of refugees staying in sites, designed for temporary stay, for nine months and now facing winter in inadequate shelters.

A European Commission plan announced Thursday could, at least in theory, add to those numbers by reinstituting rules that asylum seekers must apply for protection in the E.U. nation where they first arrived, and can therefore be sent back to Greece from other countries in Europe.

Those rules had been suspended amid the record flow of new arrivals in Europe last year as asylum seekers passed through Greece en route to Germany, Sweden and other Western Europe destinations. The commission said Thursday that Greece is better equipped to handle arrivals today, having improved its registration systems and accommodations.

[Defeat of Austrias far-right candidate an unexpected boost for E.U.]

The proposal would apply to adult asylum seekers who arrive in Europe beginning next March.

At the moment, few migrants are actually making it into Europe via Greece, after a spring deal between Turkey and the E.U. that effectively sealed an Aegean Sea route that had been traveled by more than 800,000 people in 2015.

But Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently threatened to scuttle the deal and reopen the floodgates, arguing that Europe has not upheld its part of the bargain.

Europe has also struggled to keep its promises to Greece and Italy, the two E.U. nations on the front lines of the migrant crisis.

[Refugees face a growing backlash in a liberal Australian city]

A September 2015 plan was supposed to mandate the relocation of 160,000 asylum seekers from those two nations to other parts of Europe. But as of this week, fewer than 8,200 people had been moved.

That failure has left large numbers of people stuck in Italy and Greece, countries that are struggling economically and have little capacity to absorb the influx.

Eastern European nations have been particularly unwilling to accept refugees relocated from Greece or Italy, arguing that the predominantly Muslim new arrivals threaten to disturb the social order in their overwhelmingly Christian nations.

Some 350,000 people have arrived in Europe by sea this year as they flee war, poverty or persecution in Asia, the Middle East and Africa. The arrivals have been split almost evenly between Italy and Greece, with Italys total recently surpassing that of last year.

Read more:

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

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South Koreas National Assembly voted by a huge margin Friday to impeach President Park Geun-hye over her role in a corruption and influencepeddling scandal, forcing her immediately to hand over the running of the country to a caretaker prime minister.

But despite clear condemnation from politicians and the public, Park signaled that she would remain defiant even while being stripped of power. She said she would wait with a calm and clear mind while the conservative-leaning Constitutional Court decides whether to uphold the legislatures impeachment motion.

That means South Korea could be in for a long period of paralysis. The court has six months to rule, creating a power vacuum in South Korea at the same time the United States is going through its own presidential transition.

A total of 234 lawmakers voted in favor of impeachment Friday, well beyond the two-thirds majority, or 200 votes, that proponents of the motion needed to oust the president. Dozens of lawmakers from Parks conservative Saenuri Party crossed the aisle to vote with the 171 opposition and independent lawmakers pushing for impeachment.

People who gathered in front of the National Assembly chanted, We won, we won! after the results were announced, while others danced and waved South Korean flags.

South Koreans cheer after lawmakers approved the impeachment of President Park. (Jeon Heon-Kyun/European Pressphoto Agency)

I heard grave voices of the people and the National Assembly, and I sincerely hope this chaotic situation will be resolved soon, Park told a cabinet meeting shortly after the vote. I sincerely apologize to the people for causing such widespread chaos while our national security situation and the economy are going through a difficult time, she said, citing problems ranging from bird flu to the challenge a cold winter would pose to the poor.

But the president, who last week said she would stand down if the assembly demanded it, reverted to her previous defiant stance.

I will respond to the procedure of the Constitutional Court and the special prosecutors investigation with a calm and clear mind, she told her ministers, according to remarks distributed by her office. She urged them to get back to work and minimize disruption to the country while the court deliberates.

Meanwhile, Parks duties will fall to Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, a political independent and former justice minister.

[South Koreas political crisis could usher in bigger change]

The vote was a landslide for the forces that want to oust Park. Only 56 lawmakers in the 300-seat assembly voted against impeachment.

This result exceeded our expectations. It means the ruling Saenuri Party members have taken the citizens demands very seriously, said Park Young-sun, a representative in the main opposition Minjoo, or Democratic, Party. Now the National Assembly needs to calm down and try to take this opportunity to rebuild the nation.

After the impeachment vote, President Park Geun-hye attends an emergency cabinet meeting in Seoul. (European Pressphoto Agency)

The scandal centers on allegations that the famously aloof Park  the countrys first female president and daughter of military strongman Park Chung-hee, who ruled South Korea in the 1960s and 1970s  took advice from a secret confidante on a wide variety of topics, including North Korean policy and her wardrobe.

Prosecutors said that the confidante, Choi Soon-sil, a lifelong friend and daughter of a shadowy cult leader, used that relationship to enrich herself by at least $70 million and gain advantages for her family. Choi has been indicted on charges that include abuse of power and extortion, and is under detention.

Prosecutors have said the president appeared to have been an accomplice and want to question her about her role in the case, but she has refused. She is immune from prosecution while president but could be charged once she leaves office.

Public anger over the case is palpable. Hundreds of thousands have been demonstrating in central Seoul for weeks, calling on Park to step down, and her approval ratings have fallen to 5 percent. Protesters massed outside the National Assembly on Friday in support of the impeachment motion, and another protest is scheduled for Saturday.

Representatives in the Saenuri Party had no choice but to listen to the people and support the impeachment motion, said Kim Dong-choon, a professor of social sciences at Sungkonghoe University.

But the government could find itself hamstrung by the vote, Kim said. Most of the cabinet members have been appointed by Park, so their legitimacy will be questioned by this impeachment. The government wont be able to make important policy decisions, and the power will shift to the National Assembly.

[President Park Geun-hye offers to resign if lawmakers demand it]

Park is only the second president to be impeached since South Korea democratized in 1987. Roh Moo-hyun, a progressive, was impeached in 2004 for minor election-law violations, but after deliberating for two months, the Constitutional Court overturned the motion. While it found that Roh had indeed breached the law, it ruled that the charges were not serious enough to warrant his removal.

The court now has 180 days to consider Parks case, but experts doubt that it will take that long.

As this is not a criminal court, one or two serious violations can justify Parks dismissal, said Chung Tae-ho, a law professor and expert on the constitution at Kyung Hee University. The gravity of this case is expected to put pressure on the court to rule sooner than later, as it is important to remove uncertainty from the nation.

But the process still could be complicated. Two justices are set to resign within the first three months of the year, and analysts say it is unlikely that the prime minister would act to replace them during a period of limbo. That would mean that six of the remaining seven judges would have to vote in favor of upholding the motion.

Hwang, the prime minister, also has been caught up in the furor engulfing the president.

As the scandal widened, Park said last month that she would replace Hwang with a senior official from Rohs administration, a move intended both to clear the decks and to placate left-wing opposition parties. But those parties instead were incensed that they were not consulted, and Park was forced to withdraw her nominee, leaving Hwang in his post.

Kweon Seong-dong, chairman of the judiciary committee in the National Assembly, said that how soon the court could rule would depend on whether it decided to proceed on the facts it has or to wait for prosecutors and an independent counsel to finish their investigations.

If the court considers there are enough reasons for the president to be impeached based on the current investigation findings, the court can rule in favor of upholding the impeachment motion, he said. But if the court decides to consider all of the violations, then it will have to deliberate on all of them.

Kweon, a Saenuri lawmaker, said he did not think the decisive vote in the assembly would have an effect on the court, although he said the huge outpouring of public opinion on the scandal could influence the judges.

Seo reported from Seoul.

Read more:

Scandal shows that Korean disease of corruption is far from cured

Prosecutors link South Korean president to corruption scandal

South Koreans gather en masse to protest president

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The Trump transition team confirmed yesterday that Iowas Republican governor Terry Branstad has been selected as the next US ambassador to China. Throughout his election campaign Trump adopted a belligerent anti-China stance. But, in picking Bradstad, he is installing a trusted go-between with top-level connections in Beijing.

Branstad initially met Chinese President Xi Jinping in 1985 during Xis first visit to the United States as a 31-year-old official from Chinas Hebei Province. Xi came to study American agriculture and stayed with a family in the small city of Muscatine. He stayed with Branstad in 2012 at the governors mansion when he revisited Muscatine as Chinese vice-president in the lead-up to his installation as president in 2013.

Chinese foreign affairs ministry spokesman Lu Kang yesterday described Branstad as an old friend of the Chinese people, adding, we would welcome him playing a bigger role in promoting Sino-American relations. Branstad has energetically promoted the export of Iowas agricultural produce, including pork and corn, to China and has visited China seven times, most recently on a trade mission last month.

At the same time, Branstad has close ties to Trump. He was a key Republican Party figure in backing Trump and campaigned for him in Iowa during the election. The governors son Eric was Trumps campaign manager for Iowa. Trump signalled Branstads appointment during a campaign rally in the state in early November, describing him as our prime candidate to take care of China.

Trumps installation of Branstad continues a pattern of choosing close personal acquaintances and cronies for jobs in his administration. Trump transition spokesman Jason Miller effusively told the media yesterday that Branstad was someone with considerable public policy experience... [a] great grasp of trade issues, agricultural issues, [who] has a tremendous understanding of China and Chinese people.

In reality, Branstad is a long-running Iowa politician who has little foreign policy experience and whose knowledge of China stems from his efforts to leverage his acquaintance with top Chinese leaders to press for better trade deals for his state. On trade, he has been a vocal supporter of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), which Trump has pledged to axe on his first day in office.

Branstads difference with Trump over the TPP, as well as his lack of familiarity with key issues such North Korea, rising tensions over the South China Sea and the US military build-up throughout Asia against China, suggests he will not play a significant role in determining policy or strategy toward Beijing.

That conclusion is already being drawn in Beijing. Jie Dalei, an associate professor at Beijing University, told the Washington Post that Branstads appointment could help communication, but is unlikely [to] have too much impact at the decision-making level.

The Chinese government is paying far more attention to Trumps decision last Friday to take a phone call from Taiwans President Tsai Ing-wenthe first conversation between top American and Taiwanese leaders since 1979. The contact called into question US adherence to its One China policy, which recognised Beijing as the sole legitimate government of all of China including Taiwan.

Trump has aggressively defended his breach of decades of diplomatic protocol, with tweets berating China as a currency manipulator and slamming its land reclamation activities in the South China Sea as constructing a massive military complex. During the campaign, he threatened to impose 45 percent tariffs on Chinese importsa step that would provoke trade war between the worlds two largest economies.

Jie told the Post: Compared to that, the appointment of an ambassador to China, though very thoughtful, is unlikely to fix the damage caused by the uncertainty of his tweets and Taiwan call.

The Chinese government has responded to Trumps phone conversation by calling on the United States not to allow Taiwans president to transit through New York in January on her way to visit Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvadorall of which have full diplomatic relations with Taiwan. The US State Department has ruled out blocking Tsais transit through the United States.

Taiwans Liberty Times has reported that Tsais delegation wanted to meet members of Trumps team, including his chief of staff Reince Priebus, who has longstanding connections in Taiwan. Such a move would greatly exacerbate tensions between China and the incoming Trump administration.

Trumps advisers have already signalled an intensification of the US confrontation with China that was initiated by the Obama administrations pivot to Asiawhich has included a massive military build-up and strengthening of alliances throughout the region in preparation for war with China.

Trumps provocative phone call with Taiwan is just an indication of the aggressive methods that the new administration will use to try to extract concessions from Beijing and consolidate American hegemony in Asia. The president-elect has appointed Branstad to ensure he has a reliable communication channel to the top Chinese leadership as he proceeds with his reckless high-stakes gambles.

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Trumps phone call with Taiwan: A provocation against China

[6 December 2016]
The recount of the presidential election in the state of Michigan halted Wednesday, after three days of ballot-counting, when a federal judge announced he would defer to a state court ruling against it.

The Michigan Court of Appeals decided Tuesday that Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein did not have standing to seek a recount. By a 3-0 vote, the Republican-dominated court accepted the claim of Republican state Attorney General Bill Schuette and the state Republican Party that since Stein trailed Donald Trump by more than two million votes in Michigan, she could not reasonably expect to win the state in a recount, and therefore was not an aggrieved party under state law.

In effect, the state court found that only the campaign of Democrat Hillary Clinton was entitled to seek a recount, since she lost Michigan to Trump by only 10,704 votes, the narrowest margin of victory for Trump in any state. The Clinton campaign was an observer to the recount once it began, but it has not initiated any request of its own for the ballots to be scrutinized and re-tabulated.

Federal District Judge Mark Goldsmith, who rejected the legal arguments of the Republicans opposed to the recount at a weekend hearing, issued a temporary restraining order Tuesday night after the state court ruling, compelling the state Board of Elections and local county clerks to continue the recount.

On Wednesday night, however, he dissolved that order, declaring that he would defer to the state court in interpreting Michigan state law. Because there is no basis for this court to ignore the Michigan courts ruling and make an independent judgment regarding what the Michigan Legislature intended by the term aggrieved, plaintiffs have not shown an entitlement to a recount under Michigans statutory scheme, he wrote.

Attorneys for Jill Stein said they would appeal both court decisions. The state Court of Appeals ruling will be appealed to the Michigan Supreme Court, while Judge Goldsmiths ruling will be appealed to the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati.

Steins lead attorney, Mark Brewer, a past chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party, filed a separate motion to disqualify two state Supreme Court justices, Robert Young Jr. and Joan Larsen, from hearing the case, because Trump has named both of them as potential nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court to fill the vacancy left by the death of Antonin Scalia.

Neither court is likely to look favorably on Steins appeal. The Michigan Supreme Court has a 5-2 Republican majority, and would still have a Republican majority if Young and Larsen were to recuse themselves.

A three-member panel of the Sixth Circuit upheld Goldsmiths initial order for the recount, ruling Tuesday that he had not abused his discretion. But the panel effectively required him to accede to state court decisions, writing, If subsequently, the Michigan courts determine the ... recount is improper under Michigan state law for any reason, we expect the district court to entertain any properly filed motions to dissolve or modify this order in this case.

Significantly, the panel added that it had made no decision yet on such questions as whether there is a freestanding constitutional right to a recount or that plaintiffs validly invoked a recount under Michigan law, or that plaintiffs should necessarily prevail on the merits of this suit.

The three days of recounting the nearly 5 million ballots cast in Michigan have not produced any reports of significant changes in the vote count because no county has filed any results. But there is already massive evidence of a dysfunctional and antiquated electoral system which is at its worst in the poorest areas of the state, particularly inner-city neighborhoods of Detroit and Flint.

Many precincts have been barred from recounting ballots under a state law which permits recounts only when the total number of ballots cast coincides exactly with the roster of voters recorded in pollbooks. If these two counts do not matchfrequently because of a voter who tore up his or her ballot and walked out without requesting a replacementthe initial precinct count stands. Discrepancies arise from other causes, including human errors like misfiling of spoiled, challenged or blank ballots or transposing numbers.

Stein issued a statement denouncing the legal claims of the Republicans and the Trump campaign. Donald Trump and his cronies are doing everything possible to try to stop this exercise in our democracy, this effort to validate our vote, she said, adding, it suggests that Donald Trump is very afraid that his vote is not valid, that he's very afraid of this process of democracy.

Stein also noted the indifference of the Clinton campaign and the Democrats. When the Clinton team weighed in, which was, shall we say, minimalist and a day late, she said, it was about as passive an expression of interest as one could imagine.

One of the major legal issues in the Michigan case is the same as that involved in the notorious 2000 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Bush v. Gore: whether state courts are the final authorities in interpreting state laws.

In Bush v. Gore, the 5-4 majority of the Supreme Court overruled the Florida state Supreme Court in its interpretation of Florida state election laws, in order to achieve its desired result, shutting down the Florida recount and awarding the White House to Bush.

This was a gross violation of federalism, which the right-wing majority ordinarily claimed to support in countless rulings upholding Republican-led state governments opposing federal policies. To cover up the contradiction, the court majority simply declared that Bush v. Gore should not be used as a precedent.

And in the Michigan case, Judge Goldsmith has taken the diametric opposite position from Bush v. Gore, deciding that he is bound to accept a state court interpretation of state law, no matter how much he may disagree with it, on the grounds of federalism.

The anti-democratic character of these legal maneuvers is demonstrated by the fact that both federalism and anti-federalism have been asserted as overriding principles in order to achieve the same practical end: shutting down a recount and preserving a Republican victory in the presidential election.

A recount of the presidential election is continuing in Wisconsin, one of the three states narrowly won by Trump where attorneys for Jill Stein have filed legal challenges. Trump led by 22,557 votes in the state, and with about 70 percent of the votes recounted, Clinton has gained only 82 votes. The Wisconsin Elections Commission reported Wednesday that half the counties had completed recounts and the others would finish before a December 12 deadline.

No recount has yet begun in Pennsylvania, although Trumps margin of victory has been slashed substantially, to just over 44,000 votes, after county clerks completed tabulation of overseas and challenged ballots. This is down sharply from the 126,000-vote margin reported in initial returns, and the 69,000-vote margin at the time Stein filed for a recount.

The 44,000 figure is still slightly above the states automatic trigger for a statewide recount, which is 0.5 percent of the vote, about 30,000 votes in the case of the presidential contest.

Federal District Judge Paul Diamond in Philadelphia has scheduled a hearing for Friday, December 9, on Steins request for a recount, only four days before the federal deadline for states to certify their election results. State Republican Party officials and the Trump campaign have deliberately dragged out the legal proceedings so that they can then argue that there is not enough time to conduct a recount before the deadline, which is six days before the formal meeting of the Electoral College on December 19.
Scientists have been warning about dangerous climate change consequences for decades, and our environmental future hangs in the balance as America transitions from the Obama to the Trump administration. Even with alarmingly warm temperatures, though, the world wine supply is not in grave danger ...

Scientists have been warning about dangerous climate change consequences for decades, and our environmental future hangs in the balance as America transitions from the Obama to the Trump administration. Even with alarmingly warm temperatures, though, the world wine supply is not in grave danger  though the physical location of vineyards and the varieties they grow will likely change. Researchers forecast that as the earth heats up and portions of traditional wine regions like Argentina, Chile, and California become too warm for most wine grape crops, the UK will become an increasingly important wine producer.

The study, commissioned by Laithwaites Wine, evaluated how changing temperatures could impact wine production by the year 2100. Scientists came to the conclusion that with climate change, high elevations will become more suitable to winemaking.

Climate is critical to successful grape cultivation, says study author Mark Maslin, a professor at the University College London in a statement. This study could signal how we think long-term about British wine production and redraw the future wine map of the world.

It should be noted that Southeastern England has already been making award-winning wine for some time, especially sparkling wines, though English wines are a long way from gaining the acceptance accorded to continental European wines, according to Time.
A New York socialite who is infamous for extensive plastic surgery  sometimes derided as Catwoman  is facing assault charges this week after allegedly clawing her boyfriends face and attacking him with a pair of scissors, PEOPLE confirms.

Jocelyn Wildenstein, 71, is facing both a second- and third-degree assault charge for allegedly attacking her boyfriend during an argument early Wednesday at her Trump World Tower apartment, a New York Police Department spokesman tells PEOPLE.

The victim is a 49-year-old male  Wildenstein is accused of scratching his face with her fingernails and using a pair of scissors to cut him on the upper-right part of his chest, the spokesman tells PEOPLE, noting that authorities took Wildenstein into custody around 1:12 a.m. that day.

The victim suffered bleeding, the spokesman says. However, he refused medical attention at the scene.

Wildenstein allegedly slashed the mans chest with the scissors, causing several red marks and substantial pain, according to police.

She was arraigned on Wednesday and released on her own recognizance. It appears she has not entered a plea to her charges.

 Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.

Wildenstein, already a noted socialite, became more widely known for her numerous plastic surgeries, which she began having during a 20-year marriage to billionaire French art dealer Alec Wildenstein, according to a 1998 story on the couple in Vanity Fair.

Jocelyn is reportedly inspired by the look of large felines and has undergone eye-lifts, face-lifts and more. A friend told Vanity Fair at the time, I dont think Ive known her when she wasnt healing from something.

Jocelyns attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment from PEOPLE.




From Esquire

In 2006, the U.S. Navy launched a biofuel initiative under Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and President George W. Bush to make the Navy a more efficient military power. In 2012, President Obama pledged more funds to the "Great Green Fleet," enraging Republican lawmakers from oil country and effectively erasing Rumsfeld and Bush's role from the historical record. The Great Green Fleet officially hit the open ocean this past January, running on biofuel and oil country tears.

Last night, The Daily Show's Hasan Minhaj visited the fleet to see if the "wasteful and dangerous practice," as one GOP congressman called it, is paying off. According to U.S. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, it is. As Mabus told Minhaj, the most vulnerable time for a Navy ship is when it is refueling. Using biofuel cuts down on time spent refueling. Logically, that cuts down on Navy vulnerability. In other words, environmentally friendly practices and raw military might are not mutually exclusive.

And, logically, sustainable practices help the Navy adapt as the planet gets hotter and polar ice melts into the ocean (the most recent chunk was the size of India). Rising sea levels threaten Navy bases, which don't float. They also threaten entire nations. Displaced climate refugees-millions more than those currently coming from Syria-will make their way to higher land. The Department of Defense officially labeled climate change a "threat multiplier" last year, and military experts warned it was a "significant risk to U.S. national security" this past September. The Navy acknowledges that risk.

Biofuel isn't going to save the planet, but Mabus argues it makes the Navy stronger and better equipped to protect America as the planet warms. Obviously, logic rarely factors into climate change denialism when American oil money is at stake. But right now, the Green Fleet looks patriotic as hell.

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Oscar-winning actor Leonardo DiCaprio met with President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday to discuss green jobs and the environment.

DiCaprio and Terry Tamminen, the CEO of the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, delivered a 90-minute presentation to Trump detailing a plan for investment in a sustainable infrastructure. The meeting comes just days after Trump met with leading environmental activist and former Vice President Al Gore at Trump Tower.

Our conversation focused on how to create millions of secure, American jobs in the construction and operation of commercial and residential clean, renewable energy generation, Tamminen said in a statement.

President-elect Trump recently appointed climate-change denialist Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to lead the Environmental Protection Agency. Trump has previously tweeted that global warming is a hoax and has vowed to cancel the Paris Agreement, an accord that brings nations together to undertake efforts to combat climate change.

DiCaprio also gifted Ivanka Trump with a DVD of his National Geographic documentary, Before the Flood, a film that explores climate change and what steps must be taken to prevent the catastrophic disruption of Earths inhabitants.

DiCaprio has long leveraged his celebrity status to champion environmental causes. He serves as a United Nations Messenger of Peace for climate change, and he received the Clinton Global Citizen Award in 2014. He established the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation in 1998 with the mission of protecting the worlds last wild places. In a statement, his foundation added that climate change is bigger than politics, and the disastrous effects on our planet and our civilization will continue regardless of what party holds majorities in Congress or occupies the White House.

For more videos, check out what happened when Hillary Clinton surprised Katy Perry at the 12th annual UNICEF Snowflake Ball:

Tell us what you think! Share your comments with us on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram or leave your comments below. And check out our host, Julissa Bermudez, on Twitter.
What can be said about this year? We lost some of music's most important innovators, including David Bowie and Prince. We watched modern music mavens meld genres that normally wouldn't sit next to each other and challenge what pop can be, and we watched them do it in unlikely places -- like awards shows.

From the Emmys to the Grammys to the BET Awards and the BRITs, here are the most memorable awards show moments of the year.

10. Stranger Things Kids Go "Uptown Funk!" at the Emmys

The most adorable thing to happen to pop culture in recent history is the success of the Stranger Things' kid actors. Their hit show might teeter a line between science-fiction and thriller, but the tweenage stars of the program are all smiles all the time -- especially when covering "Uptown Funk!" at the Emmys. Watch it. You won't regret it.

9. Gucci Mane's Return at the BET Awards

In 2014, Gucci Mane pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, acquiring a plea deal that would result in two years at the United States Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana. After he was released -- on Sept. 20 of this year -- he made a very public comeback at the BET Awards on Oct. 3, opening the show alongside Travis Scott, Young Thug and Migos, reminding us what we're always known: we missed you, Mane!

8. Kesha's Powerful Return at the Billboard Music Awards

For a while there, it was unclear if Kesha would take the stage at the Billboard Music Awards -- due to her legal battle with producer Dr. Luke in which she claims he raped and psychologically abused her. Instead of giving in, she made a triumphant return to the limelight, delivering a truly heart-wrenching rendition of the 1964 Bob Dylan classic "It Ain't Me, Babe." There were no dry eyes in the house.

7. Rihanna Swerves Drake's Kiss at the VMAs

Are they or aren't they? At this year's MTV Video Music Awards, Drake presented Rihanna with the Vanguard Award. He used the speech to confess his love to the Anti starlet and, while actually handing her the trophy, leans in for a kiss. She swerves him hard. It's hilarious and heartbreaking.

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6. The Dixie Chicks & Beyonce Join Forces at the CMAs

One of the most surprising songs from one of the most revered albums of the year, "Daddy Lessons" from Beyonce's massive Lemonade, has the pop powerhouse revisiting her down and dirty Texas roots -- if you're from the state, country music is part of the atmosphere. Bey teamed up with the Dixie Chicks at this year's Country Music Awards to breathe new life into the track. The result was a high-energy, soulful take on the beloved ballad that serves to highlight just how universal B's art can be.

5. Green Day's Anti-Trump Rhetoric at AMAs

There's a certain trope in punk music: when things are terrifying in the political arena, the music gets better. While that has yet to be proven, Green Day lived up to it with 2004's American Idiot. They did it again with "Bang Bang" from their latest album, Revolution Radio, but brought it to a new level at the American Music Awards, launching into a chant of "No Trump, No KKK, No Fascist USA," grabbed from the MDC song "Born to Die."

4. Celine Dion's Pays Tribute To Her Late Husband with a Queen Cover at the Billboard Music Awards

This year has been especially rough, but Celine Dion has seen the real brunt of it. At the beginning of the year she lost her husband, Rene Angelil, to cancer. Two days later, her brother, Daniel, faced the same fate. Not one to go out without a fight, Dion gave a truly moving performance of Queen's "The Show Must Go On" at the 2016 Billboard Music Awards because, as she knows, everything gets better if you allow it to.

3. Lorde's David Bowie Tribute at the BRIT Awards

Things have been quite quiet on the Lorde front this year, but she had to make a public appearance to honor one of her heroes who passed in January -- the ineffable David Bowie. Joining the Starman's band, Lorde covered "Life On Mars" the way DB would've liked to see it -- inventive, passionate, otherworldly.

2. Prince Tribute at BET Awards

This year the BET Awards honored the late Prince with multiple performances. Erykah Badu tackled "The Ballad of Dorothy Parker" from the 1987 classic Sign O' the Times LP. Bilal mastered "The Beautiful Ones" and Stevie Wonder, with some help from Tori Kelly, did a wonderful duet of "Take Me With U," both tracks from the iconic Purple Rain album. Jennifer Hudson somberly covered the album's title track, Maxwell segued into "Nothing Compares To You," and perhaps most memorable was Janelle Monae's take on "Delirious." If that sounds like a lot, it's because it is a lot -- and Prince deserves nothing less.

1. Kendrick Lamar's Grammy Performance

It feels rare these days that a massively popular album can have a distinctly sociopolitical message, the kind that truly has the power to inspire change. Kendrick Lamar's performance at the 2016 Grammys accomplished just that, both with the songs' message, and how they were presented. In "The Blacker the Berry," Lamar performed in chains as a commentary on police brutality. In "Alright," the stage burns with a fiery rage -- both literally and figuratively -- while Kendrick struggles but eventually finds optimism in a cultural climate not inviting those of a certain race. At times, rewatching his set can feel frustrating -- and it's up to the listener, alongside Lamar, to do something about it.
Travel planning usually focuses on the where, the destination printed on our boarding passes or train tickets, the name typed into the Google search bar in neat Arial letters. There's the pin on the map, the destination's sights and smells, the perfect Instagram square of beach, skyline, or mountain.

But the who is at least as important as the where. The right tour leader can make a walk around the block into a thrilling adventurethe wrong companions can ruin even the most magical locale.

Today, more tour operators and cruise lines are thinking about the who when they weave together itineraries and programming. Theyre inviting along scientists, adventurers, journalists and photographers who transform trips into mobile TED talks where you can learn about climate change on Easter Island from Nicholas Kristoff of The New York Times, or visit Cuba alongside a James Beard-winning chef.

Whether you prefer to cruise, tour, cook, or hike, here are 10 fascinating people you can travel with in 2017.

Constanza Ceruti

High-altitude archaeologist

10 fascinating people to travel with in 2017

Archaeology is a challenging pursuit, but Argentine anthropologist Constanza Ceruti adds an extra layer of difficulty to the discipline with her specialty: alpine investigations in the high peaks of the Andes.

The lone woman in the field of high-altitude archaeology, Ceruti studies Incan shrines and ceremonial sitesoften the location of human sacrificeson summits higher than 19,000 feet. On a National Geographic expedition in the Atacama Desert, Ceruti was part of the team that discovered the Children of Llullaillaco, three 500-year-old kids among the best preserved mummies in the world.

Ceruti will share her experiences in mountaineering and research on National Geographic Expeditions Exploring Patagonia itinerary, which visits Buenos Aires, Tierra del Fuego, and Torres del Paine National Park.

Exploring Patagonia, January 16, February 6, March 13

Douglas Rodriguez

Chef

10 fascinating people to travel with in 2017

Born in the U.S. to Cuban parents, chef Douglas Rodriguez made a name for himself in the 1990s cooking Nuevo Latino cuisine at New York restaurants Patria and Chicama, and helping usher traditional dishes like ceviche and arepas into the American consciousness.

Story continues

While the James Beard-winner is still regularly in the kitchen at his 15-year-old Philadelphia restaurant Alma de Cuba, these days Rodriguez also leads culinary trips to Cuba, which he has visited more than 13 times in the last three years. In 2017, hell guide travelers through the booming Havana dining scene and introduce them to organic farms and ceviche techniques on three separate departures.

2017 trips with Chef Douglas Rodriguez

Dr. Brent Stewart

Scientist

That drone buzzing overhead? If youre cruising Antarctica with G Adventures, it likely belongs to Dr. Brent Stewart. Stewart is the Canadian tour companys scientist in residence, a biologist whos been studying marine mammals, sea turtles, whale sharks and penguins for more than 30 years and exploring questions like how penguins find their mate among colonies of thousands.

Learn more about the flightless birds on G Adventures Spirit of Shackleton voyage, which cruises through the Drake Passage to Antarctica, the Falkland Islands and Shackletons South Georgia grave.

Spirit of Shackleton, Jan. 11, 2017, and other Antarctic departures in 2017

Thierry Joubert

Via Dinarica pioneer

Dutchman Thierry Joubert arrived in the Balkans in 1992, just as the former Yugoslavia was disintegrating and the region was plunging into war. Despite the bitter conflict, Joubert fell in love with the region through humanitarian work, and in 2000 he co-founded Bosnia and Herzegovinas first ecotourism company, Green Visions.

In the last few years, Joubert has been instrumental in developing the Via Dinarica, a new trans-Balkan hiking trail that covers almost 2,000 kilometers in the little-explored Dinaric Alps and passes through mountain villages, virgin forests and stunning river canyons as it connects eight different countries, including Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Slovenia. Travelers can tackle sections of the trail with Joubert during guided Green Visions trips.

Departure dates to be announced

Jay Dickman

Photographer

10 fascinating people to travel with in 2017

Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Jay Dickman has plied his craft all over the world, from a Stone Age village in Papau New Guinea to a nuclear sub gliding beneath Arctic ice. In the last year alone hes visited nearly 30 countries on behalf of National Geographic, and when hes not on assignment, Dickman also leads photography workshops both as a National Geographic Expert and for his own FirstLight series.

Since launching FirstLight in 2003, Dickman has hosted groups in places like Namibia, Scotland, and the American West, helping aspiring shooters hone their talents and create their best images.

I hope these folks leave the workshop with this refreshed, emboldened perspective of seeing photographically, he said. For 2017, trips are in the works to Mongolia and a Wyoming ranch, timed to coincide with the total solar eclipse.

Various destinations and dates available with FirstLight and National Georgraphic Expeditions

Naomi Duguid

Writer/cookbook author

10 fascinating people to travel with in 2017

For Naomi Duguid, food is a lens through which to see a country and learn about its culture. The writer and cookbook author, who has published tomes on Thailand, Burma and most recently Persia, also leads culinary focused trips under the name Immerse Through.

What else do we do everyday besides eat? she said. Food is a subject and an activity and a preoccupation for everyone every day. Its the most accessible human activity.

On her trips to Chiang Mai and Northern Thailand, guests spend the mornings at various markets, then return to the kitchen to craft meals from the bounty theyve collected. In Burma, her tours travel the country, getting to know its diverse geography and culinary traditions.

In fall 2017, she also plans to launch a pair of new itineraries in Georgia and Iran inspired by her most recent book, A Taste of Persia. Guests will visit the bazaars of Iran, meet Georgian cheese producers and taste as much as possible.

Immerse Through

Robert Krulwich

Co-host, Radiolab

10 fascinating people to travel with in 2017

As co-host of NPRs Peabody-winning show Radiolab, Robert Krulwich has helped tell stories about pregnancy surrogates, rhino hunting and the dark web using humor to illuminate dense scientific concepts and explore tough issues.

The veteran journalist will lend his famous voice, scientific expertise and general curiosity to an 8-day Lindblad Expeditions voyage to southeastern Alaska that travels through the whale-rich waters of Icy Strait and into the fjords of Glacier Bay National Park. With only 62 guests onboard, youll get plenty of opportunities to rub elbows with the radio host and pump him for info on upcoming podcasts.

Exploring Alaskas Coastal Wilderness, Aug. 5, 2017

Kate Ulberg

Japan expert

Over three decades of guiding, Kate Ulberg has forged a connection to Japan that runs deep and opens doors. Along with understanding the intricacies of Japanese culture, shes privy to more simple secrets, like which tofu maker to visit first thing in the morning when the good stuff is extra fresh. Ulbergs relationship with the country took a new turn in 2013 when her brother discovered a traditional Japanese Torii gate claimed by the 2011 tsunami that had washed up on an Oregon beach. Ulberg helped track down the gates home village, and on Wilderness Travels new trip, Japan: The Road to the North, Ulberg leads guests in the footsteps of famed Japanese poet Matsuo Basho including a visit to the village of Okuki to see the Torii gate back in its rightful place.

Japan: The Road to the North, Oct. 16, 2017

Barry Lopez

Author

In his National Book Award-winner Arctic Dreams, author Barry Lopez describes the far north as beautiful and powerful, a place where darkness and light are bound together and where airplanes track icebergs the size of Cleveland and polar bears fly down out of the stars.

Known for his writings on humans relationship with the natural environment in books and essays for magazines like Outside and National Geographic, Lopez will serve as a special co-leader on Wilderness Travels small-ship Alaskan Dreams departure, during which guests spend their days exploring southeastern Alaska by paddle board and kayak and their evenings listening to talks from Lopez and fellow nature writer Richard Nelson.

Alaskan Dreams, July 22, 2017

Clint Hill

Secret Service agent (retired)

Few days in U.S. history have achieved the mythological status of November 22, 1963. Former Secret Service agent Clint Hill was traveling in President John F. Kennedys motorcade the day he was assassinated, and his experiences around the shooting and over four years working for First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy have become the subject of a pair books. The retired agent, who served five administrations and rose to the rank of assistant director of the Secret Service, will share unclassified memories of his days on the job aboard a 15-day Crystal Cruises sailing around New Zealand and Australia.

New Zealand Panorama, Jan. 5, 2017

And in 2018...

Nicholas Kristof

Columnist, The New York Times

10 fascinating people to travel with in 2017

Got a month and $135,000? Then you can join Abercrombie & Kent and the New York Times on a private-jet journey around the world that touches down in places like Marrakesh, Morocco and Yangon, Myanmar and taps current and former Times staffers to help tell the stories of the places you visit. One such writer is Nicholas Kristof, a two-time Pulitzer-winning op-ed columnist who has reported on human rights, war and poverty across the globe. Hell join the trip in Easter Island, Samoa and Sydney, Australia to talk about climate change where its effects are already reverberating.

Around the World by Private Jet: Cultures in Transformation, Feb. 8, 2018

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Photo credit: Kim Kardashian / Instagram

From Cosmopolitan

TV and Twitter weren't the only places where 2016 basically imploded. The drama of the year unfolded and played out all over Instagram, with some of your fave celebs caught up in the mix. These Instagram pics (in no particular order) caused the most shade-throwing and shit-talking, all while solidifying 2016 as a year we'll never forget but really, really want to.

1. Marc Jacobss Faux Dreadlocks Debacle

People were taking to Instagram and Twitter to express their frustration at not only the faux dreadlocks Marc Jacobs put on his models during New York Fashion Week but also his super tone-deaf initial response to accusations of cultural appropriation.

2. Kim Kardashians "M.I.L.F. $" Photoshop Rumors

Although Kim shut down rumors that her waist in her "M.I.L.F. $" Instagram pic was Photoshopped (she said there was simply a little bit of squeezing), that didnt stop the incessant speculation.

3. Kim Kardashian and Amber Roses Epic Selfie

Everyone heard the record scratch after Kim K. and Amber Rose posted a selfie together, especially considering all the well-documented beef between Amber and Kanye. But the Kardashian-Wests are a family of ~secrets~ best served via Instagram tea.

4. The Endless Saga of the Justin Bieber/Sofia Richie/Selena Gomez Drama

Since-deleted posts of Justin Bieber with his then-girlfriend Sofia Richie caused fans to completely flip their shit. The drama reached a pitching point when Selena Gomez joined in to school Justin on how he should be handling the shade.

Photo credit: Instagram

Photo credit: Instagram

5. Blake Livelys "L.A. Face With an Oakland booty" Caption

When Blake used Sir Mix-A-Lots '90s jam "Baby Got Back" to caption her Cannes red carpet photo, the backlash was swift with people pointing out the lyric's problematic implications. Still, both Blake and Sir-Mix-A-Lot defended the post as a celebration of womens bodies.

6. Mischa Bartons Police Brutality Post

The O.C. star got herself into some hot water with people who found her post (that she has since taken down) of solidarity with protests against this years police shootings to be tone-deaf, inappropriate, and frankly weird AF.

Story continues

I don't think Mischa Barton could have picked a worse photo to showcase her solidarity. pic.twitter.com/vHkeGKuUtQ - Philip Lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) July 7, 2016

7. Kim Kardashians Dazzling Engagement Ring From Kanye West

The sparkling rock garnered a lot of online traffic after it was stolen during the infamous Paris robbery. Some argued Kim should have the right to show off her hard-earned wealth. Others argued duh, of course you get robbed when you show off your bling like that.

8. Kylie and Tygas Photo Shoot

Although Kyga have some supporters, theyve also garnered some long-time hate for their relationship, so it should surprise no one this photo shoot Kylie posted has generated some serious shade.

9. Trevor Noahs Alleged Peace Offering to Tomi Lahren

People were pretty pissed to see the Daily Show host Trevor Noah getting buddy-buddy with conservative talk-show host Tomi Lahren after he slammed her on his show. His alleged peace offering was just ~icing on the cupcake~. But Trevor may not have actually sent the cupcake.

10. Calvin Kleins "Upskirt" Ad

Klara Kristen, the model in the photo, doesnt give a damn about your Instagram shade. She apparently loves the shot, so there.

11. Kim Kardashian's Nude Selfie

In another episode of "obsess over what a woman wears (or doesn't wear)," Kim K. faced major backlash (from Piers Morgan, Chloe Grace Moretz, and Bette Midler) for her when you have nothing to wear" selfie.

12. Lil Kims Complete Makeover

For years, people have been commenting on the ever-changing looks of the rap worlds Queen B. Conversation pitched when Lil Kim shared a picture of herself with light skin and blonde hair. The look shocked and disturbed a lot of fans, who knew Kim before the changes.

13. Serena Williams's Photoshopped People Magazine Shoot

Despite being one of the worlds most epic athletes with a body to prove it, Serena still gets the Photoshop treatment from some publications. This one in particular, where her waist was slimmed down, caused quite a stir on Insta, until she took it down and put up the un-Photoshopped version.

Photo credit: @SerenaWilliams / Instagram

14. Taylor Swift and Kim Kardashian's Epic Battle on "National Snake Day"

What would a breakdown of controversial moments in 2016 be without a shout-out to the Taylor/Kanye/Kim debacle? Taylor was not having it (or was trying not to have it) after Kim put an accusatory Snapchat up of Taylor allegedly approving of Kanyes song "Famous," despite previously decrying the songs lyrics.

15. Nicki Minajs Video of Her Conversation With a Mentally Ill Woman

When Nicki posted a video of her talking to and laughing at a mentally ill woman while in Miami, the internet was pretty pissed, criticizing her for making fun of the woman. Despite the heat she received for the video, Nicki didnt take it down nor change the caption.

16. Khloe Kardashians Photoshop Boo Boo

Khloe Kardashian got the Photoshop police called on her when she posted a retouched post-workout photo. After some heat on Insta, Khloe posted the OG un-retouched shot, captioning it with, If only hatin burned calories how dope would yall be."

17. Tina Lawsons Elevator Picture

What was supposed to be a picture that captured a sweet family moment between Solange, her son, and Jay Z turned into Instagram users joking that the pic is a predecessor to part two of the infamous elevator fight. The matriarch of the Knowles family quickly deleted the picture but it was too late in a world of screenshots.

18. Blac Chynas Clap-Back at Wendy Williams' Shit-Talking Sesh

When it comes to Blac Chynas family, its probably best you not make a 20-minute real-talk session about them on public television. Wendy Williams learned about Chynas strong clap-back game in a since-deleted Instagram pic.

19. Mariah Careys Thanksgiving Photoshop Blunder

Fans had a field day under Mariah's Thanksgiving Insta pic when she made the classic door-curve and bent-mirror Photoshop mistakes. Everyone need to leave this diva alone for the rest of the year and then some.

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At least three persons have been reported dead in a bus accident that took place at Katari-Ghurmi road section of Siddhicharan Lokmarga in Udaypur on Friday.
Twenty-First Century Fox has reached a preliminary deal to buy European pay TV giant Sky for $14.1 billion, Sky revealed on Friday in an announcement that was later confirmed by Fox.

The Murdoch familys Fox already holds a 39 percent stake in Sky and offered 10.75 pounds ($13.51 USD) per share to take over the rest of the company.

The preliminary deal is for 11.2 billion pounds, which is equal to $14.1 billion, according to Bloomberg. Sky provides satellite TV service to 21.8 million customers across the U.K., Ireland, Italy and Germany.

Also Read: Top 21 Cable News Shows, Ranked: What are the Most Popular CNN, MSNBC, Fox News Programs? (Photos)

The Independent Directors of Sky PLC note todays share price increase, and announce that Sky has received an approach from 21st Century Fox, Inc, Sky said in a press release. After a period of negotiation, the Independent Directors of Sky and 21st Century Fox have reached agreement on an offer price of 10.75 per share in cash, less the value of any dividends subsequently paid by Sky. However, certain material offer terms remain under discussion and there can be no certainty that an offer will be made by 21st Century Fox, nor as to the terms of any such offer.

The statement continues: The Proposal represents a premium of 40 percent to the closing price on 6th December, being the last business day prior to the initial proposal being received from 21st Century Fox, and a premium of 36 percent to the closing price on 8th December, being the last business day prior to this announcement.

Sky noted that discussions are continuing and a further announcement will be made in due course as appropriate. Morgan Stanley, PJT Partners and Barclays are advising the companys board.

Also Read: Ratings: Taraji P. Henson's 'White Hot Holidays' Sinks 31 Percent From 2015

Certain material offer terms remain under discussion and the Possible Offer may or may not lead to an offer being made by 21st Century Fox, 21CF said in a statement.

Story continues

21st Century Fox continued: In the past several years, 21st Century Fox has consistently stated that its existing 39.1% stake in Sky is not a natural end position. A proposed transaction between 21st Century Fox and Sky would bring together 21st Century Foxs global content business with Skys world-class direct-to-consumer capabilities, which have made it the number one premium pay-TV provider in all its markets. It would also enhance Skys leading position in entertainment and sport, and reinforce the U.K.s standing as a top global hub for content generation and technological innovation.

This isnt the first time 21st Century Fox has attempted to own the asset outright. A 2010 attempt by Rupert Murdoch was squashed following a hacking scandal involving two of his newspapers.

Fox is required to clarify its intentions by no later than Jan. 6, 2017. The company did not immediately respond to TheWraps request for comment on this takeover attempt.

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Joe Scarborough Doesn't Think Fake News Cost Hillary Clinton the Election (Video)

Hillary Clinton Says 'Lives Are at Risk' Because of Fake News (Video)

Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg on Fake News: 'We Don't Think It Swayed the Election' (Video)

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According to the National Institutes of Health, an odontoma is an abnormal mass of calcified dental tissue, usually representing a developmental abnormality. In other words, it is a benign tumor linked to the development of teeth, in which normal teeth tissue grows in an unusual way, and is the second-most common type of tumor associated with teeth development.

However, it has never been observed in a non-mammal species, let alone in one that lived 255 million years ago. Until now, that is. Paleontologists from the University of Washington (UW) studying the mandibles of a gorgonopsian fossil found it suffered from compound odontoma.

These animals lived in the Permian, before the dinosaurs arrived, and were among the largest predators of their time. They are classified as mammalian, meaning they are closer to mammals than to reptiles or dinosaurs, but they are not mammals. Fossils of these carnivores  they had enlarged canine teeth, akin to the Siberian tiger  have been found in Africa and Russia, and the sample that showed odontoma was found in the Ruhuhu Valley of southern Tanzania in 2007.

Judy Skog, program director in the National Science Foundations Division of Earth Sciences, which funded the research, said in a statement: Until now, the earliest known occurrence of this tumor was about one million years ago, in fossil mammals. These researchers have found an example in the ancestors of mammals that lived 255 million years ago. The discovery suggests that the suspected cause of an odontoma isnt tied solely to traits in modern species, as had been thought.

Odontoma

Photo: Megan Whitney/Christian Sidor/University of Washington

The study was prompted by wanting to understand the evolution of mammalian features, some of which may have been passed down to mammals, who evolved about 100 million years ago.

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Most reptiles alive today fuse their teeth directly to the jawbone. But mammals do not: We use tough, but flexible, string-like tissues to hold teeth in their sockets. And I wanted to know if the same was true for gorgonopsians, Megan Whitney, lead author of the study and UW biology graduate student, said in the statement.

There have been previous recorded cases of odontoma in other mammals, long before humans evolved, but those are all within the last 1 million years only. However, the gorgonopsian tumor is not the oldest tumor on record. A fish had cancer 300 million years ago, and another possible case occurred as long back as 350 million years ago.

The findings were detailed in a letter titled Odontoma in a 255-Million-Year-Old Mammalian Forebear that was published Thursday in the Journal of the American Medical Association Oncology.

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(Reuters) - 3M Co , the maker of Scotch tape and Post-it notes, said it had entered into agreements to sell its identity management business to Amsterdam-based digital security company Gemalto for $850 million. The unit, which provides biometric solutions used in law enforcement, border control and civil identification, has annual global sales of about $215 million. "We believe that the identity management business will be better positioned with a company that is primarily focused on security solutions," the company's vice president of traffic safety and security division, John Riccardi, said in a statement. Minnesota-based 3M said it would record a gain related to the deal, and incur various charges after the sale is completed. 3M said the deal was expected to close during the first half of 2017. Goldman Sachs & Co is the exclusive financial adviser to 3M. (Reporting by Akankshita Mukhopadhyay in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Cooney)
Photo credit: Hearst Communications, Inc. All rights reserved

From Cosmopolitan

In July, Donald Trump chosen retired Marine Gen. John F. Kelly as his new White House Chief of Staff, replacing Reince Priebus, whose job had been widely speculated as being on the line. Priebus had, in fact, been "looking for a graceful exit," The New York Times reported this week, but President Trump decided to announce the hiring/firing on Twitter Friday afternoon.

I am pleased to inform you that I have just named General/Secretary John F Kelly as White House Chief of Staff. He is a Great American.... - Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 28, 2017

...and a Great Leader. John has also done a spectacular job at Homeland Security. He has been a true star of my Administration - Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 28, 2017

I would like to thank Reince Priebus for his service and dedication to his country. We accomplished a lot together and I am proud of him! - Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 28, 2017

Kelly, who spent 40 years in the U.S. Marines including three tours in Iraq, was previously tapped by Trump lead the Department of Homeland Security, the third-largest Cabinet department, which oversees security at the nations airports and along its borders. "Gen. John Kellys decades of military service and deep commitment to fighting the threat of terrorism inside our borders makes him the ideal choice to serve as our Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Trump said in a statement at the time. He is the right person to spearhead the urgent mission of stopping illegal immigration and securing our borders, streamlining TSA and improving coordination between our intelligence and law enforcement agencies."

In his tweets confirming Gen. Kelly's new job, Trump described him as a "true star" and someone who had done a "spectacular job" leading the Department. Kelly, 66, is a Boston native with a decorated career in the military. Heres what you need to know about him:

His son was killed in combat.

Photo credit: The Washington Post / Getty

Kelly has the unfortunate distinction of being the highest-ranking military officer to lose a child in Iraq or Afghanistan. In 2010, Kellys son, Lt. Robert Michael Kelly, died in Afghanistan while leading a platoon. Kelly has said little publicly about the death of his son, but four days after his son's death, he gave a fiery speech about military sacrifice.



Their struggle is your struggle, he said. If anyone thinks you can somehow thank them for their service and not support the cause for which they fight - our country - these people are lying to themselves.

Kelly doesnt mention his son in the speech, which has been shared widely online. In a 2013 dedication to a memorial to Marines and sailors killed in Afghanistan, Kelly alluded to his own loss: From the bottom of my own broken heart, Im sorry.



During a press conference in early 2016, he did refer directly to his son.

"To lose a child is - I can't imagine anything worse than that. I used to think, when I'd go to all of my trips up to Bethesda, Walter Reed, I'll go to the funerals with the secretaries of defense, that I could somehow imagine what it would be like ... when you lose one in combat, there's a - in my opinion - there's a pride that goes with it, that he didn't have to be there doing what he was doing. He wanted to be there. He volunteered."

Kelly said he gets "occasional letters from gold star families who are asking, 'Was it worth it?' And I always go back with this: It doesn't matter. That's not our question to ask as parents. That young person thought it was worth it, and that's the only opinion that counts."

Trump famously and very publicly disparaged gold star parents Khizr and Ghazala Khan, whose son Capt. Humayun Khan, was killed in combat in Iraq. On October 17, 2017, he said President Obama didn't always call families of fallen soldiers, and invoked Kelly's story as evidence, according to Politico. I mean, you could ask General Kelly did he get a call from Obama," he said. A White House official confirmed Trump's statement, though President Obama did host Kelly at an event for gold star families six months after his son's death; he and his wife sat at Michelle Obama's table.

He led United States Southern Command for four years.

The U.S. Southern Command is a vast area that includes the Caribbean and Central and South America. As the person in charge of this area, Kelly oversaw military operations, but, as the New York Times points out, the job is less about conflict and more about wielding Americas soft power in the region. That includes humanitarian aid and disaster relief. Kelly retired from the job in February 2016.

He questioned President Barack Obamas decision to open combat jobs to women.

In January 2016, the Pentagon said it was opening combat roles in the military to women. Kelly, who was heading up U.S. Southern Command at the time, expressed concern over the decision, namely that the military would have to lower its standards to accept women in these roles.

There will be great pressure, whether its 12 months from now, four years from now, because the question will be asked whether weve let women into these other roles, why arent they staying in those other roles?" he told reporters around the time of the announcement.

If we dont change standards, he said, it will be very, very difficult to have any numbers - any real numbers - come into the infantry, or the Rangers or the SEALs, but thats their business.

He oversaw the Guantanamo Bay prison.

As head of Southern Command, Kellys area of responsibility included the prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where he facilitated the prisoner swap for U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, according to Defense One, a move he called unusual.

He has swatted away criticism about inhumane treatment of prisoners, the New York Times reported. Force-feeding prisoners on hunger strike, for instance, was a humane approach, according to Kelly.

He also insisted that one of the arguments for closing the prison - that it serves as a recruitment or propaganda tool for terror groups - is a nonsense argument.

Bombing the living shit out of ISIS in Iraq and Afghanistan, Syria, that would maybe irritate them more than the fact we have Guantanamo open, he told Defense One.

Before becoming Chief of Staff, he would have likely been responsible for building Trumps promised wall.

The job of planning and building Trumps wall between the U.S. and Mexican will likely fall on Homeland Security, according to the Washington Post. And Kelly seems to share Trumps view of border security - something he wouldve had a unique view of during his time heading up Southern Command.

In a 2014 interview with Defense One, he described illegal drug trade and the flow of undocumented immigrants into the U.S. as an existential threat to the nation.

And, in congressional testimony in 2015, he suggested smugglers could be bringing terrorists into the country. Despite the heroic efforts of our law enforcement colleagues, criminal organizations are constantly adapting their methods for trafficking across our borders, Kelly told the Senate Armed Services Committee. While there is not yet any indication that the criminal networks involved in human and drug trafficking are interested in supporting the efforts of terrorist groups, these networks could unwittingly, or even wittingly, facilitate the movement of terrorist operatives or weapons of mass destruction toward our borders.

During a 2014 hearing, he told the Senate Armed Services Committee that he didn't have the ships or surveillance assets to get more than 20 percent of the drugs leaving Colombia for the U.S. He said he often had "very good clarity" on the drug traffickers, but much of the time, "I simply sit and watch it go by."



At his confirmation hearing, he indicated that a wall alone wouldn't be enough to defend the southern border. It has to be a layered defense, he said. If you build a wall, you would still have to back that wall up with patrolling by human beings, by sensors, by observation devices.

He made a splash on his first day.

On July 31, his first day on the job, Kelly was reportedly the force behind pushing out Anthony Scaramucci, the blink-and-you-missed-him communications director who was announced just 11 days earlier. According to the New York Times, Kelly made clear at a meeting Monday morning that he is in charge.

He fired Steve Bannon shortly after arriving.

On August 18, Kelly fired controversial chief strategist Steve Bannon. White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and Steve Bannon have mutually agreed today would be Steves last day, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said in a statement, according to the New York Times. We are grateful for his service and wish him the best.

His body language has gone viral.

The Washington Post notes that photos of Kelly covering his face or looking down when President Trump is speaking have gone viral, leading some to think he is exasperated with the president. The below photo was taken after the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, while Trump said there were "good people" on both sides.

John Kelly during the President's Q and A at Trump Tower pic.twitter.com/vxR3hTUqe3 - Kristin Donnelly (@kristindonnelly) August 15, 2017

And the below was taken while Trump addressed the United Nations, saying the U.S. would "totally destroy" North Korea.

John Kelly's reaction to Trump calling Kim Jong Un "Rocket Man" and saying he'd "totally destroy" North Korea: pic.twitter.com/S0ZR7B3Hql - Nick Jack Pappas (@Pappiness) September 19, 2017

It's unclear whether Kelly was simply caught at the wrong moment or meant to convey dissatisfaction with his body language, but the photos were spread on social media regardless.

With reporting from the Associated Press.

This article was first published on December 7, 2016 and has been updated.

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The web-slinging superhero is here. On Thursday night, during Jimmy Kimmel Live! Marvel Studios and Sony released the first official trailer of Spider-Man: Homecoming which stars Tom Holland as Peter Parker/Spiderman and Zendaya Coleman as Michelle.

This is the first time fans of Spidey got a good look at the film, which is slated to release in theatres in 2017.

Here are five things we learned from watching the video:

1. Michael Keatons Villainous Character Vulture Is Amazing

Marvel never confirmed that Michael Keaton is playing Vulture, but the trailer above certainly confirms the rumor. Dont mess with, Vulture warns Parker, because I will kill you and everybody you love. Tony (Robert Downey, Jr.) also warns Peter not to pursue the flying monster. But, of course, Spiderman does the exact opposite and tries to stop him. He is sick of everyone treating him like a kid, even though he is a kid!

2. Spiderman Has Wings!

In a teaser trailer that was released earlier, Hollands character receives a new suit with a minor upgrade: Wings. The Steve Ditko-inspired costume allows Parker to take flight. He will need it to fight Vulture.

3. The Superhero Gets Advice From Tony Stark/Iron Man

Spiderman wants to save the world. Desperately.

In the trailer Spiderman asks Iron Man, So to become an Avenger, are there like trials or an interview? Just dont do anything I would do, and definitely dont do anything I wouldnt do. Theres a little gray area in there, and thats where you operate, he replies.

Then Stark goes on to explain that he knows school sucks and he knows Parker wants to save the world, but he thinks he isnt ready to do that.

4. Hes Not An Avenger  Yet

Despite taking down some bank robbers that are dressed like the Avengers, Spiderman isnt a part of the world-saving organization. Stark advices him to stay close to the ground and stay out of trouble. But Spiderman thinks he isnt just a high school kid. Taking down Vulture is a chance to prove himself to Iron Man and the rest of the Avengers that he is ready to save the world.

Story continues

5. Peter Parker Is Also A Regular High School Kid

The video reminds us that although Parker is a superhero, he is also a regular high school kid who stares at skirts and attends classes.

Spider-Man: Homecoming swings into theatres July 7, 2017.

Spider-Man: Homecoming

Photo: Marvel Studios/Sony

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Ashlee Margolis opened the doors to The A List, her office-meets-showroom space in Beverly Hills, for a Vince Camuto all-girls dance party Tuesday night. There were celebs (Emily Ratjakowski, Selma Blair, Busy Philipps), booze (CIROQ, Whispering Angel Rose, Gem & Bolt mezcal), snacks (see spread below), and options for the alcohol-free set (Health-Ade Kombucha and JUST water).

Margolis, the founder of the the branding, fashion and events business, is known around Hollywood for her masterful hosting skills, whether the bash is inside her office or out. Pret-a-Reporter cornered her not far from the entrance for a rundown of her top holiday party planning tips. And surprisingly, the mother of two says to just keep it simple.

Read more The A List Founder Looks Back on 15 Years

1. Bigger isn't better: "Make your space small and intimate so people are forced to rub elbows and interact with each other," says Margolis.

2. Playlist for days: "Great music! I always love R&B, hip-hop and yacht rock to start the night. Yacht rock is the best," she offers, without apologizing to country music fans.

3. Flip the switch: "I'm all about the lighting. You need festive lighting - twinkle lights. I love a ton of 'bistro lights' for a great holiday vibe," says Margolis.

4. Crowd sourcing: "Curating a great mix of people is a must," she says. "You need people who are a lot of fun and very happy to keep the party colorful."

5. A great outfit, helps too. "I'm wearing Vince Camuto shoes and over in the corner is my Vince Camuto bag."

John Salangsang/BFA

John Salangsang/BFA

John Salangsang/BFA

John Salangsang/BFA

John Salangsang/BFA
All the uncertainty that hovers prior to the earnings release of a company stems from speculation over its beat potential. More than the comparison with previous results, it is a positive earnings surprise which drives the market post release. And since in any earnings season, both positive and negative surprises hit us, investors must always be looking keenly for stocks likely to post positive surprises or an earnings BEAT.

Why Is Earnings Surprise So Important?

Historically, stocks of companies with solid quarterly earnings (on a nominal basis) fall if they miss or just come in line with market expectations. After all, a 20% earnings rise (though it looks good apparently) doesnt tell you if earnings growth has been exhibiting a decelerating trend. If that is the case, the companys fundamentals are in serious question.

There is also the factor of seasonal fluctuation. If a companys Q1 is seasonally weak and Q4 is strong, then it is likely to report a sequential earnings decline. In a such case, growth rates are ambiguous while judging the companys true health.

On the other hand, Wall Street analysts study companies financials and initiatives to forecast earnings. They in fact club their insights and the companys guidance to derive an earnings estimate. So, outperforming that estimate is almost equivalent to beating the companys own expectation as well as market perception. And if the company manages to surpass earnings by a wide margin, it typically drives the stock higher right after the release.

Now, since it is hard to predict if a company will beat or miss in the upcoming earnings season, investors can check its earnings surprise history. A notable track record generally acts as a tailwind. It revs up chances of beating estimates in the next release too as investors expect the company to use the same old trick to come ahead of expectations, or is smart enough to pull off a beat in the next release.

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The Winning Strategy

In order to shortlist stocks that are likely to come up with an earnings surprise, we chose the followingas our primary screening parameters.

Last EPS Surprise greater than or equal to 10%: Stocks that delivered a positive surprise in the last quarter are likely to surprise again.

Average EPS Surprise in the last four quarters greater than 20%: We lifted the bar for outperformance slight higher by setting the average earnings surprise for the last four quarters at 20%.

Average EPS Surprise in the last two quarters greater than 20%: This points to a more consistent surprise history and makes the case for another surprise even stronger.

In addition, we place a few other criteria that push up the chance of a positive surprise.

Zacks Rank less than equal to 2: Only companies with a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or 2 (Buy) rating can get through.

Earnings ESP greater than zero: A stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank of #1, 2 or 3 for an earnings beat to happen, as per our proven model.

In order to zero in on those that have long-term growth potential and high trading liquidity we have added the following parameters too:

Next 35 Years Estimated EPS Growth (Per Year) greater than 10%: Solid expected earnings growth exhibits the stocks long-term growth prospects.

Average 20-day Volume greater than 100,000: High trading volume implies that the stock has adequate liquidity.

A handful of criteria narrowed down the universe from over 7,700 stocks to 17.

Here are five out of the 17 stocks:

Diamondback Energy Inc. FANG: This Zacks Rank #1company is engaged in the exploration and development of unconventional, onshore oil and natural gas reserves in the Permian Basin in West Texas. The Zacks Industry Rank of the stock is in the top 31%. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Matador Resources Company MTDR: This Zacks Rank #2 energy company is engaged in the exploration and development of oil and natural gas resources. The Zacks Industry Rank of the stock is in the top 31%.

Burlington Stores Inc. (BURL): It is a retailer of branded apparel products, with a Zacks Rank #2. The Zacks Industry Rank of the stock is in the top 31%.

WellCare Health Plans Inc. WCG: This Zacks Rank #1 company is a provider of managed care services targeted to government-sponsored healthcare programs. The Zacks Industry Rank of the stock is in the top 32%.

Nxstage Medical Inc. NXTM: This is a medical device company. The company carries a Zacks Rank #1. The Zacks Industry Rank of the stock is in the top 37%.

You can get the rest of the stocks on this list by signing up now for your 2-week free trial to the Research Wizard and start using this screen in your own trading. Further, you can also create your own strategies and test them first before taking the investment plunge.

The Research Wizard is a great place to begin. It's easy to use. Everything is in plain language. And it's very intuitive. Start your Research Wizard trial today. And the next time you read an economic report, open up the Research Wizard, plug your finds in, and see what gems come out.

Click here to sign up for a free trial to the Research Wizard today.

Disclosure: Officers, directors and/or employees of Zacks Investment Research may own or have sold short securities and/or hold long and/or short positions in options that are mentioned in this material. An affiliated investment advisory firm may own or have sold short securities and/or hold long and/or short positions in options that are mentioned in this material.

Disclosure: Performance information for Zacks portfolios and strategies are available at: https://www.zacks.com/performance.

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The Calgary Zoo is mourning the loss of seven Humboldt penguins.

The Alberta, Canada conservation facility announced the sad news on its website Thursday after the aquatic birds were found dead at the Penguin Plunge exhibit in the morning.

This is devastating news, Jamie Dorgan, Calgary Zoos Director Animal Care, said in a statement. We have launched a full investigation so we can try to understand what happened and prevent further incidents like this from happening again.

Necropsies conducted on the penguins determined drowning as the cause of death. The youngest was approximately eight months old, and the oldest was seven years old.

The penguins were moved to specific holding rooms since Monday due to ongoing work at the exhibit, according to the zoo.

We are thinking a lot of what the possibilities could be. We are really digging to find evidence, Dorgan told The Calgary Herald about what happened to the seven penguins. Right now it seems like something set these birds off, like if one or two birds got into a panic. But, really we are just speculating at this point.

Adding, Its pretty tough. You know, all the animals at the zoo are family members for our staff. Anytime a zoo keeper comes in the morning and finds this type of event, its really difficult. Were obviously very shocked at what happened and had a lot of people were very upset.

In 2013, multiple penguins, including a three-year-old Humboldt called Junto, died after a bacterial infection swept through the same enclosure.




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He may be the world's biggest rockstar, but today, he's just a dad.

Seventy-three year old Mick Jagger and his girlfriend, ballerina Melanie Hamrick, welcomed a boy into the world on Thursday, according to a statement made to BBC UK.

SEE ALSO: Rolling Stones' new video has a dog playing basketball to brighten your day

"Mick was at the hospital for the arrival... Mother and baby are doing well and we request that the media respect their privacy at this time," Jagger's publicist told BBC, after adding that the new parents are "delighted."

My tutu has gotten tight!  #ballerina #abt #lifeisbeautiful @abtofficial #maternitystyle @inspirepregnancy A photo posted by Melanie Hamrick (@melhamrick) on Nov 19, 2016 at 8:18pm PST

This is Jagger's eighth child, and the seven others range in age  the oldest of which is 45. Jagger also became a great-grandfather in 2014 when Jade Jagger's daughter gave birth.

Seems as if The Rolling Stones are having a good year. Member Ron Wood, 68, also welcomed twins into the world this year, and as a group, the band just released its first new album in 11 years, Blue and Lonesome.

BONUS: These sensors turn your drumsticks into a virtual drumkit
Actual budget spending reaches 6.5pc in first four months of FY

The government was able to spend only 6.5 percent of the Rs311-billion development budget in the first four months of the current fiscal year, reflecting the slow pace of development projects. Capital expenditure as of December 7 amounted to Rs20 billion.
This weeks most expensive new listing on realtor.com hails from an unlikely locale. Were accustomed to seeing pricey properties in New York, but the bulk of posh pads in the Empire State are in the Hamptons or New York City. Surely not Nassau County.

Until now! This $85 million compound in Kings Point is the most expensive listing in Nassau County by an overwhelming margin. The runner-up is a $30 million, 40-acre estate in Oyster Bay thats been on the market for over a year.

The Long Island estate taking the crown this week isnt exactly a fresh face, either. It landed on the market in September 2015 with an asking price of $100 million, but no buyer nibbled on the nine-figure price tag. Ever optimistic about high net worth individuals appetite for opulence, the waterfront spread was relisted this week with a $15 million price cut. Its now priced to sell, according to co-listing agent Mary Stanco.

Kings Point, NY realtor.com

For $85 million, a buyer wont receive keys to just a single mansion. There are multiple mansions on the 8-acre property: a main house and two separate mansions serving as extravagant guest quarters. Together, they offer around 60,000 square feet of living space. Inside, amenities include pools, a bowling alley, and a casino.

Last sold in 2013 for a paltry $15.85 million, the compound has undergone extensive restorations and upgrades. Homeowner Helene Abiri told Mansion Global, Now it has a lot of beautiful inlaid marble work throughout the entire house, but each room has its unique feature, either a bowling alley or a shooting range. And, hey, who wouldnt want their own bowling alley or shooting range?

Stanco says shes marketing the property internationally and the compound is priced appropriately for the staggering amount of work that went into it. She adds that buyers have been circling the compound and the bay and city views from the property are beautiful. If it manages to sell for the asking price, Stanco says, the sale would be a record for Nassau County. For lovers of Long Island life with oodles of cash, we recommend docking your yacht on the North Shore at this classic compound.

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Tennis court realtor.com

City views realtor.com

The post $85M Nassau County Compound Is the Weeks Most Expensive New Listing appeared first on Real Estate News and Advice - realtor.com.
By Timothy Mclaughlin

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A longtime activist Chicago priest who has marched in protests, attended vigils and delivered sermons decrying violence in the city's most deadly year in nearly two decades, fears the surge in murders could continue into 2017.

Father Michael Pfleger, pastor of St. Sabina Catholic Church on Chicago's predominantly black South Side where many of the more than 700 murders occurred, said in a telephone interview on Thursday that police were struggling to rebuild trust with people as guns were also flowing onto the streets.

"This year is through the roof," Pfleger, 67, said. "The numbers are shameful," he added. "They should be embarrassing to us and they should make us outraged."

There have been 711 murders in the third largest city in the United States so far in 2016, the Chicago Police Department said, a number not seen since 1997 when 761 were murdered, and more than Los Angeles and New York combined reported this year. Both cities have considerably higher populations than Chicago's 2.7 million residents.

Chicago's police department has undertaken a series of reforms following the shooting death of a black teenager by a white officer and is under federal investigation to determine whether the department has systematically violated constitutional rights.

Pfleger said the number of guns in the city had increased dramatically over the past 20 years, contributing to the large death toll.

"You have more guns now than we have ever had. America, whether we want to admit it or not, has made them part of our wardrobe," the priest said.

The number of guns recovered for the year through November was nearly 8,000, up 20 percent from a year ago, while gun-related arrests were up 8 percent, police said.

"The levels of violence we have seen this year in some of our communities is absolutely unacceptable," police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said in a statement at the beginning of December.

Much of Chicago's violence occurs on its poverty stricken west and south sides.

(Reporting by Timothy Mclaughlin; editing by Grant McCool)
(Reuters) - Actor Judge Reinhold was released from a Dallas jail on Thursday night following his arrest for causing a disturbance at a local airport after refusing to be screened at a security checkpoint, police said on Friday. Reinhold was taken into custody on Thursday afternoon at Dallas Love Field airport, the city police department said in a statement. The 59-year-old actor, who is known for roles in movies such as "Beverly Hills Cop," "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" and "Gremlins," was charged with disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor. Police records did not indicate that Reinhold posted bail before his release, according to a spokeswoman from the Dallas County Sheriff's Office. Melinda Gutierrez, a city police spokeswoman, did not say whether charges against him were dropped. "I have to say that the past 48 hours have been the most unusual, hair-raising and regrettable two days of my life," Reinhold said in a statement released by his attorney on Friday. "At best, it's a cautionary tale." Reinhold was stopped after his bag set off an alarm as he passed through a scanner at the airport, his lawyer, Steve Stodghill, told the Dallas Morning News on Thursday. Agents then asked to pat Reinhold down, but Stodghill said his client did not understand why that was needed after he went through the scanner without triggering an alarm. In Friday's statement, the actor said he was prescribed antibiotics on Wednesday, the day he originally planned to travel. But he said he had a negative reaction to the medication and was taken to a hospital for treatment and observation. Rescheduling his flight for Thursday, Reinhold said he reacted wrongly after his bag set off the alarm and a trainee agent stopped him for a pat-down. "Two Dallas police officers came over and gave me every opportunity to keep my mouth shut," Reinhold said. "I didn't comply with the pat down or their suggestions. This led to my arrest. I knew better; I just didn't do the right thing." "I feel especially embarrassed about self righteous indignation when I've enjoyed 30 years of support and camaraderie with law enforcement," he added. (Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee and Gina Cherelus in New York; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Lisa Shumaker)
By Tom Gardner ADDIS ABABA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - As many as 3.5 million people in Africa were uprooted from their homes in 2015 due to conflict and natural disasters and left stranded in their own country, with many governments overlooking this growing problem, according to a report released on Friday. Figures from the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC) showed an average of about 9,500 people fled their homes daily last year, bringing the total number of Africans displaced internally to 12.4 million, with the number set to rise in 2016. The worst affected country was Nigeria, with as many as 736,000 fleeing their homes in 2015 as a result of violence associated with the Boko Haram militant Islamist insurgency. The report calculates the number of internally displaced people (IDPs) is double the number of the continent's refugees, estimated by the United Nations to have reached 5.4 million in 2015, highlighting the scale of Africa's comparatively overlooked "internal displacement crisis". While refugees are the responsibility of the international community, people displaced within their own country are the responsibility of national governments. "Many of these governments are not even aware of the scale of the problem within their own borders," said Alexandra Bilak, IDMC director told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an interview. "They need to take up their responsibilities and actually keep track of these people." ONGOING CRISES The figures for the first half of 2016 are likely to be at least as high with ongoing conflicts in countries like South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Nigeria, Bilak said. The report's publication marks the anniversary of the Kampala Convention, Africa's landmark commitment to preventing displacement and protecting the rights of IDPs, signed in 2009 and now ratified by 25 countries. It argues better data is needed, especially on people driven from their homes by slow-onset crises such as a drought, and this is crucial if governments are to meet their commitments. "Reliable data on population movements is vital to ensure a timely and well targeted operational and policy response," the report said. The IDMC hoped the report would be a reminder that while the continent's refugee crisis has attracted international attention in recent years, the problem of huge numbers of Africans uprooted from their homes but temporarily settled in their own countries is not new. "The same people remain on our books, year in, year out. The numbers are not going down," said Bilak. The report draws attention to "off-the-radar" displacement in countries like Ethiopia and Malawi, which, while relatively stable, suffer slow-moving environmental challenges such as drought that are "blind spots" for policymakers. A third of African countries are prone to drought, and most are increasingly vulnerable as result of climate change. It also highlights the role of southern Africa's worst agricultural drought in 35 years  and resulting severe food shortages  in driving people from their homes in 2015. The report also emphasized the need for African governments to recognize the role of development projects in causing the sort of "off-the-radar" displacement with people evicted from slums to make way for infrastucture. All too often "the impact of development projects and business activities on the people they force from their homes and livelihoods is not visible to policymakers," the report said. (Reporting by Tom Gardner, Editing by Belinda Goldsmith; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org)
By Tom Gardner ADDIS ABABA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - As many as 3.5 million people in Africa were uprooted from their homes in 2015 due to conflict and natural disasters and left stranded in their own country, with many governments overlooking this growing problem, according to a report released on Friday. Figures from the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) showed an average of about 9,500 people fled their homes daily last year, bringing the total number of Africans displaced internally to 12.4 million, with the number set to rise in 2016. The worst affected country was Nigeria, with as many as 736,000 fleeing their homes in 2015 as a result of violence associated with the Boko Haram militant Islamist insurgency. The report calculates the number of internally displaced people (IDPs) is double the number of the continent's refugees, estimated by the United Nations to have reached 5.4 million in 2015, highlighting the scale of Africa's comparatively overlooked "internal displacement crisis". While refugees are the responsibility of the international community, people displaced within their own country are the responsibility of national governments. "Many of these governments are not even aware of the scale of the problem within their own borders," said Alexandra Bilak, IDMC director told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an interview. "They need to take up their responsibilities and actually keep track of these people." ONGOING CRISES The figures for the first half of 2016 are likely to be at least as high with ongoing conflicts in countries like South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Nigeria, Bilak said. The report's publication marks the anniversary of the Kampala Convention, Africa's landmark commitment to preventing displacement and protecting the rights of IDPs, signed in 2009 and now ratified by 25 countries. It argues better data is needed, especially on people driven from their homes by slow-onset crises such as a drought, and this is crucial if governments are to meet their commitments. "Reliable data on population movements is vital to ensure a timely and well targeted operational and policy response," the report said. The IDMC hoped the report would be a reminder that while the continent's refugee crisis has attracted international attention in recent years, the problem of huge numbers of Africans uprooted from their homes but temporarily settled in their own countries is not new. "The same people remain on our books, year in, year out. The numbers are not going down," said Bilak. The report draws attention to "off-the-radar" displacement in countries like Ethiopia and Malawi, which, while relatively stable, suffer slow-moving environmental challenges such as drought that are "blind spots" for policymakers. A third of African countries are prone to drought, and most are increasingly vulnerable as result of climate change. It also highlights the role of southern Africa's worst agricultural drought in 35 years  and resulting severe food shortages  in driving people from their homes in 2015. The report also emphasised the need for African governments to recognise the role of development projects in causing the sort of "off-the-radar" displacement with people evicted from slums to make way for infrastructure. All too often "the impact of development projects and business activities on the people they force from their homes and livelihoods is not visible to policymakers," the report said. (Reporting by Tom Gardner, Editing by Belinda Goldsmith; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org)
MADRID (Reuters) - Dozens of sub-Saharan African migrants forced their way on Friday morning over a barbed-wire fence into Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta, which borders Morocco. Television footage showed migrants perched on the top of the fence as they tried to get over. Several people were injured after storming the barrier, emergency services said. Between 150 and 200 people had crossed into Spain, Spanish media reported. The government did not immediately respond to a request for comment or confirm the number of migrants who crossed the border. Their legal status in Spain has yet to be determined. "Most of the people have been apprehended and we are looking for the rest so that they can immediately be processed," Juan Ignacio Zoido, Spain's interior minister, told reporters as he arrived in Brussels, adding that 20 percent of those who had stormed the border had not yet been found. Spain's two enclaves in Morocco, Ceuta and Melilla, are often used as entry points into Europe for African migrants, who either climb over their border fences or attempt a dangerous swim along the coastline. Some also try to cross from Morocco into mainland southern Spain by boat, despite tighter controls in recent years by the two countries which has diminished the number of those attempting this route. Four African migrants drowned and 34 were rescued on Wednesday off the coast of Morocco when their boat sank, though it was unclear whether they were heading to Spain or to one of the two Spanish North African enclaves. [nL5N1E22NS] Libya has become a more common departure point for African migrants, most from sub-Saharan countries, who attempt the crossing to Italy. An estimated 4,663 migrants have died in the Mediterranean this year, while a record number of migrants - 171,299 as of Nov. 28 - have reached Italy by boat from North Africa in 2016. [nL8N1DT52W] (Reporting by Sarah White)
By Maria Sheahan

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German semiconductor chipmaking machinery company Aixtron (AIXGn.DE) may sell off part of its business, its chief executive said in an interview published on Friday, opening the door for bidders after a deal with a Chinese company collapsed.

China's Fujian Grand Chip Investment Fund dropped its 670 million-euro ($712 million) bid for Aixtron earlier this week after the United States blocked the deal on security grounds, throwing the German company's future into doubt.

"There are two options: First, we could hope that the markets for our products recover and continue investing high sums in new equipment. But that would come with high development and ramp-up costs, and risks," Martin Goetzeler told German daily Handelsblatt.

"Or Aixtron could shrink, divest technologies and continue with a specialized offering," he said.

Aixtron makes devices which produce crystalline layers from gallium nitride that are used as semiconductors in weapons systems.

Its technology is being used to upgrade U.S. and foreign-owned Patriot missile defense systems and the U.S. Treasury said the deal had been blocked due to national security risks.

China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) criticized the United States on Friday for thwarting the deal. "The U.S., in the name of national security, frequently departs from market and commercial principles to interfere with normal business activity," an MOFCOM spokesman said.

INVESTOR NEEDED

Goetzeler said the German government had signaled a willingness to help Aixtron, for example by giving Aixtron a central role in an investment program for the micro-electronics sector.

A spokesman for Germany's Economy Ministry said he had no knowledge of any such indications. He said there were existing support schemes for research and development Aixtron could apply for if it fulfilled the requirements.

Goetzeler also put a positive spin on the collapse of the deal, saying the United States' opposition had highlighted the German firm's importance in the sector.

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"Aixtron is of central interest both to Germany and to the United States, the world's leading economy. If we needed more proof that our products have intrinsic value, we have it now," he said in the Handelsblatt interview.

But analysts have said Aixtron's future as a stand-alone company looked bleak because it is struggling to compete in an overcrowded market where Chinese companies call the shots.

"Aixtron's management has to find other financial or strategic investors in order to maintain its strategy of heavily investing in future technologies like OLED (organic light-emitting diodes)," DZ Bank analyst Harald Schnitzer said.

The German company has been trying to return to profit and take back leadership of the global market for LED chip-making equipment from U.S. rival Veeco Instruments (VECO.O).

According to Aixtron's most recent annual financial report, Veeco held a 53 percent share of the market for the equipment, used to make LEDs, in 2014, while Aixtron had 41 percent.

Aixtron executives have said that without the Fujian deal the company would have to choose between investing its scant funds in new technology and hope for a recovery in demand, or shrink its business and workforce.

(Additional reporting by Gernot Heller in Berlin; Writing by Maria Sheahan and Christoph Steitz; Editing by Greg Mahlich and Jane Merriman)
ADB pledges $20m aid to spur investment in solar

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has pledged a $20 million grant to spur private sector investment in utility-scale solar power in Nepal.
By David Lawder

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump is stacking his trade transition team with veterans of the U.S. steel industry's battles with China, signalling a potentially more aggressive approach to U.S. complaints of unfair Chinese subsidies for its exports and barriers to imports.

Led by Wilbur Ross, a billionaire steel investor and Trump's nominee for commerce secretary, Dan DiMicco, the former CEO of steelmaker Nucor Corp (NUE.N), and three veteran steel trade lawyers, the team is expected to help shift the U.S. trade focus more heavily toward enforcement actions aimed at bringing down a chronic U.S. trade deficit, Washington trade experts said.

Based on their past efforts, this could include more challenges to China's trade practices through the World Trade Organisation and more U.S. government-initiated anti-dumping and anti-subsidy cases against a wider range of Chinese products. The latter would be argued before the U.S. International Trade Commission - a forum where the steel industry has had considerable success.

Ross, DiMicco and other leaders of Big Steel have been on the front-line in U.S. trade battles against the world's export superpower.

Hit by a flood of cheap imports from China and other countries, the U.S. steel industry has brought 16 new cases in the past three years, seeking punitive duties from the Commerce Department to combat below-cost dumping and unfair subsidies that slashed prices of various steel products to historic lows last year, causing layoffs at U.S. steel mills. (See graphic http://tmsnrt.rs/2gUFGAf)

Some of these cases have resulted in massive penalties against Chinese imports, including duties of more than 500 percent on Chinese cold-rolled steel used in autos and appliances.

Lawyers Robert Lighthizer and Jeffrey Gerrish have represented United States Steel (X.N) and Stephen Vaughn has represented AK Steel (AKS.N) in these cases. The three are also part of Trump's trade team.

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Lighthizer, Gerrish, Vaughn, Ross and DiMicco either declined to comment for this story or did not respond to Reuters' requests for interviews.

Trade experts familiar with their views and their history of confrontation with China, however, say they will not be afraid to push the limits of what is legal under World Trade Organisation rules in defence of U.S. trade interests.

Lighthizer, who along with DiMicco is considered a strong candidate to be the new U.S. Trade Representative, is known for his work during the Reagan administration pressuring Japan into voluntary export restraints.

PUSHING WTO LIMITS

"Bob Lighthizer is very smart, very strategic and totally fearless," said a Washington attorney who has worked with him for three decades and asked not to be named because Trump's USTR selection process was still under way. "If he's in charge you can expect him to use every tool available to create leverage to get China and anyone else to stop the cheating. He is no fan of the WTO."

Lighthizer told a congressional panel in 2010 that the WTO's dispute resolution system was ineffective and that the United States "should consider aggressive interpretations of WTO provisions that might help us deal with Chinese mercantilism."

Such tactics could include imposing temporary import quotas and surcharges and factoring in the effect of currency manipulation into U.S. anti-dumping duties, he said.

Ross, who advised Trump's presidential campaign on economic issues, has signalled he will use access to the lucrative U.S. consumer market as leverage to negotiate better trade terms. The United States is China's biggest export market.

During his presidential campaign, Trump vowed to levy a punitive 45-percent tariff on Chinese goods and label Beijing a currency manipulator. It is not clear though whether he will follow through on those threats once he takes office.

Ross told CNN last week that Trump will not be "willy nilly slapping a 45 percent tariff on everything," but will maintain the threat of tariffs as part of negotiations.

In an emailed statement to Reuters, Ross said he would divest "all holdings and board seats that pose conflicts" but declined to answer other questions on his plans for Trump's trade policy and engagement with China.

The personal blog of DiMicco, meanwhile, gives some indication of how he would approach China if he was named head of USTR. He has accused China of waging a "mercantilist trade war" on the United States for two decades, through currency manipulation, unfair subsidies and intellectual property theft.

On the issue of currency manipulation, many economists disagree, saying Beijing is no longer keeping its yuan artificially undervalued to make its exports cheap, citing the hundreds of billions of dollars in reserves it has spent to prop up the yuan's value this year.

A key question for Trump's trade team is how far they can push China to change its trade practices without provoking a trade war that will hurt both countries.

"If what they plan to do is get a little scratchier with China on enforcement within the existing WTO rules, that's OK," said Scott Miller, a China trade expert at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "But if they go outside those guardrails, it will be unpleasant because that will draw retaliation."

He Weiwen, vice president at the Centre for China and Globalisation, a government-affiliated think-tank in Beijing, said any punitive action against China by the Trump administration would invite a retaliatory response.

"We will certainly respond in the same way," he said, adding that Washington and Beijing "should find good solutions that are acceptable to both and not go to extremes. It will hurt both."

Chinese state media have warned that any new tariffs imposed by Trump would lead to retaliation against Boeing (BA.N) aircraft, Apple (AAPL.O) iPhones and U.S. corn and soybeans.

(Additional reporting by Michael Martina in Beijing; Editing by David Chance and Ross Colvin)
This Immigrant Doctor Is Reimagining Health in the American City

Move over, El Jefe. Theres a new cat in town.

The United States Fish and Wildlife Service announced this week that a male jaguar was spotted on Dec. 1 by a camera trap in Arizonas Huachuca Mountains. It was the second sighting of a jaguar in the past year, something that could have an impact on recovery efforts for the endangered species.

The other jaguar, also a male, nicknamed El Jefe, first appeared in Arizona in 2011 and has been photographed in the Santa Rita Mountains.

Until now, El Jefe was thought to be the only jaguar living in the United States.

Wildlife officials believe the jaguar is new to the area, and not one of four other jaguars that have been spotted on the U.S. side of the border since the 1990s. Most of the jaguar population is clustered in a reserve about 120 miles south of the border in Sonora, Mexico, although its range reaches north into Arizona and New Mexico and once covered most of the Southwest.

Based on our photo analysis of the spotting patterns, its likely a new individual, but wed like confirmation from other experts, said Mark Hart, a spokesperson for the Arizona Game and Fish Department.

Its important to be cautious on this, because this is an important issue in southeast Arizona for a variety of constituencies, from the environmental community to the ranching community, he said.

The sightings significance depends on who you talk to, Hart said. From our standpoint, its exciting but not surprising. We know that every five years or so a male comes up from Sonora and roams around Arizona. This is the sixth jaguar in recent history since the 1990s.

Rob Peters, senior southwest representative for Defenders of Wildlife, said the new sighting could affect efforts to increase the jaguar population in the United States and protect its critical habitat.

What it tells us is that weve got good habitat here for jaguars, Peters said. It means that conservation efforts in Sonora, notably by the Northern Jaguar Reserve and its partners, are paying off in conserving that population enough so that some excess jaguars are coming up here.

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A jaguar can set up housekeeping and survive for years in the United States," he added. "We know this from El Jefe, and also from Macho B, a male that had been spotted in the area for 13 years until 2009, when he was snared by state wildlife officials, tranquilized, and fitted with a tracking collar. Within two weeks, Macho B developed kidney failure and was euthanized.

RELATED: Border Fences Aimed at Stopping Immigrants Are Killing Wildlife

Peters said the borderlands are teeming with white-tailed deer, pig-like peccaries, and other jaguar prey. If the U.S. is truly willing to support their recovery, I think theyve got a good future, he said.

But the future for U.S. jaguarsdespite excitement over the new arrivalremains very much in question.

First, there is border fencing. Some 600 miles of physical barriers currently block wildlife migration between the two countries, including at least half of potential jaguar crossing areas, according to the Jaguar Habitat Campaign.

Donald Trumps proposed border wall would make the crossing nearly impossible, environmentalists say.

Other challenges include a proposed power transmission project that would cut through jaguar movement corridors and a proposed copper mine in prime jaguar habitat.

Meanwhile, areas already set aside for jaguar conservation are under threat.

In 2014, the Fish and Wildlife Service designated nearly 1,200 square miles along the U.S.-Mexico border as critical jaguar habitat. But livestock and agricultural interests in New Mexico are fighting that decision in federal court, calling it unlawful, arbitrary, and capricious.

Mike Senatore, vice president for conservation law at Defenders of Wildlife, an intervener in the case, said he was concerned that the incoming Trump administration might try to settle the lawsuit. The new sighting will have no bearing on the case, he said.

But it could impact a new draft jaguar recovery plan that should be issued by the Fish and Wildlife Service later this month, Peters said.

I think the identification of this new jaguar underscores that jaguars can survive well and want to reestablish habitat here, he said. Were hoping that the draft recovery plan lays out a realistic path toward true recovery, meaning a viable reproducing population here in the U.S.

Fish and Wildlife officials did not respond to requests for comment.

The Arizona Game and Fish Department, which opposed the federal critical habitat, apparently does not consider jaguar recovery a top priority.

The departments Hart noted that no female jaguars have been sighted in the United States for decades. No breeding is going on, he said. We dont feel that southeast Arizona is critical to recovery of the species. We feel those efforts should be focused on Mexico, where breeding occurs.

One option, translocating females across the border, is highly controversial, especially given what happened to Macho B.

As for El Jefe, he has not been spotted for many months. Its possible he has evaded cameras, or he could have returned to Mexico.

Maybe he got tired of looking for females up here, Peters said.

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Schiphol (Netherlands) (AFP) - Populist anti-Islam Dutch MP Geert Wilders was found guilty on Friday of discrimination against Moroccans, but acquitted of hate speech in a closely-watched trial ahead of next year's key elections.

But the judges decided not to impose any sentence or fine, and Wilders immediately vowed to appeal against what he said was a bid to "neutralise" him ahead of the March polls.

"I will never be silent. You will not be able to stop me," he vowed in a video message sent swiftly after the verdict was handed down.

Wilders, whose Freedom Party (PVV) is eyeing an upset victory in the March 2017 polls, was charged with two counts arising out of comments he made in 2014 around local elections.

- 'Fewer Moroccans' -

After a three-week trial which Wilders had largely snubbed, the three judges ruled "the inflammatory character of the way in which the statements were made have incited others to discriminate people of Moroccan origin."

But they added there was "insufficient evidence" to rule that his words amounted to incitement to hatred. The judges also dismissed the prosecution's request to impose a 5,000-euro ($5,300) fine.

"In this case, the most important question is whether Wilders has crossed a line. This judgement has answered that question," the judges said in their verdict.

The most recent opinion polls predict the PVV will top the March vote, saying it could seize 34 spots in the 150-seat lower house of Dutch parliament, some 10 ahead of his nearest rival, Prime Minister Mark Rutte's Liberals.

Rather than hurting the controversial lawmaker, who was also acquitted in a 2011 hate speech case, observers say his trial has boosted his popularity among Dutch voters, worried about the influx of immigrants and driven by eurosceptic sentiments.

Amid a string of populist victories in Europe and the November election of Donald Trump as the next US president, the outcome of the Dutch vote will be keenly watched.

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The trial had focused in particular on a statement made at a 2014 local government election rally in The Hague, when Wilders asked supporters whether they wanted "fewer or more Moroccans in your city and in the Netherlands".

- 'Unworthy remarks' -

When the crowd shouted back "Fewer! Fewer!" a smiling Wilders answered: "We're going to organise that."

Prosecutors said they were satisfied with the verdict.

"For us it was important that we set a norm, namely that a politician cannot discriminate against a group based on their origin. This principle and setting the norm was more important than the fine," prosecutor Frans Zonneveld told AFP.

The police had received 6,400 complaints about Wilders's comments.

He "singled out an entire group of citizens without making any distinction," the judges ruled.

But after the judgement, Wilders said in a tweet: "Three PVV-hating judges declare Moroccans to be a race and convict me and half of the Netherlands. Madness."

And in a video message, posted to YouTube, he added: "Today I was convicted in a political trial, which shortly before the elections attempts to neutralise the leader of the largest and most popular opposition party."

Presiding judge Hendrik Steenhuis however had harsh words for the platinum-blond haired Wilders saying his disparaging comments about judges and the judiciary in The Netherlands "are unworthy of an elected politician."

Prime Minister Mark Rutte too would not be drawn, saying only: "The Netherlands is a democratic country with an independent judiciary. Everybody is equal before the law."

The Moroccan community however was "very relieved with the judgement", Moroccan-born Abdou Menebhi, who attended the hearing, told AFP.

"It's a positive and important judgement," said Menebhi, president of the Amsterdam-based Euro Mediterranean Centre for Migration and Development, which represents Moroccan interests in the country.

If elected as the country's new prime minister, Wilders has among other things vowed to confiscate Korans, close mosques and Islamic schools, shut Dutch borders and ban migrants from Islamic countries.

His views have seen him receive death threats including from terror groups such as the Islamic State group and Al-Qaeda. He is guarded at all times and called the "best protected man in The Netherlands".
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UPDATE: Dec. 9, 2016, 10:20 a.m. EST Editor's note: This story has been updated to note that Apple had been purchasing wind power prior to this deal.

Much like other Silicon Valley giants, Apple is serious about cutting its reliance on non-renewable energy sources  and this week, it took a major step on this front.

The Cupertino company has invested in four Chinese companies owned by Beijing Tianrun New Energy Investment, a subsidiary of Goldwind, according to a Chinese regulatory filing.

SEE ALSO: Tesla is powering an entire island with solar energy, NBD

Goldwind is Chinas largest wind-turbine manufacturer, having supplied 12.5 percent of all wind turbine installations in the country last year.

Much of Apples products are manufactured in China. In September, Apple had committed to use more renewable energy at its third-party suppliers.

This is Apples largest clean energy effort to date, Lisa Jackson, vice president of environment, policy and social initiatives at Apple, told state-run newspaper China Daily. This is also the company's first-of-its kind wind energy investment, although the company has been purchasing wind energy for its offices and other facilities in California, among other states, according to Apple's 2016 Environmental Responsibility Report.

The financial details of the deal were not disclosed.

The investments in wind turbines will collectively yield 285MW of clean energy, and the power generated will be directed towards Apples supply chain manufacturers, the company was quoted as saying.

The subsidiaries are based in northwest of Chinas Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Apple now assumes 30 percent of equity in these four subsidiaries.

The announcement helps fulfill Apples intention of reducing its carbon footprint, something that nearly every Silicon Valley company has been working on. Specifically, Apple has been looking to make its product chain cleaner after making gains with its stores and offices. Many of its factories, including Foxconn's massive iPhone plants, are located in China.

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Google, for instance, announced this week that by next year all of its energy needs will be met by renewable sources.

Apple isnt all the way there yet, but the company has been increasingly putting efforts on this front. Last year, the company had announced a joint venture with California-based SunPower to build two solar projects.

The company's new campus is also a proof of that. Called the Campus 2, the main building has solar panels on the roof of the main building. Roughly 80 percent of the campus will be green space and include several varieties of fruit trees.

BONUS: Drone footage shows just how insanely colossal Apple Campus 2 is
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / December 9, 2016 / Ashanti Gold Corp. (AGZ.V) (GFU2.F) (OTC PINK: GULSF) ("Ashanti" or the "Company") is pleased to announce it has arranged a non-brokered private placement of up to 3,000,000 units (the "Units") at a price of $0.40 per Unit (the "Offering") for gross proceeds of up to $1,200,000. Each Unit will consist of one common share of the Company (a "Share") and one-half of one common share purchase warrant (a "Warrant"). Each whole Warrant entitles the holder to acquire one additional share of the Company for a period of two years from the date of issuance at a price of $0.60 per share. In the event that the Company's shares trade at a closing price of greater than $0.85 per share for a period of 10 consecutive days at any time after the closing of the Offering, the Company may accelerate the expiry date of the Warrants by providing notice to the shareholders thereof and in such case the Warrants will expire on the 30th day after the date on which such notice is given by the Company.

Finder's fees may be payable to arm's length parties that have introduced the Company to certain subscribers participating in the Offering. All securities issued in the Offering are subject to a four-month hold period, during which time the securities may not be traded. Closing of the Offering is subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.

The net proceeds from the Placement are intended to be used to fund the exploration costs related to the earn-in agreement on the Anumso property and the Kossanto East property, pursuant to the option agreement with Goldplat PLC announced on September 15, 2016 and pursuant to the option agreement with Alecto Minerals PLC announced on November 28, 2016, as well as for general corporate purposes.

This press release does not constitute an offer of sale of any of the foregoing securities in the United States. None of the foregoing securities have been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "1933 Act") or any applicable state securities laws and may not be offered or sold in the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, U.S. persons (as defined in Regulation S under the 1933 Act) or persons in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from such registration requirements. This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor will there be any sale of the foregoing securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

ABOUT ASHANTI GOLD

Ashanti is a gold-focused, exploration and development company with projects in the northern Ashanti Belt of Ghana and the Kinieba Belt of Mali. The Company targets projects where it has a competitive advantage due to past work experience of the team and specific project know-how.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors of

ASHANTI GOLD CORP.

"Tim McCutcheon"

Tim McCutcheon

CEO

For further information, please contact:

Ashanti Gold Corp.

2300  1177 West Hastings Street

Vancouver BC, V6E 2K3

Phone: 604-638-3847

Cautionary Statement on Forward-Looking Information

NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

This press release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein including, without limitation, statements regarding the anticipated content, commencement, timing and cost of exploration programs, anticipated exploration program results, the discovery and delineation of mineral deposits/resources/reserves, and the anticipated business plans and timing of future activities of the Company, are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as: believe, expect, anticipate, intend, estimate, postulate and similar expressions, or are those, which, by their nature, refer to future events. The Company cautions investors that any forward-looking statements by the Company are not guarantees of future results or performance, and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward looking statements as a result of various factors, including, but not limited to, the state of the financial markets for the Company's equity securities, the state of the commodity markets generally, variations in the nature, quality and quantity of any mineral deposits that may be located, variations in the market price of any mineral products the Company may produce or plan to produce, the inability of the Company to obtain any necessary permits, consents or authorizations required, including TSXV acceptance, for its planned activities, the inability of the Company to produce minerals from its properties successfully or profitably, to continue its projected growth, to raise the necessary capital or to be fully able to implement its business strategies, and other risks and uncertainties disclosed in the Company's latest interim Management Discussion and Analysis and filed with certain securities commissions in Canada. All of the Company's Canadian public disclosure filings may be accessed via www.sedar.com and readers are urged to review these materials, including the technical reports filed with respect to the Company's mineral properties.

SOURCE: Ashanti Gold Corp.
SINGAPORE  Producer, Bea Tanaka and director, Yasu Tanaka of Malaysias 42nd Pictures won the Aurora Producing Award for Terbalik at the second Southeast Asian Film Financing (SAFF) project market in Singapore.

The event, part of the Singapore Media Festival, wrapped up today.

The Terbalik team will receive an investment of $14,000 (SGD$20,000) towards the production of their project from Singapores Aurora Media Holdings.

A suspense thriller, Terbalik will tell the story of an acclaimed Malaysian actor who is found by sadistic village boys after a car accident. He is subjected to torture while being forced to play a movie character.

Tanaka said: Beyond the benefits of winning the Aurora Producing Award, joining the SAFF Project Market has opened opportunities for funding and investment. With the guidance received and contacts made, Terbalik is now well-placed to reach global audiences. We look forward to bringing Malaysia closer to the world through this film.

Producer Trinh Le Minh Hang of Vietnams Skyline Media received the Imaginex Studios Audio Post Production Award for Mamafia from Imaginex Studios and Basecamp Films. The award consists of a full audio post-production package worth $35,000 (SGD$50,000) for the feature film.

The project is a comedy drama where a powerful mafia boss who is very protective of her only son, finds out that his secret girlfriend is in fact a gangster, and also the daughter of her biggest enemy.

Trinh Le Minh Hang said: Winning the award was a pleasant surprise as we joined the SAFF Project Market mainly to test the international markets appetite for Vietnamese films. The project market has been a good experience, as it has opened the doors for potential co-production and investment. Also, with inputs and tips from the various international experts, we look forward to improving on and adding more detail to the films script, so that it can travel further around the world.

The SAFF Project Market is a partnership between ScreenSingapore, the Southeast Asian Audio-Visual Association, Ties That Bind and the Asia-Europe Foundation.

Story continues

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Another celebrity Bachelor superfan has come forward!

During an appearance on Thursdays Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Jennifer Aniston sat down with host Jimmy Kimmel  a fellow fan  to discuss Nick Vialls upcoming season of the hit show.

Another thing you share in common with  me and with my wife, is we all watch The Bachelor, said Kimmel, 49. You are very into it.

The host then brought up this weeks casting announcement, which revealed that Viall, 36, will have 30 women to choose from starting night one.

Thats more! Isnt it usually 27 or ? said Aniston.

Kimmel informed her they upped it this year, and Aniston acknowledged that its likely because Viall is so awesome.

Hes pretty cute, she added. I do like Nick. A lot of people were iffy about Nick at the beginning!

Kimmel pointed out that that might be because Viall has already been on three seasons from the Bachelor franchise and Aniston laughed.

What does that say? she said.  make him the Bachelor, he has to leave with someone!

RELATED VIDEO: No Baby Talk! The Bachelors Nick Viall Reveals His Biggest Turn Offs

Finally, Kimmel decided to pull up photos and job descriptions of the 30 women on a screen behind him and had Aniston select who she thinks will be Vialls final four.

Oh! Pilates instructor  well, shes probably very bendy, mused Aniston, scanning across the pictures and noting that some of the women were health counselors or dental hygienists.

You think the guys care about their jobs? said Kimmel.

Aniston eventually settled on her first pick: Corinne, at 24-year-old business owner from Miami. (But, noted Aniston, shes probably too young to get married.)

Her second pick was Elizabeth  I like a doula!  and third was Rachel, a lawyer.

Shes cute. Look at those arms! said Aniston. And shes an attorney  shes smart. Hes going to need an attorney, dont you think?

For her fourth pick, Aniston selected Danielle M., a neonatal nurse from Nashville  but she refused to narrow down the winner.

Story continues

Im not going to jinx it! she said. Fair point, Jen!

The Bachelor premieres Jan. 2 and Jimmy Kimmel Live! airs weeknights (11:35 pm. ET), both on ABC.




KHOBAR, Saudi Arabia, Dec 9 (Reuters) - State-run Bahrain Petroleum Company (Bapco) has received bids from international construction companies to expand its Sitra oil refinery, industry sources said.

It aims to boost the processing capacity of the Gulf country's only oil refinery to 360,000 barrels per day (bpd) from 267,000 bpd under its BAPCO Modernisation Program (BMP) which is expected to cost about $5 billion.

Companies that submitted bids and that have formed consortia are:

- Japan's JGC Corp and South Korea's GS

- Technip, Tecnicas Reunidas and Samsung Engineering

- Fluor ( FLR.N), Hyundai Engineering and Construction and Daewoo Engineering and Construction

- CB&I, Petrofac and Japan's Mitsui and Co.

Bidding had been expected to close in October, however it was extended due to the scale of the project.

The contract is expected to be awarded by the first quarter of 2017, sources have said.

Bapco did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

A Mitsui spokesman in Tokyo confirmed that the Japanese trading house, together with CB&I and Petrofac, submitted a bid for the expansion project on Dec. 7.

GS said it submitted a bid as part of a consortium.

Samsung Engineering also said it bid in a joint venture with Technip and Tecnicas Reunidas.

Hyundai E&C and Daewoo E&C told Reuters separately they had bid in a joint venture with Fluor.

Petrofac, JGC and Tecnicas Reunidas declined to comment.

(Reporting by Reem Shamseddine, Yuka Obayashi in Tokyo, Jeong Eun Lee in Seoul, Karolin Schaps in London, Robert Hetz in Madrid; Editing by Tom Finn and Alexander Smith)
Aleppo battle: UN says hundreds of men and boys 'missing'

Hundreds of men and boys appear to have gone missing after leaving rebel-held areas of Aleppo, the UN's human rights office says.
By Jan Lopatka PRAGUE (Reuters) - The Czech lower house of parliament on Friday approved a ban on smoking in restaurants, bars and pubs, overcoming years of wrangling and bringing the country in line with most others in the European Union. "This brings the Czech Republic (in line with) civilized countries that care for the health of their citizens," Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said. Parliament's upper house must sign off on the legislation but the lower house vote showed there was enough support to override any potential veto. The law is to take effect on May 31, 2017, the annual World No Tobacco Day. Seventeen of the 28 EU member states have comprehensive smoking-free laws in place. The ban enjoys support from three in four Czechs, polls show, but is sensitive all the same as Czechs are fervent pub-goers and beer drinkers are often smokers. Moreover, Czechs drink the most beer per capita in the world. About 28 percent of Czechs are smokers, somewhat above the EU average of 24 percent. About 18,000 Czechs die annually from smoking-related illnesses, the Health Ministry says. But there has been a clear trend toward less smoking in public places, especially in bigger cities, and many restaurants have voluntarily gone no-smoking in recent years. In the last decade, several attempts to introduce sweeping anti-smoking legislation failed, most recently in May. Opponents of a ban have argued it would force bars out of business, especially in villages where they remain a main gathering point for locals, and say it should be up to each restaurant owner to decide. To push the latest legislation through, the Health Ministry accepted a compromise offering a peek into Czech pub life - it agreed to drop a clause requiring restaurants to serve at least one non-alcoholic drink cheaper than beer, addressing the fact that Czech beer is cheaper than water in some places. (Editing by Mark Heinrich)
Each week we read dozens of transcripts from earnings calls and presentations as part of our investment process. Below is a weekly post which contains some of the most important quotes about the economy and industry trends from those transcripts. Click here to receive these posts weekly via email.

This weeks post has a slightly different format than usual because I spent this week at the LD Micro conference in LA meeting with the management teams of a few dozen Microcap companies. The conference is hosted by Chris Lahiji and his team. They always do a great job of putting together under-followed and under-loved companies with market caps less than $100m. The Macro part of the post still comes from the usual large cap companies, but everything else in the post draws from our meetings with the micro-caps.

It is always eye opening to meet with these small companies. The CEOs are scrappy and tenaciousalways looking to sell investors on a dream. There is deep skepticism that most of these companies will survive and the valuations reflect that. There have also been structural shifts in the brokerage community that has made it particularly hard for these companies to raise money. That decreases the chance of survival, but also may create opportunities for savvy investors. Still, Ill make the usual disclaimer that micro-cap stocks are highly speculative, so invest at your own risk.

The Macro Outlook:

Obviously the stock market has done unbelievably well since the election

obviously, the stock has done unbelievably well since the election and I think its based upon the hopethat the Trump administration will be very good for kind of unleashed business per se and maybe improve the GDP and allow banks to do their lending and the banks will benefit a little bit both from higher rates and higher economic activity and possibly some reduced regulation. So, hopefully that will turn out to be true. JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon (Bank)

Even Italian elections couldnt shake the markets confidence

I dont think there is reason to talk about a euro crisis. The Italians have a lot of experience dealing with such situations and thats why Im not concerned. German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble (Government)

Story continues

Donald Trump sounds pleased

[The Washington post says companies are unnervedwell] theyre so unnerved that the stock market is at an all time record since Ive been electedafter I won the election, you see what happened. In the history of our country, theres never been an up this big after an election, so I dont know how somebody says that people are unnerved, its just the opposite. And frankly I think were going to go up. We have tremendous room, tremendous margin in our country, but we have to do things right. President Elect Donald Trump (Government)

The business community is certainly more optimistic

To start the third quarter up through the date of the election, global November new business remained slow. But after the date of the election, we saw new business ramp up in both North America and in EuropeNovember, in Europe, we had our best month of new business in probably two years. Asia was also incredibly strongI would say that the conversation is certainly more optimistic than it was in May and June, no doubt about that. Now, well see if that turns into increasing levels of business in early calendar 2017. Korn Ferry CEO/CFO (Executive Search)

Companies are getting down to business

the feel before the election was  it was materially slowing out thereAll the discussions Ive had with customers, suppliers, and with everybody out there, there is a high degree of optimism, and certainly my fellow CEOslook if we truly are going to have tax reform that is really goodAnd we feel like every customer we touched sincetheyre saying its going to be easier to do our jobs and we can get on with doing our jobs and thats the general feelingit does feel like people are just down to business now and down to business is a good thought for us. HD Supply CEO Joe DeAngelo (Industrial Distributor)

The consumer is healthy

We see a fairly healthy consumer. And so if you look at macroeconomic data, home prices, the consumer balance sheet, debt service ratios, the number of people working, wages going up, etcetera, we see that pretty healthy. We see a mirror of that inside JPMorgan. So we have reporting quarter-after-quarter, credit card sales, deposits, new household accounts, all those types things are doing quite well and we expect that to continue. JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon (Bank)

Millenials are buying houses

With the millennial generation now entering their thirties and forming families, we are starting to benefit from the desire for home ownership from the affluent leading edge of this huge demographic wave. In fiscal year 2016, approximately 22% of our settlements included one primary buyer 35 years of age or under. Toll Brothers CEO Douglas Yearley (Homebuilder)

But other consumer spending may still be a little choppy

the four weeks of November was choppy frankly, particularly the week of the election. I think it was worse than a snowstorm in terms of nobody wanting to go out and buy stuff and thats what I read about other retailers as well. And again, over the last few months its been a little choppy a little more in November and a little weaker and so at least, what we can tell you at this point is the first couple of weeks have been okay. And again, traffic has seemed to have stabilized until something changes there, who knows Costco CFO Richard Galanti (Retail)

Commercial Real Estate is late in its cycle

The one area where you look at and you might say, oh my god, there is a little bit of issue, there is commercial real estateWe are cautious. Its probably getting later in the cycle for some of that. And we dont do what I would consider we dont do now and we have never done the riskiest type of lending. So we have always been cautious in real estate. JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon (Bank)

[Note: now entering microcap land]

And markets can get ahead of themselves

Sometimes market excitement gets beyond clinical reality(but thats not the case with us!) Vistagen Therapeutics (Pharma/Biotech)

International:

A Chinese steel distributor had interesting thoughts on China, but asked to remain anonymous

The Chinese real estate market will eventually have to correct

The Chinese government needs to sustain the real estate market but they cannot. Real estate prices in Shanghai are now higher than they are in New York City. That is unsustainable. Developments in 3rd and 4th tier cities are sitting empty. That is unsustainable. Chinese Steel Distributor

Xi Jinping is looking to increase his power

Xi Jinping is a powerful guy, he could be as powerful as Donald Trump. Hes going to consolidate his government team. He already has beenThe Chinese people have a love hate relationship with Xi. They love that he cleaned up corruption big time, but hate that because of it spending from corrupt officials got turned down big time. Chinese Steel Distributor

Business leaders expect the RMB to be devalued by at least 25%

The Chinese government needs to deal with the currency situation. The currency will be depreciated. The government tried to put controls on the currency but they really couldnt stop capital from leaving the country. The Central Bank did not really support the currency. Most people expect that the RMB will depreciate by at least 25% and so they are trying to get their capital out of the country. Public companies that are listed in the US are one way to do that. If you buy shares of a local subsidiary with shares traded in North America, you can get money out of the country Chinese Steel Distributor

Financials:

The world has changed for microcap companies

The market is so different. Guys like you are so different than they were 20 years ago. The OTC, so many investors dont want to invest purely because were OTC. Investors wont invest like they would before. You cant even give your stock certificate to most brokers if youre OTC. Investors themselves are far less willing to put money into a deal that is pre-profitable. Pressure Biosciences (Laboratory Instruments)

Consumer:

These days the sexy growth companies generally arent public

Who is to say that there arent molecules out there that can be engineered that are more efficient at powering our bodies than todays natural foods? Soylent VP Brandon Mackie (Meal Replacement Drinks)

Microcap companies are swinging for their own fences

Cannabis companies have different strategies on how to cash in on the green rush

Our strategy was to design and build greenhouses to grow cannabis and rent them to licensed growers, but not obtain a license ourselves. We made the decision not to cross the green line. Americann (Greenhouse Developers)

I had a partner who made a lot of money in a buyout who put all his money into gold in 1995. You know how much money he made on that? I always remembered that and said I wouldnt let that pass by. When everything started happening with pot I said to myself gold rush, green rush. Im in. I dont know how to grow but I do know how to make mobile games. First Harvest Corp (Mobile Gaming)

Technology:

Many companies were birthed in different market environments but are still standing

UGE was born in the inconvenient truth years to install solar on commercial buildings

In 2007 solar installation costs were $8-$10 per watt. Now its $1-$2 per watt depending on the market. Panels were $4 per watt back then compared to less than $0.40 now. UGE International (Solar Panel Installation)

Some telecom companies are still living off capital raised in the late 90s

I call it the original sin of telecom. In the late 90s the industry became so overcapitalized and so many smart people came into the industry, attracted by salaries and government incentives. Theres still enough capital around to pay salaries, but its not what people expected. Youd be surprised how many PhDs are working in customer service today. MRV Communications (Internet Infrastructure)

Healthcare:

Microcap biotech companies raise lots of money for expensive trials

The cost per patient for a trial in cancer is about $50-100k per patient. Cardio vascular is cheaper$15-20k per patient, maybe $40k. It will cost you $1 million the minute you decide you want to do a clinical trial. Gemphire Therapeutics (Anti-cholesterol drug)

The companies are all trying to prove that their molecules can hit their end points

25% of Americans have a diagnosed mental disorder. 16% will go through a major depressive disorder in their lifetime MYND Analytics(Pyschiatric Testing)

For years addiction was treated as a personal failure. Today addiction is treated as a disease that can be compared to diabetes. It is not curable, it has to be managed for the time of a persons life. BioCorRX (Anti-Addiction Drug Delivery)

The leading cause of birth defects in the United States is CMV, higher than down syndrome, but not many people know about it VBI Vaccines (CMV Vaccine)

I hope that the incoming administration lives up to its promise to help vets return to civilian life Tonix Pharmaceuticals (PTSD drug)

Industrials:

There arent as many small manufacturing companies as there would have been in past eras, but that could change

The Trump thing was nothing more than something that was happening anyways. Manufacturing was coming back anyways. Today the labor cost advantage in China is being offset by the benefits of local production for US markets Uniroyal Global CEO Howard Curd (Synthetic Leather Manufacturer)

Materials, Energy:

There are lots of junior mining companies looking to finance exploration projects

In mining, you have operations guys and project guys. Project guys want a crisis and if they dont have one theyll create one. Uranium Resources (Uranium Miner)

Capital is scarce for pretty much everyone in the space

Public capital markets have been closed to shipping for at least 2 years PYXIS Tankers (Product Tankers)

Miscellaneous Nuggets of Wisdom:

If you want to succeed with limited capital, the key is to focus

The best way to succeed in business is maniacal focus, not a shotgun approach Pure Bio-science CEO Hank Lambert

Your employees depend on your success

At Westpoint they teach you a concept of no excuse. Theres no excuse for not taking your hill because troops lives depend on you doing what you say youre going to do. In business its not lives that depend on you, but it is livelihoods New Age Beverages CEO Brent Willis

Full transcripts can be found at www.seekingalpha.com
No, not the Dardennes, but The Ardennes is Belgiums Oscar entry this year.

The feature directorial by Robin Pront about punk criminal brothers who teeter on the edge of a not-so legit life earned the countrys thumbs up this year as its Academy Awards contender beating out The Unknown Girl, the latest movie by the countrys perennial go-tos Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardennes. Many thought Unknown Girl was a given as Belgiums entry since it premiered at Cannes.

Despite the Dardennes penchant for social issue topics in both Unknown Girl and 2014s Two Days, One Night which earned Marion Cotillard a best actress nod, The Ardennes is an anomaly in that its a crime genre and as Pront explains here there arent many in the land known for Godiva chocolate and waffles. The film pays homage to everything from Martin Scorseses Mean Streets to Nicolas Winding Refns Drive, but at its core are human elements. One of the best tearjerking moments comes when the girlfriend (Veerle Baetens) to Kevin Janssens character Kenneth tearfully recalls her struggle to stay clean before her rehab group. Take a look above at our Q&A with Pront and Janssens at last nights Awardsline screening.

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Ben Carson, President-elect Donald Trump's choice to lead the department of Housing and Urban Development, has clarified that he did not, in fact, live in public housing as a child. Instead, the Cabinet nominee described his mothers efforts to keep their family out of public housing throughout his childhood as a bid to avoid the so-called "danger" inside government-assisted living spaces.

"Despite what you may have heard from people, she wanted to make sure that we didn't live in public housing" Carson said in a speech on Thursday night to a group of students and faculty at Yale University in Connecticut. "There was a lot danger there, and she wanted to shield us from that danger."

The former neurosurgeon was clarifying an incorrect statement made from a friend in a New York Times article Monday in which Carsons family was said to have lived in a development owned by the federal agency hes been picked to lead.

Carson revealed further details this week about his living situation as a child growing up in Boston, noting he thought he wouldnt live past his mid-twenties. His mother took him and his brothers "to live with relatives in tenements" after divorcing his father, Carson said Thursday night.

"There was pretty horrendous violence ... gangs, broken glass, and boarded up windows and doors, murders  I had two cousins who were killed," Carson said. "I remember as a 9-year-old kid, sitting on the ghetto stairs, looking to the building across the street, out of which all the windows had been broken. And there was a sunbeam shining through, and it made me think about my future. And I remember thinking I probably won't make it to 25."

Carsons latest comments came as Democrats and Republicans spar over whether the former GOP presidential candidate, who has never held elected office, is qualified to lead the billion-dollar federal agency. Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi described Carson as "disconcerting and disturbingly unqualified," writing "there is no evidence that Dr. Carson brings the necessary credentials to hold a position with such immense responsibilities and impact on families and communities across America" in a statement posted to Twitter Monday.

Story continues

That critique was met with immediate backlash from Trumps allies in D.C., including Gov. Mike Huckabee, who wrote on Twitter: "Fancy Pelosi says hes not qualified; is she racist or just dumb?"

Meanwhile, Carson is expected to accept the president-elects nomination for secretary of Housing and Urban Development, though he reportedly had no interest in serving in Trumps cabinet just a few weeks ago. "Dr. Carson feels he has no government experience, he's never run a federal agency," the former presidential candidates longtime aid Armstrong Williams told the Hill on Nov. 15. "The last thing he would want to do was take a position that could cripple the presidency."

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In the past week, former vice president and prominent climate activist Al Gore, as well as actor and climate campaigner Leo DiCaprio, have met with President-elect Donald J. Trump to discuss global warming.

Trump is not listening.

Or, to put it more charitably, perhaps he is listening and then blatantly ignoring the advice he is receiving. Either way, something needs to change, fast, or else the Trump administration will be the most anti-environment U.S. government in modern times.

SEE ALSO: Trump's just-named EPA chief is a climate change denier

Here's where Gore and DiCaprio's interventions have gotten us.

On Wednesday, a day after the Gore meeting and the same day as the DiCaprio sit down, the Trump transition team announced the appointment of Oklahoma attorney general Scott Pruitt  one of the fiercest critics of the U.S. EPA's climate programs  to lead that agency.

Pruitt has a long record of casting doubt on mainstream climate science findings, including the connection between emissions of greenhouse gases and increasing global temperatures and weather extremes.

In addition to putting a climate denier atop the EPA, Trump will reportedly nominate two other anti-climate figures for prominent environmental positions in the cabinet: former Texas gov. Rick Perry to lead the Energy Department, and Oklahoma governor Mary Fallin at Interior.

Perry famously could not remember the existence of the Energy Department at a debate in 2011, when he was listing agencies he'd get rid of if elected president.

And Fallin has been a leading advocate of the oil and gas industry, despite the fact that oil and gas drilling techniques turned her state into the most earthquake-prone in the country.

Trump's own views on climate change are well-known, having called it a "hoax," but he has recently said he was "keeping an open mind" about some aspects of the issue and acknowledged that human activities are may be a role in warming the planet.

Story continues

Business leaders, not environmentalists

Gore and DiCaprio are smart, committed activists. But they're not the best climate ambassadors to send into Trump Tower.

Michael Dell speaks on the main stage during the first day of the Web Summit in Nov, 2015.

Image: Rex features/AP

Trump is a businessman. He understands balance sheets, returns on investment and risk. Therefore, the best people to turn him around on climate change and show him the tremendous economic costs of inaction are likely to be business leaders of major companies that see the value of tackling climate.

In the past decade companies as varied as Google, Ikea, Dell, GE, Microsoft, Facebook, Apple, Amazon, News Corp., Airbnb, LinkedIn, Staples, Mars, Kellog, WalMart and JetBlue have all committed to taking action on global warming and supporting U.S. efforts to do so at the international level.

Google, for example, announced this week that it will use 100 percent renewable power for all of its data centers and offices in 2017.

A major coalition of businesses helped provide crucial support to get the Paris Climate Agreement passed in December 2015. That agreement entered into force early last month. (Trump has vowed to pull the U.S. out of it.)

Businesses that traditionally have not been identified with the environmental movement have come to realize that there is tremendous cost savings to be had from making their operations more energy efficient.

A CEO-centric strategy

So send Doug McMillon, the CEO of WalMart, which is one of the biggest proponents of energy efficiency and users of solar energy in the country, to meet with him.

Doug McMillon, chief executive officer and president, during the annual Wal-Mart Shareholders Meeting on Friday, June 3, 2016, in Fayetteville, Ark.

Image: APJason Ivester/The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette via AP

Or maybe Grant Reid, the CEO of Mars Inc. and Shira Goodman of Staples should head to Trump Tower together to talk about climate change with reference to the bottom line.

Of course, one could always go with a big name, like Apple CEO Tim Cook or Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, but there's a perception that Silicon Valley heavily favored Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton during the race, which could make things awkward.

Focus: The huge risk associated with inaction

Studies published in the past two years have pegged the cost of inaction in the many billions, if not trillions, of dollars.

According to a 2014 report from the White House Council on Economic Advisors (CEA), the cost of hitting a specific warming reduction target increases, on average, by about 40 percent for each decade that action is delayed.

Map of New York showing areas underwater with a temperature increase of 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit). Dark blue areas are subject to inundation.

Image: Climate Central

This jump in price is due in part to the fact that delaying emissions cuts means that steeper reductions will be required at a later date to reach a given temperature target, compared to taking such steps now.

In addition, the CEA report found that emissions cuts made after the world warms by another 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit would cost the U.S. economy at least $150 billion more per year in "economic damages" from climate change.

Such extra costs would instead be money saved if emissions cuts were to take place now and prevent the climate from warming so much in the first place, the report said.

Another 2014 study, this one by a bipartisan group of business leaders and former political leaders, including President George W. Bush's treasury secretary, Henry Paulson Jr., found that extreme heat and sea level rise will threaten human health and put up to $3.5 billion in U.S. property in jeopardy by 2030, with even more severe and expensive impacts to come after that.

The report compared climate change impacts to a predatory loan assigned to future generations. The report stated:

Paulson, who was involved in the response to the 2008 financial crisis, said at the time that climate-related risks pose a "more perverse and more cruel" threat than that crisis did.

Plan B

Trump is about as far from a treehugger as they come, and he is unlikely to be moved by people like Gore and DiCaprio.

But once he learns what a risk climate change is to the bottom line of large companies that employ millions of people in the U.S., perhaps he'll listen.

If this approach fails, then it's truly time for climate activists to turn to Plan B: Fiercely determined resistance.

Sometimes 'puppet of industry' is a metaphor. Sometimes it's literal. Meet Scott Pruitt, new head of the EPA https://t.co/twWQTZv9KK  Bill McKibben (@billmckibben) December 7, 2016

To some extent, that's already happening, judging from the statements that environmental groups have been putting out.

However, there's still a glimmer of hope for a climate change intervention, particularly if the right messenger is chosen.

That glimmer is fading by the day, however.

BONUS: Biggest die-off of corals ever recorded on Great Barrier Reef
Finding the champions of the next calendar year.

With 2016 now nearly in the books, it's time for investors to turn their focus to the themes that will dominate 2017 and beyond. One of the most notable themes of the past year has been a rally in energy stocks, and as it turns out, that rally looks primed to continue into 2017. As OPEC nations begin ratcheting down on oil production, lower supply should keep a degree of upward pressure on oil prices. The best energy stocks to buy for 2017 should all benefit from a steady or rising price of oil. Here are a few stock picks from the sector that should perform well throughout 2017.

Exxon Mobil Corp. (ticker: XOM)

Exxon was actually named by U.S. News & World Report as one of the best energy stocks to buy for 2016, and it didn't disappoint: By Dec. 1, XOM stock was up 11.9 percent on the year, far better than the 7.2 percent return of the Standard & Poor's 500 index. And that's before the 3.4 percent dividend. Speaking of the dividend, it's one of Exxon's finer attributes, rising for 33 consecutive years. With current CEO Rex Tillerson on President-elect Donald Trump's short list for secretary of state, Exxon will likely have a cozy relationship with the government, which can be good for shareholders.

BP plc (ADR) (BP)

Like Exxon, BP shares aren't likely to go up or down by 50 percent in a calendar year, which can certainly happen with smaller wildcatters and frackers, whose shares tend to be much more volatile. No, BP is simply one of the most massive major integrated oil and gas companies on the planet. As such, it's suitable for more conservative investors, especially given its sizable 6.8 percent dividend. It's true that BP could slash its dividend if it doesn't boost profits soon, but earnings per share are expected to jump 139 percent in 2017 as industry economics smooth out.

Schlumberger Limited (SLB)

Other than flat-out buying oil and gas producers, what's the best way to wager on an era of higher oil prices? Buying shares in oil field services companies like Schlumberger isn't such a bad route to take, and SLB definitely appears to be one of the best large-cap energy stocks to buy for 2017. Its 2016 merger with oil field equipment maker Cameron International should not just "create synergies" that most M&A deals seek to realize, but also defend Schlumberger's position as the No. 1 oil field services company around. Analysts expect SLB to return to revenue growth in 2017, with EPS expected to roar 67 percent higher.

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Energy Transfer Partners LP (ETP)

If the name sounds familiar, it's likely because you've heard it used in association with the Dakota Access Pipeline, the 1,000-plus mile oil pipeline being built to transfer oil from North Dakota to Illinois. An ETP subsidiary is building the pipeline; its route has been the source of much controversy and has been held up by the Army Corps of Engineers. That said, a Trump administration is unlikely to side with protesters, and it wouldn't be shocking to see the White House remove impediments to the project. ETP, a master limited partnership, is one of the more rewarding dividend stocks, with shares yielding a remarkable 12.3 percent.

Whiting Petroleum Corp. (WLL)

A somewhat more speculative play, this $3.5 billion Denver-based oil and gas exploration company has big upside potential. It owns more than 440,000 acres of oil-rich land in the Williston basin of North Dakota and Montana, including prime real estate in the Bakken formation. WLL spent much of 2016 shoring up its balance sheet, and with decreasing debt, Whiting can now get back to business as usual. Incidentally, the completion of the Dakota Access Pipeline should significantly decrease transportation costs, potentially lowering the break-even cost of oil to $47 per barrel.

Apache Corp. (APA)

Shale driller Apache Corp. also owns some enviable assets, primarily in the Permian and Andarko basins, that make it one of the best energy stocks to buy for 2017. Another major catalyst for these oil and natural gas producers is the dramatic rise in natural gas prices, which, through early December 2016, had ripped 76 percent higher in the previous year. Analysts expect Apache to swing to a profit as revenue grows by 27 percent in 2017. On top of that, two insiders bought APA stock in November around $58 per share, a strong bullish indicator.

Energy Select Sector SPDR (ETF) (XLE)

Some investors don't want exposure to one or even a handful of the major stocks in a sector. They'd rather buy the sector outright. Well that's precisely what the Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF offers: diversified exposure to energy stocks. Sure, it's not technically a stock itself, but it trades like one, and if you believe in the sector as a whole it's the most straightforward way to invest in it. XLE tracks the performance of energy stocks in the S&P 500, and pays a 2.3 percent dividend to boot. The expense ratio of just 14 basis points is far lower than the majority of ETFs.

John Divine is an investing reporter for U.S. News & World Report, where he covers financial markets and the economy, with a focus on individual stock analysis. He has been an investor himself for over 10 years, and has been writing professionally about stocks and investing for the last five years. He previously wrote about the stock market for The Motley Fool and InvestorPlace, and his work has appeared on Yahoo! Finance, MSN Money, and AOL DailyFinance. He graduated from Appalachian State University in 2011 with a bachelor's degree in finance and banking. At Appalachian, he was a member of the Bowden Investment Group, a team of students that ran a real-money portfolio worth over $100,000. You can follow him on Twitter or give him the Tip of the Century at jdivine@usnews.com.
Theres something refreshingly simple about brewing a cup or two of coffee in a French-press or pour-over coffee maker. Both styles can produce excellent coffee in a matter of minutes, because you need to heat only the amount of water youll use. That shorter brew time also means that coffee tends to be hotter than from a large, drip coffee maker, which often takes more than 10 minutes to make a pot.

If youre not a frequent coffee drinker, keeping a French-press or pour-over coffee maker stashed in the cupboard is the perfect way to make the occasional cup without dedicating a large section of countertop to an appliance youll seldom use.

Though virtually all of the French presses and pour-over coffee makers that Consumer Reports tested make a good cup of coffee, they varied in their ease of use, with the best of the bunch keeping hands safely away from hot surfaces and proving easy to clean. Top-performing French presses varied in the quality of their permanent mesh filters, which is the only line of defense against grounds that can otherwise end up in your cup. Below, a selection of top manual coffee makers from our most recent tests.

French-Press Coffee Makers

Frieling Insulated Brushed Stainless Steel, $124.99

With a price that would seem steep on even the best electric brewer, the Frieling topped our test of French-press models in large part because of its insulated, stainless steel design. That helped it keep coffee hot and hands cool, and its double-layer mesh strainer had the smallest openings of any model reviewed, helping it keep grounds from slipping through into brewed coffee. But unlike glass models, you cant see how much coffee is left in the carafe.

Bodum 8-Cup Chambord, $49.99

It looks like glass, but the Chambord is actually outfitted with what Bodum describes as a shatter-resistant, BPA-free SAN plastic carafe. Indeed, the carafe did resist shattering when we dropped ita clear advantage over glass optionsthough it still fractured at the point where it hit the floor.

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Bonjour 8-Cup Monet, $39.99

This classically designed press has a standard glass carafe wrapped in stainless steel. Clear sides let you see exactly how much is left to pour but dont do much to keep coffee hotor protect hands. The wide handle allows you to easily grip and pour without getting too close to the hot sides.

Bodum Brazil 8-Cup, $17.99

Its tough to beat the price on this simple press, which has a plastic lid, base, and handle surrounding the glass carafe. It was as easy to use as models costing twice as much, but the small handle keeps hands close to the hot glass sides, so youll need to use a little caution when pouring.

Pour-Over Coffee Makers

Melitta 2- to 6-Cup Pour-Over Coffee Brewer, $12.99

For simple, straightforward brewing, the Melitta is a solid choice. A plastic cone sits atop the glass carafe and features a large finger ring, eliminating the need to get hands too close to hot surfaces. The carafe has a wide neck and is easily cleaned by hand, and the unit relies on disposable filters that do a good job capturing grounds.

Bodum Pour Over 11571-01 with Permanent Filter, $29.99

The narrow neck on the Bodum lends itself to the handsome, hourglass-inspired design. Unfortunately, that same narrow neck makes this model difficult to clean. A rubber sleeve wraps the carafe to protect fingers while pouring, but its not large enough to protect an entire hand. The neck has a permanent filter, which eliminates the need for disposable paper filters, though some fine grounds can sneak through.

Want a conventional coffee maker? See our full coffee maker ratings and recommendations of drip, pod, and specialty machines.







More from Consumer Reports:

Top pick tires for 2016

Best used cars for $25,000 and less

7 best mattresses for couples





Consumer Reports has no relationship with any advertisers on this website. Copyright  2006-2016 Consumers Union of U.S.
Aleppo battle: UN says hundreds of men missing

Hundreds of men appear to have gone missing after crossing from rebel-held areas of Aleppo into government territory, UN officials say.
Ottawa (AFP) - US Vice President Joe Biden implored Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to help lead the world's liberal order after Barack Obama cedes the Oval Office to Donald Trump next month, during a trip that wrapped up Friday.

"The world is going to spend a lot of time looking at you, Mr Prime Minister, as we see more and more challenges to the liberal international order than any time since the end of World War II," Biden said at a state dinner that kicked off the two-day visit late Thursday.

"Vive le Canada, because we need you very, very badly," he added in a toast.

However, Biden reassured Canada that its historically close relationship with America will not suffer under the new Trump administration.

He also urged Canadians to continue their drive toward a low-carbon economy, predicting that America would itself press ahead, driven by state and market forces that have overtaken the federal government's efforts to cut carbon pollution.

- Low-carbon future -

Biden's two-day visit to Ottawa, which started with the dinner hosted by Trudeau on Thursday, came as Canada's regional leaders met in the capital to finalize a national climate strategy.

Speaking to provincial, territorial and indigenous leaders before they announced a national carbon price Friday, Biden said: "Whatever uncertainty exists around the near-term policy choices of the next president, I am absolutely confident the United States will continue making progress on this path to a low-carbon future."

"This is unstoppable," he added.

Campaigning for the presidency this year, Trump warned that US environmental regulations are hamstringing businesses, pledging to boost the oil and gas sector and bring back coal.

His pick Thursday of fossil fuel industry ally Scott Pruitt, a global warming skeptic, to head the Environmental Protection Agency is casting further doubt over the direction America will take on climate change.

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The EPA both determines and implements US international climate commitments.

Biden cited a trend toward more fuel-efficient transportation and buildings, as well as state-to-province cooperation such as California, Quebec and Ontario trading carbon credits.

He noted a small drop in US oil consumption while renewables such as solar energy are on the upswing.

"Many of the trends that I've mentioned have taken hold and are no longer dependent on government initiatives. They're market-driven, they're common sense," Biden said.

"So, regardless of whether the next administration is as aggressive as we have been, there is no way to turn back, I'm not suggesting they intend to, but there's no way to turn back this tide that has begun to roll."

- Opportunity for cooperation -

Trudeau has staked out his political future by aligning with Obama, especially on phasing out coal-fired power plants.

But Canadians now fear a future under Trump "where our businesses become non-competitive" with US firms, MP Wayne Easter, co-chair of the Canada-US inter-parliamentary group, told AFP.

Under Trudeau's plan, carbon pollution would cost Can$10 (USD$8) a tonne in 2018, rising incrementally to Can$50 (USD$38) a tonne by 2022.

The country's provinces, which share environmental responsibilities with the federal government, can choose to implement a carbon tax or a cap-and-trade system.

Holdouts would pay a price imposed by Ottawa.

Despite the differences between Trudeau's Liberal Party government and Trump's forming Republican administration on clean energy, there will probably be opportunities for cooperation.

Notwithstanding his hard line on emissions, Trudeau has approved major expansions of two pipelines to pump more Alberta crude oil to the Pacific Coast and the United States.

But he rejected a third oil route through a temperate rain forest to the Pacific.

Trump, meanwhile, has said he would fast-track approvals for the controversial Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta to US Gulf Coast refineries, which Obama rejected under pressure from environmental activists.

Over dinner Thursday at a former bank across from parliament, now a reception center, Biden also sought to soothe fears over the fate of trade and security ties under Trump.

He also joked about Trudeau's global status as "eye candy."
By Gene Emery (Reuters Health) - Two of the largest suppliers of the life-saving drug naloxone have dramatically increased their prices in recent years, threatening to make it less likely that someone can be saved from a potentially-fatal opioid overdose. The warning published by the New England Journal of Medicine comes in the wake of recent of drug price gouging, most notably for Turing Pharmaceuticals' anti-parasite drug Daraprim and Mylan's EpiPens, designed to prevent death following a severe allergic reaction. "It's certainly part of the larger trend in brand name drugs and old off-patent generics" that have been subject to large price hikes in recent years, said Ravi Gupta, coauthor of the opinion piece and a fourth-year medical student at the Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut. He and his colleagues from Yale and the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota found that a 10-pack of naloxone sold by the Pfizer company Hospira had more than doubled in price from $62.29 in 2012 to $142.49 this year. But that increase is dwarfed by Kaleo's naloxone auto-injector system, which went from $690 for two injections in 2014 to $4,500 in 2016, an increase of more than 500 percent in just two years. Other manufacturers have not increased their prices, but Kaleo and Hospira represent most of the sales, the Gupta team writes. "Here are drugs that are lifesaving in an acute situation, and both the EpiPen and naloxone prices have skyrocketed," Gupta told Reuters Health. "The lack of attention to naloxone's price increases may be associated with the stigma of people who use opioids, whereas the EpiPen is for children." Pfizer spokeswoman Rachel Hooper countered that "Hospira has responsibly priced naloxone, in an email. "We believe our actions have reflected sensitivity to the need for the product, and also take into account the reality and necessary investments needed to produce high-quality generic drugs," she told Reuters Health. Kaleo's vice president of corporate affairs, Mark Herzog, said in an email that the company has special programs that allow patients and caregivers to get naloxone at no cost if they have a prescription and commercial insurance. "To cover the cost of this program for patients, we increased the list price," he said. Drug pricing is a complex issue that involves multiple stakeholders, including insurers, payers and pharmacies," Herzog said. But, Gupta said, "patient discount programs are not necessarily a sustainable solution, and even if they're offering the autoinjector for a significantly reduced price, it's often put back on the patients themselves through an increase in insurance premiums." Naloxone has been available in generic form since 1985. In recent years there has been a push to make naloxone widely available to people without medical training in hopes of preventing both heroin overdoses and deaths from overuse of opioid-based prescription drugs, which have been twice as common as heroin overdose deaths. All but four states have at least one law designed to expand access to naloxone. Kaleo's special pen designed for untrained people was approved in 2014. A nasal spray formulation was approved in 2015. While Kaleo increased its price more than sixfold since 2014, Adapt has kept its Narcan nasal spray at $150 for two doses. Gupta and his colleagues said Kaleo raised its price "significantly and without explanation the month before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new guidelines encouraging doctors to prescribe naloxone as a precaution to patients at risk for an overdose." To solve the problem, they said the federal government might want to bring down the price by purchasing in bulk, creating a stable demand that might encourage other companies to compete, a strategy that keeps vaccine costs low. The government also has the right to manufacture Kaleo's auto-injector at a lower price and simply pay a royalty for use of the patent. The government could also allow importation of a comparable product from overseas, a strategy that has been proposed for combating the hefty price increases imposed for U.S.-produced generic drugs. "When governments promote naloxone use, they have a responsibility to ensure the drugs affordability," the Gupta team writes. "Taking action now is essential to ensuring that this lifesaving drug is available to patients and communities." SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2hkIXd2 New England Journal of Medicine, online December 7, 2016.
When it comes to swearing, are men or women the biggest offender?

The Doctors discuss a recent study by Lancaster University and the Cambridge University Press which looked at hours and hours (10 million words worth of material) of recorded conversations from 376 participants which found that women are 10 times more likely to swear than men!

Watch: What Should Parents Do After Their Child Curses?

I think women have a lot on our plate. Were working moms, were busy and its hard sometimes, Dermatologist Dr. Sonia Batra says of the urge to cuss from time to time. She also points to the idea that women swearing could be a sign of more equality between the genders in our society where women feel more empowered to express themselves freely.

ER physician Dr. Travis Stork thinks cussing can be a good thing from time to time. Holding that inside can increase stress levels [and] blood pressure, he says.

Watch: More Tips On Kids Who Cuss

The Doctors also note that research suggests letting out an expletive in a moment of physical pain can reduce your pain levels. So if you are feeling stressed or have aches and pain, go ahead and let a few of your favorite cuss words fly  you just might feel better afterward!
- By Holly LaFon



Fannie (FNMA) and Freddie (FMCC)'s underlying earnings continue to progress modestly in the core mortgage guarantee business, while the non-core investment portfolio continues to shrink to a smaller and appropriate level, resulting in a more profitable and lower-risk business model. The strength in underlying earnings growth reflects two factors: (1) an increase in guarantee fees as the fees on new mortgages exceed the average fees on the existing portfolio, and (2) lower credit losses as the portfolio's credit quality has meaningfully improved since the financial crisis.







There were a number of legal developments this quarter. In the Federal Court of Claims case, Judge Sweeney granted the plaintiffs access to 56 documents the government had claimed were privileged, many of which were contemporaneous with the period just prior to the Net Worth Sweep and involved high level government officials. The plaintiffs have not yet had access to the privileged documents as the government has appealed Judge Sweeney's ruling. We find it interesting that the government is fighting so hard against this ruling, as it has previously complied with the judge's prior motions to turn over documents.



A new lawsuit was filed in Texas that makes claims similar to the Perry case, but also makes several new arguments. First, the lawsuit argues that the Housing and Economic Recovery Act (HERA), which grants FHFA rights as conservator, is invalid and violates the separation of powers. Second, the lawsuit contends that the FHFA has affected a liquidation of the GSEs in violation of HERA by creating policies such as a common securitization platform and credit risk transfer agreements which are designed to minimize the GSEs role in the marketplace.



Since the election, Fannie and Freddie's share prices have appreciated materially as investors believe that a more business-oriented administration that did not implement the Net Worth Sweep would be more likely to seek a consensual resolution that benefits all stakeholders. Recent statements by Steven Mnuchin, the presumptive Treasury Secretary, have also contributed to the recent stock price increases. In an interview on Fox Business, Mr. Mnuchin stated:



It makes no sense that [the GSEs] are owned by the government and have been controlled by the government for as long as they have. In many cases this displaces private lending in the mortgage markets and we need these entities that will be safe. So let me just be clear-- we'll make sure that when they're restructured they're absolutely safe and they don't get taken over again. But we gotta get them out of government control.



We strongly agree with Mr. Mnuchin's views about the GSEs.



From Bill Ackman (Trades, Portfolio)'s Pershing Square third-quarter shareholder letter.

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.






Bindi Irwin and Chandler Powell have had quite a few adventures and romantic moments over the past few months, but this week they had to say goodbye to one another.

Powell, a 20-year-old professional wake boarder, returned to the U.S. while his girlfriend stayed back in Australia to work at her family's zoo. It was an emotional farewell for the couple, who shared goodbye messages on Instagram.

WATCH: Bindi Irwin Is Proud of Boyfriend Chandler Powell's 'Croc Catching' -- 'I Feel Extremely Blessed'

"You are flying back to the U.S.A. today. Dropping you off at the airport and waving goodbye, it never gets easier. Thank you for the most wonderful adventures these last few months," Irwin captioned a photo of herself resting her head on Powell's shoulder. "I've known you since you were 16 and every day, from the very first day I met you, you've been my sunshine."

"I will see you again soon!" the 18-year-old conservationist continued. "Thank you for everything, you always make me smile, no matter how far apart we may be. Have fun while you're away, go find lots of manatees in Florida for me! I miss you so much already. You really do mean the world to me."

WATCH: Bindi Irwin Shares '#ThanksgivingMemories' With Family and Boyfriend Chandler Powell

Powell also expressed how hard it was to leave Irwin in Australia. "It seems like just yesterday I arrived in Australia for your birthday. Each goodbye gets more and more difficult," he posted, along with a photo taken by Irwin's brother Robert. "I always carry even the smallest of moments, like these sunset walks through the zoo, with me no matter where I go. Counting down the days until I'm back with you again creating more incredible, unforgettable memories. Thank you for making me so happy each and every day."

WATCH: Bindi Irwin Pens Heartfelt Message for Boyfriend Chandler Powell on His 20th Birthday

Every chance they get, these two can't help but gush over one another. In their first joint interview in October, Irwin shared exclusively with ET the "defining moment" when she first realized Powell was the one for her. Check it out:

Related Articles
Bindi Irwin posted the sweetest goodbye message to her boyfriend, and our hearts are melting and breaking all at once

Long distance relationships are HARD, but not impossible. Just look at Bindi Irwin (daughter of the late Steve Irwin) and her American boyfriend, pro wakeboarder Chandler Powell. Theyve been going strong since 2013! But sounds like they just had to say a (temporary) goodbye.

We just heard from Us Weekly that Irwin said goodbye to Powell in the sweetest post via Instagram when he had to return to his home base in Florida.

Needless to say, our hearts are melting right now. They just spent time together in Australia with Irwins family and theyre parting for the holidays, which is even sadder! Looks like it could be a while before they share more precious moments.

Thank you for the most wonderful adventures these last few months. We even got to celebrate your 20th birthday here in Australia together, hiking through the Great Dividing Range! Ive known you since you were 16 and every day, from the very first day I met you, youve been my sunshine. I will see you again soon!

Awwwwww. That is justthe cutest. It feels like these two old souls have been together for decades. Irwin went on to thank him for everything, and wish him the best in Florida. She wrote, Have fun while youre away, go find lots of manatees in Florida for me! I miss you so much already. You really do mean the world to me.

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We hope that these two lovebirds will be reunited again soon, because they clearly have a solid relationship. Powell posted his own goodbye message, and its just as adorable as the first.

It seems like just yesterday I arrived in Australia for your birthday. Each good bye gets more and more difficult. I always carry even the smallest of moments, like these sunset walks through the zoo, with me no matter where I go.

Awwwwwww. Stop it, you guys!

Had the best time driving through the Glasshouse Mountains Christmas shopping. Hiking, looking for wildlife, stopping at little towns in the mountains... Wouldn't trade these days with you for anything in the world A photo posted by Chandler Powell (@chandlerpowell) on Dec 4, 2016 at 11:37pm PST

Hope they can be together again ASAP.

The post Bindi Irwin posted the sweetest goodbye message to her boyfriend, and our hearts are melting and breaking all at once appeared first on HelloGiggles.

For more celebrity videos visit Yahoo View, available now on iOS and Android.
Deddeh Howard was looking through magazines on a trip to the supermarket last year when she noticed that there were almost no black models featured.

I had started fashion blogging, and I was looking for inspiration, Howard, 27, tells PEOPLE. I was looking for ethnic models, and I realized that I could count the black models. I freaked out. It was almost like a slap that woke me up, like, Wow, we are really underrepresented.'

And its not just in magazines that Howard noticed the dearth of models of color.

When you walk down the street, the billboards, theres no diversity  or if there is, there is one with white girls, she says. Have we not passed that stage where the audience is treated as equals?

Howard, who is a model herself, says it has been hard for her to book jobs because of her skin tone.

I had agencies tell me, We really like you, but we have one or two models that look like you,' says the Liberian-born medical student. Agencies say that the reason theyre sending more white girls out for jobs is because thats what the client wants. Its biased. We live in a world where audience is audience, and were not just one race. Im losing jobs every single day because of my skin color.

WATCH: Lucy Liu Responds to Hollywoods White Washed Out Diversity Issue

So Howard decided to take matters into her own hands and teamed up with photographer Raffael Dickreuter to create her Black Mirror photo series, which recreates fashion campaign images featuring white models to show what they would look like with a more diverse model.

We came up with the idea to take photos that everyone looks up to and mirror it  what if it were with a black girl or an Asian girl or a Hispanic girl? says Howard, who now lives in Los Angeles. I put all my frustration and negativity and how much I felt less as a person and how much I was put down as a person, and had that inspire this project.

While Howard said nailing the poses was easy, everything else about the process was challenging.

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The Gigi Hadid one was the most difficult because we had to get a bike that looked similar, and sun is and the light position, and my boyfriend and a friend looked for hours for a similar location because we didnt know where she shot it  but it worked out so perfectly, she says. The guy who had the bike was so inspired by my story that he gave us the bike for free!

Howard hopes her photos inspire anyone who has been made to feel less-than because of the color of their skin.

I know theres someone out there going through the same thing, and I want them to know that if they can do it, you can do it, she says. Stand up for yourself because diversity matters a lot. We have to learn to accept each other. Fashion should not be black or white, the world should not be black or white. I walk down the street and I feel insecure because of these issues. Thats why Im out there speaking for everybody.




Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fcard%2fimage%2f313504%2f4e7a645beb994ae2a15644bf82b01797

Model Deddeh Howard was sick of the lack of diversity in major fashion campaigns.

So, the Liberian model collaborated with photographer Raffael Dickreuter on the Black Mirror project, in which Howard recreated nine fashion brands' advertisements that feature white models.

SEE ALSO: What models of diverse identities really think of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

Image: Raffael Dickreuter

"When you browse through the average fashion magazine you almost never see any black models. Same for big ad campaigns of the big billboards. That really stood out for so long that it just really made sense to take these pictures," photographer Dickreuter wrote to Mashable.

In a statement, Howard elaborated on that.

In a time where black people too often are in the media for being underrepresented at important events such as the Oscars or make headlines for being targeted by the police I felt it was time to do something positive and inspiring about my race," Howard said.

"At the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show you could see the same pattern you can see at New York Fashion Week or any other famous fashion event: black girls are almost invisible. There is the odd one here and there, but it always feels like an afterthought," she said. "We live in a globalized world with nowadays many interracial couples producing mixed babies. Why can't the big brands not embrace our diversity more and give all of us visibility? With this Black Mirror project I hope to show the world that it is time for all of us being seen.

Image: Raffael Dickreuter

Howard now resides in Los Angeles.

She recreated each photo almost exactly  the only intentional differences are the absence of brand logos and her skin tone.

Image: Raffael Dickreuter

Dickreuter explained to Mashable how they chose which photos to recreate.

"We definitely researched which famous brands never use black models and that was a good starting point. Then we also checked on what pictures we liked and felt would work well together for this project," he said. "We also were looking for that she as a black model could look great in and that worked well with the overall story on diversity."

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Image: Raffael Dickreuter

Image: Raffael Dickreuter

The pair didn't hold back when it came to getting the perfect props, clothing and more for the shoot.

"The shooting part did not take that long. What took much longer is the research for each shot, reverse engineer how they were created, find all the right elements, from clothing to jewelry to tracking down a rare 1939 motorcycle That took the most time to get to the point where you could actually shoot," Dickreuter told Mashable.

"A real challenge is when you say, 'let's go up against the biggest brands in the world, who have huge budgets and access to stars and we would shoot this basically in our apartment,'" he said. "I knew very few people could pull this off. Go up against all these stars like Gisele or Kate Moss all at the same time. Big credit to Deddeh for pulling off all those looks."

We hope to be seeing more of Deddeh Howard in the future.

Image: Raffael Dickreuter

Image: Raffael Dickreuter

BONUS: Pomeranian beauty from the last 100 Years
* European YTD sector performance chart: http://bit.ly/2grRpFK

* European basic resources index up 70 pct in 2016

* Extension of rally into 2017 rests on China, Trump

* Stocks expensive relative to historical standards

By Atul Prakash and Peter Hobson

LONDON, Dec 9 (Reuters) - European miners are in a race for the title of the best sector performer this year, a sharp turnaround from a slump in 2015, although the rally extending into 2017 rests on U.S. president-elect Donald Trump and China.

A recovery in commodity prices, better balance sheets and brighter global economic growth prospects have underpinned the rally in so-called 'cyclical' stocks - which tend to follow the fortunes of the wider economy - that were beaten down to low valuations at the end of 2015.

Glencore's move to join a consortium taking a stake in Russian oil giant Rosneft suggests some companies are getting more confident about their balance sheets, analysts said.

But with several blue-chip mining shares surging, a lot of optimism may already be in the price, they said.

Companies such as Anglo American and Glencore , up 315 percent and 235 percent respectively in 2016, have helped the mining index to surge 70 percent this year and be on track to snap a three-year losing streak. In contrast, the pan-European STOXX 600 is down 3 percent.

The sector is also relatively expensive, with its price-to-earnings ratio now at 14.6 times forward earnings, against a 10-year average of 11.5, according to Thomson Reuters Data.

With valuations not so supportive, any sign of fresh wobbles in China, or that an expected fiscal stimulus from Donald Trump's incoming U.S. administration may not be as big as hoped, risks derailing the current rally.

"The main risks for miners are indeed Trump and China. A lot of the rally is built on him delivering on his lofty promises. If he fails, it will hurt materials disproportionately," said Philippe Gijsels, head of research at BNP Paribas Fortis.

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"The same goes for China. The country continues to stimulate its economy. If the efforts are mismanaged and China end up in a hard landing scenario, it would have a profoundly negative impact on commodities-related stocks."

CHINA, TRUMP AND THE DOLLAR

Analysts said any economic stress on China, the world's biggest metals consumer, could change sentiment.

Chinese economic growth is more reliant on government spending, state-owned firms and "old economy" industries like steel and mining which Beijing has been trying to restructure via capacity cuts.

Analysts warn a property boom, which has generated a significant share of the growth, may be peaking, dampening demand for building materials from cement to steel.

"Trends in earnings have been turning to the upside. However, the biggest risk is a significant growth deterioration in China," UniCredit analyst Christian Stocker said.

Analysts said Trump is also seen as a risk for the sector.

After his election win, Trump said U.S. infrastructure will become "second to none". He has pledged to allocate $500 billion to $1 trillion to rebuild dilapidated roads and bridges.

There was no certainty that his vague plans would go ahead in the way a lot of investors were anticipating, analysts said, adding that any diversion from the pledge could result in a sharp sell-off in metals, which in turn would hit mining stocks.

A firmer dollar on expectations of U.S. rate hikes is another potential risk as a stronger dollar makes metals expensive for other currency holders.

KEEPING THE FAITH

However, some investors are sticking with their bullish views seeing potential for dividends.

"I think we are near the end of a commodities downturn.

There is scope for dividends to rise from here over the coming years," said Stephen Macklow-Smith, head of European equity strategy at JPMorgan Asset Management.

"Capex expectations have been reset and balance sheets don't look particularly stretched. If demand continues to recover in emerging markets, then commodities prices will continue to recover," he added.

Dividend yield at miners listed in London has slumped 1.4 percent to its lowest in five years just as cash flows in the sector improve following a recovery in metals prices, prompting some analysts to call for higher payouts as early as next year.

Prices of commodities such as copper and aluminium have recovered this year, partly on the back of capacity cuts in China, further improving profit margins of producers.

Credit Suisse predicts free cash flow yield, a measure of balance sheet health, of large-cap firms at 10 to 11 percent in 2017 and 8 to 9 percent in 2018. Dividend yields are forecast to almost double to 4 percent.

(Reporting by Atul Prakash; Editing by Vikram Subhedar and Toby Chopra)
Ball is in Pakistans court: India

India said on Thursday that the ball is in Pakistans court when it comes to taking forward the Saarc process.
The plane that Donald Trump used during the campaign, nicknamed Trump Force One, is a Boeing 757-200 jet. (Trump Organization via YouTube)

The Boeing Co. donated its traditional $1 million to support President-elect Donald Trumps inauguration celebration, days before Trump dinged the jetmaker over the projected multibillion-dollar cost of the future Air Force One planes.

We are pleased to continue our tradition of supporting presidential inaugurations, Boeing spokesman Gordon Johndroe told GeekWire in an emailed statement.

That traditional level is $1 million, the same amount that Boeing contributed for President Barack Obamas inaugural ceremonies in 2013.

The Trump inaugural committee sent out its package for underwriting next months festivities a little more than a week ago, and Boeing quickly got on board.

The donation was firmed up by Monday  a day before Trump tweeted his displeasure about the Air Force One cost estimates, complained that Boeing is doing a little bit of a number, and called for a cancellation of the order.

Since then, Boeing executives and Trump have been smoothing over the dispute.

Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg contacted the president-elect later on Tuesday. The next day, Trump told NBCs Today show that he spoke to a very good man yesterday, the head of Boeing, terrific guy, and were going to work it out.

Trump signaled that he expected the $4 billion price tag he quoted in his tweet to be reduced. (That number is toward the top end of previously discussed cost estimates.)

Im going to negotiate prices, Trump said. Planes are too expensive, and were going to get the prices down, and if we dont get the prices down, were not going to order them. Were going to stay with what we have.

It probably helped as well that Trump got some extra perspective on Thursday from Alan Mulally, the former head of Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Mulally is reportedly among the prospects being considered for secretary of state.

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Boeings million-dollar contribution will be folded into whats likely to amount to as much as $75 million in private underwriting. That will be in addition to the public outlay for the inauguration.

Based on the price schedule laid out in the fundraising brochure, a million dollars will bring the contributor a host of perks, including four tickets to an exclusive leadership luncheon with Cabinet picks and congressional leaders, four tickets to a dinner with Vice President Mike Pence and his wife, and eight tickets to a ladies luncheon featuring First Lady Melania Trump.

More from GeekWire:
Kano (Nigeria) (AFP) - Two female suicide bombers on Friday killed 45 people and wounded 33 others when they detonated their explosives in a crowded market in Nigeria's restive northeast, the emergency service said

The army had earlier put the death toll at 30.

"From our updated records we have 45 dead and 33 injured in the twin suicide bomb explosions in Madagali," said Sa'ad Bello of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) in Adamawa state.

While there was no immediate claim of responsibility, the blasts bore all the hallmarks of Boko Haram, which regularly uses women and young girls to carry out suicide attacks in its seven-year insurgent campaign in the troubled region.

Military spokesman Badare Akintoye had earlier said "at least 30 people have been killed in the suicide blasts carried out by two female suicide bombers in the market."

A local government official and the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) confirmed the attack.

"The two bombers who (were) disguised as customers, detonated their suicide belts at the section of the market selling grains and second-hand clothing," said Yusuf Muhammad, the chairman of Madagali local government.

The attack on Madagali, which was recaptured by Nigerian forces from Boko Haram jihadists in 2015, was the third time the town has been targeted since December last year when two female suicide bombers killed scores.

Market trader Habu Ahmad said Friday's blasts happened around 9:30 am (0830 GMT).

"It was dead bodies and wounded people in the midst of blood, spilt grain and abandoned personal effects," he said.

- 'Under control' -

Ibrahim Abdulkadir, NEMA spokesman for the northeast, said rescue teams had been deployed to the scene.

He said security agents had cordoned off the scene of the explosions.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari condemned the attack in a statement on Friday, vowing to put "an end to this senseless loss of innocent lives."

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"This latest attack is obviously an act of desperation, but the Nigerian military will neither be distracted nor relent," he said.

He urged Nigerians to be more vigilant and immediately report any suspicious activity to the nearest security agents.

"The battle against terrorism is a joint effort involving all citizens, both government and governed.

"Together, Nigerians can and will defeat the evil that is Boko Haram," he added.

Buhari had told a security conference in Senegal on Wednesday that the situation in the region was "under control".

Boko Haram is seeking to impose a hardline Islamic legal system on Nigeria's mainly-Muslim north.

Its campaign of violence has killed at least 20,000 people and displaced some 2.6 million since 2009.

Nigeria's military campaign against the jihadists is increasingly bogged down as it confronts suicide attacks, looting and indiscriminate slaughter.

The United Nations has warned that the affected region faces the "largest crisis in Africa".

The UN estimates that 14 million people will need outside help in 2017 because of the ongoing violence, particularly in Borno State, the epicentre of the rebellion.
An explosion killed six police officers and injured at least three people in Giza on December 9, according to Reuters.

The blast reportedly occurred near a mosque on al-Haram Street, a major thoroughfare which leads towards the famed pyramids of Giza.

The footage here shows emergency services responded to the scene of the explosion. Credit: Facebook/Mohamed Soliman via Storyful
Cairo (AFP) - Two separate bomb attacks in Egypt on Friday killed six policemen and a civilian, the latest in a string of attacks targeting security forces and officials, the interior ministry said.

The deadliest attack struck in the western Talibiya neighbourhood of the capital, shortly before the weekly midday Muslim prayers and when Cairo's streets are mostly empty.

The bloodied bodies of several policemen could be seen at the blast site next to police vehicles that had been stationed there, an AFP photographer reported.

The Hassam Movement, a militant group which has claimed a string of recent attacks, said it was behind the bombing, in a statement circulated on social media.

Police cordoned off the area with yellow tape as they searched for more explosives.

The interior ministry said in a statement that the bomb exploded next to a checkpoint, killing two officers, a policeman and three conscripts.

Three other conscripts were wounded.

The second blast took place in the evening on a road linking the Nile Delta city of Kafr el-Sheikh to the northern coastal town of Baltim.

The ministry said on its Facebook page that a "roadside bomb exploded... slightly wounding two policemen who were patrolling in a car and killing a civilian... who happened to be in the vicinity".

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the second attack.

Militants have repeatedly attacked police and soldiers since the army overthrew Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 and unleashed a bloody crackdown on his followers.

Most of the attacks are carried out in the Sinai Peninsula in eastern Egypt by a branch of the Islamic State jihadist group, which has killed hundreds of soldiers and policemen.

- Little-known groups -

But militants have also targeted security forces and government officials in the capital.

Most of the Cairo attacks in recent months have been claimed by two little-known militant groups, Lawaa al-Thawra and the Hassam Movement.

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An Egyptian judge in one of the trials of Morsi, who was detained after his ouster, escaped unharmed last month when a car bomb exploded as he drove past.

That attack came days after a roadside bombing targeting a police convoy killed a passer-by.

In September, militants set off a car bomb as the country's deputy state prosecutor was passing. He too escaped unharmed.

Police say Hassam and Lawaa Al-Thawra are affiliated with Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood movement, which was banned months after his overthrow and listed as a terrorist organisation.

The Brotherhood, which espoused grassroots work and change through elections, denies it is involved in violence.

The group had been the country's largest opposition movement under veteran strongman Hosni Mubarak, and dominated polls after his overthrow in 2011.

In 2012, it won a presidential election with its candidate, Morsi, whose divisive rule led to mass protests a year later that prompted the army to overthrow him.

Hundreds of Morsi's supporters were killed in protest clashes with police and the army in the following months.

The Brotherhood now operates as an underground and splintered movement, with some followers believed to have embraced attacks against police while others insist on non-violence.

Friday's bombings came days after the interior ministry said police killed three Hassam Movement members in southern Egypt, and weeks after it announced it had broken up one of the group's cells.
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Ratko Mladic's lawyers told judges on Friday that Bosnia's "fanatical" Muslim leaders had been preparing "jihad" long before the Bosnian Serb general, on trial in The Hague for genocide, ever set foot in the country in uniform. Mladic, 74, once an officer in the federal Yugoslav army, led Bosnian Serb forces in a three-year campaign to carve an ethnically pure Serb state out of Bosnia. The campaign reached its nadir with the slaughter of thousands of Muslims in Srebrenica. Summing up at the end of Mladic's four-year trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, defense lawyer Branko Lukic said Mladic had been defending his country and its people from "ethnic and religious fanaticism." "The Bosnian Muslim Party of Democratic Action (SDA) was preparing for war," Lukic said. He quoted from an "Islamic declaration" by Bosnia's wartime leader, Alija Izetbegovic, which stated that "there can be no peace between the Islamic faith and non-Islamic social and political institutions". Prosecutors on Wednesday demanded life imprisonment for Mladic for leading Bosnian Serb forces as they encircled the U.N.-designated safe haven of Srebrenica and then murdered some 8,000 of its male Muslim inhabitants, burying them in mass graves. But Lukic told the court that all parties, not only the Bosnian Serbs, were responsible for the violence in Bosnia -- not least Arab "mujahideen" fighters who had come to fight alongside their Bosnian co-religionists. "To believe the prosecution's vision of the case, one has to ignore the presence and activities of an opposing armed opponent," he said, as Mladic, described by another defense lawyer as a popular "soldier's soldier", listened from the dock. "Mladic is here today because he is a Serb and dared to stand up against Alija Izetbegovic's jihad," or Islamic holy war, asserting the Bosnian Muslim leader had enjoyed the covert backing of NATO and Western powers. The Srebrenica massacre, Europe's worst since World War Two, triggered NATO air strikes that ultimately ended the three-year Bosnian war, part of the break-up of Yugoslavia in a series of wars that killed 130,000 people and lasted for most of the 1990s [nL5N1E2450]. Mladic is charged with two counts of genocide in connection with the war. His old ally, the Bosnian Serbs' political leader Radovan Karadzic, was convicted of a single count of genocide this year and sentenced to 40 years in prison. A verdict and, in the event of a conviction, a sentence are expected next year. (Reporting By Thomas Escritt; Editing by Larry King)
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Ratko Mladic's lawyers told judges on Friday that Bosnia's "fanatical" Muslim leaders had been preparing "jihad" long before the Bosnian Serb general, on trial in The Hague for genocide, ever set foot in the country in uniform. Mladic, 74, once an officer in the federal Yugoslav army, led Bosnian Serb forces in a three-year campaign to carve an ethnically pure Serb state out of Bosnia. The campaign reached its nadir with the slaughter of thousands of Muslims in Srebrenica. Summing up at the end of Mladic's four-year trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, defence lawyer Branko Lukic said Mladic had been defending his country and its people from "ethnic and religious fanaticism." "The Bosnian Muslim Party of Democratic Action (SDA) was preparing for war," Lukic said. He quoted from an "Islamic declaration" by Bosnia's wartime leader, Alija Izetbegovic, which stated that "there can be no peace between the Islamic faith and non-Islamic social and political institutions". Prosecutors on Wednesday demanded life imprisonment for Mladic for leading Bosnian Serb forces as they encircled the U.N.-designated safe haven of Srebrenica and then murdered some 8,000 of its male Muslim inhabitants, burying them in mass graves. But Lukic told the court that all parties, not only the Bosnian Serbs, were responsible for the violence in Bosnia -- not least Arab "mujahideen" fighters who had come to fight alongside their Bosnian co-religionists. "To believe the prosecution's vision of the case, one has to ignore the presence and activities of an opposing armed opponent," he said, as Mladic, described by another defence lawyer as a popular "soldier's soldier", listened from the dock. "Mladic is here today because he is a Serb and dared to stand up against Alija Izetbegovic's jihad," or Islamic holy war, asserting the Bosnian Muslim leader had enjoyed the covert backing of NATO and Western powers. The Srebrenica massacre, Europe's worst since World War Two, triggered NATO air strikes that ultimately ended the three-year Bosnian war, part of the break-up of Yugoslavia in a series of wars that killed 130,000 people and lasted for most of the 1990s. Mladic is charged with two counts of genocide in connection with the war. His old ally, the Bosnian Serbs' political leader Radovan Karadzic, was convicted of a single count of genocide this year and sentenced to 40 years in prison. A verdict and, in the event of a conviction, a sentence are expected next year. (Reporting By Thomas Escritt; Editing by Larry King)
- World heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua fights Eric Molina on Saturday with plenty at stake. Should the Briton prevail, Joshua should face former world champion Wladimir Klitschko in a 2017 mega-fight. "If I get past Eric, it's only going to get tougher," said Joshua, who has knocked out all 17 of his professional opponents. "I'm the guy that should beat Klitschko, so I have to make sure I perform." Klitschko, who reigned for over nine years until he lost on points to Briton Tyson Fury a year ago, will be an interested observer when Joshua gets into the ring at the Manchester Arena. The Ukrainian powerhouse, who turns 41 in March, has been lined up to meet Joshua at Wembley Stadium in London on April 29.

AFP
(Adds May's spokeswoman)

LONDON, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Britain's Brexit minister David Davis is "not really interested" in a transitional deal to cushion the country from the effects of leaving the European Union, he told a private meeting with the City of London Corporation, the Financial Times reported on Friday.

The FT, citing a memo of a meeting on Nov. 15 made by an unidentified City of London Corporation representative, said Davis would consider a transitional deal only in order to "be kind" to the EU.

British business has argued the government should agree a transition period after the UK leaves the bloc and before new trade terms are finalised, during which current arrangements stay in place.

A spokeswoman for Prime Minister Theresa May said the memo was merely an interpretation of the meeting, and that Davis "has been engaging with a wide range of businesses as part of the preparations for negotiations".

Last month May, who has said she will invoke Article 50 of the EU's Lisbon Treaty that triggers the exit negotiations by the end of March 2017, assured businesses they would not fall off a legal "cliff edge" in 2019 -- her clearest signal yet that she may consider a transitional deal.

Also over the past week, Davis has given more positive signals about possible arrangements to support a Brexit soft landing, saying Britain would consider making payments to the EU after it leaves to achieve the best possible access for businesses to the bloc's markets.

Large banks in Britain want the UK government to allow their industry to remain subject to EU laws for up to five years after Brexit, Reuters reported on Friday.

Davis told the meeting with the City of London Corporation that Britain's sudden departure could compromise the EU's financial stability and said he would be more in favour if the EU asked Britain for a transition.

"I will be kind," he said, according to the Corporation's account of the meeting, the FT said.

Davis was also quoted as saying that the EU's "inflexible approach" on immigration meant it was unlikely the UK would achieve access to the single market.

But he said a trade deal such as the Canada-EU agreement would be relatively easy to secure and would not pose a significant problem for the UK because "most advantages" would be gained, said the newspaper.

(Reporting by James Davey; editing by Stephen Addison)
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Brexit minister David Davis is "not really interested" in a transitional deal to cushion the country from the effects of leaving the European Union, he told a private meeting with the City of London Corporation, the Financial Times reported on Friday. The FT, citing a memo of a meeting on Nov. 15 made by an unidentified City of London Corporation representative, said Davis would consider a transitional deal only in order to "be kind" to the EU. British business has argued the government should agree a transition period after the UK leaves the bloc and before new trade terms are finalised, during which current arrangements stay in place. A spokeswoman for Prime Minister Theresa May said the memo was merely an interpretation of the meeting, and that Davis "has been engaging with a wide range of businesses as part of the preparations for negotiations". Last month May, who has said she will invoke Article 50 of the EU's Lisbon Treaty that triggers the exit negotiations by the end of March 2017, assured businesses they would not fall off a legal "cliff edge" in 2019 -- her clearest signal yet that she may consider a transitional deal. Also over the past week, Davis has given more positive signals about possible arrangements to support a Brexit soft landing, saying Britain would consider making payments to the EU after it leaves to achieve the best possible access for businesses to the bloc's markets. Large banks in Britain want the UK government to allow their industry to remain subject to EU laws for up to five years after Brexit, Reuters reported on Friday. Davis told the meeting with the City of London Corporation that Britain's sudden departure could compromise the EUs financial stability and said he would be more in favour if the EU asked Britain for a transition. I will be kind, he said, according to the Corporation's account of the meeting, the FT said. Davis was also quoted as saying that the EUs inflexible approach on immigration meant it was unlikely the UK would achieve access to the single market. But he said a trade deal such as the Canada-EU agreement would be relatively easy to secure and would not pose a significant problem for the UK because most advantages would be gained, said the newspaper. (Reporting by James Davey; editing by Stephen Addison)
Chinese police offer relief to flood victims

Chinese police have distributed relief materials to the flood victims of Tatopani in Sindhupalchok district.
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Brexit minister David Davis is "not really interested" in a transitional deal to cushion the country from the effects of leaving the European Union, he told a private meeting with the City of London Corporation, the Financial Times reported on Friday. The FT, citing a memo of a meeting on Nov. 15 made by an unidentified City of London Corporation representative, said Davis would consider a transitional deal only in order to "be kind" to the EU. British business has argued the government should agree a transition period after the UK leaves the bloc and before new trade terms are finalised, during which current arrangements stay in place. A spokeswoman for Prime Minister Theresa May said the memo was merely an interpretation of the meeting, and that Davis "has been engaging with a wide range of businesses as part of the preparations for negotiations". Last month May, who has said she will invoke Article 50 of the EU's Lisbon Treaty that triggers the exit negotiations by the end of March 2017, assured businesses they would not fall off a legal "cliff edge" in 2019 -- her clearest signal yet that she may consider a transitional deal. Also over the past week, Davis has given more positive signals about possible arrangements to support a Brexit soft landing, saying Britain would consider making payments to the EU after it leaves to achieve the best possible access for businesses to the bloc's markets. Large banks in Britain want the UK government to allow their industry to remain subject to EU laws for up to five years after Brexit, Reuters reported on Friday. Davis told the meeting with the City of London Corporation that Britain's sudden departure could compromise the EUs financial stability and said he would be more in favor if the EU asked Britain for a transition. I will be kind, he said, according to the Corporation's account of the meeting, the FT said. Davis was also quoted as saying that the EUs inflexible approach on immigration meant it was unlikely the UK would achieve access to the single market. But he said a trade deal such as the Canada-EU agreement would be relatively easy to secure and would not pose a significant problem for the UK because most advantages would be gained, said the newspaper. (Reporting by James Davey; editing by Stephen Addison)
Dubai (AFP) - Britain "is back" in the Gulf region and stepping up its security commitment, Foreign Minister Boris Johnson told regional policymakers on Friday.

"Britain is back East of Suez," he told the annual Manama Dialogue security forum, as his country prepares to leave the European Union after a shock referendum vote in June to quit the bloc.

"This is about building on and intensifying old friendships," Johnson said.

"Britain has been part of your story for the last 200 years, and we will be with you for the centuries to come."

He stuck close to themes touched on by Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May two days earlier at a summit with Gulf leaders, after Downing Street had to pull him back into line over comments about Britain's ally Saudi Arabia.

At a conference in Rome last week, Johnson accused the kingdom -- and its regional rival Iran -- of engaging in "proxy wars". A video of his comments was posted on the Guardian website.

Returning from the Gulf summit, May's office said Johnson's comments reflected his "personal position".

Saudi Arabia and Iran support opposite sides of the war in Syria and also in Yemen, where Riyadh has since March last year led a coalition bombing campaign against Iran-backed Huthi rebels.

The coalition has faced repeated allegations of killing civilians in its air strikes during the war, which has displaced more than three million people.

Johnson noted Saudi Arabia's need to secure its borders against rebel bombardments, "but I must also share my profound concern, which I'm sure is universal in this room, about the present suffering of the people of Yemen".

Johnson, who is due to visit Saudi Arabia on Sunday, added that "force alone" will not bring stability to Yemen.

May and the Gulf leaders agreed at their Bahrain summit to form a "strategic partnership" to foster defence and other ties.

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"We're spending three billion pounds (3.5 billion euros) on our military commitment in the Gulf over the next 10 years," Johnson said at the forum, organised by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

He said that even though Britain plans to withdraw from the treaties tying it to the EU block, the country will continue to work for European peace and stability.

"And by the way, we'll still be able to stick up for our friends and partners in the Gulf."

Britain has 1,500 military personnel and seven warships in the region, he said.

"Your security is our security."
London (AFP) - Britain's Prince Andrew issued a rare statement on Friday to deny any rifts with his older brother and heir to the throne Prince Charles over giving more significant roles to his two daughters.

The denial follows reports of mounting tension between the two men, including the allegation that Andrew had said any husbands of Eugenie and Beatrice should be awarded the aristocratic titles of earls.

"There is no truth to the story that there could be a split between the Prince of Wales and I over my daughters' participation as members of the Royal Family," Andrew said in a statement on Twitter.

"I cannot continue to stand by and have the media speculate on their futures based on my purported interventions, which are completely made up," he said.

Andrew, the Duke of York, said his daughters' royal engagements were "very much appreciated by my family" and that he wanted them to be "modern, working, young women, who happen to be members of the Royal Family".

The two princesses have been heavily criticised by British tabloids for enjoying regular holidays.

Eugenie took eight holidays, including to Myanmar, over 15 months, ending with a New Year's party in New York last year, the Daily Mail reported earlier.

Beatrice had 18 holidays over the same period including to Verbier, Abu Dhabi, Ibiza and Florida.

Prince Andrew's statement came a month after Prince Harry blasted "abuse and harassment" by the media against his girlfriend, US actress Meghan Markle.

Harry also took issue with the "outright racism and sexism" on social media directed against Markle, best known for her role as Rachel Zane in the US television drama "Suits".
By Francesco Canepa and Huw Jones

FRANKFURT/LONDON, Dec 9 (Reuters) - The European Central Bank hopes its decision to confront struggling Italian bank Monte dei Paschi at last will draw a line under a multi-year crisis that has risked tarnishing its reputation as a credible supervisor.

Reuters exclusively reported on Friday that the ECB rejected Monte dei Paschi's request for more time to complete an ambitious, 5 billion euro ($5.3 billion) cash call - effectively leaving it up to the Italian government to bail out the bank.

ECB officials told Reuters they hoped that a "precautionary recapitalisation" of Monte dei Paschi by the Italian state will pave the way for similar injections of government money into other Italian banks plagued by bad loans totalling 360 billion euros.

A precautionary recapitalisation is a type of state intervention in a struggling bank that is still solvent.

It means only a modest bail-in or write down in the value of a bank's bonds is likely, though the Italian government can buy shares or bonds in Monte dei Paschi only on market terms endorsed by EU state aid officials in Brussels.

"There is consensus that Monte dei Paschi needs a precautionary recap," one of the officials said, requesting anonymity. "Once that is done, it could serve as a template for other banks."

This scenario is subject to a number of open political questions, such as who will be in the new Italian government following Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's decision to resign and how much fiscal room the European Commission is prepared to give Rome for bank rescues.

A government-led recapitalisation will also raise questions about whether rules introduced since the 2007-09 financial crisis to prevent taxpayers having to fund bailouts in future banking crises have been worth it.

Monte dei Paschi's problems date back several years but until now the ECB, as the bank's main supervisor since November 2014, has avoided confronting matters head on.

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This is despite the bank failing the EU's regular stress test of lenders twice in a row - the latest was in July this year - showing how Monte dei Paschi is suffering from bad loans and too little capital.

Further delays by the ECB would start to undermine its reputation as a banking supervisor or single supervisory mechanism (SSM) that is meant to cut through national vested interests in the euro zone.

"Monte dei Paschi is an existential question for the ECB, a matter to act for its own credibility," said Karel Lannoo, chief executive of Brussels think tank CEPS. "We are two years into the SSM, and the Monte dei Paschi question has been known for five to six years."

Nicolas Veron, a research fellow at economic think tank Bruegel in Brussels and the Peterson Institute in Washington, said the ECB has been slow to act until now because it was building up capacity as a supervisor.

"I would have preferred them to be more forceful earlier. They have taken a risk in terms of their reputation. This delay has not gone unnoticed, but in fairness, it has to be asked if they had the capacity to do things more quickly," Veron said.

Successive Italian governments failed to tackle the issue, which became a political taboo this year when new European rules came into force banning state bailouts unless private investors take losses first.

The fall of Renzi this week following a resounding defeat in a referendum on constitutional change is seen by some commentators as bringing the country's banking crisis to a head, thus forcing the ECB's hand.

President Sergio Mattarella began consulting political leaders on Thursday to seek a consensus to back a government. Without that, he will have to dissolve parliament and call early elections.

ECB officials hope an interim government, ideally including economy minister Pier Carlo Padoan, would take the unpopular decision to inject capital into Monte dei Paschi, negotiating a way to compensate savers with the European Commission.

The precautionary recapitalisation model could also be used for other struggling lenders in Italy. This could lure private investors back into the sector and allow the banks to sell down their bad loans more quickly, an objective for the ECB.

Monte dei Paschi was the only Italian bank to come short under an adverse scenario in the pan-European stress test of large lenders this year. ($1 = 0.9460 euros) (editing by David Stamp)
Before John Glenn and his fellow NASA astronauts made history orbiting the earth, they visited the Naval Air Development Center in Bucks County to train for what it would be like in zero gravity.

The base is now gone, turned into an office park. But the centrifuge still stands, at 780 Falcon Circle, and operates as the Johnsville Centrifuge & Science Museum. Businessman Sam Cravero bought the space in 2007 with plans to preserve the historic site and turn it into a museum and education center.

Back in the 1960s, it was one of the largest human centrifuges in the world, capable of reaching a speed of 178 mph in less than 7 seconds, and generating up to 40 g's in gravitational force.

By comparison, those carnival rides that spin and pin you to the wall typically max out around 3 g's.

"You had to strain every muscle to keep enough blood in your head to keep from passing out," Glenn said in a 2011 phone interview. "It wasn't a pleasure trip. "

Glenn, the last of the original Mercury 7 astronauts, died Thursday at 95.

Back in the 1960s, the spacemen would spend days inside the centrifuge, being spun around inside an enclosed capsule attached to the end of a 50-foot arm. It was crucial preparation for the rigors of gravitational forces before Glenn's 1962 Mercury mission to orbit the earth.

Up through the 1980s, according to the Johnsville museum, dozens of astronauts subjected themselves to the Warminster spin machine to learn how many g-forces they could withstand.

In 2011, the 50th anniversary of Alan Shepards becoming the first American in space, Johnsville Centrifuge & Science Museum Inc. made arrangements to bring back the centrifuge 's original gondola (it was replaced in 1964 by the one that is still attached to it today). The museum group found the original gondola at a Smithsonian warehouse in Maryland, and moved it into the space permanently this year.

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While it was a bumpy road preserving the historic technology, Cravero has managed to keep the museum afloat with a combination of event-hosting, donations and leasing. Old research labs surrounding the main space were converted into offices in 2011 to offset the costs.

Cravero is hosting the third annual Spring Gala on April 28 to benefit the museum.

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In the early 20th century, Dale Carnegie began to travel the United States delivering to audiences a potent message he would refine and eventually publish in his 1936 bestseller, How To Win Friends and Influence People: About 15 percent of ones financial success is due to ones technical knowledge and about 85 percent is due to skill in human engineeringto personality and the ability to lead people. Carnegie, who based his claim on research done at institutes founded by the industrialist Andrew Carnegie (unrelated), thus enshrined for Americans the notion that leadership was the key to success in businessthat profit might be less about engineering things and more about engineering people. Over 30 million copies of Carnegies book have been sold since its publication.

Political and military leaders have long been a preoccupation of historians, philosophers, and poets, who have chronicled exemplary life stories to instruct the curious and ambitious. Consider, for example, Plutarchs second-century lives of Greek and Roman generals and statesmen, which Ralph Waldo Emerson once called a bible for heroes. Later collections of biographies like Boccaccios On the Fall of Princes, written in the 1350s and widely translated, and the 16th-century English Mirror for Magistrates were predicated on the idea that princes could profit from reading about the successes and failures of their predecessors.

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But the examination of leadership in the commercial sector is a comparatively recent development. (Indeed, the term leadership was itself a 19th-century coinage.) It took the revolutionary stimulants of 19th-century industry and 20th-century finance to turn leadership and management into discrete branches of academic studyinhabited largely by social scientists and those who popularize their work for general readers craving formulas for economic success. As Peter Drucker, the 20th-century theorist known as the father of management, observes, the large enterprises that gave rise to contemporary ideas about organizational culture date only to the 1870s; before that, the only large permanent organization around was the army.

The old manuals for leaderseven the most controversial of all, Machiavellis The Princedefine success as the effective stewardship of the common good. Modern advice books for aspiring business executives have a different focus: financial performance, not civic virtue. Drucker described a business enterprise as an organ of society, the health of which is tied to the health of society at large. Free enterprise cannot be justified as being good for business, he writes. It can be justified only as being good for society.

Nevertheless, as Drucker noted in 1974, a businesss first social responsibility is its own performance. He maintained that the leader of a business, like the head of any institution, who uses the authority of his or her position to become a public figure and to take leadership with respect to social problems, while the company  erodes through neglect, is not a statesman, but is irresponsible and false to his trust. Drucker also recognized another challenge: the ease with which many executives lose sight of social responsibilities because of an obsession with profit in the near term. Business schools attempt to combat the seduction of profit by reenergizing ethics instruction in periods dominated by corporate scandals.

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History provides so many examples of the tension between amassing profit and cultivating a public conscience that not even someone as optimistic as Drucker could dissolve it. Even when benefits do accrue to the public, of course, that tends to be beside the point of those interested in profit: This is simply the work of Adam Smiths invisible hand. And even Smith acknowledged the potentially competing interests of business and country when he cited the wisdom of the 1651 Navigation Act, which regulated foreign commerce and thus limited the potential profits of Englands merchants, because it rightly prioritized national defence over opulence.

The new robber barons work in virtual realms.

Today, as the banking and corporate excesses of what many have called a return to the Gilded Ageso lucrative for individuals, so devastating for large swaths of the publicamply demonstrate, superintending financially successful ventures, in contrast to leading in the political arena, does not prioritize the common good. Since the 1970s, income inequality in the United States has been growing, while economic mobility has decreased. The relationship between the short-term gains board members and shareholders demand from their leaders and the long-term health of the republic remains ambiguous at best. Manipulating peoplewinning friends, to use Dale Carnegies seemingly anodyne phrasein order to serve a corporations best interests (or ones own) is a different proposition from that of enlarging the common store.

It is probably true that the large majority of the fortunes that now exist in this country have been amassed not by injuring our people, but as an incident to the conferring of great benefits upon the community, Theodore Roosevelt proposed in 1901, during the countrys first Gilded Age. This was the case, he added crucially, no matter what may have been the conscious purpose of those amassing them. Public welfare in a capitalist society may depend to some degree on private fortunes, Roosevelt noted, in an echo of Smith, but no one should assume that public benefit is therefore the intention of the wealthy. And no one, Roosevelt continued, should underestimate the damage done in a society where an inflated conception of the importance of wealth authorizes the rich to behave with a brutal arrogance that is met only with a cringing servility born of envy.

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Living in an era that mirrors the present moment in its struggle between the interests of business and those of the public, Roosevelt insisted that to counter the monopolistic tendency of great corporations, ultimate authority over them had to rest with the people. Confronted with the predatory wealth, absence of moral scruple, and arrogant contempt of government on the part of capitalists such as Edward H. Harriman of the Union Pacific Railroad, who freely boasted that he could buy the necessary senators, congressmen, and judges to protect his interests, Roosevelt warned, there can be no effective control of corporations while their political activity remains.

In 2016, the country once again stands at a crossroads, the dark magic of finance capitalism having replaced the more legible abuses of industrial capitalism. Harrimans railroad could at least be given tangible shape as the implacable, iron monster, as Frank Norris described it in his 1901 novel The Octopus. But the tracks have been laid, the sweatshops moved overseas out of sight, while the new robber barons work in virtual realms. Roosevelt would have been disturbed by the 2010 Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. FEC, which concluded that corporate political speech, like that of the individual citizen, was protected by the First Amendment. The Court thus permitted corporations to exert political influence by funding causes and campaigns.

In his study of 17th-century New England merchants, the historian Bernard Bailyn suggests that Puritanism provided colonial Americans with a grammar for the translation of economics into morality. However, he added, From the same texts the Puritan magistrates and the merchants read different lessons. The former learned the overwhelming importance of the organic society which subordinated the individual to the general good, while the latter learned the righteousness of those individual qualitiesdiligence, frugality, and self-discipline among themwhose secondary but attractive virtue promoted financial success.

Making money in America has rarely been regarded as morally neutral.

The conflicting moral interpretations of accumulating money that Bailyn delineates have persisted over the centuries to accommodate both the characteristically American commitment to making money as a virtuous expression of the Protestant work ethic, yet also the condemnation of the capitalist as a kind of confidence man who might peddle anything from patent medicines to curiosities to salvation in order to take advantage of the gullibility of his fellow citizens. The peerless showman and promoter P. T. Barnum might be the most seductive of these capitalist-tricksters. His autobiography, a quintessentially American tale of self-invention through business, revels in the various hoaxesGeorge Washingtons 161-year-old nurse, the Fejee Mermaid, the Woolly Horsethat made Barnums such a profitable brand.

Making money in America has rarely been regarded as morally neutral. And the conviction that economic success is in and of itself a virtuous thing endures even at those moments when excessive profit or malfeasance on the part of a few provoke outrage. This is a dimension of what one might call the Gilded Age psychology articulated by Roosevelt: Each one of these states of mind, whether it be hatred, servility, or arrogance, is in reality closely akin to the other two; for each of them springs from a fantastically twisted and exaggerated idea of the importance of wealth as compared to other things, he told an audience of educators in 1905. He went on:

The clamor of the demagogue against wealth, the snobbery of the social columns of the newspapers which deal with the doings of the wealthy, and the misconduct of those men of wealth who act with brutal disregard of the rights of others, seem superficially to have no fundamental relation; yet in reality they spring from shortcomings which are fundamentally the same; and one of these shortcomings is the failure to have proper ideals.

That same amalgamation of indignation, fawning celebrity-worship, and arrogant misconduct characterizes todays historical moment just as it did Roosevelts. His insight was that a love of wealth undergirded it alleven the outrage.

* * *

One of the most powerful fables about the relationship between the pursuit of riches and the care of the common goodbetween commerce and political virtue, to borrow the terms of the 20th-century historian J. G. A. Pocockis that of Croesus, the fabulously wealthy 6th-century B.C. king of Lydia, in western Asia Minor. The Lydians were probably the first people to use metal coins, which were instrumental in the spread of commerce throughout the ancient world during the period, and Herodotus recorded in the 5th century B.C. that they were also the first retail tradesmen.

Herodotus explains that all the sages of Greece visited Croesuss court. Upon the arrival of Solon, an Athenian statesman celebrated for his wisdom, Croesus commanded that his guest be given the customary tour of the treasury so that he could see how large and rich it was. Afterward the king demanded to know whether Solon had seen anybody  more fortunate than all other men, assuming, Herodotus wryly notes, that the most fortunate of men would turn out to be himself.

Refusing to oblige his host, Solon instead offered up examples of virtuous men who had valiantly defended their cities in battle or excelled in honoring their families and the gods. Croesus replied, So then, my Athenian guest, as far as you are concerned, our wealth amounts to nothing, and you do not even consider us on a par with private citizens! Before being dismissed, Solon had the temerity to school his irritated host: Croesus was very rich and ruled over a populous kingdom, but Solon refused to pronounce on the kings good luck until I find out that you have ended your life well. The super rich were often unluckier than the moderately well-off, Solon observed, because the latter were less able to afford desire and trouble. The arrogant, short-sighted Croesus comes to appreciate Solons wisdom belatedly, after he has suffered a series of harrowing misfortunes, culminating in being taken captive after the violent destruction of his empire.

The theme of a struggle between virtue and wealth threads throughout Ancient Greek and Roman narratives.

Modern-day scholars conclude that a meeting between Croesus and Solon was historically implausible, but it proved irresistible to a historian like Herodotus, who, as the classicist Philip Stadter suggests, turned it into a paradigmatic encounter between the sage who cares for the common good and the prince who who cares most for riches. Essential to the episodes point is the opposition between wealth and political virtue, the implication being that the acquisition of wealth might actively work against the cultivation of the attributes that distinguish true stewards of the public good in their execution of political or military duties.

The meeting of Solon and Croesusof wise political leader and super-rich mantypifies the mistrust of wealth that textures political thought from the ancients to the present day. In his biography of Solon, written centuries after Herodotus in imperial Rome, Plutarch acknowledges an ambient mistrust by defending Solon himself from the taint of making money. Although Solon was forced by his fathers improvidence to work as a trader in his youth, Plutarch protests, Solon was just trying to make a living and didnt actually enjoy turning a profit. Reflecting his ages prejudice against trade as a source of wealth, Plutarch recalls that in Solons day no distinction [was] made with respect to trade and merchandise was a noble calling.

The theme of a struggle between virtue and wealth threads throughout Ancient Greek and Roman narrativeshistorical and fictional. On the one hand there was the self-sufficient republic characterized by masculine citizenship rooted in landowning and the bearing of arms. On the other there was the commercial empire, corrupted by feminized luxury and often identified with the East: with the Persians, the Carthaginian Dido, the Egyptian Cleopatra. The legendary reformer Lycurgus banned trade in Sparta as part of an austere program meant to join citizens in a common admiration of virtue, while senators in the Roman republic were at least technically prohibited from engaging in trade. Julius Caesar, meanwhile, attributed the rugged German tribes comparative advantage over the Gauls to the fact that the latter live close to the Province and are familiar with imported goods, and this entails an abundant supply of items both luxurious and functional. The decline of Athens would likewise come to be associated with the corrupting wealth and luxury made possible by its commercial empire.

Virtuous political figures who also seemed interested in accumulating wealth posed a particular problem for ancient historians. Wrestling with the great Athenian leader Pericless interest in business, Plutarch wrote, he kept himself untainted by corruption, although he was not altogether indifferent to money-making. In contrast to philosophers, Plutarch rationalized, public men might successfully navigate a life of contradiction: Inasmuch as he brings his superior excellence into close contact with the common needs of mankind, he insisted, the statesman, must sometimes find wealth not merely one of the necessities of life, but also one of its noble things, as was actually the case with Pericles, who gave aid to many poor men.

What began as a series of improvisations ultimately grew into the financial revolution of the 1690s.

The meditations of Plutarch on the relationship between commerce and virtue began to acquire new urgency roughly two millennia later during the Enlightenment for his European readersof which there were manywho were witnessing the economic and political upheavals that paved the way for modern capitalism. The ancient fear that the accumulation of riches could militate against the accumulation of virtue intensified in 17th- and 18th-century England, for example, as observers attempted to make sense of the altered relationship between government and commerce created by the development of a new apparatus of public credit.

In the 1690s, accumulated war debt occasioned, as the historian J. R. Jones explains, Englands expansion of a system of government credit on an unprecedented scale. As Jones wrote in 1978 in Country and Court, what began as a series of improvisations ultimately grew into the financial revolution of the 1690s, which saw the founding of the Bank of England as well as two major commercial enterprises, the East India Company and the South Sea Company. Challenging the political influence of traditional landowners, this new monied interest also unsettled traditional conceptions of civic virtue by turning speculation on public credit into private profit.

Striking one of the keynotes of The Machiavellian Moment, his magisterial 1975 history of the Renaissance revival of classical republican thought and its repercussions, J. G. A. Pocock suggests that while it was easy to visualize the landowner, anxious only to improve his estate for inheritance, engaging in civic actions which related his private to the public good, it was much harder to ascribe this role to the man of commerce, who was constantly engaged in increasing his wealth by exchanging quantities of fictitious tokens and engaging in speculation. A century later, the belief that the monied interest had effectively usurped governmental functions fueled Edmund Burkes arguments in the British parliament that the independent East India Company, which had begun in commerce but had insidiously ended in empire, should be subjected to government controls.

In this environment, merchants were more easily rescued from suspicion than were speculators, who effectively transformed what had historically been social and political relations between citizens and their government into what Pocock describes as a purely economic connection. The new financiersthe governors of the Bank of England chief among themwere almost universally feared and despised because they appeared to be, as Jones puts it, growing rich at the expense of the nation generally and because their wealth was the product of financial transactions and currency manipulations that were totally unintelligible to the mass of the people.

Nothing, the philosopher David Hume wrote in the 1740s, can restrain or regulate the love of money, but a sense of honour or virtue. How such virtue was to be stimulated in an age of rapid commercial growth that at the same time so clearly ameliorated social conditions became the subject of some of the ages most agile thinkers, from Bernard Mandeville to Adam Smith. Mandeville, for his part, provocatively concluded in his satiric 1714 poem The Fable of the Bees that vice was the very Wheel, that turnd the Trade. It was only pride that prompted individuals to endeavor the Benefit of others, Mandeville explained in one of the essays he appended to his poem, suggesting that national prosperity depended on personal avarice and appetite.

Not every observer of commercial society rendered quite so bleak a picture. The Spectator, the widely read London periodical launched in 1712 by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele, offered readers a celebratory portrait of the modern merchant in the character of Sir Andrew Freeport, who finds his foil in the figure of Sir Roger de Coverly, a Tory squire deeply suspicious of those engaged in trade: Gain is the chief End of such a People, they never pursue any other: The Means to it are never regarded; they will, if it comes easily, get Money honestly; but if not, they will not scruple to attain it by Fraud. The best one could hope for in a merchant, according to Sir Roger, were Frugality and Parsimony.

Hume concluded, that policy is violent, which aggrandizes the public by the poverty of individuals.

In contrast to Sir Roger, the energetic Sir Andrew envisions a salubrious role for merchants and commerce: There are not more useful Members in a Commonwealth than Merchants, Addison writes. They knit Mankind together in a mutual Intercourse of good Offices, distribute the Gifts of Nature, find Work for the Poor, add Wealth to the Rich, and Magnificence to the Great. Indeed, to Addison, trade effectively preserves the health of the country through systemic regulation, bringing into their Country whatever is wanting, and carrying out of it whatever is superfluous, all the while promoting the Publick Stock. Sir Andrew describes a system of global trade, with Great Britain at its heart, as something natural and organic. (This image of the body politic is reminiscent of Sir William Harveys 1628 description of the circulation of the blood: I conceive it will be manifest that the blood circulates, revolves, propelled and then returning, from the heart to the extremities, from the extremities to the heart, and thus that it performs a kind of circular motion.)

In the second half of the century, the idea that commercewhatever its potential corruptionswas an essential engine of social and political progress found arguably its most eloquent champions in Hume and Smith. For Hume, the improvement and refinement in the arts and conveniences of life ushered in by trade was advantageous to the public. Citing the example of the Spartans, whose non-commercial republic was sustained on the backs of the enslaved Helots, Hume concluded, that policy is violent, which aggrandizes the public by the poverty of individuals. By increasing the happiness of individual citizens, he observed, commerce is an equalizing, civilizing force.

Echoing Hume, Smith also lauded commercial enterprise in The Wealth of Nations, writing that commerce and manufactures gradually introduced order and good government, and with them, the liberty and security of individuals  who had before lived almost in a continual state of war with their neighbours, and of servile dependency upon their superiors. In Smiths visionnot only in The Wealth of Nations but also in The Theory of Moral Sentimentsself-interest becomes the most reliable path to the common good; like several writers before him, he transforms a potential human liability into an asset. Self-love but serves the virtuous mind to wake, / As the small pebble stirs the peaceful lake; the poet Alexander Pope had written several decades before. The centre movd, a circle straight succeeds, / Another still, and still another spreads, / Friend, parent, neighbor, first it will embrace; / His country next; and next all human race.

Ultimately, Smiths invisible hand is also a kind of sleight of hand, for the merchant is not motivated by civic virtue. Nor does he conceive his interests to be those of the public. The individual, Smith explained,

generally, indeed, neither intends to promote the publick interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it. [H]e intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. Nor is it always the worse for the society that it was no part of it. By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it.

The convergence of private and public interests in Smiths model is a fortunate feature of the system, not a conscious expression of civic virtue on the part of the merchant. And if there is nothing inherently virtuous in personal gain even in the best of times, when interests harmonize, how easy it is during periods of excess and abuse to suspect that there is something innately corrupting in the accumulation of wealth.

* * *

It should come as no surprise that the opposition between agrarian and commercial interests and the debate over the optimal relationship between business and politics running through Enlightenment political and moral philosophy should also texture American political thinking from its beginnings. The founders were schooled in classical and Enlightenment texts, while the ideology of the Revolution is inextricably bound up with the fundamentally economic grievance of taxation without representation, a cry that has come over the centuries to assume a talismanic importance in the national imagination.

One of the great debates in the early republic took place over the constitutionality of a national bank. The agrarianism embodied by Thomas Jeffersona celebration of agricultural life entangled with, yet long outliving, slavery in Americawas pitted against Alexander Hamiltons urbanism and schemes for restoring public credit at a time when, as the Hamilton biographer Ron Chernow put it, [m]any Americans still regarded banking as a black, unfathomable art. (Some Americans undoubtedly still do.)

Hamilton argued that no plan to establish a government could succeed unless it found a way to unite the interest and credit of rich individuals with those of the state. And it was commerce that he imagined would provide the riches. Jefferson envisioned a very different model. A passage from Notes on the State of Virginia is representative of this thinking in its association of virtue and husbandry and urbanization with corruption: Those who labour in the earth are the chosen people of God  whose breasts he has made his peculiar deposit for substantial and genuine virtue.  The mobs of great cities add just so much to the support of pure government, as sores do to the strength of the human body.

It is perhaps a symptom of the ambivalent attitudes of Americans toward making money that, in todays political moment, which is so dominated by public outrage about the abuses perpetrated by the rich, it is the figure of Hamilton, at once a forward-looking enthusiast of finance and an immigrant made good, who has captivated audiences and made Lin-Manuel Mirandas musical a phenomenon. Theatergoersmany of whom have, incidentally, spent thousands for a ticket on the secondary marketroot for Hamilton, and against an aristocratic Jefferson who has clearly been corrupted by too much time in France and by the fact that, unlike Hamilton, he did not fight in the war.

In 1840, the minister and reformer Orestes Brownson perversely perceived the plight of the ostensibly free laboring classes to be more desperate than that of actual slaves.

The first Cabinet Battle in Hamilton occurs over the issue of a national bank. Jefferson tells Hamilton that to plant crops is to create and accuses his adversary of simply wanting to move our money around. Hamilton replies, How do you not get it? If were aggressive and competitive / The Union gets a boost. Youd rather give it a sedative! / A civics lesson from a slaver. Hey neighbor. / Your debts are paid cuz you dont pay for labor. Hamilton succeededin life and artin persuading Washington, who authorized the founding of the bank in 1791.

In the antebellum United States, it would be the populist Andrew Jackson who took up the Jeffersonian brief against the power of banks and corporations after the country was rocked by a series of financial crises. The increasing misery of industrial workers throughout the century also gave ammunition to those who championed agrarianism. Rhetoric on all sides was complicated and often compromised by the persistence of slavery in the American South. It was during this period that reformers expressed their outrage at the poor treatment of urban workers in the North by referring to their condition as wage slavery.

In 1840, the minister and reformer Orestes Brownson perversely perceived the plight of the ostensibly free laboring classes to be more desperate than that of actual slaves. Slaverys defenders, unsurprisingly, railed against capitalisms disruptive evils, and even in his profound hypocrisy an apologist like George Fitzhugh, a planter from Virginia and vocal pro-slavery advocate, exposed the potential inhumanities of the industrial system: Capital commands labor, as the master does the slave. Whilst you were engaged in amassing your capital, he informed industrialists in 1857, you were in the White Slave Trade.

The analogy between wage slavery and chattel slavery persisted in the United States into the 20th century in the rhetoric of reformers such as the socialist Eugene Debs. In 1914, even as Dale Carnegie was beginning to train businessmen to win friends and influence people, the labor leader Samuel Gompers concluded, the economic interests of the employing class and those of the working class are not harmonious, adding, There are times when, for temporary purposes, interests are reconcilable; but they are temporary only.

If, as Pocock suggests, the Industrial Revolution ushered in the fantasy of [e]conomic man as masculine conquering hero in the shape of Marxs worker, it also made it possible to discern in his nemesis a kind of terrifying savior. Looking in desperation at the Hell of England in 1843, the historian and essayist Thomas Carlyle believed only one class capable of restoring order to the Human Chaos: The Leaders of Industry, if Industry is ever to be led, are virtually the Captains of the World, he proposed in his book Past and Present. It was they who would have to organize that grandest of human interests: work. To do it, of course, they would have to retire into their own hearts to determine whether there was anything there but vulturous hunger, for fine wines, valet reputation and gilt carriages. Carlyle looked to a time when, [t]o be a noble Master, among noble Workers, will again be the first ambition with some fewto be a rich Master only the second.

The qualities which best fit men to gain advantage over their fellows are the ones least useful to society at large.

A decade later, in 1854, the masters not yet having found their nobility, Charles Dickens would indict Englands Hell in his novel Hard Times, where he speculated about the future of the appropriately named industrialist Mr. Gradgrind: Did he see himself  making his facts and figures subservient to Faith, Hope, and Charity; and no longer trying to grind that Heavenly trio in his dusty little mills? Would Gradgrind and his fellow dustmen finally see, Dickens asks, that they owed a duty not simply to their own fraternity, but also to an abstraction called a People?

One of the most intriguing American incarnations of Carlyles Captains of the World was the steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, who had the added attraction of having been an immigrant who built his wealth in archetypal Horatio Alger fashion. Having absorbed the tenets of Social Darwinism, Carnegie proposed his solution for harmonizing social and economic relations in 1889 in The Gospel of Wealth: The problem of our age is the proper administration of wealth, so that the ties of brotherhood may still bind together the rich and poor in harmonious relationship. Rather than deploring the inequities of Gilded Age America, Carnegie understood the contrast between the palace of the millionaire and the cottage of the laborer as a measure of the progress of the race. He preferred great irregularity [to] universal squalor.

To Carnegie, it was the duty of the man of Wealth to solve the problem of Rich and Poor. His philanthropy was animated by the idea that the rich man was in fact better suited than government to addressing the issue by virtue of his superior wisdom, experience, and ability to administer. The wealthy ought therefore to use their expertise to dispose of their surplus revenues for the common benefit. With the methods of accumulation and distribution left appropriately unregulated by government, the millionaire will be but a trustee for the poor; intrusted for a season with a great part of the increased wealth of the community, but administering it for the community far better than it could or would have done for itself. As the many charitable foundations that improve the lives of Americans attest, the amassing of private capital may ultimately yield a real communal good, but this good is arbitrary and unreliable, depending as it does on the sense of duty felt by particular individuals.

Democracies dont run like businesses: They are messy and inefficient by design.

It is difficult to credit the claim that the successful accumulation of capital necessarily recommends someone to calculate the public good. In the eyes of Carnegies contemporary, the sociologist Lester Ward, the qualities which best fit men to gain advantage over their fellows are the ones least useful to society at large. Yet the idea that business leadership somehow naturally translates to other kinds of stewardship also animates the belief, so popular today, that business can do what government cannot and encourages the introduction of business methods and efficiencies into all sorts of institutions that arent businesses at allschools, health-care and emergency services, prisons. The ubiquitous impulse to privatize manifests a faith that profit is the most reliable motive of all.

This idea has deep roots. The English novelist and political pamphleteer Daniel Defoe, a generally enthusiastic if sometimes ambivalent witness to the economic transformations of the late 17th- and early 18th-centuries, once suggested that the merchant is qualified for all sorts of employment in the state by a general knowledge of things and men; he remits and draws such vast sums, that he transacts more value than a large exchequer. If one can run a business, in other words, perhaps one can run a country.

Thats what Americans who voted for Donald Trump are banking on. They are counting on his willingness to employ a habitual, avowed self-interest on their behalf. But democracies dont run like businesses: They are messy and inefficient by design. Checks and balances, separation of powersthese are deliberate protections. Trumps candidacy rested on a consistent refusal to claim any qualification for running a government other than the pragmatic ability to secure his own advantage and to negotiate the best possible deal. Yet his campaign promises were the furthest thing from practical: commitments to restoring a greatness somewhere lost; to building a 1,000-mile Maginot Line on the Mexican border that wont cost Americans a penny; to ending an environmental war on coal, an industry transformed largely by technology and cheaper natural gas; to resurrecting a post-World War II manufacturing economy that has already substantially metamorphosed into a knowledge and service economy.

Who in difficult times does not crave a panacea? What principles are people willing to sacrifice to their irrational craving for something that doesnt exist? The columnist Francis Wilkinson recently wrote in Bloomberg View, Its a conundrumgood, decent people supporting a moral delinquent who subverts many of their most basic values. At the same time, many Trump supporters  believe Hillary Clinton is an affront to their morality. Many Americans have accepted that self-interested calculation, while intolerable in a professional politician, is business as usual foreven admirable inbillionaires. One of the things the elections outcome suggests is that while voters claim to demand honesty and virtue in their politicians, their expectations for the capitalist conscience could not be lower. Is that the reason why Trumps explicit boasts about being smart enough to avoid paying taxes, sufficiently famous to grope women at will, and so popular that he could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody without losing voters, as well as his disinclination to repudiate racist extremist groups that support him, did not prove insurmountable bars to election?

If the United States has a parable akin to the old Greek tale of Croesus, perhaps it is Orson Welless Citizen Kane, the 1941 film that was in certain important respects based on the publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst but managed to illuminate truths about America that reach far beyond any one individual. It chronicles a poor boy-turned-plutocrat-turned-newspaperman-turned-aspiring politician whose populist campaign for governor is derailed by his opponents political machine and his own indiscretions. Charles Foster Kane isnt an especially good businessman, as his guardian and advisor, the Wall Street banker Mr. Thatcher, tells him on more than one occasion. Humiliated and financially damaged by the Depression, Kanewho came in at number five on Forbess 2013 list of the 15 richest fictional charactersreinvents himself and remains a player on the public stage before finally retreating into monied isolation on his Florida estate, Xanadu.

At least for a while, Kane pursues a boyish ambition somehow to serve the public good. When he reaches adulthood, he shows little interest in the diversified portfolio he has come into. Only one item intrigues him, a small newspaper that he tells Thatcher he thinks it would be fun to run. Kane uses that paper to serve the progressive cause of defending decent, hardworking people from a group of money-mad pirates. Kane claims to be two people: one of them a capitalist pirate, the other a newspaper publisher dedicated to exposing pirates. He explains, in language reminiscent perhaps of Carnegies gospel of wealth, that the first role is precisely what equips him for the second: If I dont look after the interests of the underprivileged, maybe somebody else will, maybe somebody without any money or propertyand that would be too bad.

The film bombards viewers with analyses of Kane by intimates and acquaintances. Ultimately, however, it is Kane himself who diagnoses his condition by implying an inverse relationship between his money and his character: You know, Mr. Bernstein, he tells his loyal business manager, if I hadnt been very rich, I might have been a really great man. Bernstein, for his part, characterizes Kane as a man that lostalmost everything he had. These losses are sometimes material but most often emotional: his family, his friends, his campaign for social justice. But the films final irony is that even in losing everything that matters, Kane improves his store of virtue not at all.

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This article was originally published on The Atlantic.
Amendment bill will be endorsed with revision: Mahara

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara has claimed that the Constitution amendment bill registered at the Parliament would be endorsed.
Photo credit: Courtesy of Butter London

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Pantone's Color of the Year, Greenery, was just announced this morning and it's already stirring up some mixed reactions. But if you're feeling the "fresh" and "zesty" yellow-green shade enough to want to wear it on your nails and face, then you're in luck. Because Butter London just announced that they are the official Pantone beauty partner for 2017, and they're set to release a collection of nail polish and makeup inspired by the trending color.

Photo credit: Courtesy of Butter London

Photo credit: Courtesy of Pantone

Even just swiped on to nails Greenery is an out-there color choice. But maybe you'll take comfort in knowing that Pantone considers it to be-don't laugh-a neutral. "Though Greenery may seem like an overly-energetic hue to some, I view it as more of a neutral," says Leatrice Eiseman, Executive Director of the Pantone Color Institute in a statement. On the company's site, they go on to describe the color as "illustrative of flourishing foliage and the lushness of the great outdoors," and that it "signals consumers to take a deep breath, oxygenate and reinvigorate." You know what they say: one person's comic book slime is another person's fresh-cut grass.

So while we may disagree on the whole neutral thing, we do love how the green is complemented by other nature-inspired hues like brown, lilac, gold, and bronze in the Butter London makeup collection. Alongside a Greenery nail polish are five far more wearable shades, as well as six plumping lip glosses (none of which are green), all launching in January. There will also be an eight-piece eyeshadow palette launching in April 2017. And if there's one thing we know about Butter London eyeshadows, it's that they're as buttery as the name suggests. Until then, you can check out all of Pantone's recommended color pairings for Greenery on their web site.

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US moonwalker Buzz Aldrin was discharged from a New Zealand hospital Friday, a week after he was evacuated from the South Pole after a health scare.

"Bye bye New Zealand! Hope to see you again," his manager Christina Korp tweeted with a photo of a relaxed Aldrin sitting in an aircraft.

Aldrin, 86, the second man to walk on the moon, became the oldest person to reach the South Pole before he was evacuated to a hospital in the New Zealand city of Christchurch.

He was told by doctors he would not be discharged until congestion on his lungs cleared and Korp tweeted earlier they hoped to be back in the United States by the weekend.

Earlier Friday, Aldrin paid tribute from his hospital bed to former astronaut John Glenn who died in Ohio aged 95.

"I feel fortunate to be recovering from my own illness, but saddened that we lost another space pioneer and world icon," he said.
Moonwalker Buzz Aldrin paid tribute Friday to pioneer astronaut John Glenn, describing the first American to orbit the Earth as a world icon.

Glenn, who died in Ohio on Thursday aged 95, was "one of the most influential officers" in the US Marine Corps, Aldrin said from his hospital bed in New Zealand where he is recovering from a health scare on a trip to the South Pole.

"I feel fortunate to be recovering from my own illness, but saddened that we lost another space pioneer and world icon," said Aldrin, 86, who has been told he can only return to the United States when congestion on his lungs clears.

"I was very saddened to hear that John was ill over the past year. Since he was the last remaining Mercury astronaut, I was always lobbying him to encourage the Apollo guys to do regular reunions annually since were not getting any younger.

"With the news today I'm saddened again to hear that we have lost the pioneer of space flight for the United States, second only to Yuri Gagarin, and he will always go down in history as certainly one of the most influential officers in the Marine Corps."

Aldrin and Glenn first met in 1953 when they were fighter pilots in South Korea and later re-united when Aldrin joined Glenn as a NASA astronaut in 1963.
By David Ljunggren OTTAWA (Reuters) - The Canadian government on Friday tried to negotiate a first-ever national carbon price with the country's 10 provinces, two of which appear increasingly unhappy about the potential financial price. Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau - who says the price will help Canada meet its international climate change obligations - is promising to impose a carbon price on any province that refuses to sign on. "It's a lot of hard work but I'm an optimist," Environment Minister Catherine McKenna told reporters during a break in the day-long talks. Brad Wall, premier of oil- and gas-rich Saskatchewan, complains the price will make Canadian firms less competitive at a time when Donald Trump looks set to adopt policies cutting energy costs when he becomes U.S. president next month. "I will not be signing any agreement that imposes a carbon tax on Saskatchewan," Wall said before the meeting. Under Trudeau's plan, carbon pollution would cost C$10 ($7.60) a tonne in 2018, rising by C$10 a year until it reaches C$50 in 2022. The provinces can either implement a carbon tax or a cap-and-trade market. Trudeau is broadly aligned politically with President Barack Obama, who has pushed hard to cut emissions of greenhouse gases. U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden told the meeting he doubted whether Trump could undo much of the administration's policies since many of them had taken firm hold. Imposing a price on Saskatchewan could be a political challenge for Trudeau, who came to power in November 2015 promising to improve the sometime fractious relationship between Ottawa and the provinces. Canadian federal officials who had predicted tough talks with Wall seemed taken aback when Christy Clark, premier of the Pacific province of British Columbia, said she was concerned a carbon price could hit some provinces harder than others. "British Columbia wants a deal. We want a pan-Canadian carbon price but we want it to be a fair one," she said. Clark is concerned the two measures on offer - a carbon tax or a cap-and-trade market - could impose unequal burdens. A British Columbia official said one compromise could be for the province to sign the deal as an observer, leaving details to be worked out later. (Reporting by David Ljunggren)
Montreal (AFP) - A Canadian zoo has launched an investigation into the mysterious drowning deaths of seven Humboldt penguins.

"This is devastating news," said Jamie Dorgan, the director of animal care at the Calgary zoo in western Canada.

"We have launched a full investigation so we can try to understand what happened and prevent further incidents like this from happening again."

The penguins were found dead in their normal holding area, the zoo said. Its veterinary team performed autopsies on the birds and established drowning as the cause of death.

There were 22 penguins living in the zoo's Humboldt colony, along with three other penguin species.
Most people drink their coffee black or with a splash of cream and sugar. But there are some peoplefor reasons both recreational as well as medicalwho take their coffee with a dose of THC.

Brewbudz, a San Diego-based company committed to mixing caffeine and cannabis, has announced plans to launch coffee pods compatible with Keurig brewers.

As reported by Quartz, Brewbudz will become available in March. Consumers will be able to purchase K-cups with either regular or decaffeinated West Coast Roast, and hazelnut and French vanilla blends are also in the works. For hot beverage sippers who prefer cocoa or tea, Brewbudz also sells marijuana-infused hot chocolate and a Breakfast Blend.

Cannabis coffee, Brewbudz suggests, stands to be a healthy, socially acceptable alternative to smoking marijuana. Its discreet and odorless, and can be transported as easily as you can bring a thermos of coffee with you on the subway.

Brewbudz will also have zero impact on drinkers' lungs. Roasted beans and other non-toxic, biodegradable materials have been used in the actual packaging, making each pod 100 percent compostable.

At $7 each (thats the price per cup of coffee) consumers can expect between 10 to 50 milligrams of THC, depending on whether or not the coffee is intended as a medical supplement. Admittedly, it's unclear whether the unusual combination of marijuana and caffeine is meant to wake you up or mellow you out.

Making weed coffee a part of an a.m. ritual isnt as unusual as it sounds. At the new marijuana-friendly Nativ Hotel in Colorado, an on-site coffee bar crafts CBD hemp oil-infused lattes for a jitter-free pick-me-up. Also on sale in the pot-friendly Centennial State are cans of Thai-style iced CBD coffee and CBD-infused coffee beans from Unseen Bean.

But if all this sounds a bit extreme, consider sticking to a more tame morning beverage, like the new hot baked apple latte at Starbucks.

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ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Dexter Fowler is headed from the World Series champions to their biggest rival.

After helping the Chicago Cubs end their long championship drought, he finalized an $82.5 million, five-year contract with the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday. Fowler fills the last big hole left in the Cardinals lineup after moves made earlier in the offseason to shore up the bullpen.

''It was an honor just to be considered to be in the Cardinals organization,'' said Fowler, who will wear No. 25 in honor of his mentor, Barry Bonds, because his usual 24 is retired by the Cardinals.

''You play against the Cardinals, I've been playing against them for eight years now,'' Fowler said, ''and they always come out fighting. Always fighting. And then being with a rival, being the Cubs however many times we play them a year, you see them and - it's always good a winning team wants you.''

Fowler was also a free agent a year ago, when he spurned a $33 million, three-year offer from Baltimore, which refused to offer an opt out after one year. He signed a $13 million, one-year deal with the Chicago Cub and hit .276 with 13 homers and a career-best .393 on-base percentage that landed him in his first All-Star Game. He had a pair of home runs in helping the Cubs win their first World Series title in 108 years.

''Playing over there, and playing against the Cardinals, you see them and you saw that they weren't far away,'' Fowler said. ''Obviously they beat up on us, we beat up on them. It was almost even. It was one day or another. I can't put my finger on one thing or another, but we're definitely close.''

His new deal calls for a $10 million signing bonus, payable in $1 million installments each July 1 and Oct. 1 for the next five years, and annual salaries of $14.5 million.

He gets a full no-trade provision, $50,000 bonuses for making the All-Star Game and winning a Gold Glove, a $25,000 bonus for a Silver Slugger, $100,000 for League Championship Series MVP and $150,000 for World Series MVP. He would get $250,000 for NL MVP, $150,000 for finishing second in voting and $100,000 for third through fifth. He would get $50,000 for Division Series MVP if the award is created.

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One of the goals this offseason for St. Louis was to get more athletic, both defensively and on the base paths. Fowler was identified early in the process as someone who filled that role.

''He was always someone we were hoping to sign,'' Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak said, ''but after this past week at winter meetings ... we certainly wanted to get this done. And we're excited we got this done.''

The lanky 30-year-old from Atlanta is a .268 career hitter over nine seasons with Colorado, Houston and the Cubs. He's expected to slot into the Cardinals' leadoff spot, giving St. Louis a switch-hitter in front of lefty-hitting Matt Carpenter and righties Aledmys Diaz, Stephen Piscotty and Yadier Molina.

''You obviously have great presence at the top of the lineup,'' manager Mike Matheny said. ''The athleticism, the excitement of bringing in a player that has all those physical attributes, I think it's been well-said, this is the guy we were hoping to be sitting up here with.''

Fowler said negotiations with the Cardinals were easy with one notable exception.

''We were on a 2-hour time difference, and I guess he wanted to get in touch with me,'' Fowler said, ''but I was in the dentist chair, so he couldn't get in touch.''

So, Fowler sent his agent Casey Close a photo of him to pass along to Mozeliak - ''That was a first for me, that kind of photo,'' the GM said - and everything proceeded smoothly after that.

The news of his signing started breaking while Fowler was on a plane to St. Louis, and that also created some problems: namely, with his sleep. People started coming up to him while he was trying to take a nap and asking him whether the news was true.

''I was like, 'Uh, you know, I don't know,''' Fowler said with a grin. ''It was definitely funny.''

Fowler is eager to help the Cardinals add their 12th World Series championship.

''This is a baseball city,'' said Fowler. ''The fans, every time you come here, you see red everywhere. That's awesome to see. Even going through our parade (in Chicago), you saw Cardinals fans out there. They've won World Series (and) they're poised to be back in the World Series and win again. That was a big part of my decision.''

The Cardinals were investigating the trade market for an outfielder during the winter meetings, but decided Fowler was their best option. Because Fowler did not accept Chicago's $17.2 million qualifying offer, St. Louis forfeits its top draft pick next June, No. 18 overall, and the Cubs get an extra selection after the first round as compensation

It was a sacrifice the Cardinals were willing to make to not only improve their lineup, but snag a piece away from their biggest rival in the NL Central.

''There's always the baseball angle in all decisions, but there's also the human element,'' Mozeliak said. ''We think about him as a leader. He wants to have a voice in that clubhouse. When you think back to wanting to change the culture of what we have going on - we like what we have, but now it's even better.''

---

AP Sports Writer Dave Skretta and AP Baseball Writer Ronald Blum contributed to this report.
A New York man has turned his home into a sanctuary for 300 felines living in purr-fect harmony.

Read: 'Seeing Eye' Camel Serves as a Guide For Zoo's Blind Horse

Retired train conductor Chris Arsenault turned his Medford, Long Island, home into a sanctuary for homeless, abused, and injured cats.

He calls his place the Happy Cat Sanctuary, and altered his home for the felines to honor his late son, Eric, who passed away in a tragic motorcycle accident in 2006, according to Newsday.

The cats can play inside his home or in heated outdoor tents that he has set up.

His shelter has twice passed ASPCA inspection and the town says they have not gotten any official complaints from neighbors nearby.

Arsenault also relies on the help of volunteers who come to feed and play with the cats. He has a $1,000-a-week food budget and also relies on donations to maintain the felines' care.

He told CBS New York: Their lives were so horrible, from not having food, or threatened of being poisoned or being dumped somewhere.

Read: A 'Whole New World' of Happiness: Dedicated Mother Sews Disney Costumes for Daughter

The only problem he has had with the cats is when he tries to go to bed, a majority of them will try to cuddle with him, often interrupting his slumber.

But while the playful kitties sometimes come between him and a goodnight's sleep, Arsenault won't complain, saying he cares for the animals out of "unconditional love."

Watch: Man Can't Stop Adopting Elderly Dogs, Other Animals: 'There's Something So Special About the Old Ones'

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From Town & Country

Jocelyn Wildenstein, a New York socialite known for her extensive plastic surgery, was arrested Wednesday morning and charged with felony assault after allegedly cutting her long-time boyfriend, Lloyd Klein with a pair of scissors.

According the New York Post, sources report that she went into a "violent rage" and "grabbed a pair of scissors and slashed his chest, drawing blood."

Lloyd was then able to fend Wildenstein off and trap her in a closet until the police were able to arrive. This entire episode took place at the couple's apartment inside Trump World Tower, a skyscraper near the United Nations.

Wildenstein gained notoriety in the 1990s after undergoing a series of cosmetic procedures to make herself appear more, well, feline. She also made headlines in 1999 with her record-breaking divorce settlement from art dealer Alec Wildenstein; she received $2.5 billion, plus an additional $100 million per year for 13 years, according to the Daily Mail.

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TORONTO, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Cash-strapped Centerra Gold Inc said on Friday that it will suspend its third-quarter and future dividends, citing financial restrictions by Kyrgyzstan on its key subsidiary, Kumtor Gold Co.

The company, whose stock dropped as much as 7.15 percent to C$6.75 on the Toronto Stock Exchange in volatile Friday trading, said its board would reassess the decision after the issue with Kyrgyzstan is resolved.

A Kyrgyzstan court ruling in June restricted Kumtor from making certain financial transactions, including the transfer of money to parent Centerra. Centerra added the dispute to an international arbitration proceeding it initiated in May to challenge of Kyrgyzstan's actions and claims.

The Kyrgyzstan government has long sought to renegotiate its 2009 agreement with Centerra to secure a bigger share of income. Centerra, the country's biggest foreign investor and taxpayer, has been the subject of lawsuits, multimillion-dollar fines and a criminal probe there.

The Central Asian country holds a 27 percent stake in Centerra though state miner Kyrgyzaltyn, and will lose approximately $9.5 million in annual dividends under the suspension, said RBC Capital Markets analyst Stephen Walker in a note to clients.

Kumtor had a $122 million third-quarter cash balance, which Walker estimates could grow to about $200 million by year-end as higher-grade ore is mined in the current quarter.

Given Centerra's restricted cash flow, it is a "prudent decision" to suspend the dividend, which equates to $35 million annually, he wrote.

Toronto-based Centerra agreed to buy U.S.-based Thompson Creek Metals in July for about $1.1 billion, including nearly $900 million of debt. Factoring in that deal, and excluding Kumtor's cash, Walker estimates that Centerra has about $190 million of available liquidity.

Centerra also said on Friday that it gained an extension for an undrawn $150 million credit facility, earmarked for the development of its Oksut project in Turkey. The company cautioned, however, that there is no assurance it will meet facility conditions on permitting by the new June 30, 2017 deadline.

(Reporting by Susan Taylor, editing by G Crosse)
Envoy Thapa presents letter of credence to Belgian king

Nepals Ambassador to Belgium Lok Bahadur Thapa presented his Letter of Credence to Belgian King Philippe at an official ceremony held at the Royal Castle of Laeken in Brussels on Wednesday.
By Isabel Coles MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqi police fired shots in the air and threatened to whip crowds with a hose as residents tried to overrun the first distribution of aid by UN agencies inside Mosul on Thursday, a scene of the desperation in areas retaken from Islamic State. The distribution aimed to reach 45,000 people in total at several locations but showed the challenges for humanitarian organizations seeking to alleviate acute shortages of water, food and fuel. As word of the aid spread, residents of the Zuhour neighborhood flocked to a boys' primary school chosen as a distribution point -- men queuing to one side of the main entrance and women on the other. Fifty-six year old Saad Salih came in an electric wheelchair but the battery was flat and there is no power in Mosul to re-charge it, so a neighbor pushed him along. "We need everything," Salih said. "The disabled should have priority. It's hard for us." The men queued in relative order, but the women crushed against the door and tempers flared. "We can't push them back because they are women," said one of the policemen controlling the crowd. Another brandished a section of hose, threatening to hit anyone who tried to push through. Eventually, the organizers began to let people in small groups, but could not control the flow as hundreds surged forward against just a handful of men pushing to close the gate. They burst through, and began climbing over the walls and pushing in through the exit until the police, firing shots in the air and wielding long sticks, managed to regain control. Outside, young boys hawked carts and donkeys to transport people's boxes of aid home, at a price. Aid agencies have struggled to respond to the humanitarian crisis in Mosul, where residents have largely remained in their homes despite the fighting. The sound of small arms fire was audible from several kilometers away, where Iraqi forces are fighting to dislodge the militants from the eastern side of the Tigris River that bisects Mosul. Even in areas recaptured by government forces, mortars fired by insurgents still kill and maim residents. WINTER SETTING IN Inside the school, three trucks full of aid were unloaded with the help of volunteers, who stacked boxes in neat rows containing food, hygiene kits and water purification taps. "We are going to cover the whole population in this area," said Hayder Ithawi, a program officer for the U.N.'s World Food Program who is in charge of its rapid response operations. With winter setting in, fuel is increasingly important, along with water and healthcare, Ithawi said. Queuing outside, people were anxious for their share and complained that prior distributions of aid by smaller charitable groups and individuals had been unfair. "Some people got five bags of flour and others got none," said 46-year old carpenter Ihsan Abdullah. Most people clutched government ration cards, but Samira Mohammed brought a slip bearing the official stamp of Islamic State's vice squad, known as the Hisba. It proved that the militants had confiscated the family ration card when her son was detained for raising birds, which was forbidden under their rule. Due to the "critical situation", WFP's Ithawi said any document that reliably identified a household and its head would be accepted, including those issued by Islamic State. Although the militants are no longer around to enforce their strict dress code, most of the women were still shrouded in black, with only their eyes showing. A man with a thick moustache, who identified himself as a policeman, said three Islamic State members had been found queuing for aid and were taken away. Seventy-seven-year old Idrees Saeed Ilyas blamed the government for reducing Iraqis to waiting on handouts. "If the head of a fish is rotten, the rest will go bad," said Ilyas, who was the first man in the queue. "This is Iraq." (editing by Peter Graff)
Dylann Roof

The trial of Dylann Roof continued on Thursday as prosecutors shared the graphic details of Roof's attack on a South Carolina church.

Roof, who police say gunned down nine black worshippers at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church last year, is facing the death penalty in the federal trial, which began Wednesday.

The self-professed white supremacist admitted to carrying out the attack in an FBI interview, and his lawyers have offered for him to plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence.

The presiding judge presented photos from the crime scene Thursday afternoon, revealing the extent of the carnage to the jury.

"There's no shame in stepping out for this," the judge said before showing the images, according to the Charleston Post and Courier. Fifty of the victims' family members were in attendance, with all but one remaining in the courtroom through the whole presentation.

The jury saw photos of the bodies of victims, each of whom had been shot with multiple rounds. Susie Jackson, 87, was shot 11 times, while other victims were hit between three and eight times each.

The presentation came one day after jurors heard emotional testimony from Felicia Sanders, one of three survivors of the shooting.

Sanders said she hid with her granddaughter under a table after Roof began shooting the worshippers. She saw her son, Tywanza, and Jackson, who was her aunt, lying next to them, both shot.

Charleston, south carolina, shooting, Emanuel AME Church

"I could feel the warm blood flowing on either side of me," she said in court.

Tywanza stood up, she said, begging Roof to stop shooting. Roof allegedly responded, "I have to do this because yall are raping our women and taking over the world," according to Sanders' testimony. Roof then shot Tywanza multiple times, killing him.

Story continues

"Then we watched him take his last breath," Sanders said. "I watched my son come into this world, and I watched my son leave this world."

The trial comes just days after the conclusion of another racially charged trial in Charleston. The trial of Michael Slager, a former North Charleston police officer who was filmed shooting unarmed black motorist Walter Scott, controversially ended in a mistrial on Monday after the jury reported it could not reach consensus.





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By Karen Pierog and Hilary Russ

CHICAGO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - The financially struggling Chicago Board of Education next week will sell a new type of debt, armed with an investment grade rating from Fitch Ratings based on the bonds' ability to withstand a bankruptcy filing.

The $500 million of capital improvement tax bonds slated to price through Barclays Capital are secured by a new property tax levy earmarked exclusively for capital spending and not by the school district's junk-rated general obligation pledge.

That money would be considered special revenue in a "hypothetical" municipal bankruptcy by the district, allowing debt service payments to continue as bondholders retain a lien on the tax collections, according to the debt issue's legal opinions. The Chicago Public Schools cannot file for bankruptcy under Illinois law.

Fitch assigned the bonds an A rating, eight steps above the district's B-plus junk rating with a negative outlook.

Alan Schankel, a municipal bond strategist at Janney Capital Markets, said the new bonds should fetch lower yields than the district's February GO bond sale, when yields hit a whopping 8.5 percent.

"I suspect pricing will still be well into high yield territory given lack of Moody's and S&P ratings as well as relative novelty of Fitch's rating approach," he said.

Earlier this week some of the school system's longer-dated GO bonds yielded as much as 380 basis points over Municipal Market Data's benchmark triple-A scale, according to MMD.

The deal is the largest of the $4.3 billion of U.S. muni bond and note sales scheduled next week.

The light issuance could help stabilize the market near term, especially with December redemptions on track to be the largest in 25 years, Barclays analysts wrote on Friday.

Munis suffered in the wake of the presidential election, with the 30-year yield jumping 82 basis points to 3.35 percent between Nov. 7, the day before the election, and Dec. 1.

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Yields have since dropped, closing at 3.12 percent on Friday.

"This week's massive rally is at the very least a little puzzling to us and feels artificial," Barclays wrote.

The rally is "too far, too fast" because concerns remain about how munis would be affected by changes to tax policies and the Affordable Care Act under President-elect Donald Trump.

Barclays said fund outflows are the biggest threat to the market. Investors drained $9.5 billion from muni funds over the last four consecutive weeks, according to data from Thomson Reuters' Lipper service.

(Reporting by Karen Pierog in Chicago and Hilary Russ in New York; Editing by Daniel Bases and James Dalgleish)
(Reuters) - A man who was on a federal law enforcement agency's top 10 "most wanted list" after being indicted on charges of distributing child pornography was arrested in Alaska, officials said on Friday.

The suspect, 40-year-old Kevin Trask, was taken into custody by a Fairbanks International Airport police officer on Tuesday, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a statement.

Trask initially provided a false identity before later admitting to being wanted for felony child pornography charges in California, the agency said.

An attorney for Trask, who officials said was under indictment in California, could not be immediately reached.

Federal officials in San Francisco began investigating Trask in March 2012 after alleging he downloaded a video of child pornography. Authorities searched his residence in May of that year, after which Trask quit his job and moved to San Diego, the agency said.

Trask was then indicted in November 2012 after an investigation uncovered evidence he possessed or shared some 700 images and 10 videos, some of which included "sadomasochism and sex acts with toddlers," the agency said.

Authorities unsuccessfully attempted to find Trask in San Diego in late 2012 and early 2013, the agency said. Trask eluded arrest for four years.

Trask was being transported by the U.S. Marshals Service to California to face the charges, the agency said.

(Reporting by Curtis Skinner in San Francisco; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
Sydney (AFP) - Australian mining magnate Gina Rinehart and a Chinese consortium won final approval Friday to buy one of the world's biggest cattle estates, ending a lengthy and fraught sale process.

The green light came more than a year after Treasurer Scott Morrison blocked an all-Chinese offer by Shanghai Pengxin for S. Kidman and Co, Australia's biggest private land owner, as being against the national interest.

He also knocked back a joint bid by Chinese-owned Dakang Australia Holding and Australian Rural Capital for the same reasons, with part of the land in a weapons-testing area.

Those decisions came amid growing concern in Australia about the purchase of local infrastructure and land by foreign interests with Canberra also this year rejecting a Chinese bid for the nation's largest electricity network.

Australia's richest woman Rinehart entered the fray in October, backed by Chinese property developer Shanghai CRED, offering Aus$386.5 million (US$295 million) for Kidman, with the tycoon holding a majority interest.

"Consistent with the recommendation from the Foreign Investment Review Board, I have decided that the acquisition of Kidman as proposed would not be contrary to the national interest and will be permitted to proceed as proposed," said Morrison.

Despite majority-foreign bids being rebuffed, the treasurer was keen to make clear Australia still welcomed foreign investment "where it is consistent with our national interests".

"Foreign investment has underpinned the development of our nation and we must continue to attract the strong inflows of foreign capital that our economy requires," he said.

"Without it, Australia's output, employment and standard of living would all be lower."

Kidman, founded in 1899, holds around 1.3 percent of Australia's total land area, and 2.5 percent of the nation's agricultural land, running 185,000 cattle. It is a key source of beef for export to Japan, the United States and Southeast Asia.

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Under the approved proposal, a neighbouring farming family will buy the largest of the 10 stations in the Kidman group, Anna Creek, which is next to a sensitive rocket-testing range.

The rest of the empire will go to Australian Outback Beef, which is 67 percent owned by Rinehart and 33 percent by Shanghai CRED.

- 'Role model for future deals' -

Billionaire Rinehart's fortune comes from iron ore mining, but she has been building her cattle interests and the acquisition will make her one of the top three beef producers in Australia, with a 300,000-strong herd.

"We intend to provide additional investment in cattle and infrastructure, including technology improvements in our efforts to keep cost and quality competitive internationally," she said.

"We are excited about the future, and looking forward to getting down to work with the Kidman managers ... to explore and drive technology and other improvements."

Her chief executive Garry Korte added their bid, with control remaining in Australian hands, "may become a more palatable role model for future deal structures in Australia, where foreign ownership is concerned.

One of those championing the Rinehart deal was anti-immigration politician Pauline Hanson, the head of the populist One Nation party who stridently opposes foreign ownership of agricultural land.

"I would rather Australia have two-thirds in Kidman station, rather than the total ownership and control by the Chinese or any other foreign investor," she said recently.

"You never know further down the track, two-thirds is actually Australian owned  so Gina Rinehart might buy-out the Chinese."

Kidman managing director Greg Campbell said he was glad a deal had finally been done.

"Mrs. Gina Rinehart is a prominent Australian and we appreciate her desires to further invest and grow the business," he said.
FRANKFURT/MUNICH (Reuters) - Shanghai-based National Silicon Industry Group (NSIG) has ended talks over the potential purchase of a majority stake in German silicon wafers group Siltronic, German news agency dpa reported, citing an NSIG manager.

"There are no further negotiations. They have ended," dpa quoted the manager, who is in charge of foreign investment projects, as saying in Beijing, without elaborating further. It did not name the manager.

Shares in Siltronic were down 3.6 percent at 0948 GMT.

Sources told Reuters last week that Wacker Chemie, Siltronic's parent who holds a 57.8 percent stake, was in early talks with Chinese suitors, including NSIG, about a possible stake sale.

Wacker Chemie declined to comment.

(Reporting by Christoph Steitz and Jens Hack; Editing by Maria Sheahan)
China's president Xi Jinping has called for the Communist Party to exert greater ideological control over universities, state media reported Friday, amid a broad crackdown on academic freedom and dissent in the world's second-largest economy.

Institutes of higher education must "serve the rule of the Chinese Communist Party and serve to strengthen and promote socialism with Chinese characteristics", Xi said at a meeting on ideological and political work that ended Thursday, according to the official Xinhua news service.

The move is the latest effort by China's ruling Communist party to push its dogma in classrooms, raising fears over tightening limits on already curtailed academic and intellectual liberties.

Universities must integrate "ideological work" throughout the entire process of students' education, Xi said, calling for more lessons in Marxist theory.

Chinese universities are "under the leadership of the CCP, and are socialist colleges with Chinese characteristics, so higher education must be guided by Marxism," he added.

China has seen a sprawling crackdown on dissent under Xi, restricting citizens' speech online and jailing hundreds of lawyers who had taken on civil rights cases considered sensitive by the ruling party.

Universities have become a major battleground in this quest for party control.

China has long mandated that all university students take "political education" classes, but state media have bemoaned that students in the country's colleges have lost interest in official ideology.

Earlier this year Chinese professors wrote a letter claiming economics students were being "brainwashed by Western theories" and calling for more Marx in classrooms.

Speeches by the top leader send signals to cadres about the direction of policy.

The People's Daily newspaper, the party mouthpiece, published Xi's speech on its front-page Friday alongside a front-page commentary urging party members to "seize" the task of directing university ideology.

"Teachers are humanity's engineers of the soul, upholding a sacred mission," Xi said.

In November China passed a controversial cybersecurity bill that banned internet users from publishing a wide variety of information, including anything that damages "national honour", "disturbs economic or social order" or is aimed at "overthrowing the socialist system".
By Elzio Barreto HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese photo app and mobile phone maker Meitu Inc is set to raise $630 million after pricing its Hong Kong initial public offering at the bottom of expectations, a person with direct knowledge of the deal said on Friday. Meitu, known for its apps that let users retouch and beautify selfies and other photos, priced the IPO at HK$8.50 per share, after marketing the 574 million new shares in an indicative range of HK$8.50HK$9.60 each, said the source, who declined to be named because details of the deal aren't public. That would put the IPO at HK$4.88 billion ($629 million). Meitu did not respond to a Reuters request for comment on the IPO price. The bottom-of-the-range pricing shows some investors may have been put off by its high valuation and lack of comparable companies listed in the city, concerns that some hedge fund managers and institutional investors had previously voiced. The IPO is a rare technology sector flotation in Hong Kong and the largest from the industry since the business-to-business unit of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding went public in 2007. Meitu's stock market debut next week will be closely monitored by other technology startups in China as an indication whether there's investors' appetite for similar listings in the near future in Hong Kong. IPO CAPITAL Despite being the world's top destination for IPOs so far in 2016, Hong Kong has failed to attract a significant number of listings from Chinese technology companies, with the majority of internet startups and software makers choosing to go public in New York instead. Funds raised from such companies have accounted for 6 percent or less of all IPOs in the Asian financial hub in each year since the global financial crisis in 2008, Thomson Reuters data showed. China Merchants Securities, Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley were hired as sponsors of the IPO, earning a combined $1 million in fees for their sponsor services, Meitu said in its IPO prospectus. The sponsors will also join AMTD, CCB International, CMB International, GF Securities and UBS as joint bookrunners. The banks stand to earn a combined $18.9 million in fees, equivalent to a 2.5 percent underwriting commission and 0.5 percent incentive fee, according to the IPO prospectus. ($1 = 7.7579 Hong Kong dollars) (Reporting by Elzio Barreto; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)
Ex-minister Ghimires jeep crashed while overtaking truck: Report

The jeep in which former Home Minister Madhav Ghimire was travelling lost control while overtaking a truck before skidding off the road to plunge into Trishuli River, according to a report prepared by the probe committee.
It's a Christmas miracle for a New Jersey man who has been was reunited with the wedding band he lost at a tree farm 15 years ago  months after his wife passed away.

Read: Woman's Engagement Ring is Found in a Sewer After She Flushed it Down the Toilet

"It was kind of like a miracle," David Penner, 68, told InsideEdition.com. "I'm happy to have it back at this time. It's like a piece of my wife back."

Nancy Penner of Great Meadows, the other name engraved in the ring, passed away in September. She was 67.

John Wyckoff, of Wyckoff's Tree Farm in Belvedere, told InsideEdition.com he was planting Christmas trees in April from his tractor when he looked down and spotted something shiny in the dirt. He said the sight was not out of the ordinary since he's found items on his farm like Indian arrow heads, broken sunglasses and kids' toys.

"I reached down, and came up with a handful of dirt," he said. "When I sifted through it, I found a man's wedding band. I couldn't believe what I found."

Engraved on the inside were the words, "To David, Love Nancy" followed by their wedding anniversary, July 20, 1974.

Knowing someone would want it back, Wyckoff said he tried to look for the owner himself, but to no avail.

Seven months later, NJ.com visited the farm for a story, when Wyckoff remembered the wedding band, and hoped he would be able to track down the owner with the help a bigger audience.

Less than a week later, Penner showed up at the farm.

He told Wyckoff it must have been 15 years since he lost the ring at his farm. He remembered looking for a tree with his wife, and two teenage sons.

"We were looking for a Christmas tree 15-something years ago," Penner recalled to InsideEdition.com. "It was a cold day, and I cut the tree down. I wasn't wearing gloves, and my hands were pretty cold, probably numb. I probably flung my hand down and my ring came off my finger."

Story continues

Read: Montreal Put Up a 70-Foot-Tall 'Charlie Brown' Christmas Tree, and Locals Are Furious

Wyckoff said the pair chatted and Penner was able to relay the description and the date on the band. He also backed up his story by providing Wyckoff with his marriage certificate.

And with that, Wyckoff knew he had found the right guy.

"It was an emotional moment. He had a tear in his eye because Nancy passed away this September," Wyckoff said. They were married for 42 years. "He never replaced it. He felt it was getting something back."

Watch: Sanitation Workers Dig Through Dumpster for Woman's Diamond Rings She Lost While Cooking

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EXCLUSIVE: Cinemax is recalibrating its original programming strategy, returning to the type of fare that launched its push into original primetime series: fun, high-octane, action, pulpy, straight-to-series dramas done in a cost-effective way primarily as international co-productions.

It is fitting that one of the first series under the new model is a reboot of the action drama that started Cinemaxs foray into original series, Strike Back. The network is reteaming with UKs Sky to co-produce a new season of the action franchise with a new cast and characters. Also part of the new initiative is the recently picked-up limited series Rellik, a co-production with the BBC. While going forward, most of Cinemaxs original drama series will be lower-cost co-productions in the action/thriller genre, the network also plans to do some homegrown series, with current pilot order Warrior, a crime drama based on original material written by Bruce Lee, being considered for that. Additionally, Cinemax is in preliminary conversations about importing international action and martial arts shows and could consider half-hour comedies if they are cost-effective and on-brand.

Back in 2010, when HBO miniseries and Cinemax programming president Kary Antholis was tasked with giving Cinemax  then known largely as Skinemax for its late-night adult programming  a new original-programming identity, he and his team looked at the ratings for the theatrical movies Cinemax was playing in primetime. Not surprisingly for a network whose audience is largely male, with 60% being men over age 30  they discovered that high-octane, combat-oriented action pieces with big production values drove the ratings on the service in primetime, Antholis said. So they set out to find shows in those genres with a similar look that they could do on a cost-effective basis.

British series Strike Back, starring Richard Armitage and Andrew Lincoln, had just finished its six-episode first season on Sky, which was planning to bring it back for a 10-episode second season. Antholis met with Sky executives and series executive producer, Andy Harries. We liked the original Strike Back, but we wanted a bit more fun to it, less grounded, less somber, Antholis said. We wanted more production value to it, and we wanted an American character as a co-lead, and for that, we would bring additional resources so they could put more money on the screen. Sky and Harrias were game, and Strike Back, starring Sullivan Stapleton and Philip Winchester, was picked up as co-production with Frank Spotnitz as showrunner, airing for four seasons and setting a template for a Cinemax original series.

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It was followed by Spotnitzs Hunted, with the BBC, which worked for Cinemax but not for the UK broadcaster, which opted not to renew it for a second season. Cinemax also picked up another international action series, Transporter, but didnt go through with it after its production was plagued by setbacks.

The network changed gears in 2012 with a series order to a homegrown, more expensive drama series, Banshee, executive produced by one of HBOs top creators, Alan Ball. It became a breakout hit and a game-changer.

The idea going into this was that we would initially do these high-octane, cinematic shows at a price, and the way that we got to that price largely was by doing co-productions, Antholis said. What we discovered in doing Banshee was that we could increase our audience with the right kind of show. In other words, Strike Back and Hunted hit a certain audience level, but then Banshee took that to a substantially higher ratings number.

Banshee was followed by another higher-end, homegrown drama, Steven Soderberghs The Knick starring Clive Owen, as well as Robert Kirkmans Outcast and, most recently Quarry, which premiered this fall. I have to say right now, The Knick is one of the most rewarding creative experiences of my career, Antholis said. Critics loved the show, and I cant tell you how many studio executives around town have told me its their favorite show on television, but it did not find an audience at the level that Banshee did. Even though in terms of an HBO show, The Knick is a modestly priced show, in terms of a Cinemax show, it started to throw our budget out of whack.

When Casey Bloys took the top HBO programming job in May, the programming strategy of Cinemax already was being re-evaluated. Casey and I discussed the direction of Cinemax and agreed that the brand should return to what we were doing in the first place, which was cost-effective programming, often co-productions, adrenalized, pulpy material that has a real fun factor. The comment that I get most often about shows like Banshee and Strike Back is that they are fun, and people call them their popcorn or their candy on a Friday night.

Antholis and his team found a script, Rellik, for a six-episode serial killer limited series from The Missing team of creators Harry and Jack Williams and New Pictures. We were blown away by it, Antholis said. We felt it was fresh, we felt it was intense. Its not a full return to the pulp of a show like Banshee or the adrenaline of a show like Strike Back, its more in the Hunted kind of area of an intense thriller that is propulsive and deeply involving.

Cinemax then was approached by Harries about teaming with Sky on a Strike Back reboot that updates the franchise, which originally was inspired by 1980s action movies like Lethal Weapon, Die Hard and Rambo and dealt largely with the the remnants of Al-Qaeda. The new series, which will star Alin Sumarwata, Daniel MacPherson, Roxanne McKee and Warren Brown, takes inspiration from the diverse ensemble action movies of the 2000s and beyond, like the Fast and Furious franchise, and it is expected to reflect the global war on terror, informed by the rise of ISIS. We found this really great core team of actors that I think are going to re-energize that franchise, Antholis said.

How will these shows be incorporated into the new Cinemax strategy? Ideally, wed love to be doing four shows a year at least to begin with, and I would imagine that, at least initially, three of those would be co-productions or very cost-effective and one will be the kind of a marquee show with a Banshee-level of budget for the year, a homegrown project that we can tailor to what we think our audience wants and enjoys.

Strike Back and Rellik will be two of the co-productions, with Cinemax in talks on other lower-cost action/thriller dramas with international partners. The network also plans to launch a new brand campaign around the debut of Strike Back in early 2018. Meanwhile, Warrior, which Cinemax ordered to pilot, is eyed for a potential straight-to-series order to fill the tentpole spot in the inaugural slate. It is written/executive produced by Banshee co-creator Jonathan Tropper based on original material by the late martial arts icon Bruce Lee. The Fast & Furious helmer Justin Lin executive produces with Lees daughter, Shannon Lee. It will be a very pulpy, fun, adrenalized, martial arts show, Antholis said.

Since entering the original programming arena, Cinemax has done only two pilots, Outcast and Quarry, and going forward, it is expected to bypass the pilot stage to go straight-to-series. It is a much more cost-effective way of doing things, and it does fit into this notion of running a frugal and value-oriented production slate, Antholis said.

What will be the future of Outcast, renewed for a second season, and how will the horror drama, which struggled to find traction with viewers in Season 1, fit into the new Cinemax? Were going to see if we can grow its audience, Antholis said. I think part of the lesson there is that we assumed we could find Kirkmans audience in our Cinemax audience, but we have to find better ways of doing that. We tried to guide the upcoming second season towards being more adrenalized. We love working with Robert and with Chris (Black) and with Dave Alpert, and were going to try to find a way to make it fit into this new plan.

Could there be half-hour comedy series on Cinemax? Well, yes, Im open to half-hours, but weve got to be able to do them at a price, Antholis said. So I would be open to co-productions, particularly with the UK or Australian English-language co-productions, that are on brand. Ive often said theres one half-hour out there that felt like was an on-brand Cinemax show, HBOs Eastbound & Down, and if we can find cost-effective ways of doing that  find, for example, whoever the next, cutting-edge Ali G is  Im open to that. I think that kind of in-your-face humor is on brand for Cinemax.

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It's the end of an era in the U.S. banking industry -- at least until the next financial crisis.

The last of the "bad bank" divisions that companies like Citigroup and Bank of America created during the financial crisis to report earnings separately from the rest of the firm will stop doing so in the New Year.

Citi Holdings was created in 2009 as the financial crisis came to a head and once carried as much as $888 billion of New York-based Citigroup's assets. Used to divest non-core holdings like One Main and the bank's hedge fund business, it now has just $61 billion in assets.

"We've been through Dodd Frank, very heavy regulations and oversight," said Marty Mosby of Vining Sparks. "We've already gone through all the divestitures. All the larger banks have retreated back into core business."

Bank of America stopped report separate results for its so-called legacy holdings in 2015.

Citi Holdings is still shedding some of what it owns, and will continue to do so following the change in reporting methods. Much of what remains in the division is mortgage assets, a source said.

What's interesting, though, is that the once battered division has become profitable.

The period from July through September marked the ninth straight quarter that the unit posted positive results, CEO Mike Corbat said during an earnings call in October. The division's assets account for just 3% of the company's total balance sheet, he added, and are down by nearly half from just a year ago.

Corbat ran the Citi Holdings unit before succeeding Vikram Pandit as CEO of Citigroup.

Of course, the fact that Citi Holdings had to be created in the first place reflected the bank's bad decision-making before the subprime mortgage meltdown in the mid- to late 2000s. Citi and Bank of America each eventually accepted government bailouts of $45 billion.

And that wasn't the first time that Citi experienced problems requiring taxpayer help. During the Latin American debt crisis in the 1980s, Citigroup and other banks' loans to companies in the region that then defaulted required the Treasury to help offload those liabilities through so-called Brady Bonds, named after then-Treasury Secretary Nicholas Brady.

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While Citi didn't receive a bailout during the Great Depression of the 1930s, its precursor, National City Bank, dumped bad assets on unsuspecting investors, which helped lead to the enactment of the Glass-Steagall Act separating investment and commercial banking.

Ironically, yet another former Citi CEO, Sandy Weill, was instrumental in convincing the Clinton administration to do away with Glass-Steagall in 1999, though the law had ceased during the previous decade to be an effective bar to the mixing of the two types of banking, thanks to loopholes that the industry had convinced regulators to add.

Citi's asset sales through Citi Holdings included its 93.5% stake in Japanese telemarketer Bellsystem24 Inc., bought by Bain Capital in 2009 for 93.5 billion ($1 billion), the largest buyout by a foreign private equity firm in Japan in almost two years.

Just a few months later, in April 2010, Citigroup agreed to sell its hedge fund business to SkyBridge Capital for an undisclosed sum, and in 2012, it sold a stake in the Indian mortgage lender Housing Development Finance Corp. for $1.9 billion.

In June 2014, Citi agreed to sell its consumer-banking business in Greece, as well as its Diners Club of Greece credit card unit, to Alpha Bank. The deal included 480,000 customers, $1.4 billion in deposits and $540 million in card and loan accounts.

And while there are still a few divestitures to come for Citi Holdings, the bank is clearly in much better shape than it was in the wake of the financial crisis.

"We continue to like [Citi], given its immensely improved regulatory standing," Jack Mohr, chief investment strategist for Action Alerts PLUS, which holds Citi and is co-managed by TheStreet's Jim Cramer, said in a recent note to clients. "The bank stands to benefit greatly by the improved macro and even more from deregulation, should that occur."

Citigroup representatives declined further comment than what has been made public on Citi Holdings.

Citi, which has a market value of $164.71 billion, has climbed 16% this year to $59.97, outpacing the broader S&P 500.

EXCLUSIVE OFFER: See inside Jim Cramers multi-million dollar charitable trust portfolio to see the stocks he thinks could be potentially HUGE winners. Click here to see his holdings for FREE.
The Daily Beast

GettyRussia announced Wednesday that it views Norways work with other countries in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as provocative, warning that Norways efforts to bolster its military in response to Russias invasion of Ukraine this year will likely be the death knell for Oslo-Moscow relations moving forward.Oslo is now among the most active supporters of NATO's involvement in the Arctic, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Wednesday, according to TASS. We cons
The recent discovery of a missing Alaska teens dead body, weeks after he vanished  and the subsequent arrest of one of his friends  has shaken their small community.

In mourning 16-year-old David Grunwald, they are also remembering his life: One his teachers tells PEOPLE the boys desk chair is being kept empty in tribute to the funny and eager student, who dreamed of being a pilot.

We all miss him, Zack Lanphier, Davids former high school teacher at Mat-Su Career & Tech, tells PEOPLE. And as an honor to him we are going to leave his chair open until the end of the semester.

Lanphier, who taught David in his seventh-period government studies class, says he came up with the idea from his years serving as a Marine.

Its one thing I can do in my classroom as a tribute and an honor to his life, the impact he had in our classroom and the impact this has had on our community, says Lanphier, a Purple Heart recipient. Its just one thing I can do.

Although David joined the school in August as junior, he was quick to make friends. Hundreds are reportedly expected to attend a Friday vigil for him.

Im going to miss his sense of humor, kindness, positivity and overall irreplaceableness, classmate Erika Naulty tells PEOPLE. Im really glad I got to meet him.

David loved studying government  especially the national debt  Lanphier says. When he wasnt creating conversations by asking off-topic questions during class (Can you unplant and replant a fully-grown tree?), friends say, David was planning his future as a pilot.

He could almost always get me to laugh each day we had together, student Megan Barnes says. He was always excited to talk in class when he had the chance.

 Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.

We Were Waiting for Him to Come Back

David was last seen alive on Nov. 13 after he reportedly dropped his girlfriend off at her home. Later that night when he didnt come home, his father, worried, called Alaska State Troopers. The next day, his car was found torched on a local trail in Wasilla, Alaska, according to a police statement.

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 chair has been empty for two and half weeks, Lanphier says. We were waiting for him to come back.

On Dec. 2, Alaska authorities recovered Davids remains in Palmer, Alaska, after Erick Almandinger, also 16, allegedly confessed to involvement in his friends killing, according to an affidavit obtained by PEOPLE

During questioning, Erick allegedly revealed David was killed by another teen, who has not been identified, after David pleaded for his life.

The only motive investigators say Erick offered was that David had smoked all of his weed.

 Pick up PEOPLEs special edition True Crime Stories: Cases That Shocked America, on sale now, for the latest on Casey Anthony, JonBenet Ramsey and more.

Court records allege David and Erick were drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana in a 1971 camper trailer with a third, unnamed teen on Nov. 13. The third teen, identified only as D.J., allegedly asked Erick to fetch a .40-caliber semi-automatic handgun from inside his house. He did, according to court records, bringing the firearm back to the trailer, where all three teens inspected and handled it.

At some point in the trailer, D.J. bludgeoned with the pistol, the affidavit alleges. The injured boy was then driven to nearby Butte, Alaska.

Only partially conscious, David asked to be taken to his girlfriends home, according to the affidavit, and once the group arrived at the woods, he asked not to be killed. While Erick allegedly first told investigators it was D.J. who shot David, he later said it was another teenager, identified as A.B., who fired the fatal round.

Court records claim Erick also told a friend that he had killed David, recounting how he beat and then shot the teen.

So far, only he has been charged with murder.

David was a great kid with a big personality and a way to make anyone laugh, one friend tells PEOPLE, adding that its heartbreaking to hear someone her age could do such a thing.

He will be missed, she says.

Erick has been charged as an adult and has not entered a plea. He will appear in court for a preliminary hearing on Dec. 13, Palmer County Court officials tell PEOPLE. He remains in custody and has not yet retained an attorney.

Neither his family nor Davids family could be reached, though residents at Ericks home previously declined to speak when contacted in person by local reporters.

Describing his death as devastating, Davids parents previously said in an email to the Alaska Dispatch News that the kidnapping and murder of our son was unnecessary, weak minded, cowardice and shameful.

David was a sweet, caring and respecting boy, they wrote. He was viciously attacked and murdered.

The investigation into Davids death continues, and anyone with information is urged to call police at 907-352-5401.

 With CHRIS HARRIS




In the global fight to eradicate HIV/AIDS, one fundraising organization is harnessing the Cloud, using its power not just for profits but for philanthropy and making the world a better place, said (RED) CEO Deb Dugan.

The Cloud has made us smarter and more efficient, Dugan said. Its been a game changer.

By tapping analytics in the Cloud, Dugan said (RED) can effectively show its partners where it is having the most impact  in real time. The Cloud also helps (RED) create and share documents more efficiently.

(RED) launched in 2006, and is a division of The One Campaign. (RED) was co-founded by U2 frontman Bono and philanthropist Bobby Shriver to create a sustainable flow of private sector money to the Global Fund  which has been called the world's war chest to fight AIDS, as well as TB and Malaria. Up to 50 percent of the profits from sales of (RED) products go directly to the Global Fund. To date, (RED) has generated more than $360 million for the Global Fund, to finance programs fighting AIDS in Africa.

Late last year, the Cloud-based customer relationship management software company Salesforce offered (RED) both expertise and technology solutions via its philanthropic arm, Salesforce.org. Salesforce employees are given paid days off each year for volunteer work, and many donated more than 900 pro bono hours to (RED), setting up the Cloud programs that Salesforce provided free of charge and training the 20-person staff.

The impact they can make to the community they serve using our technology is vital, said Ebony Frelix, senior vice president, philanthropy & engagement at Salesforce.org. Weve given them tools to run their organization more efficiently, and it all happens seamlessly in the Cloud.

(RED) now operates in the Cloud on several levels, including analytics, sales and marketing. The Cloud enables staff to share with corporate partners -- in real-time -- the exact ways their support impacts people around the world.

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Making it easy to share stories and information seamlessly has been critical. Dugan said theyve come a long way from the days of approaching partners with printed paper spreadsheets.

Salesforce has helped us leave our computers and desks behind, she said. Everybodys mobile  we can have people from Rwanda to San Francisco at any given time, and they can pull up any information at the moment and mobile.

(RED) also communicates with more than 6 million people and partners on social media, and uses the Cloud to engage with supporters there.

We use the marketing cloud loudly and feverishly, said Dugan. We want to deepen our relationships and reach our engaged community and share information.

Cloud computing is not a trend, said Frelix. What we are doing with our technology is leveling the playing field. Its a way people can quickly come up to speed and have meaningful work in todays society. Its pretty cool how we can affect change on so many different levels.  With nonprofits using Cloud, we will see big increases in their impacts.

At (RED), they agree. Last year, they offered 86 products for good. This year, they have been able to expand to 200. All of which they hope can help them reach their goal to eliminate mother-child transmission of AIDS by 2020, and by 2030, eradicating AIDS completely.

If you think of some of these Cloud initiatives being game changers in business, we like to apply those to philanthropy, said Dugan, and having the ROI be saving peoples lives.

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CNN host Chris Cuomo battled with Tennessee Rep. Marsha Blackburn on Friday morning over whether human beings are responsible for the warming of the globe in the last century.

The questioning of Blackburn came during a discussion on Scott Pruitt, President-elect Donald Trumps pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency and a skeptic of climate-change science.

Cuomo asked Blackburn, vice chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, for her views on Pruitt and whether he would be someone who denies the basic science of climate change.

Rep. @MarshaBlackburn tells @ChrisCuomo there is still debate on human participation in global warming. https://t.co/aMplbQyYEP  New Day (@NewDay) December 9, 2016

Blackburn said Pruitt understands the heavy burden the EPA has placed on businesses across the country through regulation. She said, however, that everyone remained in favor of clean air and water.

Can you be for clean air and water if you do not believe that man has a hand in global warming? Cuomo asked.

Of course you can be a believer in clean air and clean water and realize that when you work at global warming or climate change, as it is now popularly called, that it is cyclical and you have to look at it in terms of centuries, not in terms of decades, Blackburn said.

The congresswoman added: And the science around that is not a settled science.

Cuomo, taken slightly aback, asked Blackburn bluntly if she agreed that human actives contribute greatly to what is warming our planet over time.

Do you accept that? he asked.

I think that there are those who would say, No, it is more of a cyclical process. There are those that will say that we do think humans have something to do with it, Blackburn replied.

Its not some though, congresswoman, Cuomo quipped. You know  its an overwhelming scientific consensus on the notion of whether man-made activities negatively impact global warming. Its not an open debate within the scientific community. It is a big majority and a small group of people that resist it.

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Cuomo reiterated that he was talking about the basic science and whether she and Pruitt agreed with it.

The fact is that there is still debate about that and the participation of human beings in this, Blackburn said. We all will agree we want the Earth to stay healthy. We want clean air, we want clean water.

The congresswoman said, however, that it was important to make certain that we are able to have the energy that is necessary to fuel a productive economy.

NOW WATCH: 'That hypocrisy is also real'  Jon Stewart takes liberals to task for calling all Trump supporters racist





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By Valerie Volcovici WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Coal mining executive Robert Murray, one of Donald Trump's biggest campaign backers, said on Friday he wants the president-elect to support a bill that would protect the health and pension benefits of thousands of coal miners retired from companies that have gone bust. The outspoken founder of Ohio-based Murray Energy Corp said he has asked Trump, who campaigned on a promise to help the coal industry, to speak out on behalf of the spending bill provision currently tied up in Congress. "I asked him and Vice President-elect Mike Pence to be involved verbally and in writing," Murray told Reuters in an interview. Murray said he has not yet heard back. A Trump transition official did not respond to a request for comment. Murray Energy was among the biggest contributors to Trump's bid for the presidency. Its $100,000 donation to the Trump Victory PAC was the PAC's largest from a company, according to Trump's fundraising committee's latest filing. Murray also hosted fundraisers for the Republican candidate. On the campaign trail, Trump won over coal-producing states by promising to revive the sector, put laid-off miners back to work, and scrap regulations that he said are hobbling the industry. Coal prices have sunk in recent years due to competition from cheap natural gas and rules to combat climate change ushered in by President Barack Obama. The Senate is now contemplating a spending bill that contains a provision to extend the benefits of retired coal miners whose companies have gone bankrupt until next April, but some coal state Democratic senators are agitating for a longer-term solution and threatening a government shutdown. A group of Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, are resisting, and the bill is in limbo. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Thursday that the Obama administration hopes "there should be bipartisan common ground to address the needs of these 20,000 coal miners who are slated to lose their health insurance at the end of the month." Dozens of United Mine Worker retired miners have been on Capitol Hill this week holding rallies and visiting lawmakers to urge them to pass a longer-term solution. UMWA spokesman Phil Smith said the Trump transition team is aware of the issue but has not said anything publicly. As one of just a handful of U.S. coal companies that has not declared bankruptcy, Murray said his company is struggling to pay into its health and pension funds and "can't compete with those companies that didn't go through bankruptcy proceedings." (Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Leslie Adler)
First successful liver transplantin the country

In a major development in the countrys health sector, a 41-year-old man successfully underwent a liver transplantthe first ever such procedureat a government health facility on Wednesday night.
Abidjan (AFP) - Ivory Coast's government on Friday announced a programme to provide birth certificates for three million children left undocumented by years of war, poverty and migration.

"The 'One Child, One Birth Certificate' project focusses on children -- from newborns to age 17 -- from the poorest and most disadvantaged communities," said Madeleine Yao of the NSIA Foundation which is financing the effort.

Yao said the project was a crucial tool for Ivorian authorities to enforce a law passed last year that requires children to attend school up to the age of 16.

Since the west African nation emerged from a decade of internal conflict in 2011, it has struggled to improve legal protections for children left stateless or forced into full-time work.

During the conflict, which divided the country and forced thousands out of their homes, government offices were pillaged and destroyed. As a result, internally displaced people often did not have access to registry services.

A Unicef study two years ago found 2.8 million minors in the country had no legal record of their birth or citizenship status.

In 2011, Ivory Coast launched an effort to reduce the number of child workers labouring in the cocoa sector, the country's biggest industry, and get them into schools.

Since then, 17,829 classrooms have been built or restored, according to the National Monitoring Committee charged with overseeing the government's anti-child labour efforts.

But as of early 2016, between 300,000 and one million children were still estimated to work on cocoa plantations and elsewhere in the industry, according to a report by the International Cocoa Initiative.

The July 2015 law making schooling mandatory now carries the threat of prison sentences for parents who keep their children aged six to 16 out of school.

The NSIA Foundation, which belongs to the private NSIA banking group and promotes schooling and training for children in West Africa, is providing 275,000 euros (dollars) for the registration effort.
The California Coastal Commission just sent a very serious - and expensive - message to Malibu homeowners considering blocking public access to beaches in front of their homes.

On Friday, the 12-member commission charged with enforcing the Coastal Act, levied a $5 million fine to two Malibu property owners who they claim have repeatedly blocked access to the Las Flores Beach and Carbon Beach respectively.

The largest of the two fines targeted Dr. Warren M. Lent and his wife, Henny, who rent out a home at 20802 Pacific Coast Highway. The couple, who have been battling the Coastal Commission for almost a decade, must now pay almost $4.2 million for blocking access to a 3-mile stretch of coastline using a locked gate and an unpermitted private staircase.

Courtesy of The Coastal Commission

"You're either going to let people down your stairs or you're not," said Commission Chair Dayna Bochco in a statement. "They have been playing very serious games and that's what led us here."

In 2014, the State Legislature granted the commission authority to levy fines for the first time. The $4.2 million fine far exceeded the $950,000 fine recommended by the agency's staff. The lack of access to public beaches in Malibu has been a point of contention between the city and various Malibu homeowners for decades. All beaches are considered public by state law, but according to the commission some homeowners have resorted to blocking access with fake "no parking" signs, painting curbs red and in some cases employing security guards to patrol beaches in front of their homes.

"We think that the amount of civil penalties imposed is unconscionable," Alan Block, the attorney for the Lents, tells The Hollywood Reporter. Block says his clients are waiting on a feasibility study that the Coastal Commission never delivered and that they are clearly trying to make an example out of the Lents. The Lents now have 60 days to consider filing a counter-lawsuit, and Block says they are "considering all options."

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Courtesy of The Coastal Commission

In a second case, commissioners also approved a $925,000 fine as part of a settlement with the owners of the Malibu Beach Inn. That settlement, according to the commission, ended amicably and will result in two new stairways that lead to Carbon Beach.
Muhtar Kent

Muhtar Kent will step down as CEO of Coca-Cola effective May 1, according to a release from the company.

Kent will be replaced by the company's COO, James Quincey, who has been at Coca-Cola for 20 years, according to the firm.

Kent has served as CEO since 2008 and will stay at Coca-Cola as chairman of the board of directors.

"It has been the most wonderful and unique privilege to serve as chairman and CEO of our great company over the past eight years," Kent said in the release from Coca-Cola.

"This transition comes at a time of important evolution for The Coca-Cola Company. Our journey to refocus on our core business model of building strong global brands, enhancing sustainable customer value, and leading a strong, dedicated franchise system is well under way."

The shift comes as Coca-Cola and other soda manufacturers face pressures from health-focused consumers. Soda sales, the backbone for the company, have been sliding in recent years, falling by 1.2% in 2015 and 0.9% in 2014. Additionally the threat of sugar and soda taxes in cities such as San Francisco has popped up in recent years.

Coca-Cola is attempting to find new ways to grow the company amid the decline, including new recipes and smaller containers.

Warren Buffett, who has long owned a large stake in Coca-Cola, was also supportive of the move.

"As chairman and CEO, Muhtar has been an excellent steward of Coca-Cola's business over the last eight years and I am thankful for the leadership he has provided to put in place the right vision, strategy, and thoughtful succession plan for long-term success," Buffett said in the press release. "I know James and like him, and believe the company has made a smart investment in its future with his selection."

Following the news, Coca-Cola stock is up just over 1% in premarket trading.

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Coca-Cola (KO) CEO Muhtar Kent is stepping down from his position in May of next year. The soda makers president and COO James Quincey will succeed him.

Broadcom (AVGO) shares soared in early trading. The chip makers merger with Avago is paying off. The company gave an upbeat outlook for the current quarter and doubled its dividend after reporting better-than-expected earnings and revenue for last quarter. Revenue more than doubled from a year ago to $4.l4 billion.

Restoration Hardware (RH) got hammered in early trading. The home furnishings retailer cut its outlook for the holiday quarter and the year. The company blaming consumer softness partly related to the election and delays in the delivery of its big catalogs. This despite reporting earnings and revenue in the third quarter that topped analysts estimates.

Time Inc. (TIME) shares remain in focus this morning after the stock jumped nearly 8% Thursday following a Wall Street Journal report that the magazine publisher has hired Morgan Stanley (MS) and Bank of America (BAC) to help field takeover or partnership interest. This comes after it reportedly rejected a takeover offer from a group of media investors including Edgar Bronfman, Jr.

Biogen (BIIB) shares were higher in early trading after an early study showed the companys experimental Alzheimers drug appeared to reduce the risk of brain swelling when doses were gradually increased.
New York (AFP) - Coca-Cola announced Friday that chief executive Muhtar Kent will step down next year as the beverage giant confronts a tougher demand environment for soda.

James Quincey, Coca-Cola president and chief operating officer, will step into the top job in May, the company said. Kent will stay on as chairman.

Quincey's background includes extensive experience in Latin America and Northwest Europe.

The move comes as Coca-Cola and rival PepsiCo face a rising trend of soda taxes in some key markets, including major US cities and Mexico. Soda sales have sagged, especially in Coca-Cola's home market.

The soda companies have compensated for these trends by boosting sales for water and other non-carbonated drinks and, in PepsiCo's case, boosting sales of snacks.

Quincey's promotion was praised by Warren Buffett, chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway, a Coca-Cola shareholder.

"Muhtar has been an excellent steward of Coca-Cola's business over the last eight years and I am thankful for the leadership he has provided," Buffett said in the statement. "I know James and like him, and believe the company has made a smart investment in its future with his selection."

Coca-Cola rose 1.2 percent to $41.49 in pre-market trading.
By Siddharth Cavale and Sruthi Ramakrishnan (Reuters) - Coca-Cola Co said on Friday that Muhtar Kent would step aside as chief executive next year and be replaced by James Quincey, a company veteran credited with several recent changes to help the company cut its dependence on sugary drinks. Quincey's ascension was widely expected since he became chief operating officer in August 2015 after jobs that included running Coke's businesses in Europe and Mexico over two decades. Kent, 64, will have completed nine years at the helm when he steps down in May, but he will continue as chairman of the board, a post he has held since 2009, Coke said. Coke's shares were up 2.6 percent to $42.04 in afternoon trading, making the stock biggest percentage gainer on the Dow Jones industrial average. Quincey, 51, is credited with several changes at Coke including introducing smaller bottles to boost profit and reducing the sugar and calorie content in drinks  initiatives he would continue to focus on, the CEO-designate said on Friday. "The future in terms of the beverage industry in some parts of the world  yes, there'll be less added sugar, and yes, we think we need to push ahead with the smaller packages and reformulations and innovations," Quincey said. He said Coke would also concentrate on its sparkling beverage business, push into other drink categories and continue to innovate. Coke still gets about 70 percent of its volume sales from sodas and its sales have fallen in the last three years on sagging demand for sugary drinks, which health experts and governments have blamed for rising obesity levels. Since Kent took over as CEO in July 2008, Coke's sales have increased by about 39 percent, while the company's shares have surged 61 percent. VOTE OF CONFIDENCE Quincey, who joined Coke in 1996, is also credited with streamlining Coke's bottling operations by merging its three main bottlers in Europe to form Coca-Cola European Partners Plc, now Coke's largest independent bottler by net revenue. His latest promotion was given a vote of confidence by Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc, Coke's largest shareholder. "I know James and like him, and believe the company has made a smart investment in its future with his selection," Buffett said in the statement issued by Coke. The CEO announcement comes a day after Coke said Buffett's son Howard Buffett would retire from its board next year. Some analysts saw the move as potentially paving the way for Buffett's firm Berkshire Hathaway to sell down its nearly $17 billion stake. "Those counting on an eventual bid some day from 3G Capital and Budweiser for Coke, may think Berkshire Hathaway being out of the picture would make it less awkward for that group to buy Coke," Susquehanna analyst Pablo Zuanic said in a note. Buffett teamed up with Brazilian private equity firm 3G Capital last year to buy Kraft and form Kraft Heinz Co. That aside, Wall Street analysts hailed the succession plan. "A move in the right direction as Quincey is a realist with a sense of urgency about diversifying the beverage portfolio and improving local execution via refranchizing," CLSA analyst Caroline Levy said. Quincey's background and significant experience in deal making as well as strong understanding and appreciation of the consumer and current trends would accelerate Coke's growth, Wells Fargo Senior analyst Bonnie Herzog wrote in a note. His appointment is the second instance of a company elevating its COO to the CEO role in as many weeks. Starbucks Corp said last week that Chief Operating Officer Kevin Johnson would replace Howard Schultz as CEO. (Reporting by Sruthi Ramakrishnan and Abhijith Ganapavaram in Bengaluru, additional reporting by Martinne Geller; Editing by Savio D'Souza)
Miami (AFP) - Four times the number of babies born with skull deformities linked to Zika virus were reported in Colombia this year following the outbreak of the mosquito-borne infection, said a US government report Friday.

Women infected early in pregnancy were most at risk of giving birth to babies with unusually small heads, a condition known as microcephaly, said the report by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Zika outbreak, which began in mid-2015, has mainly swept across Latin America and the Caribbean. The viral disease can be spread by the bite of an infected Aedes mosquito or sexual contact.

The toll of microcephaly in Colombia was smaller than in Brazil, which saw a ninefold increase in the disorder, perhaps because much of the population in Colombia lives at higher elevations where mosquitoes are scarce, according to the report.

"This preliminary report on Zika virus disease and microcephaly in Colombia demonstrates that an increase in microcephaly is not specific to Brazil," the CDC said.

"This finding confirms that countries with Zika virus outbreaks are likely to experience large increases in microcephaly and other Zika-related birth defects."

Colombia saw 476 cases of microcephaly from January 31 to mid-November 2016, said the CDC report, four times higher than the same period a year earlier.

Of those cases, 432 infants were born alive and 44 were lost to either miscarriage, abortion or stillbirth.

"The peak in cases of microcephaly in Colombia came about six months after the period in which the highest number of new Zika infections was reported, which suggests that the highest risk period for Zika-associated microcephaly is likely to be in the first half of pregnancy, particularly the first trimester and early in the second," the CDC said.

Colombia reported a total of 105,000 cases of Zika virus, including nearly 20,000 cases in pregnant women, from August 9, 2015, through November 26, 2016.

Zika has spread through 69 countries from 2015 onward, and 29 nations have reported birth defects possibly linked to the viral infection, according to the World Health Organization.
Los Angeles (AFP) - Comic actor T.J. Miller was arrested in Hollywood on Thursday on suspicion of assaulting a driver, police said, after the pair reportedly locked horns over President-elect Donald Trump.

Celebrity news website TMZ reported that the driver, who it said was working for Uber, claims he was slapped in the head by the "Silicon Valley" star when they arrived at his home.

It was not immediately clear which side of the Trump row Miller was on, but he has been an outspoken critic of the real estate mogul in the past.

Officers arrested Miller at a private address around 1:00 am (0900 GMT) and took him into custody, LAPD officer Jenny Hauser said.

The actor, who was charged with battery, posted $20,000 bail. He was released just under five hours later and ordered to appear in court on January 9.

Hauser would not confirm that the driver worked for Uber, adding: "All I can say is that he was a driver for a transportation company."

Miller's disdain for Trump was on display on Election Day on November 8 when he tweeted: "Please prevent @realDonaldTrump from putting his name on the White House in cheap gold."

When Miller appeared on TBS show "Conan" a few days prior, the actor set fire to a Trump tie he said he had bought "back when Donald Trump was funny."

Best known for HBO series "Silicon Valley" and Marvel's off-beat superhero movie "Deadpool," Miller stars opposite Jennifer Aniston in "Office Christmas Party," which opened in the United States on Friday.

The actor had been due to host Sunday's Critics Choice Awards in Santa Monica, California.

"My understanding is that he will still be hosting... It's not going to affect the show," said executive producer Joey Berlin.
csc oil rig

The US oil rig count jumped this week by 21 to 498, the biggest increase since July 2015 according to driller Baker Hughes.

Six gas rigs were added, taking their total to 125. With miscellaneous rigs unchanged at one, the combined tally increased by 27 to 624 rigs.

US oilfield services companies have seen stronger demand from producers amid stabilizing oil prices.

Oil rallied further after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) agreed on November 30 to lower its output by about 1.2 million barrels per day from early next year.

If US shale-oil production continues to ramp up, it could hamper OPEC's efforts to reduce the worldwide glut of oil. Meanwhile, there are doubts about whether OPEC members will stick to their agreement. A Reuters survey found that the cartel drilled a record amount of oil in November.

OPEC and non-OPEC members will meet again this weekend.

12 9 16 oil rigs chart

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By Mohamad Bazzi Over the course of the U.S. presidential campaign, Donald Trump changed his mind on many issues. But hes been consistent on one foreign policy question: he wants to end American support for Syrian opposition groups fighting Bashar al-Assads regime. Trump argues that the United States should expend all of its efforts on fighting Islamic State instead. Ive had an opposite view of many people regarding Syria, Trump told the Wall Street Journal on Nov. 11, in his first interview after he won the White House. My attitude was youre fighting Syria, Syria is fighting ISIS, and you have to get rid of ISIS. Russia is now totally aligned with Syria, and now you have Iran, which is becoming powerful, because of us, is aligned with Syria.  Now were backing rebels against Syria, and we have no idea who these people are. Even if Trump goes ahead with his threat to cut off aid to Syrian rebels fighting the Assad regime  especially those supported by a covert CIA program which provides training and anti-tank missiles  the president-elect will face another major test of his Syria policy soon after hes inaugurated on Jan. 20. The United States is supporting two military campaigns simultaneously in Syria: one against Assads government and the other against Islamic State. Trump has made clear that he doesnt view the fight against Assad as a U.S. priority. But will Trump continue a separate Pentagon support and training program for the Syrian Democratic Forces, a coalition of rebel groups, which is leading a ground offensive to oust Islamic State from the city of Raqqa, capital of its self-proclaimed caliphate? That campaign started on Nov. 6 with a mobilization of about 30,000 rebels to encircle Raqqa and cut it off from all sides, to deny Islamic State the ability to resupply weapons and fighters. The battle to push the jihadists out of Raqqa could take months. If it falters under a fledging Trump administration, Islamic State would have a safe base from which it would unleash new attacks in Syria and Iraq, and against the West. U.S. military planners pushed for the Raqqa offensive to start soon after the long-awaited invasion to recapture Iraqs second-largest city, Mosul, from the militants began in mid-October. Pentagon officials say they fear that Islamic State operatives, including some who fled the Mosul offensive, will use Raqqa to plot attacks against Western targets. Theres a sense of urgency about what we have to do here because were just not sure what theyre [jihadists] up to, and where, and when, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, Lt. General Stephen Townsend, said at a news conference on Oct. 26 in Baghdad. But we know that this plot planning is emanating from Raqqa. Trump says he wants to avoid direct U.S. involvement in the Syrian conflict, which has expanded into a regional proxy war. Russia and Iran, along with allied militias like Lebanons Hezbollah, are helping Assad consolidate control and recapture territory he lost to the rebels and jihadist groups. Assad and his backers have rarely fought directly against Islamic State, which controls Raqqa and other parts of eastern Syria. Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United States are backing various rebel factions that are fighting Assad and his allies, and, at times, Islamic State. Under Barack Obamas administration, the CIA has funneled up to $1 billion a year in weapons, including light arms, ammunition and anti-tank missiles, to Syrian rebel groups fighting the Assad regime that were deemed moderate by U.S. officials. But some of these rebels have been forced into battlefield alliances with jihadists, including al Qaeda affiliated groups. While the offensive against Islamic State in Raqqa began in the waning days of the Obama administration, it needs support from the incoming Trump administration to bear fruit. But the Raqqa operation is already alienating American allies, especially Turkey, which is critical of the Syrian Democratic Forces. The SDF is a coalition of Kurdish, Sunni Arab, Christian and Turkmen rebel groups that is anchored by the Peoples Protection Units (known by its Kurdish acronym, YPG), which includes thousands of Syrian Kurdish fighters. Turkish leaders view the YPG and other Syrian Kurdish groups as allies of the Kurdistan Workers Party (known as the PKK), which has waged an insurgency against the Turkish government since the 1980s, seeking autonomy for Kurdish areas. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan insists that Washington must not allow the YPG to take a leading role in expelling Islamic State from Raqqa, a largely Sunni Arab city. During the presidential campaign, Trump argued the United States should arm and help Kurdish factions, both in Iraq and Syria. Im a big fan of the Kurdish forces, he said in July. If Trump follows through on his praise of the Kurds, that would be good news for the SDF and its largest militia, the YPG. But once in office, Trump would also have to balance the objections of allies like Turkey and Erdogan, its increasingly autocratic president. Among his first top appointments, Trump named Michael Flynn, a retired general and former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, as his national security adviser. Flynn, who once worked as a paid lobbyist for a prominent Turkish businessman, has expressed strong support for Erdogans government and argued that Washington should be more sympathetic to its concerns. In late August, Turkey sent several hundred of its special forces into Syria, and began carrying out air strikes to help rebel factions allied with Ankara consolidate control of territory near the Turkish-Syrian border. The Turkish-backed rebels have fought both Islamic State jihadists and occasionally the U.S.-backed YPG militia. In October, Erdogan said he told Obama in a phone call that Turkey was capable of ousting Islamic State from Raqqa on its own. Other Turkish officials argued that the campaign to retake Raqqa should not begin until Iraqi forces complete their offensive against Islamic State in Mosul, which has slowed in recent weeks. But U.S. officials are keen to isolate Raqqa and use Syrian forces to encircle it, mainly because of worries about Islamic State operatives fleeing from Mosul and plotting new attacks against the West. That concern is genuine because the jihadist group  even as it was weakened over the past year, after intensive U.S.-led bombing and defeats by its opponents in Iraq and Syria  has shown a significant ability to adapt and inflict new terror. In the coming months, Islamic State will find new ways to endure an American-orchestrated offensive on Raqqa. It will try to take advantage of the change in U.S. administration. And once hes in office, Trump will discover that fighting and containing Islamic State inevitably means wading into Syrias complicated war. (Mohamad Bazzi is a journalism professor at New York University and former Middle East bureau chief at Newsday. He is writing a book on the proxy wars between Saudi Arabia and Iran. @BazziNYU)
BRAZZAVILLE (Reuters) - Congo Republic expects oil output to rise to some 300,000 barrels per day in 2018, up from around 250,000 bpd now, partly due to a new deep offshore field due to come online next year, the oil minister said on Thursday. Moho Nord, the second project issued on the Moho Bilondo offshore licence, is due to begin producing oil in March or April next year, Jean-Marc Thystere-Tchicaya told a conference in the capital Brazzaville. "From mid-2017 we can already count on an increase in production and then reach a peak in 2018 with 300,000 barrels per day," he said. "We hope that the cost of a barrel of crude will stabilise on the market and allow us a good budget." Oil accounts for around 65 percent of the Central African nation's GDP. Moho Nord is expected to have production capacity of 140,000 bpd, according to operator Total, which holds a 53.5 percent stake in the project. Chevron owns 31.5 percent with the remaining 15 percent held by Congo's state oil company SNPC. Having reversed a decline in production, Congo is on track to leapfrog Equatorial Guinea to become sub-Saharan Africa's third-largest crude producer next year. (Reporting by Christian Elion; Writing by Joe Bavier; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
Barely one week after a blockbuster Washington Post investigation revealed that the Pentagon had suppressed a report identifying $125 billion in wasteful spending, Congress has passed the new National Defense Authorization Act, directing a fresh $619 billion to the Department of Defense. The bill, which sailed through both Houses of Congress with large, veto-proof majorities after having some controversial elements removed, now heads to President Obamas desk.

Covering military expenditures through the beginning of the first term of President-elect Donald Trump, the bill looks like a down payment on his promise to increase the size and capabilities of the military. The bill rolls back planned troops reductions, increasing the Armys end strength by 16,000 troops and the Marine Corps by 3,000. It also provides a 2.1 percent pay raise for members of the armed forces effective January 1.

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The bill also bars the Defense Department from closing any military bases, despite the fact that the leadership in the Pentagon has told lawmakers that it has excess capacity.

The $619 billion figure represents a $3.2 billion increase in spending that is not matched by a similar increase in non-defense spending, something that recent budget compromises between President Obama and Republicans in Congress have typically required under the Budget Control Act of 2011. Congress will still be required to pass an appropriations bill detailing the way the Pentagon will be directed to spend much of the money the NDAA allocates.

The total price tag for national defense is only expected to rise in 2017. Lawmakers left funding for some major programs out of the proposal, including multiple upgrades to the Navys fleet and the purchase of dozens of the troubled F-35 fighter jet to keep the headline number down. Rep. Mac Thornberry, chair of the House Armed Services Committee, said Thursday that he hopes the Trump administration will request even more defense funding once the new administration takes office.

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That request appears to be a foregone conclusion, as Vice President Mike Pence said this week that the Trump administration will submit a request for supplemental defense spending within the first 100 days of taking office.

Related: Trump May Give the US Marines a 12,000-Troop Bump

In what appears to be a nod to the inclinations of the Trump administration, the bill includes a recommendation that the U.S. implement a high-level officer exchange program with the Taiwanese military. Its a move that China, which views the island nation as a breakaway province, will view as provocative if it is implemented.

However, Trump has already shown a willingness to poke at Beijing, having taken the controversial step of speaking on the phone with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen after his election. As part of the countrys One-China policy, no U.S. president had spoken to the leader of Taiwan since 1979.

The NDAA does make some nods toward cost reductions. It requires the Pentagon to trim the ranks of active duty generals and admirals by 110 and includes a study intended to identify another 10 percent reduction.

The bill also targets Pentagon acquisitions for reform by splitting the duties of the Defense Departments undersecretary for acquisition, technology and logistics between two posts: the undersecretary for acquisition and sustainment, and the new job of undersecretary for research and engineering.

Related: Obama Sends Trump a Message on the Use of Military Force

None of these steps, though, addresses the fact that the Pentagons vast bureaucracy has never been successfully audited. Last summer, for example, an examination of the finances of the U.S. Army alone found misstatements and errors than ran into the trillions of dollars. A push by Congress to force the Pentagon into audit readiness by the end of fiscal year 2017 is widely regarded as doomed to failure.

The bill was able to pass both Houses of Congress by a wide margin after several controversial measures were removed. Among them were a proposal to allow defense contractors to exercise their religious freedom by discriminating against employees on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation. Another measure would have required women to register for the draft.

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Connecticut State Troopers helped rescue a man whose vehicle had rolled over and caught on fire early on Friday, December 9.

Troopers found the Nissan Altima on its roof and on fire with the driver trapped inside when they arrived just after 3 am. Troopers first extinguished the fire and then treated the driver, who was unconscious. The driver was eventually removed from the car and taken to a Hartford hospital. Police said he did not suffer any serious injuries.

This video shows troopers arriving at the scene, extinguishing the fire and rendering aid to the driver. Credit: Facebook/Connecticut State Police via Storyful
LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May's ruling Conservative Party retained a parliamentary seat in a strongly pro-Brexit area on Friday, heading off a challenge from the anti-EU UK Independence Party. The victory of Caroline Johnson, who won 17,570 votes in Sleaford and North Hykeham in eastern England, was never much in doubt - the seat has long been a Conservative stronghold, and will boost support for May's plans to leave the European Union. But the vote also underlined the electoral difficulties facing Britain's main opposition Labour Party, which slipped from second place in the 2015 election to fourth place, winning just 3,300 votes. Labour is trailing the ruling Conservative Party in opinion polls by 14 points at 28 percent. "I look forward to strengthening the government's majority in parliament so Theresa May, our prime minister, can get on with the job of triggering Article 50, leaving the European Union and building a country and economy that works for everyone," Johnson said in her acceptance speech. The contest was triggered by the resignation last month of Conservative lawmaker Stephen Phillips over "irreconcilable policy differences" with May's government. He had voted to leave the European Union but before he resigned he had attacked May's handling of Brexit, which the prime minister said she would get under way by the end of March by triggering Article 50 of the EU's Lisbon Treaty. (Reporting by Kylie MacLellan and Elizabeth Piper, editing by James Davey)
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From Town & Country

With his promises to deport millions of immigrants and to end President Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, Donald Trump has inspired fear in undocumented college students across the country-so much so that some universities are declaring themselves "sanctuary campuses."

Wesleyan, one of the first colleges to adopt the title, created two clauses to help define the designation. "Wesleyan will remain committed to the principles of non-discrimination, including equal protection under the law, regardless of national origin or citizenship," wrote university president, Michael Roth, according to student paper the Wesleyan Argus. "Wesleyan will not voluntarily assist in any efforts by the federal government to deport our students, faculty or staff solely because of their citizenship status."

At a meeting Tuesday afternoon, Harvard university president Drew G. Faust controversially said that Harvard will not adopt the title.

"[It] risks drawing special attention to the students in ways that could put their status in greater jeopardy," Faust said, according to the Harvard Crimson. "I believe it would endanger, rather than protect, our students, and that is not something I am willing for this institution to do."

"Sanctuary campus status has no legal significance or even clear definition. It offers no actual protection to our students. I worry that in fact it offers false and misleading assurance," Faust said.

This response comes after history professor Walter Johnson urged Faust to embrace the sanctuary campus designation.

"Given the importance of the word 'sanctuary' in the national discussion, the opportunity that Harvard has to take up moral leadership in that discussion, and the immense importance of the word to our students, [most] specifically to their sense that the University is willing to stand... by their side, why not use it," Johnson said.

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The Crimson estimates that 100 students and other campus affiliates gathered around the site of the meeting to rally in support of Johnson, to no avail.

That said, Harvard is taking steps to protect its students who feel threatened by the incoming administration, including bringing immigration experts to campus to provide legal resources and designating an administrator to advise undocumented students.

So far, several colleges have adopted the title of "sanctuary campus," including Swarthmore and Wesleyan. Others like Columbia University have said they will not cooperate with efforts to identify undocumented students, though they have yet to use the phrase "sanctuary campus." In the Ivy League, only the university of Pennsylvania has used the specific term; Princeton and Brown have both rejected the label.

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Two childhood friends who grew up to become Georgia cops were fatally shot while responding to the same call this week.

Nick Smarr, 25, and Jody Smith, 26, worked as officers in different departments, but both heard the call about a domestic disturbance Wednesday morning.

Read: Fiance of Slain NYPD Officer Breaks Her Silence: 'It Was the Worst Feeling Ever'

Police said 32-year-old Minquell Kennedy Lembrick shot and killed Smarr at the scene and critically wounded his lifelong friend, Smith.

Smith, a member of the Georgia Southwestern State University police force, died from his wounds Thursday evening.

We offer our deepest condolences to his family during this very difficult time. Officer Smith was a bright, young and energetic officer, and he will be sorely missed," GSW Interim President Charles Patterson said in a statement.

Smith was nearby when he heard the call go out to Smarr with the Americus police at about 9:40 am.

Police say Lembrick opened fire as the two officers arrived.

Smith was engaged to be married.

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"Our heartfelt sympathy goes out to the families. This is a devastating loss to our family here in Americus. It's just unbelievable. It's a tragedy beyond words," Americus Police Chief Mark Scott told reporters. "One of our family members has been taken from us."

After a manhunt, a tip led SWAT team members to a home Thursday morning, where Lembrick was found dead from what is believed to be a self-inflicted gunshot.

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A woman is speaking out after she claims her $130 engagement ring was ridiculed by a jewelry store employee  in front of her fiance.

Ariel McRae became a viral sensation after her Facebook post described how her husband-to-be, Quinn, was made to feel ashamed for his choice of ring.

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He looked so defeated and it really broke my heart, she told Inside Edition.

McRae, who is studying to become a teacher, and Quinn, a service adviser for Honda, headed to a Pandora jewelry store near their home in Tennessee to pick out a ring.

They soon found a beautiful sterling silver and cubic zirconia ring that was within their budget, but when they went to pay, they couldnt believe the store employees reaction.

She said, 'thats pathetic,'" McRae said.

She wrote at length about the experience on Facebook.

Read: Marla Maples' Engagement Ring, Given to Her by Donald Trump, Goes Up for Auction

"I would have gotten married to this man if it had been a 25 cent gumball machine ring, the post read. Why do material possessions equate love?

After the post went viral, McRae said Pandora reached out with an apology, which she accepted.

Just five days after they bought the ring, the couple got married  with a $30 wedding band from Walmart.

It's not really the ring that matters, it's the love that goes into buying one that matters, McRae said.

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(Adds details on proposal, background)

SAO PAULO, Dec 9 (Reuters) - A group of creditors of Brazil's struggling phone operator Oi SA, including export credit insurers and banks, plans to present to the company in the next two weeks a new restructuring proposal.

The group, represented by FTI Consulting Canada ULC, Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP, Mattos Filho, Veiga Filho, Marrey Jr. and Quiroga Advogados, said in a statement that it is in talks with the Sawiris Group and bondholders represented by Moelis & Co for an alternative restructuring plan for Oi.

Oi, Brazil's forth largest wireless carrier, went into bankruptcy protection last June. Its 65.4 billion-real ($19.2 billion) case is the largest ever in Brazil.

The company presented in September a reorganization proposal that was badly received by creditors, who said it favored shareholders at their expense.

The group of creditors working on the new plan, which includes China Development Bank Corporation, said the Sawiris Group could be a potential strategic investor in Oi as a result of the new proposal.

Oi's Chief Executive Officer Marco Schroeder said this week that management plans to meet major creditor groups and potential bidders as early as next week in a bid to accelerate efforts to help the company emerge from the bankruptcy protection.

Schroeder said Oi's main shareholders and management are "more open" to scrapping a proposed three-year restriction on creditors swapping part of their debt for equity, which Oi included in the September proposal.

Brazil's government has threatened to intervene in the case if the rift between the company, its shareholders and creditors persists.

(Reporting by Aluisio Alves and Marcelo Teixeira; editing by Lisa Shumaker, Bernard Orr)
Since 9/11, the nation has embraced militarization as a way of preventing another major terror attack like the one 15 years ago that killed 2,996 people. Barricades have gone up around public buildingsthere are now five fences or walls along the south side of the White House. Military recruiting stations across the nation are being retrofitted with bulletproof glass. And police departments across the country have reinforced their arsenals with Pentagon castoffs, including massive armored vehicles, rolling command posts and grenade launchers.

But the startling images in 2014 of local police looking like heavily-armed soldiers in Ferguson, Mo., after the death of a black teenager shot by a white policeman, led local officials returned much of the surplus Pentagon gear.

So its fair to ask if President-elect Trumps recent moves to stack his Administration with recently-retired generals is headed down the same path. Military historians say there has never been a time in modern U.S. history when a prospective commander-in-chief is considering so many generals (and admirals) for top jobs in his Administration. Theres concern their presence could erode the tradition of civilian control of the U.S. military.

Too many generals in top spots risks having many primarily military perspectives outweigh civilian voices on issues that require a sound balance of both, cautions Dave Barno, a retired Army lieutenant general. That said, most all of the generals being interviewed by Trump would add unquestioned gravitas and hard-won, common-sense knowledge about the world to his new team that should be welcomed by all Americans.

There is a hunger for those attributes. I think Americans these days really want government to work, says Charles Dunlap, a retired Air Force major general. Given that the military is the institution in our society in which they have the most confidence, I dont think there will be much pushback from the general public if there are several retired officers filling civilian, politically-appointee leadership roles.

Story continues

Trump, who never served in the military and who has few foreign-policy chops, is packing his Administration with those who have spent decades saluting and carrying out orders. The growing list includes retired four-star Marine James Mattis to run the Defense Department (an appointment that will require waiving a law that the U.S. militarys civilian chief be out of uniform for at least seven years), retired Marine general John Kelly at the helm of the Department of Homeland Security, and retired Army lieutenant general Michael Flynn, to serve as national security adviser. Trump is also considering retired Army general David Petraeus and retired admiral James Stavridis to serve as Secretary of State, and Navy Admiral Mike Rogers, who remains on active duty as head of the super-secret National Security Agency, as the director of national intelligencethe nations top spy.

But old soldiers are not martial automatons, responding reflexively to civilian commands. By the time an officer wears four stars, he or she has spent years dealing with major strategic issues. Such experienceespecially in national-security mattersshould prove invaluable to a President with little such background. They are far more likely to act as a brake on hare-brained notionsfrom Trump or anyone elsethan a gas pedal, current and former U.S. military officers say. And Trump has shown a willingness to listen. After the President-elect said he might resume waterboarding suspected terrorists, Mattis made him rethink its wisdom by telling him hed get more out of them with a pack of cigarettes and a couple of beers.

The one outlier among the retired senior officers in Trumps orbit appears to be Flynn, an early supporter of Trumps campaign. Trump wants Flynn to serve as his national security adviser (a position, unlike the others, that does not require Senate confirmation). Flynn has long had a reputation as an outspoken officer, but that has been causing him trouble lately. In one tweet just before the election, Flynn passed along a link to a false Hillary Clinton sex story:

flynn-tweet

He also has been criticized for not publicly rebuking his sons tweeting Sunday about a different, and also unfounded, Clinton sex tale:

sons-tweet

This troubles Barry McCaffrey, a retired four-star Army general who originally endorsed Flynn for the White House post (Trump booted the younger Flynn from his transition staff on Tuesday because of the tweet). The national security adviser is one of the five most powerful positions in the nation, McCaffrey said Thursday. If hes not able to immediately denounce that kind of demented story, theres something wrong and we need to examine his suitability for public office.
A crowd celebrated outside South Koreas national assembly on December 9 as lawmakers voted to go ahead with impeachment proceedings against President Park Geun-hye. The measure was approved with 234 votes out of 300, with 200 needed for its passage.

299 lawmakers joined the anonymous vote, 56 voted against the impeachment, and two abstained. Seven votes were considered invalid. Credit: Twitter/peoplepower21 via Storyful
DailyFX.com -

Talking Points:

Crude Oil Technical Strategy: USOIL Facing Resistance Zone From June High

Weekend OPEC Talks Turn Pressure To Non-OPEC Producers To Support Accord

Oil Strengthening Despite DXY Rise Shows Internal Strength & Inflation Pressures

After an OPEC agreement to cut production had come to fruition, the focus has now turned to Non-OPEC producers like Russia who agreed to support OPECs attempt to stabilize the Oil marketing by also cutting production. Over 14 non-OPEC members are meeting in Vienna where the recent accord took place. However, and not surprisingly China and the U.S. producers will not be there, which have a very high capacity of production that could continue to limit the effect of the OPEC accord to reign in global production.

While the effects of the OPEC and non-OPEC accord will only be known in the long-term, one encouraging sign for US Oil Bulls despite the fear that one producer or maybe more may try and capture any slack created by the accord is in the options market.

Interested In a Quick Guide about OPEC, Click Here

There has been an increase in demand for WTI call options with the most active being the 2018 December $80 Brent Crude calls. Shorter-term active options per Bloomberg are mid-$50 ($53-55) calls for January & February. While not predictive, this flurry of options action helps to show that there are institutions working to positions themselves to capture further upside should it develop in WTI.

D1Crude Oil Price Chart: USOIL Sticks Near $51/Bbl. After Extending Further From Prior Channel

Crude Oil Price Forecast: LT Price Resistance As Accord Gets Tested

Chart Created by Tyler Yell, CMT Courtesy of TradingView

The support that we had been focusing on throughout the 2016 rebound and into 2017 was the rising trendline (black on the chart above) drawn from the first higher low alongside the 200-DMA (white). The other Bullish developments as we sit near $51/bbl is the price above the Ichimoku Cloud and a further separation from the bearish channel that framed price action for a majority of 2015 and 2016.

Story continues

These technical developments put the burden of proof on the bears, and no longer the bulls. A breakout in price may be achieved if the price of Oil trades above the price range of the June high that is highlighted and extended on the chart with a yellow rectangle. Traditionally, rising support as shown via the technical tools mentioned above (trendline, Ichimoku, 200-DMA) into fixed resistance favor an eventual break of the resistance, which may launch Oil into a Bullish cycle as we move into 2017.

Join Tyler Mondays at 3 pm EST to discuss key global macro trends like Oil (Free Registration)

If the price can break above the resistance mentioned that occupies $51.60/$50.22, further upside targets are provided by Fibonacci analysis over recent price ranges. When looking at the May 2015-February 2016 range as well as Fibonacci Expansions over the recent October-November range, we see a confluence of upside targets near $54/bbl in WTI (CFD: USOil) with the 78.6% retracement at $54.75.

A failure of the price to break above the yellow rectangle would favor a move down to rising support that lies between $48/45. Only a break below this zone would take us from neutral to bearish. Until then, well favor eventual upside.

Key Levels Over the Next 48-hrs of Trading as of Friday, December 09, 2016

Crude Oil Price Forecast: LT Price Resistance As Accord Gets Tested

T.Y.

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London (AFP) - Arsene Wenger believes his Arsenal stars have finally developed the mental toughness required to fight for the Premier League title.

After a few wobbles of late, Wenger's side have roared back into top gear with a 5-1 rout of West Ham last weekend followed by a 4-1 victory over Basel in the Champions League.

The Gunners are just three points behind Chelsea and they can temporarily take over at the top if they beat Stoke by two goals or more at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday before the leaders host West Bromwich Albion on Sunday.

"I believe that first of all we have a good team dynamic, we have a very strong team spirit and we have more maturity, definitely," said Wenger, whose team are on a 13-match unbeaten run in the league.

"On our side we are in the middle of the fight and we have a chance. In December that's very interesting.

"As you know, this is a very important month and for us even more because we have big games. Overall I'm very happy with the way we behave and with the consistency of our desire."

Antonio Conte's Chelsea juggernaut rolls back into action against West Brom with the pace-setters chasing a ninth consecutive win.

Chelsea produced the most impressive display of their winning streak last weekend when they came from behind to win 3-1 at Pep Guardiola's Manchester City.

They have not won nine successive league games within the same season since 2007 and ahead of West Brom's visit, Marcos Alonso has urged his team-mates not to let their level drop.

"Winning game after game gives you confidence, but you have to keep working," the Spanish wing-back told the Chelsea website.

"The results give you confidence to work in this way, though. We have got to use this momentum of the last eight league games and go on to have another good game against West Brom now."

- Unravelling -

While most of Chelsea's title rivals have been in European action this week, Conte's side have once again had a full week to prepare for the visit of Tony Pulis's side.

Story continues

It is 32 years since West Brom last won at Chelsea, but they have drawn on two of their last three visits and have climbed to seventh in the table on the back of a four-game unbeaten run.

Guardiola's City will look to kick their title challenge back into gear when they visit unravelling champions Leicester City on Saturday.

The ill-tempered defeat at Chelsea's hands left a mark, with Sergio Aguero and Fernandinho picking up red cards that will keep them out until after Christmas.

City have slipped to fourth place in the table, four points below Chelsea, and although Leicester are toiling in 16th place, Pablo Zabaleta is taking nothing for granted.

"Always it's a difficult place to go. Even if they are not doing great in the domestic competition, they are still a good team, very competitive," said the City right-back.

"It is going to be a tough game. We need to win and get three points after the big defeat last weekend to stay in the fight for the title."

While City have won their last three away matches in the league, they have won just four of their last 14 games in all competitions as Guardiola continues to search for a durable winning formula.

His problems pale in comparison, however, beside those of Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri, who saw a second-string side trounced 5-0 by Porto in the Champions League on Wednesday.

With seven defeats already, Leicester's league form is as alarming as last season's was astonishing and has left them just two points above the relegation zone.

Like Chelsea, third-place Liverpool have had a week off to prepare for Sunday's home game with West Ham.

Manchester United, in contrast, entertain Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday just two days after returning from a gruelling Europa League trip to play Ukrainian side Zorya Luhansk.

Jose Mourinho's side, currently sixth, trail fifth-place Spurs by six points and will have a mountain to climb in terms of Champions League qualification if they lose at Old Trafford.

Fixtures

Saturday (1500 GMT unless otherwise stated):

Arsenal v Stoke, Burnley v Bournemouth, Hull v Crystal Palace, Leicester v Man City (1730 GMT), Swansea v Sunderland, Watford v Everton (1230 GMT)

Sunday (1415 GMT unless otherwise stated):

Chelsea v West Brom (1200 GMT), Liverpool v West Ham (1630 GMT), Man United v Tottenham, Southampton v Middlesbrough
Aesop, the Melbourne-born beauty lifestyle brand that's been quietly covering the earth with tastefully appointed parsley-seed- and geranium-smelling stores, is offering its first facial services in the U.S., in Los Angeles.

The flagship at Culver City's new Platform retail development begins offering 35-minute Express Facial treatments on Friday.

The facials are performed in a cozy room in the back of the industrial-chic store. After a brief getting-to-know-you chat, during which your aesthetician will ask you all kinds of questions about your recent travel patterns, cleansing and moisturizing routine, you'll recline on a plush bed, get cocooned in a soft blanket, and tilt your head back to gaze up at a James Turrell-like skylight and leafy palms.

Courtesy of AESOP

The treatment may be a scant 35 minutes long, but it's ample time to let go of a clenched jaw and shrugged shoulders, especially after a gentle slough with rosemary leaf exfoliating paste and an application of sage hydrating cream with a soft circular brush. You may doze off for a few seconds, but the gentle tap-tapping of your face with massaging fingertips will keep you grounded in the now.

It's the perfect lunchtime facial ($70), that feels as good as treating yourself to a green juice, which you can do next door at Juice Served Here.

A photo posted by Aesop (@aesopskincare) on Nov 24, 2016 at 12:10pm PST

Aesop was established in 1987 with a vision of combining plant-based and laboratory-made ingredients, and selling them in stores around the world (no two are alike). The brand, which also is available at department stores, is known for it's no-frills, amber glass bottles, for the common-sense approach of general manager/minimalist style guru Suzanne Santos, and for an artfully curated approach to life (check out the city guides on the brand's website and you'll know what I mean).

Aesop Platform, 8850 Washington Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232, platform@aesop.com, (310) 256-2606.
Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fcard%2fimage%2f312906%2fdadalpaca

There is only one thing better than hugging a nice dad, and that is embracing a very fuzzy alpaca.

California resident Alexandria Neonakis' father, Dimitris, recently traveled to Peru. Along the way, he met some very friendly alpacas (relatives of the American llama) and nearly fell apart at the seams.

SEE ALSO: Practice your downward-facing cat pose at a 'Yoga with Cats' class

Neonakis shared a text message conversation with her father on Twitter that has since received over 124,000 likes.

This dad, unfortunately, is not currently available for hire.

BONUS: This Polish Christmas ad has gone viral
The daughter of a woman killed in the Sandy Hook mass shootings is calling on Donald Trump to stop thanking a right-wing conspiracy theorist who claims the shootings were a hoax.

In an open letter to president-elect Trump, Erica Lafferty writes that since the shootings on Dec. 14, 2012, Jones has fanned the flames of a hateful conspiracy theory claiming that the shooting that took my mothers life never happened.

Lafferty is the daughter of Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung, the Sandy Hook Elementary School principal. She lost her life when 20-year-old Adam Lanza went on a shooting rampage that left 20 first-graders and six adults who worked at the Connecticut school dead on Dec. 14, 2012.

Im asking you to denounce it immediately and cut ties with Alex Jones and anyone who subscribes to these dangerous ideas, Lafferty writes.

Youve appeared on Jones radio show, praised his amazing reputation, and promised him that you wont let him down, she continues. Now hes claiming youve personally called to thank him after the election, and will be on his show again soon. Its unacceptable.

In a 2014 snippet from Jones show, Jones responds to a listeners question about authorities planting flimsy evidence by saying:

Sandy Hook is a synthetic completely fake with actors, in my view, manufactured. I couldnt believe it at first. I knew they had actors there, clearly, but I thought they killed some real kids. And it just shows how bold they are, that they clearly used actors

Jones has also been a chief propagator of the false stories claiming that a Washington, D.C. pizzeria is the site of a pedophilia ring used by high-ranking members of the Democratic Party, according to NPR.

Days after Jones spoke of making a trip to the pizzeria to  investigate, a man calling himself a self-described investigator opened fired in the pizzeria after reading fake news about it.

Trump has not commented publicly about Jones. Emailed requests for comment to two spokeswomen for the Republican have not been returned.

Story continues

Lafferty ends her letter by writing: Youve promised to be a president for all of us. Well, that includes victims of gun violence and their families, like me. I hope that you will not only refuse to go on his show, but that you will denounce the conspiracy theories that he spreads at the expense of gun violence survivors.

Laffertys letter was being circulated Thursday by Everytown For Gun Safety.




- By Holly LaFon





Israel's largest publicly traded arms and defense company, Elbit Systems Ltd. (ESLT.TA), singularly caught the eye of a manager who focuses on fundamental research but who has also tangled with public companies' boards of late, David Winters (Trades, Portfolio).





Winters' global Wintergreen Fund (Trades, Portfolio) had $580 million in assets as of June 30, with 76% invested in common stocks concentrated in the U.S., Switzerland and U.K. He described the fund, started in 2005, in a recent shareholder letter as embracing companies with pristine balance sheets and shunning modish market favorites, with cigarette companies Reynolds American Inc. (RAI), British American Tobacco (BATS.L) and Altria Group (MO) among its largest four holdings as of Sept. 30.

His sole third-quarter pick, Elbit Systems, claimed 2.95% of his common stock portfolio. He bought 133,157 shares, valued around $12.73 million. The company's third-quarter average trading price was 370.04 Israeli shekels ($101.82 U.S.), about 5% below its closing price Friday.

Though based in Israel, Elbit's generates much revenue abroad through government contracts, providing drones, helicopters, tanks, surveillance and a wide variety of warfare technology. In September, the entire Israeli defense industry held its breath for the outcome of a staggering 10-year defense deal with the U.S.

The deal hinged on whether Israel would accept a key component that would prevent the country from converting part of the funding into shekels and instead force it to spend in the U.S. The two-sides agreed to the conditions, signing the $38 billion deal on Sept. 15.

Elbit, as one of the four biggest defense companies, has many international subsidiaries including one in the U.S., Elbit Systems of America, through which it conducts most of its business with the U.S. military. Throughout 2015 and early 2016 it expanded joint venture activity in other international markets and continued to divest non-core assets in Israel.

Story continues

The company is also looking to diversify revenue streams by developing civilian uses for its military technology.

For the third quarter, Elbit's revenue was $780.8 million, compared to $764.8 million in the prior-year quarter. Net income was $63.4 million, increased from $49.7 million for the same quarters. Elbit had $162.2 million in cash at the end of the third quarter, and $76.88 million in long-term debt. It derived 23.5% of its revenue from Israel and 25.6% from North America.

Elbit's P/E ratio is 18.01, near a one-year low. Its price at $103.89 per share on Thursday, and P/S ratio at 1.33 are near their respective 10-year highs.

See David Winters (Trades, Portfolio)' portfolio here.

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.






Eight years ago, in the middle of the night in a damp forest in Madagascar, I found myself standing alongside a similarly wet but happy Russell Mittermeier, then president of Conservation International. We were very happy because we were both, for the first time in our lives, peering through the darkness at the worlds smallest primate, Madame Berthes mouse lemur.

About ten years before, I was one of a group of visitors to Uganda who were led through a similarly damp forest (this time during daylight) to come upon a family of the worlds largest primate  the mountain gorilla. This is the species that David Attenborough famously got more than he bargained for in 1979s Life on Earth.

These two experiences are united, not simply by the extremes of scale  the pygmy mouse lemur weighs in at just 30g, and the mountain gorilla up to an impressive 160kg  but also by the fact that they are two of the most endangered primate species.

A changed world

The world has since changed. When I met the mountain gorilla, scientists classified it as a distinct species. Now, it is a subspecies of the eastern gorilla: Gorilla beringei beringei. Recently, ecologists revealed that the mountain gorilla is not so gentle after all, and shares a violent streak with its nearest primate relatives, chimpanzees and humans. Since I visited the eastern gorilla, numbers have declined due to habitat loss and poaching, and its conservation status has been uplisted to critically endangered.

Ian Redmond/Wildscreen Arkive

Madame Berthes mouse lemur, Microcebus berthae, was only recognised as a distinct species (separate from the pygmy mouse lemur, Microcebus myoxinus) in 2000. While it clings on to survival in that same small pocket of Madgascars tropical forest, other lemur species have fallen to extinction due to the destruction of their habitat. Sadly, as soon as enough was known about it, Madame Berthes mouse lemur was classified as endangered.

All primate species with restricted or fragmented ranges, including mouse lemurs and gorillas, are at risk from climate change.

Story continues

Primate politics

The day I met Mittermeier he was leaving the forest early the next morning to fly back to the US for the inauguration of the then new president, Barack Obama. There was an optimism surrounding the US and wildlife conservation at that point. Obama has since been a positive force for nature conservation, even going wild with Bear Grylls to highlight the detrimental effects of climate change on wildlife.

Jason Gilchrist, www.jasongilchrist.co.uk

We now face a very different landscape. Obama is preparing to hand over the reins to a new president-elect, Donald Trump  a vocal climate change denier who has vowed to abolish the environment. The prognosis for the natural world (which, incidentally, we live within and rely upon) is not good. Trump has claimed that climate change is a Chinese invention to gain competitive advantage over American businesses.

Trumps appointment of Scott Pruitt  an avowed climate-change sceptic and ally of the fossil fuels industry  as head of the US Environmental Protection Agency is causing serious concern, as have Trumps hints that he plans to disband the EPA and withdraw from the global UN Paris climate agreement.

Trumpocene era

Some scientists refer to the current geological period as the Anthropocene as a mark of the human species impact on the planets biodiversity and ecosystem function. There are those who believe that the mark of Trumps presidency will also be notably recorded in geological time.

Are we now on the (in some minds, apocalyptic) threshold of the Trumpocene? Some argue that we already are, at least in terms of social philosophy, with mass rejection of science and expertise in favour of populist posturing  or misinformation. Scientists are worried on numerous fronts. It may be agreeable to some business sectors  fossil fuels, for example  to dismiss climate change and the importance of the environment, but doing so places our planets future in serious jeopardy, and human populations with it.

All primates great and small

There are many threats to the worlds primates, not only climate change. Habitat destruction and loss due to deforestation are major drivers of population decline. I have observed this during my own research of grey mouse lemurs in Madagascar and chimpanzees in Uganda.

Jason Gilchrist, www.jasongilchrist.co.uk

These species often exist within finite and shrinking patches of forest. Direct persecution also looms large. It is not unusual for chimps and gorillas to bear the scars of poachers snares, including lost limbs. Numerous primate species are endangered by the bushmeat trade.

So, what future is there for Madame Berthes mouse lemur, the Eastern gorilla  all primates? When we talk of primate conservation, we would do well to remember that we are also primates. Looking after the species and habitats of our planet are as important to the future survival, health and welfare of the human species, as they are to the other species that we care about.

Presidents and politicians are important, but we can all make a difference as individuals. Eating less meat and dairy, selecting goods with sustainable palm oil, reducing fuel consumption, and recycling will reduce your environmental impact. And give hope for the future of primates, ourselves included, and other animals.

Jason Gilchrist, www.jasongilchrist.co.uk

Monkey Business, a new exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, will feature taxidermy specimens that showcase the diversity of primates and threats to their survival.

I am one of the few people in the world to have seen both the worlds smallest and largest primates in the wild. I dont want to be one of the last.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

The Conversation

Jason Gilchrist received funding for mouse lemur research from the British Ecological Society, the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour, and Edinburgh Napier University.
Human Rights Day

When the guilty remain free and victims continue to suffer, the event is just a farce
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Democrats who have struggled for years to sell the public on the Affordable Care Act are now confronting a far more urgent task: mobilizing a political coalition to save it.

Even as the party reels from last months election defeat, members of Congress, operatives, and liberal allies have turned to plotting a campaign against repealing the law that, they hope, will rival the Tea Party uprising of 2009 that nearly scuttled its passage in the first place. A group of progressive advocacy groups will announce on Friday a coordinated effort to protect the beneficiaries of the Affordable Care Act and stop Republicans from repealing the law without first identifying a plan to replace it.

They dont have much time to fight back. Republicans on Capitol Hill plan to set repeal of Obamacare in motion as soon as the new Congress opens in January, and both the House and Senate could vote to wind down the law immediately after President-elect Donald Trump takes the oath of office on the 20th.

The emerging strategy is centered around highlighting people who have benefited from the law and who would lose insurance coverage or key consumer protections if it goes away. We have to lead with them and their stories, said Jeremy Bird, a Democratic strategist who served in senior roles for both President Obamas reelection campaign in 2012 and Hillary Clintons campaign this year. This is about what Trump and the Republicans want to take away from working families across the country, and we have to make that very clear this is what were talking about.

Organizers say theyll announce details about the coalition on Friday, but the efforts could include rallies both in Washington and in the states and districts of Republican members of Congress. It might also involve television advertising, although Bird said the most important part of the drive would be mobilizing constituentsincluding Trump voters who would be negatively affected by repealon the ground across the country. I think thats more important than some barrage of national ads, Bird said. That strategy is not going to work anymore in the future. Its got to be about grassroots organizing. Its got to be about real people who are constituents of these folks making it known.

Story continues

Recommended: Glenn Becks Regrets

Democrats know the health law wont survive in its current form even if Republicans fail to repeal it in its entirety. But they believe they are now on stronger political footing in arguing against changes that will strip away benefits and cause widespread disruption to the health-care market than they were in trying to defend an enormous and complex law that voters never fully embraced. And while a recent poll found a plurality of respondents disapproved of Obamacare, just one in four wanted to fully repeal it.

If you poll people right now on the Affordable Care Act, you get a mixed reaction, said Representative Steve Israel, a New York Democrat who has led the partys messaging strategy in the House. Hes retiring from Congress this month but said he plans to stay active in the political fight next year. But if you poll people on the consumer benefits of the Affordable Care Act, theyre wildly popular. So the Republicans are jammed. They cannot repeal and replace Obamacare without taking away those consumer benefits. When they take away those consumer benefits, public opinion will turn drastically against them.

This is about what Trump and the Republicans want to take away from working families across the country, and we have to make that very clear this is what were talking about.

Those consumer benefits include the ban on insurers discriminating based on pre-existing conditions or enacting lifetime coverage limits, and the requirement that plans allow adult children to stay on their parents coverage until they turn 26. Republicans, including Trump, have said they want to keep those elements in an eventual replacement bill, but health-industry officials say it is difficult if not impossible for insurers to be able to afford those guarantees without also maintaining the less popular provisions of Obamacare requiring individuals to purchase coverage and employers to provide it.

Democrats involved in the repeal fight say the party must heed the lessons not only of its past struggle to make the law popular but also of the recent election. They need a single, overarching message that doesnt get bogged down in too many details or recitations of statistics. Democrats and progressives will be at our weakest to the extent that we are doing ad hoc, one-off pushback and at our strongest when we have a cogent theme that spans issues, said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. And that theme will be that Donald Trump is betraying his own voters by siding with giant corporations against working-class people.

Recommended: Making Sense of Mike Flynn

He continued: Applying that to Obamacare, if you come anywhere close to taking health care away from 20 million people or giving the insurance companies any kind of sweetheart deal, people in rural areas are not rooting for the insurance companies to rip them off or deny their family care. There will be that broader thematic messaging, not an in-the-weeds argument.

Yet boiling the 2,000-page law down to a one-liner or two remains easier said than done, and in conversations with Democrats over the last several days, there appeared to be little consensus on which argument was strongest. While many lawmakers talk about the millions who could lose insurance, for example, Israel believes the consumer protections are a more potent talking point because they benefit a much greater number of people. Others want to highlight the return of the once-dreaded donut hole for seniorsa gap in Medicare coverage that forced many of them to pay high out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs. And a number of Democrats seem to prefer to mobilize voters against GOP attempts to overhaul Medicare, a far more popular program that has been a successful wedge issue for the party in the past.

Politically, Democrats plan to pressure Republican senators they view as potentially persuadable. Those could include Susan Collins of Maine, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Dean Heller of Nevada, and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia. Republicans will hold a much slimmer majority in the Senate than in the House, and the defections of three or more senators would likely thwart a full repeal of the health law.

Recommended: Trump Picks Multi-Millionaire Fast-Food Executive for Labor Secretary

Republicans in the House and in the Senate are going to have to take a deep breath and consider the incredibly damaging consequences of repealing the Affordable Care Act, said Representative Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat who just won a Senate seat in Maryland and will lead the partys campaign arm over the next two years. I mean, they are firing with real bullets now. And youre talking about the health security of over 22 million Americans, he added, referring to the number of people estimated to have gained coverage through expanded Medicaid or the state and federal exchanges under the health law.

GOP leaders are planning to quickly pass legislation modeled on a bill that Obama vetoed last year, which would repeal most of the health law but delay its enactment by two or three years to give Republicans time to come up with a replacement. While the Affordable Care Act would stay on the books, industry officials say the mere passage of repeal legislation could destabilize the insurance market and threaten coverage for consumers. Its one thing to send something to the presidents desk when you know the president is going to veto it, Van Hollen said. Its another thing altogether to destroy a good part of the health system without any replacement.

For the coalition that will launch on Friday, the imperative is to convince Republicans that as much as they may want to get rid of Obamacare, a repeal-and-delay strategy will only backfire. Ultimately, its also going to cause harm to those who are promoting the repeal, both the incoming Trump administration and congressional Republicans, argued Ron Pollack, who as executive director of Families USA is helping lead the new group. The health-care system will be in total disarray. It will be totally dysfunctional, and those who support the repeal, who are bringing about the dysfunction and disarray will in effect be the owners of that health-care system. And they will reap considerable disappointment of those who are very much harmed by that dysfunction and disarray.

Supporters of the health law have already promoted a study released Wednesday by the Urban Institute finding that repeal of Obamacare would leave nearly 30 million uninsured immediately and could eventually cost 59 million their coveragemore than the number who were uninsured before the law passed in 2010. In this fight, Democrats are also relying on help from allies who were not always on their side during the campaign to enact the law: hospitals and health insurers. The two largest hospital trade associations wrote a letter earlier this week to congressional leaders and the Trump transition team warning of an unprecedented public health crisis if the Affordable Care Act is repealed before a replacement is ready. And Marilyn Tavenner, the president of Americas Health Insurance Plans, the insurance-industry trade group, urged Congress to fund temporary, transitional programs while Republicans come up with a new plan.

Republican leaders have promised, in the words of House Speaker Paul Ryan, a reasonable transition so that people dont have the rug pulled out from under them. But they havent defined what that means, and the party remains divided on just how long that period should last. Democratic leaders in the Senate have vowed not to help Republicans find the 60 votes theyll need to replace the law with something new if they repeal it on a partisan basis first. Indeed, the party might find that the best way to fight for Obamacare is to stay out of the GOPs way. Republicans are about to learn that theres a big difference between being against something and being for something, Israel said. Theyve already stumbled out of the gate, and we should let them continue to stumble.

Read more from The Atlantic:

This article was originally published on The Atlantic.
By Richard Cowan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Democrats plan to fight some of President-elect Donald Trump's choices for top administration jobs, but history and the party's minority status in the chamber are not on their side. A simple majority of 51 votes is needed in the 100-member Senate to confirm nominations. Louisiana will select its newest senator on Saturday. If the Republicans, as expected, hold on to the seat, they will control at least 52 seats in the chamber next year. Senate Republicans said on Thursday they were confident of winning Cabinet confirmations early next year. Nonetheless, some Democrats said they hoped to persuade a few Republicans to help them block a Trump nominee or two, following the Republican Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20, when a newly installed Senate starts reviewing his nominations. That could be just brave talk from Democrats. The Senate has rejected only nine of 719 Cabinet nominations in U.S. history, not counting nominees who have withdrawn when facing certain defeat, according to congressional records. The last rejection was in 1989, when the Senate blocked Republican President George H.W. Bush's nomination of Senator John Tower to be defense secretary. In 2013, Democratic President Barack Obama had trouble getting Chuck Hagel confirmed as defense secretary, but he ultimately prevailed. This time around, Democrats said their top targets included U.S. Representative Tom Price as head of the Department of Health and Human Services, and Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt as Environmental Protection Agency administrator. Former New York investment banker and hedge fund investor Steven Mnuchin, tapped by Trump to become Treasury secretary, is also drawing the ire of Democrats, who will be in the minority in both the new Senate and House of Representatives in 2017. Trump's path toward Senate confirmations of nominees will be easier than the one faced by most of his predecessors. In 2013, Senate Democrats, frustrated by Republicans blocking Obama's choices for federal judges, used their majority status at the time to eliminate "filibusters" against executive and judicial branch nominations, except the Supreme Court. That meant only 51 votes were needed for confirmations, rather than 60. PRUITT, PRICE, SESSIONS Pruitt is a climate change skeptic who has participated in lawsuits trying to stop the EPA from carrying out clean-air regulations. As a nominee, he will embody "the fossil fuel and anti-clean air and clean water movement. ... I like those odds," Democratic Senator Edward Markey said of the fight ahead. In 2009, when in the House, Markey was a leader in the fight for legislation to control greenhouse gas emissions. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who was an ally at the time in that failed battle, said in a brief interview that while he did not know Pruitt: "I appreciate his passion for fighting back against things he thought were an overreach" by federal agencies. Price is high on the Democrats' target list, according to a senior Senate Democratic aide, who asked not to be identified, Defending Medicare, the federal healthcare program for the elderly, is a top priority of congressional Democrats. Price supports limiting some Medicare benefits. He also opposes government funding for women's healthcare provider Planned Parenthood. That could help Democrats win support for blocking Price from moderate Republicans such as Susan Collins or Lisa Murkowski, the senior aide said. A spokeswoman for Murkowski said she had not expressed an opinion on the Price nomination. Collins and her aides were not immediately available for comment. A second senior Senate Democratic aide said some Republicans up for re-election in 2018 could be uncomfortable voting for Price because of his Medicare stance. But Graham said Price "has been the heart and soul of the Republican alternative to Obamacare. I can't imagine any Republican voting against him." Republican Senator Jeff Sessions has been chosen by Trump to be attorney general. Democrats plan to highlight his hardline stances on illegal immigration, as well as remind colleagues that a Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee rejected Sessions' nomination for a federal judgeship in 1986 amid allegations that he had made racist remarks, which he denied. If the debate stokes strong opposition to Sessions, Republicans might have to scramble to win his confirmation. That could especially be true if the Alabama lawmaker follows a long-held practice of senators of merely voting "present" on their own confirmations, meaning Democrats would be one vote closer to defeating him. (Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Peter Cooney)
Legal battles for the major global banks continue to haunt them. A class action lawsuit has been initiated, engulfing five new major banks, of conspiring to rig silver prices. The new defendants are being sought after, based on the documents unveiled by Deutsche Bank AG DB, as part of the accord to provide smoking gun proof that UBS Group AG UBS, HSBC Holdings plc HSBC, The Bank of Nova Scotia BNS and other firms rigged the silver market.



The allegation came in a Manhattan federal court lawsuit filed in 2014 by individuals and entities that bought or sold futures contracts. Per this lawsuit, plaintiffs had alleged that beginning 1999, banks had manipulated prices through secret meetings. The judge, in her ruling, stated that investors satisfactorily, "albeit barely," alleged that banks violated the U.S. antitrust law by conspiring opportunistically to lower the Silver Fix from Jan 2007 to Dec 2013.



According to the plaintiffs, records disclosed by Deutsche Bank captured traders and submitters coordinating trades in advance of a daily phone call, manipulating the spot market for silver, conspiring to fix the spread on silver offered to customers, and using illegal strategies to rig prices.



The evidence was provided by Deutsche bank, after it reached a $38-million settlement agreement regarding this case in Oct 2016. The plaintiffs claim that the latest evidence is critical as it provides more than 350,000 pages of documents and 75 audio tapes, along with electronic chats that show the new defendants involvement in collusive price manipulation.



As a result, the lawyers for investors are seeking to revive the previously dismissed claims against UBS Group and file a new complaint with the additional allegations against Barclays Plc, BNP Paribas SA, Standard Chartered Plc and Bank of America Corporation. This will broaden the case beyond the four banks initially sued.



Notably, in Oct 2016, the U.S. District Judge  Valerie Caproni  dismissed the case against UBS Group on grounds of lack of material evidences, showing that it manipulated prices, even if the bank gained from the distortions. Nonetheless, she allowed the plaintiffs to file a new complaint against the bank.



Conversely, the plaintiffs argue that the disclosed proof highlights UBS Group as the major participant in the price rigging, as two of its traders communicated directly with two traders of Deutsche Bank. In addition, the plaintiffs allege that since UBS group was the third largest market maker in the silver spot market, its involvement with the other similar large players made it more powerful to influence the silver commodity market.



Bottom Line



Banks physical commodity businesses have already been under scrutiny for quite a long time. Several banks have been penalized for manipulating financial benchmarks and foreign exchange markets.



Consequently, several banks are moving away from physical commodity businesses owing to heightened regulatory attention and lower profitability. At present, companies, which still conduct physical commodity businesses, are required to adopt automation in a bid to improve transparency and prevent manipulation.



Deutsche banks shares declined nearly 21% on the NYSE year to date, underperforming the 8.1% growth for the Zacks categorized Foreign Banks industry. This reflects investors' concern amid a challenging operating environment, with low sometimes even negative rate scenario, and global economic slowdown. Recently, the German lender agreed to settle charges of manipulating gold prices by paying $60 million. Further, the bank also confirmed the proposed $14-billion settlement by the U.S. Department of Justice, tied with mortgage practices.



Investors are likely to remain apprehensive about the stocks performance due to such frequent legal hassles and also the consequent costs to settle the charges that may weigh heavily on the companys financials, going forward.

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By Harriet McLeod

CHARLESTON, S.C. (Reuters) - Jurors in the federal hate crimes trial of Dylann Roof watched a video on Friday of the avowed white supremacist confessing to killing nine parishioners at a historic black church in South Carolina and saying he felt he "had to do it."

Roof told investigators after his arrest for the June 17, 2015, massacre at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston that he estimated he had killed five people as retribution for perceived racial grievances. He sounded surprised to learn nine parishioners died.

"I had to do it because somebody had to do it," Roof said in the taped confession.

Asked if he had regrets, Roof said, "I'd say so, yes ... I regret that I did it, a little bit."

Roof's lawyers have not disputed his guilt but hope to spare him from being executed on charges of hate crimes resulting in death, obstruction of religion and firearms violations.

Roof, 22, also faces a death sentence if found guilty of murder charges in state court.

The videotaped confession, presented on the third day of his federal trial in Charleston, gave jurors a chance to hear the defendant explain why he carried out the attack on a Bible study meeting.

He appeared both animated and at ease as he spoke to investigators, laughing at times as he answered their questions.

Roof spoke with investigators in Shelby, North Carolina, where he was arrested about 13 hours after security video showed him leaving the church.

Inside his car, police said they found a journal where Roof wrote of his dreams for a race war and notes he wrote to his parents.

"Dear Mom, I love you," read one note presented to jurors. "Im sorry for what I did. I know this will have repercussions."

In the video, Roof said white people needed to take a stand against crimes by African Americans.

"I don't like what black people do," Roof said, adding he was in favor of reinstating segregation.

Story continues

He chose the Charleston church for the shooting because he knew "at least a small amount of black people" would be gathered there. Two adults and a child at the Bible study survived.

"It's like this," Roof said. "I'm not in a position, by myself, to go into a black neighborhood and shoot drug dealers."

Nobody ran when he opened fire, he said, and he recalled pausing between shots.

"I was thinking about what I should do," he said.

(Reporting by Harriet McLeod; Writing by Colleen Jenkins; Editing by Bill Trott and Andrew Hay)
The fate of tens of thousands of civilians and rebel fighters is at stake as forces supporting the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad stand poised to retake the last neighborhoods of the city of Aleppo.

Both the ordinary people and the gunmen trapped in the rebel-section of the city are all that stands between the Assad regime and what would be one of its most important victories in more than five and a half years of revolution and war. Aleppo was Syrias largest city before the war emerged from the uprising that began in 2011. Since 2012 Aleppo has been a key battleground in the fight between the regime and armed opposition groups. The recapture of the city would signal a potentially decisive shift in the conflict, cementing the governments hold on a strategic swath of the country and rousting the opposition from its signature stronghold.

People living in the shrinking rebel sector of the city face an impossible choice: stay and face death or capture, or attempt to flee. Those who run risk their lives traversing a war zone, and face an uncertain fate if they manage to reach a government-controlled section of the city. East Aleppo residents fear they could be detained, tortured or disappeared by the security forces over their support, real or perceived, for the rebels. Hundreds of men aged 30 to 50 have already gone missing after entering government-held areas, according to reports gathered by the United Nations.

Read More: Syrias White Helmets

Negotiations are underway toward a possible agreement that would allow civilians to leave the besieged rebel pocket of the city. But until a deal is reached, civilians in what remains of rebel-held eastern Aleppo feel they have no choice but to stay where they are, as the fighting rages around them. For some residents, this is a matter of safety. For others, it is a question of principle.

When we run away towards the side that besieged us, killed our beloved ones, and destroyed our homes, shouldnt we be called surrenderers? says Wissam Zarqa, a teacher living in the besieged area, in a text message.

Story continues

Another resident named Yasser, an employee of the Aleppo City Medical Council says, If the regime kept me alive, you can call me the arrested. He asked to be identified only by his first name.

Armed rebel groups fighting Assad have also blocked civilians path to safety, according to the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights. In a statement on Friday, the office said two armed groups, Fateh al-Sham (formerly the al-Qaeda linked Nusra Front) and the Abu Amara Battalion, are alleged to have abducted and killed an unknown number of civilians who requested permission to leave the besieged area.

Read More: We Have Lost Everything: Syrians Return to Ravaged Aleppo

Forces supporting the government began advancing rapidly in Aleppo on Nov. 28, seizing parts of the city held by rebels since 2012. The collapse of the opposition enclave is the culmination of a more than year-long Russian-backed offensive by the Damascus government and its allies. In late September 2015, Russias military began a campaign of airstrikes in Syria that has been instrumental in reversing Assads loss of territory. After more than 14 months of bombing, the regime seems to be on the brink of striking a decisive blow in the conflict.

The current negotiations surrounding the fate of the Aleppo are painstaking and complex. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday that military experts and diplomats are expected to meet in Geneva on Saturday to discuss the exit of fighters and civilians from the city. Russia considers all the non-state armed groups in Aleppo to be terrorists, while the United States views some of them as legitimate rebel organizations. In his remarks on Thursday, Lavrov also said Russias strategy included a merciless struggle against terrorists in Syria until their eradication.

A potential deal for rebels and civilians exit from the city could be modeled on agreements reached in other Syrian cities, in which fighters surrendered in returned for safe passage to another opposition-held area of the country. The rebel-controlled province of Idlib has been floated as a possible destination for Aleppo rebels and residents, but aid officials say the area is already saturated with displaced people and is struggling to cope with ongoing fighting, including an intense campaign of airstrikes by Syrian and Russian warplanes.

Approximately 500 people are awaiting urgent medical evacuation from the besieged enclave, and according to the U.N., aid groups efforts to get them have proven arduous. Part of the difficulty stems from the large number of players on the ground: Syrian government and opposition authorities, the Russian military, various rebel groups and pro-Assad militias all have some role to play in ensuring safe passage. (ISIS forces are farther afield, and usually would have no role in humanitarian negotiations.)

Read More: Mosul and Aleppo: A Tale of Two Cities

Its been painful in the extreme to sit night after night negotiating details with ambulances, food convoys, winter equipment, or spaces in hospitals, or in camps outside ready for evacuees, says Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, in a phone interview. In my 50 years of humanitarian negotiations, never have I seen so much effort going to so many frustrated efforts to get relief in and to get evacuees out.

Even the population of the remaining rebel sector is in dispute. Prior to the current offensive, the U.N. said an estimated 250,000 people lived in besieged eastern Aleppo. Some Syrian NGOs reported 300,000 or more, while the regime insisted on a much lower figure. Now that the majority of that area has been retaken by the government, the U.N. human rights office reported around 100,000 civilians remained in the opposition-held area. The overall number of displaced people remains extremely difficult to gauge at this time, as the U.N. does not have verifiable information about new displacements and people continue to arrive and leave existing shelters and lodge with family members, said U.N. spokesperson Linda Tom in Damascus, in an email.

Donald Trumps victory in the U.S. presidential election is also expected to tilt the battlefield in Assads favor. During the campaign Trump suggested he favors cooperating with Russia in the fight against ISIS and raised questions about U.S. opposition to the Assad regime. Trump is expected to cut what little assistance America offers to rebel groups, but the specifics of his Syria policy remain to be seen. Regardless, Trumps election ends any expectation that the United States will act decisively in the rebels favor.

If and when pro-Assad forces seize the rest of Aleppo, it will open a new phase of Syrias conflict, undercutting the oppositions relevance and all but guaranteeing the regimes survival in the chunk of Syria it still controls. By sidelining some of the more mainstream rebel groups, a victory in Aleppo would also bolster the regimes framing of the war as a binary conflict between the government and jihadist groups. Assads forces and allied could turn his attention toward opposition-held Idlib province in the north, or toward the forces of the Islamic State elsewhere in the country. The Assad regime will not regain control of the entire country, but it now has a substantial victory within its grasp.

Meanwhile, ordinary people in besieged eastern Aleppo are left contemplating the end. In response to a journalists question about the provenance of a set of photos on December 7, one resident responded in broken English, It does not matter, we are about to die or arrest.
Islamic State 'has lost 50,000 fighters' over two years

At least 50,000 militants from so-called Islamic State have been killed since the US-led coalition started fighting in Iraq and Syria two years ago, a US military official has said.
YANGON (Reuters) - Several Western countries urged Myanmar on Friday to expand humanitarian aid access to its troubled Rakhine State, where at least 86 people have been killed and 22,000 have fled to Bangladesh since the beginning of an army operation in the area. The pressure on the government of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi over the crisis in the northwestern state is growing and the United Nations has called on Suu Kyi to go to the state to reassure civilians they would be protected. Soldiers have poured into the area along Myanmar's border with Bangladesh and sealed it off in response to attacks by what the government has described as Muslim militants on border posts on Oct. 9 that killed nine police officers. Out of more than 150,000 people who had been getting aid before the onset of the violence, only about 20,000 people have got any since Oct. 9, under a partial resumption of deliveries, but some 130,000 have not been reached, the United Nations said. Diplomats say decisions on aid deliveries, seemingly approved by top government officials in the capital, Naypyitaw, often get overturned or delayed by military-controlled officials in Rakhine State. "We are concerned by delays and urge all Myanmar authorities to overcome the obstacles that have so far prevented a full resumption, noting that tens of thousands of people who need humanitarian aid, including children with acute malnutrition, have been without it now for nearly two months," envoys of several countries including France, the Netherlands, Spain, Turkey and United States said in a statement. The statement suggests that some diplomats - who have pressured Myanmar to reopen aid access for weeks - are losing patience with the military and government and are running out of options to influence their behavior. Nearly 22,000 Muslims have fled to Bangladesh since Nov. 1, the United Nations said in its latest update on the situation, adding that about 30,000 people are estimated to have been displaced and thousands more affected by the fighting. Suu Kyi's government has rejected accusations by residents and human rights monitors that soldiers have raped Rohingya Muslim women, burnt houses and killed civilians, although it has established a commission led by a former senior junta member to investigate the claims. Ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and the Rohingya Muslims have lived separately in Rakhine State since clashes in 2012 in which more than 100 people were killed. The fresh outburst of violence is the biggest test for Suu Kyi's eight-month-old administration. (Reporting by Antoni Slodkowski; Editing by Robert Birsel)
Fans of the BBC series Doctor Who are in for an early Christmas treat, as the network released a trailer on Friday for the latest upcoming Christmas special titled The Return Of Doctor Mysterio.

The special follows the Doctor as mind-altering aliens threaten to attack Manhattan. He teams up with a reporter and a mysterious figure known as The Ghost to attempt to save the day.

Peter Capaldi stars as the Doctor, alongside Matt Lucas, Justin Chatwin, Charity Wakefield, Tomiwa Edun, Aleksandar Jovanovic and Logan Huffman. The episode is directed by Ed Bazalgette from a script written by Steven Moffat. Brian Minchin is the executive producer, alongside producer Peter Bennett. Though set in America, the episode was filmed in the U.K.

A 30-second teaser for the Christmas special was released on Twitter. In it, the Doctor announces, Im back. We get a glimpse of The Ghost who soars through the sky wearing a mask. His identity may or may not be revealed during the 60-minute special.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's the trailer for The Return of Doctor Mysterio! #DoctorWho pic.twitter.com/uY7dyVEmtN  Doctor Who Official (@bbcdoctorwho) December 9, 2016

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, its the trailer for The Return of Doctor Mysterio! # DoctorWho, reads the latest tweet.

The Return Of Doctor Mysterio is set to premiere on the BBC Christmas Day.

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Instead of being urged to simply "be more compassionate," doctors should learn specific empathy skills during their training to improve their care of patients, one doctor argues in a new paper.

According to Dr. David Jeffrey, an honorary lecturer in palliative medicine at the Center for Population Health Sciences in Edinburgh, Scotland, who wrote the paper, there is concern about a general lack of psychological and social support for patients from doctors. Some studies have found that medical students experience a decline in empathy for their patients as they get further along in their training.

In addition, the "commercialization of health care leaves people vulnerable" to being treated as though their care is simply an instrument to bring in money to the system, Jeffrey said. Patients can become dehumanized by the system, he said.

But there is also concern that if doctors become too emotionally involved with their patients, they may experience psychological distress and burnout, Jeffrey said.

In his article, Jeffrey distinguishes among the three terms that are often used interchangeably  empathy, sympathy and compassion  in an attempt to provide some clarity to this problem. Jeffrey argues that doctors would best serve their patients by striving to have empathy for their patients, rather than sympathy or compassion. [7 Medical Myths Even Doctors Believe]

For example, having empathy means imagining what it is like to be a specific person undergoing a specific experience, rather than imagining that they themselves are undergoing that experience, Jeffrey said.

"This more sophisticated approach requires mental flexibility, an ability to regulate one's emotions and to suppress one's own perspective in the patient's interests," Jeffrey told said.

In contrast, having sympathy means taking a more "self-oriented" approach, and imagining what it would be like for yourself to be in another person's situation.

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This is a way of trying to identify with a person, but it means that you assume that people will think and feel the way you do, Jeffrey said. Also, a doctor who attempts to sympathize with a patient may focus on the doctor's own distress, and risk burning out, he said.

Having compassion means being aware of the suffering of others, but not necessarily understanding their views, Jeffrey said.

What's more, Jeffrey said, compassion and sympathy are simply reactions, that don't involve much reflection.

It takes skill to develop empathy, and developing this skill should be a goal for medical education, Jeffrey said.

In Jeffrey's view, doctors should develop empathy by learning to build a connection with their patients that involves emotional sharing, as well as an "other-oriented" perspective, in which the doctor tries to imagine what it is like to be the patient. Doctors can then act appropriately on the understanding they have gained to help the patient, Jeffrey said.

"A benefit of this model of empathy is that it focuses on developing skills, attitudes and moral concern rather than just urging medical students and doctors to be more compassionate," Jeffrey said. "Empathy, unlike compassion or sympathy, is not something that just happens to us, it is a choice to make to pay attention to extend ourselves. It requires an effort."

The paper was published yesterday (Dec. 6) in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine.

Original article on Live Science.

Editor's Recommendations
Donald Trump's days in the Apprentice boardroom may be long gone, but the former host still has ties to the series. The president-elect has retained his executive producer credit on the reality competition, one that will see him paid as a profit participant in the franchise.

Trump's camp confirmed the news Thursday, with a following statement coming to The Hollywood Reporter from transition spokeswoman Hope Hicks: "Mr. Trump has a big stake in the show and conceived of it with Mark Burnett. Additional details regarding his business interests will be shared December 15th."

Trump said in late November he planned on leaving his business "in total" for his children to run so he could focus on the presidency. He also said he would explain his plan for this transition during a Dec. 15 news conference.

The president-elect, of course, will no longer appear on the series. That ship sailed when he announced his candidacy for president in 2015. He was replaced by new host Arnold Schwarzenegger, who will topline all eight episodes of the MGM Television-produced Celebrity Apprentice when it returns to NBC on Jan. 2.

NBC will not be the one paying Trump his per-episode fee, the sum of which is not yet known. That will come from MGM Television, which now counts Apprentice creator Burnett as its president. As the executive producer credits roll, per a story first reported by Variety, Trump's name will appear after Burnett's and before Schwarzenegger's.

It's a precarious position for both media companies, having the next president of the United States as a profiting producer on a Big Four reality show, though the fact that the franchise is owned by MGM does put a bit of a wall between Trump and NBC.

Read more: Mark Burnett Meets With Trump Over Inauguration Plans

The history of NBC "ending its business relationship" with Trump is more complicated than just his ultimately successful bid for the presidency. The original cutting of ties came over what network press materials referred to as "derogatory statements" about Mexicans.

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"To that end, the annual Miss USA and Miss Universe Pageants, which are part of a joint venture between NBC and Trump, will no longer air on NBC," read the statement at the time. "In addition, as Mr. Trump has already indicated, he will not be participating in The Celebrity Apprentice on NBC. Celebrity Apprentice is licensed from Mark Burnett's United Artists Media Group [now MGM] and that relationship will continue."

It had been assumed, in the run-up to the return of Celebrity Apprentice, that Trump would not get an executive producer credit - since he has never technically been billed as a co-creator.

Read more: Trump's Inaugural Committee Announces Days of Events With 'Make America Great Again!' Slogan

On Friday, adviser Kellyanne Conway defended Trump's decision, telling CNN's New Day that "presidents have a right to do things in their spare time."

"He's a very transparent guy," she said of Trump. "Everyone can see what he's doing, and the fact is that he is conferring with all types of experts who tell him what he can do and not do as president of the United States. If this is one of the approved activities, then perhaps he will consider staying on."

When pressed about Trump being taken away from his presidential duties to be involved in the show, Conway compared the time spent to President Obama's golfing, something she had objected to in the past.

"Were we so concerned about the hours and hours and hours spent on the golf course of the current president? I mean presidents have a right to do things in their spare time, in their leisure time," she said.

When asked about Trump taking a profit or salary from his role, Conway said she hadn't discussed that with Trump directly. Watch the clip below.

Kellyanne Conway on Trump remaining Celebrity Apprentice EP: Were we so concerned about hours Obama spent golfing? https://t.co/FIjN72qptX

- New Day (@NewDay) December 9, 2016

Dec. 9, 11:15 a.m. ET: Updated with Conway on CNN.
Photo credit: undefined

From Town & Country

Despite ascending to the pinnacle of American politics, Donald Trump has no plans to sever ties with the reality television program that made him a household name.

Arnold Schwarzenegger has taken the hosting reins for the Celebrity Apprentice's 15th season, but the President-elect intends to retain his executive producer status, even after he moves to the White House, Variety has learned.

Trump's name will appear in the credits before Schwarzenegger, but after series creator Mark Burnett, and he will continue to be paid for his role in the production, a fee which Variety estimates to be "in the low five-figures, at minimum" per episode.

Burnett came under fire during the campaign for not releasing outtakes of the show that could have been potentially swayed voters. And while he did distance himself from Trump in a statement, saying, "My wife and I reject the hatred, division and misogyny that has been a very unfortunate part of [Trump's] campaign," Burnett is reportedly helping to plan Trump's inauguration.

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Technology stocks have taken a thumping since the election results, and CEOs are waiting to see where the new policies take them. There is particular concern about companies exposed to China and most are waiting for a Chinese reaction to President-elect Trump.

China hasnt reacted too much so far. The only occasion arose as a result of the Taiwanese President making a congratulatory call to Trump that as it turns out, may have been pre-arranged. Taiwan has broken away from the mainland and has separate elections, but China views the region as strategically important and an integral part of China. The U.S. has always kept China happy giving rise to the one China rule.

As a result of the call, the Chinese Foreign ministry has communicated its displeasure to the U.S. saying that the rule was the political foundation for China-U.S. relations. It did, however, blame Taiwan for the event, leaving the President-elect a way out in case he chooses to use it.

Sino-U.S. relations havent been going as planned, but it isnt clear whats changed to warrant the change of tactics. The U.S. traded jobs for growth and China continues to restrict that growth by protectionist laws. So maybe the move is designed to open the door to fresh deal-making.

Whatever the case, its important to note that China and the U.S. are more or less equally dependent for trade, so it may not be in China's interest to enter a trade war. Note that American companies selling to China generally manufacture in China, so severing ties would result in job losses.

As far as technology companies are concerned, not all are equally positioned in China or dependent on it. Some, like Facebook FB, have not really been let in; some like Google are at the door and some like Apple AAPL are hugely dependent. Then there are the semiconductor and other component manufacturers that will likely not be affected.

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Despite the governments tremendous efforts over the past decade, the countrys consumption of semiconductors well exceeds its own output. And thats partly the reason Ive included some semiconductor stocks in my picks today. The other part involves great numbers related to past performance and solid expected future growth along with a positive Zacks Rank (the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks is here) and a VGM Score of A or B.

Amkor Technology AMKR

Amkor Technologies is a provider of back-end (i.e. packaging and test) semiconductor manufacturing services. Its capabilities include wafer bump, wafer probe, wafer backgrind, package design, packaging (using wirebond, flip chip, copper clip and other interconnect technologies), and test and drop shipment services for optimal electrical, mechanical and thermal performance of semiconductors. Its customers include integrated device manufacturers (IDMs), fabless semiconductor companies and contract foundries.

The company has operations spread across six countries where the bulk of electronics manufacturing takes place. It counts Qualcomm and Toshiba as its largest customers, each of which contributes more than 10% of its revenue.

Amkor has increased its manufacturing footprint in China (because of strong regional demand and low cost) while reducing and consolidating its operations in Japan. Moreover, it also bought a facility in Malaysia from Toshiba to better serve automotive and industrial customers and the investment seems to be paying off.

Auto revenue growth was very strong in the last quarter. Another area of strength was from the K4 manufacturing plant in Gwangju Korea, which makes its system-in-package (SiP) modules.

Zacks Rank #1

VGM Score A

Last 4-quarter average EPS Surprise 62.50%

Estimated EPS growth this year (ending in December) 55.88%, next year 50.9%

P/E this fiscal year 21.58 (Industry 55.5)

P/E 2017 14.3

AMKOR TECH INC Price

AMKOR TECH INC Price | AMKOR TECH INC Quote

Brooks Automation BRKS

Brooks Automation offers automation tools and services primarily for the semiconductor capital equipment market and sample management market for life sciences.

The company operates in three segments. The Products segment offers tools to enable improved throughput and yield in controlled operating environments. The Services segment, which is partly dependent on the products segment, offers installation, support, diagnostic and repair services. The Life Sciences segment takes care of automated cold sample storage, equipment for sample preparation and handling, consumables and parts, and support services.

The company has been restructuring its business to trim underperforming areas and build capabilities in the life sciences segment, where there is significant growth opportunity. On the semiconductor side, it is a beneficiary of 10nm tooling and 3D NAND buildout. On the life sciences side, the past year has been something of a transition period during which time it moved from losses to breakeven and then to profits in the last quarter. Things are only expected to get better.

Zacks Rank #1

VGM Score B

Last 4-quarter average EPS Surprise 111.19%

Estimated EPS growth this year (ending in September) 74.47%

P/E this fiscal year 20.26 (Industry 21.10)

P/E 2017 16.95

BROOKS AUTOMATN Price

BROOKS AUTOMATN Price | BROOKS AUTOMATN Quote

Micron Technology MU

Micron is one of the leading providers of semiconductor memory products like dynamic random-access memory (DRAM), negative-AND (NAND) Flash and NOR Flash, on which are built solid-state drives, modules, multi-chip packages and other system solutions.

Its Compute and Networking segment caters to compute, networking, graphics and cloud server markets; the Mobile Business segment is focused on smartphone, tablet and other mobile-device markets; the storage segment takes care of enterprise, client, cloud and removable storage markets and also includes the Intel/Micron Flash Technology (IMFT) JV; and the Embedded Business segment that serves the automotive, industrial, connected home and consumer electronics markets.

Micron continues to see strong demand for its trailing edge chips even as it qualifies those at the 1X nodes. The company is of course a beneficiary of the industry transition to 3D NAND and DDR4 memory. In fact management has stated that DDR4 shipments crossed over DDR3 in some divisions of its compute and networking segment in the last quarter. The graphics business is benefiting from NVIDIAs GDDR5 and 5-X products.

China is a growing driver of the mobile business as Chinese handset makers race to catch up with Apple and Samsung. The embedded business is being driven by the automotive market, which is increasingly growing into the computer of the future as Intels Krzanich pointed out.

Bit costs should also decline as Micron moves to lower geometries although there will be the usual yield issues at first.

On Dec 7, Micron closed the acquisition of a 67% stake in Taiwanese DRAM maker Inotera, in which it already had a 33% stake. Inotera was initially a JV between Infineon and Nanya before Micron bought Infineons 33% stake and became its sole customer. Micron was Inoteras sole customer and the 100% ownership will immediately add to its DRAM gross margin, earnings per share and cash flow.

Zacks Rank #2

VGM Score B

Last 4-quarter average EPS Surprise 31.51%

Estimated EPS growth this year (ending in August) 2400%, next year 35.3%

P/E this fiscal year 13.63 (Industry 13.60)

P/E 2017 10.08

MICRON TECH Price

MICRON TECH Price | MICRON TECH Quote

TTM Technologies TTMI

TTM Technologies manufactures printed circuit boards (PCBs) at its 30 specialized facilities in the U.S., China, Canada and Mexico. The company focuses on PCBs for routers, switches, computer memory modules and communications infrastructure equipment used in networking/communications infrastructure, smartphone and touchscreen tablet, aerospace and defense, computing, and industrial/medical industries.

China is the largest consumer of PCBs in the world (47% of global production) with PCBs being a product category 91% of which is made in Asia (primarily China) according to Prismark Research (as quoted by management). The company has extensive operations in China and the U.S. and it is pulling out of Mexico. China accounted for a quarter of the companys revenues in 2015.

Zacks Rank #1

VGM Score A

Last 4-quarter average EPS Surprise 29.01%

Estimated EPS growth this year (ending in December) 528.57%, next year 15.0%

P/E this fiscal year 11.21 (Industry 12.90)

P/E 2017 9.75

TTM TECHNOLOGIE Price

TTM TECHNOLOGIE Price | TTM TECHNOLOGIE Quote

Finisar Corp FNSR

Finisar offers fiber optic subsystems (transmitters, receivers, transceivers, transponders and active optical cables) and test and monitoring systems forming a part of data communication and telecommunication networks. Used in local area networks (LANs), storage area networks (SANs) and metropolitan access networks (MANs), the companys products constitute the optoelectronic interface interconnecting electronic equipment like switches, routers and servers used in these networks. Therefore, along with semiconductors, they enable transmitting and receiving of digital signals over fiber optic cable at various speeds.

The company has significant operations in China and the country also consumes about a quarter of its output. There should be significant pickup in sales in 2017 second quarter onward from a new product, for which management says they already have initial orders.

Zacks Rank #2

VGM Score A

Last 4-quarter average EPS Surprise 35.74%

Estimated EPS growth this year (ending in April) 146.79%, next year 18.4%

P/E this fiscal year 22.92 (Industry 8.00)

P/E 2017 19.27

FINISAR CORP Price

FINISAR CORP Price | FINISAR CORP Quote

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South Korean President Park Geun-Hye enjoyed stellar popularity for most of her life as a conservative icon -- until an influence-peddling scandal turned her into a target of nationwide anger and triggered her impeachment by parliament on Friday.

Park, the daughter of the late military dictator Park Chung-Hee, spent most of her childhood under the spotlight as her father oversaw the country's economic transformation during his 1961-1979 rule.

Images of the young Park growing up at the presidential Blue House endeared her to South Koreans, with the first family treated as royalty by some and Park as the young princess.

The deaths of Park's parents in the 1970s further fanned sympathy for her as an ill-fated young woman who lost parents to assassinations but managed to rise above the personal tragedy.

Park's mother was murdered five years before her father, who was assassinated by his own security chief in 1979.

Park subsequently kept a low profile for nearly two decades until 1998, when she made a successful bid to become a lawmaker as the South was reeling from the fallout of the 1997-98 Asian economic crisis.

She instantly became a star among older conservative Koreans, who felt she shared her father's leadership qualities and was someone who could revive the economy at a time of crisis.

But her political career was always overshadowed by the legacy of her father -- who is credited with dragging the country out of poverty but reviled for his regime's human rights abuses.

The paternal shadow dogged Park, with critics accusing her of inheriting her his intolerance of dissent.

But she still commanded a loyal following among many voters, earning her the nickname the "Queen of Elections" for her success at the ballot box.

Such loyalty helped her weather several crises after she became the country's first female president in 2012, including the sinking of a Sewol ferry that killed 300 in 2014.

The fact that Park, 64, never married was also part of her appeal in a country where past leaders were often embroiled in major corruption scandals involving family members.

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But the latest scandal involving Park's close friend Choi Soon-Sil -- now under arrest for fraud and abuse of power -- turned out to be too much even for the staunchest Park supporters.

It also shed light on Park's questionable, decades-long ties with Choi's late father, a shady religious figure who in the 1970s was accused of using his presidential influence to extract vast amounts of money from local firms.

A state probe concluded that Choi had followed in her father's footstep, colluding with Park to strong-arm companies like Samsung to "donate" tens of millions of dollars to non-profit foundations she controlled.

The scandal sent Park's once-bulletproof approval ratings to record lows and prompted millions to take to the streets in a series of mass weekly protests calling for her ouster.

She apologised several times in tearful televised addresses, in which she painted herself as a lonely, isolated leader whose main offence was to be over-trusting of a personal friend.

But there was little public sympathy, with many seeing her professed isolation as a reflection of aloof arrogance rather than genuine loneliness.

Now Park, already the first sitting South Korean president to be subject to a criminal probe, looks set to go down as the first democratically-elected president to be booted out of office.

Friday's impeachment vote by parliament still requires the confirmation of the Constitutional Court -- a process that could take months.
ALEPPO, Syria (Reuters) - The Syrian army has released drone footage showing the widespread destruction in Old Aleppo, which it took control of from rebels this week. Bombed-out buildings and destroyed roads, the result of ground fighting and air strikes, could be seen in the footage released on Thursday as the army pressed ahead with an offensive to retake all of Aleppo, once Syria's most populous city. Reuters journalists heard the sound of nine air raids in about half an hour in Old Aleppo, in the center of the city, on Friday. Intense clashes also occurred in Sheikh Saeed in the south of the eastern sector. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said that reclaiming Aleppo would swing the course of the nearly six-year civil war in his favor. Pictures of splendours past: Aleppo before the war: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-aleppo-past-idUSKBN13Y13S (Writing by Patrick Johnston in LONDON; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
John Glenn, first American to orbit Earth, dies aged 95 (Photo feature)

Former astronaut John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth, has died at 95.
The drug used to sedate an Alabama death row inmatewho reportedly coughed and heaved 13 minutes into his execution Thursdayis the same one that was at the heart of a Supreme Court case last year and has often been criticized for not properly making inmates unconscious during executions.

On Thursday, Alabama executed Ronald Bert Smith, Jr., a 45-year-old inmate who was convicted in the fatal shooting of Casey Wilson in 1994 in Huntsville, Ala. According to reports, the execution went awry soon after the sedative was administered. Smith reportedly coughed, clenched his fists, and raised his head during the execution, forcing prison officials to conduct two consciousness checks to determine whether Smith was properly sedated before administering the final two drugs, according to the Associated Press.

Read more: Creator of Lethal Injection: I Dont See Anything That is More Humane

The first drug used was midazolam, which states have increasingly turned to as previously used execution drugs have proven difficult to obtain thanks to drug shortages and pressure from anti-death penalty groups. But since 2014, a number of states have experienced serious issues in properly sedating inmates, including during the executions of Dennis McGuire in Ohio, Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma, and Joseph Wood in Arizona, all of whom appeared to move and writhe on the gurney after being injected with the drugjust as Smith did on Thursday.

In June 2015, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the use of the drug was constitutional, after considering whether Oklahomas drug protocol involving the sedative violated the Eighth Amendments ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The court said that the death row inmates who brought the case failed to prove that midazolam could lead to the risk of severe pain.

Read more: Oklahomas Lethal Injection Problems Go From Bad to Worse

A number of anesthesiologists have criticized the drugs use in executions, even in large doses. The problem for the drugs opponents is that while theres oftentimes visual evidence that midazolam hasnt properly made an inmate unconsciouswrithing, groaning, coughingits proven difficult to show that its use actually leads to the kind of pain that would violate the constitution, in part because the inmates arent around to say so.
Lebanese documentary director Eliane Raheb, whose well-regarded Sleepless Nights screened in Dubais Muhr competition in 2012, returns to the fest this year with the world premiere of the poignant Those Who Remain. It focuses on handsome, aging Haykal Mikhael, a true salt of the earth type, who stubbornly maintains a farm and restaurant on the slope of the Al Shambouk mountain in the Akkar region of Lebanon. Haykal is a Maronite Christian, living in a Christian enclave that borders on both Sunni Muslim and Shia Muslim villages and is within clear sight of Syria.

I saw Haykal as a metaphor of Lebanon so I tried to use his story to reflect on the people who really want to stay in this difficult, tense region and their personal and political challenges, Raheb notes.

Despite his strong connection with the land, Haykal faces many problems that show why agriculture has stagnated in the area. The roads that lead to his farm and restaurant are pocked with massive potholes and practically impassible during winter unless the snows is ploughed. Dust from the neighboring quarries covers his crops during the growing season. Then there are the local sectarian tensions, plus the political and economic repercussions of the Syrian crisis. As opportunists buy out desperate Syrian farmers at dirt cheap prices, they then undercut the prices at which Lebanese farmers need to sell their crops and livestock. And to top it off, theres an ongoing court case over the ownership of the farm.

Raheb met Haykal in 2014, through a friend who hikes in the area. I decided to make the film in 2015 and started the shooting at the end of 2015, she recounts. The crew was relatively small (five people) and they shot 10 days, spread over three seasons. He is a very open person and it was not difficult for him to share personal stories.

In addition to Haykal, Raheb interviewed the opinionated Muslim woman who works for him, the urbane local doctor whose family is behind the lawsuit over the farmland, a Muslim from the neighboring village whose purchase of land in the Christian enclave creates problems in some quarters, a volunteer militia-like watch group and a Christian zealot who campaigns to keep Muslims out of the Christian neighborhood, despite the fact that the Muslim neighbors had long preserved an ancient Maronite church. The fanatical guy belongs to a movement called my land, my church and he tries to impose his acts disregarding the municipality decision, says Raheb. He represents when the state is totally absent and small groups and fanatical parties take over the power and impose their laws.

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Raheb, who also teaches film at Beiruts St. Joseph University, has multiple docu projects in the works. In Berlin this spring, she nabbed the top prize of the Robert Bosch Stiftung for her Lebanese/German project Miguels War. She also received funding from the Doha Film Institute for the Lebanese-French-Qatar project, The Great Family, about a Lebanese adopted child growing up in France who discovers she is a survivor of the massacre at the Tal Al Zaatar Palestinian refugee camp.

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Just days after putting Gurney Productions founders Scott and Deirdre Gurney on a short, temporary leave of absence, the duo of the company behind Duck Dynasty have been pink slipped by the board and today face a fraud and breach of contract lawsuit from owners ITV America

itv-america

Following a meeting with Scott and Deirdre Gurney, the Board of Gurney Productions has been left with no alternative but to terminate their employment and file a lawsuit in the Superior Court of California on the grounds of self-dealing, fraudulent concealment and breach of contract, said a Gurney Productions spokesperson today of the firing that occurred yesterday.

The Gurneys were put on leave on Monday, with Craig Armstrong appointed interim CEO. The 55 Media co-CEO will remain in that post for the near future it seems. This comes as A+E Networks unsurprisingly announced in mid-November that Gurneys flagship series Duck Dynasty would wrap up after its fifth season  though specials remain an option.

It seems at the heart of the dispute with ITV is the Gurneys seemingly engaging in a bit of double dipping  actually more than a bit with unauthorized distributions to Scott Gurney, and numerous misrepresentations and active concealments by the Gurneys to the Board, the complaint claims.

scott and deidre gurney 2014

After the Gurneys sold a majority interest in the Company to ITV and promised, among other things, not to compete with the Company while they were employed by the Company, the Gurneys secretly formed a new production company that they owned and controlled, Snake River Productions, LLC, the injunctive relief and wide spread but unspecified damages seeking filing in LASC Friday also says (read it here).

They formed Snake River as part of an unlawful plan to misappropriate the Companys corporate opportunities for themselves and to artificially inflate the Companys EBITDA, the complaint adds with allegations of employee poaching and use of the other companys resources to benefit Snake River. By engaging in these wrongful activities, the Gurneys sought to generate profits for themselves at the expense of the Company and ITV and also sought to defraud ITV by securing a substantially higher payout for themselves and their closely held company, Little Win LLC when ITV bought them out.

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That buy out occurred back on December 12, 2012 with ITV taking a 61.5% ownership in Little Win. The Gurneys themselves held the remainder of the company with exclusive contracts that ITV assumed they were bound by.

The Discovery show Northern Territory lies at the heart of this dust-up with ITV saying that the Gurneys grabbed the international distribution rights to the series from their old company with a $3.53 million sleight of hand that looks aimed to directly make them much more over time. Todays complaint even says that at a September board meeting Deirdre Gurney was asked about the matter of the Northern Territory rights and denied she knew who they had been sold to  even though it was her and her husbands own Snake River. It was an investigation into that company and the discovery that it was owned by the Gurneys that set off the chain of events that have led to this weeks firings and legal action.

In that, a praetorian guard of lawyers represents ITV from the DC and SF offices of Squire Patton Boggs, LLP plus Paul Salvaty and Poopak Nourafchan of LAs Hogan Lovells.

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Gurney Productions: "Business As Usual" For Staffers In Wake Of Founders' Ouster

Shake-Up At 'Duck Dynasty' Producer Gurney Productions: Founders Placed On "Temporary Leave Of Absence"

India Rules National Anthem Mandatory In Cinemas; 'Walking Dead' Demand Surges Abroad - Global Briefs
Scott and Deirdre Gurney have been fired from Gurney Productions, the company behind A&E's Duck Dynasty, as parent company ITV Studios has officially filed suit.

ITV Studios filed a new lawsuit Friday in L.A. County Superior Court, claiming the duo has been engaging in self-dealing and fraud in breach of their contract. The Gurneys founded the reality TV production company that in 2012 was purchased by ITV for $40 million.

According to the suit, when the Gurneys sold a majority interest in Gurney Productions to ITV they promised not to compete with the company as long as they were still employees. Their operating agreement gives ITV the right to buy out the Gurney's retained membership interests - the price for which is based, in part, on the average EBITDA for the company.

According to the complaint, the Gurneys breached their deal by launching Snake River Productions, a company allegedly created to artificially inflate ITV's net profits and drive up the price they would be paid for their remaining interest in the company.

The Gurneys sold ITV's international distribution rights for Discovery's Northern Territory to Snake River for $3.6 million, without the knowledge or consent of the other managers on the board, according to the complaint, and deliberately failed to disclose that they were the owners of the company.

"At first blush it might seem as if a transaction that generated over $3.6 million for the Company would be in the best interests of the Company and its Members," states the complaint. "But as a result of this self-dealing, the Gurneys obtained a distribution in October 2016 on behalf of themselves and their company, Little Win, of approximately $1.4 million."

ITV claims that move, along with misappropriating funds and poaching employees, "unlawfully positioned" the Gurneys to receive a "substantially enhanced" buyout. ITV is seeking punitive damages, plus at least $850,000 in repayment of expenses and an injunction to recover all ITV assets and any works created by ITV employees while illegally working for Snake River or the Gurneys. (Read the full complaint below.)

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Read more: 'Duck Dynasty' Producers Put on Leave at ITV Amid Fraud Investigation (Exclusive)

ITV on Monday tapped 5x5 Media co-founder Craig Armstrong to serve as interim CEO of Gurney Productions. ITV America COO Chris Valentini also will help oversee Gurney Productions alongside Armstrong. Armstrong will continue to oversee unscripted producers 5x5, where it remains business as usual.

The Robertson family, which has a financial stake in Duck Dynasty, was notified Monday of the investigation. The news comes as the veteran and controversial unscripted series is heading into its final season at A&E.

Armstrong told staff in a Monday memo that the Gurneys were placed on a "short, temporary leave of absence," and he would be sitting down with some employees and legal counsel to answer questions.

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The producers of the reality hit Duck Dynasty have been fired and sued for fraud by the company that bought their production shingle four years ago.

ITV America said Friday it had sacked Scott and Deirdre Gurney, veteran reality producers whose Duck Dynasty became one of the biggest reality hits on cable TV. The company also said it was suing the husband-and-wife team for fraud and breach of contract following an audit into production billing.

The couple could not immediately be reached for comment.

More to come .

Related stories from TheWrap:

'Duck Dynasty' Producers Scott and Deirdre Gurney Put On Leave in Company Audit

'Duck Dynasty,' Reality Hit and Symbol of Culture Wars, to End After Current Season
A political party in the Netherlands has been the subject of a hate speech complaint after its founder claimed that Adolf Hitler was Jewish and that Jews helped bring him to power in Germany.

The Vrije Democratische Partij (VDP, Free Democratic Party) was only founded in November at a fish grill in the northern city of Zaandam. It has registered to participate in the upcoming elections for the House of Representatives, scheduled for March 2017.

Despite its brief existence, it has already come under intense fire, with the Netherlands Office of Discrimination Affairs receiving 35 complaints. The Discrimination Bureau also reported the party to local police on Wednesday, according to local publication De Orkaan.

The VDPs social media posts have been condemned for their hate-filled rhetoric against Jews and homosexuals. On its Facebook page, it has written that Jews are worse than the devil and claimed that Jews helped bring to power Nazi leader Hitler, who was responsible for the Holocaust which killed around six million Jews.

On Twitter, meanwhile, the party posted a tweet stating that homosexuality in the Netherlands is an infectious disease that must be treated, urgently.

Adolf Hitler

Photo: Keystone/Getty Images

Its Facebook and Instagram accounts have recently been blocked, and the party tweeted on Friday that Twitter is also working on blocking that account. Protesting the actions taken against it, the party wrote that apparently freedom of expression was not for immigrants and that while the Discrimination Bureau complains to the police over comments about Jews and homosexuals, Muslims are discriminated against.

The VDP is led by Turkish immigrant Burhan Gokalp. His premises were visited by police in 2010 over suspicions that it was being used as a venue for drug deals.

Gokalp is not the first to suggest that Hitler was Jewish. Indeed, Hitler himself ordered an investigation into his ancestry following claims that his paternal grandfather was Jewish. Scholars, though, have found no evidence to back up the claim.

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AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said neither he nor his party would be prepared to govern in coalition with anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders unless he retracted the comments about Moroccans for which he was convicted of incitement on Friday. "It is impossible to contemplate working in a cabinet with this party until the comments are taken back," Rutte told reporters, reaffirming a commitment he had made in 2014. Wilders led a crowd in a chant then, calling for "fewer! fewer!" Moroccans. That incident led to his trial and on Friday his conviction for insulting Moroccans and inciting discrimination against them. Wilders's far-right Freedom Party leads in polls ahead of Rutte's second-placed right-liberal VVD party. Excluding the party from coalition talks after March's elections might leave no alternative to an unwieldy multi-party government. (Reporting By Thomas Escritt, editing by Larry King)
Anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders was convicted of hate speech by a Dutch court Thursday, but no penalty was imposed on the populist leader accused of insulting a group and inciting discrimination.

Presiding Judge Hendrik Steenhuis at the court near Amsterdam said the conviction was punishment enough for a democratically elected politician, whose party is leading in polls ahead of parliamentary elections in March.

Wilders was charged over comments made by during local elections in 2014, when at a rally in The Hague, he asked supporters if they wanted more or fewer Moroccans in the country. When the crowd responded by chanting: Fewer! Fewer! Fewer! Wilders replied: Well, well take care of it then.

The police received 6,400 complaints about the comments made by him, leading to a three-week trial that culminated in the verdict Thursday.

Before the verdict, Wilders tweeted: Whatever the verdict, I will continue to speak the truth about the Moroccan problem, and no judge, politician or terrorist will stop me.

His stand has not changed following the verdict, which he called madness in another tweet following the conviction.

Wilders posted a video of his reaction on Twitter, which began with an expression of shock at the verdict. Referring to his local election comment as simply a question about Moroccans, he said a number of asylum-seekers from Morocco were terrorizing buses in the country, without facing any legal action.

The Dutch politician went on to say that the Netherlands has become a sick country and that the judges undermined the freedom of expression and speech of millions of Dutch people with the conviction Thursday.

Moroccans are not a race, and people who criticize Moroccans are not racists, Wilders said in the video, where he also referred to the trial as a political one aimed at silencing him ahead of the election. I am not a racist and neither are my voters"

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In the past, Wilders has been prosecuted for anti-Islam comments  like comparing the religion to Nazism and calling for a ban on the Koran. He was, however, acquitted in the 2011 case, which reportedly gave a boost to his image as a populist leader.

Wilders said he will appeal the conviction.

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By Toby Sterling and Anthony Deutsch AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Judges on Friday convicted Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders of insulting Moroccans and inciting discrimination against them, but levied no punishment against him. Wilders, who is leading in some polls before national parliamentary elections in March, responded immediately on Twitter, calling the verdict "totally insane" and saying the court was biased against him. He later said he plans an appeal. The charges against Wilders stem from a 2014 campaign rally, when he led a group of supporters to chant they wanted "Fewer! Fewer! Fewer!" Moroccans in the Netherlands. A smiling Wilders concluded: "we're going to take care of that." Reading the decision of a three-judge panel, Presiding Judge Hendrik Steenhuis said "no one is above the law", including politicians. Wilder had planned the inflammatory remarks beforehand and incited others to discriminate people of Moroccan origin, he said. "If a politician crosses the line, that doesn't mean free speech is being restricted," he said. "A crime cannot be protected by the right to free speech." In a videotaped response to the verdict, which he did not attend in person, Wilders said: "I will never be silenced" and the ruling was an attempt to "neutralize the leader of the largest and most popular opposition party in the Netherlands." Steenhuis said Moroccans form a clearly defined population within the Netherlands that Wilders had "singled out ... (as having) less rights" to reside in the Netherlands. There are roughly 400,000 people of Moroccan origin in the Netherlands. "This statement can be regarded as affecting the dignity of this group as a whole. It is insulting for the entire group," the ruling said. In closing remarks on Nov. 23, Wilders told judges his remarks were obviously not intended as a call to genocide -- he has never advocated violence -- but rather a reference to his official party platform. Measures he endorses that could lead to fewer Moroccans include a ban on immigration, expelling Moroccans with dual nationality who commit crimes, and a "voluntary repatriation" policy. Prosecutors, who rejected Wilders' assertions the trial was politically motivated and an unfair attempt to limit his right to free speech, had asked that a fine of 5,000 euros ($5,300), but no prison sentence, be imposed. Wilders appeal is likely to last throughout the parliamentary election campaign, which runs for six weeks before voting on March 15. A previous attempt to prosecute Wilders for anti-Islam remarks, such as likening the religion to Nazism and calling for a ban on the Koran, ended in acquittal in 2011. That process was widely seen as strengthening his reputation as a defender of freedom of speech and increased his popularity. ($1 = 0.9416 euros) (Reporting by Toby Sterling, editing by Larry King)
Korean president Park Geun-hye faces impeachment vote

South Korea's embattled president Park Geun-hye is facing impeachment, with lawmakers due to vote on Friday on dismissing her from office.
Being the "Sexiest Man Alive" has already changed Dwayne Johnson's life!

On Friday, the Baywatch star stopped by the Today show, where he joked about his sexiness and revealed how his friends reacted to him receiving People magazine's coveted title.

"My buddies have not stopped giving me a hard time," Johnson admitted to Matt Lauer. "But here's the thing: When they give you a hard time, they're jealous...know what I'm sayin'?"

RELATED: Kevin Hart Disses 'Jumanji' Co-Star Dwayne Johnson's 'Sexiest Man Alive' Win: 'I Demand a Recount!'

Aside from the faux jealously of his friends, Johnson quipped that his entire demeanor has gone through a sexy transformation.

"Now what's funny is that everything just becomes sexy," he explained. "Everything I do becomes sexy -- especially in my household."

In fact, things are apparently so sexy in Johnson's house that he chose not to say very much when it comes to one-on-one time with his girlfriend, Lauren Hashian.

"I don't even have to give full sentences. I just look at her like, 'Heyhey.'" he jokingly shared with a wink.

MORE: The Rock Doesn't Regret Calling 'Fast & Furious' Co-Stars 'Candy A**es': 'I Was Very Clear With What I Said'

If there's one thing that's seriously sexy about Johnson, it's his giving heart. The 44-year-old actor recently hosted nearly 50,000 troops and their families for his Rock the Troops special at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickman in Hawaii.

"We wanted to create something for the troops that was big, that was epic, hopefully it was historic," he shared with Lauer.

Speaking of sex appeal, watch Johnson's spin on the mannequin challenge in the video below.

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Miami (AFP) - John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962, but for a solid hour of that journey, NASA feared he was about to die in a blazing fireball.

In fact, all of the original crew of astronauts, known as the Mercury 7, risked life and limb in order to explore the frontier of space, and some died in the effort.

The death Thursday at 95 of Glenn, the last of the so-called Original Seven who were chosen as NASA's first astronaut corps in 1959, reminded many Americans just how far the US space program has come in the past five decades.

"Back before any human had actually gone into space the doctors weren't sure they would survive," said space policy expert John Logsdon.

He recalled concerns that powering into space aboard a rocket, then shifting to weightlessness in microgravity, might prove fatal. "It was all new territory."

Monkeys and mice were blasted off on rockets in the 1940s and 50s, and often they died in the process.

Eventually, a chimpanzee named Ham blasted off aboard the new Mercury 7 rocket in 1961 and survived, offering limited reassurance that human astronauts might be OK.

Then, Russia launched Yuri Gagarin, the first man ever in space, in 1961, and his survival took some concern away from the US crew.

But not much.

Rockets teetered on liftoff, exploded over the launch pad and collapsed into smoke and flames with jarring regularity.

"Many of us were skeptical and deeply concerned about NASA's plans to launch the Navy test pilot Alan Shepard on what would be our first space flight," wrote news anchor Walter Cronkite in his 1997 book, "A Reporter's Life."

He recalled watching those explosions, one after another, and described NASA as making a "feeble attempt" to catch up with the Soviets in the space race.

Shepard survived his 1961 trip to become the first American in space -- although not orbit, which was Glenn's feat -- but years later, some of his colleagues were not so lucky.

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In 1967, a spark ignited a fire inside the Apollo 1 capsule while it sat on the launchpad, incinerating all three men on board.

One of them was Gus Grissom, who was part of the Original Seven, and who had years earlier become the first man to launch into space twice.

- Not too tall -

The first astronauts were all military test pilots, and much has been written about their unique mental strength and capacity for risk, showcased in the 1970 Tom Wolfe book "The Right Stuff" and the 1983 movie by the same name.

"Test pilots almost by definition push the limits of what their machines can do," said Logsdon. "They were very much used to risking their lives before the space program."

But there was another, lesser known criteria.

"They had to be short," said Logsdon.

None could be taller than five feet 11 inches (1.8 meters), so that they could squeeze into the tiny, cone-shaped capsules that NASA cobbled together back then.

The single-passenger Mercury capsule that Glenn rode in was six feet 10 inches long (two meters) and about the same in width.

"If you go and look at the Mercury capsules now it is amazing that somebody was willing to get into that thing, to sit on top of a small nuclear weapon-equivalent in the energy -- particularly in the Atlas rocket -- and get thrown into an alien environment," Logsdon said.

Years ago, Glenn said he was often asked how he felt in those moments before blasting off.

"I felt exactly how you would feel if you were getting ready to launch and knew you were sitting on top of two million parts -- all built by the lowest bidder on a government contract," Glenn answered.

Glenn's launch in 1962 went smoothly, but as he circled the Earth three times, mission control picked up a signal that suggested his landing bag had deployed prematurely.

Charles Murray, co-author of the book "Apollo: The Race to the Moon" said in a 1989 interview with C-SPAN that "they were really convinced for about an hour that they were going to lose that guy."

The glitch could have meant the heat shield would not work, "and he was going to get burned to a crisp," he added, describing the mood as one of "controlled terror."

After Glenn's successful splashdown, the staff at mission control celebrated by passing out American flags and lighting cigars, as was the habit back then.

On Friday, US President Barack Obama ordered all American flags at public buildings and military outposts to be flown at half-mast on the day of Glenn's funeral as a mark of respect.
While its never been exactly clear what President-elect Donald Trump really meant with his campaign promise to make America great again, for a considerable number of his followers it clearly spoke of a return to a time when jobs were plentiful, pay was enough to support a family, and the standard of living was rising for each new generation.

If thats the standard Trump will be held to  revitalizing the American Dream, more or less -- new data suggests that the incoming president has a tougher job in front of him than he may have realized.

Related: The Campaign Promise Congress Wont Let Trump Keep

Economists Raj Chetty of Stanford and Nathaniel Hendren of Harvard, through their Equality of Opportunity project, have documented the decades-long decline in economic mobility in the United States. One of the starkest findings: An American born in the 1940s had between 80 and 90 percent odds of earning more than their parents did during their lifetime. Children born in 1984 -- todays 32-year-olds -- have just a 50 percent chance of doing better than their parents did.

The Fading American Dream

To be sure, multiple factors contribute to individuals lifetime earnings potential, and many Americans born in 1984 had barely begun their working lives when the Great Recession decimated the U.S. economy, setting back the economic fortunes of an entire generation.

However, the change over time is obvious and persistent, and according to Chetty and Hendren, it has a lot to do with the inequality of income in the U.S.

Most of the decline is due to the more unequal distribution of economic growth in recent decades rather than the slowdown in GDP growth, they write. Increasing economic growth rates to the higher levels experienced in mid-century America would increase the fraction of children earning more than their parents to 62%. Spreading the existing growth more broadly across the income distribution would raise the level to 80%.

Related: Just 40% of Americans Approve of Trumps Cabinet Choices

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Chetty and Hendren arent the only economists focusing on the stark changes in how the benefits of U.S. growth have been distributed over the past several decades. In a paper released earlier this week, economists Thomas Piketty of the Paris School of Economics, and Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, both of the University of California Berkeley and the National Bureau of Economic Research, documented the way economic gains have accrued to the already-wealthy in vast disproportion since the 1980s.

Average pre-tax national income per adult has increased 60% since 1980, but we find that it has stagnated for the bottom 50% of the distribution at about $16,000 a year. The pre-tax income of the middle classadults between the median and the 90th percentilehas grown 40% since 1980, faster than what tax and survey data suggest, due in particular to the rise of tax-exempt fringe benefits. Income has boomed at the top: in 1980, top 1% adults earned on average 27 times more than bottom 50% adults, while they earn 81 times more today.

This gets to a hard truth about the promises that Trump and his economic advisers have been making to the American public.

Trump, his nominee for Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, his nominee to run the Commerce Department, Wilbur Ross, and other key figures on his transition team, have all spent time on television promising to drive up the countrys economic growth rate. Mnuchin, last week, said that he believes it is possible to crank up GDP to as much 4 percent per year.

Related: How Trumps Cabinet Picks Are Payback to His Wealthy Pals

While many economists doubt that the country will see sustained growth at that rate  the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget just released an analysis calling such growth nearly impossible to achieve over a sustained period -- the data gathered by economists researching the distribution of gains in the U.S. demonstrates that economic growth, all by itself, isnt going to help the vast majority of low- and middle-income Americans achieve the American Dream, because they arent seeing the benefits of that growth in the first place.

There will be those who argue that redistributionist policies take some of those gains from the wealthy and pass them to the poor, but according to Piketty and his co-authors, The government has offset only a small fraction of the increase in inequality.

In the end, it will be up to individual voters to decide whether Trumps economic policies really do make America great again. But if the goal is generation-by-generation increases in earning and standards of living, the incoming administration will have a very high bar to clear.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
When the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Egyptian president, Mohamed Morsi, was ousted by a military coup in July 2013, the countrys Coptic Christians rejoiced. They saw General Abdel Fatah El-Sisi, who initiated Morsis removal and later became Egypts new president, as a savior. Bishoy Armanious, a 30-year-old electrical engineer from a suburb of Cairo, was among El-Sisis biggest fans. Together with thousands of Egyptians, he took it to the streets in support of the general. We had been praying for change to happen, Bishoy muses. El-Sisi saved Egypt from the nothingness Morsi was leading us to.

In the early days after Morsis ouster, many Copts shared Bishoys conviction. Some, like Coptic priest Makary Younan, even claimed El-Sisi had been sent from heaven. But Sisis failure to address longstanding injustices has prompted disillusionment. Many Copts now feel that the president has failed to deliver on the promise of equality he made three years ago. In a sign of mounting discontent, protests amongst the Christian community have swollen in recent months to an unprecedented degree. Once regarded as a pillar of support for the regime, Copts now constitute a growing challenge for the government in Cairo.

Copts are the regions largest minority and constitute about 10 percent of Egypts population of 92 million. Under successive authoritarian leaders, they have faced systematic discrimination, and many feel they are treated as second-class citizens. Restrictions on the construction of churches are a perennial sore point. Copts have long had to deal with arduous bureaucratic procedures to obtain the documents needed to build, renovate or even patch up a churchs toilet. Rumors of new church construction are often enough to cause an outcry and even mob violence.

Relations between the state and the church deteriorated precipitously in the 1970s under President Anwar Sadat, who openly flirted with Islamist forces and even exiled Pope Shenouda III, the Coptic Churchs head. Though the relationship recovered following Sadats death, the position of Copts hardly changed for the better, and the building of churches remained a bargaining chip. President Mubarak, who ruled over the country from 1981 until 2011, is said to have approved the building of 10 churches during his first decade in office. At a similar annual rate, his successor Morsi approved the construction of precisely one church.

A long-awaited law regulating the construction of churches was passed by Egyptian parliament last August. But the new piece of legislation is nothing to celebrate. As Human Rights Watch argues, the law reinforces the authorities control and contains security provisions that risk subjecting decisions on church construction to the whims of violent mobs. Though some clerics approved of the law, it prompted a flurry of criticism from influential Copts, who argue that it seeks to maintain the states dominance over the Christian community. Ishaq Ibrahim, a prominent researcher at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), condemned the bill, claiming it empowers the majority to decide whether the minority has the right to hold their religious practices.

Rising sectarian violence is another problematic issue. Violence against Christians peaked in August 2013, when mobs attacked more than 200 Christian-owned properties. The authorities later vowed to reconstruct the damaged churches and houses, but those promises have only partially materialized. As a result, a many churches remain in ruins, and Christians remain vulnerable. Only two weeks ago, fifteen Coptic homes were attacked in the city of Sohag by up to 2000 assailants.

To make matters worse, those who attack Christians or Coptic churches frequently get away with it. Reconciliation sessions  the method authorities favored to resolve inter-communal disputes  have done little to alleviate feelings of injustice, commonly allowing perpetrators to walk free. Officially, such meetings are designed to foster communal peace outside the legal system, but the facts on the ground do not line up. A damning report published by the EIPR condemned the practice for fostering discrimination and exacerbating religious differences.

On other occasions, the Egyptian government has itself committed violence against Copts. The most brutal example was the October 2011 Maspero Massacre, when 28 predominantly Christian protestors were brutally killed by security forces in central Cairo. Some were run over by tanks. Making the event all the more outrageous is the fact that the protestors had been demonstrating against the torching of a church in the southern city of Aswan. The incident has since come to symbolize the states treatment of the Copts and gave rise to the eponymous Maspero Youth Movement  a powerful union of Coptic activists.

Despite the states abysmal human rights record, a majority of Christians rallied behind El-Sisi when he took control of the country in 2013. Many, like Bishoy, were nervous about former president Morsis Islamist rule, which they feared would exacerbate their precarious position.

With Sisi failing to live up to the expectations, however, many are now questioning the presidents objectives. Protests flared this summer following a series of high-profile attacks. In one widely publicized event, a 70-year-old Christian woman was stripped naked by a mob of 300 men and paraded through the streets of her village, inducing the anger of Copts nationwide. In June, Islamist mobs assaulted Coptic families in the southern province of Minya, burned a kindergarten run by Christians, and murdered a Coptic Orthodox priest in Sinai. In July, a Christian nun from a well-known monastery in Old Cairo was killed after reportedly being hit by a stray bullet on the Cairo-Alexandria highway, and a pharmacist was stabbed to death and beheaded in Tanta.

The attacks prompted tremendous outcry. Copts across the country and in the diaspora staged protests in defiance of the regime. Families of victims travelled from across the country to Cairo in August to demand that the government protect their rights. In Washington, Copts called on the U.S. to pressure the Egyptian government over its negligent handling of sectarian violence. Adding fuel to the fire, a number of Coptic intellectuals signed a petition in September expressing their opposition to the regime when President El-Sisi visited New York for the U.N. General Assembly.

In ecclesiastical ranks, too, dissent is mounting. Bishop Anba Makarios of El-Minya province has repeatedly boycotted reconciliation sessions. At one point, he accused the regime of treating Copts as as an undesirable tribe. Recently, the bishop also reminded President El-Sisi in a tweet that Copts are Egyptians, too.

The head of the Coptic church, Pope Tawadros II, has also been criticized for his support of al-Sisi. Despite the warm relationship between the current regime and the Egyptian churches, ordinary Christian citizens  suffer from discrimination, the same petition criticizing al-Sisi read. Government reforms implemented in the 1950s made the patriarch the Copts main representative in politics, paralyzing the once-vibrant Coptic civil society. Today, his failure to champion Coptic rights has fed into resentment. Disturbed by the Patriarchs pro-government leanings, blogger Wael Eskander went as far as to question the Popes fidelity to the Coptic creed. The pope and the church have shown very little [love], except to the regime, he wrote.

The Copts uncomfortable position in Egyptian society reflects the countrys descent under President Sisi. In recent months, the Egyptian economy has experienced a currency crisis even as the government continues to grapple with Islamist militancy. The 2011 revolution carried a promise of change, but led only to stagnation  and not only for Christians. The economy has hit everyones pocketbooks, and minorities such as Shia Muslims, Nubians, atheists and the countrys LGBT community suffer far greater persecution than before. Numerically, the Copts constitute a minority. But their suffering is shared by most Egyptians.

In the photo, Coptic Christians attend a mass on July 24, 2016, in the rubble of a chapel that was torched a few months ago during clashes in the Egyptian village of Ismailia.



Photo credit: KHALED DESOUKI/AFP/Getty Images
By Matthew Ponsford SUTO ORIZARI, Macedonia (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - As Sunday's election in Macedonia draws close, Amet Yashar jokes that politicians' newfound concern for his home, one of Europe's largest Roma communities, might not be wholly sincere. Suto Orizari district, a ramshackle settlement of more than 20,000 people, in the capital Skopje is among a handful of Roma-majority municipalities in the world and one of the few places where Romanes is an official language. But Yashar said the community, known as Shutka locally, remains largely ignored by the majority of Macedonians until political leaders venture there ahead of elections to promise jobs and material change to Suto Orizari's residents. The settlement has existed since 1963, but many residents still lack adequate housing and connections to power, water and sewage systems, according to research by the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC), an international advocacy organisation. "Before the election is the only time we're Macedonians," said the 35-year-old in his office at Iriz, an organisation that offers legal aid. "The rest of the time we're just Roma." Suto Orizari is tucked away from the city centre behind a fortress. Its dusty streets are lined by a multicoloured mix of tin-roofed bungalows, half-built brick apartments and intricately ornamented villas. Arriving by car from the national assembly in the tiny ex-Yugoslav republic, the pristine roads turned potholed and the occasional horse-drawn cart swerved between cars. Despite having two elected Roma members of parliament and a Roma mayor in Suto Orizari, the Roma  as in most cities across Europe - have little real political power, rights groups say. EUROPE'S LARGEST MINORITY The Macedonian constitution is unique in recognising Roma by name and enshrines equality of political opportunity for Roma, along with the country's Albanian and Turkish minorities. But Fadil Djemail, Yashar's boss and project coordinator at Iriz, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that the people of Shutka are being "held hostage" by political leaders. "For us, it does not matter who will win," said Yashar. "No matter who we vote for in this election, for the usual Roma citizens who live in Shutka, it will be the same." Europe's 10 million Roma are the continent's largest ethnic minority. In Macedonia, they make up almost 10 percent of the two million population, according to statistics from the Council of Europe. But there, as across the Balkans, they continue to lack basic rights to housing and public services, says the ERRC. A 2015 survey of Roma communities across Macedonia classed half of all neighbourhoods, including Suto Orizari where 75 percent of residents are Roma, as "informal settlements", where residents lack legal land ownership or property titles. In every Roma settlement surveyed by the ERRC, residents were either unable to connect to safe drinking water or lived in fear of being disconnected due to unaffordable costs. Yet Suto Orizari - born after the 1963 earthquake destroyed Roma homes in the centre - defies outsiders' tag as a "slum". Across the community in northern Skopje, Byzantine-styled mansions jut out above ornamented brick homes and yards with livestock and geese. Commerce thrives around the central market, surrounded by butchers, hairdressers, shops and offices, including the home of Romani news website 24Vakti. Outsiders think nothing changes in Shutka, said Sali Memed, editor of 24Vakti. But there is constant development, including a high school that opened last year offering lessons in Romanes. Since 2010, a nationwide project to privatise government land and legalise housing has let more than 1,500 households in Suto Orizari register for property titles and access loans to extend and upgrade, according to Habitat for Humanity Macedonia. SANCTUARY VS GHETTO Yashar, who helps residents access schools, welfare and government programmes, said Roma residents support each other and - unlike the rest of the city, where racism is widespread - in Shutka people live free from discrimination. But increasingly Shutka also feels like a "ghetto", he added, saying residents are left to fend for themselves. Open Society Foundations, a philanthropic organisation, estimates that 90 percent of Shutka's residents rely on state welfare payments of 30 euros ($32.28) a month. Many top this up with informal labour or by begging, it said. This year again, said Memed, jobs are a key election issue. Aidan McGarry, politics lecturer at the University of Brighton and author of "Who Speaks for Roma?", a book on Roma political representation, said a minuscule tax base leaves the area dependent on outside investment in services like housing. McGarry said the municipality cannot achieve growth on its own so relies on parliamentarians to fight for investment from central government. "At the same time as they are autonomous, there is no 'voice' there," he said. "Usually, there's power in numbers but that doesn't translate in Suto Orizari." WHO WILL SPEAK FOR ROMA? Macedonia's veteran nationalist leader Nikola Gruevski looks set for a comeback in Sunday's election after stepping down in January as part of an EU-brokered deal to end a crisis that began in early 2015 and following almost a decade in power. In Suto Orizari, most people see political leaders as ineffectual and have yet to see a candidate who will fight for funding for Roma communities, Memet said. A "closed list" system for electing parliamentarians means voters cannot directly show dissatisfaction with unpopular candidates, said Saban Saliu, a Roma former member of parliament (MP) and now director of Macedonia's disaster response agency. Voters do not vote for an individual candidate but pick one of a handful of 'candidate lists' drawn up by the heads of the leading parties. This system encourages candidates to take a low profile, ask little from central government and not criticise party leaders, even when they deprive Roma communities of funds, Saliu said. "But poverty is this underlying issue that needs to be resolved, first and foremost," said McGarry. Yashar said residents complain that when municipal boundaries were drawn in 2001, areas of heavy industry on Suto Orizari's borders were assigned to neighbouring boroughs - depriving them of much-needed tax revenues. McGarry said such deliberate segregation of Roma from the majority exacerbates their lack of economic and political power. But this problem is not new, said McGarry. It can be traced back to Suto Orizari's birth in the early 1960s when Roma were moved from a traditional base near the city's commercial centre. "Just the fact that Suto Orizari exists where it does is an absolute expression of the power of the state to marginalise and exclude, and then reinforce these decisions by deciding to not invest," said McGarry. ($1 = 0.9293 euros) (Reporting by Matthew Ponsford, Editing by Paola Totaro and Jo Griffin.; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, traficking, property rights and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org)
STOCKHOLM, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Swedish home appliance maker Electrolux expects demand for its products to grow on both sides of the Atlantic next year, but at a slower rate than in 2016.

The maker of Electrolux, Frigidaire, AEG and other household appliance brands, forecast demand for appliances would grow 1 percent in 2017 in Europe and by 2-3 percent in North America.

"Market demand in Electrolux's largest markets, Europe and North America, is expected to grow moderately," it said in a statement.

Electrolux, a rival of Whirpool of the U.S and Asian firms such as LG Electronics and Haier Group , noted market demand had been positive in Europe this year, although there had recently been signs of softer demand in some markets, including Britain.

Shares in the company traded 2.7 percent higher by 0815 GMT.

At its third-quarter earnings report in late October, Electrolux stuck to a broad forecast for 2-4 percent growth in Europe this year, but said signs of weakness in markets such as Britain, which voted in June to leave the European Union, meant growth was likely to come in at the lower end of that range.

It also forecast market demand for appliances in North America to grow by 3-4 percent in 2016.

The Swedish firm said on Friday it expected market demand in Argentina and Brazil together, the majority of its business in Latin America, to decrease by approximately 5 percent in 2017.

Raw material costs were expected to increase by approximately 900 million crowns in 2017.

Electrolux said it expected improved cost efficiencies to give a boost of 1.6 billion crowns next year, excluding the impacts of raw materials and currency swings.

(Reporting by Johannes Hellstrom; Editing by Keith Weir)
(Updates prices) By Bruno Federowski SAO PAULO, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Brazil's Bovespa stock index fell on Thursday, after two sessions of gains, while Mexican stocks rose 1.65 percent, as investors snapped up shares that had become attractively cheap after weeks of poor performance.

Brazilian markets opened higher after the country's Supreme Court overturned an injunction ordering the indicted head of the Senate, Renan Calheiros, to step down, voting to allow him to continue in the post but not in the presidential line of succession.

Calheiros' potential ouster had stoked concern about possible delays in the approval of austerity measures. He said on Thursday that the final vote on the government's key spending limit bill will be held as planned next Tuesday.

But the gains were short-lived, and the Bovespa started losing after the European Central Bank announced an extension of its stimulus program, but at a slower intensity.

The ECB said it would cut monthly asset purchases to 60 billion euros from the current 80 billion but extend the buys until the end of 2017. Markets had expected purchases to stay at 80 billion but only for six more months.

The Bovespa ended the day down 1.2 percent. Shares in iron ore giant Vale fell nearly 4 percent on profit-taking, while shares in oil behemoth Petrobras weakened over 1 percent after a federal auditing court ordered a freeze on the company's divestiture program late on Wednesday.

The real gained, however, as investors remained optimistic after Wednesday's Supreme Court's decision.

The Mexican peso was flat.

Mexico's IPC stock index, which suffered its worst November in over five years and fell last week amid the shock election of Donald Trump in the United States, gained 1.65 percent, as traders jumped on relatively cheap assets.

Shares in cement giant Cemex rose nearly 5 percent, while billionaire Carlos Slim's telecoms company America Movil rose almost 3 percent.

Chilean and Colombian markets did not open on Thursday due to local holidays.

Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies at 2238 GMT: Stock indexes daily % YTD % change change Latest MSCI Emerging Markets 879.32 1.35 10.73 MSCI LatAm 2323.36 0.19 26.97 Brazil Bovespa 60676.57 -1.2 39.97 Mexico IPC 46360.23 1.65 7.87 Chile IPSA 4224.67 0.24 14.79 Chile IGPA 21075.86 0.22 16.11 Argentina MerVal 17196.77 -0.22 47.29 Colombia IGBC 9798.00 -0.18 14.63 Venezuela IBC 36530.48 1.16 150.41 Currencies daily % YTD % change change Latest Brazil real 3.3824 0.31 14.57 Mexico peso 20.3415 -0.01 -15.30 Chile peso 654.82 0.00 8.38 Colombia peso 3003 -0.02 5.54 Peru sol 3.403 0.00 0.32 Argentina peso (interbank) 15.9950 -0.50 -18.83 Argentina peso (parallel) 16.25 -0.43 -12.18 (Reporting by Bruno Federowski; Editing by Frances Kerry and James Dalgleish)
Lender mulling whether to fire TIA contractor

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Thursday said it was holding consultations whether or not to fire the contractor for the stalled $92-million Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) improvement project.
Image source: Energy Transfer presentation



Sunoco Logistics Partners has agreed to acquire Energy Transfer Partners in a unit-for-unit simplification transaction.



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By Kris Rosemann



Another simplification transaction in the MLP space  who would have thought an MLP needed material changes in their corporate structures? If youve been reading our analysis of the industry recently, you would be on that list, Distributing Truth on MLPs, Plains All American to Undergo Simplification Transaction. To us, the merger agreement between Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) and Sunoco Logistics Partners (SXL) November 21 is yet another acknowledgement of the flaws in the MLP business model and recognition of the lack of clarity regarding the long-term viability of the MLP model.

In the merger agreement, Energy Transfer Partners unitholders will receive 1.5 units of Sonoco Logistics Partners for each Energy Transfer Partners unit held. Also, all Sunoco common and Class B units held by Energy Transfer Partners will be retired, and all Class H units of Energy Transfer Partners held by Energy Transfer Equity (ETE) will be retired, which will result in Energy Transfer Equity owning 100% of the combined companys General Partner and incentive distribution rights. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2017.

We cannot dispute the simplification benefits of the transaction, but a greater issue lies in the leverage of the to-be-formed entity. Sunoco will assume Energy Transfer Partners outstanding debt, resulting in the addition of ~$30.4 billion of Energy Transfer Partners total debt to Sunocos current total debt load of more than $6 billion. The cash balances of each firm are negligible compared to the debt loads, and the resulting net debt load of ~$36 billion leads us to a net debt-to-adjusted EBITDA ratio of more than 6.4x when using annualized adjusted EBITDA results provided by management.



The merger is also expected to be accretive to Sunocos distributable cash flow and distribution per unit, which management has said will put the company in a position to achieve near-term distribution increases in the low double digit range with a more than 1x distribution coverage ratio (in questionable industry-specific metrics, of course). Were not fond of any entity with the leverage of the proposed combination of these two MLPs targeting double digit distribution increases.

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Additionally, the deal will result in an implied distribution reduction, which likely would have been necessary anyway. Management has noted that without the deal, Energy Transfer Partners would need to consider a distribution reduction in the range of 15-25%, subject to a number of assumptions, in order to reduce leverage and increase distribution coverage to strengthen ETPs financial health and future cash distribution growth profile. The terms of the deal will result in an implied distribution reduction for unitholders from current quarterly levels at Energy Transfer Partners of $1.055 to $0.765 (1.5 times Sonocos current quarterly distribution of $0.51). Energy Transfer Partners unadjusted Dividend Cushion ratio is currently -1.2 (negative 1.2).

While we continue to be wary of the structure of the MLP business model, the underlying fundamentals of those businesses are strong, and should benefit from more relaxed regulatory environment in the US with the coming administration change. In this light, the deal makes a reasonable amount of sense. The simplification transaction will ensure strong access to capital markets in the near term and help maintain investment grade credit metrics and attractive funding costs, all of which enhance the firms ability to manage the inherent risk in large-scale growth investments (read: Donald Trumps promise to promote infrastructure investments).

If Energy Transfer Partners was going to be forced to reevaluate its distribution, which would have undoubtedly sent shockwaves through the MLP space, a reduction of the distribution in the form of a simplification transaction may be a savvy move, even if it only alleviates some of our concerns temporarily. Theres also the potential that management may be using the transaction to avoid a downgrade of Energy Transfer Partners credit rating to junk territory, of which it is currently on the precipice of. Each major credit rating agency currently rates its debt as the lowest rung of investment grade, Moodys recently reduced its outlook to Negative, and traditional free cash flow generation remains substantially negative as of the end of the third quarter of 2016. Sunocos free cash flow generation is also in negative territory, but it currently has higher credit ratings, and the moving parts of the simplification transaction could convolute the rating agencies processes for the time being.

Management will continue to tout the operational synergies and growth potential of the newly combined entity, and were not here to discredit those remarks. What were concerned about is the long-term viability of the MLP structure that have, at times, used lofty distribution yields to lure investors into what could turn out to be severely destructive to their invested capital. We view this simplification transaction as a short term alleviation of what will eventually turn out to be long-term pressures. As the market digested the news of the hidden distribution cut, shares were punished, but aside from the equity impact of the implied distribution reduction, the transaction should benefit the Energy Transfer family in the near to medium term.

The recent developments at the Energy Transfer family does very little to change our opinion of the midstream MLP space. In fact, it seems to add more validity to our thesis. From a July 2016 article:

We expect the MLP business/financial model to eventually be reevaluated at the highest regulatory levels and deemed an unfair structure. That MLPs can recirculate capital raised from the financial markets (financing section of the cash flow statement) to pay distributions, which are widely followed by trusting investors and often used to value their equities is incredible. How can you be sure that our perspective is worth considering? Ask one question: what would happen to MLPs if the capital markets shut down? The answer: They would have to cut their distributions as cutting off growth and investment would be a bonehead move in light of potential positive NPV projects. In any business seeking to generate value for shareholders, which all are, investment growth capital therefore will always be funded first and foremost through a companys operating cash flow, and since most capital investment and dividends, collectively, overwhelm operating cash flow generation, most all MLP payouts are in part financially-engineered (i.e. supported by the financing section of the cash flow statement). External capital is not the primary source of growth funding. Though it may not happen anytime soon, we believe there will eventually be an investor-led crusade against this dangerous business model. Such opposition doesnt necessarily have to come from investors either. It could come from a corporate coalition. There are many corporates, for example, that have decent balance sheets and cover their dividends with traditional free cash flow, but have much less sanguine credit marks by the agencies relative to those of such overleveraged, cash-burning (after dividend payments) pipeline MLP plays. Moreover, we believe the SEC should take a hard look at the industrys definition of cash flow, which we believe is very misleading to even the most sophisticated investors. In particular, an MLPs definition of distributable cash flow excludes the very growth capital spending that drives net income, which itself is included in the calculation of distributable cash flow. When analysts use distributable cash flow in valuation, they, by its very own definition, exclude a portion of the cash capital outflows (shareholder money) that are used to drive net income higher, a severe imbalance in the valuation equation.

We can only hope our members are not among those who allow the wool to be pulled over their eyes, but we can only promise one thing: we are going to give it, and have been giving it, to you straight.



This article or report and any links within are for information purposes only and should not be considered a solicitation to buy or sell any security. Valuentum is not responsible for any errors or omissions or for results obtained from the use of this article and accepts no liability for how readers may choose to utilize the content. Assumptions, opinions, and estimates are based on our judgment as of the date of the article and are subject to change without notice. For more information about Valuentum and the products and services it offers, please contact us at info@valuentum.com.


Scott Pruitt

For about a week, some environmentalists maintained hope that President-elect Donald Trump might moderate his views on climate change.

The man who formerly called climate change a "Chinese hoax" acknowledged to The New York Times earlier this month that "there is some connectivity" between human activity and climate change. He took two separate meetings with high-profile environmental activists Leonardo DiCaprio and former Vice President Al Gore. And his daughter Ivanka Trump has taken a reported interest in the issue of climate change.

But any potential hope within the environmental community that Trump's meetings inspired were quickly scuttled Wednesday, when the president-elect picked Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency.

Pruitt seemed to be a selection much more in line with Trump's previously outlined environmental policy prescriptions. On the campaign trail, Trump suggested abolishing the EPA, and he pledged to roll back environmental regulations. Pruitt has close ties to the fossil-fuel industry, and he created a state unit dedicated to opposing President Barack Obama's EPA regulations. Republicans largely praised the Pruitt pick as one that would roll back what they perceive as regulatory overreach by the Obama administration.

Top environmental activists like Michael Brune, the executive director of the Sierra Club, said Pruitt's record showed that while Trump may be deft at nodding to environmentalists, he would leave crafting actual policy up to climate-change skeptics.

"I don't think there are any mixed signals," Brune told Business Insider in an interview Thursday. "Trump has been very consistent throughout the last year and a half saying that he doesn't think that climate change is real, that he doesn't intend to do anything about it."

He added: "One little head fake with The New York Times or a meeting or two doesn't negate the fact that he has taken just about every opportunity to appoint people to his transition team and now to nominate an EPA head  these are folks who don't believe that climate change is real, don't think that the US government should continue its role in public health, and side with the fossil-fuel industry over the American public."

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Other climate activists were equally as blunt.

"Pruitt's appointment reveals Trump's climate flip-flopping and meetings with Gore as nothing more than a smokescreen," May Boeve, the executive director of the group 350.org, said in a statement.

Many vowed to make noise about Pruitt's nomination.

Tom Steyer, the billionaire investor who founded the NextGen Climate advocacy group, called on Senate Democrats to reject Pruitt.

"Donald Trump's decision to nominate Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt represents a serious attack on American values," Steyer said in a statement. "It's now up to the Senate to stand on the right side of history and fight for our families by defeating this nomination."

Brune  who characterized Pruitt's appointment as "putting an arsonist in charge of a fire"  said environmental activists had the upper hand, pointing to public-opinion surveys showing that most Americans believe that climate change is a serious problem.

"We'll work with everybody in the Senate who believes that climate change is real, that the EPA's job is to protect public health, and we think that there will be a majority of senators who will oppose this nomination," he said. "Pruitt has a very clear and consistent track record of resisting efforts to limit pollution. And since regulating pollution would be his job as head of the EPA, he is unusually unqualified to assume this position."

NOW WATCH: 'That hypocrisy is also real'  Jon Stewart takes liberals to task for calling all Trump supporters racist





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BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union will extend by six months its main economic sanctions on Russia over the conflict in Ukraine after the bloc's leaders meet in Brussels on Dec. 15, diplomatic sources and officials said on Friday. The sanctions include restrictions access to international financing, and curbs on defence and energy cooperation with Russia, which annexed the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea from Kiev in March, 2014, and went on to back a rebellion in east Ukraine. The conflict in Ukraine's industrial east is still simmering and has claimed nearly 10,000 lives. Efforts at implementing a peace agreement, brokered by Germany and France, have stalled for nearly two years. The sources said Paris and Berlin will briefly inform other EU leaders about the situation when they meet next week for their last joint summit in Brussels of the year. There is no doubt that the punitive measures will be prolonged beyond their current expiry date of end-January, they said. The formal procedure to do that should conclude around Dec. 20, the sources added. (Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska, Alastair Macdonald, Robin Emmott; editing by John Stonestreet)
By Philip Blenkinsop

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union has launched a new investigation into whether Chinese manufacturers are selling steel into Europe at unfairly low prices, angering China which says Europe's steel problems are due to the region's own economic weakness.

The European Commission has determined that a complaint brought by EU steel makers' association Eurofer regarding certain corrosion resistant steel merits an investigation, the EU's official journal said on Friday.

The Commission also said it would start another anti-dumping investigation into certain cast iron products from China and India as well as determining whether existing duties on Chinese steel seamless pipes and tubes should continue for another five years.

The EU has already imposed duties on a wide range of steel grades to counter what EU steel producers say is a flood of steel sold at a loss due to Chinese overcapacity and partly the cause of 5,000 British job losses.

A China Commerce Ministry official said Beijing attached a "high degree of attention and concern" to the case and that Europe's steel problems were due to its own weak economic growth.

Wang Hejun, the head of the trade remedies investigation department, said in a statement on the ministry's website that Europe should rationally analyze its steel industry's problems.

"It should not adopt mistaken trade protectionist measures that limit fair market competition," he said.

The EU investigation begins just days before the 15th anniversary of China's accession to the World Trade Organization, when the country says new trade defense rules are supposed to kick in.

Until now, the EU has been able to compare Chinese prices with those of another country - in the current case Canadian prices. But, Beijing insists this should no longer be possible from Dec. 11.

If the United States, European Union, and other WTO members begin to take Chinese prices as fair market value, it will be much harder for them to challenge China's cheap exports.

Story continues

The European Commission proposed last month a new way of treating China, but its proposals still await approval from the EU's 28 members and the European Parliament.

Aegis Europe, a group of European industry federations including Eurofer, said there was no legal requirement to change the way the EU treated China on Dec. 11 and that EU's partners the United States and Japan would not be doing so.

G20 governments recognized in September that steel overcapacity was a serious problem. China, the source of 50 percent of the world's steel and the largest steel consumer, has said the problem is a global one.

The EU currently has 40 anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures in place, 18 of which are on products from China. Twenty more investigations related to steel are still ongoing, including three for which provisional duties are in place.

(Reporting By Philip Blenkinsop in Brussels, Yawen Chen and Nicholas Heath in Beijing,; Editing by Greg Mahlich and Jane Merriman)
By Maja Zuvela SARAJEVO (Reuters) - The European Union's senior official for new memberships on Friday expressed concern about rising nationalist rhetoric and divisions in the Balkans as countries seek to join the bloc. EU enlargement commissioner Johannes Hahn urged regional leaders to focus on promised reforms. Hahn was speaking in Sarajevo, where he handed the Bosnian government an EU questionnaire on its readiness to join the bloc. The EU's 28-member states accepted Bosnia's membership application in September, launching what is certain to be a long process. Bosnia's multiple governments must answer 3,242 questions in the next six months relating to the compatibility of their economic, legal and social systems with EU standards. "It's a kind of stress test," Hahn said. Hahn said, however, there was a general concern about nationalist rhetoric in some countries of the region. In Bosnia itself, divisions among its Christian Orthodox Serbs, Catholic Croats and Muslim Bosniaks have deepened. "I can only urge everybody to abstain from this kind of rhetoric and focus on what people need - and people need jobs, they need income, they need social guarantees," Hahn said. Bosnia hopes to get EU candidate status by the end of 2017 joining other Western Balkan countries that are at a more advanced stage of integration, including Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. Croatia and Slovenia, which like Bosnia are former Yugoslav republics, are already EU members. Prime Minister Denis Zvizdic said he hoped that political disagreements in Bosnia's Serb-dominated region and in the autonomous Bosniak and Croat federation would not block or slow down progress towards EU accession. All groups say that EU membership is a shared goal. (Writing by Daria Sito-Sucic, Editing by Angus MacSwan)
Brussels (AFP) - European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker on Friday warned countries not to go it alone in the wake of Brexit, as he marked the 25th anniversary of a summit that produced the Maastricht treaty.

Speaking in the Dutch town where EU leaders a quarter of a century ago hammered out a deal that gave birth to the euro, Juncker lashed out at those trying to "deconstruct" the crisis-hit bloc.

"Those who think the time has come to deconstruct the EU, to put the EU in pieces, to subdivide us into national divisions are totally wrong," former Luxembourg prime minister Juncker told an audience of students.

"We won't exist as single nations. We won't exist as a single country... In 20 years from now not one single member state will be member of the G7. Any questions?" he warned, referring to the G7 group of the world's richest nations.

Juncker said however that Britain's shock referendum vote to leave the EU showed that it could be time to develop a two-speed Europe, divided between countries that want more integration and countries that want less.

"The British feel too hot in the kitchen, they are not comfortable," he said. He began to talk about EU membership candidate Turkey, with whom relations are strained, but then broke off: "The Turks -- but this a president should not say."

"We have to invent a different orbit for those of our European countries who do not want to be part of all the domains where we are trying to work together. This would not be a tragedy, this would not be a crisis," he said.

Juncker -- who was Luxembourg finance minister at the time of the Maastricht summit and its only participant to still be politically active -- in theory has a double cause to party as Friday is his 62nd birthday.

But the anniversary of the Maastricht summit -- the treaty was officially signed on February 7, 1992 -- has been overshadowed by the EU's wave of problems, including the decision by Britain to split from the bloc.

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Juncker rebuked EU members that had broken the spirit of European unity during the migration crisis last year.

Eastern European countries such as Hungary and Slovakia have ignored a decision pushed through by Juncker's commission in 2015 to relocate refugees pouring into Greece and Italy across all the EU member states.

"That is something new -- for the first time in post-war European history not all the member states are applying the agreed rules," Juncker said.

"This is against this basic principle that the European Union is a rule-based system. It is no longer," he said.
European stocks closed higher on Friday afternoon as investors digested the European Central Bank 's (ECB) announcement to extend it's bond buying program - albeit at a reduced pace of monthly asset purchases .

The pan-European Stoxx 600 (^STOXX) ended 0.97 percent higher on Friday with almost all sectors in positive territory.

Despite the ECB's announcement of further stimulus, bank stocks were down 0.69 percent at the close. After earlier gains in the week, shares of Italian banks dropped on Friday. Unicredit (Milan Stock Exchange: UCG-IT) ended down 2.34 percent on what one trader told Reuters was profit-taking after several days of strong gains.

Shares of Monte dei Paschi (Milan Stock Exchange: BMPS-IT) plummeted 10 percent lower after reports that the ECB had rejected its request for further time to implement a 5 billion euro ($5.4 billion) recapitalization process. This could put pressure on the Italian authorities to rescue the stricken lender.

Sky PLC (London Stock Exchange: SKY-GB) shares surged on Friday after the British broadcaster was approached with a possible takeover bid from Rupert Murdoch's 21st Centruy Fox (FOXA). Reuters reported the bid to be in the region of $23.23 billion. Shares jumped 30 percent higher immediately after the news before retreating slightly to close more than 26 percent in positive territory.

Meanwhile in the U.S., the Dow Jones industrial average continued higher and the Nasdaq hit a record high after a remarkable post-election rally continued.

Insurance stocks closed 0.4 percent lower. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published Friday proposals for rules and guidance on payment protection insurance complaints (PPI).

Media stocks were the best performers, jumping 4.57 percent, which was, in large part, attributed to Fox's takeover approach to Sky PLC.

In Italy, President Mattarella was reported to be consulting with political parties to find a solution to overcome the ongoing political crisis.

Story continues

U.K. regulators are set to summon Citigroup officials as they investigate a "flash crash" in sterling last October, the Financial Times reported.

OPEC and non-OPEC members are gathering on Saturday to discuss a plan to revamp oil prices. Only five out of 14 non-OPEC members have confirmed their attendance so far.

Germany reported a 4.1 percent contraction in exports in October. Imports dropped 2.2 percent. As a result, Germany's trade surplus moved from 24.4 billion euros ($25.94 billion) to 19.3 billion euros.



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(Adds comment from defense lawyers)

By Nate Raymond

Dec 9 (Reuters) - A former Cantor Fitzgerald trader has been indicted on charges that he defrauded investors by lying about the price of mortgage bond transactions he handled for them after the financial crisis, U.S. prosecutors said on Friday.

David Demos, 35, was charged with securities fraud in an indictment filed in federal court in New Haven, Connecticut, becoming the latest trader to face charges for cheating customers on prices of mortgage-backed securities.

Demos, of Westport, Connecticut, appeared in court on Friday for an arraignment. In a joint statement afterwards, his legal team, which includes lawyers Peter Chavkin and Stanley Twardy, said Demos would fight the charges.

"Mr. Demos denies the charges made against him, including the allegations that his communications and negotiations with counterparties were 'material,'" his lawyers said in the statement. "He intends to vigorously defend himself."

Prosecutors said Demos, a trader and managing director at Cantor Fitzgerald from November 2011 to February 2013, defrauded customers by fraudulently inflating the price at which the company could buy residential mortgage-backed securities.

The goal, prosecutors said, was to induce customers to pay a higher price for mortgage bonds and to decrease the price at which Cantor could sell them in order to get investors to sell bonds at cheaper prices.

The scheme allowed Cantor Fitzgerald and Demos to reap illegal profits, prosecutors said, while causing their customers to sustain millions of dollars of losses.

The victims included asset managers and firms affiliated with or subsidiaries of recipients of funds from the U.S. government's financial crisis-era bailout program, the Troubled Asset Relief Program, prosecutors said.

The case marked the latest action by federal prosecutors in Connecticut against traders accused of cheating customers on prices of mortgage-backed securities.

Story continues

In December 2015, a federal appeals court reversed a first conviction in the probe against Jesse Litvak, a former Jefferies managing director who was found guilty in 2014 and sentenced to two years in prison.

Litvak, who denies wrongdoing, is scheduled to face re-trial on Jan. 4. Jefferies, a unit of Leucadia National Corp, in 2014 agreed to pay $25 million to end U.S. criminal and civil probes into how it supervised Litvak and other traders.

Others charged to date include two former Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc traders, who have pleaded guilty, and three former traders at Nomura Holdings Inc, who are scheduled to face trial on Feb. 27.

The case is U.S. v. Demos, U.S. District Court, District of Connecticut, No. 16-cr-00220.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York; Editing by Phil Berlowitz and Leslie Adler)
By Nate Raymond

(Reuters) - A former Cantor Fitzgerald trader has been indicted on charges that he defrauded investors by lying about the price of mortgage bond transactions he handled for them after the financial crisis, U.S. prosecutors said on Friday.

David Demos, 35, was charged with securities fraud in an indictment filed in federal court in New Haven, Connecticut, becoming the latest trader to face charges for cheating customers on prices of mortgage-backed securities.

Demos, of Westport, Connecticut, appeared in court on Friday for an arraignment. In a joint statement afterwards, his legal team, which includes lawyers Peter Chavkin and Stanley Twardy, said Demos would fight the charges.

"Mr. Demos denies the charges made against him, including the allegations that his communications and negotiations with counterparties were 'material,'" his lawyers said in the statement. "He intends to vigorously defend himself."

Prosecutors said Demos, a trader and managing director at Cantor Fitzgerald from November 2011 to February 2013, defrauded customers by fraudulently inflating the price at which the company could buy residential mortgage-backed securities.

The goal, prosecutors said, was to induce customers to pay a higher price for mortgage bonds and to decrease the price at which Cantor could sell them in order to get investors to sell bonds at cheaper prices.

The scheme allowed Cantor Fitzgerald and Demos to reap illegal profits, prosecutors said, while causing their customers to sustain millions of dollars of losses.

The victims included asset managers and firms affiliated with or subsidiaries of recipients of funds from the U.S. government's financial crisis-era bailout program, the Troubled Asset Relief Program, prosecutors said.

The case marked the latest action by federal prosecutors in Connecticut against traders accused of cheating customers on prices of mortgage-backed securities.

In December 2015, a federal appeals court reversed a first conviction in the probe against Jesse Litvak, a former Jefferies managing director who was found guilty in 2014 and sentenced to two years in prison.

Story continues

Litvak, who denies wrongdoing, is scheduled to face re-trial on Jan. 4. Jefferies, a unit of Leucadia National Corp, in 2014 agreed to pay $25 million to end U.S. criminal and civil probes into how it supervised Litvak and other traders.

Others charged to date include two former Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc traders, who have pleaded guilty, and three former traders at Nomura Holdings Inc, who are scheduled to face trial on Feb. 27.

The case is U.S. v. Demos, U.S. District Court, District of Connecticut, No. 16-cr-00220.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York; Editing by Phil Berlowitz and Leslie Adler)
LMU, Islington sign pact

Kathmandu-based Islington College and London Metropolitan University (LMU) on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding to further collaboration between the two academic institutions.
By Nate Raymond

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A former Swiss banker who was arrested last year in Germany on U.S. charges that he helped wealthy Americans evade taxes is back in Switzerland after the denial of a request to extradite him to the United States from Germany, his lawyer said on Friday.

Roger Keller, a one-time client adviser in Zurich at Wegelin & Co, was one of three bankers at the now-defunct Swiss private bank charged in a 2012 indictment in New York federal court for helping U.S. taxpayers hide more than $1.2 billion (953.66 million pound) in assets.

He was arrested in Germany in February 2015 at the request of the U.S. government, which sought his extradition, and served seven months in jail before being granted bail, said Thomas Green, Keller's U.S. lawyer at the law firm Sidley Austin.

By German court order, he was officially released on Friday after the U.S. request to extradite him was denied, Green said, though Keller had already been allowed to return to Switzerland a "few days ago."

Representatives for Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara's office, which had been prosecuting the case, had no immediate comment, nor did a spokesman for the general prosecutor's office in Frankfurt.

The case against Keller is one of several brought by the U.S. Justice Department against Swiss bankers and their employers stemming from a U.S. crackdown on offshore tax evasion by wealthy Americans utilizing undeclared Swiss bank accounts.

Wegelin, Switzerland's oldest private bank, was forced to close after agreeing in 2013 to plead guilty to conspiracy to evade taxes and pay $74 million.

Wegelin was indicted a month after prosecutors announced charges against Keller and two other Wegelin bankers. All three were from Switzerland, which the U.S. Justice Department has said does not extradite its citizens in such cases.

The U.S. Justice Department in January announced the final settlement in a programme that resulted in 80 banks paying $1.36 billion to avoid prosecution. Some other banks also settled as part of U.S. criminal cases.

Story continues

Those included UBS, which reached $780 million deferred prosecution deal in 2009; Credit Suisse, which as part of a plea deal in 2014 agreed to pay $2.6 billion; and Julius Baer, which in February agreed to pay $547 million in a deferred prosecution deal.

The case is U.S. v. Berlinka et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 12-cr-00002.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York; additional reporting by Alexander Hubner in Frankfurt; Editing by David Gregorio)
The brutal 1995 slaying of Adrianne Jones, an exuberant and well-liked Texas high school student, is being re-examined in Monday nights episode of People Magazine Investigates, on Investigation Discovery.

The case surprised investigators from beginning to end, as PEOPLE Senior Editor Alicia Dennis explained in a Friday appearance on People Now.  body was found in a rural area in Mansfield, Texas, and the whole community was just appalled, she said.

More surprising still was the truth of who killed Adrianne.

Investigators say David Graham and Diane Zamora, two of Adriannes classmates  and high school sweethearts themselves  confessed to her killing, which Zamora ordered in a jealous rage when she learned Jones and Graham had once had sex.

As one of Zamoras family friends told PEOPLE in 1996, I remember being flabbergasted when I heard Diane had been arrested. I kept saying, This cant be the same Diane Zamora. There must be some mistake. 

 Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.

Dennis said on People Now that the couple, who had both been accepted to military academies after high school, before their arrests, was caught in part thanks to their fellow students.

It has to do with Diane talking to her fellow cadets at the Naval Academy and some things getting shared there that they felt they had to share, Dennis said.

Zamora and Graham were convicted in Jones murder, but Zamora maintains her innocence and is no longer with Graham.

She will speak out on Mondays People Magazine Investigates  describing some of what she says led up to Adriannes killing.

People Magazine Investigates episode on the Jones case airs Monday (10 p.m.) ET on Investigation Discovery.




Anna Camp is speaking out about the cancellation of Amazon's Good Girls Revolt, just weeks after it debuted on the streaming service.

"It was super shocking," Camp, 34, told ET's Lauren Zima about the surprising decision. "Good Girls Revolt -- it's a hit! It actually is still a hit. It was canceled, surprisingly, 35 days after its release, and we don't really know why."

RELATED: Anna Camp Dishes on Amazon's 'Good Girls Revolt'

In Good Girls Revolt, Camp plays Jane Hollander, a female researcher at News of the Week at the beginning of the women's rights movement in 1969, who -- along with her young female colleagues -- asks to be treated and paid fairly in the workplace.

"There's no clear answer," she said of why the show got the axe, adding that there's still hope for the series to live on.

"Other networks are sniffing around and are very interested, so we're hoping it will have a second season," Camp added. "It was a great show and still is -- and keep watching it, because who knows? We might get a second season!"

PICS: Every TV Show You Should Be Watching Now

Camp's co-star Genevieve Angelson, who played fellow researcher and aspiring reporter Patti Robinson, was equally vocal after the news went public.

Thousands of you engaged with me looking for hope and strength the day after election. You came to the right place. I'm not going anywhere.  Genevieve Angelson (@GenevieveAngel) December 2, 2016

Amazon decided to cancel GGR. Your roars of support elevated me from the darkest election in history & I'll never stop fighting back for us.  Genevieve Angelson (@GenevieveAngel) December 2, 2016

Following the cancellation, creator Dana Calvo didn't mince words, telling The Hollywood Reporter that she and the Good Girls Revolt team were "surprised" by the decision.

Story continues

RELATED: Anna Camp and Skylar Astin Are Married

In August, Camp spoke to reporters at the summer Television Critics Association press tour about the differences between her real life and her on-screen character.

"It's fascinating because my character is going towards her career, where I'm going more towards the family of it all, so it's kind of a juxtaposition," Camp said of Jane's arc. "It's been interesting to play that, definitely."

Good Girls Revolt, which launched Oct. 28, also starred Erin Darke, Chris Diamantopoulos, Hunter Parrish, Joy Bryant, Grace Gummer and Jim Belushi. Good Girls Revolt is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.

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Chad Michael Murray didn't make an appearance on Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life -- though the Netflix revival totally replaced him in one scene with another actor and hoped nobody would notice -- but he has no hard feelings.

ET spoke to the 35-year-old actor at the GQ Men of the Year party in Los Angeles on Thursday, where he told us he actually hasn't tuned into the continuation of the beloved WB series.

"I haven't personally seen it, but I know everyone's really excited," Murray exclusively told ET's Lauren Zima. "I wish I could've been there but it's all good -- life is good. All my buddies got to go back."

WATCH: EXCLUSIVE -- Milo Ventimiglia Spills on Jess' Return to Stars Hollow and Why He's Still a 'Bad Boy'

Murray played private school bad boy Tristan Dugray on Gilmore Girls for two seasons. In a memorable scene from the revival, Rory (Alexis Bledel) and her friend, Paris (Liza Weil), return to Chilton Academy for alumni day, and Paris freezes as she sees Tristan. For a split second, the camera cuts to a handsome blonde man hitting on a girl in the hallways of Chilton, who's very clearly not Murray.

According to TV Line, Murray declined an invitation to revive his role, which led to him being recast with actor Anton Narinskiy. Still, while the original Tristan may have not been present, the actors who played Rory's three main love interests did return, including Jared Padalecki (Dean) -- whom Tristan memorably clashed with at Rory's school dance -- Milo Ventimiglia (Jess) and Matt Czuchry (Logan).

But Murray has plenty going on in his personal life. The Agent Carter actor's wife, actress Sarah Roemer, is currently pregnant with their second child together. The couple is expecting a baby girl, after welcoming their son last May.

"Officially the luckiest man in the world," Murray sweetly gushed about family life. "Life is good. I couldn't complain -- our son is awesome, he's a giant. Little baby girl on the way, so, you know, I'm scared sh**less to be honest. I'm not gonna lie."

Story continues

"It's a whole new ball game," he explained. "So, I've got the guy figured out, you know, and we throw the ball around, and we wrestle, and he likes to beat up Daddy. Now it's the baby girl, and she's gonna have me wrapped around her finger, and I'm gonna be in big trouble and not know how to discipline or anything."

Murray is clearly relishing his role as a father.

"I'm just excited, like, everybody says that your heart splits in two -- and I can't imagine loving anything more than I love my wife and my son," he said. "So now, the idea of that happening again kind of blows my mind, you know. It just gives me more fuel to want to go work hard and make them proud."

NEWS: Ryan Gosling Tried Out for a Role on 'Gilmore Girls' But Completely Bombed the Audition

ET talked to Murray in July, when he told us that fatherhood is "the greatest thing that ever happened" to him.

Watch below:

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By Silvia Aloisi and Paola Arosio

MILAN (Reuters) - The European Central Bank has rejected a request by Italy's Monte dei Paschi di Siena (BMPS.MI) for more time to raise capital, a source said on Friday, a decision that piles pressure on the Rome government to bail out the lender.

Italy's third-largest bank, and the world's oldest, had asked for a three-week extension until January 20 to try to wrap up a privately funded, 5 billion euro ($5.3 billion) rescue plan in the face of fresh political uncertainty.

The ECB's supervisory board turned down the request at a meeting on Friday on the grounds that a delay would be of little use and that it was time for Rome to step in, the source said.

The Italian government is likely to intervene in the next few days, possibly as early as this weekend, to bail out the bank to prevent it being wound down, banking sources said. Some bankers say the government could seize the opportunity to bolster other ailing Italian banks, not just the Tuscan lender.

A failure of the bank could erase the savings of thousands of retail investors, jolt the wider banking sector and spark a financial crisis in the euro zone's third-biggest economy.

The treasury declined to comment, but a government source said Rome was ready to use an emergency decree to authorize a bank rescue if necessary.

Monte dei Paschi said on Friday night that it had yet to receive an ECB response to its request for more time, and that it was pressing ahead with its private rescue plan. Its board met on Friday night and would resume deliberations on Sunday.

CEO Marco Morelli could still launch an 11th-hour attempt to raise money by reopening an offer for retail investors to swap 2.1 billion euros of subordinated bank debt into equity, a source familiar with the matter said. This is despite the market watchdog saying the offer is too risky for ordinary investors.

In addition, Qatar's sovereign wealth fund could invest another 1 billion euros, while a consortium of banks would try to raise additional capital through a share sale on the market without committing to underwrite it, the source said.

Story continues

However, other bankers said state intervention remained the most likely option.

Monte dei Paschi shares fell as much as 15 percent on the Reuters report that the euro zone's bank supervisor had rejected its request for more time. The stock ended down 10.6 percent.

PASSING BATON TO ROME

The ECB has effectively invited Rome to step in at a time when the Italian government is in disarray, with a caretaker administration in charge after Prime Minister Matteo Renzi quit this week in the wake of a heavy referendum defeat.

Renzi had resisted calls for a state bailout of Monte dei Paschi because EU rules would require the lender's bondholders to suffer losses.

Italy's president is holding talks with political parties over the weekend with the aim of appointing Renzi's successor on Monday and a new government soon after. Italy would still face the risk of early elections, as early as next spring, with the prospect of the anti-euro Five Star Movement coming to power.

One banking source said the consortium of investment banks looking to support Monte dei Paschi's privately funded rescue plan did not believe there was enough time or willing investors to execute the deal by the year-end deadline imposed by the ECB.

That leaves little option other than a so-called precautionary recapitalization by the state. Under tough European rules governing banking crises, losses would have to be imposed on the bank's junior bondholders first, most likely through a mandatory debt conversion into shares.

Rome is keen to spare the bank's 40,000 retail investors who hold its subordinated debt, but it may have to include them in the forced debt swap and find ways to reimburse them later.

Earlier on Friday, the bank's senior management met Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan and the leading investment banks behind the private rescue plan, JPMorgan (JPM.N) and Mediobanca (MDBI.MI), a treasury source said.

($1 = 0.9291 euros)

(Additional reporting by Reuters bureaus; Writing by Silvia Aloisi; Editing by Pravin Char and Peter Graff)
By Silvia Aloisi and Paola Arosio MILAN (Reuters) - The European Central Bank has rejected a request by Italy's Monte dei Paschi di Siena for more time to raise capital, a source said on Friday, a decision that piles pressure on the Rome government to bail out the lender. Italy's third-largest bank, and the world's oldest, had asked for a three-week extension until January 20 to try to wrap up a privately funded, 5 billion euro ($5.3 billion) rescue plan in the face of fresh political uncertainty. The ECB's supervisory board turned down the request at a meeting on Friday on the grounds that a delay would be of little use and that it was time for Rome to step in, the source said. The Italian government is likely to intervene in the next few days, possibly as early as this weekend, to bail out the bank to prevent it being wound down, banking sources said. Some bankers say the government could seize the opportunity to bolster other ailing Italian banks, not just the Tuscan lender. A failure of the bank could erase the savings of thousands of retail investors, jolt the wider banking sector and spark a financial crisis in the euro zone's third-biggest economy. The treasury declined to comment, but a government source said Rome was ready to use an emergency decree to authorize a bank rescue if necessary. Monte dei Paschi said on Friday night that it had yet to receive an ECB response to its request for more time, and that it was pressing ahead with its private rescue plan. Its board met on Friday night and would resume deliberations on Sunday. CEO Marco Morelli could still launch an 11th-hour attempt to raise money by reopening an offer for retail investors to swap 2.1 billion euros of subordinated bank debt into equity, a source familiar with the matter said. This is despite the market watchdog saying the offer is too risky for ordinary investors. In addition, Qatar's sovereign wealth fund could invest another 1 billion euros, while a consortium of banks would try to raise additional capital through a share sale on the market without committing to underwrite it, the source said. However, other bankers said state intervention remained the most likely option. Monte dei Paschi shares fell as much as 15 percent on the Reuters report that the euro zone's bank supervisor had rejected its request for more time. The stock ended down 10.6 percent. PASSING BATON TO ROME The ECB has effectively invited Rome to step in at a time when the Italian government is in disarray, with a caretaker administration in charge after Prime Minister Matteo Renzi quit this week in the wake of a heavy referendum defeat. Renzi had resisted calls for a state bailout of Monte dei Paschi because EU rules would require the lender's bondholders to suffer losses. Italy's president is holding talks with political parties over the weekend with the aim of appointing Renzi's successor on Monday and a new government soon after. Italy would still face the risk of early elections, as early as next spring, with the prospect of the anti-euro Five Star Movement coming to power. One banking source said the consortium of investment banks looking to support Monte dei Paschi's privately funded rescue plan did not believe there was enough time or willing investors to execute the deal by the year-end deadline imposed by the ECB. That leaves little option other than a so-called precautionary recapitalization by the state. Under tough European rules governing banking crises, losses would have to be imposed on the bank's junior bondholders first, most likely through a mandatory debt conversion into shares. Rome is keen to spare the bank's 40,000 retail investors who hold its subordinated debt, but it may have to include them in the forced debt swap and find ways to reimburse them later. Earlier on Friday, the bank's senior management met Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan and the leading investment banks behind the private rescue plan, JPMorgan and Mediobanca , a treasury source said. ($1 = 0.9291 euros) (Additional reporting by Reuters bureaus; Writing by Silvia Aloisi; Editing by Pravin Char and Peter Graff)
By Arno Schuetze and Oliver Hirt

FRANKFURT/ZURICH (Reuters) - Swiss aircraft manufacturer Pilatus Aircraft is considering listing its shares in an initial public offering next year which could value the firm at around 3 billion Swiss francs (2.34 billion pound), according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Plans are at an early stage with Pilatus talking to bankers, although no institutions have yet been appointed to work on the flotation which could come in the second half of 2017, one of the sources said.

Pilatus is considering the flotation in order to raise funds for the production of its new PC-24 business jet, the source added.

The company has said first deliveries are due to be made to clients in the final quarter of 2017 and the aircraft is the first business jet which can take off from and land on short, unprepared runways.

The ultimate timing of the IPO will depend on market conditions, the other source said.

Pilatus declined to comment on a possible IPO.

Shares in other large listed planemakers trade at 13.4 to 20.5 times earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT), implying that if Pilatus is able to fetch a similar multiple, the company could be worth between 2.6 billion and 3.9 billion francs.

Pilatus makes civilian and military aircraft and had sales totalling 1.12 billion francs in 2015 and a workforce of 1,905 employees.

The IPO would be a mixture of current owners selling some shares and the company issuing new stock, one source said.

Pilatus has said it does not disclose its owners but one major stakeholder is IHAG Holding, which is related to Oerlikon-Buehrle, Pilatus's founder.

(Additional reporting and writing by Joshua Franklin in Zurich; Editing by Greg Mahlich)
As concerns swirl over hate speech and trolls on social platforms like Facebook Inc (ticker: FB) and Twitter (TWTR), efforts to combat these problems hardly go unnoticed. But Facebook's latest endeavor in this arena is unique.

The social network has partnered with EdVentures Partners and the State Department for the groups' "Peer to Peer: Challenging Extremism" competition approximately one year ago, where college students work to fight extremism through online campaigns as part of the contest.

The goal is for students to develop shareable, insightful content for social media, as opposed to extremists who might take advantage of messaging, reports Business Insider. The U.S. competition's deadline was this week, though it is international. A final competition will take place in February in the District of Columbia.

One group competing in the U.S. is the University of Nebraska Omaha, whose students developed The Refugee Perspective Campaign that showcases community refugees.

"The demographics here are pretty low diversity," professor Gina Ligon, the students' advisor, told Business Insider. "We have a lot of college-age students who have never been exposed to a refugee or even to someone from another country. There are really great kids here, but that's who white supremacists target, people who don't know any different."

Besides contributing financially to the competition, Facebook helps EdVenture Partners and the State Department train and judge it as well.

Elsewhere, Twitter announced an update to is "mute" feature last month as criticism continued to mount its abuse problem. It had also suspended hundreds of thousands of accounts for promotion of terrorism as of August.

Both Facebook and Twitter, along with Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and Alphabets (GOOG, GOOGL) YouTube, also recently announced a plan to combat terrorism online, TheStreet notes. Facebook is dealing with a proliferation of fake news on its platform and has a survey out to try and address deceptive headlines.

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13 Stocks to Buy to Bet on China

David Oliver is Associate Editor, Social Media at U.S. News & World Report. Follow him on Twitter, connect with him on LinkedIn, or send him an email at doliver@usnews.com.
Local elections soon: PM Dahal

Reiterating his commitement to hold local level elections soon, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has said that the polls will be held even in the old structure if restructuring of the local units is not materialised.
LONDON (Reuters) - What happens if the British government loses its appeal against a High Court ruling that said ministers could not start the process of leaving the European Union without parliament's approval? All 11 Supreme Court judges sat on the appeal, the first time they have done so since its formation in 2009, and its president said on Thursday it would reach a decision as quickly as possible. IF GOVERNMENT LOSES One suggestion is that both houses of parliament would debate and vote on a short motion giving Prime Minister Theresa May authority to trigger Article 50, kick-starting the process. However, lawyers leading the challenge against the government argue that only a new law authorising the government to trigger Article 50 would suffice because citizens would lose rights granted by the parliamentary act by which Britain joined the EU. Only a new law could start a process which would inevitably take those rights away, the lawyers say. Even the government's own lawyer told the court that a one-line bill would probably be necessary. If that is the case, it is not clear how much opposition or delay such a bill would face. Most MPs in the lower house of parliament will now back Brexit, and they overwhelmingly supported May's timetable for leaving the union in a non-binding vote on Wednesday. Some might try to force amendments and conditions on May while the upper unelected House of Lords, many of whose members opposed Brexit, could put up opposition. Judges cannot order parliament to pass laws, so they themselves might avoid suggesting a law is required. "So the real question is, can we as a court say to parliament, the trigger stage, a motion would not be good enough, even a motion supported -- a unanimous motion, that would not be good enough," Robert Carnwath, one of the Supreme Court judges, said during the appeal. "There has to be this one-line bill that says: yes, you can trigger." IF GOVERNMENT WINS If the court backs the government appeal, then May will be able to go ahead with her plan to trigger Article 50 by the end of March without seeking specific backing from MPs. Investors believe that greater parliamentary involvement would reduce the chances of a "hard Brexit" in which tight controls on immigration are prioritised over European single market access. (Reporting by Michael Holden; editing by John Stonestreet)
(Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is expected to pick Goldman Sachs executive Gary Cohn to head his White House National Economic Council, a group tasked with coordinating economic policy across federal agencies, a Trump transition official told Reuters on Friday. The following is a list of Republican Trump's selections for top jobs in his administration. All the posts but that of national security adviser, the White House chief of staff, White House director of the National Economic Council and White House strategist require Senate confirmation: U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: JEFF SESSIONS Sessions, 69, was the first U.S. senator to endorse Trump's presidential bid and has been a close ally since. Son of a country-store owner, the Alabama senator and former federal prosecutor has long taken a tough stance on illegal immigration, opposing any path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. CIA DIRECTOR: MIKE POMPEO U.S. Representative Pompeo, 52, is a third-term congressman from Kansas who serves on the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, which oversees the CIA, National Security Agency and cyber security. A retired Army officer and Harvard Law School graduate, Pompeo supports the U.S. government's sweeping collection of Americans' communications data and wants to scrap the nuclear deal with Iran. COMMERCE SECRETARY: WILBUR ROSS Ross, 78, heads the private equity firm W.L. Ross & Co. His net worth was pegged by Forbes at about $2.9 billion. A staunch supporter of Trump and an economic adviser, Ross helped shape the Trump campaign's views on trade policy. He blames the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico, which went into force in 1994, and the 2001 entry of China into the World Trade Organization for causing massive U.S. factory job losses. DEFENSE SECRETARY: JAMES MATTIS Mattis is a retired Marine general known for his tough talk, distrust of Iran and battlefield experience in Iraq and Afghanistan. A former leader of Central Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East and South Asia, Mattis, 66, is known by many U.S. forces by his nickname "Mad Dog." He was once rebuked for saying in 2005: "It's fun to shoot some people." EDUCATION SECRETARY: BETSY DEVOS DeVos, 58, is a billionaire Republican donor, a former chair of the Michigan Republican Party and an advocate for the privatization of education. As chair of the American Federation for Children, she has pushed at the state level for vouchers that families can use to send their children to private schools and for the expansion of charter schools. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY ADMINISTRATOR: SCOTT PRUITT An ardent opponent of President Barack Obama's measures to stem climate change, Oklahoma Attorney General Pruitt, 48, has enraged environmental activists. But he fits with the president-elect's promise to cut the agency back and eliminate regulation that he says is stifling oil and gas drilling. Pruitt became the top state prosecutor for Oklahoma, which has extensive oil reserves, in 2011, and has challenged the EPA multiple times since. HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: TOM PRICE U.S. Representative Price, 62, is an orthopedic surgeon who heads the House Budget Committee. A representative from Georgia since 2005, Price has criticized Obamacare and has championed a plan of tax credits, expanded health savings accounts and lawsuit reforms to replace it. He is opposed to abortion. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: JOHN KELLY The final leadership role of Kelly's 45-year career was head of the U.S. Southern Command, responsible for U.S. military activities and relationships in Latin America and the Caribbean. The 66-year-old retired Marine general differed with Democratic President Barack Obama on key issues and has warned of vulnerabilities along the United States' southern border with Mexico. HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT SECRETARY: BEN CARSON Carson, 65, is a retired neurosurgeon who dropped out of the Republican presidential nominating race in March and threw his support to Trump. A popular writer and speaker in conservative circles, Carson previously indicated reluctance to take a position in the incoming administration because of his lack of experience in the federal government. Carson is the first African-American picked for a Cabinet spot by Trump. INTERIOR SECRETARY: CATHY MCMORRIS RODGERS McMorris Rodgers, a 47-year-old U.S. congresswoman from Washington state, is the fourth most senior member of the House of Representatives leadership. A member of the House Energy Committee, she has supported efforts to expand the U.S. energy industry such as the recent repeal of the decades-old ban on oil exports and efforts to reject the Environmental Protection Agency's Waters of the United States Act. She has also expressed skepticism about climate change. Before joining Congress in 2004, McMorris Rodgers served for a decades in the Washington state legislature, eventually becoming the first woman there to serve as minority leader. NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL DIRECTOR: GARY COHN Cohn, 56, president and chief operating officer of investment bank Goldman Sachs, had widely been considered heir apparent to Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of the Wall Street firm. Trump hammered Goldman and Blankfein during the presidential campaign, releasing a television ad that called Blankfein part of a "global power structure" that had robbed America's working class. LABOR SECRETARY: ANDREW PUZDER Puzder, chief executive officer of CKE Restaurants Inc, which runs the Carl's Jr. and Hardee's fast-food chains, has been a vociferous critic of government regulation of the workplace and the National Labor Relations Board. Puzder, 66, has argued that higher minimum wages would hurt workers by forcing restaurants to close, and praises the benefits of automation, so his appointment is likely to antagonize organized labor. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: MICHAEL FLYNN Retired Lieutenant General Flynn, 57, was an early Trump supporter and serves as vice chairman on his transition team. He began his Army career in 1981 and was deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq. Flynn became head of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2012 under President Barack Obama but retired a year earlier than expected, according to media reports, and became a fierce critic of Obama's foreign policy. SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION ADMINISTRATOR: LINDA MCMAHON McMahon, 68, is a co-founder and former chief executive of the professional wrestling franchise WWE, which is based in Stamford, Connecticut. She ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for a U.S. Senate seat in Connecticut in 2010 and 2012, and was an early supporter of Trump's presidential campaign. TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: ELAINE CHAO Chao, 63, was labor secretary under President George W. Bush for eight years and the first Asian-American woman to hold a Cabinet position. She is a director at Ingersoll Rand, News Corp and Vulcan Materials Company. She is married to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky. TREASURY SECRETARY: STEVEN MNUCHIN Mnuchin, 53, is a successful private equity investor, hedge fund manager and Hollywood financier who spent 17 years at Goldman Sachs before leaving in 2002. He assembled an investor group to buy a failed California mortgage lender in 2009, rebranded it as OneWest Bank and built it into Southern California's largest bank. Housing advocacy groups criticized the bank for its foreclosure practices, accusing it of being too quick to foreclose on struggling homeowners. U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: NIKKI HALEY Haley, 44, has been the Republican governor of South Carolina since 2011 and has little experience in foreign policy or the federal government. The daughter of Indian immigrants, she led a successful push last year to remove the Confederate battle flag from the grounds of the South Carolina state capitol after the killing of nine black churchgoers in Charleston by a white gunman. WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: REINCE PRIEBUS Recently re-elected to serve as Republican National Committee chairman, Priebus will give up his party post to join Trump in the White House, where the low-key Washington operative could help forge ties with Congress to advance Trump's agenda. The 44-year-old was a steadfast supporter of Trump during the presidential campaign even as the party fractured amid the choice. CHIEF WHITE HOUSE STRATEGIST, SENIOR COUNSELOR: STEVE BANNON, The former head of the conservative website Breitbart News came aboard as Trump's campaign chairman in August. A rabble-rousing conservative media figure, he helped shift Breitbart's into a forum for the alt-right, a loose confederation of those who reject mainstream politics and includes neo-Nazis, white supremacists and anti-Semites. His hiring signals Trump's dedication to operating outside the norms of Washington. As White House chief of staff, Bannon, 63, will serve as Trump's gatekeeper and agenda-setter. (Reporting by Washington Newsroom; Editing by Leslie Adler and Jonathan Oatis)
Shutterstock

Pizzagate is an insane conspiracy theory that nearly ended with innocent people being killed. It spread largely thanks to uncritical propaganda sites more interested in clicks than facts, and that used social media to spread misinformation for money. Its reasonable to ask what the people who run and write for these sites think, now that theyve nearly killed somebody, and the short answer is mostly theyre worried Facebook will punish them and hurt their traffic.

In the wake of the election, and especially Pizzagate, Facebook and other social media sites are looking into preventing the spread of propaganda  aka fake news  and the reaction has been fairly telling. First, theres Buzzfeeds discussion with Cyrus Massoumi, a self described socially liberal, culturally conservative, fiscally libertarian man from a Muslim family and owner of the Facebook page called Mr. Conservative. He claims that he only started posting fake news stories when it became apparent that he was having trouble competing for clicks with real news stories that leaned favorable to conservative. They simply werent sensational enough.

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Massoumi acknowledged that during the election his and other big pages did publish some misleading and false information, though he said they removed the latter once they realized their mistake. He said they began to push the boundaries after new players, such as sites run from Macedonia or others such as Ending the Fed, entered the market, copied their approach, and then began reaping huge Facebook engagement by publishing false and misleading content. We strayed because of the competitive nature of the algorithm in the News Feed and we do need to be brought back, he says. But the problem is I operate in an environment where sites like Ending the Fed and these unknowns are going to beat us unless we go from tilted to misleading.

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Massoumi admits to posting factually inaccurate stories, but claims he later deleted them. Worth noting is that one of the top posts on his page at the time of this writing is this image, which includes no source:

Mr. Conservative/Facebook

Meanwhile, the Toronto Star interviewed Stefanie MacWilliams, a Canadian stay-at-home mom who contributes to the site Planet Free Will, and she says she has no regrets about her posts on Pizzagate because they were great for traffic:

I was personally a little bit insulted. Fake news has become used as this ridiculous term . . . its the new conspiracy theorist.I really have no regrets and its honestly really grown our audience.

As a reminder, MacWilliams is discussing claims that Hillary Clinton, her campaign manager, and other high-level Democratic politicians were operating a child sex slavery and murder ring from underground tunnels underneath a Washington D.C. pizza restaurant, which is mostly based on the fact that John Podesta, Clintons aforementioned campaign manager, occasionally eats there. MacWilliams, insofar as we can determine, has done no personal investigation into these claims.

Whats most troubling here is not just MacWilliams and Massoumis mercenary attitude, although both seem overly unconcerned that theyre part of a machine that nearly veered into homicidal territory. Many news outlets are only as honest as their readers, in the end. Its the readers who demand factual accuracy, critical thinking, and the careful sorting of speculation from fact. That seems to be missing, here. The readers of this propaganda are accepting it uncritically, to the point of being ready to kill. Even if Facebook and Google turn making a buck of propaganda into a financial loser, breathtaking stupidity mixed with homicidal tendencies is not a problem any website can fix.

CORRECTION: Mr. Moussavi contacted us to request that we revise that he is from a Muslim family, but is not in fact a Muslim himself.
Even for those dreading the end of the Obama administration, there is one good reason to look forward to Jan. 20, 2017. On the day Barack Obama leaves the Oval Office, he can start thinking about the book he was born to write, one that many publishers are predicting will become an American classic: his presidential memoir. In fact, according to the New York Times, Obama could earn as much as $30 million for a multi book contract.

Fat deals like these are common for retired politicians. But the works produced, while often best-sellers, tend to be deliberately bland, more interested in defending reputations than in telling uncomfortable truths. Just look at Decision Points by George W. Bush or Hard Choices by Hillary Clinton, both careful to the point of tedium. The reality is that few politicians are naturally good writers. Even John F. Kennedys Pulitzer-winning Profiles in Courage  completed years before he took office  was most likely ghostwritten by speechwriter Ted Sorensen. A few accomplished presidential books have been produced without professional help; in fact, the Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant is so well written that many doubted hed written it himself, but historians now say the words are indisputably his own.

Obamas book, too, may be an exception to the rule. As president, he has demonstrated a surprisingly authentic interest in contemporary literature. He regularly recommended new novels: Joseph ONeills Netherland early in his presidency, Colson Whiteheads The Underground Railroad this year. He interviewed the novelist Marilynne Robinson for the New York Review of Books, and this fall he guest-edited an issue of Wired.

The presidents literary interests have long been part of his public identity. Even before he became a state senator in Illinois, he earned a reputation as a powerful writer with Dreams From My Father, a coming-of-age memoir about the son of a white American mother and an absent African father. The best-seller established Obama as a sensitive, introspective writer.

When people who dont know me well, black or white, he wrote, discover my background  I see the split-second adjustments they have to make, the searching of my eyes for some telltale sign. They no longer know who I am. Privately, they guess at my troubled heart, I suppose  the mixed blood, the divided soul, the ghostly image of the tragic mulatto trapped between two worlds.

Here, Obama does not explore questions of race, family, and community as policy issues, but as lived experiences. He admits to his own doubts and confusions in a way that is common in literary writing yet vanishingly rare in memoirs by politicians.

In turn, authors flocked to Obamas campaign in 2008. This wasnt just a matter of professional solidarity. Rather, in those heady, history-making days, many writers believed that having a literary mind in the White House would make possible a new era in politics. What if a president had the empathy and insight of a writer? Could such a leader unite an increasingly divided country, give voice to the voiceless, and act with a new kind of compassion and understanding? Underlying this hope was a vision of political leadership that can be traced to Platos concept of the philosopher-king; the trust was that Obama, as writer-president, would be a man of both theory and practice whose ideas on the page would play out in the world.

The most eloquent statement of this optimism was Speaking in Tongues, a lecture delivered by the British-born novelist Zadie Smith in December 2008, just a few weeks before Obamas inauguration. Smith, who, like Obama, is biracial, praised the president-elects ability to inhabit many minds and voices. This literary empathy, she believed, was reflected not just in Obamas language, but in his politics: Throughout his campaign Obama was careful always to say we. He was noticeably wary of I. By speaking so, he wasnt simply avoiding a singularity he didnt feel, he was also drawing us in with him. Most of us have complicated back stories, messy histories, multiple narratives. Obama the writer, Smith said, would help Americans imagine their way into a more inclusive, pluralistic future.

Eight years later, this dream is in tatters, to the disappointment of millions both in the United States and around the world. Far from bringing Americans together, the election of the first black president sparked a backlash of racism and right-wing extremism. It started in 2009 with Joe Wilson, a Republican congressman from South Carolina, shouting, You lie! during Obamas speech to a joint session of Congress and culminated in the election of Donald Trump. Meanwhile, during his two terms, Obama showed that personal empathy, one of the qualities that make a writer, is often hard to translate into effective policy, especially foreign policy  as demonstrated by the administrations hands-off strategy in Syria or its acquiescence in Saudi Arabias devastating war in Yemen.

Dismayingly, Obama the president has proved to be a much less effective communicator than Obama the candidate. His inwardness has widely been perceived as an aloof superiority by a public more accustomed to the practiced emotion of Bill Clinton or the chumminess of George W. Bush. It is open to doubt whether a writer is actually well equipped to communicate with the public in the age of Twitter. A media personality like Trump, who is used to performing as himself on television, may be better suited to this environment than an author like Obama.

In 2016, novelists and poets rallied together to protest this change. An open letter against Trump, signed by hundreds of literary figures, including Stephen King and Amy Tan, tried to revive the idea that writers have a particular role to play in democratic politics. But where Smith was optimistic eight years ago, this letter was pessimistic: Because, as writers, it began, we are particularly aware of the many ways that language can be abused in the name of power. Tellingly, this statement had no real effect on political discourse. The election of Trump, who exhibits not a fraction of Obamas intimacy with writing, suggests that it will be a long time before another president tries to close the breach between literature and politics.

A version of this article originally appeared in the November/December 2016 issue of FP magazine.

Illustration by Edmon De Haro
(Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Friday it had issued warning letters to four tobacco manufacturers for selling flavored cigarettes labeled as cigars. The privately owned companies - Swisher International Inc, Cheyenne International LLC, Prime Time International Co and Southern Cross Tobacco Co Inc  are selling the products under brands such as "Swisher Sweets", "Cheyenne", "Prime Time" and "Criss-Cross" in youth-appealing flavors such as grape, wild cherry and strawberry, the FDA said. About 90 percent of adult daily smokers smoked their first cigarette by the age of 18, the agency said. "Flavored cigarettes appeal to kids and disguise the bad taste of tobacco, but they are just as addictive as regular tobacco products and have the same harmful health effects," Mitch Zeller, director of the FDA's Center for Tobacco Products, said in a statement. http://bit.ly/2hc2wkt The Tobacco Control Act, which was signed into law in 2009, banned cigarettes containing candy or fruit flavors, to reduce the likelihood of smoking and addiction to tobacco among youth. The FDA said that while the products in question were labeled as cigars, they met the definition of cigarettes in the Act because they were likely to be offered to or bought as cigarettes based on their appearance, packaging and labeling. The agency has asked the manufacturers to respond within 15 working days of receiving the letter. Failure to obey federal tobacco law may result in civil money penalties, criminal prosecution, seizure, and/or injunctions. (Reporting by Natalie Grover and Akankshita Mukhopadhyay in Bengaluru; Editing by Ted Kerr)
new years

There's no time like the end of the year to take stock of your financial life.

"Information is power and a lot of people spend more time planning vacations than they do their finances or retirement," Andrew Rafal, an Arizona-based financial adviser at Bayntree Wealth Advisors, told Business Insider.

The end of the year, he says, "is a great time to take a high-level overview of what you have, both assets and liabilities" to prepare for the year ahead and any financial milestones or challenges you may face, including marriage, home-buying, kids, and retirement.

Below, Rafal shares the most important money steps to take before the sun sets on 2016.

1. Take financial inventory

Rafal suggests using platforms like Mint or eMoney, or consulting a financial advisor, to aggregate your accounts and identify what you have, including 401(k)s, IRAs, bank accounts, and life insurance.

"By doing that, not only do you know if you're on track but also you can look at ... are your assets properly invested for where you are in this life cycle?"

You should also take inventory of your debt and how you plan to pay it off in the coming year, Rafal said. "Being able to know where the worst debt is, that gives somebody the ability to come up with a plan to maybe pay off the high-interest bearing credit cards first. And basically get your head out of the sand and take ownership of it, because nobody else is."

2. Revisit your estate plan

People are often blase about estate planning, brushing it off as something they'll "get to next year," says Rafal. The problem with that, he says, is tragedy can strike at any time and "if you don't plan properly and something happens to you, a lot of times your wishes won't go the way that you intended."

Whether you're updating a new will or trust, it's important to have control over what would happen to everything you leave behind, Rafal said.

3. Update beneficiary forms

Updating your beneficiary  the person or people who receive your money or benefits upon your death  is something that should be periodically revisited, especially if you've been married or divorced, had children, or retired in recent years, he says.

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Rafal reminds us that a designated beneficiary on an insurance policy or IRA will take precedence over any previous estate planning, like a will or a trust, so it's crucial to make alignments following major life events.

"What we encourage is that almost on a yearly basis, reviewing and updating your beneficiary forms on all of those accounts because it will supersede any planning that you've done  it's so critical to do that," Rafal said.

4. Make smart tax moves

Understanding how taxes work on 401(k)s and IRAs is something to revisit at the end of the year to ensure you're saving the most money, says Rafal. The maximum annual contribution to a 401(k) is $18,000  or $24,000 if you're over 50  so if you've recently received a windfall like a holiday bonus, now is the perfect time to top off those retirement accounts. "There may be a situation where you can afford to put more away this month and that, on a pre-tax basis, will help eliminate some ordinary income taxes," he said.

Also be vigilant of taxes while gifting money, particularly during the holidays. You can gift as much as $14,000 per person each year to as many people as you'd like without incurring a gift tax. He suggests working with your adviser or CPA to determine how much you should gift this year and how it will affect your beneficiary.

Tax planning for retirement is also something to talk about, Rafal says. If you're nearing retirement, perhaps you'll consider converting your retirement money through a Roth IRA conversion ladder, he said. Under this IRS rule, money transferred from a traditional IRA  like a 401(k)  to a Roth IRA is tax- and penalty-free.

5. Assess your path to retirement

Rafal says retirement planning is valuable at every stage of life. "You should be proactive. Create a plan [because] it holds you accountable, work with a team that is focusing on the plan and not just 'set it and forget it' but continually monitor it," he said.



If retirement is within arm's reach  or if you're planning to retire early  have conversations now about "identifying guaranteed income, how to use social security properly, what type of pension options you have, if you're fortunate enough to have one, and how to utilize that into your overall income plan, and understanding the tax consequences," Rafal said.

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A large fire burned at Missouri University of Science and Technology on Thursday, December 8.

The fire was contained to the Emerson Electric Building, and is said to have started from the buildings air conditioning system. Several students joked online about the fires proximity to finals.

Students and faculty were evacuated safely, and no injuries have been reported. Credit: Instagram/mst_kc_bros via Storyful
Former NASA astronaut Eileen Collins hailed the first U.S. astronaut to orbit the earth as a very wise and mission-oriented person she aspired to be like.

When I was a child, I read about the Mercury astronauts, I read about the Gemini astronauts and John Glenn of course was such a wonderful role model. I learned about his life, learned about the kind of person he was and like many astronauts my age we would strive to be just like him, Collins said during an interview on the FOX Business Networks The Intelligence Report.

As his protege, Collins said Glenn was able to give her a great sense of commitment and selfless dedication to the space program.

I admire his ambition. I admire his dedication to the mission. He wanted to do as much as he could and he wasnt just there for himself, to bring attention to himself. He really wanted to do the right thing for the space program and I think that is something that all of us try to emulate, she said.

The first female shuttle commander said she last saw Glenn when Space Shuttle Discovery was put on permanent display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, part of the National Air and Space Museum, in 2012.

He never wanted to retire the space shuttles. He wanted to keep flying them. The original plan was to fly to 2020 with space shuttles, but of course because of the last accident [involving Space Shuttle Columbia in 2003], we decided to shut the shuttle program down. John Glenn didnt agree with that. He wanted to continue to flying the shuttles, Collins said.

Glenn, a former U.S. Senator, died on Thursday in Columbus, Ohio. He was 95.

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NIBL bags Bank of the Year award

Nepal Investment Bank Ltd (NIBL) has been awarded with the prestigious Financial Times Bank of the Year international award 2016 for the fifth time.
A relative of one of the passengers on board the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 found Wednesday a possible piece of debris from the plane during a search of the beaches in Madagascar. Some relatives of those on board the missing plane traveled to the Indian Ocean island to search for debris from the plane and also raise awareness of the debris that has been washing up on its beaches.

Jiang Hui, a Chinese man whose mother was on board the missing Boeing 777-200, found a small white and sand-colored piece of board in a rocky cove at the end of Riake beach on northeastern Ile Sainte-Marie. Several pieces of debris have washed up on the east African coast over the last few months.

I felt excited but at the same time it was saddening, he said, according to the Guardian. It is a small piece and will not really be able to show what happened to the plane but I hope so much that the authorities of Malaysia, China and Australia will try to find more so they can find out.

The piece has been reportedly handed over to an official from the Malaysian investigation.

RTSV2V0

Photo: REUTERS/Clarel Faniry Rasoanaivo

Following Jiangs discovery, Blaine Gibson  a Seattle lawyer who has found 16 pieces of debris thought to be from the plane in Mozambique and Madagascar  said he had located a larger object in the same area.

[The find] just shows how important it is that these beaches are checked daily, and that local people keep their eyes open, Gibson reportedly said. It also shows how important this visit by the families is for raising awareness.

The next of kin of those on board Flight MH370 traveled to Madagascar after they were frustrated by the authorities' attempts to find the missing plane. According to the relatives, authorities did not pay much attention to the debris pieces that have been found over the last few months on several coasts of the Indian Ocean.

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Grace Nathan, a spokeswoman for the Voice370 campaign group, said the discovery of the possible plane debris brought mixed feelings for the whole group.

First time a piece was found by one of us. Such mixed feelings now for all of us  pain, sadness, confusion, hope, she wrote on a Facebook page.

Flight MH370 went missing on March 8, 2014, with 239 people on board while on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. A multimillion-dollar search for the missing plane has so far yielded no concrete clues as to the plane's whereabouts. The underwater search is expected to be completed by early 2017, following which the search will be suspended if no credible clues are found.

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Controversy over Christmas displays often makes its way to the forefront of public debate during the holidays, with some declaring a war on Christmas and others arguing it should be a season more inclusive to all faiths. This year, Satanism has found its way into the discussion. A pentagram displayed alongside a nativity scene had local clergy and community members up in arms in Florida after it was permitted by the local government.

Displayed in Sanborn Square in Boca Raton, the pentagram was placed next to a nativity scene sometime Tuesday by a local man named Preston Smith, a member of the Freedom from Religion Foundation. The city gave Smith a permit for the layout and the Foundation provided a sign to be displayed alongside the pentagram.

Love trumps hate, Smith said in a statement. The First Amendment must be protected, included the freedom to offend.

Smith told Miamis local station WSVN that he is not a Satanist but displayed the pentagram as an argument to end religious displays. Members of the clergy, however, found it an offensive way to promote First Amendment rights.

The interfaith community honors our constitutional rights of freedom of speech and worship. We are blessed to live in a country that cherishes and protects those rights, a group of members said in a statement. The use of satanic symbols is offensive and harmful to our communitys well-being. We find it a shameful and hypocritical way to advocate for freedom from religion.

The pentagram has since been spray painted over. Smith called it vandalism and a hate crime and filed a police report to find the person responsible, according to West Palm Beach Local WPTV. A post on the Freedom from Religion Foundations website asks for help in identifying the culprit and offers a $2,000 reward for "information leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever is responsible."

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Sanborn Parks holiday displays include a nativity scene, menorah and Christmas tree every year but holiday decorations continue to be a contentious issue throughout the United States. The Supreme Court has heard arguments on holiday displays twice, once in 1984 and again in 1989. The latest case ruled that a nativity scene inside a Pittsburgh courthouse was unconstitutional because it was not accompanied by any other symbols or displays but upheld the display of a Hanukah menorah outside a government building in the city because it included additional items like a Christmas tree.

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A long-awaited toxicology report shows Austin Harrouff was not, as authorities openly speculated at the time, on flakka or bath salts when he allegedly killed a Florida couple at their home and tried to eat one of the victims faces, PEOPLE confirms.

Martin County Sheriff William Snyder initially told reporters Harrouff could absolutely have been on the synthetic drug flakka when he allegedly killed John Stevens and Michelle Mischon in the garage of their Tequesta, Florida, home on Aug. 15.

It absolutely could be a flakka case, Snyder said soon after the killings, fueling widespread media attention.

However, toxicology results obtained by PEOPLE list no detection of the synthetic drug  a psychoactive stimulant that has been linked to bizarre behavior and drug overdoses  or bath salts in Harrouffs system.

His attorney, Nellie King, said that the only drugs found in Harrouffs system at the time, besides traces of marijuana components, were medically introduced during his weeks-long hospital stay after the gruesome attack, according to the Miami Herald.

Austin is struggling with severe mental illness, and the judicial process will bear all of this out in due time, King said, according to WPBF.

We know this information will be of no comfort to the victims families and friends, she said, But, as painful as this process is, it is critical for everyone involved to examine the facts and avoid jumping to conclusions.

Investigators allege a violent scene that August night, ending in the death of a much-loved couple.

F- kill me, f- kill me! Shoot me now! I deserve to die! Harrouff told Martin County sheriffs deputies after they pulled him off of Stevens lifeless body in August, according to documents previously obtained by PEOPLE.

The deputies said they allegedly heard Harrouff say, Help me, I ate something bad,WPTV and CBS12 reported, citing additional new court documents.

When asked what he ate, Harrouff allegedly told officers, Humans, according to WPTV.

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 Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.

Harrouff was charged on Oct. 3 with two counts of murder along with attempted murder, resisting an officer without violence and burglary of a dwelling while armed in the attack. He remains in custody, though it is unclear if he has entered a plea.

Harrouff initially tested negative for common street drugs such as heroin, cocaine, and marijuana.

A former defense attorney for the teen said in October that the attack was the result of an onset of mental illness. And Harrouffs father, Wade Harrouff, previously told the Palm Beach Post that his sons actions were not flakka-induced.

The weird behavior is coming from schizophrenia in my family, he said.

King said that Harrouffs family noticed the teen had been exhibiting signs of a mental health disorder weeks before the incident, according to TC Palm.

King did not immediately respond to a request for comment from PEOPLE.




Delivery by drone is so 2016, or at least that's what Google's latest plans suggest. The search giant is reportedly training the ever-so creepy-looking four-legged robots from its Boston Dynamics division to deliver packages and even navigate your home to hand them directly to you.

Image: MIT Technology Review

Image: MIT Technology Review

The news was revealed at a talk titled "Dynamic Legged Robots" at this year's Neural Information Processing Systems conference, which focuses on machine learning and computational neuroscience. The MIT Technology Review reports that at the event, Boston Dynamics CEO Marc Raibert demonstrated Spot Mini, a four-legged robot about the size of a small dog that "figured out for itself how to... navigate the steps up to the stage." Spot Mini even found and picked up a can from a table on command.



MORE: The 25 Best Tech Products of 2016

In video clips Raibert played for the crowd, the robots delivered packages to front doors, leading the CEO to suggest Many people are talking about drone delivery... So why not just plain legged robots? With all of the complications we've seen with the FAA regulating drone flight, it's not hard to see the benefits of robots bound to the ground.



Spot Mini performed more complicated tasks, including opening "weighted doors with oddly shaped handles" that show its ability to decipher a problem. Spot Mini doesn't utilize machine learning, one of the conference's major focuses, but Raibert noted that adding that technology could give robots an increased ability to balance packages.



The report speculates that legged robots may be better at navigating messy environments (say, your house when you're so lazy you need everything delivered) than wheeled machines. Unfortunately for anyone looking to own their own robo-dog, Boston Dynamics' robots are still mighty pricey, with some units selling for more than $1 million.

See also : Best Smart Home Gadget Gifts
Italian Coast Guard divers came to the rescue of what were described as four dolphins in the waters of Pantelleria on December 3, though other reports said the creatures were probably Cuviers beaked whales.

The large cetaceans, ranging in length from 3.5-6 meters, got into difficulty in shallow waters and were first spotted by the head of a local diving center, according to Trapani Oggi.

The rescue operation was long and difficult, lasting overnight into the morning of December 4, reports said. Credit: YouTube/Guardia Costiera via Storyful
Paris (AFP) - Kazakh opposition figure Mukhtar Ablyazov was released from prison late Friday after France's highest administrative authority blocked his extradition to Russia, where he is accused of embezzling billions of dollars.

The 53-year-old Ablyazov, who has been held in French custody since July 2013 when he was arrested on the Cote d'Azur, walked out of the Fleury-Merogis prison in a Paris suburb smiling, an AFP photographer saw.

Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine all accuse him of having embezzled billions of dollars during his time as head of the Kazakh bank BTA. The bank has also filed complaints against him.

But his defence team argued that he would not get a fair trial in Russia, a position supported by the UN's special rapporteur on torture, Nils Melzer.

On Friday France's Council of State annulled the extradition order against Ablyazov judging that the request from Russia was "political".

"Mr Ablyazov is an opponent of the political regime in Kazakhstan and has been recognised as a political refugee by the British authorities," the Council of State said in a statement.

"This is a decision which strongly defends the principles of French justice," said Jean-Pierre Mignard, one of the Kazakh oligarch's lawyers.

The BTA bank said it was shocked by the decision not to extradite Ablyazov, arguing that the French body had "chosen not to authorise Mr Ablyazov to answer for criminal acts in front of Russian justice".

But Melzer said in a statement Wednesday that, if Ablyazov was extradited to Russia, there was a good chance the authorities there would pass him on to Kazakhstan.

In Kazakhstan, there was "serious reason to believe that Mr Ablyazov risks being subjected to torture", he added.

The European Court of Human Rights had ruled against Russia several times for sending people to countries where they risked being tortured or ill-treated, he pointed out.

Ablyazov's defence team had argued that Russia was simply acting as proxy for Kazakhstan and that the case was purely political.

The regime of veteran Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev has been repeatedly criticised by human rights groups for its human rights abuses, including torture and rigged trials against opposition activists.
* FY 2015/16 revenue 5.896 bln euros, organic growth 3.1 pct

* FY 2015/16 EBITDA margin 8.6 pct vs 8.4 pct year-ago

* Confident on 2016/17 and on 2020 goals (Adds CEO comments from call details)

By Dominique Vidalon

PARIS, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Elior, Europe's third-largest catering group, reported a rise in revenue and core profits on Friday, along with a 31.3 percent increase in the dividend.

Elior, which competes with France's Sodexo and Britain's Compass predicted futher growth for the current year which started in October and expressed confidence over its longer-term goals.

"We achieved our financial objectives for 2015-16. We expect profitability to accelerate this fiscal year and are confident in the group's longer-term outlook," Chief Executive Philippe Salle told reporters on a conference call.

Elior has a contract arm, which provides catering to businesses, schools and hospitals and accounts for around two thirds of the firm's overall business. It also has a concessions business, which serves airports, railways and motorways.

Revenue rose 3.9 percent to 5.896 billion euros ($6.26 billion) in year ended Sept. 30, helped by acquisitions in the United States and Britain, with 52 percent of revenues coming from abroad compared with 50 percent the previous year.

Closely-watched organic revenue, which excludes the impact of voluntary contract exits, rose 3.1 percent in the period, in line with a company's target of 3 percent or above.

Robust contract catering sales more than offset a slight decline in concessions catering, which suffered in France from the loss of the Roissy airport contract and from the impact of Islamist attacks on museum, airport and railway concessions.

Salle said the loss of the Roissy contract cost the group 24 million euros in lost revenue and the attacks 5-10 million.

Earnings before interest, tax depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose 5.5 percent to 501 million euros ($532 million), giving a profit margin of 8.6 percent, up from 8.4 percent in the previous year.

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For the current year the company, whose customers include the Vatican museum and Los Angeles airport, expects organic revenue growth of at least 3 percent, an increase in EBITDA margin of between 0.2 and 0.3 percentage points, excluding acquisitions, and a significant rise in EBITDA and adjusted net earnings per share.

Commenting on 2020 goals, Salle said the revenue target of of between 7 and 8 billion euros was "easily achievable".

He was also confident of reaching 2020 targets for an EBITDA margin of 9 percent to 10 percent of revenue and a free cash flow to EBITDA ratio of between 45 percent and 50 percent. ($1 = 0.9422 euros) (Reporting by Dominique Vidalon; Editing by Mathieu Rosemain, Greg Mahlich)
By Matthias Blamont PARIS (Reuters) - Women in France who have used Bayer's contraceptive implant Essure have launched a legal complaint about side-effects similar to a challenge already underway in the United States. A Bayer spokeswoman declined to comment on litigation in France but said the company remained convinced that the implant was a good option for many women and that it offered a positive risk-benefit profile. Thousands of complaints about the device in the United States in March prompted regulators to put the strongest safety warning label on the product and ask for a post-market study. The latest legal action prompted the French health ministry, under pressure after a number of health scares, to say checks carried out since last year have shown Essure-related problems to be linked to the way some devices had been inserted, not to the device itself. Charles Joseph-Oudin, who represents two plaintiffs, told Reuters: "We are launching two judicial actions and we are asking that an expert determine the relationship between the device and the pathologies patients have been experiencing." He said he hoped the filings on Friday would lead to hearings in a tribunal near Paris as soon as January. The device, promoted as an alternative to tubal ligation for permanent birth control, consists of two small nickel-titanium coils inserted into the fallopian tubes. Scar tissue that forms around the coils is meant to prevent pregnancy. Bayer estimates about 750,000 women are using Essure worldwide, about 70 percent of them in the United States. France is the product's second-largest market but Bayer does not provide more precise figures. The company said in its third-quarter report that U.S. lawsuits from approximately 3,000 Essure users were pending. French newspaper Le Parisien, which earlier reported the lawsuits, said some 120,000 women had been using the device in France since 2002 and that reported side effects had included depression, dizziness or uterine perforation. The French health ministry said checks over Bayer's product had started in July 2015. "The investigations demonstrated that the medical complications that have been observed originated from the way the device was implemented," the ministry said, adding the product itself was sound. However, Bayer had to rewrite the Essure leaflet and stricter rules over the way the device should be implemented have been imposed, the ministry added. (Additional reporting by Ludwig Burger; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)
Prez, PM send condolences to Indonesia

President Bidya Devi Bhandari and Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal have sent condolences to Indonesia on the loss of lives and property in a major quake that struck the Southeast Asian nation on Wednesday.
PARIS (Reuters) - France's highest administrative court on Friday cancelled an extradition order to send jailed Kazakh tycoon Mukhtar Ablyazov to Russia on the grounds that the request was made for political reasons.

Ablyazov, who was arrested in France in 2013, is accused of embezzling up to $6 billion (4.7 billion) from his former bank BTA.

The decision by the Conseil d'Etat cancels the extradition order signed by then-Prime Minister Manuel Valls in 2015, which gave the green light to send Ablyazov either to Ukraine or Russia.

"The Conseil d'Etat believes that the extradition request to Russia was presented with a political motive," it said in a statement.

France does not have an extradition treaty with Kazakhstan, which wants to put Ablyazov on trial, but it does with Russia and Ukraine.

Ablyazov has long denied fraud, arguing that Kazakh strongman President Nursultan Nazarbayev wants to eliminate him as a political opponent and rob him of his assets.

The United Nations Human Rights office said on Wednesday that it feared Ablyazov would face torture if he were extradited.

BTA, the bank in which he held a majority stake and which was eventually seized by Kazakh authorities, was declared insolvent in 2009.

Prosecutors said he made loans to front companies he controlled which were never paid back. He has denied the accusations that he embezzled.

When Ablyazov was arrested in July 2013, he had been in hiding since being sentenced to prison for contempt of court by an English judge in 2012. Ablyazov was granted political asylum by Britain after he moved there in 2009.

(Reporting by John Irish; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
By Brian Love PARIS (Reuters) - French Socialist would-be presidential candidate Manuel Valls on Friday criticised conservative rival Francois Fillon's proposals to slash public payroll and health spending, saying they threatened the foundations of a welfare state dear to voters. Valls' salvo came on the heels of an opinion poll showing 90 percent of people opposed to cutting spending on public healthcare - a Fillon proposal that is raising concern even in his own party, the centre-right Les Republicains. "Things can be reformed, new sources of financing found... but you can't talk about the public service like that, eliminate 500,000 jobs, privatise social welfare, end reimbursement of healthcare costs for a whole list of illnesses," Valls said. Valls stood down last week as prime minister and hopes to secure the Socialist Party ticket in a primary next month to enter next year's presidential contest, which all current polls indicate Fillon will win. "This is what France is about: social welfare, healthcare, aid for the most vulnerable, pensions -- the pillars of the social contract," Valls told BFM TV in an interview. Far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen echoed those comments. "Doctor Fillon is prescribing for us an American-type ultra liberal remedy where the rich will have the means to cure themselves, the poor will benefit from the most meagre healthcare and where families and the middle classes will be most sacrificed," she said in a speech. At issue are a few lines in Fillon's election programme that drew little attention until he became the candidate for Les Republicains at the end of November. In the manifesto, the former prime minister says that the public healthcare system has scarcely changed since it took shape in 1945, and cannot continue to operate under debts of 110 billion euros ($117 billion). "I propose a system of general public insurance focussed on serious or long-term illnesses, with the rest privately insured," he writes. Even people from his own party are worried. Bernard Accoyer, secretary general of Les Republicains and traditionally close to Fillon, called this week for clarification, something Fillon's aides have said he will do soon. His room for back-pedalling is limited, though. One of the central themes of his campaign has been that governments must break their habit of promising one thing and then doing another once elected. His programme involves cutting public spending by 100 billion euros, cutting 500,000 public sector jobs, and pushing the work week back up to 39 hours from 35 currently. France's healthcare system is financed by taxes collected from workers and employers; the social security system reimburses the cost of most medicines, doctors' fees and treatments. (Additional reporting by Marine Pennetier, Sophie Louet, Simon Carraud and John Irish; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
Geneva (AFP) - Fresh fighting between rebels in the Republic of Congo and government forces has displaced an estimated 13,000 people, the United Nations refugee agency said Friday.

The violence has been concentrated in the country's southeast, where members of the Ninja Nsiloulou militia have battled the army, according to UNHCR.

"We are afraid some 13,000 displaced people soon may not have enough to eat," UNHCR spokesman William Spindler told reporters in Geneva.

People in the area are "also having trouble getting health care and education because so many state-employed medics and teachers have fled," he added.

The rebel group, commonly known as the Ninjas, fought two civil wars against the government in the 1990s and were seen as having disbanded after agreeing to a peace deal in 2003, although sporadic clashes have continued.

Spindler said that the uptick in violence in recent weeks has included an attack on a military vehicle in southeast Mindouli district that killed two people.

In October, at least 14 people were killed including children in an attack on a train in Mindouli also blamed on the Ninjas.

The rebels are led by Frederic Bintsamou, a Protestant pastor who is called the Prophet by his admirers.

Bintsamou came out in favour of presidential candidate Guy-Brice Parfait Kolelas, who lost to longtime leader Denis Sassou Nguesso in elections in March, which the opposition say was marked by massive fraud.

Congo has been on edge since a constitutional referendum last October ended a two-term limit on presidential mandates, allowing the 72-year-old head of state to extend his 32 years in power.
MUMBAI (Reuters) - Fugitive Indian businessman Vijay Mallya said on Friday that his Twitter account had been penetrated by a hacking group called Legion, which posted links to what it alleged were details of Mallya's bank accounts, offshore investments and luxury cars.

Mallya, a flamboyant former billionaire who made his fortune from a liquor and beer empire, moved to Britain in March after being pursued in courts by banks that his now defunct Kingfisher airline owed around $1.4 billion.

"Legion will find you, hack you, expose you," read one of several postings tweeted by the hackers on Mallya's official Twitter account before they were erased at around 1215 IST (0645 GMT).

Mallya, who denies being an absconder, was not immediately available for a comment, and a spokesman for his UB Group also declined immediate comment on the hack.

But a response was tweeted on his verified Twitter account.

"Outfit called Legion has hacked my e-mail accounts and are blackmailing me !! What a joke."

Legion came to public attention earlier last month when it claimed to have hacked the Twitter accounts of the Congress party, and its vice chair Rahul Gandhi.

Mallya is wanted by law enforcement agencies and is subject to a non-bailable warrant from a court.

The government has also revoked Mallya's diplomatic passport which he had received as a member of the Rajya Sabha. And the Indian authorities have sought ways to have Mallya deported by Britain.

The Enforcement Directorate, a government agency set up to fight financial crime, has accused Mallya's UB Group of using some of the funds lent to Kingfisher Airlines to buy property overseas.

Mallya has denied wrongdoing, calling the charges against him "preposterous". He had also offered a settlement to creditors, which they refused to consider.

(Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
Full House creator Jeff Franklin revealed exclusively to The Hollywood Reporter that he purchased the original Tanner home in San Francisco in a deal that closed a few months after the property hit the market for $4.15 million in May. One of his first orders of business - aside from painting the front door red again (previous owners had switched it to seafoam green) - was hosting an intimate soiree for neighbors of the property at 1709 Broderick St. in the Lower Pacific Heights area.

But aside from spreading holiday cheer, the Nov. 30 bash had a more specific purpose: Franklin wanted to apologize to the residents who had been inconvenienced in the decades since the show's original premiere in 1987 by the daily onslaught of fans (in the hundreds) who stop by for photo ops.

Read more: Celebrity Photog Harry Benson on Donald Trump: "He's Good for Our Business"

"It can't be fun to live next to a tourist attraction," Franklin explained of the situation. The house has only increased in popularity following the breakout success of the Fuller House reboot on Netflix. "I wanted them to see that I don't have horns."

Approximately 30 residents attended the event, and most of them "were lovely people," signaling that there might have been a few who weren't as nice. "Of course, they have been inconvenienced and frankly annoyed by all the Full House and Fuller House fans coming by for pictures all day, all these years. I don't blame them for feeling frustrated," Franklin explains, adding that discussions took place over how they can improve the situation. "We talked about ways to help, such as posting no double parking signs, painting curbs red by driveways so [visitors] don't block people's driveways, "No loitering" signs, etc. which I am going to try my best to accomplish for them. I want to be a good neighbor and make things better for them."

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Franklin also encourages fans to be "courteous, respectful and considerate" when stopping by. "This is their home, and our fans are their guests," he concluded. "We don't want our neighbors saying, 'How rude!' "

A version of this story first appeared in the Dec. 16 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.

Read more: Celebrity Photog Harry Benson on Donald Trump: "He's Good for Our Business"
Getty Images mary kate ashley elizabeth olsen fuller house

Youngest Tanner sister Michelle doesn't return for the second season of Netflix's "Fuller House," which premieres on Friday, but her presence is certainly felt.

"Theres probably less Michelle jokes and Michelle references in season two than there was in season one, but we keep the character alive because shes part of the family," show creator Jeff Franklin recently told Business Insider.

The absence of Michelle stars Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, who had long left Hollywood to become fashion mavens, generated a lot of headlines ahead of the spin-off's first season.

One of the biggest stories came from "Full House" star and executive producer John Stamos. He said that the show's producers talked about recasting the role of Michelle with the Olsen twins' younger sister, "Avengers" star Elizabeth Olsen. According to Stamos, Elizabeth's agent turned them down.



"It was just an idea that was out there in the wind," Franklin said of casting Elizabeth in the role. "We were never going to recast the role."

The last time Franklin spoke with the twins was during the production of season one in 2015, but he remains hopeful that one of them will return to play the role.

"Well continue to reach out and let them know the door is open and wed love to see them," he said. "And its going to be their call. I respect their wishes. Theyre extremely busy and not actors anymore."

He also understands why they haven't accepted his offer to return for "Fuller House."

full house

"They were so young when they did the show," he told us. "I dont think they have the same sort of warm, fuzzy feelings that the rest of us had. They were eight years old when the show ended. How many adult friends did you have when you were eight? You know, that you want to hang out with years later? We just didnt form the same bonds with them that we did with the older cast members."

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At any rate, it's not as if "Fuller House" is suffering from not having the twins on. According to research company SymphonyAM's measurements, the spin-off is Netflix's highest-rated show. (Netflix doesn't disclose viewing numbers.)

"Obviously, the show is working as it is," Franklin said. "Weve got almost everybody back and everyones having a great time and so I think the audience has accepted and made their peace with the fact that one of the three sisters is not around."

NOW WATCH: Netflix is giving part of the Mythbusters team their own show  heres the trailer





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(Adds details from court hearing, information on sentencing, dateline)

By Nate Raymond

NEW YORK, Dec 9 (Reuters) - A Gabonese man who prosecutors say acted as a "fixer" for a joint-venture involving the hedge fund Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC pleaded guilty on Friday to U.S. charges that he engaged in a foreign bribery scheme.

Samuel Mebiame, a son of the late former Gabon Prime Minister Leon Mebiame, entered his plea in federal court in Brooklyn to conspiracy to violate the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

In court, Mebiame admitted that he participated in a scheme to provide "improper benefits" to government officials in certain African countries such as Guinea in exchange for obtaining business opportunities, including a mining contract.

"I apologize for and regret my actions," he said.

Mebiame, 43, has been held without bail since his arrest in August. He faces a maximum of five years in prison and is scheduled to be sentenced on April 6.

His plea came after Och-Ziff and its chief executive, Daniel Och, agreed in September to pay $412 million and $2.17 million, respectively, to resolve U.S. probes into the hedge fund's role in bribing officials in several African countries.

That settlement led to a subsidiary of Och-Ziff pleading guilty to participating in a scheme to bribe officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in what prosecutors said marked the first U.S. foreign bribery case against a hedge fund.

Mebiame was arrested in connection with what prosecutors said was his work as a "fixer" for a mining company owned by a joint venture between Och-Ziff and an entity incorporated in the Turks and Caicos Islands.

While court papers do not identify the joint venture, its description matches one Och-Ziff formed with Palladino Holdings Ltd, an investment vehicle founded by South African businessman Walter Hennig.

Mebiame's arrest came after he voluntarily met with federal law enforcement in June 2015 to discuss his role in paying bribes to secure mining concessions for the joint venture, according to a criminal complaint.

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The complaint said that Mebiame supplied cash and cars to two officials in Niger; an S-Class Mercedes Benz sedan and rented private Airbus jet to a Guinean official; and travel and shopping expenses for an adviser to Chad's president.

Mebiame was paid at least $3.5 million through 2012 for his work, the complaint said.

The case is U.S. v. Mebiame, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York, No. 16-cr-00627.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond; Editing by Bernard Orr and Tom Brown)
By Nate Raymond

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Gabonese man who prosecutors say acted as a "fixer" for a joint-venture involving the hedge fund Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC pleaded guilty on Friday to U.S. charges that he engaged in a foreign bribery scheme.

Samuel Mebiame, a son of the late former Gabon Prime Minister Leon Mebiame, entered his plea in federal court in Brooklyn to conspiracy to violate the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

In court, Mebiame admitted that he participated in a scheme to provide "improper benefits" to government officials in certain African countries such as Guinea in exchange for obtaining business opportunities, including a mining contract.

"I apologize for and regret my actions," he said.

Mebiame, 43, has been held without bail since his arrest in August. He faces a maximum of five years in prison and is scheduled to be sentenced on April 6.

His plea came after Och-Ziff and its chief executive, Daniel Och, agreed in September to pay $412 million and $2.17 million, respectively, to resolve U.S. probes into the hedge fund's role in bribing officials in several African countries.

That settlement led to a subsidiary of Och-Ziff pleading guilty to participating in a scheme to bribe officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in what prosecutors said marked the first U.S. foreign bribery case against a hedge fund.

Mebiame was arrested in connection with what prosecutors said was his work as a "fixer" for a mining company owned by a joint venture between Och-Ziff and an entity incorporated in the Turks and Caicos Islands.

While court papers do not identify the joint venture, its description matches one Och-Ziff formed with Palladino Holdings Ltd, an investment vehicle founded by South African businessman Walter Hennig.

Mebiame's arrest came after he voluntarily met with federal law enforcement in June 2015 to discuss his role in paying bribes to secure mining concessions for the joint venture, according to a criminal complaint.

Story continues

The complaint said that Mebiame supplied cash and cars to two officials in Niger; an S-Class Mercedes Benz sedan and rented private Airbus jet to a Guinean official; and travel and shopping expenses for an adviser to Chad's president.

Mebiame was paid at least $3.5 million through 2012 for his work, the complaint said.

The case is U.S. v. Mebiame, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York, No. 16-cr-00627.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond; Editing by Bernard Orr and Tom Brown)
BANJUL (Reuters) - Gambia's President Yahya Jammeh said on Friday he rejects the outcome of last week's election that he lost to opposition leader Adama Barrow and called for fresh elections. The announcement made on state television throws the future of the West African country into doubt after an unexpected election result that ended Jammeh's 22-year rule and was widely seen as a moment of democratic hope. "After a thorough investigation, I have decided to reject the outcome of the recent election. I lament serious and unacceptable abnormalities which have reportedly transpired during the electoral process," Jammeh said. "I recommend fresh and transparent elections which will be officiated by a god-fearing and independent electoral commission," he said. Human rights groups said Jammeh's government detained, tortured and killed opponents during his rule and his defeat sparked wild celebrations. But some people also said they doubted whether he would accept defeat. Official election results from the electoral commission gave Barrow, a real estate developer who once worked as a security guard at retailer Argos in London, 45.5 percent of the vote against Jammeh's 36.7 percent. Barrow is set to take over in late January following a transition period. (Reporting by Matthew Mpoke Bigg, editing by G Crosse)
GettyImages 628787186

President-elect Donald Trump on Friday relished in the defeat of his political opponents.

Speaking in Louisiana at a rally for US Senate candidate John Kennedy, Trump took aim at the so-called Never Trump movement, characterizing its members as on "a respirator right now."

"They are gasping," he told the crowd. "They are gasping for air."

Boasting about defeating the Never Trump movement has been a favorite for the president-elect at his events. He did so at the Republican National Convention over the summer, and he has repeatedly noted that his detractors were wrong to predict he could never win the election.

At the Friday afternoon rally, Trump also said he is a "big believer in free speech" but wanted to outlaw the burning of the American flag, an act the US Supreme Court has ruled is protected by the Constitution.

"We are going to be putting something in" to prevent flag burning, Trump said.

The president-elect also attacked the media, saying that he had played a role in reducing the trust Americans have in the press.

"The one thing we have done is we have exposed the credibility of the press," he said, adding that journalists have "the lowest credibility."

Trump was scheduled to be in Michigan on Friday evening for another leg of his "thank you" tour.

NOW WATCH: 'Stop it!': Trump tells his supporters to end racial discrimination after the election





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Sindhupalchok quake survivors battling cold under makeshift shelters

With the winter nearing its peak, the survivors of the Gorkha Earthquake in Melamchi of Sindhupalchok are certain that this year too they will have to endure the cold under the makeshift shelters.
Georgias secretary of state said Thursday an attempt to hack into the states voter registration database has been traced back to the Department of Homeland Security.

Secretary of State Brian Kemp, a Republican, said on his Facebook page he has sent a letter to Homeland Secretary Jeh Johnson, demanding to know why.

At no time has my office agreed to or permitted DHS to conduct penetration testing or security scans of our network, Kemp wrote. Moreover, your department has not contacted my office since this unsuccessful incident to alert us of any security event that would require testing or scanning of our network.

Homeland Security said it is looking into the matter and will respond directly to Kemp.

Its outrageous to think about our own federal government is doing this to us, Kemp told WSB-TV, Atlanta, adding he was mad as hell.

"We're demanding answers to some of these questions, you know? Are they doing this to other states? Was it authorized or not? Who ordered this? Why is it being done and why weren't we notified?"

Kemp said the Nov. 15 database attack had been traced back to an IP address at Homeland Security.

kemp

Photo: /Letitia Stein/Reuters

Kemp said the states firewall held up, blocking a breach. The database also contains information about company incorporations.

Kemp refused help from Homeland Security to beef up protections ahead of the election, saying fears of Russian hacking attempts were overblown. The state had a contract with a major third-party security firm, and Kemp chief of staff David Dove told cyberscoop they thought that was sufficient.

Willis McDonald, a former FBI and Defense Department cybersecurity analyst, told WSB it is unlikely Homeland Security committed the hack. What is more likely, he said, is a hacker spoofed the departments address.

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"It's fairly easy. It's fairly common to see something like that happening," McDonald said.

Homeland Security reported attempts had been made by hackers to get into voter databases in 20 states ahead of the election but no attempt was made on Election Day itself. There was no evidence any of the systems was breached.

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This Sunday, millions of Germans will be watching a bar mitzvah on TV.

The plot of the new episode of Tatort, the country's longest-running, and most popular, television drama, features Jewish police detective Nina Rubin juggling her latest murder case with preparations for the bar mitzvah of her son Kaleb.

Rubin, played by (non-Jewish) actress Meret Becker, is a recurring character on Tatort, a CSI-style procedural with a regional twist: the show has different narrative arcs set in different cities across the country. Rubin's story is set in Berlin, home to Germany's largest, and fastest-growing, Jewish population.

The TV bar mitzvah is officiated by Rabbi Walter Rothschild, an actual rabbi who has been serving Berlin's Jewish community for nearly two decades. He was originally brought on as a consultant before being asked to officiate the TV ceremony. Speaking to THR, Rabbi Rothschild said it was a relief to be able to show a "normal" image of Jewish life in the German capital.

Read more: New Ratings Record for Germany's 'Tatort'

"I don't think it will bring world-wide peace or anything, but I've done a lot of media in Germany, spoken to a number of journalists, and the images of Judaism are all very similar: the Hasidic Orthodox Jews, the wailing wall, Israeli soldiers," he says. "On this show, it's a normal Jewish family in Berlin preparing for a normal Jewish event. That's already progress. That's already a start."

And that normal image of Berlin Jews will be seen by millions of Germans. Tatort is the most-watched show on German TV, with an average audience of more than 10 million viewers. On Monday, following the latest episode, discussion of the show dominate water-cooler talk and social media chatter across the country.

Berlin, by some measures, is now the fastest-growing Jewish city in the world. Immigration, largely from Russia and Eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall, has meant a surge in the local population, now believed to be more than 50,000. That compares to just 8,000 Jews that remained in the city at the end of WWII. Some 160,000 Jews that lived in Berlin in the pre-Nazi era.

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Rabbi Rothschild said his biggest worry in officiating the TV bar mitzvah was to get things "exactly right."

"I knew there'd be Jews watching and going 'Oi! He got that wrong!'," he says, though he his quick to point out the show depicts a liberal, not Orthodox, ceremony. "The plot has the mother planning and participating in the bar mitzvah, which wouldn't happen in an Orthodox synagogue, but could in a liberal one."

On the question of having non-Jewish actors depict the faithful - Rabbi Rothschild is nonplussed.

"No, it wasn't a problem for me that none of the actors were Jewish," he says. "None of them were professional policemen either."

Read more: The 20 Most Powerful Women in Global Television 2016
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German pilots' union Vereinigung Cockpit said it would resume wage talks with Lufthansa (LHAG.DE) next week and hold back on further strikes during negotiations, offering some pre-Christmas respite to passengers and the airline.

The union said in a statement on Friday it would discuss options, including mediation in these talks.

Lufthansa and its unions have been embroiled in a row over contracts dating back to 2012, with 15 walkouts since early 2014 costing the carrier hundreds of millions of euros in lost profit.

Lufthansa wants to cut staff costs by making pay more flexible and revamping pension schemes. Tensions between management and pilots have also been heightened by Lufthansa's plans to expand low-cost operations via its Eurowings unit.

The latest walkouts, over six days in November, have cost the German flagship carrier 100 million euros (84.25 million pound) in lost profit this year.

Seeking to halt the strikes, Lufthansa dropped demands for concessions in exchange for higher pay. Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr also spoke to pilots during an internal staff meeting earlier this week that was also webcast to staff.

The union had previously criticised Spohr for not playing a more active role in negotiations.

Lufthansa has proposed an increase of 4.4 percent in two instalments in 2016 and 2017, plus a one-off payment worth 1.8 months' pay.

The pilots have asked for an average annual 3.7 percent increase over a five-year period backdated to 2012, which is when their last collective bargaining contract with Lufthansa expired.

(Reporting by Maria Sheahan and Victoria Bryan; Editing by Christoph Steitz/Ruth Pitchford)
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German pilots' union Vereinigung Cockpit said it would resume wage talks with Lufthansa <LHAG.DE> next week and hold back on further strikes during negotiations, offering some pre-Christmas respite to passengers and the airline.

The union said in a statement on Friday it would discuss options, including mediation in these talks.

Lufthansa and its unions have been embroiled in a row over contracts dating back to 2012, with 15 walkouts since early 2014 costing the carrier hundreds of millions of euros in lost profit.

Lufthansa wants to cut staff costs by making pay more flexible and revamping pension schemes. Tensions between management and pilots have also been heightened by Lufthansa's plans to expand low-cost operations via its Eurowings unit.

The latest walkouts, over six days in November, have cost the German flagship carrier 100 million euros ($106 million) in lost profit this year.

Seeking to halt the strikes, Lufthansa dropped demands for concessions in exchange for higher pay. Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr also spoke to pilots during an internal staff meeting earlier this week that was also webcast to staff.

The union had previously criticized Spohr for not playing a more active role in negotiations.

Lufthansa has proposed an increase of 4.4 percent in two instalments in 2016 and 2017, plus a one-off payment worth 1.8 months' pay.

The pilots have asked for an average annual 3.7 percent increase over a five-year period backdated to 2012, which is when their last collective bargaining contract with Lufthansa expired.

(Reporting by Maria Sheahan and Victoria Bryan; Editing by Christoph Steitz/Ruth Pitchford)
By Michelle Martin and Thorsten Severin BERLIN (Reuters) - More than half of Germans see refugees and integration as Germany's biggest problem, a survey showed on Friday, despite the number of newcomers falling significantly on the year. A record 890,000 mainly Muslim migrants from the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere arrived in Europe's largest economy in 2015, prompting concerns about security and integration. Arrivals have slowed this year, with the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) saying on Friday around 305,000 new asylum seekers were registered in its 'EASY' computer system in the first 11 months of 2016; but 'EASY' numbers are seen as too high as some migrants get registered more than once. The BAMF received 26,438 asylum applications in November - a fall of around 54 percent on the year. Nonetheless, a survey by pollster Forschungsgruppe Wahlen for broadcaster ZDF found 58 percent of Germans deem refugees and integration the most important problems Germany is facing. Chancellor Angela Merkel's popularity has waned since migrants started arriving in large numbers last summer and she expects next year's federal election, in which she plans to run for a fourth term, to be "tough like no other". Merkel, whose conservatives have lost support to the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, hardened her stance on migrants' integration in Germany at a congress this week and her Christian Democrats (CDU) passed a resolution on cracking down on dual citizenship. Fifty percent of Germans think she is doing a good job on refugee policy while 45 percent think her work in this area is "rather bad", the survey of 1,234 people conducted from Dec. 6 to 8 showed. Almost two-thirds (60 percent) worry that spending on refugees means money is being saved elsewhere and 52 percent fear that migration will push up crime rates. Just under a third (30 percent) fear that Germany's cultural and social values are under threat due to the refugees. Newspaper Die Welt said on its website that migrants from North Africa were seldom deported from Germany. It cited an answer from the government to a question from the opposition far-left Linke party as saying that a combined total of 281 Moroccans, Tunisians and Algerians had been deported from Germany in the first three quarters of 2016 after more than 13,000 North Africans arrived here last year. Around three-quarters (14,463) of all migrants deported (19,914) from Germany in the first three quarters were from the West Balkans, it said. (additional reporting by Holger Hansen and Gernot Heller; Writing by Michelle Martin; editing by Ralph Boulton)
BERLIN, Dec 9 (Reuters) - The German government on Friday stressed its view that structual reforms are the key to supporting economic growth in the euro zone, and declined to comment on the European Central Bank's decision a day earlier to extend its stimulus programme.

"You know how important the ECB's independence is to us and that therefore, out of principle, we do not comment on its measures," spokesman Steffen Seibert told a regular government news conference when asked about Thursday's policy decisions.

"Independent of that, the government remains convinced that the path to sustainable growth and employment is via structural reforms, and so it is important - and (ECB President Mario) Draghi always points this out - that opportunities for reform are seized," he added.

(Writing by Paul Carrel; Editing by Joseph Nasr)
Berlin (AFP) - Germany has pledged to spend 150 million euros ($189 million) helping migrants return home, the minister of development said in an interview published Friday.

The aid fund will benefit both failed asylum seekers and migrants who choose to return to their home countries.

"For the next three years, we will put aside 50 million euros a year for this return programme," minister Gerd Mueller told Augsburger Allgemeine daily.

The funds will be made available to Iraqis, Afghans and migrants from the Balkans.

The aid will help those migrants "make a new start" in their home countries, Mueller said.

"We can offer them education, professional training, employment and social benefits."

Since receiving 900,000 asylum requests in 2015, Germany has tightened up its borders and regulations for would be migrants.

Under pressure from her Christian Democratic Union party, Chancellor Angela Merkel has got tougher on immigration ahead of her bid to win a fourth term in next year's elections, vowing never again to allow such a wave of arrivals from Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.

Her previous "open door" policy towards refugees has drawn increasing criticism, in part due to a number of high profile crimes committed by recently-arrived migrants.

Last week a teenage Afghan asylum seeker was arrested on suspicion of the rape and murder of a German student.

Last month, German police arrested seven Afghan asylum seekers on suspicion of repeatedly raping an Iranian teenager in a refugee camp.
By Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Kwasi Kpodo ACCRA (Reuters) - Opposition leader Nana Akufo-Addo won Ghana's national election, becoming president elect at the third attempt and cementing the country's reputation as a standard bearer of democracy in a region that has been blighted by civil wars and coups. Akufo-Addo defeated President John Mahama by 53.8 percent to 44.4 percent, electoral commissioner Charlotte Osei said late on Friday, sparking scenes of celebration in the capital Accra. "I make this solemn pledge to you tonight: I will not let you down. I will do all in my power to live up to your hopes and expectations," Akufo-Addo told a jubilant crowd in front of his residence. Supporters of his New Patriotic Party (NPP) broke into cheers and dancing and car horns blared and fireworks erupted across the city, witnesses said, following an anxious day in which his victory had been broadly accepted but there were no official results. Akufo-Addo, 72, served as foreign minister and attorney general in the previous NPP government that ruled between 2001 and 2009 and twice previously lost close battles for the presidency. "It is my duty and my privilege to declare Nana Akufo-Addo as the president elect of Ghana," Osei told a news conference in the capital. The outcome maintains Ghana's record of fiercely-contested but peaceful elections, with a government being voted out at the ballot box for the third time since 2000. The opposition challenged the 2012 election results, which led to an eight-month battle in the Supreme Court. It lost, but many observers said the process strengthened the country's democracy and confirmed judicial independence. The scale of the NPP's victory on Friday made another legal challenge unlikely. The party also picked up enough seats to win a parliamentary majority, independent estimates showed. The NPP will inherit an economy from Mahama's National Democratic Congress that for years was rated one of Africa's most dynamic but has slowed sharply since 2014, in part because of prices for the country's main exports - gold, cocoa and oil - have fallen. That made the government vulnerable to opposition accusations it had mismanaged the nation's finances and squandered wealth from oil, which started to flow in 2010 from an offshore field operated by British company Tullow. In a bid to kickstart growth, the NPP says it will create jobs, build a dam in every village and a factory in every district and give each constituency the equivalent of $1 million per year to pursue development projects. At the same time, it also aims to maintain a tight fiscal stance in a country that is mid-way through an International Monetary Fund program aimed at restoring balance to an economy facing elevated inflation and other problems. A few minutes before Osei's declaration, Mahama called Akufo-Addo to concede defeat. (editing by John Stonestreet)
Speakers bid to end House deadlock fails

Speaker Onasari Ghartis bid to end the deadlock in Legislature-Parliament over the constitution amendment bill has failed to yield results.
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Former Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson certainly has a grandiose presence.

His signature charm is something Amazon's banking on with its very expensive new motoring show The Grand Tour starring Clarkson, as well as fellow Top Gear alumni James May and Richard Hammond.

Promotion-wise, the show has gone big. It may be already up to episode four in the U.S., UK, Germany, Austria and Japan; but is yet to launch in Australia or worldwide.

To promote its official arrival Down Under soon (even though you can already watch it without a VPN), a truck has been driving around Sydney, with a terrifyingly giant head of Clarkson on the back.

SEE ALSO: Jeremy Clarkson launches social media platform for car addicts

There's also a similarly huge busts of May and Hammond riding along too.

The trio was driven between various locations in the city. It parked in front of the Sydney Opera House and scuttled down to Bondi Beach.

Onlookers snapped pictures of it, as one would do.

Going over the Sydney Harbour Bridge and I see these mug faces blocking traffic!! @JeremyClarkson #TheGrandTour pic.twitter.com/gQ5hXlL9EC  Biti (@Forteous_Apollo) December 8, 2016

@JeremyClarkson you coming to Sydney? There appears to be 3 large heads for you on the harbour! pic.twitter.com/MfCx4GgCcY  T Foster (@tomedwardfoster) December 8, 2016

Today in Sydney  #thegrandtour #sydney #topgear #jeremyclarkson #jamesmay #richardhammond A photo posted by AlexGrounded (@alexgrounded) on Dec 8, 2016 at 4:08pm PST

Giant heads. A good way to get attention, it seems.

BONUS: This crazy car pile-up is like life-sized bowling, but scarier.
You can gift your BFF a nail polish set from the brand Angelina Jolie and Gwyneth Paltrow LOVE

If youre anything like us, then racking your brain for last-minute gift ideas for close friends can feel like an endurance exercise  one wrapped in guilt and frustration causing you to repeatedly whisper to yourself, Why dont I know what they want? To add to your options, the nail polish brand Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie swear by is not only affordable, but its healthy for your nails.

Whether or not theyre someone with a manicure obsession, giving your friend a nice nail polish set from the celebrity-endorsed brand Maxus Nails is a safe gifting bet. Its a cute and thoughtful present they can apply in their free time when they just need to breathe.

Plus, the color selections pop.

Color block mani on this #ManiMonday using Admired from Maxus Empower collection. #MaxusStrong #MaxusMani A photo posted by Maxus (@maxusnails) on Dec 5, 2016 at 1:28pm PST

Both Angelina Jolie and Gwyneth Paltrow swear by the ingredients and quality Maxus Nails provides. Their nail polish line includes a base coat, top coat, and strengthener infused with ingredients like tea tree oil and silk amino acids to keep your nails healthy and infection free.

#TBT to our first mention by @instylemagazine  #MaxusMani #MaxusShine A photo posted by Maxus (@maxusnails) on Dec 8, 2016 at 2:55pm PST

They sell all the goodies your best friend might need in the upcoming year.

Want to win all of the products pictured? Enter via @bglowing for a chance to win $564 of free products !!!  A photo posted by Maxus (@maxusnails) on Dec 8, 2016 at 10:46am PST

You can take the plunge and buy their Empower Collection set from Maxus Nails for $60.

But also, if your BFF is already answered for, you can always buy them for yourself.



The post You can gift your BFF a nail polish set from the brand Angelina Jolie and Gwyneth Paltrow LOVE appeared first on HelloGiggles.
By Alister Doyle OSLO (Reuters) - Giraffe numbers have declined by as much as 40 percent since the 1980s in a "silent extinction" driven by illegal hunting and an expansion of farmland in Africa, the Red List of endangered species reported on Thursday. Populations of the world's tallest land creature fell to about 98,000 from an estimated 152,000-163,000 in 1985, according to the List compiled by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The Red List rated the giraffe "vulnerable" to extinction on current trends for the first time, against a previous rating of "least concern". It said the plunge in numbers in large parts of sub-Saharan Africa had gone largely unnoticed. "Whilst giraffes are commonly seen on safari, in the media and in zoos, people  including conservationists  are unaware that these majestic animals are undergoing a silent extinction," Julian Fennessy, an IUCN giraffe specialist, said in a statement. Giraffes are at risk from the expansion of farmland to feed a rising human population and from killings for their meat, often in areas of conflict such as South Sudan, according to the IUCN, which groups scientists, governments and activists. "People are competing for fewer and fewer resources and the animals are worse off ... especially with civil strife," Craig Hilton-Taylor, head of the Red List, told Reuters. Drought and climate change are aggravating factors, he said. Among other changes on the list, the African grey parrot - famed for its skill in mimicking human speech - was rated endangered, one step worse than its earlier category as vulnerable. Trapping for the pet trade has driven down numbers. The list also found that 11 percent of more than 700 other species of bird newly assessed were at risk of extinction, such as the Antioquia wren in Colombia, which is under threat from a hydro-electric dam. A few were recovering against the trend - conservation efforts had reduced threats for birds including the Azores bullfinch, St. Helena plover and Seychelles white-eye. The Red List, the main global authority on risks to animals and plants, said 24,307 of 85,604 species assessed in recent decades were in danger of extinction. U.N. studies say that man-made threats, led by the loss of natural habitats, may herald the worst extinction crisis since the dinosaurs were wiped out 65 million years ago. (Reporting by Alister Doyle; editing by Mark Heinrich)
Giving cash directly to people in extreme poverty has been proven effective again and again, by study after study. But, this solution often provokes visceral reactions in people, as it runs contrary to the values in societythat people should earn their money, and anything else is unfair.

This fetishization of self-reliance, however, is only one part of why people chafe at giving money directly to those in extreme poverty. A more common refrain: Theyll squander the money on booze, cigs, and drugs. However, its just not true.

In the study Cash Transfers and Temptation Goods, researchers David K. Evans of the World Bank and Anna Popova of Stanford University show this assumption to be false by examining spending on temptation goods like alcohol and cigarettes after cash transfers to people in extreme poverty. Their findings showed that when given cash, the consumption of these temptation goods can actually go down.

Previous studies on the efficacy of cash transfer programs to poor communities focused on recipients well-beinglooking at increased education and consumption as measurements, not whether the money was spent on vice.

The results of Evans and Popovas research and analysis are global in scope, using 19 studies from around the world. Almost without exception, studies find either no significant impact or a significant negative impact of [cash transfers] on expenditures on alcohol and tobacco, they write.

Explaining this isnt so difficult, it turns out. When money is transferred with strings attached, it cannot be used on temptation goodsits earmarked for things like education, health, and other betterment investing. But even when there arent any strings attached, the money motivates people to redirect money they would spend on alcohol, for instance, to other things.

By giving households sufficient cash at one time to open a small retail business, cash transfers create the opportunity to invest cash that might otherwise be spent in small doses on temptation items, write Evans and Popova. To put it another way and paraphrase Warren Buffett, the utility and personal value of money changes depending on how much you have. Additionally, the programs messaging about how the money should be used is stresseda strategy that appears to be successful.

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The results have been similar for GiveDirectly, a top rated charity by Give Well that facilitates cash transfers. The more than 50,000 extremely poor families GiveDirectly has transferred cash to are an example of what this research shows: that myths about the poor being irresponsible, lazy, and welfare queens are dead false, Max Chapnick, a spokesperson at GiveDirectly, told Yahoo Finance. Maybe the reason we expect the poor to spend cash grants on alcohol is that some of us might, but turns out they have more pressing needs to worry about.

Why do we think everyone will buy booze and drugs?

Its not hard to understand where that thinking comes from: Alcoholism and drug abuse, especially in urban poverty is very visible. The study didnt get into where these assumptions come from but the authors have some ideas.

Lets say you are a Kenyan policymaker and you took a trip to a slum for a few hours. Its certainly possible that you might see an intoxicated poor person, Evans told Yahoo Finance. Of course, seeing that person doesnt tell you anything about how often poor people are intoxicated or whether there is a causal relationship, but its the kind of image that may stand out in your mind and lends itself to a simple narrative.

Those perceptions are powerful, but theres probably even more going on, something called the Self-Serving Bias, Evans says. Its essentially when people overestimate their own roles in their successignoring the good draw they may have received at birth. A complementary narrative is that poor people are poor because of bad choices, he says. And again, it comes back to visibility. If you met or heard about a given poor person who had an alcohol problem, its then easy to attribute their poverty to that and generalize. It feeds into a narrative that Im well-off largely because of my choices, and they are poor largely because of theirs, and heres an obvious choice that I saw a poor person making.

The third part of the knee-jerk reaction against giving money directly may come from people looking for reasons not to sacrifice their own income or tax dollars on programs like this.

We never argue that not a single poor person will ever spend their transfer on alcohol. Only that on average across the beneficiaries, it doesnt happen anywhere, says Evans. The existence of a single poor person who drinks or uses drugs allows you to say, Well, Im not sure the money will be well spent, and that excuse makes it easy not to take action to enact a welfare program that will cost you resources.

These findings could be vital for the new economy

What Evans and Popova found isnt just important for fighting poverty in the developing worldit could have impact on our future economy. Many people, including former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, think millions of jobs are on their way to being lost to technological advancements. Job destruction caused by technology is not a futuristic concern. It is something we have been living with for two generations, he wrote on his blog in September. A simple linear trend suggests that by mid-century about a quarter of men between 25 and 54 will not be working at any moment.

This doesnt have to be a bad thing; technology usually makes things cheaper and more efficient. But if the robots make tons of jobs obsolete faster than new jobs can be thought up, how will people make money to live? There is one answer thats gaining momentum (in some countries) and some bipartisan support. The idea is to provide a basic income for everyone to supplement income from low-paying jobs that have become the hallmark of a shrinking middle class. It would be essentially like Social Security, but for everyone, and the monetary gains from an automated future would pay for it, as well as reduced government costs.

Some political conservatives see doling out cash as a way to cut government bureaucracy and costs (handing out cash is really cheap) and the social safety-net part appeals to the left. But its only its been done on a very small scale a few timesQuartz has a great graphic showing where and how its been tried..

On Dec. 8, a group called the Economic Security Project, composed of tech executives like Y Combinators president, Sam Altman, Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, and many activists and professors, met to pledge $10 million for further research on the idea of a universal basic income. A pilot project led by Sam Altman in Oakland, will begin with a few dozen people getting $2,000 per month for a year. The learnings from that will lead to a larger trial.

Of course, for any for any of this to actually gain popularity, its important that money is actually spent wisely and effectively, and this studys result is powerfuland usefulevidence.

There are reasons to believe that cash transfers are not a silver bullet, says Evans. You may believe they need to be complemented with ensuring that the poor have access to savings accounts and business training and quality schools, so that they have productive markets in which to spend their cash. But the fear that the cash will go to beer and cigarettes is not one of those reasons.

Ethan Wolff-Mann is a writer at Yahoo Finance focusing on consumerism, tech, and personal finance. Follow him on Twitter @ewolffmann.

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DailyFX.com -

Talking Points:

Gold prices at standstill as markets look ahead to FOMC meeting

Profit-taking on short exposure may drive corrective gold bounce

Crude oil prices gain as OPEC looks for output cut participation

Gold prices are flat-lining absent fresh news-flow updating speculation about the Fed monetary policy outlook. Next weeks FOMC rate decision lines up as the next key inflection point. An upside correction may materialize amid profit-taking on short positions as traders entertain the possibility that the central bank envisions a shallower tightening path than what has been priced in after the US president election.

Crude oil prices turned higher, snapping a three-day losing streak, as traders looked ahead to a meeting of OPEC and non-OPEC producers over the weekend. The cartel aims to secure external participation in a last-minute output cut scheme agreed upon last week. Follow-through will probably have to wait for the meetings outcome to cross the wires however. Russia looks to be in while others like Mexico and Brazil passing.

See the schedule of upcoming webinars and join us LIVE to follow the financial markets!

GOLD TECHNICAL ANALYSIS  Gold prices remain locked in a narrow range but positive RSI divergence continues to hint an on-coming bounce. Near-term resistance is at 1183.28, the 14.6% Fibonacci retracement, with a daily close above that exposing the 23.6% level at 1199.50. Alternatively, a drop below the 23.6% Fib expansion at 1158.15 targets the 38.2% threshold at 1133.83.

Gold Price Upswing May Precede FOMC Rate Decision

CRUDE OIL TECHNICAL ANALYSIS  Crude oil prices corrected higher after finding interim support below the $50/bbl having established a top as expected. A daily close above the 51.64-52.00 area (double top, 23.6% Fibonacci expansion) exposes the 38.2% level at 53.49. Alternatively, a reversal below the December 8 swing low at 49.60 targets the 38.2% Fib retracement at 48.49.

Gold Price Upswing May Precede FOMC Rate Decision

--- Written by Ilya Spivak, Currency Strategist for DailyFX.com

Story continues

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Contact and follow Ilya on Twitter: @IlyaSpivak



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Which TV show will get the Golden Globes bump?

Monday morning will bring another round of nominations for the Golden Globes, and while much of the attention will be lavished on Oscar contenders in the film categories, the TV nominations nearly always contain some surprises that end up directing the spotlight toward surprise picks.

Previous beneficiaries of the boost from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association include Ugly Betty, Girls, Boardwalk Empire and last years shocker, Mozart in the Jungle.

So who has the advantage this year, with the era of peak TV creating so many choices on TV and online? Check out some of our predictions for the nominations below:

Drama Series: Globes voters tend to prefer new series, and several this year are likely contenders. Stranger Things, Netflixs acclaimed mystery/Spielberg homage, is almost certain to turn up. Ditto The Crown, a very costly Netflix period drama about the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, which will likely prove irresistible to the Globes cosmopolitan-minded voters.

HBOs sci-fi fantasy Westworld could certainly make the cut, as well as NBCs topical, family-oriented This Is Us, one of the biggest dramas on broadcast TV in years. ABCs political thriller Designated Survivor looks like a long shot, but it could deliver; 24, another Kiefer Sutherland drama, won the Globe in 2004.

Also Read: Golden Globes 2017 Movie Predictions: 'La La Land,' 'Moonlight' Should Dominate

Among returning shows, Mr. Robot won last year for its freshman season; it could return for another round among the nominees (Homeland and Mad Men are among series that have won consecutive Globes). Game of Thrones and Outlander could be safe bets here. And The Americans, Better Call Saul or House of Cards might sneak in too.

Predicted nominees: Stranger Things, The Crown, Westworld, This Is Us, Game of Thrones

Musical or Comedy Series: This is a crazy category. Last year, the against-all-odds winner was Amazons Mozart in the Jungle, a classical-music drama with appeal to a very limited (perhaps barely existent?) audience.

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Assuming Mozart was a one-time-only phenomenon, Globe voters are very likely to give a nod to Atlanta, Donald Glovers inventive look at hip-hop and one of the years most-talked-about series. HBOs Silicon Valley and Veep may make return appearances, although voters might be getting a little fatigued from all the award-show praise heaped on both; ditto Amazons Transparent. If so, the Globes might turn toward a newcomer such as HBOs Insecure or the British series Fleabag.

Predicted nominees: Atlanta, Silicon Valley, Veep, Transparent, Insecure

Limited series: This category isnt hard to figure out. FXs acclaimed miniseries People v. O.J. Simpson is going to get a nod  thats probably the closest thing to a sure bet you will hear all season. HBOs murder mystery The Night Of is pretty close to a lock too. All the Way will join the nominee list, thanks mainly due to Bryan Cranstons towering performance as LBJ. Add The Night Manager and American Crime, and youve got your list.

Predicted nominees: People v. O.J. Simpson, The Night Of, All the Way, The Night Manager, American Crime

Also Read: Meryl Streep to Receive Golden Globes' Cecil B. DeMille Award

Drama Actor: This might be the year for Rami Malek of Mr. Robot, who last time was nominated but lost out to Jon Hamm of Mad Men. Malek is very likely to at least make the nominee roster again. Anthony Hopkins will probably make the cut because: 1) hes a global film star with a storied career and 2) Westworld is a hot new show.

Similar logic would underscore a nomination for Paul Giamatti of Billions. Wagner Moura of Narcos, Bob Odenkirk of Better Call Saul and Liev Schreiber of Ray Donovan were nominees last year; any of them could round out the list this time around. Given that its the Globes and voters will consider international appeal, Matt Smith could win a place among the nominees for his memorable turn as Prince Philip on The Crown.

Long shots would include U.K. stalwarts Matthew Rhys of The Americans and Hugh Laurie of Chance.

Predicted nominees: Rami Malek, Anthony Hopkins, Paul Giamatti, Bob Odenkirk, Matt Smith

Drama Actress: Heres a category thats wide open. As Queen Elizabeth on The Crown, Claire Foy is an obvious pick. Taraji P. Henson won for Empire last year, and its a fairly safe bet she will make the short list again. Beyond those two, it gets interesting, with a long list of plausible nominees: Evan Rachel Wood and Thandie Newton of Westworld, Robin Wright of House of Cards, Viola Davis of How to Get Away With Murder, Winona Ryder of Stranger Things and more. The good news is that there were a lot of good roles for leading women in 2016.

Predicted nominees: Claire Foy, Taraji P. Henson, Evan Rachel Wood, Thandie Newton, Winona Ryder

Also Read: Jimmy Fallon to Host NBC's Golden Globes

Comedy Actor: Donald Glover will very likely get a nod in this category for Atlanta. Thomas Haden Church could get seat at the table for his fine performance in Divorce. Jeffrey Tambor of Transparent and Patrick Stewart of Blunt Talk could return to the nominee list.

Finally, you cant entirely discount stars of other freshman series, such as Woody Allen of Crisis in Six Scenes, Nick Nolte of Graves or Ted Danson of The Good Place. Newcomers those three arent, though  and none of those shows quite broke through.

Predicted nominees: Donald Glover, Thomas Haden Church, Jeffrey Tambor, Patrick Stewart, Ted Danson

Comedy Actress: Heres betting that Issa Rae will have a breakthrough with Insecure. Minnie Driver also looks solid to draw a nod for Speechless. While not quite as likely, Tig Notaro of One Mississippi, Pamela Adlon of Better Things or Kristen Bell of The Good Place could score too. Among the returning candidates, there is Julia Louis-Dreyfus of Veep  whos virtually the queen of this category. And voters might have a soft spot for Lily Tomlin of Grace & Frankie, nominated but win-less last year.

Predicted nominees: Minnie Driver, Tig Notaro, Pamela Adlon, Kristen Bell, Julia Louis-Dreyfus

Limited Series Actor: Courtney B. Vance or Cuba Gooding Jr.  or both  could get nods for People vs. O.J. Simpson. Riz Ahmed had a breakthrough as the murder suspect in The Night Of, and voters arent going to forget him now. Theyre also going to remember his costar, John Turturro, for his work as the ambulance-chasing attorney. And Bryan Cranston is almost a sure thing for All the Way.

Predicted nominees: Courtney B. Vance, Cuba Gooding Jr., Riz Ahmed, Bryan Cranston, John Turturro



Also Read: Jimmy Fallon and Questlove Get Lit in First Golden Globes Promo (Video)

Limited Series Actress: Sarah Paulson, who won plaudits across the board for People vs. O.J. Simpson, is going to be on the nominee list, period. Kerry Washington will very likely get a nod for HBOs Confirmation, even if the series wasnt universally beloved. Felicity Huffman and/or Lili Taylor could join the nominee circle for American Crime. And Gilmore Girls fans could always sneak in Lauren Graham for the Netflix reboot.

Predicted nominees: Sarah Paulson, Kerry Washington, Felicity Huffman, Lili Taylor, Lauren Graham

Supporting Actor: Sterling K. Brown of People vs. O.J. Simpson looks like the go-to choice here. His cast mate John Travolta, who played attorney Robert Shapiro, could likewise get a nod. Other actors likely to turn up include Kit Harington of Game of Thrones, Louie Anderson of Baskets (who worked in drag, playing Zach Galfianakis mother) and John Lithgow, who played Winston Churchill on The Crown.

Predicted nominees: Sterling K. Brown, Kit Harington, Louie Anderson, John Lithgow, John Travolta



Supporting Actress: A wide-open field. Maura Tierney of The Affair won last year, and shes favored to return to the nominee list this time around. Other possibles include Constance Zimmer of UnReal, Judith Light of Transparent and Emilia Clarke of Game of Thrones. Millie Bobby Brown of Stranger Things seems to be a favorite to round out the field.

Predicted nominees: Maura Tierney, Constance Zimmer, Judith Light, Emilia Clarke, Millie Bobby Brown



The Golden Globe Awards will air Jan. 8 on NBC.

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Jimmy Fallon and Questlove Get Lit in First Golden Globes Promo (Video)

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Golden Globes 2017 Movie Predictions: 'La La Land,' 'Moonlight' Should Dominate
Members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. pride themselves on their unpredictability  so trying to guess what TV series will earn a nomination is an exercise in near futility. Unlike the film race, which can have a certain steady momentum based on the guild and critics picks, the TV categories have little to guide them. Witness last years Mozart in the Jungle selection, which few could have foreseen.

Sources say this year Netflixs The Crown is a lock, as are NBCs This Is Us and HBOs Game of Thrones and Westworld. So which dramas are in play for the precious fifth slot? And what programs are contending for the comedy series and miniseries/TV movie categories? Read on for a peek inside Varietys very cloudy crystal ball.

Click here for thoughts on the Film races.

TELEVISION SERIES  DRAMA

The Americans  FX

The Globes have yet to recognize FXs stellar spy drama four seasons in, but now that the Emmys have finally heeded critics and showered the Cold War-era thriller with noms, the HFPA will likely want to seem just as savvy as the TV Academy. And with only two seasons to go before the series finale, its about time to recognize one of the small screens best dramas.

The Crown  Netflix

The streamers crown jewel of a series is prime awards bait: from the lush period setting to the Oscar-winning auspices to the painstaking recreation of the lives and loves of British royalty. While some may carp at the leisurely storytelling pace, voters wont be able to resist crowning the opulent drama.

Empire  Fox

The hip-hop drama may not longer be the fresh new face, but in its third season its still delivering big ratings and even bigger plot twists. With one nomination to its credit and now in a second year of eligibility, the Cookie hasnt crumbled yet.

Game of Thrones  HBO

Globe voters took a pass on nominating seasons two and three, but its hard to imagine the reigning Emmy drama champion not securing a return trip this year. Still, the ultimate trophy has thus far eluded the HBO juggernaut, with voters preferring to anoint rookies.

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Mr. Robot  USA

Last years Golden Globe champ can certainly count on another nomination. Critics may have been divided on the USA hacker dramas mind-bending sophomore season, but theres no denying the riveting performance delivered by Emmy winner Rami Malek  and last years Globe winner Christian Slater.

Narcos  Netflix

The exploits of Colombian cocaine king Pablo Escobar guided Netflixs drug-dealing drama to a Globe nomination last year. Given the life-and-death (spoiler alert) stakes of the second season  and the bilingual storytelling  the cartel case can likely expect to be recognized again.

Outlander  Starz

The historical fantasy made its mark on the Globes last year with nominations for drama and its lead actress. So its likely to make a return appearance to the list, after a second season that saw elaborate Parisian costumes alongside brutal Scottish battles and the heartstopping time-travelling romance fans tune in for.

Stranger Things  Netflix

Given its 80s vibe and genre theme, Stranger Things may not seem an obvious awards contender, but the HFPA may want to embrace the summers breakout hit to prove its in-the-know cred. Stranger things have happened at the Globes, indeed.

This Is Us  NBC

The buzz began with the pilot and hasnt relented, as creator Dan Fogelman has revived the broadcast family drama  and has millions reaching for tissues every week, with its heartrending, twisty narrative. With NBC and 20th putting their awards muscle behind this contender, voters will find it hard to resist a rare feel-good drama.

Westworld  HBO

The premium cabler has had an impressive run with dramas at the Globes, except for a rare blip in 2013. HBO has long been looking for an heir to Game of Thrones and may well have found it with the sci-fi western, given the ambitious scope and powerhouse star turns from the likes of Anthony Hopkins and Evan Rachel Wood.

ALSO IN THE MIX: Peak TV has offered a literal onslaught of credible new contenders including Amazons Goliath and Good Girls Revolt (plus season two of The Man in the High Castle), Hulus Chance and The Path, Showtimes Billions, OWNs Queen Sugar, and Louis C.K.s passion project Horace and Pete.

Past nominees eligible again this year also include Showtimes The Affair, Netflixs House of Cards, and the final seasons of PBS Downton Abbey and CBS The Good Wife, while AMCs Better Call Saul is seeking its first nom after being overlooked last year.

TELEVISION SERIES  MUSICAL or COMEDY

Atlanta  FX

The years most critically acclaimed new comedy, Donald Glovers breakthrough half-hour would seem like a natural fit to contend in the category. But last year Netflixs similarly hailed Master of None missed out on a series nom (while landing a nom for star Aziz Ansari). Either way, its a good bet Glover will be represented somehow.

Black-ish  ABC

Last year, all six of the HFPA nominees were from digital outlets or HBO. The year before, The CWs Jane the Virgin was the only network nominees. Theres no question the traditional broadcasters are trending down at the Globes. But one of the best bets would be ABCs zeitgeisty comedy, which draws acclaim for its take on social issues as much as its humor.

Catastrophe  Amazon

In many ways this British import fits the classic Golden Globe model: Its buzzy, has a fervent cult following, foreign roots, and originates on a hot alternative outlet. Stars-creators Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney could pop up in the acting categories, too, for the shows eligible second season.

Divorce  HBO

Catastrophe creator Sharon Horgan has two horses in this race, the other being this brand new series toplining Sarah Jessica Parker and Thomas Haden Church. While critical response has been mixed, the recognizable stars could give it an edge over better received time-slot companion Insecure.

The Good Place  NBC

See Black-ish above for the odds of any network series in this race. But NBCs witty, serialized look at the afterlife may be best positioned among all network contenders thanks to strong reviews, a fresh approach, the pedigree of creator Mike Schur (whose Parks and Recreation and Brooklyn Nine-Nine are a past nominee and winner, respectively), and likeable star (and likely nominee) Kristen Bell.

Mozart in the Jungle  Amazon

Last years surprise winner is back in the race and is looking to prove whether its a show similar to Girls and Glee that earns multiple noms, or a show like Ugly Betty and Brooklyn Nine-Nine that wins once and is never nominated again.

Orange Is the New Black  Netflix

Now firmly entrenched in the drama categories after starting as a comedy at the Emmys, the prison dramedy has gone the reverse course at the Globes. Its been a comedy series nominee the past two years, but while the most recent season was one of the shows most acclaimed  and boasted a lot of laughs  it was also arguably the most emotionally devastating.

Silicon Valley  HBO

With back-to-back noms the uber-smart satire should be a safe bet for a third, and possibly land leading man and Emmy nominee Thomas Middleditch his first Globe nom, but increased competition from new series always makes it a challenge for category veterans to maintain their place.

Transparent  Amazon

The winner in 2015 and a nominee again for season two, Amazons dramedy wont be as fresh to Globe voters as it once was. But the series continues to enjoy rave reviews and is unlike anything else on television. Its biggest threat may come from newer titles on offer from the streaming service.

Veep  HBO

Despite winning Emmys for two consecutive years now, the political satire had never been nominated for a series Globe until last year (and Emmy-bait star Julia Louis-Dreyfus still hasnt won a Globe for her role). That makes a repeat nomination this year less of a sure thing than it might seem.

ALSO IN THE MIX: Hulus Casual was a surprise nominee and could return this year, although numerous newcomers including HBOs Insecure, Amazons One Mississippi and Fleabag, FXs Better Things, and even ABCs Speechless are waiting to nab that surprise slot.

Some might expect Netflixs Emmy-nominated Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt to land a nom, but it was MIA last year. This year, the streamer has a truly unconventional contender in The Get Down, which could overcome mixed reviews to remind everyone of the little discussed musical side of the categorys title.

LIMITED SERIES or MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION

All the Way  HBO

Last year was the first since 1990 that HBO didnt have a nominee in this category (one it usually wins). This sweeping period epic about Lyndon Johnsons presidency represents one of its top bets this year.

American Crime  ABC

Nominated in three categories last year, the topical drama hopes to repeat in season two and draw what would likely be among the very few noms for a broadcast network this year. Flashier competition could stand in the way.

Confirmation  HBO

Although overshadowed by All the Way at the Emmys, this tale of sexual harassment in Washington, D.C., boasts a Golden Globe-nominated leading lady in Kerry Washington and an even greater connection to the zeitgeist than it did when it premiered earlier this year.

Gilmore Girls: A Year In the Life  Netflix

Unlike the Emmys, Globe voters at least acknowledged the original run of Gilmore (with a single nom for Lauren Graham in 2002). They may be even more keen to acknowledge the comeback, a series of four feature-length episodes spanning the course of a year.

The Girlfriend Experience  Starz

The cabler has done rather well with limited series and miniseries at the Globes, landing noms for entries as varied as Dancing on the Edge, The White Queen, and Flesh & Bone. The trend could continue with this bold adaptation of a Steven Soderbergh movie with an edgy lead turn from Riley Keough.

The Night Manager  AMC

A popular limited series event on both sides of the pond, this John Le Carre adaptation looks likely to land a slew of noms thanks to a high profile international cast and respected helmer Susanne Bier (whose 2010 In a Better World won best foreign film).

The Night Of  HBO

One of the years most talked about limited series, the adaptation of the U.K.s Criminal Justice should be HBOs ace in the sleeve to guarantee a return to this category. But its not the only buzzy courtroom drama in the race 

The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story  FX

After dominating the Emmys, FXs true crime serial may well dominate TVs winter award season too, and should be a formidable Globes contender not just for multiple nominations, but also victories across multiple categories.

Roots  History

A few years ago this lavish update of Alex Haleys iconic book would have been a lock for a nomination. But now that limited series production is booming its hard to tell where traditional minis like this fit into the race.

Sherlock: The Abominable Bride  PBS

Although star Benedict Cumberbatch has been nominated once, no Sherlock telepic has been nominated in this category. Will the years surprise Emmy champ, a solitary throwback mystery designed to bridge a gap between seasons, become the first?

ALSO IN THE MIX: Pedigree could be key for several contenders looking to upset: Anthony Hopkins teams with Ian McKellen in Starzs The Dresser, Hulus 11.22.63 comes from J.J. Abrams, Stephen King, and James Franco, while Amazons Crisis in Six Scenes boasts the bizarre combination of Woody Allen and Miley Cyrus.

It might be a fluke, but only the odd number installments of FXs American Horror Story have earned Globe noms in the series categories, which perhaps bodes poorly for AHS: Roanoke (season six), especially given the competition. Plus, if voters want to reward an offbeat genre show, they could switch to Netflixs cult favorite, Black Mirror.

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Though its no longer a major news story in national papers, the water crisis in Flint, Mich. is an ongoing struggle for its citizens. A Google-funded app is now helping citizens of the city find clean water to supplement for what their pipes cant provide.

The app and website Mywater-Flint was created by researchers at the Flint and Ann Arbor campuses of the University of Michigan and backed by funding from Google.org. Accessible through any browser or via app on Android devices, the service debuted on Dec. 8 with the goal of distributing vital information to the citys residents.

Mywater-Flint displays a map of the city, which users can navigate to find any number of important details. It displays where lead has been found in the water, where service line workers are replacing infrastructure, and what areas have safe piping.

Most vital, the app will point users to water distribution centers so they can collect clean drinking water. It also directs them to places where they can get a water testing kit and filter. Only about one-third of Flint residents have had their water tested according to researchers.

The app aims to address one of the most difficult challenges with the Flint water crisis, outside of fixing the pipinggarnering trust with the citys residence following the crisis. Many of its 98,000 citizens feel betrayed by their elected officials since learning they have been poisoned by the decision of Michigans governor.

According to Politifact, University of Michigan-Flint political scientist Peggy Kahn said water quality has improved but "there is concern that there is still lead in the system, and it is unclear whether every residence has safe water.

In addition to keeping residents up to date with information about water safety, it also aims to provide predictive information that may help residents decide just how safe their water is. Mywater-Flint looks at the age of property, its location, value and size to determine the likelihood it has elevated lead levels.

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The app came to be in part thanks to a $150,000 grant from Google.org, the charitable arm of the search giant. Google also lent the help of its engineers, user experience designers and strategists on a volunteer basis to help the university and its students create Mywater-Flint.

Related Articles
Sketch of a gorgonopsian head, in side view. (CCA 3.0 / Dmitry Bogdanov via UW)

A weird type of benign tumor has been discovered in an unlikely place: the fossilized jaw of a distant ancestor of present-day mammals that lived 255 million years ago.

The tumor, known as a compound odontoma, is made up of miniature toothlike structures. Its not unusual to find such tumors in mammals, including us humans. But its unprecedented to find them in the kind of orgonopsid studied by researchers from the University of Washington.

We think this is by far the oldest known instance of a compound odontoma, Christian Sidor, a UW professor of biology and curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, said today in a news release.

Sidor is the senior author of a report on the find, published in todays edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association Oncology. The research could have implications for cancer research as well as for paleontology.

Until now, the earliest known occurrence of this tumor was about 1 million years ago, in fossil mammals, said Judy Skog, program director in the National Science Foundations Division of Earth Sciences, which funded the research. In todays news release, she said the discovery suggests that the suspected cause of an odontoma isnt tied solely to traits in modern species, as had been thought.

Compound odontomas grow within the gums, like jumbled-up mini-teeth. Studies indicate that the condition crops up in roughly one out of a thousand people.

Odontomas dont metastasize and are considered benign, but surgeons often opt to remove them because they can become painful and disrupt the arrangement of teeth in the jaw.

Sidor and his colleagues werent looking for tumors when they began slicing up a fossilized gorgonopsid lower jaw that he had collected in southern Tanzania. Rather, they were hoping to address a different scientific question about gorgonopsids, which are sometimes called mammal-like reptiles.

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When gorgonopsids walked the earth, they were leggy creatures, measuring 2 to 10 feet in length from nose to tail, with fearsome-looking saber teeth. Theyre part of a larger group of animals called synapsids, which are thought to have given rise to mammals more than 100 million years ago.

Most synapsids are extinct, and we  that is, mammals  are their only living descendants, said UW researcher Megan Whitney, the studys principal author. To understand when and how our mammalian features evolved, we have to study fossils of synapsids like the gorgonopsians.

Whitney wondered whether the gorgonopsids teeth were connected to the jaw the way mammalian teeth are. Most reptiles alive today fuse their teeth directly to the jawbone, she explained. But mammals do not. We use tough but flexible stringlike tissues to hold teeth in their sockets. And I wanted to know if the same was true for gorgonopsians.

The researchers sliced the jawbone into thin sections and mounted them on slides to study the inner details of the jaw tissues.

These small details act as storybooks, preserving a lot of information about the biology of these animals while they were alive, Sidor and Whitney wrote in a Q&A about their research.

An undergraduate researcher, Larry Mose, noticed a strange cluster of small circles on one of the slides. The circles resembled miniature teeth, which are a tip-off for compound odontoma.

A histological thin section of the gorgonopsid lower jaw, taken near the top of the canine root. The dark area on the right is bone. The backward C-shaped structure on the left is the canine root. The cluster of small circles resemble miniature teeth, indicative of compound odontoma. (Megan Whitney / Christian Sidor Photo / University of Washington)

Researchers have previously found hints of tumors in older specimens, including fossilized fish that date back as far as 350 million years. But the gorgonopsid jaw revealed that a specific type of tumor associated with modern-day mammals was around even before mammals existed.

That could help shed light on the evolutionary and biological mechanisms behind odontomas in particular and tumors in general.

This discovery demonstrates how the fossil record can tell us a lot about our present-day lives  even the diseases or pathologies that are part of our mammalian heritage, Sidor said. And you could never tell that this creature had it from the outside.

The research that resulted in the JAMA Oncology article, Odontoma in a 255-Million-Year-Old Mammalian Forebear, was funded by the National Science Foundation and a University of Washington Mary Gates Research Fellowship. Sidors fieldwork was funded by the National Geographic Society.

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The student unions close to the opposition parties have announced further agitation programmes against the constitution amendment bill.
Kim Kardashian is known for wearing racy, barely-there gowns, but a university recently made an example of her  and what not to wear  at graduation. (Photo: Getty Images)

Kim Kardashian has never been one to shy away from showing skin or experimenting with the latest trend  no matter how risque it might be. With her worldwide notoriety, her style is adored by some and criticized by others. But one university has landed itself in hot water after making a reference to the celebrity in an article posted to its website regarding the graduation dress code.

Queens University Belfast, a public university in Northern Ireland with about 25,000 students, recently posted a note written by Thom Dickerson, a former architecture student and current owner of a Belfast-based private tailoring company, titled, Style tips for graduation week: Wear it well. Appropriate dress for the ceremony was detailed and, along with conventional tips on matching colors of gowns to academic hoods, he advised students: Remember its a formal event! Possibly the biggest mistake I see at graduation is girls treating the event like a night out.

Dickerson then described what he deemed prohibited wear: Graduation is a formal event and the dress code should match this. Short skirts and cleavage on show are totally out of the question. Think Grace Kelly, not Kim Kardashian, at least until the day is done: You can always change before heading out! Men were also advised to wear dark-colored shoes in the note.

Although the dress code for graduation is reportedly not compulsory, some students apparently took issue with the note, finding it inappropriate. The Belfast Telegraph obtained a letter written to the university by a postgraduate female student in which she detailed why she found it offensive and condescending.

I find that it gives legitimacy to the stereotype that university education is for the middle classes, she wrote. As a woman, however, the part I find utterly deplorable is the way in which it advises women how to dress. Being told what to wear, being judged for our attire and being told certain attire says certain things about you as a woman is still a daily occurrence.

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Its quite standard for universities worldwide to issue dress codes and instruct students on appropriate attire, but she found fault in the way in which the university did it. I understand that the university wishes graduation to be a formal event, she continued. So, why couldnt they simply state formal attire? Looking to the comparisons the university has made here, its pretty degrading. The reserved, conservative Grace Kelly is the example of good while the louder more risque Kim Kardashian is bad?

She related the Kardashian and Kelly reference to stereotypes modern women face in todays society. Isnt that the same old, same old weve been trying to rally against for years now? The article draws a very definitive line between male and female attire. The most offensive part of it all is the way in which it confirms the stereotypical good girl and pits her against the stereotypical bad girl.

The style tip clearly did not sit well with the postgraduate student, as she likened the remark about cleavage on show to a piece of advice that would have been handed down to girls in a convent. She posed a question to Dickerson, writing, Are we not a bit more mature than making cleavage out to be bad or even sacrosanct? I feel massively condescended to and genuinely offended to be offered this advice.

Another student, Sarah Wright, who studies politics at the university, perceived the note in a similar way. Its outrageous that QUB would even consider, never mind print, such sexist advice for women graduates, she told the Independent. These women students have spent thousands of pounds and years of their lives studying for their respective degrees. It should not be inconceivable that the focus should be on their achievements, not on moralizing regarding what they choose as adults to wear to celebrate the occasion.

We reached out to Queens University Belfast, and the school provided the following comment:

Queens University Belfasts Graduation webpage includes news, tips and information for graduating students. This is a dynamic webpage which is constantly updated. It currently includes stories about the achievements of our most recent graduates. This particular article was written by an external contributor.

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GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Revelers in Guatemala set ablaze cardboard representations of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump wearing devil horns during a traditional ceremony, "La Quema del Diablo", or the Burning of the Devil, held ahead of Christmas every year. Trump's hardline stance on immigration during his presidential election campaign, including a promise to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, has drawn anger from Latin Americans in the United States and around the world. "We are against this person in many respects, regarding deportations, the wall he wants to build. We do not agree," said participant Astrid Soto, just before setting fire to the Trump figures, which clutched fistfuls of fake cash, and a U.S. flag. Participants believe the practice of torching the devil helps banish bad spirits from their homes and neighborhoods. The custom began in the 16th century, but has spread out from various towns since the 1990s to become popular nationwide. (Reporting by Reuters Television; Writing by Nicole Nee, Editing by Karishma Singh and Clarence Fernandez)
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Think a cheeky $2 million would solve your problems? Wrong!

A technical glitch gave an Australian man a limitless overdraft on his bank account, allowing him to spend big, and often, but the rich life didn't make him happy.

SEE ALSO: Polite guy wins $1 million in lottery store after letting someone cut in front

The bank error allowed Goulburn man Luke Moore, then in his mid 20s, to continue to withdraw money from his bank account as an unlimited overdraft, reaching an excess of A$2.1 million.

After making a handful of payments on his home loan, Moore gradually began spending like Richie Rich, buying Alfa Romeo and Maserati cars, a speed boat and a bunch of valuable pop culture paraphernalia.

Luke Moore who blew $2.1m says he's 'living the dream' https://t.co/HwB9FBm0VJ pic.twitter.com/JAUHW4qQP9  Billy Bloke (@eBayDownUnder) December 7, 2016

When his financial institution finally cottoned on to the error, Moore was jailed with a minimum total 7 year sentence for obtaining financial advantage by deception and living off the proceeds of a crime.

But this week, Moore was released after just five months served when an appeal in the Supreme Court of New South Wales saw the verdict overturned and Moore walk free  albeit in a lot of debt.

A back-to-normal Moore said that the millionaire lifestyle wasn't worth the hype anyway and its not something he misses, with the exception of "the cocaine, the strippers and fast cars."

Speaking with The Daily Telegraph Moore said that the idea that money buys you women, power and happiness just wasnt true.

"I pull more chicks now with A$20 in my pocket than I did when I was splashing the banks cash," Moore said. "Ive learned money doesnt buy everything, but it was great while it lasted."

Story continues

The 29-year-old man has gone back to university to study criminal law of all things, with a sense that maybe the best things in life really are free.

"Would I do it again? No. I enjoyed driving around in flash cars with no shirt, no shoes and with the wind in my hair Ive had to give everything back but Im happier this way as Ive realised my family and friends are my biggest treasures."

Preach!

Maybe the best things in life really are free.

Image: Luke Moore facebook

BONUS: This triple spiral of 15,000 dominoes falling down is incredibly satisfying to watch
With another report of an Electoral College member ready to switch votes, its time to look back to the 2004 election, when Congress had to deal with two last-second challenges as the final presidential votes were counted in the Houses chambers.

With another report of an Electoral College member ready to switch votes, its time to look back to the 2004 election, when Congress had to deal with two last-second challenges as the final presidential votes were counted in the Houses chambers.

Christopher Suprun, a Texas Republican delegate, wrote in the New York Times this week that he will not be voting for Donald Trump, the candidate who won the popular vote in Texas. Instead, Suprun might cast his vote for Ohio Governor John Kasich.

Texas doesnt have a faithless elector law that would disqualify Suprun from casting his vote for a candidate other than the one (in this case, Trump) who won his partys Electoral College slate. A few Electoral College members in Colorado and Washington state also may try to vote for other candidates; Colorados law allows the party to replace a faithless elector, but Washington states law only fines them. That leaves open the possibility that at least two votes from faithless electors will be among those counted (or considered) on January 6, 2017, as the House and Senate meet in the House chambers to start the ritual of counting the Electoral College votes submitted by the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Federal law outlines the vote-counting procedure during this joint congressional sessions, and individual votes and a whole slate of states votes can be contested during the tally of votes in Congress on January 6. That leaves open the possibility that Congress could toss out the faithless votes or count them if they dont affect the elections outcome.

Title 3 of the United States Code, Sections 15-18, details the process. The Vice President of the United States presides over the meeting. Two members of the House and two members of the Senate read the Electoral College results submitted by the states in alphabetical order. Once finished, the vote tally is given to the Vice President, who certifies the winner.

Story continues

However, the Vice President must also ask if anyone objects in Congress during the vote counting: Upon such reading of any such certificate or paper, the President of the Senate shall call for objections, if any, the law reads. If one member of the House and Senate each object, in writing, to the same elector or slate of electors, the House and Senate go into private meetings to vote on the objections. When the session reconvenes, the votes about the objections are announced, and the contested votes are either counted or disqualified.

Back in 2005 after the George Bush-John Kerry election, there were two issues related to this process: One Electoral College member in Minnesota had switched votes in December 2004, while there was the likelihood of two members of Congress challenging the results in Ohio, the state that put Bush over-the-top in the Electoral College voting.

In Minnesota, the state required its10 Electoral College members to put an anonymous voting slip into a box. One voter became a faithless elector when they picked Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards for President as well as Vice President. Those votes were certified by the state and sent to Congress.

During the January 6, 2005 vote counting session, Congress met at 1 p.m. to certify the election. Minnesotas results, with one presidential vote for John Edwards, were announced in Congress. No one on the floor objected to the anonymous faithless elector, and it was officially counted.

But when Ohios votes were announced for Bush, the chair recognized Stephanie Tubbs Jones, a House Representative from Ohio. Mr. Vice President, I seek to object to the electoral votes of the State of Ohio on the ground that they were not, under all of the known circumstances, regularly given and have a signed objection, and I do have a Senator, Jones said, acknowledging that Senator Barbara Boxer has signed on to her objection.

Vice President Dick Cheney then called for a recess for each chamber of Congress to discuss the objection in separate sessions. Speech was limited to five minutes per member and each session was limited to two hours. For her part, Jones explained why she objected. This objection does not have at its root the hope or even the hint of overturning the victory of the President; but it is a necessary, timely, and appropriate opportunity to review and remedy the most precious process in our democracy, she said. I raise this objection because I am convinced that we as a body must conduct a formal and legitimate debate about election irregularities.

When the joint session resumed, the votes were announced: Only one Senator and 33 House members agreed to the objection. Pursuant to the law, chapter 1 of title 3, United States Code, because the two Houses have not sustained the objection, the original certificate submitted by the State of Ohio will be counted as provided therein, Cheney announced, and the vote tally continued.

After the final totals were announced by Cheney, he said, this announcement shall be a sufficient declaration of the persons elected President and Vice President of the United States for the term beginning January 20, 2005, and shall be entered, together with a list of the votes, on the respective journals of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The session concluded at 5:18 p.m.

In all, there have been more than 150 faithless electors in Electoral College history for various reasons. In some cases, candidates died between Election Day and the Electoral College voting date, forcing electors to pick another candidate or not vote. In other cases, electors switched votes for various reasons.

Only in one case, back in 1968, Congress used its powers under federal law to decide the fate of a faithless elector. The elector voted for George Wallace instead of Richard Nixon; after objections were filed in the House and Senate, both voted separately to accept the vote.

Scott Bomboy is the editor in chief of the National Constitution Center.

Recent Stories on Constitution Daily

Last-ditch presidential recount efforts face a tough task

Dont expect Electoral College drama on December 19

What happens to a vote-switching Elector on December 19?
On Aug. 22, 1998, Tera Smith, then 16 and the high school homecoming queen of the freshman class, left home in Redding, California, dressed to go jogging.

She was never seen again.

Sherri Papini  a mom of two and former schoolmate of Teras who disappeared 18 years later during a jog in Redding about two-and-a-half miles from where Tera vanished  had a luckier outcome: She was found alive, but beaten and chained, on Thanksgiving morning, following an apparent abduction.

Papinis case continues to baffle investigators  and it bears some seemingly baffling similarities to Smiths case, though Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko tells PEOPLE investigators have not developed any evidence the two cases are linked.

Still, several days after Papini disappeared, her husband, Keith Papini, reached out to Smiths father for advice.

Keith came to me, and we spoke for about an hour, Terry Smith tells PEOPLE. I just told him to stay strong for his kids and not assume law enforcement has the answers and to push them.

It was obvious Keith was torn up, Terry says, and I believe he was confident hed get his wife back.

Sherris case brought back some very vivid memories and our hearts went out to Keith and his kids, Terry says. We know how it feels. That hopelessness and having nothing to go on is familiar. Teras sister Kyra, was in the same grade as Sherri; Tera was a year older.

 Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.

When Sherri was found, the Smiths were elated, Terry says: I cant tell you how thrilled we were. Its bittersweet. We didnt have that kind of outcome.

Despite the strange surface similarities between Tera and Sherris disappearances, there are notable differences, Terry says.

While authorities are still piecing together why and by whom Sherri was abducted, Teras case is not so mysterious: Terry claims he knows who is responsible for his daughter vanishing  a man who has never been charged and denies involvement, but who remains a person of interest.

Story continues

The End of a Love Affair Goes Wrong?

Terry tells PEOPLE that the night she disappeared, Tera had plans to meet with her married 29-year-old martial arts instructor and romantic interest, Charles Troy Zink, to end their relationship.

Zink had previously pleaded guilty to a felony rape charge in the early 90s and served 300 days in jail, according to The Redding Herald Record.

Terry believes that by Tera breaking it off, Zink saw this could go bad for him, and I think he killed her and disposed of the body.

This guy is a menace, a screwed-up guy, Terry says.

He says he based his assumption about the planned breakup on Teras diaries and an unmailed letter found in her room after her disappearance.

She tells him in the letter she knows she made a huge mistake, she never should have gotten involved with him, that she didnt want to leave this life and hang her head in shame, Terry says. This letter was never delivered, and rather than give him the letter we believe she wanted to confront him in person to break it off.

When Tera didnt show up for work at 6 p.m. that August night, Terry and other family members went looking for her.

 Pick up PEOPLEs special edition True Crime Stories: Cases That Shocked America, on sale now, for the latest on Casey Anthony, JonBenet Ramsey and more.

Terry says he was told during the search, by one of Teras friends, that his daughter was romantically involved with Zink. That night, he went to Zinks house.

Terry says Zink wasnt there, and he didnt show up until 11:30 p.m. Zink is an avid four-wheeler guy, he knows the back roads. He had five and a half hours to get rid of the evidence, and hes been smart enough to keep his mouth shut, Terry says.

Zink has denied involvement in Teras disappearance, according to The Redding Record Searchlight. But Sheriff Bosenko says he remains a person of interest, and the investigation is still open. He refused to cooperate with investigators at the time, Bosenko says.

Zink told Terry (and reportedly told authorities) that he picked up Tera near her home after she called him at work to borrow $2,000.

He claims she was upset when he didnt have it and drove her to a spot three miles from our house, dropped her off at a busy intersection, and then drove to Hang Glider Hill and prayed for five hours, Terry says.

But he notes that of the thousands of tips called in after Tera disappeared, not one person saw her on the busy road.

Its Time to Prosecute the Guy

Authorities discovered that in the days after Teras disappearance, the tires on Zinks vehicle, a Ford truck, had been replaced with ones in worse condition and the truck had been thoroughly cleaned, according to the Record Searchlight.

After Teras disappearance, Zink served a four-year prison sentence as a felon in possession of firearms, according to the Record Searchlight.

When PEOPLE contacted the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation for Zinks criminal records, officials declined to release them.

The Shasta County Sheriffs Department will not authorize the release of any information about Troy Zink, citing an open investigation, a spokeswoman for the department said in an email.

This is an open investigation, which the law allows agencies to limit or disclose information about the case, Sheriff Bosenko says.

When informed of the investigations status by email, Terry says that he isnt aware of anything new in the case.

I dont get why something hasnt budged in this many years, he says. I would love to see the police reopen the case and get back on it. Its time to prosecute the guy. Everyone in the community thinks hes the one to blame.

Zink still lives in Redding, according Terry and public records. When reached by PEOPLE for comment on Terrys accusations, Zink said, Please hold, and transferred the call to a voicemail.

Terry says Zink works with his father at the family coin business, Chucks Coins, in Redding, but he has not run into him in all these years.

Zink is the only one who knows the whole story, Terry says. We believe in eternal justice, and he will be held accountable for what hes done. I am saddened its not immediate. I cant let him get off completely.

 With reporting by CHRISTINE PELISEK




(Reuters) - Texas health officials said they had identified four additional cases of Zika likely spread by local mosquitoes, two weeks after the first case was reported in the state.

The four patients live in very close proximity to the first case, the Texas Department of State Health Services and Cameron County Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement on Friday.

The first case involved a woman living in Cameron County near the Mexico border, who is not pregnant.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Florida Department of Health said earlier on Friday the Miami Beach area was no longer considered an active Zika transmission zone. (http://bit.ly/2gjHC19)

The CDC said there had been no new cases of local Zika virus transmission identified in South Miami Beach for more than 45 days, suggesting that the risk of infection was no longer greater than in the rest of Miami-Dade County.

"Florida no longer has any identified areas with active Zika transmission," Governor Rick Scott said in a statement.

(Reporting by Subrat Patnaik and Akankshita Mukhopadhyay in Bengaluru; Editing by Ted Kerr and Shounak Dasgupta)
Taste Test Winner:

[tiImage is_image="1" image_id="230756" image_style="1200x900" align="center"]

Perfectly seasoned, shredded beef wrapped in moist corn masa is what made this tamale the unanimous favorite. One tamale is packed full of meat providing a lot of "bang for your buck" food-wise. Serve with a green salad to make a meal or enjoy one as a hearty snack. $2.49 for 2 tamales

Calories 240; Fat 13g (sat 2g); Protein 12g; Carb 26g; Fiber 4g; Sugars 0g; Chol 15mg; Iron 4mg; Sodium 670mg; Calc 60mg

Others We Liked:

Sweet corn kernels and masa are the predominant flavors in this vegetarian tamale. Most loved the creamy cheese and corn filling, but if you're not big on sweet corn, this may not be the tamale for you. $2.49 for 2 tamales, vegetarian

Calories 210; Fat 13g (sat 3g); Protein 6g; Carb 21g; Fiber 2g; Sugars 7g; Chol 15mg; Iron 1mg; Sodium 410mg; Calc 150mg

The shredded chicken is well-seasoned and plentiful, and the tamale has a generous amount of cheese. Overall, we loved the taste; we just wish the tamale was a little bigger. $2.49 for 2 tamales

Calories 240; Fat 11g (sat 2.5g); Protein 6g; Carb 27g; Fiber 3g; Sugars 1g; Chol 15mg; Iron 1mg; Sodium 680mg; Calc 60mg

Things to Look For:

Saturated Fat: Tamales with both cheese and meat can be high in saturated fat, so check the nutrition facts. We found plenty of meat and cheese-based tamales with  7g saturated fat.

Tamale Size: The size of tamales varies greatly among brands. Check the serving size, and make sure the tamale size or numbers of tamales per serving is worth the calories.

Gluten-Free: Masa is a corn-based dough which makes tamales typically safe choices for those needing to avoid gluten. However, check the label if you're sensitive since ingredients may have been added or made on machinery that's come in contact with gluten.

How We Tested

Only frozen foods that met Cooking Lights nutrition guidelines were tested. Products were eliminated based on the following: lack of calorie and/or protein adequacy, lack of whole grains, presence of trans fat or hydrogenation, presence of significant added sugars, and presence of artificial coloring or sweeteners. All frozen foods were cooked according to package directions and taste tested by a panel of Cooking Light editors and staff. To ensure consistency, Breville microwaves were used to cook all foods.
Beirut (AFP) - Syrian government artillery bombarded the fast-shrinking rebel enclave in the heart of Aleppo on Friday despite its ally Russia's announcement of a new humanitarian pause, a monitor said.

Air strikes halted on Thursday evening following Moscow's announcement but shelling continued throughout the night and into the morning, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

An AFP correspondent in the rebel-held enclave reported hearing the boom of artillery through the night.

"There was heavy shelling of several besieged districts and fierce fighting, particularly in Bustan al-Qasr," one of the biggest districts still in rebel hands after the army's blistering three-week offensive, Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

After talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry in the German city of Hamburg on Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced a pause in the army's assault to allow for the evacuation of some of the tens of thousands of civilians trapped in the now tiny rebel enclave.

The army has recaptured 85 percent of the eastern sector of the city which the rebels had held since summer 2012.

"I can tell you that today combat operations by the Syrian army have been halted in eastern Aleppo because there is a large operation under way to evacuate civilians," Lavrov said. "There is going to be to a column of 8,000 evacuees."

In Washington, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Lavrov's announcement was "an indication that something positive could happen".

The army's bombardment of rebel-held districts killed at least 18 civilians on Thursday, according to the Observatory, a Britain-based monitoring group which has a wide network of sources on the ground.
(Adds positioning in refined products, milestone in ULSD net longs) By Devika Krishna Kumar NEW YORK, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Hedge funds rushed to place bullish wagers on U.S. crude oil, data showed on Friday, after the world's largest producers agreed to curb output for the first time since 2008 in an effort to rein in a glut and support prices.

The speculator group raised its combined futures and options position in New York and London by 86,085 contracts to 275,763 in the week to Dec. 6, data from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) showed. That was the biggest weekly increase since late August, when speculators boosted bullish bets by a record 88,924 contracts.

The increase brought total net longs in U.S. crude futures and options to the highest since Oct. 18.

Members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which accounts for a third of global crude supply, agreed last week to cut production from January by around 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd), or over 3 percent, to 32.5 million bpd.

Oil prices rallied nearly 13 percent in the week to Dec. 6 after OPEC announced the deal.

The rally also prompted U.S. shale producers to pounce on the opportunity to hedge and lock in future output.

Gross short positions among producers rose to the highest since May 2010 at 657,487 lots in New York, CFTC data showed.

In the days leading up to the OPEC deal, there was widespread speculation of a rift among member countries about the terms of the deal and potential exceptions to the agreement, leading to some speculators cutting back on bullish bets.

However, OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia and rival Iran were able to negotiate a deal successfully.

Since the deal was announced, prices have edged slightly lower to around $50 a barrel as many market participants questioned the deal's implementation.

On Friday, crude prices were up about 1 percent on hopes that non-OPEC producers meeting in Vienna over the weekend would agree to output restrictions to go along with the OPEC deal. OPEC oil ministers will meet with non-OPEC producers on Saturday.

Story continues

Russia's energy minister said on Friday he expected non-OPEC producers to fully contribute to output cuts agreed earlier with OPEC.

U.S. crude stockpiles fell last week even as inventories piled up at the Cushing, Oklahoma hub. Inventories fell 2.4 million barrels in the week ended Dec. 2, compared with analyst expectations for a draw of 1 million barrels.

Among refined products, speculators boosted bullish bets in RBOB gasoline, with a combined futures and options net long position of 40,473 contracts in the week to Dec. 6, a one-month high.

Speculators also piled into bullish bets on heating oil , pushing the net long position to the highest level since July 2014 with 24,290 contracts as demand picked up with forecasts for a colder winter.

(Reporting by Devika Krishna Kumar in New York; Editing by Andrew Hay and Meredith Mazzilli)
Talks on to find a way out: Delhi

Concerned ministries and departments of India and Nepal are in regular touch to find a way out to the crisis that has emerged after Indias demonetisation move, according to Indias Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
Pippa Middleton will marry James Matthews on May 20, 2017 [Photo: Getty]

Details of Pippa Middletons 2017 wedding to hedge fund manager James Matthews have emerged.

The couple, who have been together for two years, will wed on May 20, 2017 in Pippas hometown of Berkshire at the St Marks Church in Englefield. The reception will be held in a grand marquee in the nearby family home.

If youre wondering where Kate, William, George and Charlotte come in, brace yourselves for some serious cute pictures. Princess Charlotte will be a flower girl while Prince George will make up one of the page boys. Kate supposedly wont be a bridesmaid (as she doesnt want to take attention away from the bride, reportedly), but will read at the ceremony instead.

James is the older brother of Made in Chelseas Spencer Matthews [Photo: PA]

As for the all-important dress? British designer Giles Deacon was spotted carrying garment bags into Pippas home in November, sparking speculation that he will be the man behind her wedding dress.

Known for his dramatic gowns loved by the likes of Erin OConnor, this will definitely be one to watch  especially since Pippa was almost responsible for stealing the limelight on the Duchess of Cambridges wedding day.

The time Pippa Middleton almost upstaged her sister at her own wedding [Photo: Getty]

Unlike a lot of high profile weddings, Pippa is said to be refusing the help of a wedding planner and taking control of proceedings by herself.

May 20 couldnt come soon enough.

Pippa Middletons style file: What a royal-in-law wears

Pippa Middletons engagement ring is pretty spectacular
Shares of some of the largest casino brands with operations in Macau, including MGM Resorts MGM, Las Vegas Sands LVS, and Wynn Resorts WYNN were up on Friday after the Chinese gambling hotspot limited daily ATM withdrawals by less that was originally reported.

By mid-day, MGM was up about 2.4%, while LVS and WYNN were up about 2.9% and 2.5%, respectively. Fridays gains come just a day after the stocks dropped suddenly on a Chinese media report that Macau would halve its 10,000 patacas daily cap on ATM withdrawals.

In fact, the Macau Monetary Authority has not adjusted the daily limit at all. Instead, the regulatory body will limit ATM withdrawals for China UnionPay cardholders to 5,000 patacas per transaction. The daily cap of 10,000 patacas remains the same.

The state of Macaus gambling business has been in flux since the Chinese government decided to crack down on corruption last year, which targeted some of the areas highest rollers. However, weve seen Macau revenues return a bit this year as the enclave has begun to transform from gambling hotspot to family-friendly tourist destination.

Regardless of Macau, the Asian gambling industry could be in for a major shakeup as Japan looks to enter the fray. The nation is reportedly close to legalizing gambling throughout the country, opening up an estimated $40 billion a year industry (Also read: Here's Why Japan Could Become The Next Gambling Hotspot).

Casino stocks are always among the most talked about tickers on the market, and investors will only become more interested as the traditional hotspots continue changing.

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BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanese Hezbollah said on Friday a "promised" victory was imminent for Syrian government forces and their allies in the city of Aleppo. "There are great events taking place now in our region ... (such as) what is happening in Aleppo, and the ramifications of the promised and coming victory for the whole battle in Syria and the region," Hezbollah's leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in a speech broadcast live by the group's Al Manar TV. (Reporting by John Davison; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
Hillary Clinton returned to Capitol Hill for the first time since the presidential election and gave a warning about the spread of fake news.

The epidemic of malicious fake news and false propaganda that flooded social media over the past year  its now clear that so-called fake news can have real-world consequences, Clinton said at a ceremony honoring Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada), who is leaving Congress.

This isnt about partisanship or politics, Clinton added. Lives are at risk. Lives of ordinary people, just trying to go about the day, do their jobs, contribute to their communities. It is a danger that must be addressed, and addressed quickly. Bipartisan legislation is making its way through Congress to boost the governments response to foreign propaganda, and Silicon Valley is starting to grapple with the challenge and threat of fake news. It is imperative that leaders in the private sector and the public sector step up to protect our democracy and innocent lives.

Clintons unsuccessful presidential campaign had to contend with the spread of fake news stories on social media, including one false report that accused her of running a child sex ring out of a Washington DC pizzeria. Last week, a man was arrested for firing an assault rifle inside the restaurant, reportedly motivated to go to the eatery after reading the fake news reports. According to NBC News Andrea Mitchell, Clinton spoke with the owners of the restaurant on Thursday.

The issue of fake news has gained greater attention in the wake of the election. Even Pope Francis spoke out about it, saying that the spread of false reports is probably the greatest damage the media can do.

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Hofstra University in Long Island, New York, is seeking police help to investigate allegations of hazing by campus fraternity after the institutions student-run newspaper published pictures of pledging members being tortured. The Sigma Pi chapter Eta-Gammas charter was revoked this March following these allegations, which were reported in the newspaper Tuesday.

The photos published in the Hofstra Chronicle showed pledging members chugging milk and vomiting on each other, kneeling blindfolded in front of a swastika with their bodies covered in hot sauce and laying on the floor covered in a white powdery substance. The hazing is believed to have happened in an off campus house in 2014 and 2015.

The university condemns the incidents depicted in the photos and reported in the story and has commenced an immediate investigation, the college said in a statement. In addition, the university has also reached out to the Nassau County Police Department for their support and investigation of any potentially criminal behavior.

Syed Ali John Mehdi a former student and a member of Sigma Pis Spring 2015 Beta-Alpha class sent an email to national Sigma Pi Executive Director Jason Walker and Director of Business Operations Jen Wyatt on March 1, the Chronicle reported, citing a record of the transaction. He described his experience as extreme hazing and provided the officials with photos and videos showing certain rituals. The fraternitys Hofstra chapter Eta-Gamma's license was revoked the next day, according to the newspaper.

It was human torture. It was horrible, Mehdi reportedly said. We were covered in ghost, one of the world's hottest hot sauces for eight hours on end, repeating the same chants, listening to the same songs.

After Eta-Gammas charter was revoked, the university said it investigated the chapter. Sigma Pis Grand Council did not give out any further information. Moreover, members of the fraternity did not come forward with complaints associated with new member initiation practices in Eta-Gamma. And the university said it did not see evidence of hazing until the Chronicle reported about it.

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UML cadres continue stir, call for PMs resignation

CPN-UML activists staged a protest in Gamgadhi, the district headquarters of Mugu, on Thursday demanding resignation of Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal for registering the constitution amendment bill at Parliament with an intent to divide Hill and Tarai districts.
Koji Uehara will pitch for the Cubs in 2017. (Getty Images/Billie Weiss/Boston Red Sox)

Welcome to The Stews Hot Stove Digest, our daily rundown of MLB news, rumors and gossip for Hot Stove season. Here youll find a quick recap of all the days action and other fun stuff from around the internet that we think is worth your time.

WHAT A RELIEF: The Chicago Cubs have agreed to a deal with free-agent reliever Koji Uehara. The 41-year-old Uehara posted a 3.45 ERA over 47 innings with the Boston Red Sox last year. Hell likely slot into a setup role behind the newly-acquired Wade Davis. Uehara is still an effective pitcher despite his age, but doesnt often pitch on back-to-back days anymore. [@JonHeyman]

GETTING CLOSE: The St. Louis Cardinals are getting close to signing outfielder Dexter Fowler. St. Louis has been linked to Fowler all offseason, so its not surprising they would be interested in the 30-year-old. Fowler hit .276/.393/.447, with 13 home runs, over 551 plate appearances with the Chicago Cubs last year. [@BNightengale]

WHOS NEXT: The Washington Nationals are looking at pretty much every reliever still on the market. The club has made a push for former Los Angeles Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen, though its said Jansen already has a significant offer from the Miami Marlins. If the team misses out on Jansen, they could pursue either Alex Colome or David Robertson in a deal. [@Ken_Rosenthal]

The Andrew McCutchen situation got a lot murkier at the Winter Meetings. (Getty Images/Justin K. Aller)

STAYING PUT: After shopping outfielder Andrew McCutchen early in the offseason, the Pittsburgh Pirates are now going to keep him, according to general manager Neal Huntington. The Pirates were pretty open about the fact that McCutchen had been available for trade, but nothing materialized during the Winter Meetings. At this point, they might be better off holding onto the 30-year-old and hoping he rebuilds some of his value in the first half of 2017. [@Sawchik_Trib]

WERE LISTENING: The Detroit Tigers entertained offers at the Winter Meetings, but none of them involved All-Star first baseman Miguel Cabrera. Earlier in the offseason, rumors emerged suggesting the Tigers were willing to trade a number of their players, including Justin Verlander and Cabrera. Its unclear whether theyve changed their mind, or whether they havent received offers they are happy with at this time. [@BNightengale]

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JUST TALKING: The Colorado Rockies continue to pursue Mark Trumbo. The 30-year-old outfielder is coming off a career-year in which he blasted 47 home runs for the Baltimore Orioles. If Trumbo joins the Rockies, the team would likely trade an outfielder to make room for him. That could happen anyway, as the team also inked Ian Desmond on Wednesday. [@BNightengale]

DONE DEAL: The Atlanta Braves have traded Tyrell Jenkins and Brady Feigl to the Texas Rangers in exchange for Luke Jackson. The 25-year-old Jackson posted a 3.69 ERA over two minor-league levels last year. He was bombed in a brief stint in the majors, posting a 10.80 ERA over 11 2/3 innings. Jenkins, 24, also reached the majors last season and had similar struggles, putting up a 5.88 ERA in 52 innings. Feigl was limited to just six innings last year as he attempted to come back from Tommy John surgery. [@ChrisCotillo]

More MLB coverage from Yahoo Sports:

      

Chris Cwik is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at christophercwik@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik
New York's financial district used to embody the very definition of "sleepy after sunset," but now walk into the area's new Four Seasons or Beekman hotels, both of which opened in September, and the lobby bars pulse with two of the city's buzziest scenes. At the Four Seasons (99 Church St.), the crowd spills over from Cut, an outpost of Wolfgang Puck's power steak house - and his first proper restaurant in NYC. Like its West Coast sibling, it's a magnet for Hollywood: Leonardo DiCaprio recently visited with buddy Mark Ruffalo; a few nights later, Kate Winslet dropped in. The soaring Beekman hotel (123 Nassau St.), originally built in the 19th century, also is luring names with two hot new restaurants: Fowler & Wells, a gilded American spot from Top Chef host Tom Colicchio; and Augustine, a brasserie from restaurant impresario Keith McNally that serves tweaked Gallic classics like cassoulet ($25) and duck a l'orange ($33) and has already drawn Anna Wintour and Sienna Miller. Also downtown: Le Coucou, chef Daniel Rose's French fine dining temple in the 11 Howard hotel, which opened in June and has since hosted Brad Pitt, Kanye West and Lorne Michaels.

These hotspots are part of a burgeoning trend across New York City in which top restaurateurs partner with a hotel to defray the cost and risk of launching an ambitious eatery. The upside for visitors? They don't have to leave their lodging - or even their room - to sample the city's most coveted food.

Courtesy of Corry Arnold

McNally has been a trailblazer ever since he opened the Odeon in Tribeca in 1980, followed by, among others, Pastis (which closed in 2014), Balthazar and Minetta Tavern. With his proven ability to create heat, McNally had been offered hotel projects in the past, but he'd always turned them down. The same is true for Colicchio. Like many chefs and restaurant owners, McNally and Colicchio are faced with rising costs, from higher rents (even in off-the-beaten-track neighborhoods) to an increased minimum wage (the state will have a $15 floor by 2018), that eat into the bottom line. McNally says the percentage of his income going to rent has doubled since 2010. And opening a restaurant on one's own is an increasingly daunting process these days, says Don Evans, who produces NYC food events New Taste of the Upper West Side and Art of Food. "To open a nice two-star restaurant used to cost $1 million. Now [restaurateurs] might have to spend over $3 million," he says. "People don't want to put in their own money anymore. Why should they have to go to a bank and spend months trying to raise capital from hedge fund guys if all these hotels are looking for accomplished chefs?"

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Read more: Where Hollywood Eats: L.A.'s 20 Hottest Restaurants Right Now (December 2016)

Partnering with a hotel group allows chefs to create the kind of places they can no longer subsidize by themselves. "I couldn't have built this restaurant on my own; it would have cost millions," says Colicchio of Fowler & Wells. "I looked at the atrium and I thought, 'Jeez, this is unreal! I will be so upset if I walk by and someone else has it.' " Now that he has it, guests like Sarah Jessica Parker flock to his ornate dining room for hearty fare and a tasting menu of updated 19th century classics including lobster thermidor ($155).

Danny Meyer, who famously relocated his legendary Union Square Cafe two blocks north, to 101 E. 19th St., as rents tripled, also enjoys the benefits of this new business model. He owns Maialino, a high-end Roman trattoria in the Gramercy Park Hotel (2 Lexington Ave.), and Marta, a lively spot in the Redbury Hotel (29 E. 29th St.) known for its super-thin pizzas ($18 to $25). "Union Square Hospitality Group would not have been able to operate a restaurant in an iconic location like Gramercy Park, or market to the international clientele that the hotel reaches," he says.

Courtesy of Four Seasons

Such arrangements have had a big upside for hotels, too, as their dining rooms morph from formal afterthoughts to some of New York's most compelling destinations. "We are all trying to appeal to a millennial demographic that doesn't want to see the old-style stuffiness of a fine dining restaurant," says Puck, who's hitting the mark, hosting designer Marc Jacobs and photographers Steven Klein and Steven Meisel for dinner, and rock band Kings of Leon for breakfast, with beer.

Colicchio concurs that his symbiotic partnership with the Beekman works well. "Hotel operators have realized that they don't do a great job operating restaurants; their dining wasn't that exciting. They are willing to pick up building costs, and we can afford the labor because we are also doing banquets. It's a different relationship than with a landlord; with a hotel you can pay percentage rents [based on sales]," he says. Meyer adds: "In the past, many hotel restaurants were meant to satisfy hotel guests and were operated as a necessary, loss-leading amenity," he notes. "Now hotel restaurants are most often used to activate a space, advance the brand and attract non-hotel guests."

Courtesy of Nick Solares

Bruce Bromberg, who opened the first of multiple Blue Ribbon restaurants in 1992, and is readying a Blue Ribbon Federal Grill in FiDi's upcoming AKA, says the first time he was offered a hotel restaurant - Blue Ribbon Sushi in 6 Columbus Hotel (308 W. 58th St.) in 2006 - he couldn't believe his luck. "There was nothing more exciting than someone offering to do a build-out after financing ourselves for so many years," he says. At that point, hotel restaurants weren't the trendy destinations they are now. "It was much riskier; we had so much stress about entering through a lobby because it wasn't hip then, but now people love hanging out in hotels."

Restaurateur John McDonald, who has five New York hotspots including SoHo's Lure Fishbar, which Meghan Trainor recently dubbed "the greatest restaurant of all time," and the East Village's Bowery Meat Company, a favorite of couple Chrissy Teigen and John Legend, says that bold-faced restaurants like his bring PR opportunities to hotels. He opened Italian eatery Sessanta in the Sixty SoHo hotel (60 Thompson St.) last year, and already has brought in George Clooney, Jeremy Piven and Dakota Fanning. Says McDonald, "Having a restaurant that attracts celebrities gives the hotel a reason to be in the press on a regular basis."

Courtesy of HANDCRAFTED PR.

That clearly is the case with Tim and Nancy Cushman, who opened two spots in the Park South Hotel (124 E. 28th St.) this summer: Mediterranean eatery Corvina and sushi spot O Ya, where an 18-course omakase menu runs $185. After Jennifer Lawrence and Martha Stewart popped in, and Blake Lively hosted a 40th birthday party (including a Deadpool-themed cake) for husband Ryan Reynolds - complete with an Instagram captioned, "We stay in love at your restaurant in NY!" - the hotel received massive attention. Says Lee Jacobs, director of sales and marketing at the NoMo SoHo (9 Crosby St.), where NoMo Kitchen's awe-inspiring glass atrium is a focal point: "Hotel bookings absolutely increased as a result of having a prime restaurant."

Read more: The New York City Hotspot Where Brad Pitt Dined Before His Divorce Debacle

Of course, not all hotels are a good fit for in-demand restaurateurs. McDonald says he turned down many offers before partnering with Sixty SoHo. "I had so many hotels asking me to do projects, and it's very attractive if your aesthetic and style are in sync," he says. "But if you are not in a premium hotel and the location isn't great, it could be horrible." Charles Masson, who ran his family's opulent La Grenouille for 40 years, serving everyone from Frank Sinatra to Mick Jagger, exited to open a French restaurant in midtown's luxurious Baccarat Hotel (28 W. 53rd St.) last year; the marriage lasted one month. But that hasn't soured him on the perks of partnering with a hotel, and he'll soon open an upscale, Moroccan-influenced outpost called Majorelle in the Lowell hotel (28 E. 63rd St.).

Even in the best hotel partnerships, chefs must make adjustments. "Room service was a pretty big shock to us," sighs Bromberg. "Guests are stumbling into the kitchen and asking for things at all hours. We've had requests for a kilo of caviar at 4 a.m., which is a tough thing to hold in your fridge." Andrew Carmellini, the chef-partner at Robert De Niro's Greenwich Hotel, who just opened the Southern Italian spot Leuca in Brooklyn's William Vale (111 N. 12th St.), says these partnerships take compromise. "At my regular restaurants like The Dutch, there is more of my vision," he says. "With a hotel, you can't say you won't change your dish for a guest." Last year, when Carmellini presented an elegant New Year's Eve feast, a couple staying upstairs arrived at their table in bathrobes. "I didn't love it," sighs Carmellini, "but they were paying $1,000 a night for their room and we wanted them to be happy."

Courtesy of Alice Marshall Public Relations

This story first appeared in the Dec. 16 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
The morning after the election, Starbucks (SBUX) CEO Howard Schultz, who supported Hillary Clinton, sent a letter to more than 120,000 Starbucks employees in the US.

Last night, like so many of you, I watched the election returns with family and friends. And like so many of our fellow Americans  both Democrats and Republicans  I am stunned, he wrote. He then offered a message of optimism and added that its our responsibility as citizens to give him the opportunity to govern well and bring our country together.

In a wide-ranging interview, Yahoo Finance asked Schultz about the advice he would give President-elect Donald Trump as he prepares to take office.

First of all, Im not in a position to give the president-elect any advice, Schultz said in the video above.

I would say it this way: I think the country obviously has gone through a very divisive period. We need a level of humility and servant leadership from all of our elected officials to try and bring people together.

On Tuesday evening, Schultz attended an event in New York that honored the memory and legacy of Robert F. Kennedy. At the event, Schultz was honored with the Ripple of Hope Award.

I think [Kennedys] words of compassion and empathy and love are probably more relevant more necessary than ever before, Schultz said.

Growing up in public housing in Brooklyn, Schultz has described himself as living proof of the American dream.

When asked about the status of the American dream today, he said: I look at the promise of America and the American dream and I think a lot of people feel as if its not available to them. I think that is the responsibility of our elected officials and business leaders to do everything we can to elevate the national opportunity and create hope and opportunity for everyone.

Reuters/ David Ryder

He continued: I mean, Im troubled by a number of things in the country in terms of almost 6 million young people who are not in school and not working. One out of every six Americans goes hungry every night. We have a crisis in our country in terms of homelessness. I think there are a number of social issues that are very difficult that need to be addressed.

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He added that Starbucks feels the responsibility to elevate the national conversation and national discourse on these issues.

The American dream and the promise of America must be available to everyone.

Starbucks was the first to give equity in the form of stock options to its employees. The coffee giant also set a precedent for giving healthcare to every employee, including part-time staff. This past year, Starbucks started offering free college tuition for its employees.

Schultz attributed his management style to wanting to build the kind of company that his father never got to work for. Schultzs father held a number of rough blue-collar jobs and never found meaning in his work, Schultz wrote in his 2011 best-selling book, Onward. Schultzs father died of lung cancer in 1988, and his parents never got to see the level of success he has attained.

For emerging entrepreneurs today, Schultz tells them to continue to dream big dreams, surround yourself with people who have experience and are smarter than you, but make sure youre involved with people that have like-minded values, and dont let anyone tell you youre dreams and aspirations cant come true.

Despite the challenges, Im very optimistic about the future of the country and the entrepreneurial opportunities that exist.

Schultz announced his resignation as CEO last week. On April 3, hell step aside, assuming the role of executive chairman, while Kevin Johnson, the companys president and COO, will take over as CEO.

In the executive chairman role, Schultz is going to focus on the companys involvement in social causes and growing its high-end stores.



Julia La Roche is a finance reporter at Yahoo Finance.

Read more:

SCARAMUCCI: Why is it so bad to be a billionaire?

SCARAMUCCI: The governments new rule will hurt investors

Bill Ackman made close to $400M on Fannie and Freddie

How Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz likes his coffee
By Stephanie Nebehay GENEVA (Reuters) - Hundreds of men from eastern Aleppo have gone missing after leaving rebel-held areas, the United Nations' human rights office said on Friday, voicing deep concern that government forces could be mistreating them. U.N. human rights spokesman Rupert Colville also said there were reports that two rebel militias -- Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, formerly known as the Nusra Front, and the Abu Amara Battalion -- had during the last two weeks abducted and killed an unknown number of civilians in the city who had asked armed groups to leave their neighborhoods to save the lives of civilians. Syrian government forces pressed on with their offensive in Aleppo on Thursday night and into Friday with ground fighting and air strikes, Reuters witnesses, rebels and a monitoring group said, part of a push to retake all of the city's besieged rebel-held east. "As pro-government forces have advanced from the north into eastern Aleppo, there have been allegations of reprisals against civilians who are perceived to have supported armed opposition groups, as well as reports that men were being separated from women and children," Colville told a news briefing in Geneva. "We have received very worrying allegations that hundreds of men have gone missing after crossing into government-controlled areas. The families of the men, who are mainly between 30 and 50 years old, had not heard from them since they fled a week to 10 days ago, he said, adding that it was not clear whether they were civilians. "Given the terrible record of arbitrary detention, torture and enforced disappearances, we are of course deeply concerned about the fate of these individuals," Colville said. "One has to ring some alarm bells." "It could mean that some have been killed, it could mean they have been arbitrarily detained and taken somewhere, we just don't know." A senior official of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) told Reuters on Dec. 1 that the agency was in talks with the government about gaining access to people fleeing rebel-held eastern Aleppo who were being screened or detained. Colville said that if rebels were proven to have prevented civilians fleeing to safety, this could amount to a war crime. "Civilians are caught between warring parties that appear to be operating in flagrant violation of international humanitarian law." He said tens of thousands had fled the shrinking opposition-held areas of the city, but that at least 100,000 civilians were believed to remain. (Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
Photo credit: Angelo Merendinoundefined

From Esquire

(Optional Musical Accompaniment To This Post)

There's a genuinely bizarre-and genuinely dangerous-line of thought being promulgated by those people who are trying to push back against the empirical reality that, in January, we're going to be inaugurating a president who lost the national popular vote by somewhere north of 2.6 million votes. This isn't the quadrennial appeal to bury the Electoral College next to Alexander Hamilton in the graveyard of Trinity Church in lower Manhattan.

(I've argued both sides of that question in my life, but I'm leaning rather permanently toward dumping the EC. Twice in a decade-and-a-half it has screwed up the presidential election with appalling consequences. Since it was invented to keep incompetents and mountebanks out of the presidency, I'd say it's failed pretty badly at that job since 2000.)

No, this one is more insidious.

[contentlinks align="center" textonly="false" numbered="false" headline="Related%20Story" customtitles="Trump's%20'America-First'%20Plan%20Is%20a%20Con" customimages="" content="article.51379"]

It is being argued in several places, especially on the electric Twitter machine, that Hillary Rodham Clinton's undeniable victory in the popular vote shouldn't really count because of the huge leads she piled up in, for example, California. Here's Byron York, just throwing it out there. Here, from The Hill, a once venerable Washington tip-sheet that is now a barge for clickbait, reporting that, at El Caudillo del Mar-A-Lago's rallies, this theme is quite the crowd pleaser.

Hardaway and her sister Rochelle Richardson, who go by their stage names in public, went on to question Clinton's lead in the popular vote. "Trump won 2,623 counties against Hillary Clinton's 489," Diamond said. "I'm sorry media, I love y'all, but I don't believe Hillary Clinton won the popular vote. Unless you are counting the votes y'all said she was going to win."

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And the good folks at Public Policy Polling have a poll in the field that's showing that this notion has some legs to it.

Our national poll in the field this week, only 53% of Trump voters thought California's votes should be included in national popular vote https://t.co/GBrsFVDTkI - PublicPolicyPolling (@ppppolls) December 8, 2016

California contributes more to the national GDP than does any other state in the Union. If you want to see the results of the incredible over-cooking of the results from the Rust Belt, and the endless forelock-tugging in the elite political media towards same, look at a poll in which 43 percent of the winner's voters doesn't think California should count.

Why? My guess: "Brown people," which means millionz of illegalz, and Trump is right about that! All this talk about normalization tends to cloud a serious attempt to delegitimize even more of the institutions of democracy by ratfcking the results on which they depend. Somebody should knock this off.

Click here to respond to this post on the official Esquire Politics Facebook page.

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President-elect Donald Trump with retired U.S. Marine Corps General John Kelly, retired Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn and retired Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis. (Photo illustration by Yahoo News, photos: Carolyn Kaster/AP, Drew Angerer/Getty Images, Carolyn Kaster/AP [2] )

Back in 1964, at the height of the Cold War, Hollywood heartthrob Burt Lancaster starred as Gen. James Mattoon Scott in the movie Seven Days in May. The film was a fictional account of a Scott-led military plot to unseat a liberal president, played by Lyndon Johnson lookalike Fredric March. The plot was eventually revealed, the coup stymied, Scott was fired and one of our nations central democratic values redeemed  that civilians give the orders, and military officers follow them.

Seven Days in May was enormously popular, in part because it played to public fears that the military had gained unwarranted influence in what Dwight Eisenhower had (just four years before) dubbed the military-industrial complex. Poll numbers at the time, though obviously skewed by the unpopularity of the Vietnam War, reflected this wariness, with a little over 50 percent of the public saying they had great confidence in their men and women in uniform. Americans admired their military  but only to a point.

How times have changed. The U.S. military is now the most respected of our governments institutions, with a recent poll showing that fully 73 percent of the American people have great confidence in its capabilities. The same poll shows that of the militarys separate branches, the U.S. Marines are the most prestigious, while the Army is viewed as the most important. Thats good news for Donald Trump, who has appointed two retired Marine officers (Gen. James Mattis and Gen. John Kelly) and an Army officer (Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn) to key positions in his administration  but is it good for the country?

Not everyone thinks so.

While Trumps appointment of retired Marine Gen. James Mattis to be his new administrations secretary of defense was greeted with relief by critics who argued that the president-elect had a deficit in foreign policy experience, new questions have been raised by Trumps announcement that Mattis would be joined by Kelly (nominated for secretary of Homeland Security) and Flynn (as national security adviser), and by reports that former Gen. David Petraeus might be joining the Trump team as secretary of state. The appointments would place the new administrations most important foreign policy positions in the hands of former military officers, for the first time that has happened in American history.

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Former CIA Director David Petraeus arrives to meet with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump at Trump Tower New York, U.S., Nov. 28, 2016. (Photo: Lucas Jackson/Reuters)

I think the appointments are very problematic, says James Joyner, an Army veteran of Operation Desert Storm and an associate professor of security studies at the Marine Corps University, though not because Im worried about civilian control of the military. This isnt about civilian control, its about military influence.

Joyner, who recently wrote about his doubts in a New York Times op-ed, adds that Trump has not only appointed military officers to high positions, hes selected officers who openly clashed with President Obama. Mattis was forcibly retired for openly disagreeing with the president on Iran, Kelly publicly criticized Obamas immigration views as commander of the U.S. Southern Command, and Flynn was forced out of his job as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency for being disruptive.

The president-elect can choose whoever he wants as his top aides, so its natural that he would appoint people he trusts, Joyner says. But this looks like more than that. Its almost as if Mr. Trump has decided that being anti-Obama is a requirement for getting a high-level position in the new administration. And thats worrisome. Joyner is quick to add that his reservations are not based on personal dislikes (James Mattis is competent and careful, he says), but based on his worries that, while Trump has assured himself he will get military advice, its imperative that he also receive a political perspective  that is, one that is not shared by the military.

Diane Mazur, author of the highly regarded A More Perfect Military: How the Constitution Can Make Our Military Stronger and an emeritus professor of law at the University of Florida, agrees. She argues that while we could certainly do worse than having Mattis as secretary of defense, Trumps appointment of him is careless and lazy  a way for the new administration to inoculate itself from criticism. When public adoration of the military is at its highest, real accountability for military judgment is necessarily at its lowest, she points out. This is exactly the wrong time to have a secretary of defense who can never be fully accountable because of our unwillingness to challenge what generals say.

More simply, Mazur repeats Dwight Eisenhowers famous warning about unwarranted influence. But the problem now, she says, is undue deference  a public willingness to exempt military officers from criticism because they have put their lives on the line in defense of their country. Indeed, a spate of recent articles have cast critics of Trumps Mattis appointment as showing disrespect for the servicemen who lost their lives in combat.

Critics of the Mattis appointment are not the only ones feeling the pressure. Mazurs concern over undue deference has been heightened by the widespread assumption that Mattis will unquestionably win a Congressional waiver from a law that requires that no commissioned officer in the armed services can serve as secretary of defense without spending seven years out of uniform. The law has only been applied in one case: when the Senate was asked to confirm George C. Marshall as defense secretary back in 1950. One of the reasons Congress appears willing to grant the waiver is that the vote is increasingly being cast not as a question of politics, but one of patriotism, with a vote for the waiver as reflecting support for Americas men and women in uniform  while a vote against it would be unpatriotic.

Another of Mazurs concerns is what she calls the militarization of civilian control. Or, as Mazur, a former Air Force officer, puts it, We already have a full complement of generals and admirals on active duty. We dont need another general to supervise all the other generals. Selecting a secretary of defense from the military bubble cuts out valuable perspectives on policy that are broader than the militarys own interests.

Indeed, its an open question whether a lifelong Marine, like Mattis, has the political skills that come with the job of running the Pentagon. Its not simply that, as defense secretary, he will be in the chain of command, with enormous influence over questions of war and peace, but that he will now be running the largest and most complex bureaucracy in the world: mediating inter-service disputes, wrestling with the Congress over the defense budget, canceling or promoting new weapons acquisitions, riding herd on often recalcitrant civilian policy makers, identifying and funding new technologies  or firing incompetent senior military officers.

In many ways, the appointment of General Mattis as defense secretary provides us with an important opportunity, Joyner says, because it requires us to refocus on what we mean by civilian control of the military. For Joyner, Mazur and others, it is not simply that one official is in uniform while another is not. Rather, the appointment of influential generals to the nations most important national security positions means that, in the new Trump administration, the militarys views will be reinforced instead of questioned.

Indeed, for public policy makers of Mr. Trumps generation, the Mattis appointment turns the Seven Days in May scenario on its head. In an important moment in the movie, a U.S. senator questions whether Lancaster, in his role as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is right to publicly disagree with the president. Lancaster, as General Scott, angrily responds: Were talking about the survival of the United States, is my uniform a disqualification in that area? The answer is obvious: Policy makers are required to listen to those who serve  but, as Joyner and Mazur make clear, agreeing with their views should not be automatic.

_____
REUTERS - Indian banks' loans rose 6.6 percent in the two weeks to Nov. 25 from a year earlier, while deposits rose 15.9 percent, the Reserve Bank of India's weekly statistical supplement showed on Friday.

Outstanding loans fell 609.90 billion rupees ($9.04 billion) to 72.92 trillion rupees in the two weeks to Nov. 25. Non-food credit fell 656.80 billion rupees to 72.01 trillion rupees, while food credit rose 46.90 billion rupees to 917.80 billion rupees.

Bank deposits rose 4.03 trillion rupees to 105.18 trillion rupees in the two weeks to Nov. 25.

Source text: (https://www.rbi.org.in/scripts/BS_PressReleaseDisplay.aspx?prid=38852)

($1 = 67.4450 rupees)
By Manoj Kumar

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Prime Minister Narendra Modi's surprise decision to scrap high-value banknotes has upset preparations for next year's budget because of the resulting disruption to growth, revenues and asset sales, two government sources said.

Modi scrapped 500-rupee and 1,000-rupee banknotes on Nov. 8 in a bid to flush out cash earned through illegal activities, or earned legally but never disclosed to the taxman.

Officials fear the move will slow economic activity for much longer than originally expected, as millions of people continue to queue at banks and ATMs for cash and companies struggle to pay wages and suppliers.

"We had thought the demonetisation will be a game changer," said one official, who has direct knowledge of budget preparations, adding the central bank should have taken more steps to ease the pain of ordinary people.

"We still have to start work on the budget."

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is expected to present the annual budget for 2017/18 on Feb. 1.

The official said the cash crunch had hit sectors like construction, agriculture and auto makers, hurting tax receipts and complicating the government's asset divestment programme.

Two-wheeler and commercial vehicle sales declined by over 10 percent in November from a year ago, with weakness in the retail, gems and jewellery sectors also impacting factory gate duty receipts.

The government is likely to miss its annual target of raising 565 billion Indian rupees ($8.4 billion) through the sale of stakes in companies by a wide margin due to uncertainty in the markets, said the official.

The government has so far raised less than half of the target for the whole fiscal year.

N.R. Bhanumurthy, an economist at National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP), a government-funded think tank, said revenue collections could fall by up to 350 billion rupees ($5.18 billion) this year.

"We are facing very uncertain times," said Bhanumurthy. "The government should weigh the impact of demonetisation on growth and revenue."

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Another finance ministry official said economic growth for the current fiscal year to March 2017 could fall below the central bank's revised estimate of 7.1 percent, putting pressure on fiscal deficit targets.

The federal government has partially deferred a hike in wages of its 10 million employees and pensioners to cut its spending bill.

Jaitley, however, still hopes to hit his deficit goal of 3.5 percent of gross domestic product in the current fiscal year, said a source familiar with his thinking.

The Reserve Bank of India has dashed hopes of a windfall of nearly $15 billion based on expectations that up to 30 percent of the "black cash" would expire worthless, enabling it to pay a one-off dividend to the government.

In the event, over 80 percent of the old notes have already been deposited ahead of Dec. 30 deadline to deposit them at the bank.

Finance ministry officials estimate that only 5-10 percent of the cash will expire worthless, raising questions over whether the entire exercise - billed as an attack on illicit "black cash" - was justified.

($1 = 67.5000 rupees)

(Reporting by Manoj Kumar; Editing by Douglas Busvine and Kim Coghill)
SpaceXs loss has got to be someone elses gain. Inmarsat, a British satellite communications company, announced Thursday it signed a contract with Arianespace to launch its S-band satellite, which the Elon Musk company was previously scheduled to launch.

The satellite is for the European Aviation Network and will provide high speed internet access to fliers in European skies. While the EAN satellite was scheduled for a 2017 launch (it will be launched from the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana, in mid-2017, on an Ariane 5 heavy lift launch vehicle), Inmarsat had been looking for companies other than SpaceX for the launch, following the flight delays after a Sept. 1 explosion destroyed a Falcon 9 rocket and a Spacecom communications satellite at SpaceXs Cape Canaveral launch pad in Florida.

Inmarsat CEO Rupert Pearce said over a month ago, in an interview on Nov. 3 with the Wall Street Journal: We are actively looking at alternatives.

The Arianespace launch will carry another payload for Hellas-Sat, and the two companies decided together to award the launch contract to the French rocket company instead of SpaceX, which announced Wednesday its plan to resume flight operations had been pushed to January from its earlier December timeline. And according to reports, even the January launch has not yet been cleared by the Federal Aviation Administration.

However, Inmarsat said in its statement the launch of Inmarsat-5 F4, the fourth satellite in its Global Xpress series, will go ahead with SpaceX as planned. That launch is planned for the first half of 2017 and Inmarsat is looking forward to continuing to work with SpaceX going forward.

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Democrats in Congress are trying a new strategy: When it comes to the economy, adopt Donald Trumps message.

Under the Capitols dome and far from depopulated coal country and abandoned steel mills, Democratic members in the Senate and House have been calling for a new renewed focus on winning over blue-collar workers, floating measures on outsourcing and cheap imports and honing a message intended to reinvigorate their base.

Weeks of hand-wringing, exit poll studying and self-reflection have led many Democrats in Congress and across the country to believe that they lost sight of their economic message during the 2016 campaign, allowing Trump to co-opt Democrats agenda and become a working-class hero.

For Democrats reeling from defeat in November, rebuking Hillary Clintons election message and echoing Trumps populist rhetoric is the way to revive the party. That comes with a tough appraisal of what went wrong in 2016.

How we somehow over time became the party of elite donors and cocktail parties on the coasts is something that we should never have let happen, Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio, who recently challenged House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi for the partys leadership position in the House, said in an interview.

Weve got to stand for working people. Working people think we left them, said Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia.

This week Democrats seized on two issues meant to broaden their popularity among working class voters: coal miners benefits and Buy America provisions in an infrastructure bill.

Leading the charge are red-state and Rust Belt Democrats like Manchin and Ryan and others from regions that Trump won by large margins. Trump won surprise victories in old industrial states that Obama won by large margins, including Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri have been vocal, as well as Sen. Jon Tester of Montana. Many of them are up for reelection in 2018 and are in vulnerable seats.

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In the Senate, they threatened to hold up a resolution to fund the government unless Republicans extend coal miners health fund for one year. Republican Senate Majority Leader McConnell wants to continue the fund, which was established in the 1940s, only until early next year. In the House and Senate, Democrats are protesting Republicans removal from a water infrastructure bill a Buy America provision that would require government contracts to use American-produced steel.

Weve got have Buy America and weve got to have the miners, Sen. McCaskill said heatedly on Thursday midday.

And in recognition of the new political landscape, New Yorks Sen. Chuck Schumer, the incoming minority leader responsible for corralling his caucus, is also embracing populist rhetoric to shepherd the party in the Trump era.

At a press conference outside the Capitol on Thursday evening, Schumer, flanked by coal miners wearing work jackets and beards, praised the miners and urged Congress to extend their health benefits for a year.

We want to get these beautiful people their due, and we wont stop til we do, Schumer said, standing alongside Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, as well as Manchin and Heitkamp.

By echoing Trumps language, Democrats will be more in line with the president-elect on some issues than congressional Republicans are.

On Sunday, Trump proposed imposing a 35% tariff on all goods imported into the United States produced by companies that have left. While Republicans mostly scoffed at the idea of a tariff, several Democrats said later this week they were willing to support it.

The message was very clear in this election that enough is enough: you cant keep sending good-paying jobs to other countries and shipping those products back, said Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, where Trump won a surprise victory over Clinton. If that means a tariff, if it means other sorts of proposals, Im going to be supportive of that.

The debate over the economy is spilling into the fight for the Democratic National Committee chair position, a role that will help set the partys message for the next four years and rebuild the partys infrastructure at the state level.

Rep. Keith Ellison, who has won key endorsements in his race for the position as chair, including from Sen. Schumer and the AFL-CIO, has said the party needs rot refocus its economic message. His challengers, South Carolina Democratic Party Chair Jaime Harrison and New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Ray Buckley, have made similar pitches.

We cannot be a party just based inside the beltway, said interim DNC chair Donna Brazile. We have to have a message that tells our consumers they have friends in office.

Privately, however, Democrats are voicing some concern that merely embracing Trumps language on trade will not revive the party.

Exit polls in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, Rust Belt states that supported President Obama in 2008 and 2012 but that Trump won in November show that economic losses alone do not account for Clintons defeat. Clinton exceeded Obamas performance among people in those states who said the economy was the most important issue facing the countrybut was badly outperformed by Trump among those who wanted to see a president who can bring change.

Some Democratic insiders believe that Trumps victory was more about a message of change than about economic promises.

For a politician who doesnt want to admit that the electorate sent a message that they dont like politicians, its far easier to scapegoat it on economic issues than it is to address the fundamental question: that there are voters in this country who no longer think their representatives represent them, said a Democratic strategist involved in 2016.

With Trump presiding over a majority-Republican House and Senate, Democrats have been debating internally about how and when to work with Trumps agenda. Many of those decisions will be made next year depending on what Trump proposes, but already there are signs Democrats are eager to embrace parts of Trumps campaign promises.

Sen. Jon Tester of Montana said on Friday he will be introducing legislation to enshrine part of Trumps proposed anti-lobbying rules. Tester said the bill would ban members of Congress from lobbying for five years upon leaving their seats. The bill beats Republicans to the president-elects own proposal.

The American people are sick of business as usual in Washington, D.C. and they want some changes, said Tester in a conference call discussing his legislation. We tried to match it up as close as we could to what [Trump] was saying on the campaign trail.
Leading medical device outsource manufacturer Integer Holdings Corporation ITGR announced that it has signed a development agreement with Impulse Dynamics to co-develop its next-generation Lead System for Cardiac Contractility Modulation (CCM) therapy. In addition, the companies also have agreed to negotiate a supply agreement for the associated products under the development agreement.



The stock represents a negative year-to-date return of almost 44.0%, much wider than the Zacks categorized Medical Instruments sub-industrys negative return of 2.3%.



However, we are positive about the new agreement with Impulse Dynamics. Even the markets reacted positively to the agreement and shares of Integer Holdings followed the trend. The stock rose almost 4.1% to close at $30.70 following the news release. Also, a long-term expected earnings growth rate of 15.0% and a projected sales growth of 16.4% instilled some confidence in its investors.





Meanwhile, the estimate revision trend for the stock has been mixed as one estimate moved north and one moved south in the last two months. Notably, the current year estimate for the stock stands at $2.61 per share.



Our bullishness on Integer Holdings focus on the CCM market is owing to the fact that it has the potential to grow rapidly. CCM is a method for treating moderate-to-severe heart failure by delivering non-excitatory electrical pulses to the heart. According to the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, heart failure is a global public health problem affecting an estimated 26 million worldwide. In the United States alone, the prevalence is 5.7 million with 670,000 new cases each year.



We believe that both the companies would benefit from the agreement. By leveraging Integers existing technology platform with Impulse Dynamics unique specifications, the duo would be able to deliver a fully customized lead solution to the CCM market 12 to 16 months earlier than developing one on their own.



Integer Holdings is a medical device outsource manufacturer. The company serves the cardiac, neuromodulation, orthopedics, vascular, advanced surgical and power solutions markets. It also develops batteries for high-end niche applications in energy, military and environmental markets.



Zacks Rank & Key Picks



Currently, Integer Holdings has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).



Better-ranked stocks in the broader medical sector include Addus HomeCare Corporation ADUS, LHC Group, Inc. LHCG and HMS Holdings Corp. HMSY. Addus HomeCare and LHC Group sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), while HMS Holdings carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here



Addus HomeCare has a long-term expected earnings growth rate of approximately 15%. Notably, the stock represents an impressive one-year return of almost 43.9%.



LHC Group has a long-term expected earnings growth rate of 15%. The company has returned almost 20.5% in the last three months.



HMS Holdings has an expected earnings growth of almost 14.3%. The company posted a promising year-to-date return of almost 52.1%.

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IRVINE, CA / ACCESSWIRE / December 8, 2016 / Khang & Khang LLP (the "Firm") announces a class action lawsuit against Pilgrim's Pride Corporation ("Pilgrim's Pride" or the "Company") (PPC). Investors who purchased or otherwise acquired shares between February 21, 2014 and October 6, 2016 inclusive (the "Class Period"), are encouraged to contact the Firm in advance of the December 19, 2016 lead plaintiff motion deadline.

If you purchased Pilgrim's Pride shares during the Class Period, please contact Joon M. Khang, Esquire, of Khang & Khang, 18101 Von Karman Avenue, 3rd Floor, Irvine, CA 92612, by telephone: (949) 419-3834, or by e-mail at joon@khanglaw.com.

There has been no class certification in this case yet. Until certification occurs, you are not represented by an attorney. You may choose to take no action and remain a passive class member.

The complaint alleges that during the Class Period, Pilgrim's Pride made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: the Company systematically colluded with several of its industry peers to fix prices in the market for broiler chickens; that the foregoing conduct constituted a violation of federal antitrust laws; that Pilgrim's Pride's revenues during the class period were the result of illegal conduct; that as a result of the above, the Company's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times. On October 7, 2016, Pivotal Research downgraded its peer company Tyson Foods, Inc. from "buy" to "sell," due to fears of a class action against Tyson Foods, Pilgrim's Pride, and other peers over price collusion in the broiler-chicken market. Allegedly, in 2008, Tyson Foods, Pilgrim's Pride, and several other companies conspired by sharing proprietary data and reducing production to support prices. When this news was announced to the public, the stock price of Pilgrim's Pride decreased, causing investors serious harm.

If you wish to learn more about this lawsuit, at no charge to you, or if you have questions concerning this notice or your rights, please contact Joon M. Khang, a prominent litigator for almost two decades, by telephone: (949) 419-3834, or via e-mail at joon@khanglaw.com.

Story continues

This press release may constitute Attorney Advertising in certain jurisdictions.

Contact:

Joon M. Khang, Esq.

Telephone: 949-419-3834

Facsimile: 949-225-4474

joon@khanglaw.com

SOURCE: Khang & Khang LLP
Just as things started to fall in place for the casino industry with the mecca of casino gaming  Macau  seeing the strongest gaming revenue growth in almost three year in November, China again cracked down on illegal money transfer via Macaus $30 billion gaming industry.

The Chinese government is imposing a 50% cut in withdrawals permissible to holders of China UnionPay bank ATM cards, effective Saturday. Investors should note that nearly 50 percent of Chinese customers in Macau use UnionPay ATM withdrawals as one source of cash for gaming.

Such restrictions on currency usage in the world's largest gambling market is surely to hit the casino stocks. Investors should also note that gaming revenue in Macau is still in a fragile state having witnessed 26 months of declines before turning around from August on an annualized basis. November saw the fourth consecutive month of revenue growth (read: Should You Bet on Casino ETF with Decent Earnings?).

Since several big U.S. casino companies have huge exposure in Macau, there was a bloodbath in the casino industry on December 8 following the news. Las Vegas Sands Corp. LVS lost about 12.8%, Wynn Resorts, Limited WYNN plunged over 11% and MGM Resorts International MGM shed over 4.3%. To reflect the impact on global casino stocks, the casino gaming ETF VanEck Vectors Gaming ETF BJK  retreated over 3.3%.

Inside the Crackdown

As per the source, the step to lower the daily withdrawal limit from 10,000 to 5,000 patacas taken after the revelation that as much as 10 billion patacas in China UnionPay ATM withdrawals were made in one month alone.

The Chinese government intensified its measures to restrain the capital outflows as its yuan currency dropped to over eight-year lows at the end of November and its foreign exchange reserves fell far more than expected in the month to $3.05 trillion, the lowest level in nearly six years, as per Reuters.

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Even previously, China enacted a clamp down on this territory. Check on illegal capital flight especially in VIP gaming from mainland China to Macau, firmer regulations over junket operators and phone betting, and monetary authoritys orders to jewelry shops and pawnshops on casino floors to eliminate UnionPay debit card terminals are not new to Macau (read: Will Troubles in Macau Spoil Gaming ETF Investments?).

However, some analysts view the latest move as the first capital control measure that directly targets Macau and hence may be viewed as a meaningful signal. In this light, investors should keep a close watch on casino ETF BJK which may see rough trading in the coming days.

BJK in Focus



The fund looks to track the MVIS Global Gaming Index and provides investors a direct exposure to the casino gaming market. The fund has so far attracted $20.6 million in assets and invested that in 41 holdings. The product is expensive as it charges 66 bps in fees per year.



All three abovementioned companies have created places in the top-10 holdings of the fund with a considerable share. Both companies  Sands China and Las Vegas Sands  have about 17% exposure in BJK. MGM Resorts International (7.58%) andMGM China holdings (about 1.57%) call for about 9.2% of the fund. Wynn Resorts Ltd (2.61%) and Wynn Macau (1.86%) also account for more than 4% of BJK (see all Consumer Discretionary ETFs here).

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By Padraic Halpin

DUBLIN (Reuters) - One-size-fits-all European Union fiscal rules are constraining badly needed infrastructure investment in Ireland and creating an increasing problem for the bloc's fastest growing economy, its finance minister said on Friday.

Michael Noonan asked his euro zone counterparts on Monday to grant Ireland flexibility within the rules to ramp up capital spending, which ground to a halt during the financial crisis in a country which also has the EU's fastest growing population.

But they rejected a European Commission proposal to loosen budget policy for the 19-country bloc next year with a guideline of an expansion up to 0.5 percent of gross domestic product.

"This country needs a huge investment in infrastructure (because) we've one big problem. By 2050, a generation away, the estimate is that the Irish population will be 6.7 million people as against 4.6 (million) now," Noonan said in a speech on Friday.

"At the moment we're constrained unduly by the necessity to fit within a set of fiscal rules where the same rules apply to every country in Europe regardless of his state of development or whether its population is increasing or decreasing."

Ministers on Monday instead agreed that Germany, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, the EU countries with the highest budget surpluses, should spend more. Ireland will only balance its budget by 2018 but it has cut it from a deficit of over 14 percent in 2009.

Noonan, who was speaking at the opening of the European Investment Bank's (EIB) first permanent office in Ireland, said Dublin also needed to devise more ways to keep some expenditure off its balance sheet.

Noonan's department is in discussions with Eurostat, the EU's statistics office, to clarify whether projects developed through public-private partnerships, generally used to keep capital investment off the state's balance sheet, can remain so.

The EIB, the EU's financial arm which has become a key vehicle for such investments in Ireland, has provided 900 million euros ($950 million) to the Irish economy this year and expects to provide 1 billion in 2017 - an "enormous" amount considering the size of the country, its president Werner Hoyer said.

(editing by John Stonestreet)
By Padraic Halpin and Conor Humphries

DUBLIN (Reuters) - A third quarter acceleration showed the immediate impact on Ireland's economy of Britain's vote to leave the EU was milder than expected, Finance Minister Michael Noonan said on Friday.

Gross domestic product, which can vary wildly from quarter to quarter and be subject to huge revisions, expanded 4 percent in the three months to September from the previous quarter and 6.9 percent year on year, data showed earlier on Friday.

"Today's encouraging data are mirrored in strong employment growth as well as tax receipts. They show the immediate impact from Brexit has been more benign than initially anticipated. However, we cannot be complacent," Noonan said in a statement.

Ireland's growth rate is forecast to be the highest in the European Union for a third successive year in 2016, though other data points to a more mixed picture since June's Brexit vote.

While the jobless rate - which many economists prefer to GDP as a yardstick for the economy - fell to 7.3 percent last month, consumer sentiment weakened and robust retail sales growth slowed.

Britain is Ireland's largest single trade partner, accounting for about 17 percent of Irish exports, according to official data - a figure that rockets when foreign-owned firms operating out of Ireland are excluded. Britons also account for 40 percent of tourist trips to Ireland.

The quarterly jump in GDP, which followed a weaker-than-expected start to the year, was driven by a 1.7 percent rise in exports and a 8.6 percent drop in imports. Personal consumption expanded by 0.7 percent on the quarter.

The relevance of using GDP to measure the true health of the Ireland's open economy was called into question in July when growth for 2015 was adjusted up to 26 percent after a massive revision to the stock of capital assets.

While economists at Merrion and Davy Stockbrokers said the government was now likely to meet or better its forecast for GDP growth of 4.2 percent for 2016, others cautioned against reading too much into Friday's numbers.

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"Today's data are consistent with indicators that suggest the economy is posting solid growth. However, the 4 percent quarter-on-quarter increase dramatically overstates the current momentum of the Irish economy," Austin Hughes, chief economist at KBC Bank said.

Dermot O'Leary, chief economist at Goodbody Stockbrokers, said stripping out aircraft leasing and research and development from domestic demand provided a more meaningful reading and suggested the economy grew by 3.2 year-on-year in the quarter.

(Editing by Larry King and John Stonestreet)
* High-level Libyans, top Saudi believed killed * Sleeper cells, desert fighters still available to IS * Fear of counter-attack after debacle in Sirte By Aidan Lewis TUNIS, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Islamic State has lost senior figures in an unsuccessful seven-month battle to defend its coastal stronghold in Libya, but there are already signs it will try to fight back through sleeper cells and desert brigades. Libyan officials say hundreds of Islamic State militants may have escaped before the start of the battle for Sirte in May or during its early stages. That has prompted fears of a counter-attack or insurgent campaign that could enable the militants to show they are still in business despite the rout, a heavy blow for a group that is also under intense military pressure in its core territory of Iraq and Syria. Some cells have already been active. Islamic State is thought to be behind at least two dozen attacks or attempted attacks to the south and west of Sirte since August, said Heni Nsaibia of Menastream, a risk consultancy that monitors jihadist activity in the region. Before May, IS was thought to have several thousand fighters stationed in Sirte - estimates of the exact number varied widely. Both leadership and rank and file had a heavy foreign presence, drawing on recruits from north and sub-Saharan Africa, according to Sirte residents and security officials in Misrata, the city that led the campaign to retake the jihadist stronghold. Much of that force has likely been wiped out over the past seven months, with dozens killed on both sides during the heaviest days of fighting. Islamic State was targeted by nearly 500 U.S. air strikes since Aug. 1. Local officials say a number of high-level Libyan figures perished, including preacher and commander Hassan al-Karami, and senior official Abu Walid al-Ferjani. Foreign commanders have also died, according to messages of mourning posted on social media accounts close to the militant group, though it is unclear how far up the hierarchy they were or how important to the group's future operations, said Marco Arnaboldi, a researcher of political Islam specialising on Libya. FEW PRISONERS Misratan officials refused to comment on reports of Islamic State militants being killed after capture, but fighters and commanders say they took few, if any, prisoners. Ibrahim Baitulmal, head of Misrata's military council, estimated that 1,700 jihadists' bodies had been recovered during the campaign, adding that the number killed would have been higher since the militants retrieved some of their own dead. He said among those killed in the final days of the battle in Sirte was Abu Habib Jazrawi, a Saudi who is thought to have taken the name Abdul Qadr al-Najdi before being named as Islamic State's leader in Libya in March. Islamic State has not announced his death. Regional media reported that Najdi was replaced in September by a Tunisian, Jalaludin Al-Tunsi, possibly appointed to carry on the fight outside Sirte. "He's one of the leaders who is going to prepare the next wave of Islamic State from south of the city," said Arnaboldi. The jihadist group has made no secret of its plans to continue the fight, in a country still roiled by the turmoil it exploited in the past. In August, the new leader of its east Libyan branch, Abu Musab al-Farouq, said high-level figures who had escaped from Sirte were helping it regroup not far away. In late October the head of the west Libyan branch, Abu Hudhayfah al-Muhajir, acknowledged that the group had been suffering, but said it would continue its campaign for "conquest and empowerment" and was still attracting a steady flow of foreign fighters. "Most of our people in Sirte have moved to neighbouring areas six months ago - and are still moving - during which they experienced the worst," he said in an interview with Al Naba, an Islamic State newsletter. "The mujahideen in the Libyan provinces are still well ... Their security detachments are still spread in all the cities and the areas, and their brigades move in the east and west of the desert." (Additional reporting by Mohamed Lagha in Misrata; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Islamic State seized more territory from Syrian government forces near the ancient city of Palmyra on Friday in fierce clashes that raged for a second day, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said. The jihadists launched an attack late on Thursday in which they captured grain silos northeast of Palmyra and have since taken at least partial control of oil and gas fields to its northwest. Dozens of Syrian troops have been killed in the fighting, the British-based Observatory, which tracks the war using sources on the ground, said. Syrian warplanes were carrying out air raids in the area in an effort to take back positions lost. The fighting was some of the fiercest in the area since the Syrian army recaptured Palmyra after nearly two years in March, driving out the ultra-hardline militants who had destroyed large parts of the city's UNESCO World Heritage ruins. Islamic State has been on the back foot in both Syria and Iraq since late last year, losing much of its territory in both countries as well as some of its most senior figures, killed in air strikes. The group took advantage of chaos during Syria's civil war to seize territory there and in Iraq in the summer of 2014. Syria's civil war pits President Bashar al-Assad, backed by Iran, Russia and Shi'ite militias against mostly Sunni rebels. (Reporting by John Davison; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
Opening in September 2017, the 15th Istanbul Biennial will be exploring the concept of what makes a good neighbor.

In a conference this week, the show's curators, curators Elmgreen & Dragset, explained this idea further:



"'A good neighbor will deal with multiple notions of home and neighborhoods, exploring how living modes in our private spheres have changed throughout the past decades. Home is approached as an indicator of diverse identities and a vehicle for self-expression, and neighborhood as a micro-universe exemplifying some of the challenges we face in terms of co-existence today."

The biennial will take place at venues throughout the city and will include performances, films and a public program in addition to the main exhibition.



The artist duo Elmgreen & Dragset were revealed as the curators of the biennial's 15th edition earlier this year. With an artistic practice that spans installation, performance, sculpture and theater, they have previously had work feature in three Istanbul biennials as well as those of London, Venice and Moscow. Their curatorial project "The Collectors" at the Danish and Nordic pavilions of the 2009 Venice Biennale marked the first-ever merging of two pavilions for a single exhibition.



The duo's 2016 solo exhibitions include an upright swimming pool sculpture called "Van Gogh's Ear" installed in New York's Rockefeller Center and a fictional art fair staged in the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing.



The 15th Istanbul Biennial will run from September 16 through November 12, 2017.



bienal.iksv.org/en
The Italian Coast Guard released video on December 9 showing the rescue of dozens of men, women, and children in the Aegean Sea off Greece.

The video here shows coast guard crews helping people aboard the patrol boat, and later helping them onto dry land at the Greek port of Chios. Credit: YouTube/Guardia Costiera via Storyful
ROME (Reuters) - An emergency decree to support Italian banks, including the troubled Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena (BMPS.MI), is "essentially" ready to go and can be passed at any time if it is needed, government sources said on Friday.

Italy's caretaker government at the moment has no plans to meet on Saturday to approve the decree, the sources added.

The European Central Bank rejected a request by Monte dei Paschi for more time to raise capital, a source told Reuters on Friday, a decision that piles pressure on the Rome government to bail out the lender.

(Reporting by Steve Scherer, editing by Isla Binnie)
Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fstory%2fthumbnail%2f30367%2f46710c5fcc5b46a8b7027ba7ccee7cd6

Maria is from Sicily while Elisabetta is from near Rome.

They're not related but share an uncanny resemblance  they're doppelgangers.

But while there are thousands of doppelgangers out there, there is something very peculiar about Maria and Elisabetta: they're BFFs and live together!

They met during the first year of university in Pisa, while staying at the same boarding school, and never separated.

Since 2012, they have shared an apartment together just five minutes from the leaning tower.

"It's very fun to have a twin stranger," Elisabetta said (or was it Maria?!). "We have a lot of fun stories."

They share the same hairstyle, same group of friends and, since day one, people have confused the two, including Maria's mother!

Watch Dwayne Johnson and Zac Efron get their hunk on in first 'Baywatch' trailer

Jimmy Fallon is as excited as you are about the Nintendo Switch

Go ahead and watch the best 'Hairspray Live!' number right here, right now

'Galaxy on Fire 3: Manticore' is out and here's the launch trailer
By Giselda Vagnoni ROME (Reuters) - With hundreds of Italy's lawmakers months away from qualifying for a life-long pension for less than five years' work, skeptics say many of them hope to delay a snap election until their benefits are locked in. "(Some lawmakers) are really bent on reaching the end of the legislature so as not to lose their current salaries as well as their annuities for life," Vittorio Feltri, editor of right-wing daily Libero, wrote in an editorial. Prime Minister Matteo Renzi resigned on Wednesday following a resounding defeat in a referendum on constitutional change on which he had staked his job. President Sergio Mattarella began consultating political leaders on Thursday to seek a consensus to back a government. Without that, he will have no choice but to dissolve parliament and call early elections. The current five-year legislature is scheduled to end in March, 2018. First-term legislators can only lock in a pension of about 1,000 euros ($1,060) a month once they get to retirement age if they stay in office for four-and-a-half years, which would be reached on Sept. 16, 2017. Many working class Italians have to work their whole lives to get a similar pension. About 6 million currently draw pensions of less than 1,000 euros, according to state pensions administrator INPS. About 600 of Italy's 945 legislators are in their first term, according to data from both houses of parliament. Renzi's Democratic Party (PD) alone counts at least 200 novices. Two resurgent opposition parties - the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement and the anti-immigrant Northern League - have called for early elections, but others have shown less enthusiasm. "5-Star lawmakers could not care less about pensions, but this might well be a concern for all the other MPs who are clinging to their positions and privileges," 5-Star Senator Ornella Bertorotta said. A PD source said pension determinations always weighed on the minds of lawmakers during political crises but she did not think it would be a primary motivation to delay elections. One member of parliament, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said he believed that even if Mattarella appointed an interim prime minister, there would be pressure from first-term parliamentarians to make the government last at least until their pensions are guaranteed. (Editing by Philip Pullella and Robin Pomeroy)
Rio de Janeiro (AFP) - Drug traffickers shot an Italian tourist in the head and killed him Thursday, after he and his companion strayed into a slum in Rio de Janeiro, police said.

Roberto Bardella, 52, and his cousin were traveling on motorcycles through South America and arrived in Brazil after visiting Argentina and Paraguay.

"They were in Rio as tourists, visiting the statue of Christ the Redeemer, and they consulted their GPS to find their way to the beach," civil police spokesman Fabio Cardoso told reporters.

They took the wrong road and arrived in Morro dos Prazeres (Mountain of Pleasures), a favela in the center of Rio, he said.

"They were accosted by traffickers. The victim was wearing a camera-mounted helmet, which the traffickers thought meant he was a police officer recording the incident, so they shot the victim, who died," Cardoso said.

The other tourist, whom police did not identify, was held captive by the traffickers for a couple of hours, then released.

Police are investigating the case.

Oil-rich Brazil's economy is in its deepest recession for decades, in part due to the steep drop in oil prices. The economic crisis has wreaked havoc in health care and public safety.

Rio, Brazil's second-biggest city, has endured an alarming rise in crime.
* ECB supervisory board meets Friday, split on decision-sources

* Bank asked for more time to pull off 5-bln euro rescue deal

* If board rejects request, Rome set to recapitalise Monte Paschi

By Silvia Aloisi and Paola Arosio

MILAN, Dec 9 (Reuters) - The European Central Bank's supervisory board meets again on Friday to discuss Monte dei Paschi di Siena's request for more time to raise capital, with banking sources saying its members are split over the decision.

Should the ECB reject the extension, the Italian government is expected to intervene to recapitalise the country's third-biggest bank to avert the risk of it being wound down. Such a move to pump in state cash could happen within days, banking and government sources say.

The Tuscan lender has asked the ECB to give it until January 20 - from a previous year-end deadline - to try to wrap up a privately backed 5-billion-euro ($5.3 billion) rescue plan that was thrown into doubt by Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's defeat in a referendum at the weekend and subsequent resignation.

Italy must come up with a solution quickly to avoid the crisis at Monte dei Paschi threatening the savings of thousands of retail investors and spreading across the wider banking sector, but the power vacuum created by Sunday's vote is not helping.

A financial crisis in the euro zone's third-biggest economy would also risk creating contagion across Europe, a region already reeling from Britain's decision to leave the EU.

Renzi quit on Wednesday, and a new government is expected to be appointed in coming days, but most parliamentary factions are pushing for an early election in a few months' time.

A long meeting on Thursday of the supervisory body of the ECB - the euro zone's banking supervisor - could not agree on what to do with Monte dei Paschi's request for extra time.

A source close to the matter said some members of the board were pushing to reject the request, so that the Italian government would have to act immediately to save the bank, rated the weakest lender in a European stress test this summer.

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Sources told Reuters on Tuesday that the government could take a 2 billion euro controlling stake in Monte dei Paschi, hoping that would persuade private investors to come on board.

ECB BOARD DIVISIONS

But if the ECB were to reject the extension request, it would be left exposed to accusations that it is effectively pulling the plug on the lender by undermining the credibility of its rescue plan, and potentially trigger a deposit outflow, the source close to the matter said.

Other members of the ECB committee think the central bank should not directly respond to Monte dei Paschi's request but talk to the Italian government first.

This would buy Rome a bit more time to pass a decree authorising a precautionary recapitalisation of the lender and including measures that would help other ailing Italian banks.

However, Renzi's outgoing government is unlikely to want to pass such a decree because, under EU rules, state intervention would entail losses for the bank's junior bondholders. It may therefore be necessary to wait for a new administration to be appointed - which could happen on Monday.

Either way, state intervention is increasingly likely as the bank's hopes of pulling off the private rescue plan are fading. Investment banks that must decide whether to back the cash call, led by JPMorgan and Mediobanca, are due to hold talks again on Friday after putting the deal on hold this week.

Investors, including the Qatar Investment Authority which could inject 1 billion euros in the bank, are reluctant to commit money until they know which government will succeed Renzi and whether there is a real possibility of early elections.

Opinion polls put the anti-establishment 5-Star movement neck-and-neck with the centre-left Democratic Party (PD).

Rome is keen to protect 40,000 retail investors that hold 2.1 billion euros of subordinated bonds in the bank and the state intervention plan being drafted envisages the purchase of those bonds by the government. But it is not clear whether EU authorities would allow that.

($1 = 0.9291 euros) (Additional reporting by Reuters bureaus; Writing by Silvia Aloisi; Editing by Pravin Char)
Milan (AFP) - Italy's Monte dei Paschi di Siena saw its stock tumble more than 12 percent on Friday over reports the ECB had denied it more time to raise the cash it needs to avoid being wound down.

The world's oldest bank had on Wednesday asked the European Central Bank for two more weeks to find the funds, saying political instability created by Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's resignation had left investors reluctant to commit funds.

But the ECB's supervisory board was reported to have said no on Friday, upping pressure on the Italian government to intervene to avoid a financial crisis in the eurozone's third-largest economy.

The board is believed to have ruled that two extra weeks would be of little use in turning around the historic bank.

A financial source told AFP the Italian bank had not yet received any official communication on the matter from the ECB.

The bank's new CEO Marco Morelli, who took over the reins in September, had a meeting at the finance ministry on Friday to take stock, according to a source close to the ministry who declined to confirm the reports of the ECB's decision.

- 'Too big to fail' -

BMPS dropped over 12 percent during the day, closing down 10.55 percent.

The government is said to be mulling a precautionary recapitalisation to protect the savings of thousands of customers, and hopes to find a way to limit the cost for bond holders as new European laws require "burden sharing".

Expert Jamieson Blake, retail sales manager at ADS Securities trading firm in London, said the BMPS problem "points back to the concerns cited in Berlin months ago that the ECB's QE scheme was simply misplaced".

"As much as the European Union would like to think the link between national and bank debt can be severed, it still seems as if we have too many players here who are too big to fail," he said.

Italy's third-biggest bank is trying to pull off a five billion euro ($5.38 billion) equity injection and had requested the extension of a deadline to find the money from the end of December to mid January.

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It has lost nearly 85 percent of its market capitalisation since the start of the year. It also emerged as the worst performer from European Banking Authority (EBA) stress tests in July.

- Banking crisis woes -

Renzi's resignation has added to deep worries about the failure of the Italian banking sector -- which features no fewer than 700 banks -- to make meaningful progress towards consolidation.

Non-performing loans on their books amount to a combined 360 billion euros, roughly a third of the eurozone's total bad debt.

And Moody's ratings agency hit Italy's banking sector with a new blow on friday by warning that it would downgrade the ratings of seven other banks and financial institutions.

Italy is in political limbo following Renzi's crushing referendum defeat on Sunday. President Sergio Mattarella is currently holding political consultations to try and reach an agreement on who should be made caretaker PM.

The next general election had been scheduled for early 2018 but could be brought forward by up to a year.

Though Renzi's centre-left Democratic Party (PD) is currently leading in the polls, the outgoing PM's downfall has opened the door to the possibility of the populist anti-euro Five Star movement coming to power.

Among those in the running for the top job are Finance Minister Pier Carlo Padoan -- a seasoned economist with the potential to reassure financial markets and a jittery Europe -- and Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni.

Renzi, 41, is also being touted as a possible contender for his own job and could cite the BMPS problem as a reason for him to stay on and ensure the political stability needed to avert a banking crisis.
Tokyo (AFP) - Japan launched a cargo ship Friday bound for the International Space Station, carrying a 'space junk' collector that was made with the help of a fishnet company.

The vessel, dubbed "Kounotori" (stork in Japanese), blasted off from the southern island of Tanegashima just before 10:27 pm local time (1327 GMT) attached to an H-IIB rocket.

Scientists at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) are experimenting with a tether to pull junk out of orbit around Earth, clearing up tonnes of space clutter including cast-off equipment from old satellites and pieces of rocket.

The launch was successful as "the satellite was removed from the rocket" and put into the planned orbit about 15 minutes after the liftoff, JAXA spokesman Nobuyoshi Fujimoto on Tanegashima told AFP.

More than 50 years of human space exploration since the Soviet-launched Sputnik satellite in 1957 has produced this hazardous belt of orbiting debris.

There are estimated to be more than 100 million pieces in orbit, posing a growing threat to future space exploration, scientists say.

Researchers are using a so-called electrodynamic tether made from thin wires of stainless steel and aluminium.

The idea is that one end of the strip will be attached to debris which can damage working equipment -- there are hundreds of collisions every year.

The electricity generated by the tether as it swings through the Earth's magnetic field is expected to have a slowing effect on the space junk, which should, scientists say, pull it into a lower and lower orbit.

Eventually the detritus will enter the Earth's atmosphere, burning up harmlessly long before it has a chance to crash to the planet's surface.

JAXA worked on the project with Japanese fishnet manufacturer Nitto Seimo to develop the cord, which has been about 10 years in the making.

"The tether uses our fishnet plaiting technology, but it was really tough to intertwine the very thin materials," company engineer Katsuya Suzuki told AFP.

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"The length of the tether this time is 700 metre (2,300 feet), but eventually it's going to need to be 5,000 to 10,000 metre-long to slow down the targeted space junk," he added.

Previous experiments using a tether have been done in recent years.

Another spokesman for the space agency has said it hopes to put the junk collection system into more regular use by the middle of the next decade.

"If we are successful in this trial, the next step will be another test attaching one tip of the tether to a targeted object," he added.

The cargo ship launched Friday is also carrying other materials for the ISS including batteries and drinking water for the astronauts living there.
TOKYO (AP)  Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe won parliamentary approval Friday for ratification of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, despite U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's plan to withdraw from the 12-nation trade pact.

Upper house lawmakers approved the TPP on Friday, heeding Abe's calls to push ahead with it despite Trump's rejection of the free-trade initiative championed by President Barack Obama.

Abe's ruling Liberal Democratic Party has an ample majority in both houses of parliament. Ratification of needed regulatory revisions by the Cabinet is expected soon.

The market opening measures required by the trade pact are seen as a way for Abe to push through difficult reforms of the agricultural and health sectors. So far, Abe has made scant progress on a slew of changes he has proposed to help improve Japan's lagging productivity and competitiveness.

Trump has vowed to take steps to exit the pact right after he takes office.

A U.S. withdrawal would kill the trade pact unless its terms are revised. The agreement between the dozen members requires both the U.S. and Japan to join to attain the required 85 percent of the group's total GDP since the U.S. economy accounts for 60 percent of that total, and Japan less than 20 percent.

After expending political capital to fight vested interests fearful of market opening and reforms likely to be required by the trade pact, Abe and other leaders in Asia have bemoaned the impending loss of the U.S. as TPP flag bearer.

"We want to carry this out and expect others will follow suit," Abe recently told a parliamentary committee.

An opposition lawmaker, Eri Tokunaga, derided Abe's insistence on going ahead with ratification as "egocentric."

"There is basically zero chance of this coming into effect since the next president, Trump, plans to leave it," Tokunaga told fellow lawmakers Friday.

Leaders in New Zealand and several other countries have said they still hope to find a way to rescue the initiative.

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The outgoing Obama administration welcomed Japan's parliamentary approval of TPP.

State Department spokesman Mark Toner said that TPP was important for establishing trade rules in the Asia-Pacific and it was in everyone's interest who has signed on to it to see it come into effect. He said that regardless of what happens in the U.S., "the rest of the world is moving forward."

The TPP was meant to help give the U.S. a leading role in setting trade rules reaching beyond tariffs and other conventional trade barriers. It's possible demise could spur faster progress on another, much less discussed trade agreement called the RCEP, or Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. That trade grouping includes no countries from the Americas but all the big hitters in Asia: China, India, Japan, South Korea as well as Australia, New Zealand and the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

____

Associated Press writer Matthew Pennington in Washington contributed to this report.
(TOKYO)  Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe won parliamentary approval Friday for ratification of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, despite U.S. President-elect Donald Trumps plan to withdraw from the 12-nation trade pact.

Upper house lawmakers approved the TPP on Friday, heeding Abes calls to push ahead with it despite Trumps rejection of the free-trade initiative championed by President Barack Obama.

Abes ruling Liberal Democratic Party has an ample majority in both houses of parliament. Ratification of needed regulatory revisions by the Cabinet is expected soon.

The market opening measures required by the trade pact are seen as a way for Abe to push through difficult reforms of the agricultural and health sectors. So far, Abe has made scant progress on a slew of changes he has proposed to help improve Japans lagging productivity and competitiveness.

Trump has vowed to take steps to exit the pact right after he takes office.

A U.S. withdrawal would kill the trade pact unless its terms are revised. The agreement between the dozen members requires both the U.S. and Japan to join to attain the required 85 percent of the groups total GDP since the U.S. economy accounts for 60 percent of that total, and Japan less than 20 percent.

After expending political capital to fight vested interests fearful of market opening and reforms likely to be required by the trade pact, Abe and other leaders in Asia have bemoaned the impending loss of the U.S. as TPP flag bearer.

We want to carry this out and expect others will follow suit, Abe recently told a parliamentary committee.

An opposition lawmaker, Eri Tokunaga, derided Abes insistence on going ahead with ratification as egocentric.

There is basically zero chance of this coming into effect since the next president, Trump, plans to leave it, Tokunaga told fellow lawmakers Friday.

Leaders in New Zealand and several other countries have said they still hope to find a way to rescue the initiative.

The TPP was meant to help give the U.S. a leading role in setting trade rules reaching beyond tariffs and other conventional trade barriers. Its possible demise could spur faster progress on another, much less discussed trade agreement called the RCEP, or Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. That trade grouping includes no countries from the Americas but all the big hitters in Asia: China, India, Japan, South Korea as well as Australia, New Zealand and the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan on Friday ratified the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a free-trade pact aimed at linking a dozen Pacific Rim nations, hoping it will one day take effect despite President-elect Donald Trump's pledge that the United States will withdraw from it.

The TPP, which aims to cut trade barriers in some of Asia's fastest-growing economies but does not include China, can not take effect without the United States.

The deal, which has been five years in the making, requires ratification by at least six countries accounting for 85 percent of the combined gross domestic product of the member nations.

Given the sheer size of the American economy, the deal cannot go ahead without U.S. participation.

It has not been ratified by the U.S. Senate and Trump last month promised to withdraw from it after he is inaugurated in January. Instead, he would replace it with bilaterally negotiated trade deals.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said the TPP would be "meaningless without the United States".

But by ratifying the deal in parliament on Friday, Japan is signalling it hopes the accord can be resuscitated when conditions are more favourable.

Government officials said the trade pact would essentially go into deep freeze but that they would not abandon hope of reviving it in future.

Taro Kono, a senior lawmaker of Abe's ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said there was a chance that Trump would change his mind.

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key joked last month that it would be fine with him to rename the agreement Trump Pacific Partnership if that would convince the president-elect to get on board, media reported.

(Reporting by Kaori Kaneko and Yoshifumi Takemoto; Editing by Robert Birsel)
By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - An unmanned H-2B rocket blasted off from Tanegashima island in southern Japan on Friday to send a cargo ship to the International Space Station, a NASA TV broadcast showed. The delivery of about 4.5 tons (4,100 kg) of supplies for the six-member station crew took on fresh urgency after a botched Russian cargo run on Dec. 1 and additional delays returning NASA contractor SpaceX to flight following an unrelated accident. The rocket, carrying Japans HTV-6 cargo ship, blasted off at 8:26 a.m. EST (1326 GMT), flying over the Pacific Ocean on its way to space. The capsule is due to reach the station, a $100 billion laboratory flying about 250 miles (400 km) above Earth, on Tuesday. In addition to food and supplies, the capsule is delivering six lithium-ion batters and adapter plates, weighing about 3,000 pounds (1,360 kg), which are needed for a planned upgrade of the stations electrical system. The batteries will be installed during upcoming space walks, said NASA launch commentator Dan Huot. Japans HTV capsules are one of four supply ships that fly to the station, a project of 15 nations. However, two of the four freighters are currently grounded following accidents. A Russian Soyuz rocket failed to put a Progress capsule into orbit on Dec. 1 due to a problem with the booster's third-stage engine. The capsule burned up as it fell back into Earth's atmosphere, with debris crashing to the ground. Tech billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX is recovering from a launch pad explosion on Sept. 1 that destroyed a Falcon 9 rocket and a $200 million Israeli communications satellite. SpaceX now expects to return to flight in January. (Reporting by Irene Klotz; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)
By Kwiyeon Ha TOKYO (Reuters) - At first glance, the Tsukamoto kindergarten looks like any other school in Japan, but its unique curriculum is reminiscent of pre-war Japan. The private school, which has been visited by Akie Abe, wife of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, aims to instil in its 3- to 5-year-old students a sense of patriotism with a curriculum focused on Japanese traditions and culture. Its mornings start with uniformed children singing the national anthem in front of the country's flag and reciting in stilted Japanese the pre-war Imperial Rescript on Education, containing commandments set out in 1890 to nurture "ideal" citizens under the Emperor Meiji. These embody Confucian virtues and demanded devotion to the emperor and sacrifice for the country. "Be filial to your parents, affectionate to your brothers and sisters," they chant. "Should emergencies arise, offer yourselves courageously to the state." After World War Two, occupying U.S. forces abolished the rescript, which many saw as a source of the obedience and moral certitude that helped fuel Japanese militarism. In 1947, the postwar government passed the Fundamental Law on Education to bolster the liberal and democratic values of the postwar pacifist constitution. Tsukamoto kindergarten, in Osaka, introduced the rescript 15 years ago, although school officials say it is not intended to fuel nationalism. "What we're aiming to foster in education is patriotism or 'Japanese-ism', expanding Japan's spirit all over the world, not so-called nationalism. These are totally different," said Yasunori Kagoike, principal of the kindergarten. Kagoike heads the Osaka branch of Nippon Kaigi, or Japan Conference, a nationalist lobby group with close ties to Abe and his Cabinet and for which education reform is a key tenet. PROTECTING THE NATION Cultural activities at the school, where the walls are lined with images of the imperial family to which students bow throughout the day, include learning traditional Japanese musical instruments, martial arts and board games. Students also take trips to military bases. Kagoike said he hopes other schools will adopt their curriculum so children are prepared to protect their nation against potential threats from other countries. "If an imperialist nation is trying to harm Japan, we need to fight against it. For that, revising Article 9 of Japan's Constitution is indeed necessary and should be carried out as soon as possible," he said. Article 9 of the U.S.-drafted constitution renounces war and, if read literally, bans the maintenance of armed forces, although Japan's military, called the Self-Defense Forces, has over 200,000 personnel and is equipped with high-tech weapons. Revising the constitution is one of the key policy targets of Abe's Liberal Democratic Party. His government has already stretched its limits to give the military a bigger role. Using an analogy of stopping a burglar getting into the house, teacher Chinami Kagoike - the principal's daughter - said she teaches students it is necessary to fight against such threats to protect themselves and their families. "Strengthening Japan would be subject to severe criticism from various countries," she said. "But instead of pulling away from this, I teach children that the Japanese government has clearly demonstrated its will, so you also need to break silence and go forward and say you want to protect your family." The kindergarten plans to open a primary school next year and Akie Abe will be the honorary principal, according to school brochures. Michael Cucek, an adjunct professor at Temple University's Tokyo campus, said Abe's wife is often seen as a proxy for the prime minister, who during his first, 2006-2007 term oversaw the revision of the education law to put patriotism back in school curricula. (This story fixes spelling of byline.) (Edited by Linda Sieg and Malcolm Foster)
Japanese conglomerate Sumitomo agreed Friday to swallow European banana king Fyffes for 751 million euros in a takeover of one of Ireland's biggest companies.

The Dublin-based fruit importer and distributor, best known for its Fyffes-branded bananas, accepted Sumitomo's bid worth the equivalent of $804 million, it said in a statement to the Irish Stock Exchange.

"We believe this transaction represents a compelling proposition for our shareholders and crystallises the substantial value created in recent years," said Fyffes chairman David McCann, whose family has agreed to sell its 12-percent stake.

Bananas are the world's best-selling fruit, according to recent data from research consultancy Euromonitor, with sales volumes totalling 78.4 million tonnes in 2015.

Fyffes is the top importer of bananas to Europe and also specialises in pineapples, melons and mushrooms. It has more than 17,000 employees.

Trading titan Sumitomo Corporation, which comprises 800 different businesses with more than 65,000 staff, is the top banana player in Asia, having been active in the industry since the 1960s.

- Global player -

"Main motivations (for the deal) are that Fyffes has been investing in vertical integration by way of buying upstream (production) assets. They are now a grower as well as marketer," Merrion Capital analyst Darren McKinley told AFP.

"Recent acquisitions in Latin and North America make Fyffes a global player in many fruit and fungus categories.

"By buying Fyffes, Sumitimo has added a distribution network, upstreams assets, history in the industry and serious expertise in the McCanns."

Fyffes traces its roots back to 1888 when tea trader Edward Wathen Fyffe began shipping bananas from the Canary Islands into London.

The Dublin-listed group now distributes some 46 million cases of bananas per year in Europe, and it also operates in North, Central and South America.

Fyffes added Friday that 27 percent of its shareholders have already approved the offer, which is expected to be formally ratified at an extraordinary general meeting.

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The takeover bid was pitched at 2.23 euros in cash and represented a premium of almost 50 percent over the closing price on December 8.

Fyffes has annual revenues of 1.2 billion euros and a market capitalistion of 736 million euros.

The company was originally British-owned before it was acquired in 1986 by Fruit Importers of Ireland, founded and operated by the McCann family.

The McCanns, who are the biggest shareholders, have given an irrevocable commitment of support to Sumitomo.

- Boost to European exposure -

Cantor Fitzgerald analyst David Donnelly added that the takeover would hand a major "boost" to the Japanese conglomerate.

"Sumitomo already has a dominant position within Asia, providing 30 percent of Japan's bananas," Donnelly told AFP.

"Roughly 30 percent of Fyffes' revenue stems from Europe, and a further third comes from the UK, which would clearly boost Sumitomo's exposure to the region."

Donnelly noted that Fyffes was trading "at an attractive discount to the sector despite having a strong earnings outlook and a solid business".

He added that ultra-low interest rates provided an "ideal time" for companies with spare cash to consider merger and acquisition activity.

Friday's news comes two years after US rival Chiquita failed to buy Fyffes in a takeover that would have created the world's biggest banana producer.

Chiquita was subsequently bought by Brazilian juice exporter Cutrale Group and investment bank Safra.
9 Dec - Actress Jean Garcia has dismissed rumours of her romance with actor Jomari Yllana, which sparked after the two of them were spotted holding hands at a concert previously.



As reported on ABS-CBN News, the actress, who spoke to the media at the press conference of "Mano Po 7: Chinoy" recently, stated that she and Ylanna are no more than good friends with each other.



"We are very close, best of friends. We're like brother and sister. We won't know what the future holds, but right now, we're just really good friends," she said.



As for any possibility for development, Garcia stated that it's hard for her to say, but reiterated that she trusts Yllana very much.



"We're at the point where I know a lot of personal things about him and vice versa. We're very open and honest with each other," she added.



However, for now, Garcia stressed that she is single and not committed to anybody.



"I am very open. Just enjoying myself and keeping myself busy with work," she added.



(Photo source: instagram.com/chic2garcia)




Getty/Netflix

Powered by a potent blend of nostalgia and curiosity, Fuller House became something of a sensation when it resuscitated Full House after a 20-year gap in 2015 and focused on the now-grown Tanner children (with ample cameos from the rest of the cast, sans any Olsen twins) and telling stories that appealed to families. As the show heads into its second season, though, series creator Jeff Franklin acknowledges that there is no way to recreate the excitement that surrounded the show in season one. Instead, Franklin hopes to build on the appeal of his cast (from DJ to Uncle Jesse and the new crop of kids) and the shows successes while continuing in his effort to tell stories with a broad appeal.

In an interview with Uproxx, Franklin discusses those pursuits and also talks about working with Netflix, learning the ropes from Garry Shandling and Garry Marshall, and the possibility of a Vicki comeback.

You worked with both Garry Marshall (Laverne & Shirley) and Garry Shandling (Its Gary Shandlings Show) in the early years of your career. Can you talk a little bit about the impact that they had on you as a writer?

It was huge. I was in an improvisational comedy class with Garry Shandling when I was 22-years-old. You know, Garry really took me under his wing. He was a writer/producer on Welcome Back, Kotter at the time, and he really, I dont know, saw something in me. But he was the one who taught me how to write a sitcom and spent weekends for months working with me in his spare time. Didnt have to do that and was such a pivotal figure in my life.

Then Garry Marshall was the one who gave me my first job and not only taught me how to write but gave me the first opportunity I had to run a show and taught me how to be a show runner, and taught me all kinds of life lessons in the process. I was close friends with Garry Shandling and Garry Marshall my entire life. They were the ones I credit with giving me my start.



How do you embrace the challenge of trying to build on the success of season one as opposed to relying on the nostalgia factor?

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What happened last year was insanity. We had 15, 16 million people watch a trailer with nothing but a couch in it. So I mean, there was so much excitement and anticipation about the show coming back. Theres really no way to recreate that.

Now its really about, did people like what they saw, are they going to come back again? You know, its a show now. All that nostalgia craziness is not going to be there this time. Yeah, its really about are we keeping the audience entertained and engaged and excited? Are we taking our characters on a ride that our audience is going to enjoy? Is it new and fun and fresh, and yet it still sort of continues that history of Full House? So I dont know. Its going to be interesting to see.

We wont really know the numbers, exactly. Netflix doesnt share them. It seemed like our fans really did enjoy the first season and hopefully theyll all come back and check out season two, and now it just becomes engaging them with our new kids and a whole new take. So well see what happens.



Is that at all frustrating as someone who is building a show and trying to build on the success of the first: trying to gauge that success without any kind of direct numbers to get a sense of what worked and what didnt work?

Well, its different. In a way, its sort of freeing because Netflix is constantly telling us, Dont worry about the numbers. Just make a good show. Thats all we care about. Although, Im sure they look at their numbers, and it makes sense to them from a business perspective to keep us going. We know that thats whats going to drive future pickups, but I think were doing really well.

So in that sense, it is frustrating. We would like to know whos watching and what the demographics are. It would be interesting for us. But you know, Netflix has been a great partner for us, and thats their business model and you know, we respect it.

With regard to you building up the new cast, is the limited deployment of Dave Coulier, Bob Saget, John Stamos, and Lori Loughlin more a question of you trying to find a balance between embracing the original characters and telling new stories with DJ and Stephanie, or is it more just the availability of those actors? Would they be in every episode if they were able?

They all have busy careers. I dont think they ever would have signed on to be in every episode anyway. The heart of the show is the next generation and these three girls grown up now with kids of their own. But its really important to me that, we call them our legacy cast, that the three dads and Lori are still part of the show and I think theyll probably be in around three episodes every season. Thats our hope.

Its just great to see the whole family together. You know, its a bit of a challenge to figure out how to integrate them when theyre only in a few episodes every season, but I think its just really important to connect Full House to Fuller House, and I think the audience just loves seeing them. Even if theyre not in every show, I think they love feeling like this family is still together. So I love having them around, and its really fun the weeks that theyre there. So yeah, Im hopeful that will continue.

Youve spoken out before about being dissatisfied with the way that they ended the Vicky arc after you left Full House following season five. Im curious, has there been any effort to contact or bring Gail Edwards back for even just a quick cameo even though shes retired?

Not yet, but you know, who knows? We may decide to do that. But there hasnt been any thought of doing that yet. That would be interesting.

Are there any other storylines that you werent thrilled with from the time that you were gone that youve also tried to rectify or rewrite?

Were bringing back Nelson and Viper in season two, so yeah, that sort of was my opportunity to talk about the fact that it was sort of strange that DJ and Steve broke up, and this is where the show went with her love life at that point. So yeah, I get to sort of deal with that in an episode in a way that made me happy.

What are the challenges of building, Im hesitant to say an all-ages show, but that TGIF style show now, without making it feel like its something thats pandering to the youth audience? Like you want something thats going to obviously reach everybody. Parents and kids, right?

Thats always been our goal from the beginning, is to entertain kids and adults and teens all at the same time. Its very difficult to do, and were running multiple storylines through every episode where the adults tell an adult story to keep them interested, and theres still the kids and they have their stories.

One thing that we do that I dont see on other sitcoms  and Im not talking about the Disney Channel stuff, but you know on the major networks  is we try to write our kids as complete, real people and characters, and take them every bit as seriously as we do the adults. I think thats something that kids appreciate and that the adults appreciate too. We really take our young characters very seriously. I think thats something that makes this show different. That helps us be able to entertain young people at the same time as were entertaining adults.

This kind of show doesnt even exist anymore other than Fuller House. This used to be a staple of television, and it disappeared. It always seemed to me like there is a place for a show like this. You know, that families can sit and watch together. The audience has become so fragmented. Kids have their own channels and the adult shows are geared strictly for adults. So there isnt a lot of stuff available for families to watch together. Were kind of alone.

Season two of Fuller House is available to stream on Netflix now.
Jeffrey Katzenberg is returning to the Beverly Hills Hotel today, but those close to the mogul insist that he's not forgotten about the boycott.

Katzenberg - a supporter of Hollywood's ongoing boycott of the luxury hotel and the controversial politics of its owner, the Sultan of Brunei - is making a one-time exception and attending the birthday lunch of longtime mentor and close friend, Kirk Douglas.

Douglas turns 100 today and is celebrating with close friends and family members at a private event. Katzenberg will be on hand, not only to toast Douglas but to deliver a personal tribute to mark the milestone and their friendship.

Katzenberg and Douglas's relationship dates back 30-plus years, and the two are among the town's most notable philanthropists. Just last year, Douglas celebrated his 99th birthday with a $15 million gift to the Motion Picture & Television Fund. (Katzenberg serves as chairman on the board of governors of the MPTF Foundation.) When Katzenberg was honored at amfAR's 7th annual Inspiration Gala in October, he told The Hollywood Reporter on the red carpet before the event that one of the most important lessons he's learned in his life came from Douglas. The lesson: "You haven't learned how to live until you learn how to give," Katzenberg said.

Though Katzenberg could not be reached for comment on Friday, a source close to him says his appearance at the hotel should not be taken as a sign that Katzenberg thinks the boycott is over. "This is about Jeffrey being there for Kirk," the source adds.

The boycott caught steam in 2014 after reports surfaced that the Sultan of Brunei implemented barbaric Sharia law in the country, which calls for death by stoning of gays, lesbians and adulterers. The Human Rights Campaign has spoken out in favor of the boycott over the past two years, and writer and activist James Duke Mason recently wrote an op-ed piece for THR about why the boycott still matters.
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Once again, an actress' personal photos never intended for public consumption have made the rounds on Reddit.

Images of Maisie Williams' recent trip to Japan that she allegedly posted to her personal Facebook account were shared on a Reddit thread devoted to the 19-year-old Game of Thrones star.

The photos in question feature Williams and friends. In one, she's topless as her back faces the camera, which people on the internet have found reason to turn into a scandal.

SEE ALSO: Maisie Williams wants to know why we haven't spotted her other tattoo

"The images online were shared from Maisies personal social media account," a representative for Williams told The New York Post. "The images are not explicit in nature, but pictures of Maisie and close friends at a spa at a recent visit to Japan."

Williams herself has not commented on the violation of her privacy.

One Reddit user claiming to be friends with Williams (at least on her personal page) went so far as to post a heavily Photoshopped screenshot (with any identifying information removed) to prove the origin of the photos.

Williams recently visited Japan with The Dolphin Project, an organization that she and Harry Styles support that aims to protect the endangered animals.

Your support has been overwhelming. I thank you all for your help. By working together we can end this. @dolphin_project #dontbuyaticket #takethepledge A video posted by Maisie Williams (@maisie_williams) on Dec 4, 2016 at 4:50pm PST

Mashable has reached out to representatives for Williams, but had not heard back as of this writing.
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John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth and a former U.S. senator from Ohio, died on Thursday after a life dedicated to public service. He was 95-years-old.

In many ways, Glenn  who eventually became the oldest person to fly in space  defined what it meant to be an astronaut in the early days of NASA.

If there is one thing Ive learned in my years on this planet, its that the happiest and most fulfilled people Ive known are those who devoted themselves to something bigger and more profound than merely their own self interest," Glenn said in 1997.

SEE ALSO: The end of the world: How NASA and FEMA will deal with a killer asteroid

Glenn was the last surviving member of the first class of astronauts known as the Mercury 7.

"The last of America's first astronauts has left us, but propelled by their example we know that our future here on Earth compels us to keep reaching for the heavens," President Barack Obama said in a statement Thursday.

Glenn orbited Earth three times during his Friendship 7 mission, which launched on Feb. 20, 1962.

John Glenn and the Friendship 7 capsule.

Image: nasa

That mission was a huge step toward catching the U.S. up to the Soviet Union in the space race after cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit Earth the year before.

"Look up 'astronaut' in the dictionary and you might find a photo of John Glenn," space historian Robert Pearlman, who runs the website collectSPACE.com, told Mashable.

"A record-setting aviator even before he joined NASA, Glenn exemplified the 'all-American boy' image that NASA  and the nation  wanted for its first astronauts."

Glenn was often described as humble and somewhat shy about his status as an American hero, but other astronauts have always been quick to sing his praises.

The Atlas rocket launching John Glenn to orbit for the first time 1962.

Image: nasa

"And John Glenn deserves all the honors that his country can bestow," Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon, told the Associated Press in 2012, before Armstrong's death in August of that year.

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"He is an American patriot."

Before joining NASA, Glenn was a decorated test pilot, setting the speed record in 1957 for flying from Los Angeles to New York in 3 hours and 23 minutes. It was actually his reputation as a top test pilot that directly led to him becoming an astronaut.

To this day, many astronauts still seem to strive for that same "all-American" ideal established by Glenn and his cohort in the 1960s.

Glenn's all-American legacy

There has always been a public fascination with Glenn's first historic spaceflight.

Tom Wolfe's book The Right Stuff  which later became a movie starring Ed Harris as Glenn in 1983  is perhaps the most famous example of Glenn's place in pop culture.

And that interest still holds today  Glenn's Friendship 7 mission is a large part of the plot of the soon-to-be-released movie Hidden Figures, for example.

Guenter Wendt, the original pad leader for NASA's manned space program, coaxes a smile out of John Glenn..

Image: nasa

However, according to an interview given in 2012, Glenn himself didn't quite understand why people are still interested in his first flight.

"I think the duration that people have been interested in that, the first flight back then, has been somewhat of a surprise," Glenn told collectSPACE.com in 2012.

"We are so used to the new and the untried in this country, that I think we have gotten used to that," he added.

"So it has been a little bit of a surprise that attention has been and keeps coming back to some of those very early flights."

John Glenn during his last space mission.

Image: nasa

After Friendship 7, Glenn wasn't assigned another flight to space, and he retired as an astronaut in 1964.

But even after Glenn left NASA, he didn't just sit around capitalizing on his fame as an American hero. Instead, he devoted his life to public service.

Glenn was elected as a Democratic senator representing Ohio in 1974. He also ran as a Democratic primary candidate for president in 1984, losing the nomination to Walter Mondale of Minnesota.

"John Glenn is, and always will be, Ohio's ultimate hometown hero, and his passing away today is a chance for all of us to grieve," said Ohio governor John Kasich in a statement.

In the late 1990s, NASA came calling again, asking Glenn to become the oldest person to ever fly to space at age 77.

Glenn took flight in 1998 onboard the space shuttle Discovery. The flight itself was designed to help scientists gather new data on how older people are affected by spaceflight.

The space shuttle Discovery's launch in 1998.

Image: nasa

"When he flew his celebrated second mission aboard the space shuttle, he again reflected the 'right stuff' for the time, emphasizing the importance of science just as NASA and its partners were on the verge of establishing the International Space Station  an orbiting laboratory that Glenn, as a politician, championed," Pearlman said.

A new space age inspired by Glenn

A lot has changed in the time since Glenn took his last flight with NASA.

The last space shuttle launched in 2011, bringing an end to decades defined by NASA's ability to launch their own astronauts to the Space Station and beyond.

The end of that program forced NASA to shrink in size and brought about a new era for the space agency marked by an emphasis on private companies that will eventually fly astronauts to orbit.

Curtis Brown (left) and John Glenn are photographed on the aft flight deck of Discovery in 1998.

Image: nasa

This new era of spaceflight around the world is changing the way people understand what an "astronaut" is, as well.

While Glenn's era of spaceflight included only elite male test pilots, the future of spaceflight will be in the hands of tourists and scientists who wish to fly to orbit and perhaps even beyond.

But even as the meaning of the word changes, Glenn's astronaut legacy lives in the spaceflight community.

NASA named Cleveland's Glenn Research Center in honor of the astronaut in 1999.

Jeff Bezos  the founder of Amazon and the private spaceflight company Blue Origin  is also naming the company's first orbital rocket the New Glenn in honor of the late astronaut, perhaps a fitting tribute to the first American to see our Earth from orbit.

"John always had the right stuff, inspiring generations of scientists, engineers and astronauts who will take us to Mars and beyond  not just to visit, but to stay," Obama said.

BONUS: Watch clouds move above Saturn's largest moon in new NASA video
By Will Dunham (Reuters) - John Glenn, who became one of the 20th century's greatest explorers as the first American to orbit Earth and later as the world's oldest astronaut, and also had a long career as a U.S. senator, died in Ohio on Thursday at age 95. Glenn, the last surviving member of the original seven American "Right Stuff" Mercury astronauts, died at the James Cancer Hospital at Ohio State University in Columbus, said Hank Wilson, a spokesman at the university's John Glenn College of Public Affairs, which Glenn helped found. Glenn was credited with reviving U.S. pride after the Soviet Union's early domination of manned space exploration. His three laps around the world in the Friendship 7 capsule on Feb. 20, 1962, forged a powerful link between the former fighter pilot and the Kennedy-era quest to explore outer space as a "New Frontier." President Barack Obama, who in 2012 awarded Glenn the nation's highest civilian honour, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, said: "With John's passing, our nation has lost an icon." "When John Glenn blasted off from Cape Canaveral atop an Atlas rocket in 1962, he lifted the hopes of a nation," Obama said in a statement. "And when his Friendship 7 spacecraft splashed down a few hours later, the first American to orbit the Earth reminded us that with courage and a spirit of discovery there's no limit to the heights we can reach together." President-elect Donald Trump said on Twitter the United States had lost "a great pioneer of air and space in John Glenn. He was a hero and inspired generations of future explorers." As the third of seven astronauts in NASA's solo-flight Mercury program to venture into space, Glenn became more of a media fixture than the others and was known for his composure and willingness to promote the program. Glenn's astronaut career, as well as his record as a fighter pilot in World War Two and the Korean War, helped propel him to the U.S. Senate in 1974, where he represented his home state of Ohio for 24 years as a moderate Democrat. His star was dimmed somewhat by a Senate investigation of several senators on whether special favours were done for a major campaign contributor. He was cleared of wrongdoing. Glenn's entry into history came in early 1962 when fellow astronaut Scott Carpenter bade him "Godspeed, John Glenn" just before the Ohio native was rocketed into space for a record-breaking trip that would last just under five hours. 'VIEW IS TREMENDOUS' "Zero-G (gravity) and I feel fine," was Glenn's succinct assessment of weightlessness several minutes into his mission. "Oh, and that view is tremendous." After splashdown and recovery in the Atlantic, Glenn was treated as a hero, addressing a joint session of Congress and feted in a New York ticker-tape parade. Glenn had been hospitalized since Nov. 25. He "died peacefully," according to a statement from his family and Ohio State University. "He left this earth for the third time as a happy and fulfilled person," the statement said. "Glenn's extraordinary courage, intellect, patriotism and humanity were the hallmarks of a life of greatness. His missions have helped make possible everything our space program has since achieved and the human missions to an asteroid and Mars that we are striving toward now," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said. Glenn's experiences as a pioneer astronaut were chronicled in the book and movie "The Right Stuff," along with the other Mercury pilots. The book's author, Tom Wolfe, called Glenn "the last true national hero America has ever had." "I dont think of myself that way," Glenn told the New York Times in 2012 to mark the 50th anniversary of his flight. "I get up each day and have the same problems others have at my age. As far as trying to analyse all the attention I received, I will leave that to others." Glenn's historic flight made him a favourite of President John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert, who encouraged him to launch a political career that finally took off after a period as a businessman made him a millionaire. HERO STATUS Even before his Mercury flight, Glenn qualified for hero status, earning six Distinguished Flying Crosses and flying more than 150 missions in World War Two and the Korean War. After Korea, Glenn became a test pilot, setting a transcontinental speed record from Los Angeles to New York in 1957. The determination and single-mindedness that marked Glenn's military and space career did not save him from misjudgments and defeat in politics. He lost his first bid for the Senate from Ohio in 1970, after abandoning a race in 1964 because of a head injury suffered in a fall. He was elected in 1974 and was briefly considered as a running mate for Democratic presidential candidate Jimmy Carter in 1980. But a ponderous address at the Democratic National Convention - people walked out - caused Carter to remark that Glenn was "the most boring man I ever met." Glenn sought the Democratic presidential nomination himself in 1984 but was quickly eliminated by eventual nominee Walter Mondale, Carter's vice president. His failure was all the more stinging because he had been touted as an early front-runner. In the Senate, Glenn was respected as a thoughtful moderate with expertise in defence and foreign policy. His lustre was dulled, however, by a Senate investigation of the "Keating Five" - five senators suspected of doing favours for campaign contributor Charles Keating Jr. The panel eventually found Glenn did nothing improper or illegal. BACK TO SPACE He took a leading role in seeking to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, especially to Pakistan. He was the author of a law that forced the United States to impose sanctions on India and Pakistan in 1998 after both countries conducted nuclear tests. He also was a staunch advocate of a strong military and took a keen interest in strategic issues. He retired from the Senate in 1999. Thirty-six years after his maiden space voyage, Glenn became America's first geriatric astronaut on Oct. 29, 1998. He was 77 when he blasted off as a mission specialist aboard the shuttle Discovery. He saw it as a blow to the stereotyping of the elderly. "Maybe prior to this flight, we were looked at as old geezers who ought to get out of the way," Glenn said after his nine-day shuttle mission. "Just because you're up in years some doesn't mean you don't have hopes and dreams and aspirations just as much as younger people do." John Herschel Glenn Jr. was born on July 18, 1921, in Cambridge, Ohio. In his latter years, he was an adjunct professor at the John Glenn College of Public Affairs. He had a knee replacement operation in 2011 and heart surgery in 2014. Glenn is survived by his wife of 73 years, his childhood sweetheart, Annie Castor. They had two children, David and Lyn. (Reporting by Will Dunham in Washington; Additional reporting by Irene Klotz in Cape Canaveral, Fla., and Ben Klayman in Detroit; Editing by Bill Trott and Peter Cooney)
American astronaut and former Ohio senator John Glenn died Thursday at the age of 95.

Glenn was the first American astronaut with the Mercury Friendship 7 spacecraft to orbit the globe on Feb. 20, 1962. As the fifth person ever to enter space, Glenn spent a total 4 hours, 55 minutes and 23 seconds during the inaugural space voyage and orbited the planet three times.

The former marine also served as Ohios Democratic U.S. senator for 24 years  from December 1974 to January 1999  going on to become the oldest person ever, at 77, to leave earths atmosphere with his trip to space on Oct. 29, 1998, while he was still in office.

Glenn was receiving treatment at the James Cancer Hospital at Ohio State University for more than a week, a university spokesman told USA Today on Thursday. The spokesperson, however, did not say what Glenn was being treated for.

John Glenn is, and always will be, Ohios ultimate hometown hero, and his passing today is an occasion for all of us to grieve, said Ohio Governor John R. Kasich. As we bow our heads and share our grief with his beloved wife, Annie, we must also turn to the skies, to salute his remarkable journeys and his long years of service to our state and nation. 

Glenn, who is survived by his wife of 73 years, Annie Castor, 96, and two children, remained an important figure for the country throughout his life. Reflecting on his journey to space, Glenn was once quoted as saying: If there is one thing Ive learned in my years on this planet, its that the happiest and most fulfilled people Ive known are those who devoted themselves to something bigger and more profound than merely their own self-interest."

Here are pictures depicting the astronaut and politicians journey of 95 years:

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Photo: NASA/Handout via REUTERS

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Photo: NASA/Handout via REUTERS

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Photo: NASA/Handout via REUTERS

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Photo: NASA/Handout via REUTERS

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Photo: NASA/Handout via REUTERS

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Photo: NASA/Handout via REUTERS

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Photo: George Shelton/NASA/Handout via REUTERS

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Photo: NASA/Handout via REUTERS

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Photo: REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo

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Photo: REUTERS/Jason Reed/File Photo

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British director John Maddens political thriller Miss Sloane went on release in U.S. cinemas in November 25 via EuropaCorp after world premiering at the AFI fest. Starring Jessica Chastain as a ruthless political lobbyist fighting to get a gun-control bill through Congress, the pic has just launched internationally as the Dubai Film Festivals opener. In Dubai, Madden spoke to Variety about the challenges of releasing this tense Washington-set thriller for American audiences in the Trump era. Excerpts.

Thereve been big changes in Washington since you made this movie. How do you think they will affect its release?

Miss Sloane was finished only six to eight weeks ago, in mid-October. I wanted to get the film out this year because I didnt want us to get out-of-synch with the politics on the gun issue, which is part of what the film is. I thought that that [gun control] might become a very topical thing. It was certainly scheduled to, and then of course the whole political debate became something entirely different. No policy issues were really part of the discussion. But what was [part of it], was the political process itself. There is another perspective that we arent aware of which is that there are a lot of movies this year with women at their center. Thats a good development. One of the really good things about the script was that it has a woman at its centre who is not immediately sympathetic, not ingratiating. Not defined by anything a woman would normally be defined by in a movie.

Do you think it may already be out of date due to the reality of Donald Trumps America?

My belief is that there is a very renewed and intense interest in all things political right now, because America just experienced a kind of earthquake, to use a term in the film, that was riveting and horrifying and extraordinary in every possible way. I think everybody is aware that we are at a very significant point globally. The film sort of collided with that circumstance. I put my foot on the accelerator because I thought the movie would benefit from being within that conversation, though I did not know what the result was going to be. At the time we thought we were going to have a woman president, which would have had a totally different relationship with the film. Now people may just be fed up with politics. Well see.

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Is there any significance in the fact that it was selected to open the Dubai Film Festival?

Im obviously very preoccupied with the fact that the film is coming out in a political environment that it reflects to some degree not that its intended as a polemic on an issue. Increasingly, this is a sort of global environment. We are suddenly aware of so many things that seem to relate to one another. Recently Italy; the political cataclysm in my own country [Britain] six months ago, and the current situation in America. So coming here [in Dubai] you start to think: how does this relate to the rest of the world in general?

Miss Sloane is a largely European movie  producers, director, screenwriter  about quintessentially American topics that have not really been depicted in American cinema that much. How did Miss Sloane originate?

When I embarked on it, someone said to me: an American director couldnt direct this movie because they would immediately become a target. Gun control is such an incredibly contentious, divisive issue. My views come as no surprise; but its not my country. And its not my issue, though from a humanist standpoint Im entitled to my view on it. Sometimes an outsiders view can be valid.

Yes, but how did the movie originate?

I have to credit [first-time British screenwriter] Jonathan Perrera with this. He was living in South Korea where hed gone to buy time for himself to learn how to become a screenwriter. Hed worked in a law firm. Jonathan saw a TV program about [convicted lobbyist] Jack Abramoff and thought: I havent seen a movie about that world. Then he pondered various topics, and gun control was the one that jumped to the front of the cue. It came to me because FilmNation end up optioning it. I read it as a logline and jumped at it immediately, and then sent it to Jessica.

You worked with Jessica Chastain on The Debt, but this is different. Its a tour-de-force performance with plenty of rapid-fire dialogue. How did you work with her for this complex role?

Jessica is one of a handful of actors who has the range of skills, the kind of contradictory qualities you need for a role like this. There is a whole counter-narrative in the film about whats going on with that person and how does a human being get to be like that? I went for her and actually developed the whole script in that direction. Jessica has the smarts to be able to understand a role like this. She has the acting smarts to know the challenges it represents in terms of verbal dexterity, coloration, rhythm, all of the things that this movie needs.

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Samuel L. Jackson and 'Miss Sloane' Give Dubai Film Festival Solid Start
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You surprised your significant other with a weekend trip right after the holidays.

Just the two of you in a beautiful boutique hotel, surrounded by glamorous shopping, a nearby ancient city filled with restaurants, and the sounds of a crackling fireplace to keep you warm.

Except the hotel turns out to be riddled with termites and every restaurant you walk into is a tourist trap.

That all could have been avoided if you had access to an awesome travel concierge to tell you exactly what hotels, restaurants, activities and neighborhoods you should go to, and who would take care of all the bookings. You know, the type of concierge that caters to you if you have a luxury credit card or at least tons of time to talk on the phone to explain your preferences.

Now, Journy aims to provide that same kind of service through an iOS app and website at a price point of $15 per day of your trip.

SEE ALSO: RIP photo maps, the best part of Instagram that apparently no one else used

Co-founders Leiti Hsu and Susan Ho tell Mashable the idea for the business came when Susan took a last-minute trip to Buenos Aires. She spent most of her time figuring out how to find her way out of the tourist traps where she constantly found herself.

Hsu says, "It was crazy how as an internet-savvy person who took the time to research and plan, she couldnt find the local authentic experiences she was craving, and even still, why wasnt there a solution that was trustworthy that didnt cost thousands of dollars?"

Image: Facebook

Journy currently plans trips in over 50 worldwide cities, with Tokyo being the most popular international destination "by far." Each trip is planned by Journy's travel concierges. They communicate with the traveler after said traveler completes a short digital form detailing what the ideal trip should entail.

The travel concierges are chosen by having a combination of travel knowledge, street smarts and "empathy towards the traveler" (read: not booking a couple the honeymoon suite in a hotel best known for raucous spring break getaways).

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Many traditional travel agents don't charge the client on the front end for booking trips, whereas Journy does. However, Hsu says, "Millennials[...] prefer transparency  knowing that Journy makes its money on $15/day of travel and has your best interests in mind. We'll never partner with restaurants, activities and attractions because we always want to be agnosticand these choices are so nuanced and personal." She emphasizes the combination of technology and personal attention to detail blends the best of traditional travel planning with new digital travel tools.

Hsu says the ideal Journy client is a millennial who, "will stay in a centrally located well-priced private room in a hostel and then be able to enjoy a quick walk to Noma and save up that cash for the tasting menu with full beverage pairing because: YOLO."

Here's how Mashable's experience with Journy went down.

Cons:

No Droid app

If you have a Droid, you're out of luck and will have to use Journy's website. The site has a clear and simple interface, but it's not always as convenient as planning on the fly from your phone.

No family option (not optimized for families with young kids or groups of more than five)

This isn't a downside for everyone, but it would be incredible to have this service geared towards planning a family vacation that doesn't include any cartoon mice or mandatory family therapy upon return.

Additional charges add up if you change your mind

When you receive your original itinerary, you may send back as many changes as you like and the concierge will provide one round of edits for free. However, after that round of edits, there is an additional $15 charge for each edit after that. Did a new restaurant open? You changed your mind about hotels? That'll cost ya. If you don't like your experience, however, the company does offer a money-back guarantee on the website.

Pros:

Website is easy to use

This can't be overstated. The interface is clean, intuitive and simple.

No shaming on what you like to do

You might be the type of person who loves historical walking tours and spending all day in antiquarian museums and bookshops. Or you might prefer to go shopping in fun boutiques punctuated by many bakery respites. Whatever your pleasure, Journy offers options to choose from like spas, tours and historical buildings. You don't have to feel judged if you care more about cannabis cafes than the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

Asked important questions about what you do or don't like about activities

Sure, you can look up great restaurants and cool exhibits on your own. But Journy asks you what you want to get out of those adventures. It tailors your itinerary to your personal preferences like outdoor dining, hole in the wall restaurants or even specific neighborhoods

Obtained difficult reservations at prime times

This was the most exciting part of the itinerary. The travel concierge was able to nab a prime reservation at one of NYC's most lauded hot spots. Reservations at any time are notoriously difficult to obtain, and this wasn't a 4:30 p.m. dinner. This was a 7:15 p.m. over the holiday season dinner reservation. This reservation was worth the initial Journy fee in and of itself.

Image: facebook

Large range of areas and pricing

This isn't a service that caters exclusively to the uber-wealthy. There is a range of hotel prices, restaurant categories, and activities. Small, less pricey neighborhoods and even alternatives to traditional hotels are suggested if that's what the budget and travel interests suggest.

Communicative concierge

The concierge we worked with was excellent. She was quick to answer questions and provide suggestions. She offered to book the hotel for us (if you book your hotel with Journy concierge, you sometimes get perks like late check-out or continental breakfast) but wasn't pushy when we said we preferred to book it personally. She sent gentle reminder emails about confirming plans and was tuned into the type of restaurants and activities we wanted. This is a concierge service you would expect from a high-level credit card.

The Verdict

Journy is fun, functional and provides personalized trip concierge service to which you might not otherwise have access. Though it's not perfect, it's a fun and very personal gift for a friend or family member who's planning a special trip.

It's also an indulgent gift to yourself so you can spend your time getting your passport in order instead of praying the Yelp reviews for that amazing place aren't all shills.

Now all you have to do is figure out a way to get the time off to actually take the vacation.

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During Kanye Wests hospital stay for mental health issues, rumors began to swirl that his marriage to Kim Kardashian was in trouble.

Now, a report from E! News says the couples marriage is fine. Kanye is going to be fine. And he and Kim are strong, a source said. Just because the paparazzi dont see him, theyre like, Oh, Kanyes not with Kim anymore. The unnamed source went on to call the rumors bogus.

While Kim and Kanye have both gone through their own ordeal as of late  Kims Paris robbery in October and Kanyes hospitalization  the couple is getting back to their usual schedule. The family is very busy, and theyre all shooting the show [Keeping Up With The Kardashians] every day, the E! News source said.

Kanye West and Kim Kardashian

Photo: Getty Images/Pascal Le Segretain

Since his release from the hospital on Nov. 30, the Famous rapper made his first public appearance on Thursday at the Rick Owens: Furniture exhibition at the MOCA Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood, California. Italian artist, Giovanni Leonardo Bassan, snapped a picture of Kanye at the event, who was sporting a new blonde hairdo.

Neither Kim or Kanye have yet to comment on the divorce speculation but close friend Jonathan Cheban said the rumors were funny.

I just FaceTimed with Kim and Kanye and everyones talking about some divorce rumors, and I was laughing because I didn't hear that all day, and I guess everybody else apparently here did and its so funny to me because it's so not true," Cheban told E! News.

As for whats next for Kanye, the rapper is reportedly working on new music which may be featured on a new album. On Thursday, legendary hip-hop producer Pete Rock shared videos of him working with Kanye west in a recording studio. The producer also shared what appeared to be the tracklist for a new album, full of video game titles.

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Kanye West made his first public appearance since his recent hospitalization on Thursday (Dec. 8), sporting a new blonde hair color while visiting a show at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. West was spotted at the "Rick Owens: Furniture" exhibit, where he was photographed sitting in a wooden chair.

It's the first public outing for 'Ye since he was admitted to UCLA Medical Center on Nov. 21, to receive treatment for exhaustion and sleep deprivation for nine days. The pic was originally posted on the private account of Italian artist Giovanni Bassan and was later reposted on a number of other West fan sites.

#KanyeWest at the "Rick Owens: Furniture" exhibition at the MOCA PDC. December 8. (--: @giovannileonardobassan)

A photo posted by Kanye West (@kanyewest_daily) on Dec 8, 2016 at 5:48pm PST

Kanye was accompanied by Rick Owens' wife Michele Lamy at the event #rickowens #kanyewest

A photo posted by Kanye West (@kanyewest_daily) on Dec 9, 2016 at 7:36am PST

On Thursday (Dec. 8), TMZ reported that West has built a temporary studio in his Bel-Air mansion so he can "have the privacy he needs to get healthy, while also making new music as ideas come to him." (Sources close to West confirmed that the rapper has set up the studio in his home and is recording new music.)
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Kanye West was finally spotted after disappearing from the public eye following the abrupt cancelation of his Saint Pablo tour and the ensuing stint in the hospital.

Rumors regarding the rapper have been swirling around since his admittance to the hospital for his mental health, but until getting caught on the 'gram just yesterday, no one had actually seen West since his November performance in Sacramento  in which he called out Beyonce and Jay Z and then walked off stage after playing two songs.

SEE ALSO: No, 'Keeping Up With Kardashians' is not on hold following Kanye's hospitalization

The photo, originally posted by artist Giovanni Bassan, who has since made his Instagram private, shows West just sitting calmly in a wooden chairoh, and with blonde hair.

#KanyeWest at the "Rick Owens: Furniture" exhibition at the MOCA PDC. December 8. (: @giovannileonardobassan) A photo posted by Kanye West (@kanyewest_daily) on Dec 8, 2016 at 5:48pm PST

West was visiting the Museum of Contemporary Art's Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles, where he checked out Rick Owens: Furniture exhibition which features furniture, video, sculptures and work by the late Steven Parrino.

Maybe he was just getting inspiration from the exhibit to work with Ikeaor finally design the perfect bed for he and Kim.

I've been trying to figure out the bed design for the master bedroom at our Hidden Hills compound... pic.twitter.com/aEPqoBGY4b  KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) April 2, 2016

Regardless, let's hope the time off, new hair and museum trips are all helping.

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Taking a page out of the Kardashian playbook? Kanye West was photographed for the first time since his recent hospitalization on Thursday night rocking a new 'do.

WATCH: EXCLUSIVE: Kardashian Family Film Scenes About Kanye West's Hospitalization for 'Keeping Up With the Kardashians'

The 39-year-old rapper attended the Rick Owens "Furniture" exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles where he was photographed sporting blonde locks and sitting on a wooden structure.

#KanyeWest at the "Rick Owens: Furniture" exhibition at the MOCA PDC. December 8. (: @giovannileonardobassan) A photo posted by Kanye West (@kanyewest_daily) on Dec 8, 2016 at 5:48pm PST

The photo was taken on the private account of Giovanni Bassan, but later surfaced on several Kanye fanpage sites. His wife, Kim Kardashian, was not pictured. She too has been keeping off social media since her traumatic Paris robbery in early October.

This is the first time the GRAMMY winner has been spotted since he was admitted to the UCLA Medical Center on Nov. 21.

Though the Kardashian family has stayed relatively tight-lipped about West since his hospitalization, ET recently learned that the topic will be discussed on Keeping Up With the Kardashians.

A source tells ET that several members of the family will talk about West's current condition, but added that the rapper has not been in front of the camera since.

WATCH: EXCLUSIVE: Kim Kardashian and Kanye West Are '100% Together,' Split Rumors Not True

"He's never been a fan of having the cameras around him," the source notes.

And there is the chance that the footage could be cut in the editing room if Kim doesn't give it the go-ahead.

For more on Kanye's life after being hospitalized, watch the clip below!

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Kat Von D is working on a vegan shoe line and we couldnt be more thrilled

In whats possibly the best way to brighten up our Friday and coming weekend, its been officially announced that Kat Von D has a vegan shoe line in the works. TRUST, were already scrambling to find out what we should pawn off so we can buy all of her shoes from her upcoming collection. In keeping with her main operative, Kat Von D pledges to stay cruelty-free in the production of her vegan shoe line, and we are all about it.

If her actual shoes are half as mystical as her Alchemist Palette or channel the same color scheme as her Pastel Goth palette, then her new foray into the world of designing shoes will be a smash hit!

While were overjoyed to hear the news, its hardly surprising given how much she loves heels. After all, her closet is elaborate enough to merit a tour.

How many pairs can you count?! At least a couple dozen. Also, that chandelier is next level gaudy.

Not only does she have a lot of heels, but she has good taste too!

Madly in lust with these lace up heels. Handmade by: @natachamarro  #supporthandmade #sexyasfuck #vegan #victorian A photo posted by Kat Von D (@thekatvond) on Nov 18, 2016 at 8:21am PST

Looking at Kat Von Ds favorite vegan shoes might give us hints about her upcoming line.

She also knows what shes doing because shes so well-versed in fashion.

If you are passionate/obsessive about shoes and art, I highly recommend following: @shoesinart  #inspirationdujour A photo posted by Kat Von D (@thekatvond) on Nov 5, 2016 at 2:38am PDT

Shes definitely done her homework.

We can only hope shell include some of her signature fiery reds in the mix.

Last minute packing [per usual].  PARIS, FRANCE, HERE I COME! A photo posted by Kat Von D (@thekatvond) on Oct 31, 2016 at 1:53pm PDT

Just last month, she told Cosmo that her favorite shoe designer was Natacha Marro, and we have a feeling her shoe collection is inspired by the designers vegan fashion options!

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Perhaps shell delve into the world of bright patterns.

Breakfast with @minkshoes! So excited about what we have up our sleeves and can't wait to share!! #breakfastofchampions #vegan #veganshoes A photo posted by Kat Von D (@thekatvond) on Sep 14, 2016 at 9:07am PDT

Whatever it is shes got up her sleeve, were excited to see what these designs will look like!

The post Kat Von D is working on a vegan shoe line and we couldnt be more thrilled appeared first on HelloGiggles.
Kate Middleton has upped her style game yet again!

The Duchess of Cambridge turned heads at the annual Diplomatic Reception at Buckingham Palace in London, England, on Thursday, stepping out in an ensemble fit for a princess.

WATCH: Kate Middleton Wore a Tiara and Glittering Red Dress for the State Dinner and Looked Regal as Hell

Middleton donned a bright red Jenny Packham gown to the event, the same one she wore to a China State Dinner last October, which she styled with stunning diamond earrings and a matching bracelet.

Getty Images

But all eyes were on her sparkly headpiece, the Cambridge Lover's Knot tiara, which was one of the late Princess Diana's favorites. The diamond and pearl-encrusted accessory was reportedly given to Diana by the queen as a wedding present in 1981.

Getty Images

The 34-year-old royal also posed for a new family portrait with her husband, Prince William, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, Prince Charles, Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth II, all who looked equally regal. Like Middleton, the Queen and Duchess of Cornwall were rocking sparkly tiaras of their own!

Getty Images

The same gorgeous photo was later posted to the Kensington Palace Instagram, accompanied by a caption which read, "The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge join The Queen and the Royal Family as they welcome the world's Ambassadors and High Commissioners from the UK's diplomatic community to Buckingham Palace for the annual Diplomatic Reception."

WATCH: Kate Middleton Wears Princess Diana's Favorite Tiara

This marked Middleton's fifth time wearing a tiara since becoming part of the royal family in 2011. Middleton also sported a tiara on her wedding day (opting for the Cartier Halo headpiece), as well as to the aforementioned China State Dinner, last year's diplomatic dinner and a state reception in 2013.

Watch the video below to revisit Middleton's full look from last year's Diplomatic Reception.

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Kate Middleton looked like a, well, princess in a new family portrait with her husband Prince William and other members of the royal brood. The Duchess of Cambridge joined the famous British royal family for an elegant reception dinner wearing a gorgeous red gown and diamond tiara.

According to the Us Weekly, the tiara Middleton was photographed wearing is known as the Cambridge Lovers Knot and was a favorite of the late Princess Diana. The stunning headpiece features swinging pearls from 19 diamond-encrusted arches.

The outlet reported that Queen Elizabeth inherited the tiara from her grandmother Queen Mary and gave it to Princess Diana as a gift when she married Prince Charles in 1981. Princess Diana was spotted several times wearing the tiara at special events, but it was eventually returned to the queen after her divorce from Prince Charles in 1996. Princess Diana, whos the mother of Middletons husband and his brother Prince Harry, died the following year in a car crash.

Middleton wore the diamond tiara, which she paired with diamond earrings and a dress designed by Jenny Packham, for a dinner the royal family hosted at Buckingham Palace Thursday for the worlds diplomatic corps and ambassadors. Also in attendance for the event was Prince William, Queen Elizabeth II, her husband Prince Philip, Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall.

Vanity Fair reported that this is the second time the Duchess of Cambridge has worn the Cambridge Lovers Knot. The first time was at the same event last year. The 34-year-old mother of two also recycled the Jenny Packham gown she wore. According to the Telegraph, she was spotted in the stunning dress last year at the State Banquet for President Xi of China at Buckingham Palace.

Kate Middleton tiara

Photo: Getty Images

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It used to be keg stands, shots and chugging contests. Now, it's rolling, pharming and snorting.

College parties have evolved, but not for the better. Students are experimenting with more prescription drugs and less alcohol -- and the results can be deadly. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found that prescription medications are the drugs most commonly abused by adolescents, with the biggest growth of abuse among those 12 to 24 years old. Young adults using prescription drugs for a high is only slightly less common than marijuana use, but more common than drugs like cocaine, ecstasy and heroin.

Pharming is the nonmedical use of prescription and over-the-counter cough and cold medicines, and pharming parties are essentially any get-together where people -- usually young adults -- gather prescription medications and take a handful in order to obtain a high. Contemporary Pediatrics reports that pharming parties may also be called "Skittles parties," comparing the act of popping colorful candies with popping colorful pills. These parties may also involve Robo-tripping, which refers to using the cough suppressant Robitussin to get a high by either mixing it with other alcohol or drinking a large amount on its own. Although there's little evidence that these parties are a widespread phenomenon, the abuse of prescription drugs by college-aged students is widespread. At least 1 in 4 teens has misused or abused prescription drugs at least once in their lifetime, according to a 2013 study.

[See: 10 Gross Things You Should Stop Doing in College.]

So why the shift in substances used by college students? Here are a few likely reasons:

Prescription meds aren't uncommon these days. Oftentimes, after being prescribed pain pills, individuals will leave them in bathroom cabinets, forgotten. They become easily accessible to anyone who wants them. According to the Contemporary Pediatrics article, nearly 50 percent of all Americans take at least one prescription medication. The stigma around popping a pill for nearly any issue is nearly nonexistent these days.

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They're cheap and easily accessible. Compared to street drugs like cocaine, ecstasy and heroin, prescription drugs such as Oxycotin, Vicodin, Adderall and Ritalin are cheaper and give users a greater sense of safety. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 55 percent of prescription drug abusers obtained prescription painkillers for free from a friend or relative. In other words, anyone who wants to get a high from popping one too many pain pills doesn't usually need to look for it on the street. Further, because many students now on college campuses have easy access to drugs like Adderall or Ritalin -- with a legitimate prescription -- selling extra pills for extra cash isn't uncommon. The only time prices may soar for "focus" drugs like these are during test periods like finals. For a party, grabbing a few Adderalls, Xanax or Oxys is cheaper than grabbing a keg.

[See: 14 Ways Alcohol Affects the Aging Process.]

They're viewed as "safer" than street drugs. One of the biggest dangers of using prescription drugs over alcohol for a high is that if someone were to overdose after taking an unknown pill, medics and doctors may not know how to treat them. Additionally, popping numerous pills together without knowing how they will react with each other can have deadly consequences. Regardless, with the "Ritalin generation" now on college campuses, much of the taboo around taking prescription pills is gone. Popping an Adderall to help a student focus or throwing back a Xanax during a party seems safer than snorting a line of coke or shooting up heroin. In reality, the consequences of overdose, death or severe allergic reactions are just as serious in comparison to street counterparts.

Parents also don't seem to be helping to break the trend. A 2008 study revealed that 25 percent of parents believed that their son or daughter popping a prescription pill was safer than their son or daughter doing street drugs. The interesting point is that the most commonly abused prescription drugs -- opioids like Hydrocodone, Oxycodone, Fentanyl, Methadone and Codeine -- have the same addictive properties as heroin or meth.

[See: 7 Health Risks of Binge Drinking You Can't Ignore.]

As long as students are on college campuses, away from mom and dad, and finding their way in the world, they'll find new ways to get high. It falls to a few responsible individuals, parents and campus policing to ensure students understand the extreme danger of activities like pharming. Like getting behind the wheel after a few drinks, chugging a bottle of cough syrup or popping a few Oxys can have the same deadly consequences.

As Executive Director of Beach House Center for Recovery, Robert Yagoda brings more than 10 years of combined clinical and administrative experience in facility-delivered, drug and dual diagnosis treatment. Robert is a licensed mental health counselor and certified addictions professional. What motivates him most is seeing clients make groundbreaking strides in recovery, knowing he was part of their growth and success.
By Katharine Houreld NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenyan police plan to deport a British journalist working for The Times after holding him nearly 24 hours without charge or access to a legal representative, his lawyer said on Friday. "I have not been able to speak to him since they took away his phones," said lawyer George King, who is acting on behalf of Jerome Starkey. "I understand they will deport him," he said, citing a conversation with Starkey before the journalist's phones were removed. Starkey has been held since getting off an international flight on Thursday night and has not been allowed to meet his lawyer. It was unclear why he was being detained. Kenyan police and the interior ministry did not respond to request for comments. Kenyan law requires a suspect to be charged within 24 hours of being detained, King said. Starkey, 35, covered Afghanistan for five years, travelling to far-flung provinces by motor bike, before moving to Kenya in 2012 to cover Africa for The Times, a British newspaper. An award-winning journalist, his recent articles have focused on a narcotics smuggling, security, politics and conservation. He was pulled aside by police as he reached the immigration desk, he said in an email. "The immigration officer noticed something on her computer and led me to a side room," he wrote. "They said there was a security block on my passport, which had been put there by Kenyan security services." "I have no idea why I am being held, nor has anyone proffered any kind of explanation. As far as I am aware, I haven't been charged." He said he had been questioned and photographed by an officer from the anti-terror police unit. A British foreign office spokesman confirmed the office was providing assistance. The Times had no immediate comment. Kenyan authorities have been targeting journalists who challenge authorities, Human Rights Watch said. Since 2015, five journalists and eight bloggers have been charged with "demeaning the authority of a public officer", "annoying a public officer", or defamation, the rights body said. "We have serious concerns that officials seek to silence independent voices who are critical of the government," said Maria Burnett, associate director for East Africa at Human Rights Watch. "We have documented cases of intimidation, arrest, questioning and harassing criminal charges brought against Kenyan journalists and bloggers." (Editing by Richard Lough)
Photo credit: Courtesy of 10-Vins

From Woman's Day

Nowadays, it seems like there's a machine for every drink or food fixation out there. We have Keurigs for coffee, Nespressos for espresso, CHIP ovens for cookies, and now wine drinkers can get in on the fun, too.

The D-Vine wine machine, created by French company 10-Vins, aerates your wine and serves it at the perfect temperature based on the type of grape, according to Mashable. The countertop appliance serves one 100 milliliter test tube-shaped flacon of wine at a time, preparing it to the standards set by expert wine makers.

The machine took four years to develop, in part because it took the designers that long to create a machine that chills wine to the perfect temperature within one minute. While the machine is not currently available in U.S. markets, the retailer just launched the product in Singapore and the U.S. is scheduled to be next. If you happen to be heading for France soon and want to pick one up, you can purchase the device for around $1,257, and flacons of wine (sold separately) for about $6-$39. Happy sipping!

(h/t Mashable)

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One of the last survivors of the film industrys golden age, Kirk Douglas, turned 100 years old Friday. The famed actor, producer and director was born a century ago in Amsterdam, New York, as Issur Danielovitch.

Douglas is known for such films as "Spartacus," "Paths of Glory" and "Lonely are the Brave," among many other titles. The actor was also an early collaborator with director Stanley Kubrick and helped to elevate that talent ("Paths of Glory" was an early film of Kubricks). The talent in his family does not start and stop with him, either, as his son is the well-regarded actor Michael Douglas.

Here are some quotes and photos from and of the senior Douglas. Happy birthday!

RTRKQV0

Photo: Reuters

People are always talking about the old days. They say that the old movies were better, that the old actors were so great. But I dont think so. All I can say about the old days is that they have passed.

In order to achieve anything you must be brave enough to fail.

Virtue is not photogenic. What is it to be a nice guy? To be nothing, thats what. A big fat zero with a smile for everybody.

RTR1FYSR

Photo: Reuters

I dont need a critic to tell me Im an actor. I make my own way. Nobodys my boss. Nobodys ever been my boss.

I guess I was a bad boy Yes, yes Ive had lots of women in my life.

RTRFC6

Photo: Reuters

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Why cant a woman be more like a dog, huh? So sweet, loving, attentive.

I have one computer that my wife gave me. All I know how to do, and I do it every day, is play Spider Solitaire. And I dont have a cell phone.

RTR2BD0D

Photo: Reuters

If you want to know about a man you can find out an awful lot by looking at who he married.

You know, you have to have some inner philosophy to deal with adversity.

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Kirk Douglas, who turns 100 on Dec. 9, claims hes tired of talking about himself. Despite that, he recently spoke to Variety about his many impressive careers, as an actor (I never wanted to be in movies), a producer (including tales of my peculiar friend Stanley Kubrick), author (hes working on his 12th book), and philanthropist (hes given away more than $120 million).

As an actor, his classic films include Champion, The Bad and the Beautiful, Lust for Life, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Gunfight at the OK Corral and Seven Days in May. He also starred in several he produced, such as Paths of Glory, Spartacus, and the 1962 western Lonely Are the Brave.

Douglas has said his proudest accomplishment in Hollywood was to help break the blacklist by giving onscreen credit to writer Dalton Trumbo on the 1960 Spartacus.

Douglas had formed Bryna Prods. in 1955, named after his mother. For the companys second film, Paths of Glory, he hired Kubrick as director. The relationship began with a fight after Kubrick made major script rewrites without telling Douglas, who forced him to film the original version. Despite their frequent clashes, Douglas three years later wanted Kubrick to direct the Bryna-Universal film Spartacus.

Difficult? He invented the word. But he was talented. So, we had lots of fights, but I always appreciated his talent. I always said he was a bastard, but he was a talented, talented guy, Douglas says.

Kirk Douglas on his difficult relationship with Stanley Kubrick (VIDEO):

The budget on Spartacus ballooned from $4 million to $12 million. Execs at Universal had a lot riding on the film, but Douglas was able to convince them that Trumbo should get credit, though no blacklisted writer had been credited onscreen for more than a dozen years. Douglas says his agent Lew Wasserman advised him on how to deal with Universal. (And Douglas laughs that two years later, Wasserman was running the studio.)

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The star-producer forced Kubrick to direct the most famous moment in the film, the I am Spartacus! scene. He didnt like that scene, but I insisted. We had a little argument, he says.

Douglas mentions Kubricks final film, 1999s Eyes Wide Shut, with a shake of his head. I have to bear part of the responsibility because I brought Stanley to my psychiatrist.

During Spartacus, the directors battles with Douglas were so prolonged that Douglas wife thought a mutual-therapy session might help. Among other suggestions, the shrink recommended that Kubrick read Arthur Schnitzlers 1926 novel Traumnovelle. Nearly 40 years later, that novel became Eyes Wide Shut.

Douglas says, It was a lousy picture, he says with a smile of fake remorse.

Douglas worked with many of Hollywoods greatest directors: Billy Wilder, John Frankenheimer, Howard Hawks, John Huston, Elia Kazan, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Vincente Minnelli, and William Wyler. Did he fight with them?

Yes, he says, with surprise at the silly question. But I loved them. I was lucky. I worked with all the good directors.

He continues, I never wanted to be in movies. I always considered myself a stage actor. I started working in the Broadway stage. And Betty Bacall helped me. She went to Hollywood, she was living with Bogart and she said to Hal Wallis, You must look at Kirk Douglas. Hal Wallis came to New York, and he offered me a contract. I didnt know what to do. I needed the money. So, I came to Hollywood.

He made an impression in his first feature, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers with Barbara Stanwyck, and then Wallis wanted to put him under contract. But Douglas balked, wanting to take control of his own career. My actor friend Burt Lancaster signed the contract that I wouldnt sign. In 1957, the two of them starred in Gunfight at the OK Corral. Lancaster was finishing out his contract with Wallis. I think he got a thousand dollars for the picture and I got half a million.

Douglas turns suddenly somber. I am now a hundred years old. I read about Hollywood, and I dont know the people. Where is Burt? Where is Laurence Olivier? Theyre all gone. I miss them. I feel lonely.

Its one of the few moments of sadness from Douglas, who is otherwise upbeat and animated. He walks with assistance, and he speaks slowly and carefully, the result of a 1996 stroke. He interrupts the interview by saying, I hope you understand me, because I used to talk better than this.

He had the stroke in January 1996, and was scheduled to accept an Honorary Oscar two months later. He debated whether to attend, but decided to show the world that a stroke is not an end to life or brainpower. Since then, hes been a champion of stroke patients. In 2003, he addressed the topic in his book My Stroke of Luck and in 2009, performed a one-man stage show, Before I Forget.

After speaking at one public event a few years ago, he asked the organizers for a tape, so he and his speech therapist could work on improving his pronunciations  and this was at age 97.

He and his wife, the Belgian-born Anne Buydens, will be celebrating their 63rd wedding anniversary in May. The two live in a single-story house, with a deep-blue pool, in the backyard in Beverly Hills. Its handsome, roomy and impeccably cared for, but its not palatial. Passers-by wouldnt notice the house, but the interiors are impressive, reflecting the taste of the owners. A wall is filled with a complete set of Encyclopedia Britannica and oversized books on such topics as Nelson Mandela and Australia.

Throughout the house are a large Picasso vase, giant Lautrec prints, a Roy Lichtenstein work, plus masks, statues, and other pieces of folk art from various cultures.

In other words, this is the home of world travelers. He often went to far-off locations for the U.S. Information Agency at his own expense, and was a U.S. State Dept. Goodwill Ambassador.

He was representing the U.S. and Hollywood. I think people dont realize the importance of movies. Not only do they help audiences, but the actors and actresses help countries. I dont think the world realizes how much the American industry helps the world. Whenever there is a flood or disaster, American actors come in and help.

Douglas has done that, and also helps people at home. He and his wife began the Douglas Foundation in 1964, and in the 52 years since then, they have given more than $120 million to various causes.

They include the Motion Picture & TV Fund, where a $40 million donation created Harrys Haven, named for his father and devoted to helping Alzheimers patients and their loved ones, at the MPTV Home.

There have also been $5 million to St. Lawrence University, his alma mater, as well as scholarships, and the renovation of 400 playgrounds in the L.A. Unified School District. And there are the Anne Douglas Childhood Center and the Anne Douglas Center for Homeless Women. In 2015, they donated $2.3 million to L.A.s Childrens Hospital. There is the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City.

I have given most of my money away because that pleases me, he says. I was born a poor boy. My mother and father came from Russia; I dont think they could have gotten into the country today. So I have a lot to be thankful for.

I didnt speak English until I went to school. My father was a ragman. We had no money. Nothing. But hobos every evening would come knocking at the door, and my mother always had food for them. She was wonderful. So, my background made me try to do something for other people.

Douglas has survived several near-death experiences. His wife dissuaded him from getting on the flight in 1958 that killed Mike Todd, Elizabeth Taylors husband. In 1991, he was in a helicopter that collided with a private plane near Santa Paula in an accident that killed two people.

Douglas claims hes tired of talking about himself, but he throws a lot of energy into tales like his many attempts to get a film going from Ken Keseys One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest.

Douglas had starred in the stage adaptation but the movie was at a dead-end and he gave the rights to his son Michael, who lined up Milos Forman to direct. I assumed I would be in the picture and Michael said Dad, he thinks youre too old. I was too old!? They told me they cast Jack Nicholson. I said, Who is he?

As the conversation winds down, he asks, Is my speech OK? I didnt realize when I reached a hundred years old I would be doing interviews. I thought by now I would relax, and Im doing more interviews than I used to. So whatever it is youre doing here is unknown to me, he says with mock annoyance.

But I think now its time for me to relax.

Then he concludes with a big smile. Were doing this again when Im 200.

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A high school student was shot and critically injured by a school district officer in Reno, Nevada, after allegedly threatening his classmate with a knife on Wednesday, according to local reports.

The shooting occurred in the midst of a physical altercation the victim was having with another student at Hug High School, Reno Police Chief Jason Soto said. The officer was prompted to shoot the 14-year-old boy when the student took out a knife during the fight and refused to drop it. The boy also pointed his knife towards the group of more of 40 students who had surrounded the fight.

The student who was shot has not been identified by police and school officials because he is a juvenile. He remained in critical condition at a local hospital Thursday. Justin Clark, the father, said his son's name is Logan, the New York Post reported Thursday.

The boy's family said Thursday the officer did not need to shoot their son and that there must have been less severe ways of quelling the situation. The familys lawyer David Houston, told local reporters "It is my belief we do not send our children to school to be shot." Houston said he would evaluate the situation further before committing to taking legal action against the officer and the school district.

"There are many questions to be answered as to what happened and what could have been done to avoid the use of lethal force," the students family said in a statement released Thursday. "We believe options were available to law enforcement that were not pursued."

Videos of the incident had emerged on social media as some of the students on hand recorded the grisly scene on their mobile devices. In a video posted to Facebook Wednesday, the boy can be seen wearing a navy blue shirt and wielding a blade. Someone off-camera can be heard yelling, Back up! Back up!

A gunshot was also heard in the video before the boy is shown falling to the ground. The officer is then shown approaching the student with his gun drawn.

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An investigation has been launched by the Reno Police Department, spokesman Tim Broadway told USA Today. The officer has been placed on paid administrative leave.

The superintendent of the Washoe County School District, said the officer in question acted to protect the safety of our students. Traci Davis commended him for his tough split second decision.

Class at Hug High School resumed Thursday.

One parent told NBC News she was saddened that a student got shot but said the action was necessary.

"I was very comfortable with the fact that there's police officers there, because the kids like to fight. They are there to protect the kids  which is what he did," the mother said. "I'm glad the situation got handled the way it did. My kid was right there. He could have been stabbed."

There were 43,770 public schools across the county that had been staffed by armed officers at least one day a week in the 2013-14 school year, according to the United States Education Departments National Center for Education Studies report from May of 2015. Among those were 16,700 public high schools.

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Even if you dont know Jocelyn Wildensteins name, youve seen her face.

The New York socialite, 71, is currently facing charges for allegedly attacking her 49-year-old boyfriend with scissors at her Trump World Tower Apartment in New York City. But Wildenstein was famous long before this week, for a few different reasons.

For one  and perhaps the most obvious to those unacquainted with Wildensteins personal life  there is her face, which has undergone so many plastic surgeries that its taken on a kind of feline quality, leading Wildenstein to be derided Catwoman in certain circles.

Wildensteins surgery journey started with an eye lift during the first year she was married to Alec Wildenstein, a French-born, American-raised art dealer, racehorse owner and businessmen heir to a billion-dollar fortune. She told him his eyes looked baggy, he recalled to Vanity Fair in 1998, so they went in for his-and-hers facelifts. That was the beginning: I dont think Ive known her when she wasnt healing from something, a friend added.

Alec, who died in 2008, and some of Jocelyns friends suspect shes trying to look like a lynx (she has one for a pet), The lynx has perfect eyes, she told Vanity Fair, but suggested her faces dimensions were at least partially natural: If I show you pictures of my grandmother, what you see is these eyes  cat eyes  and high cheekbones.

Wildenstein  who grew up lower-middle-class in Switzerland before shuttling off to Paris and Africa  met Alec in 1977. The pair eloped a year later, and their spending became a thing of legend: In 1998, she estimated they would spend $1 million a month on average. The pair had two children, Jocelyn continued her plastic surgery odyssey and things were relatively normal for the family, until the late 1990s.

They were a reclusive couple, one longtime friend told PEOPLE in 1998. They had a tight group of friends and were very quiet people. Instead of hobnobbing with New York society, the article continues, Jocelyn oversaw the sprawling Ol Jogi ranch , apartments in Paris and Lausanne, a French chateau and a Caribbean retreat. The pair raised their children, but the marriage broke down in the mid-90s, and Alec filed for divorce in April 1997. On Sept. 3 of that year, Jocelyn claimed she found Alec in bed with a 21-year-old Russian model named Yelena Jarikova. A gun was involved; and Alec was charged with menacing.

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It was the couples divorce that made them a household name. During the proceedings, much of the attention was drawn, naturally, to Jocelyns looks, along with various sordid rumors about her personal life, such as that shed worked as a prostitute for the famous Paris bordello owner Madame Claude. Over the course of the proceedings, which dragged on for two years, Jocelyn was awarded an astounding $2.3 billion settlement, with $100 million for 13 years afterward. (The judge stipulated that she was not allowed to use any portion of that sum to fund further cosmetic surgery.)

Three years later, Alec inherited half of his fathers sprawling business holdings, an estate that included one of the worlds largest private collections of art and was estimated at $10 billion. Needless to say, portions of it went to fund alimony payments to Jocelyn.

Jocelyn kept largely out of the public eye following the divorce, though shes been through various legal battles since then, mostly with landlords. She dodged eviction from an apartment at the United Nations Plaza over owed rent through a settlement and was sued in 2015 by American Express over $70,000 in credit card debt. Another 2015 lawsuit concerned a $15,000-per-month Beverly Hills bungalow that Wildenstein allegedly trashed and abandoned, leaving $165,00 in unpaid rent and almost $15,000 more in assorted fees.

The New York Post reported that while in court on Thursday, Wildenstein used a contraband cellphone in the courtroom to fix her hair and apply makeup. A court officer took the phone from her. Wildenstein left the courthouse, guided by her lawyer, her famous face almost entirely covered with a pashmina scarf.




Gary D. Cohn, President and Chief Operating Officer, Goldman Sachs attends the session 'Where Is the Chinese Economy Heading?' of the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland January 21, 2016. REUTERS/Ruben Sprich - RTX23C1Q

Welcome to Finance Insider, Business Insider's summary of the top stories of the past 24 hours.

President-elect Donald Trump has tapped Goldman Sachs' Gary Cohn as the National Economic Council director, according to NBC News. Cohn is the President and COO at the firm, and trails only CEO Lloyd Blankfein in stature. The National Economic Council (NEC) advises the president on US and global economic policy.

Trump appointed former Goldman Sachs banker Steven Mnuchin Treasury secretary last month. And Steve Bannon, his incoming chief strategist, is also a Goldman Sachs alum.

In markets news, the third-largest IPO of the year is off to a strong start. Shares of Athene Holding, an insurer backed by the private-equity firm Apollo Global Management, gained 9% in their trading debut on the New York Stock Exchange.

Elsewhere, more consumers than ever before say they are positive about the economy after Trump's win. The euro is tumbling, and the US dollar is soaring.

In other news, more people have left Credit Suisse in New York and London. China is about to hit Macau hard, and casino stocks are getting spanked. And Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has considered plans to go into government.

Lastly, meet the YouTube millionaires who were the platform's highest paid stars in 2016.

Here are the top Wall Street headlines at midday

A short seller tweeted that Trump could crush a healthcare company, and now the stock's tanking  On Thursday, the short-selling firm Citron Research tweeted that Express Scripts, a pharmacy benefits manager, might be targeted during the Trump administration.

Here's the presentation David Einhorn just gave to a room of elite hedge fund managers  Last week, famed investor David Einhorn of hedge fund Greenlight Capital gave a presentation at the exclusive Robin Hood Investors Conference. In it, he explained his long thesis for pharmaceutical giant, Bayer.

Story continues

A majority of voters support a minimum wage hike to at least $10 an hour  that's more unlikely now than ever before  A solid majority of American voters support raising the federal minimum wage to at least $10 an hour. That's looking less likely  Trump just chose Andrew Puzder, CEO of the parent company of fast-food chains Carl's Jr. and Hardee's, to lead the Department of Labor.

Nearly half of US coal is produced by companies that have declared bankruptcy  and Trump wont fix that  By choosing Scott Pruitt, an outspoken opponent of environmental rules and ally of the fossil fuel industry, to head the EPA, Donald Trump seems to be sending a message that, as promised, his administration will attempt to roll back air quality regulations and open more federal land to coal mining. But those efforts wont counteract the market trend enough to restore coal to its former prominence.

Tesla's shares are doing something unusual these days  and it signals a change for the carmaker  Shares in the all-electric automaker tend to be volatile, and on Wall Street there's a chasm between the bulls and the bears as far as price-targets go. Some have seen the stock plunging below $100, while others have argued that it could touch $500. Through all this, Tesla has amassed a $30 billion market cap.





More From Business Insider


South Korean lawmakers on Friday voted to impeach President Park Geun-Hye, stripping away her sweeping executive powers over a corruption scandal and opening a new period of national uncertainty.

The National Assembly ballot immediately transferred Park's authority to the prime minister, pending a decision by the Constitutional Court on whether to ratify the decision and permanently remove the president from office.

A ruling could take up to six months, during which time Park will remain in the presidential Blue House -- a leader in name only.

The situation leaves South Korea facing an extended stretch of political anxiety and policy paralysis at a time of slowing economic growth, rising unemployment and elevated military tensions with nuclear-armed North Korea.

"I am so sorry for all South Koreans that I created this national chaos with my carelessness," Park said in a televised statement after the vote.

"But we should not let our guard down for a single minute, given the grave situation we face at home and abroad from our economy to the national defence.

- Celebrations -

The motion to impeach was adopted by 234 votes to 56, easily securing the required two-thirds majority in the 300-seat chamber and triggering wild celebrations among hundreds of anti-Park activists gathered outside the National Assembly.

"This is a great moment," said a beaming Kim Jun-Hweh, 21. "This is what we wanted, and we want her kicked out of the Blue House now."

It has been a startling fall from grace for a politician who had run for the Blue House as an incorruptible candidate, declaring herself beholden to nobody and "married to the nation".

After just under four years in power, she now faces the prospect of going down in history as the first democratically-elected South Korean president to be kicked out of office.

The impeachment motion had accused Park of constitutional and criminal violations ranging from a failure to protect people's lives to bribery and abuse of power.

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Supported by all 171 opposition and independent lawmakers, its adoption was made possible by an anti-Park faction within the president's Saenuri party.

The result means Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-Ahn, a former prosecutor who has never held elected office, suddenly finds himself in charge of Asia's fourth largest economy and supreme commander of its armed forces.

- National defence pledge -

In a televised address just hours after the vote, Hwang stressed that the country was primed to respond to any North Korean provocation.

"The government will maintain a watertight national defense posture," Hwang said, pledging to keep the country safe and prosperous.

"We will stabilise the financial and currency markets and make efforts to maintain South Korea's sovereign ratings," he said.

The push for impeachment was driven by massive protests that have seen millions take to the streets of Seoul and other cities in recent weeks, demanding Park's ouster.

"This has been an honourable civil revolution in which our people defeated an incompetent leader," the president of the main opposition Democratic Party said after the vote.

The scandal that felled Park focused on her friendship with long-time confidante Choi Soon-Sil.

Choi is awaiting trial on charges of meddling in state affairs and using her Blue House connections to force dozens of conglomerates to donate around $70 million to two foundations she controlled.

In a first for a sitting South Korean president, Park has been named a "suspect" by prosecutors investigating the case.

The Constitutional Court is expected to validate her impeachment, starting the clock running on a 60-day window for holding fresh presidential elections.

"The political paralysis that has enveloped governmental decision-making over the past month is likely to continue for at least the next four to eight months," said Scott Snyder, a Korea specialist at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington.

"That makes it potentially more vulnerable to North Korean provocations, but the situation also makes it more likely that the Korean public would expect a strong response to any attempt to take undue advantage of South Koreas political crisis," Snyder said.
South Koreas parliament voted to impeach President Park Guen-hye by wide margin on Friday. Park has quickly become one of the young democracys most unpopular leaders following a well-documented corruption and cronyism scandal involving a close personal friend that was allowed unusual access to the presidency.

Park, who became the countrys first female president in 2012, has maintained that she did not commit any crimes, but millions have taken to the street in recent weeks to protest her dealings with Choi Soon-sil, a friend of Parks since the presidents father was assassinated in 1979.

The relationship between Park and Choi is marred with mystery and suspicion. According to some Korean media, Choi acts as Parks spiritual adviser to an almost cult-like religion. However, Parks friendship with Choi goes much deeper than religion, and the president is accused of giving Choi unprecedented influence over the nations political affairs.

According to reports, Choi reviewed advance copies of speeches, selected Parks wardrobe for public appearances, and perhaps pocketed some of the $70 million in charitable donations she solicited from major South Korean businesses.

Nevertheless, Parks impeachment has barely made a dent in Korean stocks this week. The iShares MSCI South Korea Index Fund EWY was down less than 0.6% in early morning trading Friday, and shares remain up over 3% this week. Although traders typically hate uncertainty, it appears like Parks fate was already priced in to the market.

Another thing to consider, of course, is Samsung SSNLF, the Korean electronics giant that is going through its own drama this week. Over the past month or so, Samsung has been dealing with heavy activist pressure to change up its corporate structure in the wake of the catastrophic scandal involving its self-combusting Galaxy Note 7 phones (Also read: Future Uncertain For Samsung (SSNLF) As Company Considers Split).

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Share of Samsungs domestic stock were also down less than 0.6% on Friday morning, and the stock remains up over 3.7% on the week.

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Lake Bell will soon be a mother of two!

The 37-year-old actress revealed the exciting news by showing off her adorable baby bump for the first time at the AG + Vanity Fair Opening of Saved in Los Angeles on Thursday, which she attended with her tattoo artist husband, Scott Campbell.

WATCH: Pink Expecting Second Child With Husband Carey Hart -- See Her Gorgeous Pregnancy Announcement!

Dressed in a body-hugging LBD, Bell was glowing as she cradled her burgeoning belly while posing for photographers.

Getty Images

Campbell perfectly complemented his lady's look in a pair of black pants and a black-and-gray button-down shirt.

Getty Images

Campbell and Bell originally met on the set of How to Make It in America, and tied the knot at the Marigny Opera House in New Orleans, Louisiana, in June 2013. The two are also parents to 2-year-old daughter Nova.

Congrats to the happy couple!

WATCH: Liam Payne Expecting a Baby With Cheryl Cole? See the Pic That Has Everyone Talking!

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Lake Bell and husband Scott Campbell are expecting their second child!

The 37-year-old Secret Lives of Pets star debuted her growing baby bump Thursday, as she arrived at the AG + Vanity Fair Opening of Saved in Los Angeles.

The actress looked radiant, wearing a sleek fitted black sleeveless turtleneck dress with sheer panels. Bell complimented the look by keeping her long brown locks loose and her makeup minimal  with pink highlights on her cheeks and a light gloss on her lips.

The couple posed together at the event  Bell holding her hand under her baby belly and Campbell, a New York-based tattoo artist, wearing a plaid shirt and black pants.

RELATED VIDEO: Lake Bell: The One Thing I Wish I Knew Before I Gave Birth Is 

Theyre already parents to daughter Nova, who celebrated her second birthday in October.

Also at the event was SNL alum Michaela Watkins, and brothers Benji and Joel Madden.

Bell and Campbell, 39, met in 2011 on the set of HBOs How To Make It In America, in which Bell starred and Campbell made a guest appearance.

The couple married in 2013 at the Marigny Opera House in New Orleans alongside a slew of Hollywood A-listers  including two of their biggest VIPups: their dogs of honor Texas and Margaret.

Among the star-studded guest list: Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux, Cameron Diaz, Eva Longoria and Kate Bosworth.




Another December 7 has come and gonethat makes 75 of them since the date had its rendezvous with infamy. Americans marked the shocking attack on Pearl Harbor in ways large and small. One gathering in Kansas City was a resonant reminder that, for all the drama and brutality of that Sunday morning in Hawaii, the most important thing about Pearl Harbor was what happened next.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt foretold the story in his famous speech to Congress on Dec. 8, 1941. No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory, he declared.

But how to begin? The world of 1941 was a world in which distance still mattered, a time before jet engines and rocketry, and Japan seemed impossibly far away. In his race to strike a blow, Roosevelt blessed an audacious and daring expedition led by a brilliant daredevil named James H. Doolittle. The audience in Kansas City heard all about it from the last survivor of Doolittles raiders: Lt. Col. Richard Dick Cole, age 101.

With the Hawaii-based Pacific Fleet in ruins, Doolittle was assigned to gin up an aerial attack on the main island of Japan. His credentials were impeccable. A renowned test pilot, owner of numerous air-speed records, Doolittle earned the first doctorate in aeronautical engineering awarded in the United States. Within two weeks after the Japanese surprise attack, Doolittle advised Gen. Henry Hap Arnold of the Army Air Corps that B-25 bombers would just barely fit on an American aircraft carrier thanks to their stubby wings. They ought to be able to take off, he calculatedthough they could not possibly land.

These facts shaped the plan. Some two dozen crews of five men eachpilot, co-pilot, navigator, bombardier and gunnervolunteered for a hazardous mission, though they werent told what it might be. They were whisked away for special training in super-short, low-speed takeoffs while their planes were modified to hold more fuel and less equipment. And just four months after the fateful Sunday, they were aboard the U.S.S. Hornet, sailing east toward Japan.

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In a conversation with his biographer, Park University professor Dennis Okerstrom, Cole explained that he nearly lost his place in the mission when the pilot on his bomber got sick. After a hasty consultation with his crewmates, Cole hurried to plead with the higher-ups for a substitute before the reserve crews heard about the vacancy and tried to elbow his team aside.

As it happened, a very experienced pilot was looking for a seat: Jimmy Doolittle himself. Shrugging off Gen. Arnolds opinion that the famous aviator was too valuable to risk, the old man (Doolittle was 45) took command of the plane, with Cole as his co-pilot. We were the excess baggage that came along with it, he told the audience.

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The raid was scheduled for the night of April 19, 1942. Doolittle and Cole, in the lead bomber, were to drop incendiary tubes over Tokyo to set fires that would guide the trailing crews. Then the raiders would fly onward to China in hopes of landing in territory not held by Japanese troops.

But on April 18, amid a Pacific gale, enemy picket boats spotted the Hornet and its escorts. Worried that their surprise had been spoiled, Doolittle ordered his men into their planes. Sitting in the cockpit of the twin-tailed B-25, Cole looked down the flight deck into the heavy seas. Actually, it looked a lot shorter than I thought, he recalled.

Doolittle revved the engines as he stood on the brakes. When the propellers were screaming, he let the plane jump forward. The combination of the high winds and the ship at full speed gave him the lift he needed. Circling once, he headed for Tokyo, and 15 bombers followed his lead.

No one had told the two pilots that automated controls had been removed to shave weight. They found themselves, as Cole put it, manhandling the plane over hundreds of miles of ocean at low altitude to hinder detection. Nervous and bored at the same time, Cole began tapping his foot to the rhythm of The Wabash Cannonball, until Doolittle silenced him with a dirty look.

The raiders reached the island of Honshu in broad daylight, encountering ineffective anti-aircraft fire. Their bombs did more damage to Japans sense of invulnerability than to any physical targets. Fear of another attack inspired the Imperial Navy to extend its perimeter in the Pacific, which led to the Battle of Midway in June 1942. The American victory at Midway was the beginning of the long and bloody end for the Japanese.

But with Tokyo ablaze behind him, Doolittle now faced the consequences of launching a day early. The flight to the targets was longer than planned. Navigator Hank Potter informed the pilots that they were running low on fuel. Cole noticed sharks just beneath the surface of the China Sea, which stretched beyond the horizon ahead. We had a bit of conversation, he allowed, concerning the best way to ditch a plane in rolling waves.

Miraculouslyor so it seemed to Colea storm arose at just that moment to send a 30-knot tailwind in their direction. The anxious fliers saw the water turn from the greenish-blue of the deep sea to the somewhat tan color that told me we were near landfall. Soon, it was dark, and the fuel gauges all read empty, and one by one the crewmembers stood by an open hatch and leapt into the rain.

Experience Pearl Harbor in virtual reality with LIFE VR

It was Coles first parachute jump. I was so calm, cool and collected that I pulled the ripcord so hard I gave myself a black eye, he recounted. A pine tree caught his chute and, after sleeping a bit, he climbed down to safety. Friendly Chinese helped him find the rest of his crew and helped the Americans out of the country.

For that, the Chinese paid a terrible price. Historians believe as many as 250,000 people were killed in retaliation as Japanese troops loosed a reign of rape, pillage and murder.

Doolittle, who feared he might be court-martialed for launching early and losing all of his planes, instead returned to a heros welcome in the U.S. His swift promotion to Brigadier General was followed by a Congressional Medal of Honor. For Cole, there was a Distinguished Flying Cross and, eventually, a Congressional Gold Medal. His wartime service continued as a supply pilot flying the dangerous hump route over the Himalayas.

Nineteen of the 80 raiders were killed during the war. The rest met regularly over the years to commemorate an exploit that Admiral William Bull Halsey called, one of the most courageous deeds in military history. The Doolittle Raid foreshadowed the industrial might, the innovative daring, and the human fortitude that America would bring to the catastrophe of World War II, and sent a strong signal that the attack on Pearl Harbor would prove to be one of the colossal mistakes in the history of warfare.

Now only one remains. And he told his admiring listeners at the World War I Memorial and Museum in Kansas City that he would like to settle the dust on one thing before he joins his comrades on the mission of eternity. Much has been made of the fact that they were volunteers, Cole said. And we did volunteerthe whole group, even our commander. But gradually it had dawned on them that their bomber group, the 17th, was the only group trained to fly the B-25, and theirs was the only bomber that would fit on the deck of the Hornet.

Once Jimmy Doolittle found that plane, we were going on that mission, whether we wanted to or not, he concluded. His broad smile spoke volumes about Americas righteous might.
House lawmakers unveiled the first major proposals to follow a series of hearings and meetings on reviewing copyright law.

The proposal from House Judiciary Committee chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), the ranking member, would give greater autonomy to the Copyright Office, although it will remain part of the legislative branch.

This is just the beginning of this stage of the copyright review, and we intend to release policy proposals on music licensing issues and other individual issue areas in time, they said in a statement.

The proposal also would subject the Register of Copyrights to a nomination and consent process, with a 10-year term limit subject to renomination. They also are calling for adding staffers to the office, including a chief economist, chief technologist, and deputy register.

Carla Hayden, the new Librarian of Congress, recently removed Maria Pallante as the Register of Copyrights, who oversees the office. That caused a stir among D.C. representatives of the content industry, some of whom openly expressed alarm at the move.

Their proposal also calls for upgrading technology, with a searchable database of past and current copyright ownership. They also want to encourage the inclusion of licensing agents in the information.

On Thursday, legislation was introduced to create a small claims board within the Copyright Office, with the purpose of handling low value infringement cases. The amount of damages would be a maximum of $15,000 per work infringed. The Librarian of Congress would appoint three full-time claims officers to serve on the board.

The legislation was introduced by Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) and Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas). They are both members of the Judiciary Committee, and Chu is co-chair and founder of the Creative Rights Caucus.

Goodlatte launched the copyright review hearings in 2013.

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Photo credit: The Hofstra Chronicle

From Cosmopolitan

Photos obtained by the Hofstra Chronicle allegedly show the Long Island, New York, schools Sigma Pi chapter hazing members of the fall 2014 and 2015 pledge class. Though the photos have been edited to protect the identities of those allegedly hazed, they show men covered in hot sauce, kneeling blindfolded in front of a swastika, chugging milk and vomiting on each other, and writhing on the floor covered in a powdered substance.

The photos were sent to Sigma Pi nationals earlier this year by Hofstra and Sigma Pi alum Syed Ali John Mehdi along with a description of the alleged hazing he experienced as part of the spring 2015 pledge class. On March 1, the chapters charter was revoked, though Sigma Pi Executive Director Jason Walker would not confirm to the Chronicle whether or not Mehdis email contributed to the decision.

Photo credit: The Hofstra Chronicle

According to Mehdi, the photos and video are an accurate representation of his pledge process. The smallest member of the pledge class would allegedly be thrown in a cage in the basement for indefinite periods of time, the paper reports. Mehdi said others were forced to join him after failing questions about the brothers or the fraternity. He remembers Hell Night most painfully, explaining [brothers would] throw hot sauce all over our body and wed have to sit there for hours all throughout the night. He said the ghost pepper sauce was put on pledges genitals too.

The Chronicle also reports Mehdi was banned from Greek life at the school and expelled after being found guilty of Sexual Assault_Non-Consensual Sexual Contact. According to the letter Mehdi received from Hofstra, he engaged in sexual touching of the complainant in this matter by pushing [his] groin against her buttocks while dancing, without her affirmative consent, leading to his expulsion. Mehdi confirmed he sent the email with the alleged hazing photos to the national organization after he was kicked out of Sigma Pi.

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WATCH: Further multimedia evidence of alleged Sigma Pi hazing at Hofstra shows pledges drinking milk and vomiting on one another. pic.twitter.com/1SaYdKsh77 - Hofstra Chronicle (@HUChronicle) December 8, 2016

Per PIX 11, Hofstra released an official statement after the Chronicle article dropped Wednesday night:

The University condemns the incidents depicted in the photos and reported in the story and has commenced an immediate investigation. In addition, the University has also reached out to the Nassau County Police Department for their support and investigation of any potentially criminal behavior.

The university told NBC New York theyd seen no evidence of hazing until they became aware of the photos. A police investigation is currently ongoing.

Photo credit: The Hofstra Chronicle

All fraternity members contacted by the Chronicle either originally denied membership or any incidents of hazing. One brother told the paper: None of us are bigots or in any sense racist. For you to associate [the swastika picture] that is not of us, theres no proof in that picture of us besides a person telling you that it was us. Another brother said there was never an explanation from nationals as to why the chapters charter had been revoked in the first place.

Mehdi also told the Chronicle new members were paddled by brothers and alum upon initiation, and forced to drink things like chicken feet in hot sauce and do the brothers' errands and laundry under threat of physical abuse. You can read more about the allegations against Sigma Pi here.

Photo credit: The Hofstra Chronicle

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At least 50,000 fighters belonging to the Islamic State group, also called ISIS, have been killed by U.S.-led coalition forces in the last two years in which coalition troops have been battling the terrorist group in Iraq and Syria, a U.S. military official said.

The official, who wasnt authorized to speak publicly on the matter, told a small group of reporters, the figure was a conservative estimate. However, the U.S. has warned that ISIS can replace fighters quickly.

The official added that coalition airstrikes may be more aggressive in places like Mosul where Iraqi forces are fighting ISIS to liberate the city from its clutches. The U.S., the official said, is concerned about fighters going into hiding.

These are the guys that went to ground before when they were under a lot of pressure in the 2009-2010 time frame. Literally went to ground in the sanctuary of eastern Syria and western Iraq - Anbar, Ninewah - and then in two years time came back manifested as ISIL, the official reportedly said, using another name for the militant group.

They are more than skilled at were under a lot of pressure right now, guys, lets go low. Lets outlast this thing and come back up, the official added.

Coalition forces are treading cautiously in their battle for Mosul and the Syrian city of Raqqa given the likelihood of civilian casualties. U.S.-led coalition forces have killed 173 civilians since starting their 2014 operations against ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

The militant group is still confident of emerging victorious despite losing ground and fighters, a new ISIS spokesperson said. Abulhassan al-Muhajer, in an audio statement Monday, vowed a victory for ISIS and urged fighters not to flee.

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Legends of Tomorrow has boldly revisited several historical events since its first season. The Legends have even interacted with some of the most iconic personalities in history, including Albert Einstein, Ulysses S. Grant and King Louis XIII of France just to name a few. But will the fans ever get to see the time police on board the Titanic?

While producers of the CW series havent mentioned anything about the Legends traveling to 1912 (the year the Titanic sank in the North Atlantic Ocean) in the future, series star Victor Garber  who played the role of Thomas Andrew in the 1997 film Titanic  doesnt think that its a good idea to revisit one of the deadliest commercial peacetime maritime disasters in modern history.

No, not at all. Write me off the Titanic," Garber recently told Comicbook.com when asked if he would like to see his Legends of Tomorrow character, Dr. Martin Stein, on board the Titanic. I've been there, I dont want to go back.

I think thats a sacred territory; I dont think it would be wise to go there, the Emmy-nominated actor added.

In an interview with Tribute.ca back in 2012, Garber said that what really made the sinking of the Titanic heartbreaking is the fact that it could have been avoided. Its just a human tragedy that could have been averted. Its so unbelievably sad, Garber said of the disaster.

While it seems that Garber has no interest in revisiting the Titanic story anytime soon, he told Movie Fanatic in 2012 that the role he played in the James Cameron-directed film always has a place in his heart.

Ive never not talked about this movie, Garber told the website at the time. Its always peoples first question on a movie set, on any movie Ive been on. Anybody, any crew member, wants to know what it was like and what James was like and what my experience was. Its a part of who I am and continues to be.

Legends of Tomorrow Season 2, episode 9, titled Raiders of the Lost Art, airs on Tuesday at 9 p.m. EST on The CW.

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Victor Garber

Photo: Reuters/Gus Ruelas

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Fairly easy global warming prediction: Late-night comics will take at least some shots tonight at yesterdays meeting between green-minded Leonardo DiCaprio and climate-skeptic Donald Trump to discuss environmentally clean jobs.

On the same day Trump picked climate change denier and Oklahoma attorney general Scott Pruitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency, he met at Trump Tower with environmental activist DiCaprio. Terry Tamminen, CEO of the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, said in a statement that Team DiCaprio presented Trump and advisors with a framework that details how to unleash a major economic revival across the United States that is centered on investments in sustainable infrastructure.

Our conversation focused on how to create millions of secure, the statement continued. American jobs in the construction and operation of commercial and residential clean, renewable energy generation.

Earlier in the week, Trumps daughter Ivanka met with former Vice President Al Gore, giving hope to Americans looking to be optimistic about whether the next president is evolving his thoughts beyond global warming is a Chinese hoax.

And then he picked Pruitt.

Certainly cant blame DiCaprio for trying though, and he even scored a potential sequel. Tamminen said Trump expressed his desire for a follow up meeting in January, and we look forward to continuing the conversation with the incoming administration as we work to stop the dangerous march of climate change, while putting millions of people to work at the same time.

DiCaprio reportedly handed Ivanka a copy of his recent National Geographic Channel documentary Before the Flood, as good a primer as anything outside, say, An Inconvenient Truth.

Still, the Twitter equivalent of raised eyebrows were inevitable, and late-night hasnt even started yet.

Trump meets w/Climate Change activist DiCaprio.

Trump appoints Climate denier to EPA.

Media cheers Leo meeting.  John Fugelsang (@JohnFugelsang) December 8, 2016

Leonardo DiCaprio met with Trump yesterday to be ignored about climate change.  Comedy Central (@ComedyCentral) December 8, 2016

Trump's smart. HERES @LeoDiCaprio!Meanwhile I'll slip in a climate change hater as head of EPA while everyone scrambles for Leo's autograph. https://t.co/yqfq612kRV  Dominic Mitchell (@DomMitchell) December 8, 2016

Leonardo DiCaprio is meeting with Trump to discuss climate change and why Rose let go of Jack even tho she said she wouldn't.  Eden Dranger (@Eden_Eats) December 8, 2016

Story continues

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Thursday night, Vic Mensa shared his powerful remix of Twenty One Pilots' Grammy-nominated track "Heathens." The original song appeared on the Suicide Squad soundtrack, serving as the inspiration behind Mensa's Joker-referencing cover art. While the cover art comes across as playful, the track is anything but.

Over the brooding "Heathens" instrumental, Mensa juxtaposes the trauma of his old life with the glitz of his new one. He expresses guilt about "being the boy who lived" and details some of the violence he witnessed in Chicago growing up. In the wake of many near-death experiences, he grapples with his sense of purpose. "I guess God had bigger plans for the kid / When I woke up still alive on that hospital bed," he reflects.

He also uses the song as an opportunity to speak about racial profiling by police officers, a topic he's been outspoken about throughout his career. "You can rock a Rollie or handcuffs / Either way the police gonna say pull your pants up," he raps.

The track serves as another powerful statement from Mensa, who often uses his platform to bring attention to social issues. He recently delivered an impassioned message about police brutality while performing his song "16 Shots" on Kimmel.

Listen to Mensa's "Heathens" freestyle below.

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In the immortal words of Suga Free, and, it would seem, in the halls of power of Vilnius, If you stay ready, you aint got to get ready.

Lithuania, the largest of the three Baltic states, is trying to make sure it can withstand the double-whammy of an aggressive Russia and a new U.S. president whose commitment to Americas European allies has been lukewarm, at best.

On Thursday, Lithuanian Defense Chief Lieutenant General Jonas Vytautas Zukas said that the Lithuanian army considers hosting a NATO battalion to be a priority. On Friday, the Foreign Ministry tweeted out a quote by Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius meant to shape the battlefield in the looming (dis)information wars: Most effective way to counter misinformation is to foster independent media environment.

They are part of a litany of preparations and pushback, large and small, against a big neighbor that has been behaving badly. If such preparations were already underway because of fears of Russia, concern about the incoming administration of Donald Trump has redoubled Vilniuss desire to stay ready.

In late October, the country of nearly 3 million released its third manual on preparedness in case of invasion, this version focused specifically on Russia (Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that he could take Lithuanian capital Vilnius in two days). Last month, it suspended a Russian state-owned TV channel for three months over anti-American comments. It has banned Russian constitutional court judges from entering its country for a March 2017 summit of constitutional judges because they support Russias 2014 Crimea annexation, a ban Putin called idiotic. In recent years, with a little help from the United States, Lithuania has shed much of its energy dependence on Russia.

And, importantly, Lithuanias leaders vow to spend more on defense, with plans to hit 2 percent of GDP by 2018. Agnia Grigas, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, said that Lithuania  as well as Estonia and Latvia  will need to demonstrate that they can pull their weight  and demonstrate the relevance of [NATO] to the skeptical Trump administration.

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America aside, Russia has been behaving badly from the Lithuanian perspective. Last year, unidentified hackers broke into a government research centers computers, planting information that Lithuanias president, the generally pro-American Dalia Grybauskaite, had worked as an escort for the KGB. And Lithuanias military website was hacked so as to say that a NATO exercise was a plan to annex Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave that borders Poland and Lithuania.

Direct military conflict with a NATO member is probably not in the cards for Russia right now, said Grigas. Instead, she said, indirect threats, destabilization attempts, information warfare, and efforts to divide the Baltic societies are the more immediate and likely Russian threats.

Still, Lithuania isnt forgetting the military dimension. Satellite imagery shows Russia moved additional missiles to Kaliningrad, as NPR reported on Thursday.

All would be a bit less concerning if the next leader of the United States, NATOs most powerful country, hadnt telegraphed his disdain for the alliances traditional mission and mutual obligations. In the run up to and following the presidential election, Trump has consistently praised Russian President Vladimir Putin, and said that he wants warmer relations with Russia.

He has also suggested that U.S. support for NATO allies should be contingent on them paying their fair share (the U.S. chunk of NATO expenditures, to be fair, has soared in the last fifteen years.) In 2015, Lithuania spent 1.1 percent of its GDP on defense  less than the 2 percent recommended by NATO. The alliances critical Article 5, which stipulates that an attack on one member is an attack on all, does not make mutual defense contingent on hitting that 2 percent target.

Estonia and Latvia are doing many of the same things  especially talking up NATO  and have faced many of the same pressures as Lithuania. But Vilnius can do more with less domestic risk because it has the smallest ethnic Russian population, meaning a hard line on Russia is less domestically divisive than it is in Estonia or Latvia. Nevertheless, some ethnic Russians in Lithuania are indeed wary of what their countrys line might mean for them.

Photo credit: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Correction, Dec. 9, 2016: This post originally stated that Lithuania is the smallest of the three Baltic states. It is the smallest by ethnic Russian population; by population and size, however, it is the largest.
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / December 9, 2016 / Los Andes Copper Ltd. (LA.V) ("Los Andes", or the "Company") is pleased to announce the closing of the first tranche of its non-brokered private placement announced in its News Release dated December 2, 2016, raising $8,040,000.

On December 8, 2016, the Company issued 26,800,000 units (the "Units") priced at $0.30 per Unit. Each Unit consists of one common share of the Company (a "Unit Share") and one detachable share purchase warrant (a "Warrant") entitling the holder thereof to purchase one additional common share of the Company (a "Warrant Share") at a price of $0.45 per Warrant Share for a period of 3 years. The Unit Shares, Warrants and Warrant Shares are subject to a hold period expiring on April 9, 2017.

Turnbrook Mining Ltd. ("Turnbrook"), the Company's largest shareholder, subscribed for the 26,800,000 Units and assigned its 26,800,000 Warrants to a third party. The sale of the Units to Turnbrook constituted a related party transaction under TSX Venture Exchange Policy 5.9.

The Company will continue to accept subscriptions over the coming weeks in respect of the 3,200,000 Units that remain available for purchase pursuant to the Private Placement.

The proceeds of the Private Placement will be used to fund a proposed work program on the Company's Vizcachitas project and for general working capital purposes.

For more information please contact:

Antony Amberg, President & CEO

Tel: (56-22) 954-0450

Aurora Davidson, Chief Financial Officer

Tel: 604-697-6207

E-Mail: info@losandescopper.com or visit our website at: www.losandescopper.com

Certain of the information and statements contained herein that are not historical facts, constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of the Securities Act (British Columbia) and the Securities Act (Alberta) ("Forward-Looking Information"). Forward-Looking Information is often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "seek", "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "expect" and "intend"; statements that an event or result is "due" on or "may", "will", "should", "could", or might" occur or be achieved; and, other similar expressions. More specifically, Forward-Looking Information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such Forward-Looking Information; including, without limitation, the achievement and maintenance of planned production rates, the evolving legal and political policies of Chile, the volatility in the Chilean economy, military unrest or terrorist actions, metal and energy price fluctuations, favourable governmental relations, the availability of financing for activities when required and on acceptable terms, the estimation of mineral resources and reserves, current and future environmental and regulatory requirements, the availability and timely receipt of permits, approvals and licenses, industrial or environmental accidents, equipment breakdowns, availability of and competition for future acquisition opportunities, availability and cost of insurance, labour disputes, land claims, the inherent uncertainty of production and cost estimates, currency fluctuations, expectations and beliefs of management and other risks and uncertainties, including those described in Management's Discussion and Analysis in the Company's financial statements. Such Forward-Looking Information is based upon the Company's assumptions regarding global and Chilean economic, political and market conditions and the price of metals and energy, and the Company's production. Among the factors that have a direct bearing on the Company's future results of operations and financial conditions are changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined, a change in government policies, competition, currency fluctuations and restrictions and technological changes, among other things. Should one or more of any of the aforementioned risks and uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from any conclusions, forecasts or projections described in the Forward-Looking Information. Accordingly, readers are advised not to place undue reliance on Forward-Looking Information. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise Forward-Looking Information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

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Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Not for distribution to United States Newswire Services or for dissemination in the United States

SOURCE: Los Andes Copper Ltd.
BERLIN (Reuters) - Lufthansa (LHAG.DE) reported a 10.1 percent rise in passenger traffic in November, despite six days of strikes by its pilots costing it 100 million euros (84.13 million pound) in lost profit.

The growth in revenue passenger kilometres was high in comparison with last year because cabin crew had staged seven days of strikes in November 2015, resulting in the loss of 3.3 percent of its annual capacity.

The pilot strikes last month meant Lufthansa cancelled around 4,500 flights, or 1.9 percent of its annual capacity.

The pilots' union Vereinigung Cockpit is currently reviewing Lufthansa's latest pay offer. Lufthansa Chief Executive Carsten Spohr said on Thursday he was hopeful the two sides could enter mediation this year, thus preventing more strikes.

(Reporting by Victoria Bryan; Editing by Christoph Steitz)
Photo credit: Robin Hill/Panerai

From Esquire

Progress in the world of design is important for a reason: It makes our lives better. Innovative thinking leads to smarter resources, greater sustainability, and hopefully, more beautiful surroundings. At the recent Design Miami Fair, New York-based SHoP Architects were this year's recipients of the Panerai Design Miami/Visionary Award.

To mark the occasion, they unveiled a commission of the world's largest 3D-printed object, an outdoor pavilion entitled "Flotsam & Jetsam," which graced the Design Miami entrance.

Photo credit: Robin Hill

Now in its third year, the Visionary Award is sponsored by watchmaker Officine Panerai and celebrates those who have made a significant contribution to the world of design. "SHoP represents exactly what the Panerai Design Miami/Visionary Award is meant to recognize: innovation, inspiration, and an outstanding point of view," said Rodman Primack, Chief Creative Officer of Design Miami. "Designed for both the entrance and an extended stay at the Miami Design District after the fair, the pavilion is going to be re-installed at Jungle Plaza. Part of a new public art performance space to be programmed by the ICA [Institute of Contemporary Art], the pavilion will be able to live on here in the city of Miami."

Photo credit: Panerai

Presenting the award was the CEO of Panerai, Angelo Bonati. "Panerai's DNA is forged in design and functionality. This is why we honor an exceptional recipient with the Visionary Award every year and will continue to align ourselves with these trailblazing artists. This year's innovative team from SHoP Architects is no exception. "After the award presentation he added, "Panerai has three elements to our DNA: history, technology, and design. Of course, our history of sailing, this is our link to the sea. The connection to art and design is through our Italian heritage from Florence, and to Switzerland for watchmaking technology."

He continued, further explaining the exchange: "To do watches, it's not very simple. You have a long history going back 150 to 300 years. Watches have changed from the beginning until now, and it always has to do with the materials."

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To help illustrate his point further, Mr. Bonati brings out the "Lo Scienziato" Luminor 1950 Tourbillon launched in January 2016. "Take this watch, for example, it is similar to other Panerai watches but what is different is what is inside. It makes us very aggressive-the way to find new materials and new solutions creates a difference between other brands and us. This is a tourbillon, a skeleton watch made of titanium with a ceramic case made with specific techniques; it allows us to empty to the case and create a watch that is very light and very comfortable to wear."

Photo credit: SHoP Architects

The airy, chain-like Flotsam & Jetsam pavilion by SHoP coincidentally exhibited very similar traits. Not only did the structure provide welcome shade under the hot Florida sun, but it also helped illustrate the possibilities of using 3D printing as a futuristic means of construction.

The Panerai Design Miami/Visionary Award recipient, Gregg Pasquarelli from SHoP Architects, explained: "It's fun to come to the office. We are very fortunate to work with 180 incredibly brilliant and hard-working designers every day. It is because of the incredible dedication to design and making beautiful things, exploring new technologies, and an actual commitment [to the idea] that design is not just for the privileged but is something that affects every person every single day to make their lives truly better."

Photo credit: Panerai

While not many of us will be able to afford the most expensive titanium and ceramic tourbillon watch produced by Panerai in our lifetime, the advancements created for this timepiece help promise a bright future for the traditional craft of watchmaking.

Does good design still get Angelo Bonati excited? "I was just visiting the recently renovated Panerai store in Florence only three days ago, and every time I go there, my heart starts to run fast," he says. "It's fantastic."

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By Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen and Joyce Lee

COPENHAGEN/SEOUL (Reuters) - Doubts about the future of Hyundai Merchant Marine Co Ltd surfaced on Friday after Denmark's Maersk Line said the South Korean shipping firm was no longer being considered for the 2M vessel-sharing alliance.

Joining an alliance with major shipping firms was one of the conditions of a debt restructuring deal between heavily indebted Hyundai Merchant Marine and its creditors in May so any breakdown in talks could raise serious questions about the future of South Korea's largest shipping firm.

Maersk Line, part of A.P. Moller-Maersk (MAERSKb.CO), said it was still in talks with Hyundai Merchant Marine but they were no longer about it becoming an operating partner in the alliance. Hyundai, however, said separately that it was still negotiating to join 2M.

Hyundai Merchant Marine shares plunged as much as 11.6 percent early on Friday before recovering to close down 5.9 percent compared with a 0.3 percent broader market drop (.KS11).

Its rival, Hanjin Shipping Co , collapsed earlier this year, at one time stranding $14 billion (11.12 billion pound) in cargo and sending shockwaves through global trade networks.

The world's two largest container shippers, Maersk Line and Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC), have been in talks with Hyundai since July about the 2M alliance.

"The parties have discussed the possibility of Hyundai Merchant Marine joining 2M as an operating partner and now decided to look at other cooperation possibilities," Maersk Line press officer Michael Storgaard said in an email.

He said the parties were instead discussing the option of partnering with Hyundai through a "slot exchange and purchase agreement", whereby surplus capacity can be shared or traded.

The talks included the possibility of Maersk Line taking over charters and the operations of vessels chartered to Hyundai, with the aim of deploying them in the 2M network, Storgaard said.

Maersk's comments come amid a wave of consolidation in the crisis-hit shipping industry and a week after the Danish company said it would acquire German rival Hamburg Sud.

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"Hyundai Merchant Marine needs an alliance, not only for the agreement with creditors but because an alliance is key for a shipper with major international routes to secure business volume," said a Seoul-based shipping analyst who declined to be identified before the talks had concluded.

"Joining an alliance is also symbolic of Hyundai Merchant Marine's health as a shipper as it undergoes debt restructuring."

A spokeswoman for MSC said its position remained the same regarding the talks to include Hyundai in the alliance and that discussions were ongoing.

A spokesman for Korea Development Bank, the lead creditor bank for Hyundai Merchant Marine, said the talks were ongoing and it would clarify its position after they had finished.

Hyundai Merchant Marine reported operating losses of 647.3 billion won ($554.8 million) between January and September this year and had 2.9 trillion won in debt at the end of September, according to a company filing.

(Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen in Copenhagen, Joyce Lee in Seoul; additional reporting by Jonathan Saul in London; editing by Stephen Coates and David Clarke)
On Dec 7, 2016, pipeline operator Magellan Midstream Partners, L.P. MMP and LBC Tank Terminals revealed their plans to expand the infrastructure of Seabrook Logistics. The companies intend to increase the crude oil and condensate storage as well as pipeline assets of Seabrook in the Houston Gulf Coast area for this purpose.

Magellan Midstreams subsidiary has a 50% stake in Seabrook Logistics, whereas the other half is owned by an affiliate of LBC Tank Terminals. The expansion is estimated to cost $250 million and is likely to become operational in mid-2018.

The expansion involves construction of 1.7 million barrels of additional crude oil and condensate storage adjacent to LBCTank Terminals existing terminal in Seabrook. Also, this extension will connect Seabrooks facility to Magellans Houston crude oil distribution system. This will be made possible by the construction of a 24-inch diameter bi-directional pipeline and investment in a new cargo vessel dock with up to a 45 foot draft.

Seabrook Logistics might also be expanded further with construction of an additional 3 million barrels of storage, depending on market demand.

Tulsa, OK-based Magellan Midstream owns and operates a diversified portfolio of energy infrastructure assets. The partnership primarily transports, stores, and distributes refined petroleum products and, to a lesser extent, ammonia. Magellan Midstream conducts its operations via three segments  Refined Products, Crude Oil, and Marine Storage.

The partnership plans to invest an additional $70 million to build a new 24 inch diameter pipeline from its east Houston terminal to Holland Avenue to enhance its infrastructure.

Year to date, the Zacks categorized Oil/Gas Production Pipeline-MLP Industry has registered an impressive growth of 6.8%. However, the Magellan stock has underperformed the industry by registering growth of only 5.32%.This is because, ongoing weakness in oil prices have hurt the partnerships business big time. However, it has an attractive portfolio of energy infrastructure assets that generate stable and recurring fee- and tariff-based revenues.

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As a result, the company currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 ( Hold), which implies that the stock will perform in line with the broader U.S. equity market over the next one to three months.

Some better-ranked players from the broader energy sector include Braskem S.A. BAK, Ocean Rig UDW LLC ORIG and McDermott International Inc. MDR. All these stocks sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

In the last four quarters, Braskem posted an average positive earnings surprise of 105.5%.

Ocean Rig, on the other hand, delivered an average positive earnings surprise of 66.39% in the last four quarters.

In the last four quarters, McDermott posted an average positive earnings surprise of 250.00%.

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By Praveen Menon KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak's stern rebuke to Myanmar for a military-led crackdown on Muslim Rohingyas was a rarity among Southeast Asian nations, who adhere to a policy of non-interference in each other's domestic affairs. Critics saw the beleaguered Najib reaching for the moral high ground with his criticism over the weekend of Myanmar in order to pander to Malay Muslim voters after a series of protests calling for him to resign over a corruption scandal. Najib is eyeing elections in the second half of 2017, nearly a year ahead of the 2018 deadline, a government source told Reuters. At a rally on Sunday, Najib called for foreign intervention to stop the genocide of Rohingya Muslims and lashed out at Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi for her inaction. The persecution of the Rohingyas in Rakhine state, however, has been going on for years. It has forced hundreds of thousands to board flimsy boats and flee to neighboring countries including Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia - which along with Myanmar are all members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). More than 100,000 Rohingya live in poverty and face harassment as illegal migrants in Malaysia. Many others fell into the hands of human traffickers on their perilous journeys from Myanmar. MYANMAR INCENSED The Myanmar government was incensed by Najib's criticism. Presidential spokesman Zaw Htay said Myanmar was considering lodging an official complaint with ASEAN, the bloc of 10 Southeast Asian nations that agree on economic cooperation but pledge non-interference in each other's domestic issues. "He (Najib) could have tried to handle this issue diplomatically through the ambassadors, Zaw Htay was quoted telling the local media in Myanmar. He accused Najib of looking to win popular support among his Muslim voters. Myanmar said this week it was halting workers going to Malaysia in response to the comments. But Najib in his rally speech suggested that ASEAN must set aside its principle of non-interference to tackle regional issues like the Rohingya repressions and migrations, especially when they pose questions about universal values. "We want to remind Myanmars government that the ASEAN charter also upholds basic human rights," the premier said in his speech. INVISIBLE MIGRANTS Rohingyas in Malaysia applauded Najib's intervention. "Rohingya people are hoping something may change in Myanmar - and also in Malaysia where many of us live," said Faisal Islam Muhammad Kassim of the Rohingya Society in Malaysia. Many of them live in squalor in Kuala Lumpur's suburbs, working illegally in restaurants and construction sites, where they are routinely underpaid. Families and single men live in matchbox apartments with over half a dozen cramped into one room. "We are harassed everyday ... by the cops and by everyone," said a Rohingya migrant living illegally, who did not want to be identified. "We have no dignity here." Malaysia is not a signatory to the 1951 UN Convention on the status of refugees, which means all refugees, including Rohingya, are viewed as illegal migrants awaiting resettlement in a third country. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) representative in Malaysia, Richard Towle, said Rohingyas in Malaysia are in the "invisible bottom 30 percent of society, and very much at risk of exploitation and abuse". "Although it's proper to highlight the situation in Myanmar itself, it's also very important to look at the situation of the Rohingya in Bangladesh and here in Malaysia, where there is a lot we can still do to make their lives more secure and safer," Towle said. PRESSURE OF SCANDAL Najib's popularity dropped after he was linked to a multi-billion dollar graft scandal at state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). Tens of thousands marched on the streets in capital Kuala Lumpur last month, demanding he step down and face corruption charges. Najib has denied wrongdoing and has used powerful security laws to block dissenters and his opponents. Najib needs the support of the powerful Islamist party PAS, to secure a convincing win in the next elections. The premier has put his weight behind an Islamic law, hudud, that sets out punishments such as amputation and stoning. The law may be tabled in parliament next year. "Quite clearly, there is a major domestic political dimension to this, as Najib positions himself as the champion of downtrodden Muslims in the region, which he and UMNO obviously believe will be popular in the Malay Muslim heartland," said Phil Robertson, deputy director for the Asia Division of Human Rights Watch. "And of course, talking about the Rohingya is a good way to change the subject from the 1MDB scandal," he added. Najib's office did not respond to requests for comment. (Additional reporting by Ebrahim Harris and Rozanna Latiff in KUALA LUMPUR and Antoni Slodkowski in YANGON. Editing by Bill Tarrant)
If you collect each and every Kylie Cosmetics Lip Kit colors and covet your SJP Collection heels as much as Carrie Bradshaw does her Manolos, both brands have very exciting news: each are opening up their own brick and mortar stores! Kylie Jenners highly-anticipated beauty mecca is opening its doors Friday morning, while Sarah Jessica Parkers big project launched last night and we have all the details on both, below!

Kylies Lip Kits have been consistently sold out every single time she re-stocks the supply and counts tons of celebs among the members of her fan club, so the next logical step is to open a brick and mortar location. Her first-ever Kylie Cosmetics makeup store kicks off Friday at L.A.s Topanga Westfield mall and as you would expect, a line began forming at 9:00 p.m. the night before.

Kylies provided some sneak peeks throughout different phases of construction, including a pic of the store front covered in her Lip Kits signature drip print. While she was developing the store she wrote, MY VISION. I cant wait for you guys to see what goes on inside my mind & what Ive been working on. 100% Kylie.





And if her stores supply sells out as quickly as her online merchandise has, you still have a chance to snag some Kylie swag. On Saturday, December 10 shes launching a Kylie Jenner Shop of Yeezy-style clothing, accessorizes and calendars featuring quotes and scandalously-dressed photos of herself.







RELATED PHOTOS: The Most Stylish Gifts For The Fashionista In Your Life

Next up, news from our fairy shoemother, Parker. Her very first SJP by Sarah Jessica Parker store just opened at MGM National Harbor in Maryland and looks exactly what you would think shoe heaven looks like.

From the stars numerous behind-the-scenes snaps, the store is very sleek, with sky-high shelves on every wall filled with one sparkly shoe after the next.

And if a room full of stylish SJP shoes isnt reason enough to visit, the adorable heel-adorned shopping bags definitely are.

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Even though it looks like shes having a ball at the store opening, in the January issue of InStyle she talks about the challenges of having a fashion line. Its really tough, she tells the magazine about the difficulties of being a designer. And its competitive. I dont mean the designers are competitive. I mean its a competitive industry. Without marketing dollars, you have to be consistent with your customers. You have to be deserving of their money.

Considering her big success of opening her own storefront, her customers are clearly loving what shes designing.

Are you going to visit their stores? Share in the comments below.




Does the type of service dog someone has matter? The Doctors weigh in on a recent report of a man allegedly kicked off a San Francisco cable car because the operator reportedly did not feel safe around his pit bull service dog. Veterinarian Dr. Arvid Edward, star of Amazons Pet Doctors of Atlanta, joins us to discuss the story that has gone viral on Facebook.

The key word is 'service' dog, Dr. Edward says, explaining that service dogs can range from helping people with physical to psychiatric disabilities and notes that service animals are covered under local, state and federal protections. To get kicked off the cable car was a big no-no because of fear. Fear is not a valid reason to deny service to service dog, he continues.

He goes on to say that there are conflicting reports whether the mans dog, Rosie, was a service dog or an emotional support dog. If the dog was used for emotional support, then the animal could have been asked to leave the cable car. If Rosie is a designated service dog, then she would have been more protected.

Watch: Meet Harlow the Service Dog!

So how should people approach a situation with a dog when its not clear if its a true service dog or an emotional support dog and does the breed of the dog matter?

Dr. Edward says that 90 percent of the pit bulls he encounters in his practice are sweet and loving dogs, but acknowledges that many people are fearful of the breed. I tell people all the time, when youre getting a dog, youre also getting the stereotype that comes with that dog, he says. If it was a Goldendoodle, we probably wouldnt be sitting here right now.

Watch: Service Animals: What You Should Know

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency released to The Doctors regarding the incident. We understand that some riders need service animals to reach their destination and we want to ensure they can do that safely and as easily as possible. From riders to employees, public transit is a place where people from all walks of life come together and we are committed to giving each rider access to a safe, efficient and reliable ride, the statement reads.

According to a report, the man is contemplating legal action and SFMTA is said to be investigating the incident.
NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ / ACCESSWIRE / December 9, 2016 / The legal cannabis and hemp industries, as well as the CBD oil market, is exploding as an increasing number of states allow recreational marijuana and many more states legalize medical marijuana. Some estimates put the recreational cannabis market at a staggering $20 billion per year. There are now publicly traded cannabis businesses. In fact, a cannabis related business recently became listed on the New York Stock Exchange. There is a segment of the new legal cannabis market that doesn't receive much press attention, but which is being closely watched by cannabis investors and entrepreneurs. That industry segment is the marketplace for premium high-level cannabis, hemp, and CBD oil domain names. See here for examples of some coveted cannabis related premium domain names currently for sale in the secondary aftermarket: http://cbdreporter.com/cannabis-domains-for-sale/.

To be sure, there has been a number of large transactions in the cannabis domain name market over the past few years. In 2004, a New Jersey company paid over $1 million for the domain name, "marijuana.com" then subsequently turned down five offers for more than $2 million for the domain in the 2009/2010 time period, according to a story in the New York Times. Ultimately, the marijuana.com domain name sold for a reported $4.2 million dollars in 2011, a sale price not officially acknowledged, but reported as confirmed by the technology blog TechCrunch.

The legal cannabis and CBD markets have a number of unique characteristics that make a premium domain name especially important for new businesses in this niche. Some of the biggest retail outlets and advertising platforms, such as Amazon and Google Adwords presently have very restrictive policies for these niches, including for CBD Oil sales. So, the importance of a strong, keyword-rich, generic domain name cannot be overstated, since many newer companies will be very reliant on organic search to kick start their retailing efforts. With these and other factors in mind, a simple, easy-to-remember, keyword-rich, generic domain name can be critical for new businesses. As a result, many speculators are placing big bets on premium cannabis, hemp, and CBD domain names. But, since most all of the premium high quality domains have been scooped up by domain name investors over recent years as legalization efforts have moved forward, the investment activity is now primarily in the secondary market.

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On CBDReporter.com, domain name speculators and cannabis/CBD business owners can select from an exclusive portfolio of premium cannabis-related domain names for sale, such as those listed below. See here for more http://cbdreporter.com/.

HEMP DOMAIN NAMES

HempRX.net

HempExtractCBD.com

HempExtractRX.com

HempExtractReview.com

CANNABIS DOMAIN NAMES

CannabisExtractRX.com

CannabisRevu.com

CannabisWerx.com

CannabisCBDrx.com

CBD DOMAIN NAMES

CBDWerx.com

CBDRevu.com

CBDNewsPost.com

CBDNewsReviews.com

MARIJUANA DOMAIN NAMES

MarijuanaWerx.com

A memorable dot com high-level domain name can give a company immediate credibility and a big competitive advantage in this exploding and highly competitive marketplace. As more and more states, as well as various countries around the world, move toward cannabis legalization, in addition to the medical research revolving around CBD (or cannabidoil), the domain name marketplace for entrepreneurs, cannabis growers, product brand developers, medical researchers, and others is growing at a fast gold rush pace.

About CBDReporter.com

CBDReporter.com is an online blog service based in New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA focusing on the emerging legal cannabis industry.

SOURCE: Charles Sanderson Public Relations
Germany has AfD and Frauke Petry. Britain has UKIP and Paul Nuttall. Italy has the Northern League and Matteo Salvini. But, in contemporary European politics, there can only be one true xenophobic politician. Today, Marine Le Pen reminded us that she alone wears that crown.

On Thursday, Le Pen, leader of Frances far-right National Front, announced that she would end free education for the children of undocumented immigrants. In a speech in Paris on Thursday, she said, If you come to our country dont expect to be taken care of, to be looked after, that your children will be educated without charge, adding, Playtime is over.

She clarified that she did not mean to ban all foreigners from education  only those without documentation. She stressed, however, that all foreigners using the state education system must be living in France legally and paying taxes.

Education for all is protected in the French constitution.

Were going to reserve our efforts and our national solidarity for the most humble, the most modest and the most poor among us, she said, a group in which she evidently does not include the children of undocumented immigrants.

In 2014, Le Pen also spoke out against offering Muslim and Jewish students substitutes for pork meals in school, saying, There is no reason for religion to enter into the public sphere. And, indeed, French school children are already banned from wearing any religious clothing or symbolism, and have been since 2004. In October of this year, Le Pen said she would extend this ban to all public places.

Le Pen is expected to face Republican candidate Francois Fillon in the second round of the French presidential elections next May. Fillon, who has branded himself as the French Thatcher, has also warned about the threat radical Islam poses to the countrys values. He has written a book titled, Conquering Islamic Totalitarianism. Perhaps he, too, would do well to remember that Marine Le Pen is constantly finding new ways to make herself a cut above the rest when it comes to xenophobia.

Photo credit: JEAN-SEBASTIEN EVRARD/AFP/Getty Images
BOSTON (Reuters) - A Massachusetts man arrested last year for making a series of bomb threats to schools in four U.S. states in 2015 has been sentenced to three years probation, according to court filings.

Anthony Rae, 25, pleaded guilty in October to one criminal count of willfully making bomb threats, which came in a slew of emails to a Chicago elementary school and several East Coast public schools and colleges including North Carolina State University, Rhode Island College, and ITT Technical Institute in Massachusetts.

It came amid a wave of similar threats to schools across the United States including one that caused Los Angeles to shutter all of its public schools for a day.

Rae was sentenced on Thursday to time served, three years' supervised release and a $500 fine, according to court papers.

The principal of one of the school districts targeted, in Norwood, Massachusetts, said in an email to the court that a threat by Rae harmed the educations of some 3,450 elementary and high school students.

"Clearly some learning time was taken away from the students," Norwood High School Principal Jonathan Bourn said in an e-mail to the court. "The Norwood community will not be bullied by people who threaten our children."An attorney for Rae could not be reached for immediate comment.

(Reporting by Scott Malone; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
Photo credit: Getty

From Delish

Sometimes picking the drive-thru over running inside your favorite fast-food spot gets you fed faster (especially if there's a line inside). But sometimes it also means witnessing some crazy sh*t, like streakers baring it all, cars getting stolen, and even couples getting it on. Most recently, the intercom at one McDonald's drive-thru was hacked and customers got some unexpected-and pretty appalling-responses to their orders.

At one location in New Bern, NC, the radio frequency of the speaker at the drive-thru was commandeered by a couple of pranksters, WCTI 12 News reports. After trying to place an order, one customer captured video of the stunt, which included lewd comments like "You know I'm actually on the toilet right now, and I'm just going to serve you your food. I'm not even going to wash my hands," and "you know what, just pull forward because I'm going to give you whatever the f*** I feel like giving you."

The owner of the pranked McD's immediately issued a statement to local news stations, saying, "We are investigating this matter with the help of the New Bern Police Department. In addition, we are taking steps to prevent this isolated incident from happening again. As local owners, our biggest priority is our customers and community and we want to ensure that every experience at our restaurant is a positive one."

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(Story corrects paragraph 10 to replace U.S. drugmaker Allegion with U.S. lock maker Allegion)

(Reuters) - McDonald's Corp (MCD.N) said on Thursday it would move its international tax base to the United Kingdom from Luxembourg after coming under increased scrutiny from European Union regulators over its tax arrangements in the small country.

McDonald's said it would create a new international holding company domiciled in the UK that would receive the majority of royalties from licensing deals outside the United States.

"We are aligning our corporate structure with the way we do business, which is no longer in geographies, but in segments that group together countries with common market and growth characteristics," McDonald's said in a statement.

The move will also help to cut costs, McDonald's said.

The reorganization comes amid an investigation by the EU into what it says are sweetheart tax deals that smaller states in the bloc offer to multinational companies to lure jobs and investment.

In August, the EU ordered Apple Inc (AAPL.O) to pay Ireland unpaid taxes of up to 13 billion euros ($13.8 billion), ruling that the iPhone maker had received illegal state aid.

McDonald's potentially faced an order from the bloc to pay back taxes of $500 million to Luxembourg, the Financial Times reported in September.

The company said in July it would create over 5,000 jobs in Britain by the end of 2017, in a sign of its commitment to the country after the vote on June 23 to leave the EU.

A number of international companies have shifted their corporate registration or primary tax residence to the UK since Britain relaxed its rules on the taxation of companies' foreign subsidiaries in 2012.

These include U.S. lock maker Allegion (ALLE.N), U.S. insurer Aon (AON.N) and Italian tractor maker CNH Industrial (CNHI.MI).

Under UK rules, profits earned by overseas arms or a UK-registered company are effectively exempt from UK tax even if the income is untaxed.

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Tax campaigners say this allows companies shift profits out of the UK before being taxed and then allows companies bring the money back tax free.

The moves studied by Reuters create few if any jobs and have helped the companies slash their tax bills. http://reut.rs/2gozu2E

McDonald's shares were up 0.6 percent at $120.63 at midday.

(Reporting by Abhijith Ganapavaram in Bengaluru and Tom Bergin in London; Editing by Ted Kerr)
Photo credit: Brian Williams / Spiedbilde

From Road & Track

Believe it or not, a replacement for the McLaren 650S is on its way. The car, codenamed P14, has been spotted testing around Europe and is rumored to debut some time in 2017. Now, we've heard some juicy rumors about the P14 that should give Ferrari a scare.

Autogespot reports that the P14 will be called the 720S, meaning that, yes, this McLaren will produce around 720 horsepower. That power reportedly comes courtesy of a new 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8, rather than the 3.8-liter unit McLaren's used in all of its modern road cars.

The P14 chassis will also be able to accommodate hybrid powertrain componentssquaring with McLaren's $1.4 billion investment in electrificationthough the initial cars will be internal combustion only.

Amazingly, Autogespot reports that the 720S will physically lower its dashboard in track mode, giving the driver a better view out. We'd love to see something like that in reality.

The 720S will probably make its debut at the Geneva Motor Show in March 2017, and soon after, it'll take fight to the Ferrari 488 GTB. If McLaren will offer over 700 horsepower, Ferrari will need to work extra hard on the 488 Speciale.

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After Rolling Stone magazine published its Nov. 19, 2014, article titled "A Rape on Campus," its tale of a freshman student at the University of Virginia brutally gang raped, the Washington Post identified major errors and discrepancies in the reporting. Within weeks, there were calls for staff firings. Rolling Stone added an editor's note to the online version, explaining what the Washington Post had unearthed, apologizing, and pledging to investigate.

Now, two years later, the Washington Post has gone from the news organization that poked holes in the rape story to one standing behind Rolling Stone's bid to overrule a jury's multimillion-dollar verdict. On Thursday, it was one of eight media groups, along with the Associated Press, Gannett Co. and others led by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press to submit a proposed amicus brief to a Virginia federal judge.

That Sabrina Rubin Erdely's story containedstatements is not the issue. In the interest of furthering free speech on publicly important matters, the law is liberally permissive, requiring public figures show actual malice - knowledge of falsity or reckless disregard - in order to prevail on defamation claims. On Nov. 4, a jury rendered its verdict that Rolling Stone had acted with actual malice against U. of Virginia associate dean Nicole Eramo, but not in its original publication of the story. Instead, the magazine was found in fault for republishing thestatements in its Dec. 5 editor's note.

This issue of republication via an intermediate apology and promise to investigate is a big deal in media law. The jury essentially ruled that Rolling Stone's biggest fault was not in running aarticle, but rather refusing to immediately retract it.

Now, media companies are rallying behind the effort to get the judge to rule as a matter of law that there's no liability here.

"In an age where a growing number of people rely upon online publications for their news, which are often reposted and redistributed through social media like Facebook and Twitter, the need to post additional information that updates an article - whether by backing off from reported conclusions or directly correcting, clarifying, or retracting statements - has become even more important," states the proposed brief from the media coalition. "Because such modifications need to be timely and prominent and should reach the same audience as the original article, it only makes sense that in the realm of online reportage, the new information should appear on the original page."

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The brief continues, "But the need for journalists to append clarifications and ensure the accuracy of their work is nothing new," talking about corrections policies as far back as the 17th century, when the first newspaper in what would later become the United States was founded.

There's further discussion of some of media's all-time marks of shame, including Washington Post's 1980 Pulitzer Prize-winning, made-up story about an 8-year-old heroin addict, Jason Blair's fabrications in The New York Times around 2003, and This American Life's faulty 2012 story about a trip to China to see workers making iPhones. Each of these stories was left up in the archives with added editor's notes noting misrepresentations.

"The Court's decision to have the jury determine whether the defamatory information was 'republished' when an editor's note was attached would be harmful for news organizations and those who rely upon them for accurate news reports," argues the brief. "Upholding the current verdict would discourage the news media from correcting errors in their stories, particularly because not mentioning a particular fact from a story in the note constitutes 'republishing' it. The only recourse available would be to require news sites to completely remove stories when any question of credibility is raised. Neither choice - ignoring errors or too quickly removing them - would serve the interests of the public; noting errors should never be considered a 'republication.'"

Here's the full amicus brief.
Getty Image / SND Films

At the start of 2016, Nate Parkers passion project The Birth of a Nation seemed primed for Oscar glory, endless raves, and reserved placement in the bulk of 2016s year in film type discussions. As we approach the end of 2016, Parkers film is not viewed in anywhere near as glowing terms. Vocal backlash over the filmmaker being accused of rape in 1999 and his subsequent handing said backlash (he was eventually acquitted) cast a shadow over the film, a motion picture that saw its critical approval shrink after its proper release and audiences kept their distance. One actor/producer/director is piping up to voice his displeasure in this turn of events and its a filmmaker with his own ocean liner of baggage.

Hacksaw Ridge helmer Mel Gibson came to Parkers defense during The Hollywood Reporters directors roundtable. In Gibsons view, Parkers an innocent man paying for crimes he did not commit.

THR: A lot of people didnt see Nate Parkers The Birth of a Nation because of the controversy surrounding him. Was that fair? Gibson: I dont think its fair. He was cleared of all that stuff [a rape trial in which Parker was found not guilty]. And it was years ago. You have to follow the system there. I think hes innocent of all that stuff. The fact that he has to live with that stigma, and that it affects the art he does, is unfair.

Queen of Katwe director Mira Nair also provided her view on the subject. Her take on the matter does place art in its own realm, but with valuable insight on how audiences would interpret the film with Parkers background.

I think yes, the art should be separated. But in this case, it was ironic that at the heart of Birth of a Nation was the nature of what he was linked with [a rape of the lead characters wife]. That was, I think, what created ambiguity and confusion in the eyes of the audience.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)
LONDON (Reuters) - A memo suggesting that Britain's Brexit minister is "not really interested" in a transitional deal with the European Union does is merely an interpretation of one of many meetings, Prime Minister Theresa May's spokeswoman said on Friday. The Financial Times, citing a memo of a meeting between Brexit minister David Davis and the City of London Corporation, reported the minister would consider a transitional deal only in order to "be kind" to the EU. "The secretary of state has been engaging with a wide range of businesses as part of the preparations for negotiations ... with regards to the discussions with the City of London, as they have said, these notes are an interpretation of a discussion," the spokeswoman told reporters. "With regards to our future relationship with the European Union, the government has repeatedly said that we are seeking the maximum freedom for UK businesses to trade with and operate within the European market." (Reporting by Elizabeth Piper, Editing by Kylie MacLellan)
Luxury blogger and Dallas girl about town, Merritt Beck, celebrates style, travel, beauty and life's other little luxuries daily through her renowned blog, The Style Scribe.

This holiday season, Beck shared her favorite selects with T&C from MICHELE Watch - one of the industry's leading timepiece innovators, encouraging every leading lady to express her personality, embrace her style and take an unapologetic approach to life.

Click through the slideshow to view Beck's recommendations for the holidays, perfect for both giving - and receiving.
Meteorologists revealed this week the possible return of the weather phenomenon known as the polar vortex that brought temperatures in the Midwest and Northeast down to record lows in January 2014, resulting in dangerous conditions and widespread damages, Reuters reported Friday.

The term was popularized by meteorologist Ryan Maue and journalist Andrew Freedman. Maue announced Tuesday via his Twitter account that atmospheric conditions were developing not unlike the "infamous" polar vortex nearly three years ago. Freezing temperatures along with icy winds meant that some places in the country fell to as low as 60 degrees Fahrenheit, causing the deaths of at least nine people and affecting around 200 million total. Analysts said the event cost the U.S. economy an estimated $5 billion.

Now experts have warned that a new polar vortex had its sights set on Midwestern cities, including the region's largest metropolitan center, Chicago. The city expected temperatures next week as cold as nine degrees Fahrenheit with lows falling to three degrees. Other cities such as Minneapolis were also bracing for extreme weather.

The meteorological term polar vortex refers to freezing Arctic air that circulates around the North Pole, above northern Canada and Siberia. Normally, this cold air is kept at bay by powerful winds known as the polar jet stream. At times, the polar jet stream weakens, causing the freezing polar vortex air to spill downwards into more densely populated regions accustomed to warmer conditions such as the Midwestern and Northeastern U.S.

Severe weather has already begun hitting parts of the country. A storm bombarded Seattle with snow Thursday and is expected to reach the Midwest and Northeast by the end of the week and beginning of next week, bringing severe weather along with it. Friday's forecast also saw extremely cold weather in North Dakota and Minnesota with wind chills that brought temperatures below zero.

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Mexico City (AFP) - Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said Friday troops will remain in the streets to combat drug violence after his defense minister issued a rare complaint about the controversial deployment.

Although Pena Nieto acknowledged that the soldiers and marines have been doing law enforcement tasks that "don't correspond to them in the strictest sense," he said the armed forces are "determined to continue" policing the streets.

The military deployment has allowed "cities and regions in our country to return to peace and calm," he said.

Defense Minister Salvador Cienfuegos said on Thursday that the military "didn't ask" to be fighting criminals.

"We don't like it. We didn't study how to chase criminals," the general said.

"Our function is something else and it's been made into something unnatural. We are doing things that don't correspond to our training because there's no one else to do them."

Mexico marks 10 years on Sunday since then president Felipe Calderon deployed for the first time thousands of troops to combat drug cartels.

The deployment has led to the capture of major drug lords but soldiers and marines have been accused of committing torture and other abuses over the years.

Violence also soared in the years that followed as the arrests of drug bosses sparked turf wars in several regions.

Pena Nieto, who took office in 2012, has said that troops would return to their barracks once citizens feel safe across the country.
Reportedly, Microsoft Corporation MSFT closed the acquisition of professional networking platform LinkedIn Corporation LNKD on Thursday for $26.2 billion.

In a blog post, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said that the acquisition will bring together two of the worlds leading platforms  a professional cloud and a professional network. Moreover, many of LinkedIn services will also be integrated within Microsoft products for which work has already commenced.

MICROSOFT CORP Price

MICROSOFT CORP Price | MICROSOFT CORP Quote

Key Takeaways of the Deal

LinkedIn data and services will be integrated into Microsoft Office and Microsoft Outlook. This will enable LinkedIn members to draft their resumes directly on Microsoft Word. Also, advertisements on LinkedIn will be displayed across various Microsoft properties. Subscribers of Microsofts Office 365 will be able to access LinkedIn Learning.

What does this Mean for Microsoft?

Over the past decade, social media marketing has caught the attention of advertisers, given the popularity of the medium among the masses. These platforms offer an excellent media for advertisers to put their message across through display advertisements.

As per a statista.com study, worldwide social media users are estimated to be approximately 2.95 billion by 2020 which is a big opportunity in itself.

LinkedIn currently has 467 million registered users, which Microsoft can take advantage of through display advertisements. Moreover, Microsofts plans to integrate several LinkedIn features, which will make the resume drafting and application process seem like a cakewalk for the users.

In a nutshell, more users will equate to more advertising revenues for Microsoft. Moreover, the acquisition will boost Microsoft's presence in the social media market. The deal will also strengthen the company's enterprise business.

However, intensifying competition with the presence of other major social networking sites such as Facebook FB and Alphabets GOOGL Google Plus remains a concern.

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Stock Performance Overview

Notably, shares of Microsoft have outperformed the broader Zacks Computer Software Services industry over the last three months. While the stock has returned 7.6%, the industry generated a negative return of 0.9%.

The bullish behavior of the stock could be primarily attributed to strong cloud growth. The continuing enterprise strength, benefits from the Office 365 subscription model, strong growth prospects of Azure and promising new products will continue to generate top-line growth in the remainder of 2016.

Zacks Rank and Key Picks

At present, Microsoft carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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By Toby Davis LONDON (Reuters) - Manchester United are warming to the task in the Europa League as they booked a spot in the last 32 with a 2-0 win over Zorya Luhansk on a freezing night in Ukraine on Thursday. Goals from Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who made a mockery of his two-month exile from the starting lineup with a superb individual effort, and Zlatan Ibrahimovic secured an easy win that banished memories of their earlier group stage struggles. The victory confirmed United in second place in Group A behind Turkish side Fenerbahce who ended Feyenoord's qualification hopes with a 1-0 away win over the Dutch side. Premier League Southampton, however, were dumped out after a 1-1 draw at home to Hapoel Beer Sheva that was enough to send the Israeli side into the next round as Group K runners-up. United, who could now view the competition as their best route into the Champions League with their Premier League form continuing to disappoint, needed only a draw to progress but never looked in danger of suffering an upset. Mkhitaryan, who joined United for 25 million pounds ($31.47 million) from Borussia Dortmund in the close season, may finally have won over manager Jose Mourinho after he danced through the heart of the defence to slot home his first goal for the club early in the second half. The Armenian, a constant thorn in Zorya's side, looks to have regained the confidence that helped him score 23 goals for Dortmund in all competitions last season. "I was waiting a long time for this goal," Mkhitaryan told BT Sport. "My next goal has to be at Old Trafford because I want to score at home." Ibrahimovic netted in the 88th minute after latching on to a Paul Pogba through ball, his seventh goal in his last six games in all competitions. EVENTFUL NIGHT Eleven places in the Europa League's knockout stages were still up for grabs and Serie A side Fiorentina added their name to the list from Group J with a 2-1 win in Qarabag on an eventful night for 19-year-old midfielder Federico Chiesa. The son of former Italy striker Enrico grabbed the winning goal, his first senior strike, in the 76th minute but was then dismissed following a second booking eight minutes later. Hapoel needed a score draw or better against Southampton to go through from a topsy-turvy group that had already seen former European champions Inter Milan eliminated. Having barely threatened all night, Hapoel took the lead through Maor Buzaglo's angled drive and although Virgil van Dijk claimed a stoppage-time equaliser, there was to be no late escape act from the Premier League team. Fenerbahce required a point in Rotterdam to reach the last 32 and took all three to finish top of the standings. Feyenoord needed to win by two goals but were undone in the 22nd minute when Moussa Sow found the net with a bicycle kick to continue his habit of producing acrobatic strikes following his overhead effort against United earlier in the group stage. Villarreal progressed, ending the hopes of Steaua Bucharest, with a 2-1 triumph over the former European champions in Group L. Goals from Nicola Sansone and an 88th-minute winner from Manuel Trigueros, following Vlad Achim's leveller for Steaua, propelled the Spaniards to second place while the Romanians finished bottom. Dundalk's hopes of becoming the first Irish side to grace the knockout stages of a European competition were dashed by a 2-1 defeat at Maccabi Tel Aviv in Group D where AZ Alkmaar beat Zenit St Petersburg 3-2 to join the Russians in the last 32. The draw for the next round, when eight teams will drop into the competition from the Champions League, takes place on Monday. ($1 = 0.7945 pounds) (Editing by Tony Jimenez)
The Hague (AFP) - Former Serb military commander Ratko Mladic was "not a monster" and should be acquitted of genocide and war crimes, his defence argued Friday, insisting the prosecution had failed to prove his role in the Bosnian war.

Once dubbed "the Butcher of Bosnia", Mladic, 74, has denied 11 charges including two of genocide, as well as war crimes and crimes against humanity arising out of the bloody 1992-95 Bosnian conflict.

"Ratko Mladic is not a monster, he was a soldier defending against a monster, that was the Islamic war machine," his lawyer Branko Lukic told the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

The defence is spending three days presenting their closing arguments to end a trial which opened in May 2012. His case is the last before the UN's ICTY which closes next year, and a verdict is expected sometime before late November 2017.

Prosecutors urged the judges on Wednesday to jail Mladic for life, accusing him of leading a ruthless campaign of ethnic cleansing to create a Greater Serbia in the 1990s Balkans wars.

"The time has come for General Mladic to be held accountable for those crimes against each of his victims and the communities he destroyed," prosecutor Alan Tieger told the tribunal.

But his defence team shot back on Friday that Mladic was "an innocent man" who had constantly sought a ceasefire and had ordered that Muslims be protected.

- 'An innocent man' -

The prosecution had attempted "to pump General Mladic up to superhuman proportions and abilities as if he was all-knowing and all-powerful," said Lukic.

"It is our job to remind your honours, remind the prosecution and remind the public, not only watching today but future generations who will judge these proceedings as a part of history, that Ratko Mladic is a person, not a superhuman being," Lukic said.

"Ratko Mladic is an accused, who stands before you an innocent man."

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He alleged that the prosecution's reasoning would see every soldier in every war found guilty, and urged the judges to find that the prosecution had failed to prove Mladic's guilt beyond all reasonable doubt.

"He is guilty for the prosecution just because he is a Serb and tried to defend his country, first Yugoslavia, and then Republika Srpska, from attacks and wars that were started and pursued by others, not by Serbs."

Mladic is notably accused of being behind the punishing 44-month siege of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo, which claimed an estimated 10,000 lives in a relentless campaign of shelling and sniping.

- Wants to die at home -

He is also charged with genocide for his role in the 1995 killing of almost 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica, Europe's worst bloodshed since World War II.

But another defence lawyer Dragan Ivatic said the prosecution was trying to get the court to view the evidence through "a peephole" and had shown a "lack of actual evidence", adding the prosecution's "case is weak and impudent."

"What is at stake here: the ability of General Mladic to go home, spend time with his loved ones and then die at home surrounded by his family, and not in a concrete cage in jail," added Ivatic.

"He did his job to defend his people and country and tried not to meddle in politics."

More than 100,000 people died and 2.2 million others were left homeless during the Bosnian war, one of several conflicts which erupted in the death throes of the former Yugoslavia.

After living openly in Serbia despite an international arrest warrant against him, Mladic was finally captured in 2011 after 16 years on the run and transferred to a UN detention centre in The Hague.
A photographer captured an intimate moment when a woman breastfed her toddler right before going into labor with her second child. (Photo: Alamy)

Photographer Maegan Dougherty has shot many touching family moments over the years, but she captured a particularly special one right before a mom in New Jersey gave birth. The womans 2-year-old daughter came to visit her at the hospital and wanted to nurse. So the little girl climbed onto the hospital bed where Kate Neal, pregnant with her second child, proceeded to breastfeed her toddler.

Dougherty posted a photo of the intimate encounter on her Instagram with the following caption: I love this moment. Big sister was so happy to see her mom and to nurse. And then contractions got longer and more intense.

I love this moment. Big sister was so happy to see her mom and to nurse. And then contractions got longer and more intense. A photo posted by Maegan Dougherty (@maegandougherty) on Dec 5, 2016 at 3:24pm PST

The photographer shared with Yahoo Beauty that this particular shot was a first for her. Ive photographed many women in labor and many moms breastfeeding, including tandem breastfeeding, but this was my first time photographing a mom breastfeeding while in labor, Dougherty says. The mom, Kate, who is a wedding photographer, was in labor when her family brought her 2-year-old daughter to visit her at the hospital. Her daughter wanted to nurse right away and Kate was fine with that. She knew it could help labor progress, and she was also glad to have special time with her daughter after being away from each other.

Big sister came to visit at the hospital while mama was laboring. A photo posted by Maegan Dougherty (@maegandougherty) on Dec 5, 2016 at 3:11pm PST

It appears as though the breastfeeding did, in fact, help move Neals labor along. As Kates midwife, Lonnie Morris, put it, breastfeeding while laboring is Pitocin [a drug that induces labor] at its finest, Dougherty says, since nipple stimulation can increase oxytocin and speed up labor. Kates contractions started coming faster and stronger shorty after breastfeeding, and she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl about two hours later.

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Born! A photo posted by Maegan Dougherty (@maegandougherty) on Dec 6, 2016 at 5:54am PST

Neal was also surrounded by her immediate family while in labor, which Dougherty found touching. It was beautiful to see Kate nurturing one child while getting ready to birth another, she said. Kates husband, two sisters, mom and mother-in-law were in the room, with her father and father-in-law just outside in the hall. So much human connection! It felt as if mother and daughter were radiating love and surrounded by love.

Lets keep in touch! Follow Yahoo Beauty on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.
The "Good France" initiative, run by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, celebrates French cuisine all around the world with more than 2,000 chefs across all five continents serving meals inspired by the country's gastronomy, March 21, 2017. This third edition will be officially launched when the list of participating restaurants is unveiled at the end of January, Relaxnews learned this week at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs tourism promotion center.

The "Good France" program will return for a third edition in 2017. More than 1,000 chefs signed up for the inaugural initiative, which encourages chefs from all backgrounds to serve a French-style dinner in their restaurant, even if it isn't their usual culinary specialty. Participating restaurants serve an aperitif, a starter, a main dish, a cheese and a dessert, all washed down with French wines and champagnes.

The event transports the French dining experience -- now part of UNESCO's world heritage -- to all corners of the Earth. Last year, countries like Italy, Poland, Brazil and Japan proved particularly enthusiastic participants on "Good France" day, held each year on March 21, explains Michel Durrieu, tourism promotion director at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Almost 200,000 diners will sit down to enjoy this new edition, held in 152 countries and across five continents. Turkmenistan is one of the new countries set to serve a French meal this year. Chefs have until January 13 to sign up. A committee of industry heavyweights, presided by Alain Ducasse, has been formed to approve applications from participating restaurants.

Flying the flag for French cuisine

Guy Savoy, a jury member who has trained the likes of Gordon Ramsay and Thomas Keller, evokes a keen interest among young foreign chefs looking to learn the techniques of French gastronomy. "Between 12 and 15 different nationalities are represented within the team," comments the triple Michelin-starred chef who took the top spot in the "La Liste" ranking of world's best restaurants, uneveiled this week. "Every Friday morning, a chef prepares a breakfast to present their culture," says the head of the Restaurant Guy Savoy at La Monnaie de Paris. Summing up Good France, he says that "foreign cooks speak better than us of the virtues of French cuisine."

In France too, the event is a great occasion to celebrate the country's cuisine. While the official list of participants is yet to be unveiled, French food fans who book a table for March 21 are sure to enjoy a unique experience, sometimes with a behind-the-scenes look at the kitchens or with the pleasure of dining alongside the chef.

For more information visit: www.goodfrance.com.
LONDON (Reuters) - Over thirty percent of British hedge funds say they are uncertain about remaining in the UK following Britain's vote to leave the European Union according to an industry survey, a larger proportion than immediately after the referendum.

Of 276 hedge fund managers surveyed by industry tracker Preqin in November, 24 percent said they were now uncertain about staying in the UK, up from 17 percent in July. Another 6 percent said they were actively considering moving, compared with 3 percent previously.

Seventy percent of firms said they would likely remain in Britain, down from 80 percent five months ago.

Of the 944 European Union-based hedge fund managers Preqin tracks, 590 are headquartered in the UK, running a combined $500 billion (393.76 billion) in assets, compared with $140 billion elsewhere in Europe.

"Given that the UK government has yet to trigger Article 50, it is unsurprising that uncertainty still prevails about the wider impact of Brexit on the hedge fund sector," Amy Bensted, head of hedge fund products, said.

"Until these effects become clearer, the majority of hedge fund managers and investors are conducting their business as before."

(Reporting by Simon Jessop)
Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fcard%2fimage%2f312293%2fscreen_shot_2016-12-08_at_11.45.42_am

Now NASA is really speaking the internet's language.

The space agency just released a full page on Giphy.com devoted to NASA's favorite animated gifs, and all of them are pretty amazing.

SEE ALSO: NASA unveils 'food bars' to feed astronauts on long space journeys

NASA has everything from sun gifs to Apollo-era throwbacks, so let's get into it.

Here are some of the best:

The best planet gif

Saturn is just the best. I mean, look at it! The rings, the cloud bands, that super weird looking hexagonal jet stream in the north pole; it's just a wonderful world.

So please, feast your eyes up on this rad gif of Saturn spinning around in space.

The best reaction gif

This mission controller's imagined inner monologue: "What's that you say? You're expressing an opinion on the internet? I am totally unfased by that."

The best 'nope' gif

NASA astronaut Ed Mitchell is not interested in your shaver, so you don't need to be interested in whatever someone is trying to tell you on Twitter.

Channel Ed the next time someone tries to tell you to do something and just say "nope."

The best sun gifs

Scientists have devised ingenious ways to engineer robots to look at the sun in a manner that humans never could, and we're all the better for it.

The gif above shows a burst of hot solar plasma  called a "coronal mass ejection"  shooting forth from the star. It wouldn't be possible to see this kind of activity without the help of specialized spacecraft in orbit that are always keeping an eye on our closest star.

The second gif shows the moon passing across the face of the sun from the Hinode spacecraft's perspective.

The best 'brb' gif

Watching people walk on the moon is pretty adorable.

The astronauts in their bulky space suits bounce along the lunar surface like babies learning to walk for the first time, so of course, any gif showing them moving along is the best.

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The best spacewalk gif

Spacewalks are probably the most dangerous things you can do in space today, but they're also some of the most aesthetically pleasing events you can watch from the ground.

It's hard to beat a view of two astronauts performing maintenance on the outside of the Space Station in their bulky spacesuits with hard vacuum surrounding them.

In this gif, one astronaut repositioning his or her camera while the other works on a task close by. The view of Earth to the left takes the seconds-long gif to another level.

The best rocket gif

A Soyuz rocket launch is a pretty impressive sight, and it looks like all those photographers had a solid view of it lifting off from Kazakhstan.

The best aurora gif

Spotting auroras from the ground is one thing, but seeing them from above Earth is another story entirely.

The bright curtains of light occasionally shine like this for the crewmembers aboard the International Space Station, giving them a unique view from orbit.

The auroras are created when Earth's magnetic field gets pelted with charged solar particles, some of which make it into the upper atmosphere, exciting the neutral particles and causing them to glow.

The best gifs to make you feel small

One day, billion upon billions of years from now, our Milky Way galaxy will merge with the Andromeda galaxy, creating one large pocket of matter in the solar system born from chaos.

NASA's animation (above) shows a cosmic crash happening right before your eyes. While the real galaxies would take millions of years to actually collide, this simulation shows you what it would be like to speed that up to an extreme degree.

That's Earth. That's our blue home planet, the only place we can currently survive in the solar system.

The best weightless gifs

There's something so distinctly human about this gif.

It shows astronaut Scott Kelly tossing a carrot into his mouth on the International Space Station, giving people a little glimpse of the weirdness of life in space.

Another Kelly gif shows him popping an effervescent tab into a blob of water on the Space Station, putting on display the strange way water works in weightlessness.

The best celebration gif (of all time)

This gif comes from one of the most exciting and tense days in NASA history  when the Curiosity rover landed on Mars in 2012.

Scientists and people around the world were freaking out while waiting to find out if the rover actually made it down to the surface of the planet intact. Once word came down that it did, this beautiful and deeply nerdy celebration ensued.

Did you just get that promotion? Celebrate with this gif. Did you find $20 in your couch cushions? Definitely celebrate with this gif. Did someone give you a free cupcake? This gif is here for you.

BONUS: NASA wants you to help them figure out how to poop in space.
Muslim refugees seeking asylum in Europe, particularly Germany, have been converting to Christianity in droves, Agence France-Presse reported Friday.

Since 2015, nearly 900,000 Muslim migrants have arrived in the country, leaving behind families, jobs and, in some cases, even their Islamic faith. Although church leaders werent able to confirm exactly how many Muslim refugees have converted from Islam to Christianity, there have been reports of various pastors baptizing hundreds or even thousands of Muslims at a time over the last three years.

Conversion and baptisms was becoming a growing trend among migrants from Afghanistan, Eritrea, Iran and Syria, Felix Goldinger, a Catholic priest in the southwestern region of Germany told AFP. Goldinger, who has been handling a group of 20 people looking to be baptized in the Christian faith, said many of the refugees looking to convert have turned to Christianity after witnessing the horrors of terrorism in the name of Islam in their home countries.

They see Christianity as a religion of love and respect for life, he said.

Pastor Albert Babjan, who has baptized 196 Afghans and Iranians in Hamburg so far this year, told German news site Stern that he expects to help up to 500 people who are disappointed in Islam convert to Christianity by the years end. One young woman, who was baptized in May, told Stern the reason she converted was because she was looking for peace and happiness, but couldnt find it in Islam.

In Islam, we always lived in fear, fear of God, fear of sin, fear of punishment. Christ, on the other hand, is a God of love, one woman, who only went by the name Solmaz, told Stern in regards to her May baptism.

While Goldinger said there were many people who had a strong desire to make the switch to Christianity for personal religious reasons, there are some Muslims who are under the impression converting will help their chances of remaining in Germany.

Story continues

In many of the countries from which refugees have fled, converting to Christianity is punishable by jail or even death.

Pastor Matthias Linke of the Free Evangelical Church in Germany told AFP that he is often contacted by the state Office for Migration and Refugees in regards of Muslims converting to Christianity in an effort to keep their asylum. However, the pastor said there was no way to guarantee if migrant conversions are motivated by genuine interests in the religion or if people are just trying to avoid being sent back to their home countries, which could potentially put them and their families at even greater risks if their conversion became known.

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Charles Boustany

The thought of one particular congressman potentially becoming the top trade official in President-elect Donald Trump's administration has outraged trade reform advocates hopeful that the incoming president would stick to his word regarding his tough-on-trade campaign rhetoric.

That congressman is outgoing Rep. Charles Boustany of Louisiana, who sought the open Senate seat in his home state but did not receive enough votes to qualify for the runoff election on Saturday. He is not seeking reelection to his House seat.

Politico reported earlier this month that Boustany had been engaged with Trump's transition team about serving as US trade representative in the administration, and the Republican member of the House Ways and Means Committee confirmed such discussions with Inside US Trade, saying he'd take the job if offered.

"I'm certainly interested," he said.

While the Louisiana Republican is selling himself for his role in securing passage of two major trade enforcement bills enacted by Congress in 2015, he's been in favor of all of the major free trade agreements Trump has stood in fierce opposition to. Boustany voted in favor of fast-tracking the Trans-Pacific Partnership and is a cofounder of the Friends of the TPP caucus. An unabashed free trader, he has voted in favor of trade agreements with Peru and South Korea, as well as trade promotion agreements with Panama and Colombia.

"The prospect of him as a USTR candidate makes Trump's trade campaign, campaign trade commitments, and focus seem extremely hypocritical," Lori Wallach, director and founder of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch, told Business Insider. "I mean, it's a little bit like inviting Dracula to run your blood bank."

Wallach ridiculed Boustany for not declaring opposition to the TPP until he was "going down in flames" in the Senate race, she said, adding the caveat that he was opposing it in its current version only because it didn't go far enough to meet demands made in the trade promotion authority legislation, particularly regarding intellectual property protections for the pharmaceutical industry. Boustany had additionally expressed concerns about how the deal would affect Louisiana's sugar and rice industries.

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"Not because it would kill jobs, not because it would help China because it didn't deal with currency manipulation, but because it didn't do enough for one particular industry to avoid competition," she said, adding that the discussion between Boustany and the Trump team "makes a lot of people wonder whether Trump really intends to do any reforms on trade policy."

"Boustany would be the last person you would have as USTR if that was your plan," she said.

Michael Stumo, CEO of the Coalition for a Prosperous America, told Business Insider that he felt it was "unlikely" Boustany would get the pick because it would be a total "betrayal of Trump's campaign promises and his base."

"Boustany is a pro-offshoring globalist, untroubled by trade deficits, who opposed fixing currency manipulation and helped lead the unsuccessful effort to ram the job-killing Trans-Pacific Partnership through Congress," he said in a statement.

But the source who spoke with Politico said Boustany could make a "strong case" for the job based on his role in authoring the trade enforcement provisions in 2015's Customs and Border Protection reauthorization. The source added that the need to expand trade is not mutually exclusive with what he believes is Trump's foremost priority of stronger trade enforcement.

Indeed, Trump has spent much of the campaign  and even a significant portion of his "thank you" tour rallies in recent days  railing against China, labeling the country as the main culprit for the loss of many manufacturing jobs in the US. The president-elect has promised to label China a currency manipulator as soon as he assumes office, making appeals for tougher enforcement against Chinese trade practices.

Boustany, who served as co-chair of the congressional US-China working group, voted against legislation in 2010 related to currency manipulation.

While trade reform activists are appalled at the idea of Boustany in the position, House Republicans believe Boustany is intriguing as a potential USTR.

Kevin Brady

Saying he's sure the Trump transition team will make "a very appropriate selection," House Ways and Means Chair Rep. Kevin Brady told Business Insider in a recent interview that he's pleased Boustany is under consideration.

"Look, I know Dr. Boustany very well," he said of the congressman, who used to work as a cardiovascular surgeon in his home state. "And I am so always impressed with him, his knowledge of trade, his involvement in trade agreements."

"He also, in the House, led the enforcement efforts that became part of the new law  the customs bill that was signed earlier this year by the president gives us those unprecedented enforcement powers," he said.

Brady called Boustany an "incredibly hard worker" who "brings a lot to the table."

The other person who has been mentioned as a potential USTR is Dan DiMicco, the former Nucor CEO who is leading Trump's trade-related transition. That choice would be much more appealing to trade reformers.

"A lot of people think Dan DiMicco, a guy who ... aligns with a lot of Trump's views on trade and is coming from having run a big steel company that had to deal with Chinese cheating and all the subsidies, would be more compatible to what Trump says he wants," Wallach said.

A Boustany selection would alienate the voters who helped put Trump over the top in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, all a part of the so-called blue wall that Trump was not expected to crack in the November election, Wallach said. She added that the reported conversations had "a lot of people sending around emails saying, 'Oh my God, even the trade stuff is a con job.'"

Dan DiMicco

"I think that there are a lot of people when they saw that meeting who said, 'What the f---,'" Wallach said. "It's like, you must be kidding. Let's, like, have Martin Luther become the Pope. It's antithetical to the basic philosophies."

Wallach said Boustany was the "corporate special interests'" last chance to "undermine" the changes Trump campaigned on.

"I mean, just the signal it sends," she said. "If there are a lot of people doubting what Trump really means on his veracity about anything, the last thing you would want to do is send a signal of total hypocrisy in the first few weeks of your transition."

Neither Boustany nor the Trump transition team returned requests for comment from Business Insider.

NOW WATCH: 'That hypocrisy is also real'  Jon Stewart takes liberals to task for calling all Trump supporters racist





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This could make it harder for Myanmar to finance its current account deficit.

The United Nations (UN) recently released a statement expressing concern over reports of serious rights violations in Myanmars northern Rakhine state.

Moody's Investors Service Singapore opined that the reported violations could have a negative impact on the sovereign credit profile if they jeopardize the continuity of foreign investment that is critical to finance much-needed infrastructure development.

It added that it would also exacerbate balance of payments pressures.

Here's more from Moody's:

A spokesperson for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said it had received reports of extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests and sexual violence, as well as a spike in hate speech. The spokesperson urged Myanmars government to ensure its attempts to restore security following attacks on three Border Guard police posts in the state in October were firmly grounded in international human rights laws and standards.

On 1 December, Myanmars President Htin Kyaw announced the formation of an investigative committee to look into the incidents.

Myanmar has attracted substantial interest from foreign investors since 2010, when the authorities kicked off a series of reforms that led to the removal of many international sanctions. With an improving business environment, Myanmars largely untapped natural resources wealth and liberalization of sectors like telecommunications have drawn in foreign investors. Total foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows accelerated to $4.1 billion in 2015, from $2.2 billion in 2014. But compared to regional peers, FDI flows into Myanmar remain low, relative to nominal GDP.

The reforms also opened the door to increased financial support from bilateral and multilateral donors. Most recently, Japans (A1 stable) Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, pledged 800 billion ($7.0 billion) of funding to Myanmar over five years, including 40 billion to support minority group reconciliation, with the rest for infrastructure development. The Asian Development Bank (Aaa stable), the European Union (Aaa stable) and the World Bank (IBRD, Aaa stable) are also among those providing financial assistance.

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Tensions between Myanmars Buddhist majority and Muslim Rohingyas have a long history. A renewed worsening in strains, along with a lack of evidence that the authorities were taking tangible action to address them, could make international lenders reconsider their financial support.

Local tensions could additionally stymie plans to develop a Special Economic Zone at Kyauk Phyu, which aims to take advantage of Rakhines strategic location close to China (Aa3 negative) and India (Baa3 positive).

Given the Myanmar governments constrained financial means and the absence of a sizeable domestic private sector to take on essential infrastructure investment, a freeze or withdrawal of foreign financial and physical investment would have a significant negative impact on the economy. Myanmar ranked 134th out of 140 countries for quality of infrastructure in the World Economic Forums Global Competitiveness Report 2015-16.

Additionally, a fall in international inflows would make it harder for Myanmar to finance its current account deficit, which stood at an elevated 8.9% of GDP in 2015, and put pressure on the countrys balance of payments.





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Naomi Watts and Reese Witherspoon are teaming up to produce a cinematic adaptation of the bestselling Australian book "Penguin Bloom."

Based on a true story, the book chronicles the life of a Sydney family whose lives are turned upside down when mom Sam Bloom is left paralyzed during a holiday in Thailand.

As the family struggle to adjust to the new situation, an injured magpie chick enters their lives. The injured bird, which the family nicknames Penguin, becomes a part of the family and gives strength to Sam as she must deal with her new reality.

In addition to producing credits, Watts will also star in the film.

"Penguin Bloom" will be filmed in Australia.

The news was first reported by Deadline.
NASA released a ton of gorgeous new space GIFs, and they are impossibly dreamy

Ordinarily wed classify staring into space as a colossal waste of time, but if you want to spend the rest of your day scrolling through amazing collection of new NASA space GIFs, we totally wont judge you. Popular Science reports that NASA launched its official page on GIPHY on Thursday, finally giving us a single source to turn to when we desperately need to satisfy our remote galactic exploration needs.

Last month, NASA blessed us with a series space GIFs to commemorate the 16th anniversary of the International Space Station, but obviously the new assortment of images are way more extensive.

Heres a glimpse at what youll see when you hit up NASAs GIPHY page to get your fill of pretty space pictures, as well as some of the most memorable moments in the history of space exploration.

The space probe Rosetta gives us glorious #views from a comet:

All the proof you need that living in space is cool AF:

When youre about that Martian life:

A look at Saturns lovely rings:



Astronaut selfies:



The beauty of galaxies colliding:



Heres a breathtaking view of Venus traveling across the face of the sun:



Honestly, we could spend the rest of the day glaring into this gorgeous galactic scenery:



Oh, NASA, how can we ever repay you? First, one of your very own NASA scientists created a skincare line and now all of these glorious GIFs? We are not worthy.

The post NASA released a ton of gorgeous new space GIFs, and they are impossibly dreamy appeared first on HelloGiggles.
Photo credit: NASA

From Popular Mechanics

There is still no official NASA mission to Mars, but after years of uncertainty, America's space agency is giving us a glimpse of its grand strategy to extend human presence beyond low-Earth orbit with a plan to build a solid technological foundation for sending astronauts to other worlds.

The decades-long space exploration schedule, detailed in a press conference last week with NASA's William Gerstenmaier, lists 10 upcoming missions involving NASA's new-generation Orion spacecraft. But unlike earlier disjointed proposals for loosely defined missions, this new plan is laid out more like an Ikea manual-a step-by-step guide on how to get to Mars. NASA says the enterprise relies on a substantial but not outrageous budget, and that the plan has been drafted in close coordination with NASA's key partners like the European Space Agency, Roscosmos, JAXA, and the Canadian Space Agency.

The program will certainly be the boldest, riskiest, and most ambitious undertaking for human spaceflight in nearly half a century

A New Plan

The main goal of the Orion program is to assemble a Moon-orbiting space station, which by the end of the 2020s could be beefed up to become a kind of interplanetary mothership. Without additional money, the proposed spacecraft will not be able to put astronauts onto the surface of Mars, but it will be able to carry a crew into the vicinity of the Red Planet as early as 2033, says Gerstenmaier. Visits to Martian moons Phobos and Deimos and expeditions to asteroids might also be possible.

In a nutshell, this is the closest humanity's ever been to setting foot on Mars and many other destinations in the Solar System. The program will certainly be the boldest, riskiest, and most ambitious undertaking for human spaceflight in nearly half a century-since the end of the Apollo program in 1972.

Now for a gut punch of reality. Due to budget constraints, the Mars program likely move at a snail's pace, according to available flight manifests. That means it's unlikely astronauts will have a chance to leave new footprints on another world before well into the 2030s. An even longer wait is a bitter pill to swallow, and that probably explains why NASA has been shy about publicizing its mega-plan right away.

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Long Road to a Moon Base

It's easy to draw parallels with the Apollo program's 10-year plan for putting a man on the moon to the Orion project, which has been in planning and development since 2003 and is not even expected to carry its first crew until 2021. The first manned flight of Orion, called Exploration Mission 2 or EM-2, was recently "de-ambitioned" from entering a lunar orbit to just running a quick loop behind the Moon and returning to Earth eight days after liftoff from Cape Canaveral.

Orion's approach to the Moon will be carefully navigated along the so-called "free-return trajectory," meaning that even if the ship's main engine fails, leaving the crew without a capability to maneuver, the gravitational field of the Earth will still pull the capsule back to the home planet for a safe landing. However, NASA has reserved an option to extend the mission and, possibly, enter lunar orbit if everything works perfectly in the initial phase.

After its maiden flight with a pilot in tow, NASA hopes to begin annual flights to the lunar orbit starting in 2023. All but one of the eight planned missions in NASA's latest flight manifest will be dedicated to the assembly of the mini-International Space Station in lunar orbit. Various pieces of the future habitat will be hitchhiking on each Orion flight.

Photo credit: NASA

The first assembly mission, EM-3, will carry a power and propulsion module with a pair of huge solar panels to supply electricity to power-hungry ion thrusters of the module. The two following Orion flights will bring habitation modules, built in Europe and Japan, and bolt them to the propulsion module. At least one unmanned cargo ship will resupply the station in 2024.

Four more missions in the second half of the 2020s will deliver a bigger, better power and propulsion module around 2029, which might be able to carry astronauts as far as Mars' orbit.

In the meantime, NASA's international partners will have an opportunity to dispatch robotic and, possibly, even human missions to the surface of the Moon. With the nascent outpost growing in the vicinity of the Moon, the Orion crews could extend their stays in lunar orbit from a week to months or even a year. Inhabitants of the outpost could also make outings to other locations near the Moon, such as a visit to a scientifically interesting Lagrangian points, where gravitational forces of the Moon and the Earth cancel each other out.

Photo credit: NASA

Test Bed

But the main purpose of the near-lunar habitat will be as a test bed for the new-generation electric propulsion systems that will also be crucial for a Mars trip.

NASA hopes to conduct endurance tests for closed-loop life-support systems and find out whether it is possible to keep crews safe for months at a time in the radiation-filled vacuum of space. In 2026, NASA plans to take a break in the construction of the near-lunar orbital station to launch the so-called Asteroid Redirect Mission. Instead of visiting the station, Orion will meet up in lunar orbit with a space rock delivered by a robotic space tug. The crew will then bring samples of the asteroid back to Earth.

In the past few months, NASA and its partners quietly charted a roadmap that leads to a summit of all agencies involved in the International Space Station program as early as August 2017. NASA hopes it will green light the effort, so that the components of the near-lunar station could be ready to fly in time with their respective Orion missions.

It's been 44 years since NASA's last attempt to put a man on another planet, but finally the space agency is once again preparing to push humans beyond the gravitational grasp of mother Earth-and beyond.

Anatoly Zak is the publisher of RussianSpaceWeb.com and the author of Russia in Space, the Past Explained, the Future Explored

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Madrid (AFP) - More than 400 African migrants forced their way into the tiny Spanish enclave of Ceuta Friday, authorities said, the biggest group in a decade to storm the walled city bordering Morocco in search of asylum.

A group of around 800 people attempted to scale two entry points in the six-metre-high (20-feet) barrier that surrounds the enclave, a spokesman for the central government's representative in Ceuta told AFP.

Of these, 438 succeeded and were able to enter the Spanish city, he added.

Footage posted online by the El Faro de Ceuta newspaper showed dozens of migrants, including men without shoes and shirts, letting off joyous cries of "Spain!" as they crossed into Ceuta.

"You have to go back to the early 2000s to see numbers like this," the Spanish government spokesman told AFP.

According to authorities, all were taken to a temporary detention centre, where migrants are held while officials decide whether or not they will be deported, bar two who were hospitalised for a broken wrist and a ruptured tendon.

The Red Cross said it had treated 103 people for minor injuries sustained during the assault.

Meanwhile Moroccan news agency MAP said around 300 of those who did not make it across were detained.

Ceuta along with Melilla, another Spanish territory in North Africa, have the European Union's only land borders with Africa.

They are one of the entry points for African migrants seeking a better life in Europe, who get there by either climbing over the border fence or by swimming along the coast.

The objective for migrants entering Ceuta illegally is to reach the temporary detention centre where they can, in principle, request asylum.

But Amnesty International and other rights groups have qualified Ceuta and Melilla as extra-legal territories where they say asylum rights are not always respected, and denounced police mistreatment of migrants there.

In 2014, 15 migrants drowned as dozens tried to swim to Ceuta from a nearby beach.

At the time, human rights groups and migrants said Spanish police tried to keep them from reaching the shore by firing rubber bullets and spraying them with tear gas.

In October a group of about 220 people managed to storm two entry points into Ceuta, injuring 35 migrants and three security officers in the process.
Coal Miner

When Peabody Energy, the biggest coal producer in the US, declared bankruptcy in April, it joined a long list of coal compatriots in the chapter 11 club.

Arch Coal, the countrys second biggest producer, filed for bankruptcy in January, and Alpha Natural Resources, the fourth biggest, sought chapter 11 protection in August 2015 (it emerged from bankruptcy in July 2016).

But that doesnt mean the companies stopped mining or producing the fuel. In fact, approximately 44% of US coal now comes from companies that have declared bankruptcy sometime in the last four years. Those are troubling stats for President-elect Donald Trump, who campaigned on the promise of bringing the countrys declining coal industry back to life.

By choosing Scott Pruitt, an outspoken opponent of environmental rules and ally of the fossil fuel industry, to head the EPA, Donald Trump seems to be sending a message that, as promised, his administration will attempt to roll back air quality regulations and open more federal land to coal mining.

But those efforts wont counteract the market trend enough to restore coal to its former prominence. Energy industry executives have suggested they arent likely to return to coal no matter what Trump does, and even Mitch McConnell warned that it's hard to tell whether conservatives' pro-coal efforts will really bring business back, since "its a private sector activity."

Throughout his campaign, Trump repeatedly blamed what he called Obamas war on coal for this stark decline, alleging that government regulation was killing American jobs and making the country less energy independent.

The sector is indeed in a downward spiral. Coal production in the beginning of 2016 hit the lowest level it's been since a major strike in 1981, and that the current number of coal employees (approximately 66,000 in 2015) is the lowest on record since the US Energy Information Administration began collecting data in 1978.

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But while air quality rules and renewable energy subsidies have created incentives to move away from coal, the irony is that the real opponent in the "war" is the free market.

coal share of US electricty brookings

Several factors, all of which are mostly out of lawmakers control, have had major impacts on the coal business over the last decade. First, thanks to hydraulic fracturing (fracking) technology, natural gas has become a more desirable fuel because it burns cleaner and is cheaper than coal. In 2000, half of the US electricity came from coal-powered plants and about 15% came from natural gas, according to a Brookings Institution analysis; today coal and gas each make up about a third of the country's electricity generation.

Additionally, prices of renewables have fallen dramatically  the cost of building a solar photovoltaic plant has fallen by about 80 percent since 2009, making it more financially feasible for states to invest in solar and wind power. Third, as buildings and other facilities have become more energy-efficient and begun gathering power from rooftop solar panels, electricity sales in the US have started to flatten. Plus, a slowing of the Chinese economy has caused exports to go down, and automation has replaced jobs in mines and coal production facilities.

In addition to sending former miners into unemployment and financial hardship, the recent slew of bankruptcies poses two other serious problems. Coal companies are legally bound to pay for cleanup around mine sites. Most are required to get a bond to insure that reclamation happens even if they go under. But a loophole allows the biggest corporations to self-bond, meaning that they guarantee their own future cleanup funds. With three of the four biggest producers in or just out of bankruptcy, that opens the possibility that they wont pay to reclaim the land, leaving polluted water and illness-causing dust behind.

Companies in bankruptcy also often suggest that they cant afford to keep doling out pension funds, and attempt to drop the retiree benefits they committed to pay. According to NPR, this could be the case for 16,000 retired miners in seven states by the end of 2016. Senate Democrats have been working to pass a proposal for the government to cover these benefits, called the Miners Protection Act, but it has faced opposition from Mitch McConnell and other Republicans.

Even if the plan were to go through, however, it would use funds set aside for the reclamation of abandoned mines (those left behind without proper cleanup, a situation that now seems somewhat likely) and transfer the money to pay for canceled pensions.

Its a complicated problem that simply rolling back regulations will not fix.

NOW WATCH: Trump fires back at union leader who alleged he 'lied his a-- off' about Carrier deal





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The fake news trend has now taken a hold of Christmas as a 'Happy Hour Playset' for kids has sparked intense outrage  but the product does not exist.

Read: Teen Bullied Online for More Than a Year Kills Herself in Front of Her Family

The box, which shows three kids lounging at a bar with a Fisher Price logo above had parents fuming when it made the rounds on the internet this week.

Fisher Price has gone too far, a concerned citizen posted on social media.

Can't believe they make this horrible stuff for kids, said another.

The backlash was so intense that Fisher Price quickly released a statement about the product saying, "this product is not endorsed, produced or approved by Fisher Price."

It's one of the latest examples of fake news clogging the internet, sometimes with disastrous consequences.

Stories like President Obama Bans the National Anthem, The Pope Endorses Donald Trump, and Donald Trump Requiring All Muslims to Wear Badges, flooded peoples timelines on social media.

Some say that fake news helped swing the election to Donald Trump.

A man allegedly opened fire inside a Washington, D.C., pizza restaurant over the weekend, claiming he was investigating a child sex abuse ring linked to Hillary Clinton, another story found to be completely untrue.

Clinton, who appeared in Washington Thursday, called on Congress to combat fake news.

Fake news can have real-world consequences. This isn't about politics or partisanship. Lives are at risk, lives of ordinary people just trying to go about their days, to do their jobs, contribute to their communities, she said.

Paul Horner is one of the kings of fake news. He claims to have made up to $10,000 a month from phony articles, and the 38-year-old is unrepentant.

I wrote a story about Obama keeping a Muslim museum open with his own money, he proudly told Inside Edition.

Story continues

Read: Sinister Design or Pure Coincidence? Trump Appears to Have Devil Horns on 'TIME' Cover

Horner is a stand-up comedian working clubs in the Phoenix area and once wrote a story that Hillary Clinton had her campaign pay people $3,500 to disrupt Trump rallies.

Horner said that story was 100 percent false and said he writes these stories because he loves journalism.

Fake news is not just an American trend; one small town in Macedonia has gotten rich from publishing phony articles.

According to the BBC, many of the fake news sites that popped up during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign came from the tiny city of Veles, Macedonia, where hoax pro-Trump stories are pumped out daily.

And the sensationalist writers who produce the content earn boatloads of revenue from advertisers on the fake sites to do so.

"The Americans loved our stories and we make money from them," a 19-year-old named Goran told the BBC.

The teenager said he made almost $2,000 a month in revenue from his bogus stories, and has no regrets.

"Teenagers in our city don't care how Americans vote," he told the network. "They are only satisfied that they make money and can buy expensive clothes and drinks!"

Watch: Comedian Who Writes Fake News Claims: Trump Won the Election Because of Me

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HAMBURG (Reuters) - Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz, incoming chairman of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, on Friday said the fight against Islamist militancy would be a centerpiece of his year at the helm. "We have over 10,000 people in the OSCE countries that have gone to to Iraq and Syria to support Islamic State terrorism...," Kurz told reporters after a two-day meeting of OSCE ministers. "And when they get back into our societies, they pose a massive security risk for us all." Kurz, who will become chairman of the 57-country security and human rights watchdog in January, said it was critical to combat the ideology of the jihadist movement inside Europe, in addition to fighting it in the Middle East. (Reporting by Andrea Shalal and Sabine Siebold; editing by John Stonestreet)
MILAN (Reuters) - A consortium of investment banks that must decide whether to underwrite a privately-backed 5-billion euro rescue plan for Monte dei Paschi di Siena <BMPS.MI> believes there is not enough time and no willing investors to execute the deal by a year-end deadline, a source said on Friday.

Another source told Reuters earlier that the European Central Bank had rejected a request by the ailing lender for more time to raise capital, in a move that piles pressure on the Italian government to bail out the bank.

(Reporting by Paola Arosio, writing by Agnieszka Flak; editing by Silvia Aloisi)
Oslo (AFP) - On the eve of the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said Friday the award was a "gift from heaven" that gave a "tremendous push" to reach a new agreement with FARC rebels.

Santos said the prestigious honour, which was announced just days after a major setback in the peace process, "came like a gift from heaven because it gave us a tremendous push" to achieve a new peace deal with FARC.

"People in Colombia interpreted it as a mandate from the international community to persevere, to continue striving to achieve a peace agreement," Santos said.

"It encouraged me, it encouraged our negotiators, but particularly it encouraged the Colombian people to press" for a new deal, he told a press conference in Oslo.

The initial deal, signed with pens made from bullet casings on September 26 after nearly four years of talks, was supposed to be ratified in an October 2 referendum.

But voters narrowly rejected it, leaving Colombia teetering just short of ending a five-decade conflict that has killed more than 260,000 people, left 45,000 missing and forced nearly seven million to flee their homes.

As she announced Santos as the 2016 Nobel Laureate, Nobel committee chairwoman Kaci Kullman Five said voters rejecting a peace accord does not mean an end to the peace process itself.

"It shows that peace is not made in one day," Berit Reiss-Andersen, deputy chairwoman of the Nobel committee, told reporters in Oslo on Friday.

Santos' government and the Marxist FARC rebels then renegotiated a new peace accord signed on November 24.

- Impossible dream 'now a reality' -

"Something that was for many Colombians and for many Latin-Americans and for the world an impossible dream just a few years ago is now reality," Santos said.

"The FARC are already moving to the zones where they will concentrate and disarm."

The peace deal calls for the disarming of the rebel group and its transformation into a political party.

Story continues

But right-wing hardliners led a campaign against the accord, arguing it offered the rebels impunity for massacres, kidnappings and other crimes committed during the conflict.

Santos' will formally receive his Peace Prize on Saturday at a glittering ceremony at Oslo's City Hall in the presence of the Norwegian king, members of the government, as well as two of the FARC's most high-profile ex-hostages, Franco-Colombian Ingrid Betancourt and Clara Rojas.

The award consists of a gold medal, a diploma and a check for eight million Swedish kronor (about 824,000 euros, $871,000), a sum that Santos promised to donate to the victims of the war.

Another ceremony will be held on the same day in Stockholm where this year's Nobel laureates in the sciences, economics and literature will be honoured, marked by the notable absence of this year's literature laureate Bob Dylan.

The first songwriter to win the prestigious award, declined to attend the ceremony due to "pre-existing commitments".

According to the Nobel Foundation, the prize should be handed to the American music icon in person in 2017, in Sweden or abroad.

Dylan has sent a thank-you speech to be read aloud on Saturday evening at a gala banquet, the foundation said, but the name of the person who is expected to read his message has not been revealed.
Dividend Payment is a Milestone Event Validating Company's Innovative Cannabis Sector Business Model

DALLAS, TX / ACCESSWIRE / December 9, 2016 / North American Cannabis Holdings, Inc. (OTC PINK: USMJ) today announced that it has finalized its recently declared dividend payment plan with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). USMJ's "Stock Dividend Payable in Another Security" was listed yesterday, December 8th, on FINRA's Daily List of corporate action event's for OTC securities. The FINRA site provides details regarding a December 12th, 2016 issuance of one common share of Puration, Inc. (OTC PINK: PURA) stock for every 200 shares held of USMJ common stock (see insert below).

"We are excited about this milestone event here at USMJ," said Steven Rash, CEO of North American Cannabis Holdings. "We want to thank all the shareholders that have stuck with us on this journey to explore and learn, and in turn build a promising new business model connecting cannabis industry entrepreneurs with shareholders and investors to continuously introduce brand new enterprise opportunities within a brand new and rapidly evolving new industry. While talk of dividends issued by small public companies is frequent, the actual issuance of dividends is not so frequent. The process for a small company is not trivial. Our own process has not been without turbulence and periodic doubts that the dividend issuance would ever be completed. So again, thank you to all you shareholders that stuck with us. We have more pilot projects in the works with more dividend opportunities, and we've got one now here now under our belt to give us the experience to do more, and do so more smoothly. We also expect this first issuance to establish an increased degree of confidence in USMJ's business model amongst the cannabis industry sector investment community."

History of the PURA Stock Dividend

USMJ entered the cannabis sector in 2013 with a strategy to pilot various cannabis sector enterprises. The Company planned to facilitate the financing necessary to expand successful pilot projects by spinning graduating projects off into standalone public companies. The first spinoff was executed last year when Puration, Inc. (OTC PINK: PURA) acquired graduating pilot project assets from USMJ in exchange for PURA preferred stock. A portion of the PURA preferred stock was designated for conversion into common stock and issuance to USMJ shareholders.

Future Stock Dividends To USMJ Shareholders

USMJ considers Puration as a model for the future of North American Cannabis Holdings with future PURA-like spinoffs and dividends to come. A second spinoff is in the works now.

On October 25th, USMJ announced entering discussions with Alternet Systems, Inc. (ALYI) on a deal that could lead to a second spinoff and dividend for North American Cannabis Holdings shareholders. The two Companies have been working together since the beginning of the year on a retail cannabis payment system pilot.

To learn more about North American Cannabis Holdings: www.growusmj.com

Follow the Company on Twitter: twitter.com/US_HEMP

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act"), and as such, may involve risks and uncertainties. These forward looking statements relate to, amongst other things, current expectation of the business environment in which the company operates, potential future performance, projections of future performance and the perceived opportunities in the market. The company's actual performance, results and achievements may differ materially from the expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements as a result of a wide range of factors.

USMJ Contact:

Steven Rash

Phone: +1-972-528-0162

SOURCE: North American Cannabis Holdings, Inc.
By Heather Somerville, Kristina Cooke and Dan Levine (Reuters) - In the two years leading up to the fire at an Oakland, California warehouse that killed 36 people at a dance party late last week, city officials had entered the building on numerous occasions and had multiple opportunities to see that residents were illegally living there in hazardous conditions. The Oakland Police Department received dozens of complaints about the warehouse, and went inside at least half a dozen times, according to police reports and accounts from former tenants and visitors. Neighbors and former tenants also say city fire officials were in the building at least twice. Those who spent time in the artists' cooperative known as the "Ghost Ship," say that potential code violations would have been apparent to anyone entering the building, which was not permitted for residence. Living quarters with narrow, winding halls were built from scrap materials, including highly flammable wooden pallets. Nails were exposed, plumbing improvised and a makeshift stairway to the second floor was extremely hazardous, they say. "If you opened the door and stepped even three feet inside it would be grossly apparent to anyone that it wasn't just being used as a warehouse or a workspace," said former Ghost Ship neighbor Ben Acevedo, 45, who estimates he made about 60 calls to police about the property over 16 months to report noise, blight and illegal occupancy. On Wednesday, amid questions about why the city did not act to shut down the warehouse, an Oakland official said that code enforcement personnel had not entered the building in 30 years. Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf said she did not know the last time fire inspectors had gone inside. She did not mention police visits, but said the city would launch a new effort "to clarify the responsibility of city employees to properly report any observations of dangerous living conditions or illegal events." LIFE IN THE GHOST SHIP The Ghost Ship collective was founded by Derick Ion Almena, who leased the warehouse and lived in it with his wife and three children, as well as artists to whom he rented space. Fights, raucous parties and complaints about thefts drew police to the scene numerous times during the collective's tenancy. Almena did not responded to several requests for comment. In January 2015, officers responding to reports of a fight went inside the warehouse, attempted to locate "a stolen cellphone," and "canvassed the area and the building for the suspect," according to a police report. Court records show that two children were present. A person who was there at the time, but declined to be named for fear of retribution, said the officers' search took them into parts of the building where people were clearly residing, including the bathroom and shower area as well as the kitchen, which was full of food and dishes. The previous year, tenants Adriana Sparkuhl and her boyfriend reported a robbery at the warehouse to police, records show. Sparkuhl, now 31, says the report stemmed from a dispute with Almena when she and her boyfriend moved out. Sparkuhl said she also told the officers that people, including Almena's three children, were living in the warehouse illegally and that the police said they would pay the Ghost Ship a visit. She does not know whether they did. In July 2014, about a month after Sparkuhl filed her report, police entered the foyer of the warehouse while investigating a homicide at a Wendy's fast-food restaurant across the street, according to a resident at the time. From where they stood, the officers would have seen the kitchen area and at least one RV, said then-resident Brad Evans, 21. Police asked Almena's three children whether they lived there, Evans recalled, and the children responded that they did. Former resident Shelley Mack, 58, said she called police to escort her from the building when she moved out in February 2015. "They saw everything," Mack said, adding that she told them about the illegal residents. "I told them everything they needed to know. They didn't have to guess." OFFICIAL RESPONSE EYED Oakland police have not responded to Reuters' request for the call log of service requests to the Ghost Ship. City officials have not yet released fire inspection reports also requested by Reuters, citing a delay due to a criminal investigation of the fire by the district attorney's office. Barry Donelan, the president of the Oakland Police Officers' Association said it was "ludicrous" to expect rank-and-file police officers to report building code violations. "Are you familiar with the crime in Oakland? These guys are going from call to call and now we are responsible for code enforcement too?" he asked. NBC Bay Area reported citing sources that there was no record of a fire inspection at the Ghost Ship over the last decade. At least one resident and also a neighbor, however, recalled visits by fire officials to the warehouse. Ghost Ship resident Libby Physh said a fire official visited the building twice when she lived there during the summer and fall of 2014. She said the fire official saw "how much building was going on" inside the warehouse and wanted to ensure there were clearly marked exits. Otherwise, Physh said, he "did not say anything negative" about the space. Danielle Boudreaux, a neighbor and one-time friend of Almena and his wife, said that Almena told her around January 2015 that a fire official had recently visited the warehouse and "was breathing down" his neck. "If you get all these complaints for the same address you'd think they'd take it more seriously, would make it a priority," said Acevedo, the former neighbor. (Additional reporting by Curtis Skinner; editing by Sue Horton, G Crosse)
Washington (AFP) - President Barack Obama has requested a review of all cyberattacks that took place during the 2016 election cycle, the White House said Friday, amid allegations of Russian interference.

"The president has directed the intelligence community to conduct a full review of what happened during the 2016 election process," said Lisa Monaco, Obama's homeland security advisor.

Monaco said at a breakfast hosted by The Christian Science Monitor that it was vital to "understand what this means, what has happened and to impart some lessons learned."

She added that Obama expects a report before he leaves office on January 20 and Republican Donald Trump assumes the presidency.

The move comes after Democrats in Congress pressed the White House to reveal details, to Congress or to the public, of Russian hacking and disinformation in the election.

Confidential emails from the Democratic National Committee and John Podesta, a top advisor to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, were steadily leaked out via WikiLeaks in the months before the election, damaging Clinton's ultimately losing White House effort.

The US Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in a statement on October 7, one month before the election, stated that "the Russian Government directed the recent compromises of emails from US persons and institutions, including from US political organizations."

"These thefts and disclosures are intended to interfere with the US election process," they said.

But in an interview published Wednesday with Time magazine for its "Person of the Year" award, Trump dismissed the findings of the country's leading intelligence services.

Asked whether the intelligence was politicized, Trump answered: "I think so."

"I don't believe they interfered. That became a laughing point, not a talking point, a laughing point. Any time I do something, they say 'oh, Russia interfered.'"

"It could be Russia. And it could be China. And it could be some guy in his home in New Jersey."
President Obama at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa on Tuesday. (Photo: Monica Herndon/Tampa Bay Times via AP, Pool)

President Obama has ordered the U.S. intelligence community to conduct a full review of the cyberattacks during the 2016 election and to prepare a report on the subject  including to Congress  before he leaves office, White House homeland security adviser Lisa Monaco said Thursday.

We may have crossed into a new threshold, Monaco said at a breakfast meeting with reporters, referring to the malicious election-related cyberattacks, which U.S. intelligence officials have said publicly they are confident were directed by the Russian government. And its incumbent upon us to take a stock of that, to review, to conduct some after-action, to understand what this means and what has happened and to impart lessons learned.

Deputy White House press secretary Eric Schultz later told reporters that Obama ordered the review earlier this week, describing it as a deep dive by U.S. intelligence agencies  working with the FBI and the State Department  into malicious cyberattacks that the U.S. intelligence community have already determined was directed at the highest levels of the Russian government. (Schultz notably said Thursday that the U.S. intelligence community has high confidence in that conclusion. The intelligence community had previously said it was confident about the Russian role.) He added that the review will also encompass cyberprobing and scanning of state election systems last summer, as well as look back at an earlier election-related cyberattack on the campaigns of Obama and Sen. John McCain in 2008, which U.S. officials attributed to the Chinese government.

Schultz emphasized that the review is not an effort to challenge the outcome of the 2016 presidential election. Still, he said, its a huge priority. Its a major priority for the president.

Obamas review could box in President-elect Donald Trump on an issue that has wide-ranging implications for U.S.-Russia relations. Already the matter has prompted calls for further investigations by the Congress  including proposals to create a national commission, patterned after the one formed after the 9/11 terror attacks  to conduct a full public review of the subject.

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In an interview released this week, President-elect Trump dismissed the conclusions of the intelligence community on the Russian role in cyberattacks on the Democratic National Committee and other political organizations, saying at one point they could have been committed by some guy in his home in New Jersey.

I dont believe they interfered, said Trump in an interview with Time, about the Russian role in meddling in the U.S. election. That became a laughing point, not a talking point, a laughing point.  Why not get along with Russia? Trump added. And they can help us fight ISIS, which is both costly in lives and costly in money. And theyre effective and smart. It could be Russia. And it could be China. And it could be some guy in his home in New Jersey. I believe that it could have been Russia, and it could have been any one of many other people. Sources and even individuals.

Despite calls by seven Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee for the Obama administration to declassify more information about what it knows about the cyberattacks, Monaco did not commit to a public release of the intelligence communitys review, saying officials had to be careful not to release information that would disclose sources and methods. But Schultz later told reporters, Were going to make public as much as we can.

She also did not respond to a question about what response the U.S. government may have taken, or is still contemplating, in retaliation for what it believes to be the Russian attacks. In her opening comments to reporters, Monaco spoke generally about the cyberthreats facing the country, adding at one point that we will act to protect our interests, as well as impose costs on malicious cyber actors, including nation-states, that attack U.S. interests. She did not elaborate.

The Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Gary Cameron/Reuters)

Monacos comments came as senior Senate Republicans have signaled they are prepared to order investigations into the Russian role in the election. McCain, chairman of the Armed Forces Committee, and Sen. Lindsey Graham, who chairs Senate subcommittees on foreign operations and terrorism, said this week they intend to launch their own probes of the issue and are planning a congressional trip to Eastern Europe soon to collect more information on the subject. Grahams review will be a sweeping look at threatening Russian activities, including in Ukraine, but will include examining what role that country played in the election, an aide said this week. The Washington Post quoted McCain as saying he is working closely with Senate Intelligence Committee chair Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina on the issue.

GOP acceptance of the Russian role was further reinforced Thursday when Rep. Devin Nunes, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, released a statement further pointing the finger at Moscow  and ignoring Trumps dismissive comments. Russias cyber-attacks are no surprise to the House Intelligence Committee, which has been closely monitoring Russias belligerence for years  as Ive said many times, the Intelligent Committee has repeatedly failed to anticipate [Russian President Vladimir] Putins hostile actions. Nunes blamed the Obama administration for its previous dedication to resetting relations with Russia and its failure to take more forceful action against the Kremlin in the past. It appears, however, that after eight years the administration has suddenly awoken to the threat, Nunes said in the statement.

U.S. intelligence officials have said they have strong evidence that Russian intelligence services penetrated the computers of the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and other political organizations and political leaders, including John Podesta, Clintons campaign chairman, whose emails were hacked. They have said the later public release of those emails by WikiLeaks and other websites was consistent with methods the Russian intelligence services have used elsewhere in Eastern Europe and Ukraine.
By Jeff Mason

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama has ordered intelligence agencies to review cyber attacks and foreign intervention into the 2016 election and deliver a report before he leaves office on Jan. 20, the White House said on Friday.

In October, the U.S. government formally accused Russia of a campaign of cyber attacks against Democratic Party organizations ahead of the Nov. 8 presidential election, and Obama has said he warned Russian President Vladimir Putin about consequences for the attacks.

The review and its timeline are a signal that Obama wants the issue addressed before he hands power to President-elect Donald Trump, who cast doubt on Russia's hacking role and praised Putin during the campaign.

Obama's homeland security adviser, Lisa Monaco, told reporters the report's results would be shared with lawmakers and others.

"The president has directed the intelligence community to conduct a full review of what happened during the 2016 election process ... and to capture lessons learned from that and to report to a range of stakeholders, to include the Congress," she said during an event hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.

White House spokesman Eric Schultz said the review would be a "deep dive" that would look for a pattern of such behaviour over several years during election time, dating as far back as the 2008 presidential election.

He noted that Obama wanted the review completed under his watch. "This is a major priority," Schultz said.

During his campaign for the White House, Trump called on Russia to dig up missing emails from his opponent, Hillary Clinton, from her time as secretary of state under Obama, a fellow Democrat. That move prompted critics to accuse him of encouraging foreign actors to conduct espionage.

The New York businessman has said he is not convinced Russia was behind the attacks.

"I dont believe they interfered," Trump told Time magazine about Russia in an interview published this week. "That became a laughing point, not a talking point, a laughing point. Any time I do something, they say, Oh, Russia interfered."

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People Trump has nominated for top national security posts in his new administration have taken a harsher stance toward Moscow.

Russian officials have denied all accusations of interference in the U.S. election.

Obama has come under pressure from Democratic lawmakers to declassify more intelligence on the alleged hackings.

A government source said the review was sparked in part to respond to those demands as well as to determine how much material related to the subject could be made public.

Given President-elect Trump's disturbing refusal to listen to our intelligence community and accept that the hacking was orchestrated by the Kremlin, there is an added urgency to the need for a thorough review before President Obama leaves office next month, Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said in a statement.

Monaco said cyber attacks were not new but might have crossed a "new threshold" this year.

When she was working as a senior Federal Bureau of Investigation official in 2008, she said, the agency alerted the presidential campaigns of then-Senator Obama and Republican Senator John McCain that China had infiltrated their respective systems.

"We've seen in 2008 and in this last election system malicious cyber activity," Monaco said.

Asked if Trump's transition team was not concerned enough about Russia's influence on the election or about other threats to the United States such as infectious disease outbreaks, Monaco said it was too soon to say. She noted that she had not met with her successor because the Trump team had yet to name one.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason in Washington; Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball and Jonathan Landay in Washington; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
A flag flies at half-staff at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. (House of Representatives Photo)

American flags around the world will be flying at half-staff for the next few days in memory of John Glenn, the pioneering astronaut and long-serving senator who died Thursday at the age of 95.

The traditional order was given today in a proclamation from President Barack Obama. The half-staff order applies until sunset on the day of Glenns interment, the timing of which has not yet been announced.

Glenn made history in 1962 as the first NASA astronaut to circle the planet  as a follow-up to Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarins orbital feat a year earlier, plus two U.S. suborbital spaceflights.

Thats not his only claim to fame. In 1957, as a Marine Corps aviator, Glenn broke the transcontinental flight speed record (which has been broken several times since then). In 1974, he became the first spaceflier to get elected to the U.S. Senate. And in 1998, he became the oldest human in space when he flew on the shuttle Discovery at the age of 77.

As news spread of his death in a hospital in Columbus, Ohio, accolades flooded in from all over the world. We passed along lots of Twitter tributes on Thursday, but here are a few more:

Space exploration brings out our best. John Glenn served his country in space, in Congress, and inspired a generation. Onward, John Glenn. pic.twitter.com/KLtzuXn9eP  Bill Nye (@BillNye) December 8, 2016

He inspired us to reach for the stars, and now we sadly return him to them. Let's honor his hope and dedicate ourselves to the good of all. pic.twitter.com/bz5fqQw05x  George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) December 8, 2016

    .    ,       . pic.twitter.com/27RvtXHD67   (@roscosmos) December 9, 2016

Glenns body is to lie in state at the Ohio Statehouse for a day, and a public memorial service will be conducted at Ohio State University. A veteran of World War II and the Korean War, Glenn will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia in a private service.

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That schedule is similar to the events that unfolded after the death of Apollo 11 moonwalker Neil Armstrong in 2012 (although Armstrongs remains were buried at sea). Were likely to see a star-studded turnout of space luminaries at the services.

One big question: Will 86-year-old Buzz Aldrin, who has been recuperating in New Zealand after a South Pole medical scare, make it back to the States in time for the tributes?

RIP and Godspeed John Glenn pic.twitter.com/v87DW3E3Ac  Buzz Aldrin (@TheRealBuzz) December 10, 2016

More from GeekWire:
Its impossible to resist the quirky appeal of The Bands Visit, a modest but charming musical directed by David Cromer and featuring Tony Shalhoub. David Yazbek (music and lyrics) and Itamar Moses (book) have made magic from a slender fable about the accidental cultural exchange that takes place when an Egyptian military band finds itself stranded in an isolated Israeli town in the middle of the desert.

Once, not long ago, a group of musicians came to Israel from Egypt. You probably didnt hear about it. It wasnt very important. That unassuming statement, projected on the back wall of Scott Pasks plain and simple (and amusing) set, is enough to grab the most jaded audience.

Actually, the visit turned out to be very important, on a universally human level. But not at first glance, when Colonel Tewfiq Zakaria (Shalhoub), commander of the Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra, turns up at a bus station in Israel with his little band of musicians. The pit musicians are onstage, trying to look like villagers, but members of that extraordinary band are occasionally called upon to pick up instruments of their own  and in some cases, play them very well.

Although the band is smartly outfitted in costumer Sarah Lauxs baby-blue ersatz-military uniforms, their government funding is in peril, and they absolutely must not screw up their assignment to perform at the initiation ceremony of the Arab Culture Center in Peta Tikva. The political and cultural significance of this mission weighs heavily on the fanatically steadfast Tewfiq, who stands ramrod straight (but is dying inside) in Shalhoubs painfully honest performance.

Like other obsessive characters he has played, most notably Adrian Monk, the beloved OCD-wracked detective he inhabited for seven years on TV, Tewfiq transcends conventional character comedy. In Shalhoubs hands, he is simultaneously funny and sad and a little bit crazy, and you absolutely have to love him. When disaster strikes, Tewfiq stiffens his spine and stands straighter. And strike it does when the musicians are misdirected at the bus station. Instead of sophisticated Petah Tikvah, they find themselves in Bet Hatikvah, a dreary town in the middle of the desert.

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Thanks to the revolving set and some quicksilver lighting changes by Tyler Micoleau, we can take in the whole town at a glance. In Waiting, the first of the many nuanced (vaguely Arabic, vaguely Israeli, altogether enchanting) musical numbers in Yazbeks wonderful score, the depressed residents are quick to tell the band what their uneventful life is like. And in Welcome to Nowhere, a gorgeous cafe owner named Dina (the fiery Katrina Lenk) is joined by a philosophical old man (the solid Daniel David Stewart) and other disheartened residents, to express their sense of isolation and their hopeless yearning for some kind of human connection.

With nowhere to go and nothing to do until the first bus arrives in the morning, the Egyptians are warily taken in by the Israelis, who reluctantly feed them, house them, and in one scene that is simply out of this world, entertain them at the circa 1970s roller rink.

Although no one exchanges a word about incendiary Arab-Israeli political matters, visitors and hosts slowly begin to acknowledge their common humanity. In Hadids Song About Love (sung with romantic intensity by Ariel Stachel) the tall, handsome ladies man in the band takes pity on a young married man (endearing John Cariani) and shows him how to woo his wife.

Theres nothing big or grand here. Connections are made on little things, everyday things, common things we all share. The transcendent moment of the show comes when the so-called Telephone Guy (the fantastic Erik Liberman) makes one final, desperate effort to reach someone on that infuriatingly silent telephone. Can you answer me? he begs. And the entire ensemble does exactly that.

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Office Christmas Party and Silicon Valley actor T.J. Miller was arrested in Hollywood early Friday morning, Variety has confirmed.

According to the Los Angeles Police Department, the citizens arrest was phoned in around 1 a.m. on Friday by Millers car driver on the 6900 block of Camrose Drive in Hollywood. Miller was charged with battery, issued a citation, and released from custody on Friday with a promise to appear in court to reconcile the issue with the victim.

The actor was photographed earlier that evening with his wife, actress Kate Gorney, attending the GQ Men of the Year party, which took place at the Chateau Marmont, and Vultures awards season party at the Sunset Tower Hotel.

Miller is known for his starring role on the HBO sitcom Silicon Valley. His performance as Erlich Bachman in the series has earned him two Critics Choice Television Awards nominations and one win. He has recently made the rounds promoting his new film Office Christmas Party, which opened the same day as his arrest, Dec. 9. The film also stars Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman.

The comedians upcoming projects include Emojimovie, Steven Spielbergs Ready Player One, and How to Train Your Dragon 3. He is also expected to host the 2016 Critics Choice Awards on Sunday.

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Louis C.K.'s Horace and Pete has found a second home.

The Emmy-nominated internet dramedy, which C.K. wrote, produced, directed and starred in on his own dime, will now stream exclusively on Hulu. The pact for all 10 episodes marks the first-ever deal between the streamer and C.K., whose prior work for TV has been housed almost exclusively on FX.

At a New Yorker event in October, the comic actor revealed the deal before suggesting he was likely speaking out of school. At the time, Hulu declined to comment on any deal. Now that it's official, the show joins a library at Hulu that includes Empire, Homeland and South Park.

Read more: Louis C.K. Says 'Horace and Pete' Coming to Hulu, Responds to Jill Soloway's Criticism of "Trans" Scene

Horace and Pete, which C.K. dropped on his own site without any warning, revolves around an Irish bar, Horace and Pete's, and the people who work in and frequent it. The comedian stars as Horace, the man who runs the bar a year after the death of his father. The cast is filled out by Steve Buscemi, Edie Falco, Alan Alda, Jessica Lange, Aidy Bryant and Laurie Metcalf.

C.K. made headlines early on when he suggested the series had left him in a financial hole, later clarifying that he merely deficit-financed the series as a studio traditionally would. He has since said, given the series' popularity, that he has made all of his money back and has even been able to write checks to fellow owners Buscemi and Alda.
By Kim Palmer

CLEVELAND (Reuters) - Lawmakers in Ohio approved a bill on Friday that opens the way for licensed gun owners to carry concealed weapons on college campuses, less than two weeks after a man injured 11 in a stabbing attack at Ohio State University.

State senators passed the bill 22-8 after representatives approved it 68-25 late on Thursday, sending the bill to the desk of Republican Governor John Kasich for his signature.

If signed into law, the board of trustees at Ohio's public universities would have the option to allow for concealed-carry on campuses.

The legislation also removed a state ban on carrying a concealed weapon in public areas of airports and daycare centers, local media reported. Operators would be able to choose whether to prohibit guns in their buildings.

However, late on Thursday the House of Representatives removed provisions from the bill that would have allowed gun owners to carry concealed weapons into government buildings such as libraries and city halls.

The passage of the bill comes less than two weeks after 18-year-old Abdul Razak Ali Artan injured 11 people on the Ohio State campus in Columbus. Artan was shot dead by a police officer moments after he plowed his car into a crowd, jumped out and began stabbing people, police said.

Law enforcement groups were split on the bill. The Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association and Ohio Association of Chiefs of Police opposed it, but a state sheriffs group backed it in support.

Critics say such laws endanger safety on campuses and public buildings; supporters say they could prevent mass shootings.

Charleta Tavares, a Democratic state senator from Columbus who voted against the bill, said on Wednesday that she deferred to law enforcement who she said were opposed to the measure.

"They are going to deal with the real life consequences of the passing of this bill."

Republican state Senator Bill Coley of Columbus countered Tavares's claim the bill was not about keeping Ohioans safe. "There is no statistical evidence that this is not more safe," he said.

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Ten U.S. states currently allow guns on campuses, according to the website of The Campaign to Keep Guns Off Campus.

A law in Texas went into effect in August that allows people 21 and older with a concealed handgun license to carry pistols into classrooms and most buildings at public universities.

The Texas law took effect as the University of Texas at Austin held a memorial to marking the 50th anniversary of one of the deadliest attacks on U.S. a college campus, when Charles Whitman killed 16 people in a shooting rampage .

(Additional reporting by Brendan O'Brien, Editing by Bill Trott)
Ohio Governor John Kasich speaks as he withdraws as a U.S. Republican presidential candidate in Columbus, Ohio, U.S., May 4, 2016. REUTERS/Aaron Josefczyk

The Ohio Legislature passed the second bill this week that would impose some of the strictest bans on abortion in the country.

The first, passed Tuesday, is known as the heartbeat bill because it bans abortion after the fetus's heartbeat can be detected. The second, passed Thursday, would ban abortion after 20 weeks.

Both now head to Gov. John Kasich, who hasn't said whether he'd sign or veto either.

Iris Harvey, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio, said the bills would make abortion illegal in the state, forcing women to travel long distances if they needed the procedure.

"For the second time in a week, the Ohio Legislature has inserted itself into women's private and personal healthcare decisions," Harvey said in a statement sent to Business Insider. "These bans are rejected by Ohioans. ... We're going to keep fighting back. Ohio legislators need to listen, and John Kasich needs to veto these dangerous bans."

The bills

Doctors can detect a fetus's heartbeat as early as six weeks into pregnancy. Women usually don't find out they're pregnant until four to seven weeks in  meaning the heartbeat bill would most likely leave many women unable to get a safe, legal abortion in the state.

Only 478 of the 20,976 abortions reported in Ohio in 2015 involved pregnancies of more than 19 weeks, according to the state Department of Health. Fewer than 1% of abortions in the state occurred after 21 weeks into the pregnancy.

Research has found that most women who get abortions at or after 20 weeks wanted to get one sooner but couldn't because they couldn't travel to get one, were victims of domestic violence, were depressed or had substance abuse problems, or couldn't afford it.

Another reason to terminate a pregnancy after 20 weeks is severe birth defects  such as trisomy 18  in which the fetus wouldn't survive if the woman carried it to term. On Wednesday, a couple who lost two pregnancies because of trisomy 18 testified before the House, encouraging the committee to reject the 20-week bill.

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Teresa Fedor ohio leg

Both bills allow for an exception if the mother's health is endangered, but not for cases of rape or incest. Rep. Teresa Fedor, a Democrat from Toledo, who told the Legislature last year that she had an abortion after she was raped while in the military, called the ban an "attack on women."

Abortion-rights advocacy groups, including Planned Parenthood and the Center for Reproductive Rights, decried the bill, calling it unconstitutional and saying it violates the Supreme Court's 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade granting women a constitutional right to safe, legal abortions.

President-elect Donald Trump has said he wants to appoint justices who oppose abortion and would overturn the landmark case, leaving reproductive rights up to the states.

Republican Keith Faber, the president of the Ohio Senate, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that Trump's victory emboldened the Legislature to pass the heartbeat bill with the hope that the courts would uphold it.

"I think it has a better chance than it did before" to survive a legal challenge, Faber said.

"Clearly this bill's supporters are hoping that President-elect Trump will have the chance to pack the US Supreme Court with justices that are poised to overturn Roe vs. Wade," Kellie Copeland, the executive director of the abortion-rights group NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio, said in a statement on the heartbeat bill.

"We must prevent that from happening to protect women's lives," Copeland added. "This bill would effectively outlaw abortion and criminalize physicians that provide this care to their patients."

Abortion-rights advocates protested outside the governor's mansion Tuesday night, encouraging Kasich to veto the bill:

HAPPENING NOW: Pro-choice protesters are outside of the governors mansion urging him to veto the heartbeat bill if it comes to his desk. pic.twitter.com/0QSkgCPG7F  Bryant Maddrick (@Bryantwsyx6) December 6, 2016

Abortion rights supporters protesting at Governor's residence where event is being held, just hours after Ohio Senate passed Heartbeat bill pic.twitter.com/Ze4SYM4F2A  Jo Ingles (@joingles) December 7, 2016

Kasich's press secretary, Emmalee Kalmbach, declined to comment on whether he would sign the heartbeat bill, according to The Columbus Dispatch, and hasn't made any further statements on the 20-week bill.

Kasich could line-item veto the part of the heartbeat bill banning abortion, The Dispatch reports, with Kathy DiCristofaro, the chair of the Ohio Democratic Women's Caucus, describing the abortion ban as being "tacked on as a last-minute amendment" to a bill addressing child-abuse prevention. The 20-week ban is its own standalone bill, so Kasich has to sign or veto that one as a whole.

Though Kasich opposes abortion, he previously said he wouldn't sign a heartbeat bill because of doubts over whether it would be constitutional.

The ACLU of Ohio has threatened to sue if either bill becomes law. Other abortions-rights advocates would most likely join their suit.

NOW WATCH: TRUMP: Women who want abortions may have to 'go to another state'





More From Business Insider


By Kim Palmer

CLEVELAND (Reuters) - Ohio lawmakers passed a second piece of legislation in two days on Thursday restricting abortion access in the state by banning the procedure after 20 weeks of gestation.

Senate Bill 127 was passed by the state House 64-29 on Thursday and then again later in the evening by the Senate 23-8. The Senate had approved the bill early last year but had to approve it again because of changes made by the House.

The bill is less strict than the heartbeat measure passed on Tuesday that outlaws an abortion as early as six weeks after conception, once a fetal heartbeat is detected.

Neither of the measures make exceptions for rape or incest, although both allow for abortions that would save the mother's life.

Supporters of the bill say they are trying to protect the lives of unborn babies.

Both pieces of legislation await the signature or veto of Republican Ohio Governor John Kasich, who critics said on Thursday was using the dueling legislations as politic cover.

"Passing both anti-abortion measures in a lame-duck session is political maneuvering by the Republican-dominated state legislature steered by Governor Kasich," said Gabriel Mann, a spokesman for the NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio.

John Kasich has a masters degree in political calculus."

Kasich could veto the six-week ban and sign the 20-week ban in an effort to appear moderate, Mann said.

Twenty-week abortion bans have been passed in more than 10 states, but federal courts in Arizona and Idaho have ruled that they are unconstitutional.

Under current law, Ohio prohibits abortion once a fetus is considered viable outside the womb, which is from 24 to 26 weeks of gestation.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio testified against both bills, saying the measures unconstitutionally restricted women's access to reproductive healthcare.

"Bans such as these only hurt women and their families and waste taxpayer dollars by defending laws that federal courts have routinely declared unconstitutional," Mike Brickner, a senior policy director at the ACLU, said on Wednesday before the vote.

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"Governor Kasich should veto any bill that infringes upon reproductive freedom," he said.

Also passed on Thursday was an healthcare bill that included a last-minute amendment that makes knowingly assisting in a suicide a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.

Both the abortion and healthcare bills were rushed through committee and voted on in late-night sessions as the two-year legislative session wrapped up.

(Editing by Peter Cooney and Paul Tait)
By Chen Aizhu and Catherine Ngai

BEIJING/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil traders and major producers are lining up a flotilla of carriers to ship more U.S. crude to Asia in December than in nearly two decades as higher prices, supported by OPEC's proposed supply cuts, offer a rare opportunity to boost sales to the region.

A 40-year U.S. ban on crude exports was lifted in 2015 but only a few cargoes have shipped during a global glut in supply.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries last week agreed to its first supply cut in eight years as the cartel sought to end the two-year glut.

As peak winter demand kicks in, the difference between benchmark crude prices in the United States, Asia and Europe has widened to the most since August and opened up the trade route.

"I think Asia is going to pull lots of U.S. oil," one trader said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak publicly on trading. "There's lots of interest in this."

Trading houses and oil majors are lining up ships that could take as much as 7 million barrels to Asia, traders and brokers said. But actual shipments may be less as increased supplies make exports less profitable.

So far, more than 2 million barrels of crude have been chartered to China in December by Chinese state-owned oil traders PetroChina and Unipec, three sources with knowledge of the matter said on Friday. They requested anonymity because they were unauthorised to talk to the media.

Those two cargoes would fall short of the record volume of oil departing to China, reached in January 1997, by the equivalent of just one vessel, according to U.S. government data.

"We haven't exported a lot previously to Asia because there's a lot of costs, a lot of logistics and there's always been OPEC," said Carl Larry, director of business development for oil and gas at Frost & Sullivan.

"We're fairly new to this export game, but once we figure it out, we'll make it work. The U.S. looks to be pushing out as much as we can."

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The flow of oil will help drain U.S. inventories, which are some 32.2 million barrels higher than the same time last year and a concern for OPEC.

Saudi Arabia has told U.S. customers that it would reduce supply in January as part of that deal, and was singling out the United States for the biggest cuts because of inventories, said a Gulf oil industry source familiar with Saudi policy.

U.S. inventories touched 485.8 million barrels in the week through Dec. 2, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration data. This was some 32.2 million barrels more than a year ago and 137.4 million barrels more than in 2014.

The spread between U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude and Brent crude, the global benchmark (WTCLc1-LCOc1), stood around $1.85 a barrel on Friday and hit $2.29 on Tuesday, the widest since August.

A narrowing of the spread between Brent and Middle East Dubai crude (DUB-EFS-1M) to the smallest in a year also made U.S. oil more competitive than similar Middle East grades.

But the Saudis have not reduced supply to the world's fastest growing demand centres because it does not want to lose customers there. That means demand for additional U.S. supplies would be limited and spreads between prices would likely narrow as more crude cargoes are set to move east.

PetroChina has chartered the London Spirit, a Suezmax which loaded some crude in the Galveston Offshore Lightering Area (GOLA), Texas, earlier this month, according to the sources and shipping data on Thomson Reuters Eikon.

Unipec, the trading arm of Asia's largest refiner Sinopec , is expected to load 2 million barrels of U.S. crude onto very large crude carrier (VLCC) Xin Han Yang next week, one of the sources said.

The shipments would come on top of nearly 3 million barrels that BP (BP.L) has sent to Asia as oil traders sell growing supplies of cheap U.S. shale oil to the region of the world that consumes the most crude.

It will be Unipec's second shipment of U.S. crude in three months. In October, the company loaded oil on VLCC Overseas Rosalyn which is expected to reach the southern Chinese port of Zhanjiang on Dec 31.

(Additiona reporting by Florence Tan in SINGAPORE, Osamu Tsukimori in TOKYO and Liz Hampton in HOUSTON; Editing by Simon Webb and Richard Chang)
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Carter Page, a businessman previously described as a foreign-policy adviser to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, said on Friday he saw significant business opportunities in Russia. Page arrived in Moscow on Thursday and told Russia's RIA news agency he was visiting Russia to work on economic projects. The current nature of his relationship with Trump's team is unclear. "I firmly believe that the opportunities for cooperation with the private sector of the Russian economy have never been as great as they will be in coming years," Page was quoted as saying. "Despite the West's antagonistic policy and the unavoidable reaction of Moscow, which limited these opportunities in the past few decades, the possibilities today are unique." Page has previously worked in Russia, spending three years in Moscow at U.S. investment bank Merrill Lynch, but his credentials came under scrutiny after being named as one of the people briefing then presidential candidate Trump. He told RIA an $11.3 billion deal for Qatar and Swiss trader Glencore to buy a state stake in Russian oil major Rosneft , announced earlier this week, showed sanctions on Russia hurt Western firms. "The hostile efforts to punish Rosneft and a group of its senior executives with the help of Western sanctions have mainly hurt Western firms and not achieved their goal," he said. (Reporting by Jack Stubbs and Denis Pinchuk; Editing by Alexander Winning)
By now, I thought car companies or the telecom folks would have figured out how to disarm cellphones in automobiles. They may have figured it out but just don't want to do it. They have kicked the can down the road, hoping the next guy would take care of it.

Mind you, cellphones should work if the vehicle is shut off. And there should be an override that would allow them to be used in an emergency. But in general, using a cellphone while driving is a bad idea.



I am amazed at how many people I see using their phones to text or check email while driving. They are an accident waiting to happen.



Of course, we could wait until autonomous vehicles are ubiquitous. That would put an end to the problem of distracted driving. But until then, we are injuring and killing way too many drivers, passengers and pedestrians.



Driver distraction has always been an issue. We used to worry about drinking coffee or eating fast food in the car. I've seen people shaving or putting on makeup while driving 70 mph. But cellphones have taken the problem to a new level.



We need a solution  a simple but effective step. Somehow, we have to make drivers believe that when they are driving on public roads, they are on a racetrack. The road needs every bit of their attention.



Thousands of lives are being lost with distracted driving. There are too many diversions for drivers, even without cellphones. Let's use cellphones outside the vehicle.



This column originally appeared on AutoNews.com.

Commentary by Keith Crain, the Editor-in-Chief of Automotive News.



For more insight from CNBC contributors, follow @CNBCopinion on Twitter.
Vienna (AFP) - OPEC officials met Saturday with Russia and other oil producers to try to persuade them to lower production under a pact to stem a global glut and lift prices.

The talks, taking place at the oil cartel's headquarters in Vienna, aim to nail down details on an accord reached late last month.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) agreed on November 30 to lower its monthly output by 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) to 32.5 million bpd from January.

Under the deal, OPEC also wants oil-producing nations which are not members of the group to lower their output by 600,000 barrels a day.

Arriving shortly before the start of the one-day talks, OPEC's secretary general, Mohammed Barkindo of Nigeria, spoke positively about reaching an agreement to cut output by 600,000 bpd "and even more".

"This is a very historic meeting due to the presence of OPEC and non-OPEC members," he said.

"The political atmosphere has changed."

Moscow -- the world's largest oil producer along with OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia -- has already signalled it would provide half of that production cut in the first half of 2017.

Speaking to reporters, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said Moscow would fulfil its commitment.

"We have stated our obligations and will abide by the figures we have talked about," he was quoted as saying by Russia's Interfax news agency.

- Deal expected -

Qatari Energy Minister Mohamed al-Sada, whose country has OPEC's rotating presidency, highlighted in a speech the "severe consequences" of the plunge in oil prices.

"What the past two months have shown is that there is a growing consensus among producers that the market recovery process has taken far too long... It has had a major impact on all our countries, in terms of economic growth, heavy losses in revenue and deep social spending cuts."

As for the impact on consumers, he said, "We only have to look at the damaging levels of deflation in some OECD countries, as well as the record low interest rates, sometimes in negative territory in real terms, which is partly attributed to lower oil prices."

Story continues

Oil prices climbed Friday as hopes grew of a deal. In late European business, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude stood at $51.44, 60 cents up on the day, while Brent rose 20 cents to $54.09.

Among the non-OPEC members attending the talks were Kazakhstan, Azerbaidjan, Oman, Mexico, Malaysia, Sudan, South Sudan and Bahrain.

Some analysts were optimistic that details of the deal would be finalised.

"We expect the meeting between OPEC and non-OPEC producers to result in a credible document, which we think will be supportive for prices," said Bjarne Schieldrop, chief commodities analyst at top Nordic corporate bank SEB.

The November agreement ended weeks of uncertainty and volatility on crude markets, pushing prices above $50 for the first time in a month.

It also represented a dramatic reversal from OPEC's Saudi-led game plan, introduced in 2014, of flooding the market to force out rivals, in particular US shale oil producers.

The strategy saw production outstrip demand, causing prices to plunge from more than $100 a barrel in June 2014 to near 13-year lows below $30 earlier this year.

- Little immediate reduction -

OPEC now seeks a global cut of 1.8 million barrels a day to help rebalance the market.

The group -- which produces around 40 percent of the world's crude -- needs non-OPEC members to join the cuts in order to drain current stockpiles.

But Bloomberg calculations, based on OPEC data, indicated there would be little overall reduction in record oil inventories in 2017 -- even if OPEC can convince non-members to come onboard.

"Non-OPEC producers, such as Mexico, Azerbaijan and Colombia, are likely to dress up involuntary production declines, already factored in by traders, as cuts," according to Bloomberg.

In addition, Mexico and Kazakhstan plan to ramp up their crude production next year.

Russia announced Wednesday that national oil companies backed cuts of 300,000 bpd but news agencies quoted Lukoil chief executive Vagit Alekperov as saying "no decision was made."

The slide in oil prices and Western sanctions over Moscow's role in the Ukraine crisis have pummelled the Russian economy.
Miami (AFP) - John Glenn's passing on Thursday means that the first seven American astronauts chosen to lead the fledging US space program in 1959 are now dead, ending a groundbreaking chapter in American history.

This crew of military aviators, known as the Original Seven, or "Mercury 7," proved that spaceflight was possible, and paved the way for the pioneering US trips to the moon.

Their saga inspired the 1979 Tom Wolfe book "The Right Stuff," and the 1983 movie classic of the same name. Here are the feats the seven are best known for, and how they died:

- Alan B. Shepard, Jr. -

The first American to journey into space, Shepard launched on May 5, 1961, aboard the Freedom 7 spacecraft. His flight was suborbital, rising to an altitude of 116 statute miles (186 kilometers) before landing back on Earth.

He later commanded the Apollo 14 in 1971 -- the third lunar landing -- and became the fifth person to walk on the Moon.

Shepard died in 1998 at the age of 74 from leukemia.

- John H. Glenn, Jr. -

The first American to orbit the Earth, Glenn is best known for making his three tours around the planet on February 20, 1962.

He was also elected US senator in Ohio and served as a lawmaker from 1974 to 1999.

In 1998, at the age of 77, Glenn became the oldest person to fly in space when he journeyed aboard the space shuttle Discovery.

Glenn died Thursday at the age of 95. He had been in declining health since undergoing heart valve surgery in 2014.

- Virgil I. 'Gus' Grissom -

Grissom was the first person to be launched into space twice.

He flew on the second suborbital Mercury flight in 1961, and in 1965 piloted the first Gemini mission, which was also the first spaceflight to change its orbital plane.

He and two others were killed in 1967 in a fire during a launch pad test ahead of the planned Apollo 1 mission, which he was slated to command.

- Scott Carpenter -

Carpenter radioed the now famous phrase, "Godspeed, John Glenn" as his colleague was about to embark on the first US orbital flight in 1962.

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Later that year, Carpenter became the second American to orbit the Earth.

After circling the Earth three times in the Aurora 7 capsule, he overshot his landing target by about 250 miles (400 kilometers).

Carpenter took a leave of absence from NASA and served as an aquanaut in the Navy's Man-in-the-Sea program in 1965.

He died in 2013 at the age of 88 after suffering a stroke.

- L. Gordon Cooper, Jr. -

In 1963, Cooper flew on the final Mercury mission and became the last US astronaut to fly alone in space.

His Faith 7 capsule circled the Earth 22 times and the mission lasted more than a day.

His second trip to space -- aboard Gemini 5 in 1965 -- lasted eight days and set a new space endurance record for that era.

Cooper was said to be the first American to sleep in space. He reported having no dreams during his orbital slumber.

He died in 2004 of heart failure at the age of 77.

- Walter M. Schirra, Jr. -

Schirra became the first man to fly aboard all three of the United States' first three human space projects -- the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions.

He was command pilot on Gemini 6 in 1965 when he led the first spacecraft rendezvous by flying within one foot of the already orbiting Gemini 7.

He also commanded the first piloted Apollo mission, Apollo 7, in 1968.

Schirra died of a heart attack while being treated for abdominal cancer in 2007 at the age of 84.

- Donald K. 'Deke' Slayton. -

Slayton was chosen to be part of the original Mercury missions but was unable to fly in 1962 because of an erratic heart rate.

He became NASA's director of Flight Crew Operations, and was eventually cleared for spaceflight a decade later.

In 1975, he flew aboard the first joint AmericanSoviet space mission, Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, which marked the first docking of an American and Russian spacecraft in space.

Slayton died of a brain tumor in 1993, at the age of 69.
HAMBURG (Reuters) - The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe on Friday launched a tender for long-range drones after losing eight such aircraft over eastern Ukraine since it began a monitoring mission there. "Many of our drones were electronically destroyed or shot down," OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier told reporters during a two-day ministerial meeting in Hamburg. He said the group had suspended the use of the drones, which can fly 150 km (93 miles), after the losses, which Russian-based separatists - who are battling Ukrainian troops for control of the Donbass region - were mainly responsible for. The OSCE, a 57-member human rights and security watchdog, ski has been using unmanned planes to help monitor the lines of conflict and augment the work of over 700 human observers in eastern Ukraine, often providing access to areas where monitors have been blocked. The OSCE said it had also lost two medium-range and five short-range drones. Zannier said the OSCE also planned to invest more in other high-tech equipment to aid its work, including motion-activitated mounted camera that can transmit infrared data, as well as commercial satellite imagery. A spokesman for Schiebel, which made the drones that were shot down, said the firm planned to submit a bid for the tender. (Reporting by Sabine Siebold, Additional reporting and writing by Andrea Shalal; editing by John Stonestreet)
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Photo credit: Courtesy of Katy Landrum

From Redbook

We were on such a high when we checked into the Ojai Valley Inn & Spa this summer - it was the first time in months my husband and I had been in the car without screaming babies in the backseat. When we arrived at the 220-acre resort about two hours from our Los Angeles home, our room wasn't ready, so I changed into my Marysia swimsuit and went straight to the pool. I ordered a salad and a margarita on the rocks with salt and entered full relaxation mode.

While flipping through magazines and taking dips to cool off, I tried to stifle images of Bo, my three-month-old son, crying back at home. Instead of bringing him with us, I'd paid a professional sleep trainer to teach our baby how to cry it out while we went on vacation.

But now that we were away, I kept trying to come up with reasons he wasn't ready to be sleep trained. "He's only 12 weeks old! He'll be hungry without his nightly feeding," I thought frantically. But then I reminded myself he's 15 pounds, so he's gotten plenty of breast milk and I knew he was ready to sleep through the night without a feeding. Plus, my pediatrician had given me the green light.

Photo credit: Courtesy of Katy Landrum

Two years ago, I had waited until my daughter was five months old before I sleep trained her. I didn't want to let her cry it out because I hated listening to her wail in her crib.

But one weekend, my girlfriend Lisa came to visit and saw how sleep deprived I was. She explained she'd hired a sleep training expert for her two kids and had great success with it. This was the first time I had heard of someone hiring a professional, and I thought it was brilliant.

Lisa took one look at the bags under my eyes and said, "It's time, Katy." That night, she held my hand while my daughter cried for 45 minutes. It was absolutely gut-wrenching to not run to comfort her. Over a bottle of white wine, Lisa insisted, "Sleep training works. Babies really can sleep through the night at this age." With her support and the encouragement of my husband, we successfully got my daughter sleeping through the night after a few days.

Story continues

When our son was born, my husband reminded me that early sleep training would benefit everyone in our family. As a self-employed realtor who works full time, I regularly receive inquiries from clients looking to buy and sell homes, and I knew that in order to properly function, sleep was a necessity. Our daughter is now two and a half and she's still a great sleeper, so I knew we needed to do it again. Our wonderful night nurse referred us to her friend Deb, a seasoned sleep trainer with nearly a decade of experience helping babies achieve peaceful slumbers. At $30 an hour, bringing a professional in to manage the process seemed like a no-brainer. It's so painful for me to listen to my babies cry, and I knew I didn't have the strength to do it again.

So, I booked myself and my husband a little getaway in Ojai. I didn't want to be in earshot of Bo's weeping. Treating ourselves to a restful retreat meant we could try to enjoy ourselves instead of dwelling on what was taking place at home. After a couple of cocktails, an afternoon of sun, and a few intimate minutes with my breast pump (I dumped the contents), I settled into a Swedish massage at the spa.

At $30 an hour, bringing a professional in to manage the process seemed like a no-brainer.

Before we set off for dinner, I had a moment of doubt. I sent Deb, our sleep trainer, a text suggesting we postpone. "Maybe we shouldn't do this. Maybe you should just evaluate him tonight and we can start sleep training tomorrow night instead." Her response was, "OK," so I thought maybe she was just going to observe his sleep habits for the first night and that put my mind at ease.

Over a meal of Chilean Seabass and sweet pea puree, my husband and I didn't even really talk about what was going on at home. Instead, we discussed how lucky we were to have two healthy babies and loosely planned a future vacation to Mexico - we totally checked out.

When I woke up the next morning in our mountain-view room, I had a detailed text from Deb with a record of every minute Bo had cried. Deb had ignored my request and had moved forward with the training that night - I'm sure I'm not the first parent who got cold feet and I was actually glad she moved forward with it. He woke up three times and cried for upwards of 40 minutes the first time, about 25 minutes the second time and 10 minutes the third time. I told my husband, "Oh my gosh, he cried quite a bit!" I was so relieved Deb was the one who had been there and not me.

Photo credit: Courtesy of Katy Landrum

When we got home the next day, Deb spent the night again to ensure Bo was on the right track. I woke up the next morning feeling refreshed - I hadn't heard my son cry at all and I slept straight through the night.

When I walked into the living room, Deb asked, "Did you hear him crying all night?" My heart stopped. Then she said, "Just kidding! He cried for 30 seconds at 4:30 a.m. and that was it! I didn't even go in there."

I knew her work was done and, over the next few weeks, Bo only woke up crying a couple times, but I was adamant about not going into his room. I didn't want our hard work to go to waste.

People probably roll their eyes or laugh at me for going away and paying someone to let my baby cry it out, but I knew it needed to be done and I didn't want to put myself through the agony I experienced with my daughter. My mom and stepdad came to town the day after we got home from Ojai and gave me grief because they're not believers in sleep training, but I'm a working mom and I couldn't continue to go on being awake during the night. My days would be so much harder and my business would suffer if I weren't able to get a full night sleep.

And you know what? It felt good to be able to tell them Bo was sleeping through the night - and that it was the best money I've ever spent.

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Parisian authorities ordered public transportation remain free for the fourth consecutive day on Thursday, as the city looked to combat the worst pollution in a decade.

The level of fine airborne particles stood at 80 micrograms per cubic meter of air particles, and it reached 144 micrograms per cubic meter one week ago, Agence-France Presse reported. The daily maximum should never exceed 50 micrograms per cubic meter, according to guidelines from the European Union.

The city government also ordered half of the cities cars off the road each day, alternating between odd-numbered and even-numbered license plates.

By making public transportation free of charge, the city aimed to incentivize people to take subways and buses over cars. The move is costing the city around 4 million euros, or about $4.3 million, per day.

City Hall announced in a tweet that the free public transport services would continue into Friday.

Cold temperatures coupled with low winds and a heavy reliance on diesel vehicles contributed to the stagnant pollution. Since hot air rises, the cold air is trapped underneath.

Its like a lid is placed on this air, John Abraham, a professor of thermal and fluid sciences at University of St. Thomas in Minnesota, told Travel + Leisure.

Paris is experiencing a double whammy of many high polluting vehicles combined with a week of weather that [has] not blown the pollutants away, he said.

France has long relied on diesel fuel, particularly after the government began subsidizing it in the 20th century. The high volume of diesel cars in Paris is seen as one of the citys major pollution obstacles.

Story continues

Making public transportation more convenient and energy-efficient will be the most sustainable solution going forward, according to Abraham.

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By Alister Doyle OSLO (Reuters) - Colombia's peace deal with Marxist rebels will help the country battle the cocaine trade, President Juan Manuel Santos said on the eve of collecting a Nobel Peace Prize that he called a "gift from heaven". In Oslo for Saturday's award ceremony, Santos said the end of a five-decade-long guerrilla conflict in which 220,000 people died could have widespread economic and environmental benefits. "It came like a gift from heaven because it gave us a tremendous push," he told a news conference, referring to the Nobel award that was announced in October, days after Colombians rejected a first version of the peace deal in a referendum, with many saying it was too lenient on the rebels. The award helped encourage new talks that led to a revised deal, signed last month between the government and with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Santos said. Congress approved the deal but Santos has defied calls by the opposition for a new referendum. Under the peace deal, the FARC promised to help farmers switch to grow legal crops in remote areas where Santos said the authorities were met by "snipers and landmines" when they tried to eradicate coca plantations. The deal would also reduce attacks on oil pipelines and allow better control over illegal logging and mining. "There is a very high dividend in terms of the war on drugs and the environment," Santos said. Despite decades battling the drug's production, Colombia remains the top exporter of cocaine. Santos defended the fact that FARC rebel leaders had not been invited to the award ceremony, where he will receive a gold medal, a Nobel diploma and a cheque for 8 million Swedish crowns ($876,000). The guerrillas face restrictions on leaving Colombia and are listed as terrorists in many countries. Before the prize was announced many people thought it might be shared between Santos and FARC leader Rodrigo Londono. "They will be here in heart and spirit. There should be no misgivings about the FARC leaders not being here," Santos said, adding that the FARC would be represented by a Spanish lawyer. Santos also said he also hoped for progress in peace talks with another, smaller rebel group, the National Liberation Army. But he said they first had to release hostages. (Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
(Reuters) - Peet's Coffee & Tea, a longtime rival to Starbucks Corp (SBUX.O), said on Friday it will invest $58 million to open a new coffee roasting facility in Suffolk, Virginia, to support its expanding business in an increasingly competitive environment.

The move from Peet's comes as Starbucks is making significant investment to stave off competition from upscale, independent coffee shops, such as Stumptown Coffee Roasters and Intelligentsia Coffee. Peet's owns Stumptown and has a majority stake in Intelligentsia.

Peet's Chief Executive Dave Burwick told Reuters the new plant will create 135 new jobs and support the company's expanding business, which includes operating cafes and selling packaged coffee via grocery stores.

Burwick welcomed the news that Starbucks Chief Executive and co-founder Howard Schultz will focus on building a new ultra-premium "Reserve" brand after he steps down as CEO in April 2017.

"We like it. The more interest there is in super-premium coffee, the more opportunities Peet's will have," Burwick said.

Peet's new 175,000-square-foot facility will more than double current capacity, said Chief Operating Officer Shawn Conway.

Burwick also said Peet's estimated sales will total $800 million this year, double what they were when Joh. A. Benckiser - the investment holding company of the Reimanns, the German billionaire family associated with Reckitt Benckiser - took Peet's private after buying the company in October 2012.

(Reporting by Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles, editing by G Crosse)
A teenage driver was streaming to Facebook Live while she drove along a Pennsylvania highway just before a tractor-trailer rear ended her vehicle after midnight Tuesday, killing her and a passenger in a fiery wreck.

Brooke Miranda Hughes, 18, was behind the wheel on Interstate 380 near Tobyhanna as she live-streamed her car ride with 19-year-old friend, Chaniya Morrison-Toomey, who can be heard saying Are you going live? in the now-deleted footage, according to the Associated Press.

Before Hughes could answer, bright lights flash inside the car and sounds of screeching tires can be heard, followed by seven-minutes of blackness, the Scranton Times-Tribune reported. The teens were declared dead at the scene and were driving on a spare tire, according to Pennsylvania State Trooper Dave Peters.

At the end of the eight-minute video, a man is heard speaking and a blurry, bearded face can be seen before it ends.

Michael Jay Parks, the driver of the tractor-trailer, was unhurt in the deadly accident. Investigators told the Scranton Times-Tribune that it is too early to determine if Parks will be charged.

The Monroe County Coroners Office conducted autopsies on the teens on Wednesday. In their autopsy reports, it states investigators could not visually identify Hughes and Morrison-Toomey due to the car burning.

State Police said the Facebook Live video will be used as evidence in their investigation.

People watching Live video can report potential violations of our Community Standards, and we will take the appropriate action, Andrea Saul, a Facebook spokeswoman, explained to the Scranton Times-Tribune. We also encourage people to contact law enforcement if they see a Live stream in which someone is in danger.

A GoFundMe page has been set up by friends and family of Morrison-Toomey to pay for her funeral expenses.
From Country Living

The city of Montreal recently revealed its Christmas tree in the downtown area-and the public's response to it has been nothing but negative.

The massive 70-foot tree, which was installed to celebrate the city's 375th anniversary, has even been compared to Charlie Brown's infamously scrawny and lopsided tree.

Although the title of largest tree in North America ultimately went to New York's Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, we don't think the Canadian tree isn't as bad as people are making it out to be.

A few optimistic folks (who clearly got the memo about the true meaning of Christmas!) have had nothing but positive things to say about the balsam fir tree.

Christmas trees don't have to be perfect to do their job, right?!

(h/t Buzzfeed)

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A new survey from Pew Research Center shows the American public describes President-elect Donald Trump as "patriotic" and a "strong leader"  but also "hard to like" and "reckless."

Republican voters were much more likely to describe Trump as "honest," "inspiring," and "well-qualified," but most Americans overall said they don't ascribe those attributes to him.

Trump's unfavorability ratings were sky-high during the campaign. He and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton were two of the most disliked presidential candidates in recent history.

Here's how poll respondents described Trump:

Pew Trump

The breakdown showing how Democrats and Republicans responded shows how divided they are on Trump:

Trump Pew

Pew conducted its survey between November 30 and December 5.

NOW WATCH: Trump goes on a tweetstorm less than 48 hours after promising to be more 'restrained' on Twitter





More From Business Insider


* Pernod to buy majority stake in Smooth Ambler

* Deal follows Germany's Monkey 47 gin acquisition

* Deal also marks return of Pernod to U.S. bourbon market

By Dominique Vidalon

PARIS, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Pernod Ricard, the world's second-largest spirits group, has agreed to buy a majority stake in Smooth Ambler Spirits, the U.S. maker of Old Scout bourbon and Greenbrier gin, further strengthening its portfolio of premium craft spirits.

The purchase, for an undisclosed sum, follows the acquisition earlier this year of a majority stake in super premium German gin maker Monkey 47, in a bid to tap growing global demand for craft spirits.

The investment made by Pernod Ricard's North America subsidiary NBV Investments Inc also marks the return of the French spirits maker to the American whiskey market following its sale of Wild Turkey, the Kentucky bourbon, to Campari in 2009.

With small, independent distillers popping up and taking market share worldwide, spirits giants such as Pernod Ricard and Diageo have responded with premium products that tout small batch production and local credentials.

"This investment illustrates perfectly our strategy of partnering with rising entrepreneurs sharing the same passion for authentic, high-quality brands," Pernod Ricard CEO Alexandre Ricard said in a statement.

"It represents a strong opportunity to enter the fast-growing, high-end bourbon market extending even more our fantastic portfolio of genuine brands in our number 1 market."

The deal will allow Smooth Ambler to boost its spirits production, which currently stands at 10,000 cases of nine-litre bottles per year. It is expected to close in early 2017, pending regulatory approval.

Founded in 2009, Smooth Ambler Spirits Co.is located in the Greenbrier Valley of West Virginia. It uses regional natural resources and ingredients to produce gins, vodkas, rums and whiskeys, including the Old Scout Single Barrel Bourbon, which sells for $65 per bottle.

Story continues

Pernod said earlier this week it was confident of hitting its goal for "mid-single digit" sales growth this financial year in its top U.S. market, thanks to main growth driver Jameson Irish whiskey but also robust demand for brands such as Malibu rum, Martell cognac and Altos tequila.

By 1034 GMT Pernod Ricard shares gained over 2 percent, at 100.40 euros, among the top gainers on the CAC-40 index of French blue chips.

(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)
Drug pricing is back in focus with President-elect Donald Trump making it clear that he does not like price increases. In an interview with TIME magazine, which has named him 2016 Person of the Year, Trump said that his intentions may have been misread by some stock analysts and that his goal has not wavered -- he does not like what happened to drug prices and he will bring down drug prices.



The other major news this week was the wave of job cuts announced by companies like AstraZeneca AZN, Mylan MYL and Endo ENDP.



Recap of the Weeks Most Important Stories



Is Sanofi Contemplating a Counterbid for Actelion? According to a Bloomberg article, Actelion, which had confirmed that it is in discussions with Johnson & Johnson, could well receive an offer from French pharma giant, Sanofi SNY. Per sources, Sanofi is apparently considering a counterbid for Actelion and is weighing its options. The company is yet to decide whether it will approach Actelion with a formal offer.



Actelion has often been considered an attractive takeover target mainly due to its rare disease portfolio. In addition to holding a strong position in the pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) market, Actelions portfolio also has treatments approved in certain countries for specialist diseases like type I Gaucher disease, Niemann-Pick type C disease, digital ulcers in patients suffering from systemic sclerosis, and mycosis fungoides type cutaneous T-cell lymphoma.



Meanwhile, Sanofi continues to work on bringing new products to market. The company and its partner, Regeneron said that their Dupixent regulatory application has been accepted for review by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for the treatment of adults with moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis (AD) who are candidates for systemic therapy. Dupixent is currently under priority review in the U.S. where a response is expected by Mar 29, 2017.



AstraZeneca, Mylan & Endo Announce Job Cuts: AstraZeneca and Mylan have announced job cuts as part of their restructuring programs. AstraZeneca said that it is looking to transform its U.S. Commercial business as part of its return to growth strategy. The company will be eliminating 700 positions across the U.S. organization, including the North America Commercial headquarters and some field-based sales and field-based non-sales roles and will be cutting discretionary spend as well to lower costs. AstraZenecas U.S. sales have been under pressure due to the loss of exclusivity of key drugs like Crestor and Nexium with new product sales not being enough to bridge the gap.



Meanwhile, Mylan, which made quite a few significant acquisitions since 2015, is looking to streamline its global operations. As part of the integration of these deals, the company said that it expects up to 10% of its global workforce to be impacted (Read more: Mylan Stock Falls on Restructuring Plans, Layoffs).



Specialty pharma company Endo also announced job cuts this week. The company said that with the return of Belbuca rights to BioDelivery Sciences, it no longer needs field sales promotion for its established pain products portfolio. As a result, the company will be letting go of its 375-person U.S. Branded pain sales field force. Endo has had a dismal run so far this year with the stock underperforming the Zacks categorized Medical-Drugs industry with the company declining 75.3% year-to-date compared to the industry decline of 26.2%.



Data Presentations and Updates: Several companies were present at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH), the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) with data on their approved drugs and pipeline candidates. Merck presented updated results on its anti-PD-1 therapy, Keytruda, for relapsed or refractory classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL). Results showed an overall response rate (ORR) of 69% and a complete remission rate (CRR) of 22.4%. Updated data was also presented on patients with relapsed or refractory primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphoma (PMBCL), a type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, who were ineligible for or failed to respond to autologous stem-cell transplantation (ASCT).



Bristol-Myers BMY was also present at ASH with partner Seattle Genetics with data from an ongoing phase I/II study evaluating Adcetris plus Opdivo in relapsed or refractory classical Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) -- data support the continued evaluation of the combination. Bristol-Myers also presented data on Opdivo at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer 17th World Conference on Lung Cancer (Read more: Bristol-Myers Reports Data from Opdivo Combination Studies). AstraZeneca was also present at this conference with data on Tagrisso (Read more: AstraZeneca Presents Tagrisso Data at Medical Meeting).



Lilly LLY presented data on its experimental cancer treatment, abemaciclib, at SABCS for early-stage breast cancer. The company presented positive data from a mid-stage study and said that it continues to look into the use of the candidate as both a single-agent therapy or in combination with aromatase inhibitors, such as Arimidex (anastrozole), in the early-stage setting.



Pfizer Fined in the UK for Price Hike: Pfizer PFE got stuck with a record 84.2 million fine this week for charging excessive and unfair prices in the UK for phenytoin sodium capsules, an anti-epilepsy drug. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) also fined distributor Flynn Pharma 5.2 million and said that the fines follow price increases of up to 2,600% overnight after the drug was deliberately de-branded in Sep 2012. The companies have been ordered to reduce their prices. Pfizer issued a statement refuting the findings and will be appealing all aspects of the CMAs decision (Read more: Pfizer Fined for Price Hike of Anti-Epilepsy Drug in UK). Pfizer is a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stock. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.



Lilly-AZN in Alzheimers Deal: Although Lilly suffered a setback in its efforts to develop a treatment (solanezumab) for Alzheimers disease, the company continues with its efforts in this therapeutic area and is collaborating with AstraZeneca for the development of MEDI1814. MEDI1814, an antibody selective for amyloid-beta 42 (A42), is currently in early-stage studies. AstraZeneca and Lilly already have an agreement for another investigational Alzheimers treatment, AZD3293, a BACE inhibitor currently in two pivotal studies.



Lilly also got a boost with the FDA expanding the label of its diabetes drug, Jardiance, which is partnered with Boehringer Ingelheim. The drug is now indicated for the reduction of the risk of cardiovascular death in adults with type II diabetes and established cardiovascular disease. Jardiance sales should receive a significant boost being the only diabetes treatment to be approved by the FDA for this indication (Read more: Lilly: Jardiance Label to Add Cardiovascular Indication).



Performance

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Large Cap Pharmaceuticals Industry Price Index

Large Cap Pharmaceuticals Industry Price Index

The NYSE ARCA Pharmaceutical Index remained almost flat over the last five trading days with Pfizer declining 1.7% reflecting concerns regarding the price hike fine in the UK. Lillys shares were up 1.9% during this period. Over the last six months, Merck gained 4.3% while Bristol-Myers declined 24.8% (See the last pharma stock roundup here: Nivalis Falls on Study Data, Priority Reviews for Merck's Keytruda).





What's Next in the Pharma World?



Watch out for the usual pipeline and regulatory updates as well as deals and collaborations.



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MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine senators have criticized the way President Rodrigo Duterte is carrying out his anti-narcotics campaign, saying it should be done within the bounds of the law and he must punish erring police officers. Police say 2,004 people have been killed by officers in self-defence during anti-drug operations since the president took office on July 1. Another 3,060 killings have been classified as "under investigation". Senators said while they had found no clear proof that the rising number of extrajudicial killings was state-sponsored, they told Duterte to observe due process and give the accused their day in court. Duterte has denied the police are conducting extrajudicial killings. But at the same time, he has welcomed the death toll. In September, he said he'd be "happy to slaughter" three million drug addicts. The president has repeatedly told the police to "kill" accused drug dealers if they violently resist, or if officers feel their lives are in danger. "The war against illegal drugs must be won within the legal system, and the president must lead in reminding the people of this important message," the senators said in a report after conducting an inquiry into extrajudicial killings. The senators, including the president's allies, also cautioned the unpredictable Duterte to be "careful with his words (and) avoid inappropriate statements lest they be construed as policies of the state." The president's spokesman and communications secretary were not available for comment on the report. Duterte won a May election on a promise to wipe out drugs and dealers. Amid concerns human rights groups about the surge in drug-related killings, Duterte has repeatedly defended the police, saying he was willing to go to jail for them. On Wednesday, Duterte defended police officers who killed a detained mayor on a list of top drug suspects even after another law enforcement agency concluded the death was an extrajudicial killing. "When the police deem themselves to be omnipotent, they are emboldened and more killings ensue; the duty to protect the people is thrown out the window," the senators said in their report, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters on Friday. "The offshoot will be silencing accused drug pushers and drug lords without affording them the bill of rights guaranteed to them by the constitution." The president must raise police standards and accountability, they said. "When the police violate the law, they must be punished," they said. "The time to act and end the impunity of killing is now," the senators said. (Reporting by Karen Lema; Editing by Robert Birsel)
MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has set into motion a proposal to amend the 1987 constitution to set up a federal system of government to end conflict and give a further boost to the economy. Duterte has signed an executive order creating a 25-member panel to propose specific amendments to the charter. The order was made public on Friday. His executive secretary Salvador Medialdea said this week that the consultative committee, whose members will soon be appointed by Duterte, was given a six-month deadline to make its proposals before Congress can vote on the changes. The existing constitution ratified in 1987 abolished the parliamentary system which dictator Ferdinand Marcos created and reverted to a presidential form, similar to that of the country's former colonial master, the United States. Duterte has said that a federal form of government would help end conflict with Muslim minority in the south, which has killed more than 120,000 people and displaced 2 million. Two Muslim rebel factions have been negotiating for an autonomous region in the south for four decades and Duterte believes a federal system, which can grant more political and economic power to the minority, can end the rebellion. Duterte has also vowed to step down from power even before his term ends in 2022 if the two houses of Congress can set up the federal system in the next few years. "If you can give me that document, I would urge you to call for an election," Duterte has said. "I will go, do not worry about me, I don't have any ambition." Medialde said Duterte also favored constitutional change to further open up the economy, amending restrictive provisions such as limiting foreign investment in retail and other sectors to 40 percent. Land ownership would remain in Filipino hands. Senators, including those in the minority faction, are expected to go along with the president's proposal. "I think the consensus is there, after 30 years, there is need to review the constitution," said Senator Franklin Drilon, a senior member of the rival Liberal Party. (Reporting By Manuel Mogato; Editing By Kim Coghill)
A millennium-old minaret towering above Aleppo's Umayyad mosque, an imposing citadel overlooking the old city center, a medieval covered market and a 21st century shopping mall. Before Syria's ruinous civil war struck Aleppo, the country's largest city was a busy commercial powerhouse and a proud historic center - its long heritage on display in ancient landmarks still used by modern day traders, travelers or worshippers. But the war that erupted across Syria in 2011 exploded into Aleppo in the summer of 2012, when rebel fighters took over the east of the city. The rebels hoped their march into Aleppo marked the beginning of the end for President Bashar al-Assad, while the government in Damascus pledged to swiftly drive them out. Neither side achieved those goals, and the war in Aleppo dragged on more than four years. As the fighting ground on, Aleppo became the biggest prize of the civil war, even as the city itself crumbled under air strikes from government forces and bombardment by both sides. Sections of the medieval souq, or market, have been ruined or burnt down, and the 11th century minaret at the Umayyad mosque was destroyed three years ago. Modern structures have also suffered. The Shahba shopping mall on the outskirts of the city has closed - taken over by various insurgent groups during different phases of the fighting around Aleppo. The Baron Hotel, whose guest list included Kemal Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey; British colonial officer T.E. Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia; and King Faisal of Syria and Iraq, found itself abandoned on the front line. Now the Syrian army, backed by Assad's Russian and Iranian allies, is poised to recapture the city after taking back all but a pocket of rebel territory in the east. For the government, victory is in sight. But Aleppo is changed. Much is in ruins, and much has been lost - surviving only in pictures and memories. (Writing by Dominic Evans, editing by Larry King)
* Ping An CFO sees investment opportunities in U.S. and Europe

* To improve ties with Blackstone, others for outbound deals (Adds details, more CFO comments)

Dec 9 (Reuters) - Ping An Insurance Group Co of China Ltd , the country's second-largest insurer, has seen some of its outbound M&A deals impacted by Beijing's measures to stem capital outflows, its group chief financial officer (CFO) said on Friday.

After facing difficulties converting yuan into foreign currencies and shifting capital offshore, Ping An is seeking to raise debt capital in overseas markets in a bid to overcome the funding issues, CFO Jason Yao said.

Ping An plans to sell U.S. dollar-denominated bonds and borrow from banks offshore to finance its outbound deals, Yao added.

"The Chinese government's move to tighten capital outflows has an impact on Ping An in the short-term," Yao said, as it has become more difficult to purchase foreign currency.

China has been stepping up measures to stem capital outflows as it battles to reverse outflows that undermine its currency and eat into its foreign exchange reserves. Record outbound M&As from China this year has put deal flows under the spotlight.

Chinese regulators, however, reiterated on Tuesday that there is "no change" in government policies to encourage Chinese companies to "go global", according to a statement jointly released by the National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Commerce, the People's Bank of China and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.

Apart from seeking capital offshore, Yao said Ping An plans to strengthen its partnership with foreign private equity firms and property funds, including Blackstone Group LP, in its outbound deals.

A spokeswoman for Blackstone declined to comment.

Yao said the United States and Europe will remain the key markets for Ping An's overseas investments despite uncertainty due to Donald Trump's U.S. presidential election win and Britain's vote to exit the European Union. Ping An is targeting investments in property, infrastructure and aviation leasing, he said.

Story continues

"Our investments in the U.S. are mainly financial investments, which won't involve the national interests between the U.S. and China."

"That [Trump Administration] won't change our investment strategy in the U.S."

He added that the Shenzhen-based group has also run out of quota for the Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor (QDII) programme, which enables registered Chinese financial institutions to invest a limited amount of funds in foreign financial assets. Ping An declined to disclose the size of its QDII quota.

The financial conglomerate currently has about 5 percent of its total insurance assets abroad, according to Yao. That is well below the 15 percent cap imposed by China's insurance regulator, giving it ample room to splurge. It plans to gradually increase its overseas investments to 10 percent over the next three to five years.

"Of course we want to increase our overseas investments. I hope it's not a long-term." (Writing by Denny Thomas; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Christopher Cushing)
If youve ever wanted to stalk your exs new significant other, then Brittany Snow has the song for you.

Hey, what are you doing for the next, like, 13 hours? Dont do anything healthy. Dont be productive. Give in to your desire, the Pitch Perfect star sings in a preview clip exclusive to PEOPLE from Fridays episode of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.

Snow guest stars on the CW musical dramedy as Anna, the new girlfriend of Josh (Vincent Rodriguez III). After finding out about Anna, Joshs exes Rebecca (Rachel Bloom) and Valencia (Gabrielle Ruiz) begin to research Anna online.

Research me obsessively, Snow sings as Anna eggs on Rebecca and Valencia while they comb through her public Instagram account and conspire to trick her into giving them access to her private account. Find out everything you can about me.

Snows Anna was introduced briefly in November and the actress will be featured heavily in tonights episode and will appear in at least one more this season.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend airs Fridays at 9 p.m. ET on the CW.




From Esquire

Over the weekend, 28-year-old Edgar Maddison Welch walked into Comet Ping Pong and pointed an assault rifle at an employee-all because of Pizzagate. He surrendered when he discovered the entire thing was fake, and no one was hurt, but the entire situation is just one example of how truly dangerous and grave the fake news problem truly is-especially because Welch apparently thought he was doing genuine good.

In a new interview with New York Times reporter Adam Goldman published Wednesday, Welch said from jail that he "just wanted to do some good and went about it the wrong way...I regret how I handled the situation."

Welch, who's from North Carolina, traveled 350 miles to the restaurant to give it a "closer look" and "shine some light on it"-but as he drove, he felt his "heart breaking over the thought of innocent people suffering," according to the Times. Though he wouldn't say why he took the assault rifle into the restaurant, court documents state that he wanted to rescue children in this fake child sex slave ring.

However, though Welch did indeed surrender his weapon when he found no evidence of children "inside that dwelling," he wouldn't dismiss the story outright to the Times:

"The intel on this wasn't 100 percent," he said. However, he refused to dismiss outright the claims in the online articles, conceding only that there were no children "inside that dwelling." He also said that child slavery was a worldwide phenomenon.

In addition, he wasn't able to confirm his sources to the Times, saying that he originally learned about Pizzagate through word of mouth, then "really...look[ed] into it" when he had internet installed in his house.

He doesn't like the term fake news, and though he voted for neither Trump nor Clinton, he has listened to Alex Jones (who, it must be noted, thinks Hillary Clinton wants to kill him). "He's a bit eccentric," Welch told the Times. "He touches on some issues that are viable but goes off the deep end on some things."

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(H/T The New York Times)

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Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller. (Photo: Eric Gay/AP)

The Texas politician whom President-elect Donald Trump is said to be considering for his Cabinet doesnt let the truth get in the way of a good story.

Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller has been taken to task for disseminating misinformation on his Facebook page to his nearly 340,000 followers. His penchant for posting unsubstantiated stories came into the spotlight along with the news that he was in the running for U.S. agriculture secretary under the forthcoming Trump administration.

Im not a news organization. Yall are holding me to the same standards as you would a news organization, and you know its just Facebook, Miller said in an interview with Austin-based KUT News on Wednesday.

Nevertheless, citizens who are apt to trust information coming from the head of a state agency might now erroneously believe that the U.S. Communist Party endorsed Hillary Clintons 2016 presidential campaign or that the FBI discovered a jihadi training compound in Texas but could not act because of red tape.

Miller told KUT News that he would take down stories if someone points out to him that they are inaccurate or false but insists that Facebook is not a reliable source for news anyway. He said he cant be bothered to check whether information hes posting is correct before sharing it.

Im not a news source. I shouldnt be held to that standard, he reiterated. I put things up there. Im very, very active on it. Hundred and fifty posts a week. No, Im not going to research every one of them. If its thought-provoking, Ill put it up there and let the readers decide. Everybody that reads that is grownups.

Miller is said to be in the running for the secretary of agriculture under the forthcoming Trump administration. (Photo: Eric Gay/AP)

The Texas politician described himself as edgy and said he has a strong personality and that he does not apologize for that, even though no one took issue with his edginess  they found fault in his inaccurate information.

Im not like any other statewide official. Ive never been politically correct. I really never cared what the press said or does. I do my thing, Miller told KUT News.

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This is not the first time his social media activity has drawn outrage. He infamously called Clinton a c*** on Twitter (which he later blamed on a staffer) and called for nuking the Muslim world on Facebook (for which he did not apologize).

On Dec. 3, the Texas Tribune published an analysis of Millers social media history, which focused on 10 different postings of demonstrably false, misleading or unsupported information. The Tribune points out that these fake stories typically came from obscure far-right websites and were accompanied with commentary from Miller.

Among the batch were articles claiming that President Obama smiled while holding up a T-shirt featuring Communist revolutionary Che Guevara in Cuba, a Texan was forced to take down his American flag as to not offend Muslims, pop star Lady Gaga planned to cover her face until Trump is fired from the Oval Office and Clinton wanted to draft young women into the military.

Miller, seen here with the Texas Capitol in the distance, says that he trusts his social media family to determine whats newsworthy. (Photo: Eric Gay/AP)

In response to the report, like clockwork, Miller took to social media to boast that he has more Facebook followers (335,000) than the Tribune (75,000). He said he trusts his social media family to determine whats newsworthy.

Regardless whether the Texas Tribune or other members of the mainstream media likes it, we will continue to post things we find newsworthy, interesting, thought-provoking. funny, or controversial and let our followers decide whether its news, satire, or something else, he wrote. As they say over at Fox News. We report. You decide!

Another major Trump administration hire, retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, has also been caught repeatedly sharing fake news and interacting with conspiracy theorists. Flynn is set to be Trumps national security adviser. His son, Michael Flynn Jr., was kicked off the transition team after he backed a false conspiracy theory that led to a gunman attacking a pizzeria in Washington, D.C. (No one was harmed.)

The prevalence of fake news has been a hot topic since the general election. In her first speech since losing the general election, Clinton decried the epidemic of fake news on Thursday.

Its now clear that so-called fake news can have real-world consequences, she said during a speech on Capitol Hill. This isnt about politics or partisanship. Lives are at risk.

Related video:
Getty Image

As part of his farewell media tour, President Barack Obama will be interviewed on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah on December 12. The president has been a guest on the show before, but the interview will be a bit different as it will be done at the White House.

Comedy Central appears to be pulling out all the stops for the interview, as it plans to simulcast it on Comedy Central, MTV and BET. Obama has been on the Comedy Central staple seven times, but this is the first time Noah will have a chance to chat with him. And Obama will be on his home turf, so it remains to be seen whether or not Noah will probe him over any regrets he has on his administration or what he really thinks about Donald Trump taking over his job. So far the president has been civil in talking about the president-elect, even providing a quasi-mentor role, but perhaps Noah may be able to delve a little further.

Since taking over the reigns from Jon Stewart in September 2015. Noah has made himself stand out from Stewarts tenure by having eclectic guests, including controversial political talking head Tomi Lahren, which has since taken on a life of its own.

Obama is the first sitting president to have taken part in late-night talk show interviews and this last appearance on The Daily Show may be his swan song.

(Via Comedy Central)
President Barack Obama is crossing one more last off his list: Hell make his final appearance as president on The Daily Show  his first with host Trevor Noah  on Monday, Dec. 12.

Comedy Central announced the appearance on Friday.

RELATEDIf Jon Stewart Had Not Stepped Down From The Daily Show, Hillary Clinton Would Most Likely Be President

The interview will take place at the White House. Obama has appeared on the late night faux newscast seven other times, two of them before he became president. His last time in the Daily Show guest seat happened in July 2015, about a month before Jon Stewart gave up the hosts chair.

You know, I cant believe that youre leaving before me, Obama told Stewart at the time. In fact, Im issuing a new executive order: that Jon Stewart cannot leave the show.

VIDEOSTrevor Noahs Daily Show Imagines Trump Victory in 2020-Set Episode

The episode, which airs at 11/10c, will be simulcast on MTV and BET, as well.

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Getty Image

President Barack Obama is obviously not spending his final few weeks in office as a lame duck, as he has ordered a full review of the 2016 election by U.S. intelligence after several reports of Russian interference have surfaced in the weeks after. Several contentious recount efforts are currently under way (or bogged down in court) in several states, but this is the first major instance of federal involvement.

In the run-up to the election, intelligence agencies suggested that a Russian-backed cyber attack was imminent. Whats more, their fears were backed up by additional reports following the election. Some security officials even urged Hillary Clinton to call for a recount based on Russias apparent interference. Even so, the White House has yet to announce whether or not they believe Russia was behind the supposed attacks. Plus, Russian President Vladimir Putin has denied all claims.

Everything changed on Friday when Obamas counter-terrorism and Homeland Security adviser Lisa Monaco told reporters about the inquiry, whose goal is to assess the situation and determine whether or not anything shady occurred:

We may be crossed into a new threshold and it is incumbent upon us to take stock of that, to review, to conduct some after-action, to understand what this means, what has happened and to impart those lessons learned.

Many lawmakers have pushed for President Obama to reveal details from their investigation, including former Republican presidential candidate Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), who seems hellbent on leading a fact-finding mission. Graham didnt mince words when it came to calling out Putin:



I am going to lead the charge to investigate Russias role, not only in the elections but throughout the world, Graham told CNN. So Im going after Russia in every way we can go after Russia. I think theyre one of the most destabilizing influences on the world stage. I think they did interfere with our elections, and I want Putin personally to pay a price.

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Monaco went on to say the administration would share its findings with a range of stakeholders, including Congress. However, she cautioned, the investigations conclusions probably wouldnt be made public:

Thats going to be first and foremost a determination thats made by the intelligence community. We want to do so very attentive to not disclosing sources and methods that may impede our ability to identify and attribute malicious actors in the future.

It remains to be seen if Russia did, in fact, play a part in swaying the election, and if the investigations findings are ever made public, it probably wont happen until after President Obama leaves office. For his part, President-elect Donald Trump has scoffed at the notion of Russia playing a part in the election, though Bloomberg reports Democrats and some Republicans are aiming to look into Russian hacking in 2017.

(Via Politico and Bloomberg)
On Thursday's Project Runway, the star of Quantico, Priyanka Chopra, appeared as a guest judge and was extremely giving with her praise. The designers were sent to Austin, Texas to gather materials from a country supply store and Stubb's BBQ. Cornelius said, "There's a lot of weird things in there. Air filters, pots, horse heads, chickens, and ducks. It's gonna be weird." It was indeed weird as Laurence made a dress that was included horse bridles and birdseed. Chopra marveled at her dress, saying, "It's unbelievable to me and I would never tell that's made from birdseed." She added that she'd actually "rock" Laurence's outfit. Rik created a stunning dress out of dog leashes and guitar straps. Chopra commented, "Dog leashes, really? It would be something I would totally wear... It's the right amount of edgy, and dangerous, and sexy. Your unconventional outfit is really epic." Erin showed off her dress full of fake flowers that she made out of mealworms and guitar picks. Though Heidi Klum and Priyanka Chopra thought it a bit odd, they were impressed. Finally, Roberi won the challenge by knotting together twine and guitar cables. Chopra remarked, "You're an artist you have something to say. Your conventional look is so striking to me. It's really beautiful, well done."
President-elect Donald Trump, his transition team and the North Atlanta Treaty Organization (NATO) are reportedly being tested by Russia and its President Vladimir Putin as it continues to reinforce troops and missile systems in the Kaliningrad exclave in the Baltic region, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

U.S. military officials told the Journal that while NATO has plans to send a multinational force to the east in response to Russias actions in Ukraine in May, the Army 4th Infantry Division will be in Germany and Poland in January before Trump takes office. From there, the U.S. force will disperse one battalion back to Germany, one will stay in the Baltic States and a third will head to Romania.

The test for Trump lies in Kaliningrads geographic position  nestled directly between NATO members Lithuania and Poland to the southeast of the Baltic Sea  and Russias recent air and missile defense build-up in the region.

Last month, a top Russian lawmaker said the military would further deploy its S-400 air missile defense system and ballistic Iskander missiles to Kaliningrad, which Russia took control of from Germany after World War II, in order to strengthen its western border.

The movement put major European cities like Berlin and countries like Poland and Sweden in danger of attack since the S-400 has a range of 300 miles.

Trumps campaign rhetoric regarding NATO will again take center stage as Putin and his government feel out the first-time elected official. During an interview with the New York Times, Trump was asked what he would do if Russia crossed over into NATO allies and said he had reservations about coming to the aid of countries who arent paying their bills.

I dont want to tell you what Id do because I dont want Putin to know what Id do. I have a serious chance of becoming president and Im not like Obama, that every time they send some troops into Iraq or anyplace else, he has a news conference to announce it, Trump said. We have many NATO members that arent paying their bills.

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Trump added: You cant forget the bills. They have an obligation to make payments. Many NATO nations are not making payments, are not making what theyre supposed to make. Thats a big thing. You cant say forget that.

Along the campaign trail, Trump was accused of perhaps being too cozy or indirectly friendly with Putin. Those accusations were magnified following hacks perpetrated by Russia against the Democratic Party and seen as pro-Trump. The president-elect, Now, who is set to take the Oath of Office in about six weeks, has denied any ties to Russia both before and after he won the election.

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Along the campaign trail, President-elect Donald Trump was accused of perhaps being too cozy or indirectly friendly with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Those accusations were magnified following hacks perpetrated by Russia against the Democratic Party and seen as pro-Trump. The president-elect, both before and after he won the election, has denied any ties to Russia.

Now, with about six weeks left until he takes the Oath of Office, Trump, his transition team and the North Atlanta Treaty Organization (NATO) are reportedly being tested by Russia and Putin as it continues to reinforce troops and missile systems in the Kaliningrad exclave in the Baltic region, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

U.S. military officials told the Journal that while NATO has plans to send a multinational force to the east in response to Russias actions in Ukraine in May, the Army 4th Infantry Division will be in Germany and Poland in January before Trump takes office. From there, the U.S. force will disperse one battalion back to Germany, one will stay in the Baltic States and a third will head to Romania.

The test for Trump lies in Kaliningrads geographic position  nestled directly between NATO members Lithuania and Poland to the southeast of the Baltic Sea  and Russias recent air and missile defense build-up in the region.

Last month, a top Russian lawmaker said the military would further deploy its S-400 air missile defense system and ballistic Iskander missiles to Kaliningrad, which Russia took control of from Germany after World War II, in order to strengthen its western border.

The movement put major European cities like Berlin and countries like Poland and Sweden in danger of attack since the S-400 has a range of 300 miles.

Trumps campaign rhetoric regarding NATO will again take center stage as Putin and his government feel out the first-time elected official. During an interview with the New York Times, Trump was asked what he would do if Russia crossed over into NATO allies and said he had reservations about coming to the aid of countries who arent paying their bills.

Story continues

I dont want to tell you what Id do because I dont want Putin to know what Id do. I have a serious chance of becoming president and Im not like Obama, that every time they send some troops into Iraq or anyplace else, he has a news conference to announce it, Trump said. We have many NATO members that arent paying their bills.

Trump added: You cant forget the bills. They have an obligation to make payments. Many NATO nations are not making payments, are not making what theyre supposed to make. Thats a big thing. You cant say forget that. 

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By Anjuli Davies and Lawrence White

LONDON (Reuters) - Barclays Plc <BARC.L> is taking a contrarian bet that Britain's vote to leave the European Union will help it win more investment banking business in its home market, despite the sharp slowdown in deal activity since the referendum.

The British lender has reshuffled some of its top investment bankers so they can focus on the UK, anticipating that the weak pound and a quiet 2016 will lead to a rise in dealmaking and share listings next year even as the country faces its biggest political and economic shake-up since the Second World War.

At the heart of the strategy is a plan to win more advisory business from British companies the bank already lends to, with Alisdair Gayne leading the charge as head of UK investment banking.

Gayne joined Barclays from Morgan Stanley in 2010, tasked with building out its corporate broking franchise, a role he will retain. Largely a UK phenomenon, corporate brokers act as intermediaries between public companies and their institutional investors. They are meant to be a corporation's trusted adviser, built up over years of being its eyes and ears in the market.

Although it's not a particularly lucrative business on its own, the relationships built in corporate broking can be used to clinch big ticket jobs from the company when they decide to pull the trigger on equity raisings and dealmaking.

Since joining Barclays, Gayne has been challenging the grip of the top three brokers in the UK -- JPMorgan, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and UBS -- on the largest British companies. Barclays is now ranked number 5.

So far in 2016, the bank has won 8 new corporate broking mandates, including tobacco maker Imperial brands and chip designer ARM, which is being taken over by Japan's SoftBank, a deal the UK bank also won a mandate as adviser on.

Gayne is now being tasked with using corporate banking relationships as well as broking relationships to win more investment banking mandates.

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BIG OPPORTUNITY

"In the UK we're not taking full advantage of the big opportunity offered by the strength of our corporate bank," John Mahon, Barclays head of corporate and investment banking for Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia, told Reuters last week.

"Those firms ahead of us in UK investment banking aren't involved to the same extent in corporate banking," he said in an interview. "The coordination between corporate and investment banking needs to improve."

Barclays ranks a lowly ninth so far this year in advisory for announced UK target takeovers and eighth for equity capital market business, in value terms, trailing heavyweight U.S. investment banks as well as boutique advisory firms.

The new drive is part of the "Transatlantic" strategy announced by Chief Executive Jes Staley in March to focus Barclays work on Britain and the United States. In the third quarter, 54 percent of the bank's overall revenues came from its UK business and 31 percent from the Americas.

The value of mergers and acquisition deals between UK companies has plunged 67 percent to a 30-year low since the Brexit vote in June, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Overall, UK investment banking fees earned in the UK are down 14 percent so far this year to total $4.1 billion or 5.5 percent of global investment banking fees and 22.8 percent of the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) fee pool.

Back in 2000, UK investment banking fees represented 9 percent of the global fee pool and 26 percent for EMEA, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Gayne sees that turning around next year.

"There are a lot of situations where we see companies preparing for next year ... we see significant upside in UK M&A and equity deals," Gayne told Reuters.

That presented a growth opportunity, Mahon said.

"Against a backdrop of EMEA deal volumes being down this year we expect people to withdraw from the market, while we'll expand and upgrade," said Mahon.

"Maybe the market is quiet for a while, but I kind of like that ... It means it's not a bad time to invest."

FINDING A NICHE

Barclays ranks number three in Britain in terms of investment banking fees earned year-to-date, netting $230 million worth of fees or a 5.59 percent wallet share. This is up from a ranking of eight in 2008, the year it bought the Lehman Brothers investment banking franchise.

"Barclays is holding its own in the league tables, not slipping the way Deutsche Bank is in Europe and the U.S.," said David Hendler, independent analyst at New York-based Viola Risk Advisors.

The plan to squeeze more corporate finance deals from existing customers mirrors the successful strategy of U.S. rivals like JPMorgan <JPM.N> and Citigroup <C.N>.

It also reflects a broader trend for investment banks to become more specialized, as tougher regulations since the 2008 financial crisis make trying to be in every market increasingly difficult.

Barclays has named former Europe and Asia investment banking co-heads Sam Dean and Crispin Osborne to the roles of head and chairman of corporate finance for EMEA, respectively.

They said the split takes away broader managerial responsibilities and narrows their roles, allowing them to focus on key targets and client relationships while Gayne concentrates on the UK market.

"Jes has come in and said 'where's the upside? Where's the focus?'," Dean told Reuters.

"UK banks will be the most nimble around Brexit...We have said when things are clearer we are committed to quickly making this work for our clients."

Barclays on Oct. 27 reported a forecast-beating bounce in third-quarter profits to 1.7 billion pounds, in what Staley hailed as early vindication of his 'countercyclical' bet. [nL8N1CX1VR]

The bank has been making cuts elsewhere to bolster its strategy, selling billions of dollars worth of assets to make sure it only has profitable business lines.

(Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)
To create Rats, his ode to the ubiquitous rodent, director Morgan Spurlock combined horror and documentary filmmaking.

One of his first moves was to contact Emmy-winning editor and composer Pierre Takal, with whom he had previously worked on Morgan Spurlock Inside Man, to help nail down the feel of the educational thriller.

Takal was thrilled to reunite with Spurlock, and when he began reviewing the footage, he suggested a compositional tone that the director immediately embraced  one that would make audiences squirm.

We decided on a synth-heavy style, Takal says. It contrasts with whats expected from a documentary, and heightens the discomfort level.

Takal spent three months editing, a task that included studying early rat footage, in search of a storyline. While segments that were shot in New York and England made the cut, he found that beautiful cinematography highlighting Paris sewage system didnt propel the narrative. Likewise, narration provided by a New York City rat catcher was scrapped, but the man himself was so compelling that he was used as a recurring character in the story.

Rats ultimately begins with the overpopulation of rodents in New York City, and travels around the world where the rodents are not only considered disease-spreading agents, but are alternately bought as a culinary delicacy, hunted and stuffed, and worshiped in Indias Temple of Rats.

As Takal wove the individual story threads into a cohesive whole, Spurlock periodically visited the edit room to review progress and offer direction. Inspired by the editing in MTV spots during the early 90s, Takal created rapid-fire montages to heighten tension. The device was used to depict the infestation of an upscale New York City apartment, and to show rats roaming through underground drainage pipes.

Takal also developed the score. Utilizing two keyboards, he created a soundscape that pulses in the lower register, and then layered other, diverse musical styles on top of that. Pleased with the scores outcome, Spurlock had it published separately  a first in Takals composing career.

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In addition to Rats, Takal served as editor on the award-winning The Eagle Huntress, which chronicles the regimen of a 13-year-old girl who participates in the male-dominated job of hunting with an eagle. To Takal, the process of editing the two films was not that different.

Everything has a story, he says. Rats was daunting at first  it was very loose, and I wanted it cohesive. In the sum of all my reactions, the story came out.

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Photo: The CW

Marys reign may be almost over, but this queen is going out with her head held high.

The CW announced yesterday that Reign is ending after the royal dramas upcoming fourth season. That will draw a curtain on the story of Mary, Queen of Scots (Adelaide Kane), who started out as a young woman on the verge of marrying into the French royal family. Over the course of three seasons, Mary wed Francis (Toby Regbo), mourned his death, and moved back to Scotland to take her rightful throne. Season 4 is currently in production, giving Reigns writing team a chance to wrap up the series, despite the cancellation. Its something weve been talking about for a long time, even from beginning of the plotting of this season, co-creator Laurie McCarthy tells Yahoo TV. We were aware that it might be our final season. She hopes fans will find the end really moving and really satisfying.

Last time we saw Mary, she was hard at work uniting Scotland under her rule and at odds with her cousin, Queen Elizabeth (Rachel Skarsten). As history buffs know, the real Mary eventually was beheaded at the age of 45 under the order of Elizabeth. So will Reigns end line up with history? We talked about where we wanted to end Marys life and our current version of a younger queen, knowing that she doesnt really die until shes in her 40s, McCarthy explains. But luckily for us, and unluckily for the real Mary, Queen of Scots, the moves that she makes at this juncture this season really do position her for where she ends up, which is a kind of fearless demise.

Those moves include a second marriage to Lord Darnley (Will Kemp), with whom she eventually has a child (the future King James VI). It was designed as a political marriage, but it becomes a tumultuous marriage, McCarthy notes. Ultimately, there were things that she had to do to manage her husband, who was very much someone grasping for power. Through three seasons, Mary has had to face some tough choices; shell have even more coming her way. And though the real Marys ending was tragic, this season will just show a really fierce and proactive queen.

The picture that were painting of Mary, Queen of Scots, is somebody who didnt necessarily make a mistake, McCarthy says. She really befell the slings and arrows that are cast at a woman in power.

The 16-episode final season of Reign premieres Feb. 10 at 9 p.m. on The CW.
happy couple friends smiling

For many couples, money can be a point of conflict and anger  sometimes festering so much that it ends in divorce.

But at its crux, the biggest reason money can break up marriages doesn't have to do with spending sprees or covert bank accounts. In fact, it doesn't have to do with the money itself at all, but rather how couples interact in relation to it.

"It's not so much money, it's how the partners work together around money, how they relate to one another, and where each other is coming from around money," Michael McNulty, a Ph.D. at The Chicago Relationship Center and Master Trainer with The Gottman Institute, told Business Insider.

A successful marriage comes down to successful communication. Within that, money can be a particularly contentious issue because it's often tied to other values, such as trust and honesty.

"If people can't trust each other around money, more than likely, they can't trust each other about a lot of things because money is such a basic thing in a relationship," McNulty says.

With his clients, McNulty recommends developing habits that promote open, honest, and ongoing dialogue between partners. He also commonly suggests weekly "state of the marriage" check-ins, where partners have carte blanche to bring up any issues, from parenting to intimacy to finances.

"If any [problems] get gridlocked, which means that they're stuck and they're really hard to talk about, we have to work extra hard on how to talk about them," he says. "Usually having this weekly meeting helps us to talk about them."

It's also crucial for spouses to take the time to fully understand each other's money philosophies and histories. Was money tight for your partner when they were growing up? Had they been deceived about money in a prior relationship? Has handling money been an issue for them in the past?

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"If you get those stories back and forth, often it's easier for partners to understand one another," McNulty says.

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John Glenn, the lifelong pilot, decorated war veteran, and former senator who became the first American to orbit the Earth during the height of the space race, has died. He was 95.

Glenn died Thursday in his home state of Ohio, a day after news of his hospitalization was reported. He was the last-surviving member of NASAs first class of astronauts in 1959. He is survived by Annie Glenn, his wife of 73 years.

On the morning of February 20, 1962, a 40-year-old John Glenn stepped inside a Mercury capsule, the spacecraft of Americas first human spaceflight program, for the Friendship 7 mission. The launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, was broadcast live on radio and television. Go, baby! exclaimed Walter Cronkite several times on air as Glenn, the only person on board, shot into the sky. A year earlier, NASA had successfully launched Alan Shepard into space on a Mercury capsule, but human spaceflight was in its infancy and remained a potentially deadly endeavor. NASA, a fledgling four-year-old agency, believed theyd lose at least one astronaut to one of the Mercury missions. Glenns capsule was launched on the sixth iteration of the Atlas rocket, and two of the first rockets had blown up.

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Glenn entered orbit just fine, and circled the Earth three times in four hours and 56 minutes. He sounded cheerful and calm inside the capsule, making jokes to mission control and thanking the Australians who lit up their homes in greeting as he flew over their continent, while he traveled at nearly 17,500 miles per hour. Oh, that view is tremendous! he said in one iconic moment.

But Glenns return to Earth proved nerve-racking. An indicator back at mission control suggested the capsules heat shield was loose. Without an operational shield, the spacecraft would burn up during the fiery descent. Shepard instructed Glenn not to deploy the capsules retrorocket pack, which could help keep the heat shield in place, and to take manual control of the capsule. Glenn described a real fireball outside as the Mercury entered the atmosphereand then splashed safely in the Caribbean Sea, near Turks and Caicos, its passenger unharmed.

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Glenn was one of seven men chosen from a pool of 508 candidates for NASAs first class of astronauts, including Shepard, who died in 1998. Glenns historic flight was an honor, though not the one he had wanted. The astronaut-in-training had sought to be the first American in space, but was assigned as a backup to Shepard, who claimed that title in 1961. But Glenns voyage came in the midst of the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union, and his success buoyed the spirits of a watchful American public.

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Glenn was born July 18, 1921, in Cambridge, Ohio. He earned a private pilots license as a young man and joined the Marines during his college years. He flew dozens of combat missions during World War II and in the Korean War. In 1957, he flew a jet from Los Angeles to New York in three hours and 23 minutes, setting a record for transcontinental flight. The trip garnered Glenn a reputation as one of the best test pilots in the countryand an appearance on the popular game show Name That Tune. That year, Glenn volunteered for research at the space agency that preceded NASA, and got whirled around inside the high-speed centrifuge that would later prepare astronauts for the rigors of launch and re-entry.

Glenn would return to space once more after his historic jaunt around Earth, but not for another 36 years. He left the astronaut class two years after the flight and worked for a soft-drink company in Atlanta. President John F. Kennedy, with whom Glenn had formed a close friendship, had other hopes for the astronaut-turned-national hero, and had encouraged Glenn to run for political office. In 1970, Glenn launched his campaign for a Senate seat in his home state of Ohio, but lost. His second attempt in 1974 was successful. During a Democratic primary debate, Glenns challenger, businessman Howard Metzenbaum, asked him, How can you run for Senate when youve never held a job? Glenn responded by pointing to his time in the military and the space program. It wasnt my checkbook, it was my life that was on the line, he said.

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Glenn served in the Senate until 1999. He ran a short-lived campaign for president in 1983, and was accused and later exonerated in a corruption scandal involving four other senators in the early 1990s.

In the late 1990s, Glenn pitched to NASA the idea of studying the effects of spaceflight on geriatric bodies, and offered himself up as a test subject. In 1998, 77-year-old Glenn flew aboard the shuttle Discovery, becoming the oldest person to fly in space. By then, space agencies knew a lot about spaceflight. The U.S. was ferrying astronauts back and forth through the space shuttle program for missions that lasted up to 10 days. In a few years, when the International Space Station would come online, humans would be spending six months or longer in microgravity.

But researchers owe Glenn for their first taste of the experience of true weightlessness. During his orbit around Earth, Glenn reported back to mission control everything he felt. He measured his blood pressure, tested his vision by reading a small copy of the eye chart found at doctors offices, and shook his head around to see if he felt nauseous. He found, much to some scientists surprise, that he felt fine.

In fact, Glenn later wrote about the experience, I found weightlessness to be extremely pleasant.

Read more from The Atlantic:

This article was originally published on The Atlantic.
By Tom Westbrook and Charlotte Greenfield SYDNEY/WELLINGTON (Reuters) - Residents of the remote Solomon Islands rushed into the hills after a powerful 7.8 earthquake struck early on Friday, with some reports of small tsunami waves as aftershocks rattled the South Pacific nation. Authorities in the Solomons, where several significant naval battles were fought during World War Two, did not find any evidence of casualties or widespread damage by sundown, although communication can be difficult across the archipelago of some 900 far-flung islands. The huge underwater quake triggered a tsunami warning for a wide swath of the South Pacific. While that warning was later canceled by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC), the threat of aftershocks and unusual waves, abnormal high tides and currents meant many villagers near the epicenter were preparing to spend the night in the relative safety of the hills. Life appeared to be back to normal for most people on the Solomons' six main islands within hours of the quake, although residents in southern Makira province closest to the epicenter remained cautious. The province on San Cristobal island, about 200 km (120 miles) east of the capital, Honiara, was still being rattled by aftershocks more than 12 hours after the first quake. "We are quite safe up the hill from the sea," John Pirimare, a resident on Nafinua Island, told Reuters by telephone from the hills to where he and up to 600 other villagers had evacuated immediately after the quake. Constable Abel Muri from the Kirakira police station in Makira said there were no reported casualties. "Some people are beginning to come back in to town, but others have stayed at the higher ground," Muri told Reuters. "We are now just experiencing the smaller earthquakes." The U.S. Geological Survey originally recorded the pre-dawn quake with a magnitude of 8.0 but later downgraded it to 7.8. There was a modest rise in the sea level in the region, with a 43 cm (17 inches) lift recorded in neighboring New Caledonia, south of the epicenter, according to the Hawaii-based PTWC. While the PTWC canceled its warning of a potentially hazardous tsunami for the Solomons and neighboring island chains, authorities in New Caledonia ordered people on the east coast and in the Loyalty islands to move to higher ground. Martin Karani, a politician who represents Makira in the Solomons parliament, said the southern parts of the province were the most affected. "Waves have come in to the villages and taken away the dugout canoes that were on the shore and also some houses that were down near the beach, but when it came through all of the villagers had already taken off," he told Reuters. He said he had heard on short-wave radio, the only means of contacting the remote, worst-hit areas, that around 25 houses were washed away on the western side of the island. The Solomons, perched on the geologically active "Pacific Ring of Fire", were hit by a devastating tsunami following an 8.1 magnitude quake in 2007. That disaster killed at least 50 people, left dozens missing and destroyed 13 villages. Lyndene Wan from the charity group Plan International Australia said residents in the capital were largely unruffled. "Things definitely shook for some minutes, but Im walking around, Ive been up the hill, and looking out over Honiara there is no visible damage here," Wan said. (Additional reporting by Jane Wardell, Byron Kaye, Swati Pandey; Writing by Jonathan Barrett; Editing by Lincoln Feast Paul Tait)
Photo credit: Zach Gibsonundefined

From Esquire

Speaker Paul Ryan, the zombie-eyed granny starver from the state of Wisconsin, tells us via CNBC not to worry our silly little heads about the possibility that the president-elect is just in it to loot the country.

"I have every bit of confidence he's going to get himself right with moving himself from the business guy that he is to the president he's going to be," Ryan told CNBC's "Squawk Box." Ryan said the "legal details of how he divorces himself from his business" do not concern him in Congress. "I know he will" cut himself off from his companies, Ryan said. The Wisconsin Republican said he instead plans to focus on legislation for tax reform, Affordable Care Act repeal and other issues when Trump takes office in January.

Translation from the original weaselspeak: "I don't care if he sells off Yellowstone to Ivanka for five bucks as long as I get to make the lives of 20 million Americans properly miserable."

Biggest. Fake. Ever.

Click here to respond to this post on the official Esquire Politics Facebook page.

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By Sarah N. Lynch WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Fast food executive Andy Puzder, President-elect Donald Trump's choice to head the Labor Department, could be in a position to undermine the agency's new rule on retirement advice which has long been opposed by the financial industry. Puzder has not publicly commented on the fiduciary rule, which is due to go into effect in April, but a glimpse into the 401(k) plans he offers his own employees at CKE Restaurants may provide a few clues about his philosophy. The plan is less generous than some of its fast food competitors, according to data and analysis from Brightscope Inc, a research company that rates 401k plans. In 2015, CKE opted not to match the retirement contributions of the plan's participants, according to Labor Department data. The plan also carries high-fee investments, has low participation and generally scores worse than many of its rivals even in the notoriously high-turnover, low-benefit fast-food industry, according to Brightscope. The CKE plan suggests that Puzder will bring "more of an industry-friendly perspective to the office," said Mike Alfred, managing director at Brightscope, which ranks it below those at Jack in the Box, McDonalds and Yum! Brands Inc. A spokeswoman for CKE, a privately held company that owns and operates fast food chains including Carl's Jr. and Hardee's, referred all questions to a member of Trump's transition team. A spokeswoman for the transition team did not have an immediate comment. FIDUCIARY RULE IMPLICATIONS The plan could be a sign that CKE chief executive officer Puzder will seek to delay - or even potentially support reversing the fiduciary rule if he is confirmed in his new position by the Senate. The rule requires retirement advisers to put their clients' interests ahead of their own by eliminating conflicts of interest that can lead some brokers to recommend investments that will get them a higher commission or fee. It applies to 401(k) type plans as well as privately-held Individual Retirement Accounts. The financial sector has opposed the rule, saying it may drive up the cost of getting good retirement advice and leave consumers with access to fewer products. But companies have already put money into getting ready for it, with some changing their broker compensation plans. With so much money already invested, financial firms may not wish to see it reversed now, said Barbara Roper, director of investor protection for the Consumer Federation of America. "It's not just a slam dunk to reverse course," she said. Should Puzder want to take action against the rule, his quickest move could be to delay its implementation while the Labor Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission, which has considered a comparable rule for all investment advisers, take another look. One way to delay it could entail declining to enforce the rule. The rule likely will get delayed, Cowen and Company research analyst Jaret Seiberg wrote in a note to clients on Thursday. Puzder "does not sound like the type of individual who would be supportive of a fiduciary duty regime." Trump's adviser Anthony Scaramucci of Skybridge Capital has pledged to repeal it The rule is already in jeopardy. Several financial trade groups, including the Chamber of Commerce, have filed lawsuits to kill it. Republican members of Congress are gunning to have it repealed and may be able to muster enough votes without the fear of a veto after Trump becomes president. Missouri Republican Rep. Ann Wagner, a chief architect of a bill that would largely derail the fiduciary rule, on Friday praised Trump's plan to nominate Puzder. "I look forward to working with Andy next year to repeal the fiduciary rule," she said in a statement. Progressive groups who support the rule are vowing to fight for its survival and plan to try and highlight its populist appeal for everyday Americans. "The thing that we will try to do... is make incredibly clear that anyone who votes on the wrong side of this is putting themselves with corporate America up against the American public," said Lisa Gilbert, a director of Public Citizen's Congress Watch division who closely follows the issue. (Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Linda Stern and Alistair Bell)
Sometimes Neil Young makes music for the ages; other times  as on his second album of 2016, following June's folk-absurdist amalgam Earth  Young makes music for the news cycle.

Recorded in four days, Peace Trail contains casual social and political observations set to folk tracks improvised alongside drummer Jim Keltner and bassist Paul Bushnell. Young's latest batch of tunes righteously rebuke the Dakota Access Pipeline, trigger-happy cops, environmental malfeasance and smartphone zombies.

There's not an "Ohio" in the bunch but Young's grizzled jeremiads can be endearing. The title track, a melodically glorious paean to existential uncertainty festooned with scrumptious electric guitar, evokes a "rainbow teepee sky." Peace Train also has revealing personal moments. "Cant Stop Working" offers a hint into what continues to drive Youngs obsessive determination to keep writing and recording; the 71-year-old, who's dodged plenty of health issues over the course of his life, sings about persevering himself through productivity: "Well I can't stop workin'/'cause I like to work when nothin' else is goin' on." And those interested in Young's feelings regarding his recent divorce will find clues, if not answers, in "Glass Accident," wherein he refuses to pick up the pieces.

When it comes to politics, Young comes off high on outrage but low on specifics. In the blues-vamping Standing Rock songs "Indian Givers" and "Show Me," Young points his finger at faceless "big money" while yearning for someone to "bring back the days when good was good," among other homilies. In the long, casually delivered talking blues track "John Oaks," a chai-drinking, weed-smoking irrigation expert is shot by mistake when his truck backfires. And "Texas Rangers" confusingly seems to both praise and condemn its titular mythic Western heroes over one of the less elegant guitar riffs to ever grace a Neil Young album.

Beginning as one of Young's trademark acoustic love serenades, concluding track "My New Robot" morphs suddenly into a callback to Trans, his formerly disparaged but currently lauded 1982 experiment in electronic dystopia. The arrival of a package from Amazon  and guess what's inside  abruptly transforms the tune into a Black Mirror episode, but the vocoder programming instructions and references to colorblindness are real head scratchers. Another track, "My Pledge," has an older gentleman griping wistfully about people "walkin' with their eyes looking' at the screen." Songs like these are minor Neil, but minor Neil is better than no Neil at all  which, considering his output this century, doesnt seem like a dystopia we're going to have to deal with too soon.





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Italian reports said Roma fans tarnished a minutes silence being observed for victims of the Chapecoense plane crash on December 8 by chanting anti-Lazio slogans.

The silence was being observed before the clubs Europa League clash with Astra Giurgiu in Bucharest.

A few minutes after the chanting, clashes broke out between the Roma fans and the stadium stewards, sport reports said. Credit: Thomas Botoaga via Storyful
These best friends are so similar, they even look alike.

For four years, Maria Concetta Indaimo and Elisabetta Capoccia, both 24, have lived together in Italy, where they're often mistaken for twins.

But despite their near-identical features and matching curly hair, the young women are not related.

Read: Woman Finds Her Doppelganger While Shopping on Amazon

The friends, who met during their first year of college in Pisa, star in the latest video by TwinStrangers.com, a website that seeks to match people with their lookalikes across the globe.

"When I [first] saw a photo [of us] together, I was a little shocked because we are very similar," Maria said in the video. "It's very fun that I have a twin stranger; we have lots of funny stories."

They dress alike and once, Maria asked Elisabetta to take a math test on her behalf.

"But I answered, 'no!'" Elisabetta recalled. "This is illegal in Italy!"

The women share the same friends, who sometimes get them confused. One pal, Giulia, said the day after she met Maria, she thought she saw her having breakfast. "So I started talking to her and she asked me, 'how can you know me so well if we never talked?'"

It turned out she was speaking to Elisabetta.

Read: Twin Teens, One Black, One White, Celebrate Their Differences

The women told TwinStrangers.com that they feel very lucky to have each other.

"For me she is very important in my life, like a sister," Elisabetta said. "We have a strong relationship and I love her."

Twinstrangers.com was launched by three friends in Ireland who wanted to connect with people who look just like them. They say everyone has seven doppelgangers somewhere on the planet, and so far, they've brought people together from across the globe to meet their lookalikes face-to-face.

One member of the trio, Niamh Geaney, has found three "twin strangers" so far.

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Watch: Read: A Set of Twins Married Another Set of Twins... and the Priests and Flower Girls Were Twins, Too



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By Olga Yagova

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Rosneft said on Friday it has enough oil to fulfil new contracts with Swiss trader Glencore as markets gear up for a fierce battle between some of the world's largest merchants for supplies from the Russian company.

Moscow said this week that a consortium of Glencore and Qatar would buy a 19.5 percent stake in Rosneft for over 10 billion euros in one of the biggest energy deals of 2016.

Glencore said it would inject only 300 million euros of its own equity into the deal while getting a contract for an extra 220,000 barrels per day of supply from Rosneft.

Most analysts saw the deal as a cheap way for Glencore into getting ahead of rivals - Trafigura and Vitol - in securing lucrative Russian barrels.

However, traders said it was unclear where Rosneft would get the oil volumes for Glencore before 2018 unless it decided to scrap some of its existing deals with rivals.

"The volumes of the new contract (with Glencore) have been calculated based the already existing contracts and production plans," Rosneft said in written comments to Reuters.

"Rosneft has enough resources to fulfil the obligations."

Glencore, the world's second largest oil trader after Vitol, has long been a core partner with Russia, trading commodities from aluminium to grain and held minority stake in aluminium producer Rusal and mid-sized oil firm Russneft.

In 2013, Glencore and Vitol joined forces to loan Rosneft $10 billion and help it buy rival oil firm TNK-BP - in exchange for huge oil supplies of 67 million tonnes over 5 years.

RIVALRY WITH TRAFIGURA

But then Russia came under U.S. and European sanctions for its actions in Ukraine which made it much more difficult to lend more money to Rosneft.

However, rival Trafigura, the world's third largest oil trader, found a way to provide Rosneft with short-term funding, not covered by sanctions. As a result, Trafigura now handles the biggest volumes from Rosneft.

"I really don't know where Rosneft can get new volumes for Glencore. They either have to cancel existing contracts or have a deal to start supplies only from 2018," said a Russian crude trader familiar with Rosneft's oil flows.

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Another trader said he also saw no spare volumes that Rosneft could allocate to Glencore. "Maybe they will grow cooperation in refined products," he said.

Rosneft, which exports around 110 million tonnes of oil a year via European and Pacific ports as well as to China, will need to find some 11 million tonnes of extra crude for the new contract with Glencore, traders say.

Trafigura and China's CNPC, the biggest buyers of Rosneft volumes, purchase about 23 million tonnes per year each which makes them also the biggest importers of Russian crude oil.

Prior to the new agreement, Glencore was buying 8.5 million tonnes a year and Vitol 5 million under contracts that do not expire before 2018.

The remaining volumes are either committed to European and Asian refiners PKN Orlen, Lotos, Total, Shell and Eni, Ruhr Oel, Chemchina and JX Nippon or sold under short-term contracts to various trading houses until March.

Traders said in theory from March, Rosneft could stop holding short-term tenders for oil from the Baltic and the Black Sea to free up volumes for Glencore.

But such a strategy could be risky as Rosneft needs tenders to guarantee attractive pricing for much bigger long-term deals.

Rosneft has also acquired smaller rival Bashneft but most of its exports have been also pre-sold to Vitol until 2021.

"What is clear is that competition is heating up and someone is set to lose if Glencore was to obtain full volumes," one of the traders said.

(Additional reporting by Dmitry Zhdannikov, editing by David Evans)
The Hague (AFP) - Rotterdam police have arrested a Dutchman found with a loaded AK-47 Kalashnikov rifle and illegal fireworks who is "suspected of preparing a terrorist crime," prosecutors said Friday.

The 30-year-old was detained on Wednesday after police raided his apartment following a tip-off from the Dutch intelligence services, also seizing a painting with a picture of the flag used by the Islamic State group, mobile phones and some 1,600 euros ($1,700) in cash.

It comes with European cities on their guard following deadly attacks in Paris and Brussels and amid warnings that a current all-out offensive against IS in Iraq could see dozens of hardened fighters return home.

Rotterdam police found the gun, two loaded magazines and four boxes of illegal fireworks during the raid, prosecution spokesman Wim de Bruin told AFP.

"He's suspected of preparing such a terrorism crime, but we don't have information about the specific details," De Bruin told AFP.

The man has been taken into custody for questioning and Friday appeared before Rotterdam magistrates. He will appear in court again in two weeks.

Rotterdam is Europe's busiest port, and one of The Netherlands' most multi-cultural cities, home to many who have emigrated from abroad.

Dutch law enforcement agencies have been on high alert since the November 2015 bombings in Paris, and the March suicide attacks on the Brussels metro and airport. Both France and Belgium neighbour the small northern European country.

- Returning fighters -

Last week, the European police agency Europol warned that terror networks such as IS are evolving their tactics to attack soft targets across the continent.

And the European Union said this week that around a third of the estimated 5,000 European jihadists who went to Iraq and Syria have returned to Europe.

The EU report said there were two types of "foreign terrorist fighters" returning.

"Those in the majority that will drift back, and those who will be sent back on specific missions, which are of most concern," the report warned.

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About 270 Dutch people left to join the jihadists, and about 40 former fighters are known to have returned from combat in Syria and Iraq, where most have been fighting against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

Another 190 Dutch citizens including women and children are still in Syria and Iraq, the Dutch counter-terrorism agency said in a report last month while 44 fighters have been killed.

"The number of returning jihadist fighters will pick up should the 'caliphate' be militarily defeated or collapse," the agency said in its latest "Terrorism Threat Assessment".

"An increased number of returnees will most likely strengthen the jihadist movement within The Netherlands and therefore increase the threat posed by this group," it said.

Two recent scares saw a partial evacuation of the busy Schiphol airport, near Amsterdam, just three weeks after the Brussels bombing, when a drunken man falsely said he had a bomb in his backpack.

And last month, police swooped on Rotterdam airport in a clampdown which also turned out to be just a scare.
Cuba continues to pique the interest of American travelers, and as of this week, its become a whole lot easier to get to the Caribbean island via a cruise ship.

Just after Norwegian Cruise Line Ltd. announced that all three of their brands would begin sailing to the destination, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. stated that the Cuban government had granted two of their brandsRoyal Caribbean International and Azamara Club Crusesapproval for sailings, too.

Our guests have expressed real interest in having the opportunity to experience Cuba, and we look forward to bringing them there," said Richard D. Fain, chairman and chief executive officer of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. "Our discussions with our travel partners indicate that Cuba is a destination that appeals to a new generation of travelers.

Royal Caribbean and Norwegian also join Carnival Corporations experiential line Fathom, which began traveling to Cuba earlier this year. Fathoms single vessel, Adonia, was the first U.S. cruise ship to call in Havana in 50 years. Stay tuned for updates on when the Royal Caribbean and Azamara itineraries will be available for booking.

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Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani withdrew last week from consideration to be secretary of state or any other role in the incoming White House, President-elect Donald Trump said Friday.

"Rudy Giuliani is an extraordinarily talented and patriotic American," Trump said. "I will always be appreciative of his 24/7 dedication to our campaign after I won the primaries and for his extremely wise counsel."

Trump said that Giuliani "continues to be a close personal friend" and will be someone he looks to for advice. The president-elect said he "can see an important place for him in the administration at a later date."

Giuliani, who was initially considered a front-runner for secretary of state, was overshadowed in recent weeks by other people, including retired Gen. David Petraeus and Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and 2012 Republican presidential nominee.

"This is not about me; it is about what is best for the country and the new administration," Giuliani said in a statement explaining his decision.

The former New York City mayor, who after the release of the lewd 2005 "Access Hollywood" tape was perhaps the only surrogate who publicly defended Trump, will remain vice chairman of the presidential transition team, the campaign said.

For more news videos visit Yahoo View, available now on iOS and Android.

"Before I joined the campaign I was very involved and fulfilled by my work with my law firm and consulting firm, and I will continue that work with even more enthusiasm," Giuliani said. "From the vantage point of the private sector, I look forward to helping the president-elect in any way he deems necessary and appropriate."

Fox News host Neil Cavuto, who spoke to Giuliani after it was announced he had withdrawn his name for consideration, asked if he was at all bitter.

"Not at all. I am a very happy man," Giuliani said, adding that Trump "continues to be one of my closest friends."

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The pair will attend the Army-Navy football game on Saturday together, Giuliani said.

Trump's list of candidates for secretary of state has significantly expanded in recent days. The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday afternoon that Rex Tillerson, CEO of Exxon Mobile, was Trump's latest favorite for the post.

NOW WATCH: Why Ivanka can't serve in a Trump cabinet



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MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia plans to meet with some OPEC and non-OPEC nations on Friday to discuss unresolved issues related to a planned oil-output cut before wider talks the following day in Vienna, a Russian government source told Reuters. Russia has committed to reduce its output by 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) in the first half of 2017 in an effort to boost oil prices. Other non-OPEC countries are being urged to cut by a similar amount in total. OPEC, which produces a third of global oil, pledged on Nov. 30 to reduce output by around 1.2 million bpd from January 2017. Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan are the second- and third-biggest oil producers among ex-Soviet countries after Russia. Both have confirmed their participation in the talks between OPEC and non-OPEC producers on Saturday. "Russia sees risks ahead of the deal if questions are not resolved," the source said. "One hundred percent compliance is critical for the deal ... It's essential for non-OPEC to have a responsible approach towards the deal." The source did not identify the non-OPEC countries to which he was referring. The Russian Energy Ministry did not reply to a Reuters request for immediate comment. Energy Minister Alexander Novak plans to attend the Dec. 10 talks. The source also said there were questions regarding compliance by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, pointing to an increase in oil production by the group in November. OPEC output rose by 370,000 bpd last month, a Reuters survey showed. A Gulf oil industry source familiar with Saudi oil policy said on Friday that Saudi Arabia had informed customers about lower oil supplies from January in line with the reduction in output agreed by OPEC last week. Kazakhstan, which relaunched its giant Kashagan oilfield in November, may offer to freeze oil output at last month's level, Energy Minister Kanat Bozumbayev said on Friday. Russia's output reached a post-Soviet high of 11.21 million bpd, the world's largest, in November. Russian energy officials have said Russia would cut from November-December levels. Iranian news agency SHANA quoted Iranian President Hassan Rouhani as telling his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro it was important for OPEC to execute the output deal in the first half of 2017 and that cooperation from non-OPEC was essential. (Reporting by Katya Golubkova; Editing by Christian Lowe and Dale Hudson)
Russia conducted a revolutionary nuclear-capable drone submarine test that could pose a major threat to U.S. ports and harbors, according to reports Thursday. U.S. intelligence agencies reportedly detected the test of the unmanned underwater vehicle during its launch from a Sarov-class submarine on Nov. 27.

Pentagon officials familiar with reports of the test said that the vehicle was code-named Kanyon, but gave out no details about the location or results of the test. According to reports, the drone development program is called the Ocean Multipurpose System Status-6.

We closely monitor Russian underwater military developments, but we will not comment specifically about them, Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis reportedly said.

The news about the new drone submarine's development was first reported in September 2015 by the Washington Free Beacon and was later confirmed by the Russian military two months later. However, Russian officials said the program, which was supposed to be a secret, was mistakenly disclosed.

According to U.S. intelligence agencies, the Kanyon secret underwater drone will be equipped with megaton-class warheadsthe largest nuclear weapons in existence.

Russias nuclear weapons development in recent years has raised concerns amid a deterioration in the Moscow-Washington ties in the last two years.

Russias annexation of Crimea in Ukraine as well as its deployment of troops to the Eastern European nation two years ago worsened the countries ties. Russia has also continued bombing of the Syrian city of Aleppo, and was allegedly involved in hacks to influence the U.S. presidential elections  all straining ties between the two superpowers.

Former Pentagon official Mark Schneider said the test of the underwater nuclear delivery vehicle poses a new strategic threat.

The Status-6, a nuclear powered, nuclear armed drone submarine, is the most irresponsible nuclear weapons program that Putins Russia has come up with, Schneider, now with the National Institute for Public Policy, said. Status-6 is designed to kill civilians by massive blast and fallout.

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By Andrea Shalal HAMBURG, Germany (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday accused the United States of stalling talks on evacuating remaining rebel-held parts of the Syrian city of Aleppo, and said it was taking "strange" and contradictory positions. Lavrov said there was still a good chance of reaching a deal, as long as Washington did not change its mind about participating in a meeting of technical experts in Geneva on Saturday. But he also said the fighting would continue until all rebels had left, denying that he had said on Thursday that the Syrian military would halt its activity. Russia, which backs the Syrian army with air strikes, wants Washington to urge rebel fighters to abandon their remaining territory, which appears to be on the verge of falling, and accept transport out. Russia said on Friday that its forces had helped more than 8,000 Syrian citizens flee parts of eastern Aleppo still controlled by rebels in the last 24 hours, including almost 3,000 children. The U.N. human rights office said it believed some 100,000 civilians were still in the rebel-held enclave. Lavrov said Washington's lack of control over Syrian rebels was a factor in its inability to conclude an agreement. But he also said the State Department did not appear to be "in charge" of all factors, and that some parts of the U.S. government apparently did not support continued negotiations with Russia. Even U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had publicly denied the existence of a U.S. working paper that had been presented to Moscow last week, Lavrov said. BETTER TIES UNDER TRUMP? He appeared to hold out hope of closer cooperation once Donald Trump was sworn in as U.S. president. Trump has vowed to build better ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin and suggested that Washington's focus in Syria - which along with Russia considers all rebels "terrorists" - should be on fighting Islamic State. "The dedication to fighting terrorism is quite obvious and evident with Donald Trump, much more than the actions of the Obama administration," he said. Lavrov was in Hamburg for a meeting of the 57-nation Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). He said he had raised the issue of military buildups in Europe, where the West says it is responding to aggressive Russian actions, notably in annexing Crimea from Ukraine and supporting a rebellion in eastern Ukraine. Russia for its part objects to NATO's eastward expansion since the end of the Cold War. Lavrov said he had submitted classified documents showing that the West had promised Moscow there would be "no expansion of NATO eastward, and the military structures of NATO would not edge closer to our borders". He accused NATO of an "unsavory" rush to admit Montenegro as a member before Obama left office. (Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
The Syrian army and its allies are close to pushing anti-government rebels out of Aleppo as thousands of civilians flee the fighting, leaving the regime of Bashar al-Assad close to taking the smoking ruins of the countrys second-largest city.

Moscows Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed the Syrian army was holding fire Thursday, allowing civilians to leave the city before government forces fight their way through the last remaining rebel neighborhoods, with Russian aircraft providing cover overhead. Activists in the city reported continuing airstrikes and rocket assaults on Friday however, despite the Russian claims.

The fall of Aleppo will mark a major victory for both Assad and and his ally, Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose 15-month intervention in the Syrian civil war was launched to prop up the faltering Assad regime under the guise of fighting the Islamic State.

But there was another reason for the campaign of Russian air strikes and special operations support: providing Moscow with a venue to show off its newly modernized military hardware.

After years of mouldering away under post Cold war budget crunches, Putin has spent billions to modernize the Russian arsenal, churning out new tanks, submarines, drones, cruise missiles, and fighter jets that have pounded both Syrian rebels as well as Ukrainian troops in eastern Ukraines Donbass region.

Speaking with senior military officers at the Kremlin on Wednesday, Putin said that the military should use those experiences to equip the Army and the Navy with prospective weapons for future fights.

While many are focused on the Russian armor and sorties, some in the U.S. defense establishment have noticed another sign of Russian progress: their ability to work through local forces in Ukraine and Syria, allowing Moscow to exert influence while keeping deployments small, costs down, and troops away from the front lines.

The Russians have become quite adept at working with proxy forces, a senior Defense official told FP. In Ukraine, its obviously the so-called separatist forces  Russian trained, Russian equipped, in some cases Russian commanded, over which they exercise an exquisite command and control.

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In Syria, U.S. officials have seen small groups of Russian special operations forces work quite effectively with Assad regime troops and the Iranian Qods Force and Hezbollah. Thats been their M.O. in the Donbass and in Syria, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The ability of the Russians to work so effectively through partners  some of which are separated by language  has impressed some analysts, given how difficult it is to work with other nations, let alone foreign militia groups.

This is something the U.S. has had trouble with, even people weve worked with for ages, like our NATO allies, said Olga Oliker, director of the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Russia has had long relationships with the Iranians and Syrians, which makes some interaction easier, particularly when it comes to coordinating Russian planes flying air support for ground offensives by Syrian and Iranian-backed forces.

They rely a lot on the Syrians and Iranians for targeting information, and the country that provides that information has a lot of power, added Oliker, resulting in a dynamic in which the Russians are likely unable to confirm who theyre bombing.

Russian forces realized early on that while they could change facts on the ground, their intervention came too late to save a Syrian army which had been ground down by constant combat and desertions. The Russian military has been frustrated by both the Syrian army which exists in name only, and Iranian forces pursuing their own objectives, said Michael Kofman, a research scientist at CNA Corporation.

But by deploying aircraft, helicopters, and launching cruise missiles at rebel targets, Moscow has turned Syria into both a weapons testing ground and a large operational exercise, from which their military and defense industry have been gaining invaluable insights, Kofman said. The combination of militia forces, Russian private military contractors and special forces provide a potent mix for the Russian way of war  a war being fought against American and Western backed forces in both Ukraine and Syria.

But there have been other benefits for Moscow.

Russian weapons sales have been on the rise for the past several years, and Moscows interventions in Ukraine and Syria have offered a valuable marketing platform to sell foreign clients on its technologies that come cheaper than equipment made by NATO nations, and without western worlds political strings attached.

In July, Putin noted that exports of Russian-made weapons and military equipment reached $4.6 billion for the first half of 2016, and we should continue to highlight the demonstration of our weapon manufacturers achievements.

One unexpected demonstration that was subsequently touted by Russian officials came in February, when Syrian rebels fired an American-made TOW missile at an advanced Russian T-90 tank. The missile hit it squarely in the turret but failed to destroy the tank, and in a video posted by the rebels, a Syrian soldier could be seen climbing out of the turret after the smoke cleared.

But other aspects of the Russian intervention havent always gone as planned, exposing the limits of its military might. Over the past month, two fighter planes have crashed into the Mediterranean while trying to land on the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, which itself has become an Internet meme for the black smoke belching from its smokestack and the tugboat it is forced to deploy with due to frequent breakdowns.

Another Russian Su-24 fighter was shot down by a an American-made Turkish F-16 after it allegedly strayed into Turkish territory in November 2015, with one pilot managing to survive the crash. During the rescue mission, a Russian Mi-8 helicopter was damaged by ground fire, then blown up by Free Syrian Army rebels with a U.S.-made TOW missile. The incident was filmed by the rebels and promptly posted online.

Photo Credit: VASILY MAXIMOV/AFP/Getty Images
From the moment it premiered last August, Million Dollar Extreme Presents: World Peace was causing disturbances in the insular and relatively supportive weirdo-comedy world of Adult Swim. The show, with its odd pacing, jarring graphics and bizarre characters and scenarios, at first glance contains all the hallmarks of other offerings from the Cartoon Network offshoot - cult sketch shows like Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job! and The Eric Andre Show. Watch long enough, however, and World Peace veers into some shocking and arguably offensive territory. In one sketch, a man trips his brother's wife because he doesn't find her attractive enough, sending her face-first into a glass coffee table. In another, an African-American woman boasts of getting $40,000 a year in disability payments. Even a seemingly innocuous sketch about "making tap water" takes an ugly turn when the actor in it angrily references men "taking it in the ass," for no apparent reason.

The show is from the mind of a trio of Rhode Island-based sketch comedians - Sam Hyde, Nick Rochefort and Charls Carroll - who've been at it for a decade and call themselves Million Dollar Extreme (MDE). Prior to series pickup last May, they already had amassed a sizable following, particularly in the "alt-right" online community that has championed white supremacy and cheered Donald Trump's rise to power. As the group's leader, the 31-year-old Hyde - who tweets support for alt-right theories like Pizzagate while hurling attacks at left-leaning celebrities like Lena Dunham (whom he called a "fat pig") and Patton Oswalt (whom he theorized had "killed his wife") - has drawn the majority of heat. Some of his other material makes World Peace seem tame by comparison: In one 2013 video on the official MDE YouTube page, Hyde takes the stage at a comedy club in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and proceeds to read aloud several pages of homophobic "research," provoking walkouts.

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Trump's Nov. 8 victory only served to exacerbate the situation. As the behind-the-scenes debate over World Peace grew more heated - with Adult Swim senior vp Mike Lazzo holding strong in support of the show, which he found funny - comedian Brett Gelman, who hosted occasional dinner-party shows on the network, announced that he was severing ties with it. (The move was also in protest of the network's complete absence of female showrunners.) Tim Heidecker, the star of Tim & Eric and an influential figure at the network, voiced support for his friend Gelman's decision but said he would stay put at the network. On Dec. 5, amid mounting outrage, Adult Swim announced the show was being canceled - sending MDE fans into a rage spiral.

Read more: Ringside With Steve Bannon at Trump Tower as the President-Elect's Strategist Plots "An Entirely New Political Movement" (Exclusive)

"These guys just don't behave like reasonable people," says one Adult Swim star, who asked to stay anonymous after news of the cancellation prompted death threats against Heidecker and his family. (Hyde called in to Heidecker's Facebook Live show Thursday to berate him for instigating the cancellation, an accusation Heidecker flatly denies.) The Adult Swim star adds: "I actually never had a problem with it airing. It wasn't Tim or Brett Gelman that got the show canceled. It was the fans. They were harassing Adult Swim employees and people working on other shows."

A spokeswoman for Adult Swim tells The Hollywood Reporter that the network has no comment on the cancellation. But Hyde did agree to talk.

Hi Sam. Thanks for doing this interview.

No worries, man. Thanks for giving a racist like me a platform to spew my hate. I'm kidding. I'm just messing with you.

Well, that's kind of my first question. There is a lot of debate as to whether or not you're kidding. Where do you stand on a lot of this material?

Is it the show I'm being asked about or my Twitter account?

Let's focus on the show because I'm interested in the cancellation and what unfolded behind the scenes at Adult Swim.

The show is strictly meant to be a comedy show. It's not supposed to have a preachy [tone]. It's not supposed to be that at all. We hate that. It's not supposed to be a political statement that says one thing or another. It's just supposed to be funny. And it's provenly funny. It got better ratings than Eric Andre's first season. The execs - the Jewish Adult Swim executives, the black Adult Swim executives - they all loved it. They wanted to buy season two immediately and shoot 100 more episodes. People loved the show until these f - ing twisted articles came out doing Twitter detective work going deep on accounts that I've never even heard of. So no, the show is not a political show.

It may not be political, but isn't it trying to puncture certain liberal attitudes regarding racial issues, gay issues, women's issues?

It's supposed to poke at different things. We made fun of white people more than any other group on the show. That's what comedy does, good comedy at least. It pokes fun or highlights problems. I'm not a very well-spoken comedy historian here, but what we did is not much different than Eric Andre having swastikas on his show and his joke, "Everybody hates kikes." It's not that different from what Sarah Silverman does with putting blackface on. It's not the craziest stuff that's ever been on TV here. And we came under fire - I don't know why. Probably because we aren't anti-white.

How you were informed the show was canceled?

We just got a phone call saying the pressure on Turner was too much and they had to call it off.

What happens next for the troupe?

We just sold a book that made more money than we did with the show. Just doing funny stuff I guess. We've been doing indie comedy for 10 years so it's nothing new to us not having health insurance, and having people laugh at us and call us losers is old hat.

What about comedian Brett Gelman, who quit Adult Swim partly in protest of your brand of humor?

I've never seen that happen before. Unless it's a hack comedian or a comedian who steals jokes getting people riled up, I've never seen comedians attack a comedy show like this before. I think that's pretty brazen. So to those people I'd like to say: Congratulations. In 50 years, in whatever the future version of Wikipedia is, your article is going to say "got a show canceled." That is going on your Hall of Fame inscription, because you got a show that you didn't like canceled because you were threatened by it and because you didn't agree with the humor. I think that's a f - ing low place to be. Even if I hated somebody, I would never campaign that way to get someone's livelihood taken away.

I actually found myself laughing quite a bit while watching your show.

Good.

And, on a personal note, I'm both Jewish and gay. And I wasn't taking offense. I was finding it weird and silly and at times kind of beautiful - like when that guy puts a noose around his neck and flies into the air.

Thank you very much, man. I appreciate that.

But then I watched that standup set you did in Williamsburg.

Oh yeah.

And I began to wonder: What is actually motivating you?

I was trying to get those people the f - out of the room. Because I do not like Brooklyn hipsters. So I was trying to see how fast I could get them out. (Laughs.) And I got them out pretty fast. But the show we made is not supposed to make gay people or Jewish people or any people feel bad. It is not a vehicle of hate. It's only supposed to make people laugh and bring joy and possibly clarity or understanding, but it is not a vehicle of hate.

Read more: 'Homeland' Mirrors Current Events, Adds Alt-Right Anarchist

OK, so that's the show. But nothing you were saying in that Williamsburg room that night reflected what you really feel about gay people?

I can't remember everything I said. It was an exercise in - no! No! I didn't even do the research myself. (Laughing.) I told some kid to get as many anti-gay hate facts as possible and I would just read them. And listen, that might be a joke that's in poor taste. I mean, it's a sick thing. I can see why you wouldn't like that and I don't blame you, man. I don't think I did some great thing.

What I have read about you is that you never drop character, that you're this Andy Kaufman-style performance-art comic who sometimes says racist or anti-gay things. But when I saw that Williamsburg set, I couldn't figure out why you would say all those things about gay people. The whole thing kind of upset me and disoriented me.

I hear you. That's my bad, man, and I apologize to you personally because it's not fun to watch. But I'm not some virulent homophobe or something. I'm a guy that wants to make funny stuff. The thing about it is, it's genuinely tough to make funny and insightful [material]. You mentioned a "beautiful moment" from the show. I think as my career has gone on, my friends and I have been generating more and more beautiful or poignant moments. That's not to say that everything we do is genius. But along the way there's a lot of broken eggshells. There's a lot of things we've said that's retarded or not funny or goes over the line. That's what happens when you're trying to do what we do. And we tend to slant more out of bounds than other people do. So if people get pissed off in the process, that sucks. That's not a good thing.

So you harbor no biases against minorities, is what you're saying.

No, I wouldn't say that. I would say that I'm probably as racist or as biased as the average regular white guy or the average regular black guy.

And you're trying to turn the rock over, so to speak, and shed some light on social biases rather than stifling them?

No. I think the biases that I have - which are not what people say about me in these articles - those biases are not things that we consciously or apply to our comedy. Our comedy is pretty intellectually pure, I think. It's not like at any point we're sitting around as a group trying to think up people we hate so we can make them look bad.

One of the things that struck me while watching the show was that you hired actors of color - African-American, Asian - for sketches in which the jokes, to some viewers no doubt, appear to be mocking them. You do blackface in one sketch, for example. Did that ever get awkward on-set?

I don't think so. A lot of the crew was black. Our assistant director was black. Our development executive was black. And I don't think anybody got butt-hurt about what we were doing while we were doing it.

Was that Adult Swim executive Walter Newman? What was his support for the show like?

Yeah. I probably shouldn't speak for him, but we have great respect for Walter and we like him and are grateful for him being part of the show.

What about [Adult Swim senior vp] Mike Lazzo?

Same thing.

Who was the person responsible for bringing you in and thinking what you do fits in with the Adult Swim brand?

That would be [Million Dollar Extreme member] Nick Rochefort, who hit them up relentlessly over the years. It was a long process of getting to where we are. We weren't discovered. We bothered them like weirdos.

You mentioned earlier that comedians should stick by one another.

Not stick by one another but that an effort to assassinate a show - I've never heard of anything like that before.

But you have gone pretty hard after other comedians on Twitter. For example, shortly after Patton Oswalt's wife died, you tweeted, "He killed her." What instigated that?

(Laughs.) Making fun of people on Twitter and disagreeing with them is a whole different ballgame from having their livelihood destroyed, wouldn't you agree?

But he was obviously going through something a terrible time. Why would you say that?

Well, I've forgotten what he was doing that would piss me off. But it was pretty suspicious that his wife was a murder-mystery writer and she dies painlessly in her sleep. That's kind of crazy to me. (Laughs.) If he didn't kill her it's a sad thing. I'll say that. But it's f - ing suspicious as hell. It's none of my business, but I think he said something to piss me off so I decided to ask him about that.

Where did the show shoot?

In Atlanta [at Adult Swim headquarters]. The only time we've rubbed elbows with any of these people was at some Adult Swim party thing. We're not L.A. or industry dudes. We had this one girl come up to us at that party and give us this whole tirade about how, "You pieces of shit! I'm going to get you fired!" This whole angry drunken rant from some girl. I don't know who the hell she was.

Is there anything else you'd like to add?

Look, I get that as a gay man watching me taking these hateful facts and turn it into a performance art thing, that's kind of a f - ed-up thing. I was trying to do something. I did it. I don't know how funny it was. But we aren't what they are saying in these other articles. We're not f - ing scum. We're not people who callously try to create suffering and think cruelty for its own sake is funny.

Read more: Donald Trump Fields Questions on Clinton, Bannon and Alt-Right From N.Y. Times Editors
MIAMI, FL / ACCESSWIRE / December 8, 2016 / Venezuela's schools, once the best in South America, have suffered during recent years of economic and social turmoil. As a result, concerned citizens and business leaders like Samark Lopez have dedicated themselves to investing in the educational system and supporting charitable foundations that provide much needed help to schools. In the beginning of October 2016, Lopez, supplied materials to two schools and over 700 children in the first of a series of donations. As the child of two teachers, the entrepreneur and founder of Profit Corporation knows that extending knowledge and availability of education to the country's youth is imperative to future prosperity.

The beginning of the academic year is synonymous with anticipation, the reunion of friends, and the procurement and opening of new supplies. However, many children in rural areas of Venezuela are not able to experience that joy. Samark Lopez and the Fundacion Educando Ninos Felices (FundaFelices) joined the San Marcelino Champagnat School and their launch on October 5, 2016 with 430 kits of book bags, notebooks, crayons, pencils, erasers and other essential items for daily use. Two days later, on October 7th, Lopez and his foundation travelled to Las Casitas de La Vega in Caracas, where 300 more bundles were handed out to basic education students at the Canaima School. During the reception ceremony the children and administrators were all excited, polite and grateful. "We are finally able to color!" one girl exclaimed, overjoyed by her new materials.

The contributions, which exemplified the collaborative spirits of the schools' management and the local community, are the first steps toward achieving the educational quality the children and adolescents of Venezuela deserve. Maite Ramirez, the General Manager of FundaFelices, believes the charitable donations will have a lasting impact on the youth, "A child who comes to the classroom and has school supplies translates into a student with better performance and a greater motivation to attend school everyday. That is priceless for us." In addition, the foundation has completed the construction of a new headquarters for the San Marcelino Champagnat School, a project that will focus on expanding their higher education services.

Story continues





Samark Lopez is an innovative entrepreneur dedicated to making Venezuela a better place. Upon graduating from the Universidad Central de Venezuela in 1999 with a degree in economics, Lopez embraced his childhood dreams of starting his own business and modernizing the country's infrastructure by founding his first company, Sertica, which renovated plants for the nation's largest steel manufacture. In 2010, Lopez purchased Profit Corporation, where he leveraged his previous experiences in the design, supply, and implementation of services to build a successful company that employs 800 and has built 250 kilometers of gas and oil pipelines throughout Venezuela.

Samark Lopez - Innovative Venezuelan Entrepreneur and Philanthropist: http://SamarkLopezNews.com

Samark Lopez (@samarklopez) - Twitter: https://twitter.com/samarklopez

Samark Lopez is working to transform Venezuela's Future: http://samarklopez.org

Contact Information:

SamarkLopezNews.com

www.samarklopeznews.com

info@samarklopez.info

SOURCE: Samark Lopez
SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co Ltd will supply semiconductors to U.S. electric car maker Tesla Motors Inc (TSLA.O), South Korea's Electronic Times reported on Friday citing unnamed sources.

Samsung would contract manufacture chips for self-driving features in Tesla vehicles, the paper reported, without putting a value on the order.

The South Korean firm has been trying to build auto-related sales for components such as semiconductors and displays in a push to develop a new growth engine. Samsung in November said it would acquire Harman International Industries (HAR.N) for $8 billion (6.3 billion) in a bid to grow quickly in the automotive market.

Samsung did not immediately comment on the report, while Tesla could not be immediately reached for comment.

(Reporting by Se Young Lee; Editing by Stephen Coates)
SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co Ltd <005930.KS> will supply semiconductors to U.S. electric car maker Tesla Motors Inc , South Korea's Electronic Times reported on Friday citing unnamed sources. Samsung would contract manufacture chips for self-driving features in Tesla vehicles, the paper reported, without putting a value on the order. The South Korean firm has been trying to build auto-related sales for components such as semiconductors and displays in a push to develop a new growth engine. Samsung in November said it would acquire Harman International Industries for $8 billion in a bid to grow quickly in the automotive market. Samsung did not immediately comment on the report, while Tesla could not be immediately reached for comment. (Reporting by Se Young Lee; Editing by Stephen Coates)
Vietnam has started dredging work on a reef in the South China Sea, fresh satellite images appear to show, a move that could provoke Beijing which claims most of the disputed waterway.

An image of Ladd Reef in the Spratly Islands, where Vietnam has a lighthouse, shows several vessels in a carved out embankment.

Sediment can be seen leaking out into the ocean, according to the November 30 image provided to AFP on Friday by US-based Planet Labs, a satellite imaging company.

A July picture from Planet Labs shows no breach of the reef's embankment, suggesting the work began in recent months on the small piece of land that is also claimed by Taiwan.

Vietnamese officials did not respond to a request for comment.

The images follow photos published last month from US-based Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative that showed Vietnam had extended a runway and was building hangars capable of hosting military equipment on a different island in the Spratlys also claimed by Beijing.

But Vietnam's latest moves remain small-scale compared to China's build-up in the waterway, where it has constructed several islands capable of supporting military facilities.

Though the nature of the work in the photos cannot be confirmed, Vietnam expert Carl Thayer told AFP that Hanoi might be trying to "stock up" ahead of a code of conduct agreement between various claimants in the South China Sea expected next year.

"If we are moving toward some diplomatic end game at some point in the next year or two, then Vietnam looks like it's trying to get as much as it can before it's prohibited," said Thayer, a professor at the University of New South Wales.

Beijing on Friday delivered a customary rebuke to Vietnam over the apparent dredging, saying it had "indisputable sovereignty" over all Spratly Islands, including Ladd Reef, and surrounding waters.

It urged Hanoi to "refrain from complicating the situation and work with China to safeguard peace and stability in the South China Sea," foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said at a regular briefing.

Story continues

The two countries have long traded barbs over disputed territory in the sea. In 2014 China moved a controversial oil rig into contested waters, prompting riots in Vietnam.

Tensions have eased slightly in recent months but the issue remains incendiary on both sides.

The sea is also claimed by the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan and is rich in energy reserves, fishery resources and is a busy shipping route.
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This story has been published on: 2022-11-03. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.

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DOHA (Reuters) - A Saudi border guard was killed by a landmine explosion on the border with Yemen, the Saudi state news agency SPA said on Friday, quoting an interior ministry spokesman. Houthi forces in Yemen, battling its internationally recognized government, have fired hundreds of mortars into southern Saudi Arabia and tested Saudi defences with guerrilla-style incursions since Riyadh intervened in Yemen's civil war last year. SPA said the mine exploded when it was struck by a vehicle transporting water along a border road on Thursday evening in Saudi Arabia's Jizan region. U.N.-led negotiations have failed to bring peace to Yemen, the poorest Arab country. Saudi Arabia and its Gulf Arab allies intervened in the war after the Iran-allied Houthis overran the capital Sanaa in 2014, driving the government into exile. At least 10,000 people have been killed. The Saudis say their intervention, for which U.S. military personnel are providing logistical support, has halted Iranian expansionism in Yemen. Critics say the war has made Yemen more volatile and emboldened al Qaeda militants. Saudi Arabia has reported dozens of its soldiers or civilians killed in the 20-month-old conflict. (Reporting by Tom Finn; editing by Mark Heinrich)
By Rania El Gamal, Alex Lawler and Vladimir Soldatkin

VIENNA (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has told its U.S. and European customers it will reduce oil deliveries from January, as Russia said it was confident non-OPEC producers would fully join OPEC's output limits on Saturday in the first such move since 2001.

Saudi Arabia told the customers about lower supplies in line with the output reduction agreed by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries last week, according to a Gulf oil industry source familiar with Saudi oil policy.

"We told our customers of the allocations and the compliance with allocations (for the cuts) for Saudi Arabia is 100 percent," the source said.

He said cuts to Asian refiners would be lower than those to Europe, the United States and to major oil companies.

"We are cutting more in the U.S. because the inventories ... are very high," the source said.

OPEC will meet non-OPEC producing countries in Vienna on Saturday, hoping non-OPEC will commit to cutting 600,000 barrels per day after its own members agreed to cut 1.2 million bpd last week.

OPEC sources said nine non-OPEC countries were set to join the meeting: Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Oman, Mexico, Russia, Sudan, South Sudan, Bahrain and Malaysia. Bolivia may also attend the talks, according to an OPEC source.

Saudi Arabia's energy minister Khalid al-Falih said he was "very optimistic" about the Saturday meeting.

"We will know the exact numbers tomorrow but I am expecting about 10 to 11 (non-OPEC) countries to be on the final declaration with specific numbers," he told reporters upon arriving to Vienna.

So far only Russia and Oman have pledged cuts, with one OPEC source saying Mexico could also contribute as much as 150,000 bpd.

In contrast, Kazakhstan plans to boost output in 2017 as it launches the long-delayed Kashagan project.

Russia is expected to shoulder half of the non-OPEC cut, but on Friday sources in Moscow signaled there were snags that needed to be addressed before a deal could be reached, including full compliance with cuts by all parties involved.

Story continues

However, Russia's energy minister told reporters upon arriving in Vienna he expected non-OPEC oil producers to fully contribute to production cuts agreed earlier with OPEC.

"I look with optimism at tomorrow's event," said Alexander Novak. "I think that we will agree and we must agree."

NO CUTS FOR ASIA

OPEC's second largest producer Iraq has notified U.S. and European buyers of its crude about planned cuts, according to an industry source familiar with the matter.

State-run Kuwait Petroleum Corp (KPC) said it planned to notify its international crude customers soon about reductions to their allocations.

Iraq and Kuwait have committed to cuts to their oil outputs of 210,000 bpd and 131,000 bpd respectively under the OPEC deal.

Sources at eight refiners in Asia told Reuters they had been notified by state oil giant Saudi Aramco that in January it was set to supply full crude amounts.

Of those eight, three refiners said they would load extra volumes they had requested. The sources declined to be identified as they were not authorized to speak to the media.

"It's quite telling as there are not only no supply cuts, but they have given extra volumes," one of the sources said, indicating that the move underscored that producers were eager to maintain market share in fast-growing Asian markets.

Some of the extra volumes were committed before the OPEC meeting on Nov. 30, when output cuts were agreed.

"It seems that Saudis do not trust Mr. Sechin after his mockings back in 2008/2009 as he repeatedly promised and disappointed them on cuts," Commerzbank analyst Eugen Weinberg told the Reuters Global Oil Forum, referring to Igor Sechin, the CEO of top Russian oil producer Rosneft (ROSN.MM).

"I see the Saudi strategy for January deliveries to Asia as a confirmation of this distrust."

Sechin has long been a harsh critic of cooperation with OPEC. However, Sechin has kept a low profile recently and this week agreed to sell a stake in Rosneft to a consortium of commodities trader Glencore (GLEN.L) and Qatar - a key ally of Saudi Arabia in OPEC.

(Additional reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin in Vienna, Florence Tan in Singapore, Osamu Tsukimori in Tokyo, Jane Chung in Seoul and Ron Bousso in London; Writing by Ahmad Ghaddar and Dmitry Zhdannikov; Editing by Adrian Croft, David Evans, Mark Potter and Jonathan Oatis)
By Rania El Gamal, Alex Lawler and Vladimir Soldatkin

VIENNA (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has told its U.S. and European customers it will reduce oil deliveries from January, as Russia said it was confident non-OPEC producers would fully join OPEC's output limits on Saturday in the first such move since 2001.

Saudi Arabia told the customers about lower supplies in line with the output reduction agreed by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries last week, according to a Gulf oil industry source familiar with Saudi oil policy.

"We told our customers of the allocations and the compliance with allocations (for the cuts) for Saudi Arabia is 100 percent," the source said.

He said cuts to Asian refiners would be lower than those to Europe, the United States and to major oil companies.

"We are cutting more in the U.S. because the inventories ... are very high," the source said.

OPEC will meet non-OPEC producing countries in Vienna on Saturday, hoping non-OPEC will commit to cutting 600,000 barrels per day after its own members agreed to cut 1.2 million bpd last week.

OPEC sources said nine non-OPEC countries were set to join the meeting: Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Oman, Mexico, Russia, Sudan, South Sudan, Bahrain and Malaysia. Bolivia may also attend the talks, according to an OPEC source.

Saudi Arabia's energy minister Khalid al-Falih said he was "very optimistic" about the Saturday meeting.

"We will know the exact numbers tomorrow but I am expecting about 10 to 11 (non-OPEC) countries to be on the final declaration with specific numbers," he told reporters upon arriving to Vienna.

So far only Russia and Oman have pledged cuts, with one OPEC source saying Mexico could also contribute as much as 150,000 bpd.

In contrast, Kazakhstan plans to boost output in 2017 as it launches the long-delayed Kashagan project.

Russia is expected to shoulder half of the non-OPEC cut, but on Friday sources in Moscow signalled there were snags that needed to be addressed before a deal could be reached, including full compliance with cuts by all parties involved.

Story continues

However, Russia's energy minister told reporters upon arriving in Vienna he expected non-OPEC oil producers to fully contribute to production cuts agreed earlier with OPEC.

"I look with optimism at tomorrow's event," said Alexander Novak. "I think that we will agree and we must agree."

NO CUTS FOR ASIA

OPEC's second largest producer Iraq has notified U.S. and European buyers of its crude about planned cuts, according to an industry source familiar with the matter.

State-run Kuwait Petroleum Corp (KPC) said it planned to notify its international crude customers soon about reductions to their allocations.

Iraq and Kuwait have committed to cuts to their oil outputs of 210,000 bpd and 131,000 bpd respectively under the OPEC deal.

Sources at eight refiners in Asia told Reuters they had been notified by state oil giant Saudi Aramco that in January it was set to supply full crude amounts.

Of those eight, three refiners said they would load extra volumes they had requested. The sources declined to be identified as they were not authorised to speak to the media.

"It's quite telling as there are not only no supply cuts, but they have given extra volumes," one of the sources said, indicating that the move underscored that producers were eager to maintain market share in fast-growing Asian markets.

Some of the extra volumes were committed before the OPEC meeting on Nov. 30, when output cuts were agreed.

"It seems that Saudis do not trust Mr. Sechin after his mockings back in 2008/2009 as he repeatedly promised and disappointed them on cuts," Commerzbank analyst Eugen Weinberg told the Reuters Global Oil Forum, referring to Igor Sechin, the CEO of top Russian oil producer Rosneft (ROSN.MM).

"I see the Saudi strategy for January deliveries to Asia as a confirmation of this distrust."

Sechin has long been a harsh critic of cooperation with OPEC. However, Sechin has kept a low profile recently and this week agreed to sell a stake in Rosneft to a consortium of commodities trader Glencore (GLEN.L) and Qatar - a key ally of Saudi Arabia in OPEC.

(Additional reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin in Vienna, Florence Tan in Singapore, Osamu Tsukimori in Tokyo, Jane Chung in Seoul and Ron Bousso in London; Writing by Ahmad Ghaddar and Dmitry Zhdannikov; Editing by Adrian Croft, David Evans, Mark Potter and Jonathan Oatis)
By Rania El Gamal, Alex Lawler and Vladimir Soldatkin

VIENNA (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has told its U.S. and European customers it will reduce oil deliveries from January, as Russia said it was confident non-OPEC producers would fully join OPEC's output limits on Saturday in the first such move since 2001.

Saudi Arabia told the customers about lower supplies in line with the output reduction agreed by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries last week, according to a Gulf oil industry source familiar with Saudi oil policy.

"We told our customers of the allocations and the compliance with allocations (for the cuts) for Saudi Arabia is 100 percent," the source said.

He said cuts to Asian refiners would be lower than those to Europe, the United States and to major oil companies.

"We are cutting more in the U.S. because the inventories ... are very high," the source said.

OPEC will meet non-OPEC producing countries in Vienna on Saturday, hoping non-OPEC will commit to cutting 600,000 barrels per day after its own members agreed to cut 1.2 million bpd last week.

OPEC sources said nine non-OPEC countries were set to join the meeting: Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Oman, Mexico, Russia, Sudan, South Sudan, Bahrain and Malaysia. Bolivia may also attend the talks, according to an OPEC source.

Saudi Arabia's energy minister Khalid al-Falih said he was "very optimistic" about the Saturday meeting.

"We will know the exact numbers tomorrow but I am expecting about 10 to 11 (non-OPEC) countries to be on the final declaration with specific numbers," he told reporters upon arriving to Vienna.

So far only Russia and Oman have pledged cuts, with one OPEC source saying Mexico could also contribute as much as 150,000 bpd.

In contrast, Kazakhstan plans to boost output in 2017 as it launches the long-delayed Kashagan project.

Russia is expected to shoulder half of the non-OPEC cut, but on Friday sources in Moscow signaled there were snags that needed to be addressed before a deal could be reached, including full compliance with cuts by all parties involved.

Story continues

However, Russia's energy minister told reporters upon arriving in Vienna he expected non-OPEC oil producers to fully contribute to production cuts agreed earlier with OPEC.

"I look with optimism at tomorrow's event," said Alexander Novak. "I think that we will agree and we must agree."

NO CUTS FOR ASIA

OPEC's second largest producer Iraq has notified U.S. and European buyers of its crude about planned cuts, according to an industry source familiar with the matter.

State-run Kuwait Petroleum Corp (KPC) said it planned to notify its international crude customers soon about reductions to their allocations.

Iraq and Kuwait have committed to cuts to their oil outputs of 210,000 bpd and 131,000 bpd respectively under the OPEC deal.

Sources at eight refiners in Asia told Reuters they had been notified by state oil giant Saudi Aramco that in January it was set to supply full crude amounts.

Of those eight, three refiners said they would load extra volumes they had requested. The sources declined to be identified as they were not authorized to speak to the media.

"It's quite telling as there are not only no supply cuts, but they have given extra volumes," one of the sources said, indicating that the move underscored that producers were eager to maintain market share in fast-growing Asian markets.

Some of the extra volumes were committed before the OPEC meeting on Nov. 30, when output cuts were agreed.

"It seems that Saudis do not trust Mr. Sechin after his mockings back in 2008/2009 as he repeatedly promised and disappointed them on cuts," Commerzbank analyst Eugen Weinberg told the Reuters Global Oil Forum, referring to Igor Sechin, the CEO of top Russian oil producer Rosneft <ROSN.MM>.

"I see the Saudi strategy for January deliveries to Asia as a confirmation of this distrust."

Sechin has long been a harsh critic of cooperation with OPEC. However, Sechin has kept a low profile recently and this week agreed to sell a stake in Rosneft to a consortium of commodities trader Glencore <GLEN.L> and Qatar - a key ally of Saudi Arabia in OPEC.

(Additional reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin in Vienna, Florence Tan in Singapore, Osamu Tsukimori in Tokyo, Jane Chung in Seoul and Ron Bousso in London; Writing by Ahmad Ghaddar and Dmitry Zhdannikov; Editing by Adrian Croft, David Evans, Mark Potter and Jonathan Oatis)
By Rich McKay

ATLANTA (Reuters) - The second officer shot while responding to a domestic dispute near a university in Georgia died of his injuries on Thursday, school officials said, after the suspect killed himself inside a home where he was barricaded earlier in the day.

Georgia Southwestern State University police officer Jody Smith was transported to an area hospital in critical condition after Wednesday's shooting, and died on Thursday, university officials said in a statement.

Officer Nicholas Ryan Smarr, 25, of the Americus Police Department died of his wounds on Wednesday, police said.

Police said the officers were responding to a 911 call about a domestic dispute when they encountered the suspect, identified as Minquell Lembrick, on Wednesday. Both officers were shot, but it was not immediately known if the officers also fired their weapons, police said.

Americus Police Chief Mark A. Scott told a news conference Lembrick appeared to have taken his own life on Thursday morning after law enforcement received a tip about his location from an unidentified citizen who knew him.

Officers outside the residence heard one shot at about 10 a.m. local time on Thursday, Scott said, and they called in FBI hostage negotiators to try to contact anyone inside, without success. Police SWAT teams later sent in a robot they used to locate the suspect's body, which had suffered a gunshot wound.

Vernon Keenan, director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, described Lembrick, 32, as a "career criminal" and told reporters he had a criminal record that was more than 32 pages long.

Scott said both officers were close friends who went to high school together and later trained together in law enforcement.

"They're both heroes in my opinion," Scott said. "Our hearts go out to the families."

It was not immediately clear whether the suspect used the same gun that was used in the police shooting to take his own life, the police chief said.

Story continues

The investigation is ongoing and police are looking into whether anyone had been intentionally hiding Lembrick, Scott added.

Georgia Southwestern State University, which had been put on lockdown following Wednesday's shooting, resumed normal operations on Thursday.

(This story corrects officer's name to Nicholas Ryan Smarr from Ryan Smarr throughout.)

(Writing by Gina Cherelus and Curtis Skinner; editing by Bernard Orr and James Dalgleish)
The hunt for a Georgia man who killed two police officers came to an end Thursday morning with the suspect found dead of an apparent suicide in an Americus home, reports say.

Police tried to make contact with 32-year-old Minquell Lembrick for more than an hour after hearing a gunshot inside the Americus home on Thursday morning, according to USA Today. Officers eventually used a robot to open the door.

SWAT team made entry. They found one suspect inside who was deceased from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Americus Police Chief Mark Scott said during a press conference.

Police offered a $70,000 reward for information leading to Lembricks whereabouts, according to USA Today. A local resident who knew Lembrick contacted tipped off police, leading them to the Americus home.

The death came the day after Lembrick opened fire on Americus Police Officer Nicholas Smarr and Georgia Southwestern State university Officer Jodi Smith as they responded to a report of a domestic dispute at an apartment complex, police said, according to the Associated Press.

 Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.

Smarr died Wednesday and Smith was airlifted to a hospital in critical condition, the AP reports. He succumbed to his injuries on Thursday, Georgia Southwestern State University President Charles Patterson announced.

Officer Smith was a bright, young and energetic officer, and he will be sorely missed, Patterson wrote in a statement posted on the schools website.

Lt. Chuck Hanks of the Sumter County Sheriffs Office said Smarr and Smith had been friends since grade school, were roommates sharing a home in the county and even attended both high school and the police academy together, according to CBS News.

The Americus Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.




late night with seth meyers donald trump carrier deal

To hear Donald Trump talk about the Carrier deal, it would seem the president-elect scored a major deal to save a a lot of jobs. But Seth Meyers clouded that victory a bit on Thursday's "Late Night."

"Donald Trump was able to win the Rust Belt states in the Midwest in part by fashioning himself as a champion of the working man," Meyers said on "Late Night." "An impressive feat considering that the only tool he has ever used is a spork from KFC. At almost every campaign rally, he promised to keep American jobs in the US, offering one specific example, Carrier."

With his Carrier deal, Trump was making good on the campaign promise he made  even if he didn't remember he had made it.

While the president-elect was watching the news, a Carrier employee being interviewed said he didn't believe the air conditioner manufacturer would actually send its jobs to Mexico because Trump promised the company wouldnt.

I never thought I made that promise, Trump said last week in a speech at Carrier in Indiana.

But Trump had made the promise, and he decided to do something about it.

Trump claimed his deal with Carrier would keep more than 1,100 jobs in the US. But according to reports, hundreds of those jobs were research and development positions, which were never slated to move to Mexico. According to the Washington Post's count, Trump actually saved 730 jobs, or 37% of those that were earmarked to be outsourced. Meanwhile, 1,250 jobs are still going overseas.

In a speech, the leader of the union that represents the Carrier workers said Trump "lied his a-- off" about the numbers.

Meyers said that 730 jobs was still a great thing, but he found it pretty easy to understand the union leader's accusations.

"Trump does have a tendency to lie his a-- off," Meyers joked. "That's why Chris Christie is always there to catch it."

The host then claimed you could actually "hear his a-- hitting the ground" and then played clips of Trump's "lies."

Story continues

For the record, Trump responded to the Carrier union leader on Twitter.

"Chuck Jones, who is President of United Steelworkers 1999, has done a terrible job representing workers. No wonder companies flee country," Trump wrote. "If United Steelworkers 1999 was any good, they would have kept those jobs in Indiana. Spend more time working-less time talking. Reduce dues."

Chuck Jones, who is President of United Steelworkers 1999, has done a terrible job representing workers. No wonder companies flee country!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 8, 2016

If United Steelworkers 1999 was any good, they would have kept those jobs in Indiana. Spend more time working-less time talking. Reduce dues  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 8, 2016

Watch the "Late Night" segment on Trump's Carrier deal below:

NOW WATCH: Trump fires back at union leader who alleged he 'lied his a-- off' about Carrier deal





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Shane Smith ended up with quite a different film than he set out make a year ago. A House Divided, his latest Vice special report for HBO, is an interview-packed look at how eight years of President Barack Obama resulted in a cleft Capitol. The extent of those divisions was only made clear a month ago with the the Nov. 8 victory for Donald Trump.

The special, which draws from several sit-downs with President Obama and a slew of key GOP figures from the last decade, airs Friday and recalls the early days of the administration, the government shutdown, the dawn of the tea party and, ultimately, the recent stalemate over filling the open Supreme Court seat. Smith, the Vice Media CEO, spoke with The Hollywood Reporter earlier in the week about the process of getting both sides to talk so candidly, how it proved nearly impossible to get anyone to talk after the election and how Trump will arrive at the White House in January a very similar scenario as Obama eight years ago.

You mention at the top of the piece that you had the idea over a year ago. How did it evolve given the events of the 2016?

We wanted to speak with the powers that be about the last eight years, so we started with Obama's camp. There was some frustration there about partisan politics and getting stymied. So we thought, why don't we talk to these people ... Eric Cantor, John Boehner, Frank Luntz, Lindsey Graham and all of the main players on the opposition. These people are all known for being quite partisan and not working with the other side. But when you talk to Boehner and Cantor, they'll tell you they got kicked out for being too bipartisan. American politics, which is always kind of dysfunctional by its setup, now you can't even talk to anyone on the other side. During the election cycle, getting their reactions to everything going on, it was interesting to see how polarizing it's become and how Washington has become ineffectual.

How much of the reporting was done after the election?

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There were some interviews after the fact. But, post-election, no one really wanted to talk anymore. I think it took the wind out of both sides' sails, and people were confused. Everyone was willing to jump on Trump and then everyone didn't really want to be interviewed afterwards - especially on the GOP side. Trump is going to come to power with the same sort of level of legislative power that Obama had, in the first two years anyway. He's going to have the Senate, the House and the Executive.

Did you come to see it as an autopsy on how we got to this year?

It's important to remember how we got here. There was dissatisfaction with Washington, across the board. Instead of being a bit more centrist and logical, everyone became a bit more firebrandy. It's a weird political situation. I'm sort of a centrist dude, and I was surprised because the DOW went from 6,000 to 19,000 under Obama. Jobs haven't been better in 15 years. And, in the middle of the election, a census came out saying the middle class grew more than it has in 50 years. And everyone just says, "America is f - ed. Jobs are f - ed. The economy is f - ed." If that was a Republican government, they'd be hammering on how they saved the world. If you do go back, as an autopsy, no one was allowed to say anything this election. You couldn't even venture into those arguments because it was all name-calling and bullying. We wanted to do a forensic look at how this happened, beat by beat.

John Boehner is the breakout, for me, in terms of candor and humor. Was his or anybody's take different from what you expected or surprising in any way?

When you meet him, he's classic Washington. He tells great anecdotes. He's funny and he's charming. He sort of comes across as a non-psychopathic Frank Underwood, the Washington Mr. Fixit. He understands what needs to be done and how to whip votes. He believed that he was in a good position to get legislation done because it had to have Republican and Democratic fingerprints on it. And, when he talks, it sounds great. But he was ousted from his party for being too bipartisan ... for even meeting with Obama. I think that's a tragedy. After meeting him, you think we want more people like this in politics. And what we're getting instead is demagogues and populists.

I think it's safe to say that Vice's audience leans progressive. Does that make booking some of these GOP personalities difficult?

Yes. I give everyone a fair shake. My particular beat on the weekly HBO show is to tell both sides of the story. On some things, we do skew progressive because of our audience and our employees - we mostly employ millennials - but when it comes to me, personally, I think everyone knows that I'm not going to go in there and do any hit jobs.

Did spending all of this time chronicling how divisive the last eight years have been prepare you for the outcome of the election?

We knew that no matter what happened, it was not going to be pretty. If Hillary got in, again, you'd still have a house divided. You'd have a lame duck president to begin. And look at how they attacked the Clintons before. It could have been even more partisan, if you can f - ing imagine that. But we did have a lot of intel, because we were hanging out with both sides, and everyone was telling me 5 percent Hillary lock. But, look, these things are gerrymandered to the point where it's a 50/50 coin flip. There's no such thing as a lock.

If a house divided cannot stand, what do you want viewers to take away from this?

I think that what we have to understand is that democracy can be ugly, freaky and weird, but you get the government that you deserve. If you look at the amount of people who didn't vote, either as a protest or what have you, they can't complain about what happens afterwards. I think Obama said it best, and it's not a very bombastic ending, but he's progressive in policies and a conservative in his institutionalism - and he worries that people will become impatient with the dysfunction and look to have systemic change. Revolutions don't always go the way we want them to. That, to me, was very telling. We have to make this democracy work because that's what makes America great, and great place to emigrate ... which I did. The tone we wanted to strike here was not right or left. The system broke down for a number of reasons, and it's up to all of us - politicians, media, voters - to try and have some sanity and not go to extreme right or left solutions.
IRVINE, CA / ACCESSWIRE / December 8, 2016 / Khang & Khang LLP (the "Firm") announces a class action lawsuit against Xerox Corporation ("Xerox" or the "Company") (XRX). Investors who purchased or otherwise acquired shares between April 23, 2012 and October 23, 2015 inclusive (the "Class Period"), are encouraged to contact the Firm in advance of the December 23, 2016 lead plaintiff motion deadline.

If you purchased Xerox shares during the Class Period, please contact Joon M. Khang, Esquire, of Khang & Khang, 18101 Von Karman Avenue, 3rd Floor, Irvine, CA 92612, by telephone: (949) 419-3834, or by e-mail at joon@khanglaw.com.

There has been no class certification in this case. Until certification occurs, you are not represented by an attorney. You may choose to take no action and remain a passive class member.

The complaint alleges that during the Class Period, Xerox repeatedly touted its new software product, Health Enterprise, as an important growth area for the Company, which would operate at low cost and high profit margin. The Company's statements pertaining to the profitability and growth prospects of the Health Enterprise business were materially false and misleading because Xerox failed to disclose: that the Company's existing Health Enterprise projects were experiencing major delays and cost overruns; that Xerox would be unable to deliver Health Enterprise implementations at sustainable profits; and that as a result of the above, the Company's statements about its business, operations, and prospects lacked a reasonable basis. On October 26, 2015, Xerox released its third quarter 2015 financial results which were disappointing due to costs associated with the implementation of Health Enterprise and the termination of Health Enterprise contracts with the state agencies of California and Montana. When this information emerged to the public, the stock price of Xerox fell, causing investors serious harm.

If you wish to learn more about this lawsuit, at no charge to you, or if you have questions concerning this notice or your rights, please contact Joon M. Khang, a prominent litigator for almost two decades, by telephone: (949) 419-3834, or via e-mail at joon@khanglaw.com.

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This press release may constitute Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions.

Contact:

Joon M. Khang, Esq.

Telephone: 949-419-3834

Facsimile: 949-225-4474

joon@khanglaw.com

SOURCE: Khang & Khang LLP
EDINBURGH (Reuters) - Shares in Capita fell for a second day on Friday after a profit warning and decision to sell its asset management business left analysts questioning the British outsourcing group's strategy.

Capita, which offers IT-led administration services to help companies cut costs, announced the sale of its CAS asset management services arm on Thursday, one of its most lucrative units with a profit margin of around 25 percent.

Shares fell 1.1 percent to 479 pence having fallen by 14 pct on Thursday.

Analysts at Barclays expressed doubts about the company's ability to keep step with an increasingly competitive, complex and risky industry at a time of belt-tightening.

Britain's vote to leave the European Union has slowed the pace of decision-making by customers in the public and private sector, prompting analysts to look closer at the quality of Capita's contracts and method of shoring up its balance sheet.

Barclays brokerage arm referred to a contract to manage London's traffic congestion charge and a mortgage management contract at Co-op Bank, flagged as problematic by Capita in September.

"(..) are they genuine one-offs or do they point to a growing risk appetite which has reduced the margin for error?" it said in a note to clients. Barclays has an "equal weight" rating on Capita and a 525 pence price target.

CAS is worth at least 700 million pounds according to analysts, with one source familiar with the matter putting the price tag at up to 1 billion pounds.

Described by many as one of Capita's "crown jewels", the sale is aimed at paying off debt while revenues wane, with the Brexit vote throwing trade relations and labour supply into uncertainty.

The unit has a good portfolio of financial services clients and is attracting interest from private equity funds and some industry players, mainly outsourcing companies such as Tata Consultancy Services, the source familiar with the matter said.

A spokesman for Capita said Chief Executive Andy Parker had reiterated his confidence on Thursday that the strategy was the right one even as the shares fell on news of the planned sale.

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Analysts at brokerage Stifel were sceptical.

"The outcome of the business review lacks substance and our confidence in the management team's ability to turn round Capita is low. More decisive action is required," they said, cutting their recommendation on the shares to "hold" from "buy" with a price target of 500 pence.

Other analysts noted a likely exit from Britain's FTSE 100 index of leading shares after Capita's 60 percent fall in value in the last year.

(Additional reporting by Pamela Barbaglia in London; Editing by Keith Weir and Elaine Hardcastle)
A young mother vanished during a morning jog near her California home  and was found 22 days later on the side of the highway. As she recovers, investigators push to figure out what really happened. Subscribe now to PEOPLE, or pick up this weeks issue, on newsstands now, for much more on this case.

Serial killer profiler John Kelly tells PEOPLE he isnt convinced that two armed Hispanic women abducted California mom Sherri Papini for 22 days, as she has told investigators.

However Kelly, the founder and president of S.T.A.L.K. Inc., is convinced the case has serial rapist, serial killer all over it. He says whomever abducted Papini left her scared to death of these people, who may have terrified Papini into lying about her abductors identity.

This is a sadistic situation, and she somehow was able to convince them to let her go, Kelly tells PEOPLE in this weeks issue, on newsstands now.

She somehow got them to believe she would not squeal on them, he says. Its only by an act of God that they let her go. I have a hard time understanding that as sadistic as these are  and Ive hunted many of them  would let someone live.

He adds, She can identify this perpetrator.

If they know where she lives, she will always worry, he says.

 Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.

Papini, the mom-of-two who told investigators she was kidnapped and held captive for three weeks  before reappearing bound and battered on the side of the road on Thanksgiving  is living at an undisclosed location and reportedly may never return to her home near the trail in Redding, California, where she vanished.

Her weeks in captivity were a nightmare, according to her husband, Keith Papini, who said in a statement to PEOPLE that Sherri was repeatedly beaten, starved, the bridge of her nose broken, and she was branded.

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While Kelly has said the branding could be a sign that Sherris abductors wanted her for sex-trafficking, he wouldnt be surprised if the branding was done to throw the case off.

Its called staging, he tells PEOPLE. Theyve set up that it was two women, that they picked on you because you are this all-American girl, that they are Hispanic and upset with the political climate, and we will tattoo a message on you that corresponds.

Kelly says Papini has a long road ahead of her to heal.

This is going to take an awful lot of therapy, an anti-depressant, probably anti-anxiety medication, he tells PEOPLE. It will be very hard for her to navigate these traumatic waters.




A throwback photo of Sherri Papini was shared online as reports about the California mother's ordeal while she went missing for three weeks continue to emerge. According to the Daily Mail, the picture was posted by Sherri's mother, Loretta Graeff, on her Facebook page.

The photo shows the 34-year-old smiling with her two children and their grandmother as they play a fun Christmas game. The Daily Mail reported that the photo was posted on Nov. 28, less than a week after Sherri was found heavily battered on Thanksgiving morning after being spotted by a motorist on Interstate 5 in Woodland, more than 150 miles from her home.

Papini disappeared on Nov. 2 while out jogging near her home in Redding, California. Her husband Keith Papini filed a missing complaint after his wife failed to pick up her children from daycare.

Police are currently investigating the case, and are still searching for the suspects in the case, believed to be two Hispanic women  one with curly hair, and the other with straight hair  who had covered up their faces and spoke mostly Spanish.

Earlier this week, reports surfaced that Sherri's husband has still not been ruled out as a suspect in his wife's kidnapping case despite clearing a polygraph.

Keith has been cooperative and even volunteered for a polygraph, which he passed, Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko reportedly said. We are keeping an open mind and looking at all avenues.

Just after Sherri went missing, rumors spread about Keith being somehow involved in the abduction.

Several theories have also made the rounds about Sherri's kidnapping. The theories include those from sex-trafficking to anonymous ransom.

On Thursday, reports surfaced that rumors about Sherri's links to an anti-Latino blog post were untrue.

Sherri's dad, Richard Graeff, told People that "some punks" penned the years-old message, detailing the writer's experiences growing up in Shasta Lake, California, and watching her father stand up against Latinos who labeled him a Nazi.

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"Sherri did not write that letter," Graeff said in an article appearing in the magazine's Friday issue.

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Photo credit: Shasta County Sheriff's Office

From Cosmopolitan

The case of Sherri Papini, the 34-year-old mother of two who was reported missing from Redding, California, on Nov. 2 and then found over 150 miles away on Thanksgiving, is bizarrely similar to the case of a woman she went to high school with.

TheDaily Mail reports on Tera Smith, a high school friend of Sherri's who disappeared the evening of Aug. 22, 1998, after leaving her Redding, California home for a jog. Tragically, Tera never returned home and basically disappeared without a trace.

The Freshman homecoming princess was just 16 and was jogging in the same town Sherri disappeared from. A few days after Sherri went missing, her husband Keith reached out to Tera's family for guidance.

Photo credit: Shasta County Sheriff's Office

"I felt bad because Keith had so much hope and so much confidence that she'd be found," said Tera's dad, Terry Smith.



"I didn't have a lot of comfort to offer him. How do you tell somebody a few days after their wife's gone missing that she's probably gone for good?" he continued.

Thankfully, Sherri's case resulted in a happy ending.

However, the Smiths still have many questions about Tera's disappearance and don't believe it was a random case. In fact, Tera had plans to meet with Troy Zink, her martial arts instructor, the day she disappeared.

From the Daily Mail:

From Tera's journal entries and letters found in her room after she disappeared, Smith has said he believed daughter asked Zink to meet her so she could end an affair with him. Zink, a convicted rapist who later served a four-year prison sentence for possession of firearms, was never named a suspect by the Shasta County Sheriff's Office and was never arrested or charged in Tera's disappearance because of a lack of sufficient evidence.

Zink had refused to be questioned by investigators after his initial interview but Tera's parents believe he might have been involved. Her friends also revealed that Zink, a 29-year-old married father of two, was romantically involved with Tera. A further search of her bedroom turned up letters and journal entries about him, including ones where she wrote about ending her relationship with him.

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Zink apparently changed his name and still lives in town, married and running a successful business. Tera's parents still believe he is guilty of murdering their daughter.

"It is heartbreaking and very frustrating,' said Terry. "The guy still lives in Redding. Almost 20 years have passed and he has gotten more comfortable, changed his name and thinks that people have forgotten. We haven't forgotten."

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By Bernie Woodall and Paul Lienert

(Reuters) - Michigan-based Rivian Automotive is negotiating to buy the former Mitsubishi Motors <7211.T> plant in Normal, Illinois, and plans to reopen it in about five years, city and state officials said Thursday.

The seven-year-old company, which has facilities in suburban Detroit and San Francisco, plans to invest up to $175 million in the Normal plant by 2024, according to the Illinois Department of Commerce.

Rivian aims to build an electric vehicle with self-driving capability, according to a source familiar with the company's plans.

A press release issued late Thursday by the state said Rivian is "developing an integrated portfolio of vehicles and services to advance the shift to sustainable mobility."

Mayor Chris Koos told Reuters on Friday that Rivian would employ about 500 people at the factory when it reopens in 2021 and eventually would have about 1,000 workers. It has been closed since May.

He said he did not know the purchase price of the transaction, which is to close on Jan. 3.

Rivian could not be reached for comment on Friday.

Rivian was founded in 2009 by R.J. Scaringe, chief executive officer, and employs more than 50 people, according to its LinkedIn profile. "Rivian is creating solutions that redefine traditional automotive economics and remove the pain points of conventional ownership," the profile says.

Scaringe's individual profile lists a doctorate in mechanical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology but no previous automotive experience.

Chief Operating Officer Gabriel Mesanza previously worked for General Motors Co and later was a consultant at Deloitte and KPMG, according to his profile.

Rivian has recruited several automotive veterans, including Chief Engineer Lawrence Achram, a former Chrysler vice president, and Design Director Larry Erickson, a former designer at GM and Ford Motor Co , according to their LinkedIn profiles.

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Koos said liquidation service Maynards Industries bought the plant from Mitsubishi and was planning to auction off its equipment in September and then raze the building. Those plans changed when Rivian put up $1 million in "earnest money" on a potential purchase, he said.

Normal will host Rivian executives on Monday as the company seeks approval for tax breaks by the city and other local governments, Koos said.

Mitsubishi had used the plant as a hub for production of its Outlander SUV before announcing its closure in January, resulting in the layoff of about 1,000 workers. At its peak, the plant employed 3,000.

(Reporting by Bernie Woodall and Paul Lienert in Detroit; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Grant McCool)
For more celebrity videos visit Yahoo View, available now on iOS and Android.

Silicon Valley star T.J. Miller was arrested on a battery charge early Friday morning, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Department told TheWrap.

Miller was arrested at approximately 1 a.m., after his driver placed him under citizens arrest, police said. Police followed Miller to his residence and placed him under arrest.

Miller got into it with his Uber driver during an argument about president-elect Donald Trump after Miller attended the GQ Man of the Year party, and the driver claimed that Miller slapped him, TMZ reported. The driver didnt have any visible injuries, TMZ reported.

Also Read: Judge Reinhold Arrest: See the Mugshot (Photo)

The actor was released on his own recognizance. His manager did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Miller has been critical of Trump, even trying to burn a Trump tie on Conan. He tweeted during the presidential election, Trump is a madman. Hes a lunatic. Hell ruin us globally. Lets f him up in November.

Let's stop this nonsense. Trump is a madman. He's a lunatic. He'll ruin us globally. Let's fuck him up in November.https://t.co/cqDuWwaI6k  t.j. miller (@nottjmiller) July 13, 2016

Also Read: Actor Judge Reinhold Arrested After Airport Incident With TSA

Millers new movie Office Christmas Party  which also stars Jennifer Aniston, Olivia Munn and Jason Bateman, opens today. The actor, who last year won a Critics Choice award for his portrayal of Erlich Bachman on the HBO comedy Silicon Valley, also appeared in the superhero film Deadpool earlier this year.

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Related stories from TheWrap:

Judge Reinhold Released From Jail After Dallas Airport Arrest

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Actor Judge Reinhold Arrested After Airport Incident With TSA
Singaporean independent distributor Clover Films is to celebrate its seventh anniversary this month. It will do so with the release of seven Asian films over the festive period that stretches from Christmas to Chinese New Year.

Leading off (on Dec. 15) is martial arts epic Sword Master, directed by Derek Yee and produced by Tsui Hark. That is followed by 10,000 Miles starring Taiwanese singing sensation and actor Jay Chou (The Green Hornet.)

Clovers past success with Jackie Chan movies is to be followed by the release of two more in a month. Chinese-Indian co-venture Kung Fu Yoga will release on Dec. 29. Directed by Stanley Tong, the film also stars Indias Sonu Sood. Railroad Tigers, Chans nationalistic tale of Chinese immigrant workers fighting against the Japanese army, is currently undated, but aimed at the Lunar New Year holidays.

Releasing at a similar moment is food comedy Cook Up A Storm, starring Nicholas Tse, Koreas Jung Yong-hwa of pop-rock group CNBLUE, Tiffany Tang, Michelle Bai, Hong Kong veteran Anthony Wong and mainland Chinas Ge You.

High-powered Korean crime thriller, Master, starring Lee Byung-hun, Gang Dong-won and Kim Woo-bin, goes up against Thai horror School Tales. Both will release on Jan. 12, 2017.

Clover has distributed more than 200 movies in its seven year run and produced 20 local films in Singapore and Malaysia. The company plans to produce three more this year. To affirm our support for the Singapore film industry, we plan to be involved in more good-quality local movies, said Clover Films MD, Lim Teck.

Achieving independence is a tough task in Singapore. The limited number of theatrical options mean that independents usually have to involve an exhibitor as a co-distributor.

It recently handled runaway hit Train to Busan, Operation Mekong and Singapores foreign-language Oscar contender Apprentice.

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Singapore Government Invests $260 Million in Indonesian Cinema Chain

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Jackie Chan to Star in Joe Carnahan's 'Five Against a Bullet'

SGIFF: 'A Yellow Bird' Director K Rajagopal Sings
It ranked 18th in world's priciest office space.

The office market continues to suffer slumping rents as it drown in supply. But some analysts see a brighter side to this, saying this gives the market cost advantage.

Based on JLL's latest Global Premium Office Rent Tracker, Singapore ranked 18th in the world's priciest cities for Grade A offices. Its rival Hong Kong topped the list.

According to JLL head of research for Southeast Asia Chua Yang Liang, this has raised Singapores office occupancy cost competitiveness.

"For example, while Hong Kongs office occupancy cost in US dollars was 181% higher than Singapore a year ago, the gap has widened to 261% by September 2016. Similarly, the rental gap between Beijing and Singapore has widened from 104% to 114% during the same time period, Chua noted.

Meanwhile JLL head of office leasing for JLL Singapore Chris Archibold said the availability of new supply has seen a number of corporations taking advantage of the competitive leasing environment by committing to the new wave of supply.

"The demand is predominantly driven by the efficiencies that can be achieved by relocating from buildings with small floor plates to buildings with large regular shaped floor plates coupled with changes to more efficient work place strategies. Many of these occupiers are seeing efficiency gains of between 8% to 12%," he said.

He added, "It is no longer a flight to quality but more of a flight to efficiency. Given this trend, leasing activity levels have been strong but overall net take up remains weak. The gap between prime building rents and those on secondary buildings has narrowed over the last 18 months as landlords have sought to attract occupiers. This gap is likely to rebalance somewhat in the coming 12 months as rental pressure is set to hit the older buildings when occupiers who have committed to space in the new projects vacate their existing premises.





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The Chief of Defence Forces Gen Edward Katumba Wamala has distanced himself from the joint military and police operation in Kasese which left over 100 people dead and several others incarcerated.

The attack last month also left the Rwenzururu cultural leader Charles Wesley Mumbere detained and charged with murder.

While appearing before parliaments committee on Defence and Internal Affairs, Gen Wamala said he was not in Kasese at the time of the clashes and the final attack on the Palace.

The committee chaired by Mityana Woman MP Jidith Nabakooba also learnt that the CDF did not issue the assault order on the Omusingas palace.

Responding to a question from Kaweme South MP Mubarak Munyagwa on justification of the force meted against the King prior to his arrest on the fateful day, Wamala said that he could not micro-manage the situation.
Scientists have long thought that smallpox  one of the most devastating diseases to ever afflict humankind  has been around for thousands of years. The World Health Organization, for instance, states that smallpox, caused by the Variola virus, has existed for at least 3,000 years.

However, a new study based on the genetic analysis of the viral DNA obtained from the partially mummified remains of a 17th century Lithuanian child has called this belief into question. The research, published Thursday in the journal Current Biology, reveals that the disease may be just hundreds, rather than thousands, of years old.

Scientists don't yet fully comprehend where smallpox came from and when it jumped into humans, senior author of the study Hendrik Poinar, the director of McMaster Universitys Ancient DNA Centre, said in a statement released Monday. This research raises some interesting possibilities about our perception and age of the disease.

For their research, the scientists extracted a heavily-fragmented smallpox virus DNA from the corpse of a child believed to have died between 1643 and 1665  a period when smallpox outbreaks were common throughout Europe. When they sequenced the DNA and compared it to the 20th century samples, they found that all available strains of the virus emerged from an ancestor that existed in the 1580s.

This study sets the clock of smallpox evolution to a much more recent time-scale study co-author Edward Holmes, an evolutionary biologist from the University of Sydney, said in the statement. Although it is still unclear what animal is the true reservoir of smallpox virus and when the virus first jumped into humans.

Tracing the evolutionary history of the deadly pathogen also unearthed a surprising finding  evolution of the virus into a major and a minor strain only began after 1796, when the English physician and scientist Edward Jenner developed a vaccine.

This raises important questions about how a pathogen diversifies in the face of vaccination, co-author Ana Duggan, a post doctoral fellow at the McMaster Ancient DNA Centre, said in the statement. While smallpox was eradicated in human populations, we can't become lazy or apathetic about its evolution  and possible reemergence  until we fully understand its origins.

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The last known case of smallpox was recorded in Somalia in 1977. The virus no longer exists naturally, and all its remaining live stocks are currently being held in two secure laboratories  one in the U.S. and the other in Russia.

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Heavy snowfall in Minnesota has caused whiteout conditions that have resulted in a number of accidents across the state. Low visibility and poor road conditions led to four crashes involving semitrailers Thursday along Interstate 694 in the Twin Cities, according to local media reports.

Blowing snow on highways across the state has made traveling very difficult, particularly in northwestern Minnesota, which is experiencing blizzard conditions this week. Local media reports said there have been no fatal accidents so far. However, several road accidents took place this week.

A semitrailer crashed Tuesday on Minnesota Highway 139, 1 mile south of Harmony, after the driver lost control on the icy road and crashed into the ditch.

The National Weather Service reported Thursday that more substantial snowstorm is expected this weekend, with at least a couple of inches of accumulating snow from Saturday into Sunday.

The Minnesota Department of Public Safety issued some guidelines that must be taken while driving during the winter months.

Make sure your car is ready for the season. Throughout the winter, keep your gas tank at least half full to avoid gas line freeze.

Avoid traveling (especially alone) if severe weather is threatening.

If your car has been outside during a snowfall, brush all the snow off before starting out.

Adjust your speed to road conditions.

Consider taking a cell phone with you for use during emergencies.

In case, people find themselves stranded in a car in sub-zero weather, the Minnesota Department of Public Safety suggests the following:

Put an emergency kit together for your vehicle. Make sure that items like ice scraper/brush, small shovel, jumper cables, tow chain, sand or cat litter (for tire traction), colored cloth, blankets, flashlights and energy bars, are available in the car all winter long.

Before venturing out, charge your cell phone and be sure youre dressed for the weather.

If you get stranded, call 911 and stay in your vehicle.

While you wait for help, keep your engine turned off unless youre sure the exhaust pipe is free of snow and ice.

Also, be sure to keep snow off the radiator; otherwise, your engine could overheat.

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Below are some photos of Minnesota shared by social media users.

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PARIS (Reuters) - France's Societe Generale (SOGN.PA) said on Friday it has agreed to sell its German online broker Onvista AG to Commerzbank's (CBKG.DE) online banking unit Comdirect bank AG, as part of its plan to focus on its core and profitable operations.

Neither company disclosed financial terms of the deal.

SocGen, France's second-biggest bank said the sale would have a limited positive impact on the group's financial ratios and that it remained strongly committed to the German market through its corporate and investment banking, specialised lending and consumer finance activities.

SocGen owns Onvista, which is also a financial portal, via its online bank Boursorama.

"Societe General Group ... will also pursue the further development of Boursorama, its leading online banking subsidiary in France," the bank said in a statement.

Onvista had 80,000 clients at the end of 2015 and employed 90 people in Frankfurt. Comdirect bank AG is 81 percent-owned by Commerzbank.

(Reporting by Maya Nikolaeva; Additional reporting by Andreas Kroner in Frankfurt; Editing by Bate Felix and Adrian Croft)
Conventional wisdom dispensed by financial planners about taking Social Security largely boils down to this: Wait as long as you can. Thats because delaying means a bigger monthly payment.

For example, someone born in 1955 earning $50,000 can expect a monthly benefit of $1,087 if he retires early at 62. That goes up by 41 percent to $1,532 if he waits until full retirement age  in this case, 66 years and two months. If he delays until 70, the benefit increases to $2,091, or almost double his benefit at 62.

It seems like a no-brainer, but many Americans dont do this. Forty-eight percent of women and 42 percent of men who claimed benefits in 2013 did so at 62, which is the most popular age to start getting Social Security.

Part of the reason is that, in some circumstances, waiting simply doesnt make sense, The decision on when to start Social Security depends on factors such as how long you expect to live, cash flow needs and marital status, says Daniel Galli, a certified financial planner in Norwell, Massachusetts. We have advised some clients to start at 62 and encouraged others to wait until 70.

Related: This Years Social Security Cost of Living Hike Buys a Starbucks Frappuccino

Heres when getting benefits early is the best claiming strategy:

Sickness. About one in five people over 50 have already claimed benefits because of health problems, according to a Nationwide Retirement Institute survey this year.

(One) reason people take benefits early is because they have a short life expectancy, due to a chronic condition or terminal illness, says Alexander Koury, a certified financial planner with the Householder Group in Scottsdale, Arizona. The cost of waiting may mean they would never get their fair share.

This is not necessarily true if you have a spouse who will depend on your benefit after you die. Your spouses survivors benefit amount is based on the Social Security benefit amount, so your spouse will get a reduced benefit if you claim Social Security early.

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Need. Claiming Social Security benefits early becomes necessary if you simply need more income, either due to unemployment, a job change or an unexpected or unavoidable increase in expenses.

Related: How Children Got Lost in the Debate Over Social Security Reform

A study last year of retirees from the TransAmerica Center for Retirement Studies found that two-thirds of workers retired earlier than expected for employment-related reasons, including job loss and organizational changes.

This was a real problem during the Great Recession. People claiming Social Security reached an all-time high in 2009 and remained elevated in 2010 as unemployment jumped.

Better to take Social Security than taking the equivalent amount from their own retirement investment accounts, says Satoru Asato, a certified financial planner with Raymond James in Bloomington, Minnesota.

No need. Another reason why a retiree may take Social Security early is because he has more than enough assets, says Koury, and therefore has enough that theres no real need to wait for a larger payment. But most people near retirement dont fall into this category because their savings fall far short.

Related: How Social Security Lifts People Out of Poverty, State by State

Roll of the dice. John C. Neyland, president of JCN Financial & Tax Planning Group, recommends taking Social Security early more often than most other planners. Thats because of how long it will take to recoup the difference in the early benefit and either the payment at full retirement age or the maximum benefit.

If life expectancy is 78 and you wait until 70 before taking Social Security, you have to live to somewhere between 78 and 82 for it to make sense, says Neyland. At best you break even at 78, but the entire time you exacerbated your risk because you took money out of savings.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
The son of Sopranos actor Michael Imperioli was arrested for allegedly spray-painting a swastika on a dorm wall at a college in New York.

Read: Half-Dressed High School Teacher Caught in Car with Naked Student: Cops

According to reports, 19-year-old Vadim Imperioli, an aspiring standup comic, faces charges of criminal mischief for spray-painting the Nazi symbol on a bulletin board at SUNY Purchase on November 20, according to The Journal News.

"We assisted SUNY Purchase police," Captain Doug Larkin of the New York State Police told the newspaper Wednesday. "He was arrested for the swastika incident."

Captain Larkin added that Imperioli faces a charge of criminal mischief in the fourth degree at his scheduled arraignment next month.

The younger Imperiolis Facebook page has him listed as a student at the school. However, his lawyer Russell Smith said he doesnt believe his client is still enrolled there.

Read: Tensions Mount on Texas A&M Campus as Alt-Right Leader Richard Spencer Speaks at University

He was in court earlier this week facing a separate charge of criminal mischief and once served three years probation in California for vandalism.

Vadim, the oldest son of Michael and his wife, Victoria, starred with his father in two episodes of the short-lived ABC network drama Detroit 1-8-7. He also appeared as the younger version of his father's character in the 2007 TV movie Mitch Albom's For One More Day.

Watch: Restaurant Apologizes After White Nationalists and Tila Tequila Give Nazi Salute

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Following six weeks of street protests and an approval rating that plunged to just 4%, South Korean President Park Geun-hye was impeached Friday by the nations National Assembly, signaling an ignominious end to a term that had become mired in a corruption scandal.

The impeachment vote required at least 28 of Parks fellow Saenuri Party lawmakers to cross the aisle to make up the majority two-thirds of the 300-seat legislature. The final vote was 234 to 56 in favor of impeachment. Park is suspended with immediate effect although the vote needs to be ratified by the nations Constitutional Court within 180 days to become permanent.

The nations Prime Minister takes over Parks responsibilities in the interim, though Park had already offered to resign if lawmakers voted against her. If she does, new elections must be held within 60 days. Crowds of banner-waving protesters greeted the verdict with cheers outside the chamber.

President Park Geun-hye has not only forgotten her duty as the nations leader and administrative chief but also violated the constitution and other laws concerning her public duties, said opposition lawmaker Kim Kwan-young while presenting the impeachment bill.

Park is the 64-year-old daughter of former South Korean military dictator Park Chung-hee, who is credited with spearheading the East Asian nations rapid economic growth of the 1970s and 80s. She is accused of sharing classified documents with her longtime confidante, Choi Soon-sil.

Read More: Huge Numbers Demand the Ouster of South Koreas President in a Fifth Week of Protests

Choi, the daughter of the shaman-like cult leader who grew close to Park and her strongman father, has been charged with using her influence over Park to wrest almost $70 million from some of South Koreas biggest companies, including LG, Hyundai and Samsung.

Crowds between 500,000 to 1.5 million have thronged central Seoul in recent weeks to demand Parks ouster. Protesters see the corruption scandal as symptomatic of wider problems in South Korean society, including soaring income inequality, ingrained sexism and a lack of social mobility.

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Park has yet to resign or formally comment on her impeachment and has not been seen in public since Tuesday, instead ensconcing herself in the presidential Blue House despite the roiling demonstrations less than a mile away. She really has been very tone-deaf to what the people want, says Professor Sean OMalley, a political scientist at South Koreas Dongseo University.

As President, Park is constitutionally protected from prosecution other than for insurrection or treason, though prosecutors say she had a considerable role in Chois alleged transgressions. There are widespread calls for criminal charges against Park once she leaves office. Park has apologized for the scandal three times but insists nothing she did was for personal gain.

Read More: South Koreas Familial Presidential Family Scandal

My heart is crushed when I think I cannot resolve the deep disappointment and anger of the people even if I apologize 100 times, she said in one tearful televised statement.

South Korea now faces a damaging period of political limbo. Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn is deeply unpopular among the opposition and protesters, who see him as too close to Parks scandal-hit administration. The lack of clear leadership has consequences for regional security, with Seoul a vital ally to Washingtons efforts to curb the nuclear ambitions of rogue state North Korea.

However, OMalley says there are signs the Choi scandal has had the positive effect of empowering the national prosecutors office. Im hopeful that they will be more aggressive in pursuing political corruption cases in the future, he says, adding that the saga may strengthen the legal system in the long run.
South Koreas National Assembly voted to impeach president Park Geun-hye on Thursday, with 234 of 300 lawmakers voting to oust the embattled leader who is stung by corruption allegations.

South Koreas prime minister, Hwang Kyo-ahn, now acting leader, apologized to the Korean people and said he feels a deep responsibility for all that has transpired.

According to prosecutors, Park allegedly shared confidential documents with a friend, on whose behalf she got money from business groups. A more lurid version is that Park was basically under the control of that friend, Choi Soon-sil, the daughter of a cult leader. In 2007, a diplomatic cable by the then-U.S. ambassador to South Korea, released by WikiLeaks, flagged the relationship between Park and Choi Tae-min, the cult leader.

Park has also been forced to explain her own past, including her relationship some 35 years ago with a pastor, Choi Tae-min, whom her opponents characterize as a Korean Rasputin, and how he controlled Park during her time in the Blue House when she was first lady after her mothers assassination, the cable read.

Park, daughter of former president Park Chung-hee, had offered to resign as the scandal grew. Her opponents said that resignation was an all too easy way out. They wanted her impeached.

And now she has been. Her future is now in the hands of the constitutional court, which will have six months to decide what to do with her. If it decides on impeachment, she will be removed from office, and South Korea will hold snap elections. If it decides against it, she will be reinstated to the presidency, where she will likely be able to remain until the end of her term in February of 2018.

South Koreas domestic politics will be in a for turbulent few months, then  just as the arrival of a new American president promises to ratchet up uncertainty over Asias future and Seouls place in the now-wheezing U.S. pivot to Asia.

Photo credit: South Korean Presidential Blue House via Getty Images
SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea will step up cooperation with allies to respond to North Korea's nuclear threat, Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn said on Friday in his first speech after parliament impeached President Park Geun-hye. South Korea faced grave risks from both within and externally and could not afford to have a vacuum in government, Hwang said in a televised address. He vowed to make his best efforts to manage the country. (Reporting by Jack Kim; Editing by Robert Birsel)
The State Minister of Gender, Labour and Social Development Peace Mutuzo has condemned the civil societies for only concentrating on gender violence against women and ignoring men.

Speaking during the activities of the 16 Days of activism to end violence against women in Kampala, Mutuzo explained currently, Gender based violence against men has increased due to a number of women getting empowered and having money.

She notes that women have ignored their roles of attending to their husbands and children pretending to be busy and disrespecting their husbands as well.

She explains that however with the trend, civil society have continued to fight for a girl child leaving behind boys something which is not right warning that if it is not addressed, the situation will worsen.
South Koreas parliaments on Friday voted to impeach the countrys scandal-hit president Park Geun-hye, after weeks of mass protests calling on the president to step down from office. The reins of administration will now pass on to Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-Ahn.

Park has been embroiled in a political scandal  the countrys biggest in recent years  involving her aide and confidante Choi Soon-sil who was arrested for allegedly meddling in government affairs and exerting influence over the president, who has about 15 months left in office.

Choi, Parks so-called spiritual adviser, has also been accused of pressurizing companies into giving a combined 77.4 billion won ($65.5 million) to two nonprofits that were under her control  the Mir and K-Sports foundations. Prosecutors said the president conspired in criminal activities of her aide and there have been mass rallies every Saturday  for the past six weeks  calling for Parks resignation.

After the passing of the impeachment motion, Prime Minister Hwang will take over the presidents duties. He held a meeting with cabinet members to ensure a smooth transition of power, before the vote on Friday.

Hwang, 59, will be the acting president till the countrys Constitutional Court decides whether it will uphold the impeachment motion, a process that could take up to 180 days. Of the courts nine members, two-thirds need to vote in favor of Parks impeachment for it to pass.

pm hwang

Photo: REUTERS/Jung Yeon-je/Pool

If the court decides to go ahead with the impeachment, a new election has to be held within 60 days.

Veteran lawmaker from the opposition Democratic party of Korea, Moon Jae-in, United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon  who served as foreign minister from 2004 to 2006  and the liberal mayor of Seongnam Lee Jae-myung are possible candidates for the presidential election, along with Seoul mayor and former civic activist Park Won-soon, and software tycoon Ahn Cheol-soo, the Guardian reported.

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Park, who is the countrys first female president, will also go down in history as the first democratically elected South Korean president to be impeached, if the court passes the motion. In 2004, late President Roh Moo-hyun was also forced out of office for two months but the Constitutional Court restored Roh to power, rejecting the charges of abuse of power.

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By Ju-min Park SEOUL (Reuters) - Jubilant South Koreans celebrated with cheers, hugs and selfies on Friday, after lawmakers voted to impeach embattled President Park Geun-hye over an influence-pedalling scandal that had drawn huge crowds to weekly protests demanding she step down. The impeachment motion, passed by 234 lawmakers with 56 opposed, suspends Park's powers and leaves the Constitutional Court to decide whether to uphold the motion and remove Park from office or reject it and reinstate her. A large crowd of demonstrators gathered outside parliament in anticipation of the outcome greeted the news with cheers. "I feel great!" said 54-year-old rice farmer Im Chae-jum. "I thought it was going to pass but, either way, whatever happens in parliament, we'll take Park Geun-hye down with people power. "The people won!" Park's approval rating stood at just 5 percent in a poll released earlier on Friday. Protesters waved banners and flags as they climbed on a tractor that some farmers had used to block a road outside parliament. Others took selfies before a large banner reading, "Congratulations on the impeachment of Park Geun-hye; Now let's lock her up." Several people blew horns or held up signs that read, "Victory for the people!" Choi Ji-young, the mother of a child who died in the 2014 Sewol ferry tragedy, watched the vote from a gallery in the assembly. She was among a group of victims' relatives, who danced and chanted as they left the building. "I screamed 'Hooray!'" said Choi. "This'll be a chance to get to the bottom of the disaster and hold Park and her close aides accountable." The events around the ferry sinking, which killed more than 300 people, mostly schoolchildren, have loomed over Park's presidency. Protesters have staged massive demonstrations in central Seoul every Saturday for the last six weeks of the political crisis that rocked Park's presidency. The protests have remained festive and peaceful, centered on large, candle-lit rallies that have drawn up to a million people, by some estimates. Another was planned for Saturday. Park, 64, is accused of colluding with a friend and a former aide, both of whom have been indicted by prosecutors, to pressure big businesses to donate to two foundations set up to back her policy initiatives. "Now I feel good," said Choi, holding a red rose wrapped in a yellow ribbon, a symbol of the protests against Park. "She should go to jail." (Reporting by Ju-min Park; Writing by James Pearson; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
JUBA (Reuters) - South Sudan has expelled the country director of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) after security agents held him for over 24 hours without charge, the agency said. Government officials in Juba were not available to comment. NRC, which has operated in South Sudan since 2004 and provides services such as food distribution and construction of emergency shelters in remote areas, said no reason was given for the action. "The expulsion of our Country Director is a serious setback to our humanitarian work for civilians in dire need of support," NRC's Secretary General Jan Egeland said in a statement. "To undermine our relief to vulnerable citizens' is an affront to the international humanitarian community in South Sudan," he added. NRC, which did not disclose the name or nationality of its director, urged the government to reverse its decision. South Sudan has been wracked by violence since a political rift between its President Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, and his former deputy Riek Machar, a Nuer, led to civil war in 2013 that has often followed ethnic lines. The pair signed a peace agreement last year but fighting has continued and Machar fled the country in July. Aid agencies say violence has displaced more than three million people, a third of whom have sought refuge in neighboring countries. (reporting by Denis Dumo,; writing by Aaron Maasho, editing by Angus MacSwan)
La Jonquera (Spain) (AFP) - Authorities in Spain dismantled one of the European Union's main hubs for counterfeit goods, arresting 71 people and seizing close to 270,000 fake watches, jewellery and other goods, police and Europol said on Friday.

The international gang that acquired and sold the counterfeit products operated in and around La Jonquera in northeastern Spain, a town close to the French border known for its brothels and supermarkets selling low cost alcohol and tobacco.

Spanish police told reporters the products seized were worth over eight million euros at market prices -- "the biggest (operation) ever conducted in Spain" against violations of intellectual property (IP).

In a statement, European police agency Europol, which assisted Spanish forces in the operation, said they had dismantled a "main European Union hub" for the distribution of counterfeit goods.

Police staged the operation on November 29 when they made the arrests and inspected more than 40 premises, seizing clothes, shoes, sunglasses, watches, jewellery, leather goods and other products.

"In some of the premises, investigators discovered the existence of secret warehouses hidden behind false walls, used by the criminals to conceal the newest illicit merchandise in case of a police intervention," said Europol.

The majority of those detained were Israeli or Moroccan.

Chris Vansteenkiste, head of counterfeiting at Europol, said the region was "one of the black spots in the European Union" for this type of offence, along with the border between the Czech Republic and Germany.

The gang "also used a sophisticated network of fictitious companies and front men to launder the proceeds of their criminal activities, which are thought to have exceeded nine million euros", Europol said.

Many of the products were imported from abroad, in particular China, Portugal and Turkey.

Other products, mainly leather goods and belts, were counterfeited directly in Spain.
MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's parliament will decide whether to send an extra 125 soldiers to assist in the fight against Islamic State in Iraq, where they have provided training to local troops, the Defense Ministry said on Friday. The additional troops would put the total number of Spanish forces in Iraq at 425, and would lend further logistical support in bomb detection. Spanish troops would not be taking part in any ground operations. Spain's parliament agreed unanimously to send 300 military personnel in 2014, when Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's conservative People's Party (PP) had a majority in parliament. He is now at the helm of a minority government, meaning he will need support from opposition lawmakers in a highly fragmented lower house, though the second-place Socialist party voted in favor of sending troops two years ago. It was not immediately clear when parliament would vote on the matter. (Reporting by Amanda Calvo, Editing by Sarah White and Richard Lough)
MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish police arrested 71 people on Friday for allegedly selling counterfeit goods, in the country's biggest crackdown to date against intellectual property theft and money laundering, the Interior Ministry said. Agents raided stores, ships and warehouses and seized more than 8 million euros ($8.45 million) worth of fake goods, including handbags, watches, sunglasses and jewelry, with some stashed behind secret walls, the statement said. Some of the goods were imported from China, Turkey and Portugal. Others were manufactured in Spain, according to the ministry. The three-year operation also identified up to 9 million euros of related money laundering. The investigation focused on the towns of La Junquera and Le Perthus on the Spanish-French border. ($1 = 0.9467 euros) (Reporting by Amanda Calvo, editing by Sarah White, Larry King)
The first Spider-Man: Homecoming trailer has swung into action - and it's shedding light on some of the questions that have been plaguing the fan community for months.

From questions about how much Tony Stark will be in the movie to who Zendaya is playing, let's take a closer look:

0:00-0:32 - The crime fighter hits the streets.

After Civil War and months of crimefighting, Spider-Man looks like he's pretty good at beating up criminals. Homecoming can start with the fun and not be bogged down the way the Amazing Spider-Man movies were. This movie has no need for a scene of Peter discovering his powers or rehashing the death of Uncle Ben.

0:39-52 - The key relationships are revealed.

This quick sequence establishes that Liz Allan (Laura Harrier) - rather than classic love interests like Mary Jane Watson or Gwen Stacy - is Peter's crush in the movie. In the comics, Liz Allan was romantically linked to Peter as well as his bully Flash Thompson, and at one point ended up marrying Peter's best friend Harry Osborn (who is not known to be in this movie).

In the Homecoming trailer, Peter's best friend Ned Leeds (Jacob Batalon) lends him moral support, while Michelle (Zendaya) has this to say: "You guys are losers."

Zendaya has denied rumors her character is Mary Jane and maintains she is not a love interest. (Of course, M.J. could end up being her initials.) The actress and musician recently described Michelle this way to The Hollywood Reporter: "My character is like very dry, awkward, intellectual and because she's so smart, she just feels like she doesn't need to talk to people, like, 'My brain is so far ahead of you that you're just not really on my level.' So she comes off very weird. But to me, she is very cool because she's deep. She's always thinking about something, always reading."

0:56-1:09: Tony tells it like it is.

In addition to zooming past the origin story, Homecoming also offers the promise of finally giving Peter a mentor who - A) isn't dead (Uncle Ben) and B) isn't destined to become a supervillain (Norman Osborn and Otto Octavius).

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1:23-1:30: Spidey's friend learns the truth

Though he's named for the classic comics character, Ned Leeds appears to be serving the same function as the much newer Ultimate Spider-Man character Ganke, the best friend and confidant of Miles Moralis. Ganke was a superhero fanboy who helped teach Miles about taking on the role of Spider-Man. Ned physically resembles Ganke and clearly has the geek thing down with him dropping a Lego model of the Death Star in surprise.

A key part of what made both the Peter Parker and Miles Moralis versions of Ultimate Spider-Man so fun is that they have friends who know they are superheroes - meaning the story can't just depend on the tension of maintaining their secret identities.

1:38-1:53: The Vulture flies in ... and he's on the same team as Donald Glover?

Sam Raimi's first two Spider-Man movies had some of the best-reguarded villains in superhero movie history. There's not enough in the trailer to suggest one way or the other if The Vulture will be able to transcend MCU history and become a truly great villain, but one surprising revelation is that Donald Glover's mystery character appears to be involved with winged bad guy - or at least he is hanging with someone who uses Vulture tech.

2:05-2:07 - Homecoming pays homage to Spider-Man 2.

One of the most enduring images from Sam Raimi's trilogy is Spider-Man stopping a speeding train with his webs - and nearly killing himself in the process. Tom Holland's Spider-Man pulls a similar move to keep a ferry from splitting in two.

2:12-2:13 - Spider-Man and Iron Man Team Up.

This is the shot fans wants. There are three distinct scenes with Tony in the trailer (the limo, one at Avengers headquarters, and this one of the two teaming up). The key will be allowing Peter to prove himself on his own without Tony swooping in to save the day.

Sony and Marvel's Spider-Man: Homecoming will be released on July 7, 2017.

Read more: 'Spider-Man: Homecoming' Video Shows Just How "Weird" It Is to Play a Superhero
Spider-Man is back in action with Marvels Avengers.

In the first trailer for Spider-Man: Homecoming, Marvels reboot of the popular franchise, the new Peter Parker (Tom Holland) takes a greater leap into Marvels Cinematic Universe after making a cameo in last years Captain America: Civil War.

Robert Downey Jr.s Iron Man co-stars in the film as a superhero mentor to the web-slinger in what appears to be a new, younger storyline in the Spider-Man world.

Michael Keaton also start in the film along with Marisa Tomei and Hannibal Burress.

It swings into theaters July 7, 2017.

Watch the trailer below:

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Beirut (AFP) - Here are the latest developments on the main battle fronts in Iraq and Syria, as of 1600 GMT on Friday:

SYRIA

- Battle for Aleppo -

Syrian warplanes launched new air strikes on the last rebel-held districts in Aleppo, as key regime ally Russia vowed the assault would continue until opposition fighters leave the city's east.

The latest raids came after a brief pause overnight which Russia said was to allow the evacuation of civilians, but artillery fire continued.

Three weeks into the government assault, regime forces have captured around 85 percent of east Aleppo, and the insurgents are now confined to just a few districts of their former stronghold.

Tens of thousands of civilians have fled east Aleppo in recent weeks, many seeking shelter in the regime-held west or districts controlled by Kurdish forces.

The United Nations said it received reports that rebels blocked some residents from leaving and expressed concern about reports that hundreds of men have gone missing after fleeing to government-held areas.

East Aleppo has been blockaded by the regime since mid-July, with food supplies dwindling even before the government assault began in mid-November.

At least 409 civilians, including 45 children have been killed in the government's assault, while rebel fire on government-held areas killed another 113 people, including 35 children, a monitoring group says.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the assault has prompted tens of thousands of people to flee their homes in the east.

Diplomatic efforts to reach a ceasefire have floundered despite repeated talks between Washington and Moscow, which back opposing sides in the conflict.

- Raqa -

Islamic State group jihadists killed 15 Syrian soldiers and pro-regime fighters near Palmyra on Friday, taking the government's losses in 24 hours of clashes to at least 49, the Observatory said.

The jihadists' advance brought them to within four kilometres (two and half miles) of the ancient desert city, which government forces recaptured in March.

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Further east, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a US-backed Kurdish-Arab alliance, is trying to advance on the Islamic State group's de facto Syrian capital of Raqa.

IRAQ

- Battle for Mosul -

Since launching an offensive on October 17 to oust IS from its last Iraqi stronghold, pro-government forces say they have recaptured almost half of eastern Mosul and are edging towards the Tigris river that divides it.

The elite Counter-Terrorism Service has retaken several eastern neighbourhoods and was fighting on Friday in Al-Noor district, just over three kilometres (two miles) from the river.

Hashed al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation) paramilitary forces have been fighting on a western front. On Thursday they were clearing Tal Abtah of bombs and booby traps after a fierce, days-long fight to retake it.

Iraqi forces on the southern front have halted within striking distance of IS-held Mosul airport, while the northern front has frozen in recent days.

The United Nations says a total of 82,000 people are currently displaced as a result of the Mosul operation.
The Minister of Works and Transport Monica Ntegge Azuba has urged the Civil Aviation Authority to expand and upgrade Entebbe International Airport to high standards and meet the expectations of the various stakeholders such as air travellers and development partners.

She has also called upon the contactors who are currently working on upgrading the airport to meet their contractual obligations by observing the highest quality standards so that tax payers get value for money.

The minister was speaking last evening at the Civil Aviation Authority Jubilee stakeholders dinner at the Kampala Serena hotel.

She also lauded the aviation body for the strides it has made over the last 25 years which has seen an exponential increase in cargo handled through Entebbe Airport from 5200 metric tonnes in 1991 to 55,000 metric tonnes as of 2014.

Meanwhile speaking during the same function, the Minister of Tourism, Wildlife and antiquities Ephraim Kamuntu re-echoed warnings that continuous unrest in the country is hurting the tourism industry and called for calm to ensure that the industry thrives.
By Neha Dasgupta and Krishna N. Das

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's debt-laden steel industry should not take the government's protectionist measures for granted and need to raise their efficiency to compete with foreign companies, the country's steel minister told Reuters in an interview on Friday.

The government has imposed various duties and quality controls on imports over the past two years to stop the inflow of cheap steel from countries such as China, the world's biggest producer burdened with a massive oversupply.

"In my view (protectionist measures) should not be there even for a month, but I have to see the overall position of the industry," minister Chaudhary Birender Singh said in his office.

"I've made it very clear to the industry that on one hand, we are giving this much of protection but on the other hand, I want a roadmap where you can improve upon your efficiency ... (to) narrow down the cost of production and sale price."

Goutam Chakraborty, analyst at Emkay Global Financial Services in Mumbai, said Indian companies typically produce commodity-grade steel with lower returns and are less efficient than foreign companies producing high-end steel.

BAD DEBTS

India's steel sector still accounts for 28 percent of banks' stressed loans, Singh said, but the government measures have helped local companies including JSW Steel, Jindal Steel and Power, Tata Steel and state-run SAIL to raise prices and improve margins.

Lenders now want the government to help the steel sector with more steps to expedite the recovery of their loans, including by asking state companies such as SAIL to buy some sick private steel assets or manage their operations.

Singh said loss-making SAIL or fellow state steel maker RINL were not in a position to buy any assets of private companies struggling to repay loans, but they could help with "expertise" or people.

"It's very strange. When banks advanced loans to these companies, they never consulted me. (But the) responsibility (of sorting the bad loans) now rests with the steel ministry."

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The government expects India's steel-making capacity to rise over a third to around 160 million tonnes by mid-2018, for which SAIL will need to speed up its capacity increase that Singh said had not been satisfactory.

The company recently signed a technical agreement with South Korean steel maker POSCO, which Singh hopes will help raise output.

The minister also said Japan and South Korea were keen to invest in India's steel sector and their officials have already met with him.

(Reporting by Neha Dasgupta and Krishna N. Das; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)
On The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Stephen got into the holiday spirit by looking at some holiday greeting cards. Stephen explained that writing greeting cards is a very difficult process, and the cards that everyone sees in stores are the final draft. So Stephen wanted to show the first draft of some of the cards, which was essentially the true meaning behind what was written in the final draft.

For example, one of the final draft cards read, Wishing you the gift of faith, the blessing of hope, and the peace of His love at Christmas and always. Stephen then showed the first draft of that card which read, I know youre an atheist, but please pretend for grandma.

There were Christmas cards, Hanukkah cards, and general holiday cards, like the one that Stephen ended with, which read, Im dreaming of a white Christmas. Although it got political when Stephen revealed the first draft of that card, which read, Make America great again.

The Late Show With Stephen Colbert airs weeknights at 11:35 p.m. on CBS.

Vice President Joe Biden denies rumors hes running in 2020 leaves door open.

Tell us what you think! Hit us up on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, or leave your comments below. And check out our host, Cynthia LuCiette, on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
A crook skulking around a California neighborhood in search of packages left outside homes likely got an unpleasant surprise when he snatched a box full of feces left for the crook as payback for a series of robberies.

Mike Zaremba and a friend came up with the plot for revenge after three parcels left at his Riverside homes porch went missing, he told KCBS.

So [it was] just trying to get back at somebody, he told the television station.

Read: The Gross Secret Behind The Most Expensive Cup Of Coffee In The World

Zaremba invited over friends and their eight dogs to celebrate his and his wifes dogs birthday, collecting the pooches poops for a foul parting gift that would hopefully send the unknown bandit running.

After sealing a box filled with eight dogs worth of feces, Zaremba left the package on his front porch.

And it reportedly didnt take long for a thief to snatch the bait.

He dropped it as soon as he found out, Ronel Newton of the Riverside Police Department told KCBS. He didnt want nothing to do with it and kept on riding.

Read: Woman Tweets About Mortifying First Date: She Was Carrying Poop in Her Purse

But authorities said they eventually caught up to the alleged suspect, who they identified as Daniel Aldama.

Aldama was arrested on December 7 and is in custody at the Southwest Detention Center, according to online records.

He was charged with petty theft, a misdemeanor, and violation of state parole, a felony. No bail has been set.

Watch: Homeowner Tricks Thieves Into Stealing Package of Dog Poop From His Porch

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Hamburg (AFP) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday that Syria's Aleppo will continue to be bombed by the Moscow-backed regime as long as rebels remain in the devastated city.

"After a humanitarian pause, (the strikes) have resumed and will continue for as long as the bandits are still in Aleppo," Lavrov told journalists at a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

A day earlier at the foreign ministers' meeting in Hamburg, Germany, Lavrov had told Russian journalists that the Syrian army had halted fighting in eastern Aleppo amid an operation to evacuate civilians.

Asked about the comment Friday, as Aleppo was again under heavy bombardment, Lavrov said: "I did not say that the military operations were completely stopped, I said they were suspended for a certain time to allow civilians wishing to leave to do so.

"Everyone understands it, our American partners understand it."

Russia's top diplomat voiced hope that all sides could soon reach a truce agreement for Aleppo, as the United States and Russia plan an expert-level meeting in Geneva Saturday.

But Lavrov also accused the American side of "strange" behaviour for allegedly flip-flopping on their own proposal which involved allowing rebels to leave Aleppo if they first give up their heavy weapons.

"If the American experts do not change their mind again as they did a few days ago... then there is a good chance for an agreement on a final settlement of the situation in Aleppo," said Lavrov.

Under the plan being considered, he said, both the disarmed fighters and civilians could leave the devastated city through corridors to either the city of Idlib or to the Turkish border.

But he also said that, on the US side, "while the left hand is doing something constructive, the right hand opens the floodgates of arms deliveries to the fighters".

He said this would be pointless "because the bandits are surrounded and they are unlikely to get reinforcements", while the arms instead "may end up in the hands of the terrorists of the Islamic State or al-Nusra".
Hailee Steinfeld Is the New Face of Reef [Pret-a-Reporter Inbox]

Hailee Steinfeld is the new face of SoCal surf lifestyle brand Reef. The 19-year-old Los Angeles native - who is known for an edgier, avant-garde red-carpet style - will star in the spring Reef Escape campaign as well as online and in-store ads. "I grew up in California and Reefs were a part of our daily uniform," the actress said of the brand, which started with spongy flip-flops, in a release. "The comfort and classic style that Reef brings to sandals is inimitable and I'm excited to represent a brand that has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember."

Pippa Middleton Sets Wedding Date [Us Weekly]

Pippa Middleton, little sister of the Duchess of Cambridge, has set a wedding date with fiance James Matthews. The pair are set to wed on May 17 at the St. Marks Englefield in Berkshire, England. A source told Us Weekly that Princess Charlotte will serve as a flower girl and Prince George will be a page boy; however, Kate will not be a bridesmaid. According to rumors, the younger Middleton will wear a gown by British designer Giles Deacon for the big day.

Luxury Labels Reviewed in Forced Labor Index [Fashionista]

KnowTheChain, a company working to eradicate modern-day slavery practices by exposing the exploitation of workers, has released its forced labor index, which reviews the labor practices of various companies, from luxury fashion houses to mall retailers. Gap, H&M, Adidas and Lululemon were among the best-ranked companies, while Kering and Prada fell towards the bottom. KnowTheChain completed its evaluation with a combination of public information and reports filed by the brands themselves.

Revolve Launches #RevolveBeauty [Pret-a-Reporter Inbox]

Online shopping destination Revolve has launched a full-scale beauty operation, the Revolve Beauty shop, featuring skincare, makeup, bath, hair and nail products, as well as brushes and tools. With more than 35 brands, including Marc Jacobs, Aesop, Deborah Lippman, Malin + Goetz and Stila, the well-rounded offering definitely capitalizes on its core customers' beauty obsession.
The Surgeon General is worried about young people vaping  heres what you need to know

It turns out Leonardo DiCaprio isnt the only e-cigarette enthusiast out there. Vaping is on the rise, especially among young people, and that could potentially have some dangerous consequences.

On Thursday, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy released a report that called the rising use of e-cigarettes among youth a major public health concern.

According to the report, e-cigarette use in 2015 was at 16% among high schoolers (up from 13.4% in 2014) and 5.3% among middle schoolers.

Although e-cigarettes are considered safer than regular cigarettes because they dont rely on combustion and therefore dont produce the same carcinogenic particles, smoking them can still have negative effects, especially on young peoples developing brains.

Adolescent brains are sensitive to nicotines effects, the report said, and can experience a constellation of nicotine-induced neural and behavioral alterations.

Traditional cigarette smoking meanwhile, has fallen from 15.8% in 2011 to 9.3% in 2015, though this drop is not conclusively linked to the rise of vaping.

In fact, the nicotine in e-cigarettes could actually make adolescents more likely to smoke traditional cigarettes. A study in the journal Pediatrics found that flavored e-cigarette use is associated with increased risks of smoking among youth.

The Surgeon Generals report put forth a number of policy proposals to curb e-cigarette use, including incorporating e-cigarettes into current smoke-free policies, preventing young people from buying e-cigarettes, and regulating how they are marketed.

In the meantime, lets do our best to set an example for the young people and Revenant actors out there, and not light up.

The post The Surgeon General is worried about young people vaping  heres what you need to know appeared first on HelloGiggles.
This surrogate mother is dancing her way through labor.

Read: Pregnant Pole Dancer Defies Critics With Impressive Moves: 'It's Empowering'

Alexandra Theriault, 25, was in labor for two days straight when she decided to get up  and get moving  to the song "Baby Momma," by Starrkeisha.

"It was definitely really hard pushing through contractions, but it was fun," Theriault told InsideEdition.com. "I think it definitely helped. My water actually broke the next day."

In a video licensed by Caters News, she can even be seen at Sacred Heart Family Birth Place in Sandestin, Florida, getting low to the lyrics, "drop it down, drop it down down low."

The first-time surrogate mother joked, "I could tell every time I would get lower, I would push him down, so that definitely helped."

It worked to her advantage since, when Theriault created the video, she was only an inch-and-a-half dilated.

Read: Pregnant Women Claim 'Tootsie Roll' Dance Lessens Labor Pain: 'It Really Helped'

Her doctors said it likely helped her finally give birth to a healthy baby boy the following day, after being in labor for three days.

"That was an amazing gift I could give somebody," she said about her surrogacy. "Being able to create life to give to a family that truly wanted [a baby] but couldn't have one, it was amazing."

Watch: Mom-to-Be Tears Up the Dance Floor While 9 Months Pregnant: 'We Dance All Day Every Day'

Related Articles:
Aleppo (Syria) (AFP) - The Syrian army tightened its grip on rebels besieged in Aleppo with thousands of civilians but suffered a setback as jihadists retook much of the ancient city of Palmyra.

Air strikes pummelled the shrinking rebel enclave in east Aleppo as US Secretary of State John Kerry said the Syrian regime's "indiscriminate bombing" amounted to crimes against humanity.

Western powers meeting in Paris called for peace talks to resume and for civilians to be allowed to leave Aleppo, where tens of thousands have already fled the offensive.

The diplomatic flurry came as a US-backed alliance announced it would launch the second phase of its battle for the Islamic State group's de facto Syrian capital of Raqa further east.

Washington announced it was sending an additional 200 troops to support that offensive against IS.

The three-week-old assault by the Russian-backed regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad aimed at retaking all of Aleppo has triggered mounting international outrage.

Speaking in Paris, Kerry said the regime's "indiscriminate bombing" of Aleppo amounted to "war crimes" and "crimes against humanity" and he called for Russia and Assad's other backers Iran to show "a little grace" and help end it.

American and Russian officials were due to gather in Geneva for what Kerry called a bid to stop Aleppo "being absolutely, completely, destroyed".

Aleppo has witnessed some of the most brutal violence of Syria's nearly six-year war.

In less than a month, forces loyal to Assad have overrun around 85 percent of east Aleppo, a rebel stronghold since 2012.

UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura said the world is watching "the last steps" in the Aleppo battle and evacuating civilians must be a priority.

- Bombing 'unreal' -

Air strikes and regime rocket fire battered the last remaining rebel districts Saturday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Story continues

The strikes were so intense that windows in the west rattled.

"The bombing is unreal," said Ibrahim Abu al-Leith, spokesman for the White Helmets rescue force inside Aleppo, speaking from one of the last rebel-controlled zones in the southeast.

"The streets are full of people under the rubble. They are dying because we can't get them out," he told AFP.

The Observatory said 19 civilians were killed Saturday by rebel rocket fire into government-controlled districts, taking to 139 people the number killed there by rebel fire since November 15.

Another 413 civilians have been killed in east Aleppo in the same period.

Moreover, the NGO Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations, condemned a possible chlorine gas attack on Friday in the Kallash neighbourhood of Aleppo.

"Victims at the medical facility reported symptoms consistent with the choking agent, chlorine gas. 25 victims are reported to have experienced suffocation and difficulty breathing," they said.

The opposition has repeatedly accused the regime of using chlorine gas on rebel zones, which Damascus denies.

A joint investigation by the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) found that several units of the Syrian army had used toxic weapons against three villages in northern Syria in 2014 and 2015.

With the fighting intensifying Saturday after a brief respite, a UN General Assembly resolution demanded an immediate ceasefire and urgent aid deliveries.

But both Moscow and Damascus have rejected talk of a ceasefire without a rebel withdrawal -- a demand that opposition groups have refused.

After meeting opposition representatives on Saturday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said the opposition was willing to resume peace talks "without pre-conditions".

However, a diplomatic source told AFP the opposition required a political transition in Syria before it would agree to take part.

- Civilians flee -

"There can be no military solution in Syria," British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said in Paris, urging "a return to a political process with the credibility necessary for all parties to commit to an end to all the fighting."

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said: "We demand that the regime, but also Iran and Russia, let people leave the conflict zone."

The Observatory said another 2,000 civilians fled Aleppo's remaining rebel-held districts Saturday.

State news agency SANA gave a number of 3,000, and said they had been taken to the temporary shelter in Jibrin, about 10 kilometres (six miles) east of the city.

The UN Friday expressed concern about reports of hundreds of men going missing after fleeing to government-held territory.

The fall of east Aleppo would be the biggest blow for the rebels since the war began in 2011.

It began as a widespread protest movement against Assad's regime but has since evolved into an all-out war that has seen jihadists such as IS rise to prominence.

IS re-entered Syria's famed ancient desert city of Palmyra Saturday after being driven out eight months ago, the Observatory's Rami Abdel Rahman said.

"After a quick advance, IS now controls most of the city of Palmyra except the southern part," he said.

"The airport which is outside the city (just to the east) is now surrounded by jihadists."

Syrian and Russian warplanes were in action, "but the problem is that there are not enough Syrian forces in the city", he said, adding that Russian air strikes on Palmyra increased in the evening.

At least 100 members of pro-government force members have been killed by IS in and around Palmyra since Thursday, the Observatory said.

In May last year, IS seized several towns in Homs province including Palmyra, which is on UNESCO's world heritage list.

They caused extensive damage to many ancient sites in Palmyra before being ousted in March by Syrian regime forces backed by Russia.
Welcome! You have come to the right place. Khmerization is a home to the Cambodian daily news, which is updated twice daily. Please take a tour and enjoy yourself. Thank you.

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Beirut (AFP) - Islamic State jihadists battled Syrian regime forces on Friday on the outskirts of Palmyra, the ancient town from which they were chased out eight months ago, rights observers said.

The jihadists have launched an offensive in recent days close to the town which is on UNESCO's world heritage list. They have now progressed "right up to the edge of the town," said Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Fierce fighting is continuing on the ground, while at the same time the Syrian airforce has launched air strikes against IS fighters, he said.

"The noise of fighting can be heard inside the town," added Rahman, whose organisation has civilian and military sources across Syria.

Since Thursday IS fighters had been only four kilometers (2.5 miles) from the town. "Today they launched a new attack and advanced," he said.

According to the Observatory, at least 49 pro-government force members have been killed by IS since Thursday in the offensive in the province of Homs, where Palmyra is situated.

They include 15 fighters killed in an IS ambush near the Mahr oilfield.

On Thursday IS fighters launched simultaneous attacks near the Mahr and Chaar oil and gas fields and elsewhere in Homs province, killing 34 members of pro-regime forces.

The Islamic State group seized control of several towns in the province including Palmyra in May last year including its ancient sites which they damaged extensively.

The Syrian regime controls most of Homs province but its troops are regularly attacked by IS fighters notably when they are in isolated areas, including in oil fields which are difficult to protect.
T. Rowe Price Equity Income (PRFDX) a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) invests a large portion of the its net assets in common stocks, with 65% in the common stocks of well-established companies paying above-average dividends, with favorable prospects for both increasing dividends and capital appreciation. PRFDX offers dividends on a quarterly basis in March, June, September and December.

This Large Value fund, as of the last filing, allocates their fund in three major groups; Large Value, Large Growth and Foreign Stock. Further, as of the last filing, GENERAL ELECTRIC CO, JPMORGAN CHASE & CO and EXXON MOBIL CORP were the top holdings for PRFDX.

The T. Rowe Price Equity Income fund, managed by T. Rowe Price, carries an expense ratio of 0.67%. Moreover, PRFDX requires a minimal initial investment of $2,500.

PRFDX has a history of positive total returns for over 10 years. Specifically, the funds returns over the 1, 3, 5 year benchmarks; 1 year 7.68%, 3 year 4.86% and 5 year 11.28%. To see how this fund performed compared in its category and other #1 and #2 Ranked Mutual Funds, please click here.

PRFDXs performance, as of the last filing, when compared to funds in its category was in the top 10% in 1 year, top 53% over the past 3 years, and in the 23% over the past 5 years.

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PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Fifteen people have died and at least 78 have been hospitalized in recent weeks after drinking toxic rice wine at a series of funerals in Cambodia in the past five weeks, officials said on Friday. Rice wine sales were banned in Kompong Chhnang province, about 90 km (55 miles) from the capital, Phnom Penh, after villagers became sick from drinking methanol-tainted wine, said Sorin Tiravuthy, director of the provincial hospital. The first death was reported on Nov. 3 but villagers continued to consume the same rice wine at a different funeral, Tiravuthy said. Rice wine is a staple in Cambodia, where it is consumed at weddings and funerals. Home-brewed wine has led to fatalities in the past. The drink, which is relatively inexpensive, can be lethal if not mixed properly. Tiravuthy said he had lost count of the number of people being hospitalized after drinking bad rice wine. "At health centers, people are continuously coming in. I don't know how many now," Tiravuthy told Reuters. Cambodia's Health Minister Mam Bunheng said on Friday the tainted wine included above-normal quantities of methanol and urged people to stop consuming improperly made rice wine. Methanol, the simplest form of alcohol, is closely related to ethanol, the type of alcohol normally found in spirits, beer and wine. Home distillation can concentrate the level of methanol, which is highly toxic. At least 18 people died in Cambodia's northeastern Kratie province last year after drinking methanol-tainted rice wine. (Reporting by Prak Chan Thul; Editing by Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Paul Tait)
Long-term care insurance premiums have been rising for many consumers, but financial experts agree that everyone, including the very wealthy, should consider buying coverage. "I consider it portfolio insurance," says Ken Moraif, a certified financial planner and host of the radio show "Money Matters." Since long-term care expenses can quickly wipe out a person's investments, having insurance can protect assets for future use or heirs. Those who do buy a plan may be in line to receive tax benefits as well. "Purchasing long-term care insurance is one of the few ways the IRS lets you deduct the cost for future care in the current tax year," Moraif says.

Here's a closer look at exactly what tax benefits come with long-term care insurance.

[Read: Why No One Can Afford Long-Term Care Insurance (and What to Use Instead).]

Premiums may be deductible. The greatest tax benefit of these policies is the ability to deduct the premiums, says Amy Danise, insurance editor at NerdWallet.com. However, it isn't as simple as writing off the amount you pay each year. Instead, the government lumps long-term care insurance premiums into health care expenses on itemized deductions.

For most people, if their health care expenses exceed 10 percent of their adjusted gross income, they can deduct the excessive amount. Seniors born before Jan. 2, 1952, can deduct any health care expenses in excess of 7.5 percent of their adjusted gross income in 2016. However, beginning in 2017, seniors will see their deduction threshold jump to 10 percent, just like everyone else.

What's more, there is a cap on how much can be deducted based upon the policyholder's age. For 2016, the limits are as follows:

-- Age 40 or younger: $390

-- Ages 41-50: $730

-- Ages 51-60: $1,460

-- Ages 61-70: $3,900

-- Ages 71 and older: $4,870

"This was written quite a while ago," says Leonard Wright, a San Diego CPA and member of The American Institute of Certified Public Accountant's Consumer Financial Education Advocates Group, about the rules surrounding long-term care premium deductions. "It used to cover most of the premium, but now it covers very little."

Story continues

[Read: 9 Factors to Consider Before Buying Long-Term Care Insurance.]

Benefits are tax-free. In almost all cases, the money paid out by a long-term care insurance policy is exempt from taxes. "In the same way your health insurance or auto insurance would reimburse you, you'll receive long-term care benefits tax-free," says Neil Godsey, managing director with Miracle Mile Advisors in Los Angeles.

Payments can be made from an HSA. Unlike health insurance premiums, payments for long-term care insurance can be made from a health savings account. These tax deductable accounts are only available to those with eligible high deductible health insurance plans. By paying for long-term care insurance out of an HSA, policyholders are effectively getting a tax deduction on the premiums.

Combo products may be different. Bruce Landis, vice president of Providence Advisors Group in Knoxville, Tennessee, has been selling long-term care insurance for nearly 25 years. During that time, he's noticed a trend away from traditional long-term care policies and toward combo or hybrid policies that offer both life insurance and long-term care insurance in one product. "Last year, a majority of our consumers bought the hybrid," Landis says. Combo policies are appealing because they will pay out benefits regardless of whether someone needs long-term care. "They're going to get something back one way or another," Landis explains.

One drawback of the combo policies is they may not come with the tax benefits found with traditional long-term care insurance. Life insurance premiums are not tax deductible, so only the portion paid for a long-term care rider may be eligible for a deduction. What's more, a policy must bill monthly rather than be paid in a lump sum.

Godsey advises caution when it comes to expecting a tax deduction from a combo long-term care and life insurance policy. "It's product specific," he says about the potential tax benefits. "When a consumer is looking at these, they need to ask their planner or the company [for guidance]."

1035 exchanges allow for tax-free transfers. Those who have an existing life insurance policy or an annuity may be able to use a 1035 exchange to buy long-term care insurance tax-free. "It's really the only way to get money out of an annuity tax-free," Wright says. For a 1035 exchange to work, the insurance company has to agree to accept money directly from the life insurance or annuity provider. The rules surrounding these exchanges can be complicated, so it's advisable to work with an experienced finance professional.

[Read: 4 Things to Include in Your Long-Term Care Plan.]

One catch that can result in taxes. In most, but not all, situations, the benefits of long-term care insurance are tax-free. However, "there is a case where long-term care insurance can be taxable if paid as a per diem," Danise says. These are rare situations in which a policy pays out a flat reimbursement per day, regardless of a person's cost of care. Taxes also apply when the daily payment exceeds a limit set by the government. For instance, in 2016, reimbursement in excess of $340 per day may be taxable.

While the tax benefits of long-term care insurance are nice, Moraif advises against giving them too much weight. "Whether it's deductible to you or not should not be the decision point," Moraif says. Instead, everyone should have coverage to guard against long-term care expenses, which have the potential to be financially crippling.





More From US News & World Report


Taylor Swift is once again opening her wallet for a charitable cause.

The 26-year-old pop star donated $100,000 to the fund Dolly Parton has established to help families affected by the recent Smokey Mountain wildfires, ET can confirm.

RELATED: Taylor Swift Releases First New Song Since '1989,' Collaborates With Zany Malik on 'Fifty Shades Darker' Track

Swift's hefty contribution matched the donation made by the Academy of Country Music for a combined $200,000 donation in advance of the forthcoming Smokey Mountain Rise: A Benefit for the My People Fund telethon.

"The Academy and ACM Lifting Lives are honored to contribute in a meaningful way to Dolly's heroic efforts to help the people of her hometown  and when Taylor heard what we were planning, she offered to match our gift, which gives it that much more impact," Tiffany Moon, Executive Vice President and Managing Director of the Academy said in a statement to ET. "We are so grateful to Taylor for her support to the Academy's charitable efforts through the years, and for helping us and Dolly Parton assist families in need at a time of crisis."

All proceeds from the telethon will benefit the Dollywood Foundation My People Fund, established by Parton this week to assist fire victims in Sevier County, Tennessee. The My People Fund will also provide $1,000 per month to Sevier County families whose homes are uninhabitable or completely destroyed as a result of the devastating inferno.

The Smokey Mountain Rise: A Benefit for the My People Fund telethon airs on Dec.13 at 8:00 p.m. EST on Great American Country.

WATCH: Taylor Swift Tops Forbes' Highest-Paid Musicians List -- Beating Out Two of Her Exes!

Related Articles
A Wisconsin woman who was accused of having sex with her teenage student while working as a teacher, including during her then-fiance's bachelor party, has been sentenced to jail time.

Sara Domres, 29, must serve two years behind bars after she had sex with the 16-year-old student at New Berlin West High School in 2015.

Watch: Teacher Charged With Child Sex Abuse After Being Impregnated By Student

The former English teacher pleaded guilty in August to two counts of sexual assault of a student by school staff.

Domres' story made national headlines in part because contained in court documents was an allegation that one of her sexual encounters with the boy took place just before her husband's bachelor party.

She married her high school sweetheart in August 2015.

The relationship was alleged to have begun after the teen was a student in her sophomore English class.

During their relationship, lasting between April 2015 and January 2016, they reportedly exchanged more than 1,100 messages. One of the many text messages said, "I love being your baby boo. (heart emoji) run away with me!!! I want you forever," according to the criminal complaint.

The boy was "a virgin prior to having sexual intercourse" with the teacher, according to the police statement.

The police report also said that the couple had passed handwritten notes "of a sexual nature" to each other. One of them allegedly read: "I want to do you (smiley face) NOW!!"

According to a police report, three juveniles reported the relationship on January 16.

Police later uncovered multiple Internet searches from the student's phone from the previous day, the police report stated. One was a Yahoo search for, "how to delete a sent snapchat?" Another was a google search for "what evidence does a judge need to charge a teacher with sexual assault."

Read: Man Raped 17-Year-Old Girl While Her Friend Recorded Attack on Periscope: Prosecutors

After details of the relationship came to light in January, Domres was immediately let go.

Story continues

Domres must register with the Wisconsin Sex Offender Registry and undergo sex offender treatment and must not teach again under any circumstance.

Watch: 2 Disney Employees, First Grade Teacher Among 9 Arrested for Child Porn: Cops

Related Articles:
DailyFX.com -

EUR/USD - dangerous situation

USD/JPY - nearly 12% in 5 weeks

USD/CAD bearish wedge gaining traction

--Subscribe to Jamie Saettele's distribution list in order to receive a free report to your inbox several times a week.

--Quarterly charts and comments

EUR/USD

Weekly

Technical Weekly: USD/JPY Still Making History

Chart Prepared by Jamie Saettele, CMT

See REAL TIME trader positioning

High Frequency Trading Tools

-FXTW wrote last week that the combination of EUR/USD at range lows (same place as last year in factEUR/USD closed at 1.0614 on 12/2/2015), the doji, and sentiment provides a powerful bullish backdrop. EUR/USD took out the lows, rallied nearly 400 pips (a quarter of that in the seconds after ECB), and reversed almost everything in a few hours. In other words, EUR/USD is left unchanged from where it was in late November. The rejection of the rally post-ECB at the year open, which also filled the mid-November gap, is not bullish. Even so, EUR/USD has yet to break range lows despite DXY trading at nearly 14 year highs. The non-confirmation is a warning. Bottom line, this market is in a dangerous position for either side. Im wondering if this ends with a 1 day crash and reversal. Check out this video for more.

As always, define your risk points (read more about traits of successful traders here).

-For forecasts and 2016 opportunities, check out the DailyFX Trading Guides.

GBP/USD

Weekly

Technical Weekly: USD/JPY Still Making History

Chart Prepared by Jamie Saettele, CMT

See REAL TIME trader positioning

-There is no change to the GBP/USD weekly analysis. The GBP/USD rally contends with its first major resistance point since the October crash. The levels in question are the July low at 1.2791, August low at 1.2865 and a long term parallel that has cut through some big inflection points over the last 7 years. The 96 month (8 year) cycle low count is still in the back of my mind as well.

AUD/USD

Weekly

Technical Weekly: USD/JPY Still Making History

Chart Prepared by Jamie Saettele, CMT

See REAL TIME trader positioning

-There is no change to recent comments as AUD/USD has followed through on the bearish outside week. AUD/USD traded to its highest since the week of the April high and closed at its lowest week since mid-October. The bearish outside week isbearish, until further notice. As noted a number of times in recent weeks, a weekly close above .7719 is needed in order to signal a major upside breakout. The action suggests that Aussie is vulnerable.

Story continues

NZD/USD

Weekly

Technical Weekly: USD/JPY Still Making History

Chart Prepared by Jamie Saettele, CMT

See REAL TIME trader positioning

-NZD/USD is still testing the underside of former trendline support. After reversing from the magnetic 1985-1993 trendline, Kiwi carved a bearish outside week which suggested that the interpretation of price action since July as a top, rather than consolidation, would win out. The break under trendline support this week reinforces the idea that NZD/USD is headed lower. In fact, the entire rally from August 2015 may be just a re-test of the long term bear move that began with the double top confirmation in early 2015.

USD/JPY

Weekly

Technical Weekly: USD/JPY Still Making History

Chart Prepared by Jamie Saettele, CMT

See REAL TIME trader positioning

-The 5 week performance (11.8%) in USD/JPY is bested by only the 5 weeks that ended the first week of December 1978 (the rate fell sharply the next 3 weeks). USD/JPY downside is typically associated with sharper moves so its interesting to note that the rate has realized 5 week declines of at least 11.8% just 3 times, October 2008 (peak of GFC), October 1998 (LTCM), and October 1985 (after Plaza Accord). 1985 is the only instance that failed to realize a sharp countertrend move. In summary, the extreme rate of change as USD/JPY pressing into the late 2014-early 2016 floor indicates a high risk situation.

USD/CAD

Weekly

Technical Weekly: USD/JPY Still Making History

Chart Prepared by Jamie Saettele, CMT

See REAL TIME trader positioning

-The bearish wedge from the May low possibility remains on the table. Weekly RSI turning over at 60 is typical of sideways or downward trends. Also, notice that the rate has turned down from the same price region that price accelerated higher from exactly one year ago. The observation suggests a good deal of vested interest in the price region and therefore potential for an important change to take place.

USD/CHF

Weekly

Technical Weekly: USD/JPY Still Making History

Chart Prepared by Jamie Saettele, CMT

See REAL TIME trader positioning

-Dont forget about the long term time symmetry described here. The rectangle breakout has materialized. Given probes of a VERY long term parallel beginning in November 2015, this rectangle could end up launching a major behavior change and rally to 1.15 or so (trendline from 1985). This interpretation is favored as long as price is above this weeks (outside week) low.



original source

DailyFX provides forex news and technical analysis on the trends that influence the global currency markets.

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Accra (AFP) - Opposition challenger Nana Akufo-Addo has a clear lead in Ghana's hotly contested presidential election, local media reported Friday, although official results have yet to be released two days after the vote.

And supporters of incumbent President John Mahama insisted he had emerged triumphant again, despite acknowledging losses in the parliamentary contest.

Joy News television gave Akufo-Addo just under 54 percent of votes counted in 251 out of 275 constituencies in an election seen as a test of stability in Africa's most secure democracy.

Crowds of jubilant supporters were partying at the home of the 72-year-old New Patriotic Party (NPP) leader, who had already claimed victory on Thursday, a day after the vote.

Dozens of NPP activists dressed entirely in white took to the streets to celebrate Akufo-Addo's arrival, waving red, white and blue party flags.

Mahama, who Joy News said had gained 44.5 percent of the vote, pledged to respect the results, as his supporters voiced confidence they had won.

"I want to assure the nation that we will respect the outcome of the elections, positive or negative," the charismatic 58-year-old said at his Accra residence.

He called for calm and patience over the slow pace of the count.

"Let's allow the EC (electoral commission) to carry out its constitutional mandate. We'll make Ghana proud no matter (the) outcome," he said on Twitter.

Ghana's election agency had said it would need at least 72 hours after polls closed before it would be able to publish the final official results.

- 'Disappointing' turnout -

Election commission head Charlotte Osei told reporters that turnout was around 49 percent.

"This is way below our history in elections so far and it's quite disappointing," she said.

However independent observers from the US-based National Democratic Institute (NDI) said 69 percent of the electorate had cast ballots.

Akufo-Addo had told a cheering crowd at his home on Thursday that he was "confident" he had won, drawing the condemnation of independent observers who said it was too early to call the election.

Story continues

George Lawson, deputy general secretary of Mahama's National Democratic Congress (NDC) party also dismissed Akufo-Addo's claim.

"We are sure the president will carry the day," he told AFP, while conceding the NDC had lost ground in parliament.

The election was "very peaceful and very transparent, our democracy is growing".

- 'Generally credible' -

If neither leading candidate wins more than 50 percent of votes there will be a run-off in December.

The winner will serve a four-year term in the former British colony, a once booming country that has seen its economy slow, currency deteriorate and inflation soar.

Tensions were palpable after the election was tainted by sporadic violence in a country once hailed by US President Barack Obama for its peaceful transitions of power.

Independent observers said that the "polling and counting processes were generally credible".

Mahama, who came to power in 2012 after beating Akufo-Addo, has urged voters to "stay the course", promising to deliver more infrastructure projects.

Akufo-Addo is making his third bid for the top job.

His NPP has blasted Ghana's poor economic growth rate -- estimated at 3.3 percent in 2016, the lowest rate for two decades -- and laid out a radical vision to transform the country's economy.

Ghana is the world's second biggest producer of cocoa after Ivory Coast and Africa's second biggest gold producer after South Africa.

But it was forced to turn to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2015 for a bailout as global commodity prices tanked.

Ghana's elections have been historically close, with Mahama narrowly winning in 2012 with 50.7 percent. Akufo-Addo unsuccessfully challenged Mahama's victory in the courts.

Manji Cheto, senior vice president at Teneo Intelligence analysts, said Ghanaians appeared to have used the polls as a protest vote.

"These elections have demonstrated yet again that Ghanaians believe the polls to be the most effective way to send a clear message to their leaders about their displeasure," she said.
This Immigrant Doctor Is Reimagining Health in the American City

SHARM EL SHEIKH, EgyptSitting in his shop in one of the bazaars in this city of picturesque beaches, nightclubs, and resorts, Mounir Ayyad kills time day after day by rearranging pharaonic statues and smoking while looking out at a street vacant of pedestrians.

Ayyad, 36, has owned his shop for five years, since he quit his job at a hotel in Jordan. He usually visits family in Upper Egypt every three months and stops over in Cairo on his way back to acquire goods.

That changed after a bomb exploded on Metrojet Flight 9268, a chartered flight carrying 217 passengers and seven crew, minutes after takeoff from Sharm el Sheikh airport on Oct. 31, 2015. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack.

Before the Russian jet crash, the situation for businesspeople like Ayyad was a different story, he said. Business wasnt thriving, but he could make a living. There were some sales operations, and some tourists at least were window-shopping,...but it was not completely empty.

Today, Ayyad barely covers rent on his shop. He hasnt bought any inventory all year.

I can no longer afford my household expenses nor my three childrens, he said on a warmer-than-usual day last fall. My father covers their expenses instead during this rough patch.

Hundreds of lives have been claimed over the past year in terrorist attacks taking place in cities across the globefrom a Paris theater to an Orlando, Florida, nightclub, from Brussels and Istanbuls airports to a bakery in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

The attacks have reshaped the global tourism map and blown the primary source of income for many working in the tourism industry. While visits to Paris, scene of a series of devastating terrorist attacks in 2015 and 2016, have fallen, cities outside Europe such as Bangkok and Dubai, UAE, have seen significant increases in the number of international tourists since 2014, according to MasterCards 2016 Global Destination Cities Index.

Sharm el Sheikh, sometimes called the city of peace, has long been a favored beach holiday destination for Europeans. Located on the Red Sea shore 150 miles southeast of Cairo, it once attracted millions of tourists annually, even during the countrys politically turbulent times. In 2015, four years after a popular uprising forced the resignation of the despot Hosni Mubarak and two years after a military coup deposed the first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi, some 9.3 million tourists arrived in Egypt, sparking $6.1 billion in economic activity, according to the Ministry of Tourism. With 12.6 percent of the countrys workforce directly employed in tourism, the drop since the Metrojet attack has taken its toll on the incomes of millions of Egyptians like Ayyad.

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Omayma El-Husseiny, spokesperson for the Ministry of Tourism, said Egypt has lost visitors from two of its most important tourism markets, Russia and the U.K. The two countries accounted for 40 percent of all tourism traffic in 2014, falling to 5 percent of visitors in 2015 as Russia decided to suspend all flights to Egypt following the Metrojet crash and British Airways and other U.K.-based airlines suspended service to Sharm el Sheikh. The numbers for 2016 will come in even lower, according to El-Husseiny, though several Russian delegations have visited Cairo International Airport to assess its security measures in the last few months. The historical monuments of Cairo and Alexandria are unique, but El-Husseiny said beach tourism is more dominant in the Egyptian tourism landscape, compared to cultural tourism, and witnessed a drastic drop after the travel ban because for Britons and Russians looking to spend some time in the sun, other choices abound.

The tourism recession in Egypt has been reflected in at least 70 enmeshed sectorsincluding aviation, hotels, and investmentrepresenting 11.5 percent of GDP and 11.7 percent of the foreign exchange, according to tourism ministry figures. Hotel occupancy rates in Sharm el Sheikhs region fell from 48.3 percent in 2015 to 22.5 percent through August of this year, El-Husseiny said.

The reduction in the amount of hard currency entering the country has contributed to a collapse of the Egyptian pound on the currency black market and was a contributing factor in Egypts decision to devalue its currency in November to qualify for a package of loans from the International Monetary Fund. The devaluing wiped out a third of Egyptians savings overnight. With the governments hard currency reserves having fallen by more than half since the 2011 revolution, banks are unable to offer attractive loans to importers, which then look to the black market for money to invest, putting further downward pressure on the pound and raising the price of imported goods. The cost of many products, including some foods, has risen 60 percent since May. Sahar Samir, a dentist, has found that the cost of equipment has doubled in just the last few weeks. I had to increase my fees for dental surgeries 80 percent, as all the tools are imported, she said. When she went to buy an air conditioner for her private clinic, it was 8,000 Egyptian pounds, up from 4,500 Egyptian pounds last summer.

Mohamed Fayyad, owner of one of the biggest diving centers in Sharm el Sheikh, Milia Sinai, had to downsize the number of instructors he employed from 70 to one after he became unable to pay their salaries.

I used to receive 100 customers every day; now I barely receive nine a week, Fayyad said. I had to acquire a loan to pay some bills and cover my familys expenses.

Sharm el Sheikh has about 40 diving centers today, down from 90 in 2013. Fayyad said that many foreigners who owned diving centers have shuttered them and returned to their home countries. The losses were much bigger than our capacity to comprehend it, he said. I am hopeful that the tourism sector will recover in the upcoming winter; otherwise we will be in trouble.

The scenes of empty beaches and restaurants have become familiar in other cities once bustling with tourists.

Turkey brings together a wide range of cultures and once attracted a diverse mix of tourists every season. But its open border with war-torn Syria and increasing domestic political and security turmoil, culminating with a failed coup attempt in July, has severely affected its tourism sector.

The number of foreign visitors fell from 36.3 million in 2015 to 3.1 million through August of this year, according to the tourism ministry. It will likely turn out that 2016 is the worst year in Turkish tourism history.

Russians were among the top foreign visitors to Turkey, with more than 3 million visits in 2014 and 2015. So far in 2016, only 336,165 have arrived, triggered by a Russian ban on travel to the country issued in November 2015, after Turkey shot down a Russian warplane on a mission against the Islamic State and other militants in northern Syria. (The ban was lifted in July.) Visits from the U.K. and Germany have also fallen.

Ashraf al-Noweihy, 32, left Egypt for Istanbul a few months before the 2011 revolution. Accompanied by his wife and four-year-old son, he hoped to kick-start a career in tourism after spending many years working as a sales manager at his familys textile company. Supported by his meager savings, al-Noweihy opened a travel agency. During the first four years, I made seven times what I used to make in Egypt, he said.

But an unprecedented wave of terrorist bombings over the past two years signaled a profound change in al-Noweihys business and the millions of others in tourism, which represents 8.2 percent of Turkeys workforce.

I used to receive 10 booking requests every day for domestic tours or car rentals, but after the Ankara attack of October 2015, the cancellation percentage reached 80 percent, al-Noweihy said.

He shut down the agency, laying off all his employees, and sold the car he rented to tourists. He has found work as a graphic designer at an advertising agency, but its not as lucrative as his old businessjust $1,500 a month working 12-hour days. His business used to bring in $5,000 a month.

Official data on hotel occupancy has not been updated since 2013, but Asmar Khalilova, a guest relations specialist at one of the luxury hotels in Istanbuls Sultanahmet district (itself struck by a suicide bombing in January in which 13 were killed, all of them foreigners), estimates that occupancy at her hotel has fallen to 20 percent over the past two years.

Khalilova, 29, left her home in Azerbaijan six years ago to study hospitality in Cyprus. Now she works in the heart of Istanbul surrounded by mosques, monuments, and shrines.

The hotel had to downsize half the number of employees, and we had to reduce the room rates from 250 euros to 90 euros per night, she said. Commissions the remaining workers once received from shops they recommend to hotel guests have dropped.

The long lines for tickets to tourist sites are gone, Khalilova said. Citizens and Syrian refugees are virtually the only ones seen strolling around once busy districts. Apart from the security situation, the influx of 800,000 Syrian refugees has flooded the market for jobs and apartments.

Mohamed Selo moved from Syria to Turkey in 2002, long before the civil war started. Four years after relocating he began work as an operations manager for a major tourism company. Salaries have been delayed frequently over the past year, he said. Employees have been laid off and salaries and benefits cut.

When I learned the company was about to reduce my salary of $1,500 per month, I resigned, Selo said.

With an estimated 2 million workers in the tourism and related industries, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council, France's tourism sector has also been damaged by terrorist attacks. Hotel stays by international visitors to the Ile-de-France region, which includes Paris, are down 11.5 percent through July this year, according to the state tourism board. Matthias Fekl, secretary of state for tourism, told Le Journal de Dimanche that the biggest decline has been among high-spending travelers from wealthy nations.

Alain Doff, 58, worked as a coordinator and consultant for tourism agencies in Paris but has had to find a new job after attacks in February and November 2015 and July 2016 killed hundreds of French citizens and tourists.

Doff specialized in musical tourism, providing services for high school and university bands, mostly from North America, touring France. There were 17 groups lined up to visit France in 2016. After the terror attacks, it went down to six. I have six groups confirmed for 2017 and a few requests for 2018, Doff said.

Doff said even relatively obscure destinations have been affected. In Normandy, an attack against an elderly priest in a Catholic church in July has made it difficult for him to book tours in what had been one of his favorite parts of the country.

Other areas have seen a rise in tourist visits as the more popular areas are abandoned. Quiet landscapes are viewed as a safe alternative to the big city.

In Serre Chevalier in the French Alps, Cristiano Ferro, 67, owns a delicatessen shop that carries local and Italian food. Ferros family also rents houses for tourists in a nearby valley.

His daughter, Julia Suez, said, We did not make any profits in July, but August, right after the Nice attacks, was the best month since the shop opened 20 years ago.

According to Ferro, most people who used to visit Cote dAzur in summer have gone instead to the mountains.

Ferros wife noticed that some visitors, who would typically spend two weeks of their vacation by the sea and one in the mountains, decided this year to spend all three weeks in the Alps.

Doff might have lost most of his expected clients in 2016, but he continues to seek better opportunities. He and his two young girls have had to leave their apartment and move to a more affordable home. He said he has been working as a tour guide for the past eight months in Paris, but as the weather started to get cold, he found a job teaching English to theater students.

I dont have a crystal ball, and I cant expect when the better times are coming, Doff said. As long as I have food on my table and a roof over my head, we can survive.

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EXCLUSIVE: Open Road Films has acquired U.S. rights to The Promise, the new film from Terry George about the Armenian genocide that had its world premiere in the fall at Toronto. Open Road, which acquired and distributed last years Best Picture Oscar winner Spotlight, has set an April 28 wide release date for the pic.

Oscar Isaac, Charlotte Le Bon and Christian Bale star alongside Shohreh Aghdashloo, Angela Sarafyan, Jean Reno, James Cromwell, Daniel Giminez Cacho and Marwan Kenzari. Eric Esrailian, Mike Medavoy and William Horberg.

Survival Pictures, founded by Kirk Kerkorian, developed and produced the project under Esrailian and co-manager Anthony Mandekic.

We are proud to add this prestigious film to our 2017 slate, said Open Roads Tom Ortenberg. An epic love story set against a turning point in world history, The Promise features top-notch performances and first-class filmmaking and we are looking forward to sharing the movie with audiences across the country.

The plot: It is 1914. As the Great War looms, the vast Ottoman Empire is crumbling. Constantinople, the once-vibrant multicultural capital on the shores of the Bosphorus, is about to be consumed by chaos. Michael Boghosian (Isaac) arrives in the cosmopolitan hub as a medical student determined to bring modern medicine back to Siroun, his ancestral village in Southern Turkey where Turkish Muslims and Armenian Christians have lived side by side for centuries. Photojournalist Chris Myers (Bale) has come here only partly to cover geo-politics. He is mesmerized by his love for Ana (le Bon), an Armenian artist he has accompanied from Paris after the sudden death of her father.

When Michael meets Ana, their shared Armenian heritage sparks an attraction that explodes into a romantic rivalry between the two men. As the Turks form an alliance with Germany and the Empire turns violently against its own ethnic minorities, their conflicting passions must be deferred while they join forces to survive even as events threaten to overwhelm them.

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George shared with Keir Pearson the Best Original Screenplay Oscar in 2005 for Hotel Rwanda, another movie that dealt with the topic of genocide. The film, which he also directed, was nominated for three Oscars.

The deal for The Promise was negotiated on behalf of Open Road by Ortenberg, COO and general counsel Elliott Kleinberg and SVP Acqusitions Lejo Pet; and by WME Global and David Boyle on behalf of Survival Pictures.

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Abstract:

Now built at Subarus Indiana factory, the 2017 Impreza introduces the automakers latest design themes. Our expert takes it for a test drive...

Year:

2 017

2017 Subaru Impreza Wagon 2.0i Sport rear quarter left photo Styling and Design Subarus are known to possess numerous positive qualities, but attractive design is not one of them. Perhaps that changes with the Dynamic x Solid styling theme worn by the new Impreza.



Honestly, it doesnt look much different from what the company has penned for the current Legacy and Outback, neither of which is unattractive from the perspectives of balance and cohesion. There is a clear family lineage between the new Impreza and Subarus larger models. In my opinion, the Sport is the version to get because its larger 18-in. wheels and lack of chrome exterior trim give it a bolder appearance.



Inside, the 2017 Impreza demonstrates a greater degree of refinement in terms of materials and closer attention to detail in terms of the control layout, displays, and user-friendliness. Thanks to thin windshield pillars, front quarter windows, and oversized door-mounted side mirrors, outward visibility is outstanding, giving the new Impreza a familiar feel from behind the wheel.

2017 Subaru Impreza 2.0i Limited interior photo Features and Controls Subaru expects 70% of Imprezas to be sold in base or Premium trim, but I recommend upgrading to the Sport version at a minimum. Why? It has nothing at all to do with performance driving and everything to do with that versions perfectly tuned dynamics. More on that later.



If you elect to get the Premium version, youll benefit from a set of nondescript 16-in. aluminum wheels, added stereo speakers, a quieter interior, and better cabin lighting. In a nod to the Imprezas Snowbelt fan base, this version also includes heated front seats, side mirrors, and wiper deicers. The Premium also adds a free year of automatic collision notification and SOS emergency calling service.



The Impreza Sport adds larger wheels and tires, revised suspension tuning, better brakes, and active torque vectoring, which collectively make the car exceptionally good to drive. Sporty styling cues are present inside and out, and the StarLink infotainment system gets an upgrade to an 8-in. display screen and a longer list of functions and features.



The Limited is treated to a more upscale look and feel, thanks to chrome trim, leather seats, automatic climate control, and more. Packaging remains a problem with the Impreza, though. For example, the Limited comes with smaller wheels, softer suspension, and less agile handling than the Sport, while the Sport cannot be fitted with leather, or an embedded navigation system, or Subarus handy keyless access system with PIN-code operation.



With the new Impreza, you can have your cake, but you cannot eat it.



Overall, the cars interior layout is logical, the controls are intuitive, and the graphics for the three different information display screens are sophisticated. This approach represents an improvement for Subaru, one that will hopefully expand to the rest of the lineup with each coming redesign.



For maximum utility, choose the 5-door hatchback, which supplies 20.8 cu. ft. of cargo space behind the rear seat, and 55.3 cu. ft. with the rear seat folded down. Sedans carry 12.3 cu. ft. of cargo in a boxy, cube-shaped trunk.



Subaru EyeSight photo Safety and Technology Safety is a Subaru hallmark, and the company has not skimped in this area when it comes to the new 2017 Impreza, one of the few models in its segment to weigh more than 3,000 lbs.



From the new vehicle architecture, which boasts a claimed 70% improvement in structural rigidity and a 40% gain in crash-energy absorption, to the full suite of EyeSight driving-assistance and collision-avoidance technologies, the 2017 Impreza is almost certain to lead its segment in terms of safety.



EyeSight includes adaptive cruise control, forward-collision warning with automatic emergency braking, and a lane-departure warning system with lane-keeping assist. Additionally, the Impreza is available for the first time with a blind-spot monitoring system, rear cross-traffic alert, lane-change assist, and rear automatic emergency braking capability.



Automatic collision notification and SOS emergency calling are available through a StarLink Safety Plus service package, which is free for one year on Premium, Sport, and Limited trim levels, and offered through Subarus next-generation family of infotainment systems, which includes standard Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone -projection technology.



Both test vehicles had the larger StarLink touch screen, measuring 8 inches across and featuring gesture control. Highlights include StarLink Apps, text messaging support, Near Field Communications connectivity, and more. Separate volume and tuning knobs help to make the infotainment system easier to use, and an 8-speaker Harman/Kardon sound system is available for Sport and Limited Imprezas.
Kate and Diana in the Cambridge Lovers Knot tiara. (Photo: Getty Images)

While we love the Duchess of Cambridge for her down-to-earth every-mom style, we also love when she pulls out all the stops in a glamorous gown and tiara. And while attending the Queens Diplomatic Reception at Buckingham Palace on Thursday, she wore the famous Cambridge Lovers Knot tiara. If the jewel-encrusted headpiece looks familiar, its for several reasons.

The tiara, which features 19 diamond arches, each with a dangling pearl, was created by Garrard for Queen Mary in 1914. Princess Diana, Kate Middletons mother-in-law, was photographed on several occasions wearing the crown, said to be her favorite piece in the British royal familys collection. It currently belongs to Queen Elizabeth II. The tiara is supposedly also Kates favorite now, and this is the second time she has worn it. It is also a favorite of the queen, who has worn it at many evening events.

Diana, Princess of Wales wears the Cambridge Lover's Knot tiara and a white outfit by Catherine Walker known as the 'Elvis Look' during a tour of Hong Kong on November 10, 1989. (Photo: Getty)

It is not the only piece of jewelry that connects the duchess to her late mother-in-law. Prince William famously gave Kate the famous diamond-and-sapphire engagement ring Diana was given by his father.

The Duchess of Cambridge also glowed in a red Jenny Packham gown that also might look familiar. The gorgeous floor-length gown has a round neck, cap sleeves, sequined fitted bodice, and full skirt, according to the products description.

In October 2015, more than a year ago, the brunette royal rocked the same red, bespoke gown by the British designer at her first state banquet at Buckingham Palace. (Isnt it refreshing to know that even the rich and famous recycle their looks sometimes?) The color red was especially appropriate at that event, as it was held in honor of visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife, Peng Liyuan, and red is the color of the Chinese flag. The hue is significant in a number of other ways in the countrys culture; brides traditionally wear red gowns in China too.

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Kate smiling. William looking a bit like he's trying not to laugh pic.twitter.com/jeyZo8PGHq  Victoria Murphy (@QueenVicMirror) December 8, 2016

Its safe to say Packham is one of the duchesss favorite designers. At her arrival for the royal couples 2016 tour of Canada, she wore a blue Packham dress complemented by a maple-leaf brooch, a nod to one of the countrys symbols. In 2011 and then again in 2016, Kate wore a gorgeous pearlescent rose sequined gown by Packham at charity events.

It doesnt end there. The duchess was photographed in 2015 wearing a yellow-and-white printed dress by the British designer when she was leaving the hospital with newborn Princess Charlotte. In 2011 she was clad in a floral Packham frock made of hand-painted silk for an appearance in Santa Barbara, Calif. And perhaps of the most chic Packham dresses worn by Kate was a metallic number from the 2013 Tusk Conservation awards.

Kate Middleton in one of her many Jenny Packham looks at the Tusk Conservation awards in 2013. (Photo: Getty Images)

There are really too many to list here, proving that when the duchess finds a designer she loves, she sticks to that designer. If you want to emulate Kates style, see Packhams designs here. We cant help you with the heirloom tiara, unfortunately.

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.
John Glenn in 1962. (Photo: NASA/Getty Images)

Kids of the 1980s grew up with the iconic image of Elliott and his alien friend riding a bike silhouetted against the moon. But in 1983, one year after E.T. hit theaters, it was another otherworldly movie scene that ignited the collective imagination. The film was The Right Stuff, written and directed by Philip Kaufman and co-starring, among other young actors of the day, Ed Harris as the steely, freckle-faced astronaut John Glenn, who became the first American to orbit Earth in 1962. One of the centerpieces of the movie is an extended sequence of Glenns flight, and even today, audiences alternately cheer and tear up when the spaceman marvels at the heavens from his capsule, Friendship 7. Theres a full moon rising, he says as he peers out at the window. I can almost touch it.

Watch the scene from The Right Stuff:

Like E.T., The Right Stuff captured the magic of the movies. But it also captured the magic of mankind, which Glenn embodied for millions of Americans. On Thursday, the 95-year-old died in Columbus, Ohio, his home state. He left behind Annie, his wife of 73 years, two children, and two grandchildren  as well as an enormous legacy as a space pioneer and a U.S. senator, representing Ohio for 24 years. Now THAT is how you live a life! Godspeed, John Glenn, tweeted actor Glen Powell, who plays the astronaut in the new movie Hidden Figures. In the drama, opening on Dec. 25, Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, and Janelle Monae star as the black female mathematicians who worked at NASA and helped propel America forward in the space race of the 1960s. In real life, as in the movie, the women found a crucial ally in Glenn. He was on the right side of history, Monae recently told Yahoo Movies. His heart was big, and he saw beyond those racial barriers.

Ed Harris as John Glenn in The Right Stuff. (Photo: Everett)

A hidden figure himself Glenn was not. President Obama recently weighed in, saying: John always had the right stuff, inspiring generations of scientists, engineers, and astronauts who will take us to Mars and beyond  not just to visit, but to stay. Upon his return to Earth after his 1962 orbit, Glenn was greeted by cheering crowds, feted with parades, and invited to the White House by President John F. Kennedy. Two decades later, building upon his national status as a senator, Glenn even ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984. In 1998, he became the oldest person to fly in space, at the age of 77, aboard the space shuttle Discovery. But it was his early flights that really left their mark on history, and Ed Harriss portrayal of the patriotic astronaut in The Right Stuff continues to resonate today.

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Interestingly, Glenn didnt like the movie. He preferred Tom Wolfes bestselling 1979 book of the same name. In particular, Glenn objected to what he felt were the films depictions of him as the pious saint and his fellow astronauts as the hellions, he told Life in 1998. Hollywood made a charade out of the story and caricatures out of the people in it.

The New York Times ran an eloquent obituary of the astronaut shortly after his death. But it was the commenters who truly celebrated his life, including many baby boomers who shared poignant memories of Glenn and what he meant to them as children during the peak of the cold war.

As one reader recalled: Having breathlessly followed the earliest space program as a young boy, I recall being asked who would I like to grow up to become like. Im sure Im in a very select group of perhaps millions of my contemporaries having replied John Glenn! to such a question. The funny thing is this: Now, in my 60s, I would give the same answer to that question.
As the deadline approaches to secure health insurance for 2017, some consumers are still scrambling.

While most Americans who don't receive health insurance via their employer can buy plans through the Affordable Care Act exchange, some find the plans available too costly, especially if they're not eligible for a subsidy, or they don't like the limited medical networks many plans offer.

"Part of the issue is that folks have a hard time figuring out which plans to choose and what they're eligible for," says Loreen Brown, vice president of product strategy and commercialization for the Lash Group, which helps connect patients with health care resources. "The existing plans are not bad. ... But then can you afford the premiums?"

Finding insurance off the ACA leaves you with few options -- and some of those are actually more expensive.

[Read: Which Americans Are Shut Out of the Affordable Care Act?]

"Are there a lot of people out there who don't like the options that they have?" says Alex Tolbert, founder of Bernard Health, a health care consulting and broker firm in Tennessee. "Yes."

The deadline is Dec. 15 to sign up for ACA insurance that will start Jan. 1. Open enrollment closes for the year on Jan. 31, 2017.

"There has been a lot of confusion and speculation," says Sam Gibbs, executive director of AgileHealthInsurance.com, a broker for short-term health insurance and dental plans. "The laws are on the books now. The penalties are in place. ... People need to have health insurance. Not having health insurance is very, very risky."

About 84 percent of Americans who use the health care exchange receive a subsidy toward premiums, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. But those who don't qualify for a subsidy may find the "affordable" plans less than affordable.

Insurance companies do offer plans outside the ACA -- if you can find them. But they may cost as much or more as ACA plans. Since health insurance is regulated by states, options will vary by location, and costs will differ according to your age and where you live.

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If you're priced out of ACA health insurance, here are six alternatives.

Short-Term Insurance Plans

These plans are designed to cover sabbaticals or periods between jobs. But some healthy people are using them for longer periods, by signing up for one short-term plan after another. Gibbs says the average plan costs $103 per month, though the cost is higher for older users. "They were designed to be coverage for gaps when people left their jobs," he says. "They're mostly catastrophic-type plans."

Most plans last six months to a year, and having one does not exempt you from paying the health care tax penalty, since they are not considered qualified plans -- though you may be exempt for other reasons. Gibbs' 21-year-old daughter, for example, paid $49 a month for one of these plans versus $326 on the ACA exchange when she was between jobs.

These plans are medically underwritten, meaning they may reject people with pre-existing conditions. Or, if you get sick while covered by one of these plans, you may not qualify to renew. And many have caps on how much the plan will pay in total. "If you have a chronic illness, this is not a good choice," Gibbs says.

"Those are good as long as you don't get sick," Brown says. "The older you are, the more risky those are."

[Read: How Affordable Care Act Marketplace Insurance Plans Will Change in 2017.]

Health Care Sharing Ministries

These plans are not technically insurance but are co-ops that started informally in churches, with everyone making a monthly contribution to pay members' medical expenses. With one of these plans you won't have to pay a tax penalty, but they aren't required to meet the same ACA coverage standards.

Health care ministries can reject people with pre-existing conditions, limit coverage or charge some people more. Most require a statement of faith, and for some you must have a letter from a minister to qualify. The plans with the strictest religious qualifications require members to adhere to traditional evangelical Christian beliefs, including abstaining from sex outside marriage. While there is no requirement that the ministry pay all covered health care expenses, members report that costs for serious illnesses have been covered. Some healthy families who can't afford ACA policies have found these plans a good alternative.

Children's Health Insurance Program

This program that covers children up to age 19 is administered by the states, so eligibility varies. Costs are usually on a sliding scale. In some states, families at any income level can use the program, but higher-earning families pay more.

"There are a number of states that have pretty generous offerings," Brown says.

The same navigators that help people sign up for the ACA can enroll children in this program, or you can sign up through your state's social service agency or marketplace.

Individual Policies

You may be able to buy an individual policy from an insurance company, but the only way to find those policies may be to contact the company directly because most aren't advertised online. An insurance broker could assist, but with some health insurance companies no longer paying a commission, brokers may not sell all the policies available.

While some of the health insurance companies that are not participating in the marketplace may sell individual plans, these plans are likely to cost as much or more as those available on the marketplace.

"Carriers don't show all their plans," Tolbert says. To find out what insurers are operating in your state, Tolbert suggests checking with the state insurance agency, which has to approve the rates.

Business Policies

Entrepreneurs and self-employed people have traditionally bought business policies rather than individual ones. Exactly how many people it takes to constitute a business and whether they can live in the same household varies by state, as do the types of policies available.

Many small businesses have found that it's more economical for each employee to use the ACA as an individual, but it's worth checking with a business insurance broker for options. You might find a policy you like that is not offered on the ACA.

[Read: 10 Things to Do When Choosing an Obamacare Health Plan.]

Association and Organization Policies

Since the ACA, fewer organizations have offered group health insurance to members, but it's worth checking. In some states, including Tennessee and Iowa, the Farm Bureau offers health insurance plans. "The federal government made an effort to standardize things, but there are still wrinkles in local markets," Tolbert says. "If they're pretty healthy, they could do better with Tennessee Rural Health."

Teresa Mears writes about personal finance, real estate and retirement for U.S. News and other publications. She was previously the real estate blogger for MSN Money and worked as the Home & Design editor for The Miami Herald. During her journalism career, she worked on coverage of immigration, religion, national and international news and local news, serving on the staffs of The Miami Herald, The Los Angeles Times and the St. Petersburg Times. She has also been a contributor for The New York Times and The Boston Globe, among other publications. She publishes Living on the Cheap and Miami on the Cheap. Follow her on Twitter @TeresaMears.
Environmental advocates say they are shocked and worried after Donald Trump announced Thursday that he had selected Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, who has denied mainstream climate science, to administer his Environmental Protection Agency.

This is a full-fledged environmental emergency, Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, said in a conference call hours after Trumps announcement. This is going to be a litmus test for every member of the Senate who claims not to be a denier.

Schatz, as well as Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., called for their fellow senators to reject Pruitts appointment, citing his climate skepticism and close ties to the oil and gas industry.

Merkley encouraged elected officials and grassroots advocates to create a wave of opposition to stop Pruitt from ever being confirmed to head the EPA, which he said might as well be renamed the Environmental Polluter Agency under his leadership.

This is a period where there are a lot of dark storm clouds and we are going to be called upon to work vigorously to block a lot of bad things from happening, Merkley said.

According to the Trump team, Pruitt, 48, is dedicated to rescinding all of Obamas job-destroying executive actions and eliminating barriers to responsible energy production. A press release from the transition called him a national leader against the EPAs job-killing war on coal.

The pick was widely seen as confirmation that Trump intended to follow through on his campaign rhetoric of slashing federal regulations to empower coal mining, oil drilling and the fossil fuel industry, in general.

Brian Schatz, Sheldon Whitehouse, Jeff Merkley. (Photos: Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call/Getty Images, Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP, Mark Wilson/Getty Image)

For too long, the Environmental Protection Agency has spent taxpayer dollars on an out-of-control anti-energy agenda that has destroyed millions of jobs, while also undermining our incredible farmers and many other businesses and industries at every turn, Trump said in a statement.

Pruitt has spent much of his time as Oklahomas top prosecutor fighting the agency hes set to be tasked with running. He repeatedly sued the EPA for  from his perspective  overstepping its bounds with federal regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power stations. His nomination is widely seen as an attack on President Obamas environmental legacy.

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Pruitt has claimed that the scientific debate over climate change is far from settled.

Scientists continue to disagree about the degree and extent of global warming and its connection to the actions of mankind, he wrote in the National Review in May.

Schatz characterized Pruitt as a professional climate-change denier whos made a career out of undermining the Clean Water Act of 1972 and the Clean Air Act of 1963. He said hes optimistic that Pruitts nomination can be stopped because the clean energy revolution has taken ahold of red states, as well as blue and purple states.

This is a four-alarm fire. We are going to do everything we can to stop his nomination. And were going to need broad-based bipartisan support for that, Schatz said. Were going to make our case and were going to fight this with everything weve got.

Whitehouse further argued that Pruitts nomination runs absolutely contrary to Trumps professed strategy of draining the swamp.

This is like filling up the swamp with one of the most determined and aggressive advocates for the fossil fuel industry, he said.

Scott Pruitt, Oklahoma attorney general, is Donald Trumps pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency. (Photo: Sue Ogrocki/AP)

Gene Karpinski, the president of the League of Conservation Voters, a leading environmental organization, said Pruitt would be by far the worst administrator in the EPAs history. He said Pruitts appointment would be a classic example of the fox guarding the henhouse.

Mr. Pruitt takes the polluters money and he does their bidding. Hes against clean air. Hes against clean water. Hes unfit for this job and he should be rejected, Karpinski said.

Trumps victory against heavily favored Democrat Hillary Clinton was deeply troubling for the environmentalist and scientific communities. He has vowed to pull the United States out of the Paris Agreement and repeatedly dismissed climate change as a hoax. But he has also flip-flopped or appeared malleable on many issues, leaving a potential window of hope for environmentalists like Karpinski.

I suppose you could say hope springs eternal and his comments in the New York Times interview perhaps suggested there was a possibility hed be different, Karpinski told Yahoo News on the conference call.

But [based on] everything hes said and done in the campaign, it was very clear where he was going to land. And this decision really underscores what he really cares about when it comes to clean air, clean water, public health.
Top 5 Bike-urios Bike-uriosities - Week of December 5, 2016

At Bike-urious, were spending all of our time finding the most interesting motorcycles that are currently for sale for you to drool over (and maybe empty your wallet for).

1. Sportster Engined  1984 Honda XL883

honda-xl883-left-side

It's a hybrid of "XL" bikes: the engine from a Harley-Davidson XL883 shoved into a (modified) frame from a Honda XL250R. Madness!

honda-xl883-rear-right

The original Honda motor put out about 17 horsepower, while the replacement Harley heart is good for approximately 57. That's obviously quite a bump, though the weight of this entire rig has gone up as well. There isn't much detail given on this one so it'll require a phone call (or ideally an in-person visit), but it's said to be street legal under a 1984 Honda XL250R title and everything apparently works.

honda-xl883-engine

Find this XL party for sale in Inglewood, California, for $7,500 here at The Garage Company.

2. The Pipeline  1998 Moto Guzzi 1100i Sport Custom

foundry-motorcycle-pipeline-left-side

Built by Foundry Motorcycle out of the UK, this custom Guzzi is one of the most distinctive builds I've seen in a while. Called "The Pipeline", it's based on a Guzzi 1100i Sport, though the fuel injection has been ripped off. The name comes from the shape of the exhaust, which rises above the heads - the builders call it a "mega industrial" look.

foundry-motorcycle-pipeline-exhaust

The fuel injection was replaced by a single twin-choke Weber carb. The headlight is from a Ducati SS and the cowl stores the ignition and speedometer. For more on the build, check out this article on the Bike Shed.

foundry-motorcycle-pipeline-cockpit

Find "The Pipeline" for sale in Ashford, England, for $25,313 here on the Bike Shed.

3. Bryan Fuller  2014 Ducati Street Tracker

fuller-moto-ducati-street-tracker-left-side

If you follow the custom bike scene at all, you have heard of Bryan Fuller. He has a shop in Atlanta and has turned out some very cool cutting-edge customs over the past few years. He also evidently made the frames for the Lloyd Brothers Ducati flat track team. As such, he has decided to do a run of 10 custom Ducati Street Trackers and is offering them up on eBay.

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Here is the Lloyd Brothers bike Johnny Lewis rode last year:

fuller-moto-ducati-street-tracker-johnny-lewis-racebike

This is from the listing for Bryan's special #1.

fuller-moto-ducati-street-tracker-right-side

It is only mocked up for visual demo purposes, and can be bought as is for $15,000. It consists of a Ducati 803cc crate motor in a custom chromoly frame, Ohlins fork, Fox shock, Brembo brakes, and EBC rotors. Rear sets, risers, handlebar, rims, hubs, spokes are all from top-of-the-line suppliers.

If you'd like, they will also sell you a turnkey, "finished bad-ass bike running tested, tuned, painted, to Fuller Level is $25,000." Pricey, yes, but basically a road-going factory flat track bike.

You can contact Fuller Moto in Atlanta through their website, or find more information in the listing here on eBay.

4. Extra R  2005 Kawasaki ZX-6RR

kawasaki-zx-6rr-right-side

In the early 2000s, Kawasaki decided that a good way to stay competitive in the 600cc sportbike market was to just bump up displacement of their ZX-6R to 636cc. This was fine with street riders, but a bit of an issue for racers who competed in classes that were limited to 599cc. So Kawasaki also offered a limited-production ZX-6RR - the smaller engine size came with a loss of 2 horsepower (down to 123) but the RR gained a slipper clutch (apparently the first on a production 600), adjustable swingarm pivot, a super hard carbon coating to the inner fork tubes to minimize friction, and some cosmetic changes.

So despite the smaller displacement, the double R was a better bike for a certain type of rider. If one R is good, two must be better! For more on the double RR and why it may or may not have have been worth the extra $400 of MSRP, check out this review that originally appeared in the August 2003 issue of Sport Rider.

This example is further upgraded with an Ohlins steering damper and a Penske rear shock. It has 6,422 miles and looks just about new, according to the seller. Find this ZX-6RR for sale in Portland, Oregon for $5,495 here at Automania.

5. In Holland  Magni Sfida

magni-sfida-right-side

Magni is probably best known for the incredible bikes it made in partnership with MV Agusta, but over the years they also did some work with engines from BMW, Honda, and Moto Guzzi. MG's 1100cc engine provided the heart of the Sfida that you see here today.

Magni Sfida - Cockpit

Sfida is Italian for "challenge", which is exactly what you'll face if you ever have to source cosmetic parts for this bike. But it doesn't get much better in the world of obscure Italian sport bikes, does it? Some Sfidas were fuel injected, others had carbs, and all were powered by a Guzzi 1100cc V-twin that's tilted slightly to the right inside a chromoly frame to align the driveshaft correctly. Suspension is taken care of by 40mm Ceriani forks and a WP shock. For more information, check out this "Quick Ride" from Cycle World's time with a prototype.

This example has 3,800 miles and it's had one owner. The seller (different from the owner) says it's from 2000 but I don't believe that's correct. There are some modifications but all the original parts are included.

Magni Sfida - Front Left

Find this Magni for sale in Geleen, Netherlands, with a BIN of $26,500 or best offer here on eBay.

Which was your favorite?
Frank Capras seminal holiday classic Its a Wonderful Life is as much about protagonist and all-around good man George Bailey as it is about the mechanics of the small town he lives in, Bedford Falls. But while Bedford Falls is ostensibly a fictional place, one village in New York insists that their municipality is the inspiration behind it, NPR reports.

Seneca Falls is perhaps best known as the site of the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention, a landmark event in the history of womens rights in America. But the town is touting another claim to fame, this time in relation to Capras film. Sitting just off the Finger Lakes, its exactly the quaint kind of place youd want to set a movie: a traditional Main Street, a river and bridge, even a mill. And to top it off, residents of Seneca Falls tell stories of director Capras visit to their hometown before he made the movie.

I really believe this is what inspired Capra. Its got the canal, its got names of the streets, its got the Victorian housesI mean, its got it all, Karolyn Grimes told NPR. Grimes plays Zuzu, George Baileys daughter, in the 1946 film; she was six at the time of production. This year marks the 70th anniversary of the beloved movies release, which Seneca Falls will be celebrating during its annual holiday festival. The town even boasts a museum dedicated to the movieand a local historian remembers Capra visiting and getting his hair cut. So although he never named it as the inspiration, theres plenty of evidence in favor of Seneca Falls, even down to that bridge from which one could ponder the value of ones life.
Earlier this year, property developers in Russia opened an international architecture competition to design easily-replicable tourist structures that would become a part of this iconic attraction, fitting in with the history and identity of one of the most well-travelled routes in the world.

The winner of the competition was Kamvari Architects, who proposed a series of elephant trunk-looking shelters. The 65-foot-tall kiosks will house passengers as they wait along the trains route and provide information about the railway. Each structure will also contain a shop, restaurant and storage area.

Trans-Siberian Railway Cabin Design

The London-based architecture firm said that their design seeks to address and explore the way in which architecture is evolving while also highlighting local craftsman traditions. The kiosks unusual, elongated height is meant to make stations visible from a distance, lifting the traditional form also expresses a sense of pride in the railway and its achievement.

Kamvari said that the cabins will come in two separate parts for easy assembly and sit above the ground to protect structures from extreme heat and cold.

Trans-Siberian Railway Cabin Design

Its estimated that the cabins will be installed in nine different location along the trains route, including Moscow, Yekaterinburg and Ulaanbaatar. Construction and installation is scheduled to begin in five locations, starting 2018.

The Trans-Siberian Railway travels 5,772 miles to connect Moscow to Vladivostok in the east. The journey takes 167 hours and makes 120 stops. An extension to the railroad, which would link it to Japans high-speed railroad, was proposed earlier this year.

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Personnel is policy, Richard Nixons budget chief Michael Horowitz remarked after the 1972 election, when the re-elected incumbent asked for resignations from two thousand of his appointees. The OMB director meant that the direction of any administration could best be determined by the people hired by its leader. Based on the key appointments made thus far by the new President-elect, America should prepare itself for a new conservative era  and an about-face from the last eight years.

Barack Obama won the presidency in 2008 by promising hope and change to a nation weary of the George W. Bush presidency, the war in Iraq, and the financial-sector collapse that demolished hundreds of thousands of jobs a month leading up to the election. Eight years later, Republicans now control the House, Senate, a record number of state legislatures and Donald Trump has won a surprise victory over Hillary Clinton. Voters have rejected the Obama era - and Trumps key personnel choices promise to deliver change for them in 2017 in nearly every policy arena.

Related: Trump the Populist Could Have the Wealthiest Cabinet in US History

The first obvious indication of policy direction came with the appointment of Jeff Sessions as Attorney General. The conservative Senator from Alabama has been a proponent of hardline immigration enforcement, as has Trump himself. Sessions has also been a particularly sharp critic of Department of Justice policy and actions under his predecessors Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch, and especially during the investigations involving Hillary Clinton.

Next, Trump chose Rep. Tom Price to run Health and Human Services. Price has not just opposed Obamacare  he has written legislation to replace it. Price has demanded a rollback of the regulatory expansion associated with the Affordable Care Act, in particular where it infringes on religious liberty. Trump had suggested prior to the Price appointment that he might be open to amending Obamacare rather than repealing it, but putting Price in charge of HHS strongly suggests an active rollback of its regulations while Congress plans the best way to eliminate it altogether.

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Two more recent additions to Trumps domestic policy team make the change of direction even clearer. His choice of Labor Secretary, Andy Puzder, comes from the boardroom rather than from the ranks of activists and of the public sector, as did Tom Perez and Hilda Solis in Obamas presidency.

Related: Another Learn-on-the-Job Cabinet Nominee: Ben Carson to Run HUD

However, the most stunning turnaround takes place outside of the Cabinet at the EPA, where Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt will take the helm. Pruitt has spent the past few years suing the Obama administration and the EPA itself to fight the expansion of federal power at the expense of state jurisdiction. (The New York Times accused Pruitt of being a climate change denialist in its headline, but the report itself shows Pruitt encouraging debate on the issue.) Pruitts nomination promises an energetic rollback of Obamas expansion of regulation through the Waters of the US rule and the Clean Air Act, two mechanisms used by the EPA to assert near-total jurisdiction independent of any Congressional mandate.

On national security, the message might be subtle, but no less clear. The Obama administration preferred to deal with terrorism from a law-enforcement perspective rather than as a military challenge. Early on, the administration tried changing the terms used to de-emphasize military implications; terrorist attack became man-caused disaster, then-Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told Der Speigel in March 2009. In the same month, the Department of Defenses office of security review sent a memo to senior Pentagon staff members informing them that they should no longer refer to a global war on terror, but to overseas contingency operations.

Almost eight years later, Trump has nominated three retired generals to run key national-security positions: Gen. Michael Flynn as his national security adviser, Gen. James Mattis as Secretary of Defense, and Gen. John Allen as Secretary of Homeland Security. Some in Congress have raised questions about the influence of so many retired flag officers in Cabinet positions, but Trump has signaled that he sees threats against US interests at home and abroad in military rather than law enforcement terms. All three have reputations for independence and bluntness, and none are likely to put much time into finding comforting euphemisms for the threats we face.

Related: Trumps Choice to Head EPA Would Roll Back Environmental Regulations

Conservatives had expressed considerable reservations about Trumps professions of conservatism, during both the primary and general-election campaigns. In the days after the election, Trumps meetings with Obama on the ACA and with Al Gore on climate change prompted renewed concerns about Trumps true direction. Even while the first few nominations got announced, some wondered whether they reflected vice-president-elect Mike Pence more than Trump, and when other shoes would begin to drop.

So far, though, Trump seems intent on creating the most conservative and business-oriented Cabinet in decades. If Horowitz was correct and personnel is policy, then conservatives should find themselves pleasantly surprised and encouraged thus far with a 180-degree change of direction these key appointments promise. The inauguration on January 20th marks the date in which conservatives might find their own version of hope and change.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
Theres an early Chris Rock routine in which the young comic asks, Do you know what it means when someone pays you the minimum wage?

It means, he says, your boss is trying to tell you Hey, if I could pay you less I would, but its against the law.

Thats probably not a favorite of Andrew Puzder, the CEO of fast-food chains Carls Jr. and Hardees who is president-elect Donald Trumps nominee for Labor Secretary. Puzder, a relentless critic of the minimum wage, was described in a Trump transition team statement as having an extensive record of fighting for workers.

Related: Just 40% of Americans Approve of Trumps Cabinet Choices

But Pudzer is drawing fire from both the left and the right, which for different reasons view him as an anathema to the American worker.

Pudzer has said he is not rationally opposed to raising the minimum wage, but as he told Maria Bartiromo of Foxs Mornings with Maria, Ive been opposed to minimum wage increases that kill jobs, and a lot of these state increases are to that level that they would kill jobs.

He has also extolled the virtues of robots, telling Business Insider that they are always polite, they always upsell, they never take a vacation, they never show up late, theres never a slip-and-fall or an age, sex or race discrimination case.

The New York Times quotes AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka as calling Pudzer a man whose business record is defined as fighting against working people. But early in his career as a lawyer in St. Louis, according to the bio on his companys website, Pudzer worked with Morris Shenker, who represented Jimmy Hoffa and the Teamsters and other big unions.

Related: Who Is Steve Bannon? 13 Things to Know About Trumps New Political Guru

The right-wing news site Breitbart, which was headed by Steve Bannon before he became Trumps campaign chief and now senior adviser, is attacking the Puzder nomination because it sees him as soft on immigration.

A story yesterday called him a strong supporter of increased immigration, which provides his companies with a fresh supply of cheap workers  plus additional customers. A second Breitbart story relied on past quotes from Puzder to make the case that he prefers foreign workers to American born labor and supports amnesty for illegal immigrants.

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In an op-ed for Politico in 2013, Puzder wrote, There are more than 11 million illegal immigrants in our country. Many have families, homes, jobs and children who are American citizens. We simply are not going to take them from their homes, put them in prisons, load them on buses and take them back over the border. Nor will we enact draconian measures that drive them from their homes or their jobs and force them to self-deport. As a nation, we lack both the will and the resources to implement such policies.

Puzder, who was an economic adviser to Mitt Romney in 2012, has also been involved with The Partnership for a New American Economy, which seeks to raise awareness of the economic benefits of sensible immigration reform, according to its website. Prominent members include Mike Bloomberg, Rupert Murdoch and HUD Secretary Julian Castro, who was under consideration to be Hillary Clintons running mate.

Related: How Trumps Cabinet Picks Are Payback to His Wealthy Pals

Trump has flip-flopped on the minimum wage, and perhaps the selection of Puzder indicates that he has made up his mind. But he has not wavered on amnesty for illegal immigrants, and Pudzer has been pretty clear in his support of an immigration solution that leaves most of the 11 million undocumented workers in the U.S. right where they are.

The Times says Pudzer and his wife gave more than $300,000 to the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee.

The views Pudzer holds may reflect his personal philosophy, but they are certainly in line with the goals of the major investors in CKE Restaurants, the parent of Carls Jr. and Hardees. CKE was controlled by Apollo Management, a private-equity firm, until 2013 and now is one of a number of fast-food companies in the portfolio of Atlanta-based private-equity firm Roark Capital Group.

How Mike Pence Is Already Putting His Stamp on the Trump White House

Besides Carls Jr. and Hardees, Roarks $6 billion portfolio includes Arbys, Cinnabon, Moes Southwest Grill and Carvel Ice Cream. For private equity firms such as Roark, with a huge position in fast food, keeping a lid on wages is one way to extract value from the companies they control. Thats why minimum wage hikes are not good for business and the low-cost foreign labor is.

Michael Haller, a spokesperson for the International Franchise Association, told The Times that Pudzer (who is a board member of the trade group) loves the novels of the libertarian and up-by-your-own-bootstraps writer Ayn Rand.

Roark Capital, in an extensive explanation, says it is named after Howard Roark, the principled protagonist of Rands most famous work, The Fountainhead. It might be describing Pudzer when it says its goal is to invest in outstanding companies and work with operating executives who refuse to succumb to conventional wisdom.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
Ex-Hillary Clinton campaign staffer Matt Ortega is combining millennial slang and President-elect Donald Trump's possible conflicts of interest on his new website, corrupt.af.

The former Hillary for America digital director for communications debuted the self-funded site this week, Politico reported. The domain is registered in Afghanistan, which allows its URL to suggest Trump is corrupt "AF," a teen term meaning "as f---."

The site's roughly 40 posts so far are excerpts from news articles from outlets like CNN, Forbes, and the New York Times. They describe developments in the selection of Trump's cabinet, investigations his properties are involved in and ties to business in foreign countries, and each includes a highlighted section.

For example, one post quotes a Washington Post article titled "Moscow had contacts with Trump team during campaign, Russian diplomat says." Ortega highlights the story's assertion that "'there were contacts' with the Trump team."

Ortega told Politico he started the site so readers would be aware of possible ethical dilemmas that could impact Trump's presidency.

"There were so many conflict-of-interest stories flying around, it was kind of hard to keep track of everything," Ortega said. He later added that while some of the posts are "obvious," others "include examples that show his policy on specific issues or, say, countries [where his position] could be swayed because of financial interest either in his business or his personal finances."

Political hijinks on the internet are nothing new. Pages like TrumpDonald.org, which featured a trumpet users could click on to blow the president-elect's hair away, and TedCruz.com, which redirected to a photo of Clinton, went viral online during the just-finished United States campaign cycle, according to Whipboard.

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But on a serious note, corrupt.af might have an audience. Only 40 percent of American adults said they approved of the job Trump has done explaining his plans and appointing cabinet members, compared to about 70 percent who said the same for President Barack Obama in December 2008, according to Pew Research Center.

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Donald Trump apparently doesnt see much point in bashing President Obama anymore, but the same cant be said for some of his supporters.

The crowd at the president-elects Friday afternoon Get Out the-Vote rally in Baton Rouge, La., lapped up most of his usual talking points on manufacturing and military might. Now that hes won the presidency, the bona fide showman was not as vitriolic or impassioned as he had been on the campaign trail.

Trump even had kind things to say about Obama, whom he previously called the worst president, maybe in the history of our country.

President Obama, who by the way Ive gotten along with so well, Trump told supporters during his speech at a Dow Chemical facility. The moment turned awkward: Trumps fans went largely silent as scattered boos broke out in the audience before he could finish his sentence.

No, no, no, hes really doing great. Hes been so nice, the president-elect said.

As part of his thank-you tour, Trump was in Louisiana to campaign for Republican John Kennedy in the states Senate runoff election. He made the Obama comments before vowing to place a five-year ban on executive branch officials from becoming lobbyists and a lifetime ban on them becoming lobbyists for foreign governments.

President-elect Donald Trump speaking at a rally in Baton Rouge, La., Dec. 9, 2016. (Photo: Andrew Harnik/AP)

The relationship between Trump and Obama has been notoriously troubled. Among other things, Trump was for years a leading voice in the birther movement that spread fringe conspiracy theories about Obamas citizenship.

For his part, Obama ruthlessly mocked Trump at the 2011 White House Correspondents Dinner. And during this years presidential election, Obama said of Trump, If somebody cant handle a Twitter account, they cant handle the nuclear codes.

But just days after Trumps general election victory, Obama welcomed Trump into the White House for a meeting that was cordial by all accounts. Talking to reporters after their meeting, Obama noted that his predecessor, former President George W. Bush, had been gracious despite their political differences, and instructed his staff to extend the same courtesy to his successor.

Despite their significant disagreements and history of insults, both parties appear to be cooperating as well as they can to preserve whats considered a cornerstone of American democracy: the peaceful transition of power.
(Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is expected to pick Goldman Sachs executive Gary Cohn to head his White House National Economic Council, a group tasked with coordinating economic policy across federal agencies, a Trump transition official told Reuters on Friday. The following is a list of Republican Trump's selections for top jobs in his administration. All the posts but that of national security adviser, the White House chief of staff, White House director of the National Economic Council and White House strategist require Senate confirmation: U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: JEFF SESSIONS Sessions, 69, was the first U.S. senator to endorse Trump's presidential bid and has been a close ally since. Son of a country-store owner, the Alabama senator and former federal prosecutor has long taken a tough stance on illegal immigration, opposing any path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. CIA DIRECTOR: MIKE POMPEO U.S. Representative Pompeo, 52, is a third-term congressman from Kansas who serves on the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, which oversees the CIA, National Security Agency and cyber security. A retired Army officer and Harvard Law School graduate, Pompeo supports the U.S. government's sweeping collection of Americans' communications data and wants to scrap the nuclear deal with Iran. COMMERCE SECRETARY: WILBUR ROSS Ross, 78, heads the private equity firm W.L. Ross & Co. His net worth was pegged by Forbes at about $2.9 billion. A staunch supporter of Trump and an economic adviser, Ross helped shape the Trump campaign's views on trade policy. He blames the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico, which went into force in 1994, and the 2001 entry of China into the World Trade Organization for causing massive U.S. factory job losses. DEFENSE SECRETARY: JAMES MATTIS Mattis is a retired Marine general known for his tough talk, distrust of Iran and battlefield experience in Iraq and Afghanistan. A former leader of Central Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East and South Asia, Mattis, 66, is known by many U.S. forces by his nickname "Mad Dog." He was once rebuked for saying in 2005: "It's fun to shoot some people." EDUCATION SECRETARY: BETSY DEVOS DeVos, 58, is a billionaire Republican donor, a former chair of the Michigan Republican Party and an advocate for the privatisation of education. As chair of the American Federation for Children, she has pushed at the state level for vouchers that families can use to send their children to private schools and for the expansion of charter schools. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY ADMINISTRATOR: SCOTT PRUITT An ardent opponent of President Barack Obama's measures to stem climate change, Oklahoma Attorney General Pruitt, 48, has enraged environmental activists. But he fits with the president-elect's promise to cut the agency back and eliminate regulation that he says is stifling oil and gas drilling. Pruitt became the top state prosecutor for Oklahoma, which has extensive oil reserves, in 2011, and has challenged the EPA multiple times since. HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: TOM PRICE U.S. Representative Price, 62, is an orthopaedic surgeon who heads the House Budget Committee. A representative from Georgia since 2005, Price has criticized Obamacare and has championed a plan of tax credits, expanded health savings accounts and lawsuit reforms to replace it. He is opposed to abortion. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: JOHN KELLY The final leadership role of Kelly's 45-year career was head of the U.S. Southern Command, responsible for U.S. military activities and relationships in Latin America and the Caribbean. The 66-year-old retired Marine general differed with Democratic President Barack Obama on key issues and has warned of vulnerabilities along the United States' southern border with Mexico. HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT SECRETARY: BEN CARSON Carson, 65, is a retired neurosurgeon who dropped out of the Republican presidential nominating race in March and threw his support to Trump. A popular writer and speaker in conservative circles, Carson previously indicated reluctance to take a position in the incoming administration because of his lack of experience in the federal government. Carson is the first African-American picked for a Cabinet spot by Trump. INTERIOR SECRETARY: CATHY MCMORRIS RODGERS McMorris Rodgers, a 47-year-old U.S. congresswoman from Washington state, is the fourth most senior member of the House of Representatives leadership. A member of the House Energy Committee, she has supported efforts to expand the U.S. energy industry such as the recent repeal of the decades-old ban on oil exports and efforts to reject the Environmental Protection Agency's Waters of the United States Act. She has also expressed scepticism about climate change. Before joining Congress in 2004, McMorris Rodgers served for a decades in the Washington state legislature, eventually becoming the first woman there to serve as minority leader. NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL DIRECTOR: GARY COHN Cohn, 56, president and chief operating officer of investment bank Goldman Sachs, had widely been considered heir apparent to Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of the Wall Street firm. Trump hammered Goldman and Blankfein during the presidential campaign, releasing a television ad that called Blankfein part of a "global power structure" that had robbed America's working class. LABOR SECRETARY: ANDREW PUZDER Puzder, chief executive officer of CKE Restaurants Inc [APOLOT.UL], which runs the Carl's Jr. and Hardee's fast-food chains [APOLOT.UL], has been a vociferous critic of government regulation of the workplace and the National Labor Relations Board. Puzder, 66, has argued that higher minimum wages would hurt workers by forcing restaurants to close, and praises the benefits of automation, so his appointment is likely to antagonize organised labour. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: MICHAEL FLYNN Retired Lieutenant General Flynn, 57, was an early Trump supporter and serves as vice chairman on his transition team. He began his Army career in 1981 and was deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq. Flynn became head of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2012 under President Barack Obama but retired a year earlier than expected, according to media reports, and became a fierce critic of Obama's foreign policy. SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION ADMINISTRATOR: LINDA MCMAHON McMahon, 68, is a co-founder and former chief executive of the professional wrestling franchise WWE, which is based in Stamford, Connecticut. She ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for a U.S. Senate seat in Connecticut in 2010 and 2012, and was an early supporter of Trump's presidential campaign. TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: ELAINE CHAO Chao, 63, was labour secretary under President George W. Bush for eight years and the first Asian-American woman to hold a Cabinet position. She is a director at Ingersoll Rand, News Corp and Vulcan Materials Company. She is married to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky. TREASURY SECRETARY: STEVEN MNUCHIN Mnuchin, 53, is a successful private equity investor, hedge fund manager and Hollywood financier who spent 17 years at Goldman Sachs before leaving in 2002. He assembled an investor group to buy a failed California mortgage lender in 2009, rebranded it as OneWest Bank and built it into Southern California's largest bank. Housing advocacy groups criticized the bank for its foreclosure practices, accusing it of being too quick to foreclose on struggling homeowners. U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: NIKKI HALEY Haley, 44, has been the Republican governor of South Carolina since 2011 and has little experience in foreign policy or the federal government. The daughter of Indian immigrants, she led a successful push last year to remove the Confederate battle flag from the grounds of the South Carolina state capitol after the killing of nine black churchgoers in Charleston by a white gunman. WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: REINCE PRIEBUS Recently re-elected to serve as Republican National Committee chairman, Priebus will give up his party post to join Trump in the White House, where the low-key Washington operative could help forge ties with Congress to advance Trump's agenda. The 44-year-old was a steadfast supporter of Trump during the presidential campaign even as the party fractured amid the choice. CHIEF WHITE HOUSE STRATEGIST, SENIOR COUNSELLOR: STEVE BANNON, The former head of the conservative website Breitbart News came aboard as Trump's campaign chairman in August. A rabble-rousing conservative media figure, he helped shift Breitbart's into a forum for the alt-right, a loose confederation of those who reject mainstream politics and includes neo-Nazis, white supremacists and anti-Semites. His hiring signals Trump's dedication to operating outside the norms of Washington. As White House chief of staff, Bannon, 63, will serve as Trump's gatekeeper and agenda-setter. (Reporting by Washington Newsroom; Editing by Leslie Adler and Jonathan Oatis)
BATON ROUGE, La., Dec 9 (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Friday said he was considering imposing a lifetime ban on U.S. military procurement officials from later working for defense contractors.

Three days after publicly rebuking Boeing Co over costs for the next generation of Air Force One presidential aircraft, Trump floated the idea of such a ban on stage at a rally for his Republican supporters in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

"I think anybody that gives out these big contracts should never ever, during their lifetime, be allowed to work for a defense company, for a company that makes that product," Trump said. "I don't know, it makes sense to me."

He added that he "got the idea yesterday" as he thought about "massive" cost overruns for military equipment but needed to "check this out" first before making any decisions.

Trump also singled out Lockheed Martin's F-35 stealth fighter jet program for criticism at the Louisiana rally, saying it was "totally, totally, like, uncontrollably over budget." (Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
(Adds reaction from defense official, details on F-35)

By Steve Holland and David Lawder

BATON ROUGE, La./WASHINGTON, Dec 9 (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Friday said he was considering imposing a lifetime ban on U.S. military procurement officials going to work for defense contractors, a move that could dramatically reshape the defense industry.

Three days after publicly rebuking Boeing Co over the cost of the next-generation Air Force One presidential aircraft, Trump floated the idea of such a ban at a rally for Republican supporters in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

"I think anybody that gives out these big contracts should never ever, during their lifetime, be allowed to work for a defense company, for a company that makes that product," Trump said. "I don't know, it makes sense to me."

He added that he "got the idea yesterday" as he thought about "massive" cost overruns for military equipment but needed to "check this out" first before making any decisions.

Trump said such a ban would make "a big, big difference because the purchasing in this country is out of control, for everything, not only military."

The president-elect's idea was met with deep skepticism within the U.S. defense establishment

Procurement and weapons program management jobs have long been a good alternative career path within the Pentagon for military officers who did not win coveted command jobs.

A U.S. defense official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said such a ban would likely discourage people from taking procurement jobs in the Pentagon and cause more attrition.

"The reason a lot of people go in and stay in is because it makes for a nice transition later to a civilian job. It could make people want to avoid that," the official said after being asked about Trump's announcement.

Current rules prohibit Pentagon employees from working on the same acquisition matter in the private sector, said Andrew Hunter, a former Pentagon official now at the Center of Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.

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But an industry-wide ban on hiring former Pentagon officials could backfire badly, he said.

"No one is going to want to take those jobs. You're going to have the worst of the worst, because no one with any particular talent is going to want a career where they are going to be banned for life for doing what they were trained to do," said Hunter, who is director of the center's Defense-Industrial Initiatives Group.

Congressional aides also told Reuters they were skeptical that such a ban could be enacted.

Trump singled out Lockheed Martin's F-35 stealth fighter jet program for criticism at the Louisiana rally, saying it was "totally, totally, like, uncontrollably over budget."

The F-35 is the Pentagon's costliest arms program. The Defense Department expects to spend $391 billion to develop the plane and buy 2,443 of the supersonic, stealthy new warplanes in the coming decades. Costs per plane are expected to fall below $100 million as production ramps up.

(Additional reporting by Phil Stewart; editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Jonathan Oatis)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump won't be firing himself from "Celebrity Apprentice." The Republican businessman plans to remain an executive producer on the show that made him a television star, a source confirmed to Reuters. Trump, who famously barked the catchphrase "You're fired!" as he dismissed competitors on the "Apprentice" and "Celebrity Apprentice" programs, stepped down from the program last year when he entered the 2016 Republican presidential race. "Celebrity Apprentice" returns to the air with actor Arnold Schwarzenegger as host on Jan. 2, 18 days before Trump is sworn in as president. Variety, which first reported Trump's decision to remain as executive producer, said his name will air in the credits before that of Schwarzenegger, star of the "Terminator" movies and a two-term governor of California. The show is broadcast by NBC, a unit of Comcast Corp. Variety said he was likely to be due a payment in the low five-figures per episode. Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway did not confirm that Trump would retain the executive producer credit and said she did not know whether he would accept potential payments for the program. "Presidents have a right to do things in their spare time or their leisure time," she told CNN. "Nobody objects to that. "I can tell you that work is his work and work is his hobby." Debuting in 2004, "The Apprentice" and its spinoff, "Celebrity Apprentice," featured teams trying to win Trump's favor in various money-making competitions. They were ratings hits - drawing nearly 21 million viewers at their peak - and boosted Trump's popularity after he suffered a financial downturn in the 1990s. Trump has been speaking to lawyers and protocol experts about what he can and cannot do with his global business interests once he takes office on Jan. 20, Conway said on CNN. (Reporting by Doina Chiacu and Emily Stephenson; Editing by Bill Trott)
By Steve Holland and David Shepardson NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Michigan Republican Party Chair Ronna Romney McDaniel has emerged as the consensus favorite to head the party with President-elect Donald Trump headed to Michigan on Friday as part of his post-election "thank you" tour. The Republican National Committee will soon have a vacancy at the top of the party when current chairman Reince Priebus becomes White House chief of staff when Trump takes office on Jan. 20. With Trump to attend a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Friday night, party officials said he may signal his support for McDaniel, a niece of 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. McDaniel helped deliver the state of Michigan for Trump in the Nov. 8 election. Until this year, Michigan had not voted Republican since 1988. Trump won the Midwestern state by little more than 10,000 votes, and the state's 16 electoral votes were critical to his victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton. The Republican National Committee's 168 elected members will choose their next chair at a meeting in mid-January, but they will be influenced by Trump's view on who should head the party. Another popular choice among party regulars is Matt Pinnell, the former chairman of the Oklahoma Republican Party. Trump also is to visit Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on Friday to campaign for U.S. Senate candidate John Kennedy, a Republican who is to face off in a runoff election on Saturday against Democrat Foster Campbell. Trump is using his tour to thank supporters who backed his candidacy and lay out some policy ideas for his presidency. He has a handful of cabinet appointments still to make, including secretary of state. (Reporting By Steve Holland and David Shepardson; Editing by Robert Birsel)
NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Paul Ryan, were meeting on Friday to discuss their policy agenda, a spokeswoman for Ryan said. The spokeswoman, AshLee Strong, gave no details. Officials in Trump's team said the meeting was taking place but did not elaborate. Differences between Ryan and Trump during the presidential campaign have given way to a working relationship as the Republican president-elect prepares to take office on Jan. 20. Ryan, the top House Republican, has said the two men speak almost every day. Trump has been meeting with experts, advisers and candidates for senior positions in his administration since winning the Nov. 8 election. He has nominated a dozen people already. He has yet to fill the position of secretary of state. The long list of possible candidates for that job now includes former Ford Motor Co CEO Alan Mulally, Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway told Fox News on Friday. A meeting with Democratic U.S. Senator Joe Manchin was rescheduled from Friday to Monday to accommodate work in the Senate on a government funding bill, Manchin's spokesman said. The House passed legislation on Thursday to fund federal agencies until April 28. The bill now rests with the Senate, where Democrats are upset over the temporary, rather than long-term, extension of healthcare benefits for retired coal miners, a key constituency in Manchin's state of West Virginia. Manchin's name has been floated as a potential pick for secretary of state or energy secretary. (Reporting by Melissa Fares in New York and Susan Cornwell in Washington; Writing by Susan Heavey; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Frances Kerry)
Columbus (AFP) - Donald Trump vigorously defended his incoming cabinet against uproar from Democrats, green activists and workers unions who said his nominees for the environment and labor signalled a sharp shift to the right.

The 70-year-old president-elect, who has never previously held elective office, on Thursday announced Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, a climate skeptic, as environment chief and fast food executive Andy Puzder as labor secretary.

More than half his cabinet positions have now been filled, 43 days before the Republican is sworn in as the 45th president of the United States, the oldest man ever inaugurated into the office.

"I believe we're in the process of putting together one of the great cabinets that has ever been assembled in the history of our nation," Trump told a victory rally in Des Moines, Iowa.

It was the third of his unorthodox "thank you" rallies feting his shock electoral defeat of Hillary Clinton in key swing states that have propelled him into the leadership of the most powerful democracy on earth.

"In filling my cabinet I'm looking for people who fully understand the meaning of service and who are committed to advancing the common good," he added, defending his appointment of a string of billionaires and millionaires.

His nominees, he said, had given up fortunes "to make one dollar a year," hailing them as "talented people, smart people."

The incoming president triggered criticism by tapping a fossil fuel industry ally to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) -- outraging many who fear that he will reverse President Barack Obama's efforts to combat climate change.

"We're going to end the EPA intrusion into your lives," he told the Iowa crowd.

- 'Anti-worker extremism' -

In announcing the nomination of Pruitt -- who will need Senate approval -- Trump complained that "for too long," the EPA had spent "taxpayer dollars on an out-of-control anti-energy agenda that has destroyed millions of jobs."

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Steny Hoyer, the number two Democrat in the House of Representatives, said Pruitt had spent years "fighting tooth and nail to help polluters erase or circumvent the critical environmental protections our nation has put in place."

Ken Kimmell, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists, described Pruitt as someone "on the outer extreme edge, and putting him in charge of EPA could really have devastating consequences."

The appointment was made despite Trump's meeting this week with former Democratic vice president-turned-climate campaigner Al Gore and actor Leonardo DiCaprio, who is an active environmentalist.

There was similar uproar over his nomination of Andy Puzder, CEO of CKE Restaurants which owns fast food chain Hardees, as secretary of labor.

Puzder opposes a Democratic Party push to raise the minimum wage to $15. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed this year he backed increasing use of automated technology instead of workers to keep down labor costs, complaining about the $15 wage, mandatory paid sick leave and the burden of Obamacare for employers.

"The president-elect believes, as do I, the right government policies can result in more jobs and better wages for the American worker," he said Thursday.

"Trump has once again shown how out-of-touch he is with what working Americans need," hit back Service Employees International Union head Mary Kay Henry, whose organization has two million members.

"We will stay in the streets to fight back against anti-worker extremism."

- 'Immigration security' -

In a move that fanned concerns about his conflict of interest as a business tycoon, Trump is to stay on as executive producer on NBC's "Celebrity Apprentice" when it returns after a two-year absence, the show confirmed.

The real estate tycoon has promised to set out a plan next week to put aside his "great business in total," although he has not revealed who will take over his multi-billion-dollar global property and luxury branding interests.

In Iowa he invited onto the stage Governor Terry Branstad, a long-time Trump supporter and personal friend of Chinese President Xi Jinping who has been nominated to serve as ambassador to Beijing.

"One of the most important relations we must improve and we have to improve, is our relationship with China," Trump said.

He flew in from Ohio, another state which helped secure his victory, to meet privately with victims and first responders of an apparent jihadist-inspired November 28 attack at Ohio State University.

The assailant, Abdul Razak Ali Artan, was shot and killed by police after driving into a crowd and then slashing several people with a knife. Officials said 11 people were treated for injuries.

"This horrific assault is yet one more tragic reminder that immigration security is now national security," he said later in Iowa.

Last week he tweeted that Artan, who migrated from Somalia, should not have been in the country.

At least one of the victims refused to attend. Professor William Clark told CNN that he didn't feel the need from a "healing standpoint" and that he was "frankly a little put off" by Trump's initial reaction in blaming immigration.
(Adds current federal minimum wage, paragraph 5)

By Amanda Becker and Robert Iafolla

WASHINGTON, Dec 8 (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump named fast-food executive Andy Puzder to head the U.S. Department of Labor on Thursday, drawing criticism from labor advocates worried about his opposition to a higher minimum wage and government regulation of the workplace.

Puzder, chief executive of CKE Restaurants Inc, which operates the Carl's Jr. and Hardee's fast-food chains, has frequently argued in the media that higher minimum wages would hurt workers by forcing restaurants to close.

He has bashed a new Labor Department rule aimed at extending overtime pay to more than 4 million U.S. workers and has praised the benefits of automation in the fast-food industry.

Fast-food workers, who are largely not unionized, are engaged in a multi-year campaign known as the "Fight for $15," which is supported by labor unions, to raise minimum wages to $15 an hour. They have had state-wide successes in New York and California and in cities and municipalities such as Seattle.

The federal minimum wage is $7.25. Workers in states that have higher minimum wages are entitled to the higher rate, the Labor Department says.

Trump, in a statement released by his transition team, praised Puzder for a "record fighting for workers" and said he would ensure occupational safety standards.

"He will save small businesses from the crushing burdens of unnecessary regulations that are stunting job growth and suppressing wages," Trump said.

In the same statement, Puzder, 66, said he agreed with Trump that "the right government policies can result in more jobs and better wages for the American worker."

The Labor Department regulates wages, safety and discrimination in the workplace.

Republican Trump beat Democrat Hillary Clinton in last month's election by carrying swing states - and some traditionally Democratic states - in the U.S. Rust Belt after promising to create jobs and to review or cancel trade deals that he said were bad for workers.

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National labor leaders had urged their rank-and-file members to back Clinton, saying Trump's appointments and policies would not align with his promises to workers.

Labor leaders have been girding for Trump to appoint pro-business regulators at the Labor Department and the National Labor Relations Board, and to roll back key regulatory initiatives of the Obama administration such as the Labor Department rule granting overtime pay to more than 4 million salaried workers, both unionized and not unionized.

"He was talking a good game when he was running for president, as far as helping workers and leveling the playing field for them, but with the nominations he's made it's just the opposite," said Lee Saunders, president of the public employees union AFSCME.

Shake-ups are expected under Trump at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or EEOC, which enforces federal anti-discrimination laws. Trump will have an early opportunity to shape the EEOC when he replaces its general counsel, Obama appointee David Lopez, who is leaving the agency this month, and a vacancy on the commission.

Trump will also be able to fill two current vacancies on the five-member NLRB early in his term, likely tipping the agency to a more business-friendly posture.

Although just 11.1 percent of U.S. workers were represented by a union in 2015 - down from 20.1 percent in 1983, the first year government statistics were kept - labor unions are a powerful force in Democratic politics. But union members' support for Clinton at the election was lower than it had been for President Barack Obama four years ago.

About 51 percent of voters from union households backed Clinton, with 42 percent supporting Trump, a CNN exit poll showed. Democrat Obama won 58 percent of the same voters in his 2012 re-election win against Republican Mitt Romney.

Business groups welcomed the appointment of Puzder. Robert Cresanti, president of the International Franchise Association, an industry group, praised him as an "exceptional choice" who would bring "business experience and policy acumen on so many issues impacting employers and employees."

Democrats were critical.

"In Andrew Puzder, Trump found a labor secretary that would help him roll back the minimum wage, end the overtime rule that will raise wages for millions, weaken safeguards for workers, and to wipe out unions," said American Bridge, a liberal advocacy group.

DISPUTE WITH UNION LEADER

Trump's decision to pick Puzder comes as he engaged in a Twitter dispute with the head of a local United Steelworkers union in Indiana.

United Steelworkers Local 1999 President Chuck Jones, who represents workers at United Technologies Corp's Carrier plant in Indianapolis, criticized Trump for inflating the number of jobs that would be saved by his intervention in the company's decision to move some production to Mexico.

Trump responded on Twitter that Jones had done a "terrible job representing workers."

Jones said after speaking to the company that 800 jobs would remain in Indianapolis, of which 730 will be union jobs and 70 management positions. Trump said last week that a deal by Indiana to give the company $7 million in tax breaks would keep 1,100 jobs in the region.

"Our people, at that point in time, got their hopes back up that they might have a job," Jones told CNBC on Thursday.

"All he had to do is come back and say I was misled by (United Technologies)," Jones said about Trump. "Instead of doing that he goes on the attack on me?"

(Additional reporting by Julia Edwards Ainsley, David Shepardson and Emily Stephenson in Washington and Dan Wiessner in Albany, N.Y.; Editing by Leslie Adler and Peter Cooney)
Donald Trump

Despite being "fired" as host of NBC's "Celebrity Apprentice," President-elect Donald Trump will remain an executive producer on the upcoming season hosted by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

MGM, the production studio behind the show, confirmed to Variety that Trump will remain an executive producer on the show that made him famous for a per-episode salary in the low five figures. Additionally, Trump gets a cut of the show's profits.

When the new iteration of "Celebrity Apprentice" returns on January 2, the president-elect's name will appear in the credits for the reality show after show creator Mark Burnett and before Schwarzenegger.

It's unclear at this point how Trump will structure payments from the show while serving as president. Variety pointed out that presidents have earned money aside from their government salary before. For example, Obama wrote a book, "Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters," and donated the royalties to a charity benefitting the children of military veterans.

MGM refused to comment to Variety on the financials surrounding his producer role on "Apprentice" and NBC declined to comment.

Trump has had a long-standing, complicated relationship with NBC. While Trump claims he walked away from "Apprentice" to run for president, NBC maintained it had cut its business ties with Trump after he made insulting comments about Mexican immigrants during his 2015 announcement of his presidential run. That included removing him as host of "Apprentice" and refusing to air the Miss Universe pageants, which Trump used to own.

This new financial turn arrives just as Trump is still in the process of settling his role with his many businesses. Currently the chairman and president of the Trump Organization, Trump said he would discuss his plans at a December 15 press conference in New York City with his children, to whom he has said he plans to leave control of his business. However, The New York Times reported on Wednesday that Trump intends to keep a stake in the business.

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New York (AFP) - President-elect Donald Trump announced Friday that outspoken former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, a key surrogate on the campaign trail, would not join his incoming administration after he takes office next month.

Giuliani had been a candidate for the prestigious cabinet job of secretary of state, but subsequently came under scrutiny in the US media over business dealings that could pose conflicts of interest.

Observers in the United States and around the world have been on tenterhooks for weeks as to whom the incoming Republican president will pick to be America's next top diplomat, but Trump said Friday that Giuliani had removed his name from consideration for any position during a meeting on November 29.

"Rudy would have been an outstanding member of the cabinet in several roles, but I fully respect and understand his reasons for remaining in the private sector," the president-elect said in a statement.

"He is and continues to be a close personal friend, and as appropriate, I will call upon him for advice and can see an important place for him in the administration at a later date," he added.

Giuliani, a former federal prosecutor, made his name by leading New York on and after the September 11 attacks, earning the moniker "America's Mayor."

After Trump's shock election victory last month, he made no secret of his desire for the secretary of state position, said Friday that he now looked forward to continuing to work in his law and consulting firms.

"This is not about me; it is about what is best for the country and the new administration," said Giuliani in the statement released by Trump's transition team.

"From the vantage point of the private sector, I look forward to helping the president-elect in any way he deems necessary and appropriate," he added.

Trump praised the 72-year-old Giuliani as an "extraordinarily talented and patriotic American" and that he would "always be appreciative of his 24/seven dedication to his election campaign.

The former mayor will remain a vice chairman of the presidential transition team, which is chaired by Vice President-elect Mike Pence.
President-elect Donald Trump has made no secret of his feelings about the unemployment statistics produced by the federal governments Bureau of Labor Statistics. Hes called the headline unemployment rate one of the biggest hoaxes in modern American politics and has suggested that the real unemployment rate might be over 40 percent.

Now, with the announcement that Andy Puzder, the CEO of CKE Restaurants, which operates the Carls Jr. and Hardees fast food chains, is his nominee to run the Labor Department, Trump will have a fellow foe of the unemployment rate in charge of the agency that houses BLS itself.

Related: Just 40% of Americans Approve of Trumps Cabinet Choices

Trumps complaints about the unemployment numbers have been hyperbolic and have on several occasions insinuated that the numbers are part of an active attempt to deceive the public about the real state of the economy.

Early this year, when the jobless rate was at 5.3 percent (it is now at 4.6 percent), he said, The number isn't reflective. I've seen numbers of 24 percent -- I actually saw a number of 42 percent unemployment. Forty-two percent. He added, "5.3 percent unemployment -- that is the biggest joke there is in this country. The unemployment rate is probably 20 percent, but I will tell you, you have some great economists that will tell you it's a 30, 32. And the highest I've heard so far is 42 percent.

Puzder, an attorney by training, doesnt appear to have bought into the Trumpian idea that the monthly job reports from BLS are part of some sort of cynical disinformation campaign. He just thinks they are a bad metric for assessing the countrys economic health, and has said we should stop using it.

Writing in Human Events in 2012, Puzder argued, [I]f you are trying to measure whether our economy is creating jobs, the unemployment rate alone is a poor indicator. It is the underlying numbers that reveal the real state of the economy and job creation.

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Related: How Trumps Cabinet Picks Are Payback to His Wealthy Pals

The numbers reported by BLS, he said, were masking the real truth about the U.S. economy, specifically that we are in a continuing economic decline.

Puzder and his co-author, Michael Talent, argued in the National Review in 2013 that the most widely reported version of the BLS unemployment rate (the agency issues several) is misleading because it uses a very restrictive definition of the who is considered a participant in the labor force. By only including people working and those who have actively sought work in the past 30 days, they write, BLS makes the denominator in the employment-to-labor force ratio artificially low, thereby lowering the unemployment rate as well.

The BLS is not trying to mislead the public; it has used the same basic formula for decades, they write. But some things have changed: The participation rates volatility has historically been very limited. In the 21 years from January 1988 through January 2009 (the month President Obama assumed office), the participation rate increased from 65.8 percent to 66.2 percent, only 0.4 percentage points. The peak was 67.3 percent, only 1.5 points above the trough of 65.8 percent.

During the last four years, the participation rate has declined from 66.2 percent to 63.3 percent, nearly double the change we experienced over the prior 20 years. This volatility has rendered the official unemployment rate unreliable and misleading.

Related: Trumps Choice to Head EPA Would Roll Back Environmental Regulations

Puzder and Talent argue for a different way of assessing the economys production of jobs:

A more realistic and informative metric would be what we call the growth ratio  the year-over-year growth in the number of jobs (measured through the BLSs household survey) divided by the year-over-year growth in the civilian non-institutional population (the number of people who could be in the labor force). This fraction tells us whether job creation is keeping pace with, running ahead of, or falling behind population growth.

But labor economists say that Puzders criticism of the BLS unemployment rate is misguided for several reasons and that his growth ratio formula has serious limitations of its own.

Theres a lot of problems with it, said economist Jared Bernstein, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. If he wants to look at it, I wont stop him. But it certainly wont give you much of a bead on how labor demand is changing month-to-month, as the unemployment rate does.

The unemployment rate reported by the BLS every month -- the one that gets into the headlines, at least -- is designed to do one pretty specific thing: to tell economists what percentage of the people looking for work right now are unsuccessful. Thats why the definition of labor force participation is restrictive.

Related: Trump Said to Plan on Keeping His Business; Congress Shrugs

However, in the same report, BLS provides multiple other measurements of the unemployment rate that include broader and broader definitions of the labor force, and which result in higher and higher rates of unemployment.

The broadest measure, known as the U-6 measures total unemployed, plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force. (For the record, not even the U-6 comes within shouting distance of Trumps 42 percent.)

And the same table that contains the headline unemployment number every month also contains a metric that is, in effect, a static version of Puzders growth ratio. Its called the employment-to-population ratio.

Bernstein said that in his criticism, Puzder is getting at something germane, which is that there are people left out of the unemployment rate who we have to factor in when were considering the extent of labor market slack. But you can get there by simply looking at the employment rate.

Related: $1.1 Trillion Stop-Gap Spending Bill Would Avoid a Government Shutdown

And when it comes to Puzders suggestion that the unemployment rate be scrapped entirely, Bernstein is more than a little dubious.

We get the data we need to accurately assess labor market slack every month, he said. I certainly wouldnt replace the unemployment rate -- its telling us something important, and its been consistently measured for generations -- but I would supplement it with other measures in the report. But those numbers are already there.

Of course, if Puzder is successfully confirmed, it will be his opinion, not that of labor economists, that carries the day within the Labor Department. However, his road to confirmation will be anything but smooth, not because of his stance on how to assess the true level of unemployment in the country, but because of his own companys repeated violations of federal labor law.

CKE has been fined millions of dollars for failing to comply with worker protection laws. Puzder is also a vigorous opponent of proposals to increase the minimum wage, and has spoken longingly about being about to replace human fast food workers with robots.

Related: The Top 10 Nominees for Not The Person of The Year

In fact, earlier this year, the man Trump wants to put in charge of advocating for the American worker talked up the benefits of robots in an interview with Business Insider, listing various reasons why they are preferable to humans: Theyre always polite, they always upsell, they never take a vacation, they never show up late, theres never a slip-and-fall, or an age, sex or race discrimination case.

Thats a line more likely to arise in a confirmation hearing than any argument about unemployment metrics.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
Though the battle for Mosul has slowed to a crawl, the collapse of the Islamic States territorial caliphate  at least in its Iraqi incarnation  remains only a matter of time. Whether it happens before President-elect Donald Trump takes the oath of office on January 20th, or in the weeks and months shortly thereafter, its all but certain that the next administration will quickly be confronted with a fateful decision: Should it seek to maintain an ongoing U.S. military presence in post-caliphate Iraq? Or should the demise of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadis proto-state be the cue for a relatively rapid drawdown of American forces from the country  now numbering some 6,000?

As is the case with so much of the president-elects foreign policy, the answers to these questions are not yet obvious. Trumps strong condemnation of the decision to invade Iraq in 2003 is now well established. During his presidential campaign, he repeatedly opined that it may have been the worst decision in American history. In Trumps telling, the Iraq war destabilized the Middle East, empowered Iran, and wasted trillions of taxpayer dollars and thousands of American lives.

Whenever one pinpoints the exact date that Trumps opposition to the war became fully manifest, theres no doubt that his disdain for the American project in Iraq is of long-standing. Importantly, at the time when President George W. Bush was launching his troop surge in early 2007, Trump was already on record publicly urging that the U.S. military presence be immediately shut down.

As early as 2006, Trump had condemned the Iraq war as a total mess, a total catastrophe, and its not going to get any better. Its only going to get worse. His prescription? What you have to do is get out of Iraq. In an interview with CNN in March 2007, Trump elaborated: You know how they get out? They get out. Thats how they get out. Declare victory and leave. His assessment at the time was clearly that the costs of maintaining a continued U.S. presence far exceeded any possible gains. To Trumps mind, the pathologies of Iraqs internal divisions were largely immune from American treatment. [T]his country is just going to get further bogged down, Trump said. Theyre in a civil war over there. Theres nothing that were going to be able to do with a civil war.

For Trump, U.S. troops at best served as a temporary salve, suppressing deadly ethnic and sectarian tensions that would immediately re-emerge at the first opportunity. U.S. soldiers would be trapped in an endless cycle of violence at enormous cost in national blood and treasure. [W]ere keeping the lid on a little bit but [the] day we leave anyway its all going to blow up. So, I mean, this is a total catastrophe and you might as well get out now, because you just are wasting time.

Trumps decade-long penchant to wash his hands of Iraq as soon as possible certainly had loud echoes in this years election campaign. One of his most consistent themes has been that Our current strategy of nation-building and regime change is a proven failure. As president, Trump pledged that the era of nation-building will be brought to a swift and decisive end. Referring to Iraq specifically, Trump said that It hasnt worked. Iraq was going to be a democracy. Its not gonna work, OK? Its not gonna work and none of these things work. Even as the war against the Islamic State raged in the fall of 2015, Trump lamented that in Iraq Were nation-building. We cant do it. We have to build our own nation.

Add it all up, and any observer would be forgiven for drawing the logical conclusion that once the Islamic State is put to flight in Mosul, and its Iraqi caliphate as such has ceased to exist, Trump might indeed be tempted, as he advised in 2007, to just declare victory and leave. With the Islamic State threat whittled back to a more conventional terrorist insurgency scattered across disparate pockets of the country, Iraqs biggest challenge will again become, as it has been since 2003, the problem of finding a formula for stable governance  in particular one that secures the buy-in of Iraqi Sunnis. In other words, nation-building  precisely the mission that Trump has made plain he wants America to be no part of.

On the other hand, however: During the course of the campaign, an integral part of Trumps critique of President Barack Obamas foreign policy became his decision to withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq in 2011. Trump blasted Obamas failure to secure a deal with Iraqs government to maintain a residual American military presence, alleging that the precipitous U.S. retreat had opened a vacuum that directly led to the rise of the Islamic State. In a major national security speech last August, Trump said that in 2009 Obama had inherited an Iraq that was experiencing a reduction in violence. The group that would become what we now call ISIS was close to being extinguished. However, Trump charged, with an eye on boosting his re-election prospects in 2012, Obama in essence pissed it all away. That failure to establish a new status of forces agreement in Iraq and the election-driven timetable for withdrawal surrendered our gains in the country and led directly to the rise of ISIS, Trump said. Without question.

Hmmm. This obviously was a much different Trump than the one in 2006-2007 who couldnt abandon Iraq fast enough. This Trump recognized that even while the war may have been a major mistake, U.S. forces by 2011 had started to make a meaningful contribution to longterm Iraqi stability. U.S. forces were making real progress  gains, in Trumps words  and not just a temporary reduction in violence, but also efforts well on their way to actually defeating the Islamic States predecessor, al Qaeda in Iraq. This version of Trump seemed to appreciate that while maintaining a residual troop presence in Iraq might be no picnic, the consequences of premature withdrawal could be much, much worse for the United States.

So which Trump will it be on January 20th? The one who appears to have written Iraq off as a lost cause? Who implies that after the battlefield defeat of the Islamic State caliphate that directly threatens the U.S. homeland, any additional U.S. commitment to Iraq would be throwing good money after bad, a waste of time, resources, and potentially lives, that has no possible rationale from the standpoint of securing U.S. interests?

Or could we instead get the Trump who seemed to appreciate that the only thing worse than staying in Iraq in 2011 was leaving Iraq? Who recognized that as difficult and frustrating as it was helping Iraqs fragile state consolidate the hard-fought gains won with U.S. military support, the price paled in comparison to the likely costs of simply abandoning the country too soon, unleashing the forces of anti-American chaos to gather and strengthen unmolested  radical Islamists of both the Sunni and Iranian Shiite persuasion, each hell-bent in their own way on engineering Americas ultimate demise? The Trump who understood that foreign policy was frequently not a matter of choosing between good and bad options, but between bad and worse, between risky and riskier. Between two evils, to be sure, but one very likely lesser than the other.

In thinking through what to do in post-Mosul Iraq, Trump will surely look to at least two people with extensive experience fighting Americas wars there for counsel: his soon-to-be national security advisor, retired General Michael Flynn, and his appointee as secretary of defense, retired General James Mattis.

Flynn, like Trump, has made clear his view that the decision to invade Iraq was a disastrous mistake. But in his recent book, The Field of Fight, he also said that the change in strategy reflected in President Bushs surge of troops allowed us to win the war in Iraq. That significant victory against the forces of radical Islamic terrorism was tragically squandered, according to Flynn, because winning is only temporary if you dont sustain success. Flynns assessment leaves little doubt that the precipitous U.S. retreat from Iraq was fatally flawed. Everyone that has paid attention to the unraveling of the situation in the Middle East realizes today the tragic error in judgment when President Obama made the fateful decision to pull out forces in Iraq in 2011, he wrote. This decision led to the rise of Islamic State and the significant and dangerous increase in Irans proxy war involvement across the region and its near takeover of Iraq as a surrogate.

Mattiss public views on Obamas withdrawal from Iraq are harder to find, but in all likelihood no less harsh. At the time of the pull out, Mattis was in charge of U.S. Central Command, which was strongly recommending that the U.S. maintain a substantial troop presence. After retiring, Mattis testified in 2015 that the military, the senior military officers, we all explained that the successes wed achieved by 2010-2011 were  and this is a quote  reversible, that the democratic processes and the military capability were too nascent to pull everyone out at one time. Earlier in the war, of course, Mattis had led (and lost) Marines in battle to secure portions of western Iraq that were subsequently overrun by the Islamic State  precisely the kind of outcome Central Commands recommendation was intended to prevent.

Importantly, the U.S. secretary of defense, Ash Carter  probably the most serious national security thinker in the Obama administration  has recently broached the need for the American military, along with its international partners, to remain in Iraq even after the defeat of the Islamic State. In a speech on December 3rd, Carter argued that there will still be much more to do after that to make sure that, once defeated, ISIL stays defeated. He made clear that Well need to continue to counter foreign fighters trying to escape and ISILs attempts to relocate or reinvent itself. To do so, not only the United States but our coalition must endure and remain engaged militarily. In Iraq in particular, Carter said that it will be necessary for the coalition to provide sustained assistance and carry on our work to train, equip and support local police, border guards and other forces to hold areas cleared from ISIL.

Regrettably, but hardly surprisingly, Carters boss, Obama, failed to pick up on the suggestion when he gave his final speech on national security in Tampa just days later on December 6th. While speaking at length about the fight against the Islamic State, including the climatic battle for Mosul, Obama had nothing to say on the issue of keeping U.S. troops in Iraq after the defeat of the Islamic States defeat. He did, however, yet again defend his 2011 troop withdrawal, insisting, however implausibly, that a residual U.S. presence would have done nothing to preclude the parade of horribles that ensued. At any rate, one was left wondering whether Carters pronouncements reflected the well-informed but largely random musings of a lone administration outlier or the official position of the United States government as decided by its commander-in-chief.

The war against the Islamic State is now hurtling toward an inflection point. The collapse of Mosul, when it comes, will mark the caliphates defeat in Iraq  at least in the short-term. Whether or not it remains defeated, whether or not we see the eventual emergence of an Islamic State 2.0, and whether or not Iran succeeds in transforming Iraq into a full-blown satrapy of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards  all these questions will be critically affected, for better or worse, by whether the United States and the military coalition it leads decide this time to stay in Iraq, or yet again to pick up and leave, as Obama did in 2011. The disastrous results of that decision are now apparent for everyone to see. Despite all his legitimate misgivings about the Iraq war, Trump indicated during the campaign that he also grasps the potentially tragic consequences that can flow when America prematurely abandons the battlefield. It will now fall to him to decide how the mistakes of the recent past can best be avoided and Americas vital interests in defeating radical Islamic terrorism advanced. The world anxiously waits and asks: What will Trump do?

Photo credit: MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images
By Nick Carey and Andy Sullivan

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich./WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When President-elect Donald Trump returns to this factory town on Friday for a victory celebration, he will find a region that is already experiencing the manufacturing renaissance he promised on the campaign trail.

With local factories employing more workers than any time since the late 1990s, assembly line jobs are not hard to find. Those that pay a decent wage, however, are harder to come by.

"We can barely make ends meet and we're stuck going nowhere," said auto parts worker Michael Baum, 22, as he smoked a cigarette in the parking lot of a Family Dollar discount store.

Trump won the White House thanks to strong support from workers in Midwestern cities like Grand Rapids who have seen their living standards erode as the United States shed manufacturing jobs. He beat Democratic rival Hillary Clinton by a margin of 14 percent in the four counties that make up the Grand Rapids metropolitan area, helping him carry Michigan by a margin of 0.27 percent.

Trump has promised to punish companies that shift work overseas, pressuring manufacturers like United Technologies Corp. to reverse their outsourcing plans.

"Our jobs are being stolen like candy from a baby," Trump said at a rally here the night before the Nov. 8 election.

Grand Rapids, a hub of furniture makers and auto parts suppliers, has not been immune to outsourcing. At least 488 people have lost their jobs over the past year as two manufacturers, Dematic Corp and Leon Automotive Interiors, have shifted work to other countries, U.S. Labor Department filings show.

But new hiring has more than made up for those losses. The number of factory jobs in the region has grown by 40 percent since the depths of the recession in 2009, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and unemployment stands at 2.9 percent, well below the national average of 4.6 percent.

Local businesses now say their top concern is finding qualified workers, according to Rick Baker, president of the Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce.

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Even as jobs have returned to Grand Rapids, earnings remain low. At $846 per week, average weekly wages in the region rank 46th among the 50 largest U.S. metropolitan areas, BLS data show.

The Heart of West Michigan United Way, a local charity, said demand for its services has remained steady over the past several years even as the economy has picked up.

While manufacturing helped lift millions of unskilled workers into the U.S. middle class in the 20th Century, that is no longer the case, said Lou Glazier, president of Michigan Future, a think tank that focuses on the state's economy.

Factories still pay good wages to workers who have specialized skills, such as welding or computer programing, but routine work no longer pays enough to cover living expenses, he said.

Grand Rapids is "participating in the old economy and doing well in it, in terms of jobs. It's just that the economy is no longer producing high wages," Glazier said.

MORE WITH LESS

While Trump and others blame global competition for the decline in factory work, automation has played a large role as well, economists say. The U.S. manufacturing sector has more than doubled output over the past 35 years even as it had shed one-third of its work force, according to the nonpartisan Brookings Institution.

"We're doing more today with the same amount of people that we had eight years ago," said Bob Roth, chief executive officer of RoMan Manufacturing, which make glass and electrical components.

At RoMan, assembly line workers start at $13 per hour but skilled workers can earn up to $30 an hour, Roth said. The company pays community college tuition for those who wish to upgrade their skills, but those who fail to improve their productivity enough to justify a higher wage within two years are fired, he said.

Such prospects come as little consolation to workers like Baum, who are trying to figure out a way to boost their earnings on their own. For now, they are pinning their hopes on Trump.

"If he can bring good paying jobs back to America," he said, "I'll vote for him again."

(Reporting by Nick Carey in Grand Rapids and Andy Sullivan in Washington; Editing by Tom Brown)
During a recent trip to Moscow for an interview with former NSA contractor and exiled American Edward Snowden, Yahoo Global News Anchor Katie Couric had a chance to speak with residents and tourists around Red Square about their thoughts on President-elect Donald Trump.

The reactions were mixed. A man from Paris thought it was not a good choice, while some Russians were taking a wait-and-see approach.

A few others thought the president-elects business experience would prove to be a good thing for both the U.S. and Russia.

Courics extensive face-to-face interview with Snowden can be seen here:

https://www.yahoo.com/katiecouric/exclusive-face-to-face-with-edward-snowden-in-moscow-on-trump-putin-and-dwindling-hopes-of-a-presidential-pardon-100117331.html
By Philip Scipio

NEW YORK (IFR) - Incoming U.S. president Donald Trump has tapped Goldman Sachs COO Gary Cohn to head key White House advisory body the National Economic Council, NBC News reported on Friday.

Cohn becomes at least the third Goldman Sachs veteran called on by Trump so far to help shape policy once his administration comes to power in January.

Last week Trump picked former Goldman Sachs banker Steve Mnuchin to head the Treasury Department. Another ex-Goldman banker, Stephen Bannon, is Trump's chief strategist.

Cohn, who joined the firm in 1990, had been widely viewed as the likely successor to Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein, though Blankfein has suggested he could stay on five more years.

Blankfein has battled back to health after being diagnosed with lymphoma in 2015.

In any event, a departure by Cohn could set the stage for a massive shakeup of management at Goldman Sachs, whose shares have rocketed up 33% since Trump's election victory.

In particular, as both Blankfein and Cohn come from the fixed income side of the business, Cohn's departure could pave the way for someone from the investment banking side to take over Cohn's dual role as president and chief operating officer.

That could put Richard Gnodde, David Solomon or John Waldron - the current co-heads of investment banking - in line for the position.

Goldman Sachs declined to comment.

(Reporting by Philip Scipio; Editing by Marc Carnegie)
Gary Cohn

President-elect Donald Trump is set to tap Goldman Sachs' Gary Cohn as the National Economic Council director, according to multiplereports.

Cohn is the president and chief operating officer of the Wall Street firm, and he trails only CEO Lloyd Blankfein in stature.

The National Economic Council advises the president on US and global economic policy.

Trump appointed former Goldman Sachs banker Steven Mnuchin as Treasury secretary last month. And Steve Bannon, his incoming chief strategist, is also a Goldman Sachs alum.

Goldman shares are up by about 30% since Trump's victory on November 8.

The president-elect was highly critical of Wall Street throughout his campaign. He condemned Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton for her ties to Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street firms  and for earning hundreds of thousands of dollars for speeches given to the global investment bank and its clients.

Goldman Sachs declined to comment.

NOW WATCH: Watch the trailer for the new Martin Scorsese film that took over 20 years to make





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The Trump transition team sent an unusually detailed questionnaire to the Energy Department, seeking, among other information, lists of people involved in climate change programs at one of the premier science agencies in the world.

The questionnaire, which was first reported by Bloomberg News and obtained independently by Mashable, asks for "a list of Department employees or contractors" who attended the U.N. climate talks in the past five years.

This raises fears that such employees could be retaliated against in some way, perhaps by being reassigned, despite worker protections they have as civil servants.

SEE ALSO: Trump's just-named EPA chief is a climate change denier

Along similar lines, the document seeks "a list of all Department of Energy employees or contractors who have attended any Interagency Working Group on the Social Cost of Carbon meetings."

The transition team  led by Thomas Pyle, the president of the free-market advocacy group American Energy Alliance that is heavily funded by the fossil fuel industry  is also seeking all materials produced in anticipation of, during and as a result of those meetings.

The cost of carbon

The social cost of carbon is the estimated cost to society of emitting a particular amount of planet-warming carbon dioxide into the atmosphere  in this case, one ton.

The social cost of carbon is a calculation that is central to government policy making through cost-benefit analysis, since it sets a price for the damages caused by emitting global warming pollution.

By putting a per-ton social cost of carbon in place, the Obama administration decided that fossil fuel burning has many economic downsides. Previous administrations had either not explored the social cost of carbon or calculated it as lower than the Obama administration did.

The Obama administration used the social cost of carbon to justify the enactment of rules to limit the burning of fossil fuels for energy, among other purposes. This calculation is central to the Clean Power Plan, which is the EPA's program to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants.

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Scott Pruitt, the Trump administration's nominee to lead the EPA, has vowed to dismantle that plan. The Energy Department transition team is clearly taking aim at this as well.

These are people who have been following government for a very long time and are taking advantage of Donald Trump to step in and try to dismantle what they see as a system of research that comes up with results that they wont accept," said Michael Halpern, the deputy director of the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, in an interview.

Image: Department of energy/flickr

The questionnaire also asks about another extremely important, but largely obscure, calculation, which again indicates that officials are considering fundamental changes to the department's far-reaching climate change programs.

The document asks for the department's "opinion on the proper equilibrium climate sensitivity," which is a measure of how much global warming would occur with a doubling of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. This is important since the agency uses that calculation in its modeling projections of future climate change.

The Energy Department is one of the top modeling centers of climate change in the world, with climate change research existing alongside nuclear weapons-related work at many of the agency's national laboratories.

The questionnaire also asks for a list of Energy Department programs that "are essential to meeting the goals of President Obama's Climate Action Plan." That plan aims to cut domestic greenhouse gas emissions by up to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2020.

A coming administration hostile to climate science

The transition team's questionnaire, which reads more like a subpoena, also mentions the possibility of a 10 percent budget cut to the department starting in fiscal year 2018, and expresses skepticism about the Energy Information Administration's calculations about how much renewable energy is likely to be used in the coming years.

The people who are running the transition at some of the science agencies are some of the people who have been most hostile to the missions of those agencies," Halpern said of the Trump administration transition effort.

This image provided by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory shows Pacific and Atlantic meridional sections showing upper-ocean warming for the past six decades (1955-2011).

Image: Timo Bremer/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory via AP

He noted that the questionnaire is so intrusive that not all of the information requested is public, which means the department won't be able to fully answer all of the questions. Halpern also said it's possible that once an Energy Secretary is named and confirmed, climate science will be spared from a full onslaught at the agency, but that is not a safe bet.

Curiously, in the section dealing with the Energy Department's national laboratories, one question asks for a list of all websites "maintained by or contributed to by laboratory staff during work hours for the past three years."

It's unclear what that question is for, but it raises the possibility that websites dedicated to climate change, including data sets from Oak Ridge and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, could be taken offline. This would stifle climate research at nongovernmental entities in the U.S. and abroad.

"Scientific information provided by the government is critical to the work of university researchers, state governments, and countless others," Halpern said.

"During the Bush Administration, government scientific websites were altered or disappeared completely," he said.

He issued this warning based in part upon the questionnaire: "Anyone who relies on publicly available federal government research and information should take steps to ensure that they download what they need before the new administration steps in."
President-elect Donald Trump speaks at a Thank You Tour rally in Fayetteville, N.C., on Tuesday. (Photo: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)

Less than a week after Donald Trump kicked off his postelection Thank You Tour with a visit to the Carrier plant in Indianapolis, the president-elect took to Twitter to slam the head of the union that represents the companys employees.

Chuck Jones, who is President of United Steelworkers 1999, has done a terrible job representing workers. No wonder companies flee country!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 8, 2016

If United Steelworkers 1999 was any good, they would have kept those jobs in Indiana. Spend more time working-less time talking. Reduce dues  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 8, 2016

To those watching the Wednesday night Twitter tirade unfold, Chuck Jones might have initially seemed like an unusual target, given that Trump had just declared victory in persuading Carriers parent company to reduce the number of jobs it moved to Mexico in exchange for $7 million in tax credits from Indiana.

It quickly became clear, however, that just 20 minutes before Trump fired off his first tweet about the union boss, Jones had appeared on CNN to talk about the Carrier deal. A banner at the bottom of the screen read, Carrier Union Boss: Trump Lied His A** Off.

United Steelworkers Local 1999 President Chuck Jones speaks during a news conference Friday in Indianapolis. (Photo: Darron Cummings/AP)

The quote came from an interview with the Washington Post earlier in the week. Jones slammed Trumps claim that, thanks to his dealmaking, over 1,100 people would now be able to keep their jobs at the Indianapolis plant.

On the contrary, Jones said, Carrier had agreed to keep only 800 jobs in Indiana, a number the company confirmed to the Post. Not only had Trump inflated the figure of jobs saved, said Jones, but he did so in front of a room full of union members  550 of whom will still end up losing their jobs  during his visit to the plant.

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Throughout the course of his presidential campaign  and well before  Trump has often used Twitter as his own personal bully pulpit, blasting out insults about his critics to millions of followers.

But the attack on Jones was different, many argued. Trump is no longer a businessman turned reality TV star or even a presidential candidate. He is the president-elect. And the object of his ire this time was not another public figure, but a private citizen.

Let it not go unnoticed that Trumps tweets attacking Chuck Jones of the Steelworkers Union are insanely inappropriate for a Prez-Elect.  Toure (@Toure) December 8, 2016

Mr. Trump should not be attacking strong union leaders like Chuck Jones. Trade unions have helped build the middle class of this country.  Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) December 8, 2016

When people cannot criticize leaders without fear of retaliation, democracy begins to erode.

Thank you, Chuck Jones! #StandWithChuck #Trump  Tanya (@tgreene319) December 8, 2016

This wasnt the first time a private citizen had gotten caught in Trumps crosshairs. In light of the Jones feud, a 19-year-old college student revealed to the Washington Post this week that she too had felt Trumps wrath after she confronted him at a political event in New Hampshire last fall.

Lauren Batchelder, who is studying history and gender studies at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, first encountered Trump at the bipartisan No Labels conference last October. Batchelder, then 18, stood to ask Trump a question about reproductive rights and the gender wage gap, telling the Republican presidential candidate, I dont think youre a friend to women.

I respect women incredibly, Trump interrupted, praising his mother and pointing to the women hes hired at his companies in an attempt to prove her wrong. Under pressure from the rest of the crowd, Trump eventually allowed Batchelder to ask her question, but he wasnt about to let her have the last word.

The next day, as coverage of Trumps testy performance at the problem-solving event emerged, Trump tweeted angrily about the arrogant young woman who questioned me in such a nasty fashion at the New Hampshire conference, claiming that she was a plant by Republican rival Jeb Bush.

The arrogant young woman who questioned me in such a nasty fashion at No Labels yesterday was a Jeb staffer! HOW CAN HE BEAT RUSSIA & CHINA?  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 13, 2015

How can Jeb Bush expect to deal with China, Russia + Iran if he gets caught doing a plant during my speech yesterday in NH?  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 13, 2015

Not long after that, Batchelder said, she began receiving threatening phone calls, emails and Facebook messages, many of which, according to the Post, were sexual in nature. Her photo was soon being shared on social media, along with her contact information.

I didnt really know what anyone was going to do, Batchelder told the Post this week in her first interview since the ordeal. He was only going to tweet about it and that was it, but I didnt really know what his supporters were going to do, and that to me was the scariest part.

More than a year after Batchelders exchange with Trump in New Hampshire, her experience echoes that of Chuck Jones, who said that he began to get menacing phone calls approximately 30 minutes after Trump lambasted him on Twitter Wednesday.

Nothing that says theyre gonna kill me, but, you know, You better keep your eye on your kids, Jones told MSNBC. We know what car you drive. Things along those lines.

According to the Washington Post, one caller warned Jones, were coming for you.

After three decades as a union boss, Jones has said he isnt fazed by the president-elects cyberbullying. But with less than two months left until he becomes president of the United States, Trumps reactionary verbal assault on a self-described regular working guy like Jones has raised serious concerns from White House veterans and Washington historians.

When you attack a man for living an ordinary life in an ordinary job, it is bullying, Nicolle Wallace, a veteran GOP strategist who served as President George W. Bushs communications director, told the New York Times Friday. It is cyberbullying. This is a strategy to bully somebody who dissents. Thats what is dark and disturbing.

Frank Sesno, director of George Washington Universitys School of Media and Public Affairs, agreed, suggesting that Trumps use of Twitter to publicly vilify his critics, especially private citizens, could pose a real threat to Americans constitutional right to criticize the government.

Anybody who goes on air or goes public and calls out the president has to then live in fear that he is going to seek retribution in the public sphere, said Sesno, who is also an ex-CNN Washington bureau chief. That could discourage people from speaking out.

Its not just Trumps tweets that have the potential to silence critics, but also the lingering ripple effect his words appear to have on some of his supporters, even long after hes moved on to his next victim.

Since the early days of his presidential campaign, Trump has demonstrated an ability to stoke such a fervor among his more ardent admirers that they are inspired to go after Trumps critics themselves. Targets have included a protester at one of his rallies, a journalist who Trump believes covered him unfairly, and one of the many women whove accused him of sexual misconduct.

Donald Trump speaks and Lauren Batchelder listens during a No Labels Problem Solver convention, Monday, Oct. 12, 2015, in Manchester, N.H. (Photos: Jim Cole/AP [2])

Its been more than a year since Trump first tweeted about Batchelder, and yet, she told the Post this week, the hateful messages keep coming.

Wishing I could f***ing punch you in the face, read one message Batchelder said she received on Facebook just five days before the election. id [sic] then proceed to stomp your head on the curb and urinate in your bloodied mouth and i know where you live, so watch your f***ing back punk.

The Post points out that Trumps Twitter following has grown from less than 5 million to more than 17 million in the time since he first lashed out at Batchelder last October. And with the acquisition of the official @POTUS account  and its 12.5 million followers  his audience will soon become even bigger.

Despite previously stating that hed kick his Twitter habit if elected president, Trumps continued postelection tweets suggest otherwise. In a column at the New York Daily News Friday, Trump biographer Michael DAntonio argued that the president-elect couldnt stop tweeting even if he wanted to.

Long an advocate of responding 10 times harder when his feelings are hurt  and they are very easily hurt  Trump has a tendency to strike with massive force without much concern for the size or vulnerability of the person in his sights, wrote DAntonio, suggesting that Trump will likely continue to lash out at private citizens like Jones and Batchelder because the pain he feels when criticized doesnt depend on the source. No matter who speaks out, he cannot bear disapproval.

In an interview with the Today show this week, the president-elect defended his tweets as a modern-day form of communication.

I think I am very restrained, Trump said. And I talk about important things.
Photo credit: undefined

From Esquire

While we're all waiting for the announcement out of Camp Runamuck that George (The Animal) Steele will be the next Fed chairman, the elves in the Congress are busy, busy, busy selling out the Rust Belt suckers to whom, if the guilt-ridden elite political media is to be believed, we all owe a cookie for the next decade. First up, the coal miners! From the MetroNews in West Virginia:

The Miners Protection Act to address health and pension benefits for coal miners and their families will not be included in a continuing resolution bill, according to a Tuesday announcement. Congress said the bill, which would continue to fund the federal government, only has four months of funding for those retired miners and their widows. Cecil Roberts, international president of the United Mine Workers of America, called the announcement "a slap in the face to all 22,000 of them who desperately need their health care next month, next year and for the rest of their lives."

But, wait, isn't West Virginia represented in the Senate by that highly influential Democrat, Joe Manchin, who's been running around telling every camera crew inside the Beltway that that his party has to get right with the workin' man? Yeah, he's got the juice, no question.

Approximately 12,500 retired union miners and the widows of retirees stand to lose their pension and health care benefits across the nation.

Next up, the steelworkers! There was a nifty provision in a bill to improve the nation's sorry-ass water infrastructure by which those improvements would be made with American steel made by American steelworkers. This surely would have provided a substantial job at good wages for American workers, who are the salt of the earth, and who abandoned Hillary Rodham Clinton because she did not "speak" to them, nor give them cookies, either.

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Ah, my friends. You reckoned without our favorite zombie-eyed granny starver from the state of Wisconsin, as his congressional colleague Senator Tammy Baldwin informs us.

Last Thursday night in Cincinnati, on the first stop of his "Thank You Tour," Trump said his infrastructure plan would follow two simple rules: "Buy American and hire American. We're going to do it ourselves." However, on Friday, the media reported that Speaker Ryan was leading a push to remove the Buy America reform from Water Resources Development Act (WRDA). Senator Baldwin joined a bipartisan a group of 25 Senators in sending a letter to House and Senate leaders calling for her Buy America provision to be put back into the final bill to support U.S. steel and iron workers and manufacturers.

Senator Sherrod Brown was not pleased, either.

"By stripping meaningful Buy America rules from the water infrastructure bill, Washington leadership is choosing China and Russia over Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin," said Brown. "This was the first major test of whether Washington establishment Republicans would live up to President-elect Trump's promises to put American products and American workers first  they failed, and American iron and steel workers will pay the price." The original Buy America rule in the Senate bill would have permanently amended the Safe Drinking Water Act to require American-made steel and iron be used in infrastructure projects funded by the Safe Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF). Instead, Republican leaders stripped that language and replaced it with a one-year provision that is already in effect and does nothing to further ensure American steel and iron will be used in water infrastructure projects moving forward.

Folks, you're being sold down the river. I feel for you because selling you down the river is not good for the country. It never was. It is not immigrants who are selling you down the river. It is not minorities who are selling you down the river. It is not LGBTQ folks who are selling you down the river. Please remember all of that when you wake up pissed that you're, you know, down the river. If you look around the table and can't figure out who the mark is

Click here to respond to this post on the official Esquire Politics Facebook page.

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By Tarek Amara TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisia's parliament has voted against two articles in next year's budget imposing taxes on lawyers and pharmacists, in a blow to government efforts to cut the deficit and implement economic reforms. The vote late on Thursday came a day after the government backtracked on plans to freeze public sector wages in 2017 following a deal with the powerful UGTT union. These reversals raise questions about Prime Minister Youssef Chahed's promises to impose economic changes to revive the battered economy. They could also deepen the country's financial difficulties in 2017. Finance Minister Lamia Zribi said Tunisia would need $3.7 billion in foreign loans in 2017, $1 billion more than anticipated two months ago. The agreement signed on Wednesday with the UGTT will cost the government about $418 million next year alone. [nL5N1E3204] Lawyers had campaigned against the planned taxes and held three nationwide strikes in a month and demonstrations in front of parliament and the prime minister's office. The UGTT had threatened a public sector general strike but called it off after the compromise deal. In a tense session in parliament, lawmakers from the governing coalition - many of them attorneys by trade - refused to back the proposed taxes for lawyers, which would have imposed a charge ranging from $8 to $25 for each file presented in court. Despite holding a comfortable majority in parliament, the government also failed to push through a tax on imported drugs, a measure over which pharmacists had threatened to strike on Dec. 14. A measure requiring liberal professions including lawyers to include their tax code on official papers was introduced, but analysts were skeptical about whether it would help reduce tax evasion. Zribi said about half of Tunisia's 8,000 lawyers do not declare their income. Tunisia has won praise for its democratic transition following an 2011 uprising. But successive governments have failed to create jobs or cut the public deficit. Chahed was brought in as prime minister by President Beji Caid Essebsi in the summer to speed up economic reforms demanded by international lenders. Economic analyst Moez Joudi said the country's financial position could worsen next year after the backtracking on budget measures. "It was the wrong message to send to tax evaders, to all Tunisians seeking tax justice and also to international lenders after the ruling coalition parties had announced their support for reforms," he told Reuters. (Editing by Aidan Lewis and Hugh Lawson)
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish prosecutors ordered the arrest of 87 people linked to Istanbul University in an investigation targeting followers of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, accused by Ankara of being behind July's attempted coup, media reported on Friday. Broadcaster CNN Turk said police carried out simultaneous raids across 12 provinces, targeting suspects including someone it said was the head of a minor political party and many professors from the university. Some 36,000 people have been jailed pending trial and more than 100,000 sacked or suspended in the civil service, army, judiciary and other institutions under investigations linked to the July 15 putsch, in which more than 240 people were killed. Last month, police detained dozens of academics from the city's Yildiz University in the same crackdown. Turkey's Western allies have voiced concern at the breadth of the purges under President Tayyip Erdogan, who has repeatedly rejected such criticism, saying Ankara is determined to root out its enemies at home and abroad. State-run Anadolu agency said the latest raids targeted the academic structure of what Ankara terms the 'Gulenist Terror Organisation'. Gulen, who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania, denies involvement in the putsch. (Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Nick Tattersall)
By Nevzat Devranoglu and Orhan Coskun ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey will finish building a wall along its 900 km (560-mile) border with Syria by next April, the head of one of its main developers said on Friday, in an attempt by Ankara to prevent Islamic State from entering the country. State housing developer TOKI, better known for low-cost, high-rise apartment blocks in Turkey's major cities, is building two thirds of the wall along the border with northern Syria, where Turkish forces launched an operation in August to drive back Islamic State and Kurdish militia fighters. "The wall will be completely finished by March or April. The costs are not high, and we are building extra border security roads behind it, as well as towers, which are crucial for our security," TOKI president Ergun Turan told Reuters. Construction along sections of the wall started in 2014 in a bid to combat smuggling and illegal migration. Close to three million Syrians have sought refuge in Turkey since the start of the Syrian civil war almost six years ago. Ergun meanwhile said he expected TOKI to build a total of 64,200 housing units in Turkey this year, above its initial 60,000 target. It aims to build another 65,000 in 2017, he said. TOKI's investments in 2016 would come in at between 12-13 billion lira ($3.46-3.75 bln), just under half of it for housing and the rest on government projects including stadiums, hospitals and schools. Investment in 2017 would also be around 13 billion lira, Ergun said. The agency is playing a leading role in government efforts to rebuild parts of southeastern Turkey, which have seen heavy fighting between the military and Kurdish militants. Ergun said around 7-8,000 homes would be completed in the worst-hit areas in the new year, with a further 10,000 in the east and southeast later in 2017. Government redevelopment plans for the largely Kurdish region are controversial. Amnesty International said this week that thousands of people were still unable to return home in one district, a year after authorities imposed a round-the-clock curfew in the battle against the militants. TOKI owns nearly half of Turkey's biggest developer, Emlak Konut, and together they led a campaign to boost home sales after a failed coup in July hurt the economy. The government has reduced taxes on some home purchases and made regulatory changes in recent months to try to lower mortgage rates in a bid to boost the housing market. (Writing by Ece Toksabay; Editing by Nick Tattersall and Alexander Smith)
Timeless has added someone to the cast whos used to a ticking clock.

Annie Wersching, who played FBI agent Renee Walker on Foxs 24, will recur on NBCs freshman time-travel drama, according to our sister site Deadline. Shell play Emma Whitmore, a woman hiding out in a cabin in the woods whos connected to Flynn (Goran Visnjic).

RELATEDAbigail Spencer Talks Timeless Reveals, Jon Hamms Note About the 60s

Wersching also had recent roles on The CWs The Vampire Diaries (as Damon and Stefans mom Lily Salvatore), Amazons Bosch and CBS Extant.

Ready for more of todays newsy nuggets? Well

* Syfys 12 Monkeys has tapped Battlestar Galactica alum James Callis to recur during Season 3 as a time-traveler raised by the Army of the 12 Monkeys who will change everything for Cole and Cassie, EW.com reports.

* Comedy Central unveiled its winter programming schedule: Workaholics will debut its seventh and final season on Wednesday, Jan. 11 at 10/9c, with Tosh.0 returning on Feb. 7 and Idiotsitters sophomore season premiering on March 23.

RELATEDWorkaholics to End After Next Season

* Hulu has added Louis CKs Horace and Pete to its streaming library, our sister site Variety reports. The Emmy-nominated series, which was previously available only through CKs official site, stars CK and Steve Buscemi as cousins who own an old-fashioned Irish bar in New York City.

* Bojana Novakovic (Westworld, Shameless) will co-write and star in a new CBS comedy currently in development, per Deadline. The untitled project stars Novakovic as a people-pleasing daughter at the center of a fracturing family.

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Ratings: Timeless Steady With Fall Finale, Scorpion Dips to Tie Low

Timeless Bosses on What Rittenhouse Really Wants, Where Flynn Is Headed

Abigail Spencer Talks Timeless Reveals, Jon Hamm's Note About the '60s -- Plus, Rectify's 'Very Emotional' Finish
Two Muslims who plotted to blow up a prayer hall in Sydney and "cut heads" off civilians in the name of the so-called Islamic State group were both jailed for 20 years on Friday.

Omar Al-Kutobi, 25, and Mohammed Kiad, 27, were arrested last year at a flat they shared where police found a hunting knife, a machete, homemade explosives and a black IS flag.

A video had just been made of Al-Kutobi, who was born in Iraq and took Australian citizenship in 2013, brandishing a knife and making threats, the Supreme Court heard.

Police also found two notes including the statement: "We are the soldiers of the Islamic State, we are here to cut your heads," Justice Peter Garling told the court.

The pair had two days earlier gone to a rival Shiite prayer hall in western Sydney on February 8, 2015, intending to set off a blast.

They were surprised by a man and escaped from a police chase before deciding to focus on attacking random members of the public.

Garling sentenced them to serve no less than 15 years before being allowed parole, noting their planning was substantial and had reached a late stage.

An informant had tipped off police about their plans and the pair had been under surveillance for weeks.

"It is clear that ... by the end of 2014, both of the offenders had been drawn to and had embraced the ideology of the Islamic State and extremist Islamic views," Garling said.

Kiab, who was born in Kuwait and moved to Australia in 2012, and Al-Kutobi pleaded guilty to conspiring to plan a terrorist attack.

Australian officials say 11 terror attacks have been prevented on home soil in the past two years. But several have taken place, including the murder of a Sydney police employee last year.

Counter-terror police have made a series of arrests since late 2014, with the youth and depth of radicalisation of many of those detained a growing concern.

On Wednesday, an 18-year-old was sentenced to seven years in prison after pleading guilty to planning a May 10 Mother's Day attack in Melbourne last year.
By Diane Bartz

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. agency involved in settlement talks with Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) over its diesel emissions scandal has raised concerns about nearly two dozen mobile phones destroyed or lost by the German carmaker.

The Federal Trade Commission said in a court filing dated Thursday there were 23 lost or broken mobile phones the FTC was not able to access, the agency said in the filing with the U.S. District Court in San Francisco.

The filing said the 23 lost or broken phones were "a bright red flag, especially when they include phones that belonged to important individuals." It did not identify who the "important individuals" were who used the phones.

Volkswagen Group of America said in a court filing that "despite the FTCs provocative assertion to the contrary, (the company) is not aware of any evidence that any of those mobile devices was intentionally wiped or lost."

In November, the FTC said in court documents that it has been investigating since March whether Volkswagen Group of America destroyed documents related to its "Dieselgate" scandal.

The filing by the FTC also said a witness sent by VW was unprepared to testify about the lost or damaged telephones.

It did not identify the witness but said the person was also unwilling to discuss the company's termination of an employee, Daniel Donovan, who the FTC said had told VW that data may have been improperly deleted.

Volkswagen said it is cooperating with the FTC's investigation and that its witness had answered thousands of questions and was properly prepared, calling the FTC's claim "a diversionary smokescreen."

Donovan sued the company after he was fired. The suit was settled in June.

The filing follows an effort by the agency in November to take additional testimony from Volkswagen.

In total, the world's second-largest automaker has agreed to spend up to $16.5 billion in connection with the emissions scandal, including payments to dealers, states and attorneys for owners.

Story continues

That agreement includes up to $10.033 billion to buy back as many as 475,000 polluting cars and the $4.7 billion for zero emission and diesel pollution offset programs.

Volkswagen is in intensive talks with the U.S. Justice Department, the FTC, Environmental Protection Agency, California and lawyers for vehicle owners resolving the fate of about 80,000 polluting vehicles. It still faces an ongoing U.S. criminal investigation.

(Reporting by Diane Bartz and David Shepardson; Editing by David Gregorio and Paul Simao)
By Warren Strobel, Yara Bayoumy and John Irish WASHINGTON/PARIS (Reuters) - Key U.S. allies in Europe are quietly expressing concern over President-elect Donald Trump's approach to Syria, warning that his pledge to work more closely with Russia, Damascus' main backer, will do little to diminish the terrorist threat emanating from Syria. The diplomatic persuasion campaign has taken on new importance in recent days as the Syrian army, backed by Russia, Iran and Shi'ite militias, appears poised to retake all of Aleppo city in a major defeat for Western-backed rebels. Moscow and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad are expected to cast Aleppo's fall as the end of a revolt against Assad that began in March 2011, although Western analysts predict the civil war, which has killed more than 300,000 people and made more than half of Syrians homeless, will continue, perhaps for years. Western diplomats, who described discussions with Trump advisers on condition of anonymity, said their message was that a U.S. alliance with Russia, and by extension Assad, to crush groups like Islamic State will backfire. Trump has said defeating Islamic State was a higher priority than persuading Assad to step down. "On Syria the new administration says crushing Islamic State is its priority, but weve explained our view that without a political solution in Syria those efforts will be fruitless because new pockets of radicals will re-form," a senior French diplomat told Reuters. France has been the target of coordinated attacks claimed by Islamic State. Western capitals fear that a prolonged conflict will exacerbate mass refugee flows in which radicalized individuals might hide. A political solution in Syria, as envisioned by Western powers, would involve a transition in which Assad eventually left power. Assad, from the minority Alawite sect, cannot unite Syria and quash extremists after nearly six years of warfare, they argue. In a rare public speech on Thursday, Alex Younger, chief of Britain's MI-6 intelligence agency, said, "we cannot be safe from the threats that emanate from (Syria) unless the civil war is brought to an end. And brought to an end in a way that recognizes the interests of more than a minority of its people and their international backers." Trump has frequently said that he wants to work with Russia to fight Islamic State, which holds territory in Iraq and Syria, and other militant groups. "When you think about it, wouldn't it be nice if we got along with Russia?" he said during a campaign rally in July. "Wouldn't it be nice if we got together with Russia and knocked the hell out of ISIS?" Trump added, using another name for Islamic State. U.S. defense officials have repeatedly said the vast majority of Russian strikes in Syria are not against Islamic State. How Trump will actually proceed remains unclear. He has not named a secretary of state, and some current and prospective members of the president-elect's national security team have voiced more skeptical views of Russia. "What were getting from our conversations with the Trump administration is that already they are toning down the prospect of a Russia-U.S. deal on fighting Islamic State and a full-on rapprochement with Moscow," the senior French diplomat said. A senior Arab diplomat also was cautious about Trump's Syria policy. "We cant really predict it now," this diplomat said. A diplomat from another U.S. ally, while declining to discuss the American political transition, expressed doubts about the advisability of a Western alignment with Moscow and Assad. "There is no way that allying with Assad would do anything to reduce the terrorist threat to the West. Rather, it would drastically increase it," the diplomat said. "It's an inconvenient truth of the conflict," he said. "The Russians have Grozny-ified Aleppo," the diplomat said, referring to the total destruction the Russian military inflicted on the capital of Chechnya. Former U.S. ambassador to Syria Robert Ford said that once Aleppo falls, the Russian-backed Syrian government will not turn its attention to Islamic State, but rather try to destroy the remainder of the secular anti-Assad rebellion. The United States has three options, said Ford, a fellow at the Middle East Institute think tank. "The first option is to switch and join the Russians and implicitly the Syrian government and the Iranians against Sunni extremists. But the problem is that the Russians and the Syrian governments ... arent really fighting Sunni extremists very much," he said. The second option, Ford said, is for Washington to walk away from the conflict, which would likely mean diminished U.S. influence in the region, and continued refugee flows. The third is to work with Turkey and Saudi Arabia to get a partial cease-fire. "None of them are good, there is no easy answer, we ran out of easy answers in 2012 and 2013," Ford said. (Additional reporting by Matt Spetalnick and Arshad Mohammed in Washington and Michelle Nichols at the United Nations; Editing by James Dalgleish)
By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate overwhelmingly passed a compromise version of an annual defense policy bill on Thursday without controversial provisions such as requiring women to register for the draft or allowing contractors to make religion-based hiring decisions. Ninety-two senators backed the $618.7 billion National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, and seven opposed it. Because it passed the House of Representatives by a similarly large margin last week, the bill now goes to the White House for President Barack Obama to veto or sign into law. A White House spokesman told a briefing he did not yet have a position on the bill to report. The 2016 bill, the last of Obama's presidency, includes some Republican-backed initiatives with which he has disagreed in the past. It includes a $3.2 billion increase in military spending, when there has been no similar increase in non-defense funding. The bill also bars closures of military bases, although top Pentagon officials say they have too much capacity, and it blocks planned reductions in active-duty troop numbers. And it continues policies that bar transfers of prisoners to U.S. soil from the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which Obama had hoped to close. While his administration has shipped most inmates from the controversial prison, the Democrat is not expected to accomplish his goal of shuttering it before he leaves office Jan. 20. Obama's successor, Republican Donald Trump, wants to keep Guantanamo open, and expand it. The NDAA passed both chambers in the Republican-led Congress with margins large enough to overcome a veto, and the compromise legislation features many provisions such as a military pay raise and an expansion of a landmark human rights bill, that are extremely popular in Congress. [L1N1E316A] After months of negotiation, the Senate and House Armed Services committees unveiled a compromise version of the NDAA last month that left out the Russell Amendment, a "religious freedom" measure Democrats said would have let federal contractors discriminate against workers on the basis of gender or sexual orientation, overturning Obama's executive order. Some House Republicans said they hoped to revisit that provision after Trump takes office, when they do not have to worry about a veto threat from a Democratic White House. The bill also excluded a provision that would have required women to register for the military draft, now that Pentagon leaders are moving to allow them into combat. A provision recommending that the U.S. conducts yearly high-level military exchanges with Taiwan, which Beijing sees as a breakaway province, made it into the final bill. China's defense ministry said in a statement on its official microblog on Friday that it was "firmly opposed" to the move, which would "inevitably damage U.S. interests". (Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Additional reporting by Timothy Gardner, and Christian Shepherd and Michael Martina in BEIJING; Editing by Richard Chang and Clarence Fernandez)
(Adds defence minister's comments)

By Lidia Kelly

WARSAW, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Poland may be granted U.S. government export approval to buy eight Patriot missile defence systems from Raytheon Co within the next few months, a senior Raytheon official told a Polish news agency on Friday.

NATO member Poland has sped up efforts to overhaul its military following Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula and Moscow's renewed military and political assertiveness in the region.

Defence Minister Antoni Macierewicz said on Friday Russian unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) had repeatedly violated Poland's airspace. The Rzeczpospolita daily, citing border guard documents, said Russia has sent its drones over Poland from the Kaliningrad Region at least four times this year.

"Unfortunately, we have to say that threats associated with (Russian) drones are nothing new, it is a process that we have observed throughout the year," PAP news agency cited Macierewicz as saying.

Poland asked Washington in September for approval to buy the systems, aiming to close a $5 billion deal that is central to a thorough modernisation of its armed forces by 2023. As advanced military technology, special permission must be obtained from the U.S. government for purchase.

"Concrete decisions are expected within the next few months," John Baird, vice president of Raytheon Poland programmes, told the private Newseria Biznes agency.

Poland is also in talks with Lockhead Martin's MEADS joint venture regarding the acquisition of Medium Extended Air Defense Systems (MEADS).

(Writing by Lidia Kelly; editing by Ralph Boulton)
From Popular Mechanics

A Marine Corps F/A-18 Hornet strike fighter crashed earlier today off the coast of Japan. The pilot reportedly ejected and a search and rescue effort is currently underway. The Hornet was conducting training at the time of the accident.

The incident occurred at 6:40pm local time, 4:40 AM ET, about 120 miles southeast of Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan. The aircraft was part of the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing headquartered on the island of Okinawa but was stationed on mainland Japan.

According to Japanese news outlets, there may have been more than one pilot, which would mean the plane was a two-seater F/A-18D Hornet fighter. The -D model Hornet specializes in strike and reconnaissance missions at night and in bad weather. Marine Corps Fighter Attack Squadron 242 is based at Iwakuni and has flown the -D model Hornet since 1990.

The crash prompted a search of the area by 7 aircraft of Japan's Self Defense Forces, and four Japanese destroyers were headed to the area.

As The Aviationist blog points out, this is the ninth crash of a so-called "legacy" Hornet (older generation A, C, or D model) in six months.

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By Diane Bartz

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. agency involved in settlement talks with Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) over its diesel emissions scandal has raised concerns about nearly two dozen mobile phones destroyed or lost by the German carmaker.

The Federal Trade Commission said in a court filing dated Thursday there were 23 lost or broken mobile phones the FTC was not able to access, the agency said in the filing with the U.S. District Court in San Francisco.

The filing said the 23 lost or broken phones were "a bright red flag, especially when they include phones that belonged to important individuals." It did not identify who the "important individuals" were who used the phones.

Volkswagen Group of America said in a court filing that "despite the FTCs provocative assertion to the contrary, (the company) is not aware of any evidence that any of those mobile devices was intentionally wiped or lost."

In November, the FTC said in court documents that it has been investigating since March whether Volkswagen Group of America destroyed documents related to its "Dieselgate" scandal.

The filing by the FTC also said a witness sent by VW was unprepared to testify about the lost or damaged telephones.

It did not identify the witness but said the person was also unwilling to discuss the company's termination of an employee, Daniel Donovan, who the FTC said had told VW that data may have been improperly deleted.

Volkswagen said it is cooperating with the FTC's investigation and that its witness had answered thousands of questions and was properly prepared, calling the FTC's claim "a diversionary smokescreen."

Donovan sued the company after he was fired. The suit was settled in June.

The filing follows an effort by the agency in November to take additional testimony from Volkswagen.

In total, the world's second-largest automaker has agreed to spend up to $16.5 billion (13.1 billion) in connection with the emissions scandal, including payments to dealers, states and attorneys for owners.

Story continues

That agreement includes up to $10.033 billion to buy back as many as 475,000 polluting cars and the $4.7 billion for zero emission and diesel pollution offset programs.

Volkswagen is in intensive talks with the U.S. Justice Department, the FTC, Environmental Protection Agency, California and lawyers for vehicle owners resolving the fate of about 80,000 polluting vehicles. It still faces an ongoing U.S. criminal investigation.

(Reporting by Diane Bartz and David Shepardson; Editing by David Gregorio and Paul Simao)
(Recasts throughout, adds background)

By Patrick Rucker

WASHINGTON, Dec 9 (Reuters) - A U.S. bank regulator is poised to fault Spanish lender Banco Santander SA for doing too little to reach poor neighborhoods and will fail the bank on a test of community lending, according to sources familiar with the situation.

The decision by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is due by early 2017, said the sources, who spoke on background because they were not authorized to talk about the pending action.

They said Santander would be listed as a bank that "needs to improve" under terms of the Community Reinvestment Act, which was enacted in the 1970s to help end discriminatory lending.

Such as listing would mean that Santander will face more regulatory hurdles if it wants to open more branches or seeks to merge.

The OCC and Santander both declined to comment.

Santander, which has about $85 billion in assets in the United States, is counted among the largest global lenders. In June, the bank failed a U.S. stress test meant to ensure the largest firms on Wall Street can weather a future financial crisis.

Santander's U.S. bank was the first to fail the test three years in a row.

The Federal Reserve, in its review of Santander, faulted the bank for poor risk management and financial planning rather than a lack of capital.

Consumer advocates said they were glad to see community concerns about Santander rise to the highest level of regulatory attention.

"Banks have an obligation to blue collar communities but they haven't always seen it that way," said John Taylor, head of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition.

Earlier this week, Reuters reported that Wells Fargo was also due be downgraded to 'needs to improve,' under terms of the Community Reinvestment Act.

The label means a bank must seek approval from the OCC before acting on many day-to-day management issues. Such banks are also expected to outline how they will expand credit to the poor.

Story continues

Earlier this month, Thomas Curry, the head of the OCC, said he expected the agency to clear a backlog of Community Reinvestment reviews in the weeks ahead.

Officials have "already made great strides in working through the agency's existing backlog of CRA performance evaluations," he told a gathering of the National Association of Affordable Housing Lenders.

(Reporting by Patrick Rucker; Editing by Steve Orlofsky and Tom Brown)
By Ernest Scheyder and Terray Sylvester

CANNON BALL/FORT YATES, N.D. (Reuters) - U.S. veterans, thousands of whom last week helped stop a contested oil pipeline running through North Dakota, could become important partners of activists on the environment, the economy, race and other issues that divide Americans.

Several academics said the effort to support the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and others opposed to the pipeline project was likely the biggest gathering of its kind of former military personnel since the early 1970s when U.S. veterans marched against the Vietnam War.

That so many veterans mobilized in less than two weeks to rural North Dakota speaks to the power they may have on public opinion, because of their status as having put their lives on the line for their country, veterans and academics said.

"The sense that vets are distinctively American figures, regardless of political beliefs, always seems to have currency, even when they are working on different sides of an issue," said Stephen Ortiz, a history professor at the State University of Binghamton in New York.

Many veterans who went to Cannon Ball, North Dakota, to join the months-long protests by Native Americans and environmentalists against the 1,172-mile (1,885-km) Dakota Access Pipeline, said they were already looking for their next issue to support.

"Militarily-trained soldiers have now discerned, on their own, a genuine, just cause for which to promote and defend, and this time without being under orders to do so," said Brian Willson, whose 2011 memoir "Blood on the Tracks: The Life and Times of S. Brian Willson", described how after serving in the Vietnam War, he became a non-violent protester for social change in the United States.

Law enforcement tactics, particularly the use of water cannons, against the protesters had been considered extreme by some. Veterans said in interviews they felt galvanized to act as a human shield, providing a respite for those who had been at the protest camp for months.

Story continues

The pipeline owned by Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners LP, is routed adjacent to the Standing Rock Sioux's reservation. Protesters have said the $3.8 billion project could contaminate the water supply and damage sacred tribal lands.

The veterans at Standing Rock were led by former Marine Michael Wood Jr and Army veteran Wes Clark Jr, son of retired U.S. general Wesley Clark, former commander of NATO. The group raised $1.1 million through online crowdfunding to help transport, house and feed veterans at the camp.

BATTLE RESUMES WITH TRUMP PRESIDENCY

On Sunday, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it turned down a permit for the pipeline's completion, handing a victory to the protesters.

But the saga will not end there. Republican President-elect Donald Trump has said he wants the pipeline built; his team said he would review the decision when he takes office.

Even though the fight is not over in North Dakota, some see this as a way forward on other issues.

"There's a lot of these pipelines being built around the county. Flint (Michigan) has a water crisis. So we're going to see if we can keep this movement going and really change some things in America," said Matthew Crane, 32, from Buffalo, New York, who served in the U.S. Navy from 2002 to 2006.

Clark's group, called Veterans Stand With Standing Rock (VSSR), asked for 2,000 volunteers but said twice as many arrived. Comments on the VSSR Facebook page criticized Clark for a lack of planning and for not having contingencies in place for North Dakota's harsh winters.

As a blizzard blew in on Monday, many hunkered down at the main protest camp. Hundreds more slept in the pavilion of the Prairie Knights Casino in Fort Yates, roughly 10 miles away on the Standing Rock reservation.

Clark, who himself was snowed-in at the casino, said in a Facebook video posted Wednesday night that the response meant "a huge tax on the supply chain and on accommodations."

ASKING FORGIVENESS

As part of their journey to North Dakota, many veterans asked forgiveness in two ceremonies for what they considered crimes and mistreatment of Native Americans by the U.S. government and military over the past 150 years.

One ceremony took place Monday on Backwater Bridge near the camp, the site of two heated confrontations with law enforcement earlier this fall. Thousands of veterans and tribal members prayed, emoting war cries on the bridge's southern cusp.

One veteran, wearing a flak jacket and a Veterans for Peace flag, yelled to the crowd from atop a horse.

"We didn't serve this country to see our brothers and sisters here persecuted," said the man, whose name was inaudible in the fury of the arriving blizzard. "Are we not all human?"

Some veterans said they planned to remain in North Dakota, unwilling to trust that Energy Transfer Partners would abide by the federal government's decision. Most had left by Wednesday, however, said Heather O'Malley, a U.S. Army veteran who monitored news for the group. She said it was unclear if they would return to the area in January if needed.

Clark and others said this was a way for veterans to address other efforts around the country.

"This is a small battleground in a larger war that is developing in our country that has to do with race, the economy and the powers that be taking advantage of those who really don't have a voice," said Anthony Murtha, 29, from Detroit, who served in the U.S. Navy from 2009 to 2013.

(Reporting by Ernest Scheyder and Terray Sylvester in Cannon Ball and Fort Yates, N.D.; additional reporting by Tim Mclaughlin and Andrew Cullen; writing by David Gaffen; editing by Grant McCool)
- By John Hempton





UCB (UCB.BR) is a Belgium-based biopharmaceutical and specialty chemical company that specialises in two therapeutic areas: diseases of the central nervous system and immunology. The main central nervous system speciality is epilepsy and the main drug in this area is Vimpat. (UCB revenue mostly comes from four drugs of which Vimpat is one.)







We went to visit UCB once, a cold and wet wintery day where we got modestly lost in Belgium.



The investor relations people were straightforward. We were new to the story and our notes state clearly that generic challenges to the Vimpat patent were the main bear story for the stock. Our notes also talk about Keppra - another epilepsy drug. When it went off patent revenues dropped substantially. Keppra was an famous "patent cliff" drug.



The risk to Vimpat has been reflected in the press too. Fierce Pharma - an industry rag - reports that August 15 this year was the best day for UCB in years as a Delaware District Court had rejected challenges to the Vimpat patent. Notwithstanding this, Fierce Pharma noted that the patent still faced challenges. To quote:





UCB isn't totally out of the woods, though. In late May, New York-based generics maker Argentum Pharmaceuticals won an inter partes review of Vimpat's patent protection by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (PTO)'s Patent Trial & Appeal Board (PTAB). And that decision may not be handed down until next May.



Still, court's decision is a "long-awaited sentiment boost" for UCB, whose shares had fallen by about 17% so far this year, Citigroup analysts wrote in a Monday note seen by Bloomberg. Despite the lingering risk of patent invalidation, they wrote, "we expect market confidence to improve."







As noted Argentum Pharmaceuticals won an inter-parties review of Vimpat's patent. Argentum's press release however noted an even more aggressive request. To quote:

Story continues

Argentum also filed an ex parte reexamination request against this same patent that raises additional grounds of unpatentability than those in the IPR. A decision by the PTO on Argentum's reexamination request is due no later than July 29, 2016.





This is mentioned as afterthought in the press release because it is a really aggressive claim. Argentum asked the Patent Office itself to review the patent it previously granted and presumably throw out the original patent.



Given the afterthought nature of that request I suspect even Argentum will be surprised that the ex-parte review rejected all thirteen claims of the Vimpat patent .



In other words the Patent Office has thrown out the patent.



This is all in a letter dated 5 December 2016 (that is just a few days ago). You can find that letter here. And according to that letter UCB has only two months to dispute the total rejection of the patent by the patent office.



This rejection will of course be followed by Argentum and Mylan (and probably other companies) commencing distribution of a generic for Vimpat. Mylan were behind the above-mentioned court challenge.



--



It is - given the significance of this to the business - perhaps a little unusual that UCB has made no press release.



--



Is this the beginning of a new, more aggressive patent office?



The political pressure in the US to do something to reduce drug prices is large. In the past election this was one area of near universal agreement.



I am wondering whether we are going to see this sort of action by the Patent Office more widely.



If the trend is more widespread it could be bad news for pharma investors generally.



This article first appeared on GuruFocus.






MANAMA (Reuters) - British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said on Friday he understood Saudi Arabia's concerns about upheaval in neighboring Yemen but he had "profound concern" about the suffering of Yemeni people after 20 months of war. Johnson was speaking at a conference in Bahrain a day after footage was published of him accusing Saudi Arabia, an important ally for Britain, of stoking proxy wars across the Middle East. He said he understood Saudi Arabia's security was of "paramount importance". "But I must share my profound concern about the present suffering of the people of Yemen," Johnson said in a speech at the Manama Dialogue on Middle East security. A Saudi-led coalition began a military campaign in March last year to prevent the Iran-allied Houthi movement from taking complete control of Yemen after it seized much of the north. The conflict has killed more than 10,000 people, half of them civilians, and unleashed a humanitarian crisis in the poorest country in the Middle East. Johnson said that "force alone" would not bring about a stable Yemen and emphasized the need for a negotiated political solution. He added that the "hand of Iran is clearly visible in Yemen." (Reporting by William Maclean; Writing by Tom Finn; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
Yangon (AFP) - The UN has urged Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi to visit the north of Rakhine state, where the army is accused of carrying out a brutal crackdown on the Muslim Rohingya minority.

The Nobel peace prize winner has faced growing international criticism for not stopping the military's campaign, which has pushed more than 20,000 Rohingya over the border to Bangladesh.

Escapees have told AFP shocking stories of mass rape, murder and arson at the hands of security forces, which took control of the area after deadly raids on police posts in October.

Malaysia has accused the army of "genocide", a charge Myanmar officials have vehemently denied.

Suu Kyi, a veteran democracy activist who came to power in March, has described the situation as "under control" and asked the international community to stop stoking the "fires of resentment".

In a statement released in New York on Thursday, UN special adviser on Myanmar Vijay Nambiar appealed directly to the peace icon to intervene.

"The adoption of a generally defensive rather than proactive approach to providing security to the local population (has) caused frustration locally and disappointment internationally," he said.

"I also appeal to Daw Suu to visit Maungdaw and Buthidaung and reassure the civilian population there that they will be protected," he added, referring to the locked down area in Rakhine.

On Friday diplomats from the US and several European countries added their urgent calls for access to the region, saying they were "concerned by delays" in resuming aid deliveries.

"Tens of thousands of people who need humanitarian aid, including children with acute malnutrition, have been without it now for nearly two months," the diplomats said in a statement.

The bloodshed presents the biggest challenge to Suu Kyi since her party won Myanmar's first democratic elections in a generation last year.

Story continues

It has galvanised Muslim nations around the region, with protesters decrying the crackdown as the culmination of years of discrimination and abuse suffered by the stateless Rohingya.

On Sunday, Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak taunted Suu Kyi, who the former junta kept under house arrest for almost 20 years, before a crowd of some 5,000 protesters in Kuala Lumpur.

"What's the use of Aung San Suu Kyi having a Nobel prize?" he asked the protesters.

"The world cannot sit and watch genocide taking place."

Activists say Buddhist-majority Myanmar's stateless Muslim Rohingya minority are among the most persecuted in the world.

More than 120,000 have been trapped in squalid displacement camps since the last major outbreak of violence erupted in Rakhine in 2012.
United Nations (United States) (AFP) - The UN envoy for Syria said Thursday that political talks to end the nearly six-year war should resume soon.

Staffan de Mistura told reporters following a closed-door meeting of the Security Council that "now is the time to actually look seriously at the possible renewal of political discussions."

The envoy raised the possibility of a return to the negotiating table as Russia announced that the Syrian army was halting military operations in order to evacuate civilians from Aleppo.

Backed by Russia, Syrian forces have captured about 85 percent of eastern Aleppo after three weeks of heavy fighting to seize one of the last opposition strongholds.

"Military victories are not a victory for peace, because peace needs to be won separately," De Mistura said.

Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said he hoped talks could resume before UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon leaves office on December 31.

"Time is short. It would be important to revive the talks before Mr. Ban's term expires, in just 20 days," Churkin told reporters.

The last round of UN-brokered peace talks ended in April, with no progress on the key issue of Syria's future government and the fate of President Bashar al-Assad.

De Mistura said talks would be possible if the government in Damascus were ready to "discuss substantially" the terms of a settlement and if the opposition did not "refuse to come."

Without an effort to restart peace talks, there will be an "impression which no one wants to have that there is only a military victory, only a military solution. There is neither," he added.

More than 300,000 people have been killed since the conflict began in March 2011, and over half the population has been displaced, with millions becoming refugees.

Moscow launched an air war in support of Assad's forces last year, while Washington has supported rebel forces battling the regime.
By Nick Carey and Susan Cornwell WARSAW, Indiana/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When Donald Trump takes over as president on Jan. 20, one of the first business tax breaks he delivers is likely to go to the U.S. medical device industry and companies like Mark Throdahl's. The chief executive of OrthoPediatrics Corp, based in northern Indiana, said his company has been able to hire more workers since the temporary suspension effective last January of a federal tax on medical devices. The tax was imposed as part of outgoing President Barack Obama's signature 2010 healthcare law. Throdahl said he hopes the incoming Republican-led Congress and president will permanently repeal the tax. Trump and U.S. lawmakers are likely to do that, according to lawmakers, lobbyists and industry executives, in a step that also would help larger medical device makers such as Medtronic Inc, Boston Scientific, St. Jude Medical Inc and Johnson & Johnson. Tax cuts are Republican gospel, and Trump's new Republican administration is widely expected to make them happen. The medical device tax may be one of the first on the chopping block. It was first imposed in January 2013 as a funding mechanism for the Affordable Care Act, dubbed Obamacare, a law that has brought medical coverage to millions of previously uninsured Americans. But Republicans hate Obamacare and this particular tax has powerful enemies in both parties. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said repealing the Affordable Care Act, dubbed Obamacare, will be the first order of business in the Senate when it convenes in January. Whether cutting taxes, including the one on medical devices, will deliver more jobs remains to be seen. The Congressional Research Service, a nonpartisan arm of Congress, said in January 2015, when the medical device tax was fully in effect, that it was having only "fairly minor" impact on production of devices and employment in the industry. That may not matter much, as Republican lawmakers and lobbyists increasingly try to link tax cuts to job creation, perhaps sensing this connection will resonate with Trump, who made big promises in his campaign about restoring U.S. industrial employment. The medical device industry, in its long-running assault on the device tax, is seeking to frame the fight as a jobs issue. Immediately after Trump's Nov. 8 election victory, industry lobbying group AdvaMed wrote to him and Vice President-elect Mike Pence, Indiana's governor, asking for permanent repeal of the tax. In the letter, AdvaMed President Scott Whitaker wrote, "The medical device tax has been a significant drag on medical innovation, and resulted in the loss or deferred creation of jobs, reduced research spending, and slowed capital expansion." Industry complaints like these led Congress last year to temporarily suspend the 2.3 percent excise tax on the sale of non-retail medical devices, such as pacemakers, heart valves and artificial hips. It had been in effect for only three years. 'HEADCOUNT FREEZE' OrthoPediatrics, founded in 2006, develops and markets implantable orthopedic devices, such as metal plates that can be attached to bones, to treat deformities and traumatic injuries in children. It has 60 employees in its Warsaw, Indiana headquarters, and 94 sales representatives around the United States. When the tax was in full effect, Throdahl said, OrthoPediatrics "had almost a headcount freeze during 2015" because of the revenue that was siphoned away by the tax. Since the tax's temporary suspension, he said, "We've resumed an aggressive pace of hiring and investment." There are about 9,000 U.S.-based medical device manufacturers. The industry accounts for about 520,000 U.S. jobs and has $150 billion in direct sales, AdvaMed spokesman Mark Brager said. Indiana is home to several device companies. So are Minnesota, California and Massachusetts. Lawmakers from these states helped push through the temporary suspension of the device tax. Repealing the tax would further improve the already favorable tax profile of Medtronic, one of the largest U.S. medical device companies. Two years ago, Medtronic did an "inversion" deal, which is when a U.S. company shifts its home base to another country, at least on paper, to cut its tax bills. Medtronic is now technically based in Ireland, though it is still managed in Minnesota. Asked whether Medtronic expects the tax to be repealed, company spokesman Fernando Vivanco said, "It's much too early to speculate on future tax policy." Republicans said the industry has little reason to fear that the tax will ever return. Senator John Barrasso, a member of the Senate Republican leadership, said Obamacare repeal legislation will move next year in a way that will circumvent expected Democratic resistance. "The plan is to move the entire piece that we moved last year," Barrasso said, referring to Republican-backed repeal legislation that ultimately was vetoed by Obama. "And it did include the medical device repeal, so I would expect that to be part of the list as well. It's to repeal the taxes related to Obamacare," Barrasso added. J.C. Scott, head of government affairs at AdvaMed, said companies "feel a great sense of urgency in trying to get complete repeal done early next year, rather than later in the year, because companies need certainty." Repealing the tax would worsen the federal budget deficit. "Any time you repeal a tax, that is a loss of revenue to the federal government," said Jack Hoadley, a research professor at Georgetown University's Health Policy Institute. But this tax was never a big one, relatively speaking. When imposed, it raised barely $2.5 billion a year, less than expected. By comparison, federal tax subsidies to help people obtain health insurance under Obamacare in 2016 were estimated to be $660 billion, the Congressional Budget Office said. Ever since the tax was put on hold, it has been viewed as endangered. "At the time it was suspended, we were told by people in Washington that in all probability it will not be reinstituted. But still, we'll all sleep better at night knowing that it's gone," OrthoPediatrics CEO Throdahl said. (Additional reporting by Caroline Humer in New York; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Will Dunham)
The Carrier union official who was subjected to ridicule by Donald Trump said Thursday hes not about to allow the president-elect to mislead workers by giving them false hope.

Chuck Jones, president of Local 1999 of the United Steelworkers union, penned an op-ed in the Washington Post, refusing to be bullied by Trump into backing down.

Jones Wednesday accused Trump of lying when he said 1,100 jobs would be preserved at the Indianapolis Carrier plant when it actuality only 730 jobs would be preserved and 550 workers would be laid off.

Jones had said Trump was lying his a-- off when he said otherwise.

What I can't abide  is a president who misleads workers, who gives them false hope. We're not asking for anything besides opportunity, for jobs that let people provide for their families, Jones wrote. These plants are profitable, and the workers produced a good-quality product. Because of corporate greed, though, company leaders are racing to the bottom, to find places where they can pay the least. It's a system that exploits everyone.

Trump was incensed by Jones first salvo, tweeting Wednesday that if Jones was any good at representing his union members, their jobs wouldnt have been in jeopardy in the first place.

Jones said Carrier first told the union it planned to move the Indianapolis manufacturing jobs to Mexico in February. USW negotiators came up with $23 million in savings but Carrier rejected their proposal, saying the company could save $65 million by moving the plant.

We couldn't match that unless we were willing to cut wages to $5 an hour and cut all benefits, Jones said.

So we started to negotiate a severance package instead  one week of pay for every year of service, a $2,500 lump sum for every employee and free healthcare for six months.

Story continues

Jones said he was angered when Trump last Thursday portrayed his $7 million tax incentive deal with Carrier as saving 1,100 jobs in Indianapolis.

Trump let people believe that they were going to have a livelihood in that facility. He let people breathe easy, he said. When I told our members the next day, they were devastated.

trump carrier

Photo: Mike Segar/Reuters

Jones said he doesnt believe Trump just erred on the numbers.

On the campaign trail, Trump made perfectly clear how excellent a negotiator he is. I have negotiated hundreds of contracts. I know that if I'm going to have a fighting chance, I better damn well know the numbers, Jones said.

I'm tired of being lied to.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A stolen 14th century illustration of a Roman Catholic saint was returned on Friday to Italy, where it will be put in a museum, U.S. Customs officials said. The image, an ink, tempera and gold image of a haloed Saint Lucy, had spent decades at the Cleveland Museum of Art, which bought it in good faith in 1952, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency said in a statement. It said the artifact was turned over in a ceremony at the Italian Embassy. A two-year investigation determined that the item, a leaf of the book, had been stolen and the museum turned it over to U.S. officials last month after another stolen leaf from the same book turned up in the Swiss market. That leaf has also been returned to Italy. The Cleveland leaf, which measures about 17.4 inches (44.3 cm) by 13.9 inches (35.2 cm), was taken from a page in an illuminated parchment antiphonary, a type of hymnal, created around 1340. Known as Codex D, the manuscript is in a museum in Castelfiorentino, near Florence. The customs agency did not say how or when the leaf had been stolen. In addition to the manuscript leaf, U.S. officials repatriated a 19th century painting by artist Consalvo Carelli that had been stolen from a home in Naples in 2001. (Reporting by Ian Simpson; Editing by Scott Malone and Grant McCool)
Kendallville, IN (46755)

Today

Areas of patchy fog early. Some clouds this morning will give way to generally sunny skies for the afternoon. High 69F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. Low 53F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.
Mexico City (AFP) - Mexico's defense minister has complained about his troops having to take part in the country's war on drug trafficking -- a rare expression of criticism about the controversial, decade-old deployment.

Speaking at a news conference, Salvador Cienfuegos insisted the military was not suited for the job.

"We didn't ask to be here. We don't like it. We didn't study how to chase criminals," he said.

"Our function is something else and it's been made into something unnatural. We are doing things that don't correspond to our training because there's no one else to do them," the minister said.

Sunday is the 10th anniversary of an order by Felipe Calderon, the conservative president in office from 2006 to 2012, that harnessed the military as the pillar of a federal anti-drug operation.

His action drew harsh criticism from the opposition and civil society organizations.

But until now, top-level military officials have not publicly expressed much about the anti-drug operation amid documented human-rights abuses.

Cienfuegos insisted the wave of criminal violence cannot be stopped "by bullets" and that he would be the first to lift "not one but both hands" to get the army back to its original mission.

Calderon initially involved the army in the anti-drug war with a deployment of 5,000 troops to his home state of Michoacan in western Mexico, where the local police were overwhelmed by drug-cartel violence.

Weighing as a possible solution professionalizing the police to allow for a gradual withdrawal of the military in the drug war, Cienfuegos pointed out that police currently lack sufficient training to fulfil their obligation to fight crime.

According to data from the National Commission on Human Rights, in the past decade more than 12,000 complaints were filed about alleged violations by the military, most of them in the anti-drug operation.

The most frequent complaints are arbitrary detentions, excessive use of force, torture, break-ins, robbery and false accusations.

Last April, a video emerged showing two soldiers and a police officer torturing a woman, leading Cienfuegos to offer an apology.

The government says that since 2006 more than 170,000 people have been killed and more than 28,000 have been reported missing. The data does not indicate which cases are related to organized crime.
The Department of Defense approved Thursday five major weapon sales, including helicopters for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and missiles for Morocco, despite Congressional backlash regarding the countries' involvement in Yemen's civil war.

In all, the department's Defense Security Cooperation Agency cleared $7.9 billion of deals to Middle Eastern allies. The sales include over $3.5 billion for CH-47F Chinook Cargo Helicopters to Saudi Arabia, an additional $3.5 billion for Apache AH-64E Helicopters to the UAE and about $108 million in TOW 2A missiles to Morocco. Also included were a $700 million deal for logistics support services and equipment and a $81 million deal for spare C-17 military transport plane engines and equipment headed to Qatar.

U.S. military support for Gulf nations has come under criticism recently, especially concerning Saudi Arabia's role in Yemen's civil war and support for groups espousing its ultraconservative interpretation of Islam known as Wahhabism. Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Chris Murphy, D-Conn., attempted to block a $1.15 billion sale of tanks and other armaments to the oil-rich kingdom on humanitarian grounds, but were struck down in September when the bill was ultimately approved by Congress.

Saudi Arabia backs exiled Yemeni President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi and his loyalist supporters against the Houthis, an Iran-supported movement that represents Yemen's Zaidi Shiite minority. Saudi Arabia regularly conducts airstrikes in Yemen, including in populated areas such as the capital city of Sana'a, which remains under Houthi control since militants overthrew Hadi in late 2014. In October, a Saudi Arabian-led coalition airstrike hit a crowded funeral, killing at least 140 people and injuring at least 500 more in the conflict's deadliest incident.

The UAE, Morocco and Qatar have also been involved in the Yemen war, providing warplanes and soldiers to Saudi Arabia's coalition. Abu Dhabi played a crucial role, contributing 30 warplanes and thousands of ground troops before Junior Foreign Minister Anwar Gargash announced in June that the war was "practically over" for the UAE.

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Los Angeles (AFP) - A 75-year-old California man was charged with the chilling 1978 murder of a young British couple who had been sailing on his boat in the Caribbean Sea.

Silas Duane Boston allegedly beat and bound Christopher Farmer and his girlfriend Peta Frampton, attaching weights to their bindings and covering their heads with plastic bags before dumping them alive overboard in a fit of rage.

The murders took place between June and July 1978 and their corpses were found on about July 8 floating at sea off the coast of Guatemala.

A probe into their murders went cold even though Boston was interviewed a number of times by investigators about disappearances.

The case, worthy of a crime novel or horror movie, was relaunched thanks to an investigation into the 1968 disappearance of Boston's former wife, Mary Lou Boston.

Boston allegedly also killed her, according to the criminal complaint.

He was arrested last week at a convalescent home in the town of Paradise, in northern California.

He appeared in federal court on Thursday in a wheelchair and entered a not guilty plea.

Farmer and Frampton, both from Manchester, England, at the time of their murders, were fresh university graduates in their mid-20s -- he from medical school and she from law school -- and had decided to take a year off to travel.

They first went to Australia before setting off to the Americas, and throughout their journey had remained in close contact with their families.

They informed their parents in a letter that they had met Boston while in Belize and they had chartered his boat to take them to Mexico.

Frampton in a letter dated June 29 indicated it was not always smooth sailing on the boat as Boston's two young sons, who were also on board, squabbled frequently and he had a short temper.

Their families became concerned when they failed to hear from them for several weeks and alerted authorities who eventually connected two bodies found off the coast of Guatemala to the couple.

Story continues

Boston's two sons, Russell and Vince, have implicated him in the brutal killings, according to the criminal complaint.

Vince, who was 13 at the time, told investigators that he had seen his father beat Farmer with a billy club and then attempt to stab him with a fillet knife that broke.

- Chilling details -

He said Boston bound both of his victims before dumping them overboard.

Boston allegedly later bragged about the killings, telling a former friend how he had tied the couple, put bags over their heads and dumped them overboard.

"Boston said the female on the boat heard the splash of the male victim entering the water and started calling her boyfriend's name and after a couple of minutes Boston threw the female into the water," the friend told investigators, according to the complaint.

Both Boston's sons and the friend had apparently failed to come forward out of fear he would come after them.

"Russell stated he recalls Boston being intoxicated after the murders of Farmer and Frampton and he threatened to kill the boys," the complaint states.

Both Russell and Vincent also told investigators that their father had bragged about killing their mother and several other people.

He allegedly took his wife to an undisclosed location and then ordered her to run before shooting her.

Boston faces life in prison if convicted in the murders of Frampton and Farmer.

Federal prosecutor Phillip Talbert on Thursday said the persistent efforts of investigators, notably the FBI and the police in Sacramento, had allowed the case to go forward.

"Nothing would have happened if the Sacramento Police Department had not thought to consult with this office about what could be done with a 38-year-old homicide in the Caribbean sea," he said.
Paris (AFP) - US Secretary of State John Kerry said US and Russian officials would meet on Saturday in a bid to stop the Syrian city of Aleppo "being absolutely, completely destroyed".

Kerry arrived in Paris on Friday ahead of parallel talks on Saturday aimed at pushing for a ceasefire in Aleppo, where retreating rebels backed by the United States face an onslaught from Syrian forces supported by Russia.

US officials will meet their Russia counterparts in Geneva to try to "come to some kind of arrangement where we can see how civilians may be protected and what can happen with the armed opposition", Kerry said.

He did not sound upbeat about the chances of success, however, with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Russian President Vladimir Putin seemingly intent on pushing home their advantage in Aleppo.

The rebels now control only a pocket of Syria's second city, whose fate is seen as pivotal to the outcome of a nearly six-year-old war that has killed more than 300,000 people.

- 'Worst catastrophe since WWII' -

"What is happening in Aleppo is the worst catastrophe, what is happening in Syria is the worst catastrophe since World War II itself. It's unacceptable," said Kerry at the US embassy in Paris.

He added: "I know people are tired of these meetings, I'm tired of these meetings. People are sort of 'oh, another meeting'.

"But what am I supposed to do? Go home and have a nice weekend in Massachusetts, while people are dying? Sit there in Washington and do nothing?"

Alongside the Geneva meeting, foreign ministers from the Western and Middle Eastern backers of Syria's weakened opposition, including Kerry, will gather in Paris on Saturday for talks.

"We are working hard with people that we even have disagreements with in order to see if we can find a way, in the name of humanity and decency, to be able to protect those lives and try to separate combatants and move the process forward," said Kerry.

Story continues

A US official stressed that the Geneva talks will be at a "technical" level, "not foreign minister level", to discuss modalities of a possible ceasefire, aid supplies and the evacuation of civilians and rebel fighters.

"Kerry is definitely not going to Geneva, not heading up these talks," said the official, adding that Washington had long said that the UN must be involved.

Kerry added: "My goal in all this is not just to have a temporary thing, but to get both sides, all of the forces, to the table in Geneva. And that's what we're working on."
Vice Media has launched a new apprenticeship program designed to provide employment for people who formerly were incarcerated.

The program, created in partnership with the Center for Employment Opportunities, will begin in 2017 and will run for six months. The Brooklyn-based youth media brand will look for candidates to work across its digital channels, newsroom, television and film operations, and other divisions. It will pay $15 an hour for 40 hours a week.

Vice CEO Shane Smith said in a statement that the program was inspired by his work with President Obama on prison reform documentary Fixing the System. "I was struck by the high recidivism rate, and by the fact that once you enter into the system, it is indeed very hard to get yourself out," he said. "I am very proud of be a part of this program to try and alleviate some of these issues by putting our money where our mouth is. It is admittedly a small step, but hopefully other media companies will follow suit and not only push for change, but also nurture a whole new group of producers, shooters, cutters and hosts that will offer a new perspective, not only on prison reform, but life itself."

The Vice Apprenticeship Program is open to anyone on parole or between the ages of 18 and 25 who is on probation. Vice told the AP that it initially will hire five people but could expand the program if it is successful.

Former inmates often have a hard finding work once they are released from prison, with employment rates currently around 30 percent. Sam Schaeffer, CEO of the Center for Employment Opportunities, called the Vice program "a game-changing model of corporate citizenship."

He added: "Vice recognizes that 70 million Americans who have a criminal record can't be left on the employment sidelines. I'm excited to chart a new trajectory for CEO participants who are seeking to springboard into careers in creative media."

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo praised the program. "Rehabilitation not only benefits those returning to our communities, but all taxpayers," he said. "I applaud Vice Media and the Center for Employment Opportunities for their leadership, and look forward to seeing this apprenticeship program help more New Yorkers succeed."

Read more: Vice Forms Partnership With the Guardian for News Content
Victorias Secret has apologized to a woman who was asked to leave the store. (Photo: Getty Images)

A woman shopping at a Victorias Secret in the Quintard Mall in Oxford, Ala., says she was shocked and dismayed to be asked to leave the store. Traveling nurse Kimberly Houzah says she and a second black shopper were made to leave after a store manager caught another black woman shoplifting.

In a live video of more than 11 minutes, posted on Facebook, Houzah tells the story of her interaction with store manager Faith, who can be seen in the video talking to the other black woman that Houzah claimed had also been asked to leave. Completely furious, I could cry, Houzah said before explaining the situation. There was another black female in here who got caught stealing  so [Faith] asks me and another black female to leave because, she cant tell us why, but were kicked out [of] the store.

Houzah says that no one asked to check her bag, said that once the other woman was caught stealing, she and the second black woman were promptly asked to leave. She caught the other black girl stealing, and she was like You need to get out of here. Houzah said the woman who identified herself as Faith asked if she and the other innocent shopper were with the thief, and they said they werent. I would have felt more comfortable if [she had] said, Maam, can I check your bag?

According to Houzah, she and the woman caught stealing had no interaction. We didnt even come in the store together. We just happened to be in there at the same time, she said through tears. Folks done made it OK to be publicly racist and say and do what they want. Besides being completely taken aback by the store managers request, Houzah was frustrated that the woman automatically assumed that she had to be up to no good, didnt bother to confirm her suspicions, and just made her leave the store as if she were guilty of something.

You dont want to be the type of person that feels like everybody is racist, and I dont think everybody is racist, Houzah said. But Im trying to understand why because we just happened to be three black women at Victorias Secret, that we gotta be together. I mean, it aint like we walked in the store together [or] were shopping around together. Police say that they did get a call about a shoplifter, but the goods she attempted to steal never made it out of the store.

Story continues

Victorias Secret hopped on Facebook to denounce the way Houzah and the other black woman were treated, and also to say they had apologized for the incident. What happened at our store should not have happened and does not represent who we are or what we stand for. The store associate involved in this matter is no longer employed with the company, they wrote. Victorias Secret is adamant that all customers regardless of race be treated with dignity and respect at all times.

According to AL.com, there was a demonstration outside the Victorias Secret location, where peaceful protesters, who had an agreement with police, attempted to hold the store accountable for the troubling actions of its employee. And it looks as if their protest paid off: Houzah was offered an apology by the store.

I never, never thought in a million years that that would happen to me, Houzah said in the now viral video.

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A political battle in Asia over control for an important trade route in the South China Sea is heating up, with Vietnam taking steps to dig a channel between a lagoon and the open sea in the disputed territory. The dredging work is Vietnam's latest step toward defending its stake to the strategic waterway also claimed by China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and others, Reuters reported Friday.

The construction work on Ladd Reef includes a lighthouse and outpost housing used by a small group of Vietnamese soldiers, according to an image taken on Nov. 30 by U.S.-based satellite firm Planet Labs. Vessels can be seen in the channel.

"We can see that, in this environment, Vietnam's strategic mistrust is total ... and they are rapidly improving their defenses," Trevor Hollingsbee, a retired naval intelligence analyst with Britain's defense ministry, told Reuters. "They're doing everything they can to fix any vulnerabilities - and that outpost at Ladd Reef does look a vulnerability."

Vietnam could be working toward using the Ladd Reef as a post for supply ships and fishing boats, said Greg Poling, a South China Sea expert at Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies. Vietnam previously sought in August to add mobile rocket artillery launchers capable of attacking China on its territory in the South China Sea, through which some $5 trillion in world trade is shipped every year.

But China likely wouldn't be satisfied by such an explanation. Beijing has added more than 3,200 acres of land outfitted with runways, ports and aircraft hangars in the South China Sea since 2013. China has said it has the right to build "limited and necessary self-defensive facilities" on its territory.

The U.S. has essentially asked Vietnam to cool down its efforts to avoid conflict.

"Weve consistently warned that reclamation and militarization in contested areas of the South China Sea will risk driving a destabilizing and escalatory trend," said Anna Richey-Allen, spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department. "We encourage all claimants to take steps to lower tensions and peacefully resolve differences."

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But Washington also announced in September it would hold joint training patrols with Japan in the contested South China Sea to "contribute to the security and stability of the region," a move that angered China.

Others have argued that it's not the U.S.' place to tell Asia how to handle its disagreement over who control the South China Sea.

"Americans often assume that Chinese military aggression is increasing the likelihood of a clash between China and the United States. But many policy makers in Washington ignore that Beijing has good reason to be troubled by the United States military footprint in its neighborhood," wrote Nicholas Borroz, a strategic intelligence consultant, and Hunter Marston, an independent Southeast Asia analyst, in the New York Times in October. "As the United States military doubles down in Asia, the chances increase that one side will cross a red line. It is easy to imagine, for instance, that China could respond with force to joint American-Japanese naval patrols. That does not mean Washington should abandon its allies. But it should avoid creating extensive, untenable defense agreements."

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(Adds more quotes from attorney general, details, background)

Dec 8 (Reuters) - Washington state filed an environmental lawsuit on Thursday against agricultural company Monsanto Co seeking damages and cleanup costs associated with the company's production of PCBs, the state's attorney general said.

Monsanto produced the polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, "for decades while hiding what they knew about the toxic chemicals' harm to human health and the environment," Attorney General Bob Ferguson said in a statement.

St. Louis-based Monsanto, whose products include genetically modified crop seeds and pesticides, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit, which was filed in King County Superior Court.

PCBs, once used widely to insulate electrical equipment and in products like paint and caulk, have been linked to cancer, immune system difficulties and other health problems.

The manufacture of PCBs was banned in the United States in 1979. Monsanto was the only U.S. producer of PCBs between 1935 and 1979, Ferguson said.

The lawsuit - against Monsanto and two of its splinter companies, Solutia Inc and Pharmacia LLC - seeks compensation for damages to Washington state's natural resources, including the economic impact to the state and its residents, Ferguson said.

"PCBs have been found in bays, rivers, streams, sediment, soil and air throughout Washington state, with more than 600 suspected or confirmed contamination sites from Puget Sound to the Wenatchee River, Lake Spokane to Commencement Bay," he said.

The company faces lawsuits by at least eight West Coast cities raising similar claims.

In September, German chemicals and healthcare group Bayer AG made an offer to buy Monsanto for $66 billion. The deal has to be cleared by regulatory authorities in the United States, Europe and elsewhere.

(Reporting by Eric Beech in Washington; Editing by Eric Walsh and Peter Cooney)
Earlier this year, Tom Hollands light and airy cameo as Spider-Man in Captain America: Civil War felt like a breath of fresh air. Two months after Batman v Superman took the genre to new depths of sobriety, Holland burst onto the scene wide-eyed and easily enthused, like a puppy so overwhelmed by a windfall of new toys that all he can do is pant and wag his tail and implore you to play with him.

After a 17-second teaser clip was released on Wednesday morning, the long-awaited trailer for Hollands feature-length debut as the superhero, Spider-Man: Homecoming, premiered Thursday night on Jimmy Kimmel Live! The trailer seems to confirm what Hollands previous appearance in the Spidey suit suggested: that Homecoming will be an antidoteand a much more wholesome one than Ryan Reynolds Deadpoolto all the handwringing about collateral damage, and a break from jaded superheroes everywhere.

Spider-Man: Homecoming hits theaters July 7, 2017.
Iraqi forces continue to battle ISIS neighborhood by neighborhood in Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city and ISIS' last stronghold in the country.

In neighboring Syria, progress against the terrorist group has been less forthcoming. While fighting rages in Aleppo, operations against Raqqa, ISIS' capital, have been stalled. But the US-led coalition continues to target ISIS infrastructure in Syria.

On December 8, a coalition airstrike, a clip of which you can see below, obliterated 168 tanker trucks belonging to the terrorist group near Palmyra, in the center of Syria.

The strike was one of seven mounted over Syria on December 8, and it cost ISIS more than $2 million in revenue, according to an Operation Inherent Resolve release. Northeast of Palmyra, a strike destroyed an ISIS oil wellhead near Dayr Az Zawr.

"The Coalition continues to forcefully prosecute the air war on ISIL revenue capability," Col. John L. Dorrian, an Operation Inherent Resolve spokesman, said in a release.

isis oil

"When ISIL has access to large sums of money, they use it to conduct violent terror attacks against anyone who doesn't share their barbaric ideology," Dorrian added.

ISIS oil infrastructure in Syria has been a major target for coalition forces in recent months.

While Kurdish militants' efforts to retake Raqqa, ISIS' capital city in northeast Syria, have largely bogged down, US-led airstrikes continue to hit oil-related targets in the surrounding province.

Farther west, the regime of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad appears to have gained the upper hand. Earlier this week, the Syrian army and its allies looked closer than ever to retaking Aleppo, rebel forces' last urban stronghold.

Intense fighting in much of the city has endangered the lives of thousands of Syrian civilians, many of whom have been cut off from food and aid for months and have tried to flee the city in recent days.

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While the Russian military said on Friday that it had helped more than 8,000 Syrians flee areas in eastern Aleppo, the UN has warned that 150,000 people there "are threatened with extermination."

syria

Other UN reports have voiced concern that hundreds of Syrian men have gone missing since fleeing eastern Aleppo for Syrian government-held areas.

The US and Russia are reportedly "poles apart" from agreeing to terms for civilian evacuations from Aleppo, and the US has increasingly been on the outside looking in at the multi-party talks seeking a peaceful end to Syria's bloody, five-year civil war.

You see the full video of the December 8 strike below.

NOW WATCH: A global intelligence analyst explains what makes ISIS so strong





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In 2016, brides spent an average of $1,469 on a wedding dress. One way to cut costs? Well, if youre crafty enough, its to make the dress yourself. And if youre extra talented (and on a really tight budget), consider using toilet paper! The toilet paper dress fad has gone international with brides everywhere from England to Israel wearing elaborate dresses made of the disposable material. Though rain on your wedding day is good luck, you might want to stay out of it if youre wearing one of these paper gowns.
These eight (of the 36 total) people killed in the Ghost Ship blaze on Dec. 2 reveal the heart of the Bay Area's music-centric creative community.

Cash Askew

Askew, a 22-year-old Bay Area native and one-half of the goth-influenced duo Them Are Us Too, frequently attended shows like the one at Ghost Ship with her girlfriend Anya Taylor and friend Feral Pines (who also was killed in the fire). "These amazing musicians around the Bay were all our friends," says Taylor. "We were both excited to go see Joey [Casio, real name Joseph Matlock, who also was killed] play."

Taylor had decided against going to the Ghost Ship party because she had to work early the next day. After news of the fire broke, Taylor says she ran to the scene and watched the fire burn for four hours. "We were together for a year," says Taylor of Askew. "I love her so much."

Kennedy Ashlyn, Askew's partner in Them Are Us Too, met Askew about four years ago at the University of California, Santa Cruz. "It was Cash's 19th birthday, and she had made this playlist for a party at my house," recalls Ashlyn. "I was like, 'I love this song. I love this song.' We started the band the next day."

Askew performed solo at Das Bunker in Los Angeles and New World Disorder in Oakland in November. "She brought the house down," says Taylor. Ashlyn, who now lives in Texas, says Them Are Us Too had planned to tour South America in January. -- Jay Barmann

Jonathan Bernbaum



Bernbaum, 34, went to Ghost Ship that night with a close friend, Barrett Clark, to support his friend, Joey Casio, who was performing. All three died in the fire. The Berkeley, Calif., native created visuals for musicians on tour around the world, including Australian electronic duo Knife Party and Miami-based DJ-producer Markus Schulz.

Bernbaum's friends remember him as a typically smart, eccentric and free-thinking denizen of the Bay Area's creative corners. "We could talk nonsense in weird accents for hours and never get bored," wrote burlesque performer Pickles LaVey on Facebook.

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Schulz, who brought Bernbaum on his 2014 tour, says he was a creative force - "Jonathan's visual show was stunning" - although he started off the tour "so nervous he was shaking." By the third date in San Francisco, though, the show turned out "flawless."

Says Ian Smith, a musician/audio engineer who was a frequent collaborator and close friend of Bernbaum's: "He would hop off a plane from Beijing and drive five-plus hours into the woods to do visuals at our parties, then drive back and hop on a plane to go do events for 20,000-plus people. He never got to be too good for any of us." -- J.B.

Chelsea Faith Dolan

Dolan - a 33-year-old Bay Area musician/DJ/-producer/radio host who was to perform as Cherushii that night at Ghost Ship - "wanted outsiders to feel they had someone making music for them and with them," says Amanda Brown, co-owner of 100 Percent Silk, which signed Dolan in 2013. "She was a strong presence for women in the electronic scene."

Dolan, who studied classical piano at the San Francisco Music Conservatory, "played bass, guitar and accordion" according to her boyfriend, David Last. The couple completed an album together in 2015. "She had a sense of humor," says Last. "We were sending up '80s music." Friend and collaborator Maria Minerva remembers Dolan's commitment: "She'd bring two 80-pound suitcases to her shows; gear that she'd drag on her own."

"She didn't live online, didn't live through social media, didn't live through selling herself," says Brown. "She made music only and didn't pretend she was anything she wasn't." -- Ana Pelaez

Travis Blitzen Hough

Hough, 35, played in an Oakland electronic band, Ghost of Lightning, and frequented Ghost Ship. According to his manager Benjamin Dreaper, he was at the venue that night to see friends who were performing.

During the day, Hough worked as a creative arts therapist at Montalvin Manor Elementary in Richmond, California, where the students called him Mr. Travis. After word of Hough's death spread, Montalvin Manor principal Katherine Acosta Verprauskus said she heard from many former students who had stayed in touch with him over the years. "It just speaks to how much of a wonderful human being he was that he gave his own time to continue the relationships he had built with our community," Verprauskus says.

Colleagues describe Hough, who worked at the school for two years, as someone who loved his job. A week before the tragedy, he helped parents decorate the cafeteria for a school dance while creating the playlist. "He was so free and silly, dancing with all the kids and having such a fun time," recalls Verprauskus. "Travis helped kids through art," remembers Dreaper. "He put that across in his music, too - a feeling of emotional healing." -- A.P.

Johnny Igaz

The 34-year-old Igaz, who performed as Nackt, was DJ'ing when the fire broke out. He released some of his music on 100 Percent Silk - the dance-music label whose artist Golden Donna (Joel Shanahan) was to headline the show - and worked as a music analyst at Pandora.

Igaz grew up in the Bay Area, playing jazz saxophone and collecting funk, soul and hip-hop records. His younger brother Paul remembers him spinning Stevie Wonder, Gil Scott-Heron, The Beatles, The Grateful Dead and Michael Jackson on their parents' turntable. After graduating from Boston's Berklee College of Music, Igaz returned to the Bay Area, assisting One Little Indian Records with digital marketing. The week of the fire was his last at Pandora, where he had worked since 2007. He recently started as a part-time music buyer for San Francisco's Green Apple Books.

Igaz previously had a weekly residency at Oakland's Ruby Room, established the East Oakland deep-house party Deep East and co-founded underground collective Rare Form and the Outpost party.

"Johnny was a fantastic human being," says his friend Nic Higuera, a veteran of the local -underground scene. "As things were happening, the only thing he would have been doing was trying to get other people out safely." - Whitney Phaneuf

Ara Jo

A queer-identifying visual artist and co-founder of the East Bay Alternative Book and Zine Fest, Ara Jo, 29, played many roles in the East Bay creative world. She served as curator and organizer at two art galleries (the Sgraffito Gallery and the Rock Paper Scissors Collective) in Oakland, where she lived, and worked at the Berkeley art supply store Ink Stone. She had also, according to friend Anjelica Colliard, just started a combination punk-cumbia band called HGS in which she played synths. The quartet had just played one of its first gigs at a Standing Rock benefit and released its first single, "Pepe y Las Ardillas," on Dec. 1.

"She was a spearhead for so many significant arts communities in Oakland," says Colliard of Jo, an electronic music fan and frequent sight at neighborhood venues. "She was constantly connecting different groups of people together."

Another friend, Whitney Diaz, described meeting Ara Jo on a recent camping trip on the Yuba River in Northern California. "Her energy was contagious," Diaz says, describing how she was the first to jump in the water. "She was being her silly self, making jokes." Says Colliard: "She never seemed to forget the real meaning of never wasting a moment of her time in this life." -- J.B.

Feral Pines

Pines, 29, was a garage rock musician, lover of animals (she owned two rescue dogs) and Westport, Connecticut native who arrived in the Bay Area from Bloomington, Indiana in September. Eliza Wicks-Frank, Feral Pines' former partner of five years, says that Pines was "last seen taking down swastika paraphernalia at Ghost Ship" - just before the fire began, Pines and her friends had decided to tear down some of the wooden Hindu symbols that hung in the eclectic space.

As a musician, Wicks-Frank says, Pines "was a brilliant obsessive weirdo with an encyclopedic knowledge for all things to do with synthesizers." She went to Ghost Ship on Friday night with musician Cash Askew, who also died, and another friend who survived. The three, Wicks-Frank says, "wanted to start a trans girl rave collective."

In a joint statement given to Billboard, Wicks-Frank and Pines' close friends Lex Young and Scout Wolfcave wrote that, "For many in her trans community, Feral was a guide and sister in a world of small joys and terrible precariousness for trans women." Says Young: "We are all gutted now." -- J.B.

Jennifer Kiyomi Tanouye

Tanouye, a 31-year-old who grew up in the Bay Area, championed local bands in her job as a music manager at Shazam and as the former director of the Mission Creek Oakland Music and Arts Festival. "She could bring people together," says Noella Teele, co-owner of Oakland magazine shop Issues, where Tanouye worked for four years.

With her ever-changing hair - it shifted from fuchsia to teal to indigo - and her beloved Pomeranian by her side, Tanouye could often be spotted, as she was that night at Ghost Ship, painting nail art in bars, clubs and DIY venues. "She created community wherever she went," says Nicole Leigh, who volunteered alongside Tanouye for Mission Creek Oakland. "You wouldn't detect an ounce of judgment or pretension."

Shazam paid tribute to Tanouye on its app and website, adding a link to donate to the fire relief fund. "It's such an enormous loss,"says Shazam CEO Rich Riley. "We're all very much in mourning. She was a ray of light."

Friends are working on establishing a scholarship in Tanouye's honor at Mills College, where she graduated in 2007, and Mission Creek festival founder Jeff Ray hopes to carry on Tanouye's legacy by raising funds for an all-ages, nonprofit venue in Oakland. -- W.P.
Wesley Snipes is adding author to his resume: The Blade actors first novel, a supernatural thriller called Talon of God, has landed at HarperCollins imprint Harper Voyager. The book, co-authored with Ray Norman, will be published in July.

The novels lead characters are Lauren Jefferson, a young doctor who becomes embroiled in an apocalyptic battle between the forces of heaven and hell, and Talon Hunter, a spirit warrior.

Snipes described the premise to Deadline: There are spiritual warriors that inhabit this planet who are here to help balance out the evil forces, and they are always looking for the next apprentice. And when they find the next apprentice to train  the next heir apparent  then they can move on to the higher realms. The reluctant Lauren is chosen.

The lead character Lauren is a very spiritual person, Snipes said. A spiritual woman, and her father is a minister who is put to the challenge. Lauren has been chosen to be a Holy Warrior here on Earth. Shes a doctor; her father is a Baptist minister.

Snipes said he and Norman developed the book with the intention of an eventual screen adaptation. Without a doubt, Snipes said, adding he specifically wrote a strong female lead to bridge the gap in terms of equality of action content for women. Snipes said the book has an urban element, a hip-hop element, supernatural elements.

The actor said hes been working on the book with Norman for two years, and that the two met after contemplating an earlier project together. Norman is a first-time novelist who has ghost-written books on health, nutrition and spiritual self-help.

Asked about the role of faith in the book, Snipes said, There are spiritual questions. Are there demonic forces in the world that manipulate us into doing things that are not in our best interests or into accepting conditions that are not in our best interests? The human mind is pretty intriguing, why we do some of the things we do.

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Snipes compared the tone of the novel to films The Devils Advocate, Constantine and little bits of Blade thrown in there.

Harper Voyager, the fantasy/sci-fi imprint of HarperCollins, will publish the novel July 25. Harper Voyager Executive Editor David Pomerico acquired North American rights to the book.

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Apache Corporation APA is an independent energy company that could be an interesting play for investors. That is because, not only does the stock have decent short-term momentum, but it is seeing solid activity on the earnings estimate revision front as well.

These positive earnings estimate revisions suggest that analysts are becoming more optimistic on APAs earnings for the coming quarter and year. In fact, consensus estimates have moved sharply higher for both of these time frames over the past four weeks, suggesting that Apache could be a solid choice for investors.

Current Quarter Estimates for APA

In the past 30 days, 2 estimates have gone higher for Apache while 1 has gone lower in the same time period. The trend has been pretty favorable too, with estimates increasing from 11 cents a share 30 days ago, to 15 cents today, a move of 36.4%.

Current Year Estimates for APA

Meanwhile, Apaches current year figures are also looking quite promising, with 1 estimate moving higher in the past month, compared to none lower. The consensus estimate trend has also seen a boost for this time frame, narrowing from a loss of 64 cents per share 30 days ago to a loss of 54 cents per share today, an increase of 15.6%.

APACHE CORP Price and Consensus

APACHE CORP Price and Consensus | APACHE CORP Quote

Bottom Line

The stock has also started to move higher lately, adding 14.4% over the past four weeks, suggesting that investors are starting to take note of this impressive story. So investors may definitely want to consider this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stock to profit in the near future. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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Once upon a time, it was de rigeur for U.S. politicians to boast of the prowess of the American worker. Donald Trump, in his policies at least, seems to be putting an end to that.

We need not shrink from the challenge of the global economy, then-President Bill Clinton said in his 1997 State of the Union Speech, when free trade was a much more popular idea than it is today. After all, we have the best workers and the best products. In a truly open market, we can out-compete anyone, anywhere on Earth.

Today, this kind of American exceptionalism is harder to justify. Many politicians have given up on it altogether. Trump gave a hint at the different approach theyd be taking to international economic competition when he met with executives of the heating and cooling firm Carrier. "I don't want them moving out of the country without consequences," Trump told the New York Times. Mike Pence added, contra Clinton, that The free market has been sorting it out and America's been losing.

A Republican Vice President arguing that the White House should interfere with the workings of the free market in order to protect American workers would have been unthinkable just five years ago. But there is increasing evidence that global trade doesnt work the way that free market fundamentalists have always believed.

In a new working paper published on Monday by the National Bureau of Economic Research, economists David Autor, David Dorn, Gordon Hanson, Pian Shu, and Gary Pisano come to the same conclusion. The paper finds that competition with Chinese exporters have had deleterious effects on American innovation. To do so, the authors looked at how import competition affects innovation in the United States by studying the effect of increased import competition on American manufacturing firms R&D spending and issuance of patents. Our results suggest that the China trade shock reduces firm profitability in U.S. manufacturing, leading firms to contract operations along multiple margins of activity, including innovation.

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This is counter to the popular belief that while specific American workers may be harmed by free trade encouraging low-skilled jobs to move abroad, the American economy would benefit overall by increased competition because competition leads to more innovation and lower prices for consumers.

But this economics-101 conception of the global economy has long since stopped working for the American people, and the political class is finally catching on. Last month, the Pew Research Center published two sets of polling results that show that the plurality of Americans believe that U.S. involvement in the global economy is a bad thing because it lowers wages and costs jobs in the U.S. However, when scholars in international relations at major Universities were asked the same question, 9-in-10 said that it was a good thing because it provides the U.S. with new markets and opportunities for growth.

This likely shows the disconnect between the theoretical foundations of how international trade works and the practical and anecdotal effects of what average people see everyday. In theory, international trade makes everyone richer as countries shift production to goods and services they can produce most efficiently. But this increased wealth is of little consequence to average folks if it captured by the lucky few.

One of the more perceptive observations of the Donald Trump campaign was that the political and academic class in the United States had overlooked these effects, while many Americans have not.

See original article on Fortune.com

More from Fortune.com
Early December means the height of flu season is almost here. Every year, millions of Americans get the flu. Last season, 310,000 were hospitalized with flu-related illnesses.

Yet just more than 40 percent of adults have gotten their flu shots so far this year, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Preventionroughly the same percentage as in the past few years. If youve been putting off your shot, now is the time to get it: It can take anywhere from two to four weeks after being vaccinated to develop antibodies to fight off the virus, and flu season usually peaks between December and March.

Right now, only about 1.8 percent of people in the U.S. who visited the doctor are reporting flu-like symptoms, according the CDC, which is slightly less than normal. But its still too early to tell whether this years flu season will be mild or severe, says influenza researcher Andrew Pekosz, Ph.D., a professor in the department of molecular biology and immunology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. And when the flu strikes, it can spread quickly.

Heres why you shouldnt delay getting your shot:

The Flu Shot Is Effective

Every year experts predict the flu strains that are most likely to be in circulation and put those into the vaccine. Last years flu season was mildin part because those predictions were accurate. And while its too early to be sure about this years vaccine, so far, "it looks like the vaccine and the circulating strains are matched pretty well," Pekosz says.

The CDCs new report also reveals that almost 46 percent of people in the U.S. were immunized.

If flu vaccination rates last year had been just 5 percentage points higher, the CDC says, an additional 500,000 cases of the flu and 6,000 hospitalizations could have been avoided.

Its true that some people who get the shot may still contract the flu. An unexpected strain can always emergeone that the shot does not protect you against. But in the past five years, with the exception of the 2014 to 2015 vaccine (which was only 19 percent effective), people who got a seasonal flu vaccine were roughly 50 percent less likely to get the virus than people who skipped the shot.

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Your Flu Shot Protects Others

If youre a healthy adult, you may not be all that worried about getting the flu, because beyond making you feel lousy for a week, chances are it won't cause you serious harm.

But children younger than 5, the elderly, pregnant women, and those with chronic health problems are more likely to suffer complications from the flu. The flu vaccine also tends to be less effective in some of these people.

Thats one reason the CDC recommends that healthy adults get the flu vaccine: If enough people are protected from the flu with a vaccine, those most at risk for complications can be protected as wella phenomenon known as herd immunity. Thats also why its especially important to get your shot if you live or work with young children, older adults, or people with certain medical conditions.

The CDC has estimated that between 2005 and 2014, the flu vaccine averted roughly 40,000 flu-related deaths.

The Flu Shot Is Affordable and Safe

Currently, insurance plans are required to cover your flu shot with no co-pay and no co-insurance. If youre uninsured, your local health department may provide resources on where to get a flu shot at little or no cost. And if your doctors office or employer is not offering flu shots, you can find options near you at vaccinefinder.org.

The vaccine is safe for almost everyone. People with life-threatening allergies or a history of Guillain-Barre syndrome should talk with their doctor before they get a flu shot. Severe allergic reactions are extremely rare.

Some people think you can actually get the flu by having a flu shot. But this is a myth: The flu vaccine is made with inactivated or dead viruses, so it cant cause the flu. It can, however, can cause minor side effects such as soreness at the site of the injection, headache, body aches, and fever.

This year, the CDC no longer recommends the FluMist Nasal Spray Vaccine, because it is less effective than the standard shot. So be sure you get either the trivalent or quadrivalent vaccine (which protect against either three or four strains). An egg-free version of the trivalent shot is available for adults with allergies, and a high-dose version is available for people 65 and older.





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Goldman Sachs stock price is rocketing upwards, as President-elect Donald Trump stacks his administration with bankers and former employees from the firm.

On Friday, President-elect Donald Trump reportedly asked the number two executive at Goldman Sachs, Gary Cohn, to head up his National Economic Council (NEC). Cohn is a 26-year veteran of the firm and has served as president and COO for the last decade. Hes the first current Goldman employee to be tapped for a high-level role in the Trump administration.

Last month, Trump announced hed appoint former Goldman banker Steve Mnuchin as treasury secretary. Trump's senior advisor Steve Bannon also worked at the bank in the 1990s.

Read: Trump's Hate-Love Relationship With Goldman Sachs

Back in September, Goldman Sachs released a memo reassuring clients that, no matter who won the upcoming election, there would be no shortage of money-making opportunities for the firm. That forecast seems to have been spot on: In the month since the election, Goldman shares have climbed nearly 25 percent amid a broader stock market surge thats been dubbed the Trump rally.

Trump and his economic team have promised to roll back banking regulations while lowering corporate taxes. Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein  who supported Hillary Clinton during the campaign has since warmed to a Trump presidency. The declared policies of Mr. Trump are therefore a good thing.... [he] may turn out to be a much better president than anyone else might have been in that place, Blankfein told the German newspaper Handelsblatt on Thursday. I am not pessimistic at all because he won.

Cohn holds $212 million in Goldman stock. Hell have to sell it  but like other government appointees, can delay paying capital gains taxes thanks to a special clause in the tax code.

The appointment of Goldman Sachs bankers to key government posts is not new: President Bill Clinton and President George W. Bush tapped Goldman Sachs senior executives as treasury secretaries.

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But for Trump, it's something of a reversal. During the campaign, he repeatedly railed against Goldman Sachs: He attacked Ted Cruz during the primaries for taking a loan from the bank, and said Goldman had total control over Hillary Clinton, who gave a number of paid speeches to its employees behind closed doors.

Since his victory, Trump has modulated his tone. He told a crowd in Ohio last week that he didn't want to appoint an advisor who'd failed all his life. Instead, he promised to surround himself with succesful bussiness people. I am going to be putting on the greatest killers youve ever seen, he said.

After the Cohn story broke on Friday, Mnuchin, whos become the most visible surrogate for Trumps economic policy, told CNN that the Trump presidency would mark an end to unwarranted attacks on bankers. The cabal against the bankers is over, he said. We need to bring country together.

Cohn, a registered Democrat, wrote checks for over $25,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in 2006, 2007, and 2008. Hes also given money to Republicans including onetime Trump rival Marco Rubio and Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt, according to FEC filings.







As head of the NEC, Cohn would exercise significant influence over economic policy  but, unlike the treasury secretary, the appointment does not require Senate confirmation. George W. Bushs NEC chief, Lawrence B. Lindsey, helped push for a $1.3 trillion tax cut, and Obamas former NEC head Gene Sperling is credited with engineering the $447 billion American Jobs Act.

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After years of selling her eponymous brand of shoes, handbags, perfumes and accessories at department stores, Sarah Jessica Parker is jumping into the brick-and-mortar retail business.

But the boutiques location has some Parker fans baffled. The SJP by Sarah Jessica Parker store is housed in the new $1.4 billion MGM National Harbor resort and casino along the Potomac River in Prince Georges County, Maryland, just on the outskirts of Washington, DC.

The Big Apple-based actress, fashion icon and entrepreneur is synonymous with New York City since her run as the star of the long-running hit Sex and the City, but as she explains to me in the above video, MGM asked and had such faith in us and the brand, we just had to say yes.

The resort and casino includes a 308-room hotel, a 3,000-seat theater and restaurants by prominent chefs Jose Andres and Marcus Samuelsson.

Parker, 51, admits this is a challenging time for brick-and-mortar retailers, especially luxury brands. In fact, traffic to high-end shops has slipped 20% compared to a year ago, according to the consulting firm The Luxury Institute.

When we met up with Parker at her 1,603 sq. foot boutique, she was busy arranging high-heeled shoes on the shelves.

We were here until 1:30 a.m. putting the final touches on the store before opening day, said Parker. She and her business partner, George Malkemus III, the CEO of Manolo Blahnik, visited the site in hard hats endless times during the construction.

At the boutique, shoppers will find the complete SJP Collection, including colorful and bejeweled Italian-made shoes starting at $240, leather handbags priced as high as $695, as well as her latest offering, Parkers Little Black Dress Collection, which starts at $395. For the more frugal shopper, theres the SJP candle for $48, her complete line of perfumes, a $35 signature key chain and a $30 SJP canvas tote.

Malkemus wouldnt name names, but said since launching her shoe collection in 2014, Parker has been approached by a number of companies either wanting to buy her brand or open a store with her. For one reason or another, Malkemus says it was never the right deal.

The next SJP store will likely open at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, according to Malkemus, and he says a New York City store will happen when the time is right. Parker tells Yahoo Finance that New York City is her dream location for a retail store.

Just 12 miles from the White House, Parker is ready to dress the Washington-elite. Although she was a staunch supporter of Hillary Clinton for president, the ever diplomatic businesswoman says she would welcome a visit from incoming First Lady Melania Trump to her store. We are very democratic here, she says with a smile, The shoes are available to everybody.
"How to Win Friends and Influence People," "Think and Grow Rich" and "The Secret" are all titles of popular self-help books.

If self-help books work for relationships, finances, career prospects and the power of attraction, why can't self-help replace addiction treatment?

We live in a proactive society with infinite knowledge at the click of a mouse or a conversation with Siri. We are strides ahead of past generations, with enough innovation to make your head spin.

As of Dec. 2, 2016, a simple online search for "drug addiction help" yields the following article titles:

-- Drug Addiction Help | Assist Someone with Recovery Treatment

-- Drug Addiction -- Parents: How to get help

-- Overcoming Drug Addiction: A Guide to Recovering from Addiction

With this flood of information featuring tips and strategies for addiction treatment, shouldn't you be able to treat addiction from the confinements of your own home as you would a broken heart, an overdrawn checking account or a rough case of social anxiety?

Unfortunately, addiction treatment, alcoholism treatment, mood disorder treatment and a handful of other treatments involving egocentric disorders (which cause the sufferer great difficulty with differentiating fiction and reality involving the self) require an external intervention. Effective addiction treatment -- and alcoholism treatment, in particular -- require a combination of detoxification, individual therapy, group therapy and aftercare support to address physical dependency, trauma, absence of connection and long-term abstinence, respectively.

Self-help methods are only effective when the participant can approach treatment logically, articulate the problem, dedicate time and mental energy to achieving the desired outcome and share the results with others.

The obsession and compulsion of addiction and alcoholism prevent the necessary qualifications for effective self-help, making it impossible to use this method for addiction treatment.

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Here's why addiction treatment is best left to treatment centers:

[See: 7 Health Risks of Binge Drinking You Can't Ignore.]

The addicted mind is not logical.

The Red Ribbon Week slogan "Drug Use is Life Abuse" has merit when examining the biological impact drugs have on the brain. Drugs interfere with the communication system of your brain, hindering the performance of your neurons, which essentially tell your body what to do. The result: Your decision making is impaired and you lose control of normal mental functioning.

The addicted mind is irrational and impulsive, making self-help addiction treatment very difficult. Physical dependency on drugs and alcohol cause the "next fix" to be highest priority regardless of the consequences.

Home detoxification has low success rates and often leads to relapse simply because the impulsivity of the addicted brain runs rampant, eventually causing the sufferer to choose the drink instead of the physical symptoms and overwhelming obsession.

At New Method Wellness, the addiction treatment center where I work, we utilize medical-assisted detoxification. This means each client meets with a general practitioner, psychiatrist and nurse to determine the "easier and softer" way to detox the body with tapering medication and 24-hour surveillance.

Self-help addiction treatment is essentially asking the sufferer to fabricate logic.

[See: How to Find the Best Mental Health Professional for You.]

Addiction has many layers.

Addiction treatment is a process of peeling back layers of hopelessness, trauma, rejection, self-hatred and more. These layers harden and build over time, creating a tough exterior and leaving a very sensitive and raw center. Without the help of an experienced professional, the exposure of one's raw self can be extremely overwhelming to face. Debilitating, even.

Self-help addiction treatment often ceases once the sufferer internally accepts the wreckage and chaos they have caused themselves and those around them, turning to the drink when the pain is overwhelming.

The support from therapists and fellow addicts who can empathize with these overwhelming emotions is the most powerful aspect of professional addiction treatment.

Physical removal from your environment is often necessary.

The layered, illogical brain that plagues an addict often -- if not always -- requires a physical removal from the current environment.

Since we're in the midst of the holiday season, think about all of the Hallmark Channel Christmas movies you have in your queue. The plot usually goes something like this: man/woman has to go home to family for Christmas, family lives in a small town, man/woman stuck in old way of thinking for a few days, man/woman has a change in perspective and it changes their life.

There's something more to the plot than pure cheese: Our way of thinking is largely determined by our environment. A temporary or permanent environment change does wonders for addiction treatment, primarily because a change in environment often leads to a shift in perspective. You escape from the negativity, the drug connections, the "bad influences" and the same unhealthy routine.

[See: 14 Ways Alcohol Affects the Aging Process.]

Addiction prevents connection.

If you haven't had the chance to watch the TED Talk " Everything You Think You Know about Addiction is Wrong," I highly recommend taking the time to watch.

The host, Johann Hari, explains that the lack of connection or the lack of the mental capacity to connect to others, which is present in all addiction cases, only pushes the sufferer deeper into his or her addiction.

Self-help addiction treatment lacks the foundation of recovery: connection to others. In a self-help scenario, the addict relies solely on the self and the presented tools for recovery.

A major component to the mastery of a particular subject is the ability to teach others.

Self-help is particularly successful in relationships, finances and career issues because the desire to share helpful tools and life-changing solutions with others is very powerful.

Sharing success with others requires the existence of basic connection. Addiction blocks connection; it's isolating by nature, not only by stigma, but often by process of elimination as the addict tends to burn bridges.

At New Method Wellness, we emphasize the power of one person helping another in recovery. This can be as simple as debriefing with a fellow addict after individual therapy, hugging someone who seems to be having a bad day or sharing your story with a new client.

Addiction treatment requires an army composed of the sufferer, the therapists and counselors and like-minded peers.

While self-help is a powerful tool in many different areas of life, self-help addiction treatment is a liability for the addict, potentially pushing him or her into a downward spiral.

Professional addiction treatment provides the logical approach, the emotional support, the physical escape and the connection necessary to make a lasting impact and lead the addict onto a road of long-term recovery.

DeAnna Jordan is the clinical director at New Method Wellness, a substance abuse treatment center in Orange Country, California. Jordan has over 20 years of experience working with clients in recovery and is a marriage and family therapist specializing in the maintenance of healthy relationships. As a recovering addict, Jordan brings a breadth of personal recovery experience to her clinical leadership and believes a comfortable, structured and supportive environment is an essential part of maintaining long-term sobriety. In addition to her passion for recovery, Jordan is extremely involved in the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. As a current Woman of the Year candidate, Jordan is campaigning to raise funds for LLS blood cancer research in honor of local children who are blood cancer survivors.
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Dutch anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders said his conviction on Friday of insulting a group and inciting discrimination was "insanity" and said the three judges who handed down the ruling were "haters" of his far-right Freedom Party (PVV). "Three PVV-hating judges declare Moroccans a race and convict me and half of the Netherlands. Insane," he wrote in a tweet shortly after the verdict. (This version of the story corrects to show precise charges on which Wilders was convicted) (Reporting By Thomas Escritt, editing by Larry King)
The Hague (AFP) - Populist Dutch MP Geert Wilders will learn his fate Friday when judges hand down their verdict in his closely watched hate speech trial, just over three months ahead of crucial parliamentary elections.

Prosecutors are seeking a 5,000-euro ($5,300) fine for the firebrand politician, who faces charges of insulting a racial group and inciting racial hatred after comments he made about Moroccans living in the Netherlands.

Wilders, 53, whose far-right Freedom Party (PVV) is spearheading polls ahead of a crunch vote on March 15, told AFP on Thursday he won't be present at the high security courthouse near Schiphol airport.

He'll "issue a video reaction in English and Dutch," afterwards said Wilders, who is represented by his lawyer Geert-Jan Knoops.

Latest polls put the PVV at 34 seats in the 150-seat lower house of Dutch parliament, some 10 seats ahead of his nearest rival, Prime Minister Mark Rutte's Liberals.

Amid a string of populist victories in Europe and the November election of Donald Trump as the next US president, the outcome of the Dutch vote will be keenly watched.

Observers say rather than hurting the controversial lawmaker, his trial has boosted his popularity among Dutch voters, worried about the influx of immigrants and driven by eurosceptic sentiments.

- 'Fewer Moroccans' -

The three-week trial of Wilders focused in particular on a statement made at a March 2014 local government election rally in The Hague, when he asked supporters whether they wanted "fewer or more Moroccans in your city and in the Netherlands".

When the crowd shouted back "Fewer! Fewer!" a smiling Wilders answered: "We're going to organise that."

Prosecutors told a three-judge bench they dragged Wilders to court because "racist remarks need to be stopped" after police received 6,400 complaints about his comments.

Such remarks "affect human dignity to the core," Wouter Bos told the trial, adding "freedom of speech goes hand-in-hand with duties and responsibilities. It's not an absolute".

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Throughout their case, prosecutors quoted numerous examples of Dutch-Moroccans who said they felt like "third-rate citizens" and that even "children are afraid" because of the politician's statements.

Wilders boycotted most of the high-profile trial, which he called a "disgrace" as he frequently tweeted his opinions.

On the last day, he finally appeared in the dock and remained unapologetic, saying if he is found guilty "millions of Dutch citizens will be convicted with me".

The firebrand lawmaker with his trademark peroxide hair said "it is my right and my duty as a politician to speak about the problems in our country".

Wilders also accused prosecutors and opposition politicians of directing a "parliamentary process" against him ahead of the March polls.

Political observers say whether convicted or acquitted, Wilders will benefit either way by the publicity the trial has generated.

A conviction however means Wilders will get a criminal record which could for example impact his travel plans to the United States, popular daily tabloid Algemeen Dagblad said.

In any case the defence is sure to appeal a conviction, the paper added.

If elected as the lowlands country's new prime minister, Wilders has vowed to confiscate Korans, close mosques and Islamic schools, shut Dutch borders and ban migrants from Islamic countries among a raft of other anti-Islamic moves.

His views have seen him receive death threats including from terror groups such as the Islamic State group and al-Qaeda. He is guarded at all times and called the "best protected man in The Netherlands".
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John Glenn, a former NASA astronaut who became the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962, died Thursday at the age of 95, and almost immediately, people started sharing their memories and thoughts about the American hero.

One of those people was Katherine Johnson, the "human computer" who helped check and invent the math that sent Glenn into orbit and brought him back home during his first flight decades ago.

SEE ALSO: These 'Hidden Figures' portraits profile brainy, badass women

"A good man has left Earth for the last time. John Glenn's life will long be remembered for his time in space, his courage and his service to all Americans," Johnson said in a statement Friday.

Johnson's life is the subject of the new movie Hidden Figures, which chronicles her work at NASA as well as the work of Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson  two other African-American "human computers" who left a mark on the space agency but have not been widely celebrated until now.

NASA credits Johnson (played by Taraji P. Henson) with "verifying the calculations made by early electronic computers of John Glenns 1962 launch to orbit and the 1969 Apollo 11 trajectory to the moon."

Glen Powell, the actor who plays Glenn in Hidden Figures, also paid tribute to Glenn's life on Twitter.

Now THAT is how you live a life! Godspeed, John Glenn. A true gentleman who humbly touched the stars and made us believe in the impossible.  Glen Powell (@glenpowell) December 8, 2016

In Hidden Figures, Johnson  who faces horrible discrimination due to her status as an African-American woman working in a white male space in the 1960s  is key to NASA Langley's goal of putting Glenn into orbit after the Soviet Union sent Yuri Gagarin up months before.

Hidden Figures will be released in theaters across the U.S. on Jan. 6, with limited release starting Christmas Day.

BONUS: NASA just launched a spacecraft to help us find the origins of life on Earth
Mums are sharing their c-section scars to challenge perception about caesarean births [Photo: Instagram/mrsfitmom_]

Just one day after giving birth to her baby daughter, Alexa, Raquel Renteria took to social media to share a picture. But it wasnt an image of her newborn she wanted the world to see, but the raw caesarean scar shed been left with after giving birth.

The new mum from California wanted everyone to know why she was proud of her scar and share an empowering message to other women who given birth via c-section.

The last few weeks leading up to Alexas birth, I was scared. I was terrified of this surgery, she wrote. I was afraid of this scar and the long term effects it would have on body and my mind. I was worried I would feel inadequate, like I didnt give birth to her.

So many different fears lingered, but SO many other mamas told me, it would all be okay, she continued. And it is. I dont feel as if I was robbed of a birth or like less of a bad ass. This scar proves that I am indeed a #badassmama.





Raquel certainly isnt the only one to take to social media to share their c-section scar selfies. Earlier this year new mum Raye Lee shared images of her own post-surgery scar to prove that caesareans are not the easy way out.

Having grown tired of others commenting that having a c-section meant she hadnt actually given birth, Raye Lee shared an image of her scarring alongside a message calling out people for birth-shaming women who have delivered their babies via caesarean.

Ah, yes. My emergency c-section was absolutely a matter of convenience, she wrote. It was really convenient to be in labour for 38 hours before my baby went into distress and then every contraction was literally STOPPING his HEART.

This was the most painful thing I have experienced in my life, she continued. Having a shrieking infant pulled out of an incision that is only five inches long, but is cut and shredded and pulled until it rips apart through all of your layers of fat, muscle, and organs (which they lay on the table next to your body, in order to continue to cut until they reach your child) is a completely different experience than I had imagined my sons birth to be.

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And back in October mum-of-two Jodie Shaw posted a picture of her c-section scar to Instagram, taken just two days after giving birth to her second child.

A new day and a what seems to be another new post from someone insinuating that giving birth by caesarian means that you didnt give birth. Can we please just stop! she wrote in the accompanying caption.

I obviously cant change peoples views but Ive decided to post this picture to see if it may make people understand that despite what our birth plans might say. Sometimes we dont get a choice, she continued.

I didnt get a choice. I had a fibroid the size of a melon sat on my cervix and a low lying placenta which meant that Ive been left with no ordinary c-section scar. But whether you believe this or not. I gave birth to my baby. So next time you judge someone for not doing what you consider to be giving birth please take a minute to think about why they may have had to deliver that way.

A good point well said. But the fact that women feel the need to share images of their caesarean scars to prove that theyve given birth is pretty concerning.

Easy option? Can we stop with the c-section shaming now please? [Photo: Getty]

Unfortunately though, birth-shaming is an actual thing and the caesarean birth backlash seems to be a particularly hot topic of late. From mums making throwaway comments about being too posh to push, to keyboard warriors writing snarky remarks on birth announcements, heck there was even a troll group on Facebook who posted that c-section mums were taking the easy way out and were only shut down thanks to a torrent of complaints.

As if mothers werent being pitted against each other enough with the whole Bottle Vs Breast, Stay at home Vs Working, we now have to add Vaginal Vs C-section into the mix.

But isnt it a shame that the world has become so competitive that some mums feel superior to another mum because their babies came out the front door as opposed to the sun roof? That we have to debate about what constitutes real childbirth.

Hopefully, well one day live in a world where all births are considered equal. Until then lets encourage the c-section mums to keep proudly sharing their scar selfies. And please lets stop with the birth-shaming. Because making someone feel inferior for how they choose or need to bring their baby into the world is so not the one.

What do you think of the c-section scar selfie movement? Let us know @YahooStyleUK

Blogger shares honest photo of her c-section scar to encourage mums to be proud of their post-baby bodies

Whats with the epidural-shaming?
Paris (AFP) - French lawyers for women who say a contraceptive implant sold by Bayer Healthcare had caused a string of medical complications launched a lawsuit against the multinational on Friday.

But France's health ministry said that investigations carried out so far by regulators suggested it was not the device itself that caused problems, but the way it had sometimes been fitted.

Lawyer Charles Joseph-Oudin told AFP a suit had been filed on behalf of two women but lawyers were working on around 30 more cases, in which women said they had suffered medical complications.

"We are launching two judicial civil compensation procedures in order to have experts named to rule on the ailments and the device," he said.

Bayer should pay for these independent reports given that the women launching the lawsuit were not rich, he added.

Women have described problems including bleeding, neck pains, episodes of deafness and periods of paralysis.

The device in question is known as the Essure implant, which Bayer markets as a form of "permanent" birth control. It is fitted in the fallopian tubes, normally without general anaesthetic.

Around one million of the devices have been fitted worldwide since 2001, of which 240,000 were in France, according to figures from Bayer.

One theory was that the troubles were being caused by an allergic reaction to traces of nickel in the device, said Joseph-Oudin.

But the way the device had been fitted might also be part of the problem, he added.

The ANSM, France's watchdog for medicines and medical devices, said they had received 242 complaints about the device in 2015 and 162 more in the first 10 months of this year.

A health ministry statement Friday said a 2015 ANSM investigation had found that any problems reported were down to the way the implant had been fitted rather than the device itself.

They had since tightened up the controls on who could fit them, the statement added.

But even if they had not so far uncovered evidence that called the safety of Essure into question, they had been monitoring it closely for the last two years.

One of his clients is Marielle Klein, who founded Resist, an association campaigning for the Essure device to be pulled from the market until it has been tested further.
Episode 4 of AMERICAN DOERS, a new 12-part video series featuring original thinkers, innovators, craftspeople, risk-takers and artisans across the United States.

After the tragic death of their son, a Wyoming couple found the strength to go on  and found a way to help others in the process.

Tim and Debbie Bishop first met at a guest dude ranch in college. And they bonded over their dream to one day own a ranch of their own.

They were overjoyed to welcome a son in 1985. But Trenton, who was born with special needs, died at 8 months old.

You never fully get over it, Tim tells PEOPLE. I still tear up.

The couple relied on each other for support during the difficult time. Whenever comes in life, you can get through it, Debbie says.

The couple went on to achieve their dream of opening a ranch, purchasing the Medicine Bow Lodge on Nov. 1, 2002. The resort, complete with horseback riding, fishing and hiking, is nestled within the Snowy Range Mountains of Saratoga, Wyoming.

Its a place where people can get away, Tim says. We want people when they leave here to be better off than when they got here.

But their dream didnt come without its challenges. They almost had to close the ranch due to the financial crisis of 2008. And just one year later, on Dec. 9, 2009, they almost lost everything in a fire.

For more American Doers, go to americandoers.people.com.

I put a pair of jeans, pair of rubber boots and a trench coat on. I was trying to fight the fire, Jim says. When they got me in the ambulance my body temperature was 94 degrees. I was in a state of shock.

Despite the loss, they continued to grow stronger together.

We did lose everything in terms of material things, Debbie says. We still have each other, but it was a close call with this man.

The couple says despite the emotional and physical challenges thrown their way, they wouldnt do anything differently.

If I took back, then the good things that happened as a result wouldnt be here, says Jim. Right now, Im having a good time.

Story continues

The couple says theyve learned that perseverance is the key to contentment.

You dont give up. Theres just a grit that were given to keep going, says Debbie.




DailyFX.com -

Talking Points:

Yen drops as ECB stimulus boost sends global shares upward

Lull in key event risk may make for quiet end to trading week

US Dollar may decline in pre-positioning for FOMC meeting

The Japanese Yen underperformed in otherwise quiet overnight trade as most Asian stocks advanced, putting pressure on the perennial anti-risk currency. Regional shares followed Wall Street higher after the ECB expanded its monetary stimulus effort.

Mario Draghi and company extended QE asset purchases to run through 2017 from the previous end date at the end of March. The size of monthly asset purchases was lowered from 80 to 60 billion in the nine months from April through December.

The markets baseline expectation ahead of the ECB policy announcement favored a 6-month extension that kept the current pace of uptake unchanged. Compared to this, the central banks new scheme amounts to a net 60bnin additional accommodation.

From here, a quiet data docket in European and US trading hours argues for congestion as markets digest recent volatility. A US Dollar pullback may be in the cards amid pre-positioning for next weeks FOMC announcement as traders weigh the possibility that the Feds 2017 outlook will be more timid than their own.

See the schedule of upcoming webinars and join us LIVE to follow the financial markets!

Asia Session

GMT CCY EVENT ACT EXP PREV 21:45 NZD Card Spending Retail (MoM) (NOV) -0.1% 0.40% 0.5% 21:45 NZD Card Spending Total (MoM) (NOV) -0.3% - 0.6% 23:50 JPY BSI Large All Industry (QoQ) (4Q) 3 - 1.9 23:50 JPY BSI Large Manufacturing (QoQ) (4Q) 7.5 - 2.9 23:50 JPY Money Stock M2 (YoY) (NOV) 4.0% 3.7% 3.7% 23:50 JPY Money Stock M3 (YoY) (NOV) 3.4% 3.2% 3.1% 0:30 AUD Home Loans (MoM) (OCT) -0.8% -1.0% 1.5% 0:30 AUD Investment Lending (OCT) 0.7% - 5.1% 0:30 AUD Owner-Occupier Loan Value (MoM) (OCT) -0.8% - 0.8% 1:30 CNY CPI (YoY) (NOV) 2.3% 2.2% 2.1% 1:30 CNY PPI (YoY) (NOV) 3.3% 2.3% 1.2%

European Session

Story continues

GMT CCY EVENT EXP PREV IMPACT 6:45 CHF Unemployment Rate (NOV) 3.3% 3.2% Medium 6:45 CHF Unemployment Rate SA (NOV) 3.3% 3.3% Medium 7:00 EUR German Trade Balance (OCT) 22.0b 24.2b Medium 7:00 EUR German Current Account Balance (OCT) 22.0b 24.2b Medium 7:00 EUR German Exports SA (MoM) (OCT) 0.9% -1.2% Low 7:00 EUR German Imports SA (MoM) (OCT) 1.1% -0.7% Low 7:00 EUR German Labor Costs WDA (YoY) (3Q) - 1.8% Low 7:00 EUR German Labor Costs SA (QoQ) (3Q) - 0.2% Low 7:45 EUR French Budget Balance YTD (OCT) - -83.0b Low 7:45 EUR French Industrial Production (MoM) (OCT) 0.6% -1.1% Low 7:45 EUR French Industrial Production (YoY) (OCT) -0.6% -1.1% Low 7:45 EUR French Manufacturing Production (MoM) (OCT) 0.7% -1.1% Low 7:45 EUR French Manufacturing Production (YoY) (OCT) 0.1% -0.9% Low 9:30 GBP Visible Trade Balance (/Mn) (OCT) -11800 -12698 Medium 9:30 GBP Trade Balance Non EU (/Mn) (OCT) -3450 -3969 Medium 9:30 GBP Trade Balance (/Mn) (OCT) -4300 -5221 Medium 9:30 GBP Construction Output SA (MoM) (OCT) 0.2% 0.3% Low 9:30 GBP Construction Output SA (YoY) (OCT) -0.1% 0.2% Low 9:30 GBP BoE/TNS Inflation Next 12 Mths (NOV) - 2.2% Low

Critical Levels

CCY Supp 3 Supp 2 Supp 1 Pivot Point Res 1 Res 2 Res 3 EUR/USD 1.0144 1.0420 1.0517 1.0696 1.0793 1.0972 1.1248 GBP/USD 1.2301 1.2457 1.2522 1.2613 1.2678 1.2769 1.2925

--- Written by Ilya Spivak, Currency Strategist for DailyFX.com

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A priest in Rome, New York, has been put on a leave of absence after an investigation was launched into an allegation he abused a minor. The Rev. Paul Angelicchio, who has been the pastor of the St. John the Baptist and Transfiguration parish in Rome since 2011, was the subject of a recent allegation made to the Onondaga County District Attorneys Office over an event that took place 27 years ago.

Angelicchio, who grew up in the city in upstate New York and served as the police chaplain for Syracuse from 1977 to 1999, told his parishioners last month that he would be taking a leave of absence. In a statement, a spokeswoman for Bishop Robert J. Cunningham of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse said that, while the allegation had not been substantiated, it was following policy in temporarily removing Angelicchio from active duty.

Father Paul Angelicchio has been temporarily placed on administrative leave due to an allegation of abuse of a minor, read the statement from spokeswoman Danielle Cummings. The alleged incident would have taken place 27 years ago. The allegation was first made to the Onondaga County District Attorneys Office who forwarded it to the diocese after their review. Please note that the allegation has not been substantiated. But in keeping with the policy and practice of the diocese, and in conformity with the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Father Angelicchio is not permitted to publicly function as a priest until the matter is resolved. The diocese will follow its policy in regards to allegations of abuse including having the entire matter reviewed by professionals and the Diocesan Review Board.

Angelicchio was given a community award in May for his service to Rome.

While the exact nature of the allegation facing Angelicchio at this stage is unclear, the Catholic Church has been hit by a string of sexual abuse allegations against priests in recent years. Perhaps the most notable came in Boston, where a series of cases and subsequent cover-ups were exposed by the Boston Globe in 2002. In New York, meanwhile, it was revealed in 2012 that Cardinal Timothy Dolan authorized payments of up to $20,000 to priests who had committed sexual abuse so that they would not contest being dismissed from the priesthood.

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In October, Dolan announced the establishment of a program that would allow victims of sexual abuse by members of the clergy to apply for compensation. The move was seen as a response to calls for the statute of limitations, which currently prevents many victims of sexual abuse seeking redress in the courts, to be lifted, Some 46 people filed claims in the programs first two months.

Related Articles
Dean Baquet

The executive editor of The New York Times said in an interview this week that journalists at his publication, and elsewhere, have a hard time understanding religion and the role it plays in people's lives.

Dean Baquet told NPR one of his goals after the election was to "make sure that we are much more creative about beats out in the country so that we understand that anger and disconnectedness that people feel."

"And I think I use religion as an example because I was raised Catholic in New Orleans," he said. "I think that the New York-based  and Washington-based too, probably  media powerhouses don't quite get religion."

Baquet continued: "We have a fabulous religion writer, but she's all alone. We don't get religion. We don't get the role of religion in people's lives. And I think we can do much, much better."

The editor, who has helmed The Times since 2014, added that he believed "there are things that we can be more creative about to understand the country."

Since President-elect Donald Trump's unforeseen victory over Hillary Clinton last month, various news outlets have pondered how forecasts and predictions could have been so wrong.

"That's how I look at it," Baquet said. "I now have two big jobs. Big job one is to cover the most compelling and unusual president we have had in my lifetime.

"Big job two is to really understand and explain the forces in America that led to Americans wanting a change so much that they were willing to select such a different figure for the White House. Those are my two big jobs."

NOW WATCH: 'That hypocrisy is also real'  Jon Stewart takes liberals to task for calling all Trump supporters racist





More From Business Insider


DJ Khaled has been giving his keys to success all year through his Snapchat account, music, motivational speeches and interviews. But shortly before the semester's finals week, Ivy League students in New York City got to see him drop jewels in person.

On Thursday night, Columbia University hosted a talk that featured DJ Khaled and Arianna Huffington, co-founder and former editor-in-chief of Huffington Post. The two became friends after attending the White House Correspondents' Dinner together in May. Huffington went through each of the "keys" -- bits of advice and motivation -- Khaled listed in his new bestselling book, The Keys, and let Khaled expound on each point.

The event comes near the close of the most successful year of Khaled's career. His ninth studio album Major Key debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and received a Grammy nomination for best rap album this week; he performed on Beyonce's historic Formation Tour; and he landed endorsement deals and partnerships with Apple and Ciroc. There's also the newfound Internet fame: He became the most followed user on the social media platform Snapchat, taking devotees along with him as he jet-skis, DJs, praises his plants, makes motivational quips -- even as he stayed in the hospital room with his pregnant wife to witness the birth of his child.

As a result, Khaled has become not only a successful artist and celebrity, but a case study in brand-building, and for his followers, self-actualization. Or, as Huffington said at one point on Thursday night: "For me, you're not a music producer. You're a modern-day philosopher."

Khaled's celebrity was on full display at Columbia University. The students cheered as Khaled's fiancee Nicole Tuck walked into the classroom, pushing a baby stroller with their son Asad, recognizing her from his snaps. And they roared even louder when Huffington and Khaled walked in, as Khaled held his cell phone camera toward the crowd to record them on a Snapchat clip.

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Huffington listed different "keys" from Khaled's book, and the producer/exec had an explanation for each. He sheepishly smiled during bits of the interview, as if he was still surprised and grateful for the moment. "I feel like I'm in a movie right now," he said near the beginning of the event. But for the most part, he displayed the bravado and charm that has drawn in so many followers.

"Stay away from 'they'" is Khaled's encouragement to avoid negative people.

"I've actually had people come to me and say, 'Khaled, you're going to be nothing.' 'You're going to just be a local DJ.' 'You're not going to be able to put albums out.' These are real stories. Everything I've accomplished, I was told I wouldn't," Khaled said. "...'They' are people who are just very negative. These people will pull you down to the point where you're ruining your own life."

"Sometimes, they don't even want you to have Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal," Huffington added, referencing Khaled's cereal of choice as shown on his Snapchat. The media mogul consistently kept up with Khaled's lingo.

She then listed "secure the bag," Khaled's mantra that translates to making the right decisions to ensure one's success and well-being. As an example, he painted a hypothetical situation where Huffington drinks and drives the night before she's scheduled to sign a $100 million deal.

"That's not securing the bag at all," he said. "I'm just telling a story; she would never do that. But I'm just trying to give you examples. Sometimes, it'll be the little thing that'll mess up the biggest thing."

"I'm a father now. My son is my biggest blessing ever in my life. I've been searching for happiness and joy my whole life, and I am happy and joyful for life, but this is something I can't explain, I can't put in no words," Khaled continued. "I'm going to make sure I secure the bag on another level, to make sure he's good. Be humble, be confident, take care of your family, do the right thing."

Other keys included "respect the code," "glorify your success," "don't deny the heat" and "win win win, no matter what." Aside from expanding on the book's bullet points, Khaled played up his signature catchphrases, spoke about the importance of caring for one's personal health, and signed copies of The Keys after the event. He also revealed that he knows the title for his next album, but that he wasn't announcing it quite yet.

"My new album that I'm working on right now, I'm not going to tell you the title, but you're going to love it," he said, after breaking down how the titles to his other albums applied to his life at the time. "You're going to love it because I mean it."
Zack Snyder (Getty Images)

By Borys Kit, The Hollywood Reporter

Zack Snyder is going from the epic world of DC superheroes to war-torn Afghanistan.

After wrapping Justice League, Snyder is not tackling Justice League 2, as was the initial plan, but rather is focusing his attention on his long-in-development thriller The Last Photograph.

Snyder is still intent on directing Justice League 2, but that movie has been pushed back to make room for Ben Afflecks Batman stand-alone movie. The move left an opening in Snyders schedule for a production that is smaller-scale, at least compared to massive superhero tentpoles he has been working on of late. Call it a palate cleanser, if you will.

Snyder set up the project in the mid-2000s, after the success of 300, but the rights lapsed. Gianni Nunnaris Hollywood Gang is in the process of negotiating a new deal.

Read More: 100 Greatest Superhero Comics

Snyder concocted the story and his longtime colleague Kurt Johnstad wrote the script, which will get a sprucing up. In 2011, Christian Bale and Sean Penn were attached to star, but the project is now actorless. The plan, sources say, is to repackage the project and approach Warner Bros., where Snyder and his producing partner and wife, Deborah Snyder, have a first-look pact for their Cruel and Unusual Films banner, with the aim of having it shoot in late 2017.

Photograph centers on a war correspondent in Afghanistan who is the only one to survive an attack on a group of Americans. When a special ops soldier in search of a family member shows up, the two team up, with the correspondent hoping to score the story of his life.
By Joel Schectman

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. authorities will reach a settlement with medical device maker Zimmer Biomet Holdings Inc over bribery allegations in the next four weeks, prosecutors said in a court filing Thursday.

The new agreement would replace a 2012 settlement with the U.S. Justice Department over allegations that Biomet paid bribes to state-employed healthcare providers in Argentina, Brazil and China in order to win business.

Prosecutors said in June that Biomet breached that agreement after the company came forward with new allegations of misconduct in Mexico and Brazil.

The U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act makes it a crime to bribe overseas officials to gain business.

A spokesman for Indiana-based Biomet, which was acquired by Zimmer Holdings last year, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

On Thursday, prosecutors said they would soon reach a new agreement.

"The parties have made substantial progress in those discussions and expect to resolve this matter within approximately four weeks," prosecutors said in the filing in Washington, D.C. federal court.

(Reporting by Joel Schectman; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
The history of the suitcase is a story of people in migration. From newly arrived immigrants stepping off the boats at Ellis Island to first-time travelers boarding an airplane to a long-awaited destination, what people choose to carryand howis about more than functionality.

Evolving to fit the trends and needs of its time, the suitcase has been indispensable to travelers of all kinds, while reflecting the things they value most.

For example, Braceros, the Mexican workers who commuted back and forth to the U.S. in the mid-20th century, often left their home country with knapsacks or other bags but returned to Mexico carrying shiny new suitcases as a symbol of their accomplishments.

The suitcase also signified that they were a different kind of traveler returning to Mexico, that they were no longer migrant workers but these cosmopolitan men, Mireya Loza, a labor and migration expert for the National Museum of American History, told Travel + Leisure. The suitcase then took on multiple meanings in terms of its status and function.

The History of the Suitcase

While the popular imagination dates the beginning of the suitcase to the period of industrialization in the 1800s when well-heeled travelers stood on smoke-filled platforms ready to board their trains for summer excursions, the story begins much earlier.

The Knights Templar were the first to make use of wheeled luggage: The soldiers used the wheeled cases to transport armor and other items as early as 1153 during the Crusades, according to some accounts.

The recorded history of luggage for the next several hundred years remains sparse, with few specific accounts of how personal belongings were transported other than in trunks or bundles.

By 1596, the Oxford English dictionary added the word luggage to its tomes. The word meant denoting inconveniently heavy baggage and came from the verb lug. Throughout the 17th and 18th century, art and literature portrays the migrations of people across Europe in particular, usually depicting travelers walking or riding horses as they carry knapsacks, bindles and other loose bags.

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The History of the Suitcase

The golden age of luggage indeed arrived in the 19th century, as travel became a part of the social capital of the wealthy and powerful.

This status shift is reflected even in the literature of the time, with pivotal moments and entire books being based off travel and its related technological advances. Whether its Anna Karenina waiting for her fateful train or Phileas Fogg refusing to take any trunks on his worldwide voyage, travel and its trappings began to occupy a larger space in the cultural imagination.

The History of the Suitcase

One of the most prominent real-life figures in this shift was Louis Vuitton, a young Parisian trunk-maker who helped create one of the most recognizable luxury brands in the world.

When the young Louis arrived in Paris at the age of 16 in 1821, he became an apprentice to box-maker Monsieur Marchal. After honing his craft for 17 years, Vuitton would finally open his own brand, under his name bearing the well-known logo.

"Securely packs the most fragile objects. Specializing in packing fashions, read Vuittons first poster, according to Gentlemans Quarterly. From that point on, Louis Vuitton products became more than a way of transporting fashion: They were fashion.

Vuitton is credited with creating the first slatted trunk that would become ubiquitous with train travel of the 19th century. The brand also built its reputation around the strength of its luggage locks, and Vuitton even publicly challenged magician Harry Houdini to attempt to break out of one of his locks in 1890. Houdini reportedly did not respond.

The History of the Suitcase

As industrialization, steamer travel and ever-widening railroads stretched from the 19th into the 20th century, more people than ever could travel. And trunk-makers rushed to outfit this new generation of travelers.

What we now consider the suitcase was invented at the turn of the 20th century, and it was intended as a lightweight, compact carrier designed to transport a dress-suit without wrinkling it.

Across the ocean from Vuittons workshop, businessman Jesse Shwayder returned from New York to his hometown in Colorado to start a small business with his brothers in the early 1900s. The brothers opened shop in 1910 manufacturing trunks as the Shwayder Brothers. That company would become known as Samsonite.

Since then, the company has pioneered many of the innovations in luggage throughout the 20th century, spearheading the charge to use materials such as vulcanized fiber and polypropylene.

Samsonite is all about quality, innovation, durability, Samsonite spokesperson Stephanie Goldman told T+L, adding, we have always been at the forefront of whats new in luggage and we will continue to be.

The dawn of air travel ushered in a new era of innovation in luggage. As people worldwide took to the skies commercially in the late 1950s, travelers required suitcases that could fit in overhead compartments or be safely lugged around an airport.

Synthetic materials became increasingly popular, as did plastic handles specifically, according to a report in the Smithsonian magazine in 2014.

As many weary travelers can attest to, perhaps one of the greatest inventions in luggage in the 20th century came from Bernard Sadow, who first patented wheeled luggage in 1974.

He came up with the idea while he was dragging heavy suitcases through customs following a family vacation to Aruba, according to The New York Times. Watching an airport employee push a cart of luggage on wheels, he crafted the idea of creating individual wheels for bags and added it to a line of the suitcases at the luggage company where he worked as a vice president.

A brief history of the modern suitcase.

Despite its utility, the idea did not take off immediately. Men in particular were very resistant to the idea of wheeled luggage, and certain department stores refused to carry the bags, saying that they were too effeminate for male customers.

It was a very macho thing, Sadow told the Times.

Eventually, consumers got past their preconceived ideas of rolled luggage, and wheels on suitcases are now just about as omnipresent as a handle.

The next phase in the future of luggage includes smart technology such as devices that track your luggage remotely. The trend toward robotics has been seen across the travel industry, in particular with start-ups looking to create autonomous suitcases that can follow their owners around an airport.

The History of the Suitcase

While autonomous luggage may sound like a foreign idea to some, it continues in the trend of what suitcase design has always aimed to do: adapt to a travelers to reflect their needs and preferences.

With booms in budget airlines, more people have been able to travel than every before, and this growing population demands ease of use, durability and style. Robotic suitcases are just one answer to the demand for luggage to be as intuitive as our other devices.

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Veterans and members of the armed services came together in Hawaii Wednesday to honor the 75th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, an event that led the United States to enter WWII.

On Dec. 7, 1941, hundreds of Japanese planes attacked the Pearl Harbor military base, killing 2,403 U.S. servicemen and civilians and wounding more than 1,000.

To watch the ceremony online, there is a live stream on the Pearl Harbor 75th Anniversary website, and videos available from the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Navy.

Watch the Pearl Harbor 75th Anniversary live.

The National Parks Service and the U.S. Navy organized the ceremony at Kilo Pier, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.

Today, Michelle and I join the American people in remembering those who gave their lives at Pearl Harbormany of them not much older than boysand in honoring their familiesspouses, siblings, sons and daughters who still carry the memories of their loved ones in their hearts, President Barack Obama said in a statement.

Pearl Harbor attack

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on the Empire of Japan the following day, calling the attack a date which will live in infamy.

No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory, Roosevelt said. I believe I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost, but will make very certain that this form of treachery shall never endanger us again.

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Credit: Aude Guerrucci-Pool/Getty

With just a little over a month left in the White House, the Obama family is starting to say goodbye to their old life as the First Family--and the home they've lived in for the past 8 years.

"They're ready to get out, just out from their parents' house. The fact that their parents' house is the White House may add to it," President Barack Obama told People in a joint interview with his wife. "But Malia's going off to college. She's a grown woman." The First Lady however disagrees with at least part of that statement: "I don't know about that, she's still a baby," she playfully insisted about her oldest daughter, to which her husband replied, "She's still our baby."

18-year-old Malia graduated from Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C. this past May and is taking a gap year before heading off to Harvard in the fall of 2017. 15-year-old Sasha is currently a sophomore at the same school, and will be living with her parents in their new home in the D.C. neighborhood of Kalorama come Inauguration Day.

VIDEO: See Malia Obama's Style Transformation

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"There's a sentimentality about this place, that they've had so many amazing experiences, and the staff are part of the family," said the President of their years in the White House. "It is different for them than for most kids in that when they leave, they won't be able to come back home ... Malia's spoken about how she regrets the fact that she won't have that home base in the same way."

Despite the sentimentality, the girls are definitely, "ready to get out of the nest," he added. "We don't think they're ready, but they certainly think they're ready." Even the First Parents feel that classic paternal sentiment of not wanting to let go. They're just like us!

RELATED: The Best Moments from the Obama Family's Annual Tree Lighting Ceremony

Watch an excerpt from the interview above, and the full People interview of President and Mrs. Obama here, and get ready for some major #marriagegoals inspiration.
In two new developments, scientists created a jumping robot inspired by an African primate and found flaws in flying robot designs by studying a birds flight.

The history of robotics is littered with inspiration from animals. Called biomimicry, it has often been used by scientists to solve complex structural and design problems.

In a new related development, researchers from University of California, Berkeley, designed a small robot, which has the highest robotic vertical jumping agility ever recorded. Known as Salto (short for saltatorial locomotion on terrain obstacles), the robot is 10.2 inches tall when fully extended and can jump up to 1 meter (almost 3.3 feet), which is more than three times its full height.

Its development was inspired by galago, a small African primate known for its jumping ability. The galago can jump five times in just four seconds to gain a combined height of almost 28 feet. Like the animal, Salto can also make multiple jumps, by bouncing off walls, and therefore gain height in subsequent jumps.

The researchers designed a new measurement to compare vertical agility by multiplying the height of a single jump by the frequency at which the jumps can be made. The galago shows a vertical jumping agility of 2.24 meters per second, while Salto achieved 78 percent of that at 1.75 meters per second. By comparison, a bullfrog jumps 1.71 meters per second.

Developing a metric to easily measure vertical agility was key to Saltos design because it allowed us to rank animals by their jumping agility and then identify a species for inspiration, Duncan Haldane, a robotics Ph.D. candidate at UC Berkeley and leader of the research, said in a statement. A related study, titled Robotic vertical jumping agility via series-elastic power modulation, was published Tuesday in the journal Science Robotics.

In another unrelated study, also in California, researchers at Stanford University studied a small parrot as it flew through a laser sheet that illuminated nontoxic, micron-sized aerosol particles. As the bird flew through the seeded laser sheet, its wing motion disturbed the particles to generate a detailed record of the vortices created by the flight.

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Measuring those vortices allowed researchers to study how birds generate lift when flying, information that has ramifications for the design of flying robots and drones. They found that most models commonly used in development of those machines were flawed.

Diana Chin, a graduate student at Stanford and co-author of the study, said in a statement: The goal of our study was to compare very commonly used models in the literature to figure out how much lift a bird, or other flying animal, generates based off its wake. What we found was that all three models we tried out were very inaccurate because they make assumptions that arent necessarily true.

David Lentink, leader of the lab that carried out the study and a co-author, said: Now, weve shown that the equations that people have used are not as reliable as the community hoped they were. We need new studies, new methods to really inform this design process much more reliably.

The parrotlet, called Obi, was not harmed in the study. Titled Lift calculations based on accepted wake models for animal flight are inconsistent and sensitive to vortex dynamics, the study was published Tuesday in the journal Bioinspiration & Biomimetics.

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Absolve sins with the help of your iPhone.

A new Spanish app has arrived in time for the holidays to assuage at least some of thatinfamous Catholic guilt.

Confessor Go,which launched Thursday, connects Spanish residents to nearby priests or clerics who are available for the sacrament of confession, Agence-France Pressereported.

Local priest Ricardo Latorreinvented the app, and more than 100 priests in Spain have signed on. South American countries have also expressed interest in the app, and Latorre said he hopes to expand the apps global reach.

"It has generated a great deal of interest and there are many priests from these countries that ask to join. What happens is things take time and it is impossible to do it faster,hetold Catholic news website Verdad en Libertad, according to the same report byAFP.

Confessor Go isn't the first app of its kind that aims to bring Catholic traditions into the technological age. An app called My Confessor, launched in Wisconsin that lets residents know when the local priest is available for confession in real time.

There are apps for finding daily bible verses or competing against friends in bible trivia. One recent app even translates bible verses into emoji, for the hip Christian millennial.

All of these apps have come at a time when church attendance in the U.S. and Europe has declined, according to many statistical accounts.

A recent Gallup poll reported that 10 percent of French and Germans attended religious services weekly, while 10-15 percent attended in Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and the U.K. Around 21 percent of Spaniards attended weekly services, according to the same poll.

While some reports estimate nearly half of the U.S. population attends church regularly, those numbers have been cast into doubt by researchers. One examination by the Public Religion Research Institute discovered that many people surveyed about their church attendance were likely to lie to appear more pious, particularly in phone interviews.

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Sketchy retail sites have made their way into Googles crosshairs. The latest update on its way for Google Chrome will clearly mark retail sites using out of date security protocols as being a risk to users.

The change, which will first appear in the Chrome 56 beta, will brand any website that collects passwords or credit card information while using unencrypted HTTP protocols will be labeled with as not secure directly in the address bar.

notsecurechrome

Photo: Google

Google signaled in a blog post that the warning represented a new approach to insecure sites, which the company had previously not outed as many sites underwent the process of converting to HTTPS, which adds an additional layer of security to standard web protocol.

The threat of this public shaming in browser has been looming for some time. Google proposed a marker that would indicate when a website was non-secure back in 2014 and has experimented with various forms of the idea ever since.

Current versions of Chrome show a padlock when a website is using HTTPS and a blank white page icon when it uses standard HTTP. Sites that use HTTPS but have errors on the page display a yellow caution icon atop the padlock and sites with broken or expired HTTPS are hit with a red X atop the lock symbol.

The more direct indicator of a sites security measures should help browsers make decisions when it comes to what sites to trust. Luckily, according to Googles recent transparency report, more sites than ever are using HTTPS.

If Googles slow evolution on these types of warnings is any indication, future iterations of the search giants browser may call even more attention to sites that havent properly secured their service.

The new version of Chrome, complete with the not secure warning in the address bar, is available to download in its beta form for Windows, OSX and Android usersthough Google warns the beta is designed for developers and early adopters, and can sometimes break down completely." The public version of the update is expected in January 2017.

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MUMBAI (Reuters) - Fugitive Indian businessman Vijay Mallya said on Friday that his Twitter account had been penetrated by a hacking group called Legion, which posted links to what it alleged were details of Mallya's bank accounts, offshore investments and luxury cars. Mallya, a flamboyant former billionaire who made his fortune from a liquor and beer empire, moved to Britain in March after being pursued in courts by banks that his now defunct Kingfisher airline owed around $1.4 billion. "Legion will find you, hack you, expose you," read one of several postings tweeted by the hackers on Mallya's official Twitter account before they were erased at around 1215 IST (0645 GMT). Mallya, who denies being an absconder, was not immediately available for a comment, and a spokesman for his UB Group also declined immediate comment on the hack. But a response was tweeted on his verified Twitter account. "Outfit called Legion has hacked my e-mail accounts and are blackmailing me !! What a joke." Legion came to public attention earlier last month when it claimed to have hacked the Twitter accounts of India's Congress party, and its vice chair Rahul Gandhi. Mallya is wanted by law enforcement agencies and is subject to a non-bailable warrant from a court. The government has also revoked Mallya's diplomatic passport which he had received as a member of the upper house of parliament. And the Indian authorities have sought ways to have Mallya deported by Britain. The Enforcement Directorate, a government agency set up to fight financial crime, has accused Mallya's UB Group of using some of the funds lent to Kingfisher Airlines to buy property overseas. Mallya has denied wrongdoing, calling the charges against him "preposterous". He had also offered a settlement to creditors, which they refused to consider. (Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
President-elect Donald Trumps pick of CKE Restaurants (NYSE:CKE) CEO Andy Puzder for Secretary of Labor has renewed the debate for higher minimum wage. Puzder, who has been a critic of a minimum-wage hike, is one of the business leaders in the fast-food industry who has warned such action could lead to companies stepping up implementation of automation and robotics in an effort to reduce costs.

On the FOX Business Network in May, Puzder pointed to the rise of automation at airports and grocery stores as a sign more automation was on the way. Meanwhile, former McDonalds (NYSE:MCD) USA CEO Ed Rensi agreed with Puzders sentiment, telling Maria Bartiromo that its cheaper to buy a robotic arm than hire inefficient employees at $15 an hour.

But not everyone agrees with that sentiment. American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten is a proponent of a minimum wage increase.

I try to fight every which way to raise wages, whether its at the federal government level, whether its the state government level, people cant live on $10 an hour. Youve got to raise wages to a living wage for people, Weingarten told Bartiromo on Friday.

Weingarten took issue with the nomination of Puzder to Labor Secretary because of his views on the use of automation and robots.

If you have in restaurants, if you are the Labor Secretary and you believe in replacing workers with robots, I think thats a problem.

Weingarten said rather than pushing workers out of industry altogether, a better way to put younger workers into jobs is bolstering the tech education system.

I want to take you to some of the robotic fairs that Ive seen, we are educating kids to build the robots and frankly, the career tech ed programs that we have in America, that my union has been championing, are fantastic and we should have more of them, he said.

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Samsung has been using OLED screens in its smartphones for years, continuously improving the quality of its displays in flagship devices like the Galaxy S and Galaxy Note series. However, no matter how popular these devices are, they were not able to convince most smartphone makers to move to OLED displays. It also didnt help that LCD screens were still a great alternative, and a cheaper one.

Come next year, the iPhone 8 will move to OLED screen, and this rumored screen technology change did not go unnoticed. Apple hasnt even confirmed the move, and yet parts suppliers are already scrambling to meet Apples anticipated demand for OLED panels. And unsurprisingly, other handset makers are also considering a move from LCD to OLED.

Don't Miss: You can play Super Mario Run on the iPhone right now, and well tell you how

A new report from The Wall Street Journal indicates that the iPhone is still the only smartphone that matters, important enough to cause significant ripple effects in the industry.

OLED displays are thinner, more flexible and give better contrast, the Journal explains, and they will replace LCDs in the future. Companies like Applied Materials and Coherent have seen a big jump in orders for the equipment necessary to manufacture OLED displays. Samsung will be the first big winner in Apples OLED revolution, but the company wont be able to handle all of the demand expected to come from Apple and other smartphone makers.

Samsung will likely supply most of Apples OLED panels for the iPhone 8 initially, which will leave many phone makers scrambling for LCD alternatives for next year. Even Apple wont be able to equip all 2017 iPhones with OLED screens, and some versions of the phone will reportedly still use an LCD display.

Meanwhile, other screen manufacturers including Japan Display, LG, and Sharp are investing millions in ramping up their OLED capacities to prepare for future OLED demand; Samsung is also investing in expanding its OLED operations. Most plants wont mass-produce OLED displays until 2018 or even later.

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More OLED supply will lead to lower prices, and some of these screen makers may suffer because of that, the Journal says. Samsung is seen as one company that can afford lower prices for OLED screens in the future. Of course, LCD prices are also expected to drop once theres enough OLED supply. Currently, LCD prices have increased thanks to strong demand from Chinese smartphone vendors. Rumors say that two of Apples three new iPhone models in 2017 will stick with LCD screens, which should also help keep LCD prices up.

No smartphone but the iPhone can have such a big impact on the mobile industry, component suppliers included.

Trending right now:

See the original version of this article on BGR.com
US President Barack Obama speaks during a meeting with members of his national security team on cybersecurity on February 9, 2016 at the White House in Washington, DC (AFP Photo/Mandel Ngan) (AFP/File)

Washington (AFP) - President Barack Obama has ordered a review of all cyberattacks that took place during the 2016 election cycle, the White House said Friday as concerns over Russian interference mount.

White House Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz said Obama called for the review earlier this week, amid growing calls from Congress for more information on the extent of Russian interference in the campaign.

"We are committed to ensuring the integrity of our elections and this report will dig into this pattern of malicious cyberactivity timed to our elections, take stock of our defensive capabilities and capture lessons learned to make sure that we brief members of Congress and stakeholders as appropriate," said Schultz.

Obama wants the report completed before his term ends on January 20, Schultz said.

"We are going to make public as much as we can," he added. "This is a major priority for the president."

- Trump denies Russian role -

The move comes after Democrats in Congress pressed the White House to reveal details, to Congress or to the public, of Russian hacking and disinformation in the election.

It also comes after President-elect Donald Trump rejected the intelligence community finding of official Russian involvement.

Confidential emails from the Democratic National Committee and John Podesta, a top advisor to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, were steadily leaked out via WikiLeaks in the months before the election, damaging Clinton's White House effort.

On October 7, one month before the election, the Department of Homeland Security and the Director of National Intelligence announced that "the Russian Government directed the recent compromises of emails from US persons and institutions, including from US political organizations."

"These thefts and disclosures are intended to interfere with the US election process," they said.

But in an interview published Wednesday with Time magazine for its "Person of the Year" award, Trump dismissed those findings. Asked whether the intelligence was politicized, Trump answered: "I think so."

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"I don't believe they interfered," he said. "It could be Russia. And it could be China. And it could be some guy in his home in New Jersey."

Worried that Trump will sweep the issue under a rug after his inauguration, seven Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee called on November 29 for the White House to declassify what it knows about Russian interference.

The seven have already been briefed on the classified details, suggesting they believed there is more information that the public should know.

Then on Tuesday of this week, leading House Democrats called on Obama to give members of the entire Congress a classified briefing on Russian interference, from hacking to the spreading of fake news stories to mislead US voters.

Republicans in Congress have also promised hearings into Russian activities once the new administration comes in.

But some have suggested the Democrats are raising the issue out of bitterness over their sweeping electoral defeat.

Schultz denied politics was behind Obama's order.

"I want to be clear here that this is not an effort to challenge the result of the election," he said.

- Russian interference in Germany -

Obama's homeland security advisor Lisa Monaco said the cyber interference goes back to the 2008 presidential race, with both the Obama and John McCain campaigns hit by malicious computer intrusions.

"We have seen in 2008 and in this last election system malicious cyber activity. We maybe [have] crossed into a new threshold and it is incumbent upon us to take stock of that," said Monaco.

Russian hacking and election interference have also become a big issue in Germany.

On Thursday Germany's domestic intelligence agency BfV issued a stark warning over a rising Moscow-directed campaign of hacking and misinformation directed at "destabilizing" the country and influencing political discourse.

Last week WikiLeaks published stolen documents on intelligence activities that embarrassed Chancellor Angela Merkel just as she began campaigning for the elections slated for late 2017.

"In the political realm, we detect an increasingly aggressive cyber espionage, warned BfV chief Hans-Georg Maassen.

"The indications of attempts to influence the German parliamentary elections next year are intensifying."
President Obama has ordered a review of cyber attacks and foreign intervention into the 2016 presidential election, to be delivered before he leaves office, according to Reuters. The news was confirmed by homeland security adviser Lisa Monaco at an event on Friday morning.

Don't Miss: The iPhone is still the only phone that matters

The president has directed the intelligence community to conduct a full review of what happened during the 2016 election process  and to capture lessons learned from that and to report to a range of stakeholders, to include the Congress, Monaco reportedly said.

Calls to review the effects of cyber attacks and Russian influence have been coming since before the election, in the wake of widespread hacks on the Democratic National Committee. In the wake of the election itself, a group of computer scientists reportedly urged the Clinton campaign to challenge results in several key states, citing irregularities with some voting machines.

From the phrasing of the confirmation from Monaco, it appears that the Obama campaigns review is less about changing the results of the election, and more about understanding what happened and working on systems to prevent it in the future.

Monaco said that cyber attacks were not new, citing Chinese hacking into campaign systems during the 2008 election. But this time around, she said that the attacks had crossed a new threshold.

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By Jeff Mason WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama has ordered intelligence agencies to review cyber attacks and foreign intervention into the 2016 election and deliver a report before he leaves office on Jan. 20, the White House said on Friday. In October, the U.S. government formally accused Russia of a campaign of cyber attacks against Democratic Party organizations ahead of the Nov. 8 presidential election, and Obama has said he warned Russian President Vladimir Putin about consequences for the attacks. The review and its timeline are a signal that Obama wants the issue addressed before he hands power to President-elect Donald Trump, who cast doubt on Russia's hacking role and praised Putin during the campaign. Obama's homeland security adviser, Lisa Monaco, told reporters the report's results would be shared with lawmakers and others. "The president has directed the intelligence community to conduct a full review of what happened during the 2016 election process ... and to capture lessons learned from that and to report to a range of stakeholders, to include the Congress," she said during an event hosted by the Christian Science Monitor. White House spokesman Eric Schultz said the review would be a "deep dive" that would look for a pattern of such behavior over several years during election time, dating as far back as the 2008 presidential election. He noted that Obama wanted the review completed under his watch. "This is a major priority," Schultz said. During his campaign for the White House, Trump called on Russia to dig up missing emails from his opponent, Hillary Clinton, from her time as secretary of state under Obama, a fellow Democrat. That move prompted critics to accuse him of encouraging foreign actors to conduct espionage. The New York businessman has said he is not convinced Russia was behind the attacks. "I dont believe they interfered," Trump told Time magazine about Russia in an interview published this week. "That became a laughing point, not a talking point, a laughing point. Any time I do something, they say, Oh, Russia interfered." People Trump has nominated for top national security posts in his new administration have taken a harsher stance toward Moscow. Russian officials have denied all accusations of interference in the U.S. election. Obama has come under pressure from Democratic lawmakers to declassify more intelligence on the alleged hackings. A government source said the review was sparked in part to respond to those demands as well as to determine how much material related to the subject could be made public. Given President-elect Trump's disturbing refusal to listen to our intelligence community and accept that the hacking was orchestrated by the Kremlin, there is an added urgency to the need for a thorough review before President Obama leaves office next month, Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said in a statement. Monaco said cyber attacks were not new but might have crossed a "new threshold" this year. When she was working as a senior Federal Bureau of Investigation official in 2008, she said, the agency alerted the presidential campaigns of then-Senator Obama and Republican Senator John McCain that China had infiltrated their respective systems. "We've seen in 2008 and in this last election system malicious cyber activity," Monaco said. Asked if Trump's transition team was not concerned enough about Russia's influence on the election or about other threats to the United States such as infectious disease outbreaks, Monaco said it was too soon to say. She noted that she had not met with her successor because the Trump team had yet to name one. (Reporting by Jeff Mason in Washington; Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball and Jonathan Landay in Washington; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
Samsung recalled some 2.5 million Note 7s in 10 markets following complaints that its lithium-ion battery exploded while charging, and then had to expand that as reports emerged of replacement phones also catching fire (AFP Photo/Daniel Leal-Olivas) (AFP/File)

Washington (AFP) - Samsung announced Friday it would disable its Galaxy Note 7 smartphones in the US market to force remaining owners to stop using the devices, which were recalled for safety reasons.

The South Korean electronics giant, the world's biggest smartphone vendor, said 93 percent of Note 7 phones in the United States had been returned to the company after its recall earlier this year, which came amid reports of devices exploding or catching fire.

But to get any remaining devices off the market, Samsung said it would deliver an over-the-air update that prevents the phones from charging.

"To further increase participation (in the recall), a software update will be released starting on December 19 that will prevent US Galaxy Note 7 devices from charging and will eliminate their ability to work as mobile devices," Samsung said in a statement.

The company recalled some 2.5 million Note 7s in 10 markets following complaints that its lithium-ion battery exploded while charging, and then had to expand that as reports emerged of replacement phones also catching fire.

As many as 1.9 million of the phones were sold in the United States, where authorities banned the device from use in airplanes and even from being placed in checked luggage.

Samsung said the latest move is "in cooperation with the US Consumer Product Safety Commission and in partnership with carriers and retailers."

"Since the affected devices can overheat and pose a safety risk, we are asking consumers with a Galaxy Note 7 to power it down and contact the carrier or retail outlet where they purchased their device," the statement said.

Consumers are able to exchange their phone for another Samsung smartphone, or receive a refund.
Editors' Note: On Dec. 15, Verizon announced it would push the Samsung software update out to the Note 7 after the New Year. Read our report on Verizon's announcement.

Samsung has a plan to finally shut down any Galaxy Note 7 phones still out in the wild. But Verizon says it won't participate, for reasons that don't make a lot of sense upon closer examination.

Samsung plans to roll out a software update on Dec. 19 to all of the Galaxy Note 7 devices still in the wild. This update will prevent the Galaxy Note 7 from charging, so that once the battery runs out, the handset effectively turns into a brick. Samsung says its update process will be completed within 30 days of Dec. 19.

But not every carrier plans to help. Verizon says it won't push the update to customers "because of the added risk this could pose to Galaxy Note 7 users that do not have another device to switch to. We will not push a software upgrade that will eliminate the ability for the Note7 to work as a mobile device in the heart of the holiday travel season. We do not want to make it impossible to contact family, first responders or medical professionals in an emergency situation."

MORE: 21 Most Hilarious Galaxy Note 7 Memes

Having your phone catch fire seems like just the sort of emergency situation you'd want to avoid, though. And as for travel, the FAA has long since banned passengers from taking the Note 7 on flights.

To be fair, Verizon stresses that it wants any customer that still has a Note 7 to exchange that phone for another device.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 has proven to be a thorn in Samsung's side. After models started exploding around the world this fall, Samsung was forced to discontinue the handset. Soon after, it launched a worldwide effort to recall the handset and remove all of the units it had sold  believed to be more than 2 million  from consumers around the globe. Samsung has pointed to a manufacturing problem with the battery as the cause of the Note 7's woes, but outside firms have pointed to a design flaw as the culprit.

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Efforts at getting back the Galaxy Note 7 have included working with carrier partners and taking back units at Samsung stores. The company has also opened kiosks in select airports to quickly swap out Galaxy Note 7 units with safer Samsung models.

Along the way, Samsung has offered bill credits to those who turn in the handset to make it a bit more amenable to folks to get rid of the damaged devices.

MORE: 25 Worst Gadget Flops of All Time

Still, there are some holdouts who don't apparently don't fear the possibility of the battery on the Note 7 heating up and exploding. Those folks have stubbornly clung to the device and have shown no desire to give it up.

Samsung said in its statement on Friday that it has recovered 93 percent of all the Galaxy Note 7 units it sold across the U.S. While the company celebrated the figure, 7 percent is still a large number of Note 7s out in the wild. And each day, folks using those phones are putting themselves at risk.

As part of its announcement, Samsung encouraged those who still have Galaxy Note 7 units to turn them over through its refund and exchange program and warned again that keeping the devices could be dangerous. "Anyone who has not yet returned their device should immediately power it down and contact their carrier to obtain a refund or exchange," the company said.

See also : Best Galaxy Note 7 Alternatives
Guys, we dont know what to say. In spite of our weekly  sometimes daily  exhortations to beef up your password security, your passwords are still awful.

Passwords exposed in data breaches | Credit: CBT Nuggets

Passwords exposed in data breaches | Credit: CBT Nuggets

Even if youve been clever enough to add a number or an upper-case letter somewhere, youre still using short, common names and words as your building blocks, according to an analysis of more than 50,000 leaked email addresses and passwords. Luckily, there are steps you can take to mitigate your online risk  and one of them might be changing your email provider.

CBT Nuggets, an IT training organization based in Eugene, Oregon, analyzed email addresses and passwords exposed in various data breaches over the last few years. Not only are a great deal of passwords easily guessable, but your risk may actually increase depending on what your name is (bearing in mind what Mark Twain said about lies, damned lies, and statistics").

The lessons here are pretty much Internet Security 101, but they're extremely important.

Use a strong password that doesnt contain your own name, or the name of someone close to you.

If your e-mail provider suffers a data breach, change your password right away.

CBT Nuggets also recommends using a password manager service like LastPass, which put an extra layer of security between hackers and users.

MORE: Best Password Managers

First and foremost, CBT Nuggets compiled a list of the most common words used in passwords. Love topped the list by a wide margin (479 appearances among the 50,000), followed by star, girl and angel. Mike and John also made appearances  not terribly surprising, as Mike and John are some of the most common names in the English-speaking world.

Your name might seem like an incidental factor in a data breach, but CBT Nuggets found something interesting: a whopping 42 percent of victims used some variation of their own name in their passwords. This is even worse than using a pets name or friends name (also easily guessable), as names are often included in usernames or e-mail addresses. Women named Amy and Lisa were particularly prone to this bit of vanity, as well as men named Scott and Mark.

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The bad news, of course, is that even having a strong password may not help in the event of a data breach; hackers can glean both secure and insecure passwords alike. However, some email providers are more prone to this sort of attack than others.

Forty-eight percent of the leaked passwords came from Yahoo email addresses, while 18 percent came from Hotmail, and 17 percent from Gmail. Interestingly, only 7 percent came from AOL. These numbers probably have more to do with how many users employ each email service than each domains security practices, so take them for what theyre worth.

See also : 21 Worst Celebrity Hacks Ever
LIGONIER  A fire in Ligoniers industrial park Wednesday night sent one employee to the hospital for burn treatment.

The Ligonier Fire Department was called to Structural Composites of Indiana, 1118 Gerber St., about 11:41 p.m. after a report of an explosion at the facility. When firefighters arrived, an evacuation already was taking place as black smoke rolled out from the rear doors of the business and the fire burned near the center of the building, Fire Chief Jeremy Weaver said.

A male employee near the blast site was found to be injured, and Noble County EMS treated him on site before he was transferred to St. Joseph Regional Burn Center in Fort Wayne for further treatment. Information on the employee or his condition wasnt available Thursday.

The facilitys sprinkler system was activated during the incident, slowing down the progression of the fire and allowing firefighters to get into the building and extinguish its base. The fire was called under control about 12:20 p.m.

Theres quite a bit of fire damage, but the sprinklers really slowed it down, Weaver said. If it wasnt for the sprinkler system, it would have been a defensive fire.

An investigator from the Indiana state fire marshals office was at the scene until 5:35 a.m. Thursday morning looking into the cause of the explosion, which is believed to have been started by dust particles from the fiberglass the facility produces. The question is what ignited the blast, Weaver said, and the investigation is ongoing.

Structural Composites was back in production soon after as the fire only affected an isolated portion of the overall building, with firefighters bringing down parts of the walls and ceiling.

Most of the people were still working today, Weaver said Thursday afternoon. They cant work in that one area because theyll have to do some renovations and repairs in that area.

No firefighters were injured, and Topeka Fire Department was on standby throughout the incident.
The birds have mostly flown south, the butterflies are cocooned until spring, and the turtles have settled in for a long winters nap. But for the biologists who work with these species, December is a busy time of analyzing research data, writing reports and getting ready for next years field season.

Its also the time of year when staff with Minnesotas Nongame Wildlife Program reflect on what makes their work to protect and manage the states birds, butterflies and turtles possible: donations from generous and engaged Minnesotans.

Unique within the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, the program is mostly funded through donations from individuals and groups. By making a donation online to the Nongame Wildlife Program as part of their end-of-year giving, Minnesotans can support more than 800 types of wildlife, including threatened and endangered species.

People give to this program because of its role in highly visible conservation success stories, such as the recovery of loons, bald eagles, trumpeter swans and ospreys. They also understand the value of the programs work on behalf of less charismatic species that play important roles in Minnesotas ecosystems and natural heritage, such as the timber rattlesnake, northern goshawk, Blandings turtle, eastern hognose snake, common terns, native mussel species and many others.

The program is doing good work, but there are many more species that need a helping hand from committed individuals and organizations. Every dollar donated to the nongame fund is matched by revenue from Reinvest in Minnesota critical habitat license plates. Donations also are used as match to federal grants and other outside funding sources, leveraging additional money to support nongame species conservation, research and habitat protection projects, such as:

The Get the Lead Out campaign, promoting a voluntary change from lead tackle and ammunition to prevent lead poisoning in birds, mammals and fish.

Research on the effects of the BP oil spill on loons, pelicans and other water birds.

Surveys to determine nesting habitat needs of northern long-eared bats, a species threatened by white-nose syndrome.

Partnerships with local and state groups for on-the-ground wildlife conservation efforts and to promote viewing opportunities.

The popular Eagle Cam and Falcon Cam websites.

All these projects  and the wildlife they benefit  owe a debt of gratitude to the many individuals and organizations who have generously contributed their time, skills and money.

As the year and the season of giving come to a close, Minnesotans may want to consider what they can do to add to this list of conservation success stories. Those interested in making a donation can do so at www.dnr.state.mn.us/nongame/donate. Also consider the Nongame Wildlife Program in part of an estate plan. For more information, go to www.dnr.state.mn.us/eco/nongame.
If Global Initiatives Week began with the goal of helping people think differently about the world, then the Persecuted Church event fit the mold perfectly.

As the week wound down to its last event, Liz Arnold stood at the church door pleasantly welcoming several dozen visitors. It had been an exhausting schedule, but for the director of Gundersens Global Partners Department, she was living out her calling.

My passion is connecting people in La Crosse with needy people around the world, she said.

This became evident as Arnold opened the meeting and told the audience that while we hold all people in prayer, this event would focus on the persecuted Christian Church  the worlds most victimized religion. More Christians have been martyred in this century alone than in the previous 19.

From the opening video, Sing a Little Louder, the event was a call for involvement in the world community. Set in holocaust Germany, the chilling video focused on a train, which under normal circumstances rolled by the front of a small a rural church. But on this particular day, it stops, along with its human cargo of Jews. When the cries of the Jews finally disrupt the pastors sermon, he picks up a hymnbook and encourages the congregation to sing louder, drowning out the cacophony of suffering.

One La Crosse pastor, in particular, has heard the cries of the persecuted. The Rev. Patrick Augustine, Rector of Christ Episcopal Church, spent a large portion of his ministry reaching out to the suffering  both Christians and non-Christians. Augustines quick smile and dancing eyes belie his intense passion to bring relief and encouragement to the hurting.

Its not trendy or fashionable to talk about the persecuted church, he said, looking around at the empty seats.

A native Pakistani, Augustine comes from a long line of Christian ministers, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather before him.

Quoting from Rupert Shortts book, Christianophobia, Augustine said that today, 200 million Christians (10 percent of the global total) are socially disadvantaged, harassed or actively oppressed for their beliefs.

Christianity is facing extinction from its Biblical homeland, he said. More than one-half to two-thirds of Christians in the Middle East have left or been killed in the past century. In 1948, more than 22 million Christians lived in the Middle East.

Today, they total less than 500,000. Hungary has become the first nation to form a special department to deal specifically with the Christian refugee crisis.

Augustine also said that in the Sudan, more than 2 million Christians have been killed, but in the halls of Congress, western media or college campuses, there has been no hue and cry about the killing and crushing of human rights.

But Augustine also walks the talk. Three years ago, several suicide bombers detonated explosives at All Saints Church in Peshawar, Pakistan, about 30 miles from the Afghan border. In the blast, 127 people were killed and about 250 of the 600 were injured.

Six months later, with soldiers standing on the roof and razor wire wrapped around the church, Augustine stood inside, preaching to the beleaguered flock. Subsequently, his home congregation at Christ Episcopal, and First Free of Onalaska, partnered together to bring medical and financial relief to the stricken Christians. Hell be returning again next year.

Within several months of his visit, the Archbishop of Canterbury awarded Augustine with the Cross of St. Augustine, the highest honor of the Anglican Communion and cited him with the moniker, the Voice for the Voiceless.

According to Augustine, Christians living in areas of persecution often carry a cross.

To them, the cross represents their daily struggles, the pain of betrayal and suffering, Augustine writes in a handout.

So in solidarity with them and as part of his own faith, he carries one as well. In 1996, Augustine was invited to testify at the first Congressional hearing on Christian persecution in Washington, D.C. When he appeared in the hearing room with his cross, he was told that since the government was secular, and he couldnt testify holding the cross. Augustine politely recounted the meaning of the cross for them, concluding that he would not speak without it: no cross, no testimony. He got his way.

Another keynote speaker, Robert with the Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) organization (he prefers to remain anonymous due to the nature of his work), described the scene as he stood in a burned out Christian church in the Middle East  the only recognizable object around him being a melted microphone.

He says that because of wars, some refugees have become disenchanted with Islam and seek out Christianity as a possible alternative. He points to a church in Damascus, Syria, that has flooded with refugees and grown to over a thousand worshippers.

Robert also showed a rough phone video of an ex-terrorist who had converted to Christianity and was leading worship at a Christian church in Africa. Robert went on to explain, however, that the man paid a high price. Terrorists had returned one night and killed his son.

According to VOM figures, since 1953, 2,300 congregations totaling more than 300,000 members have disappeared in North Korea. Robert challenged listeners to get involved by praying and giving, noting that VOM had passed nearly 1.5 million Bibles into persecuted lands, which required considerable funding.

The Rev. Dave Konkol of First Free closed out the event. He prayed, God help us not to sing louder.
The total of 14 suicides so far this year in La Crosse County has the potential to duplicate the recent lows of 2011 and 2012.

The tally, about half of the record-setting 26 suicides in 2014, is an encouraging sign, mental health advocates says.

On the other hand, mental health professionals find a clear explanation for the drop nearly as elusive as they did for the spikes in 2013, 2014 and 2015  but they hope it is at least partly the result of their efforts to increase community awareness of suicide and how to curb it.

I wish we did know so we can keep doing it, said Christine Hughes, a member of the La Crosse Area Suicide Prevention Initiative, which hosts events and provides materials to educate people about resources to help those considering harming themselves.

With a month remaining in 2016, the number of people who have taken their own lives this year stands at 14, compared with 22 last year and 26 in 2014, said La Crosse County Medical Examiner Tim Candahl.

If the number remains at 14, it would tie the totals for 2011 and 2012 and be lower than the 16 recorded in 2010 and 18 in 2013, according to Candahls statistics.

As far as the ultimate explanation for the optimistic downswing, its hard to know  its the hardest part, because we dont know for sure how many people might have considered suicide but changed their minds after receiving help, said Hughes, a clinical therapist at Mayo Clinic Health System-Franciscan Healthcare in La Crosse.

We dont really hear the success stories here, she said. But I think people are paying more attention. We hear people talking about the subject more and more, and they are not afraid to say the word.

We hear personal stories, and in general, now people talk, Hughes said.

Echoing that sentiment is Geri Mulliner, another member of the 12-year-old La Crosse Area Suicide Prevention Initiative, who said, When we started the initiative, people werent willing to talk about it.

As the shroud of secrecy has been removed and the topic has become a matter of public discussion, increasing numbers of people who are troubled and/or depressed are seeking help and receiving treatment, said Mulliner, a registered nurse who works in behavioral health for Gundersen Health System.

The 14 deaths this year are split between males and females, Candahl said.

That means the number of women committing suicide this year has tracked closely with the seven recorded in 2015 and eight in 2014, although it is markedly higher than the pace of two to three a year extending back to 2009, according to the medical examiners statistics.

Meanwhile, the number of men killing themselves this year amounts to major drops from 15 in 2015, 18 in 2014 and 16 in 2013.

The male tally in 2010 was 13, with 11 each in 2012 and 2011, and nine in 2009.

Those who have taken their lives this year range as high as 89 in age, but Ive not seen a lot of younger ones, Candahl said, which marks a departure from previous trends.

The reason for that also is illusory, although Hughes speculated that it may be the result of the fact that more young adults have been able to receive mental health care and treatment because the Affordable Care Act allows them to remain on their parents insurance policies until they are 26.

Guns are the leading means of suicides in the county, Candahl said, with prescription drug overdoses accounting for about one-third.

With prescription drugs, it is hard to determine intent, he said. So we rule according to whether there were prior attempts or other incidents.

The Suicide Prevention Initiative, which sponsors an annual Suicide Prevention Summit and awareness event and Dance for Hope, among other activities, is by no means the sole standard-bearer against suicide.

Also involved in the cause are the Mental Health Coalition of the Greater La Crosse Area, the local chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness and the nearly two-year-old Campaign to Change Direction, which works to help people recognize the five signs of mental illness and urge those affected to seek help.

Along those lines, local mental health advocates also employ the QPR approach, which means question, persuade and refer to steer people struggling with mental health and stress issues toward help, Hughes said.

Mental health officials encourage people to be especially vigilant for signs among relatives, friends and acquaintances during this time of year, when many people become blue during the holiday season.

Statewide, more than 700 Wisconsin residents take their own lives each year, making the suicide rate four times the homicide rate, according to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. In addition, about 5,500 Badger State residents are hospitalized because of intentional, self-inflicted injuries.

Between 2007 and 2011, the most recent years for which statistics are available, the cost of inpatient hospitalizations because of self-inflicted injuries in Wisconsin was more than $369 million, according to DHS.
The West Salem Village Board began its annual budget meeting Tuesday night with a moment of silence for Richard Schaumburg, the chairman of the Hamilton Town Board who passed away over the weekend.

After the brief moment, the village unanimously approved the proposed 2017 operating budget. Village president Dennis Manthei said he was pleased with the budget.

The village budget for 2017 was a real challenge because of all the levy limits which are orchestrated by the state, he said.

The village expects to spend $2.66 million in 2017, which is $364,000 more than last yeara 15.8 percent increase.

The increased spending wont mean a higher property tax rate from the village, however.

Property owners tax obligation to the village will go from $3.16 per $1,000 assessed property value last year to $3.11 per $1,000 assessed value. This means for the owner of a $200,000 home in West Salem, their tax obligation to the village will be $622.

Village administrator Teresa Schnitzler said the drop in the tax rate is due to a $22 million increase in the villages assessed value.

Manthei said he was concerned with dropping state shared revenues and levy limits.

This year, the village was allowed to increase its levy by approximately $33,000 to $1.15 million.

Board member Jim Leicht commended the West Salem department headsScott Halbrucker, the directory of Public Works; Michelle Cerzwan, the director of parks and recreation; and police chief Charles Ashbeckfor their help in balancing the budget.

He also thanked Lieutenant Jeremy Randall for his help during Ashbecks recent absence.

Police contract

The board also approved a three-year contract with the police union, along with a 2 percent wage increase for officers.

They were really good to work with, board member John Lautz, who serves on the law enforcement committee, said. I am really happy with where we are.

Leicht, who also serves on the Law Enforcement Committee, added, It did go well. We had our little give and takes.

He said he was surprised the union would agree to a three-year contract.

The chief was happy. If the chief is happy, the union is happy, were all happy, Lautz said.

Storm water

Over the next year, the Village will revisit its 44-page storm water and sediment ordinance after the board voted to revisit the ordinance at the Utilities Committee meeting.

As a builder for many years, Lautz said. Working with a 44-page ordinance that needs an engineer to understand is not worth having.

He said no matter which committee it ended up at, he would dedicate time to addressing the problem.

Village attorney Bryant Klos said he wasnt sure the committee would be able to make the ordinance more concise.

I can understand Johns comments to the erosion control issue, Klos said, but the storm water is something the state is basically forcing on us.

Klos said Spartas ordinance, which is about half as long as West Salems, references DNR statutes rather than spelling them out in the ordinance itself.

He said he wasnt sure if that was any clearer or not.

I think it makes sense to go to committee, Klos said.
The West Salem Police department is cautioning residents to keep close tabs on their bank accounts this holiday season after an ATM card skimmer was discovered in the village.

According to the department, the thieves responsible for the skimmers got away with a little less than $15,000 before the device was discovered and removed.

The suspect was caught on camera installing the skimmer by the ATM camera, but has yet to be apprehended, and the department is asking that anyone with information call it in.

These devices are typically affixed to ATMs and gas pumps, where a large number of people are expected to use the card reader to make a transaction.

When affixed, these devices secretly steal the customers card numbers and personal identification number. Most of the time, these devices are disguised to closely match their surroundings.

According to West Salem Police Lieutenant Jeremy Randall, most customers wont notice a difference until their account is being charged for purchases they didnt make.

Union State Bank Senior Vice President Jane Leis said, When customers go up to ATMs, they need to be cognizant.

She recommended customers check to see if the card reader is loose or the keypad feels like something is covering it.

They are (the skimmers) are typically bigger and will move, she said. Make sure you are looking closely at it.

He said anyone who believes an ATM or other card reader has a skimmer attached should not use it and should contact their local police department.

Leis said customers who discover suspicious activity on their bank accounts should contact their financial institution and report them immediately.

The department is asking that anyone with information leading to the arrest of the suspect responsible for the skimmer call 608-786-0407.
The Franciscan Spirituality Center invites women to leave behind their responsibilities for a few hours to enjoy the companionship of others during the second annual Womens Christmas: an Epiphany celebration for wise women, 5:30 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 4.

The FSC is located at 920 Market St., La Crosse, and women of all faith backgrounds are welcome.

Womens Christmas is rooted in delightful Irish tradition. On the feast of Epiphany, Irish women left the care of their households to the men for a few hours so they could enjoy each others company away from their domestic responsibilities, especially after the busyness of Christmas preparations. Epiphany is also the day many Christians celebrate the coming of the Wise Men to the infant Jesus.

We love the idea of combining these beautiful traditions into our own special event, organizer Deb Hansen said. We met so many wonderful women last year, and were excited to offer it again. Its such a peaceful, affirming way to start the new year.

The evening will include a simple meal, reflection on the Celtic Prayer of Deep Peace and St. Francis Canticle, and a blessing with gifts of remembrance from the four elements: earth (grounding), water (fluidity), air (sacred connection) and fire (compassionate strength).

The cost is $25, which include the meal and Wise Women gifts. Spots are limited; call 608-791-5295 or go to www.FSCenter.org to register.
La Crosses mayors proved Thursday that they know the value of words when it comes to healing divides.

Mayor Tim Kabat and former Mayor John Medinger came together in La Crosse City Hall to sign a proclamation acknowledging La Crosses history with discrimination that strained relationships between the city and the minorities who live in it and pledging to work harder to ensure equality for all the citys residents.

When there are strained relationships, we look for words to help us deal with them, Kabat said. The way we use language and communicate with each other is really that first step. I cant think of any more powerful three words for rebuilding relationships than I am sorry.

The proclamation came a little over a month after Kabat apologized for La Crosses history as a sundown town, a city or village with either formal or informal codes that pushed black people out of the community after sundown, after a presentation from sociologist James Loewen at La Crosse City Hall. Loewen was invited by the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and the citys Human Rights Commission.

We had a great crowd and it was fantastic as far as being able to get a sense of what La Crosses past is, HRC chair Fabio Burgess said. Were never going to be able to change the future of this city and really make it the city that it can be without acknowledging what had gone on in the past.

Kabat and Medinger took that message to heart in the proclamation, which reads, Healthy people and healthy communities are able to recognize their past mistakes, admit when they have been wrong and resolve to ensure equality for all people. It goes on to recognize the city has made great strides in eliminating discrimination, while calling for the city to commit to becoming an uncommonly great community and a beacon of hope through our advocacy for equality and justice for all.

It further includes a pledge to work toward the common good in building a warm and welcoming community for everyone, regardless of race, color, gender identity or expression, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, age, ability, marital status, physical appearance, political activity or familial status.

Medinger recalled a visit while he was mayor, when a priest from out of town suggested he put up a sign reading Welcome to La Crosse, an ethical city. While he chose not lead an effort to put the signs up, he said he hoped the city lives up to the label.

This proclamation will send a message to the world that La Crosse is a warm and welcoming community for everyone, Medinger said. For everyone, he repeated.

The proclamation, which had garnered 33 signatures by Thursday afternoon, will remain up at city hall throughout the holiday season with participants encouraging community members to sign on to the pledge.

Im a great believer that this country and frankly the human race is in an upward trajectory. Sometimes its hard to see in the moment or within the context of a few years, but I think this is one big piece of the puzzle in moving this community forward, Burgess said. Anybody who comes and signs it is putting their mark in a positive way on this city.

While acknowledging La Crosses history and pledging to improve is a start, the next steps are also important. Kabat praised the HRC for being at the forefront of action to change La Crosses future, holding a series of listening sessions throughout the year to allow minorities to air their concerns and grievances.

Theyve been so awesome to bring people together and most importantly, theyve been just listening, Kabat said. Theyve been giving people an opportunity to share their stories and share their pain, quite frankly.

The listening sessions have given the HRC a great many different perspectives and ideas, Burgess said.

There is a lot of work to do and there is a lot of progress that has been made, he said. The main thing were hearing is that there is work that needs to be done and it may need to be done outside of government, as far as making sure the workforce in the city is really representative of the make-up of the community.

While Burgess said that was largely outside the purview of city government, Kabat said that was something that could be addressed within city hall when it comes to city staff.

Were trying to make sure our workforce is reflective of the broader community, Kabat said. Were not there yet as far as people of color who work here for the city or women and other groups who make up our leadership team. Were actively working on trying to recruit more applicants and try to get our workforce to look like La Crosse.

The city government has also supported additional training and workforce development to make sure current employees treat La Crosses diverse population equally and stepped up efforts to support minority business owners as part of its economic development programs.

This proclamation will send a message to the world that La Crosse is a warm and welcoming community for everyone. John Medinger,

former La Crosse mayor
Police release video in shooting that paralyzed man: CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa  An unarmed black motorist struggled with an Iowa officer and a police dog before the officer shot the driver as he tried to get away in his pickup truck, paralyzing him, dashcam video released Thursday shows. The video shows Jones shooting Mitchell at close range after the truck starts to roll away. The video seems unlikely to resolve a debate over whether the Cedar Rapids policeman acted appropriately during the Nov. 1 shooting of the 37-year-old Mitchell. A Linn County grand jury decided Monday not to indict Jones.

More than 50,000 overdose deaths in US: NEW YORK  Health officials say more than 50,000 Americans died from drug overdoses last year, the most ever. The disastrous tally has been pushed to new heights by soaring abuse of heroin and prescription painkillers, a class of drugs known as opioids. The new numbers were part of the annual tally of deaths and death rates released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Overall, overdose deaths rose 11 percent last year, to 52,404. By comparison, the number of people who died in car crashes was 37,757.

Major survey of transgender Americans finds pervasive bias: NEW YORK  The largest-ever survey of transgender Americans paints a grim picture of pervasive discrimination and harassment, to the point that many of them attempt suicide. Released on Thursday by the National Center for Transgender Equality, the survey found 40 percent of the respondents said they had attempted suicide at some point. Researchers have estimated that the overall attempted suicide rate in the U.S. is less than 5 percent. Another notable finding: 59 percent of survey respondents said they avoided using a public restroom in the past year because they were afraid of confrontations or other problems.

Warehouse missing from fire-inspection records: SAN FRANCISCO  The illegally occupied Oakland warehouse where dozens of partygoers perished in a blaze does not appear in a database fire inspectors use to schedule inspections and may never have been checked for fire hazards, a firefighter with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press on Thursday. Oakland fire officials are supposed to annually inspect commercial buildings for fire safety, with only single-family homes and duplexes exempted. Officials typically pull addresses from a database to request the yearly checks, the firefighter said.

Nightclub to host 6-month memorial for shooting victims: ORLANDO, Fla.  An Orlando nightclub is set to host a memorial marking six months since the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history. Pulse announced the "Remembering Our Angels" event Thursday on social media. Forty-nine people were killed and dozens more injured June 12 after gunman Omar Mateen opened fire inside the nightclub. The club will open at 1:45 a.m. Monday for candle lighting, with a moment of silence scheduled for 2:02 a.m., the time the attack began.
The prevailing opinion on President-elect Donald Trump is that hes unpredictable, a man of no fixed views who transcends traditional notions of right and left.

Donald Trump is post-ideological, Trumps campaign pollster, Tony Fabrizio, said at a Harvard University conference last week.

With Trump, you will have no idea each morning whats going to happen, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said earlier, because he will have no idea.

Maybe. But if you watch what Trump does, not what he says  which at this point, mostly means the choices he makes for Cabinet positions  he doesnt look unusual at all.

In Trumps picks for economic and domestic policymaking jobs, theres a consistent underlying thread. And no, its not that so many of them are billionaires.

Most of them could have been nominated by any GOP nominee, including Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio. Theres nary a populist among them  not even the conservative kind.

Conservatives are happy, Scott Reed, a political advisor to the business-establishment U.S. Chamber of Commerce, told me. Its a mainstream conservative list of very competent people.

Take a look at the names.

Steven Mnuchin, the choice for Treasury, is a billionaire who worked for Goldman Sachs before buying a bank of his own. (Like Trump, he was once a Democrat, but hes a Republican now.) Mnuchin says his first priority is cutting taxes, especially corporate taxes.

Wilbur Ross, the Commerce secretary in waiting, is another billionaire investor. His main cause is negotiating better trade deals, but he also wants to dismantle most of the Dodd-Frank financial regulation law.

Tom Price, at Health and Human services, is a six-term GOP congressman who wants Medicare and Medicaid revamped and managed mostly by the private sector  once Obamacare is repealed, of course.

Betsy DeVos, the choice for Education, is a champion of privately run charter schools and voucher plans to help parents pay private school tuition. Before Trump, she supported Jeb Bush.

At Transportation, Elaine Chao spent eight years in George W. Bushs Cabinet, and shes married to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell. Its hard to get much more establishment than that.

Ben Carson, the former neurosurgeon, may add a dash of eccentricity at Housing and Urban Development  in part because he has no real experience in housing policy  but his views are pretty standard for the GOP. Carson once called fair housing a failed socialist experiment and told a television interviewer that poverty is really more of a choice than anything else.

Theres not a populist insurrectionist in the bunch.

This is a business-friendly Cabinet of pragmatists, a top corporate lobbyist in Washington told me, asking for anonymity to protect his multinational clients. These are people orthodox Republicans can work with.

What happened to all the populism in Trumps platform that made him the champion of so many white working-class voters? Its been quietly downsized since Election Day.

The wall Trump promised to build along the southern border is now a fence.

The trillion-dollar infrastructure program to build roads, bridges and airports has shrunk to $550 billion, and most of that  if Congress agrees  will be private sector investment, not government money.

Drain the swamp? Yes, theres a rule barring lobbyists from serving in the transition  but they can get around it simply by revoking their lobbying registration.

Trump and Ross say they still plan to renegotiate NAFTA and other trade deals, but they plan to do it patiently, not abruptly. Tariffs are the last thing, Ross told CNBC last week. Tariffs are part of the negotiation.

That doesnt mean Trump has forgotten his working-class voters.

Hes offered them a series of grand gestures. Hes renounced his salary as president. He wants to cancel the contract for a new Air Force One to save money. He jawboned Carrier into keeping 730 jobs in Indiana in exchange for $7 million in tax credits.

All brilliant marketing, and enough to launch a victory tour  rallies in Ohio last week, North Carolina Tuesday night, Iowa and Michigan next.

So far, in practice, Trumpism looks like mainstream conservatism plus tougher trade negotiations  and now, circuses. Just like the campaign.
Madison Mayor Paul Soglin said Friday he called U.S. Rep. Sean Duffy a moron, a liar and a charlatan this week in order to escalate a discussion about how to spur economic development across Wisconsin.

Soglin called Duffy those names after Duffy, a Republican who lives north of Wausau, referred to Madison as a communist community while appearing on Fox News to discuss the states presidential election recount.

In the Fox News interview, Duffy alleged with no evidence that Dane County election officials were stalling in order to purposefully miss a Dec. 13 deadline to finish the recount. State and local officials have always maintained the county is on pace to finish by the deadline.

In a press conference Friday called to tout Madisons economic success when compared to the rest of the state, Soglin said he would like to start the conversation about economic development elsewhere in Wisconsin with Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, because he seems to get it, when it comes to transportation funding.

Vos has said all options for raising revenues for roads, including increasing the states gas tax, should be on the table. Wisconsins gas tax has not been increased since 2006, when it went from 29.9 to 30.9 cents per gallon.

Gov. Scott Walker, however, has vowed to veto an increase of either, unless its paired with a corresponding tax or fee decrease elsewhere in the budget.

Shilling not ruling out gubernatorial run

State Senate Democratic Leader Jennifer Shilling wont say shes thinking about running for governor.

She wont say she isnt, either.

In a year-end interview this week, Shilling, D-La Crosse, acknowledged her unexpectedly close re-election win is still on her mind.

I just got re-elected to the state Senate by a whopping 61 votes, Shilling chuckled when asked about a possible gubernatorial bid. Im committed to representing the 32nd Senate District; working with my colleagues to build back a Democratic majority in the state Senate.

Considered a potential Democratic nominee for governor in 2018, Shilling almost didnt return to the state Senate after the Nov. 8 election. A recount completed last week upheld her 61-vote win over Republican Dan Kapanke in the 32nd Senate District, which covers La Crosse and the surrounding area.

Shillings Democratic colleagues re-elected her as their Minority Leader in late November despite a disappointing 2016 election for their caucus.

State Senate Democrats had hoped to gain at least one seat in the election. Instead they lost a seat when Democratic Sen. Julie Lassa of Stevens Point was upset by Republican Patrick Testin, also of Stevens Point.

Speaking to the State Journal, Shilling didnt sound like someone who had spent much time in recent days mulling over a shot at higher office.

She didnt sound like someone inclined to dismiss the idea, either.

Its a family decision, if and when we have that discussion in my household, Shilling said.

Walker pays visits

to UAE, Afghanistan

Gov. Scott Walker visited troops in the United Arab Emirates and Afghanistan this week, according to social media posts from the governor.

Walker tweeted and posted on Instagram that he visited the Al Dhafra Air Base in Abu Dhabi, UAE, the Bagram Airfield in Bagram, Afghanistan and spent the night at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Walker visited deployed National Guardsmen in the Middle East this week as part of a delegation of governors organized by the U.S. Department of Defense. The program allows governors to visit troops from their states in the field.

Walker tweeted he took the trip with GOP governors Mary Fallin of Oklahoma and Brian Sandoval of Nevada.

Walker began the trip on Monday and was scheduled to return on Friday.
Theres been no official introduction of a bill to allow concealed carry permit holders to pack guns inside University of Wisconsin-Madison buildings, but students and faculty are already lining up to oppose one they anticipate is due when the Legislature convenes in 2017.

A petition to oppose the measure has garnered more than 1,000 signatures in a week, and activists expect to have more than 3,000 names before delivering the document to lawmakers next month.

The push includes the Facebook page Keep Guns off the UW Madison Campus, a Day of Action on Dec. 15, where volunteers plan to set up stations at public spots like Union South and the Gordon Dining and Event Center.

And then, there are the marital aids.

Emulating the Cocks Not Glocks campaign that made sex toys hanging from backpacks a regular feature on the University of Texas at Austin campus after a campus carry law passed last year, activists plan to arm students with dildos as a method of fighting the absurdity of guns in classrooms, said Katherine Kerwin, the driving force behind several of the efforts.

We actually have 200 sex toys on their way right now, she said. Were going to be breaking those out as soon as the bill gets introduced.

Kerwin, a member of the Associated Students of Madison student council who serves on the Legislative Affairs Committee, said she has been told by university officials that a new campus carry bill, a version of which failed last session, is on its way early in the upcoming legislative session. And the timing may skirt campus opposition.

It looks like Republicans in the Legislature are planning to introduce a bill sometime in early January, while were still all home, said the energetic sophomore. So right now is the time the push needs to come.

The proposal to revive the campus carry effort is coming from state Rep. Jesse Kremer, R-Kewaskum, a co-sponsor of the measure last session.

On the Wisconsin Gun Owners website, Kremer has included his own petition for supporters of the measure.

Kremer confirmed that the proposal is one of several pro-gun initiatives he plans to introduce early in the coming legislative session. Hes also working with other Republican lawmakers on introducing a constitutional carry law, which would allow anyone who can legally own a firearm to carry it without a permit. He said the permit process would still be in place so that gun owners could carry their firearms in states with reciprocity agreements. A permit also would likely be required to carry a firearm on campus, he said.

Hes also planning on introducing a bill that would allow permit holders to pack heat in private K-12 schools.

A proposal to allow armed individuals with concealed carry permits to enter Wisconsin schools, public or private, died a swift death in 2013 amid a storm of criticism. And last spring a similar measure sputtered without getting a committee hearing.

This time, Kremer said, hes narrowing the proposal to private and parochial schools.

We know a lot of private parochial do want this, he said. Public, well try to do it. But, you know, there are a lot of lobbying interest that would not want it. That might be a little harder step to take.

Whether or not his gun proposals would be rolled out separately or in one big Second Amendment rights bill is still up in the air.

Well see that in the next couple of months, he said.

Also uncertain is support from Republic leadership. Kremer said he has met with staffers in Assembly Speaker Robin Vos office, but I have really gotten no guidance or direction. I think well just do what we want to do for legislators who want to roll this stuff out.

Jeri Bonavia, executive director of the Wisconsin Anti-Violence Effort (WAVE), said the proposals come despite consistent opposition from a majority of Wisconsin residents.

Every session we see a number of the gun lobbys dream list of legislation coming up, she said. Whats been clear in the past and what remains true now is that these are not bills that the citizens of Wisconsin are asking for or desiring. Every time theyve been introduced theres been a huge push-back coming from the public from citizens who are expressing outrage.

But Republicans have repeatedly managed to pass gun bills that lack strong public support.

In 2011, the Legislature passed a bill allowing concealed carry of firearms while state support was essentially split. Last year, Gov. Scott Walker signed a repeal of the states nearly 40-year-old 48-hour waiting period on handgun sales, despite polls indicating that a majority of Americans support it. Republicans have also snubbed expanded background checks, while state polls show strong support.

They get pressure from the pro-gun lobby to move on some of these really radical and dangerous ideas, Bonavia said of pro-gun lawmakers. I think theyre doing something to keep their special interests happy rather than the people of Wisconsin.

The fate of the campus carry bill, however, appears to have little traction, even among the Republicans.

State Sen. Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, who co-sponsored the bill last year with Kremer, has no plans to sponsor it again, a staffer said.

And Vos, who controls the flow of legislation in his role as speaker, said last year he hasnt heard a huge outcry in support of it.

But Kerwin, the UW-Madison anti-gun activist, is taking nothing for granted.

On campus we are expecting it to pass, she said. Were still fighting super hard with this opposition movement but were expecting the worst next session in early January.
Biddeford-Saco-OOB Courier

Those who habitually put items in their recycling bins that don't belong there are the target of the ordinance amendment, not those who make an occasional, accidental mistake, said Public Works Director Jeff Demers.




Astronaut John Glenn, the first American to orbit the earth, has died.

Glenn was 95. He was admitted to the James Cancer Hospital at Ohio State University more than a week ago.

John Glenn was the last surviving member of a group known as "the Mercury Seven," test pilots who, in 1959, were chosen to become Americas first astronauts.

President Barack Obama released a statement about Glenn's death. "Our nation has lost an icon and Michelle and I have lost a friend," he said.

He praised Glenn for a lifetime of breaking barriers, including setting a transcontinental speed record and becoming the oldest man ever to go into space.

Pilot and Astronaut

He served as a military pilot in World War II and the Korean conflict. Then, he served as a test pilot on military airplanes.

On February 20, 1962, Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth. He flew a spacecraft named the Friendship 7. He orbited three times during the almost five-hour flight.

Much later, in 1998, he also became the oldest man to fly in space. He served as a crew member on the space shuttle Discovery.

The United States space agency, NASA, wanted to study the possible effects of space travel on old people. NASA said that Glenn was perfect for the job because they already had so much information about him.

U.S. Senator

Glenn was not only an astronaut. He was a politician, too.

Glenn was a member of the Democratic Party. He first sought political office in 1964, to represent Ohio in the U.S. Senate. He withdrew from the race after an injury, however. He ran again six years later but did not win the partys nomination. Finally, in 1974, on his third attempt, Ohio elected John Glenn to the U.S. Senate.

During the race, Glenn famously defended attacks by his political opponent, Howard Metzenbaum.

Metzenbaum, a wealthy businessman, suggested that Glenns service in the military and NASA meant he had never had a job.

Glenn's answer became one of the most famous retorts in American political history.

It is called the Gold Star Mothers speech. A gold star mother is a mother whose child has died in active U.S. military service.

Glenn told Metzenbaum, "You go with me to any gold star mother and you look her in the eye and tell her that her son did not hold a job."

Many experts say that speech helped Glenn win the election. The astronaut remained a member of the U.S. Senate until 1999.

Public Service and Awards

After leaving the Senate, Glenn helped to create a public service school at Ohio State University. Later, this school became the John Glenn College of Public Affairs.

Glenn won many awards, including honorary degrees at several universities, the Woodrow Wilson Award for Public Service, a U.S. senate public service award, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Im Caty Weaver.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section.

Marissa Melton wrote this story for VOA News. John Russell adapted it for Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor.

___________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

icon  n. a person who is very successful and admired

transcontinental  adj. going across a continent

retort  n. a quick and often angry reply
Many cases of rape are reported in the worlds newest country, South Sudan.

Government forces, unidentified armed groups, and rebel fighters are suspected of these crimes. Yet not one individual has been arrested or sentenced to prison for rape this year.

That information comes from the Voice of America (VOA) program South Sudan in Focus. South Sudan in Focus is a joint effort of VOA and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

On Wednesday, a top African Union (AU) official made an appeal to South Sudans government. Bineta Diop called on government officials to arrest and punish soldiers who sexually abused women during the three years of conflict in the country. She said punishing those responsible for sexual abuse against women will guarantee security and self-respect for South Sudanese women.

Diop is the AUs Special Envoy for Women, Peace and Security. She met this week with South Sudans Minister of Gender, Child and Social Welfare, women activists and others in the city of Juba. They talked about how womens rights can be protected in South Sudan, despite ongoing fighting.

Diop said the AU has launched a campaign aimed at reestablishing the dignity of women in South Sudan.

The chairperson of the AU Commission, Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, is directing the campaign. She is a former wife of Jacob Zuma, South Africa's president.

Its time for us to silence the guns in South Sudan, Dlamini Zuma said. Its time for us to restore peace in this country, but especially to bring back the dignity of women in South Sudan.

16-day campaign against sexual violence

Bineta Diop called on national, state, and local officials across South Sudan to enforce the law and arrest and punish criminals who violate womens rights.She said that the African Union stands firmly with South Sudanese women who launched 16 days of activism against sexual violence. She said the AU wants women to have a say in finding solutions to the countrys widespread problem of sexual abuse.

In Imatong state, womens rights activists have been using the 16-day program to talk directly to men about sexual violence.

They are also campaigning for more women to be appointed to local and state government positions. They say women serving in these positions can influence decisions and policies.

The activists say the reason rapists are not punished is because men control decision-making positions. And, the men do not arrest other men for crimes like rape.

High-ranking women seen as key

Imatong state lawmaker and activist Angela Achiro said women must hold office at all levels of government.

For instance, at the county level, we would like to see a female commissioner. In Imotong state, we have 12 counties, but no woman is appointed county commissioner," she said.

Achiro said women employed in the military or police are only offered jobs as office cleaners, tea makers and messengers, while uneducated men are given higher positions.

Achiro also said if a woman headed the army, she would enforce the law and prevent government soldiers and rebel forces from raping women.

Davidika Ikai heads an organization called Itwak. She said having women in high local and state positions will help ensure that girls are registered in school and stay there. She believes that educating girls is the only thing that will end sexual violence in South Sudan.

A lot more needs to be done

Mary Cummins heads the office of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan, or UNMISS. She said dealing with the problem of sexual violence will be a long and difficult process.

"A lot more needs to be done, Cummins said. It is very hard work for women to succeed in a male-controlled society, she added.

There have been an average of 30 rape cases per month this year, and those are only the ones that are reported.

Many South Sudanese women do not report a sex attack because they do not want to be rejected by their communities.

Jacob Atari, Imatong state Education, Gender and Social Welfare Minister, said there is a need to get many organized forces involved, especially soldiers and some men, so that we can talk about these thingsto the people who are violating it.

Im Bryan Lynn.

And Alice Bryant.

Titio Justin, Carol van Dam and Dimo Silva reported on this story for VOANews.com. Alice Bryant adapted their reports for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

gender - n. the state of being male or female

welfare - n. the state of being happy, healthy, or successful

dignity - n. the quality of being worthy of honor or respect
The memory of a beloved pet inspires one couple's fight against injustice.
Polk County leaders presented options to residents Thursday night for improving safety along a deadly stretch of roadway in Lakeland.

Three people killed on Clubhouse Road since 2014

FDOT study recommended adding streetlights, more sidewalks, left turn lanes

Push for improvements peaked after death of Kalen Kirk, 17, on May 2, 2016

The meeting was held was 6 to 7:30 p.m. at First Baptist Church - Highlands City, on Yarborough Lane.



The options presented came from a study prepared by Florida Department of Transportation consultants. The $23,000 study, paid for by FDOT, suggested the county add street lights to Clubhouse Road, where three people have been killed since 2014.



It also recommended adding more sidewalks, signs that alert drivers how fast theyre going, and left turn lanes.

Tragedy provides impetus for change

The push for improvements peaked in May of 2016, when a school crossing supervisor hit and killed Kalen Kirk, 17, as he was crossing Clubhouse Road early in the morning to catch the bus to school. A cross sitting at the intersection of where the crash happened is a daily reminder to Kalen's family.



Its extremely rough," said Kalen's dad, Tony Kirk. "We have to come through here every day. We live right here and he died right there. Its just a constant reminder every day of what happened."



Right after Kalen was killed, the elder Kirk demanded the county add more street lights and a pedestrian cross walk. One light was added in the spot near where Kalen was killed.



Kirk said he has remained quiet since, allowing the process to work itself out. But with this new study, also suggesting streetlights, hes hoping hell finally see some action.



Its not like this is new to them. This isnt new information that has come up. There have been consistent, long-standing, chronic complaints about the safety on Clubhouse Road, said Kirk.

Next steps

In addition to the deaths of Kalen this past May, Jill Braddock in August 2014, and Scott Sherman in Nov. 2014, the study found there were six other pedestrian/bicyclist crashes on Clubhouse Road since 2011.



Its really unfortunate that it has taken three deaths and years and years of complaints and dialogue in order for something like this to finally occur," said Kirk. "What I am really hoping is at the end of the day, after all of the money has been spent on these traffic studies, that something affirmative is done."



County Commissioners will be briefed on what was said during the community meeting on Friday, Dec. 9. A county spokeswoman said commissioners will then direct staff on what to do next.
We've got a chilly night ahead here in the Tampa Bay area. Here's your forecast heading into the weekend.



Chilly into Saturday morning



No freeze overnight



Saturday will warm up in the afternoon



The colder air moved in on schedule, with highs only in the upper 50s to low 60s. It will be chilly into Saturday morning, with lows in the 40s.

We wont have a freeze, however, because of the winds staying breezy and also a layer of clouds continuing to move overhead.

Saturday will start out cold, but end up milder in the afternoon as highs get back to about 70. Skies will start out partly cloudy in the morning, but end up mostly sunny in the afternoon.

Saturday night will be mostly clear and seasonably cool, but not nearly as cold, with lows in the 50s.

Sunday will feature the start of a warming trend with highs back into the upper 70s under partly cloudy skies.



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Steinhoff CEO Markus Jooste shot down speculation that the company could be looking for acquisitions in South America but danced around the question concerning a long-rumoured tie-up with Shoprite.

Speaking to analysts on Wednesday, Jooste said South America was not on the cards at all. "On other rumours and stories in the market about potential acquisitions, we dont comment on that."

Jooste said that while the company had worked its capital over the past year, Steinhoff remained committed to managing its balance sheet to protect its investment-grade ratings.

"We expect net debt after capital expenditure to come down in the next year by up to 10%. We are very comfortable with our capital structure and our ability to look at further acquisitions, although that is not something that we plan or have in mind at the moment," he said.

In the quarter ended September 30, Steinhoff reported a 12.1% rise in revenue to 3.4bn compared with the year-earlier period.

Operating profit increased 12.5% to 327m.

Cratos Wealth portfolio manager Ron Klipin said the groups outlook appeared positive but there were "soft spots" such as Conforama in France and Switzerland. Conforama, a major player in the European household goods market, operates a total of 287 stores, of which 204 are in France and 83 are spread across Spain, Switzerland, Portugal, Luxembourg, Italy, Croatia and Serbia.

"Emerging markets in Eastern Europe, however, look extremely positive, with double-digit growth in the general merchandise sales," Klipin said.

As far as debt was concerned, Klipin said Steinhoffs net debt to earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation was expected to decline in 2017 as recent acquisitions would begin to contribute. Interest payable on the debt would also begin to fall.

The quarterly results did not include recent acquisitions of UKs Poundland and US-based Mattress Firm, which were completed in October.

"The balance sheet will be bolstered by the above following a spate of major investments over the past few years, while the low cost of funding in Europe has helped significantly," he said.

Klipin said Steinhoffs shares appeared to offer value at its current price:earnings ratio "with superb management, geographical spread and product portfolio".

Vestact, which holds shares in Steinhoff, said that while there was nothing earth shattering in the results, the intraday share price in both Frankfurt and Johannesburg had shot up 9%.

"Steinhoff will continue with its strategy of sweating its businesses harder than its competitors. The end game is for the company to be the biggest retail merchandise business in Europe, and equally to be the biggest clothing business here in SA," said Vestact analyst Sasha Naryshkine.

Naryshkine said credit was due to management for having the foresight to make "bold bets when capital is cheap".

"Steinhoff is a lot bigger now than people believe. Adidas has a market cap of about 29bn. Steinhoff is sitting at about 20bn. I think shareholders will be pleasantly surprised in the year to come," he said.
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Carolina On Its Mind: CompuCom To Move Corporate Headquarters From Texas to South Carolina

Michael Novinson

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CompuCom plans to relocate its corporate headquarters from the Dallas area to South Carolina, creating 1,500 corporate and contact center jobs in the Charlotte, N.C. suburbs.

The Plano, Texas-based company said the move to Indian Land, S.C. will bring its product and service development teams together in one location, allowing them to work more closely with one another and with CompuCom's senior leadership. CompuCom's contact center employees are currently spread across Texas; Louisville, Ky.; and Charlotte, the company said.

CompuCom employs 11,500, meaning South Carolina would be home to roughly 13 percent of its workforce five to seven years from now once the jobs make their way to the Palmetto State. The South Carolina hires will mostly be in newly-created roles across the field technician, service desk personnel and functional role support domains, said Jonathan James, CompuCom's chief marketing officer.

[RELATED: CompuCom Promotes EVP Dan Stone to CEO]

The company said the move would place the $1.9 billion systems integrator closer to many of its clients and near a cluster of startups, high-tech businesses and growing network of IT workers. Specifically, the Charlotte area is home to many of the retail, financial services, healthcare and insurance companies that CompuCom counts among its clientele, James said.

The announcement comes just a week after CompuCom promoted Dan Stone - previously the leader of its end-user enablement division - to CEO. Before joining CompuCom, Stone had spent eight years as an executive at Lenovo, which has its U.S. headquarters near Raleigh-Durham, N.C.

CompuCom has gradually been building up its presence in the Carolinas over the past 20 months, and today has roughly 100 employees working in a temporary office in Charlotte, James said.

Today, James said CompuCom's executive chairman, CFO, chief of strategy, leaders of its end-user enablement and service experience management business units  along with Stone and James himself  all work out of Charlotte. As this cluster strengthened, James said CompuCom began concentrating on the Carolinas when it was backfilling vacancies or adding net new positions to the company.

"Ultimately, the plans were to locate and move to a more permanent office structure," James said. "This kind of signifies the next steps in our journey."

CompuCom began conversations well over a year ago with the Commerce Departments in both North Carolina and South Carolina about possible homes for a new corporate headquarters, James said, ultimately ending up just 10 minutes from its current Charlotte office, despite being in a different state.

"South Carolina is very aggressive in attracting new business and new jobs," James said. "You get lots of the benefits of the proximity to Charlotte, and yet you're just over the border."

South Carolina's Coordinating Council for Economic Development approved job credits for CompuCom, which James said the company will be eligible for as it hires and brings jobs to the new facility. CompuCom's relocation is the largest single job announcement in the history of 86,000-person Lancaster County, S.C.

The Dallas area, though, will remain home to a couple hundred CompuCom's jobs, its cloud technology group and network operations center (NOC), and the company's chief legal counsel and head of its cloud technology services group, James said. CompuCom recently signed a seven-year lease for its Plano site, James said, and no company employees will be required to relocate from Texas to South Carolina.

"We're not leaving Texas," James said. "It's still a strong part of the hub, and we're not going to be moving any new jobs from Texas."

South Carolina will also serve as home to CompuCom's Tech-Zone Service Centers operation, which provides walk-up IT services to franchise holders and small- and medium-sized businesses. Work on CompuCom's new home is currently underway and should be complete in roughly a year, James said.

CompuCom will lease a 150,000 square foot building in the Bailes Ridge Business Park, which will use the company's Internet of Things (IoT) solutions to connect, automate and control all of the building's electronic devices and systems. The building's HVAC, lighting, elevators, water, power, communications, TVs, security, fitness equipment and kitchen electronics will all be controlled by IoT, the company said.

"We've got some pretty cool, next-generation IoT solutions we can showcase in the building itself," James said. "It's always much more powerful when we can say to a client, 'Hey, we've done this.'"

IT distributors have established an extensive footprint in the Carolina in recent decades, with Greenville, S.C. serving as both ScanSource's corporate headquarters and the headquarters for Synnex's U.S. distribution practice.

But the Carolinas are not home to many large solution providers  the largest reseller in the region today is Pawleys Island, S.C.-based Mercom, which reached $150 million in annual sales in 2014. In contrast, Texas is home to six solution providers other than CompuCom that rake in more than $150 million of revenue each year.

"It's much easier to grab awareness in terms of reaching out to prospective customers and prospective employees in a less crowded field," James said. "From a marketing perspective, I love it."

A strong university system and ecosystem of corporate partners have made both Charlotte and Dallas good places for finding IT talent, James said. A good quality of life and low cost of living have resulted in many qualified employees moving from higher-cost areas such as New York, Boston, San Francisco or Los Angeles to Sun Belt cities such as Raleigh-Durham, Charlotte, Charleston and Atlanta, James said.

"I think the whole Southeast and Southwest is emerging as a go-to place [for IT workers]," James said.
The Boss is back, and how.

The makers of Khaidi No 150 have unveiled the teaser trailer of the big budget film starring Chiranjeevi who returns to the film screen after a hiatus of 10 years.

Interestingly, this will be his 150th film. Since he stopped working in films after his 149th in 2007 to focus on his political career, his fans, well wishers and fellow members of the Telugu film industry have been pushing him to star in another film to touch the golden figure of 150.

The teaser revolves completely around the megastar and you do not get to see even a glimpse of any of his co-stars. There are no signs of life besides the voluptuous back dancers and the baddies that he beats black and blue. Chiranjeevi's towering larger-than-life personality dominates the screen throughout the 45 second-long teaser.

Given the cult figure that he is, the teaser is sure to pull the crowds into the theatres. Though the actor is aged 61, there are no hints of the fact, either on his face or in his spirit.

The film, a typical South commercial potboiler, is the official remake of the Tamil action drama Kaththi directed by AR Murugadoss. Chiranjeevi will reprise the lead role that was played by Vijay in the original film. Khaidi No 150 is co-produced by Chiranjeevi's son Ram Charan under the banner of Konidela Production Company. Deccan Chronicle reports that Charan will also make a special appearance in the film and will be seen shaking a leg with his father.

The film also stars Kajal Agarwal and Shriya Saran. According to a report by The Indian Express, Hindi actor Tarun Arora will play the negative role and will be seen exchanging blows with the Telugu juggernaut.

Khaidi No 150, directed by V. V. Vinayak, is slated to release on Makar Sakranti next year, i.e., 14 January, 2017.
On 8 December, 2016 while announcing a slew of rebates for encouraging digital payments, the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley gave an interesting statistic----as much as 58 percent of rail bookings are done online. If this is true, India certainly is ready to go digital brushing aside the skepticism of the critics and detractors. He also said since 8 November, 2016 when demonetisation was announced, digital payments have grown at a healthy clip---from 20 percent of the overall transactions to 40 percent. The 0.75 percent rebate on petrol bunk bills for digital payments is nothing to scoff at just as 10 percent rebate to electronic toll payments shouldnt be if only to reduce standing traffic at busy tolls. Private insurance players of course would be peeved by 8 percent and 10 percent rebates offered on life and non-life premia by public sector insurers. Be that as it may, the soft digital push comes on the back of hard push i.e. leg-up to swiping machines.

Banks take their own decisions on installation of ATM machines without needing any permission from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for this purpose. However when it comes to swiping machines aka POS machines, the call is normally taken by the shopkeepers. But the central government has cleverly shifted the initiative from them to the banks with which the establishments have current accounts. Yes, the government has urged banks to push for installation of swiping machines at retail shops that dot our landscape. To start with, it has urged the banks to install 10 lakh such machines by 31 March, 2016 on a war footing that could be daunting given the fact that the existing number of such machines across the country is only 14.6 lakh. But the SBI alone has volunteered enthusiastically to install 6 lakh machines during this short period.

The Assam BJP government has gone one step ahead and is seriously mulling whether it can make installation of swiping machines mandatory at retail establishments. While that could meet with some resistance and criticism, the central government initiative is an example of government using its persuasive power for the welfare of the nation. Banks after all know what their customers are into. If a customer is a trader, it can always call him over and impress upon him the need for installation of the POS machine at his establishment.

The wheel has come full circle. Come to think of it, banks till recently were supinely and passively offering a service to big retail establishments that they should not have--- deputing their personnel for collecting cash. It sent wrong signals. It encouraged both the establishments and their customers to prefer cash as the prime mode of doing business. And more importantly, it encouraged transactions outside the books in laymans terms because on the flipside bulk of the expenditure was also incurred in cash that often hid the identity of the payees.

POS machines has benefits for everyone---automatic accounting at both the ends -- i.e. the establishment and bank, besides rendering the tedious process of counting redundant at both the ends. It was an eyesore to witness wads of currency notes tumble out of traders untidy bags in front of bank cash counters every morning.

The government must be complimented for converting the current cash crisis born of demonetisation of 500 and 1000 rupee notes into an opportunity to go digital and less-cash. The Congress party calls this rationalisation because it says initially the government called demonetisation a counter to counterfeit notes and black money. But what the heck, emphasis on cards and digital payment comes at the right time. Strike the iron when it is hot. The economy is reeling under currency shortage. Now is the time to change entrenched habits.

The government has waived 12.5 percent basic excise duty and 4 percent special excise duty on swiping machines and is likely to waive of the import duty as well given the fact that bulk of the machines are currently imported.

The Modi government indeed has cleverly dovetailed digital payments with demonetisation. And if it is an afterthought, so what?
Its been a month now since Prime Minister Narendra Modis address to the nation socked almost every Indian in the guts and once again polarised opinion like never before.

The sudden demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes turned out to be one big leveller - people with a few hundreds and a few thousands in cash were in the same plight as those with a few lakhs and a few hundred crores. Overnight the money in their hands (or lockers) was rendered useless.

Commentaries in newspaper columns, news websites and social media platforms took up either of two extreme positions  the demonetisation advocates (DAs) insisted this was the best thing to happen to the country and the demonetisation detractors (DDs) outraged that this was the worst thing to happen. At least the DAs agreed that the demonetisation exercise could have been better managed; the DDs set refused to concede anything at all (lets not even get into the hysterical hyperbole that this group resorted to).

One month on, how has demonetisation played out? What has it achieved?

The latter question is a bit tricky, since we dont exactly know what prompted the move. And thats because the government itself keeps talking about different goals.

Initially, it was supposed to be about getting out black money. Modis speech and the governments initial defence of the move only talked about attacking black money. Then it was about tackling the problem of fake notes and terror funding. And soon it was about readying the country to move to cashless transactions.

The DDs were quick to challenge the black money narrative. Only a small amount of black money is held in cash; the rest is in real estate and gold; why not go after that, they said. The first point is factually correct (even the DAs concede this); the second question betrays churlishness. To say that it is pointless going after black money held in cash until all black money held in physical assets is confiscated deliberately obfuscates the point that it is the former that facilitates the acquisition of the latter. The overnight strike on black money held in cash will render other transactions more difficult.

That said, it is not clear how much of black money held in cash has come into the system. Latest figures indicate that as much as Rs 11.5 lakh crore has been deposited in banks since November 8. But all of this will not be concealed income; it could well be cash held by honest individuals and institutions for perfectly valid reasons. Besides, the State Bank of India economic research team has pointed out that this could include some double counting as well as deposit of legal tender (valid notes of lower denominations). The real picture of how much of the old currency has been brought back (cash in circulation as of 8 November is estimated at Rs 15,441 billion) will be known only in January; how much of this was black money will perhaps never be known.

A lot of the black money could well have been laundered in the past month. There was, for example, a huge surge in gold purchases on 8 and 9 November. Zero balance Jan Dhan accounts are now flush with cash  according to this report, Rs 21,000 crore has been deposited in these accounts after 8 November. The deposits have been waning after the government issued warnings.

The demonetisation exercise also spawned a black market in new notes. People exchanged their old notes for new and put it right back into their lockers. The exchange rate for old notes was in the range of 30-45 per cent and is reported to have come down to 25 per cent after the second Income Declaration Scheme of 30 November. The response to this second IDS will give some sense about how successful the demonetisation exercise has been in unearthing black money.

What will also be difficult to estimate is how much the exercise has helped in curbing terror funding. There has been some success -- extremist groups in Kashmir, the Naxal belt and the north-east were suddenly left with no legal tender  but there are also reports about Naxal groups forcing people to deposit old currency in their own accounts and of new currency finding its way to the north-east.

If the purpose of demonetisation was to push cashless transactions, that seems to have met with a fair degree of success. Debit and credit card payments, use of e-wallets and mobile wallets as well as prepaid cards have all surged. Whether this is because of the temporary cash crunch or will result in behavioural change will be clear only later.

Never mind the rationale for it, how has demonetisation played out on the ground? Even the most ardent of DAs finds it hard to deny that the implementation has been messed up. Modi asked people to put up with 50 days of inconvenience, but there are enough indications that the inconvenience could last longer.

Despite the Reserve Bank of India asserting that 196 billion pieces of currency have been put into the system  equivalent to three full years of supply  banks and ATMs do not have adequate cash. Individual bank branches are setting their own limits on cash withdrawals. Salary payments in cash have been affected. At his press conference after the quarterly review of monetary policy, RBI governor Urjit Patel asked people not to hoard new currency. But given how rules on exchange of old currency and withdrawal of cash have been changed almost whimsically, people are holding on to whatever little cash they have till the situation eases.

As a result, spending has been compressed and economic activity has been disrupted. The small and medium sector has been affected the most. The fear of job losses is a real one, though the extent may not be as high as the guesstimate of many DDs. One set of DAs pooh-poohed initial estimates of how much of a hit the economy would take, but have quietened down with the RBI lowering its growth estimates for this year to 7.1 percent. NITI Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya has admitted in this interview that 8 percent growth will perhaps now not be possible before the end of 2017-18.

Will the pain of the demonetisation exercise be worth the benefits it will bring? That will depend on a lot of things. The fight against black money will be fruitful only if the government starts acting against benami transactions and properties, reduces tax rates and eliminates scope for corruption (the market buzz is that the majority of those who went on a gold shopping spree after Modis shock announcement on 8 November were either tax officials or policemen!) Cashless transactions will get going only if the digital divide is truly bridged and connectivity issues addressed.

All this will be known only in the long-term. No, we may not all be dead by then.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi handpicked a trusted bureaucrat, little known outside India's financial circles, to spearhead a radical move to abolish 86 percent of the country's cash overnight and take aim at the huge shadow economy.

Hasmukh Adhia, the bureaucrat, and five others privy to the plan were sworn to utmost secrecy, say sources with knowledge of the matter. They were supported by a young team of researchers working in two rooms at Modi's New Delhi residence, as he plotted his boldest reform since coming to power in 2014.

When announced, the abolition of high-value banknotes of 500 and 1,000 rupees came as a bolt from the blue.

The secrecy was aimed at outflanking those who might profit from prior knowledge, by pouring cash into gold, property and other assets and hide illicit wealth.

Previously unreported details of Modi's handling of the so-called 'demonetisation' opens a window onto the hands-on role he played in implementing a key policy, and how he was willing to act quickly even when the risks were high.

While some advocates say the scrapping of the banknotes will bring more money into the banking system and raise tax revenues, millions of Indians are furious at having to queue for hours outside banks to exchange or deposit their old money.

Labourers have also been unpaid and produce has rotted in markets as cash stopped changing hands. Not enough replacement notes were printed in preparation for the upheaval, and it could take months for things to return to normal.

With India's most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, holding an election in early 2017 that could decide Modi's chances of a second term in office, there is little time for the hoped-for benefits of his cash swap to outweigh short-term pain.

Modi has staked his reputation and popularity on the move.

"I have done all the research and, if it fails, then I am to blame," Modi told a cabinet meeting on 8 November shortly before the move was announced, according to three ministers who attended.

Direct line to Modi

Overseeing the campaign, with support from the backroom team camped out at Modi's sprawling bungalow in the capital, was Adhia, a top finance ministry official.

The 58-year-old served as principal secretary to Modi from 2003-06 when he was chief minister of Gujarat state, establishing a relationship of trust with his boss and introducing him to yoga.

Colleagues said he had a reputation for integrity and discretion.

Adhia was named revenue secretary in September 2015, reporting formally to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. In reality, he had a direct line to Modi and they would speak in their native Gujarati when they met to discuss issues in depth.

In the world's largest democracy, the demonetisation was revolutionary: it called into question the state's promise to 'pay the bearer' the face value on every banknote.

At a stroke, Modi scrapped money worth 15.4 trillion rupees ($220 billion), equal to 86 percent of cash in Asia's third-largest economy.

The idea is backed by some economists, although the speed of its implementation is widely seen as radical.

"One is never ready for this kind of disruption - but it is a constructive disruption," said Narendra Jadhav, a 31-year veteran and former chief economist of India's central bank who now represents Modi's party in the upper house of parliament.

Modi, in his TV address to the nation, cautioned that people could face temporary hardship as replacement 500 and 2,000 rupee notes were introduced. Calling for an act of collective sacrifice, he promised steps to soften the blow for the nine in 10 Indians who live in the cash economy.

Biggest, boldest step

Immediately after the address, Adhia sent a tweet: "This is the biggest and the boldest step by the Government for containing black money."

The boast harked back to Modi's election vow to recover black money from abroad that had resonated with voters fed up with the corruption scandals that plagued the last Congress government. Yet, in office, he struggled to keep his promise.

Over more than a year, Modi commissioned research from officials at the Finance Ministry, the central bank and think-tanks on how to advance his fight against black money, a close aide said.

He demanded answers to questions such as: How quickly India could print new banknotes; how to distribute them; would state banks benefit if they received a rush of new deposits; and who would gain from demonetisation?

The topics were broken up to prevent anyone from joining the dots and concluding that a cash swap was in the offing.

"We didn't want to let the cat out of the bag," said a senior official directly involved. "Had people got a whiff of the decision, the whole exercise would have been meaningless."

Under Adhia's oversight, the team of researchers assembled and modeled the findings in what was, for it, a theoretical exercise.

It was made up of young experts in data and financial analysis; some ran Modi's social media accounts and a smartphone app that he used to solicit public feedback.

Yet, for all the planning, Modi and Adhia knew they could not foresee every eventuality, and were willing to move swiftly.

The announcement caused chaos, with huge queues forming at banks when they reopened after a short holiday.

New 2,000 rupee notes were hard to come by and barely any new 500 rupee notes had been printed. India's 200,000 cash dispensers could not handle the new, smaller, notes and it would take weeks to reconfigure them.

Filling ATMs with the 8 trillion rupees ($117 billion) in new banknotes that the Finance Ministry reckons are needed to restore liquidity to the economy is even trickier.

In a best-case scenario, in which India's four banknote presses churned out new 500 and 2,000 rupee notes designed to replace the abolished ones, it would take at least three months to hit that target.

Secrecy paramount

Secrecy was paramount, but clues had been left.

Back in April, analysts at State Bank of India said that demonetisation of large-denomination notes was possible.

The Reserve Bank of India, the central bank, also disclosed in May that it was making preparations for a new series of banknotes that were confirmed in August when it announced it had approved a design for a new 2,000 rupee note.

The printing presses had only just started turning when the media finally started to run with the story in late October.

"The plan was to introduce it around 18 November, but there was a clear sign that it could get leaked," said one person with direct knowledge who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.

Some officials in the Finance Ministry had expressed doubts about scrapping high-value notes when the idea came up for discussion. They now feel resentment at the secrecy in which Adhia rammed through the plan on Modi's orders.

They also say the plan was flawed because of a failure to ramp up printing of new notes ahead of time.

Other critics say the Adhia team fell prey to a form of 'group think' that ignored outside advice.

In the words of one former top official who has worked at the Finance Ministry and central bank: "They don't know what's happening in the real world."
New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday accused the Narendra Modi government of compromising national security by partnering with a currency paper supplier who was earlier blacklisted for working with a fake currency nexus. Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley denied the allegations.

The AAP alleged that De La Rue, a Britain-based banknote manufacturer, security printing, and papermaking company was blacklisted in India.

AAP Delhi convener Dilip Pandey said that De La Rue supplied the same paper used for printing Indian currency to the terror nexus in Pakistan indulging in the printing of fake currency.

"The company was not only white-listed after Modi came to power, but also partnering with the government on Modi's ambitious 'Make in India' project," he said.

Pandey alleged that the new Rs 2,000 note is also being printed on paper supplied by De La Rue.

"We want to ask Prime Minster Modi that why is he partnering with a company which is at the same time partnering with Pakistan, terror outfits, counterfeit currency printers and enemy of the nation," he asked

Responding to the allegations, Jaitley said that the Finance Ministry had no links with the said company.

"Another false campaign on the social media by the AAP. Ministry of Finance has no dealings with the British Company named in this campaign," Jaitley tweeted.

Pandey, however, tweeted back saying that De La Rue was still working with Mysore press printing currency notes.
A few hundred metres from the site of an encounter with suspected militants in south Kashmir, a mob of at least 1,000  including children  gathered in Arwani village and tried to break the cordon laid by security forces. The encounter took place in the Hassanpora locality of Bijbehara in Anantnag district.

Like dozens of previous attempts made by local residents to provide safe passage to the militants caught in encounters with government forces, the mob pelted stones and tried to come to the rescue of "our heroes". It is the new normal in Kashmir, which has the security establishment worried.

In the retaliatory action, Arif Ahmad Shah was killed while at least three dozen protesters suffered injuries; one of them was referred to Srinagar's SKIMS Hospital in a critical state. According to police and witnesses, at least two dozen protesters suffered pellet injuries.

It wont be wrong to suggest that Shah, a resident of Sangam area in Anantnag, at least 10 kilometres from the encounter site, was part of the group that was trying to divert the attention of forces to facilitate the escape of the militants  a trend that has picked up recently in Kashmir.

On Thursday evening, after Shah was killed, according to officials by a stray bullet, the Jammu and Kashmir Police, once again, appealed to people not to assemble or come close to the encounter sites as there is every chance that stray bullets may hit them and they make get injured (sic).

According to witnesses, the protesters, who tried to break the cordon around Hassanpora locality, danced with joy, apparently to celebrate the escape of militants from the area, before they were intercepted by the police in Arwani. At the time of writing, no bodies had been recovered from the encounter site.

Although many news outlets reported that three militants have been killed, there was no conformation on that from the police till midnight on Thursday. The Hassanpora village was cordoned off late on Wednesday evening following inputs of militants in the area. After getting no response to few warning shots, the forces suspended the operation for the night owing to darkness.

On Thursday morning, the operation was resumed but soon fresh clashes broke out. Witnesses and police said there was intermittent firing going on at the site. Sources said the forces, a joint team of the police and Indian Army, tried to start a mopping-up operation in the evening, but they came under fresh fire due to which the operation was put off till Friday.

As if the happenings in Arwani were not enough, protests broke out in different parts of south Kashmir as rumours of two militants getting killed in the encounter started gaining currency, a harsh reminder that all is not well in the Valley. According to police sources, people from villages adjoining Hassanpora tried to march to the encounter site, sparking clashes.

In February this year, the Jammu and Kashmir Police was forced to issue an advisory, asking people to stay away from encounter sites to ensure smooth anti-militancy operations and no civilian casualties. We have issued the advisory in the interest of people. We request people to follow it. Its for their safety, Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Kashmir Syed Javid Mujtaba Gilani said.

Given the fragile peace prevailing in the Valley, the violence in Arwani is just a tip of the churning taking place in south Kashmir which has been the epicentre of anti-India and pro-freedom clashes following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani.

The massive outpouring of residents is a small window into what is going to be happen in coming days in the Valley, especially since many youths, who have joined the militancy in south Kashmir, are often seen roaming in and around their localities. When they get trapped, locals come to engage security forces and provide them a safe passage, which was what happened on Thursday evening.

We will do it till the time we are alive. We will continue to save militants from forces. We will end this tyranny, Shabir, who only gave his first name in Arwani where protesters were trying to break the cordon around the encounter site, said.

Earlier this year, after the rise in incidents of people thronging encounter sites, the then commander of the Army's Northern Command, Lieutenant-General DS Hooda, had told AP that it was a major concern and a challenge to conduct anti-militant operations.

"Frankly speaking, I'm not comfortable anymore conducting operations if large crowds are around," Hooda told AP.

Even if I get killed, I don't care. We are fighting for freedom. If we have to spill more blood, so be it, Shabir, the protester in Arwani, said.
New Delhi/Port Blair: Rescue operations of around 1,400 stranded tourists in two islands of Andamans due to cyclonic weather began this morning as the Navy, Coast Guard and Union Territory administration jointly undertook a major evacuation drive.

Six ships of the Indian Navy and two Indian Coast Guard ships sailed on Friday morning to evacuate around 1400 tourists from Havelock Island in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a statement said. According to ANI, the Indian Navy has rescued 17 people in the first shuttle. The Indian Coast Guard is also continuing its rescue efforts.

17 people have been rescued in the first shuttle: Air Force on tourists stranded in Andaman due to bad weather  ANI (@ANI_news) December 9, 2016

Indian Coast Guard ships also at Havelock Islands, evacuation of stranded tourists in progress #Andaman  ANI (@ANI_news) December 9, 2016

"Six Indian Navy ships and two Indian Coast Guard ships sailed out at 9.30 a.m. from Port Blair for rescue operations. Three Indian Air Force helicopters also taking part in IN, ICG, Army, State administration joint operation for evacuation of stranded tourists in the Havelock Island," Indian Navy said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Lt Governor Jagdish Mukhi assured that there has been no loss of life and that the tourists are safe.

No loss of life&property.Tourists safe,asked them to stay in hotels due to bad weather-Jagdish Mukhi LG Andaman&Nicobar on Havelock tourists pic.twitter.com/IOFeiDoci5  ANI (@ANI_news) December 9, 2016

As situation normalises tourists will be taken to Port Blair as flight are fully operational from there: Jagdish Mukhi LG Andaman&Nicobar pic.twitter.com/aHRPueDqvv  ANI (@ANI_news) December 9, 2016

The sudden evacuation mission was initiated at the request of the Andaman and Nicobar disaster management which speculates that a "cyclonic storm" might struck Havelock, an island about 36 km from capital Port Blair. Havelock and Neil islands are the most popular tourist attractions of Andamans, and the worst affected.

"A decision has been taken that hotels, where tourists are stranded, will not take room rent from them, besides giving them food and water for free," Deputy Commissioner of South Andamans Udit Prakash Rai had said on Thursday.

The Navy on Wednesday made its first attempt to rescue the tourists stranded in Havelock. However, due to extreme weather conditions, the tourists could not reach the jetty to board the ships.

Four navy ships had to return in a failed rescue attempt, the officials from Andaman and Nicobar Disaster Management informed.

"Now the weather conditions have improved. It's only moderate rain and winds. We hope the tourists will be able to reach the jetty. Ships have already left from Port Blair," an official from Andaman and Nicobar Disaster Management told IANS.

The official said the sudden evacuation was called for as they did not want to take any risk given a deep depression (in the sea) developed about 310 km from Port Blair.

With inputs from IANS and PTI
Former prime minister Manmohan Singh once again trained his guns on the Narendra Modi government's demonetisation move, calling it a "mammoth tragedy".

A month after the old currency notes of Rs 500 and 1,000 were banned overnight, in an editorial for the newspaper The Hindu on Friday, Singh wrote how the decision will hurt the Indians who earn their wages in cash, while the black money hoarders will get away with a "mere rap on the knuckles".

"The popular saying the road to hell is paved with good intentions serves as a useful reminder and warning in this context," wrote Singh saying that although the intention to get the country rid of the black money is genuine, the method adopted by the current government is flawed.

Singh goes on to explain that millions across the country who earn their wages and hence, save, exclusively in cash has been the worst hit. "To tarnish these as black money and throw the lives of these hundreds of millions of poor people in disarray is a mammoth tragedy," he writes.

Meanwhile, Singh says that only a fraction of the actual black money is stored in cash form (rest in land, gold, foreign exchange, etc) by the guilty. And these people have much easy access to banks and other facilities.

He goes on to call Modi's decision a "travesty of this fundamental duty".

Singh also slammed the government for propagating that it has solutions for all the problems while the previous one did nothing. "It is not so," writes Singh, saying the government needs to take care of the weak and not run away from responsibility.

Echoing his Rajya Sabha speech from last month, Singh said the move can even have an adverse effect on the GDP growth and job creation.

Last month Singh broke his silence on the central government's demonetisation move, criticising Modi over the decision. During a debate in Rajya Sabha on 24 November, Singh said, "The GDP of the country will decline by about 2 percent by what has been done. And this is an underestimate and not an overestimate."

Experts have agreed with Singh's observations  who is an eminent economist  and concurred that the decline in GDP could be as high as three or four percent.
Pulwama: His pet name is Shaukeen, which means zestful. At present, the name is a heartbreaking irony. For he is listless, alive but barely so.

I am not sure how bad his condition is when he first walks into the room unassisted, walking tall with quiet dignity. His hair is neatly combed and he is tidily turned out in a long pheran. His face is expressionless, partly because of his thick black shades.

For a moment, I am not sure how much he can see. For he walks through the door and to a corner of the room, where he sits down unassisted. His walk is slightly slower than it might normally be for a 25-year-old, but it is purposeful.

Shaukeen, whose actual name is Imtiaz Ahmed Sheikh, was a driver until he lost sight in both his eyes on 30 June this year. That was a week before the Valley erupted in turmoil.

Shaukeen had just returned from Jammu and was carrying his clothes into the small, barely furnished house. A public protest was taking place on the street just then, since two militants had been killed in an encounter.

In response to the protests, the police and CRPF fired pellets. Shaukeen was hit and lost his sight.

There were no pellet injuries on his lower body, says the man for whom Shaukeens younger brother works  the man who plays host for my visit. For, he has taken over the expenses of the household. Shaukeen, he points out, was the sole breadwinner.

My brief encounter with Shaukeen leaves me sadder than any experience in 28 years of covering Kashmir as a journalist. Perhaps it is his silence, his calm fortitude, his withdrawn lifelessness.

A friend later tells me that Shaukeen has lost the will to live. He is not married and, being the eldest in his family, probably feels the weight of responsibility.

Five-and-a-half months after he was blinded, there has been no assistance or compensation from any side. The world has moved on, his half-existence ignored and forgotten.

Passer-by victims

The saddest part of Shaukeens story is that, like many of those who have been killed or blinded in Kashmir, this year and in 2010, he was a bystander in the cycle of action and reaction, fury and repression, stones and bullets. Indeed, like so many other victims, he may have been hit precisely because he was a bystander.

Pulwama-based educationist Tariq Ahmed Wani theorises that the forces avoid firing into the thick of a protesting mob, for that could result in several deaths. So, they target someone on the sidelines - who might not be involved at all. According to Wanis theory, the mayhem that results from that hit leads to a shift in focus, even dispersal.

A couple of days ago, the government put out another explanation, talking about 'a stray bullet' as the cause of a young mans death in Anantnag. Perhaps the two versions overlap to some extent.

Certainly, a large number of victims in Kashmir are said to have just been at the wrong place at the wrong time. Down the road from Shaukeens little house, I visit another small, barely furnished house, also along the highway from Srinagar to Pulwama. The owner runs a traditional bakers shop half a kilometre away.

His 15-year-old smart and talented son, Irfan Malik, had gone with him to the bakery at dawn on Sunday, 10 July. Around 8 am, the boy decided to return home. He carried a bag of bread with him for the rest of the family.

A large convoy of the CRPF came down that road just then, for fresh forces were being deployed after the mayhem the previous day - a day after militant commander Burhan Wani was killed on the evening of 8 July.

A mob of boys pelted the convoy with stones. The convoy stopped. The CRPF and accompanying policemen got down to beat back the protesters. According to his father and some neighbours, Irfan was walking home down a side path off the highway when he was hit by a bullet.

Versions of what happened often differ in Kashmir. This much seems clear, though: those who get killed in forces action are invariably economically poorly off, like both Shaukeen and Irfan. And it is often a single person on the sidelines of a mob who gets killed - or, like Shaukeen, blinded.

To most of us, both are victims. But one of his neighbours says that, to Shaukeen, those who die on the spot are actually better off than he.
Washington: In less than two years after becoming the US Defence Secretary, Ashton Carter made a record three trips to India and had an unprecedented seven meetings with his Indian counterpart Manohar Parrikar, spearheading efforts to deepen and broaden US-India defence cooperation.

In his many years at the Pentagon in various capacities, Carter "spearheaded efforts to deepen and broaden" bilateral defence cooperation with India, the Pentagon said in a fact-sheet released yesterday as Carter concluded his final trip to India in his capacity as the defence secretary.

As a result of his efforts, the Pentagon said, the US and India have improved mutual understanding of their respective defence institutions, are exchanging perspectives and coordinating policy approaches in new areas, reinvigorating military-to-military engagements, launching path-breaking cooperative technology projects and pushing bilateral defence trade to unprecedented levels.

"Today, the United States and India are closer than ever to realising their Joint Vision for the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean Region," the Pentagon said.

In recent years, the US and India have engaged in what Carter has dubbed a "strategic handshake" between the two countries as American policy of rebalance to the Asia Pacific converges with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "Act East" policy.

"This has been complemented by a 'technological handshake' through which we have sought to leverage our respective industrial and technological capabilities to meet mutual security needs," the fact sheet said.

The strategic handshake accomplishments include "the US finalised India's designation as a 'Major Defense Partner' today," the Pentagon said.

The US Congress on Thursday formally passed the legislation in this regard as included in the National Defense Authorisation Act (NDAA) 2017.

The two countries launched a new bilateral Maritime Security Dialogue in April 2016; President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Modi issued the Joint Strategic Vision for the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean Region in January 2015; and Carter and Parrikar signed the Framework for the US-India Defense Relationship in June 2015.

Carter was the first US Defense Secretary to visit Indian Eastern Naval Command in Vizakhapatnam in December 2015; annual naval exercise MALABAR expanded to include Japan as permanent member and India twice participated with a ship in the biennial Rim-of-the-Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise  in 2014 and 2016 - hosted by US Pacific Command after observing the exercise since 2006.

Among other accomplishments under strategic handshake are Indian Air Force resumed participation in Exercise RED FLAG in Spring 2016, US and India concluded Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement in August 2016 and the two countries for the first time conducted a joint peacekeeping course in New Delhi in August 2016, with plans to conduct follow-on iterations of the joint course in 2017.

In the Technological Handshake, the Pentagon said that in 2012, United States and India launched the Defense Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI).

Under DTTI, the US and India have launched seven joint working groups to explore collaborative projects and programs and signed two Science and Technology government-to-government project agreements  the Next Generation Protective Ensembles and Mobile Hybrid Power Sources  worth roughly $2 million.

Since 2008, US-India defense trade has increased from roughly $1 billion to over $14 billion, including Indian procurement of 13 Lockheed Martin C-130 Hercules aircraft, 10 C-17 Globemaster and 12 P-8 Poseidon aircraft from Boeing, as well as 22 AH-64 Apache and 15 CH-47 Chinook helicopters.

In December 2016, the US and India signed a deal worth approximately $732 million to provide the Indian Army with 145 M777 Howitzer guns, the Pentagon said.

In 2012, Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL) and Lockheed Martin established a joint venture to produce C-130J Super Hercules airframe components.

The 50th empennage was delivered in September 2016.

TASL also has a joint venture with Sikorsky, established in 2011, to co-produce S-92 helicopter cabins.

In June 2016, TASL and Boeing announced a Hyderabad-based joint venture to manufacture components for Apache helicopters and collaborate on integrated systems development opportunities in India, the Pentagon said.
As if the Opposition's tirade against the ill effects of demonetisation weren't enough, the labour arm of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) on Friday criticised the Narendra Modi government and its decision to demonetise the old notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 claiming that more jobs have lost since demonetisation was announced on 8 November.

"Under the new government, 1 lakh and 35 thousand job opportunities have been created so far but 20 lakh people have lost their jobs," Baij Nath Rai, president of the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, a labour arm of the RSS, told The Telegraph in a report that appeared on Friday.

Although Rai was quick to add that the situation wasn't any better in the previous government, it criticised the government saying that the situation has worsened since demonetisation.

Sharing the sentiments of President Pranab Mukherjee, who on Thursday, has said that India had witnessed a jobless growth, The Telegraph quoted Rai as saying, "We have reports of job losses in the unorganised sector because of demonetisation, but how deep the impact has to be ascertained."

Earlier, former prime minister Manmohan Singh and other economists had shared fears of contraction of the GDP due to the sudden announcement of the Modi government, an issue that Rai raised too, however, he stated that his organisation is applying a wait and watch approach on the same.

Rai also criticised the Modi government's focus on skill development "instead of working towards increasing job opportunities".
In February 2010, the Congress-led UPA government signed a contract with UK-based AgustaWestland to buy 12 AW101 helicopters for the Indian Air Force for Rs 3,600 crore. The choppers were to fly VVIPs, including the president, prime minister among others.

However, the government cancelled the deal later, after Bruno Spagnolin, CEO of AgustaWestland and Guiseppe Orsi, chairman of the Italian parent company Finmeccanica, were arrested on charges of bribing middlemen to acquire the deal with IAF. Then defence minister AK Antony had ordered a probe into the matter. "Yes, corruption has taken place in the helicopter deal and bribes have been taken. The CBI is pursuing the case very vigorously," Antony had said in March 2013.

Early in 2014, the Italian court investigating the chopper scam had named former chief of the IAF, SP Tyagi in the scam, saying he was bribed by Finmeccanica to sign the deal with AgustaWestland. In 2015, however, Tyagi was acquitted by the Italian court, which said there was no corruption by Indian officials.

The IAF had urged the defence ministry to purchase helicopters capable of flying in high-altitude areas like Siachen and Tiger Hill. After careful evaluation of the AW101, it was ascertained that it was not capable of flying at 6,000 metres above sea level. The alleged middleman in the deal, Guido Haschke, revealed that while AW101 did not meet the technical requirements of the IAF, the deal was signed after Haschke tweaked the contract with the help of his Indian contacts.

AgustaWestland allegedly paid 30 million in bribes, of which 20 million was routed through Haschke and Carlo Gerosa. A CBI report that came in later said that prior to Tyagi's appointment as Air Force chief, the IAF had "vehemently opposed" lowering of the altitude requirement. This changed after Tyagi came into the picture and the IAF conceded to reduce altitude requirements, allowing AgustaWestland to re-enter the bidding process.

Initial investigations by the Italian prosecutor said that Tyagi had personally met Haschke before and that the bribery took place via Tyagi's cousins Julie, Sandeep and Dosca. Tyagi, however, has denied any claims of having met Haschke.

The Milan Court of Appeals again mentioned Tyagi's name while pronouncing its judgment. "In the absence of contrary indications, it must be concluded that the reward bestowed to Tyagi's family for their work in support of AW in relation to the race of the Government (of) India for military helicopters amounts to 10,500,000."

Sonia Gandhi's involvement

The Milan court also took note of conversations between the three middlemen  Carlos Gerosa, Christian Michel and Guildo Haschke  who mention a 'Mrs Gandhi' as being the driving force behind the VIP, and her close aides Ahmed Patel and Pranab Mukherjee. In a letter dated 15 March, 2008, Christian Michel wrote to Peter Hulet, the then head of India region sales and liaison for AgustaWestland, saying, "Dear Peter, since Mrs Gandhi is the driving force behind the VIP, she will no longer fly with MI8. Mrs Gandhi and her closest advisers are the aim of the High Commissioner, senior adviser Prime Minister Manmohan Singh obviously the main figure, then theres Ahmed Patel Secretary."

The UPA government had then denied all allegations and had claimed it had nothing to hide.

Who is Gautam Khaitan

Khaitan is a Delhi-based lawyer first arrested in 2014 for laundering the kickbacks part of the AgustaWestland deal. Khaitan, an advocate and a former board member of the Aeromatrix company, which was allegedly used to route the bribes, had accepted that he had set up a shell company to receive money from the aviation firm.

Khaitan, while admitting he accepted money from Gerosa and Haschke, had denied that it was part of kickbacks to clinch the deal.

With inputs from agencies
The Allahabad High Court on Thursday called triple talaq or the practice of Muslim men getting an instant divorce by saying the word 'talaq' three times as 'unconstitutional'. The high court said that 'no personal law board is above the Constitution', in effect reiterating the Centre's stand in the Supreme Court recently.

But according to Flavia Agnes, a prominent legal scholar and the director of the Majlis Legal Centre, the judgment, though a boost to Muslim women's rights, is hardly 'historic' as it simply echoes previously held views on the matter.

In an interview with Firstpost, Agnes reflects on the 'hype' around Thursday's judgment and narrows down on the finer details of the triple talaq debate.

The Allahabad High Court's judgment is being seen as a major step towards safeguarding Muslim women's rights. What are your views on it?

I do not understand why such a big hype is being created around the judgment in the media. The Supreme Court, in the Shamim Ara case of 2002, had already established the practice of triple talaq as unconstitutional and had set a proper procedure for pronouncing the talaq. Since then, many high courts have endorsed the same view. The matter is already sub-judice in the Supreme Court, and in that sense, the high court's judgment is not historic by any means.

But, at the same time, because of the current hype around the issue of triple talaq and the Uniform Civil Code, any judgment on the issue is bound to picked up by the media, which in turn will help spread awareness among Muslim women about their legal rights. In that sense, it can serve as a positive step.

You said that the judgment reiterates previously held views. Why then, according to you, was the view echoed by the Allahabad High Court especially since it is not legally binding as a precedent?

If you consider recent developments abroad, with Angela Merkel proposing a burqa ban in Germany and France banning the hijab, you can perceive that there is a rise in Islamophobia globally. As a result, a false perception is being spread that everything Islamic and the Islamic culture, the Muslim law in particular, is anti-women.

In India, judgments questioning triple talaq have been passed since 1981  the Guwahati High Court and the Bombay High Court have repeatedly questioned the Muslim divorce procedure. Then finally, the 2002 Shamim Ara judgment upheld the high court judgments. But back then, no hype was created around the judgment.

What is the reason behind this hype?

Now, any criticism of Muslim law is being highlighted, which is clearly a propaganda by the right-wing government. Anything to do with Muslim women becomes news now and is blown out of proportion.

Clearly, there is a political context to this judgment and that is the reason behind the hype around it. The judgment on its own is proper, but the bashing of the Muslim community as a whole is upsetting. This is absolute propaganda being driven by some people, which directly feeds into the right-wing government's agenda.

Since the issue of triple talaq is limited to Muslim women, what other approaches can be adopted to prevent the bashing of the community as a whole?

Women's right to maintenance and shelter are governed by the Domestic Violence Act of 2005, which is a common law for everybody, regardless of their religion. We need to question why Muslim women are not using the laws meant to protect them. Instead of making the issue communal, we should identify the problems being faced by all women and should focus on making the safeguards more accessible.

And it is not as if Hindu women do not face any problems. They face dowry harassment, they are killed for dowry, they are victims of domestic violence, they are victims of desertion, and face many issues that are similar to the ones faced by all women, regardless of religion. We need to understand that even if a Muslim man invokes triple talaq, the woman's rights are not extinguished; she is still protected under the Domestic Violence Act. We need to stop criticising the religious practices of a particular religion and should focus on safeguarding the rights of all women instead. The problems are not religion-based, they are based on the social conditions prevalent in the country.

You talked about the social conditions prevalent in the country that dictate such practices. Can you elaborate on that?

The social set up that we live in defines the practices that exist here. For example, a Muslim woman living in Saudi Arabia will not face the problem of dowry harassment. She will be in a much stronger position to stipulate the terms and conditions of the marriage to which a Muslim woman is entitled, like Mahr (a mandatory payment, in the form of money or possessions paid to the bride at the time of marriage, that legally becomes her property). Whereas in India, the husband determines the dowry amount, how much money should be spent on the wedding, and how much money the girl's parents should spend, which is non-Islamic. This practice is inherently Indian and originates from the Hindu-culture. Therefore, we need to identify these conditions as all women need to be protected from discrimination.

So what, according to you, needs to be done to curb this issue?

We need to take a broader approach when it comes to safeguarding women. We need to recognise the strength that is offered by the secular laws which are applicable to Muslim women, to Hindu women and to all other religions as well. We cannot continue to categorise Muslim women as the only ones that are suffering.

Organisations like the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA) are instrumental in portraying a false situation where only Muslim women are suffering. It's not true that only Muslim women face problems with their religious practices or laws. When you don't use existing law, when you deliberately do ignore Constitutional safeguards like the Domestic Violence Act and then you make it out like only a Muslim problem.

Organisations like the BMMA are propaganda-based and only highlight the plight of Muslim women, thus reinforcing the Islamophobia prevalent globally and the anti-Muslim sentiments in the country. This perfectly fits into the right-wing communal agenda.

More than any other reform, we need to ensure that women's civic rights are protected and that safeguards like the Domestic Violence Act are implemented properly.
On Thursday, the Allahabad High Court delivered another judgment remarking on triple talaq, in a spate of what is going to be a never ending spiral of opinions on divorce under Muslim Personal Law. In Hina and Anr versus State of Uttar Pradesh and Ors (Hina)  the pertinent judgment that is under consideration, the court took up the opportunity to provide its unwarranted opinion on triple talaq and sympathised with 'Muslim wives suffering tyranny' of their personal laws. Even as we wonder what brought about this sudden surge of sympathy by the court in a petition that was merely seeking a direction of the court to ensure 'safety and security' of the petitioners, it appears to be a good opportunity to reflect on the prevailing over-enthusiasm in conflating issues of gender equality with the rigidity of personal laws of select religions.

The issue for consideration in the petition was limited. In Hina, the first petitioner was married to the second petitioner after divorcing his first wife in accordance with the requirements of Muslim Personal Law, by pronouncing triple talaq. The petitioners alleged that on account of such divorce, and the subsequent marriage of the petitioners, they were now harassed by the respondent police and the third respondent, who was the mother of the first wife. The court dismissed the petition. Even as it refused to decide on the question of constitutionality of triple talaq  consequently, on the validity of the marriage between petitioners  it went on an unrelated tangent to make observations on range of issues, beginning with cruelty of personal laws and ending in the patriarchy's oppression of women. Unfortunately, the court was not dealing with the question of the validity of the marriage between the petitioners or the divorce of the first petitioner directly or incidentally. Thus, this judgment was no legitimate space for the discussion of merits and demerits of Muslim Personal Law. Further, assuming that the high court could not forego the temptation to look into triple talaq, there was no productive engagement with useful precedents on the point either.

The bare text of the judgment and the rapidity with which the media picked up the decision, paying threadbare attention to the substantive issues, leaves one perplexed. To clarify an essential fact at the outset, the Allahabad High Court did not declare triple talaq unconstitutional. On the contrary, it explicitly desisted from taking up the question of constitutionality as the matter was before the Supreme Court. It must be recalled that in a recent petition by a West Bengal-based Muslim woman before the Supreme Court, she, along with several other petitioners, contended that certain practices of divorce under Muslim law are unconstitutional as they violate the Fundamental Rights guaranteed under the Constitution and amount to gender discrimination.

The judgment in Hina draws our attention to several disconcerting truths about intemperate judicial opinions and reckless media reporting of legal issues. In this decision, the court declined relief to the petitioners and dismissed the petition. All else in the text of the judgment was irrelevant and completely besides the point. However, all day long, the digital media was bombarded with headlines that the Allahabad High Court had in fact declared triple talaq to be unconstitutional.

While some of us did patiently wait for a copy of the order, most others took this opportunity to revisit the problematic and hackneyed idea of Muslim Personal Law being particularly rigid and oppressive to women.

Several impassioned arguments for a Uniform Civil Code followed in tow as usual. Admittedly, the judicial formulation of the issue was no different. Even though the operative part of the decision was limited to a sentence, the judge invoked the amorphous entity of 'judicial conscience' that could not stand the 'monstrosity' of triple talaq. Apart from leaving the reader befuddled as to what constitutes a 'judicial conscience' and where in the Constitution one can locate the etymology of the term, the observations by the court on, gender, religion based discrimination and remit of personal laws does little to correct the concerns raised in the decision. The most it does, is to grudgingly acknowledge that (P)ersonal laws, of any community, cannot claim supremacy over the rights granted to the individuals by the constitution.

This judgment truly is neither about religion nor uniform code; nor does it accurately examine the deep rooted prejudices and gender discrimination prevailing in our laws. Muslim Personal Law has been a popular fall guy for most 'progressive judgments' since Shah Bano in 1986. Even as scant attempts have been made to reform Muslim law on marriage and divorce internally, or the general social and structural changes with respect to gender more generically, it so appears that the courts have taken every opportunity to make tangential observations on the unreasonable nature of personal laws.

It is surprising that there is no direct engagement with constitutional arguments pivoted around Article 25 that guarantees religious freedom or Article 15 that prohibits discrimination based on sex. Just as legality of personal laws are buried in chaotic judicial opinions, the origins of these laws, the embedded diversity and host of other factors, providing them context and tempering their realities, are getting increasingly sidelined. For instance, this author cannot recall the last time she had an opportunity to hear a court provide its guided opinion on types of triple talaq, situations in which they are effected, the strict dicta before and during pronouncement of triple talaq, the mandatory presence of witnesses, observance of rituals as prescribed in Hedaya et al.

One can safely assume that this is not the first time triple talaq has come before the courts for judicial adjudication. Nor is this going to be the last.

There is no novelty in either the arguments made against triple talaq or those made for leaving the personal laws untouched. The impossibility of challenging these opinions on their legal reasoning, or the lack of it, is in itself a testimony for the painfully cliched nature of debates around constitutionality of triple talaq and the reach of personal laws. This debate is not about gender oppression. If that were the case, then there are ample provisions within personal laws of other religions and even within secular laws, like the Indian Penal Code, for the courts to opine on.

Further, this is not even about Uniform Civil Code because personal laws of every religion are as diverse and unfathomable as the Muslim law. Merely willing it away and putting a uniform code in place will not do away with centuries of structural oppression faced by women. Instead, an important take away lesson would be that there is an immediate need for both the judiciary and the media, reporting judgments, to be self-reflexive and self-restrained on their engagement with triple talaq. As long as we have a Supreme Court telling us when and how to sing our National Anthem and other high courts deciding dress codes for women entering temples, we will not need any more amusing reflections from the altars of justice.

The author is a research fellow at the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, New Delhi. The views expressed are personal.
On 8 December, the Allahabad High Court used strong words against the practice of triple talaq, describing it as unconstitutional and a violation of the rights of Muslim women, but such strong words do not mean anything practically and certainly do not settle the issue in law. More on that later, but first the court's observation should be welcomed because it is significant insofar as it strengthens women's rights movement in the country; sends a strong warning to Islamic clerics that time for them to change is now; denotes a pro-liberty shift in the higher judiciary's thinking, and offers a bright ray of hope to Muslim women who are rendered destitute overnight by triple talaq.

The court observed: The instant divorce (triple talaq) though has been deprecated and not followed by all sects of Muslim community in the country, however, is a cruel and the most demeaning form of divorce practised by the Muslim community. It further said, The question which disturbs the court is should Muslim wives suffer this tyranny for all times? Should their personal law remain so cruel towards these unfortunate wives?

These are strong words that indicate that the Indian judiciary may be reaching a turning point where it is no longer willing to subordinate its sense of judgement to the whims of Islamic clerics and political correctness.

The court's observation has come at a time there is growing awareness about constitutional rights available to Indian citizens, especially Muslim women in this case. Ever since the constitution began to be implemented from 26 January 1950, citizens are now more aware than ever about their rights. Indian society is passing through revolutionary times when the cause of Muslim women's rights is widely supported by people, and significantly not by so called feminist women.

It is a sign of revolutionary times that even semi-educated Muslim women are knocking at the door of the Supreme Court to obtain their rights. The Allahabad court's observation will strengthen their resolve to claim their fundamental right to equality.

However, it should also be noted that these are observations of the court, not a judgement, and therefore not consequential legally.

The Allahabad court said that it would not like to say anything further for the reason that the Supreme Court is seized with the matter. Only a judgement of the Supreme Court, therefore, can settle the issue in law that triple talaq is unconstitutional. However, there are practical issues. At present the Muslim personal laws come under two key legislations: The Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937; and the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, 1939. Under the 1937 law, Muslims can contract marriage and divorce as per their religious practices.

Under this law, a Muslim husband can give divorce through the mediation of Islamic clerics or effect his own divorce through formal or informal means such as telephone, SMS, email, letter and so on. Significantly, a Muslim husband cannot go to court to seek divorce. He can effect his divorce through two paths: one, he can utter instant triple talaq via formal or informal means. Two, he can issue three talaq, one after each menstrual cycle. Lawyers do not advise the second path because the wife is most likely to file a dowry harassment case if he were to issue the first of the three monthly instalments of talaq.

The 1939 law was brought in to empower the Muslim woman to seek  not give  divorce. Under this Sharia-compatible law, a Muslim woman can go to court or to Islamic clerics to seek a dissolution of her marriage. Both the 1937 and 1939 laws are as per the Islamic Sharia and legally valid in India, which is in many other ways too a Sharia-compliant state. The provisions under these two laws are as per the Hanafi school of Sunni Islam practised in India. Unless the Supreme Court rules that these laws violate the Fundamental Right to Equality available under Article 14, mere observations that triple talaq is unconstitutional will mean nothing.

Alternatively, the Indian government can bring in a new law that is compatible with the 21st century liberties and values involving women's rights, and replaces these two laws. This can also be done as part of a Uniform Civil Code (UCC), a first-ever draft of which was proposed and released by this writer last week. A third practical way of dissolving a Muslim marriage, though not widely known, is for either the husband or wife to convert to any other religion, thereby rendering the marriage dissolved. However, as things stand now, a Muslim husband cannot go to court to seek divorce, and therefore any Supreme Court order declaring that triple talaq is unconstitutional should also clarify under what law a Muslim husband can approach court for divorce.

At the intellectual level, the higher judiciary also needs to be questioned for a number of reasons. For example, the Allahabad high court's observation carries many references to the Quran. The justices of many high courts fail to understand that many women are coming to their doors for the simple reason that they are in a certain difficult situation, whatever being the sources of that, which needs to be addressed within the framework of the Constitution. It should be the natural instinct of a justice to seek remedy within the Constitution, rather than start investigating what the Quran says.

It is equally a sad situation that the Supreme Court too has lost clarity on this subject.

For example, when a Muslim woman approaches the Supreme Court, the case is essentially between herself and her husband or ex-husband. However, even in such cases, the Supreme Court has allowed a number of religious organisations such as Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind to become a party to what is a disagreement between a couple to be settled by the apex court. Therefore, in some way, the Supreme Court empowers such as Islamist groups like Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind to rule over the lives of the affected Muslim women. Here, the apex court needs to not lose sight of the fact that the fundamental right to religion is available to the citizen, not to communities and religious organisations.

Last month, I met with Maulana Mahmood Madani, the leader of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, in Goa. What do you think of triple talaq, he asked me. I replied, The number of talaq(s) is not important, what is important is that it is being used arbitrarily against women by Muslim husbands. And I am willing to even support triple or quadruple talaq if the husband can go to court and after hearing both the sides the court can fix a date for such a talaq to be delivered. The way my conversation with him progressed, I reached a conclusion that Maulana Madani was not willing to shift even an inch, not even quarter of a centimetre.

I reminded him that in Pakistan, which follows the Hanafi school of Islamic Sharia, divorces happen in courts. To this, Maulana Madani responded that the law in Pakistan was changed under Wahhabi influence and he reminded me that he was using the words Wahhabi influence carefully. I also asked him about his position on the Uniform Civil Code. He said that let the government bring in the UCC first and then we will discuss it, because it will also apply to other religious communities. I reminded Maulana Madani that the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind has a large number of lawyers and it should task them to draft a UCC and put it in public domain for everyone to discuss its specifics. He balked at the idea. I also asked him,"Then how is it that Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind has been leading protests against the Uniform Civil Code even without knowing what specifics will constitute it? My conversation ended with a realisation that such Islamic clerics will not allow any change among Indian Muslims. So, the only hope for Muslim women are the Supreme Court and the people of India.

Former BBC journalist, Tufail Ahmad is a contributing editor at Firstpost, and executive director of the Open Source Institute, New Delhi. He tweets @tufailelif
Srinagar: Two militants have been killed by security forces in the 36-hour gun battle in Bijebhara area of Anantnag district of Kashmir which ended on Friday.

The bodies of the two militants were recovered from the debris of the house at Arwani in Bijbehara area on Friday morning after security forces blew up the building using explosives, a police official said.

He said one of the bodies was severely burnt.

However, an army official said they were still sifting through the debris and a final statement on the incident will be issued once the operation was called off.

One army jawan was injured in the gunfight that began in the early hours on Thursday.

Security forces had cordoned off the area on Wednesday evening following information about presence of Lashkar-e-Toiba militants there.

A 24-year-old youth died allegedly after being wounded by a "stray bullet" near the site of encounter.

Arif Shah, a resident of Sangam area of Anantnag district, was hit when security forces were dealing with a group which was indulging in stone-pelting near the encounter site, the official said.

However, locals alleged that Shah was killed in security forces action against protesters.

The police official said the slain militants were both locals and identified them as Majid Mohiuddin Zargar of Qoimoh in neighbouring Kulgam district and Ruhul Amin Dar of Vessu in Anantnag district.

"The bodies have been handed over to their kin for last rites," he added.
New Delhi: Taking a swipe at Rahul Gandhi, BJP on Friday said his speeches cause tremors within Congress and not outside and alleged that he wanted to run Parliament as per his whims, in the same "arrogant" way he runs his party.

"Parliament will run as per the Constitution not on his arrogance," BJP National Secretary Shrikant Sharma said accusing the Congress of holding Parliament to ransom.

The ruling party hit back at the Congress Vice President after he alleged that he was not allowed by the government to speak on demonetization in Parliament. Rahul said he will reveal in the House the reason behind demonetisation, which he dubbed as the "biggest scam', and added that speech will bring an "earthquake".

"Those who are shaking after the assault on blackmoney... those who have been at the epicentre of scams for 60 years talk of earthquake today," BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra tweeted.

"Our party is not afraid of him or his speeches, we are ready to listen to him but he should not run away when we respond...Actually these days Mr Rahul Gandhi is annoyed his party is losing everywhere especially after he started handling affairs of the party," Union Minister and BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

Prasad added that the public are supporting the government's step against black money.

In a dig at Rahul, BJP leader Smriti Irani said, "Rahulji thinks too highly about his oratory skills and he himself knows how much his speeches appeal to the people...As far as tremors are concerned. I think when he speaks there are tremors within Congress not outside."

The Union Textile Minister added that Parliament is a platform for discussion and deliberation, so Rahul is welcome to speak but the opposition should allow the house to run.

Proceedings of both houses of Parliament have been stalled from over two weeks now due to continuous uproar over the issue of demonetisation.

Latching onto President Pranab Mukherjee's denouncement of disruptions of Parliament's proceedings, Sharma said from "'gram pramukh' (village head) to the President, everybody is angry with Congress".

"Over Rs 9 crore is reportedly spent daily on running Parliament and Rahul Gandhi should count how much public money Congress has wasted by paralysing it since the beginning of the session on 16 November. The government has been keen on a debate from the day one," he said.

"He is making all kind of petty remarks for headlines. He is practising TRP politics and competing with Arvind Kejriwal," Sharma alleged.

Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu also hit out at Rahul for calling demonetization a "foolish" step.

"...taking action against black money and corruption, is it foolish or keeping quiet or being silent or collaborators of those scams and scandals was foolish," he said.

"The Congress party have given a rebate to debate. You are committing contempt against people of the country and contempt against democracy," he said.
New Delhi: Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has written to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee expressing "deep pain" over her allegations against the army for its recent exercise at toll gates in the state and said they can "adversely" impact the morale of the armed forces.

In a strongly worded letter, Parrikar said that while political parties and politicians may have the luxury of making "wild and unsubstantiated allegations against each other", one needs to be extremely careful while referring to the armed forces.

"Your allegations in this regard run the risk of adversely impacting the morale of the country's armed forces and the same were not expected from a person of your standing and experience in public life," the Minister said.

Banerjee, who has been opposing the Centre's demonetization move, had accused it of deploying the army at toll plazas in West Bengal without informing the state government and described it as "unprecedented" and "a very serious situation worse than Emergency".

The Trinamool Congress had refused to leave her office in Kolkata till the Army men were withdrawn from toll plazas, and had asked whether it was an "army coup", drawing sharp reaction from the Centre.

Terming it as "avoidable controversy" over the exercise carried out by the Eastern Command in West Bengal and other states under the jurisdiction to collect information about the movement of heavy vehicles at toll gates, Parrikar, in his letter to Banerjee dated 8 December, said it is carried out by all formations of the army all across the country for many years.

He said the exercises are held as per the dates convenient to the army in consultation with agencies of the state

government.

"I have been deeply pained by your allegations as reported in the media. If only you had enquired with the agencies concerned of the state government, you would have come to know of the extensive correspondence between the Army and the state agencies including the joint inspection of sites carried out by them," Parrikar said in his letter to Banerjee.

Describing Indian army as the "most disciplined institution of the country", he said the nation is proud of their "professionalism and apolitical conduct".

He added that the army authorities were forced to put the record straight in the matter by presenting evidence of their communication with the state agencies concerned including rescheduling of the data collection operations on their response.
Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis assured the Maratha and Muslim communities in the state that the BJP government is "committed" towards providing them reservation.

"The case is pending in the high court, but we are happy to provide a 5 percent reservation for Muslims," Fadnavis said at the state Assembly in Nagpur. "The Maratha Morcha is silent in the state, but I assure the community that their voice will reach the government. I assure them that BJP government will grant them reservation. The case is stuck due to a legal battle, but we will take it to its logical conclusion."

He said that while there will be reservations for Marathas, the government will not cut it out from the other states. "I am personally looking into the issue. We will not cut down the other communities' quotas to give Marathas their reservation. The government will take care of everybody in the state," Fadnavis said.

The state government has filed a detailed and comprehensive affidavit in the Bombay High Court and has made out a case for more reservation, Fadnavis said. "The state will connect information about the Atrocity Act being misused. But we aren't going to dilute the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1988," he added.

After the 2014 Lok Sabha elections had gone the way of the NDA, the Congress-NCP government in Maharashtra, eyeing the Assembly polls later that year, had issued an ordinance allowing 16 percent reservations for Marathas and 5 percent for Muslims. "The Congress-NCP was in power in Maharashtra for 15 years. Why didn't they give reservations earlier?" Fadnavis asked. "But I am not blaming anybody. It's a question of ensuring justice to the community is done. I am sure that our government will do so. Some leaders may try to politicise the issue, but the Maratha people know who is on their side," he said.

To ensure poor students have a roof over their heads, Fadnavis said the government will build hostels in rural and urban areas. "In urban and rural districts where there aren't hostel facilities, we will provide Rs 30,000 and Rs 20,000 respectively, so that new hostels can be built," he added.

Responding to the renewed demands from opponents of the Atrocity Act, who say the law is being misused, Fadnavis said, "We are serious about resolving the issue. We will form an all-party committee to monitor the progress of the reservation case. The BJP-led government will present a strong case in the high court and apex court to press for Maratha and Muslim reservations."

Fadnavis also praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Centre's decision to demonetise high value currency. "To move forward on demonetisation, PM Modi had appealed to all citizens of the country to go cashless. Taking the PM's dream forward, Maharashtra government has introduced a mobile wallet called Maha Wallet. We are taking this opportunity to ensure we go cashless. We have prepared a roadmap to produce a cashless economy. We will introduce Maha Wallet, so that a majority of transactions can be via mobile phones. We have also appointed 1,000 volunteers to teach people about cashless transactions," he said.

Fadnavis said he had led a delegation to meet Arun Jaitley, where they asked the finance minister to allow district cooperative banks to accept demonetised notes and exchange them. "Leaders like Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, Dhananjay Munde and Subhash Desai also present at the meeting. Jaitley met us and assured us of sorting out the issue soon," Fadnavis said.

The Maharashtra government had found over one crore bogus ration cards. Fadnavis said the public distribution system (PDS) will be upgraded to stop black marketing of foodgrain. "Later, we will connect using Adhaar cards as well, so we know how many are using their ration cards. Furthermore, the government will also introduce a biometric system next year. The government will reach out to the very last person in the state, so PDS can improve," he added.
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"Most of the people eat food in dhabas when they eat outside. Can the government inform us about a dhaba in which a person carries card-swiping machine in his dhoti?" he said.

"Many labourers became unemployed today...there are very long lines and crores of people in those lines. But it is not just that," he said.

"Does the farmer own black money when he engages in transactions for seeds, fertilisers?" he said.

"It is a reality that the farmer is an important part of the economy. That is why India does not have to beg," said a dramatic Anand Sharma in the Rajya Sabha.

"What authority do the prime minister and finance minister have so that we have to beg you for our very own money?" thundered Anand Sharma.

"You have created a condition in which you told a person that he can exchange Rs 4000...I marvel at your generosity," Anand Sharma said sarcastically in the Rajya Sabha.

"After the Uri attack and surgical strikes, we posed various questions about the army....You said we cannot ask questions about the army," said Anand Sharma.

"If you are the government, that doesn't mean India belongs to you. You have created such an environment that we cannot ask questions," he said. "If we ask questions, you start asking questions about our nationality," he added.

"Who got the benefits of your decisions?" he said. "Your government is only for those people who are your friends. You hurt those people who question you."

"If you are trying to give this impression to the country that India started fighting money laundering now, then the prime minister is living on a different planet," said Anand Sharma in Rajya Sabha.

After this statement, the Congress MPs began shouting again. Note that Anand Sharma was not interrupted even once when he was talking in the Rajya Sabha.

"But I think Anand Sharma does not know much about economics," he said. "If his claim of fight against black money is true, he would not have ignored the fact the entire country has welcomed this move by the Narendra Modi government," he added.

"In the future, inflation will be controlled when more people pay taxes," he said. "The central government will also get more resources for the welfare of farmers, labourers, youth, women in the country."

"Some people had suggested that this move should have been made public seven days before implementing it. But secrecy is most important in such issues," he said.

"The government has taken many steps against corruption. Demonetisation was a historic step against corruption. This was also a warning to the corrupt that the black money they had was useless now," he said.

"This move was aimed at only the corrupt," he said.

"Finance Minister had informed the House only about the counterfeit money in the economy, not the money which some people have got through corruption," Goyal said in the Rajya Sabha.

"Some people just seem to be unhappy that Prime Minister Modi has taken an important step against corruption and black money," he said.

"When the government had just come to power in 2014, there was an atmosphere against corruption," Piyush Goyal said in Rajya Sabha.

"We opened Jan Dhan accounts. An account was opened for every person," he said.

"This is a step after which a person will think twice before engaging in corruption," he said. "The poor labourers will benefit the most," he added.

"Please do not hold views which the corrupt can use to free themselves," Goyal added.

"You (Congress) talked about surgical strike. We did not mention it. This is good. You have given us a certificate that we conducted precise strikes against corruption," he said.

"RBI has authority over monetary policy. An RBI board gave approval for this move," he said.

"The country is ready to tolerate a few days of inconvenience," he said. "The entire country is with us," he added.

"And even the Election Commission won't be able to notice when someone is carrying the Rs 2000 note in one's pocket," he said.

"Several crore vegetables were just thrown away per day from markets," he said. "Who gave you the advice to come up with the Rs 2000 note? Go outside Delhi to the villages of India. Nobody will accept that note," he said.

"The farmer is unable to buy fertiliser and seeds," said SP's Ram Gopal Yadav in Rajya Sabha. "Farmers are not able to sell potatoes now. Were these potatoes made using black money?" he said.

Who gave you the advice to come up with the Rs 2000 note? SP asks govt in Rajya Sabha

"Our party will move adjournment motion in the Lok Sabha," she said, adding that demonetisation was a dictatorial and draconian step by the government.

"Credit card will not buy you food...the President knows the country's situation very well," Banerjee said.

"This move is like a move taken by Mohammad bin Tughlaq," she said.

"We told the President that he is the custodian of the Constitution. We told him to talk to the government," Mamata Banerjee said.

"Starvation deaths are rising," she said. "Our country does not have plastic economy," she added.

"Today, people are not getting access to vegetables in the markets. Children are not getting milk. People are dying," she said.

"Today, how did the non-performing assets increase in the last six months?" the Bengal chief minister said.

"After cancelling notes, there were a lot of notes needed in banks for the huge demand," Mamata Banerjee said after meeting the President.

"90 percent of blak money is in tax havens abroad," Yechury further said. "It's like the prime minister is killing the pond to kill the crocodiles, forgetting that the crocodiles can survive on land too."

"But where is this black money? All estimates say 6 percent of this black money is in cash," he said. "Black money is in circulation, in real estate...gold imports have surged in the last few days."

"We want black money controlled. We want it eliminated. The World Bank says that nearly 21 percent of the Indian economy is in the black economy," Yechury said.

"If you stop these Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes, you think corruption will stop? Now, corruption will double with the Rs 2000 notes," Yechury said.

"After 26/11, we went on debating over a new law to combat terrorism. On many issues, we had agreed over how terror funding needed to stop," Yechury said.

"We want to stop counterfeit money. Locate where this is happening. Punish them. We will all support this. But this is not the way to stop it," he said.

"By this way, you are killing the poor," he said. "As Anand Sharma said, 0.02 percent of the cash is counterfeit. To take care of that, you needed to do this?" he added.

"The point is that black money is not going to go away with this. Black money is not stock, it is a flow," Yechury said in the Rajya Sabha.

"For the rest of India, it is Tarasta Bharat," he said. "People can't get their children treated at hospitals."

"In our rural population, 80.8 percent of the rural population is not covered by the banks," he said. "What banking does the prime minister want us to go to? There is Shining India with e-wallets for them," he said.

"Why are you agonising the Indian people?" Yechury said. "Agonising people is a way to tell people: I control your personal lives," he said, adding that this was a fascist move.

"People will say this Tughlaqshahi," he said. "This does not meet the objectives of what the prime minister set out to do."

"You have allowed banks to exchange notes. Bulk of Indians today are dealing with rural cooperative banks. You don't allow them to change notes...86 percent of the rural population is dependent on transactions from these banks," Yechury said.

"What is the meaning of this move?" he said.

"Don't give this exemption to political parties to spend whatever they want," Yechury said. "If you're serious about stopping corruption, stop the supply side of corruption," he added.

Laughing at Das, Patel said, "Are you kidding me? How can you allow your EAS to issue such statements. You are making a fool of yourself."

Slamming the Narendra Modi government's handling of the issue, Patel gave example of Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das, who during a press conference on Wednesday said: "The new currency notes, just as the old ones, will lose colour if rubbed with a piece of cloth wet because that's the nature of the dye used. If your note does not lose colour, it's one of the signs that it may be fake."

"Abolishing black money is a move we all support, and BJP government's intention is great but you are asking people to be hungry for 50 days for a feast on the 51st day. Vo aadmi toh mar ayega, bhoj kya khayega (The person will die on the 51st day, what will he do with the feast)," says Patel.

Rajya Sabha erupted after the comment. Senior BJP leader and Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad interrupted Tiwari's speech and said that the statement, which was "atrocious", should not go in record. "No one speaks about the country's prime minister in such an atrocious way. It should not go in record,"Prasad urged the Chair.

In a dramatised speech, Congress leader Pramod Tiwari from Uttar Pradesh compared prime minister to former dictators like Gaddafi, Adolf Hitler and Mussolini. "The seat that you (Narendra Modi) occupy, has been occupied by Pt Jawahar Lal Nehru, Shastri ji, Charan Singh and Atal Bihari Vajpayee. But the way you are working, I am forced to say that it reminds me of dictators like Gaddafi, Hitler and Mussolini."

"Modi government marched to victory in 2014 because the country was tired of scams and scandals. That was our poll promise. I request Congress to come out of the dilemma - are you in favour of the people who are hoarders and scamsters or you are in favour of a bold step that eradicates black money from the country. Narendra Modi is capable of taking very strong steps. Temporary pain for long term gain - is the buzz across India. One thing I want to assure - if your money is valid, nothing will happen to it."

"You have got a chance to discuss important things on this platform so do not waste it by mud-slinging. When it comes to people and their hatred towards our PM (the way you claim), we saw their hatred in 2014 and we will see it in 2019," Naidu says to a thundering applause.

Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu addresses Rajya Sabha and says that people across the nation are watching this Session and they are not interested in a history lesson.

As expected, the Opposition targetted the Narendra Modi governmemnt over its "ill-preparedness" and "lack of empathy" for the general public. Senior Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad at the end of day one requested the prime minister to appear in the House tomorrow and discuss the issue of demonetisation.

While the Lok Sabha was adjourned earlier in the day, Rajya Sabha argued and debated on topics till 6 pm on Wednesday. Chairman of Upper House PJ Kurien announced that the House will resume the same discussion (on demonetisation) from 2 pm on Thursday.

The first day of Winter Session went as expected, in fact it went better than expected.

While the Union ministers and BJP MPs are demanding an apology from Leader of Opposition in the House Ghulam Nabi Azad for his Uri remark, Congress MPs are demanding an apology from Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the demonetisation scheme.

"The nation wants to know today," he added, reminding of a news anchor famous for shouting at the panellists on his show.

"The Opposition has disappointed us and the country," he said. "I want the Congress to clarify on Azad's remark," he said.

"Those who ruled over the country for 50 years and ruined the situation of the aam aadmi and those who did not let the Parliament function are now also on the same path," said Naidu. "The prime minister will respond if needed," he said.

"They are not strong...they are not on the side of the truth, the people are not with them," Naidu further said.

"The government is ready for a discussion. We don't know what has happened with the Congress. Suddenly, they took a U-turn," said Venkaiah Naidu.

"There is a need to fix the railway infrastructure. Modiji talked about the bullet train. But there is no focus. How will the aam aadmi benefit and get safety?" said Rahul on the Patna-Indore Express tragedy.

"This is one of the biggest economic decisions in India. But the prime minister had not thought about the impact," he said. "This is some other form of the prime minister," he added.

"We are ready for a discussion. These days, why does the prime minister need to come to the Parliament? He is on a different level. He does not need to interact with his ministers," said Rahul sarcastically.

"People are complaining of deals at the back of long lines to banks. So people are suffering huge losses," he said. "Only 15 or 20 friends of the prime minister will benefit from this move," he added.

"People have told me that they are suffering a lot," said Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi outside the Parliament on the issue of demonetisation.

The Opposition members raised slogans, even as deputy chairman PJ Kurien threatened to adjourn the House. And... he did. The Rajya Sabha is adjourned till 12 pm.

Rajya Sabh and Lok Sabha will resume in a while. Meanwhile, asking his countrymen to tell their views on demonetisation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted saying, "I want your first-hand view on the decision taken regarding currency notes. Take part in the survey on the NM App."

Speaker of Lok Sabha Sumitra Mahajan, quite hassled by the way the MPs were behaving, threatened to adjourn the House. "Kyun kar rahe ho?" asks Mahajan very politely as Opposition MPs raised slogans and asked for debate over demonetisation. The protesting MPs also demanded that Modi should come to the House and make a speech.

The Lok Sabha is heading for another adjournment as the Opposition escalated their attack on the BJP government over the same issue of demonetisation. By the look of it, the Winter Session of Parliament till now has been a total washout with no constructive debate happening on the floor.

After the ruckus got out of hand, a very calm Hamid Ansari stood up and adjourned the Upper House till 2 pm.

Members could not keep it together even as the Rajya Sabha resumed proceedings at 12.32 pm.

However, an unrelenting opposition continued to raise slogans. The Speaker again appealed to the opposition to participate in the debate saying that the disruption of proceedings would not resolve the problem. "I am really pained. If you are people's representatives, you should stand by them," she said. As pandemonium continued, the Speaker adjourned the House till noon after 20 minutes of proceedings.

Ignoring the slogan shouting opposition members, Speaker allowed the Question Hour to continue amidst noise. When some opposition members tried to bring a placard, denouncing the demonetisation move, infront of Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju, who was replying a question related to his Ministry, the Speaker tried to intervene and asked the MPs not to disturb the Minister. "This is not good. Everyone will be shown on TV, but don't disturb the Minister. If you want to discuss something, raise it before the government. People are in pain, tell the government. But this is not the way to highlight people's grievances," Mahajan said asking them to return to their seats.

Samjawadi Party, NCP and RJD stood in the aisles in solidarity with the other opposition members. While AIADMK members were also on the aisles raising the issue of Tamil fishermen injured allegedly in firing by Sri Lankan Navy, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi was seen busy in his seat in an intimate discussion with AAP MP from Punjab Harinder Singh Khalsa.

Opposition disrupted the proceedings of the Lok Sabha for the fourth consecutive day demanding discussion on demonetisation on a rule which entails voting forcing Speaker Sumitra Mahajan to adjourn the House for about 50 minutes soon after it assembled. As soon as the House met, members of Congress, TMC, Left parties and AAP rushed to the Well of the House demanding discussions on the demonetisation of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 under Rule 56, that entails.

As BJP members also created a ruckus, an angry Kurien snapped at them. "Why should treasury benches do this? Mr Minister, why should treasury benches to this," he asked Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.

He told Azad that he was ready to accept his notice under rule 267 seeking suspension of business. "Mr Azad, I am ready to admit your notice under 267 if only there is order in the House."

As they shouted slogans from the Well, Kurien said, "You cannot speak in the Well. Shouting in the Well is of no use. If you go back to your seats, I will give you time (to speak)."

At this point, TMC members carrying placards of "Financial Emergency" trooped into the Well, with Congress members following suit.

"He should come and listen to the pain people have faced because of his decision," Mayawati said. Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said the opposition is ready for discussion on the issue but Prime Minister should come to the Rajya Sabha first. As he spoke, members of the BJP moved into the aisles raising slogans.

No sooner were the listed papers laid on the table in Rajya Sabha, Sharad Yadav of JD(U) said the government should pay a compensation of Rs 10 lakh to kin of the 70 persons who lost their lives due to hardships caused by withdrawal of 500 and 1,000 rupee notes. Naresh Agarwal (SP) and Mayawati (BSP) said Modi should be called before starting discussion on the demonetisation.

"Today they want PM Modi to address Parliament, tomorrow they will be demand a JPC on the demonetisation issue. Trust me, the opposition is just shifting the goalpost. Why are they running away from a debate? Why do they just want prime minister to speak, is the finance minister not competent enough to reply to their questions," asks Prasad.

Speaking to CNN-News18, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad attacked the Opposition on their demand of asking Prime Minister Modi to address the House of Parliament and in turn asked, "Why is the Opposition running away from debate?"

"Government wants that there should be a long and elaborate discussion so that we can explain to this country the enormous benefits of this move," Singh said. "Congress and other opposition parties are on a self-destructing course."

On the other hand, Jitendra Singh said that the Opposition was on a self-destruct course.

"Let's keep Opposition and government out of this. Let's think of the people," he further said.

"Almost 70 people have died. He must be crying for them. And I respect that," Congress leader Kapil Sibal told Times Now, clearly taking a dig at the prime minister and implying that he could not come to the Parliament because he was crying.

Speaking to the media outside Parliament, Rahul alleged that the government and the prime minister are not allowing a debate in the House. "We have filed an adjournment motion in the House and we want Modi to discuss the issue with us," says Rahul Gandhi

"Main poochna chahti hoon prime minister se ki agar unhone itna acha kaam kiya hai to vo ghabra kyu rahe hain? (I want to ask PM Modi that if he has taken a decision which is so good why is he scared?) I urge President to summon Modi and ask him to take measures to solve the problems faced by people post demonetisation move," Mayawati told the media after Lok Sabha got its first adjournment of the day.

Alleging that it sends a wrong message if prime minister keeps shying away from a debate, BSP chief Mayawati on Wednesday that a debate is a must because otherwise the BJP government looks like it has done something wrong. "Puri daal kali lag rahi hai."

If PM has done this great thing, why is he scared to face Opposition: Mayawati

Proceedings was continuously disrupted as Opposition leaders raised loud slogans against the BJP government. Senior BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu urges Speaker Sumitra Mahajan not to adjourn the Lower House. "The debate has begun, madam Speaker. Please let the debate happen. The world is watching what Congress and the Oppostion is doing inside the House," Naidu said.

The protesting MPs, for the past half an hour, have continously made noise and tried to disrupt the Lok Sabha proceedings. Speaker Mahajan still holding solid ground.

Opposition members are trying their best to disrupt the proceedings, but BJP MPs (MJ Akbar, Jitendra Singh) are holding their ground and not giving in to the awful noise that the protesting MPs are making.

 Samajwadi Party's Akshay Yadav tore paper and threw it at Speaker Sumitra Mahajan in the Lok Sabha. This is definitely a new low for Opposition parties in the Parliament.

"I am very sorry that the RBI has been exposed to this kind of criticism which is fully justified," he added.

"It is not good that every day, the banking system comes up with some modifications. That reflects very poorly on the prime minister's office," he said.

"The national income can decline by about 2 percentage points...I feel that the prime minister must come up with some constructive proposal," said the former prime minister.

"In my opinion, the way demonetisation has been implemented will hurt agriculture, small industries and the people in the informal sector," he said.

"I want to know from the prime minister the names of countries where people have deposited their money in banks but are not allowed to withdraw it," he said.

"What has been done can weaken and erode our people's confidence in the currency and banking system," said Manmohan Singh in the Rajya Sabha.

"I say so with all responsibility that we do not know what will be the full outcome," he said. "50 days is a short period but for those who are poor, even 50 days can bring about disastrous effects. About 60-65 people have lost their lives," he said.

"Today, there are no two opinions in the country. It is important to take note of the grievances of the common people who have suffered," said Manmohan Singh.

"In the process of demonetisation, monumental mismanagement has taken place," he said.

"I do not disagree with the objectives of taking steps against terroism and black money," said former prime minister Manmohan Singh in the Rajya Sabha. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was present in the House.

"By the day, the damage to the economy is increasing. Today, reports have come which have said that in three sectors that are biggest in exports, 4 lakh people have lost their jobs in the last one week or so," Sitaram Yechury said.

Served notice for moving motion of contempt against PM for not showing up in RS: Yechury

Addressing the Upper House, Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said how can the prime minister say something like this? "How can the prime minister allege that Opposition parties are in favour of black money? This is wrong."

Within minutes after the Rajya Sabha began today, the opposition members were up in arms protesting against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's statement that those cirticising the government are not angry with the government's preparedness but the fact that they did not get time to prepare.

Slamming the prime minister for his statements on black money hoarders and his veiled attack against the Opposition, the leaders of Congress and SP and BSP created ruckus in the Upper House and demanded that Modi should address the MPs and apologise for his remarks.

"I'm sure many of us have read analysis of noted economist Lawrence Summers, former chief economist of the World Bank and advisor to Obama government who concludes that this exercise has "resulted in chaos and loss of trust" and "without new measures, is unlikely to have lasting benefits. Don't you think it is high time and right time to form a committee of our real experts and intellectuals like Arun Shourie, Yashwant Sinha, Subramanian Swamy and other top economists and intellectuals of our party and veteran Murli Manohar Joshi to help the government in this hour?"

In a series of tweets on Friday, BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha, reiterating his faith in PM Modi's intention, said, "However, I have serious concerns about the outcome, fallout and responses of the people of India and the almost united opposition in particular."

Seventh day of Winter Session and looks like this week business will take a massive hit due to ongoing protests by the Opposition

As Opposition din did not die down even after many requests by the Speaker, Mahajan adjourned the Lok Sabha till Monday (28 November) 11 am.

Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said that a man  Rakesh Singh  tried to jump in the Lok Sabha off the audience gallery on Friday after the House was adjourned. "Security officials overpowered him and took him under custody and he has been let off with warning," Mahajan added.

Taking the nation by surprise, the Prime Minister had on November 8 announced demonetisation of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 currency notes with effect from midnight.

Latching on to media reports, Yechury sought to pick holes in the November 8 decision as he noted that 29 crore out of the 30 crore Rupay card holders have never used their cards in a swipe machine. Referring to a report on surfacing of two variants of Rs 500 currency notes, the Marxist leader also took a dig at Modi, saying it was the "Prime Minister's way" of stopping circulation of fake currency.

CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi over demonetisation, dubbing him as 'Tughlaq' who had "gone missing" after issuing a farman (order). "Barely 20-25 percent of cash demand being met in Metros. Rural areas even worse. While Tughlaq goes missing after his firman," Yechury tweeted.

Will government's wait-and-watch technique, as far as Opposition's protests are concerned, work out in their favour? Most political observers say no because the government does not have the luxury of time. Meanwhile, Opposition leaders are still not relenting with their demand of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's presence in Parliament.

Opposition leaders met before Parliament session commences for the tenth day. However, the worry again is will the Opposition let the Parliament function? Winter Session will go on for 22 sittings - 50 percent of the sittings are already over - the Upper House and the Lok Sabha have still not been able to table crucial bills.

Zero Hour begins with ruling-opposition bickering. As Venkaiah Naidu argues against the Opposition, protesting MPs raised slogans against the prime minister.

"Start the debate! You want the debate, start the debate, Prime Minister Narnendra Modi will come," says Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien.

"Why is the BJP government so stubborn? Why is the prime minister not coming to debate?" Mayawati asks.

In Samba, security forces killed two militants early on Tuesday when a group of militants tried to sneak in from Pakistan through the International Border near a border outpost in this Jammu district. According to reports, the two militants were killed following a "heavy firing exchange" with the BSF.

Even as terrorists infiltrated the International Border and attacked two - Nagrota and Samba - districts of Jammu and Kashmir, there was no talk of that in Parliament. The attack in Nagrota reportedly started around 5.30 am with militants firing at a field regiment camp located in the garrison town of Nagrota near the headquarter's of army's 16 corps in the state.

Demonetisation has been the reason for Parliament washouts over ten days now since Winter Session began on 16 November. Interestingly, Parliament has not discussed anything else except note ban imposed by the Narendra Modi government since the Winter Session began.

Sumitra Mahajan tells two warring factions in Lok Sabha to start the debate. "I am ready, please start the debate."

Rajya Sabha adjourned till 11 am until 1 December as opposition storms the well of the House regarding Nagrota Attack.

TMC leader slammed the BJP government for deploying Army in West Bengal. Senior BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu told Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien that the deployment was a routine exercise and casting aspersions on the prime minister is not acceptable.

Opposition members are protesting against the ruling government in the Lower House. Rajya Sabha has already been adjourned.

Opposition: Modiji says he wants the poor to build their own homes, but what about those homes which are being broken?

Opposition members raise slogans and stall Rajya Sabha again. Debates not allowed and Chairman of Upper House Hamid Ansari quietly and hopelessly looks around.

If one had to compare, Rajya Sabha gets adjourned way faster and sooner than the Lower House.

Unrelenting Speaker Sumitra Mahajan continues to let MPs speak on different issues while a group of MPs continue to try to disrupt Lok Sabha. But since Winter Session has begun (16 November) members who are against the demonetisation drive have tried, and sometimes successfully, to stall Parliament.

"These photos on the walls of the Rajya Sabha, from where emanates the power of democracy, often haunt me. It has been particularly difficult these last few days to get past those photos.Till 1 December (15th day since the commencement of the Winter Session) no business has been allowed to occur in the House except on the first day when a good debate took place in the Rajya Sabha over demonetisation. Regular disruptions, chaos and high-pitched slogan shouting have resulted in complete pandemonium in the House. The continuous ruckus usually leads to the suspension of the House proceedings and, sadly, it has become a regular feature. I ask myself: is this the only alternative left to us to address the genuine grievances of the public, the states and the nation?"

"He (the prime minister) must answer our questions. India's image has been damaged globally," he said.

"Today, the situation is that the withdrawals of the foreigners who come to India are being rationed," he said. "This has globally affected India's image," he added.

"Demonetisation created a situation that 86 percent of the currency was invalidated. Now, after one month, tens of millions of Indians are standing in queues...It is wrong to give an impression that the Opposition is opposing the prime minister's crusade against black money," Sharma said.

"The government has collective responsibility but the prime minister is the first among the equals," said Congress leader Anand Sharma in Rajya Sabha.

"In the 2G debates, we have insisted that the prime minister participates in this discussions but there is no such practice in this House that the prime minister must be here to listen to each and every member," Jaitley said.

"What is the stage we are in? Halfway through the debate, you interrupted the debate and are now raising concerns which have never been raised in the House," he told the Opposition.

"In this case, we've repeatedly said that the prime minister is going to participate in the debate," Jaitley said.

"It's obviously an important issue. The questions have to be answered," he said. "The government and the council of ministers fucntions on a collective responsibility. There is no such principle that a specific person has to answer."

"We've gone through this exercise of having a major debate which is incomplete. We have spent seven hours on the debate under rule 167," said Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in Rajya Sabha.

When asked what does the Opposition want, Rahul said, "He should come and debate in Parliament and explain his decision," he said.

Targetting the Prime Minister over the issue of note ban, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi slammed the BJP government saying that the decision to scrap high denomination currency was the biggest mistake ever. "It was a bold decision - that's what Modi ji says - but bold decisions are also foolish decisions. Demonetisation was a foolish decision. Our farmers, fishermen and the poor of the society are dying, our Prime Minister does not care for any of that. He (PM Modi) is laughing and having a nice time while the people of the country are suffering. The idea behind cashless economy is that a few people and corporates will get maximum benefits from these transactions. This has damaged the nation."

Today, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi launched a full frontal attack on the prime minister and an united Opposition on Thursday observed Black Day to mark one month since the demonetisation scheme kicked in.

8 November was when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the scrapping of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. It's been a month since then and the Opposition protests have gone on unabated - both in and outside Parliament.

"It is a matter of shame that the government refused to pay tributes to the martyrs," Azad thundered, provoking the ruling party ministers and MPs, who began shouting as if Azad had just thrown something at them.

He also said that by protesting in front of the Gandhi statue, the Opposition was the one which paid tributes to the deceased.

"We have been saying for a long time that over 100 people have died because of demonetisation," said Ghulam Nabi Azad in Rajya Sabha. "But the government refused to pay tribute to the deceased," he added.

It is a matter of shame that govt refuses to pay tributes to people killed due to demonetisation: Congress in RS

President Pranab Mukherjee has accused the Opposition of "gagging majority" in both Houses of Parliament. "Debate, dissension and decision are necessary," Times Now quoted the President as saying. "The Parliament must not be disrupted...this is unacceptable."

Has the Winter Session turned out to be a complete waste of time? Read the full article here .

The Winter Session of Parliament began on 16 November. On 8 December, both the Houses  Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha  met for the 14th day but within minutes of commencing, both the Houses were adjourned. The deadlock over demonetisation has led to wastage of the Winter Session so far and considering that just one more week is left for the session to wrap up, there is little hope that the Houses will be able to pass, introduce or even debate the Bills that have been listed for consideration.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Venakaiah Naidu also termed the 'dharna' by opposition leaders near the Gandhi statue in Parliament premises as a big 'tamasha' and an insult to the Father of the Nation. "Our opponents particularly the Congress I am told are observing a Black Day. I say what they are observing is a 'Black Money Support Day'," Naidu said.

Hitting out at the Congress-led Opposition for observing a 'Black Day' against demonetisation decision, government on Thursday said they are actually observing a "Black Money Support Day".

According to Times Now, the parliamentary panel has found Mann guilty of security breach after he filmed a video entering Parliament by crossing several security layers and posted it on social media.

 As if the logjam in Parliament  for which President Pranab Mukherjee admonished both Houses  was not embarrassing enough for the country, there is now a delegation of parliamentarians from Vietnam who are going to witness what happens in an Indian Parliament.

"Govt running from debate, if they allow me to speak then you will see what an earthquake will come," says Rahul Gandhi.

Keep in mind that Vietnamese Parliamentarians are in both the Houses to witness this scene.

It's hard to decide at this point who is trying to stall Parliament. During zero hour in Lok Sabha, MPs in Lok Sabha kept raising ruckus while Speaker Sumitra Mahajan tries her best to keep the House in session.

Rajya Sabha adjourned till 14 December On Friday as the count of members in the Upper House remained 21 despite calls from the Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien, the house was adjourned till Monday. The benches remained empty while BJP and Congress leaders sparred with each other blaming each other for the non-functioning government.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a meeting with key ministers before Parliament convenes on Wednesday morning to decide their strategy," the report said.

According to an NDTV report Information and Broadcasting Minister Venkaiah Naidu said that Prime Minister Modi will be present in Parliament for the three remaining days of the Session and can participate in proceedings for either of the House depending on the need.

Congress is going to raise the issue of corruption charges against Kiren Rijiju. Rajya Sabha member and senior Congress leader, Anand Sharma has given notice under Rule 267 in Rajya Sabha for discussion on corruption charges against Rijiju.

Comparison of the Right of Persons with Disabilities Bill, 2014 and new amendments

"This is the first time that the government is scheming to make sure Parliament does not function. It usually is the job of Opposition to stand up and protest. However, this government is doing a pretty job of that and making sure that Parliament does not work and no one questions the ruling party's decision. Demonetisation has hurt a lot of people, but Modi government's arrogance is not allowing us to debate it in the House," a TMC member said.

BJP was reacting to Congress vice-president's claim that he has information of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's alleged involvement in "personal corruption." Rahul was speaking a joint press briefing of the Opposition after the Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day amid din created by Opposition.

Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Ananth Kumar said that if Rahul Gandhi had any information, he could have revealed them twenty days ago, ""but till today he wasn't ready to make any earth-shattering revelations."

Soon after Rajya Sabha passed the amended The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill (2014) and Kurien congratulated the members over a productive day, Anand Sharma raised the issue of Rijiju and his alleged involvement in the Rs 450-crore scam. Kurien tried to maintain calm in the House by saying, "Allegation without informing the Chair cannot be allowed."

As Opposition members raised slogans and ruckus, Kurien said, "What can I do except adjourning. Both sides are indisciplined. The House is adourned till tomorrow (15 December) 11 am."

It seemed like the members in the Upper House were just waiting to pass one single Bill this Winter Session. Soon after Kurien praised the members of the Upper House for being disciplined, ruckus over alleged corruption allegations on Kiren Rijiju took the House by storm again.

Kurien: "I have given the floor to Leader of Opposition. That's the tradition. Let's follow it. Please sit down."

Senior BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi object to leader of opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad speaking in the Upper House. Kurien asks BJP members to sit down. Amid slogans of "Agusta Agusta" , BJP leaders demanded to know what is the topic of discussion?

"I have to adjourn.. what should I do?" asks Kurien. "This is for the first time in history of India that it's the ruling party that's not letting the House to function," says Azad.

Helpless deputy chairman PJ Kurien begs for MPs to sit down as Congress and BJP leaders spar over Ghulam Nabi Azad's speech on demonetisation.

Sources said that it was also decided in the meeting to raise the plight of farmers and common people in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha and demand a loan waiver for farmers. Representatives of Congress, Trinamool Congress, BSP, SP, JD-U, CPI, CPI-M, NCP, DMK and All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) were present in today's meeting.

Leaders of various parties said the entire opposition has decided to approach the President to "complain" against the ruling party for not allowing them to speak in Parliament. The leaders said they were elected representatives of the country and had every right to speak in Parliament and it was "unconstitutional" not to allow them to speak in both Houses. Sources said time is being sought from the President till Friday and all opposition parties were ready to raise the issue unitedly before him.

Taking their protest on demonetisation to President Pranab Mukherjee's doorsteps, Opposition parties sought a meeting with the president to convey the problems caused by the measure to the common man and "over not being" allowed to speak in Parliament. At a meeting of the opposition held in the chamber of Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, representatives of various parties decided to raise with the President the problems of the common people, including the poor and farmers arising out of demonetisation.

Advani also added that "had Atal ji been in Parliament today, he would have been upset."

Senior BJP leader LK Advani told Home Minister Rajnath Singh to intervene and stop disruptions in both Houses of Parliament. Expressing his unhappiness, Advani allegedly said that he "feels like resigning".

Opposition leaders are scheduled to meet the President and PM Modi to push for a way to break the deadlock.

The BJPs Parliamentary Party meeting to discuss the strategy to counter the Oppositions charges against the government is currently underway. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to address the gathering.

The last day of the Winter Session of Parliament is setup for a big tussle between the government and the Opposition as both try to break the deadlock.

"Regular and continuous disruptions signify this session... The rules about displaying placards and shouting slogans were ignored by all sections of the house," Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari said in his closing statement before adjourning the house.

The Rajya Sabha on Friday concluded its winter session after an emotional speech by the Chairman as the house was adjourned sine die.

On the eve of Winter Session, two all-party meetings were convened, first by the ruling NDA and the other by Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan. At the all-party meeting Modi requested all parties for cooperation in order to make Parliament session a fruitful one.

"I hope that Winter Session will be fruitful. I expect that Winter Session will proceed in a positive way. I hope that Winter Session debate will strengthen democracy. I believe that to take the country ahead this Winter Session debate will be useful, " said Modi as Winter Session sets to begin.

Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge said govt should should respect Opposition and create an atmosphere for healthy debate during Parliament Winter Session.

"If you will put their husbands in jail, who will provide for them, who will pay for their children," Azad asked as he reiterated that Congress leader Anad Sharma's suggestion to send it to Standing Committee should be taken into consideration.

Ghulam Nabi Azad stood up as the bill was taken up for discussion and said that none of the parties are in opposition of the bill in essence. However, he said that the government's bill will "finish Muslim women" instead of saving them.

He said that a committee should reflect the nature of the House, which the list of suggestions given by Sharma does not. Sharma's suggestion did not include names from the BJP.

Jaitley said that the previous precedents show that any amendments or motions should be introduced with prior notice. He said that the Opposition's demand to send the bill to Select Committee was invalid. He also raised objection on the suggestion on members of Select Committee made by Anand Sharma.

Kurien said that the Leader of the House is a very learned advocate himself and all points raised by him are of relevance. The rule he quotes that a prior notice should be given is also correct, he said. "However, the same rule adds that the Chairman has the power to admit such a motion and which is why I cannot overrule it. It is now admitted and hence is the property of the House, only members can amend it," Kurien said on Jaitley's objection over the Opposition motion seeking triple talaq bill be sent to Standing Committee.

Roy, responding to Jaitley's objection that the Select Committee suggested by him did not reflect the nature of the House, Roy said that he had included members from all parties who were willing to send the bill to the Standing Committee. However, BJP members were not included because the government was not willing to send the bill to the committee. Roy added that if the BJP is interested in sending the Bill for further scrutiny, he has no objection to ammend the list to include its members too.

Govt requests to take up GST bill first as Dy Chairman ruled Triple Talaq bill can't be taken for passage without first building consensus in House

"If you will put their husbands in jail, who will provide for them, who will pay for their children," Azad asked as he reiterated that Congress leader Anad Sharma's suggestion to send it to Standing Committee should be taken into consideration.

Ghulam Nabi Azad stood up as the bill was taken up for discussion and said that none of the parties are in opposition of the bill in essence. However, he said that the government's bill will "finish Muslim women" instead of saving them.

He said that a committee should reflect the nature of the House, which the list of suggestions given by Sharma does not. Sharma's suggestion did not include names from the BJP.

Jaitley said that the previous precedents show that any amendments or motions should be introduced with prior notice. He said that the Opposition's demand to send the bill to Select Committee was invalid. He also raised objection on the suggestion on members of Select Committee made by Anand Sharma.

Uproar in Rajya Sabha after opposition's motion on #TripleTalaqBill , opposition has demanded the bill be sent to select committee

Kurien said that the Leader of the House is a very learned advocate himself and all points raised by him are of relevance. The rule he quotes that a prior notice should be given is also correct, he said. "However, the same rule adds that the Chairman has the power to admit such a motion and which is why I cannot overrule it. It is now admitted and hence is the property of the House, only members can amend it," Kurien said on Jaitley's objection over the Opposition motion seeking triple talaq bill be sent to Standing Committee.

Roy, responding to Jaitley's objection that the Select Committee suggested by him did not reflect the nature of the House, Roy said that he had included members from all parties who were willing to send the bill to the Standing Committee. However, BJP members were not included because the government was not willing to send the bill to the committee. Roy added that if the BJP is interested in sending the Bill for further scrutiny, he has no objection to ammend the list to include its members too.

Govt requests to take up GST bill first as Dy Chairman ruled Triple Talaq bill can't be taken for passage without first building consensus in House

As the Parliament Winter Session reconvenes after a four-day break, it looks like the Opposition may finally get the debate on demonetisation it has been asking for, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi likely to attend all the remaining parliamentary proceedings, reports said on Wednesday.

According to The Indian Express, both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress has instructed their Member of Parliaments (MPs) to be present in both Houses for the rest of the session.

The news story, however, indicated that the government seems to have managed to convince the Opposition to forego its demand of a discussion under Rule 193, a primary demand of the Opposition  mostly Congress and Tirnamool Congress  that had lead to a deadlock in both the houses of Parliament since the beginning of the session. It will now be a no-rule discussion, it said.

As for the Opposition's second demand, which was that Prime Minister Modi should answer questions from the Opposition, CNN-News18 said that Modi is likely to attend the parliamentary proceedings. However, whether or not he will speak, remains unclear.

However, according to an NDTV report Information and Broadcasting Minister Venkaiah Naidu said that Prime Minister Modi will be present in Parliament for the three remaining days of the Session and can participate in proceedings for either of the House depending on the need.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a meeting with key ministers before Parliament convenes this morning to decide their strategy," the report said.

The Opposition will discuss its strategy during the parliamentary proceedings on Wednesday in an Opposition party's meet at 9.30 am, CNN-News18 reported.

The Parliament's Winter Session has been facing a deadlock on demonetisation ever since it began on 16 November. While the Lok Sabha has managed to conduct two legislative actions  pass the Income Tax amendment bill and approve the Supplementary Demand for Grants  the Rajya Sabha, on the other hand, functioned normally only on the first sitting of the session when a debate on demonetisation took place for five hours.

While three bills related to Goods and Services Tax (GST), are unlikely to be cleared on Wednesday, The Indian Express said, "Rajya Sabha is likely to pass the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill, 2014 in a brief remission of hostilities."

However, apart from the listed topics of business, the Parliamentary proceedings are likely to attract heated discussions on the arrest of former Air marshal, SP Tyagi, in relation to the AugustaWestland VIP chopper scam as well as BJP leader Kiren Rijiju's alleged corruption in the Arunachal Hydro Power project.
Despite President Pranab Mukherjee's "anguished" appeal on Thursday, parliamentarians continued to stall both the Houses of Parliament on Friday. The constant ruckus and loud slogan-shouting forced Lok Sabha to be adjourned for the day as early as 12.30 pm on Friday.

Rajya Sabha decided to meet at 2.30 pm after two adjournments since 11 am when the session began. Adding salt to injury, a delegation of parliamentarians from Vietnam were present in both the Houses to see how the Indian Parliament functions. Interestingly, the Opposition parties met with Speaker Sumitra Mahajan before Parliament sessions began to break the ongoing logjam.

Here is what happened so far in Parliament:

Rajya Sabha

The Rajya Sabha was adjourned till noon on Friday as the Opposition criticised the government for reducing import duty on wheat to zero percent. Sitaram Yechury of the CPM raised the issue which was supported by the Congress, the Bahujan Samaj Party and others.

Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien asked the members to maintain silence and let the house function, but they did not pay any attention to his pleas. The opposition members began shouting slogans like "anti-farmer government will not be allowed to function".

The house was then adjourned till noon. The Rajya Sabha session resumed at 12 pm but was soon adjourned till 2.30 pm after protesting MPs stormed the Well and made it impossible for the Upper House to function.

Lok Sabha adjourned till 11.30 am after uproar over #DeMonetisation  ANI (@ANI_news) December 9, 2016

Lok Sabha adjourned till 12 noon  ANI (@ANI_news) December 9, 2016

Rajya Sabha adjourned till 2.30 pm as uproar over #DeMonetisation continues  ANI (@ANI_news) December 9, 2016

Lok Sabha

The Lok Sabha was adjourned twice this morning in quick succession as members of the treasury benches and opposition sparred over frequent disruptions and the goverment seeking an apology from opposition for paralysing the proceedigs for 16 days.

As soon as the House met for the day, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan welcomed a delegation from Vietnam's National Assembly.

As the Lok Sabha will not meet on December 13, she referred to the Parliament attack of 2001 and recalled the courage of 8 Delhi Police, CRPF and Parliament Security Service Personnel who had died defending the people inside the Parliament complex.

As soon as she announced taking up the Question Hour, Congress Leader in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge rose apparently to raise the issue of demonetisation.

But before he could speak, BJP members shouted to remind him of the remarks of President Pranab Mukherjee who had said the House is not a place for dharnas and disruption which amounts to "gagging of majority" by the minority.

Soon, a verbal spat broke out between the two sides and the Speaker adjourned the House till 1130 hours.

When the House met again, Kharge said the Opposition was ready for debating demonetisation and has been continuously requesting for it. "We are ready for debate on demonetisation and its repercussions," he said.

However, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar immediately shot back saying the Opposition has disrupted the House for 16 days by holding it into ransom and they must tender apology.

"For 16 days they have disrupted the House and held the House hostage. Majority wanted to debate. But Congress, TMC and Left members are not allowing the House to function. The situation has reached such a stage that the President had to speak against the disruption. They must tender apology to the people of the country," he said.

BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi said for protests and sit-ins, as suggested by the President, Jantar Mantar is the best place and not the Parliament and hence the Opposition must apologise. The Lok Sabha resumed at 12 pm and even though Mahajan tried to maintain peace and let the Zero Hour continue amid din, it was almost impossible to hear the MPs who were speaking.

Mahajan adjourned the Lok Sabha for the day and said that the House will meet again on 14 December at 11 am.

They are ruining the Indian 'annadata' (farmers): Sitaram Yechury in RS #DeMonetisation  ANI (@ANI_news) December 9, 2016

Aapko sweekar karna padega ke ye ek desh drohi nirnay hai : Sitaram Yechury in RS #DeMonetisation  ANI (@ANI_news) December 9, 2016

Govt needs to rethink on #DeMonetisation or farmers will have to bear huge losses, they'll be ruined: Mayawati in RS  ANI (@ANI_news) December 9, 2016

Union Min of Food & Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan clarifies in RS, "we have enough food grain"  ANI (@ANI_news) December 9, 2016

Union Min of Food & Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan clarifies in RS, "we have enough food grain"  ANI (@ANI_news) December 9, 2016

Lok Sabha adjourned till December 14 #wintersession  ANI (@ANI_news) December 9, 2016

With inputs from PTI and IANS
New Delhi: Angry Opposition protests over government's move to slash import duty on wheat to zero allegedly to benefit multinational firms forced adjournment of the proceedings of Rajya Sabha till Friday afternoon .

Congress, BSP, SP, JDU and Left members alleged that the move to slash import duty on wheat from 10 per cent to zero at a time when the country has enough buffer stock will hit the farmer hard. The move ahead of the winter wheat crop will help MNCs to dump cheap wheat from US, France and Ukraine in the country, they said.

Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said there was no shortage of wheat in the country and the decision was taken to cool down domestic prices which has shown an upward trend in recent weeks.

"Last few days, wheat prices are on the rise," he said, adding "this is not a permanent decision", indicating it can be reviewed if need arises.

Minister of State for Agriculture Parsottambhai Rupala said the decision was necessitated as domestic prices were rising. The government uses market intervention to keep prices in check, he said, adding that the decision on import duty will be reconsidered if farmers faced problems.

Raising the issue, CPM leader Sitaram Yechury said he had given a notice under rule 267 to suspend business of the day to discuss the decision that will "ruin Indian farmers" while MNCs will rake in super-profits.

Asserting that wheat prices in retail market were rising because of demonetisation, he said the farmers are already hit hard by demonetisation as they are unable to buy seeds and fertiliser due to cash shortage.

"He has to make distress sale," he said adding wheat is being sold at Rs 700-800 per qunital as against MSP of Rs 1,540 fixed by the government.

Describing the move to reduce import duty as "shameful act", he said it will lead to food riots and added he condemns the decision. "This is against the interest of the nation and its farmes. It is an anti-national act," he said.

Bhupinder Yadav (BJP) said another 267 notice cannot be taken up if debate has resumed and remained inconclusive on another notice accepted under the same rule. Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien agreed with Yadav and said he is not allowing Yechury's motion.

BSP chief Mayawati said the decision will benefit the rich and was against the farmers, while Sharad Yadav said wheat prices have fallen in the world. He also questioned the need to allow imports when there were enough stocks available within the country.

Jairam Ramesh said if the buffer stock is high, why were imports being allowed.

A good monsoon, perfect soil conditions and moisture also have created ideal conditions for a bumper wheat crop but reduction in duty would mean that the companies of US, France and Ukraine would get benefited and Indian farmers would go without any incentive, the senior Congress leader said.

"This is a slap on face of Indian agriculture in the year when it is celebrating 50 years of green revolution," he said adding that farmers have no cash to buy seeds and fertilisers.

"This is 'videsh uthan' (benefit of foreigners) and anti-farmer," Ramesh said.

Sukhendu Shekhar Roy asked the Chair to take a sense of the House if an obituary reference should be made for the 111 persons who died standing in queues before banks and ATMs in the past one month post-demonetisation.

As Kurien moved to Zero Hour mentions, opposition members trooped in the Well raising anti-government slogans, shouting "Kisan virodhi yeh sarkar nahi chalegi, nahi chalegi

(anti-farmer government will not be tolerated)", forcing him to adjourn the proceedings till noon.

When the House met at noon, the pleas of Chairman Hamid Ansari to allow the Question Hour to function went unheeded, with opposition members on their feet raising slogans.

Soon after he called for taking up the Question Hour, the opposition members including those from Congress and SP, were in the Well and raised slogans. Slogans of "Kisan virodhi yeh sarkar nahin chalegi" rent the air as Chairman said that "you cannot do this during Question Hour".

When Ansari again took up Question Hour, protesting Opposition members gave back a resounding 'No', while those from the treasury benches shouted 'Yes' waiving questions.

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said "unfortunately the opposition members are not allowing the House to function. The President also appealed to members to do their job by allowing the House to function. They should be ashamed of themselves and take his advise to allow important issues to be discussed."

Naqvi alleged that the opposition members were only creating a ruckus ever since the start of the Winter Session. "There are important issues that have been listed. These relate to the welfare of the poor, weaker sections, women, employees and disabled," he said.

Naqvi said they should either allow the Question Hour to function or take forward the debate on demonetisation which has remained inconclusive.

The pleas of Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad to the Chairman also did not yield any dividend. Some opposition also alleged that it was not the opposition, but the ruling party which is creating the uproar.

Yechury said the members wanted to speak on the issues of slashing import duty on wheat and demonetisation.

Ansari, however, "nothing can be done in this noise." Amid the continued uproar by opposition, he adjourned the House till 2.30 pm.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), on Friday, arrested the former Indian Air Force chief SP Tyagi for allegedly accepting bribe in the AgustaWestland chopper deal. Tyagi was arrested along with his cousin Sanjiv Tyagi and lawyer Gautam Khaitan. The deal dates back to February 2010 when the UPA government signed a contract with UK-based AgustaWestland to purchase 12 AW101 helicopters for the Air Force for an estimated Rs 3,600 crore The purpose of this deal was to have choppers fly VVIPs like the president, prime minister and others. However, in 2013, the deal was put on hold by the government after Bruno Spagnolin, CEO of AgustaWestland and Guiseppe Orsi, chairman of the Italian parent company Finmeccanica, were arrested on charges of bribing middlemen to acquire the deal with IAF.

The following day, then defence minister AK Antony ordered a probe into the matter.

Early in 2014, the Italian court investigating the chopper scam names former chief of the IAF, SP Tyagi in the scam, stating that he was bribed by Finmeccanica to sign the deal with AgustaWestland.

Here is a timeline of the AgustaWestland scam.

August 1999: The Indian Air force proposes to replace MI-8 helicopters which are used to carry VVIPs. A global search for the replacement begins.

November 2003: The then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee raises concerns over the deal citing 'single vendor' situation.

March 2005: The Ministry of Defence allegedly dilutes requirements for the chopper deal, enabling AgustaWestland to compete after recommendations from IAF.

September 2006: Manmohan Singh-led PMO raises the requirement of choppers from eight to 12.

January 2010: After years of deliberations and changes in a number of requirements, the Cabinet Committee on Security clears the deal for acquiring 12 VVIP choppers.

February 2010: The Ministry of Defence signs the deal with UK's AgustaWestland.

February 2012: Allegations of corruption while finalising the deal first surfaces in the Italian media. The Indian Embassy in Rome is told to submit a report on the allegations.

February 2013: Giuseppe Orsi, CEO of Finmeccanica, the parent firm of AgustaWestland gets arrested by the Italian police. This marks the first arrest in the case.

February 2013: The Ministry of Defence begins the process of cancelling the deal, also examines holding back the payment to AgustaWestland. It issues a show cause notice to AgustaWestland for breach of contract and integrity pact. CBI takes over case formally.

February 2013: CBI begins preliminary enquiry against ex-IAF chief SP Tyagi and 11 others.

March 2013: CBI files FIR against Tyagi and 12 others on charges of cheating and alleged criminal conspiracy in the VVIP chopper deal.

November 2013: The deadline for answering the show cause notice for AgustaWestland was 26 November. The company officials meet Ministry of Defence officials to give their side of the story. Justice BN Srikrishna is roped in as the arbitrator by AgustaWestland.

January 2014: UPA government formally scraps the deal with AgustaWestland.

September 2014: Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrests Gautam Khaitan on allegations of kickbacks in the 3,600 crore deal.

October 2014: An Italian lower court acquits Orsi and former AgustaWestland chairman Bruno Spagnolini.

April 2016: A Milan Court of Appeals sentences Orsi to four and half years and Spagnolini to four years in jail on charges of false accounting and bribing Indian officials including Tyagi.

April 2016: Christian James Michel, the middleman in the deal says he is willing to face Indian authorities for investigation. Michel writes to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his intervention. In his letter to Modi, the middleman also offers evidence related to the case with Indian investigating agencies. Michel, however, denies reports of him and his father being close to the Gandhi family.

May 2016: Former IAF chief SP Tyagi interrogated for his links with the middleman.

December 2016: CBI arrests SP Tyagi for alleged bribery charges and criminal conspiracy, marking the first-ever arrest of a former IAF chief.
By Tom Gardner

ADDIS ABABA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - As many as 3.5 million people in Africa were uprooted from their homes in 2015 due to conflict and natural disasters and left stranded in their own country, with many governments overlooking this growing problem, according to a report released on Friday. Figures from the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) showed an average of about 9,500 people fled their homes daily last year, bringing the total number of Africans displaced internally to 12.4 million, with the number set to rise in 2016.The worst affected country was Nigeria, with as many as 736,000 fleeing their homes in 2015 as a result of violence associated with the Boko Haram militant Islamist insurgency.The report calculates the number of internally displaced people (IDPs) is double the number of the continent's refugees, estimated by the United Nations to have reached 5.4 million in 2015, highlighting the scale of Africa's comparatively overlooked "internal displacement crisis".While refugees are the responsibility of the international community, people displaced within their own country are the responsibility of national governments."Many of these governments are not even aware of the scale of the problem within their own borders," said Alexandra Bilak, IDMC director told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an interview."They need to take up their responsibilities and actually keep track of these people."

ONGOING CRISES

The figures for the first half of 2016 are likely to be at least as high with ongoing conflicts in countries like South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Nigeria, Bilak said.The report's publication marks the anniversary of the Kampala Convention, Africa's landmark commitment to preventing displacement and protecting the rights of IDPs, signed in 2009 and now ratified by 25 countries.

It argues better data is needed, especially on people driven from their homes by slow-onset crises such as a drought, and this is crucial if governments are to meet their commitments."Reliable data on population movements is vital to ensure a timely and well targeted operational and policy response," the report said.The IDMC hoped the report would be a reminder that while the continent's refugee crisis has attracted international attention in recent years, the problem of huge numbers of Africans uprooted from their homes but temporarily settled in their own countries is not new."The same people remain on our books, year in, year out. The numbers are not going down," said Bilak.

The report draws attention to "off-the-radar" displacement in countries like Ethiopia and Malawi, which, while relatively stable, suffer slow-moving environmental challenges such as drought that are "blind spots" for policymakers.A third of African countries are prone to drought, and most are increasingly vulnerable as result of climate change.It also highlights the role of southern Africa's worst agricultural drought in 35 years  and resulting severe food shortages  in driving people from their homes in 2015.The report also emphasised the need for African governments to recognise the role of development projects in causing the sort of "off-the-radar" displacement with people evicted from slums to make way for infrastructure.All too often "the impact of development projects and business activities on the people they force from their homes and livelihoods is not visible to policymakers," the report said. (Reporting by Tom Gardner, Editing by Belinda Goldsmith; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights and climate change. Visit news.trust.org)

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Washington: At least 50,000 Islamic State jihadists have been killed by the US-led coalition since it began operations in Iraq and Syria in late 2014, a senior US military official has said.

A relentless operation using planes and drones from a dozen or so members of the anti-IS coalition since August 2014 has conducted some 16,000 air strikes against the jihadists in Iraq and Syria  two-thirds of them in Iraq.

In addition, the coalition has provided training and weapons to local forces fighting IS.

"I am not into morbid counts but that kind of volume matters, that kind of impact on the enemy," the official said yesterday, calling the 50,000 number a conservative estimate.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the air campaign had been the "most pristine" ever in terms of avoiding civilian casualties, with almost all the bombs dropped so far being smart weapons that can be steered to a precise target.

The coalition tally of civilians killed in the operations is 173  though critics say the real figure is far higher.

The official said the coalition had diminished IS's ranks to such a level that the simultaneous attacks being waged on Mosul in Iraq and Raqa in Syria  the jihadists last remaining major power centres  have been possible.

Coalition spokesman Colonel John Dorrian said earlier that in Mosul, IS was turning to adolescent fighters as its hardcore warriors got wiped out.

"As this effort goes on with each passing day, Daesh has fewer fighters and fewer resources at their disposal," Dorrian said in a video call, using an Arabic IS acronym.

He added the jihadists appeared to have run out of armoured suicide car bombs, and estimated "many hundreds" of fighters had been killed in Mosul.

"It doesn't mean that it's not still an extraordinarily dangerous situation. They are not going to go quietly, but they are going to go."

The coalition has previously said it "does not use a casualty count as a measure of the effectiveness of the campaign to ultimately defeat (IS) in Iraq and Syria".

Despite this assertion, such figures are periodically announced.

Airwars, a London-based collective of journalists and researchers, uses local sources, photographs and media accounts to keep a detailed list of every known coalition air strike.

They have praised Pentagon efforts at accountability compared with other actors in Syria such as Russia and the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. But the group says the number of likely civilian deaths from coalition strikes is 1,957 at a bare minimum.
SAN FRANCISCO An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.5 was reported off the coast of a sparsely populated area of Northern California on Thursday but there were no reports of damage in the nearest town, officials said.The quake was centred in the Pacific Ocean about 102 miles (165 kilometres) west of Ferndale, California, at a depth of 6.2 miles (10 km), the U.S. Geological Survey said.The coastal area nearest the quake is sparsely populated.There was no tsunami warning, advisory or threat in effect following the earthquake, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center of the National Weather Service said on its website.In Ferndale, which has a population of about 1,300 people, Mayor Don Hindley said in a phone interview that he had not heard of any damage from the quake. He said he felt the temblor for about 15 seconds."It wasnt that bad at all," Hindley said. He added that he felt more shaking from another quake earlier this week.

The area near Ferndale had a 4.3 magnitude earthquake right on the coastline on Monday, according to the USGS. The earthquake on Thursday was the largest off the U.S. West Cost since 2014, said USGS seismologist Annemarie Baltay. A magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck off the Solomon Islands on Friday in that region's time zone which is several hours ahead of the continental United States, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.

While the two large quakes occurred within a short amount of time, they were not related, Baltay said. The Humboldt Bay Fire department in Eureka, California, had received no calls related to the quake off the state's coast, said Ashleigh Jordan, administrative assistant at the department.

The quake was also felt at least as far away as the San Francisco Bay area, about 250 miles (400 km) south of Ferndale. "Felt 20 seconds of very light shaking," tweeted San Francisco resident Lila LaHodd.The quake was first reported with a 6.9 magnitude but downgraded by the USGS to 6.5. (Reporting by Jane Lee, Dan Levine and Peter Henderson in San Francisco, Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles and Melissa Fares and Gina Cherelus in New York; Editing by Bill Trott, Frances Kerry and Bernard Orr)

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HAMBURG Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz, incoming chairman of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, on Friday said the fight against Islamist militancy would be a centerpiece of his year at the helm."We have over 10,000 people in the OSCE countries that have gone to to Iraq and Syria to support Islamic State terrorism...," Kurz told reporters after a two-day meeting of OSCE ministers. "And when they get back into our societies, they pose a massive security risk for us all."Kurz, who will become chairman of the 57-country security and human rights watchdog in January, said it was critical to combat the ideology of the jihadist movement inside Europe, in addition to fighting it in the Middle East.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal and Sabine Siebold; editing by John Stonestreet)

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MANILA Philippine senators have criticised the way President Rodrigo Duterte is carrying out his anti-narcotics campaign, saying it should be done within the bounds of the law and he must punish erring police officers.Police say 2,004 people have been killed by officers in self-defence during anti-drug operations since the president took office on July 1. Another 3,060 killings have been classified as "under investigation".Senators said while they had found no clear proof that the rising number of extrajudicial killings was state-sponsored, they told Duterte to observe due process and give the accused their day in court.Duterte has denied the police are conducting extrajudicial killings. But at the same time, he has welcomed the death toll. In September, he said he'd be "happy to slaughter" three million drug addicts. The president has repeatedly told the police to "kill" accused drug dealers if they violently resist, or if officers feel their lives are in danger. "The war against illegal drugs must be won within the legal system, and the president must lead in reminding the people of this important message," the senators said in a report after conducting an inquiry into extrajudicial killings.

The senators, including the president's allies, also cautioned the unpredictable Duterte to be "careful with his words (and) avoid inappropriate statements lest they be construed as policies of the state."The president's spokesman and communications secretary were not available for comment on the report.Duterte won a May election on a promise to wipe out drugs and dealers.

Amid concerns human rights groups about the surge in drug-related killings, Duterte has repeatedly defended the police, saying he was willing to go to jail for them.On Wednesday, Duterte defended police officers who killed a detained mayor on a list of top drug suspects even after another law enforcement agency concluded the death was an extrajudicial killing."When the police deem themselves to be omnipotent, they are emboldened and more killings ensue; the duty to protect the people is thrown out the window," the senators said in their report, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters on Friday.

"The offshoot will be silencing accused drug pushers and drug lords without affording them the bill of rights guaranteed to them by the constitution."The president must raise police standards and accountability, they said."When the police violate the law, they must be punished," they said."The time to act and end the impunity of killing is now," the senators said. (Reporting by Karen Lema; Editing by Robert Birsel)

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By Amanda Becker and Robert Iafolla

| WASHINGTON

WASHINGTON President-elect Donald Trump named fast-food executive Andy Puzder to head the U.S. Department of Labor on Thursday, drawing criticism from labour advocates worried about his opposition to a higher minimum wage and government regulation of the workplace. Puzder, chief executive of CKE Restaurants Inc [APOLOT.UL], which operates the Carl's Jr. and Hardee's fast-food chains, has frequently argued in the media that higher minimum wages would hurt workers by forcing restaurants to close. He has bashed a new Labor Department rule aimed at extending overtime pay to more than 4 million U.S. workers and has praised the benefits of automation in the fast-food industry. Fast-food workers, who are largely not unionized, are engaged in a multi-year campaign known as the "Fight for $15," which is supported by labour unions, to raise minimum wages to $15 per hour. They have had state-wide successes in New York and California and in cities and municipalities such as Seattle.Trump, in a statement released by his transition team, praised Puzder for a "record fighting for workers" and said he would ensure occupational safety standards."He will save small businesses from the crushing burdens of unnecessary regulations that are stunting job growth and suppressing wages, Trump said.In the same statement, Puzder said he agreed with Trump that "the right government policies can result in more jobs and better wages for the American worker."The Labor Department regulates wages, safety and discrimination in the workplace.Republican Trump beat Democrat Hillary Clinton in last month's election by carrying swing states - and some traditionally Democratic states - in the U.S. Rust Belt after promising to create jobs and to review or cancel trade deals that he said were bad for workers.

National labour leaders had urged their rank-and-file members to back Clinton, saying Trump's appointments and policies would not align with his promises to workers.Labor leaders have been girding for Trump to appoint pro-business regulators at the Labor Department and National Labor Relations Board, and to roll back key regulatory initiatives of the Obama administration such as the Labor Department rule granting overtime pay to more than 4 million salaried workers, both unionized and not unionized."He was talking a good game when he was running for president, as far as helping workers and levelling the playing field for them, but with the nominations he's made it's just the opposite," said Lee Saunders, president of the public employees union AFSCME.Although just 11.1 percent of U.S. workers were represented by a union in 2015 - down from 20.1 percent in 1983, the first year government statistics were kept - labour unions are a powerful force in Democratic politics. But union members' support for Clinton at the election was lower than it had been for President Barack Obama four years ago.About 51 percent of voters from union households backed Clinton, with 42 percent supporting Trump, a CNN exit poll showed. Obama won 58 percent of the same voters in his 2012 re-election win against Republican Mitt Romney.

Business groups welcomed the appointment of Puzder. Robert Cresanti, president of the International Franchise Association, an industry group, praised him as an "exceptional choice" who would bring "business experience and policy acumen on so many issues impacting employers and employees."But Democrats were critical."In Andrew Puzder, Trump found a Labor Secretary that would help him roll back the minimum wage, end the overtime rule that will raise wages for millions, weaken safeguards for workers, and to wipe out unions," said American Bridge, a liberal advocacy group.

DISPUTE WITH UNION LEADER

Trump's decision to pick Puzder comes as he is engaged in a Twitter dispute with the head of a local United Steelworkers union in Indiana.United Steelworkers Local 1999 President Chuck Jones, who represents workers at United Technologies Corp's Carrier plant in Indianapolis, criticized Trump for inflating the number of jobs that would be saved by his intervention in the company's decision to move some production to Mexico. Trump responded on Twitter that Jones has done a "terrible job representing workers."Jones said after speaking to the company that 800 jobs will remain in Indianapolis and 730 of those will be union jobs, with another 70 management positions. But Trump said last week that a deal made by Indiana to give the company $7 million in tax breaks would keep 1,100 jobs in the region. "Our people, at that point in time, got their hopes back up that they might have a job," Jones told CNBC on Thursday. "Ive said at every interview that Im grateful for President-elect Trump getting involved  without his involvement these 800 jobs would not remain in Indianapolis.""All he had to do is come back and say I was misled by (United Technologies) ... instead of doing that he goes on the attack on me?" Jones added. Jones has said some of the president-elect's supporters sent him death threats. (Additional reporting by Julia Edwards Ainsley, David Shepardson and Emily Stephenson; Editing by Alistair Bell and Frances Kerry)

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Istanbul: Turkey is sending hundreds of commandos to reinforce its military campaign inside Syria, where the Turkish army has suffered increasing casualties in its fight to capture a key town from Islamic State jihadists, reports said on Friday.

A total of 300 commandos from a base in the western Turkish province of Denizli were first taken in buses to a military airport and then to the border region in military planes to join the Turkish-led operation, Turkish newspapers and the Anadolu news agency reported.

Ankara in August launched an operation dubbed Euphrates Shield to back up Syrian rebels seeking to oust jihadists from the border zone.

The Syrian towns of Jarabulus, Al Rai and Dabiq were retaken from the Islamic State jihadists in lightning moves in the early weeks of the operation.

But the Syrian fighters and Turkish troops have found far greater resistance in the fight for Al Bab  25 kilometres (15 miles) from the Turkish border  where the jihadists have reportedly regrouped after fleeing an earlier offensive.

Nineteen Turkish soldiers have lost their lives in the Syria campaign so far, with the government wary of any sign it could become a focus of public concern.

The army has already since summer 2015 been waging an offensive against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in the southeast that has claimed the lives of hundreds of members of the security forces.

Most of the attacks in the Syria campaign have been blamed on the Islamic State extemists.

But four Turkish soldiers were killed last month by an air strike the Turkish army blamed on the Syrian regime. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said last week neither Moscow nor its ally Damascus were behind the deadly strike.

The Turkish army also said it lost contact with two Turkish soldiers in Syria, and an IS-affiliated news agency claimed they were taken hostage by the jihadist group.

As well as seeking to root out Islamic State, Turkey also wants to expel a Syrian Kurdish militia from its frontier and form a safe zone to shelter some of the 2.7 million Syrian refugees who sought safety in the country.

Hundreds of Turkish troops, tanks and artillery are involved in the offensive but Ankara has not given precise numbers over the size of the contingent.
By Michelle Nichols

| UNITED NATIONS

UNITED NATIONS United Nations Syria mediator Staffan de Mistura said on Thursday he planned to meet "people around the team" of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to discuss the nearly six-year conflict in the country. "The plan is to meet some people around the team of President (elect) Trump," de Mistura told reporters, adding that meetings would take place in New York and Washington.De Mistura briefed the U.N. Security Council behind closed doors on Thursday afternoon and said he would remain in the United States until Tuesday. He declined to elaborate on who he would meet with from Trump's team and when.De Mistura told reporters after the council briefing that he has ideas on "how President (elect) Trump's team would be able to look at the fight on terrorism in very effective ways."

He said last month little was known about Trump's Middle East policy, but there might be a chance of progress in ending the Syrian war if Trump stuck to his campaign pledge to fight Islamic State with Russian President Vladimir Putin.On Thursday, the 15-member Security Council discussed the Russian announcement that the Syrian army had stopped combat operations in eastern Aleppo to allow for the evacuation of civilians, Spain's U.N. Ambassador Roman Oyarzun Marchesi, president of the council for December, said after the meeting."We didn't get any information from the Russian announcement on how long it will be," de Mistura said of the truce.

Since July 2014, de Mistura has been trying to broker peace talks between the warring parties in Syria. He was appointed after former U.N. chief Kofi Annan and then Lakhdar Brahimi quit in frustration at the global deadlock over how to end the war."I did raise, and to a certain degree insisted, that perhaps now is the time to actually either look seriously at a possible renewal of looking where and how we can have political discussions," de Mistura said of the council briefing.

"Otherwise we will leave with the impression, which no one wants to have, that there is only a military victory or military solution," he said. A crackdown by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on pro-democracy protesters in 2011 sparked a civil war and Islamic State militants have used the chaos to seize territory in Syria and Iraq. Half of Syria's 22 million people have been uprooted and more than 400,000 killed. (Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Writing by Eric Beech; Editing by Eric Walsh and David Gregorio)

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WASHINGTON The White House said on Thursday that it raised concerns about China's new cyber security law during a meeting with a Chinese official after the latest round of talks between the two countries on cyber crime.U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice met with Chinese State Councilor Guo Shengkun to discuss the importance "of fully adhering" to an anti-hacking accord signed last year between the China and the United States, National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said.The deal, brokered during Chinese President Xi Jinping's state visit to Washington in 2015, included a pledge that neither country would knowingly carry out hacking for commercial advantages.Rice told Guo that the United States was concerned "about the potential impacts" of a law that China adopted in November aimed at combating hacking and terrorism.

Critics of the law say it threatens to shut foreign technology companies out of various sectors deemed "critical," and includes contentious requirements for security reviews and for data to be stored on servers in China.

Rights advocates also say the law will enhance restrictions on China's Internet, already subject to the world's most sophisticated online censorship mechanism, known outside China as the Great Firewall.Rice met with Guo after the third round of high level talks on cyber security between China and the United States was held on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Ayesha Rascoe; Editing by Alistair Bell)

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Global travelers and modern explorers can now experience the new Hyatt Centric Waikiki Beach which officially opened its doors to guests today. Located in the former Waikiki Trade Center, the hotel is the first Hyatt Centric hotel in the state of Hawaii, introducing 230 contemporary guestrooms and suites in the heart of the world-famous destination. To commemorate its opening, the hotel will host a grand opening celebration on Jan. 19, 2017, that will kick-off with Hawaii's first-ever Walk For Wishes event, benefitting Make-A-Wish Hawaii.

"The revitalization of this property has been an incredible journey, and our entire Hyatt Centric Waikiki Beach family is overjoyed to welcome guests," said Charles Young, General Manager of Hyatt Centric Waikiki Beach. "We are proud to play a role in the renaissance of Kuhio Avenue. Our hotel is a true launch pad for guests to explore and discover the best of Waikiki's urban setting."

Developed by Chartres Lodging Group and CoastWood Capital, Hyatt Centric Waikiki Beach offers a modern guestroom design, including floor-to-ceiling windows with panoramic views of the ocean and Diamond Head, spa-like bathrooms with Drybar Buttercup blow dryers, and spacious floorplans that enhance the guest experience. The hotel boasts a variety of upscale amenities including a lounge pool, outdoor seating with circular fire pits, and a 24/7 fitness facility. The hotel's bar and restaurant, The Lanai, will be led by Chef Yoshi Ohata. The 1,900-square-foot eatery is set in a modern, island-inspired space and will introduce creative Pacific fusion dishes to Waikiki's culinary scene.

Several popular retailers also join the property in re-energized storefronts, including a two-level Nordstrom Rack, which opened in September 2016, Starbucks offering craft beers, wines, and gourmet appetizers in the evening hours, Jamba Juice, and American Savings Bank.

"Our vision for this hotel was to create a unique, forward-looking offering for travelers that seek to incorporate exploration into their international experience," said Maki Nakamura Bara, President and Co-Founder of Chartres Lodging Group. "Hyatt Centric Waikiki Beach reflects the spirit of exploration and discovery that is at the core of the Hyatt Centric brand and is a fantastic addition to the thriving tourism market."

Construction on the property began in summer 2015, with renovations led by Swinerton Builders, local architecture firm Group 70, and California design firm DESIGN360unlimited. Throughout the transformation, the project created approximately 600 construction jobs and 100 full-time and part-time positions.

In partnership with Make-A-Wish Hawaii, the hotel's grand opening celebration on Jan. 19, 2017 will feature the state's first Walk For Wishes fundraiser. At the walk event, key stakeholders, community members, and Hyatt Centric Waikiki Beach colleagues will come together to celebrate the legacy of the nonprofit organization and raise funds to grant wishes to local children battling life-threatening medical conditions.

A valuable land asset of Queen Emma Land Company, the redeveloped Waikiki Trade Center will directly support The Queen's Medical Center, the state's largest private, nonprofit hospital.

Hyatt Centric Waikiki Beach will be the 12th hotel in the Hyatt Centric brand's portfolio, joining hotels in North America and Latin America destinations including New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, Key West, Montevideo, Uruguay, among others. Rates start at $229.

ABOUT COASTWOOD CAPITAL GROUP, LLC

CoastWood Capital Group, LLC is a specialized real estate investment firm based in San Francisco. Founded by Cordell Lietz in 2003, the company acquires, manages and develops real estate in the United States with an emphasis on retail and other property types with unique operational characteristics. CoastWood has been actively investing in Hawaii for over a decade and holds interests in several properties throughout Hawai'i including International Market Place, Kings' Shops and Queens' Marketplace.

ABOUT CHARTRES LODGING GROUP, LLC

The Chartres Lodging Group, LLC, is an investment and advisory firm founded by Robert Kline and Maki Nakamura Bara to focus on the acquisition, asset management, renovation and development, and property management of lodging assets. Chartres Lodging has been responsible for approximately $8 billion of investments and its principals have asset managed over 100 upscale and luxury hotels, resorts and conference centers. Chartres Lodging's principals and employees are direct investors in 90 percent of the portfolio.

ABOUT QUEEN EMMA LAND COMPANY

Queen Emma Land Company (QEL) is a local nonprofit organization established to support and advance health care in Hawai'i, primarily through The Queen's Medical Center and its affiliates. QEL accomplishes this by managing and enhancing the income-generating potential of the lands left to The Queen's Hospital by Queen Emma in 1885, and additional properties owned by The Queen's Health Systems.

ABOUT THE QUEEN'S MEDICAL CENTER

The Queen's Medical Center (Queen's), a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation established in 1859 by Queen Emma and King Kamehameha IV, is an acute care medical facility accredited by The Joint Commission. The facility is licensed for 535 acute beds and serves as the major tertiary and quaternary referral center for cancer, cardiovascular disease, neuroscience, orthopedics, surgery, emergency medicine and behavioral health medicine. It is the state's designated trauma center verified as Level II by the American College of Surgeons. It has the only organ transplantation program in Hawaii. Queen's is a major teaching hospital, serving as a clinical training site for the residency programs sponsored by the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaii. Queen's is the only hospital in Hawaii to achieve Magnet status  the highest institutional honor for hospital excellence  from the American Nurses Credentialing Center.

About Hyatt Hotels Corporation

Hyatt Hotels Corporation, headquartered in Chicago, is a leading global hospitality company guided by its purpose  to care for people so they can be their best. As of June 30, 2022, the Company's portfolio included more than 1,150 hotels and all-inclusive properties in 72 countries across six continents. The Company's offering includes brands in the Timeless Collection, including Park Hyatt, Grand Hyatt, Hyatt Regency, Hyatt, Hyatt Residence Club, Hyatt Place, Hyatt House, and UrCove; the Boundless Collection, including Miraval, Alila, Andaz, Thompson Hotels, Hyatt Centric, and Caption by Hyatt; the Independent Collection, including The Unbound Collection by Hyatt, Destination by Hyatt, and JdV by Hyatt; and the Inclusive Collection, including Hyatt Ziva, Hyatt Zilara, Zoetry Wellness & Spa Resorts, Secrets Resorts & Spas, Breathless Resorts & Spas, Dreams Resorts & Spas, Vivid Hotels & Resorts, Alua Hotels & Resorts, and Sunscape Resorts & Spas. Subsidiaries of the Company operate the World of Hyatt loyalty program, ALG Vacations, Unlimited Vacation Club, Amstar DMC destination management services, and Trisept Solutions technology services. For more information, please visit www.hyatt.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Forward-Looking Statements in this press release, which are not historical facts, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the use of words such as "may," "could," "expect," "intend," "plan," "seek," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "potential," "continue," "likely," "will," "would" and variations of these terms and similar expressions, or the negative of these terms or similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable when made, are inherently uncertain, and are subject to numerous assumptions and uncertainties, many of which are outside of Kiraku, Inc. or Hyatt's control, which could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by such statements. Forward-looking statements made in this press release are made only as of the date of their initial publication and neither party undertakes an obligation to publicly update any of these forward-looking statements as actual events unfold, except to the extent required by applicable law. If one or more forward-looking statements is updated, no inference should be drawn that any additional updates will be made with respect to those or other forward-looking statements.
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JEROME  Sheriffs deputies are seeking the publics help to find a Jerome man who hasnt been seen since the summer.

Orlando Ramirez, 22, hasnt been seen by his family since the last week of August, Jerome County Sheriffs Sgt. Chad Kingsland said Friday. The family just recently reported him missing.

His family believes he may have gone to California or Nevada, the sheriffs office said in a statement. There has been no activity on his social media sites and his phone number has been disconnected.

Ramirez is described as 5 feet 9 inches and 190 pounds with black hair and brown eyes.

Sheriffs deputies followed-up on several leads before seeking the publics help, Kingsland said. The last vehicle he was known to be in was accounted for but didnt produce any clues. Social media accounts he was known to use have been inactive since around the time his family last saw him.

Hes just gone, Kingsland said.
TWIN FALLS  Local emergency responders are dealing with crashes and slide-offs around the Magic Valley Friday morning while bracing for possibly worse conditions over the weekend as snow was expected to turn to freezing rain Friday, possibly making roadways even icier.

The rash of crashes began Thursday night after a day of steady snow dumped several inches across the valley.

Idaho State Police troopers patrolling Interstate 84 dealt with quite a few crashes in a short period of time starting about 4:30 p.m. Thursday between Jerome and Burley, Trooper Jason Lalonde said.

Most of them were minor injury, at worst, we just had a lot of them with driver hitting the ice and sliding around, Lalonde said.

Friday morning brought more of the same on I-84, the trooper said, with slide-offs and fender benders, but no serious injury crashes.

In the city of Twin Falls, the first snowfall earlier in the week caused more weather-related crashes than Thursdays storm.

Yesterday, last night and this morning wasnt as bad as Tuesday, Twin Falls Police Lt. Terry Thueson said. We only had six yesterday through this morning. However, on Tuesday with that first skiff of snow, we had over 20.

Drivers in the city of Jerome were also staying safe and avoiding crashes despite real slick streets, Police Chief Dan Hall said.

We really havent had many crashes in town, most have been out in the county and on the interstate, Hall said.

Jerome County Sheriffs Sgt. Chad Kingsland was out at a crash about 10:00 a.m. Friday when he spoke with the Times-News. He estimated there had been between eight and 10 slide-offs and minor crashes that his office had dealt with Friday morning, both on county roads and the interstate.

Meanwhile, the National Weather Service issued a winter weather advisory Friday morning warning of more snow and freezing rain, which was likely to cause icy roadways. This could make driving even slicker, though Lalonde was hoping the rain and warmer temperatures would wash melt ice off the interstate.

The trooper reminded drivers to leave earlier than normal, slow down and expect delays.

And if they come up on a crash, we would ask them to give us a call, either call 911 or *ISP, Lalonde said. When you call, try to give us as much information about the crash as you can. If drivers do stop, use extreme caution and pull all the way off the road. And if theyre involved in a crash and can move their vehicle, move off the road. We dont want one crash to cause other crashes if we can avoid it.
EDEN  A structure to divert water on the Milner-Gooding Canal is nearly complete, putting recharge efforts in the Middle-Snake region of the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer right on schedule.

And its a very aggressive schedule, said Wesley Hipke, recharge project manager with the Idaho Department of Water Resources.

The state has installed an Obermeyer weir  an inflatable dam with pneumatically operated spillway gates  across the canal, and constructed slide gates above the weir to release water into the Milepost 31 recharge basin north of Eden.

The $2 million project, an expansion of a prior recharge project at the site, is part of Idahos effort to replenish the depleted ESPA, shrunk to its lowest level from decades of groundwater pumping.

The states long-term goal is to artificially recharge an average of 250,000 acre-feet per year into the aquifer. Milepost 31, operated by American Falls Reservoir District No. 2, so far has the largest capacity of any recharge site in the state.

The Idaho Water Resources Board has a window of about 120 days each year to divert surface water into the aquifer, using 1980 recharge water rights from the Snake River.

A minimum of 500 cubic feet per second flow over Minidoka Dam is required during the winter for endangered snails, Hipke said.

This is water that would leave the state if not used for recharge, he said.

To date, Milepost 31 has sent 13,000 acre-feet into the aquifer since the end of the irrigation season, at a rate of 200 to 250 cfs from the original point of diversion, just upstream from the new facility. The water is diverted from the Snake River at Milner Dam.

In about a week, an additional 400 cfs will flow through the new facility, said Lynn Harmon, manager of American Falls Reservoir District No. 2, an umbrella district encompassing the Milner-Gooding Canal and Big Wood Canal systems. The site should be able to handle up to 600 cfs when there is enough water in the system.

Hipke expects 87,000 acre-feet of recharge at Milepost 31 by the start of the 2017 irrigation season.

Twin Falls Canal Co., North Side Canal Co. and Southwest Irrigation District are also major participants in ESPA recharge. Total recharge for the winter is expected to be reach 100,000 acre-feet, compared with 68,000 acre-feet recharged last winter. Thats 40 percent of what the state wants in the long run.

Im pretty confident (well get it), Hipke said. We wont know until we can actually put water out there.

This is water that would leave the state if not used for recharge. Wesley Hipke, recharge project manager with the Idaho Department of Water Resources
HAGERMAN  Opposition to the expansion of a shooting range west of town is growing  but only those who commented during the public hearing process have a voice in the matter.

The Gooding County Planning and Zoning Commission voted Nov. 7 to approve Houston Shaws special use permit application to expand his commercial shooting range along the Snake River.

A preliminary decision to issue the permit is being reviewed by County Prosecutor Matt Pember as required by county code, Planning and Zoning Administrator Ami Bennett said Thursday.

A group called Citizens4Hagerman appeared before the Hagerman City Council Wednesday and asked the city to join them in appealing the countys decision.

The council had already drafted a letter opposing the expansion, said Pember, who was at the standing-room-only meeting.

Anyone who commented during the public hearing process may appeal the Planning and Zonings decision to the County Commission, Pember said. The city of Hagerman had submitted written opposition to the expansion of the shooting range, which lies just outside the citys area of impact.

Once the special use permit is issued, notices will go out to Shaw and all who commented  pro or con. Appeals must be filed within 15 days.

Shaw teaches combat shooting at the gun range and plans to expand the Hagerman facility to give the military more varied training opportunities. He presented a package of some 70 letters of support for his project including active-duty servicemen and veterans.

But the expansion would move the combat training zone 1,500 feet closer to our schools, said Hagerman resident Kathy McKenzie.

Citizens4Hagerman will present the groups opposition at the Hagerman School Board meeting 7 p.m. Monday, said Cathy Brown, a Citizens4Hagerman board member and neighbor of the shooting range.
Dear Evangelicals,

You tease about the mainstream media being  Satans newspaper. When I tell you Im a journalist, I hear your cynicism.

Listen, I was raised in an evangelical home. I know the media is supposed to be the butt of many jokes and the source of many of our problems.

For many conservatives, the phrase fake news is now being used to describe  liberal bias, but fake news has real consequences. A man who was investigating a conspiracy theory about a secret child sex ring showed up at a Washington pizza place on Sunday with a rifle and fired at least one shot. Gunman Edgar Welch says he has been influenced by the book Wild at Heart, by John Eldredge about faith and masculinity, a popular one for some evangelicals.

The jokes arent funny anymore. We are living in a post-truth time of fake news and misinformation, something that should be deeply troubling to people of faith who claim to seek truth in their everyday lives.

I was raised in both a religious home and a newspaper home. My parents would pull out books for Bible study in the morning and plop them next to the local newspaper. The Bible and newspaper went together like cereal and milk. I grew up believing journalism was a noble profession because the best journalism is based on the relentless pursuit of truth.

Your quick dismissal of the entire mainstream media feels deeply inaccurate to me as a Christian and a journalistat least the kind of Christianity I was raised on, where the newspaper informed how we understood the world. The act of doing journalism is a way to live out my faith, a way to search for and then reveal truth in the world around me.

I sympathize with some frustrations you have, including a lack of ideological diversity within some media outlets. Some reporters have unfortunately stepped into more advocacy-oriented journalism and weve seen a blurring of opinion with reporting. And yes, sometimes editors must issue corrections. But it does not make sense to replace unwise mainstream media outlets you believe you cant trust with websites and other sources that lack any accountability.

Gallup recently reported that trust and confidence in media have fallen to record lows. News has become akin to religion; its accepted or rejected as a matter of faith, depending on the source, Robert Samuelson, a right-of-center columnist, recently wrote for The Washington Post. The Posts Erik Wemple wrote that one of the biggest media trends this year was an anti-Semitic backlash against journalists, a trend that should be incredibly troubling for people of faith.

A post-truth era seems to threaten something we have historically agreed on: We trust journalists to act as information gatherers and truth tellers who hold leaders and institutions responsible to the public for their actions, including religious leaders.

When the Catholic Church faced media attention over sex abuse, Ross Douthat, a columnist for the New York Times who is Catholic, wrote that religious leaders should not focus on the media as the culprit. He urged them to welcome scrutiny as a spur to virtue and as a sign that their faith still matters, that their church still looms large over the affairs of men, and that the world still cares enough about Christianity to demand that Catholics live up to their own exacting standards.

Its no secret the country is growing less and less tied to institutional religion. The rise of our post-truth culture has in some ways brought the media to a similar place as religion, seen as subjective and viewed with skepticism by many people. Americans trust scientists and those in the military, but they are least confident in clergy, the news media, business leaders and elected officials to act in the best interests of the public, according to the Pew Research Center. This lack of trust does not bode well for the institutions of media or religion.

As a reporter who also happens to be a Christian, I believe that truth exists and can be ascertained, even if imperfectly and the fact that we understand it imperfectly heightens our duty to pursue it diligently. And I believe journalism is the one of the best practical pursuits of truth in earthly life, one that allows us to reveal and explain the truth to others. Many religions seek a truth that is beyond the scope of journalism, yet if people of faith no longer accept the veracity of factual truth, then they threaten to undermine their own pursuit of ultimate questions.

Fake news has taken hold in religious circles. Ahead of the election, a widely circulated website insinuated that famed evangelist Billy Graham endorsed Donald Trump. As how we receive our news has evolved with the growth of social media, we need to be extra vigilant to consider how that information is gathered. We need trusted people (we call them reporters) who are held accountable by others (we call them editors) who are committed to telling the truth.

What separates journalists from someone else posting information on the internet? As journalists, we are guided by certain standards and ethics, taking issues of fairness and bias seriously, including avoiding conflicts of interest. With few exceptions, we are careful to attribute information we report to named sources. We conduct original research, and we fact-check what we write.

Eugene Meyer, who owned The Washington Post for several decades, said the newspapers duty is to the public, not to the private interests of its owner. In the pursuit of truth, the newspaper shall be prepared to make sacrifices of its material fortunes, if such course be necessary for the public good, Meyer said. The newspaper shall not be the ally of any special interest, but shall be fair and free and wholesome in its outlook on public affairs and public men.

At its best, the media provides citizens with the information they need to make the best possible decisions about their lives. Journalists help shed light on whats happening around us, from the latest city council meeting to the newest stock market changes to shifts in larger political, cultural, religious ideas and attitudes. When we do not have journalists who are held to ethical standards, we are left to whatever is most popular or highly shared within our networks.

Abandoning mainstream media sites for opinion sites you already agree with is not the answer. The mainstream media is collectively valuable because it presents a range of information and viewpoints, while the Breitbarts of the world present a singular voice to a targeted group of people.

To demean a journalists profession of truth-telling and to suggest that reporters are uniformly dishonest in their search for the truth threatens to undercut the idea that truth exists and that it can and should be pursued. We know this is true: Firing a gun in a pizza parlor over fake news is no laughing matter.
You too may soon be able to feel what it was like to hit an iceberg on the Titanic.

Construction of a life-size replica of the doomed passenger ship began in Chinas southwestern Sichuan province on Wednesday with a keel-laying ceremony and fireworks to mark the occasion.

It is part of Star Energy Investment Groups plans for a tourist resort along the Qijiang River in Sichuans Daying County.

And it will eventually come with a simulation of the iceberg collision that sank the original ship in the Atlantic Ocean on April 15, 1912.

Backers say the project will also play on the 1997 blockbuster Titanic movie, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet.

Steven Star Chief Executive Su Shaojun said it should not be strange that it is in China.
The Libyan National Army, based in the East, under Marshal Khalifa Haftars command Wednesday announced they thwarted the countrys oil crescent takeover attempt by Tripoli-backed forces three months after seizing the oil ports.

The Libyan National Army (LNA) as it is known said it retook control of Ben Jawad and Nufliya towns attacked by rival forces apparently supported by rival army of the unity government, established in capital Tripoli.

The rival forces were trying to retake two of the oil ports seized in September by Haftars forces.

The LNA said it lost four of its men while eight other sustained injuries in the battle. The army also announced it seized the enemys material and arrested some of its commanders.

The enemy, according to the LNA, is Benghazi Defence Brigades who fled Libyas second town to establish in Tripoli under the protection of the Government of National Accord (GNA) born in December and sponsored by United Nations.

The GNAs defense ministry denied any involvement in the attempt to retake the oil ports. The ministry reportedly mounted a military operation room to head an attempt to win back the oil crescent important to the GNA survival.

The Wednesday battles were condemned by the countrys National Oil Corporation (NOC) which called the belligerents to spare the oil ports. NOC head, Mustafa Sanalla said loading of vessels would continue but added that he may declare force majeure in the event of further deterioration of the situation.
The Libya National Army (LNA) launched airstrikes on the Defense Benghazi Brigades (DBB) in the Al-Jufra region killing one of its commanders and injuring 14 others.

The two air raids according to Mohamed Abu Ras al-Sharif, an Al-Jufra notable, targeted the military airbase which serves as DBBs headquarters. The al-Jufra airbase is the second most important airbase in Libya. The attack is believed to be a response to the recent offensive on the Essidra oil terminal by forces loyal to the U.N-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) under the command of the Defense Minister-designate, Mihdi Al-Barghathi.

Field Marshall Khalifa Haftar, commander of the LNA, has declared the central region in Libya from Sirte in the west and Ben Jawad in the east to Al-Jufra in the south as a military zone and warned that any military operation in the area with prior approval would be bombed.

The DBB is loyal to the GNA. Brigadier General Edriss Bu Gwaitin, Commander of Brigade 12 Infantry of the GNA, described Thursdays attack as an attack on the government. The attack could lead to an open confrontation between forces of the Tobruk-based House of Representatives and the GNA in Tripoli as Colonel Najmi Ramadan Khair Al-Nakua revealed that recruitment for the formation of the Presidency Councils Presidential Guard, would begin by next week.

The Presidential Guard will play a key role in protecting the infrastructures of the State and international organizations. Its establishment could lead to the lifting of the UN arms embargo, according to UN Special Envoy Martin Kobler.

The LNA is enjoying the support of neighboring Egypt and the United Arab Emirates as well as Russia where Haftar was recently on a two-day visit for discussions on defense and security matters.
Osama Morsi, one of Mohamed Morsis five children was arrested Thursday in his house by security forces for participation in 2013 in a protest against his fathers removal by the army then led by current President Fattah al-Sisi.

Police searched the house and confiscated an unknown amount of money and a personal computer, Abdel Moneim Abdel Maksoud who acts as the Morsi familys lawyer told the media.

Osama, himself lawyer has been linked with a 2013 sit-in protest at Rabaa, in Cairo, in which a score of security forces and around 800 pro-Morsi supporters were killed.

Osama has been charged in a mass trial already under way. He will appear in court on Saturday during the next session of mass trial, the lawyer said.

Mohamed Morsi, the first ever democratically elected Egyptian President was removed in 2013; one year after his election.

The former President and several top leaders of Muslim Brotherhood have been arrested and judged in hasty trials. They were handed heavy sentences including the death penalty.

Thousands of Islamists have been killed in army crackdown on the movement.

Morsi himself has been handed several death sentences but an appeal court recently overturned his death condemnation over facilitating mass prison break in 2011 when he was in the opposition.
United Kingdoms efforts to reinforce ties with members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have been dealt a blow as reports that Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson criticized the councils regional policies emerge as he prepares to tour the region in the coming days.

Johnson stated at a conference held in Italy last week that there are politicians who are twisting and abusing religion and different strains of the same religion in order to further their own political objectives in reference to Islam and its sects.

The British Foreign Secretary dubbed it as one of the biggest political problems in the whole region and highlighted it as the cause for these proxy wars being fought the whole time in that area which, he also lamented, lacks strong enough leadership in the countries themselves.

Regional crisis in the Middle East include Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Johnson held the big characters of the region responsible for the situation because of their unwillingness to reach out beyond their Sunni or Shia group. Thats why youve got the Saudis, Iran, everybody, moving in and puppeteering and playing proxy wars. he observed.

Number 10 Downing Street distanced itself from the comments stating that it is the Foreign Secretarys personal opinion and not the governments position. However, Boris Johnson continues to enjoy the full confidence of Prime Minister Theresa May who had assured the Gulf States of Londons determination and commitment to continuing confronting State actors whose influence fuels instability in the region. She had earlier on said that they must work together to push back against Irans aggressive regional actions, whether in Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, Syria or in the Gulf itself.

Johnson will be delivering a keynote speech as part of the closing ceremony of the 37th Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Summit on Friday before going to Saudi Arabia on Sunday.

In a meeting between May and King Salman, at the beginning of the week, the British Prime Minister told the Saudi King that her government is committed to enhancing and strengthening this relationship.

Calls are already increasing for Boris Johnson to be given another portfolio to avoid embarrassing UK as well as hampering its ties with strategic allies.
Chicken will be the best-positioned protein due to its low price position in times of pressure on consumer spending power but rises in production costs and the long-term impact of COVID-19 threaten to disrupt the sector, according to Rabobank.
Conjoined twins Erika and Eva Sandoval were successfully separated at Lucile Packard Childrens Hospital Stanford in a 17-hour surgery that began Dec. 6 and stretched into the early morning hours of Dec. 7. Prior to separation, the 2-year-old twins of Antelope, California, shared much of their lower body.

They did very well, said lead surgeon Gary Hartman, MD, clinical professor of surgery at the School of Medicine. Im very pleased with the outcome.

The Sandoval girls are the seventh pair of conjoined twins Hartman has separated and the fifth separation surgery he has done at Stanford. The last separation at Packard Childrens was performed in 2011.

Its amazing how strong these girls are, and its amazing what their team performed, said Aida Sandoval, the twins mother. Seeing them now in the ICU, you look at them and think, Youre missing your other half, but we know that this is the right path for them: to be independent, have the chance to succeed and explore on their own everything the world has to offer.

Erika and Eva are now in stable condition in the pediatric intensive care unit, where they are expected to recover for about two weeks. Their physicians anticipate that the girls will spend an additional two weeks in the hospital before they go home. They are sharing a hospital room but are in separate beds.

Prior to separation, Erika and Eva were thoraco-omphalo-ischiopagus twins, positioned facing each other and joined from the lower chest and upper-abdomen level down. They had separate hearts and lungs but shared their diaphragm muscle and some anatomical structures below the diaphragm. They had one liver, one bladder, two kidneys and three legs. They each had a stomach.

Before separation, you could think of their anatomy as two people above the rib cage, merging almost into one below the bellybutton, said plastic and reconstructive surgeon Peter Lorenz, MD, professor of surgery, who led the reconstructive phase of the twins separation.

The separation team included about 50 people. By the time the twins go home, more than 100 hospital caregivers will have helped with their case, including many physicians and nurses who took care of Aida during her high-risk pregnancy and who cared for the twins as newborns.

Separation day

The girls were wheeled into the operating room shortly after 7 a.m. Dec. 6, where they were carefully anesthetized by a team of six anesthesiologists, three per twin, led by Gail Boltz, MD, clinical professor of anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine. Once the twins were anesthetized, the team placed central and arterial lines to enable blood transfusions and deflated the three saline-filled tissue expanders that had been used to generate new skin to help cover their separation site. The first incision was made at 11 a.m.
The team searched for noncancer drugs that patients just happened to be taking and that were statistically associated with better outcomes. By integrating different kinds of data, we can ask questions we couldnt ask before. Usually, you dont find both survivorship data and all the different kinds of drugs and other treatments patients get all in the same place, said Allison Kurian, MD, associate professor of medicine and of health research and policy.

We looked at all the noncancer drugs that breast cancer patients were on, said Shah. People have other things going on in life. They might have hypertension, they might have high cholesterol or diabetes. They would be taking drugs for those as well. So the question we were asking was, do any of the drugs they are taking associate with better outcomes for breast cancer?

The team looked at data from nearly 10,000 adult women diagnosed with breast cancer between 2000 and 2013, of whom about 12 percent died within five years of the diagnosis. The team examined 294 drugs in more than 43,000 pairwise combinations. Specifically, they looked for combinations of drugs in which the beneficial effect on survival was greater than the effect of either drug by itself.

So we ran the analysis, and we found a few drug combinations that seemed to associate with better survival, said Shah.

How do we know its true?

Specifically, there were three pairs of drug types: anti-inflammatory drugs, such as aspirin or naproxen, and blood-lipid modifiers, such as statins; lipid modifiers and drugs such as fluticasone used to treat asthmalike conditions; and anti-inflammatories and hormone antagonists  typically, drugs that suppress the synthesis of estrogen.

But how do we know its true, and not just an association? said Shah.

Its the kind of thing that can only happen at Stanford.

The researchers needed to look for confirmation in a data set they had not yet examined. To do so, they turned to Shahs former student Andrew Radin, a co-author of the paper and co-founder of a company called twoXAR that searches for drug interactions using gene-expression data. Radins company looks for common molecular pathways that might account for drug pairs with apparent synergistic effects, searching for drug-protein interactions in the companys database.

Said Shah, So I asked Andrew, If I give you two drugs and a disease, can you tell me if there is any molecular-level evidence that would lead you to believe that, yes, these drugs might have a beneficial effect in treating this disease?

Radins team set to work and independently came up with the same drug pairs. Two of the three drug pairs showed a likely molecular mechanism that a reasonable person might think had to do with survival in breast cancer, the study said. These were anti-inflammatories and lipid modifiers, and anti-inflammatories and anti-cancer hormone antagonists.

A joint effort

This study is a nice example of an analysis spanning multiple data modalities. Its the kind of thing that can only happen at Stanford, said Shah, pointing out how his lab worked with Oncoshare, twoXAR, oncologists and statisticians to bring the study off.

The work is an example of Stanford Medicines focus on precision health, the goal of which is to anticipate and prevent disease in the healthy and precisely diagnose and treat disease in the ill.

Its a proof of principle that this kind of data mining has strong practical clinical applications, said Kurian. With electronic health records, she said, the challenge has been getting the data organized in a way that allows fruitful explorations like this one.

The key, said Shah, is to ask why these drugs and their protein targets have something to do with breast cancer and to leverage that information for better treatment. This is a holistic look at the data  EHR, gene expression, protein targets of drugs  all in one analysis, he said.

Other Stanford co-authors are former research assistant William Chen; senior clinical data engineer Tina Seto; Susan Weber, PhD, director of informatics systems and software development for the Stanford Center for Clinical Informatics; former graduate student Michael Lim, PhD; Trevor Hastie, PhD, professor of statistics and of biomedical data science; biostatistician Maya Mathur; Manisha Desai, PhD, associate professor of medicine and of biomedical data science; research scientist Scarlett Gomez, PhD, MPH; and George Sledge, MD, professor of medicine.

Researchers at twoXAR Inc., the Palo Alto Medical Foundation Research Institute and the Cancer Prevention Institute of California were also co-authors of the study.

This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health (grants R01LM011369, GM101430RO1, EB00198815 and UL1RR025744), the National Science Foundation, the Susan and Richard Levy Give Fund, the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, the Regents of the University of Californias Breast Cancer Research Program and the Stanford University Developmental Research Fund.

Stanfords Department of Medicine also supported the work.
The Tunisian interior minister Wednesday sounded the alarm against the looming threat the North African country is facing with the eminent return of the countrys citizens who have been fighting in the ranks of the Islamic State group (IS), now in peril in Libya, Syria and Iraq.

Hedi Majdoub was speaking at the opening of Arab countries police chiefs conference in Tunis, online media tunisienumerique.com reports.

Around 4,000 Tunisians have reportedly left the country since 2011 to join terrorist organizations in conflicts hotbeds.

Once one of the most peaceful Arab countries, Tunisia slid into insecurity and witnessed a spike in radicalism after the 2011 revolution.

Three major terrorist attacks masterminded by IS killed 71 people, mostly foreign tourists last year. The attacks were carried out by Tunisians reportedly trained in IS training camps in lawless Libya.

For Majdoub, the security situation in his country is becoming precarious as domestic terrorist cells, mostly dormant, will surely become more virulent as their veterans, fighting in Libya, Syria and Iraq, are expected to come back home.

As IS group is losing ground in neighboring Libya, security experts fear that Tunisian foreign fighters may head back home. The terrorist group is also on verge of losing its strongholds in Syria and Iraq.

Tunisian security forces in separate reports announced Tuesday they busted a terror group in Cite Attadhamon. The seven-man cell pledged allegiance to IS and its members have been in contact with some IS fighters in Syria, reports further say.

The cell members were attempting to help IS fighters sneak into Tunisia to stage attacks.
Libyan forces combatting under the Government of National Accords banner have discovered over 200 corpses of Islamic State group (IS) militants as forces clear the coastal city of remaining resistance after flashing out the militants.

The Bunyan al-Marsous operation room Monday announced it took control of Muammar Gaddafis hometown 8 months after launching the takeover campaign.

No clear estimate of killed militants has been made but officials from the operation room put the number at above 2,000. Around 6,000 militants reportedly occupied the coastal city after taking it last year in June.

According to press reports, most militants fled the city before the beginning of the campaign. Analysts say that they might have headed towards the Libyan desert, near, Algeria, Sudan, Chad and Niger borders where they could establish new fiefdoms and forge agreements with local tribes.

Threats of militants attacks are still floating, Libyan forces noted as they pointed out that valleys and villages around Sirte are still awash with IS fighters.

The campaign cost the lives of more than 700 GNA fighters and injured around 3,000.

Total liberation of the city will be proclaimed after all dangers, including landmines, are cleared off.
Osama Mohammed Morsi, son of former Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi, has been arrested and is currently in detention.

An official under the condition of anonymity said that Osama was wanted by authorities without revealing any details but Al-Ahram reported that the arrest is linked to his role in inciting violence in 2013 following the eviction and arrest of his father . Osama, a lawyer and the familys spokesman, is reportedly the second of Morsis sons to be arrested since 2013.

Ahmed Morsi, Osamas brother, described the arrest as a new crime against the presidents family and a continuation of the abuse and violation of the presidents rights. He called on everyone to condemn what has just happened.

A police search in Osamas house ended with the confiscation of a sum of money and a personal computer.

Osama is expected to appear in court tomorrow, Saturday, during the next session of the mass trial, for his role in the 2013 Rabaa sit-in which was violently dispersed by Security forces causing the death of more than 800 protesters and around 10 security officers. It was the bloodiest day in a relentless crackdown on Morsis Muslim Brotherhood movement after the military-backed coup detat against his government in July.

Egyptian courts have sentenced hundreds of Islamists to death. Morsi faces a raft of charges in at least four separate cases and has received death sentences from lower courts. Appeals courts have overturned many of the convictions. In November, an Egyptian appeals court quashed one of two life sentences against the former president, following the overturning of a death sentence by the same court earlier that month.
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Credit: Pennsylvania State University

Engagement in accessible and regular leisure pursuits can contribute to the health and well being of combat veterans, according to a Penn State study.

Penn State researchers are studying leisure in the lives of married Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans as a first step to ultimately designing an intervention program for veterans returning home after deployment.

The recent findings are part of ongoing research by the College of Health and Human Development and the Clearinghouse for Military Family Readiness at Penn State. The research is based on interviews with a small sample of married veterans who served during Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.

"With more ill or injured combat veterans returning from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan than any previous war in U.S. history, we know that it is important to improve understanding, and increase the types and frequency of interventions that may improve well-being for these individuals and their families," said Derrick Taff, lead investigator and assistant professor of recreation, park and tourism management at Penn State.

The research helps investigators understand connections between leisure and veterans' marital relationships as part of a larger effort to promote the health and well being of recently returned veterans.

"Given previous research regarding the positive influence leisure and recreation can have on health and well being, our research team wanted to improve understanding of the role of leisure in the lives of combat veterans and their spouses," Taff said.

The latest research demonstrated that frequent engagement in leisure and recreation, which can often be free or inexpensive, can promote health and well-being for combat veterans.

"Based on the findings of our study, interventions, such as communication strategies that are designed to foster positive attitudes toward leisure engagement, can potentially influence combat veterans to engage more, and ultimately improve overall well-being," Taff said.

Researchers recommend focusing communication interventions on local leisure resources, including military-related opportunities such as base offerings and activities with other service members, as well as outdoor or nature-based opportunities.

Specifically, the research shows that leisure activities available daily in local, accessible settings that provide comfort and restoration  such as simply walking outside or playing a game at home  are valuable in promoting a context that fosters enjoyment. The key is that such experiences are easily accessible to veterans every day.

Existing programs supporting veterans may organize events that are too infrequent or at inconvenient times and locations and primarily focus on the individual veteran, researchers said. The Penn State research focuses on increasing the quality and frequency of daily leisure to promote both individual and couple well-being.

"Past research related to military veterans and leisure mostly examined the influence of specific treatments via recreation such as fly fishing or a weekend rafting trip. While these are useful, clearly they are not readily accessible," said co-investigator John Dattilo, professor of recreation, park and tourism management at Penn State.

"We encourage practitioners working for military organizations to educate couples that accessible activities, such as going for a hike in a local or state park, sharing a cup of coffee at a neighborhood shop, or bird watching through a window at home have the potential to promote reintegration by providing opportunities for positive interactions and creating contexts to share enjoyable times."

Researchers' findings recently appeared in the Journal of Leisure Research.

Investigators plan to expand upon the research by exploring how leisure and recreation can influence the well-being of military families as a whole.

"We're really thinking holistically about the military family by examining the role of leisure for both the service member and their spouse, to examine how leisure engagement influences marital relationships," Taff said.

This pilot study is intended to lead to a larger quantitative study with Iraq and Afghanistan veterans before researchers use the combined results to develop a leisure intervention program to help veterans and their spouses adjust post-deployment.

"It is an honor and a privilege to work with colleagues, veterans and spouses to try to contribute in some small way to moving things forward for our combat veterans and their families," Datillo said.
In the global campaign against female genital mutilation (FGM), many activists aggressively condemn cutting while depicting it as an intractable problem. Anthropologists have shown, however, that for many women FGM is a meaningful and valued practice.

New research by anthropologist Saida Hodzic challenges the idea that cutting is intractable and analyzes what happens in a country where such a valued practice ends. Her focus is on Ghanaian anti-cutting activists and their global collaborators.

Hodzic's research, conducted over 16 years, is detailed in her new book, "The Twilight of Cutting: African Activism and Life After NGOs." Since support for the practice of cutting was waning not only in Ghana, where she did her field research, but across Africa, her book raises the question of why there is increasing discourse about FGM being "intractable" despite it actually decreasing.

"What kind of a feminist anthropology is needed in such a moment?" asks Hodzic, assistant professor of anthropology and feminist, gender and sexuality studies.

In her introduction, Hodzic explains that she first encountered the issue of cutting in Germany while she was a refugee from Bosnia.

FGM is one of the reasons women can gain political asylum, Hodzic explains: "This means they become model migrants because they're fleeing cutting, whereas other migrants are not welcome and are discriminated against."

But, she says, the vilification of cutting leads to proposals for policies of increased surveillance, such as subjecting all African girls to an examination of their genitals, or passing laws prohibiting international travel for the purposes of cutting. These are some of the negative effects that can result when liberal governments are interested in promoting the rights of women, she says.

"Those negative effects can be very difficult to discern and it takes an analyst  in this case an anthropologist  to say here's why legislation that looks laudable can be problematic," she says.

Hodzic conducted her research in a very poor, remote area of Ghana, whose residents are considered second-class citizens. "Those who work there for the NGO inevitably have to take a stand against their own culture," Hodzic says. "Denigrating the existing practices of their people enables them both to get grants and also to feel modern."

But there is a cost, she writes. In order to eliminate FGM, Ghanaian NGOs have framed cutting as a harmful tradition based in ignorance. Hodzic found that NGO-state governance is structured on the principle of "blaming and shaming rural populations" for their "harmful traditional practices."

The anti-FGM activists in Africa whom Hodzic interviewed were originally in favor of punitive measures against cutting, but ultimately turned against criminalizing the practice.

"The governmental workers are asked to surveil and sensitize the villagers to the undesirability of cutting and to turn themselves into citizen-enforcers of law and order," she writes. "And they do. But the governmental workers then find themselves deeply torn. The governance they are asked to embody offers them a seductive place in modern Ghana but does not feel right for very long. This is not a dilemma they discuss publicly."

As Hodzic points out, advocacy against cutting has been from the outset a collaboration of Africa and Europe, and later the global north.

"The campaign to end cutting in Ghana didn't come from the people cutting or being cut, because the practice is not violently imposed. If people don't want to do it they just stop it," she says. "In the group I studied cutting happened around puberty, as a declaration that 'I'm ready to do this as a rite of passage.'" But, she says, with more education, increased labor migration, and NGO interventions, rites of passage have changed and cutting is on the decline.
Credit: Neuroscience Research Australia

One of the largest post-mortem brain studies in the world has confirmed that a protein (LRRK2) associated with the development of Parkinson's disease is increased in the pre-symptom stages, leading researchers to believe they may be able to treat the disease sooner.

A mutation of the LRRK2 gene is found in people with a family background of Parkinson's disease (PD) and is a known genetic contributor. The study found that there are increased levels of LRRK2 in the pre-symptomatic stages of PD, suggesting that this may be an appropriate time to administer pharmaceutical therapies.

Previous studies have shown that PD-associated genetic mutations increase the activity of LRRK2, and that this activity can be reduced by drug therapies.

"We focused on this protein in particular because it holds a lot of promise, and there is currently a bottleneck in known facts about it," says Dr Nicolas Dzamko from Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA).

"This study has given us the most comprehensive picture to date of what is happening with the LRRK2 protein in the brains of people with Parkinson's disease. There are drugs in development that can act on LRRK2's activity, but we need to know when to give them to people and which people will most benefit from it."

Dr Dzamko's team at NeuRA collaborated with scientists who specialise in PD from research institutes in London, Tokyo, Amsterdam and Sunnyvale, California to map the expression of LRRK2 in the brain.

"We've used a large sample size for each area of the brain that we analysed. Different parts of the brain are affected differently by PD, so we have an even better understanding of where LRRK2 can be found in the brain and at what levels and how these are changed by Parkinson's disease."

Treatments are expected to be of benefit to people who have the familial form of PD caused by the genetic mutation of LRRK2, but may also work on those who have idiopathic PD, whose cause is unknown. This work will help with planning the clinical trials of LRRK2-blocking drugs that are currently under consideration.

Parkinson's disease is a movement disorder that affects an estimated 10 million individuals worldwide  70,000 in Australia. Thirty-two people are diagnosed with the disease in Australia every day. PD causes trembling, stiffness, slowness of movement and a loss of fine motor control.

More information: Nicolas Dzamko et al. LRRK2 levels and phosphorylation in Parkinson's disease brain and cases with restricted Lewy bodies, Movement Disorders (2016). Nicolas Dzamko et al. LRRK2 levels and phosphorylation in Parkinson's disease brain and cases with restricted Lewy bodies,(2016). DOI: 10.1002/mds.26892
A researcher from University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center will discuss his upcoming immunotherapy clinical trial for triple-negative breast cancer at the 2016 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. The annual symposium is the premier meeting for more than 7,500 physicians and scientists dedicated to breast cancer treatment, featuring state-of-the-art breast cancer research such as experimental biology, etiology, prevention, diagnosis, and therapy of both breast cancer and premalignant breast disease.

Joseph Baar, MD, PhD, Director of Breast Cancer Research at UH Seidman Cancer Center and Associate Professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, will share details about a phase II clinical trial testing the effectiveness of combining the chemotherapy drugs carboplatin and nab-paclitaxel with an immunotherapeutic agent called pembrolizumab (Keytruda) for use in patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer. Dr. Baar's poster presentation will be part of the Ongoing Trials-Targeted Therapy session on December 8, 2016 from 5 pm to 7 pm.

"Up until now, women with triple-negative breast cancer have only had one treatment option, which is chemotherapy. However, more recently, we've seen that the immune modulator pembrolizumab improves outcomes in patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer," said Dr. Baar. "As a result, it is now critical to explore how the addition of pembrolizumab to chemotherapy might improve survival in patients with this type of breast cancer."

Triple-negative breast cancer is a highly aggressive form which comprises 10-15 percent of newly diagnosed early-stage breast cancer. Most triple-negative tumors are high grade and have a high incidence of recurrence and metastases (spreading to other organs). Unlike other types of breast cancer, there is no standard follow-up treatment for triple-negative breast cancer to prevent recurrence.

As triple-negative breast cancer progresses, tumor cells express a protein ligand called PD-L1, which interacts with the PD-1 receptor on T-cells. T-cells are the immune system's primary mechanism for fighting back against harmful foreign invaders. The PD-L1 to PD-1 interaction prevents the T-cell from responding to the tumor as a threat. Pembrolizumab binds to the T-cell's PD-1 receptors and therefore blocks the PD-1 to PD-L1 interaction, allowing the T-cells to be activated against the tumor cells. The research team hypothesizes that the addition of such an immunotherapeutic agent to chemotherapy will allow the body's natural immune response to reduce disease recurrence to a greater extent than either modality alone.

This is the first phase II trial to study the effectiveness of combining these two chemotherapeutic agents with the immunotherapeutic agent pembrolizumab for this type of cancer.

The trial will enroll approximately 30 patients beginning in early 2017. Eligible patients must have radiologically measurable and documented metastatic triple negative breast cancer, be mostly functional day to day as measured by an ECOG performance status of between zero and one, must not have received more than two prior therapies for this disease, and must be willing to undergo a preliminary biopsy for research purposes. The trial is sponsored by Merck, which produces pembrolizumab as Keytruda.

"Trials our faculty members present at SABCS and other research meetings around the world illustrate the remarkable advances in oncology taking place today," says Neal J. Meropol, MD, Chief, Division of Hematology and Oncology, University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center and Associate Director for Clinical Research, Case Comprehensive Cancer Center at Case Western Reserve.
Gaucher (pronounced "go-shay") disease affects one in 450 Jewish people of Ashkenazi (eastern European) descent (one in 10 is a carrier), yet only 1 in 40,000 people in the general population. Of course mutations can happen in anyone, and many people are unaware of having Jewish ancestry. But this rare disease actually impacts a much more common one: being a carrier for Gaucher disease is a risk factor for Parkinson's disease (PD), increasing the likelihood of cognitive impairment.

Two new studies published in the Annals of Neurology strengthen the link between the two conditions, and raise familiar issues about the value of genetic testing.

A storage disease

In Gaucher disease, a deficient enzyme (glucocerebrosidase) causes build-up of glucocerebroside, which enlarges the liver and spleen. Anemia results from too few red blood cells, easy bruising and bleeding from a paucity of platelets, and increased risk of infection from too few white blood cells. Bone and joint pain stem from the blood deficiencies. The disease is very variable in age of onset, symptom severity, and rate of progression.

Gaucher disease is the most common lysosomal storage disease. Lysosomes are debris centers in cells, where enzymes dismantle stuff. When an enzyme is in short supply, the material it normally breaks down builds up. In Gaucher disease, lysosomes swell so greatly that the cells containing them burst. When blobby scavenging macrophages arrive to engulf the mess, they become overwhelmed too, appearing characteristically crinkly.

The enzyme also normally breaks down alpha-synuclein, which forms Lewy body deposits in PD.

Although more than 400 mutations have been identified in GBA, the disease is classified broadly by symptom severity and brain involvement. Type 1, the most common form, had been thought to spare the brain, but more recently has been associated with peripheral neuropathy and parkinsonism.

The large cell in the upper center is a crinkled macrophage. Credit: American Society of Hematology

Despite knowing so much about Gaucher disease, it's still misdiagnosed because the symptoms are so common. That's what happened to 27-year-old Leanna Mullen, who has a video company and works at a high school in TV production.

"I've had a lot of symptoms from the time I was 3 years old, but I wasn't diagnosed until age 15, following a 2 year process with several misdiagnoses. At first doctors thought I had a blood disorder, Von Willebrand disease. They ruled out leukemia. Ultimately a bone marrow biopsy found that I had Gaucher disease." Her macrophages had the telltale "crinkled paper" appearance.

In retrospect, Leanna's symptoms seem obvious. "My spleen was seven times larger than normal, my liver two to three times larger, and I had a low platelet count," she told me. Leanna's parents and sister are carriers of Gaucher disease, and she has other relatives who have Parkinson's disease. The family isn't Jewish.

Treatments, but costly

Another youngster with a giant spleen who would turn out to have Gaucher disease, and grow up to be the president and CEO of the National Gaucher Foundation, is Brian Berman.

When a bone marrow test diagnosed Brian at age three in 1983, the only treatments corrected the affected body parts: removing the spleen, replacing joints, transfusing blood, or transplanting bone marrow. But a molecular-level treatment was in the works.

The next year Brian became the first person in the clinical trial for enzyme replacement therapy (ERT), developed by a team at Genzyme (now Sanofi Genzyme) led by Roscoe Brady. FDA approved Cerezyme (imiglucerase) in 1994. Brian and Dr. Brady's intertwined story is told here.

When a bone marrow test diagnosed Brian at age three in 1983, the only treatments corrected the affected body parts.

The brave little boy was the only child among the 8 participants in the trial. Today, like others with Gaucher disease, he leads a near-normal life  just experiencing some joint pain and slightly weakened immunity  thanks to ERT.

Leanna Mullen has received Cerezyme in a four-hour infusion every other week since 2005. "My spleen is back to normal size, liver same thing and the bone density hasn't gotten worse," she told me. But it costs $300,000 a year.

Another type of drug, given orally, reduces glucocerebroside rather than replacing the enzyme, and is a "substrate reduction therapy." It has an even higher price tag. Ads are especially jarring: for a 90-day supply of Zavesca (miglustat) "pay the discount price of $27,684.60" at Wal-Mart, for example. Another substrate reducer is Cerdelga (eliglustat).

The Parkinson's connection

In the 1990s physicians began to notice patients with both Gaucher and Parkinson's. A 1996 report described 6 people with Gaucher disease as well as early onset, severe PD with cognitive decline. Then a 2003 investigation associated being a carrier for Gaucher with increased risk of PD. A 2007 study linked glucocerebrosidase deficiency and synuclein accumulation.

The two reports and commentary in the November Annals of Neurology strengthen the association between the two diseases.

One study, from the Ann Romney Center for Neurological Diseases at Brigham and Women's Hospitals and the International Genetics of Parkinson Disease Progression Consortium, with funding from the Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF), sequenced all coding regions of the gene and ranked mutations by "neuropathic" effect on cognition and memory. Of 2,304 Parkinson's patients from the US, Canada and Europe, 10% were either carriers of Gaucher disease or actually had it.

Dr. Roscoe Brady led research in developing enzyme replacement therapy for Gaucher disease.

The risk of developing global cognitive impairment within ten years of PD diagnosis was 50 percent for patients carrying a neuropathic mutation, but 20 percent for Parkinson's patients without such a mutation. By age 70, more than 70 percent of PD patients with neuropathic mutations develop dementia.

The second study, from researchers at the Parkinson Institute in Milan, sequenced part of the gene and classified mutations by effect on enzyme level. Their findings were similar to the US results: Carriers of neuropathic mutations who have PD are at greater risk of dementia and death. Overall, such a mutation triples risk of global cognitive impairment.

But interpretation requires perspective: Only 10% of PD patients have GBA mutations, and only 10-20% of them experience cognitive decline  that's just 1-2% of all the patients studied. Perhaps variants in other genes protect patients who have neuropathic GBA mutations but normal cognition.

The bigger picture: allelic diseases

"Allelic diseases" are different clinical conditions resulting from mutations in the same gene. Often one is rare, the other not, such as the duo of Gaucher and Parkinson's.

As more human genomes are sequenced, more gene variants and their functions identified, and "connectomes" of gene expression constructed, the list of allelic diseases will grow.

Designating allelic disease pairs reflects semantics and the timing of discoveries as well as science. Consider cystic fibrosis (CF) and sickle cell disease (SCD). Different CFTR genotypes (mutation combinations) cause very distinct phenotypes  from the classic "salty sweat" and clogged lungs, to chronic sinusitis and bronchitis, or just male infertility  yet they're all CF. But mutations at different sites in the beta globin gene cause two distinct diseases, SCD or beta thalassemia, although both are anemias.

Lewy bodies in PD

Allelic diseases may represent an intersection of a rare disease with a more common one. Typically, a rare inherited disease is caused by mutation in a single gene, revealing the mechanism of the pathology. An associated common condition, such as PD, tends to reflect several risk genes as well as environmental influences. In terms of numbers, then, a David can inform on a Goliath: Gaucher affects 6,000 people in the US compared to Parkinson's million.

The link between the two diseases may have practical repercussions. Should patients with Parkinson's disease take a Gaucher carrier test?

A predictive test for a condition with no way to prevent, delay, or treat symptoms is a familiar dilemma in medical genetics. The situation for PD isn't as clear cut as it is for Huntington Disease, in which inheriting a mutation is a genetic near-guarantee of developing the condition. Murkier is detecting the ApoE4 gene variant that indicates increased risk of Alzheimer's disease. And whatever the disease, preferring not to know is as valid an option as wanting to know everything possible.

On the research front, however, the link between the two diseases is a great opportunity to stratify Parkinson's patients by GBA genotype, to test drug candidates to prevent, delay, or otherwise counter the cognitive decline. The MJFF has formed an international consortium of "GBA-PD" cases and controls to do just that.

This story is republished courtesy of PLOS Blogs: blogs.plos.org.
Mammograms showing a normal breast (left) and a breast with cancer (right). Credit: Public Domain

Patient health records revealed two drug combinations that may reduce mortality rates in breast cancer patients, according to a study led by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

The drugs involved were commonly used drugs that turned out to be associated with a longer average survival rate in breast cancer patients.

The study will be published online Dec. 9 in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association. The lead author is Stanford postdoctoral scholar Yen Low, PhD. The senior author is Nigam Shah, MBBS, PhD, associate professor of medicine and of biomedical data science.

Often, when different drugs are taken together, they can have unexpected side effects. For example, some antibiotics and antifungal drugs can interfere with the effectiveness of birth control pills. It occurred to Shah and his team that the opposite could also be truethat some drug interactions might help patients.

"What if we looked for combinations of drugs that have an accidental beneficial effect?" Shah said.

Combing through records

The researchers decided to comb through a breast cancer database built at Stanford called Oncoshare, which takes de-identified patient informationincluding tumor and treatment information for each patientfrom Stanford Health Care and from the Palo Alto Medical Foundation and links it to patient outcomes in the California Cancer Registry.

The team searched for drugs that patients just happened to be taking and that were statistically associated with better outcomes. "By integrating different kinds of data, we can ask questions we couldn't ask before. Usually, you don't find both survivorship data and all the different kinds of drugs and other treatments patients get all in the same place," said Allison Kurian, MD, associate professor of medicine and of health research and policy.

"We looked at all the noncancer drugs that breast cancer patients were on," said Shah. "People have other things going on in life. They might have hypertension, they might have high cholesterol or diabetes. They would be taking drugs for those as well. So the question we were asking was, do any of the drugs they are taking associate with better outcomes for breast cancer?"

The team looked at data from nearly 10,000 adult women diagnosed with breast cancer between 2000 and 2013, of whom about 12 percent died within five years of the diagnosis. The team examined 294 drugs in more than 43,000 pairwise combinations. Specifically, they looked for combinations of drugs in which the beneficial effect on survival was greater than the effect of either drug by itself.

"So we ran the analysis, and we found a few drug combinations that seemed to associate with better survival," said Shah.

'How do we know it's true?'

Specifically, there were three pairs of drug types: anti-inflammatory drugs, such as aspirin or naproxen, and blood-lipid modifiers, such as statins; lipid modifiers and drugs such as fluticasone used to treat asthmalike conditions; and anti-inflammatories and hormone antagoniststypically, drugs that suppress the synthesis of estrogen.

"But how do we know it's true, and not just an association?" said Shah.

The researchers needed to look for confirmation in a data set they had not yet examined. To do so, they turned to Shah's former student Andrew Radin, a co-author of the paper and co-founder of a company called twoXAR that searches for drug interactions using gene-expression data. Radin's company looks for common molecular pathways that might account for drug pairs with apparent synergistic effects, searching for drug-protein interactions in the company's database.

Said Shah, "So I asked Andrew, 'If I give you two drugs and a disease, can you tell me if there is any molecular-level evidence that would lead you to believe that, yes, these drugs might have a beneficial effect in treating this disease?' So we gave them our list of three drug pairs, and they looked at the protein targets for all the drugs."

Two of the three drug pairs showed a likely molecular mechanism that a reasonable person might think had to do with survival in breast cancer, the study said. These were anti-inflammatories and lipid modifiers, and anti-inflammatories and anti-cancer hormone antagonists.

A joint effort

"This study is a nice example of an analysis spanning multiple data modalities. It's the kind of thing that can only happen at Stanford," said Shah, pointing out how his lab worked with Oncoshare, twoXAR, oncologists and statisticians to bring the study off.

The work is an example of Stanford Medicine's focus on precision health, the goal of which is to anticipate and prevent disease in the healthy and precisely diagnose and treat disease in the ill.

"It's a proof of principle that this kind of data mining has strong practical clinical applications," said Kurian. With electronic health records, she said, the challenge has been getting the data organized in a way that allows fruitful explorations like this one.

The key, said Shah, is to ask why these drugs and their protein targets have something to do with breast cancer and to leverage that information for better treatment. "This is a holistic look at the dataEHR, gene expression, protein targets of drugsall in one analysis," he said.
Finance Minister explains why lari depreciated then strengthened again in short period

Georgias Finance Minister Dimitry Kumsishvili has explained the national currencys dramatic depreciation two days ago with what economists call "supply shock.Kumsishvili said that the depreciation was caused by some wrong decisions made by private sector players."When we started to analyze the market we found out that there was no increased demand and the demand was exactly the same as in previous days. But some people, companies or other economic subjects decided just not to sell USD, Kumsishvili said."This caused a very fast rising movement but as soon as the right communication and prompt information exchange took place the market was regulated by itself.The Minister believed that the Lari strengthened in the second half of the day thanks to the right coordination by the state."Also, the statement by the National Bank was very timely, Kumsishvili said.Yesterday, the National Bank of Georgia advised Georgian citizens and all economic players in the Georgian market not to make quick decisions as they were likely to end in loss as the price of the USD in Georgia was exaggerated at that moment.
Russia hunts witches

By Messenger Staff

Several Russian media outlets have reported that a Russian citizen, Oksana Sevastidi, has been sent to prison for seven years for treason, as she texted her friend shortly before the Russia-Georgia War in August 2008 that she saw a train loaded with military hardware heading to Georgias western occupied Abkhazia region.Sevastidi is a resident of Sochi, in the Krasnodar region of Russia, located on the Black Sea coast near the border between Georgias Abkhazia and Russia.The Krasnodar Regional Court sentenced Sevastidi in March this year.Another Russian citizen, Ekaterine Kharebava, was also sentenced for spying in 2014 and sent to prison for six years, as she also warned her friend about an alleged threat.She also saw a train loaded with weapons and texted her Georgian friend in Abkhazia to warn her.It is interesting that information about these instances of 'espionage' and the imprisonment of the perpetrators have only just been spread in the Russian media.Russia still claims that Georgias provocative actions in the Georgias eastern occupied region of Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) pushed it to become involved in the military confrontation, which led into losing of 20percent of Georgias historic lands and recognising Tskhinvali and Abkhazia as independent republics by Russia.Russia stresses its motivation to participate in the war was to protect the people living in Tskhinvali and Abkhazia, the same justification the Federation gave for its involvement in Ukraine.With Russia continuing its creeping occupation on Georgian soil, and erecting new so-called border signs and barbed-wire fences on Georgian territory, it still claims it is acting as a peacekeeper.The fact that Russia arrested its own citizens for treason and 'revealing state secrets' as they warned their loved ones about alleged threats may be one of the most poignant pieces of evidence that Russia was getting ready to trigger a conflict in Georgia and get involved in the war long before the fighting started.However, it is the responsibility of the international community to acknowledge Moscow as the chief aggressor.
Russia plans transit of China goods via Azerbaijan

Russia and Azerbaijan are readying themselves to sign a cooperation agreement in the field of postal services, Rashid Ismailov, deputy minister of telecom and mass communications of the Russian Federation, told Trend.He said they were considering delivering goods from China via Azerbaijan, since Azerbaijan is a transit country."We considered the delivery of Chinese goods to Russia by our planes, transshipping them from here [Azerbaijan], but Silk Way [Azerbaijani cargo airline] has opened a subsidiary in Moscow which allows delivering goods directly to Moscow or Yekaterinburg, depending on the necessity," Ismailov added.
@NewsbySmiley

The gavel slammed down on the sound block and the announcement was made: By a 3-2 vote, Miami's City Manager was fired.

Except he wasn't. Not really.

Though a majority of Miami's city commission voted to remove City Manager Daniel Alfonso Thursday, Alfonso kept his job due to a requirement that four of the five commission members must vote to fire the city manager for him to actually be pushed out.

That fact briefly escaped the commission -- Chairman Keon Hardemon initially announced that the motion to fire Alfonso had passed -- but was cleared up in short order by the city attorney.

"There is no almost-pregnant," Mayor Tomas Regalado said afterward.

Thursday's failed attempt by Commissioner Frank Carollo to fire Alfonso -- supported by Francis Suarez and Ken Russell -- was the second this year. Hardemon pushed in April to remove Alfonso after the manager fired Sandy Dorsainvil, the city's director of its Little Haiti Cultural Complex.

Commissioners also held a special hearing in September to discuss firing City Attorney Victoria Mendez.

And yet, the rocky year still pales in comparison to the turbulence of past administrations, and even the constant turnover of Regalado's first term, when city managers came and went and the mayor and commission warred with the police chief.

Suarez, who has criticized the city's "executive mayor" form of government in which both the commission and mayor can fire the manager, among other jumbled responsibilities, said he wanted to hold Alfonso accountable for a number of decisions he has found problematic. But he also worried about damaging the city's image.

"What I don't want to happen is for us to become a circus, if you understand what I'm saying," Suarez said. "The media will certainly love it ... I'm not so sure that's what's in the best interest of the residents of the city of Miami."

Carollo moved to fire Alfonso Thursday during a discussion he requested about a homicide evidence locker outside Miami's police headquarters that was allowed to deteriorate to the point that evidence was damaged. Carollo said Mendez advised him against discussing the issue in detail due to legal ramifications, but he used the issue as a jumping-off point to go after Alfonso.

Alfonso walked off the dais after the vote without answering questions. Regalado said he would have vetoed the vote had it passed.
via @learyreports

Sen. Marco Rubio supports a call for a congressional investigation into Russian involvement in the election, his staff confirmed Friday.

Top Republicans, including Sens. John McCain and Richard Burr, have called for a "coordinated and wide-ranging probe," as the Washington Post put it. On Friday, President Obama separately instructed his administration to prepare its own report.

President-elect Donald Trump has played down Russia's involvement and his stance toward Vladimir Putin is at odds with Rubio and other Republicans.

Rubio's office did not offer new comment but referred to what he said a couple weeks ago on "Meet the Press."

"If a foreign government has been involved in injecting chaos into our democratic process, the American people deserve to know that. I've made my feelings known in the midst of the campaign," Rubio said.

He went on: "I've never said it's the Russian government, although I believe it was the work of a foreign government. I will say this. If you look at what happened during our election and the sort of things that were interjected into the election process, they are very similar to the sort of active measures that you've seen the Russians use in the past in places like Eastern Europe, to interfere with the elections of other countries. And what we mean by "interfere" is they try to undermine the credibility of the election. They try to undermine individual leaders. And they try to create chaos in the political discourse. And the fundamental argument behind it is they want people to-- they want to de-legitimize the process."

Pointedly asked if it is worthy of Congressional scrutiny, the Florida Republican said: "Absolutely."

--ALEX LEARY, Tampa Bay Times
@amysherman1

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Florida, a former astronaut, spoke on the Senate floor today about the death of astronaut John Glenn today:

"John Glenn was one of the original seven astronauts of this country. All of them were characterized as having the right stuff. And if you knew any of them, that was certainly true.

John Glenn was not only a pioneering astronaut, a great senator, he was a first-class gentleman and also he was a devoted husband and father. He leaves behind Annie, his beloved, who always stood with him as he ventured into the unknown cosmos. And it was unknown because John was the first to go into orbit as an American.

He paved the way for all the rest of us, and now at his passing, America is in the planning and the developing of the rockets that will take us, a human species, all the way to Mars. John Glenn was the pioneer. He was the one who paved the way."
@PatriciaMazzei

So much for Donald Trump's triumphant return to Miami.

The president-elect's "thank you tour," which had seriously considered scheduling a stop in Miami, will be heading to Orlando instead.

Trump's transition added to the president-elect's schedule a rally for supporters in Orlando next Friday, as part of a tour that will also take him to other key states he won in the election. Trump's Miami-Dade County campaign held a thank you event for volunteers Thursday in Hialeah.

Orlando, like Miami, is close enough to Palm Beach that Trump might be able to spend the night at one of his properties -- in this case, perhaps his Mar-a-Lago estate.
HELENA (AP)  A judge says he won't open to the public the long-running secret negotiations on the cleanup of the nation's largest Superfund site.

On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Sam Haddon denied the Montana Standard and Silver Bow Creek Headwaters Coalition's request to intervene in the case between the Environmental Protection Agency and Atlantic Richfield Co.

The government sued Arco in 1989 over the cleanup of a century's worth of mine waste from the soil and water of the copper-rich Butte Hill. Haddon himself ordered confidential settlement talks in 2002 and 2003.

The newspaper and the advocacy group had argued the public has a right to know what decisions are being made.

Haddon says the request comes 13 years too late, and the public will be able to comment on the settlement once it is reached.
When it comes to big, brassy studio comedies, a filmmaker can do worse than to gather the brightest, funniest stars, situate them in an odd, yet relatable situation and let 'em rip. That's exactly what directors Josh Gordon and Will Speck do with "Office Christmas Party," the delightfully debauched holiday desecration we need this year. Working from a screenplay credited to no less than six writers, the greatest strength of "Office Christmas Party" is its casting. If you've got fabulous weirdos Kate McKinnon and T.J. Miller in lead roles, there are bound to be more than enough laughs.

McKinnon and Miller more than deliver in their roles, supported by some of comedy's best team players in Vanessa Bayer, Rob Corddry, Randall Park, Sam Richardson and Jillian Bell. Jason Bateman and Jennifer Aniston bring a pleasantly acid sting to the proceedings, reprising their chemistry from the "Horrible Bosses" movies. The inimitable Courtney B. Vance also makes a memorable appearance. This cast, coupled with the time-honored bad idea of getting drunk with your coworkers, is as good a match as cookies and milk, hot cocoa and marshmallows, egg and nog. There's not much you can do to mess it up.

Gordon and Speck do a good job nudging the proceedings along  the film never lags, briskly zipping through set-up and plot, peppered with almost too many jokes, ad libs, one-liners, riffs and reaction shots to count. Miller plays the good-time boy Clay, boss of the Chicago branch of data storage company Zenotek. He was installed by his father, the company's founder, and shares a deep rivalry with his Grinchy big sister Carol (Jennifer Aniston), who's consistently threatening to close him down and fire everyone. The night of the office holiday mixer, Clay decides to throw the biggest, baddest bash possible in order to woo a business deal with Walter Davis (Vance). Things go from very awesome to very bad in short order.

The idea of a high-stakes Christmas party is a fine-enough backdrop to display the prowess of these performers. But if anything falters, it's the plot, which goes deep into a tortured tech side story about a wifi innovation that could save everyone's jobs from the claws of Carol. Somehow it feels fairly low-stakes, and makes a disheartening comment on our culture, that the best Christmas miracle we can muster is rebooting the wifi to power our smart phones and text messages. Sad but honestly true.

The real fun is the utter bacchanalia in which these corporate stooges engage while believing their work world is going to end. It rapidly escalates from a rowdy dance party to a depraved orgy of sex and violence, and the pleasure is in watching these buttoned-up archetypes traffic in everything lewd and crude imaginable.

The fact of the matter is that it's nigh impossible to not enjoy McKinnon playing a repressed HR manager finally cutting loose, or Miller as the overgrown, overenthusiastic frat boy in a Santa suit who can't bear to lose any of his employees. "Office Christmas Party," which delights in a grotesque carnival of the worst behavior, and still has its heart firmly in the right place.
Several thousand migrating snow geese perished in the toxic Berkeley Pit water where they landed last week, mine officials said Tuesday.

Montana Resources and Atlantic Richfield Company officials say they are not yet ready to release a hard number because federal and state agencies have to verify numbers collected. But MR manager of environmental affairs Mark Thompson said the mining company expects the final number to be several times greater than the 1995 snow goose die-off incident.

The mine estimates that as many as 10,000 snow geese landed on the pits contaminated water the night of Nov. 28. Thompson said previously that the pits 700-acre lake was white with birds.

Since then, MR and ARCO  the responsible parties for the Berkeley Pit Superfund site  worked around the clock to get the birds to leave and to keep any additional birds from landing, say federal officials.

A spokesman from the Environmental Protection Agency also says the companies and EPA are keeping an eye on additional flocks headed toward Butte.

The preliminary number released Tuesday is based on photos taken from drone and aircraft flights over the pit. The counting is not yet complete, said Thompson.

Butte-Silver Bow community enrichment director Ed Randall said an animal control officer picked up another live snow goose on Amherst Avenue Tuesday morning. That bird was taken to a veterinarian for care.

Including the live bird, as many as six have been found around town since last week. Two more dead geese were reported Tuesday south of Butte, said Thompson. Two dead geese were found by individuals in the Walmart parking lot last Thursday. A third was found alive on Amherst Avenue last Wednesday, but it later died.

Thompson said MR has directed Butte-Silver Bow animal control to do everything possible to try to save any birds found alive. Randall said the veterinarian treatment involves flushing the birds both inside and out to get everything out of them. The pit water contains sulfuric acid and heavy metals.

MR will foot the vet bills, said an EPA spokesperson.

Randall said if any birds found in town survive, BSB will release them back into the wild.

A spokesperson for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the agency will pick up the 23 dead snow geese MR has already collected Wednesday. Those birds will be sent to a lab for necropsies.

MR and ARCO could receive fines if EPA determines the companies were not in compliance with the bird hazing program. That program was designed by state and federal agencies in response to the 1995 snow geese die-off when 342 birds died.

Thompson said he is confident EPA will find that the companies were in compliance.

If it wasnt for the diligence and dedication of MR and ARCO people out there 24-7, trying everything and really giving it their heart and soul, this would be much, much worse. These guys really cared, said Thompson.

MR reported that as many as 50 snow geese were alive Monday on the Berkeley Pit. Thompson said Tuesday that all the birds are now dead.
College courses are pouring into more Montana high schools than ever before, though there's concern that even the reduced tuition is too expensive for some students.

Last spring, 2,035 high schoolers were enrolled in at least one college course. That's nearly double the headcount in spring 2012, two years after the dual enrollment conversation "started to get some momentum" in Montana, said John Cech, Montana's deputy commissioner for academic and student affairs.

"Dual enrollment is not a new concept but I think as other states around us really started ramping up their programs, our state started looking outward and inward at what we were doing," said Amy Williams, dual enrollment and Big Sky Pathways program manager with the Office of the Commissioner of Higher Education.

It's an effort Gov. Steve Bullock pointed to often in his bid for re-election this fall, saying he wants to expand dual enrollment opportunities.

But in some cases, the head count doesn't paint the full picture. In Missoula County Public Schools this fall, of the 478 students taking at least one dual credit course, only 290 paid the fees  and that's with tuition at $49.70 per credit, a fraction of the cost at Missoula College or University of Montana.

If a course isn't paid for, the student doesn't get the college credits.

Since most courses are three credits, that adds up to $149.10 a semester. The same course at Missoula College would cost $424.11; at UM, it would cost $764.62. These costs don't include textbooks, which the majority, but not all, of high schools cover.

"The fact that only 300 paid the fee after they finished the application process says to me there's a financial hurdle," Superintendent Mark Thane said at his school board's Nov. 17 meeting. "If they're taking the courses but won't get credit, that's a travesty."

***

Missoula College Dean Shannon O'Brien agrees that $150 is cost-prohibitive for many students.

"Quite frankly, we hope that something can be done for those students that need scholarships or some type of assistance to overcome that last barrier to earning college credit," she said.

She wants more students to have the opportunity to take dual credit courses  and actually earn the college credits. The dual enrollment pass rate statewide is 85 percent, meaning students who earned an A, B or C. The other 15 percent includes Ds and Fs, as well as students who had to drop or withdraw.

"Not only does it give them the leg up in completing their degree sooner, but it also is so much more affordable for them even as it is now," she said. "The cost of attendance for college is a great challenge for many students, and it's a problem in our society, no doubt about it."

There are efforts underway across Montana.

City College MSUB waived tuition this year for Billings Public Schools, Billings Central Catholic High, Columbus Public Schools and Hardin Public Schools  a program called High School Connections that received performance-based funding from the state. A three-year pilot at Miles Community College lets Custer County high schoolers take dual enrollment courses at their high school tuition-free.

Flathead Valley Community College has identified students in its district service area who can take their first six dual credit courses for free. Dawson Community College offers the first three credits free. The Greater Ravalli Foundation provides needs-based scholarships to dual enrollment students.

The state's Dual Credit Incentive Program gives dual enrollment teachers a "coupon." For every credit hour taught, the MUS covers the tuition for that same number of credits for the teacher to further his or her education.

The state wants to expand online course availability.

Cech said the state is a finalist for a J.P. Morgan Chase Foundation grant that if funded would provide $2 million to help Montana grow Big Sky Pathways and dual credit opportunities, particularly in Career and Technical Education.

"Specifically regarding tuition, we're always looking for opportunities," Williams said. "We're always looking at other states. Education budgets are always lean; we're all basically in the same boat. It's who is innovating best and fastest, and what's working."

Thane said MCPS, Missoula College and UM "need to identify if there are opportunities for assistance for students who have a financial challenge."

"The real value is high school students learn they can successfully participate in courses that have college-level rigor," he said. "If they're wondering about post-secondary plans, this can give them confidence."

***

Montana was one of seven states to receive a Lumina Foundation grant in 2009, $1.8 million that formed the College!NOW initiative, in part dealing with dual enrollment.

"We were able to bring in people to the state and hold meetings and summits," Cech said. "Through a lot of this work early on, the importance of growing dual enrollment really emerged rather quickly."

The work caught the attention of the Commissioner of Higher Education, then the Board of Regents. It led to the creation of Williams' position.

The Every Student Succeeds Act, which replaces No Child Left Behind, has specific language addressing dual and concurrent enrollment, and more funding opportunities.

"That's a new shift, a federal policy level recognition of these programs and their value," Williams said.

Officials tout dual enrollment as a way to prepare for college rigor, explore majors, narrow their focus and lessen student loan debt, which tops $1 trillion nationally.

While there has been concern nationally about credits from these courses not transferring to some colleges, in Montana at least, they transfer statewide through the MUS Common Course Numbering System. Writing 101 at one MUS college should be the same as Writing 101 at another.

According to the Office of Public Instruction, dual enrollment students pay anywhere from 20 percent to 50 percent the cost of tuition, with no fees.

That's still too expensive for many families.

"Not all students, even though it's incredibly cheap, can afford to access those classes," OCHE Deputy Commissioner for Planning and Analysis Tyler Trevor said during an Education and Local Government Interim Committee meeting in April.

MCPS has 15 dual credit options this school year.

"They complete the work; there's no reason they shouldn't get the credits," Thane said.

Affordability is one of OCHE's priorities for dual enrollment, according to the April report, as well as professional development for teachers, public awareness, enrollment process and rural access.

"It sounds potentially steep for some students to pay $150 for a class," Williams said. "But if you're taking it in high school, there's a decent opportunity you might not have to pick up the tab for the textbook.

"$150 for some of these students seems like a heavy lift. But we talk about where the value is."

Dual enrollment is optional, but O'Brien said "the numbers do the talking" when it comes to value.

"It's certainly a step in the right direction to have a tuition discount, but until we really address the issue of getting tuition covered for those students that need it, we haven't solved the problem completely."
Four out of 21 floats in the 14th annual Downtown Parade of Lights have won awards based on overall appearance and impression, originality and creativity, use of lights, and enthusiasm. Downtown experienced record attendance at the parade, with roughly 4,000 kids and families along Higgins Avenue Saturday evening to see the bright, entertaining and creative display.

 Best Civic Entry: Missoula Parks and Recreation

 Best Commercial Entry: Neptune Aviation

 Best Religious Entry: The Journey Christian Fellowship

 Best K-8 Entry: Montana Super Skippers

Missoula Parks and Recreation got the crowd moving with lots of music and folks dancing on their float. Complete with Silver the Raccoon, the all-abilities playground mascot, and Oscar the Otter, the Splash Montana mascot, they also featured side-by-side bikes, part of their adaptive bike fleet and Wheels Across Montana program, riding alongside the float.

Neptune Aviation crafted a float that encompassed the essence of their business, with a plane flying over an artificial fire, and of course plenty of lights.

Winning Best Religious Entry for the second year in a row, the Journey Christian Fellowship had riders of all ages singing holiday songs and spreading holiday cheer from their float.

Montana Super Skippers put on a great show for the crowd jumping rope with light-up ropes and lots of energy.

Judges were community members Katie Ghen-Simpson, Lee Winter, and Molly Bradford and her children, Will, 3, and EB, 10.

The parade followed a full day of more than 30 family activities throughout downtown, including a visit from Santa at the Florence Building, and free horse-drawn carriage rides by the Resort at Paws Up and sponsored by Lithia Ford of Missoula. Santas carriage brought up the rear of the parade, which ended at Circle Square, with musical performances by the Christian Life Center Choir, and the lighting of the Downtown Holiday Tree.

For more information, contact the Missoula Downtown Association at 543-4238 or email leidy@missouladowntown.com.
BUTTE  Federal District Judge Sam Haddon Wednesday denied The Montana Standards move to open up confidential talks on the largest Superfund site in the U.S.

Haddon ruled that The Standard did not offer a single justifiable reason for the fact that it waited 13 years to intervene. The Standard initiated the lawsuit in September to bring sunshine to discussions launched in 2003. Those discussions will determine the future of cleanup on the Butte Hill.

The responsible party, Atlantic Richfield Company, and the Environmental Protection Agency signed a 2003 court order, allowing the Butte Hill negotiations to be private. All other entities, including the state and county, involved in the talks agree to that confidentiality.

If The Standard had prevailed, the suit could have impacted Anacondas Superfund discussions as well as others still pending.

The Standards lawyer, Jim Goetz, argued before Haddon on Nov. 30 that the privately held meetings violate Montana open meetings and public records laws. Goetz also said The Standard did not try to intervene in 2003 because, initially, it and Butte trusted the federal government.

But that trust has eroded, Goetz said in his argument to the Court Nov. 30.

Haddon concluded that nothing before the Court supports the conclusion that the United States has betrayed the publics interest in environmental remediation.

Haddon said The Standard offered no proof that there are doubts in the minds of Butte residents that EPA is failing to protect Butte citizens. Haddon called The Standards argument for the need to intervene in the talks nebulous.

Haddon also stated in Wednesdays ruling that Superfund law allows for the public to have a comment period. During that comment period, The Standard will have ample opportunity to be publicly heard, Haddon stated in his ruling.

He also said that litigation at this stage of the legal talks would without doubt delay resolution for years.

Montana Standard editor David McCumber said he was very disappointed in Haddons decision.

Its an important issue and needed argument, McCumber said. I think the losers today are the people of Butte.

McCumber said he's not sure what The Standard's next step will be.

A spokesperson for ARCO said the company agrees with the ruling but has no further comment.

A spokesperson for EPA said he would defer to the Department of Justice for comment. Calls to the Great Falls-based Department of Justice office were not returned.
One lecturer is on board and a second will join the University of Montanas Department of Computer Science next year thanks to a $290,000 pledge from the Gianforte Family Foundation.

An announcement released Thursday by UM said the two-year gift will help the department increase its enrollment capacity and attain a goal of doubling the number of computer science majors and minors in the next five years.

The two additional lecturers underwritten by the Bozeman foundation allow the computer science department to expand sections of its introductory computing classes and add a foundational course, Interdisciplinary Computing.

Its the second recent gift to UM from the foundation that was founded in 2006 by former gubernatorial candidate Greg Gianforte and his wife, Susan. Twenty-five Missoula College students received $1,000 Gianforte Manufacturing Scholarships this fall as part of a statewide program for students in two-year colleges studying welding, machining and diesel technology.

In May, the Gianfortes tapped the foundation to donate $8 million to Montana State University over the next five years. Of that, $5 million will create an endowment for MSUs Computer Science Department, which was renamed the Gianforte School of Computing.

During his campaign for governor, Gianforte said if elected he would work with the Office of Public Instruction to put computer science in every high school in Montana. His plan was to slide computer science courses under the umbrella of core science requirements and to allow coding to count as a foreign language credit.

Incumbent Democratic Governor Steve Bullock narrowly defeated Gianforte in the November election with 50.2 percent of the vote.

Computing is increasingly important across many academic disciplines and careers, Gianforte said in the press release. Were excited to work with the University of Montana to help expand cross-disciplinary computer science courses for all students on campus, and to help connect these students with good jobs in Montana.

Andrew Ware, professor and chair of the UM department, echoed that sentiment.

Computer science is a growing and needed field, Ware said. By building our department, we can help more students find high-paying jobs and fill a need in the states economy.

High-tech jobs in Montana and across the nation go unfilled because there arent enough graduates with computer science training, and more and more careers use computing in their fields, the release said.

UMs computer science department worked with the Gianforte foundation to grow course offerings by creating courses that show the relevance of computing in other disciplines. In addition to the two lecturer positions, a current UM professor will work with local businesses to develop internship opportunities and help students attain them, the press release said.
The status quo will not serve the University of Montana well, and the flagship must "embrace relevancy" as it moves forward, said Commissioner of Higher Education Clayton Christian.

And as UM makes decisions about its future, faculty members must be heard, Christian said.

"I think that that voice hasn't been heard enough," he said. "And that's my plan. I want to see that we engage this group more concretely."

Christian spoke and took questions Thursday at the UM Faculty Senate meeting, the first since last week's announcement that the Commissioner's Office had asked President Royce Engstrom to depart at the end of December.

Former Commissioner of Higher Education Sheila Stearns will serve as interim president, and Christian said she will be "fantastic."

"It's not all bad," Christian said of UM in general. "There's a lot of things moving in the right direction."

At the meeting, the commissioner and other campus leaders talked about the searches for provost and president, the work of setting priorities, the role of the humanities on campus, shared governance, and the 2017 legislative session.

UM has seen enrollment drop some 24 percent over six years, and it's had ensuing budget trouble. Thursday, Christian said the Montana Board of Regents is making the university priority No. 1.

"The board has certainly sent a message that there is no higher priority from their level than making certain the University of Montana is on sound footing, and we need to help with that," Christian said.

***

To lead the hire of a new president, the Commissioner's Office selected AGB Search, which has worked with the Montana University System in the past.

"I think they're an incredibly good firm," Christian said.

Ideally, he would like to be able to make an offer to a new president in April and have the person start July 1. However, Christian said he was not convinced that timeline would be possible, and that a new president may start in January 2018 instead, with a hire taking place in August rather than April.

UM was in the middle of a search for provost, second-in-command, when the Commissioner's Office announced the president would step down. The search for a provost was postponed, and faculty members Thursday wanted to know the status of that process.

Both the Associated Students of the University of Montana and the executive committee of the Faculty Senate have urged the search for a provost to continue, said Jule Banville, a faculty senator. She wanted to know if the commissioner would give weight to their voices.

In response, Christian said the decision depends partly on whether provost candidates want to remain in the running given the leadership change on campus.

"I don't want to move forward if it's not a strong pool of candidates," he said.

This school year, an interim provost is serving in the post while the search for a permanent provost takes place. Christian said one piece of the puzzle is the availability of interim provost Beverly Edmond.

***

Brady Harrison, a faculty member in literature, wanted reassurance that decisions about where resources go weren't already a done deal. He said humanities have been targeted in cuts, and he wants to know if faculty will truly be heard as UM looks at programs and spending in the future.

Christian, though, disagreed the humanities have been fingered: "It's unfortunate that your perception is that there's a target out there."

He also said setting priorities for where resources go isn't as simple as tracing enrollment dollars. It also means considering societal needs, and he doesn't want to see the humanities damaged.

"To the contrary, I think it's an integral piece of education and of our society," Christian said.

At least a couple of times, he also said he did not believe UM had been making decisions with adequate input from faculty, and he would like to see that change.

The commissioner also wasn't sure it made sense to wait on evaluating priorities. The campus must make decisions every day, he said, and as such, he prefers to see it move forward strategically and with feedback from faculty.

Roughly a year ago, President Engstrom opened his cabinet to faculty, staff and student leaders. Thursday, the ASUM president and faculty members talked about the importance of that "shared governance."

"Shared governance means that the various stakeholders are meaningfully involved in the decision-making process," said Paul Haber, president of the University Faculty Association.

Faculty are willing to make a contribution if given a seat at the table where the real decisions are being made, Haber said. He said collective leadership is especially important in times of big change.

"This issue is always important, but more so when the going gets rough," Haber said.

ASUM President Sam Forstag also wanted the different campus constituencies to keep their seats at the table and said they have a bigger voice than groups at other schools.

"The greatest gift that we've gotten over the past few years is a strong, stronger than ever, shared governance system," Forstag said.

***

Before faculty members asked questions, Christian offered a brief preview of the coming legislative session. He said higher education is faring better in the governor's proposed budget than most other state agencies.

At the same time, he said he doesn't have any illusions that the session will be easy.

"We'll do our best to hold onto what resources we can," Christian said.
I have never really understood the Electoral College. Recently a friend and I were talking about people who are apparently trying to convince electors to the Electoral College not to vote for President-elect Donald Trump, and he asked me if this was possible. The 538 electors meet Dec. 19 this year to officially vote for the president. The Electoral College has a long and fascinating history (which I can only touch on here), and a surprising answer to the question as to whether they are bound delegates nationwide.

***

History of the Electoral College

Originally, Article II, clauses 2 and 3 of the Constitution set out the plan where electors would choose the president and the vice president. The framers of the Constitution assumed electors would be elected by district, would not be bound to vote for who their state voted for, the president and vice president would not run together, and the system would usually not select either a president or vice president, thus throwing the election into Congress. Obviously, many things have changed since 1789. Havoc ensued when candidates from opposing political parties were elected president and vice president, such as Federalist parties John Adams (president) and Democratic-Republican parties Thomas Jefferson (vice president) in 1796.

The states then ratified the 12th Amendment in 1804, making sure separate ballots were cast for president and vice president. Over the years, the Electoral College system has varied state by state, from where the electors selected could vote for whoever they thought best, to electors being bound by the popular vote, to winner-take-all states electors, to congressional districts-only electors, both bound and unbound. A review of the history of the Electoral College is truly captivating, but space limitations prevent presenting the full history here.

***

Montana Electoral College system

Currently electors are selected based on the laws of every state, on a state-by-state basis. In Montana, the Uniform Faithful Presidential Electors Act (UFPEA) was passed in 2011. Under the UFPEA, political parties or unaffiliated presidential candidates submit to the secretary of state electors selected by those entities. An elector must sign a pledge which states: If selected for the position of elector, I agree to serve and to mark my ballot for president and vice president for the nominees of the political party that nominated me. If an elector does not vote, or presents a ballot in violation of the pledge, another elector is selected as a replacement. Section 13-25-307(4), MCA.

Nationwide, 29 states have laws similar to Montanas regarding faithlessness, the term used when an elector does not vote or does not vote for their nominated candidate. Of course, that means there are 21 states without a faithfulness remedy.

***

Summary

There are scenarios where rogue electors could conceivably not vote their states top vote-getter and put the presidential election into Congress. That is highly unlikely, however. Furthermore, regardless of who you voted for, hopefully we can all agree that would be a terrible ideain Montana, we still live by the creed that your word is your bond. There are pros and cons to the Electoral College, but those will have to wait for another article, if there is interest. In the meantime, be watching for what happens on the Monday after the second Wednesday in December, Dec. 19 this year.
Historical huckleberries to the Rocky Mountain Museum of Military History at Fort Missoula for doing justice to the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor with a fascinating  and informative - retrospective. The local military museum marked the Dec. 7, 1941 Japanese bombing of naval battleships in Hawaii, proclaimed a date which will live in infamy by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, with a slide show presented by local historian and publisher Stan Cohen, special exhibits, video presentations and a timely discussion.

Corned beef, cabbage and chokecherries to the cancellation of the 2017 Celtic Festival, which has drawn thousands of visitors each year for an entrance fee-free celebration of Celtic music, dancing, food and culture. Unfortunately, a drop in corporate sponsors for next years event led longtime organizers to call it off. Hopefully, sponsors and the wider community will realize what theyre missing and pledge to support the festivals return in 2018.

Huckleberries to the news that kids in Missoula are abusing drugs and alcohol at lower rates, according to the 2016 Prevention Needs Assessment Survey. Earlier this year, the Addictive and Mental Disorders Division of the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services surveyed 1,730 Missoula County students in eighth, 10th and 12th grades, and found that while more than half of those who participated had consumed more than just a few sips of alcohol in their lifetimes, the total number - 53.2 percent  was lower than the 62.9 percent who reported drinking alcohol in 2012. Those surveyed also reported decreased use of most kinds of drugs, from marijuana to prescription medications.

Chokecherries to the Berkeley Pit in Butte for killing large numbers of snow geese  again. Thousands of snow geese landed in the toxic pit during a snow storm nearly two weeks ago and, while estimates are rough at this point and numbers are still being collected, Montana Resources and the Atlantic Richfield Company guess that several thousand of the birds have died from the pits heavily contaminated water  many more than the 342 that died when a similar incident occurred in 1995. MR and ARCO have been trying to get the remaining birds to leave and to prevent additional geese from landing.

A pipeline of huckleberries to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for its decision to forgo granting an easement to the Dakota Access oil pipeline under Lake Oahe, a Missouri River reservoir in North Dakota. The decision does not mean the pipeline is finished  it does mean, however, that alternate routes are more likely to receive a thorough review with regard to their potential environmental, historic and cultural impacts. In the meantime, protesters from the Standing Rock Sioux tribes and their supporters were urged to return to their homes to avoid the blizzard conditions that have descended on the area.
BILLINGS  David Duke left as deputy director of the Billings Regional Public Defenders office in March after criticisms of bad management and failure to address internal strife among staff, according to a document recently released after a request for public records filed jointly by the Billings Gazette and KTVQ.

Duke was appointed Billings regional deputy in 2008. He failed to correct problems in his managerial approach after repeated direction to do so, Chief Public Defender William Hooks wrote in a March 17, 2016, letter to Duke.

The letter also raised concerns that Duke had an inappropriate romantic relationship with another attorney in the office.

Your actions, or lack thereof, have impeded the necessary level of representation to which our clients are entitled, Hooks wrote.

Duke resigned the day after he received the letter. The office has been without a permanent supervisor since.

Five issues are listed in the letter:

The office was not assigning cases to public defenders in a timely manner, Hooks said. When the court appoints the defender's office to represent a client, the regional office should assign an attorney immediately, according to OPD policy. That attorney is required to contact their client within three business days.

Duke favored certain attorneys over others and took sides in workplace disputes, Hooks said, creating divisions and tensions in the office. Hooks said he had mentioned this to Duke before, and Duke did not change his approach.

Duke also had a romantic relationship with a subordinate attorney in his office, the letter stated. This showed an extreme lack of judgment on Dukes part, Hooks said.

An attorney in Dukes office was maintaining a private practice on the side. Duke told Hooks he had told the attorney not to take calls from potential private clients during work hours. Duke also assured Hooks the attorney had not taken on any private criminal cases. The attorney in question continued to get calls from potential clients at the office during work hours and took on criminal clients, the letter states. This matter was brought to Dukes attention, and he did not correct the problem, Hooks said.

It became a practice in Duke's office to refer difficult clients to the Office of the Public Defender conflict office, which was against OPD protocol. Hooks told Duke to stop the practice, but difficult clients continued to be assigned to the conflict office.

In short, I have lost confidence in your ability to manage the Billings office and execute your duties as Regional Deputy, Hooks wrote Duke.

The Office of the State Public Defender is a tax-funded service that provides attorneys through programs like public defenders, the appellate defender and the conflict coordinator. The public defender program provides an attorney for people who need it either for a criminal defense, a custody case involving abuse or neglect, or for cases involving involuntary commitment. The Billings office handles Yellowstone, Big Horn, Carbon and Stillwater counties.

In the eight months since Duke left, Douglas Day, deputy for the regional defender office in Lewistown, has also overseen the Billings office.

A search for a permanent replacement began in October. Hooks has met with one applicant so far and was in the process of setting up additional meetings in Billings for December.

I dont have a firm deadline, but I would like to get this wrapped up sooner rather than later, Hooks said.

Duke declined to comment. He now works as a contract attorney in the public defenders conflict office.

Last February, the Task Force on State Public Defender Operations sent a survey to OPD employees, prosecutors and other stakeholders in the public defender system. About a third of the respondents cited the need for better management, supervision and training on all levels of the office of the public defender.

The task force was created by the 2015 Legislature to create an organizational plan for the Office of the State Public Defender.

During the 2015 session, the Legislature approved the agency's budget as "one-time only." State agencies typically build off the previous year's budget. Instead, during the 2017 Legislature, the OPD will have to justify the budget from the ground up.

New chief administrator for the office, Scott Cruse, issued a letter of resignation to Public Defender Commission Chair Richard "Fritz" Gillespie on Nov. 16. Within a week of receiving Cruse's resignation, Gillespie also resigned.

During a Public Defender Commission meeting on Nov. 30, the commissioners discussed the possibility of hiring someone to represent them in the coming session.
A court ruling on how to manage Canadian lynx under the Endangered Species Act could be overturned by legislation released by all three members of Montana's congressional delegation on Friday.

In what's known as the Cottonwood decision, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals found the U.S Forest Service failed to properly update its lynx critical habitat maps after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service acknowledged its maps had been improperly drawn by administrators in President George Bush's administration. In October, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the case, making it law of the land.

Democratic Sen. Jon Tester and Republican Sen. Steve Daines, along with Republican Rep. Ryan Zinke, all called for Congress to overturn the decision. While their joint bill was introduced on Friday morning, it's unlikely that it will be acted on during the last days of the 2016 congressional session. That means debate will begin under the new Congress and incoming administration of president-elect Donald Trump.

"Congress needs to take urgent action to reverse the disastrous activist court ruling for the sake of forest health, recreation and watershed and habitat protection," Daines said in a press release on Friday. "By seeking a simple fix and codifying the Obama administration's own position into law, we can protect Montana jobs and continue with common sense collaborative forest management projects that have been harmed by this court decision."

In an interview with the Missoulian on Friday, Tester said the bill was necessary because the Cottonwood decision allowed too much opportunity to block Forest Service action with unfounded challenges.

"Every time a new piece of information is found, we'd have to write a new forest plan," Tester said. "That's a recipe for perpetual red tape in motion. Any conservation measure, timber harvest, trail maintenance could be put off. It's that important."

It was a huge disappointment to see that Tester is willing to sacrifice the Endangered Species Act again for political purposes, said John Meyer, director of the Cottonwood Environmental Law Center in Bozeman that won the original lawsuit. Rep. Zinke said he would consider running against Tester if Tester didnt do what he wanted. It seems like Zinke is trying to play politics with the Endangered Species Act and Tester is willing to go along with that to stay in office.

The debate revolves around where federal agencies should address changes in an endangered species' status. In the lynx case, the federal judges ruled the Forest Service and Fish and Wildlife Service should consult at the top agency level to mesh their guidelines for where lynx critical habitat rules should apply to land management actions such as timber sales or road maintenance.

Department of Justice attorneys for the Forest Service argued those consultations should take place on a project-by-project basis. Critics like the Alliance for the Wild Rockies have argued that doesn't meet the Endangered Species Act requirements.

That argument has successfully blocked three large timber sales on the Kootenai, Gallatin and Custer national forests in Montana since the Supreme Court validated the 9th Circuit Cottonwood decision.

"The Forest Service has informed the court that they have started consultation with FWS and it will be completed this winter," said Mike Garrity, executive director of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies. "Congress needs to let the Endangered Species Act work. We can have both logging and lynx as long as the logging is done properly."

"The Endangered Species Act is very clear that if there is a conflict the Lynx must prevail," Garrity added. "Courts can't make law they can only enforce the law."

Nevertheless, the congressional delegation's bill drew support from a wide range of Montana stakeholders. Representatives of the Montana Wood Products Association, Montana Outfitters and Guides Association, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Association all sent messages agreeing with the move.

"(T)he Forest Service is held to high standards in regards to critical habitat and endangered species, and additional regulatory burdens courtesy of the 9th circuit court are unwarranted and unnecessary," former Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth said in a press release. "This legislation will allow the agency to continue their important work and get more restoration work done across Montana."
A long-term financing fix for wildland firefighting stumbled in the final days of the lame-duck session of Congress.

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican, announced late Wednesday that conference talks on the Energy Policy Modernization Act had failed and were unlikely to resume until 2017.

That omnibus package included the Wildfire Disaster Funding measure to fix the U.S. Forest Services fire borrowing budget problem as well as a permanent reauthorization of the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Both programs were supported by all of Montanas congressional delegation.

The Wildfire Disaster Funding bill would have allowed the Forest Service to pay for forest firefighting expenses in a similar way to how the federal government responds to other natural disasters like hurricanes and tornadoes.

Currently, the Forest Service has to cover firefighting within its annual appropriation, and extreme fire activity can force it to borrow money from other routine duties to pay for the overruns.

The House's political games have killed a bipartisan bill and hurt Montanas energy future and outdoor economy, Sen. Jon Tester, D-Montana, wrote in an email on Thursday. Montanans deserve more from their elected officials and Ill keep working with Republicans, Democrats and Independents to create energy jobs, increase public access to public land, ensure Glacier and Yellowstone remain strong economic drivers, and invest in renewables.

Sen. Steve Daines, R-Montana, said through his staff that he would resume pushing on wildfire funding in January.

The Land and Water Conservation Fund collects a portion of federal royalties from offshore oil and gas leases to buy or maintain public lands for recreation and wildlife habitat. The fund has endured short-term reauthorizations for the past couple years and this bill was to have given it permanent budget status.

LWCF funds have paid for road safety improvements in wildlife corridors along Salmon Lake and public open space in Missoula, among other things.

Although two or three other pieces of legislation remain alive in Congress, none of Montanas congressional offices knew of plans to try to use them to revive the wildfire or conservation fund initiatives.

Although no action is expected this year, Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, introduced legislation Thursday to designate 13,900 acres of the Scotchman Peaks mountain range on the border with Montana as federal wilderness. The unusual landscape includes both rugged cliff ridges and low-elevation rainforest groves with a unique range of rare plant and animal species.

If passed, this legislation would allow future generations of Idahoans to enjoy Scotchman Peaks, while at the same time protecting the needs and rights of local communities and tribes, Risch wrote in a email on Thursday. This bill was introduced today to start the public process, and will not move forward until I hear from Idahoans directly about this topic. I look forward to holding a public hearing in the next Congress to receive input.

The move excited Montana members of the Friends of Scotchman Peaks Wilderness organization, who have spent 12 years advocating for a cross-border protected area. The Scotchmans also cover 47,900 acres in Montana north of Trout Creek.

We hope and expect to have a Montana bill ready to go forward and have the entire rugged area kept wild and natural for future generations, said Doug Farrell, FSPW chairman. The reality with the whole Scotchmans is theres no conflicting uses there  no opposition. The support from Sandpoint and Bonner is really overwhelming from the county commissioners and chamber of commerce.

While the bill has been introduced in the 2016 congressional year, its unlikely it will get a committee hearing or be up for a vote before this session expires. However, such bills are commonly reintroduced in succeeding sessions as they work through the approval process.
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Police arrested a Butte man Wednesday on felony drug and criminal endangerment charges after police said he left syringes out after passing out on heroin while watching his young son.

John LeProwse, 30, was booked into the county jail for felony criminal endangerment, felony and misdemeanor drug possession, and misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia.

Police said LeProwse's wife called them to check on LeProwse, who was watching their son at his home, because she couldn't get ahold of him. Relatives found LeProwse passed out on the kitchen floor with needles nearby as well as in the living room, according to police. The child was unsupervised, police said.

LeProwse is already facing felony burglary charges from August, when police found him with the Social Security card of a burglary victim. He's scheduled for a jury trial on that charge on Jan. 23.

LeProwse was sentenced to six months of suspended jail time in 2010 for criminal mischief after court records say he vandalized a car outside the Goodwill Tavern, records show.
POLSON  The unusual case of a husband and wife who blame each other for the murder of their teenage nephew in Arlee in February moved a step closer to a final resolution Wednesday.

Stephen Seese changed his plea to guilty, to a reduced charge of accountability to negligent homicide, for his part in the death of 18-year-old Richard Warner.

In the plea agreement, Lake County Attorney Steve Eschenbacher will be allowed to argue for as much as a 40-year prison term for Seese, whose sentencing is now scheduled for Jan. 18.

Seeses attorney, Lisa Kauffman, will be allowed to argue for less.

It will, Eschenbacher has said, be an unsatisfactory resolution, but is the only way he can be sure both Stephen and Kassandra Seese are held accountable for the homicide.

Warner was brutally beaten to death in mid-February. His body was then hidden in a shower stall in the camper-trailer where the Seeses continued to live with their two young children for several weeks.

The body was badly decomposed by the time it was discovered on June 2, after the Seeses had moved out and other people arrived to move the trailer. The length of time between the murder and the time the body was found made it difficult for medical examiners to even determine a cause of death, Eschenbacher has said.

Both Seeses say the final blow that killed their nephew, who had been staying with them, was delivered with a hammer.

But Stephen claims his wife inflicted the fatal blow. Kassandra says Stephen did.

With both pointing fingers at each other, and a lack of physical evidence to prove which one is lying, it could be possible for juries to deliver not-guilty verdicts for both based on reasonable doubt if the cases went to trial, Eschenbacher said.

In a halting voice, Stephen Seese on Wednesday read from a statement he had written out and accepted responsibility for my part on the day I lost my nephew and best friend.

He said he arrived at the camper-trailer to find his wife and Warner arguing. It wasnt the first time the two had fought, he said, and he became angry because he said Warner had promised that the fighting would stop.

Our fight was pretty short, Seese said. I beat him up pretty good. I stopped when I seen him bleeding from his nose and his eyes.

Seese said he retreated from the camper, called his mother, spoke to her for about 20 to 30 minutes, and told her Warner needed to leave and she needed to come get him.

When I came back in the trailer, Richard was in a different spot. It looked like he fell asleep, Seese said. I went to wake him up, and started CPR for what felt like an hour.

His wife tried to push him away while he performed CPR, he said. She told him Warner had been crying while he was outside the trailer and on the phone and that she had hit their nephew with a hammer.

Midway through his statement, Seese indicated he couldnt continue, and his attorney finished reading it for him.

Kassandra told him to bury Warners body, but I couldnt do it. I was too emotional, Kauffman read from Seeses statement. Kassie didnt know I didnt bury him.

He decided to put the body in the bathroom instead, and said he wanted to tell everyone what had happened and then kill himself.

Instead, the Seeses told Warners father and stepmother, Joe and Tabitha Warner of Osburn, Idaho, that Richard Warner had gotten upset over something, packed his things and left. They didnt know where hed gone.

Kassandra reportedly later told investigators she had used Febreze to combat the odor of rotting flesh in the trailer.

Tabitha Warner and Kassandra Seese are sisters. Kassandra and her two young children even moved in with her sister and brother-in-law in Idaho, several weeks after the Warners son was murdered in Arlee.

Kassandra Seese also got a plea agreement, and two weeks ago was sentenced to 20 years, with 15 suspended, for accountability to negligent homicide.

Joe and Tabitha Warner were unhappy with the sentence, calling it too lenient. Tabitha said she was especially upset given that, after Richard had been killed, her sister had lived under the Warners roof, relied on them for money and transportation, and let them believe Joes son was missing and not contacting his family.

Its disgusting that the only two people who know what happened cant testify against each other, Eschenbacher said at Kassandra Seeses sentencing. And they hid his body for so long it actually benefited them.

Stephen Seese was originally charged with deliberate homicide.

While only the Seeses know which of them delivered the fatal blow, Eschenbacher said medical examiners were able to determine that Richard Warner also suffered broken bones, broken ribs, (a) broken jaw  outrageous blows directed repeatedly at this kid during the fight with Stephen Seese.
A 47-year-old Deer Lodge resident was sentenced in Missoula federal court Thursday to 14 months in prison with three years of supervision after pleading guilty in August to smuggling meth and Suboxone into the Montana State Prison for bribes while working as a laundry employee.

Erin Bernhardt was implicated as a member of an interstate operation that saw drugs smuggled from Tennessee by two women to Bernhardt, who would smuggle them to an inmate.

One member of the smuggling ring, former inmate Cordero Metzker, was sentenced in October to three years in prison with another five suspended for his role in the scheme. Metzker served as an intermediary between the inmates, Bernhardt, and the Tennessee suppliers.

All the involved parties reached plea agreements with the prosecution earlier this year to reduce sentencing and drop charges in exchange for guilty pleas and cooperation. Bernhardt and Metzker are the first to be sentenced.

One of the Tennessee women, Lauren Hoskins, pleaded guilty on Sept. 6. to aiding in the distribution of drugs with sentencing set for Dec. 16.

Ian Barclay, the inmate who paid Bernhardt for drugs, pleaded guilty on Aug. 23 to conspiracy to distribute drugs and giving bribes with sentencing set for Dec. 21.

The drug-smuggling ring was busted by an inter-agency investigation by the state prison, Montana Department of Corrections, FBI, U.S. Postal Inspector, and the Montana Division of Criminal Investigations.

This is an important case aimed at an ongoing effort to root out public corruption and exclude unlawful controlled substances from the Montana State Prison. The sentence issued by the court sends a powerful message that those who introduce drugs into the prison will be investigated, prosecuted, and imprisoned," said U.S. Attorney Michael Cotter in a press release.

Rachel Ross, the other Tennessean who bought and mailed drugs to Bernhardt, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute drugs on Aug. 17. She was scheduled to be sentenced Thursday but has not been in contact with her probation officer in Tennessee and has not turned herself into U.S. marshals as she said she would.

Suboxone, the drug Bernhardt smuggled into the prison, is a prescription medicine that contains the active ingredients buprenorphine and naloxone. It is used to treat adults who are dependent on (addicted to) opioids.
A snow goose found and treated Tuesday after spending up to a week floating on the Berkeley Pits toxic water is waiting at the local animal shelter while federal officials decide when to set it free.

Thousands of birds landed on the Berkeley Pit during a snow storm the night of Nov. 28. Thousands left due to extensive hazing by mine employees over the course of a week, say mine officials. But 3,000 or more are estimated dead, according to Butte-Silver Bow Chief Executive Matt Vincent.

Nine dead or captured geese were found in Southwest Montana since Nov. 30 by residents. One was captured alive near Dillon, said wildlife biologist Craig Fager, but it died shortly thereafter. The eight other geese were found in Butte, and all died but one.

The immediate future of that remaining goose  now at the shelter  is uncertain.

The bird is reported as healthy. Its eating, drinking, and is incredibly active, said Butte-Silver Bow community enrichment director Ed Randall.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesperson Ryan Moehring called its release finding the light in the darkness. Federal officials wouldnt release the bird unless theyre very confident this bird is fine, he said.

We wouldnt release it if we thought there was a chance it would die later, Moehring said.

Fish and Wildlife want to place a band on the bird so whenever it dies, if its carcass is found, it would be turned into agency officials.

But Moehring, in a telephone interview from his Denver office, said the agency cannot find a leg band within a reasonable distance from Butte that fits the goose. And remaining in captivity puts increased stress on the bird, said Moehring.

As of Wednesday, the bird was sitting in a cage near kenneled cats and dogs.

So, to save the goose from waiting too long, it will be released without a band. Moehring said the agency hopes to set the bird free Friday.

The problems dont end there. Once it is released, it may face a difficult flight.

Janet Ellis, senior director of policy for the Montana Audubon Society, said migrating snow geese have already flown south for the winter. She said the last flock she has seen in Helena, where she is based, flew over last Saturday.

The biggest challenge is to find geese somewhere that are headed south, Ellis said. If they (wildlife officials) cant find a flock (for this particular bird), that may be problematic. They (the snow geese) do move together.

Moehring said the Fish and Wildlife agency is aware of that challenge. The agency is also concerned about setting the goose free only to have it shot by a hunter. (Goose hunting season continues into January in Montana.) The agency is trying to find a spot where it cant be hunted.

The weather could also play a factor. Snow geese fly either ahead of a storm or behind one and try to stay ahead of wetland areas freezing, said Ellis. While migrating, snow geese look for open bodies of water to land to rest.
Keela Nedens knew early in high school she wanted to become an engineer.

I chose my major when I was a freshman, said Nedens, the only woman to graduate with the new civil engineering degree on Friday in the December Graduate Recognition Ceremony at Montana Tech.

My parents didnt really laugh at me, but they knew I would see it through. And here Ive accomplished my goal.

Under the auspices of a degree change, mostly in name only, Tech graduates six in civil engineering and five in mechanical engineering. Altogether, 100 students will walk the stage on Friday in several other fields.

Nedens, who earned an associates degree in science and played softball at Glendive Community College before transferring to Tech, stands out.

Keela is a tremendous student, a very hard worker and very dedicated said Professor Larry Hunter. Shes a very good self-starter. I wish I could have six more students like her.

Previously offered as a general engineering emphasis, civil engineering now has its own moniker for practical reasons  as does mechanical. For nearly all Tech graduates in those specialties, the future bodes well.

I dont know anyone in mechanical engineering whos unemployed, said Professor Jack Skinner. Its a solid degree program.

Both programs experienced name changes in the last year to highlight expertise, shy away from over-generalization, and boost marketability as students job hunt.

Mechanical engineering is incredibly broad, added Skinner. Its a great degree to get. You can go to work, get paid well, and go to graduate school. You can get a law or medical degree to specialize.

But finding work is not a problem at Tech, whose claim to fame is high placement  now called career outcome rates in higher education-speak.

Based on May 2015 data Tech compiled, 90 percent of graduates with a bachelors degree in general engineering found employment quickly. For those earning a masters, placement was 100 percent in general engineering.

Three mechanical engineering grads have already landed good-paying jobs. Two are lined up to work in Montana and one in Kansas.

Butte native Michael Kallas, 32, will work for a Missoula refrigeration company developing equipment specifications, cost estimates, sales proposals, and bids.

He said the mechanical engineering name eliminates any ambiguity. Rather, the programs actually meet or exceed that of other universities offering mechanical or civil degrees.

Classmate Dylan Smith, 24, a Cut Bank native, will work for a design firm in Laurel. He sports the advantage of having professors who worked in the industry and getting internships that let you figure out which career path best suits you as a person and as an engineer.

Paul VanLandingham, 23, will return to Kansas City, Kansas, his hometown, to work for an automation controls company.

Most of the professors worked hard to make sure that the things learned here can be applied to the working world, said VanLandingham.

At any rate, the degrees are a new twist on a traditional  and popular  degree.

Weve been offering essentially the same degree, I can guarantee you, for 20 years, said Skinner, a 2000 general mechanical engineering Tech graduate.

Mechanical engineering, he said, is one of the most popular engineering degrees in the nation. Civil engineering comes in second.

U.S. News and World Report reports that based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment in mechanical engineering will grow by 5 percent between 2014 and 2024, translating to 14,600 new positions.

The degree allows for more flexible jobs in cross fields like petroleum, mining, automotive, aerospace, semi-conductor and nanotechnology, medical machining, air conditioning/heating, bioengineering, and civil engineering.

If you have a mechanical engineering degree and youre applying to a job, companies come back because they like our students, added Skinner.

Civil engineers work on roads, bridges, water and sewer plants, and basic infrastructure.

We have a very high interest at Tech in the construction end of it, added Hunter.

Nedens, 23, aims to specialize in design work and construction oversight.

She has two job offers: a public civil contractor in Phoenix, Arizona, and a construction firm in Great Falls. She wants to step into a job with leadership potential, specifically a project manager, to highlight her strengths.

Ive always prided myself on my leadership qualities, she said.

On Friday, she will host her parents, Jeff and Julia Nedens, and sister Remington of Billings at graduation.

Tech is a great school, and Ive had fun, Nedens added. And even though on paper Im the only girl, Ive never felt alone or out of the ordinary; everybody always made me feel at home.
Area people graduate in law enforcement

Five southwest Montana residents are among 57 new officers who graduated Friday from the state Montana Law Enforcement Academy in Helena. They are:

 Kaedon Cook, Anaconda Police Department

 Daniel Sullivan, Butte-Silver Bow Law Enforcement

 Brian Locklin, Deer Lodge Police Department

 Alec Winn, Madison County Sheriffs Office

 Scott Stratton, Boulder Police Department

The Montana Department of Justice operates the academy, which provides basic and advanced training for state, county, city, and tribal law enforcement officers throughout the state.

The ceremony took place at the Gateway Center in Helena. Speakers included Montana Attorney General Tim Fox; MLEA Training Officer Mike McCarthy; and Missoula County Sheriff Deputy Forrest Merrill, class representative for the 160th graduating class.

Eureka Chapter plans Xmas dinner

Eureka Chapter No. 16, Order of Eastern Star, will meet at noon Monday, Dec. 12, for a Christmas ham dinner in the Masonic Temple.

Members are to bring a dish for the dinner and a decorated dessert which will be judged. A meeting will follow. In addition, there will be an exchange of secret pal gifts.

Tourism group meeting set Monday

The Butte-Silver Bow Tourism Business Improvement District will have a board meeting at 4 p.m. Monday, Dec. 12, in the Butte Chamber of Commerce, 1000 George St. That is followed at 5:30 p.m. with a joint meeting between the TBID and the Butte-Silver Bow Economic Development Committee.

Details: Maria Pochervina at 406-723-3177 or mariap@buttecvb.com.
A Helena city commissioner hopes to eliminate the citys gender restrictions in public accommodations where people ordinarily appear in the nude.

Commissioner Rob Farris-Olsen, with the support of commissioners Andres Haladay and Ed Noonan, wants to strike the last two sentences of the city's nondiscrimination ordinance, which read: However, in any place of public accommodation where users ordinarily appear in the nude, users may be required to use the facilities designated for their anatomical sex, regardless of their gender identity. Such requirement does not constitute unlawful discrimination for purposes of this section.

The three commissioners wanted the proposed change in the ordinances language to be on the commissions Dec. 19 agenda for initial consideration. A public hearing could occur in January that would precede a final vote on adoption of the change.

The ordinance was unanimously approved roughly four years ago before an overflow crowd in the city commission chambers.

According to the Independent Record story from Dec. 17, 2012, eight of the 14 people speaking against the measure mentioned what some called the bathroom or locker room issue  the concern voyeurs or pedophiles would exploit the protections for transgender people to gain access to womens restrooms or similar areas demanding privacy, or that transgender people themselves would cause alarm in such situations.

An amendment by then-Commissioner Dick Thweatt passed by the commission Dec. 4, 2012, addressed that concern by mandating that in any place where people ordinarily appear in the nude, users may be required to use the facilities designated for their anatomical sex, regardless of their gender identity.

Removal of the language would remove the only exception to the ordinance, City Attorney Thomas Jodoin said.

If the change is enacted, the ordinance would read It shall be unlawful for a place of public accommodation to deny, directly or indirectly, any person full and equal access or enjoyment of the goods, services, activities, facilities, privileges, advantages and accommodations for a discriminatory reason.

Farris-Olsen said he heard complaints and that prompted him to propose changing the ordinance.

The city has an ordinance that allows discrimination and the commission can correct that, he said.

It just cleans up some language that allowed discrimination based in public accommodations so no longer will that discrimination be allowed, he said.

We have language that specifically allows discrimination in public accommodations and thats not appropriate, he explained.

While he said he hadnt heard of specific acts of discrimination in public accommodations, he has seen the issue raised in two proposals on the construction of gender-neutral bathrooms.

Haladay wrote City Manager Ron Alles in late November to say he had received two inquiry/complaints regarding bathroom requirements in commercial establishments when they are for single occupancy.

His email to Alles asked why they cannot be gender neutral and why urinals are required when a bathroom is for single occupancy.

Commissioner Dan Ellison, who was acting mayor at the citys administrative meeting Monday, expressed concern on the timing of the change and explained that he said he had seen it only a few minutes prior to the meeting.

The suddenness of the change also prompted Ellison to note Montanas open meeting law and to question how someone who opposed the proposal would have had the opportunity to learn the commission planned to discuss it.

The commission is not yet discussing the proposed change in the ordinances language, Haladay said, noting that there would be a public hearing on it where people can comment.

Individuals and representatives of groups in support of changing the ordinances language were at the administrative meeting where Farris-Olsen announced his interest to revise the ordinance.
MUSCATINE, Iowa  The Muscatine Police Department and Muscatine Fire Department responded to the scene of a reported stabbing on Walnut Street late Friday morning.

A victim was later found at the hospital, with minor injuries that were not life-threatening, according to Lt. Jeff Jirak of the Muscatine Police Department. The Street Crimes Unit is investigating the isolated incident, Jirak said.
MUSCATINE, Iowa  A preliminary hearing has been set for the man arrested in alleged connection with a drive-by shooting on King Avenue in Muscatine that occurred in late October.

Benito Martinez, Jr., 21, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has been arrested and charged with intimidation with a dangerous weapon, a class C felony, and second-degree criminal mischief, a class D felony, in alleged connection with the drive-by shooting of a Muscatine home.

Martinez allegedly discharged a .40 caliber firearm from his vehicle, a red 2005 Dodge Durango, into the home at 1411 King Ave. on Oct. 30.

The Muscatine Police Department responded to a call around 8:37 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 30, and discovered 20 .40 caliber rounds had been shot into an occupied residence, causing an estimated $3,000 of damage to the residence and personal property, according to the criminal complaint.

No one was injured during the shooting, but a 12-year-old male was sitting in the living room of the home at the time of the incident, according to court documents.

The preliminary hearing has been set for 9 a.m. Monday, Dec. 19, in Muscatine County District Court.
MUSCATINE, Iowa  Children built, tore apart, and played with toys that have been popular throughout time, listened to a Christmas book and traveled through the Wayback Machine at the Musser Public Library's Sparkplugs program Thursday night.

Before traveling back in time and learning about toys, children listened as Seth Manley read "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." Children's librarian Betty Collins said she had heard him reading to his daughters in the library, and asked if he would do the same for the Sparkplugs group.

"He practiced at home," said his daughter, 3-year-old Harper.

Manley laughed, and said he was surprised when Collins asked him to read, but he was happy to do so.

Children fell silent as they listened to the classic Dr. Seuss book.

Sparkplugs is part of the library's family literacy program geared toward 5- to 8-year-old children and their family members. This six-week session's theme is history, and children begin each week by traveling back in time through their homemade Wayback Machine to learn about a topic.

Carrie Wolford and James Morey, of the Iowa Children's Museum, visited the library with toys from the 1980s and 1990s, as well as Legos, which were invented in the 1940s.

"Our mission as a whole at the museum is to inspire every child to imagine, create, discover and explore through the power of play," Wolford said.

Children were also provided the opportunity to take apart and build toys, as part of the museum's Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) outreach programing. Wolford and Morey showed children the inner workings of several toys they brought to the library.

"So with toys through the ages, we thought it'd be neat to explore the way some toys are built, and by taking them apart we learn how they work," Wolford said. "And then the other portion is building our own toy."

More than 10 children gathered around as Wolford explained the history of Lego blocks, miniature Blue Blocks and Kapla Blocks, several excitedly asking questions and answering them when Wolford asked.

"We're using the toys, playing with them, but learning while we do it," she said.

The next Sparkplugs event will be held from 6-7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 15, at the Musser Public Library, 304 Iowa Ave. Louisa County Conservation staff will discuss the culture and tools of the Native Americans who built the Toolesboro Mounds.
MUSCATINE, Iowa  The Missipi Brewing Company held a taco eating contest and a bachelor auction Thanksgiving weekend, and raised more than $8,000 to be donated to local organizations.

On Thursday afternoon, Dave Armstrong and Mary Kisner, brother and sister and owners of the Missipi Brew, and Skippy Armstrong, Dave's son and a manager at the business, donated part of the $8,700 they raised through recent fundraisers to Pearl City Outreach.

Pastor Sharon Phillips accepted the donation, and presented them with a plaque in thanks.

"We are deeply grateful for the lives that you've touched," Phillips said.

She said the assistance means a lot to the organization, which provides meals and other assistance to community members, and is run by volunteers.

"We can't even thank you enough," she said.

Kisner said she hopes giving to organizations during the holiday season will help those in need, especially children, have some added joy in their lives.

"We want kids to have a merry Christmas," she told Phillips.

Dave said he and Kisner feel giving to their community is part of their responsibility as local business owners.

"I think it's important to give back to your community, I mean the community has to be strong, it has to be a great community, and there's a lot of need here," he said.

He and Kisner said the community has treated their business well throughout their years as owners.

"They've been good to us and we want to pass that on back to them," Kisner said.

Skippy agreed, and said whenever the Missipi Brew holds a fundraiser, patrons are always supportive and generous.

"We have the best customers," he said.

Dave said Missipi Brew has been holding the taco eating contest for about 20 years, and the bachelor auction for three years.

Kisner said the rest of the funds were or will be distributed to the Muscatine Center for Social Action (MCSA), the MCSA Domestic Violence Shelter, the Muscatine Police Department's Shop with a Cop program, and the Salvation Army.
MUSCATINE, Iowa  The Muscatine City Council is moving forward with plans to designate an area near downtown Muscatine a Quiet Zone.

The council approved funding in July for a study to determine steps needed to make an area from the pedestrian crossing at Mad Creek to Hershey Avenue by the McKee Button building a Quiet Zone.

A Quiet Zone would prohibit trains from sounding horns one-quarter mile farther than the two crossings, unless a conductor saw something on the tracks or an emergency situation arose or if construction was ongoing near the railroad tracks, according to Community Development Director Dave Gobin and Jim Harbaugh of Bolton & Menk.

Bolton & Menk completed the preliminary feasibility study, and Harbaugh presented the findings to the City Council Thursday night.

Its a significant upgrade on safety with an added benefit of its quieter, he said.

The first step in the process, Harbaugh said, was data collection, followed by meetings working with the Canadian Pacific Railway (CP), Iowa Department of Transportation and the Federal Railroad Administration.

After looking at a total of six crossings, Bolton & Menk recommended updated signals and pedestrian crossing improvements, which may include more fencing or gates, signage and possibly more lighting. Harbaugh said, however, flashing signal lights are not recommended due to cost of upkeep.

The designation will be worked on in two phases, with an initial Quiet Zone and a permanent Quiet Zone in 12-18 months. The initial zone may look similar to a construction area, and the permanent will fit in with other riverfront aesthetics, said City Administrator Gregg Mandsager.

The CP, Harbaugh said, will do the cost estimate, final design and implementation.

Upgrading safety at the downtown crossings, Gobin said, has been a goal of the city for several years, and the Quiet Zone will be an added bonus.

What we wanted to do is upgrade the safety at the crossings, he said.

Gobin also stressed city taxpayers will not be paying for the project, funds will be coming from other sources.

Although noise from the trains will not be completely eliminated, Gobin said, noise will be reduced, and about a third of the citys population is currently affected by the noises caused by trains passing through.

And the FRA, the Federal Railroad Administration, states that these are known business disruptions, he said.

Council agreed the project should move forward, and the matter will come again before the council after an estimate and agreement with the CP are compiled.

Peggy Gordon and Erin Dindinger provided an update on the City of Muscatine Dog Park Project, planned to be located on Houser Street. The park will be separated into three sections with a total of five fenced-in acres, with a large dog, small dog and senior dog area.

The largest budget item listed is the fencing, a concrete weed barrier and gates, which are expected to cost $95,000, with a total of $211,500 budgeted for the project. Project organizers have been working with city staff to plan the park.

This year, land grading has been completed and seed has been planted.

So weve taken it to from soybean field, to clumps of grass and clumps of weeds, to about seven acres of grass, Gordon said.

Dindinger and Gordon said they are pleased with the progress that has been made this year.

It is a good feeling, we came a long way, Dindinger said.

The hope, Gordon said, is to launch the dog park in late 2017.

I just want to commend you and your staff for doing what you have done, said City Council member Bob Bynum.

To donate to the project, email comp4dogs@gmail.com or search for COMP4dogs on Facebook.

In other business:

Gobin updated the council on the citys around 60 vacant properties, which will be brought before council again for review, and to determine what could be done to get vacant parcels back on tax rolls.

Lt. Jeff Jirak of the Muscatine Police Department requested four new Chevy Tahoe SUVs be added to the city budget rather than smaller vehicles due to lower maintenance costs, increase in space and other benefits to the department.
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 latest MyBroadband speed test results show that BitCo had the fastest average download speed of all fibre-based ISPs over the past month.

MyBroadbands speed test servers make use of Ooklas platform and are hosted in Teracos vendor-neutral data centres in Johannesburg and Cape Town.

Through NAPAfrica, all network operators at its peering points are provided with a free 1Gbps connection to the MyBroadband speed test platform.

MyBroadband filters speed tests based on network information from Internet service providers to ensure accurate, real-world results.

The table below shows the fibre ISPs with the fastest average download speeds, based on over 9,000 speed tests.

Rank ISP Download Speed Upload Speed 1 BitCo 859.7 Mbps 855.04 Mbps 2 XDSL 834.16 Mbps 692.92 Mbps 3 RSAWEB 636.9 Mbps 794.81 Mbps 4 MTN Business 431.91 Mbps 590.7 Mbps 5 Infinity Fibre 94.46 Mbps 28.23 Mbps 6 SEACOM 87.9 Mbps 92.22 Mbps 7 MWEB 68.26 Mbps 7.41 Mbps 8 iConnect 50.01 Mbps 43.97 Mbps 9 Axxess 46.1 Mbps 33.89 Mbps 10 Cool Ideas 40.35 Mbps 37.11 Mbps

Now read: Faster fibre speeds from Cybersmart in 2017
Russias telecom operator on Friday said it had blocked a series of cyber-attacks on the countrys leading banks this week, the latest to target Moscows financial sector.

Rostelecom said in a statement it successfully thwarted DDoS [distributed denial of service] on the five biggest banks and financial organisations in Russia on Monday.

The most sustained attack lasted more than two hours, it said.

Russias FSB security service last week said it had uncovered plans by foreign intelligence services to carry out massive cyber attacks targeting the countrys financial system from December 5.

State-controlled Russian bank VTB said Monday its websites had been hit by a cyber-attack but insisted its systems were still working as normal.

The FSB did not say which countries secret services were involved in the latest plot against Russian banks, but alleged the attacks would use servers and command centres located in the Netherlands belonging to Ukrainian hosting company, BlazingFast.

Russia has been embroiled in a hacking scandal with the United States over allegations by Washington that Moscow was behind the theft and leaking of documents online during the run-up to the US presidential election aimed at influencing the outcome.

Vice President Joe Biden warned the US would respond to the suspected Russian hacking at the time of our choosing, and under the circumstances that have the greatest impact.

The latest attack comes after Moscow-based security giant Kaspersky said in November a massive DDoS cyber-attack had hit at least five of Russias largest banks.

DDoS attacks involve flooding websites with more traffic than they can handle, making them difficult to access or taking them offline entirely.

Kaspersky said those attacks used devices located in 30 countries, including the United States.

Al Jazeera
The back of the new Napa Valley Register offices and the adjacent NAPA Auto Parts store on Soscol Avenue will become home to the first art installation in the newly created Rail Arts District.

Come February, the Polish art group EtamCru will create an enormous 152-foot-long mural that will be visible to Wine Train passengers, walkers and cyclists on the Napa Valley Vine Trail and motorists on Vallejo Street.

According to a planning application filed with the city, the mural is tentatively titled A man taking in a nap in nature/taking a break to smell the roses. The height of the mural will range from 21 to 30 feet tall.

The Napa Valley Vine Trail Coalition and the Napa Valley Wine Train are the private entities funding the murals creation and maintenance.

EtamCru has produced murals around the world, including Richmond, Virginia and cities in Bulgaria, Germany and Portugal. A representative from EtamCru could not be immediately reached, but it appears that the Napa mural would be its first project on the West Coast.

The NAPA Auto Parts and Register building are owned by Balco Properties of Oakland. A representative from Balco could not be immediately reached.

I think its really cool, said Lani Sombrotto, manager of the NAPA auto parts store. However, Sombrotto said she was somewhat concerned about vandalism. I hope they can keep it from being tagged.

This type of arts district is respected, said Scott Goldie, owner of Brooks Street, a California-based real estate development and investment company that co-owns Wine Train along with Noble House Hotels & Resorts, Ltd.

Its kind of rare that these get tagged, Goldie said. Of course, It still happens. With that in mind, protective coatings will be applied to the mural.

It will be a beautiful addition to our new office, said Napa Valley Register publisher Brenda Speth. I really appreciate Balco, the Vine Trail and the Wine Train coming together to create this.

Chuck McMinn of the Vine Trail Coalition said the group wants to start the Rail Arts District at the Register and NAPA building because of high visibility and proximity to the Wine Train station. Creating the first mural will demonstrate what an arts district could be so people can react to it and get a feeling for what its going to be all about.

We have the opportunity to create an internationally known arts district if we do it right, said Goldie.

Goldie said Napas planned Rail Arts District will be modeled on similar projects along railroad tracks in Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Miami.

The first few miles of the tracks from the Wine Train station on McKinstry Street heading north toward St. Helena certainly arent as picturesque as the rest of the ride, he noted.

It could look a lot nicer than it does, said Goldie.

There are all kinds of opportunities to clean up the space, McMinn said in a September interview. It needs a little love.

Goldie said some 70 walls along the rail tracks could feature art. It will be an impactful part of downtown Napa. Thats our vision.

The Napa Valley Vine Trail Coalition and Napa Valley Wine Train are contributing $50,000 each to get the Rail Arts District off the ground.

Goldie would not say how much the first mural would cost, only that it is in the tens of thousands.

A second mural is under discussion for the back of the Matthews Mattress building on the south side of Vallejo Street at Soscol. That one could be created by an artist from Spain and feature a geometric style.

A short distance south of these murals, a rail box car will be installed on Wine Train property at the Napa Street circle. That car will be decorated with memorabilia from the 2014 South Napa earthquake.

According to the application for the mural at the Register/NAPA Auto Parts building, exterior grade latex and oil paints will be applied to a cement block surface. There will be a UV coating and an anti-graffiti coating applied to the mural after completion, with fresh coats every five years or so.

Maintenance of the mural will be done by the Napa Valley Vine Trail and the Napa Valley Wine Train as needed.

Graffiti or other damage to the mural will be addressed within 48 hours of its observation. The expected life of this mural is 15 years. The mural will be removed by the applicant at the end of its useful life

Napa Rail Arts District supporters envision landscaping, murals on the back of buildings, sculptures, small parks near residential areas and gateway features where the trail crosses major intersections in the city.

I think its going to be an internationally known art district that benefits Napa, people walking or riding their bike on the trail and passengers on the train, said Goldie in September.

Its going to be much more than just the art, said Goldie last week. We want to do a world class job on this.
Claiming that its employees were threatened, intimidated or coerced into voting to join a healthcare workers union, representatives from the Queen of the Valley Medical Center have objected to a recent union election.

The Queen filed the objection with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) regarding the Nov. 14 election to join the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW).

We have become aware of certain conduct by the NUHW and the NLRB during the period leading to the election, wrote John Bibby, Northern California Regional vice president for human resources for Providence St. Joseph Health, the parent company of the Queen.

The Queen respects the employees right to vote to join a union, he said. However, We believe this decision should be made free from threats, intimidation, coercion, delays in the U.S. mail system and confusion regarding the voting process.

That alleged conduct has left the Queen seriously concerned about whether or not our employees rights were honored and whether all voices were heard in the recent union election, wrote Bibby.

The complaint did not offer details about the conduct to which the Queen objects.

The union, however, firmly denies there was any misconduct on its side.

These are false allegations, said Justin DeFreitas, communications director, National Union of Healthcare Workers. We know there were no threats or intimidation.

Such claims are a standard delay tactic by employers to try and prevent the formation of a union, DeFreitas said. Theres no doubt that the Labor Board will find no merit to those claims.

Ray Herrera, a radiology technician at the Queen, and a union supporter, agreed

I witnessed no intimidation from the union, he said.

If there was any coercion or intimidation, it came from the Queen administration, he said.

According to Herrera, the hospital administration tried to intimidate some workers who dont have college degrees and speak English as a second language. Those workers were reportedly threatened to be replaced with a temporary agency worker if they voted for the union, he said.

Filing the objection is just trying to stall the inevitable, Herrera said.

We are still going forward with getting our organizing committees together and working towards getting a union contract.

Vanessa de Gier, a representative for the Queen of the Valley Medical Center, declined to comment on any allegations of intimidation or coercion.

We are awaiting a response from the NLRB and must respect the formal process, she wrote.

Given the significant number of employees who have come forward and raised concerns, the Queen decided to file an objection with the NLRB to protect the rights of our employees, said Bibby.

While the Queen is filing objections that will delay the election results from being declared final, we fully intend to proceed with contract negotiations and are committed to good faith bargaining with NUHW, he wrote.

A representative from the NRLB in Washington could not be reached this week.

This would be the second union to form at the Queen. In April 2013, the Queens nurses voted to join the California Nurses Association (CNA). It took more than three years for an agreement about a contract, including pay, benefits and other issues to be reached.
A St. Helena OB/GYN, Bryan Henry, M.D., could face disciplinary action by the Medical Board of California after being accused of negligence and unprofessional conduct.

The charges, filed on Nov. 28, stem from the August 2013 death of an infant boy following a cesarean delivery performed on one of Henrys patients.

According to board documents, Henry, who works at the St. Helena Womens Center, first treated his patient, referred to by initials of NJ, in December 2012.

The 26-year-old woman was six weeks pregnant at the time. She had pre-existing health issues including high blood pressure and obesity.

On Aug. 3, NJ was in labor and went to St. Helena Hospital. She labored for several hours. Toward the end of her labor, the infants heart beat could not be heard. A cesarean delivery was performed but the baby boy was delivered stillborn.

The accusation states that Henry acted negligently and with unprofessional conduct when he failed to perform continuous fetal monitoring while preparing for the cesarean section. Henry did not confirm a viable fetus before proceeding with the c-section, the complaint states.

Henry also failed to maintain adequate and accurate medical records, the accusation stated.

The doctor neglected to document his findings to help explain the babys death, the report states.

The report also states that Henry didnt document that the patient was counseled about the risks of obesity and excessive weight gain during pregnancy.

The doctor allegedly didnt document that issues regarding anesthesia were discussed with the patient before labor.

While this accusation was only just filed, a civil case about the death was settled in December 2014 for a reported $117,500, said the documents.

Henry did not respond to an interview request this past week.

According to the St. Helena Hospital website, Henry attended medical school at the Universidad Autonoma De Guadalajara. His residency program was at the Glendale Adventist Medical Center. The California state board issued his physicians and surgeons certificate in 1981.

Board-certified in OB/GYN, Henry has practiced at St. Helena Hospital for more than 20 years. In a 2008 interview with the St. Helena star, Henry said he had delivered more than 6,000 babies.

The physician has not had a hearing or been found guilty of any charges, noted the board.

However, if he is found guilty, possible disciplinary actions include revoking or suspending Henrys license, revoking his authority to supervise physician assistants or probation.

The California Medical Board oversees doctors licenses in the state, including the more than 400 medical doctors in Napa County.
I was sitting in a restaurant in Paris last November when I learned that, one arrondisement over, terrorists were attacking restaurants. As my fellow diners and I quickly paid our checks and scurried down the street to safety, everyone eyed the restaurant warily.

It was a small place on a corner, with huge glass windows and an open kitchen. Nowhere to hide. Among the 130 who died in multiple attacks that night were those who were having a casual dinner or drinks at the restaurants Le Carillon, Le Petit Cambodge, Cafe Bonne Biere, La Casa Nostra and La Belle Equipe.

Six months later, an Orlando gay bar, Pulse, was attacked by a gunman who killed 49 people. And on Sunday in Washington, D.C., a gunman strode into the Comet Ping Pong pizza restaurant to self-investigate a false conspiracy theory that a Clinton pedophilia ring was hosted there. Though the intent behind this attack was differentand, thankfully, no one was hurtit reinforced the industrys vulnerability.

The reality of our business is that we welcome the publicthe entire public, said Ruth Gresser, owner of D.C.s Pizzeria Paradiso. But one day, someone could show up with a gun. While her staff has procedures in place if a customer becomes belligerentswitch servers, dont touch the patron, call the police if the situation turns violentThe idea that theres now a political level that is entering the realm is new, she said. Were not used to that level of aggression and violence. There is the question that a lot of us are starting to wonder: How prepared do we need to be in dealing with this kind of situation?

To be honest? Pretty prepared, says Andy Hughes, a law enforcement consultant and former assistant director of homeland security for the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency.

A restaurant is a wonderful target because its full of people, and theyre all sitting down. Theres not a lot of locked doors that you can run behind, Hughes said. A former tactical operations chief and county sheriff, he was a responder in a 2012 shooting that killed three people at an Alabama nightclub, instigated by a patron who had been kicked out after an altercation.

The incidents in Paris, Orlando and Washington are just the most notable recent examples in a history of violence at restaurants and bars. In 1984, a gunman entered a McDonalds in San Ysidro, California, and shot 40 people, killing 21, before he was killed by a SWAT team sniper. That was the deadliest mass shooting in the nation until 1991, when it was superceded by another shooting in a restaurant: In Kileen, Texas, a gunman drove his car into the window of a Lubys restaurant and shot 50 people, killing 23, before he shot himself.

Edgar Maddison Welch, the alleged Comet gunman, apparently had a different motivation: He believed the false pizzagate conspiracy theory that had been growing online, concocted in the wake of the leak of Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podestas emails, according to police. Businesses surrounding the restaurant were targeted, too. The thought that someone could show up with a gun definitely crossed my mind, said Matt Carr, owner of the Little Red Fox, a bakery and market next door. He had contacted the FBI about the threats, including callers who threatened him with a firing squad, prior to the Sunday incident.

Were a mom-and-pop place, said Carr, who operates the market with his wife. This is not what I signed up for. I make coffee and pastries. Dealing with this kind of online threat is not in our wheelhouse.

Though Welch allegedly pointed his gun at a Comet employee, he fired at the restaurants inside doors, not its guests. He told police he was planning to rescue child sex slaves that the internet rumors alleged were being kept in the restaurants back rooms. But in the first confusing seconds after someone walks into a restaurant with a gun, patrons have no way of knowing whether hes there to destroy property and self-investigate, or to harm people at random. So the advice is the same that experts have repeated after every mass shooting: Run, hide, fight.

The problem, though, is that restaurants are often big rooms with open kitchens and few hiding places. Many only have two exitsone in the front, and one in the back.

You have a large number of people coming in and out that may or may not be familiar with the restaurant, said Mike Clumpner, president and chief executive of Threat Suppression, a public safety consulting firm. People arent as aware of their exits as they should be.

Besides, they go to restaurants to relax, so people let their guard down, Clumpner said. And they might be drinking, which could delay their reaction.

In an interview on 60 Minutes last November, then-D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier encouraged people to fight back if they ever find themselves in an active shooter situation that they cannot escape.

I always say if you can get out, getting outs your first option, your best option, Lanier said. If youre in a position to try and take the gunman down, to take the gunman out, its the best option for saving lives before police can get there.

If you have to fight in a restaurant, Clumpner says to remember youre already armed: You have a fork and a knife with you. You need to fight, and you need to understand that you are in the fight of your life. Patrons can also throw chairs and plates to distract the gunman.

But the chance that diners will find themselves in such a scenario is still quite small. And the fear of a restaurant gunman should not interfere with your enjoyment of life, Hughes says. Thats why the hashtag #JeSuisEnTerrasseI am on a terracetrended after the Paris attacks.

We dont need to be scared to go to a restaurant to eat with our family, he said. But we do need to be prepared.

Restaurant and bar owners are realizing that they do, too. Government officials met with some owners in January, describing the dangers of being a soft target and reiterating the importance of security at the door. Gresser has proposed a training course for dealing with restaurant violence to the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington. A spokesperson there said that nothing specific had been planned yet.

Derek Brown, owner of the Columbia Room, Eat the Rich and other D.C. bars and restaurants, posts staff members at doors to check bags, and to keep an eye on the street. He and his staff also have plans for how to get guests out, and where to meet, in the event of a natural disaster or violent incidentsomething Gresser said is now moving to the top of her priority list, too. I think every restaurant should be prepared, Brown said. I hate to say it. I wish it wasnt the case.

As for Comet, owner James Alefantis has employed private security. A spokesman for the restaurant, who asked not to be named to avoid online harassment, said law enforcement has advised Comet not to give specific details, adding that Comet has taken every step possible to make sure that the restaurant continues to be a safe place. Police have increased their presence on the block, and Carr said the alarm company used by several people on that block plans to host a security training for those businesses.

Clumpner pointed to the briefings flight attendants give travelers about how to evacuate the aircraft in an emergency landing. Theyre there for safety first, hospitality second, and I think restaurateurs should realize that, too, he said.

But restaurateurs are trained to put hospitality first, and thats what makes these incidents so difficult for the industry to accept.

I think that hospitality industry is ... fundamentally set up to serve and to satisfy peoples expectations and desires. We want to say yes, Gresser said. So the idea that thats potentially being disturbed has been very uncomfortable.
Why are otherwise reasonable people unwilling to admit that the new emperor has no clothes? When questioned, he has repeatedly said that he was only pretending to be nude. Subsequently he has flaunted his nudity and when some in the media have reported that, indeed, the emperor was wearing no clothes, he accused them of prevaricating and treating him unfairly. Thus the emperors nudity will become normalized such that people with neither notice nor speak up.
Keiths note: Although I met him more than once in my 30 years in Washington, my association with John Glenn was one of a degree of separation  I knew many people who knew him well.

In 2009, I spent a month on a mission to a strange, beautiful, dangerous place with someone (astronaut Scott Parazynski) who spent several weeks on a mission to a strange, beautiful, dangerous place with John Glenn.

There is a scene in The Right Stuff (that never actually happened) where Gordon Cooper watches Glenn fly over Australia at night with some aborigines while sparks fly upward from their fire. Years later, on my way to Everest to meet up with Scott, I taught a Sherpa to spot satellites in the night sky  and that movie scene flashed through my mind.

That is my John Glenn story.
Emory University Librarian Yolanda Cooper views this First Folio, which is on display in the Carlos Museum through Dec. 11.

Emory University received accolades from the director of the Folger Shakespeare Library on the First Folio! The Book that Gave Us Shakespeare exhibit at the Carlos Museum and the extensive, collaborative programming across campus departments and units.

Folger director Michael Witmore made the comments while he was on the Emory campus Monday, Dec. 5, for his lecture, The Wonder of Will. The lecture was part of the closing salute to the First Folio exhibit, which will end on Sunday, Dec. 11.

An engaging speaker, Witmore discussed the Bards enduring popularity and writing prowess, as well as how Shakespeares words and plotlines have permeated changing mediums and popular culture over the past four centuries. More than 200 people from the Emory and Atlanta communities attended Witmores talk.

Michael Witmores talk demonstrated his commitment to the traditional values of rare books as well as to the new information made available through modern science and technology, said Sheila Cavanagh, Emory English professor and co-director of Emorys Year of Shakespeare and First Folio projects. The First Folio tour similarly represents Shakespeare's place within a broad range of cultures, historical periods and emerging art forms.

Emorys First Folio programming

Witmore said he wanted to mark the end of the First Folios national tour at Emory to learn more about the cross-campus collaboration and programming during Emorys Year of Shakespeare. Events included lectures and performances open to the public, an evening for educators, and a symposium on Shakespeare and accessibility.

Every location made it their own, Witmore said. At Emory, youve had this really incredible programming around the book. Were seeing collaboration between libraries, theater groups and departments, mobilizing the community to get people to come on campus, getting teachers involved. I think thats the recipe for success. Youve got terrific intellectual leadership and library collections, great people thinking about performance and adaptation.

Emory Libraries has hosted seven events and eight exhibits since March 2016, including displays of Bard-inspired items in popular culture and postcards of 19th-century Shakespearean actors. To the Great Variety of Readers: Publishing Shakespeare focused on the Second, Third and Fourth Folios, as well as other examples of early English printing; the exhibit will return to the Rose Library April 3-May 15.

It has been an honor for Emory to host the Georgia stop for the First Folio tour, said Rosemary M. Magee, director of the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library. For almost a year, which has been merry as the day is long, weve been engaged by lectures, exhibits, performances, panelists, films, scholars and artists  all in pursuit of understanding the genius that Shakespeare brought to our midst through his language and sense of drama.

Emory is the only site to display the Second (1632), Third (1663) and Fourth Folios (1685) alongside the First Folio, made possible by a loan of the Second and Third folios from Rose Library benefactor Stuart A. Rose.

I knew the Rose Library had the Fourth Folio, Rose said Monday. I thought, what could be more unique that having the First, Second, Third and Fourth folios together? I think were the only tour stop that combined the four books to make our exhibition stand out.

Shakespeare at Emory programming will continue through this academic year, with a variety of activities, presentations and exhibits hosted by the Carlos Museum, Emory Libraries and Theater Emory.

Emory Libraries is proud to have been part of this Shakespeare celebration and to provide the campus and Atlanta communities the opportunity to experience such an important part of history, said Emory University Librarian Yolanda Cooper.

Tour reflections

The First Folio has traveled to all 50 states and two U.S. territories since January 2016, and each exhibit featured the book opened to Hamlets To be or not to be soliloquy. More than 500,000 people have seen the First Folio in person on this tour, Witmore said.

Why send out such a rare and precious book from the non-circulating Folger Library? Witmore said that since the Folger has 82 copies (out of 234 known copies that exist), library officials felt they could safely send out a few copies for a cross-country tour  using the utmost security and climate-controlled means.

We decided when we were planning the tour that it had to go to all 52 places, he said. We want the next transformative writer in English  the next William Shakespeare, the next Toni Morrison  to come face to face with that book, and there is no way to tell in the advance where that person is going to be.

Shakespeare fascination

Why does Shakespeares work continue to fascinate us more than 400 years later?

I think he had a terrific sense of the human heart in any situation, whether its falling in love for the first time like Juliet, or if youre an untested leader like Henry V, or if youre an outsider like Othello, Witmore said. The fact that these stories are so deep and powerful and so widespread means that our ability to recognize ourselves in them is still very high. Shakespeare saw the human drama in situations that we still recognize today.

Shakespeares universal themes of love, betrayal, greed and revenge have been remade many times through multiple mediums, from books and plays, to silent films and talkies, to radio, television, movies and beyond. Witmore said the Netflix series House of Cards is based on Macbeth with dashes of other Shakespeare plays, as is the Fox series Empire, which also taps Othello and The Lion in Winter and borrows a phrase from a Shakespeare play for the title of each episode.

Witmore added that Shakespeares world was in the process of becoming our world today. Along with the printing press and the media change it brought, issues of race, international trade, science, religious tolerance, freedom of the press and of expression and inquiry were becoming a reality.

Thats really the groundwork for the modern world, Witmore said. Shakespeare had a front-row seat to all this, and thats what allowed him to speak to the human situation and life in the state of disruption and change, and thats what still speaks to us in an age of turbulence.
On December 7, the U.S. Senate passed the 21st Century Cures Act, following passage by the U.S. House of Representatives on November 30, both with overwhelming support. This bipartisan legislation reflects an effort to expedite the discovery, development and delivery of new treatments and cures. President Obama is expected to sign the bill.

Emory, and its Office of Government and Community Affairs, was a strong advocate of the legislation, working with Georgia Senator Johnny Isakson. The bill's passage will impact Emory across campus and its health science facilities.

The Cures Act provides more than $4.8 billion over 10 years to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for the Precision Medicine Initiative; the Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies Initiative (BRAIN) to better understand diseases like Alzheimer's; Vice President Biden's Cancer Moonshot initiative; and regenerative medicine using adult stem cells. In an effort to fight opioid abuse, the bill provides $1 billion over two years for grants to states in their fight against the epidemic.

The legislation also reflects an investment in the research pipeline by creating a "Next Generation of Researchers Initiative" at NIH to improve opportunities for new investigators. The bill requires a number of actions aimed at reducing the administrative burden for researchers, including an effort to harmonize existing policies.

The 21st Century Cures Act seeks to advance new therapies for patients by implementing patient-focused drug development, advancing new drug therapies, and providing the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) with $500 million for regulatory modernization in an effort to recruit and retain top scientific talent. The legislation ensures these therapies reach patients by improving delivery.

The Cures Act aims to make electronic health record systems interchangeable and to provide better patient access to health information.

Senator Isakson advanced seven sections of the bill, including a priority review voucher for rare pediatric diseases.

"Emory and other academic medical centers across the country have long supported the initiatives and programs that will be advanced through the 21st Century Cures Act," says Jonathan S. Lewin, MD, Emory executive vice president for health affairs, executive director of the Woodruff Health Sciences Center, and president, CEO and chairman of Emory Healthcare.

"This legislation will have a tremendous impact on the health of millions of Americans through long-term NIH support for discovery of innovative treatments for diseases like cancer and Alzheimer's, ensuring that new drugs reach patients more quickly, and tailoring treatments to individuals. We look forward to continuing patient-focused research that benefits from strong federal support, and we greatly appreciate Senator Isakson's diligent work on behalf of patients, and their families, in Georgia and across the nation."

"The 21st Century Cures Act is a bold bi-partisan effort to drive progress against many human diseases through bold initiatives in science and medicine," says Walter J. Curran, Jr., MD, executive director, Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University. "There have been dramatic improvements recently in the survival of patients with many types of cancer due to federal support of cancer research, and I expect the 21st Century Cures Act to accelerate that narrative."

Beyond just cures, the legislation includes a number of mental health reforms, reflecting the most significant changes to the system in more than a decade.

"The 21st century cures act includes some extremely important legislation that will begin to address three critical psychiatric and mental health needs," says Mark Hyman Rapaport, MD, Reunette W. Harris professor and chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Emory University School of Medicine. "It will prioritize badly needed funds toward the development of preventive and intervention services for children. If we can keep children well or heal them in real time, we can change a life-long trajectory of despair. The bill recognizes and provides critical funding for work in suicide prevention and intervention as well as the opioid crisis. This recognition of these urgent problems, as well as the funds allocated by this legislation, are a major advancement for the public health of our society."

Georgia Congressman Doug Collins advanced language in the package called the Comprehensive Justice and Mental Health Act, which leverages the expertise of both law enforcement and medical professionals on the ground.

Of particular importance to hospitals, the bill would move the grandfather date for off-campus hospital outpatient departments under development from Nov. 2, 2015 to Dec. 31, 2016 or 60 days after enactment, whichever is later; adjust the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program to account for socioeconomic status; extend the Rural Community Hospital Demonstration Program for five years; and provide one full year of relief from the Long-term Care Hospital 25% Rule.

"This package includes a myriad of provisions important to academic health centers, like Emory, and the patients we serve," says Cameron Taylor, vice president for government and community affairs. "It is the most comprehensive medical innovation and public health measure of the 114th Congress; and we are grateful for the support of the Georgia congressional delegation."

A summary of the bill is available here.
12:16

PM Narendra Modi is addressing a rally in Deesa town of Banaskantha district of Gujarat. Highlights:





* Government has always said we are ready to debate. I am not being allowed to speak in Lok Sabha so I am speaking in the Jan Sabha





* Parliament is not being allowed to function. Happenings in Parliament anguished our President, who has tremendous political experience.





* We belong to a nation where we do not think 'what's my interest'. We are not a selfish nation. We think about future generations.





* For 70 years, the honest have been looted. But now I am standing with them & that's why they are being provoked. We are standing with the poor of the nation.





* Who is unhappy with corruption? Not those perpetrating corruption...it is the poor, the common citizens who are unhappy





* With our step on currency notes, we have been successful in weakening the hands of terrorists, those in fake currency rackets





* For how long can poor of India be told to pay for houses in cash. For how long will poor be asked -- you want Pucca bill or Kuccha bill?





* Today everyone in the nation is discussing the issue of currency notes. We took the decision on currency notes to strengthen the hands of the poor of the nation





* Earlier, due to draught farmers committed suicide but changes came & farmers adopted livestock leading to white revolution. Along with 'Shwet Kranti', here there is also a 'Sweet Kranti.' People are being trained in honey products





* When I took over as CM, I would tell farmers that you need to focus on water as much as you focus on electricity. The farmers in Banaskantha heard my request and embraced drip irrigation. This changed their lives and lives of future generations. The farmers here turned to dairy and animal husbandry. This was beneficial for the farmers.





* There was a time when people from Kutch & Banaskantha would leave their homes in search of better opportunities. It is not the case now.





* I am told it is after a very long time that a Prime Minister is visiting Banaskantha. But, I am here not as PM but as a son of this soil.





* If anyone can breathe life into a rigid desert, it's the farmers of North Gujarat. The farmers of North Gujarat have shown to the world what they are capable of
New Delhi [India], Dec 9 (ANI-NewsVoir): Kapture CRM, the fast growing Indian Mobile-first SaaS CRM Startup has been selected to be a part of the third batch at Google Launchpad Accelerator. This program will enable the team to work closely with Google engineers, mentors and resources for six months. The opportunity will be utilized to improve its product offerings and market strategy. Kapture CRM focuses on resolving the multiple pain points associated with managing daily business operations. The Cloud CRM platform enables businesses to automate their operations to achieve a higher level of productivity and efficiency. Kapture CRM also provides custom APIs to suit the requirement of different Industry verticals such as Hospitality, Customer Service, FMCG, Real Estate etc. Enterprise mobility has been the prime focus in IT Investments in 2016 and is expected to remain the same over next few years. With multiple advantages over the web based products (including low hardware costs, mobility, location services etc) it has been a priority requirement for all corporate. Kapture CRM focuses on being a Mobile-first business automation platform. Being cloud based it enables the users to oversee, manage and take meaningful decisions on the go and even from their Smartphones using multiple apps that are provided by the company. Carrying forward the same product positioning, CEO, Sheshgiri Kamath says "Our customers should be able to run their business in their accustomed way. Kapture CRM has the flexibility to adapt and improve our customers' unique business models." Kapture CRM platform has been steady in raising a pool of satisfied customers including industry leaders such as Big Basket, BNP Paribas, Century, Quikr, Hotstar, Wildcraft, etc. (ANI-NewsVoir)
Soon after the house met at noon, the opposition MPs began shouting slogans against the government. They termed the government as "anti-farmers".

Chairman Mohammad Hamid Ansari requested the agitated members to let the house function, but his pleas went unheard.

He then asked if the members wanted the Question Hour to be taken up. On this, the slogan-shouting MPs said "no".

The Chairman, who tried to restore peace in the house, said "nothing can be done in this noise".

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said over 70 hours of the Rajya Sabha have been wasted and the opposition was not allowing the house to function even after President Pranab Mukherjee appealed to them.

"The country will not forgive them," he said.

The Chairman then adjourned the house till 2.30 p.m.

There has been a continuous logjam in the upper house ever since the winter session of the Parliament began on November 16, and no meaningful business has been conducted till date.

The winter session ends on December 16.

--IANS sk/py/sac

( 208 Words)

2016-12-09-13:14:12 (IANS)
Income tax investigations at Mumbai led to the revelation of a syndicate of ground level operators active in converting banned currency notes into legal tenders for a commission. As part of the operation to nab the culprits, Income Tax Investigation Directorate sent out a few decoy customers seeking to exchange banned currency notes into new notes. The syndicate, acting through its mediator, agreed to the exchange for a 35 percent commission. The exchange was to take place at the mediator's residence. The mediator was caught red handed and new currency notes aggregating to Rs. 29.5 lakh was seized. It has now emerged that the syndicate comprised of many ground level operators (GLOs)- mainly local youths led by a master aggregator and a mediator. The mediator would seek customers. The GLOs would withdraw new currency in their own names or names of friends and family within the prescribed weekly limits, pass it on to the aggregator for a commission and deposit the old notes in their own accounts or accounts of family or friends in small sums. Another investigation into cash deposits in a bank account in Nagpur revealed that the account holder had no knowledge of the existence of her account where Rs. 3.29 crore had been deposited after 8th November, 2016. Enquiries by the Department revealed 6 more such accounts in her and parents' names. The seven accounts were opened and operated by unknown persons to launder cash of Rs.4.25 crore. Evidences gathered suggest that copies of PAN and other personal documents that she handed over to a friend few years back were used to fraudulently open these accounts in Kolkata, which were operated to channel suspicious funds to eight beneficiaries, who are now being investigated. In an interesting case at Ahmedabad, discrete intelligence gathered by the IT investigation team led to a survey at the premises of a transporter in the late hours of 3rd December, 2016. Twenty four cartons in the godown of the transporter meant for transport to Delhi were found. Lorry receipts declared these to contain fire crackers. When the cartons were opened and examined, two cartons were found to conceal currencies in the denomination of Rs.100 aggregating Rs.27 lakhs on interrogation, the consigner claimed that the cash was on account of sale of fire crackers being transported to Delhi for purchase of fire crackers. The cash was seized on 5th December, 2016. (ANI)
This year, National Pear Month is going global to celebrate the 12thanniversary of US Department of Agriculture officially declaring December as National Pear Month, USA Pears organized an exhilarating never seen before event to let consumers taste this juicy, delicious fruit across the world. The grand event that took place over the weekend got people to experience the opportunity to taste a variety of USA-grown pears via pop-up sampling activities in more than 24 countries through 24 hours of continuous sampling and promotion of USA Pears. To celebrate #World Pear Day in India, a fun sampling session was organized across key cities at select retail stores, malls and food expos where consumers got a chance to savor their favorite USA Pears. The Pear sampling was accompanied by a huge cheer by Nutritionist Kavita Devgan and top chefs like Ajay Chopra and Chef Sabyasachi Gorai whipped up some delicious recipes using USA Pears for the consumers. The excitement went one step further as the sampling event was live across #USA Pears social media platforms with quirky pictures and boomerang videos. "This is the first time USA Pears has done a sampling event of this magnitude and we're really excited to have people across all time zones sample pears throughout a single dayand interact on social media," says Kevin Moffitt, president and CEO of Pear Bureau Northwest, a nonprofit trade association promoting fresh pear on behalf of the nearly 1,600 pear growers in Washington and Oregon. "While Washington and Oregon account for 84 percent of the pears commercially grown in the US, we export nearly 40 percent so they truly are a fruit enjoyed around the world." "Pears are highly nutritional, delightfully juicy and elusively flavored sweet fruit that can add a whole lot of value to the physical well-being. It's the ideal time to celebrate the abundance and variety of USA Pears, now available at your nearest retail store. It is our constant endeavor to reach out to maximum consumers in India and introduce them to the freshness and taste of USA Pears. We are certain that the National Pear Month will help us create a Pear-fect bond with our consumers," said USA Pears, Keith Sunderlal, India Representative. So all you pear lovers out there, visit your nearest store and grab the goodness of the USA Pears. Don't forget to visit www.usapears.org for more pear facts and recipes and follow USA Pears on Twitter and Facebook (ANI)
In Jammu and Kashmir, the Indian Army is sending the message of cleanliness and 'swatchta' to the nation from the frontiers of Kargil. Indian Army in collaboration with Degree College Kargil and ITI Kargil launched a Swatch Bharat Abhiyan in the Campuses of Degree College and ITI. The Abhiyan was launched by DFO Kargil Khalid Amin Mehta while sweeping the premises along with the Staff of Degree College and ITI and the Students. On the one Side Indian Army is facing Shelling and Cease fire violation along LOC and Border in other parts of Jammu and Kashmir which has also affected the people living in those areas, Indian Army is trying to propagate the message of cleanliness and Swatchta amongst the students of frontier district Kargil. Khalid Amin Mehta while interacting with the students on this occasion told that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has initiated a campaign and dreamt for Clean India by 2019 which he alone cannot fullfill until we join hands with him in this noble cause. Representative of Indian Army on this occasion informed that they have started the mission which will be also organised at village level and the aim is to give the people particularly the youths a sense of responsibility towards cleanliness and to aware the people. (ANI)
The Lieutenant Governor of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Jagdish Mukhi, on Friday said that approximately 1000 tourists are stranded on Havelock Island due to bad weather, out which 320 are foreign nationals. Mukhi had yesterday assured that the tourists stranded on Havelock Island are safe and that there has been no damage to property or loss of life. Mukhi said, "In Andaman and Nicobar deep depression continues to prevail, but we are hoping the situation will be normal by the evening. In this week, there has been no damage to property or loss of life." He further said that only tourists have been asked to stay inside their hotels because of the bad weather and the rough sea. Also, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh yesterday assured that the government will launch the rescue operations immediately after the intensity of the cyclone reduces and evacuate the tourists stuck in Andaman's Havelock island. "Spoke to Lieutenant Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Dr. Jagdish Mukhi who apprised me of the situation in Havelock Islands. All the tourists who are stranded in Havelock Island are safe. The government has made all the preparations to evacuate them," Singh tweeted. The Indian Navy on Wednesday informed about their ships reaching Havelock Island and the evacuation of tourists from there to Port Blair to start as soon as the weather gets normal. Tourists were stranded at Havelock Island after heavy rains lashed the region. The Andaman and Nicobar Disaster Management, which speculated cyclonic storm to hit the area, contacted Indian Navy and requested for an evacuation process be initiated. Havelock Island is the largest chain of Islands and is a famous tourist destination. (ANI)
Train service between Srinagar and Banihal in Jammu region remained suspended since yesterday for security reasons following clashes between demonstrators and security forces in south Kashmir district of Anantnag where an encounter was going on since December 7 evening. However, train service between Badgam in central Kashmir to Baramulla in north Kashmir resumed this morning after remaining affected for the past three days. For security reasons train service on Badgam-Srinagar-Anantnag-Qazigund in south Kashmir and Banihal in Jammu region remained suspended for the second day today, a railway official told UNI. He said train service was suspended yesterday following reports about clashes between security forces and demonstrators in Anantnag. Clashes took place after an encounter ensued between security forces and militants holed up in a house at village Hassanpora Anantnag. However, train service between Badgam to Baramulla resumed after remaining suspended for the past three days. Train service on the track was suspended on December 5 after track hooks were found damaged at Palhallan Pattan, where clashes took place between security forces and demonstrators, who were protesting against night raids and arrest of some persons on December 4. Train service was restored next day after the damaged portion of the track was restored by the railways. However, service was again suspended in the afternoon same day following massive clashes between demonstrators and security forces at Tantrapora Pattan. Security forces had to fire in air and burst teargas shells to disperse the demonstrators who had blocked the track and tried to damage it. Later service was resumed from Srinagar to Pattan station only on the track. Rail service between Baramulla in north to Badgam and Srinagar in central Kashmir and Anantnag and Qazigund in south Kashmir to Banihal in Jammu region remained suspended for more than four months due to unrest in the Kashmir valley during which rail track and other property was damaged. However, the rail run was resumed last week after conducting repair work. UNI BAS SB 1048 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0153-1057668.Xml
The Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh has summoned a brief winter session of state legislature, which could be last of this Akhilesh Yadav government, from December 21. The decision was taken by the state government by passing a Cabinet proposal through circulation last night. Earlier it was proposed that the session would start from December 22. Though the session has been delayed as the election dates for the Assembly polls can be announced any time after December 20, the assembly sitting would pass the vote-on-accounts for the first three months of the next fiscal. Sources in the government said that there is also a proposal to bring another supplementary budget to sanction funds for the payment of the arrears and enhance pay for the 22 lakh state employees and teachers as per the seventh pay commission. Besides, there are also some financial obligations to be fulfilled by this government whose tenure ends in next three to four months time. Officials said the government will go for vote-on account for the first three months of the next fiscal (April-June 2017-18) because first legislative session of the new government could be summoned only after April. The first assembly session of 16th state legislature was held on May 28, 2012 when legislators took the oath of office while Chief Minister had taken oath on March 15, 2012, he said. "To fill that financial void the Akhilesh Yadav government will seek vote on account for first three months for the next fiscal so that next government does not feel the financial crunch," he said. The official said that previous Mayawati government had followed the same practice and Akhilesh Yadav government is likely to follow the suit. Though it is not sure when Election Commission will issue notification for Assembly election it is expected to be announced after December 20. For 2012 elections, the notification was issued on December 24, 2011.UNI MB SB 1128 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0196-1057677.Xml
A prolonged gunfight that began on Wednesday night between security forces and militants in a south Kashmir village ended on Friday morning and two bodies have been recovered, officials said. A police officer said security forces used explosives to demolish a house that was used by militants as their hideout and had been at the centre of the firing for nearly 40 hours. The house was used as a fortified bunker by the militants, the officer said. "Firing between the security forces and the militants has stopped. Two dead bodies were recovered," said the officer, adding the combing operations were on. Residents said at least five other houses were damaged in Hassanpoora village in south Kashmir's Anantnag district, some 40 km from here. They said security forces used bulldozers to remove the rubble of the demolished house from under which the bodies and two AK-47 assault rifles were recovered. On Thursday, police claimed three Lashkar-e-Taiba militants were killed in the gunfight. The fighting resumed early on Friday when the combing operation was re-started and the cordon around the shootout site further tightened. The killings of militants triggered clashes between mobs and the security forces on Thursday evening. The clashes continued on Friday. A protesting youth was killed and another critically injured on Thursday some distance away from the gunfight site. All mobile phone and internet services have been suspended in Anantnag and Kulgam districts to prevent spread of rumours. LeT commander Abu Dujana, one of the most wanted militants in the state, was earlier rumoured to be among the gunmen holed up in the house that was targeted by the security forces. Locals said he escaped from the hideout in Hassanpoora village, which lies close to Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti's ancestral Bijbehara town. But security officials neither confirmed nor denied if he was among the trapped militants. --IANS sq/ahm/sar/mr ( 321 Words) 2016-12-09-13:28:15 (IANS)
Continued bedlam by the slogan raising Opposition memberstoday over the demonetisation issue forced adjournment of the Lok Sabha for theday. Due to holidays on Monday and Tuesday, the House will again meet on December 14, Wednesday. While December 13 is a declared Holiday, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan had informed Lok Sabhayesterday that the Business Advisory Committee had recommended that the sitting of the House fixed for Monday, December 12 may be cancelled on account of Milad-Un-Nabi or Id-E-Milad. The Lok Sabha proceedings today were far from normal right from the beginning as during Question Hour, the ruling BJP members for a change targeted the opposition saying they should tender apology for continued disruption of the House proceedings during the Winter Session that begun on November 16. President Pranab Mukehrjee's outburst yesterday at a function over pandemonium and continuous non-functioning of Parliament ever since the Winter Session began provided ready fuel to the Treasury benches to attack the Opposition. The House was first adjourned within five minutes. When it reassembled at 1130 hrs, Leader of Congress in the House Mallikarjun Kharge said his party was ready for debate on demonetisation ''here and now'', upon which BJP member Meenakshi Lekhi said the Opposition should tender apology to the nation for their conduct. If they wanted to stage protests and dharna, there were places like the Jantar Mantar, Ms Lekhi said reading out from the President's speech. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar also asked the Opposition to apologise for wasting public money and time. The remarks made by Ms Lekhi and Mr Kumar saw members of the Congress, the Trinamool Congress, the Left and other parties on their feet and demanding apology from the ruling sideover demonetisation. The BJP members were also up on their feet supporting the demand of Ms Lekhi and Mr Kumar. The House was subsequently adjourned till 1200 hrs. There was no improvement in the situation later also and when the House reassembled, the Opposition members rushed into the Well raising anti-government slogans. After laying of papers and reports of various committees, the House took up the motion ofsuspension against AAP member from Sangrur Bhagwant Mann. The House adopted a motion suspending Mann for the remaining period of the ongoing Winter Session of Parliament for ''breach'' of Parliament security. The motion was moved by Kirit Somaiya, chairman of the nine-member panel set up by the Speaker after the Sangrur MP from Punjab courted a controversy in July by uploading a video of the Parliament premises on the social networking site. Amid the din, HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar introduced the National Institutes of Technology, Science Education and Research (amendment) Bill. Just as the Opposition members continued their sloganeering and insisted that the debateon demonetisation should take place only under a rule that entails voting, the Speakeradjourned the House for the day and said it will resume business on Wednesday only. Earlier, when the House was adjourned till 1130 hrs, BJP members, including L K Advani,Hemamalini and Union Ministers Arun Jaitley and Manohor Parrikar were seen greeting Congress President Sonia Gandhi on her birthday. UNI DEVN AE 1333 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0445-1057900.Xml
Police said here today that the accused were booked last night for allegedly meeting out cruelty to the animals by organising the races between bullocks in Palegaon of Ambernath here yesterday.

Arrested people are Avinash Rasal (25) and Amar Soni, 27. Another accused Datta Thorve alias Buva is yet to be arrested, police added.

The three have been booked under sections 11(1) of the Cruelty to Animals and also sections 47,48 and 49A of the Transportation of Animals Act, and also section 119 of Bombay Police Act, sources said.UNI XR ST SW 1456

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"The terms for India being accorded the status of a Major Defence Partner of the US has been finalised during the visit of US Secretary of Defence Asthon Carter," the Communist Party of India-Marxist said.

"The status of a Major Defence Partner is equivalent to that of the close military allies of the US such as Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Japan and South Korea," it said in a statement.

"Coming in the wake of the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA), this new agreement will further encroach upon India's sovereignty and strategic autonomy."

The CPI-M said it was strongly opposed to such military collaborations.

"The Modi government has not made the text of these agreement public," it said.

"It is imperative that these agreements which have vital implications for India's national interests and sovereignty be made available to the people."

--IANS mr/

( 178 Words)

2016-12-09-15:38:11 (IANS)
He also asked the to extend all necessary help from the Government.

Mr Dattatraya also held telephonic conversations with Dr Janardhan Reddy, Commissioner, Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation and Sunder Abnar Jt Collector, R.R.District and enquired about the last night incident.

Minister was informed that a man from Chattisgarh died in the incident, while his wife and Child were rescued and shifted to hospital. He was also informed that 10 more people are struck under the debris, an official statement here said.

He assured all necessary help and ordered Mr P M Srivatsava, Deputy Central Labour Commissioner, Hyderabad to coordinate with State Labour Officials, Revenue and GHMC Officials and extend all necessary help for relief and medical assistance to the injured.

The Union Minister talked to Lal Rajhwade, Minister for Labour, Govt of Chattisgarh and informed about the incident and instructed that the relatives of the deceased person may be informed.

Mr Dattatraya also spoke to District Collector, Vizianagaram and informed about the incident and instructed him to inform the family members and relatives of the labour who are struck under the debris.

He will meet Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, who is camping at New Delhi to inform him about the latest situation on the incident and for necessary help to be extended, the statement added.UNI VV JW SHK 1534

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Strides Shasun Limited today said that the company has signed a definitive agreements to acquire the entire shareholding in Perrigo API India Private Limited (Perrigo API India) for Rs 100 crore. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and expected to be closed by December 31, 2016.Pursuant to the merger with Shasun Pharmaceutical Limited in 2014, the Company got access to two US FDA API facilities, which had a combination of API's for captive consumption and commodity APIs. To separate the commodity API business from integrated APIs, Strides Shasun recently hived off its commodity API business into a separate entity. Strides Shasun will use Perrigo's plant for captive consumption and will augment the company's resources to handle high velocity of new product development and commercial launches in the formulation portfolio.The facility, with a potential capacity of 600 tonnes per year, had zero 483s during its last US FDA inspection. The company intends to transfer all the integrated DMFs filed for captive consumption to the acquired facility.As per the agreement, Perrigo parent or affiliates will continue to source few products from Ambernath facility under a long term supply agreement. ''With this acquisition, we bring into our fold a manufacturing facility designed to handle multipurpose small batch productions and accelerates our time to market. This augurs well for the Strides' stated strategy of building a backward integrated portfolio of niche and small volume products for the regulated markets, ''commented Shashank Sinha, group CEO, Strides Shasun.UNI JS HK1540 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0171-1058120.Xml
He was accompanied by his spouse Mrs Tasneem Esrar.

On his arrival at the Airport he was received by Air Vice MarshalPKH Sinha. Commandant Software Development Institute and Ms DeepikaSinha President Air Force Wives Welfare Association (Local),according to a statement here.

Air Chief Marshal Abu Esrar with his delegation visited HindustanAeronautics Limited, Bharat Electronics Limited and AeronauticalDevelopment Agency and held deliberations with the officials.UNI MSP RS CS 1700

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Embolden by recent victory of BJP candidates in by-elections in different states, Himachal Pradesh BJP will formally launch a pre-poll campaign to educate the masses concerning the misdeeds and poor governance of Congress government across the state on December 11 at Solan. The announcement to kick start the massive campaign against Virbhadra Singh government would be made by BJP national president Amit Shah who would be arriving in the town to preside over and address over 6,000 booth level functionaries during a day-long 'Tridev Sammelan' at historic Thodo ground here on Sunday. Talking to media persons, state BJP spokesman Dr Rajeev Bindal, who is sitting legislator of Nahan assembly segment in Sirmour district, said that Mr Shah would certainly infuse new enthusiasm among the party's grass root functionaries by delivering key note speech on various political and organisational aspects and future planning to corner ruling Virbhadra Singh government in public. Mr Bindal said besides Mr Shah, Union Health Minister JP Nadda, National Organizing Secretary Ram Lal, former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, party's state affair in charge Shrikant Sharma and other stalwarts would attend the Sammelan. Booth level office bearers including Booth Paalak from 18 assembly segments of Shimla Parliamentary constituency would participate and share their views, he added. He said that Mr Shah would also preside over the BJP's Core Committee and Charge sheet committees meeting on the same day. He blamed the ruling Congress government for shielding 'Transfer Mafia' in the state and termed the government as most corrupt and inefficient government in the Himachal's history, till date. Mr Bindal also demanded a CBI probe into the involvement of Chief Minister's office in large scale orders of transfers of government employees on one or other pretext. UNI XC DB SHK 1630 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0292-1058215.Xml
Over 100 posts in grade III in Education department of Assam government will be filled by January end next year. The Director, Higher Education, Babulal Sarma has approved the process of filling up of 114 Grade III posts lying vacant in various provincialised colleges in the plains districts of Assam. These posts are of Lower Division Assistants, Laboratory Assistants and Library Assistants. The Principals of these colleges have been directed to issue necessary advertisements to begin the process of recruitment at the earliest, an official statement said here today. State Minister for Education Dr H B Sharma had recently issued a directive to the Heads of all Education Departments to submit necessary proposals for filling up these posts. The process of recruitment will be completed within January 25, 2017 as per the present reservation policy.UNI SG BM -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0214-1058436.Xml
Announcing this at a press conference here today, Free Methodist and South India Incharge Bishop Reuben, Bishop John Gollapalli said that about 3 lakh devout Christians from all districts of the state are participating in the programme and seek Lords blessings for upholding Swachh Bharat, Golden Telangana, for the success of the State and Central government programmes and upliftment of the people of the state and the country.

He said Telangana Municipal Administration Minister K T Rama Rao will grace on the occasion as chief guest and also join the prayers.

Mr John said renowned evangelist, Dr Paul Dhinakaran, Founder Director, Jesus Call Ministry will be the guest of honour and lead the prayers for the well being and prosperity of Telangana and India.

Several prominent people including Bishop Reuben Mark, CSI, Karimnagar, Moderator Joseph D'Souza, Good Shepherd, Bishop MA deniel , Methodist will be leading the prayers, he said and added that the CCT have been made necessary arrangements for the mass congregration.UNI VV CS 1701

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Infighting in the first family of the ruling Samajwadi Party refuses to die as now Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav appointed Javed Abdi, a strong supporter of the Chief Minister, as the adviser of the state irrigation department. Official sources here today said Sayeed Javed Abbas alias Javed Abdi(Amroha) has been appointed as the adviser of the state irrigation department with immediate effect. The appointment of Mr Abdi, just days ahead of the announcement of the assembly poll dates, have created a new controversy. Mr Abdi was recently, involved in a controversy when state unit Samajwadi Party president Shivpal Singh Yadav had snatched Mr Akhilesh Yadav's mike during the silver jubilee function of the party foundation day in Lucknow on November 5. Mr Abdi was removed from the dais of the programme after he showered praise for the Chief Minister at the function.UNI MB SW 1720 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0196-1058260.Xml
A Sub-Inspector, posted at Civil Lines police station in the city, was suspended and an FIR has been registered for brutally beating an advocate who was in the queue of State Bank of India here today. According to Police and Bar Association Moradabad, senior advocate Abid who was in the long queue of SBI Civil Lines which is very near to the court, was brutally beaten by Sub-Inspector Ram Chandra. The policeman was on duty to maintain queue at the bank. The injured advocate was also detained in the civil lines police station. He was later released on the intervention of other lawyers .A case has been registered against the policeman under the IPC. Civil Lines Inspector Devendra Sharma said the Sub-Inspector was find guilty for brutally beating to the person on the name of law and order. He was immediately suspended and further inquiry has been set up against him.UNI XC-MB SW 1727 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0196-1058285.Xml
Top US Republican Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner wrote a letter to President-elect Donald Trump, urging him to meet exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and continue the United States' strong relationship with Tibet once in office. As you meet with various world leaders in preparation for assuming the role as President, I would like to take the opportunity to suggest that you meet with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, he wrote in the letter. Tibetans have the right to preserve their culture, heritage, language, and religion. Over the years, the Tibetan people have undergone a constant struggle to free themselves from the Chinese government and to preserve these basic freedoms. However, the People's Republic of China continues to refuse to acknowledge the autonomy of the Tibetan people, and have cracked down on protests and demonstrations by Tibetans.'' ''Throughout the course of the last half-century, America has had a strong and stable relationship with the people and government of Tibet. I hope you will continue this strong relationship with Tibet, as well as promote peace between Tibet and the People's Republic of China,'' he said in the letter. A copy of the letter dated December 6 was released yesterday. Congressman Sensenbrenner, who has been a staunch supporter of the Tibet issue, has met Dalai Lama in 2008. Since then, he has repeatedly called on China to respect the fundamental rights of the Tibetan people and has also supported motions in the US Congress in honour of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan people.UNI ML AE SHK 1708 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0292-1058153.Xml
Describing Punjab Congress chief Capt Amarinder Singh as a 'epicurean monarch', Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today dared him to list any single sacrifice made for the state and its people. Addressing the gathering during a sangat darshan programme in Raikot assembly segment here, he said Capt Singh was a typical king who was a firm believer of absolute powers for rulers without bothering for the subjects. Mr Badal said he was trying to mislead the people by promising moon to them whereas in reality he just wanted to form government for satiating his lust for power. He said "nothing good for the state could be expected from a Maharaja like Captain". He also held the Punjab Congress chief responsible for inviting former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to start the digging of the canal at Kapuri in his own constituency Patiala by offering her a silver spade to start the digging. Every Congress worker, including him, rejoiced the occasion, which marked the robbing of state's legitimate share of river waters. However, Mr Badal said now these people were trying to attain martyr status by just smearing blood on their finger tip whereas SAD was true custodian of rights of state and its people. The Chief Minister cautioned the people that if voted to power both the Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) would discontinue the several pro-people schemes and subsidies being currently given to people. The Chief Minister said both Congress and the AAP have a proven track record of being anti-poor and anti-Punjabis, adding that God forbid if, in any case, these parties were voted to power they would discontinue all these schemes thus leaving hapless beneficiaries in lurch. Citing examples, he said during his stint as Chief Minister, Capt Singh had discontinued free power to people and welfare schemes were a distant dream during his regime. Likewise, Mr Badal said AAP government in Delhi led by Mr Arvind Kejriwal has done nothing tangible on the welfare front, adding that even its leaders in Punjab were insulting beneficiaries of pro-poor schemes by terming them as beggars.More UNI DB SW SHK 1711 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0292-1058186.Xml
Human Rights Day 2016 had the global slogan "Stand-up for someone's rights today" and was celebrated to commemorate the United Nations General Assembly's adoption and proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the widely quoted Article 1 of the

Declaration has been the bedrock of human progress.

Speaking on the occasion of Human Rights Day, Shiv Kumar, founder and President, Swasti added, "Today, opportunities are numerous for any business entity or organization that wants to promote diversity.

Taking steps towards an inclusive, diverse workplace will send a positive message that the company represents and stands for progress, not just for its own shareholders but for society at large and the country."

"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood," the health resource stated.

However, women and girls, sexual minorities, and PLHIV even today, live marginalized and oppressed lives. They struggle to actualize basic rights experiencing considerably high violence and violation of rights, suffer financial insecurity and are often overlooked during

promotions and incentives at the workplace. (ANI)
Meghalaya Health and Family Welfare Minister, Roshan Warjri today appealed to all pregnant women to enroll themselves under Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matriva Abhiyan (PMSMA) Scheme for their health and wellbeing as well as for safe delivery of their child. Speaking at a function observing the PMSMA Day, Ms Warjri informed that PMSMA scheme is a special scheme for pregnant women where the pregnant women can avail free health check-up and required treatment free of cost on the 9th of every month. She said the scheme will be available to all pregnant women at government hospitals across the State, while urging them to take this opportunity and enrol themselves under the scheme for their health and wellbeing as well as for safe delivery of their child. Ms Warjri highlighted on the importance of the PMSMA scheme and added that this scheme is a new initiative launched by the Central Government on June 9, 2016 with the objectives of boosting the health care facilities for pregnant women especially the poor and marginalized families. Lauding the Health Department for their initiatives in observing the PMSMA Scheme for pregnant women across the State, former Chief Minister DD Lapang said this scheme will provide a healthy life to pregnant women and will help lower the maternal and infant mortality rate in the state. Mr Lapang appealed to all medical doctors and nurses to dedicate themselves in serving the sick and to do so with dignity, compassion, sensitivity and care. UNI RRK BM -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0214-1058653.Xml
In a statement here today, the SCR said Train No 07207 Vijayawada Secunderabad Special train will depart Vijayawada at 2310 hrs on December 15, 22, 29, January 5, 12, 19 & 26 and arrive Secunderabad at 0740 hrs on the next day.

In the return direction,Train No 07208 Secunderabad-Vijayawada Special train will depart Secunderabad at 2335 hrs on December 18, 25, January 1, 8, 15, 22 & 29 and arrive Vijayawada at 0650 hrs on the next day.

Train No 07011 Secunderabad Kakinada Town special train will depart Secunderabad at 1915 hrs on December 16, 23, 30, January 6, 13, 20 & 27 and arrive Kakinada Town at 0515 hrs on the next day.

In the return direction, Train No 07012 Kakinada Town-Secunderabad special train will depart Kakinada Town at 1800 hrs on December 17, 24, 31, January 7, 14, 21 & 28 and arrive Secunderabad at 0500 hrs on the next day.

All the special trains will run as special fare trains, the statement said.UNI VV CS 1806

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International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Environment Protection Training and Research Institute (EPTRI) and CGIAR jointly organized a two day workshop on 'Scaling up climate smart agriculture at ICRISAT here on December 6 and 7. The workshop was attended by Mr Peter Carberry, Deputy Director General, ICRISAT , Mr B Kalyan Chakravarthy,IAS, Director General, Environment Protection Training and Research Institute, Dr V Praveen Rao, Vice Chancellor, Professor Jayasankar Telangana State Agriculture University PJTSAU, Anthony Whitebread, Program Director, ISD, ICRISAT, Dr Shalander Kumar , other scientists from ICRISAT, EPTRI ,CRIDA and officials from many departments of the state of Telangana participated in the event. Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) is attracting increasing interest and attention in various parts of the world including in India. Multiple institutions have demonstrated evidences for developing Climate-Smart Villages (CSVs) in India which can act as a sustainable model for farmers' welfare. The state of Maharashtra and Bihar has taken up CSVs as mission mode programmes. However, the challenges still remain to upscale CSV approach to the mandals/districts and the whole state. There is a pressing need for the state of Telangana to recognize the need of more an CSVs in the state as it contributes to climate change mitigation, adaptation and enhancing productivity, a ICRISAT statement here today said. Given the importance of conceiving and planning well integrated interventions the workshop was successful in bringing together different stakeholders. It also dealt with sessions on approaches and methods for building climate smart agriculture in the state. This workshop also facilitated in raising the understanding and capacity to design context specific prioritized strategies to upscale CSA approaches as well as to determine priority interventions at mandal level for different agro climatic zones of Telangana and how these will relate to ongoing and new project initiatives. About sixty experts, practitioners and policy makers participated in the workshop. The workshop will provide a unique opportunity to learn and contribute on context specific climate smart practices (CSAPs), methodologies for risk mapping and prioritization of CSAPs, identifying synergies and design district level implementation plans for promoting climate smart agriculture, the statement said.UNI VV CS 1825 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0275-1058535.Xml
Police said that the victims were identified as Ujwala Pawasheher four year-old daughter Siddhi and two year-old Soira (2) after aquarrel with her mother-in-law.

The farmers who were working in the field rushed to rescue thembut it was too late all the three had met watery grave.

In this connection a case has been registered by Kakati police.UNI HVN MSP ADB1910

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Apart from this, the state government has also sanctioned two posts each of District Excise and Taxation Commissioners(Inspection) for Gurugram and Faridabad districts.

Finance Minister Capt Abhimanyu today said the government had created a new range at Rohtak for the purpose of tax administration, thus increasing the total number of ranges to five. At present, ranges are functional at Ambala, Faridabad, Gurugram and Hisar.

He said the government had bifurcated Gurugram district into two new Excise Districts -- Gurugram (East) and (West) -- to administer various Acts of the department.UNI DB SW SHK 1809

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India and Vietnam today signed four MoUs on cooperation in the areas of peaceful use of atomic energy, promotion of traffic between the two countries, energy efficiency and cooperation between the their respective national legislatures. The MoUs were signed in the presence of Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and National Assembly of Vietnam chairperson Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan in the Parliament Complex here. Ms Mahajan said Science and Technology is an important area of bilateral cooperation between India and Vietnam. Both the countries have cherished strong bilateral ties of friendship for over 2,000 years. She also lauded the fact that the enduring philosophy of Buddha and linkages with Champa civilisation has influenced the lives and thoughts of the people of two countries and also provides strong and common bond between the two countries. The Speaker said the visit of the Vietnamese delegation is of great significance; coming at a time when ''our countries are preparing to celebrate two landmark events in bilateral relations the 45th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations (2017) and the 10th anniversary of the Strategic Partnership (2017). Noting that India and Vietnam have a healthy tradition of parliamentary exchanges and cooperation, she said this visit has added to the ever-growing friendship and goodwill between ''our two countries and our peoples''. The Parliament of India looks forward to sustaining this momentum. Ms Mahajan added that with India's 'Look East' policy evolving into an 'Act East' policy, this region has assumed even greater importance in India's strategic thinking and economic engagement. Recalling the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Vietnam in September, she said the two Prime Ministers have decided to elevate bilateral 'Strategic Partnership' initiated in 2007 to a 'Comprehensive Strategic Partnership'. Specifying that the exceptional economic rise of Vietnam, by grit and hard work coupled by its warm and friendly people is indeed inspiring and heart-warming, Ms Mahajan said Vietnam is playing an increasingly important role in global economic affairs. India would like to work with Vietnam to further strengthen the trend of shared values of democracy, pluralism, openness and inclusiveness to become the mainstay of international relations, she added. Stressing on the enhanced economic engagement between the two countries, she highlighted that the sectors of information technology, defence, security, energy, exploration, non conventional energy as some of the key areas where India and Vietnam can mutually benefit from each other's strength. Science and technology is an important area of bilateral cooperation. Noting that 2016 marks 30 years of bilateral civil nuclear cooperation, she said the agreement on Cooperation in Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy is a remarkable development and a testimony to two countries' willingness to give greater substance to their recently upgraded Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. Recalling India's statement following the recent Award of Arbitral Tribunal, Ms Mahajan reiterated its known position for resolving disputes through peaceful means without threat or use of force and by exercising self-restraint in the conduct of activities that could complicate or escalate disputes affecting peace and stability. She said India has persistently maintained that the Sea lanes of communication passing through the South China Sea are critical for peace, stability, prosperity and development. As such, as a State Party to the UNCLOS, India has called on all parties to show utmost respect for the UNCLOS, which establishes the international legal order of the seas and oceans, she added. Ms Ngan, the President of National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam thanked Ms Mahajan for the warm traditional hospitality extended to her delegation. She hoped that the ongoing visit of her delegation would further consolidate and strengthen bilateral relations between the two countries. UNI NY SW SHK 1945 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0099-1058658.Xml
The Rail administration has cancelled five express trains due to the inclement season and fog. The visibility has been badly affected due to thick fog which has covered the area.

Besides, five express and mail trains, the Railways have cancelled five passenger trains also.

Ambala DRM Dinesh Kumar said the trains, which were running late inordinately or were behind their scheduled time, were being cancelled.

The cancelled trains include Shan-e-Punjab Express, Ferozepur-Delhi- Sarai Rohilla express, Nander Express, Ajmer Jammu-Tavi Puja Express and Fazilka-Delhi Intercity Express.

More than 20 express trains had reached late this morning, according to a Rail official.

However, the passengers were kept informed of the latest arrivals of trains at the station. UNI XC DB 1950

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Stating this here today, a Police Department Spokesman said that a team recovered the currency notes from two persons riding a two-wheeler during checking near village Islampur in Gurugram district.

On being enquired about the money, they failed to reply satisfactorily. The currency notes were seized and the Income Tax department informed for further action.

Meanwhile, police also arrested a person with 361 boxes of illicit English and country-made liquor. Accused Mohan of Ditaur (Rohtak) was arrested at a naka near Atul Kataria Chowk, Gurugram.

A case in this regard was registered at police station in Sector 18 and further investigation is underway, he added.UNI DB RJ 1917

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Union Minister of Railways Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu today expressed confidence that resurgence of India will start from the holy land of Kurukshetra, where the International Gita Mahotsav is being held this year. Addressing the valedictory function of International Gita Seminar and Sant Sammelan, organised during the International Gita Mahotsav here, Mr Prabhu said, "Earlier our country was called the golden land. We need to introspect why things changed later. ''We have forgotten to walk the path shown by Lord Krishna through the holy message of Bhagwad Gita. We will try to move on that path. We will restore our old culture and treasure by following the path of Bhadwad Gita in this Swarna Jayanti year", he added, while congratulating the state government for organising Gita Jayanti at international level during the Haryana's Swarna Jayanti year. Speaking on the occasion, Governor Kaptan Singh Solanki said the message the world needed in the 21st century was being given through the International Gita Mahotsav. Haryana government has taken the initiative to show a new way to the entire world, with the organisation of Gita Mahotsav. This has been quite a success due to the key contribution made by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and Swami Gyananand Maharaj, he added. Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said the state government would work to organise Gita Mahotsav at the same scale every year. This year, as many as 11.5 lakh people have visited the Mahotsav so far. Both the Central and the state governments are promoting religious places like Mathura, Kurukshetra and Dwarka. The Central Government has sanctioned a sum of Rs 100 crore for the Krishna Circuit, under which places of religious importance would be developed in the state, Mr Khattar said. He said the global chanting of Srimad Bhagvad Gita would be held on December 10 in 25 countries at the same time from 1800 hrs to 1815 hrs, to spread the eternal message of Gita in the world. He read out a message from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in which Mr Modi congratulated the people and expressed hope that the International Gita Mahotsav would be helpful in spreading the celestial message of Gita, which forms an integral part of Indian culture, in the entire world. Highlighting the significance of Bhagwad Gita, Gita Manishi Swami Gyananand Maharaj described it as the need of the hour. He also congratulated the state government for enhancing the scope of Gita Jayanti to the global level. Himachal Pradesh Governor Acharya Dev Vrat, Goa Governor Mridula Sinha, Haryana Cabinet Ministers Ram Bilas Sharma, Capt Abhimanyu, State BJP chief Subhash Barala, saints from across the country and others were also present on the occasion.UNI DB RJ 2002 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0292-1058756.Xml
AAP national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today said that SAD-BJP alliance and Congress have reached a secret pact to contest the 2017 Assembly polls by fielding candidates with mutual understanding. Mr Kejriwal, on the first day of his six-day visit to Punjab, said after being threatened by AAP's rising popularity, PPCC Chief Capt Amarinder Singh and SAD President and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal have held a clandestine meeting to discuss their respective poll prospects in the forthcoming polls. "As both of them know very well that both SAD-BJP and Congress would not be able to form the government in Punjab, hence they decided to field the candidates with mutual understanding", he said while pointing out that even the recent exodus of certain Akali leaders to Congress was being initiated with a tacit understanding to prop up Capt Amarinder Singh in Punjab, who has failed to make a mark ever since he returned as state party chief. The Delhi Chief Minister said that Akalis are very much aware that they were not coming to power as there was huge public anger simmering against them in Punjab and many of them (Akalis) would not be allowed to enter in villages, after announcement of election, hence both Sukhbir and Captain though that it would be appropriate to contest the forthcoming polls in Punjab with mutual understanding and agreement. The secret pact reached between Sukhbir Badal and Capt Amarinder Singh could not have been more evident especially after the Badal government has withdrawn corruption case against the PPCC chief in Amritsar court, he said. Similarly, Kejriwal asked the people what prevented Akalis to arrest Capt Amarinder Singh, who has been slapped with chargesheet by Income Tax department for having Swiss Bank accounts of his family members. He said that in the same manner when Congress government was at centre for 10 years failed to act against which Bikram Singh Majithia for his involvement in the multi-crore drug racket. At the same time Majithia was saved by none other than Capt Amarinder Singh when his own party was demanding CBI probe against him (Majithia) for his involvement in the drug racket, he added. "I have revealed Swiss Bank account numbers of Capt Amarinder Singh's family, where he has stashed huge amount of black money in all public rallies, which Capt Amarinder Singh so far has not denied", Kejriwal said while quipping "Why Capt Amarinder Singh did not file a defamation case against me ? Why he has maintained a stony silence on the issue? It shows he is guilty." The Delhi Chief Minister also read out the account numbers of Raninder Singh and Parneet Kaur as well as joint account, where the family has been parking their ill-gotten money.UNI DB RJ 2124 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0292-1058776.Xml
Jammu and Kashmir Cabinet which met here this evening under the chairmanship of Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti accorded sanction to the creation of five (5) posts of Secretaries in the Jammu and Kashmir High Court. Out of the 5 posts created, two posts are of Secretaries in the Selection Grade of Rs 12,000-16500 (pre-revised) and three posts in the Special Scale of Rs 14300-18300 (pre-revised). The Cabinet accorded sanction to the creation of 172 posts of Data Entry Operators in the pay band of Rs.5200-20200 + GP of 1900, by corresponding reduction of 172 positions of CIC Operators, who have been engaged up to the cut of date i.e. 28th April, 2010 and to whom the provisions of J&K, Civil Services (Special Provisions), Act, 2010 apply.UNI VBH SHS RJ 2330 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0329-1059023.Xml
A girl namely Shazia Akhter, 17, of Ward No 4, Budhan, Tehsil Mahore, Reasi this evening consumed some poisonous substance at her residence and was rushed to Mahore hospital, police here said.

They said that she was further referred to the district hospital, but died during treatment.

A case under relevant sections was registered and investigation started, police added.UNI VBH SHS RJ 2323

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Police has arrested a 30-year-old man, who was wanted in connection with the brutal killing of a three-year-old boy in the district, two weeks back. The accused, Vishal Kumar Nigam, who had fled to Uttar Pradesh, was nabbed yesterday from Allahabad where he was hiding, police said today. He was produced in a local court, which remanded him to police custody till tomorrow. Earlier, police had arrested Bharti Shinde (35), mother of victim Aniket, immediately after the incident. On November 22, Bharti, a widow, had brutally and mercilessly kicked to death her son as he was found to be a hurdle in her relationship with the accused. Following the death of her husband Baburao Shinde, Bharthi was living with Vishal Kumar in Balgaon of Ambernath, along with Aniket. However, the couple found that the boy was a hurdle in their life and hence, they decided to liquidate him.UNI XR SS SHS RJ 2333 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0171-1059032.Xml
In 2016 ransomware attacks on business increased three-fold: which represents a change from an attack every two minutes in January to one every 40 seconds by October. For individuals, the rate of increase went from every 20 seconds to one every 10 seconds. With more than 62 new families of ransomware introduced during the year, the threat grew so aggressively that Kaspersky Lab has named ransomware its key topic for 2016. The Story of the Year paper forms part of Kaspersky Lab's annual Kaspersky Security Bulletin that looks back over the year's major threats and data and predicts what to expect in 2017. Among other things, 2016 revealed the extent to which the Ransomware-as-a-Service business model now appeals to criminals who lack the skills, resources or inclination to develop their own. Under the arrangement, code creators offer their malicious product 'on demand', selling uniquely modified versions to customers who then distribute it through spam and websites, paying a commission to the creator - the main financial beneficiary. "The classic 'affiliate' business model appears to be working as effectively for ransomware as it does for other types of malware. Victims often pay up so money keeps flowing through the system. Inevitably this has led to us seeing new cryptors appear almost daily," said Fedor Sinitsyn, Senior Malware Analyst, Kaspersky Lab. The Evolution of Ransomware in 2016 In 2016, ransomware continued its rampage across the world, becoming more sophisticated and diverse and tightening its hold on data and devices, individuals and businesses. -Attacks on businesses increased significantly. According to Kaspersky Lab research, one in every five businesses worldwide suffered an IT security incident as a result of a ransomware attack and one in every five smaller business never got their files back, even after paying. - Some industry sectors were harder hit than others, but our research shows there is no such thing as a low-risk sector: with the highest rate of attack around 23% (Education) and the lowest 16% (Retail and Leisure). -'Educational' ransomware, developed to give system administrators a tool to simulate ransomware attacks was quickly and ruthlessly exploited by criminals, giving rise to Ded_Cryptor and Fantom, among others. - New approaches to ransomware attacks seen for the first time in 2016 included disk encryption, where attackers block access to, or encrypt, not just a couple of files, but all of them at once - Petya is one example. Dcryptor, also known as Mamba, went one step further, locking down the entire hard drive, with the attackers brute-forcing passwords for remote access to a victim machine. - The ransomware Shade demonstrated ability to change its approach to a victim if an infected computer turned out to belong to financial services, downloading and installing spyware instead of encrypting the victim's files. - There was a marked rise in low-quality; unsophisticated ransomware Trojans with software flaws and sloppy errors in the ransom notes - increasing the likelihood of victims never recovering their data. Fortunately, 2016 also saw the world begin to unite to fight back. The No More Ransom project, launched in July, brings together law enforcement and security vendors to track down and disrupt the big ransomware families, helping individuals to get their data back and undermining the criminals' lucrative business model. The latest versions of Kaspersky Lab products for smaller companies have been enhanced with anti-cryptomalware functionality. In addition, a new, free anti-ransomware tool has been made available for all businesses to download and use, regardless of the security solution they use. (ANI)
Syrian army has suspended combat operations in eastern Aleppo to allow the civilians to evacuate the battle zone, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. Lavrov on Thursday said about 8,000 people would be moved to safer places as Syrian forces have retaken 75 per cent of east Aleppo -- areas rebels had controlled for four years -- in recent weeks. According to BBC, while fighting in Aleppo has eased, there is no sign it has completely stopped. The US welcomed the "indication that something positive could happen but we're going to have to wait and see whether those statements are reflected on the ground. "Our approach to the situation has been to listen carefully to what the Russians say, but scrutinise their actions," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest. Lavrov said: "Combat operations by the Syrian army have been halted in eastern Aleppo because there is a large operation under way to evacuate the civilians." He said Russian and US military experts would meet in Geneva on Saturday to discuss ways of bringing an end to the violence in Aleppo. A US state department spokeswoman said Lavrov and John Kerry had agreed to discuss a ceasefire that allows for the delivery of aid and the departure of civilians, but the "specific nature" of Saturday's technical talks "are still to be worked out". Russia's announcement comes at a time when tens of thousands of civilians have already been fleeing the fighting on their own, using whatever route they can. News that the Syrian military has suspended operations to allow for a more orderly evacuation would be a good one for tens of thousands of people still trapped inside rebel-held districts. This week rebel fighters called for a truce to allow civilians to leave the battlefield. But both sides suspect the other will use any pause to regroup for another round of fighting. Earlier, a local council leader in Aleppo warned that "150,000 people are condemned to death" in the city. "We demand a safe passage for civilians to leave and an end to the killing, bombing and bloodbath," he said. Late on Wednesday, 148 mostly disabled and elderly civilians were evacuated from a former old people's home, hours after the area fell to government forces. The UN's envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, told the media on Thursday that he was planning to meet members of US President-elect Donald Trump's team, though he did not say when. Aleppo was once Syria's largest city and its commercial and industrial hub before the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in 2011. But in the past year, Syrian troops have broken the deadlock with the help of Iranian-backed militias and Russian air strikes, reinstating a siege in early September. --IANS py/ ( 463 Words) 2016-12-09-08:48:12 (IANS)
President-elect Donald Trump said the United States needed to improve its relationship with China, which he criticized for its economic policies and failure to rein in North Korea."One of the most important relationships we must improve, and we have to improve, is our relationship with China," Trump told a rally in Iowa. The United States and China are the world's two biggest economies."China is not a market economy," he said. "They haven't played by the rules, and I know it's time that they're going to start."Trump criticized China repeatedly during his presidential campaign and drew a diplomatic protest from Beijing last week after speaking by phone with President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan, which China considers a wayward province.It was the first such top-level contact with Taiwan by a U.S. president-elect or president since President Jimmy Carter adopted a "one-China" policy in 1979, recognizing only the Beijing government.Trump kept up his criticism of Beijing during the rally, which was part of a "thank you tour" to express gratitude to states that helped him win an upset victory over Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton last month."You have the massive theft of intellectual property, putting unfair taxes on our companies, not helping with the menace of North Korea like they should, and the at-will and massive devaluation of their currency and product dumping," Trump said of China. "Other than that, they've been wonderful, right?"China is not currently viewed as a currency manipulator by either the U.S. Treasury Department or the International Monetary Fund. The World Trade Organization says Chinese tariffs on imported goods are generally higher than U.S. tariffs.Trump brought his pick for ambassador to China, Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, onstage, saying Branstad always encouraged him not to say anything negative about China in his state."I have so many friends there," Trump said Branstad would tell him. Branstad has said he and Chinese President Xi Jinping have a 30-year friendship. The Iowa governor has visited China at least six times, and Xi has been to Iowa twice.Trump repeated his campaign message that he planned to prioritize the United States and American workers over global interests.The Trump administration, which takes office on Jan. 20, would focus on two rules: "Buy American and hire American," he said, adding he would keep pressuring companies not to move jobs overseasReuters cj NS0914 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0400-1057606.Xml
The Syrian army's advance in Aleppo slowed but a victory was still firmly in sight after President Bashar al-Assad vowed that retaking the city would change the course of the six-year-old war.Russia's RIA news agency quoted Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying the Syrian army, which has captured territory including Aleppo's historic Old City in recent days, had halted military activity to let civilians leave rebel-held territory.However, Reuters reporters in a government-held part of the city said bombardment could still be heard after his remarks were published. Washington said it had no confirmation that the army had ceased fire.Earlier, a Reuters journalist said government forces were shelling rebel-held areas of southwest Aleppo into the afternoon. Columns of smoke were rising from rebel-held areas.The last two weeks have seen rebels driven from most of their territory in what was once Syria's largest city, the eastern section of which the insurgents have controlled since 2012.Although there are still many rural areas in rebel hands, Aleppo is their last big urban redoubt. The prospect of its fall, following months of government gains elsewhere, has brought Assad closer to victory than at any point since the early months of a civil war that has killed hundreds of thousands and made half of Syrians homeless."Aleppo will completely change the course of the battle in all of Syria," Assad said, speaking in an interview with the Syrian newspaper al-Watan.Moscow and Washington are trying to negotiate a ceasefire to allow civilians to escape eastern Aleppo and aid to arrive. Russia, which backs the army with air strikes, also wants the United States to urge rebel fighters to abandon their territory and accept transport out, which the Syrian government has provided fighters who agreed to lay down arms elsewhere.The US State Department said Secretary of State John Kerry had spoken by telephone to Lavrov to discuss a ceasefire. The two also met face to face on the sidelines of a conference in Hamburg.The rebels have called for an immediate five-day ceasefire and the evacuation of civilians and wounded, but have so far given no indication they are ready to withdraw.The UN assessment for diplomacy was bleak. Russia and the United States were "poles apart", UN Syria humanitarian adviser Jan Egeland said. Five months of talks over aid plans had all failed and produced "nothing"."We are ... witnessing talks on Aleppo which are just trying to tailor and to manage the Syrian and Russian victory," a European diplomat told reporters on condition of anonymity.More than 800 people have been killed and up to 3,500 wounded in eastern Aleppo in the past 26 days, while the remaining trapped civilians await an effective death sentence, the president of Aleppo local council said."Today 150,000 people are threatened with extermination. We are calling for a halt to the bombing and guarantees of safe passage of all," Brita Haji Hassan said during a trip to Geneva.United Nations Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura said yesterday he planned to meet "people around the team" of US President-elect Donald Trump.'WAR WILL NOT END'Fighting raged on around the Old City, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with the Syrian army trying to push into the few remaining rebel-held Aleppo neighbourhoods.Pro-Damascus media reported that Syrian government forces and their allies had launched attacks against insurgents in the Sukkari, Kalasa and Bustan al-Qasr neighbourhoods, west and south of the ancient citadel.An opposition activist in Aleppo said insurgents had staved off the attacks on the latter two districts.A Syrian military source reported the army and its allies had also advanced in the Sheikh Saeed district in the south of the rebel enclave. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, also reported that.Outside of Aleppo, the government and its allies were also putting severe pressure on remaining rebel redoubts.In his interview, Assad said the army advances will completely change the course of the war. He described Aleppo as the "last hope" of rebels and their backers, although he said the war would continue once it falls."The battle of Aleppo will be a gain, but ... it doesn't mean the end of the war in Syria. It is a significant landmark towards the end of the battle, but the war in Syria will not end until terrorism is eliminated," he said. Damascus refers to all insurgents as terrorists.'MAKE A DESERT AND CALL IT PEACE'Retaking Aleppo would also be a success for President Vladimir Putin who intervened to save Moscow's ally in September 2015 with air strikes, and for Shi'ite Iran, whose elite Islamic Republic Guard Corps has suffered casualties fighting for Assad.The war has seen the rise of the ultra-hardline Islamic State group, which still controls areas of eastern Syria. Moscow and Damascus say only support for Assad will make it possible to defeat Islamic State. Western countries say Assad's harsh war tactics feed the anger that allowed Islamic State to grow.The head of Britain's MI6 foreign intelligence agency Alex Younger warned yesterday that Islamic State was plotting attacks on the West "without ever having to leave Syria"."Russia and the Syrian regime seek to make a desert and call it peace. The human tragedy is heart-breaking," he added.Nearly 150 civilians, most disabled or in need of urgent medical care, were evacuated overnight from a hospital in Aleppo's Old City, in the first major evacuation from the eastern sector, the International Committee of the Red Cross said.It urged "all parties to allow a humanitarian pause," adding that the situation in east Aleppo "is known to be catastrophic".Tawfik Chamaa, a representative of the Union of Syrian Medical Relief Organisations (UOSSM), said 1,500 people needed medical evacuation, but any evacuation should have international observers to prevent them being "executed or diverted on the way to hospital".REUTERS RSD 0445 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0435-1057584.Xml
President-elect Donald Trump named fast-food executive Andy Puzder to head the US Department of Labor, drawing criticism from labor advocates worried about his opposition to a higher minimum wage and government regulation of the workplace.Puzder, chief executive of CKE Restaurants Inc, which operates the Carl's Jr. and Hardee's fast-food chains, has frequently argued in the media that higher minimum wages would hurt workers by forcing restaurants to close.He has bashed a new Labor Department rule aimed at extending overtime pay to more than 4 million US workers and has praised the benefits of automation in the fast-food industry.Fast-food workers, who are largely not unionized, are engaged in a multi-year campaign known as the "Fight for 15 dollars," which is supported by labor unions, to raise minimum wages to 15 dollars an hour. They have had state-wide successes in New York and California and in cities and municipalities such as Seattle.The federal minimum wage is 7.25 dollars. Workers in states that have higher minimum wages are entitled to the higher rate, the Labor Department says.Trump, in a statement released by his transition team, praised Puzder for a "record fighting for workers" and said he would ensure occupational safety standards."He will save small businesses from the crushing burdens of unnecessary regulations that are stunting job growth and suppressing wages," Trump said.In the same statement, Puzder, 66, said he agreed with Trump that "the right government policies can result in more jobs and better wages for the American worker."The Labor Department regulates wages, safety and discrimination in the workplace.Republican Trump beat Democrat Hillary Clinton in last month's election by carrying swing states - and some traditionally Democratic states - in the US Rust Belt after promising to create jobs and to review or cancel trade deals that he said were bad for workers.National labor leaders had urged their rank-and-file members to back Clinton, saying Trump's appointments and policies would not align with his promises to workers.Labor leaders have been girding for Trump to appoint pro-business regulators at the Labor Department and the National Labor Relations Board, and to roll back key regulatory initiatives of the Obama administration such as the Labor Department rule granting overtime pay to more than 4 million salaried workers, both unionized and not unionized."He was talking a good game when he was running for president, as far as helping workers and leveling the playing field for them, but with the nominations he's made it's just the opposite," said Lee Saunders, president of the public employees union AFSCME.Shake-ups are expected under Trump at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or EEOC, which enforces federal anti-discrimination laws. Trump will have an early opportunity to shape the EEOC when he replaces its general counsel, Obama appointee David Lopez, who is leaving the agency this month, and a vacancy on the commission.Trump will also be able to fill two current vacancies on the five-member NLRB early in his term, likely tipping the agency to a more business-friendly posture.Although just 11.1 per cent of US workers were represented by a union in 2015 - down from 20.1 per cent in 1983, the first year government statistics were kept - labor unions are a powerful force in Democratic politics. But union members' support for Clinton at the election was lower than it had been for President Barack Obama four years ago.About 51 per cent of voters from union households backed Clinton, with 42 per cent supporting Trump, a CNN exit poll showed. Democrat Obama won 58 per cent of the same voters in his 2012 re-election win against Republican Mitt Romney.Business groups welcomed the appointment of Puzder. Robert Cresanti, president of the International Franchise Association, an industry group, praised him as an "exceptional choice" who would bring "business experience and policy acumen on so many issues impacting employers and employees."Democrats were critical."In Andrew Puzder, Trump found a labor secretary that would help him roll back the minimum wage, end the overtime rule that will raise wages for millions, weaken safeguards for workers, and to wipe out unions," said American Bridge, a liberal advocacy group.DISPUTE WITH UNION LEADERTrump's decision to pick Puzder comes as he engaged in a Twitter dispute with the head of a local United Steelworkers union in Indiana.United Steelworkers Local 1999 President Chuck Jones, who represents workers at United Technologies Corp's Carrier plant in Indianapolis, criticized Trump for inflating the number of jobs that would be saved by his intervention in the company's decision to move some production to Mexico.Trump responded on Twitter that Jones had done a "terrible job representing workers."Jones said after speaking to the company that 800 jobs would remain in Indianapolis, of which 730 will be union jobs and 70 management positions. Trump said last week that a deal by Indiana to give the company 7 million dollars in tax breaks would keep 1,100 jobs in the region."Our people, at that point in time, got their hopes back up that they might have a job," Jones told CNBC yesterday."All he had to do is come back and say I was misled by (United Technologies)," Jones said about Trump. "Instead of doing that he goes on the attack on me?"REUTERS RSD 0751 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0435-1057598.Xml
India could face tight wheat supplies in the weeks ahead as 400,000 tonnes of Ukrainian cargoes, booked for December, are expected to be delayed, traders said, just when the South Asian country was boosting stockpiles.India yesterday scrapped its 10 per cent import duty on wheat after droughts in the past two years depleted stocks and raised prices, a move traders said could lift overseas purchases to their highest in a decade.India, which has been snapping up Australian and Black Sea wheat cargoes in recent weeks, was expecting the shipments from Ukraine to arrive this month, but traders now say they might reach India by January.Ukraine is in the middle of peak corn exports while wheat shipment season is nearly over."Ukrainian exporters are giving more importance to ship corn. Ships to load wheat are just waiting," one New Delhi-based trader said.The late arrival of ships from the Black Sea could make it difficult for Indian ports next month when Australian wheat cargoes are also due."Everything will arrive at the same time and Indian ports will not be able to handle such influx," said one Singapore trader, who is among the suppliers hit by delays."We will have delays in unloading ships."In the past month, Indian importers have purchased about 500,000 tonnes of wheat, largely from Australia, as the country continues its large import programme.Elsewhere, Philippine mills recently bought 50,000 tonnes of Australian wheat at about $202 a tonne, free on board, for shipment in January, traders said. REUTERS JW AS1510 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0364-1058030.Xml
Syrian government forces pressed an offensive in Aleppo today night and into tomorrow with ground fighting and air strikes, Reuters witnesses, rebels and a monitoring group said, part of a push to retake all of the city's besieged rebel-held east."Helicopters, warplanes and rocket bombardment like every day. Nothing has changed," a Turkish-based official with the Jabha Shamiya rebel group told Reuters, describing the situation as of 9:30 am today.The official added that despite the bombardment, "the guys are steadfast".Syrian government and allied forces have in the last two weeks driven rebels from most of their territory in what was once Syria's most populous city. The rebels have controlled the eastern section since 2012, and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said in an interview published yesterday that retaking Aleppo would change the course of the civil war across the whole country.A military source told Reuters: "Until now 32 neighbourhoods have been liberated out of an original 40 in east Aleppo... The advance is going according to plan and is sometimes faster than expected."The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict, said government rocket attacks continued overnight into Friday morning on frontline areas of east Aleppo.During a tour of Old Aleppo, Reuters journalists counted the sound of nine air raids in about half an hour.A Reuters witness in rebel-held Aleppo said there were intense clashes in Sheikh Saeed today. That is in the south of the eastern sector, where the Observatory and a Syrian military source said government forces advanced yesterday.Russia's RIA news agency quoted Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov late yesterday as saying the Syrian army had halted military activity to let civilians leave rebel-held territory. Russia's air force and Shi'ite militias from Arab countries are also fighting in Aleppo on the government side. REUTERS JW AS1511 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0364-1058041.Xml
South Korea will step up cooperation with allies to respond to North Korea's nuclear threat, Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn said today in his first speech after parliament impeached President Park Geun-hye.South Korea faced grave risks from both within and externally and could not afford to have a vacuum in government, Hwang said in a televised address. He vowed to make his best efforts to manage the country. REUTERS JW AS1730 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0364-1058360.Xml
US President-elect Donald Trump will meet with US House Speaker Paul Ryan in New York today, according to a Trump transition team official.Representatives for Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican, could not be immediately reached for comment on the meeting. Trump had also been scheduled today to meet with US Senator Joe Manchin from West Virginia, a Democrat.REUTERS SHS RAI1933 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0329-1058732.Xml
A Turkish court today halted a case brought by victims of an Israeli raid on an aid flotilla that killed 10 people in 2010, a lawyer for the victims' families said, following a deal in June to restore ties between Israel and Turkey.Israeli-Turkish relations broke down in 2010 when Turkish pro-Palestinian activists were killed by Israeli commandos enforcing a naval blockade of the Gaza Strip. The soldiers had raided a ship, the Mavi Marmara, leading a flotilla to the Hamas Islamist-run Palestinian territory.Israel agreed to pay out 20 million dollars to the families of those killed on the vessel, a crucial element in the restoration of ties.REUTERS SHS BL2259 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0329-1059040.Xml
JUBA, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- South Sudan on Thursday denied reports that it had asked the Sudanese government to close offices of the opposition party SPLM-IO led by ousted First Vice President Riek Machar.

Mawien Makol Arik, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told Xinhua that the government asked Khartoum to cease helping South Sudanese opposition groups from using Sudanese territory to wage war against Juba, but not to close the party's offices.

"We haven't asked Khartoum to close any rebel offices in their territory but we asked Sudan to refrain from supporting opposing members of the government of South Sudan to create an environment that will help us implement the cooperation agreement," Arik said.

Arik said South Sudan was committed to implementing agreements signed with Sudan, adding that members of a joint border committee from both countries recently met in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa to fast-track the process of addressing boundary disputes.

He urged the Sudanese government to desist from making contradictory statements that may hamper efforts to restore full ties between the two neighbors and to give more time for the implementation of the signed deal.

Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir in October gave South Sudan until the end of 2016 to implement the cooperation agreement signed between the two countries in 2012.

The joint cooperation agreement provides mechanisms for oil and trade, security, border demarcation as well as status of citizens.

South Sudan accuses Khartoum of supporting opposition forces loyal to Machar while Khartoum accuses Juba of hosting and supporting armed groups fighting against the Sudanese government in Kordofan and Blue Nile regions.
LONDON, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- The crucial court case to decide whether the government or parliament can trigger Britain's exit from the European Union (EU) came to a close in London Thursday.

The 11 judges of the Supreme Court, all sitting together for the first time in the court's history, will now deliberate over Christmas and New Year and deliver their verdict in January.

Although legal and political commentators have speculated that the judges will side with parliament, there was no hint of which way the decision will go when the president of the court Lord Neuberger made his closing comments, becoming the last person to speak in one of the most important cases ever to come before a British court.

"It bears repeating that we are not being asked to overturn the result of the EU Referendum. The ultimate question in this case concerns the process by which that result can lawfully be brought into effect. As we have heard, that question raises important constitutional issues, and we will now take time to ensure that the many arguments which have been presented to us orally and in writing are given full and proper consideration," he said in court. "We appreciate that this case should be resolved as quickly as possible, and we will do our best to achieve that."

During the four-day hearing, 13 leading law barristers have argued on both sides. The government's legal team, led by attorney general Jeremy Wright, say Theresa May's government has the right to trigger article 50, the mechanism that starts the EU exit process.

He has said the parliamentary act that paved the way for a referendum handed the final decision on remaining or leaving to the British public. On June 23, by a margin of 52 to 48, the people voted to leave.

The government says its job is to enact the democratic will of the British people and leave the EU.

Government barrister James Eadie repeated in the closing stages on Thursday that the parliament had wanted ministers to have a "prerogative" power to serve notice under Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty that the Britain was leaving the EU.

Eadie referred to the vote by lawmakers in the House of Commons on Wednesday when by a landslide majority the government's planned timetable to trigger article 50 by the end of March was backed.

On the opposite side, lawyers representing wealthy businesswoman Gina Miller and others, have argued that the parliament, and not the government, should be the driving force in triggering the exit process.

Miller, who self-funded her legal battle, has faced a barrage of threats, including violence, during the weeks of the legal battle which initially started in the high court. There the judges sided with her and said the parliament must be consulted and involved in the Brexit process.

That prompted Prime Minister Theresa May's government to appeal, leading to the latest hearing in the Supreme Court.

May plans to trigger article 50 by the end of March, no matter what the Supreme Court decides.

Behind the scenes May's legal team are already drawing up provisions for a parliamentary bill to be fast tracked through parliament if the judges again agree with Gina Miller, and order that parliament should be in the driving seat.

Worryingly for May, some MPs and Lords have threatened to attempt to delay the Brexit program or demand a re-run of the referendum.

Related:

British MPs back government's Brexit timetable

LONDON, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister Theresa May won a battle over her Brexit strategy in parliament's House of Commons on Wednesday night.
LONDON, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- Britain faces an unprecedented level of threat from terrorism and warfare, the new head of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), Britain's top secret security agency, said in his first speech Thursday.

In what was a rare public appearance by a security chief, Alex Younger, known in the security services as "C", said: "As I speak, the highly organized, external attack-planning structures within Daesh (IS), even as they face military threat, are plotting ways to project violence against the UK and our allies without ever having to leave Syria."

Despite the unprecedented level of threat, from terrorism or hybrid warfare, Younger said his message was one of confidence. Many of the threats, he said, came from ungoverned spaces in Iraq and Syria.

Younger said at the meeting that British intelligence and security services had disrupted 12 terrorist plots since June 2013.

He said MI6 would "continue to give this country the edge and be an important reason why, in the face of an increasingly complex world, Britain can remain secure, prosperous and confident, in the future, just as it has been in the past."

Younger also paid tribute to the people he called "the brave men and women, officers and agents, who work at great personal risk to keep this country safe."

While recognizing MI6's "deserved reputation as one of the best intelligence services in the world", Younger acknowledged that this would only remain the case if MI6 evolved with the seismic shifts that the data age and globalism had caused."

A statement added: "Alongside the values that MI6 defends and which define its operations, it would be their "relationship with modern technologies that would determine their effectiveness in the future."

Younger's speech was given to an audience of journalists, driven in a fleet of vehicles to MI6's headquarters on the banks of the River Thames in London. It was the first time a serving chief had spoken publicity about the security service from within its own headquarters.
This file September 25, 2013 photo illustration taken in Washington, DC, shows a woman smoking a "Blu" e-cigarette. (Xinhua/AFP Photo)

WASHINGTON, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- A new government report from the U.S. surgeon general said Thursday e-cigarette use among youth Americans has become a "public health threat."

The report came amid "alarming" rates of youth and young adult use of e-cigarettes in the United States, with about one in six high school students in the country reporting the use of an e-cigarette in the past month last year.

"As I meet parents and teachers, elected officials and healthcare professionals across this country, I found that confusion about why e-cigarettes is widespread. People wonder what's in e-cigarettes. Are they safe for kids? Are they a safe alternative to smoking?" U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy asked in a press conference announcing the release of the report.

"The message from the report is clear: nicotine-containing products in any form, including e-cigarettes, are unsafe for use," he said. The growing use of e-cigarettes "threatens 50 years of hard-fought progress that we have made curbing tobacco use and it places a whole new generation at risk for addiction to nicotine."

The report, which was written and reviewed by more than 150 experts, is the first comprehensive federal review of the public health impact of e-cigarettes on youth people in the United States.

It found that e-cigarettes are now the most commonly used tobacco product among youth in the country and that the situation is worrisome because many e-cigarettes contain nicotine, which is a highly addictive chemical and has long-term adverse effects on the developing brain of adolescents and young adults.

The use of e-cigarette is also strongly associated with the use of other tobacco products and research has shown that kids who use e-cigarettes are more likely to use traditional cigarettes, according to the report.

The report also noted that aerosol from e-cigarette is not harmless water vapor for either the users or those who inhale it second-hand, because it can contain harmful and potentially harmful ingredients, including nicotine.

E-cigarettes are battery-powered devices with a heating element, which produce an aerosol of nicotine and other chemicals. The liquid that is vaporized in e-cigarettes comes in hundreds of flavors, including bubble gum and milk chocolate cream to attract younger teens.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a long-awaited final rule that bans the sale of e-cigarettes to people under age 18.
CHICAGO, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) grains futures close mixed on Thursday with soybean futures tumbling as investors shrug off continued demand from Asian market and liquidate positions amid a record crop.

The most active corn contract for March delivery fell 4.5 cents, or 1.26 percent, to 3.535 dollars per bushel. March wheat delivery added 7.25 cents, or 1.81 percent, to 4.0825 dollars per bushel. January soybeans dropped 22 cents, or 2.1 percent, to 10.27 dollars per bushel.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's nomination of Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to run the nation's Environmental Protection Agency also sparked worries of reduced support for corn-based ethanol and soy-based biodiesel. U.S. renewable fuel credits fell sharply following the EPA news.

Commodity funds were net sellers of 15,000 soybean contracts, traders estimated.

Brazil's government crop supply agency estimated the country's soy harvest at a record 102.45 million tonnes. Dry parts of Argentina may see rains within the next two weeks, meteorologists said.

Wheat climbed after Saudi Arabia said it was seeking global offers for 715,000 tonnes of hard wheat for delivery between Feb. 1 and April 10.

India also scrapped its 10 percent wheat import duty on Thursday after two years of drought depleted stocks and raised prices. Traders said the move could lift import purchases to the highest in a decade.

Also, the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Friday is expected to boost supply expectations for Brazil and Argentina soybean production and narrowly reduce U.S. soy ending stocks, according to Reuters' analyst poll.

Commerzbank analysts in a report said supplies of key agricultural products including soybeans, corn and wheat are "set to remain comfortable in 2017, meaning limited potential for prices to recover."

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has projected production of 4.36 billion bushels of soybeans on yields of 52.5 bushels an acre. Corn output is pegged at 15.2 billion bushels on yields of 175.3 bushels an acre. All of those figures are records, according to USDA data.
BERLIN, Dec.8 (Xinhua) -- China's Fujian Grand Chip Investment Fund (FGC) announced on Thursday on its website to withdraw its offer for German chip equipment maker Aixtron.

FGC said in the announcement that the takeover offer has lapsed. Meanwhile, already acquired papers would be expected to be re-booked on December 13.

Aixtron's CEO Martin Goetzeler told the German newspaper Handelsblatt that he is disappointed and now authority agencies are needed in the interest of security and jobs.

Goetzeler added that Aixtron would be threatened to face hard cuts and losses of jobs without the sale.

"We have noted that the bidder has withdrawn his offer to take over Aixtron," a spokesman for the Germany Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) was quoted as saying by German media.

This means that the examination of the federal government for the issue of a clearance certificate is no longer necessary, the spokesman added.

In October, BMWi suddenly withdrew the clearance certificate for FGC. The ministry then reopened the review of the 670-million-euro (715-million-U.S. dollar) deal after it was initially approved on Sept. 8.

Last week, U.S. President Barack Obama blocked FGC's purchase of Aixtron's U.S. business despite objections from China.
LONDON, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- Cocoon Networks London, an innovation center that seeks to promote China-Britain technology transfer and investment, was launched here Thursday during the first day of the China-UK Hi! Technology Festival.

The center will provide 70,000 square feet (around 6,503 square meters) of office space for promising startups in the technology and creative industries, according to Cocoon Networks, the Chinese investment group that runs the center.

Cocoon Networks will also provide collaborators the opportunities to upskill, meet investors, develop and manage new IP (intellectual property) and bring commercial ventures to new markets.

"China's economy is set to become one of the most R&D-intensive in the world within a decade, and China relies on close partners and collaborators in entrepreneurship, innovation and investment to grow our technology ventures to scale," said John Zai, CEO of Cocoon Networks.

"We are proud to be supporting the entrepreneurs enabling this 'Golden Era' of Sino-British collaboration," said Zai.

Industry leaders, entrepreneurs and partners from both China and Britain have gathered at the two-day China-UK Hi! Technology Festival, where they explored opportunities for investment and technology transfer between the two countries.
Italian former President and senator Giorgio Napolitano (C) leaves at the end of the first day of consultations with Italian President Sergio Mattarella at the Quirinale Palace in Rome, Italy, Dec. 8, 2016. Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi formally handed in his resignation to Mattarella after the country's 2017 budget was approved in Senate. The resignation now opened the way for the president to launch a round of talks with all party leaders in order to name a new prime minister, and form a transition government. (Xinhua/Jin Yu)

by Stefania Fumo

ROME, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- The consultation talks led by Italian President Sergio Mattarella with the country's main political forces was expected to end on Saturday afternoon, in an effort to lead the country out of the impasse to form a new government.

Italy's Matteo Renzi has made his resignation as prime minister, after a crushing defeat in last Sunday's referendum on constitutional reform law.

The reform sought to streamline Italy's political machinery by reducing the Senate from 315 to 100 members, eliminating Italy's 110 provinces, and transferring some powers from Italy's 20 regions to the national government.

Last Sunday, close to 60 percent of voters rejected the reform while about 40 percent approved it.

On Wednesday, Renzi announced on twitter that he would officially tender his resignation to Mattarella at 19:00 local time, which he did. The tweet came minutes after his government's 2017 budget - the last pending item - cleared a Senate confidence vote to become law.

Mattarella replied to Renzi by asking his government to remain in charge of day-to-day business while he started consultations with the country's main political forces.

The talks led by the president started on Thursday afternoon and will end on Saturday afternoon, the president's office said in a communique.

In a brief address on Wednesday to the executive of his center-left Democratic Party, Renzi said the future holds two alternatives: either a broad coalition government to steer the country through the end of the current legislature in 2018, or early elections as soon as the Constitutional Court pronounces itself on "Italicum" electoral law.

The Constitutional Court said Tuesday it would begin hearings on the Italicum on January 24, which means Italy can't hold elections until after that date - a fact which has raised the hackles of opposition parties, all of which are clamoring for snap elections.

First among these is Italy's second-largest party, the Five Star Movement (M5S) led by Beppe Grillo.

The M5S announced Wednesday it has filed a proposed bill extending the Italicum to the Senate.

As well, the M5S made known it will invite its activists to choose a candidate to be Italy's next prime minister and cabinet in an online vote on Grillo's blog.
UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- Civil conflict and weather-related shocks have severely stressed food security in 2016, increasing the number of countries in need of food assistance, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said in a report issued Thursday.

The new edition of the Crop Prospects and Food Situation report highlighted 39 countries that are in need of external assistance for food.

While the outlook for global cereal supplies is improving due to generally favourable growing conditions for crops, the legacy of recent droughts persists, as do the negative effects of a spate of conflicts.

Agricultural forecasts suggest robust grain harvests are on the horizon, but hunger will likely intensify in some regions during the lean seasons before the new crops have matured.

In Southern Africa, where El Nino effects sharply curtailed food production in 2016, the number of people requiring outside assistance from January through March 2017 is expected to significantly increase compared to the same period a year ago.

Child stunting rates are "significantly high" in the most troubled areas, notably Madagascar, Malawi and Mozambique, the report noted.

In some regions, inadequate stocks of cereal and legume seeds due to two consecutive poor harvests may limit plantings. FAO and governments are implementing agricultural support programmes to improve access to key farming inputs.

"LONG SHADOW" ON FOOD SECURITY

To facilitate humanitarian response planning, the report identified the primary causes of local food crises. These range from exceptional shortfall in food production and widespread lack of access -- due to low incomes, high prices or disrupted distribution networks -- to the impact of conflicts on local food security conditions.

Civil conflicts and their consequences, including refugee movements that are burdening host countries such as Cameroon and Chad, are cited in 21 of the 39 countries. Widespread conflict can lead to the loss and depletion of households' productive assets, as in the Central African Republic, and to security concerns that hinder farming activities, as in South Sudan.

In parts of South Sudan, the world's youngest country, improved harvests are likely to have only a short-lived effect as ongoing conflict has reduced the ability to engage in agriculture, posing extra risks for the most vulnerable communities.

Continuing civil conflict in Syria has led to 9.4 million people requiring food assistance. This year's wheat production is estimated to be around 55 percent below its pre-crisis level.

The ongoing conflict in Yemen has likely increased the number of food-insecure people from the 14.2 million people assessed in June, the report said. The recent escalation of conflict in Iraq is triggering a widespread internal displacement. Acute food insecurity affects more than 8 million people in Afghanistan and their numbers are likely to increase with the return of around 600,000 refugees from Pakistan before the end of 2016.

The number of food insecure people in Nigeria is above 8 million and is projected to increase to 11 million by August 2017. The ongoing conflict in northern states curtailed plantings, while the sharp depreciation of the Naira currency has raised domestic food prices and affected regional trade as more Nigerian cereals are exported while fewer livestock are imported.

IMPROVED AGRICULTURAL TRENDS EXPECTED NEXT YEAR

Droughts and weather effects linked to El Nino triggered significant crop shortfalls in 2016 in several countries. Africa's aggregate cereal production declined in 2016 despite some sub-regional gains, notably in West Africa and the Sahel region, which is on track for a record cereal production. Maize output in Southern Africa decreased sharply, severely stressing food security conditions.

Poor harvests triggered sharply higher prices for staple maize in Malawi, where 6.5 million people are expected to be food insecure during the upcoming lean period. On a positive note, with El Nino over, preliminary estimates point to a 27 percent increase in maize plantings for South Africa's 2017 crop, by far the region's largest producer.

While much of Asia benefited from robust food production in 2016, led by a sharp recovery in India, the impact of long-running conflicts in several Near Eastern countries continues to severely depress agricultural production despite generally beneficial weather conditions for staple grain crops.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, expectations of a production rebound in Central America in 2016 are welcome, following the drought-affected outputs in the previous year, while the 2017 planting season in South America is off to a favourable start after a reduced 2016 crop mostly due to droughts in Bolivia, Brazil and Paraguay.

The 39 countries currently in need of external food assistance are Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea, Haiti, Iraq, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Swaziland, Syria, Uganda, Yemen and Zimbabwe, the report added.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. senate on Thursday passed an annual defense policy bill which restricts on transferring detainees out of the Guantanomo Bay facility and sends it to the lame-duck President Barack Obama who has been trying to close it for years.

The wide-ranging National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) was passed by senators in a 92-7 vote on Thursday, one week after the House of Representatives approved it in a 375-34 vote.

However, it remains unclear if Obama will sign it. The outgoing president has been often criticized by some defense hawks for his efforts to downsize the Pentagon. The White House has frequently threatened to veto previous version of the bill, but only followed through in 2015, according to local media reports. .

The bill for the fiscal year of 2017 would authorize a total of 618.7 billion dollars in spending, including more than 67 billion dollars for a war fund known as the overseas contingency operations (OCO) account, said a Politico news report.

The bill includes a troop pay raise of 2.1 percent, though Obama has only requested for a 1.6 percent pay raise. It also calls for 3.2 billion dollars more in base defense funding than Obama has requested, plus an additional 5.8 billion dollars in White House-requested war dollars.

As for the size of the Army and Marine Corps, the new bill authorizes 476,000 active-duty soldiers (16,000 more than requested) and 185,000 Marines (3,000 more than requested).

"The president-elect has said we're not spending enough and we aren't doing enough," Republican Senator John McCain said on the Senate floor Thursday. "And by the way, we've go to do it right. We need to spend more."

On the campaign trail, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump promised a massive military building-up, including boosting the Army to 540,000 active-duty soldiers, increasing the Navy to 350 warships and adding 1,200 new Air Force fighter jets.
SUVA, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Vanuatu and Australia have signed an aid partnership agreement and reaffirmed strong ties between the two nations, local newspaper the Vanuatu Daily Post reported Friday.

The Australia-Vanuatu Aid Partnership Agreement 2016-2019 was signed Thursday by Vanuatuan Prime Minister Charlot Salwai and Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop.

Bishop led a high-level Australian delegation comprising the minister of international development and the Pacific as well as two senators from the Australian Opposition on a three-day visit to three Pacific nations including Vanuatu.

"We have agreed on the priorities for the next three years. We will be focusing our funding and programs and efforts on infrastructure to promote and drive economic growth," Bishop said, adding that it will also "focus on health and education outcomes, longstanding pillars on Australian Aid program in Vanuatu as well as community safety and resilience."

In response, Salwai acknowledged Australia's continuous support and reaffirmed the strong bilateral ties, said the report.
MELBOURNE, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Regularly using social media contributes to good mental health, an Australian study has found.

The study, published by the University of Melbourne and Monash University on Friday, reviewed 70 studies that examined the relationship between social networking and depression, anxiety and wellbeing.

Researchers found that social networks often proved useful for connecting with others and receiving social support as well as providing a unique source of social support for people who found face-to-face interaction difficult.

However, social media was not good for everyone with people who often compared themselves to others, posted negative thoughts or who were addicted to social media being at a greater risk of suffering from depression and anxiety.

Peggy Kern, the leader of the study from the University of Melbourne, said that people with social anxiety were more likely to passively browse social media rather than directly engaging while individuals with depressive symptoms were more likely to post their negative thoughts.

"Social media provides not only a window into the thoughts and emotions that people choose to share, but also some of their behavioural patterns that may help or hinder mental health," Kern said in a media release on Friday.

"By understanding links between social media and mental health, we can make better choices about how to best use social media, as well as use social media to promote good mental health."

Elizabeth Seabrook, a researcher from Monash University, said the research meant social media could be used in the future to identify and predict the presence of depression and social anxiety in a user.

"With continued research it may be a powerful tool for the early identification of mental health risk," Seabrook said.
by Matt Walsh

CANBERRA, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Australia's Treasurer Scott Morrison approved the sale of Australia's largest pastoral land holding on Friday, S. Kidman & Co., to a partnership involving local mining magnate Gina Rinehart and Chinese consortium Shanghai CRED.

Following months of speculation as to whether or not Morrison would approve a bid involving a foreign firm, the Treasurer released a statement on Friday formally approving the sale of the cattle empire to Australian Outback Beef (AOB), a venture 67 percent owned by Gina Rinehart's Hancock Prospecting and 33 percent by China's Shanghai CRED.

Morrison had previously knocked back Chinese-majority bids for the empire due to worries over "national security" and "national interest", but under the deal struck with AOB, Morrison said there would be no cause for concern.

"Consistent with the recommendation from the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB), I have decided that the acquisition of Kidman as proposed would not be contrary to the national interest and will be permitted to proceed as proposed," Morrison said in a statement on Friday.

Under the agreement, S. Kidman & Co's contentious Anna Creek holding, which backs onto the Royal Australian Air Force's (RAAF) Woomera weapons testing range, would not be included as part of the sale to AOB.

"Under the proposal the largest station in the Kidman group, Anna Creek and its outstation The Peake, will be acquired by the Williams Family, a local farming family with properties that adjoin Anna Creek," Morrison said.

"The remainder of the S. Kidman & Co. Limited business will be acquired by Australian Outback Beef Pty Ltd (Outback Beef).

"Under the proposal Australian-owned Hancock will control the Board, and will control day-to-day operation of the business. Kidman will remain majority Australian owned under this proposal, and remain an Australian incorporated company headquartered in South Australia."

Morrison said the AOB deal in conjunction with the separate sale of Anna Creek would mean the Kidman cattle empire will remain majority Australian owned.

"Currently Kidman is 33.9 percent foreign owned," Morrison said. "With the sale of Anna Creek and The Peake, the proposal I am approving today represents a significant increase in overall Australian ownership from 66.1 percent to 74.7 percent."

Earlier this year, Morrison knocked back a Chinese-majority 280 million U.S. dollar bid for the landholding, while the AOB bid is expected to be in the ball-park of 295 million U.S. dollars.

It is unclear as to whether or not AOB will pay less for the acquisition seeing as though the Anna Creek station is off the table.

The Kidman empire covers 101,000 square km of pastoral land, representing 2.6 percent of Australia's total agricultural land.
WELLINGTON, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- A growing number of New Zealanders feel the country is attracting too many tourists, as record numbers of visitors put the environment and infrastructure under pressure, according to a tourism industry survey out Friday.

When told the country drew a record 3.4 million tourists over the past year, 19 percent of respondents said they felt that was too many, according to the survey by the Tourism Industry Aotearoa (TIA) and the government's Tourism New Zealand agency.

That figure was up from 13 percent in the same survey a year ago.

However New Zealanders generally felt positive about the fast-growing tourism industry, with more than a quarter believing the country received too few visitors, said a statement from the two organizations.

The latest survey was conducted in November with the majority of responses received before the Kaikoura earthquake that killed two people on Nov. 14.

Compared to the previous surveys, New Zealanders' understanding of the size and importance of the tourism industry had improved slightly although most continued to underestimate the number of international visitors arriving each year.

The main benefits of international tourism were considered to be business opportunities and economic growth.

Road accidents and traffic congestion were the top concerns of survey respondents, followed by overcrowding, a lack of infrastructure and environmental impacts.

"These latest results reinforce the issue we have been aware of and targeting for some time - that growth in international tourism is putting pressure on some communities," Tourism New Zealand acting chief executive Brighid Kelly said in the statment.

"We believe concerns are exacerbated by our visitor concentration in summer and at key tourist hot spots."

TIA chief executive Chris Roberts said the industry and government were working together to address the concerns raised in the survey, such as the safety of visiting drivers.

"We are championing the provision of tourism infrastructure to support tourism value growth, including researching future infrastructure needs and funding options," Roberts said in the statement.
WELLINGTON, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- The five nations considered to be at the forefront of putting government services online will gather in New Zealand in early 2018 to discuss moves to expand digital government, Internal Affairs Minister Peter Dunne said Friday.

The meeting will be the next international leaders' summit, most recently held in South Korea of Digital 5 (D5) nations: New Zealand, Britain, South Korea, Estonia and Israel.

Over the next year New Zealand would be leading a digital identity work stream for the D5 nations, which would build on the success of its RealMe identity verification service, Dunne said in a statement.

Members of the public could use the service to order online birth, death and marriage certificates, apply for and renew passports online, enrol to vote, or apply for student allowances and loans.

Currently 52 percent of New Zealanders' most common transactions with government were completed in a digital environment and the government was track to meet a target of 70 percent by December 2017.

"As a small country we are early adopters of technology and can develop, test and innovate more quickly than most. Our digital journey is progressing well in New Zealand," Dunne said.

"We are transforming government services so they are designed and delivered with the citizen in mind, not around how government is structured. This means the public sector will deliver integrated services that are based on what our citizens need."

At the D5 Summit in South Korea last month, Dunne signed the Busan Declaration, reaffirming the efforts of the D5 countries to strengthen cooperation in the field of digital government among members and with the international community.
HANOI, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Up to 12 billion U.S. dollars is needed to build Van Don special economic zone in Vietnam's northern Quang Ninh province by 2030, local media reported Friday.

Quang Ninh has so far mobilized 40 trillion Vietnamese dong (nearly 1.8 billion U.S. dollars) to invest in the zone, mainly for infrastructure development, daily newspaper Tuoi Tre (Youth) quoted Nguyen Manh Tuan, head of the Quang Ninh Economic Zone Management Board, as saying.

An international airport named Van Don in Van Don district, some 50km from Ha Long City, home to the world heritage site of Ha Long Bay, is under construction with investment of 7 trillion Vietnamese dong (nearly 314 million U.S. dollars), and is scheduled to become operational in 2018.

A complex, including a casino, and road routes in the special economic zone are also under construction.

Quang Ninh is planning to build expressways linking Ha Long with Van Don District and Mong Cai City in the province, and with the neighboring port city of Hai Phong.

The Vietnamese government has just agreed in principle that three special economic zones will be built nationwide, including Van Don in northern Quang Ninh province, Van Phong in central Khanh Hoa province, and Phu Quoc in southern Kien Giang province.
WELLINGTON, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand Trade Minister Todd McClay will be discussing two regional trade agreements with Brunei counterparts over the weekend.

McClay said Friday he would hold talks with Brunei's Second Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Pehin Lim Jock Seng, who is visiting New Zealand with Industry Minister, Pehin Yasmin Umar.

"I look forward to talking to the Minister about our bilateral relationship and the agreements we have in common, such as TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) and RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership)," McClay said in a statement.

"Brunei is a good friend of New Zealand, working cooperatively with us within ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and beyond," said McClay.

"Brunei and New Zealand cooperate in trade, defence, and education - and Brunei is also a strong supporter of trade liberalization."

Two-way trade was worth 506 million NZ dollars (362.95 million U.S. dollars).

"Of our more modest exports, butter accounts for 30 percent," said McClay.

Both countries are members of the P4 - the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership, which also involves Chile and Singapore.

Brunei and New Zealand are also both involved in the 16-nation RCEP.

New Zealand's trade relationship with Brunei is dominated by imports of crude oil, which can see trade values fluctuate dramatically from year to year.

In 2012, total two-way trade reached 1.2 billion NZ dollars (860.64 million U.S. dollars), but in 2014 the figure was 463 million NZ dollars (332.06 million U.S. dollars), according to figures from New Zealand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

In 2014, New Zealand's direct exports to Brunei amounted to 6 million NZ dollars (4.3 million U.S. dollars).
MANILA, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte will make state visits to Cambodia and Singapore next week, a government spokesman announced on Friday.

In a news conference at the presidential palace, Foreign Assistant Secretary Charles Jose said Duterte will visit Cambodia on Dec. 13 and 14, and Singapore on Dec. 15 to 16.

"Both trips form part of a series of the president's introductory visits to neighboring Asian countries," Jose said.

Jose said Duterte is expected to have bilateral talks with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen in Phnom Penh where they are expected to discuss issues of mutual concern including defense and security relations and bilateral trade.

In Singapore, he said Duterte will also have bilateral talks with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

Duterte and Lee are expected "to discuss ways to further increase the levels of two-way trade and investments, strengthen defense and security cooperation, including counter-terrorism and war on drugs," Jose said.

Duterte is also expected to discuss with the two Southeast Asian leaders the Philippines ASEAN chairmanship next year, referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Aside from Cambodia, the Philippines and Singapore, ASEAN also groups Brunei, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.
SYDNEY, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Two men who planned to bomb a Shia Muslim prayer hall in Sydney to impress an Islamic State recruiter were jailed for at least 15 years on Friday, local media reported.

Omar Al-Kutobi, 25, and Mohammad Kiad, 27, each pleaded guilty to one count of acting in preparation for a terrorist act at a temple in Sydney's western Guildford suburb but failing to follow through with the attack last year, the Australian Associated Press reported.

In the New South Wales Supreme Court in Sydney's Parramatta area on Friday, Justice Peter Garling sentenced the men to 20 years' imprisonment with a non-parole period of 15 years, noting "they were equal participants in the events", AAP reported.

The pair was arrested during a raid of their western Sydney flat by counter-terrorism police in February 2015. Police found a hunting knife, a machete and a homemade Islamic State flag, AAP reported.

Police acted swiftly, "because they believed a terror attack was imminent", Detective Chief Inspector Darren Sly was quoted as saying.

"I think we were very, very lucky in the circumstances and if it wasn't for the intervention of police there then I think we would have had a terrorist event on our hands," AAP quoted Sly as saying on Friday.

"From a police perspective, we're happy with the sentence.

"I think it sends a good message to the community that we're strong on terrorism."
LISBON, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- Portugal has completed its fifth post-program surveillance and post-program monitoring mission, the Ministry of Finance said here Thursday.

Since last mission in June, carried out by the country's international lenders, developments have been made in key areas of the Portuguese economy, the ministry said in a statement.

Portugal ended a 78-billion-euro (about 82.68 billion U.S. dollars) bailout program in 2014, which has since 2011 prevented national bankruptcy.

However, the country is still subjected to regular technical consultations by its international lenders until it pays most of the loans received under its adjustment program.

"The rigorous implementation of the 2016 budget was confirmed, leading the IMF to improve its previous deficit forecast (from 3 percent to 2.6 percent)," the statement said, adding that actions have been taken to stabilize the financial sector and the implementation of the National Reform Program has been detailed.

The statement also noted the "positive behavior of the labor market, namely steady employment growth," highlighting that current unemployment rate stands at 10.5 percent, the minimum since 2009.

Portugal registered the highest third quarter growth rate of 1.6 percent in the euro zone, which reflected the acceleration in economic growth, according to the statement.

"In 2017, the government will carry on the rigorous management of public accounts and the implementation of competitiveness-fostering policies, with the goal of promoting sustained and inclusive growth in the medium and long term," it said.

However, in another statement released on Thursday, the European Central Bank (ECB) pointed out that the recovery "continues to be held back by elevated levels of debt in the private and public sector, high non-performing loans and rigidities in product and labor markets."

The ECB said in line with the Portuguese authorities' commitments to fiscal consolidation, efforts must continue to ensure sustainable debt reduction, and to pursue prudent fiscal policy and ambitious growth-enhancing reforms.

The latest monitoring mission in Portugal took place from Nov. 26 to Dec. 7.
by Matt Walsh

MELBOURNE, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Leading free-trade nations such as China and Australia should continue to push for globalization in the face of "increasing protectionism," respected Australian economist Ross Garnaut told Xinhua of Friday.

As discontent with a globalizing world continues to spread through the world, Garnaut, a leading economist from the Australian National University (ANU), said lawmakers need to convince the "everyday citizen" of the benefits of globalization, or risk future free trade deals and global development.

"We are already in a period of increasing protectionism," which is "unambiguously bad for global development and the prosperity of each of the world's economies," he said.

"Protectionism anywhere hurts everyone. China's best response is to keep its own markets open and enjoy for itself as many of the benefits of open trade as it can.

"The main losers from protection are the countries which impose it."

Referring to the plans by United States President-elect Donald Trump to tear up the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade deal once he assumes office, Garnaut said it was important for lawmakers in nations trying to take advantage of free trade to be frank and open about the benefits of globalization, as many middle class consumers are of the belief that a globalized world benefits only the rich, and not the "everyday citizen."

"The challenge to globalization is coming largely from the feeling in large parts of the populations of the rich countries that expanding trade and investment makes the rich richer but doesn't help ordinary people," Garnaut told Xinhua.

"The best response is policy that ensures that the living standards of ordinary citizens rise with the total value of activity in the economy," he said.

He lauded the strong bilateral relationship between Australia and China, and said if they continue to take action towards globalization - without influence from outside governments - they will continue to mutually benefit through free trade deals such as the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA).

"From the early days of APEC until the Asian Financial crisis 1998-99, the Western pacific economies including Australia and China opened their economies through unilateral action without preferences for friends or against outsiders," Garnaut said.

"That was a good basis for expanding Sino-Australian trade. We should get back to it. If we do that, Sino-Australian trade will greatly increase in volume but change in character, with much higher components of sophisticated and valuable services, processed foodstuffs and specialized manufacturers."

The ANU economist said while an open and integrated economy will enhance connectivity, boost reform and innovation to forge stronger partnerships throughout the world, he ultimately sees the current "deglobalization" trend continuing, with upcoming elections in Western economies such as Austria, France and Germany leaning towards it.
BEIJING, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Analysts from around the world hail a strong rebound of China's trade data in November, as both domestic and global demands show signs of recovering.

Stripping out the impact of yuan depreciation, exports in U.S. dollar terms edged up 0.1 percent year on year in November, according to data released Thursday by the General Administration of Customs. The latest export figure represented the first increase in nine months following a 7.3-percent contraction in October.

Meanwhile, November imports grew by 6.7 percent year on year, the fastest pace in more than two years following a 1.4-percent decline in October, customs data showed.

"Better-than-expected trade data out of China today reflects both an uptick in global demand as well as the continued strength of domestic economy," wrote Julian Evans-Pritchard, China economist at Singapore-based Capital Economics, in a note.

The upbeat data "adds to signs of a modest industrial recovery in the world's largest economies even as China and other Asian exporters brace for a potential trade war once protectionist U.S President-elect Donald Trump takes office," Reuters reported.

Moreover, analysts pointed out that the recent depreciation of the Chinese yuan also contributed to the rebound.

November's trade gains were even stronger when measured in China's currency. In yuan terms, exports rose 5.9 percent from a year earlier while imports continued to pick up steam by increasing 13 percent.

With the deepening of supply-side reform and a low price base, imports may sustain growth, said Niu Li, an economist with China's State Information Center.

Improving fundamentals and recovering commodity prices such as crude oil and iron ore in the global market also contributed to the positive trade data in November, economists said. But some believe the sharp commodity price rises could mask a still sluggish demand.

The better-than-expected trade figures cement expectations that the Chinese government will once again meet its full-year growth target, which was set at 6.5 to 7 percent for this year, Reuters reported.

Despite the November bounce, analysts expressed concerns about the sustainability of strength in China's trade, as risks of receding trade globalization might weigh on future growth.

"Of all the high frequency economic data over the year, trade headwinds are likely to be the most severe, and the most uncontrollable, due to trade policies of other countries," Chester Liaw, an economist at Forecast Pte Ltd in Singapore, was quoted by Reuters as saying.

The medium-term outlook for Chinese trade "remains challenging," Evans-Pritchard noted. "While global demand has recovered somewhat recently, lower trend growth in many developed and emerging economies means that further upside is probably limited."

Mounting trade tensions with the United States and Europe could weigh on Chinese exporters in the coming months as Donald Trump assumes the U.S. presidency, the Wall Street Journal quoted Standard Chartered Bank economist Ding Shuang as warning.

During his campaign, Trump pledged to impose sanctions against China, saying he would brand China a currency manipulator and impose heavy tariffs on imports of Chinese goods.

Even if Trump does not try to impose punitive measures, growing protectionist sentiment could have "a chilling effect" on trade and investment worldwide, Reuters reported.

"We remain cautious on the export outlook, given the still unconvincing global demand recovery and policy uncertainty in the U.S. after Mr. Trump's election win," Louis Kuijs of Oxford Economics told the Associated Press.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- The third China-U.S. ministerial dialogue on fighting cyber crimes and other related affairs issued Thursday a list of positive fruits as the two sides worked hard to strengthen cooperation in cybersecurity.

The dialogue was co-chaired by China's State Councilor and Minister of Public Security Guo Shengkun with U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson.

During this round of dialogue, both sides endorsed the establishment of the dialogue mechanism as beneficial to bilateral communication and enhanced cooperation, and both regarded further solidifying, developing, and maintaining the dialogue mechanism as beneficial to mutual interests.

Both sides recommitted to cooperate on investigating cyber crimes and related matters emanating from China or the United States and to refrain from cyber-enabled theft of intellectual property with the intent of offering competitive advantages to companies or commercial sectors, said the document.

China and the United States identified a number of areas for future cooperation on enhancing cybersecurity, including enhancing network hygiene by cleaning and patching malware infections in respective networks, engaging in regular reciprocal sharing of malicious IP addresses, malware samples and other network protection information.

The two countries pledged to continue discussion on future cooperation in cybersecurity of critical infrastructure, and to hold as early as possible in 2017 a China-U.S.government and technology company roundtable to discuss cybersecurity issues of mutual concern.

As to the fight against cyber terrorism, both sides acknowledged the seminar on misuse of technology and communications to facilitate violent acts of terrorism held in November this year in China. Both sides will consider holding another seminar in 2017.

The two countries agreed that the dialogue should continue to be held each year.

In his remarks to the meeting, Guo noted that under the auspices of Chinese President Xi Jinping and his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama, China-U.S. cooperation in safeguarding cybersecurity is booming and has yielded positive outcomes in cracking down on cyber crimes and related matters.

Calling the current China-U.S. cooperation in cybersecurity a link between past and future, Guo proposed that the two sides press on in using the dialogue mechanism as the main channel for communication in tackling cybersecurity issues, give prompt and effective response to the requests from the other side, and constructively manage their differences.

The U.S. side said that China and the United States share common interests in fighting cyber crimes and protecting cybersecurity, and the high-level dialogue mechanism also serves as a crucial platform for candid communication and enhancing mutual understanding and trust between law enforcement officials of the two countries.

According to 2014 data from the Cyberspace Administration of China, China has been a victim of cyber-attacks. More than 10,000 websites are tampered with every month, and about 80 percent of government websites suffered attacks, mainly originating in the United States.

Also, the Internet Society of China reported that 84 percent of Internet users in the country have been affected by personal information leaks. The number of Internet users in China hit 710 million in June this year.

China's top legislature in November adopted a cybersecurity law to safeguard sovereignty on cyberspace, national security and the rights of citizens.
PIDIE JAYA, Indonesia, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- A total of 10,301 people have escaped Wednesday's powerful quake in Aceh province of western Indonesia, according to a data center of the disaster agency on Friday.

The 6.4 magnitude quake had damaged nearly 11,000 houses and buildings in Pidie Jaya district, the hardest hit area.

"Most of the internally displaced persons have taken shelters in makeshift tents, mosques, and relative houses," Yusmazi, head of emergency unit at disaster agency in Pidie Jaya district told Xinhua at the center.

The shallow quake had also destroyed 146 mosques, five bridges, one school building and 14,000 roads, the data from the center revealed.

Dozens of tents have been distributed to the quake affected areas and dozens others are being transported, Rafiati, head of social department in Pedie Jaya district told Xinhua.

The quake had also damaged clean water facilities in the districts and triggered diseases, Yusmazi said.

Over 100 people were killed by the quake and around 700 others injured, according to national disaster management agency.

At least 20 aftershocks have occurred in the province and are still taking place occasionally on Friday.
RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Chinese company BYD will get a new line of credit to expand its renewable energy business in Brazil, local media reported Thursday.

The credit line worth 1 billion reais (296 million U.S. dollars), which will allow BYD to manufacture electric buses, solar panels and offer leasing contracts to local public transport companies, said O Estado de Sao Paulo daily.

According to BYD, each electric bus will have a service life of around 20 years and an continuous driving distance of 300 km, using lithium-ion batteries.

Each electric bus will cost 1 million reais compared with 400,000 reais (119,000 U.S. dollars) for a regular model running on gasoline.

Eleven BYD electric buses and five electric taxis are already operating in Campinas, Sao Paulo state, while the company also has electric vehicles in the Brazilian cities of Curitiba and Brasilia.

Campinas mayor Jonas Donizete recently visited Shenzhen, China, where BYD is based, and agreed that tenders for public transport licenses in 2017 would carry a minimum requirement for the purchasing of electric buses.

BYD has an electric bus plant in Campinas, Sao Paulo state. In February, the company is set to open a solar panel plant in the same region.
SEOUL, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- A bill to impeach South Korean President Park Geun-hye on Friday passed at the Parliament, winning two-thirds majority as 234 lawmakers voted in favor, 56 against and 2 abstained.
BEIJING, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Friday marks the International Anti-Corruption Day. China has bolstered efforts on international anti-corruption cooperation in recent years and major achievements have been made.

China has extradited 2,442 criminals from over 70 countries or regions, recovering illicit money worth 8.54 billion yuan (1.24 billion U.S. dollars) between Jan. 2014 and Nov. 2016, according to the latest data of the Communist Party of China Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI).

Last month, China's most wanted graft fugitive Yang Xiuzhu, who had been on the run for 13 years, finally returned to China and turned herself in to authorities.

Yang, 70, a former official in the eastern Zhejiang Province, fled China in April 2003 after graft inspectors began investigating her for embezzlement, according to the CCDI.

She was number one on a list of China's top 100 fugitives released in an Interpol "red notice." Yang was the 37th person on the list to return.

China's Foreign Ministry hailed Yang's return as "a major achievement in China-U.S. law enforcement cooperation on anti-corruption."

China and the United States communicated and cooperated through a Joint Liaison Group on law enforcement cooperation, to secure the return of Yang, according to the ministry.

Yang's return proves the central authority's resolution in fighting corruption, the CCDI said.

These important achievements have helped promote a new international anti-corruption order, thanks to China's efforts made through bilateral and multilateral frameworks.

The China-U.S. Joint Liaison Group set a good example for international collaborations on anti-corruption efforts.

Established in 1998, the group is a major channel for China-U.S. law enforcement cooperation. It involves the two countries' foreign ministries, security departments, justice departments, among others.

During the G20 Hangzhou summit in September, Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Barack Obama applauded achievements in the two countries' anti-corruption cooperation, fugitive repatriation and asset recovery.

The two leaders also reaffirmed the important role of the Joint Liaison Group and decided to enhance cooperation between law enforcement authorities.

Multilaterally, also at the summit, G20 leaders endorsed the High Level Principles on Cooperation on Persons Sought for Corruption and Asset Recovery, and the 2017-2018 Anti-corruption Action Plan.

These measures will help overcome political and legal barriers to treaties on extradition and criminal judicial assistance, according to the CCDI.

They will also help to establish a cooperation system involving law enforcement officers, prosecutors and diplomats.

According to the latest figure of China's Foreign Ministry, China has concluded a total of 79 criminal judicial assistance treaties with nearly 60 countries, and has signed extradition treaties with 46 countries.
BEIJING, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- An offprint of a speech given by President Xi Jinping to a seminar marking 100 years since the birth of late Chinese leader Wan Li has been published by the People's Publishing House.

In his speech on Monday, Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, called for the inheritance and celebration of the revolutionary spirit and noble demeanor of veteran revolutionaries, such as Wan.

The book is available at Xinhua Bookstore outlets nationwide.

Wan was chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) from 1988 to 1993, and he also served as a member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and vice premier prior to being the top legislator. He died at the age of 99 in 2015.
LUANG NAMTHA, LAOS, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) - Some unexploded ordnance (UXO) has to be cleaned along the Laos-China railway to be constructed, Lao officials said.

The Ministry of National Defense has reported to the Luang Namtha provincial government that one of three villages in Namor district, some 360 km northwest of Lao capital Vientiane, where the railway will pass through has yet to be cleared of unexploded bombs.

A provincial coordinator of the Laos-China project, Chanthachone Keolakhone, told media on Wednesday that the three villages of Boten, Tinsan and Nateuy are located within the vicinity of the construction site.

The section in question where UXO may remain is some 16.9 kilometers long.

"The Ministry of National Defence reported the mines are in Nateuy village," he said.

The railway bridge is part of the planned 418-km Laos-China railway that will run from the Chinese border to Vientiane through Luang Namtha, Oudomxay, Luang Prabang and Vientiane provinces.

The Chinese construction company completed about 70 percent of the marking of the railway in Luang Namtha before the company suspended the project to clear some landmines in Nateuy village, said the Lao official.

The Ministry of Lao Public Works and Transport ordered the clearance of UXO in the corridor through which the railway will pass.

Chanthachone added that there are two stations in Luang Namtha but the big station will be in Nateuy village and the smaller one in Boten village, which is situated on the border between Laos and China.

The railway will use a 1.435-metre standard-gauge track. There will be 33 stations, 21 of which will be operational initially.

There will be 72 tunnels with a total length of 183.9 km and 170 bridges totalling 69.2 km in length.

Passenger trains will travel at 160 km per hour, while the speed of rail freight will be 120 km per hour.

The railway in Laos is expected to link with the track in Thailand to form part of the regional rail link known as the Kunming-Singapore railway, covering a total distance of about 3,000 km.
LUANG NAMTHA, LAOS, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Around 1,000 heavy trucks from China are expected to daily pass through the Boten International Crossing Border Checkpoint in Luang Namtha Province once the Lao-China Railway Construction Project begins, Lao official told Xinhua and other media.

"Currently, there are more than 400 trucks passing the checkpoint per day. To receive the large number of arriving trucks, the checkpoint will extend its working hours from normal to 10 p.m.," said Phonexay Chanthasone, head of Lao Boten Crossing Border Checkpoint.

The goods imported from China in 2016 amounted to more than 85 million U.S. dollars while the export volume from Laos was 8 million U.S. dollars, said the official.

Most imported goods from China were heavy machines and household utensils. Laos' main export to China was agricultural produce.

The Laos-China Railway Project is likely to bring such benefits to the Laos as strong economic infrastructure, the achievement of cooperation and connectivity strategies, increased foreign investment, and reduced production costs, according to Lao Ministry of Public Works and Transport.

Passenger trains on Laos-China Railway will travel at 160 km per hour, while the speed of rail freight will be 120 km per hour.

The railway is expected to link with the track in Thailand to form part of the regional rail link known as the Kunming-Singapore railway, covering a total distance of about 3,000 km.
by Yoo Seungki

SEOUL, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- President Park Geun-hye, the 18th leader of South Korea in its constitutional history, must not have imagined her fate in 2004 when her own party led the impeachment of late President Roh Moo-hyun.

The Grand National Party, predecessor of Parks ruling Saenuri Party, removed Roh from office, albeit temporarily, with a majority ballot it cast to pass the impeachment motion 12 years ago.

Another political party, which had supported Roh before the impeachment, helped force the progressive leader out as the passage requires the two-thirds majority vote in the National Assembly.

Before the vote, scuffles and yells were traded between impeachment supporters and opponents in the assembly on March 12, 2004, local TV footage showed. One opponent lawmaker was seen shedding tears and saying it was a coup after the impeachment passage.

Park, who was watching it in the main chamber with a broad smile, now becomes the countrys second president that is impeached by the unicameral assembly. It may be remembered as a dramatic scene to usher in a new era in South Korea.

Park, 64, seemed an unassailable icon in the conservative bloc as the daughter of an assassinated former military strongman reminded right-leaning voters of her father who is worshipped by some as a leader who sped up industrialization.

The illusion was broken apart as the economy is mired in the prolonged slump and massive household debts. The slump stemmed partly from global economic slowdown, but debt-servicing burden amassed as the Park administration encouraged people to purchase apartment with borrowed money.

Income disparities widened and youth unemployment skyrocketed as the business-friendly policy lasted. The Park administration sought to let businesses fire regular workers and recruit irregular employees in an easier way by bending labor rules.

Chiefs of nine family-run conglomerates were grilled by lawmakers over their involvement in Parks corruption scandal, being reminiscent of the deep-rooted collusive links between politicians and businessmen.

In the 2012 presidential election campaign, Park appealed to voters by saying she will be freed from corruption of presidential relatives as she has no family member left to care about, but nobody now seems to believe it.

Prosecutors brand Park as a criminal accomplice to her decades-long confidante, Choi Soon-sil who was charged with extorting donations from conglomerates and accessing secret documents to meddle in state affairs from the shadows.

Enraged at the behind-the-scenes big shot who pulled government strings without any public position, ordinary South Koreans went to the streets for six straight Saturdays. The historic Dec. 3 candlelight vigil drew 2.32 million across the nation to demand Parks impeachment and immediate resignation.

It is in a stark contrast to the 2004 impeachment, after which hundreds of thousands of protesters held candle vigils nationwide to annul what they claimed was a political maneuver. At the time, over six out of 10 South Koreans opposed the impeachment.

Roh was accused of breaking an election law by calling on voters to support his own party in the 2004 parliamentary election. Just over two months later, the constitutional court ruled that his breach was not grave enough to boot him from office though he violated political neutrality rule under the election law.

Voters granted his party a landslide victory in the 2004 election. Roh was returned back to office right after the final conclusion by the nine-judge court that can have as long as 180 days to deliberate the impeachment. The permanent impeachment requires the courts two-thirds approval.

President Park, who is suspended by the parliamentary impeachment, should wait for the courts review. All presidential power will be handed to Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn who becomes acting president.

Uncertainties vary, but at least public opinion overwhelmingly supports the impeachment. Recent polls showed that over eight out of 10 South Koreans want Park permanently sacked.

Conservative voters, who had been a traditional supporting group of Park and had given many election victories to Park and her party, turned their backs on the scandal-scarred president.

As 172 opposition and independent lawmakers are believed to have voted for impeachment, 62 ruling Saenuri Party members are estimated to have voted yes in the secret ballot. It surpassed 56 Saenuri members votive against it.

It remains to be seen whether the constitutional courts ruling will usher in a new era in South Korea.
ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Philippine government troops fought with a heavy number of Abu Sayyaf militants in the south Thursday, killing three, including a soldier and two militants, and injuring six, security officials said Thursday.

The fighting erupted as troops from the 21st Infantry Battalion clashed the combined factions of 3 Abu Sayyaf leaders at the village of Panglayahan, Patikul town in Sulu province, an area known to have strong presence of militants believed to have links with the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) and the Islamic State (IS).

Maj. Filemon Tan Jr., spokesman of the Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom) said the fighting lasted for 30 minutes as the troops battled about 150 militants.

Tan said the Abu Sayyaf group withdrew after they sustained heavy casualties, including two deaths and six wounds.

He said government soldiers captured the harbor area abandoned by the Abu Sayyaf group and also recovered one M14 sniper rifle of the militant.

The military said the Abu Sayyaf militants reportedly are holding at least 23 hostages, including Dutch, German, Malaysian, Indonesian and Vietnamese. But Tan said there was no immediate report of sightings of the hostages held by the Abu Sayyaf group.
BEIJING, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- China's anti-corruption watchdog revealed that since 2014, 2,442 people have been captured in the country's campaign to return fugitives who have fled overseas.

According to an article posted Friday by the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) on its website, 2,442 people, including 397 state officials, were captured or returned from over 70 countries or regions and more than 8.5 billion yuan (1.2 billion U.S. dollars) of illegal assets have been recovered.

The article said that in the first 11 months this year, the "Sky Net" campaign alone has accounted for 908 returnees and recovered 2.3 billion yuan in illegal assets.

A total of 19 people named as China's top 100 fugitives released in an Interpol "red notice" have returned this year, bringing the total number of the people on the list who have returned so far to 37.

Last month, China's most wanted graft fugitive Yang Xiuzhu, who has been on the run for 13 years, finally returned to China and turned herself in to authorities.

Friday is the 13th International Anti-Corruption Day, which was designated by the United Nations General Assembly.

Liu Jianchao, CCDI international cooperation bureau director, was quoted in the article as saying that China is making waves in international anti-corruption cooperation.

He went on to say that China's ideas, measures and practices in fighting corruption are gradually being understood and accepted by the international community.

The article further mentioned that China has established special offices at central and local levels to assist the search for fugitives.

Also, a database have been established to manage information on corrupt officials who have fled overseas and a system to receive information from the public.

According to the article, anti-corruption and law enforcement cooperations with other countries such as the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand have also yielded positive results.

"No matter how far the fugitives have fled, how long they have been on the run or how hard it is, our efforts to chase them down will never stop," Liu said.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Life expectancy in the United States has declined for the first time since the early 1990s, according to a report released by U.S. health authorities Thursday.

In 2015, life expectancy in the U.S. was 78.8 years, marking a drop of 0.1 years from the previous year, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said in the report.

For females, life expectancy dipped from 81.3 years to 81.2 years. For males, the number fell from 76.5 years to 76.3 years.

The culprits for the declining years were increases in the number of deaths due to heart disease, chronic lower respiratory diseases, unintentional injuries, stroke, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, kidney diseases and suicide, said the report.

The leading causes of death in the U.S. remained heart disease and cancer, but the number of cancer deaths has dropped.

U.S. life expectancy last took a drop in 1993 when it declined from 75.6 years to 75.4 years as a result of the spread of flu epidemic and AIDS. Since then it has steadily increased.

The U.S. ranked 43rd out of 224 countries for life expectancy in the CIA World Factbook 2015. Monaco topped the list with an estimated life expectancy of 89.5 years.
NEW YORK, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- La Nina conditions are likely to fade in the coming months, the U.S. National Weather Service's Climate Prediction Center said Thursday.

La Nina conditions were likely to transition back to neutral during January through March, Reuters quoted the center as saying.

La Nina is an ocean atmosphere phenomenon characterized by low sea temperatures across the equatorial eastern central Pacific, with tropical storms and heavy rainfall being more likely in Asia and Australia after a La Nina occurrence and North America experiencing drought.
JINAN, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Two people stood trial Friday for allegedly selling vaccines without a license in east China's Shandong Province, according to a local court.

Defendant Pang Hongwei was accused of illegally purchasing and selling vaccines, such as rabies vaccines, between June 2013 and April 2015, according to a statement from the intermediate people's court of Jinan City, capital of Shandong.

Pang improperly stored the vaccines she bought, and she earned 74 million yuan (10.9 million U.S. dollars) in sales income, according to the statement.

In 2009, Pang was sentenced to three years in prison with a five-year probation period for the same crime she was in court for this week.

The other defendant Sun Qi, Pang's daughter, assisted her mother and has been implicated in the sale of vaccines worth over 42 million yuan.

The pair pled guilty. The court has adjourned to decide on the pair's sentences.
by Abdul Haleem, Jawid Omid

BAMYAN, Afghanistan, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Running a classroom for illiterate teens and housewives in Nawjoi, a far-flung mountainous village some 3,500 meter above sea level, the young teacher of the class Laeqa, said that she believed education guarantees a bright future for everyone.

"My sole objective from teaching the villagers is to help both men, women and teenagers to learn how to write and read," Laeqa, 19, who like many Afghans goes by one name, told Xinhua in her classroom recently.

In her simple classroom with just a whiteboard, the students sitting on the floor without chairs or desks, followed their teacher's explanations and repeated what she said.

Laeqa, a second year student in the Tourism department of Bamyan University, explained that many parents in the past had deprived their children of getting an education due to traditional cultural barriers and that even today some parents remain against education.

"I have two shift classes every day in two villages; one in Nawjoi, the other in Siakhar Balaq, a 40-minute walk from here," Laeqa said, adding that her students are usually aged anywhere between 14 to 40 years old.

She has 31 students in Nawjoi and 20 others in Siakhar Balaq.

Teaching Dari, the mother tongue of her students and primary arithmetic, Laeqa said that her students after completion of a nine-month course are free to go home or enroll in school.

However, she added that there is no admission restriction here, saying "anyone at any age who wants to learn can attend the class free of charge."

Wearing traditional clothes with her head covered by a scarf, the ambitious young teacher asserted that many more young male and female intellectuals like her have also been serving the people in many areas in the province to help illiterate people learn to read and write.

"After completion of this course I want to join a public school and finally I want to become a doctor to further serve our people," Nuria, a 16-year-old student of Laeqa's, told Xinhua, while also explaining that she was sad that her father had been reluctant to send her to school in her childhood.

Another student in Laeqa's class was a 35-year-old house wife, Fatima, the mother of four children, two of whom attend the class with her.

"In the beginning I was completely illiterate and utterly ignorant but now I can write and read," Fatima said happily.

Director of Literacy Courses in Bamyan, Mohammad Sadeq Farhang told Xinhua that Literacy Courses aimed at fighting a low literacy rate and promoting education in society were launched in 2005 and so far thousands of illiterate men, women and teenagers have learnt how to read and write.

"At present we have seven literacy courses, each split into two shifts everyday throughout the province and people from all walks of life including police officers are benefiting from becoming literate," Farhang said.

He also maintained that the way to "achieve prosperity in society is to make education available to all the people, not just males, the privileged, or certain sectors of society."
A woman presents a flower during a commemoration marking 17th anniversary of Rwandan Genocide, in Nairobi, capital of Kenya, on April 7, 2011, the International Day of Reflection on the Rwandan Genocide. (Xinhua/Zhao Yingquan)

LILONGWE, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Malawi Police Service Thursday arrested a Rwandan national, Vincent Murekezi, reportedly wanted by Rwandan government for the 1994 genocide, police have confirmed.

According to Malawi Police Spokesperson James Kadadzera, Murekezi was arrested in Malawi capital Lilongwe upon the directive of the country's highest public prosecution office.

"It's true that we have arrested Murekezi today," Kadadzera told the state-run Malawi News Agency.

"We received communication from the Rwandan government that Murekezi was wanted in connection to the 1994 genocide and we referred the matter the Director of Public Prosecution who ordered his arrest," Kadadzera said.

Murekezi's cover was blown recently by the Malawi media which questioned the authenticity of his origin after the details of his Malawian passport contradicted that of his Rwandan passport.

Since the local media blew Murekezi's cover, local civil society organizations have been putting Malawi government under pressure to have the suspect arrested and sent back to Rwanda for trial.

Malawi hosts close to 30,000 refugees and asylum seekers at Dzaleka Camp in the Central Region district of Dowa.

The majority population at the Camp are Rwandese, and Brundi followed by other displaced people from the Great Lakes countries.
File photo taken on August 16, 2015 shows a Ukrainian woman standing by her destroyed house after shelling between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian seperatists in the town of Zolote, some 60 km west of Lugansk. (AFP Photo)

KIEV, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine is committed to settling the conflict in its eastern regions through dialogue and implementation of the Minsk Peace Agreement, Ukrainian Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak said on Thursday.

"The conflict in eastern Ukraine can be solved only by peaceful means at the negotiating table," Poltorak was quoted as saying by the Defense Ministry's press service.

Despite the escalation of the situation in Donetsk and Lugansk regions, the Ukrainian army is implementing the provisions of the Minsk agreement, including those on separating the forces along the frontline, Poltorak said.

The conflict between government troops and independence-seeking insurgents in eastern Ukraine has been raging since April 2014, claiming some 10,000 lives.

In September this year, the Contact Group on Ukraine crisis agreed to separate the rival forces to pave the way for a sustainable ceasefire and realization of political steps prescribed in the Minsk agreement, which is designed to end the confrontation.
HAVANA, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- A delegation of the Communist Party of China (CPC) is in Cuba for the second seminar between the communist parties of China and Cuba.

Guo Weimin, vice minister of the State Council Information Office, briefed his Cuban counterparts on the sixth plenary session of the 18th Central Committee of the CPC held in October.

The delegation, led by Guo, discussed issues related to party building and state governance for two days with their Cuban counterparts headed by Jose Ramon Balaguer Cabrera, member of the Central Committee Secretariat and head of international relations department of the Communist Party of Cuba. The first such meeting was held in 2014 in Beijing.

Balaguer congratulated the CPC on the achievements of the session, and hoped the two parties would carry out more exchanges on the experience of party building and state governance to enhance the cause of socialist construction.

During the visit that started on Sunday, Guo also met with Angel Arzuaga, deputy head of the Ideology Department of the Cuban Communist Party's Central Committee, Luis Enrique Gonzalez Acosta, president of Prensa Latina, and Alfonso Noya Martinez, president of the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television.
LUANG NAMTHA, Laos, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- At a ground in the middle of a 7,500-acre secondary forest surrounded by an old-growth forest in the northern Lao province of Luang Namtha close to the Chinese border, dozens of local rubber tappers listened carefully to Chinese experts who were giving training courses on rubber plantation.

"This workshop helped solve many of our problems in rubber tapping, improve tapping technology and efficiency and I hope that there will be more training courses like this in the future," Mithong, a Lao rubber tapper, told Xinhua.

Representatives from the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences on Wednesday joined the China-Laos training course on natural rubber plantation.

The course was organized by Yunnan Rubber Investment Company, under China's Yunnan State Farms Group Co., Ltd., at Luang Namtha's Sobtuth poppy replacement demonstration plantation zone, located some 360 km northwest of Lao capital Vientiane.

Entering the market here in 2005, Yunnan Rubber Investment Company has engaged in the rubber business, including opening roads, planting rubber trees and conserving rubber forests.

The area of rubber plantations has gradually expanded. Together with itself development, the company also helps open a new door for local residents to step into a happier life thanks to rubber.

During the course on Wednesday, Professor Luo Shiqiao and other experts from the Chinese academy showed local tappers how to sharpen tapping knives, how to conduct tapping practices and provided pertinent information on the overall tapping process.

According to Chen Cuiying, General Manager of Yunnan Rubber Investment Company, the training course aimed to improve the rubber tapping skills of local workers.

Since entering Laos, the company has actively organized training activities for local workers. So far in 2016, the company has trained more than 600 Lao rubber tappers, she told Xinhua.

In 2015, Yunnan State Farms Group Co., Ltd and the Lao Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry signed a Memorandum of Understanding on developing the natural rubber industry, as well as cooperation in inspection and quarantine of agricultural products.

The company has also so far made full use of strategic opportunities from the Chinese-proposed Belt and Road initiative, to strengthen cooperation with Laos and other Southeast Asian nations in rubber and other agricultural areas.

The company is now focusing on the construction of the Lao natural rubber testing center, natural rubber technical standard demonstration center, and training center, Chen said.

Construction for the three centers is currently underway and they are expected to be completed and put into operation in late 2017.

"This will significantly change the decades-old model of Lao rubber production, play a big role in promoting the technological innovation of Lao rubber companies and help boost the income of local rubber farmers," she said.

Despite being located in the middle of a forest, Luang Namtha's Sobtuth plantation zone has everything from water, electricity, roads, standard primary school, and a drug rehabilitation center.

In more than 10 years, Yunnan Rubber Investment Company has invested some five million Chinese yuan (726,000 U.S. dollars) to build 119 kilometers of road, four bridges, add 11.5 kilometers of electric wire, five water reservoirs, and eight transformers in Laos.

The company also spent 400,000 Chinese yuan to build two primary schools in Luang Namtha and Sayabouly provinces, donated more than 400,000 Chinese yuan and participated in various activities to contribute to promoting the socio-economic development of northern Laos.

Yang Xi, an employee of the company, told Xinhua that "villagers in the area are all willing to come here to work. Their income here is good, and their children can enjoy a good education. This year, 13 children have graduated from primary school and entered secondary school."

"The lao government even sent a whole village of relatively poor status in northern Huaphan province, 15-hours away, to work here and earn decent wages," said Yang.

On two sides along the new roads built by Yunnan Rubber Investment Company, from Sobtuth plantation zone to deep in the mountains, there are old-growth forests or slash-and-burn cultivation areas, simple thatched huts, and some local villagers who physically appeared to be weak due to drug use.

There remains a long way ahead for the project, but many local villagers are now able to reap the early fruits of their labor from working on the Sobtuth poppy replacement plantation project under the cooperation of China and Laos.

The new roads will also help lead local villagers in northern Laos to a new and happier life.
RIYADH, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- A Saudi solider was killed in a mine explosion on the border city of Jizan near Yemen, the Saudi Interior Ministry tweeted on Friday.

The ministry identified the slain soldier as Abdullah Farhan Jaber Al Malki who was a member of the border guards.

It did not give more details about the time of the blast or if there were any other casualties.

He was the last Saudi soldier to have died since a Saudi-led coalition launched a war against Houthis in Yemen in March 2015.

Most of the deaths were caused by missile attacks that also killed tens of Saudi civilians in different border cities.

Also, thousands of Yemeni civilians lost their lives in airstrikes by the coalition or direct clashes between the Houthi rebels and supporters of Yemen's elected government.
By Xinhua Writer Tian Dongdong

BEIJING, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- The Japanese government on Thursday broke its own promise made 15 years ago by refusing to grant China "market economy status (MES)," showing once again to the international community that Tokyo simply cannot keep its word.

According to the Article 15 of the Protocol on China's accession to the WTO, to which Japan is a signatory, China will automatically switch over to market economy status in 15 years by Dec. 11, 2016, when the legal foundation for treating China as a non-market economy - or a surrogate country - ends.

By shirking its obligations three days before the deadline, Tokyo not only violates the spirit of the contract, a bedrock of international law and a principle-based system preached by Japan and its Western allies, but also injects negative impetus into its cooperation and relations with China, Tokyo's largest trading partner.

The refusal is nothing short of covert protectionism, which runs against the trend of globalization and poisons the recovery of the global economy.

The penny-wise refusal of granting China the status of a market economy is particularly detrimental to Japan for two reasons. For one, by viewing China as a non-market economy, Tokyo has followed in the footsteps of the United States and the European Union by denying China its deserved status, making itself the "third domino" in unleashing the monster of protectionism, which isn't good news for the global economy.

For another, Japan's narrow-minded decision will trigger a new wave of mistrust in East Asia, dampen the hard-won momentum of development in its ties with China and consequently put regional peace and stability at risk.

Considering Japan's sluggish economy and forecasts of negative growth, the opportunity to boost mutual trust and economic ties with its largest trading partner should have been of vital concern. Unfortunately, it just spurned a golden opportunity.

In addition, considering the number of countries that are deemed by Japan and its Western allies as MES winners, the granting process is merely another double-standard applied by the West against China.

Nevertheless, the refusal won't change anything. It won't write off the achievements of China's 38 years of reforming and opening-up. It cannot water-down China's profound contributions to the global economy either.

Analysts agree that Japan and its allies should end zero-sum mentality and show willingness for mutually beneficial cooperation when dealing with China.
By Xinhua Writers Zhu Junqing, Feng Wuyong

BEIJING, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's upcoming visit to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii won't whitewash Japan's original sin on history at a time when the country continues to re-write the past and ignore the pleas of its victims for a genuine apology.

Abe, unpopular in Asia and the world at large for his unapologetic approach to Japan's wartime atrocities and arbitrary pursuit of militarism, will visit Pearl Harbor in late December, accompanied by the U.S. President Barack Obama.

The surprise announcement will make Abe the first sitting Japanese prime minister to visit the site of a Japanese sneak attack on the U.S. force on Dec. 7, 1941.

However, the world - including the United States - shouldn't be fooled by Japan's move because it overlooks Abe's desire for historical revisionism and military ambitions.

The trip is widely believed to be an attempt to relieve Japan of its past war debts to the United States and demonstrate the importance of the close ties between the former adversaries, amid uncertainties lingering over the shape of the alliance under U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.

But Abe's trip won't go far enough.

Although Abe will visit Pearl Harbor to mourn those who died and portray Japan has a peaceful nation, don't expect an apology for the attack 75 years ago.

Abe's ultimate dream is as clear as daylight. Since starting his second term in office in 2012, the prime minister has begun tearing apart Japan's post-war constitution, including exercising the right to collective self-defense, enacting new security laws and falsifying historical accounts and textbooks.

In fact, the upcoming visit to Pearl Harbor is only a diplomatic show elaborated by the Abe administration to send out misleading messages about World War II while failing to reconcile with those Asian nations that suffered at Japan's hands.

Perhaps there's been reconciliation between Japan and the United States, but the same cannot be said about Japan and its Asian neighbors.

Japan's reconciliation with the U.S. should not mean the former is off the hook for all of its past war crimes in Asia. Japan must acknowledge its past militarism if it wishes to gain the respect of its Asian neighbors. A trip to Pearl Harbor won't cut it.
SINGAPORE, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Singapore's Minister for Health Gan Kim Yong on Friday officially opened Teochew Festival 2016, which promotes the rich culture and heritage of Teochews in the city state.

Organized by Teochew Poit Ip Huay Kuan, the 10-day festival features cultural gallery, exquisite craftsmanship, Teochew Feast, as well as cultural performances.

The festival returns with 45,000 square feet of exhibition space at Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Center, which is 1.5 times bigger than its inaugural event in 2014.

One of the highlights is the cultural gallery, which showcases artefacts of how early Teochew migrants communicated and corresponded with their families in China. Visitors can get a glimpse into the tough lives of early Teochew immigrants in Singapore through a display of Remittance Letters known as "Qiaopi".

In the early years, these overseas Teochews would send a portion of their income, no matter how meager, along with a letter to family members back home in China.

Teochew Poit Ip Huay Kuan has specially loaned some of these artefacts from the Museum of Overseas Chinese Remittance in China's Shantou. The curators also called for the public to send in Remittance Letters of their loved ones on display at this event.

At the Arts and Crafts Zone of the festival, visitors can appreciate Teochew crafts and watch live demonstrations by master craftsmen. Crafts on display include beautiful oil paper lanterns, golden silk embroidery works, exquisite wood carvings and delicate ceramic tea sets.

Foodies can be treated to an array of Teochew cuisines. There will be a food street featuring 20 vendors comprising homegrown Teochew eateries as well as food vendors from Shantou and Chaozhou, China. A variety of tantalizing Teochew specialties such as Bak Kut Teh, Crystal Dumplings, Fried Kway Teow and Fried Oyster Omelette will be served at the Festival.

There will be daily performances by award-winning performing groups such as Xiaomeihua Opera Troupe from China's Jieyang. Local arts group Nam Hwa Opera Limited will perform traditional Teochew operas, while AFinger, a hip hop group from Shantou, will perform traditional Teochew tunes with a modern twist of hip-hop and RAP music.

In addition, the organizer has developed its first mobile game app called "Heng Heng" which is specially created with the aim of engaging, entertaining and educating players about Teochew culture. Game players can learn about the origins of the familiar Teochew treats, as well as their accurate pronunciation in Teochew while having fun.
Tashi Tsering has done something many considered impossible: He has successfully cultivated blue poppy, a rare and endangered herb that grows above the snow line of the Himalayas, in lab with his team. The herb is believed to be effective for treating liver diseases in traditional Tibetan medicine.

Tashi, deputy director of Tibetan Medicine Research Center of the Tibetan Medicine Hospital in Lhasa, began this research in 2009, a mission thought impossible by many, including foreign researchers, as the herb can only survive in the alpine region--currently at an altitude above 5,000 meters as a result of shrinking snow line due to global warming in recent years.

The 41-year-old researcher has worked on Tibetan medicine for nearly two decades since he graduated from a prestigious medical university in Liaoning Province, northeast China.

Tashi and his team have been to many places in Tibet and its neighboring provinces of Sichuan, Gansu, Qinghai and Yunnan on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. "However, our first trial yielded nothing," says Tashi. Despite their hard efforts of an entire year in 2011, the team's experimental field failed to see one single seedling of blue poppy. But they never gave up.

Thanks to almost seven years of efforts, the team finally succeeded in 2005. According to Tashi, the germination rate this year has reached 87%. "But there is still a long way to go for commercial plantation," said Tashi.

In recent years, both the central and regional governments have enhanced their support for the artificial planting of endangered herbs for Tibetan medicine use. A new research center has been set up with the governmental funding in Tashi's test base. Over the past 10 years, Tashi and his team have successfully grown 27 endangered herbs for traditional medicine.

Tashi said that the demand for Tibetan medicine is expected to increase with improving technology. "Artificial planting will make a difference."
BEIJING, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- South Korean parliament overwhelmingly passed a historic bill Friday to impeach scandal-scarred President Park Geun-hye as it gained the two-thirds majority vote.

The final tally was 234 votes cast in favor of impeachment, with 56 against and 2 abstentions. Seven votes were invalid. One legislator did not take part in the voting.

President Park will be stripped of all powers immediately after receiving the copied result on paper, waiting for the final decision by the Constitutional Court which may take as long as 180 days.

The permanent impeachment requires the court's two-thirds approval.

REASONS FOR IMPEACHMENT

Opposition and independent lawmakers on Saturday put forward a bill to impeach President Park Geun-hye.

The impeachment motion claims that Park gravely violated laws and the Constitution for nearly four years in office.

It says Park's breach of the Constitutional was grave enough to justify her removal from office.

The constitutional violations, according to the impeachment bill, include collusion with a longtime friend to extort money from companies and to give that confidante extraordinary sway over government decisions.

The reasons for impeachment also include Park's inaction during the deadly sinking of the Sewol ferry in 2014 that claimed more than 300 lives, mostly teenagers from a school. The opposition claims that the president breached her duty to protect the safety of the people aboard the ferry.

Park has publicly apologized three times and acknowledged that she received help from her confidante, Choi Sool-sil, in editing her speeches and with unspecified "public relations" matters. But she denies involvement in Choi's alleged criminal activities and inaction in the sinking of the Sewol ferry.

INFLUENCE ON S. KOREA'S POLITICS

After the impeachment, Park will be suspended from office immediately pending a final decision by the Constitutional Court, which has as long as 180 days to elaborate and rule on it.

During the period, Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn is to become acting president and temporarily assume presidential power.

But as a Park loyalist, Hwang is not favored by the opposition and many citizens. If the National Assembly recommends a new prime minister, there will be an intense struggle between the ruling Saenuri Party and the opposition.
BEIJING, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Six Chinese provinces in central areas, the country's heartland for coal and grain, will get a new impetus for growth as the government enacts a plan for the next five years.

The State Council Wednesday passed a plan to boost development in the central region for the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020), saying the rise of the region is of great importance to China's medium-high economic growth.

The central region comprises of six provinces -- Henan, Shanxi, Hubei, Anhui, Hunan and Jiangxi. These areas have rich land and agricultural resources, a large population, and are developing fast as hubs of modern manufacturing and transport.

About 360 million people, nearly a quarter of the Chinese population, live in the six provinces. In 2015, the region contributed 20.3 percent of China's total GDP, while the figure was only 18.8 percent in 2005.

To boost the central region's development, major tasks for the next five years include further opening up, transfer of industries from developed coastal regions to the central region, as well as poverty reduction.

URBANIZATION

"Henan, like other central region provinces, is strong in agriculture. But in recent years, it has seen growing manufacturing industries," said Sun Tingxi, director of the Henan Development and Reform Commission.

With a population of over 100 million, the number of people living in urban areas in Henan, a major grain producer, was 46.8 percent in 2015, far lower than the country's average of 56.1 percent. The province aims to raise the rate by ten percentage points by 2020, with 11 million rural residents moving to cities.

The urbanization rates of Hunan, Jiangxi and Anhui provinces, are 50.9, 51.6 and 50.5 percent, respectively, are all lower than the country's average, indicating huge potential for urbanization.

Urbanization and industrialization are two engines for the central region's development, said Nie Huihua, an economics professor at Renmin University of China.

The plan also aims to promote the integration of industries and regions, said Xu Fengxian, an economics researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Among the seven new free trade zones (FTZ) approved in August, two are in the central provinces of Henan and Hubei, which will push the reform and opening up of the region.

With the FTZ, Hubei will play a symbolic role in the rise of the central region and become a key growth area in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, said Zou Wei, a professor at Wuhan University.

NEW SOURCE FOR GROWTH

Anhui is proud to have famed quantum physicist Pan Jianwei teaching at the University of Science and Technology of China, which is based in the provincial capital Hefei.

Pan is behind the world's first quantum satellite, which was launched in August this year.

Anhui has been boosting technological prowess of its research institutes and companies.

"Our province is known for agriculture and migrant workers. But these economic pillars have weakened, and we need to find new sources of growth," said Li Jinbin, Communist Party chief of Anhui.

Anhui has amassed funds and devised policies to support such scientific and technological projects, he said. Last year, more than 1.5 billion yuan (about 220 million U.S. dollars) of government subsidies were given to research institutes and companies in Anhui to support basic research, patents and new production chains.

From 2011 to 2015, the number of hi-tech firms in Anhui nearly tripled to reach 3,175.

Another central province Shanxi is also keen to see the new national strategy to boost its economy, which underwent immense difficulties in recent years due to low energy prices.

The coal industry remains a pillar for Shanxi as it is struggling to find a new growth model.

There have been policy favors for both the east and west, but provinces like Shanxi are stuck in the middle and benefit from neither, said Geng Yeqiang, an economic professor at Shanxi University.

The new plan is exactly what Shanxi needs to maintain growth and control default risks, he said.

Shanxi has prepared itself to host companies that are engaged in processing trade in the coastal areas, he added.
RAMALLAH, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- France has officially invited Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to visit Paris on Dec. 22, Israel Radio's Arabic service reported Friday.

"President Abbas accepted the invitation," the radio quoted Abbas aide Nabil Abu Rdineh as saying.

Abbas' visit to Paris coincides with an international conference in the city to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, the aide added.

The radio also said that Israeli prime minister received an invitation on the same day, adding that Netanyahu had no plan to meet Abbas even if he decided to visit Paris.

Earlier this year, France called for an international peace conference to resolve the decades-long conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

The Palestinians accepted the proposal, but Israel rejected it and the United States expressed reservations.

The latest round of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, brokered by the United States, collapsed in April 2014 without achieving any breakthrough.
BEIJING, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi will pay an official visit to Switzerland from December 10 to 12 at the invitation of his Swiss counterpart Didier Burkhalter.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang made the announcement at a routine news briefing Friday.

During his visit, Wang will meet with Swiss President Johann Schneider-Ammann and Burkhalter in Berne, and discuss bilateral relations and issues of common concern, Lu said.

Wang will also visit Geneva and have meetings with leaders of the United Nations, the World Health Organization and the International Olympic Committee.

Calling Switzerland an important cooperation partner of China in Europe, Lu said that the China-Switzerland relations played a leading role for the development of China-EU relations.

During the state visit of Schneider-Ammann to China in April, the two countries established an innovative strategic partnership.

"This maps out the new direction for bilateral pragmatic cooperation. China is willing to make joint efforts with Switzerland to boost bilateral ties and cooperations," Lu said.
Girls being saved from Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and early marriage sing traditional Maasai songs, April 16, 2016, in Sekenai village of Narok county, Kenya. (Xinhua/Han Qian)

by Ben Ochieng

SAMBURU, Kenya, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Tucked in north-central Kenya is Samburu County that is inhabited by a community of the same name.

It is a place that seems to have stopped moving ahead with the rest of Kenya, men have the ultimate and final word and where culture is considered the supreme law.

Here, the cultural practice of female circumcision remains a culturally important rite of passage for girls after they reach ten years old and shows little signs of going away.

Also referred to as female genital mutilation (FGM), the practice is the procedure that intentionally alters and in some cases causes injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.

The cut is said to determine maturity in the girls and usher them into womanhood, and those who have not undergone the procedure can be looked down upon.

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is outlawed alongside early marriage in 2011 in Kenya. However, in some communities where traditional culture is deeply rooted, the practice is still rampant.

In Kenya, about 28 percent of women aged between 20 and 24 were circumcised. In Africa at large, FGM is practiced among certain communities in 29 countries.

Modern ideas are slowly seeping in, though, and a safer ritual that bypasses the cut to focus on education is taking root.

The African Research Medical Foundation (AMREF) in 2009 developed the alternative rite of passage among the Samburu community and their Maasai cousins in which girls experience all the elements of the circumcision ceremony but not the cruel cut. Over 10,500 have gone through the practice there.

On Wednesday, over 350 Samburu girls in Wamba Division of the county aged between nine and 18 were ushered into womanhood after two-day training at a ceremony where leaders and members of the community embraced the safe alternative rite and expressed their rage over the retrogressive tradition that has serious health implications on the initiates.

The alternative ceremony is characterized by two days of lessons on Maasai values and traditions, sexuality and sexual health issues, and life skills and culminates in a graduation ceremony to symbolize that the girls have transitioned to womanhood without undergoing the harmful cut.

Chairperson of the Anti-Female Mutilation Board Linah Chebii Kilimo urged the community to end the FGM, which was behind the low retention of girls in school, noting that the practice was still common especially in the interior of the county despite the offer for a safer alternative.

"The practice has contributed to high school dropout rates for young girls after undergoing the rite because they are then considered as women and are therefore ripe for marriage," Kilimo noted.

She called for an absolute end to the practice, adding that the fight against the dangerous practice ought to be a multi-faceted matter that involves all stakeholders including the government, media individuals and civil society.

"The law is not there to hurt anybody. The campaign against FGM is out to seek what was lost. I am gratified that a section of morans (warriors) have said they are ready to marry girls who have not undergone the cut where previously they were considered unmarriageable," the chairperson remarked.

Elders told Xinhua the practice began at the time men from the community would go hunting or cattle rustling and could stay in the bush for over a year but when they returned they would often find their wives pregnant or with babies.

"This went on for a long time until the elders came up with practice as a way to reduce the women's libido so that they would wait until their men came back from the bush," said Donald Lepyapuie, a local community leader.

"I fully support the alternative rite of passage because we have been told about the dangers of the female cut. We must allow our girls to go to school because our community has lagged behind for a long time," he remarked.

Another elder, John Nyankala, said the alternative rite of passage will discourage early marriages, adding that parents should be in the frontline to advocate for the discarding of the unhealthy practice.

The Chief of Lapashie Sub-Location where the ceremony took place, Paul Paradisi, said the idea has been well received in the area.

"There is nothing good about female circumcision, which is a painful ordeal and disrupts education," said the chief, who had two daughters under the program.

Samburu East Member of Parliament, Rahael Litimalo, also urged politicians not to shun from preaching against the practice for fear of losing votes.

Kenya enacted the Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation Act in 2011 that prohibits the female cut and provides that anyone convicted of practicing female circumcision will be sent to jail for seven years or fined 5,000 U.S. dollars.
PHNOM PENH, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia and China set to further enhance their bilateral cooperation in security, counter-terrorism and prevention of cybercrime, Cambodian foreign ministry spokesman Chum Sounry said Friday afternoon.

Speaking to reporters after a meeting between Cambodian Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn and a Chinese delegation led by Liu Guangyuan, director-general of the Department of External Security Affairs of the Foreign Ministry, the spokesman said the inter-ministerial officials of both countries met here on Friday morning and agreed to set up a mechanism to boost bilateral cooperation in these fields.

"The minister had voiced his support for the mechanism," Sounry said.

During the talks, Sokhonn also expressed his satisfaction with the excellent relations and cooperation between the two countries in all fields, particularly in economics, trade, investment, and tourism.

The minister said the exchange of top-level visits by the leaders of the two countries in 2016 had contributed further to deepening the comprehensive strategic partnership of cooperation that the two countries elevated in Dec. 2010.

The exchange of high-profile visits included the state visit of Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni to China in June and the historic visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Cambodia in October.

Meanwhile, Liu conveyed best regards from Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to Sokhonn, saying that his visit to Cambodia aimed to further enhance bilateral cooperation in security, counter-terrorism and anti-cybercrime.
BUENOS AIRES, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- China's recently released Policy Paper on Latin America and the Caribbean serves to strengthen ties between the two regions, analysts said.

Nadia Radulovich and Maria Cecilia Peralta, co-founders of the Argentine consulting group Asia Viewers, regard the document as a tool to generate, expand and improve a joint strategy for ties.

"The new document seeks to boost bilateral commitment through cooperation in various areas such as the economy, manufacturing, science and technology, information, investment and foreign trade, and take the comprehensive and cooperative partnership between China and Latin America to new heights," they said.

"The policy paper also underscores the potential to build on the existing relationship between the two regions," said the two experts, who serve as consultants to the Argentine Council for International Relations on China-related matters.

"The possibilities for exchange and cooperation between the parties are numerous, such as partnerships for comprehensive cooperation," they said.

In 2015, trade exchange between China and Latin America reached 236.5 billion U.S. dollars, according to Chinese statistics. The country has free-trade agreements with several regional countries such as Chile, Peru and Costa Rica.

The concerted growth came largely in the wake of China's first policy paper on Latin America issued in 2008.

In 2016, regional ties made more headway, including on the cultural front, with the Year of China-Latin America Cultural Exchange.

Today, China stands as the second largest trading partner and third largest foreign investor in the region, while Latin America is China's seventh biggest trade partner and a leading destination for Chinese foreign investment.

The consultants said financial cooperation regarding infrastructure, energy, trade, agriculture and joint food security will serve as the axis of China-Latin American ties in the coming years.

"We underscored the importance of studying and analyzing the document so our region can also adhere to the new Chinese commitment and make the most of the possibilities this new phase in relations can generate," the experts said.
Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani (R) shakes hand with U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter during a joint press conference in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, Dec. 9, 2016. The visiting U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter on Friday said that the United States was committed to long-term support to the militancy-hit Afghanistan. (Xinhua/Rahmat Alizadah)

KABUL, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- The visiting U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter on Friday said that the United States was committed to long-term support to the militancy-hit Afghanistan.

"We stand with the people of Afghanistan who have put themselves at risk and sacrificed so much. We will continue to stand with you,"Carter told reporters at a joint press briefing with Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani.

Carter arrived in Afghanistan earlier on Friday for a pre-Christmas visit to American troops.

This is the fourth visit of the Pentagon chief to Afghanistan since assuming office and the second tour to the war-torn country since NATO summit in Warsaw in July, during which the military alliance decided to continue funding Afghan security forces until 2020.

Carter praised Afghan security forces' role in providing security to their country.

The U.S. and its NATO allies will provide 5 billion U.S. dollars yearly to support Afghan army and police until 2020, he said.

The U.S. forces will continue to support Afghan security forces during military operations and would keep on targeting the Islamic State (IS) militants and remains of al-Qaida in Afghanistan, he said.

At the same briefing, President Ghani thanked the U.S. and NATO forces for their role in the fight against terrorism and appreciated their sacrifices in stabilizing peace in the country.

Nearly 13,000 foreign forces, with the majority of them Americans, are currently stationed in Afghanistan for the NATO-led Resolute Support (RS) mission to help Afghan forces in the field of training and advising and backing Afghan troops in the war on insurgents.
NAIROBI, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- The UN humanitarian agency said Friday that at least 29 million people in the Greater Horn of Africa (GHA) region are in need of food aid.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Eastern Africa said this represented an 18-percent increase of food insecure population compared to the same period last year.

"The region is seeing some short-term improvements following seasonal harvests particularly in the northern sector of the GHA due to above-normal rainfall conditions," OCHA said in its Food & Nutrition Security Situation for November.

However, it said food security is expected to deteriorate in areas affected by insecurity, including Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, and Burundi, and areas affected by below-average rain and consecutive poor seasons.

The report said conflicts in Somalia and South Sudan are among the greatest drivers of humanitarian needs, fueling new displacement within countries and across borders.

At the same time, the impact of El Nino-triggered droughts, floods and extreme weather is pushing vulnerable communities to the brink of survival.

The UN said dryer than average conditions persisted in most areas of the equatorial sector of the GHA until September, resulting into pockets of crop failures, deterioration of pasture and browse conditions and depletion of water resources within most agricultural, pastoral and agro-pastoral communities.

"In addition, the October-December rainfall significantly delayed and is anticipated to perform poorly consistent with the outlook leading to poor prospects for agricultural production," OCHA said.

The UN said the refugee movements have continued due to continued insecurity, compounded with food insecurity and a deterioration of the nutrition situation, in particular to South Sudan.
BEIJING, Dec. 9 (Xinhua)-- China on Friday reaffirmed its firm opposition to official and military relations between the United States and Taiwan in any form, as well U.S. arms sales to Taiwan.

"China's stance is consistent and clear, and well known to the international community," said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang at a daily press briefing.

Lu made the remarks while commenting on the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed by the U.S. senate and the House of Representatives.

According to reports, the NDAA includes content promoting exchanges between military officers of the United States and Taiwan.

The Taiwan issue, concerning China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, is the most important and sensitive issue to China-U.S. relations, Lu said.

Lu noted that China has lodged solemn representation to the U.S. side about the act many times since it was put forward by the senate and the House of Representatives.

He urged the United States to abide by the one-China policy, the commitment it made and the principles of the three Sino-U.S. Joint Communiques.

"The U.S. side should cautiously handle the issue and not to turn back the wheels of history, so as to avoid disturbance to the China-U.S. relations," Lu said.
BUDAPEST, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- A spokesman with Hungarian government said on Friday that reaching a compromise on the migrant issue within the EU was imperative.

Zoltan Kovacs, the spokesman, said this on Hungarian public television Channel One while speaking of the European Council meeting set for next week.

He pointed out that Brussels does not appear ready to compromise or bridge differences in views on handling migrants, but is apparently pushing forward with its own agenda calling for mandatory distribution quotas of migrants among the EU members, which vehemently objected by Hungary.

He underlined that reaching a compromise was vital since experts have forecast that the migration problem "will be with us for many long decades to come."

As proposals to the alternatives to the EU's quota plan, Hungary has submitted a document with four basic principles, namely protection of the EU's outer borders, at most the temporary monitoring of interior EU boundaries, consideration of the amounts already spent by each EU member to protect outer borders, and management of immigration as a hazard, according to the spokesman.
THE HAGUE, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Dutch right wing populist politician Geert Wilders was found guilty for insulting Moroccans as a group and inciting discrimination in court on Friday in Badhoevedorp, the Netherlands, but he was not given a punishment by the judges.

"Freedom of expression is one of the foundations of our society," presiding judge Hendrik Steenhuis said. "However, freedom of expression could be restricted in order to protect other people. That is the issue in this case. As a politician Wilders is not above the law."

The Dutch public prosecutor had demanded a fine of 5,000 euro (5,281.36 U.S. dollars) for Wilders. The accused Party of Freedom (PVV) leader, who advocates an anti-Islam policy, was absent in court to hear his judgment.

The trial was about statements by Wilders in 2014. In his speech after the municipal elections campaign on March 19, Wilders asked his supporters whether they wanted "more or fewer" Moroccans, with the attendees cheering "fewer, fewer" as their answer. "Good, we're going to arrange that," Wilders concluded.

It is not the first time a Wilders case appears in court. In June 2011 he was acquitted of inciting hatred and discrimination against Muslims and Moroccans.
BEIJING, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- China on Friday urged Japan to abandon the surrogate country approach it uses to calculate anti-dumping measures against Chinese exports, as a related clause in China's World Trade Organization (WTO) deal is set to expire on December 11.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang made the remarks at a routine press conference.

According to Article 15 of the protocol on China's accession to the WTO, to which Japan is a signatory, China will automatically switch to market economy status by December 11, 2016, when the legal foundation for treating China as a non-market economy - or a surrogate country - ends.

However, the Japanese government said Friday that it will not recognize China as a market economy under the WTO without changes to the country's policies.

By doing so, Japan can continue to use a third country's prices to determine whether China is selling goods below market value, making it relatively easy for Japan to level anti-dumping claims against China.

Lu said Japan should face up to its international commitment instead of beating around the bush.

With regard to China's market economy status issue, Lu said that after nearly 40 years reform and opening-up, China's GDP has climbed to the world's number two, and China has become the biggest trade partner of many countries in the world.

China's economic growth has become the main engine of global economic growth, contributing to about one quarter of world economic growth, he said.

Whether Japan recognizes China as a market economy or not, China's close relationship with the world economy and its mutually beneficial relations with the world speak for itself, Lu said.
DAMASCUS, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- With more military gains made in the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo, Syrian government is determined to retake it completely and other Syrian territories currently under the control of the rebels.

Speaking to the pro-government al-Watan newspaper, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Wednesday that "the decision to liberate all of Syria has been taken, including Aleppo."

In a massive offensive launched more than two weeks ago, Syrian troops have already recaptured 80 percent of the rebel-held areas in the eastern part of the city.

Amid the backdrop that the IS has been losing ground in the capital of Damascus and the central city of Homs, Aleppo is widely deemed to be their last straw. As al-Assad said, after the liberation of Aleppo, neither the rebels nor the West, which Syria has accused of backing the rebels, would have real cards to bet on.

"Aleppo will completely change the course of the battles in Syria, and would mean the failure of the international, regional and foreign schemes," he said.

Syria's Minister of Reconciliation Ali Haidar on Wednesday described the military advance in Aleppo as "strategic and qualitative," which "will make a huge impact on both the military and political levels."

Earlier, Syrian government said it now rejects any cease-fire for Aleppo, which it fears would be used by the rebels as a chance to regroup.

China and Russia on Monday vetoed a United Nations Security Council draft resolution calling for a seven-day humanitarian truce in the northern Syrian city.

Over 30,000 civilians have fled eastern Aleppo toward the government-controlled west of the city over the past two weeks. Humanitarian organizations have raised alarm about the situation of 250,000 people living in eastern Aleppo.

Liu Jieyi, China's permanent representative to the UN, said China remained committed to an early political solution to the Syrian crisis, which works on "the four tracks of resumption of cease-fire, political peace talks, cooperation in counter-terrorism and humanitarian relief."

On the Security Council draft resolution, Syrian political analyst Hmaidi Abdullah said it might offer the rebels "a chance to regroup and empower themselves."

Another analyst, Taleb Ibrahim, believed it would also distract Syrian troops from advancing further into the rebel-held areas.

The draft resolution without full consultation was not conducive to improving the situation in Syria, Xie Xiaoyan, China's special envoy on the Syrian issue said during his latest visit to Damascus on Wednesday.

He called for unity in the Security Council as the Syrian crisis entered a crucial and sensitive stage, saying countries concerned should avoid creating disputes and complicating the issue.
LUSAKA, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- About 83 asylum seekers have arrived in Zambia and authorities were currently screening them to ascertain their nationalities, immigration officials said Friday.

Immigration Department spokesperson Wellington Lubinda said the they entered the country from northern Zambia's Mpulungu district, which borders Tanzania.

He said authorities were ascertaining the asylum seekers' reasons for entering the country and they would be transferred to a refugee camp in western Zambia after the screening.

Zambia has witnessed an increase in the number of asylum seekers entering the country from the northern region, with most of them crossing into the country via Lake Tanganyika.

Last month, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said a total of 3,044 asylum seekers had entered Zambia from neighboring countries seeking international protection this year.

According to the UN refugee agency, 2,084 of them came from the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), while 768 came from Burundi, with the rest from other parts of Africa.
BEIJING, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- China on Friday urged other members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to abandon the surrogate country approach when calculating anti-dumping measures against Chinese exports.

Ministry of Commerce spokesman Shen Danyang said China will take measures to defend its rights if members continue the old practice in anti-dumping investigations into Chinese products after its expiration date.

Under the surrogate country approach, WTO members use costs of production in a third country to calculate the value of products from countries on its "non-market economy" list, which includes China. The practice allows countries to easily levy high tariffs.

In accordance with Article 15 of the accession protocol signed when China joined the WTO in 2001, the Surrogate Country approach expires on December 11, 2016.

Shen called for the countries to fulfill their WTO obligations in due time to avoid affecting bilateral trade ties.
GAZA, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Members of the Islamic Hamas movement rallied in the Gaza Strip on Friday as part of preparations for marking the 29th anniversary of the group's foundation.

After Friday's weekly mass prayers, thousands gathered in the northern Gaza Strip area of Jabalia waving Hamas green flags and chanting slogans against Israel, where Hamas leaders addressed the crowds.

Khalil al-Hayya, a top Hamas leader in Gaza, told the rally that his movement succeeded to oblige the Israeli army to lose its strategic power that was used during the previous wars waged on the Gaza Strip.

Hamas, which stands for the Islamic resistance movement, was founded in Gaza on Dec. 15, 1987 by its spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmad Yassin whom Israel assassinated in an airstrike in Gaza in 2004.

Al-Hayya told the rally that Hamas armed wing, al-Qassam Brigades, fought the Israeli army to the end during the large-scale Israeli military air and ground offensive waged for 50 days on the Gaza Strip during the summer of 2014.

"During that war, all the establishments and airports were in the grip of al-Qassam Brigades militants, who were able to strike whenever and whatever they want," said al-Hayya.

Two Israeli army officers went missing during the offensive. Israel said the two were killed, while Hamas refused to give any data on their fate and insisted that there is a price for providing any data.

"We promise our prisoners to keep acting until they are set free," said al-Hayya, adding "we tell Israel: You should be prepared to pay the price."
ABUJA, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Twin blasts hit a crowded market in Madagali district of Nigeria's northeastern state of Adamawa on Friday, killing at least 11 people, eyewitnesses said.

The explosions occurred simultaneously at the opposite ends of the local vegetable market in Madagali, causing buyers and sellers to run for safety, witness Audu Yusuf said.

At least 10 injured people have been sent to a nearby hospital so far, said the witness.

A rescuer said it was still unclear whether the twin blasts were carried out by suicide bombers or planted explosives.
Colombian President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Juan Manuel Santos speaks during a press conference in Oslo, Norway, on the eve of the prize ceremony, Dec. 9, 2016. Santos said Friday that implementing the newly signed peace agreement as soon as possible is very important as people might lose faith otherwise. (Xinhua/Zhang Shuhui)

OSLO, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Colombian President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Juan Manuel Santos said Friday that implementing the newly signed peace agreement as soon as possible is very important as people might lose faith otherwise.

The most important challenge from now on is to "be able to implement the agreement as soon as possible," Santos told a press conference in Oslo on the eve of the prize ceremony.

The Colombian president said he hopes that next Monday the constitutional court will give the green light to a fast-track procedure in order to be able to implement the peace agreement even faster.

"This is a very key aspect," Santos said. "We need to shorten the time between the moment you sign and the moment you implement. That is why the fast-track procedure is so important."

"You cannot allow too much time between one and other because people lose confidence, people lose faith, and people want to see results very soon," he said.

Santos also said that the Nobel Peace Prize "came like a gift from heaven because it gave us a tremendous push" for the peace process.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee announced on Oct. 7 that Santos won the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize for his resolute efforts to bring his country's five-decade-long civil war to an end.

The announcement came just four days after a peace agreement between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the country's largest rebel group, was narrowly rejected in a referendum.

However, Santos and FARC leader Rodrigo Londono signed a revised peace agreement in November, in efforts to end the country's half-century conflict, which has left 220,000 people dead, and millions of people homeless.

Both houses of the Colombian Congress have ratified the revised peace agreement.
BEIJING, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- China on Friday expressed concern over the European Commission's anti-dumping investigations into Chinese corrosion-resistant steel, the latest in a series of trade measures against Chinese products this year.

"China is paying close attention to and worried about the European Union (EU)'s tendency toward steel protectionism," said Wang Hejun, a senior official of the Ministry of Commerce.

The EU has frequently resorted to restrictive measures since the start of 2016 as it blames Chinese steel for its glutted industry.

"It is baseless and not objective as Europe's steel woes stem from a weak economy," Wang said, urging the EU to be rational and take an objective view instead of adopting protectionist policies that impede competition.

The problem can only be solved through internal restructuring and reform and international economic cooperation, Wang said.

China has always adhered to the ideas of cooperation and mutual development and is willing to push forward dialogues to address trade friction and create a sound environment for global economic recovery, Wang said.

Wang also called on the EU to abandon the surrogate country approach when calculating anti-dumping measures against Chinese exports.

Under the surrogate country approach, members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) use costs of production in a third country to calculate the value of products from countries on its "non-market economy" list, which includes China. The practice allows countries to easily levy high tariffs.

In accordance with Article 15 of the accession protocol signed when China joined the WTO in 2001, the surrogate country approach expires on December 11, 2016.
DAMASCUS, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Syria's Foreign Ministry said Friday that the Syrian government is ready to resume the inter-Syrian talks without preconditions, according to state news agency SANA.

"The Syrian Arab Republic is ready to resume the inter-Syrian dialogue without preconditions or foreign intervention," the ministry said in a statement, responding to the latest comments of UN Special Envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura.

Mistura told reporters recently that it's about time to look seriously into the possibility of reviving political talks on Syria.

Still, the ministry said the UN envoy didn't specify a date for the resumption of the talks, which have been suspended since last May.

Previous Syrian talks in Geneva ended without achieving results, amid an increasing military showdown in Syria, mainly in the northern city of Aleppo.
MOSCOW, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Syrian government forces have gained control of over 93 percent of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, liberating 52 neighborhoods from militants, the Russian Defense Ministry said Friday.

In the last four days, the Syrian territory controlled by rebels has decreased by one third, Sergei Rudskoi, chief of the main operational directorate of the Russian Armed Forces' General Staff, told a news briefing.

In the last 24 hours, he added, 1,096 militants have left Aleppo voluntarily, and 953 of them were pardoned under the amnesty declared by the Syrian government.

According to Rudskoi, more than 3,000 inhabitants of Aleppo have returned to their homes that the government troops took from the rebels.

He added that refugees would be able to return to Aleppo and surrounding villages in the near future, without specifying when it could happen.

The Syrian rebel fighters captured eastern Aleppo in 2012. The government troops and allied forces have recently launched a broad campaign to end their occupation of the city.
GENEVA, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations' human rights office warned Friday that hundreds of men who had fled rebel-held districts of Aleppo to reach western areas under government control have reportedly disappeared amid reports that opposition groups present in the Syrian city are also abducting civilians.

"While it is difficult to establish the facts in such a fluid and dangerous situation, we have received very worrying allegations that hundreds of men have gone missing after crossing into government-controlled areas," OHCHR said in a statement.

"Family members say they lost contact with the men, between the ages of 30 and 50, after they fled opposition-controlled areas of Aleppo around a week or 10 days ago," it added.

In rebel-held districts of east Aleppo, both Fatah al-Sham Front (formerly al-Nusra Front) and the Abu Amara Battalion are alleged to have abducted and killed an unknown number of civilians who requested armed groups to leave their neighbourhoods to spare civilian lives.

"We have also received reports that between 30 November and 1 December, armed opposition groups fired on civilians attempting to leave in the Bustan al-Qasr area towards government-controlled Msharqa," the human rights office added.

Once Syria's commercial hub, Aleppo has been divided in two since 2012, with western parts under Syrian government control and eastern districts held by rebels seeking to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

A military operation launched by Damascus on Nov. 24 broke the deadlock however, with Syrian government troops seizing some 75 percent of eastern Aleppo.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported last Friday that ensuing fighting had resulted in the displacement of 31,500 civilians.

With frontlines changing on a daily basis, some 100,000 people are reportedly crammed in an enclave only 25 percent the size of the area previously controlled by opposition groups.

"Civilians are caught between warring parties that appear to be operating in flagrant violation of international humanitarian law," OHCHR warned.

"Indiscriminate attacks, with little effort taken to avoid civilian casualties, have been conducted on heavily populated areas on both sides of the city," it added.
DAMASCUS, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Nearly 5,000 civilians have evacuated rebel-held areas in the northern city of Aleppo on Friday, an official source told Xinhua.

Leaving the rebel-held part in the east of Aleppo, the civilians arrived in batches to the Jibreen temporary shelter south of the city, said Ala Addien Qasab, an official with the Aleppo Relief Committee.

He said that nearly 15,000 people have arrived in the shelter since last week, adding that new arrivals will be later transported to more shelters or their relatives in the government-controlled areas in the western part of the city.

The evacuation comes as the government forces are launching a crushing offensive against the rebels in eastern Aleppo, capturing over 80 percent of the neighborhoods that were stormed by the rebels in 2012.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said last week that over 30,000 civilians had fled eastern Aleppo toward the government-controlled areas.

The Syrian army said it will press ahead with the operation until all areas in Aleppo are liberated.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said that recapturing rebel-held areas in Aleppo will change the course of the battles in Syria.
BRUSSELS, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- NATO has trained Iraqi officers on cyber defense to strengthen the country's capabilities in the sector, NATO said in a press release Friday.

A total of 16 civil servants from the new Iraqi Computer Incident Response Team were trained in Ankara, Turkey during the course from Nov. 21 to Dec. 2.

The program focused on Iraq's cyber security and defense requirements, including theoretical sessions and practical laboratory exercises.

This training was delivered as part of the defense capacity building initiative endorsed by NATO allies at the 2014 NATO Summit in Wales.
Chinese State Councilor Wang Yong (3rd L) and Thai Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak (6th R) co-chair the 5th Meeting of the China-Thailand Joint Committee on Trade, Investment and Economic Cooperation in Beijing, capital of China, Dec. 9, 2016. (Xinhua/Yan Yan)

BEIJING, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) - China and Thailand signed deals on railway and agricultural technology cooperation following the 5th China-Thailand Joint Committee on Trade, Investment and Economic Cooperation Meeting held Friday in Beijing.

The two sides signed an agreement to extend their five-year plan for economic and trade cooperation and make a joint action plan, a memorandum on railway cooperation, and a deal on agricultural product e-certificate technology.

The annual meeting, co-chaired by Chinese State Councilor Wang Yong and visiting Thai Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak, is aimed at strengthening pragmatic cooperation and working together on the Belt and Road Initiative, which was proposed by China in 2013 to enhance regional connectivity.

The two sides agreed to make full use of the current bilateral cooperation mechanisms, dovetail their development strategies and continue to strengthen trade, investment and major project cooperation.

Wang suggested that China and Thailand further strengthen pragmatic cooperation in tourism, finance, economic and trade cooperation at the provincial level, as well as regional economic integration.

Somkid agreed to strengthen cooperation with China, particularly in major areas such as infrastructure, industrial clusters, ICT (Information and Communication Technologies), technology and energy.

He said Thailand will support and work jointly on the Belt and Road Initiative with China.
BEIJING, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- China on Friday responded to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's recent remarks by calling on the United States to jointly manage differences in a constructive manner and boost win-win cooperation with China.

Trump was quoted by media on Thursday as saying the United States needs to improve its relationship with China. He also criticized China's policies on trade and the economy as well as on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said countries, including China, are watching Trump as he prepares to assume office in January.

As the world's two largest economies and key members of the World Trade Organization, China and the United States can solve their trade disputes within the WTO framework, he said.

The two countries have lots of common ground as well as some differences, Lu said at a routine press briefing.

China hopes to work with the new U.S. administration to expand mutual beneficial cooperation and handle their differences in a constructive manner on the basis of mutual respect, he said.

As for China's policy on the DPRK, Lu said China's efforts in promoting the Korean Peninsula's denuclearization as well as peace and stability are widely recognized.

The main sticking point of the Korean Peninsula issue lies in the contradiction between the United States and the DPRK, rather than China, he said.

He called for more constructive measures by the new U.S. administration to address the issue.
UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday congratulated the people of Ghana for exercising their democratic rights and on the peaceful conduct of the elections, and called on "all political actors and their supporters to exercise patience while the ballots are being counted."

The secretary-general said in a statement that he was following with great interest the situation in Ghana after the presidential and parliamentary elections taking place on Dec. 7.

Ban "welcomes the commitment of all presidential candidates to maintain peace as demonstrated by their signing of a Peace Accord on 1 December," the statement said.

"He urges that any disputes be resolved peacefully through established legal channels," it added. "In Ghana as elsewhere, the most important aspects of elections are that the genuine will of the people be reflected in the final results, and that those results be respected."

The electoral commission has yet to release final results from this week's elections. Seven candidates are contesting Ghana's presidency. If no one wins a majority, there will be a runoff between the top two.
ABUJA, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- A total of 30 people were killed following twin blasts which hit a crowded market in Madagali district of Nigeria's northeastern state of Adamawa on Friday, a military spokesman said.

Badare Akintoye, a Major in the Nigerian Army, said two female suicide bombers carried out the attack.

"At least 30 people have been killed in the suicide blasts carried out by two female suicide bombers in the market," he wrote in a terse statement.

The explosions occurred simultaneously at the opposite ends of the local market in Madagali, causing buyers and sellers to run for safety, witness Audu Yusuf said.

The survivor said he saw at least 10 injured people being sent to a nearby hospital.

The market is a weekly one that sells grains, vegetable and animals every Friday. The blasts occurred at the animal and grains sections of the market, according to Yusuf Mohammed, a senior district official.

Adamawa State police spokesman Othman Abubakar said investigation is underway on the attacks.

Madagali is located 276 kilometers from the state capital, Yola. In August 2014, the district was one of several towns seized by terror group Boko Haram but it was recaptured by the military in March 2015.

At least 30 people were killed and 16 injured when two female suicide bombers attacked a busy motor park in Madagali on Dec. 28, 2015.
BEIJING, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Chinese steel saw more trade remedy probes during the first 11 months of 2016 than the previous year, an official said on Friday.

A total of 41 investigations were launched over steel products imported from China by 16 countries and regions, up 24 percent year on year, and involving products worth 6.8 billion U.S. dollars, Shen Danyang, a spokesperson of the Ministry of Commerce, said during a press conference.

"Members of the World Trade Organization have the right to initiate such investigations, but they must strictly observe related rules and fully ensure the legal rights and interests of Chinese companies," Shen said.

Given the worldwide steel overcapacity, many countries have resorted to protectionism and blamed Chinese steel for their domestic economic woes, instead of pressing ahead with reforms.

"The world should work together to face the problem, rather than just targeting China," Shen said.

China has made steady headway in downsizing its own steel production. The industry slashed 45 million tonnes of capacity in the Jan.-Nov. period ahead of schedule, and regulators have shut down illegal projects and guaranteed there will not be any illegal new steel mills.

In fact, China digests most of its steel production. In the first ten months, China exported 92.63 million tonnes of steel, up only 0.5 percent from a year ago.
by Olatunji Saliu

ABUJA, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Thirty people were killed and 67 injured in the suicide blasts which rocked a crowded market in Madagali district of Nigeria's northeastern state of Adamawa on Friday.

Badare Akintoye, a military spokesman confirmed two female suicide bombers carried out the attacks.

The explosions occurred simultaneously at the opposite ends of the local market in Madagali, causing buyers and sellers to run for safety.

In a statement sent to Xinhua, Sani Datti, spokesman of the country's National Emergency Management Agency said the 67 injured were taken to the state-run Michika General Hospital for treatment.

The market at which the attacks took place is a weekly one that sells grains, vegetable and animals every Friday.

The blasts occurred at the animal and grains sections of the market, according to Yusuf Mohammed, a senior district official.

Adamawa State police spokesman Othman Abubakar said investigation is underway on the attacks.

Madagali is located 276 kilometers from the state capital, Yola.

In August 2014, the district was one of several towns seized by terror group Boko Haram but it was recaptured by the military in March 2015.

Two female suicide bombers who were members of the Boko Haram group killed at least 30 people and 16 injured when they attacked a busy motor park in Madagali on Dec. 28, 2015.

Madagali is a neighboring district to Borno State, where Sambisa, the largest training camp of the ruthless Boko Haram group is situated.

The northeast region of Nigeria has been a stronghold of the extremist group and has been frequently raided in the past six years.

In past months, the Nigerian government has launched several military operations to eliminate the terrorist threat.

Boko Haram, which seeks to impose strict Islamic law in northern Nigeria, has been blamed for some 20,000 deaths and displacement of more than 2.6 million people since 2009.
GUANGZHOU, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Six villagers have been transferred to judicial authorities in south China for allegedly hunting and selling a rare sea turtle illegally, authorities said Friday.

This week, a viral video showing a group of people dismembering a giant Dermochelys coriacea, a sea turtle under state protection, caused an uproar among netizens.

The turtle, reportedly weighing more than 200 kg, was slaughtered and its meat was sold for 70 yuan (10 U.S. dollars) per kg to local residents in Xuwen County, Guangdong Province, according to a report by the Global Times, citing the local Zhanjiang Daily. Pictures on microblog Sina Weibo showed bloody scenes of the slaughter, with the turtle tied in rope on a two-wheeled cart.

But initial investigations showed that the turtle was already dead when it was caught, according to a statement by the county government.

According to the statement, three fishermen caught the turtle when they were fishing in waters off Luodousha Island in Xuwen. They then sold the turtle to three local villagers at a price of 4,000 yuan. The villagers dismembered the turtle and sold the meat to other villagers.

The fishermen claimed that the turtle was already dead when it was caught. Investigators found no evidence proving the turtle was alive when it was dismembered, said the statement.

Dermochelys coriacea is a Class B protected animal in China. The species, also called the leatherback sea turtle, has a unique shell unlike other sea turtles. The animal has rarely been spotted in China, according to Bowu, a spinoff magazine of China National Geography. According to China's Criminal Law, illegal purchase, transportation and sales of endangered wild animals could result in a fixed jail sentence and fines.

Sea turtles are traditionally regarded as "guardian angels" in coastal areas in Guangdong, said Liang Daichong, a local fishery policeman. "There have been stories of the Dermochelys coriacea turtles saving people."

Liang said that the turtle is a deep-sea species, and many people do not know it.

Local villagers told Xinhua that sea turtles are "not allowed to be hunted" according to local fishing traditions.

"Any sea turtle caught by mistake is typically released, and some fishermen even burn incense and inscribe their names and the time on the turtle's shell when they release it just to get blessings," a local villager said.

Xia Zhongrong, an official with the national nature reserve for sea turtles in Guangdong's Huizhou City, said that fishermen in Guangdong rarely kill or eat sea turtles, and that any sea turtle caught by mistake is usually released or sent to the reserve.

"Each year, about 50 sea turtles are sent to the reserve," Xia said. "Sometimes the number has exceeded 100."

One of the suspects accused of dismembering the turtle said that he "did not know it was a sea turtle," nor did he realize it was under state protection.

"I have always known sea turtles should be released when they are caught," said the suspect, surnamed Zheng. "Last year, I spent several hundred yuan buying a sea turtle and released it."

Liang Daichong said that the incident in Xuwen is a reflection of "bad eating habits" and "ignorance."

"The government should improve education about wildlife protection," Xia said. "The public should remain friendly to and in awe of wild animals."
NEW DELHI, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Over 1,200 tourists stranded in India's eastern archipelago of Andaman and Nicobar were evacuated Friday, officials said.

The evacuation was carried out by Indian air force, navy and coast guard.

Around 1,400 tourists were stranded after heavy rains hit Neil and Havelock islands on Monday. The inclement weather caused a severe depression formed over southeast Bay of Bengal and triggered heavy rainfall, strong wind and rough sea conditions on the archipelago.

Indian navy initiated the evacuation process on Wednesday, however their efforts were hampered due to bad weather in the area as ships could not reach the Havelock and Neil Islands.

Reports said weather conditions improved in the area on Friday after which authorities reinitiated evacuation process.

India's state-run broadcaster All India Radio (AIR) said after the improvement in weather condition, the Andaman Nicobar administration in coordination with defence and coast guard carried out evacuation of stranded tourists from Havelock and Neil Islands.

"During the day long evacuation operation, five naval ships, two coast guard ships and three Indian air force choppers were placed in service. Apart from this the ships from Andaman Nicobar administration and helicopter of the Union Territory also participated in the evacuation drive," the broadcaster said.

Officials said remaining tourists stranded on the island would be brought to Port Blair, the capital city by Friday night.

Every year thousands of tourists including foreigners visit the coral reef-fringed Andaman islands where is a popular tourist destination known for its beaches.
SKOPJE, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) --- Citizens of Macedonia should come out and cast their ballot on the parliamentary elections of Dec. 11, Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov appealed in a press conference on Friday.

Ivanov said citizens should use their right to vote and give their trust to the political party they believe is the best choice for them personally as well as Macedonia.

On the other hand, the Macedonian president also asked the institutions involved in the electoral process to demonstrate political culture and respect the constitution and laws.

"They should not succumb to any pressure and show no tolerance or mercy for those who try to prevent or disrupt, in any way, the electoral process," Ivanov urged.

He stressed free and democratic election process will mark the beginning of the end to the political crisis, as well as the start of national reconciliation in Macedonia.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter visited Afghanistan on Friday to consult with Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani and senior U.S. military officials, the Pentagon said.

According to a Pentagon statement, Carter will meet with senior U.S. officers, including U.S. Army Gen. John Nicholson Jr., commander of NATO's Resolute Support mission, to hear their assessment of the security situation there.

"In his meetings with senior Afghan officials, the secretary will discuss the growing capabilities and resilience demonstrated by Afghan security forces in recent months," the statement added.

Carter's unannounced visit to Afghanistan came amid uncertainty over U.S. future mission there after U.S. President Barack Obama leaves office next January.

There are currently 9,800 U.S. troops in Afghanistan despite the Obama administration's original plan to withdraw all U.S. troops before leaving office.
TIRANA, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Albania has shown that it is an important element for security and stability in Europe and the region and in this regard, European Union(EU) should move faster to start membership talks with Albania, Polish Prime Minister Beata Syzdlo said here Friday.

Syzdlo was received by her Albanian counterpart Edi Rama at the latter's office, media here reported.

Following their meeting, the two premiers had a joint press conference during which Poland confirmed its unwavering support to Albania's EU aspirations, Rama's cabinet informed.

"We are ready to support Albania and also ready to share our experience of pre-adherence stage. We had to carry out a string of reforms until the EU membership," Syzdlo said.

On his part, the Albanian leader praised Poland's support while he stressing the two countries had to enhance cooperation as there is a lot of untapped potential.

The duo also signed several agreements on cooperation in culture, investment agencies and chambers of commerce.
CAIRO, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- A minor Islamist military faction claimed responsibility for the bomb attack that killed six Egyptian policemen in the country's Giza governorate Friday.

In a press release published on Telegram social media application, a military faction named Hasm said its fighters targeted a group of policemen with highly explosive bombs in Giza's Haram Street.

"The explosion took place at 9:55 a.m. local time (0755 GMT)," the statement said, adding that "the attack killed six policemen and injured three others."

Hasm is an acronym of Arabic phrase "Haraket Sawid Misr," which literally means "Egypt's Forearms Movement."

The movement, which the government labels as an armed wing of the outlawed Muslim brotherhood group, emerged recently as it announced its first operation in mid July when its gunmen assassinated a high-ranking police officer in the Delta province of al-Fayyoum.

In August, the group also claimed responsibility for a failed assassination attempt of Egypt's former highest Islamic official Ali Gomaa.

Friday's attack came one week after security forces killed three militants affiliated with Hasm during clashes in Upper Egypt's Assiut city.

Earlier on Friday, ministry of interior announced that six policemen were killed when bombs exploded at a security checkpoint on a road leading to the Pyramids, adding that the blast also injured three other policemen and three civilians.

Security sources revealed that two bombs, triggered by remote control, were planted in a dust bin under a tree.

After the attack, bomb disposal teams blocked all the roads to the Pyramids, while search operation for suspects and other possible explosives were launched.

Interior ministry has also formed an investigation team to determine the materials used in the explosion.

In Egypt, bomb attacks are endemic in North Sinai Province, where Islamic State-affiliated Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis group has carried out hundreds of anti-security attacks following the ouster of the Islamist president Mohamed Morsi by the army in response to mass protest against his rule in 2013.

However, some attacks crept to Cairo and other major cities across the most populous Arab country.

The terrorist attacks have claimed lives of hundreds of police and army personnel as well as a number of civilians.

Meanwhile, the Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail offered condolences to the families of the victims.

"This proves that terrorism has no religion," the prime minister said in a statement.

Ismail also hailed the sacrifices made by policemen alongside with Armed Forces troops to restore security and safety.

The attack was also condemned by Ahmed al-Tayyeb, the Grand Imam of al-Azhar, Egypt's top Sunni Islamic institution.

"Such terrorist acts will make Egyptians and policemen more resolved on going ahead in uprooting terrorism aimed at destabilizing the country," Ahmed al-Tayyeb said in a press statement.
DAR ES SALAAM, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Tanzania's Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, President John Magufuli, on Friday led over 45 million Tanzanians in celebrations marking the east African country's 55th independence anniversary.

The celebrations held at the Uhuru Stadium in the commercial capital were coloured by military manoeuvres in which trained commandos displayed their combat and defensive tactics that left tens of hundreds of watchers awestruck.

The Tanzania People's Defence Forces (TPDF), the Tanzania Police Force, the Tanzania Prisons and the National Service mounted an impressive parade that passed and saluted the President and other leaders.

President Magufuli inspected a guard of honour mounted by the armed forces to commemorate December 9, 1961, when Tanganyika hosted its flag after the country gained independence from British colonialists at the same venue.

Speaking to tens of hundreds of Tanzanians who attended the colourful celebrations at the historic stadium, President Magufuli said he cancelled celebrations to mark 54 years of independence last year because he was new to the country's leadership.

President Magufuli was sworn in as the country's fifth President on November 5, 2015, succeeding retired President Jakaya Kikwete after serving two five-year terms.

"I also cancelled the celebrations last year after I had realized that the budget for the festivities was too huge. I ordered that the budget should instead be used to construct a four-kilometre road stretch in Dar es Salaam," said Magufuli.

He said celebrations to mark the country's 56th independence anniversary and others to follow will be held in the political capital Dodoma.

Magufuli mentioned a catalogue of achievements made by his government in the past one year, including the purchase of six aircraft for the national carrier -- Air Tanzania Company Limited (ATCL) and effective implementation of free education policy.

He said the government was spending 9 million U.S. dollars a month to cover academic costs for public primary and secondary students in the country.

"We have also managed to increase the development budget to 40 percent to ensure the effective delivery of all pledges which were made during my election campaigns," he said.

Magufuli said he is optimistic that by 2020 all promises that he made will be fulfilled.

He said 2.5 billion U.S. dollars have been set aside for the construction of the new standard gauge railway that will link Tanzania to other neighbouring countries.

Magufuli assured people of his continuous efforts to fight against corruption and restore discipline in public offices,

President Magufuli also thanked past leaders for what he described as nurturing peace and tranquility in the country.
DAR ES SALAAM, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- The black rhino that mysteriously disappeared from the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA) in northern Tanzania died in August this year in its new sanctuary at the Singita-Grumeti Reserve on the Serengeti plains, a cabinet minister said on Friday.

Jumanne Maghembe, the Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, told Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa that when the rhino named John was transferred from Ngorongoro to Grumeti Reserve in December 2015 it had 26 calves.

Maghembe was briefing the Prime Minister on the disappearance of the rhino which was reportedly sold to Grumeti Reserve for 100,000 U.S. dollars under mysterious circumstances.

Maghembe said the rhino was removed from Ngorongoro to minimize what he described as a problem of inbreeding within the crater.

Maghembe also handed over to the prime minister the rhino's two horns weighing 3.6 kilograms and 2.3 kilograms, respectively.

On December 6, this year, the prime minister ordered relevant authorities to give him full report on how the rhino was moved from its sanctuary in Ngorongoro to the Serengeti's Singita-Grumeti Reserves located on the Serengeti plains.

The disappearance of the rhino was reported to the prime minister on Tuesday during his tour of the NCAA.

Majaliwa gave the officials two days to furnish him with information on details of the black rhino's sale along with an official report from a qualified wildlife veterinary officer to confirm whether the rhino had indeed died as reported by NCCA officials.

Majaliwa lashed out at both NCAA and Tanzania National Parks Authority (TANAPA) officials for allegedly colluding to sell the otherwise endangered wild animal.

According to the prime minister, the black rhino was corruptly sold at a price of 100,000 U.S. dollars with TANAPA officials cashing in 50,000 U.S. dollars as an initial deposit by the buyer.

The three NCAA officials he quizzed in particular over the issue were former NCAA chief ecologist Patrice Mattay, who is now working with TANAPA, Israel Naman and Cuthbert Lemanya.
ACCRA, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Former United Nations (UN) Secretary General Kofi Annan Friday urged calm among political stakeholders in his home country ahead of the declaration of Wednesday's presidential election result.

This followed the seeming tension brewing in the camps of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) who are both claiming victory.

A statement released here said: "I call on the candidates, their parties and their supporters to remain calm until the announcement of the final results by the Election Commission (EC). There is no reason for incitement."

"In the spirit of democracy, I call on the losers to concede as quickly as possible to defuse tensions and allay uncertainties. Let me take this opportunity to congratulate the five candidates who have already done so in light of the preliminary results and clear trends. The people of Ghana are waiting and watching, let's not disappoint them."

Annan commended the country's electoral body for conducting a credible election as well as domestic and international observers for their role in the electoral process.
Nine Turkish activists aboard the Mavi Marmara aid vessel, part of a flotilla traveling to the Gaza Strip to deliver humanitarian aid, were killed on May 31, 2010 when Israeli troops stormed the vessel at sea before it reached to the Palestinian territories. A tenth victim succumbed to his wounds in 2014 after being in a coma for years. (AFP photo)

ANKARA, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Turkish court dismissed Friday the Mavi Marmara raid case, a thorny issue that strained Turkish-Israeli relations, acquitting all of the Israeli suspects accused of killing 10 Turkish activists on international waters, Turkish Daily Sabah reported.

Last week, the prosecutor in the case asked the court to drop the charges against the Israeli military brass implicated in the case, pointing to a recent agreement between the two countries to mend ties.

However, the families of the victims called the court to ignore the Turkish-Israeli agreement and send the agreement to the highest legal authority, the Constitutional Court, for its annulment. The court rejected the demand by the families' lawyers.

Nine Turkish activists aboard the Mavi Marmara aid vessel, part of a flotilla traveling to the Gaza Strip to deliver humanitarian aid, were killed on May 31, 2010 when Israeli troops stormed the vessel at sea before it reached to the Palestinian territories. A tenth victim succumbed to his wounds in 2014 after being in a coma for years.

The incident led to Turkish-Israeli relations to sink to a new low and the two countries, already at odds over the blockade of Gaza Strip, virtually froze ties.

Israel agreed to increase reparations for the victims to 20 million U.S. dollars. The countries also agreed that Turkish Parliament would drop the lawsuits against Israeli soldiers that participated in the raid with a new law.

Turkey and Israel finally settled on a reconciliation deal last June that also included Israel's permission for Turkish aid to reach Gaza.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a statement on Friday that the last remaining Zika zone of South Miami Beach in Florida is no longer considered to be an area of active transmission of the virus.

"There have been no new cases of local Zika virus transmission identified in South Miami Beach for more than 45 days, suggesting that the risk of Zika virus infection is no longer greater than in the rest of (Florida's) Miami-Dade County," the CDC said.

South Miami Beach is now designated as a Zika cautionary area, it said.

"Florida's rapid response and comprehensive mosquito control program has allowed them to interrupt Zika transmission, but we must stay vigilant and also take what we have learned and be prepared for next season," CDC Director Tom Frieden said in the statement.

As of December 8, a total of 4,575 cases of Zika, including 185 locally transmitted mosquito-borne cases in Florida, have been reported in the continental United States and Hawaii, according to the U.S. health agency.

Florida became the first U.S. state to see locally transmitted Zika virus in July. Last month, Texas reported detecting Zika infection in a woman, making it the second U.S. state to have a locally transmitted Zika case.
SRINAGAR, Indian-controlled Kashmir, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- A two-day long fierce gunfight Friday ended in restive Indian-controlled Kashmir with the killing of three militants, officials said.

Police, however said they have recovered only two bodies from the debris of the house destroyed in gunfight.

"In the search operation, two bodies of the militants and three assault rifles were recovered so far," a police spokesman said.

The gunfight broke out Wednesday evening at village Hassanpora near Bijbehara town in Anantnag district, about 47 km south of Srinagar city, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir.

Locals said the bodies were disfigured beyond recognition. People from two villages in nearby Kulgam district claimed the bodies and performed their funeral prayers, reports said. The bodies of two militants have been identified as local cadres of Lashkar-e-Toiba militant outfit.

According to police spokesman DNA samples from the bodies of slain militants were collected for their identification.

On Thursday a civilian was killed and several others injured after government forces fired shotgun pellets, tear smoke shells and warning shots to disperse rock-throwing protesters who tried to break the cordon to help militants escape.

Police said the civilian was killed after being hit by a stray bullet.

Following the culmination of gunfight protests and clashes broke out in the village and nearby areas.

Contingents of Indian police and army cordoned off the village Wednesday evening. According to police officials the operation was initiated on specific intelligence information regarding presence of militants in the area.

Locals said the house from where the militants were firing on police and army positions has been completely destroyed due to heavy shelling and detonation of explosive devices.

"The firing began Wednesday evening and continued on Thursday and Friday," a local resident Abdul Rehman told Xinhua. "We heard sound of gunfire and mortar shells during these two days."

Officials said Indian army and police have not suffered any damage in the gunfight.

In July this year killing of a top militant commander Burhan Muzaffar Wani triggered a wave of violence and anti-India protests. At least 90 people most of them teenagers were killed and over 14,000 injured (including those blinded and maimed) in police and paramilitary shooting while controlling public protests.

Each death has triggered more protests despite government measures to impose a strict curfew across the towns.

A guerrilla war is going on between militants and Indian troops stationed in Indian-controlled Kashmir since 1989. The gunfight between the two sides takes place intermittently across the region.

Kashmir, the Himalayan region divided between India and Pakistan is claimed by both in full. Since their Independence from Britain, the two countries have fought three wars, two exclusively over Kashmir.
LHASA, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Dozens of trucks carrying 19 million yuan (2.8 million U.S. dollars) worth of goods left the border port of Gyirong in Tibet after customs clearance on Friday, continuing the journey to their destination in Nepal.

The new rail and road cargo service, linking Guangdong, Tibet and Nepal, aims to boost trade with the South Asian neighbor as China pushes forward its Belt and Road Initiative.

A train carrying eight carriages and 14 boxcars full of products, including shoes, clothes, hats, furniture, appliances, electronics and building materials, covered the 5,200-km distance between Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province, and Xigaze in Tibet.

The trucks are responsible for the remaining 870 km of the journey, carrying goods to Gyirong and then to the final stop in Kathmandu, Nepal's capital.

"The trip between Guangzhou and Gyirong takes about five to six days, much shorter than the 20 days for sea transport," said Yao Yanfeng, general manager of the freight carrier Tibet Tianzhi Import and Export Co. Ltd. "The time could be cut further to 3.7 days in the future."

Yao said his company is providing relatively quick delivery service and, despite higher costs, it can meet demand for time-sensitive clients.

"In the slower winter season, the train and trucks will make a round trip every one or two weeks," said Yao. "In the busy season next year, there will be two to three per week and, eventually, we're aiming for four to five trips per week."

"Nepal needs Chinese goods," said Liu Denghui of Adam Refrigeration Equipment Co. Ltd. in Shenzhen upon hearing about the new trade route.

NEW TRADE PASSAGE

In May, China opened a rail and road cargo service between Lanzhou in northwest China and Kathmandu. The new service starting from Guangzhou serves as an important trade passage between the two neighboring countries.

Guangdong and neighboring regions, known as China's manufacturing hubs, are a major source of imports for South Asia, including Nepal.

The trade passage, in line with market demand in the medium and long term, could help boost economic cooperation between Guangdong, Tibet and South Asia, officials said.

Luomei, assistant chairwoman of Tibet autonomous regional government, said with efficient trade transportation, the freight service could help relocate more businesses along the passage, bringing growth momentum and industrial transformation to the plateau region.

Gobinda Bahadur Karki, consul general of Nepal in Lhasa, said the freight service will help boost Nepal's economic growth as well as bilateral trade.

MORE INFRASTRUCTURE

To further facilitate trade, China is planning to build a railway between Xigaze and Gyirong to shorten the trip.

Yang Guoliang, an official with the Tibet Autonomous Regional Department of Commerce, said Tibet will build and reopen more border ports to expand the trade passage to South Asia.

The trade passage is a national strategy linking China's economic heartland with South Asia, said Yang.

Apart from ports and trade passages, China will build border economic zones with South Asia, said Wang Yanqing of the transport research institute under the National Development and Reform Commission, China's top economic planning agency.
JUBA, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- A senior South Sudanese army official on Friday dismissed the possibility of genocide occurring in the youngest nation whose social fabric has come under attack by over two years of conflict.

The Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) Chief of Staff General Paul Malong Awan said according to military intelligence there was no serious evidence of ethnic killings on wide scale in the Yei area located some 150 km southwest of the capital.

"I have flown to Yei and such things (genocide) are not there. I asked my soldiers, intelligence in the army and there is nothing of such. These are propaganda to those who want South Sudan to collapse," he revealed.

The United Nations warned earlier of the risk of South Sudan descending into genocide in the aftermath of reported rise in hate speech and targeted killings along ethnic lines in the remote areas of the country.

"Whoever is talking of genocide is not true and nobody will accept genocide to take place," Malong assured.

He also downplayed fears that the army had lost public trust and confidence following several reports by international NGOs implicating the SPLA on gross human rights violations and executions in Yei, the epicenter of increased violence along ethnic lines.

"Our relation with the citizens has not broken down. We have directed our forces on how to behave with the civil population. We are waiting for the legislature to pass a resolution to give the President the mandate to use the army to disarm the civil population. We don't enter when we are not given the mandate," he revealed.

Malong also denied that the SPLA was blocking UN peacekeeping mission force (UNMISS) and NGOs from humanitarian access to those in need in hard to reach areas.

"The protection of NGOs I have included it in my command orders especially those who are coming for goodwill. There was issue that we were preventing UNMISS we have a right of informing somebody wherever he is going to take precaution," he noted.
VALLETTA, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Four projects will benefit from 270,000 euros (284,000 U.S. dollars) of European Union (EU) funding in the field of asylum and migration and integration, Malta's Parliamentary Secretary for EU Funds Ian Borg said on Friday.

The Russian-Maltese Cultural Association will get 140,000 euros, while the Foundation for Shelter and Support to Migrants will receive 100,000 euros.

Another project which will be implemented by the Sliema Local Council will get almost 30,000 euros. This project is aimed at helping third country nationals integrate their children in school.

The Association of Local Councils will benefit from 90,000 euros in EU funds, which is also intended to beef up with integration measures. (1 euro=1.05 U.S. dollar)
MOGADISHU, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) backed by Somalia National Security Forces (SNSS) on Friday arrested seven Al-Shabaab militants in Kismayo, southern Somalia during a security operation.

The pan African body's mission said an improvised explosive device (IED) factory was destroyed and several weapons recovered during the operation which was conducted in Caba, northwest of Kismayo to clear the militants' compound.

"The early morning operation resulted in seven militants detained, one IED factory destroyed and several weapons including ammunition and chest racks seized," AMISOM said in a statement.

The AU mission said other recent successful security operations in Gaduud, Beer Xaani, Dugulle, Aweys Jama and Tortoroow have seen the closure of illegal taxation centres.

"This was an important operation because it prevents Al-Shabaab from planning and conducting attacks against the Somalis in/around Kismayo," it said.

The allied forces have stepped up security operations across the Horn of Africa nation, killing the insurgents and clearing all illegally manned roadblock from the region.

Al-Shabaab militants still control parts of Galgadud.

Al-Shabaab did not comment on the latest casualty by the Somali government officials on the battle conducted by Somali government soldiers and AU forces in Central Somalia.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said last week that over 30,000 civilians had fled eastern Aleppo toward the government-controlled areas. (Reuters photo)

DAMASCUS, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Nearly 5,000 civilians have evacuated rebel-held areas in the northern city of Aleppo on Friday, an official source told Xinhua.

Leaving the rebel-held part in the east of Aleppo, the civilians arrived in batches to the Jibreen temporary shelter south of the city, said Ala Addien Qasab, an official with the Aleppo Relief Committee.

He said that nearly 15,000 people have arrived in the shelter since last week, adding that new arrivals will be later transported to more shelters or their relatives in the government-controlled areas in the western part of the city.

The evacuation comes as the government forces are launching a crushing offensive against the rebels in eastern Aleppo, capturing over 80 percent of the neighborhoods that were stormed by the rebels in 2012.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said last week that over 30,000 civilians had fled eastern Aleppo toward the government-controlled areas.

The Syrian army said it will press ahead with the operation until all areas in Aleppo are liberated.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said that recapturing rebel-held areas in Aleppo will change the course of the battles in Syria.
MOSUL, Iraq, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi security forces on Friday freed three districts from Islamic State (IS) militants in eastern Mosul, while the Iraqi F-16 fighter jets destroyed three sites producing car bombs, the Iraqi military said.

The commandos of the Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) pushed deeper into the heart of eastern part of the IS stronghold in Mosul, and freed three districts of Saha, Adel and Tahrir and raised the Iraqi flag on its buildings, a statement by the Iraqi Joint Operations Command (JOC) said.

The troops, so far, freed 27 districts from IS militants and started since the early hours of the day fierce street battles in four more IS-held neighborhoods in eastern part of the city, the JOC statement said.

The troops inside Mosul encountered stubborn resistance of the extremist militants, who are fighting in small groups and moving quickly throughout the districts, using suicide car bombs, as well as mortars and snipers, in addition to the using the population of the city as human shields.

The extremist groups frequently infiltrated behind the advancing CTS forces using tunnels or dozens of houses and buildings in the neighborhoods of the eastern side of the city, which locally named the left bank of the Tigris River that bisects the city.

During the day, Lieutenant-General Abdul Ameer Yarallah said in another statement that air strikes by Iraqi F-16 jets destroyed three factories making car bombs in Mosul and three weapons warehouses.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in recent report that the military operations in Mosul, have pushed some 82,000 civilians to flee their homes in the city and its adjacent districts and the number went up every day.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Oct. 17 announced a major offensive to retake Mosul, the country's second largest city.

Since then, the Iraqi security forces have inched to the eastern fringes of Mosul and made progress on other routes around the city.

Mosul, some 400 km north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, has been under the IS control since June 2014, when Iraqi government forces abandoned their weapons and fled, enabling IS militants to take control of parts of Iraq's northern and western regions.
Photo taken on Oct. 13, 2016, shows United Nations Secretary-General-designate Antonio Guterres at the UN headquarters in New York. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Designate Antonio Guterres will take his oath of office on Dec. 12 at a special meeting of the UN General Assembly (UNGA), UNGA President's spokesperson Dan Thomas told reporters here on Friday.

The meeting will pay tribute to outgoing UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and to administer the taking of the oath of office by Guterres, said Thomas.

The meeting is scheduled to take place at 10:00 a.m. (15:00 GMT) on Monday at UN headquarters in New York City.

On Oct.13, the UNGA appointed Portugal's former Prime Minister Antonio Guterres as the 9th secretary-general of the United Nations to succeed retiring Ban whose term expires at the end of this year.

The five-year term for Guterres will start on Jan. 1, 2017 and end on Dec.31, 2021.

Guterres, a 67-year-old politician, served as UN High Commissioner for Refugees from June 2005 to December 2015. Before joining the UN refugee agency, Guterres spent more than 20 years in government and public service. He was the prime minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002.
Photo taken on Dec. 8, 2016 shows the opening session of the 23rd annual meeting of Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Ministerial Council in Hamburg, northern Germany. The OSCE Ministerial Council convened Thursday its 23rd annual meeting to discuss security issues including conflicts in Ukraine and Syria. (Xinhua/Shan Yuqi)

HAMBURG, Germany, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- The 23rd ministerial meeting of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the world's largest regional security organization, closed Friday with some consensuses being reached among its member states.

Despite "marked differences" over the past two days, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said ministers attending the meeting shared views on the Ukraine crisis, migration, terrorism, cyber issues and OSCE development.

Ministers agreed that all sides of unresolved regional conflicts in the OSCE area should contribute to conflict de-escalation and peaceful settlement, and expressed support for the full implementation of the Minsk agreements in terms of Ukraine crisis.

The ministers acknowledged the joints efforts being pursued within the OSCE to face transnational threats and challenges including terrorism, extremism, radicalism, and cyber issues.

They referred to the OSCE's role to address large movements of migrants and refugees. Most of the ministers also underlined the confidence and security building within the organization.

Most of the ministers also underlined the confidence and security building measures (CSBM) within the organization.

The so-called incoming Troika, composed of Germany, Austria and Italy, the latter two of which are to chair the OSCE in 2017 and 2018, approved a declaration at the end of meeting.

The Troika called for all members of the OSCE to expand communication channels, invest in sustainable conflict resolution, revive conventional arms control in Europe, set a new common agenda in the face of new challenges, enable the OSCE by providing financial, political and manpower support.

Steinmeier is this year's chairperson in office of the OSCE as Germany assumed the chairmanship of the OSCE in 2016. The chairmanship will be held by Austria next year.
BEIJING, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- With just over a month until Chinese New Year, taxi driver Mr. Huang is excited about his Spring Festival vacation in Thailand. "Bangkok first, then Phuket. A little quality time with my wife and daughter," Huang said.

Huang never had the "luxury" of spending quality time with his family until three years ago.

"Spring Festival used to be one of the busiest time of year for me," he recalled, "People would book my car for the day and I would drive them across the city with my trunk full to bursting with bags of all sizes. I could earn hundreds of yuan a day," he said.

"Gifts they were -- or so they revealed, accidentally, of course. They were quite secretive about it," Huang jeered, "Corruption."

These day-trip gifters stopped using his services three years ago, coincidentally not long after the launch of Xi Jinping's anti-graft campaign.

"At first, I thought the dust would settle and the campaign would fade away, and New Year's 'routine' would return soon enough. I was wrong," he said.

Four years into the campaign, which has caught numerous corrupt "tigers" and "flies" -- senior officials and low-ranking cadres - the sweeping drive spearheaded by Xi is showing little sign of losing steam.

HUNTING TIGER, SWATTING FLIES

Xi has shown greater grit and determination to fulfill his promise on stamping out notorious corruption ever since he took the helm of the world's largest political party in November 2012.

He has warned his fellow Communist Party of China (CPC) cadres of what he saw as endemic corruption eating away at the Party's authority and effectiveness.

"[And] there are also many pressing problems within the Party that need to be resolved, particularly corruption, being divorced from the people, going through formalities and bureaucratism caused by some Party officials," he said. "The whole Party must stay on full alert."

Early the next month, the first senior official fell from grace. A former deputy Party secretary of Sichuan Province, Li Chuncheng held the ominous title of being the first tiger to be caught by the campaign.

Many have followed in the ensuing four years.

The sheer scope of the investigation and the fact that being a member of the upper echelons did not make you exempt explains why Xi's campaign has won him popularity among the public.

According to the head of the CPC Central Committee for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), Wang Qishan, more than one million people have been punished for violating CPC and government rules since November 2012. In total, 222 centrally administered officials have been investigated, with 212 receiving disciplinary punishment.

Among the tigers felled by the campaign were Zhou Yongkang, a former member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee; Bo Xilai, former Party chief of Chongqing Municipality; Xu Caihou and Guo Boxiong, two former top generals and both vice chairmen of the Central Military Commission; Ling Jihua and Su Rong, former vice chairmen of China's top political advisory body.

As Xi once put it, "All people are equal before the law and regulations, and the enforcement of such rules allows no privilege or exception."

The hunt has even expanded overseas as China strives to hunt down its economic fugitives.

Over 2,400 fugitives have been brought back to China from around 70 countries and regions across the globe since the launch of operation "Sky Net" in 2014, with 8.5 billion yuan (around 1.2 billion U.S. dollars) recovered.

CAGE OF REGULATIONS

Many say this anti-graft drive will be a hallmark of Xi's time in office, as he has proved that the campaign is far from short-lived.

One of the more recent tigers caught is former deputy Party chief of Beijing Lyu Xiwen. She was indicted for accepting bribes worth 2.73 million U.S. dollars and taking advantage of her official positions to help others obtain government funds and land for construction from 2001 to 2015.

Her trial followed a string of other high-ranking officials taking the stand last month. In one case, Zhu Mingguo, former head of the political advisory body in the southern province of Guangdong, was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve for accepting bribes and holding "a huge amount" of assets from unidentified sources.

Flies also continue to be swatted, as evidenced by terse, and almost regular, reports posted by courts, procurators and the CCDI.

In fact, some observers have gone as far to suggest that the anti-corruption campaign is the "new normal."

They also noted, however, that for the campaign to become a lasting political legacy, more needs to be done.

Catching those that have already broken the law will not eliminate corruption, Xin Ming from the Party School of the CPC Central Committee said.

"Only when there is an effective system that ensures officials are unable to be corrupt, corruption can be purged," he said.

Cheng Wenhao, a professor of Tsinghua University's School of Public Policy and Management and director of its Center for Anti-corruption and Governance, agreed.

"The anti-corruption campaign of the last several years has successfully deterred public officials. The primary task for the next step is corruption prevention," he said.

"It involves multiple tasks, including reducing public power, making power operation more transparent, minimizing the discretionary power of officials, among others. These measures will reduce corrupt opportunities caused by the willful exercise of excessive public power, thus making power abuse activities less feasible," Cheng said.

Authorities have said there are three phases in the fight against graft: the first stage is to ensure officials don't dare to be corrupt, then institutionalizing the drive and perfecting the legal framework so officials aren't able to be corrupt, and lastly, promoting an ethical and moral compass so that officials won't want to be corrupt.

There are signs that China now has at least one foot in the second phase. Over the past year or so the drive has become less visible and dramatic. The heyday of the tiger hunting when senior officials and generals seem to be falling one after another appears to have past.

Rather, the earlier blitz attacks have now given way to a less dramatic, but perhaps far more significant, war to institutionalize the corruption purge.

This gear shift is a prelude to deeper changes, as measures are rolled out to ensure effective institutions to prevent corruption from occurring at all.

On various occasions, Xi has said power must be held within a "cage of regulations" for corruption to be successfully eradicated.

In a study session attended by members of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee in April 2015, Xi stressed the importance of laws and regulations in the anti-corruption campaign.

The key measure for the anti-corruption struggle is to improve the supervision and restriction mechanism for power, he said.

ALWAYS ON THE ROAD

Much of the Party's efforts have been poured into such institutional and mechanism reform.

Measures have been formulated to name and shame officials who interfere in judicial cases.

Pilot programs on supervision committees have also been launched in Beijing and the provinces of Shanxi and Zhejiang. The ultimate goal is to build a national anti-graft organ that could mobilize more anti-corruption resources.

Anti-corruption also featured heavily at the sixth plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, which elevated Xi to the core of the Party leadership.

Two new documents on the Party's code of conduct were approved at the plenum, namely the norms of political life in the Party under the current conditions -- an update from a 1980 document -- and the regulation on intra-Party supervision, promising an emphasis on preventing paid promotions, and "zero tolerance" for corruption at all levels.

But according to the three-stage theory of the anti-corruption campaign, however, the success of this campaign ultimately lies on the third stage where officials don't want to be corrupt.

"When officials have less power and fewer opportunities to abuse their power, and face great penalty for doing so, they will be less willing to cross the line," said Cheng Wenhao.

This is much more difficult than changing institutions, according to Xu Guangjian, vice dean of Renmin University's School of Public Administration.

"This will take considerably longer time," he said.

His words were echoed by Xin Ming, who noted that the anti-graft drive is a long fight, not just in China, but in all other parts of the world too.

The CPC has been in power for 67 years. Xi and the Party need to think about the long term, he said.
Mom of 5 gunned down

Relatives said that 54-year-old Cheryl Aberdeen Cooper said she had no chance whatsoever at surviving the attack as she was shot several times in the head and chest. Her husband, who was also shot, remains warded at hospital.

Cooper who worked in the Community-based Environmental Protection and Enhancement Programme (CEPEP) was seated in her husband Carl Edmunds car at about seven oclock yesterday morning in the yard of their home.

The couple was about to pull out of the yard in the vehicle when a man, clad in white, approached the left side of the car, pointed a gun at Cooper and fired repeatedly.

As she slumped in the seat, the gunman turned his gun on Edmund and shot him. The gunman then walked off.

A report was made to police and Edmund was taken to the San Fernando General Hospital where he underwent emergency surgery for gunshot wounds to his arm. Up to press time, the killer was still at large. Coopers body was viewed by a district medical officer who ordered it removed to the Forensic Science Centre for an autopsy. Relatives yesterday were in a state of shock as they struggled to process what had taken place.

I learned about it from one of my sisters, who called me around 8 am and told me that they shot and killed her (Cooper).

We are all just struggling to come to terms with the loss.

She was a very loving, caring, hard-working person and did not deserve to leave this world in this manner, said a relative who asked not to be identified. While police said they had no evidence that Coopers murder was as a result of the land dispute that is before the courts, her relatives insist that there is a link.

Relatives have also claimed that Cooper had received numerous threats in the weeks prior to her being killed yesterday.

Officers of the Marabella Police Station and detectives from the Southern Division Homicide Investigations Bureau are continuing investigations.
Man handcuffed, stabbed to death

It was the car they wanted. It was the car they killed him for.

Knowing him, Norris would not have gone in that remote area to drop off any passenger. It had to be robbery and nothing else. He was not a criminal. Norris was a very good man, a relative said yesterday.

Mendoza, 44, also called Norrisman lived at Poui Road in St Marys Village, Moruga with his wife Christie, and their two children. He plied the St Marys Village/Princes Town taxi route with his blue station- wagon. Police reported that at about 10 pm on Wednesday, officers observed a blue Nissan Wingroad abandoned at the side of the road along a bushy area at Second Branch Road, Fifth Company in Moruga. On looking inside the vehicle, the officers saw blood stains on the driver and front passenger seats as well as a trail of blood leading to nearby bushes. Because the place was not properly lit with street lights, the officers had to use flashlights to manoeuvre through the bushes. Several feet away, they found Mendozas body lying face down. He was handcuffed. The body was removed to the Forensic Science Centre for an autopsy.

Relatives described the victim as a hard-working family man. Norris was a fun-loving man. He also did construction work. This had to be a robbery. I believe they (killers) went to dump the body but same time saw the police vehicle and fled, a relative said. No arrest has been made and investigations are continuing.
Imbert: I needed an ease up

Youngs appointment to that position was disclosed by Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley in response to a question from Caroni Central MP Dr Bhoendradatt Tewarie in the House of Representatives on Wednesday.

Bharath yesterday insisted that the decision to appoint Young to chair FGP was because of Imberts recent comments about considering a possible increase in gasoline prices in the Mid-Year Review and about the need for wage restraint. Bharath also claimed that while Young is competent, the FGP Committee is normally chaired by a senior politician. Other commentators on morning television and radio programmes yesterday expressed similar views. However Imbert said there was no truth in any of their comments.

My workload was far too heavy. I needed an ease up. When Opposition MPs insisted that the normal practice was for the Finance Minister to chair the FGP committee, the Prime Minister explained that this was not so. He advised them to speak for themselves and their own misgovernance. Rowley recalled that when he was a Cabinet minister in the former Patrick Manning administration, then Public Administration Minister, Dr Lenny Saith, chaired the FGP committee for five years and there was no issue about that.

Young, who is Portof- Spain North/St Anns West MP, is also Minister in the Ministry of the Attorney General and Legal Affairs.
Republic Bank mourns Shannons death

In a statement, Republic Banks Human Resources General Manager Anna-Mar?a Garc?a-Brooks said, This is a tragedy of immeasurable proportions and we are at a loss for words to express our shock and sadness. We kept vigil with the rest of the nations concerned citizens, in the hope of a safe return of our team member.

Our thoughts, prayers and support are with Shannons parents and family at this time. We have not received any further detailed information from the police, thus far, but we shall continue to work with them as needed. Garc?a- Brooks said that the bank has initiated emotional assistance processes for staff at its Independence Square Branch, as well as for the rest of the Republic Bank family, many of whom are inconsolable.

This is a sad day for the Republic Bank team and for our nation. As news spread of Banfields murder yesterday, many took to social media to share their shock and anger. A woman said, I dont know what level of madness is going on in sweet Trinidad. Today I cried when I read that the young lady Shannon Banfield was found dead. I did not even know her and I broke down in tears. Where have we gone wrong as a nation? Lord, forgive them for they know not what they do. Rest in peaceful sleep angel. Another said she was now afraid to travel to work. I have never been to afraid to travel to work but after reading the news of Shannon Banfield. I just cant today. I became physically sick...My head hurts, my belly pains..Jesus please return to this precious twin island state ASAP. A few people also shared their thoughts on Banfields Facebook page. One woman wrote, I am disgusted and horrified by what was done to u. I know that a conviction cant bring u back but still I pray for speedy justice to be served. Go ahead and walk on rainbows and dance with angels. You are in Gods kingdom now. Another woman said, Im so disgusted by the acts of heinous crimes against humanity, especially against people that are doing the right thing and living their lives in a honest fashion. This Angel had her whole life ahead of her, by the early start at being responsible and progressive...

THIS IS JUST UNACCEPTABLE.

Something has to be done... Lord knows. Rest in peace Shannon. Lord, please comfort her loved ones in this time of despair, grant them a place of peace.
No disciplinary action on POS jailbreak

Chairing yesterdays Joint Select Committee (JSC) on National Security at Tower D, Port-of-Spain, Hinds said the trio remain suspended but no action has yet come from the State.

The case went to a disciplinary tribunal on August 16 but after one member resigned in October, the Public Services Commission voided the tribunal on December 6, with a fresh one due to be named.

Lamenting this horrific timeline, Hinds added, Worse, the DPA (Director of Public Administration) has told us that these disciplinary tribunal hearings are three to five years. The JSC also asked if any decision, by the Prison Service, to allow inmates out to do personal transactions, is governed by a written policy or if favouritism is practised.

Opposition Senator and member of the committee, Wayne Sturge, lamented that the Prison Service denied a non-violent Laventille father, Jerome Henry - remanded for negligence in the accidental drowning of his son, Josiah - from attending the funeral, but that a remanded prison officer charged with killing his wife was let out to do a bank transaction in full view of the public.

Worse, the officers presence in the bank occurred in the absence of any uniformed police officer (but guarded by plainclothes prison officers) and came as a shock to two of the murder victims relatives who also happened to be in the bank.

The committee learnt that no other adult inmate has been afforded such a privilege in the past year, and that the accused officer has actually been let out, accompanied by prison officers, to do personal transactions on three separate occasions. Given the possible security risks involving the remanded officer, several JSC members expressed shock that his visit occurred on the peak month-end time of Friday November 25, just ahead of the last Local Government election.

While Acting Prisons Commissioner, Cecil Duke, had disallowed Henry to attend the funeral of his son, he allowed Henry to view the body at a funeral home.

Prisons Commissioner, Sterling Stewart, said he would have let Henry attend the funeral. The JSC consisted of Hinds, Sturge, Point Fortin MP Nicole Olliviere, Government Senator Michael Coppin, Senate Deputy President Nigel De Freitas, and Independent Senator Taurel Shrikissoon. The Prisons Service top brass present included Stewart; Asst Commissioner, Dennis Pulchan; Chief Welfare Officer, Hayden Walcott; and Senior Supt Carlos Corrapse.
Roget bats for Industrial Court

THE TT Chamber of Industry and Commerce is being called on to state whether or not it is in agreement with recent statements attributed to two prominent businessmen that there is an anti-business bias at the Industrial Court. President of the Joint Trade Union Movement (JTUM) Ancel Roget yesterday asked, What is the Chambers position in this regard? Is (businessman) echoing the sentiment of the Chamber and of all of those with responsibility to speak up but who are remaining silent? Standing in the rain outside the Chambers offices in Westmoorings, surrounded by about 25 men and women from various JTUM member unions, Roget warned that the Chamber cannot remain silent on these reckless (and) calculated statements.

We are with a different approach. We will intensify this action and we might very well be back here with thousands of workers (who) are impacted by such a statement, Roget warned.

This past Tuesday, while standing outside the St Vincent Street, Port-of-Spain entrance of the Court, Roget issued a call to Attorney General (AG) Faris Al-Rawi and others to speak out against the businessmens remarks.

He reiterated this on Thursday, this time also calling on President Anthony Carmona, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, the Law Association of TT and the Judiciary, to denounce the remarks.

We call on (them) to come out in strong condemnation against this unbridled frontal attack on the independence of the Industrial Court, its judges and also (against) lumping in the trade unions in some sort of collusion against business, Roget stated.

He later warned that unless the Chamber and others do not come out in condemnation and bring contempt of court proceedings against (the businessmen) for this action, JTUM would intensify its actions.

We have a number of events planned, of which we are not at liberty to discuss (yet) but rest assured, we will not rest until justice is served in this particular issue, the JTUM leader declared
Law to end child marriages soon

Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister (Gender and Child Affairs), Ayanna Webster-Roy made these disclosures yesterday at a forum titled Democratic Dialogue: How to Institutionalise Gender Equity Issues Nationally held at the Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Westmoorings.

This is a great opportunity for us to reflect on our relationship with human rights as individuals, as members of social and cultural groups and as a society, Webster- Roy said. It is time to reflect on the worth of our humanity as well as the humanity of others especially those different from us and those who are vulnerable. She added, As we work towards expanding knowledge of human rights and building meaningful dialogue on the issue, it is crucial that we establish one central, foundational fact - human rights are the rights guaranteed to us just because we are human. There are no other qualifying criteria. Webster-Roy explained that the forum posses a challenge for a diverse society such as TT and is something to be proud of but, in reality, this diversity has a darker side.

She said, If we agree that our aim is a rights-based society, we must also agree that we have a long way to go.

If we understand that the effective guarantee of human rights is essential for our development goals, we must also understand the importance of open and honest dialogue.

It is in this light that the Office of the Prime Minister (Gender and Child Affairs) understands its role. Webster-Roy said Governments effort to secure and provide for children is guided by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, as they realise the value in complying with international standards for the treatment and welfare of children.

Also, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative, Richard Blewitt, said based on the latest World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Report 2016, Trinidad and Tobago ranked 44 out of the 136 countries, eight places lower than its 2013 ranking of 36.

He said TT has made significant strides in making gender equity a critical aspect of its socio-economic development and there have been significant legal advancements with the establishment of laws dealing with the prevention, punishment and eradication of violence against women and children.

For example, the Family Proceedings Act 2004, which defines legal procedures for family matters and the Miscellaneous Provision (Maternity Protection and Servants) Act 2012, which increased maternity leave from 13 to 14 weeks. He added, Many women and girls are still being left behind in key areas. For example, in the areas of economic participation and opportunities, womens access to financial services and other assets, vulnerability to violence and access to policy making positions. Blewitt said he hoped that the dialogue will catalyse continued strategic action toward achieving gender equity in the coming year.
Fmr Sando Mayor offers words of advice to new councillors

Dont become upset with anyone, people will call you and try to abuse you, but do not become upset with anyone.

Dont allow yourself to be vex at them,Hosein warned the team of nine newly-sworn in councillors of the Peoples National Movement (PNM). At the time, Hosein was speaking at the swearing in ceremony hosted at the SFCC. Hosein, addressed council members from the chair in which he once sat while holding the position as the San Fernando Mayor. I used to be the fist servant in San Fernando and now I would be the servant in this ministry, you need to set an example, he told the councillors.

He further told councillor members that they should not think of themselves as superior to anyone.

The nine councillors were elected in the recent local government polls and took the oath of office shortly after 3pm yesterday. Hosein continued, The positions you hold are temporary, so do not ever once feel that you are superior to anyone, consider yourself to be a normal person,he said. He further told the councillors that when attending functions they should never allow anyone to serve them, but instead , Stand up and serve them, send a message and let people follow you, we need more of this. These positions you hold are temporary. The only lasting position is in heaven, Hosein said.

Member of Parliament for San Fernando West, Attorney General Faris Al Rawi said the city of San Fernando has been united in every single electoral seat.

This is the first time in 24 years this has occurred and it signals a very special obligation on the part of all councillors and all members present to represent all the people of San Fernando, Al Rawi said.

He stated that San Fernando represents something all of TT should aspire to be.

Also speaking at the swearing- in ceremony was Member of Parliament for San Fernando East and Housing Development Minister Randall Mitchell who reminded the new councillors to put the people first.
Reform curriculum curb school violence

Delivering recommendations to deal with school violence contained in the First Report of the Joint Select Committee on Social Services and Public Administration, which was laid in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, Mahabir said many of the psychologists, social workers and guidance officers who testified before the committee agreed that one of the causes of the violence in the schools is that many students cannot cope with the mainstream academic curriculum and the skills of the children transcend the normal narrowly defined academic skills of reading, writing, mathematics and language skills. According to Mahabir, There are skills in creativity; there are skills in drama; there are skills in art; there are skills in woodworking; there are skills in building; there are skills in sporting activities; there are skills in other areas - singing and cooking. We need to identify that there are students in the school system who are not able to exploit their innate talents - the talents in the designing of garments, for example, it is not something we emphasise in the school system and, by excluding a large amount of students from the areas in which they have innate ability,we are creating a situation where frustration among the student bodies in their inability to handle the mainstream curriculum can result in a level of frustration which can be manifested in the type of deviant activity that we are seeing.

The committee is recommending a drastic increase in the number of guidance officers in schools. Mahabir said the current ratio of one guidance officer, social worker or counselling staff to 250 students is inadequate and there is a clear need for much more guidance officers and social workers to address the problems in both the primary and secondary schools. He said providing the additional staff will cost a lot of money but the money must be found if the problem is to be solved. He said the committee had heard from a wide cross section of interest groups including primary and secondary school students themselves who had testified, which he said was a first for the local Parliament and maybe even within the Commonwealth.

He said there needs to be a different type of administration in the school system including the use of peer counsellors for conflict resolution. He said that by peer counsellors the committee meant someone in the school system such as a prefect or a respected member of the school community who could command respect, act as an arbiter in disputes and defuse some of them. He called for effective Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs) in all schools, adding that the committee was not convinced that the existing PTAs are as vibrant as they should be.

He said the committee is recommending that the Ministry of Education ensure that every primary and secondary school has a PTA so that parental involvement will be on an ongoing basis and this will provide early warning systems for the problems which are arising.
No toilets for CEPEP workers

CEPEP General Manager, Keith Eddy, replied that on major projects CEPEP provides portable toilet facilities on a truck but it was the responsibility of the individual contractors to ensure toilet facilities for their gangs of workers. However Gopeesingh, who was backed up by former House Speaker Wade Mark, the chairman of the committee, rejected that explanation and said the responsibility belonged with CEPEP to ensure that its contractors were providing the facilities to the workers.

Committee member Shamfa Cudjoe said that earlier in the year it had been discovered that more than 80 percent of the CEPEP contractors were behind on making statutory payments including payments to the National Insurance Board (NIB) on behalf of the workers.

She asked whether that situation had been corrected.

Eddy said some of the contractors were still owing significant sums of money. He said the contract between CEPEP and the contractors stated that if they missed three consecutive payments they were deemed to be non-compliant and their management fees would be withheld. He said when the current management came into office some five months ago it found the situation, adding that if the previous management had followed the contract, the offending contractors would have been removed from the programme.

However, he said CEPEP had held talks with the NIB and about half the offending contractors were now compliant.

Mark asked if the contractors paid tax, but CEPEPs Finance Manager, Jody David said the payment of tax was outside of CEPEPs arrangement with the contractors and they were responsible for this. However, Mark asked Eddy to look into the issue of whether the contractors are paying tax as they are supposed to, saying he wanted to know if they were fulfilling their responsibilities.

He also asked Eddy what he planned to do about the approximately 70 rogue contractors who remained non-compliant in terms of their statutory payments, asking whether their contracts should be terminated. Eddy said the company has sought legal advice on the issue.

Eddy said CEPEP is being returned to its original mandate to build entrepreneurs, and contractors would be graduated from the programme after three years. He added that CEPEPs mandate is to ensure that the contractors are trained and become business people at the end of their three-year stint in the programme although he admitted that the company has not yet officially informed the core contractors that it is going back to its original mandate - the core contractors were identified as those who had been in CEPEP for more than the intended three years.
FATCA debate resumes today

Reminding reporters that the Treasury asked Government to submit a detailed action plan for implementation of FATCA requirements, Imbert said this involved passing the legislation and putting the necessary systems in place to allow the Board of Inland Revene (BIR) to report to the Treasury on US citizens and corporations doing business in TT.

He explained the BIR has a discretion right now and, the whole point about FATCA is that discretion is taken away. Imbert said Government told the Treasury the legislation should be passed by the end of February 2017.

We put a self imposed deadline on ourselves. Then between then and September we will have to implement the legislation, Imbert added. Newsday understands that the bill may be referred to a joint select committee at todays sitting.
PNM councillors swearing in delayed due to recount

Alexander said he showed up at the swearing in ceremony at the Siparia Regional Corporation primed and ready to be sworn in, but was informed by the Corporations Chief Executive Officer, Paula Ferguson, that the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) ordered that his swearing in be put on hold.

Well obviously to me it is embarrassing, said Alexander in a telephone interview with Newsday. I am disappointed about the timing of things and the manner in which things were done. After learning of the new developments, Alexander and the other PNM Councillors- elect met to decide whether or not to go through with the ceremony. At first, my colleagues were all willing for all of us to be sworn in together as a team after the recount was done. But after careful consideration and consultation with the party, it was decided that they would go through with the ceremony. After an hour-long meeting, Alexander promptly left the vicinity and the ceremony began and continued as otherwise planned.

According to the EBC official results for the election, Alexander won the electoral district with 1,912 votes to the UNC candidate, Avenesh Seetarams 1,824, a difference of 90 votes.

The Siparia West/Fyzabad district was one of six districts where a recount was requested last Tuesday. Alexander said the results from the first recount were the same as the original.

Putting his embarrassment aside, however, Alexander said he is not threatened by the recount. If they are within their right to request a recount, I have nothing against the recount. It would have to be a miracle for a second recount to come back different from the first two counts. The recount is set to be held on Monday.

Because the Chairman of the Corporation is chosen by the votes of a full council comprising of elected councillors and aldermen, that appointment has also been delayed pending the results of the recount.

Leo Doodnath, who remains the Chairman of the Corporation until the next one is elected, said he expects that the entire process would be completed by next Thursday.
Ex-Minister gets leave to seek judicial review against Govt on wiretapping

But such reports, in accordance with the Interception of the Communications Act, in which the minister must also disclose the number of persons arrested arising out of SSAs wire-tapping into citizens conversion, have not been filed since 21012 and yesterday a High Court judge granted leave to former Transport Minister Devant Maharaj to seek judicial review of the failure to lay the reports in both houses of Parliament.

Justice Frank Seepersad granted leave as well to Maharaj, to seek a declaration from the High Court that the minister breached the statutory duty mandated under Section 24 of the Act, to prepare such annual reports for 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015.

The 2016 report is due in March next year.

The Act was made law in 2010 and the 2011 report was the only one filed by the National Security minister, in which it was revealed that there were 267 instances of wire tapping interception based on warrants obtained from a judge, which are required under Section 8 of the Act. However, Section Six (2) (b) of the Act permits an authorised officer to intercept communication for intelligence gathering in the interest of national security, for the prevention of detection of an offence (the penalty for which on conviction is ten years imprisonment), and includes an offence which death or imprisonment for the reaminder of a persons natural life, is the penalty fixed by law. The section stipulates the Chief of Defence Staff, the Commissioner of Police and the director of the SSA, as the sole persons authorised to make interceptions for such prescribed intelligence- gathering purposes.

The Act mandates that reports must be laid in both houses of Parliament yearly. The 2011 report that was laid in Parliament disclosed that there were 52 arrests and detentions made as a consequence of wire-tapping and telephone interceptions.

As a basis for his application for judicial review, Maharaj contended that there has been 418 murders in the country as of last week Friday. The Police Service, he stated, believes the majority of such murders were gang and drug related. The objective of the Act, he stated, was intended to allow some intrusion into citizens right to privacy, so as to protect the overall national security.

The refusal to lay in Parliament the annual reports as to the outcome of all forms of phone and wire-tapping which Section 6 (2) (b) allows, in which the Chief of Defence Staff and the Commissioner of Police have the sole right without obtaining a court Order, to tap into citizens conversations, is in violation of the minister statutory duty. Attorney and former Industrial Court Judge Dinesh Rambally ,leading the arguments for Maharaj, submitted to Justice Seepersad yesterday that the failure of the minister to lay the annual reports before both Houses of Parliament, is against the spirit of the Act. Whoever is the minister responsible for national security, he added, is therefore accountable to the courts for his or her inaction.

Justice Seepersad asked Rambally, who also appeared with attorneys Jagdeo Singh, Larry Lalla, Criston Williams, Kei Taklalsingh and Karina Singh, for Maharaj, why, in the light of four years of such reports having not been laid in Parliament, Maharaj was so late in filing given the nature of judicial review? Rambally submitted that the breach is a continuing one and Section Six (2) (b) of the Act encroaches on personal and private rights of citizens.

Justice Seepersad granted the leave for a declaration that the minister responsible for national security, failed to prepare the reports, in breach of his statutory duty. And, that the minister failed to cause a copy of such annual reports to be laid in both houses of Parliament.

The judge fixed a case management conference for January 17 at the Hall of Justice.
Navajo Nation sues U.S. government for $160 million over toxic waste damage to their community

The Navajo Nation recently filed suit against the United States government  to the tune of nearly $160 million  for damages and ongoing injuries resulting from a mine spill and the toxic waste that was released into the environment near the tribes territory.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has taken responsibility for the devastating spill, and the agency is also the lawsuits primary target. The lawsuit is seeking a cool $159 million in damages, as well as an additional $3.2 million to cover expenses that have already been submitted to the EPA but have not yet been reimbursed.

The catastrophic spill took place in August 2015. An EPA clean-up crew was tasked with pumping out and decontaminating sludge from the mine, but things took a turn for the worse when the team destabilized a dam of loose rocks. Consequently, this led to 3 million gallons of mine waste water and tailings  containing heavy metals like cadmium and lead, and other toxic elements like arsenic and beryllium  into Cement Creek, a tributary of the Animas River.

Naturally, the EPA has maintained that this incident was just an accident. However, some have proposed that this was no accident. It was predicted that perhaps the agency would intentionally sabotage the mine as a means to secure Superfund money. And sure enough, just over a year after the accident, the Gold King Mine was declared a Superfund site. On September 7, 2016, the EPA declared that the area would be on its list of contaminated areas due for federally funded clean-up.

Why werent they more careful the first time around? Who knows. NBC News even reported that the federal agency was well aware of the risks involved with the Gold King Mine. Their own internal documents have shown that they knew there was a serious potential for a disastrous blowout at an abandoned mine that could release large volumes of wastewater laced with heavy metals.

NBC News quotes the report as stating, In addition, other collapses within the workings may have occurred creating additional water impounding conditions. Conditions may exist that could result in a blowout of the blockages and cause a release of large volumes of contaminated mine waters and sediment from inside the mine, which contain concentrated heavy metals. A subsequent report from May of 2015 referenced similar concerns.

The catastrophe at the mine contaminated rivers in Colorado, New Mexico and Utah. Just days after the spill, NBC News reported that the EPA was claiming that the contaminant levels in the water had already returned to pre-spill levels, but experts warned that the toxic heavy metals had likely just sunk down into the sediment  just waiting to be stirred back up some day. You would think that the expert folks who work at the EPA would have reached the same conclusion, but then again, it is a federal agency.

The Navajo Nations lawsuit claims that the Gold King Mine spill has negatively impacted communities along the San Juan River in the tribes territory. In a press release, the Navajo Nation Attorney General Ethel Branch stated that the spill converted the river from a life-giver and protector, into a threat to the Navajo people, crops and animals.

The request for additional damages will cover long-term ecological and groundwater monitoring, assessments for livestock and agriculture, an on-site laboratory, additional water treatments, alternative water supply reservoirs, cultural preservation and the development of a plan to assess the damages to natural resources.

A letter signed by both the attorney general and attorney John C. Hueston, makes note of all the additional expenditures the Navajo Nation will have to make in order to keep their people safe  and it also accuses the EPA of failing to notify the tribe of the spill for nearly two days. The letter also accuses the agency of ignoring the potential dangers, stating that the agency had insufficient emergency protocols in place, and was entirely unprepared to deal with the colossal damage it had unleashed.

One can only imagine the hurt and anger the people of the Navajo Nation must feel. After all, the EPA has admitted that they knew there were serious risks involved with the Gold King Mine, and yet, the agency proved to be unable to deal with said consequences, or even take the proper precautions to prevent such a tragedy.

Sources:

TheDailySheeple.com

NBCNews.com

TheHill.com

TheDailySheeple.com

Submit a correction >>
Hospital deaths on the rise as common medicine fails to cure infections

Infectious bacteria are rapidly evolving, practically laughing and mocking modern medicine. These infectious bacteria are reclaiming over-sterilized environments and rapidly reproducing in the face of our best antibiotics. As modern medicines best antibiotics fail to cure infections, hospitals have become dangerous breeding grounds for antibiotic-resistant super bugs. Hospital management all over the world is now having a hard time controlling the spread of super bugs.

Patients who take antibiotics already have weakened immune systems and depleted microbiome terrains, so they are at a greater risk to these super bug infections. Health authorities dont like to admit this and may divert the real cause of a patients death. Super bug outbreaks can be easily swept under the rug so the public is not alarmed, but the truth is staring at us in the face.

Whistleblower comes forward at hospital in Limerick, Ireland

A whistle blower has come forth at the University Hospital in Limerick and has linked 29 patient deaths to a quiet multidrug-resistant superbug outbreak at the hospital. The whistle blower called out the ongoing failure of hospital health managers who have failed to address the problem and control the outbreak, which dates back to 2009. She has called for an external, independent investigation into the deaths and the ignored outbreak that was at its worst from 2012 to 2014.

When the whistle blower alerted the Health Information and Quality Authority in 2014 about her concerns for failing infection control methods, she was ignored and even targeted by some of her colleagues. However, when inspectors arrived at the hospital, they published a report criticizing the hospitals failing efforts to limit the spread of infection.

As national infection control teams dispatched to the hospital, new cases of multi-drug resistant infection continued to surface. In the second quarter of 2016, eight cases were detected. Three more cases linked to the hospital cropped up at a local nursing home.

The whistle blower also went to the Minster for Health. She sent him a protected disclosure listing the 29 deceased patients who tested positive for multidrug resistant bacteria and whose deaths were associated with hospital management negligence. Minster for Health Simon Harris reached out to the hospital and asked if the staff was properly managing healthcare-associated infections and anti-microbial resistance in line with national standards, in order to minimise risk to patients.

A 2011 letter, written by the hospitals own infection control team, expressed concerns to management about hygiene, cleaning, and antibiotic prescribing practices. Another letter reveals that staff managers had grown complacent to the problem of super bug infections. One manager said that a super bug called KPC had become endemic in the hospital.

These silent super bug outbreaks continue on because authorities wont disclose the ongoing problems of antibiotic resistance. Health authorities at Tallaght Hospital in Dublin refuse to disclose the severity of an outbreak of drug resistant carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE).

Projection: 10 million deaths per year due to antibiotic resistance

The disastrous situation of super bugs is only projected to get worse. CDC data shows that at least 50,000 deaths have now been caused by antibiotic resistance in the US and Europe alone. The global toll of antibiotic resistance is projected to reach 10 million deaths per year by 2050. It will be a greater problem than the cancer epidemic, which has taken the world by storm in recent decades. These projections are based on a large multi-faceted review project called the Review on Antimicrobial Resistance, commissioned by UK Prime Minster David Cameron a little over a year ago. The project warns about the ongoing evolution of drug resistant HIV, TB and malaria as well as drug resistant MRSA, E. coli and Klebsiella pneumonia.

The only way to restore balance to the world of bacteria is to encourage the emergence of commensal microbes. We must investigate what it will take to re-establish the commensal microbiota of our hospital environments, and we must learn how to strengthen and diversify the probiotic species of our microbiomes in and outside our bodies.

Sources:

IrishTimes.com

Wired.com

Submit a correction >>
Trump is condemned for talking to liberty-loving Taiwan President but Obama cozied up with dictators

On Sunday, ABC program This Week was commenting on the controversy regarding a phone call between Donald Trump and Taiwans President Tsai Ing-wen. Mike Pence said it was mystifying that Obama could have talks with Cuban dictator Raul Castro and be hailed a hero. So essentially there is nothing wrong with Obama talking to brutal dictators, but when Trump does the same outrage ensues.

Pence said that they will deal with policy issues after January 20th, when the duo are officially in the White House. The phone call from Taiwans leader was a courtesy call. Americans should appreciate the fact that Trump is taking calls and reaching out to the rest of the world in preparation to lead America.

Cuba isnt the only example of Obama talking to brutal dictators. In late July Obama went to Cairo, Egypt to meet with brutally repressive President, General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. The spectacle was a triumph that symbolized the Generals militaristic powers in Egypt, and a victory over the American president who had tried to punish him prior to surrendering to the harsh realities of geopolitics. Obama was appalled after a massacre where some one thousand pro-Morsi protesters were gunned down. We cant return to business as usual Obama continued, We have to be very careful about being seen as aiding and abetting actions that we think run contrary to our values and ideals.

Donald Trumps talk with Taiwans leader was more brilliant then it was a blunder. The deliberate move was carefully planned and Trump received a full briefing prior to the call. Trump was notifying China that they are dealing with a different kind of president. Trump is an outsider who wont be encumbered by diplomatic threads that have restrained prior administrations. The message sent was that Trump will talk to whomever he wants if he feels it is in the best interest of the United States. Nobody in China gets to dictate who the new US leader can and cant talk to.

If China somehow missed Trumps message, he reinforced it via tweet on Sunday. Did China ask us if it was OK to devalue their currency (making it hard for our companies to compete), heavily tax our products going into their country (the U.S. doesnt tax them) or to build a massive military complex in the middle of the South China Sea? I dont think so! Trump promised throughout his campaign that he would take a tougher stance with China.

Sources:

Breitbart.com

Politico.com

WashingtonPost.com

Submit a correction >>
Rajya Sabha adjourned till 2.30 p.m.

Delhi,National,Politics,Business/Economy, Fri, 09 Dec 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Dec 9 (IANS) The Rajya Sabha was on Friday adjourned till 2.30 p.m. amid chaos over the government reducing wheat import duty to zero per cent.

Soon after the house met at noon, the opposition MPs began shouting slogans against the government. They termed the government as "anti-farmers".

Chairman Mohammad Hamid Ansari requested the agitated members to let the house function, but his pleas went unheard.

He then asked if the members wanted the Question Hour to be taken up. On this, the slogan-shouting MPs said "no".

The Chairman, who tried to restore peace in the house, said "nothing can be done in this noise".

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said over 70 hours of the Rajya Sabha have been wasted and the opposition was not allowing the house to function even after President Pranab Mukherjee appealed to them.

"The country will not forgive them," he said.

The Chairman then adjourned the house till 2.30 p.m.

There has been a continuous logjam in the upper house ever since the winter session of the Parliament began on November 16, and no meaningful business has been conducted till date.

The winter session ends on December 16.

--IANS

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'Tanu Weds Manu' twist to 'Bhabhi Ji...'

Maharashtra,Cinema/Showbiz, Fri, 09 Dec 2016 IANS

Mumbai, Dec 9 (IANS) Jimmy Sheirgill will be seen bringing in a twist in "Bhabhi Ji Ghar Par Hain" -- he will be seen sporting his "Tanu Weds Manu" look in the popular comedy show where he is shown searching for a bride.

In the weekend special episode of the show, Vibhuti (played by actor Aashif Sheikh) will be starting a marriage bureau where Jimmy will pay a visit searching for a bride.

Adding a taste of Awasthi -- Jimmy's role from "Tanu Weds Manu", the actor will be seen having a problem with girls running away on the wedding day.

Vibhuti will come to the rescue, but in the bargain ends up getting himself in a mess as the bride selected by Jimmy will be seen eloping with her loved one.

"It's been a great pleasure shooting with Jimmy. He is an amazing actor and we had a lot of fun shooting for the show with him playing his character of Awasthi ji. It's going to be one hilarious episode," Aashif said in a statement.

"Bhabhi Ji Ghar Par Hain", which is aired on & TV, also features Saumya Tandon, Rohitash Gaud and Shubhangi Atre.

--IANS

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Parrikar 'pained' by Mamata's army allegations, writes to her

Delhi,National,Politics,Defence/Security, Fri, 09 Dec 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Dec 9 (IANS) Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has written to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee criticising her for making allegations against the Indian Army.

Calling the controversy avoidable, Parrikar on Thursday wrote: "This exercise is being carried out by all formations of the army throughout the country for many years as per the dates convenient with them in consultation with the concerned agencies of the state government."

Banerjee on December 1 accused the government of "deploying the army" along two highway toll plazas while keeping the state government "in the dark".

Defending the army's position, Parrikar said: "The Indian Army is one of the most disciplined institutions in our country, dedicated to the safety and security of the nation. The country is proud of their professionalism and apolitical conduct."

To put the record straight, the Indian Army had presented the evidence of their communication with the concerned agencies in the public domain.

Speaking about the adverse effect on the morale of the army due this controversy, Parrikar said: "Your allegation in this regard runs the risk of adversely impacting the morale of the country's armed forces and same were not expected from a person of your standing and experience in public life."

"Political parties and politicians may have the luxury of making wild and unsubstantial allegations against each other but one needs to be extremely careful while referring to our armed forces. I am sure you would appreciate this," he said.

--IANS

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Foodpanda log massive growth in 2015-16

Delhi,National,Lifestyle/Fashion,Technology,Business/Economy, Fri, 09 Dec 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Dec 9 (IANS) Online marketplace for food delivery Foodpanda earned a revenue of Rs 37.81 crore in the financial year 2015-16 -- a whopping 800 per cent increase -- as compared to 4.7 crore in the previous financial year, the company said on Friday, adding that it saw a 40-50 per cent spike in the order numbers during the demonetisation phase.

"We have not only registered 800 per cent growth but have also become operationally profitable in both our business lines -- marketplace and delivery," said Saurabh Kochhar, CEO Foodpanda India.

At present, 40 per cent of the orders are delivered by Foodpanda delivery services and the remaining 60 per cent are delivered by restaurants which is a leap from December 2015 when only 25 per cent of the orders were delivered by the company delivery services, the company said.

The company has raised $310 million so far, with the last round in 2015 bringing in $110 million from investors led by hedge fund Goldman Sachs Investment Partners.

--IANS

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Will make India net exporter of fighter aircraft: Saab (IANS Interview)

Delhi,National,Business/Economy,Defence/Security, Fri, 09 Dec 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Dec 9 (IANS) Swedish aerospace major Saab says it would set up a brand new production line in India if it wins an Indian Air Force (IAF) contract for single-engined combat jets and would make the country a net exporter of such fighters -- once the necessary procedures are in place.

"I think we are the only one right now who is developing brand new next-generation fighters. Even if we are single-engine, we have capability matching any of the other twin-engine aircraft that would be on the market," Jan Widerstrom, Chairman and Managing Director of Saab India, told IANS in an interview.

Saab has fielded its next-generation Gripen E fighters in response to a communication to global manufacturers for their offer for what could be up to 100 jets.

The Grippen, in fact, was among the six jets in the running for an IAF tender floated in 2007 for 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA). The bulk of these aircraft were to be manufactured under licence in India. After protracted trials, the choice was narrowed down to two and then to one -- Dasault Aviation's Rafale. With the price negotiations going nowhere, the tender was eventually scrapped and the IAF opted for an off-the-shelf purchase of 36 Rafales.

The final contract was inked only in September 2016 and the jets will begin arriving in September 2019, with the order expected to be completed in 30 months.

Meanwhile, the IAF has also decided to purchase an additional 83 of the indigenously developed and manufactured Tejas light combat aircraft (LCA) when its original intent was to induct only two squadrons (36 aircraft).

In the midst of all this, the IAF has seen its strength dwindling from the sanctioned 42 combat squadrons to 25 -- with the best it has achieved being 39.

This is largely due to the phasing out of Soviet vintage Mig-21s, MiG-23s and Mig-27s and the unserviceability of many aircraft due to the lack of spares after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Hence the latest proposal to purchase in the region of 100 jets.

These aircraft are expected to be manufactured in the country under the Make in India initiative.

"We are ready to offer full technology-transfer and build-up capability in India not only for manufacturing and production," Widerstrom said, adding: "We are not planning to move an old production line to India. Our offer is to build a brand new production line for the next generation fighters and the next after that. This will be putting India on the aerospace map as a net exporter of fighters."

There is, however, a catch. The export of lethal weapons and systems is a rather gray area, with the Defence Ministry only recently setting in motion the process through which this could be done. Given that India took 25 years to purchase an advanced jet trainer and that the process for the Rafale has taken almost a decade, this could be a prolonged exercise.

Widerstrom was unfazed.

"We would definitely like to see India as a regional manufacturing hub for Gripen global orders in the future. We will fully comply with the Indian government's regulations on export of defence equipment." The company believed the aircraft "would certainly be a good fit for India's requirements".

"Our business model is to work through partnership with countries and companies. We have the full backup of the Swedish government on this," Widerstrom noted.

"India will be part of our global supply chain. We have a European hub in Sweden. We are building up a hub right now in South America in Brazil, supporting that part of the market. What we want here in India is a third hub supporting this part of the market," said Widerstrom.

( can be contacted at rohit.s@ians.in)

--IANS

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Lok Sabha adjourned for the day over demonetisation

Delhi,National,Politics,Business/Economy, Fri, 09 Dec 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Dec 9 (IANS) The Lok Sabha was on Friday disrupted again, witnessing two adjournments before noon, and being adjourned for the day with ruling and opposition members sparring over the demonetisation issue.

The ruling party members were aggressively blaming the opposition for wasting people's money by not letting Parliament function and asking them to go to Jantar Mantar for a dharna.

When the house met at 11 a.m., Speaker Sumitra Mahajan welcomed a delegation from Vietnam.

She also paid tributes to the martyrs of the Parliament attack on December 13, 2001, and said the cowardly attack was foiled by brave security personnel.

As the Speaker announced taking up the Question Hour, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge was on his feet, but members from the treasury benches shouted back mentioning President Pranab Mukherjee's appeal on the majority being disrupted by the minority in Parliament.

As a verbal spat broke out, the Speaker adjourned the house till 11.30 a.m.

The scene was the same when the house reconvened, and Bharatiya Janata Party member Meenakshi Lekhi said Parliament was not the place for dharnas and opposition members should go to Jantar Mantar.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister H.N. Ananth Kumar said the opposition should apologise to the nation.

"This is not the way... when the majority wants to participate in a discussion, they are disrupting," Kumar said.

"They must apologise to the nation. They are wasting people's money," he said.

The Speaker then adjourned the house till noon.

When the house met again, the Speaker announced that Aam Aadmi Party MP Bhagwant Mann has been found guilty of video-recording Parliament's security system and has been suspended for the rest of the ongoing winter session.

Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar introduced the National Institutes of Technology, Science Education and Research (Second Amendment) Bill, 2016 amid sloganeering.

As the Speaker announced taking up of the Zero Hour, opposition members began shouting "shame shame".

The Speaker then adjourned the house till Wednesday and said: "Jao sab chhutti par (go on a holiday)".

The Lok Sabha has been witnessing disruptions since the beginning of the winter session on November 16 over the demonetisation issue with the opposition in the house demanding a debate on demonetisation under rules that entail voting.

The government has not agreed to this stating that voting will send a message that there is division in the house.

The Speaker also offered to the opposition to take up a debate without any rule, but the impasse has not been broken.

With holiday on December 12 and 13, Parliament now has only three working days left before the session ends on December 16.

--IANS

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'Deepwater Horizon': Disastrously awful (Movie Review, Rating: **)

Delhi,Cinema/Showbiz,Hollywood, Fri, 09 Dec 2016 IANS

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Film: 'Deepwater Horizon'; Director: Peter Berg; Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Kurt Russell, Kate Hudson; Rating:**

At the very end when you thank God, Producer and Destiny for Aliberty from the 2-hour claustrophobic tedium , a display card in the end-titles informs that we've just seen a film based on the worst oil rigging disaster in the history of such disasters.

Nothing compared to the disaster that is this awful true-life drama that does disservice not only to the people who suffered serious blows to life and health when an oil drilling ship off the coast of Louisiana went up in flames in 2010, but also to the disaster genre.

We've seen much better fire-disaster films in the past.

The Poseidon Adventure in 1972 and The Towering Inferno in 1974, with their severely limited access to special effects, got us sucked into the anxieties and fears of the characters trapped in a raging fire while lounging in the lap of luxury. Serves them right, we said, as we watched the Page 3 crowd run for their lives.

Here in "Deepwater Horizon", we are not even allowed to feel that distant contempt for the characters who land up in a deathly fire caused by human error. We feel neither the sense of foreboding that shadows the preamble of all disaster epics. Nor we do get involved in the survivors' attempts to escape the burning ship.

The characters are all tropes rather than individuals. The Brave Rigging Recruit Mike(Mark Wahlberg), his pretty wife played by Kate Hudson who has to do nothing except pout after sex before husband leaves for the doomed ship, and bite her lips anxiously when he goes missing.

Sorry, Miss Hudson. But Laura Linney did it much better in Sully.

Actors of the stature of John Malkovich are rendered as teeth-gritting idiots who should have known better.

It's not the actors' fault if they appear stilted and distant in their distress. The screenwriting is so sketchy as to reduce the characters to shadowy figures waging an indeterminate war against the fury of a fire that, alas, leaves us the audience unsinged, unscathed and finally untouched.

The actors struggle to sound casual Awith lines that attempt to include technical jargonA in the everyday conversation in the oil spiel. But it all seems a bit of a hoax, hefty, but nonetheless artificially induced calamity even though it is based on a real incident.

Director Peter Berg had earlier collaborated with Mark Wahlberg for the far more engaging Lone Survivor, a war film set in Afghanistan with ample room for self-congratulatory machismo. This one, big and bulky in scale, just slides to the ground in an oily mess weighed down by the burden of conveying real-life incidents .

The film's fire sequences on board the ship are filmed not to complement the drama but to accentuate the visual velocity. It's like watching a video game without really participating in it. Highly rigged, in more ways than one.

Watch out for that one shot where real-life father and daughter Kurt Russell and Kate Hudson come together for a brief hug. The moment is warmer more intimate and emotionally equipped than any of the sniggering screaming snarling and sobbing that goes on during the rest of the film.

--IANS

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Probe spike in deposits before note ban: AAP

Delhi,National,Politics,Business/Economy, Fri, 09 Dec 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Dec 9 (IANS) The AAP on Friday urged the central government to probe the source of the "mysterious" spike in bank deposits in the second fortnight of September.

The Aam Aadmi Party said Rs 3 lakh crore worth of deposits before demonetisation confirms its stand that those close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi knew about the plan to spike Rs 500 and 1,000 notes.

Addressing the media here, AAP leader Ashish Khetan quoted a Business Standard article which said around Rs 3 lakh crore was deposited in Fixed Deposits in the last 15 days of September.

On November 12, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal quoted another media report to say around Rs 4 lakh crore was deposited in banks in the July-September period, Khetan said.

"Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the spike in deposits was due to arrear payment of the Seventh Pay Commission," Khetan said.

"But this money was not deposited in saving or salary or current accounts, but in FDs.

"Also, the total arrear payments amounted up to Rs 45,000 crore. How does that explain deposits worth Rs 3 lakh crore?"

Khetan said around Rs 1.5 lakh crore was withdrawn from the FDs the very next month.

"The central government says if one deposits more than Rs 2.5 lakh in his account they will be issued income tax notice, they may even get raided. But the government doesn't want to probe this unexplained spike of Rs 3-4 lakh crore in cash deposits," the AAP leader said.

The government on November 8 demonetised all Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, saying this was done to fight the menace of fake currency as well as black money and corruption.

--IANS

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Modi moves for military alliance with US: CPI-M

Delhi,National,Politics,Defence/Security,Diplomacy, Fri, 09 Dec 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Dec 9 (IANS) The Modi government has taken yet another step in "entangling India in a military alliance with the US", the CPI-M said on Friday.

"The terms for India being accorded the status of a Major Defence Partner of the US has been finalised during the visit of US Secretary of Defence Asthon Carter," the Communist Party of India-Marxist said.

"The status of a Major Defence Partner is equivalent to that of the close

military allies of the US such as Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Japan and South Korea," it said in a statement.

"Coming in the wake of the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement

(LEMOA), this new agreement will further encroach upon India's sovereignty

and strategic autonomy."

The CPI-M said it was strongly opposed to such military collaborations.

"The Modi government has not made the text of these agreement public," it said.

"It is imperative that these agreements which have vital implications for India's national interests and sovereignty be made available to the people."

--IANS

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Kim, Kanye 'in good spirits'

United States,Cinema/Showbiz,Hollywood, Fri, 09 Dec 2016 IANS

Los Angeles, Dec 9 (IANS) Reality TV star Kim Kardashian and rapper Kanye West are "in good spirits" despite divorce rumours, according to close friend and reality personality Jonathan Cheban.

West was admitted to hospital last month after suffering from exhaustion and sleep deprivation. Thereafter rumours started to swirl around that the couple are heading for divorce as West's mental health took toll on their relationship.

However Cheban has completely shut down the rumours, saying they're "so not true".

"I just FaceTimed with Kim and Kanye and everyone's talking about some divorce rumours and I was laughing because I didn't hear that all day and I guess everybody else apparently here did and it's so funny to me because it's so not true," Cheban told eonline.com.

"I don't know where people come up with stories but it's literally hysterical, but Jennifer Aniston has also been pregnant like 1,000 times so it's kind of a joke.

"They're in good spirits. I don't want to talk much about them because it's not my business but I do have to say that the divorcing is kind of hysterical, that I will mention, because I just spoke to both of them on FaceTime literally before I was coming here and when I heard that I literally burst out laughing," he added.

--IANS

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Rajya Sabha adjourned for the day

Delhi,National,Politics,Business/Economy, Fri, 09 Dec 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Dec 9 (IANS) The Rajya Sabha after witnessing disruption on Friday over the government's decision to reduce the wheat import duty to zero per cent, got adjourned for the day in want of koram soon after it met after lunch.

During pre-lunch session, the upper house witnessed uproar and adjourned twice.

As the house met at 11, the opposition parties began shouting slogans against the government.

They accused the government of being "anti-farmer".

"The anti-farmer government will not be allowed to function," the Opposition shouted.

The house was then adjourned till noon. It was again disrupted over the same issue as it reassembled at noon and was adjourned till 2.30 p.m.

Chairman Mohammad Hamid Ansari requested the agitated members to let the house function, but his pleas went unheard.

He then asked if the members wanted the Question Hour to be taken up. On this, the slogan-shouting MPs said "no".

The Chairman, who tried to restore peace in the house, said "nothing can be done in this noise".

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said over 70 hours of the Rajya Sabha have been wasted and the opposition was not allowing the house to function even after President Pranab Mukherjee appealed to them.

"The country will not forgive them," he said.

The Chairman then adjourned the house till 2.30 p.m.

As the house met after lunch, Anand Sharma of the Congress urged Deputy Speaker P.J. Kurien to adjourn it as there was no quorum.

Kurien then directed the authorities concerned to ring the koram bell but the koram could not be completed and the house was finally adjourned for the day.

--IANS

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Who is 'Legion' that hacked into Mallya, Rahul's Twitter accounts?

Delhi,National,Politics,Technology, Fri, 09 Dec 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Dec 9 (IANS) With the claim of hacking into the official Twitter handle of controversial liquor baron Vijay Mallya on Friday, the group or an individual named "Legion" is slowly becoming well-known in the world of hackers.

"Legion" also claimed to hack Twitter handles of Congress Party and its Vice President Rahul Gandhi earlier this month, bringing the hacking threat close to more Indian leaders and celebrities who are on Twitter.

In a tweet, "Legion" -- whose country of origin is yet to be known -- asked people to support them "@sigaint.org".

Let us know what Sigaint is and how all this works.

According to the Sigaint website, it is a "darknet email service that allows you to send and receive email without revealing your location or identity". Sigaint claims to provide email IDs which are secure on TOR browser.

"We provide this service to help journalists and activists combat the dragnet surveillance that exists on the internet today. Even if you aren't in conflict with the state or anyone in particular, you as a human being deserve privacy," it read.

The website is hosted on "onion.to" but the service claims it does not host the Sigaint content.

"We are simply a conduit connecting internet users to content hosted inside the Tor network. onion.to does not provide any anonymity. You are strongly advised to download the Tor Browser Bundle and access this content over Tor," it said.

Famous among individuals and businesses who want to remain anonymous online, Tor is a free software and an open network that helps users defend against traffic analysis - "a form of network surveillance that threatens personal freedom and privacy, confidential business activities and relationships, and state security".

Sigaint also claims that emails created by the network can only be accessed by downloading TOR browser.

If we look at the name "Legion," there was a famous US-based hacker group called "Legion of Doom" (LOD) founded by Lex Luthor which was active in late 1990s and early 2000. LOD is ranked as one of the most influential hacking groups in the history of technology.

We still do not know if "Legion" is inspired by LOD but it looks well versed with the dark world of web and is using whatever it can to launch cyber attacks anywhere in the world, including in India.

--IANS

na/vm


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      1  2022    2  290,9  ,   18%     2021    36,6%       .
Sushma likely to undergo kidney transplant on Saturday

Delhi,National,Health/Medicine, Fri, 09 Dec 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Dec 9 (IANS) The scheduled kidney transplant of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is likely to take place on Saturday around 8.30 a.m, sources close to the team of doctors constituted to monitor the minister's health said.

Among the doctors performing the transplant will be AIIMS director M. C. Misra, V.K Bansal and Sandeep Agarwal -- all prominent surgeons of the country.

"The surgery is scheduled for tomorrow (Saturday) around 8.30 a.m. Director M. C. Misra and V. K. Bansal will be part of it," the source told IANS.

According to the hospital authorities, the organ for Sushma Swaraj's transplant was being harvested from a living unrelated donor. The clearance from the authorisation committee has been obtained.

Earlier doctors said that most of the medical procedures required prior to the transplant such as crossmatch and a series of blood and immunological tests has been completed and found both the recepient and donor fit for the procedure.

Apart from the surgeons, who will be performing the transplant surgery, a team of doctors from other departments have also been constituted to monitor the health of Swaraj -- a severe diabetic.

The team of top doctors constitutes Head of Endocrinology Nikhil Tandon, Head of Pulmonary Medicine Randeep Guleria, Chief of Cardio Thoracic and Head of Nephrology Sandeep Mahajan.

Earlier the possibility of having Swaraj's daughter as a potential donor was turned down by the doctors as she too was a severe diabetic and a patient of obesity.

Doctors also said that Swaraj was undergoing dialysis whenever required.

On November 16, Swaraj tweeted that she was in AIIMS because of kidney failure.

The 64-year-old, who has been in and out of the hospital for last few months, was admitted to AIIMS on November 7.

--IANS

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'Befikre': A cliched entertainer (IANS Movie Review, Rating: **1/2)

Delhi,Cinema/Showbiz,Bollywood, Fri, 09 Dec 2016 IANS

Film: "Befikre"; Director: Aditya Chopra; Cast: Ranveer Singh, Vani Kapoor, Akarsh Khurana, Ayesha Raza Mishra, Julie Ordon; Rating: **1/2

"Befikre" is like old wine in a new bottle. A familiar story of friendship, love and realisation, a tried and tested premise that is predictable with the same landmark points or milestones that fulfil the dramatic quotient. Only the setting is different, in this case - Paris. And this plays a major part in contributing to the uninhibited lives of its characters.

The film begins on a dramatic note, with Dharam (Ranveer Singh) and Shyra (Vani Kapoor) fighting. In the heat of the moment Dharam calls Shyra a "French Slut," who has not spared any French guy. Insulted and furious, Shyra walks out of her live-in relationship, back to her parents house.

Narrated in a non-linear format, the plot encapsulates three years of the protagonists' lives, which reveal how Dharam, a stand-up comedian from Delhi, met Shyra Gill, an equally free spirited girl, on his first day out in Paris and how their, dare-to-live attitude binds them.

While every love story is based on the premise that the couple care a damn for society and are carefree, here the characters lead or at least pretend to lead a carefree life till realization dawns on them that they are inseparable.

As a love story this works at a mundane level and the treatment, in keeping with the times, is racy and perfunctory. The humour seems forced. Every scene is a nugget or a chapter that is juxtaposed with the past and present, a seemingly lazy method of screenplay. The characters too are poorly crafted, they are one-dimensional.

The dialogues by Sharat Katariya are taut, racy and bluntly witty and are smoothly mouthed by the cast.

On the performance front, the actors live up to their reputation. Ranveer Singh is charismatic and charming with his abundant energy; he plays Dharam with conviction, but unfortunately appears stereotypical.

Vani Kapoor is competent as the "Psycho Chick" and she matches Ranveer in energy and histrionics. Her performance reasonates with the right attitude that makes her stand out. In fact she sways the audience with her impressive dance moves.

Armaan Ralhan, O P Ralhan's grandson, in an unstated but impressive performance, makes his presence felt as Aneya, the investment banker who is supposed to marry Shyra. Akarsh Khurana and Ayesha Raza Mishra as Shyra's restauranteur parents are restrained with their limited screen presence.

The first half of the film has its moments of exaltation, but the second half, though racy, gets predictable and drags in parts. The chaotic climax that takes place at the wedding altar accompanied with a loud screechy background score, does not add any chutzpah to the narrative.

The songs are beautifully choreographed, but they punctuate the narrative rather oddly.

Visually the film is all gloss and Cinematographer Kaname Onoyama's frames are good. In fact his aerial-sweeping shots are rather impressive.

If only Aditya Chopra was not bogged down with the business of filmmaking and instead made a romantic film in a carefree manner from the bottom of his heart, his latest missive would have been a different tale to tell.

Overall, "Befikre" captures the "pagalpan and bachpana" that is the madness and childishness of its protagonists in a cliched and not classic manner.

--IANS

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Tumour found in 255 million-year-old mammalian ancestor

United States,Science/Tech, Fri, 09 Dec 2016 IANS

Washington, Dec 9 (IANS) US researchers said on Thursday they have discovered a tumour in a 255-million-year-old mammalian ancestor called a gorgonopsian.

The tumour, found in the extinct species's fossilised jaw, is a benign one made up of miniature, tooth-like structures, they reported in the latest issue of Journal of the American Medical Association Oncology.

Known as a compound odontoma, this type of tumour is common to mammals today. Before this discovery, the earliest known evidence of odontomas came from Ice Age-era fossils, Xinhua reported.

"We think this is by far the oldest known instance of a compound odontoma," said senior author Christian Sidor, a University of Washington (UW) professor of biology and curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture. "It would indicate that this is an ancient type of tumour."

According to the study, gorgonopsians were distant mammal relatives and the top predators the apex predator during its pre-dinosaur era about 255 million years ago.

These animals are part of a larger group of animals called synapsids, which includes modern mammals as its only living member.

Sidor and colleagues spotted the tumour when they examined wafer-thin slices of the fossilised gorgonopsian jaw, collected in southern Tanzani, to see how the tooth was nestled within its socket.

They immediately noticed irregular clusters of up to eight tiny, round objects embedded next to the root of a canine tooth. The objects within each cluster resembled small, poorly differentiated teeth, or toothlets, that harboured distinct layers of dentin and enamel.

"At first we did not know what to make of it," said Megan Whitney, lead author and UW biology graduate student. "But after some investigation we realized this gorgonopsian had what looks like a textbook compound odontoma."

In humans and other mammals, the tumour's toothlets grow within the gums or other soft tissues of the jaw and can cause pain and swelling, as well as disrupt the position of teeth and other tissues, the researchers said.

Odontomas are considered benign tumours because they do not metastasize and spread throughout the body. But given the disruptions they cause, surgeons often opt to remove them.

"Until now, the earliest known occurrence of this tumour was about one million years ago, in fossil mammals," said Judy Skog, programme director in the National Science Foundation's Division of Earth Sciences, which funded the research.

"These researchers have found an example in the ancestors of mammals that lived 255 million years ago. The discovery suggests that the suspected cause of an odontoma is not tied solely to traits in modern species, as had been thought," Skog added.

--IANS

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Vodafone introduces unlimited calling on its network

Delhi,Business/Economy,Technology, Fri, 09 Dec 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Dec 9 (IANS) Jumping on to the bandwagon, Vodafone India on Friday announced introduction of unlimited free voice calling for prepaid customers with the launch of two new packs.

"We had recently made incoming free on national roaming across India. Now, with these unlimited calling plans, there will be absolutely no need to hold back," said Sandeep Kataria, Chief Commercial Officer, Vodafone India, in a statement.

The first pack, Rs 144-149, will offer unlimited local and STD calls to Vodafone connections across the country with 50MB data for 28 days. It also offers unlimited incoming free on national roaming and 300MB data for 4G handset users, the statement said.

The other pack, Rs 344-349, will offer unlimited local and STD on all mobile and landline calls across the country with 50MB data for 28 days. It also offers unlimited incoming free on national roaming and 1GB data for 4G handset users, the statement added.

--IANS

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'Political corruption will fail any system, including demonetisation'

Delhi,National,Politics,Business/Economy, Fri, 09 Dec 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Dec 9 (IANS) Terming political corruption as the fountainhead of all corruption in the country, CIC Information Commissioner M.S. Acharyulu on Friday said demonetisation will not succeed unless political parties became transparent.

Speaking at the Transparency International India's National Conference here on 'Combating Corruption', the Central Information Commission's officer questioned the Representation of the People Act, 1951, which requires political parties to declare details of only contributions received in excess of Rs 20,000.

"You have a law in this country which says political parties need not disclose donations below Rs 20,000. If a law, instead of facilitating transparency, authorises non-transparency, then how can you expect to reduce the influence of money in elections," he asked.

"Political corruption is the fountainhead of all corruption in the country.

"I am not against tax exemption to political parties but let me know the extent of exemption you enjoy. Why don't the political parties disclose donations below Rs 20,000.

"Non-disclosure of political donations below Rs 20,000 will fail any system, including demonetisation," said the noted legal expert.

Blaming the political parties for "failing the system", Acharyulu said state funding of elections will be counter-productive unless political parties became transparent.

"Today we are talking about state funding of elections. But without transparency in political parties, such a move will be sheer wastage of public money. You can introduce state funding only subject to the condition that each and every political party will be transparent," he added.

While hailing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision to ask all BJP MPs and MLAs to submit their bank transaction-details since the November 8 announcement of demonetisation, Acharyulu questioned why the same was not asked to be done by all Members of Parliament.

"It is a very welcome move but why not all the MPs? Why just bank transactions and why not their income tax returns," he asked.

He also lamented lack of action against elected representatives for perjury and misrepresentation of facts.

"The question is are we really punishing people for dishonesty? Except for sporadic instances, are we punishing people for perjury, for dishonesty? Is there a real check on the facts claimed by the elected members in their election affidavits," wondered Acharyulu.

--IANS

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Italian leaders discuss transitional government after PM resigns

Italy,Immigration/Law/Rights,Politics, Fri, 09 Dec 2016 IANS

Rome, Dec 9 (IANS) Italian President Sergio Mattarella and party leaders have started talks over how to form a transitional government after Prime Minister Matteo Renzi resigned on Wednesday.

Renzi's resignation followed defeat in the December 3 referendum on constitutional reform law, Xinhua news agency reported.

The talks which started on Thursday are expected to end by Saturday, according to the President's office.

Mattarella has asked the Renzi government to remain in charge of day-to-day business while he launches consultations with the country's main political forces in an effort to lead the country out of the impasse to form the interim government.

In a brief address on Wednesday to the executive of his centre-left Democratic Party, Renzi said the future holds two alternatives -- either a broad coalition government to steer the country through the end of the current legislature in 2018 or early elections as soon as the Constitutional Court pronounces itself on "Italicum" electoral law.

--IANS

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85% ATMs recalibrated till November 30

Delhi,National,Business/Economy, Fri, 09 Dec 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Dec 9 (IANS) As many as 85 per cent ATMs have been recalibrated by November 30 for the new currency notes, Parliament was informed on Friday.

"Till November 30, a total of 179,614 ATMs have been recalibrated. There are 211,594 ATMs of scheduled commercial banks and 14,324 white label ATMs in the country according to September 30 data," Minister of State for Finance Santosh Kumar Gangwar told the Lok Sabha in a written reply.

He said that the government has advised the banks to deploy micro-ATMs in the rural areas and as on December 2, a total of 1,14,036 micro-ATMs have been deployed.

He also said that scheduled commercial banks, excluding regional rural banks, do not need permission from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to set up ATMs at their branches and extension counters.

"Under some set of conditions the banks can set up ATMs at off-site locations as well," he said.

--IANS

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Loss from House logjam greater than Bofors scandal: Ex-SC judge

Delhi,National,Politics,Business/Economy, Fri, 09 Dec 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Dec 9 (IANS) Former Supreme Court Judge N Santosh Hegde on Friday flayed the opposition for stalling Parliament over demonetisation, saying the loss due to the disruptions is greater than the money lost in the Bofors scandal.

"The sad part of our politics is if you are in the opposition, you have to oppose everything. Every party has said demonetisation is a good move but implementation is bad and for that they are protesting in Parliament.

"One day of proceedings costs around Rs 10 crore and we have already lost over 10 days of the session. If one calculates the cost, then it is much more than the money we lost in the Bofors scandal where we lost Rs 64 crore," said Hegde.

Speaking at the Transparency International India's national conference on "Combating Corruption", the former Lokayukta hailed the Narendra Modi government's demonetisation move to combat corruption.

"Demonetisation is a very good move. As a matter of fact, various governments had earlier thought about it, but they did not have the courage to do that. This government has shown that courage and done it.

"Obviously, demonetisation has its own repercussions, it has caused hardships to the people but, at the same time, you cannot count out the effect it already has on corruption," he said.

Expressing concern over the growing rate of corruption, Hegde blamed the society for "its attitude" behind the rise of the malady.

"Society is the biggest culprit, it is because we have accepted it as a usual norm that corruption has been flourishing.

"Today we don't condemn those who indulge in corruption, rather we hail them when they walk out of jail," said the former Ombudsman, who had indicted former Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa in a bribery case.

"We have enough laws to combat corruption, but no amount of laws will be sufficient unless and until society changes its attitude. China punishes corruption with death penalty but the fact remains that corruption levels are higher in China than India."

More than punishment what is required is societal boycott of those who indulge in corruption, added Hegde.

Speaking on the occasion, Aligarh Muslim University Vice Chancellor Zameer Uddin Shah, however, asserted that fear is the key to preventing corruption.

"Fear of getting caught is the key to nudge people into remaining honest," said Shah stressing upon the need for stringent penalties for curbing corruption.

While admitting that it has caused hardships, Shah hailed the demonetisation move.

"Demonetisation has once again ignited the hope for a corruption-less India. Of course, it has caused hardships to people, including the AMU students who have to stand in queues of ATMs and banks to get money for their fees. But then you need to undertake sufferings for something better," he said.

--IANS

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Order on Swamy's plea in National Herald case on December 26

Delhi,National,Immigration/Law/Rights,Politics, Fri, 09 Dec 2016 IANS

New Delhi Dec 9 (IANS) A local court on Friday set December 26 for issuing an order on the plea of BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, seeking summoning of documents of the Congress and Associated Journals Ltd in the National Herald case.

Swamy, in his plea, has sought the balance sheet of 2010-2011 of the Congress party and other documents of the Associated Journals Ltd relevant to the case.

After hearing the arguments of the complainant and defence counsel, Metropolitan Magistrate Lovleen reserved order on the plea.

The Delhi High Court on July 12 had quashed an order of a trial court summoning the same documents besides others relating to the Herald House from the Finance, Urban Development and Corporate Affairs ministries, Delhi Development Authority and the Registrar of Companies.

The high court had observed that the order was passed without giving any notice or opportunity of hearing to the opposite side. It had also directed Swamy to move the trial court again with a similar plea.

Swamy had filed a complaint of "cheating" in the acquisition of Associated Journals Ltd , which published the National Herald newspaper, by Young Indian Pvt Ltd (YI), "a firm in which Sonia and Rahul Gandhi each own a 38 per cent stake".

Swamy had accused them of allegedly conspiring to cheat and misappropriate funds by just paying Rs 50 lakh, through which Young Indian obtained the right to recover Rs 90.25 crore that the Associated Journals Ltd owed to the Congress.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi and her son and party Vice President Rahul Gandhi, party leaders Motilal Vora and Oscar Fernandes, Suman Dubey, Sam Pitroda and Young Indian are accused in the case.

The Delhi High Court in December 2015 dismissed the plea of the Gandhis to quash the summons issued by the trial court on Swamy's complaint.

--IANS

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Competition Commission imposed Rs 12,918 cr penalty in 327 cases

Delhi,National,Business/Economy, Fri, 09 Dec 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Dec 9 (IANS) The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has imposed a penalty of Rs 12,918 crore in 327 cases in less than four years, Parliament was told on Friday.

CCI has imposed a penalty of Rs 12,917.63 crore in 327 cases from 2013-14 onwards till October this year, Corporate Affairs Minister Arun Jaitley told the Lok Sabha in a written reply.

"Penalty of Rs 10,454.08 crore has been stayed by Competition Appellate Tribunal/High Court/ Supreme Court, while penalty of Rs 2,427.90 crore has been dismissed by Competition Appellate Tribunal/High Court/Supreme Court," he said.

Out of the amount of penalty imposed, an amount of Rs 29.49 crore has been realised and penalty of Rs 6.16 crore remains unpaid, Jaitley said, adding necessary actions are taken by CCI for recovery of penalties, as per provisions of the Competition Act, 2002.

--IANS

mm/vd
Heilbron elected Chairman of Star Alliance's Chief Executive Board

Delhi,Business/Economy, Fri, 09 Dec 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Dec 9 (IANS) Global airline pact Star Alliance on Friday said Pedro Heilbron, Chief Executive Officer of Copa Holdings and Copa Airlines has been elected as new Chairman of its Chief Executive Board (CEB).

The company said that in his role as the CEB Chairman, Heilbron will conduct the two annual board meetings and act as the designated spokesperson for the board.

"I'm looking forward to working with the board over the next two years in fostering further commercial cooperation among the member carriers," Heilbron was quoted as saying in the statement.

"We will continue to focus on delivering a seamless travel experience and maintaining the loyalty of customers through superior service and convenience."

Currently, the Star Alliance network offers more than 18,450 daily flights to 1,300 airports in 190 countries.

--IANS

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More than 400 tourists rescued from Andaman island

Delhi,National,Defence/Security,Crime/Disaster/Accident, Fri, 09 Dec 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Dec 9 (IANS) The Indian Coast Guard and the IAF on Friday rescued more than 400 stranded tourists from Havelock Island in the Andaman and Nicobar (A&N) Islands, officials said.

Two Indian Coast Guard ships, ICGS Raj Veer, with more than 122 stranded tourists, and ICGS Kanaklata Barua, with more than 120 tourists, reached Port Blair from Havelock Island.

The Indian Air Force (IAF), in two waves of rescue operations, rescued 208 tourists. The third phase of the rescue operation was underway, the IAF spokesperson said.

The IAF has pressed three Mi-17 V5 helicopters for the rescue operation at Havelock Island.

"Six Indian Navy ships and two Indian Coast Guard ships sailed out at 9.30 a.m. from Port Blair for rescue operations. Three Indian Air Force helicopters also taking part in IN, ICG, Army, State administration joint operation for evacuation of stranded tourists in the Havelock Island," the Indian Navy said in a statement.

The sudden evacuation mission was initiated at the request of the A&N Disaster Management ahead of a "cyclonic storm" that was likely to strike Havelock, an island 36 km from Port Blair.

The Indian Navy on Wednesday made its first attempt to rescue the tourists stranded in Havelock Island.

However, due to extreme weather conditions, the tourists could not reach the jetty to board the ships.

Four navy ships had to return in the failed rescue attempt, the officials from A&N Disaster Management said.

"Now the weather conditions have improved. It's only moderate rain and winds. We hope the tourists will be able to reach the jetty. The ships have already left from Port Blair," an official from the A&N Disaster Management told IANS.

The official said the sudden evacuation was called for as they did not want to take any risk given a deep depression (in the sea) which has developed about 310 km of Port Blair.

--IANS

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Modi greets Sonia Gandhi on birthday

Delhi,National,Politics,Business/Economy, Fri, 09 Dec 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Dec 9 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday greeted Congress President Sonia Gandhi on her 70th birthday. Modi wished her a long life.

"Birthday wishes to Sonia Gandhi. May Almighty bless her with a long life filled with good health," Modi tweeted.

The Prime Minister's greeting came even after the Congress has been leading an attack on the government over the issue of demonetisation.

Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi on Thursday dubbed Paytm as "Pay To Modi" and termed the November 8 move as a "foolish decision".

--IANS

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Why China, India make natural Asian allies: Chinese perspective

Delhi,National,Diplomacy, Fri, 09 Dec 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Dec 9 (IANS) Societal courtesies make India and China natural Asian allies, a leading Chinese intellectual said here on Friday.

While attending the first-ever "India-China Think-Tanks Forum: Towards a Closer India-China Developmental partnership" here, Yang Jiemian, Director of Academic Studies at the Shanghai Institutes of International Studies, said that when he came for the event, he saw the hall was full but three Indian gentlemen in "advanced age" vacated their chairs for him.

"This is how we Asians treat each other," he said, adding that this would not happen in the US where first-come-first-served was the basis.

One of the most respected Chinese intellectuals, Yang is also the Councillor of the Shanghai Municipal Government, Member of the Foreign Policy Advisory Group in the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Member of the National Evaluation Board of Social Funds, Vice-President of China Association of International Relations and President of Shanghai Society of International Strategic Studies.

The India-China Think-Tanks Forum was set up through a memorandum of understanding signed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to China in May last year.

--IANS

ab/lok/dg
Demonetisation bedlam continues in Parliament (Roundup)

Delhi,National,Politics,Business/Economy, Fri, 09 Dec 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Dec 9 (IANS) A day after President Pranab Mukherjee expressed anguish over the Parliament logjam, both houses saw more bedlam on Friday, the fourth week of a disrupted winter session.

On Friday, however, it were the treasury benches who created pandemonium in the Lok Sabha, aggressively blaming the opposition for wasting people's money by not letting Parliament function.

This led to another premature adjournment for the day.

The Rajya Sabha witnessed acrimonious scenes as the opposition derailed the proceedings over the government's decision to reduce the wheat import duty to zero per cent. They dubbed the government "anti-farmer".

Both houses were adjourned for the day amid repeated disruptions.

After the Lok Sabha was adjourned for the first time, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi trained his guns at the government saying he was not being allowed to speak.

"For the last one month I want to speak in the Lok Sabha... what is in the heart of the poor across the country about demonetisation," Gandhi told the media. "If they allow me to speak, there shall be an earthquake."

He alleged that demonetisation was the biggest scam in Indian history.

"If I say this inside the house, Modiji will not be able to sit. I want to talk about the biggest scam that has been orchestrated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi but I am being stopped from speaking."

The government and the opposition have locked horns over the note ban that has caused an unprecedented cash crunch across the country, wiping out virtually the entire winter session of Parliament.

Earlier, when the house met at 11, the ruling party members blamed the opposition for not letting Parliament function and asked them to go to the Jantar Mantar if they believed in dharna.

As the Speaker announced the Question Hour, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge was on his feet. But members from the treasury benches shouted back quoting President Pranab Mukherjee as saying that the majority was being disrupted by a minority in Parliament.

The scene was the same when the house reconvened. Bharatiya Janata Party's Meenakshi Lekhi said Parliament was not the place for protests.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister H.N. Ananth Kumar said the opposition should apologize to the nation.

"This is not the way... when the majority wants to participate in a discussion, they are disrupting," he said.

The Speaker then adjourned the house till noon.

When the house met again, the Speaker announced that AAP MP Bhagwant Mann had been found guilty of video-recording Parliament's security system and suspended for the rest of the ongoing winter session.

Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar introduced the National Institutes of Technology, Science Education and Research (Second Amendment) Bill, 2016 amid sloganeering.

As the Speaker announced Zero Hour, opposition members shouted "shame, shame".

The Speaker then adjourned the house till Wednesday, saying: "Jao, sab chhutti par" (All of you take a holiday).

In the Rajya Sabha, post lunch, Anand Sharma of the Congress urged Deputy Speaker P.J. Kurien to adjourn the house as there was no quorum.

The quorum bell was rung but the required number of MPs could not be gathered. And so the house was adjourned for the day.

With holidays on December 12 and 13, Parliament now has only three working days left before the session ends on December 16.

President Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday said disruption of Parliament was "totally unacceptable".

--IANS

bns/mr
Lok Sabha adopts motion to suspend AAP MP, party slams move

Delhi,National,Politics, Fri, 09 Dec 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Dec 9 (IANS) The Lok Sabha on Friday adopted a motion to suspend AAP's Bhagwant Mann, who was being probed for posting a video footage of Parliament on social media, from the house for the remaining period of the winter session. His partyu slammed the move

The move was recommended by a parliamentary committee, headed by BJP's Kirit Somaiya.

The committee's report, presented on Thursday, said: "The committee, after due deliberations, recommends that Bhagwant Mann, MP, be suspended for the remaining period of the current session, i.e. the 10th session of the 16th Lok Sabha."

The committee also said that there were repeated contradictions in his communications and therefore it felt that "tendering of his apology before the committee cannot be treated as unconditional apology".

It said: "The conduct of Mann is highly objectionable and exhibits his lack of basic knowledge and etiquette and the responsibilities of the office he holds. Mann has put the security of Parliament House and its occupants at risk."

Slamming the suspension, the AAP called it a "cruel attempt to silence of voice of smaller parties" in Parliament.

"It is a sad day for parliamentary democracy in India since an elected Member of Parliament has been deprived from raising issues of the voters who elected him," a party statement said.

It added that it was "highly regrettable" that the motion to suspend Mann was adopted when the house was "not in order".

The AAP alleged the sequence leading to formation of the committee appeared to be pre-planned with MPs belonging to Bharatiya Janata Party, Shiromani Akali Dal and Congress coming together in demanding stringent punishment to Mann.

"In the committee formed to decide Mann's fate, Dr Kirit Somaiya, Anandrao Adsul and Bhartruhari Mahtab - who had either presumed that Mann was guilty or had given notices against him - were nominated members of the Inquiry Committee.

"To top it all, Kirit Somaiya, who was on record demanding Mann's summary expulsion from the membership of the house on July 22 was duly appointed the chairperson of the committee," AAP said.

--IANS

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CBI should probe source of new currency notes seized by IT: Bank union

Tamil Nadu,National,Business/Economy,Crime/Disaster/Accident, Fri, 09 Dec 2016 IANS

Chennai, Dec 9 (IANS) The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) should probe the source of new 2,000 rupee currency notes valued around Rs 10 crore seized by Income Tax officials from a group of businessmen here, demanded a top bank union leader.

"It is baffling to know that a sum of around Rs 10 crore in new 2,000 rupee notes were seized by IT department from the premises of some businessman. Such huge volume of currency notes could not have gone from bank branches," All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA) General Secretary C.H.Venkatachalam told IANS.

According to him, bank branches get cash from their currency chest, which in turn gets money from the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) currency chest.

"The ATMs (automatic teller machine) are filled by bank branch staff if it is in bank premises. In case the ATMs are offsite then ATM operators/cash management companies collect cash from the bank's currency chest to fill up the machines.

"In some cases, the cash management companies also collect cash directly from RBI's currency chest. So the CBI has to probe as to how huge volume of new currency notes found its way to the premises of a businessman.

"One simple way is the trace the source of the seized currency notes is from their serial numbers," Venkatachalam said.

According to him, such large volume of currency notes cannot be diverted without the connivance of top officials of the banks concerned.

Venkatachalam said if the culprits are not brought to book, then confidence and faith in the banking system will go.

He said bank branch officials are being accused by general public that they are diverting new currency notes to wealthy for a commission.

"Such large sum transfers by a bank branch is not possible," he added.

Meanwhile AIBEA and All India Bank Officers' Association (AIBOA) on Friday demanded RBI to suspend cash transactions at bank branches till the currency crunch is addressed fully.

In a letter to RBI Governor Urjit Patel, AIBEA and AIBOA the unions have demanded suspension of cash transactions at bank branches till sufficient number of currency notes are supplied.

The two unions demanded RBI to announce the details of currency notes supplied by them to various currency chests/banks on a daily basis so that the allegations that some selected banks are being favoured with more currency notes and public sector banks are discriminated can be answered properly.

--IANS

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Meet focuses on annuity, housing for pension subscribers

Delhi,National,Business/Economy, Fri, 09 Dec 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Dec 9 (IANS) A day-long conference on Friday focused on providing decent living through annuity and housing for the National Pension Subscribers (NPS) in their later years, an official statement said.

"The conference focused on stream of annuities and housing for the NPS pensioners in their golden years after they exit the scheme," it said.

Organised by the Pension Fund Regulatory Development Authority in association with the World Bank, the conference "Adequacy of Pension Wealth: Issues and Perspectives" also explored alternative forms of pension withdrawal and modalities of acquiring houses for NPS subscribers.

V.P. Joy, EPFO Central Provident Fund Commissioner, Vijay Singh, Director, DEA, Mukul G. Asher, Fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in the National University of Singapore, Sanjaya Gupta, Managing Director, PNB Housing Finance Company, World Bank officials and experts participated in the discussion.

--IANS

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Justice Katju offers to apologise to SC for criticising judges, verdict

Delhi,National,Immigration/Law/Rights, Fri, 09 Dec 2016 IANS

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New Delhi, Dec 9 (IANS) Former Supreme Court judge, Justice Markandey Katju on Friday offered to tender an unconditional apology in a contempt case for criticising judges and their judgment in Saumya rape and murder case.

Justice Katju, in his application, which was mentioned on Friday before a bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi, has said that he has deleted all the Facebook posts and respected the judicial process and judiciary.

After senior counsel Rajeev Dhavan mentioned the application for an early hearing, Justice Gogoi said that they would consider an early hearing of the same. The former judge has sought the closure of the contempt case initiated by the top court on November 11.

Requesting the hearing of his application before court closes for winter vacations, Justice Katju, in the application, has said: "I am ready to read out the apology before the court."

A bench of Justice Gogoi, Justice Prafulla C. Pant and Justice Uday Umesh Lalit had on November 11 issued the notice to Justice Katju as to why contempt proceedings cannot be initiated against him for casting aspersion against the judges in a blog.

Justice Katju had said that top court had erred in setting aside the death sentence merely on the grounds that prosecution could not establish whether the victim had jumped from the train or was pushed out of it by the assailant.

The top court, while setting aside the death sentence, had also noted the doctors' opinion which said that injuries caused by the assailant alone could not have been the cause of the death.

--IANS

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Demonetisation dominant issue in Bengal assembly no-confidence debate

West Bengal,National,Politics, Fri, 09 Dec 2016 IANS

Kolkata, Dec 9 (IANS) The issue of demonetisation took centrestage as the West Bengal assembly on Friday debated a no-confidence motion brought by the opposition Congress and Left Front against the Mamata Banerjee government.

At the end of a 90-minute debate, during which the opposition lawmakers went hammer and tongs agains the Trinamool Congress government, the motion was defeated by 50-191 votes. A voice vote did not satisfy the opposition, and it sought a division.

In stinging speech, Chief Minister Banerjee criticised the Congress and LF over the timing of the motion, saying it was brought when the country was reeling under the impact of the prime minister Narendra Modi led central government demonetising the currency notes of Rs 100 and Rs 500 denomination.

Ridiculing the opposition parties, she said they seem to lack confidence in their own national leadership.

"They have brought no confidence motion against us. But this is without any basis. In the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, we are moving jointly with your parties on the issue of demonetisation. It seems you don't have any confidence on your own parties," she said.

There was temporary bedlam in the house after Congress' Nepal Mahato accused the ruling Trinamool of trying to lure elected members of the opposition in the assembly, municipalities and the rural bodies to its side since the state elections earlier this year. However, after demonetisation, such efforts have seen an ebb, he said.

As the ruling party MLAs stood up and protested, Speaker Biman Banerjee asked Mahato to provide evidence to back his allegations.

Leader of the Left Front Legislature Party Sujan Chakraborty referred to Banerjee's phone call to his party CPI-M's General Secretary Sitaram Yechury for a joint movement on demonatisation.

An infuriated Benerjee shot back that she would never again call Yechury as he doesn't have "any political courtesy".

--IANS

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Mamata takes strong exception to Parrikar letter, sends back strong reply

West Bengal,National,Politics,Defence/Security, Fri, 09 Dec 2016 IANS

Kolkata/New Delhi, Dec 9 (IANS) In a stinging reply to Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, after he criticised her for making allegations against the Indian Army, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday accused him of making "near-defamatory" remarks and took "strong exception" to his "wild assertion" that her allegations had impacted morale of the armed forces.

"I take strong exception to your wild assertion that my articulation of the rights of the state government vis-a-vis army deployment without clearance has impacted the morale of the armed forces.

"You have also, in the last paragraph chosen to convey the laughable idea that you are the sole spokesperson on behalf of the people at large. I do not think that it behoves a Minister of the Union government to pass near-defamatory remarks on a Chief Minister of any state and I trust that you will rectify the attitude," Banerjee said in the strongly-worded two-page missive.

On December 1, Banerjee had accused the central government of "deploying the army" along highway toll plazas of Bengal while keeping the state government "in the dark".

Calling the controversy avoidable, Parrikar on Thursday wrote: "Your allegation in this regard runs the risk of adversely impacting the morale of the country's armed forces and same were not expected from a person of your standing and experience in public life."

"Political parties and politicians may have the luxury of making wild and unsubstantial allegations against each other but one needs to be extremely careful while referring to our armed forces. I am sure you would appreciate this," he said.

Countering Parrikar, Banerjee accused the centre of indulging in a "political vendetta" and said her remarks were directed at the Narendra Modi government and not at the army, for which she had "great respect".

"During my long political and administrative life, I have never seen such political vendetta by misusing the role of an esteemed organisation.

"We are well aware that the Indian Army is an institution which is the pride of the nation and this has been pointed out by me on many occasions in my public life and even during the time the incident happened.

"But my complaint was not against the army. It was against your government and the government policy, as they act under your directions," she said.

The Chief Minister maintained that the army had been deployed without informing the state in advance.

"I had in essence only pointed out loud and clear that your ministry had not obtained permission of the state government for large deployment of Army personnel in civilian areas, simultaneously in multiple locations in the state.

"Written clearance of the state government should be invariably obtained before initiation of any such exercise," she said.

Later, interacting with reports in her assembly chamber, Banerjee also expressed her annoyance about the language used by Parrikar.

--IANS

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All IAF aircraft fitted ith Underwater Locator Beacon: Minister

Delhi,National,Politics,Defence/Security, Fri, 09 Dec 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Dec 9 (IANS) All transport aircraft and helicopters of Indian Air Force which fly over the sea have been fitted with an Underwater Locating Beacon, Parliament was told on Friday.

"All transport aircraft and helicopters of IAF undertaking maritime operations have now been equipped with Underwater Locating Beacon," Minister of State for Defence Subhash Bhamre informed Lok Sabha in a written reply.

The minister was replying to a question on the AN-32 aircraft, that went missing in the Bay of Bengal in July, and could not be located despite extensive searches as it did not have this device fitted.

The Indian Air Force aircraft, on a routine sortie from IAF Station Tambaram to Port Blair went missing at 12.25 p.m. on July 22, approximately 150 nautical miles East of Chennai.

A massive search operation involving 18 Indian Navy ships, one submarine and eight Coast Guard ships was undertaken, with this armada undertaking a total of 301 ship days of search. In addition 14 Indian Navy aircraft, six Indian Coast Guard aircraft and 10 IAF aircraft were deployed for the search and undertook around 1,280 hours of flying for the mission.

Geological Survey of India vessel Samudra Ratnakar was also deployed to undertake sub-bottom profiling in the area and National Institute of Oceanography and Technology vessel Sagar Nidhi was deployed to carry out sea bed search using Remotely Operated Vehicle to a depth of 3000m.

The National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), Hyderabad was requested for high-resolution satellite image of area around datum. Indigenous satellite such as CARTOSAT 2A & 2B which have a resolution of 0.8m were also used for satellite imagery. However, no concrete evidence with respect to missing IAF AN-32 aircraft has emerged.

Assistance of the US and the Russian Navy was also taken but to no avail.

--IANS

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LA, Budapest, Paris voted candidates to host 2024 Olympics

Switzerland,Sports,Other Sports, Fri, 09 Dec 2016 IANS

Lausanne, Dec 9 (IANS) Los Angeles, Budapest and Paris have successfully passed the second round of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Candidature Process for the 2024 Summer Olympics, the IOC has said.

During the IOC Executive Board meeting in Lausanne on Thursday, Frank Fredericks, the IOC Evaluation Commission Chair, informed the Board on details of stage 2 of the Candidature Process which was devoted to Governance, Legal and Venue Funding, reports Sputnik.

As the official IOC website states, the deadline for submission of the candidates' profiles for the next stage devoted to games delivery, experience and venue legacy is February 3, 2017.

During Stage 3 in April and May 2017 the commission will visit each candidate city and publish a following report as well as hold in July 2017 a briefing for IOC members and summer Olympic international federations.

The IOC Candidature Process consists of three stages spread over the period of two years. The host city for the Summer Olympic Games 2024 will be chosen in September 2017 in Lima, Peru.

--IANS

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Nervousness never lets me be over-confident: Vaani Kapoor

Delhi,Cinema/Showbiz,Bollywood, Fri, 09 Dec 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Dec 9 (IANS) She ventured into Bollywood in 2013 with Yash Raj Films' "Shuddh Desi Romance" and now, three years later, has bagged a film directed by Aditya Chopra. Actress Vaani Kapoor says that she does get nervous about her movies doing well or not, but added that it's this nervousness that ensures she does not become over confident.

"I stress, worry, get nervous and I start to over-think about a lot of things, but I think a little bit of doubt and nervousness always keeps me on my feet. Strangely, I feel that it is a good thing. It always gets me through... It (nervousness) will never let me be over-confident in my life," Vaani told IANS over phone from Mumbai.

Before venturing into Bollywood, Vaani worked as a model, though the actress says "a part of me always wanted to be an actor".

"Modelling is something I couldn't see as my forte or something that I would do for the rest of my life. It just says that it is a step closer to where I want to be, which was acting. So I thought if there's ever a chance... I was very clear in my head that I am going to make the most of it and work hard towards it," said Vaani.

Does she think her modelling career helped her to get into Bollywood?

"Yeah, because Shanoo Sharma told me that they did like my photographs. They short-listed my photographs and initially called me for a meeting and that's how it happened because I was modelling," said the 28-year-old actress.

Vaani added: "There are such pretty faces and so many more talents and people with more potential, but they never get their chance because they are not at the right place at the right time."

After "Shuddh Desi Romance", Vaani will now be seen romancing actor Ranveer Singh in the forthcoming film "Befikre", which has been extensively shot in Paris.

So what kept Vaani away from the silver screen for three years?

"I was doing my auditions for Shanoo Sharma. She used to audition me every week...Then I also (did) some acting workshops because I was never trained in acting and I thought this is the best time I could focus on acting and other skills that are required," she said.

The actress also confided that she told Aditya Chopra that, while she wasn't shooting, she could assist someone on the sets so that she could learn something.

(Durga Chakravarty can be contacted at durga.c@ians.in)

--IANS

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India ranked 7th among countries most hit by terror (Special to IANS)

Delhi,National,Terrorism,Opinion/Commentary, Fri, 09 Dec 2016 IANS

India was ranked 7th in the list of countries most impacted by terrorism in 2015, according to the Global Terrorism Index (GTI), 2016, released by the Institute for Economics & Peace, a Sydney-based think-tank.

India is one of six Asian countries ranked in the top 10 nations most impacted by terrorism. The Heart of Asia conference adopted the Amritsar declaration on December 4, 2016, which recognises "terrorism, violent extremism, radicalization, separatism, and sectarianism and linkages among them" as the gravest challenges facing the region.

The declaration voiced particular concern about the "high level of violence" by ISIS and its affiliates, the Haqqani Network, al Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan - all based in South Asia.

India recorded 289 terrorism-related deaths in 2015, a 45 per cent decline over 2014. However, the number of Indian Army and paramilitary soldiers killed this year is at an eight-year high, IndiaSpend reported on November 29, 2016.

As many as 797 terrorist attacks were recorded in India in 2015, up 4 per cent since 2014, the report said.

While the 2015 attacks were the highest since 2000, 80 per cent were non-lethal. Overall, 49 different terrorist groups were engaged in attacks but 31 of these failed to kill anyone.

"This suggests that groups are seeking to remind governments of their presence without provoking significant military reactions," the report said.

India experienced 7 per cent of all terrorist attacks around the world, the fourth highest after Iraq (20 per cent), Afghanistan (14 per cent) and Pakistan (8 per cent). India, in 2015, had fewer terror attacks (797) than only Iraq (2,415), Afghanistan (1,715) and Pakistan (1,008). India suffered twice as many attacks as Syria (384).

Deaths from terror attacks globally declined 10 per cent from the highest recorded level of 32,765 in 2014 to 29,376 in 2015, the GTI report said.

The GTI score for a country is calculated based on weightage assigned to the total number of terrorist incidents, fatalities, injuries and property damage sustained in the year in question. The index also takes into consideration attacks which took place in the four previous years.

A 32 per cent reduction in terror deaths in Iraq and Nigeria led to a global decline in deaths by 41 per cent in 2015. Both countries accounted for 53 per cent of all terrorism-related deaths across the world in 2014.

Economic loss from terrorism $635 billion over 16 years

The global economic impact of terrorism has been $635 billion over 16 years, from 2000 to 2015. That is an amount equivalent to the annual gross domestic product (GDP) of Egypt and Malaysia.

Since 2014, the loss has declined from a 16-year high of $106 billion to the second-highest level of $90 billion, at constant 2015 prices. The GTI report said the decline related to the decrease in terror deaths from 2014 to 2015.

The economic impact of terrorism, as a proportion of a country's GDP, is highest in Iraq at 17.3 per cent, followed by Afghanistan (16.8 per cent) and Syria (8.3 per cent).

Violent conflict, as a whole, caused $13.6 trillion loss to the global economy in 2015 (in purchasing parity terms), or 13.3 of global GDP.

OECD countries see 650 per cent rise in terror-related deaths

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries - the world's most developed - witnessed a 650 per cent increase in terrorism deaths, from 77 in 2014 to 577 in 2015, the worst year for the 35-nation bloc since the 2001 September 11 attacks.

Turkey, a part of OECD, witnessed 337 deaths in 2015, the highest among OECD countries. Terrorist violence in Turkey rose from attacks by the separatist Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) and ISIS in 2015.

The report notes that for 14 years until the start of 2015, France had averaged one terrorism-related death per annum. In 2015, France recorded 161 deaths, making it the second biggest victim of terrorism in the developed world. This includes the November 2015 Paris attacks that killed 136 and the Charlie Hebdo attack in January.

Over half of all attacks in the OECD countries were by or inspired by ISIS, a trend which has continued in 2016 with attacks in Brussels, Istanbul, Nice and Orlando, which have killed 211 people.

Iraq worst hit by terrorism

Iraq was the worst hit by terror in 2015 with 6,960 dead and 11,900 injured in 2,415 incidents. Afghanistan and Nigeria were ranked second and third with 5,312 and 4,940 deaths, respectively.

The GTI score is based on the relative impact of terrorist incidents by accounting for the number of incidents, fatalities, injuries and total property damage.

Pakistan is ranked fourth with 1,086 deaths in 2015, a 38 per cent decline since 2014. The report notes that terrorism in Pakistan "has moved from the border region with Afghanistan" to other parts of the country, "especially in the Punjab province" that borders India.

Terrorism has cost Pakistan $118 billion over the last 15 years in direct and indirect costs, according to Pakistan's Economic Survey 2015-16, IndiaSpend reported in August 2016.

ISIS world's deadliest group

ISIS overtook its African affiliate Boko Haram as the world's deadliest terrorist group in 2015, with attacks causing 6,141 deaths. ISIS expanded the number of countries where it conducted attacks from six in 2014 to 11 in 2015.

A staggering 4,502 people were killed in terrorist attacks by the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2015, a 29 per cent increase since 2014. The year 2015 was also the deadliest for terrorism in Afghanistan, even as the Afghan security forces struggle to contain a resurgent Taliban and the United States draws down its troop presence in the country.

The increased violence in Afghanistan threatens the $2 billion worth of Indian aid to the country in a bid to stabilise Afghanistan's civilian leadership, IndiaSpend reported in July 2015.

(In arrangement with IndiaSpend.org, a data-driven, non-profit, public interest journalism platform. Abheet Singh Sethi is a Mumbai-based freelance writer and defence analyst. The views expressed are those of IndiaSpend. Feedback at respond@indiaspend.org)

--IANS/IndiaSpend

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Rajya Sabha adjourned till noon

Delhi,National,Politics,Business/Economy, Fri, 09 Dec 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Dec 9 (IANS) The Rajya Sabha was adjourned till noon on Friday as the Opposition criticised the government for reducing import duty on wheat to zero per cent.

Sitaram Yechury of the CPI (M) raised the issue which was supported by the Congress, the Bahujan Samaj Party and others.

Deputy Chairman P.J. Kurien asked the members to maintain silence and let the house function, but they did not pay any attention to his pleas.

The opposition members began shouting slogans like "anti-farmer government will not be allowed to function".

The house was then adjourned till noon.

--IANS

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Lok Sabha adjourned for the day, ruckus continued over demonetisation

Delhi, Fri, 09 Dec 2016 NI Wire

After witnessing two adjournments before noon, the Lok Sabha was disrupted again and adjourned for the day. The uproar on the demonetisation issue with the ruling party and the Opposition leads to the adjournment and House proceeding was disrupted again.

The government aggressively blamed the opposition members for wasting peoples money by not letting Parliament function and asked them to go to Jantar Mantar for a dharna.

When the House met at 11 a.m., the Speaker Sumitra Mahajan welcomed a delegation from Vietnam. After that, she also said by remembering the Parliament attacks that the security forces bravely foiled the cowardly attack and paid tributes to the martyrs of the Parliament attack on December 13, 2001.

When the Speaker announced about the Question Hour, the Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge was on his feet, but the members from the treasury benches shouted back mentioning the President Pranab Mukherjees appeal on the majority being disrupted by the minority in Parliament.

After that, the Speaker adjourned the house till 11.30 a.m.

When the house again met then the Bharatiya Janata Party member Meenakshi Lekhi said to the Opposition that Parliament was not the place for dharnas and opposition members should go to Jantar Mantar.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister H.N. Ananth Kumar said that the Opposition should apologise to the nation for disrupting the proceedings of the House.

The Parliamentary Affairs Minister said, This is not the way... when the majority wants to participate in a discussion, they are disrupting.

He then added, They must apologise to the nation. They are wasting people's money.

The Speaker Sumitra Mahajan then adjourned the house till noon.

After these adjournments when the house met again, the Speaker announced that the Aam Aadmi Party MP Bhagwant Mann has been found guilty of video-recording Parliament's security system and has been suspended for the rest of the ongoing winter session.

During the slogannering, the Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar introduced the National Institutes of Technology, Science Education and Research (Second Amendment) Bill, 2016.

After all this as the Speaker announced taking up of the Zero Hour, opposition members began shouting shame shame. Because of this the Speaker adjourned the house and said, Jao sab chhutti par (go on a holiday).

Since the beginning of the winter session on November 16, the Lok Sabha has been witnessing disruptions over the issue of demonetisation in which the opposition members in the house demanding a debate on demonetisation under rules that entail voting.

The ruling party not agreed to this stating that voting will send a message that there is division in the house.

The stalemate has not been broken after when the Speaker also offered to the opposition to take up a debate without any rule.

Before the ending of the session, Parliament now has only three working days left with holiday on December 12 and 13.

The whole protest was done by the opposition members over the demonetisation issue which was announced by the Prime Minister on November 8 by which the old notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes was declared as an illegal tender from the announcement date.



--with agency inputs
Rajya Sabha adjourned for the day

Delhi, Fri, 09 Dec 2016 NI Wire

After witnessing the disruption over the decision of government to reduce the wheat import duty to zero percent, the Rajya Sabha got adjourned for the day soon after it met again after lunch.

The upper house witnessed uproar and adjourned twice during pre-lunch session. As the house met at 11, the opposition parties began shouting slogans against the government and they accused the government of being anti-farmer.

The Opposition shouted that, The anti-farmer government will not be allowed to function.

After that, the house was then adjourned till noon and it was again disrupted over the same issue as it reassembled at noon and was adjourned till 2.30 p.m.

The Chairman after requested the agitated members to let the house function but his pleas went unheard.

The Chairman also asked about the Question Hour to the opposition members but they shouted slogan and said No and after this the Chairman, who tried to restore peace in the house said, nothing can be done in this noise.

The Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said that over 70 hours of the Rajya Sabha have been wasted and the opposition was not allowing the house to function even after the appeal of the President.

Naqvi said, the country will not give forgive them.

The Chairman then adjourned the Rajya Sabha till 2.30 p.m.

Anand Sharma of the Congress urged Deputy Speaker P.J Kurien to adjourn the house, he urged as the house met after lunch. Kurien urged to adjourn it as there was no quorum.

Kurien then directed the authorities concerned to ring the koram bell but the koram could not be completed and the house was finally adjourned for the day.

--with agency inputs
Apple to launch 4 new iPhone in 2017 hints Rumours

New Delhi, Fri, 09 Dec 2016 NI Wire

The Buzz around Launch of 4 New iPhones Mystifies Apple's Next Year Plans, Rumours hints that apple preparing to launch new 4 iPhone next year (2017).

A new tattle doing the round indicates that Apple is planning to roll out not one or two, but four models of the iPhone series in the coming year. This report has given an obscured but still a basis to keep the hopes alive on the probable of launch of iPhone 8 in 2017.

There were many conflicting rumours on what name would be given to the upcoming model of the iPhone. While some say that it will be 7S, as per the Tick-Tock cycle of the American multinational company, others suggest it could be called 8, with the change in the Cycle due to major overhaul in the basic design. Since Apple is completing the 10th anniversary of first iPhone announcement and launch on 9th January and 29th June respectively, the iPhone 8 theories gained prominence. For a twist in the business, is just what is required to add to the fervour of the special occasion.

Now, with this new report published by Japanese media, that four phones are in the pipeline for the next year, we may have 7s and 7s Plus, as well as 8 and 8 Plus in the market by 2017. The s' models of the iPhone usually have reiterative upgrades and retain the original encasing and so iPhone 8 is something that is generating more interest.

The level of adulation that iPhones enjoy, is so high that even before a new gadget starts getting manufactured, its affect is researched upon, reported and reviewed by experts. The hearsay arising frequently, keeps the excitement level of the brand lovers intact and well, this is also needed for the success of any new product.

Speculations are rife that the iPhone 8 line up would be embedded with many deadly features that would provide users a never-before experience. Among the many theories, one suggests the presence of A11 Chip of 10-nanometer, which would make the handsets in the new series run faster with greater efficiency. Apart from these, many experts are also expecting the introduction of long range wireless charging facility, Iris Scanner or similar biometric security function and dual camera featuring optical image stabilisation in both lenses. There may also be incorporation of curved OLED display in one or two or all the models. The size of the screen may also go through a change and it may be 5.5 inch or more or may be different for different models.

As per what is said by analyst Ming Chi Kuo, the body of new iPhone would not be made of aluminium but double glass metal frame but an improved version of what was used in 4s. Kuo also thinks that aluminium frame will be used in lesser expensive phones while the costly ones will have stainless steel frame to house the components. But the question remains whether the use of glass would be applicable in case of all the new devices or the devices in the new series or the higher-end models. Japanese website Nikkei said that all the 2017 phones would have glass cases.

Another source states that a new red-shade variant may be added in the line-up to attract more customers. As of now the Apple phones are available in the tints of gold, rose gold, jet black, silver and black. Again, whether this red colour would be made available in the '7s' and '7s Plus' or 8' and 8 Plus' models or in all of them, remains unclear.

With all these circulating reports and some new ones coming along, it would be really interesting to see what is the actually in store for the next year and how Apple would do justice to its image of the groundbreaking technologist.
Rahul says, earthquake will come when I speak in Parliament

Delhi, Fri, 09 Dec 2016 NI Wire

After the announcement of demonetisation of old Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes the Opposition targeted the government. The opposition members are regularly protesting against the decision of government and Rahul Gandhi led all the protests, which were done by the opposition members.

The Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi accused the government of not allowing him to speak in Parliament despite his speech being ready.

Rahul Gandhi said after accusing the government that an earthquake will come will come if he gets the opportunity to speak.

He said at the Parliament premises that, For the last one month I want to speak in the Lok Sabha... want to speak what is in the heart of the poor across the country about demonetisation.

Rahul said, If they allow me to speak in Parliament then you shall see that an earthquake will happen.

Rahul Gandhi blamed the government over the issue by saying this decision a biggest scam in the history of India. Rahul Gandhi said pointed towards the Prime Minister Narenda Modi that, He is giving speeches across the country, but scared of coming in the Lok Sabha. Why is he running away from debate? They are not ready to sit in the Lok Sabha. What is the reason?

He also said that, This is the biggest scam of India's history. If I say this inside the House, Modiji will not be able to sit. I want to talk about the biggest scam that has been orchestrated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but I am being stopped from speaking.

First they spoke about black money, then they spoke about counterfeit notes and now they are talking about cashless economy. Come and talk to us. They will talk, we will talk and people will get to know everything about demonetisation, who benefited from it, who is incurring losses and why was it done, Rahul Gandhi added.

In the winter session of the parliament, after November 16 till today the Lok Sabha proceedings were disrupted by the ruckus made by the opposition members who wants to debate on the issue of demonetisation and also the Prime Minister to answer their questions.

This all is happening after the announcement of demonetisation on November 8 made by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The opposition members, everyday showed protests in the house whereas the Speaker warned them to not waste peoples money by disrupting the proceedings of the house. The President also appealed them and said these activities unacceptable.

--with agency inputs
Plastic currency notes soon to be printed in India

Delhi, Fri, 09 Dec 2016 NI Wire

After the demonetisation of the old notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 new currency was introduced to the people of the country but now, plastic currency notes will also be printed in India.

The procurement process for the required material has already been initiated, and the Parliament was informed. The Finance Ministry said that soon, plastic currency notes will be printed in India.

The Minister of State for Finance Arjun Ram Meghawal said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha that, It has been decided to print bank notes based on plastic/polymer substrate. The process of procurement has been initiated.

The Minister also said that it was informed by the Reserve Bank of India on December 11, 2015 that they received some Rs 1000 denomination without the security thread.

Meghwal said that, these notes were printed on paper supplied by Security Paper Mill (SPM), Hoshangabad, at the Currency Note Press at Nashik in Maharashtra.

An enquiry was initiated by the Security Printing and Minting Corp of India Ltd (SPMCIL) and the units involved, SPM and Currency Note Press.

Meghwal also said, Major penalty chargesheet has been issued to personnel concerned. Disciplinary proceedings have been initiated.

He added, Action has been taken to strengthen quality procedure and online inspection system in manufacturing process. A new Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) has been prepared and implemented.

Meghwal also said, that the special training has been given to concerned persons to avoid such mistakes in future and additional inspections have been introduced to ensure defect free production.

These advancements by the government are indicating towards the security of the countrys currency. If these security advancements are not made in present then no benefit of demonetisation will be seen in future.

--with agency inputs
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The Moroccan and Spanish Interior Ministers have hailed the exemplary cooperation set between their departments, particularly in the fight against terrorism and organized crime.

Mohamed Hassad and his Spanish peer Juan Ignacio Zoido expressed their satisfaction at a meeting held Wednesday in Rabat, in the presence of Cherki Drais, Minister Delegate to the Interior, Abdellatif Hammouchi, Head of Moroccos General Directorate of National Security (DGST) & Chief of domestic intelligence agency (DGST), Ricardo Diez Hochleitner, Spanish Ambassador in Rabat, and Lopez Iglesias, Director General of the Spanish Police.

The meeting, first of its kind for Mr Zoido as minister of the interior, shows the sound security cooperation ties existing between the two countries in all levels.

Regarding the fight against terrorism, the two parties praised, in a joint statement, the coordination between the security services of the two countries, a cooperation based on continuous exchange of information and the organization of joint operations.

These operations helped to dismantle many terrorist cells, including those linked to the recruitment and transfer of terrorist fighters to conflict zones and hotbeds of tension.

The two ministers reiterated in this regard the need to further consolidate cooperation and to continue to pool efforts at the regional and international level in order to counter terror threats.

Regarding the fight against drug trafficking, the two ministers voiced satisfaction over cooperation between the security services of the two countries, saying this cooperation helped to cut substantially drug trafficking, particularly those using small planes through Gibraltar Strait.

The two ministers who also discussed the issue of migration welcomed the excellent and unique partnership and cooperation in this field which yielded, they noted, positive results mainly in the fight against migrants smuggling and human trafficking.

Juan Ignacio Zoidos visit to Morocco is his first overseas trip since the formation of the new Spanish government.
The Mauritania regime has again irritated Rabat after it allowed the Polisario Front to send militaries to spy on Moroccan forces from the military buffer zone of Guerguerat located between the two counties.

Polisario elements were allowed to sneak into La Guera small town through the Mauritania side, Moroccan daily Al Massae reported.

The act is another provocation by Nouakchott and an expression of its unfriendly behavior towards Morocco, said the daily, adding that not only the separatist movement took pictures of the area but it celebrated the move as a victory.

La Guera is a small town at Guerguerat military buffer zone between Mauritania and Morocco.

According to the Moroccan daily, the Polisario intends to position sentinels in the zone, just few meters away from Moroccan military positions.

Nouakchott, under President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, has shifted from its neutrality in the Sahara issue to a supporter of the separatist movement whose leaders, including Brahim Ghali, are currently under Spanish arrest warrants over alleged war crimes and human rights abuses.

President Ould Abdel Aziz recently offered the separatist front a piece of land to build its embassy in the Mauritania capital. The Mauritanian regime is thus aligning itself with Algeria, the Polisarios mentor and staunch supporter, which has been perpetuating the Sahara conflict for over 40 years, and will be the first Arab country to grant the movement such an official status.
Moroccos anticipatory counter terrorism strategy and its role in international security cooperation were highlighted, on Thursday in Brussels, at a conference in the European Parliament.

The presentation was made by a senior official from Moroccos interior ministry in the presence of members of the European parliament and diplomats who followed some of the landmarks of the Kingdoms security strategy which is underpinned by a comprehensive approach.

In this respect, it was stressed that coercion alone is not enough to tackle the root causes of terrorism, Moroccos news agency (MAP) reported.

The serious threat of terrorism requires a multidimensional approach that combines legal considerations and the reform of the religious sphere as well as social and economic incentives.

In this respect, Morocco undertook a reform of its penal code in line with international law and human rights as they are universally recognized. Several measures were taken to criminalize justifications of terrorism and to fight money laundering. The creation of the Central Bureau of Judicial Investigations (BCIJ), known as Moroccos FBI, came to reinforce the legal and security anti-terrorism efforts.

At the religious level, Morocco launched an ambitious project to upgrade the religious sphere in order to safeguard the Moroccan society from extremism and radicalism. In this regards, Imams have been trained to champion the lofty values of Islam, those of tolerance and coexistence.

Social and economic initiatives were also taken to promote the social integration of the poor who are usually the best target for recruitment by radicals. The participants at the conference cast light on the National Initiative for Human Development (INDH) which was launched by King Mohammed VI in 2005.

Speaking on this occasion, EU Counter-terrorism Coordinator, Giles de kerchove commended Moroccos experience in the fight against terrorism and its commitment alongside its European partners to counter this global calamity.

For his part, Ahmed Reda Chami, Moroccos Ambassador to the EU, said that the EU is interested in further strengthening ties with Morocco in countering terrorism.
The European Union (EU) Thursday announced it would grant Tunisia a new assistance package worth 300 million next year but in the form of donation aside from regular financial assistance also doubled to reach 300 million.

The EU has established itself as a strategic partner of the nascent Arab democracy. The 28-member bloc will double its annual 170 million financial assistance to Tunisia to 300 million after Federica Mogherini, Chief of the groups foreign policy, made the demand in October.

EUs ambassador to Tunis, Patrice Bergamini announced the new donation on Thursday adding that both parties have become strategic partners.

We have confirmed our will to increase the financial assistance in form of donation estimated at 300 million euros in 2017 and to maintain this assistance over next years, he said.

The new grant was announced after President Beji Caid Essebsi visited EU institutions in Brussels, on December 1.

The EU has so far granted 800 million to the North African country to help it cope with the economic and financial slowdown.

The EU and its financial arms pledged additional investment plans late last month at Tunisia 2020 forum.

During the forum, the EU signed a 500 million Tunisian dinar investment agreement, while the European Investment Bank (EIB) pledged 6.8 billion dinars over a four year period, in addition to 600 million dinars used as funds.

Bergamini, speaking at a press conference, said the EU would earmark hundreds of thousands euros for youth programs in Tunisia. The projects will target job creation for youths, professional training, cultural programs as well as scholarships programs such as Erasmus+ program.

From next January, we will multiply three times traditional scholarships granted to young Tunisians, up to 1,500 per year, he added.
Algeria has started sending home thousands of Sub-Saharan migrants and asylum seekers living and working in the North African country for years.

Waves of migrants from Niger have been already sent home. The last bash of Nigeriens was expected to arrive early this week-end, Jeune Afrique reports quoting Nigers consul general in the Algerian city of Tamanrasset, Mohamadou Aboubakar.

Some 18,000 Nigeriens have been deported since 2014.

The West African country has become the transit country for deportation process. Other migrants regrouped at a camp in Tamanrasset will be deported in agreement with their respective countries authorities.

Algerian authorities who claim the process has been under way with full consent of the migrants have decided to deport the West Africans following last week incidents between the migrants and Algerians in capital Algiers, in Dely Brahim neighborhood.

Thousands of migrants were shipped to a camp on the outskirts of Tamanrasset, 2,000 km South of Algiers, in the Sahara desert, Jeune Afrique reports.

Head of the Algerian Red Crescent, Saida Benhabyles, indicated that the migrants were moved there for the sake of Algerians security, migrants own safety and better conditions.

Her comments were slammed by Algerian right groups which argued that the migrants were living in poor and unhealthy conditions.
Trump addresses Carrier workers. Photo: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

This week, United Steelworkers Local 1999 president Chuck Jones publicly corrected Donald Trump, telling the media that while the president-elect claims his deal with the heating and cooling company saved 1,100 U.S. jobs from moving to Mexico, the real figure is 800. Trump responded by falsely attacking Jones, making the ludicrous suggestion that the union president is to blame for American companies shipping jobs overseas, rather than decades of economic and technological developments.

Though Jones has been threatened by people identifying themselves as Trump supporters, he said on Thursday that he wont back off one iota. Instead, he used the new round of media attention to point out that the deal struck with Carrier will actually help its parent company, United Technologies, eliminate some of the 800 saved U.S. jobs in the coming years.

In exchange for $7 million in tax breaks from the state of Indiana over the next decade, Carrier agreed to invest $16 million in its in-state facilities. (Carrier is still moving 600 jobs from the Indianapolis plant  and all 700 jobs from its Huntington, Indiana, facility  to Mexico.)

United Technologies CEO Greg Hayes admitted in an interview with CNBC earlier this week that the money will mostly go toward automation, telling Jim Cramer:

Were going to make a $16 million investment in that factory in Indianapolis to automate to drive the cost down so that we can continue to be competitive. Now is it as cheap as moving to Mexico with lower cost of labor? No. But we will make that plant competitive just because well make the capital investments there. But what that ultimately means is there will be fewer jobs.

Automation means less people, Jones underscored Thursday on CNN. I think well have a reduction of workforce at some point in time once they get all the automation in and up and running.

Jones has emphasized in every media appearance that he is still grateful to Trump for keeping even 800 Carrier jobs in the U.S. for the time being. Hes also said that hed be open to working with the Trump administration to save other union jobs in Indiana. (The Hoosier state is still set to lose 2,100 jobs to foreign countries in the coming months.) When it comes to peoples livelihoods, I think everybody has to put everything aside, Jones said.

Apart from Trumps tweets, theres been no official response from his team. But on Thursday RNC communications director Sean Spicer, whos rumored to be on the short list for White House press secretary, made another false attack against Jones during an appearance on Fox News.

Actually, Spicer packed multiple falsehoods into that one-minute exchange. When asked what Trumps goal is in fighting a union leader, Spicer said:

He wants the truth. I mean, here you have a guy that talked about Carrier and the importance of keeping the jobs. He picks up the phone, he closes the deal, youve got a thousand people that are going to have a blessed holiday season, that are not worried about jobs, that get to spend this time with their family and friends, knowing that they have a job with good benefits. That should be something thats celebrated.

The entire point of Joness complaint is that Trump didnt save a thousand jobs, and claiming that he did gave hundreds of Carrier workers false hope. Spicer continues:

And then youve got a union boss that goes out and fabricates how the story went down for no reason. He should be grateful for Mr. Trump and Governor Pences efforts to help save those jobs. Instead, the guy whose job it was to actually be advocating on behalf, picks a fight with the president-elect who went out of his way to advocate and fight for a thousand peoples jobs so that they could live next year and the years after it, knowing that theyve got a good paying job with good benefits. I think Mr. Trump is never going to sit back and let someone take a shot falsely at him without responding.

Nothing Jones said was fabricated or false; Carrier has said that only 800 jobs will remain in Indianapolis. Jones had been working for months to keep Carrier jobs in Indiana, as confirmed by President-elect Mike Pence. And again, Jones has said repeatedly that he gives Trump credit for helping some of the Indianapolis workers.

So rather than admitting Trump simply misstated the number of jobs saved, a top RNC official repeated an incorrect figure twice and spread more lies about Jones.

The union president has said such attacks dont faze him, even when they come from the president-elect. Jones explained that after working for the union for 30 years, threats no longer concern him  but the same cannot be said of Trumps other Twitter targets. In light of the president-elects attack on Jones, the Washington Post checked in with 18-year-old college student Lauren Batchelder, who told Trump at an October 2015 rally, So, maybe Im wrong, maybe you can prove me wrong, but I dont think youre a friend to women. Trump tweeted that shes an arrogant young woman and accused her of being a plant from Jeb Bushs campaign. Shes still receiving vile messages on social media from people threatening to physically and sexually assault her.

A president attacking a private citizen is dangerous and unprecedented, but there are no signs that Trump intends to let up after hes sworn in. When you attack a man for living an ordinary life in an ordinary job, it is bullying, Nicolle Wallace, who was President George W. Bushs communications director, told the New York Times. It is cyberbullying. This is a strategy to bully somebody who dissents. Thats what is dark and disturbing.
California Rep. Adam Schiff, the leading Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, has not been shy about calling out Russia for its alleged attempts to influence U.S. elections through hacking. Nor has he shied away from criticizing Donald Trump for continuing to question whether the DNC hack was Russian-led, as multiple intelligence agencies have determined. On MSNBC today, he said Trumps denials make him a propaganda piece for the Kremlin.

Its not the first time hes used that line of attack, nor is Trump the first person to find himself on the business end of it. On Wednesday, Schiff appeared on Tucker Carlsons Fox News show to talk about this very issue. Like Trump, Carlson has questions about whether Russias role in the hacking has been proven. Noting the intelligence community was also certain about the WMDs in Iraq, he describes himself as skeptical of Schiffs willingness to blame Vladimir Putin for the hack of John Podestas Gmail account. The interview reached a crescendo when Schiff accused the Fox host of being a Russian agent  Youre carrying water for the Kremlin!  and Carlson repeatedly dared Schiff to look into the camera and say, without equivocation, that he knew Russia was responsible for hacking John Podestas emails.

The whole exchange is entertaining, but the video starts with the good stuff.
His popular-vote loss is approaching 3 million. Photo: Steve Helber/AP Photo

As votes continue to be tabulated in the days since the presidential election, Donald Trumps deficit continues to grow (now at 2.7 million votes, or 2 percent of the total), while the imagined scale of his triumph continues to swell. He is no longer the ever-so-narrow beneficiary of Hillary Clintons deep unpopularity but the authentic tribune of the people, imbued with a mandate for leadership, as Mike Pence boasted. The alchemy at work here uses the usual Republican tactic of emphasizing the coastal nature of the Democratic coalition, which  in combination with the Republican strongholds in low-density counties, and perhaps even jacked up with fake maps  can make Trumps minority at least look like a majority.

But Trumps election has added to the usual outpourings of contempt for coastal America a touch of class  not the Trumpian pink-marble version of class but the Marxian sort. Trumps surprise victory in a handful of previously blue states with high levels of white working-class voters, combined with the postelection political theater of a visit to a Carrier plant in Indianapolis, where he helped broker a deal to preserve some jobs, has lent him a sudden allure as the guardian of the toiling masses. Conservative columnist Salena Zito attributed Trumps victory to Democrats ignoring the workingman and -woman bloc. National Review editor Rich Lowry marveled that the GOP had become the Party of Workers. What amazes a lot of people is that Im sitting in an apartment the likes of which nobodys ever seen, the president-elect told a Time reporter summoned to his palatial suite. And yet I represent the workers of the world. Not just the country, the world. The candidate who had won a mere 46 percent of the vote now spoke with the legitimacy of an authentic representative of the proletariat.

There are wisps of truth to this. Trump performed dramatically better with white voters who lack a college degree than he did with white voters who have one. His campaign placed more emphasis on wages and work, and on cultural-populist themes, than Mitt Romneys did, with its We built that paeans to the heroism of business owners. Still, Trump, like traditional Republican candidates before him, performed best among the rich and worst among the poor. He narrowly won voters earning more than $100,000 a year and more definitively lost among those earning less than $50,000 a year. Other than his promise to create blue-collar jobs through deficit-financed spending projects, Trump has advocated an almost completely orthodox right-wing economic program. (And even his deficit-spending plan harks back to George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan, who combined higher spending with lower taxes to heat up the economy; Republicans traditionally only oppose economic stimulus when a Democratic president stands to benefit.)

Trump perhaps benefited from his opponents campaign decision not to highlight his right-wing economic program, out of the plausible calculation that Americans might be more alarmed by his bullying, manifest ignorance, racism, and confessed habit of sexual predation. And so the campaign has left few Americans prepared for the plutocratic cast of his appointments. His choice for secretary of Labor, Andy Puzder, has railed against the minimum wage and other government interventions that raise the cost of labor and has preached the superiority of automating low-wage work. (Machines, he said, are always polite, they always upsell, they never take a vacation, they never show up late, theres never a slip-and-fall, or an age, sex, or race discrimination case.) His Environmental Protection Agency will be run by a director who questions climate science and has literally signed his name to a letter written by oil and gas lobbyists. Veterans of Goldman Sachs have claimed a number of high-profile roles. Trump has placed the government at the disposal of business interests that oppose its core functions on purely acquisitive grounds. There is no view of the economy represented save that of the boss.

Trumps dramatic intervention in the Carrier contract negotiations was so marginal to his agenda that, by his own admission, he forgot about it until he saw one of the employees mention it on television. When the unions president pointed out that Trump misstated the number of jobs saved, the president-elect savaged him. If Trumps plan to raise wages does work, it will be because the magic of deregulation and tax cuts for the rich somehow succeeds for Trump where it failed for George W. Bush.

What Trump adds to the classic trickle-down formula is his reality-show persona. Here he is in Indiana, doling out jobs to his grateful subjects. And there he is on Twitter, threatening Boeings CEO (who had the temerity to criticize Trumps anti-trade rants against China) with cancellation of the contract for Air Force One. Wittingly or not, Trump was reprising a political tactic used by Vladimir Putin, who often shows up on television berating managers for their inefficiency. It is an authoritarian brand of populism in which workers have a voice not through a union, nor through redistributive public policy, but through the personal beneficence of the leader. Also like Putin, Trump sees the presidency as a tool not only of power but of enormous self-enrichment.

During the campaign, Trumps bullying qualities, along with his general unfitness for public office, made business leaders nervous about his candidacy  a hesitancy that redounded to his benefit by branding Trump as a populist outsider. But the source of their nervousness was not that Trump would favor policies geared toward workers or consumers but that he might threaten the rule of law and the stability of the economic system. Trumps early moves indicate a regime friendly to the rich and the business elite in general so long as they stay on Trumps good side. His posturing against big business serves the dual purpose of performing egalitarianism while ensuring monolithic corporate support for his agenda.

Most significantly, equating Trump with the interests of the workers is a propaganda device meant to legitimize his power. Every government of every kind needs some sort of legitimizing principle upon which to base its authority. Trump cannot simply say the rules are the rules, or the Electoral College has spoken. He needs some larger justification for how the American people have chosen him to carry out his sweeping and radical agenda on their behalf. Majoritarianism, a democratic idea with intuitive appeal, is an inconvenient principle for the incoming administration. Representing the workers of the world helps solve the problem. He may have received fewer votes in some narrow, technical sense, but real America is for Trump. And if that real America constitutes only 46 percent of the country, well, some animals are more equal than others.

Trumps boast of a mandate is an expression not of confidence but insecurity. His popular-vote loss is approaching 3 million. He enjoys far less support than any other recent president-elect. The last three presidents-elect had favorable ratings in their honeymoon period ranging from 60 to 79 percent. Trumps stands at 37 percent. Support for their Cabinet and other high-level appointees has ranged from 58 to 71 percent. Trumps selections have 40 percent. Trump now has the opportunity to enact sweeping changes to the social contract, not because he has obtained the collective assent of the people but because the system enables minority rule.

*This article appears in the December 12, 2016, issue of New York Magazine.
Hey, Putin, get off our lawn. Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images

Unsurprisingly, the man who publicly encouraged Russia to hack his opponent isnt tremendously concerned about foreign meddling in U.S. elections. During his Person of the Year interview with Time, Donald Trump said he doesnt believe that Russia interfered in 2016  then clarified that he thinks its possible someone tried to throw the election:

I dont believe they interfered. That became a laughing point, not a talking point, a laughing point. Any time I do something, they say oh, Russia interfered.



Why not get along with Russia? And they can help us fight ISIS, which is both costly in lives and costly in money. And theyre effective and smart.



It could be Russia. And it could be China. And it could be some guy in his home in New Jersey.



I believe that it could have been Russia and it could have been any one of many other people. Sources or even individuals.

But the president-elect doesnt have time to worry about potential threats to our democracy, as hes focused on figuring out how to troll America with inappropriate cabinet picks. In fact, he might not even know the full extent of Russias threats against the U.S. since hes reportedly receiving only one presidential intelligence briefing per week. (Vice-President-elect Mike Pence is averaging about six.)

While Trump said he hopes the U.S. can get along with Russia, prominent Senate Republicans intend to conduct a coordinated and wide-ranging probe into the nations alleged involvement in the election, according to the Washington Post.

Senator John McCain said the Armed Services Committee, which he chairs, will launch an investigation in the next congressional session into Russias ability to launch cyberattacks against U.S. military and weapons systems. He said hell be working closely with Select Intelligence Committee Chair Richard Burr, and he expects the probe to also look at Russias suspected theft of Democratic National Committee emails and hack of state-based election systems.

Senator Lindsey Graham said he wants to hold hearings on Russias misadventures throughout the world as well, since, Theyll keep doing more here until they pay a price.

Im going after Russia in every way you can go after Russia. I think theyre one of the most destabilizing influences on the world stage. I think they did interfere with our elections and I want Putin personally to pay the price, Graham told CNN this week.

McCain and Graham arent big Trump fans, but interestingly even one of the president-elects allies in Congress has called for hearings on Russia: Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, whos been mentioned as a potential secretary of State. As the Post notes, its been months since he first raised the issue, but Corker told the paper that the hearings will happen in 2017. Were definitely going to look at it, he said.

Two House Democrats, Elijah Cummings and Eric Swalwell, introduced legislation this week that would create an independent, bipartisan commission to investigate the scope, methods, motivation and ultimate effect of foreign interference on American elections. House Republicans have yet to sign on to that effort, but chairmen of the Permanent Select Committee and the Armed Services Committee said theyre already probing Russian cyberthreats.

I think it would be congressional malpractice if we did not look into this, said Cummings at a press conference on Wednesday. We cannot afford to let this be normal.
Photo: Paul J. Richards/AFP/Getty Images

People forget it now, but when John Glenn lay atop an Atlas booster on February 20, 1962, there was a pretty good chance he would be blown to bits. Of the five unmanned Atlas test flights preceding his, two had exploded in the minute or so after launch. Virgil (Gus) Grissom, who flew a suborbital mission a few weeks before Glenn went up, nearly drowned when his capsules hatch blew open as he splashed down in the Atlantic. John Glenn was taking a genuine chance with his life.

And quite a life it was that ended today, when John Herschel Glenn Jr. died, at 95, in Columbus, Ohio. Toward the beginning of his near-century on this earth (and, sometimes, beyond it), he flew combat missions in two wars  including a couple when his plane got strafed full of holes. When he signed up for the Mercury program in 1959, becoming one of the first seven astronauts, there were some sneers from test pilots, who considered it a comedown. Three years later, he was in a ticker-tape parade down Broadway, and JFK was (it was rumored) declaring him ineligible for further spaceflight because the country would not be able to handle it should Glenn be killed. In between, he had become the public face of the astronaut corps, because he was by far the most straitlaced of the seven: a non-womanizing, clean-cut man with a knack for image management who could speak authoritatively for the rest of the tight-lipped Original Seven. (He was their perfect conduit to the media: sunny as all-get-out on the surface, a combat-toughened Marine underneath.) And for his wife, Annie, who was grappling with a severe stammer; she later beat it, and became a stuttering activist, a beloved voice for those who needed one.

Space buffs know every detail of his flight: The Godspeed, John Glenn that Scott Carpenter radioed to him as he took off.* The fireflies he saw twinkling around the capsules window. (Aliens? No, ice crystals.). The signal, on the ground, that his capsules heat shield might be loose, which if true would have ensured his death on the trip home. The fact that Mission Control didnt tell him about it until the very last moment. The high-temperature trip back through the atmosphere when he saw pieces of burning debris flying by his window. (They were chunks of the retropack, a bundle of rockets that Ground Control had instructed him not to jettison, in order to help keep the heat shield stayed in place.) Most of all, his schoolboy exclamations of what he saw in orbit: Zero-G, and I feel fine!

Or rather, his flights, plural, because NASA had a surprise in store for us all. In 1998, when NASA was going through a period of public disinterest, Glenn suggested that he fly again, aboard the Space Shuttle. He was 77 at the time, but healthy and robust, and NASA agreed to the experiment: Lets compare the data on one test subject, with samples taken 36 years apart, and see how an elderly man handles a week-plus of weightlessness. The agency caught some flak for this, from people who said that it was more stunt than science. But lets face it: Manned space flight is not entirely about sober experimentation. We also send up astronauts because it is incredibly cool, a billboard for the best things people can do and have done. Sending up a hero in his old age for one more trip was, from that standpoint, a fantastic idea. He got a second ticker-tape parade when he came home.

In between, he had a long if uneven career as a politician. He first ran for the senate from Ohio in 1964, and had to drop out after he fell in the tub and hit his head. Ten years and two tries later, he got in, and in 1984 he came fairly close to winning the Democratic presidential nomination, in a campaign unfortunately remembered for its monumental debts as much as for its hero candidate. He stayed in the Senate till 1999, and until today was the oldest former senator alive.

Most astronauts are anonymous now, by comparison. Even Chris Hadfield, often the best guy in your Twitter feed, isnt the household name John Glenn was. That is, paradoxically, a great thing, because it means that scientists and doctors and engineers and physicists (and the occasional senator) are flying overhead in such numbers that we cant keep up. But it does make their achievement a little less wondrous, a little less astounding. After the six manned Mercury missions, no American ever went into space alone again. Most likely, none ever will.



*The reference to Scott Carpenter in this paragraph has been corrected.


Still a loser. Photo: Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/AFP/Getty Images

Like all other president-elects in the modern era, Donald Trump has enjoyed a surge in popularity since winning the White House. But if you surge up a mile from the bottom of the deep sea, youll still find yourself underwater. And after securing the honor of least popular major-party nominee in recorded history, Trump now lays claim to the title of least popular president-elect in modern memory.

Recent polls from YouGov and Morning Consult have put Trumps approval rating in the mid-40s. At around this point in 2008, Gallup put Obamas favorable rating at 68 percent; that figure was 59 percent for George W. Bush in mid-December 2000, and 58 percent for Bill Clinton in November 1992.

And when voters are asked to judge Trumps performance as president-elect, he gets even worse marks. A new Pew poll finds that only 40 percent of Americans approve of Trumps cabinet choices, while just 41 percent approve of the job hes done so far in detailing his policies and plans for the future. As you can see from this graphic, both those figures are historically low.

Whats more, 38 percent of Americans expect Trump to make a poor or terrible president  3 percent more than those who believe he will be a good or great one (18 percent think he will be just average).

A majority of Americans (54 percent) also say that their president-elect has done too little to distance himself from white nationalist groups. And nearly everyone in America  Democrat or Republican  thinks Trump needs to think more before he tweets: 82 percent of the public says Trump will need to be more cautious about the kinds of things he says and tweets once he takes office.

Separately, Pews survey suggests that liberals have one thing to thank Trump for  the president-elect has dramatically raised awareness about the level of bigotry that Muslims and African-Americans face in the United States.

In 2013, 45 percent of Americans told Pew there was a lot of discrimination against Muslims in America, while 22 percent said the same about African-Americans  today, those figures are 57 and 41 percent respectively.

4: A growing share of Americans say blacks and Muslims face "a lot" of discrimination. Campaigns have consequences. pic.twitter.com/rz9ApCq1fn  Nick Gourevitch (@nickgourevitch) December 8, 2016

So, a majority of America sees its president-elect as a reckless loudmouth who is soft on white nationalism, running a historically bad transition, and likely to have a presidency thats average at best, and terrible at worst.

If only America were a democracy.
Gary Cohn. Photo: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images

I know the guys at Goldman Sachs, Donald Trump told supporters in South Carolina last February. They have total control over Hillary Clinton.

Clintons fealty to the finance industry in general  and Goldman Sachs in particular  was one of Trumps most consistent lines of attack against the Democratic nominee.

Hillary will never reform Wall Street. She is owned by Wall Street!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2016

The closing argument of the president-elects campaign featured images of Hillary Clinton and Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, as a voice-over decried the global power structure that had robbed our working class.

Thanks, in part, to Clintons genuine personal and professional ties to the mega-bank, Trumps attacks proved effective: Even the GOP nominees biggest detractors came to view his opponent as uniquely deferential to Wall Streets interests  despite the fact that she was proposing new regulations on the industry, while Trump was pledging to free it from the shackles of Dodd-Frank.

2016: a choice between Donald Trump and Goldman Sachs.  Edward Snowden (@Snowden) February 28, 2016

The *one* issue Millennials prefer Trump to Clinton on: bank regulation! https://t.co/w2hBlZTLCC pic.twitter.com/l0XHl2CRfv  Will Jordan (@williamjordann) September 29, 2016

On Friday, Donald Trump tapped Gary Cohn, the president and chief operating officer of Goldman Sachs, as his choice for director of the National Economic Council  the advisory board tasked with shaping and coordinating the presidents economic agenda.

Its uncertain whether Cohn will accept the post, but he had discussed a potential departure from Goldman Sachs with the firm late last month, according to CNBC.

Trump had previously tapped Goldman Sachs alums Steve Mnuchin (for Treasury Secretary) and Stephen Bannon (for White House chief strategist).

Cohns appointment highlights one of the many hard lessons of the 2016 election: You dont just vote for a candidate at the ballot box  you also vote to empower a coalition. Hillary Clintons coalition included much of the finance industry, yes; but it also included a lot of people ready to give Clinton major headaches, were she to select her cabinet from the guest list at Lloyd Blankfeins Christmas party.

All signs suggest Donald Trumps head is feeling just fine.
Got cucked? Photo: Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images

Donald Trump spent much of his 2016 campaign talking about jobs and immigration. Often, he spoke about both at once.

Most illegal immigrants are lower-skilled workers with less education who compete directly against vulnerable American workers, Trump told his supporters. Theyre hurting a lot of our people that cannot get jobs.

This economic critique of Obama-era immigration policy loomed large in Trumps policy platform, (such as it was). The first sentence on his campaign websites Immigration page was a promise to prioritize the jobs, wages and security of the American people. The second, a vow to establish new immigration controls to boost wages and to ensure that open jobs are offered to American workers first.

To accomplish these goals, Trump would turn off the jobs and benefits magnet that draws undocumented workers across the border in the first place. Which is to say, he would crack down on employers who hire the undocumented, in defiance of federal law.

One agency responsible for enforcing that law is the Department of Labor.

On Thursday, the president-elect indicated that he had selected Andrew Puzder  one of the corporate worlds staunchest supporters of expansionary immigration and amnesty for the undocumented  as his pick for Labor secretary.

In January 2013, Puzder called on Republicans to support president Obamas immigration reform bill not because of politics but because its the right thing to do.

The current system is unfair and unworkable, the CEO of CKE Restaurants wrote. Its hurting legal immigrants who are unable to navigate it, undocumented workers who are lured to the country by the prospect of employment, then must live in the shadows  and honest business people who just want to operate their businesses consistent with the law.

To rectify the systems flaws, Puzder called for a robust legal immigration program, including incentives for highly educated people to come to the U.S. and a guest-worker program; a pathway to adjusted status for those here illegally now; and special relief for the children of undocumented immigrants.

These reforms are  a bit different than the ones that Trump campaigned on  a point that was not lost on Andrew Puzder.

Trumps immigration plan could spell doom for the GOP - George Will gets it. An important read. https://t.co/LkPii15ryQ  Andy Puzder (@AndyPuzder) August 24, 2015

Adding insult to centrist policy, Puzder has boasted about the number of immigrants he employs, and touted their superiority, relative to his entitled, American-born employees.In remarks to the American Enterprise Instititue in 2013, Puzder said that his heavily foreign-born, California labor force was made up of hardworking, dedicated, creative people that really appreciate the fact that they have a job. Whereas in other parts of the country you often get people who are saying, I cant believe I have to work this job. With the immigrant population you always have a Thank-God-I-have-this-job kind of attitude, so you end up with a real different feeling. Now thats a gross generalization  but I think its probably accurate.

The Trumpenproletariat  or, at least, its thought leaders  were less than thrilled with the news of Puzders appointment.

On Friday morning, the lead story on the hompage Breitbart News was entitled AMERICA FIRST? TRUMP LABOR SECRETARY PUZDER PREFERS FOREIGN LABOR TO AMERICAN WORKERS.



For much of the 2016 campaign, Breitbart functioned as a Donald Trump fanzine, a posture that proved beneficial to both publication and candidate  the reactionary news site expanded its audience more than any other outlet over the past year, and the sites former president is now set to become chief White House strategist to Americas next president.



In its initial write-up of the Puzder pick, Breitbart seemed to show some deference to this cozy relationship: The news item did not use the word immigration once, and described Puzder as a loyal Trump adviser, who was a vocal opponent of Obamacare.



But the sites Friday-morning lead suggests that, at least for now, Breitbart does not plan to function as a mouthpiece for the Trump White House, but rather, for Stephen Bannons wing of that building.

Meanwhile, Mark Krikorian, executive director of the restrictionist think tank Center for Immigration Studies, has tried to get a hashtag going.

Puzder endorsed by Bloomberg/Murdoch Billionaires for Open Borders group. #NeverPuzder https://t.co/zHeZUu6i4K  Mark Krikorian (@MarkSKrikorian) December 8, 2016

From a reader: Optics of picking pro-amnesty fast-food baron as Labor Secy as bad as nominating Simpsons' Mr. Burns https://t.co/FTSSjb4DD9  Mark Krikorian (@MarkSKrikorian) December 8, 2016

Krikorian penned an op-ed for the National Review under the headline Trumps Labor Department Pick: Put America Last. In it, he describes Puzder as perhaps the worst person imaginable for the role hes been assigned, going on to say that even Jeb[!] might have blushed at the idea of appointing him.



Assuming hes actually nominated and confirmed, the Labor Department will go from being run by a post-American socialist to a post-American capitalist, Krikorian concludes. So much for putting American workers first.



The author of Adios, America and In Trump We Trust found herself feeling the former sentiment much more than the latter.



Jeff Sessions remains the only Trump cabinet pick that wouldn't have made Jeb!'s list https://t.co/m5JjsQJIed #NeverPuzder  Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) December 9, 2016

VDare, a pro-Trump nativist site that hates Jews almost as much as it despises illegals,made its disappointment plain.

The Treason Lobby is gloating. Great sign! https://t.co/gv0gKl9jZW  Virginia Dare (@vdare) December 8, 2016

Liberals have framed a lot of Trumps post-election decisions as betrayals of his working-class supporters. And theyve (mostly) been correct to do so. Trump did not campaign on a promise to drain the swamp of Clintons Wall Street cronies  and then fill it back up with his Wall Street cronies. Nor did he spend much time on the stump decrying Obamas decision to give more workers access to guaranteed overtime pay.

Nonetheless, Trumps left-wing economic populism consisted of a few stray statements early in the GOP primary. For the bulk of the general-election campaign, he made his desire to cut taxes on the rich and deregulate Wall Street quite clear.

But cracking down on corporations that replace American workers with foreign and/or undocumented labor? That was the beating heart of Trumps populist appeal.

Its also, ostensibly, the central mission of Steve Bannons life. The former head of Breitbart and soon-to-be chief White House strategist has spent years building a movement that defines itself in opposition to the GOP donor classs open borders agenda.



In the early days of Trumps campaign, as the mogul began tipping over conservatisms sacred cows, Republican intellectuals gave voice to the indignation of their movement  only to find that a plurality of that movement had more affection for Trump than for the principles he flouted.



It remains to be seen whether the nativist intelligentsia (such as it is), is headed for its own rude awakening. Is Trumpism a coherent creed  a paleo-conservatism for the internet age? Or is it, primarily, a cult of personality?

Puzders appointment hearings should prove enlightening on this front  because if picking a pro-amnesty GOP donor for Labor Secretary doesnt spark a backlash from Trumps grassroots base, its hard to imagine what could.
Members of the Iraqi army assist suspected Islamic State group (IS) jihadists to get into a pickup as they leave the House of Justice before going to jail on December 6, 2016, in the town of Qayyarah, south of Mosul. Photo: Gailan Haji/AFP/Getty Images

The United Statesled coalition has killed 50,000 Islamic State fighters in Iraq and Syria in the past two years. The estimate is conservative, according to a U.S. military official, but also represents the largest casualty number reported in the battle against the extremist group.

The casualties are straining ISISs capabilities, a spokesman for military operations in Iraq told the Associated Press. The terror group hasnt been able to replace fighters as easily as in the past, and the flow of foreign recruits from Europe and other Middle Eastern countries has slowed in recent months. However, ISISs attrition may also be forcing them to enlist younger and younger soldiers, a horrific strategy that balloons its ranks but would seem to signal its increasing desperation.

The U.S. military has waged air strikes against militants, including in Iraq where Iraqi government forces and its allies are engaged in a brutal, drawn-out battle to retake Mosul, Iraqs second-largest city, which fell to ISIS in 2014. In Mosul, U.S. air strikes against ISIS  which is believed to have about 5,000 fighters embedded in the city  could be more aggressive, the military official also said, but its risky because of the number of civilians still trapped in the urban area. Overall, the U.S. has about 5,000 troops in Iraq and more than 300 in Syria, made up mostly of special forces who provide logistical and intelligence support.
Volunteers check in patients to the free medical mission held by the SC Hospital and Dental Association on August 23, 2013 in North Charleston, South Carolina. More than 1,000 people showed up to receive free dental and medical care. Photo: Richard Ellis/Getty Images

About a year ago, the husband-and-wife team of Anne Case and Angus Deaton published some alarming numbers: Unlike citizens of just about every other wealthy, advanced country, and most other American subgroups, middle-aged white Americans have not seen reductions in their mortality between 1999 and 2013, and had by many metrics been getting sicker and sicker.

It was a shocking finding that garnered numerous headlines, the sort of thing that just isnt supposed to happen in a rich, developed country, let alone the richest developed country. And it lent credence to what some public-health researchers and other societal observers had been saying for a while: The United States likes to view itself as a singular force of prosperity and opportunity, but by many public-health metrics  including infant mortality and preventable deaths and a variety of others  it doesnt look like a top-tier world power.

Yesterday, the National Center for Health Statistics released a report that should further puncture the myth of American superiority when it comes to health outcomes  and which should set alarm bells loudly clanging for anyone worried about how the country treats its most vulnerable residents. The report found that life expectancy in the United States dropped from 78.9 in 2014 to 78.8 in 2015, the first drop in life expectancy since 1993. (For men, the decline was from 76.5 to 76.3; for women, from 81.3 to 81.2.)

I think we should be very concerned, Case told Lenny Bernstein of the Washington Post. This is singular. This doesnt happen. When Case and Deaton released their finding, they argued that it was largely attributable to disturbing upticks in various forms of addiction  opioids, most importantly  as well as suicide. The new statistics get more granular, and they suggest the misery is well-dispersed: There were increases in just about every major cause of death between 2014 and 2015, and the death-rate increases centered on whites and black men  they remained flat for Latinos and for black women. People are dying for a lot of reasons, but drugs stand out as a particularly devastating part of the problem: In fact, one key to the racial divide may also come from numbers released yesterday, these from the CDC: For the first time ever, more people died from heroin overdoses than from gun homicides in 2015.

Whatevers going on, a lot of it has to do with opioid abuse  the government believes that those who illicitly take prescription opioids are far more likely than other people to try injecting heroin  and the opioid crisis has hit whites harder than blacks, partly for the depressing reason that doctors appear to be less likely to recognize and treat pain in black patients. These new stats reflect the massive amounts of despair strongly hinted at by Case and Deatons work  after all, two of the areas that saw mortality increases between 2014 and 2015 were suicide and unintentional injuries, a category that includes overdoses.

So when those two findings are combined, its hard to deny that something truly dire has ensnared a large chunk of the country. In a country as big, complicated, and diverse as the United States, that something is actually a great many things, but I would argue they can be broadly summed up by one idea: what I call the one-bad-break test.

The one-bad-break test states simply that you can tell a lot about a society by what happens when its economically vulnerable members encounter a majorly bad break. That bad break can be anything  an injury, the sudden need to take in and care for an ailing relative, an unexpected layoff  and the effects of a single bad break vary tremendously depending on who you are, where you live, and what resources you have access to. (Rich people hit bad breaks too, of course, but they generally have far more capacity to handle them than everyone else, so Im restricting this discussion to those who lack those resources.)

In societies that function well, there are various safety nets in place to prevent a bad break from leading to a tailspin for particularly vulnerable victims. Compared to many other rich nations, the U.S. is not such a society  all too often, when vulnerable Americans encounter a bad break, theres nothing underneath them to stop their slide. Instead, devastation follows, sometimes in the form of bankruptcy and addiction and death.

For a particularly painful example of the one-bad-break test in action, take Inara Verzemniekss wrenching New York Times story about Life in Obamacares Dead Zone  that is, the Republican-controlled states that turned down the Obamacare-trigger Medicaid expansion after the Supreme Court ruled they had the right to do so in 2012 (19 states did so in total, and the illness and death toll of this missed opportunity to cover vulnerable populations is staggering to think about).

Verzemnieks focuses on Kansas, which was denied expanded Medicaid by its hard-right governor, Sam Brownback, who has also sought to cut back social safety-net programs in various ways. Heres what happened to one of her subjects, Janet Foy:

At 56, Foy was broke, jobless and living with her older sister in public housing in Kansas City, Mo.  Recently, she had been told by a manager at a Victorias Secret that there was no need to leave her resume. But not too long ago, she wanted me to know, she was pulling in $1,000 a week at a Merle Norman makeup store, helping other people look and feel their best. But then she took in her brother to try to help him overcome an addiction, and soon she was pulled under financially as he spiraled out of control. She would show up to work too overwhelmed and exhausted to make any sales, and had to dip into her savings until that was gone. She begged to borrow against her next paycheck but eventually lost her apartment and moved into a friends spare room.



[]



I tried to get Obamacare, Foy recalls. I called the number, and when the woman told me what it would cost me, I just about dropped the phone. She told me Id needed to make at least $12,000 a year for there to be any help to make it something I might be able to afford. Which still doesnt make a lot of sense to me, even now, that having no money meant I got no help when I really needed it.

Foys bad break was the direct result of her brothers bad break: addiction. This story would have turned out differently if her brother had had options for treating his addiction other than moving in with a sister who was in no position to offer him the help he needed. He lacked any such options, so he moved in with Janet instead, and shortly thereafter her life, too, was spiraling out of control. Sometimes, if you have a bad break and there isnt a net to catch you, you slide into a compassionate loved one, triggering a bad break of their own.

This is happening over and over and over throughout the country. Of course, it wouldnt be right to say things are getting worse everywhere, that every part of the U.S. fails the bad-break test as badly as Kansas does on health issues. Obamacare wasnt perfect, for example, but it did bring insurance to 20 million low-income people who lacked it previously  it saved some lives where it was allowed to. There are a lot of places where people are better able to weather medical bad breaks now than they were before the law passed.

So if we have an inflection point signaling that things really are getting worse, rather than at least chugging along stably, part of the mystery is why. A partial answer is that while Obamacare passed in 2009, the Great Recession hit in December of 2007. But layered atop both events is the nations grim long-term economic reality for working people, which is that for a huge chunk of the country wages have been stagnant and economic opportunity constricting for a very long time. There are intimate connections between economic opportunity and psychological well-being, and between psychological well-being and potentially disastrous outcomes like addiction and suicide. Another finding just released yesterday? As The Wall Street Journal puts it, Barely half of 30-year-olds earn more than their parents did at a similar age, a research team found, an enormous decline from the early 1970s when the incomes of nearly all offspring outpaced their parents. Even rapid economic growth wont do much to reverse the trend.

We dont know how bad the United States burgeoning mortality crisis is going to get. Russia provides a disturbing worst-case scenario. Sometime in 1993, after several trips to Russia, I noticed something bizarre and disturbing: people kept dying, wrote Masha Gessen in New York Review of Books in 2014. I was used to losing friends to AIDS in the United States, but this was different. People in Russia were dying suddenly and violently, and their own friends and colleagues did not find these deaths shocking. She went on to explain that In the seventeen years between 1992 and 2009, the Russian population declined by almost seven million people, or nearly 5 percent  a rate of loss unheard of in Europe since World War II. Moreover, much of this appears to be caused by rising mortality, with alcohol a prime culprit. This is what happens when the insides of a developed country begin to rot.

The United States isnt Russia. Probably. But wherever this trend goes, what were seeing is the end result of decades of slow-burn economic decline and decay, with no end in sight. You can only make it hard for people to work and pay rent and buy necessities and live so long, you can only have them living right on the brink of bad-break ruin for so long, before there will be serious consequences. And were seeing those serious consequences in every new set of shocking mortality statistics.
2016 was good at times. Photo: Walker and Walker/Getty Images

Theres no denying that 2016 has been a difficult year for women, full of pussy-grabbing, misogyny, and attacks on reproductive rights. In fact, weve all endured so many upsetting news events, its difficult to remember whether anything good even occurred this year.

But there were some bright spots that gave us hope and inspired us to keep moving forward. From female politicians who made history to a young book-savvy girl putting us all to shame, these are 11 actually good things that happened in 2016.

6 Women Made History on Election Night

Tammy Duckworth, Kamala Harris, and Catherine Cortez Masto. Photo: Getty Images

While Hillary Clinton unexpectedly lost to Donald Trump during the recent election, six women shattered the glass ceiling that night with historic victories: Kamala Harris, Catherine Cortez Masto, and Tammy Duckworth were elected to the Senate, Stephanie Murphy and Pramila Jayapal won seats in the House of Representatives, and Ilhan Omar was elected to her states legislature.

Michelle Obama Cemented Herself As a World-Class Orator

Michelle Obama. Photo: Keith Bedford/Globe Staff/Boston Globe via Getty Images

Michelle Obama had already secured her spot as a much-beloved and brilliant First Lady leading up to the recent presidential election, and at that point, she really had nothing left to prove. But that didnt stop her from stepping up to the plate in the last weeks before the election, delivering groundbreaking speech after groundbreaking speech as she became a key player in the quest to get Hillary Clinton elected as the first female president. Alas, the election didnt work out as Obama had hoped, but her awe-inspiring speeches live on.

The U.S. Army Started Offering 12 Weeks Paid Maternity Leave

The Army has a new maternity-leave policy. Photo: Peter Turnley/Corbis

In January, the U.S. military revealed a new maternity-leave policy that gives female service members 12 weeks paid time off after having a child. The new policy offers twice the amount of time off that Army members were granted previously.

3 States Got Rid of Their Tampon Taxes

Tampon taxes are on the way out. Photo: Richard B. Levine/Getty Images

Women in many states across the U.S. have long been taxed for the mere crime of having functioning ovaries. Tampons and other feminine products are frequently subject to sales tax, while certain mens products  such as Viagra  have been tax-exempt as medically essential.

But this year, three states repealed their discriminatory tampon taxes. In June, Connecticut governor Dannel Malloy signed a bill revoking the tax, followed shortly thereafter by New York governor Andrew Cuomo, who also signed a bill to exempt tampons, pads, and other menstrual products from the states sales tax. And in August, Illinois governor Bruce Rauner signed a similar bill eliminating the tax.

An 11-Year-Old Started Her Own Black-Girls Book Drive, and Collected More than 8,000 Books

Marley Dias. Photo: Janice Dias/Philly Voice

Marley Dias, an 11-year-old New Jersey middle school student, tugged on our heartstrings this year, when the story of her #1000BlackGirlBooks book drive emerged. A grant-winning, Ghanaian orphanage volunteer, Dias started her book drive with the aim of collecting 1,000 books where black girls take the lead, Philly Voice reported:

I told [my mom] I was sick of reading about white boys and dogs, Dias said, pointing specifically to Where the Red Fern Grows and the Shiloh series. What are you going to do about it? [my mom] asked. And I told her I was going to start a book drive, and a specific book drive, where black girls are the main characters in the book and not background characters or minor characters.

Dias set a deadline of February 1 to collect the 1,000 books  but by then, she had already collected nearly 4,000, according to NPR. As of December, however, she had collected over 8,000 books. Next, she hopes to set up a black-girl book club and encourage school districts to change the books they assign to students.

Planned Parenthood Saw a Surge of Donations Made in Mike Pences Name

Mike Pence. Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

The recent presidential election served a devastating blow to womens reproductive rights, in no small part because of vice-president-elect Mike Pences long-standing war against Planned Parenthood. Since the election, however, many people have decided to make lemonade out of lemons  and by that we mean, donate to Planned Parenthood in Pences name.

The idea for the scheme was first hatched in October by The Lady Brain Show, though it started to go viral after the election. Since then, Planned Parenthood has received more than 315,000 donations in general  over 82,000 of which were made in Pences name. The noted uterine legislator, who still hasnt proven that he understands how condoms work, will get a thank-you note to his office for each donation made on his behalf.

The U.S. Womens Gymnastics Team Won Gold

The Final Five. Photo: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

This summer, we were glued to the TVs, watching the U.S. womens gymnastics team compete at the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro. Much to our delight, Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, Gabby Douglas, Laurie Hernandez, and Madison Kocian  otherwise known as the Final Five  ended up taking home the gold.

Sexual-Assault Survivors Got a Bill of Rights

Rape kit. Photo: Carolyn Cole/LA Times via Getty Images

While 2016 has generally been a horrible year for sexual assault, at least one thing happened that will actually help survivors. In October, President Barack Obama signed into law a bill that gives sexual-assault survivors a basic set of rights under federal law.

Under the Sexual Assault Survivors Rights Act, survivors are now guaranteed access to their rape kits  and states must preserve the kits for the entire statute of limitations. The act also ensures that survivors wont have to cover the costs of rape-kit testing and that they will be notified 60 days before their kit is scheduled to be destroyed. Finally, survivors have a standard set of rights that regulate how sexual-assault cases are handled.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Became the Beauty Icon We Dont Deserve

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Photo: Boots

This year, acclaimed feminist author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie became the new face of British drugstore retailer Boots No. 7 makeup. So now, in addition to her inspiring thoughts on what it means to be a woman, weve also been given gift of hearing Adichie speak about the concept of beauty.

California Pharmacists Were Finally Allowed to Prescribe Birth Control

Birth control. Photo: BSIP/Getty Images

In 2013, California passed a bill that would allow pharmacists to prescribe birth control directly to women. And finally, after a three-year wait, that law went into effect in April.

Now, women can get pills, patches, or vaginal rings from trained pharmacists. All they have to do is fill out a 20-question screening about their health history  yes, this is not considered over-the-counter  and they either need to pay for it through insurance or out-of-pocket. There are no age restrictions for the services, and the state wont require businesses to offer birth control.

Construction of the Dakota Access Oil Pipeline Was Suspended After the Protests at Standing Rock

Protesters at Standing Rock. Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in December denied permits for construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline after peaceful protests at Standing Rock in North Dakota. As a result, a portion of the pipeline will not be allowed to pass under a dammed section of the Missouri River called Lake Oahe. The spot is located just half a mile from a tribal reservation of the Standing Rock Sioux, who argued leaks from the pipeline would contaminate their drinking water and construction would disturb sacred burial sites.
Viola Desmond. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Canada, the country that brought us male feminist meme Justin Trudeau, announced on Thursday that black-rights activist Viola Desmond has been selected as the first Canadian woman to appear on its $10 bill.

Desmond is often called Canadas Rosa Parks, though perhaps Parks should be called Americas Viola Desmond. On November 8, 1946, Desmond defiantly sat in the whites only section of a movie theatre in Nova Scotia  nine years before Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus, CBC reports. As black people were only allowed to sit in the balcony of the theater, Desmond was sent to jail for her crime.

She was convicted of defrauding the province out of the difference in cost between the upstairs and downstairs ticket  a tax of one penny. However, Desmond had actually asked to pay the difference, according to CBC, and she was released after paying a $20 fine and court costs of $6. She later appealed her conviction and lost, though Desmond was granted a free pardon posthumously in 2010.

Canadian finance minister Bill Morneau and Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz announced her selection to the purple $10 bill at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Quebec. She will replace Sir John A. MacDonald, the countrys first prime minister, starting in 2018.
Kansas State University. Photo: Kevin Zollman/Flickr

Last week, Kansas State University was hit with a lawsuit by two female students for allegedly refusing to investigate an incident of a man raping one woman, which enabled him to later rape another. Now, the universitys student newspaper, the Collegian, revealed it sought records of Kansas States internal sexual-assault investigations in the fall, but the school stalled and tried to charge an excessive amount for what was essentially a list of dates.

The Collegian filed on September 20 a Kansas Open Records Act request for records on the colleges Office of Institutional Equitys sexual-assault investigations between May 2012 and August 2016. The request included the specific date each investigation began and when the investigation was closed or if it remains open, as well as information on the subjects relationships to the university. The university initially denied the request on September 28 under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, and the newspaper filed an amended request on October 6.

However, on November 4, the university told the newspaper that it would release the records for $1,375. That fee, the Collegian noted, is higher than its weekly payroll and more than double the combined cost of two similar requests filed by the University of Kansass student newspaper, the University Daily Kansan. The two newspapers had been collaborating on investigations about campus sexual assaults, as both schools have faced Title IX lawsuits, according to the Collegian.

The report comes shortly after the two female students filed a lawsuit against Kansas State on November 30 for allegedly refusing to investigate a rape incident. A third student requested to join the lawsuit later that day, claiming she was also raped by one of the alleged rapists that the university refused to investigate. Kansas State has denied any wrongdoing, called reports in the media inaccurate, and said that blanket statements that K-State does not investigate incidents that happen off-campus are simply not true.

Yet, new evidence and testimonies from a BuzzFeed News report on December 2 pointed out that Kansas States controversial policy against investigating off-campus sexual assaults had long been questionable. Danielle Dempsey-Swopes, who was hired as a senior investigator at Kansas State University in 2015, claimed that within seven days of being on the job, she realized, It was the universitys position that we were not to investigate complaints [of sexual assault] that take place at fraternities or sororities.
Photo: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

At 68, Ann Massaro is still angry. With several decades of activism behind her, youd think shed be feeling something else  like fatigue  or at least that shed have hung up her hat to let younger generations handle the fight. When we elected a sexual predator to the White House, she told the Cut over the phone from Connecticut, I was given a message on that day that as a woman I am not safe in this country. For women of color, that threat is doubled, tripled. That was it for me. I just knew that I couldnt sit here and do nothing.

In several Facebook groups for Democrats, including Pantsuit Nation, Massaro began posting about her anger in the days following the election. I would get on various sites with women who were outraged by Trump and I would post, asking, Would you be willing to organize? Massaro didnt know if anything was going to come of her posts, but it wasnt long before she began to see people wanting to turn their anger into action. Massaro formed what would soon be known as the Women & Allies grassroots campaign, putting her experience as a lifelong activist to work for an upcoming protest. This Monday, December 12, women nationwide are being encouraged to strike.

I was in the South in the late 60s and early 70s, helping to register black voters. I started a feminist collective in North Carolina. I had encounters with the KKK. I learned a lot during that time, she said. It was hard. I remember standing at a rally in California with a woman holding a bent coat hanger. So many of the men at the protest didnt know what it was for. Massaros experience in social justice is legion  she worked for Flo Kennedy in the lead-up to Roe v. Wade  but since the 60s and 70s, the methods for effecting change have shifted. Thats why, when Massaro linked up online with Isabella Gutierrez, a senior screenwriting major at NYU and a woman over 40 years her junior, their partnership made growth for their forthcoming nationwide protest possible.

Gutierrezs family is from Colombia. After the election, she said to the Cut, my family told me how terrified they were. They came to America to find a better life, which is what I think a lot of immigrants are trying to do. After Trumps election, Gutierrez said, it was the first time in 40 years that her mother said she didnt feel at home anymore. And like Massaro, Gutierrez decided that she was not going to just wait for something to change.

Im not going to let this happen. And Im going to let everybody know that Im not going to let this happen. As a Latina woman, I was angry and scared and saddened and I wasnt going to just stand still. This was Gutierrezs first experience organizing in a major way. Ive been kind of a keyboard activist. I would read articles and raise awareness and donate and that would be the full extent of how I participated in these causes. Trumps election  and her familys fear  had pushed her into action.

For the Women & Allies strike, Gutierrez became the head organizer for the New York City event. I was expecting maybe 200 people to join the Facebook event in the beginning, she said. Instead, I had about 3,000 people RSVP as interested in about three days. Thats when she knew, even as a first-time organizer, she couldnt give up. The protest had to happen and she had to learn fairly quickly what needed to be done. I planned to hold the protest in Union Square at first, but we had to change it to Columbus Circle because of the permits. I didnt want any of the participants to be arrested.

The objectives of Mondays strike are clear. Nationwide, in 20 different cities (four of which were still pending permits as of last week), women and allies will stand and march in solidarity as a statement against Trumps hate. There will be point people at each march to encourage participants to sign a Change.org petition that encourages the Electoral College to cast their votes for Hillary Clinton when they meet on December 19. It already has over 4 million signatures. And for those who cant take the day off to strike, Massaro and Gutierrez and the rest of the countrys organizers have concocted an alternate way to express solidarity.

We scheduled it at 12 p.m. so that people who want to take a quick lunch break and sign up for emails can go back to work afterward, Gutierrez said. If you cant do that, participate in the all-day spending boycott. Dont spend a penny on Monday. This protest, in contrast to Januarys march on D.C., is a way to express our anger locally, Massaro said. Not every woman can pick up and travel to D.C.

But is protesting enough? Will striking actually make a difference? Massaro, speaking from her own experience, has hope. The war in Vietnam ended a lot earlier because of people taking to the streets. And its not just about protesting. Its about uniting people in these places across the country. This is a women-driven action and a women-driven movement. Its important to know that youre not alone. Gutierrez, who has experienced firsthand the value of her social-media connected generation, said she will know she has done her job on Monday if at least a thousand people show up.

She stays committed to fighting back as a tribute to her family. My mom speaks better English than anybody that I know. She fought hard against racism in her youth. Gutierrezs mom will be flying up from North Carolina for the event. Shes going to be walking with me, Gutierrez said. The legacy that they have given me does not deserve to be trampled by Trump.
Oh boy....

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I've been loving the establishment Dem's smear campaign against Ellison. I'm really hoping shit keeps blowing up in their face until they realize what they're doing wrong.



Anyone else apply to be a state delegate for 2017-2019?

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the establishment is shook. they were never going to let progressives fill the power vacuum without some mud slinging.

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You know what, they got fucking Nancy "I don't think Democrats want a new direction" Pelosi as their minority leader again, they've gotten enough.

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Well oop @ them because as we have clearly seen, if they don't embrace them they can kiss 2018 goodbye. They are a mess.

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It is gross af. I wonder where all the vocal posters went since they have conveniently dismissed this whole mess. 

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Um, Chuck Schumer (new senate Dem leader) and Harry Reid (old senate Dem leader) both support Ellison. Schumer reiterated his support of Ellison after the anti-Muslim smear campaign recently. You don't get more establishment Dem than those two.



The head of the AFI-CIO just endorsed Ellison. I'd consider that pretty establishment Dem, too.



But sure, let's let this one Power Rangers producer who believes every Facebook copy and paste he comes across define the "establishment Dems".

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How do you apply?

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pretty transparent attempt to smear a black muslim guy who's not 100% for israel and threatens the political status quo

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What I remember most about Haim is his stepdaughter's hairbrush singing on California Dreams



Edited at 2016-12-09 12:15 am (UTC)

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What about her Au Pairing?

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I had never heard of those until you mentioned it

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I literally recorded this entire series on VHS, lol



Kelly Packard was my girl.

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yikes @ the flip flop, all over a 36 second clip that doesn't actually say much.

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OP's post is leaving out so, so much



Oh, I just noticed who the OP is, this explains a lot.



Keith Ellison is still the front runner to win the DNC chair, even if the Power Rangers aren't behind him.

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Not blindly praising Israel does not equal Anti-Semitism.

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But the U.S. Senate did pass a bill last week called the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act, which cracks down on the constitutional rights of college students and faculty to criticize Israel. The House will vote on it any day now.



The Anti-Semitism Awareness Act endorses the State Department definition of anti-Semitism, which includes delegitimizing Israel, demonizing Israel or holding Israel to a double standard. The bill directs the Department of Education to consider this definition when investigating complaints of anti-Semitism on campus. But the bill does not add any new protections for Jewish students; the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Department of Educations interpretation of the statute, already protects Jewish students against discrimination.



http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-jackson-anti-semitism-awareness-act-20161206-story.html it soon might!

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Omg

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Is this a fucking joke lmao

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I hate how up Israel's ass politicians are. Hillary's AIPAC speech terrified me. She basically gave them a free pass to do whatever they wanted with all the support of the US. What they are doing to Palestinian's is horrifying.

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nah

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not fucking with israel doesn't make you anti-semitic

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I'm surprised Saban gave any money considering how cheap he is.

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lol did u intentionally use one of the most classic anti-semitic stereotypes about jews or was that subconscious?



haim saban is 100% in the wrong but still...yikes

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I'm just talking about him being cheap as hell with Power Rangers.

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OC is dead-on, nothing to do with stereotypes here.



The deplorable treatment and compensation of the Power Rangers actors at the hand of Saban is a thing of LEGEND. I don't think anyone has swindled so many actors, paying below union wages, even after mass success worldwide. You should listen to the actors' stories - all bunking in one hotel room in NZ because the studio only paid for TWO DAYS room & board while on set for the first feature film. Being fired for asking for BASE union wages. Crazy shit

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All I know of him is that he paid the original Power Rangers so little and threatened to fire them if they got too big for their britches. Basically telling them they were replaceable and that there were hundreds of actors desperate for the same roles waiting for them to fuck up. looool He's an asshole.

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MTE, I have some friends in Sentai/PR fandom and their butthurt about Haim's cheapness, underpaiment and unshamefull usage of Japanize series is enormous. The only person more hated by geeks is probably the head of Marvel Comics for treating employers like shit

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Keith is a Bernie bro and I'll leave the Democratic Party if he assumes the role as chairman.

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lol

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Bernie bro? Lmao

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I'll vote for an anti-vaxxer or somebody who doesn't know what Aleppo is, like the bros did. 

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Bye. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

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BYE

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K, you can go lose to fascists somewhere else!

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Dems are so painfully tone deaf. They refuse to move on or adapt. Also, this guy is a "one issue donor" and his issue is Israel. So that's why he sees even the vaguest and most toothless criticisms of Israel as some huge insult

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Keith Ellison is my representative, my community is a reflection of his work. I have been to many town halls with him and I have never ever seen any sort of anti Semitic remarks by him. I've met him several times and he's a great guy. You feel his love for his community and the people he represents. How fuckin dare these people talk shit about a person they don't even know.





This is why I didn't want to give y'all Keith. The DNC doesn't deserve him.

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He's mine, too. I will be sad if he leaves the House. I feel he has more power there than as DNC Chair.

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Yay! Minneapolis represent!!!!!

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He wouldn't leave the House if he became DNC chair.

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It's great to hear from someone he represents. I have heard nothing but great things about him. If this whole disgusting campaign by establishment Dems doesn't open people's eyes to the fact that the party is also corrupt and not some beacon of goodness then idk what to say tbh.

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minneapolis love!

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MTE. He's doing so much good for Minneapolis. My other reservation is that his chairing the DNC will give so much ammunition to the RNC and cause a big divide, even though their attacks against him are fake.

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Except the DNC isn't talking shit about him? And major factions in the Dem establishment already support Keith for the job and are trying to fight the smears against him (and now I'm trying to fight the smears against the Dem establishment, lawd, the work never ends).



Ellison is backed by Chuck Schumer, Harry Reid the AFI-CIO just voted to support him for DNC chair. My New Jersey congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman (who supported Hillary in the primaries, when Keith backed Bernie) was one of the first to endorse him for DNC chair.



Speaking of New Jersey and Keith, I actually met Keith Ellison in 2008 in New Jersey! I was organizing a weekly voter registration drive at my local mosque, when one day, by pure coincidence, I heard that this congressman from Minnesota was visiting the place and talking to everybody! A totally unintentional but very welcome assist to my attempts to get people there more politically active and involved!



I got to meet him briefly. He's very tall! I immediately launched into my spiel about how congress has to make voting easier and more accessible for people I suspect he's used to people ranting at him over pet causes, though. Anyways, looking back on it, I'm very impressed that he came all the way to New Jersey to network, in the most grassroots sense of the word, and to show Muslim Americans, even those in a distant state, that they can and should be part of the American political process.

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yessss he's mine too! 

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I wholeheartedly agree with this whole comment (except I moved a couple of months ago so he's no longer my rep, which makes me very sad)

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See, this is the type of shit I like to hear.

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He's mine as well <3

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omg that hungry line lmaooooo

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it's the sequel to the 'are you hungry? (long pause) 'cause I'm making pancakes'



from the first one

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I like to imagine the script literally said [pause for sexual tension].

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this actually looks way better and more sexy than the first one.

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She took off her panties ... in the restaurant?!





AND HE TOUCHED HER IN AN ELEVATOR -- WITH PEOPLE THERE?





Clutching my pearls!

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soooooo kinky!!!!!!

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oh my word!!!!!

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i've read pg fics with more sexiness than that

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this is sexy stuff to sheltered moms and virgins okay!?

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ok both me and my mom think this shit is dull af, excuse you!!!

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See this is what I don't get--I know a few people who get around and are into kinky shit and they still think this is titillating. I just...wha?

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steamy stuff

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lmao

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I clutched my pearls because I don't believe for a second that his hands are clean enough to go up there

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As someone who grew up and lived in Seattle most of my life it bothers me when I can tell outdoor shots are filmed in Vancouver.

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I totally didn't recognize that that was Whitney from Smallville! Damn DADDY has grown up!!

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i have trouble watching the 40yr old virgin because it was filmed down the street from my childhood home. i don't even remember if it is supposed to take place in los angeles, i just can't stop being distracted by the bagel place that isn't a bagel place and the shops not being what they actually are irl.

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It's also annoying to have nothing actually set in Vancouver, but to be constantly distracted because you can tell what street they're on, etc.



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he better show his diq in this one

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just go watch secretary lol

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This needed to be said.

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I love Secretary so much. James Spader was so fucking hot in that movie.

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Yessssss

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mte

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y'all need therapy this movie is VILE

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hilariously, the original material is a ripoff of a fanfic based on secretary

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lmfao fr

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THANK YOU!! a superior and sexier movie with sexier actors

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Secretary is fucking horrible, ten million times more ~problematic~ than 50 Shades. like literally it is appalling on like five hundred different levels



idk how people can judge 50 Shades for being abusive and then go praise that fucking sexual harassment lawsuit of a film

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Yaaaaaas

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He looks 40

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Ok fine I will have dinner with you, because I'm... hungry



Riveting dialogue!

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lol mte

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he's going to end up in like one scene



he plays an author that dakota ~champions~

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good sis asking the only question that matters

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lmao his accent is horrible. He sounds like he's still doing The Fall.



and this movie looks more like a horror film or crime drama with sex in it...?

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No lie, because his character in this is a creeper & because Dakota has dark hair, the whole time I was watching the first movie, I thought it was "The Fall."

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it is a horror movie because the author wrote him as a creeper and he was edward cullen because this women is a plagirizing dick



Edited at 2016-12-09 09:52 pm (UTC)

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EL James made good use of the Find & Replace function is MS Word.

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he still seems like he's playing a serial killer in this too lmao

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I only know the story from reading it on wiki but the first book is supposed to be a "sexy romance" novel and then the two next books out of nowhere become a crime thriller with a stalker, a kidnapping, child rape and attempted murder.

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His accent in the first film was SO BAD and I felt like no one even acknowledged how bad it was ???? I went to the movie with a friend and she said she didn't notice, I was like what? So distracting. He should have just kept his Irish accent lmao

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please don't assume you talk for all women. thank you

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Excuse u this is only acceptable if the man is a handsome billionaire!

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i havent read the books, who tf is that woman she's hallucinating?

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his exes. but iirc they do kind of stalk her?

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gd where's hoechlin 

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Lol I cant with this, please dont make a third. They probably will and split it in two parts

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they've already filmed the third one.

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There are serious questions swirling around OPECs production cut deal, ranging from the size of the cuts needed given that production from the cartel rose through November, to the prospect of cheating from individual members. But even if OPEC stays true to its word and follows through on the output reductions, there are reasons to question how sustained a rally in oil prices can be. And they go beyond the obvious knock-on increases in U.S. shale production.

Shale drillers have already started to hedge their production at higher prices since OPEC announced their intention to cut supplies by 1.2 million barrels per day last week. Companies are locking in oil sales through 2017 and even 2018 at prices above $50 per barrel. They crave the certainty of hedged prices even if that means forgoing any upside should spot prices surge higher.

Right after OPEC, U.S. producers were very active hedging," Ben Freeman, founder of HudsonField LLC, told Bloomberg in an interview. "We are going to see a significant amount of producer hedging at this levels." Bloomberg says that a 580,000 options contracts traded on the NYMEX on the day that OPEC announced its deal, a record high.

But a wave of hedging will flatten out the futures curve, which essentially means that the locked-in oil sales are putting downward pressure on prices dated for 2017 and 2018. By hedging, oil companies can be certain about the prices they will be able to receive for their oil a year or two years from now, so they can feel confident about drilling today. That should lead to higher production next year from U.S. shale, which will somewhat temper the newfound bullishness in the oil market from the OPEC deal.

Similarly, the OPEC deal is narrowing the market contango. Contango, a pricing structure in which near-term oil contracts trade at a discount to contracts sold farther out into the future, has been prevalent since the downturn in the market in 2014. One way of interpreting a contango is that there is a near-term glut  oil traders have so much supply on their hands right now that in order to sell oil, it must be discounted. With OPEC promising to take 1.2 mb/d off the market beginning in January, the near-term suddenly doesnt look as oversupplied as it did just a few weeks ago. Related: Oil Minister: Venezuela Has Left 500,000 Bpd Output Out Of OPEC Deal

However, while the OPEC deal pushed up oil prices, the narrowing contango could have a countervailing effect. When front-month oil contracts trade at a sharp discount to oil set to be delivered in, say, 12 months, then oil traders can make a profit by storing crude in onshore storage or in tankers at sea, and selling that oil for a higher price in a year. Indeed, both onshore and offshore storage has become commonplace over the past two years, and any increase in tankers being booked for floating storage is a tell-tale symptom of a glut in the market. Now that OPEC is succeeding in narrowing the contango (because fears of oversupply are easing), storing oil simply to profit from a sale at a later date will no longer make sense.

The six-month contango  the difference between front-month oil contracts and contracts for delivery six months from now  shrank from -$4.50 per barrel in November to just -$1.77 per barrel the day after the OPEC deal. Since storing oil on a tanker for six months costs between $3.15 and $3.38 per barrel, according to Bloomberg, parking oil at sea will be unprofitable.

The narrowing contango, as a result, could lead to unloading of oil from storage. If brimming inventories are drawn down, a flood of supply will hit the market, just as prices are starting to show some life. A rush of oil unloaded from storage will exacerbate the oversupply picture. Related: Trump Could Fuel A Nuclear Energy Boom In 2017

Of course, one could view this trend in exactly the opposite way: Everyone knew that there were record levels of oil sitting in storage, inventories that had to be drawn down in order for prices to recover. Indeed, the drawdown of inventories is a sign that the market is no longer oversupplied, since traders need to tap storage tanks to meet market demand. Sure, oil sitting in storage will add new supply to the market, but this was to be expected. Working through that storage will be a necessary step towards a tighter market. Thus, if inventories start to come down, it will be a bullish sign, not a bearish one. We see that every week when the EIA releases storage data  any drawdown is met with higher oil prices and vice versa.

The contango narrowed sharply in the immediate aftermath of the OPEC deal, a bullish sign. But it widened again in recent days on concerns about OPEC (and Russia) not following through on the promised cuts. All in all, the current differentials in oil futures suggests that inventory drawdowns will pick up in earnest in the second half of 2017, according to Reuters.

This was all a long-winded way of saying that the oil market will move closer to balance towards the second half of next year, and the weekly and monthly changes in inventories will be a good indicator to watch for figuring out when the market is tightening.

By Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Japans crude oil imports dropped to 3.055 million barrels per day in October, down by 5.6 percent from September, the Petroleum Association of Japan (PAJ) said on Friday.

According to the associations supply and demand of crude oil statistics, the country imported in October a total of 15,056,810 kiloliters of crude oil which is equal to 3.055 million bpd. This compares to 3.237 million bpd imported in September. The October crude imports were the lowest level of exports so far this year.

The average oil import price stood at US$45.17 per barrel, compared to US$45.52 for September.

In addition to the decline in Japans crude oil imports, crude oil shipments from Iran to Japan dropped by 33 percent in October, while those from Saudi Arabia jumped by 26 percent. Japanese imports from Russia plummeted by 48 percent, while imports from Mexico, although significantly lower in volume compared to the others, soared by 232 percent.

According to ClipperData, Japan is the fourth largest importer of OPEC crude oil, although volumes were flat on year-ago levels at 2.75 million bpd. OPEC ships more than 15 million barrels per day to Asia, amounting to over 60 percent of its exports mainly to China, India, South Korea and Japan. Related: Oil Markets Not Convinced OPEC Deal Can Kill The Glut

In August of this year, Japans imports from Iran, for example, had jumped, with the four major Asian importers of oil increasing their imports of Iranian crude by 81.4 percent on the year in August, the highest level in at least five and a half years. In August, Japans imports of Iranian oil increased 31.4 percent to 235,612 bpd.

Last year, total Japanese crude oil imports fell by 2.3 percent annually to around 3.37 million bpd, the lowest level since 1988 as demand weakened.

In 2015, the Middle East accounted for 82 percent of Japans imports, 1.2 percentage points lower than in 2014, while Russias share of Japanese imports inched up by 0.7 percentage points to come in at 8.8 percent.



By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
As the United States catches its breath following the shock election victory of Donald Trump, the oil industry could be facing significant changes, including the President elects open door policy on leasing federal land for oil drilling.

This is a key part of Trumps energy strategy, which he clearly presented to American voters, in the run up to the election.

One of the major components of the plan is to unleash the $50 trillion worth of untapped shale oil and natural gas reserves, to contribute to Trumps vision of energy independence for the United States.

Subsequently, the 45th President of the United States believes that this will create millions of new jobs in the energy sector, while conserving natural habitats and resources, bringing what the Trump team says would be an energy revolution.

According to the House Committee on Natural Resources , currently the federal government commands 640 million acres of land, that can be broken down into defence lands, natural parks and forests, and the offshore outer continental shelf.

In theory, all federal lands are available for oil extraction, the perimeters which would preclude drilling on all publicly owned land, are created from Congress legislation.

The new Presidents view on this issue is not a total departure from the present incumbent of the White House Barack Obama, who also wanted to streamline permits or drilling on federal lands. Related: Drilling Frenzy? Oilfield Services Booked Out

Although so far, the detail of the oil drilling policy proposal is conjecture, we will need to see what is actually presented in the Interior Department's leasing plans to fully understand what any changes will really mean.

In general, its probably just too early to say what extent the presidential changeover will really mean for oil production.

Clay Lightfoot, a Research Analyst on Wood Mackenzie's US Upstream Lower 48 team, reflected: A lot of factors play into operator strategies of when and where to drill, but oil price is the biggest. With prices where they're at now, companies are keen to invest in areas that yield the most attractive economics, which means areas with existing infrastructure and ample historic production to prove that sufficient oil and gas volumes are present.

In other words, operators want to remove uncertainties, such as how new wells perform and what midstream costs might end up being, to make sure they can generate sufficient returns.

He continued: Right now, these areas are largely in the hands of private citizens. In fact, none of the major plays have a significant footprint on federal land.

The Bakken, Eagle Ford, Permian with the exception of some federal land in eastern New Mexico, and Marcellus, are all sitting on private land. Any play that takes off due to less regulation would have likely already been discovered.

The same principle is applicable to offshore projects, where costs are exponentially higher. Leaving the federal government needing to do more than just open the doors to federal waters in order to generate significant activity.

The resource types found will vary considerably across federal lands. Lightfoot added.

But shale gas and tight oil are likely present throughout parts of it. Exploration, appraisal work, and infrastructure builds would have to be done by operators in order to gain a better understanding of how much oil and gas is technically possible and economically feasible to recover.

These activities are less likely to occur in low price environments, due to the added cost and ability to produce more cheaply elsewhere.

Obstacles to federal land drilling are likely to be found from several avenues, including negative local and state public opinion, which in theory could lead to action in the State and Federal courts.

Non-governmental Organisations could also step in to have their say on state land excavations. Related: Iraqi Kurds May Reject Oil Cuts, Putting Baghdad In Difficult Position

This despite the rigorous processes which are carried out by the Interior Department in their analysis of government land.

Those areas that are deemed to be too complex for commercial use, are usually withdrawn from any activity, there is little doubt that Trumps pledges will place the magnifying glass of public scrutiny on federal land drilling.

Whether Trumps vision of an energy independent United States is realistic, Vance Scott, Ernst and Youngs Americas Oil & Gas Transaction Advisory Services Leader, said: Energy independence is probably technically viable but does not make commercial sense.

There is no point in the United States consumer paying higher prices for fuels developed in the USA, when they can get crude at a much lower cost from Canada, Mexico or the Middle East.

This is a fundamental economic theorem in comparative economics. If the demand for oil / natural gas in the rest of the world is high enough, and supplies are restricted, then pricing will justify drilling which could deliver energy independence. He added.

If the US producers, including shale players continue to drive technical efficiencies, their breakeven costs may reach a point that can justify energy independence, but that is a very substantial improvement.

Only time will tell if this, amongst many other vigorous campaign statements from Donald Trump, will become a reality.

By Peter Taberner for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Oil prices inched higher on Friday afternoon, holding above $50 ahead of the Non-OPEC producer meeting this Saturday.

(Click to enlarge)

Friday, December 9, 2016

Oil prices seesawed this week on the hopes and fears of whether or not OPEC will be able to fully implement its historic deal, as well as the uncertainty over the additional non-OPEC cuts. Still, WTI and Brent mostly held onto their gains that accrued from the deal, with both benchmarks seemingly holding safely above $50 per barrel.

Inventories may not fall as much as expected. The OPEC deal has been billed as a cure for the oversupplied oil markets, potentially setting the market up for a shortfall as soon as early 2017, which would require a drawdown in inventories. But some analysts see stockpiles remaining elevated through next year. The EIAs latest Short-Term Energy Outlook expects inventory builds over the course of 2017, and a few more voices are coming to the same conclusion. Even with 100 percent compliance from both OPEC and non-OPEC producers global stocks are unlikely to fall in the first half of 2017," Tamas Varga, analyst at brokerage PVM Oil Associates Ltd., told Bloomberg in an interview. That should keep oil prices in check. Calculations and estimates from Bloomberg News also finds very few inventory reductions next year. A lot of the uncertainty comes down to whether or not OPEC members comply with promised production cuts, as well as the commitment of Russia and other non-OPEC countries. Full compliance with the OPEC deal could lead to inventory drawdowns, whereas cheating from members could result in inventories remaining elevated.

OPEC meets non-OPEC. A follow up meeting with non-OPEC countries is scheduled for Saturday, where they will hash out the details of the promised 600,000 barrels per day of production cuts. Russia alone promised to cut 300,000 barrels per day, although it appears only willing to reduce gradually over the first half of 2017. OPEC invited 14 non-OPEC countries to the meeting in Vienna, but only five so far have said they will attend  Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Oman and Mexico. One OPEC source told Reuters that the stated cuts of 600,000 barrels per day might actually turn out to be just 500,000 barrels per day, an ominous sign that the results could be less impressive than previously thought. So far, aside from Russia, only Oman has expressed a willingness to cut. Related: The OPEC Effect? U.S. Rig Count Spikes Most In 31 Months

Saudi Arabia in retreat. The Economist lays out a case that Riyadh is losing on all fronts, burning through economic, military, and diplomatic resources. Its side is losing in Syria, it is losing leverage in Iraq, its disastrous war in Yemen is hemorrhaging cash and prestige, and its economy is not doing well. The OPEC deal was a coup for the group as a whole, but Saudi Arabia is shouldering most of the burden of production cuts. Overall, these are uncertain and worrying times for Saudi Arabia.

Oklahoma AG is Trumps choice for EPA. Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt was selected by Donald Trump to lead the EPA. Pruitt is known as an ally of the oil and gas industry, a climate change skeptic, and an expert in the workings of environmental law and regulation. He has spearheaded a fight against EPA regulations, suing the agency over greenhouse gas rules. The New York Times wrote in a Dec. 2014 article that Pruitt submitted a letter to the EPA, disputing the agencys calculation about methane emissions from natural gas wells. The letter was secretly written by lawyers for Devon Energy (NYSE: DVN), demonstrating Pruitts close ties to the industry. Needless to say, the industry is welcoming Trumps selection.

Oil tanker rates plummeting. The oil tanker industry is about to get hammered by the OPEC deal. Higher prices could cut into global demand, which would likely reduce the volume of tankers plying the worlds oceans. Tanker rates could fall by as much as 40 percent  very bad news for tanker companies. Morgan Stanley predicts tanker rates will fall from $45,200 per day currently down to just $25,000 per day next year. However, Reuters reports that the tanker industry is working on new routes to make up for slower business. BP (NSYE: BP) shipped U.S. crude to Asia, a new route that is a very long distance by todays standards. Related: Oil Rises As Saudis Move To Implement Output Cuts

China oil imports to slow. Chinas oil import growth will slow by 60 percent next year, according to a Bloomberg survey. Oil imports could grow by 5 to 9 percent in 2017, as opposed to the annual increase of 11 to 14 percent expected this year. The slowdown has a lot to do with Chinas transitioning economy, relying less on heavy industry, but it also has to do with a slowdown in stockpiling for its strategic petroleum reserve. Having filled up a lot of storage tanks, China could purchase less oil next year as a result.

Oil sands companies reviving output. The approval of two major oil pipelines in Canada is giving Alberta oil sands producers a new lease on life. Cenovus Energy and Canadian Natural Resources have announced plans to expand existing projects, adding 50,000 bpd and 40,000 bpd, respectively. The decisions are the first expansions since the downturn in oil prices two years ago, and indicate that Alberta is ready to pour money into projects. Alberta has suffered from a shortage of pipeline capacity that often requires them to sell their oil at a discount to WTI, which often runs as much as $15 per barrel. New pipelines  the Trans Mountain Expansion and Line 3  will collectively add roughly 1 million barrels per day of takeaway capacity, which should cut down on the discount for heavy Canadian oil. OPEC also sweetened the pot, agreeing to cut production and lift prices, which is crucial for expensive oil sands production.

Canadian carbon tax. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has tried to balance the growth of the oil industry with environmental progress, and while he approved pipelines he is also implementing a national carbon tax. The federal government and the nations provinces are set to agree to a national carbon tax today. The tax will begin at C$10 (USD$7.60) per ton in 2018, rising by C$10 per year until it reaches C$50 in 2022. The provinces have a choice of the tax or opting for a cap-and-trade program.

By Evan Kelly of Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Putting a hot meal on the table is getting easier and easier, thanks to myriad options for home delivery services.

Grocery delivery services like Brewers Organics, Braise Home Delivery and Peapod have virtually eliminated the time spent shopping for ingredients. Meanwhile, meal kit delivery services like Blue Apron, Plated and others have gained popularity among food lovers with little time to cook. Even restaurants are moving to delivery services that cater to consumers with on-demand services like Grub Hub and Postmates.

One of the most quickly growing segments in the delivery industry is curated prepared food delivery, a model through which consumers can purchase prepared meals that need little more than a zap in the microwave or oven to be ready to consume.

And few have seen and experienced the growth more intimately than Alan Harris, founder of the Urban Caveman food truck and FreshPacks meal delivery, who sold his business this fall, after reaching a merger agreement with Minneapolis-based Origin Meals.

"The growth of the delivery market is astronomical," he says. "Beyond the very traditional takeout model, the idea of mail order food service didnt even exist a few years ago."

Harris, who founded his food truck in 2013, quickly found that there was a market for gluten-free meals that are made from fresh, fresh, minimally processed high quality ingredients. In response, he launched a meal delivery service called FreshPacks, with convenient pick-up locations across the city.

By 2015, demand for the product was so great that Harris says he transitioned the business to focus solely on FreshPack meals. At that point, Harries entered into an agreement with Steve Perlstein and Jennifer Block of Simmer to produce FreshPacks in their restaurant and commissary kitchen.

Unfortunately, at the end of 2015, Simmer made the decision to close its doors, leaving Harris to search for a new commissary in which to produce his meals.

"It was a turning point for the business," says Harris, who says one of the biggest challenges was retooling operations and production to fit the availability at the new kitchen space.

Allen says the business met with success during the transition, but, within months, faced new challenges.

"By the time spring rolled around, we were running into capacity issues in terms of personnel and kitchen space," he says. "So we knew we needed to partner with someone or make an investment in a place of our own so that we had dedicated production space."

Fortuitously, Tyler Carlson of Origin Meals in Minneapolis, had reached out to Harris with an offer to purchase the business and roll it up under the Origin Meals Brand.

"Hed reached out before, but by summer it made sense to revisit the conversation," says Harris, who made the decision to sell the Urban Caveman FreshPacks business to Carlson, while remaining on board with Chef John Okruhlica to oversee operations in the Wisconsin market.

Harris says the decision, which took effect Oct. 1, was the best course of action for his small business.

"There was a very strong alignment in our core values including quality of the product and sourcing standards," he says. "There was also alignment in terms of being customer-centric and adhering to standards with regard to treatment of employees. And, on a personal level, Id been carrying a real load in terms of running my own business. I hadnt even started paying myself until the third year. We started a family in 2015, and I really wanted a bit of certainty in our lives. And so it seemed like a good time to consider a different model."

Origin Meals offers two-, three- and five-day meal plans, including options for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Seasonal menus, which change quarterly, accommodate customers who observe a strict paleo lifestyle,those who choose to eat some gluten-free grains and even vegetarian diners.

Harris says that, although he had no idea initially how his current customers would react to the transition, he felt confident that they could continue to offer them a premium product.

"In my mind, we were selling the business," he says. "But, we werent selling out. It was an opportunity to achieve a higher level of quality and consistency. But, in some ways it was kind of a gamble."

Harris says the response has been overwhelmingly positive. Business has doubled in the past few months. And, thanks to dedicated refrigeration at drop-off locations, as well as the option for home delivery, customers are getting a better, more convenient product. And expansion to markets in Madison and the Fox Valley is currently in process.

"Its been a really great move," he says. "And Im excited for what the future holds."

For more information about Origin Meals, visit originmeals.com or follow Origin Meals Milwaukee on Facebook.
From Consortium News



Journalist Gary Webb holding a copy of his Contra-cocaine article in the San Jose Mercury-News.

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Amid the mainstream U.S. media's current self-righteous frenzy against "fake news," it's worth recalling how the big newspapers destroyed Gary Webb, an honest journalist who exposed some hard truths about the Reagan administration's collaboration with Nicaraguan Contra cocaine traffickers.

Webb's reward for reviving that important scandal in 1996 -- and getting the CIA's inspector general to issue what amounted to an institutional confession in 1998 -- was to have The New York Times, The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times lobby for, essentially, his banishment from journalism.

The major media pile-on was so intense and so effective that Webb lost his job at the San Jose Mercury-News and could never find regular work in his profession again. Betrayed by his journalistic colleagues, his money gone, his family broken and his life seemingly hopeless, Webb committed suicide on Dec. 9, 2004.

Even then, the Los Angeles Times wrote up his obituary as if the paper were telling the life story of an organized-crime boss, not a heroic journalist. The Times obit was then republished by The Washington Post.

In other words, on one of the most significant scandals of the Reagan era, major newspapers, which now want to serve as the arbiters of truth for the Internet, demonstrated how disdainful they actually are toward truth when it puts the U.S. government in a harsh light.

Indeed, if it had been up to the big newspapers, this important chapter of modern history would never have been known. A decade earlier, in 1985, Brian Barger and I first exposed the Contra-cocaine connection for The Associated Press -- and we watched as the big papers turned their backs on the scandal then, too.

The main point that Webb added to the story was how some of the Contra cocaine fed into the production of crack-cocaine that had such a devastating effect on America's black communities in particular. Webb's disclosure of the crack connection infuriated many African-Americans and the big papers acted as if it was their civic duty to calm down those inner-city folks by assuring them that the U.S. government would never do such a thing.

So, instead of doing their jobs as journalists, the major newspapers acted as the last line of defense against the people learning the truth.

A Solid Record

Yet, what's remarkable now about the Contra-cocaine scandal is that -- despite the cover-up efforts of the big papers -- the truth is out there, available in official government documents, including the CIA's inspector general's report.

Collectively, the information also represents a damning indictment of The New York Times, The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times and demonstrates why they are unfit to lecture anyone about what's real and what's "fake."

For instance, in 2013, at the National Archives annex in College Park, Maryland, I discovered a declassified "secret" U.S. law enforcement report that detailed how top Contra leader Adolfo Calero was casually associating with Norwin Meneses, described in the records as "a well-reputed drug dealer." Meneses was near the center of Webb's 1996 articles for the San Jose Mercury-News.

The report was typical of the evidence that the Reagan administration -- and the big newspapers -- chose to ignore. It recounted information from Dennis Ainsworth, a blue-blood Republican from San Francisco who volunteered to help the Contra cause in 1984-85. That put him in position to witness the strange goings-on of Contra leaders hobnobbing with drug traffickers and negotiating arms deals with White House emissaries.

Ainsworth also was a source of mine in fall 1985 when I was investigating the mysterious channels of funding for the Contras after Congress shut off CIA support in 1984 amid widespread reports of Contra atrocities inflicted on Nicaraguan civilians, including rapes, executions and torture.

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The European Union has a censorship addiction, and a desire to inflict the costs of indulging that addiction on the world's top tech companies.

Vera Jourova, the EU's Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality, complains that Facebook, Twitter, Google and Microsoft respond too slowly to demands that they delete posts deemed "hate speech" from their platforms.

In May, those companies "voluntarily" affirmed a code of conduct committing themselves to 24-hour turnaround on doing Jourova's dirty work for her. Six months later, she claims the companies are too slow and that the EU may be "forced" to enact laws to punish them for not shutting people up as quickly as she wants them shut up.

All this follows other similar EU nonsense, including an absurd demand that search engines acknowledge a "right to be forgotten," under which individuals could demand the removal of unflattering or inconvenient (but accurate) information from public view. The industry knuckled under to that in the EU, which quickly came back demanding they implement it worldwide.

Agreeing to the "code of conduct" was far from the tech industry's first mistake. As Kipling wrote, "once you have paid him the Dane-geld, you never get rid of the Dane." By legitimizing a litany of claimed powers to conscript them as censors, the firms virtually guaranteed that Jourova and her gang would keep coming back with more, and more bizarre, demands.

The EU needs technology more than the world's tech firms need the EU. At some point, the EU's constant attempts to shift the costs of (and the public oppobrium aimed at) its ever-increasing police statism onto those firms will make doing business in the EU too expensive to be bothered with.

The world needs more of the "Wild West" atmosphere that censors in the EU and elsewhere attribute to it. A country with decent Internet infrastructure to constitutionally commit itself to non-interference with network traffic and content of all kinds would have a great pitch: "Domicile in our territory. Low taxes, no censorship. Countries that don't like the traffic can bear the financial and political costs of blocking it."

If the EU is unwilling to join civilized society and protect, rather than suppress, free speech, it should at least be forced to bear the full costs of its backward authoritarianism until it straightens up.

The tech industry should tell Vera Jourova to pound sand, and make it stick.


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As discussed at today's (December 9, 2016) status hearing in Federal Court, Judge James Boasberg ordered that: 1) Dakota Access' motion to supplement the administrative record is denied without prejudice to be renewed in the event that it believes additional records are required to respond to the Government's forthcoming brief; 2) The Government shall make good-faith efforts to begin compiling the documents sought by Dakota Access, and it shall also supplement the administrative record by January 6, 2017, with all documents concerning the easement that were created on or before July 25, 2016; 3) Dakota Access's motion to expedite is denied in part, given the announced briefing schedule; 4) The Government shall file a combined opposition to Dakota Access's motion for summary judgment and any motion to dismiss by January 6, 2017; 5) The Tribes shall file any opposition(s) by that same date; 6) Dakota Access shall file its combined opposition and reply by January 31, 2017; 7) The Government and the Tribes shall file any replies within 10 days of Dakota Access's filing; 8) The Court shall notify the parties of a date for oral argument if it requires one; and 9) The Government shall promptly notify the Court should it change its position regarding the easement.

The protests at the Standing Rock Sioux reservation have galvanized supporters from around the world.

Last week Congresswoman and Veteran Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) gave a moving speech to Congress in opposition to the pipeline. It is noteworthy in that the five minute speech artfully sums up all of the legal, moral and spiritual issues surrounding DAPL.

The easement at Lake Oahe is the last obstacle Energy Transfer Partners faces in its efforts to complete the Dakota Access Pipeline. It was a major victory for the Standing Rock and Cheyenne River Sioux when when Assistant Secretary of the Army (Civil Works) Jo-Ellen Darcy announced on Sunday that the USACE would not grant the easement under Lake Oahe at this time.

The Judge's Decision moves the arguments into the New Year, with possible decisions coming at late as February. However, the Judge noted that any decision he might make could become moot when Donald Trump takes office in January.

The proposed Dakota Access Pipeline at Lake Oahe, North Dakota has been the subject of litigation since July 2016.

(Article changed on December 9, 2016 at 15:20)

(Article changed on December 9, 2016 at 15:38)
From WSWS

The recount of the presidential election in the state of Michigan halted Wednesday, after three days of ballot-counting, when a federal judge announced he would defer to a state court ruling against it.

The Michigan Court of Appeals decided Tuesday that Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein did not have standing to seek a recount. By a 3-0 vote, the Republican-dominated court accepted the claim of Republican state Attorney General Bill Schuette and the state Republican Party that since Stein trailed Donald Trump by more than two million votes in Michigan, she could not reasonably expect to win the state in a recount, and therefore was not an "aggrieved party" under state law.

In effect, the state court found that only the campaign of Democrat Hillary Clinton was entitled to seek a recount, since she lost Michigan to Trump by only 10,704 votes, the narrowest margin of victory for Trump in any state. The Clinton campaign was an observer to the recount once it began, but it has not initiated any request of its own for the ballots to be scrutinized and re-tabulated.

Federal District Judge Mark Goldsmith, who rejected the legal arguments of the Republicans opposed to the recount at a weekend hearing, issued a temporary restraining order Tuesday night after the state court ruling, compelling the state Board of Elections and local county clerks to continue the recount.

On Wednesday night, however, he dissolved that order, declaring that he would defer to the state court in interpreting Michigan state law. "Because there is no basis for this court to ignore the Michigan court's ruling and make an independent judgment regarding what the Michigan Legislature intended by the term 'aggrieved,' plaintiffs have not shown an entitlement to a recount under Michigan's statutory scheme," he wrote.

Attorneys for Jill Stein said they would appeal both court decisions. The state Court of Appeals ruling will be appealed to the Michigan Supreme Court, while Judge Goldsmith's ruling will be appealed to the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati.

Stein's lead attorney, Mark Brewer, a past chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party, filed a separate motion to disqualify two state Supreme Court justices, Robert Young Jr. and Joan Larsen, from hearing the case, because Trump has named both of them as potential nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court to fill the vacancy left by the death of Antonin Scalia.

Neither court is likely to look favorably on Stein's appeal. The Michigan Supreme Court has a 5-2 Republican majority, and would still have a Republican majority if Young and Larsen were to recuse themselves.

A three-member panel of the Sixth Circuit upheld Goldsmith's initial order for the recount, ruling Tuesday that he had not abused his discretion. But the panel effectively required him to accede to state court decisions, writing, "If subsequently, the Michigan courts determine the ... recount is improper under Michigan state law for any reason, we expect the district court to entertain any properly filed motions to dissolve or modify this order in this case."

Significantly, the panel added that it had made no decision yet on such questions as whether "there is a freestanding constitutional right to a recount or that plaintiffs validly invoked a recount under Michigan law, or that plaintiffs should necessarily prevail on the merits of this suit."

The three days of recounting the nearly 5 million ballots cast in Michigan have not produced any reports of significant changes in the vote count because no county has filed any results. But there is already massive evidence of a dysfunctional and antiquated electoral system which is at its worst in the poorest areas of the state, particularly inner-city neighborhoods of Detroit and Flint.

Many precincts have been barred from recounting ballots under a state law which permits recounts only when the total number of ballots cast coincides exactly with the roster of voters recorded in poll books. If these two counts do not match -- frequently because of a voter who tore up his or her ballot and walked out without requesting a replacement -- the initial precinct count stands. Discrepancies arise from other causes, including human errors like misfiling of spoiled, challenged or blank ballots or transposing numbers.

Stein issued a statement denouncing the legal claims of the Republicans and the Trump campaign. "Donald Trump and his cronies are doing everything possible to try to stop this exercise in our democracy, this effort to validate our vote," she said, adding, "it suggests that Donald Trump is very afraid that his vote is not valid, that he's very afraid of this process of democracy."

Stein also noted the indifference of the Clinton campaign and the Democrats. "When the Clinton team weighed in, which was, shall we say, minimalist and a day late," she said, it was "about as passive an expression of interest as one could imagine."

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Oceti Sakowin

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In a separate filing December 7, the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe (CRST) requested a summary be added to the Friday status conference. "The administrative record remains incomplete, as there are approximately 30 documents that still have not been produced. The Tribes stand ready to work with the other parties to resolve any outstanding disputes over confidentiality."

CRST has a legal leg to stand on. The December 4 ruling by Assistant Secretary of the Army (Civil Works) Jo-Ellen Darcy, withholding the easement for Energy Transfer Partners to drill under Lake Oahe, makes it clear that documents have been withheld from the public record.

In Section 5 she writes:

"Because of Security concerns and sensitivities, several documents supporting the environmental assessment were marked confidential and withheld from the public or representatives and experts of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. These documents include a North Dakota Lake Oahe Spill Model Discussion prepared by the Wood Group Mustang, the Lake Oahe Risk HDD Risk Analysis Report, and the DAPL-Route Comparison and Environmental Justice Considerations Memorandum."

Common sense suggests that documents are withheld only if they damage the argument of the Defendant, in this case the Army Corps of Engineers, and by proxy, DAPL interests.

A review of the timeline of the lawsuit is helpful in this complicated case.

July 27- Standing Rock Sioux Tribe (SRST) files a compliant for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief against the Corps regarding halting the Dakota Access Pipeline.

August 19-The Court orders that The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe's Motion to Intervene (join the lawsuit) is granted.

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From Wallwritings

On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, President-elect Donald Trump met with the publisher of The New York Times and some editors, columnists and reporters at the paper.

Times' columnist Charles Blow was not at the meeting. The next day he wrote: "I will say proudly and happily that I was not present at this meeting. The very idea of sitting across the table from a demagogue who preyed on racial, ethnic and religious hostilities and treating him with decorum and social grace fills me with disgust, to the point of overflowing."

Blow spoke for many of us after the president-elect's comment to the Times' journalists, when he wrote: "Let me tell you here where I stand on your 'I hope we can all get along plea.' Never.

"You are an aberration and abomination who is willing to do and say anything -- no matter whom it aligns you with and whom it hurts -- to satisfy your ambitions. "I don't believe you care much at all about this country or your party or the American people. I believe that the only thing you care about is self-aggrandizement and self-enrichment. Your strongest allegiance is to your own cupidity."

Blow concluded with a personal pledge: "I'm thankful to have this platform because as long as there are ink and pixels, you will be the focus of my withering gaze."

It is this same "withering gaze" that all Americans should fix on our president-elect, both in this transition period, and for the next four years of his presidency.

When the gaze reveals positive vibes, it should be noted. So far, in Trump's mixed transitional and political rallies period, the vibes are largely negative.

Our national withering gaze should fix carefully on the decisions the president-elect is making. Does his leadership team, thus far assembled, possess the knowledge and personal skills sufficient to support a president with no prior experience in political leadership?

Trump's security leadership team up to this point includes three retired military generals, starting with retired Marine General James Mattis as defense secretary (pictured above).

What should be expected from his leadership? His expressed views on the Iraq War should offer some tentative hope that his war experience makes him more of a realist than some of the civilians who launched the Iraq war. The Intercept's Mattathias Schwartz wrote:

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US Vets came forth and asked for forgiveness from the First Nations people. There was not a dry eye in the room.

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Yes, a miracle happened at Standing Rock. No, it's not the one you thought it was.

The Water Protectors have struggled for months, the veterans showed up en masse, and in hours the tide shifted, with the Army Corps of Engineers denying access to the Dakota Pipeline. For the moment.

Amidst blizzard conditions, people are leaving the area, although most are rightfully keeping a very wary eye on further developments, well aware of the cunning deception of the Dakota Access Pipeline company. That portion of the story continues to unfold, and should command our attention.

But if you weren't watching between the lines carefully, you might have missed the most important American miracle in the last couple of centuries. A miracle that begins the healing of the soul of our country.

Wesley Clark Jr. spearheaded the voluntary deployment of thousands of veterans to Standing Rock in support of the Water Protectors, via Facebook post. The project grew from several dozen participants to a couple of thousand in just a few days. And, Clark admits, eventually became a logistical challenge that took a few extra steps to keep up with. That's not surprising, many lofty visions manage to make it over the rocky path to a beneficial goal, finally, as this one did.

Clark is a screenwriter, an activist and has been a guest host for the "Young Turks" online news broadcast. He is son of General Wesley Clark, Sr., the United States Army general who is credited with ending the Kosovo war and who ran for president in 2004. Clark Jr. notes that his views about Standing Rock are in opposition to his father's perspective.

Ahead of the event, Clark said, "we have 2,500 veterans going to Standing Rock. No one is being paid a dime to stand out there and get beaten up. We will follow the example of Gandhi or Martin Luther King and turn the other cheek" according to Salon.

Amidst the intention of peaceful resistance, the miracle that emerged was the extraordinary public words of long overdue respect and apology offered to Leonard Crow Dog and the First Nations, by activist Wesley Clark, Jr.

This 2-minute video captures this miracle, which will no doubt eventually have a prominent place in history. Deservedly so.

An incredible moment of healing at Standing Rock: Hundreds of veterans ask Native elders for forgiveness.

"We fought you. We took your land. We signed treaties that we broke. We stole minerals from your sacred hills. We blasted the faces of our presidents onto your sacred mountain... We didn't respect you, we polluted your Earth, we've hurt you in so many ways but we've come to say that we are sorry. We are at your service and we beg for your forgiveness." -Wes Clark, Jr.

A portion of the letter that Clark posted on his Facebook page after the events follows:

Our action was successful thanks to the sacrifice and hard work of those who were on the ground before us and endured the risk, pain and suffering when the eyes of the world were not on Standing Rock - the water protectors, the youth, and the elders who have instructed us from the day we arrived that faith, prayer and peace are the way forward.

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PTI rejected SC proposal to form an enquiry commission

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Thursday rejected the Supreme Court's proposal to form an enquiry commission to probe the Panamagate case.



"We do not require an enquiry commission to decide the Panamagate case," Imran said while talking to the media in Islamabad. The PTI chief said the existing top court bench, led by the chief justice, could decide the case on a day-to-day basis. "We demand an empowered commission under the chief justice of Pakistan. If the commission is not empowered then there is no benefit of having one (judicial commission)," he said.



Imran questioned as to how the commission would yield results when all state institutions were working under the premier. "The PM will not resign as a result of the commission's findings," he added.



Imran reiterated that all ministers were working in unison to hide the Sharif family's corruption. "The premier, terming his earlier address in parliament a political speech, meant that it was scripted and that he was lying to the nation," he alleged.



He said that the masses were fast losing their faith in institutions, adding, "People are under the impression that nothing can be done against the powerful and the influential."



The PTI chief said that his party came up with a unanimous decision regarding the commission after holding intra-party consultations on the matter. He said his party leaders had an elaborate meeting to brainstorm the question of an enquiry commission and decided unanimously that there was no need for a commission to be formed to probe the charges of corruption anchored in the Panama Papers. "Only one person said that a commission may be instituted, provided that Nawaz Sharif quits his office," he added.



Regarding the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) plane crash, the PTI chairman said the sad incident proved that the standards of the national flag carrier needed improvement. "The PIA's safety record is not very encouraging. We need to conduct an enquiry into the incident and take steps to avoid such mishaps in the future," he maintained.



Dissatisfied with the way parties to the Panamagate hearing developed their case over nine days of proceedings, the Supreme Court on Wednesday proposed constituting a commission to hold an extensive enquiry into the matter.



"When ultimately we have to go to the constitution of the commission then why [we are] wasting time at this stage," wondered Chief Justice of Pakistan Anwar Zaheer Jamali during the hearing.



However, the court clarified that if the major parties in the case did not favour the proposal, the same bench of the apex court would continue to adjudicate the case, adding that a direct judgement on available evidence might amaze both the parties.



The Supreme Court is currently hearing a number of petitions filed in the wake of the Panama Papers revelations about the offshore companies of the family members of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.



A five-judge larger bench, headed by CJP Anwar Zaheer Jamali, made it clear that the commission, if formed, would confine its probe only to the money trail of the Sharif family to acquire their London properties.



The counsel for the government said they had no objection to the idea, but he requested that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif should be exempted from the commission's probe.



However, the PTI sought time for deliberation. Upon this, the bench accepted the party's lead counsel Naeem Bukhari's plea and adjourned the hearing until today (Friday).



Legal experts believe that acceptance of the court's suggestion was a big test for both the PML-N and the PTI, as both parties had some reservations over the proposed commission.



Earlier in April, Imran Khan had demanded in the National Assembly that a judicial commission under the CJP be set up to probe revelations made in the Panama Papers.



However, the PTI chief said on Thursday that whatever "feedback" he had received about his initial demand of a judicial commission had been negative. "Everyone I have spoken to is against the commission - unless PM Nawaz resigns. Then it's fine," he said.
Relative of Chitral crash asked to provide DNA samples

ISLAMABAD: Friends and relatives of the 47 victims of PK-661, the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight that crashed in Havelian while travelling from Chitral to Islamabad on Wednesday, have been asked to provide DNA samples from parents or close blood relatives of the deceased for testing.



If it is not possible to provide DNA samples from parents, the second option is samples from children, the third from siblings and more distant relatives, like cousins will be the last option.



Wali Khan, a relative of passenger Salman Zainul Abideen, said Pims has insisted that a blood sample from a close relative is required. A number of distant relatives of the deceased passengers have been trying to contact close blood relations of the victims and have called for samples from distant relatives to be accepted.



Molecular biologist Prof Dr Riazuddin explained that forensic DNA sampling is a complicated process and it takes nearly 10 days to finish one sample.



Whenever bodies are burnt, the DNA sample is taken from bone marrow. There are 13 loci in DNA that are inherited from the parents, and the length of a locus is measured to identify the bodys parents, he said.



The other option is to take childrens samples, because it is easy to match the locus. The third option is siblings, because the locus has some differences so it needs to be extrapolated in the process  only twins have the same locus.



Dr Riaz said in response to a question that although forensic DNA testing is available in Islamabad, including at the Police Forensic Lab and Khan Research Laboratories, it would be better to send the samples to the Centre of Excellence in Molecular Biology at Punjab University in Lahore, which is the best laboratory in the country.



Pims Vice Chancellor Dr Javed Akram told reporters the DNA sampling is done on the same parameters used by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation.



He said because some bodies were dismembered, 44 samples were taken to first match them with each other.



He said five bodies  a flight attendant, two Airport Security Force officials and two other men from Chitral  have been identified, and a woman is in the process of being identified using rings she was wearing. Blood samples were collected from 35 relatives, and we are trying to contact the remaining relatives for samples, he added.



He said samples are being collected from the bodies at Ayub Teaching Hospital in Abbotabad and Pims, and the DNA tests will be held at KRL and the Police Forensic Lab in Islamabad. Samples will only be sent to Lahore in case of necessary samples.



A member of the Chitrals royal family, Tayyaba Aziz, 20, was travelling to Islamabad with her father Farhad Aziz to take an admissions test at the National University of Science and Technology. While her fathers body has been identified, hers was unrecognisable.



A relative of Farhad Aziz, Khush Waqt, told mediamen that he arrived at Pims at 9am on Thursday and waited for the bodies of his relatives until noon. I called Tayyabas brother to give a blood sample. We will shift Farhads body and wait for Tayyabas, he said.



Wali Khan said he was satisfied with the arrangements made by various government departments at Pims, but he, along with other relatives of the victims, called for a joint investigation team to ascertain what happened to the plane.



We have been hearing that the plane was already out of order. If that is correct, I can say that it was not an accident, it was a murder of 47 people and the culprits should be punished, Mr Khan said.



The brother and mother-in-law of evangelist Junaid Jamshed also came to Pims, and Humayun Jamshed submitted a sample. They left after they were told it would take a few days to recognise the bodies, the Pims vice chancellor said.



At a camp set up by the PIA at the hospital, Director General Mujtaba Naqvi said: It will take a few days to confirm the identities of the bodies and hand them over to the relatives.
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...
Living in the reality that is Starke and writing from that perspective. Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't.
In this Jan. 11, 1961 file photo, Marine Lt. Col. John Glenn reaches for controls inside a Mercury capsule procedures trainer as he shows how the first U.S. astronaut will ride through space during a demonstration at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Research Center in Langley Field, Va. Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth who later spent 24 years representing Ohio in the Senate, died Thursday, Dec. 8, 2016, at the age of 95. (AP Photo/File)

John Glenn's passing on Thursday means that the first seven American astronauts chosen to lead the fledging US space program in 1959 are now dead, ending a groundbreaking chapter in American history.

This crew of military aviators, known as the Original Seven, or "Mercury 7," proved that spaceflight was possible, and paved the way for the pioneering US trips to the moon.

Their saga inspired the 1979 Tom Wolfe book "The Right Stuff," and the 1983 movie classic of the same name. Here are the feats the seven are best known for, and how they died:

Alan B. Shepard, Jr.

The first American to journey into space, Shepard launched on May 5, 1961, aboard the Freedom 7 spacecraft. His flight was suborbital, rising to an altitude of 116 statute miles (186 kilometers) before landing back on Earth.

He later commanded the Apollo 14 in 1971the third lunar landingand became the fifth person to walk on the Moon.

Shepard died in 1998 at the age of 74 from leukemia.

John H. Glenn, Jr.

The first American to orbit the Earth, Glenn is best known for making his three tours around the planet on February 20, 1962.

He was also elected US senator in Ohio and served as a lawmaker from 1974 to 1999.

In 1998, at the age of 77, Glenn became the oldest person to fly in space when he journeyed aboard the space shuttle Discovery.

Glenn died Thursday at the age of 95. He had been in declining health since undergoing heart valve surgery in 2014.

Virgil I. 'Gus' Grissom

Grissom was the first person to be launched into space twice.

He flew on the second suborbital Mercury flight in 1961, and in 1965 piloted the first Gemini mission, which was also the first spaceflight to change its orbital plane.

He and two others were killed in 1967 in a fire during a launch pad test ahead of the planned Apollo 1 mission, which he was slated to command.

Scott Carpenter

Carpenter radioed the now famous phrase, "Godspeed, John Glenn" as his colleague was about to embark on the first US orbital flight in 1962.

Later that year, Carpenter became the second American to orbit the Earth.

After circling the Earth three times in the Aurora 7 capsule, he overshot his landing target by about 250 miles (400 kilometers).

Carpenter took a leave of absence from NASA and served as an aquanaut in the Navy's Man-in-the-Sea program in 1965.

He died in 2013 at the age of 88 after suffering a stroke.

L. Gordon Cooper, Jr.

In 1963, Cooper flew on the final Mercury mission and became the last US astronaut to fly alone in space.

His Faith 7 capsule circled the Earth 22 times and the mission lasted more than a day.

His second trip to spaceaboard Gemini 5 in 1965lasted eight days and set a new space endurance record for that era.

Cooper was said to be the first American to sleep in space. He reported having no dreams during his orbital slumber.

He died in 2004 of heart failure at the age of 77.

Walter M. Schirra, Jr.

Schirra became the first man to fly aboard all three of the United States' first three human space projectsthe Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions.

He was command pilot on Gemini 6 in 1965 when he led the first spacecraft rendezvous by flying within one foot of the already orbiting Gemini 7.

He also commanded the first piloted Apollo mission, Apollo 7, in 1968.

Schirra died of a heart attack while being treated for abdominal cancer in 2007 at the age of 84.

Donald K. 'Deke' Slayton.

Slayton was chosen to be part of the original Mercury missions but was unable to fly in 1962 because of an erratic heart rate.

He became NASA's director of Flight Crew Operations, and was eventually cleared for spaceflight a decade later.

In 1975, he flew aboard the first joint American-Soviet space mission, Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, which marked the first docking of an American and Russian spacecraft in space.

Slayton died of a brain tumor in 1993, at the age of 69.

 2016 AFP
As the first 110-footlong wing skin panel for Boeing's new 777X jet moved slowly across a mammoth new factory building one recent morning, a small crew walked alongside, watching for any possibility of an expensive collision.

The "spotters" escorted the panel's bright-orange transport platform as it followed invisible tracks embedded in the concrete floor and slid with a tight fit into the big cylindrical autoclave where the part would bake to hardness.

Until the automated system for moving these big wing parts is proved, "we do have four people watching it," said Darrell Chic, acting director of 777X wing fabrication. "But the intent is to work our way to autonomous and allow the navigation system to do its thing."

Autonomous. Not needing any humans to guide it.

The 777X Composite Wing Center in the Seattle-area city of Everett, Boeing's latest venture in advanced manufacturing, marks a significant step toward a future in which much of an aircraft factory's work is done by automated machines and robots.

Once the wing skin was inside the giant pressurized oven, the lone operator at a computer station pushed a button. Lights flashed, a klaxon sounded.

Slowly, a 55-ton, 28-foot-wide circular door slid into place and locked to form an airtight seal for the seven-hour baking cycle.

Eric Lindblad, the newly appointed head of the 777X program, said having machines load the wing parts autonomously is safer and more precise. There isn't room for error inside the oven: When the long stiffening rods called stringers are baked in the autoclave, they'll go in six at a time with just 3 inches of clearance between them.

The only necessary human will be the person at the computer.

"There'll be one guy that essentially runs this station," Lindblad said.

The trend toward automated manufacturing was evident already at Boeing's older area plants.

In Frederickson, robots drill 80 percent of the holes in the 787 and 777 tails fabricated there.

In Auburn, robots drill the engine heat shields for the 787 and 777 jets, and will do the same for the 737 MAX. Another robot uses lasers to clean the dies used to shape the heat shields.

In its most productive factory, the 737 final-assembly plant in Renton, Boeing has replaced the traditional multistory fixtures used to hold wings in place during assembly with smaller, flexible, increasingly automated equipment as it ramps up toward an unprecedented output of 52 planes per month by 2018.

Introducing new automation is a challenge: In another new building in Everett, Boeing is struggling to smooth out the kinks in a robotic system for assembling the 777's metal fuselage.

Still, a new generation of airplanes like the 787 and 777X built with carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic composite structures have triggered a transformative shift taking automation to a new level.

Fabricating complete fuselage barrels or huge wings out of this material is simply not possible by hand. Only robots can lay up the strips of carbon fiber with enough speed and precision.

Mark Summers, head of technology at the U.K. government's Aerospace Technology Institute, said increasing automation will allow Boeing and Airbus to ratchet up production rates without adding employees.

"Jobs will not be lost, but there will not be so many new jobs created," Summers said during a panel discussion at the Farnborough Air Show in England in July. "I don't see it as an impact on the current aerospace workforce. There's just fewer jobs in aerospace in the future."

He foresees blue-collar machinist jobs increasingly supplanted by "more technologically focused" positions operating the machines.

However wary machinists may be of what the new technology means for the future, Pete Goldsmith, who led automation-technology projects at Seattle-area companies Electroimpact and Nova-Tech, and now works for a third, MTorres America, said he got "a universally positive reaction" from mechanics at both Airbus and Boeing when he installed equipment to do repetitive riveting.

"That's a job that beats you up all day every day," Goldsmith said. "We were replacing an operation that was physically very debilitating for the mechanics."

Gary Laws, a Boeing mechanic for more than two decades who operates computer-controlled machines assembling wings in Renton, said automation makes his job much easier.

And if this region wants new work in aerospace, he sees no choice but to embrace the shift.

"It's the way it has to be," said Laws. "Technology is obviously going to be the future."

Today, the current 777's metal wing parts are made largely by machinists in Auburn and Frederickson, then assembled into a wing by machinists in Everett.

Though Boeing doesn't provide a detailed breakdown of employment figures, this work certainly provides hundreds of jobs.

With the new 777X, that work changes dramatically. But it does stay in the area.

Boeing is spending $1 billion to make the giant 777X carbon fiber wing in-house, rather than outsourcing the wing to Mitsubishi, as it did on the 787.

Lindblad said that after a production ramp-up that will take a few years, the new wing center will, at peak, employ somewhere between 600 and 900 people.

The first production 777X parts that will fly on an airplane won't be made before April. Until then, workers in the wing center are making test parts, used to certify and fine-tune the new manufacturing process.

With wing skin No. 1 in the autoclave over on the fabrication side of the wing center, Jerry Schultz operated an Electroimpact machine making wing skin No. 2.

White lab coats are required in this "clean room" environment, where an overhead robot like a giant tape dispenser zips back and forth along a 110-footlong mold, building up the skin panel layer by layer.

As the robottraverses the part at various angles, it lays down plies of epoxy resin-infused carbon fiber in about 300 separately programmed runs.

Between setup, inspections and the robot work, completing a wing skin this way takes six shifts over three days.

The goal is to have just two people operating the cell, Boeing said, with possibly another worker floating between it and an adjacent cell also making wing skins.

Nearby, similar big Electroimpact machines are making the first 777X spars - the long, U-shaped, single-piece beams to which the leading and trailing edges of each wing attach.

Again, just three people will operate a pair of these spar manufacturing cells, says Boeing. The spars will then be inspected by robots that use an ultrasonic probe to check for invisible flaws in the material.

An exception to the full automation is the way Boeing is producing four of the 43 stringers, the rods that stiffen each 777X wing. These four are partly made by hand because of their more complex shape.

A half-dozen workers - five of them women, who are often preferred by manufacturers for jobs that require meticulous handwork - stood on each side of a long, thin stringer tool, positioning 4-foot-long ribbons of uncured, textilelike carbon fiber.

When they'd lain out each piece of fabric by hand, an overhead machine swung over and pressed down to secure it for curing.

"For this particular shape ... it turns out to be more cost-effective to do it this way," Lindblad said.

It's a mistake to think robots can do it all, said Ben Hempstead, chief of staff and lead mechanical engineer at aerospace-tooling designer Electroimpact.

After these 777X skin panels, spars and stringers are fabricated in the wing center, Boeing will deliver them to the main Everett factory building where mechanics will first assemble the pieces into a basic wing box, then add the folding wingtip and the leading- and trailing-edge control surfaces.

That assembly process is inherently more labor-intensive.

"With wing-box assembly, if in the future it's half-automated, that'll blow my mind," said Hempstead, whose company supplies Boeing and also provided much of the equipment Airbus to build the composite wing of the A350.

"Many of the steps require skill and judgment and are very hard to automate," he said.

Hempstead said Boeing asked Electroimpact to look at automating one specific 737 wing process in Renton that's done today by about a dozen mechanics.

"We couldn't figure out how to do it faster with machines," Hempstead said.

And don't even think about robots doing intricate jobs like installing hydraulic tubes and electrical wiring in the crowded space of an airplane wheel well.

"Oh, man, nobody has even talked about automating that," Hempstead said. "I can't even envision how you'd do it."

After World War II, Boeing gave Washington state a thriving middle class, allowing blue-collar workers - some with only a high-school education - to live the American dream.

As robots revolutionize the industry, the region has become a hotbed of leading aerospace-automation firms - including Electroimpact, Nova-Tech and MTorres America as well as Janicki Industries - that are hiring young engineers as fast as they can.

But is a golden age of manual labor ending with Boeing's automation drive?

In 2005, almost 3,500 machinists in Renton produced 21 single-aisle 737s per month, according to employment data filed with the state.

In 2014, just over 6,000 machinists there produced exactly twice as many.

While production rose 100 percent, employment of machinists rose 75 percent.

As robotic systems and the automated processing of carbon fiber proliferates, that gap is certain to widen.

While Boeing employed more than 100,000 in Washington state in the late 1990s, it seems unlikely those days are ever coming back. Its payroll here is down to about 73,000 today.

Yet that's still a big workforce, crucially important to the economy. And well-paid manual jobs remain a vital thread in the social fabric of the state.

"We can't all be baristas and software engineers," said Electroimpact's Hempstead.

At the industry discussion of automation in Farnborough, Craig Turnbull, director of engineering at Electroimpact U.K. who oversees the company's work at the Airbus wing plant in Broughton, Wales, emphasized that "there is a point where man and machine have to meet."

Even in a highly robotized auto plant, he said, the car radio is installed by a mechanic. It's too difficult for a robot.

And when it comes to hiring an operator for this new equipment, he suggested looking to machinists.

"The best person to operate a machine that drills holes is someone who has done it for 20 years by hand," Turnbull said. "They know what they are looking for. They are then becoming more of a quality-control person than actually pushing the drill through a hole."

To prepare the next generation of factory workers for such jobs, the state is pushing STEM education (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and providing community-college-level training for hands-on careers.

Becoming a machine operator will probably require a two-year associate degree with course work on the basics of electromechanics.

"These are some of the highest skilled and best compensated jobs in the factory," Hempstead said.

John Janicki, president of Janicki Industries, sees the drive toward more automation speeding up, "driven by the need to get the price down."

Though expensive to install, he said, robotic systems should allow plane makers to sell more jets over a production run that can last more than 20 years.

"If you amortize all the equipment over the life of the program, it's not that big a deal," Janicki said.

His firm - currently employing about 750 people in the state and expanding - still regularly hires local people straight out of high school and trains them to operate its sophisticated machines.

And he points to a big upside for the Pacific Northwest in having the 777X wing center: After investing so heavily, Boeing needs to use it to the fullest.

"It's absolute state of the art. It's not going anywhere," said Janicki. "You have all that equipment and the personnel trained to use it. It'll build 777s, yes. But 50 years from now, they'll still be building something in that plant."

2016 The Seattle Times

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
A veterinary team performed autopsies on Humboldt penguins and established drowning as the cause of death

A Canadian zoo has launched an investigation into the mysterious drowning deaths of seven Humboldt penguins.

"This is devastating news," said Jamie Dorgan, the director of animal care at the Calgary zoo in western Canada.

"We have launched a full investigation so we can try to understand what happened and prevent further incidents like this from happening again."

The penguins were found dead in their normal holding area, the zoo said. Its veterinary team performed autopsies on the birds and established drowning as the cause of death.

There were 22 penguins living in the zoo's Humboldt colony, along with three other penguin species.

 2016 AFP
Credit: Shutterstock

Social scientists routinely promise confidentiality to those who participate in their research. They tell participants that they will not inform anyone else about their involvement with the research or they will not reveal what they have said. This is done to encourage and ensure frank participation. But while ethics committees and review boards often mandate these promises of confidentiality, it is rare for such bodies, or universities, to speak up for researchers when they are faced with demands that they break confidentiality.

Take the ongoing struggle over the Boston College Tapes, for example. The tapes were the result of a project to create an oral history of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. In order to interview a number of former members of loyalist and republican paramilitaries about their involvement in the violence of the past, researchers promised that what was said would only be released posthumously.

Nevertheless, legal action taken by the Police Service of Northern Ireland could force Boston College  where the tapes are held  to release interviews with former IRA volunteer turned academic, Anthony McIntyre, who was also a lead researcher on the project. The PSNI says it wants the tapes in relation to the notorious 1972 IRA murder of Jean McConville. The subpoena is currently being challenged by McIntyre.

Arguably those involved ought to have made better provisions or recognised the limited nature of any guarantee they were in a position to offer. Nevertheless, it is common to provide research participants with such assurances, and those involved with this project were acting in good faith; like many researchers they believed the data they were collecting would be protected.

A comparable case now seems to be underway in Canada. As part of her doctoral research, Marie-Eve Maille interviewed a large number of individuals affected by the construction of a wind farm in Arthabaska, Quebec. As is routine, those she spoke to were assured that their remarks would be kept confidential. When some of the area's residents started legal action against the company constructing the farm, Maille offered to appear as a expert witness. The company responded by requesting access to her research data  interview records and/or transcripts  and the judge in the case ruled in their favour.

It seems, then, that the promises routinely made by social scientists have little in the way of legal support. The same could arguably be said about confidentiality in medical practice. The difference is that the notion of confidentiality is supported and defended by professional bodies and, on that basis, it is widely recognised and respected. Nevertheless, a judge can order a healthcare professional to break a patient's confidence, just as they can compel testimony from any other individual. There is no greater degree of legal protection; there is merely recognition that the confidentiality offered by healthcare professionals should not be compromised without good reason.

Undermining the truth

A similar approach should be taken in the case of social scientists. The reason that this is not currently the case is, I have argued, that we have failed to realise that the ethics of social scientific research is a form of professional ethics, and therefore comparable to the ethics espoused by other professionals, particularly those who work in healthcare.

The reason medical and legal professionals offer confidentiality to their patients and clients is connected to the nature of their work; it is a professional commitment that allows doctors and lawyers to better meet the needs of patients and clients. It is adopted because it allows professionals to do their job.

The promise of confidentiality is not just a commitment made by particular individuals, but something collectively promised by the profession as a social institution. The trust we place in the probity of individual professionals is also directly linked to the confidence we have in the profession as a whole. If confidentiality is regularly compromised by legal order, then that confidence will rapidly be undermined.

A similar point can be made with regard to social science researchers. Promising confidentiality to research participants is a way of ensuring they are in a position to tell the truth, without reservation or fear of repercussions. For example, a social scientist who is conducting research on what it is like to work in a particular factory will get different responses if the confidentiality of their participants is assured as opposed to them thinking that their bosses will learn what they have to say.

Like the legal challenge currently being faced by Maille, this example is less grandiose than that of the Boston College Tapes. Nevertheless, the larger point is the same: it would not be possible for researchers to do this kind of work were they unable to provide participants with assurances about the confidential nature of their contributions.

Confidentiality has a vital role to play in production of sound social scientific research. Of course, once it is promised, maintaining confidentiality becomes an important ethical commitment. Nevertheless, it is first and foremost a methodologically principle  something that is offered in the interests of good social science.

There is a distinct risk that promises of confidentiality are only viable when little is at stake and as soon as it matters, researchers will no longer be able to protect those who participated.

Writing about the challenges of conducting research in peace and conflict studies, John Brewer, an ex-president of the British Sociological Association, suggested that researchers forge a covenant with their research participants. It is a good suggestion, but such a covenant is not a matter for researchers alone.

It will need to be given the same level of respect accorded to the ethical commitments healthcare professionals offer to their patients. In medical practice, confidentiality is not inviolable, but it is rarely transgressed without a high justificatory bar being met. The same kind of standard should be applied to social science researchers.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
On July 17, more than 70 million tons of ice broke off from the Aru glacier in the mountains of western Tibet and tumbled into a valley below, taking the lives of nine nomadic yak herders living there. To perform a kind of forensic analysis of the avalanche, researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences joined with glaciologists from The Ohio State University; They concluded that the cause of the avalanche was likely climate change. Credit: Chinese Academy of Sciences, courtesy of The Ohio State University.

With a deadly avalanche, it appears climate change may now be affecting a once stable region of the Tibetan Plateau.

That's the conclusion of an international team of researchers who have published an analysis of the July 2016 disaster in the Dec. 9 issue of the Journal of Glaciology.

On July 17, more than 70 million tons of ice broke off from the Aru glacier in the mountains of western Tibet and tumbled into a valley below, taking the lives of nine nomadic yak herders living there.

To perform a kind of forensic analysis of the avalanche, researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences joined with two glaciologists from The Ohio State University: Lonnie Thompson, Distinguished University Professor in the School of Earth Sciences and research scientist at the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center (BPCRC), and Ellen Mosley-Thompson, Distinguished University Professor in Geography and director of BPCRC.

The most important fact about the avalanche, said Thompson, is that it lasted only four or five minutes (according to witnesses), yet it managed to bury 3.7 square miles of the valley floor in that time. He said somethinglikely meltwater at the base of the glaciermust have lubricated the ice to speed its flow down the mountain.

Sentinel-2 satellite images from shortly before (left) and just after (right) the Aru Glacier collapse that occurred on July 17, 2016 in western Tibet. More than 70 million tons of ice flowed down the mountain, killing 9 people. Credit: The Ohio State University.

"Given the rate at which the event occurred and the area covered, I think it could only happen in the presence of meltwater," Thompson said. Other nearby glaciers may be vulnerable, he added, "but unfortunately as of today, we have no ability to predict such disasters."

Researchers could not have predicted, for example, that a neighboring glacier in the same mountain range would give way just two months later, but it did in September 2016. That avalanche appears not to have resulted in any deaths, and the cause is still under investigation.

The researchers used satellite data and GPS to get precise measurements of how much ice fell in the first avalanche and the area it covered. They've since pieced together more answers by working with computer modelers who were able to replicate the avalanche virtually. In those simulations, the only condition that led to an avalanche was the presence of meltwater.

"We still don't know exactly where the meltwater came from, but given that the average temperature at the nearest weather station has risen by about 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) over the last 50 years, it makes sense that snow and ice are melting and the resulting water is seeping down beneath the glacier," Thompson said.

Glacial collapse is unprecedented in western Tibet, which for decades has resisted the effects of climate change while glaciers in southern and eastern Tibet have melted at an accelerating rate. Increased snowfall has even led to the expansion of some glaciers in western Tibetand the extra snowfall likely played some role in the avalanche by creating additional meltwater, said Lide Tian, a glaciologist at the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and lead author of the paper.
US astronaut and Senator John Glenn getting a hand from white room technicians moments before boarding the US space shuttle Discovery

John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962, but for a solid hour of that journey, NASA feared he was about to die in a blazing fireball.

In fact, all of the original crew of astronauts, known as the Mercury 7, risked life and limb in order to explore the frontier of space, and some died in the effort.

The death Thursday at 95 of Glenn, the last of the so-called Original Seven who were chosen as NASA's first astronaut corps in 1959, reminded many Americans just how far the US space program has come in the past five decades.

"Back before any human had actually gone into space the doctors weren't sure they would survive," said space policy expert John Logsdon.

He recalled concerns that powering into space aboard a rocket, then shifting to weightlessness in microgravity, might prove fatal. "It was all new territory."

Monkeys and mice were blasted off on rockets in the 1940s and 50s, and often they died in the process.

Eventually, a chimpanzee named Ham blasted off aboard the new Mercury 7 rocket in 1961 and survived, offering limited reassurance that human astronauts might be OK.

Then, Russia launched Yuri Gagarin, the first man ever in space, in 1961, and his survival took some concern away from the US crew.

But not much.

Rockets teetered on liftoff, exploded over the launch pad and collapsed into smoke and flames with jarring regularity.

"Many of us were skeptical and deeply concerned about NASA's plans to launch the Navy test pilot Alan Shepard on what would be our first space flight," wrote news anchor Walter Cronkite in his 1997 book, "A Reporter's Life."

He recalled watching those explosions, one after another, and described NASA as making a "feeble attempt" to catch up with the Soviets in the space race.

Shepard survived his 1961 trip to become the first American in spacealthough not orbit, which was Glenn's featbut years later, some of his colleagues were not so lucky.

In 1967, a spark ignited a fire inside the Apollo 1 capsule while it sat on the launchpad, incinerating all three men on board.

One of them was Gus Grissom, who was part of the Original Seven, and who had years earlier become the first man to launch into space twice.

Not too tall

The first astronauts were all military test pilots, and much has been written about their unique mental strength and capacity for risk, showcased in the 1970 Tom Wolfe book "The Right Stuff" and the 1983 movie by the same name.

"Test pilots almost by definition push the limits of what their machines can do," said Logsdon. "They were very much used to risking their lives before the space program."

But there was another, lesser known criteria.

"They had to be short," said Logsdon.

None could be taller than five feet 11 inches (1.8 meters), so that they could squeeze into the tiny, cone-shaped capsules that NASA cobbled together back then.

The single-passenger Mercury capsule that Glenn rode in was six feet 10 inches long (two meters) and about the same in width.

"If you go and look at the Mercury capsules now it is amazing that somebody was willing to get into that thing, to sit on top of a small nuclear weapon-equivalent in the energyparticularly in the Atlas rocketand get thrown into an alien environment," Logsdon said.

Years ago, Glenn said he was often asked how he felt in those moments before blasting off.

"I felt exactly how you would feel if you were getting ready to launch and knew you were sitting on top of two million partsall built by the lowest bidder on a government contract," Glenn answered.

Glenn's launch in 1962 went smoothly, but as he circled the Earth three times, mission control picked up a signal that suggested his landing bag had deployed prematurely.

Charles Murray, co-author of the book "Apollo: The Race to the Moon" said in a 1989 interview with C-SPAN that "they were really convinced for about an hour that they were going to lose that guy."

The glitch could have meant the heat shield would not work, "and he was going to get burned to a crisp," he added, describing the mood as one of "controlled terror."

After Glenn's successful splashdown, the staff at mission control celebrated by passing out American flags and lighting cigars, as was the habit back then.

On Friday, US President Barack Obama ordered all American flags at public buildings and military outposts to be flown at half-mast on the day of Glenn's funeral as a mark of respect.

 2016 AFP
Douglas V. Gibbs is a proud member of the American Authors Association

Douglas V. Gibbs is a proud member of the Military Writers Society of America.
I've read a lot about online privacy and the National Security Agency (NSA).

I'm currently on my fourth book about the topic  They Know Everything About You: How Data-Collecting Corporations and Snooping Government Agencies are Destroying Democracy by Robert Scheer.

It's amazing how after so much reading on one topic, I'm still learning new things and getting a broader understanding of the issues.

While every book I've read about the NSA has mentioned the roles of some of the main characters of our nation's spying apparatus  such NSA whistle blower Edward Snowden, Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper  Scheer's book has thus far offered a different perspective.

In other books I've read on the topic, the focus has been primarily on Snowden's revelations and the role of the government in spying on citizens. Scheer, however, has focused more on the collaboration between the government's spying apparatus and large corporations who use our data to target advertisements at us.

Scheer shows how companies like Yahoo! and Wal-Mart use the information we post about ourselves online to create very targeted advertising through the process of data-mining.

As someone who posts a lot about books, hiking and being a Philadelphia Flyers fan, for example, I'm far more likely to see ads about those topics than someone else.

Scheer does a good job discussing both the positives and negatives of this kind of data-mining, and our willful handing over of some of our most personal information through social media.

He also draws a stark distinction between private companies' data-mining and the type of bulk metadata collection that the government does.

On page 53, Scheer makes that distinction, by quoting Hayden. In a 2013 symposium of foreign affairs at Johns Hopkins University, Hayden said of the government's metadata collection, "We kill people based on metadata."

That's a little different than targeted ads.
ALBANY  A convicted sex offender from Moriah pleaded guilty Friday to six felony child pornography possession charges in U.S. District Court.

Kirkland C. Smith, 55, pleaded guilty in connection with his Dec. 30, 2014 arrest in Essex County. He was charged after authorities found pornographic material on media in his vehicle after a drunken driving crash on Route 73 in Keene, leading to a search that discovered hundreds of images on five computer hard drives and several memory cards.

Police said a state trooper spotted the material on a screen of a portable device Smith had in his vehicle.

Smith is a registered sex offender who has a history of sex offense or child pornography arrests in Vermont, Louisiana and Rhode Island, according to State Police.

Trial in the case was scheduled to start Monday before U.S. District Judge Norman Mordue. Smith is to be sentenced April 17.

He faces a minimum of 10 years in federal prison and a maximum of 20 years.
QUEENSBURY  A helicopter landed at the Queensbury school campus Friday morning to evacuate a school employee who was experiencing a medical issue, according to a school official.

Superintendent of Schools Douglas Huntley said the helicopter arrived on campus at about 11:30 a.m. to take the employee. He could not cite the nature of the medical emergency, citing health privacy laws.

The incident did not involve students, according to Huntley.

It wasnt an accident or anything of that nature. It was something that the medical issue that the person was experiencing in school, he said.

The school sent out alerts to parents and students with its messaging software.
ARGYLE  Michael Healey said he was interested in the superintendent opening at Argyle Central School because the community felt very familiar to him.

Ive always been drawn to a small rural community. I grew up in Broadalbin and worked in Northville, he said during a reception at the school.

Healey, the current principal of Galway High School, said he felt at home when he came to the Argyle campus in November for an interview. Argyle is a great school that he has admired, he said.

He will soon be leading the district, as the school board on Thursday appointed Healey to the superintendent position. Healey was given a 3 1/2-year contract at a salary of $125,000. He will begin work on Jan. 3.

Healey has been at Galway 4 1/2 years. He said he brings a variety of strengths to the position.

Id like to think Im a creative problem-solver. I like to listen. There are so many people that work in a school. Theres always a solution in the building, he said.

Before coming to Galway, he spent 11 years in the Northville district. He started as a health and special education teacher and later served as dean of students, pre-K-12 assistant principal, high school principal and chairman of the committee on special education.

The board selected Healey because of his experience working in districts that are similar to Argyle.

Were eager to start the next chapter, looking forward to getting you in maroon and gray, said board President Pam Ellis, referring to the school colors.

The board also gave Healey and his family some gifts, including Argyle apparel.

Healey, who was wearing Argyle socks, said he is excited to begin the new job.

I look forward to working with you all, he said.

Healey will replace Interim Superintendent William Scott, who has been serving since August, when Jan Jehring left to become superintendent of the Florida Union Free School District in Orange County, New York.

Scott praised the commitment of the board and the administration, faculty and support staff and the respectfulness of the students.

I have found the community very welcoming and warm. It takes me back to where I grew up, in a rural community such as this one, he said.
QUEENSBURY  A lawsuit that questioned the towns budgeting practices related to Crandall Public Library has been dismissed in state Supreme Court.

Queensbury resident John Salvador sued the town, as well as the town of Moreau and Warren and Saratoga counties, in 2014, arguing that the town was not properly detailing the library district tax in its budget. Although there was a line item in the budget for it, the tax was not listed. The town removed the line item after Salvador sued.

Justice Stan Pritzker dismissed the lawsuit last month, after hearing oral arguments from the municipalities and Salvadors lawyer, Sheila Galvin. The municipalities argued the omission had no impact and was academic.

Had the lawsuit been successful, it could have opened the door for others who paid the library tax to seek refunds, as Salvador did.

Salvador, who has filed a number of lawsuits against municipalities over the years, said he did not agree with the decision and plans to appeal it.

Pritzker found that it was a logical fallacy that one municipality was wrong because it budgeted its library tax differently, that there was no harm to taxpayers shown and they received the due process protections to which they were entitled.

Salvador said there were discussions of a settlement in the weeks before the decision, and he had agreed to a proposed settlement but the town had not.

The settlement would have required the town to change how it accounts for the library in the budget, but would not have resulted in Salvador receiving back the $2,000 or so in library district taxes he paid between 2011-2014 back.

An appeal would be heard by the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court.

Salvador said the town is obligated to disclose the library district tax in the budget, as the town of Moreau does.

Fifty years from now, we will never know we had a library tax in the town budget, he said.

Residents of Queensbury, Moreau and Glens Falls are part of the district whose residents fund the library. The librarys annual budget is up for vote each November.

The lawsuit does not name Crandall Public Library, and Salvador says the library itself did nothing improper. He pointed out the town removed the line item for the library from its 2015 budget, after he sued in August 2014.
FORT EDWARD  A Chinese rail car manufacturer is planning to build a plant at the former General Electric dewatering facility and hire 150 to 200 workers.

But development of the Fort Edward plant is contingent upon winning a contract to build New York City subway cars. The bids will be opened Dec. 15.

CRRC, Chinese Railway Rolling Stock Corp., is bidding for the contract in hopes of building 1,025 subway cars. From the Fort Edward Industrial Park, it could ship the cars by rail directly to the city.

The park is also large enough to build a two-mile test track, which is required for the MTA contract.

Were the only place that can put in a 2-mile test track for the rail cars, said Fort Edward Supervisor Mitch Suprenant. They cant do it in New York City because all the stations are too busy.

The company would also build a new 125,000-square-foot building.

CRRC is putting several plants in the United States to build rail cars for city subways. In Springfield, Massachusetts, it is building a plant to make subway cars for the Boston MBTA. The company began hiring workers in October and will send them to China for training before work on the cars begins next year.

The company has found that it can win subway car contracts in the United States if it pledges to build the manufacturing plant in that state.

But the jobs only last as long as the contracts. If CRRC gets the MTA contract, rail cars would be manufactured in Fort Edward for about five years, Suprenant said.

The jobs would pay $50,000 to $60,000, he said.

After that, the company would try for other contracts, including Canadian contracts, because cars could be easily shipped by rail into Canada from Fort Edward, Suprenant said.

Company officials seem confident it will win the contract. They toured Fort Edward earlier this year and have checked with the local labor unions to make sure a large local workforce is available. Theyve also inquired at Hudson Valley Community College, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and SUNY Adirondack about their student population in the majors that could be helpful in building rail cars.

They want engineers, electricians, mechanical workers, welders and others, Suprenant said.

Were very excited about this, he said.

Former General Electric workers are hopeful. They noted that the company's work sounds a lot like work at GE: comparable wages, doing similar tasks.

I believe I could be a rail car manufacturer, said former GE quality-control tester Mark Rock. Therell be quality control there, too. And I worked assembly, too. I built capacitors.

He has been looking for work since GE laid off the last quality control workers in July. But nothing has come close to his nearly $30-an-hour job.

Ive been offered three jobs at $12 an hour, he said.

CRRC will offer wages of $24 to $28.84 an hour. Thats giving Rock hope that he can restore his standard of living.

This might be the place, he said.

Another former General Electric worker is eagerly following the news of the company.

"I think it'll be awesome," said John Schiavoni.

But he was worried about the five-year contract.

"That's questionable," he said. "If I know it's something I can retire from, I'm more apt to take it."

Schiavoni, 42, worked for GE in Fort Edward for 12 years. Getting laid off when the plant closed was a shock that changed his life plans. Now he's going back to school to become a welder, having found no company that would hire him for anything close to his GE wages.

Not everyone is cheering the idea of jobs and economic development.

Resident Julie Wilson, who endured years of constant noise from the GE dewatering plant, wasnt impressed by the idea that the area would become a bustling industrial site. She has just started enjoying the nighttime silence.

Im very concerned, she said. Noise pollution is a serious problem. We need to sleep.

She was somewhat reassured that the company would have to get Planning Board approval for its project. The board could review hours of operation, lighting and other quality-of-life issues.

Im the closest resident, probably, but there are many others. There are many residents very close to that site, Wilson said. Should they get overwhelmed with orders, would they have to consider operating overnight?

She added, however, that shes glad the company will hire locally.

That would be a big consideration, she said.
SOUTH GLENS FALLS  After six years, the Village Board has resolved a lawsuit brought by former village employees.

Seven retirees complained when the village switched health insurance plans, six years ago. At issue was the copay for hospitalization, which went up in the new plan.

Retirees objected, saying their labor contract guaranteed that all benefits would stay the same, including hospitalization charges.

But village officials argued they had no choice in the health plan.

It was a forced change, said village attorney Michael Muller. The insurance company terminated their plan. The village was pressed to take the next-best plan.

The result was six years of litigation. Village officials refused to admit any wrongdoing, but retirees wanted their hospitalization benefit back.

Finally, the sides agreed to a compromise, which the Village Board approved Wednesday night.

The retirees were reimbursed for the additional hospitalization charges over the last six years, but wont be reimbursed for any future charges.

The total was $1,290. The board met briefly in executive session to consider the deal before voting in public. Board member Bill Hayes voted no, while the rest of the board voted yes.

This ends it. This resolves the issue, Muller said.

In other financial business, the board agreed to resolve an embarrassing situation in which the village owed itself taxes. The village was listed as delinquent by Saratoga County, for not paying a $600 village tax for a piece of property given to the village.

A local developer, Hayes and Hayes, gave the village a 120-foot strip of land leading to the Betar Byway, near the gazebo.

But when the title was transferred, the property was erroneously not placed on the tax-exempt list of government properties.

In normal circumstances, it would have been caught and the village wouldve forgiven it, Mayor Joe Orlow said.

The village negotiated to pay $300 of the bill, while the title agency that made the mistake paid the other $300. Thats the charge after late penalties, and must be paid to the county, which collects delinquent taxes.
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Without a doubt, this year's elections is the most contentious and polarising of our lifetimes.

As at today, December 9, 2016, the Electoral Commissioner of Ghana continues to collate results after the heated December 7 elections.

However, some Ghanaian celebrities have publicly shown their support for the leader of the main opposition party, New Patriotic Party's Presidential candidate, Nana Akufo Addo.

Read more: Election 2016

We have assembled a list of celebrities who have declared their support for Nana Akufo Addo through their social media posts, news reports, and campaign contributions.

The awarding winning Ghanaian actor shared this on Instagram "To God be the glory Ghana won..Let peace and love reign irrespective of party affiliation we 1people 1Nation 1Ghana..Elections shouldn't divide us..Congrats our incoming president Nana Akufo-Addo ...God grant you abundance wisdom to rule Ghana Sir...#Changeishere".

In another Instagram post, he shared a photo captioned, "Thank you God never underestimate the voice of the people...The battle indeed is of the Lord#wewantchangewehavechange Ghana 1people 1Nation LONGLIVE OUR MOTHERLAND...Gm Fam so 168 parliamentary seats for Npp Provisional results".

Media personality, Berla Mundi shared a photo of Nana Addo captioned "Still leading comfortably... Change is indeed coming. ..... @nakufoaddo "

Cartel B J, husband of TV host, Selly Galley also posted a photo of an elephant with the caption "He just got to town, he's majestically and gradually taking he's steps towards the #FlagStaffHouse. Keep calm guys, change has arrived but waiting to be legitimise".

Read more: December Polls

Yvonne Nelson hasn't publicly declared her support for Nana Addo but in a post shared by Prince David Osei, it suggested that he (Prince David) and Yvonne are affiliated to the NPP.

"I have alot of friends and fake friends in the industry but this right here is called a sister..God bless you @yvonnenelsongh. All those threatening us on peacefmonline,Ghanaweb and sending me stupid DM..Let me say here am not afraid of nothing, because God gat us..Touch not my annionted do my prophet no harm..You think am just an Actor right.. I pray to God to open your eyes to see who I really am..I am not normal,I will choke the living daylight out of you with my prayers you keep threatening and you will see what will befall you and your household".

Ghanaian actress, also posted this 5 days before the general elections "All we need is peace but still remember to vote ... Vote for the elephant... Vote for nana Akuffo Addo...#5days".

Popular movie star Kofi Adu, a.k.a. Agya Koo launched a movement to canvass votes for the New Patriotic Party ahead of the December elections.

Gospel musician Cwesi Oteng tweeted, "I would like to show my support for Nana Akufo-Addo and to fully endorse him to be our next POGH.I believe Ghana needs a breath of fresh air".
With over 200 constituencies reported in and confirmed, Nana Akuffo Addo has garnered 4,203,908 giving him a statistically unassailable lead.

The President John Dramani Mahama,representing the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) has 3,689,605 votes from the constituencies that Pulse.com.gh has put together.

Majority of the still unreleased results are from the two NPP strongholds of the Ashanti and Eastern regions.

Ghana's elections are determined by a 50%+1 vote principle, and with a 53% lead, the veteran politician looks set to become the first son of a former president also to become president in the history of Ghanaian politics.
President John Mahama has called Nana Akufo-Addo to congratulate him on his election victory.

Pulse Ghana sources tell us the conversation came in on Friday evening with the president calling his rival to wish him well and promised to help in any way possible to aid a smooth transition process between the two administrations.
The Mission has urged stakeholders to ensure a peaceful post-election environment.

Former President of Namibia, Hifikepunye Pohamba who led the AU Mission to observe the elections in Ghana said the EC was adequately prepared for the 2016 polls and adhered to the Electoral calendar.

Addressing the press, "The AU mission takes note of the effort by the Electoral Commission to ensure transparent and credible elections in the 2016 elections through its implementation of necessary reforms and engagement with stakeholders throughout the process.

"The mission observes that the EC was adequately prepared for the 2016 polls and adhered to the electoral calendar. Despite delays in some regions, the mission notes the timely delivery of electoral materials to various polling stations and to some polling stations ahead of the election."

Mr Pohamba added that "The AU commends Ghana as a strong and independent institution for dealing with disputes, especially the judiciary for adjudicating electoral disputes, and the National Peace Council for creating an enabling environment for a generally peaceful 2016 election.
The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) has projected victory for their presidential candidate Nana Addo-Danquah Akuffo Addo, after the Wednesday general election, while the ruling party has also come out that the president is in a comfortable lead.

Read more: Mahama Breaks Silence

John Dramani Mahama who has been silent since that time has finally broken his silence by telling the Party faithful of the NDC who gathered at his residence in Achimota on Friday to remain calm, as the EC comes out with the final results. `
According to him, "there is no pollster who will say that my projections are cut in stone and when I go wrong."

Read more:

He said, his latest poll indicates the National Democratic Congress (NDC) presidential candidate will win by 52.4% while the New Patriotic Partys Nana Akufo-Addo will secure 45.9% with the other parties claiming a meagre 1.7%.

The Managing Editor of the Daily Dispatch had earlier in October predicted that this years presidential and parliamentary election will produce more rejected ballots.

But following the results, Nana Addo is leading in the Presidential polls. Ben Ephson was attacked by members of the opposition party with some youth trooping to his house to demand answers.

In an interview on GHOne TV with Nana Aba Anamoah, he said, "You see, I take pride in the work I do and I thank Ghanaians for equaling my opinion polls to the word of God."
Projected figures from Pulse.com.gh puts the NPPs leader at 53.00 percent and President Mahama at 45.15 percent after collating results of 217 out of 275 constituencies.

The Electoral Commission is yet to declare certified results from the 275 constituencies but a parallel tabulation of the polling station results by the NPP shows Akufo-Addo leading with 53.37 percent.

The NDC headquarters is deserted with some party foot -soldiers lamenting bitterly about the loss of some key parliamentary seats such as Awutu Senya West, the home constituency of Foreign Minister Hanna Tetteh and Madina, the home constituency of Amadu Sorogo, chairman of the Fire Service Board.

Many cursed Ministers and MPs they suspect were against the re-election of President Mahama.

One supporter screamed in pain: "My father has worked for this party for over twenty years, he never benefited. Yet ministers were buying cars for their girlfriends."

The president, in an early morning tweet, sought to calm nerves following heightened tension amid speculation that his party is scheming with the commission to compromise the integrity of the election.

Supporters of Akufo-Addo kept vigil at his Nima residence, popularly referred to as Nima Flagstaff.

Some of the supporters said they came here to protect their leader and to celebrate with him after early polls show he is in the lead.
Three members of Ghanas famous big six were his relatives

New Patriotic Party (NPP) flag bearer, Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo is an astute Ghanaian politician, but not many actually know that he relates to three members of Ghanas famous big six. Aside his father, Edward Akufo-Addo, who at a point served as Ghanas head of state, Nana Akufo-Addo also relates to J.B Danquah and William Ofori-Attah. The former was his grand uncle, while the latter was his uncle.

READ MORE: IMANI sets out five key priorities for the next administration

Nana was a teacher at Accra Academy

Akufo-Addo returned from abroad after studying a Philosophy, Politics and Economics course at New College, Oxford in 1962. He then applied and became a teacher at the Accra Academy secondary school. He taught over there for close to two years before leaving to study Economics at the University of Ghana in 1964, where he earned a BSC degree in Economics in 1967.

He speaks fluent French

Nana is also a man who speaks fluent French. He has a long history staying in France where he began law profession. He stayed in France for five years where he practiced as a lawyer at New York-based international law firm Coudert Brothers (the firm is now defunct though). In 1975 he returned to Ghana to continue with his career in law. His stay in France enhanced his eloquence in the French language.

Nanas second wife was a Nigerian

The 72-year old has been married three times, with current wife Rebecca Akufo being the third. The NPP flag bearer was also once married to one Eleanor Nkansah-Dwamina (his first wife). But his second wife was a Nigerian recognized as Remi. His first wife however died in 1994 at age 34.

Akufo-Addo had his secondary education at Kinbu
They thronged to the streets as it was announced that President John Mahama has called Nana Akufo-Addo to concede defeat. With their car horns all blazing, music on full blast and deep-hearted screaming, supporters of the opposition New Patriotic Party danced in the streets to the National Democratic Congress campaign songs clad in party colours.

After two unsuccessful attempts in 2008 and 2012, Nana Akufo-Addo has been third time lucky with an emphatic victory in this years elections. The NPP has also regained control of the Parliament.

Mrs Charlotte Osei, the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, is set to officially declare Mr Akufo-Addo as president-elect.
Read also: Pulse News projects one touch victory for Nana Addo

One section of the voting demographic, that the parties were looking to capture was millennials (born between 1982 and 2004). Ghana is a very young country. Fifty four percent of the population is under 24 and by the next elections in 2020, 70 percent of Ghanas people will be under 35 years.

As such, young people played perhaps the most important role in this years polls. But how did Ghanas social media savvy millennials become kingmakers?

Higher education

Millennials in Ghana are highly educated with many having a minimum of a secondary school education. As such, they appreciate the problems better and are able to analyse (without being patronising) the problems better than their parents. The NPP has traditionally presented itself as the party of intellectuals while the NDC exuded a more common man feeling. It is no doubt the vice-presidential candidate of the NPP, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, (a renowned economist) was such a popular personality among the youth.

They walked their tweets

Unlike their peers in the United Kingdom and United States, Ghanas millennials didnt just sit on Twitter to rant at what they described as a bad government, they turned out in their numbers to vote. Before the elections, there were concerns of apathy among young voters but that was not the case in this election. Unlike in the past when people queued for hours under the blazing sun, people voted within three minutes of turning up at the polling station. This relative ease of voting which spread on social media encouraged many young people to show up and vote.

Ethnicity didnt matter

Unlike their parents generation, ethnic, regional or religious affiliation does not hold strong importance to young people and did not affect who they voted for. Highly educated, boarding schooled and urbanised, stereotypes of the old were absent in this election.

They saw their parents struggle

The outgoing government oversaw an epic failure in economic management whose harsh end results were not absent in many homes. Ghana had moved from one of the worlds fastest growing economies to dismal credit ratings that saw the country head to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for salvation. Millennials saw their parents either get laid off, struggle to keep businesses that were reeling from dumsor (electricity crisis) alive, struggle to pay electricity bills and the surge of school fees and major foreign currencies against the cedi.

A bleak future

Ultimately, it was the gloomy picture of the future that determined where young thumbs turned to in the voting booths. Millennials saw their older siblings, seniors at school or themselves graduate without jobs after mandatory national service. This was due in part to the freeze on employment into the public sector (as part of IMF conditionality) and the struggle of the private sector to absorb graduates. Those who got in saw salaries delayed for up to two years for some people.
This was announced at a press conference addressed by Charlotte Osei, the chairperson of the Electoral Commission, on Friday December 9 meaning the turnout is down by 30 percent compared to the 2012 election. In the last election which was held in 2012, 79 percent of eligible voters went to the polls to cast their ballot.

Read also:Pulse News projects one touch victory for Nana Addo

Over 15.7 million people were eligible to vote in this years elections, representing 56 percent of the population. The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) and some analysts have disputed the statistical 'realisticality' of the total number on Ghana's voters register. The turnout is set to fuel that argument of a bloated register.
This well thought out event will gather over 7,000 fitness pundits and fans from different parts of the world, and also include International and local fitness celebrities, who will be readily available to share their experiences and wealth of knowledge regarding the ever-growing fitness industry.

For its first edition, FitFam Fest will have a showcase of 50+ Healthy Food vendors, 50+ Fitness Exhibitors, 20+ Fitness Events, 10+ Fitness and Wellness speakers, 50+ Fitness and Wellness Conference sessions and 5 Nutrition Chefs at the FitFam Nutrition Masterclass.

The Festival will have an assortment of gears, kits, apparatus and equipment to demonstrate various physical activities. The activities will include Live Product Launch and Demonstrations on Stage, FitFam Assault Obstacle Course, FitFam Strongman Car Pulling competition, Strength and Agility Training classes, Health checks, Fitness and Wellness Conference sessions, VIP After party, Mr. FitFam 2016 and Miss FitFam 2016 competitions, FitFam Ultimate Frisbee, Pickup games and more. There would also be something for the kids: a Kids Arena where age appropriate equipment and games will be available.

Get ready to have a lot of fun as you start your Journey to Fitness!

For more information, sponsorships and partnerships please go to www.fiftamfest.com

Venue: Landmark Event Center, Oniru

Date: Sunday, December 11, 2016.
She joins an already star-studded list of artists including the likes of Awilo Logomba, Onyeka Onwenu, Sir Shina Peters, Darey, Omawumi, DJ Jimmy Jatt, Iyanya, Jeff and Tyson Noir.

Similarly, Temple Management Company, who are the brains behind the event, have also unveiled the Jenifa's Diary duo of Funke Akindele and Lolo Omotunde to join Tee A as hosts for the night.

Speaking on her performance, Tiwa Savage enthused: Personally, I have been looking forward to honouring King Sunny Ade and when this chance came, I grabbed. Long before I dreamt of pursuing a music career, King Sunny Ade has paved the way for us especially on the international stage. On a personal note, I still remember how he cancelled other requests to perform at my wedding ceremony and I will never forget his that rare act of graciousness.

ALSO READ: King Sunny Ade Music legend gets inducted into Hard Rock hall of fame

Another major highlight of the event will be the auction of one of King Sunny Ades famous guitars masterfully painted by award-winning artist, Victor Ehikhamenor. The master-piece is a collectors item and has been receiving anonymous bids. The auction will be moderated by United Auction House.

An ecstatic Ehikhamenor said, When you are given the opportunity to add a line to the history of a legend, you'd better ask God to take your hand and guide your senses. I've loved King Sunny Ade's music for the longest time and his rhythm is one of the best companion in my studio when working".

On a radio appearance, King Sunny Ade has promised his fans one of the biggest gifts. This is one of my biggest nights ever and I promise to give my audience something to remember for a long time to come.

Venue:

Date: Sunday, December 11, 2016
According to some of the men, who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), many of them have been misled by the appearance of some of these women.

Condemning the practice, a man named Timothy Danladi said, I find the use of artificial buttocks by some women to add more to their Gods given physique unattractive.

This is because it gives a wrong impression about their stature that will definitely be revealed to their partners when they get married."

Emmanuel Alabi was blunt about what the end is for women using body enhancers, and what he is said was not pretty.

If a woman uses artificial things to entice a man into marrying her, nemesis will catch up with her because when he later finds out that those things were fake, it could even lead to break-up of the union."

A market survey conducted by NAN reported that traders see a very high patronage for wares such as padded bras.

This was confirmed by Malam Usman Ali who sells undergarments at Garki market, Abuja.
Daramola said that the inmates were released in order to decongest the prison, adding that some had no case to answer, while some were released based on their age, and long stay in custody.

Daramola advised the inmates who were released to go and sin no more.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that there are 296 inmates awaiting trial at the Ado-Ekiti Prisons.

The State Comptroller of Prisons, Mr Mustapha Mohammed who spoke, said it was not appropriate to keep inmates awaiting trial for long except on capital offences.
The belief my mother held was that getting married to a woman she watched grow up from birth was the best for me and her superior argument won over in the end and I was forced to disappoint whom I had dated for six years.

How was I to know that appearances do deceive as Chioma who was an angel, according to my mother, has turned out to be my worst nightmare.

Getting married to Chioma has become my worst nightmare as she is not only troublesome but adulterous, lazy and very wasteful.

Trouble started immediately after we got married and came back to Lagos. She displayed her character two days later when she fought with my landlady because the woman accused her of dumping refuse inside a gutter. My wife fought the poor woman and tore her clothes to shreds.

When I came back from work and was told what she did, I went to plead with the landlady but my wife came to meet me there and ordered me to leave the place. When I tried to caution her, she got mad and fought me.

I was so ashamed and when we got home, I tried to caution her but I got another side of her as she abused and insulted the living daylights out of me.

Since then, it has been one trouble or the other every day. We have been evicted in three different houses because of her trouble and constant fights with neighbours.

To cap it all, Chioma has been sleeping around with different men and I even doubt the paternity of two of our four children as they do not have any semblance of me or anyone in my family.

Many people have told me how men come to visit her whenever I travel out of the state on business and how she goes out at odd hours leaving the children alone at home, sometimes sleeping out.

Anytime I question her, she would fight me, break things in the house and on two occasions, she has stabbed me with broken bottles.

I am really fed up with her but I have been condoning her because of the children but how long will I be able to hold on?

Maduka.
Rariya, a Hausa news page, reports that the victim, Umar Abdulaziz, brutally tortured by the soldiers till he gave up the ghost despite his denials that he did not steal the phone.

Despite rebuttals by the military authorities in the state, some witnesses have indicted the soldiers saying they saw how they tortured Abdulaziz after the woman identified as Fatima who is said to be a girlfriend to one of the soldiers, reported that the deceased stole her phone.

According to the report, the soldiers beat the man to the extent that when he lost consciousness, they secretly took his body to his house and dropped him there before escaping.
Punch News reported that the student, Emmanuel Kolade, left his parents' residence at Awolumate Street, Ajuwon, Ogun State and has not been seen since then.

This happened on Friday, November 11, 2016, according to a report.

His father, Adeniyi Kolade, said the missing person had not been seen since he left on the day for his office in Ikeja.

On November 11, he told me that he was going to his workplace in Ikeja, from where he would go to school.

"When his mother was about travelling that morning, he called her back and gave her N500 to augment her fare.

However, when it was 7.30pm and we didnt hear from him, we became worried. This was because he never stayed out late.

"We called his telephone lines, but they were switched off. We checked at his place of work and his colleagues said he didnt resume for work that morning.

"The school also said they did not see him. All our efforts have proved abortive.
Bruce, in a tweet which he posted on his Twitter timeline, said As 2017 approaches let me warn that if we waste it blaming previous admins as we did 2016, we will move from recession to economic collapse!

The Buhari led administration had blamed the former government led by ex-President Goodluck Jonathan for the economic recession.

The Senator also condoled with the families of those who lost their lives in the Adamawan twin blasts.

Bruce said My condolences to the govt and people of Adamawa over today's loss of lives due to terrorist activity. May God grant repose to the victims.
"At least 30 people have been killed in the suicide blasts carried out by two female suicide bombers in the market" in the town of Madagali, military spokesman major Badare Akintoye told AFP.

"Several people have been injured in the attack," said Akintoye on the phone from a military base in the town of Mubi, 100 kilometres (60 miles) away.

A local government official and the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) confirmed the attack, the latest in Boko Haram's seven-year insurgent campaign in the restive region.

"The two bombers who (were) disguised as customers, detonated their suicide belts at the section of the market selling grains and second-hand clothing," said Yusuf Muhammad, the chairman of Madagali local government.

"We still don't have the exact number of those injured but they are many," he added.

"We heard there was a twin-blast in a market at Madagali this morning. Our men are on (the) ground evacuating the victims," he told AFP. "We still don't have details of casualties."

He said security agents had cordoned off the scene of the explosions.

Madagali was among the territory captured by Boko Haram in 2014 before Nigerian troops, supported by a regional force, liberated it in 2015.

Friday's incident was the third in the town since two female suicide bombers attacked in December last year, killing and injuring scores.

Boko Haram is seeking to impose a hardline Islamic legal system on Nigeria's mainly-Muslim north. Its campaign of violence has killed at least 20,000 people and displaced some 2.6 million since 2009.

Nigeria's military campaign against the jihadists is increasingly bogged down as it confronts suicide attacks, looting and indiscriminate slaughter.

jpegMpeg4-1280x720The United Nations has warned that the affected region faces the "largest crisis in Africa".
Buhari made the comment on Friday, December 9, while meeting with members of the National Planning and Implementation Committee of the first National Youth Open Water Swimming Competition at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

Our size as Nigeria, our natural resources and our population have put us in a very difficult position, not only in Africa but throughout the world. Everybody expects Nigeria to perform because of our quality human and material resources. So this is putting a lot of responsibilities on us, especially the youth," he said.

We just have to be up and doing in order to show Africa and the rest of the world that our size and number are not for nothing. We should prove that we can produce competitive individuals and we are able to manage ourselves.

I am pleased to be associated with this event. I have been told how you have been training very hard. Please, try to convince your colleagues to be more competitive so that you can justify our size and our resources," he added.
Osinbajo, who was represented by Mr Ade Ipaye, the Deputy Chief of Staff to the President, said this while addressing a policy roundtable on identity at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa.

The vice-president added that the president also said NIN should be used to access health insurance, registration of SIM cards, social welfare programmes of the administration and all financial transactions.

It is the presidents charge that a NIN is used to authenticate eligible voters in the nearest future as well as in the areas of access to health, insurance, registration of SIM cards, access to the social welfare programmes of the administration and for all financial transactions.

The development of identity programmes in Nigeria will help the nation leverage on its potential to improve security of lives and property, advance service delivery and fight poverty and corruption.

Achieving full scale national identity management will therefore boost our efforts and better tracking of the movement of people while minimising issues with external border controls and terrorism.

We have an opportunity here to change and transform our country and everyone has a role to play in the growth and development of our nation through digital identity, he said.

Osinbajo expressed disappointment that the country had separated but similar identifications for its citizens collated by many agencies of government which he described as duplication and waste of resources

He said it was time to harmonise the data to save the people from the rigours of being captured many times as well as to conserve funds.

Osinbajo noted that the cost of managing disparate and unconnected bio-metric linked data bases was increasingly becoming a huge burden and needed to be streamlined.

He said this was because the government could not afford to fund the unnecessary duplication of efforts and overlapping identity functions that further depleted its scarce resources.

He said there was large benefit for integration of the identification programmes of government institutions which must be taken advantage of to get it right once and for all.

He said the president had already identified the importance of a synchronised identity system.

He said it informed the directive from the Office of the Vice-President in December 2015 for all stakeholders with independent identity management systems to consolidate, aggregate and integrate their data bases.

Osinbajo said the directive was issued as a way to accelerate and scale up the national identity system.

He stressed the importance of the meeting which was to optimise the benefits of digital identity and leveraging its use for accelerating development in the country.

Therefore, we must embrace and harness the potential inherent in digital identity to build and develop our country.

He observed that other nations had utilised identity as a foundation for transforming governance and enhancing service delivery.

Osinbajo expressed gratitude that the Nigeria Identity Management Commission (NIMC) had commenced a harmonised identity management system to ensure its completeness, accuracy, and integrity in national assets.

He said Nigeria should use its digital strategy to establish a global reputation for technological leadership and business dynamism and build digital ecosystems in which innovation could thrive.

We will invest in smart infrastructure, platforms and services , digitise our records and classify them accordingly, review and upgrade the legal and regulatory framework as we notch up the digital talent that abound.

He said that an accurate identity system with accurate data is no doubt a national asset to any country.

It is time for Nigeria to also offer this unique identity to all its citizens.

Nigeria as a global player and a developing nation must work towards leveraging digital identity as a reliable tool for uniquely identifying its citizenry and residents and accelerating socio- economic development.

The vice-president commended the World Bank and other development partners for their concern and interest in the Nigerian identity ecosystem, including integration effort and for sponsoring the roundtable.

The Director-General of NIMC, Mr Aliyu Aziz, observed that harmonisation of data bases had started in the country since 2008 but noted that the process was slow and should be fast-tracked.

Mrs Indira Konjhodzic, who represented the Country Director of World Bank, said the organisation was happy to partner the country in the harmonisation of identification information.

She noted that many people in Africa had no identification proof and urged NIMC to make the process work.

In their presentations, a former Director-General of Unique ID Authority of India, Mr Vijay Madan, and the Senior World Bank ICT Specialist, Zaid Safdar, urged the country to hasten its identity harmonisation.
The House further urges the government to install border security and surveillance equipment for effective monitoring to address the recurring menace of smuggling and ensure a maximum revenue generation on all lawfully-imported goods, a resolution reached by the House on Thursday, December 8, stated.

The House reached the resolution after Sokoto State lawmaker, Abdullahi Salame warned that the proposed ban could lead to massive job loss in the country.

The government will indeed lose revenue and Customs personnel will connive with smugglers to divert revenue. Car dealers will lose their business and this also implies that millions of Nigerians will lose their means of livelihood, he said.

A similar exercise in the case of importation of rice has brought untold hardship on Nigerians as a bag of rice now sells for between N20,000 and N23,000 as against N8,000 a few months ago, he added.
An excerpt of the letter reads: The same government having breached his right to fair trial by not allowing him proceed on bail to have adequate time and facilities to prepare his defence, interfered with his constitutionally guaranteed presumption of innocence by continuing to detain him without trial has insisted on several occasions to proceed with the charges afore described, knowing fully well that the appellant has no access to documents with which he would wish to defend himself.
People have stolen our money, why are you begging them to return it? We need to fight them and collect the money; we do not need loans that will mortgage the future of our country, he said according to The Cable.

The government is asking for a loan of $29.6 billion and we have more than that to recover. For instance, $458 million has been forfeited in the US; Nigeria has filed an application before the high court in Jersey where the money was traced to.

But the US government has filed an objection to the release of the money to the government of Nigeria, claiming the money should be paid to the US government to be managed for Nigeria.

We also have some money to collect from the Swiss government; the Swiss government is illegally saying that they are not going to release this money unless the World Bank is ready to supervise the management of the fund.

ALSO READ: Falana tells Buhari to sue US, UK over looted funds instead of begging

Unfortunately, the government (Nigeria) is not challenging such violations of our sovereign rights as a nation. Unless the federal government is prepared to adopt an aggressive policy against western governments and their very corrupt financial institutions, we are not going to come out of this mess, he added.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that former governor, now the Minister of Solid Minerals had in 2010 during his assumption into office as governor relieved the appellants of their duties 15 months into the end of their tenures.

Fayemi had appointed caretaker committee into his government to carry out most of the functions that the local government chairmen and councilors would have done.

In a unanimous judgment read by Justice Chima Nweze, the Supreme Court held that the sack by Fayemi was illegal and unconstitutional.

Nweze ordered that the chairmen, who were unlawfully removed by the governor, to be paid their salaries and other allowances for the period they were unlawfully removed from office.

Speaking outside the court, Mr Wole Ayeni, former Chaiman, Ikole Local Government and Mr Ogunbiyi Olasunkanmi-Synergy commended the court for the good judgment.

According to them, the judiciary has come to life since this matter started many years ago.
The minister made the call at a seminar to commemorate the International Anti-Corruption Day with the theme, Corruption: An Impediment to the Sustainable Development Goals.

The event was facilitated by the Inter-Agency Task Team (IATT) in collaboration with the EU, U.S. Embassy and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

Fayemi, who chairs the IATT, stated that Nigeria was one of the first countries to ratify the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) in Merida, Mexico in 2003.

To this end, he said that concerted efforts must be directed at fighting the monster called corruption in the country for it to be tamed.

There is no denying the fact that our country has massive corruption problems.

The current administration is running an anti-corruption agenda anchored on prevention, public engagement, sanctions and enforcement, and recovery of proceeds of corruption.

The sanction and enforcement mechanism is ensuring that there are no sacred cows, a statement by EFCC spokesperson, Mr Wilson Uwujaren, quoted him as saying.

The minister said that Nigeria had an array of legislations and institutions for fighting corruption, including police, Code of Conduct Bureau, EFCC, ICPC, Bureau of Public Procurement and the NEITI, among others.

He emphasised that the government had signed on to the Open Government Partnership and developed an action plan for implementation in order to promote transparency within the polity.

In a statement sent to UNODC, the Secretary-General of UN, Ban Ki-moon described corruption as a deadly monster that strangles people, communities and nations.

Ki-moon said that the menace weakens education and health, undermines electoral processes and reinforces injustices by perverting criminal justice systems and the rule of law.

He enjoined all to reaffirm their commitment to ending the deceit and dishonesty that threatens the 2030 Agenda and the efforts to achieve peace and prosperity for all on a healthy planet.

The Executive Director of UNODC, Yury Fedotov, harped on the need to unite to successfully eliminate corruption.

ALSO READ:

The acting Chairman of the EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, had led staff of the commission on a road walk from its headquarters to the venue of the celebration.
Still smarting from the emotional trauma of the civil war, Nigeria created the NYSC scheme "in a bid to reconstruct, reconcile and rebuild the country."

The 1973 Decree establishing the NYSC said the scheme was put up "with a view to the proper encouragement and development of common ties among the youths of Nigeria and the promotion of national unity".

Make no mistake, the NYSC was a novel initiative.

Any scheme whose goal is to promote national unity or national integration, gets my vote.

But not anymore. The NYSC has since outlived its usefulness.

ALSO READ: NYSC has overstayed its welcome

The recent death of Oladepo Ifedapo Rachael, a 'Batch B' NYSC member at the orientation camp in Kano, should be the last.

Before Rachael, we had Miss Elechi who died in Bayelsa State from a strange ailment, Samuel Dumebi Okonta who was shot from point blank range during the 2016 rerun election in Rivers State,Dayo who drowned in a Port Harcourt river, Sampson Worlu who was abducted and killed in Rivers State and countless other Corp members who have lost their lives in the terrorist ravaged North East region of Nigeria.

Corp members have also recently lost their lives in Kano and Zamfara States.

During plenary this week, Senator Olusola Adeyeye agreed with a host of Nigerians when he said: "The death of Corps members is becoming a recurring decimal in almost all NYSC camps across the country as fresh Doctors who have not garnered any experience are the ones administering treatments to corp members.

Medical facilities at most Orientation Camps leave a lot to be desired as one of the deceased, Ifedolapo, called home five hours to her death and told her sister, (a nurse) to start coming to her Kano Orientation Camp, alleging poor care at the NYSC camp.

An Orientation Camp that houses over 3,000 corps members cannot boast of modern facilities to cater for the needs of corps members while undergoing the mandatory Orientation Programme.

Truth is, almost all the deaths of NYSC members were avoidable--poor health-care at overcrowded and unkempt orientation camps, poor security in Boko Haram ridden areas, poor security during elections...we can go on and on.

In 43 years, we have sent young men and women to untimely graves. In 43 years, instead of integrating the country through the NYSC, we've created several religious and ethnic fault-lines instead.

In 43 years, we've watched helplessly as our kids, cousins and nephews have been sent to early graves in the name of "serving their country".

Their blood are on our hands. Yes, all of us.

These days, it's not uncommon to find graduates "working" their NYSC postings to Lagos, Abuja or Port Harcourt. Who wants their kids to serve in Borno, Yobe or Kano?

Here is the thing: the NYSC scheme doesn't need to be overhauled as some have suggested. It just needs to die. Let's bury this thing once and for all.

Some of us will eternally be grateful to the NYSC scheme for blessing us with science teachers at a time we had none; way back in secondary school

I attended a rural secondary school in a local government where Physics and Chemistry tutors were a luxury at the time. The school authorities depended on Corp members to prepare students for the West African Examination Council (WAEC) tests.

That was the '90s by the way.

Since then, the scheme has changed for the worst. The NYSC has become a killing field.

How I hate to type those words.

But that's the reality.

26-year-old Rachael will probably be alive today if she were back home with her folks in the South West or if she was doing some gainful work in a start-up in Lagos or Abuja. Or if she was born into a country with decent health-care or one where value is placed on human lives.

As will other Corp members who have lost their lives through no fault of theirs.
Osinbajo said this when he received a delegation of Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat of Nigeria at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

He observed that in the past religious bodies taught good morals, discipline and hard work that could help to build up the nation.

If we maintain those values, it will help the country greatly, he stated.

The vice-president observed that religion was being used by some people to pursue other agenda.

He said it was important for all to continue to emphasise on the values that would enhance the capacity for good citizenship.

Commenting on the governments plan to borrow 30 billion dollars, Osinbajo said the issue might have been blown out of proportion.

According to him, the loan has many projects attached to it.

The Medium Term Expenditure Framework was sent to the National Assembly and the borrowing plan has been made to capture projects such as Lagos  Kano rail project, the Mambila hydro electricity project and the Lagos  Calabar rail Project, he said.

Osinbajo also explained that the loans were concessional and would attract 1.5 per cent interest.

He said the country was in recession because of foreign exchange issues and stressed that President Muhammadu Buhari was focused and consistent in his policies and fight against corruption.

He also said that the administration was striving to revive agriculture for massive food production.

A lot of work is being done in agriculture sector. Farmers are happy and they are making money because they have market for their products, he said.

The vice-president told the group that the government was aggressively addressing the problem of job creation.

Government has engaged 200,000 unemployed graduates in various sectors of the economy and this will cost N79.2 billion in a year, he explained.

Osinbajo commended the group for its counsel and proffering solutions for the development of the economy.

Earlier, the leader of the delegation, Dr Mashud Fashola, said the visit was to pray for the president and the success of the administration.

He also said the group had great regard for the countrys leadership, made up of men of extra-ordinary integrity and piety.
The duo were arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Nov. 21, on 30 counts.

They both pleaded not guilty to the charges, and were each granted a N20 million bail on self recognisance.

However, due to her inability to meet the bail conditions, Ajumogobia filed an application before the court, praying it to vary the bail conditions.

Thus, on Thursday, the judge varied the bail conditions, after entertaining arguments from counsel to both parties.

Oshodi held that he exercised his discretionary powers in favour of the two accused in view of the fact that the EFCC did not raise any objection to the application.

The judge therefore granted the request of Justice Ofili-Ajumogobia, alongside Oblas to perfect a N20 million bail bond with the Chief Registrar of the Lagos State High Court instead of a cash deposit of the sum.

Oshodi ordered the accused to depose to an affidavit of means.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Obla was charged with offering gratification in the sum of N5 million to Ofili-Ajumogobia during her service as a judge.

Similarly, Ofili-Ajumogobia is facing a 26-count charge of unlawful enrichment, forgery and giving false information to an official of the EFCC.

According to the EFCC, Obla, on May 21, 2015, intentionally transferred N5 million to Ofili-Ajumogobia via his Obla and Co United Bank of Africa (UBA) account number: 1015319084 in order to refrain her from acting in her official duties.

The anti-graft agency alleged that Ofili-Ajumogobia, while serving as a Justice of the Federal High Court, on June 5, 2012, unlawfully received N18 million through her Access bank account.

The EFCC stated that she could not give a reasonable account of the sum.

The EFCC said that from 2012 to 2015, Ofili-Ajumogobia also received 788,000 dollars from various sources into her Diamond bank account number: 0032091183.

According to the commission, Ofili-Ajumogobia also received N51.1 million into the Diamond bank account from various sources which did not reflect her source of income as a judge.

The EFCC also claimed that from July to Dec. 30, 2010, Ofili-Ajumogobia forged a deed of assignment between County City Bricks Development Co Limited and Nigel and Clove Ltd.

The commission said thst the forged deed dated July 5, 2010, was purportedly prepared and signed by Charles Musa and Co.

The anti-graft agency added that on Oct.19, the judge made a false statement through a phone call to one Lawal Abdullahi, an officer of the EFCC, when she claimed she was on admission at the Goldcross Hospital, Ikoyi.
A statement by the commands spokesman, ASP Aliyu Usman, issued in Kaduna on Thursday also declared a group called Civilian JTF, an unlawful organisation.

It warned that any activity including the disruption of peaceful and free movement of people by the two organisations would not be tolerated.

He said The command, therefore, wishes to reiterate that person (s) found organising or conducting unlawful processions in any part of the state shall be dealt with in accordance with the law.

The statement advised the public to go about their lawful businesses, as adequate security measures have been put in place to guarantee their safety.

It stressed that it would deal decisively with any form of lawlessness, inciting disturbances, unlawful assembly and any other action capable of breaching the peace of the state.
348 people were reported to have died in the clash which occurred in Zaria, Kaduna State.

The US made the call via a statement released by Assistant Secretary and Department Spokesperson of the Bureau of Public Affairs, John Kirby.

The statement reads:

On December 5th, the Kaduna state government in Nigeria issued a long-awaited white paper on clashes last year that resulted in the deaths of a reported 348 civilians and one soldier.

We fully agree with the white papers recommendation that members of the military who were involved in the unlawful killing of civilians must be held accountable and punished appropriately.

As the one-year anniversary of this tragic event approaches, we call on the federal government to be diligent, transparent, and expeditious in following through on this recommendation.

We also encourage the federal government to act on the Abuja high courts decision on December 2 that IMN leader Ibrahim Zakzaky and his wife should be released from prison within 45 days, as they have been held without charge since the events of last December.

As the white paper notes, the right to freedom of worship is a cherished constitutional right in Nigeria that must be protected. We encourage the people and the government of Nigeria to support these fundamental principles, regardless of religion, ethnicity, or region.

ALSO READ:Kaduna Governor declares Shiite sect illegal
She made the call while leading a debate on the Constituency Projects Bill during the Senate plenary session on Thursday, December 8, 2016.

Senator Oduah, who represents the Anambra North Senatorial District, argued that at least 20 per cent of the annual budget of the Federal Government should be allocated to constituency projects, which would be used for rural development.

She observed that there was the need for institutional and legislative frameworks for the execution of constituency projects in Nigeria, hence making it part of the national budget.

She noted that when the Bill is passed, legislators would have an opportunity to get their constituencies, especially the rural areas, developed, as they would be captured directly in the federal governments budget.

Projects under this Act, when passed, shall be community-based in order to ensure that the prospective benefits are available to a widespread cross-session of the inhabitants of a particular area, she said.

Any funding under this Act shall be for a complete project or a defined phase of a project and may include the acquisition of land.

It is instructive to note by way of educating the general public that members of the National Assembly merely identify the needs of the constituents and recommend same to the executive during budgeting.

Ultimately, they have no direct control over their implementation; hence the award, financing and supervision of constituency projects are the preserves of Appropriation agencies other than the National Assembly, she added.

ALSO READ: Stella Oduah threatens to sue Sahara Reporters

The Bill for an Act to provide for Constituency Projects in the Annual Budget of the Federation (SB. 321) was read the first time on Tuesday, 15th November, 2016.
Akpandem said that the minister, Mr Udoma Udo Udoma, did not mention turning to IMF as reported by a national newspaper on Friday.

He said the minister while briefing a French delegation that visited him in Abuja on Thursday, explained generally that government was exploring both internal and external sources to fund infrastructure.

According to him, the minister emphasised that in the case of external sources, government will only be looking at institutions that can give concessionary terms.

ALSO READ:Minister says Nigeria is borrowing solely to fund infrastructure projects

The Federal Government does not have need to go to the IMF for any loan at this time, he said.
The minister made the statement when he briefed the Assistant Secretary for Multilateral Affairs of Trade and Policy Department of France, Mr Guillaume Chabert.

Udoma said as international development partners explored areas of support to help Nigeria grow a sustainable economy, the Federal Government would consider borrowing to fund targeted infrastructure projects.

He said the effect of investing in infrastructure was enormous and the surest way of setting the country on the part of growth and sustainable development.

The minister said that the Nigerian government was working on a National Economic Recovery and Growth Plan which was tailor-made to move the countrys economy out of recession.

He said that the plan was also designed to set the country on the path of growth.

Our plan is that we should be able, within that plan period (2017  2020) to achieve not less than seven per cent growth.

For one, to get out of economic recession, we will need to harness resources by plugging revenue leakages.

We will also be looking at new revenue sources in order to generate the resources required to spend our way out of recession, Udoma said.

He said that while government was exploring other means of generating revenue internally, it would need to borrow, part of which had to be sourced internationally.

The minister said the money had to be borrowed internationally from sources that could lend on concessionary terms, such as International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank.

In addition, Udoma said that government was going into partnership with the private sector in critical areas of infrastructure provision and concession.

Our intention is to make the private sector to lead the way in social housing; we will kick-start the process and intend to make some provision for it in the 2017 Budget.

Then, we are also looking at manufacturing.

One of the ways is by developing export processing zones where we will have all the required infrastructure, including power, rail and security, to encourage manufacturers to relocate to Nigeria, Udoma said.

The minister, however, expressed appreciation for the support by the French Government, particularly in terms of bilateral and multilateral support, directly and through the European Union.

Chabert said the French government would be willing to support Nigeria surmount its challenges.
Alhaji Sani Yaro, a prominent dealer of used cars at Olu Obasanjo Way in Kano, said that even before the ban, they were struggling to save the business.

He explained that it was indeed a government policy that brought about the ban, yet they urged the Federal Government to think of their plight and review the policy.

Another dealer, Alhaji Sadiq Idris of Zage Motors in Kano, said many of the dealers would be out of business when the ban takes effect in 2017.

He noted that not only the dealers would be affected, but rather multiple youths who earned a living through running the errands in the business.

For Alhaji Muttaka Aminu, another car dealer in the Kano metropolis, he told NAN that he may be compelled to do a total switch to another trade, saying it was a trade he knew while growing up, as his father was into the same business.

A security official who pleaded anonymity, however, told NAN that the reason for the ban could either be economic or security-related.

NAN reports that car dealers in Kano have been in a dilemma since the announcement of the ban on importation of vehicles through the Nigerian land borders by the Nigerian Customs Service on Tuesday.
According to Vanguard, the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) has also issued a statement condemning the Governors CSO.

Wike had announced at a rally in Rivers state that the police authorities withdrew his security aide so he will be an easy target.

The police authorities however issued a statement saying Wikes CSO was redeployed because he was participating in political activities.

Speaking further on the issue, the Executive Director, Comrade Ibuchukwu Ezik said The attention of the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) has been drawn to the withdrawal of the Chief Security Officer to the Governor of Rivers State, Barrister Nyeson Wike, by the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Idris Abubukar.

This lawless action was taken few days to the rescheduled Re-run elections into the National Assembly in Rivers State and in view of the threat to security in the Niger Delta region, especially in Rivers state in the wake of this re-run election.

Media reports quote police authorities reasons for this obnoxious action as a punishment to the CSO for his partisanship. The CSO, according to CLO findings, was alleged to have participated in an APC political rally in Rivers state.

The right person to complain against the CSO for such unpleasant act if at all such allegation existed, is Governor Wike . Unfortunately, no complaints were lodged against the CSO by the governor.

CLO investigations indicate that the Commissioner of Police in the state has been changed for many times since May 29, 2015, when Barr. Wike assumed duties as the governor of the State. In the build up to the said re-run elections, many Divisional Police Officers (DPOs) have been transferred by Abuja.

Towards the end of the tenure of the former governor of the State, Chief Rotimi Amaechi, the former PDP government embarked on such senseless actions as this and CLO didnt mince words in condemning the conspiracy and urging the 7th NASS to live up to their responsibilities till justice was done.

We are hugely astonished that APC which rode to power on the pretext it would rewrite the ills of the previous regimes, has indulged in worse conduct of such odious practices than the PDP. CLO totally rejects the argument of the APC that while they are repeating this impunity is because PDP did same when it was power. For us, that argument is childish and holds no water at all.

The governor of a state is the leader of such state and must be respected as such in accordance with the provisions of our law and global best practices. We must at all times call abuse of the due process, rule of law and human rights by its name  an abuse.

While CLO shall hold the Inspector General of Police accountable for any break down of law and order in Rivers state during and after the elections till the right thing is done, we call on the National Assembly to as of a matter of urgency do the following that would help put an end to this madness:-

Order the Inspector General of Police to immediately restore the Chief Security Officer to the Governor of Rivers state.

Warn him of further indulgence in such anti-democratic acts in future.

Review the Act establishing the Nigeria Police with a view to making the institution independent in all ramifications, including freedom from unnecessary executive interference and to strengthen it to effectively perform its duties of securing the nation.

We do recall that during the last elections in the state, a youth corps member, Samuel Okonta, was murdered in cold blood while performing his national duties. Till date, his killers have not been tracked and prosecuted by the Police before this current lawlessness that is capable of causing more serious threats to the security of lives and property during Saturdays elections. Nigeria remains few of the global nations that have no respect for human life. CLO, shall, henceforth, begin to hold state actors responsible for killing citizens in extra judicial circumstances.
Is that what they want to export to Rivers State. They should keep their non-payment of salaries. We are up to date in terms of payment of salaries. Our people are enjoying quality projects. I have not heard any of them commissioning projects.

In Benue State, Fulani people are killing them everyday. Governor Ortom is too scared to defend his people and he is here to campaign. These APC governors are beneficiaries of Amaechis corruption. Amaechi stole our resources and used the funds to sponsor Lalong, Abubakar of Bauchi State, Ortom of Benue State and the APC National Campaigns, he added.
The elections are to be held in 21 constituencies, made up of three senatorial districts, eight Federal constituencies and 10 state constituencies.

The presidents Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, conveyed his message in a statement in Abuja on Friday.

Buhari urged the political parties, candidates and other stakeholders to ensure the polls were conducted without rigging, violence and intimidation of opponents and electoral officials.

He reminded politicians and their supporters in Rivers to put the higher interest of the people of the state in mind, as they go to the polls on Saturday.

The rerun elections should not be seen as a do-or-die to the extent that people will be killed, maimed and property destroyed in a mindless display of crude primitive instincts.

Buhari said innocent blood should never be sacrificed on the altar of political contest for temporary power.

He urged security and law enforcement agencies to exhibit professionalism and non-partisanship in the discharge of their constitutional duties even in the face of extreme provocation.

He also directed them to deal decisively with trouble-makers and those bent on violating the sanctity of the electoral process.

The president also enjoined the Independent National Electoral Commission to do all within its powers to give transparency and fairness to the electoral exercise in Rivers.

He restated the commitment of his administration to deepening democracy in the country by enthroning a legacy of respect for the wishes of the people through free, fair and credible elections devoid of intimidation and violence.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the rerun elections were ordered by the court, which nullified the polls held in 2015 because of electoral malpractice.

An earlier attempt to hold the elections in March was stalled by violence which led to the death of a National Youth Service Corps member, served as an ad hoc electoral officer.
It is apparent that the two leaders are playing to the gallery with each trying to outsmart the other. This attitude is certainly and totally detrimental to the progress of our party particularly now that we are in the opposition, he said.

It is not in the interest of our party for our leaders to throw tantrums at each other at the slightest opportunity thereby personalizing the leadership of the party.

As it is now, one would have expected that the Board of Trustee, our respected elders and governors would have taken full charge of the situation by demanding for the resignation of the leadership of the two warring camps so that normalcy will be restored in the affairs of our great party.

Sadly enough, we are currently witnessing defections of monumental proportions from a party that promises to wrestle power from the APC come 2019, he added.

Bako also said that both Sheriff and Makarfi would need to make sacrifices as the party is greater than any individual or group.
This is coming as residents of the state are getting ready to vote for their representatives in the Rivers rerun election on Saturday, December 10, 2016.

The PDP also said the body language of the APC since it took power in 2015, shows that the party wants to erase democracy.

According to Vanguard, PDPs spokesman, Dayo Adeyeye said the Buhari led administration wants to take Nigerians back to the era of dictatorship.

Adeyeye said It was another sad day in Nigeria as top echelon of the Ruling Party in the Country, the All Progressive Congress (APC), on Thursday, December 8, 2016, in Port Harcourt, Rivers State took turns like garrison commanders, ordering their supporters to shoot and kill any member or supporter of our Party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The APC did not also spare other voters in the state as they ordered their armies to attack them during the Saturday, December 10, 2016 Re-Run Elections. This open declaration of war on the people of Rivers State is only reaffirming our earlier position and fear that all the actions and body language of the All Progressive Congress (APC) since it took over power in May, 2015 is gearing towards erasing democracy and installing full blown dictatorship in Nigeria.

The National Chairman of the APC, Chief John Odigie Oyegun addressing a very scanty crowd at the so called Mega Rally in Port Harcourt, Rivers State yesterday openly incited the members and supporters of his party saying If they push you, push them back. If they slap you slap them back. As you can see we came in full force, the whole federal might is here. As if that was not enough, the Governor of Kano State, Alhaji Umar Ganduje who is also the Chairman of the APC, Rivers State Re-Run Campaign Committee said, If they shoot at you, take cover and shoot them back.

This is very sad and a complete reversal of all the democratic experience we have built and nurtured in Nigeria in the last 16 years. A political rally which normally should have been an opportunity to sell its Programme and manifesto was instead turned into a call for war and violence by the APC leaders. We will not fold our arms and allow the All Progressive Congress (APC) and its supporters destroy our hard earned democracy.

We will not stop but continue to alert Nigerians and the international community to the danger the ruling Party is posing to our democracy. We therefore call on the Nigerian Police and other relevant security agencies to be alert to their responsibilities and ensure that the Elections on Saturday in Rivers State are not only free and fair but also very peaceful, orderly and without any violence. We again call on our members, teeming supporters and the electorate in Rivers state to remain calm in the face of these daring provocations.

Dictatorship, avarice and anarchy that has characterized this APC led government since inception may last for a season but freedom & liberty will last for eternity. The APC has nothing more to offer Nigerians, hence the resort to war and attacks on the people. Finally, we urge the people of Rivers state to come out enmass on Saturday, December 10, 2016 and vote for all the Candidates of our Party, the PDP in the Re-Run Elections. Rivers State is the home of the PDP and we are sure of victory in all the Elections. God bless Rivers State! God bless Nigeria!!"
Idris made this known on Thursday in Port Harcourt while addressing the deployed police personnel and those of the state command.

According to him, logistics arrangements had been concluded.

Idris said that three helicopters would be used for aerial surveillance, each per senatorial district.

He also said that 28 gun boats would be used by the police to patrol waterways in the state in collaboration with Nigerian Navy.

The IGP, who also paid a courtesy call on Gov. Nyesom Wike, said that he was in the state to ensure peaceful elections.
According to Vanguard, Abe said the Rivers Governor and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) are training returning officers in a hotel in Abia state.

The Senator said We are becoming very concerned about the activities and linkages that we are seeing between the PDP and the INEC. We just received a report this evening that the INEC Collation and returning officers were being trained at the Dangreet Hotel in Umuahia in Abia state and from our knowledge of the operations of INEC, no training of officers has ever been conducted in any obscure hotel in this country.

Training of officers is always done in the universities where the officers are being picked from and from that university they are taken straight to the state where they are to do their job.

But to hear now that collation and returning officers were being trained at the Dangreet Hotel, Umuahia in the presence of PDP agents when our own agents were not informed or aware of it, certainly calls for concern and we believe that in this exercise, INEC should not only be fair but be seen by all Nigerians to be fair.

We are very concerned because of the relationship that exists between some of the key actors in this whole thing and some of the key players in the INEC structure.

We think that all Nigerians must be vigilant as far as this Rivers re-run election is concerned and that all the parties should be evenly and fairly treated.
Speaking at a recent meet with the IGP, Wike said: The moment you touch my chief security officer, you are telling me that you are ready for me. As I sit here, I am empty, I have no protection.

What you have done is the highest disrespect to the Office of the Governor, he said.

Wike pleaded with the IGP to return his CSO, saying that he would not be able to take anyone.

I am pleading with you, my life is very important; I will not take any chief security officer you bring to me that I dont know.

This is a matter of security and protection, it is not what you do with levity.

Wike said that the IGP did not consult him before redeploying the CSO.

The governor said that he was shocked by a statement released by the Office of the Inspector-General of Police, saying that his CSO was withdrawn for misconduct.

He told the IGP that, on the contrary, the CSO only stopped an APC crowd from invading the government house.

He urged the police to be unbiased during the election, saying that Rivers people would support an unbiased police but would resist any attempt to use security agencies for untoward electoral action.

ALSO READ: Force reveal why Wike's CSO was withdrawn
The two bodies made the call at a news conference in Abuja to voice their concern over the deliberation on the bill by the lawmakers.

The groups argued that allowing passage of the bill would amount to clear violation of the provisions of Section 10 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The Spokesman for CCCN, Mr Asuquo Allotey, said that any further attempt by the House of Representatives to deliberate on the bill would polarise the nation along religious lines.

Allotey also called on well-meaning Nigerians to denounce the bill for the sake of unity, peace, progress and prosperity of the nation.

He said The proposed bill which is self-serving and divisive should be out rightly rejected. The bill should be avoided by all means.

We, therefore, urge Nigerians, who have the interest of this country at heart to denounce this bill.

It has the propensity or power to dehumanise all Christians in many ways in addition to the gross negative effects of the sharia law upon their lives.

We believe that the time has come for all well meaning Nigerians to stand up and demand for the return of our dear country to a true secular state.

We should have a country where every citizen enjoys equal rights and opportunities under our law, Allotey said.
The two bodies made the call at a news conference in Abuja to voice their concern over the deliberation on the bill by the lawmakers.

The groups argued that allowing passage of the bill would amount to clear violation of the provisions of Section 10 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The Spokesman for CCCN, Mr Asuquo Allotey, said that any further attempt by the House of Representatives to deliberate on the bill would polarise the nation along religious lines.

Allotey also called on well-meaning Nigerians to denounce the bill for the sake of unity, peace, progress and prosperity of the nation.

The proposed bill which is self-serving and divisive should be out rightly rejected. The bill should be avoided by all means.

We, therefore, urge Nigerians, who have the interest of this country at heart to denounce this bill.

He argued that the bill was a gross violation of the fundamental human rights of Christians in Nigeria if passed into law.

It has the propensity or power to dehumanise all Christians in many ways in addition to the gross negative effects of the sharia law upon their lives.

We believe that the time has come for all well meaning Nigerians to stand up and demand for the return of our dear country to a true secular state.
The Nativity scene, a donation from the government and the Catholic Church of Malta, is 17 metres wide, 8 metres high and 12 metres deep, and features 17 figures wearing traditional Maltese clothing.

It not only represents Maltas traditions, such as fishing, but unfortunately also the reality of migrants who pass through its waters in makeshift vessels to reach Italy, the Vatican City State said in a statement.

However additional 4,715 migrants have died or gone missing in Mediterranean Sea crossings, the highest figure ever.

The Vatican was also set to turn on the lights on a 25-metre, 90-year-old Christmas red fir tree from the Italian alps, adorned with baubles decorated by child cancer patients.

The tree would be illuminated by 18,000 led bulbs donated by Austrian company Starline.

The pope was not expected to attend the 4:30 pm (1530 GMT) ceremony.
The Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof. Fatima Mukhtar, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Dutse on Thursday.

Mukhtar explained that the successful students were admitted into the faculties of Agriculture, Arts and Social Sciences, Basic Medical Sciences, General studies and Sciences.

She said that the university did not admit students into College of Medical and Health Sciences this session because it could not meet up certain requirements set by the National Universities Commission (NUC).

According to her, a teaching hospital, anatomy, physiology and biochemistry laboratories which were some of the pre-requisites, had not been put in place by the institution.

The Vice Chancellor disclosed that by next academic session in 2017 faculty of Management Sciences would be established.
Charles Bombardier, the designer of the plane is using a technique called long penetration mode to give a unique acceleration to the airplane.

It is anticipated that it will fly faster than an average jet.

Independent UK reported that the jet would seat ten passengers and take off from a normal airport runway.

Other features of the air vehicle include an ability to fly at close to 16,000 miles per hour, compared to a normal Boeing 747 jets top speed of 570 miles per hour.

The idea of going from New York to London in, say 20 minutes  that's what I think really grabbed people."

It's always something that people would like  a transportation system that could take you from one place on the planet to the other side, Bombardier said concerning the aircraft.
The children were left alone at her Kiev apartment with no food in the house.

One of them, a little boy however succumbed to hunger within nine days.

Podchapko, who reportedly went on a trip with her lover said, "she didnt know children could die".

During her absence, neighbours who heard strange sounds coming from her apartment alerted the police, but no response came until she arrived.

This was too late as the lady's son, who is the second of her kids, had already died from lack of food.

Her careless parenting has not hindered Podchapko from having a third child.

According to The Sun UK, she "is said to be either pregnant or to have recently given birth to a third child."

Pictures discovered on her Facebook showed a contrast of her real manner of parenting, as the kids were seen smiling.
People News reported that the young chap was already on-board a school bus when he saw smoke coming from his family home.

Assi requested that the driver stop the vehicle, and subsequently jetted off to his house to rescue the animal.

Narrating his experience to Fox-10 Pheonix, he said, I go through the backyard, I open the back door and I start yelling for him,

"He comes out through the backyard. He sat in the backyard  he wouldnt move.

"We were too close to the house. I had to pick him up to bring him out through the front yard."

Reda Bigler, a Phoenix Fire Department captain praised the boy whom he described as smart for not rushing into the house to save the dog.

Instead, he stood by the entrance and called unto the Pit bull.

Its not even that fire hurts people, its that the smoke can render someone unconscious very quickly.

But [Mike] was smart. He didnt run in, even when the door opened.
The Nobel peace prize winner has faced growing international criticism for not stopping the military's campaign, which has pushed more than 20,000 Rohingya over the border to Bangladesh, bringing tales of mass rape, murder and arson.

The crackdown was launched in response to deadly raids on police posts in October.

Malaysia has accused the army of "genocide" -- charges Myanmar officials have vehemently denied.

Suu Kyi has described the situation as "under control" and asked the international community to stop stoking the "fires of resentment".

In a statement released in New York on Thursday, UN special adviser on Myanmar Vijay Nambiar appealed directly to the peace icon to intervene.

"The adoption of a generally defensive rather than proactive approach to providing security to the local population, have caused frustration locally and disappointment internationally," he said.

"I also appeal to Daw Suu to visit Maungdaw and Buthidaung and reassure the civilian population there that they will be protected," he added, referring to the locked down area in Rakhine.

It has galvanised Muslim nations around the region, with protesters decrying the latest crackdown as the culmination of years discrimination and abuse suffered by the stateless Rohingya.

On Sunday Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak taunted Suu Kyi, who the former junta kept under house arrest for almost 20 years, before a crowd of some 5,000 protesters in Kuala Lumpur.

"What's the use of Aung San Suu Kyi having a Nobel prize?" he asked the protesters.

"The world cannot sit and watch genocide taking place."

Activists say Buddhist-majority Myanmar's stateless Muslim Rohingya minority are among the most persecuted in the world.
Ormeneta and his colleagues at one funeral parlour in Manila say they are retrieving an average of five corpses a night, mostly from slums, and his grisly new routine has left him questioning the savage forces unleashed by President Rodrigo Duterte's crackdown on crime.

"This shouldn't happen, they are people, not animals," Ormeneta, 47, told AFP as he recalled taking out three nails hammered into the skull of an alleged drug trafficker.

"I think he was still alive when they hammered the nails. They tied him up first, put tape around his head, then hammered the nails in... that must have been so painful. I felt so sorry for him."

On a typical night recently, Ormeneta walked down a narrow slum alleyway into a shanty where masked assailants had shot a man dead, the victim's body still smelling of alcohol that he must have been drinking shortly before being killed.

The victim's sister wailed as police turned over his body on the concrete floor soaked in blood and revealed multiple gunshots to his head and body.

Police later told AFP that Danilo Bolante, 47, had sold shabu, the cheap crystal methamphetamine that Duterte says is ruining society and must be eradicated.

But his sister, Chona Balina, insisted he had stopped and had even reported himself to police as part of Duterte's campaign to pressure drug traffickers and users into surrendering, known as Tokhang.

"Why launch Tokhang if that's what they are going to do with people who are already changing," Balina said.

'Supply bodies'

Duterte won presidential elections this year in a landslide after promising an unprecedented war on drugs in which tens of thousands of people would be killed.

Part of his stump speech on the campaign trail was jocular business advice for people to set up funeral homes in preparation for the killings.

"The funeral parlours will be packed... I'll supply the dead bodies," he said, to cheers and laughter at one campaign rally.

Duterte has been true to his word with police reporting killing more than 2,000 people they accused of being drug suspects and another 3,000 people murdered by unknown gunmen, triggering fears of widespread extrajudicial killings.

The deaths look certain to continue with Duterte saying in September he would be "happy to slaughter" three million addicts and repeatedly vowing no let-up until the illegal drug trade has been eliminated.

While there are vocal critics of the drug war at home and abroad, surveys show an overwhelming majority of Filipinos support Duterte's crusade.

Still, funeral parlours, while busy, are not necessarily making lots of money, with relatives of many victims often too poor to be able to pay for a funeral.

"I don't know how we can afford this because I have no job," Balina said after agreeing to a funeral package worth 62,000 pesos ($1,250) with Veronica Memorial Chapels for services that include embalming, a casket and the wake.

Funeral director Rico Teodocio said prices ranged from 18,000 to 400,000 pesos ($360 to $8,000).

However Teodocio said he often gave discounts, especially for families of alleged drug users, some of whom paid in coins or raised money from gambling at wakes. He said some also begged cemeteries for free caskets.

"I don't know if pathetic is the right term to use but you really pity them. We suffer too because we give our lowest price," he said.

Veronica and other funeral parlours AFP visited also reported that bodies were frequently left unclaimed because relatives of the victims did not know about the death, were afraid of being linked to drugs or were simply too poor.

In these situations, the bodies are kept for two to three months then buried in public cemeteries, at the expense of funeral homes.

"It's sad. They die without anyone coming for them," Ormeneta said, pointing to black corpses at the back of the morgue.

Commissions

Another barrier to funeral parlour success is corruption, with some policemen taking commissions for informing funeral parlours of people who have been killed.

Duterte openly joked about the graft during the campaign.

"These policemen are naughty. It's true they have a contract. They call the funeral home: 'There's a body. Claim it here... I'll just drop by for the commission tomorrow'," he said.

Two funeral parlour owners told AFP on condition of anonymity that it was the victims' families who shouldered the burden of this long-running practice.

"How do you recoup that cost? You have to add it on to the price," said an executive who has been in the funeral industry for decades.

But while some undertakers treat the profession as just a business, Ormeneta, a father of four and Catholic who has been in the industry for 18 years, has been emotionally impacted by the drug war.

He said he often thought about the person with nails in his skull, and had a firm conviction small-time traffickers did not deserve to die.

"They are victims of drugs. They needed to stave off hunger, perhaps for their children. They should have been given a chance to change," he said.
The employee is not abducted, NRS spokeswoman Tuva Raanes Bogsnes told newsmen from Oslo.

However she confirmed that the employee was asked to come to the National Security on Thursday.

Out of concern for our colleague we are not able to release any more information at this moment.

NRC does not have any information about why he is being held. We expect that he is being treated well, the NRC said in a statement.

However a spokesman for the South Sudanese presidency and several government officials said they were not aware of the arrest.

The NRC has been active in the region since 2004.

South Sudan, which became independent from Sudan in 2011, has been in the grip of a civil conflict since December 2013.

Tens of thousands have been killed and 3 million displaced.
"Liberia's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Lewis Brown, on behalf of his Government, is proposing one year for the extension of the United Nation's Mission in Liberia (UNMIL)," the president's office said in a press release sent to AFP on Thursday.

Liberians will be going to the polls next year to elect a new president, as Ellen Johnson Sirleaf ends her second and final term.

Government forces and rebel groups raped, maimed and massacred hundreds of thousands of people during two conflicts between 1989 and 2003.

UN peacekeepers, first deployed in October 2003, largely ensured the country's security until the end of June when they handed over responsibilities to retrained domestic forces.

Only 1,800 of the UNMIL forces, which peaked at 15,000, remain ahead of a UN Security Council decision in December on whether to pull out its remaining personnel.

"The country has made substantial progress but there is still a long way to go," Brown said in the government statement.
The 70-year-old president-elect, who has never previously held elective office, on Thursday announced Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, a climate skeptic, as environment chief and fast food executive Andy Puzder as labor secretary.

More than half his cabinet positions have now been filled, 43 days before the Republican is sworn in as the 45th president of the United States, the oldest man ever inaugurated into the office.

"I believe we're in the process of putting together one of the great cabinets that has ever been assembled in the history of our nation," Trump told a victory rally in Des Moines, Iowa.

It was the third of his unorthodox "thank you" rallies feting his shock electoral defeat of Hillary Clinton in key swing states that have propelled him into the leadership of the most powerful democracy on earth.

"In filling my cabinet I'm looking for people who fully understand the meaning of service and who are committed to advancing the common good," he added, defending his appointment of a string of billionaires and millionaires.

His nominees, he said, had given up fortunes "to make one dollar a year," hailing them as "talented people, smart people."

The incoming president triggered criticism by tapping a fossil fuel industry ally to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) -- outraging many who fear that he will reverse President Barack Obama's efforts to combat climate change.

"We're going to end the EPA intrusion into your lives," he told the Iowa crowd.

'Anti-worker extremism'

In announcing the nomination of Pruitt -- who will need Senate approval -- Trump complained that "for too long," the EPA had spent "taxpayer dollars on an out-of-control anti-energy agenda that has destroyed millions of jobs."

Steny Hoyer, the number two Democrat in the House of Representatives, said Pruitt had spent years "fighting tooth and nail to help polluters erase or circumvent the critical environmental protections our nation has put in place."

Ken Kimmell, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists, described Pruitt as someone "on the outer extreme edge, and putting him in charge of EPA could really have devastating consequences."

The appointment was made despite Trump's meeting this week with former Democratic vice president-turned-climate campaigner Al Gore and actor Leonardo DiCaprio, who is an active environmentalist.

There was similar uproar over his nomination of Andy Puzder, CEO of CKE Restaurants which owns fast food chain Hardees, as secretary of labor.

Puzder opposes a Democratic Party push to raise the minimum wage to $15. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed this year he backed increasing use of automated technology instead of workers to keep down labor costs, complaining about the $15 wage, mandatory paid sick leave and the burden of Obamacare for employers.

"The president-elect believes, as do I, the right government policies can result in more jobs and better wages for the American worker," he said Thursday.

"Trump has once again shown how out-of-touch he is with what working Americans need," hit back Service Employees International Union head Mary Kay Henry, whose organization has two million members.

"We will stay in the streets to fight back against anti-worker extremism."

'Immigration security'

In a move that fanned concerns about his conflict of interest as a business tycoon, Trump is to stay on as executive producer on NBC's "Celebrity Apprentice" when it returns after a two-year absence, the show confirmed.

The real estate tycoon has promised to set out a plan next week to put aside his "great business in total," although he has not revealed who will take over his multi-billion-dollar global property and luxury branding interests.

jpegMpeg4-1280x720In Iowa he invited onto the stage Governor Terry Branstad, a long-time Trump supporter and personal friend of Chinese President Xi Jinping who has been nominated to serve as ambassador to Beijing.

"One of the most important relations we must improve and we have to improve, is our relationship with China," Trump said.

He flew in from Ohio, another state which helped secure his victory, to meet privately with victims and first responders of an apparent jihadist-inspired November 28 attack at Ohio State University.

The assailant, Abdul Razak Ali Artan, was shot and killed by police after driving into a crowd and then slashing several people with a knife. Officials said 11 people were treated for injuries.

"This horrific assault is yet one more tragic reminder that immigration security is now national security," he said later in Iowa.

Last week he tweeted that Artan, who migrated from Somalia, should not have been in the country.
Speaking ahead of the international Human Rights Day on December 10, UN rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein urged people around the globe to push back against a dangerous erosion of rights protections.

"2016 has been a disastrous year for human rights across the globe," Zeid said in a statement, warning that "if the growing erosion of the carefully constructed system of human rights and rule of law continues to gather momentum, ultimately everyone will suffer."

Zeid pointed to conflicts, like the one raging in Syria, that have unleashed a massive refugee crisis, extremist movements that are subjecting people to "horrific violence", climate change, discrimination and "yawning economic disparities".

The failure of many leaders to effectively and honestly deal with such issues has pushed many to turn to "the siren voices exploiting fears, sowing disinformation and division, and making alluring promises they cannot fulfil," he warned.

His comments follow a string of populist victories in Europe, and the stunning November election of Donald Trump as the next US president.

"In some parts of Europe, and in the United States, anti-foreigner rhetoric full of unbridled vitriol and hatred, is proliferating to a frightening degree, and is increasingly unchallenged," Zeid warned.

"The rhetoric of fascism is no longer confined to a secret underworld of fascists, meeting in ill-lit clubs or on the 'Deep Net'. It is becoming part of normal daily discourse," he said.

Zeid, who is set to launch a campaign entitled "Stand up for someone's rights today" on Saturday, urged everyone to "push back the violence and hatred which threaten our world."
DICK TOGO IN FOR EVOLVE THIS WEEKEND, COMPLETE DETAILS ON WEEKEND iPPVS

EVOLVE will be holding a training seminar tomorrow 12/9 at the FTW Wrestling Academy (13-15 131st Street) in College Point, Queens, headed by Dick Togo and Drew Gulak. The seminar is said to be very small with a lot of hands on training and attention. Togo was a tremendous talent, so I am sure a lot of knowledge will be weaned from the seminar. Drew Gulak and Tracy Williams will also be running the seminar. For details, visit www.WWNLive.com and www.DGUSA.tv.

WWN's Matt Riddle and Sal Hamaoui were in China over the last week doing promotional work as the company intends to branch out in promoting MMA in that market. The promotion ran a tour of the country several years ago and has been waiting to go back and do additional live events there but their partner locally reconfigured its business following the death of one of the principals involved.

Ethan Page released the following video explaining the return of Lucha Underground's Brian Cage to EVOLVE:

The updated lineup for EVOLVE 74 this Saturday 12/10 in Queens, NY will feature:



*EVOLVE Tag Team champion Tracy Williams & Fred Yehi vs. Ricochet & Peter Kaasa

*Cody Rhodes vs. Ethan Page for the first time ever. Rhodes will also be signing before the event.

*Chris Hero vs. Dick Togo. Togo will be signing before the event.

*Matt Riddle vs. the debuting Jeff Cobb (aka Matanza Cuerto)

*Drew Gulak vs. Jaka

*Darby Allin vs. Brian Cage

*Also scheduled are DUSTIN and Chris Dickinson.

EVOLVE 75 this Sunday 12/11 in Melrose, MA will feature:



*EVOLVE Tag Team Champion Tracy Williams vs. Drew Gulak

*Ricochet vs. Matt Riddle

*Dick Togo vs. Ethan Page with The Gatekeepers. Togo will be signing before the event.

*EVOLVE Tag Team Champion Fred Yehi vs. Jeff Cobb

*Darby Allin & Peter Kaasa vs. Chris Dickinson & Jaka

*Chris Hero vs. DUSTIN.

Both events will stream on Flosports.

For ticket information, visit www.WWNLive.com.

If you enjoy PWInsider.com you can check out the AD-FREE PWInsider Elite section, which features exclusive audio updates, news, our critically acclaimed podcasts, interviews and more by clicking here!
Moline Islamic Center hosts open house today

The Islamic Center of the Quad-Cities, 6005 34th Ave., Moline, will host an open house from 2-3:30 p.m. today.

"We hope and pray your visit will greatly enhance mutual understanding, love and respect," Imam Saad Baig wrote in a invitation to the event. Baig also asked that participants share the invitation "with everyone you know."

The center hopes the event will be "interesting and rewarding." On display will be art and exhibits, tours of the prayer hall, informational booths, snacks and refreshments. The phone is 309-792-1690, email is icqcimam@gmail.com and it is online, icqconline.org

Growing with Grace center opens

An open house will be held Sunday at the Growing with Grace Early Learning Center, 2395 Tech Drive, Suites 6-7, Bettendorf.

The event is 4-6 p.m., and all are welcome. Visitors may meet the staff and tour the new facility. It has immediate openings in several programs that are offered. Online: Facebook.com/growingwithgracebett, call Jill Trannel at 563-505-4618, or email, jill@growingwithgracebett@gmail.com

Trannel and her partner, Deb Winter, formerly were associated with Our Lady of Lourdes church and school, Bettendorf.

Candlight service keeps memories alive

The Quad-City chapter of the Compassionate Friends will host the annual candlelight memorial service on Thursday. The service is for parents whose child or children have died, but brothers, sisters, grandparents, and other family members are welcome to attend.

It will begin at 7 p.m. at Bethel Assembly of God, 3535 38th Ave., Rock Island. Guests are invited to light a candle in memory of their child. You can bring a candle or one will be provided. Please bring a picture of your child to place with the lit candle.

The Compassionate Friends is a non-profit, self-help organization offering friendship and support to families who have experienced the death of a child. The Quad-City chapters group of bereaved parents meets to share and process their grief and provide peer support. The Compassionate Friends meet on the fourth Thursday of each month at 6:30 p.m. at Bethany for Children & Families in Moline.

For more information about the Candlelight Memorial Service or about the Compassionate Friends, contact Doug Scott at 563-265-2854 or Quadcitytcf@gmail.com.
It's early summer, and a flame of yellow streaks through the trees at Davenport's Nahant Marsh.

A bird-watcher identifies the flame as a prothonotary warbler, a migratory songbird sometimes called a "poster child" for songbird decline.

The warblers' numbers have dropped 42 percent since 1966, according to surveys conducted under the auspices of the United States Geological Survey, a scientific agency of the United States government.

Because of these plummeting numbers, the prothonotary warbler is listed as a "species of continental concern" by Partners in Flight, an association supported by governmental and private groups.

But why the decline? Is it habitat loss at the birds' breeding grounds in eastern North America, problems during migration to Central and South America or troubles encountered once they get to their winter home? Or a combination of all three?

These are questions Brian Peer, a biological sciences professor at Western Illinois University-Quad-Cities, hopes to help answer with a research project he and colleague Rob Porter initiated at Davenport's Nahant Marsh, and adjoining Carp Lake.

This spring, Peer and Porter, of the university's recreation, parks and tourism administration department, and about eight students installed 80 nest boxes at the two locations.

Initially the boxes were part of a study on house wrens, but when Peer realized that the area also presented perfect habitat for prothonotary warblers, he finished his wren work within a week, then turned his total attention to the warblers.

The yellow birds normally nest in tree cavities, preferably under a leaf canopy and over water (to protect the nest from predators such as raccoons or snakes).

But such cavities can be difficult to find. Warblers cannot drill their own cavities as woodpeckers do, so they must rely on finding a cavity already-made. And they have to compete for these spots with other birds such as starlings, wrens and Eurasian tree swallows.

But it turns out that all the warblers need is a nest box  made of lumber, mounted on a 5-foot post of electrical conduit and stuck in the ground  and they will come.

Peer and Porter weren't sure of this at the beginning, so they purchased a game caller, a portable speaker with downloaded recordings of bird calls, to attract the warblers to Nahant.

"It was totally unnecessary," Peer said of the caller. "That was the greatest thing, the day I saw a prothonotary warbler on one of our boxes. It was really great."

The area became saturated with warblers, with about 30 boxes providing homes for warblers that typically produce at least one clutch of four to six young.

The raising of dozens of prothonotaries in Davenport is a good thing in and of itself, and Peer said he expects to increase the habitat "for these magnificent birds" in 2017 with the installation of 250 to 300 boxes in other Mississippi River slough and backwater locations.

What Peer wants to study

Then he will conduct research, monitoring the birds' breeding behavior, studying their interactions with parasitic cowbirds (birds that lay their eggs in other birds' nests, often to the detriment of the nest bird's family), and tracking the warblers' movements during the breeding season in addition to their migration to and from Central and South America.

To do this he will band the birds and attach tiny transmitters to their feet to track their movement. If a transmitter stops working during flight, Peer will know that the bird encountered problems during migration, and if it stops in Central or South America, he will know the difficulty was at that location. Then he, or someone, could physically go to that location to "see what is going on, why the birds are dying," he said.

To help pay for the project, including equipment (transmitters are about $180 each) and mileage, Peer is writing grant applications. Work so far has been financed by small grants from the Iowa Ornithologists' Union and Western.

Prothonotary warblers begin arriving in the Quad-City area in late April, with the first eggs hatching by mid-May. By around July 4, they often are on their way back South.

Their nesting range is listed as eastern North America, although the core of that range is in the southeastern United States. Nahant is near the northernmost portion of that range.

The Carp Lake area is ideal because it is practically inaccessible to people and it swarms with mosquitoes, providing food. "It's not beautiful or aesthetically pleasing, but the birds love it," Peer said.

In fact, the entire Quad-City area all up and down the Mississippi River is prime nesting habitat, and many people don't realize that, he said.

Why recreation administration is involved

Western's recreation, parks and tourism administration program is geared toward human use of natural areas, but for that to happen, the natural areas, or environment, have to be protected in the first place, Porter said.

The program is "about managing the land for the species that live there and for the people who use it," he said.

In that sense, people in recreation/parks/tourism administration are the link between biologists and the general public, he said.

Porter is personally very interested in birding, and his students helped with the hands-on work behind the research project, helping to build, erect and take down the nest boxes. They also are helping in the lab with research.

"The students are very excited," he said. "It isn't very often that you get students who want to do work outside the classroom."
The iconic Bettendorf mansion that overlooks the city with its name will add a boarding school component in 2017.

On Saturday, Rivermont Collegiate also will host an open house event in the former home of Joseph W. Bettendorf, head of the former Bettendorf Company.

Max Roach, selected as headmaster at the school after a nationwide search, will be at the open house and will be available to discuss the next stage of the school's evolution as a boarding school, he said.

Of the open house, Roach said it has reached new levels of holiday decorating. The mansion is located at 1821 Sunset Drive, Bettendorf.

As far as the boarding school component, that will be discussed in detail in a session set for Tuesday. Rivermont originally was organized St. Katharine's, a boarding and day school for girls.

These days, Roach sees the transition as a win for all involved; the plan has been welcomed by the school community. The boarding would be for students in grades 9-12, and those grades would benefit from a few dozen more students.

"For example, with a Vietnamese student sitting next to a student from Moline, along with a student from China, think of how they can discuss the Gulf of Tonkin incident," he wrote in a letter to the school community.

Further, boarding fees will help to support the entire private school. The program also will allow the language program, which now includes Mandarin Chinese, to include Arabic, as well as other instructional benefits.

Officials also plan for a new building on the property to include classroom space and a new student center for the teens.

Rivermont Collegiate offers a college preparatory school for male and female students in preschool through 12th grades.
SPRINGFIELD  The debate over a new energy policy that Gov. Bruce Rauner signed into law Wednesday focused largely on whether utility customers, from individual families to large industrial companies, should be asked to pay billions of dollars over a decade to subsidize two unprofitable nuclear plants owned by a highly profitable corporation.

But supporters say the argument about the $235 million in annual subsidies Exelon Corp. will be eligible to receive in exchange keeping open the Quad-City and Clinton, Illinois, nuclear power plants for another 10 years has overshadowed the legislations long-term environmental and climate benefits.

At a bill-signing ceremony Wednesday at Clinton High School, Jennifer Walling, the executive director of the Illinois Environmental Council, which represents more than 80 organizations across the state, hailed the new law as the most significant piece of climate and clean energy policy in Illinois history.

By keeping the nuclear plants open and increasing investment in renewable power and energy efficiency, supporters in the environmental community say, the policy will forestall an increase in demand for electricity generated by burning fossil fuels, which contributes to climate change.

The fact that the legislation made it out of the General Assembly with bipartisan support and onto Rauners desk was due in large part to an unconventional alliance between a Fortune 100 energy company and a coalition of environmental and consumer groups, including the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Sierra Club and the Citizens Utility Board.

This partnership and coming together is an example of how big policy should get done in Springfield, Walling said.

Environmental, labor, religious and business organizations joined forces nearly two years ago to form the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition. The group aimed to fix flaws in the states renewable portfolio standard, which under a previous law set a goal of producing 25 percent of the states power through renewable sources, such as wind and solar, by 2025.

Long at odds with Exelon, the coalition joined forces with the company this fall to support the new law, which takes effect June 1.

Because of the way the old law was written, development of new wind farms and other renewable energy projects has been stalled in Illinois for several years. Meanwhile, money Illinoisans paid on their power bills was going to out-of-state projects.

The new law was written to fix those problems, opening the door to a boom in wind and solar development that had been bypassing Illinois to neighboring states for years, Nick Magrisso, Midwest legislative director for the Natural Resources Defense Council, wrote in a blog post summarizing the legislations environmental benefits.

The law is expected to spur 3,000 megawatts of new solar projects and 1,300 megawatts of new wind projects in Illinois, enough to power nearly 1 million homes, Magrisso wrote.

Also included are programs to allow people who arent able to install their own rooftop solar panels to subscribe to community projects in their neighborhoods. Another provision, the Illinois Solar for All Program, is designed to encourage development in low-income neighborhoods and to provide job training in the field in those communities.

Spending on energy-efficiency programs, such as home weatherization and rebates for energy-saving appliances, will also increase as a result of the new law.

Exelon subsidiary Commonwealth Edison will spend up to $400 million annually in its northern Illinois service territory, and Ameren Illinois will spend an average of $108 million annually downstate.

ComEd will be required to cut its northern Illinois customers energy demand by 21.5 percent by 2030, and Ameren will have to reduce demand among its downstate customers by 16 percent by the same deadline. There are financial incentives built in if the companies exceeded their annual reduction targets and penalties if they miss them.

David Kolata, executive director of the Citizens Utility Board, said people across the state will benefit from increased spending on energy efficiency regardless of whether they take part in the utilities programs. Lower demand for energy will lead to lower prices for everyone, he said.

Opponents of the bill dont believe the savings will be as great as supporters are estimating because Illinois already generates a surplus of power.

And while the law includes caps on rate increases for customers of all sizes, opponents, including the Illinois Manufacturers Association and AARP Illinois, among others, also continue to raise questions about their effectiveness.
This week on the podcast, the crew discusses Gov. Terry Branstad's appointment as ambassador to China, President-elect Donald Trumps visit to Des Moines on Thursday and what to expect from Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds when she takes over as governor.

On Iowa Politics is a weekly news and analysis podcast that re-creates the conversations that happen when Iowa's political reporters get together after the day's deadlines have been met. This week's show features James Q. Lynch, Todd Dorman, Christinia Crippes, Ed Tibbetts and Erin Murphy.

The show was produced by Max Freund, and the music is courtesy of Matthew Maybanks. Find us at qctimes.com, chat with us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter @OnIowaPolitics and subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher. Know an Iowa musician who should be on our show? Send their band sound files to oniowapolitics@gmail.com.
DES MOINES  In her first public remarks since news broke that she will become Iowas next governor, Kim Reynolds said she is excited for the opportunity.

Reynolds, who had been out of the state this week on a family vacation, returned to Iowa on Thursday, one day after she learned she is in line to become governor because Gov. Terry Branstad has accepted an offer to serve as U.S. Ambassador to China under President-elect Donald Trump.

Reynolds will become the first woman governor in Iowas history.

Reynolds attended Trumps rally in Des Moines on Thursday night, governors office staff said, but she did not make remarks to the crowd or speak to reporters.

WOI-TV in Des Moines interviewed Reynolds at the airport in Des Moines on Thursday.

I am excited to have the opportunity to continue serving Iowans in this capacity, Reynolds told the TV station.

In a brief interview, Reynolds said serving as Branstads lieutenant governor for the past six years has prepared her well for becoming governor.

Ive had the opportunity to work alongside Governor Branstad for six years now, and Ive had the opportunity to learn from the best governor in the nation, the longest-serving governor in the nation, and it really has prepared me well to assume the next responsibility and continue leading Iowans, Reynolds said.

Reynolds will take over as governor at a time when Republicans for the first time in 20 years control the states lawmaking agenda: in addition to having a Republican in the governors office, the GOP has majorities in the Iowa House and Senate.

House Republicans gathered Thursday to discuss the coming legislative session. Afterward, Republican Speaker of the House Linda Upmeyer  the first woman to hold that role  praised Reynolds.

Shes worked right next to me, side by side, very hard working all through these six years, Upmeyer said. Weve had a very good working relationship. Ive enjoyed working with her. Shes got a ton of energy and interests and shes a real people person.

Upmeyer said she expects a smooth transition from Branstad to Reynolds. Because Branstad cannot start his new job until after Trump is inaugurated and he is confirmed by the U.S. Senate, that transition could take place during the 2017 legislative session.

She has worked side by side with Governor Branstad for the past six years so I dont anticipate a whole lot of surprises, Upmeyer said. I expect that there will be a very smooth transition. Certainly, she has her own ideas, certainly she has her own priorities but I think it will be a smooth transition and not a lot of surprises.
DES MOINES  A key Senate Republican said Thursday he expects the new GOP legislative majority will push a major reform to simplify and reduce state income taxes during the 2017 legislative session.

Sen. Jack Whitver, R-Ankeny, who will be installed as the new Senate president when the 87th General Assembly convenes Jan. 9, told a Des Moines business forum that tax reform will be a top priority, along with balancing and streamlining the state budget and improving Iowa's water quality. He said the majority Senate Republicans will be focused on jobs, growth and reform next session.

"I believe one of the messages from this campaign is that Iowans feel that they are overtaxed," Whitver told a meeting of the Greater Des Moines Partnership, which has simplifying and reducing Iowa corporate and personal income taxes as one of the organization's priorities.

"We will have a bill to address individual income tax this year," Whitver said. "I believe we're going to have a situation where we can have a win-win, where we can put more money in the pocket of hard-working Iowans while also growing our state. We'll have that bill. What it will look like we don't know yet. We're still working on the details."

After the forum, Whitver said the state faces a challenging budget year, so incoming majority Republicans will be looking for places where money can be saved to make room for tax relief. At this point, he said, it's uncertain whether taxes can be cut immediately or phased down over a period of years.

"There are going to have to be areas of our budget that we're going to have to reduce to find those savings. We're looking through all of that right now," he said. "We're going to have a balanced budget, so for reducing taxes, we might have to find at least some short-term savings because ultimately reducing taxes is going to grow our economy, it's going to bring more taxes in. It always has when done right. But short term, we're going to have to find some savings somewhere."

Also Thursday, Republicans, who will hold a 59-41 edge in the Iowa House, held a closed-door caucus to discuss 2017 priorities, which House Speaker Linda Upmeyer, R-Clear Lake, said will focus on water quality, education, budget issues and tax reform with a particular focus on making Iowa's personal and corporate income taxes more competitive.

"We're very interested in looking at taxes," Upmeyer said. "This is a tough year when you've got declining revenue, and yet we don't want to ignore the opportunity. We're going to look, we're going to study, we're going to see what's possible."

The House speaker said she expects GOP lawmakers and Gov. Terry Branstad to agree to a fiscal 2018 state aid funding level for K-12 schools within the session's first 30 days. She also said she expects Republicans will change the forward-funding law so state aid for schools does not have to be set 18 months in advance before the Legislature and governor have a good fix on available revenue.

Rep. Jo Oldson, D-Des Moines, said lawmakers face a balancing test every session to fund priorities and address tax issues, which she cautioned is "not so easy to do" given that Iowa's federal deductibility law makes rates seem uncompetitive.

"It's a tricky piece to talk about reform without affecting programs," she said. "It will be hard. We will have some tough, tough decisions to make."
DES MOINES  President-elect Donald Trump thanked cheering Iowans on Thursday for helping him win the 2016 presidential election and told them he looks forward to having Gov. Terry Branstad as a key ally in improving Americas trade policies and international standing as his ambassador to China.

I love you, folks, Trump told nearly 5,000 people who rallied with the president-elect on his victory tour of battleground states. Boy, did you deliver.

Trump scored Iowas six swing-state electoral votes on Nov. 8 by winning 50.6 percent of the 1,581,371 ballots that Iowans cast on Election Day or via early-absentee voting options. The 800,983 for Trump and running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, who appeared with Trump at Thursdays event, outpaced the 653,669 votes cast for the Democratic ticket of Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine.

We have a movement the likes of which this world has never seen before, said Trump, who recounted his Election Night upset and laid out his agenda to shouts of USA during a rally that was interrupted by protesters who were escorted out of the arena by uniformed officers. He ended his speech with an upbeat call for national unity.

Trump also took the occasion of his return to Iowa to bring Branstad on stage with him to tout him as a loyal supporter and the best-qualified appointee to help guide diplomatic relations with China to reclaim Americas stature in the world and address disputes between two of the worlds super powers.

Trump called Branstad a very special man who has become a great friend who knows how to get results and he will deliver results. He said a lot of people wanted the Chinese ambassadorship but he noted Branstad has led six trade missions to China and is highly respected by Chinese officials.

It has been a great honor and privilege to serve the state of Iowa, said Branstad. I am very proud to serve America in this new role, thank you very much.

Earlier this week, Branstad accepted Trumps offer to become the next U.S. ambassador to China, a post he was uniquely qualified for given his long-standing relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping that began during a sister-state visit to Iowa during Branstads first gubernatorial term in the 1980s.

Branstad, the nations longest-serving governor in U.S. history, likely will step down after Trump is inaugurated on Jan. 20 and his appointment to the Chinese ambassadorship is confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds would become Iowas first female governor once she is sworn in to succeed Branstad.

During his 50-minute speech, Trump promised when he takes office next month to cut taxes, end EPA intrusion in your lives, reduce government regulations to a fraction, cut the nations trade deficit, invest in infrastructure improvements that includes rural areas and inner cities, rebuild the U.S. military, repeal and replace Obamacare, and build a border wall as part of his plan to end illegal immigration.

Its very good that hes coming in and saying thank you to Iowans, said Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Red Oak. I hope that what hes doing as well is reassuring those who didnt vote for him that he is going to work hard for all Iowans and all Americans, not just those who voted for him.

Iowa Democratic Party officials issued a statement calling Trumps victory tour across election-battleground states nothing more than a media stunt to distract America from his unprecedented conflicts of interest and the extremism embodied by his closest advisors and Cabinet nominees.

"After pledging to 'drain the swamp' in Washington, D.C., Donald Trump is filling his transition team with special interest lobbyists, wealthy donors, Washington insiders and billionaires like himself, said Rep. Todd Prichard, D-Charles City.
The consensus in Israel is that the relationship between the Jewish state and the United States is going to improve in a Trump administration, says former Israeli ambassador to the U.S., Zalman Shoval.

On a recent visit to Washington, D.C., Shoval told me that he believes Donald Trump and his cabinet picks so far have a more "realistic" view of the Middle East than President Obama, who from his first days in office, "perhaps before, believed it was his calling to fix once and for all, all matters between the U.S. and the Arab and Muslim worlds, as expressed in his Cairo speech. ... This gives Trump in the hearts and minds of more than a few Israelis a head-start."

Shoval said he believes the issue of a Palestinian state -- the objective of U.S. foreign policy over several administrations -- has become less concerning than the regional and international threat posed by a nuclear Iran. He likes recent statements by secretary of defense-designate Gen. James Mattis about the way forward in dealing with an unstable Iran, believing Mattis recognizes that as important as it is to defeat ISIS, the real threat in the Middle East is Iran.

It's not only the nuclear deal that bothers Shoval, though he believes Iran will eventually have a bomb, unless it is stopped. It is also bothersome that Iran continues with its terrorist activities, subsidizing anti-American and anti-Israel groups around the world because radical mullahs think their god has ordered them to do so. That makes any kind of diplomatic agreement with nations Iran regards as "infidels" impossible.

Even when the battle for Mosul is over and victory has been declared over that ISIS stronghold, Shoval believes, "what it really will mean is that the Iranians and the Shia are going to be the real victors. They will continue their attempts to build a territorial corridor all the way to the Mediterranean along with Hezbollah, which is not only a threat to Israel, but also something the so-called moderate Arab states look at with a great deal of concern."

Shoval says he hopes the incoming Trump administration realizes that Iran cannot be a partner with the United States in the Middle East "even if from time to time it seems like that because of what's happening in Syria. Ultimately, Iran is a great danger."

People like former President Jimmy Carter have a different worldview. In a recent op-ed for The New York Times, Carter called on President Obama to recognize a Palestinian state before he leaves office. Carter also called on the UN to pass a resolution setting the parameters for "resolving the conflict."

I believe in miracles, but for the UN, or anyone else, to resolve a conflict in which one side thinks it has a heavenly mandate to destroy the other is not where most people would see as a good starting point for conflict resolution. Carter continues to trade off his one success -- the peace agreement between Egypt and Israel. But getting one thing right with a unique combination of leaders, one of whom -- Anwar Sadat -- was assassinated by Islamic fanatics for making peace with Israel, is like an astrologer wanting credit for one prediction that came true while ignoring hundreds that didn't.

Shoval disagrees with those who think the Israel-Palestinian status quo is not sustainable. He believes it is, otherwise a Palestinian state "would mean Hamas and Hezbollah would be just 20 minutes away" from Jerusalem and in a position to overwhelm Israel.

In his book, "The Field of Fight," Michael Flynn, Trump's pick to head the National Security Council, writes about President Obama: "I find it simply incredible that an American president should believe a strategic alliance with Iran to be more attractive than our traditional embrace of Israel. Our new leaders need to reverse that, pronto. We will need Israel if we're going to defeat the radical Islamists, and above all, the Iranians."

This is the opposite of wishful thinking.
Women are having their day in Iowa. Republican women, to be exact.

Gov. Terry Branstad's appointment as President-elect Donald Trump's ambassador to China means Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds will be the first female chief executive in Iowa. She'll work alongside the state's first female House speaker, Linda Upmeyer, also a Republican. And it's all happening just two years after Sen. Joni Ernst became the first woman to represent the Hawkeye State in Congress.

Iowa Republicans, it seems, are outpacing Democrats in gender equality, an issue widely claimed by those on the left.

Iowa has a proud history of tearing down anachronistic barriers built upon prejudicial social norms. In 1838, the Iowa Territory Supreme Court ruled that a runaway slave could not be forced to return to a slave state upon reaching Iowa. That same year, the soon-to-be state granted land ownership rights to unmarried women. Equality is a tradition that's carried through Iowa's history. In 2009, Iowa became the first non-coastal state to overturn a ban on gay marriage.

And, now, two of its three top elected positions are held by women.

The significance of the rise of women in Iowa might not be clear until one views it at a national level. Only six women  three Republicans and three Democrats  hold governorships. That number is set to drop in January, when Reynolds moves into the governor's mansion, as New Hampshire's Maggie Hassan won a seat in the U.S. Senate and Trump plucked South Carolina's Nikki Haley to represent the U.S. at the United Nations.

Women, more than 50 percent of the total population, hold less than 25 percent of seats in state legislatures. Less than 20 percent of the U.S. House is female. As of Friday, Ernst is just one of 20 women in the 100-seat U.S. Senate. And that last point is true even while women, in a very real bipartisan way, have often been the lone spark in an otherwise stalled upper house.

At the current rate, statisticians say, it will take 500 years for women to reach political equality.

Go ahead. Complain about identity politics. Say it doesn't matter. Go ahead, ignore centuries of strict limits on power and outright sex-based oppression. A century ago, many women were still property, commodities to be bought and sold for the economic and political gain of men. The rise of female political power in the U.S. is a relatively recent phenomenon. Like with race, socially ingrained prejudices don't simply vanish in a generation or two.

In context, the rise of women  Republican women  in Iowa is of national significance.

Reynolds has two years to prove herself as she finishes out Branstad's term. She faces very real issues. Problems such as water-quality lawsuits, disparate education funding and balancing the needs of cash-starved agencies with tax-averse lawmakers will be there on Day One. Thus far, Reynolds has proved herself a capable No. 2. Next year, she'll be charged with setting her own agenda. Her gender won't matter one way or another when most people judge her political chops.

But, for now, it's only right to recognize the significance of the moment. In just a couple years, women have risen from the back benches to some of the state's most prominent positions.

And that alone is a victory in itself.
I joined Veterans Stand for Standing Rock last week to stand nonviolently for the rights of the indigenous Americans in their struggle to stop the oil pipeline from destroying their water source.

Being a warrior is highly respected in the indigenous culture. A greater percent of indigenous Americans have served in the military than any other ethnic group.

We 4,000-plus veterans were prepared to follow the wishes of the elders and nonviolently absorb whatever blows the police, National Guard, and the hired security group might inflict. In the end, an agreement of sorts was reached and a direct confrontation was avoided.

I happened to be near the sacred fire at the Oceti Sakowin camp when the Army Corps of Engineers rejection of a permit to drill under the Missouri River was announced. I was able to take part in the victory celebration of winning this one battle in the ongoing war against Mother Earth. As a vet, I received lots of hugs and even a kiss for upholding my oath to protect their Constitutional rights.

As I was heading east on I-90 ahead of the oncoming blizzard, I could not help but compare it to another long eastbound journey home from another mission. Decades ago on trip home from Vietnam, I was carrying shame. On this journey I was carrying honor. I will be eternally grateful to the Great Sioux Nation for giving me honor.

Paul Appell

Altona, Illinois
Rapid City Mayor Steve Allender has named Rod Seals interim fire chief.

The city announced the appointment Friday morning in a release. Seals, a 20-year veteran of the department, replaces Mike Maltaverne, who took early retirement last month and then accepted a deputy chiefs position with the Bozeman Fire Department in Montana.

Maltaverne served with the Rapid City Fire Department for 26 years and will collect retirement pay. Seals joined the fire department in 1995 and was promoted to deputy fire chief on Nov. 1, 2015, the release said.

"With the retirement of an experienced firefighter and leader in Chief Mike Maltaverne, this is an opportunity to conduct a thorough review of the department," Allender said in the release. "Rod Seals brings the experience, knowledge and skills to direct the Rapid City Fire Department as interim chief during the review and during the time frame of the search process."

Allender said the selection of a new chief could take at least six months while the detailed analysis of the department takes place.
A sale of seized wild horses will be moved from Philip Livestock Auction after the business suffered harassment and threats, a sheriff announced Thursday.

Dewey County Sheriff Les Mayer posted the announcement on his office's Facebook page. In a later phone interview with the Journal, he declined to divulge the nature of the harassment and threats.

A woman who spoke to the Journal by phone from Philip Livestock Auction referred questions to the owner, who was not immediately available.

In Mayer's announcement, he said the sale of the horses remains scheduled for Dec. 20, but he will not disclose the location until a few days beforehand.

"The reason it is not being released is to protect the livestock yard from threats, etc., as were received by Philip Livestock," the announcement said.

The sheriff added he had "tried being open with information so the people who wanted to bid would have plenty of time to plan. My only option now is to shorten that time."

Mayer has been at the center of the wild-horse controversy since October, when a judge ordered Dewey and Ziebach counties to impound all 810 horses at a small ranch on the county line operated by the International Society for the Protection of Mustangs and Burros. A state-employed veterinarian had determined that the horses were being neglected, and a former society employee alleged that some horses on the ranch, which is near Lantry, had died of causes related to starvation.

Local and state authorities gave the society an opportunity to get some horses back if it could raise enough money to reimburse the counties for the cost of the impounding and to cover 18 months of operations. The society failed to meet those deadlines and fundraising thresholds, which triggered the scheduling of the public auction.

Authorities have estimated that up to 200 of the horses have been adopted out or sold by the society since the impounding began. The remaining horses will go to auction, where some wild-horse advocates fear buyers for slaughter plants overseas will be among the bidders. (There are no such plants in the United States.)

The proceeds of the auction will first be applied to the impounding costs borne by the two counties, with any remaining proceeds going to the society.

County officials have estimated their impounding costs to be $100,000, mostly in hay purchases. The society has paid at least $52,000 toward that cost, and the counties have received grants and donations totaling at least $24,000, leaving roughly another $24,000 in costs to be either recouped at the auction or absorbed by the counties.
On Nov. 8, South Dakota voters faced ten ballot measures. They said yes on four of them. I hoped they might also approve Amendment T, independent redistricting, and Amendment V, non-partisan open primaries. Those two promised improvements in our broken system for selecting our representatives.

Nevertheless, I think public awareness has increased on some of the fundamental problems with our election system in South Dakota. I am interested to see what our legislative leaders might do in the upcoming legislative session with that information. If nothing changes, I suspect citizens may decide they want a second look at improving state government themselves in 2018.

I was fortunate to work on Amendment V with a group of fellow Republicans along with Democrats and independents, all of whom were motivated to try to improve the fairness of our elections and the quality of our government. I hope to continue to work with them. Many of us and many in the public learned some important lessons about our state government in the process. We learned that:

First, most South Dakota legislators are not truly elected. Very few face a competitive general election to get into office. And legislators who dont face a general election contest tend to be answerable to their party, not the electorate.

Second, Republicans in South Dakota are a minority of the states registered voters, but the party holds all the cards. While only 46 percent of the registered voters in the state are Republican, all taxpayers get to pay for their primary, which has become the most important election in the state. Republicans hold 85 percent of the seats in the Legislature.

Third, most South Dakotans are underrepresented in our state Legislature. Democrats are 31 percent of the registered voters in the state and independents are 22 percent. Together they represent 53 percent of our electorate. Democrats hold only 15 percent of the legislative seats. Independents are completely unrepresented in the Legislature. Something is obviously wrong with that.

Fourth, a one-party Legislature is inherently weak. For those of us who appreciate the checks and balances provided by the two-party system, this comes as no surprise. Just look at the recent EB-5 scandal/tragedy, and the Gear-Up scandal/tragedy. The Legislature wanted to look the other way on both. A vocal minority party can play an essential role when government screws up.

Fifth, open primaries offer a better way to select public officials who will represent all the people. On Nov. 8, Colorado voters decided to join Nebraska, Washington and California with an open-primary system. They went with a more fair and inclusive election system and hope for increased voter participation.

Finally, the South Dakota Republican party establishment strongly resists changing this unfair system. Some Democrats, too. Republican officials financed the campaign against Amendment V.

Now that these shortcomings of our state government have been raised during the election, I am hopeful those in power will address some of the inequities and weaknesses. South Dakota will likely always be a red state, but I hope my fellow Republicans will rise above partisanship to be fair and inclusive in our approach to elections. The pressure for establishing a better system is increasing. I suspect it will not go away.
Appeal by Ukrainian journalist accused of spying set for December 15

Context Federal Security Service charges Ukrainian journalist Sushchenko with espionage

MOSCOW, December 9 (RAPSI, Lyudmila Klenko)  The Moscow City Court will begin considering Ukrainian journalist Roman Sushchenko's appeal against extention of his pre-trial detention on December 15, a court official told RAPSI on Friday.

On October 7, Russias Federal Security Service (FSB) charged Sushchenko with espionage.

According to the FSB, the Ukrainian citizen "purposively collected classified information about the Armed Forces and National Guard of Russia." Leak of data abroad could cause damage to the national defense capability, according to the FSB.

On November 28, Moscow's Lefortovsky District Court held that the journalist would remain in jail until January 30, 2017. The hearing in the case was held behind closed doors at the request of prosecutors.

Sushchenko faces up to 20 years in prison if found guilty.

Ukrinform news agency earlier confirmed that Sushchenko has been acting as its reporter since 2002. Since 2010, he has been working as Ukrinforms personal correspondent in France. According to the agency, Sushchenko arrived in Moscow on private business during his vacation and was arrested immediately upon his arrival.

Ukrinform repelled accusations against Sushchenko calling him "a journalist with years of unblemished professional reputation".
Dear Annie: My love and I are both about 70 years old. My love, Marjorie, belongs to a community service group, which she has been in now for 30 years. Her husband died four years ago.

Marjorie dated Arthur, who is from her community group, for a year. They broke up, and about four months later, we started dating.

When Arthur and Marjorie separated, they agreed to keep each others secret. He is addicted to pornography, and she is a member of Alcoholics Anonymous. Every time Arthur and Marjorie see each other at weekly community meetings or social events, Arthur thinks Marjorie is protecting his secret and putting it above our relationship. I want to tell Arthur, politely, that I know the secret, thereby making our relationship first and the secret second. Marjorie will not let me do it. What to do?

 Angry

Dear Angry: Simmer down. Marjorie is right. You should absolutely not say anything to Arthur. She probably shouldnt have told you about Arthurs issue in the first place. But the fact that she shared such an intimate secret with you shows that she really trusts you. Why isnt that enough? Do you really need to hold something over Arthurs head to feel good about your relationship?

It sounds as if you have some deep-seated insecurity issues that have nothing to do with Marjorie or Arthur. Reflect on that and try to feel more comfortable in your own skin. If you let jealousy drive your decision-making, youre headed for a wreck.

***

Dear Annie: I disagree with your reply to Senior in Connecticut, who asked you to weigh in on those who address senior citizens as honey, sweetie and other such terms. You replied, Its all in the tone. Yes, it can be demeaning and rude. But you also said that the words are terms of endearment and that one should take into account the speakers intention.

When I am called hon or sweetie by people I am seeing in a professional capacity, such as medical personnel with whom I have no close relationship, they have no right whatsoever to use terms of endearment with me. And a supervisor has no business using such terms with employees. Terms of endearment are just that  terms reserved for those close and dear to us. I would never dream of calling my doctor dearie. What gives him the right to think he is free to call me that?

The practice is rampant nowadays, and it is nothing but rude and demeaning. Those who have let themselves adopt the habit of using such terms need to stop immediately. Period. These people should ask themselves, Would I address the first lady or president in that way? If the answer is no  and I pray no one would do such a thing  they have no business addressing someone with whom they do not have a close relationship in that manner, no matter the persons age.

When strangers call me those offensive words, I either call them something like snookums in return or say, I prefer, if you must address me, to be called (my name). But most have no clue why Im offended and continue to do it.

It will never not set my teeth on edge.

 Seething in the Great Plains

***

Send your questions for Annie Lane to dearannie@creators.com. To find out more about Annie Lane and read features by other Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2016 CREATORS.COM
When the first group of avid watchers braved a brisk December morning to participate in the inaugural Hamilton Christmas Count 30 years ago, there wasnt a single Eurasian Collared-dove in the entire country.

When they fanned out over the 144 square miles to count any and all bird-life they could find back then, they didnt spy a single California quail.

And there werent any Varied Thrush, Common Grackles or Yellow-Rumped Warblers around, either.

The only thing that hasnt changed in those 30 years are the Oreos served as dessert at lunch during the annual count.

Im hoping this year well have double stuffed to celebrate our anniversary, said John Ormiston.

The retired biologist is one of the founding bird counters of the annual Hamilton adventure that will be held on Saturday, Dec. 17.

Everyone is invited to show up at 7:30 a.m. at the Slack Barn at the Teller Refuge for a day filled with searching for all varieties of avian life in a 7.5 mile radius around the town of Hamilton.

When it comes to birding skills, we have everything from novices to experts, Ormiston said. We try to put the novices with people who really know their birdsMost every birder likes to pass on their knowledge to others.

In the 29 years that folks have fanned out across the countryside in the middle of December, they have documented the same 31 different species every year.

But there certainly have been some surprises along the way, including the before-mentioned thrushs, grackles and warblers.

There was also the Pied-billed Grebe that Ormiston spotted along an irrigation ditch.

It was supposed to have already migrated out of here, he said. I was surprised to see it. There have been 29 species that we have only seen once.

And then there are the newcomers.

The first California quail that showed up in the count came in 2002. No one knows for certain where it came from, but Ormiston said its likely to have been one released at a local shooting preserve or maybe raised as a 4-H project.

Today, California quail are a common sight in the Bitterroot.

The highest number documented in the annual Hamilton count was 500 in 2012.

Thats about what we expect to see every year now, he said.

Even stranger than that is the case of the Eurasian Collared-dove.

The story goes that it first made its way across the ocean to a pet store in the Bahamas. When the birds didnt sell, the owner released them into the wild.

The doves arrived in Florida in the 1980s. Today you can find them in Alaska.

We first saw them here in 2008, Ormiston said. I think that first year, we saw two. In 2015, we counted 640. The population just keeps expanding. They are a warm weather bird that doesnt migrate. Theyre not supposed to be here.

Audubons annual Christmas bird counts have been going on for more than a century. While they dont strive to determine actual population numbers, the counts are a good indicator of winter distribution of birds.

They can serve as a good way to track global warming, too, Ormiston said.

When you look at the data over the years, you can see that robins are wintering much further north than what they used to do, he said. They arent a bird that depends on feeders. Its a clear indication of a warmer climate.

Every new species that shows up in a place where its not expected offers its own unique story.

Take, for instance, the Eastern Blue Jay that have been spotted at feeders near Florence and one right outside Ormistons home.

The jay is a forest-dependent species that would never have been able to cross over the plains before without shelter belts and tree-lined river corridors.

Before people settled the plains, the plains burned on a regular basis, Ormiston said. The trees along the rivers burned too. Those river corridors look a lot different now. Seeing jays here attests to the changes in the plains environment.

There are a lot of equally interesting stories that Ormiston and others would love to share with people willing to spend a day looking for birds.

But if you would rather stay closer to the fireplace, there is also an opportunity for people with bird feeders to do their part.

We have about 20 people who monitor their bird feeders during the day, Ormiston said.

Colleen Powell has been managing that part of the count for decades. Anyone interested in helping out can call her at 363-2116.

If that Saturday is taken, there are two other opportunities this winter.

Stevensville will hold its 52nd Christmas Bird Count on Dec. 31. People will meet at the Stevensville Ranger Station at 7:30 a.m.

The Big Hole Christmas Bird Count happens on Jan. 2. People interested in taking part in that can call Kate at 381-1115.
And so it begins. I opened my Facebook page yesterday, set to show the Montana Highway Patrol first, and saw the reminder of the sad day six years ago when our Trooper David DeLaittlre was gunned down when he stopped to help what appeared to be a truck in need of help.

The wife of another trooper had called me with the news since her husband was one of those in the state searching for the killer and the roads were icy, so we prayed for hours.

These troopers travel many miles across our state, alone, far from backup, at high speeds, on two lane bad roads, because it is what they do for us, to keep us safe. Plus they are also backing up our First Responders, keeping them safe on their calls. They put on a uniform, prepared to go to war, only it is in their own state, their job, not the military, and now they are targets just because they wear the uniform. They leave families at home, never knowing for sure when they will return. Their shifts are long, many times going hours without a real meal. All to keep Montana safe from border to border.

The next post I see is one I have unfortunately, over the past five months become all too familiar with. You see, if you were kind enough to answer a phone call from Pat with the Montana Republican Party, that would be me.

I had the honor to call voters with land line phones and talk about out candidates, mainly Greg Gianforte who was running for governor. I studied him very well so I could answer your questions, but I also got to know our current governor as well, so I could present both sides.

So, the second post I saw was Bullocks proposal to cut the Highway Patrols funding by $7.7 million, a 10 percent reduction, the largest he has called for since 2012, or 27 Troopers.

His reason  its a proportional share of necessary reductions in gas taxes, spokesman Tim Crowe said, according to a report in the Bozeman Chronicle. And yet tax on gas has been 27 cents since 1994. That is 26 years! So something in this reasoning doesnt add up to me. But I found this true in so much of Bullocks spending habits and reasoning. He doesnt drive our roads to need our MHP, but flies from Helena to Dillon.

Attorney General Tim Fox said the governors proposal to slash the patrols budget, while offering no budget solution, demonstrates a lack of leadership and a misunderstanding of the public safety challenges facing our state. I am confident that the Legislature will work with the governor to find a solution to avoid the dangerous proposal currently on the table.

We have great people in our Legislature and almost got a great new governor elected, so I, too, have faith that Bullocks proposal will not pass. These people care about our troopers and everyones safety.

In 1994 my daughter became a reserve deputy in Oregon. She is now a sergeant and her husband is a lieutenant so I have said a prayer for all first responders I see and sirens I hear since my first ride along 26 years ago.

So this issue is very dear to my heart, Governor Bullock. Ever ride out alone with an officer on a two lane road far from back up in the middle of the night?

Pat Earnest,

Hamilton
In some ways, 2016 will go down as a landmark year for grizzly bear management.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) announced its proposal to delist grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Area after a federal court rejected a 2007 delisting rule. The grizzly population in the Greater Yellowstone Area (GYA) reached its recovery goals prior to 2007 and the population continues to exceed all recovery benchmarks, as outlined by the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and the FWS.

Recovery of grizzlies in the GYA is one of the greatest conservation success stories in the nation. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks along with many partners helped bring an iconic species back from the brink of extinction. Now a healthy population of grizzlies inhabits its native range in southwest Montana and beyond. Similar efforts in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem have also led to that grizzly population exceeding their recovery goals  another success story.

As these two grizzly bear populations recovered, bears expanded into areas they havent been for decades. The Rocky Mountain Front an area where bears continue to move further out into prairie environments. This activity has resulted in conflict between livestock producers, landowners, community members and bears. Increased conflicts caused confusion about grizzly bear management, including who makes management decisions, what level of protection do bears have and what flexibility does FWP have in dealing with problem bears.

Grizzly bears were listed as threatened in the lower 48 under the Endangered Species Act in 1975. The grizzly bear recovery plan identified six recovery areas, four of which are in Montana: the GYA, the Bitterroot-Selway, the Cabinet-Yaak and the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem (NCDE).

The ESA allows for the bears to be recovered/delisted by distinct population segment, or one area at a time, thats why the GYA population was proposed for delisting separate from the other recovery areas. If FWS delists bears in the GYA, FWP will take over grizzly management. In the rest of the state, including the NCDE, grizzlies will remain listed as threatened and be managed by the FWS. A delisting proposal for the NCDE is not currently on the table, even though that population exceeds established recovery goals.

Conservative estimates indicate about 750 grizzlies live in the GYA, about 1,000 live in the NCDE and nearly 50 live in the Cabinet-Yaak. We have no official counts of grizzlies in the Bitteroot-Selway, but this summer FWP confirmed sightings of at least one grizzly in the Big Hole Valley, on the southern edge of this recovery area.

While Fish, Wildlife and Parks manages day to day issues associated with grizzly bears, the FWS has overall management authority. FWP is permitted to handle and harass bears according to an annual permit issued by the FWS. That permit contains stipulations about what FWP can and cannot do, and most actions must first be approved by the FWS. Essentially, this means that if FWP wants to remove a problem bear, we must first get authorization from the FWS. This is confusing to many Montanans because while FWP is usually the agency responding to a conflict, the ultimate decision on any action is at the discretion of the FWS.

Other management actions that must get prior approval include trapping and moving problem bears, preemptively moving bears away from areas where they may come into conflict and euthanizing problem bears.

Another player in grizzly management is the U.S. Department of Agricultures Wildlife Services. This agency responds to livestock depredations for the agriculture community. They may investigate a depredation event, identify the likely culprit as a grizzly and inform the FWS, who then coordinates with Wildlife Services and FWP on a solution.

FWP is dedicated to effective and sound grizzly bear management. We work with landowners on solutions to keep bears away from livestock or attractants. We closely monitor bear numbers around the state so we understand the population of bears in Montana and their distribution. We communicate with the public about bear activity and promote wise and safe behavior for people working and recreating in grizzly bear country.

Given the policies and agencies involved, the process of dealing with grizzly bear conflicts can be cumbersome, but it is the situation we face as long as the bears continue to be listed under the ESA. By the benchmarks established by the ESA, grizzly bear populations are recovered in the NCDE and the GYA. The goal of the ESA is to recover species and in the case of grizzly bears in these two ecosystems, this effort has been a resounding success.

We continue to advocate for grizzly delisting in these areas. We are committed to management plans that will keep the populations healthy while allowing us much more flexibility in bear management and addressing concerns from communities, livestock and agriculture producers living in bear country.

Jeff Hagener, Director

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks
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America must return to conservative principles of less government,reduced taxes, less spending and a balanced budget! Cut,cap and balance!
Kathmandu, Nepal: Speaker Onsari Gharti Magar has adjourned the meeting of the legislative parliament for next six days without entering for the formal business on Friday.

The meeting was postponed for Friday in guess that the main opposition CPN UML and other some fringe parties that had repeatedly been obstructing the meeting to protest the constitution amendment bill registered in the government, woud continue the similar protest o Friday too.

As the last five Parliament meetings were postponed without entering the formal business due to the obstruction from the oppositions, Speaker Onsari Gharti called the next meeting on Thursday, December 15, without entering in the formal business.

Speaker Gharti has been consulting with the parties and other concerned stake holders to end the deadlock in the parliament.
Kenyas Foreign Minister Amina Mohamed made an odd trip to the Tindouf camps in southwestern Algeria on Sunday, December 4, while she is in the midst of her campaign for the presidency of the African Commission, currently held by South African Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

The Kenyan official, who is vying for the much coveted position, seems eager to follow the same path as Zuma, who, like her countrys Government, has openly sided with the Algerian regime and backed the whimsical ambitions this regime tries to fulfil through the separatist Polisario Front.

Dlamini-Zuma, who ambitions on her part to succeed her ex-husband Jacob Zuma at the head of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) at the end of her term in January, has never hidden her hostility towards Morocco. She was thus obeying the orders of Algerian leaders who always come to her rescue whenever she needs it.

Amina Mohameds trip in Tindouf can only be seen as a provocative act vis-a-vis the Moroccan Government and people, since the main purpose of the visit is to please Algerian rulers and obtain their support in the coming election of the African Commission President.

Kenyan newspaper Business Daily warned Kenyan authorities against Amina Mohameds actions, saying the trip could provoke a diplomatic incident with Morocco.

The author of the article, published on Tuesday, December 6, noted that Nairobis position on the Sahara issue does not get unanimous approval in Kenya. The journalist also criticized the Kenyan Foreign Minister for her statements in Tindouf, where she expressed her countrys support for the pseudo-Sahrawi republic RASD.

Several observers underscored the Kenyan officials blunder when she used the Polisario as a trump card to fulfil her political ambitions, knowing that the SADR is not recognized by the UN and is only supported by a minority of member states within the African Union.
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Photos: This remote Indian village is one of the world's top stoner destinations
Seguin, TX (78155)

Today

Cloudy skies early, followed by partial clearing. Slight chance of a rain shower. High near 85F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy with late night showers or thunderstorms. Low 72F. Winds SSE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
 After split tied SCOTUS stay vote, Alabama completes last scheduled execution of 2016 | Main | "How Many Americans Are Unnecessarily Incarcerated?" 

December 9, 2016

As opioid deaths officially surpass gun homicides, will national leaders continue to ignore potential live-saving benefits of medical marijuana?

The question in the title of this post is prompted by this new Washington Post Wonkblog piece, which starts by noting that "opioid deaths continued to surge in 2015, surpassing 30,000 for the first time in recent history, according to CDC data released Thursday." Here is more of the grim data:

That marks an increase of nearly 5,000 deaths from 2014. Deaths involving powerful synthetic opiates, like fentanyl, rose by nearly 75 percent from 2014 to 2015. Heroin deaths spiked too, rising by more than 2,000 cases. For the first time since at least the late 1990s, there were more deaths due to heroin than to traditional opioid painkillers, like hydrocodone and oxycodone.... In a grim milestone, more people died from heroin-related causes than from gun homicides in 2015. As recently as 2007, gun homicides outnumbered heroin deaths by more than 5 to 1. These increases come amid a year-over-year increase in mortality across the board, resulting in the first decline in American life expectancy since 1993. Congress recently passed a spending bill containing $1 billion to combat the opioid epidemic, including money for addiction treatment and prevention. "The prescription opioid and heroin epidemic continues to devastate communities and families across the country  in large part because too many people still do not get effective substance use disorder treatment, said Michael Botticelli, Director of National Drug Control Policy, in a statement. "That is why the President has called since February for $1 billion in new funding to expand access to treatment." Much of the current opioid predicament stems from the explosion of prescription painkiller use in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Widespread painkiller use led to many Americans developing dependencies on the drugs. When various authorities at the state and federal levels began issuing tighter restrictions on painkillers in the late 2000s, much of that demand shifted over to the illicit market, feeding the heroin boom of the past several years. Drug policy reformers say the criminalization of illicit and off-label drug use is a barrier to reversing the growing epidemic. Criminalization drives people to the margins and dissuades them from getting help, said Grant Smith, deputy director of national affairs at the Drug Policy Alliance. It drives a wedge between people who need help and the services they need. Because of criminalization and stigma, people hide their addictions from others.

These depressing data spotlight one of many reasons I am supportive of medical marijuana reforms for the treatment of pain. It is functionally impossible to die from an overdose of marijuana, and thus it will always be in some important ways safer for someone to become dependent on marijuana rather than on opioids for pain relief. In addition, as highlighted in a number of posts from my other blog, there is considerable research emerging from various sources that the opioid epidemic is somewhat less deadly in states that have robust medical marijuana programs.

Some related posts from Marijuana Law, Policy and Reform:

December 9, 2016 at 08:33 AM | Permalink

Comments

Opiate overdose deaths and homicides may be happening in the same population of criminals. If this is true, opiate deaths may be a stealthy form of death penalty, without the outrageous cost of lawyer procedure. It may have to be added to the multiple factors converging to reduce the crime and murder rates. The prevention of opiate deaths, by the use of Narcan by the police, for example, may result in an increase in the murder rate.

Lawyers are concerned that if enough criminals die by opiate overdose, they will have more lawyer unemployment than they already do from the dropping crime rate. I predict that the lawyer will have the newly approved Narcan nasal spray issued for free to all addicts, to prevent their demises. For free, means, at tax payer expense, of course.

Posted by: David Behar | Dec 9, 2016 9:49:01 AM

I agree that the "over-criminalization" of marijuana and the negative stigma often makes it hard for people to seek out help. But, i am optimistic that several police precincts such as Gloucester police department in Massachusetts have said that they will not arrest nor charge anyone who walks in their station, but will instead get them into a rehab program. This strategy has proven to be successful in getting hundreds of abusers of the drug who would otherwise be either in prison or dead. I think we need to pressure our elected leaders to champion these sorts of efforts.

Posted by: Ismail | Dec 14, 2016 9:29:01 PM

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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.




With the Bay Area arts scene gutted and shaken to the core by the tragic loss of life resulting from the Ghost Ship fire, numerous relief efforts have sprung up to benefit the victims and their families. For those looking to both donate money and find solace in the arts community, a series of benefit events are planned all over the Bay Area with proceeds to be donated to various Ghost Ship reliefs funds. Below is a by no means exhaustive list of some coming up.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 8

FOLK YEAH!: Three bands headline this benefit show which is promising to donate all benefits to fire victims families. The Shelters, Hot Flash Heath Wave, and Shadow The Wild are all playing. No specific charity has been named as a recipient.

Starline Social Club, 9:00 p.m., $12

BENEFIT FOR GHOST SHIP: With three DJs (Opalescent Toad, Cali Rose, Dickwolf), and live performances from Maya Songbird, Collin Gorman Weiland, Elrond, Denney Joints, and Genital Quartz, this is going to be a packed house. Proceeds go to the fund set up by Gray Area Foundation for the Arts.

The Golden Bull, 8:00 p.m., $5

GHOST SHIP ARTS COLLECTIVE: Thirteen DJs (Sychosis, Ruby Valeros & Nick Garcia, Cristoffer Zuniga, Papa Lu, Vedda, Mario Dubbz, Eddy Santana, St. John, Swichblade, Richie Hayes, Too tall, and Mark G) are spinning at the End Up for this benefit show, with donations being taken at the door but no one being turned away for lack of funds. No specific charity has been specified to receive the funds.

End Up, 10:00 p.m., Donations At Door

OAKLAND FAMILY DINNER: For those seeking community after the fire, but wanting to do it in a non-show setting, this group dinner may be for you. Chili (there will be a vegan option) and refreshments will be served, and 100 percent of proceeds will be donated. No specific charity has been specified to receive the funds.

First Church Of The Buzzard, 5:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m., $10 to $50

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 9

SHANNON AND THE CLAMS: Surf rockers Shannon and the Clams headline this benefit concert, with HGS (minus deceased keyboardist Ara Jo), Diesel Dudes, Preening, and Undo playing as well. DJ's Fella Kucchi and Trill Team Six are also spinning. Proceeds go to the fund set up by Gray Area Foundation for the Arts.

Eli's Mile High Club, 7:00 p.m., No $ Specified

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 10

AS YOU LIKE IT: The "As You Like It Family Memorial" dance party seeks to raise money for the families of Chelsea Faith, Amanda Allen, and Johnny Igaz. Eight DJ's, including Prins Thomas, Tama Sumo, and Alison Swing are scheduled to spin, and the event goes all night. "We dance for them. ," reads the event page.

Public Works, 9:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m, $15 to $20

MOBY DJ SET: This dance party features DJ's Moby, Richie Panic, DJ CZ, and MPHD with promised "special guests." There will also be a raffle, and a silent auction. This event is 21+. Proceeds go to the fund set up by Gray Area Foundation for the Arts.

Mezzanine, 8:00 p.m., $20

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14

OAKLAND UNITED: This benefit event brings Tycho, a big DJ name from the Burning Man set, to the stage. It also pulls in some huge acts from the Bay Area and beyond, including Boots Riley, Dan Deacon, Geographer, Hieroglyphics, Jay Som, Primus, Rogue Wave, Sidecar Tommy, Thao Nguyen, tUnE-yArDs, and others. All proceeds go to the fund set up by Gray Area Foundation for the Arts.

Fox Theater, 7:00 p.m., $35.00 to $50.00

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17

OAKLAND UNDERGROUND UNITED: Six bands are playing this memorial show (Zack Bateman and The Coal Minds, Blatherskite, Toxic Shock Syndrome, Georgia Sam, Mykee Ramen, and LunaSol Music), and DJ Just Delicious will spin. Vegan baked goods for sale mean that you can fill your tummy while sipping drinks at this 21+ event. Proceeds go to the fund set up by Gray Area Foundation for the Arts.

Eli's Mile High Club, 7:00 p.m., $5

Related: Profiles Of Seven More Creative Souls Lost In Oakland's Ghost Ship Fire

Profiles Of Eight People Who Died In The Oakland Warehouse Fire

Six More Profiles Of Those Lost In Oakland's 'Ghost Ship' Fire
As the names of the missing officially become the names of the dead, SFist is continuing to offer brief remembrances and obituaries as they're being collected from various news sources and friends. The first groups are here, here, and here. If you have any of your own to offer, please do so at [email protected].





Nicole Renae Siegrist, a.k.a. Denalda Renae, 29, Oakland

Nebraska-born Nicole Siegrist, a musician and artist with an extremely outgoing personality, had relocated to Oakland to join the music and arts scene there, and had formed the group Introflirt with friend Benjamin Runnels, who also died in last Friday's fire and whom we profiled here  the name of group comes from a Runnels's introverted nature, and Siegrist's more flirty nature. She rechristened herself Denalda Renae (or sometimes "Sea Crust"), and in addition to playing synths, friends speaking to KRON 4 called her a "feisty feminist rapper."

As the East Bay Times writes of her stage persona, Siegrist "had a team of friends who would help her design outfits with a new style for every show," and like many people at Ghost Ship that night she was there as both fan and entrenched member of the local music community. She and Runnels had gone to the party, according to the Mercury-News, in part to hear Runnels's roommate Johnny Igaz, a.k.a. Nacht, spinning  and Igaz also died in the blaze and was reportedly on deck when the flames broke out, or shortly before.

"Right off the bat she would talk to anyone, says Brendan Dreaper, a friend and band manager, speaking to the East Bay Times. And former bandmate Travis Beck summed up Siegrist in the Omaha World-Herald saying, "She was super brave and carved her own path. She used her weirdness as a strength."

Below, Siegrist live on stage at the Hotel Utah with Runnels on October 29, 2015.





Photo: Facebook

Ara Jo, 29, Emeryville

The East Bay Alternative Book and Zine Fest goes on this weekend minus one of the founders and driving forces behind it, a veritable arts galvanizer and social force known throughout the creative corners of the East Bay named Ara Jo. The Los Angeles native seemed absolutely at home doing many things at once, working at Berkeley art supply store Ink Stone, organizing the Rock Paper Scissors Collective, curating at the Sgraffito Gallery (above which she lived), and starting a band with several friends, the cumbia punk quartet HGS.

Ara Jo is one of many people who had gathered Friday night for an underground party that was their bread and butter, and part of their regular calendar of occasions coming together among the art nerds and band geeks that converge on Oakland, in particular, among other bohemian towns flanked by multiple colleges and respected art programs. She was there with her friend Kiyomi Tanouye, who had come to the party to do nail art for guests (she was profiled here).

An an artist in residence at Berkeley City College, as the East Bay Times tells us, the college called her "a vivacious, creative and talented artist and writer [whose] contributions to the creative fabric of BCCs learning community and to the East Bay will enrich us for many years to come.

Speaking to the Chronicle, Ara Jo's uncle said, "She was a very, very social girl... too many friends."

And those many friends remember her silliness as well as the bright energy she brought to a room. Anjelica Colliard stresses "how wide and deep her influence and love ran throughout Oakland," and how she was a "spearhead" for so many arts communities. Berkeley City College professor Tomas Moniz wrote to Ara Jo on Facebook, in remembrance, "I will remember the sound of and the way your laughter could fill a room. I can honestly say you were one of the most inspiring genuinely positive people I have ever had the pleasure of being around."



Wolfgang Renner, 61, Oakland

Noted in the press following his positive ID as the oldest among the Ghost Ship victims, Wolfgang Renner "was about as free of an individual as anyone is likely to ever meet," according to friend Robert Janca in a statement to KRON 4.

Like many of his younger cohorts at the party, Renner was a musician with a penchant for parties and "loud times," as the Chronicle tells it. A native of Erlangen in the German state of Bavaria, he was passionate about music though not always successful in finding an audience for his own. An anonymous friend told the paper he was "charming, intelligent and a little crazy," adding, "He was vibrant and gregarious, and he liked being with creative people. I always imagined him out there, enjoying life, and it seems like he was."

Renner had come to the party with girlfriend Michelle (Collette) Sylvan, who remains among the missing and unconfirmed dead.





Photo: Shanna Doherty

Amanda Kershaw, a.k.a. Amanda Allen, 34, San Francisco

Moving to San Francisco from the Boston area with DJ husband Andy Kershaw in 2008, Amanda Kershaw worked as an event and portrait photographer and was immersed in the music scene along with several friends who are also among the dead or missing.

A childhood friend speaking the Lowell Sun made the leap, "She took ballet as a child and then that easily transitioned into her marrying a DJ, dancing at clubs and raves, and really embracing that underground musical life."

Kershaw's husband described her to the Associate Press as "vibrant, awesome and magnetic."

The Chelmsford, Massachusetts native also worked at Bay Area nonprofits, and was according to Facebook a big fan of Sunset Sound System parties, and other dance music affairs.





Photo: Facebook

Joey Matlock, a.k.a. Joey Casio, 36, Oakland

A punk and electronic music legend among the East Bay music scene, and described by a fellow DJ as a "philosopher of electronic music," Joey Casio was considered an "institution" unto himself by friends and admirers. Good friend Ian Smith tells SFist he ran into Joey on the street about a week before the Ghost Ship gig, and he was talking about his excitement about the show  and victims Cash Askew, Feral Pines, Benajmin Runnels, and Nicole Siegrist were all apparently there that night, in large part, to see him play, which he was doing under the name Obsidian Blade.

The Olympia, Washington native was reportedly never too focused on any kind of wide-ranging success. According to Calvin Johnson, founder of the Olympia-based record label K which recorded some Joey Casio singles, speaking to the Chronicle, "He would do his music, do his art no matter what. There was never a wide interest in what he did, but it didnt seem to bother him."

Perhaps as an example of his personality, check out the visually dizzying image he posted as his cover photo on this Facebook page. Also on Facebook, in June, he implored friends to forget rock n rolls "mythology of western individualism and accept that you are an active participant in something larger than yourself."

Casio's father, John Matlock, tells the Chronicle his son was "a peacemaker," and one song of his son's that most resonated with him ended with lyric, "Share the cup and spare the sword."

Others, writing on Facebook, described him as a "beautiful alien, a punk in the truest sense and a digital hypnotist, and also, "almost a mystical creature walking through the world."





Photo: Facebook

Barrett Clark, 35, Oakland

Freelance sound engineer, DJ, and electronic music enthusiast Barrett Clark was a frequent presence and essential component of parties like the one that happened Friday, hauling in sound equipment and setting it all up to sound good for his musician friends. He was at the party in support of friend Joey Casio along with close friend Jonathan Bernbaum, a successful video projection artist who also lost his life in the blaze.

Speaking to the East Bay Express, longtime friend Michael Buchanan, an organizer of the events collective Katabatik, says, "Barrett was behind the scenes at every fringe electronic show here  at least the ones that sounded good."

Josh Cheon of the gay electro collective Honey Soundsystem told the paper, "Barrett understood the science behind sound, which is so rare in a profession that relies on myths and hearsay. He wasnt even gay, but at any party we threw hed come and just be like a security blanket for everyone."

And he often proffered his services for free, as the EBX writes, and "What he expect[ed] in return [was] only to hear something inventive and loud, usually set to a pulsing beat."



Previously: Profiles Of Seven More Creative Souls Lost In Oakland's Ghost Ship Fire



Six More Profiles Of Those Lost In Oakland's 'Ghost Ship' Fire

Profiles Of Eight People Who Died In The Oakland Warehouse Fire


YouTube today announced that it has agreed to a large settlement with a songwriting rights trade group, in what outsiders view as an attempt to play nice with the music industry. The New York Times reports that the online streaming service is widely believed to be the most popular site for music, and that musicians feel they haven't been fairly compensated by the Google-owned giant.

The settlement, which is reportedly worth more than $40 million (although YouTube wouldn't confirm this), is with the National Music Publishers Association. The group manages songwriting royalties, and is allegedly upset that much of the music on YouTube doesn't properly list songwriters and their publishes. Without this information, the argument goes, those artists are not getting revenue that they are due.

We appreciate YouTubes willingness to work with us on behalf of the industry to help pay out millions of dollars in previously unclaimed royalties to publishers and songwriters, NMPA President and CEO David Israelite said in a statement. It is essential that we work with digital services like YouTube - the most popular digital platform for music discovery - to fix the challenge of incomplete ownership information to ensure royalties are no longer unmatched and music owners are paid accurately by the platforms that rely on their work.

In addition to the cash, the Times reports that the settlement will allow the NMPA to access internal YouTube data showing which songs have incomplete data. The revenue earned by the music industry on YouTube continues to grow significantly year over year, and were committed to making sure that publishers are paid for the usage of their works on our platform, explained Tamara Hrivnak, YouTubes head of music partnerships for the Americas, in a statement.

And while this may be a win for the trade group, all at YouTube is still not right in the music world according to recording industry group IFPI. "YouTube, the world's largest on-demand music service, is not paying artists and producers anything like a fair rate for music," the group said in a statement yesterday following a separate YouTube announcement regarding $1 billion in paid out advertising revenue to the music industry. "This highlights more than ever the need for legislative action to address the 'value gap' that is denying music rights holders a fair return for their work."

Related: Apple Is Trying To Buy Jay Z's Streaming Service Tidal
Water main break causes some flooding in the Moscone Center and unfinished MTA subway. https://t.co/Y3kEfdsgLN pic.twitter.com/zwmgoJpeRi  NBC Bay Area (@nbcbayarea) December 9, 2016

A South of Market water main pipe that reportedly dates back to the 1800s bid this cruel world farewell this morning, flooding area streets and snarling traffic for the Friday commute.

A 12-inch water main pipe that ran beneath Howard Street broke at around 2:40 this morning at Fourth and Howard Streets, a spokesperson with San Francisco's Public Utilities Commission says. Crews responded to the break, which the Chron describes as "a gusher that broke through the asphalt and flooded the intersection with several inches of water and mud," at 3:15 a.m.

Workers "isolated the broken main and are making repairs," KRON 4 reports, but not before water flooded parts of Moscone Center and the under-construction tunnels of the Central Subway, according to NBC Bay Area.

The pipe, which officials say dates back to 1895, likely broke due to old age.

Right now, [the break] does not appear to be construction-related, SFPUC spokesperson Charles Sheehan told CBS 5.

This is an older section of the main, and the likely factor in these cases for older is usually age.

As you can imagine, traffic in the area is a shambles, with numerous street closures and delays as the crews continue their work throughout the day. As of publication time, Howard Street will remain closed between Third and Fourth streets, with Fourth Street shut down between Howard and Folsom. One lane of traffic remains open on Fourth from Mission to Howard to allow right turns onto Howard, but with repairs expected to take several hours, you'd be wiser to avoid the area all together.

Customers near Moscone Center will be without water while crews try to fix a water main break at 4th and Howard. https://t.co/dkJTuyH9rb pic.twitter.com/ENJ99yTWAz  NBC Bay Area (@nbcbayarea) December 9, 2016


A man and a woman are dead Friday, after two separate homicidal incidents claimed their lives Thursday evening.

According to the San Francisco Police Department, officers were called to the 2000 block of Sutter Street, which is between Fillmore and Steiner Streets, at 9:25 Thursday evening.

When they arrived they discovered a 56-year-old woman who had been fatally attacked with a knife, they say, and who was deceased when they arrived. As of Friday morning, the San Francisco Medical Examiner's Office had not publicly identified the victim.

A 39-year-old man was arrested for the homicide, police say, but declined to give further details due to the pending investigation.

Homicide investigators were again called out at 11:53 p.m., this time to Mission Street and Geneva Avenue.

Police say that three suspects  a 20-year-old man as well as two females aged 17 and 18  were in an as yet undescribed vehicle when one of them fired a handgun at a man in his early 20s and an 18-year-old woman.

Both victims were struck, and transported to San Francisco General Hospital. While the female victim's injuries are not life-threatening, police say that the male victim was pronounced dead at the hospital. As with Thursday's other victim, he has yet to be publically identified.

According to the SFPD, the suspects in the shooting were arrested. As the investigation is ongoing, police could not provide additional details on the case as of publication time.

These two deaths bring San Francisco's homicide count to 54, taking the city to the highest number of slayings since 2012. SF resident Nathaniel Burgess, who was shot on December 2 in the Bayview, died of his injuries on December 4, taking the total to 51. That makes Wednesday's as yet unsolved fatal shooting of Lisa Williams in the Mission District the city's 52nd. In comparison, there were 52 total homicides in SF at the end of 2015, 45 homicides in 2014, 48 in 2013, 68 in 2012, and 50 in 2011.

Related: Woman Shot To Death On South Van Ness
In a move that sounds more befitting of actor TJ Miller's character on Silicon Valley, the oafish Erlich Bachmann, Miller was arrested in Hollywood early this morning according to the venerable source of such gossip, TMZ, who write that his arrest sprang from an altercation regarding President-Elect Donald Trump. Miller is no supporter of Trump, as his Twitter feed makes clear, and the argument, in another Silicon Valley twist, was with his Uber driver.

Miller was reportedly returning home from a GQ party, pictured above, and while TMZ didn't report the substance of the argument, they do allege that it came to blows. Miller, they write, slapped his driver in the head, leading the driver to perform a "citizen's arrest," detaining Miller until police arrived. He was taken into custody, we're told, and released without having to post bail/on his own recognizance.

Our southern counterparts at LAist write that they've confirmed the events with the LAPD, who told them that one Todd Joseph Miller was indeed arrested "on suspicion of misdemeanor battery at about 1 a.m. this morning in the 6900 block of Camrose Drive, near Hollywood."

Though the LAPD would not specify if the caller drove specifically for Uber, they did confirm that the caller drove for a car company. The driver asked for a private person's arrest, otherwise known as a citizen's arrest. After conducting an investigation, officers arrested Miller. His bail was set at $20,000, and he has since been released on his own personal recognizance. Officers could not confirm if the alleged altercation was indeed over Donald Trump, or if anyone elseincluding Miller's wife, Kate Gorney, who appeared with him in photos from the GQ eventwas present at the time of the incident.

As LAist wrote in November, Miller isn't the only Silicon Valley star to get into it over the election of Donald Trump, a politician whose divisive rhetoric and hateful slurs have emboldened similar behavior in his supporters. Actors Kumail Nanjiani and Thomas Middleditch were threatened by Trump supporters at a bar in Silver Lake after the election, as they revealed on Twitter.

Related: That Time Silicon Valley's TJ Miller Met (And Embarrassed) Elon Musk
Most people take photos when they go on a trip. The folks at the Disney studio draw pictures. Lots of pictures.

In The Art of Moana, some of those sketches (and a few photos) show how directors Ron Clements and John Musker gathered inspiration for their animated film Moana.

Those moving tattoos on Maui? They had their origins in a session with a tufuga ta tatau (or tattoo master) who showed how the traditional Samoan tattoos were done.

More than other art of books, this one, written by Jessica Julius and Maggie Malone, chronicles the fact-finding process in telling detail. Sketches by Musker and others show those seeds of creativity.

We hope this movie is a celebration of Pacific cultures, Clements says. That intention drove us to challenge ourselves. We wanted to get it right because its important.

Topography, flora and fauna become key. By the time Julius and Malone start describing the characters, were familiar with the world. Some of the settings look so realistic they easily could serve as blueprints for a new Disney World land.

Moana, the films 16-year-old heroine, went through hundreds of iterations before she was drawn as a fearless young voyager.

The baby sketches gave way to worldly woman ones. The rail thin bodies morphed into more realistic healthy ones. Moanas jewelry had an evolution, too.

Maui wasnt just one character. As the book shows, he had several animal forms during his shapeshifter phase.

While the authors might have shown more of the mini Maui (those tattoos), theres a lot here to savor. Like the figures on urns in Hercules (another Clements/Musker film), he has a life of his own and, as Musker says, is part of the cast, not just a design. When those tats glow in the dark, Moana moves to a level where other animated films havent been.

If youve seen the film  and forgotten some of the characters  the book makes a second visit almost mandatory. Those scavengers called Kakamora may not register on screen but theyre afforded as much thought as the sidekicks who hang with the heroine.

The ocean  a big player in the film  is given its due, too. And if youre a fan of Disney films, theres a flip book in the upper right hand corner that takes the process back to its origins.

Because Musker and Clements are mentors for a generation of animators, its fun to see how they were depicted in a series of story meeting sketches. Artist David Pimentel even dares to show them as Moanas sidekicks  and the look is pretty good.

Even better, composer Lin-Manuel Miranda gets a cameo in the culture of collaboration section.

The Art of Moana is from Chronicle Books.
Blood drives

Tyson-Dakota City Blood Drive, 11:30-3:30 p.m. Dec. 23 at Tyson Foods, Highway 35.

Emerson Community Blood Drive, 2-6 p.m. Dec. 26 at Emerson Fire Hall, 205 Main St.

Screenings

Free blood pressure screenings, 9:30 to 11 a.m. Wednesdays at Countryside Senior Living, front lobby. No appointment necessary.

Programs/Self-Help Groups

Al-Anon Information Center, call 712-255-6724.

Al-Anon and Alateen, meetings locally. For times, dates and locations of area meetings, call 712-255-6724.

Alcoholics Anonymous, beginners information, call 712-252-1333.

Arc of Woodbury County, serving the mentally challenged, 5:15 p.m. meeting, second Monday of the month at Mid-Step Services, 4303 Stone Ave. For families and interested persons.

Child Care Resource and Referral, provides resources, education and advocacy for children, parents, and child care providers. Assists in child care needs. For more information, call 712-277-1180.

Co-Dependence Anonymous, 7 p.m. Mondays and Thursdays at First Lutheran Church, Fireside Room.

Co-Dependents Anonymous (CODA), 10 a.m. Saturdays at Hawkeye Club, 420 Jones St.

Compassionate Friends, 7 p.m. fourth Wednesday of each month (third Thursday in November and second Sunday December) in Mercy Medical Center's Leiter Room. For families who have lost children. Contact Nancy Webb 712-212-4032 or Don Mulder 712-541-5512.

Eating disorder coalition awareness event, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Oct. 29 at Boy's and Girl's home and family services, 2101 Court St. Contact Lisa 712-251-0570 or Michele 712-898-2351.

Clinics

Siouxland District Health immunization clinics, call for appointment, 712-279-6119 or 1-800-587-3005.

Information

Family and Addictive Illness series, for more information, call 234-2300.

Iowa Fathers, 6 to 8 p.m. fourth Tuesday of each month at Hope Lutheran Church, Education Building, 218 W. 18th St., South Sioux City, Neb. Support group to help single, divorcing and divorced parents residing in the state of Iowa.

Mercy Pathways Outpatient Program, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, on the third floor, Mercy's Central Medical Building, 801 Fifth St., Suite 360. Provides hope, help, opportunity to connect through group therapy for individuals experiencing personal, relationship, psychiatric issues. For more information, call 712-279-5991.

Narcotics Anonymous, meetings daily, various times, dates and locations. For more information, call 712-279-0733.

Overeaters Anonymous, 1 p.m. Tuesdays at Wesley United Methodist Church, 3700 Indian Hills Drive; 6 p.m. Tuesdays at St. John's Lutheran Church, 402 Lane Ave., Storm Lake; 7 p.m. Tuesdays at Church of the Nazarene, 226 N. Main St., Viborg, S.D.; 5:30 p.m. Thursdays and 9 a.m. Saturdays at Newman Center, 320 E. Cherry St., Vermillion, S.D.; 10:30 a.m. Saturdays at Hawkeye Club, 420 Jones St. A 12-step recovery program for people who have problems with food and weight. No fees.

St. Lukes Outpatient Behavioral Health Program, 9 a.m. to noon Monday, Tuesday and Thursday on fifth floor of St. Luke's, located at 2720 Stone Park Blvd. Offers several levels of outpatient care including partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient, and group therapy. This program provides support and integrated treatment to individuals experiencing personal or relationship issues as a result of their mental illness. For more information and admission criteria, call 712-279-3906.

Sobriety By Faith, 8:30 a.m. Saturdays at Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church, 1421 Geneva St. For more information, call James Mothershead at 712-577-9715.

The Link-Recovery and Freedom, 1603 Glen Ellen Road; 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. Saturday workshop, and Christian 12-step meeting 7 to 8 p.m. Tuesday. For all ages. Call Dee at 389-7432.

Women in Recovery, meets monthly at Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church, 1421 Geneva St. For details, call 712-255-4623.

Tarahouse Meditation Center, 8 a.m. Mondays through Thursdays; 6:30 p.m. Fridays; 10 a.m. Saturdays and Sundays, all at 3112 Rebecca St. Three easy 10-minute sessions in small group; beginners welcome. For more information, call 490-6410.

Blood pressure and blood sugar screening, 9 to 11 a.m. Wednesdays in the lobby at Westwood Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. Free to public.

Support Groups

Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous, 7-8:30 p.m. Wednesdays at Hawkeye Club basement, 420 Jones St. For more information, call 277-5935.

Celebrate Recovery, Bible-based 12-step recovery group. Thursdays at 6 p.m. at Sunnybrook Community Church, 5601 Sunnybrook Drive. Childcare provided. 712-490-3343. All welcome.

PFLAG of Siouxland, (Parents & Friends of Lesbians and Gays), 7 p.m., fourth Monday of January, March, May, July, September and November. St. Mark ELCA Church, 5200 Glenn Ave., in the upstairs meeting area. 712-258-3116.

Singles widowed and divorced, all ages, 4 p.m., Sundays. McDonald's at Sixth Street and Lewis Boulevard. 712-252-2675.

GriefShare, 6:30 -8:30 p.m. every Tuesday until Dec. 6 at Sunnybrook Community Church, 5601 Sunnybrook Drive, Sioux City. 712-276-5814.

HIV/AIDS Support Group, meets weekly. For more information, call Darla or Teri at Siouxland Community Health Center, 712-252-2477 or 888-371-1965.

Hospice of Siouxland, seeking volunteers. For more information, call 712-233-4144 and ask for a volunteer coordinator.

La Leche League of Siouxland, breastfeeding support group meets every third Thursday at 11 a.m. at Morningside Lutheran Church. Children are welcome. For more information, call Mary at 712-546-7280 or Jacquie at 712-255-2998.

Living Each Day Cancer Support Group, 7-8 p.m. second Thursday of the month, Floyd Valley Hospital, Conference Center Room 2, Le Mars, Iowa. Open to all cancer patients, cancer survivors and family members. No charge. Pre-register by calling 712-546-3441 or 800-642-6074, ext. 441.

Mom and Baby Support Group, 10-11 a.m. last Monday of the month at the Orange City (Iowa) Hospital, lower level. For new moms and babies. 712-737-5260.

Tri-State Sober Project, 12-step meeting, 7:30-8:30 p.m., Tuesdays, Friendship Community Church, 305 Sergeant Square Drive, Sergeant Bluff. 6-7 p.m., Thursdays, Transitional Services of Iowa, 1221 Pierce St., Sioux City.

Doug's Donors Support Group, information for organ donors and recipients, 12:30-1:30 p.m. Fridays, 5:15-6:30 p.m. second Thursdays of the month at Mercy Cafeteria Woodbury Room. 712-277-1050.

Divorce Care, 6:30 -8:30 p.m. every Tuesday until Dec. 6 at Sunnybrook Community Church, 5601 Sunnybrook Drive, Sioux City. 712-276-5814.

NAMI Siouxland, (National Alliance on Mental Illness) Support Group meets 6:30 p.m., second Tuesday of the month at Friendship House, 1101 Court St. For individuals and family members dealing with mental illness. 712-255-4209.

New Life Life Support Group, 3:30 p.m. every Saturday at 2929 W. Fourth St. Spiritual 12-step program. For more information, call Donald at 712-574-1744 or James at 712-255-7624.

Orphan Sunday, 3:30-5 p.m. Sunday at Sunnybrook Community Church loft, 5601 Sunnybrook Drive.

Post Polio Support Group, 11 a.m. first Thursday of the month at Perkins Restaurant by Menards. 712-490-8213.

Relationship Support Group, 7 p.m. Fridays at Marketplace Mall. For more information, call 239-3129.

Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence, Individual and Support Groups. For more information, call CSADV in Sioux City at 712-258-7233; Plymouth County at 712-546-6764; Monona County at 712-423-3443. Advocacy and support available 24 hours a day at 1-800-982-7233. All services free of charge and confidential.

Sickle Cell Disease Support Group, 11 a.m. third Saturday of each month at St. Luke's Hospital, meeting room 1. For patients, their family and any concerned member. Call La'Keshia Rainey at 712-203-2019 for more information.

Single and Parenting, 6:30 -8:30 p.m. every Tuesday until Dec. 6 at Sunnybrook Community Church, 5601 Sunnybrook Drive, Sioux City. 712-276-5814.

Sioux City Association of the Deaf, 7 p.m. third Saturday of the month at Morningside Church of Christ, 5015 Garretson Ave. Regular meeting, September-May; no meeting, June, July, August and December.

Siouxland Autism Support Group, second Thursday of the month at Northwest Area Education Agency, 1520 Morningside Ave. For more information, call Julie Case at 712-490-8939.

Siouxland Epilepsy Support Group, 5 p.m. third Tuesday of the month at Prestwick Apartment Clubhouse, 4230 Hickory Lane. For anyone diagnosed with seizures or epilepsy and family or friends. For more information, call Steve at 274-6927.

Siouxland IC support group, meets quarterly in Sioux City. For patients struggling with interstital cystitis. For more information, call Jacque Dundas 316-641-9766.

Siouxland Informational Group for the Blind, 2-5 p.m. second Tuesday of the month at Northern Hills Retirement Community, 4002 Teton Trace. For more information, call 712-266-8926 or 258-8151.

Grief support group, 5:30-7:30 p.m., beginning Oct. 5 for 13 weeks (may join at any time), Crescent Park United Methodist Church, 2826 Myrtle St., Sioux City. Scott, 712-899-6315.

Siouxland Ostomy Association, 2 p.m. first Sunday of each month (except September, which will be second Sunday; and no meetings June, July, August), in Room 300 at Mercy Medical Center, 801 Fifth St. For more information, call Dick Lindblom at 251-2453.

Siouxland Parkinson Disease Support Group, 1 p.m. fourth Monday of the month at Siouxland Center for Active Generations, 313 Cook St. For more information, call Sally Reinert at 402-987-3516.

Sojourners, support group for families of persons with life-threatening illness, 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays at St. Luke's Regional Medical Center, Room 416. For more information, call Marjorie Jarvill at 402-241-8637.

South Sioux City Weight Support Group, 8:30 a.m. Wednesdays at St. Paul United Methodist Church, South Sioux City. For more information, call 494-1401 or 494-2133.

Disabilities Resource Center of Siouxland, 520 Nebraska St., Suite 101: Women's Support Group, 1:30 p.m. first Wednesday of the month; LGBT Support Group, 1:30 p.m. first Friday of the month; Adult ADHD, 6 p.m. second Tuesday of the month; Advocacy Group, 1:30 p.m. third Tuesday of the month. For more information, call 712-255-1065.

Take Off Pounds Sensibly, group meetings various times, days and locations in Siouxland. For information on the chapter in your area, call 1-800-932-TOPS.

Voice Disorder Support Group, meets as needed at Mercy Medical Center, Buena Vista Room. 712-279-2686.

Women's Peer Support Group, in Wayne and South Sioux City, Neb., for those who have experienced domestic abuse. For more information, call the Wayne office at 402-375-4633 or 1-800-440-4633; in South Sioux City, call 402-494-7592. Help and support available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Services free and confidential.

Woodbury County D.M.D.A., noon-2 p.m. first Saturday of the month at Country Friendship Acres, 4501 West St.; 7-8 p.m. first Tuesday of the month at 515 Court St. in the Community Room; 7-8 p.m. second Tuesday of the month at 441 W. Third St. in the Community Room; 7-8 p.m. third Tuesday of the month at 409 W. Third St. in the Community Room. Support group for people with disabilities and mental disorders.

Natural Mamas in Siouxland, 1 p.m., third Tuesday of each month in the Garretson room of the Morningside Public Library. All ages of children are welcome to come with moms. For sharing natural living tips, recipes, natural remedies and health, homemaking, mothering, etc. For more information, call 402-913-0038 or visit their Facebook page.

A Step Beyond support group, 3:30 p.m. second Tuesday of the month, except for August, November and December when it meets at 5:30 p.m. (no meeting in January) at the Christy-Smith Resource Center, 1819 Morningside Ave. For more information, call 712-276-7319.

Divorce care, 5 p.m., Sundays. Fireside room, Morningside Lutheran Church, 700 South Martha St.

Gamblers Anonymous meetings, 4 p.m. Thursdays at Immanuel Lutheran Church, 315 Hamilton Blvd.; 7 p.m. Wednesdays, Morningside Presbyterian Church, 4327 Morningside Ave.; 7 p.m. Tuesdays, St. John Lutheran Church; 7 p.m. Sundays, Hawkeye Club, 420 Jones St.. 712-277-2901.

Art therapy support group, 5:30 p.m. second Thursday of the month at the June E. Nylen Cancer Center. Registration required, call 252-9387.

After Breast Cancer Support Group, 5:30 p.m. third Tuesday of the month at the June E. Nylen Cancer Center. For more information, call Brenda, 252-9370.

After Prostate Cancer Support Group, 5:15 p.m. first Tuesday of the month at the June E. Nylen Cancer Center. For more information, call 252-9426.

Alzheimer's Association, Big Sioux Chapter Support Group, 2 p.m. second Tuesday of the month; 4 p.m. third Tuesday of the month (under age 65) at 201 Pierce St., Suite 110 (Famous Dave's building); and 6 p.m. first Tuesday of the month at the Barnes and Noble Cafe. For more information, call Emily Lord at 712-279-5802.

Christy-Smith Funeral Homes of Sioux City, extensive grief library at the Morningside location. Open to the public during weekday hours. For more information, call 276-7319.

Chronic Pain/Chronic Illness Support Group, 7:30 p.m. fourth Wednesday of the month in the lower level of the Orange City Hospital. For more information, call 712-737-5260.

Connections Area Agency on Aging, and Mercy Medical Centers Older Adult Services Welcome to Medicare, 1:30-4 p.m., the first Friday of every month at Connections Area Agency on Aging, 2301 Pierce St. To pre-register, or for more information, contact Connections Area Agency on Aging at 712-279-6900.
Churches plan cookie walks

SIOUX CITY -- First Christian Church, 2101 Jackson St., will host its annual Cookie Walk from 4-7 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday. Thousands of cookies will be sold by the pound.

Westminster Presbyterian Church, 2915 Glenn Ave., will host its 25th annual Cookie Walk from 9-11 a.m. Saturday.

Cookies and candies will be available for purchase at $6 per pound.

Roast beef dinner, basket auction set

SIOUX CITY -- Riverside United Methodist Church, 617 Wright Ave., will host a roast beef dinner and basket auction from 6-8 p.m. Saturday.

Admission is $10 for adults and free for children 10 and younger.

39th annual celebration of St. Lucia

VERMILLION, S.D. -- The 39th annual celebration of the St. Lucia tradition in Dalesburg will be held at 3 p.m. Sunday at Dalesburg Lutheran Church, 30595 University Road.

The event will include Scandinavian food.

Whitfield United Christmas brunch

SIOUX CITY -- The women of Whitfield United Methodist Church will hold their annual Christmas brunch at 10 a.m. Saturday at NorthPark Place, 2562 Pierce St.

There will be a $2 gift exchange and singing of carols.

Morningside Lutheran children's program

SIOUX CITY -- The children's ministry of Morningside Lutheran Church, 700 S. Martha St., will present their Christmas program, "Make Way for the King," during the 9:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. services Sunday.

A traditional service will be held at 8 a.m.

Sunday service at First Unitarian

SIOUX CITY -- The congregation of First Unitarian Church will hear the topic, "Loving Our Neighbor While Trying To Solve Difficult Environmental Problems" presented by David O'Hara at 11 a.m. Sunday at First Unitarian Church, 2508 Jackson St.

Healing service at St. Alban's

SPIRIT LAKE, Iowa -- The Northwest Iowa chapter of the Order of St. Luke will offer its quarterly public service of healing and Holy Eucharist at 2 p.m. Sunday at St. Alban's Episcopal Church, 2011 23rd St.

The service will be led by the Rev. Robert Kem. The healing service will follow the regular 10 a.m. Sunday service.

Greek Orthodox regional hierarch to visit

SIOUX CITY -- Bishop Demetrios of Mokissos, chancellor of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Chicago, will officiate the 9 a.m. service on Sunday at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church, 900 Sixth St.

A reception will be held immediately after the service.

Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe services

STORM LAKE, Iowa -- All are invited to participate in a day of activities and prayers of solidarity with families of immigrants, in honor of the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Monday at St. Mary's Parish, 320 Seneca St.

Masses begin Monday at midnight, followed by a 7 a.m. Mass, a 2:30 p.m. school mass with grades kindergarten through fifth grade, and a 6 p.m. Mass.

Advent service and Christmas Cantata

SIOUX CITY | Advent services will continue at Redeemer Lutheran Church, 3204 S. Lakeport St., with "The Gift of Peace," at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Redeemer's annual Christmas Cantata will take place at 7 p.m. and will feature hand bells, special brass and the senior choir. Refreshments will follow.
LE MARS, Iowa | A Cherokee, Iowa, woman will avoid prosecution for attempted murder in exchange for pleading to lesser charges related to a Plymouth County traffic accident.

Melissa Ebert will enter an Alford plea to two counts of serious injury by vehicle and one count of second-offense operating while intoxicated, according to court documents filed Monday in Plymouth County District Court. Two counts each of attempted murder and willful injury will be dismissed as part of a plea agreement.

Under an Alford plea, a defendant admits no guilt, but a guilty plea will be entered into the court record.

A hearing has been scheduled for Dec. 19.

At sentencing, court documents say, Ebert's attorney will ask for that the two five-year prison sentences for serious injury be suspended, as well as the two-year OWI prison sentence. The second-offense OWI charge carries a mandatory seven-day jail sentence, and a judge could order a longer jail sentence.

Prosecutors will make no sentencing recommendations, court documents said.

The plea agreement, if approved by a judge, would allow Ebert to avoid the potential of serving much more time in prison. Had she been found guilty at trial of attempted murder, Ebert would have faced a 25-year prison sentence on each count. A willful injury conviction is punishable by a 10-year prison sentence.

Ebert, 30, had been accused in court documents of threatening to kill herself and her passenger, Damian Johnson, before veering her car into the path of an oncoming car driven by Dustin Boll, of Le Mars, on County Road C-38 on Sept. 9, 2015. All three were seriously injured.

Court documents said that Ebert and Johnson were arguing prior to the collision. Ebert's blood-alcohol level was 0.088 percent, above the legal limit of 0.08 percent, court documents said.
SIOUX CITY | A Sioux City police officer fatally shot a passenger in an SUV after he felt threatened during a routine traffic stop Wednesday night, the police chief said Thursday.

After pulling over the Chevy Suburban near the intersection of Tri-View Avenue and South Myrtle Street, officers learned there was an outstanding warrant for the lone passenger, Daniel Anthony Riedmann, 36, and the Dakota Dunes man could be armed and dangerous, Police Chief Doug Young said.

"The officers then re-approached the vehicle. Mr. Riedmann did not comply with the officer's demands to exit the vehicle. The vehicle was locked and as they were making their demands there were some furtive movements at which time the officer stepped back and discharged his service weapon striking Mr. Riedmann," Young said at a news conference at police headquarters.

The officers administered first aid and Riedmann was transported to Mercy Medical Center -- Sioux City by ambulance, where he was pronounced dead about 30 minutes later.

A handgun was later recovered inside the vehicle, Young said.

It's the first fatal shooting involving a Sioux City police officer in nearly three years.

The police chief said he did not know how many shots were discharged Wednesday night nor where Riedmann was shot. Young did not identify the male officer who fired his weapon, other than to say he has been on the force for three years. He has been placed on paid administrative leave, pending further investigation, and his name will be released in the near future, Young said.

The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation is investigating the case. An autopsy on Riedmann's body is scheduled to be performed Friday in Des Moines.

Young said the incident was captured on a police squad car dash cam. The video will be released at an undisclosed time and date, he said.

The stop occurred at about 10:25 p.m. Wednesday on South Myrtle Street, near the Central Mart convenience store at 1203 Tri-View Ave.

The driver, Melinda Benoit, 39, of Sioux City, was pulled over because "there was an indication that there may be a wanted on the plate of that vehicle," Youngs said. Benoit was not arrested, but was cited for a traffic violation. The police chief said he did not know the relationship between Benoit and Riedmann.

State officials last month issued a warrant for Riedmann for a parole violation. Riedmann, who has a long criminal record dating back to 2001, was released from prison in June after serving a portion of sentences on felony charges in Woodbury and Polk counties, according to the the Iowa Department of Corrections website. In Woodbury, he was sentenced in March 2014 to 15 years on second-degree theft, habitual offender enhancement, according to court records.

The last time Sioux City police officers fatally shot someone was in January 2014. Felix Navarrete, 29, died after he was shot by an unidentified officer in an apartment in the 2700 block of South Helen St., and then fell from a second-story window onto the ground. The SWAT Team was serving a warrant on Navarrete for a homicide in Sioux City three days earlier. A loaded handgun was found tucked into the back of his pants.
This week on the podcast, the crew discusses Gov. Terry Branstad's appointment to Ambassador to China, President-elect Donald Trumps visit to Des Moines on Thursday, and what to expect from Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds when she takes over as Governor.

On Iowa Politics is a weekly news and analysis podcast which re-creates the conversations that happen when Iowa's political reporters get together after deadlines have been met. This week's show features James Q. Lynch, Todd Dorman, Christinia Crippes, Ed Tibbetts and Erin Murphy.

This week's show was produced by Max Freund and the music heard in the podcast is courtesy of Matthew Maybanks. Chat with us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter @OnIowaPolitics, and subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher. Know an Iowa musician who should be on our show? Send their band sound files to oniowapolitics@gmail.com
SIOUX CITY | A month before Vernon Mace was fatally stabbed, he held a gun to the back of the head of the man who would later be accused of killing him.

Chris Peterson testified Thursday that he was riding in the back seat of a car driven by Elias Wanatee in January when Wanatee and Mace, who was sitting next to Peterson, began arguing about who was going to take the car once they got back to Sioux City.

Wanatee threatened to crash into construction barricades on Interstate 29 near downtown Sioux City.

"He said, "I could kill us all right now,'" Peterson said.

As the two men argued, Wanatee began to reach down beside the seat, Peterson said, but Mace pulled a gun from his pocket, put it to Wantee's head and told him to keep his hands where he could see them.

Peterson first testified that he didn't know what Mace was holding. Defense attorney Jason Dunn referred to Peterson's deposition this summer in which he said it was a gun.

"It was a gun that Mace pulled out and pointed at the back of my client's head?" Dunn asked.

"Yes," Peterson said.

Wanatee, 47, of Sioux City, has pleaded not guilty in Woodbury County District Court to first-degree murder for the Feb. 17 stabbing death of Mace, 50, of Sioux City, near West First and Turner streets.

During the second day of testimony in Wanatee's trial, Peterson said that when they got to Sioux City late at night, they pulled into Speedy Lube, his business at 120 Nebraska St. Mace's niece, who had been in the passenger seat, took the keys and went inside the shop with Peterson and Mace. Wanatee would not leave and demanded the car keys. He ultimately got out of the car, Peterson said, and pulled out a knife.

"He stated to me, 'I'm going to get those car keys,'" Peterson said.

Peterson went back inside Speedy Lube. After 10-15 minutes, they noticed that Wanatee had left.

Less than one month later, Mace was dead.

Mikaeya Wright and Lorenzo Cariaga testified that they had come to Mace's home at about 1 a.m. on Feb. 17. They were asked to leave Mace's home, so they walked up the block to the home of Tom Abbe. Inside, they smoked methamphetamine in Abbe's bedroom and left after Mace received a phone call, Cariaga said.

As they walked outside, they noticed a man with a hood pulled over his face walking up the sidewalk toward them.

"We kept an eye on him. It was an odd situation," Cariaga said.

The man turned around and went to Mace's home and stood in the doorway. Mace, Cariaga and Wright stood in the street, debating what to do.

"I asked Mr. Mace if he was going to be all right. I didn't want to leave," Cariaga said.

Cariaga and Wright decided to leave. After driving around the block, Cariaga and Wright noticed that Mace and the other man had not moved. Cariaga and Wright, who both testified that they never saw the man's face, decided to leave. About an hour later, Wright said, she texted Mace to ask if he was OK. Mace never responded to her message.

By that time he had died at Mercy Medical Center.

Abbe testified Wednesday that a blood-covered Mace had come to his door and left while Abbe was trying to call 911. Mace flagged down Kim Stahle, who drove him to the hospital. Stahle testified Wednesday that Mace told her Wanatee had stabbed him.

At the hospital, Abbe and Stahle told police they should be looking for Wanatee, Sioux City police Officer Zac Croft said.

Police arrested Wanatee without incident around 11:30 a.m. later that day outside his apartment building at 923 Douglas St., Sioux City police Detective Sgt. Ryan Bertrand said.

Dr. Thomas Carroll, who performed the autopsy on Mace, testified that he identified nine separate stab wounds: one to the scalp, one near the left ear, two under the left armpit, three to the left arm, one to the left side of the chest and one to the right side of the chest.

Five of the wounds were superficial, Carroll said, but the stab to the right side of the chest was the fatal wound. Carroll said it penetrated Mace's diaphragm and sliced his liver, severing a major blood vessel and causing profuse internal bleeding that led to Mace's death.

The trial will resume at 9 a.m. Friday.
SIOUX CITY | Sioux City Police have identified the officer who fatally shot a Dakota Dunes man after he refused to "show his hands" during a traffic stop Wednesday night.

Officer Dylan Grimsley discharged his weapon, striking the suspect, Daniel Anthony Riedmann, 36, after Riedmann ignored "repeated commands" by officers to show his hands and unlock the door of the SUV in which he was a front seat passenger, the department said in a news release Friday.

After the shooting, Riedmann was removed from the vehicle and a loaded handgun was recovered, the release said. Police have not said whether the gun was found with Riedmann or inside the vehicle.

At a news conference Thursday, Police Chief Doug Young declined to name the officer. Once an autopsy was completed Friday, the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, which is investigating the case, had planned to talk Grimsley before he was publicly identified, Darrell Simmons, a DCI agent in the Council Bluffs office, said earlier Friday.

The autopsy results have not been released.

In Friday's news release, police also disclosed some additional details of the incident, the first fatal shooting involving a Sioux City officer in nearly three years.

After stopping the SUV near the intersection of Tri-View Avenue and South Myrtle Street on Wednesday night, officers removed the driver, Melinda Benoit, and placed her in the rear seat of a patrol car. After running a check on Riedmann, a national crime database revealed a felony warrant for Riedmann for a parole violation as a habitual offender. Police said the check included warnings that Riedmann was "armed and dangerous" and had "violent tendencies."

Grimsley and two other uniformed officers approached the vehicle with the intent to arrest Riedmann for the warrant, police said. As they gave Riedmann orders, he locked the doors and began reaching inside the vehicle.

"Reacting to the actions of Riedmann, Officer Grimsley fired his weapon, striking the suspect," the news release said.

Officers administered first aid and Riedmann was transported by ambulance to Mercy Medical Center -- Sioux City, where he was pronounced dead about 30 minutes later.

Young said Thursday he did not know how many shots were discharged Wednesday night or where Riedmann was shot.

The incident was captured on a police squad car dash cam. The video will be released at an undisclosed time and date, Young said.

In a statement, the police department declined media requests for a photograph of Grimsley, citing a "specialty assignment that requires his appearance not be revealed to preserve his ability to work undercover operations."

Grimsley, a 2004 Bishop Heelan High School graduate, was a standout basketball player with the Sioux City Catholic school and later the University of South Dakota.

He left Heelan as the city's all-time leading scorer with 1,338 points and now stands sixth on the list. The 6 foot-6 inch forward originally signed with Division I University of North Carolina-Wilmington, but before the 2004-05 school year began Grimsley transferred to the University of Northern Iowa. He left UNI and then played three years at USD. When he finished his career, he was one of only 18 Coyotes all-time to reach 1,000 points and 500 rebounds.

Grimsley has been on the Sioux City Police force for three years.
SIOUX CITY | Repeatedly, Elias Wanatee told police interviewing him in connection with Vernon Mace's death that he didn't kill anyone.

Over and over, he motioned toward his shoes and tugged at the long sleeves of his sweatshirt, reasoning that if he had stabbed Mace, he would have blood on his hands, his clothes, his shoes.As he pointed to his clothing, he asked police detectives where the blood was and told them to take his clothing and test it for DNA.

"I did not kill him," Wanatee said in a video of his interview with police after his Feb. 17 arrest.

Wanatee, 47, of Sioux City, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in Woodbury County District Court for the fatal stabbing of Mace, 50, of Sioux City, that occurred earlier that morning near West First and Turner streets.

Prosecutors on Friday played the video of his interview for jurors. Sioux City police Det. Nick Thompson said he and another detective conducted the interview, which lasted for about two hours, at the police department about nine hours after Mace had been stabbed. Wanatee had been arrested without incident at an apartment building at 923 Douglas St. later that morning. Witnesses who testified earlier in the trial said that Mace told them before he died that Wanatee had stabbed him.

Wanatee denied it repeatedly.

"I just don't understand it. Why would they put my name in it?" Wanatee said in the video, which because of the audio quality, was hard to hear in the courtroom. Not all of Wanatee's statements could be heard clearly, but it was obvious he was challenging witness statements that he had been arguing with Mace that night and stabbed him.

He told police he hadn't seen Mace for a couple weeks, but did say he saw him at Tom Abbe's house in the 1900 block of West First Street before Mace was stabbed. He said he came to the back door and was let in. He found out Mace was there and left without talking to him, he said. Wanatee said he left through the back door, walked to West First Street and left the area.

Anna Edwards, who was at Abbe's house, previously testified that Wanatee had come to the house that night and left without talking to Mace.

Wanatee denied getting into a fight with Mace near Abbe's house.

"I didn't touch him," Wanatee said. "He didn't touch me."

"He is dead," Thompson eventually told him. "He got stabbed to death."

"Not by me," Wanatee said.

Thompson later showed Wanatee photos of Mace's wounds, taken at the hospital. Wanatee looked through them slowly.

"I didn't do that," he said, handing the photos back.

After the video, Thompson testified that police never found the knife used to stab Mace. They never found any bloody clothing belonging to Wanatee, either. Wanatee had told police he had not showered or changed clothes between the time he was accused of stabbing Mace and his arrest.

In an usual twist, testimony of Wanatee's wife, Nelitta Taylor, who is also Mace's niece, was entered by reading her sworn deposition, taken in August. Police had been unable to locate her to serve her with a subpoena to testify, Thompson said.

Without Taylor present, her short deposition was read before the jury. Lawyers questioned her about an incident in which Mace put a gun to the back of Wanatee's head while they were arguing in a car in January. Taylor was in the passenger seat next to Wanatee, who was driving. Mace was in the back seat. Taylor said she did not remember if Mace had threatened to kill Wanatee, whom Taylor said had reached down beside his seat just before the gun was pulled.

Taylor also said Wanatee carried a knife with him wherever he went.

Once the reading of the deposition was finished, the state rested its case. The defense then rested without calling any witnesses, bringing an end to testimony after nearly three days.

The trial is scheduled to resume at 9:30 a.m. Monday with the reading of final jury instructions and closing arguments by attorneys before the jury receives the case to begin its deliberations.

If found guilty as charged, Wanatee would face a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole.
Little Yellow Dog auction

The 81st Little Yellow Dog auction to raise money for The Journal's annual Mr. Goodfellow charity campaign will be Saturday at the Ho-Chunk Centre in downtown Sioux City.

Christmas music begins at 11:30 a.m. The actual auction gets under way at noon.

The public is invited.

Aspen, a Maltese, is this year's Little Yellow Dog.

All money raised by the Little Yellow Dog auction goes to Goodfellow Charities, which purchases Christmas toys for children.

Woodbury County will pursue 24/7 again

Woodbury County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeremy Taylor on Tuesday said the county will again next year pursue passage In the Legislature of a 24/7 Sobriety Program for Iowa.

Because we view it as a proven winner in multiple ways in South Dakota, we support passage.

The goal of 24/7 is sobriety for alcohol-related offenders, 24 hours per day and seven days per week, resulting in reduced recidivism among those offenders.

The program in South Dakota - begun in 2005 - monitors abstinence from alcohol and drug use by convicted alcohol-related offenders, who are approved for enrollment in 24/7 by a judge, through a variety of tests conducted every 12 hours as an alternative to incarceration. Participants are required to cover the costs of their tests. If an offender fails or skips a test, he or she faces punishment, likely jail.

In other words, this self-sustaining program promotes abstention from alcohol in effective fashion and reduces alcohol-related crime. A valuable byproduct of 24/7 is reduced jail population, something of particular importance here in Woodbury County where the jail is near capacity.

Frankly, as we have said before, we see no negatives to creation of 24/7 for interested Iowa counties.

Rural outreach will continue

Woodbury County supervisors Jeremy Taylor and Larry Clausen told The Journal's Bret Hayworth for a Sunday story they expect the county board will continue outreach to rural county residents next year by sometimes holding meetings in rural communities.

After a Dec. 12 meeting in Lawton, the supervisors will have convened one meeting in each of Woodbury County's 14 rural communities between 2015 and 2016.

We support continuation, in some form, of occasional board meetings in rural communities as a valuable contribution to constituent accountability.

Ted Waitt leads Salk board

Sioux City native, Gateway co-founder and philanthropist Ted Waitt will become chairman of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies' Board of Trustees, The Journal's Dave Dreeszen reported on Sunday.

The Salk Institute, based in La Jolla, Calif., was founded in 1960 by Dr. Jonas Salk, who developed the vaccine for polio. It is an independent, non-profit, scientific facility at which hundreds of researchers work within the areas of molecular biology and genetics, neurosciences and plant biology. Topics for Institute research include, among others, cancer, diabetes, birth defects, Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease.

'No Romney'?

When he hinted he was prepared to share Cabinet news from a stage in Cincinnati, Ohio, at the recent beginning of his "thank you" tour, President-elect Donald Trump was greeted with "No Romney, no Romney" by some in the crowd, The Associated Press reported in a story in Monday's Journal.

Mitt Romney is under consideration for secretary of state.

Of the potential choices whose names we have read, we in fact rate Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee for president, No. 1 and support him for this key post.
DES MOINES | President-elect Donald Trump thanked cheering Iowans Thursday for helping him win the 2016 presidential election and told them he looks forward to having Gov. Terry Branstad as a key ally in improving Americas trade policies and international standing as his ambassador to China.

I love you folks, Trump told nearly 5,000 people who rallied with the president-elect on his victory tour of battleground states. Boy did you deliver.

Trump scored Iowas six swing-state electoral votes on Nov. 8 by winning 50.6 percent of the 1,581,371 ballots that Iowans cast on Election Day or via early-absentee voting options. The 800,983 for Trump and running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, who appeared with Trump at Thursdays event, outpaced the 653,669 votes cast for the Democratic ticket of Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine.

We have a movement the likes of which this world has never seen before, said Trump, who recounted his Election Night upsets and laid out his agenda to shouts of USA during a rally that was interrupted by protesters who were escorted out of the arena by uniformed officers. He ended his speech with an upbeat call for national unity.

Trump also took the occasion of his return to Iowa to bring Branstad on stage with him to tout him as a loyal supporter and the best-qualified appointee to help guide diplomatic relations with China to reclaim Americas stature in the world and address disputes between two of the worlds super powers.

Trump called Branstad a very special man who has become a great friend who knows how to get results and he will deliver results. He said a lot of people wanted the Chinese ambassadorship but he noted Branstad has led six trade missions to China and is highly respected by Chinese officials.

It has been a great honor and privilege to serve the state of Iowa, said Branstad. I am very proud to serve America in this new role, thank you very much.

Earlier this week, Branstad accepted Trumps offer to become the next U.S. ambassador to China, a post he was uniquely qualified for given his long-standing relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping that began during a sister-state visit to Iowa during Branstads first gubernatorial term in the 1980s.

Branstad, the nations longest-serving governor in U.S. history, likely will step down after Trump is inaugurated on Jan. 20 and his appointment to the Chinese ambassadorship is confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds would become Iowas first female governor once she is sworn in to succeed Branstad.

During his 50-minute speech, Trump promised when he takes office next month to cut taxes, end EPA intrusion in your lives, reduce government regulations to a fraction, cut the nations trade deficit, invest in infrastructure improvements that includes rural areas and inner cities, rebuild the U.S. military, repeal and replace Obamacare, and build a border wall as part of his plan to end illegal immigration.

Its very good that hes coming in and saying thank you to Iowans, said Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Red Oak. I hope that what hes doing as well is reassuring those who didnt vote for him that he is going to work hard for all Iowans and all Americans, not just those who voted for him.

Officials with the Iowa Democratic Party issued a statement calling Trumps victory tour across election-battleground states nothing more than a media stunt to distract America from his unprecedented conflicts of interest and the extremism embodied by his closest advisors and Cabinet nominees.

"After pledging to 'drain the swamp' in Washington, D.C., Donald Trump is filling his transition team with special interest lobbyists, wealthy donors, Washington insiders and billionaires like himself, said state Rep. Todd Prichard, D-Charles City.
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The following companies are subsidiares of Sonoco Products: Associated Packaging Technologies Inc., Can Packaging, Clear Lam Packaging Inc., Clear Pack Co., Conitex Sonoco (BVI) Ltd., Corenso Holdings America Inc., CorrFlex Graphics LLC, Demolli Industria Cartaria S.p.A., Engraph Inc., Graffo Paranaense de Embalagens S/A, Hayes Manufacturing Group, Highland Packaging Solutions, Laminar Medica, Matrix Packaging Inc., PT Conitex Sonoco, PT Papcor Asia Pacific, PT Papertech Indonesia, PT Sonoco Indonesia, PenPack LLC, Peninsula Packaging Company, Peninsula Packaging LLC, Penpack S. de R.L. de C.V., Phoenix Packaging Corp., Plastique Holdings LTD, SMB GmbH, SPC Capital Management Inc, SPC Liquidation LLC, SPC Management LLC, SPC Resources Inc, SR Holdings of the Carolinas LLC, Sebro Plastics Inx, Sonoco (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, Sonoco (Taicang) Packaging Co. Ltd, Sonoco (Weifang) Packaging Company Ltd, Sonoco Absorbent Technologies LLC, Sonoco Absorbent Technologies Limited, Sonoco Alcore - Demolli S.r.l., Sonoco Alcore AB, Sonoco Alcore GmbH, Sonoco Alcore N.V., Sonoco Alcore Nederland B.V., Sonoco Ambalaj Sanayi Ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Sonoco Asia Holding S.a.r.l., Sonoco Asia LLC, Sonoco Asia Management Company LLC, Sonoco Australia Pty Ltd, Sonoco Board Mills Limited, Sonoco Bonmati S.A.U., Sonoco Canada Corporation, Sonoco Capseals Liners Limited, Sonoco Comercial S. de R.L. de C.V., Sonoco Consumer Products Dordrecht B.V. (fka Dorpak B.V.), Sonoco Consumer Products Europe GmbH (fka Weidenhammer Packaging Group GmbH), Sonoco Consumer Products Hellas S.A. (fka Weidenhammer Hellas S.A.), Sonoco Consumer Products Limited, Sonoco Consumer Products Mechelen BVBA (fka Weidenhammer Belgium BVBA), Sonoco Consumer Products Montanay SAS (fka Neuvibox SAS), Sonoco Consumer Products Poland Sp. Z.O.O., Sonoco Consumer Products SAS, Sonoco Consumer Products South Africa (PTY) Ltd., Sonoco Consumer Products Zwenkau GmbH (fka fka Weidenhammer Plastice Packaging GmbH), Sonoco Cores and Paper Limited, Sonoco Deutschland GmbH, Sonoco Deutschland Holdings GmbH, Sonoco Development Inc, Sonoco Elk Grove Inc, Sonoco Embalagens Ltda. (fka Sonoco Embalagens S.A.), Sonoco Flexible Packaging Canada Corporation, Sonoco Flexible Packaging Co. Inc, Sonoco Graphics India Private Limited, Sonoco Hickory Inc, Sonoco Holdings Inc, Sonoco Holdings UK Limited, Sonoco Hutchinson LLC, Sonoco IPD France SAS, Sonoco Iberia S.L.U., Sonoco International Holdings GmbH, Sonoco JV GmbH & Co. KG, Sonoco Kaiping Packaging Co. Ltd., Sonoco Limited, Sonoco Luxembourg Holding S.a.r.l., Sonoco Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Sonoco Milnrow, Sonoco Netherlands Holding II BV, Sonoco Netherlands Holding III BV, Sonoco New Zealand Limited, Sonoco Operadora S. de R.L. de C.V., Sonoco Packaging Limited, Sonoco Packaging Tapes Limited, Sonoco Paper Mill & IPD Hellas SA, Sonoco Paperboard Group LLC, Sonoco Partitions Inc, Sonoco Phoenix LLC, Sonoco Pina S.A.U., Sonoco Plastics B.V., Sonoco Plastics Canada ULC, Sonoco Plastics Germany GmbH, Sonoco Plastics Inc, Sonoco Poland Holdings B.V., Sonoco Polysack A/S Inc, Sonoco Polysack Limited, Sonoco Products Company UK, Sonoco Products Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Sonoco Protective Solutions Inc, Sonoco Recycling - International Trade Group LLC, Sonoco Recycling LLC, Sonoco Reels Limited, Sonoco Retail Packaging S. de R.L. de C.V., Sonoco S.A. de C.V., Sonoco SAS, Sonoco Saudi Limited Company, Sonoco Services LLC, Sonoco Singapore Pte. Ltd., Sonoco TEQ Holdings Ltd, Sonoco TEQ LLC, Sonoco TEQ Ltd, Sonoco TEQ Sp. Z.o.o, Sonoco Taiwan Ltd, Sonoco Thailand Ltd, Sonoco UK Leasing Limited, Sonoco Venezolana C.A., Sonoco Venture International Holdings GmbH, Sonoco Ventures UK Limited, Sonoco Wisconsin Rapids Core Plant LLC, Sonoco Wisconsin Rapids Inc, Sonoco Wisconsin Rapids Paper Mill LLC, Sonoco Yatai Pinghu Packaging Co Ltd, Sonoco de Colombia Ltda, Sonoco do Brasil Participacoes Ltda, Sonoco do Brazil Ltda, Sonoco of Puerto Rico Inc, Sonoco-Alcore AS, Sonoco-Alcore Oy, Sonoco-Alcore S.a.r.l., Sonoco-Alcore Sp. Z.O.O., Sonoco-Engraph Puerto Rico Inc, TPT Limited, Tegrant Alloyd Brands Inc, Tegrant Corporation, Tegrant International Inc, Tegrant Property Holdings LLC, Tegrant de Mexico S.A. de C.V., ThermoSafe Brands Asia PTE LTD, ThermoSafe Brands Europe Ltd., Thermoform Engineered Quality LLC, Trident Graphics Canada Corporation, Trident Graphics NA LLC, Tubo-Tec Nordeste Industria, U.S. Paper Mills Corp., Weidenhammer Chile Ltda., Weidenhammer Packaging Group, Weidenhammer UK Ltd., and Wisenberg U.S. Inc.

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The Estee Lauder Companies Inc. manufactures, markets, and sells skin care, makeup, fragrance, and hair care products worldwide. It offers a range of skin care products, including moisturizers, serums, cleansers, toners, body care, exfoliators, acne care and oil correctors, facial masks, cleansing devices, and sun care products; and makeup products, such as lipsticks, lip glosses, mascaras, foundations, eyeshadows, nail polishes, and powders, as well as compacts, brushes, and other makeup tools. The company also provides fragrance products in various forms comprising eau de parfum sprays and colognes, as well as lotions, powders, creams, candles, and soaps; and hair care products that include shampoos, conditioners, styling products, treatment, finishing sprays, and hair color products, as well as sells ancillary products and services. It offers its products under the Estee Lauder, Aramis, Clinique, Lab Series, Origins, MAC, Bobbi Brown, La Mer, Aveda, Jo Malone London, Bumble and bumble, Darphin, Smashbox, Le Labo, Editions de Parfums Frederic Malle, GLAMGLOW, Kilian Paris, Too Faced, Dr. Jart+, DECIEM, and The Ordinary brands. The company sells its products through department stores, specialty-multi retailers, upscale perfumeries and pharmacies, and salons and spas; freestanding stores; its own and authorized retailer websites; third-party online malls; stores in airports; and duty-free shops. The Estee Lauder Companies Inc. was founded in 1946 and is headquartered in New York, New York.
The gravity of the existential threat we face from Islamic Jihad is truly of epic proportions. It is essentially a battle pitting free-civilized man against a totalitarian barbarian. What is at stake is the struggle for our very soul - namely who we are and what we represent. The lives that were sacrificed for individual rights and freedoms that we've come to cherish are being chiseled away from right under our noses by the stealth jihadists. And many of us are in denial and totally clueless.



The left's appeasement and pandering to evil is nothing new. What makes their utopian delusions so infuriating and unpardonable is that it is not only they who will have to pay the consequences, and deservedly, so, they are thwarting and undermining our best efforts at resistance and are thus dragging us down in the process as well.







By Peter Lancz,, the head of the Raoul Wallenberg World Campaign Against Racism.
WASHINGTON

(Dec. 8, 2016)The U.S. Department of Defense recently announced the following contract awards that pertain to local Navy activities., is being awarded aindefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for the procurement of materials engineering, non-materials engineering, and non-technical management support of the efforts involved in the development of new technology, acquisition of new aircraft, and sustainment of fielded aircraft. Work will be performed in Patuxent River, Maryland (93 percent); Jacksonville, Florida (4 percent); and Crystal City, Virginia (3 percent), and is expected to be completed in January 2022. No funding will be obligated at time of award. Funding will be obligated on individual delivery orders as they are issued. The, is the contracting activity (N00421-17-D-0018)., is being awarded afirm-fixed-price contract for the procurement of the Optimized TopOwl Helmet Mounted Sight and Display System depot level specialized test equipment in support of the Marine Corps H-1 aircraft. In addition, this contract provides for associated installation and integration, and technical data rights for technical specifications, drawings, schematics, and procedures required to establish depot level support. Work will be performed in Bordeaux, France (63 percent); and San Diego, California (37 percent), and is expected to be completed in May 2019. Fiscal 2015 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $14,120,101 will be obligated at time of award, all of which will expire at the end of the fiscal year. The, is the contracting activity (N00019-17-C-0016)., is being awarded anindefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for logistics and technical support services for the Navy, and Marine Corps. Services to be provided include planning, analysis, development, training, support equipment management, facilities and execution. Work will be performed in Cherry Point, North Carolina, and is expected to be completed in December 2021. Fiscal 2017 working capital funds (Navy) in the amount of $36,433 will be obligated at time of award, all of which will expire at the end of the current year. This contract was competitively procured via an electronic request for proposals as a 100 percent small business set-aside; one offer was received. The, is the contracting activity ( N00421-17-D-0019 )., is being awarded aindefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for logistics and technical support services for the Navy and Marine Corps. Services to be provided include planning, analysis, development, training, support equipment management, facilities and execution. Work will be performed in Patuxent River, Maryland, and is expected to be completed in December 2021. Fiscal 2017 aircraft procurement (Navy) in the amount of $420,581 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current year. This contract was competitively procured via an electronic request for proposals as a 100 percent small business set-aside; one offer was received. The, is the contracting activity (N00421-17-D-0015)., is being awarded amodification (P00031) to a previously awarded cost-plus-incentive-fee contract (N00019-12-C-0116) for the integration of the data integrity requirement into the current avionics obsolescence upgrade effort in support of the C-130T aircraft. Work will be performed in Ottawa, Canada (55 percent); and Owego, New York (45 percent), and is expected to be completed in March 2018. Fiscal 2015 and 2016 aircraft procurement funds (Navy) in the amount of $16,116,277 will be obligated at time of award, $4,530,936 of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The, is the contracting activity., is being awarded acost-plus-fixed-fee order (0034) against a previously issued basic ordering agreement (N00019-15-G-0026) for the design, development, analysis, integration, and test software associated with vehicle management software correction of deficiencies and incorporation of multi-integration configuration updates into the MQ-4C Triton Unmanned Aircraft System. In addition, this order provides for analysis and design concepts for integration of the integrated mission management computer Automatic Response Module based on Triton implementation of the Airborne Collision Avoidance System Xu. Work will be performed in Rancho Bernardo, California, and is expected to be completed in December 2017. Fiscal 2017 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $2,500,000 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The, is the contracting activity., is being awardedfor modification P00014 to a previously awarded cost-plus-fixed-fee contract (N00421-16-C-0034) to provide approximately 276,322 hours of technical services in support of the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division's Special Communications Mission Solutions Division. Services to be provided include systems design, development, assessments, acquisitions, planning, integrated project management, and strategic and analytical services for the command, control, communications, computers, and intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance operational systems. Work will be performed in St. Inigoes, Maryland (49 percent); Lexington Park, Maryland (48 percent); San Diego, California (2 percent); and Fayetteville, North Carolina (1 percent), and is expected to be completed in December 2017. Fiscal 2017 working capital (Navy) funds in the amount of $5,050,000 are being obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The, is the contracting activity.
WASHINGTON

(Dec. 9, 2016)Maryland state officials and the Environmental Protection Agency have worked to restore the Chesapeake Bay and combat climate change over the past eight years, but uncertainty surrounds the future of these policies as a new administration enters the White House."The signals from the Trump administration  suggest that he is going to backtrack on climate policy on just about every front," said Neil Leary, director of the Center for Sustainability Education at Dickinson College. "It's looking like the U.S. is not going to be taking much action on climate change."President-elect Donald Trump has sent mixed signals on climate change since the election, hiring a climate science denier on his transition team but also meeting with former Vice President Al Gore, one of the nation's most outspoken leaders on climate change. Trump's daughter, Ivanka, also has signaled her interest in the climate change issue.But those worried about climate change were alarmed by Trump's appointment Wednesday of Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt as the new head of the EPA. Pruitt has been a major opponent of President Barack Obama's climate policies and sued the government to protect coal-fired power plants.Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin, a Democrat and a senior member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said "Pruitt has made a name for himself out of denying the very existence of climate change.""Now President-elect Trump has selected him to lead the agency charged with addressing it," the senator said in a statement."Mr. Pruitt has made a career out of suing the EPA. Now he wants to run the agency," Cardin said. "I find Mr. Pruitt's selection for EPA Administrator troubling, both for the future of environmental justice in this country, as well as for what it signals more generally about President-elect Trump's relationship with science and established fact."The effects of climate change and increased pollution have resulted in consistently rising sea levels of the Bay over the past few decades.From November of last year to September of this year, the mean sea level of the Bay increased by nearly one-tenth of a meter, according to data gathered from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration records."Sea level rise is going to continue, and that is going to be an issue for erosion of coastlines," Leary said. "You're going to have more inundation of low-lying coastal areas when there are storms and high tides with sea level rise. You're going to have significant impacts on coastal areas, both (on) people and wetlands we rely on for a lot of different things."Trump has long been a detractor of climate change, famously denying its existence through social media and reinforcing this position by hiring fellow climate science denier Myron Ebell to oversee the Environmental Protection Agency transition. But recently, Trump has backed off this position and suggested a more lenient approach."I have a very open mind," Trump said in an interview on Nov. 22 with the New York Times. "And I'm going to study a lot of the things that happened on it and we're going to look at it very carefully."Yet, Trump still referred to climate change as is a "very complex subject" and went on to say that there is "some connectivity" between human involvement and climate change but it "depends how much."Ebell, director of Global Warming and International Environmental Policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a nonprofit public policy organization promoting limited government and free enterprise, has opposed climate change policy for years and asked the Senate to reject an international climate accord signed last year in Paris, according to the Washington Post.Pruitt has been involved in more than a dozen lawsuits against the EPA, including against the Obama's administration's so-called Clean Power Plan, which is intended to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. He has no background in environmental policy.In 2009, the Maryland General Assembly drafted a plan to reduce greenhouse gases by 25 percent, and restoring the Bay was included as a sector of this initiative. The following year, the EPA established pollution load limits to reduce the amount of nitrogen, phosphorous and sediment in its waters.In 2014, then-Gov. Martin O'Malley signed a new Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement which reinforced commitments toward Bay restoration while also addressing climate change and toxic contamination.Gov. Larry Hogan has also been committed to protecting the Bay, as his Fiscal Year 2017 budget was the first in state history that does not divert funding dedicated to Bay restoration."For the last year and a half, Maryland's commission on climate change has been finding common ground to reduce greenhouse gases," said Ben Grumbles, Maryland Secretary of the Environment and Chairman of the Maryland Commission on Climate Change, in a statement on Nov. 29. "The Hogan Administration is committed to bipartisan solutions that protect the environment and provide affordable, reliable and sustainable energy to Maryland citizens and communities. That commitment will continue."Trump and Pruitt will have to battle U.S. environmental groups in order to undo the actions of the Obama administration.Michael Brune, the Sierra Club's executive director, denounced the Pruitt pick, saying it was "like putting an arsonist in charge of fighting fires," according to the Daily Oklahoman.The Sierra Club's website warns readers that Trump "is poised to lead the most anti-science and retrogressive administration in history."The Natural Resources Defense Council's website is raising money in anticipation of coming battles with this appeal: "Protect our planet. Help us gear up to defend our environment and climate from the Trump presidency.""You cannot run away from people," EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said in a speech to the National Press Club on Nov. 21. "You have to make decisions, not based on politics, but based on what your people are demanding of you, or you will be the shortest-lived municipal servant in the history of mankind."McCarthy's tenure will come to an end in January, but she said she has faith that the EPA's focus on climate change over the last eight years will not be reversed."Climate change is among the most significant public health, economic and security challenges that we have ever faced as a nation or as a world," McCarthy said. "I'm looking forward to a smooth transition and getting folks in here so they can see the breadth of the work in the agency and how well we've done our job."
When I learned about the death of Fidel Castro, I immediately thought about my father, who died 25 years ago. Like other Cuban exiles of his generation, my dad looked forward to the day when Cubas communist government would fall; and he and his family would return to a free Cuba.

It did not happen.

My father had all the faults of a Cuban man of his generation; and he could never accept the fact that his only son would never be the man that he wanted him to be. But Dad was a man who would do anything for his family; and he and Mom thought nothing of giving up their home and all their possessions to take their children to America, away from Castros revolution. I immediately phoned Mom, who is still alive, and she agreed that Papa would have been happy to witness the great event. To Mama, Castros death was long overdue; a belief that I am sure was shared by all of Miamis padres and abuelos (parents and grandparents) who, like my own parents, sacrificed so much for their families freedom.

Next to my parents, Fidel Castro was the most important person in my life. Because of his revolution, everything that happened to me after 1962, the year the Monteagudos came to America, changed drastically from what it might have been. If not for Castro, I would have lived my life in Havana, sexually discreet and outwardly Catholic.

My writing, if there was any, would have dealt with different topics, written for different media, and of course in Spanish. I would even have a different name. More importantly, without Castro I would never have met the three men who shared my life in succession since 1976; all American-born sons or grandsons of eastern European Jews. Castro changed their lives, as he did so many others.

Fidel Castro, through his Cuban Revolution, changed the island of Cuba, for better and for worse, more than any human being except Christopher Columbus. But Castro also changed the United States, for better and for worse. The Cuban Diaspora sent to America hundreds of thousands of Cubans who, like the Monteagudos, sought to escape Castros brave new world. Many of us eventually settled in Miami, a city that our presence transformed beyond belief. What used to be a sleepy southern town, if not Gods waiting room, became the unofficial financial and cultural capital of Latin America (outside of Cuba). On the statewide level, Cuban exiles and their descendants became part of the Republican coalition that ruled Florida since the 90s.

Generations of Cuban-Americans, the children or grandchildren of the original exiles, have made important contributions to American politics, business, education, religion, science, literature, journalism and the arts, both within and outside of the LGBT community. For decades Cubans on both sides of the Straits of Florida have been pawns in the Cold War; and the United States has held a grudge against the Castro regime longer than any other country, except North Korea or Iran. (If we approve of a foreign government, it is a government. If we do not approve, it is a regime.)

Though Cuban-American politicians like Senator Marco Rubio or Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen continued to carry the torch, anti-Castro sentiment laid low in South Florida while President Barack Obama restored U.S. relations with Cuba. Castros death led to an almost unexpected wave of celebration and joy in Little Havana and elsewhere, not only from the first, greatest generation of Cuban exiles but from their children and their grandchildren as well.

As Cuban as I am, I sympathize with their sentiments, though I also agree with Obamas efforts to restore relations and oppose our outdated and ridiculous embargo against the island. Castros revolution brought universal education and health care to the Cuban people and made Cuba its own nation after decades as an American puppet. But he turned the island into a totalitarian state that oppressed everyone who did not conform to his ideas of the revolution. Though Castros brother and successor Raul has made some reforms, Cuba remains to this day what it has been for more than 55 years. Though we could not imagine a world without Fidel Castro, the world would have been better off if he had never been born.
Its already that time of year again, which means its time to go shopping for our friends and family. Each year the staff of South Florida Gay News likes to help make your life easier by providing you with fun and exciting gifts that anyone in your life would enjoy. No matter if you have a techie in your life or someone who likes health and beauty, we have something just for you to save you time on your shopping list this year. So, without further ado, we present you with our holiday shopping list.

The Slate by iskn

Brendon Lies  Art Director

Cost: $169 for the Essential Pack

Order online at: store.iskn.co

Why I like it:

The Slate allows you to do something that those of us in the art community have dreamed of for a long time. By just sliding a ring onto your favorite pencil, you can draw on an ordinary sheet of paper and, as you work, have your art converted into digital format. Most (affordable) digital art tablets dont have screens on the drawing surface; thus, theres an awkward learning curve to get used to staring at a computer while your hand works on its own. With the Slate, that learning curve is eliminated; you (or your favorite artist) can instantly create beautiful high-resolution artwork without ever losing touch of the sweet intimacy that goes into visual creation.

Kindle Paperwhite E-reader

Brittany Ferrendi  Webmaster

Cost: $119.99 (currently on sale for $99)

Order Online at: amazon.com

Why I like it:

Keeping a trusty e-reader at your side makes travel so much easier for the reader on the go. It's better than a tablet because it's glare-free and easy on the eyes  in fact, it looks exactly the same as reading a piece of paper. You can buy and download books through Amazon, or if you're tech savvy you can download and import your own. Book lovers beware: Once you try one out for yourself, you'll never want to lug books around again.

Nespresso VertuoLine Coffee & Espresso Maker

Tucker Berardi  Social Media Manager

Cost: $119.99

Order Online at: amazon.com

Why I Like It:

This espresso maker can brew individual cups of coffee and espresso, and can heat up water for brewing in 15 seconds. It can also be programmed to use less water, resulting in stronger coffee. It takes roughly 30 seconds to brew an espresso, which means this machine has a rate of roughly 120 espressos-per-hour. I cant really say any more to sell this thing other than the fact that it can have you wired and productive in a matter of minutes.

Drano

John McDonald  News Editor

Cost: $41.57

Order Online at: walmart.com (Free Shipping)

Why I like it:

Too many turkey bones clogging the kitchen sink? Bathroom plunger intimidating your sleepover friend?? What better way to drain your personal swamp than with a time-honored cleaner like Drano. Yes, knock out that blockage with a splash of sodium hydroxide, sodium nitrate and sodium chloride. And hallelujah! Walmart has this 32-ounce potion available for $41.57 with free shipping.

VTech DigiArt Creative Easel

Justin Wyse  Sales Manager

Cost: $54.99

Order Online at: amazon.com

Why I Like It:

There is nothing more important than teaching our children whether they be yours or your nieces or nephews how to be creative and express themselves. This great item stands at 40 tall and has 121 led lights and a dry erase board for them to use as well. This toy not only teaches them to be creative but if used in the learning mode you can teach the children basic learning from ABCs to specific shapes, animals and more. And it also plays music so just in case in you like to provide those special toys that make noise this does it for you too. The best part is that its mostly a mess free gift for children.

Kathy Griffins Celebrity Run-Ins

Tim Higgins  Sales Assistant

Cost: $26.99 (On Sale for $16.86)

Order Online at: barnesandnoble.com

Why I Like It:

With her newly released book just in time for the Holidays, there is no better book to buy your friends who love Kathy Griffin. Every gay household should have at least one copy of this book on hand. This might help you and your friends get through the next four years of Donald Trump. Watch for her live book signings throughout the USA to get the book personally signed.

Foot Spa  Multiple

Jason Parsley  Associate Publisher

Cost: Varies

Order Online at: Amazon

Why I Like It:

There is nothing better than kicking back and relaxing with a heated foot spa! Be careful though many of the brands out there dont actually heat the water (which is the point of a relaxing foot bath!).

Here are a few versions I like. Just remember you get what you pay for but I included a lower end model as well. Kendal (All in one foot spa bath massager w/ heat, HF vibration, O2 bubbles, red light, $94.98); Giantex (Portable Foot Spa Bath Massager Bubble Heat LED Display Vibration Infrared Relax, $67.99); Homedics (HoMedics FB400 Bubble Therapy Foot Spa with Heat Boost Power, $34.99).

Autel Robotics X-Star Premium Drone with 4K Camera

Norm Kent - Publisher

Cost: $899 (On Sale for $699)

Order Online at: brookstone.com

Why I Like It:

Whether you are in the Keys on a boat, wanting to track gulf waterways, or just seeking to violate all privacy laws by spying on your lover, there is no technology more endearing than the advent of drones, destined to become the new way of getting your sex toys or sandwiches delivered swiftly by amazon or uber. More likely to be used by cities to spy on your backyard code enforcement violations. Likely to last longer than the hula hoop or yo-yo, and remain just as popular, there is a drone in your future. Get used to it.

Donald Trump Survival Kit

Edwin Neimann  Advertising Sales Associate

Cost: $18.99

Order Online at: amazon.com

Why I Like It:

Ready or not, we will face the reality of President Trump in less than two months, so if you can't afford to leave the country for four years, then start putting together your survival kit now! The Donald Trump Bullshit Protectors headphones are perfect for silencing Trump's voice. They also work great for blocking out family members or friends who just love to tell you how President Trump is going to make America SO great again. And for $35.99 extra you may even be able to get a kit "autographed" by President Trump! (May not actually be autographed by Donald Trump.)

So get to shopping before time runs out, you only have two and a half weeks to get those gifts in order. The staff here at SFGN thanks you for considering our ideas this year, hopefully weve helped make your shopping a tad bit easier. Many of our gift ideas can be found at local retailers here in South Florida as well, just spend a little time shopping around and waiting in lines to make that special someone happy this year. The staff here wishes each of you a Happy Holiday and Happy New Year!
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.




Coffee Design is proudly sponsored by Savor Brands , your boost in coffeedence through maximizing designs in packaging, sustainability and tech.

Say hello to Bangarang Coffee Roasters out of Fullerton, California. Bangarang is owned and operated by Southern California coffee roasters Noah Poletiek and Travis Hochhalter, who opened their roasting facility in early summer 2016. Were big fans of the companys bold use of color, playful logo, and see-thru kangaroo pouch for a coffee info-card. We spoke with co-founder Travis Hochhalter to learn more about their journey.

As told to Sprudge by Travis Hochhalter.

Tell us a bit about your company.

We formed our company on June 10, 2016 but didnt start roasting and selling until mid-September. We both (Travis and Noah Poletiek) had been coffee roasters beforewe were both working for a roaster in the SoCal areabut were both hungry to start our own roasting venture, one where we could stretch our creative legs and really challenge what we had learned about specialty thus far. The result is Bangarang Coffee Roasters. Not having the resources to just stroll out and buy a full production roaster on our own, we opted for a more creative solution: We decided to see if we could partner with a facility and rent time on an already established machine. Graciously, Global Coffee Traders allowed us to use their sparkling new Loring L15 Falcon. Using this beauty we were able to grab 3rd place in the Americas Best Espresso Competition in Anaheim this year, all on the first roast we ever did as a company. Its been a blessing thus far, and we keep looking forward to what we can produce in the future. We just moved into a small space in Fullerton, CA for lab testing and office work, hoping to grow it in the coming year to the production facility we desire.

When did the coffee package design debut?

This is our very first bag design, it debuted on our first roast date in mid-September.

Who designed the package?

We designed it ourselves actually. We printed the labels, info cards, and stickers ourselves and assemble them all by hand. Tough work for only two of us in the company so far, but were working on a more permanent solution currently.

What coffee information do you share on the package? Whats the motivation behind that?

Our removable trading card that comes with the package contains what we consider to be the prerequisite information for understanding the coffee. Region, Farm, Process, Variety, Roast Level, and Flavor notes. The back of said card has a brewing equation to figure out coffee and water weights. You can even go to the roast profile on our website and see the time/temperature curve via cropster. Nerdy stuff but some people will find it interesting we hope. We are all about arming the customer with info related to each step of the process. An informed coffee drinker can enjoy so much more in the cup, thats why we go the extra mile.

Where is the bag manufactured?

We buy the blank bags from PackPlus and we obtain the stickers and card from a local printing company.

What type of package is it?

Its a square bottomed gusseted bag with an e-zip, matte white to make those radical pinks and blues pop.

Company: Bangarang! Coffee Roasters

Location: Fullerton, California

Country: USA

Design Date: September, 2016

Designer: Bangarang! Coffee Roasters

Coffee Design is a feature series by Zachary Carlsen on Sprudge. Read more Coffee Design here.
Brussels, December 08, 2016 (SPS) - Vice-Chair of the European Parliament's Delegation for relations with Maghreb countries, Maria Teresa Gimenez Barbat, said that the duty of the European Union should be to share Algeria's position on the Western Sahara, and underlined its crucial role in the stabilization of North Africa and the fight against terrorism.

"The EU's duty should be to share the same position as Algeria and defend Sahrawi people's right to decide their future," wrote recently Gimenez Barbat in the European Parliament Magazine, Opinion.

In this regard, the MEP said that "Algeria has always expressed its unconditional support to the Sahrawi people's right to self-determination and the independence of Western Sahara, which has been occupied by Morocco since 1975."

She also recalled the long-awaited referendum called for by the UN for over 25 years for the resolution of the conflict.

"Algeria is playing a key role in the stabilization of North Africa and the fight against terrorism," she said, adding that "it is a strategic partner" for the EU in various areas, including the security field.

In view of the outbreak of conflicts and changes shaking the international scene along the EU's southern borders, Gimenez Barbat underlined the need to "strengthen relations with Algeria," adding that this latter "could play a key role in the regional stability and counterterrorism cooperation."SPS

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On Thursday, December 8, the Standardbred Breeders and Owners Association of New Jersey issued a trio of releases in regard to the changing status of notable stakes races, the continuation of the state breeding rebate program, and a reminder about stallion registration in the state. Most notably, it was announced that the New Jersey Classic and Miss New Jersey have been suspended until further notice.

2017 SBOANJ STAKES RACES

The SBOA of New Jersey is pleased to announce that the Dancer and Smith trotting races as well as the New Jersey futurities will continue to be raced in the future. In spite of a limited number of nominations, we believe we have an obligation to owners, breeders and trainers to provide them with an opportunity to race in New Jersey, both now and in the future.

Unfortunately, the New Jersey Classic and Miss New Jersey are being suspended until further notice. Careful consideration was given to this decision by both the Meadowlands and the SBOA. Hopefully, these races will be restored in the future.

2017 SBOANJ REBATE PROGRAM

In an effort to incentivize breeding and boarding in New Jersey, the SBOANJ announces the continuation in 2017 of the New Jersey stallion breeding rebate program and the rebate program for resident mares.

The stallion rebate program, for New Jersey pacing stallions only, will issue a 50 per cent rebate of the paid stud fee (up to $3,000) to the owner of a mare who resides in New Jersey for 150 days. A 25 per cent rebate of the paid stud fee (up to $1,500) will be paid to a non-resident mare.

Stallions must be enrolled in the USTAs STARS program.

The resident mares program will rebate the owner up to $500 for a mare who has been bred and resides in the state for 150 days. The stallion does not have to stand in New Jersey.

2017 SBOANJ STALLION REGISTRATION

The deadline for anyone wanting to stand a stallion in New Jersey is January 1. Registration forms are available on the SBOANJs website.

As a reminder, the SBOA is offering a rebate of 50 per cent of the paid stud fee (up to $3,000) for resident mares and 25 per cent (up to $1,500) for non-resident mares. The rebate program is for pacing stallions only. The stallion must be enrolled in the USTA STAR program.

(SBOANJ)
A North American Standardbred trainer has been handed a series of stiff financial penalties and industry bans which total $35,000 in fines and a suspension that will run until 2032. The fines and suspensions have come after horses from their stable produced multiple positives tests for Sidenafil, which is sold under the trademarks Viagra and Cialis, among others, and is used to combat erectile dysfunction in humans.

According to entries on the United States Trotting Associations fines and suspensions list, trainer Virgil Addison, 57, has been handed the fines and suspensions after horses racing from his operation produced a total of four positive tests at Harrahs Philadelphia for Sidenafil, which is has been categorized as a Class 3 drug in terms of the harness racing realm.

The first of the positives was produced by Pinot Grigio, who raced on Aug. 19. Addisons fine and suspension for that instance was $5,000 and one year, respectively. The other three positives were produced by Justify (Sept. 15, $10,000 fine, three-year suspension), Pinot Grigio, again (Sept. 29, $10,000 fine, five-year suspension) and Gold Shooter (Oct. 23, $10,000 fine, seven-year suspension).

The suspensions will be served consecutively, hence the total suspension running until 2032.

Addison had appealed the rulings and had requested a stay for each of the instances. The state racing commission overseeing the matter has allowed the request for the appeals, but has denied stays in each instance.
The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture has reminded horsepeople to register their stallions for the 2017 state breeding season before the February 1, 2017 deadline. Additionally, owners who wish to register their broodmares for the Pennsylvania Standardbred Breeders Fund Award program must have their horses registered as PA-residents by February 15, 2017, to ensure those mares foals are eligible for the awards.

A stallion must remain in the state at a declared facility from February 15 to July 4. Breeding can take place within a couple of weeks of either date.

The State Horse Racing Commissions Bureau of Standardbred Horse Racing must approve of any horse that is to be used as both a stallion and a racehorse in 2017. Additionally, if the stallion competes out-of-state, he must return to his declared Pennsylvania facility after each of those out-of-state races.

Owners who want their broodmares to qualify for resident status must have the paperwork postmarked to the commissions Harrisburg office by February 15. Broodmares must reside in Pennsylvania for at least 180 contiguous days, including foaling, and be in foal to a registered Pennsylvania stallion in order for their offspring to be eligible for the breeder awards.

No registered broodmare is authorized to leave the state for any reason except for a medical emergency. If that occurs, the commission must be notified as soon as possible.

Registration forms are available by contacting Pennie Dodson at 717-787-5196 or [email protected].

(PA Department of Agriculture)
Contact: World Council of Churches, +41 79 507 6363; www.oikoumene.org/press

GENEVA, Dec. 9, 2016 / Standard Newswire / -- As the populations of Syria and Iraq feel the toll of armed conflicts in their countries, the World Council of Churches (WCC) and Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) have released a joint study, " Protection needs of minorities from Syria and Iraq ." On 12 December, media and public are invited to the Palais de Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, for a press conference and seminar presenting the report, and analyzing what it means for future efforts to protect religious minorities and build peace in Syria and Iraq.

Speakers include Ambassador Hans Brattskar, permanent representative of Norway to the United Nations in Geneva; Rev. Dr Olav Fyske Tveit, general secretary, World Council of Churches; Peter Prove, director, International Affairs, World Council of Churches; Arne Sveras, advisor for Peace and Reconciliation, Norwegian Church Aid; Fr Emanuel Youkhana, CAPNI-Christian Aid Programme for Northern Iraq; Thaer Ghandour, media and communications advisor, ABAAD - Lebanon - Resource Centre for Gender Equality.

What: Press conference and seminar on Protection Needs of Minorities from Syria and Iraq

When: 12 December, press conference at 09.30 in Salle III, seminar at 13.30-15.00 in Salle VII.

Where: Palais des Nations, Salle III (press conference), Salle VII (seminar), Geneva, Switzerland

Moderator: Marianne Ejdersten, WCC director of communication

Media contact: Please contact WCC director of communication Marianne Ejdersten: mej@wcc-coe.org, +41 79 507 63 63

UN media accreditation must be acquired prior to the event.

Invitation for questions: Media and public are kindly invited to submit questions via e-mail to Marianne Ejdersten, mej@wcc-coe.org.

About the report:

The impact of conflicts on civilian populations in Iraq and Syria is immense, forcing the displacement of many, and causing trauma from violence, loss or injury of loved ones, sexual violence, exploitation and abuse, ongoing insecurity and persecution.

And while many issues are common for minorities in Iraq and Syria, the two countries stand at different crossroads. The WCC-NCA study complements already available information by contributing to the understanding of protection-related needs of minority groups from Syria and Iraq. It is geared towards humanitarian actors, for them to attune, coordinate and harmonise their efforts to provide relevant life-saving assistance and sustainable long-term solutions for all groups in the society.

The WCC and NCA report "The protection needs of minorities from Syria and Iraq"

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 348 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 550 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is the Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, from the [Lutheran] Church of Norway.
Celebrating the Life of National Space Society Governor and American Hero John Glenn

Contact: Lynne Zielinski, National Space Society, 202-429-1600, Media2016@nss.org



WASHINGTON, Dec. 9, 2016 /Standard Newswire/ -- The National Space Society celebrates the life and contributions of the visionary champion of space exploration, Honorable Senator John Glenn, who passed away yesterday.

Photo: National Space Society Board of Governors Member John Glenn

"John Glenn was an inspiration for the National Space Society and all those who believe humanity's destiny lies in the stars," said Mark Hopkins, Chairman of the Executive Committee of NSS.

Hugh Downs, NSS Board of Governors Chair, said, "It was an honor to work with John Glenn as a member of the NSS Board of Governors. John had the courage of his convictions based on his knowledge of science. He did not fall for the myths that surrounded the medical risks of human space travel at the time. His understanding of the science was as important as his getting into the capsule and orbiting the Earth. It is hard to imagine today how important that was for the the U.S. at the time."

Senator John Glenn served the National Space Society as a governor for over two decades. He was an advocate for a strong NASA along with the rest of the National Space Society. He appeared at the 2012 International Space Development Conference along with fellow astronaut Scott Carpenter where they both received the NSS Space Pioneer Award, for actually pioneering space!

John H. Glenn was born on July 18, 1921, in Cambridge, Ohio. Following graduation from New Concord High School, Mr. Glenn enrolled in Muskingum College and began flying lessons at the New Philadelphia airport, earning his pilot's license in 1941. He left college before earning his degree (he was awarded a bachelor of science in engineering from Muskingum in 1962) and enlisted in the Naval Aviation Cadet Program. He was commissioned in the Marine Corps in 1943. During his World War II service, Mr. Glenn flew 59 combat missions in the South Pacific.

During the Korean conflict, he flew 63 missions with Marine Fighter Squadron 311 and 27 missions as an exchange pilot with the Air Force. He holds the Air Medal with 18 Clusters for his combat service and has been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross on six occasions. He is the recipient of numerous other honors, including the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.

In 1959, he was selected to be one of seven NASA Mercury astronauts from an original pool of 508. Three years later, on February 20, 1962, he made history as the first American to orbit the Earth, completing three orbits in a five-hour flight and returning to a hero's welcome.

After his NASA service, John took an active part in Democratic politics and early environmental protection efforts in Ohio. In 1974, he was elected to the U.S. Senate. Senator Glenn retired in 1998.

Mr. Glenn returned to space from Oct. 29 to Nov. 7, 1998, as a member of NASA's Shuttle STS-95 Discovery mission during which the crew supported a variety of research payloads and investigations on space flight and aging. During that mission, Mr. Glenn made 134 Earth orbits in 213 hours and 44 minutes.

Mr. Glenn has been married to Anna (Annie) Margaret Castor since 1943. They have a son, Dave, and a daughter, Lyn, and two grandchildren.

John F. Kennedy once said, "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." We at NSS have no doubt that American Hero John Glenn heeded that call.

About the National Space Society (NSS): NSS is an independent nonprofit educational membership organization dedicated to the creation of a spacefaring civilization. NSS is widely acknowledged as the preeminent citizen's voice on space, with over 50 chapters in the United States and around the world. The Society publishes Ad Astra magazine, an award-winning periodical chronicling the most important developments in space. NSS thanks their ISDC 2016 Galaxy Sponsor, the Puerto Rico Science, Technology and Research Trust. To learn more, visit www.nss.org.
The essential component of totalitarian propaganda is artifice (het toepassen van kunstgrepen. svh) . The ruling elites, like celebritie...
Thousands of migrating snow geese died in toxic water polluted by a defunct mining site in Butte.

Snow geese have died in Butte after they made contact with toxic runoff from a former mine.

Thousands of migrating snow geese have died in Butte after they made contact with toxic runoff from a former mine, officials have confirmed:

This was no ordinary pond, however. It was the 700-acre Berkeley Pit, a former mine now submerged in water as acidic as distilled vinegar. From 1955 until operations ceased in 1982, miners extracted nearly 300 million tons of copper ore from the pit. They left behind an immense crevasse, which filled with water 900 feet deep. Concentrated within the floodwater are arsenic, cadmium, cobalt, copper, iron, zinc and other inorganic compounds.

After it was abandoned, the pit became a federally managed Superfund site. It also became a tourist destination, where visitors observe the mines toxic, reddish water for an admission fee of $2. And microorganisms able to survive in the pit became an object of scientific study.

But snow geese, unlike extremophilic green slime, cannot tolerate acid water heavy in metallic compounds. Roughly 10,000 geese landed in the Berkeley Pit at the end of November [2016], turning the water white with birds, said a mine official with Montana Resources, which jointly manages the pit with the Atlantic Richfield Company, to the Montana Standard. On Tuesday, investigators could not give an exact measure of how high the death toll would go. But a preliminary estimate, via drone and flyover counts, found thousands of dead birds.

State and federal agencies in Montana are still investigating the snow geese die-off. Mine company Montana Resources environmental affairs manager Mark Thompson said that workers tried, and failed, to frighten away flocks of birds attempting to land in the water:

I cant underscore enough how many birds were in the Butte area that night, Thompson said. Numbers beyond anything weve ever experienced in our 21 years of monitoring by several orders of magnitude.

The employees did incredible things to save a lot of birds and they really put their heart and soul behind it, he said. They did everything they could think of.

Early theories about the devastating event suggested climate change and attendant mild winters played a potential role:

University of Montana Western professor Jack Kirkley, who specializes in ornithology, told The Montana Standard that recent milder winters arent encouraging birds to head south as early and in some cases, are causing some to stay in places where theyve never stayed the winter before. He notes that there are 4 million to 6 million snow geese on the continent, and there are some concerns that the population is too high  Driven to find new habitats, birds have been seen in areas where they were historically scarce.

Estimates place the number of dead snow geese near 10,000, and officials reported some ailing birds were rescued and treated:

The preliminary number released Tuesday is based on photos taken from drone and aircraft flights over the pit. The counting is not yet complete, said Thompson  Thompson said MR has directed Butte-Silver Bow animal control to do everything possible to try to save any birds found alive. Randall said the veterinarian treatment involves flushing the birds both inside and out to get everything out of them. The pit water contains sulfuric acid and heavy metals.

Locals expressed concern that the story would become inextricably linked with Butte nationally and globally:

Maria Pochervina, director of Butte convention and visitors bureau, said she would be surprised to see this tragic event negatively affect tourism this summer.

People are fascinated by the pit, Pochervina said. When we tell the story of the value of minerals extracted, how its made our lives better, people are fascinated by that.

But Dave Palmer, who takes office in January as the newly elected county chief executive and a longtime commissioner, said the die-off is not good news on the economic development front.

It does make national news and that is unfortunate because that is what people look at  bad things, Palmer said. We could be doing a thousand good things in Montana and Butte itself and you never hear about them rise to the national level.

Larger discussion about the snow geese deaths also generated debate over addressing the disused mining pit more aggressively, with some residents saying that the pit should be drained. Although the former open copper pit mine is one of the largest of the Superfund sites, it remains a popular tourist attraction in Butte.

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Thursday, December 8, 2016

Following up on yesterday's post, Who Is To Blame For UC-Hastings 'Horrific' 51% Bar Pass Rate?: Robert Anderson (Pepperdine), The California Bar Exam Saga Continues:

The State Bar of California recently announced that the pass rate for the July 2016 California bar exam was 43%. This is a multi-decade low, and has affected virtually every law school in California. Even among ABA-accredited law schools' first time takers, the passage rate was only 62%. Particularly hard hit was UC Hastings, which apparently had a 51% passage rate.

Hastings Dean David Faigman reportedly took to email and wrote a letter to the UC Hastings Community in which he laid the blame on the State Bar. He expressed "incredulity" at the "shameful" and "unconscionable" conduct of the Bar. ...

The primary reason that bar passage rates are declining is not because of the conduct of the State Bar, but because of the conduct of law schools. Law schools are admitting less and less qualified students in an effort to bolster their bottom lines. And why do their bottom lines need to be bolstered? Because they have too many faculty relative to student demand for the schools, and are either reluctant or unable to reduce the size of the faculty to "right size" the law school relative to present demand for the JD.

The blame for the current crisis lies squarely on the bloated tenured faculties of American law schools. In every institution, ineffective faculty members continue to collect a paycheck for decades after their "sell by" date has come and gone. Many faculty members at many institutions should have never been hired to teach law in the first place. But the instinctive response of most affinity groups is to circle the wagons when danger appears, and that is exactly what has happened in law schools.

Deans and University Presidents need to take decisive action to cull the herd of law professors, allowing them to decrease the size of law schools and increase the quality of students admitted and the education those students receive. Once that is done, we can (and should) have a conversation about the cartel mentality that the State Bar of California (and many others) have. I, for one, would strongly support taking action to prevent state bars from acting in protectionist ways that are designed to limit competition. But law schools need to deal with their own cartel system--the perverted way in which tenure worksbefore laying blame on others.

https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2016/12/anderson-on-the-california-bar-exam-carnage-law-schools-need-to-cull-the-herd-of-bloated-tenured-fac.html
Friday, December 9, 2016

This week, Joe Kristan (CPA & Shareholder, Roth & Company (Des Moines, Iowa); Editor, Tax Update Blog) discusses the estate tax advantages of cash basis farming.

Death takes all, but leaves the deductions. Cash-basis accounting and the rule that adjusts the basis of inherited assets to their date-of-death value confounded the IRS in Tax Court yesterday. Most businesses that produce things have to capitalize their input costs into the costs of their inventory. They wait to get the benefit of the costs on their tax returns as part of the cost of goods sold when they sell the inventory. Farmers get a better deal. Assuming they are non-corporate farmers who are active in the business, they get to deduct their input costs when paid. This cash basis accounting allows farmers to buy seed, feed, and fertilizer at in December to reduce their taxable income, even when they dont plan to use it until they plant next years crop or feed next years livestock. The tax planning opportunities are obvious, and jealously guarded by farm state congressmen.

Mr. Backmemeyer farmed 353 acres in Cass County, Nebraska. You cross the northwest corner of Cass County on the drive from Omaha to Lincoln. In November and December of 2010, Mr. Backmeyer laid in inputs he would need for the 2011 crop. He bought seed for $59,623.20 on November 12 and for $49,708.40 on November 20. He bought herbicides of $93,674.43 on December 29, 2010. He bought fertilizer, lime and diesel fuel for $61,935 on December 29, and more fertilizer for $53,305.37 on December 31. This is standard operating procedure for cash-basis farmers. If he were a manufacturer, these purchases would have had no effect on his 2010 return unless they were incorporated into sold goods during the year. Mr. Backmeyer got to deduct them and reduce his 2010 taxable income. Mr. Backmayer didnt get to see his the 2011 crop. He died on March 13, 2011, owning seed, feed and fuel that had cost him $235,490. Because he had already deducted these inputs, his basis in them before his death was zero. The tax law stepped their basis back up to their date of death fair market value, which his estate computed as their purchase price. His widow then deducted the new basis when she used them to put in the 2011 crop. Here the IRS cried foul. Tax Court Judge Laro explains their argument (my emphasis): ...respondent conceded that Mrs. Backemeyers treatment of the farm inputs was correct: She received the assets with a stepped-up basis and contributed them to her sole proprietor farming business, entitling her to deduct the farm inputs in the amount of the stepped-up basis when those assets are used in her business.Nonetheless, respondent maintains, the tax benefit rule requires the inclusion in Mr. Backemeyers 2011 income of the prepaid expenses for the farm inputs he had deducted for 2010. In other words, the IRS wanted the cash-basis deductions back when the farmer died before using them. Judge Laro found for the taxpayer: Had Mr. Backemeyer died and Mrs. Backemeyer inherited and used the farm inputs in 2010, the initial section 162 deduction would not have been recaptured for purposes of the income tax. The reason for this is that the estate tax effectively recaptures section 162 deductions by way of its normal operation, obviating any need to separately apply the tax benefit rule. When Mr. Backemeyer died, all of his assets, including the farm inputs, became subject to the estate tax, which operates similarly to a mark-to-market tax when the mark-to-market tax is imposed on zero-basis assets Requiring recapture of the section 162 deduction by increasing taxable income on petitioners Form 1040 for tax year 2011 would result in double taxation of the value of the farm inputs. That seems like a reasonable result, even though non-farm assets like inherited retirement accounts can be subject to both estate tax and income tax on the heirs. Whether it makes sense in a world where couples can die owning $11 million with no estate tax is open to debate. If the estate tax is repealed, the argument for basis step-up and double deduction becomes difficult. Estate of Backmemeyer v. Commissioner, 147 T.C. No. 17 (Dec. 8, 2016) Other coverage: Paul Neiffer, Tax Court Allows Double Deduction of Prepaid Farm Expenses. The bottom line is that the IRS lost the case and farmers can double deduct prepaid farm expenses, but it requires them to die first. I think most farmers will pass on this tax planning option. Roger McEowen, IRS Continues (Unsuccessfully) Attack on Cash Accounting By Farmers Lew Taishoff, HE BOUGHT THE FARM. And She Also Got the Deduction

Heres the rest of this weeks Tax Roundup:

Monday, December 5, 2016

David Herzig, Daniel Hemel, The Art of the (Budget) Deal (Surly Subgroup) Republicans on Capitol Hill are reportedly planning to use the filibuster-proof budget reconciliation process to repeal the Affordable Care Act and overhaul the tax code.

Gavin Ekins, Tax Revenues Reach New High Across OECD (Tax Policy Blog). The increased tax revenue was driven by an increase in income tax collected in the largest OECD economies.

Jason Dinesen, Why is it Better to File Married Filing Separately in Iowa?

Jim Maule, Why I Dont Have a Family Foundation

Kay Bell, Some yummy hobby tax tips on National Cookie Day. And as with all things tax, if youre reporting hobby income and claiming hobby losses, you need to keep good records.

Lew Taishoff, THE STEALTH SUBPOENA IS ALIVE AND WELL. Maybe Judge Holmes and Judge Chiechi ought to get together for a cup coffee and a piece pie, and peradventure discuss bringing Tax Court into the last decade of the Twentieth Century, if not into the second decade of the Twenty-First.

Martin Coulsen, For those filing U.K. returns, Autumn Statement 2016  A few personal tax issues (Martin Coulsen, Mercer & Hole Chartered Accountants).

News from the Profession. Anyone Not Adding Disclaimers to the Their Text Messages With Clients Is Probably Asking for It (Caleb Newquist, Going Concern).

Norton Francis, Trumps Carrier deal sets a bad precedent (TaxVox). But whats worse, the Carrier deal sends a bad message to other companies in Indiana like TRW or Rexnord whove also announced pending closures: Trumps plan to make the US more competitive will be negotiated one company at a time. So line up outside Trump Tower and take a number.

Robert D. Flach , Monday! That means fresh Buzz from Robert D. Flach! Todays linkfest is heavy on using the tax law for purposes other than just collecting tax.

Robert Wood, 20 Plant Workers $420 Million Powerball Win Cleverly Misses Tax Mess. But cheer up, your chances of winning are small.

Roger McEowen, Farmland Acquisition  Allocation of Value to Depreciable Items. In 1995, the IRS produced a Market Segment Specialization Program (MSSP) guideline on Grain Farmers which illustrates that the farm owner allocating purchase price to residual soil fertility must show the amount of soil fertility that is attributable to the prior owner.

Russ Fox, Wont Be Getting Off for a Dime. As weve said before and well say again, if you want to be investigated by the IRS stop making payroll tax deposits; as best as we can tell, the IRS investigates 100% of such failures.

TaxGrrrl, Fix The Tax Code Friday: Corporate Tax Incentives. Should state or federal authorities provide targeted tax incentives to encourage (or discourage) certain corporate behaviors? If so, what sorts of behaviors?

TaxProf, Left, Right Slam Trumps Carrier Tax Deal. But Scott Adams, Dilbert cartoonist, thinks its another Trump masterstroke. Because humans are not rational. So no matter how stupid and futile the gesture, when its the work of a master persuader, its just great.

TaxProf, The IRS Scandal, Day 1304, Day 1305, Day 1306. Over the weekend I had a Twitter exchange with someone who objected to me linking to Saturdays scandal installment:

The Tax Foundation seeks Nominations for Outstanding Achievement in State Tax Reform Award. Lets hope someone in Iowa wins it next year.

Tuesday, December 6, 2016

IRS, Security Summit Partners, Remind Taxpayers to Protect Themselves Online (IRS). Scammers, hackers and identity thieves are looking to steal taxpayers personal information and ultimately their money. But, there are simple steps taxpayers can take to help protect themselves, like keeping computer software up-to-date and being cautious about giving out their personal information.

Jared Walczak, Trends in State Tax Policy (Tax Policy Blog). One item: The Erosion of Corporate Income Tax Bases.

Jeremy Scott, Renzis Loss a Blow to EU but a Victory for Democracy, Populism (Tax Analysts Blog). It was a boldfaced attempt to transform Italy from a parliamentary democracy to an executive, technocratic state that need pay only scant attention to a portion of the electorate.

Kay Bell, Taxpayers can now access tax account balances online

Leslie Book, The Practice of Secret Subpoenas in Tax Court: Tax Court Out of Step with Other Courts and IRS Itself (Procedurally Taxing). The absence of an explicit notice requirement with respect to subpoenas creates the possibility of surprise. In addition to being out of step with other federal courts, it is inconsistent with the Tax Courts general approach of encouraging parties to communicate and cooperate.

Lew Taishoff, NOTICING THE WEB. Judge Wherry reminds us that government agencies have websites.

News from the Profession. Deloittes Brazil Firm Covered Up a Couple of Bad Audits (Caleb Newquist, Going Concern).

Robert D. Flach, ANOTHER SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT. Robert ponders Iowas married filing separate option.

Robert Wood, Seven Crazy Tax Laws Trump Should Change.

Russ Fox, Nominations Due for 2016 Tax Offender of the Year. Win or lose, its a dishonor just to be nominated.

TaxGrrrl, Trump Tweets Out Promises To Increase Import Taxes As Carrier, Ford Make Moves. Speaking of crazy.

TaxProf, The IRS Scandal, Day 1307

Tony Nitti, Think A C Corporation Is The Worst Entity Choice For Conducting A Business? Think Again. There are other considerations, of course, but the pending Trump tax cuts, when coupled with the new-and-improved Section 1202, could well give rise to the golden era of C corporations. Be careful. Its easy to become a C corporation, but hard to change your mind.

Wednesday, December 7, 2016

Jack Townsend, Gelfand Article on Defending a Criminal Tax Case. Ive never been involved in one, but the advice offered looks sound.

Jason Dinesen, Getting Your Business Off to a Good Start, Part 1: Proper Recordkeeping

Kay Bell, Orioles Buck Showalter dishes on Seinfeld taxes, offering a look at what IRS considers taxable income

Lew Taishoff, HIP TO HIPAA. Practitioners representing the disciples of Asclepius should get this language in their forms files.

News from the Profession. Amazons Giant Data Transfer Trucks Are an IT Auditors Worst Nightmare (Megan Lewczyk, Going Concern).

Robert D. Flach shares his thoughts after attending ANOTHER YEAR-END TAX CLASS.

Roberton Williams, Reforming child and work provisions in the federal income tax (TaxVox). In a new Tax Policy Center paper, Jim Nunns, Elaine Maag, and Hang Nguyen draw on many recent tax reform proposals to design a plan that would separate the income taxs work and child provisions, simplify filing, and distribute tax benefits more equally across intended recipients.

Roger McEowen offers a Tribute To Orville Bloethe. Orville, a fixture in the Iowa tax and legal scene, died this week at age 97.

Russ Fox, Iowa Disbands Forfeiture Team; Settles Lawsuit from Poker Players. Unfortunately, Iowa still has civil forfeiture laws on the books. Perhaps this settlement and the change in Iowa policy will cause Iowa legislators to end civil forfeiture in the Hawkeye state.

Sam Brunson, Trumps Emoluments Tax Problem, Part Two (Surly Subgroup) Its not at all clear that section 1043 is available for Trump. Federal conflict-of-interest laws dont apply to the president, so its not obvious that selling his businesses is reasonably necessary to comply with such rules.

Scott Greenberg, Kyle Pomerleau, Stephen J. Entin, Goldman Sachs Analysis of House GOP Blueprint is Questionable (Tax Policy Blog).

TaxGrrrl, Mother Banned From Contact With Son, Must Block Cell Phone, After Guilty Plea In Tax Crime. According to court documents, Jaquon called his mother from jail and told her just what he needed her to do in order to further his scheme, including creating a number of fictitious companies.

TaxProf, The IRS Scandal, Day 1308.

Thursday, December 8, 2016

Howard Gleckman, The Questions Trumps Tariff Tweets Failed To Answer (TaxVox). It is striking that Trump tweeted these remarks just four days after his nominee for Commerce Secretary, Wilbur Ross, insisted that Trump had never threatened to willy-nilly impose blanket tariffs on China.

Kay Bell, IRS commissioner escapes latest impeachment effort

Kristine Tidgren, Congress Moves to Exempt Qualified Small Employer Health Reimbursements from Onerous ACA Penalty (Ag Docket)

Lew Taishoff forwards Judge Holmes thoughts on procedural battles involving Michael Jacksons estate.

Meg Wiehe, New income taxes, funds for transportation, and revenue shortfalls (Tax Justice Blog). This week we are bringing you news about states seeking revenueAlaska, South Dakota, and Utah all weigh the creation of or increases to state personal income taxes; the need, and in some cases the will, for transportation funding in West Virginia, Indiana, Montana, and Louisiana; and revenue shortfalls in Florida, Ohio, Oregon, and Kansas.

News from the Profession. FASB Might Take a Breather on Standard Setting After Some People Yelled at Them (Caleb Newquist, Going Concern).

Paul Neiffer, New Bill Eliminates Penalties on Reimbursements for Health Insurance. Although many farmers may have already gone through the hassle of adjusting employee wages to compensate for lost reimbursement plans or underwent some policy or other changes within their farming entities to stay compliant with the ACA, this is a big win for small employers.

Robert D. Flach offers EVEN MORE TO THINK ABOUT. Under my change if you use your car for business, either as an employee or a self-employed individual, the standard mileage allowance for business miles would not include a component for depreciation. So, using the 2016 rate as an example, business standard mileage allowance would be 30 cents per mile and not 54 cents.

Robert Wood, Shorten Tax Disputes With IRS Fast Track Mediation. The new Fast Track MediationCollection may help resolve offer-in-compromise and trust fund recovery penalty issues.

Russ Fox, IRS Appeals Implements Stupid Policy of Not Sending Initial Contact Letters. Hasnt the IRS Appeals Office heard of identity theft? Perhaps theyve heard of the IRS Phone Scams?

Stephen Olsen, Effect of General Power of Attorney On Reasonable Cause Exception to Penalties (Procedurally Taxing). The CCA went on to discuss reasonable cause for a person suffering from dementia.

TaxGrrrl, House Says No To Renewed Efforts To Impeach IRS Commissioner. Considering that he is likely to be out when the new President takes office, its hard to see a point in impeachment.

TaxProf, The IRS Scandal, Day 1309

Friday, December 9, 2016

Annette Nellen, Portland Oregon enacts new surtax for high executive pay. It is based on how much more executives are paid than rank-and-file employees. Because we need city councils dictating business pay practices.

Dave Breen, Grinches, Liechtenstein Royal Princes, Bankers, Toymakers (and Offshore Evasion): A Holiday Summons Tale (Procedurally Taxing). This does not bode well for taxpayers who so far have avoided IRSs inquiry into their offshore holdings.

Des Moines Register, Yes, Raygun benefits from tax subsidies (but others get more). Mike Draper, the owner of the Des Moines T-shirt shop famous for its employment of wayward Colombian women, posted a breaking news satire on its blog saying it would move wherever it could get the best tax deal.

Howard Gleckman, Border Adjustability Is Already Fueling Tax Reform Controversy.

Jack Townsend, Louisiana Attorney Pleads Guilty to Tax Evasion. Employment taxes are involved, as is often the case.

Jason Dinesen, Getting Your Business Off to a Good Start, Part 2: Can I Keep Scanned Copies of Receipts?

Jim Maule, Uncle Sam Does Not Collect California Income Taxes. Confusing Uncle Sam with Crazy Uncle Jerry.

Kay Bell, 5 ways to protect your identity (& money!) during National Tax Security Awareness Week (& year-round!)

News from the Profession. KPMG Planning a Training Center That Will Surpass Deloitte University in Ridiculousness (Caleb Newquist, Going Concern).

Robert Wood, Prosecutors Pay Bitcoin Ransom, Yet IRS Targets Coinbase Data

TaxGrrrl,Real Madrid Joins In Defense Of Ronaldo After Football Leaks Allege Tax Evasion

TaxProf, The IRS Scandal, Day 1310

https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2016/12/weekly-.html
Over the last several months, the Washington State Department of Health took disciplinary actions against three healthcare providers in Cowlitz County. Two had their credentials suspended and one was put on probation.

In August 2016, the Department charged certified nursing assistant Jessica Renee Posadas Sanchez with unprofessional conduct due to prior criminal charges.

Between September 2011 and January, Sanchez was convicted of two counts of second-degree theft and, on two separate occasions, third-degree theft. Because of these convictions, Sanchez was charged with unprofessional conduct by the Department of Health and placed on probation for at least two years, according to health department records.

As part of her probation, Sanchez cant be employed in the fields of nurses registry, home health, temporary agency, or in a community-based care setting. She also has to complete a minimum of four hours of continuing education about theft awareness within two months of the start of her probation, according to health department records. Sanchez also has to have her employer submit quarterly performance evaluations, and if she is unemployed, then Sanchez has to submit quarterly declarations stating the dates of her unemployment.

***

In October 2016, the Department charged home care aide Patricia Ann Danielson with unprofessional conduct after she allegedly admitted illegally buying narcotics. Danielsons credentials were suspended in November 2016 after a Department investigation, according to health department records.

In late February 2016, Danielson purchased around nine Oxycodone pills from her clients neighbor in Longview. Danielson admitted to a health department investigator that she had illegally purchased Oxycodone and Vicodin from that same neighbor on multiple occasions. Danielson said she purchased the pills because she ran out of her own, according to health department records.

In November, the health department suspended her license and she cant petition for reinstatement for at least two years. If and when Danielson petitions for reinstatement, she has to contact the Washington Recovery and Monitoring Program to see if she will be required to participate.

***

In October 2016, the Department charged certified nursing assistant Allison G. Anderson with unprofessional conduct after she allegedly tested positive for amphetamine, morphine and methamphetamine, while working at an assisted-living facility in Longview. Andersons license was indefinitely suspended in November 2016 after she failed to respond to a statement of charges sent to her last known address, according to health department records.

Anderson was employed at Delaware Plaza in Longview as a certified nursing assistant. In June, she provided a urinalysis, and the results revealed that she tested positive for amphetamine, morphine and methamphetamine.

Anderson was sent a document detailing the charges against her from the health department in October, but she failed to respond within the allotted time. Her license then expired in late August. Because Anderson did not respond, the health department suspended Andersons credentials indefinitely, according to health department records.

Anderson can petition for reinstatement. If the health department does not agree, they will hold a hearing on the matter, according to health department records.

The investigations, charges and reports conducted by the Department of Health are regarding these three health care providers licenses to practice in the state of Washington within their respective fields.
Archaeologists have unearthed 30000-year-old relics in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Of newly discovered 110 sites, some are related to Buddism. According to reports, a team of archaeologists along with support from Political Administration and Pakistan Army have discovered the sites.

The pre-historic sites are of Buddhist, Islamic and British era. 8 sites are of Buddhist importance. These sites display ancient rock art including images. During excavation, researchers found remnant of mosques, forts, gallows, tunnels and other buildings of Ameer Taimur period.

The political administration has summoned another team of scientists to further study the art form. Apparently, the study will be extended to other tehsils of Tirrah and Barra with an aim of finding more such sites which will tell us more about the ancient times, their beliefs and mythology.

These rock carvings were etched around 30,000 years ago, Abdul Samad, Director K-P archaeology and Museums, who has conducted the survey, told media on Thursday.

It was also revealed that the political administration has no funds to preserve such relics and they are prone to vandalism. Due to lack of funds, they cannot develop these sites to attract tourists and generate revenue from these sites.

We have no such staff or department to work for preservation of archaeological wealth of the agency, said political agent Khyber Agency Khalid Mehmood.

He further added that search operations were conducted during British rule but they failed as they did not spend enough to conduct deep excavation which would have led the researchers to these sites.

Khyber Agency revealed that the Buddhist Gandharian civilisation lived 30000 years ago in the region which belongs to Pakistan and Afghanistan at present.
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Russian authorities arrested a large number of suspects in May in connection with the recently revealed electronic theft of $19 million from accounts held at the Russian central bank, an official said on Wednesday. The bank said last week that hackers had this year used fake client credentials to steal money from correspondent accounts -- used to handle transactions on behalf of another bank -- at the Bank of Russia.

Banks around the world are tightening the security of their messaging and money transfer networks following a number of cyberattacks - most notably the use of stolen Bangladesh Bank credentials to send SWIFT messages requesting the transfer of nearly $1 billion from its correspondent account at the New York Federal Reserve. The hackers succeeded in transferring $81 million to four accounts in Manila.

Artyom Sychyov, deputy head of the Bank of Russia's security directorate, said the Federal Security Service, or FSB, and the Interior Ministry, which oversees the police, had run a joint operation after the Russian heist, and that "a large number of people were arrested". He declined to give further details - but on June 1, the FSB said it had, together with the police, detained some 50 people suspected of the electronic theft of 1.7 billion rubles ($27 million) from unnamed Russian financial institutions.

The FSB and Interior Ministry did not immediately respond to questions about whether this was the operation mentioned by Sychyov. Sychyov said the attack on the central bank had been confined to third-party correspondent accounts. "The payment system of the Bank of Russia cannot in any way be implicated," he said.

The Bank revealed the attack in a sparse passage on page 37 of a 69-page financial stability report published last Friday. It said the hackers had broken into an electronic system that gives clients access to correspondent accounts held within the Bank. It said they had attempted to steal 2.87 billion rubles ($45 million), of which 1.67 billion was later frozen or recovered.

Since the report was published, central bank officials have declined to answer detailed questions. This week, the Bank of Russia moved Sergei Moiseyev, head of the department for financial stability, which was responsible for the report, to a new job as adviser to the bank's governor on reform of the leasing industry. The bank did not respond directly when asked if Moiseyev's removal was linked to the publication of the information about the cyberattack.

Reuters
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The co-founder of a project that saw a solar-powered aircraft complete the first fuel-free flight around the world this year expects electric passenger planes to operate in just under 10 years. Bertrand Piccard, who along with fellow pilot Andre Borschberg founded Solar Impulse, also shrugged off concerns that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's appointment of a fossil fuel industry defender as his top environmental official could hamper global clean technology efforts.

Since completing their historic fuel-free flight in July, Piccard and Borschberg have been working on projects to show how the technologies used in their plane can be used in other applications. Borschberg said they were especially interested in how the technology could be used to develop small electric planes with a flying time of about 1.5 hours. The two plan to announce their next project early next year, Borschberg said.

"In 9 years and 8 months, you'll have 50 people travelling short-haul on electric planes," Piccard, founder and chairman of Solar Impulse told an IATA airlines association briefing in Geneva. "Why 9 years and eight months? Because since four months, I've been saying it will be '10 years'. It will happen," he added.

Piccard said that it didn't matter what people thought about climate change because clean technology was getting cheaper and would help to drive growth. He cited examples of insulation making homes cheaper to live in, of LED lights reducing lighting costs. "Five years ago everything that was clean tech was more expensive - that is not the case today. If the aim is to be profitable and create jobs, then coal is out of business," he said.

Reuters
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Dialling 100 during an emergency will soon be a thing of past, with the Delhi Police working on a mobile app that will connect the distressed person with the police in a single touch to ensure quick response. Delhi Police is in the process of bringing an app - likely to be called 100 - which will have an SOS button to be pressed by used in case of an emergency, sources said.

"This is one of our biggest projects. 100 number is the go-to solution for everybody. Apart from calls that are related to our work, there are calls that we receive. With the app on their phones, people will not have to dial the three digits and in case of an emergency, they will be able to reach us faster by just pressing a button," said a senior police officer. The development of the app is at a nascent stage with the modalities being worked out, but it is likely to be started in the new year.

One of the other benefits of the app will be that it will help a PCR van locate the exact point from where the caller is standing and that will improve the response time of the police, said the officer. "Through the mobile location, we will be able to gauge the correct position of the caller. Many a time, our PCR van is busy talking to the caller asking about directions, which side of the road they are standing and other things.

"But with the app, our vans will be able to reach quicker and the caller, who is already hassled, won't have to go through the task of giving directions or explaining their position," the officer added. But the PCR unit of the Delhi Police, which at present handles 27,000 calls a day on an average of which 40 percent are blank calls, is also cautious about the number of hoax alert calls going up with the introduction of the easy to use app.

"With the app on their fingertips, there is a chance that people will just press the button and later tell us that they did it by mistake. We will be working on some measures to ensure that that situation doesn't arise," he stressed. With the police also working on setting up a separate control room for handling calls on phone number 112, which will be India's equivalent of 911 of the USA's all-in-one emergency services, the app, that will be launched as 100 will later be upgraded, sources said.

PTI
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The European Union began legal action on Thursday against Germany, Britain and five other member states for failing to police emissions test cheating by carmakers after the Volkswagen diesel scandal. Amid mounting frustration in Brussels over what EU officials see as governments colluding with the powerful car industry, the European Commission is wielding its biggest available stick in an attempt to force nations to clamp down on diesel cars spewing health-harming nitrogen oxide (NOx) pollution.

German officials - who say EU law is poorly framed - had expected Brussels to stop short of confronting the EU's leading power and by far its biggest car manufacturer, at a time when the unity of the bloc is being challenged by eurosceptics and Britain's vote to leave. Thursday's action is a sign that the EU executive, under pressure from the European Parliament, is keen to prove its worth to voters.

Germany, Britain, Spain and Luxembourg stand accused of failing to impose the kind of penalties Volkswagen has faced in the United States over its use of illegal "defeat device" software to mask real-world NOx emissions blamed for respiratory illnesses and early deaths. Reacting to the announcement, German Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt said: "Germany is the only European country to have implemented a comprehensive list of measures to prevent unauthorized use of defeat devices."

Britain enacted legislation to tackle emissions test manipulations in 2009, a spokesman for its transport ministry said. "The UK will be responding in the strongest possible terms (to the EU action)," he added. Spain said administrative action on test-cheating was on hold pending criminal cases going before its courts. "We will continue to work with the Commission," the industry ministry said. Luxembourg officials could not be reached for comment.

The Commission also accuses Berlin and London of refusing to share the details of suspicious findings revealed by national investigations into the "dieselgate" scandal - without which it cannot carry out a supervisory role. "This goes far beyond Volkswagen," said an EU source, adding that officials had more cases planned in a push to force cars spewing up to five times legal NOx limits off the road.

Thursday's notice is the first step in what is known as infringement procedures, allowing the EU to ensure the bloc's 28 nations abide by agreed EU-wide regulations. Member states have two months to respond. If they fail to do so convincingly, the EU may take them to the EU court in Luxembourg.

Shortcomings

In a system the Commission is now seeking to overhaul, national watchdogs approve new cars and alone have the power to police manufacturers - though once approved in one country, vehicles can be sold across the bloc. Highlighting the system's shortcomings, the Commission said another three countries - the Czech Republic, Lithuania and Greece - do not have provisions in national law allowing for fines against carmakers in case of breaches.

European consumer lobby BEUC hailed the cases, saying not enough had been done to protect EU citizens - a year since the United States caught VW cheating and went on to win compensation for its consumers. "It is a strong rebuke of Germany and other countries' inaction," said BEUC head Monique Goyens. But the Commission faces a tough fight. Its proposal for a shake-up of rules on new car approvals has been watered down by member states, documents seen by Reuters show.

So far, despite probes revealing that several carmakers use questionable techniques resulting in lower emissions during regulatory tests, no country has issued heavy penalties. "All of them are still protecting their national interest," said Bas Eickhout, a Green member of the European Parliament.

Defeat devices have been illegal under EU law since 2007. But EU carmakers - who employ some 12 million people in the bloc - say they are not doing anything wrong because there is an exemption allowing them to turn off emission control systems when necessary for safety or to protect engines.

Germany has said the widely exploited loophole is the result of poorly framed EU law. However, it has asked the Commission to mediate in its dispute with Fiat Chrysler, accused in Germany of using an illegal device to scale back emission controls after 22 minutes - just longer than official tests. Europe's Industry Commissioner Elzbieta Bienkowska has repeatedly said the letter of EU law is clear and called on member states to respect its spirit.

Reuters
tech2 News Staff

Update: Facebook India has responded to the story

Facebook's Mumbai office was recently searched by the Mangaluru police after it failed to get information on a suspect from Facebook. A man from Mangaluru, who is on the run, had allegedly posted derogatory content about Hindu goddesses which went viral.

The profile is in the name of a certain Jabbar BC Road aka Kudroli. According to Mangaluru police, the cops carried out the search operations in the Bandra Kurla complex office of Facebook after getting a search warrant from a Mangaluru court.

According to the investigation officer who spoke to the Times of India, Jabbar had posted demeaning content on Facebook. This content was widely circulated on Facebook and WhatsApp, and even led to communal tensions in Mangaluru.

According to the cops, Facebook refused to co-operate with the authorities. A case was registered under IPC Section 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on the grounds of religion) and IPC Section 295A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage feelings of any class by insulting religious beliefs).

Mangaluru police commissioner M Chandra Sekhar said that Facebook was served notice, to provide evidence which was needed to file the chargesheet. "As Facebook's response was not satisfactory, we had no choice but to take legal recourse," he said.

In fact, a case has also been registered against Facebook under the IPC Section 176 (omission to give information to public servant by person legally bound to give it) and a search warrant was obtained to search the Facebook office premise.

Facebook has yet to release a statement about this incident. We have reached out to Facebook India for a comment and will update the story when we hear from them.

According a Facebook India spokesperson who spoke to tech2, Facebook India has processes and guidelines for law enforcement agencies to contact and submit requests.

"We respond to valid requests for data by Law enforcement agencies. We take the privacy of peoples information very seriously, and each and every request if checked for legal sufficiency. We are transparent about the requests we receive and the percentage of requests when some data is produced in our Government Request Report," said Facebook India.
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Enterprises of all sizes and consumers in India are at equal risks as advanced criminal attack groups now echo the skill sets of nation-state attackers, a Symantec executive has said, adding that "dronejacking" and "fileless malware" will increase in the upcoming year. "As businesses in India embrace the digital transformation,fileless malware among others will be some of the prevalent trends and threats in the upcoming year," Tarun Kaura, Director of Solutions Product Management - Asia Pacific & Japan at Symantec told IANS.

In its Security Predictions for 2017, Symantec said that with the proliferation of the Cloud Generation, enterprises will need to shift their focus from safeguarding endpoint devices toward protecting users and information across all applications and services. Symantec also highlighted that in 2017, fileless infections -- those written directly onto a computer's RAM without using files of any kind and are difficult to detect and often elude intrusion prevention and antivirus programmes -- are set to go up.

With the technology explosion and increase in the use of drones, 2017 could see these devices being used for espionage and explosive attacks. According to the predictions, with the workforce more mobile than ever, the need to primarily protect an on-premise network will become increasingly short sighted.

"The need for firewalls to defend a singular network becomes unnecessary if it is connected to the cloud. All enterprises will start to move towards wi-fi and cloud-based services, rather than investing in expensive and unnecessary network solutions," Symantec predicted. As Internet of Things (IoT) and shift towards cloud-based storage and services become more common, targeted ransomware attacks are also likely to increase in the coming year.

While talking about connected cars, Symantec predicted that as cars start to have connected capabilities, they can be held for ransom. The self-driving cars can be hacked to obtain their location for hijacking, unauthorised surveillance and intelligence gathering, or other automobile-focused threats. "This will also lead to a question of liability between the software vendor and automobile manufacturer, which will have long-term implications on the future of connected cars," Symantec said.

As seen in 2016, machine learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI) will only continue to grow in the next year. Market research firm Forrester had predicted that investment in AI would grow 300 per cent in 2017 alone. From a security standpoint, this expansion will impact organisations in more ways than one - including endpoints and mechanisms in the cloud.

Enterprises will need to invest in solutions that have the capabilities to collect and analyse data from the countless endpoints and attack sensors across different organisations, industries and geographies. "Each year, the security industry faces new types of threats as cybercriminals evolve their approach toward accessing organisations' data," Kaura said citing Symantec's Internet Security Threat Report (ISTR), which was released recently.

The report revealed an organisational shift by cybercriminals where they are increasingly adopting corporate best practices and establishing professional businesses in order to increase the efficiency of their attacks. Symantec said that there is a dangerous possibility that rogue nation states could align with organised crime for their personal gain. This could result in down time for countries' political, military or financial systems.

When asked about the adoption of security measures in India, Kaura said, with the increase in the vulnerability, businesses too have realised the importance of cyber security. "It's not about checking off a box; it's about finding a policy that protects the organisation's brand, reputation and operations if they are faced with a breach," Kaura said.

IANS
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Elon Musk's SpaceX has been forced to delay the return of its rockets to flight until January as an investigation continues into a launch pad explosion earlier this year, the tech billionaire' s company said on Wednesday.

The company had hoped to launch a Falcon 9 rocket on Dec. 16 to put 10 satellites into orbit for Iridium Communications Inc., but did not receive a required license to fly from the Federal Aviation Administration, which oversees U.S. commercial space transportation.

"We are finalizing the investigation into our September 1 anomaly and are working to complete the final steps necessary to safely and reliably return to flight, now in early January," SpaceX said in a statement. SpaceX suspended flights after one of its rockets burst into flames on Sept. 1 as it was being fueled for a routine pre-launch test in Florida.

The company traced the explosion to a fuelling system problem that caused a pressurized container of helium inside the rocket's upper stage to burst. The accident destroyed a $200 million satellite owned by Israel's Space Communication Ltd. In a separate statement Iridium said it remained "confident as ever in (SpaceX's) ability to safely deliver our satellites into low-Earth orbit."

SpaceX on Wednesday declined to comment about what measures it will take to ensure the problem will not reoccur. The company uses extremely cold liquid propellants loaded just prior to blastoff to increase the rocket's power so it can fly back to Earth and be reused. A NASA advisory panel last month publicly questioned the safety of SpaceXs fuelling process, especially since the company has been hired to begin flying astronauts to the International Space Station in 2018.

The Sept. 1 accident was the second for SpaceX in 29 flights of the Falcon 9. The company, owned and operated by Tesla Motors Inc. Chief Executive Officer Musk, has a backlog of more than 70 missions for NASA and commercial customers, worth more than $10 billion.

Also on Wednesday, the Russian news agency Tass reported that a third-stage Soyuz rocket engine failure doomed a Russian cargo run to the space station on Dec. 1. The accident remains under investigation

Reuters
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Technical trade secrets were stolen from the steel production and manufacturing plant design divisions of ThyssenKrupp AG in cyber attacks earlier this year, the German company said on Thursday. ThyssenKrupp, one of the world's largest steel makers, said it had been targeted by attackers located in southeast Asia engaged in what it said were "organized, highly professional hacker activities".

In breaches discovered by the company's internal security team in April and traced back to February, hackers stole project data from ThyssenKrupp's plant engineering division and from other areas yet to be determined. "ThyssenKrupp has become the target of a massive cyber attack," the industrial conglomerate said in a statement.

Globally, cyber attacks on banks, retailers and other businesses have led to widespread consumer and financial data losses in recent years. ThyssenKrupp's disclosure followed last week's attack on Deutsche Telekom routers that caused outage for nearly 1 million customers. While revelations of industrial espionage are far rarer, estimates put the costs to businesses in the billions of dollars. China was frequently blamed for such commercial hacking attacks until the United States and China agreed not to hack each other's businesses.

German business magazine Wirtschafts Woche reported the attacks hit sites in Europe, India, Argentina and the United States run by the Industrial Solutions division, which builds large production plants. The Hagen Hohenlimburg specialty steel mill in western Germany was also targeted, the report added. The company declined to identify specific locations which were infected or speculate on likely suspects. It said it could not estimate the scale of the intellectual property losses.

Big Bang Counter-Attack

ThyssenKrupp said it waited to publicize the attack while it identified, then cleansed infected systems in one concerted, global action before implementing new safeguards to monitor its computer systems. "It is important not to let the intruder know that he has been discovered," a spokesman said. A criminal complaint was filed with police in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and an investigation is ongoing, it said. State and federal cyber security and data protection authorities were kept informed at each stage, as well as Thyssen's board.

Secured systems operating steel blast furnaces and power plants in Duisburg, in Germany's industrial heartland in the Ruhr Valley, were unaffected, the company said. No breaches were found at its marine systems unit, which produces military submarines and warships. A previous cyber attack caused physical damage to an unidentified German steel plant and prevented the mill's blast furnace from shutting down properly.

The country's Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) revealed two years ago that the attack caused "massive damage", but gave no further technical details and the location of the plant has remained shrouded in mystery. Subsequent media reports identified the target as a ThyssenKrupp facility, but the company has denied it was hit.

The industrial conglomerate, along with Airbus parent EADS, were the targets of major attacks by Chinese hackers in 2012, according to a Der Spiegel report. The company, a big supplier of steel to Germany's automotive sector and other manufacturers, is looking to form a joint venture of its European steel operations with India's Tata Steel to combat over-capacity in the sector.

Reuters
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American and British spy agencies have tried to intercept data from passengers' mobile phones on commercial airlines including Air France, French media has reported, citing documents from US whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The French flag-carrier was an early target of the US National Security Agency and its British counterpart GCHQ as it was seen as a terrorist target and it carried out tests in 2007 on allowing the use of mobile phones on its aircraft.

"The use of mobile phones with Internet connections in the sky gave rise to the creation of specific programs at the NSA and GCHQ," said Le Monde, which has access to Snowden's archive in partnership with news website The Intercept.

While it is not normally possible to make phone calls on planes, some carriers allow passengers to connect to a cabin Wi-Fi, allowing them to use internet-based functions on their handsets.

In 2012, at least 27 airlines allowed passengers to use mobile phones on board, including British Airways, Aeroflot, Etihad, Cathay Pacific, Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines.

But Air France was "such a symbol of the surveillance of communications on board airlines that the British spy agency used a drawing of one of their planes to illustrate how the interception worked."

Asked about the British and American surveillance claims, Air France told Le Monde, "We are visibly not the only ones to have been targeted and we know absolutely nothing about these practices."

According to the report, internal documents from the two agencies describe the results of the "impressive" programs - codenamed "Thieving Magpie" and "Homing Pigeon" - which allowed data to be collected "almost in real time".

In order to spy on a telephone, all that was needed was that the aircraft be cruising at an altitude above 10,000 feet, the report said.

Secret aerial stations on the ground could intercept the signal as it transited through a satellite.

"The simple fact that the telephone was switched on was enough to give away its position, the interception could then be cross-referenced with the list of known passengers on the flight, the flight number, and the airline code to determine the name of the smartphone user," the report said.

The mobile phone's function could also be disrupted, it said, forcing the user to input their access codes and thereby allowing the British spy agency to intercept the information.

Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor, leaked thousands of classified documents to the press in 2013 which revealed the vast scope of US surveillance of private data that was put in place after the 9/11 attacks.

After fleeing his home in Hawaii, he now lives in exile in Russia where he has sought asylum.

Should he ever return to the United States, Snowden would be tried for espionage and other charges carrying up to 30 years in prison.

AFP
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The White House said on Thursday that it raised concerns about China's new cyber security law during a meeting with a Chinese official after the latest round of talks between the two countries on cyber crime. U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice met with Chinese State Councilor Guo Shengkun to discuss the importance "of fully adhering" to an anti-hacking accord signed last year between the China and the United States, National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said.

The deal, brokered during Chinese President Xi Jinping's state visit to Washington in 2015, included a pledge that neither country would knowingly carry out hacking for commercial advantages. Rice told Guo that the United States was concerned "about the potential impacts" of a law that China adopted in November aimed at combating hacking and terrorism.

Critics of the law say it threatens to shut foreign technology companies out of various sectors deemed "critical," and includes contentious requirements for security reviews and for data to be stored on servers in China. Rights advocates also say the law will enhance restrictions on China's Internet, already subject to the world's most sophisticated online censorship mechanism, known outside China as the Great Firewall.

Rice met with Guo after the third round of high level talks on cyber security between China and the United States was held on Wednesday.

Reuters
tech2 News Staff

The so called 'Apple of China' has announced a wide range of products in the last couple of months. Not only smartphones and accessories but things like air purifier, sleep sensor and even a mattress. Now the company's sub-brand Mijia has released a teaser which could probably be a big announcement from Xiaomi.

The teaser posted on Weibo is for an uknown product that would go official on 12 December. While there is no information as to exactly what the product is, the teased poster shows tire tracks and some other details. Some of the features the product like E-ABS (electronic anti-lock braking system), cruise control, perforated brake discs, integrated die-casting motor have been mentioned.

Now at first anyone would think its an electric car, considering the popularity of EVs in the market. However, Xiaomis CEO Lei Jun had stated last year that the company is not planning to invest in the electric car business in coming five years. On top of that, the teaser mention that it is unlikey to be an electric car.

Instead it could be an electric motorcycle since the mentioned features are clearly found on a bike. There aren't a lot of electric motorbikes in the market either and the company could capitalise on this. Back in June, the company had announced an electric bicycle called the Mi QiCycle Electric Folding Bike.

We will find out what it is on 12 December.
Muslim leaders call on Trump to reject anti-Muslim administration appointments

Muslim leaders call on Trump to reject anti-Muslim administration appointments.

AP, Washington :

More than 300 American Muslim leaders are imploring Donald Trump to reject the anti-Muslim policies he touted during his presidential campaign, as well as administration appointments that will bring Islamophobic attitudes into the White House.

"It is deeply concerning that you have announced the appointment of individuals to your upcoming Administration with a well-documented history of outright bigotry directed at Muslims or advocating that Muslims should not have the same rights as their fellow Americans," reads the letter the leaders sent to the president-elect this week. "We urge you to reconsider and reject such candidates."

Though the letter does not reference any specific Trump-appointees by name, the Council of American Islamic Relations - the country's largest Muslim rights advocacy organization and one of the letter's main signatories - has spoken out separately about what CAIR government affairs director Robert McCaw called "a concerning Islamophobic trend" in Trump's appointments.

"The letter took nearly two weeks to draft, and every three days or so there would be a new appointment," McCaw told Yahoo News.

Of those that have been announced so far, McCaw pointed to Trump's selection of retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who has called Islam a "vicious cancer," for national security adviser, and Kansas Rep. Mike Pompeo, who has blamed American Muslim leaders for violent attacks by Islamic extremists, for head of the CIA, as as two particularly troubling examples. "When you have people who have anti-Muslim policy positions put into positions of power, you are going to end up with bad policy that will negatively impact American Muslims and not make us any more secure," McCaw said.

The letter, which can be read in full at MuslimLettertoTrump.com, was signed by CAIR's national executive director Nihad Awad, Gold Star father Khizr Khan, Muslim American scholar Dalia Mogahed and over 300 other Muslim community leaders from around the country.

CAIR announced in a press release that "the letter is the first public communication to the new administration from American Muslim leaders who work actively every day to serve and enrich their communities and their country." However, it echoes many of the same sentiments expressed by Muslim leaders both during Trump's campaign and in the wake of his election, as reports of anti-Muslim bias, harassment and attacks have continued to rise.

While noting that Trump's "recent denunciation of such behavior on "60 Minutes" was a positive first step," the letter further urges the president-elect "to clearly and strongly condemn bigotry, hate crimes and bias-based school bullying directed at any American, including American Muslims."

McCaw said that while CAIR has "generally had good relations with the Obama administration," he admitted that as "one of the more outspoken" Muslim rights advocacy organizations, the group's relationship with previous presidents hasn't always been easy.

Many policy decisions put forward by the George W. Bush administration in the wake of 9/11, for example, "put him at odds with majority of Muslim leaders, and that relationship was quite strained."

Still, McCaw said, there has "always been an open line of communication."

Whether the incoming Trump administration will be open to such dialogue, however, remains to be seen. McCaw said that CAIR has yet to receive any sort of response from the Trump team to the latest letter.

"There would have to be an acknowledgement that past statements and positions from Trump on the campaign trail and that of his nominations and appointments did not have the best interest of the Muslim community at heart," McCaw said. "We're under no disillusion that  there is a certain animosity in the Trump administration toward the Muslim community. That's definitely a hurdle that has to be overcome, but can't be done by Muslims alone."




Syria army halts Aleppo attacks as rebels cornered

Syrian residents fleeing the violence gather at a checkpoint, manned by pro-government forces, in the Maysaloun neighbourhood of the northern embattled Syrian city of Aleppo on Thursday.

AFP, Aleppo :

Syria's army has halted its attacks in Aleppo to allow trapped civilians to be evacuated, Russia's foreign minister said, after advancing regime forces cornered rebels in the city.

Immediately after the announcement, AFP correspondents in Aleppo said air strikes ceased and artillery fire was far less intense, but later reported that the army was continuing to shell two rebels districts, Kalasseh and al-Maadi.

The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights monitoring group also reported sporadic clashes with new raids and artillery fire late Thursday and said at least 18 civilians had been killed during the day in rebel zones by regime raids and artillery.

The situation on the ground seemed somewhat at odds with comments by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov earlier Thursday after talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry in the German city of Hamburg.

"I can tell you that today combat operations by the Syrian army have been halted in eastern Aleppo because there is a large operation under way to evacuate civilians," Lavrov said. "There is going to be to a column of 8,000 evacuees."

In Washington, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Lavrov's announcement was "an indication that something positive could happen".

The UN envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, said after Lavrov spoke that talks to end the nearly six-year war should resume soon.

"Now is the time to actually look seriously at the possible renewal of political discussions," he said after a closed-door meeting of the Security Council.

The General Assembly was to vote Friday on a draft resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire and access for humanitarian aid, although the British ambassador described the measure as "too little, too late".

A senior State Department official said Lavrov and Kerry "agreed to continuing having discussions about establishing a framework for a ceasefire".

There was no immediate reaction from Damascus.

Moscow is a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and launched an air war in support of his forces last year, while Washington and other Western nations have supported rebel forces.

Russia this week suggested a deal was in the works for rebels to be allowed to withdraw from Aleppo to other opposition-held territory.

On the strength of his army's latest gains in territory of east Aleppo held by the rebels, Assad said in a newspaper interview Thursday that victory for his troops would be a turning point in Syria's five-year war.
Abducted child rescued from Cox's Bazar, 2 held

Chittagong Bureau :

Baizid thana police of Chittagong Metro Police rescued an abducted child from Chokoria upazila under coxsbazar district on Thursday who was kidnapped from Baizid area in city recently.

At the same time, police also rounded up two persons including the abductor .

The minior child Jannatul Mahi(2) was abducted from Banglabazar area under Baizid thana in city on Wednesday. Police sources said one Sohel who resides beside the rental quarter of the parents of abduct, abduct her and demanded ransom of Tk.50 thousand.

Father and mother of Mahi was a rod mistry and RMG worker respectively. Officer incharge of Baizid thana confimred the rescue of the abducted child from Chokoria and arrested two persons allegedly involved with the kidnapping.


Int'l seminar on strengthening LGIs begins in city today

UNB, Dhaka :

A two-day international seminar titled "Towards Effective, Accountable and Inclusive Local Government Institutions (LGIs): Learning from South Asia and Beyond" begins on today.

Three other Asian countries - India, Sri Lanka and the Philippines will participate in the event to be held at the Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE).

Local Government Division (LGD), Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives, with the support from National Institute of Local Government (NILG), Upazila Governance Project (UZGP) and Union Parishad Governance Project (UPGP) will host the seminar.

Representatives from Kerala Institute of Local Administration (KILA) of India, Sri Lanka Institute of Local Governance (SLILG) of Sri Lanka and Asian Institute of Developmental Studies, Inc. (AIDSI) of Philippines are attending the seminar.

The delegates of the participating countries will present papers on existing local government system and good practices from their country perspectives.

A total of nine studies, conducted by UZGP and UPGP, on local governance, decentralization, fiscal decentralization, local service delivery and empowerment of women will be presented in five business sessions of the seminar.

Abdul Malek, Secretary, LGD will inaugurate the seminar as the chief guest while Sudipto Mukerjee, Country Director, UNDP Bangladesh and Peter Bgh Jensen, Head of Cooperation, DANIDA, Bangladesh will attend as special guests.

At the closing session on Sunday, Khandker Mosharraf Hossain, MP, Minister for Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives, will attend as the chief guest.

Christian Fotsch, Ambassador of Switzerland to Bangladesh, Nick Beresford, Deputy Country Director, UNDP Bangladesh and Anna Lixi, Counsellor and Governance Team Leader, EU Delegation, will present as special guests.

LG functionaries working at different tiers including elected public representatives, government officials, academicians, LG experts, representatives from development partners and training institutions, CSOs and NGOs will be attending the seminar.




Delay in lodging FIR under certain situation is sustainable

High Court Division :

(Criminal Appellate Jurisdiction)

Jahangir Hossain J

Md Jahangir Hossain J

Judgment

January 11th, 2016

State..Appellant

vs

Md Nazrul Islam

[absconding] ..Accused Prisoner

Code of Criminal Procedure (V of 1898)

Section 154



FIR-FIR was lodged 6 [six] days after the occurrence. But it should be unworthy to forget that the victim's condition was so deteriorating time and again after occurrence, for which all eyes look at the next consequence of the victim. The explanation given by the informant for delay in lodging the FIR is sustainable. ..(44)

Code of Criminal Procedure (V of 1898)

Section 509A

Statute itself contemplates that the report of post-mortem examination is required to be used as evidence, and the civil surgeon or other medical officer who made the report is dead or is incapable of giving evidence or is beyond the limits of Bangladesh and his attendance cannot be procured without an amount of delay, expense or inconvenience which, under the circumstances of the case, would be unreasonable, such report may be used as evidence. . (41)

Code of Criminal Procedure (V of 1898)

Section 509A

Requirements of section 509 A of the Code were complied with and Doctor's attendance could not be procured because he was not available and, as such, the use of post-mortem examination report under section 509A of the Code as corroborative evidence is proper and justified by the trial court. .(43)

Evidence Act (I of 1872)

Section 8

Absconding by itself is the conclusive proof of guilt of the accused but it lends weight to the circumstantial evidence against him. Although record shows that all due process of law was exhausted but he evaded trial going into hiding. Under such circumstances he cannot say now that he had no knowledge about the case. (47 & 48)

State vs Ful Mia, 5 BLC (AD) 41 ; Rakhal Chandra Naha vs State, 13 BLC (AD) 89 ; Ali Muhammad vs State, 22 DLR (WP) 155 ; State vs Montu alias Nazrul Haque, 44 DLR (AD) 287 ; Zakir Hossain vs State, 55 DLR 13 and Nawshar Ali Sarder vs State, 39 DLR (AD) 194 ref.

Zahirul Haque Zahir, DAG with Abdur Rokib [Montu], with Md Atiqul Haque [Salim], AAGs-For the State.

Md Fazlur Rahman, Advocate-For the State Defence.

Judgment

Jahangir Hossain J: The learned Sessions Judge, Kushtia has referred this matter, to the High Court Division for confirmation under. section 374 of the Code of Criminal Procedure [briefly CrPC] and subsequently it has been numbered as Death Reference No. 73 of 2010.

2. After conclusion of trial the, learned Sessions Indg found accused Md Nazrul Islam [absconding] guilty of the charge leveled under section 302 of the Penal Code and sentenced him to death with a fine of Taka 10,000 [ten thousand].

3. No appeal has been presented against the judgment and order of conviction and sentence passed by the learned Sessions Judge, Kushtia in Sessions Case No. 103 of 2008 arising out of Bheramara police station case No.6 dated 23-7-2006 corresponding to GR No. 66 of 2006. As the accused has been absconding since beginning of the case, the said Death Reference has been heard and is being disposed of alone by this judgment. .

4.The prosecution case as described in the Ejaher by the informant, father of the deceased, in brief, is that Md Nazrul Islam was Workings in the betel leaf field of the informant for about 9(nine) months on daily pay basis. Few days ago, a slight counter-talk was held between his son and Md Nazrul Islam, On 17-7-2006 at about 9-15 am accused Nazrul made an attack on his son with shar pkiris [hasuya] in a pre-plan manner when his son entered into the betel leaf field to supervise its work. Accused Nazrul inflicted kiris blows one after another on the body of the victim [Shaheen] at his different limbs. As a result, he sustained severe injuries in neck, right hand, right shoulder joint and abdomen and entrails of the victim came out because of severe abdomen injuries. Witnesses rushed to the spot on hearing hue and cry of the victim and. heard and saw the incident. They further saw accused Nazrul Islam having sharp kiris in hand running away from the spot. Victim was taken to Kushtia Sadar Hospital in a critical condition and then admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital for better treatment as his condition deteriorated. On 21-7-2006 around 7-15 pm he died in the hospital. After examining his dead body for autopsy, the same was taken to the village home and buried accordingly. Some delay has occurred because of attention given to his treatment after occurrence.

5. Upon receiving the Ejaher police started Bheramara police station case No.6, dated 27-7-2006 against the accused under section 302 of the Penal Code. The investigation officer visited the place of occurrence, prepared sketch map with index and recorded statements of witnesses after examining them under section 161 of the CrPC, collected inquest report and post-mortem examination report. Having concluded the investigation, he placed police report bearing charge sheet No.9 dated 12-1-2007 to the concerned court below against accused Md Nazrul Islam and three others under sections 302/34 of the Penal Code when prima facie case was found against them.

6. On 9-10-2008 the learned Sessions Judge framed charge against all four accused persons under sections 302/34 of the Penal Code which was read over and explained to them present to which they pleaded not guilty and claimed to be innocent in the trial and demanded justice. But it was not possible to. read and explain the framing charge to accused Md Nazrul Islam as he. was all a long absconding.

7. In order to prove this charge against the accused persons the prosecution examined as many as 11 (eleven) live witnesses in the case, while defence examined none. The defence case as it transpires from the trend of cross-examination of the prosecution witnesses that the accused are quite innocent and their further claim is that Panna Bahini or any other third' party might have killed the victim on failure to give extortion money demanded by those parties. They have been falsely implicated in this case due to previous enmity over the land dispute between the accused persons and the informant party.

8. After recording evidence of the prosecution witnesses the accused persons on dock were examined under section 342 of the CrPC. This time they also reiterated of their innocence. Having considered the facts, circumstances and the evidence on record the learned Sessions Judge of Kushtia convicted and sentenced accused Md Nazrul Islam to death while acquitted three others by impugned judgment and order dated 30-11-2010. Accused Md Nazrul Islam preferred no Criminal Appeal as he has been absconding. As it appears from record .that to dispose of this Death Reference the State has appointed. an advocate named Mr Md Fazlur Rahman to defend the accused since death penalty has' been imposed on him in the instant case.

9. Mr Zahirul. Haque Zahir learned Deputy Attorney General along with Mr Abdur Rokib [Montu], Assistant Attorney General, appeared on behalf of the Respondent [State] supporting the Death Reference. Mr Zahir has first placed before us the FIR, charge' sheet, testimony of the witnesses, inquest report, post-mortem examination report others connected documents available in the paper books, then contends that,--

(a) The prosecution could establish its case against' the accused beyond all reasonable doubt and, as such, there is nothing to say by the defence to interfere by' this Court' with the impugned judgment and order of conviction and sentence dated 30-11-2010 passed by the learned Sessions Judge, Kushtia.

(b) There is sufficient evidence against the accused to show that he was. ,a real perpetrator in the killing of the victim.

(c) Time, place and manner of the occurrence have been proved by the prosecution beyond all reasonable doubt and there is no single discrepancy in the evidence adduced

by the prosecution witnesses as to the time, place and manner of the occurrence.

10. He has further contended that act and conduct of the accused in the commission of offence are so heinous, that does not. deserve any kind of sympathy from court upon him.

Mr Zahir has pointed out that although the doctor, who examined the dead body of the victim for autopsy, did not turn up to prove the post-mortem examination report but there are many decisions in line by our Apex Court that without providing the post-mortem examination report by the doctor, conviction can be based upon if the other evidence of the prosecution witnesses are found to be sufficient to prove the case, though the post-mortem examination report is a piece of corroborative evidence [State vs Fjul Mia, reported in 5 BLC (AD) 41 and Rakhal Chandra Naha vs State, reported in 13 BLC (AD) 891]. He further argues that PW 7, 8 and 9 who depicted about the killing story to the other witnesses immediately after the incident that might be used as admissible in evidence [Ali Muhammad vs State, reported in 22 DLR (WP) (1970) 1551].

11. Per contra, Mr Md Fazlur, Rahman, learned State Defence Advocate appearing on behalf. of the fugitive accused contends that the Prosecution utterly failed to prove the case against the accused beyond reasonable doubt. The inquest report of the victim does not support the prosecution case as' stated by PW 1, the father of the victim. From the evidence of prosecution witnesses it has revealed that entrails of the victim came out due' to sharp weapon blows by the accused but that claim does not support by the inquest report as well as post-mortem examination report. Mr. Rahman further contends that the trial court did not exhaust the due process of law laid down in the CrPC to bring the doctor for verifying the post-mortem examination report. Without examining the doctor to impose capital punishment is beyond the norms of criminal jurisprudence. Learned advocate further argues that in the alleged commission of offence there is no ocular witness to have seen the crime at the time of incident and it is pertinent to say that father of the victim did not bother to see or supervise the treatment of his son in Dhaka Medical College Hospital, while the victim was fighting with death which can-be presumed in mind that the father might have wanted to see his son dead for implicating the accused in the murder' allegation overlooking the real perpetrators like Panna Bahini. He further argues that there has been neither pre-plan nor premeditation in the killing of the victim in this case the nature of crime as alleged by the prosecution is completely culpable homicide not amounting to murder. So the form of conviction depending on the view of murder charge is totally unethical and illegal in the eye of law. He finally submits that since there is no pre-plan or previous preparation for committing crime it may, at best can make into consideration in, awarding punishment under section 304 of the Penal Code subject to proving the allegation by prosecution evidence beyond reasonable doubt.

12. Upon scrutiny of the evidence adduced by the aforesaid 11 (eleven) live witnesses along with exhibits and material exhibits, it has emerged that the learned State defence lawyer has cross-examined the prosecution witnesses thoroughly to ascertain their veracity and credibility. Now the question is before us whether the prosecution has been able to prove the instant charge leveled against accused without any iota, of, doubt. Let us carefully examine and analysis the evidence adduced by the prosecution witnesses and the contentions of the learned Advocates of both the parties to arrive at a conclusive decision as per legislation for proper adjudication of justice.

13. It appears that PW 1 father of the victim, who lodged the FIR knowing from others has stated in his examination-in-chief that there was a conflict over the land, between him and the father of the accused. On 17-7-2008 at about 9-00 am his son was attacked by accused when both of them engaged themselves in the counter-talks in his betel leaf field. At one stage the accused, in order to kill, gave blows on the body of his son at different limbs with sharp kiris [hasuyal] one after another and subsequently entrails of his son came out while he was groaning.

14. On hearing and seeing such incident, Chamili Khatun, China Khatun, Apter and Budu Sarder rushed to the spot and saw the occurrence. When the witnesses came to the spot accused Nazrul quickly fled away. Some of the witnesses took the victim to the Kushtia Sadar Hospital. As his condition deteriorated he was taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital for better treatment. on 21-7-2006 in the evening at 7-30 pm the victim succumbed to his injuries but before his departure he told that Nazrul made attack on him. The FIR has been marked as exhibit 1 and his signature as exhibit 1/1.

15. From this, evidence, it has revealed that there was a relationship between the informant party and the' accused. Admittedly, they. had previous enmity over the event of land dispute.

16. This witness is a step-brother of Idris Ali, father.of the accused. It is also evident from this witness that accused Nazrul-worked on the daily pay basis - in the betel .leaf field of the informant. An altercation was held between' Nazrul and the victim some few days, ago. Nazrul being enraged made attack on the victim with sharp weapon on the day of occurrence at 9-15 am. This witness though was not present at the time of occurrence but he heard soon after the occurrence from his daughter Chamili, China and two neighbors namely Apter and Budu Sarder, who rushed to the place of occurrence soon after hearing hue and cry of the victim. Here, the source of hearing of the incident has been stated in his evidence. So it cannot be brushed away that his evidence has no value being hearsay' evideilce.

17. PW 2 Budu Sarder having corroborated the evidence of PW 1 narrated in his examination-in-chief that on 17-7-2006 at about 9-00 am he was working in the cultivated land. He reached the crime spot on hearing hue and cry and saw Nazrul havirig hasuya in hand was running away and the victim Shaheen lying on the ground and the entrails of the victim came out. On query victim Shaheen told. him that Nazrul, dealt a hasuya [sharp cutting weapon] blow In his abdomen and the victim was' taken to hospital subsequently was :shifted to Dhaka Medical College in a critical condition. On 21-7-2006 he died in the hospital during undergoing treatment.

18. In course of cross-examination, this witness confirmed in reply that victim Shaheen informed him that Nazrul gave blows on his body with hasuya. It appears from his evidence that he was working in the cultivated land very near to the place of occurrence: Naturally, he had scope to see the occurrence 'and accused fleeing away from his work-place in a little while: Therefore, his evidence' has material particular to corroborate the evidence of PW 1 without major contradiction:

19. This witness has also confirmed in reply on the cross-examination that Shaheen told him that Nazrul gave blows on his body with kiris [hasuya]. It appears from cross-examination that the defence has totally failed to discard the evidence of this witness.

20. PW 3 Sekander Ali Biswas, a neighbour of the informant, who has stated in his deposition that on 17-7-2006 in the morning at 9-00 am he was in front of Bheramara police station. One Mukter informed him that the son of PW 1 was attacked and his entrails came out. He heard Nazrul beating the victim up. On hearing such information, he rushed to the house of PW 1 where victim's sister in a weeping condition told him that Nazrul with hasuya gave blows on her brother Shaheen. The same statement narrated to him by PW 1 and his son Mizan PW 7 while Budu Sarder PW 2 was present there. Thereafter, he went to the betel leaf field where he saw bloodstained mud and destruction of betel leaf [boroj]. He has further testified that the victim Shaheen, was taken to Kushtia Medical Hospital then shifted to Dhaka Medical College wherein he died on 21-7-2006 and his dead body was buried after bringing from hospital.

21. In cross-examination, he replied that he rushed to the house around 11-00 pm. Although this witness did not see the occurrence and abruptly leaving the scene by' accused Nazrul but he received the information of the incident from PWs 2 and 9 who had seen accused Nazrul having bloodstained weapon in hand feeling away just immediately after the incident. Therefore, it cannot be said that the evidence of this witness has no value at all.

(To be continued)

22. PW 4 Belal Hossain is also a neighbour of the informant, who has narrated that the occurrence took place on 17-7-2006 at about 9-00 am. He was going to see his land. All on a sudden, he heard hue and cry, from the betel leaf field of PW 1. Then and there he went to the spot and saw the victim Shaheen lying in the field with many injuries on his body including hand, shoulder and abdomen and entrails came out. He also saw accused Nazrul having bloodstained hasuya in hand running away. Having tied the abdomen with napkin [gamchha] the victim was sent to Kushtia Sadar Hospital in a Nosimon vehicle. On 21:7-2006 he died in the hospital.

23. In course of cross-examination he has replied that' the victim was wearing a pant and a T-shirt but he could not remember the colour of the clothes. Around 8/10 persons went to the spot on hearing hue and cry. He has confirmed in reply that he narrated to the investigation officer' that Nazrul was fleeing away with a blood stained kiris. This witness has also corroborated the evidence of former witnesses including PW I, the informant of the case. No discrepancy is appeared in his evidence with the evidence of other witnesses.

24. PW 5 Tozammel Haque states in his deposition that on 17-7-2006 in the morning at 9-15 am he went to the place of occurrence on hearing hue and cry and saw victim Shaheen with severe shoulder and hand injuries lying on the gr6und and his entrails came out. And he had seen mother and sister of the victim weeping nearby. They informed him that accused Nazrul dealt blows on the body of the victim with hasuya [Kiris]. Then they having tied the belly sent the victim to Kushtia Sadar Hospital in a Nosimun vehicle. He heard later that victim died at Dhaka' Medical College Hospital.

25. In course of cross-examination, he has replied that he remained present at the place of occurrence for about half an hour and two policemen came while he was there. This witness corroborates the evidence of PW 4 without any contradiction. He has narrated the incident in the same tune as PW 4 narrated in his deposition.

26. PW 6 Mukbul Malitha has testified that the occurrence took place on 17-7-2006 at 9-15 am. He was then at home. He rushed, to the place of occurrence on hearing hue and cry and saw victim Shaheen, son of PW I, lying nearby at the betel leaf field with blood stained injuries and the entrails of the victim came out. He also saw wife of PW 1 and his two daughters namely China and Champa weeping and saying that Nazrul cut Shaheen with kiris and left the place instantly. Victim Shaheen also narrated that Nazrul cut him. Thereafter, having tied with napkin they sent him to Kushtia Sadar Hospital in a Nosimun vehicle. Subsequently, he was shifted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital wherein he died on 21-7-2006.

27. In course of cross-examination, this witness has responded that informant and the accused both are close to him. In reply he said Idris Miah, father of the accused, is his teacher. Around 22/30 people rushed to the spot and subsequently, many other persons came there. Daughters namely China and Champa of PW 1 were crying there and they told about Nazrul's involvement in the attack of the victim. This witness echoed in the same tune as stated by PWs 4 and 5.

28. PW 7 Mizanur Rahman, son of PW 1 and full-brother of the victim, testifies that the occurrence took place on 17-7-2006 at 9-15 am. He was in the field at the relevant time. On hearing hue and cry he reached the spot and saw his brother lying on the ground with bloodstained injuries. Thereafter, they took him to Kushtia Sadar Hospital. They took him to Dhaka Medical College Hospital as his condition deteriorated. On the way to Dhaka victim Shaheen told him that Nazrul made attack on him with hasuya. The victim could not speak much because his was in a critical condition. On 21-7-2006 around 7-00 pm he succumbed to his injuries at Dhaka Medical College Hospital. On 22-7-2006 around 12-00 am one SI Nazrul Islam held the inquest report of victim Shaheen and took his signature in it. Inquest report is marked as exhibit-2 and his signature as exhibit-2/1 Dead body was examined in the morgue of Medical College and buried him after his dead body was taken to village home. On 23-7-2006 his father lodged an FIR with the police station.

29. On 24-7-2006 Daroga Rois Uddin rushed to the place of occurrence and prepared seizure list after being seized blood stained full plant and T-shirt of the victim and took his signature in it: The seizure list is marked as exhibit 3 and his signature as eXhibit-3f1 and the seizing apparels are marked as material exhibit-1 (one) series.

30. In course of cross-examination this witness has replied that regarding treatment and death of the victim were informed to his father and before lodging FIR they have narrated the incident to him. On perusal of the evidence of this witness it, appears that he was informed by victim that accused Nazrul made attack on him with hasuya and this witness all the time, during treatment of the victim, was with him. As he was ,with the victim all the time, he became the seizure list witness of the bloodstained apparels seized by. the investigating officer. It is further evident that the defence did not take denial that the apparels seized by the investigating officer were not belonging to the victim.

31. PW 8 Chamili Khatun, daughter' of PW 1 and the sister of the deceased, narrates in her deposition that the occurrence took place on 17-7-2006 in the morning at 9-15 am. She was doing' work in the pond nearby house at the relevant time. All on' a sudden she heard hue and cry, then she went to the betel leaf field and saw Nazrul and Habib having hasuya and stick in hands coming out of the betel leaf field. The bloodstained hasuya was in the hand of Nazrul. She entered the betel leaf field and saw her brother Shaheen lying in. the field with severe injury and entrails came out of the belly and he was also groaning. On query her brother Shaheen told her that Nazrul gave him blows with hasuya. Locals came to the spot while they were shouting. They sent him to the hospital for treatment having tied the abdomen with a towel. As his condition. deteriorated was sent to Dhaka Medical College Hospital wherein he died on 21-7-2006. His father. being, informant filed the case.

32. In course of cross-examination, she has replied that her father was not at home at the time of occurrence. It has revealed from the cross-examination of this witness that while the victim was in Dhaka Medical College Hospital for treatment PW 1 made communication with the attendant of the victim. As it appears from the evidence of this witness that defence has failed to discredit her evidence. Rather the evidence of this witness corroborates the evidence of PW 7 in a same way. No major contradiction we find in the evidence of this witness.

33. PW 9 China Khatun states in her deposition that the occurrence took place on 17-7-2006 in the morning around 9-00 o'clock while she was standing on the bank of the pond. She went to the place of occurrence on hearing hue and cry. And saw accused Nazrul having blood stained hasuya in hand fleeing away and having heard the groaning she. entered the betel leaf field and saw her brother lying in the field and entrails came out of his belly. Her brother told her that Nazrul made attack and cut him. She then shouted in a weeping condition. Locals came there from around their house. PW 3 asked her how it happened then she replied that Nazrul did it. With the help of locals her brother was sent to Kushtia General Hospital. As his condition deteriorated he was shifted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital wherein he died four days after the incident.

34. In course of cross-examination this witness has replied that she rushed to the place of occurrence on hearing shouting and saw her brother lying on the ground with abdomen injury. From her evidence it has emerged that at the time of occurrence she was very near to the place of occurrence and that was why she could be able to see accused Nazrul running away with blood stained hasuya. This witness has also corroborated the evidence of PWs 7 and: 8 in a same manner.

35. PW 10 Rezaul Karim is a seizure list witness. In his presence a blood stained full' pant and T-shirt along with a towel had been seized and he put his signature in the seizure list which has been marked as exhibit 3/2. This witness has recognized the seizing apparels in court. From defence no suggestion has been given that the blood stained wearing apparels were not belonging to the deceased of the case. Moreover, this witness has denied the defence suggestions that he' has given false evidence against the accused because of relationship with the informant party.

36. PW 11 SI Rois Uddin Khan, the investigating officer of the case, 'testifies that he was on duty at Veramara police station when the occurrence took place. The officer-in-charge of the said police station assigned him the case to investigate. During investigation he visited the place of occurrence, analyzed the FIR, prepared the sketch map with Index, seized the alamot and recorded statements of the witnesses after examining them and collected inquest. report along with post-mortem examination report.

37. Upon conclusion of investigation, he submitted police report being Charge Sheet No. 9 dated 12-1-2007 against the four accused persons including the convict-accused. The sketch map is marked as exhibit-4 and his signature as exhibit-4/1, index is marked as exhibit-5 and his signature as exhibit-5/1.

38. In course of cross-examination he replies that he took over the charge of investigation on 24-7-2006 and analyzed all connected documents including FIR. Deceased was injured on 17-7-2006 and died on 21-7-2006 at Dhaka Medical College Hospital. The case was lodged on 23-7-2006 at 21-35 hours and cause of delay in lodging Ejaher has been stated and he visited the place of occurrence on the same day. He has denied the defence suggestions that he did not investigate the case properly and being biased submitted' charge sheet against the accused.

39. Upon assessment and evaluation of the aforesaid evidence of the witnesses it appears that the informant being informed by others instituted the case against the convict-accused and three others. He has given evidence supporting the FIR, story. PWs 2 to 6 are neighbours of the informant party and they have come forward to the court giving evidence in support of the prosecution case. The defence has not been able to discard or discredit their evidence in course of cross-examination. Rather they have confirmed the time, place and manner of the occurrence while replying the questions to the defence. Although the PWs 7, 8 and 9 are the nearest relations of the informant but their evidence corroborated each other as if they echoed their voice in a same tune. PWs 8 and 9 have categorically stated in their evidence that they rushed to the place of occurrence on hearing hue and cry and saw the victim in a critical condition and accused Nazrul running away with a blood stained hasuya in hand. It is evident that soon after the occurrence PWs 2, 4, 6, 8, and 9 rushed to the place of occurrence and saw accused Nazrul fleeing away with blood stained hasuya and the victim also told them on query that Nazrul made attack on him with sharp weapon like hasuya. The above versions of evidence could not be shaken by defence in any way. Therefore, it is very difficult to disbelieve the evidence of these witnesses as having. no contradictory events therein. Although they are not absolute eye witnesses to the occurrence but it is evidenced that they had witnessed partly of the occurrence. Even then, what victim narrated to them soon after the occurrence, is very much important for taking into consideration. In their evidence nothing has been found inconsistent in respect of departure of the accused from the scene with a blood stained hasuya, used in the attack of the victim. So such clear version of evidence is enough to be found the accused for his involvement in the attack of the victim.

40. The medical evidence i.e post-mortem examination report reveals 5 (five) severe injuries on the person of the victim-Shaheen which are as follows:

(1) Stitch wound in the turn and side of the neck 13" long and extending to the left scapular 37 stitches over this.

(2) Stitch wound extending over the right scapular 3" long 5 stitches.

(3) One stitch wound 1" long 3 stitches over the right shoulder joint,

(4) Surgical stitch wound in the Medline of the front of the abdomen 8rt long 18 stitches over there.

(5) Stitch wound 2 long in the left side of the abdomen 8 stitches over there."

41. Although doctor was not found to verify the post-mortem examination report but it has sufficient value being corroborative evidence when it is supported by other evidence. It appears from record that the trial court initially issued summons, then warrant of arrest and finally non-bail able warrant to the doctor, cited in the charge sheet even through IGP SP and the same was also communicated to the principal and director of Dhaka Medical College Hospital, which shows that all attempts have been exhausted in due course to produce the doctor but in vain. Post-mortem examination report of the dead body of the deceased even if not taken into consideration, does not weaken the prosecution case for lack of corroboration of ocular witnesses. Nevertheless, Statute itself contemplates that the report of post-mortem examination required to be used as evidence, and the civil surgeon or other medical officer who made the report is dead or is capable of giving evidence or is beyond the limits of Bangladesh and his attendance cannot be procured without an amount of delay, expense or inconvenience which, under the circumstances of the case, would be unreasonable such report may be used as evidence.

42. In the present case it appears that the trial judge made several attempts to bring the doctor before the court for which some delay occurred. Lastly he took final decision considering the medical examination report as corroborative evidence, which is absolutely justified in the eye of law. Even then, such postmortem examination report being corroborative evidence is not needed in this case as material evidence is available to prove the allegation brought by PW 1. It finds support from the case of State vs Ful Mia, reported 5 BLC (AD) 41 where it was held as under,

"The post mortem report was filed under Section 509A of the Code of Criminal Procedure as the Doctor was not available.

Section 509A CrPC contemplates certain procedure but those were not complied with amid for that the post-mortem report could be left out of consideration. As the factum of murder has been proved by four eye-witnesses the post-mortem report as corroborative evidence is not absolutely essential. "

43. It has emerged in this case that requirements of Section 509A of the code of criminal procedure were complied with and Doctor's attendance could not be procured because he was not available and, as such, the use of post-mortem examination report under Section 509A of the CrPC as corroborative evidence is proper and justified by the trial court.

44. Defence has tried to say that Panna Bahini or third party might have killed the victim for extortion money but it is not found in evidence during cross-examination by the defence that when and where at what time Panna Bahini or third party demanded subscription from the informant party. The further claim of the defence is that the FIR was lodged some days later which makes the prosecution case weaken. It is true that FIR was lodged 6 (six) days after the occurrence. But it should be worthy to forget. that the victim's condition was so deteriorating time and again after occurrence, for which all eyes look at the next, consequence of the victim. Therefore, the explanation given by the informant for delay in lo
Over 36.37 lakh BD workers sent abroad since 2009

BSS, Dhaka :

Bangladesh has sent a total of 36,37,086 workers abroad during the last eight years since 2009.

Of the total, 35,13,120 are male and 4,54,148 female workers, said Minister for Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment Nurul Islam B.Sc.

The minister gave the statistics while replying to a written question of treasury bench member Md Nurul Islam Omar in the Jatiya Sansad.

Responding to another question of JSD lawmaker Nazmul Haque Prodhan, the minister informed the House that the government as a result of its successful diplomatic efforts has so far been able to legalize nearly 10.77 lakh Bangladeshi undocumented workers in Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and Iraq.
Aimma O Ulema Parishad brought out a procession in the city\'s Postogola area on Friday in protest against repression on Rohyngya Muslims in Myanmar.
Offering transit hurting BD`s exports to India

A news report on Friday said that Bangladesh has decided to allow India to use 3 surface transit points to carry goods between its northeastern states through Bangladesh territory which initially started from last June. This is addition to the transit facilities through Akhaura port. Bangladesh's exports to northeastern states of India through Akhaura Land Port has drastically declined since India started transit shipment of essential goods from last June. Contrary to Bangladesh's hopes that transit will equally benefit both countries, it appears that Akhaura Land Port has virtually turned into wasteland as direct export from Bangladesh has almost totally dried up. Most clearing forwarding agents who were working at the Port have also closed their shutters and laid off several hundred staff and workers.

Such transit has sharply impacted Bangladesh's exports to northeastern states of India instead of creating more exports and huge revenue from transit fees as the government had earlier claimed. Indian northeast had so long depended on export of construction materials, fish and beverage items from Bangladesh as the cheapest source from across the border compared to supply from mainland through Shiliguri corridor crossing over thousand kilometers of distance. They would import at least 40 items such as cement, plastic goods, corrugated iron sheet, iron rod, stone, fish and refreshment drinks. But ever since India secured the transit passage its suppliers are sending these materials direct from the mainland knocking out Bangladeshi exporters from their advantageous position.

India pays only Tk 192.22 for per ton of goods using river transit making supply from mainland rather cheaper in terms of transport cost. Even Bangladesh government has turned down Bangladesh Tariff Commission's recommendation to fix the transit fee at Tk 1058 to allow low cost transport. It appears Bangladesh is now on the loser side in all aspects and it is in India's interest not to destroy Bangladesh's business. Even early this year long queues of trucks at Akhaura Land Port were a common scene to enter India and unload exports from Bangladesh. But India has just stopped importing most such materials. The trade balance with India is almost ten times now against Bangladesh and many doubt that the country may become a captive Indian market if some reciprocity is not playing a role in the process.

In our view it is high time Bangladesh government should take the issue with Indian government to protect the country's business. We have offered transit despite critical opposition by many because we thought India needs it for easy connectivity with the northeast. But in return the drying up of our exports to northeast is not acceptable. India's tariff and non-tariff barriers on Bangladesh's export to Indian mainland are also contrary to duty free trade from our sides. Regular killing of our nationals on border also gives us a sense of betrayal. We must say this is not the way bilateral relations can go a long way but the reality is that we have to live together respecting each other's interest.
Realise your rights by yourselves

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina poses with Aroma Dutta and Begum Nur Jahan after handing over Begum Rokeya Padak at Osmani Memorial Auditorium marking the Begum Rokeya Day on Friday.

UNB, Dhaka :

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Friday urged the womenfolk to strive for realising their rights by themselves as no one else would help them have those realised in this male-dominated society.

"You'll have to realise your rights by yourselves as no one will come up in aid of you in this society ruled by men," she told a programme marking the inauguration of Begum Rokeya Day and distribution of Begum Rokeya Padak-2016 at Osmani Memorial Auditorium. This year, the prestigious award has gone to Aroma Dutta and Begum Nur Jahan for their outstanding contributions to advancing the country's women.

The Prime Minister announced to increase the number of award recipients to five

from the next year to encourage women more. "We want to turn Bangladesh into a poverty-free country. However, we won't be able to materialise our dream if we don't take the womenfolk to the path to drive away poverty," she said.

Mentioning that half of the country's population is women, the Prime Minister said their development is a must for the country's development. "If women don't make progress in education and other sectors, this society will never be built properly. All have to understand that there's no chance to neglect them," she said.

Children and Women Affairs Ministry organised the award distribution ceremony with State Minister for Women and Children Affairs Meher Afroze Chumki in the chair.

The government introduced the award in 1995 after the name of Begum Rokeya, the pioneer of awakening women's rights in this subcontinent. The Prime Minister said the government has created opportunities for the education of the womenfolk through providing various stipends at primary and secondary levels and scholarships for their higher education like graduation and post-graduation and even at PhD level.

Paying deep respects to the memory of great woman Begum Rokeya, Hasina said for the emancipation of womenfolk, Begum Rokeya had taken pen in one hand while she had also engaged herself for construction of institutional structure for female education and social organisations for their welfare.

Her struggle, sacrifice, brightness of thoughts and writings are still spreading glittering lights in the society, she said. Recalling great contributions of the womenfolk during the war of liberation, the prime minister said, the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu had taken massive steps for women emancipation and their political, social and economic development alongside rehabilitating the mothers and sisters who suffered immense brutalities of the Pak force and their local collaborators. She noted that now Bangladesh's Prime Minister, Deputy Leader of the House, Opposition Leader, Speaker and a number of ministers are women, which is rare example in the world. Women in Bangladesh are now working in every tire of administration -- armed forces, law enforcing agencies, judiciaries and local government bodies to Jatiya Sangsad, from school-college to universities and from air force pilots to the UN peacekeeping missions-and other challenging positions, she said.
UN calls on Myanmar`s Suu Kyi to visit crisis-hit Rakhine state

Rohingya children gather at the Dar Paing camp for Muslim refugees, north of Sittwe, western Rakhine state in Myanmar.

The Express Tribune :

The UN has urged Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi to visit northern Rakhine state, where the army is accused of carrying out a brutal crackdown on the Muslim Rohingya minority.

The Nobel peace prize winner has faced growing international criticism for not stopping the military's campaign, which has pushed more than 20,000 Rohingya over the border to Bangladesh, bringing tales of mass rape, murder and arson. The crackdown was launched in response to deadly raids on police posts in October.

Malaysia has accused the army of "genocide" -

charges Myanmar officials have vehemently denied.

Suu Kyi has described the situation as "under control" and asked the international community to stop stoking the "fires of resentment". In a statement released in New York on Thursday, UN special adviser on Myanmar Vijay Nambiar appealed directly to the peace icon to intervene. "The adoption of a generally defensive rather than proactive approach to providing security to the local population, have caused frustration locally and disappointment internationally," he said.

"I also appeal to Daw Suu to visit Maungdaw and Buthidaung and reassure the civilian population there that they will be protected," he added, referring to the locked down area in Rakhine.

The bloodshed presents the biggest challenge to Suu Kyi since her party won Myanmar's first democratic elections in a generation last year.


BNP opposes India`s `proposal for open sky deal`

UNB, Dhaka :

BNP on Friday strongly opposed India's reported proposal to sign an open sky agreement with Bangladesh saying it will put the country's security at stake.

Speaking at a press briefing at the party's Nayapaltan central office, BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi also said Bangladesh will not get any benefit by inking such a

deal."Bangladesh has agreement with India and many other countries on sky. But it has no deal with any country for giving open sky facilities. Bangladesh will not be benefited by signing such a deal. Even, there is no necessity of it," he said.

He further said, "If the government signs the deal in will only protect India's interest helping it unilaterally control air business." Terming the move as anti-state, he urged the government to refrain from taking steps for signing such agreement.

"After assuming power, the government is signing agreements with India one after another. Bangladesh has given many facilities to India but yet to get anything in exchange of those," said Rizvi.

" India has unilaterally withdrawn water of common rivers. They also got transit facility almost free of cost. They are trying to set up Rampal power plant in the Sundarbans ignoring the opinions of the people of Bangladesh and the world and endangering the ecology of the mangrove forest," he alleged.

Demanding army deployment during the Narayanganj City Corporation Election Rizvi said the role of the law enforcement agencies and local administration is questionable and no initiative has yet been taken to collect the licensed arms and recover the illegal arms ahead of the election.
3 held with 21000 Yaba in city

UNB, Dhaka :

Detectives seized 21,000 pieces of contraband Yaba tablets and arrested three people in this connection from Shahbagh area in the city on Thursday night. The arrestees are Asad, Rubel and Ramzan.

Deputy Commissioner (Media) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police Masudur Rahman said tipped off, a special team of Detective Branch (DB) South Division conducted a drive at Shahbagh and

arrested the trio. The detectives seized a truck carrying the Yaba consignment and a motorcycle from their possessions, the DC (Media) said. A case was filed with Shahbagh police station this in connection.
Hundreds of men missing: UN

BBC Online :

Hundreds of men appear to have gone missing after crossing from rebel-held areas of Aleppo into government territory, UN officials say.

Forces led by Syria's government have seized at least 75% of eastern parts of the city from rebels in recent weeks. Tens of thousands of civilians have fled those districts, with more than 8,000 leaving during a humanitarian pause on Thursday. Rebels were also reportedly stopping people from leaving, the UN said.

Rupert Colville, the spokesman for the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, said up to 100,000 people were trapped in "ever-shrinking" areas of eastern Aleppo. Reports differ on how many people remain and how many have fled eastern Aleppo, but Mr Colville said the UN had gathered evidence that "hundreds" of men may have disappeared after leaving for government-held areas.

"Given the terrible record of arbitrary detention, torture and enforced disappearances by the Syrian government, we are of course deeply concerned about the fate of these individuals," he said.

Reports cited by the UN say men aged between 30 and 50 were separated from their families. Other displaced people reported being taken in for questioning, and having their identity cards confiscated.

Mr Colville also said rebel groups could be committing a war crime by preventing people from fleeing to safety, and "using civilians as pawns". Russia, an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, said fighting was suspended on Thursday to allow civilians to leave.

By Friday morning, more than 8,000 people - including 3,000 children - had left, Russia's military said. But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said fighting would continue "until the bandits leave east Aleppo".

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a network of activists monitoring the violence, said ground forces continued their offensive, and that rocket attacks and air raids were launched overnight.

Meanwhile, the civilian rescue group known as the White Helmets said 46 civilians were killed and another 230 injured on Thursday in east Aleppo. Three barrel bombs carrying chlorine gas were dropped, it added. After several previous attempts to flee the besieged area of Salhine, one man, Abdel Hamid, managed to leave with his wife and 10 children on Thursday.

"Most of the people around me were saying 'in any case we will die, so let's leave together'. That encouraged me and we left," he told the AFP news agency.

"I left my house behind... but I have secured my children's right to live. With each step I took I felt like I was getting closer to life itself."

Mr Lavrov confirmed that Russian and US military experts would meet in Geneva on Saturday to discuss ways of ending the violence. He said the talks would focus on plans to evacuate rebel fighters from eastern Aleppo, but the US State Department said the subject had yet to be agreed. Rebels have said they intend to fight on.

The UN's envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, is planning to meet members of US President-elect Donald Trump's team, though he did not say when.
Mega projects face setback

Kazi Zahidul Hasan :

The government's mega projects are facing a string of setback due to inefficiency of the implementing agencies, bureaucratic tangle and delay in signing financial deal with foreign countries.

Officials said, either the projects have stalled or made a little progress on the way to their implementation even after the government ensured funding to their heads.

The mega projects are the Padma Bridge, Metro Rail, Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant, Rampal Power Plant, Payra Sea Port, Matarbari Power Plant, Padma Bridge rail link, Dohazari-Cox's Bazar-Gundum rail line, Sonadia deep sea port and LNG terminal.

The projects have been undertaken to support the country's inclusive economic growth.

Earlier, the government listed the development projects under the Fast Track Project scheme forming a high-powered Monitoring Committee, headed by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, to speed up their implementation.

The Committee held a meeting recently to evaluate the progress of the mega projects. The meeting expressed dissatisfaction over their sluggish implementation progress.

"All the mega projects except Padma Bridge are progressing at a snail's pace



which is unacceptable," a senior Finance Ministry official told The New Nation on Friday requesting not to be named.

He added: "These projects are time bound and costly. Delay of their implementation would push up their cost further harming the state coffer as well the national economy".

When asked, the Finance Ministry official said, "These are the government's priority projects and necessary funds have already been allocated for their implementation."

He also blamed inefficiency of the implementing agencies for the slow progress of their implementation.

The government has set aside Tk 18,727 crore in the current budget for them except Sonadia deep sea port and LNG terminal.

No allocation was made for these two projects as they will be implemented on government-to-government (G2G) basis.

Officials said, the government still remains undecided on developing the Sonadia deep sea port as a number of foreign countries, including the USA, China, Japan and India, have already expressed their interest to engage with this mega project.

"The government is in dilemma over implementing the project because of their interest. The project has already been stalled without any progress," a Shipping Ministry official told The New Nation on Friday.

Besides, the government moved forward for developing the LNG terminal in 2009. But it is yet to make any headway due to complexity in its tendering process and bureaucratic red-tape. Besides, it is yet to sign deal with a Gulf country for importing LNG.

A similar picture is also prevailing over the implementation of the 129km Dohazari-Cox's Bazar-Gundum rail line project as the implementing agency could not complete the process of land accusation for the last six years.

The country's largest railway project has been made a little progress although it has been taken up in July 2010, said an official.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will provide Tk 13,115 crore for the project, and the rest will come from government funds. The time limit for the revised project has been extended to 2022. No progress has been made for the implementation of the Matarbari Power Plant and Padma Bridge rail link as the government is yet to sign deals with the respective governments (Japan and China) in this regard.

Matarbari Power Plant was to be financed by the Japanese government. But the project seems to be stalled after the Gulshan cafe attack, officials said.

The government earlier incorporated the Tk 34,989-crore Padma Bridge rail track project in the list of fast-track project.

Under the project, a 172-km rail track would be built between Dhaka and Jessore.

Of the funds, the government will provide Tk 10,239 crore and China Tk 24,794 crore.

The government has allocated Tk 200 crore for implementing the primary work of the Payra Sea Port, which has 19 components. On Thursday, two Chinese companies signed preliminary agreements with Bangladesh to develop three components of Payra seaport with $510 million in funds.

The government plans to commission the Metro Rail Project [MRT line-6 from Uttara to Motijheel] ahead of its 2024 deadline. Work on the first part of the 20-km vital rapid transit project from Uttara North to Agargaon would be completed by 2019.

Work on the segment from Agargaon to Motijheel would be completed in December 2020.

Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will provide Tk 16,594 crore for the project out of the total cost of Tk 21,985 crore. The implementation of the project is also going on in slow place. The authorities are now busy on developing land for the project. Development of main structure would start next year after completion of tender process, the officials said.

The first phase of the 2,400 megawatt Rooppur nuclear power project has seen considerable progress since Bangladesh signed the project agreement with Russia in January 2013.

The ECNEC recently gave its nod to implement the most expensive project for Bangladesh.

The government wants to complete at least one unit of the project by 2018 while the deadline for its completion is 2023.

For Rampal Power Project work related to land development and construction of boundary walls in the 1,320MW project is almost finished. It was launched by a Bangladesh-India joint venture company in 2010.

The power plant is another much-talked about project to be implemented by 2023.


NCTB employee missing since Nov 14

Staff Reporter :

An employee of the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) has been missing since November 14.

The missing man has been identified as Ahsan Habib, Assistant Caretaker of the NCTB.

Mansura Begum, wife of Ahsan Habib, filed a complaint with Motijheel Police Station on December 6 in connection with her husband's disappearance.

Motijheel Police Station's Sub-Inspector Dulal Chandra Kundo said that they received the complaint

lodged by Mansura Begum.

Dulal Chandra Kundo said that they were analysing Habib's mobile call records to determine his last location.

Habib took a three-day leave to visit his ailing mother at his village home in Dinajpur's Birol Upazila. He left Dhaka on November 14 and since then he was out of touch with his family.

Mansura contacted with her relatives in the village, but she was told that her husband was not there.

She desperately contacted with other relatives and searched wherever she could, but in vain.
Reasons of PM`s India tour postponement

GFMD summit begins today: Indian Minister Akbar likely to meet PM, FM to discuss bilateral issues, Teesta Treaty

Sagar Biswas :

The sudden postponement of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's India visit has triggered widespread speculation in the diplomatic circle as none of the Bangladesh Foreign Ministry and Indian External Affairs Ministry has explained the reason formally.

The new date is not announced yet. This will be the first tour to India by Sheikh Hasina after Narendra Modi came to power.

Foreign Ministry sources said Hasina apparently wanted to be sure about the signing of the Teesta Water Sharing Treaty, which is now at stake, during her visit.

Diplomatic sources said the death of Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalitha,

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's possible China visit, and the ongoing political crisis over demonetization were factors for the postponement of Hasina's India visit.

The Indian administration is now very busy with the above issues and for that reason, the Teesta Water Sharing Treaty could get less importance from the South Block, and Dhaka does not want to make it a sideline issue, the diplomatic sources said. Indian newspaper The Telegraph reported that, a clash in schedules of Modi and Hasina has made her postpone her visit till fresh dates can be mutually worked out, two Bangladeshi officials said.

"There is a particular reason why dates are not announced," Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup said. "Dates are not announced because the schedules have not yet matched." But Swarup suggested India was still hopeful of a visit by Hasina "as early as possible". The President of Tajikistan, Emamoli Rahmon, is now scheduled to visit from December 14-18. Rahmon will spend the first three days of his trip in Kerala before flying to New Delhi for talks with Modi.

The Indian Bengali daily Anandabazar quoting an official of Bangladesh High Commission reported that the tour was postponed because the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's schedule was pact due Victory Day.

Meanwhile, Indian State Minister for External Affairs Ministry M J Akbar is scheduled to arrive in Dhaka to attend the ninth summit of global forum on migration and development [GFMD] to be held at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre today [Saturday].

In the occasion, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is expected to give inaugural address while Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali will deliver welcome speech. Besides, Expatriate and Overseas Employment Minister Nurul Islam and LGRD Minister Khandker Mosarraf Hossain will be present there as distinguished guests.

Although, the Indian State Minister is in Dhaka to attend GFMD, his tour is getting high importance in the diplomatic circle against the backdrop of sudden postponement of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's planned India visit.

During his stay, M.J. Akabr is likely to meet PM Sheikh Hasina, Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali, PM's foreign adviser Gawher Rizvi and state minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam. There is widespread speculation that, the postponement of Hasina's India tour and some other bilateral issues, including Tessta Water Sharing Treaty, would get importance in their meetings. The chair of ninth GFMD civil society days Collin Raja will place the report on GFMD 2016 civil society and another report on GFMD business mechanism will be placed in today's GFMD summit.

In the second session, senior adviser, special representative of the UN Secretary General for international migration, Francois Fouinat, will deliver the speech. Besides, Lakshmi Puri, Deputy Executive Director, UN Women, representing the Chair of the Global Migration Group [GMG], Guy Ryder, Director General, International Labour Organization [ILO], Ambassador William Lacy Swing, Director General, International Organization for Migration (IOM) and Wu Hongbo, Under Secretary General, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, representing the Secretary General of the United Nations, will address the session.

In the plenary session, Foreign Secretary Md. Shahidul Haque, who is also Chair of GFMD 2016, will give welcome remarks. Besides, Secretary of Ministry for Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Begum Shamsun Nahar will address the session.

The Special Representative of UN Secretary-General (SRSG) for International Migration Justin MacDermott will place the keynote speech, according to sources.
Cyber Warfare:









The Japanese Ministry of Defense was hit with a serious cyber attack.





You can now rent a Mirai botnet of 400,000.









The Russians are



Saudi Arabia has been The Philippines is investing in cyber defenses.The Russians are claiming foreign spies are attacking its banks.Saudi Arabia has been cyber attacked , supposedly by Iran.





Cyber Security:









President-elect Trump's nominee for SecDef is advocating using analog systems to avoid hacking.





The IoT needs a lot more security.





A malicious video link can freeze IOS devices.





San Francisco's Muni was hacked and gave free rides.



Security flaws have been found in implantable medical devices.









The Wordpress autoupdate server had a flaw that allowed anyone to access any website in the world (using Wordpress) to do anything.





Cyber Espionage:













Shanghai Adups Technology's system , but now also includes the Ragentek Group Many inexpensive Android phones have been found to have a secret Trojan built into their firmware updating software. This provides data back to servers in China. Originally, it was just









Geofeedia laid off half its staff after losing its feeds from Twitter and Facebook.

















Cyber Crime:





Australia found their biggest software pirates were also their best purchasers of software.













Android malware was used to hack and steal a Tesla.





META:









Dronejacking might become a threat.
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It's a honky-tonk Christmas at the Grouse Room, plus other live music events over the weekend.

IND L!VE offers highlights of the many live music events taking place around Acadiana this weekend.

ERIC LINDELL

Friday, Dec. 9

Blue Moon Saloon

Doors: 9 p.m.

Eric Lindell is accomplished on guitar, harmonica, keyboards and bass, and has performed with many of the Crescent City's top musicians since bursting on the scene in 2005, when he first appeared at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.

NOUVEAU STRING BAND

Friday, Dec. 9

Joie de Vivre Cafe

Doors: 6:30 p.m.

Come join NSB at their favorite venue Joie de Vivre Cultural Center in Breaux Bridge tomorrow night from 6:30 - 9:30 p.m. Great food, drinks and live music by NSB.

PLANET MANHOOD + NEAT + PUDGE + US WEEKLY

Friday, Dec. 9

Rukus Boardsports

Doors: 7:30 p.m.

Cloudheavy presents a lesson in rock for the last day of school, a study on shred and a masterclass regarding the perfect waveform.

TED HEFKO AND THE THOUSANDAIRES + INSPIRACY THEORY + THE GOOD DUDES

Friday, Dec. 9

Poets

Doors: 10 p.m.

Admission: $5

Poets welcomes Ted Hefko And The Thousandaires with Inspiracy Theory and The Good Dudes to its stage this Friday night.

TINNAROSE +BEN MILLBURN + SHRUGS

Friday, Dec. 9

Artmosphere Bistro

Doors: 9 p.m.

Tinnarose will be performing at the Artmosphere next Friday December 9th. The band has been touring the country promoting their newest album "My Pleasure Has Returned" out on Nine Mile Records (ATX).

BOOM BOOM BURLESQUE & LAFAYETTE COMEDY'S TITS AND GIGGLES

Saturday, Dec. 10

Feed & Seed

Doors: 10 p.m.

Boom Boom Burlesque and Lafayette Comedy are proud to present a collaborative show of comedy and burlesque that's sure to split your sides, spread your thighs, and leave you wanting more.

BURRIS + DUSTIN GASPARD

Saturday, Dec. 10

Artmosphere Bistro

Doors: 9 p.m.

Join Burris and Dustin Gaspard at Artmosphere Bistro in celebration of the holidays.

MAYRUNNER + THE LINKS + THE QUINTESSENTIAL ODDITIES

Saturday, Dec. 10

Poets

Doors: 9 p.m.

Come out to POETS on Saturday Dec 10 for a night of beautiful noise, drinks and views.

RODDIE ROMERO AND THE HUB CITY ALL STARS

Saturday, Dec. 10

Blue Moon Saloon

Doors: 10 p.m.

Roddie Romero & the Hub City All Stars are a GRAMMY nominated band featuring "Louisiana Roots" music.

STOP THE CLOCK

Sunday, Dec. 11

Feed & Seed

Doors: 6 p.m.

Stop the Clock Cowboy Jazz band plays classic Western Swing tunes from Bob Wills, Cindy Walker, Spade Cooley, Fats Waller, Hank Thompson, Ray Price and Patsy Cline, among others.
American Traffic Solutions, a Mesa, Ariz.-based company providing a range of services including fleet management and electronic traffic enforcement, is wooing officials with Lafayette Consolidated Government in an effort to wrest away the SafeSpeed/SafeLight contract currently held by Redflex, according to a source close to LCG.

Michot

That source says meetings between ATS representatives and elected officials and others within LCG have been ongoing this week, brokered by former state Sen. Mike Michot, who is a lobbyist with The Picard Group. Michot has close ties to Mayor Joel Robideaux going back beyond their concurrent terms in the Louisiana Legislature where Robideaux served three terms as a state representative before being term-limited and successfully seeking the top elected post in Lafayette Parish. Michot served as Robideauxs transition chief leading into his swearing-in as mayor last January.

According to our source, dissatisfaction with Redflex, the current contract holder, is driving consideration of switching vendors to administer the citys traffic light and speed van program. More than $12 million in uncollected fines is the main point of contention. The city pays nothing for the program: Redflex owns the cameras, operates the program and administers the issuance and collection of fines, and gets 40 percent of fines collected; LCG gets the rest. The most recent media reports, from May of this year when the City-Parish Council voted to extend Redflexs contract with LCG by one year  that contract expires in June 2017  indicated that LCG in 2015 received $1 million in SafeSpeed fine revenue, which by law is dedicated to the Lafayette Police Department.

The contract for SafeSpeed/SafeLight is a so-called professional services contract, so LCG is not required to put it out for bid, although our source says local government will likely issue a request for proposals from vendors and that Redflex will be welcome to compete for the next contract.

Redflex has to come in and not only convince the city that it can do a better job than the competitors, but a better job overall than its been doing, our source says. This goes back to collections; there are millions of dollars left on the table.
What was expected to be a graceful dance to Washington for Scott Angelle has been upended by Clay Higgins' upstart campaign in an election cycle favoring outsiders.

Photo Illustration

The two Republican candidates in the tight runoff for the Acadiana-based 3rd District seat, Scott Angelle and Clay Higgins, have accused each other of lying and disparaged each other's records.

Angelle, a member of the Public Service Commission and third-place finisher in last year's governor's race, entered the race as the presumed front-runner. He's been a political figure for nearly 30 years, first in St. Martin Parish and later in the administrations of former Govs. Kathleen Blanco and Bobby Jindal.

But what was expected to be an easy waltz to Washington for Angelle has been upended by Higgins' upstart campaign in an election cycle favoring outsiders.

Higgins, a former St. Landry Parish sheriff's captain dubbed the "Cajun John Wayne," ran only 3 percentage points behind Angelle in the November primary, despite having little campaign organization and a fraction of Angelle's money.

It's been a blistering campaign since then.

Higgins, now a reserve deputy marshal in Lafayette, is a local celebrity because of his attention-grabbing Crime Stoppers videos with the sheriff's office, in which he mocked those suspected of crimes. He's running on his personality  and on a singular message, to drive out "the entrenched, machine-driven millionaire career politicians." He considers Angelle one of them.

"My campaign represents a real challenge to these people, working-class guy with no money, no machine, no experience," Higgins said. "There's no way we're supposed to be allowed into that elitist club of rulers, especially when we're facing one that's been established for so long."

He talks of reining in the "fourth branch of government," bureaucracies he says "devour the people's wealth and power." He describes in biblical terms a need "to save our country."

Angelle, who didn't agree to an interview, has pushed himself as a defender of oil and gas, one of the district's largest industries. He's described his lifetime in taxpayer-financed offices as valuable public service, not career politics. He's calling himself a "Washington outsider."

His campaign describes Angelle as "fighting for Louisiana his entire life" and says he wouldn't need "on-the-job training" like Higgins. Angelle's campaign notes that Higgins lives outside the congressional district and says Higgins "has been caught illegally using public resources to make money under the table for himself."

Higgins left the sheriff's office in a disagreement over the outsized rhetoric and concerns that Higgins was violating office policy with the mugs, T-shirts and other "Captain Higgins" items he sold. Lafayette media have reported allegations that Higgins threatened his first wife and hasn't paid child support. Angelle's campaign has circulated the claims.

Higgins says the allegations are lies, blaming an ugly divorce. To Angelle's criticisms, he says: "That's what millionaire career politicians do. They attack anybody that gets in their way."

A pro-Higgins PAC accused Angelle of supporting Hillary Clinton for president and using political offices to enrich his family. In an ad saying he voted for Donald Trump, Angelle says he's being hit "by the corrupt Washington establishment and their lies."
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Details have yet to be released regarding a Saturday incident in Sesser.

Witnesses reported both a local and state police presence at the scene on Locust Street. Sesser Mayor Jason Ashmore confirmed that a man died, but reported there was no murder.

"A young man was found deceased and we are handling it as we would handle any death in this situation," Ashmore said in a statement to The Southern. "At this time and until autopsy results are back indicating otherwise, there is no indication there is a homicide."

Sesser Chief of Police Ryan White said he wanted to be sure the investigation was as thorough as possible. White said the state police have more resources than his office does in this regard.

Several calls and messages to the Franklin County Coroners office and Illinois State Police went unanswered.

 Isaac Smith

Editor's Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the Illinois State Police classified the death as a homicide.
CRAINVILLE  Denise Fann, owner and designer of Deloufleur Decor and Designs, says people just want a little guidance and nice home furnishings that are different and unique.

Fann believes the new home for Deloufleur can help. Deloufleurs new building, just south of Illinois 13 at Crainville, is 6,400 square feet, triple the size of its former location at 1615 Landing Drive, next to Mr. Tuxedo and Bridal.

Plus, the new location also has greater visibility and is easier to find because it is closer to Illinois 13.

Fann is not the only one excited about the new store. Crainville Mayor Ron Mitchell is, too, because the project is the first in Crainvilles TIF district.

The TIF district (Tax Increment Financing) runs from Main Street to Wolf Creek Road and covers a mile and a half of area on both the north and south sides of Illinois 13. Mitchell said it has been in place for nearly five years.

Im really excited about the potential for Crainville, Mitchell said.

Fann said they are still doing some fine tuning, but the floor is set. She believes people will notice a difference when they walk through the door.

Its really just unique and amazing, Fann. Its not like walking into a store and seeing a row of a recliners.

The showroom floor features furniture groupings in individual room designs. There are design groups for living rooms, bedrooms and dining rooms. Each furniture group has complimentary accessories and lamps. They also have some unique items. For example, some of the side tables plug in and have electrical outlets for lamps and chargers concealed in a hidden compartment or have night lights built in the bottom.

The store is carrying a variety of high quality furniture lines, including Stearns and Foster mattresses. Fann said they are trying to recreate what customers want in their homes.

Its been 2 1/2 years since I left Coleman-Rhodes, and it has taken that time to recoup some of lines, Fann said. And, I was awarded and added on some specialized lines that not everyone gets.

In 2013, Fann and home furnishings consultant Sandy Clark found themselves unemployed after their longtime employers decided to retire and close their West Frankfort furniture store. Fann had worked as a buyer, decorator and designer for the store.

Fann told The Southern in July that the furniture business was all they knew. So, she started a new business with not much more than a card table and a notebook.

The new space accommodate those new lines and includes a design center and warehouse.

Fann said a few things need to be finished. Doors still need to be hung on the offices and a huge sign installed on the side of the building, but most of the work is completed. Clark was working on hanging art on Wednesday.

Its a beautiful facility, Mitchell said. Im very happy for Denise and John both.

He said it will generate tax dollars for Crainville.

The Wolf Creek Road overpass is scheduled to be completed by spring 2017, and Mitchell expects others to take advantage of the TIF district.

I think once it is finished, we will see such things be prolific," Mitchell said, "by that I mean new businesses in the area."

A grand opening is planned for 1 to 9 p.m. Sunday at the store. For more information, call Deloufleur at 618-985-3355.
The Southern Illinois University Board of Trustees on Thursday extended the employment contract of President Randy Dunn through June 30, 2022.

Board approval came during a regular meeting on the Carbondale campus. The extension does not change Dunns annual salary or benefits, and the contract does not include incentives or bonuses. It includes a provision that would allow the Board of Trustees to sever its employment relationship with Dunn without cause prior to the end of the contract.

Dunn, 58, became the SIU Systems eighth president on July 1, 2014. He is no stranger to SIU, having served as a professor and administrator in the College of Education and Human Services on the Carbondale campus from 1995 to 2004. He left the university to become Illinois state superintendent of education. Dunn served as president at two other universities before returning to SIU in 2014.

I appreciate the Board of Trustees confidence, as well as its leadership of our system, Dunn said. I look forward to continuing our important work as we navigate this very challenging period in our universitys history.

 SIU Media Services
A Democratic member of the Illinois House (Will Guzzardi) now wants a law (HB 6628) that prevents the state from contracting with, or the state pension fund from investing in, any company that would have anything to do with building the wall between the U.S. and Mexico. So were now going to invest the Illinois taxpayers dollars and play with our retirees pensions based on politics rather than sound economic investment principles? One way or the other, this is likely to cost Illinois taxpayers money because if the pension funds cant get the best bang from the bucks they invest, guess who has to pick up the difference? We do!
Thumbs down to the leaders in Springfield and the ongoing budget impasse. On Wednesday, Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner announced that he wants Democratic leaders to present him a budget proposal to end an 18-month stalemate before meeting again for another round of negotiations. Lance Trover, the deputy chief of staff to Rauner, released a statement saying, The Governor and Republican leaders remain ready to negotiate on a balanced budget with reforms to grow jobs, lower property taxes, improve schools and implement term limits. However, Democratic leaders continue to discuss internally whether they are prepared to present a budget proposal, so we will schedule the next Four Leaders meeting when we receive confirmation that they are ready. Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan spokesman Steve Brown said Rauner should be the one presenting a budget. Enough already. Its time to put bickering and agendas aside and get something done. Our state  its people and services  deserves better.

Thumbs down to the situation that the Jackson County Health Department is in. According to administrator Miriam Link-Mullison, the department is operating on one of its smallest budgets and staffs in about a decade. The department has been receiving funding from the state's stopgap budget, but still has to be cautious because the state is still working without a budget (see above). The impact (of having no budget) is that we are downsized in terms of the number of employees, and we are downsized in terms of the number of hours of the work week, she said. We are moving forward in providing services to the community, and we are waiting for the state to do the responsible thing and pass an on-going budget. In August 2008, the Health Department had 56 employees. Now, it has 46. It also had to drop five programs: a family planning program that made birth control available; inspections of tanning salons; inspections of body-art establishments, like tattoo parlors; a genetics program that provided genetic diagnostic services; and HIV screening for returning parolees. This cannot continue to happen.

Thumbs up to Jimmy Dean and his retirement in the Williamson County States Attorneys office. Dean retired this week after 32 years in Williamson County. "He has been a fixture and asset to this office for more than 30 years starting with Chuck Garnati, and staying on with me, and its just been great," said Williamson County States Attorney Brandon Zanotti in a story this week. "He has always been the go-to person in the courthouse and he's going to be missed." He will be missed, but at least hes not gone. He still plans to continue his hobbies, which include working as a referee, broadcasting on the radio and writing columns. Theres going to be a pretty big pair of shoes to fill in Williamson County.

Thumbs up to Neha Arun, a sophomore at Carterville High School, who is on the Illinois State Board of Educations Student Advisory Council. Arun said in a story this week that she has always been interested in education reform and wanted to be a part of changing her own school for the better. She is on the board with 15 other students in Illinois, and the board selects a topic each year to research and present to the State Board of Education. Previous topics have included best practices for recognizing vocational education, grading scales for school districts, the effects of cyber bullying, the effects of mandatory physical education on high school students and district budgets and the dropout crisis. Thats the kind of input that is important to the state, and could go a long way in improving our states schools.

Thumbs up to Marion Blumenthal Lazan, a Holocaust survivor who told her story this week in Southern Illinois. She spoke Monday evening at Anna Arts Center to a full house, telling the crowd the fact they attended is an indication that they are concerned and involved. Lazan and her family fled Germany for Holland in 1939. They ended up in Westerbork, a refugee camp run by the Dutch government. While they waited, the Nazis invaded Holland, and took control of the camp. All four members of her family did survive, but her father had contracted typhus and died about six weeks after liberation. Now shes out telling her story, and we commend her for it. It needs to be told. And we encourage everyone to listen.
And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick.  Luke 9:2.

The members of Orangeburg Lutheran Church have effectively bound the spirits of love and giving together with a mission project designed to create bandages for hospitals in underdeveloped nations.

Global Health Ministries is a Minneapolis, Minnesota-based volunteer, nonprofit organization that ships medical equipment and supplies all over the world to support Lutheran healthcare systems.

Whether equipping new or expanded health facilities with ultrasound or x-ray machines, or supplementing a mission hospitals basic supplies, the GHMs shipments help make healthcare accessible for some of the worlds most vulnerable people.

OLC pastor the Rev. James Vigen said he and his wife had served as missionaries on the island of Madagascar for several years. They had worked there with the Malagasy Lutheran Church, whose medical ministry served hospitals that were in need of basic supplies such as bandages.

On a return trip to the United States, Vigen and his wife shared the information about the global mission with the members of Christ the King Lutheran Church in Cary, North Carolina. It was the home church of Vigen's mother-in-law, Betty, who passed away about a year and a half ago.

Vigen said Betty and members of her church soon got on board with making bandages and formed a group that called themselves the Holy Rollers.

GHM made making the bandages somewhat easy with the creation of a simple rolling machine made from scrap wood and a coat hanger. The coat hanger is configured into both a crank and a space where cotton sheet strips are threaded before being rolled into a tidy bandage that is ultimately held together by a small piece of tape.

Vigen said sheets must be at least 60 percent cotton. They are torn into strips to fit into the machines design, he said.

We mail the bandages off to the headquarters of Global Health Ministries and then they ship them in ocean-going containers together with lots of other important things, Vigen said.

He said local hotels/motels have already donated sheets to the churchs effort. Vigen said church members have also provided tremendous support for the project, including Carol Livingston, who serves as activities director at Longwood Plantation in Orangeburg.

She has some of her residents at the adult day care center working on the bandages, too, Livingston said.

I have several little ladies that roll bandages. Its just a nice opportunity for them to give to somebody else. We do different things throughout the year. It looked like something we would be able to do and that they might enjoy doing, she said.

One of the ladies thats involved in it has a daughter who goes with her church on mission trips to different areas, so she was real excited about it. It was something she could do, Livingston said.

Vigen said the one of the churchs women's circles also makes bandages, with other members like Mel Baltzegar creating their own machines to support the effort.

He said many members, including Orangeburg couple Ernie and Lib Neumeister and Jewel Culler, work on the bandages at home, Culler, who is home bound, said she enjoys being able to work from home at her own pace.

I just think its a good thing for us to be doing through the church. Weve done other projects, but none quite like this. Every little bit counts," she said. "Pastor Vigen was a missionary and knows the need. Its just something good to do for Third World countries. There are so many things that were used to, but they dont have access to much."

Lib Neumeister said, We chose to do it because it was obviously a project offered by our church and were always interested in supporting missions, hospitals and things like that, especially for countries that cant afford the bandages and so forth.

Theres so many things wrong with the world, and its nice to be able to feel like you can do some good for others. I think its nice the way the program has spread.

Vigen said GHM decided to name its outreach mission Bettys Bandages in honor of his late mother-in-law, who supported the volunteer project for 30 years.

People like it because youre not just saying, Give me money. Were asking that you give a little bit of your time to do something to help somebody else. Its been going great. People have donated sheets, and the project just kind of runs itself, he said.

For more information on Bettys Bandages and how to support the mission, contact Orangeburg Lutheran Church at 803-534-1192 or olc610@bellsouth.net.
In one of the more bizarre twists in this incredibly bizarre year, Donald Trump now questions the legitimacy of ballots cast in an election that he won.

Faced with a recount in Michigan that he opposes, but that is almost certain to confirm his victory, Trump has once again taken to Twitter to rail about a "rigged" system -- though apparently it's rigged only in the states he lost.

What he really seems to be responding to is the fact that, though he is the president-elect, Hillary Clinton bested him by more than 2 million votes in the popular tally. That fact has Democrats responding as well, arguing that the Electoral College system should, as Sen. Barbara Boxer proposes, be abolished, or as Sen. Bernie Sanders proposes, be re-examined.

We beg to differ.

Suppose presidential candidates engaged in a national election instead of one focused on the outcome in each state: The airwaves would be even more inundated with ads in a campaign waged almost entirely in the media. As it is now, candidates have to learn about and respond to what's going on in the vastly diverse states of the nation, and in their vastly diverse populations.

It's no accident that the last time Congress debated abolishing the Electoral College, after the nail-biter 1968 election, some of the strongest voices of opposition came from the few African-American House members and from Jewish organizations lobbying from the outside. Though Jews make up only 2 percent of the American population, an insignificant number on a nationwide ballot, the number climbs to 5 percent in all-important Florida -- enough to swing the state.

That story is replicated in state after state with different groups. African-Americans might be only 13 percent of the population, but their votes gave Barack Obama his 2012 margin of victory in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Michigan. Georgia, now considered solidly Republican, might soon be in play because of the 29 percent of the voters there who are black.

The growing political clout of Latinos has been much heralded, but they are still only 12 percent of eligible voters nationwide. It's their strength in states like Nevada and Colorado that made them a force to be reckoned with in this election, a force that could turn Arizona and Texas from red to purple the next time around.

That fluidity is another characteristic of the Electoral College system. Battleground states in one or two campaign cycles can become safe states for one party or the other in later contests.

Look at bright-blue California -- it voted Democratic only once between 1952 and 1988. Or vivid-red West Virginia, which was one of the handful of states to go for the Democratic nominee in 1980 and 1988. And Hillary Clinton's solid "blue wall" crumbled this time around. The ups and downs of the system are such that both parties have, at different times, been alleged to hold an "Electoral College lock."

It's because of the Electoral College that shifting demographics result in shifting outcomes. It's the ultimate defense against the "tyranny of the majority" that the Founders feared. Designed to protect small states against domination by large ones, it has come to protect smaller population groups from larger ones.

That's not just true in terms of people, it's also true in terms of policy. Had the 2016 campaign been waged only in the densely populated coastal states that can determine the popular vote, would the aggrieved voices of the out-of-work and out-of-sorts voters of the rust belt been heard? Donald Trump is right that he paid attention to their pain while Hillary Clinton took those voters for granted, ignoring them while focusing on turning out minorities and young people.

In 2000, when Al Gore won the popular vote but lost the election, then-senator-elect Clinton called for the abolition of the Electoral College, adding: "We are a very different country than we were 200 years ago." That's certainly true. But it's also true that as Alexander Hamilton wrote then of the system devised to choose a president, "If the manner of it be not perfect, it is at least excellent ... It was also particularly desirable to afford as little opportunity as possible to tumult and disorder."

This year we've had enough tumult and disorder. We don't need to tinker with the method of electing our presidents to give us more, even if the winner calls it a "rigged system."
COLUMBIA -- If you thought Donald Trump was the face of America's anti-establishment movement, hold on to your chapeaus: A wild wind is rising.

Want to know what's more anti-establishment than a president-elect who refuses to play by the rules? How about similarly spirited electors going AWOL and sending someone else to the Oval Office?

Could it happen? Might.

A movement headed by a mostly Democratic group calling itself Hamilton Electors is trying to convince Republican electors to defect -- not to cede the election to Hillary Clinton but to join with Democrats in selecting a compromise candidate, such as Mitt Romney or John Kasich. It wouldn't be that hard to do.

Mathematically, only 37 of Trump's 306 electors are needed to bring his number down to 269, one less than the 270 needed to secure the presidency.

On the Hamilton Electors' Facebook page, elector Bret Chiafalo, a Democrat from Washington, explains the purpose of the Electoral College. If you haven't previously been a fan of the electoral system, you might become one.

Bottom line: The Founding Fathers didn't fully trust democracy, fearing mob rule, and so created a republic. They correctly worried that a pure democracy could result in the election of a demagogue (ahem), or a charismatic autocrat (ahem), or someone under foreign influence (ditto), hence the rule that a president must have been born in the U.S. We know how seriously Trump takes the latter.

Most important among the founders' criteria for a president was that he (or now she) be qualified. Thus, the Electoral College was created as a braking system that would, if necessary, save the country from an individual such as, frankly, Trump.

It is worth noting that 50 former Republican national security officials and foreign policy experts co-signed a letter saying that Trump would be a "dangerous president." Do we simply ignore them?

At least one Republican elector, Christopher Suprun, has decided to pay heed. In an op-ed in Tuesday's New York Times, Suprun, a paramedic in Texas, outlined all his reasons for not rubber-stamping Trump, saying that he owes a debt not to his party but to his children. He urged others to join him.

This, apparently, they can do, though some states may impose penalties. Hamilton Electors are raising funds to pay any such costs that may accrue.

Alexander Hamilton, suddenly a star both on Broadway and Main Street, wrote that the Electoral College "affords a moral certainty that the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications."

Electors would prevent the "tumult and disorder" that would result from the candidate's exploiting "talents for low intrigue, and the little arts of popularity." Speaking of Trump. How wise our founders were. And how unwise are we to pay so little attention to their far-keener insights.

It is, perhaps, a sign of these upside-down times that Democrats, usually preferring the popular vote, are suddenly genuflecting to the Electoral College and Republicans, who so often defer to the founders' original intent, shift principle so swiftly, presumably in hopes of taking the ultimate escalator ride in the golden palace of King Trump. Tut-tut.

Meanwhile, those on both sides who remain opposed to Trump are dismissed as either sorry losers or as dining on crow and sour grapes. But the stakes are too high -- and the evidence of Trump's presidential aptitude deficit too severe -- for such trivializing designations. His demonstrated lack of judgment and impulse control should send shivers down the spines of all Americans in consideration of the nuclear arsenal he is poised to have at his fingertips.

That's not all of it, but it's enough. Without consulting advisers or "sleeping on it," for which he is not known, Trump can authorize a nuke upon the slightest provocation -- or none. All previous presidents have had the same authority, of course, but all have also been experienced statesmen, nary a reality-show celebrity (nor snake-oil salesman) among them.

Trump's friends have told me they're confident he'll solemnly respect the burden of such power, but nothing thus far justifies their faith. After his election win, Trump hasn't much bothered himself with intelligence briefings. He ignored 37 years of diplomatic precedent by chatting with the president of Taiwan, upsetting China. He spoke like an inarticulate ninth-grader with Pakistan's prime minister, according to that country's readout. Trump apparently told the prime minister that he's a "terrific guy" doing "amazing work" and that Trump is "ready and willing to play any role that you want me to play to address and find solutions to the outstanding problems." Oh, really? Which ones?

Electors are scheduled to meet Dec. 19 in their respective states to cast their final ballots. If there are 37 Republicans among them with the courage to perform their moral duty and protect the nation from a talented but dangerous president-elect, a new history of heroism will have to be written.

Please, be brave.
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Deputy Commissioner of Police Colin John said that the police wanted to have a watertight case with respect to the matter of four recent killings here.

Up to press time Wednesday, police were awaiting additional evidence in relation to three of four brutal killings, which occurred here within a few hours between November 13 and 14 this year.





Deputy Commissioner of Police Colin John made the disclosure while speaking to THE VINCENTIAN on Tuesday, hours after 18-year-old Jurani Baptiste of Sandy Bay appeared at the Kingstown Magistrates Court charged in connection with one of those homicides.





John was performing the duties of Commissioner in the absence of Commissioner of Police Renold Hadaway who was out of the state.





Baptiste has been charged with murder stemming from the death of Pamela Williams, a 59-year-old retired nurse of Kingstown Park, who suffered stab wounds and blunt trauma injuries to her head, after allegedly being attacked at her Kingstown Park home around 1 a.m. on November 14.

Williams face was smashed, and a stone met on her body.





Baptiste had sustained injuries to his left foot reportedly during an encounter with residents from the area, who had reportedly responded to screams coming from Williams home. As a result, he had to be warded at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital, under police guard.





The teenager was discharged from the hospital last Friday, December 2. He was then taken to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) at the Central Police Station, where he was interviewed. He was charged on Sunday.





Baptiste was not required to plea to the indictable charge when he appeared before Magistrate Bertie Pompey at the Kingstown Magistrates Court on Monday, as the Serious Offences Court was not sitting. He was remanded.





Continued on Page 3.








Jurani Baptiste, the teenager charged with the death of Pamela Williams, has been advised to direct his concern about medical attention for him to Prison authorities.





Bertie Pompey, presiding at the Kingstown Magistrate Court last Monday, directed Baptiste to complain to the Superintendent of Prisons.





"Prison authorities will attend to that, Pompey stated in response to Baptiste.

He was not required to plea to the charge of murdering retired nurse Pamela Williams at Kingstown Park, on November 14, 2016.





Prosecutor Sergeant Elgin Richards asked that the matter be transferred to the Serious Offences Court.

Pompey set Baptistes next date with the court as December 12.





Eighteen-year-old Baptiste hobbled to court, supported by a female and a male Police officer. His left leg were in plaster, and there was signs of recently healed wounds to his head.





Baptistes voice sounded in good order, from his question to the Magistrate. No lawyer acted on his behalf, and he made his departure from the dock as quickly as he appeared.





The Sandy Bay born youth surfaced as a person of interest following a bizarre weekend - November 13 - 14, in which four persons, including Williams, died in a spate of horrific occurrences.





The others who perished in that spate were Nicholas Layne of Edinboro who met his death in Campden Park, and Avis Israel and her son Ronald, who were bludgeoned to death at their home in Old Montrose.
Susan Charles and Chantelle Soleyn, both second year students at the University of the West Indies (UWI) Open Campus, were the first set of students to receive financial assistance from the East Caribbean Group of Companies (ECGC) Foundation Incorporated.





Charles, who is pursuing a Bachelor of Science (BSc) Degree in Social Work and Soleyn, who is pursuing a BSc in Management Studies at the UWI Open Campus, each received an amount totaling EC$5,000.

And according to Phyllis James, Human Resource Manager at ECGC and Secretary of the ECGC Foundation Inc., the Foundation was started in May 2015 and is aimed at enhancing opportunities for education, health care and the welfare of needy children, and is tasked with managing the companys charitable offerings.





She further explained that in addition to the bursaries granted to students enrolled at the UWI Open Campus., financial assistance was also being extended to students at the Division of Technical and Vocational Studies at the St Vincent and the Grenadines Community College, who are pursuing studies in the areas of engineering, agricultural science and business studies.





This year, eight students at the Technical and Vocational Division received scholarships covering their two-year programmes.





"The amount may seem small, comparative with the total cost of the programme, nonetheless, as an organization, we recognize the hardship being borne by many of our students, and as such have decided to stretch the reach to assist as many students as we possibly can, James said.





Monica Browne, Programme Officer at the Open Campus, explained the criteria, saying that the bursary recipients were selected on the basis of their academic performance, which required that they maintained at least a 3.0 Grade Point Average; and that they had to have already completed one year, or covered at least five courses. (DD)
By today, Friday 9th December, 2016, staff and patients would have been well into the process of returning to the Mental Health Rehabilitation Centre at Glen, following an official re-opening last Tuesday, December 6, of that facility.





Staff and patients were housed in temporary quarters at Orange Hill, while refurbishment work was undertaken at the close to 78-year-old facility at Glen.





Addressing the re-opening ceremony, Minister of Health and Wellness  Luke Browne, said that the Glen facility had fallen into disrepair.





Refurbishment work which began in October, 2014, included the construction of a new roof, plumbing and electrical work, the installation of new shutters and windows, the construction of seclusion rooms, some external works and upgrades to the staff, kitchen and laundry areas.





The cost of the project was estimated at EC$4 million, and was made possible through funding from the 10th European Development Fund (EDF).





"From all reports, the Centre is now in supreme condition, Minister Browne said, adding that the facility marked the beginning of a new era in health care in St Vincent and the Grenadines.





While the refurbishment of the facility was necessary, Browne pointed to the new age of mental health care, which entailed the the need for strengthening and developing mental health services at the community level.

"We must, out of necessity, increase outpatient coverage for mental health .and more fully integrate a mental health component in primary health care, he said.

There was also the need to create communities that were supportive of the mental wellbeing of those suffering from mental health issues, Browne stressed.





Diana Bailey, Senior Nursing Officer at the facility said that the opening marked the beginning of a new journey.

"The Ministry of Health, Wellness and the Environment is working very hard to improve mental health services in St Vincent and the Grenadines, she assured.





Minister of Economic Planning, Camillo Gonsalves, through whose office monies from the EDF came, also addressed the ceremony, saying, " we have built this, not only because it was necessary, but to indicate very strongly that we do not hold the view that people who suffer from mental illnesses are in any way less than people who suffer from other illnesses.





He cautioned that "The facility is only one part of the equation; there are issues to deal with staffing, education, continuing care, supervision of those who do not have to be institutionalized, but may suffer from mental health issues.





The refurbished facility will cater to 200 patients - 150 men and 50 women. (DD)
The team takes a break at Barrouallie. (Inset): Mark Sardine is bent on extending himself on behalf of worthy causes.

The weather conditions may not have allowed for a trek by kayak to the Grenadine Island of Mustique, but the hearts of the members of Team X prevailed, and instead, they made a 24-mile journey along the west coast of mainland St Vincent, from Prospect to Chateaubelair then returning to Mount Wynne.





It was all done for a worthy cause  to raise awareness about the conditions at the Lewis Punnett Home in Glen.

And it was a first for the members of the team to have journeyed such a distance on kayak, including leader Mark Sardine.





But it was not done in vain.

Sardine announced that he was up to the challenge, and that the trip would be followed by an event scheduled to take place in January 2017.





They encountered some issues, with one of the kayaks developing a leak, so severe that the members had to head to shore in Kingstown.





But for the others, it was a memorable occasion.

"The birds were following us, the turtles came up, and at Chateau, the wind and the water usually make the conditions a little tough, Sardine explained.

However, the conditions last Saturday made it good for some smooth sailing. Regarding the cause, Sardine told THE VINCENTIAN that he was making a request to the government to install heating, so the residents at the Lewis Punnett Home will no longer have to put up with the cold showers.





He mentioned this as one of the problems at the facility, saying that he was told that one can often hear the screams as residents take their daily showers.





The auto-body mechanic/philanthropist also stated that he is planning two events that will take place next year, in order to be able to donate supplies to the home.





He did not disclose any details, saying that the idea was just now in the developmental stage.

Sardine also mentioned a more immediate undertaking, i.e. his doing something for the people of Sandy Bay who were affected by the passage of the trough system on November 29.





On that venture, Sardine says that he intends to kayak 19 miles for the people of Sandy Bay.

"I am 100 percent ready to get back on my kayak and do 19 after doing 24, Sardine said.

For this project, he intends to team up with a few other partners including the National Emergency Management Organisation (NEMO) and the media.





Following the most recent task, Sardine thanked the many sponsors and the members of Team X, adding that he did not want anything in return, but only to stand up for his country. (DD)
Urcelle Jones of Mt. Bentick, Georgetown, is a confused and irate woman.





Her state of confusion, she claims, is not of her own making.





The middle-aged woman turned up at the E. T. Joshua airport on Friday 11th November, on time and with every intention of taking non-stop LIAT Flight #771 to Barbados, departing SVG at 10:20am and arriving in Barbados at 11:00am.





She had left home at 6:00 that morning, braving the inclement weather to ensure her timely arrival at the airport, with every expectation of travelling to Barbados to attend her aunts funeral.

As has been the case for some time now with a number of scheduled LIAT flights in and out of SVG, Jones flight, #771, was delayed.





In fact, Ms. Jones did not leave the E.T. Joshua until well into the evening, though she was now placed on LIAT flight #638 which headed for Trinidad. Whatever she was told, she was under the impression that LIAT was going to get her to her intended destination, Barbados.





A Nightmare





Trinidad proved a nightmare for Jones. She was refused entry into that country and detained, the immigration authorities there refusing to accept her Travel Permit, issued by the SVG Passport and Immigration Dept., on July 01, 2016 with allowed use until June 30, 2018, as a valid travel document.





THE VINCENTIAN confirmed that the Trinidad and Tobago authorities had notified this country some four months ago that they would no longer be accepting Travel Permits as valid documentation to allow entry into that country.





Jones was served with an official Rejection Order by the Trinidad authorities, an order which she said she did not understand nor was it explained to her.





She claimed not to have signed the Order as required, but it clearly shows her name signed in that area designated for the signature of the Rejectee.





(THE VINCENTIAN was able to compare Jones signature which appears on her Travel Permit and that which appears on the Rejection Order. They do not show any resemblance.)

All of this transpired during the early hours of Saturday morning.





The confused woman was next taken under guard to a place of detention, not in any way the hotel accommodation that she was expecting, as per indication from the authorities. In fact, the room to which she was assigned had "bars that look like a prison, she described.





Jones was kept in detention until 11:10am Saturday 12th November, during which time all she had to consume was a bottle of water which, "they throw at me when I ask for it, she said.





She was taken, under guard, to the LIAT counter at Piarco airport. The authorities, it appeared to Jones, intended to "send me back to St. Vincent.





This was the first contact Jones was having with any LIAT representative since her boarding at the E, Joshua airport the day before.





Better judgement prevailed, and Jones was assured by LIAT that she would be allowed to travel to Barbados. She left for Barbados at 6:00pm on Saturday 12th November, a full day and more after her originally booked, scheduled, and paid for departure from St. Vincent.





Jones, after much worry, unexpected treatment of the worst kind, not to mention inconvenience, was able to attend her aunts funeral. She returned from Barbados as scheduled on Thursday 1st December, 2016.





Questions abound





A self-professed simple woman with not as much exposure as others, Jones is adamant that LIAT owes her an apology; for had her originally scheduled flight not been delayed, she would never have had to endure the embarrassment she did at the hands of Immigration and Security authorities in Trinidad.

She also demands an explanation from the Trinidad auithotites with respect to the grounds on which she was deported since, as far as she was concerned, she committed no crime either in St. Vincent far less Trinidad. She intends to appeal the rejection order.





Meanwhile, questions abound, not least being whether or not, the LIAT representatives or the Immigration officials at the E. T. Joshua airport informed Jones about the bar on SVG Travel Permits by Trinidad and Tobago.





How could LIAT and Immigration officials, fully aware of the Trinidad and Tobago position, allow a person to travel to Trinidad, on an invalid travel document?

Would these entities stand with Jones in her intended appeal against the Rejection Order imposed on her by the Trinidad and Tobago authorities?
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By Azernews





By Rashid Shirinov

The railway agencies of Azerbaijan and Russia discussed a number of issues, including Azerbaijans proposal to carry goods at reduced rates through the Samur-Yalama checkpoint.

Azerbaijan Railways reported that the issues were discussed at the meeting between Head of Azerbaijan Railways JSC Javid Gurbanov and President of Russian Railways JSC Oleg Belozerov in Moscow.

Moreover, the sides talked about the work carried out by Azerbaijan in the framework of the project on the North-South International Transport Corridor, the project of construction of Astara-Rasht railway in Iran, as well as attraction of additional freight to the "North-South."

Gurbanov informed about realization of the North-South project, noting that final work on construction of the railway bridge across the river Astarachay on the border with Iran are currently under way.

Belozerov, in turn, praised the work carried out by Azerbaijan on the project, and noted the importance of mobilizing all efforts to attract cargo on this route.

The International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) will connect Northern Europe with Southeastern Asia, as well as link railways of Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia. The corridor is planned to transport 6 million tons of cargo per year at the initial stage and 15-20 million tons of cargo in the future.

The corridor is expected to bring huge benefits to the Azerbaijani budget. The route enjoys several advantages compared to other transport corridors, as it is considered to be more profitable for each parameter than other alternative routes, including reduction of the distance and delivery time two or threefold.
By Azernews





By Rashid Shirinov

Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, is one of the most popular destinations for New Year holidays for Russian tourists travelling with their children.

This data was provided by RoomGuru.ru, the Internet service for hotel search. It analyzed the data on searching and booking hotels and apartments for staying with children from this December 31 to January 8, 2017.

Along with Baku, the top 10 cities also include Minsk, Tallinn, Prague, Budapest, Helsinki, Berlin, Riga, Vienna and Istanbul, Trend reported cityin the website.

According to the Turstat agency, the number of trips Russian tourists make with children in neighboring countries in 2016 has increased by 15 percent compared to last year.

Azerbaijan celebrates the New Year with colorful performances, concerts, contests, and parties. Huge and bright Christmas trees every year decorate Azerbaijan's capital, and bring a sense of delight for every citizen and guest of the city.

According to the data of RoomGuru.ru, New Year holidays in Baku is planned for an average of 3.5 days. Accommodation in the capital during the New Year holidays will cost an average of 45 euros per day. Enjoying vacation in the ski resort Shahdag of Azerbaijan is also of great demand.

The Shahdag winter and summer tourist complex is Azerbaijans first ski resort and it differs from similar facilities in the world for its uniqueness and diversity.

Year by year the number of tourists discovering this beautiful resort increases. Despite Shahdag was opened only in December 2012, it could attract hundred thousands of people.

The Shahdag complex located in 30 km north of the town of Gusar, stands 2,500 meters above sea level and serves as an outstanding getaway with its rich nature, fresh air, and wonderful climate, with temperatures ranging between minus 20-22 degrees Celsius in winter and 20 degrees in summer.
By Trend





Over the past 24 hours, Armenias armed forces have 41 times violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops, Azerbaijans Defense Ministry reported on December 9.

Armenian army was using large-caliber machine guns.

The Azerbaijani army positions located in the Aghdam and Kokhanabi villages of the Tovuz district of Azerbaijan underwent fire from the Armenian army positions located in the Mosesgekh village and on nameless heights of the Berd district of Armenia.

Moreover, the Azerbaijani army positions were also shelled from the Armenian positions located near the Armenian-occupied Shikhlar, Yusifjanli, Javahirli villages of the Aghdam district, Kuropatkino village of the Khojavand district, Horadiz village of the Fuzuli district, as well as from the positions located on nameless heights of the Goranboy, Tartar, Khojavand, Fuzuli and Jabrayil 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.
By Azernews





By Amina Nazarli

Creation of a Russia-Azerbaijan-Turkey inter-parliamentary friendship group is on the agenda.

Russian MP, head of the Russia-Azerbaijan inter-parliamentary friendship group Dmitry Savelyev made the remark during the round table on "Russian-Azerbaijani relations: 25 years of friendship and mutually beneficial cooperation", Azertac reported.

The issue of creation of Russia-Turkey-Azerbaijan inter-parliamentary relations group was discussed during the visit of leader of the Liberal-Democratic Party of Russia Vladimir Zhirinovski to Turkey, he said adding that the first meeting of the organization is scheduled to be held in Baku.

Savelyev further hailed the mediator role of Azerbaijan in strengthening relations between Russia and Turkey.

Earlier, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the framework of his St. Petersburg meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Azerbaijan, Turkey and Russia may form a trilateral cooperation mechanism.

He emphasized that both Moscow and Ankara hold a very positive attitude to the proposed scheme.

Azerbaijan and Turkey are the two neighboring countries and strategic partners, which share common language and relations. Turkey is a major trade partner of Azerbaijan, and in January-September 2016 the trade turnover between the countries amounted to $1.67 billion, according to the State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan.



In terms of export and import operations, Turkey takes the second place. Azerbaijan exported goods to $842.2 million, while Turkish imports amounted of $830.8 million to Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan and Russia are tied by firmly based ties, which were officially established in 1992. The Azerbaijani-Russian cooperation is completely based on the principles of mutual respect and good neighborly relations.

Currently, there are several trilateral formats in the region such as Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey, Azerbaijan-Turkey-Iran and Turkey-Azerbaijan-Turkmenistan.

The already existing trilateral formats offer opportunities for regional cooperation and diplomatic resolution of regional issues. Among these, the Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey format is the most functional, as the cooperation is supported by huge trade, energy and transportation projects.
Fears that Bolasie could be out for a year

Thursday, 8 December, 2016



Clive Brunskill/Getty Images

The winger came off midway through the second half of last Saturday's 1-1 draw with Manchester United with what has since been preliminarily diagnosed as a ruptured cruciate knee ligament.

He crumpled under an innocuous-looking collision with Anthony Martial, received treatment by the touchline and returned to the match for a couple of minutes before it was obvious he could no longer continue.

Ronald Koeman indicated in his press conference this afternoon that Bolasie had travelled to London to have the knee fully assessed and a second opinion will be sought to confirm that he hasn't also damaged either the meniscus or medial ligament in the knee before he undergoes surgery next week.

It's really a big injury, Koeman told the press corps. He had a scan last Monday, out of that scan came [that] it's the cruciate ligaments. And maybe something more in his knee but they need to control now and do a scan again, really about the state of the injury.

Maybe it's necessary that we really need to sign somebody in that position," he explained.

Meanwhile, Everton's other ACL casualty from this season, Muhamed Besic, is back in light training and still on course to return in mid-February next year.

The Bosnian damaged his own anterior cruciate knee ligament in pre-season but has been pictured running at Finch Farm.

It's going well with Mo, Koeman told the media last Friday before the United game. He's maybe back in training with the team in the beginning of February or [mid-February] and that's good because we need everybody fit.

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Three young female engineers have been recognised by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) for their innovative work in the field of engineering.



The recepients of the 'Young Woman Engineer of the Year' award will play an ambassadorial role for the engineering and technology professions in the forthcoming months, promoting engineering careers to girls and young people.



IET Young Woman Engineer of the Year: Jenni Sidey (28) is a lecturer in the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge, currently working on the development of the latest low emission combustion devices for use in the transportation and energy sectors.



IET Mary George Memorial Prize for Apprentices: Gemma Dalziel (23) is an Apprentice Network Consulting Engineer at Cisco, working on network technologies and network security.



Womens Engineering Society (WES) Award: Bethan Murray (23) is a Manufacturing Systems Lead at Rolls-Royce, working on the systems that aid the manufacture of the latest aircraft components.



Sidey said: I am enormously proud to be recognised by such a progressive programme promoting women in engineering within the UK. The IET has worked hard to raise awareness of the lack of diversity within the engineering profession and I hope that, through my receipt of this award and involvement in gender diversity initiatives, I can strengthen the IETs sentiment: to reach our technological potential, the UKs engineering workforce must be inclusive and diverse.



These prestigious engineering industry awards celebrate women working in modern engineering  and aim to help change the perception that engineering is predominantly a career for men by banishing outdated engineering stereotypes of hard hats and greasy pipes.



As well as highlighting female engineering talent, the IET award seeks to find female role models who can help address the UK science and engineering skills crisis by promoting engineering careers to more girls and women. Women currently represent only 9 per cent of the engineering workforce in the UK (source: 2016 IET Skills Survey), the lowest percentage in Europe.



IET president Jeremy Watson CBE, said: Id like to congratulate the three winners and other finalists. These talented women are a real credit to the engineering profession and will help to encourage more girls to consider a career in engineering and technology.



Engineering is an exciting and diverse career with the opportunity to change lives  and the world  so it is crucial that we get more young girls excited about the possibilities of engineering as a career.



Our failure to attract enough women into engineering is also contributing to the national skills shortage. We need to see women accounting for far more than only 9 per cent of engineers of the UK.



To help inspire the next generation of female engineers and to raise awareness of these awards, the IETs latest social media campaign #9PercentIsNotEnough has been encouraging engineers to share a picture with their hand raised to the fact that only 9 per cent of women make up the UKs engineering and technology workforce  and to highlight that engineering is a realistic and inspiring career for girls. - TradeArabia News Service
Bahrain-based Venture Capital Bank (VCBank) said it has joined hands with Qatars Al Sraiya Holding Group and other strategic investors for a strategic partnership with Mado Yasar Dondurma (Mado), Turkeys largest patisserie and ice-cream cafe chain franchisor.



Mado, which was established in 1962 as a single ice cream shop, currently employs more than 1,150 staff across more than 310 stores in Turkey and more than 35 locations internationally including Bulgaria, Azerbaijan, Nakhchivan, Cyprus, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, Kuwait and Bahrain, it said.



In addition to owning the brands franchise rights, Mado produces, markets and sells a wide variety of self-branded food products such as ice creams, dairy desserts, sweet pastries, cakes, bakery goods and meals through two primary channels, namely its network of franchise stores and business-to-business (B2B) channels, it added.



"This marks our third major investment in Turkey, a market on which we will continue to focus due to its solid fundamentals and strong economic prospects," said Abdullatif Janahi, the chief executive of VCBank at the signing ceremony held in the presence of Turkish Deputy Prime Minister, Veysi Kaynak, and president of the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey M Rifat Hisarciklioglu, in Ankara, Turkey.



"It is among the fastest growing in Europe and provides a strategic position and launch pad for global growth in particular for companies active in the countrys food and beverage (F&B) sector, on which we are bullish," he stated.



"The F&B sector is defensive in nature and supported by favourable market dynamics both in Turkey and in neighbouring and global markets. This includes large and young populations in Turkey and other Middle East and North Africa (Mena) markets as well as changing cultural habits that are spurring growth in the cafe and dining culture," observed Al Janahi.



"Having looked extensively at numerous local F&B brands in Turkey, we selected Mado due to the high quality of its products, the strength of its brand as well the global nature of its business," he stated.



For a number of years, Mado has delivered strong double-digit growth and we look forward to working closely with its highly seasoned management team to build on these foundations through further international expansion, he added.



Al Janahi said it plans to boost the Turkish patisserie group's presence in the GCC region, followed by other global markets, leveraging its banks broad base of shareholders, partners and networks including access to prominent F&B retailers, wholesalers, suppliers and manufacturers on which Mado can capitalise, he added.



Rashid N Al Kaabi, the vice chairman of Al Sraiya, said: "In partnership with VCBank we are proud to announce this important transaction for our group and our continued efforts to diversify our holdings into key growth markets and segments."



Our partnership with Mado provides us with exposure to Turkeys growing economy and in particular its F&B sector, where we see great promise and room for upside potential internationally, he said.



With additional resources and support, we expect significant future enhancements and we look forward to working together with Mado to support their strategy for global growth and to ensuring the company meets its vast potential both in Turkey and beyond, he added.



Mehmet Kanbur, chairman of Mado Group, said the new strategic partnership underscores the strong franchise and brand that its company has built and the ongoing growth prospects for it in both Turkey and international markets.



"Together with VCBank, we especially look forward to expanding our presence in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, its biggest market, where demand for the high quality products and dining experiences like those offered by our company continues to grow," he added.-TradeArabia News Service
National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia (Bahri), a global leader in logistics and transportation, has won two awards at the 2016 Lloyds List Middle East & Indian Subcontinent Awards, held in Dubai, UAE.



Bahri clinched the Innovation and The Lloyds List Intelligence Big Data awards at the prestigious event that celebrates thought leaders and organisations from the shipping industry each year, said a statement from the company.



Lloyds List is a leading editorial service that provides information, analysis and knowledge for business decision makers in the global shipping community.



The awards highlight the role of ship-owners and global shipping service-providers in strengthening services and connectivity across historical trade routes that connect the east with the west.



Abdulaziz Sabri, vice president of Bahri Ship Management received the award on behalf of Bahri CEO Ibrahim Al Omar.



In his comments, Al Omar said: "These coveted accolades are a reflection of our dedication in continuously adapting to the changes in the maritime sector, and empowering our partners and customers with industry-leading services."



"More importantly, they represent our commitment to redefining the future of the maritime sector in the region through innovation and are a testament to the untiring efforts of our dynamic team members who are consistently working towards driving greater value to our stakeholders," remarked Al Omar.



"We accept these awards at a time when we are ready to draw new plans to further deepen the role that we play in the regions maritime activities. The 2017 will bring with it new challenges and opportunities, and we look forward to stepping into another great year with our relentless pursuit for excellence in the maritime logistics and transportation sector, he added.  TradeArabia News Service
Concerns that not all of the unions will agree to ratify their labor agreements have caused rail shippers and other transportation industry stakeholders to push President Joe Biden to act.
More than 1,200 exhibitors from 52 countries, as well as 31,000 visitors from 128 countries are expected to attend Intersec 2017, the worlds largest trade fair for security, safety, and fire protection, next month in Dubai, UAE.



The 19th edition of the event runs from January 22-24 at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre.



Global security solutions providers participating at Intersec2017 trade said the retail sector is one of many industry verticals where video surveillance can offer bottom-line benefits far beyond loss prevention and control.



Swedish company Axis Communications will offer up a range of intelligent solutions based on IP (Internet Protocol) video analytics that have multiple applications across a range of sectors, including retail.



Johan Akesson, director of Business Development for Retail at Axis Communications, said retailers who think of video surveillance as a loss prevention tool are missing a huge opportunity to leverage some truly powerful in-store intelligence.



When retailers think of video surveillance, its usually in the context of loss prevention and security, but theres a whole other arena where surveillance video provides enormous value: gathering real-time in-store intelligence to help improve margins, said Akesson.



With embedded analytics in network video cameras, retailers can not only observe customer behaviour in-store, but garner real-time statistics to improve store layout, product and display placements, and even identify bottlenecks and dead areas on the shop floor.





The three-day event arrives as the global appetite for video analytics is expected to grow annually by 20 per cent, from $1.69 billion in 2016 to $4.23 billion by 2021, according to news portal Security.World.



Dubai-based AgilityGrid is another Intersec 2017 exhibitor that will showcase its video surveillance hardware and software solutions, having already worked on a major project in a Qatar mall where it installed thousands of cameras and over 10 PB (petabyte) of storage.



Costa Boukouvalas, the CEO of Agility Grid, said theres strong demand in the retail sector for large-scale surveillance solutions, with Big Data playing a key role. The trend for Big Data analytics and understanding more about customers and peoples behaviour in general is going to increasingly be applied to Video Analytics  from use of facial recognition and biometric software to recognising VIP customers when they enter a retail outlet, said Boukouvalas.



Our large-scale solutions have ranged up to 10PB, 3,000 cameras and over 100 recording servers. At Intersec, well also be showcasing a new hardware line that better caters to customers who have medium-sized solution requirements with virtualisation.



Elsewhere, Korean-based surveillance solutions provider IDIS will return to Intersec 2017, and is looking to emulate the successful partnership it established with Sedar  a home furnishing manufacturer and retailer  at one of the shows previous editions.



Harry Kwon, general manager of IDIS Middle East & North Africa, explained: IDIS first exhibited at the Intersec in 2014, and at the time Sedar needed a state-of-the-art security surveillance system that offered exceptional performance without placing a heavy burden on company resources.



By the time the Sedar team visited IDIS at Intersec 2014, the company had already reviewed and dismissed systems from around 40 other manufacturers. At our stand, Sedar finally found what it was looking for, and by 2015, it rolled out over 400 IDIS full-HD cameras and 40 network video recorders, all operated through IDIS Solution Suite to provide both local and centralised monitoring from its headquarters in Dubai.



The solution has secured Sedars manufacturing facility, a 50,000 sq m distribution centre in Riyadh, the company headquarters, eight major warehouse and 20-plus showrooms across the Middle East.



Added Kwon: The IDIS solution enabled Sedar to benefit from rapid plug-and-play installation, minimal maintenance, outstanding resilience, storage and retrieval of footage. Additionally, the company has seen a 10 per cent increase in staff productivity, experienced fewer reports of unauthorised access and potential concerns around employee behaviour and also has the ultimate scalability in order to support future growth.



Other leading Intersec exhibitors showcasing IP-based video surveillance solutions for retail and other enterprise sectors include Hikvision, Honeywell, Bosch Security Systems, Dahua, Tyco, Flir Systems, iOmniscient, NIT, Nedaa, March Networks, and LENSEC.



Ahmed Pauwels, CEO of Messe Frankfurt Middle East, the organiser of Intersec, said: IP-based surveillance systems have surpassed the boundary between passive monitoring of premises and establishments into interactive and interpretative systems that can analyse and provide real-time intelligence to remote control rooms for further action.



Breakthrough technology and interactive systems will transform the way surveillance and monitoring is done across the world, and as the leading international security and safety trade platform, Intersec 2017 will be the launch venue of choice for the industry.



Intersec 2017 will take place across seven show sections of Commercial Security, Fire & Rescue, Safety & Health, Homeland Security & Policing, Perimeter & Physical Security, Information Security, and Smart Home & Building Automation.  TradeArabia News Service
Information is all around us, and every business - from finance to healthcare and telecom to real estate - relies on the use of big data and analytics for information in the form of actionable insights to discover opportunities and improve business agility.



The future of retail also lies in big data analytics. Based on customer loyalty data, browsing patterns, social media, purchase history and demographic data, retailers predict trends and prepare for future demands. Using the power of big data, retailers now have a more thorough understanding of the customers product preferences and buying habits thereby providing a smarter shopping experience, building customer loyalty and offering a seamless and superior customer experience.



Brad Hariharan, regional director, Expotrade Middle East, said, Retail, banking and telecommunications are some of the few data-intensive industries that are the growth drivers of big data and analytics. By harnessing the power of big data and analytics, companies gather data, uncover insights and create predictive models of trends with an aim of gaining a better understanding of customer behaviour and help drive sales. Effectively utilizing the advantages of big data and analytics allows organizations to focus on getting better results and providing a superior customer experience.



With a large number of international retailers present, Dubai holds the coveted spot of being the world's second most important retail hub. According to the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the UAEs retail sector is expected to reach Dh200 billion ($54.4 billion) by 2017. Industry reports indicate that the big data and analytics market globally is expected to hit $203 billion in 2020, while other reports estimate big data spending in retail analytics alone is set to cross the $232 billion mark by this year end.



By mapping large amount of data to gain actionable insight on demographic, analytical, operational and transactional behaviour of the customers, retailers can benefit by anticipating customers needs and optimizing business opportunities, mitigating risk and retaining high-net worth customers. Being in sync with a customers requirement further allows retailers to offer personalized marketing solutions.



Hariharan added: The transformation of the retail business and the need to deliver superior customer experiences using smart data will be the center of discussions at the Smart Data Summit. The advanced use of data analytics in the retail industry will be explored at length at the Smart Data Summit to be held on April 3 and 4, 2017 at Sofitel Dubai The Palm Resort & Spa.



For more information on the fourth Annual Smart Data Summit, log on to http://www.smartdatadubai.com. - TradeArabia News Service
U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a sixth-term Republican from Washington State who is a climate change denier and an ardent opponent of regulations for greenhouse gas emissions, is President-elect Donald Trump top choice for Secretary of Interior.

If McMorris Rodgers is nominated and then confirmed by the U.S. Senate, she would govern the management of more than 500 million acres of federal public lands, including more than 400 national parks.

Perhaps most critically, she would oversee the development of many of Americas fossil fuels and renewables resources, including all of its offshore oil, gas and wind development. Federal land is the source of more than 20 percent of all the oil and gas and 40 percent of the coal produced in the U.S.

McMorris Rodgers would have the power to reverse Obama administration efforts to protect federally managed waters from oil and gas development as well as end the research into how coal mining affects the climate. Earlier this year, the Obama administration placed a three-year moratorium on federal coal leasing, and closed the entire East Coast and parts of the Arctic Ocean to offshore oil drilling.

The land the Interior Department manages stores atmospheric carbon in trees and tree roots; protects biological diversity in wilderness areas, forests and national parks; and provides water for millions of people, mainly in the West.

McMorris Rodgers would also have wide-ranging influence over how the National Park Service and the U.S. Geological Survey communicate to the public about global warming.

Scientific reports are inconclusive at best on human culpability of global warming, McMorris Rodgers falsely told the Spokane, Wash., Spokesman-Review newspaper in 2012. Regardless of which theory proves correct, the goal is the same  to reduce carbon emissions, we need innovation in the private sector; not excessive government regulation to stifle some industries while rewarding others. I oppose cap and trade and other big government schemes because they will destroy jobs while likely having minimal impact on the climate.

McMorris Rodgers signed a 2012 pledge sponsored by Americans for Prosperity, a conservative political advocacy group funded by billionaire David Koch, promising that she would oppose any federal climate-related legislation that would raise revenue for the federal government, including a carbon tax.

Coming from Washington State, which is highly dependent on large hydroelectric dams for its electricity, McMorris Rodgers is a vocal supporter of hydropower and nuclear energy and has sponsored legislation expanding the development of small hydroelectric dams nationwide  a valuable source of renewable energy.

But she is also a major proponent of drilling public lands for fossil fuels.

The League of Conservation Voters gives McMorris Rodgers a 4 percent lifetime score out of a possible 100 in its environmental scorecard because she has voted against bills that would have required the federal government to account for the social cost of carbon in administrative actions and required federally funded projects to be resilient to the impacts of climate change.

McMorris Rodgers has supported legislation that would have opened the Outer Continental Shelf to oil drilling, and opposed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agencys ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions as an air pollutant. She has also voted against tax credits for renewable electricity.

That is not a record that is likely to inspire confidence from the environmental community, said Mark Squillace, a natural resources law professor at the University of Colorado-Boulder. On the other hand, I dont sense that she has been a leading voice on public lands issues and so perhaps she will take a more conciliatory approach if she is confirmed as Interior Secretary.

He said that McMorris Rodgers has mostly voted with other Republicans on environmental and public lands issues.

She also serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, but again I have not seen clear signs of leadership on energy issues, other than a pattern of consistent votes in favor of fossil fuels and against taking action on climate change, Squillace said.

In 2011, McMorris Rodgers co-sponsored a bill that would have required the Interior Secretary to sell off more than 3 million acres of public lands in 10 western states, a bill driven largely by western Republicans who believed the land served no specific purpose. Selling it would have raised more than $1 billion for the federal government, Utah Sen. Mike Lee said at the time.

As Interior secretary, McMorris Rodgers will oversee water management in much of the West. The departments Bureau of Reclamation operates 476 dams and 348 reservoirs across the country, and it is in charge of numerous scientific endeavors and mapping the entire globe through the U.S. Geological Survey.

Robert H. Nelson, a professor of public policy focusing on public lands management at the University of Maryland and a proponent of the federal government transferring federal public lands to the states, said that whats most notable about McMorris Rodgers nomination is that, unlike other Trump cabinet nominees, she does not appear to be a well-known activist.

If he had done that, he would have picked someone from a state like Utah, Nelson said, referring to Trump. Her district, however, along with the rest of Washington State, is heavily affected by hydropower supplied from federal dams. There she has a higher profile. She has publicly supported, for example, keeping the four Snake River dams that many environmentalists would like to tear down.

Other experts and conservationists are grim about the future of public lands under McMorris Rodgers.

Together the pro-fossil fuel team of McMorris at Interior and Scott Pruitt at EPA is a disaster in the making for efforts to reign in CO2 before we hit truly awful tipping points, said Jack Tuholske, director of the Vermont Law School Water and Justice Program. Federal lands have enough coal, oil and gas to push us over any reasonable carbon threshold. President Obama has been fairly successful in limiting access to those resources, especially in his second term. All of those efforts could be undone with Trumps team in place.

Dominick DellaSala, chief scientist of the Geos Institute in Ashland, Oregon, said McMorris Rodgers is no fan of the National Environmental Policy Act, the law that requires environmental review of new development and land management changes on federally owned land.

McMorris Rodgers is bad but could be worse on these issues, DellaSala said. Shes not likely to champion public lands conservation issues.

Gary Wockner, director of Save the Colorado, a group advocating for conservation and preservation of the Colorado River, said McMorris Rodgers has an extreme anti-environment voting record.

The U.S. Senate should do everything in its power to stop her appointment and stop Trumps impending war on the public lands, rivers, and wildlife of the West, Wockner said.
The Casper Police Department is warning residents to watch out for telephone, internet and email scams during the holidays.

Two recent reports indicate that an unknown caller is claiming to represent the Casper Utilities Collection Department and that a utility bill is due. According to the department, the caller is told to dial a number that is not legitimate. Police say people shouldnt call the number or conduct any financial transactions related to it.

There are ways to confirm whether the city really is trying to reach you about a utility bill. The city uses U.S. mail to send out delinquent utility bill notices. If payment is not received, then the delinquent resident should receive an a reminder in the form of an automated voice message.

To verify a message you received, call the citys finance department at 307-235-8400. Police warn residents not to call or respond to any number but that one.

Police are investigating the illegitimate calls and encourage anyone who has encountered a scam to contact the department.

If you have questions, contact Det. John Hatcher at 307-235-7589 or jhatcher@casperwy.gov.
The Wyoming Legislature cant cut its way out of the education funding crisis, Gov. Matt Mead said Wednesday, echoing what other officials have said about the impending shortfall.

In a conference call last week, the governor said public education funding could face a shortfall of around $700 million in the next two-year budget cycle as the energy downturn continues. Mead told reporters Wednesday that he doesnt think the Legislature will make $700 million  or even $100 million  in cuts in the upcoming session.

But if we made 40 or 50 (million dollars in cuts), its a good start, he said.

Some of that start could come from going back to the evidence-based model for education funding, Mead said. That model gives money to districts based on their need, as calibrated every five years.

The Legislature has been funding above that level for years, officials have said. Sen. Hank Coe called it the ornaments atop a Christmas tree. Mead suggested that reverting to solely the evidence-based model could save tens of millions of dollars.

Last week, Coe said a bill was in the works to get rid of that top layer of funding. He said it would save around $35 million. Another bill about expanding class size could save around $47 million, he said.

On Wednesday, Mead avoided identifying specific areas where he would want or expect to see cuts. He indicated last week that legislators had suggested taking a hard look at transportation, district consolidation, class size and special education.

Mead instead reiterated his call for a task force, which would include educators and community leaders, to look at the funding crisis.

The discussion and participation of teachers and educators and the public has to be part of the picture, he said, and Im reluctant to say, Here is what we need to do when asking for that participation.

He said he was 99 percent confident that such a group would form this session. Mead had also called for the task force last year.
For months, law enforcement agencies tried to keep a Casper businessman from his wife. She left the relationship after he beat her, but police and sheriffs deputies couldnt keep the man from harassing her.

They watched as his threats escalated. First, he repeatedly called her, threatening to hurt her if she didnt return his calls. Then he began tracking her through her phone, then the GPS system in her car. Through his Apple account, he set the screensaver on the womans Apple TV to a picture of his mugshot from his assault arrest. He sent her messages through Facebook and Snapchat. He threatened to burn down the house with his wife and children inside.

Law enforcement arrested the man at least five times in a little more than a month as he continued to break protection orders filed against him. But, to the frustration of investigators and victims advocates, each time he simply posted bond and resumed stalking his wife. The law just wasnt strong enough to hold him in jail.

Taylor Courtney, an investigator with the Natrona County Sheriffs Office, outlined the womans ordeal to a room full of people Thursday afternoon as a case study in how a proposed wide-ranging change to Wyomings criminal code could help law enforcement do its job.

We can only do our job within the laws before us, he said. But laws require progress  crimes change. We need to give the tools to law enforcement and our courts to enforce these cases.

The man eventually pleaded a felony stalking charge down to a misdemeanor and was sentenced to 15 days in jail and six months probation. His wife and children had to move several states away, where they still live, because the law couldnt keep the man away.

But a bill to be introduced in the next legislative session could help keep others from enduring the same trauma the woman did.

The bill, proposed by state Sen. Bill Landen, R-Casper, would increase the maximum sentence for a misdemeanor stalking charge from six months in jail and a $750 fine to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine. It also allows judges to place an offender on probation for up to three years.

The extended probation would allow the offender to complete more extensive rehabilitation so that he or she does not stalk again.

The first thing we need is time with the offender, said Sheryl Foland, a counselor who works with people convicted of stalking. I cant do anything with six months.

Although the current version of the law lays out rules for stalking via electronic means, it does not specifically mention stalking via social media, which is increasingly common. It was up to the judge to decide what electronic means encompasses, and not all judges are well-educated about social media, Courtney said.

Its really up to a judges interpretation without a change in the law, he said.

The bill would also change the definition of harassment and stalking to be less subjective. Currently, a person needs to cause a victim substantial emotional distress to commit the crime of stalking. The proposed change would also specify that a person breaks the law by contacting a victim in a way that would make them fear for their safety or threatening to destroy property. The phrase substantial emotional distress is very open to interpretation, Courtney said, and doesnt account for the various ways people react to threats.

Under the existing law, a stalking charge is a misdemeanor unless the person is violating a condition of a bond order or a protection order issued during a hearing with a judge under the Family Violence Protection Act. The bill would also make stalking a felony offense if the crime is committed in violation of a wider variety of protection orders, including an ex parte order  a temporary order granted before a hearing with a judge is held.

The bill will need statewide support to pass during a session that will be preoccupied with budgetary concerns during an economic bust, Landen said. The changes dont address every problem with the law, he said, but theyll tackle a lot.

You cant eat a sandwich in one bite  but hopefully we can take a step in the right direction, Landen said.

Advocates at the meeting Thursday said that while there are other fixes to be made to the states laws regarding stalking and domestic violence, Landens bill is a good step.

What were asking for is to ratchet it up a notch, said Foland, the counselor.
Wyoming State Penitentiary inmates were placed on lockdown for almost two days last week when repairs were needed to the facilitys doors, a sign that structural problems at the Rawlins prison are affecting operations.

Prison staff put almost all of the inmates in a modified lockdown from about 4 p.m. Dec. 1 to 10 a.m. Dec. 3  a total of 42 hours  while workers installed manual doorstops on several doors, said Mark Horan, spokesman for the Department of Corrections. The doors were functional, but Department of Corrections officials brought in the company who installed them to assess each door to ensure the safety and security of the facility, he said.

About 525 inmates were restricted to their cells during the lockdown, though they were permitted to leave their cells for visitation and medical appointments. One hundred and sixty inmates were not affected because they live in a separate housing unit.

Regular operations resumed after the fixes to the doors were completed, Horan said.

News of the lockdown comes as lawmakers weigh whether to spend millions of dollars repairing the existing facility, which has experienced significant damage as the soil beneath the building shifts.

When legislators and a Star-Tribune reporter toured the prison in June, the group found an office door near the gym that wouldnt close completely because its metal frame had warped. Prison staff have been forced to saw off the bottoms of other doors as the floors rise, the group learned on the tour.

Gov. Matt Mead told the Star-Tribune on Wednesday that the structural problems show the need for the Legislature to pass a bill funding long-needed repairs.

(The structural problems) lead not only to safety concerns for inmates and the staff there but also to challenges from the ACLU saying that were locking people down in their pens because stuff doesnt work right, he said.

In my mind, its a situation we have to address. Its not getting any better  its getting worse.

In his budget recommendations released last week, Mead said the Legislature should authorize $83.5 million in bonds to repair the facility. But Mead said Wednesday that hes not convinced repairing the prison is the best option and that he is still considering building a new facility, which he said could cost more than $200 million. Engineers told the task force studying the prison that $83.5 million would be enough to keep the prison functional for decades, but Mead wasnt so sure.

How do we explain 10 years from now that its failed again? he said.

The state built the prison in 2001 for about $90 million. It was expected to last 50 years, but the shifting lake bed beneath the buildings has caused the floors to rise and fall. The movement has caused walls to separate, floors to buckle and cracks up to 1.5 inches wide to form.

The U.S. Department of Justice ordered the state to abandon its previous state penitentiary less than 20 years after it was built because of similar structural issues caused by soil problems. The state then built the current facility about a quarter of a mile away.
egyptian antiquities The roman artwork anonymous artist egypt sculpture social critic, greek artwork now on display! It is in the Museum ancient drawings of Bristol art whose egypt sculptures web design, egyptian sculpture sincerity, is worthy of scorn. The exhibition is free, began last June 13 and lasts until August ancient paintings 31. In sculpture art their creations egyptian arts reappears egyptian sculptures his maverick label and assertive egyptian paintings so characteristic of this character invisible. An art to serve egyptian art a refresher b sk him to double or even triple the company, but egypt paintings that show generated so much about himself, given the ancient vase controversy egyptian artwork it creates and that hieroglyphic art it is part of this provocative Is not it a more integral to the system greek art that antiquities is critical ' Another stage of the tour are the lot of artistic creations for the series of jewelry made by the sumerian art jeweler Georges Fouquet in Paris following the design of many. when you looking for antiques go to the is Located in Geneva and New York greek sculpture A ancient sculpture le greece art Fouquet drew attention egyptians art to the hellenistic art decorations that adorned a lot of women of their posters and panels, played with mesopotamia art great detail, also in their material properties. greek arts Fouquet presents a arts artifacts collection of jewelry designs made on the lot in Paris egypt arts Universal Exhibition of 1900, roman art prevailed in the Byzantine East and reminiscences. Furthermore, designing the roman arts interiors of Fouquet's jewelry. Much history of art later resigned in order to egypt art achieve wider group of buyers for their works.
On a past trip through the Denver airport, I counted about 30 of our soldiers heading off to defend us. Military statistics indicate of those 30 soldiers, six will be wounded, two so severely they will have permanent physical or mental disabilities, and one will be killed. On the political battlefield, the debate intensifies how we can selfishly sustain the most expensive health care system in the world, even though the World Health Organization ranks it below some third-world countries. Noting the governments poor track record in administering veterans' hospitals, one must ask if it is the right entity to manage a new national health care system. A massive overhaul of policies and procedures is needed. As we safely reside in a nearly risk-free environment, our soldiers risk their lives for those both traveling first class and on the street without a class. These brave military men and women seem at times nearly forgotten by those elected to serve them. It seems petty to ponder our right to knee replacement at 80, when that money could lower the risks to our soldiers through modernization and provide substantial financial compensation to their families in the event of permanent physical and mental injuries or death. It would be prudent and wise for Congress and the new president, now all controlled by one political party, to remember the real risk is ignoring or forgetting where our responsibilities and priorities should lie. Lets hope the new session of Congress and the views of our two influential senators and our new congresswoman can make a meaningful difference.
Writer Nancy Mairs has written about death, flirted with death, and attempted to bring about her own death.

Saturday, she slipped gently into it, embracing it fully.

The award-winning writer died at her Tucson home, surrounded by family and friends. She had been in hospice care since August, when she had a stroke. Mairs was 73.

She died very peacefully with her two black cats curled up beside her, said her daughter, Anne Mairs.

I thought she would live forever, said poet Janice Dewey, who met Mairs when they were both in graduate school at the University of Arizona almost 40 years ago.

She was extraordinary  an important word for her. She was a thinker and writer and speaker. Her readings were always riveting, added Dewey.

Mairs fame initially came as a result of her 1986 book of essays, Plain Text, her Ph.D. dissertation from the UA.

Intensely personal and unflinchingly honest, Mairs wrote with eloquence, humor, and without a drop of self-pity as she chronicled her depression, agoraphobia, suicide attempts, sex life, children, feminism, and her multiple sclerosis.

Mairs was diagnosed with MS when she was 29, shortly after she and her husband, George, moved from Massachusetts so she could study creative writing at the UA. She had been limping and falling. The doctors initially thought she had a brain tumor. While it was determined she did not, it was a few years before MS was the diagnosis.

Her clear-eyed, often funny writing about the disease that required her to use a cane, then a scooter, and finally a wheelchair that she used for more than 20 years, made her a celebrity among the disabled community.

She had a no-nonsense approach to writing about her MS and its consequences: Whatever you call me, I remain crippled, she says in the Plain Text essay On Being A Cripple. But I dont care what you call me, so long as it isnt differently abled, which strikes me as pure verbal garbage designed, by its ability to describe anyone, to describe no one.

Her 1996 book of essays, Waist-High in the World: A Life Among the Nondisabled, chronicled how she lives, loves and struggles with MS.

The essays gave her a national presence among those who have and who study disabilities, and her writings are required reading in some college courses.

Her writing just captured the disabled experience so well, said Mairs daughter, Anne.

So many have been touched by her writing and her perspective on the world. I loved her as a mom, but she also touched so many peoples lives in such a positive way.

But it wasnt just niche writing she did; her essays spoke to a much wider audience.

Nancy engages the critical human questions of suffering, death and the possibilities of transcendence, said writer Susan Aiken at a pre-death funeral for Mairs in October  an event she took great joy in planning and attending.

She has earned her reputation as one of the most distinguished essayists in America not despite, but because of her own decades-long struggles with disasters that would break a lesser spirit  disasters she has transformed into art through her lucid, eloquent prose.

Her commitment to those with disabilities and to literature brought her invitations to read from around the country. Though it was a struggle to travel, she would do it.

The isolated and disabled and a number of others came and clustered around her, said George, her husband of 52 years and her traveling companion.

Her energy and her eloquence is what convinced Dewey to make a 2003 documentary about Mairs, Waist-High in the World.

I followed her all around the states for several years, says Dewey. She had a poetic determination. And she was provocative, and enjoyed being provocative. Its something you see in her writing. It is so direct while at the same time so beautifully articulated. She provoked you into thinking about just about everything.

Her fight for social justice was as important to her as her writing.

She and her husband worked with the Sanctuary Movement, Casa Maria and Central American refugees.

They did a lot of peace and social justice work, said long-time friend, Miriam Davidson. She was very caring.

Her friend will be deeply missed by many, said Davidson.

She was powerful and so fearless, yet loving and warm.  She was an incredible inspiration, a great soul, a powerful spirit that we really miss.

Mairs is survived by her husband, George, daughter Anne Mairs and son Matthew Mairs. Services are planned but not yet announced.
A new food trailer, offering a cuisine that is hard to come by in Southern Arizona, is slated to launch in Tucson this weekend.

On Friday, The Curry Pot will set up shop in front of Tap & Bottle, 403 N. Sixth Ave., for lunch service (noon-4 p.m.) with food offerings inspired by the island nation of Sri Lanka.

The mobile eatery will have beef, chicken and vegetable curry combination plates for $9-$10. Samosas, quesadillas, basmati rice and farata flatbread are also on the menu.

Owner Amjaad Jhan said Sri Lankas proximity to India means that the two countries share similar dishes.

What sets Sri Lankan food apart, Jhan said, are the different spice blends (some of Jhan's ingredients in his dishes include turmeric, black pepper, cinnamon and cardamom) and the use of coconut milk in their curries instead of yogurt.

Jhan was born in raised in Sri Lanka. He lived there until he was 21, at which time he went to live with his uncle in Los Angeles to pursue an education.

He moved to Tucson with his wife, Shuhana Jhan, in 2005.

Jhan, who has worked for 15 years in management at Trader Joe's locations in Tucson and California, said the lack of Sri Lankan-themed restaurants in Arizona is part of what inspired him to take on this venture.

A lot of people dont even know where Sri Lanka is, Jhan said.

He was doubly encouraged by the Tucson communitys positive reaction to food trucks with international cuisines, such as the Twisted Tandoor, which will soon be a brick-and-mortar dining destination; and Scott Safford, his former colleague at Trader Joe's, who opened the beer tasting room Tap & Bottle with his wife, Rebecca Safford, more than three years ago.

Seeing (Scott) venturing out kind of open up the possibilities for me, Jhan said. It made me think that maybe there was something I could do.

Jhan said he hopes to build up to 15 menu items available at any given time, but is starting simple.

The Curry Pot will also be open for lunch at Tap & Bottle on Saturday and Sunday.
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Border Patrol agents arrested two teenagers in Naco on Wednesday after an air cannon fired bundles of marijuana over the border fence into the United States.

The teenagers were found with a bundle that weighed 34 pounds and was molded into a cylindrical shape, the Border Patrol said in a news release Friday.

Agents seized the marijuana and referred the teenagers to the Cochise County Attorney for prosecution through Operation Immediate Consequence. They face up to 18 months in prison, the agency said.

In an effort to deter juveniles from getting involved with drug smuggling. Cochise County authorities may prosecute them as adults, the Arizona Republic reported in August.

Smuggling organizations often take advantage of teens, lying to them about their chances of being prosecuted for their roles in smuggling attempts, Patrol Agent in Charge of the Brian A. Terry Border Patrol Station Michael Hyatt said in the news release. In many cases, they do not realize the true consequences of their actions.

In September, authorities found a roughly 10-foot-long air cannon inside a van in Agua Prieta, Mexico, which they believed was used to shoot packages of marijuana into Douglas, Arizona.
America is now a nation where acts of political violence are so predictable that for months before an assailant broke into the San Francisco home of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and attacked her husband, Paul Pelosi, last week, experts have warned such an incident was likely.
Dr. Joe G.N. Skip Garcia will resign his post as senior vice president for health sciences at the University of Arizona, overseeing its medical schools.

The UA announced the resignation Thursday afternoon, following months of scrutiny. Garcia, who is one of the highest paid employees at the UA, will continue to receive his $870,000 annual salary for two more years under terms of his contract. He will remain working at the UA as a professor at the UA College of Medicine-Tucson and as a researcher.

Garcias high-profile presence at the UA includes overseeing the universitys two medical schools  one in Tucson and one in Phoenix. They are separately accredited and currently are the only allopathic medical schools in a state with an existing and projected doctor shortage.

This is a great opportunity for a fresh start, said Cary Pfeffer, a Phoenix resident, author and owner of a consulting firm who sat on a community advisory board to the Phoenix medical school for several years.

I think the people who have been supportive of medical education at the U of A will be watching this closely and enthusiastically hoping for a good person to take his spot.

Phoenix an issue

Garcia was hired in 2013 with an expectation that hed infuse the university with millions of dollars in research grant funding and build up the UA as a leader in genetic research and an economic engine for the state.

He came to the UA from the University of Illinois, where he served as vice president for health affairs and as the Earl M. Bane Professor of Medicine, Pharmacology and Bioengineering.

His research expertise is the prevention and treatment of inflammatory lung injury. When he was hired, UA officials said his salary was within the range for comparable positions.

Dr. William M. Crist, who had previously held the post of UA senior vice president of health services, was paid $650,000 a year. However, his job description was different in scope than Garcias. Crist retired in 2011.

One of the sources of conflict for Garcia was the UA College of Medicine-Phoenix, which opened in 2007 in three buildings that were at one time Phoenix Union High School. Dr. Stuart D. Flynn was appointed interim dean in 2008 and was named dean in 2009.

Flynn served in that position until 2016, and had a strong following of supporters. When he left earlier this year, so did his leadership team. Thats when public concerns about his boss  Garcia  intensified, leading to an independent review of governance at the UA medical schools ordered by the Arizona Board of Regents.

The Phoenix medical school has a smaller budget and smaller class size than the medical school in Tucson, which was founded in 1967.

The medical school is on the Phoenix Biomedical Campus, which is on prime downtown property owned by the city of Phoenix. All three state-funded Arizona universities have functions there. But its the UA that dominates the 30-acre property, having invested nearly $450 million in campus building projects.

Flynn, who grew the class size at the Phoenix campus from 24 to 80, came to the College of Medicine-Phoenix from the Yale University School of Medicine, where he was a professor of pathology and surgery, as well as a researcher and academic leader. In 2004, he received Yales Teacher of the Year Award and Americas Top Physicians Award from the Consumers Research Council of America in 2003, 2004 and 2005.

My hope is we can look forward and really keep moving ahead, Pfeffer said. The most important thing is that some fresh leadership will be will be in a critical role within the university.

$595 million budget

In addition to the medical schools, Garcias role as senior vice president for health sciences includes overseeing the UA College of Pharmacy, the UA College of Nursing, and the UA Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health. The total health sciences budget is $595 million per year.

Earlier this year, the Arizona Board of Regents contracted a law firm to conduct a report on concerns about the leadership of the medical schools. The report cost $180,000 in public money, but the board of regents, which is the governing body for the states public university system, has so far refused to release the report to the public.

The decision to do a report was announced after the regents convened in August to address increasing scrutiny of the medical schools and their leadership.

Public criticism of the UA medical school leadership began after Flynn announced in March that he was leaving to be the founding dean of a new medical school in Texas. Shortly after, five members of Flynns leadership team, including the associate dean of admissions and the vice dean of academic affairs, announced their departures.

Critics say it is unheard of for virtually the entire leadership team of a medical school to leave at once. Garcia responded that such departures are common in academic medicine.

After Flynn and his staff announced they were leaving, the 4,000-member Arizona Medical Association, which has a membership of physicians and medical students, called for an independent investigation.

The association expressed concern that the departures could affect the schools attempt to see full accreditation, a process that is ongoing.

The association asked for exit interviews with the departed deans and publicly called on the Board of Regents to initiate an investigation into any U of A organizational impediments or policies that contributed to the departures of the well-respected and quality team that was in place.

Research portfolio

As further fuel to the scrutiny, Garcia attracted public attention in August when he was the subject of an Arizona Republic article. The article focused on his travel expenses, including a chauffeured car that costs $475 or more for trips between Tucson and Phoenix.

Arizona Medical Association Executive Vice President Chic Older said Thursday that both medical schools are extremely important to the state and the association will be closely watching any leadership changes moving forward.

In its news release Thursday, UA officials said that Garcia would be resigning his administrative position to devote more time to being a medical school professor and to his expanding research portfolio. Garcia holds a tenured appointment as the Dr. Merlin K. DuVal Professor of Medicine in the UA College of Medicine-Tucson.

In a prepared statement, Hart said that Garcias leadership will be missed, but that she is extremely happy that Garcia has decided to continue his work as a, world class physician scientist and teacher, and that his impact on the University of Arizona will continue for years to come.

Garcia said in a prepared statement that his first love is cutting-edge clinical and translational research and clinical care, and science-based teaching for the next generation.

I am proud to have been able to have had such a strong impact on health science at the University of Arizona and am pleased to be able to continue to contribute to this important effort through my scientific research, teaching and clinical work, his statement says.

Garcia will return to the faculty full time in January. An interim senior vice president will be named soon.

UA spokesman Chris Sigurdson said he expects a search committee will be convened to find Garcias replacement. Sigurdson said Garcia was not available to comment Thursday. Garcia did not respond to a call from the Star to his cellphone.

The Arizona Board of Regents on Thursday issued a statement thanking Garcia for his, demonstrated excellence and integrity. The regents credited Garcia for helping secure the UAs affiliation agreement with Phoenix-based Banner Health in 2015 and for spearheading a dramatic increase in federal research grants, including the awarding of the National Institutes of Health Precision Medicine Initiative Cohort Program  $43.3 million over five years.
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.
Help India!

By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,

Ahmedbad: There was very little hope for victories for most Muslim candidate in communally polarised Gujarat assembly elections. However, defeat of Iqbal Patel from Vagara in Bharuch region of the state.

Incumbent Patel was three time MLA and is considered right hand man of Ahmed Patel.

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Interestingly Vagara with a Muslim population of above 44% has elected a BJP candidate Arunsinh Rana who defeated Patel with a comfortable margin of 14,000 votes, and pulled nearly 68,500 votes against 54,000 votes of Iqbal Patel.





Iqbal Patel (center)



Siraj Bhim, editor of Gujarati monthly Paratyaghat said even Muslim villages went against Iqbal Patel and voted in the favour of Arunsinh who formerly was with the Congress before joining the BJP.

Anti-incumbency against Patel was so high, that even from his own native village of Dehrol, Arunsinh pulled 600 votes.

Congress insiders told TCN that some Muslim congress leaders in Bharuch district played critical role in the defeat of Iqbal, as they were not given an opportunity to contest from the Vagara seat, which was always believed to be a safe seat for a Muslim candidate.

Another factor could be election rally of Narendra Modi in Vagara just four days before the polling in which he tried to appease Muslims. Asifa Khan, former Congress spokesperson, who joined BJP just three months before the election, is also a native of Bharuch district. She campaigned aggressively against Iqbal Patel in Muslim dominated villages, to turn anti-incumbency in the favour of BJP.

When this TCN reporter had met him during the election campaign, Patel was confident of his victory. TCN tried to contact Iqbal Patel for his reaction but he was not available for the comments at this point.

Related link:

For dying Congress in Bharuch, Iqbal Patel comes as a savior

http://twocircles.net/2012dec13/%E2%80%98dying%E2%80%99_congress_bharuch_iqbal_patel_comes_savior.html

TCN series on Gujarat elections
Help India!

By Soroor Ahmed, TwoCircles.net

A month after demoentisation, politics in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh is in a state of flux. Till the first week of November. The Samajwadi Party was in a state of turmoil. The situation reached such a stage that political observers started conjecturing that an overwhelming number of its core support base, that is, Muslims and some other backward castes, may shift to Bahujan Samaj Party. Even Yadavs were finding themselves in a dilemma.

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With 21.3 per cent Dalit and 19.3 per cent Muslim population, the BSP was looking quite hopeful.

The BJP was a bit perturbed over this development. While it was trying to woo some disgruntled SP votes, there was latent fear in the saffron partys rank and file that the infighting in the Samajwadi Party would drive an overwhelming number of Muslim votes to the BSP. A divided Muslim votesbetween the two main parties of UPalways helped the BJP.

But two developments in the first few days of November has somewhat changed the political scene in the state. First, chief minister Akhilesh Singh managed to emerge victorious after weeks of squabbling. In the last five years, he had managed to change the perception of many people about the Samajwadi Party. He had already carved out his place in the heart of youths cutting across the caste and community lines. Personally he remained above any controversythis in itself is an achievement in todays politics. He had an image of developmental-minded chief minister.

But the family feud gave him an opportunity to assert himself. In that hour of crisis a large number of youthsmany of them were hitherto not the supporters of SPrallied behind him, which silenced his critics within the party.

As if that was not enough, came the announcement of demoentisation on November 8.

Initially, it was trumpeted as another surgical strike against the black-money hoarders.

While in the beginning media in general and a section of experts backed the move, many others raised serious questions on its ramifications. Thus in spite of immense hardships, many people did back the move.

As the initial euphoria subsided and hardship continued to linger and multiply and independent economists started predicting fall in countrys growth rate, gloom started gripping the mind of even hardened BJP supporters. If that was not enough, on December 7 the Reserve Bank of India made it clear that there would be decline in growth rate.

A month later, queues outside banks and ATMs continue to remain long. About a hundred people have already died in the process of withdrawing or depositing their own hard-earned money. None of those who lost their lives were hoarding black money. Yet, the government announced no compensation to them. In fact it was not even apologetic. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while addressing a public meeting in Moradabad, went on to narrate how beggars would beg in cashless economy.

Uttar Pradesh, which has very fertile landespecially in Doab region between Ganga and Yamunaas well as thousands of industries, especially in Noida, Ghaziabad, Kanpur, Lucknow, Agra, Aligarh, Meerut, Moradabad, Benaras was among the worst hit states after demonetisation.

Lakhs of workers have lost their jobstemporarily or permanently. As thousands of industries were forced to close or cut down their production the demonetisation shattered the confidence of traders and investors, who are considered as the backbone of the BJP support base.

As notebandi was announced in between the harvesting of kharif and sowing of rabi crops, the farmers were left high and dry. The farming communities had started distancing themselves from the BJP even before demoentisation because of, what critics call its anti-farmer policies. Neither the promise of increase in Minimum Support Price nor creation of new jobs were fulfilled. The November 8 decision drove them further away. This, in spite of the fact that several farming communities voted for Narendra Modi in 2014.

The BJP supporters tried to put up a brave face, but the repeated change in the governments and RBIs policy has confused them. If it was a campaign against black money then why was tax amnesty announced in the last week of November? Was the campaign against black money or creating cashless economy?

The party rank and file are not prepared to tackle all these issues. Gradually, many of them became indifferent. Even several BJP MPs, legislators, and Sangh Parivar ideologues like Govindacharya have started questioning the decision to scrap notes in such a haphazard manner.

As perception matters much in politics, the BJP now appears to be losing the battle. The question is to whomthe BSP or the resurgent Akhilesh- led SP.

In this personality-oriented tussle Narendra Modi seems to be losing, though like in Bihar last year, he continues to attract crowd.

Once Akhilesh is back in the race, there is a possibility that a big chunk of Muslim and other backward castes votes, who were looking towards the BSP, may shift back to the SP.
Help India!

By Shiva Thorat, TwoCircles.net

For the past eight years, November 26 has become synonymous with the terror attacks in Mumbai, but while no one will forget that tragic day, it is also a day of immense joy for the citizens of this country. On this day, Babasaheb Ambedkar handed over the Indian Constitution to the Indian government. While the event is symbolically celebrated across the nation, it is safe to say that there is no place in the country that matches the sight of Chaitya Bhoomi in Dadar, Mumbai. And a similar, but much bigger crowd returns to the place 10 days later, albeit with a different set of emotions.

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On both these days, one thing becomes clear: only if you believe in Ambedkarite ideas, you will get the importance of these two days.

On December 6, a sea of people from all parts of Maharashtra, and some from across the country, gathered in Dadar, Mumbai to pay their tributes to Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar and mark his 6st death anniversary.

On this day, in 1956, Babasaheb was buried at the Chaitya Bhoomi near the Hindu Smashan bhumi in Dadar.

And like every year, it was a testament to the love that people continue to shower on the architect of Indian constitution and the biggest Dalit leader the country has ever seen. Wherever you looked, it was a sea of people. It would be both impossible and futile to put a number on how many people arrived, mainly because the emotion and the love for Babasaheb, and the calls of Jai Bhim, cannot be zeroed down to a number. This was not a rally afterall; there were no political slogans, no chaos, and certainly no leader preaching what he/she believed. Instead, all one could from the Dadar railway station to Shivaji park and Chaityabhumi was just people, most of whom wore white clothes.

shankar Yashod

As someone who has been visiting the place for the last seven years, it is also interesting to see the changes that the December 6 event has undergone. When I first visited Chaitya Bhoomi on December 6, it was extremely common to see cassette shops, which sold Ambedkarite music. However, one of the biggest changes this year was the extensive presence of book stalls-almost 100-selling a plethora of books. Earlier, there were book shops too, of course, but most sold the standard biographies and works on and about the Indian constitution. But this time, there were books on Savitribai and Jyotiba Phule, Periyar, even Marx, Annabhau Sathe, and others in three languages: Marathi, English and Hindi. And witnessing the crowd in these shops was a heartening moment.

The emotion that day was palpable. A lady, who would not let me take her picture, spoke to me nevertheless, and said that the impression of people coming here to cry, or weep over the loss of Ambedkar, is wrong. People here do not want to cry, but take energy from the Mahapurush (great person). Till I am alive, I will come and visit the place where my Babasaheb is sleeping.

She added, A person who believes in Babasaheb can understand my feelings. Otherwise, it will fly over your head. Like an aeroplane. The lady, who had travelled from Aurangabad, was carrying a huge bag, and when I tried to offer her some financial help, she refused, saying: I am rich because I have Babasaheb.

Manoj Nagrale

Manoj Nagrale, a resident of Dhule and currently pursuing Masters in Mass communication, had to stand throughout the whole journey from his district to Dadar, in the packed general compartment. I have no complain regarding why there is so much crowd in the general compartment. But I do want to say that at least for today, the government should increase the general compartment so Ambedkarites can go and pay homage to their beloved, he said.

Nagrale, who works with an Ambedkarite organisation called Jagar Kala Manch, says he comes to Chaitya Bhoomi every year. He has performed at various villages in Dhule district of Khandesh region of Maharashtra. For him, Babasaheb Ambedkar means the annihilation of caste, class, the subjugation of women and the freedom to breathe: to be able to write, sing and express his views.

Bhakti Vardan

Bhakti Vardan, a 22-year-old who studies social work, was visiting for the first time. She had bought a book called Fascist Thakare by Sudhir Dhawale. Vardan sees Ambedkar as her inspiration. Initially I used to think that December 6 was the cause of a mess in Mumbai; people would come and dirty the place. But after working in the social field and in Dalit communities, I have realised that they have been forced to live like this. This place is magical because of the energy; it gives me so much strength to fight against the family institute of caste system, she says.

For the Jadhav family from Sanjay Gandhi Nagar Vikhroli, it was a way to spend family time, sharing their love for Babasaheb. Ritik, the son of 14-year-old boy said that We say Jai Bhim every day, to remember him. We are not frightened to say Jay Bhim. Shubham Jadhav, who is studying in the 7th standard, said, Babasaheb gave us liberty. I feel proud when I see such a huge crowd and feel a part of it. India will revert to Buddhism in some days. Jai Bhim.



The Jadhav family

Trupti Pravin Jadhav, the mother, said, If I am not able to show our community to my children, I will be betraying the words of Babasaheb

On the other hand, Akinta Ashish Jadhav spent time teaching her son Shantanu about Buddhism and why the community gathers here every year.

According to Shankar Yashod from Chalisgaon, Thousand of years under the caste system was meant to be destroyed by Babasaheb Ambedkar through the constitutional writing, but we have failed him. When I come here, I can feel the energy among us but we must also take the responsibility to promote the thoughts of Babasaheb.

Vijay Wagh

Vijay Wagh, a 24-year-old engineer, has been visiting the place for the past 10 years. He sees the event as a centre for anti-caste, anti-class movement.

Whatever I am today, it is because of Babasaheb. I respect him not only because I got education due to his efforts, but also for teaching us how to fight against the caste system, he added.
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Is Troye Sivan Gay, Who Is His Boyfriend and What Is His Net Worth? Troye Sivan is an Australian singer and songwriter best known for songs like Happy Little Pill, Youth, Heaven (with Betty Who) and The Boyfriend Tag (with Tyler Oakley) which have all garnered him different awards and ranked on the Billboard Charts. Sivan, who was born in South Africa but now resides in the United States, is ...

Did iDubbbz Have Cancer, Is He Gay and Who Is His Girlfriend Now? iDubbbz is one YouTuber who has made a career out of courting controversy. Renowned for his absurdist channels and comedy video series, the Los Angeles based personality is the owner of two channels, iDubbzTV, and iDubbzTV2, as well as the brains behind comedy video series such as Content Cop, Kickstarter Crap, Gaming News Crap, and ...

Inside Greg Gutfelds Love Story With Wife Elena Moussa and Why Fans Thought He Was Gay Greg Gutfeld is a seasoned American television producer whose career in the media industry has spanned over a decade. He is a man of many talents who makes extra income through comedy, journalism, and editorial works. Gutfeld regularly appears on Fox News Channel as a panellist and co-host of the political talk show The Five ...

Works That Made Bo Burnham A Household Name and How Much He Is Worth Now One of YouTubes first viral stars and the worlds most exciting young comedian, Bo Burnham, has always amazed critics and comedy aficionados alike. Often regarded as the Justin Bieber of comedy, thanks to his fresh looks, floppy blond hair and hoodies, he has a multi-faceted career bigger than many comedians twice his age. It wouldnt ...

Is Louie Anderson Gay And What Is His Net Worth? Louie Anderson has one of the most abstract faces in the industry and equally knows how to use it to his advantage. He is not only a stand-up comedian but also an actor and television host who is known for his distinctive comic wits. Some of his notable projects include Family Feud, where he was ...

Is Don Lemon of CNN Gay, Who is His Partner and What Is His Salary? Don Lemon has risen to become one of the most recognizable faces on CNN over the past few years. The fiery journalist, who anchors CNN Tonight with Don Lemon, is liked and somewhat disliked for his strong and candid opinions on a variety of matters that do not just include politics but also race, significantly, matters that ...

Is Rachel Maddow Gay, Who is the Wife and How Much Does She Earn in Salary? Rachel Maddow is an award-winning American journalist, political commentator, and television news anchor. She is best known for hosting the popular nightly TV show The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC. Prior to this, she hosted a talk radio program on Air America Radio from 2005 to 2010. As of now, the TV sensation co-anchors MSNBCs ...

Demystifying Pokimane  Her Real Name, Ethnicity & Boyfriend Like most social media celebrities in this digital era, Pokimane Thicc is one of those stars who took advantage of the internet to make a name for herself. Given the unlimited potentials which the social media space offers, many people have been instantly propelled to fame just by posting creative online contents. Not only has ...

A Breakdown of Kris Jenners Net Worth, Sources Of Income and Relationships Over The Years Standing outside and looking in, Kris Jenner looks like the oil that greases the wheels of the entire Kardashian/Jenner machine. She has been dubbed a momager and rightfully so because she seems to have had a part to play in the trajectory of each and every one of her daughters individually and the Kardashian brand ...

Pursuits That Brought Liza Koshys Fame To its Zenith and Her Love Life Since David Dobrik Liza Koshy is an American actress who has leveraged YouTube as a platform to promote her comedy while also serving as a television host on occasions. She is talented and funny and has gathered a lot of fans from around the world. Koshy started on Vine in high school and was able to get millions of ...

Alex Aiono Biography  Inside The Life Of The American Singer Not everyone who started from the streets has attained the heights where Alex Aiono is currently. His story could be referred to as the perfect definition of rising from Grass to Grace. He came into the limelight after he started out as a YouTuber, singer, and producer. One fascinating thing about the young YouTuber is ...

Virginia Vallejo Biography And Her Love Story With Pablo Escobar Virginia Vallejo can be referred to as one of the oldest whistleblowers in history after her involvement with Pablo Escobar which made her famous. Over the years, many questions have been raised about her relationship with the drug lord and why she endangered her life to be with him despite his notorious acts. The death ...

Princess Love Bio  Ethnicity, Real Name & Parents For many people, Princess Love is simply Ray Js wife but there is so much more to this feisty lady than meets the eye. She is a star in her own right and has many feathers on her cap. Princess Love is a reality TV star, a model, video vixen, and fashion designer. She and her ...

Who is Papa Franku Also Known As Filthy Frank or Joji, Where is He Now? The social media as we all know today has given people the opportunity to be creative and innovative and at the same time, make something of themselves. YouTube is one of the known social platforms we have today that makes it possible for people to express their God-given talents and post videos they created to ...

Who Is Molly Qerim, How Did She Become a Famous Sports Anchor and Who Is Her Husband? Molly Qerim is an American sports anchor popularly known for moderating First Take, a highly rated sports talk show, on ESPN. Prior to joining ESPN, Qerim hosted Fantasy Live and NFL AM on NFL Network. It is quite obvious that the widely acclaimed television personality is in a class of her own when it comes ...

Safiya Nygaard  Height, Parents & Net Worth Safiya Nygaard is an American YouTuber, writer, content producer, and director who is popular for posting makeup, beauty and fashion videos on YouTube. Her videos regularly top at least one million views, thanks to her lively character as well as her willingness to experiment with outrageous outfits and different beauty products. Here are the things to ...

The Rigors of Sunlen Serfatys Career Journey Until CNN and Fun Facts About Her Personal Life CNN correspondent, Sunlen Serfaty is an Emmy Award-winning journalist known for covering a broad range of breaking news stories, national news, and Washington politics. She has been able to garner widespread recognition for herself which even goes beyond the sphere of her work. Her profile also increased with the extensive work she did in covering ...

Demystifying Jazz Jennings Real Name, Boyfriend & Family Of One The Youngest Transgenders Jazz Jennings is an unusual personality who became famous as a transgender activist and was recorded as the youngest documented public figure to be seen as transgender. She is also a YouTube personality and spokesmodel for brands, her fans, and other transgenders. She fought for acceptance in her high school with her super supportive family for over ...

Inside Fred Armisens Life  Ethnicity, Romantic Relationships and Gay Rumors Fred Armisen is an award-winning American comedian, he is also a writer, an actor as well as a musician. He was a cast member of the legendary comedy show, Saturday Night Live for 13 years and also one of the brains behind the successful satirical show Portlandia. Find out more about this incredibly talented guy ...

Ed and Lorraine Warren Biography: Cases, Kids, and Family Life Have you ever woken up with fear you could not explain, or felt a strange presence that made the hair at your nape rise or even experienced strange occurrences around you? Well, these were some of the promptings that made the well-known paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren delve into trying to explain the ideas ...

Truth About Tony Romos Wife, Kids and Life Since His NFL Retirement Tony Romo grew from the field as a quarterback to the screens as an American Football Analyst. He was a quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys in the richest football league in the world (NFL) before retiring. As a junior, he was honored as an All-Ohio Conference Member, an Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Year and ...

Who is Brittany Venti, The Controversial Game Streamer and YouTuber? In recent times, many people live stream themselves playing video games. This has become a popular pastime on the internet and many highly skilled gamers have become internet celebrities through this means. However, some of them rather than becoming renowned for their gaming skills and great commentary, have become controversial and infamous. A good example ...

Rob Dyrdeks Family: His Kids And Relationship With Wife Bryiana Noelle Flores A multi-talented star and an elite pro skateboarder, Rob Dyrdeks success story began at a remarkably young age. Yet another proof that schooling doesnt always correlate with success, Rob has established himself not just as a phenomenal sportsman but also as a successful entrepreneur. Besides perfecting his skill as a natural talent on the board, ...

xChocobars  Biography and Everything You Should Know About Her Having distinguished herself and recorded massive successes in an industry notably dominated by men, it is very safe to say that Xchocobars deserves all the attention and cash she makes from her career. A household name on Twitch (a smart live streaming video platform), the online-gamer is popularly known for streaming classic games such as Stardew ...

Everything To Know About Mary Padian, Her Boyfriend and Net Worth Mary Padian is a famous American television reality personality best known for her involvements on the Reality show Storage Wars. She also has her own shop called Mary finds where she displays her antique collections. Since her childhood, Padian has been a creative learner. At the time, she used to create new items out of reusable ones and ...

Betsy Woodruffs Family Life: Is She Married or Related To Bob Woodruff? An old name in the world of journalism, Betsy Woodruff has warmed her way into the hearts of many with her impressive talents. Through hard work, Woodruff has carved a niche for herself in a very competitive field. Betsy has strong family and work values and is also an advocate for equal opportunities for everyone ...

Matpat (Matthew Patrick)  Wife, Height & Net Worth As far as internet business is concerned, Matpat remains one of the most dynamic and seasoned figures. He boasts a wealth of experience that has helped him in growing his business from one level of greatness to another. Like most successful people, MatPat started out small but today, he makes millions of dollars from his ...

Facts About Ricegum  His Girlfriend, Real Name & Net Worth Ricegum is an online gamer and YouTube sensation who ditched college; took advantage of the digital era, and made a name for himself on the internet. Though he began as a gaming YouTuber, Ricegum soon gained recognition as a controversial internet star following his many diss tracks. Here is everything you need to know about the youngster ...

Joy Taylor Once Married MLBs Richard Giannotti  Inside Look At Her Love Life and Family The erosion of the sexist idea that women have no business in sports broadcasting created a host of women celebrities who attained fame outside of modeling and acting. One of them, Joy Taylor, a radio personality and TV host for Fox Sports 1, has been in the industry since 2009, becoming one of the most ...

What To Know About Conan OBriens Wife, Kids & Family Today The name Conan OBrien is one that jumps right at you almost immediately you start talking about the most popular television hosts in the USA and this is no surprise because the man behind that name has risen to become one of the most admired men in the business. Known for hosting the late-night talk ...

David Letterman  Net Worth, Wife & Son In all of American, one man whose face has been seen frequently by late night TV talk show lovers is none but David Letterman. The comedian and TV show veteran has been hosting late night talk shows for more than three decades. His Late Night with David Letterman show began on February 1st, 1982 aired ...

Demystifying Sssniperwolfs Family Background And The Boyfriends Shes Had Since she launched her eponymously named channel in 2013, Sssniperwolf has been on the rise when it comes to video game influencers. She is one of the biggest names in the online gaming subgenre of YouTube videos. Real name Lia Shelesh, she started with Call of Duty: Black Ops II but has diversified with other ...

Lester Holt  Wife, Family & Net Worth Lester Holt is a multiple award-winning journalist, newscaster, reporter, and actor who has worked for notable media houses like WCBS TV, CBS, MSNBC and among others. His remarkable feat in journalism has endeared him to the hearts of many and earned him some awards and recognitions. Read on to get acquainted with his biography, ethnicity, ...

What Is Louis C.K. Doing Now, Where Are His Family And How Much Is His Net Worth? It is not easy to make it in comedy. It takes more than a funny bone and the ability to elicit a few giggles from a listening audience. For all the complexities that go into making a successful career in comedy, Louis C.K, the Washington D.C-born comedian, did it. For years, he was at the ...

The Progression of Hoda Kotbs Career, Her Ancestry and Family Life Hoda Kotb gained fame as a television host and news anchor for NBC. She anchors the shows signature show Today, and it has been an excellent vehicle for her skills in front of a camera. Kotb has won several awards, including Daytime Emmys and Peabody Awards. Simply put, she is one of the most successful ...

Jerry Seinfelds Family: All About The Amazing Comedians Wife and Kids Apparently one of the highly important entertainers in America, Jerry Seinfeld is a man of many talents. A very funny man, he is considered to be one of the most successful comedians in the USA who has been in the business as a professional rib-cracker for more than 40 years. As an actor, he has ...

The Rigors Of Sarah Silvermans Rise To Prominence And Rundown Of The Men She Has Dated A comedian, writer, and actress, Sarah Silvermans art and craft is as unique as you would ever find. Her poignant use of comedy to discuss social issues such as race, sexism, politics, and religion has gained her an impressive following. As unorthodox as her style is, so is her life experiences. She previously suffered from epiglottitis ...

Who Is Hannibal Buress, Does He Have A Wife or Girlfriend & Why Was He Arrested? Making people laugh when they are tense or not in the mood is a tough order and to ply the trade, it must indeed take some guts and expertise, this is what the humor maker, Hannibal Buress has been able to achieve and sustain after his inital teething process. The African-American is a screen writer, stand-up ...

The Success of John Mulaneys Career Efforts Since His Work On Saturday Night Live and Facts About His Wife John Mulaney had been working as a professional comedian for years before Saturday Night Live changed his status for life and like many who are now his fans, you probably did not know of him then. However, that changed when he joined the sketch comedy show in 2008. Since then, he has been one of ...

Jeff Dunham  Wife, Children and Net Worth Ventriloquism is a very subtle method of making an inanimate object (like a puppet, doll or dummy) appear to be saying words which are actually coming from the person (holding the inanimate object). In effect, the individual throws his/her voice to the puppet and can even appear to be having a conversation with it. Not ...

Ellen DeGeneres  Net Worth, Wife  Portia de Rossi & Parents Ellen DeGeneres is an American female standup comedian who has proven that whatever a man can do, a woman can also do. Since her journey as a standup comedian started in 1981, she has held swirl as one of the finest comedians America and the world at large has seen. She is often referred to ...

Revisiting Joan Rivers Death  The Daughter, Husband & Net Worth She Left Behind Joan Rivers was a renowned American comedian, TV host, writer, and actress. Her brand of comedy consisted of scathing one-liners and no individual or topic is spared. She hosted her own talk shows in the 80s and 90s and was a pioneer for women in stand up comedy. She was the first woman to host a late night ...

The Struggles of Margaret Chos Childhood, How It Influenced Her Career Growth and Love Life Margaret Cho is best described as a comic star who knows how to maneuver everything related to life into a rib-cracking joke. She is also known to criticize every social and political problem, especially those involving race and sexuality. Apart from her talents as a comic actress, she does amazingly well as a singer and ...

Where Is Eric Bolling Today? Who Is His Son & What Is His Net Worth? Eric Bolling who was once a notable figure on Fox News, is an American TV personality, an author, and versatile Journalist. As a political and financial analyst/commentator, he anchored discussions bothering on finance for Fox Business Channel. Here is everything there is to know about his career, family, and allegations that led to his exit ...

Who Is Chelsea Handler and Does She Have A Husband or Boyfriend? Chelsea Handler is one of Americas top female comedians. She is also an actress, writer, television host, producer, and activist. She is known to be very outspoken even with things that are very personal. In separate interviews with The New York Times, Handler revealed that she had an abortion twice when she was 16. She has authored five books ...

How Did Laura Lee Achieve Fame, How Much is She Worth and Who is Her Husband? Laura Lee is a popular American YouTuber, make-up artist and beauty blogger. From posting videos of her makeup routines on Instagram, Lee has transformed into a beauty influencer and a YouTube sensation. Today, her YouTube Channel has over 630 million views and 4.5 million subscribers. Asides having millions of followers across all social media platforms, ...

Madison Gesiotto Bio  Ethnicity, Parents & Measurements Madison Gesiotto is no ordinary woman; although she excelled in quite a number of pageants and competitions while she was in school, it is her views on politics and issues in America that has made her name known to most people. She possesses beauty and intelligence in a seemingly equal measure and has been able ...

Who Is Lil Tay? Parents, Brother, Sister, Age, Net Worth, Ethnicity Child stardom is nothing new in the entertainment world. With the advent of social media, we have seen more stars made from the internet than ever before, and Lil Tay is one of them. Her uploaded rap videos trademark is cursing, swearing, cash-throwing, and use of obscene languages. Her fame went wild after she dropped ...

What To Know About Tig Notaros Wife, Kids and Family Today Tig Notaro is an American stand-up comic star, writer, actress, and radio analyst. Since she started her career in 2001, she has become one of Americas best comedians, particularly when it comes to observational comedy. One prominent aspect of her routine involves her family, which includes a wife and two children. Interestingly, Tig Notaro is part ...

Who Is Chantel Jeffries? What To Know About Her Age, Ethnicity & Net Worth Chantel Jeffries is a lady of many talents. Beyond being celebrated as a DJ, she has fared well as a model, an actress, musician, and as an artist. She first rose to fame on Instagram where she has a large following. However, in recent times, she has hit the spotlight for her rumored relationships with some ...

Is Ellen DeGeneres Married, Who Is The Brother  Vance DeGeneres and Family Members? Ellen DeGeneres is one of a kind celebrity in todays world as she has used her wealth for the greater good for many people. She has served a host of famous awards shows like the Grammy, Primetime Emmy and Academy Awards. Moreso, she is probably one of the most decorated entertainment personalities around the world and ...

Carli Bybel Bio  Height, Boyfriend & Net Worth Video blogging is now on the rise and YouTube is the place where most of it happens. If you are a lady who cares about her looks or a guy who likes to help his woman out with her looks, then one person whose name rings a bell when it comes to giving beauty tips ...

Who Is Lexy Panterra? What To Know About Her Ethnicity, Boyfriend & Net Worth Lexy Panterra is one of the YouTube personalities whose breakout came through the Twerk dance videos she posted on her social media handles and YouTube which has so far generated over 13 million views for her. From there on, she created her LexTwerkOut workout program in 2014. She is sure very talented as she as moved ...

Who Is AnneMunition? What Is Her Ethnicity & Does She Have A Girlfriend or Boyfriend? AnneMunition is a professional gamer and content creator of American origin. She is one of the most sought-after streamers on Twitch  a popular online platform for watching and streaming videos, especially video games. AnneMunition has almost half a million followers on Twitch and her channel has accumulated at least 13 million views. Her favorite games ...

Norm MacDonald  Former Wife, Son & Net Worth Recently, 59-year-old former Saturday Night Live stand-up comic Norm MacDonald caused a not-so-funny stir when he expressed his personal opinion about the #MeToo movement speaking in defense of Louis CK and Roseanne Barr. Following the backlash of his actions, he is diligently doing damage control for his questionable opinion by posting a public apology on ...

Inside Iliza Shlesingers Life With Husband and How Much She is Worth Now Witty, spontaneous, and truly humorous, Iliza Shlesinger is an American comedian who is clearly proving that the stereotypical claim that women are not really funny is not only incredibly wrong but completely outrageous. Having been in the game for more than 10 years, Shlesinger has grown bigger with each step, stunning fans with her incredible ...

Who Is Nessa Diab? Details of her Parents, Ethnicity & Relationship With Colin Kaepernick Nessa Diab has gained more fame as the girlfriend of different footballers than in her career. She is currently with the popular National Football League (NFL) player, Colin Kaepernick, and has stood by his side during his most trying times. Also known for her mononym, Nessa, she recently engaged in a tweet battle with the ...

Samantha Bee  Inside the Life of Full Frontal Comedian and Presenter We have over the decades seen various brands of humor and personalities who have walked the ropes. One of the formidable forces in the world of comedy is no other than the iconic Samantha Bee of the Daily Show who now runs her own television show on TBS channel. She is a Canadian-American political commentator, ...

What Happened To Jessica Williamss Boyfriend And Which Are Her Best Works? Jessica Williams is a woman who has a lot of feathers in her cap  and keeps acquiring more. The former senior political correspondent of the comic Daily Show, who is also a comedian and actress whose recent movie appearance include starring as a playwright just recovering from a recent split with her boyfriend, Damon, and ...

Who is Nicole Byer? Here are 5 Facts You Need To Know About The Comedian Nicole Byer, an American comedian, actress, and writer, made a name for herself after she played supporting roles on MTVs prank show Ladylike and the reality show Girl Code. The latter was a series that featured comedians who analyzed in minute details, all the issues that young women deal with daily, from period to dating, to weird friendship dynamics and questions about sex. Currently, ...

A Closer Look At Bart Kwans Ethnicity, Height & Personal Life Bart Kwan is one of few Asians who is known for being successful in the comic industry at an international level. His fame broke out after the YouTube channel which he created with his close pal Joe Jo garnered up massive followings. The talented duo has been running the channel since 2007 and their success ...

Heres How VanossGaming Achieved Fame Online, His Worth and Other Facts About The Gamer For many years, the decision to drop out of college to pursue an online career was considered to be foolish and self-destructive by conventional wisdom. It was no different when Evan Fong, popularly known as VanossGaming, dropped out of college to pursue a YouTube career. However, that radical move paid off, and he stands shoulder to ...

Desi Perkins  Ethnicity, Net Worth & Husband YouTube is littered with videos of makeup tutorials by different people but if you are interested in learning how to do your makeup like a pro, there is just one person on that platform who you must follow. She is none other than Desi Perkins! She is a popular make-up artist, Instagram star, and vlogger. Desi, ...

The Phases of Casey Neistats Pursuits and His Love Story With Candice Pool YouTuber, vlogger, filmmaker, and creator extraordinaire; these are just a few hats that Casey Neistat wears and the story of how he got here is incredible. A native of Connecticut, Neistat started out by making refreshingly-authentic short films and videos that featured content that was based on everyday life and called attention to serious issues. He ...

Connor Franta  Inside The Life of American YouTuber YouTube has produced a lot of young celebrities in modern times and Connor Franta happens to be one of them. Apart from being a YouTuber, the young American is also an entrepreneur, entertainer, and writer. His journey to fame began almost a decade ago when he started a self-named YouTube channel where he uploads content ranging ...

Rhett and Link  Bio, Who are Their Wives, Net Worth and Family Facts Rhett and Link refer to an American comedy duo who are very popular on YouTube. They are known for their comic songs, viral commercials, skits and the daily show, Good Mythical Morning. Good Mythical Morning is the most watched daily show online, averaging 100 million views in a month. The show has featured guests such ...

A Walk Through The Maze of Ryan Higas Career Pursuits And Relationship With Arden Cho Ryan Higa is not only celebrated as a YouTube star, but he is also famed for appearing on television screens as an actor and comedian. Nigahiga, his Youtube channel, has gathered over 20 million subscribers and billions of views with his different comic acts, short films, and music videos uploads. With the rise in his career, ...

What to Know About The Shows That Made Craig Ferguson a Star and His Family Ties Rising to the top of your profession can sometimes be a hard and difficult process. It requires days and nights of working consistently hard to be better than what you were yesterday. It requires not giving up when all of your experiences seem to be pushing you to quit. It is because of these challenges ...

David Dobrik Married Liza Koshy for One Month  Inside His Family and Relationships David Dobrik is a YouTube sensation who has garnered fame not just for his vlogs but his love life too. Given his career as a YouTuber, his channel is one place where he shares his romantic escapades. With a cute boyish look like his, this Slovakian young man is definitely a good catch, and not ...

Merrell Twins Bio  Ethnicity, Parents & Boyfriend One of the beautiful things about modern life is social media. As rudimentary as it might seem, it could turn out to be the greatest thing that would be invented in the next 50 years because of its impact on human life. Very few tools have revolutionized human behavior and culture as much as social ...

Who Is Bunny Meyer, Is She Married & What Is Her Net Worth? Bunny Meyer is a YouTube celebrity who has amassed over 8.8 million subscribers with 1.5 million viewers on her channel. She is popularly known as Grav3yardgirl and is one of the highest-paid YouTubers in the world. She initially started out as a fashion designer and later chose the path of a YouTuber. Grav3yardgirl has used her knowledge on fashion, makeup, ...

Ninja  Inside The Life of The American YouTuber and Internet Personality Ninja is a talented video game player known for his mastery of Fortnite and other seemingly difficult games he plays with ease. The video gamer made a career out of what is ordinarily the hobby of many people and has since then amassed a huge online following. Find out about him here, including the controversies that ...

What Is Eva Gutowskis True Sexuality and How Did She Rise So Fast As an Influencer? Ever since Eva Gutowski joined YouTube in 2011, it has been an interesting journey for her, moving from one milestone to the other. Backed by an army of young women and teenage girl fans known as Evanators, she has risen to become one of the most-talked-about personalities in the digital stratosphere. She has also leveraged ...

Emma Chamberlain Biography  Age, Height & Net Worth Before now, people in the entertainment industry could only achieve popularity after many years of dedication and hard work but since social media came into the scene, massive success and overnight popularity became possible. That is the story of Emma Chamberlain who encountered fame as a fifteen-year-old. Emma is one of the many young people who became ...

Anna Akana  Ethnicity, Boyfriend & Net Worth There is a new crop of YouTubers known by their different contents with a very strong uniqueness that stands every one of them out, some upload video games, some fashion while some others have comedy video contents to showcase on their channels. Anna Akana has used her platform to showcase her comedy contents to the ...

Revealing Truths About Lilly Singhs Ethnic Background, Family and Her Relationship With Yousef Erakat Lilly Singh is an Indian-Canadian YouTube personality, actress, and comedian also known as Superwoman. She kicked off her YouTube career in 2010 with the launch of her channel IISuperwomanII and followed it up with a vlog channel in 2011. This paved the way for her fame and success which led to a world tour. The ...

Who Is Andrea Constand, Is She Married and What Is Her Connection With Bill Cosby? Many people got sexually molested but could not voice out due to the stigma victims suffer and what will become of them thereafter. Very few of the victims danm every consequence to seek justice and bring the perpetrator to the book, like Andrea Constand. She never got any media buzz, not until her friend cum molester; ...

Who Is Lazarbeam (Lannan Eacott)? Here Are Facts You Need To Know Lannan Eacott became a person of interest after his YouTube channel, LazarBeam pulled him to the limelight. Initially, he started with uploads of Madden Challenge videos before deciding to build his own channel in January 2015. Within the space of three years, his YouTube channel had gathered over 7 million loyal subscribers. Today, he has not ...

Puzzling Facts About Wengies YouTube Success and More About Her Fiance Among the many YouTubers who have succeeded in winning the hearts of millions of people is Wengie. She is a Chinese-Australian YouTube personality, vlogger, singer, and voice actress. Wengie is famous for a lot of things, from her simple life hacks, DIYs, craft ideas to fun experiments, tricks and pranks. Her content portfolio also includes hair tutorials, diet & fitness tips, lookbooks, ...

Is Jeffree Star A Billionaire and How Much Does He Make On YouTube? If looks can be deceptive then theres no other person who proves this maxim better than Jeffree Star. A quick look at Stars pictures would likely leave you wondering whether or not to tag him a male or female. But who says being controversial has to be a curse? For Star, his looks have caught ...

The Place of Rosanna Pansinos Career Hats In Her Rise To Fame and Facts About Her Personal Life There are a few phrases that could summarize Rosanna Pansinos rise to fame. None of them can do it better than the famous axiom, no knowledge is lost. Her popularity YouTube comes out of her foray into other professions, specifically acting. Although acting now occupies one of the major professional hats in Rosannas resume, it was ...

Muselk (Elliott Watkins) Biography  Age, Girlfriend and Net Worth The new and best in-thing in terms of career is video gaming and we have over time seen young men and women make massive income from an activity that was purportedly designed to serve as a hobby or a relaxation activity. One of such individuals is the Australian-born YouTube Celebrity and Twitch streamer, Muselk, whose ...

PopularMMOs Biography: 5 Interesting Facts You Need To Know We have over the years seen social media millionaires, especially on the YouTube social platform. These celebrities cum millionaires have made names for themselves after carving out niches on the internet, and a typical example of one of such exciting media personality on the YouTube is American Minecraft gamer and YouTube star, PopularMMOs whose channel ...

Jason Nash Once Married Marney Hochman  What To Know About His Ex-Wife and Kids The now-defunct video-sharing app Vine was the path that led Jason Nash to fame. With it, he built an audience of over two million followers, which he parlayed into a significant YouTube career. That move has seen him become one of the most popular personalities on the internet, with the cash income to go with ...

Where Does Dantdm Live? What Do We Know About His Net Worth, Wife and Brother? Most parents buy video games for their kids to occupy their time leisure, while other parents frown at their kids when they play video games. Despite the disparity, every parent would be proud of their child if he/she eventually turns a celebrity or millionaire through playing video games like Dantdm. Biography of Dantdm Dantdm was born Daniel ...

LaurDIY  Biography: 5 Facts You Need To Know About The YouTuber LaurDIY is the YouTube channel of Lauren Riihimaki which she created on December 1, 2011, when she was still a college undergrad with the sole aim of giving Do It Yourself (DIY) as well as practical fashion and beauty tips to her followers. She has used the channel to establish herself as a YouTube personality ...

Lachlan Ross Power  Bio And Family Life Of Australian The YouTube Star It is amazing the varied sources of income that the internet has made possible in this day and age. Internet fame can get its holder a whole lot of monetary and social benefits, but it must be noted that it does not come easy or cheap. For those who desire fame, content is the sacrifice ...

Alfie Deyes  Bio and Net Worth: Everything You Need To Know Alfie Deyes is one internet personality you definitely would like to know about. He boasts of over 10 million subscribers on three of his YouTube channels and has three bestseller books to his name. He is probably the most renowned young personality on YouTube today and his vlogging empire continues to grow by the day. ...

Colleen Ballingers Love Story With Husband Erik Stocklin and How Much She Is Worth Now Colleen Ballinger is an American comedian and YouTuber who is a very funny, adventurous, and highly talented woman. She is also an actress, singer, and writer. Collen is widely known for her work on YouTube where she posts content on her channel, Miranda Sings. The comedian has gained many subscribers over the years and has ...

Who Are The Dude Perfect Members and How Much Are They Worth? Entertainment in the 21st century can be digested in many forms and with platforms like YouTube, the creators and purveyors of entertainment have been democratized. Today, one of the most popular platforms to exhibit ones creative talents is YouTube, even though there are other platforms like Twitter, Facebook, who suffer in comparison to YouTube because ...

Who Is Rudy Mancuso, What Is His Earning Power and What Do We Know About His Girlfriend? Rudy Mancuso started his internet journey on Vine. He would later transition to YouTube where he solidified his place among the internets most beloved comedic creators. He is now regarded as one of the renowned internet personalities in the world, with a presence in mainstream TV and film projects like Comedy Centrals Drunk History and ...

Vsauce (Michael Stevens) Biography and Net Worth: All You Need To Know The advent of YouTube and the internet as a whole revolutionized how human beings consume information. With each passing year, the percentage of learning that is done in a traditional classroom decrease as a seismic shift to internet-based learning happens in our education industry. From open courses online to YouTube classes and videos, there are ...

How did Jake Paul Make His YouTube Big Break and Who is His Wife? One of the most interesting Social Media personalities of the 21st century is the young and popular Jake Paul whose elder brother is the famed Vine star, Logan Paul. Jake has utilized the power of the internet to bring himself to the limelight with a channel named JakePaulProductions that has amassed up to six billion ...

5 Facts You Need To Know About Reaction Time (Tal Fishman)  The American YouTuber Before 2015, the leading meaning of reaction time was the amount of time it takes to respond to a stimulus, until Tal Fishman started his channel, Reaction Time on YouTube and the dominant meaning changed. Today, a google search of Reaction Time would deliver Tal Fishmans videos and YouTube channel link with a few physics ...

Grace Helbig  Net Worth, Boyfriend and Family Life of The YouTuber Grace Helbig is an American internet personality, comedian, actress, and writer. She became popular due to her daily vlog series, DailyGrace, which ran on My Damn Channel from 2008 to 2013. Helbig is also popular for her own indie series on YouTube, ItsGrace, which she launched in 2014. Her vlogs which feature random stuff such as ...

Mark Wiens Bio  Ethnicity, Wife and Parents Food is a great way to connect with people. We all love to eat, if not for the pleasure of food, the satisfaction of quenching hunger, and the very process of providing and sharing that food is part of the strongest bonds that bind humanity together. Maybe it is our historical connection to food, where ...

Is Filthy Frank Dead, What Happened To Him and How Much Is He Worth? As George Kusunoki Miller, he was a nobody. However, as Filthy Frank, George was one of the most famous internet personalities on the planet. The Filthy Frank Show, a sketch series on his YouTube channel, TVFilthyFrank, was one of the platforms most influential creations. He is the reason a crazy dance song, Harlem Shake, made it ...

CaptainSparklez Bio  Net Worth, House and Cars of The Famous YouTuber Sometimes, what society wants from its citizens is quite different from what the citizens want for themselves. This is evident in the life and career of video blogger and American YouTube personality, Jordan Maron famous for his YouTube channel CaptainSparklez. He dropped out of school after discovering his talent in playing an online game called Minecraft. ...

Who is Simply Nailogical (Cristine Rotenberg)? Here are Facts You Must Know Canadian Youtube personality, Simply Nailogical (Cristine Rotenberg) originally started out polishing and designing nails even before it became a trendy culture in the social media. Simply Nailogica started out her showbiz career in her early days as a child actress, acting in commercials for game and toy companies. Aside from acting, she is blogger, vlogger, specializing ...

5 Interesting Facts You Need To Know About Huda Beauty In the world of entrepreneurship, it is interesting when an individual has a mentor who he/she looks up to, this yield more productivity on the part of the individual. The iconic and rich American beautician and makeup artist Huda Kattan nicknamed Heida is the founder of the Huda Beauty blog which is number one Instagram beauty blog ...

Is Dino MasterChef Gay? Details About His Ethnicity, Girlfriend, Where He Is Now Food, for the better part of the early years of human life, was nothing more than what we needed for survival. There was no artistry or curation to the method of cooking. The scarcity of food left no room for artistic expression until we figured out agriculture and we could make as much as we ...

Who Is Gabbie Hanna And How Did She Become Famous? As the world shifts to digital media and depends more and more on streaming services for its news and entertainment content, YouTubers have become one of the leading creators in the new media world. Their understanding of the online audience: how to create, maintain, and increase followers, are all handy skills that have primed them ...

Jacksepticeye  Height, Girlfriend & Net Worth Jacksepticeye is a YouTuber and actor who gained popularity with a series of gaming videos he uploads on his channel to the delight of millions of his subscribers. He is Known primarily for his comic video game series titled Lets Play and his vlogs. His channel was formerly ranked 46th in the list of most subscribed ...

Chris Heria Personal Details: About His Wife, Height & Ethnicity Background In this generation, keeping fit has become one of the major criteria for being hale and hearty. In fact, most occupations these days are majorly concerned with ones body mass, weight and looks. Unlike the past where most people have to register in a gym to keep fit, social media has made it quite easy ...

Everything You Need To Know About Game Grumps Gaming is becoming incredibly popular on YouTube these days with game vloggers make millions of dollars out of them yearly. One of the most popular up-coming gaming YouTube channels is Game Grumps. The Lets Play series was created in 2012 and celebrated its fifth anniversary on July 18th, 2017. In six years of its existence, the ...

Daithi De Nogla Biography, Girlfriend and Net Worth YouTube has created an avenue for many to make wealth and become famous from the comfort of their homes while having fun. Many have built a career out of the platform, uploading numerous videos that have earned them the admiration of viewers across the globe. For Daithi De Nogla, he is loved for his humorous commentary on ...

Does Phoebe Robinson Have A Boyfriend or Husband and What Do We Know About Her Family? Phoebe Robinson is a New York-based comedian, writer, and actress. She is best known as the co-creator and co-host of the WNYC Studios podcast 2 Dope Queens. Just like some other female comedians, she never had any original plans of becoming a stand-up comedian even though, according to her, she took a class on a whim at Carolines on Broadway. After ...

Who Are Lex and Alana from Listed Sisters? What Is Their Ethnicity & Is the Show Cancelled? America is a country built on diversity. Everywhere you look all over the country, a countless number of immigrants or children of immigrants have become an integral part of the fabric of the country. From entertainment to business, immigrants are creating a niche for themselves and climbing to the summit of their respective professions. One ...

Riveting Facts About Danielle Lombard And What She Is Best Known For The American entertainment industry is one that provides many avenues for aspiring hopefuls to express their talents and become famous. From films to television shows and game shows, there is no shortage of ways for men and women who desire fame to pursue and earn it in the United States of America. Another tested medium ...

Unearthing New Details About The YouTube Success And Personal Life of Alex Burriss of Wassabi Productions Wildly hilarious and truly audacious, Alex Wassabi is an American YouTuber who has become a very popular face on the video-sharing platform after having garnered millions of subscribers over the years by keeping people glued to his channel with his witty parody video releases. If you have always loved parody videos, there is every chance ...

Everything You Need To Know About H2O Delirious H2O Delirious whose full birth name is reported to be Jonathan Gormon Dennis has successfully kept himself mystified by hiding his face behind the masks leaving his loyal fans speculating who he really is for many years. The American YouTube star is easily identified by the Jason Mask Style with make-up which he wears on his ...

Who Is HolaSoyGerman and What Happened To Him? German Garmendia has certainly seen it all when it comes to internet success. His channels, HolaSoyGerman and JuegaGerman are in the top twenty most subscribed channel on YouTube. The Chilean YouTuber found a way to tap into one of the worlds greatest inventions and make a living from it. He has been able to build ...

Who Are Glenn Becks Family, What Is His Net Worth And What Happened To Him? The American political commentary space is filled with different personalities. A few of them, through their rhetoric, charisma, and resources have been able to build a large following of men and women who listen to them for insight and direction for various political and social issues in the United States. For Conservatives, the story is ...

Following Charissa Thompsons Rise Through The Ranks Of Sports Casting and All About Her Boyfriend Superstar TV host and sportscaster, Charissa Thompson, has been hailed as one of the highest-profile women journalists in America, and the reason is there for all to see. She has worked for popular establishments such as Versus, Yahoo! Sports, ESPN, GSN, and Big Ten Network. She currently hosts the popular pre-game show, Fox NFL Kickoff, ...

Is Chris Kattan Gay or Does He Have A Wife? What Is His Net Worth? Chris Kattan is a popular American comedian and actor. He has appeared in several comic movies and TV series such as The Middle, A Night at the Roxbury and Bunnicula. Kattan is, however, most popular for his six-year stint as a cast member of Saturday Night Live. During his time on the legendary show, he ...

Everything You Should Know About the Rise of Insta Star Claire Abbott and Why She Gave It All Up A lot of young Americans have shot into the limelight for uploading different kinds of videos on YouTube. Some of these young stars include Connor Franta, Desi Perkins, Emma Chamberlain, the Dolan Twins (Ethan and Grayson), and Claire Abbott. The latter became a social media celebrity for uploading sexy bikini pictures of herself on social media. Apart from ...

5 Facts You Need To Know About The YouTube Channel  h3h3Productions H3h3Productions is a YouTube channel that specializes on Comic responses or reactions of other contents or trendy stories. The celebrity couple that created the channel has over time racked up sizable views for their commentaries and contents. Even though they had their own fair share of copyright cases, thankfully they scored an unprecedented victory in all ...

Lilypichu Bio  Height, Brother and Love Story With Albert SleightlyMusical Chang Like most popular internet celebrities, Lilypichu is one of those Twitch streamers who spend their lives on camera. From daydreaming about the possibility of becoming a full-time professional streamer, she grew to live out her dreams on the popular live streaming platform where people play games, make crafts, and showcase their day-to-day activities. Given the rise of ...

KSI  What To Know About His Girlfriend, Brother  Deji Olatunji & Net Worth Assuredly, when Internet inventors Vint Cerf and Bob Khan created the technological masterpiece, they probably did not know how massive the creation will be harnessed by many for different purposes including as a platform for earning money through content creation. One of such person who smiles to the bank regularly today for spending time creating ...

The Interesting Progression and Highlights of Carrie Keagans Career as a Host and Actress Carrie Keagan has garnered huge fame through her various stints on television. She is not just your regular TV host but one with a difference. Keagan has hosted several high profile events and TV shows, including VH1s Big Morning Buzz Live and Fox News Channels Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld. However, not many know she ...

The Gist On Elise Jordans Marriages And Her Rise To Prominence Political commentaries tend to be boring when it is handled by someone who does not have a knack for it. However, when you see the likes of Elise Jordan run the same commentary, you will have a lot of reasons to look forward to watching her again as the journalist is well-versed in the field ...

What Is Timmy Thick Best Known For and How Successful Is The Star? Thanks to the internet, many people whose talents would have ordinarily gone unnoticed have become famous. A very good example of this modern-day internet celebrity is Timmy Thick, an American social media star. He became popular on Instagram due to his penchant for posting raunchy pictures of himself. He also often posted videos of himself ...

What Does Heather Storm Do For a Living and Who Is She Dating? Reality Television is a great way to make a name for oneself as well as amass a fortune. Heather Storm can attest to this as she is one of those who have made a name and earned a lot from reality TV. She made her name appearing on shows like Car Fanatics, Awesome Autos, and, ...

Matt Carriker Biography  Net Worth, Wife & Height Unlike your regular veterinary doctor next door, Matt Carriker chose to spice up his noble profession with the unusual. Though he is known to many as a medical practitioner, Carriker is better renowned as a YouTube star and an animal lover. Having recorded huge successes on his various YouTube channels, the vet doctors name and ...

Jillian Mele of Fox News Career Achievements, Husband & Measurements There are quite a good number of presenters on radio and television who listeners and viewers may never wish to miss any of their shows because of their sensational golden voice, beauty or the special way or artistry they anchor their shows. Jillian Mele is one of such. She has been at the top of ...

Who is Gillian Turner of Fox News? Her Fiance or Husband and Net Worth Gillian Turner is well-known as a news correspondent for Fox News Channel but before she became a TV personality, she built an intimidating resume working for different institutions, including the American government. She served in different capacities at the White House National Security Council during the administration of former US Presidents  George W. Bush and Barack Obama. ...

Gloria Govan Bio  Age, Ethnicity & Height Even as Gloria Govan is famous as an American actress, author, a TV host, and reality television star, shes more popular as the wife of the former NBA player, Matt Barnes. She became known after appearing on the Florida version of the reality television series, Basketball Wives and later, Basketball Wives: LA  after Matt was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers. Sadly, ...

Michael Fishmans Interesting Start as an Actor and Why He Divorced His Wife of Many Years When one door closes, another one opens. As silly as that axiom may seem, it is the story of the resurgence of Michael Fishman, who plays D.J Conner on the popular show, Roseanne. Having played the character for several years as a child actor into his teenage years; when the show originally ended, Michael did ...

Who Is October Gonzalez  Tony Gonzalezs Wife? All You Need To Know October Gonzalez is a popular American TV host and media personality. Additionally, she is also a model. Gonzalez has hosted several TV shows such as Beat Shazam, Entertainment Tonight, and Rachel Ray. She has also featured in several reality TV shows. Gonzalezs fame is not just due to her profession but also because of her ...

Who Is Tony Berlin  Harris Faulkners Husband: His Children and Family Facts Tony Berlin is a popular American media guru. He has variously worked as a reporter, anchor, and producer for some of the biggest TV networks in America. They include CNN, CBS, NBC, and ABC (where he hosted the popular Good Morning America). Berlin has now diversified into public relations and owns his own PR firm. ...

The Progression of Gianna Tobonis Journalism Career and Details About Her Marriage to Kyle Buckley Gianna Toboni may not be your ideal newscaster but her unusual reporting is what made her a household name. The American journalist is renowned for her hard-hitting and authentic reportage. A motivator and activist for total press freedom, Gianna loves to explore pervasive cultural issues. Not only does this unique and ambitious journalist call for all ...

Dog The Bounty Hunters Family Including Details of His Late Wife and Kids Popularly known as Dog, a name which he got from the television series, Dog The Bounty Hunter, Duane Chapman, an American bounty hunter, and one-time bail bondsman, went from being convicted for a felony to being a reality TV star. He was brought to the limelight following the capture of the convicted criminal, Andrew Luster in 2003 and this eventually made ...

Vicky Karayiannis, Chris Cornells Wifes Bio, Children and Family The world of showbiz is made up of different people who serve different roles, and function in a variety of capacities, and one of the most important people are those in the background. Publicists are undoubtedly one of these background people yet they are vital to the life and fame of most of our favorite ...

Joe Rogan Has A Step-Daughter and 2 Other Kids With Wife Jessica Ditzel  Meet His Family Joe Rogan is a popular American stand-up comedian and TV host. His journey to stardom began in the late 80s and has seen him host several shows, the most popular is the game show titled Fear Factor. The exciting show dares contestants to face some of their greatest fears and embark on challenging stunts. The ...

Josh Gates and Wife Hallie Gnatovich Have 2 Kids But Who Has the Higher Net Worth? Best known for his explorations and adventures, Josh Gates, is a television presenter with a voracious appetite for seeing the world and the beauties in it. Some of that beauty, however, is in his home, in the form of two children he shares with his wife, Hallie Gnatovich. Not excluded is their marriage which has lasted ...

Holly Sonders Wiki, Plastic Surgery & Why She Divorced Her Husband  Erik Kuselias After trying everything within her capacity to have a low key wedding, Holly Sonders was drawn to the public because of her husbands controversy at his workplace. Well, the two are rumored to be divorced but the article below will give more light on how true these rumors are. Meanwhile, Holly Sonders is yet to ...

Nadeska Alexis Bio  Age, Boyfriend & Net Worth Journalism is one diverse profession that allows the practitioners to choose their area of specialty, build a career on it by reporting the truth and facts which in the long run will distinguish them as deserving commendation and recognition among their peers. Some choose to specialize in political journalism, while to others it is sports ...

Media Platforms Charlamagne Tha God Has Explored and All The Controversies He Has Courted Charlamagne Tha God is an American on-air personality, radio presenter, and more recently, author. He is popularly known as a co-host on New York radios nationally syndicated show, The Breakfast Club, a program he has been hosting alongside DJ Envy and Angela Yee since 2010. However, his early years had no connection to his current career ...

A Look At Jimmy Fallons Net Worth and Family Including His Wife & Kids Sometimes, a childs passion for something is a pointer to what he/she would become in the future. As a child, Jimmy Fallon was literally obsessed with watching the late-night comedy program, Saturday Night Live (SNL). Then, his parents would tape the clean parts for him to watch and later, he and his sister would re-enact sketches from the ...

Kay Adams Biography  Does The Sportscaster Have A Husband or Boyfriend? When you hear the phrase sports enthusiast, women are hardly the first group that comes to mind. Well, thats changing pretty fast. Especially with the rise of female sports analysts and broadcasters like Kay Adams who is famed for knowing more about sports than most men do. And why not, shes paid handsomely for it ...

Ben Shapiros Family  Meet His Wife, Kids and Sister Who is Popular for the Wrong Reasons A multi-talented man, Ben Shapiro is a man of controversial nature, an attribute that has made him an unusual public figure. An intellectual whose career path was clearly defined even before he became a man, the Jewish conservative commentator has always had his way with words. He became popular by sharing his critical and often ...

QVC Shawn Killinger Bio  Husband, Net Worth & Facts To Know Shawn Killinger is a prominent TV personality who has worked her way to the top. Though not initially a journalist by training, she defied the odds and today has established herself as a household name, as well as, worked alongside some industry legends. More than just being a reporter, newscaster, and anchor, heres all you ...

Liv Lo  Dissecting the Ethnicity, Parents and Personal Life of Henry Goldings Wife While many are aware that Liv Lo is the better half to Crazy Rich Asians star Henry Golding, only a few understand why his beautiful wife appears increasingly endearing to fans. A former model turned TV personality, and fitness star, Liv has an impressive resume which when combined with that of her statuesque spouse is considered a perfect ...

Stpeach Age, Husband and Other Facts About The Twitch Streamer Lisa Vannatta, famously known by her online alias, STPeach is a Canadian video game streamer cum vlogger who has garnered fame through her appearances on different video-sharing/social networking platforms such as Youtube, Instagram, Twitch, Reddit, and Twitter. The beautiful lady got her career to a start in August 2015 when she joined the live streaming video platform, Twitch. She rose to ...

Insights into Seth Meyers Wife, Family and What His Net Worth Is Celebrities are mostly remembered and known for the work they do. For Seth Meyers, his career as a comedian, writer, actor, TV host, and producer is his biggest identifier. He was on Saturday Night Live SNL show as a head writer and cast member for more than ten years during which he built a reputation ...

Who Is Jessica Gadsden  Age, Net Worth & All About Charlamagne tha Gods Wife Jessica Gadsden is an American fitness coach as well as a personal trainer. She is better known as the spouse of popular American media personality, Charlamagne Tha God. Charlamange Tha God is a well-known TV and radio personality in the U.S. He has featured in several shows (both on the radio and TV) and is ...

Who Is Collins Tuohy  Michael Ohers sister ? Her Wedding, Husband & Net Worth Collins Tuohy is an American entrepreneur, philanthropist, blogger, and social media personality. She is also better known as the adoptive sister of NFL player, Michael Oher, whose life story inspired the Hollywood blockbuster The Blind Side. The Blind Side tells the true life story of Oher who grew up in an impoverished background consisting of a ...

Eye-Popping Facts About The Personal Life And Career Success Of Sportscaster Heidi Watney Heidi Watney is a media personality who has created a niche for herself as a sportscaster. Starting out as a radio presenter, the brilliant young lady has gone on to work for several prominent sports networks, and currently, she is with the MLB. The sportscaster is also known to have been an avid sports lady right ...

Marty Lagina Bio  Siblings (Martina and Rick Lagina), Net Worth and Wife Marty Lagina is an American engineer and businessman who has risen to fame as a reality TV star. This is thanks to his involvement in the adventure TV series, The Curse of Oak Island. The Curse of Oak Island is a long-running TV series which airs on the history channel. The show aims to solve ...

Is Jordan Schlansky Just A Character or a Real Life Person and What Does He Do? The world of late-night television is an interesting one. Shows during that time are geared towards giving viewers comedic relief from a long day at work through interviews and comedy sketches. The often charismatic host of this show requires the balancing talent of a producer whose primary job is to deliver great episodes. It is ...

Heres How Wealthy Jimmy Kimmel Is From All The Phases of His Career, Marriages and Sons Health Jimmy Kimmel is a renowned late-night talk show host known for his charm, wit, and the A-list guests he features on his show. As the host of Jimmy Kimmel Live! On ABC, Jimmy has been serving comedy to television viewers for years which played a pivotal role in launching him into mainstream fame and enabled ...

Natasha Bertrand Biography  Is She Married? Who Is the Husband & What Is Her Age? Natasha Bertrand is not just a young prominent journalist but a first-rate investigative reporter. With her natural beauty and smile, Natashas sharp, insightful political commentary also makes her a thorough reporter. Her sound political perspective and coverage in the country have made her a force to be reckoned with in the profession. Renowned for her ...

What Happened to Shane Kilcher? His Injury Update, Net Worth and More Shane Kilcher is well-known thanks to the Discovery Channel series Alaska: The Last Frontier. It is a show that documents the daily lives of the extended Kilcher family, people who live without plumbing or modern heating. The episodes follow their routines as they rely on hunting and farming for their nutritional needs as well as ...

Is Stephanie Gosk Gay or Lesbian, Who is the Wife or Partner  Jenna Wolfe? In August 2013, NBCs Today viewers were greeted with two shocking news. Today weekend anchor, Jenna Wolfe, announced that she was as a lesbian, introducing her partner as NBC News correspondent Stephanie Gosk, and said the two are expecting their first child. A long time has passed since then and certainly, a lot of things ...

Nikki Mudarris  Bio and Net Worth: 5 Interesting Facts You Need to Know Nikki Mudarris, also known as Miss Nikki Baby, is a reality television star, model and fashionista. Shes best known for VH1s reality TV series Love & Hip-Hop: Hollywood. Her entrepreneurial skills enable her to create and run a successful lingerie line Nude by Nikki. Not only that, but Nikki has also successfully run the Las ...

5 Interesting Things You Need To Know About Kelly Nash Ever heard of the lady who gained national prominence for taking a selfie with a dangerous ball just a few inches away from hitting her? Its no other person than Kelly Nash, an American sports broadcaster currently working as host of The Rundown show which airs on MLB Network every weekday at 2 pm ET. ...

Understanding The Height of Fame John Oliver Achieved With The Daily Show and How He Met His Wife Without knowledge of who he is and his exemplary career, John Oliver cuts an unassuming figure of a regular man but he is one of the most influential personalities in America, especially on television. Since he began his career in 1998, he has been a loud and unapologetic agent of change, using his wit and ...

Why Did Big Chief Leave Street Outlaws, Where Is He Now And Why Did He Divorce His Wife? Justin Shearer, otherwise known by his professional name Big Chief is a famous street racer and television personality. He is famously known for being one of the main characters on the racing reality television series, Street Outlaws. Justin, who had been a significant part of the show since its premiere in 2013, appeared in a ...

Who is Josina Anderson of ESPN? Her Husband and Family Facts There has been a gradual paradigm shift in the world of sports which has today produced the likes of Serena Williams, Naomi Osaka, and other female athletes that are pulling great feats in different sporting fields. Their achievements have also been followed by the emergence of female sports journalists such as Jillian Mele, Eboni Williams, ...

Is Brittany Wagner Married, Who Is The Husband, How Old Is She? Brittany Wagner has been an inspiration to a lot of sports youngster. She has won the hearts of many athletic students with her role as a life coach and an academic counselor. She is well groomed in her career and has worked over a decade for The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and The National ...

Tati Westbrook Bio  Age, Husband & Net Worth With five videos dished out every week, alongside running her own brand, beauty guru, and YouTube superstar Tati Westbrook has proved to the world that theres utterly no impossibility or limit to whatever one is passionate about. Tati is best known for being the owner and manager of the worlds most-viewed beauty and lifestyle YouTube channel, ...

Cathy Areus Long Road to Becoming a Freelance Journalist and What to Know About Her Kids An American freelance journalist, news analyst, and author, Cathy Areu has built a lasting reputation for herself on cable television. Popular for her skillful and sassy presentation of professional views on varying topics including cultural and feminist issues, Cathy is an inspiration to many women across the globe. In addition to being a journalist, she ...

Tucker Carlsons Love Story With Wife Susan Andrews, their Children and Net Worth Today On the TV screens, Tucker Carlson is that fiery fellow who passionately dishes out his conservative and often controversial views on issues of national importance. Such brazenness has fetched him many enemies, especially on the left-wing, but it has also helped him cement a reputation as one of the foremost broadcast journalists in America. His ...

Paige Wyatts Net Worth, Boyfriend and Where She Is Now Paige Wyatt became popular after the Wyatt family began running the reality television show, American Guns. The Wyatt family comprises Rich Wyatt (father), Renee Wyatt (mother), Paige and Kurt Wyatt (children). Rich Wyatt originally ran a gun shop, the Gunsmoke Guns in Wheat Ridge, Colorado which is outside of Denver. The business which he ran together ...

The Progression of Howard Sterns Career As A Media Personality And Why He Divorced His First Wife Howard Stern is a legendary American radio host, who has also done some notable work as an actor, producer, author, as well as photographer. The radio personality achieved worldwide fame as a result of his self-titled radio program, The Howard Stern Show. As a professional radio personality, he has worked in different radio stations. Since 2006, ...

Lisa Joyners Biography  Ethnicity, Net Worth and Other Key Facts Lisa Joyner is an American Journalist, TV talk show host, and actress. Some of her well-known works are her correspondences for the Los Angeles based TV KCBS, inFANity show, Find My Family Show including her film and television appearances in Brimstone, American Sweetheart, The Bold and The Beautiful among others. Lisas passion for reconnecting people with their biological families ...

Amanda Balionis Rise Through the Ranks of Sportscasting and the Identity of Her Boyfriend Amanda Balionis is an American sportscaster currently working as a golf broadcaster for CBS Sports. Among so many of her works in the field of sports reporting, Amandas PGA Tour coverage seems to be the most popular so far. She covered the Super Bowl working with CBS Sports social media team in Atlanta, where she ...

Dissecting Charles Paynes Sexual Allegations, Its After Effects and More About His Wife Charles Payne had a respectable career as an analyst on Wall Street before he made the transition to television and became a contributor and later a host on Fox. In that time, his expertise has come under scrutiny, and he has been at the center of at least one major controversy. The major controversy in question ...

Erik Asla And Tryra Banks Split: Everything You Need To Know Tyra Banks and Erik Asla have called it quits! The couple, who began dating in 2013 and have a son named York Banks Asla, has decided to end what everybody taught was the perfect relationship. Neither person has come out to give a reason for the breakup, but what is obvious right now is that ...

What to Note About Dr Terry Dubrows Qualifications, TV Works and Marriage to Heather Kent In the realm of people that we expect to see regularly on our screens, medical doctors are closer to the bottom of the list. Aside from the fact that their work has little correlation with TV, they are presumably too busy to pursue life as TV personalities. Yet, a few of them have usurped this ...

Jessica Goch  Bio: 5 Things You Didnt Know About Ninjas Wife Jessica Goch is the Schofield-born American Social Media Influencer who has worked as a model but is now better known as a host and interviewer of prominent Electronic sports celebrities at popular gaming events/tournaments. The screen queen also serves as the manager of her famous husband Ninja aka Tyler Blevins whose exploits on Twitch and Fortnite has ...

CNNs Chris Cuomo Biography  Wife, Family & Net worth Chris Cuomo needs no elaborate introduction as he has starred graced many prominent Television cable networks and his voice has been heard through acknowledged radio shows. He is a television journalist and Lawyer who has previously worked for ABC News as Chief law and justice correspondent as well as a co-anchor on 20/20. If you still ...

Neil deGrasse Tyson  Family, Religion & Net Worth Neil deGrasse Tyson is a distinguished American astrophysicist and author who has been able to achieve so much after falling in love with astronomy at the age of 9. He has since attended and become an alumnus of prestigious universities such as Harvard, Princeton, and Columbia, and also recorded numerous achievements in his field of ...

Is Simon Cowell Gay? Does He Have A Wife or Girlfriend and Why is He Famous? Simon Cowell is a well-known talent show judge, TV producer, entrepreneur and one of the most popular TV personalities that Britain has ever produced. In conjunction with his company, Syco, Cowell is the brain behind hugely successful talent hunt shows such as The X-Factor UK, The X-Factor US, Britains Got Talent, Americas Got Talent and ...

Everything To Know About Joanna Gaines Life With Chip Gaines, Their Business Pursuits and Kids Joanna Gaines and her husband Chip Gaines became celebrities after their television show Fixer Upper began airing back in 2013. The show which was about home renovation and decoration ran for about 6 seasons with a total of 79 episodes before the couple bade farewell to it in April 2018. Apart from their appearances on ...

Who Is Larry The Cable Guy? What To Know About His Wife And Net Worth Larry the Cable Guy is a self-professed country kid renowned for his trademark Southern accent and sensational catchphrase Git-R-Done! The famous comedian who talks about anything under the sun has gone on to become one of the most memorable characters in comedy history. Join us in unearthing lesser-known facts about the former on-air-personality, standup comedy superstar, movie ...

Who Is Patrick Starr, What Is His Net Worth and Gender? The make-up industry over the years has grown to become a billion dollar industry not just because there are probably more women wearing make-up but because a whole lot of men, especially the young ones, have become bold enough to wear it unlike before. A few of these men, like Patrick Starr, have even gone ...

How Did Chris Jansing Become a Senior Correspondent at MSNBC and Who Is Her Husband? An award-winning American television news reporter and journalist, Chris Jansing has succeeded in carving a spectacular niche for herself in the field of TV journalism. Outstanding for not just her excellence in journalism, Chris is also cherished for her incredibly gorgeous looks post 60! For close to four decades, Jansing has continued to soar in her ...

Jaclyn Glenn Biography  Age, Height & Ex-Boyfriend American Youtuber, Jaclyn Glenn, rose to prominence through her self-titled YouTube channel Jaclyn Glenn. She has remained an acclaimed atheist and continues to air her views on hot issues from politics, religion, animal rights, to atheism. During the heated 2016 US Presidential elections, Glenn featured in Hump Trump: Official Donald Trump Song. Her parallel acting career ...

Is Pat Sajak Married to a Wife or is He Gay With a Partner? Pat Sajak is one of the most popular TV game show hosts in America. He commenced his career as a radio disk jockey as well as a TV weatherman before being tapped to host Wheel of Fortune, the longest-running syndicated game show in the United States. Sajak has hosted the popular game show from 1983 ...

Nayyera Haqs Bio  What To Know About Her Husband, Parents And Family Nayyera Haq can take anyone on political debates as well as discussions on social issues affecting many. Her ability to masterfully deliver her stance on every issue or political debate has made her a regular face in morning and evening news media platforms. This is not a common feat especially for someone from her kind ...

Inside Guy Fieris Family With Wife, Kids and Sister Who Died of Cancer Over the years we have seen men dominate the kitchen and churn out amazing delicacies from it. Some do it way better than their female counterparts and one of such men is Guy Ramsay Fieri  an American TV host, celebrity chef, restaurant owner, bestselling author of four culinary books, and game show host. His ...

Meet Phil Mudd of CNN  The Former CIA and FBI Exec, Is He Married, Who Is The Wife? When it comes to discussing issues surrounding terrorism, American Counterterrorism and National Security Expert, Phil Mudd, occupies a globally significant position. He has voiced his interest in the fight against terrorism and insecurity on many popular media platforms, both print and broadcast, such as CNN, BBC, CBS, MSNBC, al-Jazeera, ABC, NBC, Fox, The New York Times, ...

Jim Hoffer: Biography, Wife  Mika Brzezinski, Children and Net Worth Jim Hoffer is an Emmy Award-winning journalist who works as an investigative reporter for Eyewitness News, New York City. In his over two decades of investigative journalism, Hoffer has been at the front lines of several crucial stories from the 9/11 attack to the crash of American Flight 587 to the 2003 Blackout. On top of ...

The Ups and Downs of Erin Mcpikes Journalism Career and Other Facts About Her Personal Life Erin McPike is a journalist working for the Independent Journal Review (IJR) as a White House Correspondent but she gained widespread recognition for her coverage of general news. Whether its breaking news or some mainstream story, McPike has a reputation of baring the facts. As a journalist, her work as a White House Correspondent for Independent ...

Bert Kreischer Is Married To LeeAnn Kreischer With 2 Kids  Meet His Family Those familiar with Bert Kreischer mainly have the image of a large-bellied party man whose college life inspired the National Lampoon film, Van Wilder. It is an image that one would not naturally associate with a wholesome family. The standup comedian still maintains his wild party animal image on stage. But, back at home, he is ...

How Brendan Greene Became a Game Designer to Look Out For and Facts About His Failed Marriage The name Brendan Greene may not easily ring a bell in the larger society but for gaming enthusiasts, he is considered a god and this is because of his invention of the video game, Player Unknowns Battlegrounds, also called PUBG. Based on the popular last-man-standing/battle royale concept, Greenes creation has taken the gaming world by ...

WFAAs Sonia Azad Bio  Does The Reporter Have A Husband Or Boyfriend? Emmy Award-winning journalist and Health & Wellness reporter Sonia Azad is on the news segment News 8 Daybreak for the television station WFAA-TV in Dallas, Texas, a channel which she joined in October of 2015. Besides her time on the news, Azad is also a marathon runner and a certified yoga instructor. She has covered major news ...

This Is Everything You Should Know About Caroline Heldman, Her Career Portfolio and Other Facts Love it or hate it, there is no escaping the fact that feminism has come to stay in our world. The movement has continued to garner momentum over the years and this is due to the sustained push by several women, and even men, including the likes of Caroline Heldman. A Professor of Politics at ...

Understanding The Enigma That Is Gavin McInnes, The Controversies He Has Stirred and All About His Wife Gavin McInnes is a polemical English-born writer and TV personality, who is best known for his racist and fascist ideologies, as well as his co-ownership of Vice Media and Vice Magazine. He is also an actor a
The Positioner underwater navigation system developed by Concern Oceanpribor (St. Petersburg) will be set up shortly on the Russian Arctic shelf, the Izvestia newspaper reports.

"The system is ready for installation. The first operation area will be the ocean floor near the Prirazlomnaya offshore oil platform," Oceanpribor official spokesperson Pavel Martyshkin told Izvestia. He added that the company's future projects include a global information network-centric system for underwater monitoring and maintenance of oil production areas.

The Positioner system is a network of autonomous unmanned submersibles that can patrol the waters at a depth of 8 km. Guided by sonar beacons located on the ocean bed, the robots will be able to accurately determine their own location down to millimeters and exchange data with air, water and ground-based control stations in real time.

Vadim Kozyulin, professor of the Academy of Military Sciences, told Izvestia that the Russian navigation system will compete with a similar US project, Poseidon, to be first tested in 2018.
After 30 years it is now becoming obvious just how much actual damage was caused by the Chernobyl disaster - the worst civilian nuclear power reactor accident in history. The original U.N. report was that fewer than 100 people (actually about 70, or as many as die every two days by gun violence in the U.S.) died directly in the wake of the accident, most of them firefighters. In fact, few people realize that the other reactors at the installation kept running for years after the accident. This ignorance is one reason Americans are so afraid of nuclear power - no one has ever died due to a civilian nuclear power accident in North America.

New Safe Confinement

The first confinement for the radioactive hell of the melted down reactor was a quick and dirty concrete shell termed the sarcophagus which was built by the military, but it was never intended to be the final solution. Now, after years in construction on a rail system adjacent to reactor 4, the final confinement structure is finished and was slowly rolled into place over the destroyed reactor and its concrete confinement. The new building, or New Safe Confinement (NSC), is, according to the November 25 issue of Science magazine, the journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a 25,000 Ton structure which will withstand a magnitude 6 earthquake. The chernobyl region in the Ukraine is not a major earthquake zone.

Big problem, gets big fix

The NSC was built with technical or monetary contributions from 40 countries and took 10,000 workers to complete. At 354 tall the finished structure is taller than the Statue of Liberty and is 843 feet wide at the base but while it is designed to contain any radioactive material from the destroyed reactor, the New Safe Confinement it isnt a sealed tomb, rather it is a working space which will allow technicians to begin the difficult and extremely dangerous task of decommissioning reactor 4.

The high tech confinement building is designed to keep dangerous material from getting out of the reactor area, as opposed to the containment structures on most reactors which are intended to prevent radioactive gases from escaping. With a 100-year lifespan after which the 600-plus foot long NSC should be ready to be removed after reactor 4 has been cleaned up.

Keeping all the radioactive material confined requires maintaining a sealed environment in the extreme weather conditions of the Ukraine and one of the features which the structure uses to maintain this seal is a 40 foot pressurized gap between the outermost shell and the inner shell of the confinement building.

Just how bad was Chernobyl?

Although it spread a lot of radioactivity and frightened a lot of people it is important to remember that burning coal also releases radioactive gasses to the atmosphere - far more in total than all nuclear reactors combined. Today there are still people living in the old town of Chernobyl or surrounding farms within a few miles of the reactor and they have been there for the 30 years since the accident.

Research has shown that since most people left the area the wildlife has returned in large numbers which are living happily in the 4300 square kilometer exclusion zone. While radiation isnt exactly good for wildlife, it turns out that it is far less dangerous than human habitation.
A female Muslim bus driver is claiming to have been raped multiple times by a colleague in March 2015, but when she finally built up the courage to confide in her supervisor, he dismissed the claims. He wasnt dismissing them as false, he accepts the incident took place, he just says that she wanted it. Of course, she didnt want it because shes claiming Rape and was traumatised by it. The case reached a London court, as the woman is suing the bus company, her supervisor, and the operations director.

Told her not to tell anyone

According to the Daily Mail, the supervisor told the Muslim woman not to tell anybody about the incident, saying that if she did, she would become the talk of the garage. This is a big part of the problem.

There is a shame attached to women who have been raped because it is perceived that they let themselves be raped, and thats why only 35% of such incidents get reported, and only 1% ever lead to an arrest. When someone is raped, its 100% the rapist's fault it happened. And we live in a society where that just needs to be explained.

After the Muslim driver made the accusation and her supervisor nonchalantly brushed it off, he started asking her question after question about personal sexual things that were none of his business, such as how big the rapists penis was, which positions they used, and whether or not either of them achieved an orgasm. He even said that her rapist hadnt done anything wrong.

Assaults came to light after unrelated incident

The victim had kept the attacks to herself until she was in trouble for an unrelated incident in which she had failed to put on the handbrake on her bus. Whilst speaking to her supervisor about the accident, she came clean about the series of sexual assaults she faced from a fellow bus driver who is also a Muslim.

The woman claims that her rapist has faced no disciplinary action or legal consequences whatsoever, while she has been fired from her job for breaking safety protocol and being negligent. The company did offer her another job driving nights, but she refused it as being raped had scared her.

Supervisor: she wanted it

The Muslim woman (who remains nameless for legal reasons, same as the locations and names of everyone else involved) took the rape case to police who did nothing for three months, before dismissing the case when her boss who is a Christian said that she wanted it as she has been westernised, suggesting that western culture condones rape.

She is now suing the bus company, as well as the Christian boss who ignored her essentially because shes a Muslim and in his eyes has no right to complain about a rape that happened to her in the western world. She released a statement: I became the victim of a series of sexual assaults and rape during March 2015. In the early hours of Thursday 5 March, I was raped by a work colleague, a bus driver. She said her boss tried to persuade her that he attackers actions were normal for every man.

Ops director said it was a cultural thing, not rape

The Christian supervisor took Gods side, saying that she needed to forgive her rapist so he can repent. The woman considers her relationship with this man to be abusive, as he held her tongue and stopped her from speaking out.

When she took this information to the companys operations director (a woman) who she is also suing, she referred to the misunderstanding as a cultural thing, claiming that this Muslim man having complete power and control over her was not rape but simply an islam thing.

The Muslim woman described her relationship with her rapist, calling him violent towards her and saying he scared her. He wouldnt leave me alone. He forced me to have sex with him and do things with him without my consent. Sounds like rape to me. Her boss disgracefully told her, You are westernised so you wanted it. You are intelligent, so you wasnt (sic) brainwashed by him. The case is expected to reach a court verdict by the end of this week.
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. Scratch writing by Asparagus by Eduard Harents leads the list of YEREVAN BESTSELLER project of ARMENPRESS. The book shows the endless opportunities of the Armenian language.

Another new book Husik Arays Yerevan city enters the list dedicated to the memory of a real Yerevan resident Mher Davoyan with whom the author recognized, revealed and loved Yerevan. The book is ranked 2nd in the list.

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde takes the 3rd position in the list. Dorian Gray is the subject of a full-length portrait in oil by Basil Hallward, an artist who is impressed and infatuated by Dorian's beauty; he believes that Dorians beauty is responsible for the new mode in his art as a painter. Through Basil, Dorian meets Lord Henry Wotton, and he soon is enthralled by the aristocrat's hedonistic worldview: that beauty and sensual fulfillment are the only things worth pursuing in life.

Mark Arens Where wild roses bloom comes next. This is the second novel of the author which describes the inner world of an Armenophobic Turkish former serviceman, when he, already an old man, suddenly hears a lullaby song that reminds him of his mother and later finds out that the song is in Armenian: realizing his parents were Armenians. The same former serviceman spends his remaining life searching the graves of his parents, without knowing that it was a misunderstanding.

The fifth position in this weeks ranking is Who Moved My Cheese? An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life. Published on September 8, 1998, it is a motivational business fable. The text describes change in one's work and life, and four typical reactions to those changes by two mice and two "little people," during their hunt for cheese. A New York Times business bestseller upon release, Who Moved My Cheese? remained on the list for almost five years and spent over 200 weeks on Publishers Weekly's hardcover nonfiction list. It has sold more than 26 million copies worldwide in 37 languages and remains one of the best-selling business books.

Art of Devotion or Ode to Rose by photographer and writer Edgar Harutyunyan is ranked 6th in the list.

The Book of Mher's Door" by Armenian author Levon Khechoyan takes the 7th position.

Narenk Galstyans Akhparner (meaning brothers in Western Armenian) is ranked 8th. This is the authors first novel, which presents a history of a family who survived the Armenian Genocide. The book was published by Antares publishing house.

Adolfo Bioy Casares The Invention of Morel is in the 9th position. Set on a mysterious island, Bioy's novella is a story of suspense and exploration, as well as a wonderfully unlikely romance, in which every detail is at once crystal clear and deeply mysterious.

"The Library of Babel" by Argentine author and librarian Jorge Luis Borges (18991986) concludes this weeks list. It is a short story , conceiving of a universe in the form of a vast library containing all possible 410-page books of a certain format and character set.

To complete the bestseller list, the following bookshops have participated in the survey: Narek (51-91-36), Bookinist (53-74-13), Antares (091-90-01-23) and Zangak (23-26-49).
1. George Lucas ghost-directed 'Return of the Jedi'

When you first watched "Return of the Jedi," you may have noticed its not as good as "Empire Strikes Back." You may also have noticed that neither credits George Lucas as its director. Thats because Lucas didnt feel like taking on the workload of directing the sequels, so instead hired Irvin Kershner for "Empire." But then, after "Empire" was released to rave reviews and poor, sweet Richard Marquand was hired to direct "Jedi," Lucas suddenly decided he wouldnt mind that workload. Theres a myth that it was Lucas who directed "Jedi," but that isnt technically true (true in every other sense though).

He barged in on set and took over from Marquand, forcing him to shoot a master shot of every scene, making Marquand essentially redundant as Lucas could then edit it however the hell he wanted.

2. George Lucas had stories for twelve 'Star Wars' films before he even wrote one

There are many versions of this story. Some say he outlined the six he eventually made (Episodes I-VI), envisioned it as one epic Film before realising it was way too long and splitting it into six parts, then deciding to make the fourth one first for God knows what reason, although a handwritten note to the contrary suggests that Lucas original vision had "A New Hope" as Episode VI, throwing the whole trilogy system out of whack.

The most reliable and least weird version has Lucas developing the larger story over a long period of time. He was coming up with ideas for sequels and prequels before he wrote "A New Hope," and developed it fully for years afterward.

3. Carrie Fisher did coke on the set of 'Star Wars'

Its no secret that Carrie Fisher is an ex-drug addict.

In fact, when they filmed "The Blues Brothers," cocaine vacuum John Belushi told Fisher that she was doing too much. This led to a myth fabricated by "Star Wars" fans that one particularly long fingernail that is visible on Leias hand in the films was used to stash cocaine during the shoot, but Fisher herself, now fully recovered, denies the rumors.

Ever the cool, candid chick, she said, I never used my fingernail for drugs. I used dollars or tiny spoons like any other respectable former drug addict.

4. George Lucas shot 'Blue Harvest' and never released it

By the time "Jedi" was shot, the "Star Wars" fan base was huge, and they were all desperate to get on the set of the latest instalment to see the cast at work, so the crew couldnt go around waving big New "Star Wars" movie, shooting here! signs. Instead, they pretended they were making a horror film called "Blue Harvest," with the tagline Horror Beyond Imagination. This was a ground-breaking idea and has since become commonplace for Hollywood blockbusters. Rumour has it that Lucas actually shot "Blue Harvest." While its certainly a mysterious idea to think that George Lucas has a secret film reel containing Horror Beyond Imagination locked up in a vault somewhere on Skywalker Ranch, my guess is that this is just a myth, as an unreleased film would mean Lucas squandered an opportunity to make money, and that doesnt sound much like Lucas.

5. Marcia Lucas saved 'Star Wars' from her husbands terrible storytelling

Every story decision that made "Star Wars" one of the best-told stories of all time came not from credited writer George Lucas, but actually from his wife Marcia. The iconic Death Star trench run, down to Han returning to save Luke at the last second (thats called character development, George), conflict in the Death Star scene  the way Lucas had originally written it, infiltrating and escaping the Death Star was easy  the death of Obi-Wan, perhaps the most shocking and emotional moment in the whole film, keeping the scene where Chewbacca scares off the little mouse droid: these were all Marcias ideas. Basically, George wrote a movie without soul, and Marcia gave it the soul it needed to truly become "Star Wars." And yet the history books celebrate George and forget Marcia.
A staggering 81% of 18-29-year-old readers prefer to get their News online, according to a recent Pew Research Centre study.

As the internet's influence over news and media has proliferated over the past decade, young people have increasingly sought to locate news online. A mere 10% of those surveyed answered that their primary source of news comes from traditional outlets such as newspapers.

Among 30-49-year-old readers, the breakdown is remarkably similar: In total, 72% of the 30-49 demographic have migrated to reading news online as opposed to the 13% that source news from newspapers.

This paradigmatic shift in consumption of news is fraught with peril

Infinitely more so than traditional media outlets, news sourced directly from the internet is open to manipulation. Recently, traditional media outlets lamented the demise of the fact, suggesting we are currently in the midst of a "post-truth era" in which political discourse appeals directly to emotion rather than containing any semblance of truth. In turn, this leads to "fake news" stories".

Andrew Smith of The Guardian opined that "the pedlars of fake news are corroding democracy", arguing that if fake news is filtered through social media then social media must be held responsible for the dissemination of misinformation.

In a stark warning, Smith claimed that we must choose between "social networks' bottom line and democracy".

An earlier PEW Research study found that over half of Americans--a whopping 63%-- source their news directly from Facebook and Twitter. Although initially dismissed by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg as a "crazy idea", social media is an integral part of this shifting media landscape.

Facebook and Twitter's algorithms order user's newsfeeds on the basis of what they deem user's are most likely to interact with, regardless of whether they are factually correct. Consequently, salacious stories bereft of fact found their way to the top of users' newsfeeds.

During the Presidential Election, millions of people shared a fake news story on Facebook that unflinchingly stated The Pope endorsed Donald Trump to become President.

Moreover, millions of people viewed and shared articles suggesting that Democrats had paid anti-Trump protesters and that Hillary Clinton was being investigated by the police for a sexual assault on a minor.

The consequences of the Hillary Clinton fake news story came to fruition yesterday in Washington, when a gunman was motivated by a story that stated Clinton was operating a child abuse ring at a pizza diner.

A man just walked into the Comet restaurant in DC with a rifle. No shots heard. I'm ok, hiding in the red fox coffeeshop next door.  Kent Hoshiko (@Kenttouch_this) 4 December 2016

While it is historically true that an individual's choice of news outlet has reflected their political opinions back to them the propagation of false news poses a tangible threat to the notion of a "reality" governed by a set of irrefutable facts.

Accordingly, every piece of news digested is simultaneously true and false given the nature of the internet as a platform of ostensibly democratic expression.

As shifting demographics normalise the consumption of news online, it is incumbent on young people who rely on the internet as the source of news to demand more from internet algorithms that control the reality around them.
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian and Assyrian writings on the municipality building of the Turkish district of Sur, Diyarbakir, have been removed at the order of Bilal Ozkan  the state inspector for the region, Demokrathaber.net reports.

Currently, the Turkish flag has been added to the remaining Turkish and Kurdish nameplate.

Earlier the Turkish Interior Ministry launched an investigation on the installation of a multi-language nameplate on the Sur municipality building. As grounds for the probe, the ministry mentioned nameplate installation expenditures, which allegedly caused damages. The case was closed when it was revealed the nameplate had been manufactured in the plant of the municipality.
Team Donald Trump has announced more members of the NASA transition or landing team that will embed itself into the Space agency and ferret out what kind of issues need to be addressed by the incoming presidents political appointees, including his pick of an administrator, according to Space News. The team is an eclectic group of academics, including Greg Autry of the University of Southern California and Jack Burns of the University of Colorado, former NASA employees, including Steve Cook of Dynetics, Rodney Liesveld, and Sandra Magnus of the AIAA (also a former astronaut.

Jeff Waksman is listed as formerly being affiliated with the United States House of Representatives as a research fellow.

Of course, the selection of these new members has sparked a great deal of tea-leaf reading about what it all means. Keith Cowing is pretty sure that since Christopher Shank, previously named, Cook and Liesveld were all associated with former NASA Administrator Mike Griffin, that must mean that Griffin is plotting a return to NASA. An alternate explanation is that anyone who worked for NASA in the previous Bush administration would have likely known Griffin as he was Bushs space agency head. In any case, Defense Daily is reporting that Griffin is interested in becoming Secretary of the Air Force.

Cooks presence on the team has raised some hackles in the commercial space fan base. When he was last at NASA, Cook worked on the Ares 1 and Ares 5 rockets that were going to be at the center of the Constellation program before it was canceled by President Barack Obama. Currently, Cook is working on the AR-1 rocket engine that may replace the Russian-built RD-180 on United Launch Systems next generation rocket.

Cook is seen as favoring the heavy lift Space Launch System, which some in the commercial space fan community would like to see scrapped.

Burns, according to Cowing, is a supporter of a return to the moon, another sign that putting astronaut boots on the lunar surface will be a top priority for the incoming Trump administration. The Space Launch System and the Orion spacecraft, now being developed for the Journey to Mars, will likely be crucial elements for such an undertaking.
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. Foreign Minister of Armenia Edward Nalbandian on December 8 had a meeting with Foreign Minister of Estonia Sven Mikser within the framework of the 23rd meeting of the OSCE FMs Council in Hamburg, press service of the MFA told Armenpress.

At the meeting Armenias FM congratulated Sven Mikser on his appointment and expressed hope as a result of joint efforts new impetus will be given to the bilateral mutual cooperation.

FM Nalbandian expressed satisfaction over the positive dynamics of Armenia-Estonia political dialogue and stated that Armenia is interested in developing and strengthening the Armenian-Estonian relations. As an important step towards this path, an emphasis was put on expanding the legal framework.

The sides also touched upon the process of Armenia-EU talks over the new legal framework and attached importance to the launch of dialogue over the liberalization of visa regime.

By the request of Sven Mikser, FM Nalbandian presented the efforts of Armenia and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairing countries aimed at creating respective conditions to move forward the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement process. In this context, Armenias FM said Armenia highly appreciates Estonias balanced stance over the NK conflict settlement.








Scientist shares her experience of visiting Arctic Circle on board Chinese icebreaker Xuelong

At the end of September, China's seventh Arctic expedition team returned to Shanghai. Of the 128 team members involved, five were from the Ocean University of China in Qingdao, Shandong province and Cao Yong was the only female to make scientific observations on the ice.

"Exploring the mysteries of the North Pole has been my dream since I worked on my PhD program in 2005," she said.

"My husband helped me prepare, offering to look after our baby and enhancing my faith in myself for the journey."

The expedition began on July 11, when the team boarded the icebreaker Xuelong, or "Snow Dragon", and sailed out into the East China Sea. They went through the Bering Sea and entered the Arctic Circle, a world of drifting ice.

Cao Yong (right) works with a team member on the ice during China's seventh Arctic expedition between July and September.Gao Yue / For China Daily

Cao was responsible for taking measurements of conductivity, temperature and ocean depth as well as collecting water, ice and snow samples. Most of her observations could be made from the ship, but occasionally she had to go onto the ice to work around scientific observation stations.

The expedition stopped at seven observation stations - one permanent, the rest temporary. Each was visited by the scientists, who had to wear thermal protective suits every time they left the ship. The suits were nicknamed "the penguin costume" because of the way they restricted the wearer's movements. Each suit weighed 4 kilograms.

Cao Yong and three scientists in a cradle from Xuelong.Provided To China Daily

"We had to carry a sensor and walk across the ice for about three hours at a time, but because of the suits our underclothes quickly became soaked with sweat. If we had stopped walking, we could have frozen," said Cao, adding "there were some challenges, but the expedition also recorded a number of firsts, which we are all proud of."

These achievements included the Xuelong's first deployment of a drift-towing ocean profiler, which collects hydrographic data from the upper layer of the ocean under the ice, the first exploration of the Mendeleyev Ridge by a team from Ocean University, the first time they had photographed melt pond distribution using an unmanned aerial vehicle and the first time they had measured the thickness of sea ice using ground-penetrating radar.

A notable decline in the extent of Arctic sea ice was observed this year, compared with previous expeditions, Cao said.

"In the past, Xuelong could only sail at a speed of 3 to 4 knots in the high latitude ice zone. But this year we reached 7 knots, which could prove the decline of the sea ice," she said.

Li Tao, captain of the seventh Arctic Expedition Group's Team One, said Cao did all the work assigned to her despite the tough conditions.

"In the field she was a tomboy, never saying no to any assignment. She really tested her limits and completed all the intensive work," Li said.

Yet Cao revealed her feminine side when she put her sewing skills to use making a protective cover for sensitive instruments on the ship's deck and repairing a broken trawl net.

"Over 78 days and nights we traveled 13,000 nautical miles. We experienced gales and gusts, bitter cold and big swells, but it was all worth it to collect the valuable data, spot the cute polar bears and see the fantastic northern lights," she said, adding that the expedition's reports and papers will be released by the end of the year.

xiechuanjiao@chinadaily.com.cn

Cao on the icebreaker Xuelong on the way to the Arctic Circle.Provided To China Daily

Cao and a team member collect observation data on the ice.Provided To China Daily

The Xuelong was home for the expedition's 128 team members.Liu Chengguang / For China Daily

Scientists prepare to launch detection equipment on the ice.Yang Chenghao / For China Daily

(China Daily 12/09/2016 page7)
Famous food critic tosses the rulebook out the window in culinary collaboration with Sheraton hotels.

In a bid to introduce the beauty of China's eight famed cuisines to foreign travelers, Chinese celebrity food critic Shen Hongfei was willing to adopt a somewhat paradoxical move - abandon the cornerstones of what makes the cuisine great in the first place.

The 54-year-old had partnered American hospitality brand Sheraton to create a special menu at the latter's 75 outlets in China. The menu, titled Paired, was launched in November and is available at the lobby bar of every Sheraton hotel.

"Sheraton is definitely not the first, and unlikely the last, western hospitality brand trying to popularize Chinese cuisine among its western clientele. But what I want to achieve is actually making a difference to the long undervalued cuisine," said Shen.

The trick to appealing to foreign palates not used to the complexity of Chinese food, Shen said, is to simply go against convention by dropping the elements of being local and seasonal.

These two trademark features of Chinese cuisine have been growing in popularity in kitchens around the world due to the rise of the slow food movement, which aims to prevent the disappearance of local food cultures and traditions. But because of the task at hand, Shen said that food trends had to take a back seat.

"It's like learning a language. One has to learn the alphabet before using cyber language," said Shen.

The eight dishes designed by him are: radish peels with chopped peppers (Xiang cuisine from Hunan province), pork skin jellies (Peking cuisine), ducks distilled in red vinasse (Min cuisine from Fujian province), salted roasted chicken (Cantonese cuisine), rice rolls with salted duck egg yolk (Su cuisine from Jiangsu province), spring rolls filled with deboned cod fish (Zhe cuisine from Zhejiang province), dried orange peels fried with beef (Chuan cuisine from Sichuan province), and dried bean curd flavored with tea leaves and spices (Hui cuisine from Anhui province).

Even the presentation style has been altered to suit foreign travelers. Each dish is served in a tapas style that allows people to share the bite-sized portions as Shen believes one of the most intimidating features of Chinese cuisine is its sheer volume and variety.

"People of different nationalities or origins are not only defined by their skin colors, languages, but also the food they eat. I think the eight dishes can basically summarize the taste of Chinese cuisines," said Shen of the menu.

Having started his career in journalism as a political reporter in southern China's Guangdong province, the region that was the first in the country to adopt the opening up and reform policy, Shen began to write about food in 1998 as a columnist for the well-respected Southern Weekly newspaper. Before his retirement late in the 2000s, he was considered the most expensive columnist in the industry, charging as much as 1 US dollar per word.

It was not until 2012, when the seven-episode food documentary series A Bite of China - he was the chief consultant to the show - hit the television screens that he became a household figure. The show drew more than 100 million viewers during its initial broadcast.

An equally successful spin-off to the program was created years later and is believed to have further whetted the appetite of millions of Chinese for their humble hometown snacks. The show was also hailed as a champion of the Chinese food industry that had been embattled by several scandals over the years.

However, Shen believes that there is still a long way to go before Chinese cuisine can achieve as great a recognition as its French counterpart that it is often compared to. He also cited the need for Chinese cuisine, which is renowned for its heavy flavors, to adapt and cater to the growing demand for healthy eating if it is to achieve greater popularity around the world.

"Many young Chinese today would opt for French or western fine dining over Chinese when they want to dine out on important occasions. But they are not the ones to blame. It is the job of chefs and restaurants to attract customers," said Shen.

xujunqian@chinadaily.com.cn
The diner sitting beside the sizzling hotpot at Hai Di Lao, one of China's most popular restaurant chains, looks just like any other patron.

But take a closer look and one would realize that this person is armed with a pen, notebook and questionnaire, items that betray his real identity - an anonymous critic who is paid to review the restaurant, from its food quality to service efficiency to cleanliness of its tableware.

More than 70 years after the idea of employing mysterious shoppers and diners was introduced in the US and later used extensively by market research companies, 34-year-old Shanghai native Zhang Mili believes that it is about time such a concept gains traction in China.

In September, Zhang's Huami Company launched the mobile app Da Ren Lai Ye, which means "Here Comes the Excellency", a platform that allows anyone to become a food or shopping critic.

Da Ren Lai Ye has since been warmly welcomed by companies that used to commission research agencies to conduct market surveys as it is at least 50 percent cheaper to use, according to Zhang. She added that the app has also created a bond between customers and businesses as the former has now become involved in the management of the company he or she is evaluating.

"In this era of the sharing economy, people are not only sharing cars, apartments or wardrobes. We believe there is also a substantial number of people who would like to share the responsibilities of not only running a restaurant but also keeping an eye on food safety problems," explained Zhang about her motivation to create the application.

Zhang isn't the first person in China to come up with such a service. Zero Power Intelligence was one of the first companies in China to do so, but it is slightly different from Da Ren Lai Ye in that it specially trains people to produce professional reviews. The company has since its establishment a decade ago trained 1,500 people who review businesses in 85 percent of China's major cities.

Da Ren Lai Ye sets no such requirements for its reviewers as Zhang believes that companies just want to know basic information, such as the state of cleanliness and the quality of service, instead of having to go through long reports filled with research jargon. She believes that everyone is more than capable of making such assessments.

For every task completed, critics get to earn between 50 ($7.24) and 280 yuan, depending on the complexity of the task. Zhang said that this relatively low cost of hiring critics means that a greater number of people get to review a restaurant, which translates to a more comprehensive and accurate assessment.

In a bid to ensure transparency and accountability, users of the app have to provide their personal and bank account details when they sign up.

There is no lack of independent consumer reviews or ratings platforms in China. Dianping.com, which last year become the country's largest player in the industry following its merger with Meituan, now claims to have more than 200 million monthly active users from 250 cities nationwide, according to official statistics.

However, Zhang said that the drawback of such sites is that the evaluations are public. In contrast, the reviews by Da Ren Lai Ye are for clients' eyes only.

"When a company wants to be reviewed, they are certainly looking for problems that they cannot find themselves. But few would want such problems exposed to the public. That's the problem with rating websites," said Zhang.

Though the application has only been around for a few months, Da Ren Lai Ye has already managed to attract more than 100,000 users and secure contracts to review the 750 Burger King outlets in China and hot pot chain Hai Di Lao.

Da Ren Lai Ye also counts Singaporean bakery chain Bread Talk as one of its high profile clients. The company had during the Mid-Autumn Festival in September commissioned Zhang to make sure all of the mooncakes sold at its thousands of outlets across the country were up to standards - local food franchisers have been known to at times use cheaper products to boost profitability.

"Previously, we set aside a budget of 200,000 yuan to fly our regional manager everywhere during the mooncake season. But this year, we achieved the same goal using less than 10 percent of that amount by having users on the app check on our behalf," said Fang Zhi, general manager of the franchising department at Bread Talk.

Last week, Zhang's app received its first contract from the Food and Drug Administration of a district government in Shanghai. According to the contract, more than 2,000 restaurants and eateries in the city's Songjiang district will be scrutinized by the app's users.

Looking ahead, Zhang's biggest challenge is to get the thousands of mysterious diners to be more committed to being an anonymous critic.

"As a startup business, we cannot reject or blacklist users too easily. Sometimes we need to work with client companies to develop the survey questions in a more quirky way so that the critics don't lose their patience," she said.

Chu Dong, vice secretary-general of the China Chain Store and Franchise Association, commented that such an app could be the answer to the country's problems with food safety.

"There is an imbalance between two ends: the government's efforts are limited, while the food providers are numerous. Having so many consumers involved in the quality check process might be a solution," said Chu.

xujunqian@chinadaily.com.cn
With a newly elected US president pledging to dump the TPP, Beijing's next move has become a prime topic of discussion

Will China take advantage of Donald Trump's decision to effectively scuttle Asia's biggest-ever trade deal?

The US president-elect announced on Nov 21 that on the first day of his presidency he will withdraw the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who had expended considerable political capital getting the deal passed against opposition from his own farmers, has said TPP will be effectively "meaningless" without the US.

The 11 other members, aside from the US, had almost all signed up because it offered a closer trade relationship with the world's largest economy.

President Barack Obama had come close to turning the TPP - which covers 40 percent of the global economy - into the physical embodiment of his "pivot to Asia" strategy, which critics say was designed to contain China's power in the region.

A major question is whether China will now move into the vacuum and attempt to build its own trade partnership with other Asian countries for which it is already, in most cases, the largest trade and investment partner.

This could mean breathing new life into RCEP - the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership - which was launched at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Cambodia in 2012. It is seen as a China-led grouping and one that also notably excludes the United States.

There might also be an attempt to finally realize the Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific, or FTAAP, the roadmap for which was put in place at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation, or APEC, forum in Beijing in Nov 2014.

It is seen as more of a long-term initiative. With a more protectionist US as one of its potential members, it may lose momentum.

Kerry Brown, professor of Chinese studies and director of the Lau China Institute at King's College, London, believes Trump's TTP decision does play into China's hands.

"It depends on how China deals with this. It is not an easy space to fill because it will have to propose its own free trade proposals, and that will be complicated. It can, however, now do this in a way it couldn't do before the announcement was made," he says.

The academic, however, believes it is a spectacular "own goal" for the US.

"It means that after 10 years of effort, America is withdrawing from developing an economic zone that was largely in its own interests and would not have included China," he says.

That the US would not stick with the TPP, which was signed by all its members (including the US) in February, was not a surprise. Even the Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton - who, when Secretary of State had called it the "gold standard" of trade treaties - made a U-turn during her campaign.

Hugh White, professor of strategic studies at the Australian National University and once a foreign policy adviser to former Australian prime minister Bob Hawke, does not believe she would have changed her mind had she won the election.

"It is very unlikely she would have done that," White says. "She would have found it difficult to get it through Congress, given strong opposition on her own Democrat side as well as all the Republicans who would have denied her."

Trade minister Steven Ciobo announced his backing of the RCEP approach within hours of Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull speaking to Trump following the US election, signaling the country had its sights set on the China-led grouping.

White, author of The China Choice, which deals with the politics of the South China Sea region, says the whole episode looks like a retreat by the US.

"It is such a striking demonstration that America's resolve to remain strong in Asia is not as strong as what everybody keeps saying it is," he says.

He is also unclear whether China will now take up the mantle and create trade blocs that deliberately exclude the US, since that might not be in its ultimate interest.

"China wants to see the US as a full economic partner in Asia, but it wants itself to be the primary strategic power in the region. It may believe in the end that the economic relationship is more important than the strategic."

Leading foreign policy expert Shi Yinhong, a professor of international relations and director of the Center on American Studies at Renmin University of China in Beijing, does not believe - even if there were a change of heart in Washington - that China and the US would be comfortable together in any new trading bloc.

"There would be a danger, from China's point of view, of the US gradually gaining greater influence over the other members because it has a bigger economy and a high technological level," Shi says.

Stephen Roach, former chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia and author of Unbalanced: The Codependency of America and China, also thinks it unlikely that China will suddenly conjure a new body in the wake of Trump's decision.

"It is unrealistic to think that all of a sudden some new arrangement will be cobbled together to exclude a country like the US, which is in a political position to start raising objections to existing trade deals, let alone new ones," Roach says.

"China has got a whole load of other issues to deal with, not least managing its own domestic economy and its own relationships in the South China Sea, before it can assume a strong leadership role in the region."

Roach, however, believes the pivot to Asia strategy, which was so much the central plank of Obama's foreign policy, is in tatters.

"It was the crux of the pivot, and without TPP it would have exclusively been done on military terms, which would have created more tensions. I think the pivot without TPP now rings hollow," he says.

Many are concerned that with the UK's Brexit decision, and now with the election of Trump on a distinctly protectionist agenda, the world is moving to a new era that has echoes of the 1930s.

Shi of Renmin University insists there is no direct parallel.

"Then, Hitler was already in place, we had a militarist government in Japan, and the protectionism was much more severe than anything we are seeing today," he says.

"I do think the current situation, however, is worse than at any time since the end of the Cold War, with nativism and nationalism prevailing almost everywhere in the world. We have all these strongmen saying they want to make our nations great again."

Roach, who is also a senior lecturer at the Yale School of Management, thinks trade deals are a difficult sell in a world consumed by populist election outcomes.

"The votes in the UK and now the US, and those coming up in Italy and France, are all a significant large piece of sand in the gears of liberalization and globalization," he says.

He also cannot conceive that Trump's protectionist agenda will work in practice because the US and China are now completely dependent in each other:

"China depends on the US for its markets, and the exports to these markets are a key driver of the economic growth that produce such fabulous results for China. And the US needs China to provide low cost goods for income-constrained American consumers. We also need China's surplus savings because we don't save and it is hard to grow without saving."

He believes the lack of savings in the US will make it even more reliant on China if Trump pursues a fiscal expansion policy to invest money in infrastructure.

"If there are to be larger deficits under the Trump administration, the US weak savings position will probably go into negative territory somewhere around 2018 or 2019. If we turn protectionist at a time when we need even more savings from abroad, that has enormous potential consequences."

Brown at King's College believes the TPP decision or protectionist rhetoric will not affect the overall relationship between the US and China.

"There has been so much work done on the relationship, and the vast majority of those involved in it will carry on as normal. It would take a huge amount of effort for any individual to shift the tramlines an inch, never mind totally changing them," Brown says.

Paul Cheng, the former chairman of NM Rothschild & Sons in Asia and author of On Equal Terms: Redefining China's Relationship with America, says the TPP might be replaced by a more deal-making approach across Asia by the US.

He is encouraged by the expected appointment of American investor Wilbur Ross, who spent 24 years in Rothschild's New York office, as commerce secretary in the new administration.

"Wilbur is a guy who really knows where to pick value. It's a skill that can be really useful. I know that he was highly regarded by the Rothschild family."

ANU's White thinks Trump's TPP decision is likely to lead to a major rethink as to whether trade deals are the way forward.

"There is real question as to whether these regional, multilateral or even bilateral trade agreements of various sorts are really the best way to go in terms of global trade," he says.

"The big steps made in global trade were perhaps made when we had these global multilateral deals under organizations like GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade), the forerunner of the World Trade Organization. These might be now preferred in future."

andrewmoody@chinadaily.com.cn

Trade proposals in pipeline

Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)

Formed in 2005 with Brunei, Chile and New Zealand and Singapore. The US joined in 2008. It now has 12 members, including the original four, plus Australia, , Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Vietnam and the US. China was not a member. It's absence was seen as part of the US "pivot to Asia" strategy.

The TPP has tough regulatory standards on labor, environmental protection, intellectual property and government procurement.

President-elect Donald Trump signaled in November that the US would withdraw from the agreement in January.

RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership)

Formed in 2012. Includes the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, plus six regional trading partners - China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, India and New Zealand.

The RCEP excludes the United States and is seen as China-led since it is the largest economy in the grouping.

Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP)

Still on the drawing board. First discussed at the Asia Pacific Economic cooperation summit in Hanoi in 2006. The roadmap for its eventual realization was announced at the APEC Summit in Beijing in November 2014 and given further impetus by a keynote speech by Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Lima Summit in November.

Both the US and China could play a leading role in the FTAAP, although this seems less likely with US President-elect Donald Trump's position on TPP.
With its exports continuing to soar, Canada's beef industry is expanding its accesses to global markets by launching a series of brand experience events taking place across the globe, including China, one of its fastest growing markets.

Canada Beef Inc, which represents Canadian beef producers, has launched a global brand including a new logo, tagline and video for Canadian beef.

The new brand was launched in Shanghai in November. More than 200 people including government representatives, retail, foodservice, and end use partners of Canada Beef, and influential chefs and media attended the event, which was also a tasting experience featuring Canadian beef prepared in international culinary styles.

Linda Allison, chairwoman of Canada Beef, Ryan Baerg, consul and senior trade commissioner of Canada's Consulate General in Shanghai, and Oneil Carlier, Alberta's minister of agriculture and forestry, attended the event.

Canada is the world's sixth-largest beef exporter, and Alberta raises more cattle than any other province. As Canada's second-largest trading partner, China offers significant opportunities for exports. In 2015, Canadian agricultural exports to China hit $5.6 billion.

In September, Canada and China signed a protocol to expand market access for Canadian frozen bone-in beef and also advanced several key initiatives to support trade in Canadian pork, bovine genetics and some processed foods.

"Canadian beef has a strict grading system that ensures stable quality, which I think is the reason for its mounting popularity in the demanding Chinese market," said Zhu Yifan, chair of FHC China International Culinary Arts Competition.

Canadian beef regained access to the Chinese market in 2011, when the country agreed to open its borders to boneless cuts of Canadian beef from animals under 30 months old. Sales volume has been increasing since then as China's growing middle class pushes up demand for imported beef. Exports stood at 33 tons in 2015, up by 381 percent from 2014.

"China is Canada's second-largest market for beef exports," said Polly Zhao, China director of Canada Beef. "Ten percent of exported Canadian beef goes to local kitchens here. But that's less than 5 percent of market share in China, which means there is huge potential to tap into."

"In the spring, we started off our brand celebration in the heart of Canadian cattle country at our culinary centre in Calgary, Alberta, the Canadian Beef Centre of Excellence. Over the next month that celebration continued internationally," said Joyce Parslow, executive director of marketing and consumer relations at Canada Beef.

Incorporating the unique traits that make Canadian beef a memorable experience, the new tagline "We put the best of Canada into our beef" links Canada's land, hardworking people, sustainable practices and good ethics to the food itself.

"Our sincere hope is that guests walk away with a passion for Canadian beef  the story, the brand and the premium product that it is," Parslow said.

"The practices reflected in the Canadian beef brand position help earn the trust of the marketplace with the reward being demand pull," said Ron Glaser, vice-president of corporate affairs at Canada Beef. "This translates into many commercial opportunities for all partners in the value chain right through to the Canadian beef cattle farmer and rancher."
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. Yerevan Mayor Taron Margaryan convened a consultation with City Hall officials, namely the urban development and land supervision department and the public order protection service. The Mayor expressed dissatisfaction over the shortcomings of the activities.

You were all tasked with carrying out a continuous and strict struggle in locating illegal construction sites, suspending and demolishing such structures, and be honest while interacting with citizens: The dishonest step of one employee overshadows the work of all of you. And every one of you was warned, any deviation from the defined principle will be evaluated by me as a serious misconduct, which will definitely have corresponding consequences. The head of department and head of service must in their turn strictly oversee the proper implementation of the defined principles, however regardless the volume of implemented works, I assess the result as insufficient. 15 employees have already been fired during this year, because they abused our, and the citizens trust. Violators of the defined principles should definitely be dismissed from duty, there cant be a second opinion here. But only dismissal isnt a solution to the problem. Design such supervision preventive mechanisms, which will maximally rule out corruption risks. I expect such solutions in a short period of time, which will eradicate all present problems, Taron Margaryan said.
Mao Jun, a Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology Co technician, checks a turbine at a wind farm in Urumqi, the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. [Photo/Xinhua]

Apple Inc has reached a deal with the world' largest wind turbine maker Goldwind Science & Technology Co Ltd, a further step toward the US tech giant reaching its renewable energy goal.

The deal marks Apple's largest clean energy project and is the first of its kind in the wind power sector, said Lisa Jackson, vice-president of environment, policy and social initiatives at Apple.

Goldwind's wholly owned subsidiary Beijing Tianrun New Energy Investment Co has agreed to transfer Apple its 30 percent equities in four subsidiary companies of Goldwind, the wind turbine maker based in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region said in a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Wednesday.

The investment "will add 285 megawatts of clean energy to China's grid as part of Apple's commitment to reducing the carbon emissions from its manufacturing", Jackson told China Daily on Thursday.

The involved firms are located in Henan, Shandong, Shanxi and Yunnan provinces. To this end, the joint ventures will empower Apple to supply clean energy to its production partners in China.

She said that the projects, along with a 170-megawatt solar project the company announced in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region last year, are targeting emissions from upstream manufacturing where Apple does not have a direct relationship with the supplier.

Apple has also pledged to partner with its suppliers in China to install more than 2 gigawatts of new clean energy in the coming years. The projects will produce more than 900 million kilowatt-hours of power, equivalent to the amount of energy needed to power 690,000 Chinese homes.

China, as the world's largest wind power market, accounted for 46 percent of all wind power installed globally last year, surpassing the United States, according to data from Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

Apple has long envisioned renewable energy being tapped in its business operations, as CEO Tim Cook required the company's environmental checklists to go along with new product launches.

In April, Apple joined hands with SunPower Corp to build two solar power projects totaling 40 megawatts in the Aba Tibetan-Qiang autonomous prefecture in Sichuan province.

It also partnered with long-term supplier Foxconn Technology Group on new energy plants that are expected to generate 600 MW of electricity, which will be used across all Chinese factories that manufacture iPhones.

Major tech players are jostling to reach the 100 percent renewable energy target, said solar analyst Colin Smith at GTM Research.

"Bigger firms tend to acquire the resources to understand the new energy markets and negotiate contracts to buy renewable energy," he said.

For instance, Google Inc has planned to procure wind and solar energy to offset all the electricity used by its data centers and offices, and pledged to realize the 100 percent renewable energy target by 2017.
Rediff.coms A Ganesh Nadar takes a tour of banks in a Chennai suburb and finds that nothing has changed in the one month since demonetisation.

Even a month after Prime Minister Narendra Modis announcement of demonetising 86 per cent of the currency notes in circulation, the problems for the common man have not subsided.

On one hand, tax authorities have seized Rs 90 crore in new notes in Chennai and on the other hand the common man cannot withdraw more than Rs 24,000 in a week. So where does the Rs 90 crore man get his money?

Thirunvanmiyur, a suburb in south Chennai, has a very busy bus depot which caters to every part of the city. As you walk away from the depot, you see two ATMs -- Syndicate Bank and Axis Bank -- both of which are closed. In the same building on the side, a Canara Bank ATM is not only closed but also barricaded.

You walk down further, you see a Bank of Baroda ATM that says clearly it is not working because there are no notes available. You turn the corner and find a State Bank of India ATM and it is working! A man on the phone is yelling, I found an ATM, yes it has money, yes it is SBI, its near the bus depot. Its hidden and so no one knows about it, you come soon. By the time he had finished yelling there were ten people in line behind him.

The ATM was dispensing only Rs 2,000 notes so the daily withdrawal limit of Rs 2,500 automatically became Rs 2,000.

At the State Bank of Mysore branch nearby there are hardly any customers. The bank has only Rs 2,000 notes which you can withdraw within the normal limits. No change at all even for local customers. Many went away disappointed.

A State Bank of India branch was functioning with a long line stretching outside the premises. Nothing had changed in a month. There were two ATMs inside the bank premises which were out of order.

At Indian Bank you could deposit money both old and new provided you were carrying your ID card. You cannot send someone else to deposit money in your account,' a bank employee told a working lady who wanted to send her daughter.

There was no money in the bank at 10 am and customers were being advised to come back at noon to withdraw Rs 4,000 only.
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YEREVAN, DECEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. In order to resume talks over the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, it is necessary to implement the Vienna (May 16, 2016) and St. Petersburg (June 20, 2016) agreements which Azerbaijan refuses, Head of the RPA faction Vahram Baghdasaryan told reporters at the parliamentary briefings, reports Armenpress.

It is necessary to take steps, if there are no steps, we dont record facts, we consider the continuation of talks as waste of time. We need to see that the Azerbaijani side wants, has a will to implement that agreements, he said.

The MP said the Minsk Group needs to take serious actions in order to ensure the continuation of talks. The equality sign must be removed, there must be a clear assessment as because of whom those agreements are not being implemented. After the implementation of agreements, I think we will move forward, he said, adding that if the Vienna and St. Petersburg agreements are not implemented, every meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani Presidents will be ineffective.
iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- A woman accused of murdering her twin sister by driving their vehicle off a cliff in Hawaii waived her right to an extradition hearing in a New York court Friday morning.



Alexandria Duval, 38, entered the Albany County courtroom in shackles, a yellow jumpsuit and with her long blonde hair pulled back. Duval's attorney, Kevin O'Brien, said his client was anxious to return to Hawaii to defend herself against a second-degree murder charge stemming from the fatal crash.



Shes trying to figure out a way to ... defend herself and still be able to suffer from the loss of her sister, OBrien told ABC affiliate WTEN in Albany. So its a real dichotomy for her. Shes got a lot of resolve and believes in what the justice system will do for her. Its tough for her, shes in a cage.



The move clears the way for Duvals extradition from upstate New York, where she and her identical twin sister were born. Terence Kindlon of the Albany County Public Defenders Office, who was previously representing Duval, had said the defendant returned to her home state to mourn her sisters death.



Authorities in Hawaii now have 30 days to collect Duval and bring her back to jail in Maui. Until then, she'll remain in Albany County Jail, according to WTEN.



Alexandria Duval has waived her right to an extradition hearing. She tells her attorney she wants to get back to fight the murder charge pic.twitter.com/RTJoWyTSvf  Samantha DiMascio (@SDiMascioWTEN) December 9, 2016

Prosecutors say Duval intentionally caused the death of her sister on May 29 when she allegedly drove their SUV off the ocean-side Hana Highway in Maui. Duval survived with critical injuries, while her sister Anastasia was pronounced dead at the scene.Witnesses said they saw the twins violently arguing moments before the driver seemed to suddenly accelerate and make a sharp left turn. The vehicle then slammed into a rock wall and plunged 200 feet to the rocks below, according to ABC affiliate KITV in Honolulu.After being discharged from the hospital, Duval was arrested and jailed in Maui on a second-degree murder charge, and accused of deliberately causing her sister's death. She had planned to plead not guilty, but a judge later ordered her release after determining there was no probable cause for a murder charge.A grand jury in Hawaii indicted Duval on that charge in October and Maui police issued a warrant for her arrest.According to New York State Police, Duval was arrested on Nov. 11 after she was located at a residence in Albany. Police said Duval attempted to flee before she was taken into custody. She's been held in Albany County Jail since, awaiting extradition, with bail set at $3 million, according to WTEN.The Duval sisters were born Alison and Ann Dadow in the Utica, New York, area. They operated popular yoga studios in Palm Beach County, Florida, from 2008 to 2014 before they changed their names.Copyright  2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. According to the World Bank predictions, Armenias economic activity rate in 2016 will remain the same compared to 2015, Senior Economist and Co-Task Team Leader of the World Bank Gohar Gyulumyan said, adding that the economic figures of 2016 are not so promising, reports Armenpress.

The last several months, starting from July, are disappointing since after the 4.5% growth in the first quarter, Armenias economy entered a period of decline. From July to October, each month the economic activity rate of Armenia is decreasing compared to the previous month. There are official data according to which during the third quarter, Armenias economic decline was 2.8% compared to the same period of 2015. From this perspective we as well revise our predictions. In October our expectations for the 2016 economic growth were positive, 2.4%, but at this moment, having the data for January-October, we can say that the 2016 activity rate will comprise 0.4%, she stated.

The economist said taking into account this, the expectations for 2017 are not more than 2%. The average period figures are correspondingly modest, in the frames of 2-2.5%.

In case of Armenia this cannot be so promising. Recently the 2015 poverty rate was published, we saw that it remained almost the same, and in order to reach a serious decrease in poverty, solution to social issues, the annual growth rate must be 5% and more, she said.
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. Armenia and the World Bank signed a US$50 million development policy finance operation to support the Governments reforms program across key economic areas, reports Armenpress.

The Fourth Development Policy Financing (DPF-4), totaling US$50 million, is an IBRD loan with a fixed spread with a 14.5-year grace period and repayment of 25 years.

Gohar Gyulumyan - Senior Economist and Co-Task Team Leader of the World Bank, said the Fourth DPF for Armenia supports a wide range of reforms promoting fiscal, social and environmental sustainability and strengthening competitiveness.

The operation has started since 2012. The Fourth DPF is the some part of the process started since 2012. During this period significant were carried out at various directions. According to the World Bank estimations, the proposed events are carried out at a sufficient level, including also the Tax Code, about which our professionals have high opinions. The Code leads to optimization of tax legislation, proposes a new administration tool, she said.

The operation supports several reforms aimed at enhancing environmental safeguard legislation.

In particular, the amendments to the Mining Code to align with the Law on Waste Management will reduce the negative environmental impacts from mining operations and preserve the asset endowment for households in rural areas, which often depend on income from agricultural activity.

Gohar Gyulumyan said another focus area of this operation is improvement in the business environment, through enactment of the amendments to the Law on Bankruptcy, which strikes a better balance between creditors and debtors rights. The operation also supports increasing transparency and reliability of the financial sector by enacting regulations to ensure disclosure of beneficial ownership of financial institutions and groups.
PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc addressing the Bloomberg ASEAN Business Summit 2016 in Ha Noi yesterday.  VNA/VNS Photo Thong Nhat

HA NOI  Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc yesterday urged ASEAN countries to take measures to facilitate cross-border trade and investment, while warning against the re-emergence of protectionism.

Speaking at the Bloomberg ASEAN Business Summit 2016, he said the world and ASEAN region are facing serious challenges in security, economy, food, climate change and protectionism.

However, the fourth industrial revolution has also presented great opportunities for development, he said.

He called for ASEAN member nations to foster economic connections and transport infrastructure development in order to facilitate trade and investment flows and cross-border services and thus build a united and efficient ASEAN market.

Member economies will not be able to boost development if they only rely on the exploitation of natural resources and unskilled labour, Phuc said. "The ASEAN business community is the momentum for economic linkages, creating a new impetus for trade and investment development within the bloc," Phuc added.

ASEAN nations need to promote innovation and creativeness, improve their competiveness, and engage more in the global supply in order to achieve higher added values, he stressed.

For its part, Viet Nam is joining ASEAN efforts to further strengthen and deepen the intra-bloc co-operation, Phuc said, noting the centre role of ASEAN in Asia.

While expressing hope that outside investors will seek win-win co-operation opportunities with ASEAN partners, he affirmed that the Vietnamese Government is working hard to improve the investment and business climate and welcomes all enterprises from ASEAN and other regions.

Viet Nam currently has 600,000 active businesses, aiming to have over one million in 2020. It has also signed 12 free trade agreements (FTA), paving the way for cooperation with 55 large national partners, including with the G7 and 15 countries of the G20.

Optimistic future

Pham Van Thinh, CEO of Deloitte Vietnam, said Viet Nam would continue integrating and opening its market by conducting bilateral trade negotiations with other countries.

Without TPP, we still have other bilateral and multilateral deals, Thinh stressed while talking about the effect of the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership, which is on the verge of being cancelled.

Roger Lee, Chief Executive Officer of TAL Group which focuses its business on supplying textile and apparel products, said it was unclear what President-elect Trump would do.

Trump said that he would bring jobs back to American people but that will be hard, Lee was quoted by cafef.vn as saying at a panel session on whether the re-emergence of global protectionism thwarted FDI increases and intra-ASEAN trade.

Lee affirmed that Viet Nam would be the next investment destination of his group even without TPP, as the country is creating many favourable conditions for foreign investors.

Bangkok Bank President Chartsiri Sophonpanich is also not pessimistic about Trumps pledge to upend the US trade policy. He said he believed that the ASEAN Economic Community would bring a lot of benefits to enterprises of member countries.

ASEAN, comprising Viet Nam, Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, Myanmar, Malaysia, Laos, Indonesia, Cambodia and Brunei, forms a consumption market of 600 million people and a GDP of nearly US$3 trillion a year.  VNS
Two Viet Nam-Korea joint committees met in Seoul to promote bilateral trade and investment.  Photo VNA/VNS Photo Vu Toan

SEOUL  Two Viet Nam-Korea joint committees met in Seoul to promote bilateral trade and investment.

The Vietnamese delegation was led by Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh, while the South Korean delegation was headed by Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Joo Hyung-hwan.

In the minutes signed at the end of the seventh session of the joint committee on co-operation in nuclear power, industry and trade, the two sides stressed co-operation in such fields as energy and minerals, technological incubators, material and spare part production, human resources development, logistics, and trade promotion.

In the joint statement after the first session of the joint committee on the implementation of the Viet Nam-Korea Free Trade Agreement (VKFTA), the two sides acknowledged their co-operation activities in the fields of animal and plant quarantine and technical standards, implementing commitments to the VKFTA.

Ministers Tran Tuan Anh and Joo Hyung-hwan spoke of the development of the two countries economic, trade and investment ties in recent years, especially after the VKFTA came into effect in late 2015.

They agreed to continue efforts to deepen the trade, industry and energy co-operation, contributing to realising the two countries strategic co-operative partnership and the goal of US$70 billion in bilateral trade by 2020.  VNS
HA NOI  Viet Nams potential for e-commerce development in the retail sector could achieve a US$10-billion revenue by 2020, accounting for half the countrys total retail sales.

Data from the Association of Viet Nam Retailers (AVR) indicates that in 2015, retail e-commerce surpassed $4.07 billion, with a growth rate of 20 per cent. Ho Thi Kim Thoa, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, told a forum on e-commerce and mobile phone technologies in Ha Noi yesterday that e-commerce was a vital development trend in the retail sector.

Thoa said last year, the growth rate of the retail sector was 9.5 per cent. Traditional retail made up 80 per cent, while modern retail including supermarkets, convenience stores and e-commerce accounted for only 20 per cent. Notably, in the modern retail channels, the portion of e-commerce was at a low level of around 2.8 per cent, she added.

The country had 217 e-commerce trading floors with total revenues of VN1.66 trillion in 2014, double the 2013 figure.

Vietnamese businesses have seen positive changes in e-commerce by big firms. The number of small- and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) participating in e-commerce was modest even though 97 per cent of the countrys 600,000 firms are SMEs, she said.

The deputy minister noted that the Prime Minister had promulgated a decision on master planning of e-commerce in 2016-20.

She gave the recent Online Friday on December 2 as an optimistic example of e-commerce development. The number of enterprises joining in the event this year was 3,000, higher than last year.

She urged businesses to catch up with e-commerce trends and have plans to enhance e-commerce development.

inh Thi My Loan, AVRs chairwoman, said there were many factors promoting e-commerce development, including the popularity of mobile devices.

Nguyen Thanh Hung, chairman of Viet Nam E-commerce Association (VECOM), agreed that the development of mobile phones and applications had contributed to promoting purchasing activities.

Hung said the countrys e-commerce had been developing at a growth rate of 30 per cent a year. Businesses have quickly shifted from offline to online retail. Several are even totally doing business online, he said.

However, Pham Thanh Cong from Nielsen said the sector should have solutions to meet demand in rural areas as there are 1.3 million traditional shops, accounting for 85 per cent of the retail sectors revenue.  VNS
HA NOI  An Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) dialogue with businesses was held in Ha Noi on December 8 with the theme Creating new dynamism for growth and integration.

The dialogue, an initiative of Viet Nam as the host of APEC activities in 2017, drew some 400 delegates from international and regional organisations, commerce chambers, associations and businesses from APEC economies.

Alan Bollard, executive director of the APEC Secretariat, and Antonio Basilio, director of the APEC Business Advisory Councils International Secretariat, were among the keynote speakers.

Opening the dialogue, Deputy Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son, chairman of the 2017 APEC Senior Officials Meetings, said Viet Nam wants to turn APEC into a forum for the sake of people and businesses. Diverse activities involving enterprises will take place throughout 2017.

Meanwhile, Chairman of Ha Noi Peoples Committee Nguyen uc Chung highlighted the Vietnamese capital citys reform and integration efforts and reiterated commitments to revamping local business climate change towards a big hub in Asia-Pacific.

He highly valued the APEC dialogues cooperation focus on business facilitation, trade liberalisation and technical economic investment and cooperation, adding that Hanoi expects APEC 2017 will effectively implement the prioritised orientations on sustainable and inclusive growth, creativity and regional economic connectivity to improve small and medium enterprises competitiveness and ensure food security and sustainable agriculture.

He said that Hanoi welcomes and will always create a favourable environment for business cooperation for mutual development. It hopes more and more APEC partners will consider this city a trustworthy destination for cooperation and investment.

At the dialogue, entrepreneurs appreciated APECs efforts to promote trade and investment liberalisation and build an open and transparent business and investment environment. They also voiced their wish to join in and practically contribute to APECs cooperation in 2017.  VNS
HCM CITY  A team of three chefs from Binh Quoi 1 Tourist Area defeated 14 rival teams to win the fourth Golden Spoon Contest besides VN1 billion (US$44,150) and a trophy.

Four runners-up - Indochine Palace Hotel Hue, Naman Retreat Resort a Nang, InterContinental Danang Sun Peninsula Resort, and Nhi Restaurant in Can Tho --won VN100 million each for having the most creative, best decorated, most nutritious, and most unique traditional dishes.

The jury consisted of prestigious local and foreign culinary experts and food artisans, including Eckart Witzigmann, who won the award Chef of the Century from the Gault Millau guide.

Witzigmann said he was impressed with the contest as well as the Vietnamese chefs innovation.

Organised by the Binh Duong-based Minh Long I Company and the Business Studies and Assistance Centre, the contest attracted 312 chefs from 104 hotels, restaurants and resorts from 39 cities and provinces, who introduced a dozen new spices and more than 600 dishes.

Ly Huy Sang, deputy general director of Minh Long I and deputy head of the organisers, said the contest aims to discover, preserve and promote traditional dishes that embody traditional regional culture besides honouring professional chefs who research into nutrition and introduce Vietnamese specialties and healthy dishes.

It also seeks to develop a brand for Vietnamese cuisine and turn it into a national tourist attraction, he said.

Sang said the contest would not be held next year to enable the organisers to review and create a complete new programme.  VNS
PARIS  The last of four boys who discovered the Lascaux cave paintings, a stunning display of prehistoric art in southwest France, will visit a new replica of the site on Saturday.

Simon Coencas, now 89, will join President Francois Hollande for the inauguration of the display at a visitors centre in Montignac, a village at the foot of the hills where he discovered the cave as a teenager.

More than seven decades after he got his first look at the site, Coencas will -- health permitting -- revisit a complete copy of the caves.

The tale of how he and three friends discovered the site, in the Dordogne region in southwestern France, is like something out of a childrens adventure book.

On September 14, 1940, with World War II raging and the Nazis already in Paris, a friend of Coencas enlisted him and the other boys to explore a hole in the ground in the hills above the village that his dog had found a few days earlier.

One of the boys had to carve out a space with his knife so they could get into the cave and continue their search by the light of a paraffin lamp.

"With my pals, we climbed down to explore a hole, we advanced bit by bit and at some point we came up upon the chamber of the bulls," he said.

It was by that light that they first saw the paintings: horses, bulls and deer jumping out of the walls of the cave.

The spectacular cave of prehistoric art is thought to be 18,000 years old. Such is its importance that it has been on UNESCOs list of world heritage sites since 1979.

But tourists have been kept away from the original site since 1963 because the carbon dioxide they exhaled was damaging the paintings, playing havoc with the caves fragile ecosystem.

And the early work preparing the site for visitors also disturbed its environment more than the authorities foresaw.

Lascaux 2, an earlier copy of the site, opened in 1983, but it reproduced only 90 per cent of the caves wall art.

Lascaux 3 is a travelling exhibition showing highlights from the site.

Lascaux 4, the latest version which will be inaugurated on Saturday and open to visitors the following week, was the logical next step.

"Its the first time that weve reconstructed the entire Lascaux cave," said Jean-Pierre Chadelle, an archaeologist working with the Dordogne regional authority.

The new reproduction of the site took a team of 30 workers four years to complete at a cost of 66 million euros (US$70 million). AFP
HA NOI  Senior officials from the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) forum gathered at a conference in Ha Noi yesterday to discuss priority topics and key activities for the 2017 APEC Summit to be hosted by Viet Nam.

The priority topics of the 2017 APEC include creating new momentum for the future of the Asia-Pacific region; promoting sustainable and creative growth, the role of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSEMs) and their competitive capacity, creativity in the digital era; and enhancing food security and sustainable agriculture in keeping with climate change.

Permanent Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Vice Chairman of the National Committee on 2017 APEC, Bui Thanh Son, said the conference served as a venue for delegates to discuss priorities and contribute to upholding the role of the forum in coping with urgent global issues.

Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the National Committee on 2017 APEC, Pham Binh Minh, said Viet Nam has made meaningful contributions to APEC and achieved practical benefits for both businesses and people in the region.

Strengthened economic co-operation, together with a network of free trade agreements with most of the member economies, was clear evidence of Viet Nams strong commitment to APEC and the Asia-Pacific region, he said.

Minh said APECs agenda should focus on institutional reform in order to promote sustainable, creative and inclusive growth. He called for joint work to boost regional integration by grasping opportunities offered by the ASEAN Community and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, among others.

More support should be given to micro and medium-sized enterprises to improve their competitiveness and enable them to join the global value chain, he said, noting the great potential for co-operation in digital infrastructure since Asia-Pacific is home to the largest number of internet subscribers globally.

He also called for attention to food security and sustainable agriculture, saying that APEC needs to facilitate technology transfer to improve productivity and farmers skills, giving them better access to markets and capital.

Peruvian Deputy Foreign Minister Luis Quesada, Chair of the 2016 APEC Senior Officials Meeting, said he witnessed Viet Nam success in hosting the 2006 APEC and believed that it would successfully organise the event next year.

The seminar attracted representatives from APEC member economies and APEC Secretariat as well as observers, scholars, and businesses at home and abroad.  VNS
President Tran ai Quang (R) receives Malaysian Minister of International Trade and Industry, Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed, in Ha Noi yesterday.  VNA/VNS Photo Nhan Sang

HA NOI  Viet Nam and Malaysia should work out specific, practical measures to achieve their trade target of US$15 billion by 2020, President Tran ai Quang told visiting Malaysian Minister of International Trade and Industry, Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed, in Ha Noi yesterday.

The President hailed the roundtable talks attended earlier in the day by 100 Vietnamese and Malaysian business leaders, saying projects in which Malaysia has invested have contributed significantly to Viet Nams socio-economic development.

Malaysia ranks second among ASEAN member countries investing in Viet Nam, with $12 billion mostly in oil and gas, real estate, trade and services. Trade between Malaysia and Viet Nam hit $8 billion in 2015. Last August, Malaysias CIMB bank was licensed to establish a branch in Viet Nam.

President Quang and Minister Mustapa Mohamed agreed on measures to step up the two countries strategic partnership.

The President suggested re-organising the meeting of the Viet Nam-Malaysia Joint Committee as soon as possible and outlining a plan to implement the Viet Nam-Malaysia Action Plan in 2017-2019.

He stressed that the strategic partnership allowed the two countries to make progress in their political, economic, trade, investment, defence, security, oil and gas, education, tourism, and people-to-people ties.

He expressed his hope that Malaysia would support Viet Nams successful hosting of APEC 2017, increase its consultation with Viet Nam and back it at multilateral forums and regional and global co-operative mechanisms.

Minister Mustapa Mohamed said Malaysia wants to take co-operation with Viet Nam to the next level, especially trade, and expects to draw more Vietnamese investors and businesses to his country.

Malaysia will support Viet Nams organisation of the APEC Year 2017, he pledged.

Madagascar welcomes VN businesses

Madagascar is willing to roll out the red carpet for Vietnamese businesses to invest in the country, Vietnamese Honorary Consul in Madagascar Eric Andry Ramiandrasoa told President Tran ai Quang yesterday.

Ramiandrasoa, who is leading a trade delegation to Viet Nam, said the current trip offers a strong opportunity for Madagascan businesses to study co-operation agreements with Vietnamese partners, such as the military-run telecom group Viettel and the national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines.

The recent visit to Madagascar by President Tran ai Quang to attend the 16th Francophone Summit has created an opportunity for collaboration between the two countries business communities, he added.

For his part, President Quang affirmed that the Vietnamese State always supports the development of equal, win-win business co-operation based on national and international law.

Viet Nam is home to over 600,000 enterprises, including numerous groups and companies operating effectively abroad, he noted.

The Southeast Asian country is ready to partner with Madagascan firms in agriculture, aquaculture, garment-textiles, cement production and construction materials, he said.

It also boasts strengths in fields such as aviation, telecommunication, hydropower, infrastructure investment  seaports and accommodation for low-income earners.

Viet Nam pledged to create optimal conditions for Madagascan companies to build bilateral business partnerships, he affirmed.  VNS
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc receives Minister of Lao Prime Minister Office Souvanpheng Boupphanouvong in Ha Noi yesterday.  Photo Thong Nhat

HA NOI  Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has proposed the Government Offices of Viet Nam and Laos make more contributions to cementing the traditional friendship, special solidarity, and comprehensive co-operation between the two countries.

He made the proposal at a reception for Minister of Lao Prime Minister Office Souvanpheng Boupphanouvong in Ha Noi yesterday.

The relations between Viet Nam and Laos have become more important than ever amidst a changing and complicated global climate, he said.

Viet Nam is building an incorruptible and constructive government to serve the people, he added.

The country is willing to share experience with Laos in the national development process, he said, noting that the building of e-Government is important to each society.

In turn, Lao Minister said his country is proud of having such a big and reliable friend as Viet Nam.

During the current visit, the Lao delegation has learned a lot of valuable experience from Viet Nam to promote the construction of e-Government in Laos, he added.  VNS
OTTAWA  National Assembly (NA) Vice Chairman o Ba Ty has met with senior officials from Canadas parliament and government, voicing his hope for enhanced and substantive cooperation between the Vietnamese and Canadian parliaments.

The meetings on December 5-6 were part of a working visit to Canada by a NA delegation from Viet Nam from December 4-7.

During talks with Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons Bruce Stanton and Chairwoman of the Canadian Senates Committee for Foreign Affairs and International Trade Raynell Andreychuk, Ty noted the two countries relations have been growing, especially in economics, trade, investment, science-technology, and education.

Bilateral trade has almost doubled from US$2.2 billion in 2013 to $4.1 billion in 2015. Viet Nam is now a leading Southeast Asian trade partner of Canada. Meanwhile, more than 5,000 Vietnamese university students are studying in Canada, doubling the figure of 10 years ago.

The NA Vice Chairman asked the two parliaments to continue regular high-ranking visits and work closely and support each other at international organisations and multilateral forums such as the United Nations, the World Trade Organisation (WTO), and the Asian-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) forum.

Touching upon territorial disputes in the East Sea (South China Sea), he reiterated Viet Nams consistent stance of resolving all disputes by peaceful means and in conformity with international law, especially the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982 UNCLOS).

Viet Nam supports the international communitys efforts to maintain peace, stability, security and freedom of navigation and overflight in the East Sea. It highly values Canadas stance and positive statements on the East Sea issue, particularly Foreign Minister Stephan Dions comment that The Hague tribunals ruling last July is binding and must be complied by relevant parties, Ty added.

For their part, the Canadian officials spoke highly of Viet Nams socio-economic development and increasing stature in ASEAN and Asia-Pacific, adding that their country will closely follow the East Sea issue and support the settlement of disputes in line with international law.

Canada is ready to co-operate with Viet Nam to cope with challenges in the Mekong region and devise solutions to bring bilateral trade on par with its potential, they noted.

Expressing his wish for the countries stronger connections, Deputy Speaker Stanton said he believes Viet Nam will be a successful host of APEC activities in 2017, adding that the foundation of friendship parliamentary groups will create an effective channel for the parliaments to solidify collaboration.

Talking to Pamela Goldsmith-Jones  Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Tran Van Tuy, head of the Vietnamese NAs board for deputy affairs, spoke highly of Canadas role in the global fight against climate change. He asked the country to share experience and assist Viet Nam in climate change prevention.

For her part, Pamela Goldsmith-Jones said the Canadian Government treasures ties with Viet Nam and considers the Southeast Asian nation a priority in its foreign policy. It also wants to work with Viet Nam to address issues of shared concern like climate change response.

Meanwhile, Chairman of the NA Committee for Defence and Security Affairs Vo Trong Viet had talks with Chairman of Canadas House of Commons Standing Committee on National Defence Stephen Fuhr.

They said the security situation in Asia-Pacific and Southeast Asia is basically peaceful and stable with developing multilateral co-operation mechanisms which are greatly contributing to common peace and security.

They shared the view that East Sea disputes must be handled peacefully, on the basis of international law, especially 1982 UNCLOS, joint statements between China and ASEAN like the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC), and other high-level statements on the East Sea issued by ASEAN. Efforts must also be made to soon finalise a Code of Conduct (COC) in the waters.

At the meetings, the two sides agreed to increase delegation exchanges at all levels between the two parliaments to share experience in lawmaking, supervision and law enforcement. The legislative bodies will also coordinate to monitor the implementation of agreements between the two countries governments and ministries so that these deals will bring about practical benefits.  VNS
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. According to the data of the second quarter of this year, 2 million 100.000 people among 15-75 age group are considered as employable, Head of Labor Statistics Department of the National Statistical Service of Armenia Lusine Kalantaryan told reporters on December 9, reports Armenpress.

55% of the populations working resource are women, and 64% are urban residents, she said.

1 million 004 thousand 700 people of the working resource are employed. 60% of the employed are men. Mens 3 out of 5 are employed, whereas in case of women, 2 out of 5 are employed, she stated.

The work of 79% of employed is permanent, the average age of workers is 43 years old. 50% of the employed people have qualified workers profession, in other words, they are qualified workers in agriculture, industry, construction sectors and etc., and 7% are heads at different levels, she said.

43% of workers have secondary education, 29% higher education. 27% of workers live in Yerevan. 78% of employed people work in the private sector of the economy and 24% in the public sector. 57% of employed people receive salaries, 36% of employed people ensured their own sources, she stated.
HA NOI  In the last ten years, a meagre 10 per cent of assets worth of VN60 trillion (approximately US$2.65 billion) involved in nearly 1,900 corruption cases have been recovered.

The figure was revealed yesterday by Ngo Manh Hung, Deputy Director of the Viet Nam Anti-Corruption Bureau under the Government Inspectorate (GI), at the Multi-Stakeholder Roundtable on the Second Review Cycle of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC), co-hosted by GI and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC).

According to Hung, thanks to enhanced efforts, asset recovery has progressively improved but has yet to yield satisfactory outcomes due to the infrequent monitoring of public servants assets. As a result, corruption is usually discovered and prosecuted only when the damage is serious.

Total recovery is hard, and the longer we hesitate, the more amount is irrecoverable, Hung said.

Shervin Majlessi, Senior Legal Adviser to the World Bank on the Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative (StAR), agreed with Hung that assets should be frozen before corrupt officials have time to hide or spend it.

Shervin also advocated co-operation mechanisms between domestic and foreign jurisdictions, stressing mutual legal assistance between states as a key instrument in asset recovery.

Viet Nam is looking to consolidate a code of conduct and responsibilities of public servants, and to add regulations on integrity education, Hung said.

The 2015 Viet Nam Provincial Governance and Public Administration Performance Index (PAPI) survey, supported by the UN, showed that Vietnamese express more concern about corruption in the public sector and in public service delivery and are more worried about corruption and nepotism in public sector employment. In addition, only 37 per cent of citizens say their local government is serious about fighting corruption.

Putting an end to corruption requires a comprehensive approach. Only in a climate of transparency and accountability and with participation by all members of society is this possible. Governments, the private sector, the media, civil society organisations and the general public need to work together to curb this crime, said Francesco Checchi, the UNODC Anti-Corruption Regional Advisor in South East Asia and Pacific.

The UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) is the only legally binding universal anti-corruption instrument, and Checchi commended Viet Nam for ratifying it in 2009 which has given new impetus to anti-corruption efforts.

In the conference, delegates focused on discussing and sharing information on preparation works for Viet Nams implementation of the second review cycle of UNCAC, which lasts from 2016 to 2010 and deals with Chapter II on corruption preventive measures and Chapter V on asset recovery; while the first cycle from 2010 to 2015 dealt with Chapter III on criminalisation and law enforcement, and Chapter IV on international co-operation.

"The round table conference is timely and important in the context of that Viet Nam is preparing to construct the UNCAC Second Review Process Report and meanwhile implement four processes of UNCAC," Nguyen Huu Loc, Acting General Director of International Co-operation Department, under GI, said.

The conference was held to mark the 2016 International Day against Corruption (December 9), with this years theme being United Against Corruption for Development, Peace, and Security.  VNS
Bao Hoa

IEN BIEN  Vang Long Ca of ien Bien Province in northern Viet Nam pointed at his pig and explained how he planned to sell it.

When it weighs less than 100 kilograms I sell it for VN20,000-30,000 (US$0.9-1.3) per kilogram, he said. VN50,000VN per kilogram when it gets heavier.

Ca is a resident of oan Ket Village in Muong Nhe District where all the households have joined a project to protect the local forest area.

The payment he gets from patrolling the forest is the only source of additional income for his household, apart from the sale of pigs that often takes him a whole year to raise to 100 kilograms.

A policy of paying residents to patrol the forest has been implemented in the district since 2013, part of a Government plan to improve forest quality and quantity and increase the forest sectors contribution to the economy.

Some 120 households in Cas village were divided into two groups. Ca belongs to Group 1, which is responsible for patrolling some 940ha of forest.

His job is patrolling the forest once or twice each month to detect signs of illegal intrusion and forest product exploitation; each patrol trip lasts three to five days.

At a payment rate of some VN500,000 per hectare, Ca earns some VN4 million per year from the job, making the livelihood of his family somewhat easier.

Muong Nhe District is the poorest of the 62 poor districts in the country, with a per capita income of some VN4 million.

The payment that each household receives for environmental services varies in the 10 communes of the district, according to the Muong Nhe Nature Reserve.

In the communes where theres a large area of forest to patrol but few households offering the service, a household can earn an average of VN7-10 million per year, Diep Van Chinh, deputy director of the reservation areas management board, said.

No more forest thieves

Forty-four groups are assigned to patrol some 40,000ha of the reservation, consisting of local residents and staff from the armed forces and border guard stations.

Before we applied the policy, villagers from around the forest often intruded into the reservation to exploit bamboo shoots, wood and other forest products, Chinh said.

The number of illegal wildlife trafficking cases and forest product exploitations has dropped dramatically since we implemented the policy, thanks to the high patrolling frequency of local residents, he added. Only one case of forest clearance and one case of reservation area intrusion were detected in the first 11 months of this year.

The patrollers are not allowed to exploit forest products in the core areas of the forest and are accompanied on long patrol trips by forest rangers.

The managing board of the reservation hands patrollers passes, which they must present before entering the forest and upon finishing their patrols. Some 1,700 patrol passes have been given out since 2013.

The money to pay patrollers comes from the provinces Forest Protection and Development Fund. Group leaders are in charge of receiving the payment and dividing it to their group members.

We keep 10 per cent of the total payment to support the groups management team, said Giang Hu Sinh, leader of Group 2 of oan Ket Village.

Group leaders, like me, receive the same amount of money as group members, not more, he added.

During the 2011-15 period, some VN306 billion ($13.5 million) were disbursed to the province patrollers.

During a conference on evaluating the policy last October, Lo Van Tien, vice chairman of the provinces Peoples Committee, said the policy helped local residents stabilise their lives, while acknowledging that the provinces mountainous terrain and underdeveloped transport system made it difficult for patrollers to do their job.

Residents in some distant areas of the province have not been informed of the benefits of providing environmental services, he added. It was hard for authorities to persuade them to take part in the services, partly because the payment rate is different in different areas of the province, he said.  VNS
A river too silted up for boats to sail through. A field choked by sand intrusion. These are two of the photos that Nguyen Khanh Tam Anh brought to a conference held this week on hydropower plant development to illustrate the heavy toll that his family and many others have been suffering due to the mass development of hydropower plants in the countrys central regions over the past 10 years.

The conference, organised by the Centre of Social Research and Development, was designed to provide a platform for discussion among authorities, hydropower plants, experts and residents on sustainable development of hydropower plants.

Holding up a photo, the resident of ai Loc District in the central province of Quang Nam told participants that in the dry season, "rivers are parched because hydropower plants do not discharge water. ai Loc co-operative used to have 120 boats to transporting freight to Nam Giang District, but has had to stop operation.

According to Anh, 40 households in ai Hong Commune that used to rely on the boats for their living, have either become jobless or work as seasonal labourers to get by.

Anh also brought up the September incident at Song Bung 2 Hydropower Plant in Nam Giang District, where a tunnel broke releasing about 28 million cubic metres of water that swept away village homes downstream. We were so terrified that we had to flee to the forest to escape the water. It was terrible, Anh said.

Further down to the south, about 1,000 households of coffee and pepper farmers in Krong Ana District in the Central Highlands province of ak Lak also suffer from water shortage due to the Buon Kuop hydropower plant in Serepok River.

Every year, Serepok River provided us with enough water for cultivation and plentiful resources of fish and shrimp. Since the power plant was built, we lost thousands of hectares and our water source has also dried up, Le Van Trong, a local resident, said.

But water is not the only problem.

As many as 150 hydropower plants have been built or are being built across the central provinces and Central Highland provinces. Thousands of households have had to move away to clear the land for these projects, and many are struggling to build a new life in areas to which they have relocated.

Ho a The, a resident of the Ben Van resettlement residential area in Thua Thien-Hue, relocated with his family more than 10 years ago to make ways for the Ta Trach hydropower plant and irrigation reservoir project. However, so far his family has only received 50 per cent of the compensation money it has coming.

To make matter worse, land in the new resettlement area is exhausted and not suitable for cultivation.

The State has built a school there but the local people do not have enough money to send their children to school so the drop-out rate is very high. The local medical centre is also left without doctors because it is too remote," The said.

According to Huynh Phuoc, Vice Chairman of a Nang Citys Union of Science and Technology Associations, the mass construction of hydropower plants has led to a series of problems in the central and Central Highlands provinces, including flooding, riverbank erosion, drought, degradation of water quality, and problems relating compensation and resettlement of local people.

Many reasons are to blame for the unsustainable development of hydropower plants, but the main one is human mismanagement. Management has not involved the communites in monitoring the building and operation of plants, especially those directly affected by the plants, Phuoc said.

In fact, many consequences could have been foreseen but were ignored in environmental impact reports (EIR), said ang Ngoc Quang, an advisor of the Viet Nam Rivers Network.

The quality of environmental impact reports done by scientific bodies is too low, he lamented.

He pointed out that most of the reports are financed by project investors, which affects their independence, and there is no legal regulation stipulating who is qualified to conduct the studies.

I think it is high time the State conducted a comprehensive review of the benefits and costs of hydropower plants that EIRs have failed to show after more than 15 years of exploiting natural resources, especially water, he said.

Even when solutions to mitigate consequences caused by the plants were mentioned in EIRs, they were not implemented.

The EIR of ak Mi 4 hydropower plant suggested building dams for reserve water to tackle shortages downstream. But the plant has operated for nearly 10 years now, and the dams are still on paper, said Dr Quach Thi Xuan, Director of the a Nang-based Centre for Sustainable Development Consultation. There was no regulation on who was responsible for building these dams, either.

To tackle this kind of problems, Xuan said it is necessary to periodically compile and implement environmental management plans following the EIRs. Probably, we should renew these plans every five years to supplement what is lacking in the EIRs, she said.

Despite all these complaints and criticism, Le inh Ban, Deputy General Director of A Vuong Hydropower Plant Joint Stock Company, called for a "sympathetic view" of hydropower plants as they themselves have also fallen victims to the weather, particularly climate change and El Nino.

Ban was the only representative of hydropower plants to voice his opinions at the conference.

Why did hydropower plants not release water for downstream regions during the summer? It is because we ourselves were a victim of El Nino in the past three years.

During 2013-2015, we only operated at 30-40 per cent of our capacity due to drought that caused shortage of water in our reservoirs. This year, it was 60 per cent. We did not have enough water so releasing water downstream was limited. During the dry season, we even had to stop operations for three months to provide water for downstream regions, said Ban.

As for complaints that irrational water discharge during flood seasons has exacerbated flooding, he said it was necessary to understand clearly the role of the plants and the local authorities.

In the dry season, we are in charge of operating and adjusting water discharge, but during flood seasons, this job is under the responsibility of the provincial centre for flood and storm prevention.  VNS
NGHE AN  The Peoples Committee of central Nghe An Provinces Vinh City has suspended the construction of 17 building sites, at which tower cranes were used without licensed or cranes that were operating outside specified construction areas.

The 17 building sites flouting regulations were among 21 on-going construction sites that the committee had inspected since early this month.

The move aimed to tighten control over the operation of tower cranes in the city and ensure the safety of people.

The committee has asked the investors of these projects to remove the tower cranes. The possibility of resuming operation of the construction sites would be considered, it said.

On November 14, a tower crane collapsed on a high school in Vinh City, killing one student in the playground and destroying a part of the schools roof.  VNS
HA NOI  Traffic police nation-wide will begin a two-month-long campaign to ensure traffic safety and social order for the Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday.

This was revealed by the Department of Traffic Police under the Ministry of Public Security on Friday.

The campaign will be on from December 16 to February 15.

Traffic police will mobilise their force to implement this campaign, focusing on National Highway 1A from northern Lang Son Province to southernmost Ca Mau Province. Specific locations where traffic accidents occur often, will also be heavily patrolled.

Traffic police will crack down on drunk driving and order tests to determine alcohol levels in the drivers blood. Those who violate traffic laws, such as speeding, driving in the wrong lane, carrying more people than allowed and riding without helmets, will be strictly fined.

Traffic police will also implement measures to prevent illegal racing and minimise traffic jams during the holiday.

At the railroads, traffic police will cooperate with authorised forces to supervise illegal railroad crossings to prevent accidents and deter smuggling of banned goods, such as explosives and firecrackers, on trains.

This campaign will also be undertaken to ensure smooth traffic flow on the waterways, focusing on vessels transporting goods and natural resources on key routes and vessels transporting people to tourism sites.

The National Traffic Safety Committee last year reported that 160 people were killed and 248 injured in 253 road accidents during the six days of the Lunar New Year holiday from February 7 to 12. There were 57 road accidents, which killed 37 people and injured 65, on February 10 alone. Several serious accidents involving a large number of fatalities and injuries were also reported.  VNS
HA NOI  A range of activities showcasing nearly four decades of development co-operation between Finland and Viet Nam will take place across the country as part of the Finland 100 years celebrations.

According to a report from the Embassy of Finland in Ha Noi on Friday, Finland 100 years will be organised as a commemorative event to celebrate the 100th independence of the Northern European country next year, by the two countries to showcase future collaboration.

Viet Nams socio-economic development plans had achieved outstanding results including a complete education system reform, a stronger emphasis on environmental and climate sustainability, more involvement of the private sector in development creating conditions for start-up, and innovation of an eco-system development, said Ambassador to Viet Nam Ilkka-Pekka Simila.

The Finnish ambassador added that Finland had know-how and technology that were highly relevant to various priority areas of Viet Nams future development and hoped the two countries could boost such potential for their co-operation.

Among the events to take place next year was the celebration of thirty years of successful water co-operation history between the two countries with a workshop on Water and Sanitation Programme for Small Towns in Viet Nam, to be held in February.

About 41 water supply and waste water treatment schemes constructed over the past ten years will be handed over to the Government of Viet Nam, and new collaboration in water safety planning will be celebrated, said the report.

Finnish companies together with public entities will also participate in the VietWater Exhibition in November 2017.

Long-term co-operation in the forest sector will also be commemorated in February and March with Finnish, Vietnamese experts and companies to discuss forest resource and share data at a workshop on Forest Management Information Systems.

Sustainable management of natural resources and the promotion of green cities will be the topics of a tree planting event after Tet in which 100 trees will be planted in the city of Ha Noi together with the Municipality of Ha Noi and Hanoian schools.

An innovation and start-up event organised in collaboration with the Finland-Viet Nam Innovation Partnership Programme will highlight successful co-operation in the sector.

The Vietnamese government recently awarded the Finnish government for long-term commitment and excellent results in the development of Viet Nams innovation system. Increasing co-operation in the education sector will also be highlighted during a demonstrative Finnish School Day and the launching of the Finnish K12 School in HCM City in the autumn. Ministerial visits in the sector are also expected.

Finland-related literature will be celebrated throughout the year. The best-selling book Finnish Lessons 2.0 by Professor Pasi Sahlberg explaining the successful story of the Finnish education system is now available in Vietnamese.  VNS
HCM Citys new tourism development plan has been criticised as a waste of money since it involves letting off fireworks every weekend.

Critics say the city will promote itself better by keeping the streets cleaner and safer.

City Party chief inh La Thang told a recent meeting he has discussed the idea of asking businesses to sponsor the fireworks shows in the city during weekends and other holidays.

The city has raised more than VN22 billion (nearly US$1 million) in sponsorship for the fireworks shows and VN12 billion ($530,000) for the upcoming Lunar New Year Eve shows, he said.

But many people have questioned whether more fireworks shows are what the city needs right now.

Even though the money may not come from the citys coffers, funds are needed for other problems such as traffic jams, flooding, pollution and the shortage of schools and hospitals.

HCM City ranks 18th out of the 20 fastest growing tourist cities in the world, with 9.22 per cent annual growth since 2009, according to a September survey by MasterCard.  VNS
BRUSSELS  A quarter of a century after the summit in the Dutch town of Maastricht that gave birth to the euro, the EU will mark the anniversary on Friday with little fanfare as it battles a wave of crises.

Facing Brexit, rising populism and never-ending problems with the single currency, the European Union is holding only a low-key event with speeches by top figures including Jean-Claude Juncker.

It is all a far cry from the actual historic December 9, 1991 meeting when figures like Germanys Helmut Kohl and Frances Francois Mitterrand hammered out a huge leap in European integration.

While bigger events are planned to celebrate the actual signing of the Maastricht treaty on February 7, 1992, Fridays muted event there shows how the bloc is beset by self-doubt.

"After Rome, the Treaty of Maastricht is the most important treaty in the history of the European Union," Juncker said in an interview with the organisers published earlier this week.

Juncker -- who was Luxembourg finance minister at the time and is the only original participant in the Maastricht summit who is still politically active -- in theory has a double cause to party as Friday is his 62nd birthday.

European Parliament chief Martin Schulz and Eurogroup boss Jeroen Dijsselbloem -- the Netherlands finance minister who leads his 19 counterparts from the eurozone -- are also due to speak.

The Maastricht Treaty certainly had its teething problems, being ratified by a whisker in a referendum in France and then rejected by Denmark until the country won special opt-outs, and finally entering into force in November 1993.

Yet it was a huge step forward for the post-war project to unify the continent, officially turning a 12-member European Community founded by the Treaty of Rome in 1957 into the European Union.

Still suffering

The summit in the small town near the Belgian and German borders also laid the ground for the European single currency, which finally took physical form on January 1, 2002, as the euro.

But Maastricht was also a sign of things to come. Britain opted out of the social chapter concerning workers rights, the first of many splits with the rest of the EU that culminated in this years June 23 Brexit referendum vote.

"The treaty certainly wasnt perfect," said Julian Rappold of the German think-tank DGAP.

With the EU now consisting of 28 very different members from across Europe and eurosceptic populists riding high in the polls, finding unity seems a tougher proposition than ever.

Juncker however said Maastrichts failing was too little integration, not too much.

"I do still regret that we did not intensify the effort to have a real coordination of economic, budgetary and fiscal policies," he told the Dutch organisers of Fridays event.

"The fact is if you have the same currency, you have to be committed to the same fate, and the same fate means that you have to coordinate, if not to harmonise different dimensions of your national political behaviour.

"We didnt do that at that time and we are still suffering from that weakness."

With Britains departure expected in 2019, the remaining 27 are now trying to push forward new ideas for Europe including defence cooperation in recognition that the bloc is in crisis.

But with elections looming in France and Germany in 2017 many of those changes will have to wait, with doubts over the EUs survival leading many to wonder if they will ever happen at all.  AFP
SEOUL  South Korean President Park Geun-hye faced an act of attempted political regicide on Friday as lawmakers gathered to vote on a motion calling for her impeachment.

Engulfed by a corruption scandal that has transfixed the nation and paralysed her administration, Park must now confront the prospect of going down as the first democratically-elected South Korean president to be kicked out of office.

If the motion is adopted, it would result in the immediate suspension of Parks substantial executive powers and their transfer to her prime minister.

She would be allowed to retain her title pending a ruling by the Constitutional Court which has up to six months to decide whether or not to ratify the impeachment and formally end her presidency.

Whichever way the vote goes, it has been a startling fall from grace for a politician who had run for the presidential Blue House as an incorruptible candidate, declaring herself beholden to nobody and "married to the nation".

The opposition-sponsored impeachment motion accuses Park of constitutional and criminal violations ranging from a failure to protect peoples lives to bribery and abuse of power.

Numbers game

It was filed last week with the 171 signatures of all opposition and independent lawmakers - leaving it 29 short of the two-thirds majority needed to clear the 300-seat chamber.

Its passage will depend on the backing of an anti-Park faction within the Saenuri party - more than 30 MPs who have shifted position several times but now look set to back Parks ouster.

The entire opposition has threatened to resign their seats immediately if the motion is defeated.

"This impeachment is a road to salvation for the country and the people," said Chu Mi-ae, president of the main opposition Democratic Party.

The push for impeachment has been driven by massive protests that have seen millions take to the streets of Seoul and other cities in recent weeks, demanding that political parties remove Park if she refuses to step down.

The fact that Fridays manual paper ballot is anonymous has fuelled speculation that some lawmakers who pledged a "yes" vote in line with public opinion, may in fact vote against.

"Its really hard to predict which way the vote will go," Saenuri legislator Hong Moon-jong told MBC radio.

"It may fall slightly short of 200 or just scrape over the line," Hong said.  AFP
ALEPPO , Syria - Syria s army has halted its attacks in Aleppo to allow trapped civilians to be evacuated, Russia s foreign minister said, after advancing forces cornered rebels in the city.

Immediately after the announcement, air strikes ceased and artillery fire was far less intense, but later reported that the army was continuing to shell two rebels districts, Kalasseh and al-Maadi.

The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights monitoring group also reported sporadic clashes with new raids and artillery fire late on Thursday and said at least 18 civilians had been killed during the day in rebel zones by regime raids and artillery.

The situation on the ground seemed somewhat at odds with comments by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov earlier on Thursday after talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry in the German city of Hamburg .

"I can tell you that today combat operations by the Syrian army have been halted in eastern Aleppo because there is a large operation under way to evacuate civilians," Lavrov said.

"There is going to be to a column of 8,000 evacuees."

In Washington , White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Lavrovs announcement was "an indication that something positive could happen".

The UN envoy for Syria , Staffan de Mistura, said after Lavrov spoke that talks to end the nearly six-year war should resume soon.

"Now is the time to actually look seriously at the possible renewal of political discussions," he said after a closed-door meeting of the Security Council.

The General Assembly was to vote on Friday on a draft resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire and access for humanitarian aid, although the British ambassador described the measure as "too little, too late".

A senior State Department official said Lavrov and Kerry "agreed to continuing having discussions about establishing a framework for a ceasefire".

There was no immediate reaction from Damascus .

There has to be a pause

Russia this week suggested a deal was in the works for rebels to be allowed to withdraw from Aleppo to other opposition-held territory.

On the strength of his armys latest gains in territory of east Aleppo held by the rebels, Assad said in a newspaper interview on Thursday that victory for his troops would be a turning point in Syrias five-year war.

Three weeks into a major offensive to retake all of Aleppo, government troops have captured about 85 per cent of territory rebels controlled in the citys east.

AFP correspondents in the city said rebel areas faced intense bombardment on Thursday before Lavrovs announcement.

Cornered in a shrinking enclave in Aleppo s southeast, the rebels have asked for a five-day ceasefire. Western countries have backed the call.

The UN renewed its call for an immediate ceasefire in Aleppo , warning that as many as 500 sick and injured children desperately needed to be evacuated.

"There has to be a pause," said Jan Egeland, head of the UN-backed humanitarian taskforce for Syria .

"At the moment, those who... try to escape are caught in crossfire, they are caught in shelling, (and) risk being hit by snipers."

In his interview with Syrian daily Al-Watan, Assad predicted victory for his forces in Aleppo , though he admitted that would not end the countrys conflict entirely.

"Its true that Aleppo will be a win for us," Assad said.

"Lets be realistic -- it wont mean the end of the war in Syria ," he said.

"But it will be a huge step towards this end." - AFP
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. Foreign Minister of Armenia Edward Nalbandian on December 8 had a meeting with Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Spain Alfonso Dastis in Hamburg on the sidelines of the 23rd meeting of the OSCE FMs Council, press service of the Armenian MFA told Armenpress.

At the meeting the Armenian FM congratulated Alfonso Dastis on his appointment and stated that Armenia is interested in developing comprehensive cooperation with Spain.

The sides attached importance to organizing high-level mutual visits, intensifying the inter-parliamentary cooperation, as well as expanding the legal framework.

The two FMs discussed issues related to intensifying the cooperation within the framework of international organizations.

The process of Armenia-EU talks on new legal base, the necessity to launch dialogue over the liberalization of visa regime were touched upon during the talk.

By the request of his Spanish counterpart, FM Nalbandian presented the efforts of Armenia and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairing countries aimed at establishing respective conditions in order to move forward the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement process.

FM Nalbandian invited Alfonso Dastis to visit Armenia to continue the dialogue.








SYDNEY - A major 7.7-magnitude quake struck on Friday off the Solomon Islands triggering severe shaking and a tsunami warning, but there were no reports of any serious damage, officials said.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre initially said there could be possible "widespread, hazardous" tsunami waves, forcing villagers to flee to higher ground.

But within three hours the warning was downgraded after the threat passed without major incident.

The epicentre of the quake, which hit at 4:38am, was located 68km west of Kirakira, a provincial capital in the Solomon Islands, at a depth of 48km, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said.

A shallow 6.5 aftershock rattled the same area some four hours later.

Electricity supplies were cut in some parts of the Solomons and there were reports of thatched houses collapsing.

Donald Tehimae, an officer at the Kirakira police station, said most of the damage appeared to be superficial.

"Some houses have been damaged but no one was hurt. At the police station a lot of documents in the storeroom fell down," he said.

Suzy Sainovski, an official with aid organisation World Vision in the capital Honiara , said the shaking was frightening.

"The earthquake woke me up. I was in bed and it was dark and it felt like being in a matchbox that someone was just shaking and shaking," she said.

"It felt almost like the hotels foundation was just moving in waves. The shaking felt like it went on for quite a while -- 30 to 45 seconds. The cupboard doors were shaking, but nothing fell over.

"Just from briefly looking outside my window as it begins to get light, I didnt see any damage to buildings."

Offshore epicentre

Hugh Glanville, duty seismologist at Geoscience Australia , said the offshore epicentre of the earthquake and sparsely populated areas helped minimise the impact.

"So far we have had no reports of major damage," he said.

"There was a small tsunami, the waves were under half a metre. Theyve arrived through most of the Solomons and Vanuatu and the threat level is diminished or has passed.

"The reason we often get so little damage from big earthquakes in this area is that the plate boundary is offshore," he added.

"The epicentre being 100km offshore makes all the difference."

USGS said earlier that some casualties and damage were possible from the quake, warning that waves reaching 1-3m above tide level could occur along parts of the Solomons.

It had also warned some coasts in Vanuatu , Papua New Guinea , Nauru , New Caledonia , Tuvalu and Kosrae, as well as Hawaii , were at risk, before saying the threat had passed.

The earthquake-prone Solomon Islands, east of Papua New Guinea and with a population of more than 500,000, are well rehearsed in what action to take following several devastating tremors. - AFP
UK and Gibraltar Prepare for Brexit Negotiations

Ministers from the Government of Gibraltar and the Government of the United Kingdom met Wednesday in London for the first formal engagement between the two under the structure of the new Joint Ministerial Council (Gibraltar EU Negotiations). This is the framework within which the United Kingdom and Gibraltar are developing plans for the negotiations for leaving the European Union following the result of the referendum of 23 June.

The Chief Minister Fabian Picardo and the Deputy Chief Minister Dr Joseph Garcia (who is also responsible for Europe and for work related to Exiting the EU) met with Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union Robin Walker and Minister of State for Europe and the Americas Sir Alan Duncan. The Gibraltar delegation also included the Attorney General Michael Llamas, the Financial Secretary Albert Mena and UK Representative Dominique Searle.

The two hour preliminary discussion centered on the detail of the report about "Gibraltar and Brexit" that was submitted by the Gibraltar Government to the United Kingdom after the summer.

Mr Walker, during the course of the meeting, expressed the full support of the United Kingdom Government for Gibraltar. He also updated those present on the state of play at this time.

The Deputy Chief Minister Dr Joseph Garcia said: "The relationship between the UK and Gibraltar has never been better. The Government is very pleased with the level of engagement that has existed between Gibraltar and the United Kingdom since the decision was taken in the UK to leave the European Union. I know that both Mr Walker and Sir Alan have a deep understanding of the position of Gibraltar going forward and of what our priorities are."

The Chief Minister Fabian Picardo said he considered that the meeting with Robin Walker and Alan Duncan had gone very well. "Robin Walker has a clear affinity with Gibraltar and he understands the issues that are relevant to us as we gear up to form part of the UK's negotiations to exit the EU. We have been able to go thoroughly the issues that matter and will be meeting regularly now to ensure we able to work in close partnership with the UK in this process. Sir Alan Duncan is a keen supporter of Gibraltar and he remains the FCO Ministerial lead for Gibraltar as Minister for Europe and the Americas. We have been grateful for his contribution to the debate. As someone who knows and loves Gibraltar, he is an important ally for the people of Gibraltar in this process. All in all I can assure Gibraltar that this first official meeting of the Joint Ministerial Committee has been very fruitful and successful for Gibraltar and we look forward to continuing this process going forward."

It was agreed that the Joint Ministerial Council would continue to meet on a regular basis and that a number of inter-governmental working groups would be established to examine specific areas in more detail.
TAMA COUNTY  The fiance of a woman who disappeared in April of 2000 was charged Friday with killing her.

A grand jury charged Tait Otis Purk, 50, with first-degree murder in the death of Cora Okonski of Tama, who vanished in 2000.

Purk is serving time in a federal penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kan., for manufacturing methamphetamine and other drug and firearm charges. He was scheduled to be released in April, according to the Tama News-Herald.

The grand jury was convened by the Tama County Attorneys Office and the Iowa State Attorney Generals Office to review evidence and testimony in the cold case of Okonski, who was 23 when she disappeared April 16, 2000.

Purk told investigators and the media Okonski borrowed a little money from him to go buy cigarettes April 16 and never returned to their Tama home, leaving behind her son Austin, who was 2 years old.

According to Courier archives, Purk was charged with domestic assault against Okonski in December 1999, and a no-contact order was put in place. The order was lifted in March 2000, and they had planned to marry in May.

Okonski was never included on Department of Public Safetys Missing Person Information Clearinghouse list because she had an active warrant at the time of her disappearance for failing to appear in court as a witness. DPS told Iowa Cold Cases that was because people cannot be on both missing and wanted lists at the same time.

The Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation reopened Okonskis case in March 2015 and declared it a homicide investigation Nov. 10 of this year.

No further details were available.
Hearst Center to host reception

CEDAR FALLS  The Hearst Center for the Arts will host Paul R. Smith: Works from the Schwarz Collection through Jan. 22.

There will be an artist reception from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Sunday with wine and refreshments. The reception is free and open to the public.

Smith taught art at Iowa State Teachers College in Cedar Falls from 1950-64 and at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minn., from 1964-75.

Cookie walk set for Saturday

WATERLOO  The Joint Volunteers of the Arc of Cedar Valley will host the 27th annual Holiday Cookie Walk from 9 to 11:30 a.m. Saturday at North Star Community Services, 3420 University Ave.

The public is welcome to this annual event.

Customers are given bakery boxes to choose their own selection of homemade, decorated cookies and candies. Treats are purchased by the pound, and there will be homemade dog and kitty treats available.

Program to help Seniors slated

WATERLOO  HomeInstead Senior Care will host the ninth annual Be a Santa to A Senior Program to help Cedar Valley seniors during the holidays.

Rotary Club of the Cedar Valley members will deliver Christmas gifts to program participants Saturday.

The program connects local, nonprofit and community based organizations with seniors identified by HomeInstead and the Northeast Iowa Area Agency on Aging as in need of gifts and fellowship.

Last year 150 gifts were distributed. Two hundred tags are on the trees this year. Many of the items requested are basic items  clothing, food, towels, personal items and blankets.

Aramark and Viking Pump also provided gifts and monetary donations.

Womens lunch held Monday

PARKERSBURG  The Aplington-Parkersburg Womens Connection luncheon is set for 12:30 p.m. Monday at Parkersburg United Methodist Church on Florence Street.

The event will begin with the Wright family, and Suzanne DeBerg, of Mound, Minn., will speak on the Joy in the Journey, with her husband playing guitar.

Cost is $9. Call 346-1060 for reservations. All women are welcome. Guests are asked to bring a paper product for the Parkersburg Food Bank. The event is sponsored by Stone Croft Ministries, and prayer time will be at 9 a.m. in the Hope Reformed Church basement.

Blood drive set in Cedar Falls

CEDAR FALLS  There will be a Red Cross blood drive Monday at Nazareth Lutheran Church.

Times will be from 1 to 6 p.m.

Coin club to host Christmas party

WATERLOO  The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Coin Club will host its annual members Christmas party at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Waterloo Center for the Arts, Schoitz Room III.

All members are asked to bring a covered dish to share.
WATERLOO  A Waterloo man has pleaded to allegations he opened fire on people outside a nightclub in the early morning hours of New Years Day, wounding one.

Kristopher Darquel Spates Jr. also pleaded to several other cases that involved carrying firearms and scuffling with Waterloo police officers.

Spates, 23, entered Alford pleas  not admitting guilt but acknowledging he likely would be convicted if the cases went to trial  Thursday to charges of willful injury, intimidation with a weapon, possession of marijuana with intent to deliver, violation of the drug tax stamp act, interference with a firearm, carrying weapons, assault on a peace officer causing bodily injury and first-degree harassment.

As part of a plea agreement, Spates was sentenced to up to 20 years in prison with five years before parole.

Judge Andrea Dryer said the prison time was appropriate given the nature and number of the offenses.

Assistant Black Hawk County Attorney Jeremy Westendorf said part of the agreement involved not pressing federal charges.

The New Years shooting erupted during closing near an East Fourth Street nightclub. Police were called because patrons werent leaving, and as officers approached, they noticed people gathering in a nearby alley and heard gunshots. One of the bullets struck 31-year-old Ramarez Gary in the leg.

One officer fired a single shot at the gunman that missed. A foot chase ensued, and Spates and two teens were caught.

Two other cases Spates pleaded to occurred before the New Years shooting.

In October 2014, police were called to a home at 520 Elm St. and found a 17-year-old girl with a fatal gunshot wound to the head. During the investigation, officers stopped a truck carrying Spates. He allegedly pulled away from officers, who found bags of marijuana where he had been sitting.

A relative of Spates was later charged with manslaughter in the girls death.

On April 17, 2014, police were called to people loitering in front of 520 Elm St., and Spates ran and allegedly discarded a .380-caliber pistol when officers arrived.

Each time, Spates left jail after posting bond. His last brush with authorities came in September 2016 when he was a front seat passenger in a car that was pulled over for a bad brake light. Officers saw a handgun tucked in his waistband, and Spates allegedly pulled away from police. He was detained, and the officer determined the weapon, a 40-caliber Glock, had been reported stolen in a 2015 break-in.

Spates allegedly spit on one officer and threatened another.
CEDAR RAPIDS  As the Iowa Democratic Party undertakes the selection of a new party chair, the partys Disability Caucus will host a virtual forum Saturday to expand disabled Iowans access to the process.

People with disabilities ace challenges participating in forums with the seven candidates to succeed Chairwoman Andy McGuire, explained Disability Caucus Chairwoman Catherine Crist of Cedar Rapids. For many, traveling to forums of State Central Committee meetings in Des Moines presents challenges. If they can attend, Crist said persons with hearing and sight impairments often struggle to fully participate.

The Disability caucus will livestream audio of her interviews with the seven people seeking to be chair and utilize a live transcription service to make the interviews available from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Dec. 10.

For access to the virtual forum, email IPDdisabilitycaucus@gmail.com.

Crist will ask each candidate five questions about their visions for the party. Some will deal with disability-related issues, she said. The candidates also will make opening and closing remarks. Timer permitting, questions submitted by the audience will be asked.

Two other forums with IDP candidates are planned. The Political party will host six of the seven at 6:30 p.m. Dec. 16 at Speed Lyceum Student Center at Grand View University in Des Moines.

The event is free and open to the public. RSVP at http://bit.ly/2h3ouco.

The IDP State Central Committee will have its own forum starting at 10 a.m. Dec. 17 to vet the candidates for state party chair. Its meeting will be at the United Steelworkers 310 Hall, 125 NW Broadway, Des Moines. The party said the forum will be open to the public, but only committee members may ask questions.
WATERLOO  Fran Newsom arrived at Terrace Hill carrying her bright orchid-purple tool box filled with florists wire, wire cutters, hot glue gun and other supplies she might need.

After all, this wasnt her first time helping to decorate the Iowa governors historic Des Moines residence for the holidays, and she came prepared.

Ive volunteered to do Christmas decorations at the mansion for my entire 40-year career as a florist. Its a real honor and privilege to be able to do this for the governors mansion. Any chance we get to do our civic duty in a design way is just icing on the Christmas cookie, said Iowa Master Florist Fran Newsom, who also has decorated for five inaugural celebrations.

Newsom, a Waterloo Hy-Vee Crossroads florist, and Casey Allen, the stores floral shop manager, were among about 40 members of the Iowa Florists Association, Questers and Kirkwood Community College horticulture/floral career students who volunteered to deck out the mansions first and second floors in mid November.

Several months earlier, IFA members from throughout Iowa were invited to volunteer or donate products and materials. Naturally, volunteers underwent security checks.

Decorations will be displayed for public viewing on tours at specific times Tuesday through Saturday until after the New Year. A holiday tea with first lady Chris Branstad takes place Monday.

This was Allens first time at the mansion, completed in 1869 and the official governors residence since 1971. It was awesome to take in the house itself. Its just beautiful, so ornate, and to be part of helping out Gov. (Terry) Branstad and his wife (Chris) was great. It really was a neat experience, said the Iowa master florist. She has spent the last 10 years of her 15-year career with Hy-Vee.

According to the Terrace Hill website, the 18,000-square-foot Palace on the Prairie and National Historic Landmark is a stunning example of Victorian Second Empire architecture.

Tradition reigns supreme because it suits the stately restored home, but decorations change from year to year because our creativity kicks in, and we dont want it to look the same every year, Newsom said.

She describes decoration day as a scene of organized chaos  everyone rummaging through boxes of decorations, ornaments, glitter and garland everywhere, but everyone has a job to do, and everything eventually comes together.

Terrace Hill groundskeeper Monty Lovell chooses trees from a local grower, sets them up in the rooms and brings decorations out of storage a week before volunteers show up, according to the Des Moines Register.

Over six or seven hours, the army of volunteers dressed many Christmas trees, stretched elaborate garlands over fireplace mantels, festooned staircases and attached embellished wreaths to the mansions many glittering chandeliers.

We also were well-fed with a breakfast of homemade maple and walnut scones, hot chocolate and coffee, and a full lunch with homemade Christmas cookies, Newsom recalled. Christmas music filled the mansion for inspiration.

She worked as a roving florist, lending a pair of hands wherever needed. With her assistance, a Christmas tree was decorated with collections of richly colored purple, turquoise, peacock blue, dark blue and green ornaments in the peacock room, so named for the large brass peacock vase prominently displayed there. She also teetered atop a ladder to wire lush evergreen wreaths, draped with bead ropes, from the rooms chandeliers.

Allen adorned the mansions largest tree  15 to 16 feet tall  with red and gold in one of the mansions main public rooms  and the first ladys favorite room.

Theres a huge chandelier thats just gorgeous, and behind that is the Christmas tree set between windows. I used about 10 long light strands and 150 to 200 or more ornaments that were outsized  some were 6 inches around, plus a branchey garland, ribbon and all kinds of filler, Allen explained.

A tree that big needs lots of bulk to fill it up and make it look finished.

Together Allen and Newsom also decorated Christmas trees at the Iowa Capitol building. We got to do a lot of work on the one outside the governors office doors  pretty much a traditional, woodsy theme with branches and berries.

Newsom wont be gone for long. Ill be back at Terrace Hill on Jan. 3 to help take down all the decorations, pack them up and store them for next year.
WATERLOO  A Waterloo teen who was detained for allegedly breaking into seven vehicles in a parking ramp in November has been charged as an adult.

And police have linked him to 27 vehicle break-ins at downtown parking ramps.

Davon Marcell Oliver, 17, was originally charged as a juvenile with three counts of vehicle burglary, four counts of attempted vehicle burglary and one count each of second-degree criminal mischief and interference after he and a 15 year old were chased by police at the West Fourth Street ramp Nov. 13.

On Nov. 29, a juvenile court judge waived the case to adult court, and Wednesday, Oliver was arrested as an adult on 21 counts of vehicle burglary, nine counts of attempted vehicle burglary, two counts of second-degree criminal mischief and one count each of fourth-degree criminal mischief, interference and third-degree theft. He later was released from the Black Hawk County Jail.

Oliver was originally detained following a rash of break-ins at downtown parking ramps. In some cases, bricks were used to smash car windows.

In addition to the Nov. 13 burglaries, police linked him to a Nov. 6 spree that hit 18 vehicles parked at the Commercial Street ramp and single-vehicle break-ins Oct. 1, Oct. 10, Nov. 3, Nov. 5 and Nov. 13 at the Commercial, West Fourth and East Fourth ramps, according to court records. He also was arrested in an Oct. 5 vehicle burglary in the 800 block of Baltimore Street where a laptop was taken.

One dead in crash near Waukon

WAUKON  A LeClaire man died in a Wednesday night crash near Waukon.

According to the Iowa State Patrol, 43-year-old Christopher Hoff, of LeClaire, was traveling east on Highway 9 near Pole Line Road about 5:05 p.m. when his Ford F-150 pickup crossed the centerline and collided head-on with a westbound Buick Enclave driven by Amy Grace Robinson, 44, of Decorah.

Hoff was taken to Veterans Memorial Hospital in Waukon where he died. Robinson also was taken to Veterans Memorial with minor injuries.

Man arrested

for burglary

CEDAR FALLS  Footprints helped lead police investigators to a man who was suspected of breaking into the muffler shop where he used to work.

Thomas Allen Young, 30, of 1241 Ingersoll Road, Waterloo, turned himself in to authorities on Thursday and was arrested for third-degree burglary and second-degree criminal mischief in connection with the Oct. 31 break-in at Midas Muffler. He was released to pretrial services after booking.

More than $1,000 damage was reported in the burglary, according to police. Shoe prints showed the intruder went to an area of the business where cash had been kept before a change of management, court records state.

A resident who lives in a neighboring apartment building noticed a suspicious Pontiac G6 with two different styles of rims parked in his designated spot on the night of the break-in. The resident saw a man walking from the area of Midas to the Pontiac and leave.

After the resident noticed damage to the business, he called police.

Investigators noticed a Pontiac G6 with different rims at Youngs address. They obtained a warrant to search his home and found shoes that had a tread consistent with prints left at the business, records state.
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. The new report of the Ombudsman of Nagorno Karabakh on Azerbaijani atrocities and gross violations of international right during Azerbaijani unleashed military operations has already been presented through diplomatic channels, NKR Ombudsman Ruben Melikyan told reporters.

Using all our opportunities, we will spread this report both generally and targeted. We have already presented it through diplomatic channels. We will try to spread the report in all possible ways, the Ombudsman said, announcing that the report has also been presented to international organizations of human rights operating in Azerbaijan.

He underscored that it is possible many international organizations cite the NKR report when issuing annual reports. I cant say for sure, however I think they are used on diplomatic and other platforms as well, he said.

Ruben Melikyan drew attention on the announcement of OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing countries FMs, which for the first time expressed non-addressed deep concern regarding the presented atrocities and brutalities.

Speaking on whether he will speak about the report with Azerbaijans Ombudsman, Melikyan said: I dont personally know him. Im not sure the contact with NKR Ombudsman will be desirable for Azerbaijans Ombudsman. Anyway I dont rule out that we might send him the report too, although its available in public sources.
WATERLOO  The Sanctuary Choir of First Baptist Church, Fourth and Baltimore, will present the annual Christmas Cantata at 10:15 a.m. Sunday, followed by holiday treats and munchies.

What Child Is This by George Leavitt will be presented, under the direction of the Rev. Carol Teare. The performance is based on a traditional service of lessons and carols. An instrumental ensemble utilizes the talents of Dr. Randall Harlow on the organ; Cara Lockard, violin,;Jesse Luke, cello; Peg Cornils, flute; Jack Luke, clarinet; Delayne Stallman, percussion; and Jeff McKelvie on trumpet to accompany the choir.

Featured vocal soloists will include Jenna Hendrix and the Rev. Joe Greemore.

Adding to the program is a quartet with Toby Teare, Jessica Turner, Carol Teare and Rick Anderson. Narrators are Elizabeth Zondo and Rye Lange. There also will be the ceremony to light the Advent candles.

Everyone is welcome.

WAVERLY  Wartburg College will offer an Advent/Christmas Vespers service Sunday in the Wartburg Chapel.

The 7 p.m. community worship service will feature familiar Christmas carols, candle lighting and a variety of Advent and Christmas music.

Wartburgs Flute Choir, directed by Dominique Cawley, senior lecturer in music; Dr. Karen Black, professor of music, college organist and director of St. Elizabeth Chorale; the Wartburg Handbell Choir, directed by Tim Schumacher; Psalm 149 worship dance group; and student vocalists will participate in the service.

WATERLOO  The Steward Board of Payne Memorial AME Church, 1044 Mobile St., will host its annual Steward Day at 4 p.m. Sunday.

Deacon Dennis Reed of Antioch Baptist will be the guest speaker. Theme is evidence of stewardship.

For more information, call the church at 233-8189. The public is welcome.

WATERLOO  The annual Live Nativity will be presented by the South Waterloo Church of the Brethren from 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday at 6227 Kimball Ave.

Guests may drive through or park for viewing. Refreshments will be available in the Family Life Center (park and enter through the north doors of the church).

Everyone is welcome.

WATERLOO  The annual Christmas program, Really, Really, Really Good News, at the Waterloo Christian School, 1307 W. Ridgeway Ave., will start at 6:30 p.m. Thursday.

The show will include performances by kindergarten through fourth- grade students as well as middle and high school bands and choirs. Its free and open to the public.

A  Sweets After the Show reception will follow. Desserts will be available for $2 a plate to raise money for the music program.
When the problem of fake news first started making headlines, I was traveling across Southeast Asia and the Middle East. That vantage point provided a striking contrast: While we in America waste the right to a free press, half a world away, the right is so precious people routinely risk their lives to support it.

In nations where media are state run or state approved, journalists who try to work independently are often threatened, arrested and even shot or beheaded. To simply be harassed is a good day. In Turkey since the July coup, for example, the government has detained at least 200 journalists, and, according to Punto 24, a Turkish nonprofit devoted to press freedom, more than 2,300 have been fired. On Nov. 11 in Egypt, four reporters were detained when they tried to cover economic protests. In places like Myanmar, its risky to list your profession as journalist. I said, instead, I was a lawyer.

Without a doubt, the proliferation of fake news in the United States is a problem. But when I hear calls to shut down or block websites or censor what people can read or watch, my First Amendment hackles rise. A free press is fundamental to a free society, and curtailing it is an even bigger threat to our way of life than fake news. Besides, banning content wont solve anything.

Fake news is hardly a new phenomenon. For decades, Americans have had an appetite for fringe stories, from grassy knoll conspiracy theories surrounding the Kennedy assassination to the alien secrets of Area 51 and the baseless notion 9/11 was an inside job. We sometimes want truth to be stranger than fiction.

What is new is a propensity for large segments of society to believe things that are clearly untrue. Pope Francis wouldnt and didnt endorse Donald Trump. An FBI agent involved with Hillary Clintons email investigation wasnt found dead in a murder-suicide. These memes were launched by specious internet sites as satire or were put out as purposeful misinformation. Their spread could have been halted by a more skeptical public.

But we delude ourselves if we think this problem originates only with online trolls and heedless consumers in the thrall of the internet and social media.

Consider one of the bigger fake news stories of this decade  a low-budget online video making fun of Islam and the prophet Muhammad spontaneously sparked the violent protest at the U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, 2012, and led to the deaths of four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya.

This was the story initially pushed by key members of the Obama administration, including the White House national security advisor, and accepted by much of the mainstream American media. Throughout September 2012, President Obama himself repeatedly cited the extremely offensive video made by a sort of shadowy character as the cause or proximate cause of the attack  to David Letterman, to Univisions Jorge Ramos and to Joy Behar of The View. Weve since learned from then-Secretary of State Hillary Clintons private email to her daughter, Chelsea, on the night of the attack Clinton believed the violence was the work of an al-Qaeda-like group. It wasnt a reporter who uncovered that fact but a U.S. congressional committee.

Forcing Facebook to change its newsfeed algorithm or shutting down websites wont fix fundamental problems like this.

For Americans to pay attention to real news, newsrooms have to supply it. Too often today, newsrooms are like courtrooms. Reporters, editors and anchors cast themselves as prosecutors or defense attorneys, building a case for or against a story line and molding the evidence to fit their argument. (Some even anoint themselves as judge and jury and explicitly render a verdict after that.)

Reporters must ask tough questions and go where the answers, rather than their preconceptions, lead them. Recall in the run-up to the Iraq war, The New York Times breathlessly reported on Saddam Husseins extensive programs to create weapons of mass destruction. After the invasion, many of these claims could not be substantiated.

Real reporting is detective work, trying to get to the bottom of a story or event. That requires skepticism and patience. If a reporter is going to be an advocate, he or she should play devils advocate  and do it with every source, on all sides.

Part of the reason fake news is so easy to believe is fringe stories no longer read or sound all that different from too many of the real stories. Too often, both have little or no sourcing, they lack context and they get disseminated with almost no fact-checking. Sometimes the fake stories look, sound or read better than real ones. And both are chasing the same thing: ratings or online clicks.

Theres a reason our Founding Fathers explicitly guaranteed freedom of the press in the First Amendment. It is imperative for a free and healthy society. Just ask the journalists in unfree places who every day risk their lives on its behalf. If we are squandering that freedom, dont just blame Facebook or Twitter. Blame all of us.
On the campaign trail, President-elect Donald Trump cast himself as a latter-day Teddy Roosevelt, threatening greedy corporations with the big stick of 35 percent tariffs if they shipped jobs overseas, while scoffing at rewarding them with tax incentives.

Ive watched as politicians talked about stopping companies from leaving our states, he said in Pennsylvania in August. Heres a tax abatement of any kind you want. Well help your employees. It doesnt work, folks. Thats not what they need. They have money. They want to go out, they want to move to another country, and because our politicians are so dumb, they want to sell their product to us and not have any retribution, not have any consequence.

But last week, with a boost from Vice President-elect Mike Pence, still governor of Indiana, Trump provided an early Christmas present to 1,069 employees at a Carrier air-conditioning plant in Indianapolis whose jobs, paying an average $30.91 per hour, were scheduled to go to Mexico.

For Trump to fulfill that campaign promise before taking office, Indiana will provide Carrier with $5 million in tax credits over 10 years, $1 million in training grants and up to $1 million in additional tax credits based on a planned $16 million factory investment.

Another 400 employees will still lose their jobs, as will 700 at a related plant. Carrier stated the relocation to Mexico would save $65 million.

That case is an anomaly given Pence is governor of Indiana, and Carriers parent company, United Technologies Corp., is a leading Pentagon contractor (Pratt Whitney), with a $7.6 billion profit last year, $6 billion from defense.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., on the left, and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, on the right, criticized Trump.

Just a short few months ago, Trump was pledging to force United Technologies to pay a damn tax, Sanders wrote in the Washington Post. He was insisting on very steep tariffs for companies like Carrier that left the United States and wanted to sell their foreign-made products back in the United States. Instead of a damn tax, the company will be rewarded with a damn tax cut. Wow!

Palin, a Trump supporter, weighed in on the Young Conservative website, When government steps in arbitrarily with individual subsidies, favoring one business over others, it sets inconsistent, unfair, illogical precedent, calling it special interest crony capitalism.

Which prompted Trump to unleash his Twitter account:

Any business that leaves our country for another country, fires its employees, builds a new factory or plant in the other country, and then thinks it will sell its product back into the U.S. without retribution or consequence, is WRONG!  There will be a tax on our soon to be strong border of 35 percent for these companies wanting to sell their product, cars, A.C. units etc., back across the border.

But Trump is going to run headlong into a Republican-dominated Congress committed to free trade, not punitive tariffs.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said, I think we can get at the goal here, which is to keep American businesses American, build things in America and sell them overseas, that can be properly addressed with comprehensive tax reform.

High tariffs will be difficult to impose against companies that assemble products in the U.S. using parts made overseas or expand overseas operations rather than moving them.

Tariffs will hurt consumers, particularly on cars, clothing and computers. Consider the impact of a 35 percent tariff on the cost of Ford Focus, which is made in Mexico, or on computers  70 percent are made overseas. Trump also has threatened a 45 percent tariff on Apple products made in China.

The history of tariffs is not good, even recently against China.

The Consuming Industries Trade Action Coalition estimated when President George W. Bush imposed tariffs of up to 30 percent on Chinese steel products in 2002, it ended up costing the U.S. economy 200,000 jobs and $4 billion in lost wages.

In 2009, the Obama administration imposed a safeguard tariff on Chinese tires and punitive tariffs on other Chinese goods, and China retaliated. The U.S. tire industry grew by 1,200, but U.S. consumers paid an additional $1.1 billion for tires $900,000 per job.

Tariffs are a bad idea on a complex economic landscape where U.S. jobs have been lost to globalization, automation and the high dollar. Trump will be hard pressed to reverse those factors.

But, if nothing else, resurrecting Teddy Roosevelts bully pulpit is worth a try.

As Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., said, If Trump can keep a thousand families from going through such an ordeal, then good for him. And if it makes other companies think twice about the human consequences of their business decisions, so much the better.
Q: Is there any place in the area I can donate large remnants of fleece fabric?

A: We know the St. Vincent de Paul thrift store sells cuts of fabric. If there are other groups that can use it for something, please let us know, and well update this.

Q: Do other countries have Social Security  say, Germany and Japan?

A: Both countries do  you can see details on their programs, as well as those of other countries, on the Social Security Administration website at www.ssa.gov.

Q: What is the story behind the statues of the four women on top of the building along the Cedar River? Did there used to be seven?

A: There were six. The statues, known as the Green Goddesses, have been atop the River Plaza building downtown for a number of years. Artist Robert De Glass created six copper figures placed on the old Black Hawk County Courthouse in 1907, according to Courier files. In 1963, that courthouse was torn down, but the statues were saved. The four downtown represent Agriculture, Justice, History and Commerce. A fifth statue, Industry, apparently was destroyed decades ago. The sixth, Peace, is on the Upper Iowa University campus in Fayette.

Q: Has Friendship Village been sold to a new owner, and are they in financial trouble?

A: Lisa Gates, president and CEO of Friendship Village, replies: Friendship Village is not for sale and is not experiencing any financial problems. When a person moves into Friendship Village under our life care plan, they are promised that they will be taken care of, no matter if the level of care increases to assisted living or nursing, without having to pay the cost for the additional care. Friendship Village contracts with an actuarial company every five years to audit the assets of Friendship Village to insure that we can support each and every promise made. Our last actuarial study done two years ago came back with an opinion that Friendship Village is in satisfactory actuarial balance. 

Q: With the weather being so nice does the city of Waterloo plan to have another yard waste day in December?

A: The yard waste site closed for the winter season Dec. 4. If weather permits, the site may temporarily re-open from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Dec. 10 and 11. That tentative opening will be announced on the city of Waterloos website and the sanitation departments Facebook page.

Clarification

A Dec. 4 Call the Courier answer about Salvation Army donations did not address monetary donations, which can be sent to the main Salvation Army office at 89 Franklin St., Waterloo 50703. Also, pickups of donated merchandise may be arranged by calling locally to 235-9358.
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. There is still no consensus over the station of observers in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict zone, Russias Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said after the OSCE FMs meeting in Hamburg, reports Armenpress.

We have commented on the situation over the Karabakh conflict long ago in the context of agreements that were reached in Vienna at the meeting of Armenian and Azerbaijani Presidents Serzh Sargsyan and Ilham Aliyev with the participation of the Foreign Ministers of the OSCE MG Co-Chairing countries, as well as in St. Petersburg at the meeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan Serzh Sargsyan and Ilham Aliyev. The first agreement concerned the reestablishment of the ceasefire. The fire stopped, however, unfortunately, today, there are still violations from this perspective, Lavrov said, adding that they highly appreciate the OSCE monitoring mission in the line of contact.

The Russian FM stated that an agreement was reached over the issue of increasing the number of the OSCE observers.

That number is small, the number of group members was added by 7, and the group has quite a modest number, as I know, it is comprised of 12 members. Yes, we think that those agreements must be strengthened by the OSCE decisions, and consensus is needed for that. There is a consensus on increasing the number of observers, however, where they must be stationed, no consensus yet. I, like many people, think that they must be stationed along the entire length of the line of contact, Lavrov said.
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. Foreign Minister of Armenia Edward Nalbandian does not rule out that in the near future the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan will meet, Armenpress reports Minister Nalbandian told the reporters in Hamburg during a briefing.

Its not ruled out but such meetings need more detailed preparatory works. Because if our neighbor country announces just before the Hamburg meeting that the international law is nothing, force and use of force are decisive, such a behavior deserves very tough respond. This is not only my personal opinion but also of my colleges with whom I had a chance to meet in the sidelines of the OSCE Ministerial Council meeting. Making such announcements by a head of a country in the 21st century evidences that those people have lost the feeling of reality, Nalbandian said.

To his conviction, the logic of Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement proposed by the Co-chair countries, and the approach of Azerbaijan to this issue in no way coincide and are even in contrast with each other.

The Co-chair countries say something, while threats come in respond. Azerbaijan puts itself in a deadlock situation. Since they are unable to be understood by anyone in this circle, they try to go to other planets to seek people who can mistakably pour water to their mill, the Armenian Foreign Minister said.
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. Azerbaijan always tries to pretend that there has been no agreement reached on any issue. This refers to both installation of mechanisms investigating border incidents and the expansion of Kasprzyks team, Armenpress reports Foreign Minister of Armenia Edward Nalbandian told the reporters in Hamburg during a briefing.

The Co-chairs clearly stated that there should be progress over the agreement of creating the mechanisms. It was clearly mentioned that all the obstacles facing the expansion of the team of Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office should be eliminated. If we enlarge the team by some people, there will be no major changes since there are conflict situations where some hundreds of observers instead of dozens are stationed but again there are no major changes. But it is of key importance that even one symbolic step is taken to show that there is progress. They should add the number of observers, raise the quality and effectiveness, the Armenian Foreign Minister stressed.

According to him, Azerbaijan had been against the idea of enlarging the observation team just from the beginning, but now says lets supplement it by 7 people, but instead of stationing them on the contact line or the conflict zone, send to Baku, Yerevan and Tbilisi, after which they will have to ask Baku for permission to come or not. In this case where is the effectiveness of such an observation mission? Minister Nalbandian also recalled that several OSCE committee sessions have taken place so far, including the financial one, during which Azerbaijan every time vetoed. This means it hampered the teams enlargement and more efficient operation.

They say the mechanisms can be in place after the settlement, but why do we need any mechanisms after the settlement? They push themselves to a deadlock situation, meaning that the entire world says something, but they understand it in another way. They live in an un-real world and try to enforce their opinions upon others. This is the issue. The Co-chairs do not lose hope, neither does Armenia. We will continue making efforts together with them aimed at the implementation of the Vienna and St. Petersburg meetings. The commitment to fully respect the 1994/1995 ceasefire agreements is of key importance for an exclusively peaceful settlement and of course, for the creation of those mechanisms which can be not only investigative but also for deterrence able to limit regional tensions and a better atmosphere for the negotiation process will be established, Edward Nalbandian concluded.
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Every year, the Oregon State Bar celebrates a group of lawyers and judges who have made outstanding contributions to the community and the profession. This years award winners include two Willamette Law alumnae. The awards were given at the bars annual Awards Luncheon Dec. 8.

The Honorable Valeri L. Love MBA92, JD95 received the Presidents Membership Service Award, which honors attorneys for contributions made to the profession. Judge Love has served on the bench of the Lane County Circuit Court since 2011 and is currently the juvenile court judge. She is involved with many organizations and activities, including the Lane County Bar Association, Oregon Asian Pacific American Bar Association, and Oregon Women Lawyers.

Megan I. Livermore JD05 was awarded the Presidents Diversity and Inclusion Award. The award recognizes members who have made significant contributions to the goal of increasing minority representation in the legal profession. Livermore is of counsel at the Eugene, Oregon, firm of Hutchinson Cox, working primarily in business law. She is an active participant in the Lane County Legal Aid Tuesday Night clinic, is president of the Board of Directors of the HIV Alliance and is past-president of both Oregon Women Lawyers and the Lane County Bar Association.

Read the full award announcement here.

About Willamette University College of Law

Opened in 1883, Willamette University College of Law is the first law school in the Pacific Northwest. The college has a long tradition at the forefront of legal education and is committed to the advancement of knowledge through excellent teaching, scholarship and mentorship. Leading faculty, thriving externship and clinical law programs, ample practical skills courses and a proactive career placement office prepare Willamette law students for today's legal job market. According to statistics compiled by the American Bar Association, Willamette ranks first in the Pacific Northwest for job placement for full-time, long-term, JD-preferred/JD-required jobs for the class of 2014 and first in Oregon for the classes of 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015. Located across the street from the state capitol complex and the Oregon Supreme Court, the college specializes in law and government, law and business, and dispute resolution.
Regardless of domestic political developments, the United States should remain Armenias best friend in the international arena, Senator Mark Kirk told Voice of America Armenian service.

December 9, 2016, 09:51 US shall remain Armenias best friend: Mark Kirk

STEPANAKERT, DECEMBER 9, ARTSAKHPRESS: He noted that they need to be convinced that the US always remains the best friend of Armenia.

Senator Kirk added that the American-Armenian community is their inseparable part, and the US must do everything to assist Armenia which is in a complex region.

As per the senator, this assistance comprises more major efforts toward Washingtons ensuring the security of Armenia, and the high level of US assistance to Armenia.

Kirk noted that for him, as a senator, it is always important to be sure that the voice of Armenians is always heard in the US Senate.

Mark Kirk also stressed that the Armenian people, who have survived genocide and numerous trials, can teach a lot to the US. As per the senator, the American-Armenian community plays a unique role by not allowing America to stay asleep, as it happened in the 1930s.

Senator Mark Kirk is convinced that Armenia teaches the US to include the lessons from the past in its foreign policy, and be convinced that America plays a positive role in the world.
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BANGKOK, THAILAND, December 09, 2016 /24-7PressRelease/ -- BitS (Thailand) is focused towards helping students to acquire new knowledge, master their skills and develop new connections - all to help them better prepare for working in local & global organizations. An expert advice along a feedback system is properly integrated into the learning paradigm to better position the entire process.



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At BitS (Thailand) students can experience an innovative learning process which motivates participants in a unique way that ultimately increase their confidence levels while using English in the workplace.



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BitS (Thailand) has a Chinese department which was developed in conjunction with the growing demands of Chinese language in Thailand business sector. BitS Chinese courses are custom designed to equip participants with the right communication skills while engaging with Chinese guests, business associates and suppliers.



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Established in 1996, BitS (Thailand ) is one of the premium provider of computer, English and management training courses in Bangkok. The institute was established to full-fill the English language needs of forward-thinking businesses and Government departments in Thailand. For more information please visit www.bitsthailand.com.



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Foreign Minister of Armenia, Edward Nalbandian, on Thursday met with Deputy Secretary General of NATO, Rose Gottemoeller.

December 9, 2016, 15:01 Armenia FM and NATO deputy secretary general discuss cooperation

STEPANAKERT, DECEMBER 9, ARTSAKHPRESS: They met on the sidelines of the 23rd Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Ministerial Council meeting in Hamburg, Germany, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed.

The sides expressed satisfaction with the Armenia-NATO partnership and political discourse, which is developing steadily in recent years.

The interlocutors discussed the implementation of the Armenia-NATO Individual Partnership Action Plan.

They also reflected on Armenian military servicemens participation in the ongoing NATO-led Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan.

As per the deputy secretary general of NATO, the latter appreciates Armenias contribution to the efforts toward the establishment of international security and stability.
Dec 9, 2016 | By Benedict

Alta Motors, a Californian electric motorcycle brand, has been using CLIP 3D printing technology from 3D printer manufacturer Carbon to 3D print road-ready motorcycle parts made from Carbons RPU material.

With its groundbreaking Continuous Liquid Interface Production Technology (CLIP), Redwood City-based Carbon (formerly Carbon3D) is rewriting the rulebook on just how fast 3D printing can be. According to the company, CLIP has the potential to 3D print objects up to 100 times faster than standard FDM 3D printers, a claim that has made the M1 CLIP 3D printer a hot topic within the industry. Not content to watch its super-fast 3D printers reel off static parts, however, Carbon is now harnessing that rapid-fire printing power to create speedy machines of an altogether different nature: electric motorcycles.

When Alta Motors was founded in 2010 by Marc Fenigsetin, Derek Dorresteyn, and Jeff Sand, the startup decided that it wanted to create the best electric motorcycle on the market. The trio of co-founders wanted to build a machine not just green and energy-efficient, but also safe, cool, and lightning fast. However, to make its speedy bike a success, the company had to hit top gear in the workshop too, by accelerating development cycles so as not to be overtaken by others in the electric vehicle industrya field in which new products, new segments, pop up constantly, according to Fenigsetin.

Fortunately, as a small company, Alta was nimble enough to make fast developments, with one of the main components contributing to that speed being an in-house rapid prototyping lab. Using 3D printing equipment, Alta could constantly try out new ideas for parts without waiting days or weeks for those new parts to arrive. But the company also wanted a 3D printing system capable of fabricating production-standard parts, so turned to Ohio-based 3D printing bureau The Technology House (TTH), where they discovered the lightning-fast CLIP additive manufacturing technology from Carbon, a fellow Californian company.

After being introduced to Carbons CLIP 3D printing process, Alta knew that the technology could be used to improve the companys electric motorcycles. Now, a strong working relationship between Alta and TTH has seen the motorcycle developer receive a number of CLIP 3D printed parts, such as a charger housing and diagnostic tool enclosure. Were able to iterate with TTH over the Internet, said Nick Herron, a mechanical design engineer at Alta Motors. We send them CAD files, get parts, and iterate on them quickly. When we get parts from TTH, we do fit and mechanical tests; this is the first level of validation. Shock and vibration, ingress protection; this is a second level of validation.

In addition to being an incredibly fast 3D printing technology, CLIP can also be used with high-quality resinssomething that has benefitted the Alta team in many ways. The particular 3D printing materials used on the Alta electric motorcycles are Rigid Polyurethane (RPU), for the diagnostics and charger housings, and Elastomeric Polyurethane (EPU), for wire seals and grommets.

The material properties are a lot closer to manufactured parts, which gives us more confidence as we go into production, Herron explained. The parts arent brittle so we can do inserts or thread form without stripping or shattering the parts. We can seal grooves and keep out water, conduct pressure and spray testing, and ingress testing. With CLIP we have a lot more confidence when we go into production.

Adopting the CLIP 3D printing process has reportedly allowed Alta to fabricate components that cant be tooled, as well as one-piece 3D printable parts that incorporate different features and components. But thats not the end of the Alta additive manufacturing story: the company is now experimenting with designs that reduce the number of parts by making one part that can do the job of six, streamlining design to improve usability for its customers.

This year, former pro racer Josh Hill finished 4th in the supercross-inpired Red Bull Straight Rhythm race while riding an Alta Motors Redshift electric motorcycle, complete with 3D printed parts. The result shocked electric vehicle skeptics and put Alta firmly in the spotlight. Announcers were dismissive of electric at the beginning of the event, but by the end, they took us as a serious competitor, said Fenigsetin. That was a career-defining moment for me.

Alta believes the future is bright for electric motorcycles and other vehicles, and with 3D printing helping to bring the vehicles up to speed, the road to widespread adoption of electric bikes could be smoother than expected. There are 300 million motorbikes and lightweight vehicles on this planet, Fenigsetin said. At some point in the next 20 years, theyre all going to transition to electric.

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Dec 9, 2016 | By Benedict

Mount Sinai Health System has launched the Medical Modeling Core, a service through which clinicians can order 3D printed models for specific cases. The service will be the first of its kind to cater to the unique patient-specific modeling requirements of clinicians at Mount Sinai.

3D printed medical model made by the Medical Modeling Core

Founded in the mid-19th century, Mount Sinai Hospital is one of the oldest and biggest hospitals in the United States to be used for both treating patients and training medical staff. Its age, however, appears no obstacle to its willingness to adopt new methods. In 2013, the hospital embarked on an ambitious upscaling, partnering with Continuum Health Partners to form the Mount Sinai Health System, which contains the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and seven hospital campuses in the New York metropolitan area. And the hospital is ahead of the curve in terms of technology, too. Earlier this week, the Health System announced the creation of the Medical Modeling Core, a collaboration led by the Department of Neurosurgery which will see physicians able to order medical 3D models in various forms: virtual reality, simulation, and 3D printed.

The first-of-its-kind modeling service will, according to Mount Sinai, cater to the unique requirements of Mount Sinai clinicians, and will be available to medical professionals from several departments of the institution. Our simulation, prototyping, and 3D printing resources developed here at Mount Sinai are rare for a medical institution, said Joshua Bederson, MD, Professor and System Chair for the Department of Neurosurgery at Mount Sinai Health System and Clinical Director of the Neurosurgery Simulation Core. These models are used in the planning stages for minimally invasive approaches and can be a trial run for the surgery. In conjunction with simulation, they also play an important role in the patient consultation process.

Anthony Costa, PhD, Assistant Professor for the Department of Neurosurgery and Scientific Director of the Neurosurgery Simulation Core at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, will lead the 3D printing operations of the exciting new modeling service at Mount Sinai. According to Mount Sinai, Dr. Costa has developed his own segmentation tools that will be used to turn radiological data from CT scans and other sources into models that can be rendered or printed in 3D. Recent 3D printed medical models include skull-base tumors with surrounding vasculature and cranial nerves, spine modeling for the correction of severe scoliosis, and pelvic models for the planning of arthroplasty.

Mount Sinai Hospital stands adjacent to Central Park, Manhattan

More than half a dozen interdisciplinary collaborations have already been formed between the Medical Modeling Core and Mount Sinai clinical departments, including neurosurgery, orthopedics, surgery, otolaryngology, and cardiology. The hospital believes that, with such a range of applications available for the 3D printing service, many Mount Sinai patientswhatever their conditioncan benefit from this forward-thinking additive approach, and in good time too. Were unique because we can leverage our technological tools with the expertise of radiology and the printing lab to complete projects on a rapid time scale, said Dr. Costa. Were talking about days as opposed to weeks. Mount Sinai is a large institution with a high volume of cases and our patients will benefit from 3D modeling.

The new Rapid Prototyping Center at Mount Sinai contains four 3D printers, as well as a laser cutter for producing patient-specific neuroanatomy for pre-operative planning. The hospital reports that its 3D printing materials include gypsum powder base made of plastic, polyamide (nylon), epoxy resin, wax, photopolymers, and polycarbonate, suggesting that, of the four 3D printers, some may be FDM and some SLA/DLP. Mount Sinai says that its engineers can use this range of 3D printing filaments and materials to fabricate medical models and functional parts for a wide range of applications.

Finally, Mount Sinai has also reported that its new 3D printing capabilities could benefit the hospitals finances, as well as its patients. For example, a print that would cost $500 to model at the hospital could cost ten times that figure through a third-party 3D printing service provider. With high-profile institutions like Mount Sinai giving their seal of approval to medical 3D printing technology, other hospitals are sure to follow suit.

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Braden Ellis wrote at 12/10/2016 1:15:17 AM:His claim of a $500.00 model does not take into account Machine Cost, Human Capital Cost, building cost, maintenance cost.




Shedd Aquarium (CHICAGO) -- A team from the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago has traveled more than 8,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean on a mission to help save abandoned baby penguins on South Africa's coast.



Hundreds of endangered African penguin chicks are abandoned by their parents every year in South Africa, according to a news release this week from the Shedd Aquarium.



"The strandings are due to the species feather-changing process known as 'moulting,'" the aquarium said. "When moulting, the adult penguins are unable to go into the cold ocean to hunt for fish, so chicks that hatch late in the year are often left behind and face the risk of starvation."



Many abandoned baby penguins have been affected by "illness, oil spills, or injuries as a result of human activity," the aquarium added.



Because the African penguin species is endangered, saving the baby penguins to help retain the species' population is "critical," the Shedd Aquarium said.



"Without organizations dedicated to assisting these animals," the aquarium added, "the population would continue to decline at a rapid and detrimental rate."



Throughout this month and January of next year, the Shedd Aquarium said it will be working with the South African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB) to rescue, rehabilitate and eventually release the abandoned chicks.



So far, nearly 500 abandoned African penguin chicks have been admitted to SANCCOB this year, according to the Shedd Aquarium.



The Shedd Aquarium team in SANCCOB's facility in Cape Town, South Africa, went live on Facebook this past Monday, Dec. 5, to show how they are caring for the penguin chicks that have been rescued so far.



The Shedd Aquarium said in a news release that rescued chicks "are first evaluated by experts and then placed in SANCCOBs Chick Rearing Unit where they are kept in temperature controlled habitats and fed multiple times each day to ensure they are receiving proper nutrition."



The babies then "continue to go through regular checkups with experts until they reach fledging age, which is approximately three months old," the aquarium added.



At that point, if the chicks are "deemed healthy enough, they are released back to the wild into an established penguin colony with a micro-chip to allow for continued health monitoring," Shedd said.



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The report presents the definition of crimes, based on international rights, facts of atrocities are presented, issues of accountability and corresponding conclusions are drawn, the Ombudsman said.

The report includes three war crimes  torture, execution and mutilation of bodies.

The first crime is torture. It regards infliction of physical or physiological pain to the person. The next crime is called execution. This isnt simple murder defined under international humanitarian right. Its about civilians, as well as incapacitated servicemen. At our grounds, this is execution for being Armenian. This is based on our first report, where facts on Armenophobia are clearly stated, as result of official policy based on strong grounds, which led to consequences among the society.

The third war crime is mutilation of dead bodies. The first two crimes are clearly defined by the Geneva Conventions, a member of which is Azerbaijan, and the crime of mutilation of dead bodies is a manifestation of violation of international customary right and we draw a proposition that the rules of that right are applicable against Azerbaijan, Melikyan said.

He said the report covers in detail the issues regarding the behavior of Azerbaijani forces against the total of 31 people or their bodies which were under long-term or short-term control of the Azerbaijani forces. Each of the deaths is presented with circumstances, circumstances of appearing under Azerbaijani control and circumstances of handing over their bodies to NKR, as well as the Azerbaijani atrocities committed against them. The facts are presented in three geographic directions: by 7 separate incidents.

Atrocity facts were presented in three directions: Talish, where we are currently located, north-eastern or Seysulan, and southern or Lele Tepe direction. We discuss facts on each direction according to incidents. We 4 have incidents in the north, 1 in the direction of Seysulian and 2 in the southern directions, the Ombudsman said.

Speaking on conclusions drawn based on the facts of the report, Melikyan said: The civilians and servicemen who appeared in Azerbaijani control did not survive. Their murders have supposedly been executions for being Armenian. 27 of the 31 people who were under Azerbaijani control  around 90 percent  were tortured, were punished by death or their bodies have been mutilated. All three civilians who had appeared under Azerbaijani control have been gunned down and their bodies were mutilated. Three NKR soldiers were decapitated, two posthumously and one while alive. The most widespread military crime, which we have documented, is the mutilation of dead bodies, 21 of which regards unacceptable behavior. We have five cases of torture, which regard all three directions.

The conclusions of the report are based on both NKR criminal procedure materials, NKR Ombudsmans directly documented facts as well as materials published in Azerbaijani sources.

The report also covers issues of legal accountability of the perpetrators and their command, as well as Azerbaijans international-legal obligation on investigating the facts and holding the perpetrators accountable.

Speaking on conclusions, I will mention that during the April war the Azerbaijani armed forces committed torture, execution and mutilation war crimes, and these were coordinated and organized in nature, because they were committed by all units of the Azerbaijani armed forces. We are raising this as an alarm for the international community. The presented violations should receive some response from international structures, he said.
Get key Market Research Reports and Insightful Company Profiles

The Global Explosives and pyrotechnics market is expected to grow significantly over the forecast period on account of increasing use of the product in construction and mining activities.

Rising number of projects for infrastructure development in Asia Pacific is expected to drive the demand for Explosives as a blasting agent. Increasing government spending for infrastructure development in Asia Pacific and the Middle East on account of increasing domestic output is expected to play a significant role in amplifying construction activities in these regions.

In 2013, Asia Pacific contributed to approximately 44% of the total global construction spending, an increase of 4% from the previous year. Also, the development of new construction and building projects in Asia is likely to boost market growth. The demand for explosives in the region is expected to be 14.93 million tons by 2024.

Further key findings from the report suggest:

Positive outlook towards the mining sector in Chile, and Peru, and owing to government policies to open opportunities for investments by foreign players, to improve the economic conditions, is expected to drive the demand for explosives subsequently. The segment is projected to witness volume growth at a CAGR of 4.9% over the forecast period.

Browse Detail Report With TOC @ http://www.hexareports.com/report/explosives-market/details

Coal mining was the largest application within the mining sector accounting for 49.8% of the volume in 2015. However, the outlook towards coal is likely to be bleak over the forecast period on account of increasing shifting trends of consumers towards alternative sources of energy including natural gas and renewable energy. However, metal mining is expected to witness tremendous growth on account of rising demand for metals including rare earth elements.

Consumer pyrotechnics accounted for 36.2% of the global volume in 2015 and is expected to grow on account of increasing demand for recreational fireworks, model rocket motors, and powder-actuated nail guns.

Request A Sample copy of This Report @ http://www.hexareports.com/sample/181838

Key market players include Orica Mining Services, ENAEX, Maxam Corp., Sasol Limited, Austin Powder Company, AEL Mining Services, Chemring Group, Incitec Pivot, AECI Group, Pyro Company Fireworks, ePC Group, Alliant Techsystems, Titanobel SAS, Hanwha Corp., Solar Industries India, and LSB Industries.

Companies are focusing on product innovation to cater to the growing demand for safe & effective explosives. For instance, in September 2016, Orica launched a new product, Vistis Bulk System, catering to the growing consumer demand in Australia.

Browse More Equipment Related Market Research Reports:

 Global Industrial Fasteners Market 2016-2020  http://www.hexareports.com/report/global-industrial-fasteners-market-2016-2020/details

 Global BTS Antenna Industry 2016 Market Research Report  http://www.hexareports.com/report/global-bts-antenna-industry-2016/details

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Hexa Reports is a market research and consulting organization, offering industry reports, custom research and consulting services to a host of key industries across the globe.We offer comprehensive business intelligence in the form of industry reports which help our clients obtain clarity about their business environment and enable them to undertake strategic growth initiatives.

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Jorge Herrera, Unlimited Vacation Club (UVC) by AMResorts Managing Director, presented the successful project titled Unlimited Vacation Club, A New Business Model at the Miguel Aleman XXVII Tourism Conference. Following Herreras lecture, he received the prestigious Miguel Aleman Valdes Award for Tourism Excellence.

Named after Mexicos President from 1946 to 1952, the Miguel Aleman Valdes Award for Tourism Excellence was created in 1989 to recognize distinguished professionals who have significantly impacted tourism in Mexico. The Miguel Aleman Foundation was established to promote the development of tourism in the country and invites prominent influencers to speak on the projects that have advanced the industry.

With over 30 years of experience in the tourism industry, Jorge Herrera served as an advisor to the Under-Secretaries of Planning and Operations at Mexicos Ministry of Tourism. Herrera has also held the title of General Director for properties in Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. In 2016, Jorge Herrera was elected President of the National Council of AMDETUR for the Mexican Resort Development Association. AMDETUR is an industry leading association devoted to the progression of Mexicos tourism.

UVC has grown to an impressive 50,000 members since its launch in October 2010. Hererra has successfully contributed to the growth of UVCs membership base by building partnerships over the years with the industrys top travel partners, including I.C.E. Gallery, RCI and Hertz in Mexico. With the wide range of benefits that the club offers, they have been able to turn loyal AMResorts travelers into lifelong UVC members.

Jorges celebrated award, position as President of AMDETUR, and support from UVC is sure to lead a prominent year of success for both Herrera and the fast-growing luxury vacation club. While AMResorts plans to open over 60 years by the end of 2018 in 8 countries, UVC aims to double their membership database.

About Unlimited Vacation Club

Unlimited Vacation Club by AMResorts is an exclusive travel club providing exclusive privileges to its members at luxurious AMResorts properties throughout Mexico, the Caribbean, Costa Rica and Panama. Through a variety of participation levels, discerning travelers can enjoy an array of benefits when they travel to any Zoetry Wellness & Spa Resorts, Secrets Resorts & Spas, Breathless Resorts & Spas, Dreams Resorts & Spas, Now Resorts & Spas and Sunscape Resorts & Spas. Our over 50,000 members can even enjoy access to exclusive partner offers. For more information, visit www.unlimitedvacationclub.com.

About AMResorts

AMResorts is the fastest-growing provider of sales, marketing and brand management services to six unique vacation concept resort brands with nearly 60 properties in Mexico, the Caribbean, Costa Rica and Panama set to open by the end of 2018. These brands include: Zoetry Wellness & Spa Resorts; Secrets Resorts & Spas; Breathless Resorts & Spas; Dreams Resorts & Spas; Now Resorts & Spas; and Sunscape Resorts & Spas .

Media Contact

Company Name: INTUITION Brand Marketing

Contact Person: Danielle Barnes

Email: daniellebarnes@intuitionbrandmarketing.com

Phone: 407-730-3565

Address:4700 Millenia Blvd, Suite 370

City: Orlando

State: Florida

Country: United States

Website: http://intuitionbrandmarketing.com/services


Investor Conference Call, Organic Fertiliser Sales Traction

Brisbane, Dec 9, 2016 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Organic phosphate supplier Fertoz Ltd ( ASX:FTZ ) ("Fertoz" or the "Company") is pleased to advise of recent sales and marketing progress in North America.



Highlights



- Fertoz fertiliser sales commenced to distributors and growers in Alberta, Canada



- Discussions commenced with Canadian distributors and manufacturers to blend Fertoz rock phosphate



- Testing of large samples of sulphur blends underway



- Investor Conference Call - Wednesday 14 December at 10:30am AEDT



The Company's management have been attending organic conferences, and just finished a large conference in Calgary. These events have attracted more than 1000 North American organic distributors and growers.



Fertoz's efforts in marketing its high-availability organic rock phosphate at these conferences have resulted in significant traction toward sustainable sales.



Purchase commitments from growers



The Company has achieved several milestones toward the establishment of a pool of buyers among farmers, blenders and fertiliser distributors.



Fertoz has sold rock phosphate product to a long-established Canadian grain and fertiliser distributor that intends to make Fertoz's rock phosphate product a key component in its organic fertiliser plans.



In addition, Fertoz has received commitments from organic growers in Alberta to purchase rock phosphate. Some growers intend to apply the product directly, while others with more basic soil types will blend it with sulphur to improve the availability of phosphate to the plants.



A long-established US-based soil amendment company, which plans to extend its large eastern US network into the western US, has also provided a commitment to purchase product.



Testing commitments with organic industry players



Due to the benefits of blending rock phosphate with sulphur in basic soils to improve the phosphate performance, Fertoz has commenced testing of its phosphate rock product with several sulphur manufacturers, including a respected, long-established company and a new, rapidly growing manufacturer.



Logistics



The Company has obtained extensive rail freight quotes which have identified attractive rail rates to transport product cost effectively to market. The quotes include multiple potential load points for Wapiti product, with one load point identified at Beaverlodge in Alberta, within immediate proximity to the Company's processing facility, and another load point which can be accessed using highway 43 identified at Grand Prairie, approximately 45 km east of the Company's Beaverlodge processing facility. The Company has also obtained rail freight rates from rail locations for the Company's Fernie project.



The quotes were obtained for potential target markets in western US, Washington, Oregon, California, the Midwest and ultimately to the eastern US.



Marketing



Fertoz is developing an extensive information package relating to the competitive advantage of its high-availability rock phosphate. The Company will distribute these at meetings, by direct mail and through promotion on the Fertoz website, which is set to be relaunched soon.



Fertoz Executive Chairman, Pat Avery, said:



"We will continue to ramp up sales, targeting the Spring growing season, and resume mining at Wapiti and Fernie in late Spring in anticipation of stronger sales during the spring, summer and autumn crop rotation seasons. The North American winter will provide us with an ideal opportunity for distributor and grower meetings, market education and sales initiatives, so the Company can build on its order book in the coming months.



"As sales progress we expect our product to be validated with positive crop responses, which will further support our sales initiatives and ultimately our cash flow position. Seasonal mining and sales into sustainable crop rotation, specialty crops, and warm weather agriculture areas, should grow and become more predictable, allowing us opportunities to grow market share."



Fertoz will provide further details of recent activities during an Investor Conference Call with Mr Avery next Wednesday 14 December.



Conference call details:



Time: Wednesday 14 December, 10:30am AEDT (7 30am AWST)



Conference ID: 3589 1894



Toll-free dial-in numbers:



Australia - 1800 123 296 (toll-free) / +61 2 8038 5221 (toll)



Canada - 1855 5616 766



US - 1855 293 1544



UK - 0808 234 0757



NZ - 0800 452 782



Singapore - 800 616 2288



Hong Kong - 800 908 865



Japan - 0120 477 087



China - 8008 702 411



India - 1800 3010 6141



For countries not listed, the Australian participant toll number can be used.



To ask a question, participants will need to dial "*1" (star, 1) on their telephone keypad.





About Fertoz Ltd





Fertoz (ASX:FTZ) is an Australian-based phosphate exploration and development company with a range of projects in British Columbia, Canada as well as Queensland and the Northern Territory. The Company is focused on becoming a fertiliser producer as quickly as possible, initially focusing on the Canadian/USA markets.

Fertoz plans to develop its exploration assets in Canada in order to identify any potential Direct Shipping Ore (DSO) projects. It intends to seek joint venture partners to assist in funding the exploration projects in Australia.

Phosphate is a commodity necessary for feeding the world, and Fertoz is ready to capitalise on this growing demand.
A roundup of our favorite recent tax stories.

Cranston, R.I.: Preparer Belkis M. Guzman, 48, has been sentenced to 36 months in prison for aiding and assisting in the preparation of false returns, wire fraud, theft of government funds, and aggravated ID theft.

Guzman is a former employee of El Centro Multiservicios, a tax prep business in Providence. Guzman was involved in two separate and distinct schemes. The first involved the preparation and presentation of false individual income tax returns on behalf of El Centro clients for tax years 2009, 2010 and 2011, on which she created, inflated and falsified dependents, exemptions, credits, deductions and expenses.

The second scheme involved the deposit of more than 100 U.S. Treasury checks into Guzmans personal checking account. The checks were generated by the filing of fraudulent individual income tax returns containing stolen personal ID information and fraudulent amounts of income, deductions and credits.

Guzman deposited more than $800,700 in fraudulently obtained refund checks into her bank account after signing many of the checks in place of the payees who were unknown to her, and then providing a majority of the proceeds to a third party in the form of cash and personal checks. Guzman received a percentage as payment.

She pleaded guilty in September to aiding and assisting in the preparation of false tax returns, wire fraud, theft of government funds and aggravated ID theft. In addition to the prison term, Guzman was sentenced to three years of supervised release and was ordered to pay $928,224.95 restitution to the IRS.

Loomis, Calif.: Preparer Petr Kuzmenko, 38, has been sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison and been ordered to pay $573,332 restitution to the IRS for conspiracy to defraud the U.S.

According to court documents, Kuzmenko was engaged in a tax fraud scheme with four co-defendants, including his brother, who worked as a preparer at VK Tax Services in Citrus Heights, Calif., in 2009. Between February and November of that year, Kuzmenko conspired with others to file approximately 90 fraudulent returns with the IRS.

The returns fraudulently claimed the First-Time Homebuyer Credit, which was worth as much as $7,500. The refunds for the fraudulent claims were electronically deposited into various bank accounts controlled by Kuzmenko and his co-defendants.

The fraudulent claims totaled some $695,724, of which the IRS paid approximately $573,000.

Kuzmenko was previously convicted in two mortgage fraud cases and sentenced to a total of 21 years in prison for both cases. The sentence imposed in this case was ordered to run concurrent to those sentences.

Co-defendant Aleksandr Kuzmenko was sentenced to over two years in prison on Oct. 28. Valeriy Nikitchuk pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the United States and is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 16. Co-defendant Arsen Muhtarov has entered a plea of not guilty.

El Dorado Hills, Calif.: Unlicensed preparer Barbara Antonucci has received three years and six months in prison and been ordered to pay $1,895,833 in restitution for conspiring to file false claims and filing false claims.

According to court documents, Antonucci and her co-conspirator, Sherry Taggart, 56, of El Dorado Hills, prepared returns for clients, and in 2008 Antonucci began a scheme to obtain false refunds by preparing and filing false claims on behalf of clients with the IRS. After May 2010, Taggart joined Antonuccis scheme and together the two conspired to prepare and file hundreds of false claims between June 2012 and March 2014, seeking refunds totaling approximately $1.4 million.

The IRS issued more than $757,000 in illegitimate refunds. In total, including the period in which Antonucci operated the scheme by herself, the IRS issued more than $1.8 million in illegitimate refunds from more than $2.5 million illegitimate claims filed during the scheme.

The fraudulent returns reported false wages and dependents for their clients and, in many cases, qualified the clients for the EITC when the clients true wages or family situation would have qualified the client for no credit or a lower credit. Most of the fraudulent returns listed wages associated with self-employment not documented by a W-2, such as housekeeper.

The defendants obtained the names, Social Security numbers, and other personal ID information of minors and falsely listed those minors as dependents on returns for clients who were unrelated to those minors. Taggart and Antonucci also filed false claims on their own behalf.

In August, Antonucci pleaded guilty to conspiracy to file false claims and filing false claims. She was ordered to surrender to begin serving her sentence on Feb. 17. Taggarts sentencing is Dec. 9.

Gulfport, Miss.: Former tax preparer Jeremi Washington, owner and operator of Flash Financial, has admitted not reporting all of his income and falsifying clients returns, according to published reports.

A federal indictment reportedly alleged that Washington under-reported his income for 2009 by $243,906 and failed to file his taxes for calendar years 2010 and 2011. He also reportedly filed returns for clients while knowing that they did not qualify for certain deductions.

Washington faces up to 10 years in prison, a fine and restitution at his sentencing on March 1, reports said, adding that a federal grand jury indicted him on six additional counts that will be dismissed in exchange for his plea.

Everett, Wash.: John Yin, 66, who worked for a Canadian company that sells POS software, has pleaded guilty to wire fraud and conspiracy to defraud the government for his role in a scheme to sell tax zapper software.

Yin admittied that he promoted and sold a revenue-suppression software that allowed restaurants to underreport their sales and illegally lower their tax bills. The software, a.k.a. a zapper program, resulted in a loss of more than $3.4 million in tax revenue.

According to case information, Yin was a salesman for Profitek, a British Columbia-based company selling POS systems for hospitality and retail industries. The company had designed, marketed, sold and supported revenue suppression software as an add-on to its Profitek software.

An RSS program deletes all or some of the business cash transactions and then reconciles the books of the business to make them appear complete and accurate when in fact they are fraudulent in that they show less than total income earned.

Yin sold the POS software and assisted in the widespread distribution of the zapper software to dozens of customers over several years. Between 2010 and 2013, eight restaurants in the Seattle area used the software and underpaid their state and federal taxes by amounts ranging from a low of just over $145,000 to more than $910,000.

When the restaurant owner who underpaid taxes by more than $900,000 was confronted about using the software, she admitted she used the unreported cash to pay some employees in cash. In addition, she did not withhold Social Security or Medicare taxes for these employees.

Wire fraud is punishable by up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine; conspiracy to defraud the government is punishable by up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Yin has agreed to pay $3,445,589 restitution to the U.S. and Washington State and agreed to pay for the costs of prosecution. Sentencing is Feb. 24.
Foreign Minister of Armenia, Edward Nalbandian, on Thursday met with Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Spain, Alfonso Dastis.

STEPANAKERT, DECEMBER 9, ARTSAKHPRESS: They met within the framework of the 23rd Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Ministerial Council meeting in Hamburg, Germany, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed.

First, Nalbandian stressed that Armenia is interested in the development of comprehensive cooperation with Spain.

The interlocutors underscored the organizing of high-level mutual visits, intensification of interparliamentary cooperation, and enhancing of the legal framework between Armenia and Spain. Also, they discussed closer cooperation within international organizations.

At the ensuing talk, Nalbandian and Dastis reflected on the negotiations regarding a new legal basis between Armenia and the European Union, and highlighted the importance of launching a dialogue with respect to visa liberalization.

At the request of his Spanish colleague, the Armenian FM spoke about the efforts by Armenia and the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair countries (Russia, US, France) toward pushing the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process forward.

In addition, Edward Nalbandian invited Alfonso Dastis to Armenia in order to continue the discourse that has been launched.
Bombay High Court, in its order dated December 6, 2016, has stayed the suspension of BARC ratings of India News. Describing the suspension of India News ratings by BARC as arbitrary and illegal, the court stated that the suspension and subsequent communication to all the subscribers has been prima-facie seen as a reputation maligning action.

Earlier, BARC had temporarily suspended India News ratings for a period of four weeks.

In a statement following the court order, Varun Kohli, CEO, India News, said, India News is a credible news channel in the broadcasting business in the country and has grown consistently in the last four years, both in the times of BARC ratings and TAM ratings, the predecessor of BARC. As a news channel, we uphold strong journalistic values and have established ourselves as a trustworthy and responsible media house in the country and have enjoyed unconditional support from all the stakeholders over the years. We are very confident that all the stakeholders and our well-wishers will continue to support us as they have done till now and we wish to work more closely with one and all.

Reacting to the Court order, Partho Dasgupta, CEO, BARC India, said, The honourable Court has given an ad-interim order and we have no comment as the matter is still sub judice.

He further said, We are confident about what we have done. We will continue to act as per our board and government guidelines, with the objective of providing the Indian broadcast industry with an accurate, robust and reliable television audience measurement system.
Delhi High Court has removed all hurdles, paving the way for implementation of DAS IV by January 1, 2017. The Court has dismissed all remaining cases and cleared the path for digitisation of DAS Phase 3 areas in the country. Last month, the Court had over-ruled the orders passed by various other High Courts and vacated the stay granted for extension of digitisation in DAS Phase 3 for eight other cases.

DAS Phase 3 implementation deadline of December 31, 2015 had been impacted due to stay orders granted by various High Courts. Basis Ministry of Information Broadcastings recommendation, in April, the Supreme Court had transferred all cases related to extension of DAS Phase 3 deadline filed in various High Courts to the Delhi High Court, thus making it a Designated Court for all related matters.

The Delhi High Court, while disposing off all pending petitions, has directed all petitioners to run a scroll on their networks about digitisation and switch off analogue signals in two weeks. All petitioners have also been directed to inform the change-over from analogue to digital signals to all their subscribers in advance.

With this order, there is no roadblock for digitisation in DAS Phase 3 areas. This would lead to better services and choice for customers. It also would bring in further transparency to the industry.

The MIB, the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) and its members, MSOs and various other stakeholders have been working hard to prepare the ground for the eventual sunset of analogue in the largest part of the country to date. There were initial hiccups in the form of unavailability of Set Top Boxes, pending applications for MSO registrations.

Girish Srivastava, Secretary General, IBF, remarked, When we thought the worst was behind us, we were hit by a flurry of litigations, all filed within a space of 15 days starting with December 30, 2015 in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Stays were obtained on implementation for periods of up to two months. Soon the fire spread to 18 other High Courts with over 50 petitions being filed.

Commenting on the development, Punit Goenka, President, IBF, said, We welcome all stakeholders into the dawn of a new era and hope that the digitisation bandwagon continues unabated in Phase IV as well, which is to be implemented from January 1, 2017.

While welcoming the judgement, VD Wadhwa, Executive Director and CEO of Siti Networks, said, With this order, all remaining hurdles in the path of digitisation have now been removed by the Delhi High Court. This is a landmark moment in the Digital India journey as it will also clear the passage for timely implementation of DAS Phase 4 of digitisation. The industry had been suffering due to pending litigation and with this welcome move all hurdles have been cleared. It is now obligatory on part of broadcasters and other players to disconnect analogue signals within two weeks.
Freshwater detective, biologist and extreme angler Jeremy Wade has spent three decades traveling the worlds waterways in search of man-eaters that lurk beneath the surface of rivers and lakes in some of the most inhospitable locations in the world.

Man-sized piranhas, fish that electrocute, nine-foot river sharks (yes, river sharks) ... take a deep dive with Jeremy Wade and bring out these outlandish creatures to your living room weekdays at 8 PM. The worlds greatest angling explorer takes Discovery viewers where no wildlife program has gone before, revealing the creatures that lurk in the murky depths of our planets inland waterways. Starting December 5, RIVER MONSTERS will air Monday toFriday at 8 PM on Discovery.

Jeremy grew up in southeast England on the banks of the Suffolk Stour, where his fascination with the underwater world and the desire to see whats around the next bend began. His first overseas trip was to the mountain-rivers ofIndia in 1982, and since then, he has increasingly spent his time tracking down large and little-known fish in rivers around the world  particularly in the Congo and the Amazon rainforests. Over the last thirty years, Jeremy has travelled extensively to India in search of elusive fish in Kali (Brahmaputra), Kauvery and other iconic rivers. At the Kali River, he found a little-known catfish species that can grow to a large size - the Goonch or Giant Devil Catfish. His search continued to find the rare fish, a Golden Mahseer.

In the new episodes of River Monsters airing this December, the journey will continue with Jeremy visiting India in search of Goonch and Mahseer. He also tries fly fishing that takes a lot of practice to get right. Will he be able to compare it to catches of his past? Jeremy heads to Southeast Asia in search of the mythological sea serpent. But will his freshwater knowledge be enough to tackle this monster of the deep? He embarks on an epic mission to reveal the real creature behind the worlds most famous river monster; the Loch Ness Monster. But what will he uncover? Further in Africa's Rift Valley, rife with killer crocs, hippos and warring gangs, he dives deep for a worthy prize: the Mputa Nile perch. In Papua New Guinea rumours of flesh-eating pacu are haunting locals. How dangerous is this fish and has it really developed a taste for parts of the male anatomy? In the Congo River lurks a super predator. Fast and ferocious, this killing machine has even snatched a local child. Can Jeremy catch this notorious fish?

This December, viewers can join biology teacher and angler turned explorer Jeremy Wade, for an evening of mystery, mayhem and monster wrangling, only on Discovery.

Watch some of Jeremys biggest catches here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLN4N_L1U4V6mhp9Y6D7NoH0J16RVZ2RiN

Why River Monsters?

Nearly half the world's fish species live in just 0.01% of the world's water - our lakes and rivers. Yet most people know less about what lives in fresh water than they do about the oceans.

Because some rivers are very hard to get to - and/or too murky to see into, using normal means - many of their inhabitants are rarely or never seen in conventional natural history programs.

River Monsters takes a different approach. Biologist and fishing detective Jeremy Wade starts by examining myths and fishermen's tales, subjecting them to scientific scrutiny to separate fact from fiction. Then he homes in on his targets using a fishing line. The results are some fish of staggering dimensions and appearance, including some spectacular TV 'firsts'.

JEREMY WADE BIOGRAPHY

Biologist, Extreme Angler and Host of River Monsters

The worlds most fearless fisherman, Jeremy Wade, is a biologist, teacher, writer and television host who has been traveling (mostly solo) to the worlds most remote rivers for 30 years. Wade has encountered some of the strangest and most terrifying fish out there and has risked his life more than once to document the stories of hundreds of fish and the cultures where they live. Wade holds a degree in zoology from Bristol University and a postgrad teaching certificate in biological sciences from the University of Kent.

Wade grew up in southeast England on the banks of the Suffolk Stour, where his fascination with the underwater world and the desire to see whats around the next bend began. His first overseas trip was to the mountain-rivers of India in 1982, and since then, he has increasingly spent his time tracking down large and little-known fish in rivers around the world  particularly in the Congo and the Amazon rainforests.

I dont see myself as a particularly expert angler, he says, but I am able to get into the kinds of places where outsiders dont normally go and seem to have enough energy after I get there to put a line in the water. Teaming up with local fishermen is vital to my success, and whats great about this approach is that you get to see and explore diverse human cultures too.

In between catching fish (or, on some journeys, not catching fish), Wade has also managed to catch malaria, be detained as a suspected spy, narrowly escape drowning, avoid gun-toting renegades and survive a plane crash. In 1992, he co-wrote Somewhere Down the Crazy River  a book that is considered to be one of the classics of angling literature. He has also written on travel and natural history for publications including The Times, Guardian, Sunday Telegraph, The Field and BBC Wildlife. His latest book, River Monsters: True Stories of the Ones That Didnt Get Away, was published in April 2011.

His first television series, JUNGLE HOOKS, filmed in 2002 for Discovery Europe, was one of the most-watched shows on multichannel television when it was released and has since been seen by audiences around the world. RIVER MONSTERS, his most recent and most iconic series, is the most-watched series in the history of Animal Planet, and has been since its debut in April 2009.

When hes not beside a remote river, Jeremy lives in the countryside of Somerset, England.
Uber, the smartphone app that has transformed urban mobility for millions, has today partnered with global travel search engine, Skyscanner, to give its riders an opportunity to fly to select holiday destinations, across the world, for free.

Speaking about the partnership, Saad Ahmed, Business Development Lead, Uber India, said, Were excited about this partnership especially during this time, when the holiday season has just begun. Whats even more special about this partnership is that riders get to select their travel dates at a time convenient to them, so they can plan well in advance.

Reshmi Roy, Growth Manager, India from Skyscanner said: We are delighted to be partnering with Uber India and cant wait to send riders on a trip of a different kind. Lucky winners can choose from five fantastic destinations that are sure to make 2017 a year to remember.

In partnership with Skyscanner, riders in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata and Hyderabad have the opportunity to fly for free to either Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka or Jordan. Skyscanner will be providing tickets to and from any of these destinations to Uber riders.

In order to qualify, Uber riders must register with Skyscanner and take 3 UberX trips between 12th December and 16th December, to stand a chance of winning two free flight tickets for their dream vacation.

In addition to this, riders also have been given the option to travel any time within 2017 and choose the number of days they would want to stay for, whether that be a short weekend break or a month-long exploratory trip.
NEW YORK, Dec. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- AJC presented a donation today to help rebuild the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce, Florida, severely damaged in an arson attack in September.

An attack on any house of worship is an affront to all Americans, regardless of their religious affiliation," said Robert Silverman, AJC Director of Muslim-Jewish Relations. "Burning a mosque is a hate crime condemned by the entire American Jewish community."

Silverman traveled to Fort Pierce to present the AJC donation to Imam Syed Shafeeq Ur Rahman, director of the Islamic Center, and also to address the congregation during Friday prayers.

"When Jews were persecuted in Europe during the time of the Inquisition centuries ago, they took shelter in Islamic lands. Welcoming those refugees was an act of kindness that will never be forgotten by the Jewish people. Today, AJC is honored to give back in a small, symbolic way," Silverman told the congregation.

A suspect has been arrested and faces charges of arson and hate-crime enhancement. Federal authorities are examining whether to file charges as well. "The perpetrator should be brought to justice as swiftly as possible and to the fullest extent of the law," Silverman said.

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ajc-donates-to-repair-florida-mosque-300376156.html

SOURCE American Jewish Committee
PLYMOUTH, Mass., Dec. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- ith the death of Fidel Castro, and a lack of clear policy ideas on a post-Fidel Cuba, political activist Jack E. Robinson suggests the United States should propose a bold deal regarding the future of Cuba's 11 million citizens.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161208/447152

"President-elect Donald J. Trump should make a deal to allow Cuba to become the 51st State!" states Robinson.

American presidents have long been interested in making Cuba part of the United States. In a deal brokered by Napolean, Thomas Jefferson unsuccessfully sought to acquire Cuba from Spain in the wake of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Since then, three different presidents on three separate occasions have attempted to annex Cuba (Polk in 1848, Pierce in 1854, and McKinley in 1897), but were unable to realize Jefferson's dream.

It is in this historical moment that President-elect Trump can succeed where his predecessors could not  by inviting (rather than forcing) one of the world's most industrious populations to join the economic, social and political fabric of the United States.

And we're not talking about any sort of military action, which has already been attempted and failed. Early in 1960, President Dwight D. Eisenhower quietly authorized the CIA to start training Cuban exiles as a guerilla force to overthrow Fidel Castro. Three months after his inauguration, President John F. Kennedy authorized the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion. President Richard M. Nixon later said that Cuban statehood was the ultimate goal had the invasion succeeded.

The Castro brothers have argued over the course of the last 55 years that the U.S. embargo against Cuba has cost the island nation a total of $750 billion. Because it is the citizens of Cuba, not the Castro regime, who have had to bear the burden of the embargo, $750 billion should be provided directly to the Cuban people.

Here's Robinson's proposal. The U.S. would agree to (a) completely lift the embargo, and (b) with the cooperation of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, loan the people of Cuba $750 billion. In return, the Cuban government would agree to hold a free election, monitered by the United Nations, in which the Cuban people would vote for one of the following three options:

1) Become the 51st State;

2) Obtain commonwealth status (like Puerto Rico); or

3) Remain independent but with a free market economy and democratic constitutional protections (and without Raul Castro or his extended family  all of whom would be granted immunity and would be given asylum in, say, Venezuela).

Once the Cuban government frees all political prisoners and actually holds the election, the embargo would be lifted and half of the $750 billion would be released to a new "Cuba Development Fund" to be administered by the World Bank. The other half of the funds would be released once the Cuban voters' decision is fully implemented.

"I have spoken to many Cuban Americans who believe that statehood would be the preferred choice of the Cuban people  especially given Puerto Rico's recent financial problems as a U.S. commonwealth," states Robinson.

Cuba is an entirely untapped market with trillions of dollars in pent-up economic demand, development and growth. Cuba's entry into the U.S. would stimulate the island's economy and promote economic, social and political stability for its residents.

According to Robinson, not only would this be an opportunity to afford the people of Cuba the chance to determine their own destiny, it would be the biggest real estate deal since the Louisiana Purchase.

There is no better person than President-elect Trump to broker a deal 214 years in the making; a deal of which Thomas Jefferson would be proud!

Jack E. Robinson is an attorney, international business executive, author, historian and GOP political activist in Plymouth, MA.

Media contact:

Jack Robinson

136783@email4pr.com

(857) 217-0229

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/jack-e-robinson-proposes-idea-of-cuba-becoming-51st-state-300375531.html

SOURCE Jack E. Robinson
Polyethylene Terephthalate Market in South Africa: 2016-2020 Review - Research and Markets

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Polyethylene Terephthalate Market in South Africa: 2016-2020 Review" report to their offering.

The report brings together facts and figures about polyethylene terephthalate market in South Africa covering period of 2010-2020. Statistics, experts' opinions and estimations are given.

The report about polyethylene terephthalate market in South Africa covers:

- manufacturers capacity, production volumes

- company profiles

- consumption structure, trends

- end-users segments

- prices

- market forecast

Buying the report means:

- availability of key statistics about polyethylene terephthalate market in South Africa (historical and forecast)

- allocation of country market players, their role in the market

- provision of data on demand characteristics

- identification of market potential

Key Topics Covered:

1. OVERVIEW OF POLYETHYLENE TEREPHTHALATE MARKET IN SOUTH AFRICA

2. CAPACITY IN SOUTH AFRICA

2.1. Nameplate capacity, shares in global and regional markets (2015)

3. POLYETHYLENE TEREPHTHALATE SUPPLY IN SOUTH AFRICA

3.1. South Africa output in 2010-2015

3.2. South Africa production shares in global market and in regional market (2010-2015)

4. POLYETHYLENE TEREPHTHALATE MANUFACTURERS

4.1. Polyethylene Terephthalate manufacturers' profiles

4.2. Plants capacity, shares in local and world markets

5. POLYETHYLENE TEREPHTHALATE DEMAND IN SOUTH AFRICA

5.1. Demand structure, consumption (2010-2015)

5.2. South Africa demand shares in regional market and in global market (2010-2015)

6. POLYETHYLENE TEREPHTHALATE TRADE IN SOUTH AFRICA

6.1. Export, export share in production (recent years)

6.2. Import, import share in consumption (recent years)

6.3. Annual prices (recent years)

7. FUTURE TRENDS IN POLYETHYLENE TEREPHTHALATE MARKET to 2020

7.1. General market forecast

7.2. Polyethylene Terephthalate output forecast to 2020

7.3. Polyethylene Terephthalate consumption forecast to 2020

8. SUPPLIERS IN SOUTH AFRICA

9. POLYETHYLENE TEREPHTHALATE END-USERS IN SOUTH AFRICA

For more information about this report visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/j9x4b8/polyethylene

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161209005329/en/

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

press@researchandmarkets.com

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Related Topics: Plastics
LONDON, Dec. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Qihoo 360 International Advertising hosted its first Digital Marketing Seminar in London yesterday to announce its arrival.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161208/447276

At the event, Mr. David Ip, General Manager of Qihoo 360 International Advertising Unit shared the topic "Secrets to Successfully Connect Your Brand to 800 Million Chinese Netizens" with local marketers.

Being China's leading big data marketing solution for advertisers, Qihoo 360 leverages its big data analytics platform, backed by 517 million PC users and nearly 800 million mobile users in China to analyze the behaviors of Chinese consumers and showcase the opportunities for British brands, e-Commerce, hotels and retailers.

Insights on China's digital landscape were also one of the key focuses at the event to provide an overview of digital marketing trends in China, a mystery for most marketers.

Since Amazon UK unveiled its availability to Chinese online shoppers and the aviation deal was made between the UK and China authority, which will double the no. of flights between two countries, many UK businesses look eager to enhance its presence in China to grasp the opportunities from Chinese netizens and tourists.

For example, recently, Qihoo 360 collected data intelligence from the data analytics platforms, 360 Index and 360 Shangyi about purchasing preferences of Chinese online shoppers. The results show that over 90% online shoppers like clothing items, followed by gadgets (81.55%) and furniture (73.99%). In addition, most Chinese netizens who searched "UK e-Commerce" are women aged from 19 to 34 who live in Guangdong and Beijing. These data from Qihoo 360 can provide a foundation and a competitive advantage for companies to make insightful analysis before entering the China market and be connected with target customers precisely.

The arrival of Qihoo 360 International Advertising Unit in London marks the ambition of the Chinese Internet giant to help UK brands enter the China market.

About Qihoo 360

Qihoo 360 Technology Co. Ltd. is a leading Internet company in China. The Company is the number one provider of Internet and mobile security products in China as measured by its user base, according to iResearch. Qihoo 360 also provides users with secure access points to the Internet via its market-leading web browsers and application stores. The Company has built one of the largest open Internet platforms in China and monetizes its massive user base primarily through online advertising and through Internet value-added services on its open platform. Since its establishment in 2014, Qihoo 360 International Advertising Unit, the overseas advertising sole agent of Qihoo 360 has obtained over 250 advertising business customers in Hong Kong and overseas markets, which come from a wide range of industries including finance, e-commerce, travel, retail, luxury, maternal and childcare products, and more.

For more information, please contact:

Kent Fung

PR & Marketing Manager

Tel: +852 3468 7775

Email: kent.fung@qs-search.com

Related Images

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Related Links

Qihoo 360 International Advertising's Website

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

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/qihoo-360-enhances-presence-in-the-united-kingdom-to-help-local-brands-connect-with-800-million-chinese-netizens-300375709.html

SOURCE Qihoo 360 International Advertising
During a spouse and family forum hosted by Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James in October, participants submitted more than 170 threads on the forums event page. The topics included spouse employment and child care access; Air Force programs for families with special needs; and schools, assignments, deployments and reintegration. Based on common questions and themes, below are the top 10 concerns presented by Air Force families.Spouses have options to connect to federal and private sector employers. Guidance on job assistance, resume building and other useful employment tools and resources are provided at local civilian personnel offices and Airman and Family Readiness Centers.The Military Spouse Employment Partnership includes more than 335 employers who have committed to recruiting, hiring, promoting and retaining military spouses. For more information about these employers and employment opportunities visit the

.

The Spouse Education and Career Opportunities program has a database that provides a variety of scholarships for military spouses. For more information, visit thewebsite.All states have enacted broad legislation that improves license endorsement for military spouses, provides temporary licenses and expedites their applications. Of the 50 states, 38 have improved endorsement, 47 have temporary licensure and 37 have expedited applications. Due to inconsistencies, the Defense  State Liaison Office will be working with the University of Minnesota in 2017 to evaluate the actions taken by selected boards within all 50 states.The Air Force continues to explore options to meet child care needs. Options include extending hours at child development centers, using family child care providers and partnering with qualified community based providers. The Air Force Child and Youth Programs operations and installation support team is working with installations who are having challenges recruiting FCC providers and maximizing their CDC space to assist them with meeting the needs of that community.All 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Department of Defense Education Activity have adopted the Military Childrens Interstate Compact which covers waiver requirements and permissible alternatives of obtaining required coursework so that high school students can graduate on time. Airmen and families who have questions or concerns regarding the MCIC should visit their installations Airman and Family Readiness Center and School Liaison Officer for assistance. For more information on the MCIC, clickThe High School Seniors Assignment Deferment is designed to decrease turbulence and increase stability for military families with dependent children entering their senior year of high school. Members who meet eligibility requirements can defer an assignment for up to one year. HSSAD requests are considered on a case-by-case basis with the goal of approving as many requests as possible while meeting mission needs. For more information on the HSSAD program contact your local Force Support Squadron, or log into thewebsite,.While traveling, TRICARE beneficiaries should consult with their case manager to set up necessary referrals at temporary locations where care may be required. Visitfor more information on how to access services while traveling.The Extended Care Health Option also provides case management services to include facilitating care when families have a permanent change of station. For more information on ECHO, clickWhen documentation submitted for an EFMP dependent stating access to a specific specialty, subspecialty, super subspecialty, and clinic or treatment center is a necessity, the medical review board has to verify the medical standard of care management for the specific illness or disease. Approval for travel to the gaining location is based upon the standard of care management.

Privatized housing priority for EFMP families

The Air Force is sensitive to the needs of families who require homes that can accommodate special accessibility requirements. EFMP families with a requirement for an accessible home would have priority over other members on the wait list when an accessible home is available. If, when the family first arrives at the installation, suitable homes arent available, the family may be placed on a waiting list until the privatized housing office can match them to an appropriate home that meets their specific needs.

In the U.S., states are federally mandated to provide early intervention or special education services as they are outlined on an Individualized Family Service Plan or an Individual Education Program. If families are experiencing difficulties in obtaining early intervention or special education services as outlined on an IFSP or IEP, it is recommended they consult the school liaison officer at the A&FRC. Each state has a Parent Training and Information Center to assist any family with special education issues. For more information, click. In addition, clickfor information on the special military parent technical assistance center.Commanders appoint key spouse volunteers and provide guidance and expectations for these volunteers in their units. The local A&FRC conducts Key Spouse training and ensures commanders, key spouses, and key spouse mentors receive standardized guidebooks for their respective roles. Additionally, the chief of staff of the Air Force sends a letter to commanders stating his support of the key spouse program.To see all the topics discussed during the forum, visit thepage, and click on events. Still have questions? Participate in the Facebook Town Hall, hosted by James, Dec. 12, 2016, from 11-11:45 a.m. EST, where she will follow up on these topics and more.
Joint aircraft static display showcases airpower for 75th Commemoration

The U.S. Coast Guard Silent Drill Team performs for visitors during a joint static aircraft display on the flightline at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, Dec. 6, 2016. The display, which featured a diverse range of aircraft, was open to all service members, family and veterans interested learning more about modern military aviation during the weeklong series of events commemorating the 75th anniversary of the attacks on Pearl Harbor and Oahu. (U.S. Air Force photo/Tech. Sgt. Alison Bruce-Maldonado)
President Barack Obama visited service members at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida, Dec. 7, to thank them on behalf of the American people for their dedication to the nation.



"We have been so reliant on the outstanding work that has been done by [U.S. Special Operations Command and U.S. Central Command], the extraordinary leadership from the highest general down to the person who's just started, the president said. I have been consistently in awe of your performance and the way that you've carried out your mission.



MacDill AFB is also home to the 927th Air Refueling Wing and the 6th Air Mobility Wing.



Obama paid tribute to the bases 75th anniversary during his troop talk.



For 75 years -- from World War II through Korea, the Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam, the Gulf War, the Afghan and Iraq wars -- the men and women of this base have always stepped up when we needed them most. So, on behalf of the entire country, I want to wish you a happy 75th anniversary, Obama said. It has been the privilege and honor of a lifetime to be your commander in chief -- the commander in chief of the finest fighting force the world has ever known. You are the best. Because we have the best people.



Praises Troops, Families



The troops and their families have been inspirational, Obama said.



You and your families have inspired us. We've been inspired by your patriotism, for stepping forward, for volunteering, for dedicating yourself to a life of service, he said. We've been inspired by your devotion, your willingness to sacrifice for all of us. We've been inspired by your example.



Americas service members remind the nation that we're all part of one team, the president said.



We take care of each other, he added. And you remind us of what patriotism really means.



The service members will continue on with their mission, the president said, but I will tell you that Michelle and I, having had the experience and the honor of working with you, are going to make it one of our missions as civilians to support you in every way that we can.
Unseen heroes protect Citizen Airmen in cyberspace

The 960th Cyberspace Operations Group is the only cyberspace group in the Air Force Reserve Command and the 960th Network Operations Squadron, which falls under the 960th CYOG, is located here.



Cyberspace is the war-fighting domain of command and control, offensive and defensive operations, and electronic communication. In our age of increased reliance on the cyber domain, cyberspace security is a key component to providing superior global reach.



We are network administrators defending the global Air Force network by allowing any Airman access to the resources needed to do their job while keeping the adversaries out, said Senior Airman Ryan Carney-Mogan, 960th NOS cyber systems operator and directory services technician. Without this security, we would not be effective in the battlefield.



The 960th NOS assists the 561st Network Operations Squadron, an active duty counterpart, in employing the Cyber Security and Control System, or CSCS, weapon system to defend the Air Force Information Network. The 960th NOS also operates the AFIN and ensures it is available.



The Air Force cyber domain must be available and secure for Department of Defense and Air Force missions, said Capt. Lauren Berg, 960th NOS flight commander and cyber force generation. "The mission of the CSCS weapon system is to generate, project, and sustain combat cyberspace power by providing mission assurance of AFIN Core Services to the warfighter through operation and defense of the AFIN."



According to data from Business Insider Intelligence, the top cyber security area of protection is network defenses, which mean keeping hackers from navigating through and compromising critical data. The top two types of attacks are zero-day attacks and cloud-data leakage. Zero-day attacks are when software vulnerabilities have not been identified and cloud-data leakage is when workers upload sensitive company data to an unsecure place.



This is what cyber security looks like for a civilian business and it is similar for the Air Force. The most common type of data loss on the network is an individual giving access to an insidious entity. Members from the 960th NOS advise all Citizen and Total Force Airmen to help prevent cyber attacks by being aware of suspicious emails, not providing information online if the request appears suspicious, and by not clicking on suspicious links in emails.



Berg advises the best practice is prevention. Be suspicious of all links and attachments. Avoid clicking on links or attachments from people or companies you do not know. If you do know the sender, still be cautious and look for abnormalities in spelling and grammar.



It is clear that cyber security is every Citizen Airmans responsibility.



With new online technologies and connections come new risks. The 960th Network Operations Squadron protects Citizen and Total Force Airmen from these new risks, but it also up to each individual Reservist to remain vigilant.



Ive seen too many logs of individuals accessing site they should not while on the network, said Staff Sgt. June Sterbank, 960th NOS boundary protection technician. We block sites, attachments, and bad traffic as much as possible and a little extra vigilance and integrity from each Citizen Airman goes a long way with protecting the AFIN.



The largest threat to Air Force Reservists are social engineering attacks which ranges from phishing emails and pretext phone calls to dumpster diving. "One of the most pervasive threats is ransomware, which infect your system via malicious links or attachments or visiting infected websites," said Berg. It is a type of malware that takes control of the users system, then the attackers demand a large sum of money to release control; do not pay the sum.



960th NOS Reservists perform tasks such as installing, supporting, and maintaining server operation systems and applicable software application. Basically, they monitor and eliminate cyber threats coming in as well as going out.



If it leaves your base, it goes through our equipment, said Sterbank. We log your traffic and we are mainly known as the guys blocking your favorite websites.



Being blocked from certain websites while logged into the network might be frustrating for many Citizen Airmen, but when it comes to protecting personal information on myPay, the Air Reserve Component Networks Duty Plan, also known as ARCNet, and the virtual Military Personnel Flight, many Airmen are likely grateful for the unseen heroes at the 960th NOS for protecting their personal data in cyberspace.



Lt. Gen. William J. Bender, Air Force chief information officer, established October as the beginning of a yearlong Cyber Secure campaign to address cyber security throughout the Air Force.



Cyber security depends on every Airman regardless of rank or job description, said Bender in a memorandum to all Air Force personnel. We must position cyber at the forefront of our thinking, planning, and operations.



Across the total force, all Citizen Airmen should practice cyber security the same way as physical security.



Carney-Mogan informed the 960th NOS network administrators are responsible for maintaining security for the entire Air Force Network. Access to almost any military related resource is protect by layers of security; one layer is multiple authentication from the user like a Common Access Card and pin, he said.



It is difficult to remember multiple passwords for various mission essential sites Reservists utilize; however, there is a method to the madness. The multiple authentication factors are necessary to prevent loss of mission critical data.



According to Carney-Mogan, whenever a Citizen Airman logs onto a military network site, he or she is passing through security barriers the 960th NOS manages.



960th NOS Reservists are an extra layer of security inside the network.



The operations training section ensures all 960th NOS Reservists receive effective training in order to ensure cyber security. Training and evaluating our operators is still a fluid process; therefore, we work hand-in-hand with our active duty sister unit to ensure quality training is developed,  said Berg. We ensure our operators can correctly execute defensive cyber operations and posture the Air Force networks to defend and protect Air Force systems and information.



A total force training approach maximizes the Air Forces resources while providing a quality education.



I came into the Air Force Reserve about six years ago not knowing a lot about computers or networking, said Sterbank. Now I am the subject matter expert in my shop and I can easily work alongside our active duty counterparts.



The 960th NOS was activated March 1, 2013 and includes a combination of full-time and traditional reserve members.



Until October 2016, the 960th NOS was administratively assigned to the 302nd Airlift Wing as a tenant unit. Now, the 433rd Airlift Wing located at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas is the host wing and has administrative control of the 960th NOS; however, its members rely on the 302nd AW for readiness requirements and mentoring for enlisted members. The 302nd AW also helps the 960th NOS not to feel so isolated from their parent group in Texas.



During the November Unit Training Assembly, the 960th NOS Citizen Airman accepted the Air Force Reserve Commands General Harold W. Grant award for cyber unit of the year for 2015 during a wing commanders call.



I am proud to be a part of such an amazing unit with a highly impactful mission, said Carney-Mogan.


Imagine youre at a stop light. Your light is red, the crossing traffic is green and you lose all your brakes. How else can you stop the car? You dont have a whole lot of time to think about it.

This was the scenario explained by Lt. Col. James Mann, a C-5M Super Galaxy pilot with the 709th Airlift Squadron, and his crew when they were in Minneapolis returning home to Dover Air Force Base, Delaware after completing an airlift mission. The only difference is, instead of an automobile and car traffic, it was a massive C-5M and other airplanes.

Everything started out normally, said Mann. We started the engines, taxied out and we were told to hold short of an active runway because airplanes were landing and taking off right in front of us. I set the parking brake and then almost immediately the engineer reported we were losing hydraulic system number four.

The C-5M has built in redundancies, so that when one brake system fails, the pilots can select another and continue their mission.

Mann told the co-pilot to swap to the alternate brakes, but the engineer reported they were losing that brake system as well. Their last chance was emergency brakes. Those also failed.

Mann said they were drifting onto an active runway. At a smaller airport, this may not have been a problem, but the Minneapolis Saint Paul International Airport has more than 400,000 landings and take-offs a year or approximately 1,095 a day, according to the airports website.

Ill never forget looking over to the right and seeing an airplane landing, said Mann. We were going to be on a collision course with almost no way of stopping the airplane.

Mann said he reacted by pulling the thrust reversers to full blast and stopping the C-5s movement forward. He was able to back up the airplane, stopping a potential collision with a commercial airliner.

This quick thinking got the crew and their aircraft off the active runway. Once to safety, they needed to hold the aircraft in place.

We chocked the nose landing gear, said Mann. As soon as I went back to forward thrust to shut down the engines, the airplane popped over the chocks, and it was rolling back out on the runway.

The aircraft was empty because the aircrews mission was to bring National Guard members to Minneapolis after their mission in England. The chocks could not hold back the light aircraft with powerful C-5M engines.

I put it in reverse thrust and backed up again, said Mann. I shut [the engines] down one at a time. I would bring number one to forward thrust and shut it down while I kept the other three in reverse. And once I brought that down, I did the same with number four.

Mann said he and crew continued this until all engines were shut down, the wheels were chocked and the aircraft was stabilized in a safe location. The crew then searched for the malfunction.

It was a hydraulic line that severed, said Master Sgt. Troy Heller, a flight engineer evaluator and instructor with the 709th AS. A hydraulic fuse is supposed to set if it detects a leak and stop the leak. Unfortunately, this leak occurred before the fuse, so every time we selected a brake system, the hydraulic fluid just poured out.

The brake systems run through one section inside the anti-skid manifold said Heller. If the hydraulic line break was a bit lower, the fuse would have activated and stopped the leak, but it happened too high, which caused the brakes to fail.

Once the crew found the malfunction, they started to correct the problem.

The crew chiefs got permission to tap that line that was severed, said Heller. Each hydraulic system contains several gallons of hydraulic fluid and 12 gallons in a reservoir, but that doesnt include all the fluid that goes out throughout all the numerous feet of hydraulic lines that goes throughout the airplane.

At more than 247 feet long, the C-5M Super Galaxy has a lot of hydraulic line to fill.

We typically stock 48 gallons of hydraulic fluid on the airplane and that was not enough to fill up one system, said Heller. We were able to scrounge up another case from the Guard and Reserve in Minneapolis, and that was enough to fill one system, so we could move the plane.

Replenishing the one system allowed the crew to establish working brakes and finalize their journey off the taxiway. Quick thinking saved the crew from potential disaster.

Its a total case where knowing your systems can save your life, knowing how they work because there was no plan for that, said Mann. The more you know your systems, the better off we are.

Following the incident, the crew filed an Aviation Safety Action Program report allowing the crew to share their experience and help other aircrews.

We create accident reports to learn from it and become better Airmen from it, said Heller. There is no procedure for total loss of brakes in our aircraft flight training. Hopefully other crews can learn from this and know procedures to act on.

The crew is scheduled to be formally awarded the Air Force Reserve Command Aircrew of Distinction Award during the 512th Airlift Wing Annual Awards Banquet in March. Members of the aircrew were:



Lieutenant Colonel James S. Mann, 709th Airlift Squadron

Major Blain S. Brown, 709th Airlift Squadron

Captain Francis D. Lessett, 709th Airlift Squadron

Senior Master Sergeant Broderick B. Williams, 709th Airlift Squadron

Master Sergeant Troy S. Heller, 709th Airlift Squadron

Master Sergeant Scott A. Obrien, 709th Airlift Squadron

Technical Sergeant Justin T. Walker, 709th Airlift Squadron

Technical Sergeant Jason C. Goodsell, 709th Airlift Squadron

Technical Sergeant Marcello M. Lindo, 512th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron

Staff Sergeant Brandon R. Jones, 709th Airlift Squadron

Senior Airman Vasean O. Townsend, 709th Airlift Squadron

Senior Airman Rebecca L. Lehotay
Palace Chase, Front offer alternatives to active duty

Every year, thousands of individuals raise their right hand and commit to serve in the military as either enlisted members or officers. While some choose to serve for many years on active duty, others might elect to leave, but that doesnt mean they cant continue serving.



When you make a decision as big as joining the military, you dont know what youre getting into, said Master Sgt. Daniel D. Nichiporuk, an Air Force Reserve in-service recruiter. Active duty isnt for everyone.



Whether an Airmans life circumstances change or active duty simply isnt a good fit, the Air Force offers two programs that allow members to continue serving part-time.



Palace Chase and Palace Front are both programs offered to active-duty officers and enlisted members, giving them the opportunity to transfer from active duty to an Air Reserve Component.



This allows members to either leave the [active duty] Air Force early or transition directly after their contract and still serve in the military, still wear the uniform, still have great benefits, but be able to maybe settle down and start a family, Nichiporuk said.



In both programs, Airmen transition from their full-time positions to traditional guardsmen and reservists, serving one weekend per month and two weeks per year.



Becoming a reservist has worked out well for Staff Sgt. Ryan, a 50th Intelligence Squadron geospatial intelligence analyst.



I have been able to make more time for my business, as well as my girlfriend, as a result of being in the reserve, Ryan said. The unit is huge on supporting your goals.



Ryan transferred using the Palace Chase program after serving 11 years on active duty.



The Palace Chase program is an early release program that allows active-duty Airmen to request to transfer to a reserve component, either the Air Force Reserve or Air National Guard.



Everyone can apply for Palace Chase, Nichiporuk said. For people stationed here at Beale (AFB), it just comes down to time in service and to make sure they are eligible based off of [Air Force Instruction 36-3205].



Airmen approaching the halfway mark of their first enlistment, or anytime in their subsequent enlistment, are able to apply. If accepted, the term of enlistment with the Guard or Reserve depends on the amount of time left on the initial active-duty contract.



Officers are eligible to apply two-thirds of the way into their time-in-service commitment. The remaining time left on their contract triples and is then served in a reserve component.



Nichiporuk said most of the disapprovals he has seen have been related to Air Force manning requirements. If the Air Force cannot afford to release a member due to the career field being undermanned, the request for Palace Chase will not be approved and the member must wait 120 days before reapplying.



On the other hand, the Palace Front program is not affected by manning requirements.



The Palace Front program is a transfer program that allows active-duty Airmen to transfer to a reserve component the day after their contract ends and separate from active duty.



After completing four years on active duty, Senior Airman Brandon, a 50th Intelligence Squadron geospatial intelligence analyst, used the Palace Front program to transfer directly to the Reserve.



I still wanted to be associated with the military, Brandon said. The Palace Front program was the best option for me.



Brandon said being a reservist has allowed him the flexibility to go back to school and get another job, but still keep his military benefits.



According to Nichiporuk, Airmen who take advantage of these programs typically keep their rank, but they dont always keep their job.



Cross-training is not only an option, but sometimes mandatory. Depending on the availability of the positions at the particular base they wish to be stationed at, the members may stay in the same career field if its available or be retrained into something new.



If an Airman wants to stay in the Air Force, but active duty isnt working out as planned, there are flexible alternatives to continue serving.



Its important for them to know all their options, because as youre in the military, life happens, Nichiporuk said.
The New York state Legislature will be in session for 60 days in 2017, according to the session calendar released by the state Assembly and Senate leadership Thursday.

The 2017 legislative session will convene on Wednesday, Jan. 4. That will be the first of nine session days in January and it could be the day when Gov. Andrew Cuomo delivers his State of the State address.

The day of the annual speech hasn't been announced.

Legislators have a quiet February planned with only five sessions on the calendar. That will be the calm before the storm since March will be a busy month for lawmakers. With the budget due by the end of the day March 31, the state Assembly and Senate will be in session for 17 days in March.

There are six session days planned for April and 12 in May. The legislative session will close with 11 session days in June.

As it stands right now, the final day of the 2017 legislative session will be Wednesday, June 21.
-- On this look around the Air Force, Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James speaks at the Reagan National Defense Forum, the Air Force releases F-35A Lightning II candidate bases, and Operation Christmas Drop is underway. Hosted by Airman 1st Class Jasmine Vanderheyden.For previous episodes, click here Related links:
Algerian authorities have deported hundreds of West African migrants to Niger this week, trucking them thousands of miles across the desert in one of the biggest roundups seen this year, according to officials and human rights groups.

Algeria has often sent migrants back to Niger since 2014 as the number of people taking the dangerous route to Europe from West Africa has swelled. But the latest group is different because it involves people from across the region, not just Niger, officials said, suggesting a more determined effort to remove immigrants.

Over the last two days, at least 1,000 migrants came in a convoy of about 50 trucks to Agadez in central Niger, a desert town where migrants from all over West Africa pay smugglers to take them on the treacherous journey north through the Sahara, according to officials in Agadez, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and Human Rights Watch.

They are about 1,000, 271 from Niger, the rest from West African countries, mainly Mali and Guinea Conakry, said Giuseppe Loprete, the head of IOMs mission in Niger.

Algerian and Nigerien authorities were not immediately available for comment.

The IOM, which has a holding center in Agadez where migrants from across the region are housed and fed, is not directly involved in the latest deportation, as it was not contacted by Algerian or Nigerien authorities to help, Loprete said.

The migrants are instead being housed on the outskirts of town, said Isatou Abdou, who works for the U.N.s human rights arm in Agadez. She could not immediately confirm the numbers.

According to a Human Rights Watch report released on Friday, over 1,400 migrants have been forcibly deported from Algeria this month. Many were rounded up in the capital Algiers and bused to Agadez, over 1,600 miles (2,600 km) south
Trained actresses in films have always brought more limelight to dance in general. Be it Sitara Devi, Vyjayanthimala, Hema Malini or the Golden Girl of Tamil cinema Jayalalithaa all made classical dance glamorous and poured in more class into dance and at the same time inspired millions with their dancing skills.

Many dont know that my mother Rani Naidu Soparkar is a trained Bharatnatyam dancer born to a Telugu father and a Konkani mother. We as kids would often visit our grandparents, grand uncles and aunts and were made to see classical dance performances and ofcourse south Indian films, our main attraction to visit their homes were a lot to do with their neighbours. Jayalalithaa or Ammu (as she was called at home or by her close relatives) was first cousin of one of the neighbours. We often got the opportunity to see her at close quarters whenever she attended functions, we as kids would wait to see the superbly gorgeous Jaya maam and wait for her to pat us or pull our cheeks.

I remember few things about Amma that my grandparents, uncles, aunts and even cousins told me and through all the memories I would like to pay my tribute to the golden lady of Tamil Cinema. She was not just a super hit actress and a loved Politician but a dancer par excellence who only believed in the penchant for perfection.

I remember my mother telling me that, hundreds of people at Naguvinahalli village in Karnataka were glued to their TV sets enthusiastically watching J Jayalalithaa sworn in as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu.This would seem extremely strange, as Tamil Nadu politicians are generally disliked in Karnataka because of the century-old dispute over Cauvery River water. The whole of Mandya district, to which Naguvinahalli belongs, depends on Cauvery water for everything, but the reason for the celebration goes back nearly 50 years, when Jayalalithaa was a popular star in Tamil cinema.

I am told that the villagers had approached the 19-year-old stunning heroine for help in building a school, and she readily agreed.On March 19, 1967, Jayalalithaa performed a dance for charity at the historic Crawford Hall in Mysore University. The tickets were priced at Rs 10, 25 and 50. The show was a huge success and it raised enough money for a school building at the village.

Ramachandraiah, who organised the charity event, still remembers her generosity and the mesmerising dance performance. Ramachandraiah, who is now in his late 80shad spoken to one of the news channel and had said , How can I forget that incident? I still vividly remember her dance show. If we have a school in our village, it is only because of the late CM of Tamil Nadu Jayalalithaaji. Whenever I see the school, I remember Jayalalithaaji with gratitude. We are eternally grateful to her,

Karnataka Information Department director N Vishukumar, who is from Naguvinahalli, said elders at the village still talk about the event. When it happened I was too small. I dont remember anything. But, everybody in my village including my father Ramakrishnaiah remembers that charity show for our village school, he said.

Jayalalithaa, who is originally a Kannadiga, was born in Mysore in 1948. Her mother Sandhya moved to Bengaluru after her father Jayaram died when she was only four years old. In the early 1960s, her aunt Ambuja alias Vidhya, an airhostess and part-time actor, took Jaya and her mother to Madras (now Chennai). Jayalalithaas first dance performance at the age of 14 in Mysore was inaugurated by Tamil cinema legend Sivaji Ganesan.

In Chennai, Jayalalithaa trained in classical music, western classical piano, and various forms of classical dance, including Bharatanatyam, Mohiniattam, Manipuri and Kathak. She learnt Bharat-natyam and dance forms under K.J.Sarasa. She became an accomplished dancer and gave her debut dance performance at the Rasika Ranjani Sabha in Mylapore in May 1960. After seeing Jayalalithaa dance at the Arangetram legendary Shivaji Ganesan had expressed wish and had predicted that Jayalalithaa would become a film star in future.

During her childhood days, Jayalalithaa acted in the Kannada-language Sri Shaila Mahathme (1961), which had Rajkumar and Krishna Kumari in lead roles. She had been taken to the studio by her mother as she was shooting in the same premises for a different film. While Jayalalithaa was watching the shooting, a problem arose as the child actor playing the Goddess Parvathy in a school drama scene in the film had not turned up and the producer Neerlahalli Thalikerappa and director Aroor Pattabhi asked Sandhya if Jayalalithaa could be asked to act in the dance sequence. Sandhya agreed and Jayalalithaa was swiftly dressed up as Parvathy and the scene was shot.

She played Krishna in a three-minute dance sequence held on stage in the Hindi film Manmauji (1962) and danced with Kumari Naaz who played Radha. Y. G. Parthasarathy ran the drama troupe United Amateur Artistes (UAA), which staged English and Tamil plays. During her school days, Jayalalithaa began acting in some plays of Parthasarathy along with her mother and aunt. She acted in small roles in plays such as Tea House of the August Moon and Undersecretary between 1960 and 1964. Shankar Giri, the son of the former Indian President V. V. Giri, saw her small role in the English play Tea Houses of August Moon and was impressed. Shankar Giri approached her mother Sandhya and told that he wanted to cast her daughter in an English film called The Epistle. Sandhya reluctantly agreed with the condition that shooting should be held only during weekends or school holidays.

She also appeared in a dance sequence of a song named Malligeya Hoovinantha in the movie Amarashilpi Jakannachari (1964).Jayalalithaa made herdebut in Tamil cinema in a leading role in the movie Vennira Aadai (1965), directed by C. V. Sridhar. She made her debut in Telugu films as lead actress in Manushulu Mamathalu opposite Akkineni Nageshwara Rao. Her last Telugu release was also opposite Akkineni Nageswara Rao in the film Nayakudu Vinayakudu, which was released in 1980. She acted in one Hindi film called Izzat, with Dharmendra as her male co star in 1968.

Jayalalithaa was a woman who took men and fashion head on, she was the first heroine to appear in skirts in Tamil films. She was one legendary dancer, actress and a politician who had a golden heart and was always ready to help the needy to the best of her abilities.

I recollect my aunt telling me that, Jayalalithaa was neither keen on acting nor entering into politics but she was pushed toward these high profile professions by her mother Sandhya and mentor MGR respectively. I dont enjoy politics I am doing my duty to the party and to the people of Tamil Nadu, I was pushed into two high profile profession which I never enjoyed, she had confessed.

Thought later when her political career took off on a high note dance and music took a back seat but an artist is an artist its said, being a dancer and a musician she loved art and as a political figure she always supported and encouraged all art related festival and events and often made appearances to inaugurate and light the auspicious lamp too.

When the news of Ammas death broke out my family and me were shocked and disheartened, as we could not believe what we had heard and wished if a miracle could bring her back to life. Jayalalithaaji was the uncrowned queen who ruled in the southern film industry during the mid 60s and 70s and was considered as one of the most prolific and versatile actress, dancers and a style icon during her period had actually left us and gone. Today, the diva of dance is not with us any more but her memories and her work will always remain with us forever.

(Sandip Soparrkar is a well known Ballroom dancer and a Bollywood choreographer who has been honoured with National Achievement Award and National Excellence Award by the Govt of India. He can be contacted on sandipsoparrkar06@gmail.com )

SandipSoparrkar

Artscape
New currency notes amounting to lakhs of rupees seized at several places in the country.

The Modi government had gone ahead with the demonetisation campaign with an objective to curb black money.However one month after the note ban, unaccounted money continues to flow in the economy as two persons were detained by the Mumbai Crime branch and seized new notes worth Rs 85 lakhs at Dadar. At a time when a cap has been imposed on withdrawal of money from ATMs and bank accounts how could a person be in possession of lumpsum amount? On one hand the common man is standing in queue outside banks and ATMs to withdraw his hard earned money on the other hand huge amount of new currencies have been seized across the country.

Thus the governments demonetisation drive has failed to eliminate black money as it has already started regenerating. Even economists had questioned the governments note ban initiative and cautioned that black money cant be eliminated only through demonetisation. They also wanted stringent laws to be passed for nabbing tax-evaders and clamp down the distribution of money during election.

Seven persons have been arrested by the police. The accused were trying to convert black money into legal tender. The crime branch had received a tip-off about seven persons arriving at Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar road near Hindu colony in Dadar with lumpsum money.

Subsequently a trap was laid to nab the accused. The vehicle used by the accused too has been seized by the crime branch. An inquiry has already being initiated into the source of new notes.

Meanwhile, four persons were arrested in Surat for carrying new notes worth Rs. 76 lakh in Surat.

After the invalidation of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 notes the income tax department has been conducting raids at several places across the country to nab black money hoarders.

On Thursday, a television actor and two others were found in possession of cash worth Rs. 43 lakhs in new currency. The actor, Rahul Chalani, who features in a popular crime show on the small screen, and two others were on their way to Hoshangabad from Itarsi in an SUV when they were caught with Rs. 43 lakh in cash, Kotwali Police Station Inspector Mahendra Chouhan said.

The other two accompanying Rahul were identified as Kapil Chalani and Brijesh Choura, who was driving the vehicle. The money consisted of the new currency notes of Rs. 2,000, Rs. 500 and Rs. 100 bills, he said. On Wednesday the Income Tax department recovered Rs. 90-100 crore in cash in Chennai. The seized money included Rs. 10 crore in new Rs. 2000 currency notes, and 100 kg gold from several businessmen. The total worth of the gold is estimated to be at Rs. 28 crore.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 9, 2016  A class-action lawsuit filed by corn growers against Syngenta over corn exports that were rejected by China should go to trial next year, as scheduled, after the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals declined to review the lower courts certification order.

In a five-paragraph order Wednesday, a three-judge panel of the appeals court in Denver said that U.S. District Judge John W. Lungstrums Sept. 26 opinion was well-researched and reasoned, and, if any rulings are in error, those errors can be addressed on appeal, if necessary.

Syngenta had petitioned the appeals court to hear arguments challenging Lungstrums decision. In September, Lungstrum certified two classes of corn farmers who are seeking damages for lost sales in fall 2013 or later  a nationwide class and eight state classes of farmers in Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio and South Dakota. The growers who are members of the class did not use Agrisure Viptera.

In a statement responding to the decision, Syngenta called the appeals court ruling one step in a long process.

The procedural decision ... delays but does not preclude a future review of the decision to have a certain number of Viptera lawsuits proceed as class actions, the company said. Syngenta respectfully disagrees with the decision to allow class actions in this litigation, given the widely varying ways in which farmers grow and sell corn in different markets across the U.S. Syngenta firmly believes that the Viptera China lawsuits should be rejected and that Agrisure Viptera was commercialized in full compliance with regulatory and legal requirements. We will continue to defend the rights of American farmers to have access to safe, effective, U.S.-approved agricultural technologies like Agrisure Viptera.

The company also said, Syngenta R&D is committed to bringing winning innovation into the hands of the growers. To do this successfully we will, with a clear customer focus, define specific Crop Protection and Seeds business strategies, implement simplification initiatives in the territories and ensure the success of the newly established Vegetable Seeds business unit. The internal changes announced will align R&D with cross-functional business priorities while delivering our pipeline and strategic priorities.

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The plaintiffs lawyers estimate that U.S. corn producers lost between $5 billion and $7 billion in revenue because China stopped importing U.S. corn when a new genetically modified trait in Agrisure Viptera contaminated export shipments from the United States, plaintiffs attorneys said in September. China had not yet approved that corn for import when Syngenta started selling its seed on a widespread basis across the U.S. Those losses were suffered by all corn producers (including crop-share landlords) who marketed corn in the fall of 2013 or later.

The nationwide class and the Kansas classes are set for trial beginning on June 5, 2017, in Kansas City, Kansas.

#30

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WASHINGTON, Dec. 8, 2016 - President-elect Donald Trump has selected fast-food executive Andy Puzder to run the Labor Department, which oversees OSHA, enforces wage rules and manages guest-worker programs on which many farms and others in the food industry rely.

Trump said Puzder will fight to make American workers safer and more prosperous  and he will save small businesses from the crushing burdens of unnecessary regulations that are stunting job growth and suppressing wages.

Puzder is CEO of CKE Restaurants, which operates the Hardee's and Carl's Jr. burger chains,

Craig Regelbrugge, former co-chairman of the Agriculture Coalition for Immigration Reform, said Puzders nomination was a good sign that industry will see fewer regulations and streamlined guest worker programs. The nomination would appear positive for those hopeful for DOL-related regulatory relief and process streamlining, Regelbrugge said in an email.

Puzder has argued for the need for low-skilled immigrant workers in his industry and others. During a 2013 appearance with the American Enterprise Institute, Puzder said that immigrant workers always have the thank-God-I-have-this-job attitude.

He was a strong supporter of the Senates 2013 comprehensive immigration reform bill that would have offered illegal immigrants a path to citizenship and expanded access to low-skilled guest workers.

His one gripe about the bill was the amount of spending it would have devoted to border security, a central priority of the Trump campaign. I dont know when it became a conservative Republican principle that increasing the size and intrusiveness of government was a good thing, Puzder said at the 2013 forum.

One issue that will give some in agriculture pause is that he supports the E-Verify system and says it has helped ensure that workers in his restaurants are legal. Growers have been fighting mandatory E-Verify bills in Congress, saying they wont be able to hire enough legal workers until Congress acts on broader immigration reform. There are also differences in the restaurant industry over E-Verify.

Puzder said in 2013 that prior to his companys use of E-Verify many of its managers would disappear when word got out that Immigration and Customs Enforcement was coming to inspect a restaurant.

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Puzder hasnt been so supportive of menu labeling. In a 2011 interview, he said that he didnt like the menu labeling requirement that Congress enacted as part of the Affordable Care Act. He said the labeling rule was a nanny-state regulation designed to solve a problem that isn't really a problem at all.

The FDA, not the Labor Department, is responsible for the menu labeling rule, which will be enforced nationwide next year.

Dawn Sweeney, president and CEO of the National Restaurant Association, said Puzder will bring much-needed business experience to the Department of Labor. He has a proven track record of turning around businesses, and his background in the restaurant industry will help foster an environment for job creation.

#30
AUBURN  After several months of being short two attorneys, the District Attorney's Office is back at full strength in Cayuga County.

For District Attorney Jon Budelmann, the staffing issues started in February 2016 when the Legislature eliminated the positions of three full-time employees, including welfare fraud prosecutor Carl Rosenkranz. Then, in June, the office lost another assistant district attorney when Budelmann fired drug prosecutor Jeffrey Domachowski.

"We're a very busy office when we're at staff," Budelmann said, noting that there are usually eight attorneys  the district attorney, a chief assistant district attorney and six assistant district attorneys. "So being down two attorneys for a period of four months and one attorney for about nine months was quite brutal on the office."

But in October, part of the burden was lifted with the addition of Anthony Benigno.

At 60 years old, Benigno has brought several decades of experience to the DA's office. After graduating from Syracuse University's College of Law in 1982, Benigno worked as a prosecutor for the Greene County District Attorney, trying more than 300 drunk driving cases in 12 years. Then, after a short stint in private practice, he began working for the New York State Department of Health, first as a prosecutor for the Bureau of Professional Medical Conduct and later as an investigator.

Now, Benigno will take over where Rosenkranz left off as the official CARP  or Crimes Against Revenue Program  prosecutor in Cayuga County.

"I just started, but right now I have about 15 cases that are open ... dealing with welfare fraud, workers compensation and things of that nature," said Benigno, who recently moved to Baldwinsville. "But I expect more (cases) coming in the next couple of weeks and months. I'm sure I will be busy."

According to Budelmann, in the past, the program prosecuted around 100 cases a year, including illegal use of Medicaid and public assistance funds, workers compensation, unemployment insurance and tax fraud.

"The difficulty with (CARP) is that embezzlement-type cases are not entry level cases. They require quite a bit of legal knowledge ... so it's relatively complicated," the district attorney said. "We're very fortunate that we have someone with Anthony's level of experience and skill here working for us and helping us."

In addition, Budelmann said Benigno will also pick up some drug cases as well, as state Sen. Michael Nozzolio approved another heroin grant to allow the office to prosecute more cases.

"(Rosenkranz) was handling heroin and meth cases and (Domachowski) was doing cocaine, pills, marijuana and pretty much everything else," Budelmann said. "So when they let go (Rosenkranz) I lost someone who was doing about 25 percent of their time prosecuting drug cases. And when I had to let (Domachowski) go, I was then down an entire drug prosecutor plus 25 percent of another one."

But as of Dec. 5, the drug prosecutor's position has been filled as Budelmann hired 31-year-old Andrew Kelly.

While attending the part-time evening program at Brooklyn Law School, Kelly said he also worked at a firm in Midtown Manhattan where he transitioned into an associate position after graduation. In that role, Kelly assisted with large-scale civil defense, representing medical supply manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies and motor vehicle manufacturers across the country.

"As opposed to my prior experience, which was a lot of pre-trial negotiations in an office setting ... I'm really looking forward to getting the opportunity to set foot in the courtroom and pursue justice," said Kelly, who recently moved to Ithaca with his wife.

"As a drug prosecutor you're constantly running at 100 miles per hour," Budelmann added. "I'm very happy to have Andrew here. I selected him because he was young and eager and hardworking."

Still, although the District Attorney's Office is once again fully staffed, Budelmann said there is much more work to be done as the eight attorneys prosecute over 2,000 misdemeanors, 500 to 600 felonies, 2,000 to 3,000 violations and dozens of appeals each year.

"We could probably use two or three or four more prosecutors, but at the moment I'm thrilled to be back up to strength," he said. "We're back up to speed ... and we'll assess how things are going down the road."
FAITH AND VALUES: Will you say 'yes' when God calls on you?
Berlin Baptist Church's annual production of Bethlehems Child, a live nativity scene, will go on as scheduled this weekend after a trailer with many of the church's props inside was stolen in November.
AUBURN  In an effort to make Cayuga County greener, legislators will consider a local law establishing energy benchmarks for county municipal buildings.

The law would follow an agreement the Cayuga County Legislature already entered into with Wendel Energy Services, which conducted an energy audit of municipal buildings. Using information from that audit, the law would require the county "to maintain, update and make public the ongoing energy use in its municipal buildings."

Steve Lynch, director of the county's Planning and Economic Development Department, said buildings that are 1,000 square feet or larger will be within the proposed law's purview, however, the county would have the ability to exclude buildings if it should wish. He said an example where the county may want to exempt a large building would be if there's only a few lights or no meter to read.

Legislators at the county Legislature's Planning Committee passed a resolution Thursday night setting a public hearing on the local law for 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 24. According to the resolution, the local law could also help the county decide on more cost-effective and smarter capital investments. It could also assist the county in applying for a $250,000 New York State Energy Research and Development Authority grant through the clean Energies Communities Program.

In other news:

 Legislators expressed support for the Cayuga County Water Quality Management Agency's grant application to the Emerson Foundation, requesting $27,000 to help the agency with a branding and promotion plan, which includes a new website. The agency has already released a request for proposals, though, Lynch said, it has no funding at this time to finance any that the group may receive.

Lynch said he thinks few people know about the organization, which is a collective of government agencies and nonprofit organizations that discuss the water bodies and water improvement activities throughout the county. He said the hope of the branding plan would be to increase public awareness of the agency as well as provide important information.

A grant application will be sent to the Emerson Foundation on Friday. Legislator Tim Lattimore made a motion for the county to fund the project, but no other legislators seconded the motion.

 Ray Bizzari, director of Community Services, said the Mental Health Department is looking into partnering with the Emergency Room at Auburn Community Hospital on new services for patients who have overdosed or come in highly intoxicated.

Currently, Bizzari said, the ER keeps patients until they are sober, but there is little else doctors can do. He said he hopes staff from Mental Health will be able to go to the ER and perform the intake and initial assessment on the drug and alcohol side, while also giving ER doctors the ability to write a five-day prescription for Suboxone, a drug often used as an opiate substitute to help with drug addiction.

 Committee members passed a resolution supporting the many various efforts to eliminate blue-green algae from Owasco Lake. The resolution came from the county Water Quality Management Agency, and expresses support for the city of Auburn's request to the state for a Total Maximum Daily Load. It also acknowledges and supports its own efforts to implement a Nine Element Watershed Plan for the lake.

Besides that, the resolution calls on the state and federal government to commit resources "to accelerate our collective efforts to reduce nutrient loading into Owasco Lake."
Aiken, SC (29801)

Today

A few clouds from time to time. High 76F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Clear skies. Low 52F. Winds light and variable.
This North Augusta acreage, near I-20 Exit 5 and across from SRP Federal Credit Unions administrative campus, has been identified as the home of Scuttles Island water park, whose future rests in doubt as investors face an involuntary Chapter 7 bankruptcy claim.
Assyrians Unable to Return to Villages Destroyed By ISIS

A total of five Assyrian towns in Northern Iraq have been liberated from ISIS, but none of its residents, Christians who were forced to flee from ISIS, are able to return after the terror group left a wake of destruction in its path. As the campaign to liberate Mosul from ISIS rages on, Christian residents of surrounding villages already freed from the terror army's grip have returned to find their homes booby-trapped, in ruins and uninhabitable. Ethnic and religious minority groups like the Yazidi and Assyrian Christians were driven from their ancestral homelands across the Nineveh Plain when the Islamic State attempted to establish their caliphate. Also known as the Plain of Mosul, the region has long been the ancestral homeland for the Assyrian-Chaldean-Syriac Christians, along with other religious minority groups, but for the last two years they have been subjected to persecution and genocide at the hand of ISIS militants. The villages of Bashiqa, Bartella, Karamles, Qaraqosh and Tellisqof were recently liberated from ISIS by the Nineveh Protection Units (NPU) and Iraqi Special Forces, but many of these villages have been left in complete disarray by the terror group. In some towns, most of the infrastructure has been reduced to rubble; in others, dangerous chemical compounds have been dumped, polluting the ground. But what all the places have in common is that they are unsafe and nearly impossible for those who fled to return any time soon. "It's a catastrophe," one Assyrian from Bashiqa named Laith told FoxNews.com. Like many from his village, he was forced to flee two years ago for Kurdish-held territory. "We are hearing that the situation at Bashiqa is terrible ... [ISIS] has destroyed it all. "We hope to return with everyone here. God willing, we will return soon." Exclusive images provided to FoxNews.com by the Illinois-based Iraqi Christian Relief Council (ICRC) show the destruction of homes and infrastructure of these villages at the hands of ISIS. Thousands who left as refugees from their own land were forced to flee to places like Kurdish territory, Lebanon and Turkey, while others have been forced to be nomads wondering across Northern Iraq. "Everything is damaged," Jalal, an Assyrian from the village of Karamles, told FoxNews.com. "Houses have been burned by fire. There's no water, no anything. People will only return if there is some sort of promise of protection." Officials with the NPU tell FoxNews.com that many of the homes in these villages were burnt to the ground when ISIS abandoned them, fleeing from coalition forces. Many have also been looted in the wake of their destruction. Many Assyrians who fled say that what is immediately needed in their villages for them to return is greater security or some sort of assurance of protection from Baghdad. "The damage to these villages is hard to overstate," Robert Nicholson -- executive director of the Philos Project, an advocacy and relief organization -- told FoxNews.com. "In one last act of vengeance, ISIS made sure that returning Assyrian families would find their homes and business shot full of holes, rigged with mines and utterly demolished." Nicholson, like many others in the international community, say that rebuilding the region will take years and that funding is badly needed. "The road is long, but the journey is made up of single steps. We need to start small, focusing on the most important villages and work outward," he said. "We need the international community to step in. All those countries in Europe and around the world that talk about preserving minority peoples, indigenous peoples, need to step up and put their money where their mouth is." The ICRC is spearheading an initiative to help with rebuilding efforts in the Nineveh Plain. The group's Operation Return to Nineveh was launched last month to raise funds to rebuild homes and churches in Assyrian communities that were destroyed by ISIS. "Restoring these villages will be a long-term project, but it has to be done," Juliana Taimoorazy, the organization's executive director, told FoxNews.com. "It's doable only if there's active security on the ground." Taimoorazy's group has also chosen to "adopt" one town -- Tellisqof -- and is in the process of raising money and resources to rebuild the village. "A lot of these [Assyrian] people are farmers and their land was polluted with chemicals by ISIS," she said. "They are unable to work on the land. "We have to proceed with caution, but we have to come alongside the Assyrian people to help them rebuild. They have to return home."
AUBURN  Auburn will receive $2 million from the state to develop plans to arrange a new headquarters for several city and county emergency services.

The grant will be allocated through the state Department of Environmental Conservation as part of the state's regional economic development council awards, which were announced Thursday. The Central New York Regional Economic Development Council received $62.2 million for projects in Cayuga, Cortland, Madison, Onondaga and Oswego counties.

City Manager Jeff Dygert said Auburn will receive grants for two of the three projects applied for by the city. The $2 million award will help the city relocate its fire department and collaborate with Cayuga County emergency services into a shared facility.

According to the REDC awards booklet, the targeted site is 23-31 Seminary St.  the location of the Save-A-Lot plaza.

Dygert said the strip mall is a location the city is "considering" for relocation through talks with an area developer regarding potential renovations. Previously, Auburn city councilors had been considering construction of a brand-new public safety complex, but canceled those plans this past May due to budget constraints against a projected cost of $22 to $28 million.

The city manager declined further comment Thursday night, saying he was notified of the awards "about a half-hour" prior to Thursday's Auburn City Council meeting. The owner of the plaza, Syracuse-based Washington St. Partners, could not be reached for comment.

The public safety project is being considered due to the degrading structural state of the city's police and fire departments. The garage floor of the fire department, for example, is cracking under the weight of modern fire trucks.

Auburn City Council cancels current plans for new police, fire stations AUBURN  Auburn officials are going back to square one in their pursuit of new headquarters 

Tracy Verrier, a representative for Cayuga County on the CNY REDC and executive director of the Cayuga Economic Development Agency, said she believes the state recognizes the project as a public safety issue.

"The priority there is making sure we have a sufficient facility to service the county and city ... making sure that the facility that they have is up to date, has modern technology and can house the equipment that they have," Verrier said.

Beyond the $2 million, the city will receive $289,750 for planning and design of a regional market along the Owasco River on a portion of Loop Road. Auburn's application for $2.5 million in funding to improve the city's wastewater treatment facilities was not selected.

"There's going to be a lot of activity downtown for the next couple of years and I think that all really helps perpetuate itself," Dygert said. "All that activity will get private development (groups) more interested."

The Citizen's Robert Harding contributed to this report.
The December issue of Freighters World is now available for download to registered readers.

Inside there are articles on the Boeing B747-8F programme revitalised by a UPS order, the single company approach of AirBridgeCargo and Volga-Dnepr, plus an in-depth look at the the new B737 passenger to freighter conversion lessor, Sprectre.

Our Asia feature looks at why China, the regions economic powerhouse, is becoming a victim of its own success.

We also take a look at the dual airport hub policy in Dubai.

And there is our usual freighter fleet directory, with the latest update on main deck operators around the world.

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December 8, 2016

SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq  Three Iraqi Caucasus tribes are uniting to seek recognition under the Iraqi Constitution. The Circassians, Chechens and Dagestanis want to unify their communities under one national name, Caucasus, much like the Christians of Iraq did when they formed the Chaldean Syriac Assyrian Popular Council political party in 2007.

The tribes seek formal recognition in the constitution to guarantee equal rights and legal protection from violence against minorities. On Nov. 24, the nongovernmental organization Masarat for Cultural and Media Development (MCMD) hosted a meeting of representatives of the three groups in the Sulaimaniyah governorate in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. There, they asked to be included among Iraqi minorities and officially declared their demands. MCMD is preparing a draft law regarding rights for minorities that it will submit to parliament.

Ahmed Kataw, the leader of Circassians in Iraq, spoke to Al-Monitor about these demands, saying, The Iraqi Constitution should recognize the Iraqi Caucasus tribes  Circassians, Chechens and Dagestanis  like the rest of the officially recognized minorities. Their names should be included within the Iraqi minorities protected under the draft law.  We want to make sure the Caucasian minorities are represented in the parliament according to the quota system, by virtue of which other minorities are represented.

The Caucasus tribes were late presenting their demands to MCMD because, they said, they were unable to form a political party to represent them at the official level, and there were disagreements about selecting leaders to convey these demands.

Kataw said tense security situations, such as scattered armed confrontations and the battle against the Islamic State, have made it risky to start a political movement. We did not form a political party. We did, however, start establishing a cultural-social organization called Solidarity Association back in 2004, headquartered in Kirkuk," he said. "As a representative of the Circassians in Iraq, I have served as vice president of the association, and a Chechen was nominated president, while the secretary-general was a Dagestani. The 450 members of the general assembly took a vote, but the security conditions impeded us from turning the association into a political body. In addition, we were afraid we would be dominated by major political movements once we had announced we were forming an independent political party.

Adnan Abdul Bari, who represents the Dagestanis in the Solidarity Association, spoke to Al-Monitor about the importance of joint work between the representatives of the Caucasus tribes. These tribes are considered from the same origins. Their common history, geography, culture and traditions differentiate them from other tribes," he said. "They have the identity of the peoples of the North Caucasus, so it is time for them to come forward as one people with a single cultural identity.

The small number of Caucasus tribes and the fact that they are not concentrated geographically has weakened their participation in public life.

Researcher Mohammed Hussein Dagestani, the editor of the magazine Tadamon (Solidarity), which is concerned with Circassians, Chechens and Dagestanis, is head of the Iraqi Journalists Syndicate in Kirkuk. He told Al-Monitor, Russia forced the Caucasus tribes into displacement in 1864. They had to move from North Caucasus to Turkish territory, and the Ottomans then forced them out to Jordan, Syria and Iraq.

Hussein Dagestani added, This tragedy is similar to some experienced by other minorities, such as the Armenians, who fled to Iraq and other countries after the massacres committed by the Turks in 1915. We also share some experiences with the Yazidis, who had been subjected to a series of genocides, most recently by the Islamic State in 2016.

Mazen Abdul Rahman, the Chechen representative of the Solidarity Association, told Al-Monitor there are scattered Chechen settlements, but "there are no settlements for either Dagestanis or Circassians because they are rather integrated into the urban centers.

According to Katwa, there are more than 15,000 Caucasians, and the tribes' representatives agree that the Chechens are ranked first in terms of number, followed by the Dagestanis, then the Circassians.

Only a limited number of seniors in Caucasus families still speak Caucasian languages, but their numbers are gradually decreasing, which means their languages will inevitably be forgotten.

Another factor contributing to the demise of Caucasian culture is their way of blending in and their refusal to stand out in society. They act as Arabs in Arab areas, as Kurds in Kurdish areas and Turkmen in Turkmen areas. The Caucasian families who lived in Shiite-dominated areas embraced the Shiite sect, while those who lived in Sunni areas followed the Sunni sect.

However, the long years of blending in did not stop these tribes from practicing their traditions, such as applying the norms and principles of the so-called Adiga law, by virtue of which parents and grandparents have to follow Caucasus traditions when it comes to marriage, childbirth and other social occasions.
December 8, 2016

Soldiers and stories about conscription in Egypt are an area that no one dares write about, much less make films about. But the Qatar-based Al Jazeera media company recently decided to address the issue of conscription in Egypt.

According to Article 3 of Law No. 127 (1980), military service in Egypt is mandatory for men ages 18 to 30. Conscripts spend a period of military service either in the Egyptian armed forces or in the police sector, and men of service age can't get a job or travel until after they have completed their military service.

On Nov. 20, Al Jazeera broadcast the teaser of a documentary on the issue. The clip sparked a wave of criticism and anger among media figures and journalists in Egypt. Outrage over the film's subject matter was exacerbated by its producer, a longtime critic of Egyptian policies.

The film shares soldiers' stories, including the difficulties they experienced during their service. It reveals that some never underwent military training and did personal work for military commanders.

There are some organizations that reject conscription in Egypt, such as the "No to Compulsory Military Service Movement founded in April 2009. This group's website states that it aims to resist the military establishment's efforts to militarize Egyptian society through targeted media campaigns and education.

In response to the teaser, the Egyptian armed forces Department of Morale Affairs released its own film Nov. 24 titled A day in the shoes of a fighter, describing life inside the military camps and showing the treatment that soldiers receive during their service.

On the diplomatic level, Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid said Nov. 27 on ONLive TV that the Egyptian government would not respond to the film and would leave it to the press to address.

On Nov. 27, Al Jazeera broadcast the film, which covered a dark area and included testimony and analysis in a special investigation, according to the channel's official YouTube account.

The film raised the ire of Egyptian officials. Parliament member Saad al-Jamal, the chairman of the parliaments Arab Affairs Committee, said Nov. 26 in a statement to Youm7 that the film negatively portrays the Egyptian army in order to undermine the Egyptian state. He pointed out that the Egyptian armed forces are important not only to Egypt but the entire Arab world.

The film was well-received among Egyptians, and even citizens of other Arab countries watched the film, as its name, Asaker ("Soldier"), was heavily used on Twitter in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. As of the date of the writing of the article, the film had been watched more than 1.2 million times on YouTube.

Some activists criticized the film's content on Twitter. Khalaf, a citizen from Saudi Arabia, said, When they were sure of the [Muslim] Brotherhood's failure to drag the army into civil war, they started trying to destroy the army from the inside. How does Qatar benefit from this?

Merhi bin Faihan, a Saudi citizen, tweeted, God help Egypt, the fox is guarding the hen house, in reference to the military commanders exploitation of soldiers to perform nonmilitary work.

History professor Khaled Fahmy, the head of the Department of History at the American University of Cairo, posted on Facebook Nov. 27 that the film failed to deeply analyze the history of conscription and the peculiarity of the Egyptian experience, and it did not compare conscription in Egypt with other countries.

Fahmy said that the shallow film was pointless and should have included interviews with army officers or commanders. He said that it is a mere collection of official videos and TV reports, and added that while it was accompanied by much fanfare, its content is poor.

According to Fahmy, the film failed to answer questions about conscription in Egypt, such as: What is the alternative to conscription? How much does conscription cost the state? How important is conscription to maintaining the armys fighting capabilities?

Huwaida Mustafa, the dean of the faculty of information at El Shorouk Academy in al-Shorouk city, agreed with Fahmy. She told Al-Monitor over the phone that Al Jazeeras film is not a documentary, as it was not based on true events and developments. Most parts of the film used actors. In other words, the film was intended to convey the point of view of its producers.

Mustafa insisted that the film was created to send a specific message and did not include any official views, making it a drama and not a documentary, which would identify its sources.

Director Imad Eddin al-Sayed said in a statement to Qatari Al-Arab Dec. 1 that he had to rely on actors and used archival footage because of the poor available footage about the topics discussed in the film and the difficulty of filming inside the army camps. He explained that some parts of the film contained very shocking leaked clips while other parts only featured testimony made by conscripts.

Asked why the film did not include official points of view, Sayed said, We tried to involve Egyptian military experts, but they all refused to talk about this subject for political and security considerations. This is why we turned to a retired military expert who took part in supervising the Egyptian army training in the 1980s.

When asked about the film, Saudi military analyst and writer at Al Riyadh newspaper Ibrahim el-Merhi stressed that no matter how much one disagrees with the Egyptian regime, the Egyptian army should never be targeted.

Merhi told Al-Monitor, The goal of the film is to spark a revolution and a coup in the Egyptian army against its commanders at a time when Egypt and its people need security and stability.

A man who asked to be identified as A. M., who was finishing his service when the film aired, told Al-Monitor that he is not against the principle of conscription, but some parts of the film reflect realities that cannot be denied.

He explained, however, The doctrine of the armed forces is stronger than all this nonsense, and even if we are 90 million different inhabitants, we should all be united behind our military.
December 7, 2016

CAIRO  Egypt's displaced Nubians want their land back and are threatening to take their demands to the international community.

The Nubians were forced out of their villages along the Nile River in the 1960s when the Aswan High Dam was constructed, and their decadeslong struggle to return reached a critical point in October, when the government put the land up for sale to Egyptian and foreign investors, as well as farmers. After numerous attempts failed to get the government to recognize their claim to the land, on Dec. 3 a Nubian delegation submitted to Egypt's parliament speaker Ali Abdel Aal a petition outlining their demands.

If the demands aren't met, the Nubians are prepared to refer their case to international arbitration.

When the specified deadline to the government expires [Dec. 17], we will take our cause to the international level, hoping to return to our land that the government forced us to leave," Mohamed Azmy, an activist for the cause, said in exclusive statements to Al-Monitor.

Azmy noted that Nubians do not seek secession, but will appeal to the countries with which Egypt reached conventions to combat all forms of discrimination, such as the 1965 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

Hani Youssef, the former head of the Nubian Union, had said in press statements on the sidelines of a November conference of Nubian leaders, If the government continues to ignore us, we have no other choice but to resort to the United Nations International Court of Justice, keeping in mind that we are indigenous peoples.

The issue of Nubians goes back to 1964, when the waters of the High Dam flooded more than 60 of their villages during its construction. The government displaced nearly 135,000 Nubians from their villages to a stark, arid land with no plantations  with the provision that they would return once the dam was complete.

On Oct. 18, the Egyptian government put land lots up for sale in the area of Toshka  within the native lands of the Nubians, as per Article 236 of the constitution  in the first phase of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisis national development project to reclaim the 1.56 million acres of land.

The Administrative Judiciary Courts Board of State Commissioners issued a legal report asking for the dismissal of a case dating back to 1968 that had sought to bind the government to its promise to allow the Nubians to return to their villages on the banks of Lake Nasser. The boards report is designed to end any Nubian claims to the land.

In an escalatory step, some Nubian activists in Toshka organized a mass protest campaign Nov. 5 called the Nubian Return Caravan, which was launched from Aswan to the Toshka area. They decided to hold an ongoing sit-in until their demands are met under Article 236 of the 2014 constitution.

The article stipulates that the state shall develop and implement a plan for the comprehensive economic and urban development of border and underprivileged areas, including Nubia. It adds that the residents of these areas are to participate in the project and that the state shall implement projects to return the residents to their original areas and develop the areas within 10 years.

The Nubian Return Caravan, led by Azmy, also is demanding an amendment to the 2014 presidential Decree No. 444, under which the lands of numerous Nubian villages are considered military zones  in violation of the constitution, according to the group.

In an attempt to calm the Nubians and break up their protests, a delegation of 12 parliamentarians headed Nov. 22 to Toshka to listen to their demands and relay them to the executive branch and the governor of Aswan. Then on Nov. 30, Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail met with a delegation of Nubians and Yassin Abdel Saboor, a parliament member for the Aswan governorate, to stress the priority given by the state and the president to the Nubians' issues.

But the Nubians want actions to accompany the words.

We have exhausted all means to achieve justice. We faced discrimination and persecution, and the government has displaced us from our lands. We filed dozens of lawsuits, but we only received promises that remained unfulfilled," Azmy told Al-Monitor.
December 8, 2016

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip  The Fatah Seventh Congress opened Nov. 29 in Ramallah and closed Dec. 4 without discussing the report by the commission of inquiry into the death of former Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, as some Fatah figures had anticipated.

Fahmi al-Zarir, the spokesman for the congress' preparatory committee, said Nov. 24, The report by the commission of inquiry into Arafats' death will be discussed during a private session at the Seventh Congress, and it was added to the agenda. The meeting, however, did not happen, and the final statement of the congress made no reference to Arafat's death.

Donia al-Watan reported Dec. 1 that a dispute had erupted on the first day, when the agenda distributed to participants did not include discussion of the report. The conflict arose most notably between Maj. Gen. Tawfiq Tirawi, the head of the commission of inquiry into Arafat's death, and the congress chairmanship.

Congress spokesman Mahmoud Abu al-Hija spoke to Al-Monitor about the report being left off the agenda. He said, The report was not initially on the agenda because the investigation into the case is not over yet. Once completed, it will be shown to the Fatah leaders and Palestinian public.

Hija said, The congress' preparatory committee has not obtained the report on Arafat's death yet to be able to add it on the agenda, due to technical procedures in the investigation process. He pointed out that any participant in the congress has the right to put forward an objection to the agenda.

Tirawi told Al-Monitor he refused to comment because he is angry at the congress for failing to discuss the report.

Amin Maqboul, the secretary-general of Fatah's Revolutionary Council, had another version of the story. He told Al-Monitor, During its Nov. 18 meeting, Fatahs Central Committee discussed the latest findings of the investigation into Arafat's death and found nothing worth mentioning in the case. It concluded that there is no need for the issue to be discussed in the congress meetings.

Maqbouls statement contradicts Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Nov. 10 statement. At a rally commemorating the 12th anniversary of Arafat's death in Ramallah, Abbas said, I know who killed Arafat. Yet my testimony alone is not enough. You will be shocked when you will find out who did it.

Abbas, added, The Palestinian commission of inquiry has made great strides in the search for the truth, and we will reveal the final results to our people when reached.

Abbas' statement prompted dismissed Fatah leader Mohammed Dahlan to respond. He posted on Facebook Nov. 12, The cheap exploitation of President Yasser Arafats martyrdom should be halted immediately. The time has come to put the investigative dossier in its legal context, to unveil all mysteries in the eras major crime, rather than occasional prejudiced manipulation and exploitation of the issue.  It is a shame to keep silent for someone like Mahmoud Abbas, who claims to know the perpetrators of such a major crime.

Maqboul explained that Abbas had meant what former Jordanian Information Minister Saleh al-Qallab wrote in a Nov. 14. article in the Jordanian al-Rai. Qallab said that Abbas received new and important documents proving who killed Arafat, but it is up to the commission of inquiry to announce its findings.

Israeli Channel 10 reported Dec. 4 that it has obtained an internal document from the commission stating, Abbas main rival, namely Mohammed Dahlan, is the one who, via a foreign delegation, sent the pillbox that was replaced with poison to Arafat at Percy military hospital on the outskirts of Paris.

Ashraf Jumaa, a leading figure in Fatahs reformist current, told Al-Monitor that the commission's report was left out of the meeting to keep the findings veiled.

He said, Not only did the participants to Fatahs Seventh Congress want to learn about the investigations findings, but all of the Palestinian people as well. He was shocked that participants at the congress accepted the omission of the report. While Palestinians in general are convinced that Israel is behind the death, there are doubts about who delivered the poison to Arafat.

Political analyst Mohamed Hawash told Al-Monitor that it is more likely that the Palestinian commission of inquiry failed to find conclusive evidence about Arafat's death, despite the rumors circulating that the commission has in its possession new and important information. He pointed out that ongoing Palestinian accusations that Israel was behind Arafat's death do little to settle the matter without evidence.

The Palestinian commission of inquiry, which was formed Sept. 19, 2010, has not announced any findings in the case, although from time to time it has claimed that it has found new evidence for the cause of Arafats death.
December 7, 2016

BAGHDAD, Iraq  Safeguarding Endangered Cultural Heritage, a conference held in Abu Dhabi December 3-4, called for international support to protect the endangered cultural heritage of the Middle East, especially in Iraq and Syria. Conference participants approved establishing a $100 million fund and a safe haven network for use during conflicts. The problem in Iraq is one of conflict as well as neglect.

On Nov. 25, after the liberation of Nimrud  the Assyrian archaeological site south of Mosul  from the Islamic State (IS), UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova announced, The damage inflicted to Nimrud is a major loss for Iraq and for the world. She also asserted, The protection and rehabilitation of Iraqis heritage, in Nimrud and beyond, is essential for stability and cohesion in the country and the entire region.

The destruction of Iraq's cultural heritage is not limited to extremist groups like IS and widely known ancient sites. Some governorates and municipalities are also culpable in the neglect and destruction of locally historic places. For example, on Nov. 13, the local government in Diyala gave a developer permission to demolish the oldest cinema in the governorate, a cultural and entertaining landmark built in 1949. Its decision raised the ire of a broad segment of the population, which viewed the act as uncivilized and a sign of ignorance about the importance of culture and heritage.

Ali Abu Iraq, a freelance writer and heritage activist, told Al-Monitor, Demolishing cinemas in places in Iraq is attributable to radical thinking and ideologies, wherein the art of cinema is forbidden and conflicts with Islamic values. Abu Iraq also sees the demolition of historic buildings and other landmarks within the context of a struggle between heritage and investment.

Some owners of historic houses seek financial gain by converting their properties into commercial businesses, contrary to the Law of Antiquities and Heritage.

On Aug. 5, the Secretariat of Baghdad approved the demolition of the former home of Sassoon Eskell, who was instrumental in establishing the government and financial system of post-Ottoman Iraq and became its first finance minister. The authority said the house was not a listed site and could therefore be demolished to make way for a commercial development.

The secretariat had claimed in December 2015 that it would take strict measures to prevent the conversion of heritage homes to commercial buildings and therefore would not be granting permits in such situations.

The reality, however, is completely different. On May 18, 2016, the Music Studies Building, established in the 1930s in Baghdad, was demolished for commercial development.

Some landmark buildings have fallen under the control of political parties, some of which simply took over the property. Mowaffak al-Rubaie from the State of Law Coalition took control of a house on Haifa Street in Baghdad following the 2003 US-led invasion. When he made it his party's headquarters, it sparked protests on March 10 and demands that he vacate the property.

In Kirkuk, protests broke out Nov. 11 against a project to convert a section of Kirkuks historic citadel and its market  said to be about 100 years old  into a shopping mall.

In Karbala, a Safavid era section of wall of the Khan al-Atishi, an ancient inn, crumbled to the ground Aug. 16, putting the rest of the monument in danger of collapse. Similarly, the Sharabiya School in Wasit, built in 1234, collapsed over time, leaving only the main gate standing.

Earlier this year, a hotel project in the city of Najaf led to the destruction of part of the historic city wall, which dates to 1217. The University of Kufa annexed the King Faisal II Palace, built in 1946, and now uses it as an educational facility. In March, Al-Monitor examined another form of heritage destruction in Najaf, reporting on people looting old Christian graves in search of valuable relics, collectibles and gold.

Jabbar Kawas, head of the Union of Writers and Poets in Babil, who is also versed in heritage issues in the area, told Al-Monitor, The owners of heritage homes have offered them for sale as they are now in the heart of commercial centers. He added, Most of the heritage houses throughout Babil are dilapidated, without effort being made to restore them. Kawas blamed the situation on poor cultural awareness and therefore lack of knowledge about the importance of such monuments, stressing that the solution to saving remaining heritage houses is to have laws to protect them and to develop plans for restoring them.

Shwan Dawoodi, a member of the Culture and Information Committee in the Iraqi parliament, told Al-Monitor, Those who are destroying these places are in my eyes akin to the Islamic State, which demolished archaeological sites in Nineveh.

Dawoodi does not deny the government's own neglect of heritage monuments and cultural venues, but lamented, The parliaments Culture and Information Committee condemns such acts but remains powerless to prevent them. Dawoodi called for strict measures to deter conversions of heritage houses into commercial properties and stressed the need to allocate sufficient funds for the reconstruction and restoration of neglected archaeological sites.

There are close to 1,800 heritage houses across Iraq that have been registered with the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities. The development of a working plan is sorely needed to start the work of protecting and restoring them. Turning some of these buildings into tourist attractions could be profitable for their owners and thus incentive not to convert them into commercial properties.
December 8, 2016

For anyone who still doesnt understand why Im obsessive about revolutionizing math, English and science education, these are the results of the international PISA [Program for International Student Assessment] test conducted two years ago, before I took office, wrote Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett on his Facebook page Dec. 7. This so-called obsession is apparently a direct boost to the campaign he launched upon taking office to encourage expanded math studies in high school. We will not ease up. This is vital for us, the leader of the HaBayit HaYehudi Party pledged in his post.

He appended to his latest post a report reflecting the dismal state of the Israeli education system as measured by the PISA, which tests 10th-graders in 72 countries in math, science and reading. Israel scored lower than average among the 35 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), receiving 467 points as opposed to the OECD average of 493. The gap between Israeli students who excelled at the test and those who encountered difficulties was one of the widest in the world, and the widest among the OECD states.

It wouldnt be fair to blame the low test scores on the education minister, who took office less than two years ago. This is the grim result of an education system consistently bled dry so that budgets can be funneled instead to defense expenditures, settlements, yeshivas and more. This is the result of the chronic erosion in the standing of teachers and their low pay, along with the increase in poverty and the deepening gap between rich and poor. But since the day he took office, Bennetts obsessiveness has undergone a sea change. It currently targets a somewhat different profession than the one supposed to train the coming generation of scientists, mathematicians and critical-thinking researchers.

On Sept. 13, over a year after he announced a revolution in math instruction, Bennett declared that studying Judaism and excelling in the subject is more important in my view than the study of math and sciences.  We have to be a spiritual world power and to export spiritual knowledge to the whole world. This is the next chapter of our Zionist vision. This is how we will once again be a light unto nations. Because out of Zion shall come Torah and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem (Isaiah 2:3).

And he practiced what he preached. His true priorities are reflected in school curricula and budgets. According to an investigative report broadcast in November on Israels Channel 2 news, the education budget for Jewish studies had tripled over the past two years, from 484 million shekels in 2014 to 1.4 billion shekels in 2016 ($127.2 million to $368 million). The Education Ministry supports 60 centers tasked with deepening Jewish education in some 500 state schools. Many schools add hours of Jewish studies to their curriculum in return for the added funds.

The ceremonies in which grade-school children are given their first Bible have been moved from schools to synagogues, and the weekly Friday morning ritual (in kindergartens and elementary schools) of welcoming the Sabbath has become strikingly religious. Books in such subjects as reading comprehension, literature, geography and civics have been adapted to the clerical vision of the HaBayit HaYehudi chairman. For example, a reading/writing manual for third-graders tells of a Jew who lived in an Arab land and was persecuted by his neighbors. At some point the man had to decide whether to flee and violate the commandment of resting on the Sabbath, or to stay. He decided to stay home and keep the Sabbath. Other Jews, who decided otherwise and fled, were murdered. Even school instruction on road safety has been seasoned with Yiddishkeit: The first lesson is devoted to the Jewish Travelers Prayer and to discussion about its content and when to say it.

Judaism belongs to each and every one, Bennett insisted in his speech glorifying the study of Judaism. No sector has a monopoly on it. In this case, Bennett practiced the exact opposite of what he preached. The chairwoman of the left-wing Meretz Party, Zehava Gal-On, found that the Education Ministry is allocating 90% of the Jewish studies budget in state schools to Orthodox organizations. On the other hand, the ministry froze its support for (Jewish) pluralistic organizations. The budget allocation for democracy and coexistence studies totals about 10 million shekels ($2.6 million), compared with the 1.4 billion shekels ($368 million) mentioned previously for Jewish studies the Orthodox way.

Bennett posted to Facebook a videotaped conversation with his daughter, in which he discussed the chapter in Genesis (starting Genesis 12:1) where God commands Abraham to go forth from his home and head for the Land of Israel. Bennett said in the video that all of the Land of Israel (including the West Bank) belongs to the people of Israel because God had bequeathed it to Abraham, our forefather. The minister of education has the right to share his clerical views, as well as his interpretation of the Bible as a contemporary road map, with his children and even with his Facebook followers. He doesnt have that right as the top educator of all Israeli children, Jews and Arabs alike, secular as well as religious, Orthodox and progressive alike.

In politics its only natural that whoever controls the purse strings decides how the money is spent. That is why every junior-high student in religious state schools gets 3,500 shekels ($920) annually more than his peer in a nonreligious state school, according to data revealed by Knesset member Gal-On.

Bennett looks out for his voters. But, as with his drive to expand settlements, Bennetts desire for conquest knows no bounds. He takes advantage of the fact that the secular state schools, which were for many years the dominant sector in Israels education system (compared with the smaller group of religious state schools), are now defenseless. Yair Lapid, the head of the Yesh Atid Party and a former journalist who entered politics riding a protest wave against religious coercion, poses these days for photos by the Western Wall, draped in a prayer shawl. The center-left Zionist Camp is busy with internal Jewish squabbles, and its leader Isaac Herzog never misses a chance to be seen wearing a traditional skullcap, nor does he miss an opportunity to mention that his grandfather was a chief rabbi.

The leadership of the right-wing Likud Party has been dragged along on Bennetts march of folly over the refusal to allow the court-ordered evacuation of the illegal West Bank settlement of Amona. They have failed to notice that the education minister is cooking up a new batch of constituents under their very nose. The Ministry of Education is his last stop before the prime ministers residence on Jerusalems Balfour Street. Its a shame that the PISA tests and entrance exams for science faculties dont include questions about the Talmud and Sabbath laws. If no one stops Bennetts obsessive gallop from the schools to the yeshivas, Israel will be a world leader in Bible studies, but its Nobel Prizes will be a thing of the past.
December 8, 2016

No one in the office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was surprised by the Knessets Dec. 5 preliminary approval of the proposed legislation known as the regularization bill, legalizing wildcat West Bank settlements  which would allow Israel to take control of private Palestinian lands.

For many months the Palestinian Authority (PA) has been closely following the convoluted progress of the proposed bill in its various incarnations, and while publicly condemning it, they understood that if OK'd by Israeli lawmakers, the parody bill  as theyve dubbed it  has an upside.

The whitewashing of unauthorized settlements established on private Palestinian land  after paying compensation to the Palestinian landowners  would be a de facto declaration of war by Israel and generate widespread Palestinian unrest. On the other hand, the Palestinians would be handed what they call a smoking gun on a silver platter: ultimate proof that Israel is intent on annexing the occupied territories and not on peacefully resolving its conflict with the Palestinians anytime in the foreseeable future.

Final passage of the bill would also likely result in an overwhelming, forceful eruption of international public opinion against Israels expansion policies. A Nov. 29 Peace Now report says such a law would retroactively validate some 4,000 structures built on private Palestinian land. Of these, 2,744 are permanent structures and 1,177 are mobile homes and prefabs. According to the report, 3,125 of these are located in settlements, and almost 800 in illegally erected outposts. According to the Peace Now data, the law would concern 72 settlements and legalize 55 outposts. In all, the law would enable the legal expropriation of some 8,000 dunams (3 square miles).

This is much more than the international community will be willing to put up with, a senior Fatah official recently elected to the movements central committee told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. This is a tsunami of settlements that have been around for years, but now Israel is granting them validation and legalizing the land theft about which weve been screaming and warning for years.

None of my Palestinian interlocutors were comfortable saying that such a controversial law could serve, in some ways, the Palestinian interest, but they estimate that the bill is being put forth for Knesset approval at exactly the right time for them, said the anonymous Fatah official.

In talks with them, I often sensed that along with the real rage they expressed at the bill, they also view the efforts to push it through the legislature as a priceless diplomatic boon.

In his address to the Fatah conference that ended Dec. 2, Abbas declared on Nov. 30 that 2017 would be a decisive year. And so, without having planned the schedule, Israel nonetheless loaded the bullets for what will be the opening salvo of the international campaign that Abbas is planning. I cant deny that the [proposed bill] helps us to better explain our position. We couldnt have asked for anything more, a PA senior source told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. The bill, whether it goes through or is blocked by the Supreme Court, already proves that Israel is not interested in a diplomatic resolution of the conflict, but rather in moves on the ground and legislation enabling it to annex the West Bank. Thus, the Palestinian problem would be exacerbated for generations to come. This is exactly the point at which we will demand that the world intervene, before its too late, the source said.

Senior PA officials, he added, are planning a massive international campaign that will start with the approval of the outpost legalization bill and continue into next year after the Christian holidays with international persuasion efforts targeted at the establishment of a Palestinian state.

I told the senior Fatah official that he had actually been given a present for the holiday, and he laughed. We cant relate to this as a gift, he said, but as the moment at which the world will understand what we understood a long time ago  that [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu is lying to everyone when he says he favors a two-state solution. You cant talk about a diplomatic solution and at the same time legalize dozens of settlements that could turn into towns and big communities in the future. That will be our message and we will go with it full steam ahead.

There was a good reason why Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the PLOs Central Committee who heads the PAs department of culture and information, targeted the UN Security Council when lashing out at the Israeli bill. Ashrawi called for an emergency session of the council and demanded sanctions on Israel for promoting the legislation. As previously mentioned in Al-Monitor, Ashrawi is a member of the Palestinian team preparing for Donald Trumps assumption of the presidency on Jan. 20, 2017, and the campaign against the parody bill is part of the PAs diplomatic preparations.

The PA plan calls for all PLO representatives around the world to inform the foreign ministries of the countries where they are based about the significance of the proposed bill and the theft of private Palestinian lands for the construction and legalization of unauthorized settlements. Abbas and his foreign minister, Riyad Malki, have instructed the PLO reps to advance a UN Security Council move. They explained that the Netanyahu government has no intention of ever resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and thus the only remaining option for the Palestinians is for the UN Security Council to declare a Palestinian state.

We know this is a long journey, said the Palestinian PA source. But we believe wholeheartedly that such a racist and transparent law will lead the Security Council to convene rapidly. Every time Israel acts in an outrageous manner, we will demand another Security Council session and another session until the entire world understands theres no other choice. Theres simply no other way. In the end it will happen [the declaration of a Palestinian state].
December 8, 2016

A group of girls were walking home from school in a quiet Libyan town on Nov. 21, when a pet monkey from a shop jumped over one of them and retreated to the shop with her headscarf. It could have been a funny incident  people could have just laughed about it and then forgot the whole thing. But not in Sabha, an oasis city in southern Libya, where tribal tensions have been simmering with occasional violent eruptions since the regime of Moammar Gadhafi was toppled with help from NATO in October 2011.

Right after she got home, the girl, whose name has not been released, told her family what happened. A few minutes later, members of her family shot dead the shopkeeper and his monkey. News of the event quickly spread around the city, and full war erupted between the two main tribes in Sabha  Awlad Suleiman, to which the girl belongs, and the shopkeeper's Qadhadhfa tribe, the same as that of the late Gadhafi.

It is hard to give a precise figure, but by the time tribal mediators brokered a cease-fire 10 days later, 20 people were killed while 50 others were injured, according to news reports and social media pages. Properties, including private homes and schools, sustained extensive damage.

This was the fiercest fighting seen by Sabha since 2013, when two other tribes, Tibu and Tuareg, fought a bloody battle over control of trafficking routes running from Sabha to sub-Saharan countries, including Chad and Niger.

Was this incident yet another episode of Libya's never-ending little wars, or does it have to do with something bigger in the troubled country, where tribal relations are strong, poisonous and could easily be stirred up in deadly outbursts?

Although what happened was an act of irresponsible individuals who had no difficulty finding arms in a country with no effective government control or strong policing, this particular incident in Sabha is actually indicative of how intricate and complex tribal relations can be. Both tribes  Awlad Suleiman and Qadhadhfa  have been very strong allies since the early 1920s, when they fought the Italian invasion and subsequent colonization of Libya. They have a long history of aiding one another with another strong tribal ally, the Warfalla in Bani Walid, 180 kilometers (about 112 miles) southwest of Tripoli.

Libya's recent history is full of stories praising the three tribes' patriotism and bravery. In April 1929, they led the Battle of Qasr Abu Hadi, one of the most famous liberation battles against Italian invaders near Sirte. During the Gadhafi era, the three tribes took the most risks and made the most important power grabs over 40 years.

All that changed in 2011, after the regime fell at the end of a bloody eight-month civil war. When the so-called Libyan revolution erupted in February 2011, both tribes kept their old alliance. But as the war prolonged and it became apparent that NATO would destroy the regime, fearing rebel reprisals, some members of Awlad Suleiman in Sabha had a change of heart and joined the opposition. This left Awlad Suleiman's old allies, Qadhadhfa, fending for themselves, particularly in Sirte, where Gadhafi made his last stand and was later murdered at the hands of the rebels on Oct. 20, 2011.

This shift seemed at the time a small crack in a long history of solidarity between the two tribes that could be healed as time passed, and people reconciled to the new fact that, with the Gadhafi regime gone, Libya had changed. However, deep political polarization during the war in 2011 resulted in a lack of serious reconciliation along tribal lines and alliances in wider Libyan society. Families and tribes were divided into two camps based on political beliefs: those who supported the NATO-backed rebels and those who didn't.

The majority of Qadhadhfa members supported the regime, while most Awlad Suleiman members supported the revolution, mainly because one of their own was appointed as a high-ranking official in the National Transitional Council, which represented the rebels during the war. Abdul Majid Seif al-Nasr, one of Awlad Suleiman's most influential leaders, represented his tribe on the council and later served as Libya's general consul to Morocco. But no one expected such political differences to boil over into war between the two neighbors and longtime allies, particularly in Sabha.

The incident in Sabha is only a glimpse of how deep tribal divisions are and how seriously detrimental they could be to the whole country's future, because the entire Libyan social fabric is based on tribal loyalty, which precedes loyalty to the state. Tribal loyalty has dominated the country for decades, well before Gadhafi came to power in 1969. This factor weakened any state loyalty during times of war and peace.

In Sabha, reconciliation and mediation efforts succeeded in bringing about a cease-fire and the signing of a tribal agreement between the two warring sides, hoping that wisdom will prevail and both sides will recall their long and shared history of brotherhood and solidarity.

But this is no guarantee for the future unless Libya unifies under a strong central government, which could exercise authority over the whole country, disarm the militias and collect weapons within a national reconciliation program. Otherwise, the recent war in Sabha could and will be repeated in other parts of Libya, where tribal grudges could easily be stirred up by a small event like the pet monkey in Sabha.
December 9, 2016

With the recent political agreement between Turkeys ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its newfound ally, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), Turkey is quite close to President Recep Tayyip Erdogans much-aspired presidential system. Most likely, the parliament will vote for a major constitutional amendment in early 2017. A subsequent referendum, probably in April or May, will give the people the final say. Nothing is certain, but given Erdogans broad popularity, a yes vote in such a referendum seems likely.

The technicalities of such a major transformation are a story in itself. For outside observers, however, a more curious question may be the historical meaning of this major change. Given Erdogans roots in political Islam and the Islamist themes he has increasingly used in recent years, many would wonder whether the presidential system would be the end of the secular Turkish Republic. They would wonder, in other words, whether Turkey would become an Islamic Republic.

The answer is more complex than it may seem. On the one hand, there is no reason to think that the principle of secularism, which has existed in the Turkish Constitution since 1937, can be taken out and Islam introduced as a state religion. The AKP never advocated such a radical revolution, and when its parliament speaker suggested it in passing last year, Erdogan disapproved of the idea, defending a religion-friendly interpretation of secularism.

Moreover, the presence of the MHP in the constitution-making process further guarantees that the principle of secularism will remain in its place. The MHP is a party that appeals to Turkeys conservative Sunni masses, but it has had fewer problems with secularism. In fact, the leader of the party, Devlet Bahceli, made it a precondition for talks with the AKP that the republics founding principles enshrined in the first three articles of the constitution, which include secularism and Mustafa Ataturks nationalism, would remain untouched. Current reports show this precondition has been observed.

Therefore, if you think that Erdogans presidential system will come with a proclamation of an Islamic Republic of Turkey, then dont. This is not going to happen.

On the other hand, however, there are many signs showing that Erdogans supporters see the presidential system as an implicit realization of an Islamic ideal.

This was made clear first by Hayrettin Karaman, a professor emeritus of Islamic law, a columnist for daily Yeni Safak and a key religious authority in the AKP universe. In a December 2015 article, he wrote that the Islamic system [of governance] is similar to the presidential system. The people elect the president [the caliph, the emir] and give him bayah [allegiance], Karaman explained, and the president appoints the government and the high bureaucracy. On a positive note, he added that in this Islamic system, the president couldnt interfere in the judiciary and the legislation.

Throughout 2016, more Islamic arguments came in favor of the presidential system  with less emphasis on separation of powers and more emphasis on the power of the president. Ahmet Akgunduz, a professor of Islamic law, chided, Those who defame the presidential system as despotism are unaware that they are denying the foundations of our history and our religion. Another Islamic theologian, Osman Eskicioglu, wrote a whole booklet titled The Presidential System and Islam. If Turkish citizens give support to the presidential system, he concluded, We believe that we will be saved from being multi-headed, and will move forward on the line that goes to Islam.

In the face of such frequent references to Islam in defense of the presidential system, Mehmet Ocaktan, a rare critical voice in the pro-government media, objected. It was wrong, he wrote in daily Karar, to discuss the political system by associating to it a sanctity that it does not deserve.

Yet the effort to associate sanctity goes on. The apparent purpose is not to use the presidential system to bring Islamic rule to Turkey. It is rather to use Islamic references to help bring the presidential system. It is not politics at the service of religion, one could say, but religion at the service of politics.

The most significant argument in this line came from Musa Kazim Arican, another pro-government academic, who wrote a lengthy article in daily Yeni Safak titled The Presidential System According to Islamic Thought. Accordingly, Islams ideal president is a man who possesses all the virtues, and who positions each and every individual and group within the state, establishing a system of governance and work among them. This all-virtuous man could be called the Doctor of the World, because he would heal all the ills of society. He would even give life to man, breathe to him a soul, and herald a new resurrection.

Arican envisioned this almost-sacred president as an Islamic notion, by giving references to medieval Muslim thinkers such as Abu al-Nasr al-Farabi, Abu al-Hasan al-Mawardi and Nasir al-Din al-Tusi. Little did he realize, though, that the Philosopher King idea that fascinated these ancient scholars was a product of not the Quran, but of Greek philosopher Plato. Unlike Aristotle, who developed a more pluralistic political vision, Plato was distrustful of democracy and preferred an all-wise king to rule over a misguided society. That is why Karl Popper, the great liberal thinker of the past century, had criticized Plato as the first enemy of an open society.

To conclude, I can say that it is only natural for Turkeys religious thinkers to look back at their tradition to develop a political vision for the future. Yet they should do this not to serve the current needs of mundane politics, but rather to constrain it with time-honored moral principles.

They should also realize that the key value of Islams political tradition is what writer Hayrettin Karaman mentioned in passing in 2015  and what I emphasized back in 2013. It is the separation of powers. It is, in other words, creating clear boundaries between the executive, the legislation and the judiciary. The most troubling aspect of Erdogans envisioned presidency is not that it may be too Islamic in that regard. It may rather be too Platonic.
December 9, 2016

The Human Rights Monument  a sculpture depicting a woman reading the Universal Declaration of Human Rights  is a well-known hallmark in a bustling pedestrian area in the heart of Ankara. Over the past month, a second fixture has appeared on the site: a woman with a banner. Despite 17 detentions, often by heavy-handed police, Nuriye Gulmen  one of hundreds of academics suspended from office after the July 15 attempted coup  keeps returning to the site to demand her job back.

Her solo protest since Nov. 9 has made Gulmen a symbolic figure in Turkeys state of emergency since the putsch, which has seen a ferocious crackdown on followers of Fethullah Gulen  the accused mastermind of the coup  and other government opponents. At a time when street demonstrations have become rare and are quickly clamped down by police, the young woman has stood out with unbending courage and will.

Al-Monitor went to the Human Rights Monument several times to speak to Gulmen, witnessing her detention each time. A few days ago, however, social media users reported an extraordinary development. Nuriye Gulmen was not taken into custody today, they said, prompting this reporter to rush to the monument again. Gulmen was there, asking passersby to sign a petition calling on authorities to give her back her job at Selcuk University in Konya, some 260 kilometers (161 miles) south of Ankara.

Gulmen studied comparative literature, and after obtaining a post-graduate degree, she embarked on an academic career. Because of her dissident attitude, administrative probes became part of her life, she told Al-Monitor. I was working under a constant threat of expulsion. They would even write a [disciplinary] report on the grounds I was singing in the corridors, she said. In 2015, the university refused to renew Gulmens contract, but she was back to work on Sept. 30 after winning a court case against her employers.

The same day, however, she was notified of a fresh investigation and received a lengthy questionnaire to answer. By that time, the purge of suspected Gulenists from public service was in full swing, and most questions on the list pertained to the putsch and the Gulen community, which Ankara now calls the Fethullah Gulen Terror Organization (FETO). There were questions like, Have you ever sympathized with the community? Who is behind the July 15 coup attempt? Have you been involved in any way in the events? Do you regret it? I replied the probe was not based on any factual suspicion and that the questions were forcing individuals to reveal their thoughts, Gulmen said. I said I was a socialist and that the measures against FETO should not aim at purging leftist democrats. Back to work on Monday after the weekend, I was told I had been suspended.

Gulmen decided to start a protest in Ankara, where all government agencies are located. On the morning of Nov. 9, she arrived at the Human Rights Monument with two banners that read, I was suspended, I want my job back and The state of emergency must be lifted, arbitrary expulsions must end. She was just starting to make a press statement when police closed in and took her into custody. She was booked for breaching the law on public demonstrations and then released.

The following day, Gulmen returned to the same venue with the same banners. Again, she was detained. The police this time booked her for breaching the law on misdemeanors and slapped her with a fine. As of Nov. 29, when the interview took place, Gulmen had been detained 17 times. Describing her protest routine, she said, Because I generally refuse to leave the spot, five or six police officers drag me away, twisting my arms. Ive developed ecchymosis on my knees and other parts of my body. Ive been subjected to insults in the police vehicle. So far, Ive been booked twice for breaching the law on public demonstrations and fined 10 times for violating the law on misdemeanors.

Gulmen is not alone in her struggle, often surrounded by a crowd of passersby and other supporters. They call it a solo protest but thats not the case. Many people come over to express solidarity, many people support me. Some would take pictures of me and post them on social media to make my voice heard, and some would sit in with me, she said. Once my coat was torn while the police were detaining me, and people here bought me a new one. Shopkeepers are bringing me tea. Its not a one-man protest. There are many who support and reinforce it with their solidarity.

Gulmens supporters are not immune to sanctions either. One of them, high school student Sila Yalcin, was not only detained but also expelled from the public school she attended. Another high-profile supporter is former political prisoner Veli Sacilik, who is remembered for having an arm torn off by a digger, which the security forces used to demolish walls during a crackdown on hunger strikers across Turkish prisons in 2000. The severed arm was left in the rubble and later retrieved from the mouth of a stray dog. A sociologist who worked in social services, Sacilik is among tens of thousands of public servants expelled after the putsch.

While Al-Monitor spoke to Gulmen, another victim of the purges, teacher Semih Ozakca, was collecting signatures nearby for his own petition to be reinstated. He had come all the way from the southeastern city of Mardin, more than 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) away, after deciding to team up with Gulmen. I will struggle for my job and bread because I believe those measures are unjust and unfair, Ozakca told Al-Monitor, adding he had been detained five times so far. I was maltreated, and I still have various scars and pains, he said.

Gulmen has inspired others to follow suit. Teacher Acun Karadag, for instance, has launched daily sit-ins outside the Ankara high school from which he was expelled. Ive been keeping up the protest since Nov. 14, he told Al-Monitor. Ive been detained 11 times so far, and the police are punishing also those who support me.

Winter has already descended on Ankara, with occasional snowfalls. How will the protesters go on, now that the threat of detention is coupled with freezing cold? Im not giving up until I have my job back, Gulmen replied. Ill go on no matter what.
December 5, 2016

ARIMA, Syria  As three contentious forces are about to converge at the critical city of al-Bab in Syria, Turkey is stirring up conflicts and already setting its sights on the next prize: Manbij.

The Turkish army is currently at the gates of al-Bab, battling Islamic State (IS) forces. The Syrian army is 6 miles to the south, and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are nearby to the east and west.

Al-Bab is an important area for the regime, given that the town of 70,000 people is only 24 miles northeast of Aleppo. The Gulf Times reported Dec. 9 that Syrian government troops have captured about 85% of the territory that opposition forces had controlled in eastern Aleppo.

Developments in al-Bab are linked to clashes in Aleppo. Turkey is reportedly transferring opposition fighters withdrawn from Damascus, Homs and Aleppo to the al-Bab region to form a paramilitary force under its control.

Turkey sees control of al-Bab as a key for its ruling Justice and Development Party to have a say in the future of Syria and to prove the futility of Kurdish aspirations to form and control a corridor along the Turkish border. Both the United States, which supports Turkey, and Russia, which gave Turkey the green light to advance on al-Bab, are suspicious of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his intentions.

Russia, which supports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, allowed the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) to advance toward al-Bab in between the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) and Assad's troops. This enabled YPG-SDF fighters to create a de facto buffer zone between the Turkish forces and the Syrian army. Some analysts say Moscow staged a coup against NATO by drawing Turkey to the area Russia controls. As Ankara is devoid of international coalition support in the region, Turkeys moves are subject to Russian control and whims  even though there is no love lost between Assad and Erdogan.

Manbij Military Council spokesman Shervan Dervish assessed the situation on the front for Al-Monitor. He alleged that Turkey is hindering the fight against IS. "[Near] Raqqa, SDF and YPG scored major gains against [IS]. This is when Turkey intervened and blocked our Raqqa offensive," he said. Both Turkey and the Kurds would like to control Raqqa. Turkey believes the YPG is linked with a terrorist group and is seeking to establish that Kurdish corridor along Turkey's border.

The SDF, as it moves closer to Raqqa, is still fighting IS some 15 miles to its north. IS considers Raqqa its capital in Syria.

Now the area the SDF saved from IS, with the support of the international coalition, is under attack by Turkey  a member of that coalition. These attacks are taking place within eyesight of the US military, Dervish said. The people of western Kurdistan in Syria (Rojava) and northern Syria are upset and trying to find alternative solutions.

"We were shocked by the silence of the international coalition. They are making some attempts to find a solution with Turkey, but we dont understand their silence," Dervish said.

Regarding Manbij, Dervish noted that the YPG withdrew from that area Nov. 27 after reaching an agreement with the international coalition.

"But two days later, the Turkish army and its allied FSA [Free Syrian Army] units began attacking our forces," Dervish said. "Coalition forces have promised to defend Manbij.  Sadly, our local troops are under heavy attack by Turkey, which is supposedly a part of that coalition. We have had casualties in those attacks." Dervish said the Manbij Military Council force has 5,000 fighters, including 1,000 who were trained and armed by the coalition.

In the meantime, Turkey also is creating consternation on the al-Bab front, according to Jamal Abu Jouma, general commander of the Al-Bab Military Council, which is fighting under the Kurdish SDF banner.

"To rescue our people squeezed between [IS] and the Turkish Armed Forces [TSK], we opened a 4-kilometer-wide and 12-kilometer-long [2-mile by 7-mile] corridor toward al-Bab. Turkey is constantly hitting this corridor," said Abu Jouma.

"There are three camps for civilians between Sab Weran, Kawikli and Bogaz villages. Upon their pleas, we decided to open this corridor to extricate them. These people dont want to go through the area controlled by the TSK. About 2,000 people succeeded in reaching our lines, but heavy TSK shelling closed that route," he added.

Adnan Abu Amjed, general commander of the Manbij Military Council, also stressed the importance of protecting those who are trapped from Turkey's attacks. Abu Amjed told Al-Monitor the coalition wants the SDF to withdraw to Manbijs periphery.

"We cant accept that. People living in those areas are our people. It is our duty to defend them," he said.

Kurds who inhabited the area covered by Turkeys Operation Euphrates Shield are now mostly in exile in Afrin and Kobani. Dervish insisted Turkey is trying to alter the makeup of the area's population. "By targeting the demographic structure at al-Rai, Jarablus and al-Bab, Turkey is changing the structure of the region. People are emigrating because of lootings and instability."

Another problem is Turkeys inability to impose its rule and achieve stability, thus leaving the people at the mercy of the Islamic militant groups Jabhat Fatah al-Sham and Ahrar al-Sham.

As long as the Syrian army needs al-Bab to recapture Aleppo, Turkey wont be able to take the risk of capturing al-Bab. Syrias defense industrys main components and the biggest international airport are just south of al-Bab.

All told, advances by the Turks, the SDF and the Syrian army toward al-Bab will only deepen and inflame the conflict. The situation's complexity makes one forget that the major threat was IS, which now seems to be of secondary concern.
December 8, 2016

As the people filling the large hall of the European Parliament building for a conference on the Middle East listened to responses by the panel featuring British writers Jonathan Steele and Carne Ross, I thought about what their co-panelist, Salih Muslim, the leader of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), would say.

It had been only a few weeks before that I had met Muslim, whose party administers swaths of territory in northern Syria and two Kurdish-inhabited neighborhoods in Aleppo, Sheikh Maksoud and Ashrafieh. Since our meeting, there had been two significant developments involving him and actors involved in the Syrian conflict: Turkish authorities had issued an arrest warrant for Muslim, and Syrian regime forces had defeated Turkish-backed opposition groups in eastern Aleppo.

The military success of the regime in Aleppo, aided by Russian air power and Iranian ground forces, will undoubtedly have decisive consequences on the trajectory of the war. Also going forward, the military and political role of Russia in the region will not only affect Syria, but probably neighboring Iraq as well. Yet another major factor in the future of the Middle East is the unexpected victory of Donald Trump in this year's US presidential elections.

Against this backdrop, one might think that whatever Muslim might have had to say at the European conference would be of potential significance. Instead, he was as vague as he could be. His one recurring theme was the importance of the Kurdish self-rule model in northern Syria. The (involuntary) absence of the PYD at the peace talks in Geneva, he claimed, was the main reason for their failure. If the Kurds had been properly represented at Geneva I and Geneva II, then everything would be much different today. Thus, in Muslims eyes, acknowledgment of Kurdish self-rule is essential for a peaceful resolution of the Syrian conflict.

When it came to Russia and the incoming US administration, Muslims message was quite clear: Syrian Kurds should not be sacrificed on the altar of realpolitik. Muslim appeared to be preoccupied with two issues: whether Trumps United States will stand with the Syrian Kurds or tilt more toward Turkey, and how Russia will reconcile having Syrian Kurdish allies and relations with Turkey in light of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's increasing flirtation with President Vladimir Putin.

There are many questions waiting to be answered on the future of Middle Eastern geopolitics after the post-Aleppo and post-Mosul processes. A recent article on the Rudaw website stated the following:

"Political analysts largely think that the Kurds would [stand to] be the biggest beneficiaries of the war against ISIS [Islamic State], but situations on the ground tell a different story. There is now growing fear that the Kurds could fall victim to the interests of superpowers, keeping power balance in the region at their cost.

"In addition, the Kurds are now facing internal problems and could face new challenges after ISIS is destroyed. However, resolving outstanding problems and cultivating unity among Kurds could prevent these challenges."

One conference speaker, David Phillips, the director of the Program on Peace-building and Rights at Columbia University's Institute for the Study of Human Rights, spoke to me about Trumps possible approach to the Middle East. According to him, Trump will maintain close relations with the Kurds and also be listening closely to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq, generally taking Kurdish interests into consideration.

Phillips is an expert on the Middle East and a prolific writer, having penned policy reports and scores of articles in leading publications, including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Foreign Affairs. In his book Losing Iraq: Inside the Postwar Reconstruction Fiasco (2005), he strongly criticizes Washingtons Iraq policy, and he has lately become a harsh critic of Turkish policies. The title of his upcoming book reveals his perspective: An Uncertain Ally: Turkey Under Erdogans Dictatorship.

Given the close relationship between KRG President Massoud Barzani and Erdogan, if Trump looks at the Middle East through the KRG's lens, he would likely be accommodating toward Turkeys regional interests. Such a situation would not bode well for the PYD, which Ankara has tried to paint as a terrorist outfit. Barzani as well appears to be in conflict with Syrian Kurds.

Moreover, nearly every person that Trump has tapped for his administration has anti-Iran sentiments, which could be another sign of Trumps America keeping Turkey on board. Turkey, after all, is formally an ally and a seeming counterbalance to Iran. If Trump's priority will be finishing off IS once and for all, however, he has to tilt toward the Syrian Kurds, who have been the main fighting force against the extremist group's fighters in Syria.

One widely circulating rumor involves an alleged deal having been reached between Russia and Turkey, or more accurately between Putin and Erdogan, on the Syrian conflict. Ankara's conspicuous silence on the unfolding drama in eastern Aleppo is further feeding speculation. If such a deal has transpired, then Russia may well sacrifice the Kurds interests in Syria.

All this is, however, mere speculation. As noted, too many questions are waiting to be answered about the coming era of post-Aleppo, post-Mosul Middle Eastern geopolitics under Putin and Trumps leadership.
A lumber design firm, an online legal marketplace and an earthquake absorber were among the winners Thursday, dividing up $250,000 in launch capital through Alabama Launchpad.

A program of the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama now in its 10th year, the program is designed to give entrepreneurs access to capital to help launch their businesses.

The winners were picked by a five-judge panel at the ALFA Pavilion on the campus of Auburn University. The competition was a part of the first Auburn Innovation Fest, with the City of Auburn and the university working together to promote entrepreneurship.

The three winners came from five finalists chosen in October. They made pitches to a panel of investors, entrepreneurs and industry experts. The amount of funding was chosen by the judges.

The winners were:

Birmingham-based Alasaw, which mills urban lumber and transforms it into elegant designs. Alasaw won $100,000.

Book-It Legal, also based in Birmingham,an online marketplace connecting attorneys and law students, which won $50,000.

Linc Research Inc. of Huntsville, which designed an Earthquake Absorber, designed to save lives and lessen damage during earthquakes. Linc Research secured $100,000 in funding. It is a U.S. Small Business Administration certified Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone) company that specializes in structural engineering - specifically vibration damping for aerospace and structural applications.

Greg Sheek, Launchpad program director, congratulated the winners. "Alabama Launchpad is committed to helping entrepreneurs succeed, so the companies can create jobs and grow Alabama's economy," he said.

Alabama Launchpad is a competition that funds and mentors aspiring entrepreneurs to foster diversity in Alabama's job creation economy. Over the last decade the program has invested $2.4 million in 51 Alabama companies, and the startups have created 365 jobs and secured $24 million in additional funding.
Bama Belle.jpg

The Bama Belle anchored beside an Alabama river in 2012. After a hiatus, the cruise ship is back in the charter business on the Black Warrior River. (File)

Here are the top stories in Alabama business for Thursday, Dec. 8, 2016. Follow all of Alabama's business news here anytime.

A Mississippi woman who says she was told to leave a Victoria's Secret location in Oxford's Quintard Mall Wednesday said today she has received an apology from the store.

A once familiar sight cruising the Black Warrior River is back. The Bama Belle, a 90-foot, 54-ton paddle-wheel riverboat rated to carry 149 passengers, is available for charters and private parties.

A Hoover shopping center has been sold for just under $3 million. Cantor Real Estate Income and Opportunity Fund II, LLC bought South Shades Crest Station.

Birmingham isn't Silicon Valley - but the Innovation Depot is trying its darnedest to get the next big tech company to start there instead.

Discount grocer Aldi will open its first Jasper store on Wednesday, Dec. 21. The store at 40 N. Walston Bridge Road will hold a ribbon cutting at 8:45 a.m. that will include giveaways, samples and a sweepstakes.

Alabama state superintendent Michael Sentance today told the state school board that the state's graduation rate, third-best in the nation, was artificially inflated.
Birmingham-Southern College has launched a three-year, $30 million fundraising drive to allow the college to introduce new academic programs, increase enrollment, and reinvest in the local community.

The college received a $2 million gift to kick off the effort from Jim and Tammy Pierce of Destin, Fla. Jim Pierce, a member of the BSC Board of Trustees and 1974 alumnus, earned an MBA from the Wharton School, and is an investor, board member, and has held multiple executive positions at Isagenix, a fast-growing health and wellness company.

"This initiative is a bold move for BSC, but Jim and Tammy's incredibly generous gift is indicative of the level of support the college has from our Board, our alumni, and the broader community," said BSC President Linda Flaherty-Goldsmith. "We are grateful to have the kind of commitment that will take our distinguished college to the next level and launch a new phase of sustained growth."

Flaherty-Goldsmith is spearheading the initiative, called The Bridge to the Future, as she completes her first semester in office. "In my short time as BSC's president, I have been so grateful to Jim for giving his time to provide strong leadership on our Board, and now he and Tammy have made such an important leadership gift," she said.

Flaherty-Goldsmith said the initiative will give BSC a platform to expand its enrollment to 1,600 students--from 1,300 currently--by funding the costs of renovating first-year residence halls, providing scholarship support to incoming students, and helping recruit and retain faculty and staff. Last year, the college provided close to $30 million in aid to students; 25 percent of BSC students are first-generation college students.

"Most critically, the Bridge to the Future will allow us to make the remarkable education we provide at BSC accessible to more students," Flaherty-Goldsmith said. "We have the opportunity to impact not just the lives of our students, but through them to improve the quality of life in our neighborhoods, our city, our state, and our world."

Pierce, who came to Birmingham-Southern on a scholarship while working nights at a local factory, said that his experiences at and support from the college put him on the path to success.

"There is no question that BSC changed my life," he said. "Tammy and I want to ensure that the next generation of students has the opportunity to receive the kind of hands-on, high-caliber education that this college offers--and that's becoming even more important as our world is becoming more complex. We are so excited about everything that's happening right now on the campus and with the new strong leadership."

BSC plans to introduce several innovative majors and programs in the 2017-18 academic year, including a program in Creative and Applied Computing, a Distinction in Poverty Studies, a Distinction in Public Health, and an expansion of its unique Urban Environmental Studies major. It will also help support the college's efforts to expand its partnership with the Birmingham community, especially in the West End neighborhoods that surround the school.

Hatton Smith and Liz Featheringill Pharo, members of the BSC Board of Trustees, are serving as volunteer co-chairs of the initiative.

"BSC is on the cusp of greatness, and while we're already respected as a top national liberal arts college, it's time for us to make sure that we're bringing in the best students from all over the world," Smith said. "The community values Birmingham-Southern, and BSC alumni drive the city forward. The Bridge to the Future will allow the community an opportunity to invest in the college's future."
Victoria's Secret said this evening an employee who reportedly told two black women to leave a store in Oxford's Quintard Mall Wednesday is no longer with the company.

On the company's Facebook page, Victoria's Secret stated it had reached out to Kimberly Houzah, who recorded her experience at the store in a Facebook Live video.

"We take the experience of our customer at the Quintard Mall very seriously and have reached out to her directly to express our sincere apology," the statement reads. "What happened at our store should not have happened and does not represent who we are or what we stand for."

The store associate involved "is no longer employed with the company," the statement continues.

"Victoria's Secret is adamant that all customers regardless of race be treated with dignity and respect at all times," it said.

Houzah, a traveling nurse who is a native of Calhoun County, made the video in which she can be seen in the Victoria's Secret store inside Quintard Mall. She claimed in the video she and another black woman were told to leave the store by management after a black woman they did not know was caught shoplifting.

Earlier today, Houzah returned to the store with supporters and store employees apologized to her there.

In the 11-minute video, Houzah says she is a regular customer of Victoria's Secret.

"I'm a little more settled about it today," she said. "I don't want anything bad to happen to anyone. I mean, I can't change who I am. I'm an African-American female and I just want to be treated like everybody else."

Houzah said she will probably continue to shop at Victoria's Secret, though she may not come into the Oxford location again.
Cape Town, South Africa  When Ruben Novembers great-great grandfather Zyzer arrived in Cape Town, South Africa, at the beginning of the 19th century, like many other slaves, he was stripped of everything  his clothes, his papers, his identity.

He was given a new name: Zyzer November. November indicated the month of his arrival. All other slaves were named in a similar manner.

The name was passed down through the generations to Ruben, one of the 12 faces portrayed in a calendar and exhibition currently showing at the Izikio Slave Lodge Museum, in Cape Town, My Naam is Februarie: Identities Rooted in Slavery.

This speaks for the voiceless. They should make this a living museum, where the descendants could speak and tell stories of our ancestors, said 57-year-old Ruben proudly, his son Stephan November at his side.

The two of them attended the opening of the exhibition along with the 11 other descendants of slaves who were featured in the calendar.

One of the descendants had his picture taken for the first time for the exhibition. My family is not one that takes pictures, Alfred May told Al Jazeera. He doesnt know much about his family and its past, he explained. It was not something we ever talked about.

READ MORE: Slavery, a 21st Century evil





Like Alfred, some of the descendants of slaves knew of their familys history, but never discussed it. Others portrayed in the exhibition, such as John January, Margaret Julie and Cecilia Augustus, didnt even know that they were descended from slaves.

But Ruben November did, and he is proud of his familys history.

Finding freedom

In 1843, after slavery was officially abolished in the Cape Colony by the British Empire, Rubens ancestors were freed, and Zyzer November and his wife, Rubens great-great grandmother, who had been brought over from Indonesia to be enslaved by Capetonian slave merchants, obtained land in Pniel, a rural town outside Cape Town.

Another 98 people also relocated to the town, and today Ruben and his children still live here. Ruben teaches woodwork at the local primary school, which will celebrate its 175th anniversary in 2018. He took over the job from his father, as his father took over from his.

I think what our ancestors story can teach us is how a community must stay strong together, especially in the most trying times, said Ruben.

Ruben imagines his ancestors as strong, proud, and fighting for a better life. The exhibition shows that between 1653 and 1856, 71,000 slaves were brought to Cape Town.

Zyzer November and his future wife may have met at the Iziko Slave Lodge, which is hosting the exhibit. The lodge housed 9,000 slaves in Cape Town, from its foundation in 1679 by the Dutch East India Company, to the time it became government offices in 1810. Before becoming the museum that is open today, in 1966, the Iziko Slave Lodge became a centre of government and justice in South Africa.

When Dutch colonialists like Johan Anthoniszoon Jan van Riebeeck , the Dutch colonial administrator and coloniser of Cape Town, arrived in South Africa, they used slaves to do the hardest and dirtiest work, say historians.

Under Riebeecks leadership, slaves were imported from colonies in Indonesia and Madagascar to fill a labour shortage left by what the Dutch slavers described as the uncooperative nature of the local Khoisan groups, who refused to be subjugated and went on to lead numerous uprisings against the colonial powers.

Although slavery was abolished in South Africa in 1834, when the Slavery Abolition Bill was passed by the British House of Commons and House of Lords, the slaves of the Cape were some of the last to be freed, as the region was one of the last under Commonwealth rule to enact the bill.

A four-year transition period followed the enactment of abolition, during which time the former slaves learned trades.

READ MORE: Is Nigerias Brazilian heritage under threat?

Gavin Wood, the man who initiated the exhibition and calendar project, says he didnt know the story of the slaves and their names before his visit to the museum, where he learned about South Africas history of slavery.

I never knew about this story before that visit, but thats when I knew I had to tell the story of these people, its an important and relevant story to tell. A story of hope, he explained.

Chie executive of the Iziko Slave Lodge, Rooksana Omar, says the purpose of the exhibition is not to showcase The History of Slavery in South Africa, but to continue to drive awareness about a tragic part of our history that is all but forgotten. This exhibition aims to bring these shared histories back into our collective consciousness.

Former human rights advocate, co-author of the South Africa constitution, and anti-apartheid icon, Albie Sachs attended the opening of the exhibition. Sachs wife Bridget is a descendant of slaves and bears the name September, as does his son, Oliver Lukutandu September Sachs, who was unable to attend because of his university studies. I wish my son was here today, because he would be so proud of his name, Albie Sachs told Al Jazeera.

They werent just slaves, they were freedom fighters, Sachs told visitors during a speech at the opening of the exhibition.

Like Ruben, Sachs believes South Africans, and the rest of the world, must acknowledge the stories and contributions of slaves. Our history lies in the faces and names of these people. We must not reduce them to objects, they brought cuisine, language, a lot of inner life, to the culture, he said.

It can make us understand who we are today. When they suffered, they had vitality, Sachs said.

Family tree

Ruben November and his son Stephan can trace their great-great grandfather Zyzer to the island of Madagascar, off Africas eastern coastline. That is where the family tree starts, but for Ruben, it is also where the trail ends. I cant go back to Madagascar and find their names, because I dont know what they were called before, he said.

But while Ruben is proud of his name, not all members of his family feel the same.

My uncle changed his name, I dont know why, maybe he is ashamed, Ruben pondered.

But Ruben thinks the exhibition is important as it highlights an issue not taught or talked about in South Africa. Its important to present, and represent the people who were stripped of humanity. Its relevant today, because it is a reminder of human rights, he said.

Ruben and his son explained how the slaves played a role in shaping the society they live in today. Its important to know where we are going, but even more so to learn where you come from.

While Ruben does not yet have grandchildren, he is already excited about taking them to the exhibition. Its important that they know where they come from, Ruben said. Stephan agrees. Its a monumental thing to be here. And it is a privilege.
One mans long, winding tale from the civil war and torture in Sudan to legal limbo in Greece.

Athens, Greece  When Idris Roban was forced to flee the civil war in Sudan in 2000, he didnt have a chance to gather any keepsakes, let alone basic essentials for the long journey to a smuggling point in Libya. I didnt have time and there is no way because sometimes you are going in the jungle you cannot carry in your bag anything, he said in his steady, accented English at a cafe in Athens.

Roban is now 35. He grew up working on his fathers farm in the Sudans South Kordofan state, an area dominated by the lush Nuba Mountains. The second Sudanese civil war  which began in 1983 with the founding of Sudans People Liberation Movement (SPLM), a rebel separatist group  quickly bled into the region, ultimately killing two million people across the country and displacing four million more. After a break in fighting after the 2005 ceasefire agreement, tensions between the northern outpost of the SPLM (SPLM-N) and the Sudanese army were revived in the region in 2011, leading up to the creation of neighbouring South Sudan.

But Roban still remembers the more bucolic aspects of Sudan, where he lived with his parents and three sisters in a village near Habila.

I remember the voice of the birds in the morning, he said. Every time before the rain, you see a rainbow. And since I left Sudan I have never seen a rainbow, not even a picture. He would often hunt birds with his father, barbecuing the extra meat for others in the village.

INTERACTIVE: A journey into Sudans forsaken Blue Nile

He was made a refugee one night in his early 20s, after the army attacked the area, killing his father and leading to his capture as a suspected rebel supporter. After 16 years, a dangerous journey along multiple smuggling routes, Roban is still seeking international protection, stuck in legal purgatory in Greeces broken asylum system for over a decade.

You are looking for the best future. You are looking for the safest places to stay, he said of his trek out of Sudan. But unfortunately when we entered here, this is not our dream.

WATCH: The War the World Forgot

One night that changed it all  A narrow escape

In the year 2000, Sudan was already nearly 20 years into its second civil war. Roban was not much older and hoping to add a poultry farming operation to his fathers sorghum and sesame fields.

One night, Roban, his father and their driver were working in the fields when they heard an explosion.

There was some airplane bombing. Then we heard a lot of fire, he remembered. His father went alone to investigate. After he heard more gunfire, Roban followed and found his father dead, shot in the face by government militia men who then seized Roban and the driver.

Both were immediately accused of collaborating with the SPLA rebels and taken into custody, along with other men from the area. [We were] added to two lorries full of people. Some [were] wounded, some were dead, he recalled.

They were driven to an empty school, where Roban waited for three days until he was summoned for what he terms an interview.

Army officers took him to an empty room with a large barrel full of water and a rope rigged to the ceiling. They asked me, how long have you been supporting the rebels? For any questions, unless you answer the answer that they need, you are going to be punished.

If by Idris

and many people die, the people are afraid and so the [smuggler] price comes down.]

His interrogators were trying to force false confessions so they would have reason to kill alleged rebel supporters.

But we are citizens, we are not soldiers, we are not rebels, said Roban.

He soon learned the purpose of the rope and the barrel. They tied his legs and arms together and suspended him by his feet. They will put your head inside this barrel. If you say no, they put you again until you say yes.

Then, he got lucky, suffering a fall that would eventually lead to his escape. While he was suspended, the soldier holding the rope released his grip and Roban dropped to the ground, splitting his knee wide open. He was transferred from the school to a secluded hospital along with several other injured men. Government guards stood guard at his bed for two months, waiting for him to be released.

At the hospital, he got lucky once more  one of the nurses was the daughter of a family friend. Knowing that a return to the interrogation room would likely mean death, the nurse and her father arranged for his escape. One night she helped him jump over the hospitals perimeter wall where a man  another local farmer and family friend  was waiting on the other side. The two rode by donkey for hours in the dark, through narrow trails and thick forest.

The farmer hid Roban in his home for several months while he regained the use of his leg, and eventually smuggled him to Khartoum, hidden in a truck full of sesame crops. From there another friend helped him arrange passage to Lebanon with smugglers for $4,500.

It would be almost a year after the night his father died before he was able to actually leave the country.

He later learned that army officers repeatedly visited sisters and mothers at their home, seeking information on Roban. He wasnt able to speak to his family directly for more than two years.

OPINION: The global heart of darkness

Out of Sudan

The journey to Lebanon is something Roban wishes he could forget.

I want to throw away the coming, he said. I cannot put it in my memory.

Moving on foot or in vehicles, he spent days crossing a vast desert expanse to Libya in a small group, shifting between properties owned by the smugglers. He had to contend with extreme heat, cramped, awful conditions and frequent fighting among the others.

Anyhow, this let me get more experience about life, he says.

He is not sure exactly how long he was in Libya  it was less than a year  but he ultimately arrived in Siirte, where he joined other small trafficking groups to make the dangerous sea crossing to Saida, Lebanon, in 2001.

It was my first time on the sea, he recalls with a small laugh. He was packed into a large boat with at least 75 people, hidden among supplies and shipping goods until they crept out of the harbour. While he was extremely fearful, he was acutely aware that this was his only option to move forward.





You dont have a choice. Just to wait your chance and see if you can pass. He heard that the next smuggler boat that left Siirte sank, killing those on board. Its a matter of luck, he says.

Lebanon and beyond

In Lebanon, Roban applied for asylum through the local United Nations office, but was swiftly rejected.

A Sudanese friend there helped him find work, and he worked odd jobs in restaurants and construction.

Lacking any papers, he was always looking out for police identity checks that would have caused him to be sent home. He earned about $400 a month, half of which he saved for the next smuggler fee out of Lebanon.

Following the progress of other refugees out of the country, he decided to follow a well-worn path to Greece throughTurkey.

He paid $500 to get from Lebanon to southwestern Turkey, where he stayed for several months, and another $2,400 to cross the narrow strait separating mainland Turkey from Lesvos, Greece, in 2003  a relatively high price at the time.

Smugglers running the operation regularly adjusted the cost, accounting for the drop in demand following particularly deadly spells at sea.

If there is some boat that [sinks] and many people die, the people are afraid and so the price comes down, explained Roban.

After six hours on the water, their wooden fishing vessel crashed on to the rocky shallows off Lesbos and, while no one was hurt, all aboard were collected by Greek police officers.

Roban spent three months in a refugee camp on the island, where he says officials would communicate only in Greek, despite the fact that no refugees understood the language. No lawyers or translators were made available.

We dont know what they said  Sometimes they come and give us some papers, we dont know, its written in Greek only and nobody can explain [it].

Today there are effectively two asylum systems in Greece that operate in parallel.

Unlike many other nations, Greece lacked a dedicated asylum authority until 2013, when its new asylum service began operating. Before that, the Hellenic Police oversaw all asylum matters, from operating refugee camps to issuing asylum decisions and appeals.

Rights organisations such as Amnesty International and local NGOs issued regular reports of asylum seekers being held in deplorable conditions or turned away by police officers, unable to file applications.

Since 2008, the UNHCR has advised against the return of asylum seekers to Greece under the Dublin Regulation  an EU agreement that allows countries to transfer asylum seekers to their first country of entry  citing concerns that a substantial number of asylum-seekers continue to face serious challenges in accessing and enjoying effective protection in line with international and European standards.

WATCH: Two Syrian refugees pay smugglers to embark on clandestine journeys fraught with danger

The new Greek Asylum Service, which handles the cases of anyone that arrived in Greece from June 2013 onwards, expanded this year to try to cope with the approximately 56,000 refugees currently trapped in Greece after northern border closures. But not only will earlier arrivals, such as Roban, see no benefit from the expansion, resources dedicated to their appeals under the old system have been stretched further.

A spokesperson for the Hellenic Police said that members of the Appeals Authority Committees (AAC)  responsible for appeals under the old system  were called to help assist the asylum service in handling 2,000 new appeal cases beginning in April this year. Of those cases, 280 decisions were issued by the end of August.

The Hellenic Police also claims that about 8,600 appeal cases remain backlogged as of June this year, which is a sharp decline from more than 23,000 in September 2015. It is unclear what percentage of those appeals processed over the past year were accepted or dismissed, but data from 2015 shows an overall rejection rate of 62 percent.

The evolving Greek asylum system

Roban has seen at first hand the shifts in the Greek asylum system. The problem is that the law is always changing, he said.





The asylum seekers visa (known as a pink card) that he received in Lesvos in 2003 allowed him to apply for a work permit, but when he tried to renew it several months later it was revoked by the police.

He filed an appeal through the Greek Council of Refugees (GCR), a prominent NGO, but was still left with a different visa with which he could not legally work or even rent an apartment from 2004 to 2011.

After seven years, Im struggling, he recalled. During that time he worked illegally doing cleaning work in restaurants and found other odd jobs in Athens and Crete through a Greek friend.

In 2011  the same year the Greek parliament voted to create new Appeals Authority Committees (AAC), responsible for appeals under the old system  Robans pink card was reinstated without explanation from the police. Finally, in September 2014, ten years after filing for an appeal, he was called for an interview with AAC.

The committee told him he would receive a decision within three months. Two years later, he is still waiting, bouncing between different buildings, doors, and state and NGO representatives in the convoluted corridors of the old Greek asylum system

I by Idris

not accept these things [happened]. What I saw were incidents that I cannot forget]

If you go to the police they say go, we will call you. GCR, or any other organisation  they are following what the police say. The same answer. You cannot find the question, you cannot find the answer, even you cannot find the help, he said. Now the system is changed. We dont know what we can do, just we are waiting.

Roban has been reluctant to try his luck in another European nation, because of the repercussions on his asylum request here if he is caught. He says he has several friends who have been sent back to Greece several times after failed attempts to enter other EU countries.

I dont have another choice. Only to wait to see finally what [the decision] will be, he said. When you dont have choice, you must have patience to wait for another chance. If you hurry, maybe you lose everything.

Every three days he visits the same police station where he had his appeal interview more than two years ago, hoping to find someone that can clarify the status of his application.

I am trying to correct my situation, he said. Im not angry  Ill say, maybe this is not my place. How can I push myself to a new place, to find my rights and find my place?

No future in Greece

Until today Im struggling  and now there is no work even, said Roban. Every time, when I [fall asleep], I ask, what wrong I did? I cannot find the answer. I dont have any bad thing in my heart [toward] others.

The unrelenting economic crisis of the past decade has made life even more difficult for Roban, like most others in the country. He has not worked steadily in more than three years and depends on informal painting work, which is occasional at best. Today he lives in a shared house with other asylum seekers arranged by a local NGO  a luxury he knows many other refugees do not have.

He follows a set schedule to give shape to the long days of waiting. At 5am every day he wakes to pray, then checks the news online on his laptop and spends a few hours at a nearby square where there is a Sudanese-run cafe. He reads widely, in both English and his native Arabic, and his small room is lined with shelves of used books. His dream is to study veterinary science and run a poultry and cattle-farming operation.

Still, he is keenly aware of the limitations of Greece as its own citizens have struggled through years of economic crisis with little hope for change.

I tell you the truth, said Roban. I hope to live here but here, if I [do], I cannot find my future.

A broken heart and a journey back home

While he wants to return to Sudan, going back home remains a remote possibility. Not only does he fear for his own safety and that of his family, he is also haunted by the memories of what happened to his family and friends there.

Even if they push me back, I cannot go, he said.

I became brave enough to face everything. But Im afraid of the memory  My heart [does] not accept these things [happened]. What I saw were incidents that I cannot forget  Maybe one day, it is easy for me I lose my control [and] fight. Because of this, Im going to be a killer. Its better for me to stay away, he says.

If I dont have this kind of problem, tomorrow I will go back because here I am sitting without work. And there I am sitting without work but its my land, my people, my area.

Still, if forced to return, he says he would go to war-torn South Sudan before returning to his home, if only to get a fresh start. Its a different place, said Roban. There, I am a foreigner.

For now, he continues to wait in Greece for a decision that will at least set him free from this 13-year-long era of insecurity and ambiguity.

We know this is their country, and we are knocking [on] the door. Until now we are waiting who is inside the door to say enter or go back.
Our panellists discuss The Poachers Pipeline, Al Jazeeras investigation into the illegal rhino horn trade.

Questions and the discussion from the world premiere of The Poachers Pipeline, Al Jazeeras investigation into the illegal rhino horn trade.

Our panellists are: Jeremy Young, senior producer with Al Jazeeras Investigative Unit; Gretchen Peters, executive director of the Satao Project; Allan Thornton, president of the Environmental Investigation Agency; and Johan Bergenas, senior associate at the Stimson Centre.

Watch the full documentary The Poachers Pipeline here.
If Trump has engineered a post-truth world, he didnt do this alone or first  he had help from the media.

Wanted: older male, preferably white, who can lie and order others to kill with impunity.

Stripped of all the puffy embroidery, that might be considered a fairly precise job ad for the president of the United States. (I challenge you to disabuse me and, more importantly, the history of this.)

Dont kid your (pollyannaish) self: apart from the colour of his skin, for eight years, Barack Obama fitted the description to the letter. As the redoubtable writer and iconoclast I F Stone once cautioned, all governments lie. De facto, heads of state lie, too.

Obama has certainly ordered others to kill a lot and often in the parochial and subjective name of national security. And I have no doubt that Obama has fibbed in the name of national security, albeit with a touch more eloquence and command of English than his book-challenged successor, Donald Trump.

Lying on the Richter scale

Still, I wonder what Stone would have made of Trumps facility to lie with such evident glee and abandon. I also wonder what Stone would have made of the corporate medias frenzied, hyperbolic response to Trumps lies, since it has forgotten, surprisingly, Stones sage adage that governments  whatever their nature or politics  are genetically conditioned to lie.

I suspect that Stone would probably have agreed that on the lie-Richter scale, Trump has already proved that he is amply qualified to become an accomplished president.

I suspect that Stone would also have agreed that soon after his gaudy inauguration, Trump will prove equally willing and adept at ordering others to kill, since thats the presidential thing to do, and to do repeatedly on every continent where, lately, mostly Muslims and Arabs live and subsequently die.

Despite his well-established and in-demand presidential qualities, much of the elite US media has dismissed Trump as being transparently unqualified to be president and, almost universally, finds his chronic, unrepentant lying  not the pending killing, mind you  deeply upsetting to their suddenly fragile psyches.

Not so long ago, these apparently lie-allergic media titans sold a war armed with the following facts' that, weaved together, constituted the 'broad consensus' - that's a euphemism for the truth - about Saddam Hussein and Iraq. by

Over the past 18 months or so, the opinion pages of The New York Times and The Washington Post, to name but two of many, have been a spigot of largely white, male columnists trying to out-duel one another with feats of 800-word virtuosity brimming with contempt, vitriol and ridicule as they excoriate Trumps ignorance, narcissism and, above all, his habitual lying.

Its not, I think, Trumps lying that many of these establishment writers find so grating, its Trumps unabashed vulgarity and amnesty from any tangible consequence for all his lying thats singularly infuriating and offensive.

Lies, they understand, are an accepted part of governing a superpower. But the lies must be couched in a veneer of respectability and believability thats so attractive in more polished politicians such as, say, George Bush No 1 and No 2.

Trump, on the other hand, is too profane, garish and illiterate for their delicate liking. Hence, his lies are too naked, too nasty, and too far beyond the pale.

OPINION: Donald Trump, false claims are still lies

So these elite news organisations and columnists have been preoccupied with pointing a big, accusatory finger at Trump and his dim, malleable followers for a torrent of ugly, combustible lies.

The necessary corollary to this is that, predictably, much of the corporate media spares itself the rod for continuing to fashion the empty, discredited political framework that permits Trump to lie with such signature confidence and immunity that it routinely rails against with such righteous indignation.

Mainstream medias historic culpability

The amnesia is convenient. While it may be exculpatory and comforting, it shouldnt absolve the establishment press of its demonstrable culpability.

The US media would do well to remember its undisputed role not only in regurgitating, but also in providing their impressive imprimatur to a litany of lies that led a nation and a coalition of the gullible into calamitous, never-ending wars that have caused so much death and suffering to so many, in so many places.

Not so long ago, these apparently lie-allergic media titans sold a war armed with the following facts that, weaved together, constituted the broad consensus  thats a euphemism for the truth  about Saddam Hussein and Iraq.

Remember? Saddam possesses weapons of mass destruction. Saddam is poised to deploy those weapons quickly and thus destroy a lot of Westerners within minutes.

Saddam is a rogue madman and the already onerous sanctions arent working, so to liberate Iraq we reluctantly have to destroy Saddam and a bit of Iraq along the way to Baghdad.

We prefer to call this regime change rather than war. But whatever we call it, we can assure you that it will be cheap, fast, easy and our side will, of course, win.

Almost every ounce of it was a state-sanctioned lie.

There were laudable and lonely mainstream media sceptics, but they were quickly tarred as appeasers or apologists by the sober, realpolitik-spouting experts in crisp suits and ties, working hand in glove with high-profile media allies who treated their every word as a slightly abbreviated version of the Ten Commandments.

That lie brigade charged into war with obdurate certainty about the motives and legality of its cause and the inevitable outcome of its supposedly tiny, perfect war.

Now that same alliance of scribes and experts is denouncing the US liar-in-chief with a string of unflattering charges that it could, arguably, just as well aim at itself. It wont because the brigade isnt particularly fond of introspection, let alone self-flagellation.

OPINION: The normalisation of Donald Trump

Ironically, the establishment medias lies about the Iraq war had the unintended effect of draining whatever faint faith Americans had in responsible government and an independent fourth estate  institutions it insists are under existential attack by Trump.

If, in this gaping vacuum, Trump has adroitly engineered a post-truth world where facts are irrelevant and lies morph with lightning speed into the truth, the callow president-elect didnt do this alone, nor was he the first. He had help.

Indeed, the fault for Trump and his lies is found not in the stars, but in other, more obvious terrestrial places.

Andrew Mitrovica is an award-winning investigative reporter and journalism instructor.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
Or how the banana republic came back to bite those who invented it.

Trumps banana republic, declares the title of a passionate opinion piece on the pages of The Boston Globe after a televised presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. This is banana republic territory, the writer declares after criticising Trump for attacking the sacrosanct law enforcement officials and casting doubts on their reliability.

The metaphor become perhaps the most potent political allegory of this election season. America would be Trumps banana republic, was the title of another opinion piece by Fareed Zakaria for The Washington Post. The picture presented to the world, he wrote as he criticised the vigilante rage of the Republican convention, has been of America as a banana republic.

The European press soon chimed in: Sounding more like the potentate of some palm-dotted tropical island than a presidential candidate, declared Nick Bryant of the BBC, Trump twice declined to say during the final televised debate whether he would accept the results of the 2016 election.

Trumps Banana Republic Justice was the title of yet another piece in October in Newsweek, when criticising Trumps attacks on Clinton: This is the stuff of banana republics, not mature democracies.

The Los Angeles Times echoed the sentiment: He [Trump] was talking like he would become some dictator of a Banana Republic and throw her and his political enemies in jail.

The sentence was even attributed to Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon: That is the comment of a dictator that you expect to hear in a banana republic  the idea of jailing your political opponents.

Why a banana republic?

Why is it, if someone from the third world, a banana republic, or a palm-dotted tropical island might be permitted to ask, that when the purveyors of the mighty and magnificent Western civilisation want to characterise something nasty and loathsome in their own midst they immediately opt for a metaphor, a pejorative term such as banana republic that they have invented for somewhere else?

Latin American countries have been systematically colonised and abused, first by Europe and now by the United States, robbing them of their resources and installing a tyrant over the people lest they revolt against the abuse. And yet the very same abusers get to use a sarcastic term to describe the result!

In this column I have already asked this question when Muslims are used as a metaphor of fanaticism and stupidity by the left-liberal pundits in the US and Europe. But now I want to ask the same question about the larger non-European world they call the third world or banana republics.

OPINION: Dont ditch diversity because progressives failed

Donald Trump is not invested in democracy, declares a famous liberal pundit, Keith Olbermann, passionately, Donald Trump is not invested in our constitution, Donald Trump is not invested in America, Donald Trump is not invested in preventing people from being killed on the streets after an election, like this were a third world police state [at 3:38 of this video].

Why is it that when a comedian such as Sacha Baron Cohen wants to make a movie about dictatorship, The Dictator, he opts to feature a dictator looking like an Arab potentate? Have there not been enough dictators in Europe: Oliver Cromwell, Napoleon Bonaparte, Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler, Francisco Franco, Nicolae Ceausescu, Slobodan Milosevic?

What and where is banana republic?

The seismic psychological change evident in the US in the aftermath of this election is in part because US liberals are stripped naked of their holier-than-thou arrogance of their delusional exceptionalism, that they are too smart for third-world tyranny to come their way.

Arguments were made, theories were woven about how we Muslims, Arabs, Africans, Latin Americans lacked something in our DNA, deep in the marrow of our bones, in our culture that we did not merit and deserve democracy, and yet suddenly smack in the middle of American democracy a neo-fascist white supremacist has emerged so that former CIA officers now worry about the US constitution under a Trump presidency.

The alarming congregation of racist, white supremacist, xenophobic, misogynist, homophobic, Islamophobic, anti-Semitic, militaristic billionaire forces inside the White House is bound to craft a whole new vintage of a nasty prescription the US has usually ordered for other political cultures, and yet it has now returned like a bulldog to bite itself. by

Three of the top four candidates running for president have either contested the result (Jill Stein and Hillary Clinton) or declared millions have voted illegally (Trump).

It is now expected that Trumps business empire will be an endless source of conflict of interest under his presidency.

If banana republic is to be the name of this corruption, then the US is the likely contender to become the mother of all banana republics for the whole world to see.

Is Trumpism a new brand of politics?

Is Trump the personification of every racist trope this white supremacist culture has created for other political contexts and until now thought had completely exorcised out of its own system but is now haunted by it?

Is Trump a classical example of frightful characters like Hitler, Mussolini, or Franco much closer to the European heritage of what might emerge as American fascism?

Is Trump a resurfacing of white supremacist genealogy much more deeply rooted inside the US colonial conquest of America and imperial warmongering around the globe?

Or is Trump perhaps the dawn of a whole new white supremacist fascism that crosses the Atlantic and reaches deep into European racism now ringing from UK to Greece  with variations on its theme evident in France, Italy, the Netherlands and elsewhere?

OPINION: Why Chomsky and Zizek are wrong on the US elections

It is perhaps too early to offer any definite answer to any one of these questions. But the fact remains that the alarming congregation of racist, white supremacist, xenophobic, misogynist, homophobic, Islamophobic, anti-Semitic, militaristic billionaire forces inside the White House are bound to craft a whole new vintage of a nasty prescription the US usually orders for other political cultures, and yet it has now returned like a bulldog to bite itself.

In their book Commonwealth, political theorists Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri encourage us to abandon all dreams of political purity and higher values that would allow us to remain outside! This admission, they believe, is only a tool towards building an alternative project, an ethics of democratic political action within and against Empire, aimed towards a possible global democracy.

That urgent objective will not happen unless and until the nasty Eurocentric name-calling of nations has collapsed completely upon itself, North American and Western Europeans are liberated from the noxious metaphor of the West and join the fold of humanity at large.

Hamid Dabashi is Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University in New York.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
Russia said the Syrian army was suspending fighting in Aleppo to allow for the evacuation of civilians from besieged rebel-held neighborhoods, but residents and rebels reported no let-up in bombing and shelling of the oppositions ever-shrinking territory.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, speaking in Germany after talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry, said military experts and diplomats would meet on Saturday in Geneva to work out details of a rebel exit from Aleppos eastern neighbourhoods, along with civilians who wanted to leave the city.

Aleppo, once Syrias bustling commercial hub, has been largely divided between a government-held west and a rebel-controlled east since 2012. But government forces are now reported to be in control of about 75 percent of the east after a relentless three-week ground and air assault.

Lavrov said the Syrian army suspended combat late on Thursday to allow some 8,000 civilians to leave the city in a convoy spreading across a five-kilometre (three-mile) route.





But shortly after his announcement, residents told Al Jazeera that jets were still in the skies, gun fire could be heard and artillery shells were still falling on the remaining rebel-controlled districts in the southeast.

The bombardment and shelling is  unbelievable. They are gaining areas every day. Until now the attacks are still ongoing in the city. Just half an hour ago there were two barrel-bomb attacks in Bustan al-Qasr  Warplanes are still in the skies, said Zouhir al-Shimale, a journalist in east Aleppo.

The Syrian Civil Defence, a first responder group also known as the White Helmets, said air strikes and shelling on Thursday killed 45 people in the areas of east Aleppo still under rebel control. The group also reported the use of barrel bombs containing chlorine.

Although there are still many rural areas in rebel hands, Aleppo is their last major urban holdout. The prospect of its fall, following months of government gains elsewhere, has brought Assad closer to victory than at any point since the early months of a civil war that has killed hundreds of thousands and made half of Syrians homeless.

READ MORE: What went wrong in east Aleppo?

Aleppo will completely change the course of the battle in all of Syria, the Syrian President Bashir al-Assad said, speaking in an interview with the Syrian newspaper al-Watan.

The UN General Assembly is set to vote on Friday on a draft resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, a measure that diplomats have described as too little, too late.

Poles apart

Moscow and Washington are trying to negotiate a ceasefire to allow civilians to exit eastern Aleppo and aid to arrive.

Russia, which backs the army with bombing raids, also wants the US to use its influence to urge rebel fighters to abandon their territory and accept transport out, which the Syrian government has provided to fighters who agreed to lay down arms in other parts of the country.

The rebels have called for an immediate five-day ceasefire and the evacuation of civilians and wounded, but have so far given no indication they are ready to withdraw.

The UN assessment of the diplomatic back-and-forth was bleak. Russia and the US were poles apart, UN Syria humanitarian adviser Jan Egeland said. Five months of talks over aid plans had all failed and produced nothing, he said.

More than 800 people have been killed and up to 3,500 wounded in eastern Aleppo in the past 26 days, while the remaining trapped civilians await an effective death sentence, the president of Aleppo local council said.

Today 150,000 people are threatened with extermination. We are calling for a halt to the bombing and guarantees of safe passage of all, Brita Haji Hassan said during a trip to Geneva.

War will not end

Fighting raged on around the Old City, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with the Syrian army trying to push into the few remaining rebel-held Aleppo neighbourhoods.

Pro-government media reported that Syrian government forces and their allies had launched attacks against rebels in the Sukkari, Kalasa and Bustan al-Qasr neighbourhoods, west and south of the ancient citadel.





An opposition activist in Aleppo said rebels had staved off the attacks on the latter two districts.

A Syrian military source said the army and its allies had also advanced in the Sheikh Saeed district in the south of the rebel enclave. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group that relies on a network of activists on the ground to monitor the war, also reported that.

Outside of Aleppo, the government and its allies were also putting severe pressure on remaining rebel strongholds.

In the interview with al-Watan, Assad said the army advances would completely change the course of the war. He described Aleppo as the last hope of rebels and their backers, although he said the war would continue once it falls.

The battle of Aleppo will be a gain, but  it doesnt mean the end of the war in Syria, he said.

READ MORE: How much longer can east Aleppo hold out?

Nearly 150 civilians, most disabled or in need of urgent medical care, were evacuated overnight from a hospital in Aleppos Old City, in the first major evacuation from the eastern sector, the International Committee of the Red Cross said.

It urged all parties to allow a humanitarian pause, adding that the situation in east Aleppo is known to be catastrophic.

Tawfik Chamaa, a representative of the Union of Syrian Medical Relief Organisations, said 1,500 people needed medical evacuation, but any evacuation should have international observers to prevent them being executed or diverted on the way to hospital.
At least four people killed Thursday after police opened fire at demonstrators marching against President Paul Biya.

A human rights group on Friday called on Cameroon to investigate and prosecute police officers accused of using excessive force during an anti-government protest where at least four people were killed.

Officers reportedly shot dead four protesters and wounded 20 others on Thursday in the city of Bamenda, part of the countrys minority English-speaking region, following months of demonstrations.

Residents of Cameroons two English-speaking provinces say the government makes fewer funds available to them than to French-speaking areas.

READ MORE: Cameroon teachers, lawyers strike in battle for English (2:42)

Authorities in Cameroon must shed light on the circumstances of these killings and injuries by immediately conducting thorough, impartial, and effective investigations, Amnesty Internationals Ilaria Allegrozzi said in a statement.

Those reasonably suspected of criminal responsibility for these deaths must be brought to justice.

The protesters were marching against President Paul Biya and his ruling Cameroon Peoples Democratic Movement (RDPC), which was holding a meeting in Bamenda when they were confronted by police.

Officers initially tried to scatter the demonstrators using tear gas.

Opening fire at protesters

A Reuters news agency reporter saw police open fire on the crowd, which had continued to grow in size.

Some demonstrators were armed with steel bars and stones, said one police official, adding officers acted in self-defence.

One police officer was wounded in the unrest, he said.





Some of our elements were surrounded by thugs, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to reporters. They had come to kill. The police defended themselves.

Four hostile targets were neutralised. Its possible there were more.

A local journalist at the scene, Brenda Kiven, said the ruling party meeting was seen by the protesters as a provocation.

Demonstrations first broke out in early November in Bamenda, when lawyers and teachers demanded better working conditions in a rare act of defiance against President Biya, 83, who has ruled Cameroon since 1982.

Cameroon was divided into French and British regions until they formed the Republic of Cameroon in 1961, a year after the country gained independence.
Distributed denial of service strikes on five biggest banks and financial organisations in Russia was halted.

Russias telecom operator on Friday said it had blocked a series of cyberattacks on the countrys leading banks this week, the latest to target Moscows financial sector.

Rostelecom said in a statement it successfully thwarted DDoS [distributed denial of service] on the five biggest banks and financial organisations in Russia on Monday.

The most sustained attack lasted more than two hours, it said.

Global police smash huge online crime network: Europol

Russias FSB security service last week said it had uncovered plans by foreign intelligence services to carry out massive cyberattacks on the countrys financial system from December 5.





State-controlled Russian bank VTB said on Monday that its websites had been hit by a cyberattack but insisted its systems were still working as normal.

The FSB did not say which countries secret services were involved in the latest plot against Russian banks, but alleged the attacks would use servers and command centres located in the Netherlands belonging to Ukrainian hosting company, BlazingFast.

Russia has been embroiled in a hacking scandal with the United States over allegations by Washington that Moscow was behind the theft and leaking of documents online during the run-up to the US presidential election aimed at influencing the outcome.

BfV: Russia is trying to destabilise Germany

Vice President Joe Biden warned that the US would respond to the suspected Russian hacking at the time of our choosing, and under the circumstances that have the greatest impact.

The latest attack comes after Moscow-based security giant Kaspersky said in November a massive DDoS cyber-attack had hit at least five of Russias largest banks.

DDoS attacks involve flooding websites with more traffic than they can handle, making them difficult to access or taking them offline entirely.

Kaspersky said those attacks used devices located in 30 countries, including the US.
Attack on a vegetable market near a Boko Haram stronghold kills at least 45 people and wounds dozens of others.

Two schoolgirl suicide bombers killed 45 people and wounded dozens in a coordinated attack on a crowded market in the northeastern Nigerian town of Madagali, an army spokesman said.

From our updated records we have 45 dead and 33 injured in the twin suicide bomb explosions in Madagali, said Saad Bello of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) in Adamawa state.

The attack on Friday morning happened in Madagali, which was recaptured by Nigerian forces from Boko Haram fighters in 2015.

Ahmadu Gulak, a driver who was buying tea at the market, said the two blasts struck simultaneously at opposite ends of a grains and vegetable market. He saw many wounded taken to a nearby hospital by ambulance.

The two bombers were disguised as customers, detonated their suicide belts at the section of the market selling grains and second-hand clothing, said Yusuf Muhammad, the chairman of Madagali local government.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the blasts bore all the hallmarks of Boko Haram, which has carried out numerous suicide attacks in its seven-year campaign against the Nigerian government in the troubled region.

READ MORE: Nigeria grapples with starvation amid Boko Haram battle

Al Jazeeras Ahmed Idris, reporting from the Nigerian capital of Abuja, said Friday was not the first time Madagali was attacked.

A bus station near the same market was targeted by two female suicide bombers who killed at least 30 people in December 2015. In June, Boko Haram fighters opened fire on mourners at a funeral in Madagali, killing 18 people.

Since the town was retaken by the Boko Haram army more than a year ago, it has been attacked three times, Idris said.

Attack expected

He added that Fridays attack seemed to have aimed to cause maximum damage as it targeted the busiest sections of the market on the busiest day of the week.

Todays attack was expected because if the military made significant advance against Boko Haram in Sambisa Forest as they claimed, they have dislodged a lot of the groups fighters and they have dispersed in the surrounding communities like Madagali, he said.

Nigerias military has been bombarding the Sambisa Forest, near Madagali, ahead of ground assaults.

Boko Harams seven-year uprising has killed more than 20,000 people and forced 2.6 million from their homes.
President Mahama concedes defeat to former foreign minister Akufo-Addo, who was making his third bid for the top job.

Ghanas main opposition leader Nana Akufo-Addo won the countrys national election, defeating President John Mahama, electoral commissioner Charlotte Osei said.

Crowds of jubilant supporters gathered outside the house of the 72-year-old New Patriotic Party (NPP) leader, who had already claimed victory on Thursday, a day after the voting took place.

Akufo-Addo defeated President Mahama by 53.8 percent to 44.4 percent, Osei said.

It is my duty and my privilege to declare Nana Akufo-Addo as the president-elect of Ghana, she told a news conference in the capital, Accra, on Friday.

Prior to Oseis announcement, Akufo-Addo said on Twitter that Mahama called him congratulating me on winning the 2016 presidential election.

I make this solemn pledge to you tonight: I will not let you down. I will do all in my power to live up to your hopes and expectations, Akufo-Addo told supporters in front of his residence.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Akufo-Addo explained what he believed to be the hopes and expectations of Ghanaians: The expectations they have of me, that Im gonna bring them a new government, a new style; a government of honesty, a government that is concerned about the welfare of our people  that basic commitment is the one I am determined to fulfill.

A few minutes ago, I received a call from President @JDMahama congratulating me on winning the 2016 Presidential Election. #ChangeHasCome  Nana Akufo-Addo (@NAkufoAddo) December 9, 2016

Al Jazeeras Nicolas Haque, reporting from Accra, described the campaign as bitterly fought.

This is the moment so many people had been waiting for here at Akufo-Addos house since the end of the voting, he said.

Its been a long wait, especially with the delay by the election commission. Their systems broke down and they had to fax through polling sheets from 29,000 stations.

Earlier, Mahama had appealed for calm and told his supporters he would respect the outcome of the vote, whether he won or lost, in comments aimed at defusing tension in advance of the release of official results of the vote.

I want to assure the nation that we will respect the outcome of the election, positive or negative, and so let us just be calm, he told supporters gathered outside his house.

Mahama, who came to power in 2012 after beating Akufo-Addo, urged voters to stay the course, promising to deliver more infrastructure projects.

Akufo-Addo was making his third bid for the top job.

Ghanas elections have been historically close, with Mahama narrowly winning against Akufo-Addo in 2012 with 50.7 percent. Akufo-Addo unsuccessfully challenged Mahamas victory in the courts.

Ghana is the worlds second-largest producer of cocoa after Ivory Coast and Africas second biggest gold producer after South Africa.

But it was forced to turn to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2015 for a bailout as global commodity prices tanked.
Ghanas main opposition leader Nana Akufo-Addo said he was quietly confident he had beaten incumbent President John Mahama in the presidential elections, a claim promptly rejected by the ruling party.

The electoral commission has yet to release results from this weeks elections but the opposition said it had tabulated figures from individual constituencies.

Afuko-Addo told hundreds of supporters in the capital Accra on Thursday that his New Patriotic Party (NPP) had taken a majority of seats in parliament but he called for calm and urged patience to allow the electoral commission time to deliver the results.

We in the NPP are quietly confident that we have won a famous and historic victory, Akufo-Addo said.

Officials from Mahamas National Democratic Congress (NDC) rejected the claims and said the incumbent was on track for re-election.

Update: As at now, we have received 25 Constituency Collated results at the National Collation Centre #ghanaelection2016 #ghanadecides pic.twitter.com/IID6G9CjPe  Electoral Commission Of Ghana (@ECGhanaOfficial) December 8, 2016

Al Jazeeras Nicholas Haque, reporting from the capital Accra, said that Ghanaians were anxiously waiting for the final results.

Outside the election commisison, police are out in full force and they want to ensure that the outcome is peaceful, our correspondent said.

Mahama is running for a second and final term in office against the backdrop of an economy that has slowed since he took office in 2013, partly because of a slump in global prices for its exports of gold, cocoa and oil.

Akufo-Addo, a former foreign minister, has focused on Ghanas economic woes as a campaign theme, and has repeatedly accused Mahama and the NDC of incompetence.

Let's allow EC to carry out its constitutional mandate. We'll make Ghana proud no matter outcome.  John Dramani Mahama (@JDMahama) December 9, 2016

Akufo-Addos statement was the first by a major party leader since the election and reflects opposition belief that after eight years in the wilderness it has won back power.

However, it also appeared aimed at tempering NPP members earlier claims of an insurmountable lead for Akufo-Addo and calls for Mahama to concede defeat.

READ MORE: Ghanaian voices on coming presidential elections

The NPP has done everything to try to bastardise the 2016 general election. We are doing our analysis and President Mahama is leading Akufo-Addo, Koku Anyidoho, a senior NDC official, told a news conference.

Privately, senior aides to Mahama say he remains confident.

Joy FM, a private radio station, put Akufo-Addo at 51.42 percent and Mahama at 46.72 percent with 176 of 275 constituencies counted.

Website GhanaWeb gave results for 160 constituencies and said Akufo-Addo had 55.8 percent with Mahama on 42.5 percent. Minor candidates took the other votes.





Seven candidates are contesting Ghanas presidency. If no one wins a majority, there will be a runoff between the top two.

The election has tested the Ghana Electoral Commission and its new Commissioner, Charlotte Osei. Observers reported almost no major problems on election day but the NPP and the National Peace Council on Thursday urged the commission to start releasing results quickly.

Osei told a news conference that the commission had collated results from 90 constituencies and would release them, though she gave no timeframe. She said technical problems had delayed other results.

We want to assure you that we cannot change the results in any way. We cannot manipulate those results, she said.
UN says men reported to have disappeared after crossing into government-held parts of divided city.

Hundreds of men from eastern Aleppo have gone missing after leaving rebel-held areas, the United Nations human rights office said on Friday, voicing deep concern over their fate at the hands of government forces.

UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville told a news briefing the office had heard worrying allegations that hundreds of men have gone missing after crossing into government-controlled areas of Aleppo.





Given the terrible record of arbitrary detention, torture and disappearances, we are of course deeply concerned, he said.

Colville said family members had reported losing contact with the men, who are between the ages of 30 and 50, after they fled opposition-held areas of Aleppo about a week ago.

His comments came as Syrian government artillery bombarded the fast-shrinking rebel enclave in the heart of Aleppo on Friday.

The army has recaptured 85 percent of the eastern part of the city which the rebels had held since summer 2012.

The assault has prompted a mass exodus from east Aleppo where at least 80,000 people have fled their homes, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Despite losing more than two-thirds of their territory over the past few weeks, rebels remained defiant.

This is a war of attrition  just because we pulled out of the eastern areas because of heavy air strikes, it doesnt mean the war is over, said Feras Basha, a rebel commander in besieged Aleppo.

This doesnt mean this is our end. We have been defending our territory.

Aleppo: No deal reached between US and Russia

On Friday, the UN General Assembly voted 122 to 13 to demand an immediate cessation of hostilities in Syria, humanitarian aid access throughout the country and an end to all sieges, including in Aleppo.

Thirty-six countries abstained in the vote on the Canadian-drafted resolution on the nearly six-year-old Syrian conflict. Russia, Iran and China opposed the resolution.

General Assembly resolutions are non-binding but can carry political weight.

This is a vote to stand up and tell Russia and Assad to stop the carnage, US Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power told the General Assembly before the vote.

Slaughter in Palmyra

Near the historic city of Palmyra, meanwhile, 49 Syrian soldiers were killed in an advance by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) fighters, the Syrian Observatory said.

ISIL advanced along several fronts around Palmyra in central Syria, driving back government forces.

The groups Aamaq news agency distributed video showing what it says were Syrian soldiers fleeing their positions in the badlands west of Palmyra.

The Syrian government, backed by Russian forces, recaptured Palmyra from ISIL in March, to great fanfare. The fighters destroyed numerous monuments dating back to Roman times during their hold of the city.

A US-led coalition air strike destroyed a fleet of 168 oil tankers near Palmyra being used by ISIL to ferry illicit fuel in Syria, the coalition said Friday.

The coalition said it is systematically targeting the oil infrastructure used by ISIL, and Thursdays strike resulted in estimated lost revenue of more than $2m.

Stopping or severely hampering (ISILs) cash flow degrades their ability to fund the war effort in Iraq and Syria and terrorist attacks around the world, the coalition said in a statement.





Civilians stopped from leaving

Back in Aleppo, some 150,000 civilians are believed to remain in the ever-shrinking opposition-held districts of the city, Colville said, also citing reports that rebels had prevented some civilians from fleeing to safety, which would be a potential war crime.

Some of the civilians who are attempting to flee are reportedly being blocked by armed opposition groups, Colville told reporters in Geneva.

During the last two weeks, Fateh al-Sham Front [formerly al-Nusra Front] and the Abu Amara Battalion are alleged to have abducted and killed an unknown number of civilians who requested the armed groups to leave their neighbourhoods, to spare the lives of civilians.

In addition, the groups had reportedly demanded that activists inform them of civilians attempting to leave, along with the names of those who participated in protests against the presence of the Jabhat Fateh al-Sham group and other groups affiliated with them in several neighbourhoods a few weeks ago, Colville said.

READ MORE: What went wrong in east Aleppo?

Speaking in Germany after talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said military experts and diplomats would meet on Saturday in Geneva to work out details of a rebel exit from Aleppos eastern neighbourhoods, along with civilians who wanted to leave the city.

Aleppo, once Syrias bustling commercial hub, has been largely divided between a government-held west and a rebel-controlled east since 2012. But government forces are now reported to be in control of about 75 percent of the east after a relentless three-week ground and air assault.

The bombardment and shelling is  unbelievable, Aleppo-based journalist Zouhir al-Shimale told Al Jazeera. We have become useless. Theres nothing we can do. We cant even leave.
Indonesias president has vowed to rebuild areas devastated by an earthquake that killed more than 100 people and left thousands homeless.

Joko Widodo flew to Aceh province on Friday and met victims in hospitals before visiting a local mosque damaged in the quake.





Ive already decided that the mosque will be rebuilt as soon as possible, but we have to do it together starting tomorrow, he told a crowd as he handed out envelopes containing $1,125 to people whose family members were killed.

At least 100 people were killed in Wednesdays 6.5-magnitude quake that levelled hundreds of homes, mosques and businesses across Aceh province, one of the areas worst affected by the destructive 2004 tsunami.

Rescue crews have been searching the rubble with sniffer dogs while excavators clear the debris-strewn streets two days after the disaster.

Al Jazeeras Step Vaessen, reporting from Pidie Jaya, one of the hardest-hit regions, said thousands had spent a second night in shelters and hospitals.

More than 2,000 people are staying at a local mosque where makeshift tents and camps have been set up, Vaessen said. Eleven thousand people are officially displaced but many more are spending the night outside because they are too scared to stay indoors.

Earlier on Friday, Widodo and his entourage visited a hospital in the town of Sigli where Widodo handed out envelopes containing $375 to each of the injured.

IN PICTURES: Indonesia earthquake  Rescuers search for survivors

Officials lowered the death toll to 100 from 102 on Thursday, with the disaster mitigation agency saying the names of two victims had been recorded twice.

Killer quakes occur regularly in the region, where many live with the terrifying memory of a giant December 26, 2004 earthquake which struck off Sumatra.

The magnitude 9.1 quake triggered a devastating tsunami that killed more than 170,000 people in Indonesia alone, the vast majority in Aceh.
Lawyers say Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement against Israel is lawful exercise of freedom of expression.

Around 200 leading legal experts have signed a statement defending the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement (BDS) as a lawful exercise of freedom of expression.

The legal experts from 15 countries agreed the BDS movement should be treated the same way as the Anti-Apartheid Movement in South Africa.

Lawyers backing Fridays statement include South African jurist John Dugard, who served at the International Court of Justice, and Guy Goodwin-Gill, former legal adviser for the Office of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

No government ever attempted to outlaw or criminalise the Anti-Apartheid Movement for advocating boycott, disinvestment or sanctions to compel South Africa to abandon its racist policies, Dugard said. BDS should be seen as a similar movement and treated accordingly.





Robert Kolb, a legal expert who served with the Swiss Foreign Ministry, said BDS activism should be legally protected.

The right of citizens to advocate for BDS is part and parcel of the fundamental freedoms protected by the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, said Kolb, who was part of the group that signed the statement.

BDS groups welcomed the lawyers statement, terming it a defining moment before saying the backing would help quell attempts by pro-Israel groups to proscribe the movement.

This is a defining moment in the struggle against Israels patently repressive legal war on the BDS movement for Palestinian rights, said Ingrid Jaradat of the Palestinian BDS National Committee, a coalition of civil society groups at the forefront of the movement.

Leading European jurists have now confirmed that advocating and campaigning for Palestinian rights under international law is a legally guaranteed right for Europeans and indeed all citizens of the world.

Israels desperate attempts to outlaw the BDS movement and to legally bully its supporters into silence threatens democratic space.

Crackdowns on BDS

A number of measures targeting the BDS movement have been introduced in Israel and Western countries with varying degrees of success.

Earlier this year, US President Barack Obama approved legislation that required official non-cooperation with groups that comply with boycotts of Israel. Around 20 US states have passed anti-BDS bills or are in the process of doing so.

In France, Prime Minister Manuel Valls has tried to equate the BDS movement to the loathing of Jews, a charge activists reject.

Attempts at censoring BDS activism have not been successful, however.

A French court in Tolouse overturned a ban on a BDS event in May, describing attempts by the towns mayor to stop the gathering as illegal.

In England, a court struck down a legal challenge attempting to force councillors in the city of Leicester to reverse a motion to boycott Israeli goods.

Student activism

Supporters of the BDS movement argue attempts to stifle it are proof that it is an effective means of protesting Israels occupation of Palestinian land.

The movement is particularly visible among students and activists on campuses across the world who are attempting to pass motions backing Israels boycotts despite strong opposition from pro-Israel groups.

On Thursday, students at the University of Manchester in northwest UK passed a motion forcing their union to support the BDS movement.

Etisha Choudhury president of the pro-Palestinian student group Action Palestine said attempts to stop BDS were part of broader efforts to prevent criticism of Israeli policies.

BDS is a call from 171 Palestinian civil authorities from within the occupation so essentially they [opponents] are just trying to block the Palestinians, Choudhury told Al Jazeera.

Huda Ammori, who put forward the motion, said BDS was one of the few remaining ways Palestinians could effectively challenge Israeli occupation.

I think BDS is the last hope for Palestinians, said Ammori, describing efforts by the international community to help Palestinians to date as lacking. The movement is a call to wake up and bring attention to the cause.
More than 2,200 US troops have been killed and hundreds of billions of dollars spent since the US-led invasion in 2001.

The United States will stick with Afghanistan for years to come as a new American president takes over what is already Americas longest war, the head of the US military Ashton Carter said on Friday.

In a joint appearance in Kabul with Afghanistans president, Ashraf Ghani, Carter said the US cannot afford to give up on Afghanistan after more than 15 years of involvement, the deaths of more than 2,200 US troops, and the expenditure of hundreds of billions of dollars.

The interests we are pursuing here are clear and enduring, he said, citing the goals of preventing another September 11-type attack on American soil, and helping Afghanistan attain enough stability to remain a long-term security partner for the US and the West. The war began as a response to the 9/11 attacks.

Afghan Taliban hang university student in public

Carter was making his last planned trip to Afghanistan before handing over his Defense Department responsibilities to his successor. President-elect Donald Trump has nominated retired Marine General James Mattis for the post.





Trump has not said if or how he will alter the US course in Afghanistan, but has denounced what he calls US nation-building projects.

The US has about 10,000 troops in Afghanistan to train and advise Afghan security forces combating a resilient Taliban insurgency. US special operations forces are hunting down al-Qaeda and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) fighters.

By US estimates, the Afghan government controls slightly less than two-thirds of the countrys population. The Taliban holds sway over about 10 percent, and the remainder of the population is contested.

Taliban offers security for copper, gas projects

President Barack Obama had planned to reduce US troop numbers to about 1,000 by the time he left office in January, but he scrapped that approach in the face of Taliban gains.

James Dobbins, a former US special envoy for Afghanistan, said Afghanistan would not figure highly for Trump, given the fight against ISIL in Syria and Iraq.

This, Dobbins said, was likely to mean the number of American troops in Afghanistan would remain unchanged, at least in the short term.

Trump will inherit a challenging security situation in Afghanistan.

A number of provincial capitals have been under pressure from the Taliban, while Afghan forces have been suffering high casualty rates, with more than 5,500 killed in the first eight months of 2016.
A court in the Netherlands has found Geert Wilders, an anti-Islam politician, guilty of discrimination for leading a chant against Moroccans at a 2014 campaign rally.

Wilders was convicted of discrimination but sentenced to no punishment on Friday for comments he made at a March 2014 local government election rally in The Hague.





When he asked supporters whether they wanted fewer or more Moroccans in your city and in the Netherlands, the crowd shouted back Fewer! Fewer! and a smiling Wilders answered: Were going to organise that.

Wilders said his conviction was insanity, adding the three judges who handed down the ruling were haters of his far-right Freedom Party (PVV).

Three PVV-hating judges declare Moroccans a race and convict me and half of the Netherlands. Insane, he wrote in a tweet shortly after the verdict.

Wilders boycotted most of the trial, but in closing remarks on November 23 told judges his comments were obviously not intended as a call to genocide  but rather a reference to his official party platform.

READ MORE: Wilders  Migrant men are Islamic testosterone bombs

Prosecutors, who rejected Wilders assertions that the trial was politically motivated and an unfair attempt to limit his right to free speech, had asked that a fine of 5,000 euros, but no prison sentence, be imposed.

Dutch TV channel RTL news reported Wilders would appeal the conviction.

Wilders, who is leading in several polls for the March elections, said he was not guilty of any wrongdoing.

Every verdict, acquittal, or conviction will de facto change nothing, he said in an interview with De Telegraaf published on Friday.

I will continue to speak the truth regardless, including about the Moroccan problem, and no judge, politician or terrorist will stop me.

A previous attempt to prosecute Wilders for anti-Islam remarks, such as likening the religion to Nazism and calling for a ban on the Quran, ended in acquittal in 2011.

That process was widely seen as strengthening his reputation as a defender of freedom of speech and increased his popularity.

OPINION: Three paths to European disintegration

Al Jazeeras Neave Barker, reporting from Schipol, said the latest conviction could work in Wilders favour.

This could drum up support for some of the issues he is eager to champion: euro-scepticism, clamping down on migrants, Barker said. But what he is convinced he will continue to do is beat the nationalist drum, so how he plays this conviction is really yet to be seen.





Moroccan Dutch organisations welcomed the verdict for drawing a clear line about the limits of free speech.

This ruling protects minorities in our country from the racist poison that is seeping into our society, said anti-discrimination platform NBK, which previously filed a failed lawsuit against Wilder in 2007.

Wilders far-right Freedom Party is leading in the polls in advance of a crunch vote on March 15.

The latest numbers put PVV at 34 seats in the 150-seat lower house of Dutch parliament, some 10 seats ahead of his nearest rival, Prime Minister Mark Ruttes Liberals.

Rutte declined to comment on the ruling because the case is under appeal. But he said his VVD party ruled out sharing power with Wilders, unless he retracts the comments about Moroccans.

About 400,000 people of Moroccan origin live in the Netherlands.

This statement [by Wilders] can be regarded as affecting the dignity of this group as a whole. It is insulting for the entire group, the court ruling said.
Hasm movement said it carried out a bomb attack near a security checkpoint in Cairo, killing six police officers.

A recently emerged armed group claimed responsibility for a bomb attack in Cairo that killed six policemen.

The Hasm movement, which has said it was responsible for several attacks in Egypt in recent months, made the announcement in an internet posting on Friday. Three other officers were wounded.

The Hasm movement said it targeted a police checkpoint in Haram Street, close to the famous Giza Pyramids with an explosive device.

The explosion was very loud. We thought it was an earthquake. The glass of windows near the area broke because of the severity of the blast, a witness told state TV.

Conflicting reports surrounded the attack.

A statement on the official Facebook page of the Egyptian Interior Ministry confirmed a crude explosive device went off near the checkpoint. But state TV reported the blast was caused by a car bomb.

READ MORE: Senior military official shot dead in Cairo

The bombing, close to a government building in a middle-class neighbourhood of Cairo, was the latest in a series of similar attacks across Egypt.

Security forces killed three gunmen on Tuesday in a raid on a hideout in southern Egypt used by what they described as an armed wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, which claimed responsibility in September for an assassination attempt on a senior prosecutor.

The Hasam movement, had previously claimed several attacks in or near Cairo, including the assassination of a police officer.





An Egyptian general was killed by armed fighters on November 4 near his home in North Sinai, in an attack that ISIL claimed responsibility for. He was the second military officer of his rank to be shot dead in as many weeks.

Hundreds of soldiers and police have been killed in attacks by several armed groups mainly concentrated in the Sinai peninsula since the 2013 military coup that ousted Mohamed Morsi, the countrys first democratically elected president.

A new group calling itself Liwa al-Thawra, or the Revolution Brigade, claimed responsibility for an attack on October 22 in Cairo.

The violence has dented the recovery of tourism after the 2011 uprising drove away tourists, a major source of hard currency.

Import-dependent Egypt is facing a shortage of foreign exchange that has stifled business activity and hit confidence in the economy.
Parliament is set to vote on whether to suspend President Park Geun-hye over her role in a corruption scandal.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye is scheduled to face an impeachment vote on Friday over a scandal that could lead to her becoming the countrys first democratically elected leader to be removed from office in disgrace.

The parliamentary vote is scheduled to begin at 06:00 GMT, and if the motion passes with a two-thirds majority, the countrys Constitutional Court will have up to 180 days to determine whether to formally end Parks presidency.





Prosecutors say Park colluded in the criminal activities of a longtime confidante to manipulate government affairs and extort businesses.

The confidante, Choi Soon-sil, the daughter of a cult leader who mentored Park before his death, has been indicted on a string of charges including abuse of authority and attempted fraud.

The president is also suspected of having put pressure on top Korean companies, including the electronics giant Samsung, to donate to two foundations controlled by Choi and allegedly set up to back Parks policy initiatives.

Park, who has immunity from prosecution while in office, has repeatedly apologised but has refused to meet prosecutors investigating the scandal.

Al Jazeeras Harry Fawcett, reporting from the National Assembly in Seoul, said some members of Parks conservative Saenuri Party would have to break rank for the vote to pass.

What is required is 28 members of the ruling Saenuri Party vote along with 172 opposition and independent members of the national assembly in order to get the two-thirds majority required, he said.

WATCH: Ban Ki-moon  South Koreas next president?

The leaders of the two main opposition parties have said their 159 members would all resign if the impeachment motion failed, taking responsibility for their inability to follow through on the demands of the public.

Parliament introduced the impeachment bill on Thursday and it must be voted on within 24 to 72 hours.

If the motion passes, the Constitutional Court will determine whether parliament followed due process and whether there are sufficient grounds for impeachment, a process that will involve arguments from the two sides in public hearings.





Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, who holds what is largely a ceremonial role, would assume interim presidential powers while the court deliberates.

There have been mass rallies every Saturday for the past six weeks calling for Park to quit, and opinion polls show overwhelming public support for her impeachment.

A poll released on Friday showed her approval rating stood at 5 percent, a slight improvement from a record low of 4 percent.

South Koreas economic outlook is worsening too, partly owing to the internal political uncertainty, as well as worries over the potential effect of US President-elect Donald Trumps policies on trade and foreign affairs.

The nine-member court is considered conservative in its makeup but some of its former judges have said the case against Park is strong and is likely to be approved.

The Bank of Korea will hold emergency meetings to review policy measures that may be taken against any fallout from the vote, a central bank official said.
Ordinary people bemoan lack of protection and representation after legal fraternity wiped out in tragic August attack.

Four months after a suicide attack on a hospital in Pakistans Balochistan province which killed 70 lawyers, ordinary people are struggling to find representation and justice in an unstable region.

At least 70 lawyers were killed on August 8 when a suicide bomber attacked the emergency ward of a hospital in the state capital, Quetta, where lawyers had gathered to mourn the murder of a colleague, Bilal Anwar Kasi.

Kasi, the president of the Balochistan Bar Association, had been shot dead earlier that morning.

Atta Khan Kakar, a lawyer in Quetta and Kasis brother, told Al Jazeera on Thursday that people in the state were still battling to come to terms with the attack that decimated the legal fraternity in Quetta. He described the incident as an irreparable blow to Balochistans future.

The blast has set back Balochistan by 100 years. Lawyers with decades of experience, people who would become judges, were all killed. We are a target because we stand to provide justice, Kakar said.

OPINION: Understanding the context of Quetta attack in Pakistan

Al Jazeeras Osama bin Javaid, reporting from Quetta, said ordinary people in the state have long complained of corruption and of a lack of trust in the judicial system. People there told Javaid that lawyers switch sides if offered a better deal in addition to the long wait for cases to be heard.

The shortage of lawyers has only made matters worse, he said.

One woman told Al Jazeera that her daughter had been kidnapped two years ago by her former husband. She said the lack of legal infrastructure meant that case was fraught with endless delays.

I live with my mother far away from the court. Its not easy for me to come to every hearing. I want my daughter, said the woman, who would only identify herself as Urbila.

She is sick and living with her stepmother.

Another complainant, Abdul Haq Kakar, a former train driver in Quetta, said he was still struggling to secure his retirement fund. There is no justice in our system, he said of the legal difficulties faced in resolving his case.

Quetta has been hit by a series of attacks over the past few months. In October, a police training college in the city was attacked, leaving at least 61 people dead and 170 others wounded.

Both the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) and a faction belonging to the Pakistan Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack on the lawyers in August.

Balochistan borders Iran and Afghanistan and has oil and gas resources. It remains afflicted by fighting, violence between Sunni and Shia Muslims, and a separatist rebellion.
Glenn was credited with reviving US pride after the Soviet Unions early domination of manned space exploration.

John Glenn, who became one of the 20th centurys greatest heroes as the first American to orbit Earth and later as the worlds oldest astronaut, died on Thursday at age of 95.

Glenn was the last surviving member of NASAs original seven Right Stuff Mercury programme astronauts.

John Glenn is, and always will be, Ohios ultimate hometown hero, and his passing today is an occasion for all of us to grieve, Ohio Governor John Kasich said in a statement.

Glenn was credited with reviving US pride after the Soviet Unions early domination of manned space exploration. His three laps around the world in the Friendship 7 capsule on February 20, 1962, forged a powerful link between the former fighter pilot and the Kennedy-era quest to explore outer space as a New Frontier.





As the third of seven astronauts in NASAs solo-flight Mercury programme to venture into space, Glenn became more of a media fixture than any of the others and was known for his composure and willingness to promote Mercury.

Glenns astronaut career, as well as his record as a fighter pilot in World War II and the Korean War, helped to propel him to the US Senate in 1974, where he represented his home state of Ohio for 24 years as a moderate Democrat.

But his star was dimmed somewhat by a Senate investigation of several senators on whether special favours were done for a major campaign contributor. He was cleared of wrongdoing.

Glenns entry into history came in early 1961 when fellow astronaut Scott Carpenter bade him Godspeed, John Glenn just before he was rocketed into space for a record-breaking trip that would last just under five hours.

Zero-G [gravity] and I feel fine, was Glenns succinct assessment of weightlessness several minutes into his mission. Oh, and that view is tremendous.

After splashdown and recovery in the Atlantic Ocean, Glenn was treated as a hero, addressing a joint session of Congress and being feted in a New York ticker-tape parade.

OPINION: The human problem with travelling to another star

His experiences as a pioneer astronaut were chronicled in the book and movie The Right Stuff, along with those of the other Mercury pilots. The books author, Tom Wolfe, called Glenn the last true national hero America has ever had.

I dont think of myself that way, Glenn told The New York Times in 2012 to mark the 50th anniversary of his flight. I get up each day and have the same problems others have at my age. As far as trying to analyse all the attention I received, I will leave that to others.

Glenns historic flight made him a favourite of President John Kennedy and his brother Robert, who encouraged him to launch a political career that finally took off after a period as a businessman made him a millionaire.
Forces have captured about 85 percent of the citys rebel-held east with people trapped in increasingly grim conditions.

Syrian warplanes launched heavy raids on the last rebel-held districts in Aleppo as key regime ally Russia vowed the assault would continue until opposition fighters left the battleground city.

Syrias army is three weeks into a battle to retake east Aleppo from rebels, who are now confined to just a few neighbourhoods in their former bastion.

Its forces have captured about 85 percent of the citys east, with rebels and remaining civilians trapped in a shrinking space in increasingly grim conditions.

The advance is going according to plan and is sometimes faster than expected, a Syrian military source told Reuters news agency.

Aleppos loss would be the biggest blow for the rebels in the nearly six-year-old war, which has killed more than 400,000 people and displaced half the countrys population.





Tens of thousands of civilians have fled east Aleppo in recent weeks, though the United Nations said Friday it had received reports that rebels had blocked some residents from leaving.

It also expressed concern about reports that hundreds of men had gone missing after fleeing to government-held territory.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, reported at least a dozen air strikes on rebel-held neighbourhoods on Friday and artillery fire continued.

Bodies in the streets

An AFP news agency correspondent in east Aleppo said it had become increasingly difficult to find food because shopkeepers were too afraid to open and sell their meagre wares under the heavy government fire.

He said fleeing civilians had seen bodies lying uncollected in the streets of one neighbourhood because the intensity of the bombardment made it too dangerous to retrieve the dead.

The rubble and shrapnel on the streets around the Old Citys Bab al-Hadeed district revealed the ferocity of the battle this week that gave Syrias army control of the historic area.

The booms from air strikes, the smell of gunpowder, and the sight of rising smoke from nearby districts testified to the ongoing violence on Friday as the army and allied militias pressed their assault.

READ MORE: Hundreds of men from east Aleppo go missing

The commander of a volunteer group in the Tiger Force, a Syrian special army unit, said his troops had suffered heavy losses in the narrow lanes around Bab al-Hadeed, near the towering Aleppo Citadel.

The militants had sophisticated weapons, especially sniper rifles, and they were professionals, said the commander who gave his name only as Ismail. Their resistance was very fierce. We had a lot of [deaths].

Standing in front of a cracked building with burn marks, he added: They were attacking us, killing us, and then running away  This area took us two days to liberate completely.

Behind buildings in one street, wood from traditional ornate windows clogged an alleyway. Political slogans and the names of armed opposition groups were scrawled on the side of a bakery.

A graffiti warning said: beware snipers and gave instructions on dodging bombardment. We will not fall. Down with Assad, was another slogan.

Maher Tashtash, age nine, said the bombardment had been frightening and rebels had told them they faced death if caught by the army. His brother Mohammed, 12, said they had hidden in the basement of the building until the fighting passed.

Ismail, the Tiger Force commander, said he was confident of a swift victory for Assads forces.

I think the operation needs a week, at most, to be concluded, he said.

READ MORE: What went wrong in east Aleppo?

Diplomatic efforts to reach a ceasefire have floundered, despite repeated discussions between Washington and Moscow, which back opposing sides in the conflict.

Russias foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov said Friday he hoped a truce deal could be reached soon, and Russian and US officials are to meet Saturday in Geneva.

But Lavrov added that military operations in the city would continue so long as rebels remained in Aleppo.

After a humanitarian pause, [the strikes] have resumed and will continue for as long as the bandits are still in Aleppo, he told journalists in Germany.

Rebels earlier this week called for a ceasefire and the safe passage of civilians to opposition-held territory elsewhere in Aleppo province.

But Syrias government and Moscow have rejected the possibility of opposition fighters remaining in the city, and Lavrov said the plan being discussed envisions disarmed rebels leaving with civilians.

Tens of thousands of civilians have already left Aleppos east for the regime-held west or districts controlled by Kurdish forces.

The UN estimates about 100,000 people are now squeezed into an ever shrinking rebel-held pocket of Aleppo with virtually no access to food, water or medical care.





Disappearances reported

On Friday, the UN said it had received reports that some armed groups were preventing residents from leaving, and government forces had arrested some of those who fled to regime territory.

While its very difficult to establish the facts in such a fluid and dangerous situation, we have received very worrying allegations that hundreds of men have gone missing after crossing into government-controlled areas, UN rights office spokesman Rupert Colville told reporters in Geneva.

Armed groups, including al-Qaedas former affiliate Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, reportedly abducted and killed an unknown number of civilians who requested the armed groups to leave their neighbourhoods, he said.

At least 409 civilians, including 45 children have been killed in the governments assault, according to the Syrian Observatory.

The war monitor with sources on the ground said another 113 people, including 35 children, have been killed by rebel fire on western Aleppo in the same period.

The UN General Assembly voted on Friday in favour of a non-binding resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Syria and humanitarian aid access. But the document was not expected to have much effect, with Britains ambassador describing it as too little, too late.
Bernard-Henri Levy makes the case for Western intervention, and we debate the future of Indian-administered Kashmir.

In this weeks UpFront, Mehdi Hasan speaks to French intellectual and author Bernard-Henri Levy, who defends Western military interventionism and calls for the US to intervene in Syria.

In the Reality Check, Hasan asks whether the Palestinian National Authority, created specifically to represent its people, is doing a poor job standing up for them.

And in the Arena, Professor Ather Zia and writer Sualeh Keen, both originally from Indian-administered Kashmir, debate the case for independence.

Headliner  Should the West intervene in Syria?

Since the turn of the century, the US has militarily intervened in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya.

Should they also intervene in Syria?

According to Bernard-Henri Levy, the answer is yes.

This, for me, is the absolute embodiment of evil today, says Levy. I will ask forgiveness the rest of my life to the coming generation to have been witness of what is happening in Aleppo and not having been able to prevent that.

When asked by UpFront host Mehdi Hasan about the post-intervention chaos in Libya, Levy rejected the comparison.

It is still chaos, but nothing comparable with Syria, says Levy, who called for military intervention against then-Libyan President Muammar Gaddafis brutal crackdown on protesters during the Arab Spring. The colossal spread of blood today is in Syria. The absolute nightmare is in Syria.

In this weeks Headliner, Levy defends his support for Western interventionism.

Reality Check  Is the PA helping or hurting the Palestinians?

Its coming up to 50 years of occupation for the West Bank and Gaza.

More than two decades ago, the Palestinian Authority, or PA, was established as part of the Oslo Accords to represent the Palestinian people.

Nowadays, the PA is finding its support dwindling. Six in ten dont approve of President Mahmoud Abbas, and eight in ten believe the PA is corrupt, according to a 2015 poll.

In this weeks Reality Check, Mehdi Hasan looks at how the PA isnt representing Palestinians as well as they would hope.

Arena  Is self-determination in the cards for Kashmiris?

Indian-administered Kashmir is one of the most militarised places in the world.

Recent violence between demonstrators and Indian security forces in the disputed region left at least 80 civilians dead and about 12,000 wounded. One group even accused Indian forces of human rights abuse.

And, according to a 2010 poll of Kashmiris, a clear majority preferred independence or joining Pakistan.

Given the violence and allegations of human rights abuses, is it time for Indian-administered Kashmir to seek independence?

Kashmir is an idea whose time has come, says University of Northern Colorado Professor Ather Zia, originally from Indian-administered Kashmir. I think Kashmiri people have given a referendum in blood, and these past three months have proved that.

When we address this dispute as a Kashmir issue, we are doing an injustice to the whole lot of people who are not Kashmiri, says writer and cultural critic Sualeh Keen, who supports joining India and is also originally from Indian-administered Kashmir. The demand for cessation is only confined to a certain section of people within the [Kashmir] Valley.

In this weeks Arena, Zia and writer Keen debate independence in Indian-administered Kashmir.

Follow UpFront on Twitter @AJUpFront and Facebook.










English News Bengaluru, India: Will foreign media (debarred by RBI) & others enlighten the world about illegality & inhumanity of demonetization?

Alwihda Info | Par Hem Raj Jain - 10 Decembre 2016



Sub:- (i)- Even so-called leader of free World US Presidents Obama & Trump are silent on harassment (including ~ 100 killed) of largest democracy of the World (ii)- Like Members of Parliament, Indian media etc are also protecting constitutional & other authorities in this criminal demonetization.



---- In a surprising move, journalists from The Economist magazine, BBC, Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Indian media organizations like Firstpost were kept out of December 8, 2016 press conference of Reserve bank of India (RBI) by its Governor Urjit Patel. Though the Economist magazine's Mumbai correspondent Stanley Pignal reportedly said the official reason given by RBI's spokeswoman was that they "can't accommodate all media anymore" and that it had nothing to do with the critical coverage of demonetization by the magazine.



But anybody who knows how demonetization has flopped and how it has caused grave & gross harassment and torture (including ~ 100 deaths) of innocent 99 % of ~ 1.3 Billion people of India and how Government of India (GOI) led by PM Modi has succeeded in ensuring the silence of political parties, political commentators, academicians, Indian media etc and even of Member of Parliament (MPs) about illegality of this draconian demonetization, GOI knows and fears that it will bring Modi government down if foreign media high lights the illegality of this demonetization (in addition to it being neither intelligent nor humane as per Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen too).



Moreover if this trend of RBI (which can be only due to pressure of GOI on RBI) continues where the RBI has banned a section of criticizing media from its press conferences, then it is merely a matter of time that the other government agencies will follow the suit. Hence this is not a one-off incident and if not reversed then the future of India (the largest and only secular democracy in this highly volatile region) would be bleak.



Such an open loot and legalized plunder through demonetization (as per former Prime Minister and former RBI governor Manmohan Singh too) has been possible due to simple reason that world leaders (including so-called leader of free World the US Presidents Obama & Trump) are silent on this all pervasive persecution of Indians by constitutional and other authorities of India. These World leaders are naively forgetting that the pampering and protecting the criminal constitutional & other authorities of India at the cost of innocent 99 % of ~ 1.3 Billion people of democratic India will not serve the interest of their country in the long run.



In such a dismal and hopeless situation for Indians, the foreign media can help the beleaguered Indians if foreign media high lights the illegality of this draconian demonetization as given below:-



(1)- ID was illegally demanded from the bearer of the notes while replacing old notes with new notes despite mention on the notes by RBI Governor that I promise to pay to the bearer of Rs 500 & 1,000 notes, which were demonetized.



(2)- The GOI and its political and other defenders are spreading a canard that under Section 26 (2) of Reserve Bank of India Act this demonetization and after that whatever GOI & RBI have been doing is legal, but in reality& in law it is wrong. The Section 26 (2) of RBI Act reads as  On recommendation of the Central Board the [Central Government] may, by notification in the Gazette of India, declare that, with effect from such date as may be specified in the notification, any series of bank notes of any denomination shall cease to be legal tender [save at such office or agency of the Bank and to such extent as may be specified in the notification].



(3)- In Section 26 (2) of RBI Act - and to such extent as may be specified in the notification - is most important. If RBI or its office or agency (like Post Office and Banks) refuse to exchange the old notes with new notes by saying that there is no currency available (as per extent or limit say Rs 2,000 or 4,000 per day etc specified in the notification) then Court should have declared RBI (through its office or agency) as Bankrupt (because it is unable to repay outstanding debts) and should have further declared such Immediate-cutoff-demonetization illegal.

[Because this extent, as specified in the notification, when un-fulfilled (that too and especially regarding currency) would violate constitutional fundamental right of life & liberty of the people under Article 21 and also the constitutional right to property under Article 300A which says no person shall be deprived of his property (currency etc) save by authority of law].



(4)- The observation on November, 18 by Supreme Court of India - that if situation (about availability of currency at Post offices and Banks) does not improve then there may be riots - is precisely the situation where Court should have declare RBI bankrupt and this demonetization [where Rs 500 and 1,000 notes were cutoff (denied as legal tender) at the notice of 4 hours in the night], illegal. For this dereliction by Supreme Court of India (SCI) it should have been impeached by Parliament under Article 124 (4) of the Constitution.



(5)- If any driver kills some body by car / truck due to negligent driving or an organizer of public event neglects security precautions with the result people die in fire accident then such negligent driver and organizer etc are prosecuted and punished under Section 304 A of IPC. Therefore Government of India (GOI) led by PM Modi (including its Cabinet) and RBI officials are legally expected to be prosecuted under Section 304 A, 34, 120 (B) of Indian Penal Code (IPC) for causing death by negligence (of not making adequate preparation for replacing old notes with new notes promptly and due to their this negligence ~ 100 people have died and practically entire India is suffering).



(6)- There is one more constitutional violation has been done by President and Prime Minister. India has Cabinet system of governance where Cabinet approval of major decisions is to be taken pre-facto. But Finance Minister Arun Jaitley (during TV interview) told that he also knew little bit about demonetization. Moreover this week in an interview to a TV Channel Finance Minister of Bengal Amit Mitra said that a senior Cabinet Minister told him (when Mitra was in Delhi for a meeting) that he and other Cabinet Ministers knew about demonetization only through TV address of PM Modi when PM MOdi announced on November 8, 2016 about demonetization.



(7)- President Pranab Mukherjee (who was also Finance Minister of India hence knows the devastating implications of such sudden banning of 86 % of currency) is legally expected to know about such non-approval of cabinet about de-monetization and was expected to take appropriate action under Article 78 of the Constitution to stop such illegal demonetization . But he failed to do so which has put entire India in such agony and for which President should have been impeached by Parliament under Article 56 (1) (b) of the Constitution.



(8)- On November 28, 2016 Deputy Leader of Upper House of Parliament (Rajyasabha) Anand Sharma (of Congress party) raised Point-of-order saying that Government of India is carrying out demonetization since November 8, 2016 illegally / unconstitutionally because it is violating Article 21 and 300 A of the Constitution. There is on more important legal point which was raised on November, 28 by Leader of Opposition Gulam Nabi Azad (of Congress party) that Cabinet (including Finance Minister) was not kept in the loop by PM Modi in demonetization process with the result people are dying and suffering . But these leaders and other MPs in Parliament have still not pressed the point of order about Article 21, 300 A and 78 of the Constitution and Section 26 (2) of RBI Act and Section 304 A, 34, 120 (B) of IPC.



Therefore if foreign media (debarred by RBI) & others can enlighten the world about illegality & inhumanity of demonetization [by insisting on the need to bring constitutional and other authorities (namely President, Prime Minister and his cabinet Supreme Court Judges, RBI officials) to justice {under Article 21, 300 A, 78, 56 (1) (b), 124 (4) of The Constitution and section 26 (2) of RBI Act and section 304 A, 34 and 120 (B) of IPC} so that nobody can dare to kill and harass the Indians in this and similar manner in future], then innocent 99 % of ~ 1.3 Billion beleaguered people of India will always be grateful to such friendly foreign media.



Regards



Hem Raj Jain



(Author of Betrayal of Americanism)



Bengaluru, India



Dans la meme rubrique : < > China's sports industry on fast track of development China makes new progress in research on "artificial sun" Trunk market springs up in Chinese cities Pour toute information, contactez-nous au : +(235) 99267667 ; 62883277 ; 66267667 (Bureau N'Djamena)










English News Cameroon: Excessive force that led to deaths of protesters must be urgently investigated

Alwihda Info | Par Amnesty International - 9 Decembre 2016





Authorities in Cameroon must investigate the use of excessive and unnecessary force that led to the deaths of between two and four people during a protest in the north western city of Bamenda yesterday, Amnesty International said today.



Eye witnesses recounted that security forces fired live rounds and teargas in reaction to people throwing stones, describing how they saw the bodies of two men who had been shot dead. Media reports quoting police sources have reported that at least four people were killed.



Security forces were also seen launching teargas into an area apparently unrelated to the protests, as well as firing live ammunition in the air.



Authorities in Cameroon must shed light on the circumstances of these killings and injuries by immediately conducting thorough, impartial and effective investigations. Those reasonably suspected of criminal responsibility for these deaths must be brought to justice, said Ilaria Allegrozzi, Amnesty Internationals Central Africa Researcher.



We call on the Cameroonian authorities to refrain from the use of unlawful force in its response to the protests. Responding to incidents of violence during protests with unnecessary or excessive force threatens to further enflame an already tense situation and could put more lives at risk.



On the morning of 8 December protests were held in Bamenda with the aim of blocking a ruling party meeting. This was part of a continuation of demonstrations that began in late October 2016 in several cities in English-speaking south-west and north-west Cameroon against the use of French in courts and schools.



According to information received by Amnesty International, in various neighbourhoods of Bamenda security forces attempted to prevent the gatherings and used tear gas and water-canon to disperse protesters. At about 10.30 am the police barricaded the entrance to the commercial avenue where people were gathering. A police station was burnt by protesters yesterday afternoon, reportedly between 3 and 5 pm.



Security forces also reportedly fired tear gas onto the main Bamenda market where no one was protesting. Eyewitnesses told Amnesty International:



Market sellers were sitting at the main gate leading to the market when the police came and decided to break windscreen and put down bikes parked there and firing teargas.



Sellers were saying: we dont know what we have done wrong, we are just selling at the market. When police fired tear gas, sellers and bystanders ran into the market and locked the main gate and you could see all the smoke and vapours from the tear gas [inside].



Dans la meme rubrique : < > China's sports industry on fast track of development China makes new progress in research on "artificial sun" Trunk market springs up in Chinese cities Pour toute information, contactez-nous au : +(235) 99267667 ; 62883277 ; 66267667 (Bureau N'Djamena)
The last month has seen a variety of financial regulators articulating their views concerning fintech. Their interest signals greater regulatory certainty for innovative firms looking to have national platforms. But these firms may soon learn that regulatory acceptance is a mixed bag.

In just the last few weeks, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency announced that it will craft a process for approving limited-purpose bank charters for fintech firms. The Securities and Exchange Commission held a fintech forum where SEC Chair Mary Jo White discussed the work of an agency working group on fintech issues. The Federal Reserve held a financial innovation conference where Gov. Lael Brainard discussed the Fed's ability to shape and regulate this developing market.

The agencies' statements have rightly been a careful blend of the need to foster market innovation with the obligation to maintain a safe and sound financial system. The OCC's announcement, in particular, represents the most tangible regulatory development for fintech companies. But whether this will be a panacea for fintech companies is still to be determined.

Fintech is not a shiny new object attracting attention in 2016. Its fight for market and regulatory acceptance has played out over two decades. An avalanche of press and attention regarding digital financial services erupted in the 1990s as financial technology burst into our lives with a continuous line of new products. Digital technology seemingly became the acknowledged platform for the future of financial commerce almost overnight.

Mondex unveiled its stored-value wallet in Swindon, England, in 1995. The decade also saw the emergence of DigiCash, which began pushing the benefits of anonymous digital payments. There seemed to be a runaway train that could not be stopped.

But then the reality of the need for market and regulatory acceptance set in. New financial technologies would require, for example, new hardware to replace current point-of-sale terminals for every merchant in the country. This would demand enormous capital that was not to be forthcoming from merchants. John Reed, then CEO of Citibank, threw cold water on the digital land rush when he predicted that consumers' inclination to adapt to new technologies in the financial services business would be generational and evolve over several decades.

Reed's assessment was spot on.

We are closer now to both market and regulatory acceptance. It took this long because consumers all have an emotional relationship with their money and changes in their financial habits occur over long periods of time. They also balance the cost and convenience of new technological products with consumers' confidence in them.

It takes time to secure consumers' absolute confidence in new products. Just because a new technology exists does not mean that anyone really wants to use it. Finally, regulators needed to be sure that marrying fintech and financial services will not lead to unanticipated and uncontrollable institutional or systemic risks.

While working on my book on electronic banking in 1995, I visited Swindon and interviewed a man living there about the Mondex digital wallet experiment. Mondex had outfitted a substantial number of the merchants in town with new hardware and distributed electronic wallets and smartcards already loaded with digital cash to residents. He found the experiment curiously interesting, something like a video game. But he saw no need whatsoever to ever use digital money; he had cash and a credit card in his pocket, and they worked perfectly fine. In fact, his credit card earned him airline miles.

At that time, I also talked to regulators. The then-head of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network suggested that anonymous currency had no place in a safe and sound monetary system  and this was before 9/11. Predictably, DigiCash filed for bankruptcy and liquidated in 2002. Mondex is now one of many products offered by Mastercard.

Now that the OCC has announced it will consider applications for a special charter, the real work and analysis will begin as the agency identifies the standards for obtaining and maintaining a charter. There will and should be no free pass from intensive regulation for fintech charters. Federal deposit insurance, access to the payments systems and federal preemption will come at a significant operating price. Firms will experience cradle-to-grave prudential regulation. In some cases, that regulation may offset the financial efficiencies that a charter creates.

The transition to a regulated company is often a startling cultural and operational change. It certainly is not for the faint of heart. Banklike prudential regulation can subordinate the wishes of management and owners to the extent that it can determine what a company will be able to do, how much capital it must hold, when it can pay dividends, and when and how it exits the business  voluntarily or not.

There is likely to be more years logged on fintech's journey. The interests of consumers, traditional depositories and financial intermediaries, and the overall safety and soundness of financial markets, will need to be balanced against the capabilities and interests of financial technology companies.

Fintech charter applicants will be well served to carefully consider the decision to contribute their assets to the public scrutiny and control of federal regulation.

Thomas P. Vartanian is the chairman of the financial institutions practice at Dechert LLP, an international law firm, and a former regulatory official at two different federal banking agencies. He co-wrote the textbook "21st Century Money, Banking & Commerce."
Banks have faced an ever-growing number of lawsuits in recent years accusing them of violating consumer protection laws while trying to collect debts.

But lawsuits can be costly and time-consuming for all parties, so many plaintiffs' attorneys are now trying to win quick settlements for their clients by simply threatening banks with debt collection lawsuits.

It's the latest headache for banks when it comes to the unpleasant task of collecting unpaid debts. Many industry sources say the number of so-called pre-litigation demand letters has soared in recent months, with at least one plaintiffs' attorney admitting that he sends about 250 such letters per month.

Banks and their own attorneys have varying ways they respond. Some say the best course of action is to ignore the letters and hope the trial lawyers target another institution.

Often banks will decide to settle, if it turns out there's a legitimate basis for a complaint. But some attorneys say the best approach is to engage an attorney who has sent a letter, discern whether there's a problem and attempt to fix the bank's internal operations. That approach can actually help a bank beef up its compliance procedures, said Charity Olson, an Ann Arbor, Mich., attorney who represents banks in debt collection matters.

"One of the first things an examiner may ask is for an audit of all the consumer complaints you have received," said Olson, whose debt collection clients include two credit card lenders: the $11 billion-asset Comenity Bank in Wilmington, Del., and the $1.5 billion-asset First Premier Bank in Sioux Falls, S.D.

"If the bank's response is that they don't keep track of that, that would be problematic," she said.

Debt collection practices have come under heightened scrutiny in recent years amid consumers' claims of abuse by lenders and collection agencies.

In July the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released a plan that would limit debt collection agencies to six collection attempts per week and to require confirmation of a debt before contacting a consumer.

But that proposal applies only to collection agencies, debt buyers, collection law firms and loan servicers, not banks or credit card lenders. The CFPB is expected to convene a separate review panel to come up with debt collection guidelines for banks and credit card companies, though how that plays out with Donald Trump in the White House and Republicans controlling the House and the Senate remains to be seen. Since November's election, financial industry groups have called for Congress to overturn any new rules from the CFPB.

In the meantime, banks face an extremely active plaintiffs' bar, which has stepped up its fight against financial institutions over alleged unfair consumer debt collection practices.

Figures on the number of pre-litigation demand letters filed against banks are not publicly available. But court cases are trackable and those numbers have soared. Through Oct. 31, lawyers have filed 4,164 lawsuits nationwide claiming Telephone Consumer Protection Act violations, a 34% increase from a year earlier, according to WebRecon, a Grand Rapids, Mich., firm that tracks debt collection litigation. Lawyers filed 3,285 lawsuits claiming Fair Credit Reporting Act violations, a 9% increase over the same period. WebRecon's litigation figures include claims made against banks, as well as debt collection companies.

It makes sense that lawsuits and demand letters are both on the rise, as the two methods feed off each other, said Jack Gordon, WebRecon's CEO.

"The smarter attorneys cultivate clients that they can represent over and over again through the years, in whatever form makes the most sense," Gordon said.

Lawyers use the letters to protest banks' collections activities on all types of consumer loans, including auto, student loans, mortgages and unsecured loans. Institutions targeted include the country's largest banks, as well as community banks and credit unions.

A pre-litigation demand letter often reads like a form letter intended to be sent to hundreds of recipients, with names added in fill-in-the-blank spaces. In these letters, lawyers will offer an invitation to the bank to respond to allegations of legal violations, before a lawsuit is filed. The bank can avoid the expense of a lawsuit by paying a settlement, typically between a few thousand dollars and up to $50,000 and higher.

If a bank's compliance or risk management department receives such a letter, they should ask in-house or outside counsel involved to draft a letter laying out the law and facts to show "why we're convinced that the financial institution is not liable," said Bill Repasky, an attorney at Frost Brown Todd in Louisville, Ky.

"You want to create the clear understanding that your bank is not low-hanging fruit," said Repasky, who represents community banks in debt collection matters. "If we create the impression that we are not going roll over with an easy settlement, they often will leave us alone and move on to softer targets that have settled with them in the past."

Other lawyers advise banks to eschew direct confrontation with consumers' legal counsel. During a recent seminar hosted by AccountsRecovery.net and WebRecon, an attorney with the debt collections company Stoneleigh Recovery Associates suggested that banks and other collections firms should not respond to a demand letter from a plaintiff's lawyer.

Many bankers will take that approach because they don't want to be held personally responsible, as the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act assigns personal liability to bankers, said Neal Salisian, an attorney at Salisian & Lee in Los Angeles. Some bankers fear that simply responding to a letter would make them personally liable, he said.

"It's a scary situation for a lender or their counsel," Salisian said. "You don't want to fall into a nightmare scenario where you now owe them money."

Ahmad Sulaiman, a Chicago attorney who has sued banks for alleged consumer lending violations, said he only sends a threatening letter if his consumer client has received court approval for a bankruptcy plan. If the bank then keeps asking his client to pay off a debt, he said has no other option but to sue.

"When they continue to contact our client and harass them, that's when we're forced to bring suit," Sulaiman said. "It's rather sad. Many of our clients are tormented by these debt collectors."

Banks can view the demand letters as a way to pinpoint actual problems and make needed corrections, Olson said. Or, they can be a way to provide firm evidence to regulators that a bank is abiding by its rules.

"I have found these pre-suit demand letters to be a rich source of identifying issues that need to be addressed," she said. "And if there isn't a real issue, then it's an opportunity to showcase your compliance efforts to your examiners."
Jill Stein makes a perfect casting choice for the outlandish reality television series, Bridezilla.

She possesses all the requisite antisocial behavior of a selfish bride-to-be on a mission to pull off a fantasy dream of her own making. Nothing gets in the way of Ms. Stein being demanding or acting oblivious to the effect shes having on those caught in the crossfire of her recount campaign.

Just ask the good folks in Wisconsin.

Like a compulsive bride, Stein wanted everything to be perfect before the big launch and got a little crazy going before the Wisconsin Electoral Commission. She demanded a recount by hand, and she wasnt going to take no for an answer. That kind of attitude can really cost the American taxpayer.

The Green presidential candidate filed a lawsuit against the State of Wisconsin insisting on a hand recount and (in this case) expecting everyone else to pick up the tab which would include her attorneys' fees. It was like a scene right out of a Bridezilla sequence where the disgusted party guests try to sneak out early, but the bride blocks the entrance screaming: Brides Day, Brides Way! (which actually happened).

Her case was thrown out for complete lack of evidence by Judge Valerie Bailey Rihn. I follow the law, Judge Bailey-Rihn said, Thats who I am Its comforting to watch sanity reign supreme in a situation where the element of farce threatens to rule the day.

Many people find themselves hating the media spectacle of the Stein campaign, but they cant help themselves from watching it. And Stein is the gift that keeps on giving.

Like a bride taking too long to make a toast, Stein pontificates all over herself and -- in a Fox television interview -- all over viewers assuring them in a well-rehearsed speech that shes on a campaign to ensure the integrity of the electoral system and give the American people what they asked for.

That really is the frosting on the cake. If that was the case, Stein would not be launching her recount vote in a state -- Wisconsin -- with nearly the highest electoral rating for integrity in the nation, according to the Pew Election Performance Index. It is such poor form to suggest otherwise. Stein targeted the Badger State -- barking up the wrong tree -- because of the very thin margin of votes in favor of Donald Trump.

None of this matters to Stein. Its her campaign and she gets to do what she wants: That means more than 2,000 county employees are stuck in the bureaucratic trenches working nights and evenings to satisfy the petition of the Green candidate as we head into the yuletide season. Many of them will be working 12-hour shifts, confirmed Mr. Reid Magney, spokesman for the Wisconsin Election Commission. They will be all consumed by the recount for nearly two weeks, Magney added. The deadline is December 12.

Its not very polite to keep mention moneying to the campaign participants, but Stein simply cannot help herself. She keeps moaning about the exorbitant fees charged by states where shes demanding a recount. Her down-payment is $3.5 million in the dairyland state, but it could go higher. Lets face it -- were talking about a big state involving more than 72 county clerks and 1,854 municipal clerks, and hiring additional staff to process the 2,975,313 ballots. Its not like shes the one being magnanimous and offering everyone party favors.

Still the party may very well be over for Stein. Michigan refused to move forward with the ballot recount, according to a ruling by U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith. The judge reported that Stein, with less than 1 percent of the vote, fails to qualify as an aggrieved candidate under Michigan law. Stein is definitely wearing out her welcome with voters on both sides of the aisle.

Now shes awaiting the decision from Pennsylvania to determine whether her recount effort will move forward. In the meantime, her team has not produced any evidence of hacking, but Stein takes the liberty of describing the electoral system as a national disgrace.

At this juncture, Stein may wish to consider a career move and launch her own reality television series, Steinzilla.
Israel, through no fault of its own, is a pariah nation almost completely surrounded by larger nations that do not even recognize the existence of the State of Israel. Iran routinely refers to Israel as the "Little Satan," and European nations typically take overtly anti-Israeli policies to curry favor with Islam. Yet Israel is not alone in being disparaged for no reason other than that it is small and its enemies are large.

Taiwan, the Republic of China, is a free land that has political and civil values precisely like what we ought to want the rest of the world to have. Freedom House has only two nations in Asia stretching from Sinai to Sakhalin listed as "Free," Japan and Taiwan, which has a freer press than even Israel or South Korea. The contrast between Taiwan and most nations in Asia is as stark as the contrast between Israel and the nations surrounding it in west Asia and north Africa.

Freedom House gives Taiwan the "1" rating (the highest rating) for political rights and "2" for civil rights, exactly the same rating as Israel. China, by contrast, is listed as "unfree," the worst category, and it has a "7" rating (the lowest rating) for political rights and a "6" (the second lowest rating) for civil rights.

Taiwan is a prosperous land, despite the absence of natural resources. The island's per capita GDP is $47,000 per year  higher than Germany or France or Canada  and just as Taiwan is as free and democratic as Israel, Taiwan is as prosperous as Israel, despite, like Israel, having no real wealth except the diligence and intelligence of its people.

The per capita income in China is that is 30% of the per capita income in Taiwan. The per capita income of Jordan and Egypt, to pick two peaceful nations as close to Israel as China is to Taiwan, is 30% of the per capita income of Israel. Indeed, Taiwan has a high per capita income than any nation in Asia  including Japan and South Korea  except Singapore.

Taiwan has no fewer than five political parties with seats in its national legislature and ten parties with seats in municipal or county government. Tsai Ing-wen, elected like Trump earlier this year, was the first woman to be elected president of the Taiwan, and real feminists (there aren't any, of course) would be thrilled that Trump talked to her when Obama and Hillary did not.

Our attitude toward Taiwan reeks of the same sort of sick double standard we are used to seeing in how nations that ought to know better deal with Israel. Both states represent the answer to virtually all our national security and diplomatic problems. Indeed, Taiwan and Israel are, in a practical sense, our two best allies in the world.

But there is another reason to celebrate rather than timidly skirt around the success of Taiwan and Israel. The transformation of the rest of Asia and Africa into countries that embrace civil rights, democracy, peaceful prosperity, and friendly relations with all who will be friendly in return is the precise solution to the problems of the world.

If the rest of west Asia and Africa had the levels of freedom and liberty and prosperity that exist in Israel, our problem with global terrorism would largely vanish as the liberated peoples in these lands found better use for their sons and daughters than as suicide bombers. If the Pacific Basin from the shores of Asia to the coast of Latin America had the levels of freedom and liberty and prosperity that exist in Taiwan, the flood of illegal aliens across our southern border would slow to a tickle as these people found in their native lands a good place to live.

President Trump ought to continue what he seems to have started: not shrinking from our true and most logical friends in the world, Taiwan and Israel, but rather publicly recognizing the truth that these nations are models, not pariahs, and that despite daunting obstacles and enemies, both of these nations work in the way we wish all other nations worked.
Oleg Atbashian, the gifted satirist and artist who founded The Peoples Cube, has written a classic essay that deserves the widest possible circulation. "How I Became a Thoughtcriminal" is a personal account of growing up in the Soviet Union and discovering censorship, leaving it behind, and rediscovering it here. This is chapter one of the story:

Since my grandfather was Polish, we had a Polish dictionary and a language manual in the family library. Polish is also close enough to my native Russian and Ukrainian, so with some practice I was able to read Polish magazines, which were more interesting than the Soviet ones.

As a kid, I loved the Polish satirical magazine Szpilki. It wasn't widely available and their cartoons were often a lot more sexually charged than those in the Soviet print media, so my parents tried to keep them out of my sight. But seeing just one issue was enough to make me wonder why such things didn't exist in the Soviet Union.

It was possibly then that I first experienced adult thoughts about the existence of censorship. Seeing those magazines today wouldn't probably impress me that much, but at the time they turned me into a thoughtcriminal. I realized that a world without censorship was more fun to live in.

Granted, Poland was a reluctant Soviet satellite with heavily censored press. And yet Polish movies and books seemed more honest and revealing in just about anything, from sex to politics. Apparently the Poles enjoyed a little less censorship and a little more freedom that we in the USSR did. It was logical to conclude that if a little less censorship meant a little more fun, a world without any censorship whatsoever would be a blast. And that world existed just west of Poland - in Europe, America, and the rest of what we call Western societies.
I can't honestly say I'll miss Senator Barbara Boxer, even though I shared the same ZIP code for a couple of decades. In fact, I'm delighted to see her go. She was a crashing disaster as a lawmaker. This woman did more to destroy the environment in California (and across the country) than even Al Gore when she muscled through the Clean Air Act amendment in 1999 mandating gasoline additives supposedly designed to "clean the air."

What we got was MTBE pumped into our tanks, spewing out our tailpipes, which did nothing to clean the air. It did have an effect, though. MTBE poisoned hundreds of water systems across the state. The additive traveled from the pumps into wells, plumes, and holding tanks.

When the junior senator was confronted about the massive destruction statewide, Boxer's response was a shrugged "oh, well; we tried."

Thirty thousand KSFO radio listeners gathered on the west steps of the state capitol in Sacramento demanding a change. The late Senator Richard Mountjoy (R-Monrovia) and activist Jodi Waters, a housewife from Modesto, helped lead us.

"Can you hear us now?" was our full-throated roar to the frightened assembly of lawmakers as they peered down from their upper-tier balconies of the state capitol building.

I testified twice before the California legislature, where I and others were called "liars, wackos, kooks, and right-wing nuts."

All of this was done in the name of environmentalism...certainly not in the spirit of science. Senator Boxer's legacy has already been written, no matter what liberals say in their praise. She cost California billions in remediation of the poisoned water, jeopardized the health of our citizens and then flippantly dismissed us when she was proven wrong.

Teach your children that environmentalism from the government isn't always a good thing. (I'm talking to you, Ivanka.)

Melanie Morgan is an author, journalist, and former radio talk show host in San Francisco, Calif.
Democrats certainly have hacking and elections on their minds. So what was Jeh Johnsons Department of Homeland Security doing attempting to breach the firewall protecting the vote-counting secretary of states office in Georgia a few days after the election? Brian Kemp, the secretary of state in Georgia, wants to know.

Greg Otto of Cyberscoop reports:

Georgias secretary of state has claimed the Department of Homeland Security tried to breach his offices firewall and has issued a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson asking for an explanation.

Brian Kemp issued a letter to Johnson on Thursday after the states third-party cybersecurity provider detected an IP address from the agencys Southwest D.C. office trying to penetrate the states firewall. According to the letter, the attempt was unsuccessful.

The attempt took place on Nov. 15, a few days after the presidential election. The office of the Georgia Secretary of State is responsible for overseeing the states elections.

At no time has my office agreed to or permitted DHS to conduct penetration testing or security scans of our network, Kemp wrote in the letter, which was also sent to the states federal representatives and senators. Moreover, your department has not contacted my office since this unsuccessful incident to alert us of any security event that would require testing or scanning of our network. This is especially odd and concerning since I serve on the Election Cyber Security Working Group that your office created.

The Department of Homeland Security has received Secretary Kemps letter, a DHS spokesperson told CyberScoop. We are looking into the matter. DHS takes the trust of our public and private sector partners seriously, and we will respond to Secretary Kemp directly.
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was signed into law December 8, 1993 by President Clinton.

It virtually eliminated all tariffs and trade restrictions among Mexico, Canada, and the U.S. It passed because President Clinton got the GOP to finish the agreement President Bush had started. It also passed because it was an agreement rather than a treaty  i.e., no 67 votes!

Twenty-three years later, and NAFTA is good and bad. It depends on whom you ask.

My sense is that most business people like it on both sides of the border. That's what I hear!

At the same time, workers are not fond of it, here and south of the border. I hear that, too!

President-Elect Trump called it a terrible agreement. Frankly, a lot of people in Mexico agree with him, especially the small businesses that have been overwhelmed by the large U.S. chain stores or restaurants.

I remember living in Mexico in the 1980s and seeing a lot of homemade products made by artisans or small businesses. Today, a large metropolitan area in Mexico looks like one in the U.S.  i.e., McDonalds, Office Depot, and Walmart.

So where are we 23 years later?

Marilyn Geewax made this point a while back:

Over the years, polls have suggested most Americans don't much like NAFTA, and unions remain sharply critical. But economists generally say Clinton's prediction came closer to hitting the mark than Perot's. "I'd say NAFTA was an overwhelming success," said Sara Johnson, an economist with IHS Global Insight, a forecasting firm. "There are strong, two-way trade flows now." Since NAFTA took effect, trade among the three countries has more than tripled. And while millions of U.S. manufacturing jobs have melted away over the last two decades, economists attribute most of those losses to new technologies and Asian competition, not NAFTA. In fact, if not for NAFTA, even more jobs would have disappeared from this continent, Johnson argues. "Better to have jobs in Mexico than China" because Mexicans buy more of our services and goods, she said. Still, NAFTA has failed to deliver as many benefits as its most ardent supporters had expected, leaving the trade agreement with a relatively muted impact, according the non-partisan Congressional Research Service. "NAFTA did not cause the huge job losses feared by the critics or the large economic gains predicted by supporters. The net overall effect of NAFTA on the U.S. economy appears to have been relatively modest," CRS concluded. Still, it may be too soon to accurately assess the full impact of NAFTA. The deal's real legacy may emerge in coming years as more trade pacts get written and take effect. For good or ill, NAFTA has become a guide for shaping how countries conduct business with each other in the 21st century.

Down in Mexico, Ian Grillo reminds us that it's NAFTA, not the wall, that has a lot of Mexicans talking:

Nafta is not, however, universally beloved in Mexico, and the presidential candidates anti-trade talk has reignited criticism of the treaty, with some opponents claiming, among other things, that it devastates Mexican agriculture by flooding the country with cheap American corn. In August, tens of thousands of small farmers gathered in Mexico City with demands that included the redrafting of Nafta  a move that Mexicos economy secretary, Ildefonso Guajardo, has warned could open a Pandoras box. Indeed, the prospect of a revised Nafta has pundits weighing in with calls to put everything from energy to immigration into a new draft.

My sense is that a review of NAFTA would serve Mexico, Canada, and the U.S. rather well. In other words, it would allow each country to air out some grievances.

At the same time, we may realize that corporate tax reform and a more sensible regulatory environment will provide the biggest benefits for manufacturing rather than discarding NAFTA.

P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.
My alma mater, Yale University, embroiled in the latest P.C. controversy about the renaming of one of its dormitories, or residential colleges, named after John C. Calhoun, has announced a process under which students may petition to have the name of Calhoun College (or any other residential college) changed. One wonders if this will be only the beginning, rather than the end, because Yale itself is also named for someone connected to the slave trade: Elihu Yale.

This is hardly a new development, politically speaking, for Yale. In my day, there were fliers in big 50-point font, screaming, "LESBIAN IS LUSCIOUS!" posted in Yale Station. Morse College hosted a huge sculpture of a giant lipstick on a tank. The statue of Nathan Hale was regularly defaced on the Old Campus. An oval pool that dripped water seasonally called the "Women's Table" was put in front of Sterling Memorial Library. And people wore pink triangle buttons and even giant pink triangle sweaters as a fashion statement. Viewed in this light, the Calhoun controversy is only the latest iteration of the restless urge to find wounds on the basis of race, sex, and class.

First, the Calhoun controversy. I never thought much about the name when I attended, but now, with a groundswell arising to change it, I have to wonder why it was named for him in the first place. Most people generally know that Calhoun was a pro-South, pro-slavery advocate, but did you also know Calhoun was secretary of war under President Monroe? Did you know he was a vice president of the United States not just for one term, but for two? In fact:

He was the only Yale graduate to be elected to a federal executive office in the school's first two centuries, until the election of U.S. President William Howard Taft in 1909.

In that light, the decision to name a residential college after him in 1933 makes a little more sense, even if you and I in modern times would have probably chosen someone else. But students have now been given an avenue to appeal to change the name of Calhoun College.

On Friday, the university announced a new procedure for considering the renaming of university buildings, along with an official reconsideration of the controversial decision last spring to keep the Calhoun name. A new -- and final -- verdict is expected early next year. That policy requires anyone calling for a renaming to submit a formal application, including a dossier of historical research justifying the renaming according to a set of general principles created by an independent 12-person committee named in August by the universitys president, Peter Salovey, in response to continuing furor over the Calhoun decision.

Don't expect leftists to be satisfied if they score a victory there. Do you think that's the only name connected to the slave trade at Yale? What about Styles College, the dormitory named for another slave owner? (He did other things, too, but let's just call him a slave owner, okay?)

If Yale is opening the door to renaming its residential colleges, how can it stop there, when Elihu Yale, whom Yale is named for, was also involved in the slave trade?

As an official for the East India Company in Madras (present-day Chennai), Yale presided over an important node of the Indian Ocean slave trade. In the 1680s, when Yale served on the governing council at Fort St. George on the Madras coast, a devastating famine led to an uptick in the local slave trade. As more and more bodies became available on the open market, Yale and other company officials took advantage of the labor surplus, buying hundreds of slaves and shipping them to the English colony on Saint Helena. Yale participated in a meeting that ordered a minimum of ten slaves sent on every outbound European ship. In just one month in 1687, Fort St. George exported at least 665 individuals. As governor and president of the Madras settlement, Yale enforced the ten-slaves-per-vessel rule. On two separate occasions, he sentenced black Criminals accused of burglary to suffer whipping, branding, and foreign enslavement. Although he probably did not own any of these people -- the majority were held as the property of the East India Company -- he certainly profited both directly and indirectly from their sale.

So how can Yale stop at renaming residential colleges? The answer is that once it opens the door to this, it can't. Elihu Yale did good things and bad, but even though the university named for him is not (yet) associated in people's minds with the slave trade, just as Calhoun College is not, that will not be good enough. It will never be over for the left, even after Harvard and Yale become Che Guevara College and Obama U.

Ed Straker is the senior writer at NewsMachete.com. He graduated Summa Cum Laude from Yale with a degree in political science.
The Ghost Ship warehouse/artists colony fire makes for a compelling drama. And everyone knows that for a drama, you need villains, especially when a tragedy is as vivid as the horrible deaths of 36 mostly young adult creative explorers.

The mainstream media found a ready-made figure in Derick Almena, the man who rented the warehouse and set up the colony, whose solipsistic tweets focused on his own suffering, not the fire victims.

His appearance on The Today Show could be a textbook example for P.R. consultants to use in warning their clients who have just experienced a disaster.

But now that the news is out that this obvious firetrap, complained about by neighbors, was never inspected in the last 30 years, people, including many Oakland residents, wonder why the city government allowed this predictable tragedy to unfold.

Oakland mayor Libby Schaaf is understandably concerned about being perceived to have dropped the ball:

I want to be clear that we will not scapegoat city employees in the wake of this disaster. What we will do is give them clarity and support that they deserve, Schaaf said.

Support? Lets start with financial support. Our own Michael Bargo, Jr. looked up the pay lavished on the senior officials who should not have allowed this to happen and found some shocking information:

 in 2015, Craig K. Chew, the assistant chief of inspectors, made $362,211, $147,000 of which was "benefits." The Alameda County administrator Susan Muranishi made $729,162 in 2015, of which $313,503 was in "benefits," which included bonuses. The Alameda County sheriff, Greg Ahern, made $627,935 in that one year.

For that kind of money, and that kind of job security (notice that nobody has whispered a word about firing or even disciplining the public servants who allowed this travesty to happen by failing in their basic job duty for decades), can't we expect a level of commitment to duty above and beyond the ordinary?

So how did they do, these one-percenters? The East Bay Express reports:

Last Saturday morning, as first responders began to enter its smoldering rubble in search of victims, several Oakland Fire Department employees looked up the warehouses fire-code inspection history. But when they attempted to pull records for 1315 31st Avenue from their own fire-prevention bureaus files, they discovered nothing.



It's not even in the system, one firefighter said (he asked not be identified for fear of retaliation from the city for speaking out).



Since the tragedy, he and five other firefighters have explained to the Expresshow the department's building-inspection program, which should be the front line of fire prevention and safety, is dangerously under-staffed and disorganized.



In fact, there are just six fire inspectors for the entire City of Oakland, left to investigate more than 4,200 commercial and residential properties each year.



These firefighters also blamed Oakland Fire Chief Theresa Deloach Reed for failing to hire for key leadership positions in the fire prevention bureau. For years, the OFD also has been chronically under-funded. Firefighters told the Express that theyre made to work long, grueling overtime hours, because there are too few emergency responders to adequately protect the city without extra shifts.

Maybe it is understaffed because it pays the second banana inspector $362,000? I wonder if really good assistant managers might be available for half that amount?

But what about all those other hardworking city employees, the ones down in the trenches? CBS SF Bay Area reports:

 it has become clear that while both child protective services and even Oakland police officers had been inside the Ghost City warehouse, no one had contacted building inspectors about what they saw.

Its the old thats not on my job description mentality. I have noticed over the course of my life that this attitude, related to the work-to-rule tactic often adopted by public employees who are unable to strike, is limited to public employees and also workers at large, bureaucratic organizations on their way to decline and bankruptcy, unless revived and culturally changed by someone like Mitt Romney. It is a very common cultural pathology of rigid, ineffective bureaucracies.

I would really like to know if Mayor Schaaf thinks the police and child protective workers who saw the interior of the death trap and did nothing should not be scapegoated.
The Michigan federal court dismissed the Stein suit that requested a hand recount of the entire state, agreeing with the State Court of Appeals that Stein is not an aggrieved person. In plain English, this means that Stein has no chance of winning the Michigan election, so why bother doing a recount? If Hillary wanted a recount, then she should have requested it.

This means that with Michigan finished, there is no chance for Stein to overturn the election. It is over. She should drop her ridiculous suit in federal court in Pennsylvania, scheduled for a hearing on Friday, December 9. She has no evidence of fraud and is not an aggrieved person. The court should sanction her with court costs and award counsel fees and costs to Trumps attorneys and any other defendant for defending this frivolous suit.

Stein had originally filed suit claiming that the voting machines could have been hacked because someone had hacked the emails of the DNC and John Podesta. There was no evidence alleged that the machines were hacked, only the possibility.

But Steins website that asks for money raised the race card as the basis for the recount:

We are fighting Trump and the Michigan GOP in a battle that goes to the very heart of the struggle for voting rights in communities of color. Donate now to stand up for election justice and integrity. The attention brought by the recount campaign in Michigan is already raising red flags for the widespread disenfranchisement of voters of color in what amounts to a modern Jim Crow-type election system.



At stake are over 75,000 undervotes -- ballots that are filled out except the vote for president -- many of which are concentrated in communities of color in the Detroit area.



This unprecedented number of blank ballots may actually represent errors in the optical scanners that count the votes. According to a U.S. Civil Rights Commission report, voters of color are 900% more likely to have their votes misread or simply tossed out by human error or by badly maintained and poorly calibrated machines in underserved communities.

Thus, in court, Stein argues that someone hacked the voting machines. But to raise over $7 million, Stein argues that the voting machines do not properly read ballots of persons of color.

The question for Stein is, how does the voting machine or a person counting the votes know the vote was cast by a person of color?

If Stein were truly concerned with voter fraud, then she should support photo voter identification for all voters that verify that the voter is a U.S. citizen.
One of the reasons Democrats hate the Electoral College is that it limits voter fraud.

Generally speaking, high levels of illegal voting can occur only if the government looks the other way. Thats why voter fraud is more rampant in Democrat-run cities like Chicago and states like California than in rural Iowa.

Allowing voter fraud, of course, happens only if the people in power believe that the illegal votes will help them.

Thats why in the Florida recount of 2001, the Democrats were unconcerned about illegal ballots but desperate to ensure that military ballots werent counted. They knew that illegal votes would tend Democrat, and military votes would tend Republican.

Thats also why, in California, illegals were given drivers licenses in early 2016. If youve got a drivers license, its a lot easier to vote illegally, especially since the Motor Voter law means that people can register to vote when they get a drivers license.

Fortunately for America, the Electoral College limits how much the crooked politician in California, and Illinois, can impact the presidential election. No matter how many dead people vote in Chicago or how many illegal immigrants vote in California, the dishonest Dems in those states can impact only a limited number of votes in the Electoral College.

Without the Electoral College, Democrat machines in cities like Chicago and corrupt Democrats in states like N.Y. and California could simply churn out enough votes to ensure that their candidate is elected president.

Theyve done something similar before. In the 1960 election, the southern, Republican precincts in Illinois reported their vote tallies. Then, later, Cook County  home to the Democrat machine  precincts reported and produced just enough votes to ensure that Illinois went to Kennedy.

Republicans learned their lesson, and in subsequent elections, southern areas reported a few totals and waited for the city to report a few totals to ensure that the Democrats couldnt just magically produce the vote counts they needed.

When Democrats talk about democracy, theyre talking not about the choice of the American people, but of the choice of many illegal aliens, felons, and dead people.

To Democrats, all that matters is winning, and any technique they use is justified by the goodness of their cause. Thats why they reject the law this time and declare that the popular vote is all that matters.

Hence, in a world where Obamas DOJ wont investigate voter fraud, the Electoral College is our last protection against the many well established Democrat voter fraud machines.

You can read more of Toms rants at his blog, Conversations about the obvious, and feel free to follow him on Twitter.
I like Megyn Kelly, though I don't always agree with her. I think that at times she has been unfair to Donald Trump (and at other times, right on the mark). Listening to her interview for her new book, Settle for More, I was surprised to learn that she had received death threats because of her Twitter spat with Trump.

During their one-sided feud, Trump called Kelly a bimbo, a lightweight, a liar, crazy and sick; he urged a boycott against her show; his attorney retweeted a call to gut" her. Strange men turned up outside" her door, she wrote. Death threats were common." She, her husband and their three children vacationed at Disney World with an armed bodyguard in tow.

This isn't right. Even if Kelly is totally biased against Donald Trump, even if she was completely in the tank for Hillary Clinton, this is not the way to deal with her. The way to deal with Kelly is to take her arguments and expose her bias, point by point. You destroy the argument, not the person.

I don't believe that Donald Trump ordered his supporters to harass Kelly, and I don't think most Trump supporters were involved; but there is a dedicated minority who do this sort of threatening, bullying behavior, and it isn't an isolated incident.

When a union leader in Indiana was on the receiving end of a negative tweet from Donald Trump, he also received death threats. Chuck Jones, president of the United Steelworkers Local 1999, criticized Donald Trump's remarks about Carrier, and Trump returned the favor with a mild tweet criticizing Jones, saying he should work harder for his members. The tweet was not the problem, but the ensuing response was:

Half an hour after Trump tweeted about Jones on Wednesday, the union leader's phone began to ring and kept ringing, he said. One voice asked: What kind of car do you drive? Another said: Were coming for you. He wasnt sure how these people found his number. Nothing that says theyre gonna kill me, but, you know, you better keep your eye on your kids, Jones said later on MSNBC. We know what car you drive. Things along those lines.

This is not what civilized people do. We may not care about this today, because the ire is aimed at a hostile journalist, or a union thug, but what if this happens to someone we do care about in the future?

The solution for this is not for Trump to stop tweeting. In some ways, I find it refreshing that he takes on his enemies, like the New York Times.

The solution is for people who publish calls for violence on social media against Trump opponents to be denounced. If Trump supporters stay silent about this, they are little better than leftists who stayed silent when post-election mobs engaged in an orgy of violence; they are little better than black people who stay silent when Black Lives Matters commits violence in their name; and they are little better than Muslims who say nothing when radical Muslims commit murder.

Admittedly, it is not nearly the same scale  no Trump supporter has actually killed anyone (so far). But the ugly side of the movement has the potential to tar Trump and his supporters, and make the media's job of painting Trump supporters as Neanderthals that much easier. Thihs is why it needs to be denounced.

Ed Straker is the senior writer at NewsMachete.com.
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In the remote South Pacific, east of Papua New Guinea, and not far from Australia, lies a string of about nine hundred islands that make up the nation of Solomon Islands. Between 1941 and 1945, this swath of ocean witnessed some of the fiercest fighting between the United States and the Empire of Japan during the Second World War. At that time, the islands were under British rule, but were occupied by the Japanese and it became strategically important for the Allied forces to recapture them if the war in the Pacific was to be won.

The allies launched an offensive against the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy by swarming ashore the islands of Tulagi and Guadalcanal. The Battle of Guadalcanal became bloody as tremendous warfare waged on land, on sea and in the air. The Japanese suffered great losses: more 36,000 killed, missing or captured. Eventually, it wore the Japanese down and they withdrew completely in early 1943.

Photo credit: Kelsey Schwenk/Flickr

Most of the fighting took place around a body of water called New Georgia Sound, that runs approximately through the middle of the Solomon Islands. During the Pacific War the Sound was known as "the Slot" by Allied soldiers due to its geographical shape and the amount of warship traffic that traversed it. At the southern end of The Slot between Guadalcanal, Savo Island, and Florida Island, lies the wrecks of according to one estimate more than 200 ships, 690 air crafts and countless landing barges. This area is now called the Iron Bottom Sound because of the immense amount of twisted metal that lies on the sea floor. Now covered in coral and teeming with marine life, the wrecks attract large number of recreational and professional divers, as well as photographers. Most of the wrecks are too deep to be dived at but others are at each reach, and some lie exposed on the beach.

Some of the major wrecks of Iron Bottom Sound include the American cruiser Quincy, the Australian heavy cruiser Canberra, the Japanese aircraft carrier Kinugasa, the battleship Kirishima and the freighter Kasi Maru. Wikipedia has a partial list of ships wrecked at the Iron Bottom Sound. Each of these ships have a remarkable story.

PBS writes about one particular dive bomber, the American Douglas Dauntless that sank on July 23, 1943. That day, with Robert Bernard as his radio gunner, Marine Corps pilot Jim Dougherty set out to sink Japanese ships that were supplying local troops. As Dougherty swooped low over the island of Munda on a bombing run, he was hit by flak from one of the several guns on the shore. Dougherty managed to keep the plane airborne enough to reach the island of Rendova before it crashed on the lagoon and sank in 35 feet of water. When the wreck was rediscovered more than 50 years later, the 75-year old Dougherty returned to Solomon Island, and donning scuba gear, he swam slowly down to the wreck and sat in the cockpit one last time.

Map of the location of World War II shipwrecks in Ironbottom Sound in the Solomon Islands. Some wreck positions are not exactly known. Image credit: Wikimedia

The wreck of the Kinugawa Maru, beached and destroyed in 1942. Photo credit: www.guadalcanal.com

Wrecked aircraft, Guadalcanal, 1945. Photo courtesy of NZ433261 Ian 'Jungle' Forrester.

Pile of wrecked vehicles, Guadalcanal, 1945. Photo courtesy of NZ433261 Ian 'Jungle' Forrester.

Two Solomon Islanders in a traditional canoe wish using a large shell. Behind is the funnel and engine block of a WWII wreck. Photo credit: Antony Robinson/Flickr

Photo credit: Stefan Krasowski/Flickr

Sources: PBS / www.solomons-diving.com / Wikipedia / Wikipedia
OnePlus takes the cake this time around, they managed to beat other competitors from China and deliver a truly powerful device, while keeping its price at bay.

China is the largest market for smartphones in the world. This country is home to many, many smartphone manufacturing companies, many of which youve definitely heard of by now. Well, 2016 was great for most Chinese smartphone manufacturers, as theyve managed to sell quite a few devices, and have also introduced some really compelling smartphones. Speaking of which, its time to list our top three picks for this year, as we do every year, and in this particular article well choose three Chinese smartphones that we feel deserve to be at the very top. Before we begin, its worth noting that this was definitely not easy, Chinese companies have introduced a lot of compelling devices in 2016, but we had to choose a couple of them, so read on.

Winner  OnePlus 3T

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The OnePlus 3T is at the very top of our list for many reasons, the company managed to do it yet again, release a true flagship device on a budget. OnePlus actually did it twice this year, first they introduced the OnePlus 3 in June, and then the device listed here last month, the OnePlus 3T. The OnePlus 3T is a significant step away from the OnePlus One and OnePlus 2 as far as the design is concerned, and it looks identical to the OnePlus 3. This smartphone is made entirely out of metal, and its back cover is not removable. The OnePlus 3T might not be the most innovative smartphone in terms of the design, but it is really well-built and its also quite thin, as it measures only 7.4mm. Its rear-facing camera protrudes quite a bit, though, and that is probably the main issue with its design, if you consider that to be an issue, of course.

The OnePlus 3T was launched with a $439 price tag for a 64GB storage variant, and $479 for a 128GB storage model, and for that kind of money, you do get quite a lot in terms of specs. The device comes with a whopping 6GB of RAM, and it is fueled by the Snapdragon 821 64-bit quad-core SoC by Qualcomm, which is the companys flagship SoC. Now, add one of the fastest fingerprint scanners to that equation, and also really great performance thanks to an almost stock version of Android, and you have a winner here. Truth be told this handset comes with OnePlus OxygenOS on top of Android, but OnePlus only added some features on top of Android, and did not add bloat to the OS in any way, which is always a good thing.

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The OnePlus 3T also features a 5.5-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080) Optic AMOLED display, and comes with a 3,400mAh non-removable battery. The companys Dash Charge technology is also something that is worth mentioning when talking about the OnePlus 3T, as it is capable of charging up the OnePlus 3T from 0% to 60% in about 30 minutes, so thats a huge plus for the phone as well. The 16-megapixel OIS camera on the back of this device is quite capable as well, especially in the still images department, as it can shoot some really great photos, and its not exactly bad in low light either. All this combined with the price weve mentioned adds up to the best Chinese smartphone in 2016, at least in our humble opinion.

Buy The OnePlus 3T

Runner-Up  Xiaomi Mi Note 2

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Xiaomi had introduced five high-end smartphones this year, the Xiaomi Mi 5, Mi 5s, Mi 5s Plus, Mi Note 2 and the Mi MIX. Each of these smartphones has something different to offer to consumers and each of them is quite compelling in its own right, but our pick is the Mi Note 2, Xiaomis second-generation flagship phablet. This device is a direct successor to the Xiaomi Mi Note and Mi Note Pro devices which were announced back in January 2015. The Xiaomi Mi Note 2 features a curved display and it is made out of metal and glass, the phone actually resembles the Galaxy S7 Edge quite a bit, though it is bigger thanks mainly to its 5.7-inch display. Speaking of which, this is a Full HD AMOLED panel, and its quite a nice display actually. The Xiaomi Mi Note 2 features a home key below the display, and this button actually doubles as a fingerprint scanner.

Now, the Xiaomi Mi Note 2, much like every other Xiaomi-branded device out there, comes with the companys MIUI OS out of the box. The Mi Note 2, in particular, ships with the MIUI 8 OS out of the box, Xiaomis UI which is based on Android 6.0 Marshmallow. The Xiaomi Mi Note 2 also packs in 4GB / 6GB of RAM and comes in 64GB and 128GB storage flavors, though it is worth mentioning that the global variant comes with 6GB RAM + 128GB storage only, the 4GB RAM global model is not available. On top of all this, the phone is fueled by the Snapdragon 821, which is Qualcomms most powerful SoC at the moment, and gives the Mi Note 2 plenty of horsepower.

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Honorable Mention  Xiaomi Mi MIX

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The Xiaomi Mi MIX is a handset that managed to surprise pretty much everyone. This concept phablet was introduced alongside the Xiaomi Mi Note 2, and it comes with a 91.3% screen-to-body ratio, which is just crazy, at least for todays standards. The Xiaomi Mi MIX is made out of ceramic, and is basically a bezel-less display, it has a small chin below the display, but thats it, and thanks to that, the phone doesnt seem all that big despite the fact it comes with a 6.4-inch display.

In addition to the aforementioned display (which is Full HD by the way), the phone packs in 4GB / 6GB of RAM and 128GB / 256GB of storage, while it also comes with the Snapdragon 821, just like the Xiaomi Mi Note 2. This is a smartphone that probably wont become available outside of China, nor will it come with a global ROM, but it is so innovative and interesting, that we simply had to put it on this list. A number of other smartphone manufacturers are rumored to be working on a similar bezel-less device, and the Xiaomi Mi MIX could have something to do with that, because as we said, this phone was definitely not expected and it shows some serious innovation on Xiaomis part, which is always welcomed.

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The political ramifications of a change in American government will take some time to be fully understood, but this means that for the time being we are seeing investors (and industry pundits) becoming excited about the potential opportunities for companies under a Republican government rather than a Democratic one. One of these opportunities is that of a merger between Americas third and fourth largest carriers, T-Mobile US and Sprint, owned by Deutsche Telekom and Softbank respectively. In 2015, T-Mobile US overtook Sprint to become the third largest US carrier but both businesses have steadily been stealing customers from the larger two carriers, AT&T and Verizon Wireless.

More than a few years ago and around the time of the SoftBank acquisition of Sprint, the Japanese company also hoped to acquire T-Mobile so that they might be able to better compete with Verizon and AT&T as the two largest carriers in the US. However, hopes of this deal were effectively quashed when American regulators explained that they were fundamentally opposed to such a merger. As we now know, T-Mobile US changed how it ran its business, becoming the Uncarrier in 2013 and tackling the market in a different way. T-Mobiles Uncarrier set up has proven to be a disruptive influence in the market, as the carrier has steadily grown in subscriber numbers. However, some investors and commentators now believe that under the new administration from 2017, a merger between Sprint and T-Mobile US could again be on the cards. Weve seen stock prices of both carriers climb as investors have bought up stock on this speculation, especially as SoftBank announced it was to invest $50 billion into North America in order to create 50,000 jobs. President-elect Donald Trump made this announcement explaining that SoftBanks Chief Executive Officer, Masayoshi Son, would never do this had he not been elected.

One story doing the rounds was that this $50 billion was the sum necessary for SoftBank to buy T-Mobile US, take on its 50,000 staff and deploy 5G networking but research analyst MoffettNathanson does not believe that this merger makes financial sense. In this research note, MoffettNathanson explains that once the distortion is removed because of way each business accounts for handset leasing, Sprints stock has a significantly higher premium compared with T-Mobile US. MoffettNathanson explains: Perhaps the market will never go through the effort to figure out just how large these distortions are, but T-Mobile and its parent Deutsche Telekom certainly will. Essentially, Sprints stock price is so high that it is not an attractive business to buy. The analyst explores other scenarios where SoftBank directly buys T-Mobile US, based on the premise that the new administration will allow this merger, but the biggest problem here is in SoftBank being able to afford the deal. MoffettNathanson believes that this deal would pose a technical challenge for the Japanese company.

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The final, and very important points, are that T-Mobile US appears to be performing well as it tackles the US market. Sprint is making something of a recovery having solidified its financial position and is making inroads into subscriber numbers, which means the US regulators may not see a strong enough argument that these two businesses need to combine in order to effectively compete with AT&T and Verizon.
Google hasnt always had a strong presence in the enterprise market, and while you could likely find some small businesses and companies using Android devices for their work-related needs well before the platform started showing its enterprise chops, Android didnt really start emphasizing the fact that it was a great solution for business until Android Lollipop. Before than, it just wasnt business ready on a scale that it needed to be for competition against other solutions. Chrome OS was sort of in the same boat, but its had slightly more success breaking into the enterprise market and now remains one of the top solutions for education as well as with businesses, thanks to the offerings from Google Apps, which Google has now renamed to G Suite. Things are changing, and Google has plans to continue evolving the state of Android and Chrome OS as business solutions.

For the Android side of things, Google will be looking to simplify things by referencing Android for Work and Google Play for Work a little differently than their current name scheme. Specifically, Android for Work and Google Play for Work will no longer have the for Work terms at the end of the name, as both Android and Google Plays Enterprise-focused functions are now essentially just part of their respective ecosystems, so, theres no need to split them off in a sense by terming them differently. Given how developed both sections of Android are these days, it makes sense that simplification would be a good step forward in making Android as a whole a bigger force in Enterprise, and alongside making things more simple, it streamlines things a bit.

This is according to Rajen Sheth, the man at Google who has been behind the beginning of both Google Apps and Chrome OS launch, and recently spoke with Computer World about Googles efforts going forward in the Enterprise space. For Chrome OS and essentially, Chromebooks, they remain affordable options compared to computers that utilize other platforms, and thus have been able to continue growing a presence in Enterprise and Education. The viable nature of Chrome OS as a formidable and Enterprise-ready operating system is only going to get that much stronger, too, when you consider that Google has been ramping up their efforts to roll out Google Play and Android app access for the Chrome OS platform, which will open up a wide array of functions for businesses once the access is available on the stable channel, and ultimately make for a nice, well-rounded tool set for those businesses which also use Android for their mobile device platform.
The Google Home smart speaker has been on the market for a very short time and while the companys latest speaker is slowly making its way to users homes throughout the United States, the Mountain View-based tech giant is already looking towards the future. More specifically, Google is planning ways in which it can expand the functionality of its connected speaker. With that in mind, the company just announced that all developers will soon be able to start creating the so-called Conversation Actions for its smart speaker. As the companys Jason Douglas explained, these actions allow developers to deliver information, assistance, and other services to their users upon request. As their name implies, theyre also conversational, i.e. users activate them by voice. However, the best part of this new functionality is that Conversation Actions dont rely on specific skills or apps, they work without users having to install any particular plugin.

To demonstrate this new feature, the Google Home team debuted two simple Conversation Actions, talk to Number Genie and talk to Eliza. Now, as you may deduce from these two commands, Conversation Actions actually rely on third-party conversational bots. In other words, the reason why they work without installing any additional skills or apps is because theyre just a method for Google Assistant to redirect your query to another AI-powered bot hosted by another set of servers. Developers interested in trying out this new set of tools can do so by visiting the official Actions for Google website and registering for Googles early access partner program. Unfortunately, the Mountain View-based firm has yet to reveal when these actions will become fully available to all developers. For now, were told to expect this functionality in early 2017, while some select partners have already been approved and are working on new Conversation Actions as of right now.

Now, its worth noting that Conversation Actions are currently only supported by Google Home. While the Google Pixel and the Pixel XL also support Google Assistant, the mobile version of the companys AI-powered companion will receive this functionality at a later date, and the same goes for Google Allo. Looking even further towards the future, Google revealed plans to integrate bookings and other purchases into Google Assistant. So, if youre interested in starting developing solutions using these new tools, register for the companys early access partner program.
Over the course of this year, Facebook introduced a plethora of new features aimed at users interested in enhancing their photos and videos. Today, the social media giant debuted another similar functionality called the Camera Effects Platform. The basic idea of this new tool is to allow users to create custom profile frames for their photos. In addition to individuals on Facebook, the Camera Effects Platform is also compatible with Facebook Pages, meaning that their owners can create custom profile frames for users.

The new solution is rather simple to get used to and doesnt require users to be particularly tech savvy. You can create a PNG photo frame in any design tool, upload your creation to Facebook and make any final arrangements online. After thats said and done, submit your creation to Facebook and wait for your submission to be approved, which should take about a week. Once approved, the said custom frame will be available for everyone to use while its creator will be able to track its popularity online. Facebook stated that its accepting frames of all kinds, even those promoting businesses, events, and political causes. Of course, all custom frames still need to adhere to Facebooks terms of use and policies so none of them can promote anything thats illegal or considered offensive.

For now, the Camera Effects Platform is available to creators in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Mexico, Taiwan, and Colombia. As the Menlo Park-based company explained to TechCrunch earlier this week, natives of these countries are statistically using Facebook profile frames the most, which is why the social media giant chose these markets for testing its latest feature. As for Ireland in particular, Facebook is still testing its new camera in this market. In fact, the said camera serves as a basis for the Camera Effects Platform. The company confirmed more features will be added to this camera before the functionality rolls out worldwide. No further information has been given, but its reasonable to presume that Facebooks latest in-app camera will be available globally by spring. All in all, it remains to be seen whether users will be as enthusiastic about these new multimedia editing features as Facebook apparently is.
Android OS is one of the most popular mobile operating systems in the world among consumers, but Googles ambitions go beyond the consumer market and pass into enterprise. Googles solution for enterprise, dubbed Android for Work, was unveiled in February 2015, and by November 2015, Android for Work was present in over 19,000 businesses. More recently, however, Google discussed how it will move forward in enterprise and confirmed that  in a quest to simplify the ecosystem  terms such as Android for Work and Google Play for Work will no longer use the suffix for Work. Even more recently, Google launched a new webpage for Android enterprise, and published a video on YouTube showcasing how Android OS could be used by a variety of businesses.

Googles Android enterprise landing page focuses on three main benefits of using the Android operating system in the business field. Firstly, the company highlights Mobile first security, specifically how Android OS can help organizations confidently deploy devices for everyone, with multilayered protection, robust app security, and secure separation of business and personal data. The next highlight of using Android OS in enterprise is Collective intelligence. Googles AI (artificial intelligence) division made tremendous progress earlier this year when the companys DeepMind AlphaGo computer beat Lee Sedol in an epic series of Go matches, and with the latest Pixel smartphone lineup Google also pushed the limits of its mobile personal assistant even further. According to the enterprise page, Android incorporates the best of Google, from machine learning for malware detection and cloud security to artificial intelligence for smart, contextual assistance. Last but not least, one of the biggest advantages of using Android OS for enterprise is Tailored solutions. In other words, Android OS is a very flexible operating system and can be tailored to your business goals with a diverse, open platform and a powerful ecosystem of partners, devices and software. This means that businesses can run their own, custom apps on the Android platform, either on regular or custom hardware.

Google also highlights the benefits of Android OS in enterprise in a new presentation video dubbed Powering the worlds work devices. It showcases different types of hardware including smartphones and tablets taking advantage of the Android platform in the business environment, whether its a production line, a retail business, or a medical office.
Alphabets X division is a pretty secretive division. It houses all of the moonshots that the company is working on. These projects stay in X until they are mature enough to spin off on their own, which the Self-Driving Car Project might be doing rather soon. The Self-Driving Car Project has had a lot of changes in the past year or so. With a number of Googlers leaving, and having John Krafcik taking over. Krafcik was nabbed from Hyundai, so he definitely knows what hes doing in the Self-Driving Car Project, and is likely the only member of the team with experience in the automotive world.

Krafcik stated that the Self-Driving Car Project will be spun off onto its own very soon, and the project is making some key hires ahead of the spin off. The Self-Driving Car Projects new chief legal officer is Kevin Vosen who comes from The Climate Corporation. Google is also looking for a head of real estate, a person who would be securing new space for the autonomous arm after it graduates from X. These hires are important, even though one isnt actually official yet, and thats because it means that the division is looking to take care of things itself instead of needing to rely on X for things.

Whats the most interesting here though, is the fact that Krafcik and his team is actually looking for a dedicated place for the Self-Driving Car Project to live. Google has already bought a place in Novi, Michigan for the autonomous company, but that is mostly for R&D and testing out the software in different vehicles. As the reasoning behind picking that place was to be closer to their partners  which include Ford, Fiat Chrysler and GM, all of which are minutes away in Dearborn and Detroit.

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Krafcik does expect that the company is going to grow exponentially, both in the number of employees and in the geographical size as well. Which is why some of these hires are pretty important. Its a step forward for the Self-Driving Car Project, but even two months after Krafcik stating that the project is close to graduating from X, theres still very little known about when they will actually graduate and turn into its own company. Never mind what the actual name of the company will be.
According to latest reports from South Korea, Samsung SDS is close to selling its home Internet of Things (IoT) business to Allegion, an Irish provider of security products and services. Executives of Samsungs subsidiary have allegedly already informed their employees that a sale is on the horizon. Allegion has been negotiating with Samsung SDS for several months now over a sale of the companys smart lock business. However, in a surprising turn of events, the Dublin-based firm decided that its best to acquire the entire home IoT unit of Samsung SDS. Furthermore, Business Korea reports that both parties are willing to wrap up the deal as soon as possible as Allegion is already performing its due diligence and should give Samsung its initial valuation of the said home IoT unit by the end of the year.

Interestingly enough, this wouldnt be Allegions first acquisition in South Korea. Last year, the company purchased Milre Systek, the biggest supplier of smart door locks in the country. Milre Systek is now reportedly facing production issues as the companys lacking enough skilled workforce, which is why Allegion is looking to consolidate it with Samsung SDS home IoT unit. Of course, provided that the Irish company manages to acquire it. Most market watchers are baffled by this turn of events given how Samsung SDS was extremely enthusiastic about its IoT business lately. However, this move could be explained as a part of Samsungs long-term strategy to streamline its operations. Namely, Samsung Electronics is also running its own IoT division so its possible that the South Korean tech giant believes the two units are overlapping.

Samsungs new business strategy recently resulted in a sale of the companys printing business to HP, while the firm is reportedly also looking to sell its PC unit to Lenovo. Samsung opted for concentrating its operations a few months ago after the conglomerate lost approximately $3 billion following the second recall of the Galaxy Note 7. However, it isnt clear whether the said fiasco directly prompted this change in strategy given how $3 billion still isnt a lot for a company pulling in almost $200 billion in annual revenue. In any case, if Allegion and Samsung SDS manage to come to an agreement, this rumored transaction should be confirmed by spring.
An all-new Motorola smartphone seems to be in the pipeline if a recent tweet from tech journalist and tipster, Roland Quandt, is anything to go by. According to Quandt, who goes by the handle @rquandt on the microblogging site, Motorolas upcoming handset has an internal codename of Cedric and will come with Android Nougat pre-installed. The device will likely be an entry-level one, although Mr. Quandt seemed unsure about its exact hardware specs. However, according to his tweet, the device will have multiple model numbers (XT1670 / XT1671 / XT1675 / XT1676) and come in at least two different configurations  one with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage and another with the same amount of RAM, but 32GB of storage. Theres no word on whether the device will have a microSD card slot, but it will come in single and dual-SIM options, and with a 2,800mAh removable battery.

Cedric has been listed on the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) website as well, which tells us that it will be 144mm in length and 72mm in width, meaning, it is very likely going to have a 5-inch screen. Another point to note here is that the processor on the upcoming device is still unconfirmed, although Mr. Quandt says that it is likely to be the Snapdragon 430. If indeed that turns out to be the case, were looking at a fairly entry-level device that may very well replace or supplement one of the current-generation Moto E handsets that are in the market today. Either way, as mentioned already, the upcoming handset is said to come with pre-installed Android 7.0 Nougat, which should make it one of the first entry-level Motorola devices to feature the latest version of Android out-of-the-box.

Motorola, of course, will have quite a few of its smartphones running on Android Nougat in a few weeks time. Just the other day, the company revealed that it plans to update a slew of its recent devices to Android 7.0. The Lenovo-owned American brand already does a relatively decent job of updating its devices, and has already rolled out the newest version of Android to the Moto Z Droid and the Moto Z Force Droid. Users of some of the less expensive Moto devices will now be hoping that their devices, too, will get to taste latest flavor of Android at some stage going forward.
The Galaxy Note 7 just wasnt meant to be, but a small number of its owners are still holding onto it for various reasons. Theres not a lot of them, mind you, as Samsung just revealed that the Galaxy Note 7 recall program in the United States was relatively successful as over 93% of all units have so far been returned to the company, while all customers were either issued a refund or a replacement device. Now, the South Korean smartphone manufacturer and wireless carriers had to make some rather aggressive moves to get certain customers to return their potentially dangerous devices. Among other things, some mobile service providers already pushed updates which limit the Galaxy Note 7 charging capacity, while other OTA firmware upgrades introduced eye-drawing warnings stating that the said device is potentially dangerous and urging people to return it.

Now, a report from yesterday seemingly indicated that Samsung is getting ready to permanently brick all of the remaining active units of the Galaxy Note 7. That possibility has now been officially confirmed by the company. Namely, as Samsung explained in a short press release, consumer safety is the companys top priority which is why the largest phone maker in the world decided to issue an update that will render all remaining Galaxy Note 7 phones useless. More specifically, the update will disable the phones ability to charge and eliminate all of its mobile connectivity capabilities. In other words, Samsung is essentially bricking all of the unreturned units in a final effort to get users to bring them back.

The said update will start rolling out in the United States on December 19th. Samsung stated that all of the wireless carriers in the country will distribute it within 30 days following that date. In the meantime, Samsung will keep reminding consumers that the Galaxy Note 7 refund and exchange program is still live and urge them to take advantage of it. In other words, this is an even more aggressive version of the measure Samsung opted for in Canada where remaining Galaxy Note 7 units will only have their cellular connectivity disabled in the following weeks. So, if you still happen to have the Galaxy Note 7 at hand, return it to Samsung and get your refund or a replacement device before the company turns your phablet into an expensive paperweight.
The line between the consumer electronics and automotive markets is beginning to blur  at least from the suppliers point of view  and an increasing number of car manufacturers now rely on various consumer electronics companies for acquiring certain components. From South Korea, both Samsung Electronics and LG Group have gained an interest in the automotive electronics business, and according to a recent report from their homeland, both companies will be present at the next North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit next year, where they will showcase their products and compete for market presence.

While both Samsung and LG seem to share common goals in regards to winning over the automotive market, it becomes more and more obvious that each company has a different approach on how to achieve its target. As far as Samsung Electronics is concerned, the giant will reportedly be present at NAIAS starting January 8, 2017, where it plans to showcase its product and infotainment solutions at Harmans booth. Apparently, Samsung Electronics intends to use HARMANs booth in order to show a synergy between the two brands and their products, as opposed to having a dedicated booth of its own. For readers who may have missed this particular development, last month Samsung Electronics confirmed the purchase of HARMAN for the sum of $8 billion. However, reports say that Samsung SDI  the branch responsible for developing energy storage systems and renewable energy will have its own booth at the North American International Auto Show in order to attempt and expand its customer base in the automotive market. So far, Samsung SDI supplies batteries to numerous automakers including BMW, Bentley, Chrysler, Jaguar Land Rover, Mahindra, and Volkswagen. 2017 will be the fourth consecutive year for Samsung SDI to attend NAIAS.

As for LG Group, the conglomerate will apparently have a different approach at the car show. Reportedly, the companys subsidiaries  including LG Electronics, LG Chem, LG Display, LG Innotek, and LG Hausys  will have a private showroom where the company plans to demonstrate a variety of electronic components for the automotive industry, ranging from lithium batteries, infotainment systems, and heads-up displays to automotive designs and powertrains. However, unlike Samsung Electronics, LG Groups showroom will be open only to its customers. The North American International Auto Show will take place next year from January 8 to 22nd.
Its been a long haul, and an uphill battle no matter who you ask, but it looks like Google is finally getting ready to pull the trigger on delivery drones. The technology has been mostly there for some time, barring some regulatory hurdles, but only recently was it put to the test when Google ran a pilot program with drones delivering Chipotle cuisine to a limited subset of users in Virginia. That test was largely a success, and now it seems that Project Wing is not only getting off the ground, so to speak, but it will be easy for users to order what they want and see it literally fly to their door. Reports have come in about an upcoming Wing Marketplace, where participating vendors will offer up their goods for delivery, and by adding $6 on to your order, you can have a drone bring it to you. The first such vendor is set to be Dominos Pizza, but others are jumping on board, including places that wouldnt normally deliver. Talks fell through with Starbucks, which may put a damper on the services initial rollout, but that could be sorted out by the time it actually hits the skies.

Legal hurdles aside, Project Wing faces competition from Amazon, among others, who promises to be a worthy adversary, especially given their existing retail chops, something that Google does not have going for them except in the indirect form of Google Shopping. Project Wings very own market, the Wing Marketplace, wont be Googles first rodeo in regards to shopping, nor will it even be the first one where theyve collaborated on with various retailers to deliver goods to consumers who would normally have to make a shopping trip; Google Express holds that distinction. No, Wing Marketplaces big sell is that its drone-based. This screams early adopter, and rightly so; if you really want food and groceries delivered from places that wouldnt normally deliver, there are probably a few other ways to go about it. The Wing Marketplace is going to be all about user experience and, of course, the fact that users will be helping to make a statement to businesses and lawmakers; that drone-based delivery services are valid, and they want them. Of the possible methods for drone delivery on a massive scale, the same AI-based autopilot present in self-driving cars is proving to be the most popular choice, and policy thus far does not seem to favor such an approach, to say the least.

Drone delivery, or indeed any kind of mass, non-human controlled drone operation, still faces significant regulatory hurdles, but Google is determined to get the ball rolling and put food and other goods in the sky. While theyll be competitors once things are going proper, help from other delivery drone planners, especially Amazon, is going to be pivotal in deciding on standard practices for the burgeoning market space, and in convincing regulators to let our shopping lists take to the open skies. Google is under no delusion about just how things are at the moment; Google X director Astro Teller said as much, stating that Project Wing has faced many a hurdle since its inception, but he also said that the project is showing no signs of slowing down at the moment, and certainly wont be grinding to a halt any time soon. Much like what happened with self-driving cars, it seems that Google and others in the space are going to address regulatory hurdles as they come, and do as much development and testing as they can within the bounds of what is technically legal within testing territories.
Its been almost two months since Samsung discontinued the Galaxy Note 7 and issued a worldwide recall of the device, but the drama surrounding this fiasco is still not over. Quite the contrary, in fact. Namely, the South Korean tech giant has just confirmed plans to start bricking remaining units of the said phablet in the United States. In exactly ten days, the company will start rolling out an update which will prevent the phone from charging and eliminate its ability to connect to cellular networks. This decision marks Samsungs final effort to prompt users to take advantage of the Galaxy Note 7 refund and replacement program and return their potentially dangerous devices.

Now, in an unexpected turn of events, Verizon just issued a statement that it wont distribute the said update. As Jeffrey Nelson, the Vice President of Global Corporate Communications at Verizon explained, most Verizon customers who bought the Galaxy Note 7 have already returned their phones. With that in mind, Verizon is refusing to participate in Samsungs upcoming bricking endeavors because it fears added risks this move could pose to its customers who dont have another device at hand. Namely, Verizon will respect the decision of its users who opt to keep the Galaxy Note 7 despite all warnings, because the alternative is to potentially eliminate their ability to communicate amidst the holiday travel season. As Nelson explained it, the largest wireless carrier in the country isnt thrilled with the idea of preventing its remaining Galaxy Note 7 users from contacting family, public safety services, and medical professionals in emergency situations.

Now, the wording of this statement does leave enough room for the possibility of Verizon distributing Samsungs final update for the Galaxy Note 7 at a later date or in another form. However, no further details on the wireless carriers plans were provided by Nelson. Instead, the companys VP of Global Corporate Communications reminded Verizon customers that theyre still eligible for a full refund or a replacement device accompanied by an additional $100 reimbursement. So, it looks like Samsungs final recall plans for the Galaxy Note 7 wont go as smoothly as the company might have initially hoped.
Market research company, Wave7 Research, has issued a report investigating how Americas carriers behaved during the start of the holiday season and in the run up to Black Friday. The conclusion is that T-Mobile derailed the competition with its offers, forcing them to release their own offers and deals. Furthermore, now that Black Friday has come and gone, the market remains very competitive and this has continued into December, during the run up to the end of the year. Americas third largest carrier, T-Mobile, is still offering a $200 switcher offer, originally set up for Black Friday. This offer, which runs up to $800 for four lines switched to T-Mobile, is T-Mobiles dominant offer. Wave7 notes that four T-Mobile One lines costs from $160 a month, and another $20 ($180 per month) without autopay. With Wave7 also adding that after Black Friday, T-Mobile removed its tablet offers but its possible that these will return during the final days before Christmas, perhaps with offers of free lines to maintain the pressure on the competition.

The competition has certainly not stood idly by to let T-Mobile take all of the limelight. Verizon offered a similar Galaxy S7 promotion as T-Mobile and broadened this to include discounts on several high-end or flagship devices, including the still sought-after iPhone 6 Plus and Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. AT&T has a number of promotions running and was until the end of last month running a $200 trade-in deal for customers buying the new LG V20. Sprint, has an existing offer of five (compressed) unlimited lines for $100 a month. So it would seem that while T-Mobile may have stolen the march on the industry, customers are being particularly hard fought over.

However, there is one area where the holiday season smartphone market is not as buoyant as the retailers would hope according to Wave7: the large screen device arena, occupied by handsets such as the Apple iPhone 7 Plus and the Samsung Galaxy Note 7. Although customer demand is still there, the supply of these devices is in short supply. The situation is not helped by Samsungs withdrawal of the Galaxy Note 7 from sale in the autumn and its reliance now on the older Galaxy S7 Edge. Two alternative devices to these, the Google Pixel XL and LG V20, are also said to be in short supply.
Xiaomi might not be a household name outside of China, but in the right circles its brand name that is carrying more and more weight all of the time. After all, there are few other smartphone manufacturers out there that could put something like the Mi MIX together. In China, the firm is so much more than just a smartphone brand, and while they produce their own line of routers, as well as TVs and a whole range of accessories, they also invest in other companies, too. One of those companies is Yi, a firm thats responsible for the Yeelight line of smart lighting products.

Together the two firms have gone ahead and launched a new ceiling lamp, that, with a remote as well as a smartphone app that connects to your home WiFi, makes it easier than ever to turn on your lights, as well as control the lighting, too. Said Yeelight lamp is rated for 25,000 hours of run time, and theres a myriad of different colors users can experiment with in the smartphone app, thanks to a range of almost a hundred LEDs found within the lamp. With a pre-order price of 249 Yuan ($35) its available to pre-order via Xiaomis crowdfunding website, which is something else the Chinese firm does that few others around the world have experimented with. The company says that the lamp will take just 5 minutes to install, and that it is resistant to dust by design, too.

Perhaps more exciting is that another of Xiaomis sub-brands, dubbed MIJIA, is looking to launch their first Electric Vehicle on Monday. Its unclear as to whether or not this is going to be an electronic car or a bike at this point, but given that the teasers on social media have included regenerative braking and perforated brake discs as weve seen in other EV cars, it would make sense that the firms were readying a car, more than they were a bike. Regardless, we should know more come Monday, and whether or not this appears to be more of a gimmick than something practical is, of course, going to be debatable.
The Michael Kay Show on ESPN Radio in New York is known as the other show hosted by a man named Michael in the Big Apple, the other being the Mike Francesa Show on WFAN.

Kays show is normally behind Francesa in the ratings, but has the benefit of being simulcast on YES Network.

The cast of characters on the show include Kay who also calls the New York Yankees on YES, co-host Don Lagreca, producer Andy Gundling and Peter Rosenberg. They recently got into a discussion about taking holidays off and whether theyre heavily or casually religious.

Glenn Garcia, a freelance animator with the Twitter account Animating Sports, decided to make the segment into a cartoon complete with Lagreca changing from being Santa to the Easter Bunny and it was hilarious. Take a look:

Its one of several funny efforts that have been made including this one about the Thanksgiving holiday:

These segments are hilarious. Now if we could have Animating Sports bring a Mike Francesa rant into a cartoon, that would truly be animation gold.

[Animating Sports Twitter]
Arizona regents voted today to tell President-elect Trump how he can legally allow "Dreamers'' to remain in this country without reaching the whole hot-button question of amnesty.

The letter makes the legal argument that those who were brought to this country illegally as children "lacked meaningful capacity to have violated our immigration laws.''

"Therefore, the case for deportation would be legally weak,'' the letter reads.

But regent Jay Heiler, who crafted the letter the board unanimously approved, made it clear he believes that any relief has to come from Congress. He contends President Obama acted illegally in 2012 in creating the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

The issue for the board is more than academic. It goes to the question of how much universities -- and community colleges for that matter -- have to charge students.

A 2006 voter-approved law says anyone who is "not a citizen or legal resident of the United States or who is without lawful immigration status is not entitled to classification as an in-state student'' and denies them any type of financial assistance that comes from state funds.

In 2015, however, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Arthur Anderson said the federal Department of Homeland Security considers those accepted into the DACA program to be here legally. He said DHS issues them Employment Authorization Documents permitting them to work -- documents Arizona law says are a form of permissible identification for certain benefits.

And that, Anderson said, makes DACA recipients "lawfully present'' in this country and therefore eligible for in-state tuition.

That ruling most immediately affected students in the Maricopa Community College system. But the regents voted almost immediately to offer the same in-state tuition to those with DACA status.

Regents staffers said today the best figures they have show 240 students who meet that qualification.

The problem is that Trump, who railed against illegal immigration during his campaign, can immediately rescind Obama's program when he takes office Jan. 20. That would leave the dreamers without that protected status, forcing the regents to rescind the in-state tuition.

Today's letter is designed to give Trump a legal option, at least for the Dreamers, but in a way that does not force him to renege on his promise there will be no amnesty.

The president-elect has given indications he's amenable to such a plan.

"We're going to work something out that's going to make people happy and proud,'' Trump told Time magazine.

"They got brought here at a very young age, they've worked here, they've gone to school here,'' he said. "Some were good students. Some have wonderful jobs. And they're in never-never land because they don't know what's going to happen.''
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Put on your hat and mittens and fill a thermos with hot chocolate because it's time for Flagstaff's annual Holiday Parade of Lights. Sponsored by The Greater Flagstaff Chamber of Commerce and Vora Financial Holiday, the parade will hit the streets of downtown Flagstaff Saturday at 6 p.m. Dozens of twinkling floats will traverse the parade route. The parade begins at the corner of Beaver and Elm, proceeds south to Aspen, continues to San Francisco and then back up to Elm.

Luminarias to light up the neighborhood

Each year, on the second Sunday in December, the residents of Coconino Estates invite the community to enjoy the beauty of their annual Christmas luminaria display. This year's luminaria display will be Sunday from 5:30-9 p.m. More than 7,200 luminarias will fill the streets as more than 350 houses participate. Each year is a little different, but there is traditionally a live manger scene, community band and homes with firepits for roasting marshmallows.

The Luminaria Celebration is an event started decades ago by Patti Briggs, now deceased. The tradition was passed on to Karen and Jim Warren, who continued it for 20 years. Now Laurie and Bruce Steinhaus have taken over and are in charge of the project.

A good way to experience the 2.5-mile loop luminaria celebration is on foot. Walkers should bundle up. Cars will be permitted to drive one-way through the neighborhood but be sure to allow plenty of time. Drivers must enter via Bonito/Thorpe and merge onto Navajo/Hopi.

The best way to experience the luminaria is to join Jack Welch's free guided walk. To join, meet at 6 p.m. at the parking lot at Marshall School on the corner of Thorpe Road and Bonito Avenue.

This 2.5-mile walk will start off by viewing the wonderful mosaics on the bridge over the Rio de Flag and then continuing on the candlelit luminaria route through the neighborhood which features friendly neighbors, beautiful house decorations, Nat White and the Community Band, plus the living nativity scene and choir. Dress warm and bring a flashlight and a smile.

Christmas party at Riordan Mansion has been expanded

Join Santa and Mrs. Claus for the annual Christmas party at the historic Riordan Mansion State Park Saturday from 9-11 a.m. Mrs. Claus will read stories and the real Santa will be available to hear Christmas wishes. There will be cookies, cider and crafts.

Pie the Belgian Draft Horse will also be on hand for wagon rides. Carriage rides will last until 3 p.m., thanks to the sponsorship of Horsemen Lodge, Northern Pines restaurant, Renco Roofing and A to Z Carriages. The event is open to the public and free.

The holiday fun doesn't end after the party. All through December, celebrate Christmas in a traditional fashion by touring the Riordans' historic homes decorated as they would have been 100 years ago with wreaths, garlands, greenery and a towering fir tree trimmed with hand-made ornaments. Guided tours are given on the hour. Reservations are highly recommended.

For more information about the party or to schedule a tour, call the park at 779-4395.
We are blessed in Flagstaff to have support from a strong and community-minded local business community. On behalf of Housing Solutions of Northern Arizona and the women and children at Sharon Manor working to build safe futures, I want to thank Mike Brackin and his wonderful crew at HomCo for their support.

In early November, HomCo hosted its annual Ladies Night event, which raised over $14,000 for Sharon Manor. The financial support is much-needed and greatly appreciated. Not only is Ladies Night a wonderful, fun-filled event, but the financial support it provides to Sharon Manor is amazing. HomCo staff is wonderful to work with! Thanks, again, to the staff leadership at HomCo for their support of Sharon Manor and their support, throughout the year, of other critical nonprofit organizations.
Getting to the bottom of Princess Eugenie and Pippa Middletons weddings

Is Princess Eugenie engaged to be married to a very posh barman called Jacks Brooksbank? The Daily Mail wants to know so its asking its readers. Rumours of wedding bells, says the paper, have taken on unstoppable force.

One way to ascertain the fact would be to ask Eugenies mother, Sarah Ferguson, who can be summoned by pressing f9 on any TV producers keyboard. Sarah is full of knowledge, not least of all when In Finding Sarah  A Duchesss Journey To Find Herself she told us Free your mind and your bottom will follow.

Which brings us to the Mails other Page 3 Gel, Pippa Middleton. In May, Pippa will walk down the aisle with wealthy hedge fund trader (WHFT) James Matthews. Indeed, wealthy hedge fund trader is the title given to people who invest large amounts of cash in things other people do and make. It has been reduced of late to hedge fund trader but good to see the Mail giving the job the full billing and the respect it warrants.

By marriage, Pippa will thus become a wealthy hedge fund managers wife. But until she has that enviable job title Pippa is, as the Mail notes, the Duchess of Cambridges little sister who shot to public attention when she wore a bottom-hugging bridesmaids dress at the royal wedding in 2011. You almost pity Pippa writing that down in the Occupation part of her passport. But shes ever keen to forge her own way and the Mail tells readers, Pippa is said to have wanted a smaller, more intimate family wedding than he sisters televised do.

Westminster Abbey is out, then, so Pippa and WHFT James will marry at St Marks Church in Englefield, Berskshire, a venue every bit as cosy as Pippas dress.

Paul Sorene

Posted: 9th, December 2016 | In: Key Posts, Royal Family, Tabloids Comments (3) | TrackBack | Permalink
BRUSSELS - EU border agency Frontex on Friday said that 13,740 migrants arrived in Italy in November, a majority of whom were from Nigeria and Guinea.



It said the number is half that of October but four times as many migrants as the same month in 2015.



Over 173,000 migrants were detected on the Central Mediterranean route over the first 11 months of 2016, which is about a fifth more than the same period in 2015, Frontex said.



"Even as the weather worsened near the Libyan coast, people smugglers continued to force large numbers of migrants onto unseaworthy boats, putting them in grave danger," it said.


TEL AVIV - The Amona outpost is increasingly likely to be evacuated by the army after a Supreme Court ruling, ahead of the approval of legislation legalizing Jewish outposts in the West Bank, local media report. Many residents of nearby settlements are reportedly reaching the outpost to fight against the possible evacuation that could occur ahead of the date scheduled by the Court, December 25.



Tension is rising, as proven by graffiti on the wall of a home on a hill in the settlement of Ofra reading ''there will be war in Amona''. Media reports said that on Thursday outpost residents protested against the Council of Jewish communities of Judea and Samaria (as the West Bank is called in Hebrew) accused of seeking an agreement at their expense.



The Knesset gave a preliminary approval to the draft legislation, under an agreement reached by the government majority, providing for the Amona outpost to be moved elsewhere.
BEIRUT - Syrian government artillery is extensively bombing anti-regime militant positions in what is left of the eastern districts of Aleppo, sources on the ground said Friday. The sources said that artillery fire is focusing on the southern part of east Aleppo. Yesterday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that loyalist forces allegedly suspended hostilities in east Aleppo.



Over the past 24 hours, some 8,500 residents of Aleppo have left areas controlled by militants, according to the Russian Center for Reconciliation in a statement.



A reported ''2,934 children'' are among these people, according to the center. Moreover, 14 militants have laid down arms and have travelled to the western part of the city to surrendered to the troops of the Syrian government. They were granted an ''amnesty'', according to a decision of the Syrian president.
Syria: Moscow says government controls 93% of Aleppo 'Residents report torture by so-called moderate opposition'

(ANSAmed) - MOSCOW, DECEMBER 9 - The chief of the main operations department of Russia's General Staff, Sergey Rudskoy, on Friday said the Syrian Army now controls 93% of Aleppo.



"Over the past four days the territory controlled by the militants has decreased by one-third and 52 districts of eastern Aleppo have been liberated from the terrorists," Rudskoy said.



He said Aleppo residents have reported torture and executions by the "so-called moderate opposition", according to state news agency TASS.



"Government forces and militias are continuing the operation to free the eastern districts of Aleppo from the terrorists," he said.



"The civilians who have managed to escape from the terrorists have reported new crimes committed in eastern Aleppo by the militants from the so-called 'moderate opposition.' They have confirmed tortures, public executions and indiscriminate killings," Rudskoy said.



He said the Russian Centre for Reconciliation is recording all reports of crimes.



Meanwhile, government airstrikes on the last opposition-controlled strongholds of eastern Aleppo have resumed, according to sources and eyewitnesses in contact with ANSA.



The airstrikes are concentrated on the southern part of the city's eastern neighbourhoods, which since November 25 have been the target of a massive ground offensive by Russian, Iranian and Syrian government forces. (ANSAmed).




Syria: UN concerned for hundreds missing from eastern Aleppo After passing into areas controlled by Syrian government

(ANSAmed) - GENEVA, DECEMBER 9 - Hundreds of men who fled conflict in eastern Aleppo have been missing for about ten days, said Rupert Colville, a spokesperson for the UN High Commission for Human Rights, on Friday.



Colville acknowledged that it is "difficult to establish the facts in such a fluid and dangerous situation" but said the UN has received "very worrying allegations" that hundreds of men aged 30-50 years old went missing after passing into areas controlled by the Syrian government.



"Family members say they lost contact with the men," Colville said.



"Given the terrible record of arbitrary detention, torture and enforced disappearances by the Syrian government, we are of course deeply concerned about the fate of these individuals," he said.



He said armed opposition groups, who have allegedly abducted and killed an unknown number of civilians, are reportedly blocking some civilians trying to flee.



"Civilians are caught between warring parties that appear to be operating in flagrant violation of international humanitarian law," Colville said.



The UN also expressed concern for civilians in opposition-controlled Idlib Governorate, where it said airstrikes have killed dozens of civilians in recent days.



(ANSAmed).




Syria:Turkey deploys 300 additional special forces at border Soldiers in Euphrates Shield operation

(ANSAmed) - ISTANBUL, DECEMBER 9 - The Turkish army has deployed at the border with Syria an additional 300 special forces soldiers as part of the Eurphrates Shield operation launched at the end of August by Ankara, state-run news agency Anadolu reported Friday, citing military sources.



The report did not mention whether the 'blue berets' have already crossed the border.



The 11th commando brigade was airlifted to the border from the military airport of Cardak in western Denizli province.



(ANSAmed)
Habeshia says Nigerian,Sudanese migrants need protection too In letter to EU Commissioner says many fleeing war and terrorism

(ANSAmed) - ROME, DECEMBER 9 - The Habeshia Agency (AHCS) wrote an open letter to EU Commissioner for Migration Dimitris Avramopoulos highlighting the plight of migrants from Nigeria, South Sudan, Somalia, Mali and other countries and urging the EU to consider them not as irregular economic migrants but rather as refugees eligible for the right to asylum or other forms of protection.



Avramopoulos said on Thursday that 80% of migrants who arrive in Italy are considered economic migrants and therefore "irregular" and, according to EU rules, to be repatriated.



He said the EU doesn't intend to change criteria to add nationalities to the list of those already entitled to relocation.



The letter was written by Don Mussie Zerai and Emilio Drudi, president and spokesman, respectively, of Habeshia, which has been working for refugee and migrant rescue and rights for years.



"Certainly you are aware of the UN report that just a few weeks ago revealed that more than 400,000 children in Nigeria are victims of famine due to the situation caused by the fundamentalist militants of Boko Haram," the letter said, also pointing to the situation in countries such as South Sudan, Somalia, Mali, Niger, Yemen, Darfur and Afghanistan.



Regarding the fact that only Syrians and Eritreans are entitled to be accepted and relocated in the EU member states, Habeshia said: "according to international law and the Geneva Convention, asylum requests must be examined case by case, listening to the individual stories" and not based on nationality. (ANSAmed).




BOLOGNA - A preliminary investigations judge has rejected a request to shelve a money-laundering investigation into Bilal Erdogan, the son of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, ANSA learned Friday.



The judge ordered prosecutors to question Murat Hakan Uzan, a Turkish businessman who obtained political asylum in France, and whose report to authorities sparked the investigation.



Bologna prosecutors moved to shelve the probe in September, saying they found no evidence of wrongdoing after a suit filed by a political opponent of the Erdogan family. The case has caused friction between Italy and Turkey.


NEW YORK - UN envoy Staffan de Mistura has said the US and Russia are likely to hold talks on Syria Saturday in an ''important potential development'', after a Security Council meeting.



He then stressed that ''perhaps now is the time to seriously look at the resumption of negotiations'', adding he had perceived a ''sense of unity'' within the UN body.



De Mistura then stated he had no indication as to how long the suspension of fighting in East Aleppo will last, stressing that ''the priority is to be sure that the city's civilians receive assistance and protection''.



Over the past few days diplomacy appears to have resumed its work to end the tragedy of Aleppo. Syrian loyalist troops yesterday ''suspended'' hostilities to enable a column of 8,000 civilians to leave the eastern part of the city still occupied by rebels and Qaedists, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced, after three meetings between Wednesday and Thursday in Hamburg with US Secretary of State John Kerry.



However, fighting continued for most of the day, while 150,000 residents are in the besieged area, according to the president of the local committee.



''We are working, I am confident and I have hope'', Kerry said for his part, before flying from Germany to Paris, where a new meeting on Syria is scheduled after an OECD conference.



On November 30, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said he wanted a meeting in Paris of ''European and Arab countries and the United States that support a political solution in Syria''. And ''intense diplomatic activity'' is ongoing between Turkey and Moscow, according to Ibrahim Kalin, spokesman of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who stressed that the latter is working first hand in the negotiations.
A Coconino County Superior Court jury has found a Doney Park man guilty on 10 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor for downloading child pornography.

The jurors handed down the verdict against Phillip D. Sims, 60, Thursday evening after less than three hours of deliberation.

The jury also found that the state had proved beyond a reasonable doubt that seven of the pornographic images depicted children under the age of 15. For the other three images in question, a pediatrician who was called as an expert witness testified at trial that she could not say definitively that the children depicted in the images were 14 years old or younger.

The Coconino County Sheriffs Office arrested Sims in 2013 following an investigation that began when an Arizona Department of Corrections parole officer found what appeared to be pornography depicting a child on a thumb drive plugged into Sims computer in 2012.

The Sheriffs Office seized the computer and other electronics and turned them over to a Flagstaff Police Department detective for forensic analysis. On a thumb drive, the detective found 10 images Sims had downloaded from the internet.

During the two-day trial, public defender Charles Doughty contended Sims should not be convicted because the state had not been able to prove that any of the explicit images he downloaded depicted real children.

Doughty reminded the jury during closing arguments Thursday that Sims had told a Sheriff's Office detective he believed the images were fake or at least doctored, and that the Sheriff's Office had not been able to identify anyone depicted in the images using a national database of known child pornography victims. He criticized the sheriff's detective for not doing enough to investigate the provenance of the images or analyze whether they had been digitally altered.

"The computer work that could have been done was not done," Doughty said in closing arguments.

In his rebuttal, prosecutor Eric Ruchensky from the Coconino County Attorneys Office reminded jurors that one of its witnesses testified he saw no obvious signs that the images had been manipulated digitally.

He also said the fact that investigators could not identify the children depicted in the pornographic images did not mean they were fake.

"The evidence was that it's hard to find the victims of these crimes," Ruchensky said. "The victims can be anywhere in the world, in remote areas. They're not always brought in or found or discovered or saved."

Sims was already a registered sex offender at the time of his 2013 arrest. In 1990, Maricopa County Superior Court had convicted Sims on one count of attempted child molestation. Yavapai County Superior Court convicted him on a second count of attempted child molestation the same year. Sims was sentenced to nine years in the Arizona Department of Corrections, followed by a life term of probation. He was incarcerated for violating his parole prior to his trial this week.

Under Arizona law, each conviction for sexual exploitation of a minor under age 15 can carry a sentence of between 21 and 35 years in prison for someone who has been previously convicted of certain felonies.

Sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 18, 2017, in Coconino County Superior Court.
PHOENIX  Saying good Samaritans deserve legal protection, a veteran state lawmaker wants to provide immunity from lawsuits for people who break into hot vehicles to rescue a trapped animal.

And kids, too.

Sen. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, said he was approached by the founder of Don't Leave Me, an organization that tries to protect pets whose owners have left them behind in the car. He said that Debra Nolen, whose activities so far have involved things like public service announcements, wanted legislation to allow bystanders to do more than call the police.

Kavanagh, who has been an animal-rights advocate, agreed to sponsor the legislation spelling out there is no civil liability for those who act in good faith.

"They already provide exemptions for first responders and emergency services people, but not ordinary people,'' he noted.

"Usually, it's the ordinary people who stumble upon these things first,'' Kavanagh continued. "So it seemed reasonable to provide a blanket coverage as long as the person acts reasonable.''

Kavanagh noted that Nolen was pushing for protection for animals. But he figured that, given similar situations that occur with children, they, too, should be included within the legislation.

"Both situations are important,'' he said.

As crafted, SB 1001 requires a "good faith belief'' that the child or animal is "in imminent danger of suffering physical injury or death'' unless removed from the vehicle.

But that, by itself, is not enough.

Before breaking in, the person would have to notify authorities, whether police, emergency medical services or animal control. And then the person has to remain with the child or animal rescued until help arrives.

Nolen said the idea originally started as a public service class project when she was teaching health ethics at Chandler Gilbert Community College. It resulted in some public service announcements, a web site and even distribution of a chart to translate the outside air temperature to how hot it gets in a vehicle.

And it was the result of one of those PSAs with Fountain Hills Mayor Linda Kavanagh that Nolen connected with her husband.

A report by Jan Null with the Department of Meteorology and Climate Science at San Jose State University showed that 39 children had died of heat stroke through October this year. That compares with 24 for all of 2015.

The American Veterinary Medical Association says "hundreds'' of pets die each year from heat exhaustion because they are left in parked vehicles.
President-elect Donald Trump upended decades of American foreign policy last week when he spoke to Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen. China considers Taiwan a breakaway province, and American leaders hadnt spoken directly with Taiwans leader since the 1970s  though the U.S. has sold military equipment to the island. Critics said Trump too easily risked Chinas anger, but some conservatives said Trumps action signaled support for democracy.

Should America change course on its China policy? Did Trump screw up, or is he just crazy like a fox? Joel Mathis and Ben Boychuk, the RedBlueAmerica columnists, debate the issue.

JOEL MATHIS

Beware unintended consequences.

Conservatives are fond of dishing out this wisdom whenever liberals propose a policy that shakes the status quo. Its actually good advice: Sometimes the desire to fix one problem can create new, unanticipated problems.

It may be the right thing to ally ourselves with the anti-Communist government of Taiwan. If the only goal of American foreign policy is promote the so-called Freedom Agenda of the George W. Bush years, such an action might seem desirable.

You might ask why the United States decided to recognize Beijings Communist regime as Chinas sole government, way back in the 1970s. There were strategic reasons, of course: There was a time when China was Americas partner in acting as a global counterweight against the Soviet Union. (Even the red-baiting 1980s movie Red Dawn, which fantasized about a Russian invasion of the United States, went out of its way to mention that the Chinese were allies in fight against the Soviets and Cubans.)

Of course, the Soviet Union has disappeared from the scene. China is acting to expand its own burgeoning empire. Why not just go ahead and stick a thumb in the eye of the Communist regime?

One possible answer: North Korea. That countrys leadership is oppressive and unpredictable, with access to nuclear weapons. Any solution to the problem of North Korea will most likely involve China, which variously acts as a patron and leash-holder to Kim Jong Uns government. Disregard Beijings wishes on Taiwan, and maybe North Korea doesnt get its leash held so much.

Now, there may be good reasons for disregarding all that and proceeding with a Taiwan-friendly policy that will damage relations with China. The problem is: We dont know what those good reasons are. President-elect Trump didnt declare his intentions ahead of time  not like, say, President Barack Obama, whose shift on Cuba policy was telegraphed well in advance  and we still dont quite know if he meant to break with policy, if it was an accident, or if he was manipulated by overeager aides.

We dont know if Trump is contemplating unintended consequences. Lets hope somebody on his staff is.

BEN BOYCHUK

Good grief. Another week, another Trump-induced freak out. Lets hope at some point these stories become old news as people in and out of the commentariat realize President-elect Trump really isnt part of the Beltway establishment when it comes to trade, immigration and foreign policy  and thats a very good thing.

Lets dispense with the handwringing about dispensing with U.S. policy toward Taiwan and why shaking things up with China is a smart move. We dont know what those good reasons are? Of course we do.

Trump ran, in part, on putting Beijing in check. This was an instance where the press needed to take the Republican nominee seriously as well as literally. When Trump said he wants an America-first foreign policy, he meant it. When he said  over and over, long before he entered the 2016 presidential race  the United States needs to get tougher because China is eating our lunch, he wasnt fooling around.

Trumps protocol-shattering phone call with President Tsai is very much a part of that effort.

Fact is, the One China policy has always been a diplomatic fiction anyway. Its true we ended diplomatic ties with the island in 1979. Now instead of embassies, Taiwan and the United States maintain unofficial institutes in Taipei and New York.

Dont forget, too, the United States has an obligation to defend Taiwan against Chinese aggression under the Taiwan Relations Act. And we have sold Taiwan $46 billion worth of military hardware since 1990, including $1.6 billion in just the last year.

If the goal is to prevent China from eating our lunch, then appearing to end the fiction  or at least clarifying our relationship with Taiwan  doesnt look like a reckless act so much as a negotiating stance.

Trump hinted at this on Twitter. Did China ask us if it was OK to devalue their currency (making it hard for our companies to compete), heavily tax our products going into their country (the U.S. doesnt tax them) or to build a massive military complex in the middle of the South China Sea? he tweeted. I dont think so!

Remember, Trump sold himself to voters as a dealmaker. Taiwan is a bargaining chip in a negotiation thats vital to U.S. interests in the region and the world. Its as simple as that.
Building on the success of the first event in 2015, Alnaqbi foresees an event with more than 65 exhibitors and 2,500 visitors, being held at the new Marrakech Menara Airport, Morocco, on September 12-13, 2017.

After a very successful event in Casablanca, we decided to move location after surveying those who attended the first edition of our Morocco event. The response was a resounding 'yes' to holding the MEBAA Show Morocco in Marrakech. The location is perfectly situated close to Marrakech and convenient for Casablanca and Rabat, the capital city.

We are very pleased to report Morocco now has an FBO in place, which offers services to our members which we are very happy with, added the MEBAA Founding Chairman.

Held under the patronage of Minister of Equipment, Transport and Logistics, the event is set to take place at what will be the first business aviation airport in Morocco, an ideal venue for the MEBAA Show Morocco.

Alnaqbi said the event is not only the only one of its kind in Morocco and North Africa, but in the whole continent of Africa. He highlighted the growing volume in traffic to and through the country, with around 12,000 business aviation movements recorded by MEBAA members last year. He said traffic is seasonal, with shifting travel patterns from Europe, the Middle East and Africa, into Morocco

The two-day event will be preceded by the MEBAA Conference, with Alnaqbi adding that the new airport offers world-class facilities and infrastructure, including excellent hotels and transport links.
This will be the third consecutive year (and the third year in the industrys history) in which airlines will make a return on invested capital (7.9%) which is above the weighted average cost of capital (6.9%).

IATA revised slightly downward its outlook for 2016 airline industry profitability to $35.6 billion (from the June projection of $39.4 billion) owing to slower global GDP growth and rising costs. This will still be the highest absolute profit generated by the airline industry and the highest net profit margin (5.1%).

"Airlines continue to deliver strong results. This year we expect a record net profit of $35.6 billion. Even though conditions in 2017 will be more difficult with rising oil prices, we see the industry earning $29.8 billion. Thats a very soft landing and safely in profitable territory. These three years are the best performance in the industrys historyirrespective of the many uncertainties we face. Indeed, risks are abundant political, economic and security among them. And controlling costs is still a constant battle in our hyper-competitive industry," said Alexandre de Juniac, IATAs Director General and CEO.

"We need to put this into perspective. Record profits for airlines means earning more than our cost of capital. For most other businesses that would be considered a normal level of return to investors. But three years of sustainable profits is a first for the airline industry. And after many years of hard work in restructuring and re-engineering the business the industry is also more resilient. We should also recognize that profits are not evenly spread with the strongest performance concentrated in North America," said de Juniac.

2017

While airline industry profits are expected to have reached a cyclical peak in 2016 of $35.6 billion, a soft landing in profitable territory is expected in 2017 with a net profit of $29.8 billion. 2017 is expected to be the eighth year in a row of aggregate airline profitability, illustrating the resilience to shocks that have been built into the industry structure. On average, airlines will retain $7.54 for every passenger carried.

Expected higher oil prices will have the biggest impact on the outlook for 2017. In 2016 oil prices averaged $44.6/barrel (Brent) and this is forecast to increase to $55.0 in 2017. This will push jet fuel prices from $52.1/barrel (2016) to $64.9/barrel (2017). Fuel is expected to account for 18.7% of the industrys cost structure in 2017, which is significantly below the recent peak of 33.2% in 2012-2013.

2017 Regional Analysis

Middle Eastern carriers : Middle Eastern airlines are forecast to generate a net profit of $0.3 billion for a net margin of 0.5% and an average profit per passenger of $1.56. This is below the $900 million profit expected in 2016. Average yields for the regions carriers are low but unit costs are even lower, partly driven by the strong capacity expansion, forecast at 10.1% this year, ahead of expected demand growth of 9.0%. Threats are emerging to the success story of the Gulf carriers, including increases in airport charges across the Gulf States and growing air traffic management delays.
Emirates recently collaborated with renowned jewelry designer and artist Nadine Kanso to create a limited edition collection called Bil Arabi for Emirates. Bil Arabi literally means in Arabic, and Kanso, a resident d3 artist, is famous for her distinctive use of Arabic letters and calligraphy to create her designs.



Inspired by the growing trend of calligraffitti, each product in the Bil Arabi for Emirates collection features the word El Emarat, or The Emirates in gold Arabic writing. Visitors will have a chance to buy limited edition porcelain mugs, T-shirts, bags, decorative plates and much more. In addition, visitors will also be able to order bespoke limited edition El Emarat bracelets and rings.



Another collaboration on display at the Emirates stand is emerging design studio, Alif Design, also based in d3. An exclusive limited edition Meet d3 collection will celebrate the diversity of Emirates iconic Cabin Crew. Merchandise including mugs, bags, cups, notepads, and plates, among other items will feature artistic illustrations of Cabin Crew, all of which will be showcased for the very first time at the Emirates stand.

The Emirates stand will also offer visitors a chance to create their own personalised emoji cubes. Visitors will be able to choose a cube, add their name or nickname, their hobbies, favourite food and other aspects of themselves then leave it to a special design team to create a fun cube, customized just for them. The cube will be made on site and visitors will be able to walk away with it on the spot.



Kids can explore aircraft design, from the fuselage to the wings, to build their own Emirates A380 paper airplane and take it home as a souvenir of their aviation experience.
Now in its sixth edition, the Conde Nast Traveller India Readers Travel Awards recognise excellence across different sectors of the travel industry  from airlines, hotels and cruise lines, to destinations, spas and luxury resorts.



The latest honour comes in the same week as Etihad Airways won the worlds leading airline award at the World Travel Awards for the eight consecutive year during a glittering ceremony in the Maldives.



Etihad Airways renowned dedication to innovation, quality service and comfort was recognised in the Conde Nast readers poll carried out over two months. The airline was singled out for its revolutionary and best in-class innovative designs, together with offering a superior customer experience.



India is one of Etihad Airways key markets, operating 252 scheduled flights a week with strategic partner Jet Airways from 15 cities across the country to Abu Dhabi, with onward connections to destinations worldwide.



Neerja Bhatia, Etihad Airways vice president Indian Subcontinent, said: It is a great honour for Etihad Airways to be recognised by travellers for reaching these heights in one of the most dynamic aviation markets in the world. This year has been extra special for us in India as we introduced our flagship Airbus A380 with award-winning interiors on the Mumbai  Abu Dhabi route.



Conde Nast Traveller represents the world of luxury and this award is testament to our world class product and service, as well as our commitment to the India market, recognising the passion and dedication of our employees here and globally.
Gavin Darby, chief executive of Mr Kipling owner Premier Foods, has been appointed president-elect of the Food & Drink Federation (FDF) from next year, succeeding Dame Fiona Kendrick.

The announcement was made at FDFs annual presidents reception at the Marriott County Hall Hotel, London.

The event was attended by almost 300 food and drink manufacturers, MPs and other stakeholders, including Andrea Leadsom, secretary of state for the environment, food and rural affairs.

Darby and FDF director general Ian Wright paid tribute to Dame Kendrick, noting the achievements made over the past two years.

Dame Kendrick said it had been a pleasure to be FDF president and that the organisation had come a long way.

Under Ian Wrights leadership, supported by me and my executive committee colleagues, FDF has become an organisation that not only promotes the food and drink industry, but helps to lead it, she said.

President-elect Gavin Darby is an articulate and determined champion of the food and drink industry and I believe he is very well-placed to lead the next chapter in FDFs development. I wish him every success in his new role.

Darby, who will take up his role of president of the organisation in January 2017, will provide strategic input and leadership to FDF, chair its executive committee and act as an FDF and industry ambassador.
The summit provides a key platform for global business and thought leaders to come together to champion diversity and inclusion on both a business and corporate level, and discuss the increasing role of female leadership within the regions economy.

The company is a silver sponsor this year, and was represented at the conference by Sandra Evers-Manly, vice president, Global Corporate Responsibility, as well as Walid Abukhaled, chief executive, Middle East Region, who discussed organisational responsibility in the empowerment of its female employees in his talk Empowering Arab Women in Business Leadership: Roles of Organizations and Individuals.

Abukhaled said: In an industry that is often labelled as male-dominant, women are making outstanding progress in their careers. At Northrop Grumman, we have been very successful in attracting and retaining talented women within our workplace, with nearly 50 percent of our companys senior leadership roles, now occupied by females. This is because, as a company, we take our commitment to gender equality, diversity and inclusion very seriously  a fact that is reinforced by our active presence at this conference.
A PIA spokesperson said: Salalah has been an undiscovered territory for PIA as no airline to or from Pakistan has ever landed in Salalah. Pakistan International Airlines is happy to start weekly flight operations every Thursday and Monday in this very important sector. Starting PIA flights to Karachi and Islamabad from Salalah will be Pakistan International Airlines next priority as the airline wishes to provide customers in Dhofar Province convenient connections to big cities in Pakistan.
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. Ombudsman of Nagorno Karabakh Ruben Melikyan issued a new report on December 9, which presents the facts of Azerbaijani atrocities and gross violations of international rights during the Azerbaijani military operations in April.

The report presents the definition of crimes, based on international rights, facts of atrocities are presented, issues of accountability and corresponding conclusions are drawn, the Ombudsman said.

The report includes three war crimes  torture, execution and mutilation of bodies.

The first crime is torture. It regards infliction of physical or physiological pain to the person. The next crime is called execution. This isnt simple murder defined under international humanitarian right. Its about civilians, as well as incapacitated servicemen. At our grounds, this is execution for being Armenian. This is based on our first report, where facts on Armenophobia are clearly stated, as result of official policy based on strong grounds, which led to consequences among the society.

The third war crime is mutilation of dead bodies. The first two crimes are clearly defined by the Geneva Conventions, a member of which is Azerbaijan, and the crime of mutilation of dead bodies is a manifestation of violation of international customary right and we draw a proposition that the rules of that right are applicable against Azerbaijan, Melikyan said.

He said the report covers in detail the issues regarding the behavior of Azerbaijani forces against the total of 31 people or their bodies which were under long-term or short-term control of the Azerbaijani forces. Each of the deaths is presented with circumstances, circumstances of appearing under Azerbaijani control and circumstances of handing over their bodies to NKR, as well as the Azerbaijani atrocities committed against them. The facts are presented in three geographic directions: by 7 separate incidents.

Atrocity facts were presented in three directions: Talish, where we are currently located, north-eastern or Seysulan, and southern or Lele Tepe direction. We discuss facts on each direction according to incidents. We 4 have incidents in the north, 1 in the direction of Seysulian and 2 in the southern directions, the Ombudsman said.

Speaking on conclusions drawn based on the facts of the report, Melikyan said: The civilians and servicemen who appeared in Azerbaijani control did not survive. Their murders have supposedly been executions for being Armenian. 27 of the 31 people who were under Azerbaijani control  around 90 percent  were tortured, were punished by death or their bodies have been mutilated. All three civilians who had appeared under Azerbaijani control have been gunned down and their bodies were mutilated. Three NKR soldiers were decapitated, two posthumously and one while alive. The most widespread military crime, which we have documented, is the mutilation of dead bodies, 21 of which regards unacceptable behavior. We have five cases of torture, which regard all three directions.

The conclusions of the report are based on both NKR criminal procedure materials, NKR Ombudsmans directly documented facts as well as materials published in Azerbaijani sources.

The report also covers issues of legal accountability of the perpetrators and their command, as well as Azerbaijans international-legal obligation on investigating the facts and holding the perpetrators accountable.

Speaking on conclusions, I will mention that during the April war the Azerbaijani armed forces committed torture, execution and mutilation war crimes, and these were coordinated and organized in nature, because they were committed by all units of the Azerbaijani armed forces. We are raising this as an alarm for the international community. The presented violations should receive some response from international structures, he said.
A number of bakery associations are among a list of 30 food representatives that have signed an open letter calling on the government to reassure EU workers about their right to work in the UK.

James Smith, president of the Association of Bakery Ingredient Manufacturers, George Polson, director of the Federation of Bakers and Alex Waugh, director of the National Association of British and Irish Millers all backed the open letter.

They argued that a significant element in the industrys ability to deliver affordable and high-quality food is the part played by workers from the European Union, with some of these people already leaving the UK in the wake of the referendum result and the devaluation of the pound.

The bakery associations called on the government to offer unambiguous reassurance about their right to remain.

Workers from the EU, some of whom are already leaving the UK, play a significant role in delivering affordable and high-quality food and drink, the letter said.

For the longer term, it is important to recognise that these workers are highly flexible and provide an essential reservoir of skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled labour.

The letter also outlined that nearly four million people in the UK are employed in everything from harvesting to production to selling food and drink. In food manufacturing just under a third of workers are from the EU.
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan visited a number of regiments in the southern and south-eastern parts of Artsakh on December 9, the second day of his visit to Nagorno Karabakh Republic (Artsakh). As Armenpress was informed from the press service of the Armenian Presidents Office, Serzh Sargsyan was accompanied by President of Artsakh Bako Sahakyan, Defense Ministers of the Republic of Armenia and NKR, as well as other high-ranking military officials.

The Presidents listened to a report by the commander of a unit in one of the defense positions and familiarized themselves with the works done for reinforcing the defense system. The Presidents discussed issues related to the combat readiness of the troops on site and issued relevant instructions. The President of the Republic of Armenia awarded the best officers, contractual servicemen and conscripts of the regiment for their conscientious and excellent service. For the exceptional courage, selfless valor and boundless dedication in defending borders of Fatherland, the Second Degree Military Cross was awarded to the Commander of the N unit Lieutenant-Colonel Aram Hayryan.

President Sargsyan also attended the opening ceremony of a multifamily residential building designed for officers and two barracks, got acquainted with the housing conditions of the officers and congratulated them on house-warming.
Contemporary dance company Rambert has announced an artistic development partnership with the Dutch National Ballet to nurture choreographers and composers from both companies. The partnership will begin with a joint programme of exchange between both companies and the artists working within them.
craigslist: thailand jobs, apartments, for sale, services, community, and events

craigslist provides local classifieds and forums for jobs, housing, for sale, services, local community, and events
With the government of Myanmar passing its new Investment Law, which came into effect in April 2017, the country is showing its continued commitment to attracting foreign investment. After reopening its economy in 2012 following several political reforms beginning the year before, Myanmar has been receiving significant increases in foreign direct investment, reaching a high of US$9.5 billion in the 2015/2016 fiscal year ending in March. To put this in perspective, the total amount of FDI added up to only US$329.6 million in 2009/2010, the year before the military ceded power. While oil, gas, and energy remain the sectors with the highest FDI inflows, investments into Myanmars manufacturing industry are rapidly gaining traction, having risen from just US$33.2 million to over US$1 billion in the same period, and hitting a high of US$1.8 billion in 2014.

As China strives to move up the value chain and focus more on high-end manufacturing, the countrys wages have risen to the point where many garment manufacturers are looking to invest elsewhere.

Lifting of sanctions from the EU and US

Cambodia and Vietnam have already established themselves as alternatives, and now Myanmar is bringing a new labor force to the competition. Clothing exports have already gone up from US$337 million in 2010 to US$1.46 billion in 2015. And now that the economic sanctions by the EU and US have been lifted, the Myanmar Garment Manufacturers Association (MGMA) has set a target for exports to increase to US$12 billion by 2020. Doing so would create an estimated 1.25 million new jobs, a sharp increase from the approximately 250,000 people currently working in the garment industry.

Before the military ceded power in 2011, Myanmar was suffering heavily from trade sanctions imposed by, amongst others, the EU and the US since 2003. Sanctions included visa bans, restrictions on financial services, prohibitions of imported goods from Myanmar, bans on new investments in Myanmar, and constraints on US assistance to Myanmar. As such, the country heavily relied on Japan and Korea for garment exports, to which it exported 38 percent and 31 percent, respectively, of its total garment exports in 2014.

However, as a result of the reforms, sanctions have mostly been lifted. In 2013, the EU lifted all economic sanctions  except for those on arms  and granted the country Generalized System of Preference (GSP) trade privileges, meaning that Myanmar receives duty-and-quota-free access to the EU market. The US followed suit when Barack Obama, after visiting the country in September 2016, lifted almost all sanctions imposed on the country.

These are rewards for the countrys stabilizing political landscape and create new opportunities for foreign investors. The new Investment Law further eliminates the discrepancies between local laws and laws applying to foreign investors, while also offering several incentives related to taxation and land use rights. This paves the path for foreign investors looking to capitalize on the opportunities arising from affordable manufacturing in the country.

In October 2018, however, the EU sent a high-level mission to Myanmar to monitor and assess alleged human rights violations in the country, especially in Rakhine State. The EU has announced that the findings of the mission will inform its assessment whether to temporarily remove the preferential trade benefits for Myanmar under its Everything but Arms Scheme (EBA).

Exponential growth in garment exports

The Burmese export value of textiles and garments has increased drastically since the economy reopened. With the exponential increase in garment exports since 2010, they now account for 10 percent of Myanmars total export revenues. This fiscal year Myanmar is poised to reach new heights. During the first five months of the 2016/2017 fiscal year starting in April, garments sector exports reached US$745.5 million, up from US$232.8 million during the same period last year. And looking ahead, the Myanmar Garment Entrepreneurs Association has set an export revenue target of US$12 billion in 2020. Accordingly, the number of jobs in the industry is projected to increase drastically from around 230,000 in mid-2015 to 1.5 million in 2020.

Regional competition

Despite this rapid growth, Myanmars export numbers are still lagging behind those of its regional competitors.

In the garment industry, Vietnam recorded US$28 billion of exports in 2015, while Cambodias exports totaled US$5.7 billion in the same year. Thus, while Myanmar is experiencing rapid growth, it still has a long way to go to reach similar levels.

Favorable to Myanmar, however, is that minimum wages in Vietnam and Cambodia are significantly higher. Cambodia recently set the 2017 minimum wages for employees in the garment industry at US$153 per month, up from US$140 in 2016, while 2016 monthly minimum wages in Vietnam varied from US$107 to US$156, depending on the region. Myanmars monthly minimum wage of just US$67 (2015 data) makes it highly competitive with Cambodia and Vietnam and an attractive location for garment manufacturing, and large retailers such as Gap, H&M, Marks & Spencer and Primark have already found their way into the country.

Human rights issues and looking ahead

When considering manufacturing from Myanmar, it is important to perform proper due diligence when selecting factories to prevent human rights breaches. Last August 2016, news came out that Burmese factories operating for the Swedish company H&M employed 14-year-old workers for more than 12 hours a day, six days per week. This is not uncommon in the country, and investors have to make sure that these practices are not occurring in their factories, and to help prevent these practices from happening in the country altogether. Furthermore, as Myanmar only recently reopened its economy, it is still a very immature market. It is largely run by family businesses of small sizes, which comprise approximately 83 percent of the economy, and its infrastructure and banking system, although improving, are still relatively underdeveloped. As such, finding the right partners can be challenging, making patience key when operating in the country.

However, Myanmars trajectory is encouraging. Looking forward, with almost all economic sanctions being lifted and the new Investment Law coming into effect, Myanmar is set to sustain the high growth levels in its garment manufacturing industry. The government is actively seeking foreign investment, and with wage levels standing below those in competing ASEAN countries such as Vietnam and Cambodia, several large retailers have already entered the country. More retailers are expected to follow in the coming years, thereby confirming the emergence of Myanmar as a new competitor in Southeast Asias garment manufacturing industry.

Editors Note: This article was first published on December 9, 2016 and is updated on November 8, 2018, as per latest developments.
Priyanka makes a disappointingly short 2-second long blink-and-miss appearance in the trailer.

Mumbai: After a lot of anticipation and drama revolving Priyanka Chopra's character in her Hollywood debut film 'Baywatch', the makers finally released the film's first trailer and boy, did it leave her fans disappointed!

The hyped trailer of Priyankas silver screen Hollywood debut proved to be a massive downer for her fans. The film, that stars Dwayne Johnson and Zac Efron, has been in the news for having Priyanka in the cast as their main antagonist, after her massive success as Alex Parrish in the hit Hollywood TV drama, 'Quantico'.

But the first official trailer of the film, slated for a May 26, 2017 release, concentrates primarily on its three protagonists, Dwayne Johnson, Zac Efon and Alexandra Daddario. As Priyanka makes a disappointingly short 2-second long blink-and-miss appearance in the trailer, her friends in India criticised her on social media.

To her rescue came her co-star Dwayne Johnson, who assured Indian audiences that theres more to Priyanka Chopras character in the film and all one has to do is wait a little longer and have faith.

All our fans & press friends in INDIA, @priyankachopra SLAYS our #Baywatch! Trust my plan..The #Boss is comin', Dwayne wrote.

Priyanka Chopra thanked Dwayne for standing up for her by writing, lol...thank you DJ...trusted you from day one. India loves you and will love everything about Baywatch! #Wait4VictoriaLeeds @TheRock.

To which, Dwayne told fans that theres a big plan waiting for them. I luv India back! (U already know I luv U;). It's aaaallll in the big picture plan. #Wait4VictoriaLeeds #Boss #Baywatch MEMORIAL DAY, he tweeted.
Aamir says he never feels the burden of being called a perfectionist as he does not believe in the tag.

New Delhi: His meticulous choice of films,attention to details has given him the title of Mr Perfectionist but superstar Aamir Khan feels it is not a correct name for him and says he should rather be called Mr Passionate.

Aamir, 51, says he never feels the burden of being called a perfectionist as he does not believe in the tag.

"It puts no pressure on me because I don't believe in the title. So that title is an inaccurate title. The correct title that fits me is not Mr Perfectionist, it should be Mr Passionate, that is what I am," Aamir told reporters during a group interview.

The actor, who will be next seen in Nitesh Tiwari's sports-based drama 'Dangal', says in a creative field of films, there are varied opinions and it is not possible to find perfection.

"Perfection according to me does not exist. Their is no such thing. Certainly not in the creative field. There are so many different opinions, so how can there be a perfect idea?"

Aamir says for him perfection in a shot is not about being technically faultless but more about capturing the heart of the scene.

"When I am in a shot there are many elements that need to be right. There are lot of technical problems because of which a shot has to be done again. I don't look for technical perfections.

"What I look for in a shot is whether one has been able to capture the heart of the moment. Then you see the shot, you feel that it happened and everything fall in place."

'Dangal' also starring Sakshi Tanwar, Fatima Sana Sheikh and Sanya Malhotra, will release on December 23.
In the ad, we see Ranveer in a corporate setting, carrying a girl on his shoulders with a caption that outraged many.

Ever since the ad released, Singh has received numerous comments and posts from various sections of the society.

Mumbai: With his film releasing, Ranveer Singh surely doesn't want any controversy surrounding him. But the 'Befikre' star Ranveer Singh has landed in controversy and has been labelled a sexist for an ad that he recently featured in, which allegedly objectified women.

In the ad, we see Ranveer in a corporate setting, wearing formals as he carries a girl on his shoulders with a caption that outraged many. The caption in question read: Don't hold back. Take your work home.

The creative advertisement not only backlashed, but also projected Ranveer in a bad light. Ever since the ad released, Singh has received numerous comments and posts from various sections of the society, including film stars like Siddharth (of Rang De Basanti fame), criticising Singh for allegedly encouraging something as sexist as this ad.

Soon enough, Ranveer cleared his stand by saying, It was important to give the brand creative freedom while designing their campaign, but I guess we got it wrong on one of those billboards and Im sorry this happened but its a thing of the past.. we rectified it immediately by having that hoarding taken down ASAP from everywhere over 30 cities overnight. I treat all women with the utmost respect both professionally and personally and would never do anything to disrespect them.

Seems like the clarification from the actors side didnt do much as the issue has taken an ugly turn for Ranveer. A lawyer has filed a complaint against Ranveer and has also requested the National Commission for Women to issue a notice to the the star and the ad organizers.

I have seen an advertisement hoarding of Jack & Jones company on social media and some online news reports in which famous Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh could be seen posing slinging a woman on his shoulder, suggesting that women are nothing more than objects. Then theres a punch line by the side that says Do Not Hold Back, Take Your Work Home, the lawyer, Gaurav Gulati, was quoted as saying in reports.

The lawyer further said that such statements demean women and also portray a bad image of actors who would do such cheap stunts for money.
Kareena Kapoor Khan is due on December 20, and the actress has been keeping herself active.

Mumbai: Kareena Kapoor Khan is due on December 20, and the actress has been keeping herself active throughout the pregnancy featuring in numerous photoshoots, media events and parties.

Kareena was seen at Manish Malhotras 50th birthday bash few days ago and the actress hosted a party on Thursday night where her set of close friends like Amrita Arora and Malaika Arora Khan were spotted arriving for it.

While even Karisma Kapoor is usually a part of the group in the numerous pictures that we see on social media, this time she was not seen. Interestingly, Sonam Kapoors sister Rhea was also seen coming for the party.

Rhea is the producer of Kareenas next film Veere Di Wedding also starring Sonam, Swara Bhaskar among others.

Rhea had come in the limelight denying reports of the film getting shelved when Kareenas pregnancy was announced.

It could be possible that Rhea and Kareena might have held discussions related to the film.

Amrita also took to Instagram to share a picture where she is posing along with Malaika. We see beautiful pictures in the background of the younger versions of Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor Khan and even the wedding picture of their parents Sharmila Tagore and Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi.
All tourists are safe and their needs are being taken care of by the administration.

Port Blair: The weather in the Andamans further improved on Friday as the Navy, Coast Guard and Union Territory administration got ready for a joint evacuation of stranded tourists in Havelock island.

Six naval ships, two of these from Coast Guard, sailed out in the morning hours from Port Blair for the rescue operations, officials said here.

Three Indian Air Force helicopters were also taking part in the evacuation process as the weather improved with the sun shining, days after around 1,400 tourists were stranded in two islands of Havelock and Neil, due to the cyclonic weather since Monday.

All tourists are safe and their needs are being taken care of by the administration.

Located about 40 km from here, Havelock and Neil islands are the most popular tourist attractions of Andamans, and the worst affected.

"A decision has been taken that hotels, where tourists are stranded, will not take room rent from them, besides giving them food and water for free," Deputy Commissioner of South Andamans Udit Prakash Rai had said yesterday.
According to police officials, Diwakar jumped off the building after seeing the cops who had gone to arrest him.

The main accused,Diwakar Prasad's family alleged that Prasad was pushed by cops from the rooftop, leading to his death. (Photo: Representational Image)

Patna: Main accused in the eight crore Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) tender scam, Diwakar Prasad, was found dead on Thursday under mysterious circumstances, prompting allegations from his relatives that he was murdered by the police.

His family alleged that Prasad was pushed by cops from the rooftop, leading to his death. The police officials, however, denied the charge, saying that Diwakar jumped off the building after seeing the cops who had gone to arrest him.

A police team had gone to Prasad's house to arrest him in connection with a case related to irregularities in floating tender for supply of answer sheets of the Intermediate examination to BSEB.

Diwakar owned a printing press in Patna, which was earlier raided by the member of the special investigation team (SIT) probing the scam.

Bihar topper scam 2016 is a corruption scandal in Bihar which came into limelight on 31 May 2016 when the Bihar School Examination Board ( BSEB) Arts and Humanities topper Ruby Rai, Science topper Saurabh Shrestha and third topper in Science stream Rahul Kumar were interviewed by television channels and they were unable to answer to basic questions.

Ruby Rai, student of Vishnu Roy College, Kiratpur Raja Ram village in Vaishali district pronounced Political Science as 'Prodigal Science' and described it as a subject related to cooking.

Science topper Saurabh Shrestha was unaware of electron and proton and wrongly said alumunium is the most reactive element.

After the video of their interviews went viral, a three-member SIT was formed by the Bihar state government to look into the fraud. Manu Maharaj, Patna special SP is heading the special investigation team
This is the largest seizure of new currency notes after the old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes were scrapped on November 8.

Officials said the agency was investigating how the new notes in such a large quantity were stashed by the individual. (Photo: Twitter)

Chennai: The Income Tax department has seized at least Rs 106 crore in cash, including Rs 10 crore in new currency, and gold bars weighing 127 kg in searches at multiple locations in the city to check tax evasion post demonetization. This is the largest seizure of new currency notes after the old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes were scrapped on November 8. The I-T operation had been launched on Thursday.

Officials said S Reddy, a contractor working with the state government, has claimed the entire money and the gold as his own and is being questioned. "127 kg gold in 1 kg bars and Rs 96 crore in old currency and Rs 10 crore in Rs 2,000 notes have been seized by the sleuths after the operation," top I-T department officials said, adding "this is an unprecedented amount that the tax department has seized in recent times".

The department carried out the searches based on intelligence inputs about the activities of Reddy and few others for the last few days. Officials said the agency was investigating how the new notes in such a large quantity were stashed by the individual. The bundles of the new Rs 2,000 had no banking slips on them. They said the I-T teams had launched operations on at least eight locations of a "syndicate" involved in currency conversion.

The officials said a number of documents related to financial transactions, entries of gold sale and records of sale/purchase have also been seized by the tax sleuths. At least three people of the alleged syndicate are being questioned while few others are under the radar, they said. "He (Reddy) is a contractor working with the state government. He is claiming the entire cash and gold to be his own. Further probe is on," they said.

The I-T department, they said, will share the case details with the Enforcement Directorate and CBI for further probe into money laundering and corruption angles. Some bank officials are also under the scanner of the taxman.

The tax department had made the largest seizure of Rs 5.7 crore cash in new notes in Bengaluru few days ago after which two other central probe agencies, the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate, had taken over the cases to probe instances of corruption, money laundering and large-scale hawala transactions in the wake of the currency scrap on November 8.

According to a report in NDTV, the main suspect Sekhar Reddy is a member of the trust that manages the Tirumala temple in Tirupati, and reportedly visited late Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa in Apollo hospital with prasadam from the hill shrine.

Reddy is also reportedly close to the newly appointed state chief minister O Panneerselvam, and was photographed with him during the latters visit to Tirumala last year.

But AIADMK rubbished the links, and said that he was not associated with the party in any way whatsoever.
'Demonetisation is the biggest scam in Indian history. I will expose it in the House but government is not allowing me to speak.'

New Delhi: Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Friday said that his speech challenging the government over demonetisation is ready, but the Centre is dodging a debate and he is not being allowed to speak.

Demonetisation is the biggest scam in Indian history. I will expose it in the House but government is not allowing me to speak.

If they allow me to speak in parliament, you will see what an earthquake will happen, said Rahul Gandhi

Congress has attacked the government for plunging India into a cash crisis by banning high-denomination notes.

The government and opposition are trying for a debate on note ban, but differences have left the Parliament paralysed for weeks.

Accusing Rahul Gandhi of levelling baseless allegations against the government to grab headlines, BJP on Thursday dared him to speak on demonetization in Parliament.

As both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha faced a complete washout, President Pranab Mukherjee in a stinging attack Thursday said the House is not a place for dharna and disruption which amounts to gagging of majority by the minority.

Opposition members protesting in the Lok Sabha over the demonetisation issue were on Thursday warned of strict action if they attempted to disturb any member who has been called to speak by the Chair.

Himself a veteran Parliamentarian before he became the President, Mukherjee told MPs that they are meant to discuss and transact business and not to disrupt.

Disruption is totally unacceptable in Parliamentary system. People send representatives to speak and not to sit on dharna and not to create any trouble on the floor, he said.

Disruption means you are hurt, you are gagging majority. Majority never participates in this disruption. Only minority comes to the well, shouts slogans, stops the proceedings and creates a situation in which the Chair has no option but to adjourn the House. This is totally unacceptable, Mukherjee said.

The comments of the President came in the midst of Parliamentary logjam for over a fortnight over the issue of demonetisation.

Noting that Parliament is in session for only a few weeks in a year he said, For demonstration, you can choose any other places. But for Gods sake, do your job. You are meant to transact business. You are meant to devote your time for exercising the authority of members, particularly Lok Sabha members over money and finance.

Fact remains that this (disruption) has become a practice which should not be acceptable at all. Whatever be the differences, we have the opportunity, to speak our mind, to speak freely and no court can interfere in what I say on the floor of the House, he said.
DGCA directed the three airlines - IndiGo, Air India and SpiceJet - to take off duty the entire cockpit crew of the three aircraft.

New Delhi: Cockpit crew of the three aircraft reporting short on fuel over Kolkata recently was "crying wolf" and played "naughty" to seek early landing to show good on-time performance, a top DGCA official said.

All the three aircraft had, in fact, "enough" fuel and the pilots wanted "early" landing to show "good on-time performance", the official said, requesting anonymity.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had ordered an inquiry to find out how three flights, including the IndiGo aircraft which had West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee onboard along with other passengers, could fly low on fuel into Kolkata at the same time.

Subsequently, it directed the three airlines - IndiGo, Air India and SpiceJet - to take off duty the entire cockpit crew of the three aircraft.

A row had erupted after the Trinamool Congress alleged that the IndiGo aircraft carrying its chief Banerjee was not accorded priority in landing despite fuel shortage.

"All three aircraft had enough fuel, enough not only for holding pattern but also to land twice at the diversionary airport, which in this case was Bhubaneswar. In the landing sequence, Air India was on sixth position while IndiGo flight was on eighth slot. SpiceJet aircraft was on the last position of the three.

"However, despite, this IndiGo pilot sought early landing from the ATC saying it was short on fuel. Before giving it clearance, the ATC asked Air India pilot since it was ahead in slot, but he also reported low on fuel. Just then, SpiceJet pilot also jumped in and reported short fuel. But none of them sought priority landing as that would have put them under scrutiny," the official said.

"These pilots actually played naughty. It was like cry wolf," he said.

Norms mandate an aircraft to carry enough fuel to enable hovering for 30-40 minutes as well as to carry it to the nearest diversion airport, which in this case was Bhubaneshwar.

As a fallout of the entire row, all the six pilots were taken off duty for one week while the air traffic controller, who handled these flights was directed to undergo "corrective training".

"The ATC was instructed to undergo corrective training as he should have taken a decision on his own," the official said.

IndiGo on its part had said that its November 30 flight carrying the Trinamool Congress supremo was delayed due to congestion over Kolkata before making a normal landing and had adequate fuel.

In a statement, IndiGo had said the flight made a "normal landing" at Kolkata airport and that its captain did not declare a fuel priority or an emergency, though there was some misunderstanding between ATC and the pilot.
Manohar Parrikar had earlier expressed deep pain over her allegations against the army for its recent exercise at toll gates.

Kolkata: Hitting back at Defence Minister Manohar Parikkar for saying her opposition to presence of army troops at toll plazas can "adversely" impact the armed forces' morale, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today said her complaint was against the government policy, not the army.

"My complaint was not against the army. It was against your government and the government policy, as they act under your directions. We have great respect for their nationalism and professionalism," Mamata said in a strongly-worded two-page letter to Parrikar.

She also expressed surprise at how the Defence Minister's letter addressed to her was flashed on the electronic media hours before it reached her.

She said that in her long political and administrative life, she had "never seen such political vendetta by misusing the role of an esteemed organisation".

"I take strong exception to your wild assertion that my articulation of the rights of the state government vis-a-vis army deployment without clearance has impacted the morale of the armed forces.

"Your general observations about political parties and politicians to have the luxury of making wild and unsubstantiated allegations may be apt for your party, but we do not belong to that group," she said.

Earlier, Parrikar wrote to Banerjee expressing "deep pain" over her allegations against the army for its recent exercise at toll gates in the state and said they can "adversely" impact the morale of the armed forces.

Banerjee claimed that Parrikar in his letter "chosen to convey the laughable idea that you are the sole spokesperson on behalf of the people at large".

"I don't think that it behoves a minister of the Union government to pass near defamatory remarks on a chief minister of any state and I trust that you will rectify this attitude," she said.

The Chief Minister maintained that the Defence Ministry "has not taken prior permission of the state government for large deployment of army personnel in civilian areas".
During the hearing, the Centre accused some advocates of politicising the issue in the garb of PILs.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday sought the Centres views on issues like whether district cooperative banks could be allowed to accept deposits in demonetised notes with stringent regulations and why banks were unable to allow the minimum weekly withdrawal of Rs 24,000 to their customers.

During the hearing, the Centre accused some advocates of politicising the issue in the garb of PILs, and the bench headed by Chief Justice T.S. Thakur also expressed its dismay over lawyers breaching the courts decorum by trying to outshout each other.

As the high-decibel hearing was on, the bench, that also comprised Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud, said though demonetisation had been done with long-term beneficial aims, its immediate concern was to ease the inconvenience of people and asked attorney-general Mukul Rohatgi to apprise it on December 14 on some issues relating to district cooperative banks and the non-adherence to the weekly withdrawal limits by banks.

Further, the bench sought to know the governments view on the demand to extend the order for hospitals to accept fees and other payments in the demonetised notes.

Keeping in mind that the law under which the November 8 notification was issued for demonetisation had been challenged, the bench proposed to frame legal questions and told Mr Rohatgi that since a detailed and long hearing would be needed, he should ponder over whether this can be referred to a five-judge Constitution Bench.

The bench said it would take a decision on December 14 on the Centres plea that proceedings in different high courts on petitions relating to demonetisation be stayed and transferred either to the Supreme Court or one of the high courts for adjudication.

Every day new petitions are being filed in the Supreme Court and in high courts. The high courts are adjourning the case for one day or two days... Law officers are being asked to appear, Mr Rohatgi said, and asked the bench to consider staying the proceedings in the high courts.

The bench also considered submissions by senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for one of the petitioners opposing the demonetisation, and the attorney-general in framing legal issues to be deliberated upon by it in future hearings.

We can straightaway frame the questions. The first one can be: whether the November 8 notification is ultra-vires to Section 26 (2) (power to demonetise) of the Reserve Bank of India Act, the bench said. Indicating that it was open to the idea of sending the matters to a five-judge bench, the bench said the second question could be whether the demonetisation falls foul of Article 300A, that says no person shall be deprived of his/her property without a provision in law. Also, whether the decision is unconstitutional as it violates Article 14 (equality before the law) and Article 19(1)(g) (freedom to practice any profession and occupation) under the Constitution, it said.

Accepting Mr Sibals suggestion, the bench said the question was whether the restriction on withdrawal of legitimate and taxed money by banks was violative of the fundamental rights.

Whether district cooperative banks have been discriminated against by the denial of permission to accept deposits, the bench posed. Mr Sibal said he had also challenged the validity of the RBI Acts provision on the ground of excessive delegation of power to demonetise currency notes.

Then came the attorney-generals suggestion, who said that one question was what is the scope of judicial review in matters of fiscal/economic policy. The bench accepted the suggestion. Raising the issue of the CPI(M) filing the PIL, Mr Rohatgi said another question was can a political party file a public interest litigation (case)?

The bench, during the hearing, asked the attorney-general about the benefits and objectives of demonetisation. He said, referring to the November 8 notification, that it was to fight black money, ill-gotten money used for terrorist financing and curbing fake currency. He said the Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes constituted 86 per cent of the total currency and it was kept secret to make demonetisation effective. It was not possible to print ten lakh crore currency in advance and recalibrate all ATMs in advance. The cat would have been out of the bag. There is bound to have been some kind of inconvenience, Mr Rohatgi said.

He referred to the Centres recent decision to incentivise digital transactions and said people would benefit if they pay for rail and air tickets and other services digitally. Mr Rohatgi said around 12 lakh crore demonetised currency notes had come back into the banking system. He said that economic policy decisions shouldnt be judicially reviewed.

While Mr Rohatgi was making submissions, senior advocate and former finance minister P. Chidambaram said there were only four lakh crore new currency notes that were pumped in and since there are only four printing press of the RBI and the Centre, it was not possible to substitute the demonetised currency notes before at least six to seven months. Mr Chidambaram, Mr Sibal and former external affairs minister and senior advocate Salman Khurshid, appearing for different clients, were quite vocal and critical of the Centres demonetisation.

Mr Chidambaram said the government was rationing currency distribution as the shortfall would continue for quite some time. He raised the issue of district cooperative banks that were barred from accepting deposits in old demonetised notes and said lakhs of people, specially farmers, were suffering due to this. I dont see any farmers here. This is all bogey, the attorney-general responded curtly.

When the bench sought to know about the feasibility of allowing cooperative banks to accept deposits with stricter regulations, Mr Rohatgi said it cannot be done as there are several practical impediments. Dealing with some of these impediments, he said accounts with the cooperative banks were not KYC (know your customer) compliant and as societies are the account holders, it will be difficult to ascertain which individual member had deposited what amount. Instead of the RBI, cooperative banks are regulated by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard), and it was common knowledge who runs these banks in various states, Mr Rohatgi said.

As the lawyers tried to outshout each other to be heard, the CJI expressed his dismay, saying: I have served 23 years on the bench and have never seen such unruly behaviour by advocates. The CJI said it was his last week as a judge and he would be going with a heavy heart that lawyers behaved in such a manner on sensitive issues like demonetisation. The bench then cited the example of Mr Chidambaram waiting patiently for his turn, and said you should all look at him.
The Congress had earlier agreed for a debate in the Lok Sabha and wanted its vice-president Rahul Gandhi to start it.

New Delhi: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi lashed out at the government accusing it of not allowing him to speak in Parliament on demonetisation. He warned that there would be an earthquake when he would speak on demonetisation, which he called the biggest scam. His comments promptly drew ridicule from the BJP, which said the Congress leader was best known for his political quackery, not quakes.

Mr Gandhi, while speaking to reporters outside Parliament, made it clear that the Congress was ready for discussion so that the truth of demonetisation comes out in the open. He accused the Opposition of running away from a discussion. The Congress vice-president added that when does get a chance to speak about the issue in the House, the Prime Minister would not even be able to sit there, adding that the Prime Minister was giving speeches across the country, but was afraid of coming to the Lok Sabha and sitting there. He also asked what could be the reason for this nervousness.

The Congress had earlier agreed for a debate in the Lok Sabha and wanted its vice-president Rahul Gandhi to start it. However, the ruling party members demanded that the Congress and the entire Opposition should first apologise for disrupting the House for sixteen days. They were referring to the speech of the President of India, in which he attacked the members of both Houses for the chaos and said that the Parliament was a place for debate, not disruption.

Mr Gandhi also said that initially the government spoke about black money, then moved to counterfeit currency and then again to a cashless society campaign. I want to tell people about the the biggest scam committed by Narendra Modi single handedly and present the voice of people, specially poor, who have suffered due to this move.

He said that Mr Modi should come to the House so that what demonetisation is, who has benefited from this decision is and what it means for whom could be discussed.

BJP spokesperson Shrikant Sharma said, Parliament will run as per the Constitution, not on his arrogance (sic). Accusing the Congress of holding Parliament to ransom, parliamentary affairs minister Ananth Kumar said, Since Day One we (government) have been persuading Congress, TMC and Left parties to participate in the debate, but they showed no inclination and have been changing goal-posts. Today, Mr Gandhi came prepared and they (Congress) wanted all business to be suspended forthwith, so that he could be allowed to speak. But that doesnt happen. The Congress party may function this way, not the Parliament of India. The country expected him (Rahul Gandhi) and the Congress leadership to be prepared on November 16. If he has some earth-shattering revelations, why has he kept holding on it for so long?

Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu and fellow minister Smriti Irani also took a swipe at Mr Gandhi. May this quake happen when we are not present in Parliament, Mr Naidu told reporters in Bengaluru. Meanwhile, Ms Irani said, Rahulji thinks too highly about his oratory skills and he himself knows how much his speeches appeal...As far as tremors are concerned. I think when he speaks there are tremors within Congress not outside.
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I-T Investigation Directorate sent out a few decoy customers seeking to exchange banned currency notes into new notes.

I-T department has called in for additional staff, auditors, counting machines and banking personnel to ascertain the final figures of the recovered assets and formalise the seizure process under tax laws.

New Delhi: Income tax (I-T) officials on Thursday busted rings involved in money laundering in Mumbai, Nagpur, Ahmedabad and Chennai following the scrapping of high-value banknotes.

Income tax department on Thursday recovered at least Rs 73 crore cash, including Rs 8 crore in the new currency, and 100 kgs of gold bars in searches at multiple locations in Chennai, as per agency reports.

I-T department has called in for additional staff, auditors, counting machines and banking personnel to ascertain the final figures of the recovered assets and formalise the seizure process under tax laws.

I-T teams launched operations in at least five locations of a syndicate involved in currency conversion and recovered Rs 8 crore in cash in new currency notes, Rs 65 core cash in old notes and 100 gold bars of 1kg each.

At least three people of the alleged syndicate are being questioned by the taxmen who are still in operations.

I-T officials said that its investigation in Mumbai led to the revelation of a syndicate of ground-level operators active in converting banned currency notes into legal tenders for a commission.

As part of the operation, I-T Investigation Directorate sent out a few decoy customers seeking to exchange banned currency notes into new notes.

The syndicate, acting through its mediator, agreed to the exchange for a 35 per cent commission. The exchange was to take place at the mediators residence.

The mediator was caught red handed and new currency notes aggregating to Rs 29.5 lakh was seized, said the department.

I-T department said that it has now emerged that the syndicate comprised of many ground-level operators (GLOs)  mainly local youths led by a master aggregator and a mediator.

The mediator would seek customers. The GLOs would withdraw new currency in their own names or names of friends and family within the prescribed weekly limits, pass it on to the aggregator for a commission and deposit the old notes in their own accounts or accounts of family or friends in small sums.

The department said that another investigation into cash deposits in a bank account in Nagpur revealed that the account holder had no knowledge of the existence of her account where Rs 3.29 crore had been deposited after November 8, 2016.

Enquiries by the department revealed 6 more such accounts in her and parents names.

The seven accounts were opened and operated by unknown persons to launder cash of Rs 4.25 crore. Evidence gathered suggest that copies of PAN and other personal documents that she handed over to a friend a few years back were used to fraudulently open these accounts in Kolkata, which were operated to channel suspicious funds to eight beneficiaries, who are now being investigated.

I-T said that in a case at Ahmedabad, discrete intelligence gathered by the I-T investigation team led to a survey of the premises of a transporter in the late hours of December 3, 2016.
The accused, Balram, suspected the woman of being unfaithful to him.

New Delhi: A 48-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly murdering his live-in partner of eight years in south-east Delhi and then hacking the body into two parts and dumping them in separate places, as he suspected her of being unfaithful to him, police said on Thursday.

The accused, Balram, was apprehended from Astha Kunj Park here on a tip-off on Wednesday.

"He admitted that he had been in a live-in relationship with Anarkali, a native of Tamil Nadu, for the last seven-eight years. He suspected her of having an illicit relationship with other men of late," said the officer.

On the intervening night of December 1 and 2, Balram had an altercation with Anarkali, 43, following which he hit her with a heavy hammer on her head and back.

"He then cut her body into two parts. He threw away a part in a nearby nala (drainage) and disposed the other part of the body somewhere else in the area," police said.

A PCR call was received in the morning of December 3 about a body without legs dumped in a nala at Captain Gaur Marg. The following day, another call was received about the remaining parts of the body found lying in a nala in Sri Niwas Puri.

"Thousands of posters of the victim were pasted in the area. The staff of Amar Colony police station also launched a door-to-door drive in Garhi and Jhuggi cluster area to arrest the culprit," Romil Baaniya, DCP (Southeast) said.
Originally from Biman Nagar in Pune Manish alias Chintu controlled coal smuggling in Raniganj and earned a lions share.

Kolkata: The Special Task Force (STF) of Kolkata Police on Thursday recovered two fire arms, two round cartridge and five credit cards after raiding the Ranigunj residence of BJP leader Manish Sharma alias Manish Joshi who was among the seven persons arrested with Rs 33 lakhs of cash including Rs 31 lakhs of new currency notes of Rs 2,000 denomination on Monday night.

Three of the cards were in the name of Manish Sharma while two others were in the name of Manish Jain. We will bring this to the notice of the election commission as he had fought the assembly elections as BJP candidate from Ranigunj constituency with Manish Sharma as his name, an STF official said.

Originally from Biman Nagar in Pune Manish alias Chintu controlled coal smuggling in Raniganj and earned a lions share.

Three other credit cards that was seized from Manishs Ranigunj apartment was of Krishna Murari Kayal alias Billu (44) who was also among the seven arrested.

The sleuths recovered one ipad and four mobile phones from the Durgapur residence of Rajesh Jha alias Raju while two fire arms, two round cartridges and a credit card was recovered from the house of Sayan Majumder.

Rajesh, Lokesh, Manish, Krishna, Shubham, Partha and Sayan were caught while travelling in an Innova car along Bidhan Shishu Udyan Sarani in Maniktala. We will pray for further custody of the accused on the basis of the recoveries during course of investigation when they will be produced at court on Friday, joint commissioner (STF) Vishal Garg said.
The state finance minister then compared the tax targets set for states in the GST plan that would have widened the tax base.

Kolkata: At a time when union finance minister Arun Jaitley is pressing for GST and hopes to roll it out by September 2017, state finance minister Amit Mitra said on Thursday that a majority of the state finance ministers are against immediate implementation of the goods & services tax (GST) as they believe that GST will offer a double shock for the economy which has suffered due of demonetisation.

Mr Mitra, who is also the chairperson of the empowered committee of ministers on GST said, We are in favour of GST though we know it would have an adverse impact on the state finance initially. But we were agreed to take that initial stress for a good cause. However, the tsunami of sudden demonetisation of old high value currencies has totally destabilised the countrys economy. In such a situation, majority of the state finance ministers think that the two big hits- one of demonetisation and another of GST will be hard for the economy to accept.

The state finance minister then compared the tax targets set for states in the GST plan that would have widened the tax base.

States had set a target of reaching the 14% mark on the revenue front, post GST. States that wouldnt make it to 14% would be compensated, as per the plan. It was all decided that the compensation wont come from the Consolidated Fund. Instead, the government will set up a special fund. But all these were before demonetisation. We all fear now that states wont be able to reach the target amidst the prevailing economic situation. Demonetisation has destabilised the GST switch over plan, Mr. Mitra said.

He added that the sudden demonetisation, has resulted in a recession like situation and a 2 per cent decline in GDP is predicted. GST rollout is impossible in this circumstances. Let the economy stabilise at first. GST is lost in this horrible case of demonetisation  Mr. Mitra said.
The Indian Navy has received calls from a few companies interested in setting her back in shape.

Sources from the Naval dockyard said as of now, 25 per cent of the ship is flooded.

Mumbai: Following flooding of the 3,850 tonne guided missile frigate INS Betwa while she was on dock for repairs on Monday, the Indian Navy has received calls from a few companies interested in setting her back in shape. This was revealed by Navy sources who further said that presently, discussing project cost and timing was irrelevant as evaluation was in progress and it would take time.

About the proposed revival, a senior official from Navy said, We have not approached anyone yet but a few companies have informed us that they are interested in inspecting the ship now. He said that the Navy was in the process of evaluating damage caused to the frigate. The inquiry team is checking whether standard operating procedure was followed or not at the time of undocking, the official said.

Another top Navy official told The Asian Age that the process of evaluation of damage was underway and would take time. As of now, we cant say whether we will be able to salvage INS Betwa

Sources from the Naval dockyard said that at the time of the incident on Friday, only 10 per cent weapons had been installed, and till late night Wednesday, divers were checking positions of the dock below the frigate before making it stand again. As of now, 25 per cent of the ship is flooded, they said. They informed that making INS Betwa stand again was the Navys main focus for now as with her lying down, other ships could not enter the CG dock area where she was stuck.

Authorities were planning to fill the dock with water using hi-power pumps to get INS Betwa afloat, sources said. Its a very crucial practice, and we need to be careful while performing it to ensure safety of the frigate, they added.
The chances of the court reinstating Park are considered low because her charges are much graver.

Park has repeatedly apologized over the public anger caused by the latest scandal, but has denied any legal wrongdoings. (Photo: AP)

Seoul, South Korea: South Korean lawmakers on Friday voted to impeach President Park Geun-hye, a stunning and swift fall for the country's first female leader amid protests that drew millions into the streets in united fury.

Once formal documents are handed over to the presidential Blue House later Friday, Park will be stripped of her power and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn will assume leadership until the country's Constitutional Court rules on whether Park must permanently step down.

The court has up to 180 days to decide. Park will be formally removed from office if six of the court's nine justices support her impeachment, and the country would then hold a presidential election within 60 days.

National Assembly speaker Chung Sye-kyun said the bill on Park's impeachment was passed by a vote of 236 for and 56 opposed, with 9 invalid votes and abstentions. That well surpassed the necessary two-thirds support in the 300-seat assembly. The opposition needed help from members of Park's party to get the needed votes, and it got it.

Relatives of the victims from a 2014 ferry disaster that killed more than 300 and was blamed in part on government incompetence and corruption, who were in the parliament observing the vote, cheered and clapped after the outcome was announced. Most lawmakers left the hall quietly, though some could be seen taking selfies as they waited to vote.

Once called the "Queen of Elections" for her ability to pull off wins for her party, Park has been surrounded in the presidential Blue House in recent weeks by millions of South Koreans who have taken to the streets in protest. They are furious over what prosecutors say was collusion by Park with a longtime friend to extort money from companies and to give that confidante extraordinary sway over government decisions.

Her approval ratings had plunged to 4 percent, the lowest among South Korean leaders since democracy came in the late 1980s, and even elderly conservatives who once made up her political base have distanced themselves from her. An opinion survey released Thursday showed about 78 percent of respondents supported Park's impeachment.

South Korean lawmakers last voted to impeach a president in 2004, when they accused late liberal President Roh Moo-hyun of minor election law violations and incompetence. The court restored Roh's powers about two months later, ruling that his wrongdoings weren't serious enough to justify his unseating.

The chances of the court reinstating Park are considered low because her charges are much graver. However, some legal experts say the court might need more than a couple of months to decide. This is because Park's case is much more complicated than Roh's, and because her lawyers will likely press the court not to uphold the impeachment unless the suspicions against her are proven.

Friday's vote was a remarkable fall for Park, the daughter of slain military dictator Park Chung-hee who convincingly beat her liberal opponent in 2012. Park's single, five-year term was originally set to end Feb. 24, 2018.

The political turmoil around Park comes after years of frustration over a leadership style that inspired comparisons to her father's. Critics saw in Park an unwillingness to tolerate dissent as her government cracked down on press freedom, pushed to dissolve a leftist party and allowed aggressive police suppression of anti-government protests, which saw the death of an activist in 2016.

She also was heavily criticized over her government's handling of the 2014 ferry sinking, a disaster partially blamed on official incompetence and corruption.

Park has repeatedly apologized over the public anger caused by the latest scandal, but has denied any legal wrongdoings. She attempted to avoid impeachment last month by making a conditional offer to step down if parliament comes up with a stable power-transfer plan, but the overture was dismissed by opposition lawmakers as a stalling ploy.

Talking with leaders of her conservative ruling party on Tuesday, Park said she would make "every available effort" to prepare for the court's impeachment review.

In indicting Park's longtime friend, Choi Soon-sil, and two former presidential aides last month, state prosecutors said they believed the president was "collusively involved" in criminal activities by the suspects. Choi and the two former aides were accused of bullying large companies into providing tens of millions of dollars and favors to foundations and businesses Choi controlled, and enabling Choi to interfere with state affairs.

Park's lawyer has called the accusations groundless and said she would only cooperate with an independent probe led by a special prosecutor.

Park first met Choi in the 1970s, around the time Park was acting as first lady after her mother was killed during a 1974 assassination attempt on her father. Choi's father, a shadowy figure named Choi Tae-min who was a Buddhist monk, a religious cult leader and a Christian pastor at different times, emerged as Park's mentor.

The Choi clan has long been suspected of building a fortune by using their connections with Park to extort companies and government organizations. Choi's ex-husband is also a former close aide of Park's.
London: A British lawmaker on Thursday recounted during a parliamentary debate on violence against women how she had been raped as a 14-year-old.

Scottish National Party MP Michelle Thomson told colleagues she was attacked by an acquaintance following a youth event, as the House of Commons marked the UN International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

"It was early evening. He told me he wanted to show me something in a wooded area and at that point, I must admit, I was alarmed," recalled the SNP member.

"I did have a warning bell -- but I overrode that warning bell because I knew him and therefore there was a level of trust in place.

"It was mercifully quick and I remember first of all feeling surprise, then fear, then horror as I realised I quite simply couldn't escape," she added.

Too afraid to tell her parents, the attack left the MP feeling "spoiled and impure", she told the House.

However, 37-years on, Thomson said she now saw herself as "a survivor" and "not a victim".

Holding back tears, parliament speaker John Bercow said her words had "left an indelible impression on us all" as Thomson was comforted by fellow MPs.

Rape Crisis Scotland national co-ordinator Sandy Brindley praised the MP for "sending a strong message".
The spy chief said that Ian Fleming's famous character had helped popularise Britain's secret service, yet it has no resemblance to reality.

World's most famous fictional spy James Bond with all his bravado, wit and oodles of charm would still not make the cut as a real world special agent, according to the new chief of Britain's secret service MI6. (Photo: AP)

London: World's most famous fictional spy James Bond with all his bravado, wit and oodles of charm would still not make the cut as a real world special agent, according to the new chief of Britain's secret service MI6.

Chief of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service Alex Younger said that while Ian Fleming's famous character had helped popularise Britain's secret service brand, it bore no resemblance to reality.

Younger, the 16th chief since MI6 was founded in 1909, is known as "C", rather than "M" as in the Bond films. "I am conflicted about Bond. He has created a powerful brand for MI6: as C, the real-life version of M, there are few people who will not come to lunch if I invite them. Many of our counterparts envy the sheer global recognition of our acronym," Younger said.

"And to be fair, there are a few aspects of the genre that do resonate in real life: fierce dedication to the defence of Britain, for example. The real life 'Q' would want me to say that we too enjoy and, indeed, need a deep grasp of gadgetry. But that's pretty much where the similarity ends. And, were Bond to apply to join MI6 now, he would have to change his ways," he said in a speech at MI6 headquarters on the banks of the river Thames in London. 'C' is the only member of MI6 who can be publicly identified.

The 53-year-old former army officer who joined MI6 in 1991 also revealed that UK intelligence and security services had disrupted 12 terrorist plots since June 2013.

"The risks at stake are profound and represent a fundamental threat to our sovereignty. They should be a concern to all those who share democratic values," he said in reference to the terror threat faced by Britain.

"In defining as a terrorist anyone who opposes a brutal regime they alienate precisely that group that has to be onside if the extremists are to be defeated. We cannot be safe from the threats that emanate from that land unless the civil war is brought to an end," he added.

The Islamic State (ISIS) group had exploited the situation in Syria to fortify its stronghold in the region and wage a war on the West, he warned.
The Syrian towns of Jarabulus, Al Rai and Dabiq were retaken from the IS jihadists in lightning moves in the early weeks of the operation.

Istanbul: Turkey is sending hundreds of commandos to reinforce its military campaign inside Syria, where the Turkish army has suffered increasing casualties in its fight to capture a key town from Islamic State jihadists, reports said on Friday.

A total of 300 commandos from a base in the western Turkish province of Denizli were first taken in buses to a military airport and then to the border region in military planes to join the Turkish-led operation, Turkish newspapers and the Anadolu news agency reported.

Ankara in August launched an operation dubbed Euphrates Shield to back up Syrian rebels seeking to oust jihadists from the border zone.

The Syrian towns of Jarabulus, Al Rai and Dabiq were retaken from the IS jihadists in lightning moves in the early weeks of the operation.

But the Syrian fighters and Turkish troops have found far greater resistance in the fight for Al Bab -- 25 kilometres (15 miles) from the Turkish border -- where the jihadists have reportedly regrouped after fleeing an earlier offensive.

Nineteen Turkish soldiers have lost their lives in the Syria campaign so far, with the government wary of any sign it could become a focus of public concern.

The army has already since summer 2015 been waging an offensive against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in the southeast that has claimed the lives of hundreds of members of the security forces.

Most of the attacks in the Syria campaign have been blamed on the IS extemists.

But four Turkish soldiers were killed last month by an air strike the Turkish army blamed on the Syrian regime. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said last week neither Moscow nor its ally Damascus were behind the deadly strike.

The Turkish army also said it lost contact with two Turkish soldiers in Syria, and an IS-affiliated news agency claimed they were taken hostage by the jihadist group.

As well as seeking to root out IS, Turkey also wants to expel a Syrian Kurdish militia from its frontier and form a safe zone to shelter some of the 2.7 million Syrian refugees who sought safety in the country.

Hundreds of Turkish troops, tanks and artillery are involved in the offensive but Ankara has not given precise numbers over the size of the contingent.
She was expected to leave for New Delhi on December 18 to discuss a wide range of bilateral issues with her Indian counterpart Modi.

Dhaka: Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's planned visit to India this month has been postponed after dates could not be finalised, official sources said on Friday.

The postponement comes amid speculation in the media here that it was not a suitable time to discuss Teesta water sharing issue given the pre-occupation of the government post-demonetisation.

"The Prime Minister (Hasina) was scheduled to visit India later this month but it had to be postponed as dates could not be finalised after consultations with New Delhi," Prime Minister's press secretary Ihsanul Karim said.

The reasons behind the postponement, however, were not disclosed.

Now, Hasina's visit is likely to take place in February but that is subject to confirmation, a senior official said on condition of anonymity.

She was expected to leave for New Delhi on December 18 to discuss a wide range of bilateral issues with her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi.

Though officials remained tight-lipped over the possible reasons behind the postponement, Bangladeshi media speculated that the death of Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa and the ongoing crisis over the demonetisation move could have been the reason behind it.

A Bangladesh Foreign Ministry source on condition of anonymity told Dhaka Tribune that Hasina had herself concluded that these issues may have preoccupied the Indian administration, and that consequently the Teesta Water Sharing Treaty, the cornerstone agenda point of her visit, may receive less attention from the South Block than it should.

The paper also quoted diplomatic sources as saying that the government was not willing to risk a sidelining of the Teesta issue. Therefore, Bangladesh had some reservations against the value of the trip, it said.

A Prime Minister's Office source and three Awami League policymakers, seeking anonymity, said the Teesta issue requires the consent of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who is currently protesting the NDA's government's demonetisation move.

Since Mamata has overtly expressed her dissatisfaction, the Bangladesh administration, keeping everything in mind, realised that it was not a suitable time to discuss the Teesta issue, the paper reported.

Last week, Hasina had told reporters here, "I am going to India, I am not going with any conditions... discussion is on for Teesta river water sharing and we are hopeful".

In October, Modi had met Hasina on the sidelines of BRICS- BIMSTEC Outreach Summit in Goa. At the invitation of Hasina, Modi visited Bangladesh in June last year.
The United States plans to sell military helicopters and hardware worth billions of dollars despite criticism from activists and NGOs that the weapons kill innocent civilians in Yemen. UK and Gulf nations enter a strategic partnership against Iran, a "threat" to the region.

Dubai (AsiaNews/Agencies)  The US government yesterday approved a series of deals to sell weapons and military hardware (including aircraft, helicopters and missiles) to four Arab allies.

The approval by the US State Department is a boost for many US arms manufacturers, including Boeing.

The most important contract involves the sale to Saudi Arabia of 48 transport CH-47F Chinook helicopters, worth US$ 3.51 billion. Boeing and Honeywell Aerospace are the main beneficiaries.

Another US$ 3.5 billion contract involves 27 AH-64E Apache combat helicopters built by Boeing and Lockheed Martin for the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Finally, Qatar ordered eight transport C-17 planes and parts with a US$ 781 million price tag.

The Republican-controlled Congress could theoretically stop the agreements, but the hardware is for four US historical allies in the Gulf region. Such sales are a well-established practice; the last deal of its kind was in August.

Human rights associations and activists have challenged arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE because of their disastrous military campaign in Yemen, which has caused thousands of civilian casualties.

With its many conflicts, the Middle East has turned into a real Mecca for military exporters, as well as a tempting market for many western manufacturers and governments, like Britain and France, but one that feeds the regions ongoing bloodbath.

The United Kingdom and several Gulf States have agreed to a "strategic partnership" to promote closer relations in all areas, from security policy to trade and defence.

For the British government, this is a must since it decided to leave the European Union, and finds itself in need of new markets to boost its economy and development.

In the context of this co-operation, London plans to establish "a greater presence in the Gulf", starting with a new permanent deployment of British defence staff in Dubai.

During a meeting with Gulf State heads of state, Prime Minister Theresa May also attacked Iran, calling it a "threat" to the regions security. I am clear-eyed about the threat that Iran poses to the Gulf and the wider Middle East, Ms May said.

For this reason, Britain plans to provide new resources and investments to train local defence and security personnel.

Iran shot back right away. Britain is "not in a position to accuse others of interfering in regional affairs," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghassemi said in Tehran.

The latter suggested that May "wanted to please some of the Gulf states with these ill-considered remarks" with the goal of signing "new massive arms deals" involving British weapons.
by Nirmala Carvalho

Compassion International operates in India with 580 partners, providing US$ 50 million a year. In February, the Indian government placed it under its supervision. The group has gone before the US Congress. Radical Hindu group criticises the explicit goal of evangelising children.

Mumbai (AsiaNews)  The activities of Compassion International, a US Christian NGO, have been placed under the supervision of Indias Home Ministry.

The organisation is suspected of using its funds to convert recipients of aid, thousands of poor children, to Christianity. But after the NGO threatened to suspend all its activities for the benefit of 580 local partners who assist at least 145,000 children, the Ministry said it would reconsider its decision.

"Children will not be denied the help they desperately need, Sajan K George, president of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), told AsiaNews. American families will continue to send money for food and education. "

The US NGO is not the first Christian organisation to be placed under government supervision. Caritas India was treated the same way in 2015.

The affair began in February 2016 when the Indian government placed Compassion International in the 'prior permission category " under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act 2010 (FCRA), the law that regulates the acceptance and use of foreign funds.

Placing an NGO on this list means that foreign donations cannot be paid directly into organisations bank account, but require Home Ministry approval.

Compassion International has been active in India since 1968, and has been working at breaking the cycle of poverty among children. Every year, it gives its local branches the equivalent of US$ 50 million.

Faced with the reluctance of the government to solve the dispute, NGO officials went before the Foreign Affairs Committee of the US House of Representatives.

They asked committee members to put pressure on the Indian government; otherwise, they would have to stop providing aid.

Stephen Oakley, the groups vice president and general counsel, also accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of trying to get rid of foreign NGOs. The Ministry of Home Affairs evidently views Christian values as a threat to the national interest, particularly if those values are taught to the poor, he said.

A spokesperson of Ministry of External Affairs defended the governments decision. India has one of the largest NGO networks in the world, he said, with over three million NGOs.

After the hearing, the Hindu American Foundation, a US Hindu radical group, criticised US lawmakers for listening to a Christian charitable organisation, labelling as an inappropriate support for a specific religion.

We believe that Compassion International's claim that it is a humanitarian organisation only, while its publicly stated mission is evangelisation, is disingenuous, said Suhag Shukla, executive director and legal counsel for the Foundation.

Sajan K George slammed the latters attitude. "They take advantage of American hospitality and try to use their persuasive power, defaming and spreading hatred against Christian organisations working to improve various aspects life, regardless of caste or creed."

"I challenge Hindu groups to alleviate the suffering of millions of Dalits, who are denied the right to live in India as respectable citizens, the Christian leader said.

It seems that this radical group wants to stifle the rights of Dalit children to have a better future that organisations like Compassion International offer through inclusive and holistic development programmes."

"It's ridiculous for the Hindu American Foundation to enjoy full freedom in the United States, whilst in India tries to suppress its Christian minority."
The Syrian president distinguishes between the opposition forces in the country. Not all are collaborators and talks are not possible with those who are "serving foreign agendas". He attacks Saudi Arabia and Qatar responsible for Israeli superiority in the region. The fight against corruption and the commitment to improving the living conditions of citizens. A truce in the fighting in Aleppo.

Damascus (AsiaNews) - The Syrian army has suspended operations in the eastern sector of Aleppo, after recent military advances which wrested control of the old city from the rebels (and jihadists). The pause in the offensive, which was announced by the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, aims to favor the evacuation of tens of thousands of civilians trapped in the battle zones.

In recent weeks, government troops have regained 75% of the territories east of Aleppo, four years in the hands of opponents of Syrian President Bashar al Assad. Local sources report that a lull in clashes, although outbreaks of violence persist in some areas. Military experts from Russia (a Damascus ally) and the United States are due to meet tomorrow to discuss the battle for Syrias second largest city. Meanwhile President Assad has given an interview in which he opens to the possibility of dialogue with sectors of the opposition who are not collaborators" and reaches out to those who, while criticizing him, are not "serving foreign agendas. Here is an overview of what he said.

The pro-government daily Al Watan (Fatherland) yesterday published an exclusive interview to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on its front page, in which he makes a clear difference between the various opposition factions in the country. "There are not all collaborators", said the head of state, adding "not at all opposed to the establishment of an inter-Syrian dialogue, provided it is made by and with the Syrians who are not in the service of foreign agendas and do not support terrorism. "

He further added that this round table can take place "in Damascus or anywhere else in the world, bearing in mind that no one is immune or above the law." This is a clear reference, to the opponents in Turkey, Qatar or Saudi Arabia who back them, and against which the Syrian judiciary has opened investigative files. Among the alleged crimes: crimes against humanity, terrorism and illegal trafficking in arms, drugs, archaeological finds and oil.

Bluntly, the Syrian president denounces Saudi Arabia that Qatar, which "have taken anti-Arab positions and are among the main causes of the survival of Israel and its regional superiority." Assad also revealed for the first time the story of a Russian mediation that took place a year and a half ago, to mend ties between Syria and Saudi Arabia.

A failed operation because Riyadh "wanted only one thing: that Syria would join in its opposition to Iran. And we - added the president - do not see why we should go against Iran to appease Saudi Arabia or to please their backward minds".

On the improvement of relations with Egypt, Assad said that the ties had touched a historic low "during the governments of Ikhwanji [the Muslim Brotherhood, ed] led by Morsi. However - he explained  relations never reached breaking point, and certainly no thanks to Ikhwanji, but to mediation and the will of the Egyptian military apparatus ".

Speaking about the ongoing fighting in Aleppo, the Syrian president said: "We have to be honest, the victory in Aleppo will not mean the end of the war in Syria but it is nevertheless an important step towards the end. This war will not end until we have completely eradicated terrorism. And we eradicate them all. "

"There is no choice but dialogue," said Assad, praising the efforts made so far and which have saved many lives. "And in any agreement achieved so far - he continued - our first interest has always been to liberate people held hostage by various armed groups."

Regarding the Syrian economic miracle, in which the national system holds solidly despite the war that has lasted for more than five years, the Syrian president attributes it to the "basis on which the Syrian economy has been established for decades, combined with the iron will of Syrians ... as well as external help of friendly countries including Iran and Russia".

Already talking about the next phase of reconstruction of the country, now almost entirely destroyed, President Assad stressed that "friendly nations will be the first to take advantage of reconstruction contracts and they will be the creditor countries." He then added he does not believe that "the Syrian people will ever allow companies belonging to enemy countries to derive any benefit or profit from the war they caused." However, while warning that "many countries that are now enemies will try to create joint ventures with companies from nations allied to us, in order to use them as a showcase."

Finally, Assad had harsh words for corruption and all who have benefited from the the States being committed on other fronts: "They will not escape the law," said the president, who has, however, noted that now "the state's priorities are those to combat terrorism and to ensure minimum standards of a decent life for our citizens ". (PB)
The 146th immolation since 2009. Police have taken the victim's body. The scene was filmed. The Dalai Lama: "Safeguarding life as the highest" value.

Dharamsala (AsiaNews / Agencies) - A Gansu Tibetan self-immolated yesterday in Machu county (Chinese: Maqu). The man set himself on fire at 7 pm (local time) invoking the Dalai Lama. According to sources speaking on condition of anonymity, immediately after the immolation Chinese police intervened it took the body away to an unknown location.

In a video posted online a man is seen in flames lying on the ground, next to a child watching the scene (see photo).

The identity of the man is unknown. The phenomenon of self-immolations began in the aftermath of the 2008 protests that took place in Lhasa Tibetan province. On that occasion, the fighting raged on the anniversary of the Tibetan uprising against Beijing - in March 1959, and violently repressed - costing the lives of nearly 220 people.

Yesterdays brings the number of self-immolations of Tibetans, men and women, often very young, to 146. They are criticizing Chinese rule in Tibet and demanding the return of the Dalai Lama to his homeland.

The Chinese authorities have increased control over Tibetan areas to prevent the self-immolations and arrest those who promote this type of protest. For his part, the exiled Buddhist leader has repeatedly called on his followers to "not take their life, but instead use it to protest in any other way" and "safeguard life as the highest value."
by Sumon Corraya

Card D'Rozario met the prime minister in her office. The apostolic nuncio, Archbishop George Kocherry, was present at the meeting. "On behalf of the 600,000 members of the Christian community that I represent, I express my loyalty to the prime minister and the nation, the cardinal said.

Dhaka (AsiaNews)  The Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Ms Sheikh Hasina, said she plans to write a letter to Pope Francis to invite him to visit Bangladesh.

The announcement was made during a courtesy call by Mgr Patrick D'Rozario, archbishop of Dhaka, who recently became the country's first cardinal.

In his greetings, Card D'Rozario said, "On behalf of the 600,000 members of the Christian community that I represent, I express my loyalty to the prime minister and the nation".

The meeting between Hasina and the cardinal took place in the office of Prime Minister, in the presence of Archbishop George Kocherry, apostolic nuncio to Bangladesh.

For her part, Hasina said she was "very happy" for the appointment of the first Bangladeshi cardinal. "It is a great pride for the country and a recognition for his service."

Mgr Shorot Francis Gomes, auxiliary bishop of Dhaka, told AsiaNews that Card D'Rozario informed the prime minister of the pope's desire to visit Bangladesh next year. She replied that she would send Pope Francis a letter of invitation."

The cardinal said that he spoke with the pope during his recent visit to Rome for the consistory about Bangladeshs remarkable results in the social and economic fields.

Hasina pointed out that in the country people have lived in peace and harmony for centuries, regardless of the religion they profess, or their cultural affiliation.

"In Bangladesh, she noted, religion is a personal matter, and religious holidays are for everyone."
by Nirmala Carvalho

Seven nuns operate in Madhya Pradesh. Yesterday 19 new sisters made their profession in Orissa. About 500 sisters in India and Germany. With particular preference for the poor, women and children, working in the field of social work, education and healthcare.

Mumbai (AsiaNews) - The Handmaids of Mary (Hm) in Madhya Pradesh celebrated the feast of the Immaculate Conception by renewing their vows. The festival coincides with the anniversary of the foundation of their congregation, born in 1944 in Orissa. Speaking to AsiaNews Sister Meena Barwa, of the Handmaids of Mary in Orissa, says: "For us it is a day of great joy, which invigorates and encourages us in our spiritual lives and in our mission."

Sister Meena is the niece of Msgr. John Barwa, Archbishop of Cuttack-Bhubaneshwar in Kandhamal district, the theater in 2008 of the fiercest persecution of Christians by Hindu radicals. The nun was the victim of a gang rape in the early days of the pogroms, but has had the courage to publicly denounce her attackers and testify at their trial. Remembering how she managed to overcome the terrible trauma, she said that it was "the love of the Mother of Christ at the foot of the cross, that supported me during my personal passion."

Yesterday she and her sisters of Madhya Pradesh (seven in all) celebrated the Virgin and their foundation by Fr. Edmund Albert Joseph Harrison sj. The celebrations began the previous day (December 7) with an adoration of six hours. On December 8, the religious renewed their vows during a Mass with all the parishioners.

Sister Meena reports that in Orissa 19 other nuns have professed their perpetual vocation. With these professions, all over India and in Germany there are about 500 Handmaids of Mary. "We work especially in the villages - she says - bringing our service of evangelization, especially of the poor, women and children. We are committed to education, social work and medical care. We take care of the lepers and the elderly, with a particular preference for the most disadvantaged groups".
Satellite images taken on November 30 show Vietnamese ships near the Ladd Reef, a small island in the Spratly. The military purpose of the new base is still unconfirmed, but it could trigger Beijings ire.

Hanoi (AsiaNews) - Vietnam is carrying out dredging and construction work in some disputed islands in the South China Sea. This is what appears from new satellite images taken by Planet Lab, a US company. The photos date back to November 30 last year and show construction work on a new facility in Ladd Reef, a small island in the Spratly where Hanoi already has a lighthouse.

The news could trigger the ire of Beijing, which has been pursuing an aggressive policy in the disputed waters of the South China Sea, building naval and air bases in several atolls.

Images of Ladd Reef taken in July show no marine sediments that are now visible, and this means that the work began recently. The Vietnamese government has declined comment.

Last month, more photos published by Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative reveal that Hanoi is also building several airstrips and military hangars on several disputed islands. The military nature of these latest works, however, are not confirmed.

According to Carl Thayer, a professor at the University of New South Wales, Vietnam is accumulating as many "positions" as possible before the countries involved sign a code of conduct in the China Sea: "Vietnam is moving beyond the status quo and my speculation it is that if we are moving toward a diplomatic resolution of the issue within a year or two, then it seems that Hanoi wants to take as much as possible before it is banned from doings so".

The Vietnamese installations are a response to the expansionist policy adopted in recent years by Beijing in the seas of the Asia-Pacific region. The South China Sea region is also disputed by Taiwan, the Philippines, Brunei and Malaysia. Following arbitration promoted from the Philippines, a judgment of the Hague court found Chinese claims in the area "without any rights".
Members of her own party voted against her. Decision now rests with Constitutional Court. If ousted, Park would be the first South Korean president to undergo such a fate.

Seoul (AsiaNews) - The South Korean parliament has voted to impeach President Park Geun-hye accused of various scandals and irresponsibility regarding security.

The impeachment motion was passed by 234 votes to 56. This means that dozens of members of Parks own Saenuri Party also voted in favor.

The authority of the President now passes to the Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn. The vote means that Park's powers are suspended, but the final decision must be taken by the Constitutional Court, composed of nine judges, who have six months to rule on the issue.

AsiaNews Korean sources agree with the decision: "She is corrupt and shallow, she allowed her relationship with her friend Choi Soon-sil, determine our domestic and foreign policy, even toward North Korea, without being part of 'executive".

The crisis of the Park erupted after the revelations about her relationship with Choi Soon-sil, also accused of corruption who was able to exploit her relationship with the president to receive funding for foundations and favors from businesses and politicians.

For weeks, millions of Koreans have marched in several cities to demand Park resign from the Presidency. If ousted, the Park would be the first South Korean president to suffer such a fate.
The UN Human Rights High Commissioner Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein invites parliamentarians to "reconsider" support for the norm. It "harms the reputation" of Israel in the world. The Knesset approves the first reading with 57 votes in favor and 51 against. Two more votes scheduled before final approval.

Jerusalem (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The law under discussion in the Israeli Parliament to legalize about 4 thousand settler homes in the Occupied Territories of the West Bank, is a "flagrant violation" of international law, says UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ra'ad Zeid Al Hussein, who strongly calls on "Israeli deputies to reconsider their support for the norm", which grants permits "retroactively" to homes of the settlers "built on land belonging to private Palestinians".

The statement by the United Nations official follows the Knesset vote giving the green light to the legislative process. The norm received 57 votes against 51. But it needs two more readings before final approval. Israeli human rights activists and associations have criticized the law, which would put an end to the birth of a [future] Palestinian state.

In a note Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein has asked members of "Parliament reconsider their support for the law" that in the event of entry into force, would have "far-reaching consequences" and " seriously damage Israel's reputation in the world". Among the main supporters are Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Education Minister Naftali Bennett.

The norm "violates international law," he said the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, because it "allows the use of private Palestinian land" for the development "of settlements, without the owners consent." " Israel as the occupying power  he warns - must respect the private property of Palestinians, regardless of whether or not compensation is provided".

The United States and the European Union have both intervened in the issue saying that the continued expansion, occupation and fragmentation of Palestinian territory "is devouring" the possibility of a peaceful solution. Settlements and outposts, concludes Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, are "the root cause of a wide range of human rights violations in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem."

According to the latest statistics provided by Peace Now, Israel gave the green light to 2,623 housing units in the West Bank, including 756 illegally-built homes that have been retrospectively "legalised.

About 570,000 Israelis live in more than 100 settlements built by Israel after it seized the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Under international law these settlements are illegal, a view disputed by the Israeli government, which has boosted its expansionist policy in recent years.

Peace talks between the two sides broke down in 2014, triggering an escalation of violence in the region.
Its five answers to five questions. Here we go

1. I moved for my husband but cant find work in my field  and now I have a job offer in my home state

I grew up in the midwest, and I moved down to the middle of nowhere in New Mexico to be with my husband after I graduated college. The first year I was here was interesting. I got a job in the loan industry. It paid okay for the area, not great but it paid the bills and put food on the table. After the year, I quit due to the stress and horrible management causing me major health issues. After I resigned, I received a job offer from my home state working with children. I discussed it with my husband and he told me to take it; that way I could visit family and recharge (since I was not in the best of health). I spent the summer getting better, visiting family, and enjoying my job.

After the summer was up, I traveled back home. As soon as I got back, I filled out many applications and had interviews. This is where the sad part starts. The interviews went really well and the managers liked me, but many did not want to hire me due to my education. (I have a four-year degree in history and social science) They thought I was overqualified due to that. This frustrates me to no end. One manager only interviewed me as a back-up plan; if one of his people quit, he would call me and ask me to fill in. Another one eent in all my paperwork to the area manager but cant hire me because they didnt have a store manager.

I have been out of a job for three months and money is getting tight. Yesterday I received a email from a company in my home state wanting me to work for them. This is where I need advice/help. My husband has an awesome job that pays pretty well. He also loves working there. He has been applying to jobs all over the country to be closer to a bigger city so I can start my career. However, he hasnt gotten a job yet and its been close to a year and a half. This job that was offered to me is my dream job and its in my career field. Do I go for my dream job and have my husband move to my home state with me or should I stay here in the middle of nowhere with no job while he remains at his? Please help. I am at a standstill and dont know what to do.

Oh, Im sorry  this is really hard. Ultimately, this is a question for your marriage. It sounds like you and your husband need to figure out where it makes sense for the two of you to live. If you wont be able to find a job in your field where you currently are (which sounds like may be the case), do the two of you want to move somewhere that you can? Or is it okay for you to resign yourself to not getting work in your field long-term? Is he willing to move for now since you moved for him before and gave his city a shot? What are your husbands job prospects in the new city? And how do the two of you want to balance all these factors out? Ultimately its about the trade-offs the two of you decide to make as a couple.

The job-related piece of this that I can advise on is that the longer you dont work in your field, the harder it will be to find work in your field. So you probably have a relatively limited window of time to really pursue it, if thats what you want to do.

2. Recruiting by text message

I have a Google Voice number that I use for job hunting. I am not currently job hunting  I love my job  but I also believe in always taking the meeting/interview/convo if possible, because you never know what will happen next.

Earlier this week, I got a text message from a recruiting company asking me if I was interested in a job that I was actually completely unqualified for  the recruiter had clearly done a keyword scan for, say, teapot usability and since both words showed up, he assumed I was now a teapot usability expert. I replied that I was not qualified for the position.

Today he texted back and asked what I was looking for. I replied that at this time I was not looking to make a move, which is 100% true. But, again, normally Im happy to have a quick convo  except that 1) he hadnt read my resume and 2) the TEXT MESSAGES.

I would think it completely appropriate to have a text conversation with a recruiter with whom I already had a relationship, especially things like confirming Id finished an interview, or other quick transactional notes. But I cant see doing this as the regular course of business as part of job hunting. I am An Old, but I work in technology and have plenty of text conversations on a daily basis. Am I just being old-fashioned or is this the new direction of recruiting and Im going to have to get used to it in order to be competitive?

I hope not. I think you just ran into a weird and overly cavalier recruiter, of which there are plenty. He was sloppy about reading your resume, and hes sloppy about how he communicates.

Also, some people are way more reliant on texting in all situations than others, and I think some of those people over time lose sight of the fact that not everyone likes to have lengthy business-related text conversations.

3. Being laid off right after relocating for work

This summer my husband was told that the company he had worked for for 10 years was closing his plant and relocating it to Houston. He was among the few employees that were offered to keep their jobs and move with the plant. The company would provide a substantial relocation package including all closing costs, moving costs, and a one month extra salary for expenses. No raises would be given and as a matter of fact, at the time the entire US operations had been forced to take a temporary ten percent pay cut that had started in February.

We didnt want to move. We had a teenager going into his junior year of high school and had a great life and house. But my husband is over 50 years old and we realized finding a new job would be difficult so we accepted the offer. So mid-August I quit my job and we moved.

Fast forward three and a half months and he gets laid off. We were thoroughly shocked. He had to sign an agreement saying that if he resigned in the next two years, we had to pay back all if the relocation fees but what about if they lay him off? Now we are in a new town that is not our home away from our friends and family. Even with the relocation package this has not been a cheap move for us. Is there any way of getting them to move us back? It just seems so unfair! I know the old saying about how life isnt fair but youve got to be kidding me!

Thats horrible. He can definitely try to negotiate for some moving costs, but whether or not they agree is likely to depend on (a) how guilty they feel, so he should try to appeal to their human decency when he points out what happened, and (b) whether theyre worried he has potential grounds to sue for anything (like discrimination or harassment). Severance packages are often quite negotiable when one of those things is the case, especially the second one.

Im not sure if you were also worried that you might be on the hook for the relocation expenses, but you wont be. Thats only for if your husband left voluntarily.

4. Prospective employer told me that I no longer seem interested in the job

I interviewed for a job position before Thanksgiving, and sent a follow up email a couple days ago asking about the status of the job. I got an email back stating that it seemed I was no longer interested in the job. Panicked that I may have missed a job offer letter I scourged my email to findnothing. Im not sure what I could have done in this scenario? Or even how to respond back.

It sounds like a miscommunication. Maybe they sent you an email or left you a voicemail that somehow got lost in the ether. (Or maybe they think they did but they didnt actually do it.) Id send this back: Im still very interested! Your email makes me wonder if youd tried to contact me, but I dont have any missed calls or emails from you so Im not sure what happened that made you think Id lost interest. Id still love to be considered for the job and to talk with you further.

5. Is this company brushing me off?

Several years ago I applied for a position at a company located right down the street from my house. I received an in person interview that seemed to go incredibly well. Several days later however, I received a rejection email telling me thanks for applying, but we will be moving forward with other candidates at this time. And to feel free to reapply in the future.

I have reapplied, but have never been invited back for another in-person interview. The first time I reapplied, I was invited to an out of state job fair (in spite of the position I applied for being right down the street.) There was no way to RSVP to this job fair. Im not sure there was any connection between not attending the job fair and not being selected for an interview, but needless to say I didnt get the job. The second time I reapplied, once again their actions baffled me, I was invited to a phone screening interview with someone from out of state. Im kind of getting a message that we dont really want you to work here, and even though you feel youd be perfect for the position please take the hint and move on. Am I right to perceive this are they in fact giving me the brush off or am I reading too much into whats becoming standard practices even though they dont always make sense to the local job seeker?

The out-of-state job fair thing is weird, but I wouldnt read anything into the phone interview being with someone from another state. If thats the person whos doing the phone interviews for the position, it makes sense that thats what would happen  and theyre not going to invite you to skip the phone screen and interview in-person at that stage instead, so the fact that youre right down the street wouldnt really factor in.

In general, employers are very comfortable rejecting people because they have to do it all the time. They dont offer phone interviews to people as a way to brush them off. If they want to brush you off, theyd just reject you!
This is a true story about me. Kind of funny in the todays standard.

Came to the US in the mid 80s. Our old friends may still remember the political and economic situations in China in those years. Before leaving the country, we went through an overseas-going training. Among the materials covered, the trainer told a sad story about an absent minded Chinese professor who was a visiting scholar at a famous US university. One day, this professor went shopping. He found his item and walked toward the front door while his mind was fully occupied by his research project. The next thing was that the security alarm sounded and he was caught for stealing. This professor, already famous in China, could not take the humiliation easily and committed suicide after being released by the police.

Reason to tell the previous story is to avoid comments like You are stupid

Upon the arrival of the university town, I immediately went to K-Mart for some necessities. However, I could not find anything there within my limited budget ($360 stipend per month) and decided to go on to another store. However, having not got used to the American open-shelf style stores, I felt really uncomfortable to walk out the store empty handed. After some mental struggles, I went to one girl cashier (I thought I was handsome enough and she should treat me well) and uttered I didnt buy anything.

She stared in my eyes. Afraid of my poor English, I said the same thing again. Her eyes grew even bigger and rounder. My face turned red and thought Gee, is my English that bad even my TOEFL scored more than 600 points.

Quickly checked all my words and grammar, I repeated the sentence I didnt buy anything.

After one minute or so (I guess she had finally understood why I acted that way), she smiled and said I know. Just go.

With a big red face, I walked away.
A Brisbane lawyer who pleaded guilty to fraud has been sentenced to seven-and-a-half years for stealing about $1.8 million from clients.Russell Biddle was sentenced at the Brisbane District Court on Wednesday for using money he took from the estates of clients to pay of his firms tax debt, the AAP reports.This is a major fall from grace, Judge David Reid said, according to the report. He's probably king of sticking his head in the sand.The lawyer is said to have taken more than $1.1 million from the estate of John and Carol Dawson who were killed along with four others in a plane crash in 2012 on the Sunshine coast.The husband and wife, who were both 63 at the time, perished after a vintage biplane they were flying in crashed into bushland on 1 October 2012.The beneficiary of the Dawson estate hired Biddles former Victoria Point law firm, Biddle Lawyers, to manage the estate proceeds. However, the beneficiary found at least three separate transactions linked to Biddles personal bank account, prompting her to report the lawyer to the authorities.Furthermore, Biddle also took more than $500,000 from another clients estate, the court heard. Biddle used the money to pay his firms $1.2 million tax liability and some personal expenses.Biddle will be eligible for parole in November 2017, the AAP notes.
The financial closure of the $16.2 billion lease deal for Ausgrid compensates for a week that saw thin activity. Clayton Utz confirmed that the deal, in which it advised the consortium comprising IFM Investors and AustralianSuper, has financially closed officially making it the largest M&A transaction in Australia for the year. Herbert Smith Freehills also advised the consortium while Ashurst advised on due diligence and financing and Allens advised the financial firms involved in the transaction.HSF also advised another deal we have, which is Clean Energy Finance Corporations $110 million investment in Investa Commercial Property Fund. This is the companys largest investment in new property to date.Going back to Clayton Utz, the firm also advised on Tox Frees acquisition of Daniels Health Pty Ltd and Daniels Manufacturing Pty Ltd in a deal with an enterprise value of $186 million. The matter also involved an $85 million entitlement offer used to partially fund the acquisition.Meanwhile, Squire Patton Boggs assisted New York Stock Exchange-listed firm Live Nation in the acquisition of 51% of Secret Sounds Group which owns popular music festivals Splendour in the Grass and Falls Music and Arts.
Mish said: DIBP don't always email exactly 2 months prior. You don't need them to email you to submit your documents.



Just be aware the DIBP works off eligibility date not the date you submit the documents. Click to expand...

Thats right, sometimes they send it but you never receive it. We never did but just lodged it online anyways.On the DIBP website there is an eligibility calculator. If that says you are good to apply then start the process on IMMI account. Otherwise just keep on waiting as you need to be eligible to finish the application process.
The nearest rival to the base Giulia from Aud is part is the A4 Premium 2.0 TFSI with the 7-speed S tronic transmission, but as it happens, the German competitor is marginally more affordable because it comes with front-wheel-drive. The Giulia, meanwhile, has rear-wheel-drive and more punch than the holy trinity from Deutschland, plus plenty of no-cost equipment.The lesser model in the Alfa Romeo Giulia s range prides itself with a 280 horsepower turbocharged engine with 306 lb-ft on tap, an 8-speed automatic transmission developed by ZF, and a 0 to 60 mph (96 km/h) time of 5.1 seconds. Top speed? 149 mph (240 km/h), thank you! As standard, goodies such as 10-way power front seats with 4-way lumbar, bi-xenon headlamps with LED DRLs, push-button start, and a basic 6.5-inch infotainment system with a BMW iDrive-like rotary control will have to make do. Q4 AWD is a $2,000 option on the base and TI model alike. Higher up, the 2017 Alfa Romeo Giulia Ti starts from $39,995 and adds even more luxury and convenience from the get-go. Things like genuine wood trim, bigger 8.8-inch infotainment system, heated front seats, and heated steering wheel are the highlights. Three optional packages are also available: Ti Sport (exterior design pack), Ti Lusso (interior design and convenience pack), and Ti Performance. The latter package enhances the Giulia Ti with adaptive suspension, a mechanical limited slip differential, and paddle shifters made of aluminum.Last, but not least, the top of the food chain is dominated by the 2017 Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio . A car I hold dear to my heart after spanking it around a track, the Giulia Q starts from $72,000 and boasts a Ferrari-derived 2.9-liter twin-turbo V6 with 505 horsepower. 0 to 60 mph is doable in merely 3.8 seconds, while standard features include an active aero splitter, lots of carbon fiber inside and out, as well as stopping prowess from Brembo.Right now, Alfa Romeo dealers in the U.S. have the Giulia Q in their showrooms. The regular model and the Giulia Ti will arrive in January. As the sportiest compact executive sedan on the market at the present moment, Ill be keeping my fingers crossed these babies will fly out of the dealer lots.
SUV

If all these brands will turn out to have the same fate as the German manufacturer, then the only bad bit about their decision to build sport utility vehicles is that it came so late. Like it or not (and you most definitely have feel one way or another about it), SUVs are all the rage at the moment, and the trend doesn't look like it's going to die anytime soon.

Rolls-Royce was pretty mysterious about its plans in this segment at first - so much so that it wasn't even perfectly clear whether it was going to build anat all. In the meantime, all doubts have disappeared and no further than a week ago, we even had the first spy pictures of the production-ready version.Now, our photographers are back with even more snaps, and this time they've managed to capture the car in full. And make no mistake: there's a lot to fit on that tiny camera sensor. The Rolls-Royce Cullinan is a huge vehicle, but what would you expect from the SUV of a brand that's renowned for making very big cars?The images show a car that can best be described as a much taller Phantom , meaning that the SUV is borrowing the more boxy desigh of the flagship model instead of borrowing the smoother lines of the Ghost . The BMW-owned brand refuses to refer to the Cullinan as an SUV, calling it instead an "all-terrain high-sided vehicle." Does that mean, in true BMW fashion, we're about to get another acronym that basically means the same thing as the good-old-fashioned "SUV"? ATHSV sounds more like a disease, so they'll probably sweep that under the rug.The Cullinan - or whatever its name will be as Rolls-Royce has not confirmed it yet - is going to mark another premiere for the brand: its first all-wheel-drive vehicle. Power is expected to come from an evolved version of the 6.8-liter V12 engine, with the added possibility of a hybrid version as well. Just like the Bentley Bentayga, a diesel version is out of the question - there's no room for oil-burners in this stratospheric segment.That's about the extent of what we know about the Rolls-Royce SUV at the moment. Design-wise, you can make an idea by browsing the image gallery on the right. It's definitely big, but since the front end is sacrosanct at Rolls-Royce, the only remaining question mark hangs above the rear side of the car. Coincidentally, that's also where Rolls-Royce chose to apply the more camo and cover the production taillights as well.A release date for the Rolls-Royce Cullinan has not been set yet, but it should be sometime during next year. Expect the Cullinan to become the brand's best-selling model the instant it's available for order, with production capacity being the only thing holding back the sales. That's just the way things are.
RoyalJordanian lives and rides in London, which is one of the most crowded cities in Europe, especially at rush hour. Although he believes the data has been polished by the politicians, the latest figures show the average speed there is now at 7.9 mph (12.7 km/h). RJ thinks there are places where is as low as 3 mph (4.8 km/h), and I tend to belive him.Im pretty sure there are a lot more major cities in the world suffering from the same problem this day and age thanks to the selfishness and commodity that push most car owners to occupy around 7 square meters of public road each day just to sit comfortably on their way to the office.Uuugh, but bikes are dangerous , and I dont wan to arrive wet and cold at work! Ive heard this so many times I could write a study on people mentality. Truth is, if more car owners would choose to go on two wheels, other drivers would be more aware of their presence simply because there will be motorcycles everywhere.As with the comfort part, if you invest in the right equipment you wont be cold or wet when arriving at the destination. Yes, you will have to carry more stuff with you, but youll get there faster and usually using less fuel than a car.But enough with my preach and lets get back to the video here. RJs test is simple - he has to ride from West London to the center and then head to North West London. The total distance measures around 8 miles (12.8 km), but hes doing it during rush hour to see what average speed and fuel consumption he can achieve.RJ also promised to abide by all traffic rules and not race to the destination, so the data he gets should be pretty accurate for a normal commute through London.
As fate would have it, Fremonts authorities gave Tesla Motors the OK to expand the manufacturing site from todays 5.3 million square feet to 9.9 million square feet . Of course, the bigger footprint is needed for the upcoming Model 3, which received almost 400,000 reservations from would-be owners.On the citys website, Staff Report 2840 acknowledges the construction of approximately 4.6 million square feet of new structures to support additional automobile production. Furthermore, we are told that most of the new floor area [4.6 million square feet] would consist of warehouse uses associated with the primary use of the site for automobile manufacturing.The report also highlights that Fremont currently employs 6,210 people who produce 2,000 vehicles per week or thereabout. Thanks to the planning of 11 new buildings, those figures will undoubtedly go up to meet demand. Be that as it may, Tesla has yet to announce when the expansion would begin.By all accounts, Elon Musk needs to act quickly considering that the Gigafactory wants to add 1,000 workers during the first half of 2017. The Sparks, Nevada-based site intends to reach 35 GWh of battery production in 2018. In the long run, the manufacturers head honcho expects to ramp up production to 150 GWh and employ something like 10,000 people, including Panasonics on-site specialists. As a brief refresher, Panasonic agreed to invest heavily in the Gigafactory for Tesla to produce those batteries.With volume production expected to start as early as July 1, 2017, the Tesla Model 3 is a make or break moment for the electric vehicle brand. The base model, which is expected to cost $35,000 before applicable incentives, promises at least 215 miles (346 kilometers) of EPA-rated range on a full charge and a 0 to 60 mph (96 km/h) time of less than 6.0 seconds.
Photo by IFCAR via Wikimedia Commons.

Hyundai Motor America is recalling 41,264 2007- and 2008-model year Entourage minivans because the secondary hood latch might remain in the unlatched position after the hood is closed, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

The problem is tied to corrosion and binding. The minivans at issue were manufactured from Feb. 16, 2006, to June 30, 2008.

If the primary latch is inadvertently released and the secondary latch is not engaged, the hood could unexpectedly open while driving, increasing the risk of a vehicle crash, NHTSA warned on its website.

Dealers will replace the secondary latch in vehicles originally sold in, or ever registered in, states where road salt use is prevalent and corrosion damage is more likely. These states include Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. Also included is the District of Columbia.

For vehicles in any other state, dealers will inspect and either lubricate or replace the secondary latch, as necessary.

There will be no charge for these services. The recall is expected to begin Dec. 9. Vehicle owners can reach Hyundai customer service at (800) 633-5151. Hyundais number for this recall is 154.
Photo courtesy of Enterprise Holdings. The Los Angeles Regional Food Bank has received $60,000 from the Enterprise Rent-A-Car Foundation to address food insecurity in Los Angeles.

The donation is part of the Fill Your Tank program that celebrates Enterprise Rent-A-Car's 60th anniversary. The company plans on providing $60 million over six years to fight hunger around the globe.

Enterprise Rent-A-Car is supporting the Fill Your Tank program with a hunger awareness and local engagement campaign.

We are extremely grateful for this generous donation that will assist us in our mission to provide meals for the many children, families and seniors struggling with hunger in Los Angeles County," said Michael Flood, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank. "Corporations like Enterprise Rent-A-Car are essential to the work we do, especially as we approach the holiday season.
John Glenn, a lifelong pilot and public figure who is best known as the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth, died Thursday at 95. The retired military airman and four-term U.S. senator was hospitalized in Columbus, Ohio, about a week ago in declining health. Glenn, a native of Cambridge in eastern Ohio,is the states ultimate hometown hero, and his passing today is an occasion for all of us to grieve,Ohio Gov. John Kasich tweeted.Glenn is a decorated military pilot who flew combat missions in World War II and the Korean War before flying as a military test pilot and joining NASAs astronaut program in 1958.

During World War II, he flew 59 combat missions as part ofMarine Fighter Squadron 155 flying F-4U fighters. He continued flying as a Marine pilot on Guam after the war and later instructed military pilots, according to NASA. As part ofMarine Fighter Squadron 311 in the Korean War, he flew 63 missions. For his service in both wars, Glenn received numerous honors including six awards of the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal.He went on to fly as a military test pilot and in 1957set a transcontinental speed record from Los Angeles to New York in a supersonic F8U Crusader.

He joined NASAs first astronaut program and on Feb. 20, 1962, on board the Friendship 7 spacecraft, he orbited the Earth three times, reaching a maximum altitude of 162 miles and speeds upward of17,500 miles per hour in a flight that lasted just under five hours.During his orbits he was heard to say,Zero-G and I feel fine. Man, that view is tremendous.More than 36 years later, in October 1998, Glenn became the oldest astronaut to fly in space when he served as a crew member on the space shuttle Discovery.Glenn was honored earlier this year whenPort Columbus International Airport was renamed John Glenn Columbus International Airport.His body will lie in state at the Ohio Statehouse before a public memorial service, and he will be buried during a private service atArlington National Cemetery, according to The Columbus Dispatch.
The nighttime crash of a Piper Seneca in 2015 that left a 7-year-old survivor was a fuel starvation accident, the NTSB has determined in a factual report. The Jan. 2 crash in western Kentucky killed the 49-year-old pilot, his wife, their 9-year-old daughter and a 14-year-old cousin. The couples other daughter walked through wooded terrain to find help. According to the NTSBs findings released this month, the girl told authorities the Seneca was not her fathers primary aircraft, which is a Piper Navajo that was undergoing maintenance. The report also notes that the aircrafts left fuel selector was found in the crossfeed position and the right selector was in the on position. There was a small post-crash fire on the right wing and a strong odor of fuel, according to the report.

The pilot had logged about 14 hours of flight time in the Seneca prior to the accident flight. He had the twins tanks topped off at Key West International Airport and later departed IFR from Tallahassee Regional Airport for Mount Vernon, Illinois. Over Kentucky at 6,000 feet, he reported having problems with both engines and requested vectors to the nearest airport. ATC cleared the aircraft to Kentucky Dam State Park Airport 11 miles away. After the pilot reported he lost sight of the airport and asked for the radio frequency, ATC communications were lost, according to the report.
That the death of John Glenn on Thursday came as no surprise made it no less sad. For my generation, Glenn was an indelible figure of towering accomplishment. Given his chosen profession and the risks that defined it, living to the age of 95 was itself a feat, never mind being launched into space twice. His death irretrievably closes the door on an era: He was the last living astronaut of the original Mercury Seven.

As I was reviewing our news brief on Glenns passing, it occurred to me that his stature in American life probably has generational resonance. Glenn looms larger than life in my consciousness of aviation history in a way that he is less likely to for someone born around, or after, the time he went into space in 1962. It helps to have lived through the events that put John Glenn on the national stage to understand why he was so revered.

I was seven years old in 1957 when the Soviets launched Sputnik I and my memory of it is so vivid that I even recall the month: October. As kids, we could tell this scared the bejesus out of the grown ups and that in turn scared the bejesus out of us. I guess we thought it meant atom bombs would be hurled from space. The sisters doubled up on our duck-and-cover drills. It didnt occur to us that Sputnik was the size of a beach ball and weighed 180 pounds. Four years later, we were shocked again when Yuri Gagarin didnt just poke his nose into space, but orbited the earth. I distinctly remember my father muttering about idiot government scientists who couldnt even launch small satellites without blowing them to bits in Florida.

Alan Shepards measly sub-orbital lob a month after Gagarins flight at least put some points on the board, but it seemed a pale, unsatisfying rejoinder. The post-flight loss of Gus Grissoms Mercury 4 and his near drowning two months later left the country jittery and uncertain of its space prowess. Then came John Glenn. His three-orbit flight in February 1962, after weeks of delays, electrified the country in the way that the lunar landingjust seven years laterdid. Yet I think Glenn was treasured to an extent that perhaps even Neil Armstrong was not. If thats true, its probably because Glenn was a single-combat warrior who triumphed in the darkest and most fearful days of the Cold War. We knew Glenns Atlas was man rated, but the ink on the type certificate was still wet when he wedged himself into Friendship 7. We also knew that Armstrong stood on the shoulders of 400,000 able scientists, engineers and technicians. Glenn was Lindbergh to Armstrongs Donald Douglas.

In the fall of the same year Glenn flew, the Cold War nearly turned hot with the Cuban Missile Crisis. But Glenn never lost his sheen as a steely-eyed hero. So precious was he, in fact, that NASA and the Kennedy Administration determined he was too valuable to lose and struck his name from the astronaut rotation. Its hard to imagine anyone reaching such vaunted heights today. Glenn resigned from NASA, became a Senator from Ohio, ran for president and flew in space again on the Space Shuttle in 1998, at 77.

Although I never met Glenn, I had a personal connection. When I took over as editor of our sister publication, IFR, in 1991, Glenn was still an active pilot and subscribed to the magazine. I seem to recall he had a Baron. He sent in a couple of On the Air contributions and notes to the editor, with a request to not use his name. Im not sure why he thought that. Its not like anyone was about to challenge him.

Glenn was, undeniably, a man shaped by his times. He grew up during the depression, fought in two wars and found himself ideally placed to explore the emerging high frontier. He did so with a professionalism and self-effacing grace that may have been unique to the post-war years.It may seem as unavoidable as it is trite to say it, but Glenns backup for the first orbital flight, Scott Carpenter, famously ad libbed over a launch comm link what served him in life and now in death: Godspeed, John Glenn.
9 December 2016 10:41 (UTC+04:00)

Azerbaijans Defense Ministry reported on December 9 that over the past 24 hours, Armenias armed forces 41 times violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops.

The enemy was using large-caliber machine guns.

The Azerbaijani army positions located in the Aghdam and Kokhanabi villages of the Tovuz district of Azerbaijan underwent fire from the Armenian army positions located in the Mosesgekh village and on nameless heights of the Berd district of Armenia.

Moreover, the Azerbaijani army positions were also shelled from the Armenian positions located near the Armenian-occupied Shikhlar, Yusifjanli, Javahirli villages of the Aghdam district, Kuropatkino village of the Khojavand district, Horadiz village of the Fuzuli district, as well as from the positions located on nameless heights of the Goranboy, Tartar, Khojavand, Fuzuli and Jabrayil 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.

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9 December 2016 14:45 (UTC+04:00)

By Rashid Shirinov

Azerbaijans Commissioner for Human Rights (Ombudsperson) Elmira Suleymanova stated that the issue of Dilgam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev, taken hostage by Armenian militaries, remains topical in the agenda of the Office.

Suleymanova noted that she recently discussed the issue with the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

"They have noted that the punishment of Dilgam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev by unlawful court does not fit the norms of international law and is contrary to it," APA reported citing Suleymanova as saying.

The ombudsperson further said that the ICRC responded in written form to her appeal in connection with the issue: The response states that they cannot intervene in the political aspects of this issue. Negotiations between the two countries [Armenia and Azerbaijan] are necessary to obtain permission for a meeting of Dilgam and Shahbaz with their families.

She reminded that the Office constantly raises the issue; the ICRC meets with the detainees and pass on the letters to their families. The state, as well as we is trying to make the issue find a just solution.

The two citizens of Azerbaijan were taken hostage by the Armenian armed forces in July, 2014 while visiting their native places and graves of loved ones in the occupied Azerbaijani Kalbajar region. Moreover, Armenian forces killed the third Azerbaijani citizen, Hasan Hasanov.

Later, Guliyev and Asgarov were judged illegally by the unrecognized courts of a separatist regime in occupied Nagorno-Karabakh. Following an expedited judicial process" in December 2015, Asgarov was sentenced to life imprisonment and Guliyev to 22 years.

Azerbaijan, whose over 4,000 citizens were taken captive, hostage, or went missing as a result of the Nagorno-Karabakh war, has repeatedly declared its readiness to begin negotiations with Armenia.

Armenian aggression against its neighboring country resulted in the occupation of 20 percent of Azerbaijans internationally recognized territories. The large-scale hostilities resulted in the death of over 20,000 Azerbaijanis while over 4,000 ethnic Azerbaijanis were taken captive, hostage, or went missing as a result of the war. The majority of those captured during the hostilities are children, elderly people, and women.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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9 December 2016 10:25 (UTC+04:00)

By Ngaire Woods

Democratic governments in the West are increasingly losing their bearings. From the shift toward illiberalism in Poland and Hungary to the Brexit vote in the United Kingdom and Donald Trumps victory in the United States presidential election, a particularly lethal strain of populism is infecting societies  and it is spreading.

The appeal of populism is straightforward. Faced with stagnant wages and a declining quality of life, people feel frustrated  all the more so when their leaders keep telling them that things are getting better. Then the populist appears and promises to shake things up, to defend the interests of the people (though really only some of them), and offers something arguably more attractive than feasible solutions: scapegoats.

At the top of the list of scapegoats are the elites  established political parties and corporate leaders. Rather than protecting the people from economic pressure and insecurity, this group, the populist declares, thrives on the peoples pain. By advancing globalization  by forcing ever-more openness down the peoples throat  they have accumulated massive wealth, which they then protect through tax avoidance, offshoring, and other schemes.

But it is not just the elites who are blamed. Yes, they have betrayed the people. But one way they do so is by foisting upon the people equal rights and opportunities for minorities, immigrants, and foreigners, who steal jobs, threaten national security, and undermine traditional ways of life.

Trump won the US presidency partly because of his pledges to deport millions of undocumented immigrants and ban Muslims from entering the country. The Brexiteers promised to end free immigration from the European Union. After the vote, Britains Home Secretary Amber Rudd suggested that firms hiring foreigners should be named and shamed.

Todays populism advances a toxic new xenophobia, one that threatens to fracture our societies. For politicians, it offers an easy means of quickly transforming peoples fear and powerlessness into an intoxicating mix of anger and authority. It persuades intimidated (often elderly) voters that, in the parlance of the Brexiteers, they can take back control of their lives and their countries, primarily by rejecting foreigners.

Demography makes the new xenophobia particularly dangerous. In much of the West, societies are becoming increasingly diverse. Hispanics now account for 17.6% of the US population. One-third of Londoners were born outside the UK. In France, an estimated 10% of the population is Muslim. And an estimated 20% of Germanys population have some immigrant background.

In this context, when politicians campaign for votes by advancing antagonistic and divisive identity politics, they sow the seeds of animosity, mistrust, and violence within their own societies. When candidates repeatedly call Muslims dangerous, for example, no one should be surprised by a surge in anti-Muslim hate crimes, as has occurred in the wake of both the Brexit vote and Trumps victory. Such divided societies require a rising level of coercion and force to control.

Diversity should be a strength, one that helps societies to flourish. That is why it is so important to combat the new xenophobia. One way is by encouraging and enabling social mixing, interaction, and deliberation among diverse groups. Extensive psychological research shows that intergroup contact reduces peoples sense of threat, heightening the possibilities for building trust across society.

If community centers, schools, and public locations are places where people of different religions, cultures, and race meet, xenophobia is less likely to take root. Even living in an area where others mix can help. This is why the new xenophobia has largely been resisted in Europes most diverse cities.

A second way to combat the new xenophobia is to reinforce the protection of civil liberties. This means upholding the rule of law, even in the face of terrorist threats, and ensuring the independence of judges.

Yet, lately, there have been ominous moves in the opposite direction. Leaders in Hungary and Poland have been dismantling constitutional protections; France has used a lengthy state of emergency to suspend rights; and British and American politicians have publicly denigrated judges. Democracy was toppled by xenophobes in the 1930s not because of the strength of the anti-democratic parties, but because of democratic leaders failure to uphold their countries constitutions.

A third way to fight the new xenophobia is through innovation. For example, though the Internet is often viewed as a great equalizer, social media are contributing to fragmentation. The content to which people are exposed is filtered, whether through self-selection or algorithms.

The result is echo chambers in which like-minded people reinforce shared convictions, creating increasingly polarized silos. But, if social media platforms were reconfigured in innovative ways, they could have the opposite impact, creating spaces for citizens from diverse backgrounds to interact.

The threat posed by the new xenophobia should not be underestimated. Today, no less than in the past, the rejection of diversity is tantamount to the rejection of democracy. That is why it must be defended, before its opponents gain any more ground.

Copyright: Project Syndicate:The New Xenophobia

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9 December 2016 15:48 (UTC+04:00)

By Rashid Shirinov

Azerbaijans road operator Azeravtoyol JSC and delegation of the World Bank (WB) discussed establishment of new companies for operation of the main roads.

The meeting was held between Azeravtoyol President Saleh Mammadov and the WB delegation led by Mustafa Benamara, the manager for the South Caucasus transportation program. Azeravtoyol reported that seven LLCs maybe created in the country in this regard.

The meeting discussed the current funding status of the WB projects in Azerbaijan, establishment of seven companies on operating the highways and steps in the formation of their material and technical base.

Azerbaijan joined the WB group in 1992. As of November 1, 2016, the WB has allocated loans of $3.99 billion to Azerbaijan. These funds were used to finance 80 projects. Azerbaijan has mastered $2.96 billion, or 74.15 percent of all WB loans.

Azeravtoyol recently reported that a total of 542.7 kilometers of roads were built, repaired and reconstructed throughout the countrys territory in January-September 2016.

The works on road improvement also included construction of 12 new road bridges and repair of five bridges. Moreover, two pedestrian crossings were built and repaired during this period. More than 30 roads, avenues and streets with a total length of 63.2 kilometers were reconstructed and repaired in Baku.

The road infrastructure is utterly important for the functioning of the economy and wellbeing of population. The development of road infrastructure is important not only for local use, but also for regional cooperation  the roads are used for international cargo transportation.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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9 December 2016 18:04 (UTC+04:00)

By Rashid Shirinov

Azerbaijans National Fund for Entrepreneurship Support (NFES) has allocated preferential loans in the amount of 157 million manats ($89 million) for entrepreneurs since early 2016.

The funds will ensure the realization of approximately 2,400 projects.

This was said by NFES CEO Shirzad Abdullayev on December 9 at the business forum in Madrasa village of Shamakhi region. He noted that reaolization of these projects will allow to open about 7,700 new jobs.

Abdullayev said that businessmen of Mountain Shirvan economic region have received a total of 67.7 million manats ($38.4 million) of soft loans. These funds were allocated for the implementation of more than 1,850 projects.

In the framework of the business forum, 30 entrepreneurs received preferential loans of 262,000 manats ($148,500). These funds will be directed on the development of animal husbandry, horticulture, beekeeping and other spheres.

NFES provided 200 million manats ($113 million) of preferential loans to businessmen in 2016. Some 70 million manats ($40 million) of the loans were be granted at the expense of budgetary funds.

Allocation of these soft loans is directed at countering the effect of the global economic crisis to the Azerbaijani economy and minimization of the countrys dependence on the oil sector by improving other industries throughout Azerbaijan. The country takes steps to diversify the national economy and provide for the development of the agricultural and other spheres.

Currently, Azerbaijan ranks 63 out of 189 countries in the World Banks ease of doing business index, and work to improve this index even more is being implemented.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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9 December 2016 17:08 (UTC+04:00)

By Laman Ismayilova

Azerbaijans National Museum of Art signed a protocol on cooperation with the Taras H. Shevchenko Museum.

The document was inked by Directors of the museums Chingiz Farzaliyev and Dmitriy Stus.

The signing ceremony was attended by representatives of Ukrainian Ministry of Culture and the Embassy of Azerbaijan in Ukraine.

The document covers such issues as mutual scientific research works, exchange of experiences between the museums, joint exhibitions and promotion of Azerbaijani culture in Ukraine and Ukrainian culture in Azerbaijan and much more.

Diplomatic relations between Azerbaijan and Ukraine were established in 1992. Relations between two countries are very friendly.

In general, Azerbaijan and Ukraine have sustainable prospects of bilateral relations in political, economic, energy, transport and humanitarian fields. That is evidenced by $137.68-million trade turnover in January-May 2016.

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

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9 December 2016 10:17 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

The Heads of Delegation of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries  Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov, Secretary of State of the United States John Kerry, and Foreign Minister of France Jean-Marc Ayrault - remain fully committed to a negotiated settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, said in a joint statement by the heads of delegation of the OSCE Minsk group co-chair countries.

"In light of the dramatic escalation in violence along the Line of Contact in April, we express concern over continuing armed incidents, including reports on the use of heavy weapons, and strongly condemn the use of force or the threat of the use of force", said in the statement.

The Co-Chair countries are prepared to host a meeting of the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan when they are ready.

"Continuous and direct dialogue between the Presidents, conducted under the auspices of the Co-Chairs, remains an essential element in building confidence and moving the peace process forward", said in the statement.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

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9 December 2016 11:57 (UTC+04:00)

By Rashid Shirinov

Yerevan avoids substantive negotiations on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement, said Azerbaijans Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov.

The minister made the remark during the meeting with Herbert Salber, the EU special representative for the South Caucasus in Hamburg, further adding that Armenia strengthens its military presence in the occupied Azerbaijani territories.

The presence of the Armenian armed forces in the occupied Azerbaijani territories remains the main reason for escalation of the conflict in the region and it is the main obstacle to conflicts resolution, the minister said.

As for the EU citizen diplomacy measures implemented in the conflict settlement, Mammadyarov stressed the importance of continuing the dialogue between the Azerbaijani and Armenian communities in Nagorno-Karabakh.

The parties also mulled the prospects of developing the Azerbaijan-EU cooperation.

Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a lengthy war that ended with the signing of a fragile ceasefire in 1994. Since the war, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

While the OSCE Minsk Group acted as the only mediator in resolution of the conflict, the occupation of the territory of the sovereign State with its internationally recognized boundaries has been left out of due attention of the international community for years.

Armenia ignores four UN Security Council resolutions on immediate withdrawal from the occupied territory of Azerbaijan, thus keeping tension high in the region.

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9 December 2016 14:30 (UTC+04:00)

By Rashid Shirinov

The European Union supports a comprehensive peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, EU ambassador to Azerbaijan Malena Mard told reporters on December 9.

She made the remark while commenting on the December 8 meeting of the OSCE Ministerial Council in Hamburg.

The EU also supports the OSCE Minsk Groups mediatory activities, Mard said, adding the Union believes that the meetings and talks between the conflict parties are significant for the progress in the conflicts resolution.

Azerbaijans Foreign Ministry has earlier said that the 3+2 format meeting (three OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs and Azerbaijani and Armenian Foreign Ministers) on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in Hamburg did not take place due to Armenias destructive policy and the attempts of the Armenian side to avoid negotiations.

Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a lengthy war that ended with the signing of a fragile ceasefire in 1994. Since the war, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

While the OSCE Minsk Group acted as the only mediator in resolution of the conflict, the occupation of the territory of the sovereign State with its internationally recognized boundaries has been left out of due attention of the international community for years.

Armenia ignores four UN Security Council resolutions on immediate withdrawal from the occupied territory of Azerbaijan, thus keeping tension high in the region.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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A driver in a crash that sent two people to the hospital Thursday evening was cited for driving under the influence.

The crash occurred near the Homestead Plaza Truckstop north of Beatrice at around 8 p.m.

Sheriff Millard Gus Gustafson said a Chevrolet Blazer driven by 38-year-old Dennis Prokopec of rural Pickrell was in the truckstop lot, turning south onto Highway 77.

Prokopec failed to yield, and was struck by a northbound Mini Cooper, causing the Blazer to roll.

The driver of the Cooper, Matthew York of Firth, was treated at the scene while two passengers in the Cooper were both transported to Beatrice Community Hospital and Health Center for minor injuries.

Gustafson said its believed that alcohol was a factor in the crash, and Prokopec was transported to the jail for driving under the influence and failure to yield.

Highway 77 was closed for around 20 minutes while law enforcement and rescue workers cleaned the scene.

Airbags deployed in the Cooper, but not in the Blazer. Seat belt use is unknown at this time.

Responding to the crash was Beatrice Fire and Rescue, Beatrice Rural Fire, the Gage County Sheriffs Office and Nebraska State Patrol.
9 December 2016 16:09 (UTC+04:00)

By Rashid Shirinov

The format of the OSCE Minsk Group has full consistency regarding the continuation of efforts to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict on the basis of previously agreed principles, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on December 9.

He made the remarks at a press conference in Hamburg, the Russian Foreign Ministry reported.

Earlier at the Ministerial Council in Hamburg, the foreign ministers of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair countries (Russia, U.S. and France) made a statement on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

They stressed commitment to settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict through negotiations and expressed readiness to contribute to the meeting of the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia in one of the co-chairing countries when the sides are ready.

The statement expressed confidence in the need for early negotiations on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

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. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations.

Armenia still controls fifth part of Azerbaijan's territory and rejects implementing four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding districts.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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9 December 2016 16:55 (UTC+04:00)

By Rashid Shirinov

The Azerbaijani side has long ago expressed readiness for a meeting with the Armenian delegation in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), however, Armenians have always avoided it, Samad Seyidov, head of the Azerbaijani delegation to PACE, told Trend on December 9.

Seyidov, who is also the chairman of the international and interparliamentary relations committee at Azerbaijans Parliament, was commenting on the PACE initiative to hold such a meeting.

Azerbaijan has always insisted on this meeting, however, the Armenians state that if the meetings are held in the OSCE Minsk Group format, there is no need for discussion within the framework of the Council of Europe, Seyidov said.

He added that the meetings between the delegations, as well as between the heads of communities of Nagorno-Karabakh would make it possible to review the situation on the conflict in detail.

The Azerbaijani side has repeatedly expressed its position  we are ready for a meeting. If the Armenian delegation also expresses its readiness, it will be up to PACE to organize the meeting, he said.

Earlier, President of the PACE Pedro Agramunt made a proposal to hold a meeting of Azerbaijani and Armenian delegations in the PACE.

Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a lengthy war that ended with the signing of a fragile ceasefire in 1994. Since the war, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

While the OSCE Minsk Group acted as the only mediator in resolution of the conflict, the occupation of the territory of the sovereign State with its internationally recognized boundaries has been left out of due attention of the international community for years.

Armenia ignores four UN Security Council resolutions on immediate withdrawal from the occupied territory of Azerbaijan, thus keeping tension high in the region.
9 December 2016 10:33 (UTC+04:00)

Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov chaired the 28th GUAM Organization for Democracy and Economic Development Ministerial Meeting in Hamburg on December 8, Azertac reported.

Azerbaijan has assumed the chairmanship of GUAM organization on a rotational basis.

The meeting discussed the ways of developing cooperation, including realizing projects in a variety of fields, developing interparliamentary relations and strengthening economic and trade relations between the member states.

The ministers agreed to set up a working group in the field of youth and sport. The sides also stressed the necessity of expanding the cooperation within international organizations and with partner countries.

Following the event, the next round of GUAM-Japan meeting was held.

The GUAM format was created by the post-Soviet states in 1997 during the summit of heads of states of the European Union in Strasbourg. In 1999, Uzbekistan joined the format and four years later withdrew. In 2006, Ukraine and Azerbaijan announced plans to further increase the GUAM member relations by renaming the organization as GUAM Organization for Democracy and Economic Development and establishing its headquarters in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev.

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9 December 2016 11:00 (UTC+04:00)

By Laman Ismayilova

Azerbaijan`s Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov has met with NATOs Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller on the sidelines of the 23rd Ministerial Council of the OSCE in Hamburg.

The officials exchanged views on the Azerbaijan-NATO partnership and prospects of the bilateral cooperation, Azertac reported.

Gottemoeller hailed Azerbaijans supporting NATO Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan. She also highly appreciated Azerbaijans contribution to ensure security in Afghanistan.

Mammadyarov, in turn, informed that Azerbaijan made substantial donations to the Afghan National Army (ANA) Trust Fund, adding that we will continue financially support this Fund.

The minister stressed that Azerbaijan remains interested in developing cooperation with NATO.

FM Mammadyarov highlighted negotiations to settle the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The FM also noted that Azerbaijan assumed the co-chairmanship of the Heart of Asia  Istanbul process for 2017.

In this function, Azerbaijan will seek close coordination and consultations with all stake-holders, most notably with NATO, with a view to facilitating the international community's comprehensive and consistent support for Afghanistan.

The sides also discussed the issues of Individual Partnership Action Plan of Azerbaijan with NATO.

NATO and Azerbaijan are actively cooperating on democratic, institutional, and military reforms, and enjoy practical cooperation in various areas. The cooperation plan between Azerbaijan and the NATO is set out in the Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP) on Azerbaijan.

The Hungarian embassy in Baku will operate as a NATO Liaison Office for two years - from January 1, 2017, to December 31, 2018. The Hungarian side will take over these responsibilities from the Romanian Embassy in Baku.

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

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9 December 2016 14:59 (UTC+04:00)

By Amina Nazarli

Creation of a Russia-Azerbaijan-Turkey inter-parliamentary friendship group is on the agenda.

Russian MP, head of the Russia-Azerbaijan inter-parliamentary friendship group Dmitry Savelyev made the remark during the round table on "Russian-Azerbaijani relations: 25 years of friendship and mutually beneficial cooperation", Azertac reported.

The issue of creation of Russia-Turkey-Azerbaijan inter-parliamentary relations group was discussed during the visit of leader of the Liberal-Democratic Party of Russia Vladimir Zhirinovski to Turkey, he said adding that the first meeting of the organization is scheduled to be held in Baku.

Savelyev further hailed the mediator role of Azerbaijan in strengthening relations between Russia and Turkey.

Earlier, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the framework of his St. Petersburg meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Azerbaijan, Turkey and Russia may form a trilateral cooperation mechanism.

He emphasized that both Moscow and Ankara hold a very positive attitude to the proposed scheme.

Azerbaijan and Turkey are the two neighboring countries and strategic partners, which share common language and relations. Turkey is a major trade partner of Azerbaijan, and in January-September 2016 the trade turnover between the countries amounted to $1.67 billion, according to the State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan.



In terms of export and import operations, Turkey takes the second place. Azerbaijan exported goods to $842.2 million, while Turkish imports amounted of $830.8 million to Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan and Russia are tied by firmly based ties, which were officially established in 1992. The Azerbaijani-Russian cooperation is completely based on the principles of mutual respect and good neighborly relations.

Currently, there are several trilateral formats in the region such as Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey, Azerbaijan-Turkey-Iran and Turkey-Azerbaijan-Turkmenistan.

The already existing trilateral formats offer opportunities for regional cooperation and diplomatic resolution of regional issues. Among these, the Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey format is the most functional, as the cooperation is supported by huge trade, energy and transportation projects.

--

Amina Nazarli is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli



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9 December 2016 16:35 (UTC+04:00)

By Amina Nazarli

Azerbaijan will establish institutions for carrying out scientific research in tourism sphere.

The issue is reflected in the amendments proposed to the draft law "On Tourism", according to Azerbaijan's Parliament.



Under the draft law the government will appoint persons for conducting scientific research. Moreover, the government will provide financial and technical assistance to NGOs engaged in such activities.

The strengthening of the image of Azerbaijan on the international scene as a country with a high tourism profile, contributes to the dynamic development of the country.

Azerbaijan attracts visitors from all over the world for its rich historical, cultural and natural heritage.



Untouched nature, mineral springs, the world's only oil field treatment -- Naphtalan, ancient architecture, unique culture, cuisine, and more contribute to the formation in Azerbaijan of all types of tourism including business, sport, medical, cognitive, hunting, exotic, beach and even gastronomic.

Hosting a record-breaking for the country 1.7 million tourists in the first nine months of 2016, Azerbaijan has raised the bar in this sphere. The number of tourists visiting the Land of Fire increased by 30 times this summer compared to last year, according to the Culture and Tourism Ministry.

Today, 4.5 percent of the total gross domestic product falls for income from tourism.

Currently, Azerbaijan has about 300 tourist companies and more than 570 placements. The country hosts a series of luxury hotels  Jumeirah, Excelsior, Hilton, Four Seasons, Fairmont, JW Marriott, Kempinski, as well as many budget hotels for cost-conscious travelers. Soon the country plans to increase the number of two- and three-star hotels of economy class for the development of both inbound and domestic tourism.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli



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9 December 2016 16:00 (UTC+04:00)

By Amina Nazarli

The European Union has allocated 14.5 million euros to Azerbaijan as part of the program on the countrys regional development, the Azerbaijani Economy Ministry reported.

The agreement was signed during the meeting between Azerbaijans Economy Minister Shahin Mustafayev and EU Ambassador to Azerbaijan Malena Mard on December 9.



It envisages twinning and technical assistance, creation of an information system for business in rural area, improvement of support system for development of rural areas in the context of development of small and medium enterprises and family farming, introduction of consulting services system on agriculture, information support, enlightenment of consumers.



Mustafayev reminded that the EU is Azerbaijans main trade partner with a specific weight of 50 percent. Meanwhile, the EU countries account for 35 percent of non-oil investments.

The minister noted that Azerbaijan plays an important role in ensuring Europes energy security. As of today, 26 projects have been implemented in Azerbaijan as part of the cooperation with the EU and additional 11 projects are being implemented.

In turn, Mard noted the need for expansion of relations in other areas, besides the energy sector.

The ambassador added that she will continue her efforts for the development of the EUs cooperation with Azerbaijan.

The share of European countries in Azerbaijans foreign trade was 37.12 percent in January-September 2016, according to Azerbaijans State Customs Committee.

Azerbaijan has become a country of direct priority to the EUs strategy in its wider neighborhood since the last enlargement of the European Union in 2007. Azerbaijan affects Europes interests, mainly in a regional energy strategy.

Since then, the European Union has gradually expanded the scope of its assistance and cooperation with Azerbaijan and the Union has successfully implemented 48 twinning projects in Azerbaijan.

The European Council adopted a mandate for the European Commission and the high representative for foreign affairs and security policy to negotiate, on behalf of the EU and its member states, a comprehensive agreement with Azerbaijan on November 14.

--

Amina Nazarli is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli



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9 December 2016 17:27 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Azerbaijan and NATO steadily develop and strengthen cooperation, William Lahue, head of NATO Liaison Office to South Caucasus, told Trend on December 9.

Lahue noted that NATO and Azerbaijan will continue work within the Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP) in 2017.

Azerbaijan cooperates with NATO in this format for many years, said the NATO official, adding that the country continues to support NATO operations in Afghanistan, cooperate with the Alliance in various formats, including the bilateral format.

Azerbaijan and NATO cooperate within the Partnership for Peace program. Earlier, the NATO adopted a document of the fourth stage of the Individual Action Plan within the partnership for 2015-2016.

The meetings are held in Baku and Brussels to analyze the fulfillment of the objectives of the partnership as part of this plan and the Planning and Review Process (PARP) together with the NATO International Staff.

Around 27 of 41 tasks of the partnership adopted by Azerbaijan within PARP refer to the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan. Some adopted objectives of the partnership have been fulfilled. The work is underway to fulfill other long-term objectives of the partnership.

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9 December 2016 11:22 (UTC+04:00)

By Laman Ismayilova

Japanese ITOCHU has expressed interest in expanding cooperation with Azerbaijans energy giant SOCAR .

The delegation led by Senior Managing Executive Officer and President of Energy & Chemicals Company of the corporation Masahiro Imai met with President of Azerbaijan`s State Oil Company Rovnag Abdullayev.

Imai reminded that cooperation between SOCAR and ITOCHU lasted for more than 20 years, saying the two companies maintain partnership in various projects in both oil and non-oil sectors, including Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) and Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) international projects.

E further hailed the course of implementation of these projects, praising conditions created for ITOCHUs activity in Azerbaijan.

Abdullayev stressed ITOCHU`s role in successful implementation of the regionally and globally important oil and gas projects in Azerbaijan.

He emphasized that ITOCHU was one of the first international companies to be involved in regional oil and gas projects in Azerbaijan.

Abdullayev praised long-term fruitful activity of Japanese companies in Azerbaijan.

He pointed to the active role which ITOCHU and Japanese banks play in constructing and financing SOCAR`s Star oil refinery in Turkey.

Itochu is the second-largest Japanese general trading company after Mitsubishi Corporation.

eing established in September 1992 and headquartered in Baku, SOCAR is involved in extraction, exploring oil and gas fields, producing, processing, and transporting oil, gas, and gas condensate, as well as oil and chemical products in domestic and international markets, and supplying natural gas to the industry and the public in Azerbaijan.

The diplomatic relations between Azerbaijan and Japan were established in 1992. Japan was one of the first countries to support Azerbaijan's forward-looking oil strategy.

Azerbaijan is considering further cooperation with Japan in the field of high technology, particularly in the manufacture of innovative production, with aim to allow Japanese companies to further enter regional markets.

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

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9 December 2016 12:18 (UTC+04:00)

By Gulgiz Muradova

Venezuela, the country suffering the most from low oil prices, and Iran, which seeks to reach its pre-sanction level of output, have agreed to call for a summit of heads of state from OPEC and non-OPEC countries.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro stated that he had agreed with the Islamic Republic to call for such a summit in the first quarter of next year to decide on strategy for the oil market.

"I told President (Hassan) Rouhani, let's jointly call for an OPEC summit of presidents, heads of state and governments in the first quarter of 2017 to establish a new mechanism for markets and oil prices and we agreed to do that, inviting non-OPEC countries and President Putin," Reuters reported citing Maduro as saying.

The president did not provide further details. Maduro earlier held intensive talks with OPEC and non-OPEC states to convince them in necessity of joint effort to stabilize the oil market.

Venezuela, reeling under a brutal recession, has for years been pushing for measures to boost prices for oil.

World oil prices are rising ahead of the meeting of OPEC and non-OPEC countries to agree to add an output cut of 600,000 bpd in Vienna on December 10.

The price of February futures for Brent crude oil rose by 0.41 percent and stood at $54.11 per barrel as of 01:16 EST. This is while the price of January futures for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil increased by 0.73 percent to $51.21 per barrel.

The cartel has invited 14 non-OPEC countries to the meeting in Vienna. The invited countries are Russia, Mexico, Oman, Kazakhstan, Bahrain, Colombia, Congo, Egypt, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Bolivia, Brunei and Uzbekistan.

Only Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Oman, Mexico and Russia have agreed so far to meet the group on December 10 for talks aimed at widening a deal to reduce output.

OPEC agreed its first oil output cuts since 2008 on November 30 after the major rivals within the cartel - Iran and Saudi Arabia - set aside differences to forge the cartel's first deal with non-OPEC Russia in 15 years.

Saudi Arabia accepted "a big hit" on its output and Iraq, OPEC's second-largest producer also agreed to curtail its booming output, while Iran was permitted a token increase as it recovers from nuclear-related sanctions.

The OPEC deal aims to reduce production by 1.2 million barrels a day, or about 1 percent of global output. Russia has also agreed to trim production - by about 300,000 barrels a day. The cuts take effect from January 1, 2017 and will last for six months.

Meanwhile, supply from OPEC increased to 34.19 million barrels per day (bpd) in November from 33.82 million bpd in October.

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Elizabeth Decker, 90, of Columbia, Mo. A memorial service is planned at the Holiday Inn Express, Beatrice, on Dec. 10, 2016 from 5 to 9 p.m.

Dr. Floyd Walter Hansmire. Graveside services are at 2 p.m. on Dec. 12, 2016 at the Fairbury Cemetery. Following the interment, a reception and light meal to follow at 4 p.m. at the Elks Lodge in Fairbury. Memorials will go to the Bonham Theatre Project, Box 22, Daykin, NE 68338.

Donna Beth Laue, 64, of Tecumseh. Funeral services at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 10, 2016 at the St. Pauls United Church of Christ (Maple Grove) Church, rural Tecumseh, with Rev. Eric Biehl officiating. Memorials may go to the familys choice. Interment will be in the St. Pauls U.C.C. Cemetery, rural Tecumseh.

Kevin P. Patterson, 36, of Beatrice. Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2016 at the First Presbyterian Church in Beatrice with Reverend John Duling officiating. Interment will be at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., at a later date. Closed casket visitation will be 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday at the Griffiths-Hovendick Chapel in Beatrice with the family greeting friends from 6-8 p.m. A family prayer service will be held at 10:45 a.m. Tuesday at the church. A memorial has been established to the family's choice with the funeral home in charge.

Richard Dick Petersen, 73, of Rockwall, Texas. A celebration of Dicks life will be held at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2016, at the Petersen home. In lieu of flowers, memorials in his name can be made to the Honor Flight Network at www.honorflight.org or the charity of your choice.

Janet Lee Wilhelm, 79, of rural Tecumseh. Memorial services at 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 11, 2016 at the St. Johns Lutheran Church in Tecumseh, with Rev. Jason Wolter officiating. Visitation will be at the Wherry Mortuary in Tecumseh, on Saturday, Dec. 10, 2016 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., with family greeting friends from 2-4 p.m. Inurnment will be in the Spring Creek Cemetery, northeast of Tecumseh.
9 December 2016 13:40 (UTC+04:00)

By Gulgiz Muradova

Iraqs Oil Minister Jabbar Allibi expressed hope to witness stability in the oil market already in the first half of 2017.

Allibi said that Iraq is going to participate in the meetings of OPEC with the producers from outside the organization in Vienna on December 10, Trend reported referring to the Iraqi Oil Ministry.



The minister noted that the decision of OPEC to cut the production and the response of the producer countries from outside the cartel is a significant step to control the supply glut in the global market during the next period, and elevate the prices gradually.



The commitment of the producer countries inside and outside the cartel can be an effective key factor to stabilize the oil market and achieve the common targets, according to the minister.



He pointed out that Iraq was and still working on to stabilize the oil market and maintain the unity of OPEC.

The world's largest producers agreed to curb production for the first time since 2008 in a bid to support prices after the Vienna meeting on November 30. The OPEC, which accounts for a third of global oil supply, agreed to cut production from January by around 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd), or over 3 percent, to 32.5 million bpd.

Iraq, OPEC's second largest producer which had previously resisted cuts will cut output by 200,000 bpd to 4.351 million bpd.

Saudi Arabia said it would take the lion's share of cuts - reducing output by almost 500,000 bpd to 10.06 million bpd - to get the deal done. Iran was allowed to boost production slightly from its October level.

Non-OPEC member Russia agreed to cut output by 300,000 bpd.

OPEC will meet with non-OPEC producers on December 10 to mull the cut quotas. The invited countries are Russia, Mexico, Oman, Kazakhstan, Bahrain, Colombia, Congo, Egypt, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Bolivia, Brunei andUzbekistan.



Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Oman, Mexico and Russia have agreed so far to meet the group for talks aimed at widening a deal to reduce output.

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9 December 2016 10:48 (UTC+04:00)

By Laman Ismayilova

Turkmenistan became the leader for volumes of gas supply to China during the nine months of 2016.

Chinas General Administration of Customs (GACC) reported that Turkmenistan supplied 18.32 million tons of gas to China that is by 11.2 percent more than in nine months of 2015.

The revenues from the gas export decreased by 29 percent to $4.68 billion. Average value of the natural gas, supplied from Turkmenistan to China, decreased by $145 and was $255 per ton.

Uzbekistan delivered 2.73 million tons of gas to China during the period that is by 2.4 times more than in January-October 2015. Meanwhile, Kazakhstan supplied 229,140 tons of gas to China.

China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) buys natural fuel from Central Asia since 2009, after the pipeline from Turkmenistan through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan was launched. Beijing plans to increase the volume of annual gas purchase up to 65 billion cubic meters.

Being the sixth in the world for the volume of natural gas reserves, Turkmenistan produces about 70-80 billion cubic meters of gas a year, while most of its proven gas reserves are located in the Amu Darya basin in the south-east and in the Murgab South Caspian basins in the western part of the country.

In 2015, Turkmenistan's natural gas exports amounted to 48 bcm.

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9 December 2016 12:10 (UTC+04:00)

Royal Dutch Shell signed a provisional agreement to develop Iranian oil and gas fields, an Iranian official said, the first deal by the world's second biggest listed oil firm in Iran since sanctions were lifted, according to Reuters.

The Anglo-Dutch company confirmed it had signed a memorandum of understanding with National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) on Wednesday "to further explore areas of potential cooperation", declining to give further details.

Analysts said the agreement underscored major oil companies' willingness to keep doing business with Iran despite the risk that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump could scrap the nuclear deal that ended the sanctions earlier this year.

Earlier on Wednesday, an Iranian Oil Ministry official said Shell would sign three memoranda of understanding (MoUs) in Tehran to develop the South Azadegan, Yadavaran oil fields and the Kish gas field.

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9 December 2016 12:41 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Kazakh Prime Minister Bakhytzhan Sagintayev and Czech Minister of Industry and Trade Jan Mladek discussed prospects of future cooperation at the meeting in Astana, Kazakh prime-ministers web-site reported.

During the meeting, the sides discussed prospects for further trade and economic cooperation between the two countries, especially in the field of renewable energy, engineering, agriculture, cultural and educational cooperation

The parties expressed their willingness to further strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation in various sectors, including oil and gas, agriculture, transport, construction, automotive, tourism, environmental protection.

The trade turnover between Kazakhstan and Czech Republic amounted to $199.41 million in January - October 2016 compared to $271.86 million in the same period of 2015. Kazakhstan is the third largest supplier of oil to the Czech Republic after Russia and Azerbaijan.

From 2005 to the first half of 2016 the gross inflow of direct investment from the Czech Republic to Kazakhstan amounted to $182.9 million, the gross outflow of direct investments from Kazakhstan to the Czech Republic amounted to $14.5 million.

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9 December 2016 16:13 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit Kazakhstan on December 11-12 at the invitation of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, the website of the Turkish presidential administration reported on December 9.

During the visit, the Turkish president is expected to hold one-on-one and expanded format meetings with his Kazakh counterpart Nazarbayev, according to the website.

The sides will discuss bilateral and regional issues within the meetings, as well as consider the preparation for the third meeting of Turkey-Kazakhstan High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council to be held in 2017.

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Bakersfield, CA (93308)

Today

Rain showers early with some sunshine later in the day. High around 55F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

Mainly clear early, then a few clouds later on. Low 43F. Winds light and variable.
Michael Asola, Synergy Innovations' chief operations officer (left), exchanges signed agreement with Zhou Shumin, director, Low-Cost Health Solutions Centre at SIAT, during the handover ceremony of general modularized container clinics in Nairobi, Kenya, on December 7. EDITH MUTETHYA/CHINA DAILY

Four modular container clinics donated by the Chinese government will be used to provide healthcare in remote parts of Kenya.

The donation made possible by the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology in the Chinese Academy of Sciences, is valued at 2.75 million yuan ($400, 000) to the Kenyan government.

At the official handover ceremony in Nairobi on Dec 7, Guo Ce, the economic and commercial counselor at the Chinese Embassy in Kenya, said the new clinics would bring medical access to Kenyans, especially those living in remote areas, where health facilities are few.

"The containers have been customized into mobile grass-roots general clinics in order to offer convenient daily healthcare, screening, basic medical treatment and public health-care services for the rural residents," he said.

He noted that the clinics were made using well-established Chinese technology and designed in accordance with the African nation's healthcare needs.

Guo said the donation, was a concrete and practical action taken by the Chinese government to help African countries improve basic medical and healthcare facilities and conditions.

"The project will help to further deepen the scientific and technological cooperation between the two governments," he said.

He added that the project was an important step under the program for healthcare science and technology, as well as a significant step to realize the spirit of the Johannesburg Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.

According to Lv Jiancheng, the director of Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, said the donation to Kenya followed the handing over of four modularized clinics to South Africa in Dec 2015.

He noted that the institute had also donated 10 similar clinics to Cameroon and seven to Botswana.
Archived Results for Friday, December 9th, 2016

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At last, the rabbit patch declares that the Christmas season is upon us. There is a wreath on every door with little twinkling lights that brighten the late autumn fog. I added a little tree with lights tonight, to the porch of the farmhouse. The effect is cheerful, as it ought to be at Christmas.I have tied red ribbons on bird feeders and lanterns in the yard. Not long afterwards, a strong wind started blowing and the ribbons are tattered because of it. Still, they add a charming touch. Somehow they seem in the natural state of things on the rabbit patch.There is a lot more to do still. Tomorrow is Kyle's birthday and the day the tree is put up. This tradition started when he was around four and now it seems "a law" of sorts. I suppose I will always abide by it, as it would not feel right to do so on any other day.I do have more than a few presents to wrap. The shopping trip with my mom, sisters and niece was a sweet success, in more ways than one. We arrived in Rocky Mount in the first part of the morning. At the first store, while checking out, I discovered that the credit card had expired in November. I am not in the habit of using it-or checking the mail either, so such a thing could be expected. At this very moment, I remembered my bank card was on the morning table-at the rabbit patch. I had a little cash, so it was my destiny, to do a little shopping. Actually, I shopped more carefully and focused more on visiting, than usual. This may have been my favorite trip. I have been striving to live more simply and without money, this was assured that day. I did manage to buy some fine chocolate to improve our spirits-and it worked. We cast our weariness aside and headed straight a way for a donut shop.We shopped longer than the sun shined that day. Hayley and I browsed in the book store together and I was thrilled that she is still writing-though she said "not the way you do"-she writes in a journal and prefers prompts. I was glad to hear this and also to hear she still enjoys crafts. Connie, my youngest sister , loves pretty dishes as I do and so we spent some time admiring kitchen items. Delores and I purchased the chocolate and shopped for fancy soap. Mama told the story of her mom, buying me my first coat-a red one, and later a high-chair from a store that closed a long while ago. She told it tenderly and I realised that no matter how many Christmases have passed, she still misses my grandmother.I had no problem falling asleep last night. I thought how the day was a good one. I thought of all the little parts of it that made it beautiful and it seemed to me, that a lack of money did not prevent me from getting gifts, after all.
Top Ten Reasons to Hit the Oregon Coast This Weekend

Published 12/09/2016 at 4:23 AM PDT - Update 12/09/2016 at 4:24 AM PDT

By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff





(Oregon Coast)  If you're not coming out to the beaches this weekend, you'll miss a lot. There will be big waves all weekend (and a bit of a breezy storm), lots of holiday events, and some interesting creatures to see both on shore and ocean. (Above: Depoe Bay with big waves and the holidays).

Here's the top ten reasons to come out. Oregon Coast Hotels for these eventa - Where to eat - Maps - Virtual Tours

December 10. Log Cabin Christmas Bazaar. You've probably never been to Netarts, have you? The tiny village near Oceanside  along the Three Capes Route  is hosting this lovely little Christmas bazaar. It comes complete with all kinds of hand-crafted gifts  and cookies. 2060 Bilyeu Ave. W. Netarts, Oregon. 503-354-2429.

Finding Bald Eagles. Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) is giving away some great wildlife secrets. They say wintering bald eagles occur in good numbers in the upper reaches of Tillamook Bay, and can best be seen Bayocean Road, which skirts the upper end of the bay. Spotting scopes are almost a requirement to find the birds in the distant spruce trees along the various rivers and sloughs that feed into the bay. (Above: bald eagles in Rockaway Beach, courtesy Patti Barry).





Whales Still A Thing. Whale spotting along these shores is still pretty good  although this weekend's high waves will present a problem for that. ODFW said Gray whales are always a treat to see and can often be spotted off the central and south coasts. It is common for gray whales to migrate to and from summer feeding grounds in the Bering Sea, passing by the Oregon coast.





Big Waves on Beaches. This weekend should produce some sizable waves, but it will be somewhat windy as well. On Friday combined seas will be up around 15 feet. On Saturday, they get downright enormous at 19 feet. On Sunday, waves drop down to about 14 feet combined seas.

Pyrosomes  Weird Creature Finds. Big winter storms have caused gobs of them to strand on the shores, found in all areas of the coast right now. It's called a pyrosome, and the ones found here are less than a foot. They are actually massive colonies of cloned creatures related to a kind of jellyfish called a salp.

Each individual is about 1 cm long  less than a third of an inch. They are all connected by tissue and in turn form this colony that looks like a plastic tube. The ones that are washing up are dead, but when they're alive they glow. See full article.

Glass Floats in Lincoln City. Through May 30, it's Finders Keepers on the Beach. There, colorful hand-blown glass floats are placed on the beach for you to find and keep  every day, weather permitting. If you find a float, bring it to the Visitor Center (540 NE Hwy 101) to receive your certificate of authenticity and a bio on the artist who made it. Throughout Lincoln City, Oregon. 800-452-2151.





December 10 is the 31st Annual Yachats Winter Celebration Opening Ceremony. It all begins with an official declaration of the opening of Yachats Winter Celebration (7 p.m.) followed by a brief talk by Mary Claire Crook about winter celebrations around the world. Little Log Church, W 3rd & Pontiac. At 7:30 pm everyone crosses the street for music and refreshments. From 7:30 to 8 p.m., the Sweet Adelines sing holiday harmonies a cappella at the Yachats Ladies Clubhouse (W 3rd & Pontiac in Yachats).





On Saturday and Sunday, step back in time to a Victorian-age lighthouse near Florence. It's the 21st annual Victorian Christmas Open House at the Heceta Light Keepers' House. The Queen Ann-style Keeper's House will be decorated with Victorian flourishes inside and out. Enjoy warm drinks and treats and performances by local musicians. Santa Claus will be there, and Oregon State Parks volunteers will offer historic tours of the lighthouse. Raffles, shuttle service, candle walk. 4 p.m. The parking fee is $5 or present your Oregon Coast Passport. The lightstation is located just 14 miles south of Yachats, Oregon. (541) 547-3696.

Saturday: A Whale of a Christmas in Depoe Bay. The whale-watching capital of the coast gets really festive. Amid cheerful decorations and carolers, the Depoe Bay Christmas tree is lit. This truly magical event happens at the Whale Watch Center in downtown Depoe Bay. 541-765-288.



December 10: Holiday Mosaic Workshop at the Lincoln City Cultural Center. Local artist Joanne Daschel will help you create a mosaic nightlight or a holiday ornament. $25, includes all materials. To register, email [email protected] From 10 a.m.  2 p.m. Lincoln City Cultural Center, 540 NE Hwy 101. Lincoln City, Oregon. 541-994-9994.

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Population drop in rural areas and growth of Millennial generation will affect political participation



Pollsters and pundits reflected on the meaning of the 2016 election at a Nov. 17 panel discussion at the Marriott Crabtree in Raleigh. From left are Joe Stewart, executive director of North Carolina Free Enterprise Foundation; Michael Bitzer, provost and political science professor at Catawba College; Jason Husser, director of the Elon University Poll; David McLennan, Meredith College political science professor; and Martin Kifer, director of survey research at High Point University. (CJ photo by Dan Way)

Libertarian-oriented Millennials will impact future elections, legislative battles will expand between declining rural counties and growing urban areas, and volatility will persist in state elections, a panel of political analysts predicted.reflected in bitter partisan fights nationally and statewide, said Michael Bitzer, a political science professor and provost at Catawba College.Bitzer was among four panelists at a recent event hosted by the North Carolina Independent Colleges & Universities and the North Carolina Free Enterprise Foundation. Other panelists were David McLennan, a political science professor at Meredith College, Jason Husser, director of the Elon University Poll, and Martin Kifer, director of High Point University's Survey Research Center.Bitzer said.where small communities have seen employers move away, and society has changed in a way that rural residents don't recognize, Bitzer said.such as passage of House Bill 2, the so-called bathroom legislation.While Charlotte residentswith passage of H.B. 2, Rowan County residents supported the bill, Bitzer said.He likened the changes in rural North Carolina to those that have developed in economically stagnant Rust Belt states with high levels of unemployment.Bitzer said.McLennan said a bill to extend broadband service to the state's poorest counties is expected to be reintroduced in the General Assembly after it convenes Jan. 11.McLennan said.if the broadband bill passes.As the state adds an expected 2 million people over the next 20 years, the Triangle and Mecklenburg County each are projected to add 34 percent to their populations. The Triad, Wilmington, and Asheville will have moderate growth, while all other counties combined add only 10 percent to the statewide growth, McLennan said.Urban areaspower bases, McLennan said.As an example, transportation billshe said.North Carolina electionswith no signs that trend will change, McLennan said. Adding to the mix, by 2030 North Carolina will have a majority-minority voting population.According to election returns, had only Millennials voted in 2016, just three states would have chosen Republican Donald Trump over Democrat Hillary Clinton, he said.Millennials may become more conservative over time, McLennan said. But they have a stronger belief in the value of diversity and support marriage equality more than Generation X or Baby Boomers, and that support is unlikely to change.Bitzer said.Clinton won by 20 points among voters under 30, and in North Carolina unaffiliated voters are the fastest growing voter registration group among voters under 35, Bitzer said. Nearly 40 percent of all Millennials are registered unaffiliated. Statewide, Republicans represent 30 percent of all registered voters, but just 24 percent among Millennials.Millennials comprise 30 percent of the state's electorate, and Baby Boomers 33 percent. As soon as 2020 the groups either will be equal in number, or Millennials will slightly outnumber Boomers, Bitzer said.Bitzer said.Husser said independent voters in North Carolinaand many are in denial.often voting according to psychological attachment to one party or another.How soon larger shares of Millennials will become regular voters remains to be seen.Husser said. Their turnout numbers will go up, and they may grow more conservative as they experience life events such as job issues, marriage, home buying, and starting a family.Husser said one "megatrend" in North Carolina is the rise of unaffiliated voters. The other is voter migration, and it would be "hard to overstate" its importance, he said. In 1980, 75 percent of voters were born in North Carolina. That fell to 54 percent in 2014, and likely will continue to drop.New York, northern Virginia, and people who first moved from the Northeast to Florida comprise North Carolina's biggest influx, Husser said.
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A $55-million investment in the Port of Beaumont's Orange County terminal will bring in more than a half-million barrels of what is basically moonshine, mostly for export to countries with a fierce thirst - for cleaner air.

Jefferson Energy Companies and Green Plains Energy, headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, created a joint venture called JGP Energy Partners to build four storage tanks on port property with capacity for 550,000 barrels of ethanol - corn alcohol - to be blended with gasoline.

The development also would help diversify the port's product mix and increase its revenue.

Steve Bleyl, executive vice president for ethanol production for Green Plains, attended a ceremonial ground-breaking Thursday at the Jefferson Energy terminal that could, by mid-2017, begin receiving 120-car tankers by rail to offload the clear liquid that is fermented and distilled from the massive U.S. corn crop.

"India and China want it. Ethanol is 113 octane, it's clean-burning and the world is short of it," Bleyl said.

>> In March 2016, the Port of Beaumont celebrated its centennial. See photos of the port through the years in the gallery above.

This year, American farmers raised 15 billion bushels of corn. A third of the crop is given over to ethanol production. After the ethanol is produced from the kernels of corn, up to 50 million tons of the fiber and protein left over goes into feed for cattle, swine and poultry, he said.

The ethanol industry will export about a billion gallons of the fuel additive this year, Bleyl said.

"And we're 10 percent of the industry," he said. "We probably export 15 percent of the market that is exported."

In October, Green Plains exported 130 million gallons, he said.

Bleyl said Green Plains looked over terminals from Corpus Christi to New Orleans to find a partner to help grow its exports.

Bleyl pointed to the railroad bridge that crosses the Neches River on track owned by Kansas City Southern. Two other Class 1 rail lines, the Union Pacific and BNSF, also use the crossing.

And there's the Sabine-Neches Ship Channel, which has a 42-foot depth at the Port of Beaumont's turning basin, sufficient for the tanker vessels to export the product.

Al Salazar, chairman of Jefferson Energy Companies, said the venture with Green Plains took about a year to develop, but ethanol always was part of the business model Jefferson Energy pursued at the port. Jefferson Energy, along with the port of Beaumont, developed the Orange County property with railroad track, storage tanks and offloading pipes for crude oil coming in from Canada and domestic sources from East Texas to North Dakota.

Jefferson Energy also plans to develop the northern area of its terminal for more tank storage and another area for an international terminal.

The company already has a million-barrel storage capacity in seven above-ground tanks and plans to build another million barrels of storage.

The company has invested just under $500 million in development in the past two to three years, Salazar said.

Port director and chief executive Chris Fisher said the ethanol terminal helps diversify the port's product mix and the volumes that will come through the port will contribute to its overall revenue. Fisher did not know how much that might be.

Construction will employ about 125 workers and full-time operations will create between 10 and 15 jobs, said Mark Viator, Jefferson Energy spokesman.

DWallach@BeaumontEnterprise.com Twitter.com/dwallach
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The family of Shalala Fletcher, a Beaumont woman who was shot outside a Port Arthur convenience store earlier this year by an off-duty security guard, reached a civil settlement with her shooter on Thursday that will pay $100,000.

Fletcher's parents and her adult son will share the bulk of the award - nearly $78,000. Her two minor children will each receive $11,000 to be held in a trust fund until they turn 18, according to court testimony.

The Fletcher family filed a $1 million wrongful death lawsuit against Michael Ray Turner, 67, in early August. Owen Fletcher, Shalala Fletcher's father, declined to comment on the settlement following Thursday's hearing.

Turner, who is charged with criminally negligent homicide in Fletcher's death, is scheduled to appear in a criminal courtroom on Jan. 9 for a status hearing.

Turner pulled up to the Exxpress Mart on Jimmy Johnson Boulevard in Port Arthur in the early morning hours of July 2 as two men suspected of stealing cases of beer were attempting to flee, according to a news release issued by the Jefferson County District's Attorney Office announcing Turner's Aug. 31 criminal indictment.

Fletcher, who did not go into the store, was a passenger in the suspects' car, according to the release.

Turner tried to use his vehicle to block the suspects and prevent them from leaving, the release said.

As the suspects drove away, Turner fired multiple shots from his 9 mm handgun, according to the DA's office. According to an autopsy report, one of the bullets struck Fletcher in her back, passing through her ribs, aorta and lungs.

Fletcher, 36, was in the car with 43-year-old Tyrus Germaine Williams, with whom Fletcher had a child, and Kerry Wayne West, 50.

Williams and West left Fletcher for dead in the parking lot for Community Bank of Texas on Turtle Creek Drive, which is a few blocks from the store, according to Jefferson County prosecutors.

Both men face multiple felony theft charges, including charges for the alleged July 2 beer theft.

Williams is scheduled for trial on Jan. 23.

West, who prosecutors say made a 911 phone call about Fletcher being shot using a fake name, is scheduled for trial on Feb. 1.

Scott Renick, Turner's attorney, said in a previous interview that his client acted reasonably by firing at the fleeing vehicle.

In response to the civil lawsuit, Renick wrote in court filings that Turner had reason to believe a violent felony had been committed and that Fletcher's death was caused by her own negligent actions.

Renick said Turner intends to plead not guilty at trial.

Fletcher's death drew the interest of area NAACP chapters and pastors, who gathered on the Jefferson County Courthouse steps in August to demand answers about the case. A grand jury indicted Turner the next week.

BScott@BeaumontEnterprise.com Twitter.com/BrandonKScott
Ryan Pelham

Beaumont ISD police increased security at West Brook High School on Thursday after a former student threatened a current student on social media, Chief Rob Flores said.

A student who had previously been expelled from the school threatened a current West Brook student indirectly in communication with a third student on Wednesday, he said.
Contact: Attila Nemecz

Attila Nemecz Attila.Nemecz@beaufortccc.edu

Over 40 community members attended the restorative yoga session sponsored by the Beau-Fitt Reloaded series at Beaufort County Community College. Certified yoga instructor Bryanna Foote led the November session. Two participants brought their children to the family-friendly event. Other participants said they planned to bring their children along for the next session. Participant Brandi Keehnle felt that these health sessions were helping her to meet her personal health goals.Foote teaches yoga with Balance with Bryanna in Durham, NC. Beau-Fitt brings in instructors like her to get participants excited about eating well and exercising. The next free Beau-Fitt session at 4:00p.m. on December 12 will feature Gwyn Thompson, RDn, LDN, a nutrition specialist from the Vidant Wellness Center to discuss healthy holiday eating. A photo booth will be available for people to take pictures and post to Facebook and other social media during the event. The first 50 participants will get prizes.The Beau-Fitt program is an initiative to help improve health outcomes community-wide in Beaufort County. According to a 2014 community health assessment, Beaufort County has higher rates of mortality from lung and prostate cancer, stroke and heart disease than the North Carolina average. The free monthly health and wellness series is sponsored by BCCC, Vidant Beaufort Hospital, Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust, MDC and Washington Parks and Recreation. It includes free use of the one-mile walking trail and four outdoor exercise fitness stations on campus. The program hopes to excite community members about healthier eating and physical fitness.For more information on how you can join Beau-Fitt, contact Katrina Barrow at (252)940-6486.
Here are five hospitals and health systems that have announced plans for ASCs.

Delta Region Authority provided Houston-based Texas County Memorial Hospital $150,000 to open a new surgery center.

Cincinnati-based TriHealth selected Fort Mitchell, Ky.-based Paul Hemmer Co. to renovate its new campus in Anderson Township, Ohio, which includes an ASC.

Mercy Health-Fairfield (Ohio) Hospital has undertaken a surgical renovation project totaling $14 million, including work on its ASC.

Seattle-based The Polyclinic and Swedish Medical Center celebrated the opening of the First Hill Surgery Center, the largest independent surgery center in the Pacific Northwest, on Nov. 21, 2016.

The New Lenox (Ill.) Village Board gave Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox approval to build its ASC.
In 2007, one of Zocdoc's soon-to-be co-founders ruptured his eardrum and found it challenging to get an appointment with a physician. That problem led three individuals  Cyrus Massoumi, Oliver Kharraz, MD, and Nick Ganju  to launch what is today known as Zocdoc, a New York City-based digital health marketplace whose health systems business doubled in 2014 and 2015.

Zocdoc takes the patient scheduling problem and flips it on its head. According to a 2014 Merritt Hawkins survey on physician appointment wait times, the average cumulative wait time to see a physician was 18.5 days. But the typical Zocdoc patient sees a physician within 24 hours, according to Dr. Kharraz, Zocdoc's CEO. Through Zocdoc's platform, patients can find nearby, in-network healthcare providers and book appointments online.

Becker's Hospital Review spoke to Dr. Kharraz about Zocdoc's place in the industry, the future of health IT and the "Unsick Day" it offers employees.

Note: Responses have been edited for length and clarity.

Question: What's driving Zocdoc's growth?

Oliver Kharraz: When we launched, the American healthcare system had a very different structure. Individual practitioners dominated, and two out of three doctors practiced in such a setting. We earned our stripes in that universe by connecting patients to a multitude of small doctors. As the industry has evolved, so have we. We now focus on health systems as our primary target market. We've grown from five health system clients to nearly 70 today.

What's driving this growth is precisely this shift in the industry. If you look across industries, you'll hotels.com, kayak.com, opentable.com  this inventory management issue is a universal problem. But there's always a solution that helps with it. In healthcare, this is Zocdoc.

Q: In May, Zocdoc integrated its patient scheduling platform with Epic's EHR. What was the integration process like and how is the relationship working?

OK: It's been great to work with Epic. Even beyond Epic, we have built Zocdoc to integrate with hundreds of apps, calendars and practice management systems. Health systems have long-term consolidation plans. The reality is because we have done work with these implementations, we are frequently the preferred way to complete a network.

Q: Zocdoc is also known for its company culture and benefits. It recently introduced the "Unsick Day" to encourage preventive care. Why does Zocdoc value benefits like this?

OK: It's hard for employees to get away from their desk even to have lunch, let alone to go visit the doctor. Even though we're a company focused on patients every day  the phrase "Give Power to the Patients" is painted in large letters on our walls  our own employees weren't going to the doctor to get their own preventive care. Both as a physician and as a CEO, I thought, "That needs to be fixed."

We started to ask, "Why was that happening? What are the barriers?" The answer is surprising, given who we are: Work gets in the way. This is a leadership task. The "Unsick Day" is much more of an exercise that needs to be seen as explicit permission to go get your check-ups.

When you think back to access experience, we shouldn't let [long waits] hold us back and should make sure the investment companies have in employee wellness actually bears fruit.

Q: What are a few trends you see emerging in health IT and policy in 2017?

OK: There has probably been a state of uncertainty for a long time. Post-election, we are still trying to figure out what the details of healthcare are going to be. The one thing that's certain is patient choice will play a major role in the future. I wouldn't be surprised if health systems realized they can't cost cut their way to success and try to position themselves as systems that are easily accessible to patients they want to attract.

[Zocdoc] function[s] well in a universe where patient choice comes into play. For us, it's been equally uncertain and interesting.
Belmont, Mass.-based psychiatric facility McLean Hospital, in conjunction with a number of mental health advocacy groups, launched a national campaign and photography exhibit at Logan International Airport in Boston, according to Wicked Local.

The exhibit, "Deconstructing Stigma: A Change in Thought Can Change a Life," is part of a national public awareness campaign sponsored by McLean Hospital, Logan Airport, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, the International OCD Foundation, the Massachusetts Association of Mental Health, the National Alliance on Mental Illness and PROJECT 375, a mental health awareness advocacy group.

The exhibit, launched Dec. 9, features a 235-foot gallery of photographs of individuals who seek to share their struggles with the hope of changing how people view psychiatric illnesses. The photographs are located between terminals B and C at the airport. Officials said plans are underway to install similar exhibitions at other airports, according to the article.

"Shame and stigma are still far too prevalent when it comes to psychiatric disease and can contribute to the fear and isolation many people feel. 'Deconstructing Stigma' is an unprecedented effort to spark conversation about behavioral and mental health," said Scott Rauch, MD, president and psychiatrist-in-chief at McLean Hospital.
On Wednesday, the Oregon Nurses Association filed an unfair labor practice charge against St. Charles Health System, headquartered in Bend, Ore., over the system's recently introduced policy of requiring employees to either get vaccinated against influenza or wear a mask through peak flu season, according to a report from KTVZ.

The ONA claims St. Charles violated the rights of its employees under the National Labor Relations Act by not bargaining with the nurses over the change in working conditions. The organization has requested an immediate injunction to stop the health system from implementing the new policy while the board conducts its investigation. ONA nurses have expressed concern over the effectiveness of the new policy and cited it as an invasion of health privacy.

"Nurses have been asking to work together with St. Charles on this policy since the idea was first floated. We raised concerns about the appropriateness of sort of requiring nurses to publicly reveal their private healthcare decisions," Kevin Mealy, communications manager with ONA, told KTVZ. "St. Charles has repeatedly refused to negotiate with nurses."

In a statement released Wednesday, Rebecca Sherer, MD, St. Charles' medical director of infection prevention and control, said, "Our flu and masking policy  which applies to all employees, licensed independent physicians, contractors and students  is modeled after ones in place at many other health systems throughout the state and nation. We value our nurses and our partnership with the Oregon Nurses Association."

Dr. Sherer said hospital officials explained the rationale behind the decision to the union before the masking policy was implemented, and the system stands behind its decision. "It's the right thing to do for our patients and caregivers," she said.

According to a hospital release announcing the implementation of the new policy on Nov. 16, the vaccination rate for influenza among St. Charles caregivers has been approximately 75 percent for the last several years.

In the November release, Kari Coe, director of infection prevention and caregiver health at St. Charles, said, "We need to get to 90 percent vaccination compliance. It's the national goal for all hospitals to meet by 2020 and we need to implement this policy this year in order to achieve that benchmark and maintain it. Many other hospitals across the country have also done this because that's what it took."

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Delaware County Memorial Hospital workers rally for new contract, more staff

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Philadelphia nurses to vote on tentative labor deals with Tenet
The following health insurers made headlines this week. They are listed below, beginning with the most recent.

1. Humana, FullWell enter value-based agreement in Colorado

Louisville, Ky.-based Humana and Centennial, Colo.-based FullWell  an organization offering population health management resources  inked a value-based agreement financially rewarding physicians for quality care.

2. The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center joins Anthem BCBS network

Columbus-based The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center will provide in-network care to all Indianapolis-based Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Medicare Advantage members in Ohio.

3. BCBS of Massachusetts to receive $40M in risk adjustment payments

Boston-based Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts will get an additional $40 million from competing insurers under the ACA's risk adjustment program for 2015.

4. Maine co-op's risk corridor lawsuit gets green light

A federal judge ruled Dec. 2 nonprofit health plan Community Health Options can proceed with its lawsuit against the federal government over payments it claims it is owed under the ACA's risk corridors program.

5. Aetna lawyer: DOJ's antitrust arguments in Humana case address 'a pretend world'

The U.S. Department of Justice began its antitrust challenge to Aetna's proposed $37 billion takeover of Humana Dec. 5, arguing the deal would limit competition between the insurers' Medicare Advantage and ACA public exchange plans.

6. Judge declines federal request to freeze payer's risk corridor lawsuit

A U.S. Court of Federal Claims judge declined the Justice Department's request to stay Portland, Ore.-based Moda Health Plan's lawsuit that seeks more than $208 million in risk corridor payments under the ACA.

7. Cigna introduces plan selection service One Guide

Bloomfield, Conn.-based Cigna launched a service to help policyholders reduce their health expenses through reward programs as well as choose benefits and a team of physicians.

8. Tenet, Centene reach 3-year agreement

Tenet Healthcare in Dallas and Centene reached a three-year agreement to continue providing Centene policyholders access to Tenet facilities at reduced, in-network rates.

9. BCBS, Texas Health Resources reach impasse in contract negotiations

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas will drop Arlington-based Texas Health Resources from its network Jan. 1, unless the two organizations reach a new contract by the end of the year.

10. UnitedHealthcare, Tenet reach in-network access agreement

Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare and UnitedHealthcare reached a four-year agreement, which provides UnitedHealthcare members with in-network access to Tenet's facilities throughout the country.

11. Optima Health receives top CMS rating in Va. for marketplace health plans

Optima Health, a Virginia Beach, Va.-based payer with 450,000 members, received a 4-star quality rating from CMS for its OptimaFit individual and family health plans. The rating is the highest score achieved by a health plan in the state of Virginia on the CMS 5-Star Quality Rating System.
2016 has been yet another busy year for infection control and hospital quality professionals, as new hospital rankings were released, the threat of superbugs continued to grow and drug diversion from hospitals increased.

The following is a breakdown of five of the major infection control, patient safety and quality occurrences that affected U.S. hospitals this year, presented in no particular order.

Antibiotic resistance threat grows

While this has been a perennial problem, there were several notable advancements in 2016 that warrant it a place on this list.

In April, a strain of E. coli resistant to colistin  the antibiotic of last resort  was discovered for the first time in the U.S. Previously, it had only shown up in pigs, raw pork and a small number of people in China and Europe. Since the first announcement, three more examples of the "untreatable" superbug have turned up in the U.S. as of September.

Regulatory and accreditation organizations have started taking steps to force hospitals to take responsibility for antibiotic stewardship. In May, the National Quality Forum, the CDC and Nashville, Tenn.-based Hospital Corporation of America released "Antibiotic Stewardship in Acute Care: A Practical Playbook," a guide for hospitals on how to implement an antibiotic stewardship program.

It escalated quickly after that, with the Joint Commission adding a medication management accreditation standard, which, among other elements, requires hospitals to make establishing antimicrobial stewardship an organization priority, and CMS proposing a rule change that would require hospitals to implement antibiotic stewardship programs to continue participating in Medicare and Medicaid programs.

Antibiotic resistance isn't just an issue in the U.S.  it affects people of all countries. The United Nations made a historic move this year, as the high-level meeting it held on Sept. 21 was just the fourth time the U.N. General Assembly had discussed a health issue. The meeting resulted in all 193 U.N. member states signing a declaration to address antibiotic resistance.

CMS overall hospital quality star ratings launch to chagrin of hospitals

CMS released its Overall Hospital Quality Star Rating Program in full on July 27  three months behind schedule and in the face of unrest in the industry.

The program, which assigns a one- to five-star rating to hospitals based on quality data, outcomes data and patient satisfaction scores, was supposed to launch in April, but hospitals and legislators spent the first months of the year lobbying the agency to delay releasing the scores. Hospital associations and members of Congress argued the program used flawed metrics that put academic medical centers and safety-net hospitals at a disadvantage.

To handle the pushback, CMS delayed releasing the ratings until July, using the three months to further explain the methodology to stakeholders.

In the July release, 102 hospitals earned five stars. CMS plans to update the ratings each quarter, and did so in October, when 112 hospitals earned the top star rating.

Devices put patients at risk

Medical devices continued to pose risks to patients this year, and in some instances, the device manufacturers played a role in the problem.

For instance, news broke in July that Olympus, the Japanese medical device manufacturer that sells duodenoscopes linked to several infection outbreaks, had warned European hospitals in 2013 that the scopes were difficult to clean and could spread infections, but decided not to warn U.S. hospitals of the same risk. Contaminated scopes were tied to 35 deaths and many more infections in the U.S.

In 2015, another type of device  heater-cooler machines used during open-heart surgery  was found to spread a serious bacterial infection. This year, the CDC announced in October the infections are linked to a specific brand of heater-coolers, the Stockert 3T heater-cooler devices, made by LivaNova (formerly Sorin Group Deutschland), that are used in 60 percent of open-heart bypass procedures in the U.S. The devices were contaminated during Mycobacterium chimaera during manufacturing.

"Hospitals should check to see which type of heater-coolers are in use, ensure that they're maintained according to the latest manufacturer instructions, and alert affected patients and the clinicians who care for them," Michael Bell, MD, director of the CDC's Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, said.

Lastly, a study in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology this fall found removing contamination from robotic surgical instruments, even after cleaning multiple times, is nearly impossible. The study's authors pushed for new cleaning standards.

"These instruments are wonderful tools that allow surgeons to operate with care; but completely decontaminating them has been a challenge for hospitals," Yuhei Saito, RN, lead author of the study and assistant professor at the University of Tokyo Hospital. "By implementing new cleaning procedures using repeated measurements of the level of contamination on an instrument more than once, we could potentially save many patients from future infections."

Zika in the U.S.

Zika mania started late in 2015, when the World Health Organization named Zika to its list of emerging diseases likely to cause major epidemics, and the first case of the mosquito-borne virus was reported in the U.S. in Texas in early 2016.

Since then, much has been discovered about the virus, including its confirmed link to microcephaly and that it can be transmitted sexually for months after symptoms subside. The virus has also been linked to the autoimmune disorder GuillainBarre syndrome in adults. The condition incites paralysis and has been linked to two deaths in Puerto Rico.

On Feb. 8, President Barack Obama requested more than $1.8 billion in emergency funding to combat the virus in the U.S., and a month's-long partisan quarrel ensued. Emergency funding for Zika wouldn't garner congressional approval until the end of September, nearly two months after four Zika infections in the state of Florida borne of local mosquitoes were reported, marking the beginning of local transmission of the virus in the U.S.

On Oct. 25, Tom Frieden, MD, director of the CDC, delivered sobering news to a crowd gathered at The Atlantic's CityLab conference at the InterContinental Miami hotel, "Here's the plain truth: that Zika and other diseases spread by Aedes aegypti [mosquito species] are really not controllable with current technologies. So we will see this become endemic."

As of Nov. 17, the CDC has tallied more than 1,000 Zika infections among pregnant women in the U.S., as local transmission of the virus continues in Miami. Additionally, 28 infants have been born with congenital Zika-related birth defects and five pregnancies have been lost due to Zika-related stillbirth, miscarriage or terminations.

Drug diversion in hospitals

Multiple hospitals across the U.S. were forced this year to notify patients of potential infections from contaminated needles after hospital employees diverted opioid medications, possibly introducing contaminated needles to the patient population.

Arguably the highest profile case of such an occurrence involved the former surgical technician Rocky Allen, who is HIV positive. In January, Swedish Medical Center in Englewood, Colo., fired Mr. Allen after he was witnessed stealing a syringe filled with fentanyl and replacing it with one filled with saline solution. The needle-swapping incident spurred the hospital to offer nearly 3,000 patients free testing for HIV and hepatitis B and C. The incident also prompted several other hospitals in Arizona, California and Washington, all former employers of Mr. Allen, to warn patients of possible infection risk. No patient infections related to Mr. Allen have been detected. In July, Mr. Allen pled guilty to charges of tampering with a consumer product and obtaining a controlled substance by deceit.

As America's rampant rates of opioid abuse persist, drug diversion will continue to be an ongoing issue for hospitals. As the country is learning, and as hospitals must learn too, drug addicts can often be difficult to spot. The image of the archetypal drug addict has been subverted by the wide-reaching epidemic. Kimberly New, JD, BSN, RN, the founder of Diversion Specialists, spoke on the necessity of the implementation of drug diversion programs in hospitals at the AORN Surgical Conference & Expo in Anaheim, Calif., on April 3.

"You cannot look at someone and discount [that] they might be diverting," said Ms. New. "Everyone needs a diversion program we need to recognize we're all at risk."
Five spine surgeons discuss spinal imaging and the advancements they would like to see.

Ask Spine Surgeons is a weekly series of questions posed to spine surgeons around the country about clinical, business and policy issues affecting spine care. We invite all spine surgeon and specialist responses.





Next week's question: What are your favorite holiday traditions? How do you carve out time in your schedule to make sure you can enjoy them?





Please send responses to Anuja Vaidya at avaidya@beckershealthcare.com by Wednesday, Dec. 14, at 5 p.m. CST.





Question: What are the biggest improvements that you would like to see made in spinal imaging?





J. Brian Gill, MD, MBA. Nebraska Spine Hospital (Omaha). Imaging of the spine has improved tremendously over the years with better resolution of MRI scans and CT scans. This has enabled more accurate diagnoses, which in turn has led to better treatment options. I would like to see continued improvements in CT scans in terms of better resolution with less radiation. Focused CT scans for specific levels are an important step to reduce radiation. For example, obtaining a CT scan from L1-S1 is not necessary if the pathology is located at L4-S1. We do this quite regularly in our office but it is very difficult reproduce at other facilities even with repeated teaching and informational sessions. That's unnecessary radiation which is cumulative over time. I would also like to see MRI scans be used for image guidance solutions instead of CT-based technology. This would really help to reduce radiation exposure to the patient.





William Taylor, MD. Director of Spine Surgery, Vice Chairman of the Division of Neurological Surgery at University of California, San Diego: The next generation of imaging that includes basic biological parameters of the disc space. Much like we have DEXA for bone, we need to identify factors involved in disc degeneration, pain generators and imaging characteristics.





Brian R. Gantwerker, MD. Founder of The Craniospinal Center of Los Angeles: In terms of spinal imaging, intraoperative imaging should become available in most community hospitals. I would like to see the affordability and quality become more attainable. There are some exciting technologies, such as 3-D reconstruction with "standard" fluoroscopy machines, like the Ziehm device. I think as spinal imaging improves, accuracy and patient safety will just follow. And I do believe that physicians and hospitals must be reimbursed for its use by CMS and other payers as it improves quality and safety.





Don Johnson II, MD. Founder of Southeastern Spine Institute (Mount Pleasant, S.C.). Greatest need spinal doctors have currently is for weight-bearing MRIs. These would allow more accurate diagnosis and thus focused medical treatment. The imaging industry needs to focus on this aspect of scanning and I predict insurance will at some point require weight-bearing MRIs.

Alan S. Hilibrand, MD. Co-Director of Spine Surgery and Director of the Spine Fellowship at Rothman Institute (Philadelphia): Better ways to identify a spinal infection, especially in the period following surgery, and also better ways to minimize artifact in the cervical spine after prior surgery and instrumentation.





More articles on spine:

President-elect Donald Trump taps Dr. Ben Carson to join cabinet as housing secretary: 5 things to know

Should spine surgeons extend multilevel posterior cervical decompression and fusions to T1? 5 key notes

10 spine surgeons on advising their patients about experimental therapies
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Brian Ambrose is stepping down from his position at Tourism Ireland, to be replaced by businesswoman Joan OShaughnessy (right)

Geroge Best Belfast City Airport boss Brian Ambrose has praised the work of Tourism Ireland, weeks after his counterpart at Belfast International criticised the cross-border body.

Mr Ambrose, who is standing down as Tourism Ireland chairman, said the organisation's work had contributed to an increase of just over one-third in international visitors to Northern Ireland since 2011.

Nearly 2.1 million international visitors came to Northern Ireland in 2016, generating revenue reported to be around 527m.

Mr Ambrose said: "Over my five-year tenure as chairman, Tourism Ireland employees across the world have delivered terrific results for Northern Ireland and in doing so greatly benefited the local economy."

He said there had been a 34% increase in overseas visitors over the five-year period, adding: "Those are figures of which any organisation would be justifiably proud and are recognised by the tourism and hospitality sector in Northern Ireland."

And he said the growth had been on a par with the Republic of Ireland, which had additional advantages of lower Vat on tourism businesses and a lack of air passenger duty, which does apply in Northern Ireland.

"This remarkable growth in Northern Ireland has kept pace with the growth in Republic of Ireland, this despite a 9% Vat rate on tourism businesses and zero air passenger duty."

He said Tourism Ireland was working well with Tourism NI, the organisation within the Department for the Economy tasked with attracting visitors to Northern Ireland from the Republic, and with encouraging Northern Ireland people to holiday at home.

"Under the strong leadership of Tourism NI chief executive John McGrillen, the two organisations have worked closer than ever, particularly in the delivery and promotion of NI Year of Food and Drink which, judging by industry feedback, has been a resounding success.

"Having met with hospitality and tourism leaders at a dinner this week, they are buoyant after another fantastic year in Northern Ireland."

But Graham Keddie, Mr Ambrose's counterpart at Belfast International Airport, previously said Tourism Ireland had not done enough to attract visitors to Northern Ireland.

Now Mr Keddie is set to be appointed to the board of Tourism Ireland.

And Mr Ambrose is to hand over the reins at Tourism Ireland to Irish businesswoman Joan O'Shaughnessy. She has been vice-chair for a year and also spent 13 years as chief executive of catering and outsourcing services giant Aramark.

Northern Ireland tourism providers have said they have enjoyed a post-referendum boost as the weaker pound attracts more tourists from the Republic to Northern Ireland.

Hastings Group this week said its hotels had enjoyed a two-fold increase in bookings from the Republic over October and November.

But ahead of the referendum vote, Tourism NI launched a campaign to attract more visitors from the Republic to Northern Ireland after a fall of 18% in overnight trips to 320,000 during 2015.

Over the year to June 2016, spending by tourists in Northern Ireland increased by 5% to reach nearly 790m, according to a report from the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency last month.

Visitors from outside the UK and Republic of Ireland showed the biggest increase in spending, with a 15% rise to 514m.

However, spending by visitors from the Republic over the year was down 5%, reaching 56.9m.
Advancing the extension of the Pope Airfield Runway

Supporting military spouses by helping them gain federal employment

Reforming the TRICARE system by increasing collaboration between the military and private sector

Establishment of high performance military-civilian integrated health delivery systems. The Tillis provision would improve health outcomes and enhance the experience of care for beneficiaries as local military treatment facilities create strong relationships with private sector health systems to form integrated high performance health systems. These formal relationships would foster innovation in military treatment facilities, enhance operational medical force readiness, improve access to specialized medical care, and strengthen care coordination through integration of all activities of these new health delivery systems.

The Tillis provision would improve health outcomes and enhance the experience of care for beneficiaries as local military treatment facilities create strong relationships with private sector health systems to form integrated high performance health systems. These formal relationships would foster innovation in military treatment facilities, enhance operational medical force readiness, improve access to specialized medical care, and strengthen care coordination through integration of all activities of these new health delivery systems. Contracts with private sector entities to provide certain health care services at military treatment facilities. The Tillis provision requires the Secretary of Defense to enter into centrally-managed, performance-based contracts with private sector entities to improve the delivery of health care services at military treatment facilities with limited or restricted ability to provide services such as primary care or expanded-hours urgent care. Contracts would be designed to purchase improvement in health outcomes for covered beneficiaries seeking health care services in military treatment facilities.

The Tillis provision requires the Secretary of Defense to enter into centrally-managed, performance-based contracts with private sector entities to improve the delivery of health care services at military treatment facilities with limited or restricted ability to provide services such as primary care or expanded-hours urgent care. Contracts would be designed to purchase improvement in health outcomes for covered beneficiaries seeking health care services in military treatment facilities. Memoranda of agreements between the Department of Defense and institution of higher education that offer degrees in allopathic or osteopathic medicine. By sharing training facilities, staffing, and material resources, these new academic affiliations could help improve and sustain operational medical force readiness and possibly serve as a productive recruiting grounds for new military physicians. The provision sets the stage for the Department of Defense and Fort Bragg's Womack Army Medical Center to form a partnership with the Campbell University School of Osteopathic Medicine.

Contact: Daniel Keylin

Daniel Keylin daniel_keylin@tillis.senate.gov

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, the Senate passed the FY2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which includes several provisions introduced by Senator Tillis that will strengthen Fort Bragg's rapid deployment capabilities, support military spouses, and modernize the TRICARE system to improve healthcare for military families.The FY2017 NDAA provides servicemembers with the largest pay raise in six years, halts the Army drawback, and supports America's allies amid growing threats across the globe. The legislation now heads to President Obama's desk.said Senator Tillis.To protect Fort Bragg's rapid deployment capabilities, Tillis' provision requires the Secretary of the Army, in coordination with the Commander of the XVIII Airborne Corps at Fort Bragg, to submit a report to the Senate outlining plans to extend the runway at Pope Airfield and to indicate whether such project is a priority for the Army.Currently, C-17 and C-5 airlifts cannot depart from Pope Airfield fully fueled with a full load of paratroopers due to the current 8,500 foot takeoff length of the runway. Fully loaded C-17s and C-5s require a takeoff length of 10,500 feet, and 11,500 feet, respectively.Tillis' provision would have an immediate impact on the quality of life for many military spouses and their families by closing the two-year time limit loophole for military spouses who move from base to base and seek federal employment on that base. Currently, a military spouse only has two years to invoke the military spouse preference from the date of the service member's permanent change of station orders, which are issued well in advance of a military family arriving at a new duty station. Combined with the demands of raising children, adjusting to new surroundings, and the actual availability of federal jobs, many military spouses have missed consideration for employment or have had job offers withdrawn because they lost eligibility.
The chief executive of Coca-Cola is stepping down

The chief executive of Coca-Cola, Muhtar Kent, will step down next year and be replaced by chief operating officer James Quincey.

The soft drinks giant said that Mr Kent will leave the top job on May 1 but will continue as chairman of the board.

Mr Kent, who has been boss of Coca-Cola for eight years, said: "Managing the Coca-Cola Company to ensure our long-term growth requires a thoughtful and orderly succession planning process.

"We are certain that James Quincey is prepared for these new responsibilities and is the absolute right choice to lead our company and system into the future."

The 51-year-old Mr Quincey has been with the Atlanta-based company for about 20 years and was named chief operating officer last year.

Warren Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway investment vehicle is one of Coca-Cola's biggest shareholders, added: "I know James and like him, and believe the company has made a smart investment in its future with his selection."
Harry Corry has returned to profits of more than 1m, just a year after it posted losses and entered into an agreement to pay part of its debts to creditors.

Boss Willie Corry told the Belfast Telegraph that an agreed reduction in the rent the firm pays for its shops, a boost in online sales and an improved retail landscape helped the company to turn its fortunes around.

The business posted pre-tax profits of 1.18m for the year to the end of February 2016, a major turnaround from a loss of 653,000 a year earlier.

Turnover, meanwhile, increased from 40.16m to 41.3m during the same period.

"It's paying market rents which has made a difference," Mr Corry said.

"Obviously, things have improved slightly, and that was a help. We didn't lose any shops, and that helped keep turnover up. The main thing was the market rents, and we have also been doing a lot of training in the past two or three years, and that is paying off."

Mr Corry revealed the average sale had also increased, while online buying is up by as much as 40% in the space of a year.

This has been achieved without cutting any staff.

The current company accounts show the firm employed an average of 597 workers, up by one employee on the same period a year earlier.

"If you take the online, which has improved, it's the equivalent of one good shop," Mr Corry said. "It is up about 40% on last year. We also get people who come online and then go to the shops.

"People like to touch and feel and see (the products). They might buy online and then collect in store."

Harry Corry operates 50 stores across the UK and Ireland - 17 are in Northern Ireland, 22 in the Republic and the other 11 in Scotland.

Looking forward, Mr Corry said the plan was to "keep momentum and hopefully make the same sort of profit" this year.

Earlier this year, the firm revealed that sales at its Boucher Road store had plummeted by a third after the closure of the neighbouring B&Q store left restricted access to the business.

Mr Corry has said the company is trying to plan and develop better access to the south Belfast store.

There now plans to alter the road structure to allow greater traffic to Harry Corry and Benson for Beds.

The Belfast Telegraph reported earlier this year that a planning design statement for the project said: "B&Q have cited insurance reasons as the grounds upon which to close its main access off Balmoral Road.

"We are trying to get better access, and that's with planning and we are hoping that comes through."

In the latest accounts, the business said its objectives were to "increase the sales of the company and to improve gross profit by refining and developing the branch format and the online format by investing in staff training".

Harry Corry said increased basket size - the amount spent by customers - has "meant that the company has experienced an increase in turnover of 2.8%".

Speaking about entering into its company voluntary arrangement (CVA), it said "the company has returned to profit due to management actions in cost control and the reduction in rents as a result of the CVA process".
A major new Belfast city centre apartment development has been completed with flats now on the market. The Gallery on Dublin Road was built by Richland Group and is worth more than 8m.

It features 58 one and two-bedroom apartments in a price bracket of 115,000 to 195,000, as well as a ground floor cafe/bar.

The apartments are on sale through agents Simon Brien and Templeton Robinson.

The scheme was funded by Danske Bank.

Gary McCausland, chief executive of the Richland Group, said: "The scheme is targeted at investors looking for good rental returns, first-time buyers, young professionals and possibly students or their parents interested in making a wise investment."

Brian Shane of Danske Bank said: "The team at Danske Bank was happy to provide funding to Gary and the Richland Group for this exciting new apartment development.

"Richland has a strong and proven track record in the development of high spec apartments in cities across the UK and Europe.

"And we believe The Gallery on the Dublin Road will help attract more people to live in the city centre."
The UK is one of four countries facing legal action by the European Union for not imposing penalties on Volkswagen over its use of software in diesel vehicles to cheat emissions tests

The UK is one of four countries facing legal action by the European Union for not imposing penalties on Volkswagen over its use of software in diesel vehicles to cheat emissions tests.

It is also accused of refusing to disclose all the technical information gathered in its investigations into the scandal.

The controversy began on September 18 last year when US regulators told VW to recall 482,000 diesel cars after discovering they contained illegal defeat devices.

The Environmental Protection Agency said the software allowed cars to release fewer smog-causing pollutants during tests than in real-world driving conditions.

It then emerged that about 11m cars worldwide were fitted with the software, including 1.2m in the UK.

The European Commission, which enforces EU law, is taking legal action against the UK, Germany, Spain and Luxembourg - the countries which issued type approvals for Volkswagen cars in the EU - for not penalising the manufacturer.

The Czech Republic, Greece and Lithuania also face action for not introducing such penalty systems into their national law. Meanwhile the UK and Germany are also accused of breaking the law by not handing over all the results of their inquiries into potential nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions irregularities in cars by VW and other manufacturers.
Fired Apprentice contestant Trishna Thakrar fell out with her Northern Irish team-mate after they tinkered with the colour of their designer gin - and it cost them the task.

The six remaining candidates were full of Dutch courage on last night's episode as they created their own brand of the popular spirit.

Recruitment manager Thakrar was sent packing by Lord Sugar after Team Titan's gin was rejected by members of the alcohol industry who deemed its colour off-putting.

Thakrar accused her project manager - Newry make-up artist Grainne McCoy - and fellow team member Frances Bishop of "teaming up" in the boardroom.

"I thought it would make it stand out and offer something different but with gin being very traditional I shouldn't have suggested a colour at all and should have kept it clear," she said.

"However, it was up to the project manager to decide which suggestions to take on board and which not to, and having no suggestions herself, she decided to go with the colour so I feel some responsibility should also lie with her."

Lord Sugar fired Thakrar after telling her "the failure of this task had a lot to do with the colour" of the gin.

Thakrar said Bishop was "calculated" throughout the process.
Andrew Lloyd Webber said schools can perform School Of Rock while it continues to be played on stage

Theatre impresario Andrew Lloyd Webber has waived fees for schools to perform School Of Rock, in a bid to bolster musical creativity in the younger generation.

In an interview with The Times, the Phantom Of The Opera composer also vowed to provide resources such as scripts and scores to help schools put on the musical, adapted from the 2003 comedy film.

Breaking with theatre tradition, Lord Lloyd-Webber condemned the rule that schools may not perform musicals until they finish their commercial run on the stage, adding that arts subjects are already being "squeezed".

Speaking about the move, he told the newspaper: "It's a no-brainer - School Of Rock is about kids making music.

"Let's get on with it. You have to get music back into everybody's DNA again."

The 68-year-old also named New York over London as the world centre of musical theatre, pointing out that Broadway will have opened 14 new productions in the year up to next May, compared to just three in the West End.

Citing a drop in music teaching in schools as a possible reason, he said: "I am suddenly thinking: is this because we are neglecting the arts to such an extent in schools? Are things really going backwards?"

In his commitment to boosting arts education, his own foundation has poured more than 3.5 million into projects this year alone.

Adding that the West End has become saturated with "revival" productions, he shared his excitement for next year's arrival of fresh American musical Hamilton in the capital, which he described as the most original production he has seen in the last 50 years.

But his quest for originality may just fall short of writing a musical about a meeting between Donald Trump and Jeremy Corbyn, as prime minister.

He told the newspaper that he was being "facetious" when he made the suggestion after meeting Mr Trump, months before he secured his Republican nomination, adding: "Now I'm not so sure."
This family-friendly circus show is a spectacle of skilled circus acts including acrobats, aerialists and jugglers. It's a performance with artists and comedy characters that both young and old will enjoy, and a few gasp-out-loud moments.

For details visit tumblecircus.com

Lily's Magical Christmas

Hoodwink Productions

Crescent Arts Centre, Belfast

until Sunday, various times

Hoodwink's delicate show has been created especially with younger audiences in mind, although there's plenty to enchant all the family. Full of sounds, dance and sensory stimulation, the story invites you to join Lily on a special journey. or details tel: 028 9024 2338.

Charles Dickens Reading A Christmas Carol, Pip Utton

Bangor Castle

The Chamber, Bangor Castle

tonight 8pm

During the last 12 years of his life Charles Dickens toured the UK the USA reading his writings professionally to his adoring public, and the most popular of all was A Christmas Carol. Pip Utton recreates one of those public readings using the script and directions that Dickens himself used.

For details tel: 028 9181 0803.

Aladdin

LANA Productions

Waterfront Hall, Belfast

until January 8 various times

Lisa May directs this high energy story of Aladdin, Princess Jasmine and the trusty Widow Twankey and their battle against the evil Abanazar. Expect high jinks, laughs, and plenty of songs and dance in this festive favourite.

For details, tel: 028 9033 4455.
John Glenn by the tail of his battle-damaged Marine Corps F9F "Panther" during the summer of 1953. The plane had 714 holes in it from enemy shrapnel. (U.S. Air Force photo)

John and Annie Glenn

John Glenn's aircraft of the USAF's 51st Fighter Wing in Korea. There were three stars by the windscreen indicating the three MiG-15s he had shot down and "Lyn, Annie and Dave" was painted on the plane for his daughter, wife and son. (U.S. Air Force photo)

John Glenn enters "Friendship 7" on Feb. 20, 1962. The tiny Mercury spacecraft was less than 7 feet tall and about 6 feet in diameter. His ascent to orbit took about 5 minutes, and the flight lasted 4 hours, 55 minutes. (U.S. Air Force photo)

Semper Fi John Glenn and Godspeed.

Most people will remember John Glenn as the astronaut who was the first American to orbit the earth in 1962. After that event, his image was a carefully crafted and protected all American boy. But unlike many who have a fake image, I think you will find that he was the real All American Boy. He was raised in New Corcord, Ohio. The town had less than 1000 population in his youth and only about 2400 in 2015. That's small town America folks.John was not some cowboy who hopped in the cramped capsule and hollered "YEEHAW." He was a disciplined test pilot and with highly developed mental and physical attributes. When they shut the door to his capsule the launch team moved 3 miles from the pad to bunkers because of the fiery blast from the Atlas Rocket. The rocket had 40% failure rate in test up until his launch. No one really knew how the human body would react in the weightless environment of space. We had little knowledge of the one orbit by the Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin one year before in 1961.America of the late 1950s and early 1960s was the beginning of the transition from print and photo photogenic celebrities to real time television and video crafted images. The first distinction of that fact was possibly the debate between Richard Nixon and John Kennedy. Nixon was the old style politician and Kennedy the new vibrant young face of the future. It was a time when reality and fantasy morphed into a carefully crafted persona. It is of some interest to note that Nixon was only four (4) years older than Kennedy was. But the carefully crafted image of JFK, created in large part by his father's ambition, wealth, and a cadre of sycophants, set the tone for a new and vibrant age of make a believe youthful Camelot. Surrounded by a phonies like him, JFK was a stark contrast to the seventy (70) year old Ike. The nation bought the product without ever looking inside the wrapping. Many today are still polishing that image that never was reality.As we now know both Kennedy and Nixon were deeply flawed men and perhaps the lesson of image has been lost to the full-fledged phoniness of our current celebrities and politicians. Those of us that made the transition into adulthood in the intersection of 1950 and 1960 may remember our heroes in that blurred haze that was a bit touched up but not as carefully crafted. Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Elvis and a host of other billboard luminaries were later found to be blemished images like us all.However, when you peer beneath the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd layer of John H. Glenn Jr., who died on December 8, 2016 at 95 years old, you will find a much deeper and solid character that many others just tried to emulate. His life before the notoriety of the Mercury era is just as interesting and real as his image and life after his three orbits of the earth in 1962. Of the 30 Mercury, Gemini Apollo astronauts, only seven marriages survived the test of time and testosterone. John and Annie were one of those that did. Astronauts Wife Club With his death, you can find numerous recounts of his accomplishments, so I will not repeat them here. I will just offer a tip of the hat, (sounds quaint doesn't it?) to what I think was the real deal. Scratch below the surface on John Glenn and you will find Dudley Do Right. He was flawed likes us all, but his life was not a carefully crafted image. It was a life lived based on the old fashion American spirit. The idea that you can be anything you want to be if you just dedicate yourself to a goal and work hard to accomplish it.Perhaps his only scandal was his involvement in the Lincoln Savings and Keating Five Scandal, which he was found to have exercised "poor judgment. I guess politics will do that to people. Both he and John McCain were excused for their lack of judgment. That may have been based on their celebrity status, but I believe that it may have only been just a sharp curve in what was otherwise an almost picture perfect life for John Glenn.While most of the tributes to John will cover the period from the Mercury astronaut time and his senatorial career, his true story is the story of America. He had one foot in the American Dream and one foot in the American Future. I think he did it with amazing grace and dedication. Perhaps we can all get some solace and inspiration from his life if we just delve beyond the surface tributes to read and find out about the real man. He was another of the greatest generation and may he rest in peace.

Written December 9, 2016
The bell, which is now working after restoration

Father Delargy with the bell, which is now working after restoration

A Ballymena church bell will be ringing out for the first time in two months and in time for Christmas Day after undergoing repair.

It will be music to the ears of parishioners after the peal of the bell at All Saints' Church stopped for the first time in more than 120 years in October due to a fault.

Yesterday church sacristan Barney McKeown - a former member of showband The Freshmen - rang the bell once again.

The sound of the tolling across Ballymena from the Broughshane Road church, on the edge of the town centre, has been a regular feature of life since the massive bell was installed in 1893 by Fr Alexander McMullan.

Not only does it call worshippers to Mass, but each day at noon and 6pm the Angelus is also marked.

Parish priest Fr Paddy Delargy told the Belfast Telegraph yesterday: "We discovered about a year ago that the bell was slightly off its bearing and there was a possibility that there might be damage done if we didn't get it repaired. So we called in a very expert firm who were able to identify what needed to be done.

"There was scaffolding put around the bell and the inner workings were taken away to Co Cork, and the bell has been repaired and they have now installed it.

"We are glad to have the bell ringing again in time for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on Thursday, and we will be ringing out the bells for Christmas."

The priest is delighted the bell is working again, as he could not remember a time when it had not sounded.

Fr Delargy said it features the inscription 'Peace and prosperity to Ballymena', and said the first time the one-and-a-half tonne bell tolled in the 1890s was for the funeral of a churchman associated with St Patrick's Church of Ireland in the town. The cortege of the Very Reverend JW Murray, Dean of Connor and a former Rector of St Patrick's, came from the old rectory near All Saints, and then the bell of St Patrick's took up the lament for the rest of the journey.

"There was an interconnection with the other churches at that early stage," Fr Delargy explained.

Mr McKeown (73) rings the bell at least twice a day as part of his duties.

He said: "I am here 31 years and ringing the bell for the Angelus is one of my duties. It has been badly missed.

"It was getting to a point were people were saying: 'What is wrong with it? We miss this bell badly, is it ever going to be ready?'

"It is such a characterised feature of the town and you can hear it for miles.

"People put their tea and spuds on with the bell, too."

Mr McKeown officially rang the repaired bell for the first time at midday yesterday.

"It rings 18 times, three threes and a nine, and the same again at 6pm, and I also ring it for Saturday evening Mass and Sunday Mass," he added.

Martin Hough of Cork-based MBH Engineering Services, who repaired the bell, said the work was a labour of love. He said: "I worked in England and could see there was nobody specialising in this kind of work in Ireland, and I have been heavily involved in restoring the bells at Rosscarbery in west Cork, where I am a regular ringer now."

Mr Hough said that the Ballymena bell could be even louder than previously after the repairs.
Duke of Abercorn looks at the medals of Arctic convoys veterans William Mahood and John Steen

A new book recounting the tales of sailors from Northern Ireland who risked their lives to bring vital supplies to the Soviet Union during the Second World War has been launched in Belfast.

The Arctic convoys were some of the most gruelling expeditions of the war, bringing essential supplies to Soviet soldiers fighting Hitler's invading army. The expeditions resulted in the deaths of 3,000 seamen and the loss of 100 ships.

But more than four million tons of supplies were successfully delivered.

The book, Nearness Of Ice: Arctic Convoys, was collated over two years by Co Down writer Kate Newmann, who spoke to veterans, including 89-year-old John Steen from Coleraine, who spoke of his time in the Merchant Navy.

He said: "It was an adventure for me as I was only 16, leaving Coleraine to go on the missions and I couldn't even swim.

"Most of the other boys were around the same age; some returned, but others didn't.

"It's an honour to know that my story has now been told.

"It's been an amazing day, a day I will not forget for the rest of my life."

The book's was supported by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. Its head of drama and literature Damian Smyth said: "Over and above the physical and mental endurance displayed by these men over so many years, there are startling and memorable snatches of memory, captured moments of vivid reality, which are heartbreaking,exciting and horrifying by turns.

"The Arts Council is grateful to have been afforded the opportunity to assist in this adventure."

The Duchess of Abercorn, Honorary Consul to the Russian Federation in Northern Ireland and founder of the Pushkin Trust, said: "Today was a day for the veterans and they were absolutely fantastic.

"Their stories are now immortalised in a book and I am delighted that they will now live on forever."

Ms Newmann said she was privileged to meet "such fine, dignified, intelligent men" in the course of writing her work. "I was so impressed by their remarkable stories that I felt the world deserved to know more about them," she said.
Firefighters attending a well established fire on the Upper Braniel Road, east Belfast. Picture by Brian Little/PressEye

Firefighters attending a well established fire on the Upper Braniel Road, east Belfast. Picture by Brian Little/PressEye

Firefighters attending a well established fire on the Upper Braniel Road, east Belfast. Picture by Brian Little/PressEye

Firefighters attending a well established fire on the Upper Braniel Road, east Belfast. Picture by Brian Little/PressEye

Residents were forced from their homes as firefighters battled a blaze on the Upper Braniel Road in Castlereagh on Friday.

The fire erupted at around 2.50pm.

The Fire Service attended and, as crews tackled the blaze in outbuildings, it then spread to a house.

Forty-five firefighters and eight appliances remained at the scene on Friday night.

Residents within a 200 metre radius of the incident were evacuated from their homes as a safety precaution.

It is not yet known how the fire started. Police have said the blaze is not being treated as suspicious.

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Fire Service Group Commander William Johnston said asbestos could be contained on the site.

"So we had to take all the necessary safety precautions to ensure the safety of the firefighters who are dealing with the incident," he said.

"All residents withing the cordon have been evacuated and as soon as we can we will get them back home."

He added: "There is a difficulty with water supply in the area and we are having to bring extra water and pumping equipment to the scene.

"We will not know until later what exactly caused the fire that spread from outbuildings to residential property."

The Upper Braniel Road has been closed and is likely to remain so into Saturday.

Police advised motorists to seek an alternative route.
Ireland should have at least three extra MEPs after Brexit so Northern Ireland is properly represented, Sinn Fein have said.

A total of 73 UK MEPs will be reallocated to other member states due to the separation.

Sinn Fein outlined its priorities for upcoming negotiations on an exit which are expected to begin next year. Achieving special status within the EU for Northern Ireland is the party's central aim.

As part of the post-Brexit shake-up in political representation in the bloc, the party said: "We should make the case that there should be at least three more MEPs for Ireland when the six county population is factored into consideration.

"We should also look for additional seats in the Committee of the Regions and the European Economic and Social Committee."

While the Democratic Unionists support Brexit and believe it will free the country from red tape emanating from Brussels, Sinn Fein is vehemently opposed over the impact on the economy and peace process.

Brexit proponents have argued there will be no impact on the peace process and an exit will return sovereignty to the people of the UK.

In a policy document published yesterday, Sinn Fein pledged to argue for the north to remain within the EU and gave examples of similar arrangements in Europe.

It set out the alleged risk to the Good Friday Agreement and the power sharing north/south arrangements as well as the perceived threat to the peace process.

"Over the last number of decades, the EU has shown itself to be flexible in dealing with different forms of integration for member states and non-member states with the EU," it said.

No precedent exists for a jurisdiction to remain an EU member whilst the member state it is linked to ends its membership.

Sinn Fein's paper noted: "However, the inverse of this scenario was Greenland, a Danish dependent territory with limited devolution, who voted to leave the EU in 1985 while Denmark as the member state remained.

"Greenland was then transferred to Overseas Countries and Territories (OCT) status."

A trilateral declaration agreement has existed between Denmark, Greenland and the EU, which was updated in 2015.

A total of 25 OCTs have a special relationship status with the EU without being member states and are linked with Denmark, Britain, France and the Netherlands who benefit from access to the single market and other entitlements negotiated between the member state/OCT/EU. They are, however, all linked to a member state.
Assistant Chief Constable Stephen Martin said he believed individuals involved with Charter NI were connected with the UDA

Calls have been made to stop funding an east Belfast charity after police linked some of its members to recent paramilitary activity.

Assistant Chief Constable Stephen Martin said he believed individuals involved with Charter NI were connected with the outlawed Ulster Defence Association (UDA) and had engaged in recent illegal activity.

Opposition leader Mike Nesbitt said the police analysis must be taken seriously.

The Ulster Unionist said: " This has to be the tipping point.

"The Assistant Chief Constable couldn't be any clearer with his assessment and the penny seems to have finally dropped with the Executive.

"Given the assessment of the PSNI Assistant Chief Constable, the Executive Office should move to suspend funding to Charter NI."

The charity, whose chief executive is convicted armed robber Dee Stitt, is overseeing the delivery of a 1.7 million employment scheme in east Belfast as part of the Stormont Executive's 80 million Social Investment Fund (SIF).

Mr Stitt, who denies being a UDA chief, has faced down repeated calls for his resignation in the wake of a newspaper interview in which he launched a foul-mouthed tirade against the Government and claimed his flute band, the North Down Defenders provided "homeland security".

ACC Martin did not name anyone he believed was linked to paramilitarism, but said: " Charter as an organisation, we have seen, do good work on the ground but clearly there are connections within that organisation to the UDA.

The senior officer made the comments during an interview with the BBC's Nolan Show.

He added: " I would believe certainly that there may be an individual or individuals connected to Charter who have certainly been recently active.

"There are people who will have been members for a long time who keep their head down and have no active role in it other than they're members and there will be people who are involved in crime at the other end and there will be a different blurring of membership in that spectrum."

Alliance Party Deputy Leader, Stephen Farry, said the evaluation took the controversy surrounding government funding to Charter NI to a "new level".

He said: "Hopefully, the comments from ACC Martin will finally bring this to a head. However, it is now essential that the Executive Office suspends all payments to Charter and puts in place arrangements whereby GEMS can directly deliver the SIF Employability Project in East Belfast."

Meanwhile, in a statement Charter NI's board of directors said PSNI comments had come as a "surprise".

It said: "The consistent position of the Board of Charter NI is that we do not condone illegal or criminal activity of any kind.

"We reaffirm our support for any prosecution brought by the PSNI of any person where there is evidence of involvement in illegal activity.

"The comments made by the ACC come as a surprise to us particularly as we have regular involvement with PSNI officers in a number of our projects who have given no indication of concerns about current paramilitary activity by an individual or individuals connected with Charter NI."

The organisation said board members would be seeking an urgent meeting with the PSNI to discuss the assessment and would take "whatever action" was deemed necessary.

The Executive Office described the remarks as "not insignificant" and said there would be no acceptance of illegal actions.

A spokesman also said they were seeking further clarity from the police.

"Where there is evidence of criminal activity, we expect the police to investigate and bring those responsible before the courts. Courts and jail are the only place for anyone involved in paramilitarism.

"All those associated with Charter or any community enterprise must make a clear choice between paramilitarism and legitimate community work.

"There can be no acceptance of or ambivalence towards illegal activity," the statement said.

Sinn Fein's policing spokesman Gerry Kelly said he too was seeking an urgent meeting with the PSNI to discuss the matter.

He said: "There can be no place for criminality or paramilitarism in any sector of our society.

"It's important to acknowledge that legitimate community organisations and community activists make a huge contribution to society. They make a real difference delivering services on the ground where they are most needed.

"It is unfortunate that their efforts are being overshadowed by the criminality and paramilitary activity of a tiny number of people.

"Therefore I will be urging the PSNI to ensure that where there is any evidence of criminal activity, they do all in their power to bring those responsible before the courts."
A high profile court case involving so-called 'loyalist supergrass' Gary Haggarty has been postponed until the middle of next year.

Haggarty is facing an unprecedented 202 charges - including five murders, five attempted murders and 66 firearms offences - linked to UVF activity in the 1990s and 2000s.

The 44-year old former tyre fitter, whose address in court was given as c/o PSNI Knocknagoney, did not appear at Belfast Crown Court on Friday, where his legal team launched an application to postpone his arraignment.

Haggary was due to be arraigned this month on over 200 terrorist-related offences spanning a period of 16 years, including directing the activities of the UVF in south-east Antrim, as well as being a member of the outlawed organisation.

The charges were due to be formally put to Haggarty for the first time in a Crown Court, and his plea was due to be entered.

However, defence barrister Martin O'Rourke QC asked that the arraignment be postponed until after Easter next year, to allow full consideration of the charges and papers involved in the case.

Telling the court Haggarty faces a number of series charges including multiple murders, 25 charges of conspiracy to murder and "a myriad of other offences", Mr O'Rourke revealed there were thousands of papers to consider.

"The interviews of the defendant alone amount to 1,100 interviews over a period of four years", he told the court.

Making the application to Mr Justice Treacy, Mr O'Rourke branded the case as "unique" and said: "All of the charges and papers in this case have to be carefully considered before he (Haggarty) is put on his plea so that defence can advise accordingly.

"We request that the court not arraign him next Friday to give the defence adequate time to consider the matters."

Whilst it emerged that the Crown would not be opposing the application to adjourn the arraignment until after Easter next year, prosecutor Ciaran Murphy QC said it would, however, be "prudent" to review the case next February.

Mr Justice Treacy listed the arraignment to take next April, following a review on February 3, 2017
Economy Minister Simon Hamilton has apologised to a whistleblower who claimed she warned Arlene Foster about a botched heating scheme that may now cost the taxpayer more than 400m.

On Thursday the whistleblower told The BBC's Nolan Show that it took only "five minutes of research" to find problems which she claims she flagged.

The Renewable Heat Incentive scheme aimed to cut the cost of green energy to encourage people off fossil fuels, but ended up landing ministers with a massive overspend as no cap was set on the number of claims.

That effectively enabled a business to burn unnecessary heat 24/7 just to make money. Overall, more than 1bn of public money will be paid by 2036 to Northern Ireland-based businesses that signed up to the scheme. Almost half of that will be covered by the Executive.

The whistleblower said it was clear that there was the potential for fraud in the scheme, and that she warned Mrs Foster, who was the then enterprise minister.

Ulster Unionist Party leader Mike Nesbitt has called for First Minister Arlene foster to consider her position and that she should offer a public apology.

Speaking on BBC Northern Ireland's The View, Mr Hamilton said Mrs Foster "absolutely should not resign".

"I want to thank [her] for her contribution and to apologise to her for the fact that her complaint was not taken seriously by government.

"It was taken seriously, however, by Arlene Foster, who passed the information on to her officials, and that's absolutely the right thing.

"The communication from the whistleblower was not specific about what the alleged abuse of the scheme was and it was appropriately passed on by Arlene to her officials, who were tasked to investigate it.

"It was they who didn't take the complaint seriously."

The First Minister has said there was nothing more she could have done at the time when concerns were first raised.

Speaking from China where she is promoting Northern Ireland Mrs Foster said: "There really isn't anything more, with hindsight, that I could have done, given the advice that was given to me at the time."
Parents in Enniskillen were left disappointed when, during the festive lights switch-on, sweets were simply handed out to those that could reach in the crowd (stock photo)

Ho ho... no. The fond old tradition of Santa throwing sweets into a crowd of children appears to have been scuppered by health and safety bureaucrats.

Parents in Enniskillen were left disappointed when, during the festive lights switch-on, sweets were simply handed out to those that could reach in the crowd.

In previous years Santa and his team of elves distributed goodies at the Diamond, sometimes through the air, to reach as many of the crowd as possible.

But this year's event, organised by Fermanagh and Omagh District Council, did not include flying sweets - which did not go unnoticed by some parents who contacted The Impartial Reporter.

In response, the council explained the practice of throwing sweets into the crowd at the Enniskillen Christmas lights switch-on has not taken place over the last number of years because of health and safety.

The spokeswoman added that more than 300 worth of sweets were distributed to children, as is customary, by Santa and his helpers at this year's event, and that the barrier was also extended to enable Santa to meet as many children as possible.

The Belfast Telegraph can now reveal that other councils across Northern Ireland have also forbidden the throwing of sweets into crowds.

Of the councils that responded to our inquiries, only Derry and Strabane Council still allow it. However, a spokeswoman clarified that even there the matter had been considered, with only light sweets being thrown into the crowd.

"The council has had no issues with this practice regarding health and safety," she added.

But while Belfast City Council said it does not have a formal policy on throwing sweets, the practice is forbidden.

"However, we wouldn't permit this as it may cause unnecessary crowd movement at an event that is designed to attract young families with lots of toddlers and young children in the audience," a spokeswoman said.

"The Christmas lights switch-on in Belfast is a very popular and well-attended event attracting thousands so crowd management and movement is very important."

Antrim and Newtownabbey Council said it hosts a number of light switch-ons, and at the events it would "not be standard practice for Santa to throw sweets into the crowd".

Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon Council said Santa's elves help to distribute sweets, but clarified none are thrown. Ards and North Down Council take a similar approach.

At Causeway Coast and Glens Council, a spokeswoman said its events team would not throw sweets to the crowd, and Lisburn and Castlereagh said its popular Christmas switch-on event in Lisburn city centre "was managed in line with all appropriate guidance including health and safety", adding "items are not thrown at this event".

Mid and East Antrim Council said all its events are subject to risk assessments where all such factors are taken into consideration. "No sweets are thrown in any of our events across the borough - including those during the festive season," a spokesman said.

And Mid-Ulster District Council said while it does not have a documented policy, its practice is that at any council-run event gifts such as selection boxes, and sweets are handed to members of the crowd as opposed to being thrown.

Former councillor and commentator Seamus Close described the reluctance to let Santa throw sweets as "crazy".

"That is absolutely absurd, really absurd," he told the Belfast Telegraph.

"There's poor Santa who travels from the North Pole on the sleigh, travels through the clouds and here we have some of our councils complaining because he might throw some sweeties out to the children. Are we really cracking up?

"Even if you take it to the other end - those poor shepherds up on a mountain on their own, health and safety would probably tell them they shouldn't be there.

"And as for the baby Jesus in the crib, I mean, what conditions. No central heating there. He was wrapped in swaddling clothes and put in a manger. The ox and the ass and all those other animals in there.

"Health and safety have little to do if they miss all that and come at poor Santa for throwing a few sweets around the place.

"We are gone mad as a society. These people are paid to go out and stop fun."
This bang-up-to-date exhibition focuses on exciting digital technology.

The event brings together 19 artist/makers from across Europe and will feature artworks created by 3D printers, laser cutters and CNC routers.

They include ceramic pots, biohacking experiments where computer chips are implanted into the human body, invented musical instruments, miniature 3Dmodels of iconic digital consumer objects, screens and etchings that have been laser cut and interactive story-telling on iPads.

The exhibition is culmination of a year-long programme of art - making, exhibiting, training and networking.

A community and events programme will accompany the exhibition, offering young people and families art-making experience.

MAC International Ulster Bank prize

MAC, Belfast.

Until Feb 19, 2017; daily 10am-7pm

If you haven't seen this exhibition in the MAC there's still plenty of time and it's well worth making the effort.

Congratulations are due to all those involved for bringing this selection of work by 18 international artists to Northern Ireland. The prize was pretty substantial and the competition attracted an enormous number of entries from which 1,000 from 40 countries, were shortlisted. The overall winner was London-based Slovenian artist Jasmina Cibic.

Expect artworks that are surprising, amazing, disturbing and thought-provoking.
Ohio-based frieght brokerage firm to open third NC location

Contact: McCrory Communications

McCrory Communications govpress@nc.gov

Raleigh, N.C. Governor Pat McCrory, Commerce Secretary John E. Skvarla III and the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina (EDPNC) announced today that Total Quality Logistics LLC (TQL) will open a new facility in High Point. The company intends to add 70 jobs there over the next five years as it invests $308,000 at its new location at 4135 Mendenhall Oaks Parkway in High Point. The target opening date is March 2017.said Governor McCrory.Since Governor McCrory entered office in January of 2013, North Carolina's economy has generated more than 300,000 jobs.Founded in 1997, TQL is the second largest freight brokerage firm in North America. Based in Cincinnati, Ohio, the firm connects customers in a variety of industries to trucks belonging to carriers and owner-operators for efficient and reliable transportation. Sales at TQL exceeded $2.2 billion in 2015. The company operates 57 offices across 24 states, maintaining a workforce of 4,200. Its existing North Carolina locations in Durham and Charlotte employ more than 170 workers.said Secretary Skvarla.TQL will employ logistics account executives as well as sales-support employees at its High Point facility. Entry level Logistics Account Executive Trainees begin at a base salary and after successfully completing training, are eligible to receive uncapped commission on top of their base. Once fully operational, the company's new office will produce more than $2.5 million in annual payroll impact for the local economy.said TQL president Kerry Byrne.The expansion by TQL was made possible in part by a performance-based grant of up to $70,000 from the One North Carolina Fund. The One NC Fund provides financial assistance, through local governments, to attract business projects that will stimulate economic activity and create new jobs in the state. Companies receive no money up front and must meet job creation and capital investment targets to qualify for grant funds. All One NC grants require a local government match.Among the organizations and entities working with N.C. Commerce and EDPNC in supporting TQL's expansion were the North Carolina General Assembly, the North Carolina Community College System, the City of High Point, the High Point Economic Development Corporation, the Guilford County Economic Development Alliance and the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce.
The shocking allegations emerged after a 27-year-old man was arrested in Co Down at the weekend

A man has been charged with animal cruelty offences over claims a pet collie was strangled, skinned and fed to another dog.

The shocking allegations emerged after a 27-year-old man was arrested in Co Down at the weekend.

The Belfast Telegraph understands the man was arrested after a woman known to him contacted police in Ards.

Her concerns related to an alleged incident at a house in the Kircubbin area on Friday, December 5.

Sources say the claims include that the animal was "cooked" before being fed to another dog.

The man was interviewed by officers before being charged and released on police bail.

It is understood that both dogs - believed to be the accused's pets - were recently purchased via internet buy and sell sites, according to sources.

The PSNI said last night: "A 27-year-old man has been charged with animal cruelty, to appear at Ards Magistrates Court on January 3.

"As is normal, all charges will be reviewed by the PPS."
A man and a woman who were in the house at the time were not injured but left very badly shaken.

A man and a woman have been left badly shaken after a masked man forced his way into their home armed with a wheel brace.

It happened in a house in the Grace Avenue area of Belfast on Thursday December 8. At approximately 11.45pm police received a report that a masked man, who is believed to have been brandishing a wheel brace, forced his way into a house.

When the male resident confronted him he fled from the premises, along with two other men who had been standing outside the property.

A man and a woman who were in the house at the time were not injured but left very badly shaken.

Detective Sergeant Michael Hawthorne appeals to anyone who may have noticed any suspicious activity in the area to contact Detectives at Reactive and Organised Crime at Musgrave on the non-emergency number 101, quoting reference 1440 08/12/16.

Alternatively, if someone would prefer to provide information without giving their details they can contact the independent charity Crimestoppers and speak to them anonymously on 0800 555 111.
The remains of McGurk's Bar in Belfast, where 15 people died in a bomb blast

Relatives of the McGurk's Bar bombing victims have told a police watchdog that documents they have obtained contain evidence of security force collusion in the attack.

Family members of some of the 15 people killed in the 1971 loyalist blast in Belfast met with representatives of the Police Ombudsman's office to press for a new investigation.

The bombing was carried out by the UVF, but had initially been presented by the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) as an accidental ''own goal'' by the IRA, prompting speculation that the dead might have included IRA members who were carrying the device.

A Police Ombudsman's report in 2011 said RUC officers had shown an "investigative bias" with the original misattribution of blame.

Bereaved relatives believe papers recently obtained in a trawl of historic records indicate the officers and others in authority were guilty of collusion.

They say the papers prove the bomb was planted in the doorway of the pub.

They claim the authorities therefore knew from early in the investigation that the bomb had been left at the door, rather than detonating in the possession of someone inside.

They contend that the subsequent portrayal of the bombing as an IRA own goal was an act of collusion with loyalists.

Robert McClenaghan, whose 73-year-old grandfather Philip Garry died in the bombing, said the ombudsman's office should open a fresh probe.

"We are here today to present this new evidence to the Police Ombudsman," he said.

"The Police Ombudsman can only reinvestigate McGurk's Bar if there is new evidence or if it is a very grave or exceptional set of circumstances. We believe that we fit those circumstances because we believe this is a very grave and exceptional situation that has developed since we found these new documents.

"We believe there is enough new evidence to warrant a finding of collusion."

North Belfast Assembly members Gerry Kelly (Sinn Fein) and Nichola Mallon (SDLP) joined the families as they met Ombudsman Dr Michael Maguire in Belfast.

Afterwards, a spokesman for Mr Maguire described the meeting as "cordial and informative".

"The Police Ombudsman undertook to assess the documents provided by the families to determine whether or not any further investigative action is required by his office," he said.

"A further meeting will be held in the future after he has been able to obtain further clarity around the issues raised."
The families of victims of the McGurk's Bar bombing - one of the worst atrocities of the Troubles - are to present new evidence to the Police Ombudsman this morning.

Robert McClenaghan's grandfather Philip Garry was one of 15 who died in the UVF massacre on December 4, 1971.

Mr McClenaghan said a military log from the original investigation, obtained by the families in October, shows a deliberate cover-up and a campaign of disinformation.

He claims the new evidence implicates not only the RUC and Army, but then Prime Minister of Northern Ireland Brian Faulkner.

Initially the bomb had been blamed on an "own goal" by the IRA, with the RUC stating that it had detonated inside the bar. This led to speculation that some of those killed could have been IRA members transporting the device.

It was later proven that the bomb was planted in the doorway by four UVF terrorists. One, Robert Campbell, served 15 years in prison for the crime, but refused to give up his accomplices. He died in 2013.

Mr McClenaghan says the new information shows "categorically in black and white" the authorities knew the truth from the beginning.

An Army report obtained by the families dated December 5, 1971 states: "ATO (Ammunition Technical Officer) is convinced bomb placed in entrance way on ground floor. The area is cratered and clearly was the seat of the explosion. Size of bomb likely to be 40/50lbs. NOT FOR PR."

The remaining text on the page has been blacked out, and restricted for a further 84 years.

Mr McClenaghan called it "the first big lie" of many.

Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close Children remove a baby's cot from the debris of McGurk's bar in North Queen Street, Belfast, where 15 people died in 1971 McGurk's Bar in North Queen Street, Belfast, was destroyed in a bomb blast The paint-spattered McGurks Bar memorial / Facebook

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Whatsapp Children remove a baby's cot from the debris of McGurk's bar in North Queen Street, Belfast, where 15 people died in 1971

"As we were getting ready to bury our families they were getting ready to bury the truth along with it," he said. On December 6, Faulkner travelled to London to meet Home Secretary Reginald Maudling.

He is reported to have told Maudling he directed the RUC to look into the backgrounds of those in the bar, rather than for those responsible.

"There's one of two possibilities," said Mr McClenaghan.

"That he was a patsy being led by the nose by the RUC Chief Constable George Shilliday and his Inspectors, or he knew exactly what he was doing in leading the RUC investigation away from the perpetrators and to look at the background of the dead and the injured."

A 2011 report by the Police Ombudsman stated that there was a bias in the original RUC investigation. This was later reversed by a report from the Historical Enquiries Team (HET). Last week Chief Constable George Hamilton changed the official PSNI position, stating he accepted there was bias.

"If a false line of enquiry equates to investigative bias, on that basis I am accepting the language that the Ombudsman chose to use to present that (initial RUC) hypothesis that turned out to be incorrect," he said.

Mr McClenaghan has called for him to go further and do the "honourable thing" by completely quashing the HET report. The families are also demanding new inquests.

On Tuesday evening at an event to mark 45 years since the atrocity, high-profile human rights lawyer Michael Mansfield - who represented families of the Hillsborough disaster - told a packed crowd at St Mary's College on the Falls Road the new evidence was a "golden bullet" and urged the families to push for more answers as "truth comes to those who persist".

But this was criticised by victim Jude Whyte, whose mother Peggy was killed by a UVF bomb in 1984.

He said Mr Mansfield was only giving the families "false hope".

"I think his view is delusional and it gives victims a sense they will get their day in court and all will be rosy," he said.

"All we need to get to the bottom of this information from the State is a taxi fare over to Holywood (MI5 headquarters) and open up the files there.

"This simply will not happen. The main reason is that it would destabilise the whole peace process."

He added: "I would love the people of McGurk's to get their day, but they won't while this society remains totally divided on what this war, or conflict to others, was about."

But Mr McClenaghan said: "We say he's right. But this is a real life, real time campaigning issue.

"It's not just something that happened 45 years ago.

"So we need the Jude Whytes of this world, along with others in the Victims Forum, to listen to our arguments and to support the families of McGurk's."

Mr McClenaghan added: "We're not asking for new prosecutions but we say you need truth, justice and acknowledgement first before we can talk about reconciliation."
The police investigation into more than 300 killings involving soldiers in Northern Ireland during the Troubles has been described as "a witch-hunt".

Since 2013 the PSNI's Legacy and Justice Department has been investigating all 302 Troubles-related deaths at the hands of the Army.

However, the probe has sparked controversy, with some politicians - including Tory MP and Army veteran Johnny Mercer - angry that up to 1,000 soldiers face police interviews and possible prosecutions.

Mr Mercer said: "This is a witch-hunt, as well as total and complete betrayal by the Government of those who have done its bidding.

"If we could demonstrate in Government just some of the courage our Armed Forces have displayed over the years in Northern Ireland, the entire historical allegations money machine would end."

But People Before Profit MLA Eamonn McCann - who was a leading campaigner in the Bloody Sunday justice campaign - said that it was right to hold the State accountable.

"When people who are wearing a uniform and representing the State do something outside of the law then it is necessary that the State is called to account for their actions," he said. "The vast majority of cases where a soldier was involved in a killing, the person killed was totally innocent and absolutely not involved in any paramilitary organisation."

Among the killings already scrutinised is that of Joe McCann, one of the Official IRA's most prominent activists, shot by soldiers in 1972. A former paratrooper connected to this death could face prosecution if the Public Prosecution Service proceeds with a case.

The man, identified only as Soldier C, said: "It is a disgrace. I was doing my duty in Northern Ireland, trying to protect the public and keep the peace.

"Now I am being thrown to the wolves."

However, Helen Deery, whose brother Manus (15) was shot dead by a soldier, said no one should be above the law.

She said: "My brother's killing was classified as 'unjustified' at his inquest - something our family waited 45 years to hear.

"There was no investigation of his death at the time. It is only now innocent deaths are being looked at, and that is something that needs to happen."

Ulster Unionist justice spokesman Doug Beattie MLA, who won the Military Cross in the Army, warned that the history of the Troubles must not be rewritten to deflect blame away from the terrorist groups that caused 90% of deaths.

"As a former soldier myself with 34 years' service, I am acutely aware of the pressure under which front line troops operate and the extraordinary situations which they are sent into," he said.

"That was as true of those who were sent into Northern Ireland under Operation Banner as it is of those who served in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"We must never forget that 90% of Troubles-related deaths were at the hands of loyalist and republican terrorist groups.

"Only 10% of deaths were due to the actions of State forces. The disproportionate focus on this 10% is causing immense damage and is assisting those who are seeking to rewrite history and portray the State and its agents as the villains of the piece."

Assistant Chief Constable Mark Hamilton, head of the PSNI Legacy and Justice Department, said: "There is no new single probe or bespoke inquiry into deaths attributed to the British Army.

"All Troubles-related deaths will be reviewed by the Legacy Investigation Branch using the case sequencing model, which does not prioritise military cases.

"This is not a new decision."

Mr Hamilton added:"If there is a political decision to establish a Historical Inquiries Unit, Legacy Investigation Branch responsibilities will pass to it."
The defendant has three previous begging-related convictions.

A serial beggar suspected of breaking a policewoman's wrist after being challenged in Belfast is banned from entering the city centre, a High Court judge ordered today.

Mr Justice Burgess imposed the exclusion zone as he granted bail to Augustin Lacatus.

The 38-year-old defendant's wife must also lodge 500 in cash before he can be released from custody.

Lacatus, a Romanian national from Northbrook Street in Belfast, faces charges of begging and assault on police.

The alleged offences were committed outside a bank in the city centre on Monday - three days after he received a suspended sentence for a similar offence under the Vagrancy Act.

His lawyer has already indicated he will be making admissions to the fresh charges.

Police on patrol in Royal Avenue spotted him sitting under a blanket and holding his hands out to passers-by, the court heard.

Prosecution counsel said when the officer approached he stood up, shook his head and said; "No."

Lacatus started to struggle and tried to escape when she took hold of his arm, it was alleged.

The prosecutor continued: "He then forcefully broke free and in doing so forced the police officer holding him to the ground."

She went to hospital with a suspected broken wrist, a previous court was told.

Lacatus was detained after a member of the public helped stop him from getting away.

Seeking bail, defence barrister Conn O'Neill said his client's wife and her family were prepared to put up a 500 cash surety to secure his release.

His disclosure prompted the judge to question why anyone with access to that amount of cash would be begging on the streets.

Mr O'Neill explained that Lacatus had been let down over money owed to him.

He also revealed that the accused's family have an association with a local car wash.

Lacatus, who arrived in Northern Ireland a year ago, has three previous begging-related convictions.

"It's a matter of concern that within three days of an order of the court he (allegedly) offends again," Mr Justice Burgess said.

However, he granted bail on conditions including the surety and electronic tagging.

Banning Lacatus from central Belfast, the judge added: "Begging presumably takes place where you hope to get money, and the best place to get that is where there's a lot of people.

"If he's kept well away from the centre of town the market isn't very big."
The value of all business, measured by gross domestic product, jumped by 4% in the three months to September, new figures show

The economy performed strongly in the months after the Brexit vote, official figures have revealed.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO), whose incredible growth figures earlier in the year were branded "leprechaun economics", showed Ireland is on course to have the fastest- growing economy in Europe this year.

The value of all business in the country, measured by gros s domestic product, jumped by 4% in the three months to September, the CSO said.

Irish-owned enterprises enjoyed growth of 3.2%, suggesting there are little or no signs that the UK's decision to split from Europe has yet affected Irish trade.

The economic measurements used for the CSO's previous report in July were roundly criticised when the CSO and Finance Minister Michael Noonan noted a reported growth in the economy of more than 26%.

Economists warned that official reports on economic performance should look more closely at the number of people in work and how spending is changing.

The latest review by the CSO, covering July, August and September, showed personal consumption of goods and services increased by 0.7% while overall domestic demand down by 1.8%.

Mr Noonan described the new set of figures as v ery positive and said they were mirrored in the strong employment growth and tax returns.

"These figures are the first estimate of growth in the Irish economy since the Brexit referendum," he said.

"They show that the immediate impact from Brexit has been more benign than initially anticipated. However, we cannot be complacent.

"The best way to deal with such risks is through competitiveness oriented policies and prudent management of the public finances. That is what this Government has been doing. That is what we will continue to do."
Malcolm Scott Carpenter (1925-2013), U.S. Navy (1 flight)

Leroy Gordon (Gordo) Cooper Jr. (1927-2004), U.S. Air Force (2 flights)

John Herschel Glenn Jr. (1921-2016), U.S. Marine Corps (2 flights)

Virgil Ivan (Gus) Grissom (1926-1967), U.S. Air Force (2 flights)

Walter Marty (Wally) Schirra Jr. (1923-2007), U.S. Navy (3 flights)

Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. (1923-1998), U.S. Navy (2 flights)

Donald Kent (Deke) Slayton (1924-1993), U.S. Air Force (1 flight)

There are those that will say his return to space in 1998 at the age of 77 was a gimmick or special treatment. Reasonable people can disagree about that but you must factor in the history. John Kennedy directed NASA to take John off flight status as he was deemed too valuable a personification of the space program to risk death on another flight. John continued to train and when he finally learned he would not be going back to space, he resigned from NASA and started his public career as a politician.It was perhaps another twist of the times that image overtook the career of this astronaut. He accepted the choice and moved into the next phase of life, but somewhere deep inside, I am sure he felt cheated by the system that he invested so much of his efforts into the program. Conceivably, it was appropriate that the space program return some of his payments in time, energy, and training as recognition not for his status as a Senator but as an astronaut denied his recompense for dedication. Once again, it could be just a chance for NASA to reinvigorate its image.Regardless of the motive, John deserved that second flight if for no other reason than his membership of the original seven (7) Mercury astronauts; five of which had a second helping of space flightMA-7 (Aurora 7) - May 1962 - Second orbital Mercury missionMA-9 (Faith 7) - May 1963 - Final Mercury mission, first American mission to last more than a day; Cooper became the last American who flew in space aloneGemini 5 - August 1965 - Command Pilot - First eight-day space mission, first use of fuel cellsMA-6 (Friendship 7) - February 1962 - First orbital Mercury flight; Glenn became the first American to orbit the EarthSTS-95 Discovery - October 1998 - Payload Specialist - Spacelab mission, Spartan 201 release; Glenn became the oldest person in spaceMR-4 (Liberty Bell 7) - July 1961 - Final suborbital Mercury flight; Liberty Bell 7 sank after splashdown and was not retrieved until 1999Gemini 3 - March 1965 - Command Pilot - First manned Gemini mission, first manned mission to change orbital plane; Grissom became the first person to be launched into space twiceApollo 1 - January 1967 - Commander - Killed in a fire during a launch pad test one month before the launchMA-8 (Sigma 7) - October 1962 - Third orbital Mercury flightGemini 6A - December 1965 - Command Pilot - First rendezvous in space, with Gemini 7Apollo 7 - October 1968 - Commander - First manned Apollo mission; Schirra became the first person to be launched into space three times and the only person to fly Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missionsMR-3 (Freedom 7) - May 1961 - First manned Mercury flight; Shepard became the first American in spaceApollo 14 - January 1971 - Commander - Third manned lunar landing; fifth man to walk on the MoonApollo-Soyuz Test Project - July 1975 - Docking Module Pilot - First joint American-Soviet space mission, first docking of an American and Russian spacecraft
Jake Vallely who has been jailed for life after killing Matthew Boyd

A boxer who boasted that he was the "hardest man" in his town has been jailed for life after murdering a Northern Ireland soldier on a night out.

Private Matthew Boyd (20) of the Royal Gibraltar Regiment, died in the barracks town of Brecon, South Wales, in the early hours of May 8.

Jake Vallely (24) chased Belfast-born Pte Boyd, punched him to the ground and beat him before dragging his body and dumping it in the road.

The amateur boxer admitted hitting the soldier but denied murder. He was convicted after a trial at Cardiff Crown Court.

Vallely, of Pen-y-Bryn, Brecon, was jailed for life and ordered to serve at least 16 years in prison.

Following the sentence, Detective Superintendent David Guiney of Dyfed-Powys Police, said: "Matthew Boyd was a young man enjoying a night out in Brecon with his friends.

"The violent attack he suffered, which resulted in his tragic death, was a despicable act and one that shocked the community of Brecon and Matthew's military friends and colleagues.

"I wish to extend my condolences to Matthew's family. No prison sentence can bring him back, however I hope that the verdict does bring some form of justice and peace."

During the trial, Christopher Quinlan QC said: "Jake Vallely is the self-proclaimed hardest man in Brecon.

"That was how he described himself an hour or so before the attack that killed Mr Boyd. Mr Boyd was punched. He went to the ground and thereafter he was beaten until he moved no more.

"Mr Vallely then dragged and dumped his body and ran off. He ran back to the bar where he continued his night."

Pte Boyd's family said following the verdict: "Jake Vallely has created a void in our family that will never be filled.

"He has taken our son, brother, grandson and friend with no reason or excuse.

"No punishment will justify his actions as our son will not knock on our door again, and we will never be able to touch, feel, kiss or see him again.

"This unbearable pain is something we will have to live with for the rest of our lives.

"During this trial, it has been mentioned that Jake Vallely called himself the 'hardest man in Brecon' on the night that he murdered Matthew.

"He couldn't have been more wrong.

"There has been such a massive outpouring of love from the community in Brecon towards our family, in our mind, those are the strongest people in Brecon, those who reject mindless violence and instead show compassion, love and respect for others.

"It is the rest of the community in Brecon who have shown the true colours of that town, a town which will always remain in our hearts."
Dutch populist anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders has been found guilty of insulting and inciting discrimination against Moroccans.

Wilders immediately condemned the ruling as a "shameful" attack on free speech and an attempt to "neutralise" him.

Presiding Judge Hendrik Steenhuis said the court would not impose a sentence because the conviction was punishment enough for a democratically elected politician.

Wilders was not in court for the verdict, which came just over three months before national elections.

His Party for Freedom is narrowly leading a nationwide poll of polls and has risen in popularity during the trial.

He quickly released a video message, in English and Dutch, criticising the judgment and vowing to appeal.

"Today I was convicted in a political trial which, shortly before the elections, attempts to neutralise the leader of the largest and most popular opposition party," Wilders said. "They will not succeed."

Even before the hearing, Wilders had vowed not to be silenced.

"Whatever the verdict, I will continue to speak the truth about the Moroccan problem, and no judge, politician or terrorist will stop me," he tweeted.

The politically charged prosecution centred on comments Wilders made before and after the Dutch municipal elections in 2014.

At one meeting in a Hague cafe, he asked supporters whether they wanted more or fewer Moroccans in the Netherlands.

That sparked a chant of "Fewer! Fewer! Fewer!" - to which he replied: "We'll take care of it."

Prosecutors say that Wilders, who in 2011 was acquitted at another hate speech trial for his outspoken criticism of Islam, overstepped the limits of free speech by specifically targeting Moroccans.

He had denied the charges and insisted he was performing his duty as a political leader by pointing out a problem in society.

On Friday, he was convicted over the interaction with the crowd of supporters in the Hague cafe, which judges said was carefully orchestrated and broadcast on national television.

He was acquitted over similar comments he made in a radio interview a week earlier, which the judges said did not amount to inciting hatred.

Before declaring Wilders guilty, Judge Steenhuis stressed that freedom of expression was not on trial.

"Freedom of speech is one of the foundations of our democratic society," the judge said.

But he added: "Freedom of speech can be limited, for example to protect the rights and freedoms of others, and that is what this case is about."

Abdou Menebhi, president of the Euro-Mediterranean Centre for Migration and Development, welcomed the judgment.

"For us, it's a very important verdict," he said.

"This gives the Moroccans who felt like victims a renewed belief in a democratic society."

He said it also sent a message to Wilders's supporters to be careful.

"This man is not looking for solutions for you," Mr Menebhi said.

"His is an ideology of smearing Europe, migrants, Muslims without offering alternatives."

AP
Mukhtar Ablyazov, second from left, leaves the Fleury Merogis prison, escorted by his son Madiyar, right, and his lawyers, in Fleury Merogis, south of Paris (AP)

A top court in France is refusing to hand a Kazakh banker turned dissident charged with embezzling billions over to Russia.

Mukhtar Ablyazov's lawyers had asked France's Council of State to block his extradition, fearing Russia would quickly send him back to Kazakhstan.

The Council of State said on Friday that it considered the extradition request to be "politically motivated".

The court noted that the Kazakh and Russian authorities have "repeatedly" held consultations on Ablyazov's case.

Ablyazov, a former Kazakh energy minister who founded an opposition party, is charged with stealing billions of tenge, the Kazakh currency, from a bank he founded, BTA. He was arrested in France in 2013.

Russia claims its citizens were defrauded in the collapse of the now-nationalised bank.

AP

"We are thrilled with the result today,"Ablyazov's lawyer, Peter Sahlas, told The Associated Press. "This is a huge step forward for human rights law in France and Europe."

"The decision is unprecedented," he added.

Last year another French court, the Court of Cassation, had approved Ablyazov's extradition. The French government signed an extradition decree in September 2015, but Ablyazov appealed to the Council of State, France's highest administrative body.

Mr Sahlas said Ablyazov should be released soon from the prison where he was detained.

Ablyazov's lawyers argued he was being pursued because of his activities as an opposition leader in autocratic Kazakhstan, and feared he would not get a fair trial in Russia or Ukraine. They also suspected he could be eventually transferred to Kazakhstan.

The banker fled Kazakhstan amid the nationalisation of BTA Bank. He was arrested in southern France in 2013 on embezzlement allegations. Both Russia and Ukraine have requested his extradition. France has no extradition agreement with Kazakhstan.

AP
South Korean politicians have impeached President Park Geun-hye, a stunning and swift fall for the country's first female leader amid protests that drew millions into the streets in united fury.

After the vote, parliamentary officials hand-delivered formal documents to the presidential Blue House that stripped Ms Park of her power and allowed her number two, prime minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, to assume leadership until the country's Constitutional Court rules on whether Ms Park must permanently step down.

The court has up to six months to decide.

"I'd like to say that I'm deeply sorry to the people because the nation has to experience this turmoil because of my negligence and lack of virtue at a time when our security and economy both face difficulties," Ms Park said at a cabinet meeting after the vote.

Once called the Queen of Elections for her ability to pull off wins for her party, Ms Park has been surrounded in the Blue House in recent weeks by millions of South Koreans who have taken to the streets in protest.

They are furious over what prosecutors say was collusion by Ms Park with a longtime friend to extort money from companies and to give that confidante extraordinary sway over government decisions.

Organisers said about 10,000 people gathered in front of the National Assembly to demand that politicians pass the impeachment motion.

Some had spent the night on the streets after travelling from other cities.

Scuffles broke out between angry anti-Park farmers, some of whom had driven tractors to the assembly from their farms, and police.

When impeachment happened, many of those gathered raised their hands in the air and leapt about, cheering and laughing.

"Can you hear the roar of the people in front of the National Assembly? We need to overcome the old establishment and create a new Republic of Korea by passing (the impeachment motion)," Kim Kwan-young, an opposition politician said ahead of the vote, referring to South Korea's formal name.

"Our great people have already opened the way. Let's make it so we can stand honourably in front of history and our descendants."

The handover of power prompted the prime minister to order South Korea's defence minister to put the military on a state of heightened readiness to brace for any potential provocation by North Korea.

No suspicious movements by the North were reported, however.

Ms Park will be formally removed from office if at least six of the Constitutional Court's nine justices support her impeachment, and the country would then hold a presidential election within 60 days.

National Assembly speaker Chung Sye-kyun said the Bill on Ms Park's impeachment was passed by a vote of 234 for and 56 opposed, with seven invalid votes and two abstentions.

That well surpassed the necessary two-thirds vote needed in the 300-seat assembly, with the opposition getting strong support from members of Ms Park's party.

Present for the vote were relatives of the victims of a 2014 ferry disaster that killed more than 300 and was blamed in part on government incompetence and corruption; they cheered and clapped after the impeachment was announced.

Most politicians left the hall quietly, though some could be seen taking selfies as they waited to vote.

Politicians from both parties faced huge pressure to act against Ms Park, the daughter of a military dictator still revered by many conservatives for lifting the country from poverty in the 1960s and 1970s.

Her approval ratings had plunged to 4%, the lowest among South Korean leaders since democracy came in the late 1980s, and even elderly conservatives who once made up her political base have distanced themselves from her.

An opinion survey released on Thursday showed about 78% of respondents supported Ms Park's impeachment.

South Korean politicians last voted to impeach a president in 2004, when they accused late liberal president Roh Moo-hyun of minor election law violations and incompetence.

The Constitutional Court restored Mr Roh's powers about two months later, ruling that his wrongdoings were not serious enough to justify his unseating.

The chances of the court reinstating Ms Park are considered low because her charges are much graver.

Some legal experts say the court might need more than a couple of months to decide.

This is because Ms Park's case is much more complicated than Mr Roh's, and because her lawyers are likely to press the court not to uphold the impeachment unless the suspicions against her are proven.

Hundreds gathered on Friday night at a boulevard in front of an old palace gate in central Seoul, which has been the centre of demonstrations in recent weeks calling for Ms Park's removal.

Protesters planned to march close to the Blue House.

The impeachment is a remarkable fall for Ms Park, who convincingly beat her liberal opponent in 2012.

Ms Park's single, five-year term was originally set to end on February 24 2018.

The political turmoil around Ms Park comes after years of frustration over a leadership style that inspired comparisons to her father, Park Chung-hee.

Critics saw in Ms Park an unwillingness to tolerate dissent as her government cracked down on press freedom, pushed to dissolve a leftist party and allowed aggressive police suppression of anti-government protests, which saw the death of an activist in 2016.

She was also heavily criticised over her government's handling of the 2014 ferry sinking; most of those victims were school children.

Ms Park has repeatedly apologised over the public anger caused by the latest scandal, but has denied any legal wrongdoing.

She attempted to avoid impeachment last month by making a conditional offer to step down if parliament could come up with a stable power-transfer plan, but the overture was dismissed by opposition politicians as a stalling ploy.

Talking with leaders of her conservative ruling party on Tuesday, Ms Park said she would make "every available effort" to prepare for the court's impeachment review.

In indicting Ms Park's longtime friend, Choi Soon-sil, and two former presidential aides last month, state prosecutors said they believed the president was "collusively involved" in criminal activities by the suspects.

Choi and the two former aides were accused of bullying large companies into providing tens of millions of dollars and favours to foundations and businesses Choi controlled, and enabling Choi to interfere with state affairs.

Ms Park's lawyer has called the accusations groundless.

Ms Park first met Choi in the 1970s, around the time Ms Park was acting as first lady after her mother was killed during a 1974 assassination attempt on her father.

Choi's father, a shadowy figure named Choi Tae-min who was a Buddhist monk, a religious cult leader and a Christian pastor at different times, emerged as Ms Park's mentor.

The Choi clan has long been suspected of building a fortune by using their connections with Ms Park to extort companies and government organisations.

Choi's ex-husband is also a former close aide of Ms Park's.

AP
A ball of fire rises after an air strike hit insurgent positions in eastern neighbourhoods of Aleppo, Syria (AP)

Russia claims the Syrian army has suspended combat operations in Aleppo to allow for the evacuation of civilians from besieged rebel-held neighbourhoods - but residents and fighters are reporting no let-up in the bombing and shelling campaign.

Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, speaking in Germany after talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry, said military experts and diplomats would meet in Geneva on Saturday to work out details of the rebels' exit from Aleppo's eastern neighbourhoods, along with civilians who were willing to leave the city.

Mr Lavrov said the Syrian army suspended combat action late on Thursday to allow some 8,000 civilians to leave the city in a convoy spreading across a five-kilometre route.

However, opposition activists said there was no halt to the government offensive.

"Battles are intense," said a message from a rebel operation room shared with The Associated Press.

Other residents reported warplanes firing from machine guns at rebel positions and artillery shells falling in the remaining rebel-controlled districts.

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said the US was focused on de-escalating the violence in Aleppo to allow aid into the city and enable people wishing to stay in their homes to do so.

She said Mr Kerry and Mr Lavrov continued talks on Thursday with the goal of securing a cease-fire and the "safe departure of those who wish to leave the city".

She said details of Saturday's US-Russian technical discussions in Geneva were still being worked out.

Earlier, in Geneva, UN special adviser Jan Egeland said efforts to evacuate hundreds of wounded people from eastern Aleppo had stalled following a deadly attack this week on a Russian military hospital in government-controlled western Aleppo that left two Russian nurses dead and a doctor seriously wounded.

"It is with bitterness and frustration that we have to report that we have not been able even to evacuate the wounded," Mr Egeland said.

"The member states that are supposed to help us get access to civilians in the cross-fire are poles apart in how they regard what is happening in Syria."

He said Syrian president Bashar Assad's government had authorised UN-organised aid shipments into eastern Aleppo for the first time.

However, he provided no details about how the aid might get in or where it would go, and past agreements have fallen through before any aid could be delivered.

Medical officials in the enclave issued a passionate plea for a ceasefire.

"Aleppo is finished. There is nothing left except a few residents and bricks," Mohammed Abu Jaafar, the head of the eastern Aleppo forensic authority, said in a recorded message shared with reporters. "This may be my last call."

By early afternoon, Mr Abu Jaafar said 14 bodies had arrived at his facility from all over eastern Aleppo, although a comprehensive death toll for the day was not possible because of the intense fighting.

Residents described streets littered with bodies as ambulances and rescue workers struggled to keep up.

The rebel defences have buckled amid the wide-ranging government offensive, which opened a number of fronts at once and was preceded by an intensive aerial campaign.

More than three-quarters of the rebel sector has now fallen, including the symbolically important ancient Aleppo quarters. More than 30,000 of the estimated 275,000 residents of the besieged eastern enclave have fled to western Aleppo.

The Syrian government has dismissed a proposal for a ceasefire put forward by the rebels on Wednesday.

In comments published on Thursday in the state-owned al-Watan newspaper, Mr Assad said he would no longer consider truce offers, adding that such proposals, particularly by the Americans, often come when the rebels are in a "difficult spot".

"That is why we hear wailing and screaming and pleas for truces as the only political discourse now," Mr Assad said.

He said that while a victory by Syrian government forces in the battle for Aleppo would be a "big gain", it will not end the country's civil war.

"Liberating Aleppo from the terrorists deals a blow to the whole foundation of this project," he said. But he added, "to be realistic, it doesn't mean the end of the war".

On Thursday, opposition activists reported intensive bombing in the al-Sukkari and Kallaseh neighbourhoods still under rebel control.

Al-Sukkari is in the southern part of eastern Aleppo, an area that has become home to the majority of the displaced civilians who stayed behind; Kallaseh is near the Old City.

Footage by the Syrian military showed intensive shelling of Bustan al-Qasr, a frontline neighbourhood that links the rebel-held eastern and government-controlled western parts of the divided city.

The International Committee for the Red Cross said that it had evacuated 148 disabled civilians and others in need of urgent care from a facility in Aleppo's Old City after fighting calmed down there.

The evacuation, undertaken jointly with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, was completed late on Wednesday, the Red Cross said in a statement.

The people had been trapped in a facility that was originally a home for the elderly and included mentally and physically disabled patients, as well as injured civilians who had sought refuge there.

"They were forgotten," said Pawel Krzysiek, the agency's communication co-ordinator in Damascus.

The evacuees were taken to a hospital and shelters in the western, government-held part of Aleppo.

AP
To paraphrase Gerry Adams himself, the past hasn't gone away, you know. That is thanks to courageous men like Austin Stack, whose prison officer father Brian was killed by the IRA in Dublin in 1983 and who branded the Sinn Fein leader a liar in an angry exchange yesterday.

The row followed the revelation that Mr Adams brought Mr Stack and his brother in the back of a blacked-out van to meet a senior republican who confirmed that the Provisional IRA had indeed murdered Brian Stack.

Even by the often surreal standards of politics on this island, it is astonishing that the leader of a major party would engage in such a cloak and dagger exercise to meet a leader of an outlawed terrorist organisation and then refuse to give any information about that person to Irish police, even though it is evident that person knows who killed Mr Stack.

Mr Adams must believe he lives in a parallel universe where the normal moral or even legal codes don't apply. But Austin Stack is determined to bring him back to reality, and once again the Sinn Fein leader finds himself embroiled in a controversy of his own making. There must be some within his party who are wondering if the sure-footedness that previously marked his long reign is now deserting him.

Austin Stack, like Ann Travers, whose sister Mary was murdered by the IRA, and Raymond McCord and John Allen, whose sons were killed by the UVF, have no intention of going quietly into the night. They challenge the revisionist narratives of people like Gerry Adams or loyalist leaders, and show up the Troubles as the sordid sectarian conflict that it really was.

They care not whether their quest for the truth rocks the comfortable 'don't mention the war' attitude that pervades the peace process, and in their individual cases they may well be more successful than most relatives who lost loved ones during the conflict.

What all the relatives want is the truth about why their loved ones died, but the promised institutions on truth recovery are still mired down in squabbles over funding and whether anyone is really prepared to tell the truth. Even State agencies continue to stall over handing over legally required documents to allow legacy inquests to be held.

Perhaps the best tribute that all of us can pay people like Austin Stack is to press the politicians to get on with the job of really aiding victims.
The recently announced intended visit of Pope Francis to Ireland could herald an awakening of the Catholic Church from years of complacency, or it could degenerate into a feast of triumphalist ceremonial activities, leaving everything as it was, particularly the place of women in the church.

The purpose of the last papal visit to these islands was to officiate at the beatification of John Henry Newman. My abiding memory of this occasion, based on television coverage, was that of cameras panning across a sea of men overdressed in red and purple, with not a woman in sight.

Sadly, Pope Francis, a compassionate and liberal-minded man, has his hands tied by the seemingly incurable male dominance that permeates the institution he leads - an institution ruled by men and patriarchal to the core.

However, his recent statement of intention to support the ordination of women as deacons provided a ray of light, somewhat dimmed, however, by the strong reiteration of the current ban on ordaining women to the priesthood.

What is most disturbing is the impression that this prohibition is on the same footing as some of our central Christian beliefs.

With regard to the inequitable treatment of women by religious groups, anti-discriminatory law does not apply; yet the very essence of law is that it applies to all citizens.

The principle of equality requires that in the distribution of any benefit, or role, all must be treated in exactly the same manner unless there are relevant reasons for doing otherwise.

The Catholic Church, though not in breach of the law, is in breach of this moral principle in that it does not provide relevant reasons for discriminating against women.

The most bizarre reason provided for excluding women is that the priest represents Christ, who was a man - as were all his disciples.

This is not a reason, but a gratuitous assertion.

PHILIP O'NEILL

By email
Breitbart reportedly plans to open sites in Germany and France soon

Several large German companies, including BMW, have pulled their ads from US-based news and opinion website Breitbart due to concerns about its content, following a similar move by cereal maker Kellogg's.

The German boycott was spurred by a social media campaign using the hashtag #KeinGeldFuerRechts, which translates as No Money for the Right.

The campaign urges companies to stop paying for ads on sites considered to promote racist and nationalist ideas.

Deutsche Telekom said it regretted advertising on Breitbart, saying the ads had not been placed there intentionally and it would blacklist the site from future campaigns.

The telecoms giant said it "absolutely doesn't tolerate discriminatory actions or statements".

Supermarket group REWE, BMW, Telefonica Deutschland, which is the mobile operator of O2, and restaurant chain Vapiano also said they had stopped advertising on Breitbart and distanced themselves from the site.

"The positions held by Breitbart.com contrast with Vapiano's values, such as openness and tolerance," the company said.

Last week's decision by Kellogg's to stop advertising on Breitbart prompted the website in turn to call for a boycott of the cereal maker.

Breitbart reportedly plans to open sites in France and Germany soon.

Germany, which is expected to hold a general election in September, introduced restrictions on free speech after the Second World War to prevent a revival of Nazi ideology.

AP
Like all public universities, the University of Texas has a governing body that is supposed to oversee its management-the Board of Regents. Trouble can arise when a member of such a governing body takes his job seriously and tries to investigate action by the university president that influential people would rather stay hidden.One member of the UT Board of Regents who believes that he should look for threats to the integrity of the university and diligently pursue any he finds is Wallace Hall. Mr. Hall, a graduate of UT himself, was appointed to the University of Texas Board of Regents in February 2011.It wasn't long before he began to suspect corruption and mismanagement.First, there was a scandal involving a large slush fund run by the dean of the law school, allowing him to hand out "forgivable loans" to select faculty members. The university's president, William Powers, promised an investigation by an in-house lawyer, who dutifully produced a "nothing to see here" report. Hall argued that the matter required a more objective assessment, but his complaints were ignored.Quoted in this piece , Hall said,But Hall kept pushing the Board to insist that the Texas attorney general's office dig into the matter. It did, and then the truth finally came out that the dean of the law school was using the fund simply to hand out favors, including a $500,000 "loan" to himself. The AG's report brought down the house of cards. The dean resigned and the scandal contributed to the pressure on president Powers to choose between resigning and being fired That fight was just a minor skirmish compared with the coming war over the secret, back-door admissions process at UT-Austin.In 2013, Texas media began running articles such as this , suggesting that some students, despite their low scores and grades, were being admitted to UT as a favor to influential people.In response, then-chancellor Francisco Cigarroa asked university general counsel Dan Sharphorn to investigate. The result was a mild report saying that the study had found "no evidence of overt pressure on Admissions Office staff to admit applicants based on the recommendations of persons of influence." Sharphorn's findings were accepted by president William Powers, who said that the report would be helpful.Powers hoped that would be the end of the matter, but shortly afterward, Hall announced that he had found evidence in internal UT emails of blatant admissions favoritism at UT's law school. That led to furious demands for his removal from office by Texans who didn't like the way he kept turning over rocks. Several members of the legislature called for Hall's impeachment and the Board of Regents formed a committee to see if there were legal grounds for doing so. When the lawyers it hired concluded that there was no ground for impeaching Hall , the committee voted to censure Hall for "disloyalty."By 2014, Hall's persistence had won him many enemies in the state. He was being called " the most dangerous man in Texas " and as reporter Jim Schutze of the liberal Dallas Observer wrote Meanwhile, chancellor Cigarroa had commissioned Kroll Inc., a New York-based consulting firm that specializes in uncovering fraud and corruption, to study the UT admissions system to see if there was truth in the allegations of favoritism.Kroll issued its report on February 6, 2015. Based on an inspection of admissions records over six years, the researchers concluded that there had in fact been favoritism by president Powers towards well-connected Texans who wanted their children to get into UT as undergraduates or into its law and business schools.In defense of the favoritism, a spokesman for Powers (who had already resigned but was remaining in office until mid-2015) told Inside Higher Ed That was a euphemistic way of avoiding the truth: UT's president was intervening to make sure that children of key Texans who couldn't get into the university on their merits were admitted anyway.UT's new chancellor, William McRaven, acknowledged the Kroll report and immediately declared that there was no need to further investigate secret admissions favoritism or take any disciplinary action.But neither Hall nor other skeptics in the state were satisfied with the Kroll report. One was Watchdog.org's Texas Bureau, which did its own analysis of Kroll's finding (but based on files with much pertinent information redacted) and concluded that Kroll had badly understated the problem . Watchdog's Jon Cassidy calculated that 746 students (not 73 as Kroll had said) with grades and scores that would otherwise merit prompt rejection were admitted to keep legislators and wealthy university supporters happy.Hall requested access to the unredacted Kroll data so he could see if there was indeed more to the story than officials were admitting. But his request was denied by McRaven, who said that Hall was trying to undermine his authority by reopening a matter he had declared closed.University administrators are not supposed to prevent regents from doing their oversight work, so Hall filed a lawsuit to compel McRaven to release the information.Both the trial court and the court of appeals sided with McRaven on the spurious grounds that Hall sued the wrong party. He should have sued the Board of Regents, not McRaven, the courts ruled, because a majority of the Board had voted to endorse McRaven's refusal to allow Hall access to the Kroll data.That decision has been appealed to the Texas Supreme Court. The case poses very important questions for university governance.Hall's brief to the Court first makes short work of the facile argument that he sued the wrong party. For one thing, McRaven, not the Board of Regents, has possession of the Kroll data. Moreover, the Board's vote took place after Hall's suit had been filed.And most important of all, nothing in Texas law allows a majority of the Board of Regents to interfere with the efforts of any individual regent to get information that's relevant to the work of overseeing the University of Texas. That's crucial since some Board members themselves appear to be implicated in the scandal. Therefore, the Board's vote to "endorse" McRaven's refusal to allow Hall access to the Kroll data (and thereby immunizing itself from scrutiny) had no legal consequence.The brief also responds to McRaven's alternative argument that it would be illegal for him to give Hall access to the Kroll data.This argument is based on the federal Family Educational Records and Privacy Act (FERPA), which states that federal funds can be denied to an educational institution that(Emphasis added.)McRaven's astounding claim is that Hall, while undeniably a school official, has no legitimate interest in the information Kroll analyzed. How could a regent not have a "legitimate interest" in finding out the truth about admissions practices that violate official university policy?Furthermore, since the university has already provided all of the admissions information to Kroll's personnel, how could it possibly be illegal to allow a member of the Board of Regents to have access to the same records?Hall's brief sums up the case succinctly:If the Texas Supreme Court lets them get away with their cover-up, that would haveThe Court has been asked to hear the case soon, since Hall's term of office expires next February.In the recently concluded Fisher v. Texas case, university officials defended their use of racial preferences, saying that affirmative action improves the educational climate. At the same time, they were secretly running a system of affirmative action for the rich and advantaged. Both policies meant that large numbers of students with stronger academic records had to be rejected.Last June in Fisher, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that UT's overt admissions favoritism based on race could continue. (See Roger Clegg's discussion of Fisher here .) We'll soon learn if the Texas Supreme Court will allow UT to sweep the evidence of its hidden admissions favoritism based on influence under the rug.
There is almost, a Christmas tree at the rabbit patch window, which I am sure was placed, for that purpose. A good while back, someone bought me one of those pre-lit trees. I love real trees, but it did seem practical and it was very handy, eliminating the fuss with the lights that I always dread. Up until now, the little tree has behaved nicely. This year, it proudly boasts eight working lights. I love Christmas, anyway.Meanwhile, Miss Susies' House, looks like a postcard. It is hard for me to imagine her quarreling with lights-if she does, she wins every time. This little community has high standards for decorations and I am quite proud to be a part of it, even if the odds are stacked against me.As much as I adore Christmas lights and wreaths on doors-as much I love ribbons on lanterns and bird feeders too-It is the feeling that Christmas stirs in my heart, that I love the most. I think all of the details evoke a sense of celebrating with gratitude. We have never exchanged extravagant gifts at the rabbit patch. Gifts here, are more like sweet little tokens-and I think we are all better off for it. I am a practical person, by nature and I have found it a good habit. Even, when the children were little, I took great pains to keep Christmas an experience instead of an occasion to collect enough things, to be happy. This may be why my grown children ask for things like socks, guitar strings or a nice candle, every year.The kitchen is the one place, that I act like "a big spender". Everybodys' favorites are somewhere on the counter. Jenny will have a cheesecake and Kyle will have fresh baked bread. Tres will have fancy coffee, Christian will have eggnog and I will fry pork chops at any given hour, if Brant wants them. We gather around a softly burning fire and have been known to play carols on guitars and violins. If it sounds quaint and old-fashion, it is, but the memory lingers far longer than anything with a price tag.This is the reason that I go steadfast in to battle with those undependable strands of lights on the tree. The tree says "Merry Christmas!" to the world, shining through the farmhouse window. . . and welcome home to my children.With renewed courage, I will finish the task tonight and the humble tree will become a blazing beacon to all who happen by the rabbit patch, this season. Maya Angelou said "You can tell a lot about a person, by the way they handle tangled Christmas lights." I know exactly what she meant.
Women participate at a rally organized by Indias Hindu nationalist BJP against triple Talaq and in favor of a uniform civil code, in Kolkata, Nov. 18, 2016.

The Islamic practice of triple talaq that allows a man to part from his wife just by uttering the word divorce three times is unconstitutional and violates the rights of Muslim women, an Indian court said Thursday.

The instant divorce (triple talaq) though has been deprecated and not followed by all sects of [the] Muslim community in the country, however, [it] is a cruel and most demeaning form of divorce practiced by the Muslim community at large, observed the High Court in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh state.

Women cannot remain at the mercy of the patriarchal setup held under the clutches of sundry clerics having their own interpretation of the holy Quran, the court said.

The courts observation has come as a significant boost to several women petitioners who have challenged gender-biased practices in Islamic personal law, such as triple talaq and polygamy  which allows Muslim men to have four wives  in the Supreme Court.

The question which disturbs the court is should Muslim wives suffer this tyranny for all times. Should their [Muslim] personal law remain so cruel toward these unfortunate wives, the Allahabad High Court said.

In Hindu-majority India, where nearly 180 million Muslims make up the largest religious minority, there is no single civil law for all of its 1.25 billion citizens.

Muslim civil law is governed by the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), which has resisted attempts to modernize its ostensibly Sharia-based laws and opposed any interference from the government.

On Thursday, the board questioned the rights of the courts to intervene in matters related to religious beliefs.

This is not just about triple talaq. One has to deliberate on the issue on a broader scale as the ramifications of such observations are extremely sweeping, Kamal Faruqui, AIMPLBs executive committee member, told BenarNews.

The issue is of religious rights enshrined in our constitution. Thus the question arises whether courts can interpret or intervene in religious rights and beliefs, he said.

Our board is looking at this issue from a nationwide perspective. Such interventions have to take into account the populace across the country, Faruqui said.

Government welcomes observation

The Hindu nationalist Indian government, which in October submitted an affidavit in the Supreme Court opposing discriminatory practices of the Muslim personal law, welcomed the High Courts observation.

The government has suggested implementation of a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) applicable to all Indian citizens regardless of religion.

Religion is a matter of belief. [But] the Constitution of India is supreme and above all [personal law] boards, Venkaiah Naidu, Union Minister from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), told reporters in New Delhi.

Syed Zafar Islam, another BJP leader, said that certain AIMPLB laws were against the Quran and Islam, which believes in giving justice to everybody.

Renuka Chowdhury, a member of Indias upper house  Rajya Sabha  from the opposing Congress party, too, stood in support for the courts observation, saying, Whenever you take away power from men they are bound to react.

Unilateral triple talaq is arbitrary and violates the constitutional rights of Muslim women, Maomoonah Mulla, president of the All India Democratic Womens Association (AIDWA), told BenarNews.

We have been waging a battle to put an end to not just the practice of triple talaq, which, as far as we understand, goes against the principles of Islam, but also to other gender discriminatory norms prevailing in the Indian society at large. This observation is a big boost to our struggle, Mulla said.

Significant impact

The courts observation will have a significant impact on the petitions filed against gender-biased practices of the Muslim personal law in the Supreme Court, which is expected to deliver a verdict soon, legal experts said.

This observation will certainly be taken into consideration. It is a judicial opinion and the Supreme Court will consider it and finally deliver a verdict based on merit, advocate Irfan Engineer, director of the Centre for Study of Society and Secularism (CSSS), told BenarNews.

Challenging the validity of the practice of triple talaq, Engineer said: The AIMPLB has misinterpreted the Quran, which clearly states that a divorce should span three menstrual periods. During this period the husband and wife should attempt to reconcile.

This triple talaq law interpreted by the AIMPLB is merely its boards opinion. In actuality, it has no authority at all, he said.
Bangladeshi migrant workers line up outside a clinic in Dhaka for pre-departure medical exams, Sept. 3, 2016.

Ahead of an international conference in Dhaka on global migration Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged authorities in Bangladesh to protect the rights of its female domestic workers abroad.

Starting on Saturday, Bangladesh will host the three-day Global Forum on Migration and Development, but Bangladeshi women who work as domestics in the Middle East are exploited and physically abused, U.S-based HRW said.

Bangladesh has become an outlier in Asia for actively seeking employment of domestic workers in the Middle East, but failing to protect their rights adequately and setting low salaries, the rights advocacy group said in a statement released Thursday.

Bangladesh is hosting an important global conference on migration, yet has an abysmal record protecting its own citizens, said Rothna Begum, Middle East womens rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. Bangladesh should seek the best opportunities for its workers but not at the cost of leaving them without meaningful protections.

More than 300,000 Bangladeshi women work as domestic help in Middle Eastern countries, according to the Bangladesh Bureau of Manpower and Employment.

Certainly we have been working with governments in the Middle Eastern countries to protect the rights of Bangladeshi female domestic workers there. We cannot protect them by waging war against them. It must be through talks, Jabed Ahmed, an additional secretary at the Ministry of Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment, told BenarNews on Friday.

It is better to beg

HRW told of a worker identified as Asma K, who paid an agent in Bangladesh U.S. $750 (60,000 taka) for a job in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The recruiting agent then sold her to a man who confiscated her passport and took her to Oman.

He forced her to work 21 hours a day for a 15-member family without any rest or day off; deprived her of food; verbally abused and sexually harassed her; and withheld her entire salary, HRW alleged.

When she pleaded to leave, her employer sent her to an agency in Oman instead.

The agency beat me that night 50 times with a stick, Asma K said, according to HRW.

Hasina Begum, 30, who returned from a Middle Eastern country, told BenarNews: It is better to beg in Bangladesh than to work as domestic worker there. The domestic workers are not human beings to them.

She said workers would be lucky to get $200 (16,000 taka) per month.

According to Professor Tasneem Siddiqui, who heads the private think-tank Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit in Dhaka, interior ministries in Middle Eastern countries consider domestic workers issues from security perspectives.

Most of those countries that issue visas to workers, she said, favor employers and enable them to exploit the workers.

So we see lots of rights abuses as non-payment of wages, physical and sexual abuses, confining at houses, and others. If the domestic workers service is brought under the ministry of labor in the receiving countries, then the rights abuses could be stopped, Siddiqui told BenarNews.

She said the UAE government recently included migrant domestic workers under its labor ministry and the Kuwait and Qatar governments have allowed the workers to change their employers.

So, things are changing in the positive direction, though slowly, Siddiqui said.

She said those countries that send workers elsewhere should establish a minimum wage standard and chart out a set of rights for domestic workers that must be protected.

Otherwise, such rights violations would continue, she said.

Climate change and migration

Among the topics that will be discussed at the Global Forum is the effect of climate change on humanitys migration patterns.

In Bangladesh, the worlds eighth most populous country, there are fears that low-lying areas could see water levels rise because of global warming, forcing communities to uproot and move elsewhere.

On Thursday, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a study warning that climate change could force 15 million people in Bangladesh alone to be displaced by 2050.

The report, titled Climate Change Knows No Borders, anticipates that droughts, heat waves, rising sea levels, heavy rainfall and landslides are going to be more severe in the future.

Climate change is increasing the incidence of these extreme weather events and chronic slow-onset disasters, and these are increasingly forcing people to migrate in search of safety and/or livelihoods, according to the report.
Students from Dhaka University and other parts of the Bangladeshi capital join a Bengali new years procession, April 14, 2016.

A recent public opinion survey shows that Bangladeshi citizens think their country is heading in the right direction and the government is doing an excellent job in preventing terrorist attacks.

But a majority of respondents also believe that political parties in Bangladesh are more responsible for current violence than are extremists or criminals, according to the survey by Democracy International (DI), a U.S-based NGO.

A total of 1,453 Bangladeshi citizens ages 18 to 65 participated in a Computer-Assisted Telephone Survey System (CATSS) conducted by DI between Oct. 23 and 31.

Keeping the male to female ratio at 50 percent, DI randomly selected those participants among Bangladeshs 100 million-plus mobile phone users, where 77 percent represented rural and 23 percent represented urban neighborhoods.

While addressing a question regarding Bangladeshs progress in the overall socio-political situation over the past three years, 70 percent of respondents said that Bangladesh was in a far better position in October 2016 than in April 2013, while 19 percent said that the situation worsened during this period.

In other findings, 31 percent of respondents made political parties responsible for the current violence in the country, while 20 percent blamed the extremists and 19 percent blamed criminals.

To some extent Bangladeshi political leaders agreed with the survey.

Atiur Rahman Atik, the parliamentary whip of the ruling Awami League party, said the allegation was not baseless.

Few leaders do practice violence for their personal gains. But unfortunately the blame goes to all political parties, he told BenarNews. He emphasized that most current leaders were committed to democratic and healthy political practices and cultures.

Mahbubur Rahman, member of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Partys (BNP) highest policy-making standing committee, agreed with the findings that linked political parties to violence.

There are bad elements in all political parties and they fuel violence for various reasons. Many of our leaders shelter the muscle men to suppress the opponents and manipulate polls, he told BenarNews.

Another leader of the ruling party blamed opportunists for violence.

A.B.M. Rezaul Kabir Kawsar, a member of Awamis central committee, said opportunists always got involved with the ruling party, and implemented their personal agenda through violence.

Yet while blaming politics for violence, 77 percent of respondents said the government was doing an excellent job in preventing extremist attacks.

In terms of free expression of political opinion, 58 percent of men said they could express their opinions freely in their neighborhood, while 50 percent of women agreed with the statement. Overall, 38 percent said they could not express political opinions freely.

DI presented its finding on Tuesday at the Wilson Center in Washington. The organizations areas of focus include democracy, political party reform and civic education.

A majority of Bangladeshis surveyed by Democracy International said their country was on the right track. [Courtesy of Democracy International]

Kamran Reza Chowdhury in Dhaka contributed to this report.
An exhausted Faisal Marwan limped into the grounds of the Taqarrub Mosque, a crutch under his right shoulder, and took a seat in the front row of chairs set up since early Friday morning.

He glanced at the mosque that had collapsed in a 6.5-magnitude earthquake that rocked western Indonesias Aceh province two days earlier. Then his eyes rested on hundreds of children, who were singing.

I jumped from the second floor of the shop house in the Trieng Gadeng Market when the quake hit. I really panicked when I heard the rumble of the shop next door collapsing, Faisal, 37, told BenarNews.

The earthquake, which killed 100 people and injured hundreds more, was so strong that he instantly woke from a deep sleep early Wednesday morning. His wife and three children also woke up.

In his confusion, he forgot where the stairs were. Driven by panic, he simply jumped.

His wife and children were trapped behind a wall of the next building that had collapsed into their space. A whole row of 13 shops had crumbled.

At that moment, I didnt feel pain. I just got up, and went up to get my wife and children, he said, stroking his bandaged knee.

He had to remove debris to rescue his family, who were trapped between two walls, but not crushed.

Thank Allah, my wife and three children were not hurt. But my wife is traumatized, he said.

Because of her condition, the family has declined to stay with about 1,000 people in a shelter that has been set up nearby, and instead are staying with relatives.

The chief of Faisals village sent him to the mosque to be among earthquake survivors meeting President Joko Jokowi Widodo, who on Friday visited Trieng Gadeng, a sub-district of Pidie Jaya district devastated by the temblor.

I was treated by the masseur. My legs not broken but I banged my knee when I jumped, he said,

Faisal said the quake was not the first for him. He and his wife survived a 9.3-magnitude temblor followed by a massive tsunami in December 2004.

During the tsunami, my wife was heavily pregnant with our first child. I carried her as we ran for high ground. Two weeks later, she gave birth, he said.

His home at the time and hundreds of others in the coastal village of Pante Raja was obliterated by the tsunami. Two of his relatives were among the 170,000 people killed 12 year ago.

Presidential visit

During his visit to Trieng Gadeng, Jokowi promised that his government would rebuild Acehnese communities torn apart by the latest natural disaster.

Ive already decided that the mosque will be rebuilt as soon as possible, but we have to do it together, starting tomorrow, he told the crowd.

The group of children welcomed the president with a song as he arrived at the Taqqarub mosque around 10 a.m. Onlookers gathered around as the president, flanked by his security detail, walked up to the children and shook hands with some of them.

He asked who had memorized the text of Pancasila, the nations five-pillared founding philosophy. One child came forward and recited its five principles.

I hope you children keep the spirit of learning. Still keep singing too and always be happy, Jokowi told them.

Survivors

Greeting the crowd, Jokowi handed out payments of 15 million rupiah (U.S. $1,125) to relatives of each victim who was killed in Wednesdays earthquake.

One woman, 35-year-old Rhamawati, who lost her husband and two children in the quake, received 75 million rupiah (U.S. $3,375) in compensation from the president.

Although Im still sad for the disaster, I am glad that President Jokowi would come to us who are in mourning, she told BenarNews.

On Thursday, officials lowered the death toll to 100 from 102 after Indonesias disaster mitigation agency determined that the names of two victims had been recorded twice, according to the Associated Press.

The number of people displaced by the disaster, which damaged 10,534 buildings, surpassed 11,100 on Thursday, according to Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, a spokesman for the disaster agency.

Zulkifli, a village secretary in Kuta Pangwa, Trieng Gadeng, said 189 housing units there were damaged, forcing 860 people to sleep in makeshift tents.

Fifteen people in my village died from the collapsed houses when the earthquake hit, he told BenarNews.

Among those killed was a man named Suharnas, who was to be married on Thursday, and seven members of his family who were staying with him and planned to escort him to his wedding.

Yusra Fitriani, his fiancee, and her family learned that his home had collapsed. Her father rushed to the scene.

Instead of celebrating a wedding, Rajiati comforted her daughter.

Stay strong my child, this is a test from God, she said, according to Agence France-Presse.

People take pictures of Indonesian President Joko Jokowi Widodo as he speaks near a group of children during his visit to earthquake-stricken Trieng Gadeng, a sub-district in Pidie Jaya, Aceh province, Dec. 9, 2016. [Nurdin Hasan/BenarNews]
A motorcyclist rides past a sign that reads "If you date on the beach, the risk is on your own," in Banda Aceh where gay people caught having sex can be punished by 100 lashings, Oct. 22, 2015.

Homophobic rhetoric is nothing new in Indonesian politics. In recent months, elected officials have labeled gay Indonesians as morally corrupt, inconsistent with national values, and worse than nuclear warfare.

But the recent arrest of several gay men at a private party in south Jakartas Kalibata City was a shock for many, both because the raid was led by the right-wing Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) party and because police actually followed their lead.

FPI has been emboldened in recent months by the success of initiatives including their huge rallies against Jakartas ethnic Chinese governor, Basuki Ahok Tjahaja Purnama. With little opposition from President Joko Jokowi Widodo and other mainstream politicians, the group has become brazenly divisive.

Moral decay

Whats happened in 2016 is strange and unprecedented, said Kyle Knight, a Human Rights Watch researcher.

Earlier this year, he said, many prominent officials had a sort of meltdown where they goaded each other into making inflammatory statements like that of Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu, who compared homosexuality to nuclear war.

And what mainstream politicians decided to do was keep quiet, so as not to fan the flames of extremists, Knight said. But silence had the opposite effect, and ultimately let their voices echo unchecked.

The acronym LGBT  lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender  has become so symbolically loaded in Indonesia, Knight said, that politicians use it as shorthand for a whole set of liberal values. I wouldnt be surprised if some of them didnt even know what it stood for, he said.

The FPI, Knight added, has turned gay rights into a wedge issue to drum up middle-class moral outrage before regional elections in January and February.

I think the phrase LGBT is a cheap way of appealing to moral voters, and Islamic parties are using this to get votes, said prominent gay rights activist Dede Oetomo.

But this strategy might not have its desired effects. Journalist and Indonesia expert Elizabeth Pisani analyzed hundreds of sharia-inspired bylaws and found that morality-based legislation does not translate into popularity with voters.

Although anti-gay and religiously intolerant laws win local politicians the support of hardliners like FPI, she found, the politicians who champion them are less likely to get re-elected than their moderate peers.

The Kalibata City incident

The fact that FPI could enter private premises is worrying, Oetomo said. There are now different levels of reality within Indonesia, because the hardliners are so intent on turning their worldview into action.

The FPI has attacked LGBT events since at least 2002, when they disrupted a film festival in Surabaya. But until recently, Oetomo said, their position tended to be perceived as fringe.

In the Kalibata City raid, police confiscated 17 cellphones, two packs of condoms and antiretroviral drugs for HIV/AIDS, according to local newspaper Warta Kota. None of these things, nor the act of homosexual intercourse, are illegal.

Its this pattern of behavior where the police take militant Islamists tips seriously, which is not at all surprising, Knight said. But the chilling effect that the police send even just by showing up  is that the social sanction comes from on high and gets interpreted as open season on LGBT people. Plus, he said, the immediacy with which FPI could claim credit for the incident on Twitter and disseminate its message to sympathetic citizens is unprecedented.

If FPI retains popular support for its LGBT stance, it may succeed in passing all or part of a proposed ban on homosexuality. In 2014, the Indonesian Ulama Council (MUI), an umbrella Muslim organization that includes FPI, issued a detailed fatwa against LGBT relations. The fatwas rhetoric has inspired the proposed legislation.

MUI doesnt have law enforcement capabilities, but we just wanted to remind the government of Indonesia that the LGBT movement endangers Indonesian culture and Indonesia is not the same as Western countries that allow LGBT relations, said Nadjamuddin Ramly, Deputy Secretary-General of MUI.

MUI perceives LGBT visibility as a threat to heterosexual marriage. According to the fatwa, the institution of marriage is the only legitimate institution in channeling sexual desire and organize the household and the community.

Community watches, waits

Im very angry, said Anggun Pradesha, a transwoman activist and filmmaker in Yogyakarta. FPIs hatred is strange. On the basis of some distaste, they feel so obligated to diminish the rights of other human beings.

Pradesha was rattled by the Kalibata incident. What those men did was not illegal, she said. What does that mean for the rest of us?

She pointed out the slight absurdity of the whole concept of LGBT within Indonesia, as it groups together a centuries-old social category of transgender, or third-gender, individuals with homosexuals. But she welcomed the incidental kinship and its strength in numbers: all the better to persevere with.

Reported by Voice of America, a sister entity of BenarNews.
Four Indonesian sailors who were kidnapped by suspected Islamic militants from the southern Philippines in waters off Sabah, Malaysia, arrive at Halim Perdanakusuma air base in Jakarta after their release, May 13, 2016.

In the first violent encounter between Malaysian security personnel and suspected cross-border kidnappers from the southern Philippines, police killed three gunmen and captured two others during a shootout off eastern Malaysias Sabah state, officials said Friday.

The incident occurred late Thursday after seven suspected Filipino gunmen in a boat attacked three vessels in the area around Semporna, a town on Sabahs east coast close to the southern Philippines.

Kidnappings of sailors by suspected Abu Sayyaf Group militants this year have occurred in the seas that separate the Philippines from Malaysian and Indonesian Borneo.

Security forces were searching Friday for the two remaining suspects and the skipper of one of the ships who was taken hostage, according to a police incident report obtained by BenarNews and local media accounts of a Friday press conference by Sabah Police Commissioner Abdul Rashid Harun.

The captain of one of the other trawlers was rescued, but a policeman was shot in the foot during the gun battle, authorities said.

The shootout erupted as the gunmen in a speedboat approached a Tiger Platoon vessel patrolling local waters, Abdul Rashid told reporters, adding the suspects mistook it for another trawler they planned to hijack. The Tiger Platoon is a unit with the Malaysian polices elite General Operations Force.

The platoon commander noticed that the men on the speedboat were heavily armed, he said.

The head then shouted police and the abductors started to open fire. The security forces personnel returned fire in defense and a shootout ensued for one minute, Abdul Rashid said, noting that the gunmens boat began to sink afterward.

When the shooting died down, the police found the bodies of three gunmen floating in the water. Two other gunmen and the skipper were found alive.

Second hostage missing

The spree of hijackings began around 9 p.m. Thursday when the seven suspects boarded a trawler off the coastal town of Lahad Datu, 68 km (42.2 miles) north of Semporna. They robbed the crew of their mobile phones and food supplies before making off with the captain, a Filipino resident of Sabah in his 30s, Abdul Rashid said.

The abductors destroyed the telecommunications equipment on board the fishing vessel and proceeded toward Semporna waters, the commissioner said.

The gunmen then sailed south to waters off Semporna, where they boarded a second trawler near Gaya Island.

Then the gunmen headed to the trawlers light boat, anchored not too far away, and snatched the second hostage, he said. The skipper who was abducted in this incident was missing after the shootout, according to the Manila Times.

31 Malaysians, Indonesians abducted this year

In 2016, the seas off the northern part of Borneo island have been rife with hijackings in which suspected Abu Sayyaf militant have kidnapped Malaysian and Indonesian sailors and held them hostage in the southern Philippines.

To date this year, at least 10 Malaysians and 21 Indonesians were taken hostage at sea. Five Malaysians and six Indonesians continue to be held by their captors while others were released earlier in the year.

For months officials from Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines have talked about launching joint patrols to safeguard the Sulu and Celebes seas from more acts of piracy and abductions, but have yet to implement coordinated operations.

On Friday, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak congratulated the police for foiling one of the attempted kidnappings, saying in a blog on his website that Malaysian security forces would work with their Philippine counterparts to identify the gunmen and abducted fisherman.

Praise should be given to the security personnel on their actions as it is not easy to watch the long stretch of coastline, he said.

In Zamboanga in the southern Philippines, Philippine military spokesman Maj. Felimon Tan Jr. told local media that it was trying to verify the incident and confirm whether the three dead men were Filipinos.
A bid from Pulte Homes to rezone and add 465 residences and possibly a school near Sandy Run Creek on Jedburg Road wasn't met with open arms at a Oct. 26 community meeting on the part of local homeowners seeking to preserve the area's rural characteristics. Read moreJedburg Road residents tell Pulte Homes: 'Keep it rural'
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KALISPELL  A 22-year-old Evergreen woman has been sentenced to five years in the custody of the Department of Corrections for her role in the death of her 2-year-old son.

Takara Juntunen was sentenced Thursday after pleading guilty to felony mitigated negligent homicide for the February 2015 death of Forrest Groshelle.

Juntunen thanked District Judge Heidi Ulbricht for recommending drug treatment as part of her sentence.

Juntunen had previously admitted that she was negligent in leaving her son in the care of her boyfriend and that she did not seek medical care for the boy, who suffered a blow to the abdomen and died due to poisoning from a lacerated small intestine.

Brandon Newberry is serving a 40-year prison sentence for mitigated deliberate homicide.
BUTTE  The biggest die-off of migrating snow geese in the history of the toxic Berkeley Pit is gaining worldwide attention with the story trending at the top of Facebook as of Wednesday morning.

The social media site showed 3,000 people were talking about this issue, according to Facebook on Wednesday.

Both the United Kingdoms BBC News and Londons The Guardian newspaper posted stories Wednesday. National Public Radio also relayed the story.

The Washington Post in Washington, D.C., smaller media outlets and bird organizations around the country are also reporting the story. The Los Angeles Times is planning its own story, according to a photographer who contacted The Standard Wednesday morning seeking a photo of the pit.

Montana Resources manager of environmental affairs Mark Thompson said the Butte mining company has been inundated with phone calls from media outlets as far away as Norway starting Tuesday evening. The calls were nonstop Wednesday from radio, magazines and newspaper journalists.

We cant come close to answering everything we got today, Thompson said Wednesday.

MR officials reported this week that thousands of snow geese perished in the pit after landing there Nov. 28 during a snowstorm. The deaths occurred despite hazing efforts by mine workers. The pit is a former open pit copper mine that is filled with water contaminated with sulfuric acid and heavy metals.

Comments have escalated on Facebook and on The Montana Standards website. One reader wrote on Facebook, Is there any way to fix this so it doesnt happen again?

Another Facebook commenter said, Oh boy, here we go again. Everyone in the world who Googles Butte will essentialize us as the place where beautiful wild creatures die from mine waste pollution.

Local officials, however, have a different take.

Pam Haxby-Cote, head of the Butte Local Development Corp., said that couldnt be further from the truth.

Haxby-Cote said she is not worried the story of the geese die-off will negatively impact Butte. She said she has the ability to live anywhere, but that she lives in Butte because this is a great place to be.

We have beautiful mountains, the cleanest drinking water in the state; fly fishing; miles of local trails. Our thing is, were affordable. We have amazing talent here in Butte, she said in an interview with The Standard.

Maria Pochervina, director of Butte convention and visitors' bureau, said she would be surprised to see this tragic event negatively affect tourism this summer.

People are fascinated by the pit, Pochervina said. When we tell the story of the value of minerals extracted, how its made our lives better, people are fascinated by that.

But Dave Palmer, who takes office in January as the newly elected county chief executive and a longtime commissioner, said the die-off is not good news on the economic development front.

It does make national news and that is unfortunate because that is what people look at  bad things, Palmer said. We could be doing a thousand good things in Montana and Butte itself and you never hear about them rise to the national level.

But the geese  that goes national and people say, Oh man, you dont want to go around there, or There is really a problem in Butte-Silver Bow, why would we ever want to relocate a business there? That is something you definitely have to be on top of and you have to try to counter that.

As many as 28 comments have been made on The Standards website in response to The Standard reporting several thousands of birds died. The commentary ranges from this is so heart-breaking, to stating that wind turbines kill more migratory birds than the thousands reported dead by MR.

Comments on The Standards website also display anger toward MR and Atlantic Richfield Company  the parties responsible for the pit  as well as calls to put the die-off into perspective. MR and ARCO need to remedy the situation, said one commenter. Another said, Buttes relationship to mining needs to be love-hate, not just hate.

Palmer said hed like to see more attention and research paid to addressing the pit.
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For Immediate Release, December 9, 2016 Contact: Randi Spivak, (310) 779-4894, rspivak@biologicaldiversity.org Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Public Lands and Endangered Species Foe,

Expected Pick to Head Interior Department WASHINGTON The Trump transition team is expected to announce the nomination of Cathy McMorris Rodgers, current representative of Washington states 5th District, today as secretary of the Interior Department, the federal agency that oversees the majority of Americas public lands, waters and endangered species. If confirmed by the Senate, McMorris Rodgers would lead federal departments responsible for protecting endangered species and managing more than half a billion acres of Americas public lands, including the national park system and the national wildlife refuge system. She would direct policy and make major decisions on oil, gas, coal and other extraction activities on public lands and oceans, controlling the U.S. Geological Survey (the federal governments premiere natural and earth sciences agency) and upholding the U.S.s responsibilities to tribal nations. McMorris Rodgers will put fossil fuels and logging ahead of the public lands and endangered species we all cherish, said Randi Spivak, public lands program director at the Center for Biological Diversity. Under McMorris Rodgers corporate polluters will have free rein. Endangered wolves and salmon, wild rivers, whales and our climate will all lose under this long-time servant of the oil, gas and timber industries. Senators who care about Americas beautiful wild places and our planets future should fight like hell to block this outrageous nomination. McMorris Rodgers is a six-term member of Congress from eastern Washington and is the chair of the House Republican Conference. Over the course of her 11 years in Congress, her anti-environmental votes earned her a League of Conservation Voters lifetime score of 4 percent. McMorris Rodgers voting against environmental protections benefits her financial backers. During her career, the oil, gas and logging industries have been among her top 10 campaign contributors. In 2015 McMorris Rodgers cosponsored H.R 1526, which would have mandated logging levels on the national forest system, limited public input and disclosure of environmental harm, and re-established the perverse incentive of linking county revenue to logging levels. The congresswoman has been actively promoting the privatization and industrialization of Americas public lands. She has cosponsored multiple bills to weaken protections on public land, as well as H.R. 1126, which would have required the interior secretary to sell more than 3 million acres of western lands to private interests. McMorris Rodgers has also publically supported backdoor riders to strip protections for gray wolves, sponsored legislation to undermine efforts to save Pacific salmon and voted for nearly every anti-endangered species bill to cross her desk during her term in Congress. McMorris Rodgers has long been a supporter of expanding offshore drilling in the Pacific Ocean, voting to open the Pacific Outer Continental Shelf to oil and gas drilling. If McMorris Rodgers brings her ideology to management of Americas public lands, it will be open season for polluters who want to frack, drill and mine our public lands and waters, said Spivak. She just doesnt understand that the nations public lands are a legacy for this and future generations rather than up for grabs to industry. The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.1 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.
Researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have invented a novel live-cell imaging method that could someday help biologists better understand how stem cells transform into specialized cells and how diseases like cancer spread. The Photonic Crystal Enhanced Microscope (PCEM) is capable of monitoring and quantitatively measuring cell adhesion, a critical process involved cell migration, cell differentiation, cell division, and cell death.

"Our approach is important because there are not currently label-free and high-resolution imaging tools that allow cell-surface interactions to be quantified and imaged dynamically, although these processes are fundamental to things like wound healing, tissue development, tumor invasion, and cancer metastasis," said Brian Cunningham, a professor electrical and computer engineering and of bioengineering at Illinois.

Most conventional imaging methods rely on fluorescent dyes, which attach to and illuminate the cell components so they are visible under a microscope. However, fluorescent tagging has its limitations--namely that it is invasive, difficult for quantitative measurement, and only provides a short-term window of time for cell examination and measurement due to photo bleaching.

By using the PCEM, the researchers have successfully measured the effective mass density of cell membranes during stem cell differentiation, and cancer cell response to drugs in an extended period.

According to PCEM lead researcher Yue Zhuo, a post-doctoral Beckman Institute Fellow, fluorescent tagging doesn't allow scientists to see how a protein or cell changes over time.

"You can see the cell for maybe a few hours maximum before the fluorescent light dies out, but it takes several days to conduct a stem cell experiment," said Zhuo. "Scientists commonly use fluorescent tagging because there's no better way to monitor live cells due to their low imaging contrast among cellular organelles. That urges us to develop a label-free and high-resolution imaging method for live cell study."

The Illinois team's microscope functions with an LED light source and a photonic crystal biosensor made from inexpensive materials like titanium dioxide and plastic using a fabrication method like nanoreplica molding.

"Our sensor can be massively fabricated easily, and our cost to make the sensor is less than $1 each." noted Zhuo.

In Zhuo's apparatus, the photonic crystal biosensor is an optical sensor which can apply to any attachable cells. The sensor surface is coated with extracellular matrix materials to facilitate cellular interactions, which are then viewed through a normal objective lens and recorded with a CCD camera.

"The advantage of our PCEM system is you can see as the [live] cell is beginning to attach to our sensor, and we can quantitatively and dynamically measure what happened at that time," Zhuo said. "We're able to actually measure a very thin layer on the bottom of the cell that's about 100 nanometers, which is beyond the diffraction limit for visible light."

In the future, Zhuo plans to outfit the microscope with higher imaging resolution and someday hopes to be able to build a library of cell adhesion data for scientists.

"Different types of cells will have different dynamic attachment profiles." she explained. "We can use this library to screen different types of cells for tissue regeneration, disease diagnostic, or drug treatment, for example, see how diseased cells spread, or see how the cancer cells respond to different drug treatment."
You have come of age and need to set up an email account. You are also excited at the prospect of joining Facebook, Twitter, Tinder, Snapchat, Instagram and your peers insist that you join Telegram because it is "cool". One problem though - you can't find a username combination that suits you.

Image by 123RF

It is quite telling that finding an email or social media username that is not already taken is our childrens biggest challenge.

But what is more significant though, is that the internet has become the leading medium of content consumption. This trend is leading a big shift in how people consume information.

So much so, that broadband was in 2014 voted the 'the top engineering innovation of the decade, in a public survey conducted by the UK Institution of Engineering and Technology, beating smartphones and satellite navigation.

This cemented the opinions of many who theorise that the internet has tripled the importance of the computer, with good reason. For instance, over 70% of the 37.7 million internet users in Kenya access the internet via a mobile device and are spending twice or three times longer online than on TV.

This has created a progressively complex scenario where brands are frantically trying to reach an increasingly mobile audience in a world that is more connected than ever.

As a result, some experts have argued that the long-term viability of traditional advertising is questionable. Many are convinced that normal traditional adverts will be forced to shift to digital formats because of how the internet is morphing everything. But is this true? Is it the right hypothesis? Are we even asking the right question?

Traditional versus digital

The Digital versus Traditional debate that has been raging for the past five years is surely the wrong one. The question should be: how do we better engage audiences today so that they are compelled to buy, listen and change behaviour?

Brands and publishers need to critically understand the ever changing consumer behaviour in this interconnected world and work on the message, not the medium. For instance, a recent study by print and marketing services provider Quad/Graphic revealed that although millennials are more influenced by digital ads, they pay more attention to traditional ones, which creates an even more complex situation for us in the communication world.

The debate has been fuelled, rightly so, by the growing population of millennials who are digitally super savvy with peculiar information consumption habits. For this reason, proponents of digital advertising have barraged the sector with the notion that traditional advertising spending is ill-informed and wasteful.

However, in the next five to 10 years, it wont matter who is advertising where, whether targeting millennials or any other group. TV commercials may for the better part disappear because our millennials wont be watching them. Why? Because they'll either be downloading, streaming, YouTubing or Instagram-ing and advertisements won't be a part of this experience.

Share of conversation

So what will be the solution? What will brands and publishers need to do differently? The answer lies in engaging audiences in conversations, telling stories! Brands must shift from playing the share of market game to playing the share of conversation game. This entails adopting a conversational form of advertising that incorporates compelling storytelling to provide meaningful engagement that goes beyond selling media.

But how does a brand achieve this?

Millennials are multitasking users, comfortable consuming news and information from several sources simultaneously. The never ending variety of information they can access online and offline is a sort of buffet from which they choose according to their desire and interest. Given the product parity of the 21st Century, you cant really have a better product, but you can have a better story and the key is telling a story that people want to share and listen to over and over again.

So the answer is simple. Share a story, make your customers the lead cast in this story and reward them for their participation.

The top 10 most shared adverts on social media have been collectively shared 30 million times and viewed 1 billion times just because consumers wanted to listen to the stories told in these adverts over and over again. Whether traditional or digital, if it doesnt tell a story, the millennial with an eight second or less attention span may just miss your advert.

So is traditional advertising really dead? Maybe it is just evolving.
The Vodafone Foundation announced a mobile-based HIV programme in Lesotho, where an estimated 23% of the population is HIV positive, many of whom live in extreme poverty in remote rural communities separated by mountainous terrain with minimal infrastructure.

Lesotho

The Vodafone Foundation programme combines Vodafones M-Pesa mobile money service  which is widely used across sub-Saharan Africa  with travelling clinics and a smartphone app designed for healthcare professionals which enables the tracking of patients in remote areas.

The travelling clinics  using a fleet of 44 vehicles  provide on-site HIV testing in remote areas as part of a wider effort to provide basic primary healthcare. When people are identified as HIV positive, they are immediately registered with the M-Pesa mobile money service and receive the M-Pesa funds needed to pay for transportation to a treatment centre.

At the same time, their details are recorded  via mobile  on a central database so that their future treatment and care can be planned and recorded. These details can then be recalled in real time by healthcare professionals in the field using a smartphone app produced by the Vodafone Foundation and Vodacom Lesotho.

As many as 5,000 children under the age of 14 are estimated to be undiagnosed and living with HIV and their lives are therefore at immediate risk if they are not identified and put on treatment. There are a further 7,000 children already diagnosed who require ongoing specialist HIV treatment.

The programme is specifically oriented towards pregnant women, mothers and young children who are among the most vulnerable groups in Lesotho society as they are less able to walk many hours to the nearest HIV clinic.

The Vodafone Foundation has developed the programme in conjunction with the Lesotho Ministry of Health. The Lesotho government has welcomed the outcomes from the roll-out in the Maseru and Leribe districts and has now committed to integrating the programme within the countrys primary healthcare strategy.

The costs of the programme will be fully funded by the Lesotho government from mid-2017. This is expected to be followed by a full roll-out across the other Lesotho districts, transforming the life prospects for vulnerable people in hundreds of remote villages across the country.

The mobile clinics are run in partnership with Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative (BIPAI) and Riders for Health. Other partners in the wider Lesotho programme include some of the global leaders in HIV prevention, testing and treatment such as funding partners USAID, ViiV Healthcare, the Elton John AIDS Foundation and Elma Philanthropies. In addition to BIPAI and Riders for Health, the Vodafone Foundation is also working closely with NGOs Kick 4 Life and PSI to deliver the programme.

Vodafone Foundation director Andrew Dunnett said: HIV is an immense healthcare crisis for the people of Lesotho. This pioneering Vodafone Foundation programme will ensure that thousands of mothers and young children in some of the poorest communities in the world receive the care and support they need.
BILLINGS, Mont.  The U.S. House approved a water rights settlement with Montana's Blackfeet American Indian tribe on Thursday as part of a broader bill addressing water projects across the nation.

The passage on a 360-61 vote sends the measure back to the Senate.

The bill proposes to rehabilitate the Four Horns Dam and Blackfeet Irrigation Project and make other improvements on the Blackfeet tribe's northwestern Montana reservation.

It has already cleared the Senate once.

Yet the success of the broader bill it's attached to remains uncertain. Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer of California has vowed to defeat it because of a disagreement on provisions that apply to that state's drought.

The water rights settlement has a $422 million price tag, according to the U.S. Department of Interior. Money for the settlement was authorized but not appropriated in Thursday's bill and will have to be addressed separately.

U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke said he was hopeful Montana's two U.S. Senators would be able to convince Boxer to support the measure.

Negotiations on the agreement began more than 30 years ago. It was approved by the Montana Legislature in 2009.

Prior attempts failed to advance the settlement through Congress. The Obama administration objected to its original price tag of $591 million.
LONDON: Britain will ban junk food ads aimed at children from both print and social media from next year, the advertising rules watchdog said on Thursday, a move welcomed by campaigners against child obesity.

The new rules, which come into effect in July 2017, extend an existing ban on television ads for "high fat, salt or sugar (HFSS) food or drink products".

"The new restrictions will lead to a major reduction in the number of ads for HFSS food and drinks seen by children," the Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP) said in a statement.

The body said the ban reflected changing advertising methods and media habits among children.

It cited research saying that children aged between five and 15 in Britain are now spending more time online than watching television.

Children's Food Campaign co-ordinator Malcolm Clark said: "CAP has finally listened to the voices of parents and health professionals, after years of resisting calls for stronger measures".

But Clark and other campaigners pointed out that the ban only applies to media where children "make up over 25 percent of the audience", opening up a potential loophole for junk food marketing.

Jenny Rosborough, campaign manager at Action on Sugar, called for restrictions on programmes such as talent shows which are popular with children but exempt because they are not children's programming.

"We need to see bans on advertising go further," she said.

Food And Drink Federation head Ian Wright said the change was "a major shift" that was "fully supported" by the industry.

Britain is also planning a sugar tax on soft drinks to reduce rising levels of obesity, despite opposition from businesses in the sector.

Britain has some of the worst obesity rates in Europe.

The latest official figures for England from 2014 show that 31.2 percent of children aged between two and 15 were either overweight or obese.

Source: AFP
E-cigarette use is exploding among young people and is now "a major public health concern," the US surgeon general warned, sparking disagreement from experts in Britain where the devices are seen more favourably.

The battery-powered devices heat a liquid containing nicotine into a vapour that is inhaled, and some experts worry that a new generation of smokers is becoming addicted. About one in six US high school students say they have used e-cigarettes in the past month.

"E-cigarette use has increased considerably in recent years, growing an astounding 900 percent among high school students from 2011 to 2015," said surgeon general, Vivek Murthy, in a preface to the report.

"These products are now the most commonly used form of tobacco among youth in the United States, surpassing conventional tobacco products, including cigarettes, cigars, chewing tobacco, and hookahs."

Murthy said the dangers of e-cigarettes include nicotine, which "can cause addiction and can harm the developing adolescent brain."

For young people, nicotine use in any form is unsafe, said the report, which was written and reviewed by more than 150 experts. It also said the secondhand aerosol that is exhaled into the air by e-cigarette users can expose others to potentially harmful chemicals.

But Murthy admitted to "gaps in scientific evidence" when it comes to the dangers of e-cigarettes.

"For example, the health effects and potentially harmful doses of heated and aerosolized constituents of e-cigarette liquid -- including solvents, flavorants, and toxicants -- are not completely understood," he said.

"However, although e-cigarettes generally emit fewer toxicants than combustible tobacco products, we know that aerosol from e-cigarettes is not harmless."

He urged greater federal regulations, raising and enforcing minimum age of sale laws, and media campaigns to educate the public on the harms of e-cigarettes.

The report contained no new scientific research, but could still serve as an "important document for healthcare providers, policy makers and others," said Patricia Folan, director of the Center for Tobacco Control at Northwell Health in New York.

Experts in Britain, however, questioned the US take on e-cigarettes as a threat.

"The position in the UK is very different," said Kevin Fenton, national director of health and wellbeing at Public Health England.

"Our review of the evidence found e-cigarette use carries a fraction of the risk of smoking, a conclusion reiterated by the Royal College of Physicians earlier this year," he said.

"No new evidence has been published to contradict this."

And multiple studies have shown that e-cigarettes may help traditional smokers abandon cigarettes. Research released earlier this year by the University College London showed that e-cigarettes may have helped some 18,000 smokers in England kick the tobacco habit last year.

Peter Hajek, director of the Tobacco Dependence Research Unit at Queen Mary University of London, described vaping as "a great public health opportunity" because it can help smokers transition away from cigarettes.

"The new US report's conclusions do not tally with what the actual data show," he added.

"It is simply not true that e-cigarettes are a tobacco product or that vaping lures children to smoking or that it creates dependence in non-smokers."

Len Horovitz, a pulmonary specialist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, disagreed, saying teens will transition to smoking cigarettes after using e-cigarettes.

"The gateway to cigarette smoking may still be the e-cigarette, and there is no safe level of traditional smoking."

Worldwide, smoking kills around six million people each year, mostly in low-income countries, according to the World Health Organization.
Communications Minister Faith Muthambi interfered in the deliberations of the SABC board and in the appointment of Hlaudi Motsoeneng as the corporation's COO soon after entering the cabinet, the parliamentary inquiry into the public broadcaster has heard.

According to former board members who gave evidence yesterday, Muthambi surprised everyone present by arriving unannounced at board meetings late at night.

Late-night meetings and frequent secret meetings were the order of the day, it was said.

Muthambi is said to have arrived at the SABC's Auckland Park offices at 11pm one night while board members were discussing Motsoeneng's appointment as COO. This was after the release of the public protector's highly critical report on the SABC.

There were also instances, the former board members claimed, of then board chairman Ellen Tshabalala chiding then CEO Lulama Makhobo in the presence of junior employees.

Ronnie Lubisi, a former board member who also sat on the corporation's audit committee, said one of the meetings Muthambi attended was in or around July 2014.

"Among the matters the minister raised was that the then acting COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng had been acting for too long. She suggested that we appoint him permanently. At that stage we were dealing with the public protector's report, which had made some unfavourable findings against Motsoeneng," said Lubisi.

"[At that meeting, former board chairman] Ellen Tshabalala and Motsoeneng mentioned that the major problem of the board was specifically myself and [Bongani] Khumalo," said Lubisi.

Another former board member, Vusumzi Mavuso, said Muthambi "just happened to be" at a meeting that took place from 6pm to 11pm.

"It was a coincidence that was just too good to be true," he said.

Makhobo said the situation at the SABC had deteriorated to the point at which board members got involved in "very unbecoming arguments".

"There indeed were a great deal of fights. And fights would spill over into the media, which was hugely embarrassing," she said.

She said there were board members who seemed to "surround Motsoeneng very tightly".

Makhobo said those seen as outsiders were considered "the Lulama board", which made her very uncomfortable.

She said she was "undermined" by Motsoeneng, which she found "unbearable".

Muthambi is expected to testify at the hearing next week.

Source: The Times
Will Vassilopoulos, AFP stringer since 2011, has won the annual Rory Peck award, which recognises the work of the best freelance video journalists, for his coverage of the migrant crisis in Greece.

Since 2015, the country has been one of the main entry points to Europe for hundreds of thousands of people fleeing war, poverty and persecution. Wills footage shows desperate migrants and refugees arriving in the country from Turkey, having crossed the Aegean Sea in overcrowded, rickety boats and rubber dinghies - and their rescue from open water in the middle of the night.

His entry also includes a sequence from the island of Lesbos, which has seen the highest number of arrivals. He filmed the arrival of a boatload of refugees on Skala Sykamias beach on 31 October 2015. He followed them to the makeshift, sprawling Idomeni camp on Greeces northern border with Macedonia, which was evacuated last May. He depicts demonstrations by refugees at the border post, their catastrophic living conditions and the desperate attempt of several hundred to cross a river a few kilometres from the camp to get into Macedonia on 14 March 2016.

Vassilopoulos started his career in text for Japanese news agency Kyodo News before becoming a news anchor at Greeces state broadcaster ERT. In 2011, Agence France-Presse financed a training course for Will to learn how to film and he has freelanced for the Agency as a video journalist ever since, covering extensively topics such as Greeces economic crisis, political unrest in Egypt and Turkey and the conflict in Ukraine.

News category finalists also included Nabil Hassan, who has freelanced for AFP since 2015. Nabil was nominated for his coverage of the Battle for Aden in which Shiite Houthi rebels opposed pro-government forces.

Vassilopoulos succeeds Zein Al-Rifai, who won the news prize last year. Zein, who works regularly for AFP in Syria, covered the everyday lives of people in the rebel-held areas of Aleppo between 2014 and February 2015.

This is the third consecutive year that AFP has taken away the Rory Peck news award. In 2014, AFP stringer Pacome Pabandji won for his coverage of the civil war in the Central African Republic.

The Rory Peck Awards were launched in 1995 by the Rory Peck Trust, set up in the memory of freelance journalist Rory Peck who was killed in Moscow in 1993. The awards recognise the best independent news cameramen and the awards ceremony is one of the main events through which the Trust raises funds to assist freelance journalists.
Baskin-Robbins, the biggest premium ice-cream brand in the world, will be opening its doors in Cape Town on Friday.

Grand Parade Investments (GPI), the owners of the franchise licence in SA, says over the next five years 50 stores will be opened.

The local ice-cream market is experiencing a change. While it has been dominated by fast food franchises such as McDonald's and Steers, as well as the frozen variety produced largely by Unilever and Nestle, there is a growing trend towards artisanal ice cream.

According to Insight Survey, the market research firm, toprated outlets for artisanal creamy serve include Gema Trattoria in Johannesburg, The Creamery in Cape Town and Ballina Ice Cream in Durban.

Baskin-Robbins SA chief operating officer Sean Dearham said SA would be the 52nd country the brand would operate in. He said the brand had more than 1,300 flavours in its ice-cream library.

"It is a premium offering but it will be accessible to customers. The prices will be competitive and we've thought very carefully about locations too. We will take customers on a flavour journey and we will impress them with how we present the ice cream. Month to month customers can expect a whole host of new flavours on the menu."

Dearham said the brand would be operating in different formats including the nostalgic ice-cream truck "but with louder and newer music".

There would be different formats for malls and local neighbourhoods as well.

"The market has evolved and it is very adventurous. You can see this in how the ice cream is served " in milkshakes, in waffle crates and cones " on brownies. People are looking for innovation and we intend to give it to them," said Dearham.

GPI also owns the licences for Burger King as well as Dunkin' Donuts.

GPI CEO Alan Keet said despite the headwinds the consumer was facing, BaskinRobbins was still a good investment case. "The confidence we have gained from dealing with Burger King has been key.

"The single biggest lesson we learnt through Burger King was not to go fast. It pays to take time with a brand and see how it is accepted in the market," said Keet.

Like Dunkin' Donuts, BaskinRobbins would initially only be offered in the Western Cape where GPI could handle the logistics better and manage the brand, he said.
Van Schaik Bookstore has announced it will launch a lock screen replacement android app that has been integrated with the Van Schaik Rewards loyalty programme. Aimed mainly at students studying at tertiary education institutions around South Africa, the app enables students to earn virtual rands and benefit from other deals in an almost passive manner.

Stephan Erasmus, MD of Van Schaik Bookstores, explains, The youth are engaged in cellphone technology, whether they are engaging in social media, browsing the Internet, sharing pictures or sending messages to their peers, they spend a lot of time on the phone. By turning this engagement into a way of making money, we believe we can offer our customers rewards that are valuable to them.

Picture: Supplied

When we repositioned the brand in 2011, we introduced ourselves as a knowledge navigator  somebody that students could partner with on their journey to knowledge and future success. We shifted our focus so that it is all about helping students to get ahead, by growing their knowledge, creating opportunities and leading the way.

With this in mind, we launched our Rewards Card in 2015, a milestone for an academic textbook supplier and a great way to reward our customers. It has been well received and to date our membership numbers have grown to over 100,000.

Tangible benefits

With the new Rewards programme, students will be able to generate extra income for themselves, get access to free Wi-Fi and WhatsApp and stay informed and entertained. At the same time, the new app offers an innovative and effective way for partners and tertiary education institutions to reach students.

Picture: Supplied

Mobile has become a vital platform for advertisers but users often bemoan in-app pop-ups and other intrusive display ads. The app can be targeted based on historical and real-time location data, purchasing patterns and in-app usage, presented to the user in a way that gently calls for engagement. Students will be rewarded each time they interact with the app, even if it just to unlock it.

So how does it work?

The new Van Schaik Rewards App makes the lock screen on android phones a source to view and enjoy interesting content and, at the same time, rewards users with points every time they interact with the lock screen, which includes simply unlocking their screen.

The launch of the app will kick off as part of Van Schaiks annual first semester campaign. When customers spend R750 or more, they will get a new SIM card with 300 MB of free data. Current Rewards Members will be able to qualify as well, but without having to make a purchase first  all they need to do is to go into a bookstore and swop their old Rewards Card for a new SIM card. The SIM card will function just like a normal SIM card and they will be able to load airtime and data as they need it.

Picture: Supplied

Once the SIM is RICA-certified and activated, which customers can do in-store, they will be prompted to download the free Van Schaik Rewards App onto their android phones via a link. Once downloaded, each customer will register and create a unique, customised profile by selecting different topics of interest that he or she wishes to receive. This can range from fashion and beauty, to sport, recipes, celeb news, what is on in their area and even info relevant to the courses they are studying.

To unlock more benefits, such as access to free Wi-Fi at all Always On hotspots and free WhatsApp, as well as a selection of other desirable deals, users will have to spend a minimum of R99 on airtime or data during the preceding 30 days. They can do this by purchasing airtime or data in the form of a Van Schaik Rewards Top-Up, which will be available at any Van Schaik Bookstore or Pick n Pay. Alternatively, they can use the points that they have earned and accumulated in their virtual wallet that exists on the app.

Increasing points

Students can increase points in four different ways:

Through earning points on purchases at Van Schaik Bookstores By interacting with advertisements on the app. The app will let advertisements appear on their lock screen. If they swipe to unlock their screens and interact with the content or special deals, they will earn more Van Schaik points. Every time they unlock their screens, they will earn more cash They can add money from their bank accounts They can top-up their wallet at any Van Schaik Bookstore or Pick n Pay



New cellular provider in the house

At the same time as the launch of the new app, Van Schaik Bookstore will be launching itself as a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), aimed at providing cellular services throughout South Africa. It will be providing its own branded SIM card, called the Van Schaik SIM and will be offering competitive rates in the local cellular market.

In the digital age, staying connected is a vital part of life  our aim is to make connectivity accessible to everybody. We aim to cater to the need for speed intrinsic in the youth culture  ensuring that there is no waiting around to accumulate tangible credits before they can redeem them. We will be collaborating with a number of partners to make the content, offers, freebies and deals as beneficial and interesting as possible, as well as being able to offer students the ability to reap the rewards of their interactions with the app immediately. What is more, is that Van Schaik Bookstore will be giving away R5-million worth of free airtime to the first 100,000 students who register, concludes Erasmus.
Following an article in the Business Times on a franchise group that allegedly failed to provide franchisees with disclosure documents as prescribed by the Consumer Protection Act (CPA), the Franchise Association reminds franchisors of the related provisions in the CPA. It also indicates the imminent establishment of an Ombud and its concern with non-compliance at the expense of the hundreds of franchisors who comply and who contribute to a thriving sector that contributes 11.6% to the country's GDP.

A recent media report (in the Business Times on 4 December 2016, titled Gilt wears thin for Gold Brands franchise holders) reports that franchise company Chesa Nyama, which is part of the listed group Gold Brands Group, allegedly failed to provide certain franchisees with disclosure document  a legal requirement of the CPA.

The purpose of a disclosure document as required in Regulation 3 of the CPA is to provide a prospective franchisee with sufficient information to place the prospective franchisee in a position where he/she is able to properly decide whether to enter into the relevant franchise agreement or not.

Information to be provided includes the initial fee, the funds required to establish the franchise business, the initial working capital, the total investment required and the like. In addition, written projections in respect of income, expense and profits must also be included, as well as information on the viability of the franchisor itself. The disclosure document should be given to a prospective franchisee at least 14 days prior to signing the franchise agreement and there is a 10-day cooling off period after the signature of the franchise agreement, to protect the interests of the franchisee.

Rooting out non-compliance

According to Vera Valasis, executive director of FASA, Hundreds of franchisors have complied with FASAs best practices membership requirements and have committed to ethical franchising. Incidents of non-compliance by franchisors must be rooted out as they bring the entire industry into disrepute  at the expense of many competent and successful franchisors that have invested in their brands, in their business models, in their franchisees and have ensured that their documents comply with the requirements of the CPA.

Since its establishment in 1979, FASA has been dedicated to the development and promotion of ethical franchising, as well as guiding and safeguarding the reputation of this valuable sector.

Without statutory powers, FASA could only regulate and enforce its own code of ethics and business practices on its members, who voluntarily commit themselves to operating competent and ethical business. The requirements of becoming a member of FASA have always been a serious commitment which has no doubt scared off less scrupulous operators and particularly those who do not have the correct structures, documentation and support systems in place, which are required of a competent franchise system.

During the formulating phase of the Consumer Protection Act, FASA made representations on several occasions, which lead to substantial amendments to the draft CPA and provided substantial input as to what should be included in a franchise disclosure document. As mentioned above, Regulation 3 of the CPA sets out what should be included in the disclosure document including all relevant financial information.

Industry Code will establish Ombud

Continuing with its quest to develop best practices and ethical franchising, FASA has developed an Industry Code for the franchise industry. It has worked closely with the National Consumer Commission during the past few years and it is now considering the latest version of the Code. Once it has been finalised, it will be submitted to the Minister for approval.

The proposed Franchise Industry Code, in its current form establishes an Ombud, which will focus on assisting with the speedy resolution of disputes. The Ombud will have powers to robustly mediate on disputes between Franchisors and Franchisees, uphold the requirements of the CPA and assist with the efficient resolution of franchising disputes, says Eugene Honey of Adams & Adams, FASAs Legal Advisor.

The Code is not intended to interfere with agreed to arbitration or court processes between the parties. It will however provide a forum where either party may, as a first step, in line with best alternative dispute resolution processes, lodge a complaint with the Ombud, where it could be resolved fairly efficiently, should the parties so wish, thereby hopefully avoiding costly and protracted litigation proceedings. The processes can run concurrently.

It is the responsibility of the franchisor to supply a franchisee with full up-front disclosure in the disclosure document and then fulfil its obligations to provide extensive training on how to operate the business and also to ensure that there is ongoing support and guidance to help the franchisee make a success of his/her business. The franchisees should, before they sign the franchise agreement do their own viability investigation regarding the franchise business, the location and in relation to the franchisor. They should also speak to existing franchisees and make sure that they fully understand the terms of their agreement and what they are committing to, advises Vera Valasis.

It is estimated that there are over 750 business systems in South Africa. A large number, such as the Gold Brand franchise, are not members of FASA.

FASA would like to see all franchisors become members of the association and commit themselves to ethical franchising, in line with not only with the provisions of the CPA but more importantly, with international best practices in franchising, says Naas Du Preez, chairman of FASA. South Africas franchise industry goes back to the 1960s and has developed into a strong business sector that contributes 11.6% to South Africas GDP and holds its own on the international franchise stage as an active member of the World Franchise Counsel.
The lending arm of Africa's largest retailer sees a decline in credit sales for the first time since listing.

Pinch: Credit sales at Shoprite Investments dropped for the first time since listing as consumers cut spending.Picture: BDlive/Freddy Mavunda

Shoprite Investments, lending arm of Africas largest retailer, experienced a decline in credit sales for the first time since listing as consumers cut spending in response to the weak economy, its financial statements showed on Thursday.

The company, which provides third-party credit to the retailers furniture customers, and which listed its debt in 2012, saw instalment sales retreat 6.5% to R1.05bn in the year to June. This compares with 34.5% growth, to R1.12bn, in 2015.

Shoprite did not explain the decline in its financial statements, and was unavailable for comment at the time of publication. Ron Klipin, senior analyst at Cratos Wealth, said the decline could only come from the OK Furniture division.

"[Its the] only division of Shoprite that I believe sells durables, such as furniture and white goods," Klipin said.

"With consumer spend under pressure, with escalating food prices in double-digit figures, finance payments are more and more in arrears."

Departing Shoprite CEO Whitey Basson said earlier in 2016 consumers were coming under pressure from the high cost of living, made worse by the drought affecting the cost of basic agricultural products. "As a result, the disposable income of especially lower-income consumers has come under increasing pressure," he said.

Shoprite Investments added R37.7m in bad debt in 2016, which was lower than the previous years R127.3m. Added to its accumulated bad debt expenses, R52.8m of which was written off as irrecoverable, the companys total impairments were R134.5m.

Statistics SA data on retail trade sales, released in November, showed furniture, appliance and equipment sales dropped 5.8% to R8.9bn between September 2015 and September 2016, while specialist food retailers picked up 6.7% to R12.6bn. Professional services firm PwC said consumers could not incur more debt, spelling trouble for credit retailers.

"These difficulties are forcing shoppers to adjust their consumption patterns by favouring lower-priced products and foregoing discretionary purchases," it said. "The higher-income strata are, however, more resilient to the current economic pressures, putting retailers that cater to their needs in a better position."

At Shoprite, there had been a decline in credit customers in the furniture business as the National Credit Regulators (NCR) affordability assessments kicked in. This had a negative effect on the groups finance and insurance income.

The NCR said in November it had submitted amendments to the affordability assessment regulations to address "unintended" consequences inflicted on the retail sector, while protecting consumers. This was after a lawsuit by retail groups TFG, MrPrice and Truworths, which said they had incurred millions in lost sales due to consumers employed in the informal sector being unable to validate income as prescribed.
With the help of UC Davis , a research university based in the United States, farmers in Guatemala are using a simple, yet effective, system to battle climate change. Called MasRiego, which translates to "more irrigation", the project will help farmers, particularly women and youth, grow high-value crops on very small plots of land.

The new project is part of the US governments Feed the Future initiative. The UC Davis-led Horticulture Innovation Lab has the potential to connect 9,000 rural households in Guatemala with improved water management and climate-smart agriculture strategies, to increase food security and reduce poverty.

The opportunity to impact so many farmers lives on this scale is exciting, said Beth Mitcham, director of the Horticulture Innovation Lab. Were taking lessons learned from our previous research  in Guatemala, Honduras and Cambodia  and building a team to help more small-scale farmers apply our findings and successfully use these innovative practices.

At the core of the project is drip irrigation. With inconsistent rainfall in Guatemala and the negative effects of climate change, competition for resources in the area is at an all time high. To mitigate these factors, farmers need to work smart to conserve water and use what they have effectively.

According to Take Part, the irrigation system is essentially a series of hoses punctured at various points. It is designed to pinpoint and apply water precisely where its needed for a crop to grow best. Using this method, 90 per cent of the water used is directed at the plants.

Other holistic systems used by the project include rainwater harvesting, reduced tillage, mulch use and diverse crop rotation.

To enable farmers to adopt these new practices, the team will not only provide training but also build partnerships to increase farmers access to much-needed microcredit financing and irrigation equipment.
Computer science remains one of the most exciting, transformative and lucrative careers for the youth to embark upon, but is still underrepresented in terms of race and female developers. Code.org is an NGO on a mission to change this through their annual global campaign entitled Hour of Code, through which the company partners with organisations around the globe in an effort to expand access to computer science to women and underrepresented minorities.

Microsoft partnered with Code.org to inspire young people around the globe to take up computer science through learning how to code. Within South Africa, this was achieved through 50 training sessions taking place across the country on Tuesday in places like Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Port Elizabeth. Through these sessions, Microsoft aimed to reach at least 50 high school and university students, graduates, teachers and parents at every session.

Zoaib Hoosen, managing director of Microsoft SA, attended an interactive Hour of Code session with pupils from Blairgowrie Primary School in Randburg. During this session, learners utilised a new tutorial called Minecraft Hour of Code Designer, which was released last month.

We are partnering with Code.org again this year to make computer science more accessible to thousands of youth from all around South Africa through Hour of Code and Minecraft, said Hoosen.

Creators of new worlds

He added: I am inspired by the Minecraft generation who view themselves not as players of a game, but as creators of the new worlds they dream up. This is the generation that will imagine, build and create the countrys future, by developing the apps and services we are going to use and starting their own businesses that will employ us in future. Through this amazing initiative, we can equip these learners with the computational thinking and problem-solving skills to seize the opportunities ahead.

Zoaib Hoosen, MD of Microsoft SA, during the coding session with the pupils

The new web-based tutorial, which is available for free, enables beginner coders to create and share their own simple Minecraft game, and is designed to empower anyone to begin learning the problem-solving and critical thinking skills required in todays tech-fuelled world.

"Minecraft is a special game that appeals to a diverse global community, making it the perfect vehicle through which to teach learners of all backgrounds and skill levels to code. By programming familiar game events themselves, learners will be able to experience computer science in a way that is authentic as well as fun. Furthermore, these open-ended challenges also help show them that our favourite games are ultimately created with code themselves, helping to spark a career in computer science and app development.
Cape Town International Airport is to reach a milestone in the next few weeks - 10 million passengers in a year for the first time.

BlogDeBanderas via Wikimedia

The success is said to be largely due to the Western Cape's Cape Town Air Access initiative, which also led to the creation of about 16,000 jobs and a R3-billion injection from tourism.

"We've seen exceptional growth and expect to pass the 10million passengers mark in the next few weeks," said Airports Company of SA spokesman Deidre Davids.

"On our busiest days we process up to 39,000 passengers, [pump] as much 2.2million litres of fuel and move nearly 20,000 bags."

The provincial government, in partnership with the City of Cape Town, Acsa and Cape Town Tourism, "opened" its skies to improve access by air. As a result new jobs, more tourism and increased spending flew into the region.

By securing six new routes and eight route expansions into the province, the initiative has resulted in an increase in the Western Cape's air arrivals of more than 500,000 passengers.

Western Cape MEC for economic opportunities Alan Winde said that tourism employed 204,000 people in the province, and that each regular schedule long-haul flight supported 3,000 jobs.

"For every 10% increase in passenger numbers the regional economy grows by 2%. These figures illustrate the value of increased air access," said Winde.

"International air arrivals into Cape Town are increasing by 22% a year. British Airways this summer added three Boeing 777-200 flights from Gatwick to Cape Town to meet increased demand.

"Last week Lufthansa launched its all-year, non-stop flight between Frankfurt and Cape Town."

Davids said the growth had put pressure on Acsa's arrivals and departures systems. "Although the operational teams have put various plans in place, queues will be unavoidable. Passengers need to remember to arrive at the airport early."

Winde said that a team was working on improving the African route network, on establishing a direct route to North America, and on getting more direct flights to Asia scheduled.

Source: The Times
MTN Group has again tapped into the talent pools of its competitors and the banking sector to bolster its executive team.

Jens Schulte Bockum, MTN's new group chief operating officer

The appointments follow a huge fine for flouting Nigerian telecoms regulations. This forced the group to improve risk management and governance and to seek new opportunities. Electus equity analyst Mishal Emeran said the appointments included vital areas of the business, technology and operations, where MTN had "arguably dropped the ball over the recent past".

On Wednesday, MTN announced the appointment of former Vodafone Germany CEO Jens Schulte-Bockum as group chief operating officer from January.

Oliver Fortuin, the head of BT Global Services in sub-Saharan Africa, will join the mobile network operator as executive head of business enterprise, a unit that is focusing on providing services to corporations.

Bernice Samuels, the chief marketing officer at FNB, will rejoin MTN in a similar position.

Farai Mapfinya, chief investment officer at Falcon Crest Asset Managers, said the calibre and number of appointments were a "serious statement of intent" from MTN. "The appointments are pleasing. What is left is to see whether they gel as a team. All in all we view the appointments as hugely positive for MTN," said Mapfinya.

MTN expects SchulteBockum to bring extensive experience in the consumer business. Samuels would assist in "lifting and repositioning product development and uplifting the MTN brand" in Africa and the Middle East, MTN said.

Fortuin is expected to enhance MTN's strategy in growing its enterprise unit throughout the continent.

The latest round of recruiting comes after the appointment of former Vodafone and Vodacom executive Rob Shuter as CEO of MTN Group, and a number of bankers including Ralph Mupita, the chief financial officer of Old Mutual Emerging Markets. He will be the company's chief financial officer from April 2017.

Also joining the team is former Barclays Africa head of investment Stephen van Coller, as head of strategy and mergers and acquisitions, and Rand Merchant Bank's Kholekile Ndamase. The appointment of the bankers could be an indication that MTN may ramp up its financial services.

Emeran said Vodafone had a reputation for having good quality management and Shutter appeared to be bringing with him a team of individuals from Vodafone he knows and trusts.

Source: Business Day
Don't get caught napping. Companies need rapid response data strategies to drive them forward if they are to keep up with the race to own the consumer relationship, say Tim Legg, managing director of AddSuite and co-founder of Ole! Media Group, and Ian Drummond, sales director at AddSuite.

The future of advertising is not about social, not about viral videos, not about mobile, not about any new medium or any new ad unit  but about data. Those who know what to do with this will be the new kingmakers, the new rulers of Madison Avenue  or the creators of a new Avenue of media. (Michael Andrew, 2010 - currently Analytics Director at AKQA).

If 10% of the Fortune 100 companies have heeded his advice, then why should South African companies not follow suit, especially as each time a user visits a website, he or she, generates more than 40 different points of data? But, much like the racing cars at the top of their game, if the engineers are not analysing all of the information that the car (and the driver) are producing all of the time, fine-tuning the cars set-up and optimising performance, then the race is lost. Or to put it another way, if the data a company is producing is not harvested and channelled correctly, nothing grows  not insights, not customers and certainly not profits.

What is growing though, is the number of digital channels available for marketers to converse with their end users, and de facto, from which marketers can source information on how best to get the attention of their desired targets to help them get into the race, and have a shot at crossing the finishing line.

Pixabay

With this proliferation comes the need for the right tools and engineers to interpret the information to get the most out of it. A Data Management Platform (DMP), or access to one, is now an essential tool for all marketers to collect and store data, as well as generate data sets to implement focused and multiple channel strategies.

Data marketers often speak in layers, so understanding where these tiers of information come from is as important as knowing what to do with them once you have them. Lets start with First Party Data (FPD).

Also known as owned data, FPD is gathered from a marketers owned and operated sites.

These data sources could include CRM, subscription, social media and cross platform data, as well as browsing behaviour across web sites, mobisites or apps.

Second Party Data is gathered from partner and affiliate sites. For example, if youre an insurance brand you may look at partnering with a major second hand car dealership, in order to access and then harness, their data so that you can inform those who are looking for a vehicle that there are insurance options too.

Third Party Data is information collected or aggregated (amassed) from other non-owned and non-partner websites.

Merging all this data into one understandable confluence of useable information would be tricky (it was) before technology. But now with the click of a few buttons and the ability to extract the desired information or build information models, marketers have greater options to optimise their efforts. Helping them get there is the all-powerful and ever evolving DMP, which if correctly managed can generate key target segments or exclusions allowing a marketer to dramatically improve the impact of their digital investment.

There is no such thing as a typical buying pattern in the modern world. Consumers are constantly engaging with a myriad of online content across multiple screens and devices. Users may browse for deals on their mobile devices, do more research on their tablets at night and end up converting on their desktop the next morning. Its important therefore, that this data is gathered and aggregated to ensure that a marketer conveys a seamless message regardless of the device that they are targeting.

Certain DMPs allow cross channel and cross device targeting, which provide for hugely valuable insights. Bluekai for instance, which has Bluekai ID graph capability that seamlessly pull together the many IDs across the multiple marketing channels and devices of just one person (or millions, enabling marketers to tie their interactions to an actionable customer profile. This ID enables the marketer to orchestrate a relevant, personalised experience for each individual across these many channels, speaking directly to them and not at them.

123RF

Because data is a minefield, its important to know that not all DMPs are created equal. A key consideration for selecting the right DMP is to ensure that it is platform agnostic so that you are not locked into one particular digital stream. Data can then be harvested from multiple digital platforms, and merged: for example, where a marketer gathers insight from search query data, augments it with browsing behaviour, ad interaction data, social media posts, subscription data and a companys existing CRM data.

With the fast pace of marketing in this new digital age, marketers need rapid actionable insights, that allow them to refine their digital buys. Data isnt just something that is generated by advertising; data has morphed into the engine that can drive your overall marketing (including your online advertising and content strategies).

By better understanding customer segments, marketers can create look alike audiences, increasing the chances of conversion. They can also quickly recognise audience segments that wont convert and create exclusion clauses to ensure that their message is focused and optimised for optimal return on their media investment.

Personalisation coupled with rapid data response, is therefore the key to unlocking the future  the Power of One  and putting marketers firmly in the driving seat of the instant, relatable, actionable one-on-one, conversation conversion.
Films to look out for this week include A United Kingdom, Fallen, Inferno, Equity, Robinson Crusoe and The Edge of Seventeen.

A United Kingdom

The greatest love story never told. In 1947, Seretse Khama, the 26-year-old King of Botswana, fell in love with Ruth Williams, a 24-year-old London office worker. Their marriage was opposed not only by their respective families, but also by the British and South African governments. But Seretse and Ruth defied family, apartheid and the British Empire  their love triumphed over every obstacle flung in their way and in so doing they transformed their Nation and inspired the world. Directed by Amma Asante, screenplay by Guy Hibbert. With Rosamund Pike, Tom Felton, Laura Carmichael, David Oyelowo, Jack Davenport, Terry Pheto, Vusi Kunene, Charlotte Hope, Jessica Oyelowo, Jack Lowden, Nicholas Lyndhurst, Arnold Oceng and Merveille Lukeba.

Fallen

Based on the worldwide bestselling book series, Fallen is seen through the eyes of Lucinda Luce Price (Addison Timlin), a strong willed seventeen-year-old living a seemingly ordinary life until she is accused of a crime she didnt commit. Sent off to the imposing Sword & Cross reform school, Luce finds herself being courted by two young men to whom she feels oddly connected. Isolated and haunted by strange visions, Luce begins to unravel the secrets of her past and discovers the two men are fallen angels, competing for her love for centuries. Luce must choose where her feelings lie, pitting Heaven against Hell in an epic battle over true love. This romantic fantasy film was directed by Scott Hicks.

Inferno

In the heart of Italy, Harvard professor of symbology Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) is drawn into a harrowing world centered on one of historys most enduring and mysterious literary masterpieces: Dantes Inferno. When he wakes up in an Italian hospital with amnesia, he teams up with Sienna Brooks, a doctor he hopes will help him recover his memories. Against this backdrop, Langdon battles a chilling adversary and grapples with an ingenious riddle that pulls him into a landscape of classic art, secret passageways, and futuristic science. Directed by Ron Howard and written by David Koepp, based on the 2013 novel of the same name by Dan Brown. The film is the sequel to The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons, and is the third installment in the Robert Langdon film series.

Equity

A movie about women on Wall Street. Naomi Bishop is an investment banker determined to overcome a previous stain to her professional reputation, which is a challenge in the male dominated financial sector she works in. As Naomi in that spirit makes her move managing a burgeoning new tech IPO, she has to endure not only the condescension of her colleagues, but also her imperious client, even as troubling new developments cloud the ventures future. Against that, the probing of a college friend turned Federal investment law prosecutor and the conniving of her double-dealing boyfriend seem to be manageable complications, until a betrayal by a trusted colleague threatens to ruin everything. Directed by Meera Menon, written by Amy Fox and starring Anna Gunn, James Purefoy, Sarah Megan Thomas and Alysia Reiner.

Robinson Crusoe

Times are good for Mak the parrot, Scrubby the goat, Carmello the chameleon and the rest of the wildlife that inhabit a tropical island. Their day-to-day routine gets shaken up when a mysterious creature washes up on shore. Hes a sailor named Robinson Crusoe, and hes the only human survivor of a terrible storm that destroyed his ship. As the animals get to know their peculiar new guest, they find him to be a useful ally when two conniving cats try to seize control of their exotic paradise. This Belgian-French 3D computer-animated adventure comedy film is directed by Vincent Kesteloot and Ben Stassen and written by Lee Christopher, Domonic Paris and Graham Weldon. The animated film is loosely based on Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, but from the point of view of the islands animals.

The Edge of Seventeen

Nadine (Hailee Steinfeld) and Krista (Haley Lu Richardson) are inseparable best friends attempting to navigate high school together until Nadines older brother Darian (Blake Jenner) and Krista begin dating. With her view of the world rocked, Nadine is forced to see the people in her life  including her well-meaning but distracted mother (Kyra Sedgwick), and unlikely mentor and History teacher Mr. Bruner (Woody Harrelson)  with fresh eyes and new appreciation that people  and life  are more complicated than she thought. From five-time Oscar nominated and three-time Oscar winning producer James L. Brooks and writer/first-time director Kelly Fremon Craig, this is a coming-of-age comedy with a refreshingly authentic voice.

For more information on the latest releases visit www.writingstudio.co.za
The Opel Astra scooped both overall victory and a category win at the 2016 Best of the Best Awards held by Independent Motoring. Announced at the 7th Independent Motoring's annual Best of the Best awards in Johannesburg, the Astra grabbed the trophy for Overall Best of the Best award and Best Family Car award.

Decided by motoring journalists from Independent Group titles such as The Star, Cape Times, Pretoria News, Daily News, The Mercury and the IOL Motoring website, the competition assessed over 60 new cars, bakkies and SUVs launched in South Africa over the past 12 months.

The judges rated the Astra highly for its sophistication, ride quality, and good value for money. They also pointed out that it incorporates advanced driver-assistance technologies that have traditionally been the preserve of more expensive luxury cars.

"Opel has upped its game with a car that's lighter yet roomier, more interesting to look at, classier inside and packed with new-age gadgets," said Independent Media's motoring editor Denis Droppa. "In standing out against a market of over achievers, the new Astra has done it by ditching some mass in its midriff and gaining some in its cranium."

The 11th generation Astra is no stranger to being feted by motoring experts and is the reigning European Car of the Year. It is also a finalist in the Wesbank South African Guild of Motoring Journalists' Car of the Year competition.

Category winners

Below are the winners of the other category awards.

Best Adventure Vehicle: Volkswagen Tiguan

Best Luxury Car: Mercedes-Benz E-Class

Best Performance Car: BMW M2

Best Styling: Readers Choice: Ford Mustang
BRUSSELS, BELGIUM: The European Commission launched legal action on Thursday, 8 December 2016, against authorities in seven EU nations including Germany and Britain for failing to crack down on emissions cheating exposed by the Volkswagen "Dieselgate" scandal.

The commission, the EU's executive arm, "is today acting against seven member states on the grounds that they have failed to fulfil their obligations" under EU law, said a statement.

The Dieselgate scandal blew open when Volkswagen admitted in September 2015 that it installed software in 11 million cars worldwide that reduced emissions of harmful nitrogen oxides when it detected the vehicle was undergoing tests.

Brussels drew sharp criticism for failing to act against Volkswagen compared to the US, where authorities not only exposed the wrongdoing, but secured a $16.5-billion (14.8-billion-euro) settlement from the Germany-based automaker.

But the Commission lacks the authority to fight Volkswagen. Day-to-day regulation of the auto sector, including approving new car models for the road, remains under the authority of national governments.

"Abiding by the law is first and foremost the duty of car manufacturers. But national authorities across the EU must ensure that car manufacturers actually comply with the law," said EU Industry Commissioner Elzbieta Bienkowska.

The commission's so-called infringement procedure is the first step in a long legal process that can see member states sent to EU court for breaking European law.

Germany, the bloc's most powerful nation, is accused of failing to apply the appropriate penalities when faced with proof of cheating by Volkswagen.

The commission also accuses Germany, along with Britain, of not turning over to Brussels evidence found in national probes of Dieselgate.

Other countries facing the EU's infringement action are the Czech Republic, Greece, Lithuania, Luxembourg and Spain.

The Dieselgate scandal exposed that some VW cars spewed out up to 40 times more harmful nitrogen oxide - linked to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases - than legally allowed in the EU.

The European Environment Agency said in a 2015 report that nitrogen oxide was responsible for around 72,000 premature deaths in Europe.

Still, one year after the scandal, nearly 30 million cars on Europe's roads were still way over air pollution limits, campaign group Transport and Environment said in a report in September.

Source: AFP
Facebook has released its annual Year in Review, where users can see what was the top moments on the social media platform.

Here is the global list:

1. US Elections

2. Brazilian Politics

3. Pokemon Go

4. Black Lives Matter

5. Rodrigo Duterte & Philippine Presidential Election

6. Olympics

7. Brexit

8. Super Bowl

9. David Bowie

10. Muhammed Ali

The top five moments discussed on Facebook in South Africa:

1. South African municipal elections 2016

2. Olympics

3. US Elections

4. Zuma

5. Fees Must Fall

For the first time, Facebook has also shared a list of the top ten global Live videos:

1. Candace Payne, Chewbacca Mom

2. Ted Yoder, Soundscapes

3. Buzzfeed, Countdown to the next presidential election

4. Atlanta Buzz, People are lining up to hug police officers in Dallas

5. NBC News, Election results

6. Under the Hood, Video of a truck completely carved out of wood

7. Viral Thread, Population count from US to CA

8. CNN, Election results on Empire State building

9. Dena Blizzard, Pokemon Go for moms "Chardonnay Go"

10. Super Deluxe, Election map

Methodology

The top 10 moments of this year's Year in Review were measured by how frequently a topic was mentioned in Facebook posts made between 1 January and 27 November 2016. To put this list together, mentions were analysed in an aggregated, anonymised way, and then ranked to create a snapshot of the year on Facebook. The top 10 Live videos were measured by total cumulative views.

See the full release here.
25 Years Ago-1991

Perry Funeral Home, located in the former Gourmet House building, will host an open house this weekend. Delbert W. Joe Perry, fourth-generation funeral director, owns and operates the 10,000-square-foot facility. He also owned and operated a funeral home in Bismarck until selling to the Eastgate family in 1981.

Andrew J. Boehm, Mandan, has been honored by receiving the American Future Farmers of America degree, the highest degree of membership awarded by the National FFA Organization. Bohem received the award from Mark Timm, national FFA president, during the XX National Convention held in Kansas City, Mo., in November.

Funerals this week:

Illa E. (Weinreich) Hagerott, 80, Mandan, raised, educated at Blue Grass and New Salem areas, graduating from New Salem High School, 1928. Received teaching certificate at Dickinson State College, 1931, taught in Mandan and New Salem schools. Married Theodore Ted Hagerott, 1935. Was member of First Lutheran Church, Mandan; the Mandan Homemakers, a charter member of the Morton County Historical Society. Survivors include two daughters and their families, two sisters, one brother.

Mike A. Erhardt, 69, Center, raised, educated at Center. Married Eva Geiger, 1945. Farmed in Center area, retiring in 1990. Moose Lodge member. Survivors include two sons, three daughters and their families, five brothers, four sisters.

John P. Koppy, 75, Denver, raised, educated in rural schools south of Mandan. World War II Navy veteran. Married Cecelia Godfrey, 1947. Worked at Rocky Mountain Arsenal in Denver, retiring in 1981. Survivors include wife, three sisters, three brothers and their families.

Evelyn (Edwards) Bucklin, 83, Los Angeles, raised, educated in Mandan, graduating from Mandan High School, 1927. Worked at Mandans First National Bank until marriage to Chester Bucklin, 1940, in Los Angeles. Survivors include one daughter, two grandchildren, two brothers, three sisters and their families.

* * *

Temperatures recorded Mon., Dec. 9: a high of 45 degrees above zero, 18 above for the low.

50 Years Ago-1966

With the completion of the new addition to Mandan Senior High School this past summer, more than 300 freshmen students moved to the senior high building alleviating, but not eliminating, the space problem at the Junior High-Central Elementary school. The new addition was built at a cost of $411,957. Leonhard & Askew were the architects; Lunn Construction of Bismarck was the general contractor.

New officers were elected this past week for the Morton County Farm Bureau. They are Carl Knudson, Almont, president; Lyle Dawson, vice president; and Nick Renner, Mandan, secretary. Other members of the board are: Mike Howiatow, Fort Rice; Nick Schmidt, Flasher; David Johnson and Bob Smith, both of Mandan. Representing the women are Mrs. Richard Tokach, St. Anthony, and Mrs. Joe Hoovestol, Almont.

Mr. and Mrs. George E. Walker, rural Mandan, marked their silver wedding anniversary with a dance held in the Bohemian Hall, south of Mandan. The couples six children hosted the affair, which was attended by more than 350 guests. The hall was decorated with numerous candles, along with white and silver bells; a four-tier anniversary cake, baked by Mrs. Walker, centered the serving table. Special guests at the event were Mrs. Fred Keller and Clyde Walker, who served as attendants on their wedding day in 1941. Mr. Walker is engaged in farming, while Mrs. Walker is employed at the Ben Franklin store in Mandan.

75 Years Ago-1941

Dec. 7 1941: The surprise was complete.

Shortly before 8 a.m. (noon Central time) on a beautiful Sunday morning in Oahu, Hawaii, 353 Japanese warplanes descended from the clouds and torpedoed and rained bombs upon the U S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, resulting in the deaths of 2,403 Navy men and 68 civilians, while destroying 18 battleships and 169 airplanes. In one stroke, the Japanese had silenced the debate that had divided Americans since the German defeat of France in 1940 left England alone in the fight against the Nazi reign of terror. With diplomatic negotiations breaking down, President Franklin Roosevelt and his advisers knew that an imminent Japanese attack was probable, but was expected on American air and naval bases in the Philippines, which did happen three hours later when Japanese planes began a daylong attack there.

In Mandan and Morton County, local radio stations interrupted their regular Sunday broadcasts to announce the tragic news. Reacting first in shock, and then anger, at the surprise attack, the telephone lines began humming as friends, neighbors and relatives discussed what the news meant for them. However, most people really did know what the attack meant for the U.S. even before Roosevelt's official announcement the next day  the U.S. would declare war on Japan.

The day after Pearl Harbor was bombed, President Roosevelt appeared before a joint session of Congress and asked for a declaration of war against Japan. Yesterday, December 7, 1941  was a date which will live in infamy, he said. The Senate quickly voted for war against Japan, 82-0, while the House of Representatives approved the resolution by a vote of 388 to 1. The sole dissenter was Rep. Jeannette Rankin of Montana, a devout pacifist who had also cast a dissenting vote against the U.S. entrance into World War I. Three days later, Germany and Italy declared war against the United States, and the U.S. government responded in kind.

* * *

Ironically, during the early afternoon of Dec. 7, Sen. Gerald Nye of North Dakota, a well-known isolationist who had been against Roosevelts plans for providing aid to Great Britain, gave his last isolationist address at an America First rally at Pittsburgh. A few minutes prior to his speech, a newspaper reporter handed Nye a note, stating that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor. Nye was skeptical and did not mention the news to the unsuspecting audience. Then another note was given to him, stating that Japan had now declared war on the United States, but Nye only announced the attack at the conclusion of his hourlong speech. However, the following day, Nye joined the 81 other senators in voting for a unanimous declaration of war against Japan. Nye was defeated for his fourth Senate term in 1944 by Gov. John Moses.

* * *

Richard Henry ONeill of Fort Rice became the first Morton County man to volunteer on Tues., Dec. 9, for immediate induction into the armed forces since Japan attacked the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on Sunday, Dec. 7. ONeill told M.J. Tschida Jr., chief clerk at the Morton County Selective Service Board, that he preferred duty with a tank outfit, but would be willing to do anything to help my country.

100 Years Ago-1916

The Haight Lumber & Machinery Company will on Dec. 15 become one of the branch houses of the Thompson Lumber yards, as a result of a sale closed last week. The Haight Lumber & Machinery Company was organized in 1901 by the late W.B. Haight, in co-partnership with brothers, H.A. and Albert Lanterman who later purchased Haights interest.

In its annual fight against the prevention of tuberculosis, the local sale of the American Red Cross Christmas seals has been placed in charge of Mrs. H.O. Altnow, and she is appealing to Mandan residents and shoppers for help in disposing of this years allotment of stamps. The cheery holiday stamps, in Red, White and Green, can be purchased in all of Mandans hotels, drug stores and business houses for used on Christmas packages and letters.

Engineer Max Hunke, 912 First Street N.W., narrowly escaped being killed Wed. evening when he was struck by an old Ford automobile driven by some hair-brained fool. Mr. Hunke was walking downtown, crossing Sixth Avenue at First Street, when a car came tearing along at about 24 miles an hour, without lights, and struck him with the fender and wheel, resulting in Mr. Hunke being thrown several feet and rendered unconscious. Witnesses carried him to a nearby home, where he regained consciousness and managed to stand despite bruises to his legs. According to a witness, Mrs. Anson Bartlett, the driver did not sound his horn and made no attempt to stop.

125 Years Ago-1891

On Wed., Dec. 9, at 2:30 p.m., the thermometer recorded 16 degrees above zero.

Another important improvement has been made to the interior of the Baptist Church of which the ladies of the congregation are very proud. It is a new carpet.

A Bismarcker says: I have read with interest what the Pioneer had to say last week on the Mandan artesian well, and I desire to make a prediction that you folks will spend your $10,000, will get no water, but will get to conduct a lawsuit instead. Of course, I may be wrong, but thats my prediction, for what its worth.

Mr. Ferd Leutz of Hebron left on delayed No. 4 train eastbound express, this morning, for New York where he will take the steamer, Augusta-Victoria on Thursday for Hamburg from whence he will go to Berlin where he will remain for several months. Mr. Leutz says that it is nine years since he left his home in Germany, and he thinks he has well-earned a vacation. During his absence, Mr. Leutz says he intends to do some active work in the interest of immigration to Morton County, and he goes loaded down with facts, figures and personal letters to show what a desirable section this is for farmers and stockmen.
Gov. Jack Dalrymple called for a reduction in spending and replenishment of state reserve funds in his final executive budget address Wednesday, saying the adjustment from boom times to a slower period of gradual growth requires a more austere approach.

Dalrymple outlined a $13.475 billion budget proposal, $4.783 billion of which is general fund revenue, before a joint session of the Legislature in the North Dakota House chambers.

The budget proposed was a balancing act of cuts to hundreds of state employee positions, filling reserve funds, and a state takeover of county social services to make a 12 percent state-paid property tax credit permanent.

We make the necessary budgetary reductions, yet provide the funding necessary for high-quality services. We also provide for strong financial reserves, and we do all of this with no tax increases, Dalrymple said.

Dalrymple acknowledged the landscape has changed dramatically since he delivered his previous address in 2014. The days of massive one-time spending initiatives are behind the state for now, he said.

Sharp declines in oil and agricultural commodity prices led to reduced dollars coming into the states coffers. That decline led to two rounds of budget cuts this year to fix a budget shortfall of nearly $1.4 billion. A rare special legislative session was held in August as part of the second round of cuts.

The kinds of price drops experienced in our two major industries of energy and agriculture are best described not as a correction, but rather as a collapse, Dalrymple said.

Earlier this year, the governor ordered generally funded state agencies to submit budget requests at 90 percent levels of ongoing spending approved for the current biennium. It was the first time since 2002 a North Dakota governor had required cuts in state agency budgets.

The new budget calls for a reduction of 583 state employees: 315 in higher education and 268 in other agencies. He said a large number of these have already been addressed through open positions and retirements during the two rounds of cuts.

For higher education, an additional 5 percent cut was proposed that could be offset over the biennium by tuition increases at state colleges and universities, to be capped at 2.5 percent per year.

Dalrymple also proposed continuing funding Medicaid expansion for the more than 20,000 residents insured under it.

Another proposal was to move state tobacco cessation programs under the North Dakota Department of Health. Those programs had been placed under a different agency created by a 2008 ballot measure.

We need to make the best possible use of our tobacco fund dollars, Dalrymple said.

The governor drew a standing ovation mid-speech when he recognized the work of law enforcement in recent months in response to the Dakota Access Pipeline protesters camping in southern Morton County. He called their efforts awe-inspiring.

Many of our people have gone months without a day off, ably managing the onslaught of out-of-state agitators in a situation that could never have been anticipated, he said.

Lawmakers delivered about a minute-long ovation when he recognized Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier, North Dakota Highway Patrol Col. Michael Gerhart and Maj. Gen. Alan Dohrmann of the North Dakota National Guard, who were seated in the House gallery.

Another of Dalrymples budget proposals is to replenish reserves. The Budget Stabilization Fund would increase from essentially zero to $454.2 million. He also structured the budget to create about $43.7 million in general fund reserves by June 30, 2019.

Two years ago, the governor delivered a record $15.72 billion budget proposal for 2015-17. During the 78-day session in 2015, lawmakers approved a record $14.2 billion budget.

The proposal delivered Wednesday is more comparable to the $13.7 billion passed by lawmakers in 2013.

Dalrymple also called for use of Foundation Aid Stabilization Fund dollars for K-12 education as well as Bank of North Dakota profits and Legacy Fund interest dollars to be placed in the general fund.
As this week's blizzard shut down roads across the state, the Cannon Ball Pit Stop ran out of gas.

Its owner, Standing Rock Sioux Chairman Dave Archambault II, said Wednesday that blowing snow, hazardous road conditions and a snowbank that formed over his tank's fill site had prevented any successful deliveries over the past couple of days; but he was expecting a fuel delivery to be made Thursday.

Gas was still available to travelers Wednesday about 8 miles south, at the Prairie Knights Quik Mart.

North Dakota Petroleum Marketers Association President Mike Rud said he had not heard of any similar shortages at other rural gas stations to date, but it is something the association is monitoring closely.

Rud indicated it is likely that truckers are behind schedule after more than a week of adverse weather. With more snow anticipated this weekend, it could exacerbate things further.

The 26 inches of snow left by two heavy weather systems was still presenting challenges to snowplows statewide on Thursday as high winds create deep drifts.

Janine Vining, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Bismarck, said another system is expected to hit the southern half of the state starting late Friday and lasting through Saturday. Towns to the north, near Lake Sakakawea, are expected to get 2 inches of new snow. Counties to the south, including Sioux, LaMoure, Logan and McIntosh, could get closer to 5 inches.

The snow is expected to be fluffy, so ice and freezing rain should not be an issue, according to Vining. Winds are also expected to stay relatively low, around 10 to 15 mph.

"It won't be pleasant, but it's not like 30- to 40-mile-per-hour gusts," she said.
A 33-year-old man was arrested Wednesday and charged with terrorizing a man involved in the pipeline protests outside the Ramada Inn in Bismarck.

Jesse McLain, of Bismarck, was allegedly one of two masked men captured on video yelling expletives and threats, including "take your protestin' ... back home" and "us North Dakota people are going to ... you up," into a vehicle at the hotel at 1400 E. Interchange Ave. on Monday afternoon, according to a Bismarck Police affidavit filed in the case.

Based on descriptions given in the affidavit, McLain is the man wearing a skeleton mask on his face. No charges have yet been filed against the other masked man seen in the video.

In the video, there are two men being threatened in the car. They say they are unable to leave the scene, because they are blocked in by the masked men's vehicles.

McLain is also charged with terrorizing a bystander who caught the incident on video. McLain allegedly approached the bystander in a menacing way, tried to grab his phone and threw ice and snow in his direction.

Police identified McLain after connecting the license plate on his grey van to a local service company in town, where he is an employee and driver of the van, according to the affidavit.

McLain was released from jail on Thursday afternoon on $2,000 bond set by South Central District Judge Gail Hagerty, according to the Burleigh County jail.

Click here or here to view videos of the incident. WARNING: These videos contains graphic language.
Rural residents along a small, remote road north of Bismarck had reason to celebrate Friday when county snowplows arrived to dig them out. They had spent four days unable to budge from their residences following a blizzard that started Monday and lasted into Wednesday.

While residents maintain their quarter-mile passage was neglected by snowplows, Burleigh County highway officials said they must first plow where the most traffic operates.

"The snow has drifted higher than our houses," said Tom Delozier, 1300 Crestfield Ave., part of of Hay Creek Township. Throughout Thursday, he was unable to leave the duplex in which he resides. He said there are three other housing units on the small road.

"I have been calling every day. I have lived here five years, and they plowed once here," said Delozier, who has disabilities and is a student at Bismarck State College. "I haven't been to classes. I cannot walk through 6 feet of snow to get to get out .... My wife had to take the snow blower out at 5:30 a.m. and someone had to pick her up for work."

He said he called two county commissioners and was told they could discuss it at a meeting.

Delozier said he is due consistent road cleanup as a taxpayer and said a state Department of Transportation plow operator refused to clear the road.

"Burleigh County is part of the state," he said.

He questioned what would have happened in an emergency situation and the road was still blocked.

"What happens if there is a fire?" he asked.

"Our No. 1 priority is our major routes, the ones most used and we work down from there  township roads and subdivisions," said county engineer Marcus Hall, adding whiteout conditions compounded problems in moving snow equipment in the rural areas.

Drifting snow forced them to repeat plowing on many roads throughout the storm, said Hall, explaining it is more efficient to clear smaller township roads later.

"There are 495 subdivisions in the county. That is an increase of 94 since Jan. 1, 2007," said Hall, adding there is a greater chance for whiteout conditions in the county's rural areas.

"The city is more illuminated with street lights. The drifting is more of a problem in rural areas, and you don't know when you'll come across a stranded vehicle," said Hall, indicating plows are still doing 12-hour shifts.

The county does make exceptions in emergencies when a township road is blocked, said Hall, citing an example that occurred this week, at 201st Avenue, when snowplows cleared the way so an ambulance and emergency vehicles could access a house.

However, people should not call 911 just because their road has not been plowed yet.

"If it's an emergency, call 911 and they will contact us," Hall said. "We only have so much manpower and so much equipment."

Since 2006, the number of workers for the county highway department has increased by eight operators and one shop worker. There are now 28 operators and three shop workers, according to Hall.
Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chairman Dave Archambault II said the tribe was working Thursday to help people leave the Oceti Sakowin camp, where thousands have been staying to protest the Dakota Access Pipeline.

"A lot of people are willing to leave and we're working to find them transportation and stage them to where they need to be, if they need to catch a bus, we're trying to get them there," Archambault said. "It's dangerous and we don't want to lose anybody. If they want us to help them, we will. It's not about not supporting them, but it's not about fighting the pipeline anymore."

Archambault asked people to leave the camp after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it will deny the pipeline an easement for a river crossing near the reservation, and because fierce winter conditions this week are making camp life an unsafe situation.

Archambault put out the call Monday, but blizzard-like conditions into Wednesday have made it difficult for people to go anywhere. Hundreds took shelter at the nearby Prairie Knights Casino and Lodge and other nearby shelters during the storm which brought deadly wind-chill temperatures.

Kandi Mossett said her and other camp organizers are honoring Archambault's request and working to help people transition out of the camp, but she said it's complicated by numbers who need transportation and getting vehicles started in the cold.

Its not chaotic. Its organized, people are pulling together and assessing needs. Some people want to leave, some cant, some dont. We cant control that, but we are helping to facilitate the transition, she said. Its a process, but we cant snap our fingers and they would all be gone.

A ride-share board is set up at the casino and Mossett said she was hearing people call out looking for rides to places like Pennsylvania, Kansas and Montana.

Mossett said she thinks even more people would be willing to leave the camp if law officials would open up the barricade on N.D. Highway 1806 between the main camp and the pipeline a half-mile north, because it creates a perception that the company will continue to work, despite the corps decision. I think that would be the most helpful, she said.

She also said some people are waiting to hear if Fridays status hearing in the U.S. District Court in Washington has any impact on the legal situation with the pipeline. Theres a lot still in the air, she said.

A coalition of grassroots camp organizers  Sacred Stone Camp, Indigenous Environmental Network, Honor the Earth, and International Indigenous Youth Council  put out a joint statement Thursday. The groups say they support the transition and ask anyone still planning to join the protest camps to stay home and take action in their own communities. The statement says that the original Sacred Stone spirit camp, on private land, will continue through the winter, but is no longer open except by personal invitation. The groups also say they will support people who remain to keep a close eye on the company and advance the tribes reclamation of unceded treaty territory, if they can live self-sufficiently through winter.
Fastjet mulls expansion to South Africa routes

Low cost carrier Fastjet is exploring the option of diversifying its route to South Africa region as it looks at new ways to grow and make profit in the wake of dwindling fortunes.

According to its chief executive officer Nico Bezuidenhout, the continents most industrialized economy is too big to stay out of.

While the Africa-focused carrier already connects Johannesburg with its hubs in Tanzania and Zimbabwe, it has no internal services in South Africa.

The market cannot be ignored, Bezuidenhout, 40, said, adding that the airlines headquarters are relocating from London to Johannesburg.

Bezuidenhout said he''d like to make progress in South Africa next year. Would we consider entering a joint venture agreement? the CEO said. Would we consider M&A activity or would we consider partnering with somebody and doing a greenfield operation? I think all of those options are on the table.

The South African aviation market is reasonably overtraded, Bezuidenhout said. When one enters this market you have to do it carefully and in a considered and measured manner. So we are working on developing that plan.

Fastjet is also evaluating expansion in other markets in southern Africa, though Bezuidenhout said it will resist deploying excess capacity by adding routes too quickly, describing that as the quickest way that you drive an airline into the ground.

www.fastjet.com
There's been much happy buzz about MinnPost's Briana Bierschbach's fine piece posted on Wednesday, New faces at Capitol give hope to those pushing an old issue: overturning Minnesota's ban on Sunday liquor sales.

Bierschbach interviewed Andrew Schmitt, executive director of the Minnesota Beer Activists, and discussed the results of the candidate questionnaire the tenacious advocate sent out:

So ahead of the fall election, Schmitt sent out a survey to every candidate running for the Minnesota Legislature to see where they stood on the Sunday liquor ban. Schmitt didnt get a response back from everyone, but the ones he did get back were encouraging, with new candidates being much more open to lifting the ban. Now, heading into the 2017 session, which will convene just after the start of the new year, both sides of the Sunday sales issue are surveying the new makeup of the Legislature to see where the votes could land. In all, there will be 21 new state senators and 23 new House members in the 201-seat Legislature when session convenes  more than enough votes to swing the issue. It would be very premature to say that [we have the votes], Schmitt said. But there is a lot of new blood, which is good. . . .

Unfortunately for those of us who want to buy our adult beverages seven days a week, another candidate survey and statewide voter guide by those anti-Sunday sales bluenoses at the Minnesota Family Council, reveals that some of the new faces might not have answered Schmitt's survey, while telling the socially conservative party poopers that they would have voted against Sunday sales.

While the Beer Activists appears to have asked the more general question about full legalization of Sunday alcohol sales, the Minnesota Family Council scored a 2016 vote on Eden Prairie Republican Jenifer Loon's bill to allow municipalities to allow Sunday sales if they wished ("Would you have voted to support or oppose authorizing individual municipalities to allow Sunday liquor sales? (2016 House Journal, p. 8059)").

The St. Paul Pioneer Press's Tory Cooney reported last May in No Minnesota Sunday liquor store sales in 2016, either, House votes:

Minnesotas 158-year-old ban on Sunday liquor store sales will remain for at least another year. The House voted 70-56 to keep the ban in place Thursday. Minnesota is one of a dozen with similar blue laws. Most of the other states are southern, along with Utah, Montana, and Indiana. Minnesota already allows a few exceptions, mostly approved in recent years. Craft breweries and microdistilleries can make limited sales on Sundays. Restaurants and bars can serve alcohol with municipal approval. This is an issue of freedom: economic freedom, freedom for consumers, said Rep. Jenifer Loon, R-Eden Prairie, whose proposal would have allowed Sunday sales with municipal approval. The time has come. The side-by-side comparison of the answers from winning candidates in the Minnesota House is embedded below. Since the Minnesota Family Council only included a Sunday alcohol sales question for the Minnesota House in its voter guide, we haven't looked at the Minnesota state senate.

While not a one-on-one comparison of the same language, Bluestem thinks it's enough to slow down celebratory cork popping, as newy elected lawmakers like Republicans Matt Gossell, Sandy Layman and Mary Shapiro told the MFC they would have voted against Loon's bill.

We've pulled out the answers to both surveys by the winners in all 133 Minnesota House seats where voters had a chance to elect someone. (Sorry, MN32B voters). We're hoping this handy chart will help focus the efforts to gain a majority of votes in the House.

Legislators whose position isn't known are highlighted in yellow, while we've bolded those who answered "No" to the MFC survey while not returning the MBA survey--or who have contradictory answers on the surveys (incumbents who likely are more sensitive to the nuances of the differences in the language in the surveys.

MN House & Sunday Sales: Comparing MN Beer Activists Survery & MN Family Council Voter Guide by Sally Jo Sorensen on Scribd

Photo: Women's Christian Temperance Union members picketing for Prohibition. via Minnesota Historical Society. Our grandmother Sorensen was a member, while Grandpa and the family cat were not.

If you appreciate our posts and original analysis, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 33166 770th Ave, Ortonville, MN 56278) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.

Or you can contribute via this link to paypal; use email sally.jo.sorensen at gmail.com as recipient.
Police say a Grand Forks woman shot by her adult son before he took his own life has died of her injuries. Authorities say 53-year-old Jennifer Harrison died at Altru Hospital days after she was found in her home with multiple gunshot wounds to her torso and head. According to officials, 21-year-old Tyler Harrison shot his mother Wednesday at the home they shared in Grand Forks. Police say he turned the gun on himself and was found dead in their driveway. Officials say the shooting was domestic-related, but that their investigation is continuing.
The forum was held at Prey Korki Biodiversity Resource Centre in Svay Rieng town in Cambodia from 1 to 3 December.

Saw Htoo Htoo Sting from the Karen Rivers Watch told KIC News that youths from Burma, Thailand, the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, and Vietnam participated in the forum and established a network amongst themselves to enable a better exchange of information between the countries.

He said: They believe that there is lack of youth participation in river watch issues. The youths who attended the forum established a new network to better cooperate in exchanging information through the internet for issues on the Salween River and the Mekong River.

He also said that the youths agreed to submit statements about biodiversity issues on the Salween and Mekong rivers to the ASEAN chair via the youth network.

During the forum representatives of river watch groups from seven countries explained the work they are doing and discussed how childrens rights are impacted by biodiversity loss.

Over 60 representatives attended the forum including university, high school, and middle school students from river watch groups, local non-governmental organisations, and experts from Germany.

This is the first time the Regional River Watch and Childrens Ecological Rights Forum has been held. The second forum will be held in the Philippines in 2017.

Reporting by Sa Isue for KIC News

Translated by Thida Linn

Edited in English by Mark Inkey for BNI
FARGO  Gov. Jack Dalrymple said the state finds itself outgunned in countering a social media machine manipulated by national environmental groups while the company behind the Dakota Access Pipeline has abdicated its responsibility to defend the controversial project.

Dalrymple also said in a meeting Thursday the sprawling protest presence near Cannon Ball operates outside the control of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and it is difficult for officials to identify a clear leader in the shape-shifting movement.

In a wide-ranging conversation about the states difficulties in dealing with the ongoing protest, Dalrymple expressed frustration that the company building Dakota Access Pipeline, Energy Transfer Partners, has not been vocal in making the case for the project in the public debate.

They have abdicated completely their responsibility to explain the safety of the pipeline, Dalrymple said, adding that the portion planned to pass under Lake Oahe on the Missouri River will be double-strength, buried more than 90 feet beneath the riverbed and carefully monitored.

Its as safe a pipe as you can build, the governor said.

The pipeline is great for our economy, he added, explaining that it could carry half of the oil produced in the state's Bakken.

Native Americans and environmental activists have been protesting to prevent the Dakota Access Pipeline from crossing under Lake Oahe at a point that is just upstream of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation.

The Obama administrations U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced Dec. 4, that it would not grant an easement allowing the pipeline to cross under Lake Oahe, despite granting other permits for the $3.8 billion project designed to carry Bakken crude oil 1,172 miles to a hub in Illinois that provides access to oil refineries near the Gulf Coast.

State officials have been busy maintaining public safety in the face of a sophisticated public relations operation involving paid protesters, strategic advice from public relations professionals and an army of activists posting often misleading information, including fake news, that has shaped national media coverage, Dalrymple said.

National media is killing us, the governor said.

Theres a new paradigm, he said, referring to the influence of social media in molding public opinion. I try to do what I can, but Im no match for that organization. Thats a long-term challenge. That may be going on well after the pipeline is laid.

Some protesters also repeatedly provoked law enforcement officers to try to goad them into a response that would make law enforcement look bad on video that would be widely shared on social media sites, Lt. Gov. Drew Wrigley said.

One notable example came Nov. 20, he said, when protesters refused to back away from a bridge and set fires. When responders used fire hoses to douse the flames, protesters could easily have moved back away from the spray, but didnt, creating a misleading visual representation of the confrontation, Wrigley said.

Wrigley said he and Dalrymple, joined by Col. Michael Gerhart, superintendent of the North Dakota Highway Patrol, and Al Dohrmann, adjutant general of the state National Guard, as well as Ron Rauschenberger, Dalrymples chief of staff, watched a live video feed of the confrontation.

The Native Americans are being used, absolutely being used, by these outside agitators, Wrigley said. The state of North Dakota is not in conflict with the Standing Rock tribe.

Law enforcers have made more than 500 arrests so far, with 90 percent of those arrested coming from outside the state, Gerhart said. Officers have acted with great restraint, but are forced to act when protesters break the law, he said.

Every time it becomes dangerous is because of their actions, he said. As examples, he said officers have been shot at, have faced improvised explosive devices, and have had rocks and burning logs thrown at them.

It has been clear for months that the Standing Rock tribal Chairman David Archambault II is not able to control many of the protesters, Dalrymple said. After the corps announcement on Sunday, Archambault asked protesters, many living in tents or other accommodations that are no match for a harsh North Dakota winter, to go home.

Archambaults influence is non-existent with protesters, said Dalrymple, who said he has a good relationship with the tribal chairman and has visited with him many times during the protests, often by telephone.

The state no longer has any regulatory role in determining the fate of Dakota Access Pipeline, but must provide public safety, including for the protesters, Dalrymple said. The states cost so far is $17 million, he said.

The project will be in limbo until the Donald Trump administration takes over, Dalrymple said.

Im not going to lead us out of a federal easement decision, the governor said.
GRAND FORKS -- A Manvel man convicted of the 2010 slaying of his brother believes he deserves to have his case reopened, but will first need to present new evidence, a judge ruled Thursday.

Rodney Ray Chisholm, 51, was back in Grand Forks District Court Thursday for motion hearings in his murder case.

Chisholm filed a motion to correct the record in June. He also filed requests for discovery, or the full legal record in his case, in April and August, to attempt to work on an appeal. The States Attorneys Office filed a motion to quash the request in August.

At his hearing before Judge Donald Hager Thursday, he claimed the jury in his 2011 trial was not given proper instructions.

There was an interview done with the trial judge a year after the trial was adjourned that brought up some legitimate concerns, said Kiara Kraus-Parr, a defense attorney appointed to Chisholm.

But Kraus-Parr said a private investigator would need to be hired to look into such matters, to see if new evidence is available.

Assistant States Attorney Haley Wamstad said the state does not wish to continue the case until new evidence is brought forth.

Judge Hager asked Chisholm if he would agree to withdraw his motion for discovery until such a time, and Chisholm agreed.

Ill withdraw today with the reservation that if things dont move forward with the new evidence that I will revisit those motions, Chisholm said.

His motion to correct the record in his case remains open, a move largely done so Chisholm can continue being represented by Kraus-Parr to go through the process of attempting to bring forth new evidence.

Last December, the North Dakota Supreme Court denied Chisholms appeal in the case, when his defense tried to argue for a lesser conviction such as manslaughter.

Chisholm admitted to investigators that in June 2010 he hit his older brother, Donald Chisholm, with a metal pipe, tightened a hose clamp around his brother's neck and then buried him, though he contended at his 2011 trial he did it out of self-defense.

A Grand Forks County jury found him guilty of murder in 2011. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Oil and gas royalty owners are seeing more deductions from their checks but companies arent adequately explaining why, a former state representative said.

Bob Skarphol, a Republican from Tioga who recently retired from the Legislature, is asking the North Dakota Industrial Commission to protect royalty owners by requiring companies to clearly explain deductions and adjustments on royalty statements.

Theyre so convoluted and complex that the average person cant understand them, Skarphol said.

The Industrial Commission, which discussed Skarphols request during a meeting Thursday, is taking steps to strengthen state requirements regarding royalty statements and could pursue civil or criminal penalties against companies that dont comply.

Lynn Helms, director of the Department of Mineral Resources, said his office has received more complaints lately due to the collapse in natural gas prices, which has stressed the economics of recovering and processing natural gas liquids.

Most companies switched to fee-based contracts and in many cases the fees exceed the value of the gas, Helms said.

Royalty owners have been getting royalty statements with very large deductions in them, Helms said.

State Century Code says royalty statements must clearly identify the amount of oil or gas sold and the amount and purpose of each deduction made.

A state administrative rule has a slightly different approach, requiring companies to provide an explanation of the deductions if the royalty owner submits a certified letter requesting an explanation.

Skarphol said he has helped constituents write letters seeking an explanation and received no response.

When you try to call them and ask about it, you get rebuffed, Skarphol said. If you dont know the right questions to ask, you get skillfully distracted.

Helms said his office has recently asked companies to submit their latest royalty statements to see if they meet the requirements, and those that have been submitted vary from wonderful to horrifying.

Staff plan to work with companies to get them into compliance, Helms said. If the companies still dont comply, the Industrial Commission would consider issuing a civil complaint or a criminal complaint. Violating the Century Code would be a Class B misdemeanor.

Helms said he anticipates someone will introduce a bill addressing the issue of deductions from royalty payments during the 2017 legislative session.

Gov. Jack Dalrymple, who led his final meeting as chairman of the Industrial Commission before he retires, said its challenging for individual royalty owners to dispute deductions imposed by the companies.

Theyre relying on the fact that the vast majority of royalty owners are not going to come after them, Dalrymple said. Somehow, we have to think about how to strengthen the position of the royalty owner in the whole picture to begin with. That would no doubt take some legislation.

The Industrial Commission also directed Helms to proceed during the next rule-making process a change to the administrative rule regarding royalty statements so its consistent with the Century Code.

If royalty owners have questions about whether the statements they receive meet state requirements, Helms suggested they call his office, which is at (701) 328-8020.
FARGO -- A small boy who suffered a gunshot wound in Williams County earlier this week remains in a medically induced coma in a Fargo hospital, authorities say.

According to those close to the family, the 3-year-old has undergone a blood transfusion and surgery to relieve pressure on his brain, and is showing signs of improvement at Sanford Childrens Hospital.

Police have not released the childs name, but he has been identified via a family friend and a GoFundMe account as Colvin Broome. The account has so far raised $1,590 to help cover medical bills and expenses while the boy is receiving care.

Colvins parents, Stephanie Saunders and Brad Broome, are with him in the hospital, where he is in the intensive care unit.

Theyre just waiting for when he does finally wake up to see whats going on from there, Mary Boyd, a close friend and former co-worker of Broomes, said. They say theyre doing good, they just want to concentrate on him.

Saunders and Colvin moved to the Williston area last month to join Broome, whos worked in the Bakken oil patch for about two years.

A group of friends in Williston, along with Broomes employer, are hoping to raise money in coming weeks to help both parents stay by Colvins side, Boyd said.

Authorities say they believe the boy accidentally shot himself in the head with a gun on Monday afternoon while at home in the Fendee subdivision northwest of Williston.

An investigation has been put on hold while doctors work to keep the boys condition stable.

Its mostly just out of respect for the family, were giving it a little bit of time right now, Capt. Verlan Kvande of the Williams County Sheriffs Office said.

The donation page for Colvin Broome and his family is at https://www.gofundme.com/medical-funds-for-colvin-broome


Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar shakes hand with US Secretary of Defense Ashton B. Carter before their meeting at South Block in New Delhi on Thursday. A PTI Photo.

NEW DELHI (PTI): India and the United States have vowed to expand the bilateral defence cooperation as outgoing American Defence Secretary Ashton Carter met his counterpart Manohar Parrikar here for the record breaking seventh time and termed New Delhi as a "major defence partner".



"Thank you my friend," Carter told Parrikar as both met at the South Block here on Thursday.



Carter said that this is the seventh meeting that he was having meeting with Parrikar. "He is the Defence Minister with whom I have met for the maximum number of times," he said emphasising the importance that US puts on its ties with India.



During the meeting, which was more of a thanksgiving one, Carter said, "Today our defence relationship takes a major step as we designate India as a major defence partner.



A powerful US Congressional conference committee had on November 30 asked Carter and the Secretary of State to take steps necessary to recognise India as America's major defence partner in a bid to strengthen bilateral security cooperation.



The provision mentioned in the voluminous Congressional conference report, running into more than 3,000 pages, on USD 618 billion National Defence Authorisation Bill (NDAA), also asked the Defence Secretary and the Secretary of State for an assessment of the extent to which India possesses capabilities to support and carry out military operations of mutual interest of the two countries.



It now needs to be formally passed by the two chambers of the Congress -- the House of Representatives and Senate -- before US President Barack Obama can sign it into law.



Meanwhile, Parrikar said he appreciated Carter's strong commitment to defence partnership.



"It is not an exaggeration that our defence relations are a major driver in our bilateral relations," he said adding Carter's conceptualisation of the Defence Trade and Technology Initiative (DTTI) shows his interest in bilateral defence cooperation.



Parrikar said he was happy to see conclusion of discussion on major defence partnership.



"During our meeting over the last few years, we have agreed on practical exchanges such as LMEOA," the Defence Minister said.



He added, "I am confident that the defence cooperation will expand on the foundation you have built".



Carter replied saying that both countries have more to do in the years ahead.



"I am proud of what we have achieved my friend," he said.



US President-elect Donald Trump has nominated James Mattis, a retired 4-star Marine Corps general, for the post of the US Defence Secretary.




An internet imagery.

NEW DELHI (PTI): Experts have pitched for greater maritime access and security cooperation between India and Indonesia, in the backdrop of Indonesian President Joko Widodo's visit to the country.



"Both India and Indonesia have not capitalised the promiximity between Andaman & Nicobar and Sumatra. It can be an essential maritime bridge not only because it promotes culture, commerce and trade, but as Malacca Strait is the most important trade route in the world carrying 15 million barrels of oil per day. 60,000 ships pass through the strait every year," said Vice Admiral Anup Singh (Retd) at a panel discussion here on Thursday.



"Both the countries should act together through maritime forces and other mechanisms to secure the region near Malacca Strait," he added.



Diplomat and former Ambassador to Indonesia, Amb Sudhir Devare said, "India stood by Indonesia during financial crisis and also when the country became a democracy. Commerce, culture, security needs to be developed between the two countries."



Speaking at the event, retired Prof Baladas Ghoshal, Secretary General, Society for Indian Ocean Studies, said, both India and Indonesia have to look for opportunities for co-operation in terms of Maritime security and other concerns regarding strategic issues in both Indian Ocean and South China Sea.



"Though Strategic Partnership was signed between India and Indonesia in a number of areas, it has not progressed much. I hope the recent visit of the president will look into the aspect," he added.


Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 09/12/2016 (2155 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Local senior Janette Brown faced a difficult housing situation in 2009.

Living in a mobile home, shed begun relying on family members for household tasks such as snow removal.

It was a less-than-ideal situation, she reflected on Thursday, noting that she knew then that it was time to do what many seniors do and move on to an apartment or condominium.

Tim Smith/The Brandon Sun Janette Brown is happy to be living at 620 McDiarmid Place, a Western Manitoba Seniors Non-Profit Housing Co-operative building that provides affordable accommodations for seniors and a strong sense of community for residents.

While she knew what she had to do, she also had to face the reality that it wasnt realistic, with apartments and condominium units within the tight Brandon housing market outside of her financial reach.

Around the time she faced this difficult realization, Brown heard a piece on the radio about a group of seniors trying to get a co-operative affordable seniors housing complex constructed, so she looked into it.

Joining up, she secured a unit at the Western Manitoba Seniors Non-Profit Housing

Co-operatives 34-unit building at 620 McDiarmid Drive, aptly called 620 McDiarmid Place, which opened in 2013.

On Thursday, Brown  who currently serves as the co-operatives secretary  joined board members in chipping away at an ongoing effort to add another 63 affordable seniors housing units to the community.

She wants other seniors who are facing the difficult housing situation she once faced to have the same opportunity that she had, especially since there are many people out there who are a lot worse off than she once was.

A retired teacher, Brown had a pension to rely on, which is not something all seniors can say.

The working people of today; its amazing those who only have Canada Pension or Old Age Security, she reflected.

With at least 1,700 Brandon seniors currently on wait lists for affordable housing, the 63 units the board of volunteers is working on will only be a drop in the bucket, board president Harvey Douglas said.

In the provincial governments ongoing drafting of a housing strategy, Douglas said that he hopes 620 McDiarmid Place is used as a positive example moving forward.

Government funding, co-op tenant equity contributions and assistance from the City of Brandon has kept units affordable, he shared, offering this as the type of multi-level partnership everyone should be striving to do more of.

The federal, provincial and municipal and non-profit groups need to have a partnership agreement  a partnership deal, Douglas explained. They have to help everything move ahead in a smoother manner.

Politics aside, Brown said that shes just happy to live in a space where shes comfortable, is allowed to keep her cat and where theres a strong sense of community.

In addition to affordability, 620 McDiarmid Place offers residents a sense of community, with regular efforts made at linking everyone together with various activities and volunteer efforts.

Reflecting on her situation, Brown concluded, Im lucky.

 tclarke@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @TylerClarkeMB
Carl and Angel Larsen are Minnesota filmmakers who founded their own company, Telescope Media Group, with a very specific purpose: to glorify God through top-quality media production. Christian belief and a passion for Gods story has always been at the center of their business.

Now, due to a state law and statements from government officials, their religious beliefs expose them to a range of new threats as it relates to filming weddings. Under the Minnesota Human Rights Act, the Larsens may face severe financial penalties and up to 90 days in jail for declining to create expression in support of same-sex weddings.

A government that tells you what you cant say is bad enough, says Carl. But a government that tells you what you must say is much worse. You cant force people to promote things that violate their beliefs.

In response, the Larsens have partnered with Alliance Defending Freedom to file a federal lawsuit known as a pre-enforcement challenge, arguing that the state law threatens their rights and runs afoul of First and 14th amendments to the U.S. Constitution. As the ADF summarized in a recent news release: The Minnesota Department of Human Rights has construed that law to force creative professionals like the Larsens to promote objectionable messages even though they gladly serve everyone and decide what stories to tell based on the storys message, not any clients personal characteristics.

For the Larsens, their business and the creative expression it generates is intricately tied to their religious commitments and objectives. Artistic output is incredibly personal, Carl says in a new video that highlights their story. I believe all of us want to be part of a big story, the story. And storytelling, as a professional, taps on that reality of the human heart.

As they explain in their complaint, the existence and success of their business rests entirely on their freedom of artistic expression:

Because the Larsens believe that every human is made in the image of God and is loved by God, they gladly work with all peopleregardless of their race, sexual orientation, sex, religious beliefs, or any other classification. The Larsens simply desire to use their unique storytelling and promotional talents to convey messages that promote aspects of their sincerely-held religious beliefs, or that at least are not inconsistent with them. It is standard practice for the owners of video and film production companies to decline to produce videos that contain or promote messages that the owners do not want to support or that violate or compromise their beliefs in some way.

Indeed, the freedom to live and work according to our conscience is enjoyed by many on the other side of the aisle. As Senior Counsel Jeremy Tedesco reminds us, the Larsens should be treated no differently:

Filmmakers shouldnt be threatened with fines and jail simply for disagreeing with the government. Every Americanincluding creative professionalsshould be free to peacefully live and work according to their faith without fear of punishment. For example, a fashion designer recently cited her artistic freedom as a family-owned company to announce that she wont design clothes for Melania Trump because she doesnt want to use her company and creative talents to promote political views she disagrees with. Even though the law in D.C. prohibits political affiliation discrimination, do any of us really think the designer should be threatened with fines and jail time? The Larsens simply seek to exercise these same freedoms, and thats why they filed this lawsuit to challenge Minnesotas law.

For more read the full complaint.
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 09/12/2016 (2155 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The past few weeks have been incredibly exciting for the Manitoba craft beer scene. Half Pints, Torque and Winnipegs newest brewery Little Brown Jug have all opened up their tasting rooms just in time for the pre-holiday rush.

If youve never been to a tasting room before, its essentially a small pub attached to the brewery that serves the beers that are made on location. Unlike your typical pub, they dont serve food in order to keep costs low, but the typical price of a 16-ounce pint is around $6, making it well worth the trip.

So far, my favourite was Torques taproom as they have a self-serve popcorn machine  who doesnt love popcorn. With Torque being just down the street from the Winnipeg airport, its going to be a hot spot for pre-flight beers and with out-of-town tourists.

For those looking to try out Torque, their beer is now officially available at the three main Liquor Marts in Brandon. Currently you can find their What the Helles Lager, Diesel Fitter Stout and Finish Line IPA in cans at these Liquor Marts.

Christmas is only a couple weeks away and one thing I always think about this time of year is what I want for the holidays. Being a beer geek who buys just about every beer he can find, I generally try everything so its tough to surprise me. Many of you are likely looking to get beer-themed gifts for friends and family this month but dont know where to start. This is my guide on what to get the beer geek who drinks everything.

 Glassware  Theres no such thing as having too many beer glasses. In fact, most types of beer work best with a certain kind of glass. Stokes in Shoppers Mall (stokesstores.com) has a variety of beer appropriate glassware from snifters to pilsner glasses. I recommend the Micro Brasserie glass set. Hudsons Bay (thebay.com) has a great selection of beer glassware from Spiegelau including glasses made specifically for IPAs, stouts and wheat ales. I recommend Spiegelaus four-piece beer-tasting kit but at $60 it may be a bit pricey for some people. Final Touchs 13-piece beer-tasting set includes five sample-size glasses that are great for the most popular craft beers. It also comes with six coasters and a tasting guide that helps educate beer drinkers a bit on the beer theyre drinking.

 Swag  Every brewery has beer swag (T-shirts, toques, hoodies) and I know beer geeks love to wear the swag of their favourite breweries. Torque Brewing (torquebrewing.beer) has a great online store with a great selection of his and her T-shirts, hoodies, hats and even toques. One stocking stuffer Ive been recommending everyone this year is Torques premium cast iron bottle opener ($20) made by Winnipeg areas Cloverdale Forge. Barn Hammer and Half Pints dont have online stores so you would have to get their swag at their tasting rooms, but that would mean a special trip to the tasting room  everybody wins! Neepawas Farmery (farmery.ca) has a great selection of clothing, glasses, and even a holiday gift pack that includes four cans of their various beers, beer coasters, flapjack mix and bread mix.

 Homebrew Kits  If you really like beer, home brewing kits are an affordable way to experiment and try new beers. Wine Sense (130 18th St.) carries Saskatoons Paddock Wood Brewings ReadyBrew kits while Brewers Direct (817 Rosser Ave.) carries a variety of beer kits as well as brewing equipment for those who are getting more serious about homebrewing.

 Beer  Of course one of the easiest things to get a beer geek or snob is beer. The three main Liquor Marts in Brandon as well as the Keystone Motor Inn have a great variety of beers to please the strongest palate. For beer gifts, I always suggest make your own six pack with a theme such as IPAs with six different India pale ales, or a Manitoba-only theme with cans/bottles only from breweries in Manitoba. Alex, at the downtown Liquor Mart, is a wealth of information when it comes to pairing the right beers with the right palate.

 Beer Advent Calendar  Oh wait, thats too late for that this year but the downtown store usually gets a few different beer advent calendars every year at the beginning of November. Thats a pre-Christmas gift that every beer geek enjoys right before Christmas  trying a new beer each and every day.
Leading thinkers from around the world along with other attendees gathered at the Bloomsbury Hotel in London to attend the Acton Institutes Crisis of Liberty in the West conference on December 1st. The theme of the conference was centered on the economic and political struggles that North American, European, and other Western nations are currently facing. The conference featured many key leaders in the areas of theology, conservative social thought, and economics among others. The entire conference was recorded and can be viewed online at the Acton website.

One of the key speakers at the event was 2016 Novak Award winner Ryan Anderson. The Novak Award recognizes new outstanding research by scholars early in their academic careers who demonstrate outstanding intellectual merit in advancing the understanding of theologys connection to human dignity, the importance of limited government, religious liberty, and economic freedom. Every year, the Novak Award winner makes a formal presentation on such questions at an annual public forum known as the Calihan Lecture. This year that took place at the Crisis of Liberty in the West conference in London where Anderson was recognized for winning the Novak Award and was given the $10,000 that comes as a part of the award.

This years Calihan Lecture given by Anderson focused on different ways that liberty has been taken away and how liberty can be reconstructed. First, Anderson explained three different ways that our liberty has been taken away; bad intellectual defenses of freedom, the collapse of civil society that promotes human flourishing, and cronyism. Anderson says this about cronyism:

Many of the criticisms levelled at free markets are in reality directed at the exact opposite: crony capitalism, the collusion of Big Business and Big Government, frequently aided and abetted by Big Media and Big Law. Businesses that are too big to fail, that rig the economic system in their favor, that hire the best lobbyists to get government to regulate their industry in their favor, to create barriers to entry for competitors and newcomers, to weaken the labor market. Cronyism takes place whenever these groups collude to set the system up against the little guy and the new guy, when they go outside of transparent normal operating procedures to get a result in their favor, at the expense of the common good.

In the second half of Andersons lecture he offers a theory of how freedom can serve the common good. He breaks this down into three parts; natural law and economic freedom, natural law social justice, and spiritual crisis. Concerning natural law and economic freedom, Anderson says this:

In a word, we need to rediscover the natural law arguments for liberty. Such arguments ground the rightness of economic liberty, for example, in human nature and how liberty enables human flourishing. They take seriously mans nature to labor for his keep, and how people should ordinarily interact with one another on a voluntary level. How we must work together to meet human needs, and how such coordination and togetherness should ordinarily be achieved through free associations and free exchanges. Government isnt the primary word for what people do togethercivil society, church, charity, and small businesses are how we normally work together. Natural law arguments take seriously mans nature as a self-directing, freely choosing agent, and conclude that man needs the space and the room to determine himself. More than a Lockean self-owner, they see man as a self-author. It is by exercising freedom of economic initiative and freedom of exchange that people ordinarily author their lives.

Ryan Anderson is the William E. Simon Senior Research Fellow in American Principles and Public Policy at The Heritage Foundation. He is also the founder and editor of Public Discourse, the online journal of the Witherspoon Institute in Princeton, New Jersey, and author of the recently released book Truth Overruled: The Future of Marriage and Religious Freedom.
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 09/12/2016 (2155 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Id never had this before.

Sure, Id tasted plenty of Champagnes. And its certainly not because I can afford to buy them, because I cant. Its just that Ive been fortunate to have been given the opportunity through my wine work  the incredible one-time-only Champagne tasting as an adjunct to the Winnipeg Wine Festival six or seven years ago springs to mind  or gifts from crazy-generous and loving friends, to taste one of the worlds most revered beverages from a variety of vintners over the years.

But, while I love Champagne, particularly Veuve Clicquot Brut (my cousins favourite is Pol Roger, and I like it, too, along with Moet & Chandon, Taittinger, and Mumm, of course  Ive not tried Dom Perignon or Cristal, much as Id like to, but theyre insanely expensive) Id never had what arrived at my door, delivered by or from the Liquor Mart.

As a tangent, because I was intrigued by this, I called the downtown Liquor Mart to find out a bit more. They  and this service is only available from the downtown store  contract with a local delivery company, and the cost is actually quite reasonable, at least in my opinion. For the first case  this is Liquor Mart lingo, obviously  which means either one bottle or as many as you can fit in a bag  not a box  so about four bottles of wine, the delivery fee is $11. For any extra cases  again, thats a bag with one or however many bottles in it and I only asked about wine, not beer or hard liquor call the store at 204-571-5105 if you want more particulars  its an additional $2. So if you have one case at $11, and two additional cases at $2 each, youre looking at $15 plus tax. Make sense? I hope so.

Oh, and they only deliver Monday through Saturday  not Sunday  and only until 7 p.m. This could be an invaluable service if unexpected company arrives or if youve forgotten to pick up something you need before planned company arrives  in many instances, your time is more valuable than the amount of it thats consumed by jumping in the car, heading to the store, shopping, and then driving back home.

Anyway, back to the Champagne.

My husband answered the phone, and a cheery gentleman said he had a delivery from the Liquor Mart for me, and asked if wed be home for the next little while. My husband, who was perplexed, said we werent going anywhere.

When he told me what the caller had told him, I said, Whaa?

Id never heard of such a thing. But sure enough, a chap knocked on the door about 20 minutes later with a brown paper Liquor Mart bag, and said, Its from Kate. And as he left, and I shut the door behind him, I stood there, completely puzzled.

Which Kate? I wondered. I have a few close friends with that name, but I couldnt imagine any of them sending me Champagne. And not just any Champagne. But Ill get to that in a second.

After a few minutes of contemplation, and no answers to my question, I said to my hubby, Im going to call the Liquor Mart to see who this is from. This is crazy!

So I called. The fellow at the other end of the line said he had to check the paperwork, and said he remembered it wasnt from in town, or Manitoba, for that matter, everything snapped into place.

Kate  from Montreal! I said.

Thats right! he answered, and I could hear him smile (which sounds ridiculous, but you know what I mean).

I should have known. I cant believe I was so thick. Kate from Montreal  my almost-sister  has been gifting my husband, Ken, and me with Champagne  the Veuve Clicquot Brut, because she knows its my favourite  for our mega-special occasions, usually anniversaries, for years. And our 30th anniversary was in just a few days.

But this bottle wasnt the label I was used to. Sure, it was Veuve and yes, it was Brut, but the packaging was slightly different. I initially wondered if the winery had change its classic orange look. But upon closer examination, I realized this was no ordinary Veuve Brut. This was 2004. A vintage Champagne.

It was about then I burst into tears. Kates always spoiled me and us rotten, but this was insane. I know my liquor store prices. A bottle of Veuve Brut is $71.49. But the vintage stuff is $97.49.

I sat down, still a bit in shock. But shed done it. This was ours. And as we always had with her extravagant Veuve gifts over the years, we planned to drink it on our 30th.

Which we did. Id carefully chilled the bottle, and was even more cautious when I opened it. I was rewarded for my efforts with a comforting little poufft when the cork released. (Everybody thinks it should pop, but the gentle puff of air is what youre after. Trust me.)

I poured two glasses and took one to my hubby. I smelled it. Its aroma was even more delicate, more refined than the Veuve Brut. We toasted each other, and our 30 years of married life, and I took a sip.

Heaven.

It took me a few more sips to completely realize this was truly a step up from the regular Veuve, which I didnt think was possible. The yeasty doughiness that I so

love in Champagne, and particularly Veuve, was there, but it was even more elegant. There was a creaminess that the regular Veuve didnt have, at least not to the same degree. There was that expected tang of citrus, except it wasnt tangy at all. It was just there. Present. Floating.

So how on earth would I describe it?

The realization came to me in a flash.

Lemon meringue pie.

It was incredible.

Im a genius, I thought, totally confident in and very pleased by the uniqueness of my assessment.

At least I was, until Corral Centre Liquor Mart product ambassador Cindy Rousseau asked me how Id liked the vintage Veuve  Id told her about receiving it the week before.

I have three words to describe it, I said, pausing for dramatic effect. Lemon. Meringue. Pie.

Oh, thats a very common description of great Champagne, she said, unintentionally bursting my bubble, but legitimately delighted Id had such a perfect and memorable experience.

Aarrgghh! I said. I thought I was so clever!

We both laughed, with me leading the way. So much for my unique interpretation.

But if you want to spoil someone you love this Christmas season, especially if theyre a bubbly fan, and especially if they like real Champagne, this vintage Veuve is incredible.

Oh, and Kate? Not that Im in any rush for time to pass, but Im already looking forward to Kens and my 35th anniversary.
Sky has received a takeover bid from 21st Century Fox.

The broadcaster says it's reached an agreement in principle with the US media giant.

The news has sent Sky's share price soaring by more than 30%.

A takeover would have to be approved by shareholders and regulators.
Our favourite Facebook group has produced a patriotic poem that will bring a tear to your eye.

Oh my god what a complete Aisling has had its finger on the pulse of modern day Ireland since it's creation.

Aidan Strangeman called on the groups members to contribute to a poetry experiment and included all lines that had ten likes or more on the page.

The result is phenomenal.

For those of you who are not members of this prestigious online gathering of Irish folk, I have copied the final result below.

We salute you OMGWACA members, you hold more power than you know.

IRELAND IS

(written by the members of OMGWACA)

"Leigh anois go curamach, ar do chuid phaipear, na treoreacha,

agus na gceisteanna, a ghabann le chuid na Nollaig.

BOOOOP."

Ireland is fluent in Irish,

as long it's just two people asking to go to the loo.

Ireland is a Memmeh shouting

"Close the door, you're letting the heat out"

every time you walked in or out of a room.

Ireland is a Deddeh who can't say how much he misses you.

Where it rains in the front garden,

but it's a rainbow out the back

Beautiful, but terrible at handling her cash

Ireland is a press, full of plastic bags

Ireland is a family, walking in for a chat...

...when you're sleeping next to your shocked foreign spouse

and you're not really sure if you're going out or "out out"?

It's a seven letter word but no use in Scrabble,

(as it's a proper noun.)

It's an anagram of "dire anal"

(if you add in an "A", and wash out your filthy mouth!)

It's bacon, it's cabbage, it's acting the maggot

It's the official home of rainbow marriage

And also the home of chicken fillet rolls

Where warms hearts send blood to numb toes

while we listen to the death notices on our radios

and give single finger waves on country roads.

Where a hug means you're safe now, you're home,

or "home home."

It's a woman whose body and choices are not her own

It's a fictional priest with a quote for every occasion

Where atheists baptise children, so they can get an education

Ireland is midnight mass at 9 o' clock

It's opening a Roses' tin to find it's a sewing box

Where Craic is good and Bold is bad.

A place you're allowed slag off if you're Irish,

but woe betide anyone else who slags.

It's thousands of people on a Facebook forum

taking the piss out of themselves

Where the wit is dry but the weather is wet

Ireland is agreeing, except on the "in" breath

(you know, like, "yeah-yeah, yeah, yeah-yeah, yeah...")

Ireland is moist.

It's a land where rain defies the laws of physics

Where loving yourself is seen as being too big for your boots,

contributing to crippling mental illness.

a soggy little rock, onto which our dreams cling like limpets

Where every child of any faith is welcome to come along and be Catholic

Where "Pennys" is an acceptable response to a compliment on your outfit

Ireland is a Tayto sandwich

Ireland puts clothes on the line in November

because using the tumble dryer would be fierce extravagance altogether!

It's a damp-eyed tune with a wooden spoon

and worrying about that person you gave directions to

where "few naggins?" is the answer to all problems

Ireland is home, even for yer wan who is "forrin"

A mam waking ya up saying it's 8am when it's only 7.15

A Mammy offering you a sandwich

even though she's not your Mammy.

Ireland is my home, my heart and my blood.

and Memmeh not answering the phone to about 10 calls

then having a conniption when you miss one!

Ireland is not using the good room

GAA in September, no drinks in November

Where a potato in a suit is a national treasure

It's the squint on a loch against the cold autumn sun

and the fog of glorious stories condensing on the pub's

window pane

it's easy to leave, but impossible to escape

Ireland is thanking the bus driver for getting us there, safe.

Ireland is where NO UNNECESSARY JOURNEYS should take place!

Ireland is a box of fancy biscuits no one is allowed to eat, just in case

Ireland is like your mother, it drives you mad but you love it.

And thinking that stuff people from literally every country do is uniquely Irish

(even though everybody does it)

Ireland is green fields, Ireland is laughter.

Ireland is politicially a disaster

When your Memmeh says "We're not made of money"

as an answer to almost everything

(even though the answer is usually Sudocrem.)

Ireland is cutting the garden because the neighbours did theirs.

Your Memmeh saying ''tis far from

(insert notiony, notion thing here) ye were reared'

every time you express an idea that's not her's.

Ireland is the tinny sound of Micheal O Muircheartaigh

rattling through the wireless on a Sunday in late September

Ireland is giving directions by describing a pub

Ireland is stuck between Brexit and Trump

And yet, a story so big mere borders cannot contain her

and she's told around the world by her daughters and her sons

Ireland is a street where people sleep under Christmas Lights.

Ireland is solving the entire world's problems a cup of tay at a time

Ireland is not being able to say goodbye...

"okay, Bye now, bye, bye, ok , I'll see you later, bye, bye, byeeeee, bye, bye..."
By David Raleigh

Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams has come under further political pressure about what he may know about who who carried out the 1983 IRA murder of prison officer Brian Stack.

Austin Stack, a son of Brian Stack, yesterday confronted Mr Adams during a pre-arranged Sinn Fein press conference in Dublin.

Mr Stack accused Mr Adams of telling lies about his knowledge of the murder of his father.

Mr Adams has strenuously denied the claims.

Austin Stack said Mr Adams should give gardai the name of a senior IRA member who agreed to meet him and his brother Oliver Stack in a blacked out van and tell them what they knew of the murder.

Speaking in Limerick this morning, Michael Noonan, a former Fine Gael Justice Minister, specifically called on Mr Adams to ensure he gave gardai the identities of the two men involved in the setting up of this meeting.

"There is a particular person the Stack family met, and there is a particular van driver who took them there, and both of them may be in a position to give information to the guards, and like any (responsible) citizens they should do so now. Mr Adams should ensure that they do so," Mr Noonan said.

"Murder is murder, and Brian Stack was doing his job in Portloaise Prison, and the gardai still have that enquiry open. Any person, whether they are a TD, or a councillor, or a straightforward citizen, has an obligation to give information to the guards if they have it about a murder that was purported," he added.

Mr Noonan said any attempt by Sinn Fein "to be trying to mix up (the murder of Mr Stack) with the peace process is a load of nonsense".

Michael Noonan said he had "no evidence whatsoever" that political rivals of Sinn Fein's were behind the Stack family confronting Mr Adams in Dublin yesterday

"I think what the leaders of the main political parties are asking is normal in any democratic society; if a murder takes place, and people have information about that murder, they are obliged to give it to the investigating authorities, in this case An Garda Siochana," Mr Noonan added.
A post office worker who stole from ten elderly people by skimming their old age pensions has avoided a prison sentence.

Imelda Hanlon (36) stole a total of 18,752 over four years before she was caught. She used the money to pay her mortgage and gave some of it to her partner's children in an effort to forge a closer relationship with them.

Hanlon, of Oak Court Grove, Palmerstown, Dublin pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to ten sample counts of theft, from an 81 count indictment, at Chapelizod Post Office between 2010 and 2014.

Detective Garda Shane Kelly told Fiona McGowan BL, prosecuting, that Hanlon worked part time in the post office which was owned by her mother.

She targeted old age pension payments because the post office system allows pensioners to let them build up before collecting them. When customers came in to collect a few weeks worth of payments, Hanlon would pay out most of the money but keep some back for herself.

The customers did not notice the missing money as Hanlon only took small amounts from each person and spread the thefts over four years.

In 2014, An Post launched an investigation into unusual transactions at the branch and Hanlon admitted the thefts. An Post reimbursed the victims and Hanlon has since repaid An Post.

Defence counsel, Katherine McGillicuddy BL, said the thefts started out as opportunistic and then became a habit for Hanlon. She said Hanlon was relieved when she was finally caught.

Ms McGillicuddy said her client had poor decision-making skills. Hanlon used some of the money to pay maintenance for her partner's children and to take them out to dinner. Counsel said she did not live a lavish lifestyle.

Counsel added she was let go from the post office and hadn't returned since.

Judge Martin Nolan said it was a serious crime which targeted a vulnerable section of the community.

Lets hope they dont lose their trust in their fellow human beings. Most people are trustworthy, especially in An Post, the judge said.

He imposed a two-year sentence on Hanlon, which he suspended on strict conditions.
Tight security will be in place next week for the funeral of murder victim Aidan ODriscoll.

Although the post mortem on the 37-year-olds body concluded yesterday, his remains can be held up until Monday under the Coroners Act.

His funeral will take place next week amid very tight security given his links to dissident republicanism.

Gardai continue their hunt for the two men who approached and shot him on Old Commons Road on Wednesday.

Searches are underway for the weapon used in the daring attack.

Mr ODriscoll had recently returned playing football with Delanys GAA who announced that they were cancelling all activities this weekend as a mark of respect to his family.

Club chairman Brian Twomey expressed deep sadness at his death: I knew Aidan for about 30 years. He was a terrible nice fella and couldnt do enough for anyone.

Gardai have appealed for witnesses who have not yet spoken to gardai to come forward.

Superintendent Mick Comyns made a special appeal to anyone with information about three vehicles linked to the murder  a silver Nissan Almera burnt out at Redemption Road, a white Vauxhall Astra van burnt out at Killeens and a red Opel Astra car seen in Killeens.

Gardai can be contacted at Anglesea Street station on (021) 4522000.

This story first appeared in the Evening Echo.
Ghana bets on new cement factory to sate rising demand

Ghana has commissioned a new cement producing company that will produce one million tonnes yearly as demand from construction and government project soars.

The factory will become the third local cement manufacturing company after Ghacem and Diamond Cement.



The Factory is spread over 14 acres of Land inside the Tema Freezone Enclave and has cutting edge automation as well as state of the art processing facilities with a packing plant for bagged cargo and silos for bulk cement distribution. One of the highlights is also a modern office structure of 1,050sq.m. which houses a sophisticated laboratory, insulated humid room and all Managerial and Executive offices.



Speaking on behalf of President John Dramani Mahama during the commissioning, Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Haruna Iddrisu expressed hope that a substantial amount of the factorys proceeds would be channeled into Corporate Social Responsibility programs.



In an address, Mr Anas Sefrioui, President of the CIMAF group said the factory would produce one million tons of cement annually and had employed about 1,200 workers from the beginning of the project to its current state.



An investment of 60 million Euros was put into the plant by The Addoha Group of Morocco who under Ciments de lAfrique Companies have been at forefront of developing Cement Factories across West Africa. They are already present in 12 countries and are expanding into new territories.



The factorys civil works were done by Ghanaian firm, FNJ Investments Ltd. The project which started in June 2015 was completed in less than 18 months. A workforce of 300 persons was employed on the site directly including Engineers, Foremen, Supervisors and Machine Operators.



The CEO of FNJ Investments, Mr. Niranjan Renati, disclosed the company is fully geared to accept projects more complicated than CIMAF as they have the necessary skillset and infrastructure including Heavy Machinery, Batching Plants and specialist machinery and tools.



He said FNJ currently employs a multi-disciplinary team including several expats who bring the necessary skills from their vast experience working abroad, making FNJ Investments the top choice for clients looking for reliable construction companies to deliver their projects on time and in budget.



FNJ Investments was turnkey responsible for all civil works on the site including Grinding Section, Silos, Packing Plants, Storage Warehouses, Electrical and Mechanical Rooms and Workshop Facilities and infrastructure facilities like the Roads and Drains.



FNJ Investments has a wide range of experience in not only commercial projects such as CIMAF factory, but also some prestigious industrial and residential projects in and around Greater Accra.

Their record par excellence attracts them to multinational investors such as the Addoha Group, Wienco Group, Olam International even though they have been operational for only four years in the Ghanaian Market. The single longest warehouse in Ghana of 20,000m2 was built by FNJ Investments Ltd in 2012 and is the key export facility for Cocobod Operations today. They have built facilities for Agricultural commodity processing and Storage Facilities for various clients.

www.groupeaddoha.com
This year marks the 125th anniversary of two key documents in the development of modern Christian social thought: the papal encyclical Rerum Novarum by Pope Leo XIII and the speech The Social Question and the Christian Religion by Abraham Kuyper. To mark this anniversary and to commend these works to readers today, Acton Institute has recently released Makers of Modern Christian Social Thought: Leo XIII and Abraham Kuyper on the Social Question.

This volume consists of the texts of these two key sources, along with an introduction that provides some background on the social question in the nineteenth century as well as the thematic similarities and convergences between the two works. There is also some additional bibliography for further reading and research, making this volume an ideal resource for students and others interested exploring the foundations of modern Christian social thought in Roman Catholic and Reformed traditions.

One of the essential features of this edition is its inclusion of the full text of Kuypers published speech, complete with its extensive reference apparatus. Earlier editions have appeared in English and have served well to make Kuypers insights accessible and readable. These earlier versions sometimes omitted or elided Kuypers notes, however, which can obscure the depth and detail of Kuypers insights and his engagement with the literature of his time.



As an example of the difference, we can compare the text of a note as it appeared in an earlier version of the speech, published as The Problem of Poverty, and the full text of the note as it appears in the new edition. The very first note included in The Problem of Poverty reads thus:

We must admit, to our shame, that the Roman Catholics are very var ahead of us in their study of the social problem. Indeed, very far ahead. The action of the Roman Catholics should spur us to show more dynamism. The encyclical Rerum Novarum of Leo XIII states the principles which are common to all Christians, and which we share with our Roman Catholic compatriots.

So far so good. Kuyper introduces an occasion for his speech and uses it as a spur for future Reformed engagement with the social question. This note, however, is actually the third note in Kuypers original published text, and the much more extensive note (with some hopefully helpful editorial notation) appears below:

We must admit, to our shame, that the Roman Catholics are far ahead of us in their study of the social question  very far in fact. Although the school of Le Play  who in his well-known works La Reforme sociale en France, 2 vols. (Paris: E. Dentu, 1866); LOrganisation du travail (Tours: A. Mame, 1870); and LOrganisation de la famille (Paris: Tequi, 1871), more or less went his own way  is not identical with the Catholic school, still we do not ignore that men like Ketteler, Christoph Moufang, Claudio Jannet, Albert de Mun, Charles-Emile Freppel, Charles Perin and others have not only engaged in serious study of the social question but have also laid out the direction we should follow. La question agraire (Paris: Retaux-Bray, 1887), by Rudolf Meyer and G. Ardent; Le Patron: sa fonction, ses devoirs, ses responsbilites, and De la richesse dans les societes chretiennes (Paris: Victor Lecoffre, 1861), by Perin; and to a certain extent also [a work by novelist] Arvede Barine, LOeuvre de Jesus-ouvrier (Paris: Fischbacher, 1879), provide many surprising insights into the practical ideas of these authors. But Catholic activity is even more impressive when we look at their frequent conferences, their periodical literature, and the associations they have founded. In particular the Unions de Patrons en faveur des Ouvriers [Employers unions for the benefit of workers] in Belgium, about which Rev. Pierson will give more details at our congress, is an excellent undertaking that deserves to be emulated. The clear pronouncements of Cardinal Newman are familiar enough, and although German and French Catholics are somewhat divided  the former lean more toward relying on the State, the latter more toward the Church alone  the encyclical of Leo XIII will probably soon bring them together. Thus Catholic activities should spur us on to show greater energy (although Catholics here at home are still mostly inactive)  all the more so since we Protestants can learn more from the Roman Catholics than from the Knights of Labor in America, who did start out under Stephens in 1869 by requiring an oath on the Bible but abandoned it already in 1878 at the orders assembly in Philadelphia. At the assembly in Richmond in 1886 the entire order went over to socialism lock, stock, and barrel. The Christlichsoziale Arbeiterspartei, too, gave us less by comparison, both because it leans too much in the direction of state socialism and because it fails to penetrate to the fundamental principles involved. Precisely the latter was done by the encyclical, and what is more, it dealt solely with those principles that all Christians hold in common and that we too share with our Roman Catholic fellow countrymen. For the Knights of Labor, see the informative work by Arthur Hadley, Socialism in the United States [Ed. note: Although Arthur T. Hadley commented widely on economic matters, including the Knights of Labor, efforts to locate a work by this title have been unsuccessful. Kuyper may have intended to refer here to the work of another prominent economist of that era, Richard T. Ely, such as Recent American Socialism (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1885), and Socialism in America, North American Review 142, no. 355 (June 1886): 51925], and Amedee Villard, Le Socialisme moderne; son dernier etat (Paris: Guillaumin, 1889), 190. A good survey of the Catholic movement is Landelin Winterer, Le socialisme international; Coup doeil sur le mouvement socialiste de 1885 a 1890 (Paris: Lecoffre; Muhlhausen: Gangloff, 1890).

There are good reasons for preferring the former version to the latter, perhaps, including readability and accessibility. Earlier versions of this speech remain useful as readers editions, and in fact James Skillens editorial headings in the speech have been retained in this new version as an aid to the reader. But for those who are interested in engaging more deeply into the literature of the era with which Kuyper himself was engaged, this complete edition, newly translated by Harry Van Dyke, will be indispensable.

Kuypers The Social Question and the Christian Religion will also appear in a forthcoming volume On Charity and Justice in the Abraham Kuyper Collected Works in Public Theology.
Conjoined twins in California have become separate toddlers after a 17-hour operation.

Two-year-olds Eva and Erika Sandoval were born joined from the chest down, according to the Sacramento Bee.

Father Arturo Sandoval called the surgery at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford a "major success".

The twins are expected to remain in intensive care for up to two weeks, hospital officials said.

Before surgery, the girls shared a bladder, liver, parts of their digestive system and a third leg. Their parents say each girl retains portions of the organs they shared.

Each still has one leg. The third limb was used for skin grafts to cover surgical wounds.

Stanford surgeons told the newspaper both girls would probably need a prosthetic leg.

AP
Hillary Clinton has spoken out against the "epidemic" of fake news in one of her first public addresses since losing the US Presidential election.

The former Democratic presidential nominee said the rise of fake news is a "danger that must be addressed and addressed quickly".

Speaking on Capitol Hill at the unveiling of a portrait in honour of retiring Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, she called on officials in the public and private sectors to combat the spread of "malicious false propaganda".

Mrs Clinton said: "The epidemic of malicious fake news and false propaganda that flooded social media over the past year, it's now clear that so-called fake news can have real world consequences.

"This isn't about politics or partisanship. Lives are at risk, lives of ordinary people just trying to go about their days.

"It's a danger that must be addressed and addressed quickly."

It comes after a man was arrested on Sunday after firing an assault rifle at a pizza parlour in Washington DC after claiming he had come to investigate false online stories about a child sex trafficking ring run by prominent Democrats at the restaurant.

Edgar Maddison Welch, 28, has been jailed after he brought an AR-15 rifle to the Comet Ping Pong restaurant and opened fire.

He has refused to dismiss the online claims.
The European Union's Commission chief has used the 25th anniversary of the summit that reinforced the goal of an ever-closer union to lambast some member states that refuse to apply common rules.

Jean-Claude Juncker said the bloc needs to rethink a looser relation for those not fully committed to the common cause.
President Barack Obama has ordered a review of the email hacking that rattled the US presidential campaign, according to a White House official.

Intelligence and national security officials were told to report their findings to the president before he leaves office on January 20, Mr Obama's counter-terrorism adviser Lisa Monaco said.
An explosion on a main road in Cairo has killed six police and wounded another three in what appears to be the deadliest attack on security forces in Egypt in several months.

The explosion took place near a mosque on Pyramids Road, the main avenue leading from the city centre out to the Giza pyramids, which is often used by tour buses, according to the state-run MENA news agency.
South Korea's parliament has voted to strip the president of her power.

Park Geun-Hye's approval ratings have slumped in recent years.

She is being impeached over her association with a friend, who is accused of extortion which has prompted millions of people to protest in recent weeks.

It is expected that prime minister Hwang Kyo-ahn would assume leadership until the Constitutional Court rules on whether Ms Park must permanently step down.

The court has up to 180 days to decide, and the country will need to hold a presidential election within 60 days.

State prosecutors have accused her of colluding with a confidante who extorted companies and manipulated state affairs. Ms Park denies the claims.

South Korean legislators last voted to impeach a president in 2004, accusing the late Roh Moo-hyun of election law violations and incompetence. The court reinstated him about two months later.

Legislators from both parties faced huge pressure to act against Ms Park, the daughter of a military dictator still revered by many conservatives for lifting the country from poverty in the 1960s and 1970s.

As legislators arrived at parliament, hundreds of protesters, some of whom had spent the night on the streets after travelling from other cities, rallied in front of the National Assembly's main gate.

A group of anti-Park farmers who tried to roll into the capital on tractors and trucks scuffled with police overnight in Suwon, just south of Seoul, before they left most of the vehicles and headed to Seoul on buses.

Once called the "Queen of Elections" for her ability to pull off wins for her party, Ms Park has been surrounded in the presidential Blue House in recent weeks by millions of South Koreans furious over what prosecutors say was collusion with a long-time friend to extort money from companies and to give that confidante extraordinary sway over government decisions.

Her approval ratings have plunged to 4%, the lowest among South Korean leaders since democracy came in the late 1980s, and even elderly conservatives who once made up her political base have distanced themselves from her.

Ms Park's confidante, Choi Soon-sil, and two former presidential aides allegedly linked to the scandal have been indicted. The president, who has immunity from prosecution while in office, has refused to meet prosecutors investigating the scandal.

The president has publicly apologised over the scandal three times and acknowledged that she received help from Choi in editing her speeches and with unspecified "public relations" matters, but she denies involvement in Choi's alleged criminal activities.

Ms Park's father, Park Chung-hee, ruled the country for 18 years until his 1979 assassination. Choi is a daughter of Choi Tae-min, a purported cult leader who served as a mentor for Ms Park until his death in 1994.

The president, whose mother was assassinated in 1974, described Choi Soon-sil as someone "who helped me when I had difficulties" in the past.

Ms Park, whose term is to end in early 2018, tried to fend off impeachment by saying she would stand down if parliament arranges a stable power transfer. Her liberal opponents called the overture a stalling tactic to buy time and find ways to survive the scandal.

AP
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Last week, President-elect Donald Trump along with Vice President-elect Mike Pence, who is the current governor of Indiana, struck a deal with United Technologies, the parent company of Carrier, in order to save over 1,000 jobs from being sent from Indiana to Mexico. This deal will supposedly give Carrier over $7 million in tax break incentives and it has everyone across the political spectrum reacting in different ways.

People on the far-left such as the self-described democratic-socialist senator from Vermont, Bernie Sanders say It is not good enough to save some of these jobs. According to Sanders, the President-elect should be doing more to intervene with the private market in order to save more jobs.

Republican Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan overlooked the fact that the government is meddling in private business in order to defend Trumps actions by saying I think its pretty darn good that people are keeping their jobs in Indiana instead of going to Mexico.

On one hand you have a democratic socialist advocating for more intervention on the private market and on the other hand you have prominent leaders within the Republican Party (the party that many perceive as championing the principle of free enterprise) defending actions that resemble crony capitalism. Even the VP-elect, someone who many thought of as a smart fiscal conservative, is giving up on the ideas of free enterprise. He said this in a statement shortly after the Carrier deal The free market has been sorting it out and Americas been losing.

The most surprising response to the Carrier deal came from the company itself. In a statement released shortly after the deal was finalized the company said this: This agreement in no way diminishes our belief in the benefits of free trade. How ironic.

At libertarian think-tank, Mises Institute, which promotes the ideas of Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises and others from the same tradition, writer Tho Bishop defended Trumps actions with Carrier. In an article Bishop recently posted to the Mises website titled In Defense of Trumps Deal with Carrier Bishop said this While some have described Trumps approach as crony capitalism, if the terms of the deal really are limited to tax relief, such claims are baseless.

Had the terms of the deal been centered on the government giving subsidies to Carrier as an incentive to keep jobs in the United States, I dont think Bishop, Sanders, Pence, or Ryan would still be defending it. But because it is a special tax break given to Carrier that somehow makes it a good thing in their eyes.

This highlights a common misunderstanding of basic economics, which is the idea that targeted tax breaks for specific companies are effectively different than subsidies therefore making the former a permissible action. U.S. Representative Justin Amash understands this well. Right after conservatives and libertarians began defending the Carrier deal, Amash tweeted this:

govt taxes each person $10 and gives just you $1

=

govt taxes each person $10 except taxes just you $9 They are economically identical.  Justin Amash (@justinamash) December 1, 2016

Amash explains in 140 characters how a targeted tax break is economically equivalent to a subsidy. It puts one firm at an advantage to all competing firms with the help of the government. This is clearly crony capitalism.

This is not to say that people like Rep. Amash and other advocates of free markets are in favor of the current corporate tax system. If the government wants to prevent jobs from being sent overseas, corporate tax rates should be simplified and lowered but when this happens in the form of special favors to specific firms the American people do not benefit.

If conservatives and libertarians want to be a part of the movement that stands for free enterprise and equal opportunity, they need to stop praising such deals and start identifying crony capitalism with accuracy and criticism.
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 Defense One Notes Israels Security Challenges | Main | Sen. George Mitchells Head-Scratcher on C-SPAN About Israeli-Palestinian Conflict 

December 09, 2016

FBI: American Jews Most Targeted Minority for Hate Crimes in 2015



American Jews account for a shockingly disproportionate number of hate crime victims, according to 2015 FBI statistics. The Bureau defines a hate crime as an offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offenders bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, or gender identity.?

The FBI reported that of the 1,244 reported victims of hate crimes last year, 664, or 53.4%, were Jewish. By comparison, there were 257 victims of anti-Muslim hate crimes, or 20.7% of the total figure.

Indeed, in 2015 there were more Jewish victims of hate crimes in the U.S. than all of the other victims of religious groups combined

Yet, this conclusion is not reflected in U.S. news media coverageor popular perceptionof hate crime victims. Mark Perry, a scholar at the Washington D.C.-based think tank American Enterprise Institute (AEI), noted:

According to a Google news search for the term hate crimes along with the name of each of those three groups [Muslims, Blacks and Jews], there are 164,000 results for hate crimes+black, 134,000 results for hate crimes + Muslims and only 36,400 results for hate crimes+Jews.?

Based on news reports,? Perry stated, you would think that blacks were 4.5 times more likely than Jews to be victim of a hate crime and that Muslims were almost 4 times more likely than Jews to be a hate crime victim.? However, adjusting for the population size of each group (42.75 million blacks, 5.7 million Jews and 3.3 million Muslims), the hate crime victimization rates last year per 100,000 population were 11.6 for Jews, 7.8 for Muslims and 4.1 for blacks . Therefore, American Jews were nearly three times more likely than blacks to be a victim of a hate crime last year, and 1.5 times more likely than a Muslim to be a hate crime victim.?

As CAMERA has noted, many U.S. news media outlets have provided coverage of anti-Muslim hate crimes. Often, the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) is quoteddespite the groups history of having distorted hate crime statistics. However, hate crimes against Jews are often given short shift by the press (The Washington Post Gets CAIR-Less, Again,? CAMERA, Nov. 23, 2016). For example, The Washington Post reported CAIRs claims of an increase in anti-Muslim hate crimes in 2015 (Attacks against Muslims hit highest mark since 2001,? November 14). But The Post article omitted those against Jews in 2015.

As AEI scholar Perry pointed out:

Based on the actual rates of hate crime victimization and the fact that Jews are so disproportionately targeted, wouldnt we have to conclude that hate crimes against Jews are routinely under-reported by the media relative to the reporting of hate crimes against blacks and Muslims??

Posted by SD at December 9, 2016 11:36 AM

Can you check your figures as given, please. I can't get your results.

Posted by: Ian at December 10, 2016 07:10 PM

I think you've made a mistake in methodology. https://ucr.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/hate-crime/2014/topic-pages/victims_final Results from 2015 not available on the web, but for 2014 numbers are likely comparable. Jews make up 53% of hate crimes motivated my religion, but hate crimes against blacks are much higher and are reported in a different heading - motivated by race.



Posted by: Anonymous at December 11, 2016 02:15 AM

Jews, please stop voting for liberals, social democrats & champagne socialist like hillary, they will make sure that the fule of this hate against Jews always on & you always will be the victim of this modern anti-Jews & antisemitism!

Posted by: Anita Israeli at December 12, 2016 12:19 PM

Perry's article and methodology, found at the link noted in the blog and below, employs statistics from the FBI's 2015 Uniformed Crime Reports. Perry provides links to the data in his article http://www.aei.org/publication/2015-fbi-data-jews-were-nearly-3x-more-likely-than-blacks-1-5x-more-likely-than-muslims-to-be-a-hate-crime-victim/ https://ucr.fbi.gov/hate-crime/2015/tables-and-data-declarations/1tabledatadecpdf

Posted by: SD at December 13, 2016 11:28 AM

The statistics given above are for hate crimes on

the basis of religion, not for the total number of hate crimes. Hate crimes against African Americans

are greater. On a per capita basis hate crimes against Jews are slightly higher than against African Americans.

Posted by: Jack at December 15, 2016 02:20 PM

Guidelines for posting

This is a moderated blog. We will not post comments that include racism, bigotry, threats, or factually inaccurate material.

Post a comment
Donald Trump hung his winning presidential campaign on the idea that he alone could bring back American jobs.

He won industrial midwestern states that had voted Democratic for years in large part by pledging to restore the glory days for workers there. After the election, he even made a big show of pushing two companies to cancel plans to close US factories and open new ones in Mexico.

But now that he's preparing to take office, it's becoming clear Trump has no idea how to keep his promises.

Presidents can't save every job, but the federal government does have the power to stand up for workers. So far, though, Trump looks like he's more interested in attacking labor unions than he is in helping the workers they represent.
Australia's biggest department store Myer has won a legal battle against class action litigator Mark Elliott in relation to a profit downgrade in 2015 that sent its share price diving.

Mr Elliott is a former Minter Ellison partner and Computershare executive.

Myer chief executive Richard Umbers. Myer said in a statement to the ASX that it "welcomed" the decision. Credit:Darrian Traynor

His company, Melbourne City Investments, launched legal proceedings against Myer last year, alleging that a significant fall in the company's share price in March 2015 was caused by the release of information that should have been disclosed six months earlier.

But the Supreme Court of Victoria on Friday blocked further legal action from Mr Elliott in relation to this matter.
Daniel Haile didn't murder a man in front of his fiancee out of jealousy, hate, anger, love or revenge.

But the motive of the high-earning "completely amoral" drug dealer remains unexplained, says the judge who jailed Haile for at least 24 years on Friday.

Daniel Haile leaves the Supreme Court in Sydney in September. Credit:Fairfax Media

The 29-year-old was found guilty of the shooting murder of Raymond Pasnin, 27, shortly before midnight on October 30, 2013, in the car park of a Sydney block of units.

In her victim impact statement, Pasnin's fiancee Lyndal Archbold described how the "love of her life" collapsed in her arms after being gunned down as they left his mother's home.
Police have found a man missing from a nursing home on Sydney's north shore after mounting a large-scale search on Friday night.

Raymond Spackman, 73, was last seen at 2pm on Friday when he walked away from an aged care home on Greenwich Road in Greenwich.

Missing: Raymond Spackman, 73. Credit:NSW Police

He was found at around 9.20pm.

Residents in Greenwich, Wollstonecraft, Waverton and surrounding suburbs reported hearing the police helicopter PolAir hovering above the suburbs and broadcasting a message at around 8.30pm on Friday.
The body of missing skipper Brett Munn has never been recovered. Ms Hunt said she could not understand why no-one had made contact with herself or her little brother's partner Tracey when communication was cut. "It was the 18th that they were supposed to dock, no one could get a hold of Tracey until about 20th," she said. "We wish that we had all been contacted a lot sooner, that Tracey could have been contacted sooner that there was something that wasn't quite right. "If we could have had options on what we could do or whether something could have happened sooner."

Queensland Water Police took over on November 18 and conducted initial inquiries with the family of the master of the vessel, external agencies and continued to broadcast over marine radio networks. Water Police received information suggesting the trawler "may have been experiencing electrical problems" and were possibly not arriving to dock on the 18th, according to a Queensland Police statement obtained by Fairfax Media. "Information intelligence was provided to police that the crew may not have intended to arrive on the Sunshine Coast on November 18 as first reported and that it would not be unusual for the Master to extend journeys," the statement read. "The family did not expect the vessel to return for 10-12 days from the date of departure." However Ms Hunt said Doug's partner Tracey, along with their six children, had been expecting their husband and father to return home from the 18th.

Police began an official search and rescue for the crew on November 25 after the men were formally reported missing by their family on November 24. A search for the the missing crew was scaled back on November 28. Ms Hunt said she could not believe the search for the missing men has stopped. "It took a while for us to find out, it has taken a lot of time for it to sink in to try and find out what has happened," she said. "None of us feel that he is gone and a lot of family and friends strongly believe that he is still out there, might be trying to get back.

"We want them to keep searching, I just can't believe it has stopped, they are making it harder and harder for him to come back safe. "The big disappointment is that nothing has been carried on." Ms Hunt said family and friends were still holding on to hope their father, brother, nephew and son was still alive out there. "There are three men out there and the other families would be like us holding on to hope and waiting for their safe return," she said. "He has been out on vessel before that it was capsizing, they got them all to call families but he wouldn't, he said to keep fighting and they got back safely.

"We just want him home." The missing Night Raider is latest trawler incident off the Fraser Coast, after the Cassandra capsized in April and the Seabring overturned on November 8. The bodies of David Chivers, 36 and Matt Roberts, 60, from the Cassandra and Brett Munn, 53, from the Seabring were never recovered. Fisherman Tyler Baguley, 20, whose father was good friends with Mr Munn, does not believe the divers did enough to find the body of the fisherman while the vessel was still above water. "When they did check the boat it was way too late," he said.

"If that was someone of importance, I guarantee you they would have done everything necessary to recover the body." Inspector Paul Biggin told media on November 9, a day after the Seabring had overturned, four divers had done a number of dives around the vessel, including searching the wheelhouse, and had found nothing to warrant further inspection. Mr Baguley said no-one deserved to be left at sea. "The fact we have lost three boats this year is absolutely ridiculous...everyone that is missing hasn't been returned," he said. "We all know the risks, when you head out to sea we know that could happen to any of us,
A sitting Victorian Liberal MP is being challenged for preselection by a pro-life campaigner who believes women should never have abortions, even in cases of rape.

Stephanie Ross  the partner of "Young Turk" and party numbers man Marcus Bastiaan  is preparing to challenge 65-year-old incumbent Gary Blackwood for his Gippsland seat of Narracan.

Preselection candidate Stephanie Ross, Brighton Liberal James Newbury, and party numbers man Marcus Bastiaan. Credit:Twitter

The looming preselection stoush has heightened concerns about a push to drag the Liberals further to the right, which many fear could hinder their chances of defeating Labor at the 2018 Victorian election.

Ms Ross, 25, is aligned with the Menzies branch of the party, which is controlled by conservative warrior and former defence minister Kevin Andrews.
It's a teenager's dream come true.

In the past three years, 13-year-old Zepp Heyes has criss-crossed Australia as part of an elite group of young skateboarders, some as young as nine.

They compete and give demonstrations for up to $3000 in fees or prizemoney per event, and for the fame and thrills.

They sign autographs and pose for selfies for fans that follow their careers.
Janice Fisher first discovered that the government was forcibly acquiring her home when she saw the white weatherboard cottage flash up on the television news.

It kept appearing again and again, but because she was at work and the sound wasn't up, she could only assume someone was in an accident nearby. But the bad news was for her after all.

Janice Fisher moved 30km from Footscray to West Melton. Credit:Joe Armao

When Janice's home was bulldozed to make way for the Regional Rail Link, the 59-year-old was uprooted from Footscray, where she had lived for more than two decades, and thrust into a neighbourhood on the very fringes of the city.

And Janice is not alone in her experience.
The steer that became famous around the world after making a bold bid for freedom after leaping from a ship in Fremantle Port before dying of exhaustion has become the 'face' of an international animal advocacy organisation.

Manny the Cow - as he was dubbed by animal-lovers  made a break for it after jumping into the water at Fremantle Port last month while being loaded onto a cattle ship and bolted through Fremantle down to North Coogee.

Manny's Houdini-like bid for freedom went viral with media outlets around the world, including the BBC, writing about the animal's acrobatic escape.

A number of campaigns emerged around Australia with more than 13,000 people signing a change.org petition calling on the Wellard Group that owned the animal to see it free.
New York: The Mediterranean island nation of Malta has become the first European country to criminalise therapeutic methods that purport to change a person's sexual orientation or gender identity.

The measure is one aspect of far-reaching legislation approved by Parliament on Monday that also includes provisions that support transgender rights. In a statement, the government said the two bills "prohibit the pathologisation of any sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression".

Little Malta has set a big example on gender rights.

The first bill focused on so-called conversion therapy, a discredited collection of quasi-psychoanalytic methods that aim to change a person's sexual orientation or gender identity. It is also sometimes known as "reparative therapy" or, when religious methods are used, "ex-gay ministry".

Conversion therapy has been increasingly in the spotlight in the weeks since Donald Trump won the US presidential election because of speculation that his running mate, Vice President-elect Mike Pence, supports the practice. Pence has denied that is the case.
Latest News MKM Capital becomes MA Money Rebrand designed to align with non-bank's parent company

How to find a good private lender 10 questions brokers should ask to select the right one

The Real Estate Institute of Australia (REIA) has announced the election of its new president, Malcolm Gunning, at its Annual General Meeting held yesterday in Canberra.With more than 40 years of experience in real estate agency practice, property development and property valuation, Gunning is the immediate past president of the Real Estate Institute of New South Wales (REINSW).He is also principal of Gunning Real Estate, a Sydney-based property agency and consultancy.On accepting the role, Gunning thanked outgoing president Neville Sanders who has served in the position for two years.Neville has provided excellent stewardship of the organisation since 2014 and during that time he has achieved much in ensuring that our members have a strong national voice, he said. On behalf of the board and staff, we extend our sincere thanks to Neville for his professionalism and commitment to the role during an important chapter in REIAs history.With the debate about the taxation of housing and affordability continuing in 2017, Gunning promised that the REIA will continue to push for the retention of negative gearing.Its abolition is not the panacea for housing affordability that many seem to think it is. The debate on taxation must be broader and include stamp duty, land tax and value capture.Gunning also vowed to improve professional standards in the real estate sector.Improving the professionalism of the sector requires a multifaceted approach encompassing higher levels of qualifications, CPD, standard of training including ASQAs role, accreditation, harmonisation, and working towards membership of the Professional Standards Authority, he said.
Latest News MKM Capital becomes MA Money Rebrand designed to align with non-bank's parent company

How to find a good private lender 10 questions brokers should ask to select the right one

The Credit and Investments Ombudsman (CIO) has rejected a key recommendation of the External Dispute Resolution Framework Review Panel for the creation of a single industry Ombudsman scheme.The interim report, which was chaired by Professor Ian Ramsay and looked into Australias three financial sector Ombudsman schemes, suggested there be a single industry body for financial, credit and investment disputes (except superannuation disputes) that replaces the CIO and the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).The CIO said the suggestion was pro big bank at the expense of non-bank financial service providers and small business customers.Not only did the Ramsay review fail to make the case for its proposed single Ombudsman scheme, it ignored the weight of evidence that small businesses would be better served by their own limited scope statutory tribunal for disputes outside the existing remit of CIO and FOS, said Raj Venga, CEO of the CIO.He accused the recommendation of being a political compromise that would create a new giant quasi-regulatory bureaucracy geared towards large institutional players such as banks and insurers, despite these businesses attracting the vast majority of complaints.This is a solution looking for a problem, he said.Other industry submissions to the Ramsay review have also expressed similar sentiments about the proposed single Ombudsman scheme.The Mortgage & Finance Association of Australia ( MFAA ) was softer than the CIO in its wording, expressing its wish to merely limit the bodys reach to the major banks.It is only reasonable that the potential scope of such a tribunal should be limited to the big four banks and/or large lenders, said Chris McRostie, MFAAs interim CEO in the associations submission.To do otherwise would punish the vast majority of the participants in the sector (including the 12,800 mortgage broker businesses and members of the MFAA) who have done no wrong.McRostie continued, saying that the CIO and FOS currently met consumer and stakeholder objectives effectively and efficiently while both reviewing and considering complaints against mortgage and finance brokers.The Coalition has also distanced itself from the idea of a single industry Ombudsman. In an interview with The World Today, Financial Services Minister Kelly O'Dwyer clarified Prime Minister Malcom Turnbulls earlier statements that the government was working towards one tribunal to handle customer complaints.When the Prime Minister was talking about a tribunal he was talking about a small t tribunal, which was a catchall for having a one-stop consumer complaints stop, ODwyer said.One is far more legalistic, which means it is probably less consumer friendly and that is a big t tribunal. That makes it more difficult for consumers to engage, which is what the report has found.
Yardley Friends Meeting at 65 N. Main Street in Yardley will host the documentary Organic Roots on Friday, November 18 at 7 p.m. Join director Al Johnson for a showing of this film followed by a discussion of the last 50 years of this movement. Organic foods are part of our life today and a tool in our concern for...
latest news

October 31, 2022

Buddy TV

In November, there are hundreds of new and returning TV showsit can be overwhelming to try and choose what to watch. That's why we've selected some of the best options...
UB lab cultivating use of virtual reality in the classroom

Most people cant go to the bottom of the ocean or walk with dinosaurs. But we can allow you to experience it through virtual reality, and youll understand very clearly what that experience is like. Youre going to actually do that.

BUFFALO, N.Y.  There is one foolproof way to grasp what University at Buffalo researchers say could be a dramatic breakthrough in how people learn, technology with educational potential comparable to a tape recorder, video camera or computer monitor. And more to the point, its something UB is uniquely poised to advance.

Just strap on the virtual reality goggles, headgear that resembles a mix of a pilots oxygen mask and an expensive video game accessory. Dont forget to tap your feet on the floor, a comforting reminder once the New Millennium amusement park ride of virtual reality begins. Dont forget to breathe. Establish some grounding signal, like a familiar voice in the room. A dose of immersive, mixed-reality environments, as its been called  with all its eerie, exciting, invigorating, disorientating and sometime unexpected sensations depending on the program and the person taking the journey  is on its way.

Open your eyes and all around is an underwater world teeming with fish, plants, submerged ships, coral  all moving around you and beckoning you to explore as if it were really happening. Up, down, right, left. Three-hundred-and sixty-degrees. Total immersion, without an escape hatch short of yanking off those goggles. A school of bright fish emerge from behind a reef. A giant whale  more curious than menacing  approaches from behind. Aiming a handset at a plant makes it open, another visceral signal that this is really happening.

Prefer another location? Stand on top of Vesper Peak in the Northern Cascades, or float suspended in outer space and manipulate the planets as they revolve around a giant sun, all in exact scale as they exist in the solar system.

Follow a path inside an imaginary museum and stand in front of the Mona Lisa or the Statue of David or the Terra Cotta Army or the Birth of Venus, all visible a few virtual-reality moments away from each other. An often-seen commercial for a commercial virtual-reality system shows a woman sobbing during her immersive experience. Once those goggles go on, its easy to understand such a strong reaction.

If youre familiar with video games and the Xbox and things like that, you typically play it on a computer screen, says Richard L. Lamb, associate professor in the Department of Learning and Instruction in the Graduate School of Education and director of the multidisciplinary Neurocognition Science Laboratory, home of UBs virtual-reality activity.

It may have an environment where you can maneuver in three dimensions, but its all still flat on the screen, Lamb says. Virtual reality is the actual immersion of the person into those three-dimensional environments in such a way where that environment is continuous around them.

The firsthand familiarity with this Future Shock experience is important for two reasons. First, if virtual reality can take us to the bottom of a teeming ocean or close enough to touch civilizations greatest works of art, consider what other worlds it can simulate. Now imagine the opportunity for Lamb  who is turning this lab into a truly multidisciplinary hub examining learning across the lifespan  and the rest of UB.

Lamb, a Sweet Home High School graduate who spent the past few years establishing a similar laboratory at Washington State University, has brought a new opportunity to his hometown. But the lab Lamb set up in Baldy Hall  and is more than happy to share  will benefit from his years of research and problem-solving on the West Coast. This lab will be better, Lamb says, thanks to more access to resources, closer proximity to collaborators and increased engagement with companies such as Lifeliqe, an educational virtual-reality software environment design company.

Virtual reality has been lacking some credible research background and we are honored to cooperate with Richard Lamb to broaden it, says Ondrej Homola, CEO of Lifeliqe. Im positive the research will reaffirm our hypothesis that VR is the way to go in terms of learning.

The research is planned to examine the changes in learning using virtual reality, Homola says, but also effects of use of VR on children below 14, which is still a controversial topic in dire need of deeper understanding. The research will also focus on children with special needs and within marginalized groups, also an area with urgent need of valid facts.

When up and running, the virtual reality laboratory will give the Graduate School of Education an opportunity and resources no other university education department in the country has, according to Lamb. Only selected medical schools can match the virtual reality and neuroimaging capabilities of UBs Neurocognition Science Lab, he says, noting it is one of the only places in the country that combines VR with neuroimaging technologies and other psychological and physiological measures.

The second reason why that individual firsthand experience with the Neurocognition Science Lab matters is something Lamb describes when explaining the dramatic reality many people have during their virtual-reality experiences.

The brain does not differentiate between reality and virtual reality, Lamb says. The feelings and response you get would be how you would feel if it were really going on.

In other words, parts of your brain think the experience behind the goggles is real.

Most people cant go to the bottom of the ocean or walk with dinosaurs, he says. But we can allow you to experience it through virtual reality, and youll understand very clearly what that experience is like. Youre going to actually do that.

And because of the convincing nature of virtual reality, UB educators see its unlimited potential as an education tool that ranges from helping pre-kindergarten students experience the world to examining cognitive impairment in Alzheimers patients.

Lambs vision for the Neurocognition Science Laboratory transcends academic boundaries. And although he admits he wasnt a particularly good student when he attended Sweet Home, his fascination with computer games made him realize, once he became a teacher, how powerful they could be in motivating students and getting them to learn more.

Its a laboratory open to students, faculty and others in the university community, says Lamb. And its cross-campus, so its not just for one department or one discipline. If you think about the natural sciences, when you speak to someone in a molecular biology laboratory, its often run by one professor who is doing his or her work in the laboratory.

This laboratory works on a slightly different model. Its similar to a national laboratory in the sense that people bring projects to the laboratory. We have equipment they can use and apply to their own projects, he explains.

The laboratory supplies support structures for researchers and a hub to collaborate across disciplines. So what were doing is were moving out of this individual approach to research about learning and creating a means to approach much more complex societal problems  the types of problems that cannot be solved by one researcher.

Lambs interdisciplinary approach already has resulted in an extensive list of active research. Among the ongoing projects:

n A screening tool for autism that is an extension of work occurring at Washington State University and Northwestern University. Through the use of specific audio and visual patterns, UB researchers hope to characterize both a hemodynamic and electrical response across the surface to the brain and identify unique responses for students with autism. Eventually, the idea would be to work this into a screening tool for school psychologists to recommend services more quickly than what is currently available.

n A study examining mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimers dementia is designed to eventually create an adaptive screening tool that differentiates between ordinary aging and mild cognitive impairment, which more often than not is an early sign of Alzheimers dementia. By making use of an adaptive screening tool, clinicians may be able to recommend treatment or additional testing earlier and for less cost.

n Virtual classroom environments for students studying to be teachers and administrators. In TeachLivE, one of these virtual classroom environments, UB education majors stand in front of their class facing a virtual-reality monitor. On the monitor is a simulated classroom with avatars  simulated students in the classroom guided by human actors  who confront the education major with disruptive behaviors coming from the VR students in the VR classrooms.

Think about an airplane simulator, Lamb says. We have pilots on airplane simulators for lots and lots of hours, so they can practice being a pilot.

TeachLivE offers the same kind of opportunities for someone who wants to be a teacher. We put them in a classroom simulator and they have the opportunity to correct behaviors, practice their lessons and practice all these components. And just like an airplane simulator, we have a lot of control over what kinds of behaviors they deal with, what kinds of questions they get, so they can really tailor the relationship between the student learning to be a teacher and the environment they are in.

Lamb also has taken his VR goggles and accompanying images into UBs Early Childhood Research Center. Some students were cautious when Lamb made his first visit to the center. By the next session, they were waiting in line for their turn with the goggles. Curriculum coordinator Keely OConnell sat with the students and reassured them while a television monitor displayed the images the student saw with the goggles.

When I put these things on my eyes, Im going to feel like Im somewhere else, OConnell told them before the activity began.

I can see underneath him! one student said when a sea turtle swam above him. There are a lot of fish here.

ECRC director Christine Wang says virtual reality is pushing the frontier of education. It could potentially revolutionize the power to promote learning and development, she says.

Wang stresses virtual-reality activity should be linked to good research on how it affects student learning and sound educational practice so its not just used as a novelty. But technology often advances more quickly than expected.

Five years ago, an iPad was a luxury, Wang says. Now its become widely adopted in families and school.

All of the students wont be able to go to Italy. But we can bring Italy to them.
Campus News

UB lab cultivating use of virtual reality in the classroom

By CHARLES ANZALONE

The brain does not differentiate between reality and virtual reality. The feelings and response you get would be how you would feel if it were really going on. 

There is one foolproof way to grasp what UB researchers say could be a dramatic breakthrough in how people learn, technology with educational potential comparable to a tape recorder, video camera or computer monitor. And more to the point, its something UB is uniquely poised to advance.

Just strap on the virtual reality goggles, headgear that resembles a mix of a pilots oxygen mask and an expensive video game accessory. Dont forget to tap your feet on the floor, a comforting reminder once the New Millennium amusement park ride of virtual reality begins. Dont forget to breathe. Establish some grounding signal, like a familiar voice in the room. A dose of immersive, mixed-reality environments, as its been called  with all its eerie, exciting, invigorating, disorientating and sometime unexpected sensations depending on the program and the person taking the journey  is on its way.

Open your eyes and all around is an underwater world teeming with fish, plants, submerged ships, coral  all moving around you and beckoning you to explore as if it were really happening. Up, down, right, left. Three-hundred-and sixty-degrees. Total immersion, without an escape hatch short of yanking off those goggles. A school of bright fish emerge from behind a reef. A giant whale  more curious than menacing  approaches from behind. Aiming a handset at a plant makes it open, another visceral signal that this is really happening.

Prefer another location? Stand on top of Vesper Peak in the Northern Cascades, or float suspended in outer space and manipulate the planets as they revolve around a giant sun, all in exact scale as they exist in the solar system.

Follow a path inside an imaginary museum and stand in front of the Mona Lisa or the Statue of David or the Terra Cotta Army or the Birth of Venus, all visible a few virtual-reality moments away from each other. An often-seen commercial for a commercial virtual-reality system shows a woman sobbing during her immersive experience. Once those goggles go on, its easy to understand such a strong reaction.

If youre familiar with video games and the Xbox and things like that, you typically play it on a computer screen, says Richard L. Lamb, associate professor in the Department of Learning and Instruction in the Graduate School of Education and director of the multidisciplinary Neurocognition Science Laboratory, home of UBs virtual-reality activity.

It may have an environment where you can maneuver in three dimensions, but its all still flat on the screen, Lamb says. Virtual reality is the actual immersion of the person into those three-dimensional environments in such a way where that environment is continuous around them.

The firsthand familiarity with this Future Shock experience is important for two reasons. First, if virtual reality can take us to the bottom of a teeming ocean or close enough to touch civilizations greatest works of art, consider what other worlds it can simulate. Now imagine the opportunity for Lamb  who is turning this lab into a truly multidisciplinary hub examining learning across the lifespan  and the rest of UB.

Lamb, a Sweet Home High School graduate who spent the past few years establishing a similar laboratory at Washington State University, has brought a new opportunity to his hometown. But the lab Lamb set up in Baldy Hall  and is more than happy to share  will benefit from his years of research and problem-solving on the West Coast. This lab will be better, Lamb says, thanks to more access to resources, closer proximity to collaborators and increased engagement with companies such as Lifeliqe, an educational virtual-reality software environment design company.

Virtual reality has been lacking some credible research background and we are honored to cooperate with Richard Lamb to broaden it, says Ondrej Homola, CEO of Lifeliqe. Im positive the research will reaffirm our hypothesis that VR is the way to go in terms of learning.

The research is planned to examine the changes in learning using virtual reality, Homola says, but also effects of use of VR on children below 14, which is still a controversial topic in dire need of deeper understanding. The research will also focus on children with special needs and within marginalized groups, also an area with urgent need of valid facts.

When up and running, the virtual reality laboratory will give the Graduate School of Education an opportunity and resources no other university education department in the country has, according to Lamb. Only selected medical schools can match the virtual reality and neuroimaging capabilities of UBs Neurocognition Science Lab, he says, noting it is one of the only places in the country that combines VR with neuroimaging technologies and other psychological and physiological measures.

The second reason why that individual firsthand experience with the Neurocognition Science Lab matters is something Lamb describes when explaining the dramatic reality many people have during their virtual-reality experiences.

The brain does not differentiate between reality and virtual reality, Lamb says. The feelings and response you get would be how you would feel if it were really going on.

In other words, parts of your brain think the experience behind the goggles is real.

Most people cant go to the bottom of the ocean or walk with dinosaurs, he says. But we can allow you to experience it through virtual reality, and youll understand very clearly what that experience is like. Youre going to actually do that.

And because of the convincing nature of virtual reality, UB educators see its unlimited potential as an education tool that ranges from helping pre-kindergarten students experience the world to examining cognitive impairment in Alzheimers patients.

Lambs vision for the Neurocognition Science Laboratory transcends academic boundaries. And although he admits he wasnt a particularly good student when he attended Sweet Home, his fascination with computer games made him realize, once he became a teacher, how powerful they could be in motivating students and getting them to learn more.

Its a laboratory open to students, faculty and others in the university community, says Lamb. And its cross-campus, so its not just for one department or one discipline. If you think about the natural sciences, when you speak to someone in a molecular biology laboratory, its often run by one professor who is doing his or her work in the laboratory.

This laboratory works on a slightly different model. Its similar to a national laboratory in the sense that people bring projects to the laboratory. We have equipment they can use and apply to their own projects, he explains.

The laboratory supplies support structures for researchers and a hub to collaborate across disciplines. So what were doing is were moving out of this individual approach to research about learning and creating a means to approach much more complex societal problems  the types of problems that cannot be solved by one researcher.

Lambs interdisciplinary approach already has resulted in an extensive list of active research. Among the ongoing projects:

A screening tool for autism that is an extension of work occurring at Washington State University and Northwestern University. Through the use of specific audio and visual patterns, UB researchers hope to characterize both a hemodynamic and electrical response across the surface to the brain and identify unique responses for students with autism. Eventually, the idea would be to work this into a screening tool for school psychologists to recommend services more quickly than what is currently available.

A study examining mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimers dementia is designed to eventually create an adaptive screening tool that differentiates between ordinary aging and mild cognitive impairment, which more often than not is an early sign of Alzheimers dementia. By making use of an adaptive screening tool, clinicians may be able to recommend treatment or additional testing earlier and for less cost.

Virtual classroom environments for students studying to be teachers and administrators. In TeachLivE, one of these virtual classroom environments, UB education majors stand in front of their class facing a virtual-reality monitor. On the monitor is a simulated classroom with avatars  simulated students in the classroom guided by human actors  who confront the education major with disruptive behaviors coming from the VR students in the VR classrooms.

Think about an airplane simulator, Lamb says. We have pilots on airplane simulators for lots and lots of hours, so they can practice being a pilot.

TeachLivE offers the same kind of opportunities for someone who wants to be a teacher. We put them in a classroom simulator and they have the opportunity to correct behaviors, practice their lessons and practice all these components. And just like an airplane simulator, we have a lot of control over what kinds of behaviors they deal with, what kinds of questions they get, so they can really tailor the relationship between the student learning to be a teacher and the environment they are in.

Lamb also has taken his VR goggles and accompanying images into UBs Fisher-Price Endowed Early Childhood Research Center (ECRC). Some students were cautious when Lamb made his first visit to the center. By the next session, they were waiting in line for their turn with the goggles. ECRC classroom teacher and curriculum coordinator Keely OConnell sat with the students and reassured them while a television monitor displayed the images the student saw with the goggles.

When I put these things on my eyes, Im going to feel like Im somewhere else, OConnell told them before the activity began.

I can see underneath him! one student said when a sea turtle swam above him. There are a lot of fish here.

ECRC director X. Christine Wang says virtual reality is pushing the frontier of education. It could potentially revolutionize the power of technology to promote learning and development, she says.

Wang stresses virtual-reality activity should be linked to good research on how it affects student learning and sound educational practice so its not just used as a novelty. But technology often advances more quickly than expected.

Five years ago, an iPad was a luxury, Wang says. Now its become widely adopted in families and school.

Not all the students will be able to visit the ocean. But we can bring the ocean to them.
The PHG buying group has announced that Sussex Plumbing Supplies will join the membership from 1 January, 2017.

Founded in 2000 by Glenn Vinall, Sussex Plumbing Supplies has grown significantly and now operates from six branches in and around East Sussex.

David Pochin, chairman of the PHG buying group, said: We are extremely pleased to welcome Glenn and his team to PHG. The company will bring commitment, energy and experience to the PHG table, and it recognises and values the opportunities in which the membership offers to support the continuing growth of its business.

Glenn Vinall, managing director of Sussex Plumbing Supplies, added: We are excited at the prospect of working with our new colleagues. We acknowledge the group represents the strongest independents in the sector whose ethos combines scale with working together to follow the purchasing direction given by the group.
Aviation regulator DGCA has pulled up Spicejet, Air India and Air India Express for not being adequately prepared to deal with poor visibility during the winter.
The number of inactive have dropped by nearly 4,000 in more than three years to 1.38 lakh, Parliament was informed on Friday.

In October, 2016 the number of inactive was at 1,38,410 as compared to 1,42,373 as on March 31, 2014, Minister of State for Corporate Affairs, Arjun Ram Meghwal said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

The number of non-functional stood at 1,39,373 and 1,38,691 in 2014-15 and 2015-16, respectively.

Inactive companies are those who were not been carrying out businesses and have not filed financial statements and annual returns during the last two fiscals.

Maharashtra has the maximum number of inactive companies at 33,598, followed by Delhi (28,066), Telangana (17,133), Tamil Nadu (15,352) and Gujarat (10,793).

In 2011, the ministry had introduced a fast-track exit mode for defunct companies to approach the Registrar of Companies (RoC) from time to time for striking off their names, Meghwal said.

A total of 2,57,913 companies have exited from the RoC as in October this year.

In a separate reply, Meghwal said that the ministry has received seven complaints in more than three years in respect of companies allegedly carrying out operations without getting registered under the Companies Act.
One of the fundamental problems of Africa is the low bandwidth and its cost. As Africa gets better bandwidth, the market will improve over a period of five years, says Sunita Maheshwari, co-founder of Teleradiology Solutions. Her company provides tele-radiology solutions to patients, enabling them access better doctor services from even the remotest of locations.
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The Supreme Court on Friday asked Karnataka to release 2000 cusecs of Cauvery water per day to Tamil Nadu.



The Apex court said, "the order to release 2000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu will stand till further orders".



It upheld the appeals filed by Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala against the 2007 award of the Tribunal (CWDT) on sharing the river water.



A three-judge bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra said that all the appeals filed by the southern states against the Tribunal's award are maintainable, though the Centre had asserted that the apex court had no jurisdiction to hear appeals against the award of the tribunal.



"We hold all the appeals maintainable. Interim order to continue. List the matter for further hearing on December 15," a bench also comprising justices Amitava Roy amd A M Khanwilkar.
Underlining that both India and the US stand to benefit greatly from deeper engagement, a group of three eminent experts from a top American think-tank have called on the incoming administration to establish an early connection with a "rising" India.

"Establishing an early connection with a rising, and like-minded, India could be an early win for the Trump administration," wrote three experts from Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) -- Kathleen H Hicks, D C Richard M Rossow and John Schaus.

"It will take regular efforts from senior-level officials across government departments and agencies to bring India and the United States closer together. As Secretary Carter's trip to India highlights, both countries stand to benefit greatly from deeper engagement," the op-ed said.

The India-US defence relationship, built over multiple administrations in both Washington and Delhi, has started to blossom in the past three years, it said.

"As President-elect and his security team identify key priorities for his administration, continuing to strengthen US-India ties should be near the top of their agenda," CSIS experts said.

The CSIS observed that early outreach by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the United States signaled to both Washington and his own bureaucracy that he was serious about engagement.

"Similarly, President-elect Trump could send an important early signal of his intent to cooperate closely with India by arranging a meeting with Prime Minister Modi in the first 100 days President Trump is in office," it said.

Asserting that there are a wide range of issues to address, CSIS experts said the change in personnel that comes with a new American administration, combined with typical turnover within India's government, could lead both countries to "forget" the patterns of engagement and cooperation that have been so fruitful over the past two years.

In greater South Asia, it said the US increasingly sees India as a partner for solving enduring challenges.

This is not to say that US' relations with Pakistan or Afghanistan will neatly align with Indian positions or that the two countries will agree on every action, it noted.

"However, the strategic challenges facing both nations are drawing them closer as they seek ways to reach common objectives. Communication on shared interests and capabilities in South Asia is critical to ensure that the United States and India cooperate instead of compete in the region," the CSIS said.

It said the benefits to the US of stronger ties with India are growing with each new avenue of cooperation.

"Over the past three years, thanks largely to the joint



efforts of Secretary Carter and Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, the two countries have advanced cooperation on issues ranging from military exercises to defence trade," the op-ed said.

"US defence firms have sold over USD 10 billion in defence equipment to India in the last decade, making India one of our largest defence markets. These acquisitions in turn, benefit India by giving its armed forces a significant capability boost while simultaneously increasing interoperability with the United States and other regional partners," it added.

Underscoring the importance of developing new ways to work with India, Secretary Carter created new mechanisms within the Pentagon to directly support the accelerated implementation of US-India cooperation -- the 'India Rapid Reaction Cell' and the 'Defense Technology and Trade Initiative', the experts noted.

These initiatives have played a critical role in breaking through traditional bureaucratic roadblocks, enabling the two countries to sign an important agreement on logistics cooperation, and they have demonstrated to the Indian government that the United States is truly committed to India as a partner worthy of priority treatment.

"The Trump administration should commit to continuing and possibly expanding these programmes. It could create further momentum by making an early push for additional meetings of the Joint Working Group on Aircraft Carrier Technology Cooperation," the CSIS experts said.
Former Supreme Court judge J on Friday moved the apex court seeking early hearing of a contempt case against him for allegedly using "intemperate" language and "scandalising" the judiciary.

A bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi agreed to look into the submission made by senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan, on behalf of Justice Katju, who mentioned the matter for early hearing, saying it should be listed before the winter vacation.

To this, the bench said, "You file a proper application and we will look into it."

Dhavan said that he has already filed the application.

On November 11, the apex court had issued contempt notice to Justice Katju after taking note of Katju's statement in a blog and said that it constituted a serious assault on judges and not on the judgement.

Justice Katju had appeared in the court following its October 17 direction asking him to be present and debate his Facebook post criticising an SC verdict by which the convict in Soumya rape case had escaped gallows as he was acquitted of the murder charge.

It had asked him to appear before the court to point out the "fundamental flaws" in the case.

The issue of contempt was raised after the bench had dismissed the review petitions filed by the Kerala government and the mother of Soumya challenging the acquittal of the convict of the murder charge.

Justice Katju had protested against the decision to issue contempt notice and said the judges were threatening him and it was not proper for them to behave in such manner with a former judge of the apex court.

He was summoned as he in his blog had claimed that there was "grave error" in the judgement acquitting the accused in the murder case and he was asked to assist the bench during the hearing of the review petition.
India was ranked seventh in the list of countries most impacted by in 2015, according to the Global Terrorism Index (GTI), 2016, released by the Institute for Economics & Peace, a think-tank based in Sydney, Australia.

India is one of six Asian countries ranked in the top ten nations most impacted by . The Heart of Asia conference adopted the Amritsar declaration on December 4, 2016, which recognises terrorism, violent extremism, radicalisation, separatism, and sectarianism and linkages among them as the gravest challenges facing the region.

The declaration voiced particular concern about the high level of violence by ISIS and its affiliates, the Haqqani Network, al Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Toiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan; all based in South Asia.
India's pluralism cannot be substituted by "uniformity", asserted on Friday and said any such experiment would not succeed even if "imposed" as seen in the past.

Addressing the 91st Foundation Course of the All India Services (AIS) in Mussoorie, Mukherjee also praised the "exemplary" maturity shown by the Indian electorate in giving a clear verdict to a political party at the Centre after 30 years, shunning "opportunistic" political coalitions.

"Your responsibility as future policy makers is to strengthen the system which has been established with the objective that we cannot substitute our plural characters, our pluralism by uniformity. Straitjacket uniformity, even if it is imposed, it will not succeed as it has been proved on several occasions," Mukherjee said.

Speaking on the wisdom of the Indian electorate, he said people have been discharging their responsibility and it was incumbent upon the "elected" to transform their aspirations into reality.

Mukherjee said people decided that it was "enough to make experiments with capricious, selfish, opportunistic political coalitions" just to form a government, so after 30 years they gave a "clear political verdict" in favour of a political party.

"It is not important which political party. This is the confidence of the people. It is important that how mature Indian electorates are," he said.

Departing from a prepared speech, Mukherjee went on to speak on the challenges faced by India, especially the period post Partition based on "religion" and the decision of the Constituent Assembly to choose secularism and adult suffrage right after that.

Mukherjee had on Thursday launched a stinging attack on the Opposition over parliamentary paralysis and said the House was not a place for dharna and disruption which amounted to "gagging of majority" by the minority.

He told parliamentarians that they are meant to discuss and transact business and not disrupt.
After Congress and party Vice-President Rahul Gandhi, liquor baron Vijay Mallya's Twitter account has been hacked by a group called Legion. The tweets are now deleted.



A series of abusive and embarrassing tweets were sent out to over 5.51 million followers by a cracker group or individual named 'Legion'.



The account appears to have been hacked by the same group that hacked the handles of Gandhi and Congress earlier.
The Supreme Court on Friday pulled up the government over its drive and asked whether it has fulfilled its promise of letting people withdraw Rs 24,000 a week.
Former president wanted to witness Mangalyaan mission's launch on September 24, 2014 but had to leave Bengaluru with "childlike reluctance" the day before as he had a university convocation to address, says the then Indian Space Research Organisation chief K Radhakrishnan in his memoir.

"On 23 September, a day before the D-day, we had a very pleasant surprise - Kalam Sir decided to take a detour from his Chennai-Delhi trip and join us at Bengaluru. He spent a couple of hours at ISTRAC, greeted everyone present there and listened to a briefing by mission director Kesava Raju at MOX," says Radhakrishnan in My Odyssey: Memoirs of the Man behind the Mangalyaan Mission.

"Kalam Sir, our first mission director of SLV-3 in 1979-80, appeared satisfied with our preparations. I could guess that he was in two minds, whether to stay back with us for the next day or honour his commitment for a convocation address at a university in north India.

"With childlike reluctance, he left for the airport to catch the last flight to Delhi but reminded me to keep him posted on the progress because he wanted to mention it during the convocation address the next afternoon," he recalls.

India scripted space history that day by successfully placing its low-cost Mars spacecraft Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) in orbit around the red planet in its very first attempt.

Like many of his fellow space professionals, Radhakrishnan, who was ISRO chief till December 2014, too was enamoured by the idea of an interplanetary probe to Mars while he was the director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre.

"The possibility of an Indian Mars probe had been discussed in our weekend sessions with V Adimurthy, the then associate director of VSSC, and his brilliant engineers led by RV Ramanan," he says.

"After taking over as the chief of ISRO in November 2009, I wished to pursue this with passion and professionalism. Adimurthy superannuated in May 2010, and I did not lose a minute in inviting him to the headquarters as a Satish Dhawan professor to contribute as our adviser on the interplanetary mission.

"Within three weeks of his taking over, we had a deliberation involving all centre directors of ISRO and the director of the Physical Research Laboratory at Antariksh Bhavan. We discussed the possibilities and constraints of a spacecraft mission to Mars that could just fly by the planet for a short while or be manoeuvred to orbit Mars several times (it was too premature then to even think of a lander mission to Mars)," he writes.

The consensus was attempting an orbiter probe at the earliest possible opportunity, based on the favourable earth-Mars-sun geometry, says the book, co-written by Nilanjan Routh, who works at the satellite communications and navigation programme office of ISRO headquarters, and published by Penguin Random House.

There were several constraints but everyone was clear that the first mission to Mars should primarily aim to establish India's technological capabilities to reach there.

Work gained momentum as by the first week of August 2010, Radhakrishnan set up an interdisciplinary feasibility study team comprising 17 scientists and engineers, and Adimurthy as the chairman. The study revealed feasibility to avail the next available opportunity in November 2013 for the mission.

"I had no ambiguity in choosing November 2013. It was a daunting task to fulfill, but it was worth venturing into with all the might and determination of 'team ISRO' at hand," he says.

Finally, the conch was blown when the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced the Indian Mars Orbiter Mission on the 66th Independence Day in 2012. The government had approved the proposed project cost of Rs 450 crore in total. In a bid to get across to those who wanted to hear it, particularly youths, ISRO decided to lay stress on social media.

"We took diligent steps, followed the right mechanisms, and in less than four days between decision and implementation began to use social media through Facebook and Twitter. We created an in-house team of just three engineers to create and post content on behalf of the organisation," he says.

"The response was overwhelming, even by conservative estimates. More importantly, our social media tools became a platform not only for providing quick mission updates but for serious discussions on aerospace, astronomy and the Indian space programme as a whole."

Radhakrishnan also writes how he kept Prime Minister Narendra Modi periodically apprised of the preparations for the historic event and had also proposed to set up necessary technical facilities at '7RCR' for him to witness the event live and address the nation from there.

But Modi hinted that he "intended to be with us at Bengaluru on that morning", he says, adding that gesture "electrified the entire team and it gave me some comfort for the encounter with Mars".

He also says he made a call to Singh to apprise him of the impending finish of the historical journey that he had approved two years ago as prime minister.

According to Radhakrishnan, the Indian Mars Mission would probably go down as one of the most memorable feats in the history of science and technology in India.

"Not only had we succeeded in reaching the red planet on the first attempt; in the process we had developed a number of technologies that could help us better our operational space systems in the coming years. More importantly, we had instilled a belief in the country's youth that space technology was an area where we were on a par with the world's best," he says.
Defending the ban on high-currency notes, the government on Friday told the Supreme Court that it is "not sitting around doing nothing" and all the problems will be over in another "10-15 days".
Hit by the demonetisation hurdle, the fast-growing automobile sector in the country has posted a decline  the first this year  of about 5% in November.
Amonth after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced nearly 86 per cent of Indias cash in circulation by value would lose their status as legal tender, the narrative has shifted from freeing the country of the scourge of black money and counterfeit cash to the need for a cashless economy and encouraging digital transactions.
Former Prime Minister and senior Congress leader Manmohan Singh in a scathing article in The Hindu newspaper has termed the current government's drive a mammoth tragedy and has reiterated how Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision will hurt daily wage earners, while the black money hoarders will get away with a "mere rap on the knuckles".
A delegation from the industrial town of Coimbatore in southern Tamil Nadu met Union ministers at Delhi on Friday and gave a memorandum on the issues faced by medium, small and micro enterprises (MSMEs) after the of high value currency notes.
Wheat the most sown food grains during the rabi season was planted in around 22.56 million hectares of land till Friday. Although it was nearly 2.33 million hectares more than last year, which was a drought period, it was over 0.5 million hectares lower than the normal acreage during this time of the year.
The country needs a strong national encryption policy (NEP) before going cashless in post- era to ensure safety of smart card users, according to IPS officer and IT expert Sanjay Pandey.

"India needs a strong encryption policy before going digital all the way," Pandey, Deputy Commandant (Home Guards), Maharashtra, told PTI.

"The algorithm currently used in India to encrypt the data was declared obsolete by the US way back in 2000 and therefore we need a strong encryption arrangement before going digital," the 1986 IPS officer, a computer science graduate from IIT, said.

Earlier, a National Encryption Policy draft was drawn up in late 2015. This was, however, withdrawn due to certain concerns raised by the experts and public.

Since then, there has been no serious attempt made in that direction, he said.

"Guidelines issued to Internet Service providers (ISP) in 1999 mandated use of 40-bit encryption by the ISPs. But the use of 40-bit encryption in current times is too easy to be broken by hackers. This use of weak encryption exposes the data which travels through the Internet in India," he said.

Pandey was sent to USA and UK to study computer use for analysing crime and criminal data and was also entrusted with the work of computerising the modus operandi bureau of the crime branch and computerised information about arrested and convicted criminals.

"Hackers may have gathered the sensitive information of the cards being used by the people at ATMs and PoS and we should not be surprised if the hacking starts taking place after March next year, because there is cap on withdrawal on cash right now," said Pandey.

He said there is also the risk of EMV cards being prone to skimming and attacks, where data from magnetic strip on them easily reads through a tampered Automated Teller Machine (ATM) or PoS machine.

"Apart from coming up with National Encryption Policy mandating use of strong encryption, acceptance of India in the Wassenaar arrangement would make our country eligible to get and use best available encryption technology which will not only prevent skimming and malware attacks but also provide better security and safety to citizens in their day to day ATM and PoS usage," he said.
Outside the high walls that guard the currency note press in Mysuru, things look calm and relaxed. Perhaps, the only visible measure of the action inside is the number of trucks trying to gain entry into the fortified premises to drop off their loads of imported paper that is used to make the new Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 notes.
A UK-headquartered banknote manufacturer on Friday refuted as "defamatory and malicious" allegations that it was involved in printing new Indian currency notes and warned of "appropriate steps" to protect its reputation.

Richard Hird, the chief commercial officer of the firm, said the firm will take "appropriate steps" in India to protect its reputation.

"De La Rue categorically refutes the defamatory and malicious allegations about its business published in Indian media," Hird said in a statement here.

The statement followed allegations from Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday that De La Rue was printing currency for the Indian government at Mysuru Reserve Bank Press and that it was blacklisted under the previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.

"De La Rue is not supplying paper for printing of Indian currency and we are not associated with printing of currency in India at present in any form. De La Rue has received no notice nor are we aware that we are blacklisted in India," Hird said.

"De La Rue does not supply currency paper and is not printing currency for Pakistan and would never supply currency paper manufactured for one country to another," he added.

Describing De La Rue as the world's leading commercial banknote printer supporting 140 countries, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange, Hird said: "The company is a founder member of the Banknote Ethics Initiative and operates to the highest ethical standards. De La Rue will take appropriate steps in India to protect its reputation as the trusted currency printer around the world.
Construction of Medical Colleges under PMSSY

Government has approved upgradation of existing Government Medical Colleges at Kota, Udaipur and Bikaner under Phase III of Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY). Government has also approved upgradation of SMS Medical College at Jaipur under Phase IV of PMSSY.

Work has been awarded in respect of upgradation of existing medical colleges at Kota, Udaipur and Bikaner.

Gap Analysis Committee has been constituted for upgradation of SMS Medical College at Jaipur. Timeline for completion of the upgradation work depends upon various factors like approval of authorities concerned, approval of DPR and issue of notification of award. The timeline for completion of work is mentioned in the notification of award and is generally for a period of 16 to 24 months from date of award of work depending upon the size of the project and local site specific conditions.

The Government has not taken up construction of super speciality blocks at medical colleges in Jodhpur, Jhalwad and Ajmer under PMSSY.

Recruitment and deployment of Super-Specialist human resources to run the Super Speciality Blocks built under PMSSY is the responsibility of the State Government/Medical College concerned, which is responsible for running of the facilities created under upgradation work.

The Minister of State (Health and Family Welfare), Smt Anupriya Patel stated this in a written reply in the Lok Sabha here today.
Missile Testing Centre

Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has planned to set up a long range missile testing centre, including launch pad at Machilipatnam in Andhra Pradesh.

Proposal is at an initial stage. Proposal for requirement of land has been taken up with the Government of Andhra Pradesh.

This information was given by Minister of State for Defence Dr Subhash Bhamre in a written reply to Shri Konakalla Narayana Rao in Lok Sabha today.

DM/NAMPI/ Ranjan
Steps taken by Government for ensuring implementation of Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013

The Government has enacted the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 to provide a safe and secure environment to women at the workplace. The Ministry of Women and Child Development had issued advisories to all States/UTs Government on 23rd December, 2013 and 27th October, 2014 to ensure effective implementation of the Act. The Ministries/Departments in Government of India have also been advised to ensure the compliance of the Act from time to time.

All Ministries/Departments in the Government of India have constituted Internal Complaint Committee under the Act. Further, Ministry of Corporate Affairs along with the industry bodies, Associated Chambers of Commerce & Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Confederation of Indian Society, Chamber of Commerce & Industry (CCI), and National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) have been requested to ensure effective implementation of the Act amongst their members in private sector.

The Ministry of Women and Child Development regularly reviews the implementation of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 in workshops and conferences with State Governments/UT Administrations. Further, the Section 23 of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 casts responsibility on the State Government to monitor the implementation of this Act.

The Ministry has also constituted an Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) to identify a pool of resource persons and to develop a training module for the training of Internal Complaint Committees constituted under Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013.

This information was given by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Smt. Krishna Raj in the Lok Sabha today.
Warning Labels on Fast Foods

Fast Food has not been defined under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 and Regulations thereunder. However, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has issued draft Guidelines titled Guidelines for making available wholesome, nutritious, safe and hygienic food to school children in India" on 12.10.2015 wherein the availability of most common HFSS (High in Fat, Salt and Sugar) Foods in schools and an area within 50 meters thereof has been restricted/limited.

The World Health Organization has recently developed guidelines on Sugar intake for Adults and Children and the adverse impact of high sugar in foods.

No advice has been given by the Ministry to introduce warning labels on fast food. The need to avoid food high in fat, salt and sugar; aerated beverages; promotion of healthy lifestyle and various other aspects of food safety are disseminated to all concerned through workshops, media campaigns, documentary films, educational booklets, stalls at fairs/melas/events, mass awareness campaigns; etc.

The Minister of State (Health and Family Welfare), Smt Anupriya Patel stated this in a written reply in the Lok Sabha here today.
Chinese official media on Friday warned Mongolia that it is "politically harebrained" to seek India's help as the move will further complicate bilateral ties, amid reports that Ulan Bator sought New Delhi's support to overcome financial difficulties arising out of many factors including the imposition of border tariffs against it by .

Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang on Thursday declined to respond to a question on Mongolian envoy to New Delhi Gonchig Ganhold's reported comments on seeking India's support to counter Chinese measures, saying he has not heard of any such remarks.

However, state-run Global Times on Friday criticised Mongolia for approaching India.

"Sandwiched between Russia and China, Mongolia vows to remain a neutral state to benefit from both sides without having to get involved in a major-power competition," it said in an article.

"However, it also hopes it could seek a third neighbour, which can enable the country to reap more profits by gaining more bargaining chips. But, Mongolia should be alerted that it cannot afford the risks of such geopolitical games," it said.

"Mongolia seems naive about the way relations work - you cannot harm a country's interests while hoping it can reciprocate nicely," it said, adding, "Mongolia should know that mutual respect is the precondition to develop bilateral relationships and hitch a ride on China's economic development."

"It is even more politically harebrained to ask for support from India, a move that will only complicate the situation and leave a narrower space to sort the issue out. We hope the crisis-hit Mongolia will learn its lessons," it said.

Mongolia caught by surprise by hosting the Dalai Lama last month for four days, saying that it was purely a religious visit.

protested with its Foreign Ministry spokesman saying the Tibetan spiritual leader is a "political exile who has long been engaging in splitting China activities in the name of religion with the aim of alienating Tibet from China".

The spokesman, however, didn't confirm or deny a number of counter measures, including hiking over-land transit charges cancelling key bilateral talks to punish Mongolia for its "erroneous action" in defiance of China's warning.

Buddhism, which is widely followed in Mongolia, derives much of its characteristics from Tibetan Buddhism.

Mongolia says it is purely a religious visit by Dalai Lama and there was no political strings attached to it. "Since he fled to India in 1959 after his separatist revolt was upset, the Dalai Lama has become a political advocate calling for the separation of Tibet under the guise of religion," the article said.

"In China's narrative, he is much more a separatist than a religious figure. Receiving him implies endorsement of his deeds, which is highly disapproved of in both government and public discourses in China," it said.

"Whether China's countermeasures are real or not, Mongolia should reflect on its ill-considered handling of the case, lacking diplomatic sophistication and making trouble for in-depth cooperation between both sides," it added.
IMF resumes funding to Guinea Bissau

The International Monetary Fund has resumed payments to Guinea-Bissau, which were suspended in June over the government's loan bailouts for two private banks.

The decision by the IMF's board could lead donors, which also suspended budget support equal to 2.1 percent of gross domestic product for this year, to follow suit.

Total donor contributions, including direct budget support and financing for targeted sectors and projects, typically make up around 80 percent of Guinea-Bissau's budget.

"The authorities' resolute stance in unwinding the bank bailouts is welcome," David Lipton, the IMF's first deputy managing director, said in a statement following the board meeting. "Following through all steps until the bailouts are irreversibly unwound will be important to safeguard public finance."

The IMF agreed on a program with Guinea-Bissau last year, after elections were held in 2014. A coup had occurred two years earlier, one of a succession that spawned political instability and helped make the West African country a haven for South American cocaine traffickers.

Disbursements were suspended, however, after the government took on 34 billion CFA francs ($58.3 million) in bad loans from Banco da Africa Ocidental and Banco da Uniao whose value amounted to around 5.5 percent of GDP.

The IMF argued that the bailouts benefited the wealthiest citizens and foreign investors. Authorities said they were needed to shield the private sector from bankruptcy.

The IMF will now disburse $6.9 million, bringing total disbursements to date under the three-year program to about $10.8 million, the statement said.

www.imf.org
OCEAN SPRINGS, Mississippi -- Ocean Springs Mayor Connie Moran offered an apology Thursday night for comments attributed to her during last week's dedication of a new city recreation facility.

During Tuesday night's regular meeting of the board of aldermen, alderman Bobby Cox took Moran to task for referring to the new Ryan Youth Center as a "piece of s---" during the building dedication last Monday.

"Your lack of respect shown during this event is just another example as to why you are not the leader the people of this city think you are," Cox said to Moran Tuesday. "You embarrassed yourself and this city, again."

After his remarks, Cox and fellow alderman Matt McDonnell and Greg Denyer walked out of the meeting rather than listen to Moran's "excuses," according to Cox.

That night, Moran denied making the comments, saying "That's not what I said." Thursday night, however, at the conclusion of a special call meeting to approve the permit for the city's Mardi Gras night parade, Moran offered an apology.

"I want to apologize to anyone who was offended by my comments taken out of context at the Ryan Center dedication ceremony," she said. "I was displeased in the way things went down, but I'm very proud of the Ryan Center and the work of all the people who made it happen."

Moran offered the apology after she and the board emerged from executive session to discuss personnel in the police department and other confidential matters. Five members of the local media had been present earlier in the meeting for the Mardi Gras parade discussion, but by the time Moran made her apology, all but a Mississippi Press reporter had left city hall.

Three years ago, aldermen voted against pursuing a FEMA grant which could have resulted in a $3.4 million multi-purpose building on the grounds of Gay Lemon Park which would have served as both a city gymnasium and a public storm shelter.

At the time, the city was in a budget deficit and aldermen said the city simply could not afford the additional monies to complete the grant match, nor for the maintenance and operation of the gym once it was built. It was a decision which clearly displeased Moran -- who was outspoken then in her frustration with the board and reiterated that frustration this week.

Aldermen, however, maintained that regardless of Moran's opinion of the Ryan Center or her displeasure in the board's vote three years ago, her comments at the dedication ceremony were disrespectful to the Ryan family and the countless volunteers who worked on the two-year project, which Cox spearheaded.
At least 50,000 Islamic State jihadists have been killed by the US-led coalition since it began operations in Iraq and Syria in late 2014, a senior US military official has said.

A relentless operation using planes and drones from a dozen or so members of the anti-IS coalition since August 2014 has conducted some 16,000 air strikes against the jihadists in Iraq and Syria -- two-thirds of them in Iraq.

In addition, the coalition has provided training and weapons to local forces fighting IS.

"I am not into morbid counts but that kind of volume matters, that kind of impact on the enemy," the official said yesterday, calling the 50,000 number a conservative estimate.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the air campaign had been the "most pristine" ever in terms of avoiding civilian casualties, with almost all the bombs dropped so far being smart weapons that can be steered to a precise target.

The coalition tally of civilians killed in the operations is 173 -- though critics say the real figure is far higher.

The official said the coalition had diminished IS's ranks to such a level that the simultaneous attacks being waged on Mosul in Iraq and Raqa in Syria -- the jihadists last remaining major power centers -- have been possible.

Coalition spokesman Colonel John Dorrian said earlier that in Mosul, IS was turning to adolescent fighters as its hardcore warriors got wiped out.

"As this effort goes on with each passing day, Daesh has fewer fighters and fewer resources at their disposal," Dorrian said in a videocall, using an Arabic IS acronym.

He added the jihadists appeared to have run out of armored suicide car bombs, and estimated "many hundreds" of fighters had been killed in Mosul.

"It doesn't mean that it's not still an extraordinarily dangerous situation. They are not going to go quietly, but they are going to go."



The coalition has previously said it "does not use a casualty count as a measure of effectiveness in the campaign to ultimately defeat (IS) in Iraq and Syria".

Despite this assertion, such figures are periodically announced.

Airwars, a London-based collective of journalists and researchers, uses local sources, photographs and media accounts to keep a detailed list of every known coalition air strike.

They have praised Pentagon efforts at accountability compared with other actors in Syria such as Russia and the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. But the group says the number of likely civilian deaths from coalition strikes is 1,957 at a bare minimum.
Under the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump, the United States must be willing to declare Pakistan a state sponsor of terrorism, and in doing so, should also consider imposing sweeping and devastating sanctions against Pakistan's army to convince Islamabad to cease giving active support to various militant groups, feels a leading expert on Asian and South Asian affairs.

In an article for the warontherocks.com web site, C Christine Fair, associate professor in the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, said, "Washington should provide a timeline of concrete steps that Pakistan must take against the various militant groups it now supports to curtail such a designation."

Reflecting on the myriad policy challenges in South Asia for the incoming Trump administration, Fair suggests that for Washington not to go ahead with sanctions and withdrawal of aid, Pakistan, would have to as a first such step, cease active support for these groups and constrict their space for operations and recruitment.

She also suggests in her article that "ultimately, Washington should demand the elimination of the (terror) remnants", but predicts that Pakistan "would not be willing to undertake such efforts."

Dwelling on Pakistan, Fair says, "Despite the hullabaloo every time Pakistan gets a new army chief, there will never be any substantive changes in the civil-military relationship in Pakistan. For the foreseeable future, the Pakistan Army (will) call the relevant shots."

Suggesting that Pakistan uses terrorism under its nuclear umbrella with impunity because it works to achieve its agenda of highlighting the "conflict" with India, and thus provoke calls for dialogue to resolve "outstanding differences," and thereby further legitimise Pakistan's territorial demands, Fair says, "The only way to motivate change is by developing a coercive campaign that diminishes the advantages of Pakistan's use of militant proxies under its nuclear umbrella while also increasing the costs of doing so."

She says, "The United States has been unwilling to seriously revise its Pakistan policy because of the belief that American assistance and presence staves off state collapse or prevents further nuclear proliferation. Unfortunately, Pakistan has used American assistance to further develop the very assets - nuclear weapons and terrorists - that disquiet Americans the most."

Fair further states in her article that so far Washington has underestimated the resilience of the Pakistani state and the low likelihood of its collapse should U.S. aid be terminated.

"The United States will not likely be able to undertake any meaningful coercive policy if it continues to believe that its resources and those of its allies and multilateral organisations are staving off an otherwise likely collapse of the state," she warns, adding that the collapse of the Pakistan state is very unlikely despite this fear being commonly articulated by U.S. officials.

"Washington must stop providing Pakistan with incentives to produce "good jihadist assets" while fighting "terrorists of the Pakistani state." As long as Pakistan has terrorists to kill, Washington will remunerate Pakistan handsomely to do so. Pakistan's army knows the United States would be less concerned about Pakistan were it not for these militant proxies. Yet Washington has failed to tell Pakistan clearly that it must stop producing new terrorists to pursue its regional goals. The United States should incentivise Pakistan to abandon Islamist terrorists as tools of foreign policy. Doing so will require political fortitude and risk-taking. The president-elect has at least demonstrated a penchant for the latter," Fair said.

"Washington should not provide strategic weapons systems to Pakistan and deny the future supply of spare parts and lifetime maintenance. The sales of these systems were a grievous mistake. Withholding spare parts and maintenance could attenuate the outcome of poor decision-making in the past. However, the United States should remain willing to furnish platforms which are suited for counter-terrorist and counter-insurgency operations.. The United States should remain willing to provide police training and counter-insurgency training to Pakistan's security forces and other forms of assistance to Pakistan's shambolic justice system should Pakistan permit the United States to do so and should the United States be able to provide meaningful assistance to these organisations," she adds.

Fair says that Washington has, with one exception, turned a blind eye to the massive human rights abuses perpetrated by Pakistan's security forces in Balochistan, the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, and in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as well as other areas. Such insouciance, she adds fosters a culture of impunity in Islamabad.

She suggests that the U.S. Congress should terminate security-related reimbursements to Pakistan.

"The United States used to do this under the problematic Coalition Support Funds program and will likely provide reimbursements under a new program. Under U.N. Security Council Resolution 1373 (adopted in 2001), Pakistan is obligated to prevent and undermine the ability of terrorist groups from using their soil to organise, train, raise funds and recruits, and other necessary activities required to carry out attacks. It should not be compensated for undertaking its sovereign responsibilities," Fair says.

The Pakistan Army has three persisting objectives. First, resist what it views as Indian hegemony in South Asia and beyond. Second, cultivate "strategic depth" in Afghanistan both to vitiate any Afghan ill-will towards Pakistan and to deny India any space from which it can destabilize Pakistan from Afghan territory. Finally, seize the portion of Kashmir currently administered by India. To secure these goals, Pakistan uses two tools. First, it has cultivated a menagerie of Islamist and non-Islamist militant groups acting as proxies on behalf of the state. Second, it has developed an ever-expanding nuclear arsenal that includes battlefield nuclear weapons.

Pakistan relies upon proxies because they are inexpensive, able to subvert even the best defenses in India and Afghanistan, offer plausible deniability of state involvement, and generally limit the involvement of Pakistani security forces in direct engagement. Pakistan's military and intelligence personnel train, equip, and otherwise enable the operations of these groups and they help plan high-profile attacks. In some cases, retired personnel fulfill these roles and may even join a militant group. Pakistan's nuclear weapons enable Pakistan to use these proxies in several important ways. First, nuclear weapons raise the cost of any Indian punishment because they pose the risk that any conflict can escalate to nuclear use. Second, they coerce the international community to intervene after any Pakistan-sponsored terror attack in India to persuade India not to escalate. This essentially protects Pakistan from the consequences of its action. Third, they permit Pakistan to blackmail the international community to continue providing lucrative economic bailouts that allow the state to continue with these dangerous policies.

"Washington must hold Pakistan to account per its own laws and per the relevant United Nations resolutions and other agreements to which Pakistan is a signatory. It must also work to ensure that countries that China do not protect Pakistan from the consequences of its actions," she concludes.
First the Obama administration bailed out much of the American auto industry, pulling it out of a tailspin. Then it reshaped the business, with regulations and policies intended to increase fuel economy, improve safety and add jobs.
Looks like Sanjay Dutt's biopic gets a huge appreciation even before it flag-off and that too by none other than Mr. Perfectionist of Bollywood Aamir Khan.

While speaking to media in the national capital yesterday, the 51-year-old actor candidly said that he is extremely impressed by the script of the biopic on Sanjay Dutt.

"I recently heard the Sanjay Dutt biopic script from Rajkumar Hirani and I was blown away by it. I am sure Sanjay Dutt will gain more appreciation and fame than Ranbir Kapoor who is playing the character," he said.

The topic came up when media asked the 'PK' star whether a biopic overshadows the real life icon and gives more limelight to the star portraying him/her.

Speaking on the same, the actor, who is portraying Mahavir Singh Phogat in upcoming biopic 'Dangal,' added, "We are not promoting our film by taking inspiration from Mahaveer Phogat's life. I am sure Phogat family's glory will increase tenfold once the film releases."

Directed by Nitesh Tiwari, 'Dangal' also features Sakshi Tanwar and new comers Fatima Sana Shaikh and Sanya Malhotra. It is set to release on December 23.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
BrainGain Magazine, a leading study abroad online magazine for students, parents and mid-career professionals in South Asia, in partnership with Care For Air, a self-funded independent organisation committed to clean air in India, has announced a competition for high school students from class IX- XII to develop an action plan with pragmatic ideas to reduce and curb air pollution.

The deadline to submit the proposal is January 7, 2017.

The three best entries will win certificates and exciting prizes in the form of a Kindle e-reader, a Fitbit Activity Tracker and an Amazon Gift Card respectively.

Prizes and certificates will be distributed at BrainGain Magazine's student session on February 11, 2017 during The One Globe Forum, a global platform that attracts top academicians, educationists, senior government officials, bureaucrats, policy makers, corporate leaders and social to discuss, debate and deliberate on how to create a 21st century knowledge economy.

Speaking about the competition to curb air pollution, Harjiv Singh, Founder and CEO of BrainGain Magazine, said, "According to UNICEF, some 220 million children in South Asia are exposed to pollution levels more than six times the standards set by the WHO. The impact has been particularly disturbing in Delhi this year calling for an urgent action in this direction."

"Through this competition with Care For Air, we want to create awareness among the young students and crowd-source innovative ideas to help curb this problem facing India and other South Asian countries. BrainGain Magazine aims to create an inclusive platform for youth to play a constructive role in influencing policy on such citizen-centric matters," he added.

Students can participate in the competition for free by submitting an online proposal on BrainGain Magazine.

It should include an action plan to reduce air pollution through realistic, cost-effective and innovative interventions, for example, through community action in a neighborhood or a school, or an awareness campaign, or an app.

Each student can submit only one entry, which must be 500 to 800 words long. The plan must have a clear focus, a holistic view and a message for a well-defined target audience. The entries will be judged based on the originality and creativity of the ideas, their feasibility and soundness, research and citations to support the plan and solutions that require minimal resources.

"Through our long time in-school education program, Care for Air understands and believes in the power of young minds, the influencers and innovators of tomorrow. We are committed to clean, safe air for all people. BrainGain Magazine was the perfect partner for Care for Air to speak to a larger audience of engaged high school students determined to make a difference," said Tina Chadha, co-founder of Care for Air and one of the judges for this competition.

For the past six years, the BrainGain Magazine has been hosting its annual 'study abroad information and knowledge session' at One Globe Forum to provide students, parents and teachers a unique and complimentary platform to interact with the experts from leading foreign institutions, education-related companies and erudite alumni.

BrainGain Magazine also organizes an education fair where foreign universities can directly engage with students from top schools in India and young professionals wanting to study abroad.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
As China recently issued directions to Tibetans and Chinese pilgrims visiting India to come back before 'Kalachakra' (Wheel of Time) initiations by the Tibetan spiritual leader, the 14th Dalai Lama dubbed the diktat as "sad", saying it is an indication of whether there is religious freedom or not.

After China's diktat, some pilgrims met the Dalai Lama, where he questioned the religious freedom in Tibet.

When asked whether he had met pilgrims after China had directed them to return before Kalachakra, the Dalai Lama told ANI, "I met. They were simply crying...crying...crying... crying; very sad; but there is no other choice. I think this is the indication whether there is religious freedom or not."

The Dalai Lama thereafter left for his visits to Delhi; Bengaluru, Mysuru and Mundgod in Karnataka; and Bodh Gaya in Bihar from the Kangra Airport here.

He will give the 34th Kalachakra initiations from January 3-14 in Bodh Gaya.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Taking strong exception to Rahul Gandhi's jibe that 'PayTm means Pay to Modi', a reference to the latter's move to demonitise high value currency, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday countered by saying that the Congress vice president has failed to grasp the depth of the government's decision and is only making "irresponsible" statements.

"Rahul Gandhi is known for making irresponsible statements on many occasions. Demonetisation is a very bold step taken by Prime Minister Modi. It is not a simple task to withdraw 85 percent of money and replace them. He doesn't have a depth of knowledge of the kind of step the Union Government has taken," BJP leader Shrikant Prakash told ANI.

Prakash further said there are various ways to put forward an opinion against the decision, but the opposition is only interested in shouting and is completely not interested in debating about it.

"Calling it a foolish decision, it is not a dignified comment by a responsible opposition party member. He should put forward his opinion, they are simply shouting against demonetisation. They are trying to shoot arrows from the shoulders of farmers and the poor who have already accepted demonetisation and are cooperating with the government," he added.

Rahul Gandhi yesterday alleged that the government's move to scrap Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 notes was benefitting institutions like Paytm while the poor were facing hardships.

"Prime Minister Modi is running away, if he comes to the House for a debate, we won't let him run. He (PM Modi) is laughing, having a nice time while the people of the country are suffering. The idea behind a cashless economy is that a few people must get maximum benefits from these transactions, this has damaged the nation," he said.

Gandhi further said demonetisation was a foolish decision taken without any due consideration.

"The assessment is that, it is a disaster. It has devastated the poor, farmers and daily wage workers. We want to have a discussion. We want a vote, government doesn't. How can it be a bold decision? It is a foolish decision taken without any due consideration," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Supreme Court will continue to hear the demonetisation matter today after it had adjourned the matter because of problems faced by cooperative banks.

Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur had asked the government to see if something can be done.

"People are suffering, it is a serious problem." he had said then.

The Centre had submitted an affidavit last week on the demonetisation move in the Supreme Court, saying it is an attempt to unearth black money stashed over the last seven decades.

Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi said that the Centre had filed a reply in the Supreme Court in compliance with the top court's earlier order on the issue.

The Centre in its affidavit told the apex court that demonetisation is a step to reduce ratio of cash transactions, adding the objective is to unearth illegal parallel economy.

Attorney General Rohatgi had earlier filed a transfer petition before the Supreme Court seeking a stay on all pending pleas against demonetisation.

The apex court had on November 18 refused to put a stay on hearings in various High Courts and lower courts related to the demonetisation of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 currency notes.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Diego Luna, who plays Captain Cassian Andor in 'Rogue One

The 36-year-old Mexican actor, who has been a fan of the franchise since childhood, expressed that making the movie was a dream come true, reports E! Online.

"The interesting part was the military training," Luna says, "I spent two weeks with ex militaries and did a lot of patrolling and camping and just listening to them and to their stories."

"All the work with the stunts, it's so cool. It's like choreography. Killing a Stormtrooper it's so nice, but you have to rehearse, right? But that feeling of running and suddenly [shooting] and the guy falls, it's so special. I've dreamed of that my whole life," he says, adding, "Getting to a place where everything around you is Star Wars and doing it over and over and over, it was perfect."

The 'The Book of Life' actor also recalled the first time he heard he would be playing the Rebel Alliance intelligence officer.

"It was 2 a.m. in the morning. I was asleep in Budapest-I was shooting a different project-and my phone started ringing. I was like, 'Oh, God. Who is this? Probably a drunk cousin that wants to tell me something.' I fell asleep again and I didn't answer," he told E! News.

"Then I went like, 'Damn! No! Wait a second!' I went to hear the message and it was Gareth Edwards," he said.

Luna got the news after promptly getting in touch with the director, but could not "tell anyone" for "three months" until the official announcement came out.

Also starring Felicity Jones, Donnie Yen, Ben Mendelsohn, Jiang Wen, Mads Mikkelsen, Alan Tudyk and many more stars, 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story' will come to theatres on December 16.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Income tax officials carried out a raid on the Chandni Chowk branch of on Friday, and discovered 15 fake accounts.

The officials were quoted, as saying that, over Rs. 450 crores were found in these fake accounts. Officials said the taxman visited the bank's branch in Chandni Chowk area here and found that huge sums were deposited in multiple accounts post November 8, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes. "The department is checking the records of the bank as part of a survey operation. There are some instances under scanner where huge deposits have been made post the currency scarp and that is being probed," officials said. said it is cooperating with the agency. "The bank is committed to following the highest standards of corporate governance and has zero tolerance towards any deviation on the part of any of its employees from the set model code of conduct.

Strict action will be taken against any employee found deviating from the guidelines. We would also like to add that we are cooperating with the investigating agencies," it said in a statement.
Hosemann presser.JPG

Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann discusses the history of Cat Island during a press conference Friday morning during which he announced the State of Mississippi had acquired nearly 500 additional acres of the barrier island.

(Warren Kulo/The Mississippi Press)

This photo of Cat Island shows ownership of the island prior to Friday's announcement that the State of Mississippi had acquired nearly 500 additional acres. The section of the island outlined in green, owned by British Petroleum, was purchased by the state Friday with $13.7 in federal funds.

GULFPORT, Mississippi -- Calling it "pleasant Christmas news for Mississippians," Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann announced Friday morning the state had acquired another 500 acres of Cat Island, the westernmost of Mississippi's four barrier islands.

Funded by the federal Mississippi Coastal Improvements Program, administered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the state paid British Petroleum $13.7 million for the 492 acres. BP had purchased the section of Cat Island in the wake of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill to use as a staging area for cleanup operations.

Hosemann emphasized no state funds were used in the purchase.

With the purchase, Mississippi now owns roughly 700 acres, with the remainder owned by the U.S. Park Service and a small section (72 acres) by the Boddie family.

Hosemann recalled that three years ago he had walked along the island with others and made the comment that "one day, we want to return the island to the people of Mississippi. Today is that day."

Cat Island is used primarily as a recreation site for low-impact activities including swimming, sunbathing, camping, hiking, fishing and safe mooring. The island is largely untouched and includes pine/oak maritime forest, estuarine marsh, sand dunes and beaches.

Hosemann said the deed covenants included in the purchase call for the island to remain in a "pristine" state, save for a public pier the National Park Service intends to build at some point in the future.

Originally discovered by the French in the late 1600s, Cat Island has only had a handful of owners over the more than 300 years since, including the park service, the Cuevas family, Boddie family, BP and a few individual landowners.

Hosemann also noted the island's key role in protecting the coast from tropical storms and hurricanes.

"It's important because it helps protect our people, protects our shoreline," he said.

But, Hosemann said, Cat Island can only continue to be of benefit of the coast if it is renourished. To that end, the state entered into a memorandum of agreement with the Corps of Engineers to renourish the island.

Under the agreement, the Corps will bring in two million cubic yards of dredged sand to the islands eastern beach and cover an area approximately 250 feet wide and will be between 5-7 feet in height, sloping towards the Gulf of Mexico.

The renourishment, scheduled to be completed by early spring 2017, will restore the eastern side of the island to its pre-1998 condition and add another 40 acres to Goose Point, which had eroded to below sea level.

"We want your children's childen's grandchildren to have this island," Hosemann said.

Several local mayors were on hand for Friday's announcement, including Gautier's Gordon Gollott, Jim Blevins of Pascagoula, Andrew "FoFo" Gilich of Biloxi, Billy Hewes of Gulfport, Les Fillingame of Bay St. Louis and Chip McDermott of Pass Christian.

"They are all treasures," Hewes said of the barrier islands, "and we don't spend enough time out there. So to be able to provide more access to the public -- it's kind of a no-brainer."

Blevins said the project is of benefit to his city, even though they are at opposite ends of the Mississippi coast, because it ties in with the "One Coast" concept and helps bring tourists to the coast.

Hosemann also credited the coast's legislative delegation, including Sen. Brice Wiggins of Pascagoula, for their efforts in securing the island acreage. Although no state funds were used, the legislature had to approve the deal.

"By any stretch of the imagination, this was a team effort," Hosemann said.
The Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Friday said that if he speaks on demonetisation in the parliament, then ruling regime would be hit by an 'earthquake'.

"Government is running away from the debate, if they allow me to speak in parliament, then you will see what an earthquake will occur," he said.

Gandhi alleged that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi only gives speeches across the country but fears coming to the parliament.

Gandhi asked, "for the past one month, we have been trying to push for a debate on demonetisation. We want the government to debate with us in the House. Prime Minister Modi is giving speeches all over the country, but fears coming to the Lok Sabha. He is in the House, but not willing to sit in the Lok Sabha. Why is there so much fear?"

Gandhi described demonetisation as the biggest scam in the history of the country and warned that he would expose the real reason behind the decision taken on November 8.

"This is the biggest scam in the history of India. When I will speak, Modiji won't be able to sit. I want to express the view of the common public in the House and want to unravel the scam done by Narendra Modi. I will expose the real reason behind the demonetisation but I have been stopped," Gandhi added.

Gandhi said, "Layoffs are happening, farmers are dying because of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's financial expertise. It is not a bold decision, it's foolish."

Speaking about the on-going protests in both Houses of Parliament, Gandhi said the responsibility to run the House is the government's and the Speaker's. "We want a vote (following debate) because people from BJP will vote for us on demonetisation."

Gandhi compared Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Roman emperor Nero - who fiddled while Rome burned - and then accused him of nefariously banning high-value notes to benefit a few people like e-wallet company Paytm.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
India and Vietnam on Friday signed an agreement on Cooperation in Peaceful use of Atomic Energy signed.

The agreement was signed by Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy, Dr. Sekhar Basu and Vietnam Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Dr. Pham Cong Tac.

A Cooperation Agreement between the Lok Sabha of the Republic of India and the Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam signed by lower house Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and visiting Chairperson of Assembly Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan here on Friday.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Air India limited and Vietjet Aviation Joint Stock Company for promotion of traffic between Vietnam and India and sharing of best practices in airline operation, ground handling procedure and management was signed by Director-Commercial Air India Limited Pankaj Srivastava and Vice President of VietJet Dinh Viet Phuong.

Another MoU between Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) and Vietnam Electricity (EVN) on developing a partnership to jointly work in the area of energy efficiency was signed by Senior Advisor, Energy Efficiency Services Limited, Satish C. Mehta and Vietnam Electricity Chairman Duong Quang Thanh.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Ngan the bilateral Agreement on Cooperation in Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy will further strengthen the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between India and Vietnam.

Mahajan welcomed Ngan and the members of the Parliamentary delegation from Vietnam to Parliament. The delegation also watched the Lok Sabha proceedings.

Welcoming the delegation, Mahajan said India-Vietnam ties are characterised by close friendship, cooperation and understanding.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Kapture CRM, the fast growing Indian Mobile-first SaaS CRM Startup has been selected to be a part of the third batch at Google Launchpad Accelerator. This program will enable the team to work closely with Google engineers, mentors and resources for six months. The opportunity will be utilized to improve its product offerings and market strategy.

Kapture CRM focuses on resolving the multiple pain points associated with managing daily operations. The Cloud CRM platform enables businesses to automate their operations to achieve a higher level of productivity and efficiency. Kapture CRM also provides custom APIs to suit the requirement of different Industry verticals such as Hospitality, Customer Service, FMCG, Real Estate etc.

Enterprise mobility has been the prime focus in IT Investments in 2016 and is expected to remain the same over next few years. With multiple advantages over the web based products (including low hardware costs, mobility, location services etc) it has been a priority requirement for all corporate.

Kapture CRM focuses on being a Mobile-first automation platform.

Being cloud based it enables the users to oversee, manage and take meaningful decisions on the go and even from their Smartphones using multiple apps that are provided by the company.

Carrying forward the same product positioning, CEO, Sheshgiri Kamath says "Our customers should be able to run their in their accustomed way.

Kapture CRM has the flexibility to adapt and improve our customers' unique

business models."

Kapture CRM platform has been steady in raising a pool of satisfied customers including industry leaders such as Big Basket, BNP Paribas, Century, Quikr, Hotstar, Wildcraft, etc.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
LexisNexis, a leading global provider of content and technology solutions, released Raju Ramachandran's 'I've been around for some time

Mr. Justice Mukul Mudgal, former chief justice, Punjab and Haryana High Court, and Mr. Soli J Sorabjee, Senior Advocate and former attorney general for India, released the book in presence of many other eminent dignitaries like Mr. Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde, Judge, Supreme Court of India; Mr. Justice R.F. Nariman, Judge, Supreme Court of India; Justice Ravindra Bhat, Justice Gita Mittal and Justice Dr. S. Muralidhar from Delhi High Court, Mr. Sitaram Yechury, Leader, CPI (M); and Mr. Fali S Nariman, Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India; and other distinguished members from the bar, judiciary, corporate and media.

Justice Mudgal congratulated Mr. Ramachandran for writing a wonderful book and said, "Raju is known for taking the road less travelled and is always ready to take up popular causes that nobody would like to be associated with; that's his strength and character. He has been amicus in several cases of note and advances the cause of law; and that gives dignity to our legal profession that even the worst criminal gets the best legal assistance. I wish the book all success."

Congratulating the author on his achievement, Soli J Sorabjee said, "I enjoyed the foreword and the middle word the most. With Raju's 'Analyses, Reflections and Reminiscences', I went down memory lane."

The book release function was followed by a panel discussion, on various themes picked from the book, by diverse and eminent panelists, to introduce the vast and complex 'Analyses, Reflections and Reminiscences' in the book. The panel comprised of Aman Ahluwalia, Advocate, Supreme Court of India; Suhrith Parthasarathy, Advocate, Madras High Court; Saba Naqvi, Senior journalist and author; and Mukul Kesavan, writer; and was moderated by Gopal Sankaranarayanan, Advocate, Supreme Court of India.

On the author, Mr. A G Noorani, Advocate, Supreme Court of India, said, "The reader will be struck at once by his excellent legal equipment, cogency in reasoning; clarity in expression and, not least, by his liberal outlook. Nor is humour absent. No reader will agree with the author on all the points in all the articles. But he will not fail to be stimulated to reflect further. I found these articles thought provoking. So, I am sure, will the readers."

On the author, Nitya Ramakrishnan, Senior Advocate, commented, "An inveterate amicus curiae, his wisdom and fairness have illuminated many a thorny legal issue.Even-tempered, pleasant, considerate, hospitable, humorous, conscientious, a friend in need and generous with his praise, Raju is a repository of every amiable quality. He even has the virtue of wearing his virtues lightly. Although his style is not provocative, his anecdotes carry a bubbling irony and who would have imagined that irony could bubble over! If the smile that lingers. gets across through his writing as it does with his presence, I would, for my part, consider his readers very well served indeed."

On the author, Siddharth Varadarajan, Indian-American Journalist, Editor, and Academic, said, "Raju combines the lawyer's mind with the journalist's flair for interesting detail and a personal touch, to bring to life a range of personalities and issues.His articles display a rare moderation but also firmness. The capacity to not offend even while raising difficult questions is precious. No wonder that he is a favoured choice as amicus in important cases. If the Supreme Court trusts him, readers so must you."

On the book, Mr. Vikesh Dhyani, Director, Marketing, Customer Discovery & Innovation, LexisNexis India-South Asia, said, 'This book is a compilation of select articles and interviews by Raju Ramachandran, published in leading national newspapers, magazines and law journals. The book covers a range of topics-from the independence of the judiciary, the manner of judicial appointments, the need for judicial rectitude to the concept of constitutional tort, the basic structure doctrine, comparative constitutional questions, challenges to parliamentary democracy, and to more recent issues of lawyers' strikes, as well as the attitude of the Bar to unpopular accused. These articles are thought provoking, and show the evolution, or lack thereof, in different areas. I've been around for some time: Analyses, Reflections and Reminiscences is an invaluable blend of expertise and lucidity that the author brings, and even if one disagrees, one will be forced to contemplate these issues.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Bharatiya Janata Party Secretary Siddharth Nath Singh on Friday urged West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to apologise to the armed forces for suggesting that they were involved in a conspiracy that went beyond the call of duty.

Singh told ANI, "Mamata Banerjee created a conspiracy out of a normal service which the army conducts, and therefore, the pain has been expressed by Manohar Parrikar and for which, Mamata Banerjee must apologise to the Indian armed forces,"

"A constitutional head like Mamata Banerjee has accused the Indian Army, the most disciplined and political armed forces in the world of trying to do a coup. TMC leaders should stop defending Mamata Banerjee, because by defending Mamata Banerjee, the TMC is further accusing the Indian Army, which is unacceptable to the people of this country." Singh added.

Banerjee had alleged that the deployment of the army at two toll plazas in West Bengal was made without any prior information to the state government. She also termed the day as "black day", pointing out that such a deployment takes place only normally during disasters.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Patiala House Court on Friday reserved its order in the Herald case after BJP leader Subramanian Swamy filed an application, seeking documents and ledger books from the Congress party and the Associated Journals Limited (AJL). The court is likely to pronounce an order on December 26.

Swamy in his petition alleged that Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi got hold of Associated Journals through "dishonest means" which pertains to "criminal misappropriation and criminal breach of trust."

However the defence counsel, appearing for Gandhi, said Swami filed a complaint in July 2013 which has no reference regarding the loan borrowed from the Congress.

They said neither Swamy made the Congress an accused nor he alleged that no office bearers were authorized to lend the loan.

The counsel argued that the details of loan were never mentioned in the returns and the documents Swami asked are not necessary for this case.

However, Swamy refuted the claim saying that his case has merit.

"They have been saying that I don't have a case, how can that be when the court has issued summons for them. So they are buying time and delaying, but they will not escape it," Swamy said.

Swamy further alleged that he revealed a correspondence between Sardar Vallabha Patel and Jawaharlal Nehru where the former alleged that Nehru had indulged in corrupt practices by collecting money for Herald by giving away government contracts to undesirable parties

"The Herald is being used by the Nehru family to collect funds and aggrandize them. I wanted to know whether Sonia and Rahul Gandhi got hold of Associated journals limited by honest means or dishonest means, My allegations is that they acquired through dishonest means which is criminal misappropriation and criminal breach of trust," he said.

Swamy had filed an application in 2012 accusing Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and others associated with Congress of conspiring to cheat in a land deal.

In his complaint, Swamy had alleged that the Congress granted an interest-free loan of Rs 90.25 crore to the AJL, owner of the National Herald newspaper, established by Jawaharlal Nehru, which was either not repaid or repaid in case. This is in violation of Section 269T of the Income Tax Act, 1961.

In August, the court issued notices to Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and five others on Swamy's application seeking presentation of certain documents from Associated Journals Pvt. Ltd (AJL) and Indian National Congress (INC) in connection with the National Herald case.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Congress Party on Friday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to come to parliament and talk about his mental strength rather than physical strength.

Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Raj Babbar told ANI, "The Finance Minister was speaking yesterday, he said that the shoulders of the Prime Minister are strong, earlier his chest was stronger, and now, his shoulders are. We don't want him to do wrestling. His physical strength is being talked about, we want him to come to parliament and talk about his mental strength."

Babbar further said that Prime Minister Modi said three things about demonetisation i.e. that it has to put an end to black money, terrorism and fake currency.

"But now, official black money is coming which the government is taking with a partnership of 50 percent. Otherwise, black money did not come back from demonetisation. Terrorists are still bringing in the notes, fake currency is still being printed," he added.

Another Congress leader, Rajiv Shukla said, "We also want the proceedings in the house to take place. Listen to this little demand of the opposition."

Meanwhile, the uproar in the parliament over demonetisation continues.

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Launching a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi for "unleashing financial anarchy on the country" and "inflicting sufferings on millions of people" by demonetising Rs. 500 and Rs.1000 currencies, the Deputy Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Anand Sharma, said the Prime Minister should come to parliament and accept his "blunder".

"Prime Minister Modi, instead of accepting the blunder, is actually changing positions on a daily basis. He must be held accountable and if he has any honour and shame left, he should come to parliament, apologise and atone for unleashing financial anarchy on this country and inflicting sufferings on millions of people. The country which was recognised as one of the largest democracies has turned into a banana republic," said Sharma.

Criticising the government for handing out incentives to people using digital transactions, Sharma said it was a cruel joke as more than 73 crore people are unbanked.

"What the Finance Minister has said is a cruel joke in a country where officially, as per the RBI, 43 percent are unbanked and 80 percent of India has no internet connectivity. What he has said today is a desperate act to mislead and confuse. Less than three percent of people use credit cards and debit cards. As per the World Bank's Financial Inclusion report 11 percent of India has done cheque transactions. How can you transform India to cashless society overnight," he asked.

Sharma further said the demonetisation has shutdown India's economy and made it cashless.

"He has shutdown India's economy and made India cashless in any case because banks have gone bankrupt, ATMS are running empty and the cash that has been sent to the villages is literally Rs.300 per account," he said.

The Congress leaders' comments came in sharp response to the government incentivising people on use of credit and debit cards.

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Replying to the Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi's comment that if he speaks on demonetisation, then an 'earthquake' will occur, two central ministers said he was overestimating his debating skills.

"Rahul is overestimating his debating skills. Even he knows how good he is in front of the people. As Parliament is the platform of debate and discussion, I welcome him to come forth," Union Minister for Textiles Smriti Irani said, adding, "Earthquake effect is seen more in the Congress party rather than in others. Many veteran politicians and even the President have asked for a discussion on demonetisation."

Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju said the Centre is open for a debate, but the Opposition is only running away from it by putting unnecessary excuses.

"From the first day itself, we have been saying that the government is open for a debate on demonetisation. The Congress and the Trinamool Congress are running away from a discussion by putting up unnecessary excuses," he said.

Rijiju told ANI in New Delhi that the Congress party does not have the courage to face a discussion as the Centre has logic and reasoning behind every decision which it has made since November 8.

"In the Lok Sabha the debate has already started, but the opposition started running away from the debate. The Congress party has looted the country for so long. Now, the government has announced this landmark move, but the Congress party does not have the courage to face the debate. We have the logic and reasoning for the discussion. The Congress has failed in front of the nation," he added.

Replying to Rahul Gandhi's charge that demonetisation is the biggest scam in the history of India, Rijiju said, "It is unbecoming of the Congress to lecture us on scams, because the grand old party has looted the country for so long."

Congress leader said today that if he is allowed to speak in the Lok Sabha on the issue of demonetisation, it has the potential to cause an "earthquake."

"The government is running from a debate. If they allow me to speak, then you will see what an earthquake will come," said the Congress vice president.

The Congress and other opposition parties have vociferously and relentlessly been criticising the November 8 scrapping of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes. The note ban, or demonetisation, has caused a severe cash crunch, with farmers and poor bearing the brunt of the shortage of new notes.
Coming down heavily on Rahul Gandhi for his attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over demonetisation, the Bharatiya Janata Party( BJP) on Friday said that the Congress vice president was not taken seriously even by his own party, adding that he is like Uttara Kumar of Mahabharata, who makes tall claims but in reality is a coward and comic character.

"Rahul Gandhi can be compared very well with Uttara Kumar of Mahabharata, who is known to make tall claims but he is indeed coward and a comic character. Along with that, he is not taken seriously by anybody because he simply does not deliver on the claims he makes. Rahul Gandhi is Uttara Kumar of Mahabharata and has no political gravitas to really make comments that make sense," BJP spokesperson G. V. L. Narsimha Rao told ANI here.

Rao quirked on Gandhi by saying that even his own party does not take him seriously, adding that the Congress vice president is only familiar with culture of Italy and not of India.

"Rahul Gandhi is not taken seriously by his own party let alone other parties. He tried to draw unwarranted comparison with the Roman Emperor because he is familiar with the culture of Italy and not of India," he said.

Replying to the President Pranab Mukherjee's furious reaction over the continuous logjam in the Parliament saying "for God sake, do your job", Rao remarked that the Opposition should listen to the sane advise of head of the nation.

"We hope that the opposition parties which have used parliament as a platform for disruption, a platform for staging protests without any clear demand, without any clear reasons. We hope that they will listen to the sane advice of the President of India. Parliament is not a forum for disruption and creating ruckus," he added.

The BJP spokesperson criticised the Opposition for not using the august forum of Parliament to express the views concerning the public.

"People elect member of Parliament to go and present their views. The Opposition parties have never used the forum of Parliament in the last one month to express the view concerning the public. They are claiming outside there are problems of the people but they are articulating their own problem by creating Parliament disruption. They are not using the august form of Parliament to express their concerns," Rao said.

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Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM), Syed Tariq Fatemi met with the United States Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday, where he apprised the latter about the situation along the Working Boundary with India.

The Special Assistant is in Washington on the first high level visit from Pakistan after Donald Trump won the US presidential election.

"The regional situation, including the escalation across the Line of Control and the Working Boundary were also discussed during the meeting. The SAPM briefed the Deputy Secretary," said a statement from the Pakistan Foreign Office.

Deputy Secretary Blinken reiterated the U.S. position on the need for reducing tension in South Asia and promoting closer cooperation and dialogue between the two largest countries of the region.

The special envoy was accompanied by Ambassador Jalil Abbas Jilani.

During the meeting, the SAPM also expressed hope that after the completion of ongoing transition process, the two sides would resume their regular engagement on the bilateral track.

"It was agreed that Pakistan-US relationship was important to regional as well as global peace and security and should continue to be strengthened under the next administration," said the statement.

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In a development signalling major trouble for South Korea's President Park Geun-hye, lawmakers in the National Assembly have voted to begin proceedings of impeachment againsther.

According to CNN, the country's constitutional court will now deliberate the motion that could take up to 180 days.

Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn will become Acting President for the duration of the court's deliberation.

Under the South Korean constitution, impeachment requires a two-thirds majority of the 300-member legislature to pass.

President Park Geun-hye has been swimming in troubled waters since it was revealed that her confidante and adviser, Choi Soon-sil, had access to confidential government documents despite holding no official government position.

Choi is accused of using her relationship with Park to accumulate millions of dollars in donations to her foundations and has been detained after being charged with abuse of power, fraud and coercion.

The Constitution states that impeachment requires a two-thirds majority of the 300-member legislature to pass.

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A senior Pakistani Taliban leader, Fazal Saeed Haqqani, has been shot dead in the Kurram tribal region by one of his guards who had been working with him for three years.

Haqqani had served as head of the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in Kurram Agency under the leadership of Hakimullah Mehsud, who was killed in a US drone strike near Miramshah in 2013, reports the Express Tribune.

He had later parted ways with the TTP and launched his own faction Tehreek-e-Taliban Islami against the bombings of mosques and civilians.

According to militant sources, the guard, identified as Idrees Afridi from Khyber Agency, shot Haqqani multiple times near his home on Thursday where he was present with other militants. Another commander Sher Zaman was also killed in the firing. The attacker then fled the scene.

Motive behind the attack were unclear and no group claimed responsibility. It is believed that Haqqani may have been targeted due to internal differences among the Taliban groups.

Haqqani was among the several influential Taliban commanders when he was part of the TTP. The militant group announced that his funeral will be held in Lower Kurram on Friday.

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Record date is 20 December 2016

AXISCADES Engineering Technologies announced that the Board of Directors of the Company have approved and fixed the record date as 20 December 2016 for ascertaining the eligible shareholders of India Aviation Training Institute to issue and allot New Equity Shares of the Company to such shareholders as on the record date in accordance with the Scheme of Amalgamation. Thereby the Register of Members and Share Transfer Register of India Aviation Training Institute shall remain closed for one day i.e. 20 December 2016.

Further, the Company informed that the Scheme of Amalgamation between AXISCADES Engineering Technologies Limited and India Aviation Training Institute Private Limited and their Respective Shareholders ("Scheme") approved by the Hon'ble High Court of Karnataka has become effective on and from 05 December 2016.

In accordance with clause 14 of the Scheme, India Aviation Training Institute shall stand dissolved without winding-up and accordingly, AXISCADES Aerospace & Technologies (hitherto a wholly-owned subsidiary of India Aviation Training Institute) together with its subsidiaries, has become a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company.

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On 13 December 2016

Time Technoplast announced that the meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company will be held on 13 December, 2016 inter-alia, to consider alternate means of fund raising including but not limiting to Preferential Issue of Securities in terms of Chapter VII of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Issue of Capital and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2009 as amended.

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Jindal Steel & Power dropped 1.92% to Rs 71.70 at 9:40 IST on BSE after the company reported consolidated net loss of Rs 745.98 crore in Q2 September 2016 compared with net loss of Rs 909.53 crore in Q2 September 2015.

The result was announced after market hours yesterday, 8 December 2016.

Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex was up 17.31 points, or 0.06%, to 26,711.94.

On the BSE, 3.4 lakh shares were traded in the counter so far, compared with average daily volume of 13.26 lakh shares in the past one quarter. The stock had hit a high of Rs 74.70 and a low of Rs 71.25 so far during the day. The stock had hit a 52-week high of Rs 98.10 on 31 December 2015. The stock had hit a 52-week low of Rs 48.20 on 12 February 2016.

The stock had outperformed the market over the past 30 days till 8 December 2016, rising 1.25% compared with 3.25% fall in the Sensex. The scrip had, however, underperformed the market in past one quarter, falling 15.54% as against Sensex's 8.09% decline.

The mid-cap company has equity capital of Rs 91.49 crore. Face value per share is Re 1.

Jindal Steel & Power's total income fell 1.5% to Rs 4666.22 crore in Q2 September 2016 over Q2 September 2015. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) margin contracted to 18% in Q2 September 2016 compared with 21% in Q2 September 2015, on the back of lower realizations. The company's consolidated net debt as on 30 September 2016 was maintained at similar levels as of previous quarter.

The company said that overall outlook is positive for the company with improving margins accompanied by ramp up in volumes. The company's global ventures are expected to perform well in the coming quarters.

JSPL is one of India's major steel producers with a significant presence in sectors like mining, power generation and infrastructure.

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Reported sales nil

Net profit of Orissa Minerals Development Company declined 85.37% to Rs 0.61 crore in the quarter ended September 2016 as against Rs 4.17 crore during the previous quarter ended September 2015. There were no Sales reported in the quarter ended September 2016 and during the previous quarter ended September 2015.

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Steel Authority of India (Sail) reported net loss of Rs 731.58 crore in Q2 September 2016 compared with net loss of Rs 1108.04 crore in Q2 September 2015. Total income rose 20.68% to Rs 12645.76 crore in Q2 September 2016 over Q2 September 2015. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 8 December 2016.

Jindal Steel & Power reported consolidated net loss of Rs 745.98 crore in Q2 September 2016 compared with net loss of Rs 909.53 crore in Q2 September 2015. Total income fell 1.5% to Rs 4666.22 crore in Q2 September 2016 over Q2 September 2015. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 8 December 2016.

Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) announced that the company will be undertaking scheduled maintenance shutdown at some of its automotive and tractor plants in December, 2016. It will also observe on need basis few days as 'No Production Days' at some of its automotive and/or tractor plants including Chakan plant of its wholly owned subsidiary Mahindra Vehicle Manufacturers as part of its efforts to optimize inventories during December year-end.

The management does not envisage any adverse impact on the availability of products in the market due to adequacy of stocks to serve the market requirements. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 8 December 2016.

Power Grid Corporation of India announced that a meeting of committee of directors for bonds is planned to be held on 14 December 2016 to consider issue of secured, redeemable, non-convertible, non-cumulative, taxable bonds (Debenture) under private placement. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 8 December 2016.

NLC India's net profit fell 13.62% to Rs 300.42 crore on 15.79% rise in total income to Rs 2148.28 crore in Q2 September 2016 over Q2 September 2015. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 8 December 2016.

NHPC announced that power purchase agreement (PPA) in respect of up-coming projects Tawang-I and Tawang-II HE Project has been signed on 6 December 2016 with Assam Power Distribution Company. Bulk Power Supply Agreement (BPSA) in respect of Loktak Power Station, Manipur has also been extended on 6 December 2016 with Assam Power Distribution Company.

Further, the company has informed that both PPA and BPSA signed for a period of 35 years from the date of commercial operation (COD) of respective projects. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 8 December 2016.

Finolex Industries' net profit rose 27.61% to Rs 51.31 crore on 2.41% decline in total income to Rs 532.33 crore in Q2 September 2016 over Q2 September 2015. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 8 December 2016.

Sterling Biotech announced that the Bank of New York Mellon, in its capacity as depository to the global depositary receipts (GDRs) issued by the company in the year 2003, have issued termination notice to the holders of GDRs intimating that they will terminate the deposit agreement dated 1 October 2003, and as a result the existing GDR facility will be terminated 6 March 2017. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 8 December 2016.

Max Ventures and Industries announced that Max I., a wholly owned subsidiary of Max Ventures and Industries acquired 2.69 lakh equity shares of FSN E-Commerce Ventures (FSN) on 8 December 2016, which represents its 1.99% equity capital. FSN is engaged in the business of selling cosmetic products, personal and home accessories to consumers in India through e-commerce platform-Nykaa.com. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 8 December 2016.

IL&FS Engineering and Construction Company announced that it emerged as lowest bidder for rural electrification works Worth Rs 225 crore in Jharkhand. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 8 December 2016.

Time Technoplast announced that the meeting of the board of directors of the company will be held on 13 December 2016 to consider alternate means of fund raising including but not limiting to preferential issue of securities. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 8 December 2016.

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Moroccan police said in a statement on Thursday that they have seized some 5.5 tons of cannabis in the northeastern city of Nador.

Two people with suspected links to a criminal drug trafficking network were arrested and five vehicles were also seized in the suburb of Nador, Xinhua news agency reported.

According to the statement, one of the suspects was wanted by security services for drug trafficking and forgery.

The arrested were remanded in custody to complete the probe conducted under the supervision of the competent public prosecutor, while investigations are underway to arrest all the suspects involved in this case.

Despite efforts in the past decade to crack down on cannabis harvesting, Morocco remains the world's largest producer of the cannabis resin.

--IANS

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The Army Service Corps (ASC) celebrated its 256th Corps Day in Lucknow Cantonment on Friday.

A wreath laying ceremony was held at the War memorial Smritika.

Major General P.P. Singh, Major General Narinder Singh and ASC veterans paid floral tributes to the soldiers who died while on duty.

Lt Gen B.S. Negi, Central Command, greeted all the ranks, civilian employees, their families and veterans. He commended the role of the ASC personnel, both during war and peace.

The Army Service Corps is responsible for provisioning ration, fuel and transport services across the country.

--IANS

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A college girl was shot dead in West Bengal's Nadia district, police said on Friday.

"Moumita Biswas, student of a private law college, was shot in the head in Kalyani on Thursday night," a police official said.

Biswas, a resident of Khardah region in North 24 Parganas district, was a student of Kalyani Law College.

"Her body was recovered beside Kalyani water treatment plant near Kalyani express way and sent for autopsy on Friday," the officer said.

No one has been arrested yet.

"We are investigating the matter to find out why the girl was murdered," police said.

--IANS

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The CBI on Friday filed a chargesheet against former central minister Dayanidhi Maran and his elder brother Kalanithi Maran, Chairman and Managing Director of Sun TV Network, for allegedly installing telephones illegally.

The CBI also filed charges against officials of Sun TV, two retired Chief General Managers (CGM) of BSNL and then then Additional Personal Secretary of Dayanidhi Maran.

According to a CBI statement, the case has registered under the Prevention of Corruption Act against Dayanidhi Maran, retired CGMs M.P. Velusamy and K.B. Brahmadathan as well as others.

They were charged with installing a number of high-end telecommunication facilities at the residence of Dayanidhi Maran here illegally under service category and not raising bills during the period (2004-07), causing a huge loss to the government.

It was alleged that from June 2004 to December 2006, 364 telephone numbers/lines were installed at the Gopalapuram residence of the then central minister.

And from December 2006 to September 2007, 353 telephone lines were put up at Ist Avenue Boat Club Road, Chennai, his new residence.

According to the CBI, 10 post-paid mobile connections were given to a private television channel on the verbal orders of Dayanidhi Maran and the connections were given under "service category" and no bill was raised.

"There was huge data transfer which included voice, video and audio through these telephone connections and all these facilities were allegedly used for the benefit of said television channel network, owned by his (Dayanidhi Maran's) brother," the CBI said.

The CBI alleged that no payment was made for installation charges as well as for rentals of these telephone connections which included high end facilities like ISDN-PRA-BRA broadband, leased circuits with OFC laying connecting both the residences, causing an alleged loss of Rs 1,20,87,769 to the BSNL. This did not include the call charges.

According to CBI, altogether 764 telephone numbers were allegedly provided by Dayanidhi Maran.

"No bills were allegedly raised for all these facilities and thereby an alleged loss to the tune of Rs 1,78,71,393 was caused to BSNL, Chennai, and MTNL, Delhi," the CBI said.

--IANS

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China's support to Pakistan, Beijing's all-weather friend, is not designed to be against India, a prominent Chinese academic said in New Delhi on Friday.

Speaking at the first ever "India-China Think-Tanks Forum: Towards a Closer India-Pakistan Developmental Forum", Ye Hailin said that China's support to Pakistan was because of the growth of extremism and terrorism in that South Asian nation.

Ye, Chief Editor of South Asia Studies at the Institute of International Strategy, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that if China did not support Pakistan at a time when extremism and terrorism were rising, the region would have to face serious problems.

He made it clear that China's ties should not be seen as designed against India.

The India-China Think-Tanks Forum was set up through a memorandum of understanding signed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to China in May last year.
Film: 'Deepwater Horizon'; Director: Peter Berg; Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Kurt Russell, Kate Hudson; Rating:**

At the very end when you thank God, Producer and Destiny for Aliberty from the 2-hour claustrophobic tedium , a display card in the end-titles informs that we've just seen a film based on the worst oil rigging disaster in the history of such disasters.

Nothing compared to the disaster that is this awful true-life drama that does disservice not only to the people who suffered serious blows to life and health when an oil drilling ship off the coast of Louisiana went up in flames in 2010, but also to the disaster genre.

We've seen much better fire-disaster films in the past.

The Poseidon Adventure in 1972 and The Towering Inferno in 1974, with their severely limited access to special effects, got us sucked into the anxieties and fears of the characters trapped in a raging fire while lounging in the lap of luxury. Serves them right, we said, as we watched the Page 3 crowd run for their lives.

Here in "Deepwater Horizon", we are not even allowed to feel that distant contempt for the characters who land up in a deathly fire caused by human error. We feel neither the sense of foreboding that shadows the preamble of all disaster epics. Nor we do get involved in the survivors' attempts to escape the burning ship.

The characters are all tropes rather than individuals. The Brave Rigging Recruit Mike(Mark Wahlberg), his pretty wife played by Kate Hudson who has to do nothing except pout after sex before husband leaves for the doomed ship, and bite her lips anxiously when he goes missing.

Sorry, Miss Hudson. But Laura Linney did it much better in Sully.

Actors of the stature of John Malkovich are rendered as teeth-gritting idiots who should have known better.

It's not the actors' fault if they appear stilted and distant in their distress. The screenwriting is so sketchy as to reduce the characters to shadowy figures waging an indeterminate war against the fury of a fire that, alas, leaves us the audience unsinged, unscathed and finally untouched.

The actors struggle to sound casual Awith lines that attempt to include technical jargonA in the everyday conversation in the oil spiel. But it all seems a bit of a hoax, hefty, but nonetheless artificially induced calamity even though it is based on a real incident.

Director Peter Berg had earlier collaborated with Mark Wahlberg for the far more engaging Lone Survivor, a war film set in Afghanistan with ample room for self-congratulatory machismo. This one, big and bulky in scale, just slides to the ground in an oily mess weighed down by the burden of conveying real-life incidents .

The film's fire sequences on board the ship are filmed not to complement the drama but to accentuate the visual velocity. It's like watching a video game without really participating in it. Highly rigged, in more ways than one.

Watch out for that one shot where real-life father and daughter Kurt Russell and Kate Hudson come together for a brief hug. The moment is warmer more intimate and emotionally equipped than any of the sniggering screaming snarling and sobbing that goes on during the rest of the film.

--IANS

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A day after President Pranab Mukherjee expressed anguish over the Parliament logjam, both houses saw more bedlam on Friday, the fourth week of a disrupted winter session.

On Friday, however, it were the treasury benches who created pandemonium in the Lok Sabha, aggressively blaming the opposition for wasting people's money by not letting Parliament function.

This led to another premature adjournment for the day.

The Rajya Sabha witnessed acrimonious scenes as the opposition derailed the proceedings over the government's decision to reduce the wheat import duty to zero per cent. They dubbed the government "anti-farmer".

Both houses were adjourned for the day amid repeated disruptions.

After the Lok Sabha was adjourned for the first time, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi trained his guns at the government saying he was not being allowed to speak.

"For the last one month I want to speak in the Lok Sabha... what is in the heart of the poor across the country about demonetisation," Gandhi told the media. "If they allow me to speak, there shall be an earthquake."

He alleged that demonetisation was the biggest scam in Indian history.

"If I say this inside the house, Modiji will not be able to sit. I want to talk about the biggest scam that has been orchestrated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi but I am being stopped from speaking."

The government and the opposition have locked horns over the note ban that has caused an unprecedented cash crunch across the country, wiping out virtually the entire winter session of Parliament.

Earlier, when the house met at 11, the ruling party members blamed the opposition for not letting Parliament function and asked them to go to the Jantar Mantar if they believed in dharna.

As the Speaker announced the Question Hour, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge was on his feet. But members from the treasury benches shouted back quoting President Pranab Mukherjee as saying that the majority was being disrupted by a minority in Parliament.

The scene was the same when the house reconvened. Bharatiya Janata Party's Meenakshi Lekhi said Parliament was not the place for protests.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister H.N. Ananth Kumar said the opposition should apologize to the nation.

"This is not the way... when the majority wants to participate in a discussion, they are disrupting," he said.

The Speaker then adjourned the house till noon.

When the house met again, the Speaker announced that AAP MP Bhagwant Mann had been found guilty of video-recording Parliament's security system and suspended for the rest of the ongoing winter session.

Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar introduced the National Institutes of Technology, Science Education and Research (Second Amendment) Bill, 2016 amid sloganeering.

As the Speaker announced Zero Hour, opposition members shouted "shame, shame".

The Speaker then adjourned the house till Wednesday, saying: "Jao, sab chhutti par" (All of you take a holiday).

In the Rajya Sabha, post lunch, Anand Sharma of the Congress urged Deputy Speaker P.J. Kurien to adjourn the house as there was no quorum.

The quorum bell was rung but the required number of MPs could not be gathered. And so the house was adjourned for the day.

With holidays on December 12 and 13, Parliament now has only three working days left before the session ends on December 16.

President Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday said disruption of Parliament was "totally unacceptable".

--IANS

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The issue of demonetisation took centrestage as the West Bengal assembly on Friday debated a no-confidence motion brought by the opposition Congress and Left Front against the Mamata Banerjee government.

At the end of a 90-minute debate, during which the opposition lawmakers went hammer and tongs agains the Trinamool Congress government, the motion was defeated by 50-191 votes. A voice vote did not satisfy the opposition, and it sought a division.

In stinging speech, Chief Minister Banerjee criticised the Congress and LF over the timing of the motion, saying it was brought when the country was reeling under the impact of the prime minister Narendra Modi led central government demonetising the currency notes of Rs 100 and Rs 500 denomination.

Ridiculing the opposition parties, she said they seem to lack confidence in their own national leadership.

"They have brought no confidence motion against us. But this is without any basis. In the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, we are moving jointly with your parties on the issue of demonetisation. It seems you don't have any confidence on your own parties," she said.

There was temporary bedlam in the house after Congress' Nepal Mahato accused the ruling Trinamool of trying to lure elected members of the opposition in the assembly, municipalities and the rural bodies to its side since the state elections earlier this year. However, after demonetisation, such efforts have seen an ebb, he said.

As the ruling party MLAs stood up and protested, Speaker Biman Banerjee asked Mahato to provide evidence to back his allegations.

Leader of the Left Front Legislature Party Sujan Chakraborty referred to Banerjee's phone call to his party CPI-M's General Secretary Sitaram Yechury for a joint movement on demonatisation.

An infuriated Benerjee shot back that she would never again call Yechury as he doesn't have "any political courtesy".

--IANS

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The outlawed Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) suffered a major setback after its number two surrendered on Friday post demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.

Nikam Ch Momin alias Baichung, the second in command and wanted in several killings and extortions cases, surrendered to Anand Mishra, the police chief of South Garo Hills district, a police official said.

"It is a huge setback for the GNLA leadership. We are expecting more of them to surrender following the demonetisation," Mishra told IANS.

The surrendered terrorist deposited a Heckler & Koch-33 Rifle, 120 rounds of live ammunition, one 1 magazine, some other items besides two mobile handsets, four SIM cards and incriminating documents.

Mishra said the surrender came after Baichung survived many gunfights with police and security forces including one recently in Dabalgre area in which two GNLA terrorists were killed.

Baichung's surrender also followed the police detecting his terror fund generated by him post demonetisation. Police had arrested two civilians -- Sengchang Momin and Solly Sangma -- for depositing Rs 28,00,000 in bank accounts in Tura at the behest of Baichung.

"Under heavy pressure by police operations, crackdown upon terror money, arrests of over ground workers and simultaneously opening a channel for negotiation by civil society has resulted in this surrender which has finally broken the backbone of GNLA," Mishra said.

The GNLA, which claims to be fighting for a separate Garoland in western Meghalaya, is headed by police officer-turned-rebel Champion R. Sangma, who is now in the Shillong jail after being arrested from near the India-Bangladesh border in 2012.

It has forged an alliance with the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom-Independent.

--IANS

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Online marketplace for food delivery Foodpanda earned a revenue of Rs 37.81 crore in the financial year 2015-16 -- a whopping 800 per cent increase -- as compared to 4.7 crore in the previous financial year, the company said on Friday, adding that it saw a 40-50 per cent spike in the order numbers during the demonetisation phase.

"We have not only registered 800 per cent growth but have also become operationally profitable in both our business lines -- marketplace and delivery," said Saurabh Kochhar, CEO Foodpanda India.

At present, 40 per cent of the orders are delivered by Foodpanda delivery services and the remaining 60 per cent are delivered by restaurants which is a leap from December 2015 when only 25 per cent of the orders were delivered by the company delivery services, the company said.

The company has raised $310 million so far, with the last round in 2015 bringing in $110 million from investors led by hedge fund Goldman Sachs Investment Partners.

--IANS

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Gunfight between holed up militants and security forces near south Kashmir's Bijbehara broke out once again early on Friday. Even as police on Thursday claimed three Lashkar-e-Taiba militants were killed in the firing exchange that entered day three.

A police official said: "Firing exchanges again erupted in Arwani village between the security forces and the militants after the combing operation was re-started this morning (Friday)."

The cordon around the encounter site was being further tightened, he said.

So far, dead bodies were not recovered from the site as protesters from neighbouring areas rushed to Hassanpoora village of Bijbehara town after news spread about the death of three local militants.

A protesting youth was also killed and another critically injured in clashes with the security forces on Thursday some distance away from the gunfight site.

All mobile phone operations were suspended in Anantnag and Kulgam districts to prevent spread of rumours. The ban on cell phone operations continued on Friday in these two districts.

LeT commander Abu Dujana, one of the most wanted militants in the state, was earlier rumoured to be among the gunmen holed up in the house that was targeted by the security forces.

Locals said he escaped from the hideout in Hassanpoora village which lies close to Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti's ancestral Bijbehara town.

But security officials neither confirmed nor denied if he was among the militants who were trapped on Wednesday night.

--IANS

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The Delhi High Court on Friday said it was pained over the failure to trace missing JNU student Najeeb Ahmed and said it wanted his anguished mother to get her son back.

"If we imagine the worst, something has to be found out... We are pained that the missing person has not been found. We are only interested that he comes home and the mother gets her son back," said Justice G.S. Sistani and Justice Vinod Goel.

The court was hearing a habeas corpus plea filed by Fatima Nafees, Ahmed's mother that her son be produce by police and the Delhi government before the court.

Ahmed, 27, a first year M.Sc. student, went missing from his Jawaharlal Nehru University hostel on the night of October 14-15, allegedly after a row with members of RSS student wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).

The ABVP has denied any involvement in his disappearance.

The Crime Branch of Delhi Police said it had taken various steps to locate Ahmed but had failed. It said it will continue the search.

On the last date of hearing, the court asked police to explain why "crucial details" of Ahmed being beaten up and taken to hospital and the injuries sustained by him were missing from its status report.

Advocate Rahul Mehra, appearing for the Crime Branch, told the court that a scuffle took place that night between Ahmed and Vikrant Kumar and other students.

These student had come to Ahmed's room to campaign for the election of the Mess Secretary. Ahmed allegedly slapped Vikrant and got beaten up.

Mehra told the court that Ahmed was taken to Safdarjung Hospital for examination and from the statements recorded by witnesses and others there was no visible injury nor did he complain of any discomfort.

"It is evident Ahmed did not suffer any visible bodily injury. After a meeting of the Emergency Committee (where he was expelled from the hostel for slapping Vikrant), Ahmed along with Qasim (his roommate) went back to their room," the police told the court.

When Qasim put his hand on Ahmed's neck, he complained of pain.

"Qasim approached hostel wardens and suggested that Ahmed should be examined in a hospital. Thereafter, an ambulance was called and Ahmed was taken to Safdarjung Hospital," said police.

The police also told the court that after reaching the hospital, Ahmed refused to undergo any treatment and also did not want to return to JNU.

After reaching JNU, Qasim gave medicines to Ahmed as instructed by his mother but Ahmed did not sleep throughout the night, said police.

Police had earlier told the court that since 2012 Ahmed was suffering from depression and was under medication and that this could be the reason for his disappearance.

The court has posted the matter for December 14.

--IANS

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Six ships of the and two Indian Coast Guard ships sailed on Friday morning to evacuate about 800 tourists from Havelock Island in Andaman and Nicobar (A&N) Islands, a statement said.

"Six ships and two Indian Coast Guard ships sailed out at 9.30 a.m. from Port Blair for rescue operations. Three Indian Air Force helicopters also taking part in IN, ICG, Army, State administration joint operation for evacuation of stranded tourists in the Havelock Island," said in a statement.

The sudden evacuation mission was initiated at the request of the A&N disaster management which speculates that a "cyclonic storm" might struck Havelock, an island about 36 km from capital Port Blair.

The Navy on Wednesday made its first attempt to rescue the tourists stranded in Hevelock.

However, due to extreme weather conditions, the tourists could not reach the jetty to board the ships.

Four navy ships had to return in a failed rescue attempt, the officials from A&N Disaster Management informed.

"Now the weather conditions have improved. It's only moderate rain and winds. We hope the tourists will be able to reach the jetty. Ships have already left from Port Blair," an official from A&N Disaster Management told IANS.

The official said the sudden evacuation was called for as they did not want to take any risk given a deep depression (in the sea) developed about 310 kms from Port Blair.
A remarkable journey has just come to a stop as John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth and who later became the oldest person to fly in space, breathed his last on Thursday. He was 95.

"The last of America's first astronauts has left us, but propelled by their example we know that our future here on Earth compels us to keep reaching for the heavens. On behalf of a grateful nation, Godspeed, John Glenn," President Barack Obama said in a statement on Friday.

In 1959, NASA picked the first group of astronauts -- seven men who would fly on the Mercury spacecraft. NASA called these men the "Mercury Seven".

Glenn was one of them and, in 1962, he became the first American to orbit Earth.

Spending about five hours in space, Glenn -- who also served four terms as a US senator from Ohio -- made three orbits around Earth on the spacecraft that he named "Friendship 7". His mission showed that the Mercury spacecraft worked in space.

His flight on Friendship 7 on February 20, 1962, showed the world that America was a serious contender in the space race with the Soviet Union. It also made Glenn an instant hero, NASA said in a profile of the space icon.

"When John Glenn blasted off from Cape Canaveral atop an Atlas rocket in 1962, he lifted the hopes of a nation. And when his Friendship 7 spacecraft splashed down a few hours later, the first American to orbit the Earth reminded us that with courage and a spirit of discovery there's no limit to the heights we can reach together," Obama said.

Glenn was born on July 18, 1921, in Cambridge, Ohio. He was in college when World War II started. Glenn left school to fight in the war and became a Marine pilot. Later, he also fought in the Korean War. After Korea, he became an airplane test pilot before becoming one of NASA's original Mercury 7 astronauts.

"While that first orbit was the experience of a lifetime, Glenn, who also had flown combat missions in both World War II and the Korean War as a Marine aviator, continued to serve his country as a four-term Senator from Ohio, as a trusted statesman, and an educator," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said on the passing of the icon.

"In 1998, at the age of 77, he became the oldest human to venture into space as a crew member on the Discovery space shuttle -- once again advancing our understanding of living and working in space," Bolden added.

On Discovery he participated in a series of tests on the ageing process. The ageing population was one focus of his work as a US senator, according to NASA.

Paying his tributes to the American hero, Obama said that Glenn spent his life breaking barriers.

"With John's passing, our nation has lost an icon and Michelle and I have lost a friend. John spent his life breaking barriers, from defending our freedom as a decorated Marine Corps fighter pilot in World War II and Korea, to setting a transcontinental speed record, to becoming, at age 77, the oldest human to touch the stars," Obama said.

Glenn, who died at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus, was considered one of the Senate's leading experts on technical and scientific matters, and won wide respect for his work to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction, NASA noted.

--IANS

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Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday rejected the appointment of IAS officer Dilraj Kaur as Member Secretary of the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW).

Kejriwal also wrote to Lt Governor Najeeb Jung to appoint P.P. Dhal as Member Secretary whose name he had nominated for the post in August this year.

He directed Dhal to hold the charge of officiating Member Secretary in the meantime.

Jung on Tuesday appointed Women and Child Development Secretary Dilraj Kaur as the Member Secretary of DCW, which is headed by Swati Maliwal.

A day later, Kejriwal dubbed Jung as "Hitler" for the appointment. He tweeted that Jung had sold his soul to Modi in a bid to become the country's Vice President, but insisted that this would never happen.

DCW had also slammed Kaur's appointment, calling it "unconstitutional and illegal".

It said Dilraj Kaur was appointed to the DCW without seeking Delhi government's consent and called the move "unprecedented".

Dilraj Kaur's appointment was done eight days after Kejriwal sought the removal of Alka Dewan, terming her appointment unconstitutional and against the Delhi government's wishes.

--IANS

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In a stinging reply to Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, after he criticised her for making allegations against the Indian Army, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday accused him of making "near-defamatory" remarks and took "strong exception" to his "wild assertion" that her allegations had impacted morale of the armed forces.

"I take strong exception to your wild assertion that my articulation of the rights of the state government vis-a-vis army deployment without clearance has impacted the morale of the armed forces.

"You have also, in the last paragraph chosen to convey the laughable idea that you are the sole spokesperson on behalf of the people at large. I do not think that it behoves a Minister of the Union government to pass near-defamatory remarks on a Chief Minister of any state and I trust that you will rectify the attitude," Banerjee said in the strongly-worded two-page missive.

On December 1, Banerjee had accused the central government of "deploying the army" along highway toll plazas of Bengal while keeping the state government "in the dark".

Calling the controversy avoidable, Parrikar on Thursday wrote: "Your allegation in this regard runs the risk of adversely impacting the morale of the country's armed forces and same were not expected from a person of your standing and experience in public life."

"Political parties and politicians may have the luxury of making wild and unsubstantial allegations against each other but one needs to be extremely careful while referring to our armed forces. I am sure you would appreciate this," he said.

Countering Parrikar, Banerjee accused the centre of indulging in a "political vendetta" and said her remarks were directed at the Narendra Modi government and not at the army, for which she had "great respect".

"During my long political and administrative life, I have never seen such political vendetta by misusing the role of an esteemed organisation.

"We are well aware that the Indian Army is an institution which is the pride of the nation and this has been pointed out by me on many occasions in my public life and even during the time the incident happened.

"But my complaint was not against the army. It was against your government and the government policy, as they act under your directions," she said.

The Chief Minister maintained that the army had been deployed without informing the state in advance.

"I had in essence only pointed out loud and clear that your ministry had not obtained permission of the state government for large deployment of Army personnel in civilian areas, simultaneously in multiple locations in the state.

"Written clearance of the state government should be invariably obtained before initiation of any such exercise," she said.

Later, interacting with reports in her assembly chamber, Banerjee also expressed her annoyance about the language used by Parrikar.

--IANS

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Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday said the overall law and order situation in the state has remained by and large peaceful while the Maoist violence has come down.

"Intensity of overall Maoist violence has come down in the state during the year 2015 and 2016 so far. There is significant reduction of Maoists' strength in the state," he told the assembly during the discussion of demands on Home and General Administration departments.

Patnaik said 48 Maoists including state committee members have been neutralised while 88 ultras members have been arrested and 95 have surrendered in the state during the2015 and 2016 (till November 30).

Besides, a large number of pro-Maoist militias and sympathizers have publicly announced the withdrawal of their support from the Maoists in Malkangiri district, which is a very encouraging development, he added.

"Attempts by Maoists to intensify their activities in Kalahandi, Kandhamal, Boudh and Nayagarh districts have been contained due to pro-active police action," said the Chief Minister.

In order to increase the mobile telephone connectivity in affected areas, 248 towers have been operationalised and proposal for installation of 518 more towers covering the districts has been sent to the centre for approval, said Patnaik.

Speaking of crime against women, he said the government has created several institutional mechanisms like Integrated Anti-Human Trafficking Units, Investigation Units for Crime against Women and Mahila and Sishu Desks with commensurate manpower.

"All women related heinous crimes are regularly monitored and Special Public Prosecutors are engaged. In order to augment the capacity of the police force, 238 new posts in different ranks have been created during 2016," he said.

He said the vigilance has registered 496 criminal cases this year against 1004 accused persons including 135 class-I officers, 79 class-II officers, 511 class-III employees and others.

During this period, 315 have been arrested including 32 class-I officers, he added.

--IANS

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A day-long conference on Friday focused on providing decent living through annuity and housing for the National Pension Subscribers (NPS) in their later years, an official statement said.

"The conference focused on stream of annuities and housing for the NPS pensioners in their golden years after they exit the scheme," it said.

Organised by the Pension Fund Regulatory Development Authority in association with the World Bank, the conference "Adequacy of Pension Wealth: Issues and Perspectives" also explored alternative forms of pension withdrawal and modalities of acquiring houses for NPS subscribers.

V.P. Joy, EPFO Central Provident Fund Commissioner, Vijay Singh, Director, DEA, Mukul G. Asher, Fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in the National University of Singapore, Sanjaya Gupta, Managing Director, PNB Housing Finance Company, World Bank officials and experts participated in the discussion.

--IANS

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Mobile money services, which allow users to store and exchange monetary values via mobile phone, can help lift people in developing economies out of poverty, a new study suggests.

These services have helped Kenyans save more money and weather financial storms, among other benefits, the study said.

"Previously, we've shown mobile money helps you with financial resilience. But no one has understood, if you improve resilience, what happens over the longer term. This is the first study that looks at long-term poverty reduction and at gender," said study co-author Tavneet Suri, Associate Professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Sloan School of Management.

The study, published in the journal Science, showed that mobile-money services have had notable long-term effects on poverty reduction in Kenya -- especially among female-headed households -- and have inspired a surprising occupation shift among women.

Suri has studied the financial and social impacts of Kenyan mobile-money services since 2008.

The study estimated that, since 2008, access to mobile-money services increased daily per capita consumption levels of 194,000 of Kenyan households (two per cent), lifting them out of extreme poverty (living on less than $1.25 per day).

Female-headed households saw far greater increases in consumption than male-headed households.

Moreover, mobile-money services have helped an estimated 185,000 women move from farming to business occupations, the study said.

By 2015, more than 270 mobile-money services were operating in 93 countries, with an estimated 411 million accounts, the researchers pointed out.

The Kenyan study is important because it shows that mobile-money services are not just conveniences but do, in fact, have a positive impact on people's livelihoods, Suri said.

"[That] can be useful for regulators trying to figure out if they want to allow it in their country, or whether someone wants to start a service in their country as an entrepreneur," said Suri, who co-authored the paper with longtime collaborator William Jack, an economist at Georgetown University in the US.

The study looked at M-PESA, which launched in 2007 and has more than 25 million Kenyan users.

There are more than 120,000 M-PESA (M for Mobile and PESA the Swahili) agents scattered around the country, who handle deposits and withdrawals.

The M-PESA system, introduced by phone provider Safaricom, lets users deposit, transfer and withdraw funds via text messages.

M-PESA is not technically considered to be a bank, and does not pay interest on savings. It does, however, charge fees for withdrawals and transfers.

The researchers found that despite M-PESA's fees, large numbers of Kenyans are using it for basic banking functions.

Exactly why M-PESA causes increases in per capita consumption and shifts in occupation remains unclear, Suri said.

But the researchers have a few ideas, one being that more secure storing of money leads to better financial management and savings, especially among women.

--IANS

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She ventured into Bollywood in 2013 with Yash Raj Films' "Shuddh Desi Romance" and now, three years later, has bagged a film directed by Aditya Chopra. Actress Vaani Kapoor says that she does get nervous about her movies doing well or not, but added that it's this nervousness that ensures she does not become over confident.

"I stress, worry, get nervous and I start to over-think about a lot of things, but I think a little bit of doubt and nervousness always keeps me on my feet. Strangely, I feel that it is a good thing. It always gets me through... It (nervousness) will never let me be over-confident in my life," Vaani told IANS over phone from Mumbai.

Before venturing into Bollywood, Vaani worked as a model, though the actress says "a part of me always wanted to be an actor".

"Modelling is something I couldn't see as my forte or something that I would do for the rest of my life. It just says that it is a step closer to where I want to be, which was acting. So I thought if there's ever a chance... I was very clear in my head that I am going to make the most of it and work hard towards it," said Vaani.

Does she think her modelling career helped her to get into Bollywood?

"Yeah, because Shanoo Sharma told me that they did like my photographs. They short-listed my photographs and initially called me for a meeting and that's how it happened because I was modelling," said the 28-year-old actress.

Vaani added: "There are such pretty faces and so many more talents and people with more potential, but they never get their chance because they are not at the right place at the right time."

After "Shuddh Desi Romance", Vaani will now be seen romancing actor Ranveer Singh in the forthcoming film "Befikre", which has been extensively shot in Paris.

So what kept Vaani away from the silver screen for three years?

"I was doing my auditions for Shanoo Sharma. She used to audition me every week...Then I also (did) some acting workshops because I was never trained in acting and I thought this is the best time I could focus on acting and other skills that are required," she said.

The actress also confided that she told Aditya Chopra that, while she wasn't shooting, she could assist someone on the sets so that she could learn something.

(Durga Chakravarty can be contacted at durga.c@ians.in)

--IANS

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Refuting West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's allegation that the Narendra Modi-led central government was encroaching on states' autonomy, a Gujarat minister on Friday said it gives "equal importance to all states" and "never interferes in states affairs".

"I have been working with Narendrabhai since 1975. I know his style of work. He never interferes in state affairs and treat all the states with equal importance. There is no special treatment for Gujarat from centre," said Gujarat Revenue and Education Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama on the sidelines of aroadshow for Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit here.

He also said demonetisation move was accepted at a positive spirit in Gujarat.

"After demonetisation, out of 125 elections, Bhartiya Janata Party won 109," he said.

"We have taken demonetisation in a positive spirit. We have been concentrating to provide facilities for a seamless transformation towards cashless and digital payment system. Even, vegetables sellers are taking payments through e-wallets," he said.

Chudasama also said that his state has got good response from Bengal based industrialists for investments.

"We have one to one correspondence with 15 industrialists (from Bengal). Discussion was concrete and specific. They have shown their interests. We have invited them to the summit. MoUs will be signed during the summit," he said.

Gujarat Minister of State for Industries and Finance Rohit Patel, who was also present, said: "The rate of transformation of MoUs to actual investment is about 65.8 percent, which is the highest in the country."

In regards to land availability, Patel said Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) has a land bank of 25,000 hectares and in addition, state government departments have their lands.

"The most preferred method is to take land through GIDC route. But industrialist can buy land directly from the owners," he added.

--IANS

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The AAP on Friday attacked Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, accusing him of spending three days a week in Goa, inspecting and clearing state government files, and leaving defence-related affairs in a shambles.

"Here, openly an extra-constitutional individual is getting into every file. As per the Constitution, he has no business looking into the files and the affairs of the (state) government...

"He visits Goa three days a week and the Defence Ministry as a result is in a shambles," Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Ashutosh told reporters at the party's state headquarters in the state capital.

"Every Friday he comes here. There is a proper office made for him, he sits on the chair, all the files reach him and when he clears (the files), only then the chief minister signs," Ashutosh also alleged.

The interference of Parrikar, a former Goa chief minister, in affairs related to the state government administration is a violation of federal polity, he added.

For the last few weeks, Parrikar has been addressing a series of "Vijay Sankalp Rally" in the state, which is expected to go to polls early next year.

Parrikar has often been criticised by opposition parties for spending several days a week in Goa and ignoring his primary and sensitive central government brief as the Defence Minister.

Parrikar has, however, said that he visits Goa to keep in touch with his political roots and that he never ignores his chores as Defence Minister despite his Goa trips.

In Goa, Parrikar operates from a Defence Ministry camp office in Panaji.

--IANS

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Minister of State for External Affairs M.J. Akbar has said the South Asian University (SAU) is functioning better than SAARC -- its parent organisation.

"While SAARC is going through teething problem... South Asian University is functioning far more smoothly than the regional body itself," the minister said on Thursday.

The minister was the Chief Guest at the 32nd SAARC Charter Day, celebrated at SAU's campus here.

Akbar spoke at length about the challenge of modernity in the context of South Asia and defined modernity as "freedoms".

The gathering at the event consisted mostly ambassadors from SAARC member nations, dignitaries from ministries and think tanks, students and faculty from SAU.

SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) is a regional body that groups India, the Maldives, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

--IANS

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The All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) on Friday cautioned e bank employees to be fully prepared to face the ire of the customers once they come to banks after a long weekend.

After an arduous week, the bank employees, along with many others, are greeted with a three-day long weekend, which includes a second Saturday off and Prophet Mohammad's birthday on Monday. But with hordes of customers already thronging banks each day, bank employees are expecting a flood on Tuesday, the day banks re-open.

"I suggest that they come with a chest-guard, an arm-guard, a helmet, because there are so many people who are yet to withdraw their salaries, the retirees, contract employees, and many others, and they would want their money," AIBEA General Secretary C.H. Venkatachalam told IANS from Chennai.

"RBI is rationing the money which it is supposed to give to the banks, in their turn banks are also giving rationed amount to the customers. After the three-day holiday, people would want their money, as they are quite strained already," he said.

A joint statement issued by AIBEA and All Indian Bank Officers' Association (AIBOA) also questioned shortage of cash in the public sector banks, and demanded Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to suspend dispensing any cash to banks until it has sufficient for all.

"Even though RBI is making statements that enough cash is being supplied to banks, in reality we all know that there is acute shortage of cash supply to banks from RBI," read the statement.

"If RBI is not able to supply adequate cash to banks, then decision should be taken to suspend cash transactions in the bank branches till sufficient cash is supplied to banks," it added.

Venkatachalam expressed concern over the abuses, rudeness, and crass comments that bank employees are being subjected to at the hands of irate customers.

"I just heard that people broke glass-panes of a bank in Jamshedpur and abused the staff. How long this is going to continue?" he asked.

The two associations have also penned a letter which they will give to RBI Governor Urjit Patel on December 14. They also announced a demonstration in all state capitals on the same day demanding proper compensation for bank employees for working long hours and bearing with the rudeness of the customers.

In the letter, they also raised the question that why are some private banks always found to be flush with cash and demanded answer from the RBI for such a bias.

"There are repeated allegations that RBI is supplying more number of currency notes to some private banks and public sector banks are being denied or supplied lesser number of currency notes. This becomes believable when we observe that many of the ATMs of some 'selected' private banks are functioning normally," they said, adding long lines continued to exist outside the other ATMs and banks.

--IANS

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Two persons were killed and 10 feared trapped when a multi-storied under-construction building collapsed in Hyderabad late on Thursday, officials said on Friday.

Greater Hyderabad Mayor B. Rammohan said two bodies were pulled out from the debris in Nanakramguda.

Rescue workers rescued a woman and a child while clearing of debris continued to find other missing labourers and their family members.

The rescue operation continued through the night but gathered pace on Friday morning.

National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams along with police and fire fighting personnel were participating in the rescue work.

The labourers from Vijayanagaram district in Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh were asleep when the building collapsed.

Deputy Chief Minister Mohammed Mahmood Ali and Home Minister N. Narasimha Reddy were supervising the rescue and relief work.

Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, who was in Delhi, directed the officials to speed up the rescue operation.

Rammohan said the builder did not have necessary permissions to construct the building.

Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) officials said the G+6 storied building was being constructed in violation of all norms.

The building had come up on just 270 square yards. Officials said the builder was also constructing a pent house.

--IANS

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With the claim of hacking into the official Twitter handle of controversial liquor baron Vijay Mallya on Friday, the group or an individual named "Legion" is slowly becoming well-known in the world of hackers.

"Legion" also claimed to hack Twitter handles of Congress Party and its Vice President Rahul Gandhi earlier this month, bringing the hacking threat close to more Indian leaders and celebrities who are on Twitter.

In a tweet, "Legion" -- whose country of origin is yet to be known -- asked people to support them "@sigaint.org".

Let us know what Sigaint is and how all this works.

According to the Sigaint website, it is a "darknet email service that allows you to send and receive email without revealing your location or identity". Sigaint claims to provide email IDs which are secure on TOR browser.

"We provide this service to help journalists and activists combat the dragnet surveillance that exists on the internet today. Even if you aren't in conflict with the state or anyone in particular, you as a human being deserve privacy," it read.

The website is hosted on "onion.to" but the service claims it does not host the Sigaint content.

"We are simply a conduit connecting internet users to content hosted inside the Tor network. onion.to does not provide any anonymity. You are strongly advised to download the Tor Browser Bundle and access this content over Tor," it said.

Famous among individuals and businesses who want to remain anonymous online, Tor is a free software and an open network that helps users defend against traffic analysis - "a form of network surveillance that threatens personal freedom and privacy, confidential business activities and relationships, and state security".

Sigaint also claims that emails created by the network can only be accessed by downloading TOR browser.

If we look at the name "Legion," there was a famous US-based hacker group called "Legion of Doom" (LOD) founded by Lex Luthor which was active in late 1990s and early 2000. LOD is ranked as one of the most influential hacking groups in the history of technology.

We still do not know if "Legion" is inspired by LOD but it looks well versed with the dark world of web and is using whatever it can to launch cyber attacks anywhere in the world, including in India.

--IANS

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On November 8, when the news broke that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would address the nation at 8 pm, many thought we were going to war with Pakistan. And that view was accentuated by other news reports of a meeting scheduled with the President after the address.
The meeting with Manu Kumar Jain, India head of Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi, came through after a lot of back and forth on the venue and time. He is flying down from Bengaluru to Delhi for a day. We decide to meet at The Taj Mahal Hotel, Mansingh Road, New Delhi, for a late morning tea. I was looking forward to meeting Jain, knowing he would have a lot to talk about given Xiaomis global success and the rapid strides it has made in the Indian smartphone market. Indeed, Xiaomi has become so diverse in its product portfolio in China that it is almost unfair to call it a smartphone or even a tech company any more.
The Aam Aadmi Party on Thursday accused the Narendra Modi government of compromising security by partnering with a currency paper supplier who was earlier blacklisted for working with a fake currency nexus.

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, however, denied the allegations.

The alleged that De La Rue, a Britain-based banknote manufacturer, security printing, and papermaking company was blacklisted in India.

Delhi convener Dilip Pandey said that De La Rue supplied the same paper used for printing Indian currency to the terror nexus in Pakistan indulging in printing of fake currency.

"The company was not only white-listed after Modi came to power, but also partnering with the government on Modi's ambitious 'Make in India' project," he said.

Pandey alleged that the new Rs 2,000 note is also being printed on paper supplied by De La Rue.

"We want to ask Prime Minster Modi that why is he partnering with a company which is at the same time partnering with Pakistan, terror outfits, counterfeit currency printers and enemy of the nation," he asked

Responding to the allegations, Jaitley said that the Finance Ministry had no links with the said company.

"Another false campaign on the social media by the . Ministry of Finance has no dealings with the British Company named in this campaign," Jaitley tweeted.

Pandey however tweeted back saying that De La Rue was still working with Mysore press printing currency notes.
Little business might have been transacted in Parliament's ongoing winter session, but the past month has nonetheless been a rather busy one for political leaders. The unending war of words between the Narendra Modi-led central government and a nearly united Opposition seems to have mirrored the unending queues at bank branches and ATM centres during the month.
The parliament logjam over continued on Friday with Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi accusing the government of not allowing him to speak in Lok Sabha.
Union Information and Broadcasting Minister M. on Friday launched a scathing attack on the Congress party by squarely blaming former prime minister Manmohan Singh for mismanaging the country.

"Manmohan Singh has presided over the monumental mismanagement of the country," Naidu said.

Naidu claimed that Congress has been unable to digest the revolution being brought about by Prime Minister Narendra Modi through demonetisation decision.

"I ask the Opposition, is it foolish to take action against the counterfeit money of Pakistan, taking action against drug mafia, black money? Can Congress explain?" asked Naidu.

Mentioning the number of scams that surfaced during the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime, Naidu said the Congress is negating demonetisation because they could not come out with such a revolutionary move.

"2G, 3G spectrum, Agusta, Commonwealth Games scam, coal scam - all scams have happened under whose regime?" he said.

Speaking on the everyday ruckus in Parliament which leads to an adjournment of both the Houses, Naidu said, "If you really want to expose the government, then expose it by having a debate in Parliament."

Responding to the Congress' claim of number of deaths taking place under the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP's) regime, Naidu said lakhs of farmers committed suicide in Maharashtra, Karnataka during the UPA regime.

Applauding the government's decision to ban high-denomination currency, Naidu said, "The PM of India has taken a historical and bold revolutionary decision for the transformation of India.

Naidu demanded an apology from the Opposition for obstructing Parliament and called out for a proper discussion on all the issues raised by Opposition.

Naidu also termed opposition's 'Bharat Bandh' a big flop.
Ten people have been arrested, including top officials of a coal mining company, in connection with a colliery blast in northern China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region that killed 32 workers last week.

Board chairman of Chifeng Baoma Group (CBG) Qiu Zetian, CBG General Manager Zhang Xiaodong, General Manager of CBG subsidiary Baoma Mining Company Liu Haijun, and head of the mine Lyu Guoyou were among those arrested, according to the investigation team sent by the State Council.

The officials were arrested for alleged illegal mining and dereliction of duty following the accident on Saturday at Baoma Mining Company in Chifeng city.

A total of 181 people were working underground at the time of the blast, with 149 workers managing to escape to safety.

There were "serious violations of laws and regulations" before the blast, State Administration of Work Safety said.

The mine was ordered to stop production in March for illegal mining, but operations continued, state-run Xinhua agency reported.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Thirteen teachers were killed when the vehicle in which they were travelling to school collided with a truck due to dense fog today near Chandmeri toll plaza on Fazilka-Jalalabad road, police said.

The driver of the vehicle carrying the teachers also succumbed to injuries later, taking the toll to 14, they said.

Police said the teachers, including five women, were on their way to school when the mishap was caused due to poor visibility, adding that the deceased were in the age group of 35 to 40 years.

Eight of the victims belonged to Fazilka and five were from Abohar, police said.

One of the teachers, who survived the accident, has been admitted to a hospital in Faridkot, they said.

The ill-fated vehicle was carrying 15 passengers, including the driver.

Expressing grief over the incident, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal said that he was extremely pained to learn about the fatal mishap.

Describing the tragedy as a "huge loss" for the state, Badal said a teacher was the true guide and philosopher besides being the architect, who shapes the destiny of our future generation.

He also expressed heartfelt sympathies with the family of the driver of the ill-fated vehicle.

Meanwhile, the Chief Minister directed the district administration to extend all out support and cooperation to the distressed families and provide best treatment to the person injured in the accident.

Punjab Deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal, Punjab Congress chief Capt Amarinder Singh and AAP state convenor Gurpreet Singh Ghuggi also condoled the deaths.

Sukhbir said the loss of teachers, who chisel young minds for the future of the nation, was "irreparable" and it has not only traumatised their families, but their students and the nation as well.

He also advised all to use utmost caution while driving in the coming days when dense fog dominates during early and later hours of the day.

Amarinder asked the state government to change the school timings in order to ensure that "school teachers, students and other staff are not exposed to the risk of such accidents due to fog.

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Two persons were today arrested by Kolkata Police for allegedly stealing Rs 68.2 lakh in cash they were carrying from a client to the manager of a company where they were working as drivers.

Two drivers - Ajay Mishra and Manish Pathak - were arrested from their Haridebpur residence and Rs 52 lakh were recovered from them, a senior officer of Kolkata Police said.

As per the complaint the owner of the organisation, Dipak Agarwal lodged at Shakespeare Police Station on Wednesday, the two drivers have fled with the amount which they were carrying to his office from a client, he said.

"Out of the Rs 52 lakh recovered, Rs 11.25 lakh are in new currencies and the rest Rs 41 lakh are in old currencies. Both have admitted to their crime," the officer said.

The remaining part of the stolen money would also be found, he said.

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Three Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) militants were killed in a 36-hour gunbattle with security forces in Bijbehara area of Anantnag district in Kashmir which ended today.

A civilian was also killed by stray bullet yesterday during law and order problem.

"Three holed up terrorists eliminated; bodies of two terrorists & three weapons recovered," Army's Northern Command said in a tweet.

Army officials at Srinagar-based 15 Corps Headquarters, however, refused to comment on the operation.

A police official said two bodies were recovered from the debris of the house where the ultras were hiding.

The slain militants were both locals and identified as Majid Mohiuddin Zargar of Qoimoh in neighbouring Kulgam district and Ruhul Amin Dar of Vessu in Anantnag district.

"The bodies have been handed over to their kin for last rites," he said.

He said one of the bodies was severely burnt.

One army jawan was injured in the gunfight that began in the early hours yesterday.

The security forces had cordoned off the area on Wednesday evening following information about presence of Lashkar-e-Toiba militants there.

A 24-year-old man was killed allegedly after being hit by a "stray bullet" near the site of encounter.

Arif Shah, a resident of Sangam area of Anantnag district, was hit by the "stray bullet" when security forces were dealing with a group which was indulging in stone-pelting near the encounter site, the official said.

However, locals alleged that Shah was killed in security forces action against protesters.

They also claimed that several other persons were injured in the clashes between protesters and security forces.

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Some 400 African migrants forced their way into the tiny Spanish enclave of Ceuta today, authorities said, the biggest group in a decade to storm the walled city bordering Morocco in search of asylum.

The group scaled two entry points in the six-metre-high barrier that surrounds the enclave, a local government spokesman said.

Footage posted online by the El Faro de Ceuta newspaper showed dozens of migrants, including men without shoes and shirts, letting off joyous cries of "Spain!" as they crossed into Ceuta.

The Red Cross said it had treated 103 people for minor injuries sustained during the assault, and that 25 had been taken to hospital.

About 20 per cent of the group who rushed the gates had not been located by authorities as of midday today, Spain's Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido said.

Ceuta along with Melilla, another Spanish territory in North Africa, have the European Union's only land borders with Africa.

They are favoured entry points for African migrants seeking a better life in Europe, who get there by either climbing over the border fence or by swimming along the coast.

The objective for migrants entering Ceuta illegally is to reach a temporary Spanish residency rights centre where they can, in principle, request asylum.

But Amnesty International and other rights groups have qualified Ceuta and Melilla as extra-legal territories and denounced police mistreatment of migrants there.

In 2014, 15 migrants drowned as dozens tried to swim to Ceuta from a nearby beach.

At the time, human rights groups and migrants said Spanish police tried to keep them from reaching the shore by firing rubber bullets and spraying them with tear gas.

In October a group of about 220 people managed to storm two entry points into Ceuta, injuring 35 migrants and three security officers.

"You have to go back to the early 2000s to see numbers like this," the government spokesman said.

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At least six policemen were killed and six others injured today when a bomb placed in a garbage bin at a checkpoint near Egypt's Great Pyramids went off, the latest targeted attack on security forces.

Egypt's state-run agency MENA said the blast occurred near a mosque on Pyramids road which leads from city centre to the Giza pyramids.

Six policemen, including two officers, were killed, officials said. Six others, including policemen and civilians, were injured in the explosion.

The blast was aimed at the security forces with one of their vehicles badly damaged. Two other vehicles were also damaged in the blast.

An Egyptian judge in one of the trials of Islamist ex-president Mohamed Morsi escaped unharmed last month when a car bomb exploded in the capital.

Today's attack appears to be the deadliest attack in Egypt since May.

Attacks targeting police and military personnel increased after Morsi's ouster in 2013 by military following massive protests against his rule.

Over 700 security personnel have been reported killed since then.

The violence has been concentrated in the northern Sinai Peninsula, but there have also been several attacks on the mainland, including in the capital.

(REOPENS FGN17)



Hours after the blast, another explosion took place in Kafr el-Shiekh in the northern part of Egypt in which a civilian was killed and two policemen were injured.

The bomb targeted a police vehicle in a village in Kafr el-Shiekh governorate.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has asked colleges and universities to strictly adhere to the leadership of the ruling Communist Party and its ideology amid criticism over increasing restrictions imposed on academic freedom and dissent.

Xi told heads of domestic higher education institutions at a conference here yesterday that the Party committees of higher education institutions should always take the helm, be responsible for making decisions and ensure that the institutions are developing in the right direction.

He also said Party committees at all levels across the country should attach great importance to the ideology of colleges and universities and make this one of their priorities, state-run China Daily reported today.

Party chiefs and members should visit the educational institutions frequently, communicate with teachers and students, take suggestions from them and answer their questions.

The move comes in the backdrop of criticism that colleges and universities have been loosing interest in ideological education.

A number of Chinese professors have written to government earlier complaining that students of economics were being brainwashed by western theories alienating Marxian ideology.

In his speech, Xi stressed that China has its own history, unique culture and special current situation, which means that higher education institutions should walk on their own path and make themselves socialist institutions with Chinese characteristics.

The goal of colleges and universities should be consistent with the whole country's development target, he said.

Their work should serve the people, the Party's governance, the development of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics and reform and opening-up, as well as the socialist modernisation drive.

Since taking over the Communist Party of China (CPC), becoming President and head of army four years ago, Xi, who became the most powerful leader in China in recent times, is focusing efforts to firm up party control over all powerful institutions in the country.

Besides carrying out a widespread anti-corruption campaign punishing over a million officials, Xi has firmly advocated that country's 2.3 million-strong military, the world's largest, to function under the CPC's leadership ensuring that party remained its high command.

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In a sudden and first of its kind action, CBI today arrested former Air Force Chief S P Tyagi, his cousin Sanjeev, and a lawyer in the sensational Rs 450 crore bribery case in the procurement of 12 VVIP helicopters from UK-based AgustaWestland during the UPA-2 government.

71-year old Tyagi, who retired in 2007, was called for questioning at CBI Headquarters along with his cousin and Chandigarh-based lawyer Gautam Khaitan, who were taken into custody after nearly four hours of grilling, CBI sources said.

These are the first arrests in the case by CBI which came three years after it registered an FIR in 2013 to probe the allegations in the aftermath of the details of the scam emerging in Italy where the prosecutors levelled allegations of corruption in the deal against the chief of Finmeccanica, the parent company of AgustaWestland.

In a statement in the evening, CBI spokesperson Devpreet Singh said, "It was alleged that Chief of Air Staff (CAS) entered into criminal conspiracy with other accused persons and in 2005, conceded to change IAF's consistent stand that service ceiling of VVIP Helicopters 6000 mtrs was an inescapable operational necessity and reduced the same to 4500 meters."



She said such changes in Operational Requirements (ORs) made the private company based at the UK (AgustaWestland), eligble to participate in the Request for Proposal for VVIP Helicopters.

"It was revealed during investigation that such undue favours were allegedly shown to said UK-based private company by accepting illegal gratification from the accused vendors through middlemen/relatives including his cousin and an advocate etc. Who accepted the illegal gratification for exercising influence through illegal means, or using personal influence over the concerned public servants," CBI Spokepserson said.

Singh said the arrested accused persons will be produced before the competent court tomorrow where their remand would be sought.

In media interviews during the last three years, Tyagi and his cousin had strongly denied having taken any bribes to influence the deal.

Rejecting the allegations, Air Chief Marshal Tyagi had said the change of specifications, which brought AgustaWestland into contention, was a collective decision in which senior officers of Indian Air Force, SPG and other departments were involved.

CBI had claimed that Khaitan accepted having taken money from European middlemen Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa but insisted it was not kickbacks to influence the deal.

CBI sources said the bribe amount was routed through



middlemen and relatives to exert influence over Tyagi.

CBI alleged that in 2005, Tyagi had agreed to change the long held stand of the Indian Air Force that minimum operational ceiling of the VVIP helicopters should be 6000 metres.

Tyagi allegedly influenced the decision to reduce it to 4500 metres which brought AgustaWestland into the running for the deal when its choppers were not even qualified for submission of bids, CBI sources said.

On January 1, 2014, India had scrapped the contract with Finmeccanica's British subsidiary AgustaWestland for supplying 12 AW-101 VVIP choppers to the IAF over alleged breach of contractual obligations and charges of payment of kickbacks of Rs 450 crore by it for securing the deal.

The CBI had registered a case against Tyagi along with 18 others, including his cousins, European middlemen and companies.

The CBI had sent judicial requests to eight countries - Italy, the United Kingdom, British Virgin Island, Tunisia, Switzerland, Singapore, the UAE and Mauritius to get details of money trail of the kickbacks which landed on the Indian shores allegedly in the form of off-set contracts to IDS, Chandigarh, Praveen Bakshi, one of the accused.

On April 7, an Italian court had convicted two top executives of defence major Finmeccanica (AgustaWestland is its subsidiary) for paying kickbacks in the deal.
An AIADMK functionary, who allegedly set himself ablaze after hearing the deteriorating health condition of former chief minister Jayalalithaa, succumbed to injuries at the government hospital here, police said today.

The 50-year old Ramachandran, a party functionary in Annur in rural limits had allegedly poured kerosene and set himself on fire in the evening of December five, as rumours spread on Jayalalithaa's health.

He was admitted to the government hospital here with over 70 per cent burns and was under treatment.However, he died late last night, police said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A fleet of seven ships and six helicopters evacuated all 2,376 tourists, including several foreign nationals, stranded in two islands of the Andamans due to cyclonic weather since December 5, officials said today.

As the weather cleared in the morning, Navy, Coast Guard, Air Force and Union Territory (UT) administration started a joint evacuation drive and brought back all stranded tourists to Port Blair from Havelock and Neil islands of the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago.

"Altogether 2,376 tourists were evacuated from the two islands and brought to Port Blair. All are safe and are taken care of," an official of the UT disaster department said.

He said three Mi 17V-5 military transport helicopters from the Air Force and three Pawan Hans helicopters of the Union Territory administration, besides seven ships from the Navy and administration have been regularly plying between the islands for the evacuation process.

Located about 40 km from here, Havelock and Neil are the most popular tourist attractions in the Andamans where tourists were stranded since Monday due to torrential rains, choppy seas and heavy winds as neither aircrafts nor ships could operate due to the inclement weather.

The cyclonic storm 'Vardah', which was lying 250 km west- northwest of Port Blair, was very likely to intensify into a severe cyclone, according to the MeT department.

Lt Governor of the Islands Jagdish Mukhi said there was no untoward incident and no loss of life or property due to the weather conditions.

"We are sending all tourists back home from Port Blair according to their flight timings. We have also made arrangements for their stay here," an official said.

Among those rescued included 12 foreigners. They included two Germans, four Spanish and one Israeli.

The IAF in a statement said three MI-17V5 were pressed into service for the rescue operation.

Total 14 sorties carried out, 11 sorties from Havelock carrying 230 passengers and 3 sorties from Neil island carrying 65 passengers, it said.

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STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Catholic Charities of Staten Island will play host to its Annual Christmas Event at the Mission of the Immaculate Virgin at Mount Loretto this weekend.

The festive holiday spectacular that will feature fireworks, rides, food, vendors, tree lighting, photos with Santa himself and much more, is set for Saturday, Dec. 10 from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. and Sunday, Dec. 11th from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Note: The Fireworks Display will be on Saturday at 9 p.m.

Just added: Hundreds of items/photographs found by Staten Islander Amanda Casella after Hurricane Sandy, will be available for participants to view in hopes of those items being returned to their original owners before the Christmas holiday.

Vendors will be on hand, as will Amanda Casella and local elected officials.



The Mission of the Immaculate Virgin at Mount Loretto is located at 6581 Hylan Blvd. in Pleasant Plains.



For further information kindly contact Anthony Rapacciuolo at 718 490-5023 or at Ajr@PRcision.com or visit: www.MountLoretto.org.
Describing state Congress Chief Amarinder Singh as a "epicurean monarch", Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today asked him to list "any single sacrifice" made for the state and its people.

Addressing the gathering during Sangat Darshan programme in Raikot assembly segment here, the Chief Minister said Amarinder was a "typical king" who was a firm believer in absolute powers for rulers without bothering for the subjects.

He said Amarinder was trying to mislead people by "promising moon" to them whereas in reality he just wanted to form government.

"Nothing good for the state could be expected from a Maharaja like Captain," he said.

The Chief Minister cautioned the people that if voted to power both the Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) would "discontinue" several pro-people schemes and subsidies being currently given



He said both Congress and AAP have a "proven track record of being anti-poor and anti-Punjabis".

He said during his stint as chief minister Amarinder had "discontinued" free power to people and welfare schemes were a "distant dream" during his regime.

Badal said that AAP government in Delhi has "done nothing" tangible on the welfare front adding that even its leaders in Punjab were insulting beneficiaries of pro-poor schemes by terming them as beggars.

He said that if voted again to power the SAD-BJP alliance would dedicate the next term for economic prosperity of every section of society and enhance their income manifold.

Badal said there was complete synergy between NDA government at Centre and SAD-BJP government in the state.

He also said there was no revolt in party over ticket distribution adding that only those people were leaving Akali Dal, who have been denied tickets by the party.

He said demonetisation would prove very beneficial for the countrymen as this step has been taken in larger interest of the country.

He said that after initial hiccups this scheme would act as a catalyst to wipe out the parallel economy propelled by Black money and corruption.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Two bank unions today urged RBI Governor Urjit Patel to ensure adequate supply of the new Rs 500 notes and bills of lower denominations to tide over the prevailing cash crunch.

Due to non-availability of adequate quantity of Rs 500 and Rs 100 currency notes, customers are reluctant to accept the newly printed Rs 2,000 bills which they find difficult to spend in the market for want of change, the unions said in a letter to Patel.

The letter has been written by C H Venkatchalam, General Secretary of the All-India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA), and S Nagarajan, his counterpart at the All-India Bank Officers Association (AIBOA).

There is acute shortage of Rs 100 notes and ATMs, including the recalibrated ones, have become non-functional due to the shortage, they said, adding that banks are finding it difficult to face customers demanding the lower denomination currency.

The shortage of currency notes has resulted in tension, exchange of angry words, quarrels between bank staffers and customers. All these are putting mental pressure on bank staffers, the unions said.

There have been instances of angry citizens locking bank branches from outside, Venkatchalam and Nagarajan said.

There are also allegations of RBI supplying more number of currency notes to private banks than their public sector counterparts, they said.

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US Vice President Joe Biden brought reassurances to Canada today that its historically close relationship with America will not suffer under Donald Trump's administration.

The two-day visit to Ottawa, which started with a dinner hosted by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau yesterday, comes as Canada's regional leaders met in the capital to finalise a national climate strategy.

Biden was expected to address the 10 provincial leaders before they announce an agreement on a national carbon price.

The American vice president, lawmaker Wayne Easter told AFP, came "to calm the waters after some of the rhetoric heard during the campaign, and to reassure the political leadership in Canada on the change in administration in the United States."



While campaigning this year, Trump warned that US environmental regulations were hamstringing businesses.

He has pledged to boost the oil and gas sector and revive the coal industry.

And his pick yesterday of fossil fuel industry ally Scott Pruitt, a global warming skeptic, to head the Environmental Protection Agency has further cast doubts over America's commitment to battle climate change.

The EPA both determines and implements US international commitments on climate.

But Easter, the co-chair of the Canada-US inter-parliamentary group, suggested that Trump might soften some of his positions after he comes into office next month.

"Governing is much harder than taking policy positions as an outsider during a political campaign," he said.

Easter pointed to strong trade and security linkages that have and will survive "bumps in the road."



Climate policy promises to be a sticking point, as the two neighbors appear to be headed down different paths.

Trudeau has staked out his political future by aligning with US President Barack Obama on combating climate change, notably on the phasing out of coal-fired power plants.

Under Trudeau's plan, carbon pollution would cost (USD8) a tonne in 2018, rising incrementally to USD38 a tonne by 2022.

The provinces, which share environmental responsibilities with the feds, can choose to implement a carbon tax or a cap-and-trade system.

Holdouts would have a price imposed by Ottawa.

Despite taking a hard line on emissions, Trudeau has approved major expansions of two pipelines to get more Alberta crude oil to tidewater and to the United States.

But he rejected a third project through a temperate rain forest to the Pacific Coast.

Trump, meanwhile, has said he would fast-track approvals for the controversial Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta to US Gulf Coast refineries, which Obama rejected under pressure from environmental activists.

With Biden's visit, officials will likely discuss how Canada can continue to manage its Paris commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30 per cent, compared with 2005 levels, by 2030, "if there is a change in the approach on the US side," Easter said.

"We don't want to create a situation where our businesses become non-competitive" with US firms, he added.

Quebec and Ontario have joined a cap-and-trade market with California, and Easter said there were more such deals taking place at the state or provincial level rather than the national level.

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A British journalist working for The Times of London newspaper was detained by Kenyan security at Nairobi airport today and was held without explanation or charge.

Jerome Starkey, 35, was locked in a cell overnight after arriving in Kenya from the UK late yesterday.

"Just been arrested at the airport on orders of security services," Starkey tweeted early on Friday morning, posting a photograph of an untidy room with metal bunk beds inside the airport terminal.

Officers told Starkey a "security block" had been placed on his passport but were unable to provide any further information.

An award-winning journalist, Starkey has lived in Kenya since 2012 when he was appointed Africa correspondent for The Times after years working in Afghanistan.

Starkey has reported extensively on terrorism, security, miscarriages of justice, conservation and drugs trafficking while based in East Africa.

He has been questioned by immigration, detectives and anti-terrorism police but after more than 15 hours in custody had still not been charged by Friday afternoon.

A spokesman for the British High Commission in Nairobi said: "We are in contact with local authorities and are providing assistance to a British man following his detention in Nairobi.

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In less than two years after becoming the US Defence Secretary, Ashton Carter made a record three trips to India and had an unprecedented seven meetings with his Indian counterpart Manohar Parrikar, spearheading efforts to deepen and broaden US-India defence cooperation.

In his many years at the Pentagon in various capacities, Carter "spearheaded efforts to deepen and broaden" bilateral defence cooperation with India, the Pentagon said in a fact-sheet released yesterday as Carter concluded his final trip to India in his capacity as the defence secretary.

As a result of his efforts, the Pentagon said, the US and India have improved mutual understanding of their respective defence institutions, are exchanging perspectives and coordinating policy approaches in new areas, reinvigorating military-to-military engagements, launching path-breaking cooperative technology projects and pushing bilateral defence trade to unprecedented levels.

"Today, the United States and India are closer than ever to realising their Joint Vision for the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean Region," the Pentagon said.

In recent years, the US and India have engaged in what Carter has dubbed a "strategic handshake" between the two countries as American policy of rebalance to the Asia Pacific converges with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "Act East" policy.

"This has been complemented by a 'technological handshake' through which we have sought to leverage our respective industrial and technological capabilities to meet mutual security needs," the fact sheet said.

The strategic handshake accomplishments include "the US finalised India's designation as a 'Major Defense Partner' today," the Pentagon said.

The US Congress yesterday formally passed the legislation in this regard as included in the National Defense Authorisation Act (NDAA) 2017.

The two countries launched a new bilateral Maritime Security Dialogue in April 2016; President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Modi issued the Joint Strategic Vision for the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean Region in January 2015; and Carter and Parrikar signed the Framework for the US-India Defense Relationship in June 2015.

Carter was the first US Defense Secretary to visit Indian Eastern Naval Command in Vizakhapatnam in December 2015; annual naval exercise MALABAR expanded to include Japan as permanent member and India twice participated with a ship in the biennial Rim-of-the-Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise - in 2014 and 2016 - hosted by US Pacific Command after observing the exercise since 2006.

Among other accomplishments under strategic handshake are Indian Air Force resumed participation in Exercise RED FLAG in Spring 2016, US and India concluded Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement in August 2016 and the two countries for the first time conducted a joint peacekeeping course in New Delhi in August 2016, with plans to conduct follow-on iterations of the joint course in 2017.

(Reopens FGN 7)



In the Technological Handshake, the Pentagon said that in 2012, United States and India launched the Defense Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI).

Under DTTI, the US and India have launched seven joint working groups to explore collaborative projects and programs and signed two Science and Technology government-to-government project agreements - the Next Generation Protective Ensembles and Mobile Hybrid Power Sources - worth roughly USD 2 million.

Since 2008, US-India defense trade has increased from roughly USD 1 billion to over USD 14 billion, including Indian procurement of 13 Lockheed Martin C-130 Hercules aircraft, 10 C-17 Globemaster and 12 P-8 Poseidon aircraft from Boeing, as well as 22 AH-64 Apache and 15 CH-47 Chinook helicopters.

In December 2016, the US and India signed a deal worth approximately USD 732 million to provide the Indian Army with 145 M777 Howitzer guns, the Pentagon said.

In 2012, Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL) and Lockheed Martin established a joint venture to produce C-130J Super Hercules airframe components.

The 50th empennage was delivered in September 2016.

TASL also has a joint venture with Sikorsky, established in 2011, to co-produce S-92 helicopter cabins.

In June 2016, TASL and Boeing announced a Hyderabad-based joint venture to manufacture components for Apache helicopters and collaborate on integrated systems development opportunities in India, the Pentagon said.
In a relief to Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, the Hyderabad High Court on Friday dismissed a complaint filed by a YSR Congress MLA seeking an investigation into his alleged role in the cash-for-vote case.

The court allowed Naidu's plea seeking relief and dismissed the complaint filed by Ramakrishna Reddy on the ground that the latter had no locus standi to file such an application.

The MLA's counsel P Sudhakar Reddy said he had filed a private complaint in an ACB (Anti-Corruption Bureau) court making Naidu an accused in the cash-for-vote issue.

The ACB court had ordered a probe by the ACB over the alleged involvement of Naidu who sought relief in the high court.

Naidu had got a temporary relief in the high court, but it was challenged by the MLA in the Supreme Court. The apex court referred the matter to the high court.

The MLA's counsel said they will pursue legal options against Naidu.

The so-called cash-for-vote pertains to allegations against TDP MLA A Revant Reddy and others that they tried to bribe a nominated MLA in MLC polls. Naidu had accused the TRS Government in Telangana of illegally tapping phones.

In May 2015, nominated MLA in Telangana Assembly Elvis Stephenson lodged a complaint alleging that he was offered Rs 5 crore by TDP MLA Revanth Reddy to vote for TDP nominee in the election to the Telangana Legislative Council on June 1.

On May 31, the ACB arrested Revanth Reddy, Bishop Sebastian Harry and Rudra Udaya Simha when they were allegedly handing over an advance sum of Rs 50 lakh to Stephenson.

A charge sheet filed by the ACB on July 28 last year mentioned TDP chief Naidu's name, but not as an accused.

An audio tape of Naidu's purported conversation with Stephenson over the phone on May 30, a day before the ACB arrested Revanth, had found its way to the media.
Government has assured it would work very closely with industry bodies in the region to ensure that all their problems, especially those of MSME sector, post-demonetisation were resolved at the earliest, according to an industry delegation.

This was informed by Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu to a three-member delegation which recently visited Delhi and presented memorandums to various central government ministers and officials on the problems faced by the industries in the regin following demonetisation of high value currency notes.

The delegation comprising the heads of local chapter of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Vanitha Mohan, Coimbatore District Small Industries Association V Sundaram and Southern India Engineering and Manufacturers Association K K Rajan had handed over copies of the memorandums to Naidu.

He had taken up the matter to the attention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday, Mohan said today.

"We were called by Naidu over phone yesterday morning to inform that they all will work very closely with us to ensure that all the problems are resolved at the earliest," she said in a release here today.

The Prime Minister had, through Naidu, asked the members of the delegation to approach his office for any problems while complying with the norms of the government, she said.

The delegation had conveyed representations made by more than 50 industrial and trade associations, most of them being SMEs, to Union Minister for MSME, Kalraj Mishra, Minister of State for MSME Giriraj Singh and MSME secretary, K K Jalan.

It also met Union Minister of State for Finance, Arjun Ram Meghawal, Union Minister for Labour and Employment, Bandaru Dattatreya and Joint Secretary in Prime Minister's Officer, Tarun Bajaj, she said.

While MSME ministry assured to take remedial measures at the earliest to tackle the problems particularly opening accounts for workers, Meghawal has promised to take immediate steps to ensure availability of cash with banks especially the small denomination currency.

He has also promised to talk to Regional Director of RBI to ensure adequate funds are available in Coimbatore to meet the requirements of industry and to assess the amount of new currency which has been deployed in industry and ensure equitable distribution to all parts of the country.

Dattatreya assured to work closely with the associations to iron out any kind of problems faced on the statutory obligations aspect, the release said.

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China failed today to block a UN Security Council meeting called to discuss the human rights crisis in North Korea despite support from Russia and three other countries.

China, Angola, Egypt, Russia and Venezuela voted to scrap the meeting, but nine countries including Britain, France and the United States supported the move in the 15-member council. Senegal abstained.

Beijing has failed three times to stop the meeting held annually at the Security Council since a UN commission of inquiry in 2014 accused Pyongyang of committing atrocities unparalleled in the modern world.

Chinese Ambassador Liu Jieyi argued that the council should focus on threats to global peace and security, saying North Korea's human rights situation should not be considered as such a menace.

"The Security Council is not a forum for discussing human rights issues and still less for the politicization of the human rights issues," he said.

This discussion is "detrimental, with no benefit whatsoever," he added, urging council members to "avoid making any rhetoric or actions that may provoke or lead to escalation of the tensions."



Pyongyang's sole ally and trade partner, China has long argued that international efforts should firmly focus on talks to denuclearise North Korea.

US Ambassador Samantha Power shot back that "it stretches credulity, really, to suggest... That the brutal governance practiced by the regime is neutral for international peace and security."



The UN commission of inquiry found compelling evidence of torture, execution and starvation in North Korea, where between 80,000 and 120,000 people are being held in prison camps.

The General Assembly has encouraged the Security Council to refer North Korea to the International Criminal Court for war crimes investigation, but China is likely to block any such move with its veto power on the council.

Today's meeting follows last week's adoption of tougher sanctions against North Korea, including new measures to curb the reclusive state's coal exports to China, in response to Pyongyang's fifth and biggest nuclear test.

North Korea has been hit by six sets of UN sanctions since it first tested a nuclear device in 2006.

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China today asked Vietnam to stop construction work on a disputed reef in the resource-rich South China Sea, reaffirming its "indisputable sovereignty", days after satellite images showed Hanoi carrying out dredging work in the contested waterway.

"China has indisputable sovereignty over Nansha (Spratly) Islands, Riji reef and relevant waters," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told media here today reacting to reports of Vietnam carrying out dredging work there.

"We urge the relevant country to respect our sovereignty and our relevant rights and stop construction activities and refrain from complicating the situation and work with China to safeguard and peace stability in the South China Sea (SCS)," he said.

Latest images by US-based satellite firm Planet Labs showed several Vietnamese vessels carrying out dredging activities which analysts said is a precursor to bigger constructions activity.

Reports earlier this year said Vietnam had fortified several islands under its control with mobile rocket artillery launchers capable of striking China's holdings across the areas under its control.

Vietnam has also been increasing its military cooperation with India, the US and Japan in recent years to beef-up its defence capabilities.

China's assertion came as its navy yesterday celebrated 70th anniversary of the capture of the Spratly islands.

In compliance of the Cairo Declaration and Potsdam Proclamation, China in November and December 1946 designated officials to proceed to the Islands by four warships to take over the islands, illegally occupied by Japan, state-run Xinhua agency reported.

"Recovering these islands was an important achievement of China's war against aggression, demonstrating that China was firmly safeguarding the post-war international order and affirming the nation as defending its rights and interests in the South China Sea," PLA Navy Commander Wu Shengli had said.

China's claims over almost all of the SCS was contested by Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.

The SCS dispute, however, took a back seat after the election of Rodrigo Duterte as President of the Philippines who distanced from the US and worked out a truce with China, putting the SCS dispute on the back burner.

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The Business of Being Pantone: Turning Color Into Money

Slated to be the new year's "it" color: Greenery; it is, after all, the 2017 "Color of the Year." This shade - along with an array of other hues introduced this year - always existed in nature, but now they are officialdramatic names and all. One can buy them from Pantone, a small company in Carlstadt, N.J., that literally snatches its products out of the air.

Pantone monetizes wavelengths and pigments the way Coca-Cola bottles water and Manhattan developers buy up chunks of the sky. Technically, it's a kind of biochemical company. After developing colors in a lab, Pantone makes most of its money by selling the shades and corresponding formulas to fabric mills, printers, and designers in a range of disciplines. Its a simple model, and business has never been better. While Pantone, now a unit of the industrial giant Danaher, does not detail its financials1, spokeswoman Molly Walsh said the company grew more in 2014 than it has in any of its 53 years of mixing ink.

That's an astonishing and improbable feat, considering color is basically free these days. The widely available technology to measure, match, print, and dye specific colors has never been better. Talk to Web designers about color, and they will mention RGB, CMYK, wheels, and a whole bunch of other tools and conventions that can spit out the precise shade they are looking for. Pantone also has plenty of competition when it comes to categorizing color. SCOTDIC Colours, a New York-based brand that specialized in cotton and polyester tones, is becoming a popular alternative in the fashion world. Even the federal government has its own color convention (where else would we get Air Superiority Blue?).

Graphic designers, however, are still clambering for Pantone's 1,755 colors in its "Plus Series," which comes as a stack of paper strips that spread open like a motley fan. Pantone's "Fashion, Home + Interiors" color guides come in a folio of 2,310 fabric swatches, while the company also makes a library of colors baked into plastic cubes to help industrial designers make choices for everything from plastic dolls to patio furniture.

To stop its business from bleeding onto digital platforms and open-source color libraries, Pantone has injected a bit of mystique into its color creation. Of Pantones 120 employees, the mix-masters in the ink room now take a back seat to the color economists and color psychologists. These are the folks that make up the core of 20 to 60 experts canvassing the world at any given time for trends in color. "They're completely rebranded," says Langdon Graves, a professor of color theory at Parson's New School for Design in New York. "They used to be more of a reference. Now they have a point.

Consider Pantone's Colorstrology feature. Grape Nectar (Pantone No. 18-1710) was the color of the day on Monday, according to Pantone. Apparently, it stands for complexity, brightness, and responsibility. Tomorrow it will be something different. The feature mixes traditional color theory with a dash of pop culture, psychology, and total nonsense to come up with a brilliant marketing blend.

It took the group years to arrive at Pantones new batch of 210 offerings. Heavy on oranges and pinks, the colors are said to reflect humanitys growing focus on health and natural foods. There are also a lot of blues, a favorite of tech companies looking for a logo. Mark Calder, creative director at the menswear brand Robert Talbott, is particularly excited about the new blues. Its a color that men understand and our customers respond well to it, he says. But how do you drive more demand? You have to evolve the blues.

Companies that want even more details on what shades are resonating with people can buy one of Pantones forecasting books or hire its team of consultants for a custom project. Sure, a print shop team may be able to replicate a version of "mistletoe" perfectly, but will they know how that anemic green makes people feel? Are they aware of the exotic corners of the world in which it is most prevalent? And, most importantly, do they have any inkling of how many sweaters it might sell this fall?

Indeed, fast-fashion brands and shorter design cycles in retail have been a boon to Pantone's business, and its color-of-the-year selections have become self-fulfilling. Who knows if this is really the year of Greenery? But a crowd of designers is rushing to splash the wine-colored shade across their product lines. Pantone has effectively become to pigments what Anna Wintour is to the wider fashion world: part trendsetter, part enforcer.

Then, of course, there is the merchandise: coffee mugs, iPhone cases, kids books, and a pile of other product categories stamped with the generic-looking Pantone color tiles. Most of that business comes in the form of licensing dollars, as Pantone sells the right to its logo. There's even a Pantone cafe in Monaco that sells "Eclair"-colored eclairs.

The major value of the Pantone system, however, still resides in its standardization. A "Scuba Blue" printed at a mill in Vietnam should be pretty much identical to one coming off of rollers in Vancouver, provided both facilities have purchased the Pantone color portfolio and the corresponding array of proprietary inks.

As for recurring revenue, Pantone recommends customers buy a new stack of its shades every year. Colors tend to fade, even Pantone's.

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In fresh trouble for ex-Coal Secretary H C Gupta, already facing prosecution in over eight coal scam cases, a former Chief Vigilance Commissioner today raised doubt over his role in recommending allocation of a coal block to a private company.

Appearing before Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar, ex- CVC Pradeep Kumar claimed he had attended the 34th Screening Committee meeting, chaired by Gupta, on September 22, 2006, but no decision was taken on the issue of recommending allocation of any coal block to the accused firm Pushp Steels and Mining Pvt Ltd (PSMPL).

However, after registration of the case, he got to know that as per the documents, the decision on recommending allocation of the coal block to the company was made at the September 22, 2006, meeting of the screening committee itself, he said.

Gupta and PSMPL are currently facing trial for allegedly entering into a conspiracy in the coal scam case with the CBI claiming that the screening committee, chaired by Gupta, had recommended allocation of Brahmapuri coal block to the firm despite the fact that neither the state government nor the Ministry of Steel had made any such recommendation.

Deposing as a prosecution witness, the former CVC said that in 2006, he was Special Secretary in the Ministry of Coal but he had nothing to do with coal allocation section.

On September 7 and 8, 2006, however, he chaired the Screening Committee meetings as Gupta was on tour due to an accident at some coal mine and only presentations were made by the some appellant firms in the said meetings, he said.

On September 22, 2006, on being asked by Gupta, he attended the meeting of the screening committee, which was headed by former Coal Secretary, he said, adding that neither any inter se priority chart was prepared, nor any merit-wise discussion took place.

Subsequently, he learnt after the registration of the FIR in the case that PSMPL was recommended for allocation of a coal block and the date of the recommendation was September 22, 2006, he said.

Gupta and PSMPL are facing trial for alleged offences under sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant) of IPC and under relevant provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

PSMPL's Director Atul Jain had been discharged by the court, which said, "A prima facie conclusion of existence of criminal conspiracy between accused H C Gupta and accused company PSMPL cannot be extended to cover Atul Jain also.

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Cold chain can reduce food loss by 76 per cent and also help improve profitability, besides cutting carbon emissions by 16 per cent, says a study.

According to a pilot study on Kinnow commissioned by Carrier, "Investment in the cold chain - specifically pre-cooling and transport refrigeration equipment - can reduce food loss by 76 per cent and carbon dioxide equivalent emissions (CO2E) by 16 per cent."



Besides this, the profitability improved for the aggregator, distributor and retailer.

Those are the results of a pilot study on kinnow, a type of mandarin, commissioned by Carrier and released today at Carrier's World Cold Chain Summit held in Singapore.

Carrier is part of UTC Climate, Controls & Security, a unit of United Technologies Corp.

The pilot study examined the extent to which the cold chain can help increase the quality, reach and profitability of kinnow, a citrus fruit rich in micronutrients and common to the Punjab region of India and Pakistan, by enabling sales out-of-season and in distant markets.

"This is an area of critical importance to India, which is the world's second largest producer of fruits and vegetables but accounts for just 1.5 per cent of global produce exports due to losses of up to 20-50 per cent of total production," it said.

The study was conducted by the Indian School of Business under the direction of the National Center for Cold-chain Development (NCCD) of India and Carrier Transicold India, and in collaboration with Balaji Kinnow, one of the largest aggregators in the Punjab region.

"The cold chain, simply put, serves as a cross- geographical bridge between a rural source and distant concentrations of consumption," said Pawanexh Kohli, chief advisor and CEO, NCCD.

"The cold chain is a modern agri-logistics system that is transformational in its impact and key to bringing about the next agricultural revolution. We look forward to many more, similar pilots to demonstrate the wide-reaching advantages of the cold chain," Kohli said.

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Global publishing houses like Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press and Taylor & Francis today said they are fully committed to the ongoing creation of high quality knowledge and learning materials across all disciplines and subjects.

The publishers earlier in the day got partial relief from the Delhi High Court which restored their lawsuit which was dismissed by a single judge.

A division bench of justices Pradeep Nandrajog and Yogesh Khanna setting aside part of the September 16 judgement of the single judge, who had allowed sale of photocopies of textbooks by saying there was "no triable issue" arising out of the dispute.

In a joint statement after the high court decision, the publishers said they are also committed to finding ways to enable students and researchers around the world to access these materials on an equitable basis.

"We believe that such access can only be ensured on a long term and sustainable basis with the support of a fair and balanced framework of reciprocal rights and obligations that enables all those involved in the provision of learning and communication of scholarly research to be acknowledged for the contribution they have made.

"Through this appeal, we had sought to clarify that Indian copyright law did indeed support such a framework, and in so doing balance the interests of those creating learning materials here in India, with those requiring access to them in a fair and sustainable manner," it said.

The publishers said they will consider this judgement in more detail over the coming days.

"In the meantime, we wish to reiterate that all publishers continue to work on models that will enable equitable access to knowledge," they said.

The publishers had approached the division bench against the single judge order which had allowed the shop, Rameshwari photocopy services, to sell photocopies of their textbooks saying copyright in literary works does not confer "absolute ownership" to the authors.

Rameshwari photocopy service runs a shop in the precincts of Delhi School of Economics in the Delhi University campus.

The publishers had argued before the bench that sale of photocopies of books published by them affected their market share and it was infringing upon their copyright over the text books.

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Giving partial relief to some car makers from a penalty order by CCI, the Competition Appellate Tribunal today ruled they need to pay a 2 per cent fine on three-year average annual turnover of spare parts in the aftermarket, and not on the basis of their overall turnover.

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) had imposed a penalty of 2 per cent on overall average annual turnover of the concernd companies, including Toyota (Rs 93.38 crore), Nissan (Rs 1.63 crore) and Ford (Rs 39.78 crore).

The three foreign automakers had approached the Tribunal against the order by CCI, which had passed its directive after investigating complaints of alleged abuse of dominant position and anti-competitive agreement/practices adopted by the firms.

The automakers subsequently filed their appeals before Compat, which today passed an order after looking into whether the CCI "erred in holding appellants' distributions/sales agreements and practices violative of" relevant section of the Competition Act.

In a detailed 190-page order, the Tribunal said the CCI had ordered an expanded probe against as many as 17 car makers in 2011.

Passing its order after looking into various aspects of the case and into submissions made by all the concerned parties, the Compat said, "... It is our opinion that this investigation has covered certain practices as they exist in the automobile after market and the repair and service sector.

"All companies have been found violating the relevant provisions of the act albeit in varying degrees, therefore even if specific company wise conclusions are not drawn violations need to be stated and checked."



The Tribunal ruled that the "appellants Toyota, Ford and Nissan are in dominant position in respect to their respective spare parts including diagnostic tools, technical information, fault codes, repair manuals etc, in the aftermarket."



"The appellants are abusing their dominant position by imposing unfair conditions in the nature of restrictions on purchase or sale of goods or services on their authorised dealers and original equipment suppliers thereby violating Section 4 (2)(a)(1) of the Act."



At the same time, the Compat felt some of the directions given by CCI required "reconsideration or review".

"We have clearly seen that while anti-competitive conduct on the part of the three appellants has been established, we also need to take into account the structure, the potential and the role that auto industry plays in the larger framework of India's economic development.

"Therefore, any direction given by a regulator should be pragmatic and capable of being implemented. Further, we clearly recognise that reformatory directions given herein cannot be implemented overnight as they require a frame of time and ancillary action."



It said eliminating anti-competitive practices would require the support of appropriate regulatory development but that should not be implied to mean that the companies do not have the responsibility of taking immediate steps to remove anti-competitive constraints rather simply putting all blame on the government's door.

"There is no doubt that government has to work towards



creating a regulatory framework but it is not our view that until a regulatory framework is constructed, anti-competitive restrictions cannot be removed," Compat said.

"We squarely hold OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) accountable for creating and maintaining a competitive environment conducive to the consumer's interest recognising the importance of safety on roads and development of skills and investments in automobile repair sector," it said, while modifying the CCI order.

Accordingly, the three auto companies will have to follow certain directions within one year, including removal of all restrictions imposed through agreements and practices on original equipment suppliers (OESs) and also open additional distribution channels to the open market for spare parts on a country wide basis.

Besides, they will have to remove all restrictions on supply of spare parts by OESs to authorised dealers and no 'No restrictions' can be imposed on Original Equipment Suppliers, authorised dealers and distribution channels from selling spare parts/diagnostic tools etc to independent repairers.

Compat also directed the Transport Ministry to develop voluntary standards under Motor Vehicles Act, with support from Quality Council of India, BIS, IARI and other agencies, for certification of garages and independent repairers.

Besides, Compat asked carmarkers not to impose a blanket condition that warranties would be cancelled if the consumer avails of services of any independent repairer.

They will need to develop extensive information system for details of automobiles and their spare parts manufactured by appellants so as to facilitate the potential customers make rational choices at the time of buying automobiles.

The central government has been asked to notify the minimum standards of information which should be made available through websites and other means of communications.

The car makers were also directed to make available in public domain, and also host on their websites, information regarding the spare parts, their MRPs, arrangements for availability over the counter, and details of matching quality alternatives, maintenance costs, etc.

The Transport Ministry will also take up a programme for standardisation of automobile spare parts.

The companies will have to furnish individual undertakings before CCI within 60 days about schedule of compliance with this order, within mandated frame of time, Compat said, while ordering that the modified penalty would need to be assessed and paid within 90 days of today's order.

On amount, Compat said CCI had imposed a penalty of 2 per cent on average annual turnover of the appellant companies.

Stating that the interpretation of turnover has been a subject of several previous decisions given by this Tribunal, Compat said on earlier occasions it had found "that the relevant turnover to be used as the basis for the fine is the turnover of the product subject to bid rigging; not the turnover of the entire multi-product enterprise".

"We are not in favour of imposing heavy fines in these cases as we have essentially come across omnibus sectoral practices which have anti-competitive character. This is a transitionary reform process and we would like to pursue the issue of imposition of penalty in the above perspective.

"However, since we are following the yardstick of relevant turnover, our concerns about mitigating circumstances are automatically getting addressed as penalty amount will now be calculated on the basis of relevant turn over of spare parts in the after market," it said.

Accordingly, the Compat asked the companies "to pay a 2 per cent penalty on average annual turnover of spare parts in the aftermarket of immediately preceding three years before the year of enquiry."



It directed CCI to get relevant statistics and determine the amount of penalty on the basis of this direction.

"The implementation of this order shall be completed within one year therefore, CCI is directed to review the progress and action taken by each party to the order including the government departments/ministry, every three months and send a report to the Tribunal for further directions.

"The first meeting of the Commission to monitor compliance of this order shall be held in February, 2017 and compliance/follow up report shall be made available to the Tribunal by February, 15, 2017," Compat said, while ordering that a copy of the order to be sent to the Secretary of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways for taking follow up action.
A top Republican Congressman has urged the US president-elect Donald Trump to meet Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama.

"As you meet with various world leaders in preparation for assuming your role as President, I would like to take the opportunity to suggest that you meet with His Holiness the Dalai Lama," Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner said in a letter to Trump.

A copy of the letter dated December 6 was released yesterday.

After being elected as the 45th president of the United States on November 8, Trump and his vice president-elect Mike Pence has spoken to more than 50 world leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

However, the congratulatory phone call that he received from the Taiwanese President drew sharp reaction from China.

Over the years, American presidents have maintained relationship with the Dalai Lama but in his capacity as the religious and spiritual leader of the Tibetans. But it has drawn angry reaction from the Chinese whenever a US President meets Dalai Lama in the White House.

So far Trump has not spoken to the Tibetan leader, prompting the powerful Republican to send a letter to the president-elect in this regard.

"Tibetans have the right to preserve their culture, heritage, language, and religion. Over the years, the Tibetan people have undergone a constant struggle to free themselves from the Chinese government and to preserve these basic freedoms," Sensenbrenner said.

"The People's Republic of China continues to refuse to acknowledge the autonomy of the Tibetan people, and have cracked down on protests and demonstrations by Tibetans," he wrote in the letter.

"Throughout the course of the last half-century, America has had a strong and stable relationship with the people and government of Tibet. I hope you will continue this strong relationship with Tibet, as well as promote peace between Tibet and the People's Republic of China," he said.

A US lawmaker since 1979, Congressman Sensenbrenner met Dalai Lama in 2008. Since his exile from Tibet 57 years ago, the Dalai Lama has been a strong and persistent advocate for a peaceful resolution to the tension between Tibet and China, he said.

In 1989, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in furthering the peaceful protest of the Chinese occupation of Tibet, the Congressman wrote to Trump.

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Amid war of words between Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over presence of army at toll plazas in West Bengal, BJP MP BC Khanduri and CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury today said Army should not be dragged in politics.

They also suggested that if any objection, related to Army, is there, it should be raised at appropriate platform.

"It's nothing new. This is old concept and policy of every government...It's very unfortunate. Army is totally apolitical. It's very sad for political reasons, they are involved. You fight your own battle. Why you want to involve the forces," Khanduri, himself a veteran, said.

Asked on the impact of such instances on Army, he said, "They feel sad and they cannot do anything about it. It gives a very bad taste...All the political parties should leave the people in uniform, particulary the armed forces, alone."



He also said if there is anything objectionable, then there is alternative, "go to the Prime Minister, Defence Minister and sort out the problem. For publicity, I think it is not done."



Echoing his views, Yechury said, "Involving Army into politics is wrong. If something is done wrong or you have objections then raise it at appropriate forum."



In a letter dated December 8 to Banerjee, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar had expressed "deep pain" over the Chief Ministers allegations against the army for its recent exercise at toll gates in the state and said they can "adversely" impact the morale of the armed forces.

"Your allegations in this regard run the risk of adversely impacting the morale of the country's armed forces and the same were not expected from a person of your standing and experience in public life," the Minister said.

Hitting back, Banerjee said, "I take strong exception to your wild assertion that my articulation of the rights of the state government vis-a-vis Army deployment without clearance has impacted the morale of the armed forces.

"Your general observations about the political parties and politicians to have the luxury of making wild and unsubstantiated allegations may be apt for your party, but we do not belong to that group," she said in a two-page reply.

Banerjee, who has been opposing the Centre's demonetisation move, had accused it of deploying the army at toll plazas in West Bengal without informing the state government and described it as "unprecedented" and "a very serious situation worse than Emergency".

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Six years after two people were burnt alive in an inter-caste violence in Mirchpur village in the district, the CRPF troops deployed there to maintain peace were withdrawn by Union Home Ministry today, with the consent of state government.

Superintendent of Police (SP) Rajender Singh Meena said that a 20-member committee has been formed to maintain harmony in the village.

CRPF was deployed in Mirchpur when a group of villagers belonging to upper caste torched over a dozen houses belonging to dalits on April 21, 2010 in which a 17-year-old polio-stricken girl Suman and her aged father Tara Chand were charred to death.

The incident was triggered by an argument between some dalit youths and upper caste men after a person from the latter faction had thrown a stone at a dog which was barking at him. He was passing through a dalit locality in the village.

An armed group of villagers stormed the locality housing dalit families and set about a dozen houses ablaze.

While the able-bodied fled, the disabled girl Suman was trapped inside. Her body was recovered by firemen.

The girl's father Tara Chand, who was badly burnt in the incident, died in the hospital later.

Haryana Police was deployed in the village after the incident, said the SP.

Members of Valmiki community have confirmed that brotherhood prevails in the village and now there is no need of CRPF, he said.

Following an assurance given by both communities, CRPF has been withdrawn, he added.

75 CRPF personnels were deployed in the village after the incident.

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The Customs department has seized 854 kg of gold between April-October this fiscal, with maximum quantity emanating from Myanmar, UAE and Thailand, Parliament was informed today.

Minister of State for Finance Santosh Kumar Gangwar said that the Customs department had seized 4,035 kg of gold in 2014-15, 2,976 kg in 2015-16 and 854.39 kg between April-October of current fiscal.

In the seven month period, 246 kg gold coming from Myanmar was seized by Customs, followed by UAE (151 kg), Thailand (125.99 kg), Bangladesh (54 Kg) and China (50 Kg).

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) of CBEC is keeping a strict vigil in sensitive areas at airports/borders, and flights from sensitive sectors are being scrutinised, Meghwal said.

"On detection of cases, strict action is taken by way of imposing deterrent fine and penalty as per relevant provisions of law," he said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.

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Pushing for reservation in private sector and promotion in government services, and a nationwide judicial service with quota benefits, several Dalits leaders, including Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, today announced a rally in the national capital next year to press for their demands.

Union Minister Ramdas Athawale used the meeting of Dalit leaders, who were from the ruling BJP-led NDA, to assert that they may be with BJP but not RSS, whose Hindutva agenda is not well-received by sections of Dalits.

Praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Athawale noted that never before as many events related to Bhim Rao Ambedkar, an icon of the community, were held as they were under him.

Paswan, who is president of BJP's ally LJP, said show of strength is the path to achieving power as he called for holding a rally on March 12 when, he added, the Budget Session of Parliament would be underway.

The Dalit leaders were speaking at a meeting of National Dalit Front, a body formed by Paswan to promote issues aimed at the underprivileged community's welfare.

Udit Raj, a BJP MP, asked the community members to participate in big numbers, asserting that a show of strength is the only way to pressure various political parties into accepting their demands.

He lamented that unlike other communities, like Marathas and Jats who have come together to push their welfare agenda, Dalits were not coming out in big numbers to push their cause.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A day after government announced a slew of incentives for payments through digital mode, Canara Bank today launched a prepaid card as part of efforts to attract more and more people towards cashless transactions.

"As a strategy towards achieving cashless payments, the prepaid card is introduced to replace cash payment for small value ticket transactions," Canara Bank MD Rakesh Sharma said.

Prepaid card lets the card holders to use the same for cash withdrawal, purchases at point of sale or internet, Canara Bank said in a statement.

The card holder can prefund the card to his requirement.

It reduces the risk against fraud in usage at POS or internet as the customer can restrict the amount loaded in the card, it said.

Prepaid Cards are next significant trend in consumer payments and the prepaid card market is growing rapidly in India, Sharma said.

In bid to promote less cash economy, the government yesterday announced discount on an array of services from buying petrol to insurance and railway tickets through the digital mode and waived service tax on card transactions of up to Rs 2,000.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Could 2017 be the year that Kentuckyone of only seven states without charter schoolsfinally gets a charter school law?

Since the election, charter-friendly Republicans will have firm control both chambers of the legislature and the governors mansion. And now the state board of education signaling a recognition that another legislative push for charters is likelyhas approved a set of recommendations for state lawmakers, according to local media outlets.

Among the boards recommendations : school districts should have the power to authorize new schools, and that only nonprofit groups should not be allowed to operate schools.

Legislators and advocates have been trying to pass a charter school law in Kentucky for years, including an attempt last year to create a pilot program limited to just two counties.

Adopting a charter law 25 years after the first one was passed in Minnesota gives Kentucky lawmakers the tools to create a strong sector, Kentucky Education Secretary Hal Heiner told WCPO, an ABC affiliate station in Cincinnati .

Our hope in Kentucky, if we were to have that possibility and become the 44th state to have charters, is that would we pick from the highest-performing states legislation, he said.

Forty-three states plus the District of Columbia have charter school laws, the most recent adopter being Alabama which passed a law in 2015. Charter advocates nationally have had pegged Kentucky as one of the states most likely to adopt charter schools next.

Of states that dont currently allow charter schools to openincluding Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, West Virginia, and Vermontmost are largely rural and have been resistant to other forms of school choice such as vouchers for private schools.

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The Supreme Court today sought the Centre's response on issues like whether district cooperative banks could be allowed to accept deposits in demonetised notes with some stringent regulations and why banks are unable to allow minimum weekly withdrawals of Rs 24,000 to customers.

The hearing, in which the Centre accused some advocates of politicising the issue in the garb of the public interest litigation, also witnessed the bench headed by Chief Justice T S Thakur expressing dismay over lawyers breaching decorum of the court by out-shouting each other.

While the high-decibel hearing was on, the bench, also comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, said though demonetisation has been carried with long term beneficial aims, its immediate concern was to ease the inconvenience of the people and asked Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi to apprise it on December 14 on issues relating to district cooperative banks and the non-adherence to fixed weekly withdrawal limits by the banks.

Further the bench said it would like to know the government's stand on the demand for extending the order for hospitals to accept the fees in demonetised notes.

Keeping in mind that the law under which the November 8 notification was issued for demonetisation has been challenged, the bench proposed to frame legal questions and told Rohatgi that since a detailed and long hearing would be required, he should ponder over whether the matter can be referred to a five-judge constitution bench.

The bench said it would take a decison on December 14 on the plea of the Centre that proceedings in various high courts on petitions relating to demonetisation be stayed and transferred either to the apex court or one of the High Courts for adjudication.

"Every day new petitions are being filed in the Supreme Court and in High Courts. The High Courts are adjourning the case for one day or two days... Law officers are being asked to appear," Rohatgi said and asked the bench to consider staying the proceedings in High Courts and transferring them either to the Supreme Court or to one high court.

The bench also considered submissions of senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for one of petitioners opposing the demonetisation, and the Attorney General in framing legal issues to be deliberated upon by it in future hearing.

"We can straightaway frame the questions. The first one can be: whether the November 8 notification is ultra-vires to the Section 26 (2) (power to demonetise) of the Reserve Bank of India Act," the bench said.

Indicating that it was "open to the idea of sending the



matters to a five-judge bench", the bench said the second question could be whether the demonetisation "falls foul of" Article 300A which says that no person shall be deprived of his/her property without a provision in law.

Whether the decision is unconstitutional as it violates Article 14 (equality before the law) and Article 19(1)(g) (freedom to practice profession and occupation) under the Constitution, it said.

Accepting Sibal's suggestion, the bench said the question that the restriction on withdrawal of "legitimate and taxed money" by the banks is violative of various fundamental rights.

"Whether district cooperative banks have been discriminated against by denial of the permission to accept deposits," the bench posed.

Sibal said he has also challenged the validity of the RBI Act provision on the ground of "excessive delegation of power" to demonetise currency notes.

Then came the suggestion of the Attorney General who said that a question was "what is the scope of judicial review in the matters of fiscal/economic policy". The bench accpeted the suggestion.

Raising the issue of CPI(M) filing the PIL in the instant matter, Rohatgi said another question would be "can a poltical party file the public interest litigation?"



The bench, during the hearing, asked Attorney General about the benefits and objectives of the demonetisation.

Referring to the November 8 notification, Rohatgi said it was for fighting blackmoney, ill-gotten money used for terror financing and curbing fake currency.

He said the Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes constituted 86 per cent of total currency and the move was kept secret to make demonetisation effective.

"It was not possible to print ten lakh crore currency in advance and re-calibrate all ATMs in advance. The cat would have been out of the bag. There is bound to have been some kind of inconvenience," the Attorney General said.

He referred to the recent decision of the Centre to incentivise digital transcations and said that people would be benefitted if they pay for their rail and air tickets and other services digitally.

Rohatgi said around 12 lakh crore demonetised currency notes have come back to the banking system.

He submitted that economic policy decisions should not be judicially reviewed.

While Rohatgi was making submissions, senior advocate and



former finance minister P Chidambaram said there are only four lakh crore new currency notes that have been pumped and since there are only four printing press of RBI and the Centre, it was not possible to substitute demonetised currency notes before six-to-seven months.

Chidambaram, Sibal and former foreign minister and senior advocate Salman Khurshid, appearing for different clients, were quite vocal and critical of the Centre's move on demonetisation.

Chidambaram said that the government is "rationing" the currency distribution because the short fall is going to continue for quite sometime.

He raised the issue of district cooperative banks which have been barred from accepting deposits in old demonetised notes and said that lakhs of peoples, specially farmers, are suffering due this.

"I don't see any farmers here. This is all bogey," the Attorney General responded curtly.

When the bench sought to know about the feasibility of allowing cooperative banks to accept deposits with stricter regulations, Rohatgi said it cannot be done as there are several practical impediments.

Dealing with some of the impediments, he said accounts with the cooperative banks are not "KYC (know your customer) compliants" and as the societies are the account holders, it would be difficult to ascertain which individual member has deposited what amount.

Instead of RBI, these cooperative banks are being regulated by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) and it is the matter of common knowledge as to who run these banks in various states, Rohatgi said.

As lawyers were trying to out-shout each other for being heard, the CJI expressed his dismay, saying, "I have served 23 years on the bench and never seen such an unruly behaviour from the advocates."



The CJI said that he was in his last week as a judge and would be "going with a heavy heart" that lawyers behave in such a manner on sensitive issue like demonetisation.

The bench then cited the example of Chidambaram waiting patiently for his turn and said that you all should look at him.

(Reopens LGD32)



The Attorney General said that there are over one lakh societies in the country and "only God knows how many persons are behind them (societies)."



He refuted the submisison of Chidambaram that farmers are at the receiving end saying "this is all in the air. They can go and deposit in a nearby State Bank branch or any other bank".

When Sibal said that many farmers have no other bank accounts, Rohatgi said they can open now also.

The top court had on December 2 asked the Centre to spell out the measures taken to ease suffering of and inconvenience to the people in rural areas.

The Centre had on November 24 filed an affidavit in the apex court on demonetisation and had said that the "bold move" would eradicate black money and slush funds operating since Independence which cast a "parallel economy" hitting the poor and the middle class.

On November 29, the apex court had agreed to hear pleas of 14 cooperative banks of Kerala seeking its nod to transact business like banks and others seeking demonetisation of any currency note higher than Rs 100 denomination.
Veteran actor Dhritiman Chatterjee says he misses political films on Bengali screen, which were a staple in the '60s and '70s but are absent these days.

Dhritiman, who appeared in several political films in the 70s, the prominent of which are Satyajit Ray's "Pratidwandi" and Mrinal Sen's "Padatik", says the present political instability and social chaos are not being reflected in the present-day Bengali films.

The Bengali cinema is preoccupied with thriller, he says.

"There was a healthy trend of political films in the '60s and '70s. I was witness to that time from close and had been a part of cinematic works on the subject. Agitations, movements, that was a critical phase. But sadly no more such work these days," the actor, who is also a regular in Hindi films, told PTI.

"Perhaps the form of airing views has changed. Perhaps streets have been replaced by Facebook. Maybe the level and type of political consciousness has also undergone a change in all these years. But that can also come up in our films. That is why I don't find most of the scripts here exciting enough," he adds.

The actor, however, is set to appear in a film with political elements "Chilekotha" (attic) which covers a time span from the Bengal famine to the Naxalite movement.

The 71-year-old actor was recently approached for a Hindi film by a young script writer working for Ramgopal Verma with Nawauzuddin Siddique as a member of the cast.

"Apparently, I am working more on Hindi projects than Bengali of late, though it was not deliberate," he says.

Dhritiman was most recently seen in "Pink", which he did because of the comfort level he shares with director Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury, producer Shoojit Sircar and cinematographer Aveek Mukhopadhyay.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Digital transactions have surged in the range of 400-1,000 per cent since November 8 when government announced discontinuation of old Rs 500/1000 notes, Law and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said today.

"Digital payments have increased in the range of 400 to 1,000 per cent since November 8. This figure does not include transactions done through Master and Visa cards," Prasad said while inauguration a new TV channel and a website to educate people about digital payments.

The minister launched free-to-air channel DigiShala which will be available on Doordarshan's DTH platform and 'CashlessIndia' website to educate people about digital transactions.

"The Doorsdarshan platform is being used by over 2 crore people specially in rural India. Indian learn technology with passion and increased digital transactions reflect this. From this, it can be understood how fast digital transactions will grow if we educate people," Prasad said.

He said that transactions on e-wallets have increased from 17 lakh per day to 63 lakh per day and value of transactions has increased from Rs 52 crore to Rs 191 crore.

The minister said that volume of transactions using Rupay card has increased from 3.85 lakh per day to 16 lakh per day and value from Rs 39.17 crore to Rs 236 crore, UPI transactions volume up from 3721 per day to 48000 per day and value Rs 1.93 crore to Rs 15 crore.

"With digital transactions money will come into system, it will be accountable, generate tax and develop country's economy. When money will come in to bank then government will be able to come up with better welfare schemes," he said.

He said that Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi was asking how much black money is involved in terror funding, the reply was about Rs 400 crore.

"The issue is not that Rs 400 crore is involved in terror funding. If a terrorist uses just Rs 5 crore for an attack in place like Mumbai then the damage will be of over Rs 1000 crore," Prasad said.

Minister of State for Law and IT P P Choudhary said that digital payments are important for making society free from corruption and control flow of black money.

The minister said volume of transactions through Point of Sales machines have increased from 15.2 lakh per day to 98.1 crore and in value terms it is up from Rs 112 crore to Rs 1,751 crore.

"Finance Minister yesterday announced that more POS will be made available in rural area," Prasad said.

He said that transaction through new USSD platform, which is useful for feature phone users has seen uptake from 97 transactions in a day to 1263 per day and total amount transacted through has increased from 1 lakh to 14 lakh per day.

"Whenever I go for public meetings, I ask people how many of you are on Facebook. There is hardly any region where less than 80 per cent of raised hand in response. According to me, Indians first observe technology, then adopt technology, then enjoy it and in the process they become empowered," he said.
The Election Commission is set to ask the Uttar Pradesh government to reschedule next year's state board examination dates in consultation with it so as to ensure there is no clash with the assembly polls due early next year.

The Uttar Pradesh Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad (UPMSP) had yesterday declared the schedule for the next year's board examination in Allahabad.

Within hours, the Commission shot off letters to poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Manipur and Goa not to announce exam schedules without consulting it.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer T Venkatesh was in Delhi today and held meetings with top poll panel officials, including Deputy Election Commissioner Vijay Dev, in charge of the state.

Sources in the Commission said citing its yesterday's letter the poll panel is set to ask the Uttar Pradesh government to reschedule its exam dates in consultation with it.

"The five states have been asked to consult us before finalising the exam schedule. Therefore, it is clear that Uttar Pradesh will also have to consult the Commission," a top official said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The sixth edition of the Delhi Comic Con today opened on a disappointing note for fans, with the event turning out to be a low-key affair, both in terms of star guests as well as merchandise stalls.

While last year, the crowd was treated to the likes of Kristain Nairn who played Hodor in 'Game of Thrones' and Rob Denbleyker of 'Cyanide and Happiness' fame, this year they had to settle for a handful of comic creators.

The last minute withdrawal of Paul Blackthorne of popular American Television series 'Arrow' was the biggest setback for fans.

"I was here last year as well and it is disappointing that we are not getting to see any stars this time. Paul Blackthrone was supposed to come but I believe he cancelled at the last moment. My friends and I booked tickets specifically to see him," says 21-year-old Anima, who is a student at the Jamia Milia Islamia University here.

For first time visitor Pranav, it was overwhelming to walk amidst fellow comic buffs dressed up as their favourite pop-culture characters, but he says Blackthorne's absence was unfortunate.

"It is crazy how I see my favourite Batman in so many different avatars here. But, I am disappointed because Paul Blackthorne couln't come," says Pranav.

The actor, who played Captain Russell in Bollywood film 'Lagaan', sent a video message on Facebook on December 6 regretting his inability to attend the three-day event here, due to his pre-occupation with shooting.

"Delhi, Delhi, Delhi! I'm so sorry that I cannot be with you for the convention this weekend because I'm busy here doing all this Arrow-y kind of stuff...Another time, apologies. Love you, guys!" Blackthorne says in the video.

The merchandise section seemed to be disappointing for Prachi Singh, a student of University of Delhi.

Prachi, who had previously been to the Bangalore Comic Con failed to locate enough of 'Harry Potter' merchandise, particularly ones on the latest, "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them".

"The Delhi Edition is pretty amazing but they do not have a 'Beast Store' which was there in Bangalore. Where to find Harry Potter here? I was really looking for it.

"I was here specifically for merchandise stores and I wanted to buy 'Beasts', but there is not much stuff for that," she says.

A session with Bollywood actor and director Amol Gupte, which was scheduled for today, was also dropped.

Gupte was supposed to visit the event with the cast and crew of their upcoming film "Sniff".

Nevertheless, there were many fans who were not discouraged by the absence of stars, and were there to celebrate and relive their childhood fandom.

28-year-old Manmeet, who works as a manager in the hospitality sector, was brimming with excitement to see his favourite superheroes walking around.

"Since childhood it is a dream for people to see their favorite comic stars for real. But, once we start working, the enthusiasm fades away. Comic Con lets us revive our childhood days, and I am always excited to come here.

"Although there are not stars like last year, I am not disappointed. If they would have been here, it would have been an icing on the cake. I loved Spiderman last year, this time Dead-Pool (though a little fat) is pretty amazing!" says Manmeet.

The fantasy event, that brings together all things geek under one roof, seeks to expand India's popular culture and help the industries involved grow and deliver "fun experiences" to comic buffs across India.

Comic Con is set to continue till December 11.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
With demonetisation causing difficulties to foreign travellers, including those on pilgrimage, diplomatic missions here have requested the government to ease restrictions on cash withdrawal and allow use of credit cards at monuments like the iconic Taj Mahal.

"After the demonetisation, we got several distress calls from our nationals who were stuck in places like Bodhgaya due to cash crunch as well as hampered currency exchange process.

"We wrote to MEA which said it was looking into it. We tried to help our nationals as much as we could," a top Sri Lankan High Commission official said.

An estimated 300,000 Sri Lankan tourists visit India annually of whom nearly 200,000 come for pilgrimage. Apart from Sri Lanka, people from other countries like Japan also travel to India, which has a treasure trove of Buddhist shrines, for pilgrimage.

Deploring that a lot of foreign visitors were facing problems due to demonetisation, Frank Hans Dannenberg Castellanos, who as Dean of the diplomatic corps here represents the voice of 157 foreign missions, said he has raised the issue with Ministry of External Affairs.

"I have raised the issue with the ministry and asked them to ensure that steps like acceptance of credit cards at monuments like the Taj Mahal are initiated because these are frequented by tourists in big numbers.

"I have also asked them that there should be enough ATMs around the tourists spots and in hotels so that cash could be easily available to travellers," Castellanos, Ambassador of the Dominican Republic, told PTI.

For 32 World Heritage Monuments, the ticket price for foreign nationals is Rs 500, while for other sites it is Rs 200.

For Taj Mahal, however, at present, a foreigner pays Rs 1,000 as entry fee.

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Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today said his government has decided to provide free WiFi facility in all colleges and universities by February and asked youths to use the facility for downloading books and knowledge materials and not for watching films.

Free WiFi is part of programmes under "seven resolves" which the state's Grand Alliance government has adopted to promote good governance, Kumar said while addressing a meeting here.

Kumar said the facility has been conceived as it was realised that for doing good in life, youths should be "digitally" smart.

However, it seemed that the facility was used more for downloading films than for literary works in Patna and officials in the secretariat were also not lagging behind.

Giving an example of how free WiFi was being misused, he said, "It came to our knowledge that one gentleman has downloaded 300 movies in the 22 km of main city street where the facility is available."



"Downloading 1-2 movies is OK but the free WiFi facility in colleges and universities is conceived to help students download books and knowledge materials," he said in the meeting, a part of his 'Nishchay Yatra'.

The Bihar CM is criss-crossing the state as part of 'Nishchay yatra' in a phased manner to take feedback on prohibition and preparations for implementation of 'seven resolves'. Purnea stop is part of third phase of the yatra that began from Araria on Wednesday.

Kumar said implementing total prohibition in the state since April this year has ushered in a "social revolution" particularly in rural areas.

He also talked of the human chain that would be formed across the state on January 21 and sought more people's participation in it.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A suspected cadre of the



outlawed Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) today surrendered to the police team of East Garo Hills.

The suspected 5th batch member of the banned outfit, identified as Salchrang Ch Marak (Mogo of Rongsak in EGH), surrendered to the police without any arms.

Mogo was arrested earlier during an encounter between the East Garo Hills (ECH) police and Ruga T Sangma, close aide of GNLA Commander-in-Chief Sohan D Shira, on November 25. Sangma was killed in the encounter.

Mogo had rejoined the outfit after he was out on bail.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
One of the most wanted terrorists of Meghalaya, a senior cadre of the proscribed Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA), today surrendered allegedly after his attempts to deposit terror funds were foiled by the police last week.

Baichung, whose actual name is Nikam Ch Momin, the second- in-command of the GNLA militant group formed in 2009, surrendered before South Garo Hills district SP Anand Mishra along with arms and ammunition, the police said.

He brought along with him a 5.56 X 45 HK-33 Rifle, 120 rounds of ammunition, one magazine, two mobile phones, 2 extra batteries, 4 SIM Cards, an ID Card, etc, they said.

Baichung, who was wanted and held responsible for terror activities and had survived several encounters with the police, was under pressure due to counter insurgency operations in the district and demonetisation, Mishra said.

Last week, two persons sent by Baichung were arrested while depositing Rs 28 lakh in a bank, he said, adding there was no other alternative left for him than to give himself up.

With Baichung's surrender, the GNLA is left with the founding Commander-in-Chief Sohan D Shira and a few other cadres.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Assam Governor Banwarilal Purohit today recalled the supreme sacrifice of the martyrs of Assam Agitation on the eve of the Swahid Divas today.

"The 855 martyrs of Assam Agitation who fought it hard to free the state from illegal immigrants set an ideal example of love for the motherland," Purohit said in a statement here.

Assam Agitation was a popular mass movement during the early 80's against infiltration.

The Governor also remembered the sacrifice of the first martyr of Assam Agitation--Khargeswar Talukdar-- who laid down his life on December 10, 1979 in protest against the election without revising the electoral rolls which included large number of suspected illegal immigrants.

The Governor also urged the people of the state to work resolutely for the sake of the motherland and strive for a peaceful and a progressive nation.

Martyrs' Day or Swahid Divas is observed on December 10 every year as a mark of tribute to the sacrifices of the 855 martyrs of the agitation.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
PTA Bank rebrands to Trade and Development Bank as it targets increased financing

The Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank, commonly known as PTA Bank, has changed its official brand name to TDB ,Trade and Development Bank, as it seeks to increase financing.

The regional multilateral Development Finance Institution (DFI), which has been in operation for just over three decades, has announced that it will continue to increase financing for priority sectors such as infrastructure, manufacturing, industry and agribusiness across the 20 member states it operates in, over the next five years.

Our rebranding represents our rejuvenation and renewed commitment to innovate and play a more active role in promoting trade, economic development and regional integration, at a crucial time when the region is looking to more vigorously advance economic transformation and ratchet up the tapering growth said Admassu Tadesse, President and Chief Executive of the Trade and Development Bank.

Tadesse added that their loan assests had tripled over the last five years owing to increased boost from financing of trade, enterprise and infrastructure.

We will continue scaling up, with continued attention to sustainability and good corporate governance. He says.

The Bank has financed numerous agribusiness projects throughout eastern and southern Africa, notably Malawi and Sudan, and provided important asset finance facilities to the air-transport sector in the region, with Rwanda Air, Kenya Airways and Ethiopian Airlines benefitting.

We have increased our capacity to meet the rising demand for the Banks products and services, due to the strong funding partnerships we have built up with long term funders and investors, added Mary Kamari, Director of Corporate Affairs and Investor Relations.

The Bank has also funded renewable energy projects like the Turkana Wind Power in Kenya, Hydromax Minihydro in Uganda, and industrial projects such as cement and steel plants in DR Congo, Djibouti, Zambia, Rwanda, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe.

Other landmark projects they funded includes the Burundi Fibre Optic Backbone Project and Kilwa Power in Tanzania.

Established in 1985, TDB is a multilateral, treaty-based financial institution with immunities and privileges, and currently a balance sheet of about USD 4 billion.

With shareholders of 20 member countries from the tripartite region (COMESA, EAC and SADC), the African Development Bank, the National Pension Fund of Mauritius, Mauritian Eagle Insurance Company Ltd, Rwanda Social Security Board, Africa Re, ZEP RE, Seychelles Pension Fund, Banco Nacional Investimento (BNI), the National Social Security Fund of Uganda and SACOS Group as institutional shareholders, while the Peoples Republic of China and the Republic of Belarus (Paritetbank) are non-regional member countries.

www.ptabank.org
As analytics and automation transform industry, demand for data-savvy employees is far outstripping the available supply, according to a new report from the McKinsey Global Institute, the research arm of global consulting firm McKinsey.

The implications for K-12 schools?

Teaching more statistical reasoning and quantitative skills to younger students will help them be better prepared for the tech- and data-driven jobs of the future, said Michael Chui, a partner at MGI, in an interview.

The ability to understand what probability means is now a basic life skill, Chui said. It has tremendous implications for us as workers and as citizens.

The McKinsey Global Institute report, titled The Age of Analytics: Competing in a Data-Driven World , makes the following case about the nations data-science talent pipeline: In response to employer demand, higher-education institutions have begun offering more degree programs in data science and analytics (the researchers counted 100 such masters-level programs in business analytics alone.) And students have flocked to such opportunities, with the number of degrees granted in such fields growing by 7.5 percent between 2010 and 2015.

Still, demand for data scientists is growing much faster, by perhaps as much as 12 percent per year.

One indicator of the resulting gap in the labor market: average wages for data scientists rose by about 16 percent between 2012 and 2014, compared to a 2 percent increase in wages overall. In a survey conducted by McKinsey earlier this year, business leaders also said finding and retaining analytics talent was far more difficult than in other areas.

The net effect, the McKinsey Global Institute concludes, is that the U.S. economy could be short as many as 250,000 data scientists by 2024.

Providing people with the skills to get jobs is one goal of education, Chui said.

At least in the medium term, if students gain data-science credentials and have the skills, they will be in demand.

All the Math You Can Possibly Take

The legitimacy of the so-called skills gap in STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and math) has been much debated in recent years. But when it comes to the specific field of data science, there is little doubt that the recent big data trend has sparked demand for data scientists in all areas, from health care to retail, the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics wrote in 2015 .

Tech companies are certainly part of that equation. Just last week, for example, social-networking behemoth Facebook launched an initiative to help educate students, teachers, and the public about artificial intelligence, a kind of blend of computer science , data science,, and neuroscience in which algorithms are used to design intelligent machines that can recognize patterns and images, translate languages, and learn some kinds of logical reasoning. (A series of videos featuring Vann LeCun, the companys head of AI research, further explains the field.)

In a blog post , Facebook listed a number of tips for students to prepare for such fields. Chief among them: Take all the math you can possibly take, including probability and statistics. (And while youre at it, the company recommends, make sure you take some computer science, and try to squeeze in engineering, economics, philosophy of knowledge, and the latest brain research, too.)

Its not just tech companies that are seeking such skills. The fields of transportation (think: self-driving cars), retail, advertising, and health care are among those already undergoing radical transformations. Manufacturing and the public sector (including public education) have also started dipping in their toes.

Even those jobs that arent replaced or rendered obsolete will be dramatically changed, McKinsey argues. The reason: as data-driven automation yields new advances in machines ability to process natural language, recognize patterns, and even sense human emotion, everyone from administrative assistants to lawyers to industrial engineers will see core aspects of their daily work evolve or disappear.

The Importance of Statistics

As a result, the McKinsey Global Institute researchers argued, for every data scientist that employers hire, they will need even more translators, able to connect new information to real-world business problems.

These are the people who know enough about data science to be good consumers of data, but who also have enough domain knowledge to bring the resulting insights into organizations and effect change at scale, Chui said.

While Facebook makes the case for more math of all kinds, Chui is particularly keen on making sure students are taught the building blocks of data science at an ever-younger age (one instructional strategy: games involving dice for elementary students).

Three years ago, he outlined his argument in a piece published by Business Insider .

US students are shuttled along a familiar path in mathematics: first stop algebra, then geometry and trigonometry, and finally, the ultimate destination, calculus. This time-honored curriculum seems increasingly out of touch in a world that is flooded with noisy and voluminous data. The majority of students need to be immersed in the more practical discipline of statistics, which has greater relevance for the jobs being generated by a digital economy. The key to making sense of all the data now at our disposal is statistics. At leading companies, decisions once driven by HiPPOs (the Highest-Paid Persons Opinion) are increasingly made by conducting experiments that draw on the core skills of statisticians. Rather than relying on gut instinct, businesses now find ways to test hypotheses and use statistical methods to analyze the results, applying the classic scientific method to decision-making.

A quick look at the total number of students taking related Advanced Placement exams highlights the ways in which K-12 schools have been relatively slow to respond to such changes:

More than twice as many students still take the AP Calculus exam than the AP Statistics exam each year. In 2016, for example, 433,146 students took the former, compared to 206,563 who took the latter.



The number of students taking AP Statistics has increased by more than 34 percent over the past five years. While thats faster than the growth in the number of students taking AP Calculus (20 percent), it pales in comparison to the 122 percent increase in the number of students taking the AP Computer Science exam over the same period.

Chui would like to see those numbers change. Human beings are naturally pretty bad at understanding things like probability, he said. But in a rapidly changing labor market, in which machines will perform not only rote labor and calculations, but many more advanced tasks, humans are going to need such higher-order conceptual skills more than ever.

The two questions I ask people are, When was the last time you had to take an integral, and when was the last time you had to make a decision based on a large, incomplete, and inconsistent set of data? he said.

Usually, the answers are a long time ago and since breakfast.

See also:
Government today said it is looking into the difficulties being faced by foreign nationals and tourists following the scrapping of high value notes and will take remedial action based on the recommendations of a committee.

Minister of State for Finance Arjun Ram Meghwal said the Committee which was constituted to suggest remedial actions to mitigate the difficulties being faced by foreign tourists/ nationals post demonetisation of Rs 500/1000 notes has submitted its report.

"The committee has submitted the report and the recommendations are under the examination of the Government," he said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

Several diplomatic missions have communicated to the government difficulties they are facing with regard to cash crunch due to withdrawal limit enforced by the Reserve Bank.

Apart from Russia, other countries which raised the problems being encountered by them due to demonetisation included Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Sri Lanka.

Meghwal further said that the government has taken various steps for the benefit of foreign tourists, who can exchange foreign currency up to Rs 5,000 per week.

"Further to avoid any inconvenience to foreign tourists, authorised persons were advised to issue pre-paid instruments to them in terms of the instructions issued by RBI in exchange of foreign exchange tendered," he added.

In a reply to a separate question on private hospitals seeking relaxation of rules for taking payments from patients post demonetisation, Meghwal said people can file complaints against those hospitals which refuse to take cheque/online payment.

"To safeguard the interest of patients at various hospitals members of the public have been advised that they can make complaints to the concerned district magistrates/ district administration for action against those hospitals which are not accepting cheques/demand drafts and online payment transfer mechanisms," he said.

Government had demonetised old Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes on November 8. It however allowed their use at government hospitals and pharmacies on production of doctor's certificate till December 15.

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Gujarat government today denied West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's claim that the loans extended to Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC) by banks had turned out to be non-performing assets (NPAs).

"It is wrong to interpret that the loans given by banks to GSPC will turn NPAs," an official of the Gujarat government told reporters here today.

The official said that the company, owned by the Gujarat government, had completed its project, laid the pipeline and had been paying the instalments every month.

The company had been paying Rs 1,800 crore every year for the last three years, he said, and work on seven of the 25 wells had been completed.

While attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi on demonetisation yesterday, Banerjee cited a CAG report and said that the GSPC had taken loans to the extent Rs 19,000 crore from banks and was in the process of becoming NPAs.

GSPC is one of the oil and gas exploration, development and production companies of India. Government of Gujarat along with its public sector undertakings are holding more than 97 per cent of equity of the company as on March 31, 2015, according to the company's website.

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Half of Sri Lanka's public procurement contracts are tainted by bribery and corruption, President Maithripala Sirisena said today, nearly two years after he came to power promising to tackle government graft.

The president, who has ordered investigations into alleged widespread corruption under his predecessor, said he could not name names because those exposed would "go on strike from tomorrow".

"I regret to say that organised bribery and corruption is still taking place in government institutions," he told a public meeting of police and anti-corruption activists in Colombo.

"We say call tenders to prevent corruption, but in reality we know that the tender procedures are also corrupt. It happens in over 50 per cent of the time."



Sirisena said one government institution had threatened to go on strike to protest against the installation of a CCTV system designed to discourage money changing hands illegally.

"Such is the level of resistance and I am told that officers who refuse to cooperate with organised corruption are sidelined and not given any work by their superiors," he said.

Sirisena swept to power in January last year, ousting the country's strongman former leader Mahinda Rajapakse.

In recent months he has made several outspoken criticisms of the national unity government under Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, including accusing top anti-corruption officials of launching politically motivated prosecutions.

The two men are from rival parties, but made common cause to topple Rajapakse, whose entire family and closest associates face allegations of corruption as well as murder.

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More than 67.95 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of paddy have arrived in the mandis of Haryana so far compared to about 61.91 lakh MT in the corresponding period of last year, an official said today.

Out of the total arrival this year, government agencies have procured about 53.27 lakh MT and over 14.67 lakh MT has been procured by millers and dealers, a spokesman of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department said.

The department had procured over 22.62 lakh MT of paddy and HAFED has procured more than 18.35 lakh MT.

He said the Haryana Agro Industries Corporation has procured over 6.30 lakh MT of paddy, Haryana Warehousing Corporation more than 5.67 lakh MT and Food Corporation of India has procured 32,258 MT of paddy.

Regarding arrival of paddy in various districts of the state, he said that a maximum of about 12.41 lakh MT of paddy has arrived in the mandis of Karnal, followed by 11.71 lakh MT in Kurukshetra, about 8.18 lakh MT in Kaithal and 7.31 lakh MT in Ambala.

Similarly, 6.91 lakh MT of paddy has arrived in the mandis of Fatehabad and 5.30 lakh MT in Yamunanagar.

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Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's planned visit to India this month has been postponed after dates could not be finalised, official sources said today.

The postponement comes amid speculation in the media here that it was not a suitable time to discuss Teesta water sharing issue given the pre-occupation of the government post-demonetisation.

"The Prime Minister (Hasina) was scheduled to visit India later this month but it had to be postponed as dates could not be finalised after consultations with New Delhi," Prime Minister's press secretary Ihsanul Karim told PTI.

The reasons behind the postponement, however, were not disclosed.

Now, Hasina's visit is likely to take place in February but that is subject to confirmation, a senior official said on condition of anonymity.

She was expected to leave for New Delhi on December 18 to discuss a wide range of bilateral issues with her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi.

Though officials remained tight-lipped over the possible reasons behind the postponement, Bangladeshi media speculated that the death of Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa and the ongoing crisis over the demonetisation move could have been the reason behind it.

A Bangladesh Foreign Ministry source on condition of anonymity told Dhaka Tribune that Hasina had herself concluded that these issues may have preoccupied the Indian administration, and that consequently the Teesta Water Sharing Treaty, the cornerstone agenda point of her visit, may receive less attention from the South Block than it should.

The paper also quoted diplomatic sources as saying that the government was not willing to risk a sidelining of the Teesta issue. Therefore, Bangladesh had some reservations against the value of the trip, it said.

A Prime Minister's Office source and three Awami League policymakers, seeking anonymity, said the Teesta issue requires the consent of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who is currently protesting the NDA's government's demonetisation move.

Since Mamata has overtly expressed her dissatisfaction, the Bangladesh administration, keeping everything in mind, realised that it was not a suitable time to discuss the Teesta issue, the paper reported.

Last week, Hasina had told reporters here, "I am going to India, I am not going with any conditions... Discussion is on for Teesta river water sharing and we are hopeful".

In October, Modi had met Hasina on the sidelines of BRICS- BIMSTEC Outreach Summit in Goa. At the invitation of Hasina, Modi visited Bangladesh in June last year.

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Former Odisha Youth Congress chief Rajat Choudhury, arrested by CBI in connection with the multi-crore chit fund scam, was today granted conditional bail by the Orissa High Court.

Choudhury was arrested in July for his alleged role in the scam and illegal collection of public money by Arthatatwa (AT) Group of Companies.

Choudhury had allegedly sold a prime plot of AT group for over Rs 94 lakh. He had apparently the power of attorney of the land and sold it to one of his friends. The CBI is, however, unable to find the money trail obtained through the land deal.

Setting conditions of his bail, the high court directed Choudhury to deposit Rs 1.5 crore and furnish bail bonds of Rs one lakh each of two sureties in the lower court.

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The Bombay High Court today sought city police's response to a petition filed by a UK national seeking to quash the FIR lodged against him for cheating a businessman of Rs 50 lakh after promising him to exchange old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes to new ones post-demonetisation.

A division bench of Justices V M Kanade and Nutan Sardessai was hearing a petition filed by the accused, Yasin Salya, who sought quashing of the cheating complaint lodged against him by south Mumbai businessman Abubakar Maniyar, claiming that they had amicably resolved the issue.

According to the police, Maniyar had on November 24 approached suburban Santacruz police claiming he was cheated by Salya, who took Rs 50 lakh from him with the promise that he would exchange and give him new notes or deposit the money in his (Maniyar) account.

Pursuant to the complaint, the police went to J W Marriot Hotel where the accused was staying and arrested him. The police also recovered Rs 50 lakh from his room. Salya was later released on bail by a sessions court.

Salya, in his petition, claimed that both he and the complainant are friends and that there had been some misunderstanding regarding the money and hence the case was lodged.

Salya's advocate Mubin Solkar told the court that the dispute between the parties have been amicably resolved and they have arrived at consent terms also and hence sought for the FIR to be quashed.

Additional public prosecutor F R Shaikh told the court that the police wants to check the antecedents of the petitioner as he is a UK national.

The bench while directing the police to file its affidavit, said, "Check his antecedents...We want to know what the police has to say. Many more such cases may come before us now."



The court has posted the petition for hearing on December 22.

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Syrian government artillery bombarded the fast-shrinking rebel enclave in the heart of Aleppo today despite its ally Russia's announcement of a new humanitarian pause, a monitor said.

Air strikes halted yesterday evening following Moscow's announcement but shelling continued throughout the night and into the morning, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

An AFP correspondent in the rebel-held enclave reported hearing the boom of artillery through the night.

"There was heavy shelling of several besieged districts and fierce fighting, particularly in Bustan al-Qasr," one of the biggest districts still in rebel hands after the army's blistering three-week offensive, Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.

After talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry in the German city of Hamburg yesterday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced a pause in the army's assault to allow for the evacuation of some of the tens of thousands of civilians trapped in the now tiny rebel enclave.

The army has recaptured 85 per cent of the eastern sector of the city which the rebels had held since summer 2012.

"I can tell you that today combat operations by the Syrian army have been halted in eastern Aleppo because there is a large operation under way to evacuate civilians," Lavrov said. "There is going to be to a column of 8,000 evacuees."



In Washington, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Lavrov's announcement was "an indication that something positive could happen".

The army's bombardment of rebel-held districts killed at least 18 civilians yesterday, according to the Observatory, a Britain-based monitoring group which has a wide network of sources on the ground.

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American hero-astronaut John Glenn will lie in state in Ohio's capitol building preceding a celebration of his life of military and government service and two history-making voyages into space.

The public viewing at the Ohio Statehouse and a memorial service at Ohio State University's Mershon Auditorium is planned for next week; the dates and times were being worked out yesterday, said Hank Wilson of the John Glenn School of Public Affairs. Statehouse officials meet Monday to authorize the public viewing.

Glenn, who died Thursday at age 95, was the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962 and the oldest man in space at age 77 in 1998.

A US Marine and combat pilot, he also served as a US senator, representing Ohio, for more than two decades.

President Barack Obama yesterday ordered flags at federal buildings and on ships around the world flown at half-staff until sunset on the day of Glenn's internment.

Glenn is to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, DC



Tributes from the nation's leaders and others continued yesterday.

"Throughout his life, Senator John Glenn embodied the right stuff," Defense Secretary Ash Carter said in a statement. "Our military in particular benefited from his courage and dedication ... But just as important as what John Glenn accomplished is how he accomplished it: with a combination of fierce determination and profound humility, and always with integrity."



Glenn was a fighter pilot in World War II and Korea and served on the Senate Armed Services Committee, among other Washington service.

In his eastern Ohio hometown of New Concord, the John and Annie Glenn Museum, usually available this time of year only for special tours and events, opened Friday with free admission.

Char Lyn Grujoksi, of Connersville, Indiana, stopped in after spotting a roadside sign for the museum while driving home from Pittsburgh and listening to a radio report on Glenn. The museum is in the astronaut's converted boyhood home. Grujoski and her daughter left impressed. "He was a true American hero, someone who loved his country and served it," she said.

Glenn was known for his humility, said Hal Burlingame, who grew up in New Concord and was friends with Glenn for half a century.

"John Glenn that you see is the real John Glenn," Burlingame said. "He would be the same John Glenn if he happened to be sitting here today talking with us. He never took himself too seriously."



Glenn was born July 18, 1921, in Cambridge, Ohio, and grew up in nearby New Concord. He wed his childhood sweetheart, Anna Margaret Castor, in 1943. The couple spent their later years between Washington and Columbus.

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A high-level meeting of West Bengal Chief Secretary, Home Secretary, DG and senior officials of the Coastal Guards was held today at the secretariat here to review the security arrangement at the state's international coastal borders.

A secretariat source said the meeting between Chief Secretary Basudeb Banerjee, Home Secretary Malay Kumar De, DG Surajit Purakyastha and the officials of Coast Guards was held to increase vigil at the international coastal borders, mostly used to smuggle cows, FICN, and liquor into the country besides, infiltration of terrorists.

Incidentally, the PMO had sought an NIA report on the security arrangement at the three districts of the state having coastal international borders owing to reports of increasing cow smuggling, the source said.

It was learnt that the review meeting was held after the NIA reported a threat of infiltration of terrorists from the coastal borders of West Bengal.

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Over the last decade more and more school leaders, teachers and researchers around the US (and other parts of the world) have made the pilgrimage to Finland to see what this top ranked PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) country does with students that make them so great.

Every year, the same conversation seems to be recycled over and over again in blogs and articles. Teachers, researchers and leaders said,



We learned so much that we can do differently!

We cant do any of it until our government changes!

We cant do any of it until the mindset about schooling changes!

We shouldnt be compared to such a small country!

Theyre smaller than we are which is why theyre so great!

Theyre not as diverse as we are!

Finland consistently ranks high in the PISA results for many reasons. (What is PISA? Click here to read a guest blog written by Andreas Schleicher who is the Director of PISA). They dont push curriculum that isnt age appropriate, their teachers are highly qualified and the field of education is respected as one of the top professions. I wish we could be more like Finland in that respect.

Additionally, Finland has a much more flexible education system than the US. The U.S. has constant carrot and stick programs as well as a great deal of accountability and mandates. Teachers, leaders and students in Finland feel as though they have a voice in their schooling. I wish we could be more like Finland in that respect as well.

Closer to Home?

However, instead of making the trek over to Finland there is somewhere much closer and within the U.S. we can visit. Educators, researchers and leaders could make a pilgrimage to the great state of Massachusetts, because they ranked as highly as Finland in the current PISA results. More than 70 countries take part in PISA, and Massachusetts ranks among the top.

How do we know that?

Massachusetts footed the $630,000 bill to take part in the standardized test so they could get individual results. Why? Because the US, as a whole, has not fared well in the assessment. The $630,000 covers the ability to test 1,600 students in 49 schools (Vaznis).

This is not the first time Massachusetts has fared well in the PISA results. James Marshall Crotty wrote about the results of the state for Forbes back in 2014 . Its important to note, that if you read the Forbes article you will see that some countries get to choose what regions of their country can take part in PISA. The US does not do that.

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (MDOE) website provides the following results from the recent PISA.

Reading:



Massachusetts students scored an average of 527 in reading. The U.S. average was 497, while the OECD average was 493. Students in North Carolina scored on average 500.

No national education systems scored statistically higher than Massachusetts, although eight had similar scores to Massachusetts: Singapore, Hong Kong (China), Canada, Finland, Ireland, Estonia, the Republic of Korea and Japan.

Fourteen percent of Massachusetts students were top performers in reading.

Female students in Massachusetts (average scores of 536) outperformed male students (average score of 518), but the gender gap has narrowed since 2012 from 32 points to 18 points.

Not only did Massachusetts fare well in reading but in science and math as well. The MDOE highlighted those scores,

Science:



Massachusetts students scored an average of 529 in science. The U.S. average was 496, while the OECD average was 493.

The only education system that statistically outperformed Massachusetts in 2015 was Singapore (average score of 556).

Mathematics:



Massachusetts students scored an average of 500 in mathematics. The U.S. average was 470, while the OECD average was 490. Students in North Carolina scored on average 471.

The 11 education systems that statistically outperformed Massachusetts on math in 2015 were Singapore, Hong Kong (China), Macau (China), Chinese Taipei, Japan, Beijing- Shanghai-Jiangsu-Guangdong (B-S-J-G) (China), the Republic of Korea, Switzerland, Estonia, Canada and the Netherlands.

Ten percent of Massachusetts students were top performers in mathematics, compared to 35 percent of students from Singapore, the top achieving system.

What accounts for the high scores?

There are probably many theories of why Massachusetts has done well in the last 2 international assessments. In this Atlantic article from May , Alia Wong writes,

The Massachusetts experiment with transforming public education traces back to 1993, when state leaders decided to set high standards, establish a stringent accountability system aimed at ensuring that students from all backgrounds were making progress, and open its doors to charter schools. And despite some hiccups, it was able to do so largely without all the partisan wrangling and interagency tensions that have notoriously confounded such efforts on a national scale.

Wong goes on to write,

The goal wasn't just to boost performance in some pockets, but to "get everybody there," Reville said. "Not just in our rhetoric, but in our intent, we said, 'All means all.'" By 2000, the state also had doubled its funding of public education, when compared with 1993.

However, not everyone seems to celebrate the PISA results from Massachusetts. James Vaznis from the Boston Globe writes that,

Marc Tucker, president of the National Center on Education and the Economy, a research and consulting group in Washington, D.C., chalked up Massachusetts' strong testing performance in part to its highly educated population and strong economy.

Vaznis went on to write,

The education of parents is the single most important predictor of student performance," Tucker said. "This combination of wealth and parental levels of education should lead us to expect that Massachusetts would be a world leader in student performance."

Commissioner Mitchell Chester clearly disagrees with Tucker. On the MDOE website, Chester is quoted as saying, Of particular note is the fact that only 14 percent of the variation in our students science scores is attributable to family economic background. Eighty-six percent is determined by instruction and district practices.

In the End

Massachusetts is not without its issues. Although Tucker cited family involvement and wealth as the most important factors, which Commissioner Chester sort of disputes in his quotation from the MDOE website, many of the articles focusing on the strength of the Massachusetts education system also state that there is an achievement gap they have where their impoverished students are concerned.

And yes, there will be critics who do not like PISA and what it represents. I completely understand the issue of over-testing students, and the pressures of standardized testing. However, in the long run, we as a nation might want to pay attention to Massachusetts because their education system is consistently strong, and they treat education and their teachers with respect. Although Finland is a great country to visit and learn from, it seems as though we really dont have to go that far to see educational greatness because we have it within our own country too.

Peter DeWitt, Ed.D. is the author of several books including the best selling Collaborative Leadership: 6 Influences That Matter Most (September, 2016. Corwin Press/Learning Forward). Connect with Peter on Twitter .
Hundreds of men may have gone missing after fleeing into government-controlled parts of Aleppo, the UN warned today, saying armed groups were reportedly blocking civilians from leaving the shrinking areas under their control.

As Syrian government artillery pummelled the rebel territory in Aleppo, the UN rights office said both sides appeared to be operating in "flagrant violation of international humanitarian law", and that civilians were paying the price.

"While it's very difficult to establish the facts in such a fluid and dangerous situation, we have received very worrying allegations that hundreds of men have gone missing after crossing into government-controlled areas," spokesman Rupert Colville told reporters in Geneva.

He said the men were between the ages of 30 and 50, and their family members said they had lost contact with them after they fled opposition-controlled areas of Aleppo around a week or 10 days ago.

"Given the terrible record of arbitrary detention, torture and enforced disappearances by the Syrian government, we are of course deeply concerned about the fate of these individuals," Colville said.

His comments came as Syrian government artillery bombarded the fast-shrinking rebel enclave in the heart of Aleppo today.

The army has recaptured 85 percent of the eastern sector of the city which the rebels had held since summer 2012.

More than 400 civilians, including 45 children, have been killed in eastern Aleppo since the latest offensive began on November 15, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, while rebel fire into the government-controlled west is reported to have killed more than 100 people, including 35 children.

The assault has also prompted a mass exodus from east Aleppo where at least 80,000 people have fled their homes, according to the monitor.

Colville warned that "there have been allegations of reprisals against civilians who are perceived to have supported armed opposition groups" as they fled into government-held areas.

He said some 150 activists remained stranded inside opposition-controlled Aleppo due to fears of being detained by government forces if they attempt to leave.

It is unclear how many civilians remain in rebel territory, but there were an estimated 250,000 in east Aleppo before the latest offensive.

Colville said today that more than 100,000 people were believed to remain inside the areas controlled by the opposition in east Aleppo, but warned the situation was very fluid and the numbers were unclear.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Four bodies were today pulled out from the debris of an under-construction building which collapsed here last night, while a woman and her son were rescued.

The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) said tonight that four bodies have been retrieved so far.

Citing information given by the rescued woman, GHMC Commissioner B Janardhan Reddy told PTI that eight more persons were suspected to be trapped under the debris.

The rescue operation could well continue into night, he said.

The seven-storey building at Nanakramguda in the Cyberabad zone came crashing down last night.

Earlier today, Cyberabad police commissioner Sandeep Shandilya had told PTI that Rekha, around 35-year-old, and her son (4), who hailed from Chhattisgarh, were pulled out alive from the crash site.

The woman and her son were admitted to a hospital for treatment, he said.

All the victims of the tragedy are workers who lived in the basement of the building. Except one family, all others belonged to Vizianagaram district of Andhra Pradesh.

The state government has arranged for sending the bodies and family members of the deceased to their native places in Andhra Pradesh through the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC), the GHMC said.

Telangana Municipal Administration Minister K T Rama Rao visited the spot and announced ex-gratia of Rs 10 lakh to the next of kin of those killed.

The state government would take tough action against the building owner for alleged violation of construction rules as well as the civic officials "who looked the other way", he said.

A family member of the building's owner had been detained and two GHMC officials had been suspended, the Minister said.

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A new provision prioritising defence ties with India in a US federal legislation, which deals with the budget and expenditures of the Department of Defence, would boost defence trade and strategic ties with India, American lawmakers and industry representatives said.

The India provision in the National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA) 2017 directs US Defence Department and Department of State to prioritise defence cooperation with India.

"The robust language in this year's NDAA recognises India's importance and will allow us to maintain this momentum and reach the full potential of this increasingly dynamic relationship in support of global peace and prosperity," said Senator Mark Warner, co-Chair of the Senate India Caucus.

Passed by both the House of Representatives and the Senate, NDAA 2017 now heads to the White House for President Barack Obama for his approval.

Section 1292 of NDAA - Enhancing Defence and Security Cooperation with India - directs the US Defence Department and Department of State to prioritise defence cooperation with India through a series of policies and organisational actions.

Marc Allen, president of Boeing International said the company is grateful for the government's broad-based support of the NDAA 2017. "Bilateral cooperation to enhance regional security and the role of US industry in that effort serves the interests of both countries," he said in a statement.

Congressman George Holding, co-Chair of the House India Caucus, said the language in the NDAA will help promote greater military-to-military cooperation and increase opportunities for defence trade between the two nations.

"I look forward to working in the coming year on additional measures with my colleagues to further strengthen our strategic partnership with India," Holding said.

Observing that the strategic and commercial imperatives for expanding US defence cooperation with India are profound, Mukesh Aghi, president of US-India Business Council, said through this legislation Congress sends clear directions about the way forward, which link US bureaucratic and regulatory changes to national security and commercial objectives.

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India and the US have reached a deal for the first bilateral advance pricing agreement, a move that will enable American firms to ascertain tax liabilities beforehand, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said today.

The two nations have resolved over 100 cases of tax disputes involving a tax of about Rs 5,000 crore through Mutual Agreement Procedure (MAP), he said.

Advance pricing provides certainty to taxpayers in respect of cross-border sales among related entities by specifying the methods of transfer pricing and determining the arm's length price of international transactions in advance for usually a maximum of five years ahead.

MAP, under the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA), is an alternative dispute settlement mechanism available to authorities and foreign investors.

"India and the USA have reached an understanding at a recently concluded bilateral meeting between the competent authorities of the two countries to conclude the first bilateral APA between the two countries," he said in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha here.

The bilateral advanced pricing agreement (APA) to be entered into involves a multinational company of the US and its Indian subsidiary, he said without giving details.

"The agreement shall be for a period of five years from financial year 2013-14 to 2017-18 and the two competent authorities have decided the most appropriate transfer pricing methodology to price the international transactions between the two companies and have also decided the Arm's Length Price (ALP) of the transactions," he said.

Bilateral APAs between India and the US are expected to reduce the transfer pricing disputes that arise in respect of international transactions between related companies located in the two countries.

Also, they would lend certainty to international transactions between related companies of the two countries.

This, Jaitley said, would create a conducive environment for US-based multinational companies and attract foreign investment.

"Moreover, bilateral APAs would reduce the time and money spent on protracted litigation," he said.

Finance Minister said India and the US have been resolving tax disputes under the Mutual Agreement Procedure (MAP) provision contained in the Double Taxation Avoidance Convention (DTAC) between the two countries.

In the last two years, more than 100 cases of tax disputes have been resolved under the MAP provision.

In a recent bilateral meeting between the two countries, another 108 cases of tax disputes have been agreed to be resolved, he said.

"While the total amount of income locked up in dispute prior to the recent meeting between the two countries was approximately Rs 12,000 crore, the recent agreement to resolve more than 100 disputes would reduce this amount by approximately Rs 5,000 crore," he added.

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In a significant development, India and influential East Asian nation Vietnam today signed a civil nuclear cooperation agreement, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserting that it will further strengthen the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries.

The two countries also signed three other agreements -- to enhance aviation links, to jointly work in the area of energy efficiency and promotion of parliamentary cooperation.

The four pacts, aimed at boosting the relations, were signed here in presence of Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and visiting President of Vietnam's National Assembly Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan after their talks on enhancing the ties.

Ngan, who is leading a Vietnamese Parliamentary delegation, also met the Prime Minister who said the Agreement on Cooperation in Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy "will further strengthen the comprehensive strategic partnership between India and Vietnam."



Modi recalled his earlier meeting with Ngan in Hanoi during his visit to Vietnam in September.

He said that Ngan, as the first woman to head the National Assembly of Vietnam, is a source of inspiration to women across the world.

Modi welcomed increased Parliamentary interactions between India and Vietnam, and called for instituting an exchange programme for young parliamentarians of the two countries.

Cooperation Agreement between the Lok Sabha of the Republic of India and the National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam



The civil nuclear agreement with Vietnam, an influential East Asian nation, comes close on the heels of India signing a similar pact with Japan.

Vietnam is the 14th country with which India signed the



civil nuclear deal.

From the Indian side, the MoU on civil nuclear cooperation was signed by Sekhar Basu, Secretary of Department of Atomic Energy, while Pham Cong Tac, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology, signed it from the Vietnamese side.

The two countries had earlier in 1986 signed a pact in the civil nuclear field which was limited to training. However, the new agreement is broadbased and encompasses research on nuclear reactors, sources said.

The cooperation in research on nuclear reactors will get activated once India gets membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, they added.

An MoU on 'Promotion of traffic between Vietnam and India and sharing of best practices in airline operation, ground handling procedure and management' was also signed between Air India and Vietjet Aviation Joint Stock Company.

Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), a PSU under the Power Ministry, and Vietnam Electricity (EVN) signed an MoU on 'Developing a Partnership to Jointly Work in the Area of Energy Efficiency'.

It was signed by Satish C Mehta, Senior Advisor in EESL, and Duong Quang Thanh, Chairman of Vietnam Electricity.

Mahajan said the Agreement on Cooperation in Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy is a "remarkable development" and a "testimony to two countries' willingness to give greater substance to their recently upgraded Comprehensive Strategic Partnership."



The Speaker pitched for enhanced engagement between the two countries and specified sectors like defence, security, energy, exploration, non conventional energy as some of the key areas of mutual benefit.

"India and Vietnam can mutually benefit from each other's strength," she said.

Referring to South China Sea over which China is laying an absolute claim and is in confrontation with Vietnam and some other East Asian countries, Mahajan said India has persistently maintained that sea lanes of communication passing through that maritime area are critical for peace, stability, prosperity and development.

She recalled India's statement following the recent award of Arbitral Tribunal on South China Sea issue and reiterated its known position for resolving disputes through peaceful means without threat or use of force and by exercising self- restraint in the conduct of activities that could complicate or escalate disputes affecting peace and stability.

"As a State Party to the UNCLOS (UN Convention on the Law of the Sea), India has called on all parties to show utmost respect for the UNCLOS, which establishes the international legal order of the seas and oceans," Mahajan said.

(Reopen DEL80)



"Vietnam is playing an increasingly important role in global economic affairs," the Speaker said, according to a press release issued by the Lok Sabha Secretariat.

With India's 'Look East' policy evolving into an 'Act East' policy, this region has assumed even greater importance in India's strategic thinking and economic engagement, she said.

India would like to work with the country to further strengthen the trend of shared values of democracy, pluralism, openness and inclusiveness to become the mainstay of international relations, Mahajan added.

She hailed the "exceptional economic rise of Vietnam by grit and hard work coupled by its warm and friendly people" and said it is indeed inspiring and heart-warming.

Noting that India and Vietnam have a healthy tradition of parliamentary exchanges and cooperation, she said this visit has added to the ever-growing friendship and goodwill between our two countries and their peoples.

"The Parliament of India looks forward to sustaining this momentum," she told the Vietnamese delegation which witnessed proceedings of the Rajya Sabha earlier in the day.

Mahajan recalled Modi's visit to Vietnam in September and noted that the two Prime Ministers have decided to elevate bilateral 'Strategic Partnership' initiated in 2007 to a 'Comprehensive Strategic Partnership'.

Ngan thanked the Speaker for the warm traditional hospitality extended to her delegation and hoped that the ongoing visit will further consolidate and strengthen bilateral relations between the two countries.
No proceedings in the 2008 Mumbai terror attack case have been held during the last four consecutive hearings as India is yet to respond to Pakistan's request to send 24 witnesses to record their statements, a Pakistani court official claimed today.

"No proceedings have been held during the last four consecutive hearings in the Mumbai case primarily because of no response from India regarding sending witnesses here to record their statements," the official told PTI.

He said the proceedings of the Mumbai attack case are not making progress as "no further official business" is left in the case.

"The Anti-Terrorism Court, Islamabad has recorded statements of all witnesses here and other relevant record has been presented before it. Besides, cross examination of the witnesses here has also been completed.

"What the court is waiting before its final judgement is recording and cross examination of 24 Indian witnesses to the case," the official said.

Earlier, the ATC was informed that India had not yet responded to Pakistan's request to send witnesses of the Mumbai attack case here to record their statements.

"We are still awaiting India's response on the matter. The foreign ministry had written to India several months ago and even sent reminders but the Indian government is not responding to us in this regard," a prosecution official had told the trial court.

According to the prosecution, Pakistani authorities had also taken up the matter of sending the 24 Indian witnesses to Pakistan with the Indian government so that the trial in the case could be completed at the earliest.

India has been urging Pakistan to complete the trial at the earliest. It has said that enough evidence has been shared with Pakistan to prosecute the accused.

Next hearing of the case is scheduled for December 14.

LeT commander and Mumbai attack mastermind Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, and six others - Abdul Wajid, Mazhar Iqbal, Hamad Amin Sadiq, Shahid Jameel Riaz, Jamil Ahmed and Younis Anjum - are facing charges of abetment to murder, attempted murder, and planning and executing the attack.

Lakhvi was freed 18 months ago after he secured bail in the case. He has been living at an undisclosed location since then while the other six suspects are lodged in Adiala Jail, Rawalpindi. The case has been going on for over six years.

166 people were killed in the November 26, 2008 attack carried out by 10 LeT men on India's financial hub.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Israeli army acknowledged today that a "declassified map" it released earlier this week showing alleged armed deployment by Hezbollah across southern Lebanon was merely an illustration.

The army said that the map, which Israeli media said was circulated to foreign diplomats as evidence of its Lebanese foe's hostile intentions, was not based on any new intelligence.

The admission came after the data it contained was picked apart by online activist Judge Dan.

Asked by AFP if the map was an illustration or based on specific information, the army said it was "an illustration of Hezbollah's intentional abuse of the civilians of Lebanon."



The army released the map on Tuesday with symbols showing alleged Hezbollah rocket launchers, infantry positions and tunnels in almost every village in south Lebanon.

An accompanying Tweet accused the Shiite militant group of "hiding behind Lebanon's civilians, adding: "This is a war crime."



A UN ceasefire resolution that ended a devastating 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah required the Lebanese army to deploy to south Lebanon, including areas which had previously been the militant group's exclusive preserve.

Hezbollah agreed that its fighters south of the River Litani would not display weapons, but the area remains a stronghold of the group.

A decade after the conflict, Israel remains deeply sensitive to Hezbollah's arsenal and has vowed to take military action if necessary to prevent deliveries of heavy weaponry.

It has carried out sporadic air strikes against Hezbollah targets inside Syria where the group has deployed thousands of fighters in support of President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

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Ivory Coast's government today announced a programme to provide birth certificates for three million children left undocumented by years of war, poverty and migration.

"The 'One Child, One Birth Certificate' project focusses on children -- from newborns to age 17 -- from the poorest and most disadvantaged communities," said Madeleine Yao of the NSIA Foundation which is financing the effort.

Yao said the project was a crucial tool for Ivorian authorities to enforce a law passed last year that requires children to attend school up to the age of 16.

Since the west African nation emerged from a decade of internal conflict in 2011, it has struggled to improve legal protections for children left stateless or forced into full-time work.

During the conflict, which divided the country and forced thousands out of their homes, government offices were pillaged and destroyed. As a result, internally displaced people often did not have access to registry services.

A Unicef study two years ago found 2.8 million minors in the country had no legal record of their birth or citizenship status.

In 2011, Ivory Coast launched an effort to reduce the number of child workers labouring in the cocoa sector, the country's biggest industry, and get them into schools.

Since then, 17,829 classrooms have been built or restored, according to the National Monitoring Committee charged with overseeing the government's anti-child labour efforts.

But as of early 2016, between 300,000 and one million children were still estimated to work on cocoa plantations and elsewhere in the industry, according to a report by the International Cocoa Initiative.

The July 2105 law making schooling mandatory now carries the threat of prison sentences for parents who keep their children aged six to 16 out of school.

The NSIA Foundation, which belongs to the private NSIA banking group and promotes schooling and training for children in West Africa, is providing 275,000 euros (dollars) for the registration effort.

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A day after Arun Jaitley rejected its charges of giving contract for printing of new Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 notes to a blacklisted company, AAP today said the finance minister should check his facts and asserted machinery was supplied by the same entity.

AAP's Delhi unit convenor Dilip Pandey said the company is associated with Mysore Printing Press.

"The same company was blacklisted as it was aiding terror groups in printing counterfeit notes. What was the need to engage such a company in printing Indian currency," Pandey asked.

Yesterday, Jaitley had said his ministry has no dealing with the British company named in the "false" social media campaign.

"Another false campaign on the social media by the AAP. Ministry of Finance has no dealings with the British Company named in this campaign," Jaitley said in a tweet.

Referring to media reports, AAP leader Ashish Khetan said that in September, public sector banks saw a massive inflow of funds. He alleged that amounts worth Rs 3 lakh crore was converted from black to white.

"The Finance Minister had given an explanation that arrears of the Seventh Pay Commission were deposited in these public sector banks, which saw a massive surge in deposits in saving accounts.

"However, the deposits were made in the form of fixed deposits. These fixed deposits were prematurely withdrawn. So the entire amount got converted from black to white. This proves that the a few were aware of government's move," he said.

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World's most famous fictional spy James Bond with all his bravado, wit and oodles of charm would still not make the cut as a real world special agent, according to the new chief of Britain's secret service MI6.

Chief of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service Alex Younger said that while Ian Fleming's famous character had helped popularise Britain's secret service brand, it bore no resemblance to reality.

Younger, the 16th chief since MI6 was founded in 1909, is known as "C", rather than "M" as in the Bond films.

"I am conflicted about Bond. He has created a powerful brand for MI6: as C, the real-life version of M, there are few people who will not come to lunch if I invite them. Many of our counterparts envy the sheer global recognition of our acronym," Younger said.

"And to be fair, there are a few aspects of the genre that do resonate in real life: fierce dedication to the defence of Britain, for example. The real life 'Q' would want me to say that we too enjoy - and, indeed, need - a deep grasp of gadgetry. But that's pretty much where the similarity ends. And, were Bond to apply to join MI6 now, he would have to change his ways," he said in a speech at MI6 headquarters on the banks of the river Thames in London.

'C' is the only member of MI6 who can be publicly identified.

The 53-year-old former army officer who joined MI6 in 1991also revealed that UK intelligence and security services had disrupted 12 terrorist plots since June 2013.

"The risks at stake are profound and represent a fundamental threat to our sovereignty. They should be a concern to all those who share democratic values," he said in reference to the terror threat faced by Britain.

"In defining as a terrorist anyone who opposes a brutal regime they alienate precisely that group that has to be onside if the extremists are to be defeated. We cannot be safe from the threats that emanate from that land unless the civil war is brought to an end," he added.

The Islamic State (ISIS) group had exploited the situation in Syria to fortify its stronghold in the region and wage a war on the West, he warned.

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The Alabama department of education has admitted that its high school graduation rate is inflated, and that its taking steps to crack down on how credits and diplomas are awarded.

Thursdays announcement, reported by the news site AL.com , came in the wake of an audit by the U.S. Department of Educations Office of the Inspector General. Alabamas top education brass issued a statement of admission and regret .

The state department of education has determined, after completing an initial audit, that the graduation rate was misstated to the people of Alabamapolicymakers, educators, parents, students, all citizensand to the [U.S. Department of Education], the statement said.

The [state department of education] did not monitor local systems with the necessary scrutiny. This was an internal, administrative oversight and the [department] is now in the process of addressing all related areas, it said.

State Superintendent Michael Sentance said: We are accountable to all people of this state and deeply regret the misstating of our graduation rate. We are now undergoing a meticulous review to ensure that all monitoring and data collection is performed with fidelity.

The state department identified two factors that inflated its graduation rate. Lax oversight in some districts resulted in credits being awarded to students who hadnt completed the work. Alabama also included the Alabama Occupational Diploma, which is awarded to students with special needs, in its rate even though that diplomas requirements fall short of state requirements.

Last fall, the U.S. Department of Education announced that the national graduation rate had reached an all-time high of 83.2 percent , Those figures showed Alabama with the third highest graduation rate in the country .

The states numbers caught the eye of the U.S. Department of Educations Office of the Inspector General, which began an investigation into its calculations (and Californias, too). The inspector generals office wouldnt say what raised questions about Alabamas figures, but local media reports linked the audit to the big increase in its graduation rate: a gain of 17 percentage points since 2011.

Californias graduation has also risen significantly in recent years, according to a story about the audit in the San Diego Union-Tribune.

The Alabama state superintendent who was in office when the graduation rates under investigation were reported, Tommy Bice, defended the calculations, according to AL.com.

Why wouldnt we count as graduates a group of students who have completed the coursework outlined in their IEP (Individualized Education Program) within four years? I stand by that decision, Bice, who retired in March, told the news site.
"Beverly Hills Cop" star Judge Reinhold was arrested at Dallas Love Field airport for disorderly conduct.

A Dallas Police Department spokesperson said the "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" star was detained for disorderly conduct after "causing a disturbance," reported Variety.

The actor was reportedly being uncooperative when Transportation Security Administration officials were patting him down, and refused to submit to a screening.

Reinhold, 59, took his shirt off and used foul language when he was chosen for a second Transportation Security Administration screening. The actor was told the pat-down could be conducted in a private room, but he turned down the offer.

He then allegedly acted hostilely toward officers when they arrived at the scene.

"The officers responded and subsequently took the individual into custody after he refused to comply," the Dallas Police Dept said in a statement.

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Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah today demanded that the Centre should announce a bonus of Rs 700 per quintal over and above the support price of the millets to promote their cultivation.

The central government has already declared the minimum support price (MSP) of ragi at Rs 1,725/quintal, jowar hybrid at Rs 1,625/quintal and Jowar Maldani at Rs 1,650/quintal for the 2016-17 crop year (July-June).

Raising the issue in a meeting with Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh here, Siddaramaih said: "We strongly urge an enhancement of MSP of ragi and jowar for this season. Since MSP is already announced, at this stage declaration of bonus can be considered as an option."



"Hence, I request the Government of India to announce bonus of Rs 700 for ragi and jowar over and above MSP to help small and marginal farmers at one hand and benefit the poor consumers on the other," he said.

In a representation made to the Agriculture Ministry, the Karnataka Chief Minister said that the state wants to promote production of these two nutri-cereals, which are "climate smart crops" can be grown in rainfed and drought-prone areas.

Since these two millets are far superior from nutrition point of view when compared with rice and wheat, the state government has started supplying ragi and jowar through the public distribution system, he said.

There is a need to promote cultivation of these millets by giving good support price, Siddaramaiah said because at present total acreage and production of ragi and jowar in the state are showing a decline.

Ragi acreage has come down to 7.08 lakh hectare in 2014-15 from 9.39 lakh hectare in 2015-06, while jowar area has come down to 10.46 lakh hectare from 15.20 lakh hectare in the said period, he said.

"In addition to low yields, prices of millet at the farm gate level are also very low and farmers lose money by cultivating millets. In view of the above, we make a strong plea to enhance the MSP declared for these two nutri-cereals," he said in the representation.

Karnataka contributes 62 per cent to the country's total ragi production.

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Congress today said Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had no role in getting separate statehood for the region, where only a few families are prospering.

"Neither K Chandrashekar Rao nor his party Telangana Rashtra Samithi had any role in bringing separate statehood for Telangana," Congress General Secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad told reporters here.

"It was the Congress that fulfilled the long-pending wish of people of Telangana," Azad said.

Speaking on the sidelines of an event to celebrate AICC president Sonia Gandhi's birthday organised by its cadres from Telangana, Azad said, "Telangana is not witnessing any development, but just a section of families is developing."



Commenting on chances of TRS' merging with a national party, Azad said, "It is an old development. Whatever it is, i'm sure in the next parliament or assembly election people of Telangana will realise meagre role of TRS and vote for the Congress."



Rapolu Ananda Bhaskar, Rajya Sabha MP from Telangana, the organiser of the celebrations, said, "People of Telangana have in mind that it is because of the efforts of Congress President Sonia Gandhi that Telangana was able to become a separate state. As a mark of gratitude around 100 Congress cadres from Telangana have marched to the capital for celebrating Gandhi's birthday.

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US-based Kitchen and bath fittings major Kohler is expecting India to figure alongside the US and China in its top three markets globally, for which it is expanding production capacity and distribution network.

The company, which has so far invested around USD 200 million in India by setting up plant at Jhagadia, Gujarat, plans to make it the manufacturing and distribution hub for Asia Pacific market.

Besides, the company would enhance its sales network in the domestic markets by having presence in 200 towns in next three years and become a 1,000 store company in next five years.

"We consider India as one of three core markets after US and China. It continues to be one of our most strategic market and we think that given our growth in the last 10 years and strong GDP forecast for the economy, over time it will be one of three biggest markets in the world," Kohler Co President & CEO David Kohler told PTI.

Presently, India figures among its top 10 markets globally, he added.

On expansion plans, Kohler said: "We plan to make Jhagadia plant our manufacturing and distribution hub for Asia Pacific market and expect to maintain double digit growth every year.

"Most of the production of Jhagadia plant will be for the domestic market and a small part will be exported to the US and Europe."



Presently, over 80 per cent of the faucets and ceramics which Kohler sells in India are made in Gujarat and it imports only low volume items.

On network expansion, Kohler President, India, South Asia and EMEA Salil Sadanandan said that the company would expand in major tier II & III cities besides the metro markets through franchise model.

"By the end of this year, we would be in 125 towns and plan is that over the next three years, we would reach somewhere between 180 to 200 towns where the majority of market for brands like our exists," he said.

Kohler is also partnering with various online marketplaces to increase presence in e-commerce space. "We see online sales to become an important channel for us. We are parterning with people who knows how to sell," Sadanandan said.

Presently, Kohler India's sale is evenly split between institutional and retail channels.

Kohler is also coming out with its first experience center in Delhi. "We would not sell our product from here. It would be meant for inspiring the designer fraternity, developers and high-end customers. We would have our full range on display," he said.

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Capital markets regulator Sebi has ordered Factorial Master Fund, a Hong-Kong based firm founded by an Indian origin banker, to disgorge Rs 20 crore worth of illegal gains made by it through insider trading in the scrip of L&T Finance Holdings.

A Sebi probe found that Factorial, incorporated in Cayman Islands, had traded in the scrip of L&T Finance Holdings on the basis of its access to unpublished price sensitive information (UPSI) related to Offer for Sale (OFS) by Larsen & Toubro in its unit.

On March 13, 2014, Factorial indulged in unusual and aggressive trading in the L&T Finance scrip a day ahead of the OFS announcement.

After taking such a huge short position in the F&O segment on March 13 at an average price of Rs 80.94, the fund took a reverse position on March 14, 2014 in the cash market by subscribing to the OFS at a price of Rs 71.50.

By taking this position, the fund locked-in a profit of approximately Rs 20 crore based on the difference between the average price at which the short position was created and the OFS subscription price.

The fund was guilty of violating fraudulent and unfair trade practices regulations and it traded on the basis of its access to unpublished price sensitive information (UPSI), based on which it took such aggressive positions.

Factorial, which has its office in tony central business district of Hong Kong, was founded by Indian-origin management graduate Barun Agarwal.

In an order, Sebi has directed Factorial to "disgorge the entire profit (Rs 20,04,67,840) unlawfully gained" by it along with with an interest of 10 per cent per annum from March 2014 till the date of payment.

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Sri Lanka today seized over 800 kg of cocaine from an India-bound ship docked at the island's main Colombo Port, the largest ever haul of the narcotics discovered in South Asia.

The cocaine was detected aboard a ship that arrived in the capital Colombo from Ecuador and was bound to India, police spokesman and Deputy Inspector General Ajith Rohana said.

Sri Lanka Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB) acting on a tip-off seized over 800 kilograms of cocaine concealed inside a container loaded with teak logs, Rohana said.

"This is the largest drugs haul ever in South Asia," Rohana said. The street value of the cocaine haul is estimated at Rs 12 billion.

The ship had left Ecuador on October 2 and had reached Belgium on October 20 and was on its way to India through a circuitous sea route, police said.

"The drugs were concealed in a container of timber and addressed to a company in India," Rohana said.

Further investigations are being carried out with the help of intelligence units in Ecuador Belgium, Saudi Arabia and India.

During the last one year, there have been several detections of cocaine by Sri Lankan narcotics officials in sugar shipments from Brazil mainly.

In June, Sri Lanka seized 90 kilos of cocaine originating from Brazil.

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Lokayukta Police today claimed to have unearthed alleged disproportionate assets from a clerk with Madhya Pradesh government after conducting a search at his residence here.

During the search at the house of Rajendra Birthare, attached to the administration wing of the Indore Development Authority (IDA), it came to fore that he and his close relatives own a plot, three houses, a multi-storey building in the district and two tracts of agriculture land measuring 9.5 acres in neighbouring Khargone district, a Lokayukta officer said.

Police found Rs 3 lakh cash in demonetised notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 during the search. The quantum of Birthare's assets is being estimated which are suspected to be disproportionate to his earnings, he said.

"Birthare's family owns five vehicles. Besides, we have found 1.7 kg gold jewellery and 3 kg silver jewellery during the raid."



We have got information Birthare and his family members maintain 35 bank accounts and 22 insurance covers," he added.

The official said Birthare had joined the government service in 1982 and is scheduled to retire next month.

"We are calculating the income disproportionate to his known sources of income," he said.

The search was conducted after a complaint of graft was lodged with us, the officer said.

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The Lok Sabha was adjourned twice this morning in quick succession as members of the treasury benches and opposition sparred over frequent disruptions and the goverment seeking an apology from opposition for paralysing the proceedigs for 16 days.

As soon as the House met for the day, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan welcomed a delegation from Vietnam's National Assembly.

As the Lok Sabha will not meet on December 13, she referred to the Parliament attack of 2001 and recalled the courage of 8 Delhi Police, CRPF and Parliament Security Service Personnel who had died defending the people inside the Parliament complex.

As soon as she announced taking up the Question Hour, Congress Leader in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge rose apparently to raise the issue of demonetisation.

But before he could speak, BJP members shouted to remind him of the remarks of President Pranab Mukherjee who had said the House is not a place for dharnas and disruption which amounts to "gagging of majority" by the minority.

Soon, a verbal spat broke out between the two sides and the Speaker adjourned the House till 1130 hours.

When the House met again, Kharge said the Opposition was ready for debating demonetisation and has been continuously requesting for it. "We are ready for debate on demonetisation and its repercussions," he said.

However, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar immediately shot back saying the Opposition has disrupted the House for 16 days by holding it into ransom and they must tender apology.

"For 16 days they have disrupted the House and held the House hostage. Majority wanted to debate. But Congress, TMC and Left members are not allowing the House to function. The situation has reached such a stage that the President had to speak against the disruption. They must tender apology to the people of the country," he said.

BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi said for protests and sit-ins, as suggested by the President, Jantar Mantar is the best place and not the Parliament and hence the Opposition must apologise.

As the pandemonium continued, the Speaker adjourned the House till noon.

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The Madras High Court has directed the Chairman and Managing Director of United India Insurance company to appear before it on December 22 to explain the "negligence and carelessness" of officials which were repeated in motor vehicles accident claim cases.

Justice N Kirubakaran of the court's Madurai bench while hearing an appeal filed by the insurance firm against a tribunal award to two motorcycle riders to the tune of Rs 5.59 lakh and Rs 1.08 lakh respectively, said the tribunal had given the award on the ground that the firm had not denied the insurance coverage for the 'offending vehicle' which hit the two-wheeler.

The accident had taken place in Tirunelveli town on January 5, 2014, when the 'offending vehicle' did not have insurance. Subsequently, the car owner had taken insurance on January 7.

The vehicle had hit the motorcycle, injuring both the rider and the pillion rider.

The insurance company had denied all allegations, except regarding the insurance policy. This showed how negligently the insurance company officials acted without responsibility, the court said.

"There is no collection of materials to defend the case of the insurance company whether vehicle is insured, if verification was done. The counter statement had not been prepared properly."



There could be collusion between the lawyers and the claimant's counsel. This caused prejudice to the right of the insurance company. This should be seriously considered. Utmost care must be taken to defend the cases when the claim was filed for lakhs, the court said.

The officials were not giving instructions also. "This kind of negligence should be curtailed, and such mistakes should not be repeated," it said.

Hence the judge directed the company's CMD to appear before the court, issuing notice to him returnable on December 22.

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Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has revived his call to dissolve the opposition-controlled assembly in the latest clash following the recent suspension of crisis talks.

The socialist president accused members of the opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable coalition, known by its Spanish acronym MUD, which is seeking to remove him from office, of falling short in carrying out their duties.

He then resumed threats to dissolve the legislature, which he has made repeatedly since his opponents took control of the assembly in January.

"Today, the National Assembly once again did not have a quorum," the embattled leader told a local broadcaster. "What do we do with the National Assembly? Immediate dismissal! Dissolution!"



Maduro's words came two days after the centre right-dominated opposition's decision to withdraw from a meeting with the Vatican and regional Latin American mediators.

The now-stalled talks were aiming to calm tensions as the opposition demands a vote on removing Maduro.

The opposition also insists the socialist government release jailed opposition leaders.

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Among the findings from the most recent federal Civil Rights Data Collection that got the most attention: 1.6 million students attend public schools that have an on-site law enforcement officer but no school counselor.

Thats a relatively small share of the nations students, but civil rights groupsmany of which have pushed for a scaling back or removal of police from schools say it points to poor spending priorities, particularly those that enroll large shares of students of color.

A new White House blog post examines an analysis by the Council of Economic Advisers and takes a closer look at the figure, finding that black and Hispanic students are more likely to be enrolled in schools that spend money on law enforcement but not counselors , who are often crucial to helping students, particularly low-income students, develop social-emotional skills, secure financial aid, and gain access to higher education . Hispanic students are more likely than their black and white peers to be enrolled in schools with neither an officer nor a counselor, and white students are the most likely to attend schools with counselors but not police, the analysis finds.

The blog post links that analysis to findings about disparate discipline rates. As the post says:

CRDC data also indicate that minorities experience different forms of school discipline: black K-12 students are 3.8 times as likely as white students to receive one or more out-of-school suspensions and 1.9 times as likely to be expelled. Research suggests that these disparities in discipline and support may have profound long-run consequences. One study finds that disparities in exclusionary discipline, or discipline which removes students from the classroom, may be an important driver of racial disparities in juvenile court referralsa pattern that some have called the "school-to-prison pipeline." Other research suggests that discipline problems could be compounded when resources are diverted from guidance counselors, whose presence helps to reduce disciplinary incidents and also to raise academic achievement."

The Civil Rights Data Collection, assembled by the U.S. Department of Education, includes data from nearly every public school and district in the country. It explores everything from access to advanced coursework to corporal punishment to how much experience teachers have.

Follow @evieblad on Twitter or subscribe to Rules for Engagement to get blog posts delivered directly to your inbox.
The BJP-led Maharashtra government has proposed that Mumbai's iconic railway terminus as well as the airport, already named after warrior king Shivaji, to have Maharaj added in them, and be known as 'Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus' and 'Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport'.

A Cabinet decision in this regard was taken yesterday.

"It will now need approval of the state legislature. Following this, it will be forwarded to the Railways and Civil Aviation ministries at the Centre for the final decision," an official in the Chief Minister's office told PTI.

At present, Mumbai Airport is known as 'Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport' and the railway terminus in South Mumbai as 'Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus'.

The sprawling railway terminus, a marvellous structure and UNESCO World Heritage Site, is also the headquarters of the Central Railways.

The station was built in 1887 in Bori Bunder area of Bombay (now Mumbai) to commemorate the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria.

It is one of the busiest stations in India serving as a terminus for both long-distance as well as commuter services trains of the Mumbai Suburban Railway.

Known for over a century as Victoria Terminus, the facility was renamed after Shivaji by the Union government in 1996, months after Bombay was renamed as Mumbai.

The Sahar airport in the Western suburbs was renamed as Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in 1999.

Later, domestic airport at Vile Parle also came to be known as Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport.

According to observers, one of the reasons that prompted the government to insert 'Maharaj' could be the upcoming civic polls in Mumbai and other parts of the state, and, also the ongoing campaign by the Maratha community for quota in jobs and eduction, for whom 'Shivaji Maharaj' is the most revered icon and enduring source of inspiration.

The BJP has emerged the biggest gainer in the first phase of municipal council and Nagar Panchayat polls held recently. The remaining three phases will be completed soon.

Also, 10 municipal corporations including Mumbai and 26 zila parishads 296 panchayat samitis will go to polls in February 2017.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A person was arrested for allegedly creating ruckus at an art summit here as he along with some local activists raised objection over a painting, calling it obscene, police said today.

Vijay Shankar Pandey was arrested under section 151 of CrPC (Arrest to prevent the commission of cognisable offences) last night following the complaint of the organisers of the Jaipur art summit, they said.

Pandey, along with a female activist Hemlata Sharma had protested over the display of a painting depicting a woman at the Ravindra Manch here yesterday.

Sharma allegedly shouted at the organisers and the artists in the summit and took the painting to the police station.

After some arguments at the police station, the woman returned without registering any case, SHO of Lalkothi police station Ishwar Singh had said yesterday, adding the paining was handed over to artist Radha Vinod Sharma.

Later, the organisers registered a complaint following which Pandey was placed under arrest.

The painting which was handed over to Radha Binod Sharma, a London based artist, has been reinstalled.

"It was indeed most unfortunate that some persons came and forcibly took away a painting entitled 'Anubhav'. The painter also got hurt in the scuffle," founder of the summit Shailendra Bhatt said.

"The painting has been reinstalled at the same place," he said in a statement.

The summit, which seeks to promote tribal and traditional artforms, is being held from December 7 to 11 at Ravindra Manch here. Artists from 25 countries are participating.

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A man has been arrested from Allahabad in connection with the murder of a three-year-old boy in this district two weeks ago, the city police said today.

Vishal Kumar Nigam (30) was arrested at Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh yesterday, while the mother of the victim, Bharti Shinde (35), was nabbed on November 22, a day after the incident, they said.

Bharti, a widow, and Nigam lived together. They allegedly killed Aniket (Bharti's son) as they thought him to be an obstacle in their relationship, police said.

On November 21, Bharti thrashed the boy while Nigam held his hands and feet. When she took the boy to the hospital, doctors found his ribs were broken. Upon questioning, the crime came to light, they said.

Inspector M G Waghmare of Hill Line Police Station said Nigam was produced in a court today which remanded him in police custody till December 10.

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Manipur government, led by Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh, has decided to form 7 more new districts, bifurcating the existing 9 districts of the state, a state cabinet secretariat source said today.

The decision for formation of seven new districts was taken in a state cabinet meeting chaired by the Chief Minister last evening at the CM's secretariat, the source said.

"Manipur will now have 16 districts and the decision for formation of 7 new districts was taken for administrative convenience and to enable the state government take up development works effectively even in the remote and underdeveloped parts of the state," the chief minister told PTI over phone this morning.

The newly formed districts are Kangpokpi, Tengnoupal, Pherzawl, Noney, Kamjong, Jiribam and Kakching, the cabinet secretariat source said.

Posting of the new Deputy Commissioners and Superintendents of Police for the newly formed districts were also effected in the government order issued yesterday, the source said.

Manipur earlier had 9 districts - Imphal West, Imphal East, Bishnupur, Thoubal, Ukhrul, Senapati, Tamenglong, Churachandpur and Chandel.

The chief minister explained that inauguration of the new districts would be taken up as soon as possible before the announcement of state assembly elections by the Election Commission of India.

The move came in the backdrop of the United Naga Council (UNC) launching economic blockade in Manipur for more than one month since November one last in protest against the formation of Sadar Hills (Kangpokpi) and Jiribam districts.

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A miscreant was shot dead by police constable when he tried to loot money from two businessmen in Radhika Vihar here, police said today.

The incident took place last evening when the three motorcycle-borne miscreants were trying to loot money from Harish and his father Jhamman Das, who run a confectionery shop, SP city Ashok Kumar Singh said.

As the businessmen resisted the robbery bid and raised voice for help, locals and the police constable reached the spot, he said, adding the miscreants opened fire on the people after which the constable returned fire in which a miscreant got injured.

The miscreant, identified as Ramu, was rushed to district hospital from where he was referred to S N Medical College Agra. He succumbed to his injuries at the Agra hospital, the SP said.

Efforts are on to nab the other accused, he added.

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The Delhi High Court today slammed the police for remaining clueless about missing JNU student Najeeb Ahmed, who has remained untraced for 55 days, asking how can a man just "vanish suddenly".

Maintaining that it was concerned with the recovery of the boy whose mother has been running from pillar to post to be united with her son, the Court said a situation, in which a missing person has not been traced for over 50 days, would create a sense of insecurity among the people.

"It is over 50 days. Still you (police) do not know about his whereabouts. How can somebody vanish suddenly and police has no clue about it? Even if we think of the worst, something has to be found out. We are pained that the missing person has not been traced till date," a bench of Justices G S Sistani and Vinod Goel said.

Najeeb went missing from JNU's Mahi-Mandvi hostel on October 15 allegedly after an on-campus scuffle between him and some members of the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). The ABVP has denied involvement in his disappearance.

The bench said, "We are not concerned with the scuffle. We only want that the boy is recovered and he returns to his house. We are concerned that the mother should get her child."



The court's oral observation came after the police and the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) informed it that Najeeb has remained untraceable till date and they were making all efforts to locate him.

The varsity and the police were responding to the habeus corpus plea filed by Najeeb's 45-year old mother Fatima Nafees who was also present in the court today. She has sought directions to the authorities to trace her 27-year-old son who was pursuing MSc in Biotechnology from JNU.

During the brief hearing, senior standing counsel Rahul Mehra, appearing for the police, told the bench that the Crime Branch was exploring all angles to trace Najeeb and even issued advertisements. "We are diligent, We will do whatever is to be done at our level," Mehra said.

On the other hand, JNU's counsel Monika Arora submitted



before that "since day one, the university is in regular contact with the Delhi police obtaining updates and providing relevant information to the police regarding the incident.

"It is also stated that university has carried out its own search operation in the hostel and the campus of the JNU. Moreover, the security guards alongwith police teams have been coordinating in search of Najeeb in the adjoining and adjacent forest areas of the JNU campus," Arora said, adding that "the university's Vice Chancellor has written to the senior police officials and SHO concerned to expedite the search of missing student Najeeb".

To this, the bench said, "this is something very serious. If a person disappears and remains untraced, it would create a sense of insecurity in the public of the city."



The bench asked the police to "explore all angles" and listed the matter for further hearing on December 14.

Arora, in a status report, said soon after the incident, the hostel warden had called a meeting including Najeeb and other persons involved in the altercation.

"All persons involved in the altercation including Najeeb were called by the warden, some disciplinary measures were taken after Najeeb admitted his mistake for initiating the brawl/altercation with his fellow students. The said issue was resolved in presence of JNUSU President and other college staff and students," JNU submitted.

It also told the bench that the students involved in the scuffle on the fateful night have been identified and their immediate transfer from the hostel was recommended.

The counsel said the office of the Chief Proctor has acknowledged that there was a scuffle and submitted the Proctorial Board report on the incident at the hostel.

"After Najeeb is found, the disciplinary action awarded to these persons will be again looked into," the court was told.

On November 28, the High Court had sternly asked the city police to "cut across all political barriers" and find Najeeb.
In keeping with her strident anti-Centre stance over demonetisation, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday alleged that the Modi government was not allowing opposition parties to speak on the issue in Parliament, describing it as "most unfortunate".

"This is most unfortunate. The opposition parties wanted to speak on and run the House. Why did the government not allow the opposition to speak? This means the cat is out of the bag. The cashless have now become faceless," she said in a statement.

The Trinamool Congress supremo's latest salvo came a day after she demanded Prime Minister Narendra Modi's resignation on the ground that the note withdrawal had led to an "economic disaster" in the country and he had "no moral right" to continue.

Alleging that the country's growth and business have been hit due to demonetisation, she had said the Prime Minister "doesn't trust" anyone and he "doesn't understand" what is good for the country.
Madhya Pradesh Assembly was today adjourned sine die after transacting the listed business on the last day of the Winter Session.

During the five-day sitting, the House witnessed uproarious scenes and the walkout by the main Opposition Congress on the issue of alleged scam in Simhasth (Kumbh) fair and deaths of children due to malnutrition, among others.

The Assembly also passed the second supplementary budget of the state, which was tabled by Finance minister Jayant Mallaiya.

The House had also paid rich tributes to various leaders, including Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalitha who passed away on December 5.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Opposition Congress today staged a walkout from the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly after the party's demand for a debate on the deaths of malnourished children was turned down.

As soon as the Zero Hour began, senior Congress member Ramniwas Rawat demanded that an adjournment motion for a debate on malnourished children should be taken up. He pointed out that Congress had been demanding a debate on the issue for the last two days.

Claiming that malnutrition was claiming the lives of 80 children in the state everyday, Rawat said as the winter session of the assembly is coming to an end today, the issue of "utmost importance" should be taken up for discussion.

However, Speaker Sitasharan Sharma said the issue will not be taken up as Rawat, whom he had invited to his chamber yesterday, did not meet him to facilitate a debate on the issue.

Replying to the Speaker's statement, Rawat said, "You are alleging that I did not come to your chamber yesterday. I allege that you do not want a debate on the deaths of malnourished children."



However, the Speaker asked him not to level "baseless" allegations as it was against the decorum.

"I do not level allegations and I do not intend to do so," Rawat responded.

State Assembly Affairs Minister Narottam Mishra intervened saying the Opposition always disrupted the proceedings of the House.

He said when Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan was replying to the debate on earlier adjournment motion in connection with the farmers' plight after demonetisation -- the issue raised by the opposition -- Congress members had left the House in the middle of CM's address two days ago.

The minister said when Rawat sought listing the issue for the debate, senior Congress member Mahendra Singh Kalukheda had stood up and told the House that the issue could be taken up in the next session.

He claimed that after Kalukheda's "advice", Rawat did not press for the issue yesterday.

Raising the point of order, the minister urged the



Speaker to give a ruling on the "unruly behaviour" of the opposition.

The Speaker then said that malnutrition issue cannot be taken up for debate and reiterated that he invited Rawat to his chamber but he did turn up for a meeting on the issue.

However, Rawat continued to press for an adjournment motion on the issue. He was joined by the acting Leader of the Opposition Bala Bachchan.

Rawat alleged that the Chair was doing the work of the government. Thereafter, the Congress members walked out of the House.

Outside the House, Rawat claimed, "10,000 children below six years have died in the state between July and October this year, which accounts for 80 kids deaths per day."



"This has brought disgrace to MP nationally and internationally," he said, adding that when their demand for debate was not accepted, they staged a walkout.

Bachchan said the government is shying off from the debate as it wants to avoid criticism. "We want the government to save the children," he added.
Indian Navy's Chetak helicopter attached to INS Hansa base in Vasco made an emergency landing in South Goa today after it developed a technical snag.

Both the pilots on the carrier landed safely, a senior naval official said.

"The Chetak helicopter developed low oil pressure. Any variation in oil temperature of a helicopter can cause a snag. The pilots adopted emergency procedures and landed safely in South Goa," Indian Navy's Flag Officer Commanding Goa Area (FOGA) Rear Admiral Puneet Bahl told PTI.

The helicopter landed at a property owned by Lalit Group of Hotels in South Goa's Canacona village at 7.15 AM.

Bahl said a team of Navy officials has been sent to the spot, which is around 60 kms away from INS Hansa base.

He said both the pilots on board Chetak were safe and they followed correct emergency procedures prescribed in such a situation.

"We have sent a team which will investigate and only after that we will come to know the exact reason for the possible snag," Bahl added.

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As state legislative sessions prepare to get underway in January and governors get ready to release their budgets, theres some tough budget calls looming in a number of states. Last year, states mostly increased their funding levels for education, according to the National Association of State Budget Officers , though there were a few exceptions.

In Michigan, Republican Gov. Rick Snyder proposed earlier this week to cut $425 million from the states education budget to pay for a portion of his income tax refunds initiative. But he backed off the plan after heavy pushback from opponents. The states budget woes got national publicity last year when a video of dillapidated and molding schools went viral on Facebook.

Mississippi lawmakers are proposing to cut 3 percent of their budget next year amid tax cuts but decided to mostly spare the states public school system.

Lawmakers on the states Joint Legislative Budget Committee said Thursday they are looking to cut $195.3 million from its $6.2 billion 2018 fiscal year budget.

The states superintendents are bracing for a consultant groups report on how to revise the states funding formula which could result in changes to the amount of money school districts across the state get.

In North Dakota, outgoing Republican Gov. Jack Dalrymple proposed a $13 billion budget, $2 billion less than what he proposed two years ago. Recently elected Doug Burgum, also a Republican, said he would take the proposal under consideration. The state earlier this year raided more than $1 billion from its savings in order to fill a budget deficit, according to the Associated Press.

And Utahs Republican Gov. Gary Herbert proposed a $16 billion budget , of which $116 million will help offset increased costs for 10,000 additional students in the state for this school year. The state spends around $4.5 billion on K-12 and higher education a year.

Photo: Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder listens to a question after attending a Flint Water Interagency Coordinating Committee meeting in Flint, Mich., earlier this year. --Paul Sancya/AP-File

Dont miss another State EdWatch post. Sign up here to get news alerts in your email inbox. And make sure to follow @StateEdWatch on Twitter for the latest news from state K-12 policy and politics.
CBI today told the Delhi High Court that it has registered nine cases related to several alleged irregularities in the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in last seven years.

The agency also informed a bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Sangita Dhingra Sehgal that a matter related to allegations of irregularities and embezzlement of funds in purchase of surgical equipment has been closed in July this year after no "wrongdoing" was found.

It, however, said the remaining eight cases are pending as the files have been sent for consideration before various authorities, including the Health Ministry.

The cases relate to irregularities in the tender process at AIIMS, entrance tests and a disproportionate assets case against some of its senior officials.

The bench listed the matter for further hearing on February 14 next year.

The agency has filed its report in pursuance to the court September 29 direction on the plea which has sought probe in several alleged graft cases relating to AIIMS.

Former Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) of AIIMS Sanjeev Chaturvedi had earlier accused the Health Ministry of not doing anything in several graft cases relating to the premier institution by allegedly sitting over the charge sheets and CBI reports against the individuals involved.

Chaturvedi had made the accusation in an affidavit filed before the high court in a PIL by an NGO, seeking recusal of Union Health Minister from acting as a disciplinary authority, alleging that he had "unfettered powers to influence the course of proceedings in all the corruption cases".

The PIL by NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation has also sought a CBI probe into various graft cases in AIIMS.

Health Minister J P Nadda had earlier told the court that



the PIL was "actuated by ulterior motive" to gain political mileage and "malign" the government's image.

In his reply, he had refuted allegations that Chaturvedi was removed from the post as he was conducting a probe in several graft cases related to malpractices in the AIIMS.

However, Chaturvedi has claimed in his affidavit that the Health Ministry has not replied since February 2 on Central Vigilance Commission's (CVC) letter seeking the ministry CVO's comments on whether they have taken any action on CBI's case registered against some individuals.

Chaturvedi had claimed in his first affidavit that previous Health Minister Harsh Vardhan as well as CBI had recommended major penalty proceedings against some AIIMS officials in connection with alleged irregularities in the construction of porta cabins at the Jhajjar campus of the institute but no action had been taken.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, in its reply, had also termed as "incorrect" that after Chaturvedi's removal as CVO, no vigilance office is functioning at AIIMS as a Joint Secretary-rank official has been assigned charge of the post.

AIIMS, on its part, had said the PIL has been filed in "personal interest" with a view to damage the reputation of the institute.
The Odisha Government today said it has no plan to utilise the land acquired for Posco's proposed mega plant near Paradip for any other purpose after the South Korean Steel major reportedly announced temporary freezing of the Rs 51,000 crore project.

"The Posco authorities who proposed to set up a 12 MTPA greenfeild steel mill near Paradip, have not yet informed the state government about withdrawal from the project," state Steel and Mines Minister Prafulla Kumar Mallick told the Assembly.

He said quoting media reports that the company decided to keep the project under temporary freeze.

"Therefore, the state government so far has not thought of utilising the land for any other purpose," Malliack said replying to a question by Congress member Bhujabal Majhi.

The minister said the company had also not so far given its implementation schedule.

The state government had earlier acquired 2752.3 acre of land against Posco's first phase requirement of 2,700 acre. The state-run Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO) meanwhile handed over 1880.110 acre of land to the steel major and remaining land was in the process of being given to the company.

Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS) president Abhay Sahu said as the state government had acquired the land after demolishing betel vines, it should return the land to the affected people.

He said the state government should take a lesson from West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who returned untilised land to the original farmers in Singur.

Sahu said people have started cultivating the land.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Norwegian Refugee Council says one of its staffers in South Sudan has been detained by the East African country's National Security Service.

NRC spokeswoman Tuva Bognes says security officials came to the NRC offices in the capital, Juba, yesterday and a male employee "was asked to come along."



She didn't identify the employee and said more details would be made available today.

Bognes says "we have, unfortunately, no information as to why he is being held."



She tells The Associated Press that NRC staffers have not yet been able to meet with their colleague.

The nonprofit organization has been in South Sudan since its independence in 2011, and it stepped up its activities after civil war broke out there three years ago.

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An elderly NRI couple died and two others, including the driver of their vehicle, suffered serious injurious in a mishap on NH-8 today when they were on their way to offer prayers at the famous Shrinath Temple in Rajsamand district of Rajasthan.

According to Bichhiwara police, the couple hailing from the US, Yogesh Mujumdar and his wife Umaben were travelling in a SUV from Ahmedabad to Nathdwara where the temple is located.

Near Lehna gorge, the driver lost control over the vehicle on the multilane expressway.

Due to a steep turn on the highway, the SUV turned turtle and fell several feet down into the deep gorge leading to the death of the couple.

The other two in the car, including the driver Mushtaq and the deceased couple's relative Bhavin Shah, survived the crash as airbags opened up.

Both are undergoing treatment at Himmat Nagar and Dungarpur respectively.

Meanwhile, bodies of the couple were sent for post mortem in Dungarpur district.

The couple had been living in the US for the past 12 years with their son. The family owns a grocery store in Arkansas state, police said.

"We have informed their family members in the USA. The couple was visiting their family members in Ahmedabad," said Indrajeet Parmar, a sub-inspector posted at Bichhiwara police station.

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President Barack Obama has ordered a review of all cyberattacks that took place during the 2016 election cycle, the White House said today as concerns over Russian interference mount.

White House Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz said Obama called for the review earlier this week, amid growing calls from Congress for more information on the extent of Russian interference in the campaign.

"We are committed to ensuring the integrity of our elections and this report will dig into this pattern of malicious cyberactivity timed to our elections, take stock of our defensive capabilities and capture lessons learned to make sure that we brief members of Congress and stakeholders as appropriate," said Schultz.

Obama wants the report completed before his term ends on January 20, Schultz said.

"We are going to make public as much as we can," he added. "This is a major priority for the president."



The move comes after Democrats in Congress pressed the White House to reveal details, to Congress or to the public, of Russian hacking and disinformation in the election.

It also comes after President-elect Donald Trump rejected the intelligence community finding of official Russian involvement.

Confidential emails from the Democratic National Committee and John Podesta, a top advisor to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, were steadily leaked out via WikiLeaks in the months before the election, damaging Clinton's White House effort.

On October 7, one month before the election, the Department of Homeland Security and the Director of National Intelligence announced that "the Russian Government directed the recent compromises of emails from US persons and institutions, including from US political organizations."



"These thefts and disclosures are intended to interfere with the US election process," they said.

But in an interview published Wednesday with Time magazine for its "Person of the Year" award, Trump dismissed those findings. Asked whether the intelligence was politicized, Trump answered: "I think so."



"I don't believe they interfered," he said. "It could be Russia. And it could be China. And it could be some guy in his home in New Jersey."



Worried that Trump will sweep the issue under a rug after his inauguration, seven Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee called on November 29 for the White House to declassify what it knows about Russian interference.

The seven have already been briefed on the classified details, suggesting they believed there is more information that the public should know.

Then on Tuesday of this week, leading House Democrats called on Obama to give members of the entire Congress a classified briefing on Russian interference, from hacking to the spreading of fake stories to mislead US voters.

Republicans in Congress have also promised hearings into Russian activities once the new administration comes in.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Three persons were arrested and an amount of around Rs 91 lakh in the banned notes was seized from their possession in separate incidents in Rajasthan, police said today.

Kotputali police seized Rs 88 lakh in banned Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes from 22-year-old Rajendra Bharadwaj, assigned to deliver the money to a trader in Chaura Rasta area in Jaipur.

A Delhi-based metal firm owner had allegedly hired him for the job. The accused was arrested while travelling in a bus near Paniyala village with a bag stashed full of cash, Jaipur (rural) DSP Mahmood Khan told PTI.

Acting on a tip-off, police teams carried out searches of the buses plying between New Delhi and Jaipur and caught the youth with the money, he said.

We have seized the currency and referred the matter to income tax department for carrying further investigation to know the source of such a large amount of money, he added.

Investigation in underway to ascertain the source and delivery locations of the money, Khan said.

In another incident, two persons were from Asind town in possession with Rs 3.40 lakh in banned Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes after the duo failed to give any satisfactory answer during questioning.

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The "success" of SAD rally in Moga has once again demonstrated the conviction of the state's people that only this party can safeguard the interests of Punjab, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal claimed here today.

He also claimed Punjab farmers will snub Congress, which has "conspired" to deprive the state of its river waters through Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal.

"The virtual sea of humanity that descended on the rally venue yesterday was a slap on face of those of who discriminated against and defamed Punjab," Sukhbir said.

"Congress always compromised the interests of Punjab ever since independence while AAP is busy defaming Punjabis by dubbing them drug-addicts. In the process, both have harmed the state enormously," he said.

Sukhbir said Punjabis are wise enough to see through their "Machiavellian conspiracies" and their "phony" agitations aimed at garnering support.

"It was not surprising that when Congress announced its rally and agitation on SYL canal issue at Abohar recently, only a few hundred people were attracted. Similarly, AAP had to abandon its morcha at Kapoori last month midway as response receded alarmingly," Sukhbir claimed.

"People have no faith in Congress and AAP and are fed up with their theatrical protests sans conviction and sincerity.

"I have no doubt that given the massive turnout at the rally exhibiting endorsement and support for the incumbent government, the SAD-BJP combine will form the government for the third consecutive term after the election next year," he claimed.

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President Maithripala Sirisena, who came to power on a pledge to root out government corruption, today conceded the menace was still widespread in Sri Lanka with more than 50 per cent of tender procurements being dodgy.

Adressing an anti-corruption meeting two years after he was elected on a campaign pledge to end corruption, Sirisena said he "regrets" that organised bribery was still prevalent.

"I regret to say that organised bribery and corruption is still taking place in government institutions," he said.

The Sri Lanka president, who has ordered investigations into alleged widespread corruption under his predecessor Mahinda Rajapaksa, said he does not want to take names because those he would name will "go on strike from tomorrow".

Sirisena referred to a strike recently by customs officers against the installation of a CCTV system designed to discourage money changing hands illegally.

"Such is the level of resistance and I am told that officers who refuse to cooperate with organised corruption are sidelined and not given any work by their superiors," he said.

"We say call tenders to prevent corruption, but in reality we know that the tender procedures are also corrupt. It happens in over 50 per cent of the time. Even the technical evaluation committees are corrupt," Sirisena said.

Sirisena ousted Rajapaksa in January last year, accusing him and his family of corruption. He has also often criticised the national unity government under Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Rajapaksa ruled Sri Lanka for nine years beginning in 2005. He was popular among the country's majority ethnic Sinhalese for leading the military's brutal defeat of the Tamil Tigers, ending a 25-year civil war in 2009.

But he was increasingly criticised for failing to allow an investigation of alleged war crimes by the military, while also facing mounting allegations of corruption and nepotism.

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More than 8.74 lakh birds have been culled in four states and one union territory so far this year in order to control the spread of bird flu disease in the country, the Parliament was informed today.

There has been no loss of human life so far. The control and containment operations are still going on in Kerala, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi, Minister of State for Agriculture Sudarshan Bhaghat said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

As per the data placed before the Upper House, more than 8.74 lakh birds were culled so far this year.

Out of this, 7.45 lakh undomesticated birds were culled in Kerala alone, while 1.21 lakh birds were culled in Karnataka, Haryana (944 birds) and Punjab (33 birds).

"Surveillance is continuing throughout the country...There has been no loss of human life so far. The farmers are compensated for the forced culling of their birds and destruction of poultry feed and eggs," he said.

The outbreak of avain influenza, also called bird flu, was reported from National Zoological Park in New Delhi, Gandhi Zoological Park in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, Alappuzha and Kottayam districts of Kerala, Rajpura in Patiala district of Punjab, Hissar in Haryana and Bellary district in Karnataka during the October-November period of 2016, he added.

In 2015, total 1.89 lakh birds were culled because of outbreak of avian influenza, the data showed.

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Nagaland's popular Hornbill Festival held at the picturesque Naga heritage village Kisama, has witnessed a footfall of over one lakh lakh visitors, including 1,382 foreigners, till its penultimate day today.

The 10-day 'Festival of Festivals', showcasing the coming together of the Naga tribes, is an annual event organised by the state Tourism Department and other allied departments.

Altogether 1,00,321 visitors, including 1,382 foreign tourists, 12,943 domestic and 85,996 locals, enjoyed the festival till the penultimate day today, Tourist Officer Toka E Tuccumi said here today.

Tuccumi said that the actual number of all categories of visitors was higher, as those entering the main gate with vehicle passes were not counted. The given figures were of those witnessing the festival with entry tickets.

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Plot Twist: Embryos Sue Sofia Vergara

In a surprising turn of events, Sofia Vergara's embryos have filed suit against the Modern Family actress in the state of Louisiana. If it comes as a shock to you that an embryo can file suit, you are not alone. Lawyers across the country are all shocked. Even after looking into the legality of it, they find themselves in awe.

You see, in Louisiana, the great state that brings us Fat Tuesday and Mardi Gras, since the 1980s, embryos have been considered persons for judicial purposes. Vergara's ex, Nick Loeb, is not a party to the Louisiana suit; instead a new player has entered the battle. James Charbonnet is the trustee of a trust fund set up in Louisiana with the purpose of providing for the health, education, maintenance, and support of the embryos.

This newest lawsuit seeks the same ends as the one Loeb filed in California: for Loeb to be allowed to have the embryos implanted in a third party and to be allowed to raise the children himself. However, rather than tackling the issue directly, this strange embryo suit claims that by preventing the embryos from being born, Vergara will be preventing the embryos from collecting the benefit of the trust.

Background on Vergara Embryo Battle

If you haven't been following the embryo drama as it unfolds, prior to the Louisiana suit being filed, Vergara had been battling it out in California since 2014, after her and Nick Loeb split up. The couple had started the IVF process back in 2013, but was never able to successfully get pregnant.

Two embryos remained frozen when the couple split up. Before the embryos were created, the two signed an agreement stating that neither one of them could use the embryos without the other's permission. Loeb has since decided that he wants to have the embryos implanted into a surrogate so that he can raise the kids on his own.

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Pakistan's new army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa today chaired a meeting to promote seven major generals to the rank of lieutenant generals, a major reshuffle ahead of the retirement of key military commanders.

The major generals were promoted after the Army Promotion Board met in Rawalpindi.

Those promoted include Maj Gen Nadeem Raza, Maj Gen Humayun Aziz, Maj Gen Naeem Ashraf, Maj Gen Muhammad Afzal, Maj Gen Sher Afgun, Maj Gen Qazi Ikram and Maj Gen Bilal Akbar, the army said in a statement.

Maj Gen Raza is presently working as commandant Pakistan Military Academy, Maj Gen Aziz as DG Welfare and Rehabilitation at GHQ, Maj Gen Ashraf at National Defence University, Maj Gen Afzal as DG Frontier Works Organisation, Maj Gen Afgun Inspector General Frontier Corps Balochistan, Maj Gen Ikram DG Personal Directorate at GHQ and Maj Gen Akbar as DG Rangers (Sindh).

Those promoted will be given new assignments.

The promotion of seven major generals to the rank of lieutenant generals is part of a major reshuffle ahead of the retirement of key military commanders.

Already army chief General Bajwa last week appointed Lt Gen Shahid Baig Mirza as new corps commander of Karachi.

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CPI(M) veteran Nilotpal Basu today said Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has been making comments which are not in tune with the sensitive post he holds, and advised him to be careful with his words.

"Parrikar has been making statements about surgical strike, RSS lessons helping him for such firm actions and the one about Pakistan under anesthesia (post cross-LoC raids). Such statements are unbecoming of a Defence Minister," he told reporters here.

The CPI(M) Central Secretariat member, who was here to meet party functionaries, said Parrikar should refrain from making controversial remarks.

"Parrikar should be careful with his words and what impact they make on our armed forces," said the former Rajya Sabha member.

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Former media baron Peter Mukerjea, arrested in Sheena Bora murder case with his wife Indrani, today filed an application in the CBI court here seeking permission to use a laptop in the prison so he could write his autobiography.

"I want to write an autobiography and for that I want a laptop without Internet in the jail," Peter told the special CBI court judge H S Mahajan during the hearing today.

In a handwritten application, Peter also said he was finding it very difficult to write in long-hand.

If allowed, he would work on the laptop for four hours a day and afterwards hand it back to jail authorities, the application said.

"(I am) 61 years old and suffering from occasional memory fatigue and laptop will be of great help to aid in continuing the work without locating details during the writing and scripting process," Peter said in the application.

He also applied for permission to go to Bangalore to attend the wedding of his niece.

CBI is likely to file its reply to his applications on December 14.

The court is likely to hear arguments on framing of charges in the Sheena Bora murder case on December 19.

Interestingly, the court had at the last hearing granted the prime accused in the case Indrani Mukerjea's application seeking permission to deposit some demonetised currency notes in the bank (through someone outside the jail).

Indrani, her former driver Shyam Rai (who has turned approver in the case) and her former husband Sanjeev Khanna are accused of killing her daughter Sheena inside a car in April 2012. Peter is accused of being party to the conspiracy.

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The very first teaser trailer for "Spider-Man: Homecoming" has released, featuring actor Tom Holland as the wall-crawling Marvel hero, who digs into the daily life of the New York City boy underneath the mask.

The trailer begins with Holland attending the high school, and then trying to ask his benefactor Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) about how to become an Avenger.

Holland can be seen struggling to talk to girls and trying to save the city as well with his ability to cling tenaciously to most surfaces in the teaser.

There were also glimpses of Peter Parker's friends, his high school, and the villain known as the Vulture (Michael Keaton), who threatens to kill everyone Peter Parker loves.

"Spider-Man: Homecoming," directed by Jon Watts, is intended to be the second reboot of the Spider-Man film franchise and the sixteenth film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The film also stars Zendaya, Donald Glover, Jacob Batalon, Laura Harrier, Tony Revolori, Tyne Daly, Bokeem Woodbine and Marisa Tomei.

It will hit the US theatres on July 7, 2017.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address a farmers' rally in Banaskantha district and also inaugurate a cheese factory of dairy major Amul during his day-long visit to Gujarat tomorrow.

He will also pay a visit to State BJP headquarters in Gandhinagar district in the afternoon, his first trip there after assuming the top office in May 2014.

"A rally of farmers and cooperative movement activists will be addressed by the Prime Minister tomorrow in Deesa town of Banaskantha district. We expect over two lakh people at the rally," Gujarat BJP spokesperson Bharat Pandya said.

The PM will inaugurate a new Amul cheese factory at Banas Dairy in Banaskantha district and also launch 'Amul Deshi' A2 cow milk, said a statement from Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF).

The factory has been built with an investment of Rs 350 crore and uses cutting-edge cheese-making technology, said GCMMF, which manages the popular Amul brand.

The 'Amul Deshi' A2 product, to be sold in Ahmedabad initially, is aimed at consumers seeking pure cow milk from indigenous breeds. It is priced at Rs 35 per 500 ml bottle.

In a statement, GCMMF Managing Director R S Sodhi said, "This A2 cow milk will be procured from indigenous cows and made available in 500 ml bottles through Amul parlours in the Ahmedabad city."



After his programme in Deesa, Modi will visit state BJP headquarters at Koba in Gandhinagar, where he will interact with local party leaders, Pandya said.

"The Prime Minister will be coming for the first time to State BJP headquarters after assuming office. This was the place from where he ran the campaign for 2014 elections."



This is the fifth visit of the Prime Minister to his home state, which will go to polls in the second half of 2017, in the last six months.

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Police have debunked theories making rounds about a "serial killer" on the prowl in south and southeast Delhi, calling the murders a "coincidence" with probes into each of them unearthing different motives and murderers.

However, two cases have come to light where the police claim that they might be related.

After six bodies were found within a radius of 10 kilometre of each other in south and southeast Delhi with their body parts missing, theories had emerged that the deaths are related to each other.

"It's a coincidence that they have happened in the same time. One of the cases has been solved and in the other cases the investigation is at an advanced stage," Delhi Police spokesperson and Joint Commissioner (southwest) Dependra Pathak said.

"The discussion about serial killings is bereft of truth. There are different intentions, different motives and murderers that have emerged during our investigation," he said.

The body of a woman, wrapped in a black polythene, with a tattoo mark was found lying outside Ganganath Mandir near Vasant Vihar. In the second incident, headless body of a woman was found in a sewer tank in Munirka.

Police claim that these two murders that took place last month might be related.

Based on their tattoos, police questioned several tattoo artists in the area and identified the women.

Both of them hailed from the same village and were working at a spa, sources said.

They had allegedly been lured into escort services and had some fallout with their employer who allegedly murdered them with the help of his accomplices, they said.

Police has identified the accused and they are likely to be arrested soon. The body's head hasn't been recovered and police is waiting for the arrest to find the missing part, sources added.

In another incident, body of a woman, in her 20s, with injury marks on the neck was found lying under a car near Khanpur T-point on November 30. The woman has been identified and no link in that case has been established with the other two murders, police said.

A case where a woman's body was hacked into two parts in Amar Colony area, her live-in partner was arrested on Wednesday.

In Sangam Vihar, the mutilated body of a man was found with injuries and lower limbs chopped off on December 2.

In a shocking incident on December 4, a 24-year-old man was arrested for allegedly having "unnatural sex" with corpse of a woman near Sarai Kale Khan bus stand along the bank of Yamuna river. The woman's face was smashed due to which no identification has been done yet.

The police is investigating whether the man arrested was the one who killed her.

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Police today claimed to have foiled a plot to kill the SP of South Garo Hills (SGH) by arresting two suspected cadres of the Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) from Baghmara town.

According to an investigation by police, SP, Anand Mishra allegedly received threat messages on both his personal and office cell phone numbers since October 20.

The two cadres of the outfit who have been arrested were identified as Boresh Sangma (38), of Bul Awe in Baghmara, and Rankhu Momin (49) of Bolsal Ading, in Baghmara.

The duo had even demanded an amount of Rs 50 lakh from the SP, police said.

"They were using only one number and this was being used exclusively for the purpose of sending threat messages. It was a 'blind' case to crack but thankfully the IT team managed to tackle it," said Mishra.

The mobile phone and SIM card used to threaten the SP have been recovered from the duo.

Meanwhile, SGH police claimed to have arrested a civilian cadre of another militant outfit, ASAK, in an early morning raid today.

Barash Sangma (27) of Namisikgre, SGH was allegedly involved in ferrying weapons, essentials and lately converting and depositing terror generated money of ASAK chief Reading T Sangma, through various bank accounts.

"He was wanted for some time and was avoiding arrest till Special Force - 10 (SF-10) commandos of Baghmara nabbed him today morning," said Mishra.

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Taking a swipe at Rahul Gandhi, BJP today said his speeches cause tremors within Congress and not outside and alleged that he wanted to run Parliament as per his whims, in the same "arrogant" way he runs his party.

"Parliament will run as per the Constitution not on his arrogance," BJP National Secretary Shrikant Sharma said accusing the Congress of holding Parliament to ransom.

The ruling party hit back at the Congress Vice President after he alleged that he was not allowed by the government to speak on demonetization in Parliament. Rahul said he will reveal in the House the reason behind demonetization, which he dubbed as the "biggest scam', and added that speech will bring an "earthquake".

"Those who are shaking after the assault on blackmoney... those who have been at the epicentre of scams for 60 years talk of earthquake today," BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra tweeted.

"Our party is not afraid of him or his speeches, we are ready to listen to him but he should not run away when we respond...Actually these days Mr Rahul Gandhi is annoyed his party is losing everywhere especially after he started handling affairs of the party," Union Minister and BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

Prasad added that the public are supporting the government's step against black money.

In a dig at Rahul, BJP leader Smriti Irani said, "Rahulji thinks too highly about his oratory skills and he himself knows how much his speeches appeal to the people...As far as tremors are concerned. I think when he speaks there are tremors within Congress not outside."



The Union Textile Minister added that Parliament is a platform for discussion and deliberation, so Rahul is welcome to speak but the opposition should allow the house to run.

Proceedings of both houses of Parliament have been stalled from over two weeks now due to continuous uproar over the issue of demonetization.

Latching onto President Pranab Mukherjee's denouncement of disruptions of Parliament's proceedings, Sharma said from "'gram pramukh' (village head) to the President, everybody is angry with Congress".

"Over Rs 9 crore is reportedly spent daily on running Parliament and Rahul Gandhi should count how much public money Congress has wasted by paralysing it since the beginning of the session on November 16. The government has been keen on a debate from the day one," he said.

"He is making all kind of petty remarks for headlines. He is practising TRP politics and competing with Arvind Kejriwal," Sharma alleged.

Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu also hit out at Rahul for calling demonetization a "foolish" step.

"...Taking action against black money and corruption, is it foolish or keeping quiet or being silent or collaborators of those scams and scandals was foolish," he said.

"The Congress party have given a rebate to debate. You are committing contempt against people of the country and contempt against democracy," he said.

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Former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan today delivered a lecture on the state of global economy but reportedly made no mention of the prevailing economic scenario in India or the controversial demonetisation drive.

The former IMF Chief Economist spoke on the topic "The Global Economy: Opportunities and Challenges" at the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIMA).

The lecture was the first of the annual IIMA-SRK lecture series. Shree Ramkrishna Knowledge Foundation is sponsoring the series with an objective to strengthen collaboration between industry and academia, said a release from the leading business school.

Rajan, now serving as the distinguished service professor of finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, is an alumnus of IIMA.

According to sources, Rajan was accompanied by his wife and met several other former students of the premier management institute.

Rajan touched upon several aspects related to global economy but did not say anything about the prevailing economic scenario in India, they said.

The sources said the former RBI chief also made no reference to the Modi Government's cash recall exercise, announced on November 8, during his entire lecture, which was not open for the media.

The 53-year-old economist stepped down as RBI Governor in September at the end of his three-year term and returned to academia.

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The political row over the recent Army drill at toll plazas in West Bengal flared up again today with Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar dashing off a stinging letter to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, saying her allegations can "adversely" impact the morale of the force and the TMC chief hitting back over his "wild assertion".

In the two-page letter, Parrikar told her that he was "deeply pained" over the allegations regarding the deployment of the army personnel and that the same was not expected from a person of her standing and experience in public life.

Parrikar said that while political parties and politicians may have the luxury of making "wild and unsubstantiated allegations against each other", one needs to be extremely careful while referring to the armed forces.

"Your allegations in this regard run the risk of adversely impacting the morale of the country's armed forces and the same were not expected from a person of your standing and experience in public life," the Minister said.

Banerjee, who is a strident opponent of the Centre's demonetization move, had accused it of deploying the army at toll plazas in West Bengal without informing the state government and described it as "unprecedented" and "a very serious situation worse than Emergency".

The Trinamool Congress stayed put in her office in Kolkata overnight in protest against the deployment and had asked whether it was an "army coup".

Terming it as "avoidable controversy" over the exercise carried out by the Eastern Command in West Bengal and other states under the jurisdiction to collect information about the movement of heavy vehicles at toll gates, Parrikar, in his letter dated December 8, said it is carried out by all formations of the army all across the country for many years.

He said the exercises are held as per the dates convenient to the army in consultation with agencies of the state government.

"I have been deeply pained by your allegations as reported in the media. If only you had enquired with the agencies concerned of the state government, you would have come to know of the extensive correspondence between the Army and the state agencies including the joint inspection of sites carried out by them," Parrikar said.

Hitting back, Banerjee said, "I take strong exception to your wild assertion that my articulation of the rights of the state government vis-a-vis Army deployment without clearance has impacted the morale of the armed forces.

"Your general observations about the political parties and politicians to have the luxury of making wild and unsubstantiated allegations may be apt for your party, but we do not belong to that group," she said in a two-page reply.

The chief minister also maintained that the Ministry of Defence has not taken prior permission of the state government for large deployment of Army personnel in civilian areas.

Parrikar said the army authorities were forced to put the record straight in the matter by presenting evidence of their communication with the state agencies concerned including rescheduling of the data collection operations on their response.

TMC MP Derek O' Brien charged the Centre with playing politics on the issue. "Look who is playing politics. The letter has not even reached the chief minister of Bengal and it has already been leaked in the media in Delhi.

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Sai Sam Tip Hsur, the vice chairman of the ESSDDP, which was formed shortly before the 2015 general election, told Shan Herald that his party had decided not to list candidates for the 2017 by-elections because of a breakdown in cooperation with its sister parties, the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) and the Shan National Democratic Party (SNDP).

I am sure we will not be able to win in eastern Shan State if we [three Shan parties] do not unite, he said. Both the SNLD and the SNDP will contest [the same constituencies]. I believe that if we do not cooperate, we will all lose.

If we believe that our nationality is the priority, we must cooperate, Sai Sam Tip Hsur emphasized. No whether which party wins  whether it is the SNDP or the SNLD  the outcome is that we all [Shan nationals] win.

He added: I am sure that every Tai [Shan] loves his or her national identity. However, if we continue to hold prejudices against one another, we are going to lose.

No one need beat us; we will lose the elections by ourselves.

The three ethnic Shan-based parties lost every seat in eastern Shan State to the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) and the National League for Democracy (NLD) in the general election last year.

The SNDP, also known as the White Tiger Party, had contested 207 seats in 68 townships in Kachin State, Kayah State and Shan State, as well as Mandalay and Sagaing Divisions. However, it won only one State Assembly seat in Mong Pan Township. The SNLD, which won a convincing victory in Shan State in the 1990 elections, won a total of just 40 seats in last Novembers elections.

Both SNDP and SNLD confirmed that they would contest all available seats in the by-election next year.

By Shan Herald Agency for News (SHAN)
The Income Tax department has seized at least Rs 106 crore in cash, including Rs 10 crore in new currency, and gold bars weighing 127 kg in searches at multiple locations in the city to check tax evasion post demonetization.

This is the largest seizure of new currency notes after the old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes were scrapped on November 8. The I-T operation had been launched yesterday here.

Officials said S Reddy, a contractor working with the state government, has claimed the entire money and the gold as his own and is being questioned.

"127 kg gold in 1 kg bars and Rs 96 crore in old currency and Rs 10 crore in Rs 2,000 notes have been seized by the sleuths after the operation," top I-T department officials said, adding "this is an unprecedented amount that the tax department has seized in recent times".

The department carried out the searches based on intelligence inputs about the activities of Reddy and few others for the last few days.

Officials said the agency was investigating how the new notes in such a large quantity were stashed by the individual. The bundles of the new Rs 2,000 had no banking slips on them.

They said the I-T teams had launched operations on at least eight locations of a "syndicate" involved in currency conversion.

The officials said a number of documents related to financial transactions, entries of gold sale and records of sale/purchase have also been seized by the tax sleuths.

At least three people of the alleged syndicate are being questioned while few others are under the radar, they said.

"He (Reddy) is a contractor working with the state government. He is claiming the entire cash and gold to be his own. Further probe is on," they said.

The I-T department, they said, will share the case details with the Enforcement Directorate and CBI for further probe into money laundering and corruption angles.

Some bank officials are also under the scanner of the taxman.

The tax department had made the largest seizure of Rs 5.7 crore cash in new notes in Bengaluru few days back after which two other central probe agencies, the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate, had taken over the cases to probe instances of corruption, money laundering and large-scale hawala transactions in the wake of the currency scrap on November 8.

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Aam Aadmi Party National Convener Arvind Kejriwal today alleged SAD-BJP alliance and Congress party have reached a secret pact to contest 2017 assembly polls by fielding candidates with "mutual understanding".

Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal, on the first day of his six-day visit to Punjab, said that threatened by AAP's "rising popularity", PPCC Chief Amarinder Singh and SAD chief and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal have held a "clandestine meeting" to discuss their poll prospects.

"As they know very well that both SAD-BJP and Congress would not be able to form the government in Punjab, hence they decided to field the candidates with mutual understanding," Kejriwal said.

He said recent "exodus" of certain Akali leaders to Congress was being initiated with a tacit understanding so as to "prop up" Amarinder Singh in Punjab, who has "failed" to make a mark even after he returned as the state party chief.

Kejriwal said Akalis are aware they were not coming to power as there was huge public anger simmering against them.

The "secret pact" between Sukhbir Badal and Amarinder Singh could not have been "more evident" especially after the Badal government has "withdrawn corruption case" against Captain Amarinder Singh in Amritsar court, Kejriwal said.

Kejriwal said when Congress government was at centre for 10 years it "failed" to act against revenue minister Bikram Singh Majithia for his alleged involvement in the multi-crore drug racket.

At the same time Majithia was allegedly saved by Amarinder Singh when his own party was demanding CBI probe against him (Majithia) for his involvement in the drug racket, Delhi CM added.

"I have revealed Swiss Bank account numbers of Captain Amarinder Singh's family, where he has stashed huge amount of black money in all public rallies, which Captain Amarinder Singh so far has not denied," Kejriwal said.

"Why Captain Amarinder Singh did not file a defamation case against me. Why he has maintained a stony silence on the issue? It shows he is guilty," he said.

Delhi Chief Minister also read out the "account numbers of Amarinde's son" Raninder Singh and Parneet Kaur as well as joint account, where the family has been "parking their ill-gotten money".

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Private equity firm Samara Capital has signed pact to invest up to USD 25 million (over Rs 167 crore) in the Sahajanand Medical Technologies for acquiring a significant stake in the stent manufacturing firm.

The companies, however, did not specify the quantum of stake that is being acquired as part of the deal.

"Samara Capital Partners Fund II has signed definitive agreements to invest up to USD 25 million in Sahajanand Medical Technologies Pvt Ltd for a significant stake," the companies said in a joint statement.

As a part of the deal, Gautam Gode and Abhishek Kabra of Samara Capital will come on the board of Sahajanand Medical Technologies (SMT), it added.

"Samara has been actively researching and investing in the healthcare space and this is our second investment in the medical devices and consumables sector..." Samara Capital Co-Founder and MD Gautam Gode said.

SMT plans to establish itself as a global player with a complete suite of product offerings in the cardiovascular field along with Samara, the statement said.

"We are very excited to partner with Samara and use their expertise and network to take SMT to newer heights," SMT Vice Chairman Bhargav Kotadia said.

Established in 1998, stent manufacturing firm Sahajanand Medical Technologies sells its product in more than 60 countries across the world.

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Vietnam has started dredging work on a reef in the South China Sea, fresh satellite images appear to show, a move that could provoke Beijing which claims most of the disputed waterway.

An image of Ladd Reef in the Spratly Islands, where Vietnam has a lighthouse, shows several vessels in a carved out embankment.

Sediment can be seen leaking out into the ocean, according to the November 30 image provided to AFP today by US-based Planet Labs, a satellite imaging company.

A July picture from Planet Labs shows no breach of the reef's embankment, suggesting the work began in recent months on the small piece of land that is also claimed by Taiwan.

Vietnamese officials did not respond to a request for comment.

The images follow photos published last month from US- based Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative that showed Vietnam had extended a runway and was building hangars capable of hosting military equipment on a different island in the Spratlys also claimed by Beijing.

But Vietnam's latest moves remain small-scale compared to China's build-up in the waterway, where it has constructed several islands capable of supporting military facilities.

Though the nature of the work in the photos cannot be confirmed, Vietnam expert Carl Thayer told AFP that Hanoi might be trying to "stock up" ahead of a code of conduct agreement between various claimants in the South China Sea expected next year.

"If we are moving toward some diplomatic end game at some point in the next year or two, then Vietnam looks like it's trying to get as much as it can before it's prohibited," said Thayer, a professor at the University of New South Wales.

Beijing today delivered a customary rebuke to Vietnam over the apparent dredging, saying it had "indisputable sovereignty" over all Spratly Islands, including Ladd Reef, and surrounding waters.

It urged Hanoi to "refrain from complicating the situation and work with China to safeguard peace and stability in the South China Sea," foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said at a regular briefing.

The two countries have long traded barbs over disputed territory in the sea. In 2014 China moved a controversial oil rig into contested waters, prompting riots in Vietnam.

Tensions have eased slightly in recent months but the issue remains incendiary on both sides. The sea is also claimed by the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan and is rich in energy reserves, fishery resources and is a busy shipping route.

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State Bank of India today sold 3.9 per cent stake in SBI Life for Rs 1,794 crore to Singapore sovereign fund Temasek and global private equity major KKR, valuing the life insurance firm at Rs 46,000 crore ahead of its plans to go public within a couple of years.

Both the partners will pick up equal stake in the third largest private life insurer, after HDFC Life (post merger with Max Life) and ICICI Prudential Life.

In October, SBI had informed the exchanges it was planning to dilute up to 5 per cent to interested parties and that it was working towards taking SBI Life public over the next 18-24 months. SBI had also offered to shed 10 per cent stake to its French joint venture partner BNP Group, at a right price.

Asked whether SBI would sell the remaining portion in the planned stake dilution, a senior company official told PTI that it is unlikely in the current fiscal year.

SBI Life is a joint venture between the nation's largest lender and French financial powerhouse BNP Paribas Cardif, which owns 26 per cent stake.

Post-transaction, SBI's stake in the life insurance firm will come down to 70.1 per cent from current 74 per cent, while BNP Paribas Cardif will continue to hold 26 per cent.

In a statement, SBI said the executive committee meeting of its board has approved the sale of 3.9 crore shares of Rs 10 each, equalling a 3.9 per cent stake in SBI Life for Rs 1,794 crore (USD 264 million).

It said an investment vehicle affiliated with the KKR- managed funds and an affiliate of Temasek will each purchase 1.95 crore share from the bank.

"We are happy to welcome KKR and Temasek as our incoming partners in SBI Life. The partnership with Temasek and KKR is a recognition of the efforts of SBI Life's commitment to create a high-quality institution which is a leader amongst the close to two dozen private life insurers in the country," SBI Chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya said.

The valuation of SBI Life at Rs 46,000 crore reflects significant value creation since its inception in 2001, she added.

KKR India Chief Executive Sanjay Nayar said, "We look forward to supporting SBI Life's long-term growth alongside these high-calibre partners, and are excited to enhance financial access for citizens across the country and promote development of a more inclusive financial services industry.

Temasek India joint head Rohit Sipahimalini said: "We are



positive on the long-term potential of insurance business in this country which is a play on growing middle income, rising household savings and supportive demographics."



In October, SBI had said it would offload up to 5 per cent in the life insurance arm.

"As of now we have taken a call to dilute only 3.9 per cent stake in SBI Life. For the balance 1.1 per cent stake we have not decided yet. The company is growing so we can offload the balance stake in future also," SBI Deputy Managing Director (associates & subsidiaries) Neeraj Vyas told
A leading member of the Sikh- American community has praised US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle for standing with the Sikh community during a challenging time in the eight years of his presidency.

"Their (Obamas) standing with the community during a challenging time in the aftermath of the attack on the Sikh gurdwara in Oak Creek will always be a highpoint in this presidency," Rajwant Singh, Chairman of the Sikh Council on Religion and Education, said yesterday.

On August 5, 2012, a gunman with ties to white supremacist groups walked into the gurdwara of Wisconsin and began a rampage which killed six people, wounded many, and terrorised the Sikh community.

"It was important to say thanks to the Obamas for their support to the Sikh community in the last eight years," said Singh, who attended the Christmas Party with the President and the First Lady Michelle at the White House early this week.

Singh was accompanied by Arvind Singh, a member of the Guru Gobind Singh Foundation.

In response to Singh asking President Obama to allow Sikhs in the US Armed Forces, Obama said, "I understand it and I am doing everything I can".

Several senior officials of the Obama Administration have been nudging and pushing the Pentagon to change its policy on facial hair and headgear.

During the interaction, Singh invited Michelle Obama to visit a Sikh congregation.

"We will be honoured to come. We will certainly come if not before but certainly once we leave the White House. It is really busy and we are trying to do all the packing," the First Lady said according to a media release.

Over 20 lawmakers from the Capitol Hill had sent a letter to Obama in October asking him to visit a Sikh Gurdwara to create awareness about the community and which would help deter hate crimes against the Sikhs.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
More than a hundred rights activists today held a sit-in infront of the embassies of India and Pakistan here in the Nepalese capital, calling on the two countries to "promote peace" and end hostilities.

The sit-in was organised by the Human Rights and Peace Society of Nepal, with their activists carrying banners having the slogan "Stop war and promote peace".

Other banners carries by the activists had the message: "Peace is a human right", "Pakistan do not provide shelter for terrorists", "India, respect neighbour's dignity," "Yes to peace; No to war", "condemn terrorism".

Senior rights activist Krishna Pahari said the aim of the protest was to condemn terrorism, violence, and war; and promote peace, goodwill and understanding.

Hostilities between India and Pakistan have increased after the September 18 attack on an Indian army base in Uri in which 19 soldiers were killed by Pakistan-based terrorists.

Since then, the two armies have been continuously exchanging fire at the Line of Control in Kashmir. Several soldiers and civilians have died in the ceasefire violations on both sides.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A Sebi panel has found the National Stock Exchange to have given preferential access to its co-location servers for algorithmic trading to some stock brokers, Parliament was informed today.

"The architecture of NSE with respect to dissemination of Tick-by-Tick through Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) or Internet Protocol (IP) was prone to manipulation or market abuse," Minister of State for Finance Arjun Meghwal said in written reply to Lok Sabha.

This system has been discontinued by NSE with effect from December 3, this year, he added.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) had constituted an expert committee to examine the allegations of unfair privilege access given by NSE to some brokers for its 'algo' trading.

Algorithmic trading or algo in market parlance refers to orders generated at super-fast speed by use of advanced mathematical models that involve automated execution of trade while co-location involves setting up servers on the exchange premises.

Quoting the Sebi committee's finding, the minister said: "Preferential access was given to stock broker(s), wherein it was possible for stock broker to log into multiple dissemination servers through multiple internet protocols assigned to him.

"It was also possible for a single member to have multiple logins to a single dissemination serve through multiple IPs assigned to it.

"It was observed that stock broker(s) had multiple advantage by logging in first or even second and third."



To check on this malpractices, Sebi has directed stock exchanges to further strengthen the co-location facility in order to ensure fair and equitable access.

In a separate reply, Meghwal said that Sebi found that companies which were either non-operational or had weak fundamentals and unsupportive price volume movements were being used by entities for price manipulation.

During January-November, Sebi has passed orders in the case of 13 such companies and debarred 1,336 entities.

Further, based on Sebi's direction, stock exchanges have also suspended trading in the shares of 203 companies. In addition, price bands of 160 firms were reduced to the lowest band of two per cent.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Congress President Sonia Gandhi today met Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan but there were no signs of any immediate end to the 16-day-long deadlock in Parliament over the demonetisation issue.

Soon after Gandhi had a brief meeting with Mahajan, the Congress made it clear that there has been no toning down of its demand for having a discussion on demonetisation under the rule entailing voting in Lok Sabha and ensuring the presence of the Prime Minister during the debate in Rajya Sabha.

Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi claimed that the ruling side was "running scared" of voting in Lok Sabha despite a comfortable majority as it apprehends that some of its allies may vote against it.

Singhvi dismissed as "joke of the century", BJP's demand for an apology from opposition for disrupting Parliament insisting that the Prime Minister owed an apology to over 100 crore people affected due to his decision.

Hitting back at the BJP and the government, Singhvi told reporters that the "failure" of the ruling dispensation to have a debate in Parliament showed its "panic and scare".

He alleged that the BJP was not allowing Rahul Gandhi to speak in Parliament as it "feared him".

"The BJP for all its bravado is running scared because it thinks ths bravado is another 'jumla'," he said, adding that it "feared" that some of its alliance partners would not be supportive of its action.

"The proof of the pudding is in the eating," he said virtually daring the ruling NDA to have a debate in Lok Sabha with voting.

To the ruling party's demand that the opposition should apologise instead for disrupting Parliament for over a fortnight, Singhvi said, "It is almost comic that the Prime Minister will not apologise for putting over 100 crore people in the country to inconvenience for the past one month. But opposition must apologise merely for asking questions."



"I think it is a joke of the century," he said, on demands for an apology from the opposition.

Singhvi said the Prime Minister should show an active and keen interest as far as his participation in Parliament is concerned.

"Government cannot develop a disinterest in debating the issue. It really speaks of panic and scare," he said.

On Congress demands to have a debate on the issue in both Houses, the Congress spokesperson said, "As of now, nothing has changed on voting. There is no change in the party's stand."



BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain said, "After a stern message of President Pranab Mukherjee to opposition for creating ruckus in Parliament, Congress and Trinamool Congress should apologise to the nation."



He also said that due to this kind of conduct of Congress and TMC, the President himself had to intervene. "They owe an apology to President too," he said.

As Parliament remained gridlocked, Rahul Gandhi today thundered there will be an "earthquake" if allowed to speak on the "biggest scam", drawing ridicule from BJP which said the Congress leader is best known for political "quackery", not quakes.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
South Korean lawmakers today impeached President Park Geun-hye, a stunning and swift fall for the country's first female leader amid protests that drew millions into the streets in united fury.

After the vote, parliamentary officials hand-delivered formal documents to the presidential Blue House that stripped Park of her power and allowed her No 2, Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, to assume leadership until the country's Constitutional Court rules on whether Park must permanently step down. The court has up to six months to decide.

"I'd like to say that I'm deeply sorry to the people because the nation has to experience this turmoil because of my negligence and lack of virtue at a time when our security and economy both face difficulties," Park said at a Cabinet meeting after the vote.

Once called the "Queen of Elections" for her ability to pull off wins for her party, Park has been surrounded in the Blue House in recent weeks by millions of South Koreans who have taken to the streets in protest.

They are furious over what prosecutors say was collusion by Park with a longtime friend to extort money from companies and to give that confidante extraordinary sway over government decisions.

Organisers said about 10,000 people gathered in front of the National Assembly to demand that lawmakers pass the impeachment motion.

Some had spent the night on the streets after traveling from other cities. Scuffles broke out between angry anti-Park farmers, some of whom had driven tractors to the assembly from their farms, and police.

When impeachment happened, many of those gathered raised their hands in the air and leapt about, cheering and laughing.

"Can you hear the roar of the people in front of the National Assembly? We need to overcome the old establishment and create a new Republic of Korea by passing (the impeachment motion)," Kim Kwan-young, an opposition lawmaker said ahead of the vote, referring to South Korea's formal name. "Our great people have already opened the way. Let's make it so we can stand honorably in front of history and our descendants."



The handover of power prompted the prime minister to order South Korea's defense minister to put the military on a state of heightened readiness to brace for any potential provocation by North Korea. No suspicious movements by the North were reported, however.

Park will be formally removed from office if at least six of the Constitutional Court's nine justices support her impeachment, and the country would then hold a presidential election within 60 days.

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Rio Tinto is a giant UK/Australian mining corporation that operates many facilities in Australia's remotest reaches, where there is no housing for workers, so the company ends up building "company towns" where their laborers live, closing the loop between home and worklife, and putting them both under control of a corporation; now the company is flirting with the kind of "smart city" technology that has been tried elsewhere, but generally in places where the residents are citizens, not employees, and the governing law is created by a legislature, not a non-negotiable employment contract.



As you might imagine, the results are pretty ghastly.

Last March, Rio Tinto announced that it had contracted with the French private prison operator Sodexo to add surveillance instrumentation to its operations, including 3,259 residences. When the Guardian chased up the announcement with an interview request, Sodexo and Rio Tinto were initially enthusiastic and revealed much of what they had planned, but the companies quickly realized that this might make them look like Orwellian monsters and so they refused to discuss the matter further.

From the brief moment of openness, we learned that the plan is to stream live telemetry from the Rio Tinto site to a control room in Perth where 50 staffers will continuously monitor and respond to the data, which would "capture individual insights on where employees are spending their time and money."

Initially, surveillance would come from static CCTVs and drone-mounted cameras, with plans to add "sensors to light poles and rubbish bins."

The companies later backtracked and insisted that everything would be "in line with both Australian government legislation" and "Rio Tinto privacy policies"  which is to say, they can do whatever they want, because anything forbidden by law can be permitted by forcing workers to accept a "privacy policy" through which they'd "consent" to surveillance that goes beyond Australia's already weak privacy protections for workers who are being spied upon by their bosses.

These miners are also canaries: the things that are normalized in mining camps will be used as evidence to support invasive municipal surveillance in other places. That's in accord with the surveillance lifecycle: first measures are tried on prisoners, then mental patients, then schoolchildren, then blue collar workers, then white collar workers.



In July the Western Mine Workers' Alliance raised concerns about new surveillance measures at Western Turner iron ore mine in the Pilbara, where workers noticed CCTV cameras had been installed. The union claimed employees only realised they were being watched after hearing supervisors comment about their new ability to "zoom right in" on workers. "This was a concern on many levels not least privacy, anyone who has worked in a remote area of a mine site knows that toilet facilities are few and far between," the union noted. Sodexo says smart waste disposal units would enable their central operating team to be alerted when bins need emptying. But civil liberty advocates have raised concerns that smart bins are capable of monitoring not just the quantity of rubbish, but what exactly is being thrown away. Sue Crock, the coordinator of the mining sector mental health service This Fifo Life, expressed concern about the impact of expanding the potential for surveillance at a time when mass layoffs have Rio Tinto employees fearing for their jobs. Last month up to 500 more redundancies were confirmed, bringing the total number over two years to 2,000.

Revealed: Rio Tinto's plan to use drones to monitor workers' private lives

[Max Opray/The Guardian]





(via We Make Money Not Art)





(Image: AERIAL OF A TYPICAL COMPANY TOWN, PD)
DMK Treasurer and Opposition Leader in the Tamil Nadu Asembly MK Stalin today greeted Congress President Sonia Gandhi on her 70th birthday, wishing her a long and healthy life.

"On behalf of DMK and myself, I wish a long and healthy life for Indian National Congress President Mrs Sonia Gandhi," Stalin said in a message.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
German authorities have arrested a man suspected of setting off homemade explosive devices outside a mosque and a conference center in Dresden in September.

Prosecutors said the 29-year-old man from Dresden was arrested yesterday. They said today that authorities also seized objects that could be used to make explosives, and that DNA evidence linked the suspect to the blasts.

The entrance of the Fatih Camii mosque was damaged in the explosion on September 26. An imam with his wife and two sons were inside at the time, but weren't hurt.

The second device exploded shortly afterward on a terrace between a hotel and a conference center.

The explosions came a few days before events marking Germany's national day in Dresden, where the anti-Islam PEGIDA movement is based.

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Syrian warplanes launched fresh raids on the last rebel-held districts in Aleppo today, as key regime ally Russia vowed the assault would continue until opposition fighters left the battleground city.

Government strikes had halted briefly from last night, when Moscow announced a pause in the regime's offensive to allow the evacuation of civilians, though artillery fire did not stop.

Syria's army is three weeks into a battle to retake east Aleppo from rebels who are now confined to just a few neighbourhoods in their former bastion.

The city's loss would be the biggest blow for the rebels in the nearly six-year-old war, which has killed more than 300,000 people and displaced over half the country's population.

Tens of thousands of civilians have fled east Aleppo in recent weeks, though the United Nations said today it had received reports that rebels had blocked some residents from leaving.

It also expressed concern about reports that hundreds of men had gone missing after fleeing to government-held territory.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, reported at least a dozen air strikes on rebel-held neighbourhoods this afternoon.

Artillery fire had continued throughout last night and into today after Moscow's announcement, the monitor and an AFP correspondent reported.

Syria's army has captured around 85 per cent of east Aleppo, with rebels and remaining civilians confined to a shrinking space in increasingly grim conditions.

East Aleppo has been encircled by the regime since mid-July, with international aid provisions exhausted and remaining food supplies dwindling even before the government assault began in mid-November.

An AFP correspondent in east Aleppo said it had become increasingly difficult to find food because shopkeepers were too afraid to open and sell their meagre wares under the heavy government fire.

He said fleeing civilians had seen bodies lying uncollected in the streets of one neighbourhood because the intensity of the bombardment made it too dangerous to retrieve the dead.

Diplomatic efforts to reach a ceasefire have floundered, despite repeated discussions between Washington and Moscow, which back opposing sides in the conflict.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said today he hoped a truce deal could be reached soon, and Russian and US officials are to meet tomorrow in Geneva.

But Lavrov added military operations in the city would continue so long as rebels remained in Aleppo.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Syrian warplanes again pounded Aleppo's last rebel-held districts today, as the United States said American and Russian officials would meet in a bid to save the city from "complete" destruction.

With the fighting resuming after a brief respite, the UN General Assembly demanded an immediate ceasefire and urgent aid deliveries, in a resolution adopted by a strong majority.

US officials will meet tomorrow with their Russian counterparts in Geneva to try to stop Aleppo "being absolutely, completely destroyed", US Secretary of State John Kerry said.

He was in Paris for a meeting of foreign ministers from the Western and Arab backers of Syria's weakened opposition, also tomorrow.

Kerry was not upbeat about the chances of success, however, as key regime ally Russia vowed that the assault would not end until rebels leave Aleppo.

"I know people are tired of these meetings, I'm tired of these meetings," Kerry said.

"But what am I supposed to do? Go home and have a nice weekend... While people are dying? Sit there in Washington and do nothing?"



Government strikes had halted briefly from yesterday night, when Moscow announced a pause in the regime offensive to allow the evacuation of civilians, although shelling did not cease.

Syria's army is three weeks into a battle to retake east Aleppo from rebels who are now confined to just a few neighbourhoods in their former bastion.

The city's loss would be the biggest blow for the rebels in Syria's nearly six-year-old war, which has killed more than 300,000 people and displaced over half the country's population.

Tens of thousands of civilians have fled east Aleppo in recent weeks, although the United Nations said today it had received reports that rebels had blocked some from leaving.

It also expressed concern about reports that hundreds of men had gone missing after fleeing to government-held territory.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, reported at least a dozen air strikes on rebel-held neighbourhoods today afternoon.

Artillery fire had continued throughout yesterday night and into today after Moscow's announcement, the monitor and an AFP correspondent in east Aleppo reported.

Syria's army has captured around 85 percent of east Aleppo, with rebels and remaining civilians confined to a shrinking space in increasingly grim conditions.

East Aleppo has been encircled by the regime since mid-July, with international aid provisions exhausted and remaining food supplies dwindling even before the government assault began in mid-November.

The AFP correspondent said fleeing civilians had seen bodies in the streets of one neighbourhood because the intensity of the bombardment made it too dangerous to retrieve the dead.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Sebi today said transfer of shares to shareholders under tender offers would be made directly to the account maintained by the Clearing Corporation, a move aimed reducing systemic risk to investors.

The decision was taken in consultation with the stock exchanges and depositories.

Under the current norms, shareholders submit their bids through stock brokers who transfer the shares to the special account of the Clearing Corporation.

Likewise, the consideration payable to shareholders for the shares accepted in the offer are routed through stock brokers as of now. Also, the shares not accepted in the offer are returned to shareholders through the stock brokers.

Sebi said in a circular that "transfer of shares of shareholders under the tender offers would be made directly to the account maintained by the clearing corporation".

After such transfer of securities, clearing corporation will be allowed to utilise the securities towards the settlement obligations under such offers.

"Further, consideration for the accepted shares in the tender offer and shares tendered but not accepted under such offer would be credited directly to shareholders' bank and demat accounts respectively," it added.

The new procedure would be applicable to all the offers for which public announcement is made on or after January 2.

The new measures will reduce the systematic risk for investors and ease the process of implementation.

Explaining the procedure for placing of orders, Sebi said that depositories --NSDL and CDSL -- would have to provide information to clearing corporations about the shareholder on whose behalf the member has placed sell order. Such information would include investor PAN, beneficiary account as well as bank details.

"The cumulative quantity tendered would be made available online to the market throughout trading session at specific intervals by exchange providing acquisition window during the tendering period on the basis of shares transferred to clearing corporation using early pay-in mechanism," it said.

With regard to execution of trades and settlement, the regulator said once the basis of acceptance is finalised, clearing corporation would transfer unaccepted shares directly to the shareholders account.

In case, securities transfer instruction is rejected in the depository system, due to any issue then such securities will be transferred to the seller broker's depository pool account for onward transfer to the shareholder



"Acquirer will transfer the funds pertaining to the offer to clearing corporations bank account. The corporations will then settle the trades by making direct funds payout to shareholders.

"If shareholders bank account details are not available or if the funds transfer instruction is rejected by RBI/bank due to any issue, then such funds will be transferred to the seller broker's settlement account for onward transfer to shareholder," it added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A 28-year-old man from Mumbra in neighbouring Thane district has allegedly joined banned terror organisation ISIS, according to the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS).

Tabrej Noor Mohammad Tambe, who had left the country to visit Egypt and Libya, has joined ISIS and a complaint in this connection has been lodged at Kalachowki unit of the ATS by this brother, Mumbai ATS chief Atul Kulkarni told PTI today.

Tabrej is believed to have joined ISIS with one of his friends Ali who is from Saudi Arabia. Tabrej was in contact with Ali since last few years as both had worked together in Riyadh, the officer said.

ATS has registered an offence under sections of 16,18,18 (B), 20,38,39 of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). Further investigation is underway.

Last month, the Lok Sabha was informed that NIA and state security agencies have so far arrested 68 supporters of dreaded terror outfit ISIS in various parts of the country.

According to Minister of State for Home, Hansraj Ahir a total of 50 people have been arrested by security agencies during the current year of whom 11 belonged to Maharashtra.

ISIS is using various platforms to propagate its ideology and to attract recruits from across the world, he had said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A 28-year-old Thane youth, who has allegedly joined ISIS along with his friend, had told his family members to join him, saying life with the terrorist organisation was 'cushy', a senior ATS official said today.

Tabrez Mohammad Tambe, a resident of Mumbra, had asked his family members to 'settle' in the country from where he is operating now, the official said.

"Sensing that he was in the wrong place, his (Tabrez's) brother asked him to return to India but he rejected the plea and said you (family members) come here as life is cushy," the official said.

Tabrez was in contact with his wife, brother and mother via cell phones, social media and other modes of communications and told the family about his activities for the Islamic State.

ATS feels Tabrez, who completed his post graduation in cargo management and transportation and got married three years ago, has actively participated in ISIS operations.

He visited some countries in the last five years for jobs, the official said. In January, he left India, and said he has got a job in Egypt.

"From Egypt, he went to Libya to join ISIS with his friend Ali," the official said, adding it was Ali who prompted Tabrez to join ISIS. Both knew each other as they worked together at Riyadh in Saudi Arabia a year ago, he said.

"We are collecting information about Ali. We are not sure whether Ali is Indian or not. As per our information, he has visited India before," ATS chief Atulchandra Kulkarni told PTI.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson has assured Priyanka Chopra's fans that there is more to her role than seen in the recently released trailer of "Baywatch".

The actor insists that Chopra "slays" as baddie Victoria Leeds.

"All our fans & press friends in INDIA, riyankachopraSLAYS our #Baywatch! Trust my plan.. The #Boss is comin'..," he tweeted.

"I luv India back! (U already know I luv U;). It's aaaallll in the big picture plan. #Wait4VictoriaLeeds #Boss #Baywatch MEMORIAL DAY. (sic)," he wrote.

Chopra thanked the actor saying, "lol...Thank you DJ...Trusted you from day one. India loves you and will love everything about Baywatch! #Wait4VictoriaLeeds."



A trailer of the summer release has just released, but Priyanka's fans will have to wait for the first real introduction to Leeds' character, according to a release by Paramount.

"Everyone at Paramount is beyond thrilled to be working with Priyanka Chopra on her big screen Hollywood debut with our global tentpole 'Baywatch'.

"As her co-star Dwayne Johnson has said Priyanka is one of the biggest stars in the world and we are excited to have her promote her prominent starring role to audiences in countries across the globe," officials from Paramount stated in a statement here.

"Baywatch", slated to release on May 26, next year, stars Johnson, Priyanka, Zac Efron and Alexandra Daddario.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
As Parliament remained gridlocked over demonetisation, Rahul Gandhi today thundered there will be an "earthquake" if allowed to speak on the "biggest scam", drawing ridicule from BJP which said the Congress leader is best known for political "quackery", not quakes.

With earthquake being invoked metaphorically by the rival parties in an escalation of exchanges on note ban, BJP leader Sambit Patra scoffed at the Congress Vice-President, remarking that those who were the "Epicentre" of scams for the last 60 years are now talking about earthquakes.

Gandhi accused the government of not allowing him to speak in Parliament on demonetization, which he dubbed as the "biggest scam", and said he would reveal in the House what was behind the move to scrap high denomination notes.

"If they allow me to speak in Parliament, you will see what an earthquake is going to happen," he said.

Speaking to reporters outside Parliament, Gandhi said that his party wants debate on demonetization so that the truth can come to the fore, but the government is running away from it.

Gandhi said that when he gets a chance to speak about demonetization in the House, "the Prime Minister will not be able to even sit there".

"The Prime Minister is giving speeches across the country but is afraid of coming to the Lok Sabha and is not willing to sit there," Gandhi said and asked what could be the reason for this "nervousness".

"Demonetization is the biggest scam in the history of India.... I want to speak in Lok Sabha. I will tell everything there," Gandhi said.

The Congress leader was speaking after his party said in Lok Sabha that it was ready to debate the issue but the government demanded that it should first apologise to the people of the country for stalling Parliament proceedings for 16 days, leading to uproar and adjournment of the House.

Gandhi said initially the Government spoke about black-money, then moved to counterfeit currency and then again to a cashless society campaign.

He said, "I want to tell about the the biggest scam committed by Narendra Modi single handedly" and present the "voice of people, specially poor, who have suffered due to this move".

He said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should come to the House so that it can be discussed "what demonetization is, who has benefited from this decision is and what it means for whom".

He added that the government had initially proposed debate on demonetization to which his party agreed but then the government backtracked.

"Those who were 'Epicentre' of SCAMS for the last 60 years talk of 'Earthquake' today!!," Patra tweeted. "He is to be reminded that He is best known for Political 'Quackery', not Quakes."



Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu and fellow minister Smriti Irani also took a swipte at Gandhi.

"May this quake happen when we are not present in Parliament," Naidu told reporters in Bengaluru.

"Rahulji thinks too highly about his oratory skills and he himself knows how much his speeches appeal...As far as tremors are concerned. I think when he speaks there are tremors within Congress not outside," Irani said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Union Information and Broadcasting Minister on Friday said it was "too early" to discuss anything about BJP's alliance with the AIADMK in the new political scene unfolding in Tamil Nadu after the demise of its supremo and former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa.

"It is too early to discuss anything (about alliance)... just now only last rites of madam (Jayalalithaa) were performed. Secondly, there is no election now. There is no alignment. There is no realignment also now. Let us wait and see ...," Naidu, a senior BJP leader, told reporters Bengaluru.

Naidu was responding to a question about the role of the Centre and the BJP in the emerging power play post the passing away of Jayalalithaa, which has caused a huge political vacuum in the highly polarised of Tamil Nadu and thrown up several imponderables within the AIADMK.

Asked if his describing the AIADMK as a "natural ally" meant that it would join the NDA fold, Naidu said, "Natural is the word used by a section of media friends. I have not used that word. I said there is an ideological affinity to some extent. This is the word I used...,"

On some issues, he said, the AIADMK was supporting the Modi Government and on some others, it was critical.

"They are an independent party. We did not have an electoral alliance (with them). Whether we will have an alliance or not in future, there is a lot of time. This is not the time to discuss," he added.

Asked what role BJP has considering the "fragmentation" in AIADMK following Jayalalithaa's demise, Naidu shot back, saying "Why should I talk about fragmentation, that is a figment of the imagination. I do not know."
Donald Trump has vigorously defended his incoming cabinet against uproar from Democrats, green activists and workers unions who said his nominees for the environment and labour signalled a sharp shift to the right.

The 70-year-old president-elect, who has never previously held elective office, yesterday announced Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, a climate skeptic, as environment chief and fast food executive Andy Puzder as labour secretary.

More than half his cabinet positions have now been filled, 43 days before the Republican is sworn in as the 45th president of the United States, the oldest man ever inaugurated into the office.

"I believe we're in the process of putting together one of the great cabinets that has ever been assembled in the history of our nation," Trump told a victory rally in Des Moines, Iowa.

It was the third of his unorthodox "thank you" rallies feting his shock electoral defeat of Hillary Clinton in key swing states that have propelled him into the leadership of the most powerful democracy on earth.

"In filling my cabinet I'm looking for people who fully understand the meaning of service and who are committed to advancing the common good," he added, defending his appointment of a string of billionaires and millionaires.

His nominees, he said, had given up fortunes "to make one dollar a year," hailing them as "talented people, smart people."



The incoming president triggered criticism by tapping a fossil fuel industry ally to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) - outraging many who fear that he will reverse President Barack Obama's efforts to combat climate change.

"We're going to end the EPA intrusion into your lives," he told the Iowa crowd.

In announcing the nomination of Pruitt - who will need Senate approval - Trump complained that "for too long," the EPA had spent "taxpayer dollars on an out-of-control anti- energy agenda that has destroyed millions of jobs."



Steny Hoyer, the number two Democrat in the House of Representatives, said Pruitt had spent years "fighting tooth and nail to help polluters erase or circumvent the critical environmental protections our nation has put in place."



Ken Kimmell, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists, described Pruitt as someone "on the outer extreme edge, and putting him in charge of EPA could really have devastating consequences."



The appointment was made despite Trump's meeting this week with former Democratic vice president-turned-climate campaigner Al Gore and actor Leonardo DiCaprio, who is an active environmentalist.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A top Republican Congressman has suggested US president-elect Donald Trump to meet exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and help promote peace between Tibet and China.

"As you meet with various world leaders in preparation for assuming your role as President, I would like to take the opportunity to suggest that you meet with His Holiness the Dalai Lama," Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner said in a letter to Trump, copy of which was released yesterday.

After being elected as the 45th President of the United States on November 8, Trump and his vice president-elect Mike Pence has spoken to more than 50 world leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

However, the congratulatory phone call that he received from the Taiwanese President drew sharp reaction from China.

Over the years, American presidents have maintained relationship with the Dalai Lama but in his capacity as the religious and spiritual leader of the Tibetans. But it has drawn angry reaction from the Chinese whenever a US President meets Dalai Lama in the White House.

So far Trump has not spoken to the 81-year-old Tibetan leader, prompting the powerful Republican to send a letter to the resident-elect in this regard.

"Tibetans have the right to preserve their culture, heritage, language, and religion. Over the years, the Tibetan people have undergone a constant struggle to free themselves from the Chinese government and to preserve these basic freedoms," Sensenbrenner said.

"The People's Republic of China continues to refuse to acknowledge the autonomy of the Tibetan people, and have cracked down on protests and demonstrations by Tibetans," he wrote in the letter.

"Throughout the course of the last half-century, America has had a strong and stable relationship with the people and government of Tibet. I hope you will continue this strong relationship with Tibet, as well as promote peace between Tibet and the People's Republic of China," he said.

A US lawmaker since 1979, Congressman Sensenbrenner met the Dalai Lama in 2008. Since his exile from Tibet 57 years ago, the Dalai Lama has been a strong and persistent advocate for a peaceful resolution to the tension between Tibet and China, he said.

In 1989, the Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in furthering the peaceful protest of the Chinese occupation of Tibet, the Congressman wrote to Trump.

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An Istanbul court today dropped a case against four top former Israeli commanders who were being tried in absentia over the 2010 deadly storming of a Turkish ship bound for Gaza that caused an over half-decade crisis in ties.

Ten Turkish citizens lost their lives as a result of the raid that saw Israeli commandos storm the Mavi Marmara ship. But dropping the charges was a key pillar of a deal agreed between Israel and Turkey this June to normalise bilateral ties.

The deal had been keenly supported by Turkey's NATO ally the United States which has always supported the key alliance between Israel and overwhelmingly Muslim Turkey.

An arrest warrant for the four charged was also withdrawn, Gulden Sonmez, a lawyer for the victims, wrote on Twitter after a closed door hearing in Istanbul.

Mustafa Ozbek, a spokesman for the Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) charity which organised the bid in 2010 to break Israel's Gaza blockade, confirmed to AFP that the case had been withdrawn.

Prosecutors had been seeking life sentences for the alleged involvement of former Israeli military chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi, former navy chief Eliezer Marom, former military intelligence head Amos Yadlin and former air force intelligence chief Avishai Levy, who went on trial in absentia in 2012.

The decision had been expected after the prosecutor told the Istanbul court last week that the case against the Israelis should be dropped because of the agreement.

Before the verdict was read out, tumult erupted in the courthouse as lawyers and supporters of the victims denounced what they said was a travesty of justice.

Lawyers and families walked out of courtroom shouting "damn Israel" and "Mavi Marmara our honour".

"No matter what court decides about those who committed the crime... We believe that they were convicted by both the law and the conscience of the people," said the victims' lawyer Yasin Samli.

"We were thrown out of the court room," added Cigdem Topcuoglu whose husband was killed on board the Mavi Marmara, adding: "We want justice, nothing else".

Turkey and Israel agreed the normalisation after they held long-running secret talks in third countries with Israel offering an apology over the raid and $20 million in compensation.

Israel also agreed to allow Turkish aid to reach Gaza as part of the agreement.

Under the terms of the deal, both sides also agreed individual Israeli citizens or those acting on behalf of the Israeli government would not be held liable -- either criminally or financially -- for the raid.

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Turkey is sending hundreds of commandos to reinforce its military campaign inside Syria, where the Turkish army has suffered increasing casualties in its fight to capture a key town from Islamic State jihadists, reports said today.

A total of 300 commandos from a base in the western Turkish province of Denizli were first taken in buses to a military airport and then to the border region in military planes to join the Turkish-led operation, Turkish newspapers and the Anadolu agency reported.

Ankara in August launched an operation dubbed Euphrates Shield to back up Syrian rebels seeking to oust jihadists from the border zone.

The Syrian towns of Jarabulus, Al Rai and Dabiq were retaken from the IS jihadists in lightning moves in the early weeks of the operation.

But the Syrian fighters and Turkish troops have found far greater resistance in the fight for Al Bab -- 25 kilometres from the Turkish border -- where the jihadists have reportedly regrouped after fleeing an earlier offensive.

Nineteen Turkish soldiers have lost their lives in the Syria campaign so far, with the government wary of any sign it could become a focus of public concern.

The army has already since summer 2015 been waging an offensive against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in the southeast that has claimed the lives of hundreds of members of the security forces.

Most of the attacks in the Syria campaign have been blamed on the IS extemists.

But four Turkish soldiers were killed last month by an air strike the Turkish army blamed on the Syrian regime. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said last week neither Moscow nor its ally Damascus were behind the deadly strike.

The Turkish army also said it lost contact with two Turkish soldiers in Syria, and an IS-affiliated agency claimed they were taken hostage by the jihadist group.

As well as seeking to root out IS, Turkey also wants to expel a Syrian Kurdish militia from its frontier and form a safe zone to shelter some of the 2.7 million Syrian refugees who sought safety in the country.

Hundreds of Turkish troops, tanks and artillery are involved in the offensive but Ankara has not given precise numbers over the size of the contingent.

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Two persons were killed and another one was injured in a head-on-collision between a truck and a jeep near Sarsaud village, about 20 km from here on Hisar-Chandigarh road late last night.

According to police, Jitender, Pappu and Vinod Kumar were on their way from Ludhiana to Rajasthan after purchasing some parts of machines.

A truck coming from Hisar side hit their jeep near Sarsaud village, killing Jitender (23) and Pappu (40) on the spot.

The deceased were residents of Ratoda village in Boondi district of Rajasthan.

The injured Vinod Kumar, also from the same village, has been admitted to civil hospital here for treatment.

Low visibility on account of fog was the cause behind the incident.

A case has been registered on a complaint of the injured against the unknown driver of the truck who ran away after the accident, leaving behind the truck.

The bodies of the deceased were handed over to their relatives after conducting post-mortem here in civil hospital.

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Faced with a losing battle against mice, Downing Street has roped-in two more cats to the Cabinet Office.

Evie and Ossie are the latest recruits in the government's ongoing - and losing - battle against mice.

The black and white mother and son were rescued from the Celia Hammond Animal Trust and arrived in time for the Cabinet Office's centenary this week, The Sun reported today.

Evie is named after Dame Evelyn Sharp - the first ever female Civil Service Permanent Secretary.

And her boy Ossie is named after top civil servant E.C.B Osmotherly - an expert on Whitehall and parliamentary procedure.

No taxpayer money will be spent on the two furry friends, the report said.

So far they have shunned the limelight with only a sneaky snap of Evie surfacing after it was tweeted by a Whitehall chief.

A Cabinet Office said the two cats had been specifically chosen to avoid fights with the Whitehall tomcats.

No10's famous Larry - the government's official Chief Mouser - has been locked in a vicious territorial war with Palmerston, the Foreign Office cat.

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Filmmaker Satish Kaushik is happy that "Udta Punjab" director Abhishek Chaubey will be co-producing his next, titled "Main Zinda Hoon".

The forthcoming black-comedy is a biopic based on a man from Uttar Pradesh, who was declared dead by the government.

The movie will be produced by Kaushik, along with Chaubey and Honey Trehan's company, MacGuffin Pictures, which recently backed Konkona Sen Sharma's "A Death in a Gunj".

"I am not producing the film alone and have Honey and Abhishek backing it. I said instead of me doing it alone, it's better if young people do it because they do bring in creative inputs. We will produce it together and will plan the right funding," Kaushik told PTI.

"Honey and Abhishek were very keen to produce the film. I was very happy to be a part of 'Udta Punjab' also, which Abhisehk directed and I am really happy he is producing this one too," the filmmaker added.

The film chronicles the life of a man called Lal Bihari 'Mritak,' who took nearly 14 years to prove that he was alive.

The 60-year-old director says it was tricky to write the script as the story revolves around a common man, and the film's idea was with him for so long, it became a part of his life.

"The script is now complete. It was tough to weave the script because it is a biopic about a common man, not some known personality. To gather his life and put it in cinema format was interesting.

"Earlier films used to start instantly but 'Main Zinda Hoon' has become a part of my life. The person on whose life this movie is made, I still take care of him, his son got married and I sent him money too."



Kaushik, who last helmed "Gang of Ghosts" in 2014, aims to start the film soon and is looking for actors to cast.

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UK MPs have backed a family's campaign for a new investigation into the alleged honour killing of a British Sikh woman while she was on holiday in India.

Seeta Kaur, who has been named for the first time this week after her case emerged earlier this month, was a mother of four whodied in "highly suspicious circumstances" in March 2015 after refusing to allow one of her sons to be adopted by her childless brother-in-law, during a trip to Haryana.

Her UK-based family, including twin sister Geeta, claim the 33-year-old was the victim of "a classic case of honour killing" with MPs Naz Shah and Kate Osamor now backing them at an event in the British Parliament complex to launch the 'Justice for Seeta' campaign this week.

"It is the extraterritorial nature of this crime that has made it so difficult to seek justice for Seeta. Honour killings should not be sidelined as an issue affecting only certain communities. This is a feminist issue," said Osamor.

Southall Black Sisters, a UK-based human rights group for minority women, is leading the a campaign, claiming Seeta's family have been unable to get Indian police to investigate her death properly.

"OnMarch 31, her family in London received a call in the middle of the night to say that she had died. The ostensible cause of death was a heart attack.

"On hearing the news, her family travelled there immediately with the intention of bringing her body back to the UK. They allege that they saw marks of strangulation on her dead body. But their testimony is their only evidence, because she was cremated," says Rahila Gupta, from Southall Black Sisters.

Seeta's four young children remain in India with their father even though they were made wards of the court by a British High Court in April 2015, ordering their immediate return to the UK.

"No assistance has been offered by any British agency to get the children back to this country," said Gupta.

The family say they have proof Seeta was under pressure to give up one of her sons to her husband's brother and his wife in India, who were childless and wanted a male heir.

They allege that her husband resigned his job, tried to sell his car and cancelled his car insurance before the trip with the intention of not returning to the UK.

Shamik Dutta, a lawyer acting for the family, said "If our police forces are serious about honour-based violence and honour-based killing they must recognise the extraterritorial nature of that crime and make sure that perpetrators do not feel they have anywhere to hide".

A Scotland Yard spokesperson said, "We are in the process of responding to a number of queries raised with us by a firm of solicitors acting on behalf of the family of Seeta".

Earlier this month the family had written to UK foreign secretary Boris Johnson, calling for a new investigation.

In the letter to Johnson, representatives of the family say Seeta was "tricked" into going on a family trip to India, where she died after a heated argument with her husband.

The husband, a Hindu builder who lives with his family in north London, could not be contacted for comment.

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The UN has asked Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi to visit northern Rakhine state, where the army is accused of carrying out a brutal crackdown on the Muslim Rohingya minority.

The Nobel peace prize winner has faced growing international criticism for not stopping the military's campaign, which has pushed more than 20,000 Rohingya over the border to Bangladesh, bringing tales of mass rape, murder and arson.

The crackdown was launched in response to deadly raids on police posts in October.

Malaysia has accused the army of "genocide" -- charges Myanmar officials have vehemently denied.

Suu Kyi has described the situation as "under control" and asked the international community to stop stoking the "fires of resentment".

In a statement released in New York yesterday, UN special adviser on Myanmar Vijay Nambiar appealed directly to the peace icon to intervene.

"The adoption of a generally defensive rather than proactive approach to providing security to the local population, have caused frustration locally and disappointment internationally," he said.

"I also appeal to Daw Suu to visit Maungdaw and Buthidaung and reassure the civilian population there that they will be protected," he added, referring to the locked down area in Rakhine.

The bloodshed presents the biggest challenge to Suu Kyi since her party won Myanmar's first democratic elections in a generation last year.

It has galvanised Muslim nations around the region, with protesters decrying the latest crackdown as the culmination of years discrimination and abuse suffered by the stateless Rohingya.

On Sunday Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak taunted Suu Kyi, who the former junta kept under house arrest for almost 20 years, before a crowd of some 5,000 protesters in Kuala Lumpur.

"What's the use of Aung San Suu Kyi having a Nobel prize?" he asked the protesters.

"The world cannot sit and watch genocide taking place."



Activists say Buddhist-majority Myanmar's stateless Muslim Rohingya minority are among the most persecuted in the world.

More than 120,000 have been trapped in squalid displacement camps since the last major outbreak of violence erupted in Rakhine in 2012.

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Worried over the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar's northern Rakhine state, a former top Indian diplomat with the UN has urged the country's leader Aung San Suu Kyi to listen to her "inner voice" and reassure the people there that they will be protected.

"I am persuaded that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi hears and understands the concerns of the international community," UN special adviser on Myanmar Vijay Nambiar said.

"However, the refusal by the Myanmar authorities to take a strong stance against hardliners, and the adoption of a generally defensive rather than proactive approach to providing security to the local population, have caused frustration locally and disappointment internationally.

"Only by responding concretely to these concerns will the government be able to resolve the crisis and preserve its international standing," he said.

Northern Rakhine, home to the Muslim Rohingya minority, has been under military lockdown since surprise raids on border posts killed nine policemen last month. Soldiers have killed scores and arrested many more in their hunt for the attackers, who the government says are radicalised militants.

Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace prize winner, has faced growing global criticism for not stopping the military campaign, which has sent nearly 20,000 Rohingya over the border to Bangladesh.

In a note to correspondentsissued by the Office of the UN spokesperson, Nambiar yesterday said the UN is "seriously concerned" by the developing situation in Rakhine state and has called on the security forces to act in accordance with the "rule of law and accepted international norms."



Nambiar, who has served as Chef de Cabinet to the secretary-general and was India's permanent representative to the UN, called on Suu Kyi to reflect on the situation, listen to her "inner voice" and speak directly to the people of Myanmar, asking them to rise above their ethnic, religious and other differences and to advance human dignity, harmony and mutual cooperation between all communities.

"I also appeal to Daw Suu to visit Maungdaw and Buthidaung and reassure the civilian population there that they will be protected," he said, calling on all communities in Myanmar to jointly oppose the violence, disunity and division being instigated by a group of criminal elements in the region.

The UN's latest call follows last month's visit by nine local ambassadors, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, and various UN agencies to the Rakhine state.

Nambiar also supported former UN chief Kofi Annan's call for "unimpeded humanitarian and media access and strengthened efforts to defuse tensions" in the country.

He underscored that those who fled or suffered displacement should be allowed to return. "In this volatile situation," he warned, "it is everyone's responsibility to handle allegations and rumours with great care."



He emphasised on Suu Kyi's promise to address the root causes of the crisis - namely, citizenship and status. "I call upon all parties, groups and stakeholders to engage in urgent consultations to defuse the situation and get back to the negotiating table," he said.

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US military officials say an Islamic State leader linked to the 2015 attacks at the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo was killed in a US airstrike in Syria.

Officials say Boubaker el Hakim was killed in Raqqa on November 26.

He is believed to have played a role in IS attack planning. The officials weren't authorised to discuss the strike publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

El Hakim was a 33-year-old French Tunisian. He was a mentor to the brothers who gunned down cartoonists at the French paper in January 2015.

He was arrested in Syria and sent to France, where he was convicted in 2008 and sentenced to seven years in prison. He was released in 2011 and is believed to have moved to Tunisia.

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US Defence Secretary Ash Carter today said that America will stick with Afghanistan for years to come as a new US president takes over what is already America's longest war.

In a joint appearance in Kabul with Afghanistan's president, Ashraf Ghani, Carter said the US cannot afford to give up on Afghanistan after more than 15 years of US involvement, the deaths of more than 2,200 US troops, and the expenditure of hundreds of billions of dollars.

"The interests we are pursuing here are clear and enduring," he said, citing the goals of preventing another 9/11-type of attack on American soil and helping Afghanistan attain enough stability to remain a long-term security partner for the US and the West.

The war began as a response to the 9/11 attacks.

"To have a stable security partner that is eager and willing to work with the United States is an asset for the future for us," Carter said.

Carter was making his last planned trip to Afghanistan before handing off his Defence Department responsibilities to his successor. President-elect Donald Trump has nominated retired Marine Gen James Mattis for the post.

Trump has not said if or how he will alter the US course in Afghanistan, but has denounced what he calls US nation-building projects.

The US has about 10,000 troops in Afghanistan to train and advise Afghan security forces combatting a resilient Taliban insurgency. US special operations forces are hunting down al-Qaida and Islamic State militants.

Carter's visit comes amid concerns that despite improvements in Afghan government defences, Taliban forces are gaining leverage and are continuing to use neighbouring Pakistan as a sanctuary. By US estimates, the Afghan government controls slightly less than two-thirds of the country's population.

The Taliban holds sway over about 10 per cent, and the remainder of the population is "contested."



The top US commander in Afghanistan said today "the fundamental logic" of the US counterterrorism mission is solid, suggesting it should continue after the change of administrations.

"Our policy of having an enduring counterterrorism effort alongside Afghan partners is, in my view, very sound - something that we need to continue," Army Gen. John Nicholson told a conference in Bagram.

Appearing alongside Nicholson, Carter said that having "a stable security partner that is eager and willing to work with the United States is an asset for the future for us."



US commanders have praised Afghan soldiers for taking the lead in battles against the less-well equipped Taliban, but they have been suffering heavy casualties.

Before Carter's arrival, his press secretary, Peter Cook, said Carter wanted to get a full rundown on operations. He said Carter would discuss "the growing capabilities and resilience demonstrated by Afghan security forces in recent months," as well as efforts to build "Afghan combat capacity including aviation."



President Barack Obama had planned to reduce US troop numbers to about 1,000 by the time he left office in January, but he scrapped that approach in the face of Taliban gains.

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A 75-year-old California man has been charged with the chilling 1978 murder of a young British couple who had been sailing on his boat in the Caribbean Sea.

Silas Duane Boston allegedly beat and bound Christopher Farmer and his girlfriend Peta Frampton, attaching weights to their bindings and covering their heads with plastic bags before dumping them alive overboard in a fit of rage.

The murders took place between June and July 1978 and their corpses were found on about July 8 floating at sea off the coast of Guatemala.

A probe into their murders went cold even though Boston was interviewed a number of times by investigators about disappearances.

The case, worthy of a crime novel, was relaunched thanks to an investigation into the 1968 disappearance of Boston's former wife, Mary Lou Boston.

Boston allegedly also killed her, according to the criminal complaint.

He was arrested last week at a convalescent home in the town of Paradise, in northern California.

He appeared in federal court yesterday in a wheelchair and entered a not guilty plea.

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US Secretary of State John Kerry said US and Russian officials would meet tomorrow in a bid to stop the Syrian city of Aleppo "being absolutely, completely destroyed".

Kerry arrived in Paris today pushing for a ceasefire in the city, home to retreating rebels backed by the United States which face an onslaught from Syrian forces supported by Russia.

US officials will meet their Russia counterparts in Geneva to try to "come to some kind of arrangement where we can see how civilians may be protected and what can happen with the armed opposition," Kerry said.

He did not sound upbeat about the chances of success, however, with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Russian President Vladimir Putin seemingly intent on pushing their advantage in Aleppo.

The rebels now control only a pocket of Syria's second city, whose fate is seen as pivotal to the outcome of a nearly six-year-old war that has killed more than 300,000 people.

"I know people are tired of these meetings, I'm tired of these meetings. People are sort of 'oh, another meeting'," he said from the US embassy in Paris.

"But what am I supposed to do? Go home and have a nice weekend in Massachusetts, while people are dying? Sit there in Washington and do nothing?" he added.

Foreign ministers from the Western and Middle Eastern backers of Syria's weakened opposition, including Kerry, will gather in Paris tomorrow for talks.

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A mob today blocked the Karnal highway at Phugana village in Muzaffarnagar district demanding immediate arrest of the culprits responsible for allegedly raping a murdering a girl who was missing, police said.

The body of the 18-year-old girl was missing since Thursday was found today after which the angry villagers blocked the Karnal highway demanding immediate arrest of the culprits as they suspect that the girl was raped and then murdered, the police said.

Senior police officers rushed to the spot to pacify the angry villagers to lift the blockade and assured them that the culprits would be arrested soon.

The police have registered a case and a manhunt has been launched to nab the accused.

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The Winter session of Parliament appears to be headed for a virtual washout with the third week ending today without transaction of any substantial business because of the Opposition ruckus over demonetisation and some other issues.

Both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha continued to be deadlocked over the way a debate should take place on demonetisation announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 8.

While maintaining attack on the government over demonetisation, the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha today created disruptions by raising the issue of slashing of import duty on wheat from 10 per cent to nil. The House was, however, finally adjourned for the day because of lack of quorum.

Ever since the session began on November 16, the Lok Sabha has managed to conduct only two legislative actions -- passage of Income Tax amendment bill and approval of Supplementary Demand for Grants -- that too amid din and without much debate.

The Rajya Sabha has functioned normally only on the first day of the session when the debate on demonetisation was initiated and held for about 5 hours.

With a four-day holiday in between, the session has only three working days left before it concludes on December 16.

In the Lok Sabha, the stand-off over demonetisation intensified today with the government hitting back at agitating Opposition and demanding its apology for paralysing Parliament, citing the adverse comments by President Pranab Mukherjee over disruptions.

As soon as the House assembled for the day at 1100 hours, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge rose to make some points but BJP members latched on to the President's obervations made yesterday, to target the opposition party.

Soon, a verbal spat broke out between the two sides and Speaker Sumitra Mahajan adjourned the House till 1130 hours.

When the House met again, Kharge said the Opposition was ready for debating demonetisation and has been continuously requesting for it. "We are ready for debate on demonetisation and its repercussions," he said.

However, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar immediately shot back saying the Opposition has disrupted the House for 16 days and held it to ransom and they must tender an apology.

"For 16 days they have disrupted the House and held it hostage. Majority wanted to debate. But Congress, TMC and Left members are not allowing the House to function. The situation has reached such a stage that the President had to speak against the disruption. They must tender apology to the people of the country," he said.

BJP member Meenakshi Lekhi said for protests and sit-ins, as suggested by the President, Jantar Mantar is the best place and not the Parliament and hence the Opposition must apologise.

BJP veteran L K Advani, who had on Wednesday expressed his displeasure over the continuing impasse in the House, was at one point seen pacifying agitated ruling party members.

As the pandemonium continued, the Speaker adjourned the House till noon.

The impasse continued when the Lower House re-assembled



and HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar tabled a bill amid the din before the Speaker adjourned the House for the day.

Earlier, the House recalled the December 13, 2001 terror attack on Parliament and paid tributes to 8 Delhi Police, CRPF and Parliament Security Service Personnel who had laid down their lives defending the people inside the complex. The Speaker took up the matter today as the Lok Sabha will not meet on December 13.

In the Rajya Sabha, members of Congress, BSP, SP, JD(U) and Left protested against slashing of import duty on wheat, saying it will hit the farmers hard particularly when the country has enough buffer stock.

Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said there was no shortage of wheat in the country and the decision was taken to cool down domestic prices which have shown an upward trend in recent weeks.

"This is not a permanent decision", he said, indicating it can be reviewed if need arises.

Minister of State for Agriculture Parsottambhai Rupala said the decision was necessitated as domestic prices were rising. The government uses market intervention to keep prices in check, he said, adding the decision on import duty will be reconsidered if farmers faced problems.

Earlier, raising the issue, CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury said he had given a notice under Rule 267 to suspend business of the day to discuss the decision that will "ruin Indian farmers" while "MNCs will rake in super-profits".

Condemning the decision, he said it will hit hard the farmers who are already suffering due to demonetisation because of which they are unable to buy seeds and fertiliser.

Describing the move to reduce import duty as "shameful act", Yechury said it will lead to food riots. "This is against the interest of the nation and its farmes. It is an anti-national act," he said.

"He (farmer) has to make distress sale," he said, adding wheat is being sold at Rs 700-800 per qunital as against MSP of Rs 1540 fixed by the government.

Bhupinder Yadav (BJP) said another 267 notice cannot be taken up if debate has resumed and remained inconclusive on another notice accepted under the same Rule.

He was referring to the inconclusive debate on demonetisation and Deputy Chairman P J Kurien agreed with him. Kurien then said he is not allowing Yechury's motion.

BSP chief Mayawati (BSP) said the decision will benefit the rich and was against the farmers, while Sharad Yadav (JDU) questioned the need to allow imports when there were enough stocks available within the country.

Jairam Ramesh (Cong) said if the buffer stock is high, why were imports being allowed.

Reduction in duty would mean that the companies of US, France and Ukraine would get benefited and Indian farmers would go without any incentive, he said.

"This is a slap on face of Indian agriculture in the year when it is celebrating 50 years of green revolution," he said adding that farmers have no cash to buy seeds and fertilisers.

"This is 'videsh uthan' (benefit of foreigners) and anti-farmer," Ramesh said.

Sukhendu Shekhar Roy (TMC) referred to demonetisation and



asked the Chair to take a sense of the House if an obituary reference should be made for the "111 persons" who died while standing in queues in front of banks and ATMs during last one month.

As Kurien moved to Zero Hour mentions, opposition members trooped in the Well raising slogans like "Kisan virodhi yeh sarkar nahi chalegi, nahi chalegi (anti-farmer government will not be tolerated)", forcing adjournment till noon.

When the House met again, the pleas of Chairman Hamid Ansari to allow the Question Hour to function went unheeded, with opposition members on their feet raising slogans.

Soon after he called for taking up the Question Hour, the opposition members including those from Congress and SP, were in the Well and raised slogans. Slogans of "Kisan virodhi yeh sarkar nahin chalegi" rent the air as Chairman said that "you cannot do this during Question Hour".

When Ansari again took up Question Hour, protesting Opposition members gave back a resounding 'No', while those from the treasury benches shouted 'Yes' waiving questions.

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said "unfortunately the opposition members are not allowing the House to function. The President also appealed to members to do their job by allowing the House to function. They should be ashamed of themselves and take his advise to allow important issues to be discussed."



Naqvi alleged the Opposition members were creating ruckus ever since the session started. "There are important issues that have been listed. These relate to welfare of the poor, weaker sections, women, employees and disabled," he said.

He said they should either allow the Question Hour to function or take forward the debate on demonetisation which has remained inconclusive.

The pleas of Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad to the Chairman also did not yield any dividend. Some opposition members also alleged that it was not the Opposition, but the ruling party which is creating the uproar.

Yechury said the members wanted to speak on the issues of slashing import duty on wheat and demonetisation.

Ansari, however, "nothing can be done in this noise" and adjourned the House till 1430 hours.

When the House reassembled and Private Members' business was to be taken up, only a handful of members were present.

Congress leader Anand Sharma raised the issue of lack of quorum through a point of order.

Kurien, while reading out the listed business, directed the ringing of the quorum bell to call the members and taking a count of those present in the House.

Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said quorum was the responsibility of the government and if they cannot do it, the responsibility should be handed over to the Opposition.

Interestingly, some Congress members present in the House left just seconds before the House reassembled.

Naqvi said the Opposition too has a role in running of the House as well as its adjournment. He also wanted to recite a couplet but the Chair said nothing can go on record so long as a decision on quorum is taken.

As enough number of members did not assemble even after ringing of the bell twice, Kurien adjourned the House for the day, within minutes of its recovening, citing lack of quorum.

As per the rules, at least 10 per cent of the total strenght of the House is required to be present for quorum. In the case of 245-member Rajya Sabha, the quorum number is 25.
Italy's third-largest bank, and the world's oldest, had asked for a three-week extension until January 20 to try to wrap up a privately funded, 5 billion euro ($5.3 billion) rescue plan in the face of fresh political uncertainty.

The ECB's supervisory board turned down the request at a meeting on Friday on the grounds that a delay would be of little use and that it was time for Rome to step in, the source said.

The Italian government is likely to intervene in the next few days, possibly as early as this weekend, to bail out the bank to prevent it being wound down, banking sources said. Some bankers say the government could seize the opportunity to bolster other ailing Italian banks, not just the Tuscan lender.

A failure of the bank could erase the savings of thousands of retail investors, jolt the wider banking sector and spark a financial crisis in the euro zone's third-biggest economy.

The treasury declined to comment, but a government source said Rome was ready to use an emergency decree to authorise a bank rescue if necessary.

Monte dei Paschi said on Friday night that it had yet to receive an ECB response to its request for more time, and that it was pressing ahead with its private rescue plan. Its board met on Friday night and would resume deliberations on Sunday.

CEO Marco Morelli could still launch an 11th-hour attempt to raise money by reopening an offer for retail investors to swap 2.1 billion euros of subordinated bank debt into equity, a source familiar with the matter said. This is despite the market watchdog saying the offer is too risky for ordinary investors.

In addition, Qatar's sovereign wealth fund could invest another 1 billion euros, while a consortium of banks would try to raise additional capital through a share sale on the market without committing to underwrite it, the source said.

However, other bankers said state intervention remained the most likely option.

Monte dei Paschi shares fell as much as 15 percent on the report that the euro zone's bank supervisor had rejected its request for more time. The stock ended down 10.6 percent.

PASSING BATON TO ROME

The ECB has effectively invited Rome to step in at a time when the Italian government is in disarray, with a caretaker administration in charge after Prime Minister Matteo Renzi quit this week in the wake of a heavy referendum defeat.

Renzi had resisted calls for a state bailout of Monte dei Paschi because EU rules would require the lender's bondholders to suffer losses.

Italy's president is holding talks with political parties over the weekend with the aim of appointing Renzi's successor on Monday and a new government soon after. Italy would still face the risk of early elections, as early as next spring, with the prospect of the anti-euro Five Star Movement coming to power.

One banking source said the consortium of investment banks looking to support Monte dei Paschi's privately funded rescue plan did not believe there was enough time or willing investors to execute the deal by the year-end deadline imposed by the ECB.

That leaves little option other than a so-called precautionary recapitalisation by the state. Under tough European rules governing banking crises, losses would have to be imposed on the bank's junior bondholders first, most likely through a mandatory debt conversion into shares.

Rome is keen to spare the bank's 40,000 retail investors who hold its subordinated debt, but it may have to include them in the forced debt swap and find ways to reimburse them later.

Earlier on Friday, the bank's senior management met Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan and the leading investment banks behind the private rescue plan, JPMorgan and Mediobanca , a treasury source said.

($1 = 0.9291 euros)

(Additional reporting by bureaus; Writing by Silvia Aloisi; Editing by Pravin Char and Peter Graff)

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
(Reuters) - Relatives of a Malaysian financier at the centre of the 1MDB fund scandal were dealt a setback in their efforts to claim assets seized by the U.S. government when a federal judge denied a motion that would have given them time to try their luck in overseas courts.

Earlier this week four relatives of Low Taek Jho filed a motion to delay the Dec. 12 hearing to Jan. 23 so they could go to courts in New Zealand and the Cayman Islands to try and get real estate and other assets transferred to a new trustee.

In a one-sentence ruling, U.S. District Judge Dale Fischer denied both the motion to postpone the hearing and a separate request to extend the deadline for filing a claim. No reason was given in the filing, dated Wednesday.

Federal prosecutors had opposed the delay, noting in a filing on Wednesday that almost five months had transpired since the Department of Justice launched a series of lawsuits alleging more than $3.5 billion was misappropriated from the 1MDB fund.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak established the IMDB fund in 2009 and chaired the advisory board until recently.

Low Taek Jho is among the people named in civil lawsuits aimed at seizing $1 billion in assets allegedly siphoned off from 1MDB and diverted into luxury real estate in New York, Beverly Hills and London, valuable paintings and a private jet.

Low Taek Jho's relatives had wanted to try courts in New Zealand and the Cayman Islands, hoping those venues would be more hospitable to their requests. The ruling to go ahead with the hearing on Monday could thwart those plans.

The relatives' lawyer, Daniel Zaheer of Kobre & Kim, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In addition to Low, the Department of Justice has named Riza Aziz in its lawsuits. Aziz is the stepson of Najib, the Malaysian prime minister, and founder of Red Granite Pictures, which produced the 2013 Hollywood blockbuster "The Wolf of Wall Street."

The lawsuits do not name Najib, but say more than $700 million of misappropriated funds flowed into the accounts of "Malaysian Official 1," whom U.S. and Malaysian officials have identified as Najib.

Najib has denied any wrongdoing and said Malaysia will cooperate in the international investigations.

(Reporting by Nathan Layne in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler)

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
US President-elect will likely ask a senior Goldman Sachs banker to coordinate economic policy across his administration, turning again to Wall Street for expertise in managing the world's largest economy, a transition official said on Friday.

Trump's pick of Goldman President Gary Cohn, 56, to head the White House National Economic Council comes despite Trump's past criticism of the financial sector's power.

Trump hammered Goldman and its Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein during the presidential campaign, releasing a television ad that called Blankfein part of a "global power structure" that had robbed America's working class.

The anti-Goldman message rankled some on Wall Street, although several alums of the bank had major roles in Trump's campaign and are bound for senior administration posts.

"That Trump is willing to take this step does suggest the political risk to the biggest banks may be diminishing," said Jaret Seiberg, an analyst at Cowen & Co.

The NEC coordinates economic policy across agencies, a key role for Trump's promise to jumpstart the economy after years of tepid growth.

In a recent interview with CNBC, Cohn worried that an interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve without corresponding action by other central banks could damage the US economy.

"I am concerned (about) how much US rates can dislocate from the rest of the world, and I think that's a big issue," Cohn said.

Former Harvard University President Larry Summers served as President Barack Obama's first NEC director in 2009 and played a leading role in crafting the administration's primary response to the financial crisis - a stimulus package that was later criticised for being inadequate to boost the economy.

Cohn, who is also Goldman's chief operating officer, hails from one of the most respected Wall Street establishments and would follow former Goldman executives Robert Rubin and Stephen Friedman in running the NEC.

"I think Trump feels confident that the establishment will help him fix some of our problems," said Jerry Braakman, chief investment officer of First American Trust.

Cohn was widely seen as Blankfein's heir apparent and his exit may give rise to a new group of leaders at the bank, most of whom have spent more than 20 years there.

NBC reported earlier that Trump had offered Cohn the job. A Goldman Sachs spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

Cohn is a former Goldman commodities trader from Ohio who joined the firm in 1990. He served in leadership roles in bond trading, eventually becoming co-president in 2006.

According to Thomson Reuters data, he has $190 million worth of stock in Goldman.

In 2010, Cohn testified before the federal commission examining the roots of the financial crisis, denying charges that Goldman had bet against its clients who held risky mortgage-backed securities.

Cohn struggled with dyslexia as a child and bounced from school to school and has often talked of his unlikely path to Wall Street. One teacher told his parents if they were really lucky he might grow up to be a truck driver.

He was known throughout Goldman for his direct and abrasive manner in dealing with colleagues, although he has become more polished in recent years, current and former executives said.

Cohn would join at least two other former Goldman bankers in the Trump administration, including Treasury Secretary-designate Steven Mnuchin and White House adviser Steve Bannon.

The abundance of Wall Street faces on his team exposes Trump to criticism he is veering away from pledges to protect American workers from powerful interests.

"Gary Cohn's bank helped cause the 2008 financial crisis (and) he shouldn't have anything to do with America's economic policies," said Karl Frisch, executive director of Allied Progress, a left-leaning nonprofit group.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Income Tax department has seized at least Rs 106 crore in cash, including Rs 10 crore in new currency, and gold bars weighing 127 kg in searches at multiple locations in the city to check tax evasion post demonetization.

This is the largest seizure of new currency notes after the old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes were scrapped on November 8.

The I-T operation had been launched on Thursday here.

Officials said S Reddy, a contractor working with the state government, has claimed the entire money and the gold as his own and is being questioned.

"127 kg gold in 1 kg bars and Rs 96 crore in old currency and Rs 10 crore in Rs 2,000 notes have been seized by the sleuths after the operation," top I-T department officials said, adding "this is an unprecedented amount that the tax department has seized in recent times".

The department carried out the searches based on intelligence inputs about the activities of Reddy and few others for the last few days.



ALSO READ: 'If it fails, then I am to blame,' PM Modi reportedly told cabinet on demonetisation



Officials said the agency was investigating how the new notes in such a large quantity were stashed by the individual.

The bundles of the new Rs 2,000 had no banking slips on them.

They said the I-T teams had launched operations on at least eight locations of a "syndicate" involved in currency conversion.

The officials said a number of documents related to financial transactions, entries of gold sale and records of sale/purchase have also been seized by the tax sleuths.

At least three people of the alleged syndicate are being questioned while few others are under the radar, they said.

"He (Reddy) is a contractor working with the state government. He is claiming the entire cash and gold to be his own. Further probe is on," they said.

The I-T department, they said, will share the case details with the Enforcement Directorate and CBI for further probe into money laundering and corruption angles.

Some bank officials are also under the scanner of the taxman.

The tax department had made the largest seizure of Rs 5.7 crore cash in new notes in Bengaluru few days back after which two other central probe agencies, the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate, had taken over the cases to probe instances of corruption, money laundering and large-scale hawala transactions in the wake of the currency scrap on November 8.
The last 30 days have been a blazing blur of heated debates, economic punditry, winding ATM queues, furious swiping of cards and the fading colour of cash. While the talk around one of the world's most radical financial moves will likely go on for years, Mail Today presents some fascinating numbers & factoids it has thrown up.





3,480 km: Roughly the distance between Delhi and Beijing, Chandni Chowk and China. That is what you get when you physically stack up the dead currency - 16.5 billion Rs 500 notes and 6.7 billion Rs 1,000 notes in circulation when demonetisation was announced.

Roughly the distance between Delhi and Beijing, Chandni Chowk and China. That is what you get when you physically stack up the dead currency - 16.5 billion Rs 500 notes and 6.7 billion Rs 1,000 notes in circulation when demonetisation was announced. Rs 13,860 crore: Maximum unaccounted wealth declared by Ahmedabad-based realtor Mahesh Shah who claimed he was just a face for money belonging to others. The 67-year-old said he did not have any black money. The claim by Mumbai's Razzaque family of Rs 2 lakh crore has been prima facie brushed aside by the authorities.

Maximum unaccounted wealth declared by Ahmedabad-based realtor Mahesh Shah who claimed he was just a face for money belonging to others. The 67-year-old said he did not have any black money. The claim by Mumbai's Razzaque family of Rs 2 lakh crore has been prima facie brushed aside by the authorities. Rs 31,000 crore : Deposited in Jan Dhan accounts in the first 13 days of demonetisation. This forced the government to announce drastic measures such as bringing misuse of these accounts under Benami Transactions Act, which allows for confiscation of the money and jail up to 7 years. Deposits decelerated to Rs 4,867 crore from November 23-30.

Deposited in Jan Dhan accounts in the first 13 days of demonetisation. This forced the government to announce drastic measures such as bringing misuse of these accounts under Benami Transactions Act, which allows for confiscation of the money and jail up to 7 years. Deposits decelerated to Rs 4,867 crore from November 23-30. 30 per cent: Estimated drop in real estate prices. This may reflect the success of the war against black money as the realty sector had become notorious for parking illicit cash.With this black money component being wiped out, homes are expected to get cheaper.

Estimated drop in real estate prices. This may reflect the success of the war against black money as the realty sector had become notorious for parking illicit cash.With this black money component being wiped out, homes are expected to get cheaper. Rs 400 crore: Estimated counterfeit currency in circulation before November 8 - or just 0.028 per cent of the demonetised currency - according to the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata.

Estimated counterfeit currency in circulation before November 8 - or just 0.028 per cent of the demonetised currency - according to the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata. Rs 30L crore: Size of India's black economy, according to World Bank estimates. This is roughly 20 per cent of the country's GDP in 2015.

Size of India's black economy, according to World Bank estimates. This is roughly 20 per cent of the country's GDP in 2015. 70 per cent: Of the black assets, or Rs 4.8 lakh crore, is estimated to be parked overseas, leaving approximately Rs 2 lakh crore in the country, of which 5 per cent to 6 per cent are held in cash (data compiled from Income Tax raids).

Of the black assets, or Rs 4.8 lakh crore, is estimated to be parked overseas, leaving approximately Rs 2 lakh crore in the country, of which 5 per cent to 6 per cent are held in cash (data compiled from Income Tax raids). 400 Cases in which the Income Tax department has carried out swift investigation since November 8. Concerted action is being taken by the department, ED and the CBI in detecting mischief.

in which the Income Tax department has carried out swift investigation since November 8. Concerted action is being taken by the department, ED and the CBI in detecting mischief. 15 per cent: Transactions at Mother Dairy have gone digital, up from the sleepy 5 per cent. As many as 75 per cent of digital transactions are done through Smart Change Card and Rs 10 per month is a nominal charge on the transactions done through SBI smart card. Mother Dairy expects digital transactions will rise to 25-30% next month.

Transactions at Mother Dairy have gone digital, up from the sleepy 5 per cent. As many as 75 per cent of digital transactions are done through Smart Change Card and Rs 10 per month is a nominal charge on the transactions done through SBI smart card. Mother Dairy expects digital transactions will rise to 25-30% next month. 50: Number of bank branches under the Enforcement Directorate scanner for suspicious deposits. A special eye has been kept on student accounts, dormant ones and Jan Dhan accounts to detect money laundering and hawala instances through these channels.

Number of bank branches under the Enforcement Directorate scanner for suspicious deposits. A special eye has been kept on student accounts, dormant ones and Jan Dhan accounts to detect money laundering and hawala instances through these channels. Rs 20 lakh: The amount for which a Rajasthan woman's family wanted to sell her off. She managed to escape as the buyers couldn't arrange so much cash.

The amount for which a Rajasthan woman's family wanted to sell her off. She managed to escape as the buyers couldn't arrange so much cash. 115 Number of deaths: The Opposition claims because of demonetisation. BJP's rivals say most of these deaths happened when the old, ill and the infirm collapsed while waiting in long queues
Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh once again has targeted Narendra Modi's demonetisation move, calling it as a "Mammoth Tragedy" .

In an editorial published in The Hindu on Friday, Singh wrote, "The popular saying "the road to hell is paved with good intentions" serves as a useful reminder and warning in this context. The underlying premise behind the decision of the Prime Minister to render Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currencies as illegal overnight seems to be this false notion that 'all cash is black money and all black money is in cash'. This is far from reality."



He further explained that how the decision will hurt the Indians who earn their wages in cash, while the black money hoarders will get away with a "mere rap on the knuckles".

Agreeing on the fact that black money in India is a genuine concern. Manmohan Singh added, "This is wealth that has been accumulated over years by those with unaccounted sources of income. Unlike the poor, holders of black money have access to various forms of wealth such as land, gold, foreign exchange, etc. There have been various attempts by many governments in the past decades to recover this illicit wealth through actions by the Income Tax department, the Enforcement Directorate and schemes such as Voluntary Disclosure. Evidence from these past attempts has shown that a large majority of this unaccounted wealth is not stored in the form of cash. All black money is not in cash, only a tiny fraction is."





Singh wrote, "More than 90 per cent of India's workforce still earn their wages in cash. These consist of hundreds of millions of agriculture workers, construction workers and so on. While the number of bank branches in rural areas have nearly doubled since 2001, there are still more than 600 million Indians who live in a town or village with no bank. Cash is the bedrock of the lives of these people. They save their money in cash which, as it grows, is stored in denominations of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. To tarnish these as 'black money' and throw the lives of these hundreds of millions of poor people in disarray is a mammoth tragedy."

ALSO READ: 'If it fails, then I am to blame,' PM Modi reportedly told cabinet on demonetisation



Attacking the government, he said, "It is now evident that this sudden overnight ban on currency has dented the confidence of hundreds of millions of Indian consumers, which can have severe economic ramifications. The scars of an overnight depletion of the honest wealth of a vast majority of Indians combined with their ordeal of rationed access to new currency will be too deep to heal quickly."

He described the intention behind the note ban as honorable but also pointed out that how important it is to deftly balance these risks with the potential benefits of such decisions. He wrote, "Waging a war on black money may sound enticing. But it cannot entail even a single loss of life of an honest Indian."
Government on Friday informed Parliament that a decision has been taken to print plastic currency notes and procurement of material has started.

"It has been decided to print banknotes based on plastic or polymer substrate. The process of procurement has been initiated," Minister of State for Finance Arjun Ram Meghwal said in a written reply in Lok Sabha to a query whether RBI proposes to print plastic currency notes in place of paper ones.

The Reserve Bank for long has been planning to launch plastic currency note after field trials.

In February 2014, the government had informed Parliament that one billion plastic notes of Rs 10 denomination would be introduced in a field trial in five cities selected for their geographical and climatic diversity. The selected cities were Kochi, Mysore, Jaipur, Shimla and Bhubaneswar.

Plastic notes have an average life span of about five years and are difficult to imitate. Also, currency notes made of plastic are cleaner than paper ones. Such notes were first introduced in Australia to safeguard against counterfeiting.

Replying to another question, Meghwal said it was informed by RBI in December 2015 that they have received some banknotes of Rs 1,000 without having security thread which were printed at Currency Note Press (CNP), Nashik, on paper supplied by Security Paper Mill (SPM), Hoshangabad.

An enquiry has been initiated by Security Printing and Minting Corporation (SPMCIL) and the units involved (SPM and CNP).

"Major penalty chargesheet has been issued to the personnel concerned. Disciplinary proceedings have been initiated as per departmental rules," the minister said.

Meghwal further said action has been taken to strengthen quality procedure and online inspection system in manufacturing process and special training has been given to the persons concerned to avoid such types of mistakes in future.

"Additional inspections have been introduced to ensure defect-free production," he said.


Earlier this year, research firm Workday sponsored a study to get a sense of job satisfaction for people in Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong, China, Philippines, Malaysia and India. Statistics showed that the people working in Singapore have the lowest levels of job satisfaction.

Taking these numbers seriously, Evolve, a chain of Mixed Martial Arts company in the country decided to change the situation. Owned by Chatri Sityodtong, the firm recently surprised over 100 of their staffers by arranging a luxurious holiday to Maldives.



The reason behind the great gift was that the founder of the firm, Sityodtong wanted to show his acknowledgement towards the employees for their hard work. He wanted to thank them after his company saw a 30% spike in growth this year.

Calling the annual retreat a "normal part of the Evolve culture", Sityodtong said that such rewards were "A small token of my heartfelt gratitude to all of the phenomenal rockstars at Evolve MMA".

The company is said to have spent over Rs 3.41 crore to make this event a success.



This wasn't the first time that Evolve decided to go all generous on its employees. The company has arranged several such luxurious trips over the years for their staff to Bali and Krabi as well.


LOGAN  Troopers from throughout the state are asking for help, as they collect stuffed animals to give to patients at Primary Childrens Hospital.

The Utah Highway Patrol Association organizes the yearly tradition and reports that this year they have a shortage. Several drop off locations in the Salt Lake and Orem areas have been set up.

Cindy Wood lives in Hyrum and is the wife of a trooper. When she saw that there was a shortage this year, she wanted to help. Since no drop off sites were able to be set up locally, she is collecting stuffed animals on her own.

I know how the Cache Valley people really can step it up when they know theyre trying to support a good cause, said Wood. Im really excited to be able to offer the people up here the chance to be able to put a smile on a childs face.

The stuffed animals need to be new and collected by December 18. Anyone who wishes to donate can call Wood at 435-512-8778, to arrange pickup. She we will then deliver them to the UHP Association.

Just before Christmas, troopers will personally visit Primary Childrens Hospital, giving a stuffed animal to each child. Wood said, it brings a lot of cheer to the children, even though they may be spending the holiday season in the hospital.

The kids get really excited when they see someone in a uniform. It is really impressive to them, the shiny badge, the guns, and all the cool stuff that they dont see every day.

She hopes to help make sure troopers have enough stuffed animals for their visit.

Wood said the annual hospital tradition hits close to home for many in law enforcement.

There is a lot of the families in the Highway Patrol family who have had kids in Primary Childrens, so its a cause that is really near and dear to a lot of our hearts.

Wood has arranged several locations where donations can be collected. She is asking anyone who can donate to call 435-512-8778.

<hr /><p style=text-align: center;>will@cvradio.com
Ekinneh Agbaw-Ebai Nanje S. C. Th.

Consider this: over 55 years after independence and re-unification, there has never been an Anglophone President or an Anglophone Secretary General or Director of Civil Cabinet at the Presidency. Nor has an Anglophone ever held the strategic ministerial portfolio of Defense, Finance, Territorial Administration, Communication, External Relations, National Education or even in charge of the Police, Gendarmerie, the Army and Intelligence services; not even ambassadors to English-speaking countries like the USA and Nigeria.

The Anglophone Problem  When Facts dont Lie

By Ekinneh Agbaw-Ebai*

A preacher once told his congregation: "Next week, I plan to preach about the sin of lying. To help you understand my sermon, I want you all to read Mark 17." The following Sunday as he prepared to deliver his sermon, the pastor asked for a show of hands. He wanted to know how many had read Mark 17. Every hand went up. The preacher smiled and said: "Mark has only 16 chapters. I will now proceed with my sermon on the sin of lying." This joke says a lot about human nature, but shows how Francophones are often caught committing the sin of lying about the Anglophone problem. Francophones are wont to wish into reality what is not there, and to deny the truth when it suits them. Lying is a sin that was committed by five Francophone Ministers who told the world at a press conference that there is no Anglophone problem in Cameroon. The integrity deficit associated with lying about the Anglophone problem is a travesty that insults and diminishes every Cameroonian and must stop.

The point must therefore be made, and with emphasis, that there is an Anglophone problem but the problem is deeply embedded in the asymmetrical political structure of the country, which has led to institutional paralysis engendered by leadership failure. Anglophones are divided over the Anglophone problem, just as Francophones are united in their bellicosity and belligerence towards Anglophones whom they cast as treasonable felons and secessionists who cannot be trusted. Francophones have used this self-fulfilling fallacy as an excuse to exclude Anglophones from the commanding heights of decision-making and treat them as second class citizens. But facts dont lie like the lying laity of Mark 17.

Consider this: over 55 years after independence and re-unification, there has never been an Anglophone President or an Anglophone Secretary General or Director of Civil Cabinet at the Presidency. Nor has an Anglophone ever held the strategic ministerial portfolio of Defense, Finance, Territorial Administration, Communication, External Relations, National Education or even in charge of the Police, Gendarmerie, the Army and Intelligence services; not even ambassadors to English-speaking countries like the USA and Nigeria. For a region that represents about 20% of the population, accounting for over 60% of GDP, the fact that the lone oil refinery named in French (SONARA) is in Anglophone Cameroon, yet has been run by Francophone general managers with a predominantly Francophone workforce since its creation is unacceptable. It just cannot be that there are no competent Anglophones to occupy these positions.

As if that was not enough, higher institutions like the National Polytechnic, ENAM, IRIC, ESSTIC, INJS, IFORD, CUSS, Public Works, ENSPT, IRAD, are heavily laden with French courses; another way of saying, Anglophones need not apply. Although Cameroon is officially a bilingual country where both English and French are equal, when has the president ever made an official address to the nation in English? All official correspondences are in French, even when directed to Anglophones. French is the language used in the administration, police, gendarmerie, army and the courts. Anglophones have to seek translators at their own expense. All road signs are in French and there is not a single word in English on the FCFA currency in circulation; is this constitutional?

The facts and figures of Anglophone marginalization under President Biya are staggering. Of the 700 ministers appointed since Biya took office in 1982, only 76 (10.8%) have been Anglophones. In the current 63-member cabinet, there are only six Anglophones (9%) and only, Philip Ngole Ngwese (2%) out of the 38 Ministers has a cabinet portfolio. There are four Anglophone Secretary Generals (10%) and three Anglophone DAGs (7%) in the central administration. In state corporations, there are less than 15 Anglophones (11%) out of over 130 general managers. Of the over 130 Board chairmen of state corporations, there are only 10 Anglophones (7%). Of the 58 SDOs in the country, there six Anglophones (10%) and only three of the nations 33 generals in the Armed Forces are Anglophones.

The picture in the judiciary is even more pathetic and scandalous with Francophones occupying all key positions in the Supreme Court - President of the Supreme Court; Attorney General; Head of Judicial Division; Head of Administrative Division; Head of audit Division; Head of Special Criminal Court; Special Attorney Special Criminal Court; Director of Military Justice; Registrar-In-Chief Supreme Court and Secretary General Supreme Court. 58 (39%) of the 148 magistrates in the Southwest are Francophones while 54 (61%) of the 89 magistrates in the legal department in the Southwest are Francophones. Of the 50 magistrates working in Buea (Bench & Legal Department), 20 (40%) are Francophones while 20 (71%) of the 28 magistrates in the legal department in Buea are Francophones. Of the 30 new bailiffs that were appointed in January 2014 in the Southwest, 28 of them (93%) are Francophones.

The situation in the Northwest region is even worse. Of the 128 magistrates in the Northwest, there are 67 Francophones (52 %). Of the 97 magistrates of the legal departments, 64 of them are Francophones, (65.9%); 22 (48.9%) of the 45 magistrates in Bamenda are Francophones. There are 27 magistrates in the legal department in Bamenda of which 21, (77.8%) are Francophones. All the 21 new bailiffs (100%) appointed in January 2014 to the Northwest are Francophones. Comparatively, of the 119 magistrates in Douala, only two (1.7%) are Anglophones. Likewise, only two (1.9%) of the 107 magistrates in Yaounde are Anglophones. These are very disturbing statistics in a bilingual country with two legal systems!

There is no reference hospital and no functional airport or seaport in Anglophone Cameroon. It is worth recalling that preliminary studies by the consortium charged with the construction of the Chad-Cameroon oil pipeline had established that the project will be cost-effective if the pipeline was built from Doba in Southern Chad to Limbe, which has a natural deep seaport. According to documents from the World Bank and the Washington-based Environmental Defence Fund, the then Secretary General at the Presidency, Joseph Owona re-routed the project to his native Kribi; taking the pipeline through ecologically sensitive areas and increasing the distance by 90 miles and the cost by $2 billion. Owona warned the investors that Limbe was risky because Anglophones might one day agitate for secession and the pipeline will be exposed to sabotage and vandalism.

To add insult to injury, the government has made it a point to assign Francophones who neither speak nor understand English to Anglophone regions. A Francophone DO in Oku, Kamdem Andre once called a meeting with traditional rulers and started speaking in French. Not understanding what he was saying, the Fons started dozing. Feeling snubbed, the angry DO ordered his bodyguards to wake-up the Fons with a slap each and the meeting ended in chaos. DO Kamdem is not an isolated case.

Francophones disrespect Anglophones in positions of authority, even the prime minister, head of government. Francophone ministers either ignore cabinet meetings called by the PM or come late, in breach of standard protocol. When then prime minister, Achidi Achu appointed Raymond Gwanyalla as Director of Customs, the then Finance Minister; a Francophone openly challenged the PM in a flagrant display of insubordination. The Minister not only refused to preside at Gwanyallas installation, but ordered a boycott of the event which was heeded by all Francophone Directors in the Ministry of Finance. Surely, nothing like this happens in any country worthy of respect.

As Prime Minister, Peter Mafany Musonge was humiliated by the paymaster general in Yaounde. Musonge was dealing with a crisis after a timber truck derailed killing dozens, mostly roadside hawkers in the hotbed of Mutengene. Anger was boiling on the streets when President Biya ordered that FCFA 200 million be given to the PM to go help the victims and deceased families. A voucher was established to this effect; with the visa of the Finance Minister and the PMs office and sent to the Yaounde central treasury, but then paymaster general, Etogo Mbezele refused to pay, ostensibly because the director of the treasury had not visa the voucher. The treasury director was vacationing in France and traveled abroad with his visa. Informed of Mbezeles decision, an exasperated Musonge could not help but exclaim in anger and frustration: Oh these Frogs! It must be stated in no ambiguous terms that Musonge spoke from the heart. His spontaneous outburst speaks to a deep-seated Anglophone frustration with an erratic system of government, with its consequent value misplacement, the like of which should never be countenanced in any civilized nation.

There are countless instances where Francophones are appointed to boss better educated and qualified Anglophones. It is a tragedy that after fifty-five years of independence and re-unification, we are still talking of Anglophones and Francophones, but that is the sad reality of Cameroon. Anglophones have been treated shabbily; they are asking whether they made the right choice in 1961, since only they were asked if they wanted reunification with Francophones. Despite that fact that East Cameroun was deeply embroiled in a bloody insurgency and terrorism, Anglophones closed their eyes and voted with their hearts. Fifty-five years after that vote, all Anglophones are asking is to be given the opportunity to manage their own affairs but they are being called secessionists and enemies from within, Biafrans, and even asked to go back to Nigeria.

This in itself is demeaning and outlandish. Our strength as a nation lies in our diversity. The bridge towards our future will be built on lessons from the past; hence the government must refrain from assuming that anyone calling for restructuring of the present structure wants to breakup the country. It is not Anglophones who threaten national unity; rather, it is the politics of exclusion and marginalization of Anglophones that poses a threat to peace and stability. Those who see Anglophones as a conquered people should look at these unsettling statistics and learn the right lessons because the mood is very scary but the looming crisis is still avoidable.

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| BY Kim Shaw |

Creative Director at The Brand Agency Perth, Craig Buchanan, is stepping down from the role and leaving the agency to focus on personal creative and business projects, including his photography.

Ive been with The Brand Agency in a senior role since it was founded, and Ive been thinking about my future for a while. The agency is in a strong position, we have a succession plan in place, and now is a good time for me to make a change, he said.

Brand CEO Steve Harris said that Buchanan had made a significant contribution to the agency through its 25-year history.

Craigs thinking has led some of the most recognised and awarded work for the agency, and in Perth, he said.

Buchanan has also played a major role in developing industry creative talent through his work with AWARD School, including heading it in WA for the past two years.

Harris said the agency would make a final decision on its creative leadership structure in the new year, but that in the interim Associate Creative Director Dave Donald and Senior Creative Steve Straw will share the creative leadership responsibilities, with Dan Agostino will continuing to lead the design team.

Buchanan has been one of Perths most prominent and enduring creatives since his junior days at FCB Shorter (pictured here at the start of his career with Matt Eastwood (left). A recent highlight for Buchanan is the multi-awarded St John Ambulance spot.
| BY Lynchy |

UK digital creative agency Phantom has announced New Zealand as its selection for its first international expansion. Founded in late 2013, Phantom has seen huge growth and success in London and is in the midst of plans for an early-2017 Auckland studio opening.

Collaborating closely with brand giants such as Google, The Financial Times and Sony Music  Phantom could easily have chosen to be twice the size they are now. As a point of difference, the agency considers quality over quantity the most important thing to their business.

Were selective of the work we take on and actively seek most talented and driven people in the industry, says technical director Matthew Booy. Well always mold roles around people, rather than people around roles and hire proactively whenever ,we meet an unmistakable Phantom.

Phantom was formed to enable us to do exactly what we love, says creative director and co-founder Jamie Nicoll. It had been obvious to us for some time that the traditional agency structure is outdated. Having been on the studio floor for years, we understood and related to every step and frustration of a project.

Phantom was built on the foundation that the company would never lose sight of this insight and created a model built entirely from the perspective of the studio, rather than multiple layers of unnecessary management.

Auckland as Phantoms second office is a no-brainer for the company. With a number of Kiwis working in their London office, the founders believe the talent and drive within the New Zealand digital industry is some of the best in the world.

It is in Kiwis nature to be intrinsically creative and inventive, says Phantoms Kiwi managing director and co-founder Emily Shorvon. For all the incredible skill and ambition, there needs to be more amazing places for New Zealanders to work in the digital industry. As in London, were determined to give people who share our vision a place to make their work home, to be part of something special and ground breaking together.

Likewise, the company is passionate about working with local brands and teams who have fascinating marketing challenges and an open mind for how to solve them.

I truly believe that on the digital world stage, there is absolutely no reason for New Zealand to be the little guys anymore, says business director Cara Hamment.
| BY Ricki Green |

Lauren Regolini (pictured left) was awarded Top of Class at WAs 2016 AWARD School graduation ceremony on Friday night  the last of five graduation ceremonies to take place across Australia this year.

Second place was awarded to Zosia Kilpatrick, with Roman Costanzo and Helen Kwok in joint third.

The ceremony, which took place at Little Wing Corner Gallery in Subiaco, was proudly supported by News Corp, The Sunday Times and Perth Now and attended by a broad audience from the industry.

Head of AWARD School Craig Buchanan, Creative Director, The Brand Agency, congratulated the eleven graduates on their hard work and achievements. He also thanked senior industry creatives, Paul Coghlan, David Donald, Joe Hawkins, Megan Riley and Alida Henson for their commitment as tutors, as well as Adam Barker and Dav Tabeshfar for judging the final portfolios.
"Compassion is one thing, but what we need is research on how to better manage ageing in this context, Dr Wickramariyaratne is well positioned to investigate it, and overseas is the place to do it," he said.
While the man has been arrested and some victims have come forward, police believe there may be other people who have information, and urge them to speak to police.
"They were talking about putting a pin into his thumb. He stayed in hospital after his first surgery at about 8pm last night and has gone back in this morning for another surgery. It's a very nasty injury and has opened his hand right up."
The situation should be simple: clean water is essential for human life; water is a scarce resource in this part of Australia and is likely to become even scarcer; the reliable supply of clean water at prices affordable by all users is therefore an essential service; this service is a responsibility of the ACT government; the "framework" (to use ICRC's preferred term) for pricing should ensure all users can afford at least the minimum amount of water needed to live decently, while encouraging all users to be frugal.
LinkAfrica will terminate its fibre-connected residential and business customers at NewTelcos data centre.

Eckart Zollner, head of new business development at NewTelco, told South African media: We are excited to be a part of LinkAfricas expanding network as a breakout point for any LinkAfrica fibre client in Midrand.

LinkAfricas Andre Hoffmann, manager for special projects at the company, told ITWeb: The data centre offers all the benefits we look for in a data centre  good security, excellent cable management and maintenance standards, great uptime and availability, and peace of mind when it comes to power supply  an especially key point in a country not well known for its reliable electricity delivery.

LinkAfrica has already started its fibre rollout and a number of customers are already connected to the data centre.

Frankfurt-based NewTelco has a number of European data centres as well as its business in South Africa.
Arroyo has been with the AT&T group and its predecessors since 2001, when he was appointed CIO of Cingular Wireless, a mobile operator part-owned by Bell South, which merged with the old AT&T 10 years ago and adopted the name.

A California-born mathematician and computer scientist, he moved to Mexico City at the start of 2015, following AT&Ts purchase of Iusacell and Nextel, wireless operations that it turned into AT&T Mexico.

He has spent two years integrating Iusacell and Nextels networks and upgrading them to 4G  essentially following what de la Vega did north of the border. The US and Mexican networks now operate seamlessly,de la Vega said earlier this year.

Arroyo will now run AT&Ts international carrier business and its enterprise operations from Dallas, the groups headquarters.

De la Vegas retirement at the end of December, leaked yesterday, came as a surprise to the industry. Born in Cuba 65 years ago, he moved to the US with his family in 1962 and has spent all of his 42-year career in what become AT&T. He was chief operating officer of Cingular Wireless and in 2004 led its merger with AT&T Wireless  then an independently quoted company.

Later on he negotiated an exclusive deal with Apple to launch the iPhone on the AT&T network in the US. He was one of the only people in the world outside Apple who saw the iPhone before it was launched.

The new CEO of AT&T Mexico will be Kelly King, now senior VP of AT&Ts business group.

 Capacity Media will be producing Mexicos first ever wholesale event in June 2017, bringing together leading players from both the Mexican market and the international telecoms community. Mexico Connect will provide a unique networking vehicle for senior executives in the Mexican marketplace to discuss trends, challenges and opportunities and to strategise for the year ahead. If you would like to get involved please email robert.barton@capacitymedia.com
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.
BYJU'S, India's largest ed-tech company and the creator of the largest K-12 app in the country announced the findings of the "Impact of smartphone-based learning content on K-12 students" study today.

The findings highlighted how smartphone-based learning is helping children learn on their own, offering them a new perspective to understand tough concepts and enabling them to finish their lessons faster. The study gathered interesting feedback from parents on their children's performance.

Some of the insights and trends that the study revealed are:

97% of students said that they finished the lessons much faster when they learn via technology

82% parents said that they did not have to ask their children to use the app. Children took the initiative to learn and take tests/quizzes on their own on the app

92% students said that learning via technology offered them a different way of viewing complex topics

93% parents reported an overall increase in their child's grades after using the app

76 million lessons have been completed so far

46% of students on the app are from lower and middle level grades

India has over 260 million school going children. The increased adoption of smartphones across the country has brought in a lot of changes in education sector in the recent years.

Smartphones are now increasingly being used as 'learning devices' by students across different grades and geographies. Technology is moulding the way children of different age groups learn. It has charted out a whole new way of learning for the younger generations.

Pravin Prakash, Co-founder, BYJU's said, "Our study reveals how technology can make a big impact in making learning more engaging for students. Use of technology in education introduces a whole new dimension to the way children learn and are taught. We have seen some great growth stories of students who have been using our app. The fact that parents are telling us how the sense of self-study is getting imbibed in their child because of learning via technology is a great testament to the quality of our products. Today, a lot of students across grades increasingly understand the benefit of learning the basics of every concept as opposed to just memorizing before the exam."

BYJU's is a content-first tech enabled Education Company that builds every product on a solid content foundation which is backed by rich research and pedagogy. The strong 500+ in-house R&D Team uses technology at every step to make learning accessible and engaging.

It also empowers teachers to use tools like in-air projections & concept visualizations to make the learning interactive, and the adaptive learning platform personalizes the learning experience for every student and enables them to advance to the next level.

Pravin further added, "In India, the real impact of technology in education is yet to be realized. It is very encouraging to see students from across the nation using our app - especially from tier II & III cities. This is a great inspiration for us to create products that can address the need for personalized learning in remote locations of the country. Our passionate teams are continuously working towards creating learning products that reach more students and help them learn better."

About BYJU'S

BYJU's is India's largest Ed-tech company and the creator of India's largest K-12 learning app which offers highly adaptive, engaging and effective learning programs for students in classes 4-12 (K-12) and competitive exams like JEE, NEET, CAT, IAS, GRE and GMAT.

Launched in 2015, BYJU's has become the most loved and preferred education app for students across age groups with 6.5 million downloads, 3 lakh annual paid subscriptions and sees addition of 30,000 students every month. With an average time of 40 minutes being spent by a student on the app every day from 1700+ cities, the BYJU's app is making learning enjoyable and effective. Renewal rates are as high as 90%. Delivering world class learning experience, BYJU'S is making learning contextual and visual, and not just theoretical.
In a seminar held recently, Australia has expressed keen interest in expanding its skill training program in India and contribute continuously for innovation and creativity to be in full potential for the partnership.

"Australia deeply values its close and productive bilateral skills relationship with India and both nations shares much in common with skills collaborations," Australian education and training minister Simon Birmingham said during Australia India Leadership Dialogue 2016 at MCG.

"As we seek to broaden skills engagement with India, we are eager to collaborate, work closely with industry, the training sector and government, to explore innovative and creative ways to realise the potential for increased skills partnership," he said.

"We appreciate that with such a young population, India faces both an opportunity and a very formidable challenge to expand the capacity and quality of the skills training sector," Birmingham said. "India's target of skilling 400 million people by 2022 was impressive, and mind-blowing by Australian standards."

"We are well-placed to work in building India's capacity to meet its enormous training demand. Australian vocational education is internationally recognised for its unique qualification structure, industry-focused training, all of which lead to high employability outcomes," he said.

Indian and Australian leaders such as Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen, Assistant Minister to Prime Minister Senator James McGrath, the newly- appointed Indian High Commissioner A M Gondane, Melbourne-based Consul General Manika Jain, former Australia India Institute (AII) Director Amitabh Mattoo and AII director Craig Jeffrey attended the event.

"We have been delighted to see that Australia's Kangan Institute is working with India's Government of Gujarat and Maruti SuzukiBSE -0.10 % to build India's first international Automobile Centre of Excellence," Birmingham said.

"In a bilateral sense, we're also doing substantial work with India on the development of international occupational standards to support greater shared understanding of skills and mobility in skills for industry across country borders," he said.

He assured that skill training approaches were being regularly tested to meet international standards and needs. Over 300 learners have so far participated in the program form eight countries.

Australian Government Paves Way For Its Children to Learn Hindi
Even though production of the Honda S2000 ceased in 2009, a brand new example was just sold by a Honda dealership in Australia.



Local publication CarAdvice discovered the anomaly in local sales reports with Honda Australia director Stephen Collins confirming than an unused S2000 had indeed been sold by a New South Wales dealer where it was used solely as a showroom vehicle.

The S2000 in question is said to be a 2007 model year example meaning it is an AP2 model. Unlike the original, the AP1, the second-generation S2000s naturally-aspirated 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine didnt rev to 9,000 rpm and instead cut off at 8,200 rpm. Nevertheless, the engine still delivers an impressive 177 kW (237 hp) in Australian-spec, providing it with similar performance to entry-level Porsche Boxster models of the time.

It isnt known how much the buyer of this S2000 paid but when launched locally, the model started at $73,590 ($54,850).

PHOTO GALLERY
Together with local partners from Dongfeng, Honda will open a new production facility in China to meet the increasing demand for its vehicles.



The facility will be built on a 1.2 million square-meter plot acquired, which is located approximately 8 km (5 miles) southeast of their first factory within the Wuhan Economic & Technological Development District. Following a 3 billion yuan ($435 million) injection, it will have an annual production capacity of 120,000 units, by the time it will become operational in 2019.

Honda has yet to announce what cars will be put together in the new plant, but states that it will be designed with a concept to accommodate production of electrified vehicles, as these are expected to face an increased demand in the Peoples Republic, over the next few years. With the addition of the latest factory, the joint ventures overall annual production capacity will increase to 600,000 units.

Honda sales in China is going strong and annual unit sales for 2016 is expected to reach 1.2 million units. The Chinese market has potential for further development and growth. In order to continue meeting such strong demand, Honda will introduce its highly attractive products equipped with leading-edge technologies to the Chinese market ahead of other markets around the world and deliver joys to our customers here in China, said President, Chief Executive Officer and Representative Director of Honda Motor Co, Takahiro Hachigo.

PHOTO GALLERY
You could have the missing piece of the puzzle that will help the RCMP put someone behind bars. Here is a some recent crime that Central Okanagan Crime Stoppers hope you can help solve by calling our anonymous tips line at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477), visit our website at www.crimestoppers.net or text to CRIMES (274637), keyword Ktown.

CRIME: THEFT OF LOCKED BIKES FROM SCHOOL

DATE: November 29, 2016

RCMP FILE: 2016-70938

Two students discovered their bikes had been stolen while they were in school on November 29th. The Vice Principal of Spring Valley Middle School on Ziprick Road contacted the RCMP to report the loss of the two BMX bikes. One bike was a bright yellow 2016 BMX GT Air Fluro with serial number CMISM522067 and the other was a 2013 black BMX We the People Arcade 20 with red handlebars and serial number HBQWH18804. Video surveillance was reviewed which revealed two males clipping the locks with bolt cutters about 2:30 p.m.

Photo: Crime Stoppers

You can help catch these suspects and qualify for a reward by calling Crime Stoppers anonymous tips line at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477), visit our website at www.crimestoppers.net or text to CRIMES (274637), keyword Ktown.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.
You'll soon be able to know at a glance exactly where the B.C. wine you're drinking is produced.

The province announced Thursday it's working to change the way wine is branded to help consumers easily recognize where the vino they're enjoying originated, perhaps right down to the exact slope.

That means a wine produced in the Okanagan could soon be identified further by an array of sub-regions.

Right now, the province has only one sub-geographical indication  the Golden Mile Bench, on the western slope south of Oliver.

"The updated regulations recognize the diversity and innovation of B.C. winemakers by removing the restrictive requirement that all wines from the same geographic indicator must demonstrate the same distinctive characteristics," the province says in a statement.

Agriculture minister Norm Letnick said the regulatory changes "support the maturity of B.C. wines in the marketplace."

Ezra Cipes, the CEO Summerhill Pyramid Winery, said this change is progress for the B.C. wine industry.

"Adding these details to B.C.'s wine map will help international markets understand the enthusiasm for our land and the beauty of our wines. The world is paying attention to B.C. wine," he said.
Photo: Google Maps

Could a subsea tunnel under the Strait of Belle Isle finally link northern Newfoundland with Labrador?

It's a question that for decades has inspired dreams of free-flowing trade, hundreds of jobs and thousands of tourists.

Proponents say a fixed link  like the Chunnel between the U.K. and France, or the North Cape Tunnel in Norway  would unleash economic opportunity.

"It could, theoretically, be a game changer," said Des Whalen, chairman of the St. John's Board of Trade.

But the idea is making political waves in the cash-strapped province, as critics lambaste plans to spend up to $750,000 for another feasibility report.

"At a time when funding is being slashed all over the place for important programs, I really question the wisdom of spending three quarters of a million dollars," NDP Leader Earle McCurdy said in an interview.

"Even if the study comes back and says, yes, this is feasible, we're not in a financial position to do the project any time soon."

The tunnel under the strait, which is roughly 17 kilometres at its most narrow point, would connect about 26,000 residents of the mainland with the island of Newfoundland.

But McCurdy and other doubters stress the province is in the midst of a fiscal crisis since oil prices collapsed. Despite spending cuts and tax hikes, a $1.6 billion deficit is forecast this year as net debt mounts.

That's on top of soaring costs linked to the Muskrat Falls hydro project now under construction in Labrador. Its estimated price tag has hit $11.4 billion, up $4 billion from four years ago.

The Liberal government says it earmarked $750,000 for the Labrador link study in its last budget as part of economic diversity efforts, but none of it has been spent so far.

Progressive Conservative member Barry Petten says a study commissioned more than 12 years ago by the previous Tory regime already recommended a single-lane tunnel that would move vehicles one way at a time on an "electric train shuttle."

But with an estimated cost of $1.7 billion with financing -- and 11 years for development -- the project stalled. It never progressed despite years of hefty surplus budgets flush with offshore oil revenues.

"People wanted to make this work in 2004 and 2005," Petten said in an interview. "At the end of the day, they just couldn't make it feasible. I don't see what has changed now."
Photo: Contributed

Im sure your social media has blown up with all the skiers and boarders going back to the hill this weekend.

Or maybe youre the one posting all those pictures on top of the mountain.

If youre that excited about snow check out what Rebecca Schack of Raus Technologies will soon be launching.

This is an accurate weather app that will wake you up when a ton of fresh powder is falling at your favourite ski resort.

It is a direct input from the resort and not a forecast that we all know really is just a 50/50 at best.

The android version will be ready this weekend and apple app shouldnt be too far along. It will also get your resort discounts and direct links to tickets. Another great project by a local entrepreneur that partner with Accelerate Okanagan.



If youre a food and wine fan or need a gift for a food and wine lover, Devour is releasing a limited number of early-bird tickets at 8 a.m. on Saturday so you can fill someones stocking.

This is the event where Holly Dober brings together some of the Okanagans culinary masters and beverage experts for us to eat, drink and be social.

Devour happens on March 4 but be quick because I am sure the ticket will go quickly.



Christy Lovigs Sun Run InTraining program registration opened yesterday.

SportMedBC, in partnership with The Vancouver Sun, has coordinated the InTraining clinics at over 65 locations throughout the province.

The aim of the clinics is to motivate and assist new runners and walkers to take part in the Vancouver Sun Run April 23, through participation in a 13-week graduated training program.

The clinic typically attracts 70 plus participants in Kelowna, which provides a great training environment, full of support and camaraderie as you work toward your goal of completing the Sun Run.

For whatever reason Vancouver always gets nice weather for this run while Kelowna is cold and wet. Thats just another reason to be motivated to participate. You can register through the City of Kelowna by phone (250-469-8800) or online. (Barcode: 151984)



Kelowna Yacht Club was presented with the Club of the Year Award (Medium Size) by the Canadian Society of Club Managers, a professional society of individuals involved in club management professions.

This is an annual award to a club that has shown significant innovation.

Kelowna Yacht Club was chosen because of its increased membership, revenue and growth over the past five years.

The construction of its new building was also noticed because of its high efficiency systems reducing its carbon footprint and most importantly all of their community focused events and fundraising efforts.

That whole water front area continues to get phenomenal recognition.



Dont forget about the living nativity at Willow Park Church this weekend and if youre looking for a Christmas tree check out the experience that Ted Corbett at Woodhaven Tree Farms is offering.

Also this Saturday Big White is having its eighth annual winter rally and if you need more warm clothes to do all these fun things check out the North Face Launch Party happening all day Saturday too.

Make it a great week!

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.
Photo: Deborah Pfeiffer

Tree removal is now underway at a popular Naramata park to get rid of an invasive species.

The work started this week around the perimeter of Manitou Park.

"We have these invasive elms around the perimeter of the park and on the beach," said RDOS Naramata Director Karla Kozakevich. "They are prolific over seeders and they spread to areas where we don't want them."

The Naramata Parks and Recreation Commission has been aware of the problem for quite some time but haven't had the budget to deal with the trees.

But now that they are dealing with the master plan for the park and have some money in the budget, the trees are coming down.

Kozakevich said the RDOS has contracted an arborist to do the work.

The plan is to remove some of the more crowded trees and replace them with trees more suited to the park and beach.
Photo: Contributed

Not since Mulan has the Disney machine created such a strong and likeable female character.

Based on neither fairy tale nor legend, Moana is only the second lead character of her kind in the entire Disney library.

The fact that she is neither white nor willowy also sets her apart as a new breed of heroine  one that is feisty and fearless.

Moana (whose name means The Ocean in Hawaiian) is the daughter of her village's chief and although she wears a dress and has a cute animal sidekick, she seeks to save her island, not find a prince.

Female energy dominates the movie as the story begins with the retelling of a Polynesian legend where earth mother Te Fiti has her heart stolen by the demi-god Maui.

Without her heart, death begins to spread throughout the land and can only be remedied when Maui returns her heart.

We witness Moana as a toddler being "chosen by the sea," which presents the missing heart to her. Unfortunately her father fearfully whisks her away from the water's edge before she is able to bring the heart safely to shore.

Throughout her childhood, Moana is called toward the ocean, but is told it is forbidden to go beyond the reef and so she reluctantly obeys and does her duty.

As she approaches adulthood, she is ready to give up her dream of exploring the ocean waters when her wise, but eccentric, grandmother guides her to a hidden cave that contains the secret of their people  they used to be sea nomads.

Moana feels vindicated  the pull of the ocean is valid and must be pursued. As her island begins to experience crop failures and a lack of fish in the lagoon, she knows that she is the chosen one to find Maui and return balance to the Earth.

After a lengthy setup, so begins a fairly typical and predictable hero quest movie.

Polynesian culture provides ancient legends, inspiration and a lush background for this original and fanciful adventure story.

Newcomer Hawaiian-born Auli'I Cravalho sparkles as the heroine Moana. She has a nice combative chemistry with Maui and possesses a solid singing voice.

Cravalho, only 14 years when she voiced the role, won the coveted part after a global casting call was put out in 2015.

She is the youngest actor to perform a lead in a Disney film and is someone to watch out for in future roles.

Dwayne Johnson (The Rock) was an inspired choice to play the exiled demi-god Maui.

His arrogant self-assurance is nothing more than a shell for the warm-hearted softy he is beneath all those muscles, tattoos and hair and it doesn't take long before Moana wears him down.

There are many visually spectacular scenes in this film from the characterization of the ocean water to the rich island life to the realm of the monsters.

We are never without something spectacular to look upon.

In a unique and interesting directoral twist, Maui is covered in tattoos that have all been hand-drawn old-school animation style.

The tattoos act as his conscience and provide comic relief as well as a nice contrast to the digital animation.

Musically, while it is disappointing that more authentic Polynesian or Hawaiian artists weren't used in the film, there are some memorable songs and witty lyrics abound reminiscent of The Little Mermaid and Aladdin.

There is a lot to celebrate in this film  positive female role modelling, an earth-friendly message, ancestral honouring and even a Ziggy Stardust homage.

Moana is an entertaining and enjoyable ride.

I give this film 4 out of 5 stars.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.
Photo: Contributed

The Kalamalka Lake water source has been turned back on for Greater Vernon Water users.

The Kalamalka Pump Station was shut down on Nov. 10 to accommodate the extension of the water intake in Kalamalka Lake.

The majority of the work, including the intake and new screens, has been completed and GVW can now return this water supply back to normal operations.

Customers on the Kalamalka Lake supply may notice a change in water quality such as an increase in hardness. This may be of interest to those customers who have in-home water treatment systems or aquariums.
Photo: File photo

Three city bus passengers were taken to the hospital Thursday afternoon in Kamloops after the bus collided with an SUV.

The crash occurred at Fortune Drive and Leigh Road at 3:45 p.m. and resulted in minor injuries.

The driver of the SUV was examined by paramedics at the scene and released.

The cause of the crash is still under investigation
A local business owner delivered a van full of toys to the St. Vincent de Paul Society in Penticton on Thursday.

ATD Hobbies and the Penticton Radio Control Club hosted Santas Race for the Kids last month, bringing nearly 30 people together to race high end RC cars for charity.

Its our first annual event we actually did quite well, we ended up raising $1,800 which we used to purchase 107 toys, ATD Hobbies owner Anthony Hobbs said.

He says the inspiration for the event was quite simple.

We have a daughter, a 3 year old, shes spoiled - not rotten, but very spoiled and very fortunate."

Hobbs says he explained to her that some kids dont get toys for Christmas.

And she said we should do something!, and Im like you know what, why not, you are right. We can, so if we can give back to the community we like to.

Hobbs says Canadian Tire also gave them a deal on the toys and they are looking forward to doing it all again next year.
Photo: Derrick Antoine

A Kelowna man pleaded guilty to three separate assaults Thursday morning, including one that involved a machete and another that prompted a manhunt in Rutland this past summer.

Derrick Antoine, 29, was arrested in the evening of Aug. 16 after he stabbed his ex-girlfriend in the back earlier that morning in an apartment on the 400 block of Franklyn Road, prompting a manhunt in the Rutland area.

The woman, in her 20s, suffered a one-inch puncture wound just below her shoulder blade and was rushed to the hospital.

Upon further investigation, police determined that Antoine was also suspected of being involved in a gruesome machete attack in Rutland's Ben Lee Park eight days prior to the stabbing.

A 22-year-old man was kicked, punched and slashed across the face with a machete by two men just after midnight on Aug. 8.

Ben Lee Park is right across the street from the apartment building where the stabbing took place.

He has remained in custody since his arrest.

Antoine pleaded guilty Thursday to assault causing bodily harm for the machete attack and assault, resisting or obstructing a peace officer and breach of bail conditions for the Aug. 16 stabbing.

Additionally, he pleaded guilty to an assault charge stemming from a June 28 incident.

Antoine will remain custody until his sentencing date on Jan. 12. A pre-sentence report has been ordered to help aid the judge in sentencing.
Photo: Getty Images

A Kelowna couple is at their wits' end after they say they've spent the last eight months reporting their neighbour to bylaw and the RCMP for constant noise issues, but the city has done little to help.

The couple moved into their downtown home in April, and they've had issues with late night music and noises from their next door neighbours ever since.

Coming and going, doors slamming, because they're doing their drug deals, and then the music of course, because when you don't work all day, you party all night, said A, who asked to remain anonymous. It can start as early as seven to eight and then go until three in the morning, or it won't start until 10, right when we're going to bed, and it'll go until four or five.

A says they've called bylaw or the RCMP two or three times per week for the past eight months, but little has been done to stop the issue.

One time, a police officer knocked on the neighbour's door and threatened them with a fine.

It was quiet for about three weeks after that, like dead quiet, A said.

The late night noise slowly began to pick up again though.

Greg Wise, bylaw services manager with the City of Kelowna, says he is aware of the issue, but says the city has received just six complaints from the complainant about the house in question. And when bylaw officers investigated each complaint, they could not verify there was an issue.

Officers have been unable to determine if indeed the issue that she is claiming is occurring is indeed happening at times of attendance and that's been part of the challenge, said Wise. At this time it's kind of hearsay evidence.

Additionally, the city has only received complaints from the one complainant about the house in question.

It becomes odd in that time frame, if we do have multiple attendances, that we're not able to catch and verify that it is indeed occurring, it starts to become a little fishy, Wise said. It doesn't mean that there still may not be a legitimate complaint occurring, but it just comes down to anything with evidence in court, you have to have appropriate evidence to substantiate the laying and the upholding of a charge.

A says the main issue is the bass from the music that reverberates into their house, something bylaw and RCMP officers may not be able to feel from outside.

What we are going to do is provide her a noise log, that can be tracked as far as these instances and occurrences and the impact they're creating on her and then we can support a charge based on that with a statement she'd be willing to bring forward and see where it goes in court, said Wise.

With a new baby on the way, A says they are giving up on the situation and will be putting their house up for sale come spring time, despite $30,000 in new renovations on their home.

We have a baby coming, she said. Even if it did quiet down, I don't want to be beside drug dealers and alcoholics.
Photo: Contributed

The Penticton Indian Band has fixed an error that occurred during this week's council election, according to a statement released by the band.

While preparing the official election package for registering with band records and Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada, an error in calculation was discovered.

The electoral officers immediately locked the ballots away and contacted all the council candidates to reconvene for an official recount.

Each candidate was informed of the error which could change the outcome of the results.

Only the candidates, their scrutineer and electoral officials were present to maintain the integrity of the recount.

Before publicly releasing details of the recount, the electoral officers wanted to have an open process for the candidates.

"When our community is faced with these types of challenges, being open with those it affects, is the way we get through it," said electoral officer Valerie Baptiste. "We do it right away, theres no waiting around or mincing words.

The recount lasted until after midnight, and did not ultimately change the results of the election.

The eight seats will be held by: Elliot Tonasket - 160, Joseph Pierre - 147, Suzanne Johnson - 142, Naomi Gabriel - 140, Jonathan Kruger - 138, Clint George - 127, Denise Lecoy - 121 and Tim Lezard - 119.

There were 329 ballots cast, with 16 spoiled.
Photo: Martine Parent

UPDATE: 10:35 a.m.

A crash on Highway 97 at the UBCO turnoff in Kelowna caused a traffic backup.

The Friday morning crash happened in the northbound lanes. A witness says it appears a black SUV was T-boned on its driver's side by a white truck.

ORIGINAL: 9:20 a.m.

Kelowna police say drivers are coping well so far with the snowy conditions.

Cpl. Jesse O'Donaghey says drivers should allow extra time to get safely to their destination.

"Ensure that you slow down, adjust your speed to the road conditions and wear your seat belt. Doing so will reduce your chance of sustaining injuries in a crash," he says.

"For those travelling outside of the Okanagan and over any mountain passes, plan your trip, tell your friends and family, pack an emergency kit, ensure your cellphone is fully charged and check the road and weather conditions before you go."

Police say they strongly recommend all drivers who plan to travel in snowy conditions prepare their vehicle by installing snow-rated tires.

"Once again, give yourself ample time to travel to your destination and avoid using cruise control on slippery roads," he says.
Photo: The Canadian Press

Both Nadine Mahe des Portes and the rat panicked when she inadvertently stepped on it on her walk back from work through Paris.

"I heard a terrible squeak," the property agent recalled with a shudder. "I thought I'd stepped on a child's toy or something."

When Parisians are literally tripping over rats on the sidewalk, it is clear that the City of Light has a problem. Professional exterminators with decades on the job struggle to recall infestations as impressive  perhaps that should be repulsive  as those now forcing the closure of Paris parks, where squirmy clumps of rats brazenly feed in broad daylight, looking like they own the place.

On Friday, City Hall threw open one of the closed parks, the Tour Saint-Jacques square a block from the Seine, to show journalists its latest anti-rat drive. The park in the heart of the city is only a short walk from the Pompidou art museum. Two Japanese tourists searching for Notre Dame cathedral, also just minutes away, thankfully didn't notice the rats in bushes just in front of them when they stopped to ask for directions.

The furry princes of the city were all over the park, sauntering across the footpaths, merrily grazing in the undergrowth and far more bothered by pigeons competing with them for breadcrumbs than by people walking past and the rattle and hum of the morning rush hour.

Unfortunately for City Hall's exterminators, they also seemed totally uninterested in recently laid traps baited with poison.

The park attendant, Patrick Lambin, said his morning round had yielded just one cadaver.

Before the park was closed in November, rats foraging for food hung like grapes off the trash bins and regularly scampered through the children's play area, sowing panic, he said.
Photo: File photo Prince Andrew

Britain's Prince Andrew is asking the media to cease "speculation and innuendo" about his daughters, and denies he's feuding with elder brother Prince Charles.

Andrew, the third of Queen Elizabeth II's four children, released a strongly worded statement Friday slamming recent newspaper stories "that have no basis in fact."

He rebuts allegations that he has asked for royal titles to be bestowed on any future husbands of his daughters, 28-year-old Princess Beatrice and 26-year-old Princess Eugenie.

And he says "there is no truth to the story" of a split with Charles over his daughters' role in the royal family.

Andrew, 56, says he cannot stand by and watch the media speculate about his daughters "based on my purported interventions, which are completely made up and an invention."
Photo: Castanet Staff

Police are investigating after two adults and a number of high school students got into a scuffle.

Nanaimo RCMP say a husband and wife had gone into a fast food restaurant at 12:30 p.m. Thursday looking for their son.

They confronted some Wellington High School students.

"There was a heated conversation between the parents and a group of youths," say police. "They were all asked to leave and they went into the parking lot where it is alleged an altercation took place between the parents and a number of students."

The investigation continues.
Photo: Lakewood Twp. Police

Police say a New Jersey woman backed her car into her 2-year-old nephew, killing him.

Lt. Gregory Staffordsmith told the Asbury Park Press that the 33-year-old Lakewood woman was preparing to leave her home Thursday and was moving her car to a closer parking spot to load some packages and the toddler.

Police say the boy followed her without her knowing and was behind the car. They say she couldn't see him when she backed into him.

Police say the boy suffered significant head injuries. A neighbour took them to a hospital in Brick, where he later died.

No charges have been filed.

The names of the boy and his aunt weren't immediately released.
Photo: BC gov't

Drones will be used by search-and-rescue crews in two communities in British Columbia as part of a one-year pilot project.

The drones will be used in Coquitlam and Kamloops with the blessing of Emergency Management B.C.

The provincial government says the devices have the potential to help emergency management personnel and are increasingly being used by public safety agencies across North America.

Emergency Management says it will ensure the drones are used in ways that consider privacy and Transport Canada regulations.

Tom Zajac, vice-president of Coquitlam Search and Rescue, says in a news release the organization is always looking at using new technologies and techniques to improve its search capabilities or reducing risks to people involved in search and rescue operations.

Alan Hobler, president of Kamloops Search and Rescue, says the group has been testing and training with drones.

They can "be a more-effective means of searching terrain that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to search by traditional ground searchers," he said in the release. "Searcher safety is paramount for us and now we have a new tool that we can use in places or circumstances that may pose a risk to our searchers."
Photo: Contributed

A 15-year-old Kelowna girl could face charges following the theft of a vehicle and some electronic items from a residence in Rutland, according to the RCMP.

Police believe an unlocked door allowed the break and enter to occur Thursday morning at the house on the 300 block of Hollywood Road South.

About eight hours later, police responded to a report of a suspicious vehicle around Highway 33 and Roxby Road.

Officers searched the area and located the stolen vehicle in a parking lot.

Four female youths were taken into custody.

During a search of the 15-year-old Kelowna teen, incidental to her arrest, investigators located the stolen vehicle's keys, said Cpl. Jesse ODonaghey, RCMP spokesperson. She faces potential charges and is expected to appear in court today.

ODonaghey thanked the members of the public who reported the suspicious vehicle.

Often times people fail to report suspicious activity while it is occurring, because they dont want to be embarrassed if their suspicions are unfounded. In this case the reported suspicious activity resulted in suspects being safely apprehended and stolen property quickly returned to its rightful owner.

Police also urged residents to keep their doors and windows locked at all times.

It often does not take long for a thief to slip into and out of your home undetected, ODonaghey said.
Photo: Contributed

The Kelowna Fire Department's Hazmat team was called out to Rutland late this morning.

The team was called after someone noticed a container lying at the side of the road near Hollywood and Hollydell roads.

Platoon captain Dennis Miller says the container was clearly marked as a bio-hazard.

He says the container was sealed when it was found.

Crews contacted the Ministry of Environment for proper protocol, then hand delivered the container to the ministry for safe disposal.
Discussion

Based on an average full term gestation, the 24-week period from the peak of the Zika virus outbreak to the peak in reported microcephaly occurrence suggests that the greatest risk for microcephaly is associated with Zika virus infection during the first trimester and early in the second trimester of pregnancy. During epidemiologic weeks 545, there was more than a fourfold increase in reported microcephaly cases in Colombia in 2016, compared with the previous year. Although the microcephaly prevalence in 2016 among infants likely exposed to Zika virus in utero (9.6 per 10,000 live births) in Colombia was not much higher than the median of microcephaly prevalence (6.6 per 10,000 live births) reported by passive surveillance in 17 U.S. states during 20092013 (4), the comparison with 2015 Colombia data indicates the magnitude of the increase.

The Zika virus disease outbreak in the World Health Organizations Region of the Americas began in Brazil, which first reported a laboratory-confirmed Zika virus outbreak in May 2015; Colombia confirmed local transmission of Zika virus about 5 months later, in October 2015. In 2015, microcephaly prevalence in Brazil was 5.5 per 10,000 live births, representing an approximate ninefold increase over the average prevalence during the previous 14 years (5,6). In Colombia, the relative increase has been smaller (fourfold); however, the baseline microcephaly prevalence was 2.1 per 10,000 live births in 2015, at least three times higher than Brazils reported baseline. There are several possible reasons for differences between the reported baseline microcephaly prevalences in Brazil and Colombia, as well as the differences in increases of microcephaly in the context of the Zika virus outbreaks in the two countries. First, 50%75% of the population of Colombia reside at altitudes above 2,000 meters, in areas without active, vectorborne Zika virus transmission (7). Second, microcephaly is a difficult birth defect to monitor because there are inconsistent definitions, obtaining accurate measurements is challenging, and terminology is inconsistent. Because of these challenges, prevalence estimates vary widely among countries and among surveillance systems within the United States (4). Third, the reports of microcephaly from Brazil might have served as an early warning. As evidence was emerging about the link between Zika virus infection and microcephaly, the Colombian Ministry of Health issued a recommendation in February 2016 advising women to consider delaying pregnancy for 6 months, which might have affected subsequent birth rates. The number of live births in Colombia during epidemiologic weeks 545 decreased by approximately 18,000 from 2015 to 2016.

The findings in this report are subject to at least four limitations. First, the report includes all cases of microcephaly and not just those linked to Zika virus. The majority of cases of microcephaly lacked laboratory confirmation of Zika virus infection. Possible explanations are that specimens were not submitted for all cases, specimens that were submitted were not collected within the recommended time frames (maternal serum specimens within 5 days of date of symptom onset for rRT-PCR testing and infant serum or fetal tissue specimens within 2 days of delivery), and neuroimaging studies were not available for the majority of patients (68%). Second, ascertainment of birth defects, including microcephaly, tends to be more complete among live born infants than among pregnancy losses, because of the condition of the fetus at the time of the loss as well as the relatively infrequent use of fetal autopsy to determine the cause of fetal death, leading to underestimation of the number of cases of microcephaly, especially among pregnancy losses (8). In addition, because microcephaly is a rare outcome, prevalence ratios comparing 2016 and 2015 might be unstable and should be interpreted with caution. Third, passive reporting systems tend to have less complete ascertainment of all birth defects compared with active surveillance systems (9). Finally, the ascertainment of birth defects generally does not capture infants or fetuses whose birth defects are not apparent prenatally or at delivery, but rather are identified several months after birth. Certain critical outcomes, such as deceleration of brain growth among infants who are born with normal head circumferences, are not captured by this surveillance (10).

Colombias national population-based surveillance system for birth defects is based on passive reporting, which provides critical data for monitoring the impact of teratogens and describing trends but likely underestimates the actual prevalence of birth defects, including those defects associated with Zika virus infection during pregnancy. Also, Colombias Zika virus surveillance is based on clinical symptoms, and asymptomatic Zika virus infections are not monitored by surveillance. Therefore, the overall percentage of women who are infected with Zika virus, or infected in early pregnancy or during the periconceptional period is unknown. To better understand the effects of Zika virus, INS and CDC are collaborating on Proyecto Vigilancia de Embarazadas con Zika (Enhanced Surveillance Project of Pregnant Women with Zika) to conduct intensified active monitoring in three cities in Colombia with high incidence of Zika virus disease in pregnant women. This project, which includes systematic collection of laboratory specimens for Zika virus testing, will provide more accurate estimates of the risk for microcephaly and other adverse birth outcomes among fetuses and infants of mothers with Zika virus disease during pregnancy.

In the absence of a vaccine to prevent Zika virus infection or a specific medication for treatment, prevention strategies include avoiding travel to areas with active Zika virus transmission, preventing mosquito bites through personal protection and vector control, and avoiding sexual transmission. Ongoing population-based birth defects surveillance provides critical data for monitoring the impact of teratogens, including Zika virus infection, and will be an essential tool to evaluate success in preventing microcephaly and congenital Zika syndrome.
J. L. BELL is a Massachusetts writer who specializes in (among other things) the start of the American Revolution in and around Boston. He is particularly interested in the experiences of children in 1765-75. He has published scholarly papers and popular articles for both children and adults. He was consultant for an episode of History Detectives, and contributed to a display at Minute Man National Historic Park.
Researchers from China, Canada, and the University of Bristol have discovered a dinosaur tail complete with its feathers trapped in a piece of amber.

The finding reported today in Current Biology helps to fill in details of the dinosaurs' feather structure and evolution, which can't be surmised from fossil evidence.

While the feathers arent the first to be found in amber, earlier specimens have been difficult to definitively link to their source animal, the researchers say.

Ryan McKellar, from the Royal Saskatchewan Museum in Canada, said: "The new material preserves a tail consisting of eight vertebrae from a juvenile; these are surrounded by feathers that are preserved in 3D and with microscopic detail.

"We can be sure of the source because the vertebrae are not fused into a rod or pygostyle as in modern birds and their closest relatives. Instead, the tail is long and flexible, with keels of feathers running down each side. In other words, the feathers definitely are those of a dinosaur not a prehistoric bird."

The study's first author Lida Xing from the China University of Geosciences in Beijing discovered the remarkable specimen at an amber market in Myitkyina, Myanmar in 2015.

The amber piece was originally seen as some kind of plant inclusion and destined to become a curiosity or piece of jewellery, but Xing recognized its potential scientific importance and suggested the Dexu Institute of Palaeontology buy the specimen.

The researchers say the specimen represents the feathered tail of a theropod preserved in mid-Cretaceous amber about 99 million years ago. While it was initially difficult to make out details of the amber inclusion, Xing and his colleagues relied on CT scanning and microscopic observations to get a closer look.

The feathers suggest the tail had a chestnut-brown upper surface and a pale or white underside. The specimen also offers insight into feather evolution. The feathers lack a well-developed central shaft or rachis. Their structure suggests that the two finest tiers of branching in modern feathers, known as barbs and barbules, arose before a rachis formed.

Professor Mike Benton from the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol, added: "It's amazing to see all the details of a dinosaur tail  the bones, flesh, skin, and feathers  and to imagine how this little fellow got his tail caught in the resin, and then presumably died because he could not wrestle free.

"There's no thought that dinosaurs could shed their tails, as some lizards do today."

The researchers also examined the chemistry of the tail inclusion where it was exposed at the surface of the amber. The analysis shows that the soft tissue layer around the bones retained traces of ferrous iron, a relic left over from haemoglobin that was also trapped in the sample.

The findings show the value of amber as a supplement to the fossil record. Ryan McKellar added: "Amber pieces preserve tiny snapshots of ancient ecosystems, but they record microscopic details, three-dimensional arrangements, and labile tissues that are difficult to study in other settings.

"This is a new source of information that is worth researching with intensity, and protecting as a fossil resource."

The researchers say they are now "eager to see how additional finds from this region will reshape our understanding of plumage and soft tissues in dinosaurs and other vertebrates."
News / Local

by Staff Reporter

British ambassador to Zimbabwe Catriona Laing has revealed that vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa 'is not easily available' for any engagement with.Laing told a privately run publication that Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa has never posed problems to her.She described Chinamasa who presented 2017 national budget as being in a 'challenging position'."I did see minister Chinamasa recently and I haven't seen VP Mnangagwa for seven months. He is not easily available  at least not to me" she said when asked on Zimbabwe/United Kingdom diplomatic relations, criticism of Britain's re-engagement with the Zanu PF government and foreign direct investment from the UK and the 2018 elections.She added "Minister Chinamasa, I think, is in a challenging position, there is no question."He reassures me that the government is committed to this process and I think there is some evidence to support that because they have cleared their arrears to the IMF."They are also still in these discussions with various private sector institutions on arrears clearance. They are indicating that some economic reforms have been implemented and we will hear more about this in the budget".The ambassador said "Zimbabwe is not an easy country to lend money to. There is high political risk, there is high economic risk".
News / National

by Staff reporter

The trial of 20 Tajamuka group members, who are facing public violence charges after they allegedly torched Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation and Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) vehicles during a protest against police brutality, failed to kick off again yesterday.The Tajamuka members, who include Promise Mkwananzi, Kunashe Muchemwa, Kerina Gweshe Michael Kauzani, who is in hospital, and others, were expected to stand trial, but this was postponed to January 12 next year by Harare provincial magistrate Lazini Ncube.However, the group's lawyer from Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, Tonderai Bhatasara, complained to the court the State was failing to furnish his clients with State papers to enable them to prepare for trial.Bhatasara said he had been left with no choice, but to consent to the State on the postponement of the matter.Kauzani was then issued with an administrative warrant of arrest after he failed to appear in court, but Bhatasara submitted the former was bedridden at a local hospital after being attacked by suspected State agents.National Vendors' Union of Zimbabwe chairperson, Sten Zvorwadza and 13 others, who are facing criminal nuisance charges after protesting against corruption at Harare Town House, appeared at the regional court for trial, but the matter was postponed to January 10, 2017. The matter was previously presided over by provincial magistrate Arnold Maburo, who has since been moved to the regional court.
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News / National

by Staff reporter

A 32-YEAR-OLD human rights activist, who is facing charges of unlawfully convening an unsanctioned meeting without notifying the regulatory authorities, yesterday appeared at the Harare Magistrates' Court for trial, but the State failed to proceed with it.The suspect, Denford Ngadziore, who is on $100 bail, is represented by human rights lawyer, Obey Shava.Prosecutor Nancy Chandakaona requested for the postponement of the trial. But the application was opposed by Shava, who argued the State was deliberately refusing to furnish him with State papers to enable him to prepare for the suspect's defence."Your worship, the State is saying we should fund the production of the State papers for us to get copies and we refused, as it is a constitutional right for the accused to get those papers for free," Shava said."If they want copies, let her (Chandakaona) give us that only copy and we photocopy it at our offices, we can't give them money for State papers and we are ready to proceed with the trial today."Chandakaona then requested for the adjournment of the matter to seek audience with her bosses on how to proceed with the matter. After tea break, Chandakaona asked another prosecutor, Nyikadzino Machingura, to handle the matter, but the latter refused to prosecute.Shava told magistrate, Lazini Ncube that the prosecutors were arguing over prosecuting the matter and he was now wondering whether the case would proceed and the magistrate confronted Machingura over the issue.Machingura told the court he could not handle the matter, as the cases were allocated to them by their bosses and Ncube said he would approach Chandakaona over what had happened.Allegations are that on October 17 this year at around 11am, Ngadziore, went to the Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology ministry offices, where he convened and addressed an unsanctioned gathering demanding the immediate arrest of the minister Jonathan Moyo over the misappropriation of money from the Zimbabwe Manpower Development Fund.Ngadziore, who was allegedly the convener, addressed the gathering without notifying the police.
News / National

by Staff reporter

TENSION is simmering in Zanu-PF ahead of the ruling party's annual conference scheduled for Masvingo next week, amid reports that plots and counter plots are underway as feuding factions prepare to meet after a gruelling year of internal strife.Sources say both factions in Zanu-PF, namely G40 which consists of young Turks who have coalesced around First Lady Grace Mugabe and Lacoste which is aligned to Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa, are lobbying their supporters across the provinces not to be intimidated and attend the conference in their numbers."Both factions have members on the ground meeting their supporters so that they can be accredited for next week's jamboree," the source said."Zanu-PF members have been holding late-night meetings in preparations for the forthcoming annual meeting," the source said, adding: "This has been characteristic of all Zanu-PF conferences where plots and counter plot take centre stage."The plots also come at a time G40 is pushing for the scrapping of the "one centre of power" which gave President Robert Mugabe the sole responsibility to appoint his deputies as well as members of the politburo.This comes amid indications the plot to amend the party's constitution was being pushed by G40 and could have been masterminded by Mugabe in his Machiavellian manoeuvres designed to re-align his succession process and re-assert control over his fractious organisation.To members of G40, attempts to throw out the "one centre of power" provision is considered a new strategy to oust Mnangagwa who is regarded by some as a frontrunner in the race to succeed Mugabe.In a move that has set the cat among the pigeons, Zanu-PF's Mashonaland Central province challenged the ruling party's "one centre of power" principle which empowers Mugabe to appoint his deputies and politburo members.During its inter-district meeting in preparation for this month's annual conference, the province resolved that the much-touted "one centre of power" principle  ushered in through an amendment to the party constitution in 2014  should be adjusted to allow members to elect the vice-presidents.However, the proposal has met stiff resistance from Zanu-PF provinces across the country, particularly Mnangagwa's supporters.As preparations for the annual conference being held at a total cost of US$4 million gathers momentum, central committee members and legislators have been forced to contribute 400 kilogrammes of meat each.Zanu-PF's 16th national annual people's conference will run from December 13-17 under the theme "Moving with Zim-Asset in Peace and Unity".According to sources, some central committee members in the province received phone calls from Masvingo Provincial Affairs minister Shuvai Mahofa ordering them to contribute 400 kgs of meat as well as bags of mealie-meal and millet.Sources said Mahofa gave the central committee members until December 10 to submit their contributions. This is contrary to Mahofa's remarks last week where she expressed enthusiasm over preparations for the party indaba.According to sources, state enterprises, depending on their financial state, were indirectly forced to contribute to the dinner dance held in Harare last month with each table ranging from US$10 000 to US$100 000.Ministries with revenue-collecting parastatals such as the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority and Zimbabwe National Roads Administration are as usual expected to take the tables with the highest price tags.Last weekend, Vice-President Phelekezela Mphoko pressured companies in Bulawayo to contribute to the conference saying they were beneficiaries of the party's policies.
American Airlines flight attendants have complained their new uniforms have left caused itching and other discomforts. (American Airlines / Handout)

Relations between the airline industry and its union employees have not always been smooth but here's a new wrinkle: Itchy uniforms.

Yes, itchy.

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While it may sound funny, American Airlines' Association of Professional Flight Attendants union isn't laughing. Instead, it's alarmed because about 1,600 members of its estimated 25,000-strong flock have reported the carrier's recently introduced uniforms may be linked to a raft of ailments they've suffered, including itchiness, rashes, fevers, headaches, hives and respiratory problems.

The union urges American, the second-largest airline operating at O'Hare International Airport, to recall all their members' uniforms until the problem is identified and solved. The airline says it has zero intention of doing that but is working with the union, and independent testing labs, to determine if the uniforms are a problem.

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The airline also asserts the complaints so far make up a minuscule number of the 70,000 total employees wearing the new duds, which were introduced in September.

That's a conundrum, all right. But it also prompts this question: If a company got over a thousand health-related complaints about some newly minted toy, cans of tuna or auto parts, wouldn't it want to launch a recall before matters got worse?

I'd argue it would, mostly for its own good. Companies, especially consumer product businesses, usually don't want to risk the potential legal liability or reputational damage that can come with providing the public, or its employees, with suspect or tainted products.

The flight attendants union doesn't care about such lofty corporate strategies. It just says a recall of its membership's uniforms is merited.

"We feel a remedy that excludes a full recall of the uniform fails to adequately protect our members", the union said in a statement.

As mentioned, the history of commercial aviation is chock-full of instances when workers and management squared off over wage and benefits issues either at the collective bargaining table or, sometimes, on the picket lines.

This American Airlines uniform imbroglio doesn't have that type of feel. Not yet, at least.

In fact, both sides applauded the introduction of the uniforms as having a more stylish, contemporary look than what some workers called "the old blues." There's also more mix-and-match potential for pants, skirts, blouses, jackets and so on.

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I am getting dangerously out of my depth discussing such sartorial matters, but the point is that American's flight attendant union and management welcomed the new look.

Both sides agree they have worked together at trying to find a root cause of the reported sickness. Moreover, each has collaborated on a couple of rounds of testing so that a third-party toxicologist can make its determination.

Flight attendants who are concerned can wear their old uniforms.

Yet throughout all this activity, American has continually asserted the uniforms are safe and no recall is going to happen.

"The new uniforms have been well received, look great, and are here to stay," three of the airline's top executives said in a recent employee memo.

So American is digging in. But that may be a mistake.

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As mentioned, it's not good for a consumer product concern, especially an airline that must make safety its top priority, to take partial measures. That's especially true when it comes to determining a health care risk to its employees and potentially its customers.

Indeed, isn't there a greater chance of opening up the company to employee lawsuits or customer complaints that could end up costing a lot of money and time? Maybe even more than a recall would?

There's already industry precedent for clawing back some uniforms, so there's no shame.

In 2011, Alaska Airlines introduced new flight attendant uniforms, but quickly received complaints similar to those now being raised by American's staff.

By 2013, Alaska changed the uniforms, citing health care concerns. Even so, it won't label that action a recall, so there must be something about that word that annoys airline executives.

"The safety and welfare of our employees is our first priority. I would not characterize this as a 'recall,' per say," wrote Ann Zaninovich, an Alaska Airlines spokeswoman, in an email to me.

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When it comes to uniforms, Alaska and American do have something in common, they picked the same supplier: Twin Hills, a unit of California-based Tailored Brands, which also owns the Men's Wearhouse and Jos. A. Bank chain.

It was never proven that Twin Hills caused the Alaska Airlines uniform woes. Alaska did use another vendor for the replacement clothes.

Regarding American's new outfits, the uniform-maker says extensive testing was done by independent labs and it has "raised no safety concerns", said Diego Louro, a Tailored Brands spokesman, in an email.

Perhaps an American flight attendant uniform recall, or whatever you call it, won't completely resolve every related question and issue.

But it seems to me that not conducting a full-court press allows too many nagging health and safety concerns to pile up and rile up people.

Which leads me to another question: Why would a major airline allow this type of controversy to get off the ground?

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roreed@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @rreedtribbiz
A day before President-elect Donald Trump threatened one of Boeing's most high-profile defense procurements, the deal to build the new Air Force One, the company had finalized a deal to pledge $1 million for his inaugural festivities, the company said Thursday.

Boeing has a long history of helping defray the costs of inaugurations, and the company gave the same amount for Obama's second inauguration in 2013.

The company finalized the contribution with the inaugural committee on Monday. Then on Tuesday, Trump tweeted that the cost of the Air Force One program was too high and should be canceled.

He tweeted that costs "are out of control, more than $4 billion. Cancel order!" Later, he told reporters that he thought the cost was "ridiculous. I think Boeing is doing a little bit of a number. We want Boeing to make a lot of money, but not that much money."

Hours after the tweet, Trump spoke with Boeing chief executive Dennis A. Muilenburg, who assured him that the company would work to keep costs down and work with the administration on the program.

Trump then called Muilenburg "a good man" and "a terrific guy" on the "Today" show and said, "We're going to work it out." Of the deal, Trump said: "We're going to get the prices down, and if we don't get the prices down, we're not going to order them. We're going to stay with what we have."

Despite the tension, Boeing said it is committed to supporting the festivities in January. USA Today first reported the pledge.

"We are pleased to continue our tradition of supporting presidential inaugurations," said Gordon Johndroe, a Boeing spokesman.
Exelon is among 44 companies that recently signed the White House's Equal Pay Pledge, promising to conduct gender pay audits annually and reduce unconscious bias in hiring and promotions, the Obama administration announced this week.

More than 100 companies have signed the pledge since the White House launched it in June. Exelon, which has 34,000 employees and is one of the few Chicago-based companies that signed the pledge, joins AT&T, Yahoo and Mastercard among the new signatories. Chicago-based Avanade also is a participant.

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The pledge is meant to spur businesses to address the persistent wage gap between men and women. Women working full-time on average earn 80 percent the wage a man earns. Latina women have the greatest wage gap, earning 54 cents for every dollar earned by a white man.

"We are publicly declaring that we think this is important," said Maggie FitzPatrick, senior vice president of corporate affairs at Exelon, which touts its commitment to diversity and inclusion in part as an effort to attract good talent.

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Exelon hired an outside company to conduct an internal gender pay analysis in April, in response to employee questions about equal pay during a period of heightened media attention to the issue, said Amy Best, chief human resources officer. The audit examined thousands of management positions  not unionized craft jobs, where pay is set by contract  and found no evidence of systemic gender discrimination, she said.

"We did the analysis to make sure we were where we needed to be," Best said.

Out of 15,600 jobs analyzed, the company had to make corrections to 400. Best attributed the discrepancies to employees' tenure in the roles and recent acquisitions of other companies that may have paid employees differently.

The voluntary pledge comes as employers prepare for new federal guidelines meant to help agencies investigate pay discrimination. Private employers with at least 100 employees will be required to collect and report summary employee pay data by sex, race and ethnicity, starting in March 2018, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced this fall. The employers are not to release salaries of individuals.

That rule could be rolled back under President-elect Donald Trump, who said Thursday he would nominate as labor secretary fast-food executive Andrew Puzder, a critic of several worker protections enacted by the Obama administration.

aelejalderuiz@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @alexiaer
Talk about a party foul: Chicago-based MillerCoors was losing more than 1 million barrels of beer per year in sales, a slide that reflected the company's complacency in an increasingly crowded beer industry, according to its chief executive.

"You don't have to be a rocket scientist to work out if you continue to lose 10 million barrels every eight years, you're not going to be around for much longer," MillerCoors CEO Gavin Hattersley said.

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Since taking the helm last year, Hattersley, 54, has galvanized his employees around a plan to stop the volume decline by 2018 and return to growth by 2019. There have been some early signs of progress, such as flagship beers Miller Lite and Coors Light gaining market share. And in just the past year or so, MillerCoors has taken a majority stake in four craft breweries: Revolver Brewing, Texas; Terrapin Beer Co., Georgia; Hop Valley Brewing Co., Oregon; and Saint Archer Brewery, California.

A native of Zambia, Hattersley studied accounting in South Africa and began his career in the beer industry at South African Breweries in 1997. Before being tapped as MillerCoors CEO, Hattersley worked as chief financial officer for Denver-based Molson Coors, parent company of MillerCoors. He now lives in the Lakeshore East neighborhood with his wife, Terry.

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The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q. What has it been like for you spending so much of your career as the finance guy and then adjusting to being the boss and the face of the company?

A. Quite tough, actually. I became an accountant for a reason. But I'm enjoying it a lot. I've certainly been growing in the areas that I know are my weaknesses. Public speaking was one of them. I think I've become reasonably competent at that.

Q. What have you learned about leading your employees and motivating them toward that stated goal of growth in 2019?

A. I have not had a problem with that, frankly, because I've always just had one style, which is what you see is what you get. I'm very honest. I'm very direct. ... I think for us here, having a rallying cry and something inspirational, I think, was a big deal for the employees. Because quite frankly, this organization had just become accustomed to and accepting of somewhere between 2 and 3 percent (in volume sales) decline every year.

I think for the first time folk had really got a vision that they believed we could get to. Now does everybody believe it? Of course not. There are still skeptics in our organization. But I will say the surveys we've done with our distributors and with our employees show that the belief we can do this is actually growing.

Q. Why do you think that complacency had set in?

A. We were successful from a profit point of view and a cash generation point of view. Our shareholders were very happy. ... And so people saw that as success, as opposed to the complete picture of success, which is frankly what had to change. We were losing relevance with our distributors because, as some of these faster-moving (craft) brands grew in the distributors' houses, our share of the house was shrinking.

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Q. What are some things MillerCoors is doing to stop the decline?

A. In the above premium, we're doing a few different things. We're buying some of the small craft local breweries. We've done four in the last year. And we're focusing on brands like Blue Moon and Leinenkugel's and the flavors, brands like Redd's (Apple Ale). ... In premium lights, we're not going to have any success if we don't get Miller Lite and Coors Light back in shape. And those two brands are as healthy as they've been in a very long time. ... And the economy segment is really important for us because it is a declining segment, but we've been losing share at probably twice the rate of our biggest competitors. And we've got some real jewels in there in the economy portfolio, brands like Miller High Life, Hamm's, Keystone, Milwaukee's Best, plus Icehouse.

Q. What do you do with a brand like Hamm's? It seems like such an old guy beer.

A. It's interesting  the millennials love the old heritage, skipping a generation and going back to what their grandfathers drank maybe. ... We've recently refreshed its packaging, which had an extraordinarily positive impact on the brand.

Q. What's the strategy for craft beer acquisitions?

A. We wanted to fill a hole in our portfolio, so local and generally more hoppy, full-flavored beers was a gap in our portfolio. ... It's not a necessity that they play a national role or have the ability to be national, but it would be nice if one of them did one day become a more national play like a Goose Island or a New Belgium. They had to get through those few filters. Was this a gap in our portfolio? Definitely a regional play? Did it have potential to grow beyond that? How did it look in our distribution network?

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Q. Does the debt that Molson Coors took on to take full ownership of MillerCoors limit future craft acquisitions?

A. It won't be a constraint on us if the right deal came along. We've got a very clear idea of who we'd like to be partners with.

Q. MillerCoors is taking majority stakes in these craft breweries instead of buying them outright. In practical terms, what's the significance of that?

A. It makes them part of the future success. They can benefit from the success of our organization going forward. The value of whatever stake they're left with will grow. It's bringing also an expertise into our organization that we haven't necessarily had. We are a big company. Sometimes creating an entrepreneurial spirit inside a big company is difficult. ... They learn from us and we learn from them.

Q. The MillerCoors portfolio is so vast and you have your goals of getting back to sales growth. Have you looked at selling or discontinuing some of the beers that aren't performing well?

A. We've got our brands that we focus on. And there are obviously brands that we make available that we don't put any marketing efforts or selling efforts in them. The difficulty with our portfolio is there is a distributor somewhere in America where one of our smaller brands is really important to them. ... For example, we have a brand called Extra Gold. You might never have heard of it.

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Q. I have not.

A. It sells a million cases with one of our distributors in Philadelphia. So you can't go to that distributor and say I'm going to discontinue a million cases. It's small relative to our overall business, but it's money to him and it's really important to him. We've killed some brands but not a lot.

Q. What's your go-to beer?

A. It depends on what I'm doing. Miller Lite's my go-to premium light brand. I love Blue Moon when I'm at a restaurant. After I've been for a run, I'm actually quite enjoying a Henry's Hard Soda.

Q. What's the biggest mistake you've ever made?

A. The biggest mistake I've ever made was buying a house without my wife seeing it. I've moved 14 times in my life, and I think the 10th or 11th house I bought myself. That's not a mistake I'll make again.

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gtrotter@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @GregTrotterTrib
John Hamer is managing director of Monsanto Growth Ventures, the venture capital arm of agricultural giant Monsanto. The venture capital group invests in Silicon Valley startups and sometimes acquires them. So far, Hamers team has invested in 12 firms. (Monsanto)

It wasn't the kind of statement likely to win the hearts and minds of those who consider Monsanto synonymous with Big Agriculture.

"If you think about it, there are two people on Earth that need to know a lot about remote sensing (technology)  Monsanto and the CIA," said John Hamer, managing director of Monsanto Growth Ventures, the venture capital arm of Monsanto.

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"The CIA needs to look in nonpopulated environments for things. And agriculture is something of a nonpopulated environment," Hamer said.

Some context: Hamer was talking about technology, such as drones or even satellites, that could provide a constant flow of images of what's happening on a given farm. Hamer's unapologetic about Monsanto's aggressive pursuit of innovations in digital agriculture, data science and genetic engineering  the kind of technologies that Monsanto executives say are crucial to addressing global food insecurity.

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Based in San Francisco, Monsanto's venture capital group invests in cutting-edge Silicon Valley startups and sometimes acquires them. So far, Hamer's team has invested in 12 firms and is poised to announced another round of investments next month.

One Chicago firm has joined Monsanto: 640 Labs, a company that makes hardware that plugs into farming equipment and yields data. Acquired in 2014 by Climate Corp., the technology subsidiary of Monsanto, 640 Labs soon will be doing business in Europe  an ancillary result of Climate's recent acquisition of VitalFields, an Estonia-based software company, Hamer said.

Monsanto Growth Ventures has had conversations with the CIA's venture capital group, In-Q-Tel, also based in Silicon Valley, but hasn't done any deals with it  yet.

Hamer recently met with the Tribune to explain the mission of Monsanto Growth Ventures. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

Q. Monsanto eventually acquires some of these startups through Climate Corp. Are there other avenues through which Monsanto would acquire them?

A. We acquire them as Monsanto as well. We look at it as three ways we can work with entrepreneur. I can be an equity investor in your company. ... We can do a partnership. I can bring non-dilutive capital into your company in the form of a partnership, a license agreement, a testing agreement, and go test your stuff on 80 million acres of corn, 40 million acres of soybeans. Test it in South America. Test in it Chile. Nobody else can do that.

And lastly, if the time is right, and it's right for your company, there's the opportunity for (mergers and acquisitions). ... And if it's right, stay at Monsanto. And if it's not, leave when you feel like leaving. We don't have to get married for life. We can just move in together for a while.

Q. What do the advances in genome editing mean for Monsanto?

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A. First of all, we can speed up breeding. Let's say I have a variety of tomatoes, a modern, domestic, commercial variety of tomatoes, but it's susceptible to a certain disease. So now, I find a variety, let's say it's a heritage variety, it doesn't yield very well and the fruit looks kind of weird, but it's very resistant to the disease. ... I can dramatically shorten the breeding time. Some might say that's a GMO. No it's not, I have not put a foreign gene in there. The mutation I've introduced already exists in nature in this tomato variety. I haven't introduced anything that's new to nature. I've simply sped up the process.

Q. You make the distinction that it's not a genetically modified organism. It's genome editing. What's the difference? Are you trying to avoid GMO in your investments?

A. No, I think the question is can we produce better varieties faster and I think the answer is, to every plant scientist and academic, yes, genome editing is going to make us produce better varieties a lot faster. ... The big question is how will this all be regulated. There's a lot of different views emerging. ... The U.S. is still working through some of its regulatory views. ... There are other places in Europe that are going to take a stricter view. They're going to say if you change so many things, we're going to call it GMO. That seems to be the way Europe's going.

Q. Does the debate on labeling food with genetically modified ingredients have any bearing on what you're looking at and how consumers may respond to something that's been genetically modified?

A. It's hard to run into someone who hasn't heard of genome editing. ... So that's good, the public is hearing about it and it's hearing about it in a positive way about what can be done with it. ... I think there could be more acceptance but the jury's out.

Q. Does the Monsanto name help or hinder you in forming partnerships with these startups?

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A. Monsanto is not fooling around when it comes to digital agriculture and big data and the use of data science in food production. Monsanto is really all in. ... We're present and accounted for in Silicon Valley. ... We're going to partner with companies and help them grow. It's very rare that we get this sort of anti-GMO backlash in that part of the world. If we get a backlash, it's "we don't want a corporate investor right now." Silicon Valley is a very data- and science-driven place.

Q. Are there any criticisms of Monsanto that you consider valid?

A. People ask why all the controversy about GMOs. And it comes back to, why didn't you explain more to the public what you've done? ... I don't think the general public really understood. In some ways, Monsanto pushed ahead with the science, thinking if the science is right and the science is true, the science will bear us out. And what they realized is the scientists are 1 percent of the voting public. There are a whole lot of people out there getting their news from Facebook.

gtrotter@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @GregTrotterTrib
It's formally called the Senior Community Service Employment Program.

But its lofty title and mission  helping unemployed, low-income individuals age 55 and older get temporary jobs and training at nonprofits or government agencies  hasn't shielded the U.S. Department of Labor program from criticism.

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The department in October awarded $140.6 million in Senior Community Service grants to 19 nonprofit groups, including almost $10 million to Chicago-based Easterseals and $2.4 million to National Able Network, funds that will cover services Feb. 1 through June 30. The hope is that individual participants develop the skills to land permanent, and unsubsidized, jobs, including in the private sector.

But a month before the latest round of awards, the program's grant-making process was criticized by a government watchdog, and the Labor Department is considering changes to how the money is spent on the 55-and-older set, a demographic that by 2024 will make up a quarter of the U.S. civilian workforce.

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A recent outside survey of program participants found that more than a third either received computer training that didn't meet their needs, or they needed computer training but got little or none. Only about half of trainees went on to get jobs after they left the program, records show.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has repeatedly listed the Senior Community program in a periodic report on potential spending cuts. But there was no mention of it in the report issued Thursday.

At Easterseals, if a participant wants to become, say, a receptionist, he or she would receive training and be placed in a government or nonprofit to work as a receptionist. Others might get assigned to nonprofit senior centers or animal shelters. Participants work for minimum wage for an average of 20 hours a week, of which 15 hours are spent working at the host agency and 5 hours are spent in training.

The program has helped people like Chicago resident Phyllis Buchanan, who was trained at Easterseals and ended up getting hired there.

Buchanan, 59, punctured a lung, ruptured a spleen and lost a kidney, as well as some of her eyesight and hearing, in a 2001 car accident. She didn't wake up for weeks and eventually underwent 17 surgeries, leaving her with plates and screws from the top of her head to the bottom of her foot. Over the next five years, she was on long-term medical leave from her middle-management job at a vision-care chain where she had worked for about 15 years.

Buchanan eventually asked her employer about returning to work, but was told the wheelchair that she came to rely on might pose sanitation problems for the optical labs she'd inspect.

Phyllis Buchanan, works Nov. 16, 2016, at Easterseaks in downtown Chicago. Buchanan got her job as an information and referral associate after training funded by the federal Senior Community Service Employment Program. (Phil Velasquez / Chicago Tribune)

Efforts to find work elsewhere didn't pan out. After she and her husband separated in 2013, Buchanan faced an uncertain financial future.

In April 2015, she applied for the Senior Community program. Easterseals offered her a spot, and after a year, it hired her as an information and referral associate. She fields phone calls, emails and Facebook queries from people nationwide who need help from the nonprofit and its affiliates.

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"To be told you've aged out, or physically aren't capable, is a sad state when so many people want to work and haven't been given the opportunity," said Buchanan, who reconciled with her husband a few months ago.

The American Customer Satisfaction Index, a national study of 70,000 people's consumer preferences on a range of topics, gave the Senior Community program a score of 81.6 out of 100 in program year 2015, according to the Labor Department's website. The overall federal government score was 64.

Despite the score, more than a third of survey respondents said the computer training fell short of what they needed.

The program has caught the eye of the Labor Department's Office of Inspector General, which said in September that scoring criteria for the selection process could allow financially unstable organizations to get money. Of a possible 100 points that groups applying for grants can receive, only 6 points are allocated for "financial stability" and 5 points for "reporting and audits."

So "even if an applicant received no points in either of these areas, it could still score a 94 or 95," the inspector general said in its report. In response, the Labor Department said grant competitions are often decided by as little as 1 point.

Under current law, 75 percent of federal funds must be spent on wages and benefits to participants. But the department's 2017 budget documents say that allocation could get lowered to 60 percent.

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That, the department reasons, would free up additional money for more robust training, including helping trainees to get industry credentials that would better prepare them to eventually get a higher paying job outside of the program.

The program's structure also has been questioned. Helping older workers "is well-intentioned," but it would be ideal if on-the-job skills training happened at private sector employers rather than in community service agencies such as nonprofits or government agencies, said Aparna Mathur, resident scholar in economic policy studies at American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank.

"Under the current system, I worry that even workers who learn certain skills at these nonprofits will be unable to find good employment in the private sector at the end of their training," Mathur said.

She'd prefer to see the program start with subsidized training at private employers for a few months, ideally leading to permanent jobs at those employers at the end of the training period.

The Labor Department's 2014 goal was for at least 42 percent of participants leaving the program to enter the ranks of the employed during the following quarter. That number, called "entered employment," exceeded 46 percent that year, records show. The department said those targets are comparable to other employment and training programs for low-income seniors.

Six months after that time period, 74 percent of those who got jobs after the program were still employed, exceeding the department's retention rate goal. Half of those who found jobs were at for-profit companies, the department said.

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Carol Salter, an Easterseals national director, hopes the program will be expanded to include the for-profit sector and said if the incoming Trump administration is committed to job creation, it should continue to support the program because it is creating taxpayers.

"This would allow more opportunity for participants and help to change the perception of what mature workers are able to contribute within the business community," Salter said. "But right now, there's great value in working with nonprofits because it's a community service program as well as an employment program."

In 2014, Easterseals' employment goal was 45 percent, and it exceeded 51 percent, Labor Department documents show. Its retention rate was 80 percent, above its 76 percent goal.

Since getting its first grant in 2003, Easterseals has provided training, in Chicago and at affiliates nationwide, for about 38,000 participants. Their educational levels varied widely: Some lacked high school diplomas, others had doctoral degrees.

Almost 370 people trained through Easterseals' senior program found jobs last year, many at for-profit companies, Salter said.

Easterseals is getting enough funding from the program to fill about 3,000 training slots this year in Chicago and at affiliates.

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A second grantee was Chicago-based career support nonprofit National Able Network.

Two years ago, Glenda Harris, a longtime customer service worker who also has been a missionary, spent time in a nursing home due to spinal stenosis and a bacterial infection in a bone in her spine. Suffering from osteoarthritis, she needs two knee replacements.

She walks with a limp and uses a cane. Those don't help her job search.

"Those aren't great fashion accessories," said Harris, 64. Also, once you reach your 50s, she said, "the door closes on opportunities for advancement or even employment because there is something out there called age discrimination."

She heard about National Able, called it, and learned about the Senior Community program.

Harris has been part of the program for the past eight months. She works about 20 hours a week through National Able, either at its office or at assignments to which it sends her.

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Among the things she has learned through her training is how, when submitting an online resume, software programs tend to pick up on key words. Her computer skills are no longer rusty.

"I had felt so defeated, but I knew I was a good worker and had the skills," Harris said.

In 2014, National Able's entered-employment goal was 39 percent, and it slightly exceeded that, Labor Department records show. Its retention rate was 74 percent, slightly below its goal.

byerak@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @beckyyerak
Model Deddeh Howard Recreates Famous Fashion Shoots To Show Diversity

Trending News: This Model Is Taking Sexy Photos To Address Diversity

Long Story Short

A West African model is recreating famous photo shoots to make a point that the fashion industry doesn't use enough dark-skinned models.

Long Story

As you walk by the high fashion stores, drive by billboards, watch commercials or flip through magazines (whoever still does that), chances are the models you'll be looking at will be female, thin and white. Sure, there are few famous black models like Tyra Banks and Naomi Campbell, but not many. There are even less Asian, Latino etc.

Fed up off about the lack of the diversity in the fashion industry, Liberian model Deddeh Howard recreated some of fashion's most famous shoots to prove that they work just as well  if not better  with a diversity of models.

A photo posted by Deddeh Howard (@secretofdd) on Dec 8, 2016 at 9:49pm PST

"In a time where black people too often are in the media for being underrepresented at important events such as the Oscars or make headlines for being targeted by the police I felt it was time to do something positive and inspiring about my race," she wrote on her website.

Howard says she experiences discrimination every time she walks into a modeling agency.

"Even though I was told by those agencies that I have an amazing look and wish they could represent me, they already have a black model. Besides having an abundance of white models," she wrote. "It seemed as if one or two black models on the roster are enough to represent us all. When you are told that, trust me, it feels bizarre."

A photo posted by Deddeh Howard (@secretofdd) on Dec 6, 2016 at 11:51pm PST

"The two images all being shown together should really show that we all have a place, that we all belong and should be visible!!" she wrote on Instagram.

Howard aptly called the project "Black Mirror," which in this case, is a far more fitting name than the Charlie Brooker series of the same name.

To check out all the photos, Howard's got them all up on her website Secret of DD.

A photo posted by Deddeh Howard (@secretofdd) on Dec 7, 2016 at 11:13pm PST

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Will the fashion industry heed the call and get more diverse?

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Black model Jasmine Tookes wore the most expensive bra at the Victoria's Secret fashion show.
The extra-hot dark meat chicken comes on a piece of white bread with pickles and, if you want, sides  here, elote and collard greens. (Hilary Higgins / RedEye)

Fans of The Budlong, which had a brief life serving Nashville-style hot chicken in Lakeview, rejoice: The Lincoln Park location opened this morning.

Since closing in Lakeview, the restaurant has been serving its hot chicken from a stand in Revival Food Hall (reviewed here). But the Lincoln Park Budlong has more options, including a la carte sides, dessert and, starting next month, kegged cocktails and draft beer, said founder Jared Leonard.

Leonard recommends your first order be the quarter dark ($9), a bone-in fried chicken, at what the shop calls "classic" heat level. To cool your mouth, it's served with Texas toast and housemade pickles.

Sides at the 45-seat location include slaw, macaroni and cheese, and red potato salad, all a la carte. The stand at Revival offers some sides, but only as add-ons to a chicken meal.

After two friends-and-family test runs, Leonard said the collard greens ($4) have been popular, but he also recommends the biscuits ($3).

Hes working with a beverage consultant and expects liquor service to start next month. It will include a Budlong punch. Its a traditional fruit punch, but we havent decided what to spike it with, said Leonard, though he says they'll go easy on the booze, so it's "super easy to drink."

Meanwhile, pair your chicken with a bottle of Cheerwine ($3), the cherry-flavored red soda popular in many parts of the South.

Desserts include housemade soft-serve ice cream and a banana cream tart.

The new Lincoln Park location will be open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday to Sunday.

The Budlong Hot Chicken, 1008 W. Armitage Ave., 773-270-9005, www.thebudlong.com

lchu@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @louisachu






Joe Minoso, who plays firefighter Joe Cruz on "Chicago Fire," described his Chicago-themed wedding on Friday's episode of Steve Harvey's talk show. (Handout)

Firehouses may be an unusual spot to take wedding photos, unless you're "Chicago Fire" star Joe Minoso.

Minoso, who plays firefighter Joe Cruz on the NBC series, described his Chicago-themed wedding on Friday's episode of Steve Harvey's talk show. Minoso, 38, married "Chicago Fire" makeup artist Caitlin Murphy Miles Oct. 16 in Chicago.

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"We wanted to give a little shoutout to Chicago, so we wanted to do like a 1920s kind of speakeasy thing. And so when people walked in, they had to give like a password that we gave everybody. And it was all like really darkly lit," Minoso told Harvey. "All of the tables were named after speakeasies in Chicago from back in the day. So yeah, we did it up. And of course, how can you not take a picture in front of a firehouse door? You know, with 'Chicago Fire' and all."

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"Chicago Fire"'s 100th episode aired this week. NBC is set to begin airing new episodes of the series, which films in Chicago, 8 p.m. Jan. 3.

"Steve Harvey," which tapes at the WMAQ-Ch. 5 studios, airs 2 p.m. weekdays on WMAQ-Ch. 5.

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Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 122 Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, anger management student, in "Dark Phoenix." The film, the latest in the "X-Men" franchise, costars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jessica Chastain. Read the review. (Twentieth Century Fox)
A New Trier High School alumna is one of 30 women competing for Nick Viall's heart on "The Bachelor."

"Some dreams do come true," Elizabeth Whitelaw posted Thursday to Facebook with a picture of her and Viall, a 36-year-old Wisconsin native who recently lived in Chicago.

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Whitelaw attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and worked as a sales associate and hostess in Chicago before moving to the Dallas area, where she is a marketing manager, according to her LinkedIn profile. An ABC network representative declined to make Whitelaw available for a Tribune interview.

In her ABC bio, Whitelaw said she loves "The Notebook" and Britney Spears. She said she also suffers from claustrophobia and misophonia, a condition in which certain sounds irritate the listener.

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When asked about her greatest achievement, Whitelaw said, "My life has been a journey of achievements that only I would appreciate."

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Her New Trier journey must have been memorable because Whitelaw said she "would love it if my kids could go to my high school."

None of the 30 "Bachelor" contestants currently live in the Chicago area, according to the biographies ABC posted online this week.

Viall, who couldn't find love on two seasons of "The Bachelorette" or last summer's "Bachelor in Paradise," lived in Chicago before moving to Los Angeles. He was spotted dining in River North last month.

Season 21 of "The Bachelor" is set to premiere 7 p.m. Jan. 2.

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Former Chicago salesman is runner-up, again, on 'Bachelor in Paradise'

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This undated photo provided by Dallas County Sheriff's Department shows Edward Judge Reinhold. Actor Judge Reinhold has been arrested on a disorderly conduct charge after a confrontation with security agents at Dallas Love Field. (Dallas County Sheriff's Department/AP)

DALLAS  Actor Judge Reinhold says he's "embarrassed" that he was taken to jail after a confrontation with security agents at Dallas Love Field Airport.



The 59-year-old actor was arrested Thursday afternoon on a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge. He was released from jail early Friday.



As he left the lockup Friday, Reinhold told WFAA-TV he's fine, "just embarrassed."

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Dallas police arrested Reinhold after Transportation Security Administration workers reported he refused to submit to screening at a security checkpoint.



Class C disorderly conduct is punishable by a fine of up to $500.



Dallas County sheriff's officials haven't released bond information. Reinhold's attorney has not returned messages left Friday.



Reinhold was featured in 1980s movies including "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" and "Beverly Hills Cop."

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Associated Press







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)
Nate Azarks work  including tour posters for Florence & the Machine, Blake Shelton, Mumford & Sons and other acts  is on display in the Rock on Paper exhibit at Chicago arts incubator 2112. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)

There is a demand for hand-crafted or nondigital goods, from the vinyl resurgence and boom of events like Record Store Day to apps like Depop or websites like Etsy that give folks who make stuff a platform to sell and build a name for their work. Craft is back, and concert tour posters, from their days as pure promotional tools to today's collector's items that can cost a pretty penny, are no exception.

For Chicago artist and designer Nate Azark, what used to be a passion project has turned into a special business.

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Azark's gig posters, done by hand for artists such as Florence & the Machine, Blake Shelton, Kacey Musgraves, Mumford & Sons and Chicago group The Orwells, line the back wall of a communal art space as an exhibit called "Rock on Paper."

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"I've always been in love with concert posters," Azark says. "It's the perfect combination of art and music."

A mural of his work stands at the front, a swirling display of poster images and his hand-crafted lettering. The art is unexpectedly immersive, capable of taking you to a different space and time.

"Going back and starting with pencil on paper helps create a much more organic approach," Azark says of his process. "Nothing for me will ever replace that."

Azark focuses on a central image, conjured from the imagery of the band's lyrics, while keeping his color palette small, two or three at the most, muting different tones to add contrast.

"My worst class in college was actually image-making," he says with a laugh. Visiting his company 12 Line Studio's office space at arts incubator 2112, you would never guess.

Growing up in a creative family  his dad was an architect, his mom a seamstress for a ballet company  Azark knew he'd end up in an artistic field.

"It was my release," he says. "I would come home from a bad day, bust out the Crayola caddy and start working."

Azark began collecting concert posters after his uncle gave him an antique Playbill to inspire him to collect graphic design. Artist Milton Glaser, best known for his Brooklyn Brewery logo and 1966 psychedelic Bob Dylan poster, became his idol.

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After deciding to pursue graphic design as a career, Azark began building a portfolio in photography and other media, including new digital art in the early era of Photoshop. He landed at the University of Illinois after the School of the Art Institute told him it wanted fine art  which digital was not  during a portfolio review.

Finding work was difficult after graduation, so Azark, like many recent grads who pursue careers in the arts, ended up bar tending. After a job designing product packaging and promotions for a company that sold marinades and seasonings, followed by years of freelancing, WXRT came looking for a webmaster.

"My time at (WXRT owner) CBS really formed the path that I'm on now," he explains. "I realized everything I was doing, from start to finish, was on the computer and I hadn't busted out my pens or pencils in years.

"At XRT, we did these 'Live From Studio X' shows. A big name will come through and we'll do a small, free event and I was like, 'It would be awesome to do Studio X posters.' Not doing them was a missed opportunity."

Azark took lessons from Steve Walters at Screwball Press and learned how to screen print, working on the posters after work hours and using his personal supplies. His first poster, for musician Amos Lee, impressed. Lee commissioned him on the spot to design his tour posters.

The same happened with such artists as The National and The Wallflowers.

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As the poster business began to blossom, a happy accident of receiving the wrong email led to Azark creating posters for David Letterman's "Live on Letterman" concert series, which saw Azark illustrating posters for Depeche Mode, Phish, St. Vincent and The Black Keys.

"A lot of what I do connects with the bands because I listen to the music and try to pick imagery out of what they're singing about on those albums.

"There are definitely some artists whose music is more spiritual and they don't necessarily talk about objects, so that always is more difficult. My go-to is to find something they're singing about, make sure what you're depicting is what they're actually trying to get across," he explains. "A good example is the Amos Lee poster. The song's called 'El Camino,' and these artists were putting the El Camino car on his poster. I was like, 'He's singing about a road in the Southwest.'"

Actually listening, in addition to his less-is-more approach and acceptance of flaws that ensure the uniqueness of his pieces, are what set Azark's work apart.

"I don't know if it gives me an advantage, but it's a differentiator," he says. "People can see a lot of thought went into it.

"I love vinyl, it's tactile. It's not perfect, and I don't think any of my illustrations are either. I like that about it. There are some drawings I did where, purposefully, the lines don't come together perfect, they crisscross. I think both (vinyl and handmade prints) are similar in that realm."

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Azark has used that human quality to his advantage. His 12 Line Studio has expanded to provide handmade design to businesses such as Lending Tree and Evol Foods, as well as local businesses such as Taylor Street Soap Co. and Chop Shop.

"There are some gig poster artists who are like scientists, and I can admire that," Azark says. "My designs have a little more texture or embellishments added because they're printed by hand, so you'll see maybe the squeegee was held at a different angle on this poster than the one before it.

"I don't think there's anything wrong with that."

"Rock on Paper" runs through December at Chicago 2112, 4245 N. Knox Ave. Free; $30 for poster prints. Call 312-834-3536 for more information.

jroti@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @jessitaylorro

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Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 122 Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, anger management student, in "Dark Phoenix." The film, the latest in the "X-Men" franchise, costars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jessica Chastain. Read the review. (Twentieth Century Fox)
Jerry Seinfeld at a New York benefit performance in November. He's in Chicago for two nights of shows Dec. 8-9. (Kevin Mazur Photography)

"What else is annoying in the world besides everything?"

Excepting our newly minted president-elect, comedian Jerry Seinfeld  whose net worth is purportedly near a billion dollars  may be the richest man in the country who takes to a stage before a capacity crowd just to complain about how terrible things are.

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"Everyone's lives suck," he lamented early on in his 75-minute late set at the Chicago Theatre on Thursday night (the second of four shows over two nights). "Your life sucks. My life sucks too." After a hair of a pause, he amended the last bit slightly, almost begrudgingly: "Perhaps not quite as much."

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That his life sucks less than yours is not something you would necessarily glean from the stand-up act the Golden Globe winner has brought to Chicago  an enjoyable but somewhat stale set mostly consisting of bits that he's been working for years and that he delivers in a vehement staccato with the joy of a bitter philosophy professor teaching Intro to Cynicism.

Energetically criss-crossing the stage in a black suit and tie, Seinfeld embodies a character who is most comfortable when locked into a lengthy series of complaints.

The simple act of enjoying a cup of joe is too much for him. "I want to open up a coffee shop called 'Beat It!' " he declared, after complaining that customers make themselves too much at home in coffee shops. "I bought a cup of coffee so this is my apartment now," he imagined them saying, to no one in particular.

Even the humble donut hole took a beating. "What a pathetic choice," Seinfeld scoffed before launching into an entreaty in his familiar high-pitched whine: "You want a donut? Get a donut!"

Still, despite his vocal grievances and consistent belly-aching, he's a comic workhorse, with a monthly performance at New York's Beacon Theatre recently extended for a second full year and a mini-tour across North America scheduled for the next few months.

He clearly loves performing. He must. It's not like he's up there trying to earn a living or make a name for himself. And the 62-year-old comedian was pretty clear on his attitude toward doing anything he doesn't want to do: "When you're in your 60s and people ask you to do something, you just say 'No.' "

Seinfeld has always been one to focus on the minutiae of life, picking apart the smallest details with surgical comic timing. But Thursday night, he seemed far more annoyed than amused by the ridiculousness of it all, which is too bad. He's a comedy legend who knows how to walk the line between indignant and ill-tempered, which means his generally disgruntled demeanor must be intentional. Then again, perhaps it's just age-related. Maybe all that play-acting at discontent caught up to him.

Or perhaps he's attempting to skew more toward the master of malcontent, his "Seinfeld" co-creator Larry David. If that's the goal, it doesn't suit him. There's something innately lovable about David's negativity; he's often amused by his own anger. The same attitude on Seinfeld feels condescending. We want to relate to the inquisitive everyman, not be lectured by the know-it-all millionaire.

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Yet despite the constant frustration he embodies onstage, Seinfeld could never go full misanthrope. His comedy is too lukewarm for that kind of intensity  he's mainly just exasperated. And he needs new material.

Jokes about Viagra and *69 (the phone feature for tracing the last call received) were outdated when he first performed them over five years ago. Amid a comedy landscape where comedians like Louis CK and Hannibal Buress put out a new special nearly every year, trotting these tired bits out is telling the audience they've paid to see a celebrity recite lines, not to see a comedian put something on the line.

The best comedians can trick you into thinking that something they've rehearsed 100 times just happened off the cuff and only in the show you saw. Thursday night Seinfeld convinced me that he's done this material several hundred times, and he doesn't care how obvious that is. Even his water breaks were overtly timed and choreographed. At least give us the impression of spontaneity.

And that may be the biggest disappointment of Seinfeld's performance. His dedication to the craft of comedy no longer manifests itself in superbly structured jokes and surprising observations. It's now clear that he's been running this same stuff for too long. The delivery is one-sided and rote.

" 'Sucks' and 'great' are the only two ratings anyone uses anymore," he confidently asserted at one point. "I say to you 'sucks' and 'great' are the same thing!" When it comes to describing a lackluster show by a comedy superstar, I couldn't agree more.

7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Friday at the Chicago Theatre, 175 N. State St.; 800-745-3000 and www.thechicagotheatre.com.

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Zach Freeman is a freelance writer.

ctc-arts@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @ZachRunsChicago

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Editor's Note: Actress Mary Tyler Moore died Jan. 25, 2017. She was 80.

Here's a spoiler alert TV fans didn't see coming in 2016  the ottoman Dick Van Dyke trips over in the opening titles of his classic 1960s sitcom is olive green.

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Several generations of viewers have enjoyed Van Dyke and costar Mary Tyler Moore on "The Dick Van Dyke Show," which 50 years after completing its initial run on CBS is still available on Hulu, Amazon, the nostalgia TV network Cozi and a recently released Blu-ray box set. But on Sunday, viewers will see the Petries' monochromatic world re-imagined in "The Dick Van Dyke Show  Now In Living Color!" in which CBS debuts two digitally colorized episodes back-to-back.

The original 1961 to 1966 run straddled the years when network TV series production converted to color. Some long-running sitcoms from the era such as "The Andy Griffith Show" and "Bewitched" made the switch after a few seasons on the air in black and white.

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But "The Dick Van Dyke Show" creator Carl Reiner said he passed on the chance to film in color after learning it would require an additional $7,000 an episode, a significant cost in an era when a half-hour show cost around $40,000 to produce.

"It would have killed whatever profits we were making from the black-and-white episodes," Reiner recalled in a recent interview. He also wanted the show to have a consistent look when reruns appeared in syndication.

Colorization of classic black-and-white movies has been a polarizing issue in Hollywood since the 1980s when cable entrepreneur Ted Turner and other film library owners started using the process to make their older titles attractive to younger audiences. Directors vehemently expressed objections to having their artistic visions altered for commerce.

David Bushman, television curator for the Paley Center for Media, said colorization will bring a new generation of viewers to the "The Dick Van Dyke Show," but suspects there are purists who believe great TV is an art form as worthy as film and shouldn't be tampered with.

"You wouldn't use to technology to change the fundamental aesthetics of a Picasso," he said.

Dick Van Dyke, right, and Mary Tyler Moore, center in a newly colorized episode of "The Dick Van Dyke Show." (Calvada Productions)

But Paul Brownstein, who manages "The Dick Van Dyke Show" library owned by Reiner, Van Dyke, and the estates of executive producers Sheldon Leonard and Danny Thomas, believes the TV audience is more accepting of refreshed editions of their favorites.

"The very act of doing it would drive a cinema fan crazy, whereas the television fan appreciates seeing it updated," he said.

That has been the case for the CBS airings of colorized versions of "I Love Lucy" during the holiday season for the last few years. While they have generated some grumbling among bloggers ("Don't ... with 'I Love Lucy,'" TV comedy writer Ken Levine opined in 2013), the specials have attracted fans old and young  most recently 6.6 million of them on Dec. 2.

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Brownstein long believed "The Dick Van Dyke Show" would be similarly successful with colorized versions. But he had to convince Van Dyke, who was not keen on the idea after seeing the tinting done years ago on his favorite Laurel & Hardy films.

After technological improvements to the colorization process, Brownstein said he got Van Dyke to "look at it with an open mind," and sold the concept to CBS in October. Stanton Rutledge, a designer for West Wing Studios who handled the project, said the results are markedly better thanks to improved computer-animation software and hardware.

"Back when I was coloring films for Ted Turner, people had a right to say it looked bad," Rutledge said. "I would love to redo all those films that I did back in the '80s and '90s. But there will be a whole new audience for 'The Dick Van Dyke Show.' Millennials are never even going to know it was shot in black and white. They're just going to love the comedy."

The 94-year-old Reiner always maintained that the show's quality is timeless  he deliberately kept topical slang phrases and references out of the scripts  and welcomes the new exposure on a major broadcast network.

Carl Reiner is colorized in the newly released "The Dick Van Dyke Show." (Calvada Productions)

"We're going to be on after '60 Minutes,'" he noted with the enthusiasm of a producer getting his big break.

Rutledge and Brownstein said it helped that Reiner had the color still photos of the show's set at Desilu Studios. The documentation allowed them to come up with the hues that accurately matched the Petries' living room and kitchen. They also searched through old magazine ads to get the proper mid-20th-century color schemes for clothing and furnishings not seen in the photos.

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On Sunday, viewers will see two of the most revered "Dick Van Dyke" episodes in its five-season run. "That's My Boy??" is a flashback story by writers Bill Persky and Sam Denoff in which the Petries reflect on how Rob gathered evidence that left him convinced the wrong baby had come home with Laura from the hospital after their son Richie was born.

Another spoiler alert: Rob telephones the other new parents in their neighborhood, the Peters, who had left the same hospital with their son at the same time, and presents his switched-at-birth scenario. Their arrival at the Petrie home to straighten out the matter elicited what Reiner claims is the longest studio audience laugh in TV history as Rob sees that the Peters, played by Greg Morris and Mimi Dillard, are African American.

The visual gag was a socially progressive jolt when it first aired on Sept. 25, 1963. The civil rights movement was playing out on the evening news nearly every night, but significant roles for black actors were still scant in prime time. (That same TV season, CBS affiliates were skittish over George C. Scott's topical social-worker drama "East Side/West Side" in which Cicely Tyson was the first black actress cast as a regular in a network hour.)

Along with the laugh, "That's My Boy??" sent a message to the TV audience that the Petries and Peters lived in the same town and their children went to school together. Reiner even made a point of having Rob Petrie note how Peters' son had the best grades in the class while Richie remained an underachiever.

Reiner recalled that network executives suggested that the Peters be another nationality, but he resisted. "I was always looking for ways to bring African Americans to New Rochelle," he said.

CBS is also showing the Emmy-winning 1965 episode "Coast to Coast Big Mouth," where Laura Petrie appears on a game show and reveals to a network TV audience that comedy writer Rob's boss, the imperious variety show host Alan Brady (played by Reiner), wears a toupee. The scene with Laura apologizing to a humiliated Brady at his desk with his secret array of hairpieces is one of the most memorable moments of the series.

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More than 50 years after it first aired, Reiner still points out how the episode is unrelated to his own tonsorial choices. "When I wore a wig, I always told people I was wearing a wig," he said.

'The Dick Van Dyke Show  Now in Living Color!'

Where: CBS

When: 8 p.m. Sunday

Rating: TV-G (suitable for all ages)

stephen.battaglio@latimes.com

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Twitter: @SteveBattaglio
Researchers warn that the increasing price of the drug naloxone, an overdose antidote, could result in more opioid-related fatalities. (Getty)

Escalating prices of the drug naloxone may threaten efforts to reduce opioid-related deaths across America, a team from Yale University and the Mayo Clinic warns.

Naloxone is a drug given to people who overdose on prescription opioids or heroin. If administered in time, it can reverse the toxic and potentially deadly effects of "opioid intoxication."

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The research team called attention to skyrocketing prices for the lifesaving antidote, noting:

Hospira (a Pfizer Inc. company) charges $142 for a 10-pack of naloxone  up 129 percent since 2012.

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Amphastar's 1-milligram version of naloxone is used off-label as a nasal spray. It's priced around $40  a 95 percent increase since September 2014.

Newer, easier-to-use formulations are even more expensive  a two-dose package of Evzio (naloxone) costs $4,500, an increase of more than 500 percent over two years.

Naloxone is part of a wave of precipitous price hikes affecting old and new medicines. These drugs include Mylan's EpiPen injectors for life-threatening allergic reactions; Turing Pharmaceuticals' Sovaldi for hepatitis C; and insulin for diabetes made by Eli Lilly and Co., Novo Nordisk and Sanofi U.S.

"The challenge is, as the price goes up for naloxone, it becomes less accessible for patients," said Ravi Gupta, the study's lead author.

Gupta, a fourth-year Yale medical student, with Dr. Joseph Ross of Yale and Nilay Shah of the Mayo Clinic concluded, "Taking action now is essential to ensuring that this lifesaving drug is available to patients and communities."

Overdose deaths from prescription opioid painkillers have quadrupled since 1999 in the United States. More than 165,000 deaths have occurred from 1999 to 2014, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

Hospital emergency departments remain the largest users of naloxone. But, in recent years, local health departments, emergency medical services and community-based organizations have been acquiring the drug to use at the scene of overdoses or to hand out to people at risk, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Several U.S. agencies have recommended boosting access to naloxone to combat prescription opioid-related deaths, the study authors noted.

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The authors argued that the government should do more to ensure the drug is affordable.

Possible strategies include: encouraging generic competition; buying in bulk; and importing generics from international manufacturers. The government could also invoke a federal law that allows it to contract with a manufacturer to produce less-costly versions, the study authors suggested.

It's also possible that the FDA could switch naloxone to over-the-counter status, the researchers said.

"A lot of the solutions require strong political will, which doesn't seem to be present," Gupta said.

Daniel Raymond is policy director of the Harm Reduction Coalition. HRC is a national organization that addresses drug user health issues through advocacy and training.

There are hundreds of harm reduction programs across the country, Raymond said. Most are relatively small. That leaves them with little leverage in terms of purchasing power.

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"I have not heard yet that anybody's saying, 'I'm sorry; we're out of money; we're going to stop purchasing naloxone,' but I feel like the clock is ticking," Raymond said.

What's more, Gupta said, if local governments are purchasing the drug, "the high cost of the drug can crowd out funding for other public services."

Raymond said the study authors' analysis of naloxone's pricing "really throws the ball in the federal government's court."

In the meantime, other stakeholders are taking matters into their own hands.

Last month, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine announced that his state has secured a one-year price freeze on naloxone nasal spray from Adapt Pharma.

The state also has an agreement with Amphastar for rebates on naloxone purchases until March 2017.

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Pharmaceutical companies say they are sensitive to patients' need for the drug.

Rachel Hooper, Pfizer's director of global media relations, defends Hospira's naloxone pricing.

"We believe our actions have reflected sensitivity to the need for the product" while taking into account the "investments needed to produce high-quality generic drugs," she said.

Pfizer has awarded $1 million in opioid overdose grants to five states and donated up to 1 million doses of injectable naloxone to the humanitarian organization Direct Relief, Hooper said.

Mark Herzog is vice president of corporate affairs for Kaleo Inc., maker of Evzio. He pointed to actions his company has taken to ensure access to its drug.

In February, Kaleo began making Evzio available at no cost to any patient with commercial insurance and a prescription. The company is offering the coverage even if someone's insurance doesn't cover the drug, he said. Uninsured patients in financial hardship can also receive the drug for free.

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In addition, the company has donated 150,000 auto-injectors to over 250 first-responder agencies, public health departments and nonprofit community groups across 34 states, he said.

The study authors' findings were published in December in the New England Journal of Medicine.

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Of all the cats in the shelter, the big orange tabby with the leaky left eye just might have been the one least likely to get adopted.

While kittens frolicked and healthy cats snuggled with enraptured children, the tabby lay in his bed, battling a chronic eye infection. He barely raised his head when my son Calvin sent me over to say hello. The cat had been in the shelter for four months, and even as Christmas approached  and the pool of available cats dwindled  eager adopters were giving this one a wide berth.

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"What about him?" Calvin said.

I made counterproposals: How about a younger cat, one more inclined to play? How about a bonded pair of cats? They could keep each other company. That would mean two cats  one for Calvin and one for his brother!

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Calvin, then 10, listened politely. But when Mr. Leaky Eyes somehow managed to rouse himself, walk over to us and look up expectantly, tail raised in friendly greeting, Calvin took it as a sign, and I had to admit, the kid had a point. The big orange cat made beautiful eye contact. Viewed from the right angle, his lopsided squint actually had a certain tough-guy appeal. And, most of all, he had made a choice.

He seemed so very, very sure that he was our Christmas cat.

Three years later, the orange cat wouldn't be any less dear to us if he'd come home on, say, an average Wednesday, but I'd be lying to you if I said it didn't mean something to us that he made his first appearance in our home on Christmas Eve.

Adopted on Christmas Eve 2013, Mr. G. appreciates the holidays -- and any other time when laps are freely available. (Nara Schoenberg / Chicago Tribune)

When I told my story to Gail Buchwald, a senior vice president at the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, I was afraid she might scold me for encouraging impulse adoptions, but she said that kind of thinking is outdated. Impulse adoptions are actually rare, she said, and there's evidence that animals given as gifts (to people who are already seriously considering a pet) are more likely to stay in their adoptive homes than other animals.

There's the emotional aspect, too, Buchwald said, putting into words what I'd been struggling to say about our favorite cat's holiday debut.

"This cat is imbued with this wonderful story and the sentimental attachment that goes along with it, not only of the holiday and the gathering, but of this was a beautiful thing that you did for your family to enjoy for many years," Buchwald said.

"It makes it more special than bringing home a cat on another day of the week. It really does."

Mr. G. had an unsightly eye infection when Calvin Roe, here at age 10, spotted the cat at the Animal Care League shelter in Oak Park. (Nara Schoenberg / Chicago Tribune)

The Humane Society of the United States is "very much supportive" of holiday adoptions, but it's important to do your homework, says Illinois state director Marc Ayers. Ask yourself, do you have enough time to devote to a pet? Does someone in your household have allergies? What would be the best pet for your household? Consider nontraditional pets (rats, hamsters) and older dogs and cats, who may be calmer and better behaved.

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Once you know what kind of animal you're looking for, check websites such as The Shelter Pet Project for comprehensive information and pet profiles. Ayers also recommends checking your local shelter's website and taking the time to visit in person.

Local shelters such as PAWS Chicago and the Animal Care League in Oak Park offer holiday-themed adoption events. PAWS adoption center Director Diane Wilkerson suggests a way that parents can make the holiday pet a complete surprise: Give a collar as a wrapped present, and tell your kid that after the holidays, you're going to choose the pet together.

Mr. G. likes to sleep with the kids, and he's been known to hog the pillow. (Nara Schoenberg / Chicago Tribune)

I had to work on Christmas Eve 2013, so it was my husband, Sam, a man partial to small dogs and similarly sized cats, who brought home our supersize (13-pound) cat. Calvin and his twin brother, Zephy, were thrilled. Sam borrowed a cat carrier from a neighbor and headed off to the Animal Care League. A staffer took one look at the carrier and laughed.

"Oh, he's not going to fit in that," she said.

Not long after that, out came our cat  shelter name: Gazpacho  big and ill and none too happy about being held.

Sam swallowed his doubts as a staffer eased the angry cat into a disposable carrier.

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Mr. G., as we came to call him, slept fairly continuously for about 48 hours upon his arrival, but even then, he'd rouse himself to greet people at the door. We put medicine in his eyes, and the infection cleared up. Soon, we realized that everywhere we went, the cat was there too. He'd snuggle with us while we watched TV. He slept with the boys in shifts: the first part of the night for you, the second part for you.

Today he's bossy, really bossy, but in the best possible way. He steals Zephy's pillow, and we'll find him sleeping at the top of the bed, our son sleeping at the bottom. Mr. G. has been known to demand a seat at the dinner table. We'll pull up a chair, and he'll jump up and watch calmly, as if following the conversation.

His enthusiasm can be daunting to the uninitiated. The upholsterer who fitted the couch with a new slipcover couldn't get Mr. G to stop pouncing on the fabric. The cable guy looked up to find the cat right in his face, eager to offer assistance from his perch on the TV stand. "Lady," I heard a voice calling from the living room, "can you come get your cat?"

He's a handful, Mr. G., but when he lies down with you, he'll put a paw around your neck as if he's giving you a hug. He makes us laugh, and laugh, and laugh.

We're grateful for him all year  he wouldn't stand for anything less  but when the first snow falls and the carols start playing, we're a little more grateful because this is his season, because, after careful consideration, Mr. G. chose us.

nschoenberg@chicagotribune.com

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Twitter @nschoenberg

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Women who use Botox are judged more harshly than those who just avoid the sun or use skin creams, according to a study. (SolStock / E+)

I noticed a couple of years ago that I'd started getting crow's-feet when I smiled. This year  my 35th  they started stomping around even when I wasn't making a happy face. After discussing Botox with a girlfriend who also can no longer check the 18-34 box, I pondered going under the needle.

As a feminist, I thought at first that I shouldn't give in to the unrealistic view of how a woman should age  which is she shouldn't, at least visibly. Some say giving in to a misogynistic beauty ideal only holds women back and is not a liberated choice.

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Beauty, argues Naomi Wolf, is ultimately a tool used to control women's behavior. It is a way for the patriarchy to reinforce gender roles and distract us from focusing on real things  like work.

I don't disagree. On the other hand, experimenting with makeup is a creative outlet for me. And looking five years younger and less tired sounded great.

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I was nervous about the procedure  which was quick and painless  but I didn't think to prepare for the not-so-positive reactions I received when I shared my experience. "Why would you do that?!" was a common one. "I wouldn't think you would have to resort to Botox," was another from a female friend. My favorite was from a man, "That's a slippery slope; why not just age gracefully?"

Americans value hard work, but that doesn't seem to apply to beauty.

"In fact, we respect beauty less when it's clear there's work being put into it," said Autumn Whitefield-Madrano, author of "Face Value: The Hidden Ways Beauty Shapes Women's Lives." "That applies doubly to anti-aging," she said.

We live in a society that praises youth but penalizes the person who wants to look young. Women who use Botox are judged more harshly than those who just avoid the sun or use skin creams, according to a study by The University of Toronto. "We found that the more invasive the procedure was, the more negative the woman was evaluated, regardless of her age," said lead author and associate professor Alison Chasteen. "Although society values youth, there may be an expectation that youthfulness should be maintained naturally."

Chasteen said research supports a double standard for aging women.

"In essence, men are permitted to age gracefully, gaining status and power. In contrast, women are viewed as losing attractiveness as they age, resulting in being valued less."

Women who wear makeup and practice other "grooming" habits even get paid more than their non-made-up counterparts, according to a study released earlier this year.

"Attractive people earn higher incomes than their less attractive peers, but being well-groomed matters more than being 'naturally' attractive in terms of income," said sociologist and lead author Jaclyn S. Wong.

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This translates into about $6,000 more income for a well-groomed woman of average attractiveness vs. her average, less-put-together co-worker. Men do get a slight boost for grooming habits, but research finds the effect is significantly higher for women.

Basically, doing beauty is more important than being beautiful. The difference is most likely linked to the amount of beauty work women can  and are expected to  engage in. This includes your hair, clothing and anything you can do to the rest of your body.

"Plastic surgery is an illogical choice in a vacuum, but a highly logical one in a patriarchy," wrote Sarah Seltzer in a piece for Flavorwire.

Invisible is how some aging women feel in America. I think all of us  young and old  can feel this way. My mom feels it at 66. Jane Fonda's character on Netflix's "Grace and Frankie" shouts about it.

I felt it at 12, when I was not spared the childhood awkward phase like some of my peers. I didn't think that made them better, but I did think it made their life easier.

Looking the way society wants you to makes life just a little bit simpler.

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I have short hair and tattoos  beauty choices I have to defend frequently. Looking young is something I've never had to apologize for.

I understand my friends are trying to tell me I look great just the way I am, but it feels more as if they are delegitimizing my choice  a common experience for women.

Debora L. Spar, president of Barnard College, recently described her decision not to age naturally in The New York Times. So many people responded that the news site published a separate piece just with reader comments  all women. Most chastised the 50-something for her choice. One reader questioned Spar's status as a role model for young women.

Knowing the reason you wear makeup or want to freeze your face is important, but putting down women who conform to the system to work within it won't help the cause.

"If that means I'm going to play by the patriarchal rules until I'm in a position to make the rules, I think that has great value," said Whitefield-Madrano. She adds that we also need women fighting against unfair beauty standards.

"There's also great value in agitating from the beginning to say the rules are unfair. I think that we need both working in tandem."

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kwiginton@chicagotribune.com

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Vicky Vette Opens Up About Her Favorite Porn Stars And Foreplay Moves

Let Adult Star Vicky Vette Explain Why You Need To Be Manscaping Down There

The AskMen editorial team thoroughly researches & reviews the best gear, services and staples for life. AskMen may get paid if you click a link in this article and buy a product or service.

Welcome to Just The Tip, AskMen's weekly series where we interview the greatest adult entertainers to get their sex tips and understand why they are so successful. Call it the tip of the iceberg, if you will.

Here is our interview with the sultry Vicky Vette:

How did you decide on your porn star name?

That was super easy! A no-brainer! I love Corvettes! They are fast and curvy and sexy! They also look better with the top down! Like me! [Laughs] I also like Mustangs, but Vicky Mustang just had no ring to it!

Where can our readers follow you online?

Another easy question! @VickyVette on Twitter and Instagram; I just hit 750k! Woo hoo! Help me make it a cool million. Also, at my official website www.VickyatHome.com and my camsite www.VetteNationLive.com. I shoot, produce and release all my own videos and own my own websites, so if fans want to meet me online or get anything new there's only one place to get that.

Because I #love @docjohnsonusa - Google #vickyvette & #docjohnson to find my lady bits xo - #blonde #norwegian #mold A photo posted by Vicky Vette (@vickyvette) on Apr 19, 2016 at 5:17pm PDT

Who is *your* favorite porn star? (male or female)

My favorite co-star is Puma Swede because she is an absolute nutcase. She does like it a little rough, which is a major turn on for me. She truly loves sex, is not "burnt out" at all, she loves women as much as men, and it's all real. Not "gay for pay." I love women who truly love other women. I was just editing a set today to put on our sites, and it made me smile and get a little ladyboner as I remembered the scene. Her spontaneity, creativity and silliness  it never gets old. We always laugh a lot and enjoy each others personalities as much as each others bodies. I'd also have to say I loved shooting with Mia Malkova recently. What a hot tamale she is! We have a toy being released together through Doc Johnson so we shot a cougar/kitten type video. She's simply amazing to get naked with. I also have to mention Julia Ann, who is not only a legend but an inspiration. She has done so much for the business of adult video and she is a friend so I have to mention her!

What's your best porn memory/experience?

They are all good! Really! Out of 125 studio movies I made, I had one bad day at work. The rest were amazing! Can't say that for other jobs I have had! Since I decided to shoot for myself only, it has been a whirlwind of learning, and improving and trying to pass on what I have learned to others. I love what I do. I have been in porn for 13 years now. Before porn, I would get bored, disillusioned, dissatisfied and quit my job and/or change industries every five years. I feel like I am finally where I belong. I have found my home. I just picked up an AVN Hall of Fame Award in 2016, which isn't half bad for a lady who was told by all the agents in Los Angeles she was too old to get into the business at 38.

What sex lesson did you wish porn co-stars knew?

Not just porn costars but everyone in general: start off slow. Lots of teasing, licking, sucking, kissing lots of buildup. Then you can go balls-to-the-wall later. As long as you have built up to it, you would be amazed what you can do, how long you can do it, how good it can feel, and how many times you can cum! But you can't start off balls to the wall! It just won't feel as good, just won't be the same.

This one is for #Indonesia! Hope you beat #Vietnam!! ?ai#affsuzukicup #garudaindonesia #timnasday #indo #soccermom ai A photo posted by Vicky Vette (@vickyvette) on Dec 1, 2016 at 6:16pm PST

I'd also suggest that just because a porn director tells you something is sexy (like spitting) doesn't mean it really is to the person you are working with. I've never been a big fan of spitting not too sensual in my book, so I'd love girls to check with me before launching one my way. [laughs] It doesn't hurt to check with a co-star what turns them on. it makes the shoot that much funner. Shaving your balls is a plus, by the way  thought I would slide in that suggestion to the guys out there. NO MORE HAIRY BALLS!!!

What porn move did you wish regular guys knew?

It's the other way around! I wish porn dudes would go down on female talent more! Yes, sucking dick makes me horny but hey, fair is fair! I want my share too! But in porn it's all about the guy! I also prefer that in real life we leave some clothes on or partially on why bother putting on $200 lingerie if in two minutes it's on the floor? Leave it on for awhile, enjoy it, take your boobs out, pull it to the side, leave some color and interest for the imagination, something to grab onto or play with.

What is the most important foreplay move for you?

Foreplay? Wash my dishes, wash my floor, do my shopping that will turn me on ok, just kidding whispering naughty things in my ear, kissing the nape of my neck and licking the hollow of my collarbone makes me shiver and quiver each time.

What is your favorite sex toy?

If I am at home alone or on cam alone or with another girl, I really like butt plugs  all different sizes and shapes. I just can't get enough of shoving things in my ass or someone else's ass. That includes men too. A lot of girls shy away from assplay  not me. I also really like things that vibrate, but a real deep strong vibration. If the batteries are old or weak, it will just piss me off! The plug-in kinds are best!

What's on your bucket list? (sexual or otherwise)

Hmmmm

Four men at once? Check, done (twice!)

Sex in lavatory on an international flight? Check, done (twice!)

Skydive? Check

Lived on a nudist resort? Check

Ski the Swiss Alps? Done

Flash at Eiffel Tower? Check

Flash at Buckingham Palace? Check

Sex in a medieval castle? Done

Sex in a church? Done

What still to do? Climb Machu Picchu, learn to play chess, learn any musical instrument / singing lessons, bicycle across Europe, more bondage

Finally, anything to promote?

The Vette Nation Army, of course! Check this out! It's the best value money can buy on the internet! Unlike most places on the net, we have a real community of stars who get together with their fans online and in person. It's quite cool and a lot of the fans have gone on to become my inner circle of friends.

RELATED: Get Vicky Vette's Vickie Quickie Stroker Sex Toy Here

#love you Vickyathome.com #vickyvette #VNA #Norwegian #blondeshavemorefun A photo posted by Vicky Vette (@vickyvette) on Nov 5, 2016 at 8:37pm PDT

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"If you ever need reminding how odd the English can be, take a trip to Swinbrook," urged a British travel blog I read just before leaving for a fall walking tour of the Cotswolds, that glorious unspoiled region in south-central England, bounded roughly by Oxford, Bath and Stratford-upon-Avon.

I'm always up for any reminder of how odd the English can be, so I considered myself lucky that our group's walks indeed would lead to Swinbrook, which lies on one of the most fascinating of hundreds of public footpaths through the golden limestone villages and sheep pastures that are so evocative of the wool trade that built the region six centuries ago.

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The oddities we discovered at Swinbrook, a small village only about 20 miles west of Oxford, are found at its medieval stone church, with its 17th-century effigies of the Fettiplace family lining a wall of the sanctuary. The Fettiplace men, who once ruled large parts of Oxfordshire, lie propped up on their elbows one on top of another, carved in white marble in their knights' armor, facing visitors in floor-to-ceiling horizontal stacks set in tall marble niches, as if frozen in the midst of Pilates class.

Those Fettiplace knights are odd enough, but after they had been leaning on their elbows for three centuries, the notorious and elite Mitford clan joined them at Swinbrook in the 1920s, after their family fortunes had fallen. Just outside the church door we saw the simple, weathered gravestones of four of the six Mitford daughters, including the famous writer Nancy; Pamela, "the rural Mitford"; Diana, who shocked British society by breaking up two marriages to be with fascist demagogue Sir Oswald Mosley; and the virulently anti-Semitic Unity Mitford, whose friendship (some say more) with Adolf Hitler drove her to attempt suicide in Munich when Britain declared war on Germany.

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My husband, Dave, and I were in a group of eight Americans and a British guide on a six-day trip with the San Diego-based Classic Journeys, which specializes in small-group walking tours. The two-mile Windrush Valley Walk to Swinbrook from our base in the town of Burford is one of many named trails found throughout the Cotswolds, whose length, degree of challenge, and twists and turns are detailed in walking-tour guidebooks and online. (The Cotswolds just marked its 50th anniversary as a protected area, known as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, or AONB. There are 3,000 miles of walking routes within that area. The region's website contains maps and detailed routes, as well as a calendar of guided walks.)

Swinbrook, England's St. Mary's Church. Famous early 17th century effigies to Oxfordshire's prominent Fettiplace family. (Nancy Nathan / The Washington Post)

The Windrush Valley walk leads you along the slow Wind-rush River, across the wooden stiles that get you over fences and past curious cows and sheep, whose deposits present the only real obstacles to a walker. Midway is the tiny, 11th-century St. Oswald's Church, stranded in a grassy field. Just before we reached it, I paused to talk to the only human we had encountered, a woman who looked well past her 70s, striding over an ancient, narrow bridge where the Windrush passed by her stone farmhouse. I wanted to know what she thought of all of us walking through the fields and pastures. She told me that the paths "evolved" because people used them to go from home to work over centuries, like the man she saw for many years carrying his scythe through her family's fields on his daily journey. I told her I was writing this article and asked her name. She said I could just call her "Mrs. Buxton." So it was of special interest a few minutes later when we crossed the pasture to St. Oswald's, walked over two mossy stone markers on the ground just outside the threshold and saw the family that they memorialized: Buxton.

St. Oswald's is known because it was the church serving a vanished medieval village. Only by walking there can you make out the faint outlines of foundations and streets of the settlement wiped out by the famine of 1315 and then the Great Plague of 1348. Inside, through a creaking, short wooden door (a hand-lettered index card just inside reminds the visitor to shut it to keep out birds) are ancient pews big enough for the Buxtons and a few others, and remnants of medieval wall paintings. A Roman villa's mosaic from about A.D. 200 was discovered under the floor in a recent excavation, but has been covered for protection.

As with the other walks we took during our Cotswolds stay, which were almost entirely through level or gently sloping fields, the one along the Windrush Valley trail was remote. Besides Mrs. Buxton, the only others we passed were a pair of young women - with the dogs that seem to accompany all Britons at all times and in all places - who told me they had driven 20 miles from Cirencester for an afternoon ramble of their own. They grew up walking the footpaths with their grandparents, they said, before trail markers pointed the way.

Though we decided to join a group - and there are many companies, American and British, which offer Cotswolds walking tours of various lengths - it is also possible to do it yourself by choosing one or more villages to stay in and setting out from there with your trail maps. Thirty years ago, NBC News anchor John Chancellor wrote about his love of walking from one Cotswolds village inn to the next, where he would bed down for the night and continue the following morning. He described in colorful detail the stiles and landmarks of one route, which started in Moreton-in-Marsh, ran through Blockley and finished at Chipping Campden. My husband and I used some free time to retrace the Chancellor route to see how it had changed, and found that while he wrote that it was largely unmarked, today the path - like all in the Cotswolds - is clearly signed with fixed wooden Monarch's Way and Heart of England Way markers at twists and turns, and guidebooks to take you step-by-step. ("Take the stile on the left, followed by another immediately on the left, followed by one immediately on the right crossing a field to a gap in the trees," reads one typical portion.)

Classic Journeys walking tour group in Swinbrook, England, including Judy Newman (center) and Judy Landau (right), both of Chevy Chase. Climbing one of many stiles (over fences) along walking path through pastures. (Nancy Nathan / The Washington Post)

I asked voluntary warden Rosemary Wilson, one of several hundred who help maintain the signs and stiles and also organize free walks, whether there are parts of the footpath network where directions can be challenging. Apparently, that was a softball for her. "You only just have to keep your wits about you," she said. In fact, in our five days of following paths, we found there were few points at which the route wasn't clear.

The beauty of walking is what you see right in front of your nose that you couldn't catch in a drive-by. There were the faint outlines of that disappeared village at the stranded church of St. Oswald's in the middle of pastures and nowhere near any road. Another day, we came over a rise between fields and could make out on a green hillside the lines that were the remnant of ridge-and-furrow plowing abandoned after the population was decimated in the 14th century and the farming economy transitioned from agriculture to livestock. On still another walk, this time along the small River Coln to the National Trust property at the excavation of a Roman villa at Chedworth, we found a most unusual Roman remnant we never would have seen except on foot. One of our group, Judy Landau of Chevy Chase, spied one of the very large Roman snails still found around the villa, descendants of ones the Romans are known to have imported as delicacies.

And while it lies south of the Cotswolds, our tour included a three-mile walk into Stonehenge, a route that indispensably allows you to see how that monument from 2500 B.C. is just one part of a complex array of other henges and barrows and ancient "avenues" to Stonehenge itself.

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Among the more than 50 trails in guidebooks, there are some "bread-and-butter" Cotswolds walking routes, a group of voluntary wardens told me when I sat down with them in Burford. One is that Windrush Valley walk to Swinbrook. Another is the Cotswold Way National Trail, which runs all the way from Chipping Campden in the north down to Bath, a total of 102 miles, and which some group tours walk from end to end in segments over differing lengths of time, from one to two weeks. Cotswolds trail guides lay out both "circular" walks that take you back to your base village or inn, and others where you arrange a pickup or hire one of the services that will forward your bags to a new base.

On a beautiful late afternoon, we walked one short segment of the Cotswold Way that starts where a path climbs from Chipping Campden to the region's second-highest point, above the lovely town of Broadway, where a 1799 "folly" - the limestone Broadway Tower erected for the fun of it - affords views as far as Wales. (It was at the tower that 19th-century design master William Morris vacationed for a few years.) The one-mile ramble down to Broadway from the tower is one of the iconic Cotswolds trails. At the bottom, I chatted up a taciturn Brit who was just behind us. He shrugged when I asked him about his countrymen's devotion to walking their land. He dismissed me with this: "In America, don't you just have things called 'side-walks?' "

Another morning's walk started at a fascinating National Trust property at Chastleton, a 1600 wool merchant's estate. The Trust took it over when descendants of the original owners had to give it up after 400 years of increasingly failed maintenance. The Trust has decided that Chastleton will stand as a monument to the rise and fall of properties owned by the once-wealthy. "We are leaving the boarded-up windows, the wasps' nests. We dust around the cobwebs, and we don't pull as many weeds as we might," said Rosy Sutton, a Trust conservator.

From Chastleton, and across stiles and through sloping pastures where once again it was just us and the horses and sheep, we wound our way to the village of Adlestrop. We stood at a vantage point in its churchyard that overlooks the yellow limestone home where Jane Austen used to visit relatives when it was a parsonage. In the church, a note to visitors says: "A self-proclaimed 'desperate walker,' Jane Austen more than likely walked the pleasant lanes from Adlestrop, which she describes in 'Mansfield Park' as 'a retired little village between gently rising hills.' " How cool it was to realize that we had just descended the very same.

WHAT TO DO

American companies' tours

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Cotswolds, Stonehenge & London - Classic Journeys | 800-200-3887

classicjourneys.com/londonstonehengecotswolds

Six-night trips offered in May, June, July and September. Starting point is London. Double from $4,695, single $5,490 (excluding airfare).

Walking the English Countryside: the Cotswolds and Cornwall - Road Scholar | 877-426-8056

bit.ly/WalkingtheEnglishCountryside

Fourteen-night trips, with stops in Cotswolds and Cornwall, offered May to October, starting in London. Double from $4,799 or $5,599, including airfare from Newark. Single add $600.

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Cotswold England Walking & Hiking tour - Backroads | 800-462-2848

backroads.com/trips/WELI/england-hiking-tour

Seven trips from June to September. Five nights, meeting in Stratford-upon-Avon. From $4,698, single add $830 (excluding airfare).

British companies' TOURS

Cotswold Way - Contours Walking Holidays | 011-44-16-2982-1900

contours.co.uk/walking-holidays/cotswold-way.php

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Unguided walks with bed-and-breakfast lodging, maps and luggage transfers. Various segments of the 102.5-mile Cotswold Way trail, with adventures from four to 13 days. From $485.

Cotswold tours - HF Holidays | 011-44-20-8732-1250

hfholidays.co.uk

Choose between the Cotswolds Discovery Tour (which is three to seven nights, based in Bourton-on-the-Water, for $440 to $1,060) or the Cotswold Way Walking Tour (complete 72 miles of the national trail in six nights from $935).

The Cotswolds - Walk The Landscape | 011-44-12-9581-1003

walkthelandscape.co.uk

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Self-guided or guided walks for two to three nights, based in a variety of B&Bs in Cotswolds villages. From $105 per person, per night.

Information: cotswoldsaonb.org.uk

---

Nathan is a Washington-based television news journalist and freelance travel writer.

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About 138 women who were denied jobs with the Chicago Fire Department following a test seven years ago will have a chance to reapply to be a firefighter on Monday after reaching an agreement with the city in a federal class-action lawsuit.



The women were part of a group of 187 who had passed the written test in 2006 but were later denied jobs because they failed the department's physical abilities test. Close to 50 of the original applicants no longer meet the eligibility requirements.



In 2011, Samantha Vasich, one of the rejected female candidates, filed a lawsuit in federal court in Chicago, alleging the test was unfair to women because it placed too much emphasis on strength rather than firefighting skills.



Last month, the city agreed to use the Candidate Physical Ability Test, a more accurate test developed by the International Association of Firefighters, to assess the rejected women candidates for the next two firefighter classes, said Marni Willenson, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs.

"It's a vast improvement over what was there," Willenson said.



Under the new agreement, women who were denied jobs and who pass the new test will be given first priority.



Those who are not granted jobs, no longer want to apply or are ineligible will share about $2 million in damages, said Willenson.



A representative for the Chicago Fire Department could not be reached for comment Saturday afternoon.

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Chicago Law Department spokesman Roderick Drew said he did not have details about the upcoming tests, but he confirmed the general terms of the agreement.



The settlement still needs to go before the City Council for approval, he said.



Willenson said: "We're pleased. We feel like the city is doing the right thing."



The female candidates were sent letters late last month telling them they could reapply. Willenson said she has been in contact with about 80 women, but said there are likely others who don't know about the opportunity.



"Some people didn't even know there was a lawsuit filed," she said.



Their agreement also sets aside funding for a training program for the women, which starts next week, according to Willenson.



Women who are hired will either join the fall 2013 class or another class in the early part of 2014.



The department will begin processing the applicants Monday morning at the Chicago Fire Department Academy South in the South Loop.



Count Vasich as one candidate who plans to reapply. The 29-year-old failed the physical ability test in 2010, even though she had hired a personal trainer who worked her "harder than the actual test," she said.



Now, she said, she feels grateful for a second chance.



"I'm definitely looking forward to it," she said. "It's a great job, it's a great opportunity."



nnix@tribune.com

Twitter: @nsnix87
Two Chicago police officers have resigned in the face of their firing over the off-duty beating of a restaurant patron on the Northwest Side more than a decade ago.

Brian Murphy and Jason Orsa, both 12-year department veterans, stepped down effective Dec. 1, said police spokesman Frank Giancamilli.

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Their resignations came a little more than a week after the Illinois Supreme Court denied an appeal of their dismissals and before the Chicago Police Board could move to fire them as soon as its monthly meeting Thursday night.

Even though the police board had originally dismissed the two officers in January 2011, both still remained on the force more than a decade after the incident because a Cook County judge had overturned their firings in 2012. They were reinstated on the force and given back pay.

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Murphy, Orsa and another officer, Daniel McNamara, had allegedly just been drinking at a nearby bar when they went to eat at the Taco Burrito King restaurant at Higgins and Harlem avenues during the early morning of March 24, 2006. The trio, along with a Marine friend who had just returned from Iraq, were sitting at a table when Obed "OJ" DeLeon walked inside the restaurant and complained about a car blocking the parking lot.

Murphy jumped up from his seat, pointed his pistol at DeLeon's head and shoved him against a wall, surveillance video shows.

Orsa, McNamara and their friend also joined in. DeLeon was punched, knocked down twice, kicked, hit and held facedown on the floor of the crowded restaurant. His shirt was ripped off, revealing gang tattoos on his body.

Five years later, the police board fired Murphy and Orsa after two eyewitnesses and video confirmed they had started the fight.

Cook County Judge Kathleen Pantle reversed the board's decision, pointing to the delayed, four-year investigation by Chicago's police oversight agency, saying the officers were unable to track witnesses closer to the time of the attack. She also blasted DeLeon as a gang member.

But in August, a three-judge panel of an Illinois appeals court upheld the dismissals, noting that Murphy could have been fired just for pulling out his weapon "unprovoked" in the restaurant.

Obed "OJ" DeLeon is led away shirtless after a scuffle with off-duty police officers at Taco Burrito King on March 24, 2006. (Chicago Police Board)

The court held that Orsa had repeatedly and unjustifiably kicked DeLeon and that the two officers attempted to cover up what happened. The court also rejected their contention during the police board hearing that DeLeon started the conflict by yelling the gang slogans and boasting he was a cop killer.

A front-page Tribune article about the appeals court reversal quoted two eyewitnesses who were also arrested as expressing surprise to learn from a reporter that both officers were still then on the force.

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The officers appealed to the state Supreme Court, but it was denied Nov. 23, according to a spokesman for the court and Max Caproni, the police board's executive director.

In its original ruling in 2011, the police board found insufficient evidence to prove McNamara took part in the beating but suspended him for 18 months for failing to tell supervisors of his and the other officers' involvement in the altercation.

The board also gave one of two sergeants who responded to the restaurant, Louis Danielson, a six-month suspension for not going inside the restaurant or trying to find out who had a gun.

Daywatch Weekdays Start each day with Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox. >

But the city dropped Danielson's suspension after Murphy and Orsa won their jobs back, clearing his record and awarding him back pay. After the appellate court reversed the judge's decision, however, the city chose not to pursue Danielson's suspension, said Giancamilli, the police spokesman.

A few days after the beating, DeLeon lodged a complaint against the police. But it wasn't until a year later that the officers were questioned by investigators for the Independent Police Review Authority, Chicago's much-maligned agency that investigates the most serious allegations of police misconduct. In those interviews, the officers alleged for the first time that DeLeon had threatened police and yelled gang slogans in the restaurant.

Eighteen more months passed before IPRA tried to interview the sergeant who approved the criminal charges against DeLeon and two eyewitnesses, but he had retired by then, records show.

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Records also show the IPRA investigation limped along for years. One investigator asked supervisors for extensions on deadlines at least 23 times, according to the records.

Finally, in 2010, four years after the incident, then-police Superintendent Jody Weis brought formal administrative charges against the officers, seeking their dismissal, before the police board.

jgorner@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @JeremyGorner
New charges of child molestation were filed Thursday against a registered sex offender, prompting a Cook County judge to hold the Elk Grove Village man without bond.

Ryan French, 35, faces additional charges of predatory criminal sexual assault, attempted criminal sexual abuse, child luring and loitering in a public park as a registered sex offender, prosecutors said. The new allegations involve two separate minors, officials said.

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Noting that French faces life in prison if convicted of the pending charges, Judge Joseph Cataldo ordered him held without bond. French was already in custody with a bond of $2 million stemming from his earlier arrest on charges that he molested a 9-year-old boy at a park in Bartlett in November.

Under questioning by detectives in that case, French disclosed the incidents which led to Thursday's charges, Assistant State's Attorney Caitlin Casey said.

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She said that French told police he began molesting a female friend's 8-year-old-son in 2015 when he baby-sat the boy. On at least one occasion, an assault took place in a retail store restroom in Schaumburg, she said.

In another incident in November, French tried to lure a 13-year-old boy into a secluded area at an Elk Grove Village park, but the teen became wary and called his father, who came to the park, Casey said. Elk Grove Village police were investigating the incident when they learned of French's arrest by Bartlett police, the prosecutor said.

In the Bartlett incident, French is accused of luring the 9-year-old into a secluded stairwell and fondling him, Casey said. Surveillance video from the park showed French first luring the boy into a game of hide-and-seek, she said.

French was convicted in 2008 of aggravated criminal sexual abuse involving a 15-year-old boy and was sentenced to 24 months of probation and registration as a sex offender, Casey said. In 2012, he was sentenced to three years in prison for violating his probation, she said.

George Houde is a freelance reporter.
Alfredo Ramos, 24, a man who was charged with first-degree murder in an April shooting that killed a man in the Logan Square neighborhood. (Cook County Sheriff)

A man was denied bail Friday afternoon in an April fatal shooting that killed a 25-year-old man in the Logan Square neighborhood.

Alfredo Ramos, 24, was charged with first-degree murder earlier in the April 24 fatal shooting of Justin Bowman in the 3600 block of West Schubert Avenue, prosecutors said.

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According to court documents, the day of the shooting, Bowman was walking with three friends near Schubert when Ramos got dropped off by a black Hyundai.

Prosecutors said Ramos began following the group, pulled out a firearm and fired multiple shots in the direction of Bowman. He paused before firing again, prosecutors said.

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When Bowman was struck in the chest, he fell to the ground and Ramos ran back to the Hyundai. The vehicle fled the scene, prosecutors said.

Bowman was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center where he was pronounced dead, officials said.

Three witnesses identified Ramos as the person who fired at Bowman and his friends. One of those witnesses told investigators he saw Ramos running to the Hyundai before it left the scene, prosecutors said.

Ramos appeared at a bond hearing Friday before Cook County Judge Adam Bourgeois Jr. who denied bail.
Two armed robberies took place within weeks of each other in the Back of the Yards neighborhood on the city's South Side, according to an alert from Chicago police.

The most recent armed robbery happened Sunday in the 5400 block of South Loomis Boulevard. According to the alert, four men demanded the victim's property.

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The other incident happened about a mile away on Nov. 15 in the 5000 block of South Justine Street, police said.

The robbers were described as four black men ages 18 to 24. Three wore black sweatshirts while the fourth had on a white sweatshirt. One of the men's hair was in dreadlocks.

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Anyone with information about the robberies is asked to call Area Central Detectives at 312-747-8382.
Attorneys Susan Malone, middle, and Marni Willenson, right, talk with an applicant to the Chicago Fire Department before she enters to apply. Dozens of women applicants showed up to the Chicago Fire Department Academy South on May 6, 2013 to apply to be firefighters after winning a lawsuit that changes the test that is more fair towards women. (Nancy Stone / Chicago Tribune)

The city is set to pay a group of African-American women $3.8 million as part of a settlement of a long-running federal lawsuit claiming that Chicago Fire Department tests were discriminatory.

The City Council Finance Committee will consider the payment Monday. It's the latest payout from the city because of allegations of racial or gender bias in hiring practices at the Fire Department in lawsuits that have gone back decades and already have cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars.

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The suit was filed in 2012 by dozens of women who said they were subjected to strength tests that were not "'job related' for the firefighter/EMT position, or 'consistent with business necessity' of the city," according to the suit.

The city settled the case in 2015 and continues to make payments.

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The 12 women who would share the $3.8 million also were part of a larger group of African Americans who successfully sued the city in a separate case, alleging racial discrimination in a Fire Department written test given to job candidates in 1995. The city fought that case to the U.S. Supreme Court and in 2011 was ordered to pay a $30 million settlement to thousands of African Americans who lost out on becoming firefighters because of the written test.

The city also was ordered to hire 111 members of what became known as the "Lewis class" of black firefighter candidates and pay them $15 million in pension money they would have earned had they been hired decades earlier. But as part of their hiring, the 12 women were then forced to try to pass a physical strength test that already was the focus of another lawsuit by women who said it was unfair.

"We warned the city when we found out they planned to use that test," said Marni Willenson, the group's attorney. "We said, 'This test is already being challenged. You realize that, right?' We were very surprised they used it."

The 12 were part of a larger group that failed the physical test and brought their own lawsuit. After it was filed, the Fire Department agreed to do away with the previous physical skills test and adopt one used by many fire departments across the country.

Some of those women took a payment as part of the settlement. The group of 12 opted to take the new physical skills test, passed it and were hired by the Fire Department.

Monday's payment is to compensate the women for part of the pension contributions they would have received had they been hired earlier. In the end, the city will have paid them $5.8 million in back pension payments, Willenson said. The suit will end up costing the city $7 million total, she said.

Willenson also represents another group of women who filed a federal lawsuit in October alleging that they were forced out of the fire academy by instructors who discriminated against them.

"These women passed the new physical requirement tests that were put in place to get hired," Willenson said of the most recent lawsuit. "Then they got to the academy and got flunked because of these garbage tests the instructors there made up. They made them up. There's just this pervasive, deep-seated bias throughout the department."

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jebyrne@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @_johnbyrne
U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth arrives for a closed-door Democratic policy luncheon on Capitol Hill in Washington last month. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Welcome to Clout Street: Morning Spin, our weekday feature to catch you up with what's going on in government and politics from Chicago to Springfield.

Topspin

Democratic U.S. Sen.-elect Tammy Duckworth voted against a continuing resolution to fund the federal government through April because it also served as a vehicle for assisting the incoming Trump administration to name retired four-star Marine Gen. James Mattis as defense secretary.

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To take the Cabinet post, Mattis needs Congress to pass a waiver to a law that requires defense secretaries to have been out of uniform for at least seven years. He's been out three years.

The law is meant to denote civilian control of the military and Republicans have attached a rider to the government funding bill, which passed the House on Thursday, to provide such a waiver. Duckworth was one of 96 representatives to vote against the resolution, which had 326 "yes" votes. It moves to the Senate.

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Duckworth, a two-term congresswoman from Hoffman Estates and Iraq War veteran, said attaching the waiver was "dangerous political gamesmanship" that "only serves to undermine (Mattis') legitimacy leading our Armed Forces."

"Attaching this provision at the last-second, behind closes doors in must-pass government funding legislation, is not the appropriate way to do this. They should not be allowed to hide behind the same procedural gimmicks the president-elect won his election campaigning against," Duckworth said in a statement.

"I have never voted against a continuing resolution for our nation's budget, but we should not make such important constitutional decisions that fundamentally change the relationship between our military and civilian leadership so lightly, or risk compromising American people's faith in the next defense secretary's ability to lead our troops in wartime," she said. (Rick Pearson)

What's on tap

*Mayor Rahm Emanuel is in Washington, D.C., for a discussion with British Member of Parliament Tristram Hunt about "cities' role in the aftermath of the U.S. presidential election and Brexit referendum."

*Gov. Bruce Rauner has no public events.

*Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan will have a morning news conference "to offer Illinois taxpayers advice on ways to avoid tax-related and identity theft scams."

What we're writing

*In final Senate speech, Mark Kirk praises the Cubs, Illinois  and its pumpkins.

*Rauner praises Trump education secretary pick.

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*Judge in Laquan McDonald asks if a request to keep some 240,000 emails from public view violated Mayor Emanuel's transparency pledge.

*Upcoming CPS bond issue gets favorable outlook from Wall Street.

*Federal judge says no change of venue for ex-Rep. Schock.

*Illinois universities grapple with "sanctuary campus" efforts.

*CTA may extend Lincoln Avenue bus trial another six months.

*Trump called 'risk factor' in Chicago company's SEC filing.

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What we're reading

*At lead-tainted Indiana housing complex, inaction and missed warnings.

*Charges dropped against ex-McHenry County coroner accused of mishandling babies' remains.

*Before you saw Prince, you smelled Prince.

From the notebook

*People's Map paid $21,000 to Madigan lawyer: It's been months since the Illinois Supreme Court, sharply divided along partisan lines, ruled against putting on the November ballot a proposed constitutional amendment aimed at taking much of the politics out of redrawing legislative boundaries.

But this week marked the first time that the group that fought the redistricting proposal detailed any of its expenditures.

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The People's Map, a group of prominent racial and ethnic minority businesspeople who opposed the amendment, filed a final report with the State Board of Elections showing it paid $20,982 to attorney Michael Kasper for "campaign expenses and document review."

Kasper was the lead attorney for The People's Map group and is a longtime ally of Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan of Chicago, who opposed the redistricting proposal. Kasper also is legal counsel for the state Democratic Party, which Madigan chairs.

The Independent Map group, which was behind the petition drive that sought unsuccessfully to put the redistricting proposal on last month's ballot for voter ratification, had long criticized The People's Map group for not detailing any of its expenses.

The People's Map showed it had raised $25,000, primarily from 15 lawyers and law firms and five labor union organizations, including $2,000 apiece from the Illinois State AFL-CIO and the political arm of the Illinois Education Association. Unions have been staunch political and financial allies of Madigan.

Besides Kasper's payment, the only other expenses The People's Map showed were returned checks to two law firms and to the IEA and Service Employees International Union Local 73. Expenses also totaled $25,000.

But The People's Map showed the money was raised in October and spent in October and November  long after the late August ruling by the Supreme Court. Technically, groups have to report when they cash a check, not when they actually receive it.

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It was a 4-3 Democratic majority on the Illinois Supreme Court that ruled against putting the Independent Map group's proposal before voters. The court majority ruled the proposal did not fit the narrow legal window for petition-driven citizen initiatives to be used to alter the 1970 Illinois Constitution. (Rick Pearson)

*Rule sighting: Chicago's first lady Amy Rule was out Thursday helping to distribute winter coats to refugees. Seemingly a good photo op, but we didn't find out until afterward through the mayor's office's Twitter account.

*The Sunday Spin: On this week's show, Chicago Tribune political reporter Rick Pearson's guests include incoming WTTW Ch.-11 correspondent Amanda Vinicky; Democratic state Treasurer Michael Frerichs; and author/educator Michael Golden. The "Sunday Spin" airs from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. on WGN 720-AM.

Follow the money

*Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan reported $22,500 in contributions Thursday, the biggest an $8,000 donation from Anheuser-Busch.

*Track Illinois campaign contributions in real time here and here.

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Beyond Chicago

*How Donald Trump's web of LLCs obscures his business interests.

*Former U.S. Sen. John Glenn, first American to orbit the Earth, dies at 95.

*Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid says goodbye.

*U.S. official warns of North Korean nuclear capabilities.
AMSTERDAM  Populist anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders was found guilty Friday of insulting and inciting discrimination against Moroccans, a conviction he immediately slammed as a "shameful" attack on free speech and an attempt to "neutralize" him.

Presiding Judge Hendrik Steenhuis said the court would not impose a sentence because the conviction was punishment enough for a democratically elected lawmaker.

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Wilders was not in court for the verdict that came just over three months before national elections. His Party for Freedom is narrowly leading a nationwide poll of polls and has risen in popularity during the trial.

Wilders quickly released a video message, in English and Dutch, slamming the judgment and vowing to appeal.

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"Today, I was convicted in a political trial which, shortly before the elections, attempts to neutralize the leader of the largest and most popular opposition party," Wilders said. "They will not succeed."

Judges Elianne van Rens, Henry Stone House and Sijbrand Wreath talk before rendering the verdict in the criminal case against Geert Wilders at Schiphol, Badhoevedorp, in the Netherlands, on Dec. 9, 2016. (Sander Koning / AFP/Getty Images)

The politically charged prosecution centered on comments Wilders made before and after the Dutch municipal elections in 2014. At one meeting in a Hague cafe, he asked supporters whether they wanted more or fewer Moroccans in the Netherlands. That sparked a chant of "Fewer! Fewer! Fewer!"  to which he replied, "we'll take care of it."

Prime Minister Mark Rutte, speaking after the verdict, underscored that he and his Liberal Party would not consider forming a coalition with the Party for Freedom unless Wilders retracts the comments.

"That is our stance and it remains our stance," Rutte said at his weekly press conference.

Prosecutors say that Wilders, who in 2011 was acquitted at another hate speech trial for his outspoken criticism of Islam, overstepped the limits of free speech by specifically targeting Moroccans.

He had insisted he was performing his duty as a political leader by pointing out a problem in society.

On Friday, he was convicted for the interaction with the crowd of supporters in the Hague cafe, which judges said was carefully orchestrated and broadcast on national television. He was acquitted for similar comments he made in a radio interview a week earlier, which the judges said did not amount to inciting hatred.

Steenhuis stressed that freedom of expression was not on trial.

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"Freedom of speech is one of the foundations of our democratic society," the judge said. But he added: "Freedom of speech can be limited, for example to protect the rights and freedoms of others, and that is what this case is about."

Abdou Menebhi, president of the Euro-Mediterranean Center for Migration and Development, welcomed the judgment.

"For us, it's a very important verdict," he told The Associated Press. "This gives the Moroccans who felt like victims a renewed belief in a democratic society."

He said it also sent a message to Wilders' supporters.

"This man is not looking for solutions for you," Menebhi said. "His is an ideology of smearing Europe, migrants, Muslims, without offering alternatives."



Associated Press
In this photo, courtesy of Wissam Zarqa, a Syrian English teacher and vocal anti-government critic, men walk past damaged buildings and shops in the eastern Aleppo neighborhood of al-Mashhad, Syria, Thursday, Dec. 8, 2016. (Courtesy of Wissam Zarqa, via AP)

BEIRUT  Russia said the Syrian army was suspending combat operations in Aleppo late Thursday to allow for the evacuation of civilians from besieged rebel-held neighborhoods, but residents and fighters reported no let-up in the bombing and shelling campaign on the opposition's ever-shrinking enclave.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, speaking in Germany after talks with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, said military experts and diplomats would meet Saturday in Geneva to work out details of the rebels' exit from Aleppo's eastern neighborhoods, along with civilians who were willing to leave the city.

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Lavrov said the Syrian army suspended combat action late Thursday to allow some 8,000 civilians to leave the city in a convoy spreading across a five-kilometer (three-mile) route. However, opposition activists said there was no halt to the government offensive.

"Battles are intense," said a message from a rebel operation room shared with The Associated Press. Other residents reported warplanes firing from machine guns at rebel positions and artillery shells falling in the remaining rebel-controlled districts.

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In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said the U.S. was focused on de-escalating the violence in Aleppo to allow aid into the city and enable people wishing to stay in their homes to do so.

She said Kerry and Lavrov continued talks on Thursday with the goal of securing a cease-fire and the "safe departure of those who wish to leave the city." She said details of Saturday's U.S.-Russian technical discussions in Geneva were still being worked out.

Earlier, in Geneva, U.N. special adviser Jan Egeland said efforts to evacuate hundreds of wounded people from eastern Aleppo had stalled following a deadly attack this week on a Russian military hospital that left two Russian nurses dead and a doctor seriously wounded.

"It is with bitterness and frustration that we have to report that we have not been able even to evacuate the wounded," Egeland said. "The member states that are supposed to help us get access to civilians in the cross-fire are poles apart in how they regard what is happening in Syria."

He said Syrian President Bashar Assad's government had authorized U.N.-organized aid shipments into eastern Aleppo for the first time. However, he provided no details about how the aid might get in or where it would go, and past agreements have fallen through before any aid could be delivered.

Medical officials in the enclave issued a passionate plea for a cease-fire.

"Aleppo is finished. There is nothing left except a few residents and bricks," Mohammed Abu Jaafar, the head of the eastern Aleppo forensic authority, said in a recorded message shared with reporters. "This may be my last call."

In this Monday, Dec. 5, 2016 photo, a Syrian girl walks amid the wreckage of damaged buildings and shops in the western city of Aleppo, Syria. (Hassan Ammar / AP)

By early afternoon, Abu Jaafar said 14 bodies had arrived at his facility from all over eastern Aleppo, although a comprehensive death toll for the day was not possible because of the intense fighting. Residents described streets littered with bodies as ambulances and rescue workers struggled to keep up.

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The rebel defenses have buckled amid the wide-ranging government offensive, which opened a number of fronts at once and was preceded by an intensive aerial campaign. More than three-quarters of the rebel sector has now fallen, including the symbolically important ancient Aleppo quarters. More than 30,000 of the estimated 275,000 residents of the besieged eastern enclave have fled to western Aleppo.

The Syrian government has dismissed a proposal for a cease-fire put forward by the rebels Wednesday.

In comments published Thursday in the state-owned al-Watan newspaper, Assad in said he would no longer consider truce offers, adding that such proposals, particularly by the Americans, often come when the rebels are in a "difficult spot."

"That is why we hear wailing and screaming and pleas for truces as the only political discourse now," Assad said.

He said that while a victory by Syrian government forces in the battle for Aleppo would be a "big gain," it will not end the country's civil war.

"Liberating Aleppo from the terrorists deals a blow to the whole foundation of this project," he said. But he added, "to be realistic, it doesn't mean the end of the war."

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On Thursday, opposition activists reported intensive bombing in the al-Sukkari and Kallaseh neighborhoods still under rebel control.

Al-Sukkari is in the southern part of eastern Aleppo, an area that has become home to the majority of the displaced civilians who stayed behind; Kallaseh is near the Old City. Footage by the Syrian military showed intensive shelling of Bustan al-Qasr, a frontline neighborhood that links the rebel-held eastern and government-controlled western parts of the divided city.

The International Committee for the Red Cross said that it had evacuated 148 disabled civilians and others in need of urgent care from a facility in Aleppo's Old City after fighting calmed down there.

The evacuation, undertaken jointly with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, was completed late Wednesday, the Red Cross said in a statement. The people had been trapped in a facility that was originally a home for the elderly and included mentally and physically disabled patients, as well as injured civilians who had sought refuge there.

"They were forgotten," said Pawel Krzysiek, the agency's communication coordinator in Damascus. The evacuees were taken to a hospital and shelters in the western, government-held part of Aleppo.

Associated Press
About a year ago, 18-year-old college student Lauren Batchelder stood up at a political forum in New Hampshire and told Donald Trump that she didn't think he was "a friend to women."

The next morning, Trump fired back on Twitter - calling Batchelder an "arrogant young woman" and accusing her of being a "plant" from a rival campaign. Her phone began ringing with callers leaving threatening messages that were often sexual in nature. Her Facebook and email in-boxes filled with similar messages. As her addresses circulated on social media and her photo flashed on the news, she fled home to hide.

"I didn't really know what anyone was going to do," said Batchelder, now 19, who has never discussed her experience with a reporter until now. "He was only going to tweet about it and that was it, but I didn't really know what his supporters were going to do, and that to me was the scariest part."

This is what happens when Trump targets a private citizen who publicly challenges him.

When Trump tweeted about Batchelder in October 2015, he had fewer than 5 million followers; he now has more than 17 million and has bragged that having a Twitter account is "like owning the New York Times without the losses." Twitter has become Trump's cyber-magic wand, allowing him to quickly act on a fleeting idea, a fit of anger or something he sees on television. Now that he is the president-elect, the power of Trump's tweets has only increased.

With one tweet, Trump can change headlines on cable news, move financial markets or cause world leaders to worry. With one tweet last week, Trump inflamed a conflict with China. With another tweet on Tuesday, Trump caused Boeing stock to plummet. With a third on Wednesday night, Trump prompted a series of threatening calls to the home of a union leader who had called him a liar.

Although Trump said months ago that he was likely to give up Twitter if elected, he has shown little sign of doing so. He will soon inherit the @POTUS account, which has 12.5 million followers.

"I think I am very restrained, and I talk about important things," Trump said during an interview with the "Today" show this week. "Frankly, it's a modern-day form of communication. . . . I get it out much faster than a press release. I get it out much more honestly than dealing with . . . dishonest reporters. So many reporters are dishonest."

For Batchelder, who studies history and gender studies at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, the abuse continues more than a year later. Five days before the election, she received a Facebook message that read: "Wishing I could f---ing punch you in the face. id then proceed to stomp your head on the curb and urinate in your bloodied mouth and i know where you live, so watch your f---ing back punk."

During her first semester at Saint Anselm in fall 2015, Batchelder decided to volunteer for former Florida governor Jeb Bush's campaign, even though her views were much more liberal than his. To her, it was just an enjoyable opportunity to learn more about the Republican Party. She listed the volunteer position on her online resume but later realized that she truly is a Democrat.

On Oct. 12, 2015, Batchelder attended a bipartisan forum in Manchester and said to Trump: "So, maybe I'm wrong, maybe you can prove me wrong, but I don't think you're a friend to women."

Trump defended himself, saying he gave women positions of power at his construction sites, has influential women in his life and will fund women's health initiatives.

"I love women, I respect women, I cherish women," Trump said at one point.

Batchelder asked for the microphone again.

"I want to get paid the same as a man, and I think you understand that, so if you become president, will a woman make the same as a man, and do I get to choose what I do with my body?" she said, then throwing her arms up in a questioning gesture.

Trump answered curtly: "You're going to make the same if you do as good of a job, and I happen to be pro-life, OK?"

CNN and other media outlets covered the striking exchange, which generated conversation online. But Batchelder went to bed that night thinking her moment in the spotlight was over.

After midnight, Trump's director of social media tweeted out screen grabs of Batchelder's social-media accounts. Trump's supporters launched investigations of their own. At 7:39 a.m., Trump tweeted: "The arrogant young woman who questioned me in such a nasty fashion at No Labels yesterday was a Jeb staffer! HOW CAN HE BEAT RUSSIA & CHINA?"

Later that morning, Trump tweeted again: "How can Jeb Bush expect to deal with China, Russia + Iran if he gets caught doing a 'plant' during my speech yesterday in NH?"

Tim Miller, Bush's former spokesman, said the campaign had nothing to do with Batchelder's asking the question. While the staff was accustomed to Trump's attacking Bush, they were stunned that he went after a college student.

"If I was going to plant a question, I would have planted a better question," Miller said Thursday.

Batchelder agreed: "Why would they ever send me out to do a pro-choice question? Guys, [Bush] is pro-life, which was one of my biggest problems with the Republican Party. And so I was like: 'Why would they ever send me to do that?' "

Logic doesn't matter to online trolls, who rated Batchelder's physical appearance, threatened to rape or otherwise hurt her and called her vulgar names. A Photoshopped picture popped up online depicting her face covered in semen.

"I love social media, but I also saw the terrible side of social media," she said. "I definitely tried to focus on something else because when you're seeing your life being played out in front of you and people are judging it and people are making assumptions about you, you kind of just want to stay away."

Batchelder turned down interview requests, ignored the nasty messages and threw herself into playing rugby. She became even more interested in women's issues and wants to be a human rights lawyer. She voted for Hillary Clinton for president.

Trump's Twitter account says it was created in March 2009, but Trump really started to use the account as a key communication tool in 2012 when he seriously considered running for president, said longtime friend Roger Stone.

"He loves it," Stone said Thursday. "This is what got him elected - being outspoken."

Trump dictates many of his tweets to "one of the young ladies" who work in his office.

"So they'll type it out for me, real fast, bring it in - I'll be in a meeting. 'Blah, blah, blah, boom!' Put an exclamation point here, and they'll send it out," Trump said in a May interview on Fox News.

But on weekends, evenings and during early-morning hours - such as when the first tweet about Batchelder was posted - Trump says he writes and sends his own tweets. The messages will often come seconds or minutes after the topic is covered on a major news network. Melania Trump said during an April town hall with CNN's Anderson Cooper that she has repeatedly told her husband to get off Twitter, especially after midnight.

"Anderson, if he would only listen," she said. "I did many times. And I just say: 'OK, do whatever you want.' He's an adult. He knows the consequences."

Batchelder hopes that Trump stops targeting people on Twitter, especially people such as she who are not public figures, and uses Twitter as President Obama has. She realizes that speaking out is likely to spark another wave of abuse, but she thinks it's important for people to realize the harm that a single tweet can cause.

"Twitter is such a powerful platform. He can make a difference. He can change the world," she said. "And, using Twitter, I think he should use it for good. I think he should use it to uplift others."
Leading Senate Republicans are preparing to launch a coordinated and wide-ranging probe into Russia's alleged meddling in the U.S. elections and its potential cyberthreats to the military, digging deep into what they view as corrosive interference in the nation's institutions.

Such an aggressive approach puts them on a direct collision course with President-elect Donald Trump, who plays down the possibility that Russia had any role in the November elections - arguing that a hack of Democratic National Committee emails may have been perpetrated by "some guy in his home in New Jersey." The fracture could become more prominent after Trump is inaugurated and begins setting foreign policy. He already has indicated the country should "get along" with Russia since the two nations have many common strategic goals.

But some of Trump's would-be Republican allies on Capitol Hill disagree. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., chairman of the Armed Services Committee, is readying a probe of possible Russian cyber-incursions into U.S. weapons systems. McCain said he has been discussing the issue with Select Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., with whom he will be "working closely" to investigate Russia's suspected interference in the U.S. elections and its alleged cyberthreats to the military and other institutions. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has been apprised of the discussions. Burr did not respond to requests for comment.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., also said he intends to hold hearings next year into alleged Russian hacking. Corker is on Trump's short list for secretary of state, according to the Trump transition team.

Trump transition officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The loudest GOP calls for a Russia probe are coming from McCain and Sen. Lindsey Graham (South Carolina). Both have taken a hard line on Russia and have been highly critical of Trump, particularly his praise of President Vladimir Putin.

"They'll keep doing more here until they pay a price," Graham said of Russia. He plans to spearhead legislation and hold a series of investigative hearings next year into "Russia's misadventures throughout the world," including suspected Russian meddling in the U.S. elections.

"I'm going after Russia in every way you can go after Russia. I think they're one of the most destabilizing influences on the world stage. I think they did interfere with our elections and I want Putin personally to pay the price," Graham said in an interview with CNN on Wednesday.

McCain said his Armed Services Committee will launch a probe in the 115th Congress into Russia's cyber-capabilities against the U.S. military and weapons systems, "because the real threat is cyber," he said.

But McCain said he expects the investigation will also dovetail with the topic of Russia's suspected hacking of the DNC and state-based election systems - which include a hack that took place in McCain's home state of Arizona.

"See, the problem with hacking is that if they're able to disrupt elections, then it's a national security issue, obviously," McCain said Thursday.

He added that the Armed Services Committee was "still formulating" exactly how to address the issue. But despite Trump's dismissal, McCain said that "there's very little doubt" Russia interfered in the U.S. elections, which he called "very worthy of examination."

In October, the U.S. government officially accused Russia of hacking the DNC's emails during the presidential campaign. The emails were posted on websites such as WikiLeaks and caused embarrassment for the party, including forcing the resignation of the DNC chair, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Florida).

U.S. military officials also are concerned about Russia's capacity to steal military secrets and to corrupt operations: Officials suspect Russian hackers are behind a major email breach at the Pentagon last year. The military could be a target for backlash, after an NBC News report widely circulated by Russian media stated that U.S. military hackers were ready to launch cyberattacks against Russia in the event of an obvious election hack.

Trump continued to play down Russian involvement in the elections in an interview released this week for Time magazine's "Person of the Year" feature. In the interview, the president-elect disputed President Barack Obama's administration's accusation that Russia interfered in the election.

"I don't believe they interfered," Trump said of Russia. "It could be Russia. And it could be China. And it could be some guy in his home in New Jersey. I believe that it could have been Russia and it could have been any one of many other people. Sources or even individuals."

Some Republicans delicately demurred while still defending Trump's ability to negotiate with Putin.

"The Democratic National Committee ... the intelligence community is of pretty much one mind that Russia was involved in that, was behind that," Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., said in an MSNBC interview. King is a member of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and chairman of the Homeland Security subcommittee on intelligence and counter-terrorism.

King added that he was "confident" Trump "will not be taken in by Putin."

Democrats have also taken issue with Trump's desire to pursue more friendly relations with Moscow, as well as with his affinity for Putin.

"The primary area of discomfort for the Republicans here and the Trump administration, in foreign policy and national security, is over Russia," said Rep. Adam Schiff (California), the Intelligence Committee's ranking Democrat, who accused Trump of becoming "a propaganda piece for the Kremlin" on MSNBC this week. "They may be giving him breathing space right now, but I don't expect that to last."

Since the election, Republican lawmakers voted to reestablish a U.S. hard line against Russia's global ventures, with a House-passed measure to sanction anyone who supports the Syrian government in its ongoing civil war - a category that primarily includes Russia and Iran. There is also language in the annual defense policy bill to provide millions of dollars in lethal aid to Ukraine, where the government in Kiev is engaged in open hostilities against Russian-backed separatists.

But many Democrats are impatient with Republicans for not taking faster and more concrete steps against Russia after the Obama administration officially accused Moscow of meddling in the elections.

Corker expressed early interest in holding hearings on Russia. But months later, those hearings have not been held.

"We're getting no pressure from anyone - we just feel like it's something we should do," Corker said in an interview Wednesday, when asked if the president-elect had pressured him not to raise the topic. "As a matter of fact we attempted to set a classified briefing up this week."

A spokeswoman for Corker said the hearing was postponed because State Department officials were unavailable because of previous travel commitments. She added that Corker and Sen. Benjamin Cardin (Maryland), the Foreign Relations Committee's ranking Democrat, received a classified briefing on cyberthreats before the election.

Obama administration officials maintain that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and other officials were ready to brief senators about Russia's suspected role in the DNC hack on Thursday. Administration officials said that at the last minute, the committee dramatically broadened the scope of the hearing, forcing them to cancel.

Corker pledged on Wednesday that hearings investigating Russia's role in the elections would be forthcoming next year.

"We're definitely going to look at it," Corker said.

An aggressive probe of Russia's activities may not extend to the House, where leading Republicans say they already have been investigating Russia and will continue their efforts regardless of Trump's stance.

Russia has "always been a priority for me, and it will remain a priority for me," said Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., the Intelligence Committee chairman.

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, stressed that his committee has been looking at suspected Russian cyberthreats to the military for the past two years.

"We're going to have to all pay more attention to cyber and to Russian activities to influence things through cyber," Thornberry said.
Illinois Speaker of the House Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, left, looks on as Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner delivers the State of the Budget Address in the House chambers at the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield, Ill., on Feb. 17, 2016. (Seth Perlman / AP)

There's a scene in the 1989 dark comedy film "The War of the Roses" in which Gavin D'Amato, the attorney for Oliver Rose, offers judicious advice about Rose's hostile divorce: "There is no winning in this. It's only degrees of losing."

The same premise applies to Illinois citizens in the two-year standoff between Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan, who, despite meeting numerous times in recent weeks, cannot manage to get beyond their animus. Thursday's scheduled meeting got canceled. Big surprise.

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Rauner's allies in the Republican Party have been taking sharp aim at Madigan and his members, including following them around the Capitol with video cameras looking for "gotcha" moments. Meanwhile, Madigan stubbornly refuses to yield to even a shred of Rauner's policy agenda, preferring instead to allow the state to crash into bits like the Roses' huge crystal chandelier.

So there they are, Oliver and Barbara, flinging vases at each other, crushing personal possessions and tearing through the hearth like they're on a Pamplona bull run. How far will they go?

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The Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago recently launched a campaign to pressure Rauner and Madigan to solve the state's budget crisis. LOL Illinois is a website and social media effort to engage the public on the Armageddon that has become Illinois government. "This is not a laughing matter" is the theme of the LOL campaign, which is a catchy take on the social media abbreviation for "laughing out loud."

The campaign includes letters and testimonials from real people impacted by the Rauner vs. Madigan standoff.

"They have to find a way to talk to one another," says Tyrone Fahner, president of the committee, which has launched public relations campaigns in the past to put pressure on Springfield. "It's their job."

Best of luck.

While any civic engagement from the city's most influential business leaders is welcome, public relations pressure will not end the war of wills. Nothing has moved them  not the threat of state universities closing, not the exodus of taxpayers from Illinois, not the state's abysmal credit rating or its ghastly reputation nationwide.

Not even the decimation of social service programs for the poor and disabled has been enough to get Madigan  also chairman of the Democratic Party of Illinois  to acquiesce on any part of Rauner's agenda.

Yet Rauner was elected in 2014 to bust the status quo.

So 'round we go.

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Madigan's supporters blame Rauner. The state always managed to have a budget before now, they say.

But Madigan has always been a source of maddening frustration, no matter who or which party was in charge. Even with Democratic Govs. Rod Blagojevich and Pat Quinn, budget battles were often long and bitter. The governors would introduce a budget, and Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton would promptly ignore it. Cullerton once described Quinn as "irrelevant." Quinn, in turn, hardly showed up at the Capitol.

And if you think the budgets those governors signed were balanced, you'd be wrong. The state's largest public employee union compared Quinn to the devil. Why? He canceled union pay raises because the legislature sent him a budget that had no money for them in it. Sound familiar?

The Democrats who lay the budget blame squarely on Rauner, as if his two years in office got us to this miserable brink, are part of the problem. They always have an excuse about the years of unbalanced budgets approved solely by their party, led by Madigan.

That hypocrisy is why the state is in this position, to paraphrase the apt description by divorce attorney D'Amato in the film: It's not a matter of who will win. It's a matter of how much and to what degree Illinois citizens will lose.

Kristen McQueary is a member of the Tribune Editorial Board.

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kmcqueary@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @statehousechick
When Donald Trump becomes president next month, he will inherit a long war that risks becoming a permanent one.

George W. Bush began it after 9/11, when he called it the "war on terror." Barack Obama has tried and failed to end it. "Democracies should not operate in a state of permanently authorized war," he warned in his last major national security speech Monday. In this spirit, he laid out a series of principles he believed should guide America's counterterrorism efforts.

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For the most part they make good sense: Keep the war lawful. Keep the threat in perspective. Drone strikes are the least worst option for taking terrorists off the battlefield. That kind of thing.

But when it comes to understanding the aims of the enemy, Obama makes the same mistake as his predecessor. "The whole objective of these terrorists is to scare us into changing the nature of who we are and our democracy," he said this week. This is the president's version of George W. Bush's "they hate us for our freedoms."

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On this point, Trump has an opening. The truth is that the Islamic State, al-Qaida and other jihadists do not hate us just because of our freedom. Their objective is not to provoke an overreaction where America ceases to be a democracy. It's much more straightforward. These groups want to force the non-Muslim world  what they call the Dar al-Harb, or the house of war  to submit to Islamic rule. Jihadists seek conquest.

Trump doesn't know a lot about foreign policy. But he does understand this. Obama and Bush do as well. But they also deliberately tried to define the enemy in the long war as un-Islamic, as murderous charlatans who defame a great religion.

This was a smart strategy. Many Muslims who believe the state should penalize adultery and blasphemy oppose terrorism. Also, states like Saudi Arabia have been important tactical allies against terrorists, particularly in recent years. Yet, ideologically, the Saudis and other Gulf states are still committed to a vision of political Islam for their own societies. An ideological war waged recklessly would alienate them.

At the same time, the impulse to narrow the definition of the enemy has ironically exacerbated the risks of permanent war. Obama should know. He authorized the raid that killed the head of al-Qaida's snake, Osama bin Laden. After this, he tried to unwind the long war, arguing the threat had receded. And yet he leaves office with U.S. forces fighting al-Qaida's affiliates, spinoffs and fellow travelers all over the Muslim world.

For a period, Obama's narrow war led to a bizarre phenomenon. When new outfits sprang up in Libya after the fall of its dictator, waving the black flags of jihad and promising to impose strict Islamic law in their areas of control, Obama's White House did nothing. When the Muslim Brotherhood and more radical parties took control of Egypt's government after the country's first real elections, the Obama White House saw an opportunity to advance U.S. interests by working with them.

This miscalculation was an example of what Andrew McCarthy, the former U.S. attorney who prosecuted the first case against the World Trade Center bombers, calls "willful blindness." By defining the enemy in un-ideological terms, Obama was unprepared to take on groups like Libya's Ansar al-Sharia or the Islamic State before they became powerful enough to seize territory. By trying to end the long war, Obama let threats gather and prolonged it.

There is of course a risk in taking the ideological approach too far. If, say, Trump begins purges of suspected Muslim Brotherhood operatives inside the U.S., he will be trampling on constitutional protections for American citizens. He will also be sowing the seeds of his own political ruin, because this is the kind of thing that will provoke fierce opposition from the courts, press and many in his own party.

If Trump is not careful in how he defines the threat, he risks alienating allies he will need in the fight against the terrorists. Finally, Trump would be making a mistake if he gave leaders like Egypt's Abdel Fattah al-Sisi a blank check. It's true that Sisi has called for a reformation within Islam, which is much needed. But he has also failed to distinguish between his legitimate political opposition and the radicals that briefly thrived in his country after the revolution. This will not end well for Sisi. As Egypt's history proves, the Muslim Brotherhood thrives as a secret society. Its more radical adherents murdered Anwar Sadat when the group was largely underground.

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But Trump nonetheless has an opportunity. He can, for example, make it clear that America will be a safe haven for anyone in the Muslim world facing persecution from radicals, whether they are marked as blasphemers or from minority faiths such as Coptic Christians. Trump can also align more closely with leaders like Abu Dhabi's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan to build a quiet and professional counter-terrorism capability for the region.

Trump could also use America's influence in Iraq and Afghanistan to encourage secular and reformist politicians, instead of embracing, as both Bush and Obama did, any confessional parties that also gave lip service to opposing terrorism. He could use the bully pulpit to encourage Western civil societies to adopt newspaper editors, lawyers, human rights activists and others under threat from radicals in their own faith. Meanwhile, Trump could wind down what remains of Obama's first term agenda to build bridges to Muslim Brotherhood parties that have shown no real interest, with the exception of Tunisia, of accepting pluralism.

There are risks in embracing an ideological war against radical Islam, as opposed to a long war against terrorists. But it has the advantage of defining conditions for victory. The long war will end when Islamic fascism is defeated and discredited. What's more, Trump can set America on this path without engaging in the cycle of regime change and nation-building he has explicitly rejected. Not a bad plan for a guy who keeps asking why America doesn't win anymore.

Bloomberg View

Eli Lake is a Bloomberg View columnist.
Patrick Fitzgerald, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, holds a news conference at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in Chicago after former Gov. Rod Blagojevich was found guilty on 17 of 20 counts in his corruption trial on June 27, 2011. (Michael Tercha / Chicago Tribune)

"He's a great Democrat. He ran for Congress. He was defeated. He's a graduate of Notre Dame, of Harvard. But more than that, Mr. President, let me say with great honor and pride, he's a precinct captain!"

Mayor Richard J. Daley, successfully lobbying President Lyndon Johnson for the choice of Edward Hanrahan as U.S. attorney in Chicago, from a White House recording of Jan. 20, 1964.

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We can't know whether Illinois politicians or business leaders have launched quiet campaigns to bamboozle Donald Trump. But we'd wager that, when he's President Trump, he'll have influential swells helpfully suggesting whom he should appoint as the U.S. attorneys in this corruption- and crime-plagued state.

Pols who swim in the Illinois culture of political sleaze are forever hoping to shape the choices of these three top federal prosecutors, who serve at a president's pleasure. They hold positions of enormous impact on the application of justice  and on other people's futures. The U.S. attorneys for northern, central and southern Illinois decide which alleged crimes to pursue and which don't merit pursuit. There lie dragons: With the ability to prosecute a case, or to look the other way, come the possible influences of favoritism, of cronyism, of invisible deference to political clout.

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Richard J. Daley, whose entreaty stayed secret for decades, trusted Ed Hanrahan to know how to make those delicate decisions. A similarly brazen effort came in 2001 when then-U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert tried to outmuscle U.S. Sen. Peter Fitzgerald in choosing Chicago's U.S. attorney. By tradition, the senior senator of the president's party proposes a name that the president usually accepts. Fitzgerald wanted an independent prosecutor, not a toady for Illinois Republicans and Democrats who schmoozed with insiders like Hastert.

Hastert, aware that President George W. Bush needed his help on Capitol Hill, told a Tribune reporter: "You know, that's not a senatorial patronage job. That's a job that's given by the administration. I have my contact with the administration as well as anybody else." But Fitzgerald beat Hastert to the punch with a Mother's Day news conference announcing his choice of corruption-buster Patrick Fitzgerald (no relation).

We wrote at the time that if Patrick Fitzgerald was the warrior his record suggested, then Peter Fitzgerald would be vindicated, and the illicit pols and their pals would pay a serious price. Turned out that he was. It was. And they did. Ask ex-governors and federal convicts George Ryan and Rod Blagojevich.

U.S. Attorney Zachary Fardon, who led the prosecution in the bribery case against former city official John Bills, speaks to the media after Bills was found guilty on all 20 counts of mail and wire fraud, bribery, extortion, conspiracy and tax evasion charges on Jan. 26, 2016, at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in Chicago. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)

Chicago's U.S. attorney since October 2013, Zachary Fardon, surely wonders whether (best case) Trump keeps him or (worst case) replaces him with a Republican hack. Illinois will have two Democratic senators, so Downstate Republican U.S. Rep. John Shimkus inherits the selection privilege. But Greg Hinz of Crain's Chicago Business reports that members of Illinois' congressional delegation have agreed on a collegial approach in which Shimkus is the lead but Kathy Lydon  a Capitol Hill veteran and Gov. Bruce Rauner's top Washington staffer  organizes the search process.

Trump could pre-empt that process; on Nov. 30 he asked Preet Bharara, the corruption-fighting U.S. attorney in New York City (and, like Fardon, a President Barack Obama appointee), to stay on the job. One possible Fardon successor, now or in the future, is Maggie Hickey, a respected former official in the U.S. attorney's office here and now executive inspector general for the state of Illinois.

We could offer many other names of good candidates who could step into the job knowing how to do it. Experience as a prosecutor with demonstrated integrity is crucial; in the past, some top prosecutors have pointed one eye on their next jobs at high-paying Chicago law firms.

Our greatest concern is that all those Illinois pols and their pals will try to scam Trump into choosing U.S. attorneys who aren't aggressive outsiders determined to assault the culture of sleaze. The supplicants can argue that Trump owes nothing to Illinois and its parochial concerns about endemic corruption. This state's Republican senator, Mark Kirk, repudiated Trump. Illinois voters rejected him. And Chicago aldermen nixed the honorific street designation in his name.

If the soft lobbying comes, Trump has the same choice that Bush and Obama handled superbly. He can play politics with the three U.S. attorneys' offices in Illinois. Or he can put the pursuit of justice first. We'll all be watching.

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Join the discussion on Twitter @Trib_Ed_Board and on Facebook.
Donald Trump ran on a promise to bring back manufacturing jobs that have been shipped overseas, partly by using import tariffs to punish U.S. companies that move their operations abroad. He took the first step toward keeping that promise when Indiana manufacturer Carrier Corp., offered a package of state tax incentives (and possibly fearful of its corporate parent losing Pentagon contracts), agreed to retain 800 workers it had planned to lay off.

Some 600 jobs it had planned to move to Mexico will still be going there. But the incoming president claimed credit for those that will be staying here.

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There's nothing wrong with a president exhorting American corporations to fly the American flag, support the arts or find ways to preserve well-paying domestic jobs. Where such efforts become troublesome is when they're accompanied by threats. The president-elect used his Twitter account Sunday to lambaste Milwaukee-based Rexnord for "rather viciously firing all of its 300 workers," referring to a decision to shut a bearings factory in Indianapolis and move production to Mexico. He warned that companies outsourcing abroad were "making a very expensive mistake," referring to the 35 percent tariff he wants to slap on their goods shipped here.

But the managers and shareholders running such companies generally have a better idea than anyone else of what they have to do to survive in a competitive market. A U.S. company that goes out of business may not ship any jobs abroad, but the domestic jobs it provides will be gone regardless.

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Though Trump's jawboning makes for good headlines, it's not really a plausible method for meeting his goals. It's the equivalent of trying to fill a swimming pool with an eye dropper. The 800 Carrier jobs he "saved" are dwarfed by the 5 million manufacturing jobs the country has lost since the start of this century. The type of deal he made with Carrier could backfire, by giving CEOs the idea that they can extract special favors by floating plans to leave. Trump may find himself putting out fires he inadvertently started.

To make a real difference in the job market and the fortunes of blue-collar workers, a president can't rely on case-by-case persuasion. Something much bigger is needed. The key to keeping  and creating  jobs here is to make America a more inviting place to do business.

Trump could start with pushing to cut the corporate tax rate to a more competitive level. Even President Barack Obama proposed lowering the rate from 35 percent, one of the highest in the world, to 28 percent. Obama was never willing to spend any political capital getting his party behind the idea, though, and he saw corporate tax reform chiefly as a way to milk American companies for more revenue. With a Republican Congress, Trump should be able to achieve what his predecessor didn't.

Another way to improve the job climate is by curtailing costly regulation. Trump has made a promise to "formulate a rule which says that for every one new regulation, two old regulations must be eliminated." Done with care and resolve, that is a path to freeing up business to do what it does best.

"U.S. regulation is arbitrary, slow, discretionary and politicized," Hoover Institution economist John Cochrane wrote last month in The Wall Street Journal. He offers some ideas for improvement: "Congress must review and approve major regulations. People and businesses have a right to see evidence and appeal. Regulators face a shot clock  no more years and years of delays on decisions." In sum: Companies don't expect zero regulation, but they are entitled to smart, timely, cost-effective regulation.

If Trump were to bring about reforms such as these, he would make producing in the United States more attractive not only to companies that are planning to move abroad but to companies that are already producing abroad, companies that see room for expansion and companies that haven't even been created yet. Broadly improving the U.S. climate for job retention and creation is the real prize, and Trump should keep his eyes on it.
Travelers authorized to use the TSA PreCheck expedited security line at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in Seattle have their documents checked by Transportation Security Administration workers on March 17, 2016. (Ted S. Warren / AP)

There are few things in life sweeter than alighting at the airport, scanning the grim-faced travelers in the regular TSA line  doffing shoes, belts and light jackets, yanking laptops out of suitcases  and then skipping past them to the expedited TSA PreCheck line. No elaborate undressing or unpacking rituals in PreCheck. A swift pass through a metal detector, and you're at the gate in plenty of time for the flight.

Even so, millions of Americans haven't applied for PreCheck. Why not? The usual lame excuses: Procrastination. No time to fill out the forms. Where's the processing center again? And that $85 fee.

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Now a University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign study suggests a new way to coax more people to sign up for expedited security screening: Waive the $85 fee. Make it free for frequent fliers (an average of 12 screenings or six round-trips a year).

That would save the government $34 million a year, according to the study by U. of I. computer science professor Sheldon Jacobson, along with graduate students Arash Khatibi and Ge Yu.

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Why? Because PreCheck lines move faster and don't use the more expensive screening machines. The study estimates that PreCheck costs the government about a quarter as much to operate as regular screening. "Most of the savings is in personnel," Jacobson tells us. Those sophisticated screening machines soak up more time and require more personnel to operate and maintain.

But Jacobson stresses that there would also be a much bigger benefit than money saved. Expanding the PreCheck ranks would boost national airport security by allowing screeners to concentrate on passengers who are higher potential security risks. "We need PreCheck desperately," he tells us. "Anything that prevents people from signing up is a hindrance to the security of our national air system."

We're on board. We've extolled the benefits of this program more than once.

The TSA's goal is to sign up 25 million fliers by 2019. It is about halfway there  nearly 12 million participants in expedited screening programs like PreCheck and its international cousin, Global Entry, TSA spokesman Michael McCarthy tells us.

Too many people still resist. The $85 fee could be part of it. You also have to apply for PreCheck, which involves fingerprinting and an FBI background check. It's a small hassle, sure.

But come on. There are application centers around the area and at O'Hare International Airport.

And remember: Those scary-long lines that haunted travelers at O'Hare and Midway earlier this year have been whittled down. But you never know when another manpower shortage could change that.

We're not sure if comping the $85 fee would help significantly, or just cause resentment from all those who paid up. Maybe a limited-time offer to entice travelers to test that notion?

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TSA should continue to explore ways to encourage more enrollment, to make the application process more customer-friendly. Would more processing centers scattered around the country help?

Airlines benefit from PreCheck too: Fewer passengers stranded in long lines, missing flights. Some airlines have provided incentives for passengers to sign up. We wonder if airlines could ramp up programs or offer new incentives to lure travelers into PreCheck.

The strongest incentive, of course, is the one no one wants to see: the return of those preposterously long lines.

The best way to avoid that is to sign up for TSA PreCheck. That's not just an $85 holiday time-saving present to yourself. It's a gift to us all because it makes air travel safer.
As low as my expectations might be for the Donald Trump presidency, he finds new ways to drop the bar even lower.

Take his Cabinet nominees. Please.

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They aren't all bad. Retired Marine Corps Gen. James "Mad Dog" Mattis, the president-elect's choice for secretary of defense, comes well-recommended by old-guard defense experts like Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and turns out to be nowhere near as nutty as his nickname implies.

And it's hard to dislike the bipartisan appeal of South Carolina's Republican Gov. Nikki Haley, although Trump's choice of her to be United Nations ambassador is a puzzlement. She has little experience in foreign relations, but she opposes President Barack Obama's Iran nuclear deal, so maybe that's good enough for Trump.

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Some of Trump's other choices, though, illustrate how dramatically an election can swing our government's executive branch into a Bizarro World version of its former self  like the fictional planet in DC Comics where everything is the reverse of life on Earth.

This is particularly true when government appointees don't seem to care very much for government.

For secretary of labor, Trump wants Andrew Puzder, a fast-food executive with a negative attitude toward additional overtime pay for workers and an increase in the minimum wage.

Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 21 Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, the first senator to endorse Trump, is known for his hardline views on immigration. Sessions could face obstacles in his confirmation hearing, even with Republicans in control of the Senate. He withdrew from consideration for a federal judgeship in 1986 after being accused of making racist comments while serving as a U.S. attorney in Alabama.  AP (Carolyn Kaster / AP)

To head the Environmental Protection Agency, Trump proposes Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, a climate change skeptic who is currently engaged in the latest of his series of lawsuits against the agency Trump would like him to head.

And I can't leave out Sen. Jeff Sessions, an Alabama Republican and tough critic of the Voting Rights Act tapped by Trump to be attorney general  a move that, aided by a Republican Congress, puts him in an excellent position to launch a Reconstruction-style collapse of civil rights enforcement with the enthusiasm of a fox guarding a henhouse.

Still, the prize winner for puzzling choices may well be Trump's decision to name Dr. Ben Carson, a former rival for the Grand Old Party's nomination, to be secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

Sure, Carson is a nice guy with a great ghetto-to-Gold-Coast, pulled-up-by-his-bootstraps narrative. The retired neurosurgeon has been the subject of best-selling books and a made-for-TV movie, "Gifted Hands," starring Cuba Gooding Jr. as Dr. Ben.

But what does he know about housing and urban development policy? Well, he owns a house and grew up in Detroit. Fine. But driving a car does not make you an auto mechanic.

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Trouble is, HUD doesn't need a brain surgeon. It needs people with good brains for housing and urban development issues. Carson's views on fighting poverty, expressed in his speeches and writings, lean heavily on quaint old-fashioned self-help values. Poverty, he once told a television interviewer in a much-replayed clip, "is really more of a choice than anything else."

That might be true for those of us who were born poor but fortunate enough to have resources at hand, such as a fully functional family and good schools, to ease our climb out of poverty. But what do you do for those who were not born so lucky?

Trump's urban "disaster" views sound frozen in the urban riot years of the 1960s. Poverty fighters in both parties whom I have covered in more recent decades have learned a lot of valuable lessons about what works and what doesn't in urban policy.

Sometimes the lessons have come with unintended consequences. For example, the demolition of Chicago's public housing high-rises restored peace to some violently troubled real estate. But it led to a dispersal of street gangs into some of the city's poorest neighborhoods  and one of the highest gun-violence crime rates in the nation.

But there's enough good news in public-private partnerships, housing vouchers and other innovations to make many "inner-city" neighborhoods into oases of gentrification. To help those who, once again, have been displaced by these signs of urban hope, our nation needs leadership that doesn't require on-the-job training.

Remember how vigorously candidate Trump issued his somewhat backhanded appeal to black voters, mostly in front of white audiences? The "inner cities" are a "disaster," he insisted. "What the hell do you have to lose?" Well, I guess we're about to find out.

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Clarence Page, a member of the Tribune Editorial Board, blogs at www.chicagotribune.com/pagespage.

cpage@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @cptime
Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blog spot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work.

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..Abu Yehuda..09 December '16..If Ive learned anything in my relatively comfortable and placid life it is that despite my good luck, evil is real. Sometimes it grows and sometimes declines. Today its gathering strength.Hezbollah came into being in 1985, as a response to the Lebanese Civil War, Western interventions, and the Israeli invasion and its aftermath. Its stated goals were the elimination of Western influence, the assertion of Islamic (Shiite) dominance over Lebanon, and the destruction of Israel, which its founders saw as a tool of the West and an ally of Lebanese Christians.Its attitude toward Israel is shown by this snippet from an open letter published by its founders in a Lebanese newspaper:The month-long Second Lebanon War in 2006 was fought by an IDF grown complacent from years of occupation duty and a leadership team (PM Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Amir Peretz, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Chief of Staff Dan Halutz) who were only marginally competent. While Hezbollah suffered heavy losses and much Lebanese infrastructure was destroyed, Israel was unable to stop the heavy rocket fire on the northern part of the country, which continued until a UN-brokered cease-fire came into effect. 120 IDF soldiers and 43 Israeli civilians were killed, and as many as a half-million Israelis were displaced as a result of Hezbollah rocket attacks. Israel tried to destroy Hezbollahs leadership both from the air and by commando operations, and failed to do so. UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which was negotiated by Livni to end the fighting, proved worthless in preventing Hezbollah from rearming and rebuilding military infrastructure. Wikipedia called the result a stalemate, and I agree.
A Hanover Park man has been sentenced to prison after pleading guilty to traveling to an Aurora hotel for a sexual encounter with a teen girl.

Nabeel Afsar, 23, of the 1300 block of Santa Anita Drive, Hanover Park, agreed Thursday to a sentence of 33 months in prison in exchange for his guilty plea to traveling to meet a minor, a Class 3 felony, the Kane County State's Attorney's Office announced Thursday afternoon.

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Kane County Circuit Judge James C. Hallock accepted the plea. Assistant State's Attorney Christine Bayer prosecuted the case.

On Dec. 23, 2014, Afsar went to an Aurora hotel planning to have sex with what he believed would be a 15-year-old girl, Bayer said at the plea hearing.

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When Afsar arrived at the hotel, he met someone he thought was the girl's mother, confirmed he would pay $80 for 30 minutes of sexual favors, and was arrested by officers from the Aurora Police Department and Homeland Security Investigations, according to the state's attorney's office.

Afsar is eligible for day-for-day sentencing under state law, and is receiving credit to his prison sentence for two days already served in the Kane County Jail. He had otherwise been free on $3,500 bond.

In accordance with the state's Sexual Offender Registration Act, Afsar must also register for 10 years as a sexual offender.

Wheaton-based criminal defense attorney Scott Kent, who represented Afsar in the case, said he thinks the sentence is appropriate in light of various aspects of the case. However, he maintains that his client never intended to have a sexual encounter with a minor, and said Afsar had responded to an online advertisement for an adult. When Afsar responded to the ad via text message, police on the other end mentioned available teenagers, but Afsar's intent was still to meet an adult, Kent argued.

Kent believes Afsar's plea deal was in his best interest, because a guilty conviction at trial would have ended with a minimum six-year sentence, Kent said.

"When a jury sees these kind of charges, they already have terrible thoughts in their heads, and it's hard for them to get past the allegations regardless of the strength of the state's attorney's case," Kent said. "It was a decision we came to after much consideration of himself and his family."

hleone@tribpub.com

Twitter @hannahmleone
Johan O. Asiata has been charged with five counts of official misconduct, two counts of aggravated battery and one count of unlawful restraint. (Kane County State's Attorney / Handout)

A judge has set arraignment dates for three Illinois Youth Center guards who made their first appearances in court since being charged with criminal wrongdoing at the facility in St. Charles.

The trio - Johan Asiata, 30, of Channahon; Michael Klimek, 40, of Yorkville; and Elliott Short, 34, of St. Charles - were indicted in November in connection to a series of January incidents at the facility which involved, among other things, encouraging attacks among juvenile detainees. Led by Klimek, Asiata, Short and another guard, Andre McFarland, prompted certain detainees to commit attacks on others as a form of discipline, according to prosecutors.

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The four, who have each been placed on paid administrative leave, worked as juvenile justice specialists during the incidents which occurred on six occasions between Jan. 9 and 28, prosecutors said.

A Kane County grand jury issued Klimek a 76-count indictment alleging official misconduct, aggravated battery, unlawful restraint, mob action and misdemeanor theft. Asiata was indicted on official misconduct, aggravated battery and unlawful restraint charges, while Short's indictment includes official misconduct and aggravated battery counts. Judge David Kliment set arraignment dates of Jan. 4 for Asiata and Klimek, and Short on Jan. 6, for hearings at which they're expected to enter not guilty pleas.

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McFarland's arraignment is scheduled for Jan. 12. He was charged with nine felony counts similar to what his coworkers face, court document show.

All four are free on bail.

Illinois Youth Center-St. Charles opened in 1904 and serves as a medium-security facility, as well as a reception center for most male detainees processed by the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice, according to the department's website

Dan Campana is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News
Greg Zanis of Aurora is building crosses to represent each person killed in Chicago in 2016. (Linda Girardi / The Beacon-News)

A call from the Rev. Michael Pfleger of St. Sabina Church has persuaded Greg Zanis to rethink his plans for the crosses he's making for everyone murdered in Chicago in 2016.

"Father Pfleger thought having the families of victims carry the crosses would have a greater impact. I agree with him," Zanis, of Aurora, said.

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Zanis, 66, is building a cross for every person killed in Chicago in 2016. This is the biggest project he's undertaken since he's been building crosses for victims of tragedies.

The Aurora man has made a name for himself building crosses and taking them to sites of mass killings. Earlier this year, he built 49 crosses and took them to Orlando, Florida, to honor the victims of the mass shooting there outside a nightclub.

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With less than three weeks left to the year, Chicago's murders have topped 700.

Zanis, who is using materials donated to him, had cut enough wood for 530 crosses Friday.

Originally, the plan was to place the crosses in a vacant lot in the Englewood neighborhood in Chicago, which an anonymous donor said could be used for the display.

The plans have now changed. First, the crosses will be displayed at Restoration Church, 1460 W. Indian Trail in Aurora, for a vigil at 4 p.m. Dec. 30.

Zanis said the crosses will then be delivered in the early morning hours Dec. 31 to a spot outside Tribune Tower on Michigan Avenue, where they will remain until 11 a.m., when the crosses will be picked up by the victims' families, who will then carry them during a peace walk down Michigan Avenue.

Zanis anticipates a peaceful walk from Tribune Tower to the historic Water Tower and back to Tribune Tower, where the crosses will be distributed to the families of the victims.

He's hoping Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner will attend the march.

Zanis said he respects Pfleger as a social activist "on the battlefield" trying to raise awareness and end the violence in the city of Chicago. Pfleger spoke to him for about 15 minutes before Zanis decided to change the venue for the crosses.

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"It was very simple what he said," Zanis said. "While he was speaking to me he had a cross that I had made ... He said that it has meant so much to him."

Each cross will be numbered and have the name of the victim and date of their death. They will also have a heart attached. This time around he's decided to keep the crosses natural rather than stain them white.

Zanis said he would like to have photographs of each victim laminated and placed on the crosses, but he has not received confirmation that someone would be willing to do that part of the project.

Zanis said he's been motivated by the gestures of people willing to help with the project. He said the violence so far this year in Chicago is "horrific," and that something needs to be done.

"I don't have any solutions. I am just building crosses," he said.

Linda Girardi is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News
Cook County Board chairman John Daley calls an ordinance that would gradually raise the minimum wage to $13 in suburban Cook County "the moral and right thing to do." (Phil Velasquez / Chicago Tribune)

As a battle brews in Barrington over whether it's the village or Cook County that has the authority to set the minimum wage for a non-home-rule town, experts say the decision may come down to the Illinois Constitution and who has jurisdiction in the matter.

Cook County officials say Barrington is the first town to take action against the county board's vote to increase the minimum wage for suburban workers to $13 an hour by July 2020. Barrington Village Board members approved an ordinance Nov. 14 that allows local business to pay $8.25 an hour, the statewide minimum wage.

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"What Barrington has done is a waste of time and an insult to minimum wage workers," said Cook County Commissioner Larry Suffredin, D-Evanston, the lead sponsor of the minimum wage ordinance.

With Barrington sitting in both Cook and Lake counties, village officials have said town businesses in Cook County could be at a competitive disadvantage and face higher operational costs if they have to pay workers a higher minimum wage than their counterparts in Lake County.

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Cook County Commissioner Tim Schneider, R-Elk Grove Village, said that though other municipalities have looked at voting to use the lower state rate, Barrington is the first suburb to vote to do so.

"People chose to live in the suburbs because they don't want to pay additional fees and be subject to additional fees that are in Chicago," he said.

Schneider, who voted against the minimum wage ordinance, represents a district covering Barrington and other outlying towns in Cook County that have objected to the passage of the higher minimum wage.

Barrington is a non-home-rule unit, which in Illinois means that some of the municipality's powers are limited. Suffredin said non-home-rule towns don't have the authority to override ordinances passed by the Cook County Board.

"There is an option in case of a conflict if you're a home-rule unit," Suffredin said.

Although he doesn't expect board members to challenge Barrington's move to override the higher countywide minimum wage, Suffredin said an employee of a Barrington business in Cook County could file a complaint with the county Department of Human Rights and Ethics.

But Barrington Village Attorney James Bateman says he believes the new village ordinance won't face a legal challenge because the move is protected by a provision in the Illinois Constitution.

"It's important to note if a village ordinance conflicts with a Cook County ordinance, the village does not have to be a home-rule community for the village ordinance to prevail," he said. "It's very clear in the Illinois Constitution."

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Under the Cook County minimum wage ordinance, the first wage increase  to $10 an hour  takes effect July 1, 2017. The wage rises to $11 a year later and to $12 in July 2019. It goes to $13 an hour in 2020.

Schneider said he sought legal advice of the Cook County State's Attorney's Civil Actions Bureau earlier this fall on whether municipalities in both unincorporated and incorporated areas of Cook would have to abide by the higher minimum wage ordinance.

The answer from the bureau was that, based on the bureau's interpretation of past legal rulings, officials believed a court would find Cook County "lacks the home-rule authority" to enact a higher minimum wage countywide, according to a memo signed by Civil Actions Bureau Chief Donald Pechous.

Explaining the determination, the memo said that the county's powers are limited when the state has a greater interest in regulating a matter.

The bureau's statement also said the way for a municipality to opt out is to approve its own minimum wage ordinance.

Suffredin said there is no way to opt out of the county's minimum wage for non-home rule municipalities like Barrington.

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"But there is an option in case of a conflict between ordinances of a home rule municipality and the county," he said. "The conflict is not opting out, but it's having an ordinance with a lower minimum wage than the county."

Stewart Diamond, an attorney who specializes in local government with Chicago-based municipal law firm Ancel and Glink, said county board members do not have jurisdiction to change the minimum wage.

"This a matter that should be decided by statewide concerns and beyond concerns of local governments," he said.

tshields@pioneerlocal.com

Twitter: @tshields19
Now the top administrator for a K-12 school district in California, a former superintendent of Aptakisic-Tripp School District 102 oversees 18 buildings and an annual budget that totals around $225 million at Palo Alto Unified School District.

But those responsibilities don't compare to the difficulties he encountered during his first year as the District 102 superintendent in Buffalo Grove, said Max McGee, 66, who worked to expand District 102 after starting as superintendent in 1986  a role he worked until 1991.

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Currently, District 102 officials are deciding how to accommodate a student enrollment projected to grow in the coming years. Like McGee, first-year Superintendent Lori Wilcox and her staff is exploring whether to renovate and add to the district's buildings.

"At the time, we called it 'explosive growth,'" McGee said.

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In 1986, McGee led the push for a voter referendum to construct what is now called Tripp Elementary and fund other building additions at District 102.

McGee went on to serve as the state superintendent in Illinois and opened a private school in New Jersey before landing in Palo Alto. From his office near Stanford University, he recalled organizing bake sales and other efforts to raise money during the push to pass the referendum at District 102.

Q: Several crucial factors have changed since 1986, but one factor never will  parents want great schools for cheap. You got them to agree to pay more. Do you have advice for Wilcox and the District 102 Board today?

A: First all, good for her and I wish her the best. One thing I learned is the importance of extensive community engagement. Spend time out in the community, in people's homes. We did a lot in people's homes. Just yesterday, I had a meeting with a dozen Chinese families in someone's home. You can't do enough of that. It's one thing to have an open door, but it's another thing to walk through it.

The other idea is fostering a shared vision around the primary mission of the campaign. ... You're asking people to finance construction projects which, in most instances, will not benefit their own kids. We did that by starting with a "why" statement, "Why is this important for the community?" That resonated. And we couldn't spend any tax dollars on the campaign. So, honest to God, we had bake sales, fashion shows.

Q: The buzzwords right now are "grit" and "resilience." What is it like trying to work what used to be called "parenting" into public education?

A: That is a terrific question. We actually wrote that into our mission statement, which is kind of long, but we want to nurture resilience. We've been successful if your kids leave with the curiosity and creativity they had in kindergarten. My job is not to get your kids into Stanford, it's to get them into careers that don't exist. I say that to parents, and the air gets sucked out of the room.

Shout Out is a weekly feature in which we introduce our readers to their fellow community members and local visitors throughout suburban Chicago.

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rwachter@pioneerlocal.com

Twitter @RonnieAtPioneer
Rewards totaling $11,000 are being offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of a man wanted in the shooting of an AT&T employee last month in Berwyn, police said.

The employee was on duty when he was shot during a robbery attempt about 11 a.m. Nov. 28 in the 6300 block of Park Avenue, according to Michael Cimaglia, Berwyn's acting police chief. The worker had attempted to run away from the gunman when he was shot once in the back, Cimaglia said. He was in critical condition in a local hospital but he has improved and is stable, Cimaglia said.

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AT&T is offering $10,000 in reward money, the company said. Cimaglia said anti-violence activist Andrew Holmes is responsible for another $1,000, which Holmes said is being offered through Operation Restore Innocence and Total Protection Consultants.

Cimaglia said anyone with information should contact Berwyn police Detective Tom Tate at 708-795-2164.

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"Our thoughts remain with our employee as he continues his recovery, and we're committed to doing anything we can to assist in bringing those involved in his shooting to justice," John Donovan, chief strategy officer and group president for AT&T Technology and Operations, said in a statement.

Holmes said he hopes someone comes forward with information or surveillance video of the shooting or events leading up to it. He said he is concerned about crimes against workers who are outdoors, such as utility workers and delivery personnel, and may be too preoccupied with their work to know when someone is approaching them.
Donald Leib, 46, of Mount Greenwood, was found guilty Monday, Dec. 5, 2016, of violating the terms of registration as a sex offender, according to court records. He faces up to six years in prison, 19th Ward Alderman Matt O'Shea said. (Handout)

A registered sex offender from Mount Greenwood was found guilty Monday of violating the terms of his registration by attending the Queen of Martyrs parish festival in Evergreen Park last year, according to court records.

Donald Leib, 46, of the 10300 block of S. Albany Avenue, was found guilty of prohibited presence within a school zone by a child sex offender, a Class 4 felony, and will be held at Cook County Jail until his sentencing on Jan. 5, records showed.

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He could face multiple years in prison.

In the state of Illinois, child sex offenders are not permitted to be within 500 feet of school property without the permission of the superintendent or school board, or in the case of a private school, unless the child sex offender is the parent of a child at the school and is on campus to discuss the child's academic or social performance with school personnel.

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"Here you had a convicted sex offender on school grounds attending a carnival with hundreds of children present," 19th Ward Ald. Matt O'Shea said, who added he attended all of Leib's court dates. "That's a recipe for disaster. So, I was very relieved that in fact Judge (Kerry) Kennedy found Mr. Leib guilty and his bond was revoked."

Leib, who was forced to register as a child sex offender after being convicted of attempting to lure a 12-year-old child into his vehicle in 2007, was arrested by Evergreen Park police on Sept. 26, 2015 after a vigilant neighbor who recognized him from the Illinois Sex Offender Registry spotted him at the festival and notified uniformed police, O'Shea said.

The alderman recommended that residents visit the state's online sex offender registry, where photos, addresses and other information about sex offenders living in the area can be found.

"We have more than a dozen (in the 19th Ward), and I strongly urge residents to go on the Illinois Sex Offender Registry and know who they are and know where they're at, and be vigilant," he said.

zkoeske@tribpub.com

Twitter @ZakKoeske
Janet Gustafson's attention to detail is evident in her 5-foot-by-10-foot gingerbread village. Monday, December 5th 2016, in Flossmoor. | Gary Middendorf-Chicago Tribune Media Group (Gary Middendorf / Daily Southtown)

In the gingerbread hamlet that Janet Gustafson has created inside her Flossmoor home, blocks of candy are stamped into gumdrops, trains chug through tunnels and hundreds of elves help Santa prepare for Christmas.

Gustafson is not a builder or an engineer by trade, but science lovers believe her 10-building gingerbread village, featuring twinkling lights, moving parts and holiday music, all run by remote control, may very well inspire kids to pursue that line of work, or at least realize that science is at the heart of many magical endeavors.

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"I make it all by hand," said Gustafson, who has been crafting a holiday cookie village for more than 40 years.

It took four months to build this year's display. Past creations have taken six. It all depends on the number of moving parts, she said.

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She uses one building stencil, halving or quartering it to get different wall heights and widths.

"There is no plan," she said. "I just start at one end, then do the other and then fill it in."

Along the way, she devises different mechanical creations: clacking typewriters, moving sewing machines, revolving merry-go-rounds, and doors and windows that open and close.

Inside each building is a colorful assortment of workers, toys, factory conveyor belts and holiday decor. She made many of the elves by hand, using Sculpey clay and wire.

"You have to look at something and say, 'Hmm, how can I make that?' And then figure out how to do it," Gustafson said.

It's that spirit of invention, that willingness to experiment and that creative enthusiasm that caught the eye of members of the Homewood Science Center board.

Gustafson, who each year opens her home to various local groups, including the Red Hats and various Scout troops, will offer science-inspired tours of her gingerbread village from 4 to 6 p.m. Sunday to benefit the science center.

"Janet has done so many things with these houses that are perfect examples of science in action," said Michelle Svetlic Nelson, a member of the Homewood Science Center board. "Everything is very illustrative. We're basically taking everything that she's been doing over the past 40 years and pulling out the stops and showing the kids how they can relate to it through science."

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"Is it real?" is among the first things kids tend to ask, Gustafson said.

"Yes, it's real gingerbread," she said.

Baking the frame for the buildings is a two-day process, she said, because the dough has to sit before you roll it out. The "snow" that covers the rooftops and helps hold together the walls comes courtesy of 40 pounds of royal icing.

"It's heavy," she said.

Gustafson's grandson, Lincoln-Way East High School student Jeff Gustafson, helped her carry the houses from various construction points around her home into the sunroom, where all of it is displayed before a wall of windows that overlook a wintry wooded backyard.

Svetlic Nelson mentioned the science-related topics that kids will be asked to consider while walking around the village include: how levers work, what magnetism is, which elements comprise steel and how much force a marshmallow can handle.

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"There will be different takeaway points," Svetlic Nelson said. "For instance, we'll talk about the five different kinds of rail cars. The kids will get a sheet to take home with some information on it. They can then go to the Homewood viewing platform and see if they can find the different kinds of cars.

"We're trying to give them practical applications. Anybody can be an engineer. If you want to create and make something, that's engineering. Anybody can do it."

She said it's becoming more apparent these days that engineering needs creative and artistic people to help make ideas more applicable or user-friendly.

"It's not just the math and science kids who make good engineers. It takes a whole team of people. That's why they took STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) and added the arts to make it STEAM," she said.

Gustafson said she was in her 20s when she spied a gingerbread village in a magazine.

"I thought, 'I'll try that.' Then I built one every year," she said. "When we moved here (to Flossmoor), I realized I had this room, and it was perfect. My husband built a table for it."

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Her late husband, Kurt Gustafson, was a structural engineer. After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, he drove to New York to help workers repair a building he had helped construct there.

Though she reuses many of the mechanicals she's created over the years, Janet Gustafson said she adds new elements each year. This year, one of Santa's workshop elves is holding a wish list for the science center. It contains items such as microscopes, books, Legos and donations. In addition, open-house visitors will be asked to make a donation to the center, which, although it sponsors pop-up events around town, is still in the planning stages.

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Gustafson, who is a self-taught baker, studied political science after starting college when her children were teenagers. She taught English as a second language when she and her family lived in Florida. She's also written several books.

She said she does not consider herself an "engineer-type" person.

"I just get ideas and then figure out how to make them work," she said.

That, Svetlic Nelson said, is exactly what an engineer is.

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To schedule a tour, contact Gustafson: 1424 Braeburn Ave., Flossmoor; 708-799-6903.

dvickroy@tribpub.com

Twitter @dvickroy
A captain with the Lockport Fire Protection District Thursday pleaded guilty to hunting on private property without permission.

A Will County judge ordered John Batusich, 54, of Crest Hill, to pay a $250 fine for the conservation violation. He also will be on court supervision for three months. A charge of unlawful taking of waterfowl was dropped.

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Plainfield resident Paul Pesavento, 67, also faced the same charges and pleaded guilty to hunting on private property without permission and paid a $250 fine. He also was given three months court supervision.

According to court records, the two men were hunting on property located at 151st and Bell Road in Lockport Township the morning of Oct. 26. An officer with the Illinois Conservation Police Thursday described the property as undeveloped land with a wooded area and a pond.

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After the hearing Thursday, Batusich said he believed he had an agreement with the property owner to hunt on the land, but declined further comment on the issue.

Alicia Fabbre is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
Kim Hanba, left, MRI technologist, explains to Allison and Dave Aidinovich an MRI machine that will be used at the University of Chicago Medicine Center for Advanced Care that opens Tuesday in Orland Park. (Mike Nolan / Daily Southtown)

Before the University of Chicago Medicine Center for Advanced Care opens for business Tuesday in Orland Park, area residents can get an early look inside Friday.

The U of C will hold an open house at the center, at the northwest corner of LaGrange Road and 143rd Street, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., where visitors can take a tour, chat with staff or schedule an appointment.

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The four-story, 108,000-square-foot facility could mean shorter trips for care for many of the 120,000 U of C patients in the southwest suburbs who now travel to the main hospital in Chicago's Hyde Park community for tests and treatment, according to U of C Medicine officials.

Services offered will include cancer treatment, orthopedics, cardiology, women's health and diabetes care, and more than 100 employees will staff the center, including 20 doctors, according to the U of C.

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The $61 million center includes 80 examination rooms, 26 infusion bays, CT scanner, MRI, X-ray machine, ultrasound and pharmacy, and later this year CVS will open a separate drugstore on the main level of the building. For now, the center's fourth floor is being reserved as shell space, to be configured down the road to accommodate future growth.

The University of Chicago Medicine Center for Advanced Care will open Tuesday in Orland Park. (Susan DeMar Lafferty / Daily Southtown)

Until U of C opens a similar center in Chicago's South Loop next year, the Orland Park outpatient clinic will be the hospital's largest off-site facility, according to Theresa Quinn, interim vice president of ambulatory services for U of C Medicine.

A longtime Orland Park resident, Quinn said the new clinic will benefit area residents who now go to the main hospital for radiation treatment, testing and other procedures. Doctors working in more than 20 specialties will split their time between Hyde Park and Orland Park, she said.

The U of C noted that along with the new Orland Park facility, it has quickly expanded its footprint of services in the south and southwest suburbs with its recent merger with Ingalls Health Systems, which operates a dozen outpatient locations in the Southland.

Prior to a ribbon-cutting ceremony held Wednesday, Orland Park Mayor Dan McLaughlin called the outpatient center a "great addition" to the village, as well as the "cornerstone to our downtown development."

Jimmy Edens, radiation therapist, explains a linear accelerator that will be used in treating cancer patients at the University of Chicago Medicine Center for Advanced Care that opens Tuesday in Orland Park. (Mike Nolan / Daily Southtown)

The building is part of the village's Main Street Triangle development, which also includes the 295-unit Ninety 7 Fifty on the Park apartment building, which opened in spring 2013, and a 530-space parking garage built by the village directly west of the U of C clinic.

Three or four years ago, the university began scouting sites in the southwest suburbs for a new outpatient center, and Orland Park "came to the top of the list," Kenneth Polonsky, dean of the biological sciences division at the university, which oversees U of C Medicine, said during the ribbon-cutting event.

"This (Orland Park site) one was the obvious one to choose," he said.

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The Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board approved U of C Medicine's plans for the clinic in August 2014, and the hospital took possession of the property in September 2015, although construction didn't start until January of this year.

"It was very much a fast-track project," Marco Capicchioni, vice president of facilities planning, design and construction for U of C Medicine, said, noting that crews worked seven days a week to ensure the clinic's opening before year's end.

Marcus Paschall, administrative fellow with the University of Chicago, demonstrates a check-in kiosk that will be used at the U of C Medicine Center for Advanced Care that opens Tuesday in Orland Park. (Mike Nolan / Daily Southtown)

Daily Southtown Twice-weekly News updates from the south suburbs delivered every Monday and Wednesday >

He credited the project's general contractor, Leopardo Construction, and village officials for coordinating construction, considering that while work on the building was under way, the village's contractors were working next door on the parking garage, as well as extending Jefferson Avenue north of 143rd to connect with 142nd Street, just southeast of the 143rd Street Metra station.

"It all worked out," Capicchioni said.

The CVS store on the building's first floor is expected to open in early April, he said.

Under the terms of a lease agreement with Orland Park, U of C Medicine is paying the village $18.1 million over the 25-year term of the lease and taking ownership of the land after that.

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The U of C also paid $10.6 million toward construction costs of the adjacent parking garage, and Orland Park also built a surface parking lot north of the outpatient center. The parking garage will be free to the public, but the top floors will be reserved for the outpatient center's employees during business hours. Orland Park also constructed a 12,000-square-foot shell for a proposed restaurant at the parking garage's base.

While the parking garage extends over Jefferson, the parking deck doesn't connect to the U of C clinic.

mnolan@tribpub.com
Therapy dogs will be among the dogs now allowed in the Will County courts. Chief Judge Richard Schoenstedt signed a petition from States Attorney James Glasgow outlining the rules for the dogs. Primarily, they will accompany child victims who have to testify in court. The dogs will remain hidden from view of a jury. (Erin Gallagher / Daily Southtown)

Therapy dogs are now allowed in Will County courtrooms under an order signed last week by Chief Judge Richard Schoenstedt.

The order happened after Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow asked that dogs be allowed in Will County courts.

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The law allows dogs to assist children or developmentally disabled people who are testifying in court, according to the state's attorney's petition to the court.

But there are some guidelines under the order.

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For example, "the dog cannot be seen by the jury because we wouldn't want a verdict because the jury liked the dog," Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow said.

The rules protect the defendant's rights, as well as the witnesses, he said.

"But dogs calm and support victims and witnesses," according to the petition. "Research shows that being in an animal's presence lowers a person's blood pressure and heart rate."

Glasgow has been a proponent of the use of dogs at the county's Children's Advocacy Center, where child victims are interviewed about their traumatic experiences, usually just once. All key interviewers are typically present to prevent having a child tell the story over and over.

The dogs used at the center, Kiwi, Jackson, Malley, and Angus, were all present in the court Dec.1 when Schoenstedt signed the order. They came with their handlers, Cheri Johnson, Christine Vukmir, Jeff Brown and Terry McCormick. Will County state's attorney's office investigator Megan Brooks and Cache, a specially trained black Labrador retriever, were also in the courtroom.

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"It takes a real love for dogs and a real passion for what we do," Glasgow said when he introduced the handlers.

Schoenstedt's ruling allows judges the discretion of allowing dogs in courtrooms.

"It is seldom that I can take the bench and know that something very positive will (happen)," Schoenstedt said. "This is an important event, I believe, for Will County government."

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Schoenstedt credited Glasgow for being "incredibly proactive" in dealing with concerns for the judicial branch of government.

The courtroom was filled with law enforcement officials from different jurisdictions. Joliet Police Chief Brian Benton said that "this is going to be a great tool for law enforcement."

Benton said the dogs are a "new era" in law enforcement.

Erin Gallagher is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
Under the rotunda of the Illinois State Capitol building on Wednesday, May 14, 2014 in Springfield. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)

At first glance, workers' compensation reform might seem like small potatoes.

That's because its effects can be tough for people to see: The payroll of a small trucking business in East Peoria, a routine railroad repair job in Rochelle, salaries at a Springfield steel shop.

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This type of blue-collar work is where employers can experience serious pain on their workers' compensation bills. Those costs, the highest in the Midwest, kill jobs growth and higher salaries. That's why some state politicians dismiss workers' compensation as purely an economic issue. They say it should be off the table in budget discussions.

But they're wrong. There are other unseen costs.

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What many Illinoisans may not know is that this broken system greatly affects the ability of Illinois governments to care for the people most in need of public services. It is indeed a budget issue. And it lays bare the perverse priorities of our state.

Kim Zoeller is the CEO of the Ray Graham Association, a social service provider based in DuPage County that cares for 2,000 adults and children with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Nearly all of the group's funding comes from state government.

The mission of the Ray Graham Association is not only to care for those people, but also to help them achieve more than they ever thought possible: A dream job, pursuing a passion, or simply the joy of living independently. That takes years of patience and hard work from nearly 400 employees.

But in 2010, something terrible happened.

While caring for one of the association's clients, an employee stumbled and suffered a sprained ankle. After many visits to different doctors, a later diagnosis of a generalized pain disorder, and years of litigation, the association found itself on the hook for a $650,000 settlement.

All for a sprained ankle.

"It was like someone pushed us off a cliff," Zoeller said.

That case radically increased the organization's workers' compensation premiums. What once was a cost that hovered around $460,000 annually now comes in at more than $1 million.

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"You think about where that half-a-million-dollar difference could go," Zoeller said.

She estimates it would be enough to cover the cost of residential support services for nine adults for an entire year, or it could be used to raise the base salary of her care providers.

"The provider community is very supportive of workers' comp reforms for those reasons," Zoeller said. "What's frustrating is that it's the same system that's funding us that isn't passing these reforms."

The sprained ankle is only one example of government funds flowing not to essential services, but to pay for a system that is clearly flawed. Zoeller said the association recently had to pay out $1,500 for a paper cut.

That's not where taxpayers expect their money to go, especially when funding care for Illinoisans with lifelong disabilities.

A study released Nov. 29 by the Illinois Policy Institute shows the cost of workers' compensation for municipalities, counties and state government in Illinois is more than $400 million per year.

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If that's not a budget issue, what is?

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That estimate doesn't even consider the other units of local government in Illinois, which together represent more than half of all government payroll costs in the state. Also left out are billions of dollars in public construction projects, all of which come with the inflated cost of workers' compensation insurance here.

Instead of trying to solve this problem, legislative leaders have chosen to peddle wild conspiracy theories.

Steve Brown, spokesman for Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan, has blamed high costs on insurance companies not passing along savings to customers. There is no evidence supporting this claim, and it would require collusion among more than 330 rival insurance companies in Illinois, in violation of federal anti-trust law.

And the trial lawyers who bankroll Madigan's machine would have been all over any kind of insurance price-fixing scandal. After all, people and businesses harmed by federal anti-trust violations can seek triple damages.

Those trial lawyers like the system the way it is.

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That's why Illinoisans continue to see public dollars wasted on paper cuts, sprains and bruises. And it's why reform is needed now more than ever.

Austin Berg is a writer for the Illinois Policy Institute. He wrote this column for the Illinois News Network, a project of the Institute.
Illinois Gov. George Ryan, left, visits with Cuban President Fidel Castro on Jan. 24, 2002, at the presidential palace in Havana, Cuba. (Matt Ferguson / Associated Press)

On the afternoon that Fidel Castro's ashes were buried in Cuba, I picked up the phone and called the Illinoisan who may have known him the best  former Gov. George Ryan.

Sixteen years ago, Ryan along with his wife, Lura Lynn, led a humanitarian trip to the island nation just 90 miles off Florida's shore. I was one of the reporters who covered the trip.

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"Fidel Castro was a brutal dictator. He killed a lot of his own people. I knew that before I went to Cuba. And I think that will be his legacy in that country.  I had dinner with him twice while I was down there and I found him to be extremely friendly to me. The only problem was he wouldn't be quiet. He just kept talking and talking and talking. At one point, he started lecturing me on how many calories the Cubans consumed each day and how great things were."

Things were far from great.

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During the governor's trip, I broke away from the official delegation and hiked through ordinary neighborhoods and talked to Cubans of all walks of life.

I'll never forget meeting an orthopedic surgeon who had graduated from Oxford University in the 1950s, before Casto's rise to power. Castro froze the compensation for doctors at $60 per month, a rate it remained for more than 40 years.

Castro said laborers should earn more because doctors are compensated by the prestige of their profession.

To support his family, this doctor quit medicine and became a longshoreman. Later, after years of sucking up to the Communist Party, he was allowed to become a taxicab driver, a coveted position in Cuba because of tips from visiting foreigners.

A lasting impression of my visit to Cuba was this Oxford-trained physician reaching into his pocket and proudly pulling out his taxicab medallion. He then asked if I brought any Advil or Tylenol with me because he suffered from arthritis and the shelves of Cuban pharmacies were bare of even the most basic medicines.

I handed him a couple bottles of pills from my suitcase and watched him hobble away.

Several years later, I watched Michael Moore's movie "Sicko" in which he praised the Cuban health-care system and condemned our nation's.

Was he visiting a different Cuba than the one I was in?

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Any Cuban over age 6 had to have a doctor's prescription to drink milk. And basic medicines were in short supply.

Ryan, a pharmacist by training, has similar recollections.

"I visited a hospital and what was supposed to be a medical school. The classroom had microscopes set up that looked like they were from the 1930s. And the windows in the classroom had fallen out. When I walked through the hospital, I saw people smoking, just throwing their butts down on the floor."

Castro's boasts of his nation's health care system were as hollow as his claims of political freedom.

In fact, most Cubans approached their government with a caution that bordered on fear

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Rather than utter Castro's name and risk being overheard, many Cubans I interviewed would simply stroke their chins as if forming an imaginary beard. They would whisper that the government (Castro) had little tolerance for dissent.

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In fact, Castro killed tens of thousands.

But that hasn't stopped some of our own nation's most liberal activists from praising him.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, upon learning of Castro's death, called him a "freedom fighter" and a "poor people's hero."

The dozens of ordinary Cubans I interviewed during my two trips to Cuba spoke of political oppression, not freedom. And most spoke of near universal poverty for those without connections to the ruling Communist Party.

I guess the only thing folks like Jesse Jackson, Michael Moore and other leftists who praise Castro have in common is that they didn't have to live under his regime.

Scott Reeder is a veteran statehouse journalist. He works as a freelance reporter in the Springfield area.
Elgin City Councilman John Prigge cast the lone "no" vote for renewing Elgin's purchase of services agreement with the Elgin Area Chamber of Commerce to do economic development work. (Mike Danahey / The Courier-News)

The City Council Wednesday night, by an 8-1 vote, decided to enter into another three-year purchase of services agreement with the Elgin Area Chamber of Commerce for a host of economic development work.

The contract is set to pay out $275,000 each year for the next three years to the Chamber, specifically to its arm, the Elgin Development Group, which is charged with the city's checklist of tasks that includes small business assistance, recruitment of new business, business retention, outreach and foreign trade initiatives. Final approval of the deal is set for the Dec. 21 City Council meeting.

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"They have more than come through, with flying colors," council member Terry Gavin said of the job the Development Group has been doing for the city.

Gavin said that supporting material for the Wednesday meeting indicated that prior to outsourcing the work to the Chamber, the city had budgeted more than $500,000 annually for economic development services provided by in-house staff and private sector consultants.

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"By eliminating in-house staff and creating the Elgin Development Group in 2010, the city has been able to reduce its economic development services budget by approximately $125,000 without any diminution in services," the material states. "The proposed purchase of services agreement enables the city to leverage services of an EAC staff consisting of a full-time president, one full-time and one part-time economic development specialist, a webmaster for the EDG's website, plus administrative support staff."

The only dissenting vote came from council member John Prigge, who requested Chamber staff give a presentation it had prepared in case someone on the City Council would like to hear and see it.

Among the points made in a video were that Elgin now has the largest labor force it has ever had and that city businesses added 2,200 net jobs in 2016. The city's industrial space vacancy rate is 8.8 percent, and retail vacancies are at 4.6 percent, numbers that are lower than many other local municipalities.

The video also offered testimonials to the support received from the Elgin Development Group by several heads of businesses now located in Elgin, including Plastic PowerDrive Products, which brought eight jobs to Elgin, Motorola which opened a facility in the city, Blain's Farm & Fleet, which opened a store in the city, and Mama Lee's Popcorn, a new downtown retailer.

Prigge mentioned that in addition to the soon-to-end three-year $825,000 contract for services, Elgin provides the city-owned building at 310 S. Grove Ave. for the Chamber to use rent-free, rent he said former City Manager Sean Stegall told him would amount to $135,000 annually.

Elgin staff has said the Chamber uses about 11,300 square feet of the building in which it has its office, which would put that rate at close to $12 per square foot for a year. The LoopNet website of available commercial and retail sites shows spots in downtown Elgin are leasing from about $6 per square foot to $15 per square foot annually.

Prigge said he would like to see the city "shop down a different aisle" and bring the work back in-house by hiring at least two economic development directors. The work is too important to contract out, he said. Other towns are coming after Elgin by competing for businesses, "and I don't like it," he said.

Council member Tish Powell said that at one point during her time on the council she was interested in bringing economic development back in-house, too. But over the years, from participating in EDG-related activities, she realized the value of the partnership the group has formed and the services it provides Elgin.

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"Actually, I'm really impressed," Powell said of the group's work. "I would encourage those with concerns to get more involved to see how we manage economic development efforts."

Powell also noted that, along with salaries, having in-house employees would mean more legacy and benefits costs for the city, as did council member Rich Dunne.

According to the website www.salaryexpert.com, the average salary for an economic development director in the United States is $112,638 annually.

Dunne said he sings the praises of the EDG effort in part because of extra lengths the group has gone to, including adding retail back to vacant spaces and putting together a report it has available online about the retail picture in Elgin.

Gavin serves on the EDG's Workforce Development Committee and said the EDG has had a role in countless successes.

"To deny that is to turn a blind eye to facts," Gavin said.

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Gavin said Elgin is one of just a few towns in Illinois that is growing in the state's lingering economy in part because of the EDG's work.

"How do you argue with success? How can you say you can do better when the rest of the state is barely treading water. So let's spend a half-million dollars (like Elgin did before) and throw out a formula that's been working for at least seven years. Forget it. I'm going to support this, if you haven't figured that out already," Gavin said.

Council member Toby Shaw said that the agreement is a purchase for services, so if a council or community member has issues with it, he or she could suggest metrics that could be added for further accountability.

"We take accountability very seriously," Chamber president and CEO Carol Gieske told the Council.

"When I took this job two years and two months ago, I said I took the PSA very seriously, and I did," EDG Economic Development Director Tony Lucenko said. "We delivered on all its items and more."

Lucenko said he has been working with City Manager Rick Kozal to put more items on the services list, adding more value to it for the city.

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"We deliver. I hope you recognize that," Lucenko said.

Mayor Dave Kaptain said economic development is a team effort throughout the community, with the EDG playing a key role while saving the city money.

"This town is going to grow, and we have to be in a position to take advantage of that," Kaptain said. "I think this model works, and I am going to support it."

mdanahey@tribpub.com
The Kane County board is set to discuss a policy for lump sum distributions, which has been at the source of clashes between Chairman Chris Lauzen and State's Attorney Joseph McMahon.

County board members will vote on a resolution at the board's Dec. 13 meeting. The resolution defines what a lump sum distribution is, how it is distributed and how it is recorded on financial reports, county documents show.

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The issue of lump sum distributions came up earlier this year during a budget process that saw the county struggling to overcome a $5.6 million budget gap. Ultimately, the county found additional revenue sources to fund county operations and passed a balance budget last month.

Lauzen reiterated his objection to practice of lump sum distributions last week after being put on notice by McMahon's office of his failure to present three months of county board meeting minutes for the board's approval. Under the Open Meetings Act, the county board must approve the minutes within 30 days of a meeting, McMahon wrote in a letter addressed to county board members urging them to approve the minutes to avoid a violation of the law.

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McMahon's letter was a "distraction" to take away attention from a new round of lump sum distributions handed out last week, Lauzen said. He said McMahon's office authorized $200,000 in distributions, adding the office has given about $1.6 million in bonuses over the last five years.

Under state law, elected officials can spend their budget money as they see fit. Lump sum distributions are funded by any excess left in the State's Attorney's budget, specifically under wages and salaries, McMahon said. The reason his office, like other judicial departments, gives out year-end bonuses is because staff members in his office are historically underpaid, McMahon said.

A goal when he became State's Attorney was to close the pay gap between what Kane County prosecutors earn and what prosecutors in surrounding counties earn, McMahon wrote to board members in a memo released last week. The gap has been closed, in part, but a disparity remains, he said.

An entry level prosecutor makes $63,500 in Cook County and $56,000 in Lake County but Kane County's salary is $53,000, county documents show. A felony prosecutor in Cook County makes between $85,000 and $124,000 while the salary in Kane County is $58,500 and $84,000, according to county documents.

McMahon's office has 46 assistant state's attorneys assigned to the Criminal Division who are responsible for reviewing and analyzing information, meeting with witnesses, coordinating all evidence and resolving cases, his letter stated.

Kane County's 2015 population was 531,000, he said. Some studies suggest the State's Attorney's office should have one prosecutor for every 10,000, meaning his office has a shortage of prosecutors, he said. The shortage results in delayed cases and longer jail times, costing the county more money, he said.

Even with the shortage, his office has held the lien on excessive jail costs associated with overcrowding and have handled the caseloads effectively, he said in the statement. The office has also developed drug courts and diversion programs and other specialty courts, he said.

"I am deeply grateful for your support and I hope you will help continue the progress. My preference is to eliminate year-end lump-sum payments in the future, but to accomplish the goal of competitive and responsible wages for prosecutors, we need to address salaries at all levels," he said.

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The lump sums do not require an additional budget appropriation from the Kane County Board, nor do they require the approval of the county board. The Internal Control portion of Illinois Counties Code gives independently elected county officials the authority to choose how money budgeted to their offices is spent.

"Because this long-standing practice benefits the taxpayers in the long run, it is important for us to be certain that the public understands how it works and why we're doing it," McMahon said.

The resolution for a policy for lump sum distribution established "a reasonable policy regarding the definition, processing and reporting" of such distributions, it states. A lump sum distribution is defined as "compensation to employees that are in addition to their base wage or salary and in addition to that which is required by collective bargaining agreements," it states. The policy does not indicate the practice must stop.

Lauzen said he does not agree with the bonuses and feels the "comparison between prosecutors' salaries in Cook and Kane are not analogous because Cook County has a higher population and a larger tax base.

"What is at the heart of this are the bonuses," Lauzen said. "Once I made an issue out of the raises, how has my life changed at the county, but I accept that."

Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.
An Evanston group is opening an emergency overnight shelter Friday night to give homeless people a respite from plunging temperatures.

An overnight shelter located at First Presbyterian Church, 1427 Chicago Ave. in Evanston, will opens its doors for at least 35 people at 9 p.m. Friday with no entry after 10 p.m., said Susan Murphy, executive director with Evanston's Interfaith Action group.

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"It's the people we see on the street corners that really don't have a place to sleep," Murphy said. "They sleep outside or they ride the train. But when it gets too cold, it's dangerous for them."

The public is also welcome to escape the bitter cold at city of Evanston community centers and the Evanston Public Library locations during their regular hours of operation, said Patrick Deignan, community engagement coordinator with the city.

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"They're not going to be opened for extended hours for this particular event," Deignan said. "If temperatures really plunge, the health department will basically open up emergency shelters here."

Murphy also said that Interfaith Action of Evanston has raised the temperature used to determine if warming centers in the city should open their doors to the homeless. She said the change was made possible because four churches and a synagogue now open their doors for the homeless during extreme cold snaps.

"We've been opening for 10 years when the temperature is zero or five degrees," she said. "This year, we raised it to 15 degrees.

"We feel like what we should be doing is to be open all the time," she added. "Having more space we raised the temperature to 15 degrees. The hope is that next year it can go to 20 degrees and pretty soon we can be open all winter."

She also said the group has recruited a growing list of volunteers, but more are needed.

"We can still use more volunteers to help set up the cots and to come in the morning at 6 a.m. and help people to wake up and encourage them to leave," she said.

The Evanston Health & Human Services Department on Friday also posted online tips for staying warm in cold weather that includes wearing several layers of loose-fitting, lightweight, warm clothing rather than one layer of heavy clothing. Wool, the site says protects well against cold and moisture. In addition, anyone outside for an extended period of time should wear a hat, gloves and scarf and cover all exposed skin as frostbite can happen in less than a minute in very cold weather. The site also advises people not to overexert themselves and to take frequent breaks where it is warm and to stay hydrated with non-caffeinated and non-alcohol drinks.

"We probably won't be open on the weekend but it looks like next week is going to be a really cold week so may be open every day," Murphy said.

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Brian L. Cox is a freelancer.
Jennifer Hamilton, from left, Jackie Shelton-Espinosa and Xochitl Sandoval are part of the team at Leyden Family Services and Mental Health Center in Franklin Park, looking to increase services in Spanish to meet a growing need. (Pioneer Press / Pioneer Press)

The Leyden Family Service and Mental Health Center in Franklin Park is looking to increase the services it provides in Spanish, hoping to meet a growing need.

"We've become aware that we are not meeting the needs of our community because we have a lot of people in our community who are only speaking Spanish, and we are not reaching enough of them," Jennifer Hamilton, manager of Aftercare Services at the center, said in an interview at the center Wednesday afternoon. "We are trying to find ways to do that."

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The center is starting admittedly small, with an Alcoholic Anonymous group now available in Spanish at the center, located at 10200 West Grand Ave. The group meets at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesdays, Hamilton said.

In addition, the center has started an emotional support and coping group conducted in Spanish, bringing in Xochitl Sandoval, the center's Aftercare clinician and its coordinator of bilingual services, to run it.

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Conducting needs assessments, center officials have long identified a growing need for services geared to the Spanish-speaking population, said Jackie Shelton-Espinosa, the center's Aftercare Services coordinator.

"So we know it's a need in the community and have tried figuring out how to make that happen, and we're finally at the point where were developing it and figuring how to implement the programs to make it come to life," she said. "We're really excited about it and want to offer as many to the services as we can."

A new flier from Leyden Family Services reaches out to the area's Spanish-speaking population. (Pioneer Press )

Sandoval said the center's thrust is not only providing more services in Spanish, but also ensuring that they are accessible and culturally sensitive to the Spanish-speaking population. The center will be adding information in Spanish to its website, www.leydenfamilyservice.org, and translating fliers, too, like one that is currently out.

Sandoval said, "I think the gist of offering these kind of [mental health] services regardless of language is essentially the same. But there are cultural factors we need to consider in terms of how some people conceive of mental illness and what words they use to describe symptoms that may not be the ones that are direct translations from English to Spanish."

For instance, a phrase in Spanish, ataque de nervios, might translate back into English as an anxiety or panic attack, she said. However, when certain Spanish-speaking populations, especially in Mexico, use the term, it can really refer to a very wide array of symptoms, she said.

"So it's not just anxiety or increased heart rate or sweaty or dizziness. It can also mean depression and anger and irritability," she said. "And so when somebody comes from that culture, from that background, seeing that, it might be difficult for someone to understand how many different meanings that that one phrase can have."

In line with the new emphasis, the center is also in the process of hiring additional staff, who are bilingual, to assist Sandoval, Hamilton said. Ultimately, the goal is "to grow the program and have enough staff to manage it," she said.
In a 4-2 vote, the Board of Trustees on Tuesday voted to move forward with the village's planned purchase of the former Bess Hardware site for $2.25 million from the owner.

The village decided to buy the site because the owner has tried to sell the property, deemed a key piece in the village's efforts to revitalize downtown, since its vacancy in 2010, but a deal "hasn't come together to date," said Jeff Brady, the director of planning. The village plans to sell the property to a developer, he said.

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Developing the property is a priority in the village's Downtown Revitalization Plan, which envisions "a vibrant, pedestrian-friendly downtown," according to Brady and the village's website.

Village officials plan to close on the 0.66-acre property, located at 1850 Glenview Road, by the end of December, but the final closing date is Jan. 31, 2017, Brady said. Before closing, the village will do its "due diligence" and conduct a two-phase environmental study of the property, he said.

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Village officials would like to see a four-story, mixed-use or residential building built on the site, which is recommended in the village's Downtown Revitalization Plan, Brady said.

"This site (Bess Hardware) is a very significant part of the Downtown Revitalization Plan. It was identified as a very visually important corner, and has been noted as such by the public for many years," Brady said at the meeting.

The village will buy the property with funds from the permanent fund, Brady said. There is $13 million in the fund, which was established "for the purpose of promoting one-time investments within the community outside of The Glen," according to a staff report.

When the village sells the property to a developer, the money from the sale will be put back into the permanent fund, Brady said.

Trustee Scott Britton voted against the sale, saying he is "concerned" that the village is paying more than the property is worth and he believes officials should develop affordable housing there.

"I would prefer, if we are going to pay as much as we are going to pay for this piece of property, that we provide some type of subsidized housing that would enable people perhaps not at the top end of the economic scale to live in the Village of Glenview," he said.

Trustee John Hinkamp also voted against the sale because he "doesn't think the village should be stepping in" to a sale of this "magnitude."

Trustee Michael Jenny said that he supports the sale because it is a direct use of the permanent fund.

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"If there is a gap between what we are purchasing it for and what we ultimately sell it for, that's, in my mind, an investment of the permanent fund to affect such a project," he said.

akukulka@chicagotribune.com
The Board of Trustees approved Dec. 6 an agreement with North American Corporation, shown above, for an extension of a tax incentive and a similar incentive for the future expansion of the facility. (Jeff Brady)

In a 5-1 vote, the Glenview Board of Trustees approved Tuesday an agreement with North American Corporation that grants the company an extension of a tax incentive, as well as a similar incentive that would be applied to a future building expansion, to keep the business in Glenview.

North American Corporation, a facility, packaging and marketing supplies company, located at 2101 Claire Court, established its headquarters in Glenview in 1999, according to a staff report.

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The corporation had asked the village to extend its "6b" classification, a Cook County economic development incentive "to encourage industrial development in the county," for another 12 years, according to the report.

Renewing the '6b' incentive would give the corporation "the opportunity to expand its operations in Glenview," according to the letter. But without the renewal, "the property will see a sharp increase in the real estate taxes" which will "force North American to reconsider its expansion options," it said.

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Village Manager Todd Hileman said the agreement "has become necessary" because officials in Wisconsin, where North American Corporation has another facility, "have gotten very aggressive" about having North American build an extension to the facility in the state. By entering into the agreement, the village could "retain" the corporation in Glenview, he said.

North American Corporation representatives did not respond to requests for comment. However, Jeff Brady, the village's director of planning, said Friday that North American has signed the agreement, which obligates it to build a 100,000-square-foot expansion in Glenview or pay back the 6b incentive if the addition is not constructed.

Without the 6b classification, the corporation would have to pay a 25 percent industrial assessment rate, which is a partial value of a property, according to the staff report. But under the classification, the corporation pays 10 percent assessment rate for the first 10 years of the Cook County incentive, 15 percent in the 11th year, and 20 percent the following year, it said.

In addition to allowing North American Corporation to build the expansion to its 250,000-square-foot Glenview facility, the agreement states that the village will agree to a '6b' incentive for that building once it is constructed, Brady said.

A May letter to Brady from North American Corporation representatives said the corporation "is continuing to grow," and currently has 324 employees, up from 250 when the Glenview headquarters opened.

The letter stated that the corporation preferred expanding its Glenview headquarters with the additional 100,000-square-foot facility, as opposed to a 75,000-square-foot expansion in Kenosha, Wis.

North American Corporation pays more in real estate taxes in Illinois  in 2015 it paid approximately $316,000  compared to Wisconsin, where it paid approximately $99,000 in 2015, according to the letter. But the corporation generates more in sales tax revenue in Illinois than in Wisconsin, it said.

In 2015, the corporation generated $4.48 million in Illinois sales tax revenue, and the expansion will generate an additional $30 million to $40 million "in sales in maturity," according to the letter. In the same year, North American Corporation generated approximately $304,000 in sales tax revenue in Wisconsin, it said.

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Trustee Scott Britton voted against the agreement, saying he wants North American Corporation to stay in the village, but agreements like this "force a decision by this board to try and keep a business in Glenview."

"These kind of arrangements have a tendency to simply provide additional profit to corporations, which I don't think is a benefit to the taxpayers," Britton said.

Trustee Paul Detlefs said that he's "not in love with these sorts of deals either," but he supports the agreement because it is a "unique situation" where an industrial business provides sales tax revenue.

"It's really quite unusual. Most industrial facilities are supplying other industrial facilities, and there is no sales tax involved," Detlefs said. "North American supplies many end-use products to businesses that do generate sales tax."

akukulka@chicagotribune.com
Santa Claus will be waiting to greet your kids, take their gift requests and pose for photos, noon-3 p.m. Dec. 10 at the Long Grove Visitors' Center, 308 Old McHenry Road in Historic Downtown Long Grove.

While you're there, take your children on a walk to see the Christmas Tree Parade presented by the Historic Downton Long Grove Business Association. Through Dec. 18, see 80 pine trees, each decorated by local businesses to reflect their store's focus, on display outside the shops. You'll find shamrocks on the tree in front of Paddy's on the Square, and red and blue horses decorating the Viking Treasures' tree.

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The entire Historic Downtown area will be decorated, with the Victorian buildings trimmed in lights and walkways lined with luminaries. It will be like taking a stroll back in time.

From 1-6 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, through Dec. 18, your family can take a free 30-minute carriage ride. Strolling costumed carolers and musicians will entertain on weekends.

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For details, go to www.longgrove.org.

Rodent uprising

An army of toy soldiers, led by the Nutcracker, will battle the Mouse King and his army in "Nutcracker, A Youth Musical," 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Dec. 10 in the Small Gym Theater at Stuart R. Paddock School, 225 W. Washington St., Palatine. Marie's dreamy journey will be presented by Fremont Street Theater Company and Long Grove Performing Arts Academy. Tickets are $10.

For details, call (847) 780-7464 or go to www.lgartsacademy.com.

Telling tales

Learn how to gather and share memories at Home for the Holidays: Stories of Family Celebrations, 1-3 p.m. Dec. 10 at Arlington Heights Memorial Library, 500 N. Dunton Ave. The session for families will be led by personal historian Diane Dassow. Registration is required. Cider and cookies will be served.

For details, call (847) 392-0100 or go to www.ahml.info.

Days of yore

will be here once more during the Barrington High School Madrials Holiday Concert, 3-4:30 p.m. Dec. 18 at Barrington White House, 145 W. Main St. The costumed student artists will perform unaccompanied vocal music from the Renaissance through the current day. Admission is free but a $10 donation is suggested.

For details, go to www.barringtonwhitehouse.com.

Helping hands

Classical music for the holiday season will be performed by pianists Jimin Yun and Minji Kwon during a Four Hands Piano Duo Concert, 3-4 p.m. Dec. 10 at Ela Area Public Library, 275 Mohawk Trail, Lake Zurich. The program will include Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker Suite."

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For details, call (847) 438-3433 or go to eapl.org
Funeral services have been scheduled for next week for a retired businessman and Naperville-area community activist, who was shot to death after playing cards with friends on Chicago's West Side.

Chicago police on Thursday would not comment on what progress, if any, they have made in their investigation into the early morning, Dec. 2 slaying of Ronald L. "Ron" Allen, 73, of Naperville's northwest side.

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"Detectives are continuing to investigate this incident," a Chicago Police Department news affairs spokesman said via email. "There are no updates, and no suspects are in custody at this time."

One of Allen's sons, Keith Allen, said he last spoke with investigators earlier this week. He said he was told that police either were continuing to interview, or had recently finished interviewing, the people who had been socializing with his father during the late-evening and early-morning hours prior to his death.

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Ronald Allen was shot on his way home to Naperville, in the 1300 block of North Laramie Avenue in Chicago's Austin neighborhood. He had founded his insurance agency there, and was one of the first African-American agents in Chicago for Allstate Insurance Co.

Upon his retirement, Allen founded the Unity Partnership outreach group, which works to foster goodwill and cooperation between DuPage County law enforcement agencies and county residents.Allen was a longtime member of the DuPage African Methodist Episcopal Church, at 4300 Yackley Ave. in Lisle, which is hosting his funeral services.

A viewing is set for 7 to 9 p.m. Dec. 16 in the church. Allen's wake will be at 1 p.m. Dec. 17 in the church, to be followed an hour later by his funeral.

An online obituary suggested monetary donations be made to the "Ron Allen Scholarship Fund," in care of the church.

In addition to Keith Allen, survivors include his wife, Carol J. Allen; sons Mark Allen and Koryon Perfeet; and daughter Vera Bass.

wbird@tribpub.com
Business Name: Phillip's Flowers & Gifts

Address: 1007 E. Ogden Ave., Naperville

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Contact info: 630 357 5235, www.phillipsflowers.com

Owner's name: Baxter Phillip (executive vice president)

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Number of years in business: 93 years, 20 years in Naperville

What does this business sell? "Phillip's is a full-service, family-owned florist with eight shops offering fresh flowers, bouquets, arrangements, plants, holiday decorations, custom wedding flowers and event decor, with delivery available throughout Chicago and suburbs. The company also has a commercial interior plantscaping division, a bulk wholesale flower company, and is ranked among the top 1 percent of North American florists for nationwide flowers by wire delivery," Phillip said.

How many full-time and part-time workers do you employ? "More than 150. I was actually talking to our Naperville manager, Brad Behrens. He's been there for 32 years. That's longer than I have been part of the business. And he's just an example of how, in our case, it's not about one or two owners, but about all the other people working with us. And I think they love flowers at least as much as we do. I can think of at least one, two, three, four of them here at our headquarters in Westmont who owned their own flower shops. Some of them came up the ranks and learned to design with us, and some of them came as experienced florists."

What was the impetus for starting this business? "My grandfather, James Phillip, had to begin working at a very early age to support his widowed mother and siblings. He delivered flowers on Chicago streetcars as a child, tried other jobs, but returned to the flower business and found he had a real love and talent for floral designing. As newlyweds, he and his wife, Helen, opened our first flower shop in Cicero in the early '20s and began raising their children in an apartment above the shop. Today, seven full-time family members spanning three generations are active in the business, and we still have that love of flowers and passion for great design.  Things were just so different back then. I think my grandfather dropped out of school in sixth grade. Nobody does that anymore."

Did the city of Naperville help you or hinder you in your plans? "As small-business owners, we wear a lot of hats. Naperville made it easy to open. We started in the mid-'90s, when we acquired an existing flower shop in 5th Avenue station. And over the years we just migrated to a free-standing location on Ogden Avenue. Naperville has been very supportive."

What is the best thing about being located in Naperville? "The best things about Naperville are its residents and local businesses. It's a vibrant, upbeat, growing city that still has village charm and a very real sense of community."

What is the biggest challenge about being located in Naperville? "I don't feel we really have any. So I'm just kind of blank on that one. You know, every city or village is a little different. We are in nine towns, eight flower shops, a main floral design center and a plant operation in Oak Brook. They are all different, but they are all similar."

When is your busiest time of year? "Traditionally, December is the biggest month, Mother's Day the biggest week, and Valentine's the biggest couple of days, but with birthdays, new babies, weddings, special events and funerals, we florists stay busy all year long. Flowers are just such a vital part of so many important occasions."

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What is the most popular product you sell? "At our stores, the top sellers are roses, take-with bouquets, custom arrangements for every occasion, and local wedding flowers. At our headquarters in Westmont, we focus on even larger weddings and events. We also design family funeral flower tributes for many of Chicagoland's finer funeral homes."

Phillips Flowers has been in Naperville for 20 years. December is typically its busiest month. (Daina Saleh / Naperville Sun)

What is the thing you most like to do as part of your business? "We love working with our customers and delighting them with beautiful fresh flowers, creative designs and the personal service that only a real local florist can provide."

What is your least favorite service to provide? "If it involves flowers and serving our customers, we love it."

What is the best thing about owning your own business? "The sense of accomplishment and the positive impact we can have on our customers, employees and local community."

What is the biggest downside to owning your business? "The paperwork."

Tell us about the most memorable customer you had and what made them so. "Over the years, we've been honored to provide flowers for celebrities, dignitaries and several U.S. presidents, but one of our more memorable accomplishments was decorating the dais for the pope's visit in Grant Park with about 18,000 blooming plants, provided at cost, with the help of volunteers. It was a truly beautiful expression of support for such a historic and meaningful occasion."

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What is the biggest misconception about your business? "People think of the flower business as just designing flowers, but it's also about sourcing, staffing, computerization, delivery logistics and a host of other critical details. For example, we import fresh flowers direct from dozens of different suppliers in multiple countries, and we deliver daily to the city and over 150 suburbs. It's all about the details."

How would you describe your business philosophy? "Our business is built on hard work, family togetherness and knowing that our most important customer is the next one who walks in the door, calls on the phone or orders with us online."

If you weren't doing this, what line of work would you be in? "Well, for most of our active family members, it was a fairly clear-cut path (into the business). I came through a secondary route, music in Nashville, and then real estate investment marketing in Louisville (Ky.). But it's not as eventful as it sounds. Once I got married and had kids, I decided it was time to settle down and come home. Our youngest member right now has an engineering degree, and he worked for an aviation company. Now he's one of our buyers, and he managed a couple of our stores. And he found he had the same gene as my grandfather  he's quite a good designer."

When it comes time to retire, is there a family member who will be taking over for you? "Fortunately, we have three generations of family members already active in the business, with dozens of other very talented floral professionals involved, too. So, if some of us chose to retire in the future, we know there will be a lot of great people to fill our shoes."

How has your business changed over the years? "Escalating costs, growing competition from big-box retailers and online marketers, and the ever-increasing complexity of doing business are all putting real pressure on full-service florists. Many have perished, and more will follow. But there will always be a niche for those who excel in quality, service and value. So we focus on those key drivers and strive to get better and better all the time."

Do you have any future plans to expand? "We are local, and we like it that way. The florist business is becoming more challenging all the time, and we have our hands pretty full right now, but we're always on the lookout for new opportunities."

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What advice would you give someone thinking about starting a business? "Do what you know. Do what you love."
Joe Maddon holds the Commissioner's Trophy on Nov. 4, 2016 as the Cubs celebrate their World Series championship with a rally in Grant Park. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)

If you still feel like you haven't celebrated the Cubs as World Series champions enough, you're in luck because the Commissioner's Trophy is coming to Naperville.

While it not yet known when and where the trophy will be in the city, it is part of a largely Midwestern tour the team announced Thursday. The tour kicks off today at the Chicago Cubs team store on Michigan Avenue.

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The trophy will resume its tour Dec. 15 at Chicago's City Hall with suburban stops to follow. Specifics on suburban, Indiana and Iowa stops will be announced later, but Cubs fans can follow the team on Twitter @Cubs for updates.

Additional Illinois locations include Elgin, Schaumburg, Bloomington, Champaign, Freeport, Peoria, Quad Cities, Rockford and Springfield.

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For more information, visit http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/chc/fan_forum/trophy-tour/

ehegarty@tribpub.com
Fans of Christmas and the Chicago Cubs must stop at 1228 Atlas Lane to check out this house. (Jane Donahue / Naperville Sun)

In hopes of making this holiday season merry and bright, Naperville residents have taken exterior illumination to a whole new level.

Thanks to your nominations, the Naperville Sun is featuring some of the city's most festive homes of 2016. Neighbors have decked not only the halls but just about everything else that can handle a strand of lights.

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1 1228 Atlas Lane

Fans of Christmas and the Chicago Cubs will want to stop on Atlas to check out this house. White lights make this house pop in a fun and festive way, and the "W" tree-topper is a home run.

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2 347 S. Columbia St.

White lights wrap up this downtown home like a gift. Readers called this home's decorations "elegant" and "stunning."

3 426 S. Columbia St.

Multicolored lights soar to the sky at this downtown home that includes a giant lighted tree behind the house. You may see Santa on a zip line if you're lucky.

4 327 S. Sleight St.

The Hennessy family has been delighting residents for years, and this season is no exception. Life-size nutcrackers command attention as does Santa and just about every Christmas-related character you can imagine. A candy cane fence enhances the sweet view from the sidewalk, and the neighbor's lighted arrow makes sure you know you've arrived.

5 1326 N. Webster St.

The Murphy family has decorated every inch of its yard with hand-crafted wooden characters and even borrowed some of the neighbor's real estate to make it complete. It's unique and worth seeing.

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6 24455 Royal County Down Drive

This home has been called "Disney-ish," and that's what resident Don Young was aiming for when he started decorating his property in south Naperville. The Magic Kingdom fan aimed high when it comes to exterior illumination, using a cherry picker to drape purple, red, blue and green LED lights on even the tallest trees in Tamarack Fairways.

7 24546 Killarney Court

The McKee family has added even more to its festive holiday decorations, which the daughter's friends call the "North Pole." The family's neighbor in Tamarack Fairways is in on the action as well, adding a bright shoutout to the Cubs.

8 3111 Wolfe Court

Take in the sights and sounds of Christmas thanks to the Amundsen family's magical musical display. The Amundsens even have a website (www.naperlightshow.com) where you can vote your favorite song into the lineup. Be prepared to spend some time in Ashbury subdivision, listening to your favorite songs and catching a glimpse of Santa as he makes his list and checks it twice.

9 1020 Hollingswood Court

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Sounds like somebody needs to sing a Christmas carol, which is good news if you stop by this synchronized musical light display in Ashbury.

10 23341 Rebecca Court

Tucked at the end of a cul-de-sac, this home on Rebecca Court exudes Christmas. It's merry and bright and worth a stop if you want a dose of the holiday spirit.

11 29W012 Shell Lake Drive

This home on the corner of Shell Lake Drive and Book Road shines bright because the homeowner takes full advantage of the property. A giant snow globe, a huge Nativity, Santa and the massive multicolored pine tree are just a few of the big reasons to drive by the house in Shell Lake Estates.

12 2648 Charlestowne Lane

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Many homes on this street get a thumbs-up for festive red-and-white parkway trees, but this house in Stillwater subdivision stands out for its festive lights and "Peace on Earth" theme.

13 630 Vicksburg Court

The Nilles-Knoth family's Candy Land-inspired theme will make you "Believe" in Christmas. There is something to see around every corner, and the attention to detail is simply magical at this must-see home.

14 651 Edward Road

Frosty the Snowman oversees this entertaining yard, and a moving Ferris wheel adds to the festivities. This home would make Clark Griswold proud as the family has decked just about everything possible.

15 428 Bayview Ave.

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On Dasher, on Dancer and the rest of the crew because it's Christmas in this cul-de-sac. Lights sparkle and reindeer fly over the Dammanns' house, spreading cheer for all to hear.

16 1222 Oakton Lane

The Kobleski display keeps getting bigger each year, which is not an easy task. From the ground to the roof and everywhere in between, it sparkles. You'll know you've arrived when you see the giant parkway tree that will leave you wondering, "How did they do that?"

17 859 Raintree Drive

The Larson-Buranosky family has been decking the halls for years and is one of many on the street in the Countryside subdivision who deserve accolades, as Raintree Drive is truly a bright spot in the neighborhood.

18 1447 Sugar Creek Court

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As expected, things are sweet on Sugar Creek thanks to the Brockman home in Cress Creek subdivision. Even when there isn't snow, more than 200 snowmen gather in this cul-de-sac, which is sure to warm your heart.

19 1347 Hunter Circle

The Syers family has been lighting it up since 2009 with its display that includes its own website (www.themagicalhouseonhuntercircle.com). With many songs to hear  including one that's sure to delight Cubs' fans  this house in Fox Meadow subdivision is worth a visit.

20 1408 Justin Court

The Wincek family keeps it simple yet sparkly, with flying reindeer and a spot for Santa to catch a rest during his journey. This home is a bright spot for those who visit each holiday season.

21 Manchester Court

Metea Valley student Matt Baker takes on the end of his street again in a even bigger and better fashion in the cul-de-sac in Brookdale subdivision. Besides holiday classics, the teen has added a tune that will delight Cubs fans.

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22 2320 Remington Drive

The Zavoral family has made its display bigger and brighter this year, which is a treat for many who drive down Naper Boulevard and can see the home in the Farmington subdivision through Farmington Park. Penguins and gingerbread men stand guard, and Santa and snowflakes complete this festive package. There are even candy canes available if you need a sweet treat.

23 2113 Dorval Drive

The McDonoughs' home in the Willowgate subdivision has it going on in the front, back and side yards. Luminaries outline the cheery property, which is a favorite for many area families because there is so much to see.

24 2612 Wild Timothy Road

The Marbachs' south Naperville home rocks thanks to the synchronized musical light display. Tune your radio to the station posted on the garage and enjoy the sights and sounds of Christmas in the High Meadow subdivision.

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25 2532 Freeland Circle

Joey Moore is a busy high school freshman, but that doesn't deter him from being the mastermind behind his family's holiday decor in the Harmony Grove subdivision. Plenty of characters and lots of lights make this one fun to see. The entire street deserves a high-five for their festive displays and color-coordinated parkway trees.

26 1109 E. Bailey Road

Newlyweds Bob and Judy Jung are spending their first Christmas together and wowing those who drive down Bailey Road. With a candy-cane fence and 18-foot wooden reindeer watching over the front and side yards, you can't help but smile when you see this one.

27 1509 Riparian Drive

William Gayde is a talented musician who has combined his passion for percussion with Christmas. While it is smaller in scale, it's proof that with a lot of time and a lot of heart, you can make something special.

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28 8S770 Singletree Lane

This house on the corner of 79th Street and Singletree Lane screams "Happy Holidays" with its festive lights and decorations that span the large property. It's been described as "ornate and pretty" and worth stopping by if you're in that neck of the woods.

Jane Donahue is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.
Mann School fifth-graders use a Beam Pro telepresence robot to connect with their classmates inside the school's library on Dec. 8. (Steve Schering / Pioneer Press)

Having the principal visit the classroom is not uncommon in Oak Park District 97 schools, but when Mann Elementary Principal Faith Cole "visited" with her fifth-graders Dec. 8, it left the students amazed.

With representatives from Accenture visiting the school to promote computer science and coding, Cole, who was sitting in a nearby office, piloted a Beam Pro telepresence robot into the school library to visit the students.

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The Accenture team not only brought the robot, but a Microsoft Surface Hub, which allowed the students to chat with Accenture's Don Galzarano from downtown Chicago and Accenture employees in Bangalore, India. Students also used their school-issued laptops to learn the basics of coding.

"The whole project is to get kids excited about the future of technology," teacher librarian Kathy Rolfes said.

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Fifth-grade students Pierce Cleveland and Matthew Hyman were able to pilot the Beam robot using only a small laptop, and used the device and its cameras to connect with their classmates sitting all around the library.

"I thought it was really fun driving the robot," Cleveland said. "It was not really that hard to drive. The robot was really interesting and showed me that the future is now."

Galzarano said the hands-on examples and activities were designed to show the students' coding is "not all numbers and math," and give the students a feeling for what they can accomplish should they choose a career in coding.

"When we can't send people physically, we send the robot," Galzarano said. "How we used to use the telephone to connect, now we can use the robot and see and use visuals. This type of collaboration is really important in business, government and all aspects of life."

In addition to using the Surface Hub to chat with other people in and out of the school, the students viewed presentations, real-time data and satellite maps to connect with various parts of the world.

"If you look at the job market and jobs available for coders, it's growing far more quickly than the number of coders available," Accenture's Eric Ellis said. "We wanted to show them this is what you can really do with code. If they're interested and excited about coding, we wanted to set them up and maybe they'll pursue a degree in college."

sschering@pioneerlocal.com

Twitter: @steveschering
Among other action taken on Dec. 5, the Park Ridge City Council:

 Tentatively approved a special-use permit for a new, three-story apartment building with first-floor commercial space at the northwest corner of Talcott Road and Courtland Avenue. The proposed building is slated to include 15 residential units and will replace a vacant, three-story office building on the site. Final approval by the City Council is expected on Dec. 19.

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 Tentatively approved the city's 2016 property tax levy of $20.1 million. The levy reflects an 8.14 percent decrease from 2015, acting City Manager Joe Gilmore said. Though the decrease could show a drop in the city's portion of residents' property taxes, 1st Ward Ald. John Moran cautioned that the levies of local school districts, which make up large portions of the tax bill, could negate this.

"Our 8 percent decrease on your property tax bill can be quickly offset by a small increase on your District 64 or District 207 portion of the property tax bill," Moran said. "I wouldn't expect to see your bill go down, but we're doing our part here and it's time to put pressure on those other bodies to bring their part into line too."

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Final approval of the levy is expected on Dec. 19.

 Approved the city's capital project plan for the next three years. The largest expense included in the plan is the Park Ridge Public Library's proposed $2 million renovation, which is tentatively budgeted for the 2017-18 fiscal year. The project still requires bids and approval from the Library Board. Some other items included in the capital project plan for 2017-18 is an estimated $1.35 million in water main replacement; $1 million in street resurfacing; $596,000 for new emergency response vehicles; $500,000 for sewer lining; $500,000 for other sewer improvements; $462,200 in technology replacement; $350,000 to resurface the City Hall parking lot; $340,000 for new snow and ice control vehicles; $290,000 for heating, ventilation and air conditioning improvements at City Hall; and $155,000 for sidewalk replacement around the city.

 Approved zoning variances for signs at the new Formula Fitness Club slated to open soon at 826 Touhy Ave. According to the city, the variances will allow the club to add two more exterior signs on walls that face the Metra tracks.

 Approved the final plat of subdivision and variances for the new commercial development at 800 W. Devon Ave. One of the variances calls for a setback reduction due to the fact that one of the buildings on the site was constructed too close to the property line along Talcott Road, aldermen were told. Interim Director of Community Preservation and Development Jim Brown told the council on Nov. 21 that he did not believe any fines had been issued to the developer.

Brown also said that one of the lots at 800 Devon is still empty because the owner has been unable to secure an agreement with a bank to build there.

jjohnson@pioneerlocal.com

Twitter: @Jen_Tribune
The Maine Township Republican slate for the April 4, 2017 election has been announced. Front row, from left, are Susan Moylan-Krey, Kelly Schaefer, Laura Morask, Susan Sweeney, Walter Kazmierczak, and Kim Jones. Top row from left are Peter Gialamas and David Carrabotta. Also pictured at the right right is Char Foss-Eggemann, Maine Township Republican committeewoman. (Dick Barton )

Maine Township's Republican and Democratic parties have chosen their candidates for elected seats on the township board.

Laura Morask of Park Ridge will lead the Republican slate as the uncontested candidate for Maine Township supervisor in the April 4 election. Morask, who was elected township trustee in 2001 as a Democrat, changed parties and ran with other board incumbents on a Republican ticket in 2005.

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"I do consider myself a Republican. I vote in the Republican primary, and I'm vice president of the Maine Township Republican Women," Morask said. But she added that most matters on which the township board votes are nonpartisan.

Morask was a senior prosecutor with the Cook County State's Attorney's Office and is currently in private practice as a criminal defense attorney. She ran for Cook County judge in 2008.

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"I have the passion for [the supervisor's position], and I'm experienced," she said. "I'm not afraid to do cost-cutting where needed. At the [October] board meeting, we cut our salaries 25 percent and I was basically one of the people arguing to do that."

Morask said she was asked to run for supervisor by Maine Township Republican Committeewoman Char Foss-Eggemann, but she was already interested in doing so. One of her goals, she said, is to provide property-tax refunds to Maine Township residents.

"I'm working on a way to do that," she said.

Other members of the Republican slate are incumbent Walter Kazmierczak of Park Ridge for highway commissioner, a seat to which he was appointed earlier this year; incumbent Susan-Moylan-Krey of Des Plaines for assessor, a seat she has held since her 2014 appointment; Peter Gialamas, a Des Plaines resident and a current trustee who was elected in 2009, for clerk; incumbents Kelly Schaefer and Kimberly Jones of Park Ridge, both appointed to the board, for trustee; and non-incumbents Susan Sweeney, president of Park Ridge Republican Women, and David Carrabotta of Niles, who ran for Niles village trustee in 2015.

Stepping down from the board next spring are Supervisor Carol Teschky and Township Clerk Gary Warner, both of whom have served since the 1980s.

"Come next spring, it will be 28 years that I've been involved Maine Township government," said Teschky, who served as trustee for 18 years before her appointment as supervisor in 2007. "I thought it was time to retire."

Teschky said she supports the choice of Morask for supervisor.

"She's very well-qualified because she's seen it all in the last 15 years and she understands how it works and what we do," Teschky said.

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Warner, of Park Ridge, joined the township board as collector in 1986.

"It's a good time to step down and let someone younger come in," Warner, 83, said.

The Maine Township Democratic Organization is slating candidates for clerk and the four trustee seats on the board, but not supervisor, highway commissioner or assessor, said Laura Murphy, Democratic committeewoman.

"The Republicans have controlled Maine Township for approximately 143 years," Murphy said. "Clearly our strategy of running full slates and going one-on-one has not been successful, but we have been successful in getting certain [Democratic] trustee candidates elected. I think the community is ready to embrace a bipartisan group."

The Democratic candidates are Gloria Ludwig, the current city clerk of Des Plaines, for township clerk; Claire McKenzie, an attorney and CPA from Park Ridge, for trustee; Thomas McGuire, an attorney from Park Ridge, for trustee; Alex Paterakos-Figueroa, a Des Plaines resident and legislative coordinator of SEIU Healthcare; and Sherwin Weinberg, a Niles resident special service officer with the Niles Police Department who ran for township trustee in 2001.

All of the seats on the township board are four-year terms and are paid positions. The board oversees a large unincorporated area, which receives township-funded services like road, sewer, sidewalk and streetlight maintenance, snow removal, tree branch pick-up and health code enforcement.

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Additional township programs and services for all residents of the township can be found at www.mainetownship.com.

jjohnson@pioneerlocal.com

Twitter: @Jen_Tribune
Kylee Stanko of Mishawaka, a social work graduate of Purdue University Northwest, was recently an intern with Reins of Life, where she worked with children and adults with various physical and mental disabilities who take part in horseback riding activities offered in Michigan City and South Bend. I try to be a stable, calming influence. I not only help people with their riding abilities, but I try to be an optimistic, confident, upbeat person who sets a positive example of what someone can accomplish if they set a goal and work for it, Stanko said. (Photo Provided by Purdue University / Post-Tribune)

Five Purdue University Northwest seniors participating in the Social Work Field Practicum on the Westville Campus are set to take on the world after they graduate on Dec. 9.

The students are confident that their classwork has prepared them well to take on chosen careers. While their careers paths are as individual as the students themselves, the academic foundation earned in their PNW classes set them on a path to success.

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"My classes were amazing, each class helped to confirm that I've chosen the right career for me," said Sara Everly, of Michigan City, who is completing her internship with Golden Living Countryside in La Porte.

Working in the Social Services Department brings her into direct contact with the residents, something that she appreciates.

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"There are many different activities for the residents to enjoy, it seems there is always something going on. I've learned so much working here," Everly said.

Her classmate, Kylee Stanko of Mishawaka, was an intern with Reins of Life, working with children and adults with various physical and mental disabilities who take part in activities offered in Michigan City and South Bend.

"I've always been interested in animal-assisted therapy," she explained. "This is exactly the career that I dreamed of."

Working with the community agencies presents students with an ideal opportunity to gain professional work experience while applying the knowledge that they've learned in class. It is also a time for them to decide if this is a career path that truly interests them.

"Without a doubt, I know this is where I am meant to be," Stanko said.

"I like working with the elderly," said Everly. "There are so many ways that I can have a positive impact on someone's quality of life."

Everly's internship gave her a broad look at the nursing home industry  from working with activities and social engagement to assessment and assuring mental well-being. She also listens to residents to hear their concerns as well as their suggestions for how the staff can better meet their needs. She noted that when feasible, many suggestions have been implemented.

Stanko takes pride in the fact that she sees positive changes with her Reins of Life riders. They often occur slowly, but she is thrilled when they reach a milestone.

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For some, it may be a subtle change in physical ability; for one young rider, it was casting his first smile; for another, it there was a new gentleness and calmness in his demeanor. Stanko also sees herself as a role model and mentor to some of the young people she encounters through the program.

"I try to be a stable, calming influence. I not only help people with their riding abilities, but I try to be an optimistic, confident, upbeat person who sets a positive example of what someone can accomplish if they set a goal and work for it," Stanko said.

She instills the "Cowboy Code" in her riders, which centers on respect for the horses they ride, their instructor and their fellow riders. Before long, she sees even the most stubborn individuals heed the Cowboy Code.

Stanko intends to earn certification through the Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship International (PATH) so that she can pursue a career providing therapeutic activities.

Everly is mulling a couple of career opportunities.

"I know that I am very fortunate," Everly said. "Every class that I've taken has prepared me for this career. I thank my professor for all that they've done to get me to this point. I can't wait to get started in my career."

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Stanko agreed with her classmate.

"I am looking forward to entering the social work profession," she explained. "My education has given me the tools that I need to take on this challenging, fulfilling profession. PNW has a great social work program and I am happy to have been a part of it."

Carol Connelly is director of media relations and communications at Purdue University Northwest, North Central Campus in Westville.
Here are five things to do in Northwest Indiana Dec. 16-22.

Traditional Holiday Music at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 16 at the Indiana Dunes Visitor Center. Admission is free. At 1215 N. State Road 49, Porter. Call 219-395-1882 or go to nps.gov.

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A Luminary Walk will be held at 6 p.m. Dec. 17 at Vale Park West Parkway  Beauty Creek in Valparaiso. Admission is free. At 1198 Vale Park Road. Call 219-462-5144 or go to valpoparks.org.

Birds and Brews hosts a wine and canvas events at the Craft Hose in Chesterton. Cost is $25. At 711 Plaza Dr., Suite 2. Go to evensi.us/dunes-birds-and-brews-december-wine-amp-canvas-craft-house/193081740.

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The Stories of Yesteryear exhibit is at Westchester Township History Museum in Chesterton through Feb. 26. Admission is free. At 700 W. Porter Ave. Call 219-983-9715 or go to wpl.lib.in.us/museum/.

The Winter Lights Drive Through at Sunset Hill Farm continues through Jan. 1. Admission is free. At 775 Meridian Road, Valparaiso. Cal 219-465-3586 or go to porterco.org.

Do you have something going on we could include in Five Things to Do? Email your item, with time, date, place, price and contact information to wweber@tribpub.com at least two weeks before the event.
Messiah will be performed Dec. 18 at First Presbyterian Church of Michigan City in Michigan City. A public dress rehearsal is offered Dec. 17. (First Presbyterian Church / Handout)

One of the most popular choral works in Western music will be performed for a 52nd season in Michigan City.

First Presbyterian Church of Michigan City's free Dec. 18 performance of George Frideric Handel's "Messiah" includes Beverly Shores, Burns Harbor, La Porte, Long Beach, Porter and Valparaiso residents. A public dress rehearsal is on Dec. 17.

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"We will have four outstanding professional soloists. We will have a chorus of over 100 members. We will have an orchestra of around 30 players," said Philip Bauman, music director and conductor of "Messiah."

"It's a rather intimate setting at the Presbyterian church. It seats only 400 or so people. It's very good acoustics in the space. It's a wide space to hear music. It's a very good experience for everyone."

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Soloists returning from 2015's "Messiah" are soprano Sarah Gartshore, tenor Matthew Daniel and bass Peter van de Graaff. New this year is mezzo-soprano Quinn Middleman.

Daniel, of South Bend, is known in the Michiana area as a soloist, voice teacher and for working with the Tenors Three. This marks the 11th time he is singing "Messiah" at First Presbyterian Church.

"The soloists who are recurring for us really made a huge impression on us, myself and the choir, who have been using some of the same soloists over the years," said Bauman, who is also music director of La Porte County Symphony Orchestra.

"I brought in a couple new people last year. They just brought such a personality to the arias and their performances. It really drew the audience in to their interpretation. It was a moving performance.

"The soloists are topnotch, top-caliber musicians that have sung this work over and over and have a real polished approach to this."

Although it is Bauman's second year leading "Messiah," the performance was begun and led by Dan McNabb until he retired after 50 years and selected Bauman as his successor.

"It was a humbling honor to be asked to do this," said Bauman, who is also conductor of Northwest Indiana Symphony Orchestra Youth Orchestra.

"Messiah" also features harpsichord player Pat Lee and concertmaster Nicolas Orbovich, artistic director of the Michigan City Chamber Music Festival.

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"The chorus is a wonderful group of musicians who have a wonderful sound together. There's a real love for the work that comes through with their singing. It's palpable when you hear them perform. It's real connection to the text and meaning of the words behind the music," said Bauman.

"It helps people stay centered on the Christ child and the religious aspect of the holiday season. It's also a magnificent work of art and one that does not tire over the generations and years. It's something audiences can connect with and feel uplifted by. It's beautiful music and very emotional."

Jessi Virtusio is a freelance writer.

'Messiah'

When: 10:30 a.m. Dec. 17 (public dress rehearsal); 3 p.m. Dec. 18

Where: First Presbyterian Church of Michigan City, 121 W. 9th St., Michigan City

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Admission: free
East Chicago resident Martiza Lopez said residents must continue to press officials to take action in the neighborhoods around the U.S.S. Lead Superfund site. (Jim Karczewski / Post-Tribune)

East Chicago Mayor Anthony Copeland has petitioned Indiana's top officials to declare the lead-contaminated Calumet neighborhood a disaster.

Copeland's decision to seek declaration from Gov. Mike Pence was announced after a two-hour meeting with residents Friday. The residents of the Calumet neighborhood demanded the mayor seek disaster declaration for the area around the USS Lead Superfund site.

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"That will allow the city to access resources that are needed," said the Rev. Cheryl Rivera, a member of the East Chicago Community Strategy Group and director of the Northwest Indiana Federation of Interfaith Organizations. "We are just very excited that the people have won today."

East Chicago officials learned from the Environmental Protection Agency the extent of contamination at the West Calumet Housing Complex in May and then decided to evacuate the more than 1,000 residents of the public housing complex.

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As residents began to move out of West Calumet, those living in the eastern parts of the USS Lead Superfund site began to learn of the contaminants in the soil around their homes. The EPA began remediation work in those neighborhoods during the fall.

"The residents of my city, my staff, other local officials and I have been laboring under conditions which are not of our making, but which cry out for help," Copeland wrote to Pence on Dec. 1.

Copeland noted, in the letter, that Indiana code defined a disaster as "being an occurrence or imminent threat of widespread severe damage, injury, loss of life or property damage from a utility failure, public health emergency, blight or other public calamity."

The resources of East Chicago are strained to the "point of breaking," Copeland wrote, and resources from the state are needed to adequately respond to the continuing crisis.

"I am sure that as governor, you do not find it acceptable that Hoosier children be exposed to toxins, or suffer the lifelong burdens which are known to result from such exposure," Copeland wrote. "I am sure that you do not find it acceptable that these children's families suffer the long-term economic devastation of blight caused by environmental problems which these hard working Hoosier families did not cause.

"By this letter, I am imploring you to take action," Copeland wrote.

Pence's office said the request was received and is being reviewed.

The mayor again met with residents Friday to continue to address their concerns and needs. West Calumet Housing Complex resident Akeeshea Daniels said she's hopeful that the city will continue working with residents.

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"It was very productive," said Maritza Lopez, who lives in the adjacent East Calumet neighborhood, and that residents know they must continue pushing for action.

Daniels said residents will keep going step by step.

The revelation of Copeland's disaster declaration request came a day after the mayor said the EPA informed the city that concentration of lead in the water in the Calumet neighborhood exceeded acceptable levels.

The EPA monitored water quality of the eastern zones of the USS Lead Superfund site during remediation work in the neighborhood, according to the mayor's announcement, and found that 18 of the 45 homes where the water was tested exceeded 15 parts per billion of lead  the EPA's threshold for water safety.

The EPA said the true results of the testing are still preliminary and have yet been fully vetted and the levels of lead can't fully be characterized at this time. Also, the EPA said the testing program only looked at 43 homes.

Copeland said, in the announcement, the city's water supply meets all state and federal quality standards and the EPA used a pilot program to test quality that the agency had not used.

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"Why did the EPA use a new, unproven, unaccredited test in the middle of the USS Lead Superfund crisis? Why has the EPA now released data which has not gone through its QAQC (quality assurance, quality control) process," the mayor wrote. "This does not surprise me, because this is the same EPA which hid soil sample results from the City of East Chicago and its residents for two years and more."

Copeland said residents would begin hearing results of the EPA water testing Friday.

The EPA told the city that a single water filter for kitchen taps is enough to meet residents' needs. Copeland said that is not adequate and the agency should supply a more thorough filtration system for residents.

The more thorough system would both address lead that leeched into service lines and prevent additional exposure to toxins, Copeland said.

Late Friday, a planned EPA forum for residents scheduled for Saturday at Carrie Gosch School was canceled.

clyons@post-trib.com

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Twitter: @craigalyons
The losses the Rains family suffered in a fire that ripped through their Highland rental home early Monday morning hit harder as the week wore on.

Parents Kim and David Rains rushed their youngest daughter, Cierria, 17, to a Chicago hospital Wednesday evening, her mother Kim Rains said in a text message. A diabetic, Kim Rains said the girl lost all her medication in the fire and was unable to get an immediate refill.

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After the fire, the family moved to a local hotel, Kim Rains' sister, Rhonda Bloch, said.

Still, the family is doing "OK," according to Bloch.

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The family was in their living room in the 9300 block of Farmer Drive around 12:15 a.m. Monday when they heard a "pop" coming from the laundry room, Bloch said. David Rains, who works for the Town of Munster's Public Works Department, had just come in from plowing the streets, and everyone was settling in for the night, Bloch said.

There was a little back and forth among the family as to who was going to see what the problem was, Bloch said, before Kim Rains got up to do it. She got as far as the kitchen when she saw the orange glow against the wall, Bloch said.

Four of the family members  Kim, David, daughter Cheyanne, 21; and Cierria  were able to get out of the house through the front door, Bloch said. The family's cat, Beemo, however, wasn't in the room with them at the time and perished in the blaze.

"She went back in but saw the fire had already reached the living room. It was moving too fast," Bloch said. "They lost everything."

Attempts to reach the house's owner, listed with the Lake County Assessor's Office as Kenneth and Barbara Hay, of Dyer, were unsuccessful Thursday.

Highland Fire Chief Bill Timmer said his department was able to extinguish the fire within 15 or 20 minutes and required no outside help.

"We're still looking at what the direct cause was," Timmer said. "We just thank God the family was able to get out of the house safely, because you can replace everything else."

Bloch said the community has responded to the family's plight. So far, people have brought the family at least 75 bags of clothing, and Kim and David Rains on Wednesday met with a woman who was willing to let them stay in a property of hers for a month, Bloch said.

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"There's been a big outpouring of support. People we don't even know have been asking how to help," Bloch said.

Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.

Benefit for family planned

Sip 2 Coffee House in Highland will host a fund-raiser featuring area singing duo Fragile Soul at 5 p.m. Dec 21, the proceeds of which will go to the Rains family, which lost all their belongings in a Dec. 5 fire.

Additionally, Hometown Happenings of Crown Point, in conjunction with SIP and SIP 2, is collecting gift cards in any amount to Target, Strack and Van Til Supermarket, Walgreens and CVS for the family; people can drop off cards at either Sip location, Cafe Fresco, BERRY RED Frozen Yogurt and Tropical Ice or with Celine Marie Certa or Tim Fealy.
Two of the lighthouses that have stood in the median along 37th Avenue in Hobart will find a new home in Rosser Park.

Hobart Mayor Brian Snedecor said he's working with Hobart Township Trustee Tom Silich on removing the lighthouses, which he said have become obstacles and need to be taken down.

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"Silich said if he could use the lighthouses in Rosser Park, he would remove and repurpose them, which is a savings to the city," Snedecor told fellow members of the Board of Public Works and Safety, which approved the action.

Silich said there already are bases and electrical in place for three lighthouses, but said he'd like a third one that he would also have removed placed at the entrance of the township building on 37th Avenue.

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Snedecor said members of the Friends of Robinson Lake had expressed interest in using some of the lighthouses at the northwest side park. He said if Silich doesn't use the third one, it could be repurposed at that city park.

Silich also asked the board to install street lights at the intersection of Roche Street and Ridge Road and along old 37th Avenue and the Northern Indiana Public Service Co. service road.

Snedecor said he wants a strategic plan for the area in place before making any decision on the lights.

In other matters, the board agreed to change its meeting time from 4 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. It will continue to meet the first and third Wednesday of the month, prior to city council meetings.

The change was sought by Councilman Josh Huddlestun, D-2nd, who chairs the council's ordinance committee. The committee meets at 5 p.m. the first Wednesday of the month and board of works meetings have been running more than an hour, creating a conflict for Clerk-Treasurer Deborah Longer and City Attorney Anthony DeBonis, who often need to be at both meetings.

The board also gave resident Steven Whittler until Dec. 28 to clean up his yard in the 200 block of North Wilson Street to acceptable city standards or the city will clean it up and place a lien on the property to recoup its costs.

The city already imposed the maximum $1,000 fine on Whittler.

"Most of what I see in the pictures is a matter of you getting materials out of sight," Snedecor said.

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Karen Caffarini is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
Portions of 61st Avenue and Wisconsin Street in Hobart have reopened to traffic now that the $10 million road reconstruction project is substantially complete.

Brandon Towle, with Merrillville-based engineering firm Butler, Fairman & Seufert, said at a recent city council meeting that the roundabout at 61st and Wisconsin Street and Wisconsin Street from 10th Street to 61st Avenue, were opened on Wednesday.

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"We'll wait a couple of weeks and will open up Washington Street, too," Towle said.

Washington Street was closed in mid-August, while the portion of Wisconsin was closed for a number of months.

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Towle said crews will return in the spring to complete a sidewalk by the bridge, some concrete work and landscaping.

The third and largest of three phases of road reconstruction work on 61st Avenue, one of the city's main arterial streets, began with a ceremony in April 2015. Work extended from Arizona Street east to Indiana 51 and included the continued expansion of the road, as well as a center turn lane, widening of the bridge, sidewalks, lighting, a raised median with landscaping beginning at Wisconsin Street and the roundabout.

The first phase went from Marcella Street to Colorado and the second phase from Colorado to the Arizona Street intersection.

Approximately 80 percent of the cost was federally funded, with the city picking up the rest.

Karen Caffarini is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
After reaching a plea agreement, Lake County Councilman Jamal Washington was sentenced to one year of probation Thursday for a domestic incident from more than a year ago.

Washington's jury trial was scheduled to start Thursday, but that was canceled as he instead appeared with his attorney, Paul Stracci, in Porter County Superior Court to plead guilty and receive his sentence.

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Washington, 43, pleaded guilty to battery resulting in bodily injury and invasion of privacy, both misdemeanors. He was sentenced to six months in Lake County jail on each of the charges, all suspended, and one year of probation. Washington also already completed anger management as part of the deal, Stracci said.

Since he was charged in December 2015, Washington has maintained that he would continue working on the Lake County Council. Shortly after being sentenced Thursday, Washington went to a Lake County Council work session in Crown Point, as he regularly does, and said he would continue to serve out his term.

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"I would like to apologize to all of my constituents and to all the citizens of Lake County," Washington said after his sentencing.

Asked how Washington would respond to people who may question the decision to remain on the council in light of the charges, Stracci said, "Mr. Washington was elected by the voters to do a job. He absolutely does not intend to turn his back on his constituents." Washington will work "just as diligently and just as passionately" as he always has for those who elected him, Stracci said.

Washington was arrested Dec. 3, 2015, after an argument "had become heated," Stracci said in court Thursday.

"I lost my cool, and I pushed her," Washington said to the court.

He was charged with two counts of strangulation and one count of domestic battery, all felonies, after the incident at his Merrillville home.

Washington later was charged again after violating a protection order in the spring, knowingly violating the order, Stracci told the court.

Through the deal, the misdemeanor battery charge was added to the charge relating to the protection order, and the rest of his charges were dismissed.

Before being sentenced, Washington apologized to his family and the people of Lake County for what his actions had caused them.

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"It takes a second for chaos to happen, and, unfortunately, I let that second happen," Washington said.

Stracci turned toward Washington as he made a statement Thursday, saying he saw the "earnestness from which (Washington) speaks" and how remorseful Washington is.

"I can tell you wholeheartedly those few moments were a life-changing incident for Mr. Washington," Stracci told the court.

"I'm happy this is over, and I want to move forward in repairing my relationship with my family," Washington said after his sentencing. "That's most important."

The sentencing was held in Porter County after a special prosecutor, Stanley Levco, and judge, Jeffrey Thode, were previously assigned to handle the case.

Washington lost his job with the Illinois Central Bus Co. in December after the felony charges against him were filed.

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Washington, the first county council member from Merrillville, is up for re-election in 2018.

rejacobs@post-trib.com

Twitter @ruthyjacobs
A Republican state representative from Hebron wants the Porter County Election Board to consider creating vote centers, which offer fewer polling places on Election Day but allow voters to cast their ballots wherever they want.

The concept is not likely to get much further than that, though, because moving to vote centers requires a unanimous vote by the three-person Election Board, and the lone Democrat on the board said he won't agree to it.

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"As a matter of principle, I thought democracy was messy and fussy. It certainly wasn't efficient. Why would you want to sacrifice convenience for the sake of efficiency?" said Election Board member J.J. Stankiewicz, a Democrat. "I would not vote for it."

As a former member of the County Council and the Board of Commissioners and a former county Republican Party chair, state Rep. Michael Aylesworth said he knows how important long-range planning is after this year's election. Next year is an off year for local elections.

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There are two reasons to consider vote centers, he said: the need for fewer polling places, particularly important as schools grow wary of outsiders on campus in light of safety concerns, and the potential savings because fewer polling places require less staffing.

"I think efficiency can be gained by going to the vote centers, so it makes good sense," he said, adding that the Election Board will be considering new voting equipment in the coming year.

According to the Indiana Election Division's web page on vote centers, the secretary of state's office ran a pilot program from 2007 to 2010, before the state legislature made the centers an option for any county that wanted to make the switch.

Under the state law, a county's election board must unanimously vote to move to vote centers. After that, a county's commissioners and council also have to approve the measure by a simple majority of each board.

"There are 29 counties currently that have moved to the vote center model for Election Day," said Matthew Kochevar, co-general counsel for the Election Division.

The law requires counties to have a minimum of one vote center for every 10,000 voters. With 127,000 registered voters, Porter County would require at least 13 centers.

How many vote centers a county needs beyond the minimum and how best to staff them is up to each county.

"They will have to consider how much staff will they really need and not placing more burdens on the voters with long lines," Kochevar said.

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Porter County had three centers for early voting in the weeks before the primary and general elections this year, allowing a voter who lived in Valparaiso but worked in Portage, for example, to vote in Portage.

Vote centers work much the same way, but they are only open on election day. Voters can cast a ballot at any one of them during voting hours, instead of having to do so close to home.

Porter County has 123 precincts, said Kathy Kozuszek, Democratic director in the Voter Registration Office, and had 89 polling places on election day because several hosted more than one precinct.

Even with high early voting turnout, as was the case in the run-up to this year's presidential election, there could potentially be thousands of people showing up at each polling place, she said.

"I could probably cut down a couple judges and inspectors so there's a small cost savings, but I think other avenues need to be explored," she said. "Where am I going to find 13 locations big enough to host these? And any savings will be cut by equipment needs."

She would prefer to see the state move to mail-in ballots so there would be no need for poll workers or, at the very least, see the county invest in high-speed counters so absentee ballots could be counted at the county administration building on election day instead of being counted at voting sites.

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Aylesworth suggested talking about vote centers with the Election Board, said David Bengs, president of the board and one of its two Republicans, along with Clerk Karen Martin.

"Obviously, the challenge to getting vote centers is you have to get unanimous approval from the Election Board," he said.

The benefits of the centers are obvious, he said, including lower costs and more convenience for voters. Vote centers also need all-electronic equipment, including electronic poll books, which have already been controversial in the county.

Purchasing the equipment requires the support of the council to approve the funding and commissioners to approve the contracts, which necessitates jumping through "political hoops," Bengs said, if the measure ever cleared the Election Board.

"That's a huge hurdle out of the gate," he said.

Amy Lavalley is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
Kellyanne Conway smiles during an interview on Bloomberg's "With All Due Respect" in New York on July 5, 2016. (Chris Goodney, Bloomberg)

Kellyanne Conway, Donald Trump's campaign manager, orchestrated the presidential election of a man who:

 Boasted on videotape, in vulgar terms, about assaulting women.

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 Called women bimbos, pigs, slobs, dogs and hookers, publicly rated their breasts and buttocks and boasted during the campaign about his penis size.

 Won with the largest gender gap ever recorded: Not only did he lose women by a dozen points but he won men  many of them motivated by the gender resentment of Hillary Clinton  by a dozen points, too.

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And now, a month after her candidate defeated the first woman ever to be a major-party presidential nominee  Trump called Clinton "shrill" and said her only asset was "the woman card"  Conway is playing the woman card herself.

"It's a great time to be a woman in America," Conway exulted Wednesday at the Women Rule Summit, an event in Washington hosted by designer Tory Burch's foundation, Google and Politico. "We're a product of our choices, not just our circumstances. We're independent thinkers. And it's just a very special time."

Her message to the audience, many of them young women: Women should "go for it" and "ask for what we think we deserve."

What Conway is asking for now, after Trump's win, is a return to a traditional gender role. She doesn't want a job in the administration, because she wants to have time with her four kids, to help with homework and make meals. "My children are 12, 12, 8 and 7, which is bad idea, bad idea, bad idea, bad idea for mom going inside."

But fathers of young children? That's a different matter, she explained. When male colleagues suggested she could have a White House job, "I did politely mention to them that the question isn't: Would you take the job? ... The real question is: What would your wife do? And would you want the mother of your children to do it?" When she puts it that way, she said, they replied that "they wouldn't want their wife to take that job."

Conway endorsed the aspiration that "I could maybe help America's women in terms of feeling less guilty about balancing life and career."

Post Tribune Twice-weekly News updates from Northwest Indiana delivered every Monday and Wednesday >

But she seemed to lack self-awareness about the choice she made to help elect Trump. She spoke about how she didn't like the way Clinton and Sarah Palin were treated in the 2008 campaign. "I left the 2008 campaign feeling really icky," she said. "It's great to ask how we're making opportunities for women, but do we even have each other's support, frankly, on our way there?"

She expressed no such misgivings about Trump's 2016 run, in which he disparaged Carly Fiorina's face, said both Clinton and Fiorina gave him headaches, used a vulgar word for female genitalia on the stump and suggested Megyn Kelly's menstruation played a role in the Fox News personality's tough questioning of him. He had previously fat-shamed a Miss Universe and spoke of the importance of having "a young, beautiful piece of ass."

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Politico's Anna Palmer, as moderator, was gentle in questioning Conway, waiting a half-hour before mentioning the "Access Hollywood" video in which Trump bragged about grabbing women by the crotch. Conway assured everybody that Trump's apology was "heartfelt," then went on to say he was faced with a "false accuser" and that Conway "did not think about quitting, for a number of reasons I'll keep private." She said Trump is "a gentleman."

Outside the room at the Park Hyatt where Conway spoke, a photo booth for the Women Rule conference urged attendees to "tell us what empowers you." What empowered Conway on Wednesday was disparaging Trump's former opponents (Clinton's "scandalabra" and Tim Kaine's paltry crowds) and the media for errant predictions of a Clinton victory. By contrast, Conway, like her boss, betrayed a fondness for self-praise. She described her management style as patient, methodical, "tough and firm but gentle at the same time," honest, candid, "very deferential and respectful," and "with a big smile."

But after this ugly campaign, Conway and her boss will need more than a big smile. "I was always raised to respect the office of the presidency and its current occupant," said the woman whose boss led the campaign questioning the current president's legitimacy as a native-born American.

Americans respect the presidency, but Trump will have to earn respect. And you don't earn that by running a campaign that stirred up misogyny and gender-role resentment  and then proclaiming it a victory for women.

Dana Milbank is a columnist for the Washington Post.
What's Quickly? It's where readers sound off on the issues of the day. Have a quote, question or quip? Call Quickly at 312-222-2426 or email quickly@post-trib.com.

Trump's transition team was trying to get a security clearance for Michael Flynn Jr., who was spreading the fake news conspiracy theories about the Washington pizza shop. Really, is this who will be privy to the secrets of our national security?

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You're not racist or sexist just for voting for Trump, that's correct. However, you also voted for a man who has made it abundantly clear that he is racist and sexist. At the very least, you're just fine with racism and sexism. Most likely you agree with some if not all of his racist and sexist views or you wouldn't have voted for him, which in fact does make you a racist and/or sexist. Sometimes the truth hurts.

Too many people are worried about their citizenship and giving no consideration for their rights as citizens: the right to work and get paid a fair salary and the right to get a better education in a country that claims to be the best in the world.

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Trump can't be sexist or racist because you, who claim to be neither of these things, voted for him. Who can argue with that kind of logic?

The current two Air Force Ones first flew in 1987, and the contract that Trump pledges to summarily cancel would mean that Presidents after 2023, when the new planes were to be delivered, will instead be traveling in aircraft that are more than 36 years old. Why should Trump care? He'll be long out of office by then.

Post Tribune Twice-weekly News updates from Northwest Indiana delivered every Monday and Wednesday >

Donald Trump once defended outsourcing on his Trump University blog: "We hear terrible things about outsourcing jobs  how sending work outside of our companies is contributing to the demise of American businesses. But in this instance, I have to take the unpopular stance that it is not always a terrible thing."

They are thinking of adding cheerleading to the next Olympics as a sport. Will taking selfies be far behind?

I love the fact that now that the election is over, the Democrats have a boat-load of excuses starting with Hillary. Gerrymandering? Don't make me laugh. Michael Madigan and the rest of his democratic minions have gerrymander "Crook County" for over 40 years. The Democrats are the poster child for gerrymandering.

Just met with my health care adviser, my monthly premium in six years went from good insurance at $320 to bad insurance at $780 so where is affordability. Thanks Obama and the Democratic Party for nothing; Much more help from the Democratic Party and I'll be broke. Healthcare insurance about has me there now. Don't let the door hit you on the way out, President Obama. My premium might go up again.

Michael Flynn Sr., the man chosen as the next National Security Advisor, and his son have been posting bizarre conspiracy theories online. Why was one fired and one spared?

Trump supporters shouldn't get too smug about their man being named Time Magazine's Man of the Year. Adolf Hitler was also once given that honor.

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Read more at www.post-trib.com/quickly
A Skokie man has been sentenced to 18 months in jail for flying his children out of the country last year without their mother's consent or knowledge, according to FBI officials.

FBI Chicago Media Coordinator Garrett Croon said Murtaza Ali, 46, pleaded guilty to international parental kidnapping in April and was sentenced Thursday by U.S. District Judge Samuel Der-Yeghiayan.

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According to court documents, Ali, a Pakistani national, boarded a flight to Istanbul with his three children on May 2, 2015.

Ali's wife realized her husband and three children were missing after they failed to pick her up from a social gathering on May 2, the complaint states.

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The complaint said she told authorities that when she got home, the house was a mess and her children's and husband's passports and luggage were gone. She reported Ali and their children missing to the Skokie Police Department, according to the complaint.

She told authorities that her husband called her from Turkey the next morning and told her he planned to take the children to Pakistan and that she should consider joining them, the complaint states.

The complaint says the children's mother did not know about the trip and had not consented to Ali taking the children out of the country.

Ali was arrested at O'Hare International Airport upon his return to the U.S. on May 6, 2015, according to Croon.

Lee V. Gaines is a freelance reporter.
Laidlaw School fifth-grader Charlie Vlk goes over proposed improvements at the Laidlaw Park playground with Western Springs Park Board member Nicole Chen. (Kevin Beese / Pioneer Press)

Laidlaw School fifth-graders haven't even gotten to winter break and they are already thinking about summer  and summer construction.

A group of Laidlaw fifth-graders spent a recent lunch hour giving Western Springs Park District officials their thoughts on the new playground equipment planned for next summer in the park across the street from their school.

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While in favor of most of the playground design elements shown by park district representatives, the fifth-graders had some suggestions for improvement, including making the planned zip line a double unit instead of a single one to shorten the wait to use it. They also suggested adding a fireman's pole, hamster wheel and Ubo swing, which is a swing able to hold four individuals.

Laidlaw student Charlie Vlk said reviewing the proposed playground was an all-school effort.

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"We focused on trying to get feedback from not just us, but the whole school," Vlk said. "We did that by having two or three students go to a classroom and explain the park and how we were going to get their feedback. We were able to get each class to give a few suggestions and what they liked about it."

John Robinson, park district executive director, and park board member Nicole Chen were on hand to hear students' suggestions and questions.

"We thought it a good idea to get the school involved. It is right next door," Robinson said.

Laidlaw School fifth-graders and principal Erin DeBartolo listen as John Robinson, executive director of the Western Springs Park District, discusses planned improvements at nearby Laidlaw Park. (Kevin Beese / Pioneer Press)

Laidlaw is one of the two park district playgrounds that will be redone this summer. The other is in Spring Rock Park.

"Both (playgrounds) are in need of repairs because they have been around for a long time," Robinson told the students. "Typically, you get about 11 or 12 years out of a (playground), with the slides and the swings and merry-go-rounds and all the other apparatuses."

He said the existing Laidlaw playground equipment has been in place since 2005.

"One reason we like to redo the parks every 11 or 12 years is for safety," Robinson said. "A lot of times the equipment you put in one year, in 10 or 12 years the safety standards change."

One of students' big questions was what color the park equipment would be, not for their own enjoyment but to support a neighborhood family. Patrick McNaughton, a 2-year-old who played at Laidlaw Park, died recently. As Patrick's favorite color was green, students hoped that the equipment could be green in tribute to him.

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"(The students) asked me to reach out to the McNaughton family and find out what Patrick's favorite color was," Laidlaw principal Erin DeBartolo said.

Robinson said the equipment will be green and that a plaque in tribute to Patrick will be placed on a piece of playground equipment, possibly the train.

Robinson said he and Chen would take the students' suggestions back to the park board for consideration.

Fifth-graders who met with Robinson and Chen were Kayla Lovelace, Declan Kracker, Michael Avakian, Hagan Flanagan, Nathan Keese, Sydney Morgan, Lauren Bohringer, Molly Zagroba, Clare Lohnes, Mya Campbell and Vlk.

Kevin Beese is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press
As Thanksgiving approached this year, Dr. John S. "Jay" Garvin decided that he wanted to spend it with friends and family. Despite being aware of his impending death, stepson Robert S. Faurot, Jr. said, he dressed up and took part in the holiday celebration.

He prepared carefully, sister Eleanor Garvin Skinner said, checking out of the nursing home he had been in and returning to his Winnetka home.

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"He told me he was going to get a taxi and go get a manicure and get his hair cut. And he had a private trainer come in to strengthen his legs enough that he didn't need a wheelchair," said Skinner, a retired colonel in the U. S. Air Force.

Garvin, who was the first head of the department of neurology at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine and was known to peers as the "neurologist's neurologist," died from heart complications days later, on Nov. 28, at his home. He was 95.

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Garvin brought the gentle determination that marked his Thanksgiving decision to his interactions with colleagues, said Jeffrey Loeb, current head of the UIC School of Medicine's neurology department.

"There are people who embolden you to do great things by taking charge," Loeb said. "He was one of those. He wasn't trying to tell me how we should be moving forward, but if you were going in the right direction, he was there as your cheerleader."

Loeb said of Garvin's reputation, "If you're an expert in something, who do you go to for help? Well, if you're a neurologist, you go to the neurologist's neurologist, and that was Dr. Garvin."

James Stone, a former student of Garvin's and now chief of neurosurgery at Manhattan Veteran's Administration Hospital and professor of neurosurgery at New York University Medical Center, called Garvin "one of the most gifted neurological clinicians in America and among the first academic university-based neurologists in Chicago."

Garvin was born Feb. 23, 1921, in Windsor, Ill., a small town about 200 miles south of Chicago, where his father owned a hardware store, Skinner said.

"From the time I can remember, he was always playing doctor, trying to make things and people well. The rest of us were going to be firemen, we were going to be movie stars, but he never was. He never changed his mind, and it turned out well," she said. "He was compassionate. I liked that."

According to Faurot, Garvin earned his undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Illinois and graduated in 1945. Following a residency at the Illinois Neuropsychiatric Institute, he served as a captain in the U.S. Army Medical Corps from 1946 to 1948, specializing in neuropsychiatry, Faurot said.

He spent a year in England as a Fulbright Fellow at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square, in London, before returning to Chicago and holding a number of neurology teaching and clinic positions at the University of Illinois, Faurot said.

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Faurot said Garvin also served as a senior attending and consulting neurologist at several Chicago area hospitals, including Presbyterian/St. Luke's Hospital, St. Francis Hospital, Mercy Hospital, and the Veterans Administration West Side Hospital.

He headed the UIC College of Medicine's school of neurology when it was created in 1971, a position he held for 18 years, according to Faurot. Loeb said he handled well the challenges of spinning the new school out from the College of Medicine's department of neurosurgery.

"He not only spun out a separate stand-alone department, he kept good relations with the original department," Loeb said.

Under his direction, the neurology department developed programs with an emphasis on treating epilepsy, neuromuscular diseases, strokes and children's neurological diseases, Faurot said.

He said that in 1996, Garvin's sisters, Skinner and Mary Ann Coleman, endowed the John S. Garvin Professorship of Neurology, currently held by Loeb.

Garvin was a member of the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Neurology, the American Epilepsy Society, the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, the Illinois State Medical Society and numerous other professional and academic organizations, including the Chicago Literary Society, Faurot said.

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Faurot said that his stepfather turned in his later years to an appreciation of the kind of farming that had surrounded his hometown when he was growing up. He purchased farmland in Wisconsin and was a member of the Chicago Farmer's Club, Faurot said.

"He talked about farming and rotating crops, and he viewed life that way," Faurot said. "There was a time for planting, a time for growing, a time for harvesting and a time where the ground lies fallow before growing again. It's how he viewed his own life."

"He had a great life," Skinner said.

In addition to Faurot, of Wilmette, and Skinner, of Florida, Garvin is survived by his second wife, Suzanne Spencer Faurot, to who he was married for 38 years; daughters Mary Garvin of Tallahassee and Elizabeth Garvin, of New York, N.Y.; son Bruce Garvin of Los Angeles; stepson Sandy Faurot of Wilmette and stepdaughter Suzanne Faurot Barton of Media, Pa.; and seven grandchildren. He was previously married to Elizabeth Harding Stone.

Services for Garvin are scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Dec. 28 at Kenilworth Union Church, 211 Kenilworth Ave. in Kenilworth. Donations in his memory can be made to Kenilworth Union Church and the University of Illinois College of Medicine department of neurology.

kroutliffe@pioneerlocal.com

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Twitter: @pioneer_kathy
By Tongyu Zhang

A recent guideline issued by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has encouraged private investment into Chinas civilian airports. Along with reducing the number of state-owned and state-holding airports, private investors now have full access to the construction and operation of civilian airports as well as their affiliated facilities. Intermediate services, such as consulting, designing, and maintenance of airports, are now also open to qualified private and foreign entities. In addition, the approval mechanism for private investment into terminals, logistics, and other operations have been removed. The guideline also emphasized innovation of financing methods for the construction and operation of airports, especially in regards to the public-private partnership (PPP) structure.

As stated by the CAAC, in 2015, the civil aviation industry transported 436 million passengers and around 6.3 million tons of cargo and mail, and maintained steady performance growth despite the pressure of the slowing global economy. With an estimated market value exceeding US$1 trillion, China is expected to become the worlds largest aviation market over the next two decades, according to US plane makers Boeing. A positive regulatory environment, in conjunction with policies such as the 13th Five Year Plan and the One Belt, One Road initiative urging for larger and more efficient aviation services, provide vast opportunities for private investment in Chinas airports. However, strict supervision from government authorities and a relatively limited track record for foreign companies participating in such projects act as considerable obstacles for foreign investors.

RELATED: Business Advisory Services from Dezan Shira & Associates

Paths to participate in Chinas civilian airports market

By the end of 2015, China had 210 civilian airports. This number will increase to more than 260 by 2020, according to the 13th Five Year Plan. Accordingly, an RMB 77 billion (US$11.9 billion) investment into the construction of civil aviation infrastructure was announced by the CAAC in May 2016, including 11 key construction projects and 52 aviation upgrades.

The construction of an airport is a complex systematic project that includes counselling, design, construction, and maintenance. Several foreign companies already have experience participating in the preparation stage of designing and counselling in Chinese airport projects, such as in the design of Beijing Capital Airport and Guangzhou Baiyun Airport. As the intermediate service market opens up, qualified foreign investors can choose to participate in other stages of the construction process, either individually or as a joint venture. Furthermore, the new guidelines state that private capital can be invested in the comprehensive development of the land, real estate, advertising, and other facilities included in the airport economic zone accompanying the establishment of an airport.

Approval for private investment on commercial operations of an airport, such as terminals, logistics, warehousing, and ground service, will no longer be needed. This simplified procedure removes barriers for foreign companies to invest in the operations of civilian airports. The Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) predicts an increase of 4,583 civilian airliners in China over the next 20 years, indicating the growing need for related airplane support and customer services based in airports.

The mutual investment relationship between general airports and other market entities is not limited, according to the CAAC. China has a relatively less developed general aviation sector compared with its fast-growing aviation industry. However, the General Office of State Council has recently published a guideline to accelerate the development of general aviation, with a goal of building 500 general aviation airports by 2020. Together with the CAAC guideline, general airport investment should promote foreign investors entry into Chinas broader  and even more prosperous  general aviation sector.

RELATED: How Chinas VAT Reform Has Affected Real Estate and Construction

Airport funding methods

The current funds for the construction of airports in China is mainly contributed by local governments and civil aviation development funds. But with the high debt ratio of local governments, this funding structure will no longer be sustainable, and thus the introduction of private capital will become more instrumental in the construction and operation of new civilian airports. Based on the new guideline, private capital can directly participate with several different forms such as franchising, transfer of operation or stock rights, and entrusted operation. Alternatively, private capital can be invested in airport-related trust schemes or equity funds.

The PPP model has a track record in the construction of transportation infrastructure in mainland China. In terms of airports, the establishment of Hong Kong Zhuhai Airport Management in 2006 allowed Hong Kong International Airport to hold stake in and manage the operation of Zhuhai Airport. This kind of practice can be used as a reference for foreign companies to participate in Chinas civilian airport market. In addition, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) issued a circular in August to promote PPP in traditional infrastructure fields, and the civilian airports sector is specifically listed in the catalogue.

However, the proportion of foreign investment in Chinese PPP projects has been low in recent years for a variety of reasons, including the high risk and cost of such investments. Project implementation, investment withdrawal mechanisms, and the credit system can all pose risks for foreign investors. For instance, the construction of a project may be interrupted by unexpected social or financial reasons, and the risk of a local government default. Further, foreign investors need to bear a relatively high cost for communication and evaluation, such as negotiating with the local government through an agent, as well as conducting extensive due diligence. Partnering with domestic enterprises, especially state or local government owned enterprises, is a viable way to get involved.

Observations

Chinas civilian airport market is multi-dimensional; therefore, it is critical for foreign companies and investors to identify their position in the market. Qualified professional service providers should focus on their specific professional field, be it environmental consulting or special equipment provision. General aviation airports are a good entry point, especially for experienced foreign general aviation companies. Also, unlimited inter-investment between airports and other related market entities offers a key access point to the whole industry. However, due to the capital-intensive and comprehensive nature of civilian airport projects, foreign investors will inevitably need to develop a suitable PPP model in order to participate in the market.



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Establishing & Operating a Business in China 2016, produced in collaboration with the experts at Dezan Shira & Associates, explores the establishment procedures and related considerations of the Representative Office (RO), and two types of Limited Liability Companies: the Wholly Foreign-owned Enterprise (WFOE) and the Sino-foreign Joint Venture (JV). The guide also includes issues specific to Hong Kong and Singapore holding companies, and details how foreign investors can close a foreign-invested enterprise smoothly in China.

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China's e-commerce giant Alibaba Thursday signed several agreements with Thailand's Ministry of Commerce to help the southeastern Asian country develop e-commerce.

The deals were signed as Thailand's Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak headed a delegation to visit Alibaba's headquarters in Hangzhou.

Alibaba will help small and medium-sized Thai firms expand businesses on local and international e-commerce sites, according to the deals. It will also train Thai government officials on big data and artificial intelligence.

Alibaba will help Thailand develop an efficient logistics system and explore cooperation opportunities in Thailand's eastern economic corridor.

Jack Ma, chairman of Alibaba, said Thailand can create its own digital economic miracle by embracing new technology and helping its young people to develop the new economy.

In August 2015, Thailand launched a store on Alibaba's Tmall.com to sell its home brands. In November this year, Alibaba's financial affiliate Ant Financial announced a strategic investment in Thailand's payment firm Ascend Money, seeking to use its payment technology to serve more than half of Thai netizens in the next five years.
Colleges and universities should always adhere to the leadership of the Communist Party of China, President Xi Jinping told heads of domestic higher education institutions at a conference held in Beijing on Wednesday and Thursday.

Students swear an oath as they join the Communist Party of China at China University of Petroleum's campus in Qingdao, Shandong province, in April.[Photo/China Daily]

Xi said the Party committees of higher education institutions should always take the helm, be responsible for making decisions and ensure that the institutions are developing in the right direction.

He also said Party committees at all levels across the country should attach great importance to the ideology of colleges and universities and make this one of their priorities. Party chiefs and members should visit the educational institutions frequently, communicate with teachers and students, take suggestions from them and answer their questions.

Xi stressed that China has its own history, unique culture and special current situation, which means that higher education institutions should walk on their own path and make themselves socialist institutions with Chinese characteristics.

He added that the goal of colleges and universities should be consistent with the whole country's development target.

Their work should serve the people, the Party's governance, the development of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics and reform and opening-up, as well as the socialist modernization drive.

Xi also said a teaching system for philosophy and social sciences with Chinese characteristics should be built as soon as possible.

More high-quality textbooks on these subjects should be compiled and published, and a more scientific and transparent system of evaluating the academic outcomes in these fields should be established, he said.

Liu Wei, president of Renmin University of China, who attended the conference, said he was inspired by Xi's remarks about "nurturing talent for the cause of socialism".

"Setting moral examples for students and helping students develop their talent should be the top priority of colleges and universities, as well as teachers," he said.

"To do that, philosophy and social sciences, with deep thought and humanistic concerns, can play a key role. We should reform the teaching and curriculum in these subjects, making the courses more attractive, persuasive and appealing to students," Liu added.

Peng Long, president of Beijing Foreign Studies University, said he was particularly impressed by Xi's words about college teachers' role as guides and instructors for students.

"From President Xi's remarks, we know that college and university teachers are very crucial to students' growth. And for this reason, teachers must have both excellent academic abilities and noble characters," Peng said.
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Two people sustained minor injuries when a magnitude-6.2 earthquake jolted Hutubi County in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region at 1:15 p.m. on Thursday, local authorities said.

Students gather to leave school after a quake at a local primary school in Hutubi County, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Dec. 8, 2016. [Photo: Xinhua/Zhao Ge]

The epicenter was located at 43.83 degrees north latitude and 86.35 degrees east longitude. The quake struck at a depth of 6 km, and was felt strongly in Urumqi, the regional capital 100 km away, and other parts of northern Xinjiang.

The moderate quake was followed by more than 140 aftershocks on Thursday afternoon, including six measuring between 3 and 3.9 magnitude.

Seven houses were toppled, another 18 were severely damaged and 379 had cracks following the tremor, according to the local command center for earthquakes.

The China Earthquake Administration has launched an emergency response, and work teams have been sent to Xinjiang to help with relief work.

Wang Guiqin, who lives on the second floor of a building in Hutubi, told Xinhua that "the building was shaking and the lamp looked like it would fall. The balcony door shook open."

Liu Xingguo in Hutubi said he was in his yard when the quake struck. He felt the ground shaking, but his brick house was undamaged. He did not see any other houses collapse in the village.

A Xinhua reporter in Urumqi said his office building shook for more than 10 seconds.

Drink cans and bottles fell from shelves in a supermarket in Urumqi.

Local schools in Hutubi suspended classes on Thursday afternoon.

Meanwhile, 24 trains have been affected as local railway authorities suspended rail services out of safety concerns.

A safety check was conducted on railway facilities between Urumqi and Kuytun, according to the Urumqi Railway Bureau.

The quake's epicenter was in northern Hutubi, a sparsely-populated region at an altitude of 1,500 meters. More than 70 percent of houses in Hutubi and the neighboring regions of Manas and Shihezi are government-subsidized earthquake-proof properties.
A 21-year-old German girl recently donated her "panda blood", or Rh-negative blood, on two occasions to save a 75-year-old woman in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province.

German girl Christa Maria Idel donates her Rh-negative blood to save a 75-year-old woman in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, on Tuesday. [Photo/China Daily]

Christa Maria Idel, a language student at Zhejiang University, came to China to study for one semester, adopting the Chinese name Gao Xiongmao.

When she found out that her blood type is Rh-negative, she called herself Xiongmao, the Chinese name for panda.

She is 1.75 meters tall, so she surnamed herself Gao, which means tall in Chinese.

"I was told that only 0.3 percent of the population in China have 'panda blood'. The proportion in some Western countries is as high as 6 percent or higher. This was news to me," she said.

Out of curiosity, Gao searched on Weibo to find out more information about the blood type.

She found a post asking for help from the family of an old woman who suffers from aplastic anemia and fainted in October.

She left a message on the post and a doctor contacted her a couple of days later.

The old woman, Kong Qinmei, has merely one-fiftieth of the normal platelet level and requires blood transfusions to keep her alive.

There are 4,000 "panda blood" carriers registered at the provincial blood center, but only tens of carriers are in Wenzhou and can be contacted, and the hospital was unable to find enough blood for one transfusion.

Gao decided to help Kong.

In the middle of last month, Gao skipped class and took a high-speed train to Wenzhou, a southern city she had never heard of about four hours from Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province.

"I met the family. They said 'thank you' to me many times, but I don't think it is a big deal," she said.

Born in Krefeld, Germany, Gao studied at the University of Goettingen, majoring in Chinese and sports. She had been learning Chinese for two years and came to Zhejiang University as an exchange student to improve her Chinese ability.

"My father is a doctor and always tells me to help those in need. On the train back to the university, I felt great happiness," she said.

However, after finding out on the weekend that Kong had failed to find enough donors for her latest transfusion, Gao went to Wenzhou on Tuesday and volunteered to donate her blood again, without hesitation.

"I feel that I have a special connection with Wenzhou and the family now," she said.
This year continues to be the most phenomenal year in geopolitics with the Italian referendum and Austrian elections, throwing up seemingly contradictory results confusing the world even more as to the future of the EU.

In Italy, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi staked his political future on a referendum for constitutional reform, just as Britain's David Cameron did with disastrous results.

Regardless of his intentions, what Renzi managed to do was polarizing Italian society and creating an alliance between the far-left populist Five Star Movement and the far right opposed to the Prime Minister's centrist politics.

Renzi inevitably suffered the same fate as Cameron  being forced to resign  and thus plunged the EU into further crisis.

In Austria, it was a different sort of battle. After the last election, where the far right came within inches of winning, this time the stakes were even higher. Norbert Hofer, the hip and handsome far-right leader, if he'd won, would have been the first on that side of politics to become head of state since WWII as his party was actually formed by an original Nazi.

However, he lost, showing that, regardless of how dissatisfied Austrians are with everything that's been happening in Europe since 2015, they won't go as far as electing any tainted with Nazism.

It is, therefore, important not to fall into the trap of linear causality as that won't help us understand the causes and the significant social changes happening around us. While it's tempting to analyze these two votes within the template of populists versus establishment, or globalists versus nativists, it's not strictly true.

Firstly, the Italian referendum fundamentally was not related to the EU, bur rather focused on the Italian political system. Mainstream politicians, including former prime ministers, were against Renzi. Nor does it really have any impact on Italian political stability and, therefore, market volatility.

Even though Renzi won the last election by somehow combining far-left and far-right forces, centrist forces still enjoy majority support from the electorate. Infact, a general election now would possibly produce a result similar to the Austrian one.

This, then, brings us to a sobering thought; that the forces which are against EU are not marginalized and are not on the extreme fringe. They are serious and stable, and have valid concerns about EU policies that won't go away or can be brushed under the carpet.

There are valid concerns in Italy about EU economic policies. Italy has also been in the forefront of the migrant crisis, being merely 200 km from the North African coastline. Similarly, in Austria, migration is a huge and valid concern. For countries that bore the brunt of rising crime rates, including rape, murder, terrorist attacks and an added burden on the social welfare system, the available choices are becoming starker.

To give an example: at the time of writing this article, a teenage girl, daughter of a senior EU official, who worked as a volunteer in a refugee camp, was found raped and murdered, and a 17-year-old Afghan migrant was arrested. Such crimes in Germany help highlight the vexing issue of migration which is all over the social media, and a Europe justifiably seething with anger.

There are a lot of problems for the resurgence of nationalism in Europe, but two causes form the forefront: a tribalistic backlash against uncontrolled migration, and an economic downturn for over half-a-decade that makes it difficult for many European states to absorb newcomers.

The Italian and Austrian votes show the rage virus clearly seen elsewhere has reached Europe, although it is not yet an existential crisis for EU.

The EU survives, for now. Bigger challenges will come next year when France and Germany go to polls. However, if EU officials as well as national leaders seem complacent and are yet to address the serious issues like migration and economy, that could come back to haunt them next year.

Sumantra Maitra is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/SumantraMaitra.htm

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors only, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.
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A cessation of hostilities between warring factions is especially crucial for war-ravaged Aleppo, senior adviser to the UN Special Envoy for Syria, Jan Egeland, reiterated Thursday.

"We need a pause for the sake of the population of east Aleppo," Jan Egeland told reporters.

"At the moment those who try to go through crossing points are caught in crossfire, shelling and risk being hit by snipers...it is a very intense battle scene," he added.

Once Syria's commercial hub, Aleppo has been divided in two since 2012, with western parts under Syrian government control and eastern districts held by rebels seeking to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

A military operation launched by Damascus on Nov. 24 broke the deadlock however, with Syrian government troops seizing some 75 percent of eastern Aleppo.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported last Friday that ensuing fighting resulted in the displacement of 31,500 civilians.

With frontlines changing on a daily basis, the diplomat warned that many of those left in rebel-held districts are now crammed in an enclave only 25 percent the size of the area previously controlled by opposition groups.

Egeland also blamed the UN's diminishing access on the ground to reach civilians living in besieged and hard-to-reach areas, including east Aleppo, on the lack of a "united humanitarian diplomacy."

He said the UN stood ready to send much-needed food and medical supplies to what is left of rebel-held east Aleppo as soon as all parties to the conflict provide sufficient safety guarantees.
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The Somali army killed at least ten Al-Shabaab militants and injured several others on Thursday during fighting in Goof-Gaduud area near the southwestern town of Baidoa town, an army commander said.

Gen. Ibrahim Yarow told reporters the army and South West State forces repulsed the militants and recovered weapons during the fight.

"Al-Shabaab militants attacked our base here early Thursday, then heavy fighting broke out and we repelled the terrorists. We killed 10 Al-Shabaab fighters and wounded several others. We lost some soldiers and the situation is calm at the moment," Yarow said.

Independent sources told Xinhua by phone that five government soldiers were killed in the attack.

However, the Al-Shabaab Islamist group said its fighters overran the military bases of South West State forces, killed four soldiers and seized weapons from the Somali army, before briefly seizing Goof-Gaduud.
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Ukraine is committed to settling the conflict in its eastern regions through dialogue and implementation of the Minsk Peace Agreement, Ukrainian Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak said on Thursday.

"The conflict in eastern Ukraine can be solved only by peaceful means at the negotiating table," Poltorak was quoted as saying by the Defense Ministry's press service.

Despite the escalation of the situation in Donetsk and Lugansk regions, the Ukrainian army is implementing the provisions of the Minsk agreement, including those on separating the forces along the frontline, Poltorak said.

The conflict between government troops and independence-seeking insurgents in eastern Ukraine has been raging since April 2014, claiming some 10,000 lives.

In September this year, the Contact Group on Ukraine crisis agreed to separate the rival forces to pave the way for a sustainable ceasefire and realization of political steps prescribed in the Minsk agreement, which is designed to end the confrontation.
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The UN Security Council should remain united to reach consensus and form resultant force on ending crisis in Syria, said a Chinese envoy during his latest trip to Damascus.

Xie Xiaoyan, Special Envoy of the Chinese Government on Syrian issue, speaks during a press conference in Damascus, Syria, Dec. 8, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

Responding to China's recent veto on the draft resolution relating to situation in Syria's northern city Aleppo, Xie Xiaoyan, Special Envoy of the Chinese Government on Syrian issue, said that the draft resolution without full consultation was not conducive in improving the situation in Syria.

Xie called for unity in the Security Council as the Syrian crisis entered into a crucial and sensitive stage, and countries concerned should avoid creating disputes and complicating the issue.

China and Russia at the Security Council voted against a draft resolution proposed by the several countries to establish a truce in Aleppo without the evacuation of rebels from that key area.

Syria's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem expressed in talks with Xie his gratitude for China and Russia for the veto, as the draft resolution did not stipulate the exit of militants from the eastern part of the city.

"The double veto by Russia and China is an attempt to thwart the western countries' goal to offer the rebels in eastern Aleppo a chance to regroup and empower themselves," said Hmaidi Abdullah, a Syrian political analyst.

Another analyst, Taleb Ibrahim, said that the vetoed resolution will also distract the army from advancing further into the rebel-held areas.

The draft resolution came as the Syrian army made huge progress in Aleppo. The army now has become in control of over 80 percent of the rebel-held part east of Aleppo city, as part of a major campaign aiming to drive out the rebels from the city.

Several truces have previously taken place, but quickly failed to hold on or bring in any solution. Both the government and the rebels traded barbs on who is behind the faltering truces.

Xie started his second visit to Damascus as China's special envoy Wednesday, holding talks with al-Moallem, and Minister of State for National Reconciliation Affairs Ali Haidar as well as representatives from the opposition during his two-day visit.

The envoy stressed in different occasions during his visit that China will continue to play a constructive role in helping Syria recover peace and stability at an early date.

He noted that the Syrian situation is still "very complicated," calling on related parties to maintain patience to find a solution.

Xie, former ambassador to Iran and Ethiopia as well as representative to the African Union, was appointed by the Chinese government in March, 2016 with the aim of better promoting dialogue, contributing Chinese wisdom and communicating with other parties to facilitate a proper solution.
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Cuba hopes the next U.S. government headed by President-elect Donald Trump will continue to build a "respectful" relationship with Cuba, a Cuban official said on Tuesday.

"Cuba would expect the new U.S. government to take into account these (positive) results that we have achieved" in almost two years after the two countries decided to end more than half a century of enmity and restore diplomatic ties, said Josefina Vidal, director general of U.S. affairs at the Cuban Foreign Ministry.

Vidal made the remarks at a press conference following the fifth meeting of the bilateral commission between Washington and Havana.

The meeting took place at a subtle time for the Cuba-U.S. relationship, when Trump threatened to "terminate" the deal with Cuba if Havana was not prepared to renegotiate certain terms right after the death of former President Fidel Castro.

The U.S. president-elect, who considered Obama's policy "weak", has said on several occasions that he would seek a "better deal" with Cuba.

Cuba believes the rapprochement benefits both countries and meets mutual interests.

According to Vidal, Cuba intends to conclude most of the issues the two nations have been negotiating before Jan. 20, the inauguration day for Trump.

The official said Cuba hopes to continue the bilateral commission meeting with the Trump administration. Established in 2015, the meeting has served as an important negotiation channel between the United States and Cuba.

Despite the thaw between the two nations, Washington maintains its trade embargo against the island. Obama has insisted the embargo should be lifted, but only the U.S. Congress can lift it, and the Republican leadership is not expected to allow such a move anytime soon.

Cuba and the United States normalized diplomatic relations in July 2015.
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The third China-U.S. ministerial dialogue on fighting cyber crimes and other related affairs issued Thursday a list of positive fruits as the two sides worked hard to strengthen cooperation in cybersecurity.

The dialogue was co-chaired by China's State Councilor and Minister of Public Security Guo Shengkun with U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson.

During this round of dialogue, both sides endorsed the establishment of the dialogue mechanism as beneficial to bilateral communication and enhanced cooperation, and both regarded further solidifying, developing, and maintaining the dialogue mechanism as beneficial to mutual interests.

Both sides recommitted to cooperate on investigating cyber crimes and related matters emanating from China or the United States and to refrain from cyber-enabled theft of intellectual property with the intent of offering competitive advantages to companies or commercial sectors, said the document.

China and the United States identified a number of areas for future cooperation on enhancing cybersecurity, including enhancing network hygiene by cleaning and patching malware infections in respective networks, engaging in regular reciprocal sharing of malicious IP addresses, malware samples and other network protection information.

The two countries pledged to continue discussion on future cooperation in cybersecurity of critical infrastructure, and to hold as early as possible in 2017 a China-U.S.government and technology company roundtable to discuss cybersecurity issues of mutual concern.

As to the fight against cyber terrorism, both sides acknowledged the seminar on misuse of technology and communications to facilitate violent acts of terrorism held in November this year in China. Both sides will consider holding another seminar in 2017.

The two countries agreed that the dialogue should continue to be held each year.

In his remarks to the meeting, Guo noted that under the auspices of Chinese President Xi Jinping and his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama, China-U.S. cooperation in safeguarding cybersecurity is booming and has yielded positive outcomes in cracking down on cyber crimes and related matters.

Calling the current China-U.S. cooperation in cybersecurity a link between past and future, Guo proposed that the two sides press on in using the dialogue mechanism as the main channel for communication in tackling cybersecurity issues, give prompt and effective response to the requests from the other side, and constructively manage their differences.

The U.S. side said that China and the United States share common interests in fighting cyber crimes and protecting cybersecurity, and the high-level dialogue mechanism also serves as a crucial platform for candid communication and enhancing mutual understanding and trust between law enforcement officials of the two countries.

According to 2014 data from the Cyberspace Administration of China, China has been a victim of cyber-attacks. More than 10,000 websites are tampered with every month, and about 80 percent of government websites suffered attacks, mainly originating in the United States.

Also, the Internet Society of China reported that 84 percent of Internet users in the country have been affected by personal information leaks. The number of Internet users in China hit 710 million in June this year.

China's top legislature in November adopted a cybersecurity law to safeguard sovereignty on cyberspace, national security and the rights of citizens.
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Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's upcoming visit to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii won't whitewash Japan's original sin on history at a time when the country continues to re-write the past and ignore the pleas of its victims for a genuine apology.

Abe, unpopular in Asia and the world at large for his unapologetic approach to Japan's wartime atrocities and arbitrary pursuit of militarism, will visit Pearl Harbor in late December, accompanied by the U.S. President Barack Obama.

The surprise announcement will make Abe the first sitting Japanese prime minister to visit the site of a Japanese sneak attack on the U.S. force on Dec. 7, 1941.

However, the world - including the United States - shouldn't be fooled by Japan's move because it overlooks Abe's desire for historical revisionism and military ambitions.

The trip is widely believed to be an attempt to relieve Japan of its past war debts to the United States and demonstrate the importance of the close ties between the former adversaries, amid uncertainties lingering over the shape of the alliance under U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.

But Abe's trip won't go far enough.

Although Abe will visit Pearl Harbor to mourn those who died and portray Japan has a peaceful nation, don't expect an apology for the attack 75 years ago.

Abe's ultimate dream is as clear as daylight. Since starting his second term in office in 2012, the prime minister has begun tearing apart Japan's post-war constitution, including exercising the right to collective self-defense, enacting new security laws and falsifying historical accounts and textbooks.

In fact, the upcoming visit to Pearl Harbor is only a diplomatic show elaborated by the Abe administration to send out misleading messages about World War II while failing to reconcile with those Asian nations that suffered at Japan's hands.

Perhaps there's been reconciliation between Japan and the United States, but the same cannot be said about Japan and its Asian neighbors.

Japan's reconciliation with the U.S. should not mean the former is off the hook for all of its past war crimes in Asia. Japan must acknowledge its past militarism if it wishes to gain the respect of its Asian neighbors. A trip to Pearl Harbor won't cut it.
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South Korean parliament overwhelmingly passed a historic bill Friday to impeach scandal-scarred President Park Geun-hye as it gained the two-thirds majority vote.

The final tally was 234 votes cast in favor of impeachment, with 56 against and 2 abstentions. Seven votes were invalid. One legislator did not take part in the voting.

President Park will be stripped of all powers immediately after receiving the copied result on paper, waiting for the final decision by the Constitutional Court which may take as long as 180 days.

The permanent impeachment requires the court's two-thirds approval.

REASONS FOR IMPEACHMENT

Opposition and independent lawmakers on Saturday put forward a bill to impeach President Park Geun-hye.

The impeachment motion claims that Park gravely violated laws and the Constitution for nearly four years in office.

It says Park's breach of the Constitutional was grave enough to justify her removal from office.

The constitutional violations, according to the impeachment bill, include collusion with a longtime friend to extort money from companies and to give that confidante extraordinary sway over government decisions.

The reasons for impeachment also include Park's inaction during the deadly sinking of the Sewol ferry in 2014 that claimed more than 300 lives, mostly teenagers from a school. The opposition claims that the president breached her duty to protect the safety of the people aboard the ferry.

Park has publicly apologized three times and acknowledged that she received help from her confidante, Choi Sool-sil, in editing her speeches and with unspecified "public relations" matters. But she denies involvement in Choi's alleged criminal activities and inaction in the sinking of the Sewol ferry.

INFLUENCE ON S. KOREA'S POLITICS

After the impeachment, Park will be suspended from office immediately pending a final decision by the Constitutional Court, which has as long as 180 days to elaborate and rule on it.

During the period, Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn is to become acting president and temporarily assume presidential power.

But as a Park loyalist, Hwang is not favored by the opposition and many citizens. If the National Assembly recommends a new prime minister, there will be an intense struggle between the ruling Saenuri Party and the opposition.
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Cuba and Russia on Thursday signed seven cooperation agreements covering technology, military industry, aviation, medical equipment, and railroad transportation.

The agreements were signed during a visit by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin.

Cuba-Russia cooperation is in its best shape in over two decades thanks to both sides' political willingness to deepen their ties, said Cuban Vice President Ricardo Cabrisas.

Rogozin said Moscow and Havana are key allies in facing "external pressures" from Western powers.

"Several Western countries like the United States try to put pressure on us by imposing sanctions, but Russia and Cuba share the same idea regarding independence and sovereignty," he added.

Russia is one of Cuba's top trading partners and Havana seeks to deepen cooperation with Moscow. The Soviet Union was the island's main ally until its disintegration in 1991.

Rogozin traveled to Havana after visiting Venezuela, where he met with President Nicolas Maduro.
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China's recently released Policy Paper on Latin America and the Caribbean serves to strengthen ties between the two regions, analysts said.

Nadia Radulovich and Maria Cecilia Peralta, co-founders of the Argentine consulting group Asia Viewers, regard the document as a tool to generate, expand and improve a joint strategy for ties.

"The new document seeks to boost bilateral commitment through cooperation in various areas such as the economy, manufacturing, science and technology, information, investment and foreign trade, and take the comprehensive and cooperative partnership between China and Latin America to new heights," they said.

"The policy paper also underscores the potential to build on the existing relationship between the two regions," said the two experts, who serve as consultants to the Argentine Council for International Relations on China-related matters.

"The possibilities for exchange and cooperation between the parties are numerous, such as partnerships for comprehensive cooperation," they said.

In 2015, trade exchange between China and Latin America reached 236.5 billion U.S. dollars, according to Chinese statistics. The country has free-trade agreements with several regional countries such as Chile, Peru and Costa Rica.

The concerted growth came largely in the wake of China's first policy paper on Latin America issued in 2008.

In 2016, regional ties made more headway, including on the cultural front, with the Year of China-Latin America Cultural Exchange.

Today, China stands as the second largest trading partner and third largest foreign investor in the region, while Latin America is China's seventh biggest trade partner and a leading destination for Chinese foreign investment.

The consultants said financial cooperation regarding infrastructure, energy, trade, agriculture and joint food security will serve as the axis of China-Latin American ties in the coming years.

"We underscored the importance of studying and analyzing the document so our region can also adhere to the new Chinese commitment and make the most of the possibilities this new phase in relations can generate," the experts said.
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China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi will pay an official visit to Switzerland from December 10 to 12 at the invitation of his Swiss counterpart Didier Burkhalter.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang made the announcement at a routine news briefing Friday.

During his visit, Wang will meet with Swiss President Johann Schneider-Ammann and Burkhalter in Berne, and discuss bilateral relations and issues of common concern, Lu said.

Wang will also visit Geneva and have meetings with leaders of the United Nations, the World Health Organization and the International Olympic Committee.

Calling Switzerland an important cooperation partner of China in Europe, Lu said that the China-Switzerland relations played a leading role for the development of China-Europe relations. Cooperation between China and Switzerland boasted solid foundation and big potentials, Lu added.

During the state visit of Schneider-Ammann to China in April, the two countries established an innovative strategic partnership.

"This maps out the new direction for bilateral pragmatic cooperation. China is willing to make joint efforts with Switzerland to boost bilateral ties and cooperations," Lu said.
Workers assemble smartphones at a Foxconn Technology Group plant in Yantai, Shandong province. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Foxconn plan to invest in the US unlikely to harm China's overall prospects, say experts

China's attraction as a top investment destination remains strong due to the advantages offered by its supply chain, infrastructure and market size, experts said, after a major Apple Inc supplier confirmed it is mulling investment in the United States.

Foxconn Technology Group, which employs hundreds of thousands of workers in the Chinese mainland assembling the iconic iPhones and iPads, said it is in preliminary talks to expand its operations in the US.

"While the scope of the potential investment has not been determined, we will announce the details of any plans following the completion of direct discussions between our leadership and the relevant US officials," Foxconn said in a statement.

The comments came after a Foxconn logo was spotted on a document held by SoftBank Corp CEO Masayoshi Son when he wrapped up a meeting with US President-elect Donald Trump in New York. The Japanese firm pledged to invest $50 billion in the US over the next four years.

It is not so easy to relocate manufacturing, said Sun Lijian, a professor of economics at Fudan University, citing the need to find properly skilled labor and build a solid supply chain.

"China has clusters of efficient suppliers inside the country and across neighboring ASEAN economies, which other countries, even including the US, would struggle to duplicate," Sun said.

China also has improved infrastructure that facilitates logisticsthe country plans to build 10 airports a year until 2020as well as a growing level of automation, a goal upheld in the government's Made in China 2025 strategy, he added.

While investors are drawn to the US economy because it has a skilled and productive workforce and favorable tax policies, the possible Apple relocation is likely to consist of final assembly, rather than high-tech component manufacturing, said Xu Mingqi, a senior research professor at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.

China is also grabbing a bigger share of higher-margin customer services, which would in turn strengthen Asian supply chains. "In this context, local contractors have the edge over distant rivals," he said.

In addition, more than 60 percent of US companies in China still regard the country as among top global investment destinations, according to a survey by the American Chamber of Commerce in China and Bain & Co earlier this year.
China's foreign trade could continue its upswing early next year, after both exports and imports posted a surprise pickup in November, according to analysts.

Foreign trade volume increased to 2.35 trillion yuan ($341.5 billion) in November, up by 8.9 percent year-on-year, according to figures released by the General Administration of Customs on Thursday. Exports grew by 5.9 percent year-on-year, and imports by 13 percent.

Analysts said the data signaled that the nation's foreign trade situation could improve early next year. The decline of exports had gradually narrowed in the past several months before the unexpected turn.

"For the performance early next year, China's exports would be mainly affected by the United States. It is projected that China's exports to the US could improve as the market is bullish on the United States' economic recovery," said Zhou Mi, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation of the Ministry of Commerce.

"Better-than-expected trade data out of China today reflects both an uptick in global demand as well as the continued strength of the domestic economy," said Julian Evans-Pritchard, an economist at Capital Economics in Singapore, on Thursday.

"Despite today's positive surprise, the medium-term outlook for Chinese trade remains challenging," he told Bloomberg.

China's Export Leading Indicator grew by 1.3 month-on-month to 36.9, suggesting the downward pressure could be reduced early next year, according to the General Administration of Customs.

The index is a monthly barometer to predict China's export trend for the coming two or three months.

Exports to the European Union, China's largest trading partner, climbed by 1.5 percent in the first 11 months, while exports to the US declined by 0.9 percent.

Tang Guanyu, chairman of Wuxi ABC Zipper Manufacturer Co, chose to invest 100 million yuan in three factories to enlarge manufacturing ability. He said he expected this will add at least 300 million yuan to the value of output.

"Although I haven't seen obvious growth on either the overseas or domestic market as the figures showed, I believe it is a great chance to buy manufacturing enterprises that are facing financial constraints but with potential production capability," said Tang.
Homebuyers visit a real estate show in Beijing. [Photo/China Daily]

The gap between limited supply and high demand for developable land in core cities has pushed up the price by 50 percent, denting developers' profit margins and driving developers and investors to seek land in suburbs and lower-tier cities.

A research note from Centaline Property Ltd said the top 40 developers, by sales revenue, in China have spent a combined 1.01 trillion yuan ($1,467.74 billion) purchasing land between Jan 1 and Nov 30, 2016an increase of more than 25 percent year-on-year. The average price was 6,062 yuan per square meter, a 50 percent year-on-year increase.

Five developers have each spent more than 70 billion yuan on land purchases, and 16 developers have each spent more than 20 billion yuan.

"The 50 percent year-on-year growth of land purchase costs means that the selling price will grow further, giving more pressure to developers to decrease inventories, particularly those who develop projects in cities with stricter policies for sales of residential properties," said Zhang Dawei, an analyst with Centaline Property Ltd.

About 70 percent of land parcels purchased by developers in 2016 are in cities which have strengthened controls over residential property transactions, the report showed.

Market insiders said that land prices in some cities, as a result of the short supply of developable land, are growing to a level that makes it very difficult for the developers to achieve satisfactory yields on their invested capital.

"(In China) ... margins are too thin. If you look at land sales prices, they are now multiples of current average selling prices of already existing buildings; we don't see that kind of growth going forward," said a fund manager quoted in research by PwC and the Urban Land Institute which surveyed more than 600 investors and developers about their views on the real estate markets in China and other cities in Asia.

Sally Sun, partner, assurance and analyst with PwC, said developers and investors are shifting from prestigious locations in key cities to sub-centers or suburban areas, where supplies are more ample.

"As land costs in key cities are getting higher, developers are likely to look at commercial projects instead of just residential, because the success of projects such as shopping malls, office buildings and hotels depends more on management and maintenance capacities while location plays a lesser role than in residential properties," said Sun.

Developers of residential properties are also likely to purchase more land in satellite cities, taking advantage of fast developing commuting infrastructure such as inter-city trains or subway systems, enabling more residents to have housing at a lower cost, said Kenneth Rhee, CEO of Huhan Business Advisory (Shanghai) and chief representative of the Urban Land Institute.

Many developers, knowing that land prices are high and the competition is fierce in land parcel auctions, are still making every effort to acquire land because they have to secure a land reserve pool for future development. Otherwise, they will end up with no projects in the near future, said Albert Lau, CEO of Savills China, in an interview earlier this year.
CANBERRA - Australia's Treasurer Scott Morrison approved on Friday the sale of Australia's largest pastoral land holding ,S. Kidman & Co, to a partnership involving local mining magnate Gina Rinehart and Chinese consortium Shanghai CRED.

Following months of speculation as to whether or not Morrison would approve a bid involving a foreign firm, the Treasurer released a statement on Friday formally approving the sale of the cattle empire to Australian Outback Beef (AOB), a venture 67 percent owned by Gina Rinehart's Hancock Prospecting and 33 percent by China's Shanghai CRED.

Morrison had previously knocked back Chinese-majority bids for the empire due to worries over "national security" and "national interest", but under the deal struck with AOB, Morrison said there would be no cause for concern.

"Consistent with the recommendation from the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB), I have decided that the acquisition of Kidman as proposed would not be contrary to the national interest and will be permitted to proceed as proposed," Morrison said in a statement on Friday.

Under the agreement, S. Kidman & Co's contentious Anna Creek holding, which backs onto the Royal Australian Air Force's (RAAF) Woomera weapons testing range, would not be included as part of the sale to AOB.

"Under the proposal the largest station in the Kidman group, Anna Creek and its outstation The Peake, will be acquired by the Williams Family, a local farming family with properties that adjoin Anna Creek," Morrison said.

"The remainder of the S. Kidman & Co. Limited business will be acquired by Australian Outback Beef Pty Ltd (Outback Beef).

"Under the proposal Australian-owned Hancock will control the Board, and will control day-to-day operation of the business. Kidman will remain majority Australian owned under this proposal, and remain an Australian incorporated company headquartered in South Australia."

Morrison said the AOB deal in conjunction with the separate sale of Anna Creek would mean the Kidman cattle empire will remain majority Australian owned.

"Currently Kidman is 33.9 percent foreign owned," Morrison said. "With the sale of Anna Creek and The Peake, the proposal I am approving today represents a significant increase in overall Australian ownership from 66.1 percent to 74.7 percent."

Earlier this year, Morrison knocked back a Chinese-majority $280 million bid for the landholding, while the AOB bid is expected to be in the ball-park of $295 million.

It is unclear as to whether or not AOB will pay less for the acquisition seeing as though the Anna Creek station is off the table.

The Kidman empire covers 101,000 square km of pastoral land, representing 2.6 percent of Australia's total agricultural land.
PRETORIA - A report released Thursday shows that Chinese enterprises in South Africa are making positive contributions to the socio-economic well-being of the country.

According to the report on the development of Chinese enterprises in South Africa unveiled by the South Africa-China Economic and Trade Association, there are more than 300 Chinese companies including representative offices in South Africa and among them about 140 are large and medium-sized companies.

The Chinese companies have been involved in such fields as real estate, mining, automobiles, finance, construction, textile, logistics and household appliances, the report said.

By the end of 2015, Chinese investment in South Africa reached about $13 billion. The Chinese enterprises employed more than 26,000 people in South Africa, of whom 24,000 were locals, the report said.

"Over the years, the Chinese enterprises have devoted themselves to South Africa's economic and social development," Chinese Ambassador to South Africa Tian Xuejun said at a ceremony to launch the report.

The Chinese companies "have strictly abided by laws and regulations, maintained sound relations with local communities, earnestly fulfilled their social responsibilities and been actively engaged in the development of South Africa's education, health and social charity," Tian said.

Tian said despite the sluggish global economic growth, the Chinese enterprises are working hard to maintain investment and production, and keep jobs in South Africa.

The Chinese enterprises are now working with their South African partners to deepen cooperation in fields such as infrastructure construction, development of special economic zones and industrial parks, equipment manufacturing, industrial capacity, marine economy, exploration of energy resources, and finance, Tian said.

"Both sides are energetically pushing forward the reindustrialization and the social and economic transformation of South Africa. Those efforts once again prove that the Chinese enterprises have taken roots in the Rainbow Nation and their future has been closely connected with South Africa and its people," he added.

The report shows that Chinese investment has improved the living standards of South Africans by improving the level of science and technology, the development of local economies and job opportunities.

Mogokare Richard Seleke, director-general of South Africa's Department of Public Enterprises, said the report is a fair assessment of the South African environment.

While promising to address the concerns and challenges the Chinese enterprises face in South Africa, Seleke urged them to consider investing in rural areas, saying that "there are untapped opportunities in the countryside."

Cheng Jun, chairman of the South Africa-China Economic and Trade Association and CEO of the Bank of China in Johannesburg, said that the Chinese enterprises have integrated themselves well with local communities and improved people's livelihood.

"While the Chinese enterprises continue to grow and develop, they have faced a series of social and economic challenges such as security risk, legal risk, labor risk, operational risk and exchange rate risk," Cheng said.

Aptserv Consulting Chairman Michael Paketh, who has worked with China's Sinosteel in South Africa, Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana, told Xinhua that the Chinese enterprises are doing a good job in Africa.

Paketh said the Chinese are honest and friendly, and have high standards of business ethics. "They are good partners. They have given Africa opportunities for development ... They focus on business and do not interfere in the politics of other countries and I respect them for that."

Chinese official data shows that bilateral trade between China and South Africa exceeded $46 billion in 2015.

The South Africa-China Economic and Trade Association, established in 2011, is a non-governmental organization launched by Chinese enterprises and some companies owned by ethnic Chinese in South Africa, with more than 120 members.
BEIJING - Chinese steel saw more trade remedy probes during the first 11 months of 2016 than the previous year, an official said on Friday.

A total of 41 investigations were launched over steel products imported from China by 16 countries and regions, up 24 percent year on year, and involving products worth $6.8 billion, Shen Danyang, a spokesperson of the Ministry of Commerce, said during a press conference.

"Members of the World Trade Organization have the right to initiate such investigations, but they must strictly observe related rules and fully ensure the legal rights and interests of Chinese companies," Shen said.

Given the worldwide steel overcapacity, many countries have resorted to protectionism and blamed Chinese steel for their domestic economic woes, instead of pressing ahead with reforms.

"The world should work together to face the problem, rather than just targeting China," Shen said.

China has made steady headway in downsizing its own steel production. The industry slashed 45 million tonnes of capacity in the Jan.-Nov. period ahead of schedule, and regulators have shut down illegal projects and guaranteed there will not be any illegal new steel mills.

In fact, China digests most of its steel production. In the first ten months, China exported 92.63 million tons of steel, up only 0.5 percent from a year ago.
RIO DE JANEIRO - Chinese company BYD will get a new line of credit to expand its renewable energy business in Brazil, local media reported Thursday.

The credit line worth 1 billion reais ($296 million), which will allow BYD to manufacture electric buses, solar panels and offer leasing contracts to local public transport companies, said O Estado de Sao Paulo daily.

According to BYD, each electric bus will have a service life of around 20 years and an continuous driving distance of 300 km, using lithium-ion batteries.

Each electric bus will cost 1 million reais compared with 400,000 reais ($119,000) for a regular model running on gasoline.

Eleven BYD electric buses and five electric taxis are already operating in Campinas, Sao Paulo state, while the company also has electric vehicles in the Brazilian cities of Curitiba and Brasilia.

Campinas mayor Jonas Donizete recently visited Shenzhen, China, where BYD is based, and agreed that tenders for public transport licenses in 2017 would carry a minimum requirement for the purchasing of electric buses.

BYD has an electric bus plant in Campinas, Sao Paulo state. In February, the company is set to open a solar panel plant in the same region.
A visitor checks his mobile phone in front of a poster of a model wearing a Microsoft HoloLens augmented reality (AR) viewer at the Microsoft Developers Build Conference in San Francisco. [Photo/Agencies]

Virtual reality applications in China now exceed those in the United States MA SI

Microsoft Corp said on Thursday its mixed reality headset, called HoloLens, will come to China in the first half of 2017, as the United States tech giant steps up efforts to tap into the country's software developers and into local firms' desire to achieve digital transformation.

Terry Myerson, the executive vice-president of the Windows and Devices company at Microsoft, said the firm will launch HoloLens for Chinese developers and commercial customers. He did not disclose the specific price tag, just saying it will be around $3,000, roughly the same as in other countries.

"We believe China, or, broadly speaking, Asia, could be leading the world in terms of mixed reality. We are seeing more virtual-reality-enabled activities here than in the United States," Myerson said on the sidelines of a manufacturing partner conference in Shenzhen.

HoloLens allows users to view virtual objects and characters in the real life environment. Microsoft is competing with Google Inc-backed Magic Leap and other players in the race for lead in the nascent market.

The company also published technical specifications it co-developed with Intel Corp for PCs that can power headsets capable of mixed reality. Lenovo Group Holding Ltd, Dell Inc and other PC vendors will start shipping the first VR goggles next year.

These gadgets will come with the Windows 10 Creators Update, the latest version of its Windows operating system. And unlike other VR headsets, there will be no need for a separate room and complicated setup, Microsoft said.

James Yan, research director at Counterpoint Technology Market Research, said the move is part of Microsoft's broad efforts to build a virtual reality ecosystem.

"Microsoft has a dominant position in the PC operating system market, but it missed opportunities in smartphones. Now it is seeking to replicate its success in virtual reality gadgets," Yan said.

Asked when HoloLens will become available in the consumer market over the next three to five years, Myerson quoted Bill Gates. "We often overestimate what will happen in the next three years and underestimate what will change in the next 10 years."

Yan from Counterpoint said: "Currently, HoloLens is still too expensive for consumers. If the price is lowered to below 10,000 yuan ($1,470), it will gain an advantage," Yan said.

According to market research firm Net Applications, the Windows 10 operating system accounted for 23.7 percent of the PC market in October, a rise of 1.1 percentage points from the previous month.
A man tries out Royole's VR device in Shenzhen, Sept 23, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

Shenzhen-based Royole Corp's new flexible display plant will start operations in August next year, a company official said.

Flexible displays are screens or panels used in wearable products, mobile devices and consumer electronics.

They constitute a highly competitive industrial segment now.

Work on Royole's 11-billion-yuan, 100,000-square-meter production line at Longgang district of Shenzhen, Guangdong province, started in the second half of 2015.

Jason Fan, public relations director of Royole, said the plant will likely offer the company a headstart over potential competitors, given its annual output capacity of 50 million pieces worth 18 billion yuan.

"We have already signed cooperation agreements with a large number of Chinese and international companies," he said, without identifying them.

Founded in 2012 by a Stanford University graduate, Royole has been focusing on innovative display technologies and virtual reality consumer electronics.

So far, it has received 1.7 billion yuan in investment, including 500 million yuan from Warmsun Holding Group. The company is valued at over $3 billion now, according to Fan.

"As the popularity and penetration of wearables and mobile devices increase, so too will demand for innovative flexible displays," said Jerry Kang, principal analyst of display research at consulting and research firm IHS Markit, in a report in July.

IHS Markit said revenue from flexible displays is expected to increase more than 300 percent, from $3.7 billion in 2016 to $15.5 billion in 2022, and will comprise 13 percent of the total display market revenue in 2020.

"Only a few suppliers such as Samsung Display and LG Display are now regularly supplying flexible displays to the market. However, many more panel makers are attempting to build flexible display capacity," Kang said.

Royole attracted global attention in July 2014 when it unveiled the world's thinnest full-color flexible display that can be bent or rolled. At about 0.01 mm, the display is as thin as an onion skin, or less than one-fifth the diameter of the human hair.
LONDON - Cocoon Networks London, an innovation center that seeks to promote China-Britain technology transfer and investment, was launched here Thursday during the first day of the China-UK Hi! Technology Festival.

The center will provide 70,000 square feet (around 6,503 square meters) of office space for promising startups in the technology and creative industries, according to Cocoon Networks, the Chinese investment group that runs the center.

Cocoon Networks will also provide collaborators the opportunities to upskill, meet investors, develop and manage new IP (intellectual property) and bring commercial ventures to new markets.

"China's economy is set to become one of the most R&D-intensive in the world within a decade, and China relies on close partners and collaborators in entrepreneurship, innovation and investment to grow our technology ventures to scale," said John Zai, CEO of Cocoon Networks.

"We are proud to be supporting the entrepreneurs enabling this 'Golden Era' of Sino-British collaboration," said Zai.

Industry leaders, entrepreneurs and partners from both China and Britain have gathered at the two-day China-UK Hi! Technology Festival, where they explored opportunities for investment and technology transfer between the two countries.
HANGZHOU - China's e-commerce giant Alibaba Thursday signed several agreements with Thailand's Ministry of Commerce to help the southeastern Asian country develop e-commerce.

The deals were signed as Thailand's Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak headed a delegation to visit Alibaba's headquarters in Hangzhou.

Alibaba will help small and medium-sized Thai firms expand businesses on local and international e-commerce sites, according to the deals. It will also train Thai government officials on big data and artificial intelligence.

Alibaba will help Thailand develop an efficient logistics system and explore cooperation opportunities in Thailand's eastern economic corridor.

Jack Ma, chairman of Alibaba, said Thailand can create its own digital economic miracle by embracing new technology and helping its young people to develop the new economy.

In August 2015, Thailand launched a store on Alibaba's Tmall.com to sell its home brands. In November this year, Alibaba's financial affiliate Ant Financial announced a strategic investment in Thailand's payment firm Ascend Money, seeking to use its payment technology to serve more than half of Thai netizens in the next five years.
Official says return of ill-gotten gains is just as important as bringing back economic fugitives

While China is seeing an increasing number of fugitives suspected of corruption being returned from overseas, thanks to international cooperation, the country is also beefing up efforts to recover their ill-gotten assets.

Between January 2014 and November this year, 2,442 Chinese fugitives suspected of economic crimes, including 397 officials, were brought back from more than 70 countries and regions, according to the Communist Party of China's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the country's top anti-graft watchdog.

In the same period, 8.54 billion yuan ($1.24 billion) in illegal assets was recovered, according to the CCDI.

Liu Jianchao, director of the CCDI's International Cooperation Bureau

"Getting these illicit assets is just as important as bringing the fugitives back," Liu Jianchao, director of the CCDI's International Cooperation Bureau, said in an interview ahead of this year's International Anti-Corruption Day, which falls on Friday.

"Hunting the fugitives is to make them face judicial punishment. Recovering the money is to stop them from enjoying the dividend of escape and to minimize the loss to the country and the people," Liu said.

He acknowledged that China faces some challenges in recovering the illicit assets, such as the lack of a clear understanding of outflow channels and insufficient international agreements for such recovery.

He said that China will enhance intelligence sharing with other countries and try to offer them as much evidence as possible, including the channels of outflow for and whereabouts of the assets, in requesting judicial assistance and to help investigators.

So far, China has signed bilateral agreements with financial institutions in 42 countries and regions, including the United States, Australia and New Zealand, on the exchange of financial information, according to People's Bank of China, the central bank.

China also intends to begin negotiations with more Western countries, such as the US and France, for bilateral treaties on sharing the assets that corrupt Chinese fugitives have sent overseas, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In October, China signed the first such treaty with Canada.

Jiang Laiyong, an anti-graft researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that some stipulations in existing international agreements on asset recovery are too abstract to be implemented.

In addition, many international financial institutions are led by developed countries, "which places developing countries at a disadvantage in negotiations," he said.

Jiang suggested that developing countries like China make better use of international platforms and meetings, such as APEC and G20, to voice their stance and policies to gain wider support.

China launched a massive anti-corruption campaign in late 2012, shortly after the new leadership was elected.

To capture economic fugitives hiding abroad, the country has set up the Central Anti-Corruption Coordination Group, led by the CCDI, and launched the Skynet program to capture corrupt officials who fled abroad.

Liu said that in recent years, the number of newly added economic crimes fugitives has fallen. "Fewer people are trying to escape overseas," he said.

He attributed the decline to the tightened management of officials' passports, measures taken to prevent suspects from leaving the country and the success in bringing back fugitives from overseas, which serves as a deterrence.

Fact box

Channels for recovering ill-gotten assets include:

1. When China brings back fugitives, their assets are returned by foreign countries at the same time.

2. At China's request, some countries freeze or confiscate ill-gotten assets. Countries also may give the assets back to China at a later date, request to share them with China, or not return them.

3. Some assets are recovered through lawsuits in other countries.
Premier Li Keqiang said Chinese-made civilian aircraft can play an important part in bilateral cooperation with African countries during his meeting with visiting Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba on Thursday.

New planes designed and made by Chinese companies are safe and cost-effective and fit African countries' need to develop regional aviation networks, the premier told Bongo, adding that both sides can explore cooperation in the field.

It was the premier's latest aviation overture following the China-Africa Regional Aviation Cooperation Plan, which helps Chinese enterprises establish joint venture aviation cooperation with African enterprises.

The premier has not mentioned specific models, but observers said China may promote two regional planes - Modern Ark 60 and ARJ 21.

Since 2005, China has exported at least 12 Modern Ark 60 aircraft. The 50 - to 60-seat turboprop is made by a subsidiary of the Aviation Industry Corp of China.

The ARJ 21 twin-engine regional jet, developed by the Commercial Aircraft Corp of China, is also expected to be a good fit in Africa. The first ARJ 21 jet was delivered to Chengdu Airlines in November 2015, and the ARJ 21 made its first commercial flight, from Chengdu to Shanghai, in June.

Chinese civil aircraft are good choices for African countries for several reasons, including low costs and the fact that China has helped African buyers with training professionals to perform maintenance and repairs, said Liu Zhenghong, a professor of foreign relations at Anhui Normal University.

China also is looking to strengthen cooperation with Gabon in energy, infrastructure, agriculture and processing industries under market-oriented principles, the premier said.

Chinese companies are welcome to invest in Gabon, and the African country is willing to cooperate with China in such fields as civil aviation and infrastructure, Bongo said.

China is Gabon's largest trading partner and an important investment source. Last year saw bilateral trade volume reach $1.77 billion, in which the African country has a trade surplus of $430 million.

On Thursday morning, the Gabonese president vowed to attract Chinese investors as the country's top priority at a trade event highlighting the oil-rich Central African country's potential. "Gabon welcomes Chinese investments from all sectors including agriculture, tourism, manufacturing, and the banking industry," he said.

Chu Yi contributed to this story
Chinese and US officials meeting in Washington on Wednesday, the first day of a two-day bilateral cybersecurity dialogue, agreed to expand their collaboration, according to Chinese officials.

Chinese State Councilor and Minister of Public Security Guo Shengkun joined US Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson in co-chairing the third China-US High-Level Joint Dialogue on Cybercrime and Related Issues.

The two sides also agreed to crack down on cybercrimes and improve their hotline mechanism, as well as their cyber counterterrorism cooperation and information sharing, according to the Chinese delegation.

Guo said in the meeting that China and the United States established the high-level dialogue mechanism based on discussions between President Xi Jinping and US President Barack Obama in September 2015, according to a Chinese delegation news release.

"With the high level of attention and encouragement by the two heads of state, the cooperation in cybersecurity between China and the US has advanced rapidly to become a new highlight in bilateral relations," Guo said at the meeting.

Guo said they have achieved notable progress in areas such as cracking down on cybercrime, protecting cybersecurity and sharing information. "It has made a positive contribution to ensuring the national security and the safety of the people in both countries," he said.

Guo also emphasized the importance of focusing on cooperation, managing and controlling differences, and timely and effective responses to each other's concerns as well as the need to achieve no-conflict, no-confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation.

"The Chinese side is willing to make continued efforts with the current US government team and the next government team to take bilateral cooperation in cybersecurity to a new high and to make a contribution to the building of a new type of major country relationship," Guo said.

An official from the Chinese delegation, who asked not to be identified, said US officials also agree that without such a dialogue mechanism, China and the US could still face confrontation and conflict in cybersecurity, as things stood over a year ago.

In the past year, China has asked the US for assistance in investigating 10 cybercrime cases while the US has made requests in nine cases.

The official also praised the hotline mechanism for helping reduce miscalculation.

Both Lynch and Johnson said that the two countries have a shared interest in cracking down on cybercrimes and protecting cybersecurity, according to the release.

They said they hoped that the mechanism could be further developed and more practical cooperation carried out in cracking down on criminal activities such as cyber terrorism and email scams. They also said they wanted to manage differences constructively to ensure more concrete achievements in US-China cooperation in cybersecurity.

Both sides agreed to hold the fourth round of dialogue in China in 2017.
China's procuratorates have filed for two former senior officials and two chairmen of large State-owned enterprises to stand trial.

Ai Baojun, former deputy mayor of Shanghai Municipality, will stand trial for embezzlement and accepting bribes following an investigation by Zhangzhou People's Procuratorate in Fujian province, the Supreme People's Procuratorate said.

Ai was put under investigation by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the country's top anti-graft watchdog, in November last year.

Pan Yiyang, former vice-chairman of the government of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, will defend himself against charges of accepting and giving bribes, which were brought by the First Branch of Tianjin Municipal People's Procuratorate.

Pan was put under investigation in September 2014.

Guangzhou people's procuratorate has initiated prosecution procedures against Song Lin, former chairman of China Resources Group, who is suspected of embezzlement and accepting bribes.

Deng Qilin, former chairman of Wuhan Iron and Steel (Group) Corp, will stand trial on charges of accepting bribes, following an investigation by Foshan people's procuratorate in South China's Guangdong province.

Procuratorates informed the four defendants of their litigation rights, questioned the defendants and heard the opinions of their defense teams.
Work on the Nansha Islands is legal and also has civilian purposes, navy commander says

China firmly opposes interventions in the South China Sea from countries outside the region, the commander of the People's Liberation Army Navy said.

Admiral Wu Shengli also said China opposes unprofessional and unsafe acts by ships or aircraft in the South China Sea as well as attempts to use "freedom of navigation and flight" as an excuse to compromise sovereignty and to destabilize the region.

"The construction work on the Nansha Islands, which are our own territory, is completely lawful and reasonable. There are defense facilities, but most of the infrastructure on the islands is to serve civilian purposes. They can provide a wider range of public services to neighboring nations and the entire international community," he said.

Wu also suggested that other countries should respect historic facts, resort to negotiation for disputes, enhance mutual trust and personnel exchanges, and improve joint drills.

The admiral made the remarks on Thursday in Beijing at a ceremony held by the PLA Navy to mark the 70th anniversary of China's recovery of the Xisha and Nansha islands from Japanese aggressors.

About 120 senior PLA officers, local government officials, foreign military attaches, and Chinese and foreign experts took part in the ceremony. Li Jingsen, 95, who was an executive officer of a warship 70 years ago, recalled his experiences in the recovery operation.

Earlier this week, United States Senator Marco Rubio introduced a bill, entitled the South China Sea and East China Sea Sanctions Act of 2016, in the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, proposing sanctions against China over its activities in maritime disputes in the East and South China seas, The Diplomat reported.

Last week, Admiral Paul Zukunft, commandant of the US Coast Guard, told Voice of America that he had proposed to the US Department of Defense that his force wants to play a bigger role in patrolling the disputed waters of the South China Sea.

"A strong navy and a strong air force are crucial to safeguarding China's sovereignty in the South China Sea" because a mighty military is a deterrence, Zhou Yongsheng, a professor of international relations at China Foreign Affairs University, told the audience at the ceremony on Thursday.

"Therefore, China must continue to strengthen its military capabilities, especially those of the air force and the navy, for long-range projection and striking," he explained.

Rear Admiral Yang Yi, former director of the Institute for Strategic Studies at the PLA National Defense University, wrote in Thursday's Global Times that the Chinese military is ready to handle armed provocations challenging China's sovereignty and territorial integrity.
A 1,000-kilometer expressway linking Beijing and nearby cities in Hebei province was completed on Tuesday, which will ease traffic congestion and improve regional economic growth in the area.

The expressway linking Miyun district in Beijing and Zhuozhou in Hebei marks the completion of G95, a ring-road expressway, part of which is in the capital.

As Beijing already has six ring-roads within the city, the public has been calling the new expressway "the 7th Ring Road". However, only 38 km of the expressway goes through Beijing, with another 38 km in Tianjin, while the remaining 924 km runs through Hebei.

The expressway looks like a huge necklace, linking 13 major cities around Beijing, including the cities of Chengde, Langfang, Gu'an and Chongli, which will improve the transportation network of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area.

"The Miyun-Zhuozhou expressway will reduce the traffic density of cargo trucks on current expressways in southeastern Beijing," Huo Leisheng, a road management officer of the expressway, was quoted as saying by Beijing Daily on Tuesday.

More importantly, the Miyun-Zhuozhou expressway will become the most convenient way to get between the two airports in Beijing.

"The integration of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei requires a modern transportation network," said Zhang Guohua, a professor at the China Academy of Urban Planning and Design.

In recent years, Beijing has developed a system of ring and radial roads linking nearby areas in preparation for the region's integrated economic development.

Gao Jinhao, head of the traffic and transportation office of Hebei province, said the province takes up more than 80 percent of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area, which means Hebei should bear more of the responsibility for building a modern comprehensive transportation network.

Previously, drivers had to go through Beijing when traveling between cities in Hebei, such as Shijiazhuang and Tangshan, or Zhangjiakou and Chengde. This not only reduces connectivity between areas, but causes traffic congestion in Beijing.

According to the authority, the road network in Hebei will reach 250,000 km, with expressways surpassing 9,000 km by 2020.
Five mountain ranges in Sichuan account for most of their living area worldwide

The giant panda, the black-and-while mammal that is perhaps the world's most recognizable symbol of conservation, is among the luckier of the endangered or vulnerable species.

The past decade has seen major successes in captive breeding of pandas, while the focus has shifted from saving the species to preserving their habitat.

Recent research carried out by Chinese scientists suggested that pandas are an area-sensitive species, and calculated than a minimum area of 114.7 square kilometers is required for their long-term persistence.

The research results were made public on Thursday by Scientific Reports, an online open access scientific journal published by the Nature Publishing Group.

"Some animal species, for example some birds, are area-sensitive, which means they respond badly if the size of their habitat patch is too small," said Yang Zhisong, an associate professor specializing in life science at the China West Normal University in Sichuan province, and an author of the research.

The scientists studied five mountain ranges inhabited by giant pandas in Sichuan province, which account for more than 78 percent of all panda habitat worldwide. The estimated number of wild pandas living in these areas was positively associated with habitat patch area, which means pandas are area-sensitive.

"Previous research focused mainly on habitat selection, habitat assessment and the impact of human activity. However, the effect of habitat patch size received little attention. Our study provides empirical evidence showing the influence of habitat size on the presence of pandas," Yang said.

The presence of wild pandas is most continuous in the Mingshan Mountains and Qionglaishan Mountains in Sichuan province, which are segmented into several patches by human residential areas, farmland and roads. Four of these habitat patches are larger than the minimum area requirement of 114.7 sq km.

The habitats in Daxiangling Mountains and Liangshan Mountains are more fragmented, but some patches are connected with others to relieve living pressure for pandas.

The Xiaoxiangling Mountains is the most highly segmented area in the five mountain ranges surveyed, without any habitat patches large enough to hold relatively viable populations.

"In some regions, we can build corridors between adjacent patches to form a larger habitat area. In other cases, we will have to take engineering measures to enlarge habitats," said Dai Qiang from the Chengdu Institute of Biology affiliated to the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a co-author of the research.

The most recent panda census, released by the State Forestry Administration last year, showed that there were 1,864 wild pandas living in 2.58 million hectares of protected habitat in China, with the number of captive-bred pandas in China totaling 375.

On Monday, the country's leading group for overall reform passed a program for the construction of a national park system that will help increase the integrity, connectivity and coordination of the habitats of endangered or vulnerable species, including pandas.
German girl Christa Maria Idel donates her Rh-negative blood to save a 75-year-old woman in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, on Tuesday. Provided To China Daily

A 21-year-old German girl recently donated her "panda blood", or Rh-negative blood, on two occasions to save a 75-year-old woman in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province.

Christa Maria Idel, a language student at Zhejiang University, came to China to study for one semester, adopting the Chinese name Gao Xiongmao.

When she found out that her blood type is Rh-negative, she called herself Xiongmao, the Chinese name for panda.

She is 1.75 meters tall, so she surnamed herself Gao, which means tall in Chinese.

"I was told that only 0.3 percent of the population in China have 'panda blood'. The proportion in some Western countries is as high as 6 percent or higher. This was news to me," she said.

Out of curiosity, Gao searched on Weibo to find out more information about the blood type.

She found a post asking for help from the family of an old woman who suffers from aplastic anemia and fainted in October.

She left a message on the post and a doctor contacted her a couple of days later.

The old woman, Kong Qinmei, has merely one-fiftieth of the normal platelet level and requires blood transfusions to keep her alive.
Xi says goals of higher education must align with development plan for the nation

Students swear an oath as they join the Communist Party of China at China University of Petro leum's campus in Qingdao, Shandong province, in April. YU FANGPING / FOR CHINA DAILY

Colleges and universities should always adhere to the leadership of the Communist Party of China, President Xi Jinping told heads of domestic higher education institutions at a conference held in Beijing on Wednesday and Thursday.

Xi said the Party committees of higher education institutions should always take the helm, be responsible for making decisions and ensure that the institutions are developing in the right direction.

He also said Party committees at all levels across the country should attach great importance to the ideology of colleges and universities and make this one of their priorities. Party chiefs and members should visit the educational institutions frequently, communicate with teachers and students, take suggestions from them and answer their questions.

Xi stressed that China has its own history, unique culture and special current situation, which means that higher education institutions should walk on their own path and make themselves socialist institutions with Chinese characteristics.

He added that the goal of colleges and universities should be consistent with the whole country's development target.

Their work should serve the people, the Party's governance, the development of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics and reform and opening-up, as well as the socialist modernization drive.
Cao Yong (right) works with a team member on the ice during China's seventh Arctic expedition between July and September.Gao Yue / For China Daily

Scientist shares her experience of visiting Arctic Circle on board Chinese icebreaker Xuelong

At the end of September, China's seventh Arctic expedition team returned to Shanghai. Of the 128 team members involved, five were from the Ocean University of China in Qingdao, Shandong province and Cao Yong was the only female to make scientific observations on the ice.

"Exploring the mysteries of the North Pole has been my dream since I worked on my PhD program in 2005," she said.

"My husband helped me prepare, offering to look after our baby and enhancing my faith in myself for the journey."

The expedition began on July 11, when the team boarded the icebreaker Xuelong, or "Snow Dragon", and sailed out into the East China Sea. They went through the Bering Sea and entered the Arctic Circle, a world of drifting ice.

Cao was responsible for taking measurements of conductivity, temperature and ocean depth as well as collecting water, ice and snow samples. Most of her observations could be made from the ship, but occasionally she had to go onto the ice to work around scientific observation stations.

The expedition stopped at seven observation stations - one permanent, the rest temporary. Each was visited by the scientists, who had to wear thermal protective suits every time they left the ship. The suits were nicknamed "the penguin costume" because of the way they restricted the wearer's movements. Each suit weighed 4 kilograms.

Cao Yong and three scientists in a cradle from Xuelong.Provided To China Daily

"We had to carry a sensor and walk across the ice for about three hours at a time, but because of the suits our underclothes quickly became soaked with sweat. If we had stopped walking, we could have frozen," said Cao, adding "there were some challenges, but the expedition also recorded a number of firsts, which we are all proud of."

These achievements included the Xuelong's first deployment of a drift-towing ocean profiler, which collects hydrographic data from the upper layer of the ocean under the ice, the first exploration of the Mendeleyev Ridge by a team from Ocean University, the first time they had photographed melt pond distribution using an unmanned aerial vehicle and the first time they had measured the thickness of sea ice using ground-penetrating radar.

A notable decline in the extent of Arctic sea ice was observed this year, compared with previous expeditions, Cao said.

"In the past, Xuelong could only sail at a speed of 3 to 4 knots in the high latitude ice zone. But this year we reached 7 knots, which could prove the decline of the sea ice," she said.

Li Tao, captain of the seventh Arctic Expedition Group's Team One, said Cao did all the work assigned to her despite the tough conditions.

"In the field she was a tomboy, never saying no to any assignment. She really tested her limits and completed all the intensive work," Li said.

Yet Cao revealed her feminine side when she put her sewing skills to use making a protective cover for sensitive instruments on the ship's deck and repairing a broken trawl net.

"Over 78 days and nights we traveled 13,000 nautical miles. We experienced gales and gusts, bitter cold and big swells, but it was all worth it to collect the valuable data, spot the cute polar bears and see the fantastic northern lights," she said, adding that the expedition's reports and papers will be released by the end of the year.

Cao on the icebreaker Xuelong on the way to the Arctic Circle.Provided To China Daily

Cao and a team member collect observation data on the ice.Provided To China Daily

The Xuelong was home for the expedition's 128 team members.Liu Chengguang / For China Daily
BEIJING - Ma Huisen used to have four or five lunches a day, though not because he was gluttonous, but because officials were taking advantage.

"We received many officials coming for 'inspection,'" said the vice Party chief of Ulagan county, western China's Qinghai province. By "inspection" he actually means "travelling."

The salt lake in Ulagan county is a popular tourist attraction, and it receives many groups of visiting officials every day. To show their hospitality, local officials would once accompany them on their entire journey. After the initiation of China's anti-corruption campaign, featuring the "Eight-point Rules," launched December 2012, Ma felt relieved.

"We don't have to drink so much liquor and spend so much time chatting around the dinner table," he said. "Now we can focus on improving people's livelihoods."

Friday is International Anti-Corruption Day, four days after the fourth anniversary of the release of the "Eight-point Rules". The rules, aimed at curbing extravagance and improving officials' work style, ban red carpet official receptions, the use of public vehicles for private affairs, pro forma meetings and traffic disturbances such as road closures for officials, and order austerity in official meals, travel and housing.

Many Chinese, civil servants and ordinary people saw changes in their daily lives.

Hu Xianmin (a pseudonym) has been working as a driver in a government department in northern China's Shanxi province for 16 years. He did not need to buy his own car until 2014.

"We once took pride in being able to use public vehicles," he said. In 2003 when his nephew was admitted into a university, he drove him to Beijing in a public vehicle..

Now all public vehicles in his department have been installed with GPS. Every evening the vehicles must be driven back to the garage.

"In the past when we went to the counties, local government officials gave us local specialties as gifts," Hu said. "Now we dare not receive such gifts. Those who violates the 'Eight-point Rules' will receive a public warning."

Zhang Xiaofeng, inspection officer with the party discipline commission in eastern China's Shandong province, has been involved in the province's discipline investigation of 19,235 civil servants, 8,583 of which were given discipline punishments since the start of the thrift campaign.

Chinese are known for cherishing their personal image.

"We found that naming discipline offenders in public is a harsh penalty for civil servants, and is effective in preventing others from the same wrongdoings," the discipline officer said.

During the past four years, expenditure on public vehicles dropped from 4.4 billion yuan ($639.5 million) a year to 3 billion yuan, according to the Communist Party of China's (CPC) anti-graft agency.

Nearly 200,000 Party and government staff had been punished for violating the rules in the past four years, with many holding senior positions.

These people were involved in more than 146,400 cases, about a quarter of which involved use of public vehicles and dining out on public funds, the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) said.

An unnamed owner of a high-end restaurant in Hefei, capital of eastern China's Anhui province, told Xinhua that his business suffered difficulties following the regulation, because few officials dared to feast at his restaurant. The restaurant now has a buffet.

Sun Liqing, Party chief with the Dinggang community of Hefei, attends fewer meetings than before.

"I have been working in the community level for nearly 30 years, and I know that in the past we needed to attend numerous meetings," he said. "Efficiency has been greatly improved."

"In the past four years, officials' working style has changed," said Xin Ming, a professor with the CPC Party School of the Central Committee.

"It is a good beginning for strict governance of the Party," he said.

In spite of the achievements, the anti-corruption campaign is not all plain sailing.

Zhao Xiaofeng in Shandong now feels his work is getting more and more difficult, as grassroots officials have become very cautious when tempted to profiteer from the power given by their posts.

Discipline inspectors have had to trace lavish banquets from hotels and private clubs, and records of them happening mysteriously disappear. License plates of government vehicles are covered with private license numbers when the cars are in private use.

Inspectors have found more than 930 fake license plates on government vehicles since 2014.

"The anti-corruption drive must maintain high pressure. More sophisticated discipline inspection measures should be used to fight new types of corruption," he said.

"The campaign has lasted for four years," said Ma Huisen. "How we maintain momentum is a problem that everyone is facing."
China's Internet giant Tencent has sued the country's Trademark Review and Adjudication Board (TRAB) after its application to trademark QQ's beeping sound was rejected by the latter.

Tencent QQ, one of the most popular instant messaging software services in China, applied to register the signature "Di-Di-Di-Di-Di-Di" notification sound as its trademark in 2014, which is permitted by China's Trademark Law as long as the sound can be easily distinguished. Tencent's application was later turned down by TRAB, with the explanation that the sound was "simple and not creative," lacking in any distinctive traits.

"We have checked many sound trademarks approved by other nations, including the famous lion roar of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Most sound trademarks last less than five seconds and are quite simple. By TRAB's standards, they also could not be registered as trademarks," said Huang Yibiao, a lawyer for Tencent, during the court hearing on Dec 6.

According to Huang, due to QQ's popularity in China, the public has already connected the beeping sound with QQ's services, which means it does possess distinctiveness. TRAB, on the other hand, holds a different opinion. It reiterated that Tencent's notification sound is merely a repetition of notes, which is not distinctive at all. According to TRAB, the board is very careful about approvals of sound trademarks, with few successful cases so far. The court will release its final verdict at a later date.

Tencent's accusation has stirred up online debate, with some netizens supporting the company's appeal and others calling it a joke.

"I have been using QQ my whole life. Though the sound is quite simple, it always reminds me of QQ services when I hear it. I think the board should agree to make it QQ's trademark," one netizen wrote.

Not everyone agreed, however.

"The beeping is QQ's online notification sound. Do you know that its offline notification sound is actually human coughing? Would we be banned from coughing if the board approved QQ's appeal? That would be hilarious," another netizen wrote.
A screen shot of dama Li's recruitment for Sanya trip with a "daughter".

Nowadays, the internet is usually one of the first places a lonely heart turns to as the following story shows.

A 63-year-old retired woman in Zhengzhou, Central China's Henan province made headlines two days after she posted an advertisement on her Wechat page, in which she said she wanted to find a young female companion for a trip to Sanya, China's Southern Hainan island, Zhengzhou-based Dahe Daily reported.

In the advertisement, the Chinese dama (Chinese term for middle-aged and elderly women) surnamed Li said she is in good health, and she was particularly looking forward to a sea trip this winter.

"I have a daughter who works outside, and I don't want to disturb her. But I dread traveling alone, so I am looking for a sweet, happy young woman, preferably aged between 19 and 25 to travel with me. Hope she could chat with me, take photos with me."

At the end of the ad, dama Li extended her sincerity by saying she would cover all the expenses of the trip, including accommodation and air tickets, plus an iPhone 7 as a bonus gift.

Dama Li told Dehe Daily that she did not expect her advertisement to receive so much attention. "My phone keeps buzzing all the time."

However, some people question the authenticity of Li's advertisement by saying it might be organized by travel agencies aiming to boost Sanya tourism, or even served as a promotional ad for real estate on the island.

Li refuted the speculations and said all she wants is just to find a sweet "daughter".

According to the Dahe report, dama Li's husband, who is still working as a senior engineer, rarely has time to travel with her, and their only daughter has emigrated to Canada.

"If there was a companion on the trip, she could help me take a lot of photos," Li said. As a reward, dama Li said she already bought an iPhone 7 and she will take good care of the "daughter".

But Li's recruitment for a daughter has also received as many online mockeries as positive feedback.





"What a lonely rich woman. Here is my phone number XXX, mum," a web user named Xiaolu Mecheal commented.

Yixiaowan, another web user, said the age requirement has "put the women above 25 into an embarrassing position."





Meiyourouhenduodexiaoxin, a woman claiming that she meets all the requirements, said "I could also bring my boyfriend. Wouldn't it be better to travel with a whole family?"
The third China Dalian (Lushun) International Bird-Watching Festival will be held on the third Friday of October 2017, the organizers announced on Wednesday in Dalian, Northeast China's Liaoning province.

"We hope bird-watchers from other countries and regions can mark this date on their new year plan," said Yi Qingtao, Party secretary of the CPC Lushunkou District Committee of Dalian.

Located in the southernmost tip of the Liaodong Peninsula, Lushunkou District is a well-known site for bird-watching.

Every autumn, tens of millions of migrating birds stop here for a rest before they fly south across the Bohai Sea.

Statistics show that more than 300 kinds of birds could be discovered in Lushunkou every year, including 39 kinds of raptor such as the greater spotted eagle, white-tailed sea eagle and bearded vulture.

The festival is sponsored by the State Forestry Administration and Dalian Municipal Government. It will be undertaken by Lushunkou District Government, China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation, and Dalian Wildlife Conservation Society.

"More people in China are becoming interested in discovering birds in nature. By hosting bird-watching competitions, local residents in Lushunkouare are becoming more aware of the importance of environmental protection and green development," said Yi.
A bird's eye view of a rice harvest competition held in Dazhu village, Wuxing district, Huzhou city in East China's Zhejiang province,on Dec 8, 2016. Villagers' rice harvesting skills were put to the test in a relay race on Thursday. More than 20 villagers were divided into six groups and competed against each other to see who could harvest the most rice. Each team member had five minutes in the field and the group with the most rice in total was declared the winner.[Photo by Zhu Weiliang and Zhang Dong/chinadaily.com.cn]
Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying.[Photo/Xinhua]

Hong Kong chief executive Leung Chun-ying announced on Friday that he will not seek re-election for Hong Kong's top job next spring.

Leung said he made the decision not to run for a second term as cheif executive in the March 2017 election for family reasons.

He said he has to focus on his responsibility as a husband and a father.

Leung said his political career had impacted his family members and he was reluctant to put his family under pressure by seeking re-election.

"I must protect them," he told reporters at a press briefing Friday afternoon.

He thanked all his supporters and vowed to carry on the government's work with dedication until the end of his term on June 30.

In a statement that followed, Beijing's top Hong Kong affairs authority, the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council, expressed its deep regret but respected his decision.

A spokesperson said the office recognized Leung's work as the chief executive of the special administrative region and his firm implementation of the "One Country, Two Systems" policy and the Basic Law.

The spokesman also spoke highly of Leung's efforts in improving Hong Kong's economy and people's livelihoods, hoping that Leung would continue his good work for the rest of his term and continue to play a role in the development of both Hong Kong and the country in the future.
Shanghai unveiled measures on Friday aimed at attracting talented people from overseas, including high-level professionals and young graduates, as it tries to build itself into a global technological innovation hub by 2030.

According to the 10-article immigration policy, recently approved by the Ministry of Public Security, senior overseas professionals will have easier access and spend less time when they apply for permanent resident permits.

Expats working at the Shanghai Zhangjiang National Innovation Demonstration Zone or the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone, along with their spouses and children, can directly apply for permanent residency with a recommendation from the administrative committees of the zones. They no longer will need to provide certificates from different departments.

The policy also guarantees quicker access for qualified international talent.

Foreigners with a master's degree or above, or those employed by an enterprise in Zhangjiang, the free trade zone, institutions of higher education or scientific research institutes in Shanghai can directly apply for an R visa for professional talent at Shanghai port upon entry, as long as they show their employment certificates, according to the new policy.

Yu Lizhong, chancellor and chairman of the board of New York University Shanghai, said the policy is welcome.

"Our international graduates love Shanghai, and I believe a job here will give full play to their energy, and that's what we're delighted to see," he said.

Momachi Pabrai, a US student majoring in media and data analytics, said: "China has a lot of new media programs, so understanding marketing from the Chinese perspective is a whole new world. I'd love to have the opportunity to work at least for a couple of months in China's marketing landscape."

The new measures also include preferential policies for overseas Chinese and family members of talented expats to live, work or study in Shanghai. Overseas Chinese holding a PhD or having worked for four years in enterprises in Zhangjiang, the free trade zone or other qualified areas can apply for permanent resident permits.

"I believe such convenience will encourage a large number of overseas Chinese to return for entrepreneurial plans and business," said Fu Guohua, general manager of KFS Design International Shanghai. Fu, a Chinese Canadian, returned in 1995 to start a business.

"We had a hard time in the 1990s. We had to renew our visa and get out of China every month. Things are getting better," he said.
The world-renowned light festival from the French city of Lyon landed in the Chinese economic hub of Shanghai on Dec 8, 2016. The month-long event features five major installations created by artists from China, France and the Philippines, including the famed Flying Fish, shinning dandelions, and heart-shaped glittering trees, turning the city into a romantic winter wonderland. [Photo/VCG]
Paiva has a handson encounter with a young sturgeon at Qiandao Lake in Quzhou, Zhejiang province. [Photo provided to China Daily]

A Chinese caviar farm has become a prominent player in the global gourmet business, producing five kinds of roe for diners with a taste for luxury. Mike Peters reports.

When Portuguese chef Deivid Paiva goes to the markets that supply his restaurant, he usually doesn't come back with his white tunic smeared with blood.

But Paiva's recent market visit is nothing ordinary: The newly arrived chef who just took over the kitchen at Beijing's Grill 79 is checking out the sturgeon at China's biggest caviar production center. Sturgeon are prehistoric giants that have evolved from the Triassic era some 245 to 208 million years ago. The sharklike creatures can live for a century and weigh 1,000 kilograms. At this fish farm, the late-maturing fish are nurtured from seven to 15 years, depending on the species, before they are harvested for their culinary black gold.

A small group of food writers joins Paiva and his boss, executive chef Johnston Ang from the China World Summit Wing hotel, to visit Hangzhou Qiandaohu Xunlong Sci-tech Company at Qiandao Lake (Thousand Island Lake) in Quzhou, Zhejiang province. In that vast manmade lake developed for hydro power, the company says it produces 60 tons of fish roe annually - about 30 percent of the global caviar business.
[Photo provided to China Daily]

Chef Richard Ekkebus, from two-Michelin starred Amber restaurant at The Landmark Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong, is returning to the group's sister restaurant in Shanghai to present a seasonal dinner at the Fifty 8 Grill on Dec 12.

The four-course dinner is priced at 988 yuan ($140) plus service charge per person, and at 1,488 yuan per person with wine pairing to each course.

The lip-licking menu starts with an appetizer choice of beef tartare, black Yunnan truffle, pickled shallots and sourdough -- or Dalian sea urchin in lobster Jell-O with cauliflower and crispy seaweed waffles , and proceeds with options like David Blackmore tri-tip and a sorbet of mandarin and bergamot with coconut tapioca and meringue 'Mikado'.

More info and reservations: 021-2082-9938 or contact mopud-fifty8grill@mohg.com.
Two goitered gazelles step into the snow-covered fields of Gael Mountain, located in the north Karamay, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, a heaven for foraging in winter. [Photo/kelamayi.com.cn]

Yarkland gazelles, a subspecies of goitered gazelle found in northern and northwestern China, were spotted frolicking in their winter breeding grounds around Karamay recently.

The graceful creature was photographed amid a backdrop of snow-covered scrubland, at Gael Mountain and Dushanzi Mountain.

The region is home to a spectacular array of wildlife, including Xingjiang wild horses, argali, vultures and the extremely endangered lli pika, known in China as the Magic Rabbit and recently photographed for the first time in 20 years.

The name goitered gazelle means full below the throat, which refers to the male having an enlargement of the neck and throat during the mating season. It inhabits the sand and gravel plains of the Gobi Desert and can usually be found across Central Asia.

Edited by Jacob Hooson
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump meets Iowa Governor Terry Branstad as he speaks during Iowa Senator Joni Ernst's Roast and Ride at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines August 27, 2016. [Provided to China Daily]

US President-elect Donald Trump announced on Wednesday his intent to nominate Iowa's longest-serving governor Terry Branstad to be his administration's ambassador to China, an appointment well received in both China and the United States.

Though speaking no Chinese, Branstad is well-known for his long-standing friendship with China and in particular with President Xi Jinping. The two first met in 1985 during Xi's first trip to the US with an agriculture delegation from North China's Hebei province. Branstad was in his first term as governor.

Branstad invited Xi, then China's vice-president, back to Iowa in 2012. Over the years, Branstad has led four trade missions to China and made China one of the top trade partners of Iowa, a major agriculture producer of soybeans, corn and pork.

I was in Iowa in early 2013 when Branstad spoke at events marking the 30th anniversary of the sistership tie between Iowa and Hebei, established in 1983 when Branstad was governor. I interviewed him on phone in September last year just days before Xi paid a state visit to the US and before Branstad went to Seattle to meet Xi. He talked at length about how he and those in Iowa who hosted Xi in 1985 were so proud to be referred to by Xi as "old friends".

There is no doubt that Trump's decision, though described by some as a political payback, is a goodwill gesture to China and reflects his willingness to maintain good US-China relations.

This is despite his blunder last week to take the phone call from Taiwan leader Tsai Ing-wen, thus seriously breaking decades of protocol between China and the US since they established diplomatic ties in 1979.

The Chinese government has shown much restraint in responding to Trump's erratic behavior in a hope to have a smooth start with the next US administration. After all, China-US relations is just too important to be ruined by one incident.

But Trump and some of his advisors need to understand that the Taiwan question is not something to be flirted with. The question hits a nerve of each and every Chinese on the mainland and it is one of the core interests for China. Trump also needs to listen to smarter advisors when he, through his Twitter last week, accused China of depreciating its currency, an allegation that is contrary to both facts and the assessment by US Treasury Department. What the Chinese government has been doing is just the oppositepreventing the yuan from depreciating. And this is great news for the US economy, according to people like Fred Bergsten, top currency expert of Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Despite the much talk among Americans about Trump's inconsistency and unpredictability, it is too early to tell anything about Trump given his inauguration is still more than 40 days away.

However, there is much hope among many Chinese that as a businessman, Trump will be more interested in pursuing practical win-win cooperation with China instead of indulging in geopolitical games.

The third round of the China-US High-Level Joint Dialogue on Cybercrime and Related Issues held this week in Washington is a good example how the two nations can turn a once contentious issue into new highlight of bilateral cooperation. Both stand to win when they join hands to fight cybercrime and maintain a hotline instead of shouting at each other through their news media outlets.

There are so many areas for potential win-win cooperation for the two nations. Sending Branstad to China is a positive sign that Trump wants to tap that potential.

The author is deputy editor of China Daily USA. chenweihua@chinadailyusa.com
LIU XINYI/CHINA DAILY

Global health organizations and initiativesin particular, the World Health Organizationhave traditionally focused on infectious diseases, from malaria (their great failure) to smallpox (their greatest success). But there has long been a tiny corner of global health that has targeted chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in lowand middle-income countries. As these countries make progress on development, pressure to expand that corner is mounting.

The WHO started paying attention to NCDs in the 1970s, when it launched its first programs to reduce cardiovascular disease. By 1977, the organization had a designated NCD division. In 1985, the World Health Assembly adopted resolution WHA 38.30, calling for member countries to elaborate new strategies for addressing their NCD problems.

Two programs were initiated: one serving Western Europe and another, called Inter-Health, which focused on a mix of countries, from Chile and Tanzania to Finland and the United States. The goal of Inter-Health was to coordinate a set of experimental local projects, in order to develop a flexible program template applicable to countries at different stages of development.

It was a step in the right direction. But, for years, it was pretty much the only step the WHO took on NCDs in lowand middle-income countries. Then, in 1993, the World Development Report, and the subsequent Global Burden of Disease Study, quantified the extent of the NCD problem in low-income countries. It was a breakthrough for NCD activism.

The WHO responded to that breakthroughand the criticism it triggeredwith major reforms. By leading a growing advocacy coalition (in which the journal The Lancet played a central role), the WHO established itself as a leader in the fight against NCDs. The high point was the special United Nations meeting in 2011 devoted to NCDs.

But all these efforts have produced only mixed results, because NCD funding has only just kept up with overall global health fundingjust 1-3 percent (depending on who is counting) of total development health assistance. As such, most governments in low-income regions appear to have done relatively little to address NCDs.

However, NCDs in lowand middle-income countries have lately been getting more attention. The 2013 Global Burden of Disease Report identified NCDs as the dominant health problem everywhere except Sub-Saharan Africa. More recently, a report by the Council on Foreign Relations indicated that mortality from NCDs for people under 60 is more than three times higher in low-income countries than in high-income countries.
BEIJING, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's planned trip to Pearl Harbor under the cloak of "peace" and "reconciliation" will not distract the world from his administration's real pursuit of militarism.

During the Dec. 26-27 visit and accompanied by U.S. President Barack Obama, Abe will become the first sitting Japanese prime minister to visit the site of a Japanese sneak attack on Dec. 7, 1941.

"This visit is an opportunity to remember those who died in war, demonstrate a resolve that the horrors of war must never be repeated, and at the same time send a message about the reconciliation between Japan and the United States," claimed Abe's top spokesperson, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshida Suga.

Perhaps there's been reconciliation between Japan and the United States. But what about reconciliation between Japan and its Asian neighbors?

Asian countries suffered greatly when Japanese militarism ran riot during the World War II.

The issue of "comfort women," the Nanjing Massacre, the Manila massacre and plenty more crimes committed by the Imperial Japanese Army have yet to spur any sincere apology from the Abe administration.

On the contrary, the Abe administration has unveiled plans to reinforce the nation's missile defense system and expand its defense budget.

These are steps toward Abe realizing his ultimate dream of militarism, which will escalate tensions and undermine peace and stability in the region.

The moves also runs counter to the trend of peace and development and win-win regional cooperation; it is unlikely to win the trust of its Asian neighbors and the international community.

The Pearl Harbor trip is expected to earn some bonus points for Abe's failed foreign diplomacy and also show the incoming Donald Trump administration that Japan is still America's loyal ally.

However, what kind of signal is the Abe administration sending to the world with a visit to Pearl Harbor? Not a good one. Japan is extending a friendly hand to the United States, its former foe in war, whereas it continues to turn a blind eye to its wartime atrocities in Asia while sharpening its militarism knife.

Under the banners of seeking "peace" and "reconciliation" with America, the Abe administration can not hide its revisionist view of war history and ignore the crimes of its past.

Past examples always serve as a warning to later generations. The United States and the world must wake up to the Abe administration's true intention of militarism under its shameful guise of peace.
SYDNEY, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- From the economy to people, Australia-China ties are growing in importance, but efforts must continue to build on that progress, said Dr. Andrew Leigh, Australia's Shadow Assistant Treasurer.

Elaborating on a major speech that he gave in late November at the launch of a yearbook on China, Dr Leigh told Xinhua in an email interview that it is "in Australia's interests to continue to deepen our engagement with China, not just economically but also through meaningful linkages between governments, business, and civil society."

Climate change is one example where both countries can collaborate closely, said Leigh, who is one of Australia's Opposition members led by the Labor Party shadowing the country's ministerial positions.

Such collaboration "strengthens the bilateral relationship with China, and global cooperation more broadly".

"Australia has a long history of cooperation on climate change policy with the Chinese Government. This has included providing technical advice to China on the design of emission trading schemes under the last Labor government, and has extended to a MOU on climate change under the current government," said Leigh, who is also a former economics professor of the Australian National University.

"To deliver on sustainable profitability we need real action on climate change mitigation and adaptation. Australia and China are well placed to work together on these issues if governments have the will."

In his recent speech, which covered what modern Australia would look like had China not embarked on its reform and opening-up in the late 1970s, Leigh pointed to Australia's increasing dependence on Chinese economic contributions, including merchandize exports, education, tourism and immigration.

Without a developing China, Australia's economy would be almost 5 percent smaller, or 8,000 Australian dollars (5,960 U.S. dollars) less a year for every Australian household, he said.

Australian universities would be nearly 6 billion Australian dollars poorer and its tourism industry would similarly earn that amount less each year with 1.2 million fewer visitors. There would not have been a mining boom or much of a "dining" boom.

As such, the Australia-China relationship is increasingly important and there must be political trust to build on that, Leigh explained to Xinhua.

"In recent years, Australian and Chinese leaders have worked closely on a great range of complex issues -- this would not be possible without political trust."

The engagement also includes Australia sharing its experience and expertise with China, such as "exporting Australia's fresh, clean and safe agricultural produce into a growing Chinese middle class".

"When last in Government the Australian Labor Party began a process of deeper engagement and cooperation with China in agriculture" and the party "believes Australia has a wonderful opportunity to export more high quality, clean, green and safe food to China and our focus is on premium product, productivity and sustainable profitability", Leigh added.
Goods exports recovered in November, providing relief on global demand, although we remain cautious on the outlook. Meanwhile, solid import growth reflects steady domestic demand momentum and higher commodity prices.

Goods exports recovered in November, restoring a trend towards stronger shipments that was interrupted in September to October. The pick-up provides some relief on global demand momentum, although China's exports have benefited from a trade-weighted depreciation of nearly 8 percent in the 12 months to end-November according to the PBOC's CFETS basket.

Exports inched up 0.1 percent year on year in US dollar terms last month. With prices still down on the year, this suggests that goods export volumes were up a healthy 4.8 percent yearly. Nonetheless, we remain cautious on the export outlook, given the still unconvincing global demand recovery and policy uncertainty in the US after Donald Trump's election win.

Goods imports rose 6.7 percent year on year in US dollar terms in November, following year on year declines in previous months. The recent rise in commodity prices means that the fall in overall import prices in US dollar terms has come down recently.

Nonetheless, real growth of goods exports also rose, to 8.3 percent year on year, in our estimate, suggesting domestic demand maintained solid momentum in November.

While increasing commodity prices should continue to support headline imports in US dollar terms, base effects for year on year comparisons will become more challenging towards the end of the year.

Moreover, the ongoing housing market correction is likely to put further downward pressures on domestic demand in the year ahead.

Foreign exchange reserves fell by another $70 billion in November. While this is in large part due to sizeable valuation effects, we expect the authorities to continue to make efforts to contain capital outflows in 2017.

The author is the Hong Kong-based head of Asia economics for Oxford Economics.

The opinions expressed here are those of the writer and don't represent views of China Daily website.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a US think tank in Washington, D.C., recently held a conference on the challenges and opportunities presented by Chinas rise. The China Power Conference featured a series of debates between leading experts from both sides of the Pacific. The debate was extensive, covering various aspects of Chinese power. One debate centered on the proposition that China seeks to undermine the rules-based international system. Most of the experts agreed that while China may want to improve the current system, it does not want to tear it down and start over again.

Aaron Friedberg, Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University, argued for the proposition. Zhao Suisheng, professor at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver, argued against the proposition.

Before and after each debate performance, the audience voted on whether they agree or disagree with the relevant proposition. At the beginning of the debate, 57 percent (72 out of 126 votes) disagreed with the proposition that China is trying to undermine the system. The percentage remained unchanged even after the debate: 57 percent (97 out of 171 votes) disagreed.

Arguing in the affirmative, Friedberg called China a revisionist state. Friedberg does not think that China is trying to undermine the system, but he does think that China is unsatisfied with its current position. China is not content with every aspect of the existing order, Friedberg said. His statement raises an interesting question. Why should China be expected to be content with every aspect of an order created when the USwas powerful and China was weak?

Zhao argued more so from the perspective of China. He noted that China is a major contributor to key Western institutions. For the year of 2015, for example, China contributed $16,675,884 to the WTO budget and the budget of the Appellate Body, according to the WTO website. Not only is China the second largest contributor to the WTO, but China contributes greatly to other international institutions. China benefits greatly from the system. However, as both experts argued, China wants to gain better position.

After the Second World War, the US led the creation of what is commonly known as the Western liberal order. At the time of its creation, the USwas very powerful and China was very weak, relatively speaking. Zhao said China accounted for only two percent of global GDP; and the USaccounted for about 50 percent of global GDP. Given the large imbalance of relative power, the system was created without concern for Chinas core interests.

The current order of Western rules and norms puts modern China at a disadvantage. The system was designed to benefit the West, but the character of China has remained unchanged over the years. Today, the USaccounts for less than 30 percent of global GDP; and China accounts for about 15 percent of global GDP, according to Zhao. The gap between the two countries is no longer that great and certain aspects of the system remain a relic of the past.

There is no reason for China to be content with every aspect of the existing system. It is rational for China to want to strive for a fairer system that gives the nation greater voice on the international stage and a more balanced system that makes it more difficult for the USto use its powerful position to undermine Chinas core interests. From Chinas perspective, the system works, but certain rules and norms should be updated to accommodate the rise of China and the new reality of the world order.
Officials hold a press conference for the 11th Confucius Institute Conference set to take place in Kunming, capital of Southwest Chinas Yunnan province from Dec 10-11. [Photo/xinhuanet.com]

Organizers of the 11th Confucius Institute Conference held a press conference in Kunming on December 7. This years conference will be held from Dec 10-11 and focus on themes of innovation, cooperation, inclusion and sharing.

University chancellors, representatives from Confucius Institutes and ambassadors from 140 countries will join the event. A total of 2,400 people are expected to join the conference, according to the conferences sponsor.

Seven forums will be held during the conference to discuss the experiences and challenges faced by Confucius Institutes.

Its the first time for Southwest Chinas Yunnan province to host the event.

Yunnan has focused on developing its education in recent years. In 2015, the province received 22,635 foreign students, while twelve Confucius Institutes have been set up in there. Moreover, 43 universities in Yunnan have set 62 language departments with 81,900 students enrolled.

As of now, a total of more than 2 million students have joined the Confucius Institutes in different countries around the world. Known as the Davos of the education sector, the conference has run 10 years.

Edited by Jacob Hooson
Joint Summary of Outcomes

On December 7, 2016, in Washington, D.C., Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, together with Chinese State Councilor and Minister of the Ministry of Public Security Guo Shengkun, co-chaired the third US-China High-Level Joint Dialogue on Cybercrime and Related Issues. The dialogue aims to review the timeliness and quality of responses to requests for information and assistance with respect to cybercrime or other malicious cyber activities, and to enhance pragmatic bilateral cooperation with regard to cybercrime, network protection and other related issues. Both sides endorse the establishment of the Dialogue mechanism as beneficial to bilateral communication and enhanced cooperation, and believe that further solidifying, developing, and maintaining the Dialogue mechanism and continuing to strengthen bilateral cooperation in cyber security is beneficial to mutual interests.

The outcomes of the third dialogue are listed as below:

1. Combatting Cybercrime and Cyber-Enabled Crime. Both sides re-commit to cooperate on the investigation of cyber crimes and malicious cyber activities emanating from China or the United States and to refrain from cyber-enabled theft of intellectual property with the intent of providing competitive advantages to companies or commercial sectors. To that end, both sides:

 Plan to continue the mechanism of the Status Report on US/China Cybercrime Cases to evaluate the effectiveness of case cooperation.

 Affirm that both sides intend to focus cooperation on hacking and cyber-enabled fraud cases, share cybercrime-related leads and information with each other in a timely manner, and determine priority cases for continued law enforcement cooperation. Both sides intend to continue cooperation on cases involving online distribution of child pornography. Both sides seek to expand cyber-enabled crime cooperation to counter Darkweb marketplaces illicit sale of synthetic drugs and firearms.

 Seek to provide concrete and timely updates on cases brought within the ambit of the Dialogue.

 Exchanged views on existing channels of multilateral cooperation, and intend to continue exchanges regarding this topic.

2. Network Protection. Both sides acknowledged the network protection seminar held in August 2016 in China, and believe that enhancing network protection is beneficial to both sides. Both sides suggest holding regular network protection working-level meetings, either remotely or in-person, the next of which should be planned for 2017. Both sides seek to promote the protection of our respective networks through multiple methods. To that end, both sides:

 Plan to enhance network hygiene by promoting the cleaning and patching of malware infections in our respective networks and promoting best network protection practices.

 Propose to engage in regular reciprocal sharing of malicious IP addresses, malware samples, analytic products, and other network protection information, and to develop standard operating procedures to guide network protection cooperation.

 Seek to assess the effectiveness of information shared and provide substantive feedback to each side regarding the utility of that information.

 Plan to provide Principals with regular summaries of network protection cooperation.

 Intend to continue discussion on future cooperation concerning cybersecurity of critical infrastructure, and to provide timely assistance on cybersecurity incidents impacting critical infrastructure.

 Intend to hold, as early as possible in 2017, a US-China government and technology company roundtable to discuss cybersecurity issues of mutual concern.

3. Misuse of Technology and Communications to Facilitate Violent Terrorist Activities. Both sides acknowledged the seminar on misuse of technology and communications to facilitate violent acts of terrorism held in November 2016 in China, and decided to continue cooperation on information sharing in countering the use of the Internet for terrorist and other criminal purposes. Both sides will consider holding another seminar in 2017.

4. Hotline Mechanism. Both sides welcomed the launch of the US-China Cybercrime and Related Issues Hotline Mechanism, and decided to continue to use the hotline in accordance with the Work Plan. Both sides will conduct routine review of the use of the hotline.

5. Dialogue Continuity. Both sides recommend that the Dialogue continue to be held each year, and that the next dialogue occur in 2017.
By Zhang Yunbi in Beijing and Chen Weihua in Washington | China Daily | Updated: 2016-12-09 07:52

Beijing signaled its welcome to the expected new US ambassador to China, Terry Branstad, whom policy experts described as a good messenger.

The nomination is believed to be a positive sign by US president-elect Donald Trump amid a recent row raised by Trump's phone call with Taiwan leader Tsai Ing-wen.

Branstad, the governor of Iowa, accepted Trump's invitation to be the next US top envoy to China on Wednesday.

Branstad said in a news release on Wednesday that he looks forward to "building on our long friendship to cultivate and strengthen the relationship between our two countries and to benefit our economy".

Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said on Thursday that Branstad, "an old friend of the Chinese people", has made contributions to boosting bilateral cooperation, and Beijing is "glad to see an old friend take this job".

Although Trump's planned China policy remains unclear, speculation has focused on how Branstad, serving his sixth term as Iowa governor, will tap into his good ties with both President Xi Jinping and Trump as a senior diplomat.

Branstad's ties with Xi were established in 1985 when Xi visited Iowa during his first US trip as a county leader in Hebei province. Xi visited Iowa again in 2012 as vice-president.

Branstad supported Trump during the presidential race, and his son Eric ran Trump's general election campaign in Iowa.

Yuan Zheng, a researcher of US foreign policy at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said Branstad's good connections with both sides will "allow him to better convey messages and eliminate strategic misunderstanding through effective liaison".

But "diplomacy may be a major challenge, as the relationship is always entangled with complicated topics", including the Taiwan question, so it might take him a while to learn and adapt, Yuan said.

Teng Jianqun, a senior researcher on US studies at the China Institute of International Studies, said Branstad probably will work effectively on promoting China-US communication on economy and trade, since Trump will not likely put a brake on the flourishing economic ties.

Contact the writers at zhangyunbi@chinadaily.com.cn
Starbucks Corp plans to add more than 12,000 new stores globally by 2021, including doubling the number in China to 5,000.

The world's largest coffee company outlined its growth plans at its biennial investor conference in New York on Wednesday.

Seattle-based Starbucks said it continues to expand briskly in existing markets like the US and newer ones like South Korea and China. The global goal of 12,000 new stores would bring its total store base to 37,000, a 48 percent increase from the current level.

Seattle-based Starbucks entered the Chinese mainland in 1999, and at the conference it unveiled a partnership with Tencent Holdings Ltd's WeChat social media platform, China's equivalent of Facebook, to create a social gifting and digital payment system for China on the instant messaging service.

The world's biggest coffee company plans to open at least 1,000 Starbucks Reserve stores, featuring varied brewing methods and artisanal foods created by its new Italian food partner Princi.

The Starbucks Reserve Roastery in Seattle will also serve as a linchpin of the company's strategy. The roastery and tasting room serves as a gateway to the company's upscale approach that includes specialty coffees, food and a dramatic setting to maintain its status as a sought after meeting place.

Belinda Wong, CEO of Starbucks China, said a similar roastery in Shanghai is scheduled to open in late 2017 and will become "an enticing destination in China".

Wong said China it is the fastest-growing international market for the company. Soon Starbucks will have more than 2,500 stores averaging 5 million transactions a week and over 35,000 employees or partners, she said.
A Boeing 777-300ER landed at Toronto Pearson International Airport at 4:30 pm on Dec 7  the inaugural non-stop flight between Guangzhou and Toronto operated by China Southern Airlines, the largest airline in China.

"It's big news. We are very pleased to see China Southern Airlines commence operations to Toronto," W. David Wilson, chairman of the board of the Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA), told China Daily.

"The flight route is important for us. With a fleet of over 600 aircraft, serving over 200 destinations from its hub in Guangzhou, passengers will now be able to travel from Toronto to virtually every city in China and Australasia," said Craig Bradbrook, vice-president of aviation services at GTAA. "And conversely, we look forward to welcoming many businesspeople, students and tourists who are able to travel to Toronto through Guangzhou."

Bradbrook recalled his visit to Guangzhou last year when he was presented with a model of a China Southern aircraft. "I very gratefully accepted it, but jokingly said that I would prefer to see the real aircraft in Toronto. Today I can," he said.

Able to accommodate 309 passengers in a four-class configuration, the new service operates three times weekly and will be the first commercial service between South China and Toronto. It is the second route operated by China Southern Airlines to Canada; the airline also operates direct service between Guangzhou and Vancouver.

"We now are operating the service (three times a week); we hope to increase the flight frequency to five days a week in 2017 and daily by 2018," said Han Wensheng, vice-president of China Southern Airlines.

Located in the heart of the Pearl River Delta Economic Zone in South China, Guangzhou has been a powerhouse of manufacturing and Chinese exports for more than 30 years.

"Guangzhou is an economic and tourism center in South China," said Zhang Zifang, COO of China Southern Airlines. "Toronto is the main destination for tourists and immigration from southern China, The two cities have witnessed more increased exchanges and connection. I'm fully confident that the direct flight can build a sky bridge between the two sides."

China Southern Airlines and WestJet have signed a code-sharing agreement to assist arriving Toronto passengers flying to other major Canadian cities, including Montreal, Ottawa, Edmonton and Calgary.
R escuers inspect the damage after an earthquake struck Pidie Jaya on Friday in Aceh, Indonesia. The strong tremor killed 102 people. [Photo by Albert Damanik/Barcroft Images]

Thousands of people are homeless or afraid to return to their homes

Humanitarian organizations descended on Indonesia's Aceh province on Thursday as the government in Jakarta promised tons of emergency aid and officials raced to assess the full extent of damage from an earthquake that killed more than 100 people.

Search efforts involving volunteers and nearly 1,500 rescue personnel were concentrated on the hard-hit town of Meureudu in Pidie Jaya district near the epicenter of the magnitude-6.5 quake that hit before dawn on Wednesday. Humanitarian assessment teams were fanning out to other areas of the district.

National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said the death toll had risen to 102 and warned it could increase. Search teams were using devices that detect mobile phone signals with a 100-meter radius to help guide their efforts as they scoured the rubble, he said. Aceh's disaster mitigation agency said more than 750 people were injured.

Those killed included very young children and the elderly. Mohammad Jafar, 60, said his daughter, granddaughter and grandson died in the quake but he was resigned to it as "God's will".

He was getting ready for morning prayers when the earthquake hit. He said he and his wife managed to push their way out through the debris.

Thousands of people are homeless or afraid to return to their homes. Officials in Aceh said more than 8,000 people spent Wednesday night in shelters in Pidie Jaya district alone.

Terrifying memory

Killer quakes occur regularly in the region, where many live with the terrifying memory of a giant Dec 26, 2004, earthquake that struck off Sumatra. The magnitude-9.1 quake triggered a devastating tsunami that killed more than 100,000 Acehnese.

The Indonesian government said its urgent aid would be flown out of Jakarta on Thursday afternoon and will include 10 generators, tents, folding beds, baby supplies and body bags.

It will take at least two more days before there's a fuller picture of how many people are displaced and the relief effort required, he said.

Indonesia is prone to earthquakes due to its location on the Pacific "Ring of Fire", an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin. The 2004 quake and tsunami killed a total of 230,000 people in a dozen countries.

Scores of rescuers crawled over a market in Meureudu, the hard-hit town, where many shop houses collapsed.

One shop owner, Hajj Yusri Abdullah, didn't hold out much hope of finding survivors. He said nearly two dozen bodies were pulled from the market debris the day before. They included a group of eight made up of a newlywed couple and family members holding an ornate celebration known as Antar Dara Baro.
A helicopter belonging to the Minurso (UN mission in Western Sahara) flies over the Polisario second sector forward base on the outskirts of Tifariti, Western Sahara, September 9, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

UNITED NATIONS - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday appointed Major General Wang Xiaojun of China as the force commander of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO).

"Major General Wang will succeed Major General Muhammad Tayyab Azam of Pakistan, whose tour of duty ended on Nov 7, 2016," UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq told a daily briefing here.

MINURSO was established in 1991 by the UN Security Council in a bid to seek settlement in Western Sahara, whose territory has been contested by Morocco, Mauritania and the Frente Polisario, supported by Algeria, since colonial power Spain's withdrawal in 1976.

Haq said Wang "brings to this position 40 years of national and international military experience, having served as Defence Attache at the Embassies of the People's Republic of China to Brazil, India, Sweden, and the United States of America from 2006 until 2016."

"He also has served as a United Nations Sector Commander in MINURSO from 2003 to 2004, and was a United Nations Military Observer in Kuwait from 1992 to 1993," Haq added.

Wang has a Master's degree in Military Administration from the Military Science Institution of the People's Liberation Army, and a Bachelor's degree in Signals Technology and Command from the Nanjing Army Command College, China.

Born in 1959, Wang is married and has two children.
File photo of Chinese student Zhang Yao [Photo/ifeng.com]

After being robbed in Rome, Chinese student Zhang Yao has been missing for the last three days. The news has gone viral in the local Chinese community in Italy.

In the three days of her disappearance, various searches and several social media groups have been launched by the local Chinese community.

The 20-year-old was studying in the Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma and was robbed on her way to the immigration office on Monday, December 5.

The girl was on the phone with her roommate when her backpack was suddenly snatched by three people.

Zhang's roommate heard Zhang shouting "my backpack, there is a black person among the three robbers" through the phone. Then, their conversation suddenly broke off.

Her roommate phoned her 30 minutes later, but no answer.

The Chinese community, including other international students, has rallied around searching for her where she was last heard from, but have been unable to find her.
CAIRO - The Arab League (AL) strongly condemned the recent Israeli initial approval of a settlement legalization bill, urging the international community to pressure Israel to stop settlement expansion, the pan-Arab organization said in a statement Thursday.

"The international community should be aware of the real face of the current Israeli government that carries out unprecedented settlement construction," AL Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit said in the statement, stressing that settlement construction will remain "illegitimate and outlawed" and passing the related law will not change the fact.

The Knesset, Israel's parliament, passed on Wednesday a first reading of the controversial legislation that is meant to retroactively legalize about 4,000 settlement homes and to allow expropriation of more Palestinian lands in the West Bank.

"Issuing such a bill is no surprise under an Israeli government most of whose members reject the two-state solution and openly call for settlement expansion to obstruct this solution forever," said Aboul-Gheit.

Earlier on Monday, the Knesset also voted in support of a first reading of bill legalizing unauthorized Israeli outposts in the West Bank, which has also been rejected by the AL and many Arab states including Egypt.

Israel is blamed by the international community for the deadlock of the Middle East peace process due to its settlement expansion policy that is rejected even by its closest ally, the United States.

Supported by the United States, Russia, China, the European Union and many other states, the two-state solution seeks to put an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by the establishment of an independent Palestinian state within the 1967 borders.
Tajikistan's President Emomali Rahmoncenter), Chairman of TBEA Zhang Xin, (right), and China's Ambassador to Kazakhstan Yue Binleft), press the start button together and announce the start of the thermal power plant operation. Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn

China's leading power equipment manufacturer TBEA is to become a major power source for Dushanbe, capital of Tajikistan, after a thermal power project is completed in the country, said the company, which is based in Xinjiang Uygur autonomous and has a large production base in Shenyang, Liaoning.

The project is expected to contribute 60 percent of local power and heating services for Dushanbe.

This project is a landmark cooperation in the Belt and Road Initiative. The total installed capacity would reach 400 MW and generate 9.6 million kwh of electricity per day. In addition, it will provide more than 700 jobs for the local citizens.

Tajikistan's president Emomali Rahmon highly praised the outstanding contribution of TBEA and said this brought the cooperation between two countries in the energy sector to a new level.

Zhang Xin, chairman of TBEA, said that he will keep working closely with local government to keep contributing to both countries.

Dushanbe's heating power project obtained full support from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Commerce and the Export-Import Bank of China.
South Korean President Park Geun-Hye speaks during an address to the nation, at the presidential Blue House in Seoul, South Korea, November 29, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

SEOUL - South Korean parliament overwhelmingly passed a historic bill Friday to impeach scandal-scarred President Park Geun-hye as it gained the two-thirds majority vote.

The final tally was 234 votes cast in favor of impeachment, with 56 against and 2 abstentions. Seven votes were invalid. One legislator did not take part in the voting.

President Park will be stripped of all powers immediately after receiving the copied result on paper. It is expected to take 3-4 hours for the document to reach the impeached president.

The first South Korean female leader became the country's second president impeached by the National Assembly.

Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn is to become acting president, temporarily assuming presidential power while the constitutional court weighs the case for as long as 180 days.

The impeachment was overwhelmingly passed as there are 172 opposition and independent lawmakers in the 300-seat assembly.

Before the vote, about 210 legislators were forecast to vote yes considering the number of ruling Saenuri Party lawmakers who are not loyal to President Park.

The number of votes in favor indicates over 20 pro-Park faction members cast secret ballots in favor of the president's impeachment. Among Saenuri lawmakers, 62 members voted for it, with 56 against.

The vote started right after a quarter-hour speech by a lawmaker to explain the impeachment proposal, which was put forward last Saturday by the opposition bloc.

It took just over an hour to make the proposal speech, cast ballots and count votes. Legislators voted one by one on printed ballot paper inside closed booths.

The parliament picked the traditional way of voting to prevent a possible manipulation in electronic vote, which the unicameral assembly usually takes in passing bills.
ISTANBUL - Turkey issued detention warrants Friday for 87 academics over suspected links to a group led by a US-based cleric accused of masterminding a failed coup in July, Turkish media reported.

Police launched simultaneous operations in 12 cities to detain the suspects, including professors, associate professors and teaching academicians from Istanbul University, the Haberturk daily said, noting 51 suspects have been held.

The leader of a minor political party is also targeted, as his party is believed to be established by those who have supported the group led by Fetullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric now living in the United States but being sought by Ankara for his role in the coup attempt, the daily said.

Press reports said over 36,000 people have been arrested while some 100,000 state employees dismissed in the ongoing crackdown launched soon after the coup bid, in which 246 people were killed.
South Korean President Park Geun-hye delivers a speech during a ceremony to mark the anniversary of the 1919 independence movement against Japanese rule over the Korean peninsula, in Seoul March 1, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

China upholds the principle of not interfering in other countries' domestic affairs, and hopes that the Republic of Korea can quickly restore stability, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said on Friday while commenting on the impeachment of the ROK president.

The parliament in Seoul passed a motion to impeach Park Geun-hye, the country's first female president, on Friday amid the country's worst political scandal in a generation.

As a close neighbor, China hopes to develop good relations with the ROK, Lu said.

Mentioning that Park still remains president, Lu spoke highly of her efforts in pushing forward the China-ROK relationship after taking office in 2013.

But China firmly opposes the deployment of the anti-missile THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) system in the ROK since it could harm China's security interests, Lu said. Park approved the deployment of THAAD early this year.

ROK Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn will assume leadership until the country's Constitutional Court rules on whether Park must permanently step down. The court has six months to decide.

If six of the court's nine justices support her impeachment, Park will be formally removed from office and the country would then hold a presidential election within 60 days.

National Assembly speaker Chung Sye-kyun said the bill on Park's impeachment was passed by a vote of 236 for, with 56 against, and 9 invalid votes and abstentions.
Foreign Minister Wang Yi will pay a three-day official visit to Switzerland, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang announced on Friday.

Starting Saturday, the visit is at the invitation of the Swiss Federal Councilor and head of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, Didier Burkhalter.

Wang will meet Swiss President Johann Schneider-Ammann and talk with Burkhalter to exchange views on bilateral ties and issues of common concern, according to Lu.

The foreign minister will also meet leaders of the United Nations Office at Geneva, the World Health Organization and the International Olympic Committee to discuss China's cooperation with these organizations.

Calling Switzerland "an important partner for China in Europe", Lu said the two countries have a good basis for, and great potential in, cooperation.

"China-Switzerland ties have long been a pioneer in China's ties with Western countries, and have helped drive the development of China-Europe ties," Lu said.

Schneider-Ammann paid a state visit to China in April, during which the two countries agreed to set up an innovative strategic partnership.

"China is ready to work with Switzerland to maintain the good momentum of bilateral cooperation and stable development of bilateral ties," Lu said.
France has a great opportunity to demonstrate its traditions, openness and world class if it is chosen as the venue for the World Expo in 2025, said Pascal Lamy, one of the French officials steering the country's application.

France announced last month that Paris would be a contender for the expo. The winning bid is to be announced in 2018.

Lamy, former director-general of the World Trade Organization, said in Beijing that the expo is a unifying project that is a part of his country's heritage and that looks to its future.

The French government, partner companies and other stakeholders involved in the bid had been working on the application for more than two years, he said.

Preparations for the expo and for the Olympic Games have been incorporated into an infrastructure renewal project of unprecedented scale in the Paris region: a new 200km underground railway project and the construction of a high-speed link between Charles de Gaulle airport and the center of Paris, he said.

It was announced last year that Paris was bidding to stage the Olympic Games in 2024, 100 years after they were last held in the city.

"Throughout French history, world expositions have been synonymous with innovation and progress, and have left indelible marks on the French imagination," Lamy said.

The Eiffel Tower, now the symbol of Paris, was built for the 1889 World Expo, he said.

The Shanghai Expo in 2010 provided many lessons, he said, and he found its theme, "Better City  Better Life", inspirational, as were the international partnerships that were built and encouraged people to think about sustainable city living.

The theme chosen for the event if it is held in Paris is "Sharing our knowledge, caring for our planet", which also reflects on "sustainable development on a worldwide scale", Lamy said.

France is a highly popular tourist destination for Chinese, and if Paris is awarded the expo he expects about 45 million Chinese to attend the expo, he said.

"The French government invests considerably in encouraging and supporting Chinese tourists. China is a key partner for the French economy, and French interest in Chinese culture is growing. The exposition is a fantastic opportunity for our two countries, economically as much as culturally."
China's Defense Ministry has expressed strong opposition to the United States Congress passing the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017, which facilitates military exchanges between the US and Taiwan.

Clauses in the Act would enable senior military official exchanges, grant Taiwan observer status in maritime military exercises, and justify arms sales to Taiwan, according to the Congress. It is the first time such clauses have been included in the Authorization Act.

In a statement released on Friday, China's Defense Ministry spokesman, Yang Yujun, said that the US Congress had disregarded the bigger picture of Sino-US relations by passing the act, and China reserved the right to take further measures.

"The Taiwan question is related to China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and it involves China's core interests," Yang said.

He added that China resolutely opposed the US undertaking any form of formal exchanges or military interaction, as well as arm sales, with Taiwan.

"These stances have been made consistently and clearly."

Yet Congress has departed from history, and pushed for US and Taiwan military exchanges, Yang said.

The move has interfered with China's internal affairs, disrupted stability in the Taiwan Straits, damaged China's sovereignty and security interests, and would ultimately hurt the US's own interest, he warned.

In 1999, the US Congress passed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2000, limiting China-US military interactions in 12 fields and creating artificial legal obstacles for the two militaries' relationship.

Now, the US Congress has again proposed facilitating interactions between senior military officers and civil servants from the US and Taiwan, Yang said.

"This has demonstrated the stubborn Cold-War and zero sum mentality in some members of the US Congress."

China urges the US to clearly recognize the situation and take immediate and effective measures to correct the mistakes in order to prevent further damage to the China-US military relationship, he said.

"We must emphasize that the scheme of Taiwan separatists using foreign powers to undermine China's sovereignty and territorial integrity will fail," Yang said.

"The effort will only strengthen China's military determination in stopping separatists, and pushing for the country's unification with stronger resolve, confidence and capability."
China has responded to United States President-elect Donald Trump's latest criticism, declaring it has been playing by trade rules set by the World Trade Organisation.

Foreign Minsitry spokesman Lu Kang suggested on Friday that China and the United States could totally work out their differences over trade issues within the framework established by the WTO.

Lu's comments followed Trump's appearance at a rally in Iowa where he reportedly blamed China for almost half of America's trade deficit, and accused China of not being a market economy because it hasn't played by the rules.

Trade between the two countries has increased from $2.5 billion per year to more than $558 billion last year, according to Lu.

"Bilateral trade could not have developed to such a state nowadays if it hadn't brought benefits to both sides," he said, adding that the two countries' interests are deeply interwoven.

It is a "normal state" that the two countries share a lot of common interests while having some differences, and China hopes to work with the new US government to continue mutually beneficial cooperation and manage the differences properly, the spokesman said.
SOFIA - Bulgarian member of the European Parliament (EP) Mariya Gabriel said here on Friday that the negotiations on Britain's exit from the European Union (EU) should be transparent.

"Something that is important for us is while Brexit negotiations are underway to have no parallel negotiations related to the way the UK will participate in the common market or bilateral negotiations with member states," Gabriel said during a roundtable discussion.

Gabriel, who is also a vice-chair of the Group of the European People's Party in the EP, said the EU should have a very clear strategy regarding this.

"Very clearly, before the start of the negotiations, we should set our fundamental principles that will allow us to go as an equal partner in these negotiations," she said.

She sincerely hoped that maximum clarity would be achieved.

The transparency of negotiations would also allow EU citizens to know what is happening, she said.
WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama directed US intelligence agencies to conduct a full review of cyber attacks and foreign intervention into the 2016 election and deliver a report before he leaves office, homeland security adviser Lisa Monaco said on Friday.

Monaco told reporters the results of the report would be shared with lawmakers and others. Obama leaves office on Jan 20.
WASHINGTON/NEW YORK - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has asked senior Goldman Sachs banker Gary Cohn to coordinate economic policy across his administration, turning to Wall Street for expertise in managing the world's largest economy, NBC News reported on Friday.

Trump's pick of Cohn, 56, the firm's president and chief operating officer, to head his White House National Economic Council marks the third time he has tapped an alum of the major investment bank for a senior role in his administration.

The NEC coordinates economic policy across federal agencies and if Cohn takes the post, he will follow Robert Rubin and Stephen Friedman, two other one-time Goldman executives who served in that role.

The choice would rob Goldman of the man widely seen as heir apparent to Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein and may give rise to a new group of leaders at the bank, most of whom have spent more than 20 years there.

A Goldman Sachs spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

Trump's transition team had no immediate comment on the report.

Cohn is a former Goldman commodities trader from Ohio who joined the firm in 1990. He served in a variety of leadership roles in bond trading, becoming co-head of Goldman's broader securities and eventually co-president in 2006.

Cohn has donated to both Democrats and Republicans over the years. He has given more recently to Republicans, including $33,400 to the National Republican Congressional Committee in 2015, according to campaign contribution records. They also showed that in 2007 and 2008, Cohn donated to Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton's presidential campaigns.

He speaks frequently on the state of the financial markets at industry conferences and on television.

Cohn would join at least two other former Goldman executives in the Trump administration, including Treasury Secretary-designate Steven Mnuchin and White House adviser Steve Bannon.

Trump is also expected to pick U.S. Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers to run the Interior department, said a person familiar with the matter.

McMorris Rodgers, a Republican from Washington state, is a strong advocate of increased oil and gas development and her appointment could mean easier access for industry to more than a quarter of America's territory, ranging from national parks to tribal lands stretching from the Arctic to the Gulf of Mexico, where energy companies have been eager to drill and mine.
A protester cheers after the Republic of Korea parliament's vote to impeach President Park Geun-hye on Friday. Crowds gathered outside the National Assembly in Seoul to demand that Park step down. ROK President Park Geun-hye attends an emergency Cabinet meeting on Friday.

The parliament's vote on Friday to impeach Republic of Korea President Park Geun-hye may bring more uncertainty to the Korean Peninsula and the already strained China-ROK ties, analysts said.

Park, the country's first female president, was stripped of her power amid the country's worst political scandal in a generation. Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn will assume leadership until the country's Constitutional Court rules on whether Park must permanently step down. The court has six months to decide.

Chung Sye-kyun, the ROK National Assembly speaker, said the bill on Park's impeachment was passed by a vote of 236 in favor and 56 opposed, with 9 invalid votes and abstentions.

China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a regular news conference on Friday that Beijing upholds the principle of not interfering in other countries' domestic affairs and hopes that the ROK can restore stability as soon as possible.

Lu spoke highly of Park's efforts in pushing forward China-ROK relations after taking office in 2013. However, he stressed that it was during her time in office that the ROK decided to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense anti-missile system, which China firmly opposes since it could harm Beijing's security interests.

Liu Jiangyong, a professor of international relations at Tsinghua University, told China Daily that the chaotic political situation in the ROK could have adverse consequences for China-ROK ties as well as for the Korean Peninsula.

The China-ROK relationship is undergoing fluctuations caused by the deployment of THAAD, Liu said, adding that the situation might be worsened.

Liu said that Japan had taken advantage of the political situation in the ROK to swoop in to sign a military agreement that could harm China's security interests and cause more uncertainties on the peninsula.

Last month, the ROK and Japan signed the General Security of Military Information Agreement in Seoul after four years of negotiations. According to the agreement, the two countries will share military information.

Liu also said the impeachment will delay a meeting of the leaders of China, Japan and the ROK.

They were expected to meet by the end of the year.

Zhang Liangui, an expert on Korean studies at the Party School of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said that the deployment of the THAAD anti-missile system will continue during the impeachment of Park because "nobody will stand up to say no" during the political chaos.
China employee non-compete agreements make a lot of sense, once you recognize that they differ a fair amount from such agreements in most other countries. The overall handling of employee non-compete agreements in China is not all that different from most other places.

During your new employee on-boarding process in China, you should confirm there are no encumbrances or restrictions on any new hires coming to work for your company. In particular, you should make sure there are no in-force non-compete agreements. Let me explain why this is so important.

Though employee non-compete agreements are generally disliked by Chinas administrative and judicial authorities, many employers like to have non-compete agreements in place with every employee they hire, even part-time workers. Moreover, many employers prefer to have an elective agreement where the employer has the right to decide whether or not to enforce the non-compete agreement upon termination of the employment contract. In other words, the employer gets to decide whether it will pay the employee for not competing for a certain period of time after the employees departure, or whether the employee can go free without any restraints. The legality of such an elective arrangement depends on where you are located in China, but for purposes of this discussion lets assume such terms are in fact legal and enforceable.

It makes complete sense for the employer to want to wait until the end of the employment term to see if the employee possesses proprietary information worth protecting, since things may change during the course of employment. This especially makes sense because in China the employer must pay its departing employee not to compete.

What happens though if an employer does nothing when the employment relationship ends. Usually,no action on the part of the employer means the non-compete agreement does not come into force. If this is the employers intention its probably okay. But if the employee is both expecting and wanting a non-compete payment from you as the employer and you have not clarified the non-compete issue at the time of termination, the employee will probably demand payment from you or sue you to enforce the non-compete.

To avoid this battle and headache, if you decide you do not want to enforce the non-compete provision or contract, your best course is to make this clear to your departing employee before their departure. Doing this will virtually always stop a terminated employee from suing you for non-payment on a non-compete.

But what if you as the employer want to enforce your non-compete provision or agreement? In this case, you will need to inform the employee that you are electing to enforce the non-compete and you should be sure to comply with all of the terms of the non-compete, including paying all non-compete compensation due to your departing employee. You should put your employee(s) on notice of your intent to enforce the non-compete via a clear writing to the employee. And by this I mean a hard copy document with clear language (in Chinese) setting out your intention to enforce the non-compete.

In most Chinese jurisdictions, an employer that does not affirmatively confirm its desire to enforce a non-compete will be deemed to have waived its right to enforce the non-compete after three or so months. The exact number of months an employer can go without being deemed to have relinquished its rights to enforce a non-compete depends on the locale  as is true for just about everything else relating to Chinas employment laws. See China Employment Law: Local and Not So Simple.

Back when China employee non-compete agreements were less complicated, our China employment lawyers pretty much always counseled our clients to put non-compete provisions in their China employment contracts. Nowadays though, we suggest they balance their need for a non-compete against the risks that such a provision or contract could eventually cause them problems.

For example, what happens if you use a non-compete that automatically takes effect upon the employees termination and you have no intention of enforcing it when the employee leaves but you forget to terminate the non-compete when processing the employees departure? Though this depends on your locale, in many of Chinas cities, this will mean you will need to reach agreement to pay your employee for a mutual termination of the non-compete or if you do not pay any non-compete compensation you run the risk of a Chinese arbitrator or judge sticking you with the non-compete because you knowingly signed a binding agreement that included one.



Bottom Line: Be careful with your China employee non-compete agreements. Do not just insert a non-compete provision into your China employment contracts without first thinking through the repercussions of doing so. You also need to be careful to act on any non-competes before any impending employee termination.
(Photo : Getty Images) The Philippines is unlikely to accommodate US ships and aircrafts patrolling on the disputed South China Sea to establish their base in the country.



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Philippine defense secretary Delfin Lorenzana said Thursday it is highly unlikely for the country to allow the US military to use it as a springboard for freedom of navigation patrols in the disputed South China Sea to avoid antagonizing China.



Instead of continuing what the US has been used to doing during the administration of the former President Benigno Aquino III, the US ships and aircrafts could use Guam and Okinawa's bases or fly from aircraft carriers to patrol the disputed waters.



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Under the administration Aquino, some US aircrafts and ships stopped in the Philippines on the way to patrolling the disputed waters to challenge China's territorial claims.



But when new President Rodrigo Duterte took his office in June, a lot of changes happened as well as surprising announcements including his steps to strengthen Philippines' ties with China and become hostile toward the Obama administration after White House raised its concerns over Duterte's war on illegal drugs.



When asked if the Philippines will continue to host US ships and aircrafts patrolling the disputed waters, Lorenzana's said Duterte will not likely allow that to happen "to avoid any provocative actions that can escalate tensions in the South China Sea. It's unlikely," the PhilStar reported.



"We'll avoid that for the meantime," he added. "Anyway, the US can fly over there coming from other bases."



US officials, on the other hand, did not comment immediately; however, last month, Adm. Harry Harris, the commander of US forces in the Pacific, said that despite Duterte's decision, military cooperation with Manila has not changed.



Meanwhile, the US-Philippine annual combat exercises have also been reduced and will be redesigned to focus on disaster response and humanitarian missions. Among the maneuvers to be dropped starting next year are amphibious landing exercises and beach raids aimed at enhancing the country's territorial defense, military officials said.



The October meeting of Duterte and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing resulted to China allowing Filipinos to fish at the disputed Scarborough Shoal. Philippine coast guard ships have also restarted patrolling at the shoal.



China took control of the rich fishing area in 2012 after a tense standoff with the Philippine government ships.



Aside from the easing of tensions at Scarborough, Chinese coast guard ships are no longer blocking Philippine resupply ships from Second Thomas Shoal, farther south in the Spratlys, Lorenzana said.



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TagsSouth China Sea, china, Philippines, Duterte, South China Sea Territorial Dispute, America
(Photo : Getty Images) Japanese company automaker Honda will collaborate with Dongfeng Motor Group to establish its third production facility worth 3 billion yuan ($436 million).

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Honda Motor announced its new investment in China to build its third automobile production plant worth 3 billion yuan ($436 milllion) in the country. The Japanese company will collaborate with Dongfeng Motor Group for the project. The announcement was made through a statement released on the company's website.



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The latest announcement confirms the previous speculations doing round earlier this year. In October, Reuters reported that Honda plans to build a new factory by 2019. The production facility expects to have an annual production capacity of 120,000 vehicles.



Honda reported 28.3 percent year-over-year increase in its sales in the country. The company has experienced massive surge in its demand in China in the past two year. The automaker has also introduced a number of new models for sport utility vehicles.



The new Dongfeng Honda plant will be spread across 1.2 million square meter area. It is expected to be located 8 km southeast of the company's first plant in Wuhan Economic & Technological Development District. The new plant will also provide for the production of electric vehicles. China is expected to witness major increase in demand for electric vehicles in the coming years.



Takahiro Hachigo, President, Chief Executive Officer and Representative Director of Honda Motor, said "Honda sales in China is going strong and annual unit sales for 2016 is expected to reach 1.2 million units. The Chinese market has potential for further development and growth."



With this new plant, Dongfeng Honda will have an annual production capacity of 600,000 units, while Honda's capacity in China will rise to 1.25 million units. Its other two units are capable of producing 600,000 and 50,000 units, respectively.



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TagsHonda, Dongfeng Honda, Wuhan Economic & Technological Development District
(Photo : Wuchang Shipbuilding Industry Company) Building the new Titanic at Wuchang shipyard.

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The unsinkable legend of the RMS Titanic goes on, and Chinese and Australian firms are racing to build full size replicas of the ill-fated White Star Line passenger ship that sank on its maiden voyage on April 15, 1912 killing 1,500 persons.



Chinese state-owned Wuchang Shipbuilding Industry Company recently said construction of the world's first full-sized Titanic replica that began in May 2014 at its Shuangliu Shipyard remains on track for its projected completion in 2018.



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Wuchang is building the 300 meter-long replica in landlocked Sichuan province, southwest of Beijing.



Wuchang has dubbed its version of the Titanic, "Unsinkable Titanic."



Wuchang's Unsinkable Titanic is being built as a tourist attraction and not as a seaworthy ship. The ship will be built in a reservoir and will float. Guests will be able to dine and stay overnight.



Wuchang executives told local media Unsinkable Titanic will be a faithful replica of the original Titanic. This ship will feature the same dining hall, theater, luxury first-class cabins and passenger cabins as in the original. These same features were also reproduced in the 1997 hit movie, Titanic.



Wuchang is a subsidiary of state-owned China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC), one of the two largest shipbuilding conglomerates in China, the other being the China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC).



CSIC, however, is the leading shipbuilder in the field of design, manufacture and trade of military and civil ships, marine engineering and marine equipment.



On the other hand, the other Titanic project is facing titanic financial problems of its own.



In 2012, Australian mining billionaire Clive Palmer announced the building of "Titanic II," a seaworthy ocean liner to be built as an actual replica of the original. Palmer intended Titanic II to be the flagship of a proposed cruise company, Blue Star Line Pty. Ltd.



Titanic II was to have launched this year but as of October, construction hasn't begun on the ship. Palmer's company then said the project has been set back to 2018. It would have cost Palmer $600 million to build Titanic II.



Palmer, who has a reputation for being eccentric, originally planned for Titanic II to sail from Southampton in the United Kingdom to New York. He later said the new route will be from Jiangsu, China going to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.



The fate of Palmer's Titanic II remains uncertain, a fact not helped by Palmer's odd statement he would have to ask his wife to approve of the project.



But Titanic II will be more seaworthy and much safer than the original. It will meet modern safety and design requirements.



It will also have enough lifeboats for everyone on board. The shortage of these lifeboats on the original Titanic was one of the main reasons for the horrific death toll.



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TagsRMS Titani, Wuchang Shipbuilding Industry Company, Unsinkable Titanic, Clive Palmer, Titanic (II), Sichuan Province, Shuangliu Shipyard
(Photo : Getty Images) Sri Lanka agrees to sell 80 percent stake of strategically located Hambantota port.

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Sri Lanka signed an agreement in principle on Thursday to sell at least 80 percent of its deep-water port on the country's southern coast, near the world's busiest sea lanes, to a Chinese state-backed firm, according to The Wall Street Journal citing senior officials.



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China Merchants Port Holdings Co. Ltd. will pay $1.1 billion for its shares in the port and adjoining land in Hambantota district, the EJ Insight noted.



The remaining 20 percent of stake will be owned by Sri Lanka's port authority. The deal is expected to close early January.



Meanwhile, in a report earlier last month, Ravi Karunanayake, Sri Lanka's finance minister, said that the money will be used to pay the country's expensive foreign loans. And the deal will turn the port into a Chinese investment zone, the Diplomat noted.



The initiative followed after Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe made an offer during his visit to China in April to swap equity in Sri Lankan infrastructure projects against some of the $8 billion debt it owes to China, according to the Fresh Plaza.



The establishment of the Hambantota airport in 2010 was backed by China under its previous leader Mahinda Rajapaksa. Although the current government sees the port not financially viable, China, on the other hand, sees Sri Lanka's geopolitical importance for its ambitious Maritime Silk Road.



The port in Hambantota is located along an important trade route connecting the Middle East and Asia. It could be noted that China's navy has been extending its operations in the Indian Ocean as it seeks to project power westward.



Its strategic location and proximity make other nations like India and the US nervous as Sri Lanka lies near shipping lanes through which a huge volume of the world's trade passes en route to China and Japan, the Fresh Plaza noted.



"We will watch carefully," a US senior official said. "These things do have long-term implications."



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TagsSri Lanka, china, Hambantota Port, China and Sri Lanka, Chinese investment zone, Sri Lanka port, China Merchants Port Holdings Co. Ltd.
(Photo : Getty Images) Chinas Fujian Grand Chip Investment Fund has officially dropped its bid to acquire Germany's Aixtron after the President Barack Obama blocked the deal.

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China's Fujian Grand Chip Investment Fund has withdrawn from the bidding race to acquire German chip equipment manufacturer Aixtron SE, after outgoing President Barack Obama imposed blockade over the deal last week.



Fujian's takeover vehicle Grand Chip Investment said on Thursday that its acquisition offer has lapsed after it failed to secure approval from the US regulatory body.



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All those investors who had already accepted its takeover proposal will get their shares back by December 13, it added.



Aixtron stocks were trading 3.1 percent low at 3.78 euros ($4.02) by 11:27 GMT, much lower than the Grand Chip Investment's offer of 6 euros ($6.37) per share.



Obama blocked Fujian from acquiring Aixtron US reportedly due to national security concerns. Aixtron US, the division of German company based in Silicon Valley, is involved in critical military projects including upgrading of US and foreign-owned Patriot missile defense systems.



The overriding fear among American leaders that Chinese firm will get access to these military technologies eventually proved to be a crucial factor in blocking the Aixtron deal.



The US' acrimonious relation with China is largely considered responsible for its hostile attitude against Chinese investment. Most other western countries including Australia, Britain, Canada, and Germany share the same apprehension about Chinese investment.



China's traditional leaning towards communist ideology has forced most of the western world to view it with prism of suspicion. Experts also claim that China's unprecedented rise during last two decades has further increased the apprehension.



Few days back, reports had emerged in the media that several American lawmakers have raised red flag over takeover of another chip making company by a private investment firm. The part of the funding of this investment firm reportedly comes from Chinese government.



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TagsFujian, Fujian Aixtron, Aixtron China, china, Barack Obama
(Photo : Getty Images) Senator Mark Rubio has called for sanctions on China in a bill he filed in Congress

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A US senator has filed a bill in Congress calling for the imposition of sanctions against China over its illegal activities in the disputed South China Sea and the East China Sea.



Speaking as head of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Marco Rubio on Tuesday discussed the bill titled "The South China Sea and East China Sea Sanctions Act" which, if passed into law, would punish Chinese officials, individuals, and businesses found supporting the country's activities in the disputed seas.



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"China's aggressive actions in the South China Sea are illegitimate and threaten the region's security and American commerce, with reverberations that can be felt here at home, including Florida's ports and throughout our state's shipping and cargo economy," Rubio said.



Flagrant violations



Rubio pointed out that the US would not allow China's brazen violations of international law to jeopardize the security of its allies in the region and risk its economic interests.



Rubio, who described China's activities in the South China Sea as "illegitimate," said Beijing's claims to the disputed seas and its increasing assertiveness in the region have to end.



The senator said it is about time that the global community punishes Beijing for these illegal acts in the South China Sea through legislation that would hold violators to account and prevent others from supporting the country's illegal activities.



The senator from Florida lashed out at Beijing saying that based on international law, China has no legal right to stop military and civilian ships and planes of any country from using the free waters and airspace in the South China Sea and East China Sea regions.



US visas



The bill empowers the US President to slap sanctions on Chinese companies and individuals and denying US visas to Chinese businessmen and entities who are found to be funding Beijing's construction projects in the disputed seas.



Part of the bill also focuses on the US' withdrawal of foreign aid from countries who recognize China's authority over the region.



The proposal also directs the federal government to monitor international companies and Chinese individuals and business groups who have been helping the government to expand its reach in the disputed area.



No legal basis



Six months ago, a United Nations arbitration court ruled that China has no legal basis for its territorial claims in the South China Sea.



The court said China's actions had violated international law and the Philippines' right to explore resources within its exclusive economic zone.



The case was filed by the Philippines against China three years ago before a Hague-Based court.



China has rejected the ruling saying the court did not have jurisdiction to hear the case and that the verdict was "illegal" and a "piece of waste paper."



Aside from China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia, have overlapping territorial claims in the disputed South China Sea.



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TagsUS Congress, Senator Mark Rubio, South China Sea, East China Sea, South China Sea and East China Sea Sanctions Act, china
(Photo : Getty Images) Experts believe that President Xi Jinping is moving to curb the ideas of constitutionalism and liberalism from taking root in China's schools and colleges.

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Chinese authorities have been urged to intensify ideological controls on academia and turn the country's universities into Communist party hubs.



"Higher education must adhere to political orientation," Chinese President Xi Jinping said during a high-profile address to top Communist party officials and university heads.



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The president said that there is a need to transform universities into strongholds that are loyal to the party's leadership.



Speaking at a two-day congress on "ideological and political work" in Beijing, the president also ordered that political education should be made more appealing.



"China's higher education institutions are under the leadership of the CCP (China Communist Party), and are socialist colleges with Chinese characteristics, so higher education must be guided by Marxism, and the Party's policies in education must be fully carried out," Xi said.



President Xi added that ideological and political work is fundamentally about the individual and that the work must focus on students, caring for them and serving them and also helping them improve in ideological quality.



"Students should be educated to be aware of the development trends of China and the world as large," Xi said.



This latest development is seen as one of Beijing's efforts to silence opposition to the ruling elite.



Carl Minzner, an expert on Chinese Law and Politics at the University of Fordham, believes that Xi's speech was a signal that his government was embarking on the next phase of a decade-long effort to win back areas of the country it feared were getting out of control.



"What you are seeing is the reassertion of ideological control because they feel that colleges and schools are the hotbeds of ideas that could potentially be problematic," Minzner said.



Minzner believes that ideas of constitutionalism and liberalism are among the many issues the Chinese government will be trying to control.



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Tagschina, President Xi Jinping
(Photo : Getty Images) Trump's choice for China ambassador is a long-time friend of President of Xi Jinping.

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Donald Trump has warned China that they will have to "play by the rules."



Speaking at a rally at Des Moines, Iowa, Trump claimed that China is responsible for over half of America's trade deficit.



"China is not a market economy. They haven't played by the rules, and they know its time that they're going to start. They're going to start. They're going to," Trump said.



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Trump was using the rally to introduce Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, whom he has picked as his choice for China Ambassador.



Although Branstad has already a long-standing friendship with Chinese President Xi Jinping, he is expected to deal with a Chinese government that is already wary over Trump's insistence to provoke it, which was made worse by Trump's decision to have a phone conversation with Taiwan's president.



Reacting to Branstad's appointment, the China Daily newspaper said that "a mutually beneficial relationship entails more than a messenger." In its editorial, the newspaper also said that "a diplomat's success to a great extent hinges on his country's foreign policies."



The editorial was also critical of the congratulatory call that Trump took from Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-Wen. The call reportedly breached diplomatic protocol since the US moved its embassy to Beijing from Taipei almost four decades ago.



Trump's inner circle claims that the call was not a signal of a policy change. There have, however, been claims that the call was weeks in the making, and this has caused some to question whether the incoming government is seeking to revise the " One-China principle" that underpins relations with Beijing.



"If the phone call between Donald Trump and the Taiwan leader was indeed a long term move and was meant to remind Beijing that it is dealing with a different kind of U.S president... Beijing is well aware of that," the editorial in the China Daily newspaper read.



The US broke diplomatic ties with Taiwan in 1979 and recognized the communist government in Beijing instead.



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Tagsdonald trump, Xi Jinping, Tsai Ing-wen, US-China Relationship
(Photo : Getty Images) India's government has made the decision to financially bailout Mongolia after China imposed a series of trade blockades on the hill-locked country following the Dalai Lama's visit last month.

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India has decided to bailout Mongolia in the wake of economic crisis following a trade blockade recently imposed by the Chinese government. China imposed the blockade as a retaliatory measure in response to the Dalai Lama's visit to the landlocked mountainous country last month.



The Indian government said it will allow Mongolia to utilize the $1 billion financial aid announced during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the country in 2015.



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"We are ready to work with Mongolian people in this time of their difficulty. During the visit of the PM to Mongolia in May 2015, he had conveyed to the Mongolian leadership that India will extend support in diverse fields," Ministry of External Affairs Spokesman Vikas Swarup said.



"We had announced a credit line of US$ 1billion. We are closely working with the Mongolian government to implement the credit line in a manner that is deemed beneficial to the friendly people of Mongolia by its leadership."



Modi's visit in 2015 was a historic one, as it was first visit by an Indian prime minister to the North East Asian country. However, the visit had more than symbolic importance. The visit was apparently meant to sned a message to China that its effort to encroach in the South Asian region will not go answered.



China Increases Trade Tax on Mongolian Goods



Soon after the Dalai Lama wrapped up his four-day visit to Mongolia last month, the Chinese government announced increase in trade tax on all goods bound for Mongolia. As a result, prices of many of the important commodities are likely to shoot up, which will certainly entail economic hardship for ordinary citizens.



Beijing has also indefinitely put on hold the $4.2 billion financial aid grant, which was approved to pull out the landlocked mountainous country from deep economic recession.



Mongolia is locked between China and Russia and is cut out from most part of the world. Its unique geographical location has forced this predominately Buddhist country to rely on China for trade and economic aid.



Dalai Lama's Four-day Visit to Ulaanbaatar Irks China



China lodged protest immediately after the Dalai Lama started his four-day visit to Mongolia's capital Ulan Bator last month. This was the controversial spiritual leader's ninth visit to Mongolia, where he is immensely revered by all the Buddhist worshippers.



China had asked the Mongolian government to not allow the Dalai Lama to visit the country, adding that it is staunchly opposed to separatist carried out activities by the Dalai Lama on any foreign soil.



Mongolia's foreign minister, however, downplayed Beijing's warning, stating that the government has nothing to do with the exile of the Buddhist leader's four-day visit to the country.



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TagsIndia, India and Mongolia, China and Mongolia, India and China
(Photo : US Navy) Nuclear aircraft carriers of the U.S. Third Fleet. (Clockwise from left) USS Nimitz, USS Carl Vinson, USS John C. Stennis, USS Ronald Reagan

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The commander of the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) strongly warns the United States and the United Kingdom against conducting any more "freedom of navigation and flight" patrols in the South China Sea.



PLAN Commander Admiral Wu Shengli said China firmly opposes interventions in the South China Sea from countries outside the region.



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He also said China stoutly opposes "unprofessional and unsafe acts" by ships or aircraft in the South China Sea, including attempts to use "freedom of navigation and flight" as an excuse to compromise Chinese sovereignty over the South China Sea and to destabilize Asia.



"The construction work on the Nansha (Spratly) Islands, which are our own territory, is completely lawful and reasonable," claims Admiral Wu.



"There are defense facilities, but most of the infrastructure on the islands is to serve civilian purposes. They can provide a wider range of public services to neighboring nations and the entire international community."



The U.S. Navy has been conducting what it calls "Freedom of Navigation Operations" in the South China Sea since early this year. The United Kingdom last week announced it plans to begin aerial patrols of the sea this month using Royal Air Force jet fighters based in Japan.



The UK also said its Royal Navy will begin naval patrols of the South China Sea in 2020 after its first supercarrier, the HMS Queen Elizabeth, becomes operational.



Admiral Wu also suggested that other countries should respect historic facts; resort to negotiation for disputes; enhance mutual trust and personnel exchanges and improve joint drills.



An International Court of Arbitration in The Hague last July 12, however, issued a ruling invalidating China's claim to own the South China Sea based on its alleged historical rights. The court found China had infringed Philippine sovereignty by seizing islands rightfully owned by the Philippines.



China has refused to obey the court's ruling telling it to return the islands to the Philippines.



Admiral Wu's remarks were also China's reply to a bill filed in the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations by Republican Senator Marco Rubio entitled the "South China Sea and East China Sea Sanctions Act of 2016" proposing sanctions against China over its activities in maritime disputes in the East and South China seas.



A retired PLAN admiral went further than Admiral Wu's comment by saying China is prepared to goto war against the U.S. over the South China Sea.



Retired Rear Admiral Yang Yi, former director of the Institute for Strategic Studies at the PLA National Defense University, said the Chinese military is ready to handle armed provocations challenging China's sovereignty and territorial integrity.



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TagsPeople's Liberation Army Navy, PLAN, Admiral Wu Shengli, South China Sea, war, U.S. Navy, Freedom of Navigation Operation, United States, United Kingdom, International Court of Arbitration, west philippine sea, Marco Rubio
The United States House of Representatives on Dec. 8 unanimously approved a bipartisan bill to help counter Boko Harams insurgency in northeast Nigeria and other affected African countries. The bill is awaiting the presidents signature to become a law.



The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, passed in the Senate in September 2015. The pending bill would require the U.S. secretaries of state and defense to develop a five-year strategy to combat the Islamic terror group. The strategy would involve offering assistance to the Nigerian government and the regional joint task force fighting the group, as well as responding to the growing humanitarian crisis in the region.



The bipartisan approval of the bill shows Congress commitment to pursuing and ending Boko Harams terror, Collins said.



I urge the president to immediately sign this bill into law and send an international signal that we will never forget the girls of Nigeria who were targeted simply because they chose to pursue an education, Collins said.



Boko Haram has existed since 2002, but the extremist groups insurgency fully began in 2011 when it started staging mass attacks on civilians, police buildings, and even the United Nations building in Abuja, Nigerias capital. The extremist group has killed more than 20,000 people and displaced more than 2 million others in Nigeria and neighboring countries. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in 2013 designated Boko Haram a foreign terrorist organization after his predecessor, Hillary Clinton, failed to do so two years earlier. The delayed designation hindered chances of military surveillance or financial tracking that could have stemmed the groups growth.



Boko Harams mass abduction of more than 270 schoolgirls from the northeastern town of Chibok in 2014 drew international attention to the crisis. By May 2015, Nigeria and its neighbors Chad, Niger, Cameroon, and Benin set up an 8,700-member, multinational task force to combat the terror group. But the insurgency continues. IBM Intelligence, a security analysis group, said Boko Haram has killed more than 240 civilians in Nigerias Northeast this year, though many attacks go unreported. Last week, the UN said nearly 7 million people in the region are in need of basic services.



If the world does not act and come to Nigerias aid, the trickledown effect on the rest of the continent and other parts of the world could cause a level of damage that will take years to repair, Wilson said. More important, it is simply the right thing to do.

Courtesy: WORLD News Service

Publication date: December 9, 2016
When Jessica Duran walked into Southwest Womens Options in Albuquerque, N.M., in 2012, she was cash-strapped, depressed, and 12 weeks pregnant.



Center staff told her she could have an abortion, and on one of her visits handed her a single document to sign, requiring her consent for the procedure and consent to donate her babys body to the abortion facility.



On Dec. 5, Duran filed a lawsuit over what they didnt tell her: Her babys body parts probably went to the University of New Mexico (UNM) for research, an outcome she could have refused.



The very people that advertise they offer women the right to choose at Southwestern Womens Options are the very people who violated my right to choose, Duran said in a press conference Monday morning. They take advantage of women like me in frantic situations by not giving us all of the facts and information we are entitled to. They dont tell us about the research agenda they are part of with UNM. They dont tell us they are looking for our babys body parts to harvest.



Durans lawsuit alleges Southwest Womens Options broke state and federal law, breached its contract with her, and intentionally inflicted emotional distress.



Everyone but me wanted this abortion, including the doctors, Duran said. [But] from the moment I had the abortion, I never felt good about the decision or myself. I felt as if I had left my heart at the clinic with my baby.



The suit also claims Shelley Sella, an abortionist at Southwest Womens Options who never treated Duran, signed paperwork stating she was eligible for Medicaid to cover her abortion. The suit accuses Sella of negligent supervision over Durans abortionist, Carmen Landau.



According to the suit and Durans supporters, the abortionists broke New Mexicos Maternal, Fetal, and Infant Experimentation Act, which stipulates a pregnant woman must be informed of the details of research to be conducted on her unborn baby and that her consent is voluntary and can be withdrawn at any time.



None of those rights were afforded Jessica Duran at the time of her abortion, Elisa Martinez, director of New Mexico Alliance for Life, told me.



Lumping the consent for the procedure in with consent to allow the babys remains to be used for research is an outright violation of womens rights to informed consent, Martinez said. Its deceptive.



Duran filed her lawsuit after New Mexico Alliance for Life as well as the House Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives revealed the relationship between Southwest Womens Options and the University of New Mexico.



In June, the panel called on New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas to investigate the two entities for their close relationship, for violating state law that forbids the donation of aborted baby parts for research, and to see if they violated federal law that bans the sale of fetal remains.



The ties between the University of New Mexico and Southwest Womens Options went too deep, panel chairwoman Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., wrote to Balderas, with abortionists holding volunteer faculty status and the university aggressively engaged in expanding abortion in New Mexico.



The log of baby body parts, with their gestational ages and pickup times, disclosed by the panel in June gave rise to Durans belief that her baby was among those used for research by UNM students and faculty.



Now a mother of two boys, Duran said her abortion causes daily trauma.



I was never told the misinformed choice I made was going to haunt me with deep pain and emotional regret, she said. They dont tell you that youre actually ending the life of a human, not just a clump of cells.

Courtesy: WORLD News Service

Publication date: December 9, 2016
UPDATE (9 Dec.):

A Turkish judge sent Rev. Andrew Brunson to prison in Izmir today, 64 days after the US pastor and his wife, Norine, were detained on 7 Oct. under Interior Ministry deportation orders.

Although his wife was released on 19 Oct. and given an extended permit to remain in the country, Andrew Brunson has been held since 20 Oct. at the Harmandali Detention Centre on the northern edge of Izmir.

The 48-year-old was transferred overnight on 8 Dec. to a counter-terrorism centre, before being brought before an Izmir court today (9 Dec.) for interrogation.

The American Protestant heard today for the first time the allegations filed against him, which apparently prompted his arrest and lengthy detention. According to the officiating judge, the terrorism charges came from a secret informant. The court ruled that the files on Brunsons case would continue to remain inaccessible to his lawyer, who had not been allowed to meet him until todays hearing.

According to Norine Brunson, the lawyer confirmed that her husband was accused of links with the Fetullah Gulen movement, which is accused by Ankara of instigating a failed military coup against the Turkish government on 15 July. The pastor is now incarcerated at Izmirs Sakran 3 Nolu T Tipi Prison.

In a wide-ranging crackdown to identify and prosecute the suspected coup plotters and their sympathisers, with the intention to prosecute them as terrorists, the Turkish authorities have suspended or jailed tens of thousands of judges, prosecutors, military personnel, journalists and educators on terrorism charges over the past five months.

Brunson and his wife, who have three children now studying in the US, have lived in Turkey for the past 23 years.

Previous update (20 Oct.)

Turkish police authorities holding an American Protestant couple in isolation for the past 13 days released the wife late last night (19 Oct.), but continue to hold her husband incommunicado in an Izmir detention facility.

Rev. Andrew Brunson and his wife Norine were refused contact with U.S. consular officials and lawyers since they were detained on 7 Oct., under Interior Ministry orders for deportation within 15 days on alleged "national security" grounds. To date, no reason for the expulsion order has been given to the couple, who are 20-year residents of Turkey.

Although initial attempts by members of the Izmir Resurrection Church to send in personal effects to their pastor and his wife were refused, this week officials accepted parcels of fresh clothing and medicine for the couple. But the police would not permit a Bible to be sent on to them.

It remained unclear whether Rev. Brunson would be deported or remain in custody. He was transferred to the Cigli detention centre in the northern part of Izmir this morning.

Original story (14 Oct.):

Turkish officials in the coastal city of Izmir detained American Christians Andrew and Norine Brunson on 7 Oct., refusing ever since to allow daily requests for access to them by U.S. consular officials and lawyers.

According to authorities at the Migration Administrations detention facility in Izmir, the Turkish Interior Ministry had ordered the couples deportation within 15 days. Specifically, the directive reportedly accused them of activities said to constitute a national security risk.

When pressed five days later for details about this general accusation, the detention officials said they were waiting for papers from Ankara on the case.

Residents of Turkey for the past 20 years, the Brunsons are currently leading the Izmir Resurrection Church, a small Protestant congregation averaging 30 to 40 worshippers, located in the citys Alsancak district.

After filing a routine application in April to renew their residence visas, the Brunsons had received no response for the past six months. But when they arrived home on 7 Oct., they found a written summons requesting them to report with their passports to a local police station. On arrival, they were immediately taken into custody.

A lawyer asking to visit them was denied access and told to obtain an affidavit as his legal authorisation. But when he returned with the document, officials claimed that the couple had already signed a statement, declaring they did not want a lawyer. The authorities refused to produce the written statement.

A lawyer acting on behalf of the Brunsons filed a petition to the Izmir governor yesterday (12 Oct.), protesting that the incommunicado stipulation against the American Christians was illegal under Turkish detention laws. A member of the Turkish Parliament has also made an inquiry on the handling of their detention.

Although an Izmir church leader confirmed that the U.S. Embassy in Ankara is reportedly following the arrests, an embassy official declined any comment on the detentions to World Watch Monitor.

After five days, church friends trying to send in a change of clothing to the couple, who are in their late forties, continue to be rebuffed at the detention centre.

A continuing pattern

The Interior Ministry has issued similar summary deportation orders against expatriate Christians living in Turkey over the past few years. But when their lawyers were given official access to their detained clients, as stipulated by law, the directive could be delayed. This allowed a temporary stay of deportation and a formal court appeal.

In such a recent turn-around, Canadian-American Christian David Byle was taken into custody in April, when the Interior Ministry denied his application to renew his residence visa and advised the immigration authorities to deport him as a danger to public order.

Byle has worked for years with a registered Bible Correspondence Course, helping educate the Turkish public about the Bible and organising legal street outreaches.

Byles lawyer filed three cases against his arrest, deportation order and re-entry ban. All now remain on hold because of the Turkish judicial upheaval, in which thousands of judges and prosecutors have been suspended over allegations of support for the Fetullah Gulen movement, accused of orchestrating the summers attempted military coup. But in the interim, until the cases are resolved, Byle continues to live in Turkey.

A similar process took place two years ago, when an American Protestant pastoring in southeast Turkeys Gaziantep city for nine years was detained in September 2014 for imminent deportation, under Interior Ministry orders. Although Patrick Jensens residence permit was cancelled, his lawyers intervention shortened his detention to only 30 hours, and a court hearing was set to hear his appeal over the ruling, which Turkeys Association of Protestant Churches had protested as absolutely arbitrary.

The Gaziantep Administrative Courts judicial decision two months later overturned the Interior Ministrys order, allowing Jensen to remain in the country.

Ironically, Jensen was refused entry on 27 Aug. when he arrived at the Istanbul airport, returning from traveling abroad. The reason for his blacklisting is still unclear.

Still another U.S. citizen living in Turkey and involved in Christian ministry learned this past weekend while flying out of an Istanbul airport that his valid residence visa had been revoked. It was unclear whether he would be permitted to re-enter Turkey if he returned on his round-trip ticket.

But apparently the option of judicial review is being circumvented in the Brunsons deportation, since they have so far been refused the right to any legal counsel to prevent their forced removal from Turkey.

Under Turkeys current state of emergency, declared after the failed 15 July military coup, the government in Ankara has relatively free rein to implement policies and directives which appear to violate the principle of rule of law. Last week the emergency regulations were renewed for another three months, until mid-January 2017.

They are never going to be happy with any foreigners doing Christian work in this country, one Turkish church leader told World Watch Monitor. So we have to take these government actions in proportion, realising there are so many countries in this region where expatriate Christians cant even go openly.

There are quite likely touchy issues involved here, he said, referring to the flood of Syrian refugees and the Kurdish violence in the southeast, where many Christians are involved in humanitarian aid.

So for expatriate Christians involved in church ministries in Turkey, their routine residence visa renewal procedures now appear somewhat tentative.

Courtesy: World Watch Monitor

Publication date: December 9, 2016
Out of Egypt I called my son (Hosea 11:1; quoted in Matthew 2:15).

When Charles Spurgeon preached on this verse, he began his sermon this way:

Egypt occupies a very singular position towards Israel. It was often the shelter of the seed of Abraham. Abraham himself went there when there was a famine in the land of his sojourn. To Egypt Joseph was taken that he might escape from the death intended for him by his envious brethren, and become the foster-father of the house of Israel. Into Egypt, as we all well know, went the whole family of Jacob, and there they sojourned in a strange land. There Moses acquired the learning which was so useful to him.

He points out that while God sometimes sent his children to Egypt to protect them, he always delivered them from Egypt later. So Moses and the children of Israel came out of Egypt in the great passage through the Red Sea. They needed Egypt for protection, but they were never meant to stay there forever.

We dont know how long Jesus and his parents stayed in Egypt, or where they stayed, or how old Jesus was at the time. But those details dont matter. God protected Jesus by sending him to Egypt at just the right moment to spare his life. One writer called this the cross-handed providence of God because a desperate flight to escape Herod turns out to be a great mercy from the Lord. But it would only be seen in reverse.

My favorite definition of faith comes from Philip Yancey: Faith means believing in advance what will only make sense in reverse. Many things in this life make no sense to us. We all have deep and personal questions that defy all human answers. We want to know why things happen the way they do and why couldnt things have happened some other way. It would be wrong to say that faith provides all the answers. It doesnt. Perhaps in heaven we will fully understand, or in heaven our desire to know will be transformed by our vision of the Lord. By faith we see things that are invisible to others and by faith we believe in advance those things that right now make no sense but one day will make perfect sense because we will view them in reverse.

Its only as we look back that we say, I can see why it had to happen that way. So it is for all of us. God often sends us to Egypt to protect us and to prepare us for what is to come.

Do not despair if you feel like you are in Egypt today. What seems like a punishment or a detour may turn out to be a great gift from the Lord. When we view our trials through the lens of Gods providence, they turn out to be gifts from heaven. This is true even when our trials seem like a great burden.

God knows what he is doing even when we cant see it.

Father, help us to trust you when the way forward seems unclear. Give us faith to take the next step with you even if it seems to lead to Egypt. Amen.

Musical bonus : Todays song started as a French carol, but became very popular in America after it was translated into English in the late 1800s. Lets listen as David Phelps sings O Holy Night.

You can reach the author at [email protected]. Click here to sign up for the free email sermon.
Ohio lawmakers passed a bill which would ban abortions when the heartbeats of the fetus become detectable at around six weeks.

The 'heartbeat bill' was approved by both the House and the Senate on December 6, and has been sent to Governor John Kasich who has 10 days to veto it. Otherwise, it will automatically became law.

The bill makes an exception when the life of the mother is in danger, but not for rape, incest, and anomalies in fetus.

After the Supreme Court legalized abortions in the country in 1973, some of the states allowed abortion restrictions, especially when the fetus becomes viable outside the womb, and pre-abortion counseling. Abortion restrictions in some of the states was blocked by lower courts.

"This bill could take away a woman's right to make her own medical decisions before she would have known she had a decision to make," Planned Parenthood wrote in response to the passage of bill.

NARAL Ohio is one of the pro-abortion groups which condemned the bill as restrictive.

"Banning women from getting a medical procedure is out of touch with Ohio values and is completely unacceptable," NARAL Ohio said in a statement.

The author of the bill and a former Christian radio talk show host, Janet Folger Porter, welcomed the approval of bill and wrote on her blog Faith2Action, "The Heartbeat Bill just passed the Ohio Senate, which had been held it up for the last six years. Praise the God of the impossible, whose name is Jesus! And thank you to all of you who called and emailed and prayed! The Ohio Heartbeat Bill, which will protect every child whose heartbeat can be detected."

The bill had been approved by the House twice before, but was rejected in the Senate. However, this time the lawmakers tried to pass it again and it succeeded because of anticipated changes in the new government, according to Senate President Keith Faber.

"A new president, new Supreme Court appointees change the dynamic, and there was consensus in our caucus to move forward," Faber told The Columbus Dispatch.

"It has a better chance than it did before," Faber said in reference to its chances of withstanding court trials.
Two Christian artists in Arizona may be locked up in prison for refusing to make wedding invitations for same-sex couples as per a state ordinance.

Joanna Duka and Breanna Koski, who run Brush & Nib Studio, face a fine of $2,500 and an imprisonment of up to six months for each day they do not comply with a state law.

"A Phoenix law require[s] Brush & Nib to create invitations and other artwork for same-sex wedding ceremonies. It also prevent[s] Brush & Nib from explaining to customers and the public why they could only create art consistent with their beliefs about marriage. For each day Joanna and Breanna followed their religious beliefs and disobeyed the law, they would each be penalized up to $2500 and six months in jail," Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative law firm which takes up cases related to religious freedom, explains the case profile at their website.

Judge Karen Mullins of the Superior Court in Maricopa City turned down the Christian artists' plea to suspend ordinance enforcement, and refused to allow dismissal of the case through Phoenix motion.

Duka and Koski appealed the ruling, and say that the city ordinance oppresses their freedom of religion and expression.

"Artists shouldn't be threatened with jail time and other penalties simply for making art that is consistent with their beliefs. That's why we asked the court to suspend enforcement of the Phoenix ordinance against our clients while their case goes forward," ADF counsel Jonathan Scruggs said in a statement.

Another ADF counsel Kristen Waggoner told Fox News that Americans should not be forced to compromise their artistic impulses to be able to earn their living.

"We don't force artists to create artistic expression under threat of jail time," said Waggoner. "Americans don't give up their constitutional rights because they want to earn a living and feed their children, nor do artists."

"No American, including artists, should have the government force them to create art against their artistic and religious beliefs," said Scruggs.
Compassion International is weeks away from permanently withdrawing from India, according to its testimony this week to a Congressional committee.

What were experiencing is an unprecedented, highly coordinated, deliberate and systematic attack intended to drive us out, the Christian charitys lead attorney Stephen Oakley told the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday.

Compassion began working in 1968 in India, where today its 580 Indian-staffed development centers care for more than 145,000 children. Thats about 8 percent of the 1.9 million children assisted by Compassion worldwide, but also more than any other of the 25 countries where it works.

This is a huge turning point in Compassions history, US communications director Tim Glenn told Mission Network News. Were looking at a clear 8 to 9 percent of our ministry possibly being shut down all at once.

Compassion sends about $50 million per year in humanitarian aid to India. That makes it the single largest contributor of aid for children living in extreme poverty in India, said committee chairman Ed Royce.

Yet, he said, Compassion could be shut down because of Indian government regulators in mere weeks.

Image: Compassion International

The restrictions started in 2011, when India changed its Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) so that it could regulate NGOs it disagrees with philosophically, according to the committee testimony. The move was seen by many as another step toward Hindu nationalism since 2014, when the country elected as its prime minister Narendra Modithe only person once banned by the United States because of alleged religious freedom violations.

Since then, attacks on Christians and Muslims have increased. India is now No. 17 on Open Doors list of countries where its hardest to be a Christian, up from No. 31 in 2013.

Then in a secret order issued in February, Indias Ministry of Home Affairs [MHA] blocked Compassion from transferring funds to the development centers, wrote Compassion president and CEO Santiago Jimmy Mellado for The Hill this week.

The Indian government did this by mandating that certain NGOsincluding Compassionreceive approval prior to accepting foreign funds. [But] after months of unsuccessfully trying to obtain prior clearance, we have concluded that the clearance process is fiction, Compassaion stated on its website. We have never been offered an explanation for this action in the nine months since the order was issued.

Image: Compassion International

India isnt the only country seeking to restrict foreign NGOs. In April, China passed new regulations that would require its more than 7,000 NGOs to register with local police and find an in-country partner. China also banned NGOs from engaging in religious activity.

Russia began cracking down on NGOs 10 years ago; since 2012, its NGO sector has shrunk by a third. In Ethiopia, foreign funding cannot be used for any efforts toward peace, human rights, advocacy, or conflict transformation. Peru and Brazil have further limited outside contact with people groups living in the Amazon jungle.

Unable to receive funds, Compassion cut back, limiting the hours of operation for its child development centers and serving snacks instead of full meals.

Then, last month, Compassion received two more blows. First, it ran out of money.

Second, Indian bureaucrats refused to renew foreign funding licenses for Compassion and at least 24 other NGOsseverely disrupting our humanitarian work, Mellado wrote.

The official explanation is that Compassions activities are not conducive to national interest, reported the Times of India. The number of NGOs allowed to receive foreign funding was slashed by a third, from more than 33,000 to 20,000, reported the English-language newspaper based in New Delhi.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch objected, saying the action violates [the NGOs] rights to freedom of expression and association.

The national interest that the government has in mind seems to be strengthening the Hindu identity of the populous and pluralistic nation. About 80 percent of the countrys 1.2 billion people are Hindu; less than 3 percent are Christian, according to the latest census.

In Compassions case, Prime Minister Modis government has since April blocked roughly $3.5 million in monthly aid to Indias most vulnerable children for, as far as we can tell, no other reason than that Compassion is founded on and demonstrates Christian values, Mellado wrote.

MHA evidently views Christian values as a threat to the national interest, particularly if those values are taught to the poor, said Oakley.

Image: Compassion International

It doesnt seem to matter that Compassions focus is humanitarian, though it has faced accusations from Indian security agencies of funding conversions.

Using the Indian governments own numbers, just 4 percent of Compassions funds in India are used for moral and spiritual values education  values which transcend all religions, said Oakley. The remaining 96 percent is the routine but essential provision of food, medicine, clothing, school fees and related humanitarian aid to support tens of thousands of at-risk infants, children and youth living in extreme poverty.

Simply put, he said, Compassions primary mission is to release children from poverty, not convert them.

Were there to help the community and the children, and to help those families be successful, Compassion spokesperson Becca Bishop told CT. I hope theyre able to see that we want to support their culture, and not to break it down and make it more Western.

Compassions warning that it will be forced to pull out comes after three years of government harassmentan $18 million tax bill, investigations into its anti-national activity, and intimidation of staff, Oakley told the House committee. If India does succeed in driving Compassionand other NGOs it doesnt agree withfrom the country, no plan or provision at all has been made to care for these children when we depart.

So far, Indias government has offered mixed reactions to Compassions public hearings with the Congressional committee.

We are ready to reconsider the case of Compassion International, the US donor, which was put under 'prior permission category' for alleged violation of [FCRA]," one senior Home Ministry official toldIndia Today, an English-language news magazine based near New Delhi.

Image: Compassion International

But a spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs told India Today that the hearing appears to be based on limited understanding of India, its society, constitution and laws.

There is a well-established legal framework for NGOs to conduct their operations in India. This is borne out by the presence of over 3 million NGOs in the country, one of the largest NGO networks in the world, he told the news magazine. India welcomes lawful operation of foreign NGOs in India.

The courts may offer some hope. Amnesty noted that when organizations have challenged the Indian government on its actions under FCRA, the courts have generally ruled in their favor.

And four months ago, the Indian Supreme Court ruled that the Indian governments response to anti-Christian mob violence that killed 100 and displaced 50,000 Christians in 2008 was inadequate.

But that will take more time than Compassion has, Oakley said.

MHA knows that they can use the inefficiency and massive delays of the Indian bureaucracy as a weaponforcing charities like Compassion to either accept their determinations, or spend years seeking redress in a painfully slow and often corrupt legal system, he said. In short, Indias Home Ministry is using those aspects of Indias bureaucracy, which are most in need of urgent reform, to systematically target NGOs with agendas and views that differ from its own.

Compassions problems are a symptom of a larger problem that is dragging India on a downward spiral, wrote the Federation of Indian American Christian Organizations in a statement. Social enmity and witch-hunt promoted by the BJP government in power against Christian or any other group has the potential to destabilize a nation more than they realize.

But Compassion isnt giving up hope. The charity is urging American politicians to support its efforts to help children in India.

It is my hope that by bringing attention to this issue, 145,000 children will not be tragically denied services they desperately need, said Royce during the House hearing. And then, relations between the two countries will be even stronger.

Compassion also seeks to mobilize more than 500,000 of its supporters.

Were asking people to pray, Bishop said. Prayer is amazing, and works miracles.
The orthodox, ecumenical evangelical Thomas C. Odena Methodist whose deep commitment to classical Christianity defined his lifes workdied Thursday at age 85.

Odens vast body of theological writings includes his Systematic Theology anthology, four volumes on John Wesley, dozens of Bible commentaries, and the pages of Christianity Today, where he served as executive editor alongside J. I. Packer and Timothy George.

His scholarship on the church fathers led to his surprising mid-life shift from liberal Protestantism to evangelicalism, as recounted in his 2014 memoir, A Change of Heart.

The heart of my story is that the first part of 40 years of my life, I was way, way out there on a path that I had to go on in order to come back like the prodigal son to the father, Oden told Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, in a 2015 interview. But eventually I did and by my 40th year, I became deeply invested in listening ...

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Worse than what missing the mark does to our soul is what it does to our neighbors.
A recent Saturday Night Live skit with guest host Emma Stone features a 90s-style music video making fun of the the gift of having a gift to give away. In this case, its an impersonal, peach-colored candle that you can pull out of your purse and re-gift on a whim.

By contrast, real gifts require forethought, careful attention, and personal knowledge of the recipient. A good book is particularly special. In anticipation of Christmas, we asked CT Women writers to report on the one book theyd recommend as a gift. From memoirs to anti-devotionals, old Russian classics to new releases, here are their favorites.

By Rachel Ignotofsky

I love finding books that inspire younger women with real-life role models, and this one was the perfect choice for the 10-year-old super girl on my Christmas list. Ignotofsky profiles 50 women of sciencefrom an entomologist to a renowned mathematician that hail from diverse countries. Their profiles are paired with whimsical illustrations. The book is as brainy as it is charming and perfect for mothers and daughters, or maybe aunts and nieces (in my case), to read together. Made me proud to be a girl! Jamie Janosz

By Jane McGonigal

I can't say enough good things about this research-based self-help book. McGonigal, a game designer and PhD, breaks down the science behind video games and explains how the concepts of gamification apply to real life. This book helped me rethink my approach to a lot of difficult situations this year and also provided a framework from which to rethink my approach to self-care and post-traumatic growth. This will ...

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Pastor Responds to Crimes Against Humanity Charge

Contact: Public Relations Department, 407-875-1776, 407-462-9715 cell, Media@LC.org; www.LC.org



SPRINGFIELD, Mass., Dec. 9, 2016 /Christian Newswire/ -- Liberty Counsel filed a brief opposing the latest efforts by Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) in its lawsuit against Pastor Scott Lively, in which SMUG seeks to silence and impose significant financial penalties against Lively for his speaking and writing about his biblical views on homosexuality. Liberty Counsel's filing is in response to a brief filed by SMUG as a last ditch effort to save SMUG's case from dismissal after it utterly failed to present evidence supporting its claims at a summary judgment hearing last month.



SMUG has failed for four years to produce a shred of evidence to fit its sensational claim that Lively committed "crimes against humanity"-akin to genocide and war crimes-by "conspiring" to "persecute" the LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex) population in Uganda. SMUG has unwittingly revealed its secret and corrupt goal to intimidate Lively into silence, along with any American pastor with a heart for African families. Liberty Counsel's response lays bare for the court SMUG's deception.



SMUG deems every pro-family advocate in Uganda to be a "co-conspirator" in a "criminal enterprise" to "persecute" the LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex) population of Uganda. In addition to seeking bankrupting financial penalties from Lively, SMUG is asking the federal court to prohibit Lively from, among other things, preaching at Ugandan churches and lobbying or advocating against same-sex marriage in Uganda.



"Even after 100 hours of depositions and 40,000 pages of documents, SMUG has no evidence whatsoever connecting Lively to any act of so-called 'persecution,'" said Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel. "SMUG has always claimed it was not trying to hold Lively liable for his speaking and writing. Yet the more SMUG writes, the more obvious it becomes that SMUG wants to punish Lively for his beliefs.

This is clearly a vendetta against Lively for speaking about homosexuality and God's design for the family in Uganda," said Staver.

About Liberty Counsel

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British Government Has Failed The Christians Of Syria And Iraq, Senior Clergy Say

Senior Anglican clergy have accused the British government of failing to take seriously the urgent plight of Christians facing persecution and death in Syria and Iraq.

In an open letter of protest signed by other concerned church men and women, London vicar Father Christopher Phillips is demanding to know why the Government refused visas to three Orthodox Christian archbishops invited to travel to London for the consecration of a new cathedral.

The Bishop of Coventry Christopher Cocksworth has also tabled a question in the House of Lords that is still awaiting a response. He has asked the Government "whether they have any plans to review why the Archbishop of Mosul, the Archbishop of St Matthews and the Archbishop of Homs and Hama were refused visas to travel to the UK from Iraq and Syria to attend the consecration of the Syriac Orthodox Cathedral in London".

Prince Charles attended the consecration of the new cathedral last month. He celebrated the event in style, even dancing with members of the congregation after the service.

But he also acknowledged the terrible sufferings of so many Christians in Syria: "It is surely deeply encouraging, at a time when the members of the Syriac Orthodox Church in their homelands of Syria and Iraq are undergoing such desperate trials and such appalling suffering, that in Britain the Syriac Church is able to expand and gain in strength," he said.

Days later, it emerged that the British government had refused visas to three archbishops from Iraq and Syria to attend the event.

The Archbishop of Mosul, Nicodemus Daoud Sharaf, the Archbishop of St Matthew's in Iraq's Nineveh Plain, Timothius Mousa Shamani, and the Archbishop of Homs and Hama in Syria, Selwanos Boutros Alnemeh, were told they could not attend.

The British Government insisted it could make no exceptions to its policy of refusing all visa applications from Syria. The archbishops were also told they did not have enough money to support themselves in the UK and they might not leave.

In his letter to Home Secretary Amber Rudd, signed by Bishop of Willesden Pete Broadbent, Bishop of Buckingham Alan Wilson and other senior clergy, Fr Phillips writes that it was "particularly pleasing" to see the support lent to the consecration of the cathedral by the Queen and the Prince of Wales.

He notes that Prime Minister Theresa May wrote a letter to be read out to the congregation, in which she spoke of "the appalling violence that has afflicted so many areas of the Middle East [which] reminds us how fortunate we are to live in a country where different religious beliefs are not only tolerated, but welcomed."

Phillips continues: "We are therefore dismayed that the applications of the Archbishops of Mosul, St Matthew's, and Homs and Hama for visas to attend the service should have been refused by your office. Each of the dioceses represented by the Archbishops covers territory that has been taken over by Daesh/IS, and Christians there are subject to extreme forms of persecution.

"These are respected Christian leaders, whose bona fides could easily have been checked with the Archbishop of Canterbury's office at Lambeth Palace, or with the Syriac Orthodox Church in this country.

"The reasons given for the refusal of their visa applications (either that they had insufficient funds to support themselves while in the UK, or that there was reason to be concerned that they might not leave the country afterwards) do not seem to take seriously the reality of the Archbishops' urgent and serious pastoral responsibilities in their home countries."

He says guarantees could easily have been found and there must therefore be "a problem with the system".

He concludes: "We call on you urgently to investigate how such a state of affairs has come to exist, and to consider what reforms can be put into place to ensure a more equitable and compassionate system of assessment for such applications."

Other signatories include Simon Jones, chaplain of Merton College, Oxford, Edward Lewis, Vicar of St Mary, Kenton in London and a chaplain to the Queen, Philippa White, succentor of Lincoln Cathedral Adrian Furse, succentor of St David's Cathedral in the Church in Wales and Antony Grant of the Community of the Resurrection, Mirfield.

Fr Phillips told Christian Today that it seemed an appropriate issue for him to highlight because the new cathedral is in his area of Willesden.

"Like many, I've been appalled at the suffering of my brothers and sisters in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere and have been following the news," he said.

"Seeing recent reports about St Thomas' and the Archbishops' visas, I decided I could no longer remain silent and resolved to do something, however small, to try to help. I very much hope that the government will review the way that they consider visas in order to ensure that there is a sensible system of checking credentials. It is very important that respected Christian leaders from areas of persecution are able to travel freely as part of their ministry, to draw attention to the suffering of their people."
Christian Charity Compassion International Could Be Forced Out Of India

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi was swept to power in 2014 on a promise to deal with the corruption and inefficiency that bedevils the country's public life  and to assert the Hindu character of the nation.

Now embattled and facing a crisis of popularity because of a decision to withdraw banknotes from circulation  hitting India's poor and middle classes and threatening its economic growth  he's more than ever reliant on the Hindu religious right that backed him for the premiership. Modi's BJP is the political wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu Nationalist organisation promoting the belief that India is Hindu and that minority religions  like Islam and Christianity  are inferior faiths.

And a deep suspicion of the activity of foreign Christian organisations has led to a crisis for one of the largest and longest-established working in India today. Compassion International, which supports more than 145,000 babies, children and young adults through local church partners, has warned that it might have to halt its work altogether after 48 years.

It's because the Indian government has stopped it from passing funds to its partners on the grounds that it's illegally converting people to Christianity  an allegation flatly denied by Compassion.

According to Compassion, the Indian government ordered in February that "prior clearance" would be needed before funds could be transferred to its partners. It says: "After months of unsuccessfully trying to obtain prior clearance, we have concluded that the clearance process is fiction. We have never been offered an explanation for this action in the nine months since the order was issued."

Many of its partners have run out of funds entirely, while others are running reduced services.

In an article for The Hill this week, Compassion's President and CEO Jimmy Mellado warned that the organisation's work could be brought to an end there. Citing a Guardian article, he says India has shut down 25 foreign-funded organisations since the accession of Modi's BJP party. The Guardian article refers to a leaked Intelligence Bureau report to Modi saying NGOs that highlight issues such as caste discrimination, human rights or environmental concerns were part of a "growth-retarding campaign" to discredit India internationally.

Mellado says: "India's actions should shock human rights advocates and all who value the United States' relationship with the world's largest democracy."

He continues: "Compassion has committed no crimes, broken no laws, and to date has received no formal notice of illegal actions or a response from the Indian government."

An intensive lobbying campaign by Compassion bore fruit this week as its representatives testified before a Congressional hearing. Compassion's general counsel Stephen Oakley was scathing about India's Ministry of Home Affairs, saying: "MHA knows that they can use the inefficiency and massive delays of the Indian bureaucracy as a weapon  forcing charities like Compassion to either accept their determinations, or spend years seeking redress in a painfully slow and often corrupt legal system.

"In short, India's Home Ministry is using those aspects of India's bureaucracy, which are most in need of urgent reform, to systematically target NGOs with agendas and views that differ from its own."

Oakley said Compassion would be willing to work with the Indian government to address concerns over particular partners. However, Compassion denies it has a conversion agenda. Its US communications director Tim Glenn told Mission Network News: "The government is concerned that we are trying to change their culture. They're worried about the influence that we might have. But what you have to realise is that Compassion's program works solely with local church partners in the countries where we serve. So we're not there creating churches, we're not there trying to create any kind of religion. We're there working with churches that are already doing God's work in that country. We're just supporting them and providing them programs so they can do their work. I think that if people understood that, it would dramatically change their perception of Compassion."

And, he said: "If you're living in India, I can understand this fear of outside organisations trying to come in and change your culture. But that fear is based on a misunderstanding of what Compassion actually does. We're in India, and we've been there since 1968. We're not there to change culture; we're there to lift children up from poverty. We're there to feed them and to provide them opportunity for education and to teach them life skills so they become employable as adults."

The initial response of the Indian government to the Congressional hearing was to defend its position on Compassion. However, a senior Home Ministry official told India Today: "We are ready to reconsider the case of Compassion International, the US donor, which was put under 'prior permission category' for alleged violation of Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA)."

It's a chink of light in an otherwise dark picture of official obfuscation and delay, motivated  Compassion believes  by an unfounded suspicion of the motives and practices of an organisation that's only seeking to do good.

As Mellado says: "Compassion wants nothing more than to continue supporting India's children and families, and we respectfully urge Prime Minister Modi to immediately and unreservedly reverse his government's decisions and release the funding that India's poorest desperately need."

And he calls on the US, including President Obama and President-elect Trump to "boldly intervene in this situation".

It may be that Compassion  an evangelical cause that has wide support in the US and in 13 other countries  is able to avoid the total collapse of its work in India thanks to diplomatic pressure. However, the underlying issues for how India perceives its religious minorities  and anyone who dissents from the official line on contested issues like human rights  remain. Its prime minister's political difficulties are unlikely to make it easier for him to make concessions to Christian organisations that will risk alienating his core supporters. And whatever lies ahead, it will be the poorest who suffer most.

Follow Mark Woods on Twitter: @RevMarkWoods
Donald Trump Chooses Climate Sceptic and Committed Christian Scott Pruitt For Top Environment Job

Southern Baptist leaders have welcomed the choice by President-elect Donald Trump of leading Baptist layman Scott Pruitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency.

Pruitt is a climate change sceptic and according to Washington Post, the move signals an assault on President Obama's climate change legacy.

Pruitt has while attorney general of the oil-rich state of Oklahoma been a dedicated opponent of the agency.

A press release from the Presidential Transition Team made it clear there will be a change of direction and Pruitt's combative approach to the agency's ideals under a Democratic regime would continue.

Heading the agency is a key appointment to a cabinet-level position.

The transition team praised Pruitt as an expert in Constitutional law and one of the country's top attorneys general, saying he brings a "deep understanding of the impact of regulations" on both the environment and the economy.

Trump said: "For too long, the Environmental Protection Agency has spent taxpayer dollars on an out-of-control anti-energy agenda that has destroyed millions of jobs, while also undermining our incredible farmers and many other businesses and industries at every turn.

"As my EPA Administrator, Scott Pruitt, the highly respected Attorney General from the state of Oklahoma, will reverse this trend and restore the EPA's essential mission of keeping our air and our water clean and safe.

"My administration strongly believes in environmental protection, and Scott Pruitt will be a powerful advocate for that mission while promoting jobs, safety and opportunity."

Pruitt said: "I am deeply grateful and honored to serve as President-elect Trump's EPA Administrator.

"The American people are tired of seeing billions of dollars drained from our economy due to unnecessary EPA regulations, and I intend to run this agency in a way that fosters both responsible protection of the environment and freedom for American businesses."

Pruitt pledged to move America toward energy independence, create millions of new jobs and protect clean air and water, as well as to "rescind all job-destroying executive actions and eliminate all barriers to responsible energy production."

This would create at least a half million jobs each year and produce $30 billion in higher wages, he promised.

Southern Baptist Theological Seminary president Dr Albert Mohler tweeted:

Congratulation to @SBTS trustee @AGScottPruitt, OK AG, just named head of US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) https://t.co/V2ttZmxwKg  Albert Mohler (@albertmohler) December 7, 2016

Dr Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics And Religious Liberty Commission, tweeted:

Congratulations to my friend @AGScottPruitt, who has been named to head the EPA https://t.co/wPa5TrjQLs  Russell Moore (@drmoore) December 7, 2016

But not everyone was happy.

America's largest environmental organisation, the Sierra Club, said: "Having Scott Pruitt in charge of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is like putting an arsonist in charge of fighting fires. He is a climate science denier who, as Attorney General for the state of Oklahoma, regularly conspired with the fossil fuel industry to attack EPA protections.

"Nothing less than our children's health is at stake. Scott Pruitt, whose own bio describes him as 'a leading advocate against the EPA's activist agenda' cannot be trusted to head the EPA, an agency charged with protecting all Americans from threats to their water, air, and health. We strongly urge Senators, who are elected to represent and protect the American people, to stand up for families across the nation and oppose this nomination."
Duggar Family Expands After Jim Bob and Michelle Gain Custody of Tyler Wayne Hutchins, 8, Michelle's Great-Nephew

Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar from the former TLC show "19 Kids and Counting" have expanded their family now that they have adopted Michelle's eight-year-old great-nephew.

The court documents obtained by ET revealed that the Christian couple have been granted temporary guardianship of Tyler Wayne Hutchins after they filed an emergency petition on Aug. 26. The guardianship was made permanent on Nov. 21.

The boy's 23-year-old mother, Rachel Hutchins, Michelle's niece, reportedly "exhibited a pattern of behaviour demonstrating that she is presently unable to meet Tyler's health, safety, and other needs" since she is unemployed, has no means of transportation, and presently under probation.

She agreed to sign off on the Duggars' guardianship, provided that they allow her supervised visits with her son.

The Duggars' adoption was first reported by In Touch Weekly. Based on the public records obtained by the publication, Hutchins gave birth to her son when she was just a teenager. She is currently on probation for three years after she was arrested in April. She was slapped with felony charges for breaking and entering at a tow truck business in Springdale, Arkansas and stealing a pocket knife and $2 in change.

With this development, it seems Jim Bob and Michelle have beaten their daughter Jessa and her husband Ben Seewald with their adoption plans. Before Jessa and Ben even gave birth to their son Spurgeon Elliot, they were already planning to adopt several kids into their family.

Jessa is currently pregnant with their second child. But even with a second child on the way, Jessa has revealed that they still plan to adopt a child. "As we are praying towards a future adoption, it's great to have other families around that have walked this road and can give us good advice. At this point, we're planning for a domestic adoption, but I don't think we really have a preference either way for a boy or girl," Jessa said in a recent episode of "Counting On."
Franklin Graham Slams Time Magazine For Comparison Of Hillary Clinton To Moses

Christian evangelist Franklin Graham has condemned Time magazine for comparing Hillary Clinton to Moses.

Time says that Clinton was, like Moses, an imperfect prophet who led her people only to the edge of the Promised Land.

In a Facebook post, Graham writes: "Hillary Clinton an American Moses??

"Today TIME magazine named Donald J. Trump as their person of the year. And, oddly enough, they also called Hillary Clinton an 'American Moses'.

"Maybe TIME should check their Bible. I find that a very interesting parallel. Moses led the children of Israel to wander around in the wilderness for 40 years. I wonder if TIME was saying that if Hillary Clinton were elected, she would have led us into the wilderness?"

Earlier this year, Graham spoke warmly about the election of Donald Trump. In an interview with Christian Today, he predicted Trump would put together the best team in Washington that America has seen for many years and said there was "no question" that God had a hand in the election result.

Time chose Trump as its "Person of the Year".

The magazine wrote that Trump had "magnified the divisions of the present, inspiring new levels of anger and fear within his country."

And by seeking to condemn the dark side of politics, Clinton's campaign may have accidently validated it.

"By believing in the myth that Obama's election represented a permanent shift for the nation, they proved it was ephemeral. In the end, Trump reveled in these denunciations, which helped him market to his core supporters his determination to smash the existing elite."

On Clinton, Time said: "In her 1969 commencement address to her class at Wellesley College, Clinton called politics 'the art of making what appears to be impossible possible.' In this, she has succeeded. Like an American Moses, she was an imperfect prophet, leading women to the edge of the Promised Land. Now it's up to another woman to enter it."

Fox News comments that Time admits Trump was the real change-maker of 2016 but also rags him as a "huckster" and "demagogue" while reserving its most glowing praise for Clinton.

Fox says the article on Clinton is "worlds away from the fulminating darkness that permeates the Trump piece."

"The opening paragraph reads more like the prologue of St. John's Gospel than an essay on a presidential runner-up," Fox adds.
Hospitals Destroyed And Millions Starving: The Crisis In Yemen Is Worsening

As the worst humanitarian crisis in the world continues to rage in Yemen, Christian aid organisation Tearfund today launched an appeal to help the more than 18 million people continuing to suffer.

Nearly three quarters of Yemen's population is is urgent need of humanitarian assistance as a result of the crisis which has been brewing since the start of the Arab Spring in 2011.

The civil war that broke out in March 2015 has destroyed hospitals and dried up water sources. There is little access to food, healthcare and sanitation, and millions are now at risk.

According to the UN, 1.5 million children under the age of five are acutely malnourished, 375,000 of whom are suffering from severe acute malnutrition.

Oxfam warned this week that Yemen will run out of food in just a few months.

"Yemen is being slowly starved to death," said Mark Goldring, chief executive of Oxfam GB.

"First there were restrictions on imports  including much needed food  when this was partially eased the cranes in the ports were bombed, then the warehouses, then the roads and the bridges. This is not by accident  it is systematic."

In total, more than 1,425 civilians have been killed since the conflict escalated last year, and the majority of these deaths were caused by Saudi-led coalition airstrikes, the UN says.

Since July, conditions in Yemen have significantly worsened as a result of flooding and landslides destroying civilian homes.

Tearfund is therefore working through partners on the ground to provide basic necessities.

Teams are distributing hygiene and sanitation packs to alleviate the risk of deadly disease and prevent its spread, and Tearfund will train local people as first aid responders.

Guy Calvert-Lee, deputy lead of Eurasia, Latin America and the Caribbean, said: ''The situation in Yemen is serious, and has been worsening over some time. Massive destruction of medical care facilities, such as hospitals and clinics, has meant there are no hospitals to go to, and millions of people are extremely ill, with recent outbreaks of cholera, dengue and scabies affecting thousands of children.

"Tearfund partners are providing hygiene kits to some of the most vulnerable families to prevent the further spread of disease."
Massive Dust Storm Forms 'Hand of God' Over Israeli Border to 'Protect Nation From ISIS  Just Like in Old Testament'

Israeli soldiers call it the "hand of Hashem," or the hand of God.

It's a massive dust storm that formed last week over the Golan Heights on Israel's border with Syria. But unlike other dust storms that sweep through large areas, this one stopped right at the boundary and never entered Israel, affecting only the other side of the border, The Gospel Herald reported.

Many commenters proclaimed, "That's God!"

The Israeli soldiers who recorded a video of the phenomenon said the "hand of Hashem" protected them from ISIS fighters who were positioned just across the border. The video was posted on the Facebook page of Israel News Online.

"A weather phenomenon occurred at 8 am Thursday on the other side of the Syrian border, in the same place where ISIS attacked Israel," Israel News online reported. "This strange storm of what appears to be dust, cloud and rain did NOT cross the border fence into Israel. It sat like a barrier between ISIS and Israel."

Many people who saw the video likened the phenomenon to the miracles mentioned in the Old Testament when God rescued Israel from its enemies. One such miracle was when God produced a pillar of cloud to protect the Israelites from the Egyptians who were chasing them after they left Egypt to end their lives of slavery.

Jews believe last week's "miracle" over the Golan Heights was a form of "divine intervention."

The phenomenon occurred just three days after ISIS militants opened fire on Israeli soldiers along the buffer zone separating Israel from Syria in the southern Golan Heightsthe first direct exchange of fire between Israeli soldiers and ISIS fighters.

Israeli warplanes immediately sprung into action, blasting a vehicle loaded with a heavy machine gun a few hundred metres from the border, killing four people in the vehicle, Haaretz reported.

Israeli officials expressed concern that the clash with the ISIS group could escalate, opening a new front in the already volatile region.

Some of those who saw last week's "hand of Hashem" video commented that it was a reminder to the Jews that God has not forgotten them and will continue to protect them from their enemies.
Musician Convicted Of Child Abuse Beaten To Death In Church

A convicted child abuser has been beaten to death while playing in a music group in a church in Argentina.

Marcelo Fabian Pecollo was found guilty of assaults on children in 2010 and subsequently spent time in prison. However, he was released early and had begun to spend time playing the trumpet at the church in Moron, a suburb of the capital Buenos Aires.

The 42-year-old was performing in a concert at the church when a group of relatives of his victims burst in. They shouted that he was a paedophile, which prompted him to run out of the church, but he was caught by the group who beat him badly. He later died of his injuries in hospital.

The incident happened in late October but has only recently been widely reported, after Pecollo succumbed to his injuries.

Jorge Oesterheld, a priest at the church, told local media that his thoughts were with the abused children: "The boys not only suffered the abuse but now have their parents involved in a suspicion of murder... Really, if we think about those kids, it's a nightmare."

The Argentinian authorities are still investigating the death. By the time the police had arrived at the scene the perpetrators had disappeared.
Orthodox Christians In Russian Town Protest Against New Condom Factory

Christian protestors have demanded a town in Russia cease production of condoms in a new factory because they believe the items are in violation of their faith and damaging to the name of their community.

The problem has arisen because the town's name, Bogolyobovo, translates as "God Lovers".

The condoms were to include the name of the town on the package.

The devout Orthodox Christian townsfolk therefore feared that two new condom brands planned for 2018 would be marketed as "God Lovers Torex" and "God Lovers Gladiator". They also dispute any medical benefits of condom use and argue that their use constitutes "male abortion".

Russian media reported this week that after protests and meetings with factory bosses, a truce has been agreed where production will go ahead but the town's name will not be on the condom packets in a way that could cause offence. Some protestors however still believe production itself should cease entirely.

Bogolyubovo, just over 100 miles north-east of Moscow, has suffered unemployment problems since the previous brick factory on the site closed. The new Bergus factory, which will also manufacture nappies and first aid products such as plasters, will create 200 new jobs. Already the company has invested more than 2 million with further investment planned.

The latest protest took place on this week's important Orthodox festival, the Presentation in the Temple of the Mother of God.

Orthodox believers gathered outside the local government adminstrative offices and sang spiritual poems, including the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, the Troparion and the Kontakion. They bore banners with slogans such as "No condom manufacture on a holy site" and "Mother of God, save us from desecration".

More than 3,000 people have signed a petition against the factory, including 1,000 from the town itself.

Bergus will begin nappy production at the town early in 2017 and is making plans to enter European markets.

Pavel Spichakov, managing director of KIT, a holding company of which Bergus is part, said the protests had been commpletely unexpected.

"I thought they would support the creation of jobs and tax revenue for the village," Spichakov told Tom Balmforth of RFE/RL's Russian Service.

Balmforth reported that the village carries the name of 12th-century Russian Prince Andrei Bogolyubsky, who built the Church of the Intercession on the Nerl, a UNESCO protected site.
Refugees From Syria Have Been Through Some Of Worst Suffering In World, Says Archbishop Of Canterbury

The Archbishop of Coventry has praised the exceptional welcome given to refugees by Coventry.

And he said the city, where he spent years working at the cathedral on peace and reconciliation, had been a key influence in shaping his ministry.

Archbishop Justin Welby was visiting the Coventry Refugee and Migrant Centre, where a banner proclaims: "Refugees welcome here".

The aim is to give very individual who arrives fleeing war, persecution and conflict to be able to find peace and sanctuary.

They also receive help with finding housing, employment, education and becoming part of the community.

The centre is used by people from many parts of the world including Sudan, Congo, Eritrea and Syria.

The Archbishop was moved by the work of the staff.

In an interview with BBC Coventry he spoke of the "excitement" of the centre and the welcome offered by the "vibrant and innovative" city, which has taken in 160 Syrian refugees, the largest number in Britain.

"Coventry has a tradition of doing this. It is known as the city of peace and reconciliation. These are people who are coming from some of the worst suffering anywhere in the world at present. I know that this is a city that will enable them both to be welcomed but will find that they contribute hugely to the future of the city."

Welby, who spent many years working in the cathedral in reconciliation ministry, said it had been a key "shaping" influence on his life and ministry.

Sabir Zazai, director of the centre, himself a former refugee, tweeted:

and:
Two Critical After Pastor Gave Congregation 'Liquid Substance' To Drink

More than 20 churchgoers have been treated by paramedics after they were given a mystery "liquid substance" at a church service.

The service took place at the Mthatha City Hall in South Africa's Eastern Cape. According to the African News Agency, emergency services were called to the scene at a "church service gone wrong" on Thursday afternoon.

Eastern Cape Health spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said: "It is alleged that the congregants were given a liquid substance by their pastor when they suddenly vomited and collapsed."

He said more than 20 people were treated by paramedics at the scene but they refused to be taken to hospital.

Two were later transferred to the Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital, where a police spokesman said they were in a critical condition.

The minister who is said to have administered the substance, Prophet Pumzile Topi, has fled and is being sought by police.

A police spokesman, Colonel Mzukisi Fatyela, said a criminal case had not yet been opened. However, he added: "This does not mean a case won't be opened, we are communicating with the doctors and they still need to determine if this substance was poisonous or not."

While details of the incident are still unclear, it follows a recent case in which another South African pastor was widely condemned for spraying his followers with Doom insecticide to 'heal' them. Lethebo Rabalago, a self-proclaimed prophet, shared photos on Facebook that showed him spraying Doom into the faces of his congregation at the Mount Zion General Assembly in the far north of South Africa.

Rabalago is among a number of South African pastors famed for their controversial practices.

Photos posted on social media last year showed Penuel Mnguni of End Times Disciples Ministries feeding live snakes into the mouths of his congregants.

He was arrested and charged with animal cruelty, though was later bailed and believed to have continued the practice.

Vigilantes then burned the tent Mnguni used for worship meetings.
What's Wrong With TULIP? Southern Baptists Resist 'Aggressive' Advance Of New Calvinism

An old theological controversy is alive and well in evangelical circles today, provoking students at a leading Baptist seminary to walk out of a sermon by a visiting preacher.

The seminary was Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, the preacher was Rev Rick Patrick, pastor of First Baptist Church in Sylacauga, Alabama, and the controversy was between Calvinism and Arminianism.

The terms are drawn from the theologians who articulated different views about how God saves people. John Calvin (1509-64) was a French Reformed theologian who stressed the absolute sovereignty of God in conversion, teaching that he had predestined some to be saved. His teaching expressed through the TULIP acronym: Total depravity, Unconditional election, Limited atonement, Irresistible grace and Perseverance of the saints (or 'once saved always saved').

Jacobus Arminius (1560-1609) was a Dutch theologian who taught that Jesus died for all people, that humans have the power to respond or resist to God's calling, and that salvation can be lost. The limits of free will, the implications of God's foreknowledge and the nature of God's sovereignty have fascinated  and sometimes inflamed  theologians for more than 400 years.

Rick Patrick is a member of the Connect 316 organisation, a Southern Baptist network set up to affirm what it says is the denomination's traditional understanding of salvation  which is not Calvinist. It says that while Calvinism has always been present among Southern Baptists, this is generally in a modified form. However, there is now a "New Calvinism" movement, "committed to advancing in the churches an exclusively Calvinistic understanding of salvation, characterized by an aggressive insistence on the 'Doctrines of Grace' ('TULIP'), and to the goal of making Calvinism the central Southern Baptist position on God's plan of salvation." Connect 316 doesn't mention them by name, but the New Calvinism it refers to is the hallmark of networks like The Gospel Coalition and pastors like John Piper, Tim Keller, DA Carson and Kevin DeYoung.

And it's devotees of this school of thought who walked out of Patrick's sermon on November 29. He criticised the Calvinist view of election, saying: "If God has chosen, actively or passively, before the foundation of the world to place the reprobate unconditionally into a category from which they can never possibly escape, then this is, as even Calvin admitted, a dreadful decree. I will never forget the first time a Calvinist looked me straight in the eye and said God does not love everybody. I was speechless, and frankly, that doesn't happen much."

He further warned that Calvinism was a system that was broader than just about salvation, saying: "If we are not careful a myriad of related beliefs and practices will enter our camp, hidden within the Trojan Horse of Calvinism." He instanced the preference among many Calvinists for "elder-led and sometimes even elder-ruled" forms of church government, contrasting with Baptist beliefs in the authority of the church meeting. One Calvinist even claimed that "congregational government is from Satan". He also linked it to post-millenialism of the Left Behind variety and criticised New Calvinists for being lax on baptism, even receiving into membership those who hadn't been baptised. Furthermore, they sat lightly to traditional Southern Baptist moral boundaries; he criticised pastors for smoking and drinking. "They may even home brew the beer themselves, attempting to use it as an outreach to identify with other smokers and drinkers. Sin is not a form of outreach," he said.

It's not known at exactly what point students began to walk out, but after Patrick's sermon seminary president Paige Patterson  not a Calvinist  appeared to suggest that if students were Calvinists they should join the Presbyterian denomination instead of the Baptist. In a blog post on December 2 he referred to students' behaviour as "rude" and stressed the need to hold Calvinists and non-Calvinists together within the denomination.

It's not the first time Patterson  himself no shrinking violent when it comes to controversy, and one of the leading lights in the so-called "conservative resurgence" in the SBC that saw fierce theological battles between conservatives and "liberals" in the 1980s and '90s  has had to play a moderating role; there's an account of a similar attempt in 2012 on The Gospel Coalition's website, though the original documents appear to be missing.

What's clear, though, is that New Calvinism, epitomised by dynamic, charismatic and successful pastors and preachers and relentlessly promoted by well-funded websites and publishing ventures, is impacting a denomination that's traditionally argued about other things. Its self-understanding is that it's the default position for evangelicalism. That, as the push-back from Patterson and others shows, is not the case  but Calvinistic certainty, even if it's based on very shaky theological grounds, can go a long way toward convincing impressionable students that it's right.

Follow Mark Woods on Twitter: @RevMarkWoods
The mystery of the maidens on the stairs

Offered during Classic Week in London, unseen Burne-Jones studies for Tate masterpiece The Golden Stairs reveal a previously unknown link to Leightons iconic Flaming June

The contemporary art world may not value the ability to draw as highly as previous generations, yet the immediacy with which an artist makes a mark on a page can tell us much about their thinking and the way in which their ideas develop. Whats more, drawings can offer an appealing combination of affordability, name recognition and, on occasion, direct lineage to famous paintings in the worlds greatest collections. A previously unseen group of drawings that ticks all three boxes comes to auction for the very first time in December as part of Classic Week at Christies in London. The studies in question, which are offered at estimates starting from 3,000-5,000, are from a sketchbook used by the important late Pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones (1833-1898) in preparation for painting The Golden Stairs (1880), which is on permanent display at Tate Britain. To hold an artists sketchbook in your hands and touch the drawings and studies inside it and know that they have never been exhibited, shown or sold before, is something I find very romantic and beguiling, says Harriet Drummond, International Head of the British Art on Paper department at Christies. The fact that these little drawings were part of the creative process towards one of Burne-Joness most important paintings  and that they have never been published  is extremely exciting.

Open a larger version of this image Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, Bt., A.R.A., R.W.S. (1833-1898), The Golden Stairs, 1880.  Tate, London, 2016

The Golden Stairs is a tall, dream-like canvas, depicting 18 pale-skinned maidens in diaphanous gowns meandering down a winding stone staircase. Completed and first shown in 1880, it was hailed at the time as beyond all question the painters masterpiece, while Burne-Joness biographer Fiona MacCarthy describes the work as the defining painting of the Aesthetic movement. The Victorian audience that came to view The Golden Stairs when it was unveiled at the Grosvenor Gallery 136 years ago, however, were left feeling rather bewildered by the artists decision to create something beautiful and evocative yet deliberately enigmatic. If the subject of the work is ambiguous, the identities of the models that sat for Burne-Jones are more revealing, offering insights into the high-society circles the artist moved in, as well as his well-documented susceptibility to female beauty. The group of drawings offered in London include wonderfully intricate studies of details seen in the finished painting, and have descended through the Lewis family from Sir George Lewis (1833-1911), one of the most eminent solicitors of the late 19th century, whose second wife became a close friend of Burne-Jones.

The ethereal figures in The Golden Stairs were studied from professional models, however many of the heads are likenesses of Burne-Joness close friends and family, including his own daughter, Margaret (1866-1953), who is thought to appear more than once in the finished painting. An alternative reading of The Golden Stairs might therefore be as a Victorian equivalent to one of Annie Leibovitzs dramatically staged group cover shots for Vanity Fair.

Holding cymbals at the bottom of the stairs (above) is Frances Graham (1854-1940), later Lady Horner, with whom Burne-Jones fell in love. Frances was the daughter of one Burne-Joness closest friends and patrons, the Liberal MP William Graham. Mary Gladstone (1847-1927), who is behind Frances Graham, was the daughter of William Gladstone MP, who became Prime Minister for a second time a day before the painting was first exhibited. May Morris, the daughter of the artists close friend and associate William Morris, is standing halfway down the stairs holding a violin.

Also seen in The Golden Stairs are Mary Stuart Wortley (1848-1941)  later Lady Lovelace, Laura Tennant, who would marry the British Liberal politician and sportsman Alfred Lyttelton, and Margot Tennant, who became the wife of Herbert Asquith, who was Prime Minister of Britain from 1908 until 1918. Their exact places on the stairs have not been determined. In the same Christies sale on 14 December, two further studies for The Golden Stairs  in oil this time  appear to shed intriguing new light on the identity of one of the young women in the masterpiece.

It had long been thought that the stooping figure just above the halfway point on the staircase was the actress known as Edith Chester. The two oil studies are, however, accompanied by letters from Matthew Webb, one of Burne-Joness studio assistants, in which he states that one of the subjects is the actress Dorothy Dene. Dene went on to become the favourite model and muse of Frederic Lord Leighton, the long-serving President of the Royal Academy. Years after posing for Burne-Jones, she would most famously be immortalised in Leightons much-travelled masterpiece Flaming June (1895), which is currently on a five-month loan to the Leighton House Museum in Holland Park, west London.
Texas will receive $1 million as part of a multi-state settlement with the New York based pharmaceutical giant Bristol-Myers Squibb for improper marketing of its anti-psychotic drug Abilify.

Forty-two states, including Texas, settled deceptive trade practice claims for $19.5 million.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Abilify to treat schizophrenia in 2002. Without regulatory approval, Bristol-Myers Squibb promoted Ailify to treat elderly patients with dementia but did not disclose dementia patients faced a greater risk of death.

"BMS put Texans' lives at risk when it marketed Abilify for uses not approved by the FDA," Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, said in a prepared statement.

Bristol-Myers Squibb denied any wrongdoing and said in a statement that it is pleased to put the matter to rest. The company has not marketed Abilify since 2013.
Before Friday morning's near-freezing temperatures, the Bayou City's surprisingly seasonal cold front made the 11th annual Santa's Elves Party all the more magical.

For the 10th year in a row, Paige and Tilman Fertitta's opened their palatial River Oaks home for the "cocktails and holiday cheer"-themed soiree. Much to the 350 party-goers dismay, Tilman, the star of CNBC's reality show "Billion Dollar Buyer," was stuck in New York and missed the festivities. Fortunately his wife, Paige, and son, Michael Fertitta, were more than happy to assume hosting duties.
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Houston ISD announced Thursday that it will hold a runoff election Saturday to determine the winner of the HISD Board of Education District VII seat to fill the unexpired term of outgoing Trustee Harvin Moore.

Candidates competing in the runoff are Anne Sung and John Luman. The runoff election winner will serve the remainder of Moores term in office, which runs through 2017.
Each week, Crime Stoppers officials in Houston and Montgomery County release a new list of what they consider to be their most highly sought fugitives.

In Houston, Crime Stoppers is searching for what the organization calls its 10 "most wanted" fugitives. Anyone with information about these suspects is asked to contact Crime Stoppers anonymously at 713-222-TIPS (8477).
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An alleged Grinch has been charged with theft after witnesses reported seeing her steal children's presents from a doorstep in Cypress, Harris County deputy constables said Friday, Dec. 9.

On Sunday, Dec. 4, the witnesses said they watched as a woman stole UPS packages from their neighbor's doorstep in the 12900 block of Wincrest Court in Cypress,Precinct 4 Constable Mark Herman said in a release. The packages contained toys for victim's grandchildren.
Nov. 28

Deputy Beauchamp was summoned to the 19000 block of Norfolk in New Caney in reference to a disturbance. Upon arrival, an investigation revealed a 50-year-old man had assaulted his mother during an argument causing her visible injury. The suspect was arrested and charged with assault.

Deputy Ochoa was summoned to the 17400 block of Springfield Road in Conroe in reference to a disturbance. Upon arrival, an investigation revealed that a 36-year-old man had been arguing with his brother. Reportedly it became physical and he caused injury to his brother. The man then obtained a loaded shotgun and had threatened to shoot police upon their arrival. Arriving deputies watched the man run into a travel trailer and then out of it into a shed, where the suspect's handicapped father took him to the ground as deputies then detained him. The loaded shotgun was located within the travel trailer, well within the suspect's reach as he ran from it attempting to elude deputies. The suspect was arrested and charged with terroristic threat public servant and assault.

Deputy Lowery was summoned to the 22400 block of Grace Lane in New Caney for a disturbance for the second time. Upon arrival, it was learned that a 24-year-old man who had been previously warned again began threatening his neighbors with bodily injury, as he yelled and cursed at them. The suspect reportedly appeared to be under the influence of some type of intoxicant. The suspect was arrested and charged with assault by threat.

Nov. 30

Deputy Painter was summoned to the 19100 block of Timberland Blvd. in reference to a disturbance. Upon arrival, an investigation revealed a 19-year-old woman caused a disturbance on the prior evening while being intoxicated. On today's date, she attempted to take her child from the husband. She and family members became involved in a physical altercation in which all sustained minor visible injury. The suspect was found to be the aggressor. She was arrested and charged with assault.

Dec. 1

Deputy Durrenberger was dispatched to the Kroger Store on US Highway 59 and FM 1314, in reference to a theft by an employee. An investigation revealed a 24-year-old man had taken prescription items over a period of time from various stores. Narcotics were discovered on the suspect's person. The man was arrested and charged with the possession of the controlled substance, as well as the theft.

Dec. 2

Deputy Hinkel was summoned to the 18400 Block of Choctaw in Porter for a suspicious person call. Upon arrival in the area, he located the man in question. The 31-year-old man was found to have multiple open warrants for his arrest. These warrants were confirmed and he was taken to jail.

Dec. 3

Deputy Self investigated a burglary of a motor vehicle that had occurred on Blue Jay Lane in Porter. The complainant had followed the suspect into the Humble area. An investigation revealed a 17-year-old man had broken into the complainant's vehicle and stolen items, including the radio. The complainant followed the suspect to a local motel in Humble, confronting him, and was using force to regain custody of his property. It was at this time the Humble Police Department was summoned. After learning where offense had occurred, the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office was contacted. The male suspect was arrested and charged with the burglary of a vehicle.

Deputy Moseley was summoned to the Kroger Store on US Highway 59 at FM 1314 in reference to a theft. Upon arrival, an investigation revealed a 55-year-old man had taken several items, including meat products, out of the store without attempting to pay for them. The stolen property was valued at more than $527. After the subject was stopped and identified, it was learned he had multiple prior convictions for theft, which enhanced this theft to a felony. He was taken to jail without incident.

Deputy Self was summoned to the Porter Wal-Mart where an investigation revealed a 26-year-old male had attempted to steal numerous clothing items, totaling more than $357, by placing them within bag and running out into the parking lot. The suspect was detained. It was found the suspect had priors that enhanced this to a felony theft. He was taken to jail without incident.

Deputy Billiris was summoned to the 25100 Block of Howsor Drive in New Caney for a disturbance. Once on scene, an investigation determined a 31-year-old man and his wife had gotten into an argument. The man reportedly strangled her, causing her to be unable to breathe and cause injury. The suspect was arrested and charged with felony assault and transported to jail.

Dec. 4

Deputy Calhoun conducted a traffic stop on State Highway 242 for expired registration. The 42-year-old male driver was found to have an active warrant through Texas Pardons and Parole. The warrant was confirmed and he was taken to jail.
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Gerry Moohr's heart leapt Thursday morning when she saw a crane on the Rothko Chapel lawn hoisting the pyramidal base of Barnett Newman's "Broken Obelisk" back toward the reflection pool where it has stood since 1971.

Moohr, a retired law professor, walks her dog Chris past the chapel twice a day and has missed seeing the 25-foot tall sculpture since it was removed earlier this year for interior re-engineering and repairs.

"It's a very arresting piece, somehow sad and hopeful at the same time," Moohr said. "It looks like tragedy struck, but it's balanced."

"Broken Obelisk" spent most of this year at Lippincott LLC, the Connecticut foundry that fabricated it for the artist in 1966. Re-installing the three-ton sculpture was a day-long project requiring a crew of about a half-dozen people.

Viewers will have to look close to discern any difference: Near the tip of the pyramid, a freshly welded patch of Cor-Ten material reveals some of the work done. That spot will eventually age to the same patina as the rest of the piece.

Inside that base, a new rain barrel contraption will gather condensation, so the sculpture will no longer rust from the inside-out. Lippincott also re-engineered the pin that connects the sculpture's two parts, to reduce drips; re-coated the hollow interior; and recreated Newman's signature plaque, which went missing years ago.

Overseeing Thursday's re-installation, Menil Collection conservator Kari Dodson also pointed out the now good-as-new "flame-cut" edge along the pyramid's base, which had deteriorated from exposure to the pool's chemically-treated water.

Newman had the idea to install the piece above a pool, but that brilliant stroke has also presented conservation challenges, exacerbated by Houston's humidity. "Broken Obelisk" has been de-installed twice previously for repairs, in 1985 and 2004.

This conservation was rolled into a larger, $850,000 project that Rothko Chapel executive director David Leslie described as "Phase I" of a push to reinvigorate the chapel by 2021, its 50th anniversary.

Some of those funds have been applied to hiring "a full complement of consultants" who will present the first steps of a master plan by early next summer, "to help us understand what is feasible, fits well within the neighborhood and complements the chapel," Leslie said.

The New York firm Architecture Research Office is examining where and how a visitors center and a retreat space could be added. Nelson Byrd Woltz, which is also designing Memorial Park's master plan, will recommend improvements for the Rothko's landscape, which sits between the University of St. Thomas and the Menil Collection campuses.

George Sexton & Associates is designing upgrades to the interior and exterior lighting - including the ceiling, baffle and skylight that affect how Mark Rothko's monumental paintings inside the chapel are seen. The first phase work also includes upgrades to audio-visual systems and other operating equipment. And the reflection pool has a new surface and pump.

Leslie described it all as "the getting-ready phase" before the board launches a capital campaign late next year.

He was pleased to see "Broken Obelisk" back in place in time for the chapel's upcoming holiday programs, which include a Dec. 15 conversation between Rabbi Samuel Karff, Archbishop Joseph Fiorenza and Rev. William Lawson; a crystal bowl meditation on Jan. 1; and annual Martin Luther King Day celebrations Jan. 15-16.
The beloved El Paso post-hardcore band At the Drive In has released a new song, its first in TK years. The band is offering a download of "Governed by Contagions" on its website and also teases a new album coming in 2017.

The new music is the first form the band since its "Relationship of Command" album, released more than 16 years ago. At the Drive In toured the record and then called it quits in 2001, with members of the band splitting into the wildly successful prog rock band the Mars Volta and the not-quite-as-successful Sparta.
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Tom Petty has set an April 29 date at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion.

Technically Petty is touring behind his 2014 album with the Heartbreakers, "Hypnotic Eye." But the date also is part of a 40th anniversary tour for the legend, who last played Houston in 2010 with ZZ Top.

Petty released "Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers" in 1976, which yielded a Top 40 hit in "Breakdown" and a rock staple in "American Girl," one of the greatest album-closing songs ever.

Pre-sale info here.

Tickets for the general public go on sale at 10 a.m. Dec. 16 through Live Nation.
A man has been charged in a robbery Monday at a fast-foot restaurant that led to gunfire in southeast Houston.

Brandon Ortez, 22, is charged with aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon in the heist about 8:30 p.m. at a Wendy's at 10235 Almeda Genoa, according to the Houston Police Department.

Police said officers were sent to the eatery about a suspicious person with a weapon. When they arrived and questioned the person, later identified as Ortez, he pulled out a gun and put it to his own neck. Officers took cover and told Ortez to drop the gun but he refused.

Moments later, police said, officers heard a single gunshot from inside the restaurant, which is when they believe Ortez grabbed money from one of the cash registers. He then dashed out of the eatery and ran to a nearby abandoned building. Officers heard two gunshots as Ortez shot out a window to get into the building.

Police said officers set up a perimeter at the scene and called for K-9 units. As they were taking up positions, two officers bumped into each and one of their guns fell onto the ground and accidentally fired. No one was wounded, but one of the officers was injured by shrapnel after the discharge. Startled by the gunfire, a K-9 bit the officers.

The injured officers were taken to Memorial Hermann Southeast Hospital. Their conditions were not released but police said they had non-life-threatening injuries.

Ortez was later taken into custody. He was treated at the scene for injuries after a police dog had encountered him during the incident. Police said officers found a pistol and cash on Ortez.

As is customary in incidents in which an HPD officer discharges a weapon causing injury, the HPD Homicide and Internal Affairs divisions as well as the Harris County District Attorney's Office will investigate the case.

Charges have been filed against a suspect arrested in an incident that occurred at 10235 Almeda Genoa at about 8:30 p.m. on Monday (November 28).

The suspect, Brandon Ortez (b/m, 22), is charged with aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon in the 228th State District Court.

A photo of suspect Ortez is attached to this news release.

HPD Homicide Division Sergeant T. Ruland and Officers R. Ridel and K. Ferguson reported:

HPD patrol officers responded to a suspicious person with a weapon call at the Wendy's restaurant at the above address. As officers attempted to question the suspect (Ortez), he suddenly pulled out a gun and put it to his own neck. Officers immediately took cover and gave the suspect verbal commands to drop the weapon, which he ignored. Officers then exited the restaurant along with employees, sought cover and requested additional officer to respond to the location.

Moments later, at least one gunshot was heard from inside the restaurant. At that time Ortez is believed to have robbed one of the cash registers. He then exited the restaurant with the gun and ran to an abandoned building next door. At least two more shots were heard near the abandoned building as Ortez shot out a window in an attempt to enter the building. Additional officers and an HPD K-9 arrived, immediately sought cover and set up a perimeter.

At some point, as officers were taking position for tactical purposes, two officers bumped into each other and one officer's weapon was accidentally dropped and discharged. An officer was struck by shrapnel resulting from the accidental discharge and bitten by the K-9, who was startled by the gunfire. The second officer also sustained a bite wound from the K-9. Both officers were transported to Memorial Hermann Southeast Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Ortez was eventually taken into custody and treated at the scene for injuries from sustained from contact with the K-9. Officers recovered Ortez's pistol and cash in his possession.

As is customary in incidents in which an HPD officer discharges his weapon causing injury, this case is being investigated by the HPD Homicide and Internal Affairs Divisions, as well as the Harris County District Attorney's Office.
A former Dallas high school substitute teacher has been arrested on a charge of having an improper relationship with a student.

Fallon Hunt, 28, of Irving, was arrested Tuesday and remained Thursday in the Dallas County Jail on $25,000 bail, online records state.

CHARGES DROPPED: Former HS referee sues Montgomery County over charges later dropped

According to WFAA, Hunt is accused of having a sexual relationship with a male student while she was filling in for a Justin Kimball High School teacher on medical leave last year.

The alleged relationship came to light in October when a parent reported finding inappropriate text messages between her son and a substitute teacher, WFAA reported, citing an arrest warrant.

Hunt allowed officers to look at her phone, where they found text messages between her and another student who graduated in May 2015. According to the arrest warrant, that student called Hunt "wifey" and she referred to him as "my baby," WFAA said.

In a statement Thursday that did not mention Hunt by name, Dallas Independent School District said:

"Dallas ISD was recently made aware that a former substitute teacher was arrested. The teacher had served in a long-term assignment at Justin F. Kimball High School. While the details of the investigation are still being gathered, the substitute teacher has not been at the campus since October 2016," the statement said.

"Our goal remains to keep all students safe, while ensuring they receive quality instruction each day."
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A UPS driver on Tuesday helped free a woman held hostage in her home.

James Tyler Jordan, 33, was holding his wife captive in their Robertsville, Mo. house when a UPS driver arrived for a scheduled delivery. The woman managed to scrawl "call 911" on the package, according to KSBW.

A SWAT team arrived at the scene after the driver called police. Jordan's wife reportedly told police her husband wouldn't let her leave the home. She said he stood behind her with a gun pointed at her while she spoke to the UPS employee.

She also told authorities "he punched and slapped her, then forced her to strip and sexually assaulted her."

STANDOFF: Woman in custody after SWAT called to Texas home

A 3-year-old child was reportedly in the home at the time. The toddler was locked in a room without food or water for more than 12 hours.

Jordan has been charged with assault, felony restraint, unlawful use of a weapon, endangering the welfare of a child and sodomy without consent.

"We are grateful this UPS driver with more than a decade of service followed protocol when he saw a customer in distress and contacted authorities after he saw her message to contact 9-1-1," UPS told KMOV. "Our drivers are very familiar with their routes, and are trained to be aware of their surroundings and respond to requests for assistance."
A woman shopping at a mall in Oxford, Ala. says she was kicked out of a Victoria Secret store after another African-American woman was caught shoplifting.

On Thursday, Kimberly Houzah posted an Facebook Live video in which she says she was "put out of Victoria's Secret just for being black."

She says that the manager at the Quintard Mall Victoria's Secret didn't attempt to search her bag before calling police and asking her to leave the store. Houzah adds that she didn't know the woman who was caught shoplifting.

"She caught the other black girl stealing, and she was like, you need to get out," Houzah says in the video. "She didn't accuse me of stealing, but because I'm black and another black person happened to get caught stealing, we've got to be affiliated."

Houzah becomes emotional in the video, which is now going viral. She says that she and the woman who allegedly shoplifted "didn't even come in the store together. We just happened to be in there at the same time."

(Story continues below.)

After the incident, protesters gathered at the store, asking the manager apologize to Houzah.

A spokesperson for Victoria's Secret says that the manager has not been scheduled to work for the foreseeable future.

Victoria's Secret's Facebook page shared a statement from the corporate office:
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The Houston man fatally wounded in a shootout with SWAT officers during an attempted heist of an armored car on Wednesday was the ringleader and an assassin linked to at least two other fatal shootings of couriers, according to federal court documents.

Redrick Jevon Batiste, 37, who died at Ben Taub Hospital after being shot in the leg and chest in a brief gunbattle with Houston police, recruited and organized a crew of robbers who targeted armored cars as they arrived to replenish ATMs across town.

SUSPECTS: 4 held in armored car heist appear in federal court

Details of the robbery ring and two other cases earlier this year linked to their operation are outlined in a sworn statement by FBI Special Agent William A. Applegate filed with the court.

"As the courier exits the armored car with a sealed box containing the currency for the ATM, the courier is assassinated by Batiste or a member of Batiste's robbery crew, who fires a rifle from a concealed position some distance away, believed to be located inside a vehicle," according to Applegate's statement.

GUNSHOTS: HPD thwarts armored car robbery, kills suspect

Batiste was stationed and ready to fire on Wednesday, when his crew tried to rob an armored vehicle that instead was filled with Houston police officers.

Four people were arrested and charged with conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery and with using a firearm in the crime of violence.

Those arrested Wednesday and charged were Marc Anthony Hill, 46, of Spring; Travees Duncan-Bush,29; Nelson Alexander Polk, 37; and John Edward Scott, 40.

If convicted, they could face up to 20 years in prison on the robbery charge and five years on the firearm charge.

The four men appeared in federal court Thursday, where each received court-appointed attorneys.

The men had conspired for several weeks to strike the armored car after it stopped at Amegy Bank on North Sam Houston Parkway. Batiste and others watched the property for more than a week before making their move on Wednesday, according to the documents.

Eight armored cars have been robbed this year in the Houston area, and three guards have been killed in the past 22 months.

'IN FEAR OF HIS LIFE': HPD identifies officer who killed armored-car suspect

A multi-agency operation of law enforcement began investigating robberies after the March 18 murder and robbery of a Loomis courier at a J.P. Morgan Chase Bank in the 5600 block of Airline. The courier was killed as he tried to replenish the ATM with cash. Before he died, however, he fireed his weapon at the crew and they fled without getting any money.

On Aug. 29, another Loomis courier was fatally shot at a Wells Fargo Bank in the 1300 block of the Northwest Freeway. After he went down, a car drove up and a man jumped out, grabbing a contained with $120,000 in cash.

On Wednesday, Batiste had stationed himself at a distance from the bank with a clear shot of the bank. Federal officials said Wednesday that the gang had planned to kill the courier.

Read more about Batiste in a HoustonChronicle.com report.
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Laying out the particulars for a new trail section along White Oak Bayou, Chip Place saw something out of place where the trail crossed the Heights Hike and Bike Trail near T C Jester.

It was the stairs connecting the two trails.

"Look at that," Place said, pointing from the new stairs to the stellar view of downtown Houston. "I said 'Oh my god, we've got to capture this.'"

Starting Friday, the stairs - along with two miles of fresh trail to southeast of T C Jester - are ready for runners, cyclists and others who want a new view of the area.

"It is always fun to create a park and see how people will use this," said Place, managing director of capital programs for Houston Parks Board, the nonprofit that promotes parks in the city.

Part of the parks board's Bayou Greenways 2020 efforts, the new segment of the White Oak Bayou Greenway runs from Studemont Street and the Heights trail to the T C Jester trail. Crews worked Thursday to spruce up the trail for its debut, and scrape off mud washed onto it by recent rains. Maintenance of the trails is handled by the parks board, with some financial help from the city.

The trail's $4 million construction cost, which included re-sloping parts of the bayou's banks where freeways span the water, was covered by the Memorial Heights Reinvestment Zone, a city tax increment reinvestment zone, or TIRZ, that captures property taxes in the area for local projects.

The local funding, common on many of the trail projects, allows for the greenways project to use its $100 million in voter-approved money for other segments. Across Houston, the parks board has identified $220 million in bayou trail projects, with $120 million coming from non-bond financial sources. Ultimately, seven bayous across Houston will have trails uninterrupted by city streets for cyclists, runners and others to use.

James Nielsen/Staff

"It's going to be fantastic," said Curt Morris, 36.

Morris, who lives in the Heights, said trail access is one of the things that made the neighborhood appealing to he and his wife. As a bicyclist, "having something right out your door" makes riding less of a hassle, he said.

"It's great we'll have more places to ride," he said.

The new two-mile section - minus an unfinished spot below Yale Street - extends the White Oak trail to about 11 miles, making it the largest continuous portion completed thus far. By mid-2017 that will lengthen to 15 miles once key connections to downtown and the trail is extended from Antoine to the city limits. Once all of its segments are connected, Brays Bayou Greenway will be the longest of the trails at 30 miles, from the Houston Ship Channel to Eldridge in far west Houston.

"I really do believe Houston is at such an exciting point in the public realm," said Beth White, the parks board's president.

White, who took over the nonprofit nearly six months ago, moved to Houston encouraged by the "vast" opportunity to develop a large-scale trail system.

"All of the things that cities need to be resilient are being looked at," she said. "Open space, alternatives in mobility, it's all right here."

Though the enormity of Houston is inescapable, with Interstate 10 flowing atop parts of the new White Oak trail segment, the bayous are, Place said, "another world." On Thursday morning, as trucks slowed on I-10, a blue heron lifted off from the bayou a few yards from the trail.

"You don't realize how close everything is," said Catherine Butsch, communications director for the parks board.

The 10-foot concrete paths curve with the White Oak bayou, sometimes snaking through wide floodway openings, while at other times closing in within steep banks. Portions bordered by trees remove the city from view, before opening at points to major intersections and key connections, as well as the occasional downtown view.

Where possible, details reflect the area. At Yale - where crews are still working to pour concrete for the trail, meaning detours for the first few weeks the trail is open - entrances to the trail are inlaid with bricks from the original Yale Bridge, which the Texas Department of Transportation is rebuilding.

James Nielsen/Staff

Trail crews are working beneath the vehicle bridge as workers continue installing steel along the new span, which is not expected to open for another year.

At Yale - a burgeoning retail corridor - and other locations, rail makers are balancing creating a linear park meant somewhat for retreat but making it accessible. As a result, Place said designers opted for access points at Heights and Yale, but also Harvard, one block east of Heights. The connection is a easier link for residences in the area, avoiding the more crowded Heights intersection.

Both entry points to the trail are important, Place said. At Heights, cyclists can access a bike lane north along the road, while someone getting off a Metropolitan Transit Authority bus can easily get from the bus stop to the trail.

The local connection away from the busy street, meanwhile, might be a more appealing spot to move from the bayou to the road for nearby residents.

"What good is it if people that close can't get there," Place said of the trail system.

Friday's opening, though significant, is just the latest in a series of ribbon cuttings that parks officials have planned. By mid-2017, White Oak Bayou Greewnay will be extended from its current terminus at Alabonson to the city limits near Hollister Detention Basin off Little York.

Meanwhile, White said the parks board will move on all the projects along the bayous when practical.

"We work where opportunity presents itself and where timing lines up," she said.
A 20-minute police chase across Houston that exceeded speeds of 100 mph ended early Friday when a police officer deployed a spike strip that deflated the fleeing vehicle's front tires, police said.

The chase started about 2 a.m. in Northside, at the North Freeway and Airline Drive, after an officer saw a light-colored Chevy Silverado pickup speed out of a private driveway without yielding the right of way, HPD Officer C.D. Curry said.
A former Uber driver has been charged with sexually assaulting a passenger in north Houston, according to court records.

A woman told police the ride-sharing service driver, 35-year-old Qahtan Ghassan Talib, reached under her skirt and groped her at the Independence Heights gas station where he was picking her up in June. His Uber account was suspended that night, the company said.

After Talib appeared in a Harris County courtroom Friday, his defense attorneys said he denies the accusation.

Hes innocent. He cooperated with the investigation, attorney Todd Overstreet said. Were very surprised he was charged, given the level of cooperation and the lack of evidence.

Wearing an orange jail uniform, Talib appeared before state District Judge Renee Magee who kept his bail at $20,000 and issued an order prohibiting from contacting the victim. If he makes bail, he will have to wear a GPS ankle monitor.

Talib was suspended as an Uber user the same night of the incident after the woman's husband reported him to the company, spokeswoman Brooke Anderson said. He was later permanently banned from the system.

The driver had passed a fingerprint-based background check and had no criminal history, she added, and the company proactively contacted police and cooperated with the investigation.

However, Talib's city permit as a ride-sharing driver was still valid as of Friday morning, city officials said. Lara Cottingham with the Administration and Regulatory Affairs Department said the city cannot revoke someone's permit unless they are convicted of a serious crime.

The criminal complaint that prosecutors filed this week gives this account:

A woman, whose name is withheld to protect her privacy, was partying with friends. She left the friends' house and walked to the gas station to meet an Uber driver called by her husband, who was home babysitting.

The woman said she was intoxicated, and the driver walked her to his car and placed her in the front passenger seat. She then fell asleep, awaking when she felt a finger groping under her skirt. She said she found her panties had been pushed aside.

Talib agreed to speak with an officer from the Houston Police Department's special-victims unit. Talib told Officer D. Daniel that he touched the woman's neck when he helped her buckle the seatbelt. He said he also reached down to the floorboard to move her purse. He denied groping her.

However, the officer watched video surveillance footage from the gas station and saw that the woman was inside Talib's parked vehicle for 11 minutes. Talib could not explain why they were parked so long, the officer wrote.

Talib was charged Tuesday with sexual assault, a second-degree felony. He is held in the Harris County Jail.

The driver does not appear to have a criminal history. Harris County court records indicate he is a U.S. citizen who was born in Iraq. Public records suggest he previously lived in Oklahoma City.

The charge comes a month after the city of Houston reached a truce with Uber, which agreed to continue operating here through early 2017, including the Feb. 5 Super Bowl.

The city requires all Uber drivers be fingerprinted as part of their background checks, which the company vigorously opposes. It has left Austin and Galveston over such requirements.

The fingerprint check -- as opposed to the company's preferred Social Security number-based check -- has been the major disagreement since Houston legitimized smartphone-based companies that connect willing drivers and interested riders in November 2014.

Dug Begley contributed to this report.
UPDATE: Joseph Anderson was arrested Friday afternoon in Arkansas, where he was staying with relatives. He will be extradited to Harris County to face charges of indecency with a child.

PREVIOUS REPORT

Police are searching for a man suspected of sexually assaulting a 11-year-old girl in October at the Children's Museum of Houston.

Joseph Anderson, 40, is charged with two counts of indecency with a child in connection with an alleged incident Oct. 16 at the popular museum at 1500 Binz Street, according to the Houston Police Department.

Police said Anderson is a friend of the victim's mother and knows the girl. He took the child to the museum. Once there, Anderson took the girl to the second floor, where he sexually assaulted her, police said.

Two people saw the assault and notified museum staff for help. The girl was taken to a private room where she reported the incident.

Anderson left the museum after the attack, police said. On Monday, two arrest warrants were issued for him, but he so far has eluded capture.

Police said investigators determined Anderson may have sexually assaulted other victims at different places, though they did not disclose information that led them to that conclusion or details about other possible cases.

The Children's Museum of Houston issued a statement Tuesday afternoon regarding the Oct. 16 incident:

"We want to thank the Houston Police Department for their expertise and guidance. The safety of our visitors at the Children's Museum of Houston is always our top priority, and we are deeply saddened by this incident between the suspect and a child he brought to the museum with his family. We have been cooperating fully with the Houston Police Department and ask that the public provide whatever help they can to find this man and bring him to justice."

Anyone who believes a child may have had inappropriate contact with Anderson is urged to contact the HPD Special Victims Division at 713-308-1140 or Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.
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Aasha and Smuggler are such a cute couple it would seem they've bonded over rescue stories.

The two Bengal tigers met at In-Sync Exotics Wildlife Rescue and Educational Center in Wylie, about 30 miles northwest of Dallas.

Smuggler arrived first in March 2010, discovered by border patrol agents in Laredo who broke up an attempt to sneak him into the country in a dog crate. The crate was so small he couldn't turn around and he already had a permanent mark on his head, probably from trying to escape the crate, according to In-Sync Exotics.

Wildlife: Coyotes playing through on Royal Oaks Country Club golf course

Aasha arrived a year later, a 4-month-old cub covered with ringworm and nearly bald. She had been removed from her owner by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, whose agents told In-Sync "we had the best reputation in helping cats with the biggest problems."

Healing her skin problems took a month of daily baths with medicated shampoo and lots of pampering. Judging by her photos, Aasha has blossomed.

After she was introduced to Smuggler, the two quickly developed a bond and have been mates for four years.

Founded in 1998 by veterinary technician Vicky Keahey, the organization now has dozens of lions, tigers, cougars, leopards, cheetahs, bobcats, lynx, servals, ocelot, as well as two lemurs and a coatamundi.

It offers various educational programs, including an internship, and service projects.
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.
Trespassing case might test states pipeline survey law A land surveyor for Summit Carbon Solutions faces a criminal trial in December for allegedly trespassing on land in northwest...

Cherokee Skate Park awaits FEMA okay As opposed to speedy skate board wheels, the wheels of progress grind slowly regarding the citys proposed new skate park...
In Illinois in late June, the state legislature passed, and the governor signed, a makeshift budget to fund essential state operations for six months. The deal came after the state had gone a year and a half without a budget. The impasse resulted from an ongoing battle between Republican governor Bruce Rauner and Democratic house speaker Michael Madigan. Rauner, a successful businessman, won election in 2014 on a platform to change the way Illinois did business. Rather than betray his voters, Rauner has held firm to his demand that parts of his Turnaround Agendawhich includes changes to workmens compensation and public-employee unionism, along with tort reformbe part of any state budget. On the other side, Madigan, who represents a coalition of Democrats and unions, wants more tax revenue for his spending plan but none of Rauners initiatives. Rauner and Madigan faced intense pressure to adopt a stopgap measure and avoid taking the blame if schools failed to open in the fall, enrollment fell at state universities, road repairs stopped, and prisoners in state penitentiaries went hungry for lack of food. Yet as soon as the budget measure passed, both sides returned to the battlefield, raising the question of when, if ever, the state will return to normalcy.

Illinois currently holds the dubious distinction of being the most fiscally derelict state in America. In 2015, Moodys downgraded Illinois general-obligation bonds from A3 to Baa1, the lowest ranking among the 50 states. The states pension systems are only 40 percent funded, the worst ratio in the country. Forbes rated Illinois business climate 38th among states last year. Chicago, the states economic engine, has been cratering under the weight of huge pension costs, and had to enact a $500 million property-tax increase last year. In addition, Chicagos schools are in crisis, andmost disturbing of allthe city has watched its crime rate explode. The migration rate out of Illinois over the last five years has been the highest of any state.

Digging so deep a fiscal and economic hole takes effort. Many people doubtless share some of the culpability. But if one person should be singled out as responsible for Illinois political and economic mess, it would be House Speaker Madigan. Unlike Rauner, who just arrived on the political scene, Madigan is at the heart of Illinois political establishment. Chicago magazine has long ranked him among the most powerful people in the Windy City.

Madigan, 74, has been involved in electoral politics for 43 years and has served as speaker of the Illinois House for 31 of thosemaking him the longest-serving state house speaker in U.S. history. His duties hardly stop there. He is also the chairman of the state Democratic Party, a partner in Chicagos most successful property-tax law firm, andlast, but not leasta committeeman for Chicagos 13th Ward, a post he has held since he was 27. These four positions and their associated networks of patronage appointees, legislative staffers, corporate lobbyists, campaign donors, industry clients, and family members are what some in Illinois refer to as Madiganistan or the Madigan industrial complex.

Despite his outsize presence in the state, few have heard of Madigan outside Illinois. The obscurity is understandable. Madigan is an old-school party politician. He still represents the onceIrish Catholic but now heavily Latino Clearing neighborhood, where he grew up, on the Southwest Side of Chicago, which is part of the bungalow belt. After attending Notre Dame and Loyola University Law School, he learned how to exercise political power at the feet of longtime Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley. (Madigans father knew Daley from the days when they both held patronage jobs in Cook County.)

Daley was the boss of the famous (or infamous) Democratic Party machine that dominated not just city government but the state government as well. The first lesson of machine politics is that getting and holding power is the most important thing. The second lesson is that to stay in charge, one must reward friends and either punish or co-opt enemies. Madigan appears to have taken both lessons to heart and applied them with ruthless efficiency. Over his long career, he has created a statewide party machine to replace the one in the city. It has a number of interlocking parts, each allowing him to follow the dictums of bossism.

Madigan claims that acceding to Rauners agenda would force him to abandon his core beliefs, but his politics, like those of the party bosses of yesteryear, are not about principles. Philip Rock, a former state senator, has written that Madigan is very difficult to label and that it would be impossible to identify him with one narrow political philosophy or ideology. For Madigan, politics is about power, not policy. Neither his constituents nor anyone else really knows his positions, if he has them, on any number of issues. Madigan has never offered a laundry list of programs that hed like to see enacted. Hes definitely not a warrior against corruption or an advocate of transparency and open government. Hes no critic of capitalism and isnt shy about making a lot of money.

While Illinois ethics laws dont require Madigan to disclose his outside income, everyone agrees that hes made a fortune at his law firm, Madigan and Getzendanner, which seeks to reduce the property-tax bills of its clients. In 2010, the firm represented 45 of the 150 most valuable commercial buildings in Chicago, according to the Chicago Tribune. Like Tammany Hall politicians of yesteryear, Madigan practices what George Washington Plunkitt called honest graft.

Madigan exercises power as if it were still the era of smoke-filled rooms. He prefers closed-door meetings to the media spotlight and is tightlipped when speaking to the press. But he doesnt need the media to get his way. His years of experience mean that he knows the legislative process in Illinois better than anyone. Hes obsessively detail-oriented and famous for reading the state budget line by line. He knows more about the workings of the General Assembly than anyone, on any issue, at any time, says Jack Franks, a Democratic state representative.

The keystone of the Madigan machine is his position as house speaker. He rose to that post, in part, because his Southwest Side seat is extremely safe. With little effort, he could be reelected every two years by as few as 30,000 voters. Such leverage enabled him to work his way up the party leadership ladder. First elected to the house in 1970, he became speaker in 1983, losing the position only briefly, when Republicans won control of the body for one term in 1994.

Madigan has methodically concentrated power in the speakers office. For example, he stripped away the ability to appoint legislative staff from committee chairmen and placed it in the Committee on Committees, which he controls. He also revised house rules to let him unilaterally change committee members, so he could substitute those sympathetic to him on a given issue for those less well-disposed. Finally, Madigan bottles up legislation that he opposes through the Rules Committee, which, chaired by a top lieutenant, is the first stop that any bill makes, once it is introduced.

Nowadays, Madigan controls all the levers of legislative power. Under house rules, he can set the legislative agenda, determining which bills move forward. Lobbyists know this. With influence so concentrated, they have little need to try to persuade other legislators. Therefore, they either give money to one of the campaign funds that Madigan controls or solicit his advice about where the interests they represent should send their checks. Some refer to the system as one-stop shopping. Madigan thus holds a great deal of sway over other legislators; if they want to see their projects become law, they need to earn his goodwill.

Madigans position as speaker depends, of course, on the Democratic majority in the house, which he has tirelessly sought to expand, especially by inserting himself into the redistricting process. The result: a majority that has now become a supermajority, with Democrats controlling 71 of 118 seats. Unsurprisingly, Madigan has fiercely opposed efforts to shift control of redistricting to an independent commission.

Perhaps the primary way Madigan exercises control over his majority is through campaign funds. One source of that money comes directly from his campaign coffers. Running largely unopposed year after yearor against fake candidates placed on the ballot by his supportershas made it possible for Madigan to raise, by one estimate, more than $35 million since 1994. In addition, as chairman of the Illinois Democratic Party, he has access to party accounts and can funnel money to favored candidates. The state party was, for a while, run out of Madigans office in Springfield and now makes its headquarters in a small office building near the capitol, where Madigans campaign finance team works. Campaign cash can buy a lot of loyalty among legislators.

Another tool in Madigans kit is pork-barrel spending, which he often directs to party members in tough reelection contests. For instance, in 1999, the state government created the Illinois Fund for Infrastructure, Roads, Schools, and Transit (IllinoisFIRST). This five-year, $12 billion pot of money was dedicated to public works. Political scientists Michael Herron and Brett Theodos found that the funds were distributed by Madigan tactically to assist Democratic legislators facing tough reelection bids, rather than to districts that most needed the money. For Madigan, policymaking is about maintaining power, not trying to serve the public interest.

Madigans big house majority offers benefits that extend well beyond one chamber of the legislature. The current president of the state senate, John Cullerton, was a Madigan protege who cut his teeth as Madigans floor leader in the house. (Cullerton is also Madigans sons godfather.) Madigan has similarly cultivated a huge cadre of staffers, former legislators, and lobbyists now working in other parts of government. No one in Illinois has a wider network of contacts.

The next crucial component of the Madigan machine is a small army of patronage workersestimated to be about 400 current or retired government employees. Known locally as Madigoons, these workers hold or held jobs at the city, county, and state levels. The most notorious patronage outpost might be Chicagos Bureau of Electricity, dubbed Madigan electric for the number of loyalists he has toiling there. These foot soldiers can be counted on for get-out-the-vote drives and other campaign operations in nearly every part of the state, at every level of government.

As Madigans patronage appointees move between agencies and levels of government, the speaker regularly intervenes to secure them pay raises, promotions, and new jobs. Some workers have held as many as a dozen different government positions over the course of their careers. Many have questionable qualifications for the posts they hold and probably spend more time on party politics than on their nominal jobs. All devote some of their salaries to Madigans campaign funds.

Many of Madigans own family members hold politically powerful positions throughout Illinois. His wife, Judy, was appointed a member of the Illinois Arts Council in 1976 and has served as chairwoman for the last 23 years. Madigans adopted daughter, Lisa Madigan, is Illinois attorney general and a likely future gubernatorial candidate. His three other childrens careers, and those of their spouses, are also intertwined with his machine. Tiffany Madigan is a lawyer at a big firm that has donated money to Madigans campaigns. Her husband, Jordan Matyas, started out as a staffer in the speakers office, was chief of staff of the Regional Transportation Authority, and has now opened his own law firm that advertises his knowledge of state politics. Nicole Madigan is a real-estate lawyer who worked for a firm that contributed to Lisas campaign war chest and is now general counsel to a real-estate management firm in Chicago. Andrew Madigan is an analyst at a financial-services firm that receives state contracts and deals with city bonds.

Perhaps the primary way Madigan exercises control over his majority is through campaign funds.

Madigans machine extends to the judicial branch. His otherwise obscure post as ward committeeman puts him in a position to help pick lawyers slated to be judges on the circuit court of Cook County. Lawyers who want to become judges must work for, and make contributions to, the Democratic Party to get their names on the Madigan List. From 2003 to 2011, according to the Chicago Tribune, Madigan recommended 37 attorneys for the bench; 25 wound up selected. Several more were later nominated.

Cook County judges have, in turn, helped stymie changes that Madigan opposes. In July, one judge declared illegal a constitutional amendment to change the states redistricting process, which had been set to appear on the ballot this fall. This was the second time that judges had thrown out such a referendum. A longtime Madigan ally, Michael Kaspar, general counsel for the Illinois Democratic Party, brought the lawsuit to prevent the measure from appearing on the ballot.

The results of Madigans reign have not been pretty. Over the past five yearsand perhaps far longer, depending on the accountingMadigans Democratic supermajority in the house and Cullertons Democratic majority in the senate have not passed a single balanced budget. The latest budget battle is only the most recent example of a state unable to get its fiscal house in order. Illinois has for years failed to make the annual required contribution to its pension systems. Pension expert Alicia Munnell notes that fiscal discipline [appears] not to be part of the states culture. Under Madigan, the Democrats found that shorting the fund freed up money for other things. Madigan and his allies could avoid the hard decisions of making real cuts or raising revenue to pay for their policy choices.

That Madigan has not acted to address the states fiscal problems is not for a lack of the means to do so. His power was on full display this past May, when the Democratic house majority introduced, debated, and passed a 500-page budget in less than three hours. Of course, the problem with that budget (and the two prior budgets)and the reason that Governor Rauner wouldnt sign itwas that it proposed to spend $39 billion, while conceding that the state would collect only $32 billion in revenue. A budget thats $7 billion out of balance isnt just bad policy; it violates the state constitution.

Madigans concentration of power has rendered representative democracy in Illinois somewhat of a mirage. Citizens in the Land of Lincoln elect people to the housebut once they get to Springfield, they dont do much. Committees rarely meet. Reform bills never go anywhere or are easily lost in the institutions bureaucratic shuffle.

Madiganistan has also given rise to a number of small scandals, none of which has been big enough to shake the speakers grip on power. For example, it was discovered that Madigan and other legislators used their influence to place the children of major campaign contributors on a special admissions track at the University of Illinois. From 2004 to 2009, some 800 students with connections to politicians were placed on a clout list and often offered admission. Some had questionable academic qualifications. Of the 28 students Madigan lobbied university officials to admit, all were children of major campaign donors. One parent, a prominent lawyer, gave as much as $71,800 to Madigan-controlled funds. (He also gave generously to Lisa Madigans campaign for attorney general.) At least 23 of the 28 were admitted as undergraduates or to graduate programs in business or law. Madigans clout, as relayed through the universitys lobbyists, was no doubt enhanced by the fact that he has enormous influence on state funding of the university, which constitutes some 16.5 percent of the schools budget.

A patronage scandal at the Metra, the Regional Transportation Authority, erupted after the departure of CEO Alex Clifford (who received an $817,000 severance package). Madigan reportedly asked Clifford for raises and promotions of political associates, for whom he had secured jobs at the agency. Clifford, who had been brought in to improve the authoritys efficiency, refused, writing a scathing memo that, he later claimed, caused his dismissal. One of Madigans foot soldiers at the center of the Metra scandal, Patrick Ward, had faithfully donated some $16,525 to the politicians various campaign funds between 1999 and 2012. Ward could afford such campaign spending on a salary of less than $70,000 a year because, in addition to his Metra salary, he was receiving a $57,000 annual pension from the city of Chicago. Ward survived the scandal intact. Madigan recommended him for a state supervisors job that was created only after he interviewed for it and for which no other applicants were considered. The job description apparently leaves Ward with no one to report to and no one reporting to him.

The patronage operation at Metra went back years. The assemblys inspector general investigated and learned that Metras chairperson would go to Madigans office, ostensibly to talk about state issues, and leave with the names of workers whom Madigan wanted hired or promoted. Bizarrely, we know about this episode only because Madigan himself requested the inspector generals report in order to clear himself of any legal liability. Authorities treated Madigans repeated interventions to secure jobs, promotions, and raises for his allies as standard practice, not in violation of any of the states weak ethics laws. Given that the attorney general is Madigans daughter, no one expected a rigorous investigation to emerge from that quarter.

Finally, there was Chicagos red-light camera scandal. One of Madigans 13th Ward precinct captains, John Bills, while working as a city transportation official, rigged the contracting process to ensure that Redflex Traffic Systems won the citys $131 million contract for a camera system, in exchange for kickbacks that federal prosecutors said totaled some $2 million, including $600,000 in cash and a condo in Arizona. Bills also encouraged the company to hire a lobbyist with strong ties to Madigan and lobbied Madigan directly to sponsor legislation that would allow Chicago to install speed cameras, which would help Redflex expand its business with the city. Madigan sponsored such legislation, and Governor Pat Quinn signed it into law in 2012. Bills received a ten-year prison sentence.

If Madiganistan is about anythingbeyond self-interestit is about cost shifting. By shorting pension funds, Madigan has transferred the tax burden to future generations. His law firm reduces property taxes on commercial buildings, which inevitably means that those costs will be borne by other property-tax payers. His patronage appointments spread the costs of his campaign operations onto different units of governmentand onto taxpayers. The inevitable scandals cost taxpayers a bundle in legal fees, severance packages, and hush money. Shifting the costs to enemies in order to reward friends is one element of what has come to be known as the Chicago way.

Governor Rauner was elected to reform the machine-style political culture that has rendered Illinois so dysfunctional. Hes still fighting. But the vested interests, represented and exemplified by Michael Madigan, are deeply entrenchedand they hold a lot of cards. Illinois politics is an outlier in many respects, but Madiganistan is only a more extreme version of what goes on in other deep-blue states, such as New York and California. All are plagued with a toxic combination of undemocratic practices and unsustainable fiscal policies. Sooner or later, something has to give.
The media usually love to celebrate the anniversary of the passage of a major law or policy shift. During 2016 in California, however, they took a pass on mentioning two key milestones.

November 5 marked 20 years since California voters approved Proposition 209also known as the California Civil Rights Initiativeby a margin of 54 to 46 percent. This measure ended racial, ethnic, and gender preferences in state-college admissions, state employment, and state contracting. Opponents claimed that Prop. 209 would bring on the end of affirmative action, but state colleges and universities could still cast the widest possible net for admissions and extend a hand to minority students on an economic basis.

The disaster that opponents predicted would result from Proposition 209 never occurred. As Thomas Sowell noted in his 2013 book Intellectuals and Race, declines in minority enrollment at UCLA and Berkeley were offset by increases at other University of California campuses. More important, the number of African-American and Hispanic students graduating from the UC system went up, including a 55 percent increase in those graduating in four years with a GPA of 3.5 or higher. Still, critics maintain that Proposition 209 harmed diversity. In bureaucratic parlance, diversity means that all institutions should precisely reflect the racial or ethnic proportions of the population. If they dont, the reason must be deliberate discrimination, and the only remedy is government actionnamely, racial and ethnic preferences of the type that the University of California imposed before Proposition 209.

The proportionality dogma isnt law, yet politically correct administrators believe that some groups are overrepresented, that is, there are too many of some kinds of people on campus. This usually means Asians, targets of much discrimination in California history. In recent years, UC campuses have bulked up on high-salaried diversity bureaucrats. In similar style, the city of Sacramento has created a new position for a diversity manager. Politicians have also deployed measures such as the 2012 Senate Constitutional Amendement 5, sponsored by West Covina Democrat Ed Hernandez, who claimed it would ensure that universities would reflect the diversity of the state. Asian groups cried foul, and Assembly Speaker John Perez, a Los Angeles Democrat, returned SCA 5 to the Senate without a vote.

The 30th anniversary of another historic California ballot measure passed without notice in November. On November 4, 1986, California voters passed Proposition 63, the Official Language of California Amendment. This measure directs the state legislature to preserve the role of English as the states common language and refrain from passing laws which diminish or ignore the role of English as the states common language. Seventy-three percent of California voters approved the measure, a landslide by any definition, and its still on the books. So what has the government of California done over the last 30 years to ensure that the democratic will of the people was respected? Nothing; they ignored it. In short, state legislators and public officials acted as if Prop. 63 never existed, wrote Orange County Register columnist Gordon Dillow in 2006. As this writer, an immigrant, can testify, some level of proficiency in English is a requirement for American citizenship, which, in turn, is a requirement for voting. Yet, in 2016, the California voter guide came in English and, count em, six other languages: Spanish, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Tagalog, and Vietnamese. With 17 propositions to translate into seven languages, the voter guide packed the heft of a phone book.

A raft of stories accompanied Octobers tenth anniversary of the passage of Californias historic climate law, yet not a single one commemorated the passage of successful propositions to end racial quotas and establish English as the official state language. Sadly, the Golden States political class and old-line establishment media remain out of touch with the people.
Fundatia de Binefacere Caritas Moldova solicita oferte de pret de la companii /furnizori de cozonaci de Craciun
Should mainstream journalists be engaging more with the right-wing press? Was print media too quick to jump on the digital bandwagon? Why do foreign news outlets seem to be getting all the scoops about the Trump transition?

We discuss all that and more on The Kicker, this week guest hosted by CJR Managing Editor Vanessa Gezari. Vanessa is joined by CJR Tow Editor Nausicaa Renner and CJR Delacorte Fellow Shelley Hepworth, along with special guest Michael Rosenwald, a reporter for The Washington Post.

Subscribe to the The Kicker via iTunes.

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The Editors are the staffers of the Columbia Journalism Review.
The Washington Posts November 24 report checked all the boxes: The flood of fake news this election season got support from a sophisticated Russian propaganda campaign, it began. Not only had American voters been influenced by a deliberate misinformation operation, the story suggested, but the Kremlin was largely to blame. Journalists and Democrats still searching for answers after Donald Trumps out-of-left-field win quickly launched the piece into an accelerating November jet stream of fake news paranoia.

It became apparent soon after that the Post had itself fallen for shoddy information. The story relied heavily on a report by PropOrNot, an anonymous internet group that bills itself as Your Friendly Neighborhood Propaganda Identification Service, Since 2016! While its study claimed to show how a deliberate Russian effort had unduly influenced American public opinion, it included in its calculations non-fake, left-wing sites like Naked Capitalism and Truthdig, among others.

On Wednesday, after two weeks of outcry from progressives and Greenwaldian takedowns at The Intercept and elsewhere, the Post appended a lengthy editors note to the story. It leaves much to be desired. Emphasis added in the relevant section below:

A number of those sites have objected to being included on PropOrNots list, and some of the sites, as well as others not on the list, have publicly challenged the groups methodology and conclusions. The Post, which did not name any of the sites, does not itself vouch for the validity of PropOrNots findings regarding any individual media outlet, nor did the article purport to do so. Since publication of The Posts story, PropOrNot has removed some sites from its list.

Indeed, the Post did not name any of the questionable sites in its story, though it eventually linked to PropOrNots list. And a few of those sites told Rolling Stone that the newspaper never reached out for comment before implicitly including them as part of the Kremlins propaganda machinery.

Related: Revolution at The Washington Post

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More importantly, the editors note vaults into verbal gymnastics in an attempt to simultaneously rationalize and distance itself from an obviously flawed primary source. Any data analysis is only as good as the sum of its parts, and its clear that PropOrNots methodology was lacking.

The Post, of course, was merely reporting what PropOrNot said. Yet it used declarative language throughout, sans caveat, lending credence to a largely unknown organization that lumps together independent left-wing publications and legitimately Russian-backed news services. The Post diminished its credibility at a time when media credibility is in short supply, and the non-apologetic editors note doesnt help.

Fake news is certainly a problem, even if its not worthy of the sky-is-falling proclamations that have consumed the mainstream media over the past month. But precision in defining whats bunkand, more importantly, what isntis the first order of business, even if it comes at the expense of a good narrative. Otherwise, labeling something as fake will quickly lose its punch.

A Post spokeswoman declined to comment further on the episode, saying that the editors note speaks for itself.

Related: Eight steps reporters should take before Trump assumes office

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David Uberti is a writer in New York. He was previously a media reporter for Gizmodo Media Group and a staff writer for CJR. Follow him on Twitter @DavidUberti.
When Jefferson Community College was making plans to build its first residence hall, there was one must-have for President Carole McCoy: generators for backup if the power went out.

With her campus in Watertown, New York in the bulls-eye of more than 100 inches of snow each year, she knew students might get stuck. They wouldnt be cold and hungry.

That was a non-negotiable, McCoy said.

For college administrators, extreme weather is yet another hazard to prepare and practice for on a list that includes infectious disease outbreaks, active shooters and technological outages. They know its just a matter of time before a hurricane, earthquake, tornado, wildfire or winter storm could put them in harms way.

We know that it can be very devastating and certainly have the potential to kill or injure as many people as the worst active shooter situation you could imagine, North Carolina State University Police Chief Jack Moorman said, so making sure that were prepared for it is essential.

With more than 20 million students enrolled at 7,200 U.S. colleges and universities, higher education leaders say they rely on experience and expertise to think beyond the basics of food and shelter to the special challenges of academia, including keeping students and parents informed, accounting for students, both international and from this country, not easily evacuated, and continuing instruction and research.

Riding out Hurricane Matthew in her off-campus apartment in October, East Carolina University student Bobbie Jordan Thomas worried that her final semester plans were washing away with the floodwater that, before her eyes, was swallowing and destroying her beloved Toyota Corolla.

Turned my world upside down, Thomas said. She headed to a recovery center the university opened in the wake of the storm with her questions about the internship shed begun and her plans to attend nursing school.

East Carolina developed the recovery center model during Hurricane Floyd in 1999, said Bill Koch, associate vice chancellor of environmental health and campus safety. While the campus suffered mostly minor damage from Matthew, leaders found positioning representatives from the deans office, student store, health services and other departments in one place was helpful for students, faculty and staff.

Officials monitor weather reports around the clock. Gyms and other large spaces become designated shelters with stockpiles of food, water and cots. Generators are in place to power critical services. Alerts and information are tweeted, emailed, broadcast, posted online and texted directly to cell phones through campus communication systems.

Were able to communicate to 65,000 different devices literally within a few minutes in the event of an emergency, said Tony Callisto, Syracuse Universitys senior vice president for safety and chief law enforcement officer.

Expect the unexpected, basically . Dont think that things cant happen, said Donald Keith, emergency preparedness director at the University of Alabama, where a 2011 tornado just missed a direct hit but laid bare, among other details, the need for a system to accept and distribute donations of money and supplies offered by well-wishers.

Schools prepare both for quick bursts of destruction, like a tornado, or the prolonged stress caused by flooding or winter storms.

Whats particularly concerning about weather-related events, Moorman said, is although you can in some ways be prepared for it, and although you can in some ways minimize the impact, there is no way that you can prevent it.

In California, campuses work to shore up 40-year-old buildings where even hanging ceiling fixtures could pose a threat in an earthquake  modern buildings are more seismically sound  while on upstate New York campuses in Syracuse and Buffalo, committees plan year-round for winter.

Down South, Katrinas path through the Gulf Coast in 2005 damaged more than 30 colleges in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi and displaced 100,000 students, leading to matriculation agreements with other schools for the fall semester, according to the American Council on Education.

The goal, though, is to preserve courses, leaders say, even if it means teaching and taking them online.

Continuing instruction and research and all those things are just as important as plowing the roads and maintaining safety, said Jay Roorbach, senior emergency planning coordinator at the University at Buffalo.

Keith, the emergency preparedness official from Alabama, recalled the April 2011 call from the weather service to his Tuscaloosa campus emergency center telling him one of 60 tornados that would strike his state that day was likely 10 minutes away from reaching campus. With the plans activated, he and his colleagues watched the tornado on cameras as it came through the city, until it took out the power grid and the cameras went dark.

Everything that wed been working for and preparing for was now about to be tested, Keith said, and we were wondering, OK, whats going to happen? 

(AP writers Allen G. Breed in Greenville, North Carolina, and Christine Armario in Los Angeles contributed to this report.)

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Authorities investigating the California warehouse party fire that killed 36 people have said they are considering a criminal case  even murder charges. But as relatives learned after a nightclub fire killed 100 people in Rhode Island, any prosecution would be a long and complicated road that may not end with a feeling of justice.

The 2003 fire at The Station in West Warwick was started by pyrotechnics for the rock band Great White, which set fire to foam that lined the walls as soundproofing. It was actually highly flammable packing foam, never approved for such a use, and the crowded club became an inferno in seconds.

In Oakland, investigators said this week that they were looking at a refrigerator and other electrical appliances as possible causes in the Friday night fire in the warehouse packed with wooden structures, where electricity was provided by cords that snaked through the space.

Relatives of those killed and lawyers involved in the Rhode Island case said they see troubling parallels.

In both fires, there was an alleged lack of proper permits and as well as loads of highly flammable material inside. In both, the operators were accused of ignoring safety standards, such as providing adequate fire exits. As in Rhode Island, there are suggestions that officials in Oakland didnt do enough to inspect and monitor the building, leading to tragedy.

At The Station, inspectors failed to note the foam in their reports. They also raised the clubs capacity, so people were allowed to pack inside.

A nearly 10-month grand jury investigation resulted in involuntary manslaughter charges for three people: the clubs owners, Jeffrey and Michael Derderian, and the man who set off the pyrotechnics, Great White tour manager Daniel Biechele.

But many were outraged that the towns fire marshal and Great White leader Jack Russell were not charged.

Dave Kane, whose son, Nicholas ONeill, died in The Station fire, said he believes he is seeing in Oakland what he saw in Rhode Island: a rush to blame the operator of the space and to protect public officials.

The elected officials, the fire officials, theyre the responsible ones, Kane said, adding that families of those killed shouldnt expect much. Dont get your hopes up, because too many people have to cover themselves, and thats the problem.

Jeff Pine, a former Rhode Island attorney general who represented Jeffrey Derderian, said The Station fire represented a perfect storm of things going wrong at the same time.

In such cases, manslaughter charges are more likely than murder charges, he said. To get to a murder charge, you have to show some level of criminal intent or malicious conduct, such as someone intentionally setting the fire, he said. Authorities said on Tuesday there is no indication the Oakland fire was intentionally set.

Tom Briody, who defended Biechele, said establishing criminal intent is a high burden, but there is a tendency to lower it when so many people are killed.

The reality is that when you have a large death toll, the cases get investigated more aggressively. Ultimately, I think the burden somehow lowers itself, he said. Somehow, it becomes a lot easier to convince folks that someones to blame than when theres a smaller amount of damage or harm.

Biechele ultimately pleaded guilty to 100 counts of involuntary manslaughter and served less than two years in prison. The Derderians pleaded no contest to the same charges without admitting guilt. Michael Derderian spent less than three years in prison, and Jeffrey Derderian got community service.

That was rather devastating, said Chris Fointaine, whose son, Mark, died, and whose daughter was badly injured. The fact that one brother walked away with basically no time, and the other with what we considered a slap on the wrist.

She said relatives of those killed became their own sort of family and drew support from each other in the years that followed.

They need to be prepared for this to be dragging for a long, long time, she said of the families in Oakland. I think the only comfort that we found was in each other.

In Rhode Island, the criminal case took more three years, and the civil cases against dozens of people and companies took six. The settlements divided among survivors and relatives of the dead totaled $176 million.

Fontaine called those settlements the most insignificant thing that happened in the case.

To me, that was the least important. To me, seeing justice served would have been the most helpful, she said. We never got that justice served. And we never will.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
AKRON, Ohio -- Akron police have identified a suspect in a barbershop shooting that wounded three people.

Robert Lash Rodgers, 24, of Akron, is charged with three counts of felonious assault and having weapons under disability in the Dec. 1 shooting at R.P.'s Blade Academy Barbershop on West Exchange Street.

Detectives identified him as the customer who shot three people about 11 a.m. at the barbershop, police said.

Rodgers was seated in a barber's chair when another man walked into the barbershop and argued with him. Rodgers pulled out a gun and fired several shots at the man, police said.

Bullets struck the man in the chest, arm and abdomen. He was taken to Akron City Hospital to be treated for serious injuries.

Bullets also struck a 17-year-old boy in the ankle, and a 49-year-old man in the shoulder. Both were taken to Akron City Hospital to be treated for minor injuries.

Everyone inside the barbershop, including Rodgers, ran out to a back parking lot after the shooting, police said. Rodgers then ran off.

This is the third high-profile shooting at a Northeast Ohio barbershop in the past two years. Just last month, jurors recommended the death penalty for Douglas Shine, who was convicted in a February 2015 triple killing at a Warrensville Heights barbershop. A Cuyahoga County judge will sentence Shine on Dec. 20.

Detectives are still searching for the person who killed Charles Davis and wounded one other man in a November shooting at the Skills Barbershop on Turney Road in Garfield Heights. No arrests have been made.

Anyone with information on Rodgers whereabouts is being asked to call the Akron Police Department's detective bureau at 330-375-2490 or the U.S. Marshals Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force at 1-866-4WANTED or Summit County Crime Stoppers at 330-434-COPS.

If you'd like to comment on this story, visit Friday's crime and courts comments section.
Carrying concealed weapon, I-77: On Nov. 12, police observed a Chevy Cavalier without rear license plate illumination traveling southbound on I-77. While talking to the driver, the officer smelled marijuana.

Also, none of the occupants, including the driver, had a driver's license present. The driver admitted to smoking earlier but said there wasn't any marijuana in the car. While padding down the rear passenger, an officer felt a gun. He was instantly handcuffed and arrested.

While searching the car, police found a blunt, as well as ammunition inside of a purse. The driver was cited for driving with a temporary license and not having a licensed driver present. He was also cited for drug abuse and not having a rear license plate light.

The passenger was charged with carrying a concealed weapon.

Property damage, Stadium Drive: On Nov. 17, police were dispatched to the Brecksville Service Department after an employee discovered the access card reader on the gate and a support pole had been damaged.

Also, the sidewalk had been cracked. The officer observed tire tracks on the curb and sidewalk. There are no suspects. Police are investigating.

Drug paraphernalia, I-77: On Nov. 12, police observed a speeding Nissan Versa traveling northbound on I-77. The Pennsylvania man, who appeared nervous, said was temporarily working in Independence and staying at a Richfield motel.

The man was driving a rental car. It turned out he wasn't listed on the rental agreement. The car rental company wanted the car towed. While searching the car, police found bundles with traces of heroin.

The man denied being a user but when he rolled up his sleeves the officer saw track marks. He was arrested for drug paraphernalia possession.

If you would like to discuss the police blotter, please visit our

.
OHIO Windfarm.jpg

Ohio wind farm development has stalled with the two-year freeze on rules requiring power companies to provide more green power every year. Lawmakers have now decided to make the mandates voluntary for another two years. Gov. John Kasich has threatened to veto the bill.

(Plain Dealer file )

COLUMBUS --The fate of Ohio's green energy mandates over the next two years is now in the hands of Gov. John Kasich.

Ohio lawmakers ignored threats of the governor's veto and approved a bill overnight that would allow power companies to ignore the rules for the next two years requiring them to provide customers with increasing percentages of green energy.

The mandates have been frozen for two years at 2014 levels, and opponents have argued that now making compliance voluntary for another two years will have the same impact on green development as another freeze. It will slow it down.

The legislation, which was one of the last bills approved by the lame duck Senate and House, does increase the green percentage required from 2.5 percent now to 7.5 percent by 2021.

But state regulators won't be able to check for the first two years. And utilities won't have to contract for more green power -- or even build their own -- during the two years.

Opponents, including lawmakers who did not support the legislation, predicted there will be legislation in another two years aimed at slowing down green development yet again.

Kasich has 10 working days to use his veto pen before the legislation automatically becomes law.

The bill also makes it easier for utilities to comply with energy efficiency mandates by allowing them to count improvements to their power plants and wires when figuring how much power has been saved by energy efficiency.

As originally written in 2008, the efficiency standards were seen as a way to nudge companies to help customers use less electricity by installing more efficient technologies.

And by agreeing to do that, the utilities won the right to "share" some of the savings. In other words, they won the right to raise rates not only to fund the efficiency programs but to reward themselves based on the amount of power saved.

And an amendment added late to the current legislation would allow the power companies to "bank" early efficiency gains and use those reductions now and in future years when figuring out how much of the "shared savings" they should receive.

Consumers' Counsel Bruce Weston testified against that provision in committee hearings, arguing that shared savings had already cost customers tens of millions of dollars and would soar even higher under the "banking" provision.

The legislation would also allow most large commercial and business customers to opt out of utility programs that help customers use less power through energy efficiency. Previous legislation allowed heavy industry to escape the mandate -- along with the extra charges on their bills to pay for such programs.

Most of the fireworks occurred in the Senate before the final vote on the bill that had begun in the House last May.

The Senate vote on HB 554 was 18 to 13, with five Republicans joining Democrats to vote "No" on the measure that followed a debate that began with an energetic performance from Cincinnati Republican Sen. William Seitz, complete with arm waving, grimaces and caustic asides.

Seitz argued that the standards would not be frozen by the measure because the annual renewable targets would continue to grow over the next two years, just not the mandate to comply. The mandate returns in the third year.

He said the bill allows the state's utilities to wait for the fate of the EPA's Clean Power Plan, now under federal court review. Additionally, President-elect Donald Trump has said he will target the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, making the future of the Clean Power Plan even less certain.

Seitz championed natural gas during his remarks, but he made it clear that his objections to the renewable energy mandates are ideological.

"We thought we could get to a cleaner energy future in pursuing policies that incentivize people to do the right thing," he said before launching into a 29-minute soliloquy that ended with him calling renewable energy advocates "enviro-socialists rent-seeking Left."

"When a capitalist makes a product that people do not want to buy, the capitalist must reduce the price or improve the quality of the product. When a socialist makes products that people do not want to buy they follow two strategies. Either they pursue governmental policies that favors their product over their competitor's product or they pursue policies that mandate that people must buy their product. In the case of the renewable energy industry in Ohio, they believe in both socialist policies."

Later, Seitz returned to the floor to announce he had purchased a solar array for his home. "To all of you who say, 'Oh, my children, my grandchildren, I want clean air,'" he mocked, "I put my money where my mouth is. I took advantage of that big tax credit Uncle Sam is handing out. I'm getting a $16,500 system for a net cost of about $11,550. Vote yes (on the bill) or be branded an anti-capitalist."

Opponents predicted that the Senate would be back in debate in two years trying to extend voluntary compliance because Ohio's utilities will have done nothing to comply.

Sen. Minority Leader Joe Schiavoni, a Democrat from Boardman, said he would vote no on the bill because its approval would mean other states would continue to attract wind projects and the jobs they would bring.

He said renewable energy companies spent $1.1 billion between 2013 and 2015 in Michigan, for example, because of green energy mandates.

"We are not kicking the can down the road for some study commission, we are kicking the can down the road ... about jobs for Ohioans," he said.

Sen. Frank LaRose, a Republican from Hudson, also voted against the bill despite supporting parts of it, which he called "good public policy," including a provision allowing commercial customers to opt out of utility efficiency programs.

"I believe this bill is a missed opportunity," he said. "There are good things in this bill, but not enough. I hope that all of us can ... start working next year to get good things done ... as it relates to the energy future of our state."

Sen. Randy Gardner, a Republican from Bowling Green, also voted against the bill. I believe we can enact strong energy policy not withstanding what the federal government may do," he said.

"When we talk to business leaders they often say it is not necessarily the regulation ... but the predictability [they want]. It's certainty, a stable environment to make decisions. I really think the opportunity was here, and perhaps it will be again in 2017, to enact a more stable policy so that businesses of all kinds can make decisions based on that certainty," he said.

The House approved the legislation about 2 a.m. by a vote of 55 to 34. Rep. Mike Duffey, a Republican from Worthington voted against the bill and led the limited discussion.

"It's still a bad bill," he said. "If you are conservative it allows the utilities to put a mandate on you that you cannot avoid," he said, referring to increased delivery charges to pay for efficiency programs. "If you are liberal and you like the mandates, it disrupts the market. If you like certainty, it says two years form now we are back right where we are today. More uncertainty. More legislation. Not a lot to like."
Ohio Senate.jpg

The Ohio Senate

(The Ohio Senate)

COLUMBUS --The battle over Ohio's renewable energy standards and rules requiring electric utilities to create programs helping customers use less power is expected to come to a head tonight in a lame duck session of the Senate.

The legislation was crafted last spring and re-worked several times since.

It's complex and filled with tricky amendments some of which appear to give Ohio's electric utilities an easy path toward meeting today's green requirements as well as those in the future, mostly by allowing them to count upgrades to their old power plants and wires toward efficiency. An early version of the law even tried to make "clean" coal-burning count as a renewable. That language disappeared.

The bill's ultimate objective appears to be to slow down the development of wind and solar by independent companies until Gov. John Kasich leaves office and until the state's old-line utilities gear up to push the state back into traditional regulation in 2017.

Kasich several times during his presidential campaign had to respond to questions from voters aware of Ohio's freeze on renewables. And he consistently said that he would veto any legislation that continued the freeze.

That led to a series of amendments to the legislation, including an amendment in November offered by the main Senate sponsor, William Seitz, a Republican from Cincinnati, which would have brought back the mandates but made them voluntary for the next three years.

The bill, as now written would create a delay by making the state's efficiency and green mandates voluntary for the next two years.

That's another two years on top of the two-year freeze lawmakers imposed in 2014. Kasich approved that bill but insisted on the provision that the standards would pop back to life in 2017 unless lawmakers acted again. The idea was to give the lawmakers time to study the issue. They say they did, but reached the same conclusion.

Opponents, particularly the environmental groups, say making the rules voluntary would be the same as just extending the freeze. It will also kill job growth, say manufacturing opponents -- at a time when Kasich believes Ohio is facing a recession.

While Kasich has vowed to veto any extension of the freeze he has issued softer statements in recent weeks, saying he wanted to work with lawmakers. At the same time, the GOP leadership has appeared to be losing rank-and-file support, reducing their chances of overriding a veto.

Some of the state's largest industries have stayed out of the limelight on the legislation. But dozens of manufacturers have also opposed the bill.

The House last week approved by a 54-to-40 vote a version of the legislation that this morning the Senate's Energy and Natural Resources Committee accepted -- and amended -- in tight vote that saw two Republicans break ranks and vote with Democrats to oppose.

Republican Sens. Cliff Hite of Findlay and Randy Gardner of Bowling Green joined Democrats Lou Gentile of Steubenville, Joe Schiavoni of Boardman and Sandra Williams of Cleveland.
Ohio Senate.jpg

The Ohio Senate

(The Ohio Senate)

COLUMBUS --The fate of Ohio's green energy mandates over the next two years is now in the hands of Gov. John Kasich.

Ohio lawmakers ignored threats of the governor's veto and approved a bill overnight that would allow power companies to ignore the rules for the next two years requiring them to provide customers with increasing percentages of green energy.

The mandates have been frozen for two years at 2014 levels, and opponents have argued that now making compliance voluntary for another two years will have the same impact on green development as another freeze. It will slow it down.

The legislation, which was one of the last bills approved by the lame duck Senate and House, does increase the green percentage required from 2.5 percent now to 7.5 percent by 2021.

But state regulators won't be able to check for the first two years. And utilities won't have to contract for more green power -- or even build their own -- during the two years.

Opponents, including lawmakers who did not support the legislation, predicted there will be legislation in another two years aimed at slowing down green development yet again.

Kasich has 10 working days to use his veto pen before the legislation automatically becomes law.

The bill also makes it easier for utilities to comply with energy efficiency mandates by allowing them to count improvements to their power plants and wires when figuring how much power has been saved by energy efficiency.

As originally written in 2008, the efficiency standards were seen as a way to nudge companies to help customers use less electricity by installing more efficient technologies.

And by agreeing to do that, the utilities won the right to "share" some of the savings. In other words, they won the right to raise rates not only to fund the efficiency programs but to reward themselves based on the amount of power saved.

And an amendment added late to the current legislation would allow the power companies to "bank" early efficiency gains and use those reductions now and in future years when figuring out how much of the "shared savings" they should receive.

Consumers' Counsel Bruce Weston testified against that provision in committee hearings, arguing that shared savings had already cost customers tens of millions of dollars and would soar even higher under the "banking" provision.

The legislation would also allow most large commercial and business customers to opt out of utility programs that help customers use less power through energy efficiency. Previous legislation allowed heavy industry to escape the mandate -- along with the extra charges on their bills to pay for such programs.

Most of the fireworks occurred in the Senate before the final vote on the bill that had begun in the House last May.

The Senate vote on HB 554 was 18 to 13, with five Republicans joining Democrats to vote "No" on the measure that followed a debate that began with an energetic performance from Cincinnati Republican Sen. William Seitz, complete with arm waving, grimaces and caustic asides.

Seitz argued that the standards would not be frozen by the measure because the annual renewable targets would continue to grow over the next two years, just not the mandate to comply. The mandate returns in the third year.

He said the bill allows the state's utilities to wait for the fate of the EPA's Clean Power Plan, now under federal court review. Additionally, President-elect Donald Trump has said he will target the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, making the future of the Clean Power Plan even less certain.

Seitz championed natural gas during his remarks, but he made it clear that his objections to the renewable energy mandates are ideological.

"We thought we could get to a cleaner energy future in pursuing policies that incentivize people to do the right thing," he said before launching into a 29-minute soliloquy that ended with him calling renewable energy advocates "enviro-socialists rent-seeking Left."

"When a capitalist makes a product that people do not want to buy, the capitalist must reduce the price or improve the quality of the product. When a socialist makes products that people do not want to buy they follow two strategies. Either they pursue governmental policies that favors their product over their competitor's product or they pursue policies that mandate that people must buy their product. In the case of the renewable energy industry in Ohio, they believe in both socialist policies."

Later, Seitz returned to the floor to announce he had purchased a solar array for his home. "To all of you who say, 'Oh, my children, my grandchildren, I want clean air,'" he mocked, "I put my money where my mouth is. I took advantage of that big tax credit Uncle Sam is handing out. I'm getting a $16,500 system for a net cost of about $11,550. Vote yes (on the bill) or be branded an anti-capitalist."

Opponents predicted that the Senate would be back in debate in two years trying to extend voluntary compliance because Ohio's utilities will have done nothing to comply.

Sen. Minority Leader Joe Schiavoni, a Democrat from Boardman, said he would vote no on the bill because its approval would mean other states would continue to attract wind projects and the jobs they would bring.

He said renewable energy companies spent $1.1 billion between 2013 and 2015 in Michigan, for example, because of green energy mandates.

"We are not kicking the can down the road for some study commission, we are kicking the can down the road ... about jobs for Ohioans," he said.

Sen. Frank LaRose, a Republican from Hudson, also voted against the bill despite supporting parts of it, which he called "good public policy," including a provision allowing commercial customers to opt out of utility efficiency programs.

"I believe this bill is a missed opportunity," he said. "There are good things in this bill, but not enough. I hope that all of us can ... start working next year to get good things done ... as it relates to the energy future of our state."

Sen. Randy Gardner, a Republican from Bowling Green, also voted against the bill. I believe we can enact strong energy policy not withstanding what the federal government may do," he said.

"When we talk to business leaders they often say it is not necessarily the regulation ... but the predictability [they want]. It's certainty, a stable environment to make decisions. I really think the opportunity was here, and perhaps it will be again in 2017, to enact a more stable policy so that businesses of all kinds can make decisions based on that certainty," he said.

The House approved the legislation about 2 a.m. by a vote of 55 to 34. Rep. Mike Duffey, a Republican from Worthington voted against the bill and led the limited discussion.

"It's still a bad bill," he said. "If you are conservative it allows the utilities to put a mandate on you that you cannot avoid," he said, referring to increased delivery charges to pay for efficiency programs. "If you are liberal and you like the mandates, it disrupts the market. If you like certainty, it says two years form now we are back right where we are today. More uncertainty. More legislation. Not a lot to like."
Screen Shot 2016-12-02 at 12.40.27 PM.png

An elderly man was robbed at gunpoint at his home Sunday.

(File photo)

WESTLAKE, Ohio -- Two men robbed a 63-year-old man at gunpoint Sunday in the garage of his Westlake home, police say.

The man was not injured in the robbery that happened about 9:30 p.m. in the 28000 block of Edgepark Boulevard, police say.

The victim was going in and out of his garage unloading his car when the men confronted him, Westlake police Capt. Guy Turner said.

The two men forced the man into his home at gunpoint and robbed him, police say. Both were armed.

Both men had their faces covered and the victim was unable to give investigators a description of the men who attacked him, police said. The victim also said that he did not see whether the men escaped in a vehicle.

Westlake police did not say how much money the men stole, but said that they took a "considerable sum of money."

Police have no suspects and no arrests have been made.

To comment on this story, please visit cleveland.com's crime and courts comments section.
Governor Bill Haslam and Economic and Community Development Commissioner Randy Boyd on Thursday announced that the state of Tennessee, along with the city of Memphis, will invest in public infrastructure surrounding St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital in Memphis.The state will invest $12 million in FastTrack funding to improve the public infrastructure surrounding the St. Jude campus in downtown Memphis, which will complement the research institutions expansion efforts announced in 2015, and will eventually lead to the creation of 1,800 new jobs in Shelby County.St.Jude is known around the world for its research and treatment of catastrophic childhood diseases and is an anchor institution in our state and we are proud it calls Tennessee its home, Governor Haslam said. It means a great deal to be able to assist this world-renowned facility by supporting public infrastructure needs that will help St. Jude not only create new jobs for Tennessee, but increase its capabilities to conduct life-saving treatment and research.The city of Memphis also will be investing $25 million in public infrastructure projects in addition to the states investment. The infrastructure investments will benefit not only St. Jude, but all of the surrounding areas, officials said.St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital has made an immeasurable impact in Memphis, the state of Tennessee, and the world with its life saving research and services. We are excited to assist this great institution by investing in the public infrastructure surrounding its campus, Comm. Boyd said. With this investment in Memphis urban core, along with the investment by the city of Memphis, St. Jude will continue to flourish in our state. I thank St. Jude for creating 1,800 jobs and for continuing to enhance our state and our workforce.We are truly grateful that the State and City have come together with ALSAC and St. Jude to improve the areas surrounding our campus, Rick Shadyac, CEO of ALSAC, the fundraising and awareness organization for St. Jude, said. We are confident this partnership will enable us to help more patients as part of St. Judes strategic plan, while also creating a more inviting environment for our employees, patients and guests. We also greatly appreciate the Governors consideration of a multi-year partnership that will benefit our mission and the communities of Memphis and Shelby County as well as the state of Tennessee.As St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital expands its clinical care and research programs as part of a six-year strategic plan to fulfill our mission of finding cures and saving children, it is gratifying to see that the state of Tennessee, the city of Memphis and Shelby County mobilized behind our efforts, James R. Downing, M.D., president and chief executive officer of St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital, said. Our plan focuses on treating even more patients on our campus and bringing the best minds in science and medicine to St. Jude to accelerate progress against catastrophic pediatric diseases. We deeply appreciate the commitments being made as part of this partnership to support our work."St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital is leading how the world understands, treats and cures childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases. It is the only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center devoted solely to children. Treatments developed at St. Jude have helped push the overall childhood cancer survival rate from 20 percent to 80 percent since the hospital opened more than 50 years ago. St. Jude wont stop until no child dies from cancer. St. Jude freely shares the breakthroughs it makes, and every child saved at St. Jude means doctors and scientists worldwide can use that knowledge to save thousands more children."St. Jude treats patients from all 50 states and around the world. Families never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing and food  because all a family should worry about is helping their child live," officials said.St. Jude is an indispensable member of our Memphis community. I am grateful for the teamwork at the state and local level that helped make this announcement possible, Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris said. This investment means that even more families in critical need will benefit from the care and treatment of this great institution. We are proud that St. Jude calls West Tennessee home.This will be a significant corporate expansion for Shelby County. It will create needed jobs and improve the Uptown neighborhood near downtown. Most importantly, it will enable the hospital and its charitable services to help more children wholl travel to our community from around the world for needed treatment, Shelby County Mayor Mark H. Luttrell, Jr. said.The city of Memphis investment in public infrastructure will have a great ripple effect in building our future  to enable St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital to further meet its life-saving mission, to spur investment in the Pinch District, and to improve an important gateway to our city. Its exactly what we seek to do in city government  build up the foundations so that our citys momentum will multiply, Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland said.The investment St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital is making in Memphis will not only create more great jobs for our community but will transform downtown Memphis. We are so thankful to have a world-class organization like St. Jude in Memphis, Greater Memphis Chamber President and CEO Phil Trenary said.
Here is the weekly road construction report for Hamilton County:

U.S. 27 (I-124) widening from I-24/U.S. 27 interchange to north of the Olgiati Bridge over the Tennessee River, including widening the Olgiati Bridge: Work on this project continues. The speed limit on U.S. 27 in the construction zone has been lowered to 45 MPH. The contractor may have temporary lane or shoulder closures on U.S. 27 between 7 p.m.-6 a.m. TDOT contract crews have closed the on ramp from eastbound MLK Boulevard to U.S. 27 North until December. A temporary left turn lane on eastbound MLK Boulevard has been constructed to allow traffic to access the alternate on-ramp to U.S. 27 North. As the project progresses, there may be short term temporary lane closures for the safety of the traveling public on city streets within the project area. Flaggers will assist with these closures and they will be properly signed in accordance with the Federal Highway Administrations Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices. During Phase 1 of the U.S. 27 project, the contractor will be working on the northbound side of U.S. 27 on the bridges. Work will consist of demolishing and reconstructing the outside sections of the bridges along U.S. 27 North. Also on U.S. 27 South, they will be constructing a large retaining wall between the Olgiati Bridge and 6th Street. At least one lane will remain open in each direction on U.S. 27. THP will assist with traffic control on the project as necessary. Estimated project completion date is July 2019. For more info, visit the project website http://www.tn.gov/tdot/topic/US27-reconstruction-chattanooga. [Dement Construction Co., LLC/JM/CNP230]

SR 317 (Apison Pike) the grading, drainage and paving on from Old Lee Highway (LM 5.58) to SR-321 (Ooltewah-Ringgold Road) (LM 7.84): Work on this project continues. During this report period the contractor may have intermittent lane closures throughout the project from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Flaggers will assist with traffic control as needed. Estimated project completion date is May 2017. [Wright Brothers Const. Co. /Pruett/CNN279]

SR-320 (East Brainerd Road) grading, drainage, installation of signals, construction of seven retaining walls and paving from east of Graysville Road to east of Bel-Air Road: Work on this project continues. Beginning on Saturday, the contractor will be shifting traffic at the intersection of Hurricane Creek Road and East Brainerd Road. The shift will move East Brainerd Road eastbound through traffic (toward Fuller Road) into the eastbound left turn lane and close the eastbound through lane. Westbound East Brainerd Road traffic (toward Graysville Road) will remain in its current alignment but will no longer have access to the westbound left turn lane. The stop bar on Hurricane Creek Road will be moved back roughly 35- 40' and no right turn on red will be permitted. This will prevent northbound traffic on Hurricane Creek Road from interfering with eastbound East Brainerd Road traffic turning onto Hurricane Creek Road. Traffic is scheduled to remain in this alignment until Monday, Dec. 19. Also, during this report period, the contractor will have intermittent lane closures between 9 a.m.-2 p.m. This work may affect either direction of East Brainerd Road or side streets from Graysville Road to Hamlett Drive as the contractor installs road crossings and borings. The contractor may have short-term lane closures to perform various operations on an as-needed basis. Flaggers will assist with traffic control as needed. Estimated project completion is June 2017. [Jones Brothers Contractors, LLC /Pruett/CNN383]

The tunnel cleaning of the McCallie Tunnel on U.S. 11 (US 64, SR-2), the Stringers Ridge Tunnel on U.S. 127 (SR-8), and the Bachman Tubes on U.S. 41 (U.S. 76, SR-8): The nighttime cleaning operation of McCallie Tunnels, Stringers Ridge Tunnel, and Bachman Tubes occurs normally on Wednesday and Thursday nights during the week with the 3rd Tuesday of the month. Work hours are between 8 p.m.-6 a.m. Tunnels will be closed during cleaning, and detours will be marked accordingly as each tunnel is cleaned. Contract completion date is June 2017. [Diamond Specialized, Inc./Micka/CNQ174]






Companies must embrace being socially responsible to compete in today's market, said Jon Duschinsky, a creator of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.

The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge raised more than a $100 million for the A.L.S. Association to fund research that led to the discovery of a gene associated with the illness.

Duschinsky, who is CEO of communications agency The Conversation Farm, highlighted the need to encourage companies to commit to philanthropy.

"How do we make it profitable and not a dirty word? How do we make it profitable to do good? How do we incentivize companies to invest in the future of their people," he told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Thursday on the sidelines of the Future Opportunities entrepreneurship conference in Kuala Lumpur.
Source: Independence-X

In Kuala Lumpur, a small team of Malaysian engineers is racing to make history in Southeast Asian space exploration. Independence-X is the sole team from the region to participate in the Google Lunar XPrize, a global competition in which private-sector players must land a robotic spacecraft on the Moon, have it travel 500 meters and transmit high-definition (HD) video and images back to Earth, by the end of 2017. Unlike Japan, China or India, Southeast Asia has a dearth of private space companies; Independence-X is the only one in Malaysia.

"Our aim is innovation. It's impossible to have a vision of the future without development in space technology," team leader Izmir Yamin said on the sidelines of the inaugural Global Entrepreneurship Community conference in Kuala Lumpur. On Thursday, CNBC was given exclusive access to images of Independence-X's spacecraft, named 'Henry.' It weighs a hefty 850 kilograms, but is only 1.4 meters tall and 2 meters wide, and comes with an HD imaging camera and a water sensor to transmit any discovery of water data. In order to foster entrepreneurship and a low-cost space economy, Google Lunar XPrize stipulates that government funding can only account for 10 percent of a team's total mission cost. Most of Independence-X's cash has come from private corporations, crowd funding donations and reward-based contributions so far, Yamin said. The competition is offering a whopping $20 million for the first team that completes the mission and $5 million for second-place winners, but the road to victory remains a long one for the Malaysian firm.

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Main Street Cleveland held its annual Christmas party on Wednesday evening. A new award that acknowledges an individuals long-term commitment to downtown Cleveland was presented to Allan Jones in memory of George R. "Bobby" Taylor.

Mr. Taylor was founder and CEO of bank of Cleveland and instrumental in founding the Mainstreet Cleveland organization. He was a strong supporter of downtown; deeply dedicated to its revitalization. The award seeks to honor and recognize individuals who display a long-term commitment to the preservation and development of downtown Cleveland.

Mr. Jones was nominated for the award by Scott Taylor, son of Bobby Taylor. In 1990 Mr. Jones was a founding partner of Main Street Cleveland along with Mr. Taylor. He was also the first board of directors president. Throughout the organization's 26 year history, Mr. Jones has been a steadfast supporter and has been involved in all of the downtown revitalization projects.

Mayor Tom Rowland presented the award which was accepted by Mr. Jones granddaughter, Gincy Pendergrass. Gincy's mother, Courtney Jones Pendergrass said, "Gincy's great grandmother - Virginia Ann Gincy Slaughter - was great friends with Bobby and Nancy Taylor and would have been proud of Gincy for accepting the award."






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Donald Trump's choice to head the Labor Department is an outspoken immigration supporter whose views seem to clash with the president-elect. With the announcement Thursday that Trump will nominate Andrew Puzder came speculation  and grumbling  that he would favor an open-border policy that would clash with the hard-line talk his potential boss espoused on the campaign trail. An op-ed piece Puzder authored in The Wall Street Journal last year helped crystallize his views on the subject. He counseled Republican presidential candidates to come up with a realistic vision of how to deal with immigration, including the 11 million undocumented workers already in the country. "The GOP needs to end the family drama and resolve the policy dispute, not least because it is the right thing to do in every sense  economically, politically and morally," he wrote.

While calling for strong borders and penalties for those entering the U.S. illegally, he also advocated for a vigorous process that does not lock out those from other parts of the world.

CKE Restaurants CEO Andrew Puzder, center, departs Trump Tower in New York, Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2016. Andrew Harnick | AP

"The best way to protect American workers is to generate economic growth," he wrote. "This is not synonymous with aggressively restricting immigration." Puzder supported a "path to legal status" that would be "short of citizenship" so long as the undocumented are "willing to accept responsibility for their actions and take their consequences." That path would include passing a background check, paying a fine and learning English, among other measures. "Every option should be on the table, except amnesty, which forgives illegal conduct. It isn't amnesty if immigrants admit wrongdoing and accept punishment," he said.

'Use the labor force in California as an example'
CNBC's Jim Cramer said Friday may be an important day for the markets because the technology sector could finally join in the Trump rally.

"This is a pivotal day  I think you're going to see technology go up," Cramer said on "Squawk on the Street." "We haven't seen technology really participate."



Since the election, all the major indexes have been hitting record highs. U.S. equities rose Friday, with the major indexes on pace for strong weekly gains. The has risen more than 4 percent over the past month, but the S&P information technology segment has lagged the broader market, gaining only about 1.8 percent.

In the same period, financials and energy have rallied 13 percent and 7 percent, respectively. Health care, consumer staples and utilities have struggled to join the rally as well.

On Thursday, President-elect Donald Trump boasted about the surge in stocks.

"We had a lot of people in Nebraska, a lot of good wealthy people fighting us," he said. "But those wealthy people aren't so unhappy now because the stock market's gone up so much."

 CNBC's Anita Balakrishnan contributed to this report.
As Jim Cramer prepared for the stock market roller coaster to continue next week, he found one event on Monday that could be a harsh wake-up call for investors.

"As early as Monday we get some news that could potentially stop this rally in its tracks, or at least, that's what it would have done not too long ago," the "Mad Money" host said.

The financial system in Italy is on the verge of collapse, and no one seems to care, Cramer said. With this in mind, he outlined the stocks and events on his radar next week.

Monday: Banca Monte Dei Paschi bailout?

Somehow the bank that has survived multiple invasions by France and Spain, Napoleon and two world wars is broke. Cramer will be watching to see if the bank will be bailed out over the weekend, as there doesn't seem to be a plan to save it in its current form. The $48 billion that the bank has in public debt could take a big hit.

"When a bank goes bust in Italy, everyone connected with it gets hurt," Cramer said.
The Dodd-Frank Act, the broad-based financial reform established after the financial crisis, needs a drastic overhaul, Republican Sen. Pat Toomey told CNBC on Friday.

"Dodd-Frank is a disaster, a very ill-conceived response to a financial crisis that, frankly, the government did more to cause than anybody else," Toomey told "Squawk Box," echoing a theory that government pressure on lenders caused them to dole out loans to people who could not afford to pay them and later defaulted.

The Pennsylvania senator, who sits on the budget, finance and banking committees, said the two major hurdles facing any attempts at reform are the Democratic caucus and whether the proposed changes to Dodd-Frank would legally qualify.

Toomey's first proposal would be to end the orderly liquidation fund, which he called "one of the biggest, most egregious mistakes of Dodd-Frank."

Essentially a bailout fund, it provides a process for financial institutions that fail to quickly and efficiently liquidate, eliminating the potential for future government bailouts like those in 2008, on which the government spent nearly $2 trillion.

Toomey suggested that instead of redirecting taxpayer dollars to the fund, the government could save $20 billion over the next 10 years by closing the fund and redesigning the bankruptcy code so it could be used to resolve big financial failures.

The senator also suggested the removal of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Office of Financial Research, which he called "a completely redundant team of hundreds of economists doing research."

"Like we don't have any economists in America doing research on financial institutions. It's ridiculous," Toomey said.

The CFPB was established in 2010 to protect consumers from financial institutions' abusive and deceptive practices by empowering consumers with information and making consumer finance rules more clear. The bureau provides resources for servicemembers, students and the elderly, among others.

Most recently, the CFPB issued a $100 million fine to Wells Fargo for illegally opening secret accounts in the names of clients to boost sales numbers, which earned the bureau political support.

The Office of Financial Research was another reform established to make the financial system safer, "[shining] a light on financial markets long hidden from public view," wrote a key Dodd-Frank architect in a CNBC op-ed.

The inherent flaw of Dodd-Frank, according to the senator, was the federal government's notion that complete control and micromanagement of the financial industry would be an effective solution to prevent future mistakes.

"The real way to diminish the risk of bank failures, I think, is to have the market impose the discipline," Toomey contended.

"It's unsecured creditors who generally impose that discipline, and if they know that they're going to go through a bankruptcy and they're going to get wiped out if there's a failure, then guess what? They'll impose the discipline," he said.
Check out which companies are making headlines before the bell:

Las Vegas Sands , MGM Resorts , Wynn Resorts  Shares of casino operators are bouncing back this morning, after Macau officials said they had not shrunk daily cash withdrawal limits for Chinese gamblers. A report in the South China Morning Post had said the amount allowed for withdrawal from automated teller machines would be cut in half.

 The luxury furnishings retailer reported adjusted quarterly profit of 20 cents per share, four cents above estimates. Revenue also beat forecasts, but the company gave weak current quarter guidance due to promotional activity.

Aflac  The disability insurer was cut to "underperform" from "market perform" at RBC, based on RBC's outlook for sluggish sales growth and various earnings headwinds.

Biogen  Biogen's experimental Alzheimer's drug was shown to reduce the risk of brain swelling when doses are gradually increased as opposed to using fixed higher doses.

Vail Resorts  The resort operator lost $1.70 per share for its latest quarter, 13 cents wider than anticipated, and its revenue also came in below analyst estimates. However, Vail did raise its 2017 resort earnings outlook, and said season pass sales during the quarter were up 16 percent over a year ago.

Duluth Holdings  Duluth reported a profit of 1 cent per share, compared to forecasts of a breakeven quarter, but the casual clothing maker saw revenue miss forecasts and it gave weak full-year guidance. Duluth cites unusually warm weather and a highly promotional environment for its cautious forecast.

Bristol-Myers Squibb  The drug maker raised its quarterly dividend by 1 cent to 39 cents per share, starting with 2017's first quarter.

Broadcom  Broadcom came in 9 cents above estimates with adjusted quarterly profit of $3.47 per share, while the chip maker saw revenue come in slightly above Street forecasts. Broadcom also announced a doubling of its quarterly dividend to $1.02 per share.

 Vice Chairman Ralph de la Vega will retire on December 31 after 42 years at the company. De la Vega was responsible for the company's launch of the first iPhone, which at the time was an exclusive contract for AT&T.

Athene  Athene priced its initial public offering at $40 per share, in the middle of the expected $38 to $42 range, raising $1.1 billion. That makes the annuity provider's IPO the second largest of the year, behind , according to Dealogic.

3M  3M sold its identity management business to Amsterdam-based Gemalto for $850 million. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2017.

Monsanto  The chemical maker was sued by Washington state for damages and cleanup costs related to PCB production.

Wells Fargo  The bank reportedly chose four of its directors, including chairman Stephen Sanger and vice chair Elizabeth Duke, for a panel that will lead an investigation into the recent sales practices scandal. Reuters reports the other two members are directors Enrique Hernandez and Donald James, and that all four are independent directors.

Lions Gate  The movie studio closed its acquisition of cable network operator Starz for $4.4 billion in cash and stock.
The European Central Bank will not give extra time to the embattled Italian bank Monte dei Paschi to raise money to finance its operations, sources told CNBC.

Monte dei Pashi requested Thursday more time to move ahead with a 5 billion euro ($5.4 billion) recapitalization process which was due to be concluded this month. It claimed that the ongoing political crisis in Italy would not allow a final deal with investors to be concluded before a new government is in place.

However, the ECB believed it had given enough time to Monte dei Paschi to deal with its bad debts. They had been working on the bank's financial stability since 2014 when the bank failed the ECB's stress test for the first time. Monte dei Paschi failed the same tests a second time earlier this year.

The ECB declined to comment.

Shares of Monte dei Paschi , which were slightly higher this morning, fell more than 7 percent following news first reported by Reuters.

The rejection increases the pressure on the Italian lender and politicians. Italy may have to opt for a state bailout to control contagion concerns, which could raise problems with European competition authorities.

If Italy opts for injecting taxpayers' money, the European Commission  which oversees competition rules  could fine Italy for illegal state aid.

Apart from rising problems with Europe, a state bailout could spur anti-establishment and anti-European sentiment among Italian voters at a time when support for Eurosceptic movements is on the rise.

Credit Ratings agency Fitch said in a note on Tuesday that the referendum result could also damage plans for recapitalization of other Italian banks, including UniCredit.

That would "have negative implications for the broader banking sector, whose attractiveness with investors has already reduced significantly during 2016. The sector's ability to access the institutional markets for funding and capital, which has become more difficult and expensive this year, could deteriorate further," Fitch warned.
European stocks closed higher on Friday afternoon as investors digested the European Central Bank 's (ECB) announcement to extend it's bond buying program - albeit at a reduced pace of monthly asset purchases .

The pan-European Stoxx 600 ended 0.97 percent higher on Friday with almost all sectors in positive territory.

Despite the ECB's announcement of further stimulus, bank stocks were down 0.69 percent at the close. After earlier gains in the week, shares of Italian banks dropped on Friday. Unicredit ended down 2.34 percent on what one trader told Reuters was profit-taking after several days of strong gains.

Shares of Monte dei Paschi plummeted 10 percent lower after reports that the ECB had rejected its request for further time to implement a 5 billion euro ($5.4 billion) recapitalization process. This could put pressure on the Italian authorities to rescue the stricken lender.

Sky PLC shares surged on Friday after the British broadcaster was approached with a possible takeover bid from Rupert Murdoch's 21st Centruy Fox . Reuters reported the bid to be in the region of $23.23 billion. Shares jumped 30 percent higher immediately after the news before retreating slightly to close more than 26 percent in positive territory.

Meanwhile in the U.S., the Dow Jones industrial average continued higher and the Nasdaq hit a record high after a remarkable post-election rally continued.
"The cannabis industry is on track to reach $23 billion by the end of the decade, it is already a major economic engine employing more than 100,000 and generating millions in tax revenue."

What we do know, from a policy perspective, is that Mr. Trump is on the record saying marijuana policy is something best left to the states, a position consistent with Republican Party's core doctrines.

U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), a long-time supporter of marijuana policy reform in Capitol Hill, told reporters recently that he trusts that Mr. Trump's hands-off approach is likely to prevail.

In fact, Mr. Rohrabacher may hold more sway on federal policy than anyone in the executive branch when it comes to marijuana. The Rohrabacher-Farr Amendment, which he co-authored, prohibits the U.S. Department of Justice from prosecuting those who engage in state-sanctioned use, cultivation and dispensing of medical marijuana. It was first passed in 2014 with bipartisan support and again in 2015. It needs to be renewed each year, but it is currently the law.

Others have pointed out that the president cannot nullify state laws, and only Congress has the power to pass federal laws. And Congress' attitude toward marijuana is likely to reflect the U.S. electorate. The vast majority of Americans today favor legalizing marijuana, about 60 percent, the largest percentage ever, according to recent polls.

There are currently several bills working their way through Congress that could further ease Prohibition, including the Marijuana Business Access to Banking Act that would update federal banking rules to resolve conflicts between federal and state laws and allow banks and credit unions to provide services to legitimate marijuana businesses. U.S. Rep. Denny Heck (D-Wash.), a co-author of the banking bill, has said the results of this year's elections could give his bill a boost.

As more and more states legalize marijuana, the federal stance will be become untenable in the long run. It is fundamentally unfair that the same act of consuming marijuana can be perfectly legal in one state, and land you in prison in another. President Barack Obama made that very point during a recent interview with Bill Maher telling the television host that the time will come when the federal government must review its stance on cannabis.

With all due respect to President-elect Trump and Mr. Sessions, this debate is larger than one administration or one cabinet nomination. The cannabis industry is on track to reach $23 billion by the end of the decade, it is already a major economic engine employing more than 100,000 and generating millions in tax revenue.

The way for progress is not to turn back time, but to continue institutionalizing this space with professional standards and reasonable regulations that protect consumers and citizens.

Commentary by Adam Bierman, chief executive officer and co-founder of MedMen, a Los Angeles-based firm that offers turnkey services for cannabis license holders and makes strategic investments in key cannabis markets across the U.S. and Canada. He is a longtime supporter of Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), helping launch the Pledge 4 Growth campaign with the advocacy group in 2015. Follow him on Twitter @_AdamBierman_.



For more insight from CNBC contributors, follow @CNBCOpinion on Twitter.


Facebook Co-Founder Chris Hughes, Harvard Law School and Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society Professor Yochai Benkler, Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza and Alaska State Senator Bill Wielechowski may not agree on everything, but they agree on this: Cash handouts have the potential to help Americans and the American economy. Given the challenges posed by automation and globalization, which are replacing workers and leading to stagnating wages, direct payments to workers may, in fact, be the only solution. More than 100 organizers, activists, researchers and technologists, including Y Combinator President Sam Altman and former President of the Sierra Club Adam Werbach, have come together to support research being done by a new group into the viability of universal basic income in the U.S.

The group, announced this week and called The Economic Security Project, has raised $10 million to fund two years of exploration and experimentation of the idea of a universal basic income, which is a cash payment made to individuals by the government. With universal basic income, residents get regular, reliable payments regardless of whether they have a job.

"Our faith in the good nature of our fellow citizens has never felt more brittle, and many people on the left and the right are thinking about how to create a more inclusive, empathetic America. "This collective anxiety has many sources, but one of the most important is a diminishing faith in the American ideal of equal opportunity for all," writes Hughes, one of three co-chairs of the group, in a post for Medium. The group posits that universal basic income payments are a solution to the dire, and growing, problem of inequality. "We know from research in the US and internationally that recurring, unconditional cash stipends are a shockingly effective way to encourage work, improve health and education outcomes, and create a ladder of economic opportunity," says Hughes.

Basic income could be the bold solution we need to remake the economy so it works again, for all of us. Natalie Foster future of work expert

The U.S. is not alone in considering a universal basic income. Finland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Canada and Holland are all in some stage of discussions, according to The Economic Security Project.



Already, Alaska has a version of a universal basic income. All state residents receive yearly cash dividends of $2,072 from state oil revenues, the group says. "It's time for a game-changing solution to address the economic anxiety and concerns faced by too many Americans," says Roosevelt Institute Fellow Dorian Warren, one of the co-chairs of the group, in a written statement announcing the launch of the group. "We believe we can end the downward spiral for working families in America by providing a guaranteed basic income for every man, woman, and child  but the precise approach for implementing a cash benefit system needs additional research." Some of the biggest names in tech have also been promoting the idea of a universal basic income. In response to Amazon's announcement of a grocery store with no check-out registers, reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian tweeted out, "We needed to start talking about Universal Basic Income a few years ago"
10/27/2022

NOTICE: The Hamilton County Registers Office did not publish this data. All information in the Registers Office is public information as set out in T.C.A. 10-7-503. For questions regarding ... more
Toast's headquarters is situated in Lucky Plaza on Singapore's famed Orchard Road. It is also a notable meet-up location for many foreign workers in Singapore.

Financial technology or -fintech- has already shaken up conventional banking and asset management. Aaron Siwoku reckons remittances could be next.



The market for serving the financial needs of foreign workers is big.

The World Bank estimated in 2015 that global remittance flows exceeded $601 billion, with developing countries receiving about $441 billion - nearly three times the amount of official development assistance. The organization also noted the true size of remittances, including unrecorded flows through formal or informal channels, was significantly larger.

"Remittance is the non-sexy end of finance," Siwoku, a 33-year-old Briton who started a cross-border money transfer app called Toast last year, told CNBC in an interview.



Siwoku got the idea for his business when he noticed long queues outside a big money transfer outlet on Singapore's famed Orchard Road, where he observed the people lining up were predominantly migrant working women and most of them were killing time in the queue on their smartphones. He created Toast to reduce the time it took to process paperwork in order for a worker to transfer money home.



"I thought how can we use technology to solve this problem?" Siwoku. "What if all of the registration could be done on the phone and we can save as much time as possible."



Users fill out their transaction details on the app, upload pictures of the necessary identification documents and arrive at Toast's physical offices with a reference number to make the payment in cash, or sometimes via top up cards and bank transfers.



Money transfer was the first basic service Toast wanted to provide migrant workers, many of whom are under-banked. In the future, Siwoku plans to move into money lending and to be able to take deposits and pay interest on those deposits.

Traditional financial institutions are hesitant to serve many migrant workers they consider not credit-worthy because they had little savings and lacked credit histories, Siwoku explained. As a result, a lot of them turn to the black market for financial assistance.



The data generated by the Toast app could help to build up credit information on these workers by documenting who had cash flow, who was sending money back consistently and how much were they sending - information that Siwoku said traditional lenders couldn't see on their own. "We can use this data to solve problems and to decide, within our database of users, who is credit-worthy and who (isn't)," he said.



Currently Toast is available in the Hong Kong-Philippines remittance corridor, where Filipino migrant workers send back as much as 7 million Hong Kong dollars ($902,370.07) a month. It also has remittance licenses for Hong Kong, Singapore and the United Kingdom.



A remittance corridor refers to a market where foreign workers transfer money from their country of employment back to their home country.

Siwoku said the app will be available for the Singapore-Philippines remittance corridor starting Jan.15, 2017, followed by Indonesia. By end of 2017, he hoped to make Toast available in as many as eight remittance corridors in Asia Pacific, including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and China.



In 2015, the company raised $850,000 in seed round funding and in November this year, it raised $1.5 million in pre-Series A funding.

 Follow CNBC International on Twitter and Facebook.


Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying has made a surprise announcement that he will not seek re-election due to family reasons.

"If I run my family will suffer intolerable stress due to my electioneering ... I must protect them," he told a press briefing.

He told reporters his decision was not due to the central government not endorsing him.



"[Beijing] has always supported me and said I have done a good job," Leung said.

Asked if the decision was because of his daughter Leung Chai-yan's condition, he said he did not want to delve too much into his personal life, but said: "As a husband and father I have a responsibility ... My daughter has only one father, and my wife has only one husband."

Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying meets the media on Friday. Photo: Felix Wong

On Thursday night, he was seen at Prince of Wales Hospital in Sha Tin, where Chai-yan was rumoured to be receiving treatment.

He added that his past political career had already impacted his family.

Leung had repeatedly told media "there was no message" yet when asked whether he would seek a second term in March.

During a trip to an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Peru last month, Leung told the media that President Xi Jinping had approved of his work in office, but he later said people should not "over-interpret" the remarks as being any endorsement of further political ambitions.

More from the South China Morning Post

Hong Kong waiter Ricky Chan strikes again, targeting same six pan-democrats in new lawsuit

Chinese city organ criticised for holding outdoor trial of 29 hooded suspects

'If someone has to sacrifice, it would be me': Chinese man saves neighbours from burning gas tank



Leung assumed office as Hong Kong's fourth chief executive in 2012, succeeding Donald Tsang Yam-kuen. Leung was a member of the Executive Council from 1997 to 2011, prior to taking over the top spot.

If I run my family will suffer intolerable stress due to my electioneering ... I must protect them.
Georgijevic | Getty Images

For a young man suffering from bipolar disorder an app was able to predict an emerging manic episode  and help avoid a hospital stay  more than a week before his closest friends. "This was very exciting, because in psychiatry we use mostly subjective measures," said Dr. Dror Dolfin, a senior psychiatrist at the GEHA mental health center in Israel. Dolfin has been running clinical trials of new technology created by Israeli start-up Lifegraph. "A day-to-day plot of the course of this person's manic episodes  it was looking at an X-ray for the first time," he said. "We don't have that in psychiatry."

Lifegraph draws on data collected by a person's smartphone to detect changes in their behavior and send alerts. Psychiatrists in Israel have used the technology to identify early warning signs of distressful behavior in patients. The company's software can detect a mental health episode a full month before a person requires hospitalization, clinical trials Lifegraph conducted in Israel have shown.

Patients download the app and then leave it running in the background for continuous tracking. The app monitors things like the pitch of a person's voice on the phone, how many hours they slept, the number of text messages that a person sends or how far they travel any given day. Machine learning algorithms get to know the patient and send doctors alerts when a person exhibits unusual behavior. Doctors and caregivers can track all the data in a dashboard.

One in five people in the U.S. suffer from a mental health illness, and mood disorders are the third most common cause of hospitalization in the U.S. for youth and adults aged 18 to 44, according to the National Alliance of Mental Illness. Serious mental illness costs America $193 billion in lost earnings every year, according to NAMI.

"In the clinical setting, there are hopeful trends towards bringing new data to bear," Stanford researchers noted in the One Hundred Year Study on Artificial Intelligence, which highlighted Lifegraph's technology.

Lifegraph's technology holds great potential to improve diagnoses and supplement what patients tell doctors explicitly, said Dolfin. This will make it easier to monitor how patients respond to medication and enable doctors to intervene before a patient's mental state requires hospitalization, for example.



Psychiatric hospitalization is very destructive for a person's life, said Dolfin. It is also extremely costly for insurers, employers and state funded programs. Behavioral-illness related hospital stays in the U.S. cost $45 billion annually, according to Lifegraph. The company, which came out of Tel Aviv University, is now lining up partnerships with tele-care centers in the U.S. that are looking for ways to reduce costs and improve care for mental health patients, said Lifegraph CEO Keren Sela in an email. Pharmaceutical companies are also interested in using the technology in clinical trials, she said. Lifegraph received funding from the office of the Israeli chief scientist and Tel Aviv University, and is talking to investors about financing to fund further growth, said Sela.




Intercom, a start-up helping businesses talk to their customers, is growing quickly.

Every 10 days, it's adding 600 new paid customers and $1 million in new annual recurring revenue, or ARR, which has quadrupled since 2015, according to the company.



The 5-year-old customer communication company based in San Francisco and Dublin now has 15,000 customers in 117 countries, including Product Hunt, Expensify, Shopify and New Relic.



Co-founder and CEO Eoghan McCabe described Intercom's core product as a messenger, similar to a WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger, that allows companies to speak directly to their customers. Intecom's messenger comes with emojis and video options, making it truly conversational.

"I really think you are going to see an aggressive move toward casual, personal, friendly and a transparent way of connecting with customers," McCabe said. "Faceless, gross, spammy brands are going to go the way of the dinosaurs."


The Trump presidency, promising less regulation and more drilling, arrives just at the right time for the oil industry.

For the first time in months, industry officials are hopeful that prices could stick above $50 per barrel, a level that would allow more U.S. drilling rigs to come on line.

Higher prices, along with President-elect Donald Trump's pledge to support the industry by rolling back regulations and weakening environmental rules, means relief for some hard-hit energy producers. The U.S. has slowly been adding oil rigs in recent months, but the count jumped by 21 to 498 last week, according to Baker Hughes. That is still well below the peak of 1,600 two years ago.

Energy industry CEOs and business leaders who gathered in New York City for the Platts Global Energy Awards Thursday were more optimistic than they've been in several years, though they say there are still unknowns. OPEC's recent agreement to cut production has helped boost prices, and that is a big factor.

"I think [in] 2017, the big question will be if the price recovery will hold and [if] that will bring some of the producers in the shale industry to increase production. Obviously there are a lot of expectations [of] the new administration but we have to see what [the change] actually means," said Martin Fraenkel, president of S&P Global Platts.

"I think [Trump will be] good for the Industry," said Gary Ross, executive chairman and head of Global Oil at research firm Pira Energy. "There are many positives on the supply side from the Trump presidency, and there's potential on the demand side. Backing away from global warming, backing away from fuel efficiency standards for new automobiles. Some of these new developments and a stronger economy are all going to lead to more demand."
The tanker Maria sails out of the Port of Corpus Christi after discharging crude oil at the Citgo refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas.

OPEC's agreement last week to cut oil production is creating an opportunity for U.S. oil producers to get crude into the hands of very valuable customers: Asian crude buyers. The members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries have vowed to cut a collective 1.2 million barrels a day and are asking other oil producers to reduce output by 558,000 barrels a day. The long-awaited output limits are expected to make it possible for U.S. producers to ply the expensive, complicated route to Asia from the United States. The stage was set when the United States lifted a 40-year-old ban on exporting American crude last December. Since then, much of the oil has gone to Europe, but now industry heavyweights are attempting to extend those exports to Asia, a region whose oil consumption is growing. "It is still in the testing phase. The export ban was lifted last last year, and since then, we're seeing this evolution of the U.S. export industry, as there's this period of exploration to figure out how best to get these exports out, how to make this work economically," said Matt Smith, director of commodity research at tanker-tracking firm ClipperData.

This week, Reuters reported that British oil giant BP was using its global shipping and trading network to embark upon an ambitious four-month pilot project of sorts: charting a 16,000-nautical-mile sea route involving seven tankers and a number of transfers to profitably get crude oil from Texas to Asia. The largest crude carriers can't dock in U.S. ports, so shippers have to spend more time  and money  to transfer cargoes to bigger ships at offshore facilities. According to Reuters' analysis of shipping data, the route went like this: BP used tankers capable of carrying 800,000 barrels to transport crude to much larger tankers offshore

Those bigger tankers sailed around South Africa  they're too big to pass the Panama Canal  to Malaysia, where their oil was distributed across Asia.

Additional transfers brought the cargo to Thailand and Australia. The operation involved about 3 million barrels of oil worth about $150 million, a small fraction of the global crude trade. However, the conditions are falling into place to make more shipments like this worth the investment. Tanker rates are expected to fall as OPEC output reductions leave the market supplied with more vessel capacity than it needs. Those lower rates will offset the added costs of getting U.S. crude off the Gulf coast on smaller ships and transferring it to large vessels. "If OPEC actually institutes their cuts, there's no doubt that tanker rates are going to fall, especially" rates for VLCC rates," said Andrew Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates.

The United States has built up its infrastructure to bring crude to the Gulf in recent years, Lipow said. That makes it easier for a big integrated oil company like BP to buy up U.S. crude from a number of sources and lump it into a big shipment. Another key is the difference in price  known as the spread  between U.S. crude and other, typically more expensive international benchmarks such as Brent and Dubai crude. All of those prices have increased following OPEC's production cut, but the less U.S. crude rises relative to Brent and Dubai crude, the more attractive it becomes to overseas buyers. "Recently, due to the OPEC decision, that has blown that spread out again and that will only further serve to incentivize higher exports," Smith said. It's difficult to say just how wide the spread needs to be, because U.S. crude exports have been rising even when the spread is fairly narrow, he added. U.S. oil is also attractive because it is easier to refine than other crude oil, analysts said.


One of Uber's top executives laid to rest rumors that the U.S.-based ride hailing app was squeezed out of China because of unfair regulations.

"It's not apparent to the outside world as muchthat the Chinese government did treat Uber fairly," Emil Michael, Uber's chief business officer, told CNBC.

"It just made sense, given the amount of money that was being burned to compete there, to combine with a local player," Michael added, referring to Didi Chuxing's acquisition of Uber's China business in August.

The combined value of the two companies was an estimated $35 billion, with Beijing-based Didi valued at $28 billion valuation and Uber at $7 billion. Didi Chuxing itself is the product of a previous merger between China's two largest ride-sharing app, Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache.

Uber Global received 5.89 percent in the combined company, with preferred equity interest, which would be the equivalent of a 17.7 percent stake.


Lauded unicorn start-up Magic Leap has scrapped many of its grandiose projects in favor of a device designed like a pair of glasses, technology website The Information reported this week.

The Information's interview with the CEO raises questions as to whether Magic Leap is as advanced as some people might think. Indeed, some Magic Leap's videos were not representative of the company's technologies at the time, but were created with some movie magic  a special effects company, The Information said.



High-flying Magic Leap was last valued at around $4.5 billion, according to CB Insights, luring investors like Google and Andreessen Horowitz with "mixed" or "cinematic" reality. The Florida start-up envisioned overlaying interactive graphics onto the real world in a way that few other technology companies had demonstrated.
In this 2015 file photo, a man holds a sign directing people to an insurance company where they can sign up for the Affordable Care Act. Getty Images

As liberal groups launch an effort to battle against Republican plans to repeal Obamacare, a leader of a progressive organization said that fight will be part of a larger strategy that will argue President-elect Donald Trump's policies risk selling out the voters who backed him. "There will be a common critique that Trump is betraying his voters by putting big corporations against the needs of everyday working families, and that will extend to Obamacare," said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. "It spans across issues," said Green.

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Green also said that while Republicans were able to "rhetorically bash Obamacare" in the past eight years, "this will not be politically easy for them" to repeal the health-care reform law. "A lot of Republicans will get cold feet" when it comes time to vote on the law's demise, predicted Green. "Millions of people will lose their health care." On Friday, a new group calling itself The Protect Our Care Coalition called on Trump and Congress "to stop their reckless sprint to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and show how they will provide more affordable and meaningful care, coverage and consumer protections than the law currently provides." The coalition of health-care and social and economic justice organizations also said that it will pool the resources of its member groups "and work together to ensure people in America understand the damage of repealing the ACA." "Congress should not take away the promise of future coverage without simultaneously voting on a plan that guarantees people will have health and financial security," the coalition said.
CNBC's All-America Economic Survey, out today, saw optimism about the U.S. economy jump an unprecedented 17 points to 42 percent. Republicans and independents were the key drivers of the surge. (CNBC)



Retirement services company Athene Holding went public late Thursday, in the second-biggest initial public offering by a U.S. company in 2016. Shareholders raised over $1 billion, bringing the company's valuation to about $8 billion. (WSJ)



Manufacturing conglomerate 3M agreed to sell its identity management business to European digital security company Gemalto for $850 million. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2017. (Reuters)

Spotify dropped its bid for rival music provider SoundCloud after months of takeover talks. Spotify reportedly feared that the acquisition would have a negative effect on its impending IPO. (CNBC)

Lionsgate finalized its acquisition of premium pay network Starz for $4.4 billion on Thursday, creating a vertically integrated media giant with a massive television business, a reserve of 16,000 film and television titles, and Starz's 25 million subscribers. (LA Times)

Time Inc. hired Morgan Stanley and Bank of America to help the magazine publisher field takeover and partnership offers after a group of media investors expressed interest in its business. (WSJ)

Government regulators are looking into lifting restrictions on phone calls during flights, opening the door for airline passengers to make regular calls while flying. (WSJ)

President-elect Donald Trump's "Thank You Tour" will be in Louisiana and Michigan today, but the president-elect's approval rating has slumped, with just 41 percent of Americans surveyed saying he's done a good job during his transition  a historically low number. (USA Today)

Trump tapped Andy Puzder, a fast food magnate, to be Labor secretary. The chief executive of CKE Restaurants Holdings is a vocal supporter of deregulation and has opposed raising the minimum wage. (WSJ)

MGM confirmed that Trump will stay on as an executive producer for NBC's "Celebrity Apprentice," the show that made him a household name. The next season will be hosted by Arnold Schwarzenegger. (Variety)

CEOs and public officials will meet at today's National Competitiveness Forum, hosted by the U.S. Council on Competitiveness, to discuss emerging priorities. (CNBC)
Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Thursday delivered remarks in Albany during the latest round of funding announcements in the regional economic-development council (REDC) initiative. (Gov. Andrew Cuomos Flickr page)

New York State has awarded millions in funding to Central New York, Mohawk Valley, Southern Tier, and the North Country as part of the regional economic-development council (REDC) initiative.

New York awarded Central New York $62.2 million; the Mohawk Valley $81.9 million as a top performer; the Southern Tier, $60.4 million; and the North Country $61.4 million.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo delivered remarks during the announcement of the funding awards during an event held Thursday in Albany.

The funding awards are part of more than $700 million in economic and community-development funding in round VI of the REDC initiative, Cuomos office said in a news release.

Central New York

Central New Yorks award will support 77 projects, including $4 million for Steri-Pharma, LLC to expand its Syracuse operations.

Steri-Pharma, a manufacturer of antibiotics used internationally to treat complicated bacterial infections, will add a second sterile powder-filling line and increase its warehouse capacity.

The project will include the construction of new clean rooms, sterile production and filling areas, and a new 18,500 square foot building.

SB Lattimore Inc. will use nearly $1.2 million construct a new upscale, mid-range boutique lake-view hotel. Itll include three buildings totaling 55 rooms, a bar and event facilities in the town of Fleming in Cayuga County.

The project will be located across from Owasco Lake and Emerson Park, adjacent to an existing 4,000 square-foot event center, The Point at Sand Beach, and will help to close a significant lodging gap in the area.

Clear Path for Veterans, Inc. will use $364,000 to build new facilities and make improvements to its campus in Sullivan in Madison County.

Mohawk Valley

The Mohawk Valley funding award supports 88 projects.

The economic-development agency Otsego Now will use $3 million transform a former vacant car-dealership building at 27-33 Market St. in Oneonta into the Susquehanna Regional Food and Beverage Hub.

NCI Group will use $2.4 million to expand its existing manufacturing facility in Westmoreland by enlarging its buildings, adding new machinery and equipment, and adding jobs. The expansion will allow NCI to capture additional market share in the pre-engineered metal buildings market in the Northeastern U.S. and Eastern Canada.

The Central Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired (CABVI) will use $1.7 million to purchase land adjacent to its headquarters at 507 Kent St. in Utica. CABVI will develop the land and construct a new building to house the Vision rehabilitation service center and Agency headquarters.

Itll also reconfigure the vacated space in the Kent Street building into much needed manufacturing space for packaging and service employment for people who are legally blind.

Southern Tier

The Southern Tier award supports 63 projects.

They include $1.7 million for the Salvation Armys North Side job training and support center in Binghamton.

In addition, Micatu Inc., an optical-sensor company in Horseheads, will use $1 million to purchase a facility located at 17 Aviation Dr. in Horseheads for its corporate headquarters.

The projects also include SUNY Broome Community College using $330,000 to renovate an existing mechanical building on its campus into the Calice Advanced Manufacturing Center.

North Country

The North Country funding award will support 77 projects.

Hemo Medica will use $1.6 million to create a new pharmaceutical business, purchasing new equipment and a vacant building. It plans to upgrade the building to a current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) production plant and lab in Massena in St. Lawrence County.

Hi-Lite Airfield Services will use $1.3 million to build its world headquarters in the Jefferson County Industrial Development Agencys new business park, adjacent to the Watertown International Airport.

In addition, Jeffords Steel will use $300,000 to expand its fabrication and manufacturing facility in Potsdam in St. Lawrence County. The expansion will allow Jeffords to add new equipment, including cranes and other fabrication related machinery, and enable Jeffords to increase production by re-configuring the flow of material.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com
Thomas Jefferson looked at the foreign coins in circulation to help develop his decimal plan of cents, dollars, and eagles for America.

While high grade examples are elusive, circulated 1749 farthings are easy to find, making them an ideal type coin to showcase the farthing denomination in an American collection.

Colonial America column from Dec. 26, 2016, issue of Coin World:

The half cent was a late addition into Thomas Jeffersons decimal plan of cents, dollars, and eagles. Jefferson supposed that a cent would be of low enough value to suffice most small transactions. Despite his belief, Jefferson left the door open for something smaller, taking a cue from the coins then in circulation. Writing in 1784, Jefferson said it will probably be the half of the copper I promise, that is to say 5/1000 or .005 of a dollar, this being very nearly the farthing of England. Just as our dollar was patterned after the Spanish milled dollar or 8-real coin, the mother of the Little Half Sisters was the farthing.

Named for their value of four to a penny  thus a fourthing  farthings were imported to American shores for centuries but were never struck here. The only entry in the Colonial coin canon for a farthing is the so-called Pitt farthing, a rare smaller-sized version of the circa 1766 Pitt token, sometimes called a Pitt halfpenny though neither size version was seemingly intended to circulate as money.

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Despite their absence from A Guide Book of United States Coins, the story of farthings in America is nearly as old as America itself. Tiny Harrington farthings, struck in England about 1613, have been found in Jamestown and at nearby Wolstenholme Towne, the subject of a popular book called Martins Hundred by Ivor Noel Hume. Archaeological digs led by Hume found a Harrington farthing in a soil strata dating to before the destruction of the town by natives in 1622, making it one of the earliest known deposits of an English coin in American soil.

Irish farthings of Queen Elizabeth I, dated 1601 and 1602, have also been found at Jamestown, and other 17th century farthing types have been recovered at sites up and down the Eastern seaboard. Archaeology and metal detector finds also show that farthings depicting all three King Georges were commonplace in American circulation.

American ingenuity was sometimes put to work when a farthings change was needed. Halfpence, American state coppers, and similar coppers survive that were cut in half to make change, producing a truly American farthing.

In 1750, the ship Mermaid delivered hundreds of thousands of farthings (and even more halfpence) dated 1749 to Boston for circulation in America. While high grade pieces are elusive, circulated 1749 farthings are easy to find, making them an ideal type coin to showcase the farthing denomination in an American collection.
A Scott restrike of an 1861 Confederate half dollar is offered in the Heritage auction. The private restrike was issued by a private coin and stamp dealer who used the original Confederate die to overstrike genuine 1861 Seated Liberty half dollars after having their reverses planed smooth.

Three different versions of 1844 Coronet half cents are known: originals, struck in 1844, and first or second restrikes, struck beginning in 1856, with different reverse dies matched to the original obverse die. The half cent in the Heritage auction is a second restrike, from 1858 or later, struck with the third reverse die.

This 1838 Liberty Head half dollar pattern in silver is cataloged as Judd 73. It is listed as a restrike though there is the possibility that no true originals  struck in 1838  exist.

An attractive New Haven restrike of the 1787 Fugio cent, a private issue from about 1859, is offered in the Heritage FUN convention auction in PCGS MS-65.

Restrikes are the oddities of rare coins. They are not originals and yet many restrikes are as avidly collected as the real thing. And in some cases, restrikes exist of coins for which no originals exist.

Restrikes are the oddities of rare coins. They are not originals and yet many restrikes are as avidly collected as the real thing. In some cases, restrikes exist of coins for which no originals exist.

The upcoming sales Heritage Auctions has scheduled in conjunction with the Florida United Numismatists convention in Fort Lauderdale, in early January, features a number of restrikes, each with its own fascinating story.

Technically, a restrike is a coin (or medal or token) struck from original dies but at a later date. As Richard G. Doty writes in his 1982 The Macmillan Encyclopedic Dictionary of Numismatics, government mints create restrikes for a range of reasons: to dispose of excess bullion, such as Mexican gold 50-peso coins; for sale to collectors, as with various U.S. patterns; or unofficially, to supplement the income of a mint employee using government resources. And then there are private restrikes, struck by nongovernment entities to fill collector demand.

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Here are four pieces from Heritages January FUN auction that illustrate several of these categories of restrikes.

Fugio cents

The first circulating coin issued by the United States government was the 1787 Fugio copper or cent, authorized under the authority of the Articles of Confederation, before the establishment of the Constitution and the federal Mint.

The name Fugio cent is derived from the Latin inscription on the coin, translating to I fly, which, when used as part of the sundial design device on the obverse of the coin, is considered a reference to the passage of time (time flies). The reverse shows 13 interlocking rings representing the original colonies and states. The designs are similar to those on the 1776 Continental dollar, which are attributed to Benjamin Franklin.

Since Congress authorized the federal copper cents (under the Articles of Confederation, the individual states also had authority to strike coins) but lacked a federal mint, the task of striking the Fugio cents was contracted out to businessman James Jarvis, who was already striking copper cents for Connecticut. However, Jarvis had trouble meeting the requirements of the contract; the pieces did not meet the federal standards for weight; and when quantities were finally released into circulation, the timing was such that they circulated alongside severely underweight counterfeit British coins and other fakes, and thus were rejected like these other copper pieces.

Today, 1787 Fugio cents are highly prized for their status as the first official U.S. coin, and they are available in sizeable numbers with many in high condition since large numbers never circulated.

The popularity of the Fugio cents, even with the first collectors of U.S. coins, helped lead to what are called New Haven restrikes of the issue.

As the Heritage cataloger writes, Thin rings identify the so-called New Haven Restrike, which wasnt made in New Haven and isnt a restrike, since a strict numismatic interpretation of restrike requires the original dies. Nonetheless, the variety has been collected consistently since the 1860s.

The so-called New Haven restrikes are attributed to Horatio N. Rust, who in 1859 used re-creation dies to strike pieces in gold (two known), silver and copper or brass. The designs, while faithful in concept to the originals, clearly differ in the details. Rust attempted to sell these as being restruck from the original dies, claiming that teenager C. Wyllys Betts (future author of a major work on early American medals) was on the site in New Haven, Conn., where the original Fugios were struck. The origin story, of course, was a lie.

Despite these being unofficial copies rather than restrikes from the original dies, the New Haven restrikes are popular with collectors today. The example in the Heritage auction is one of the copper pieces, graded Mint State 65 by Professional Coin Grading Service. Heritage describes it as a meticulously struck and gorgeously preserved Gem of this popular 19th century copy. Chocolate-brown overall with glimpses of mint red in protected areas, with 11 more in PCGS MS-65 and three in finer condition. The coin in the auction sold for $2,530 in a January 2009 Heritage auction.

A restrike, no originals

Some patterns are true experimental pieces, struck to test new designs and compositions, and for some of these, both original pieces and later restrikes exist, the latter issued for the collector market. However, the entire pattern series is full of pieces that were likely struck only for collector sales as opposed to being struck to test new potential coin designs.

This next piece might fall into that collector sales purpose category. While it is an official issue of the United States Mint and is generally considered a pattern restrike, numismatists have never been able to conclusively identify an original strike (a piece from the year it is dated) of the design, according to Heritage.

The piece is an 1838 Liberty Head half dollar pattern in silver, cataloged as Judd 73 and Pollock 77 in the standard references on patterns by J. Hewitt Judd and Andrew Pollock.

Heritage describes it: On the obverse, Liberty faces left and wears a diadem and a ribbon inscribed LIBERTY. 13 stars and the date fill the periphery. On the reverse, an eagle flies level in a plain field with the statutory legend UNITED STATES OF AMERICA around, and the denomination HALF DOLLAR below.

The piece is shrouded in mystery. Both William Kneass and Christian Gobrecht are cited as the potential designers, with the reverse being a version of Gobrechts Flying Eagle design found on the silver dollar circulation and pattern strikes of 1836 to 1839.

An even deeper mystery exists, as Heritage writes: The Judd-73 patterns surely are among the most confusing issues in the entire pattern series. It appears that all are restrikes. The only question is when a particular coin was produced. Occasional mention has been made of original strikes, but such a piece does not appear to exist; to date, every coin examined shows die cracks on the reverse. The Mint Cabinet (Smithsonian) does not have an example of this pattern in any state. The earliest state known is the same as seen on this piece: a die break from AM in AMERICA to the eagle, a second from AR in DOLLAR to the eagle, and a partial crack from the eagle toward the A in HALF. This last crack is only partially present and key to dating this half dollar to the early 1840s.

Since individual dies used for patterns (originals and restrikes alike) were often used with multiple other dies to create different varieties, numismatists can use die state evidence in an effort to determine when a particular die marriage was struck. Die cracks are among the evidence used, since the lack of a die crack or its increasing severity can be charted to show how a die changed over time.

The example in the auction is graded Proof 66 by PCGS and it bears a green sticker from Certified Acceptance Corp. This is one of the finest examples known of this early-striking period half dollar, Heritage writes. Only one other piece has been so graded by PCGS and one is finer, an NGC-certified coin (11/16). The fields are deeply mirrored and flash strongly through the cobalt-blue and deep rose toning seen on each side. No obvious flaws or contact marks are apparent.

Half cent second restrike

This next piece, an 1844 Coronet half cent, is not only a restrike, but is considered a second restrike.

By the mid-1830s, the Philadelphia Mints vaults were filled with 1834 and 1835 half cents (totaling more than a half million pieces) that were little needed in circulation. The Mint stopped striking the denomination for circulation, a hiatus that would last from 1836 to 1849. Nonetheless, a new Coronet Head portrait was created in 1839 to replace the existing Classic Head portrait. Starting in 1840, when the Mint began selling Proof sets, the Mint struck Proof Coronet half cents every year starting in 1840. While a new obverse die was made every year, the same reverse die was used every year from 1840 until the late 1840s, with new dies used later. These pieces with the first reverse die, since they were struck in the years they were dated, would be considered originals.

Beginning circa 1858 and 1859, the interest in coin collecting exploded, and Mint officials began expanding sales of Proof coins and sets, and also began restriking early issues. The restrikes of half cents were generally struck from each years original obverse die and one or two additional reverse dies. The combination of obverse die and reverse die determines whether a piece is considered an original, a first restrike or a second restrike.

For the 1844 Coronet half cents, the original would have been struck in 1844, with a first restrike produced circa 1856 to 1857 (from a second reverse die). A second restrike (from a third reverse die) was struck sometime later.

The 1844 half cent in the auction, struck in 1858 or later, is graded Proof 64 brown PCGS Secure, with a grade of Proof 63 under the standards used by the club Early American Coppers (EAC uses different standards than the market grading standards used by most third-party grading services). As described by Heritage, This desirable proof is sharply detailed with olive and pale orange surfaces. The fields are moderately mirrored.

Scott restrike

The final piece is another private issue, but of a coin struck by a rebellious government in an occupied federal Mint  the Scott restrike of the 1861 Confederate half dollar.

When the Southern states seceded following the election of Abraham Lincoln as president in 1860, three Branch Mints fell under state control and then under Confederate control  Dahlonega, Ga.; Charlotte, N.C.; and New Orleans, La. The Confederate governments economy did not support sustaining minting operations at the three facilities, and each was closed in 1861, though not before small quantities of coins were struck after they left federal control.

The Confederate government had ambitions, however, to issue a national coinage, and to that effect, four experimental half dollars were struck at the New Orleans Mint in 1861. The obverse of each bears a distinct Confederate design while the reverse is actually an 1861 Seated Liberty half dollar obverse (for the purposes of this coin, the Seated Liberty side is generally considered the reverse).

The existence of the 1861 Confederate half dollar was not known to the collector community until 1879, when the first published reports surfaced, attributed to Benjamin F. Taylor, the New Orleans Mint chief coiner. Taylor had, not only one of the four Confederate half dollars, but also the Confederate die, both of which he sold to dealer Ebenezer Locke Mason. In turn, coin and stamp dealer John Walter Scott purchased Taylors coin and the die from Mason.

Scott knew the benefits of good publicity and recognized the strong collector appetite for unusual coins. He decided to restrike the Confederate half dollar, using the original die and 500 genuine 1861 Seated Liberty half dollars. Scott had the reverses of the half dollars planed away and used the Confederate die to produce the 500 private restrikes. He also used the Confederate die to make store cards, matching it with a new die outlining the history of the original coin and also promoting his firm.

The Heritage auction offers several Scott restrikes of the 1861 Confederate half dollar, including one PCGS graded About Uncirculated 53.

As Heritage write, the action of planing away the reverse of the host 1861 half dollar for the restrike somewhat flattened the dated side, as seen on the present restrike, adding about the offered example, The Confederate side is toned golden-brown and shows light wear. The dated side has rich aquamarine patina and a few thin marks made by a curious finder.

While the Scott restrikes typically sell for thousands of dollars, they are more affordable than the originals. Of the four original Confederate half dollars, today two are in institutional collections and two are in private collections, both of which made their first auction appearances only in the 21st century, each registering six-figure prices.

The Confederate die, incidentally, disappeared from public view in the 1920s and its current whereabouts are unknown.

Additional restrikes of various other coins appear in the FUN auction. Go here for more details.
Many are concerned that the import restrictions impact a large range of coins with modest values, such as this billon (a mix of silver and bronze) tetradrachm of Roman Emperor Nero struck at Alexandria that sold for $84 last year at auction.

An album print from the late 19th century projects a romantic view of Egypt, with men and camels atop the paw of the Sphinx, with the Great Pyramid in the background.

A broad range of ancient coins struck across the Ptolemaic Kingdom, like this bronze piece struck under Ptolemy III Euergetes (246 to 222 B.C.), will be included in new import restrictions.

New import restrictions involving a broad group of ancient Egyptian coins have the potential to impact collectors in the United States by restricting the movement of affected coins into the country.

The agreement  called a Memorandum of Understanding  was made between the United States and Egypt on Nov. 30 and includes a wide range of materials created across different periods and cultures dating from 5200 B.C. through 1517 A.D. Included are items from Egypts Predynastic, Pharaonic, Greco-Roman, Coptic, and Early Islamic through the Mamluk Dynasty eras.

The new import restrictions were published in the Dec. 6 Federal Register and represent the first cultural property protection agreement between the United States and a country in the Middle East and North Africa region. A Nov. 29 State Department press release stated, Restrictions are intended to reduce the incentive for pillage and trafficking and are one of the many ways the United States is fighting the global market in illegal antiquities. It explained, The cultural property agreement, negotiated by the State Department under U.S. law implementing the [UNESCO] 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, underscores the United States commitment to our relationship with Egypt, as well as our global commitment to cultural heritage protection and preservation.

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These MOUs are initiated by the country seeking protection and effectively shift the burden of proof. Prior to an MOU, Egypt needed to prove that an item was looted to enforce trade restrictions. With the MOUs implementation, the burden shifts to the seller of an item included in the covered items to prove that it was legally imported or has been outside of Egypt since 1970. This type of documentation can be challenging for coins, which by their nature are small, often look similar to one another, and often lack provenance.

Upon signing the treaty Secretary of State John Kerry said, I think its a good moment for Egypt, the United States, for the region, for us to make it clear that these antiquities are priceless treasures that do not belong to traffickers and crooks and should not be sold illegally and bought by wealthy people to hide away somewhere, adding, They are the antiquities that belong to the world, that have been protected and should be protected by an old civilization.

Broad range of items

The restricted items are organized in three broad categories. The first, stone, includes sculpture, vessels and containers, funerary objects and equipment such as sarcophagi and coffins, tools and weapons. The second, metal, contains largely the same but also includes jewelry, amulets, seals, armor and coins.

The coin category is broad and covers copper or bronze, silver and gold issues referenced in several books that are named in the guidelines published in the Federal Register. Among the books referenced for Hellenistic and Ptolemaic coins are: A Catalogue of Greek Coins in the British Museum: Alexandria and the Nomes and Ptolemaic Coins: An Introduction for Collectors by R.A. Hazzard. Examples of catalogs listing Roman coinage in Egypt are J.W. Curtis 1969 book The Tetradrachms of Roman and Roman Provincial Coinage I: From the Death of Caesar to the Death of Vitellius (44 BCAD 69) and Roman Provincial Coinage II: From Vespasian to Domitian (AD 6996).

The restrictions are more specific when addressing Hellenistic and Ptolemaic coins struck in gold, silver, and bronze at Alexandria and any other mints that operated within the borders of the modern Egyptian state. The restrictions include gold and silver coins struck in honor of Alexander the Great at the mints of Alexandria and Memphis.

The text of the restrictions tries to help those tasked with enforcing them to identify the subject coins by including some descriptions of the physical coins themselves.

For Ptolemaic coins it states, Gold coins of the Ptolemies from Egypt will have jugate portraits on both obverse and reverse, a portrait of the king on the obverse and a cornucopia on the reverse, or a jugate portrait of the king and queen on the obverse and cornucopiae on the reverse. Silver coins of the Ptolemies coins [sic] from Egypt tend to depict a portrait of Alexander wearing an elephant skin on the obverse and Athena on the reverse or a portrait of the reigning king with an eagle on the reverse. Some silver coins have jugate portraits of the king and queen on the obverse. It then explains, Bronze coins of the Ptolemies commonly depict a head of Zeus (bearded) on the obverse and an eagle on the reverse, before clarifying, These iconographical descriptions are non-exclusive and describe only some of the more common examples. There are other types and variants.

Finally, the import restrictions include Roman coins struck in silver or bronze at Alexandria along with any other mints that operated within the borders of the modern Egyptian state in the territory of the modern state of Egypt until the monetary reforms of Diocletian.

Other categories include objects made of ceramic, clay, wood, ivory, bone, shell, plaster, glass, textile, leather and other mediums.

Flawed restrictions?

Many in the numismatic community believe that these import restrictions are flawed since ancient coins traveled far beyond their place of origin. For example, Roman Egyptian tetradrachms, which had the value of one Roman silver denarius, traveled far and have been found in hoards in Britain. The area considered today as Ptolemaic Egypt stretched far beyond Egypts present borders, encompassing modern-day Libya, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Cyprus, and Turkey.

Those favoring the restrictions say that they are essential to helping protect archaeological sites and preserving the archaeological record.

Egypts government filed a cultural property request with the United States in April 2014 seeking import restrictions on archaeological and ethnological material from Egypt.

The Cultural Property Advisory Committee met June 2 to 4, 2014, in Washington, D.C., to consider whether to accept or deny the Egyptian request. Prior to the meeting 352 public comments were submitted to CPAC, with the majority of comments coming from those representing the coin hobby and trade. Most comments favored not including coins in the import restrictions.

In a Nov. 30 post to his blog Cultural Property Observer, attorney Peter Tompa wrote that in signing the MOU, the Administration has ignored 91% of the public comment to CPAC which raised serious concerns with any MOU. Moreover, the decision once again raises the question whether there was any done deal from the outset.

The week before, Tompa commented on MOUs more broadly, writing, Unfortunately, they have become little more than a special interest program for a small group of connected academic archaeologists and the cultural bureaucracies of countries where they excavate. Tompa then wrote, the interests of ordinary Americans who collect ancient coins and other cultural artifacts and our great museums have been damaged for years by hard to comply with import restrictions.

To support the imposition of import restrictions, on Nov. 14, 2014, the assistant secretary for Educational and Cultural Affairs, Department of State, made the determinations for import restrictions, following guidelines established in 1983s Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act. First, it was determined that the cultural patrimony of Egypt is in jeopardy from the pillage of archaeological material from a broad swath of its history. Second, it found that the Egyptian government had taken measures to protect its cultural property and that import restrictions imposed by the United States would be of substantial help in deterring a serious situation of pillage and that less drastic remedies are not available.

Finally, the State Department determined that the import restrictions are consistent with the general interests of the international community in the interchange of cultural property among nations for scientific, cultural, and educational purposes.

The United States currently has bilateral agreements with 16 countries around the world, as well as emergency import restrictions on cultural property from two other countries, Iraq and Syria.

Evan Ryan, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for Educational and Cultural Affairs, said on the restrictions, We want people to know that the United States will no longer be a market for these items. She concluded, We want Egypt to understand that we respect their history and their culture, just as much as we hope that people respect ours.
2 Chicago Cops Have Resigned Over Decade-Old Police Brutality Case

By Rachel Cromidas in News on Dec 9, 2016 6:09PM



Two Chicago cops have resigned over a police brutality case that took place a decade ago.

Brian Murphy and Jason Orsa, who have been with the department for 12 years, according to the Tribune, stepped down as of Dec. 1. They were allowed to remain on the police force for years even after being accused of beating a Northwest Side Taco Burrito King restaurant patron while out drinking and off-duty on March 24, 2006.

Surveillance footage of the incident shows Murphy (wearing white) jump out of his seat and point his pistol at a man named Obed DeLeon (wearing blue), who had walked inside the restaurant to complain about a car blocking the restaurant parking lot, near the intersection of Harlem and Higgins. The assault can be seen in the video above at about 1:13 minutes in. The officers later claimed he provoked them by yelling gang slogansbut witnesses didn't corroborate those claims. Murphy then allegedly began beating DeLeon.

Orsa, a friend, and another officer, Daniel McNamara, also allegedly got involved in beating, kicking and holding down DeLeon. The police department later could not determined whether McNamara had an active role in beating DeLeon, but he was suspended for 18 months for not telling his supervisors what had happened.

It took five years for the police board moved to fire Murphy and Orsa, but after a county judge reversed the board's decision, the two men remained on the police force for another five years. Finally, this past August, an Illinois appeals court panel of judges upheld the original police board decision to dismiss them, reasoning that the mere fact that Murphy pulled out a gun "unprovoked" in the restaurant was damning enough.

Our careful and close review of the video leaves us dumbfounded by the circuit courts rejection of the [b]oards prima facie true and correct findings, Justice Michael B. Hyman wrote in the August ruling, according to Chicago Law Bulletin. Misconduct and manipulation of the sort that occurred here leaves a stain on the good honor of the vast majority of police officers in the department who comport themselves with integrity, dignity, decency and discipline."

Murphy and Orsa appealed the decision again, but the state Supreme Court denied it on Nov. 23, the Tribune reports.

The Tribune story on the police beating sheds some troubling light on why it took so long to get these officers out of uniform:
Dennis Gates and new-look Mizzou basketball ready for introduction

It's been an offseason filled with change for Missouri basketball. Now, Dennis Gates and company are ready to get the games underway
Tour A Landmark Art Show On AIDS & America In A Converted Bank Building

By Carrie McGath in Arts & Entertainment on Dec 9, 2016 3:01PM

Art AIDS America has finally made its way to Chicago after a tour of several cities throughout the United States over the last two years. It was worth the wait.

The deeply affecting survey challenges expectations in terms of content and exhibition, spans the spectrum of media, doesn't shy away from controversy and laudably expands its scope beyond just the activist art that has dominated other surveys of the epidemic. In sum, it's one of the most important major exhibitions in some time.

For its arrival, we spoke with co-curators Jonathan David Katz, Director of the Visual Studies Doctoral Program at the University of Buffalo, and Rock Hushka, Chief Curator of Contemporary and Northwest Art at Tacoma Art Museum, to tease out their unique approach.

For me, the complexity of the show is all about art that references AIDS that doesnt necessarily look like art about AIDS, Katz said. One of the things we were looking for were works that dealt with AIDS indirectly, because there have been previous AIDS exhibitions that tended to foreground activist graphics or red ribbons, emaciated bodies, sort of the obvious signifiers of AIDS, but that caricatured the bulk of artistic production of this moment which was instead in a different key and that is what, in part, this exhibition explores.

To that end, the show opens with the beautiful whisper that is Felix Gonzalez-Torres 1995 work Water Curtain. Guests walk through this curtain to enter the exhibit, and the poignancy of the work widens with the mood and connotation it exudes. Water Curtain is calming, beautiful and subtly sparky with its pinkish plastic beads, while evoking the curtain of a hospital room, dividing patients. Like all of Torres work, it is often created from mass-produced commodities, but it poetically tells a massive story in a minimal way.

The relative recency of that work is important to note, too, as the exhibition works to cultivate a sense of time. As Hushka explained, We also wanted to include works of art that were recently made because we wanted to remind people that the AIDS epidemic is not over. Secondly, the work done by the earlier generations of artists is now being taught in art schools, and people are not always aware of where their practice comes from.

After this strong start with the Torres, the exhibit continues to be strong. It is housed in a space designed just for Art AIDS America, Chicago, thanks to funds from the Alphawood Foundation.

[The show] is mainstream in every sense of the word: it is mainstream art, mainstream artists. Yet we discovered in the process of curating that the conjunction of art and AIDS is still very much a third rail in the U.S. museum world, Katz said. This show was not going to come to an institution in Chicago, but I was talking about this to people involved with the Alphawood Foundation and, never before in my life has anybody ever said to me, Well, well build a museum and show your exhibition.

With that, the space was constructed inside an old bank building on the corner of Halsted Street and Fullerton Avenue. A new, standalone museum built for a specific exhibit is far from a common occurrencewhich arguably lends more credence to the necessity of showcasing this work in one space, as well as the need for continued dialogue about the AIDS epidemic.

The careful, moving curation invites that dialogue, as the subdued pink of Torres' curtain gives way to Roger Browns under-exhibited Peach Light, from 1983. Katz told us, It is from extremely early in the plague; and it is called Peach Light because a Gold Coast leather bar supplanted its regular lighting with peach lighting once men started to get sick, because it was more flattering.

Another heavy-hitter is Keith Harings large-scale sculptural work, housed in a remaining bank vault, which adds even more saintliness to the iconic work. It was the last work Haring executed," Hushka said. "He takes traditional Catholic iconography, a triptych, a Virgin Mary, and then you see the people crying out for succor, and the tears of grief. It is an incredibly poignant work. Titled Altarpiece: The Life of Christ, it is cast from bronze with white gold leaf patina, and fits perfectly into the vault, further exuding the work's aura.

One more highlight is Unveiling of a Modern Chastity by Izhar Patkin, a textured work of rubber, latex and ink on canvas. According to Katz, it carries unique significance within the narrative and canon. To our knowledge, it is the first work of art about AIDS," he said. "What is notable is that it dates from 1981, before there was any public account of AIDS, before there was any newspaper story. But this man had been in his dermatologists office, a gay practice in New York, and he had seen four good-looking men with kaposi sarcoma, and he realized something was up. He calls it, Unveiling of a Modern Chastity. He just presciently got it right then and there.

The curators also don't avoid potential controversy, as evidenced work like by Mark I. Chesters Robert Chesley - KS portraits with hardback and superman spandex, #1-#6, which explicitly shows its subject's sarcoma-scarred body along with his virile masculinity.

This is the first exhibition that has shown this work without censoring it. But it is a remarkable work and one that leaves me kind of gobsmacked in terms of the courage and valor of a figure who would be only several months away from his death," said Katz. Agreeing to show himself so vulnerably, covered with kaposi sarcoma, but as a sexual being. And Chester takes a photograph of him in a Superman suit.

This is the moment the bathhouses are being closed and there is a shame with gay sexuality; and some gay men themselves are apologizing for their sexuality," Katz said. "This was actually printed in the Bay Times, the gay newspaper of San Francisco. When this image appeared in 1989, there was a collective sigh of relief because we had been beating ourselves up so much.

That unflinchingness is one of many aspects AIDS Art America Chicago so profound. Beyond a potent survey of aesthetics and process, the commendably non-risk-averse approach leaves the viewer with the somber realization of so much lost potential. It continuesand asks us to continuean open and compassionate dialogue about the tragedy today.

Art AIDS America Chicago is on view through April 2, 2017 at the Alphawood Gallery, 2401 N. Halsted St. A schedule of accompanying events is available here.
Microsoft Corp said on Thursday its mixed reality headset, called HoloLens, will come to China in the first half of 2017, as the United States tech giant steps up efforts to tap into the country's software developers and into local firms' desire to achieve digital transformation.

Terry Myerson, the executive vice-president of the Windows and Devices company at Microsoft, said the firm will launch HoloLens for Chinese developers and commercial customers. He did not disclose the specific price tag, just saying it will be around $3,000, roughly the same as in other countries.

"We believe China, or, broadly speaking, Asia, could be leading the world in terms of mixed reality. We are seeing more virtual-reality-enabled activities here than in the United States," Myerson said on the sidelines of a manufacturing partner conference in Shenzhen.

HoloLens allows users to view virtual objects and characters in the real life environment. Microsoft is competing with Google Inc-backed Magic Leap and other players in the race for lead in the nascent market.

The company also published technical specifications it co-developed with Intel Corp for PCs that can power headsets capable of mixed reality. Lenovo Group Holding Ltd, Dell Inc and other PC vendors will start shipping the first VR goggles next year.

These gadgets will come with the Windows 10 Creators Update, the latest version of its Windows operating system. And unlike other VR headsets, there will be no need for a separate room and complicated setup, Microsoft said.

James Yan, research director at Counterpoint Technology Market Research, said the move is part of Microsoft's broad efforts to build a virtual reality ecosystem.

"Microsoft has a dominant position in the PC operating system market, but it missed opportunities in smartphones. Now it is seeking to replicate its success in virtual reality gadgets," Yan said.

Asked when HoloLens will become available in the consumer market over the next three to five years, Myerson quoted Bill Gates. "We often overestimate what will happen in the next three years and underestimate what will change in the next 10 years."

Yan from Counterpoint said: "Currently, HoloLens is still too expensive for consumers. If the price is lowered to below 10,000 yuan ($1,470), it will gain an advantage," Yan said.

According to market research firm Net Applications, the Windows 10 operating system accounted for 23.7 percent of the PC market in October, a rise of 1.1 percentage points from the previous month.
Google Photos is a great way to store your photos and make them available across different devices. But the service is far more than just a virtual cloud locker.

Photos has a wealth of options, features and possibilities for viewing, manipulating and managing your digital storehouse. And many of them aren't immediately obvious. Take a few minutes to scan through these tips and make sure you're making the most of your Google Photos experience.

(Note: Unless otherwise specified, all tips should work on any device/platform where Photos is available.)

Getting around

1. Move through Photos faster with keyboard shortcuts: From the desktop website, press Shift-? to get a list of available commands.

2. Find the Photos view that works best for you: In the mobile app, try pinching in or out on the main gallery to make the thumbnails smaller or larger. You can choose from four different views.

3. Aside from changing your view, pinching can help you move throughout the Photos mobile app. Once you've found your way to the closest possible view, pinching "out" (by moving your fingers apart) on any individual image will open that image in full. And pinching "in" (moving your fingers together) on any image (while viewing it in full) will always take you back to your main image list.

4. Not a fan of pinching? The Photos mobile app also has a hidden swipe-based shortcut: While viewing any image in full, simply swipe up or down on the screen to jump back to your main image list. Who needs that blasted Back button, anyway?

When you're scrolling through Photos on your phone and want to jump to a specific date, use the quick-scroll icon on the right side of the screen.

5. When you're scrolling through Photos on your phone and want to jump to a specific date, touch the quick-scroll icon on the right side of the screen. Then just move your finger up or down to fly back in time faster than a flux capacitor would allow.

6. The next time you need to select a bunch of consecutive photos from your phone, don't do the one-tap-at-a-time dance. Instead, touch your finger to the first photo until it becomes highlighted, and then -- without lifting -- drag your finger up or down to quickly select a whole set of images.

7. Flawless as I know you are, you may one day discover you deleted a photo by accident. Take note now: Photos has a "Trash" folder that's accessible via the app's main menu. Every axed image stays there for 60 days and can be recovered with a couple quick taps or clicks.

Searching and discovering

8. One of Photos' greatest strengths is its image-sorting intelligence. You can use the search bar at the top of the app to find photos based on all sorts of terms -- month, season, location or even objects or general themes.

Some interesting search term ideas to get you started:

flowers

baby

wedding

concert

dancing

winter

Paris

Halloween

birthday

beach

water

food

baking

dogs

selfies

blue (or any other color -- try it!)

Note that if you've never used Photos before, it may take a little while for newly added images to start appearing in searches.

9. Prefer browsing over freeform searching? You can go to the Albums tab (accessed on the left side of the desktop website or the bottom of the mobile app) and then look at the carousel at the top to scroll through common terms specific to your collection.

10. Google Photos can also help you find images based on who appears in them -- even if it doesn't know every person's name. Go to the Albums tab and select "People" to see a list of faces from your collection. If you want to be able to search for someone by name, just tap her face, select "Who is this?" and put in whatever name or nickname you prefer. That name will then appear whenever you start typing the first few letters into the app's search bar.

If you see someone's face showing up in two different places within the "People" section, it's not difficult to correct the error.

11. In theory, Photos recognizes how a person ages over time and groups all the photos in which he appears together -- but in reality, it doesn't always get it right. If you see someone's face showing up in two different places within the "People" section, first use the naming process described above to make sure the person is properly labeled. Then tap the second place where the person appears, select "Who is this?" and select his name from the list to correct the error.

12. You can also manually remove images from a person's grouping by clicking or tapping the menu icon in the upper-right corner of the screen and then selecting the option labeled "Remove results." Select the out-of-place photos, then select the blue "Remove" button that appears in the upper-right corner.

13. If you're hunting for something specific in your collection, try using multiple search terms together -- "dog and park," for instance, or "Mom and Dad." You could even find photos of your daughter in pink by searching for her name (provided you've labeled her, as described in tip 10) and the word "pink."

14. Feeling lazy? You can search your Google Photos by emoji (yes, really!). Try  for photos involving glasses, for instance, or  for photos involving hearts.

15. You can find the photos you uploaded most recently by going to the Photos website and clicking the search bar -- then clicking the link labeled "Show More" followed by "Recently Added."

Organizing and optimizing

16. If you see some images out of order in your collection, odds are they were captured with the wrong date. (Perhaps, ahem, someone forgot to set the clock correctly on his or her camera?) Not to worry, though: There's a quick fix. From the desktop site, select the photos in question (by clicking the checkmark in the upper-left corner of their thumbnail), then click the menu icon in the upper-right corner and select "Edit date & time."

You can change the date of a photo on the desktop site by selecting the photo and then clicking on the menu in the upper right corner.

17. Keeping all your smartphone photos backed up to the cloud is smart, but watch out: All that data transferring can take a serious toll on your mobile device's stamina. Do your battery a favor and set Photos to back up only when your phone is charging. Just head into the app's settings, tap "Back up & sync" and then look for the option labeled "While charging only."

18. Want Photos to back up images beyond just those taken with your phone's camera -- pictures you've downloaded, perhaps, or screenshots you've captured? Go back into the app's settings, select "Back up & sync" and then "Back up device folders." Flip the switch on any folder there to have its contents automatically and continually synced with your Photos library.

19. Since all your smartphone photos are backed up to the cloud, you can safely delete your phone's local copies whenever you need to free up some space. Just look for the option called "Free up device storage" in the Photos app's settings to get started. (The app may also automatically prompt you to do this if your phone's storage gets low.)

20. Let's face it: Uploading a ton of images from your computer to the cloud can be a real chore. Take the pain out of the process by snagging Google's free desktop uploader tool, available for both macOS and Windows. The program makes it possible to batch-transfer images; it also gives you the option to automatically sync new images whenever a camera or card gets plugged into your system.

21. Google has a handy tool for "scanning" your old printed photos directly into your collection via your phone's camera. It's called PhotoScan, and it works with most any Android or iOS device.

22. Google Photos may generally be a cloud-centric service, but if you feel more comfortable keeping a local copy of your entire image collection, there is a way. First, you'll need to download and install the free Google Drive app for macOS or Windows. Make sure it's set up to sync everything in your Drive to a folder on your computer.

Next, head to the Drive website, click the gear icon in the upper-right corner, select "Settings" and then check the box next to "Create a Google Photos folder." That'll put a folder with all your photos into your Drive storage. And since you already have Drive set to sync with your computer, that folder will always remain backed up and synced -- both ways -- with your corresponding local folder.

23. For a one-time batch download of your entire collection -- without the ongoing two-way sync -- visit Google's Takeout tool.

Sharing and showing

24. Photos makes it easy to share your images with anyone -- whether they use the service themselves or not. The simplest way is to select any image or images, tap the share icon at the top of the screen and then select "Create link" from the mobile app or "Get link" from the website. Anyone you send the link to will be able to view the photos and optionally add them into their own Photos collection (if they do use the service).

You'll also see an option to let other people add their own photos into the album -- if, say, you're sharing photos from a family event and want everyone to be able to contribute.

25. Need to manage or delete a shared album? Open the app's main menu and select "Shared." Select whichever album you want, then tap the menu icon in the upper-right corner to find sharing options along with the option to delete the album entirely.

26. If you want to be sure your location is never included with any images you share, go to Photos' main settings and look for the item labeled "Remove geo location" from the mobile app or "Remove geo location in items shared by link" from the website.

27. Got a TV with Chromecasting capability? Show off your photos on the big screen by tapping the cast icon in the upper-right corner of the mobile app (it should appear anytime a cast-ready TV is available). Once you're connected, just tap any image to have it beamed to your television. If you want to have multiple images display in a slideshow, open an image (either from your full collection or from an album) and then tap the menu icon in the upper-right corner of the screen and select "Slideshow."

Editing and remixing

28. Photos has some powerful tools for tweaking and editing images. While viewing any image, select the pencil icon on the screen to see a range of one-touch refinishing tools as well as more detailed controls for fine-tuning and cropping. (For fine-tuning, after you select the middle icon -- the one that looks like a series of sliders -- be sure to click or tap the down-facing arrows next to "Light" and "Color" in order to see all the available options.)

29. Who says a gray day has to be dreary? While editing an image with sky in the background, go to the fine-tuning tab and then tap or click the down-facing arrow next to "Color." The slider labeled "Deep blue" will let you make a pale sky appear more blue without affecting the rest of the photo.

The slider labeled "Deep blue" will let you make a pale sky appear more blue without affecting the rest of the photo.

30. When you tap the option to save an image after editing, take note that your newly modified version will replace the original. If you want to save it as a copy instead, avoid the large "Save" command and instead tap the menu icon in the top-right of the screen to find the "Save copy" option.

31. In addition to regular edits, Photos lets you make super-simple movies, animations and collages from any set of images and/or videos. Just select the items you want, select the "+" option at the top of the screen and then choose what kind of creation you want to try.

32. Don't forget to peek at Photos' Assistant tab from time to time. The service leaves all sorts of interesting treats for you there -- everything from automatically generated animations, collages and highlight videos to "this day in history"-style flashbacks from your collection. It'll also create instant albums from related images and offer to fix photos that are flipped the wrong way.
The IEEE-USA intends to urge President-elect Donald Trump to quickly replace the random H-1B lottery with a system that gives priority to companies that pay the best wages.

This proposal would also move large H-1B users to the back of the visa distribution line. For this to happen, all it would take is an executive order by the president, the engineering group says.

Separately, the IEEE-USA also wants Trump to prod the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate what it claims is discrimination against U.S. workers by H-1B visa-using companies. This discrimination occurs when U.S. workers are replaced by visa-holding workers.

Trump has immediate "opportunities to start pushing back against outsourcing through the H-1B program," said Russell Harrison, director of government relations, for the IEEE-USA, which says it has some 200,000 engineering, computing and IT professionals.

The government labels companies that have 51 or more full-time workers, of whom 15 percent or more are H-1B workers, as "dependent" H-1B employers. This includes all the major India-based offshore outsourcing firms, as well as some U.S.-based firms, such as Cognizant. According to U.S. government visa records, Facebook is also considered an "H-1B dependent" employer for its hiring.

The IEEE-USA said the "non-dependent" employers, those with a smaller number of visa-holding workers, should get priority in the visa distribution system. Some large tech companies, including Microsoft, IBM and Google, are non-dependent employers under the government's definition.

Wages are another way to deter visa use by offshore outsourcing companies, Harrison said. If companies that pay the higher prevailing wage are given priority, "you immediately cut out the outsourcers," he said.

Employers who hire H-1B workers have to pay them a prevailing wage. There are four prevailing wage levels for each U.S. occupation. For instance, the Level 4 prevailing wage for a programmer in Des Moines is $81,000. The Level 1 wage, which is for entry level workers, is $46,000.

Most companies pay lower prevailing wages, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office. In a 2011 study, the GAO found that 54 percent of all H-1B workers are paid Level 1 wages, and 29 percent are paid Level 2.

A non-H-1B dependent company that pays a Level 4 wage would likely get a visa under their plan, the IEEE-USA officials said. Prevailing wage rates vary by region. While wages are much higher in Silicon Valley than in the Midwest, all the employers that promise to pay Level 4 prevailing wages, for instance, are considered as one category.

The proposals are part of a set of recommendations the IEEE-USA plans to submit to the new administration. The group is also exploring some kind of protections for small businesses in H-1B visa distributions.

The IEEE-USA also wants the Trump administration to push the DOJ to investigate what it claims is discrimination against U.S. workers by H-1B visa-using companies. Ten U.S. senators in 2015 asked the DOJ to investigate national origin discrimination in response to the layoff of IT workers at Southern California Edison, but no action has emerged.

The DOJ's Office of Special Counsel investigates discrimination complaints, but it's hard to get workers who have been laid off to make complaints in a timely fashion, "because they are afraid that if they file a complaint they will lose their severance pay," said Bruce Morrison, a lawyer and former Democratic congressman from Connecticut, who represents the IEEE-USA.

Nonetheless, "the new administration may bring a new willingness to pursue U.S. citizenship discrimination," Morrison said.

The U.S. distributes 85,000 H-1B visas through a lottery, with the odds of winning roughly one-in-three based on current demand. There were 236,000 visa petitions submitted this year.

Changing the lottery will represent "a dramatic resorting away from outsourcing and toward people who are really needed in the American economy and are being compensated commensurate with that need," Morrison said.

H-1B-dependent companies are required to take "good-faith steps to recruit U.S. workers" and not displace workers. But there's a loophole. If these employers pay more than $60,000 to a visa holder, or that person has a master's degree, the nondisplacement provisions do not apply. This is one change that Trump can't make, and the IEEE-USA will seek legislation to close this loophole.

The H-1B lottery has been under attack for some time. This includes a federal lawsuit filed last summer by two vendors that claimed they were denied visas for employees they wanted to hire because the lottery is tilted against small businesses.

The lawsuit claims the lottery is being abused by large H-1B users. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service "did not prohibit multiple filings by different employers on behalf of the same individual, or bar large companies from multiple filings through different business units," it says, in part. "This situation is unfair to small businesses, and is not the result intended by Congress when the statute was enacted," according to plaintiffs in the court case.

U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) had proposed replacing the lottery with a wage-based priority system, but her efforts have stalled.
Microsoft today added a new licensing option for Windows Server and SQL Server that extends support by six years, for a total of 16 years of vulnerability patches.

Called "Premium Assurance," the six-year support addendum will be available for Windows Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008, and later. Enterprises may first purchase a support extension in early 2017, Microsoft said today in a post to a company blog by a pair of Microsoft executives.

"[Premium Assurance] helps you continue to meet compliance requirements and ensure security on systems you aren't ready to update," wrote Mark Jewett, senior director of cloud platform marketing, and Tiffany Wissner, senior director of data platform marketing.

The oldest eligible products -- Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2, SQL Server 2008 and 2008 R2 -- have the most pressing retirement dates, January 2020 and July 2019, respectively, for the traditional 10 years of "mainstream" and then "extended" support. For instance, adding Premium Assurance to a Windows Server 2008 license would kick in the extra support in January 2020 and continue until January 2026.

Under Premium Assurance, only those security updates classified as patching "Critical" and "Important" flaws will be provided, Jewett and Wissner said.

Microsoft will discount Premium Assurance for the first two to two-and-a-half years of availability, a ploy to get companies to commit. From March to June 2017, for example, customers pay 5% of the current licensing cost for each year of coverage. That amount climbs to 7% from July 2017 to June 2018, to 9% from July 2018 to June 2019, and then finally to 12% from July 2019 onwards.

A company datasheet spelled out those discounts in dollars. Adding Premium Assurance to a Windows Server two-core license would run $31 per year if purchased between March and June 2017, but more than twice that, or $76 per year, if bought in July 2019 or later.

In some ways, Premium Assurance could be seen as a substitute for what Microsoft has called "Custom Support," a highly individualistic program that extended support after the usual 10 years, but was typically not publicly discussed in detail. "It is a replacement for a CSA," said Dolores Ianni, research director at Gartner, referring to the Custom Support Agreements Microsoft wrote for additional support.

Wes Miller, an analyst with Directions on Microsoft, agreed, but only up to a point, stressing some of the differences between Custom Support and Premium Assurance. For instance, Miller called the lack of migration commitments in the latter "very significant."

CSAs usually required the customer to pledge to migrate to a supported edition of a product, with contract milestones expressed as percentages of the CSA-covered systems upgraded to a newer version within a given period, say a year. Failure to meet those migration "thresholds" meant Microsoft would refuse to renew the deal or cut off support.

That's not the case with Premium Assurance: Customers can continue to run the old edition up to six years longer than usual, without any pressure from Microsoft to upgrade, as long as they're willing to pay for the privilege.

Only licenses covered by Software Assurance -- the annuity-style, subscription-like program whose biggest benefit is upgrade rights -- can have support extended by Premium Assurance. Also, licenses must have been originally acquired through one of four programs, including Enterprise Agreement, meaning that some licenses -- ones purchased via a Microsoft Open licensing deal, say -- are ineligible.

Another requirement: Premium Assurance must be bought before the version of Windows Server or SQL Server goes out of support.
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China's procuratorates have filed for two former senior officials and two chairmen of large state-owned enterprises to stand trial.

Ai Baojun, former vice mayor of Shanghai Municipality, will stand trial for embezzlement and accepting bribes after an investigation by Zhangzhou Municipal People's Procuratorate in southeast China's Fujian Province, the Supreme People's Procuratorate said.

Pan Yiyang, former vice chairman of the government of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, will defend himself against charges of accepting and giving bribes, the charges were put forward by the First Branch of Tianjin Municipal People's Procuratorate.

Guangzhou Municipal People's Procuratorate has initiated prosecution procedures against Song Lin, former chairman of China Resources Group, who is suspected of accepting bribes and embezzlement.

Deng Qilin, former chairman of Wuhan Iron and Steel (Group) Corp.,will stand trial on charges of accepting bribes, following an investigation by Foshan Municipal People's Procuratorate in south China's Guangdong Province.

Procuratorates informed the four defendants of their litigation rights, questioned the defendants and heard the opinions of their defense teams.
Theresa May has a thumping 33 point lead over Jeremy Corbyn in the latest opinion poll  bigger even than her Partys one over Labour, which itself is the largest for seven years. The Conservatives were not defeated last week in Richmond Park, since Zac Goldsmith stood as an independent. And they have just gained their best by-election result since the Falklands War at Sleaford and North Hykeham. In short, May faces the weakest opposition since the Michael Foot years, perhaps since the Second World War. That she has replaced a Tory leader in this Parliament provides a powerful reason, were others lacking, for her to stay in place until the 2020 election and perhaps well beyond. Furthermore, she has no obvious successor who commands support among Conservative MPs and party members. All this helps to explain why this site has suspended one of its regular features: our next Conservative leader survey.

Which brings us to Boris Johnson. May seems to have wanted a Brexiteer to lead the Foreign Office  and one, furthermore, who has the intellectual curiosity, oomph and star quality to give it a new sense of purpose after the collapse of its credo last June: that Britains place is in the EU. That meant sending for the former London Mayor. But theirs is not an easy relationship. She is a roundhead; he is a cavalier. She is Prime Minister; he thinks  it is fair to say  that he should be. Above all, she likes to control everything; he hates to be controlled. Leave aside for a moment the row over what he said about Saudi Arabia, and look back just a little bit further to last weekend. The Foreign Secretary said during the course of an interview on The Andrew Marr Show that students should be taken out of the immigration figures. It was then only the latest instance in a long history of Johnson freewheeling out loud  and, now that he is a senior Minister, freelancing to boot.

Blame him, if you like, for failing to play by the rules, act collegiately, grow up and, above all, become the serious statesman that his country needs at a time of instability abroad. Or blame her  and some of his Cabinet colleagues  for mocking him to his face, allowing briefing against him behind his back, and now sending out her spokesman to humiliate him publicly. Either way, there is a twin lesson to be learned from this weeks events, assuming that they are not to be dismissed as a storm in a Westminster teacup, rather than diagnosed as an open wound that risks infection. First, Prime Ministers are, as is sometimes said of Russia, seldom as strong as they look and seldom as weak as they look. For all Mays command of the domestic landscape, she cannot easily fire or demote a senior Brexiteer  let alone the one Conservative campaigner who can reach voters that others cant reach. She will have seen his powers at work as recently as last June.

Downing Street will have noted that the Foreign Secretarys friends at Westminster and in the media are out and about, joining with critics of the Saudis to applaud what he said, criticise the Prime Ministers handling of him, or both. No other leading Tory has that kind of backing. Which leads to the second point. Johnson campaigned for Brexit; she must now deliver it. They therefore need each other, and badly. Perhaps neither of them think so: he because he hankers after a kind of Vote Leave Government, led presumably by the star of that organisations referendum campaign; she because she believes that, ultimately, her administration can carry on without him. It doubtless could. None the less, George Osborne and Michael Gove are already stalking the backbenches; to send Johnson there too could create one problem too many. But whether so or not, what matters most is not the Conservative Partys internal complications but its public duty: to deliver an orderly Brexit. This falling-out is doing it no good, and is in danger of creating its own momentum.
Congratulations to Dr Caroline Johnson, the latest addition to the Parliamentary Conservative Party, on her victory in Sleaford and North Hykeham. Here is the full result of that by-election:

Conservative: 53.5 per cent (-2.7)

UKIP: 13.5 per cent (-2.2)

Liberal Democrats: 11.0 per cent (+5.3)

Labour: 10.2 per cent (-7.0)

Lincolnshire Independents: 8.8 per cent (+3.6)

Coming only a week after Zac Goldsmiths much-analysed defeat in Richmond Park ,there are three key things to note from the result:

This is what a Brexit by-election looks like. We were told endlessly by the Lib Dems that Richmond was a Brexit by-election, but if anything Sleaford lives up to the name rather better. For a start, it was actually triggered by the MP resigning over his discomfort with the Governments approach to Brexit  making it the undisputed topic at hand. Furthermore, this is one of the large majority of constituencies which voted Leave, whereas Richmond Park was unusual in being very strongly Remain. If, as we keep being told, Leave voters suffer Bregret or Bremorse, then surely we would expect to see it manifested in the vote share for pro-Brexit candidates?

It turns out Bregret is, well, a load of bralls. In this Brexit by-election, Brexit won hands-down. According to Chris Hanrettys excellent estimates, Sleaford and North Hykeham voted Leave by 61.5 per cent. The Conservatives and UKIP combined won 67 per cent of the vote, while the Lib Dems won just 11 per cent. Not only did a clear majority vote for the Governments position, and a further 13.5 per cent voted for something tougher, but the Lib Dems only managed to pick up less than a third of the former Remain voters whom they were targeting.

Tim Farron took the Richmond Park result to mean that the Government had no mandate for Brexit, and said his vision  continued Single Market membership, frustrating the process of Article 50 and a second referendum to try to keep us in the EU  had been resoundingly backed. The people of Sleaford and North Hykeham have reminded him that most constituencies are not Richmond Park, and even the minority who voted Remain in the referendum have resoundingly rejected his pitch.

No break-through for UKIP. The Peoples Army will be pleased to have come second, up from third in 2015, in their first post-referendum, post-May, post-Farage, post-Diane James, post-Stephen Woolfe, Nuttall-era by-election. But the result looks distinctly Pyrrhic  their rise in the table only came because the Lib Dems ate into the Labour vote somewhat. This part of Lincolnshire is traditionally Eurosceptic territory, though the local party has suffered numerous bitter splits, so if voters had believed the claim on UKIP leaflets that there were backsliders at work in the Government then they would have punished the Conservatives. As it is, the downside of a pitch based on holding the Governments feet to the fire is that if voters believe the Government are honouring the result, there is little for UKIP to gain. They will no doubt still boast of coming second, as is their right, while briefing that the real test of their new leader will come in a Labour heartland seat held by a Continuity Remain MP.

That Corbyn surge continues  downwards. When Labour were celebrating the Lib Dems victory over Goldsmith, it seemed a little unwise. Could they not see the danger in allowing a rival party to describe itself as the best home for disgruntled Remainers? Its a measure of how bad last night was for Labour that they are apparently telling journalists that fourth place isnt so bad, because some people had speculated that the Lincolnshire Independents might push them into fifth. As it is, they only beat the Independents by 471 votes, and have sunk from the being the supposed alternative to the Conservatives in Sleaford to an irrelevant-looking fourth place.

The outlook for Labour on every front is extremely grim. Not only are they struggling in the headline polls, but the story looks bad in detail, too. Wiped out in Scotland, and replaced as the Holyrood opposition by the Conservatives. Supplanted by the Lib Dems as the Continuity Remain option in places like Richmond Park. Sunk by strong Conservative campaigns in English seats like Sleaford. Next they will be squeezed in their heartlands by UKIP. A lot of their MPs will be worrying about a perfect storm in which their vote is hammered from every direction on every issue.
Telefonica, in partnership with ZTE, completed a live test of a massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) base station in Madrid, Spain. The pre-5G base station exceeded expectations, improving both network capacity and cell-edge data rate up to 6 times compared to traditional LTE macro base stations and reducing end-user interference through 3D-beamforming technology.



This is Telefonica's first pre-5G Massive MIMO trial in Europe.



ZTE said it has been working with Telefonica since October on a Pre-5G Massive MIMO programme in the Telefonica Headquarters in Madrid to assess its performance in hotspot and indoor coverage scenarios.



http://www.zte.com.cn/global/about/press-center/news/201612ma/1207






The People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy held a commemoration on Dec. 8 in Beijing to mark the 70th anniversary of the recovery of the Xisha Islands and Nansha Islands from Japanese occupation.

Admiral Wu Shengli, member of the Central Military Commission (CMC) and PLA Navy commander, delivers a keynote speech at the 70th anniversary of recovering the Xisha Islands and Nansha Islands in Beijing on Dec. 8, 2016. [Photo by Xie Luying / China.org.cn]

From November and December in 1946, China sent four warships  Taiping, Yongxing, Zhongjian and Zhongye  to recover the islands that were illegally occupied by Japan in the South China Sea, as per the stipulations of the Cairo Declaration and the Potsdam Proclamation. The Chinese government hence resumed sovereignty over these islands along with the adjacent waters.

In his keynote speech, Admiral Wu Shengli, member of the Central Military Commission (CMC) and PLA Navy commander, said that the commemoration was held to remember history.

"Recovering Xisha and Nansha Islands was a major achievement of China's war of resistance of invasion, which shows that China resolutely defends the post-WWII world orders. It is a national proclamation that China defends its sovereignty over the South China Sea," said Admiral Wu.

He stressed that the Chinese government always upholds the principal of "retaining sovereignty, setting aside disputes and making joint explorations" to resolve disputes through negotiations, manage differences through mechanisms and achieve win-win results through mutually beneficial cooperation.

China has been engaging in land reclamations in the South China Sea in recent years; the PLA Navy commander said that such activities are done "on China's own territory" so that they are "completely lawful, justified, and reasonable." He added that apart from necessary defensive installations, more facilities brought to the islands  such as those for maritime rescue, meteorology reports, navigation safety  are for international public interest.

He called on all countries concerned with South China Sea to respect history, preserve stability, enhance mutual trust and deepen cooperation, so as to make the South China Sea a sea of peace, a sea of friendship and a sea of cooperation.
The ocean and fisheries administration of south China's Guangdong province has started to investigate the slaughter of a protected giant sea turtle, after a video and photos of the incident were widely spread online, reports Beijing Youth Daily.

A giant leatherback turtle is trussed and tied to a trolley in Zhanjiang city of Guangdong Province on Tuesday, December 6, 2016. [Photo: Beijing Youth Daily]

The video shows that the turtle, reported to weigh 208 kilograms, was trussed and tied to a trolley after it was caught by fishermen. It was then butchered with a lot of blood spreading on the ground.

Local media reported that the turtle flesh was sold by villagers at 140 yuan (around 20 US dollars) per kilo and was sold out within two hours. It is estimated that the seller can earn at least 20,000 yuan from the sale.

Wang Yamin, a professor from the Marine College of Shandong University, said he can tell from the photos that it was a leatherback turtle, a second class national protected animal in China which is rarely seen. This leatherback turtle may have got to the area during a migratory tour, said Wang.

He said the turtle doesn't have special medical value, and it is illegal to eat it as it is a protected animal.

Beijing lawyer Chang Sha said killing leatherback turtles could be a criminal offense. She quoted the criminal law of China which stipulates that whoever illegally catches or kills precious and endangered species of wildlife under special State protection or illegally purchases, transports or sells such species of wildlife as well as the products thereof shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than five years or criminal detention and shall also be fined.

Chang said the fishermen might not have caught the protected animal on purpose, but they should realize the turtle is precious when they saw that it is giant. If they set it free on time, it will not be a criminal offense, said Chang. However, they slaughtered it and sold the flesh, which could be criminal offenses, she said.

Chang said that even if the turtle had died when the fishermen found it, they may still be subject to criminal or administrative punishment for selling the turtle when the cause of its death is unclear.

She added that the seller may be fined for selling the turtle flesh.
Hiring a 'daughter' for an island trip? This real story of a 63-year-old woman has attracted much attention online.

Hiring a 'daughter' for an island trip? This real story of a 63-year-old woman has attracted much attention online.

On December 7, the woman surnamed Li posted an advertisement on her WeChat moments, saying she is eager to visit the seas in Sanya, so she wants to hire a daughter aged 19 to 24 as a traveling companion.

Moreover, she promised to cover all the expenses, including flight tickets and hotel fees, and a brand-new iPhone 7 as a bonus gift.

Li told reporters, she's now living alone in Zhengzhou, central China's Henan Province, as her daughters are now working in Canada. She explained, she missed her children so much but afraid of bothering them. So she came up with this idea only for finding someone who can travel and talk with her.
In 1998 a villager in Linshui County quarreled with the village leader which resulted in the stabbing of the villager by the leader and his nephew.

Bao Yuzhen holds a photo of her dead husband, the villager, Fan Anyin. [Photo: Baidu]

In 2011, when the nephew turned himself in the county procuratorate was unable to prosecute him as they didn't have the case file. After a year, he was released on bail pending trial.

Bao Yuzhen, the widow of the victim sued the county procruatorate for negligence as the case file was unable to found and her husband not brought to justice.

In response, a special investigation team was jointly set up by the Linshui County government and Guang'an Police Bureau in southwest China's Sichuan Province to investigate the murder, reported scol.com.cn on Thursday.

As the case happened years ago, it will take some time for the team to investigate it. The local government promised to deal with it fairly and remain faithful to the facts.

The results of the investigation will be released when available.


D.H. Lawrence in Studies in Classic American Literature.

Never trust the artist. Trust the tale. The proper function of the critic is to save the tale from the artist who created it.
Networking News

Trump's Tax Repatriation Would Spur Massive Growth For Cisco And Its Channel, Say Partners

Mark Haranas

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As Cisco Systems CEO Chuck Robbins prepares to meet with President-elect Donald Trump next week, the company's partners are bullish that Trump's proposed tax repatriation plan will spur massive growth for Cisco and its U.S.-based partners.

"Repatriating capital is going to give American corporations a new chance to be effective and profitable in the U.S. and it's going to help the American worker, it's going to help the Cisco VAR, and it's going to help us all to grow," said Phil Mogavero, vice president of Advanced Technology Group network solutions and regional chief technology officer at El Segundo, Calif.-based PCM, ranked No. 28 on the 2016 CRN Solution Provider 500 list.

Mogavero said incentivizing technology giants such as Cisco, Apple and Oracle to bring back their billions currently overseas into the .US. through a one-time special tax rate would almost immediately spur economic growth within the channel community.

[Related: Huawei On Fire, Cisco Slips As Switch And Router Market Grows To $9.9 Billion In Q3]

In a recent interview with CNBC, Robbins said if Cisco repatriatse its more than $60 billion overseas capital back into the U.S., it would spur "a combination of dividends, buybacks as well as M&A activity."

"It would create jobs for Cisco, but also beyond that.  If we were to increase our dividend, then that flows through the mutual funds, which flows through to the middle class America, which flows through to make people feel better about their income.  I think all that is good for business," said Robbins.

Robbins is just one of several top technology leaders Trump's team has reached out to to attend a roundtable discussion Dec. 14 in New York, although an agenda and the executives who will be attending the meeting has yet to be released. Oracle, which also has billions overseas, confirmed to CRN that Co-CEO Safra Catz will be attending the meeting.

Trump has called for decreasing the U.S. corporate income tax rate from 35 percent  one of the highest rates in the world -- to 15 percent to boost hiring, innovation and expansion in the U.S. He also has advocated for a special tax holiday where corporations with overseas cash, like Cisco, would pay a tax rate of 10 percent on that income in an effort to bring the money back into the U.S.

"There's no denying that it would be a game-changer for Cisco -- absolutely," said Bill Smeltzer, chief technology officer of Seabrook, N.H.-based Focus Technology Solutions, a Cisco partner ranked No. 396 on the 2016 CRN SP500. "Cisco in terms of their speed of innovation and their whole build, buy, acquire that they've practiced, if they're able to speed the innovation of that up, it's a win for all Cisco partners and a win for consumers too."

The combined cash overseas from Apple, Cisco, Microsoft, Oracle and Google will total more than $500 billion by the end of 2016, according to a report by Moody's Investor Service. Smeltzer said if those companies moved their billions back into America, the benefit to the channel "would be phenomenal."

During Cisco's first fiscal quarter earnings report, Robbins said political uncertainly in global markets is causing service providers to slow down spending -- prompting the San Jose, Calif.-based networking giant to project as much as a 4 percent revenue decline for its upcoming second fiscal quarter.

In his interview with CNBC, Robbins said, "When there's uncertainty, companies don't spend and so the more clarity we have, which is the other reason I'm excited about this session next week -- regardless of your political views -- we can begin to get some clarity."

PCM's Mogavero said less regulation on businesses is key on many levels.

"Repatriating capital, that's simply math from my perspective because if you have billions of dollars just sitting in international markets and you can't bring it back because of the taxation, and now you say, 'We can bring it back and you're going to have either no taxation or much lower taxation' then you're going to stimulate investment and investment is going to lead towards more jobs in the U.S. and more growth in the U.S. and higher wages," he said. "We're going to give American workers a chance now because with less regulation, by not having to move that money offshore and move those jobs offshore, we can be much more competitive."
Storage News

Former EMC Execs Depart Dell Technologies, Churchward Exits Dell To Become DataTorrent's CEO

Joseph F. Kovar

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Two former EMC executives are leaving Dell Technologies just a few months after the company closed its acquisition of EMC.

Guy Churchward, president of the Core Technologies Division at Dell EMC, and Chirantan "CJ" Desai, president of the company's Emerging Technologies division, have either left or are in the process of leaving the company.

The departures add uncertainty to Dell Technologies at a time the company is wrestling with integrating Dell and EMC product lines and sales and channel teams.

[Related: Dell: EMC Buy Will End Legacy Perceptions Of Dell As A PC Company]

Dell Technologies reported on its fiscal third quarter financials on Thursday and its CFO, Tom Sweet, said the company expects there to be some "short-term disruption" as it integrates the Dell and EMC go-to-market activities.

"As [Dell EMC President] David Goulden stated in his internal email to employees, we have an amazingly talented bench of leaders within our product engineering groups and will promote from within. More information will be coming very soon," wrote a Dell Technologies spokesperson, in an emailed response to a CRN.

Churchward confirmed via email to CRN that he has resigned from Dell Technologies, and said he would temporarily remain with the company before joining DataTorrent, a San Jose, Calif.-based developer of data streaming technology.

Desai had yet to respond to a request for further information on his plans. Desai joined EMC in September of 2013 after spending time at Symantec and Oracle. EMC first set up its Emerging Technologies division at the time with Desai starting as president of the group.

Churchward joined EMC as in 2012 where he was initially in charge of that company's data protection business.

"I have resigned from Dell Tech but I am sticking around till the new fiscal year to make sure the team transitions well as this was been my home for a fair time and I have an extended family that are important to me," Churchward wrote to CRN.

Churchward also wrote that he is thrilled to be taking the position of president and CEO of DataTorrent.

"The team's ridiculously competent and the tech [is] already being used by a number of Fortune 10 companies in production. I firmly believe 2017 will be the pivotal year the market shifts to real-time stream-based apps and analytics so they have skated to the puck and I firmly believe it's close to arrival," he wrote.

The departures of Churchward and Desai reflect in part the cultural change going on at Dell EMC in the wake of Dell's blockbuster EMC acquisition, said one solution provider close to Dell Technologies.

Desai's departure appears to be more about where he wanted the combined Dell EMC software business to go, and where Dell CEO Michael Dell wanted to take it, the solution provider told CRN.

"Desai came from Oracle, and was very well respected at EMC," he said. "He's a smart guy, and very forward thinking. He was what EMC needed. But his departure seems to be him not being on board with where Dell is taking EMC."

Given that Churchward already has a new positioned lined up with Data Torrent, it is less likely his departure was due to the cultural changes, the solution provider said.

"It was a good chance for Guy to cash out and find a new opportunity," he said. "What is odd, though, is that Dell EMC made a big deal of his taking over as president of the company's core technologies business."

Churchward is a great, dynamic executive known for his straightforward way of working with peers and partners, but his departure so soon after the merger is complete will raise questions about Dell EMC's future, the solution provider said.

"In any big merger like this, when you say you will take a new roll in the combined company, people tend to believe your story and your commitment," he said. "But if you leave within a year, people wonder what is happening."

The departures of Churchward and Desai will have many wondering who is next, the solution provider said. "Customers like how VMware is moving to work closely with AWS in the public cloud," he said. "But many are not sure how long Michael Dell will support the Amazon model. Dell now has Virtustream. And while Dell is continuing to partner with third-party technologies, the company is also very focused on where it can own the technology on its own."
Laptop Face-Off

The lines are blurring between work and home computing -- something that new laptops from Dell and Lenovo are demonstrating. Both the updated release of Dell's XPS 13 and the new Lenovo Yoga 910 have plenty for users to love, whether home or work usage is the end goal. Because, after all, many people will be using their laptops for work and home alike. In the following slides, the CRN Test Center has the breakdown on how the new Dell XPS 13 and Lenovo Yoga 910 compare on specs and price.
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Rail passengers using London Victoria will no longer have to pay 50p to use the toilets at the station after Network Rail scrapped the charge.

On Tuesday (December 6) the company took the decision to ditch the controversial toilet charge at Victoria, London Bridge and Charing Cross stations.

Bosses believe that by doing this it will improve customer service relations with passengers.

The move comes after figures revealed that in the last nine years passengers have collectively paid more than 6.4 million to use Victoria station's toilets and face the highest fee in the country in order to use "top-of-the-range facilities".

Figures dating back to 2007, exclusively obtained by the Croydon Advertiser from Network Rail, show that the firm has raked in more than 37.5 million from passengers paying 50p, 40p or 30p at the 12 stations it owns across the UK where there have been charges for using the toilets over that time.

Over the last nine financial years Victoria has made the most money out of all those stations - a total of 6,416,572.60.

Euston has made Network Rail the second most amount of money over the nine-year period (4,893,034.63) and King's Cross ranked third (3,459,279.61).

Network Rail says any profits go to the upkeep of the stations and that the barriers at the toilets are there to prevent "overcrowding and potential illegal activity".

Separate information recently released also revealed that Victoria is the only Network Rail-owned station that was charging commuters as much as 50p to go to the toilet.

However, that charge - as of today - is no longer in place and passengers at London Bridge and Charing Cross will also now be able to use the toilets for free.

Network Rail says it has re-evaluated its customer service and decided it shouldn't be charging passengers to use its toilets at these stations.

A spokesman said: "Network Rail South East Route, which manages London Victoria, London Bridge, Charing Cross and Cannon Street, has stopped charging passengers to use the toilets at Victoria and Charing Cross.

"This brings those stations into line with London Bridge, which has not charged since the new concourse opened, and Cannon Street, which has not charged for some years.

"It will take us some time to assess the impact of that policy with regard to cleaning and security, and the costs involved in keeping standards as high as our expectations, so we are keeping an open mind.

(Image: Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)

"However, we do recognise that good customer service starts from the minute people walk into our buildings and we want them to feel welcome."

The company had previously explained that the 50p charge had been higher than that at other stations due to the fact that Victoria's toilets had recently been refurbished.

Passengers paying to use facilities at other Network Rail-run stations across the UK pay 30p a pop - apart from at Glasgow Central and Leeds where the tariff is 40p.

A Freedom of Information request by the Advertiser asked for figures over a ten-year period, but Network Rail said it does not keep data prior to the 2007/2008 financial year.

During that 12-month period passengers paid 281,302.01 to use the toilets at Victoria but in the following financial year this figure dropped sharply to 69,781.25.

However, in the 2009/2010 financial year the amount of money received by Network Rail rocketed by more than 1,000 per cent as passengers paid 789,580.45 to use the toilets at Victoria.

The amount of money raised that year made Victoria the most lucrative station.

This trend continued as Victoria came out on top over the next six financial years, making 764,310.17 in 2010/2011, 636,509.14 in 2011/2012 and 731,634.40 in 2012/2013.

The latest set of data released by Network Rail last month showed a continuing rise each financial year at Victoria and even smashed the 1 million mark - a figure which no other station has ever come close to.

In 2013/2014 passengers spent 886,205.78 to use the toilets, in 2014/2015 Network Rail received 862,518.43 and in the last financial year, 2015/2016, commuters paid a whopping 1,394,730.97 to use the toilets at Victoria station.

Explaining the price rise to 50p, a Network Rail spokesman had previously said: "Victoria station toilets have undergone a huge refurbishment recently and now offer top-of-the-range facilities including a full-time toilet attendant and showers.

"The price to use them has increased to reflect these changes and is on a par with other local amenities. This change has seen increased takings which are used to cover costs and are invested elsewhere in the station as Network Rail is a public company that ploughs any operating surplus back into the railway."

Total amount of money received by Network Rail from toilet charges:
Pricing for Carnival Corporation brands were up 1.4 percent over the next 12 months, according to J.P. Morgan, citing the monthly December 1, 2016 data report from Cayole, a global travel agency and data provider.

For Royal Caribbean Cruises last months pricing for the next 12 months was down 4.0 percent, while Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings was seeing a 0.7 percent price increase.

On a brand basis, for Carnival Corporation, Carnival, Holland America and Princess were driving the monthly price increase, while Costa and Cunard were under-performing, according to Cayole. Other brands were not mentioned.

On a market basis, the Caribbean, Alaska and Atlantic were up for Carnival brands, but Mexico, Canada and New England and Asia were down.

For Royal Caribbean Cruises, the Celebrity brand was seeing pricing for the year up during the last month, but not enough to offset a decline at Royal Caribbean International. Alaska and Hawaii were up, the Caribbean was flat year-over-year, while Europe was down. J.P. Morgan and Cayole did not report on pricing in Asia or Australia.

Norwegian was seeing price increases in Mexico, the Bahamas and Alaska last month, but Canada and New England along with the Caribbean were underperforming for the companys brands.

For Carnival and Royal Caribbean, European pricing has been down for the past 16 out of 18 and 17 months, respectively. Norwegian saw a slight price increase for its European cruises last month, the first positive price development since May 2016, according to Cayole.
The San Diego Bay Parade of Lights presented by the Port of San Diego takes place Sunday December 11 and Sunday December 18, featuring a display of vessels decked out in festive lights.

The parade starts off at Shelter Island at 5 p.m. both nights. Vessels will proceed to Harbor Island, the North Embarcadero area, Seaport Village and south to the Ferry Landing on Coronado. The entire route takes about two hours.

This year marks the parades 45th anniversary and vessels are anticipated to be decorated to fit this years theme: It Began with a Roar  San Diego Zoo Celebrates 100 Years.

The Port of San Diego will provide free, public viewing areas on Broadway Pier, 1000 North Harbor Drive, and Cesar Chavez Park Pier, located at Cesar Chavez Park, 1449 Cesar E. Chavez Parkway.

The Port of San Diego is proud to be the presenting sponsor of the San Diego Bay Parade of Lights, said Marshall Merrifield, chairman of the Board of Port Commissioners. This event brings so much enjoyment to our residents and visitors and showcases San Diego Bay in a way that is truly magical. The Port thanks all of its tenants and the participating boaters who make this event possible year after year.
The law of self-defense is an almost universally accepted concept. From the biblical eye-for-an-eye to the modern Castle Doctrine, private individuals have been accorded the right to actively defend themselves against personal attack. Perhaps the time has come to overlay this concept onto the cyber battleground.

George Washington Universitys (GWU) Center for Cyber & Homeland Security in 2016 released a spectacularly insightful and comprehensive analysis of the potential for the private sector to actively defend against cyber intrusion, exploitation, and attack.

Per the GWU report: Active Defense is a term that captures a spectrum of proactive cybersecurity measures that fall between traditional passive defense and offense. These activities fall into two general categories, the first covering technical interactions between a defender and an attacker. The second category of Active Defense includes those operations that enable defenders to collect intelligence on threat actors and indicators on the Internet, as well as other policy tools (e.g. sanctions, indictments, trade remedies) that can modify the behavior of malicious actors. The term Active Defense is not synonymous with hacking back and the two should not be used interchangeably.

The scope of an active defense

So, if Active Defense and hacking back are not synonymous, what exactly is the scope of Active Defense? How can these measures be applied, legally and properly, in the real world? What level of attribution is required for targeting an Active Defense campaign, and what measures may be appropriate according to actor and circumstance? Is there a role for the federal government in enabling active defenders and eliminating or restricting liability for these actions?

The Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms defines Active Defense as the employment of limited offensive action and counterattacks to deny a contested area or position to the enemy. Within the constraints of the military definition, the exercise of Active Defense seeks not to counter the adversary, it counters the capability or geospatial location (device). Within the reasonable constraints of the Private Sector, this definition serves as a practical model for returning fire. The adversary (nation-state, organization, server) are not targeted, but the specific attack or technology used to facilitate the attack are fair game. On a very localized level, Active Defense can involve self-evaluation with tools such as Shodan  to discover which of your devices are connected to the internet, where they are located and who is using them  and Metasploit  to target these discovered device and conduct a scripted vulnerability search.

The need for U.S. government support

With the growing number of technical attack vectors that include, in part, ransomware, Mirai botnets, remote access Trojans, and the like, Active Defense can entail increasingly severe or potentially damaging responses. The Department of Justice (DOJ), in conjunction with the Department of Homeland Security DHS), should issue public guidance to the private sector with respect to Active Defense measures that it deems appropriate.

Protections put in place by the 2015 Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) established a precedence for shielding private sector infrastructure providers against liability or regulatory/compliance actions for information sharing done in good faith for the benefit of all. In a perfect Active-Defense enabled environment, DOJ would decline to pursue criminal or civil action for Active Defense initiated in response to an event and designed to protect an entitys information or critical infrastructure assets.

Outhink and outmaneuver

United States Air Force Col. John Boyd (1927-1997) in his 1961 The Essence of Winning and Losing, describes his basis for success in aerial combat maneuvers as the theory of Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act (OODA) loop cycle. Boyd says every action is based on this continual loop and how fast a person (or in our case, a machine or its Human Machine Interface (HMI) operator) can process through it.

If you are able to reset the other persons OODA loop, you will be able to obtain valuable time you can use to perform your action prior to the other person performing theirs. A specific cyber example is the practice of tarpitting, which allows a tarpitted port to accept any incoming TCP connection. When data transfer begins to occur, the TCP window size is set to zero, so no data can be transferred within the session. The connection is then held open, and any requests by the remote side to close the session are ignored.

This means that the attacker must wait for the connection to timeout in order to disconnect. This delay protects the network, interrupts the adversary OODA loop, and allows an opportunity for measured human or automated response.

Automated response to attack

The OODA loop of a network occurs at speeds beyond human duplication. As such, prior planning, and equally important, prior permission, is vital to allow defending systems to delay or circumvent their adversarys OODA. One of the first commercial off-the-shelf tools to engage at network speed was created in 2004, when a company released a commercially available security platform that could execute appropriate countermeasures against a cyber threat.

The system offered user graduated response levels and offered a range of options for the user that exceeded the passive defenses of other security products. The company also created a white paper on potential rules of engagement that discussed the application of the military principles of necessity, proportionality, and countermeasures. This linked the capabilities of the new system directly back to Joint Publication (JP) 1-02 Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms, (2012) which described the concept of Active Defense.

Automated countermeasures arrived more than a decade ago

The graduated response allowed the operator, or the autonomous system, to implement challenging procedures, honeypots, quarantines, reflection, and blacklisting upstream providers in an escalating series of options. What it did not include within its toolkit was the vast resources of United States government. Among the Active Defense tools reserved for public sector are sanctions, embargoes, restrictions, and diplomatic demarches.

Putting the attribution issue to bed

As mentioned earlier, the shadow of responsibility and potential liability that falls upon the defender exercising Active Defenses has typically been one of attribution, followed immediately by necessity, proportionality, and countermeasures. A clever adversary will not conduct a direct attack, but create a botnet of vulnerable devices and systems (Mirai botnet utilizing the Internet of Things) or redirect traffic through an unprotected server, device, or network.

Attribution may be a traditional but unnecessary restraint when targeting, via Active Defense, the specific attack or technology used to facilitate the attack. With necessity, proportionality, and countermeasures in mind it is hard to continue making the argument that the difficulties in attributing cyber events would make Active Defense an inflammatory response.

There are no innocent systems

So, what to do with the innocent systems exploited for use in cyber intrusions? I propose that there are no innocent systems and the time has come to lean forward and clean up the cyber neighborhood. Imagine the house next to yours as abandoned, with unkempt landscaping and broken windows. Most municipalities have laws against such nuisance structures and rightly so. These laws were put in place because such structures draw adversaries (criminals), lower property values (network degradation), and create liabilities for those forced to interact (DDoS) or reside near (the internet) the nuisance estate. Cyberspace is no different.

An unprotected server, an unchanged factory password, and a lack of security development in parallel with software development creates the same adverse conditions in the cyber neighborhood. There is an arguable need for such nuisance or neglected systems to be isolated, blacklisted, or otherwise neutralized in order to protect the other residents. Just as in the physical realm, once an offending system is identified, the government should have the capability and fortitude to step forward and correct the situation. In the absence of or interim until government response corrects such a situation, those negatively affected by the situation (the cyber neighborhood association) should be empowered to take reasonable action to correct the problem and thus neutralize the adversary.

Summary

The right of self-defense is almost universal. The private sector, in defense of organizational assets and National Critical Infrastructure, should be granted that right as would be any corporal entity until such time as public sector (government) forces can be brought to bear on the offenders enabling party (nation-state). Active Defense does not equal hacking back. Properly applied and in keeping with the military principles of necessity, proportionality, and countermeasures, an Active Defense can target the attacking technology or device of the adversary without broader nation-state impact.

Automated systems exist that allow graduated, network speed Active Defenses. Techniques such as tarpitting delay an attacker and may allow a defender to defeat the adversarys OODA cycle loop, creating a tactical advantage and improving chances of victory.

Support of the US government via the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security, in the form of CISA-like liability protections, are essential to enabling Active Defense in the private sector.
Not unlike any other threat analyst, Marc Laliberte's email inbox fills up minute by minute. Some of which has made its way past the spam filter. The WatchGuard employee decided to finally act upon a certain phishing attempt in hopes of teaching the bad guys a lesson.

Spear phishing is a type of phishing attack in which the perpetrator customizes their attack to a particular individual or group of individuals. The attacker gathers information on the victim and then tailors the attack to be more likely to fool the target. The would-be attack arrived as an email appearing to come from the finance employees manager, requesting an urgent wire transfer.

Thanks to proper security awareness training, the finance employee recognized that the emails blatant disregard for the official chain of command and finance protocols was suspicious and alerted the proper personnel.

In most cases, companies don't have the time or resources to follow the bread crumbs back to the perpetrator. But in this case Laliberte set out to learn as much as he could by playing along with the attacker. He responded to the first email and the attacker replied, asking the finance employee to contact them via text to a phone number the attacker claimed was the managers personal line.

WatchGuard

The emails source address was a seemingly random seven-digit number at gmail.com. The attacker didnt try to spoof the message to make it appear to come from a WatchGuard account. Instead, the attacker relied on the messages From: header to fool the target. Most mail clients use the From: header to display who a message came from, and often the client only shows a senders first and last name. In this phishing email, the From: header showed the WatchGuard managers first and last name, which might convince uninformed employees that the message really did come from that manager.

Laliberte did some digging and found that the phone number provided by the attacker was registered as a landline through Level 3 Communications with an area code matching Jacksonville, Fla. He suspected that the attacker probably was never physically located in Jacksonville, instead, he likely used a forwarding service to send and receive text messages through this number. Attackers commonly leverage the global nature of internet and telephony services to hide the true location of their attacks.

Laliberte texted the attacker using a disposable phone number. A day later, the attacker replied and quickly got to the point, requesting an urgent fund transfer as payment for a shipment of WatchGuard Fireboxes arriving the following week. He kept the attacker on the hook by alluding that a money transfer was possible and asked for further details.

[ ALSO ON CSO: How to avoid phishing attacks ]

The attacker asked for a wire transfer of $20,000 to a man he claimed was in New York. Some quick research revealed that there were no fraud references related to the provided name. The attacker also sent account and routing numbers for the wire transfer itself. While providing bank account details adds legitimacy to transactions, it also increases the authorities ability to track payments in fraud investigations, making it risky for attackers to do. It appeared that the account details provided likely belonged to a compromised account that the attacker could quickly transfer money out of.

At this point, Laliberte had gathered all of the information the attacker would voluntarily share, but still had no clear picture of where he was located. However, the attacker did expect a wire transfer confirmation message. He masked the IP address (as seen below) of a honeypot server behind a URL-shortener and sent it to the attacker disguised as a confirmation link.

105.112.32.223 - - [22/Apr/2016:22:25:06 +0000] "GET /verify HTTP/1.1" 404 194 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 9_3_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/601.1.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/9.0 Mobile/13E238 Safari/601.1"

When the attacker visited the link, it redirected him to the honeypot server where Laliberte logged his source IP and browser User-Agent data. The attackers source IP was registered to Airtel Networks Limited, a mobile Telco out of Nigeria. The User-Agent data told Laliberte that the attacker was connected to the honeypot using an iPhone running iOS 9.3.1. This confirmed the hypothesis that the attacker was using a forwarding service to receive text messages through the Jacksonville phone number.

Though the attacker was in Nigeria, he used a bank account (TD Bank) that required a permanent US address, meaning the account was either compromised or the attacker had an accomplice in the US (often called a mule) who could retrieve any transferred money. Laliberte contacted TD Bank to allow them to begin an investigation on attempted fraud by someone with access to the provided account.

This spear phishing attempt makes it clear just how big of a problem these attacks are today. No spear phishing protection is perfect. Even with technological solutions like DMARC or S/MIME, phishing messages will still slip through and reach employees, he said. It is critical that IT professionals train their users on how to spot and report attempted phishing attacks. With the growth of spear phishing, organizations need to update their training programs to help employees learn how to spot these more convincing, targeted email scams.
Georgia's secretary of state says the state was hit with an attempted hack of its voter registration database from an IP address linked to the federal Department of Homeland Security.

The allegation by Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp is one of the more bizarre charges to come up in the recent spate of alarms about voting-system hacks. He said in a Facebook post on Thursday that he had been made aware of the failed attempt to breach the firewall protecting Georgia's voter registration database. The attack was traced to an Internet Protocol address associated with DHS, he said.

This morning I sent a letter to DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson demanding to know why, he said in the post.

The DHS said it had received the letter. We are looking into the matter. DHS takes the trust of our public and private sector partners seriously, and we will respond to Secretary Kemp directly, the department said in a statement.

The hacking attempt reportedly took place on Nov. 15, after the presidential election, according to the Wall Street Journal, which saw a copy of the letter.

[ RELATED: Q&A: The myths and realities of hacking an election ]

At no time has my office agreed to or permitted DHS to conduct penetration testing or security scans of our network, Kemp wrote in his letter. Moreover, your department has not contacted my office since this unsuccessful incident to alert us of any security event that would require testing or scanning of our network.

Kemp is also asking if the department has scanned any other states in the same way.

The hacking of local election systems in the U.S. was a major concern during this years presidential campaign. U.S. government agencies, including the DHS, had found evidence that hackers were probing state voter registration systems in the months preceding Election Day.

To prevent possible tampering, the DHS was working with some states on protecting their election systems. Among the services the agency was offering were "cyber hygiene scans. These scans were conducted remotely and designed to identify vulnerabilities in election-related online systems, DHS said.

Reportedly, Kemp had been resisting election security help from the federal government. Kemp said he was worried that the Obama administration was exaggerating the cyber threat to intrude on the state's authority, according to Politico.

I strongly believe that the U.S. Constitution mandates that the respective states manage the elections process," Kemp said in a statement in August. "I also believe it is important that every state and the federal government collaborate responsibly on best practices and the sharing of information."
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For teachers looking to break into Connecticut schools, Fairfield County offers plenty to be excited about, according to one new report.

Niche, a website which collects and analyzes public data on schools and neighborhoods, recently looked at where teachers are most likely to enjoy their employment in Connecticut, with a number of local schools ranking highly.
If you get a phone call asking for donations to the Connecticut Police Chiefs Association hang up.

Thats because the Connecticut Police Chiefs Association says it never conducts telephone solicitations.
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BRIDGEPORT  Writing books together is a lot like marriage, Eric D. Lehman and Amy Nawrocki say, and they should know.

The couple, married nine years, have explored their shared interests in food, wine, literature and history in several books. They are both English professors at the University of Bridgeport.

In both cases you have to trust the other person, Nawrocki said. We have a solid enough relationship to be open to critique and suggestions. I know Eric has my best interest in mind.

Lehman said that Nawrocki consciously tries to get her writing style closer to his, but sometimes she might write something I dont think is very good, and I have to tell her that. After so many years were each others best editor.

That doesnt mean that, in the morning, were not a little pissy about it, Nawrocki interjects. It hurts for a couple of minutes, maybe, but we both approach the revision process with an open mind and we want the writing to be as good as it can be.

On some projects, like their History of Connecticut Wine, the couple draws up an outline and then write alternating chapters. Well do an editorial wash to bring the two styles together, and I dont think most people can tell which of us wrote what, Lehman said.

Thats not to say that their writing styles are the same, or even similar. Nawrocki is a poet who has published several well-received collections, including her most recent, Reconnaissance.

More Information Excerpts of Lehman's and Nawrocki's writing On this day, September 16, 2016 We close this case to honor the present; you open this gift to harvest the past. Together, we are trees that bloom in Spring, the sea that returns to the sunlit shore; we are the arches that hold up the sky, the flame that lights the future - pass the torch. - Poem for the dedication of University Hall "It is a thirsty day. Blazing light shines on tall August corn. perfect cumulus clouds hang motionless in a feather blue sky and a soft breeze blows from the far-off peak of Mohawk Mountain.'' - From a History of Connecticut Wine "In that way, great writers perform a sort of magic, taking everyday words and arranging them into spells...'' - From Literary Connecticut: The Hartford Wits See More Collapse

Lehmans solo projects have tended to be histories of his adopted city and state, such as Homegrown Terror: Benedict Arnold and the Burning of New London and Becoming Tom Thumb Charles Stratton, P.T. Barnum and the Dawn of American Celebrity.

Nawrocki grew up in Fairfield and Newtown, and Lehman is a Pennsylvania native. They met at UB in 2001, when they were both adjuncts, but they really didnt know each other, Nawrocki said. Then a full-time position opened up in 2004 and we both went for it, and Eric got it.

Lehman said he had definitely noticed her by then. I said to myself This is the woman I beat out for the job. She probably hates me, I ought to make a gesture of something.

What he did was to recommend Nawrocki for another position, which she got and coincidentally  perhaps  ended up with an office across from his.

While they were honeymooning in Paris, Lehman got an idea for a romantic novella,  a broken man learns to live again kind of thing, not my usual book. That project, A Shadow of Paris, was published earlier this year.

Nawrocki teaches poetry and Lehmans courses include autobiography, adventure writing and the literature of travel. They live in Hamden, and Lehman has written Tales from the Sleeping Giant about that town.

As published authors as well as English teachers, the pair have a lot of credibility when they offer writing tips to their students.

We also both teach freshman composition, Nawrocki notes. Were making writers happen.

Among their best advice? Dont be afraid to revise and polish your work. Were constantly telling our students to be open to criticism, Lehman said.

And dont be afraid to explore new genres. Lehman recently collaborated with his wife on a poem that was engraved on a time capsule at University Hall, the new residence hall opened in September.

We wanted to offer an appropriate message for the next generation, Lehman said. Its going to be right there on the wall for years.

The couples books are available from Amazon and other retailers, and through their websites http://www.ericdlehman.org/ and https://amynawrocki.org/
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BRIDGEPORT A bit more progressive than the typical Democrat?

Willing to run a campaign without necessarily winning?

Thats what the Working Families Party is looking for on a statewide tour of disaffected progressives Connecticut versions of Bernie Sanders.

Organizers advertised a meeting held in Bridgeport Thursday night as an effort to harness our collective anger and do all we can to prevent Trumpism from taking hold of Connecticut.

Ive been involved with Bernie Sanders and so I know (one of the organizers), said Rose Czekala, 31, of West Haven, who studies nursing at the University of Connecticut. Im inspired because I have to figure out, like, instead of having Bernie as the spokesperson, what little things do I need to do and where do I need to pay my attention?

The party has held just under 100 meetings with a total of around 1,000 people in attendance, according to WFP spokesman Carlos Moreno. At Thursdays event, state Reps. Ezequiel Santiago and Steven Stafstrom, both Bridgeport Democrats, came to address the group.

Republicans will not be holding similar advocacy meetings to capitalize on his win, said state Republican Party Chairman J.R. Romano.

We have a problem in front of us, which is the economy, Romano said earlier Thursday. People need to go back to work, and were going to focus on those solutions. Were not looking to build these massive advocacy organizations to push a uniform agenda.

Romano called the anti-Trump sentiment divisive and said the WFP and Democrats were declaring war on anyone who disagrees with them.

Separating groups out  thats the Lefts agenda, he said. The rich versus the poor; white versus non-white. Theyve separated everyone out. he said.

At Thursday nights meeting, over pizza and soda at downtowns BPT Creates, there was about 30 minutes of scheduled emoting over the president-elect, his cabinet picks, and a roundup of progressive fears about a Trump administration.

But, said one organizer, Were not just here to talk about our feelings, were here to organize.

One of the most urgent and actionable areas is immigration, Moreno said. Education in Bridgeport was another topic of discussion.

As of right now, the city seems to use education as a political pawn, versus really focusing on the needs of the students, said Chinedum Chin Nnodum, 29, of Bridgeport, a writing tutor and graduate student at the University of Bridgeport.

Nnodum said hes considering running for the citys Board of Education, even if it was just to push existing members left.

I believe that the leaders of education in our city should be engaging first the students ... you cant expect the parents to come to you. you know that you have a working class city, he said.

For Czekala, the meeting was about getting back into politics. She admitted to participants that she hadnt voted in mid-term elections, or participated much in civic life.

I had Obama as the president, so it was like this imaginary safety blanket, she said.
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South Korean President Park Geun-hye addresses the nation at the presidential Blue House in Seoul, South Korea, Nov. 29, 2016. South Korean President Park Geun-hye said Tuesday that she will follow parliamentary decision including her shortened presidency. (Xinhua / Blue House)

South Korean lawmakers put forward a historic bill to impeach scandal-hit President Park Geun-hye early Saturday, after the opposition bloc heralded a vote on the motion on Dec. 9.

A parliamentary official told Xinhua on the phone that the bill was handed in to the relevant office at about 4:10 a.m. local time (1910 GMT).

It marks the second impeachment proposal since the country's constitutional government was launched about seven decades ago. The latest was in 2004 for late President Roh Moo-hyun.

The impeachment motion was filed with the National Assembly by 171 opposition and independent legislators. The ruling Saenuri Party, which has 128 lawmakers, refrained from taking part in the proposal.

The assembly's speaker Chung Se-kyun of the biggest opposition Minjoo Party failed to join the move for political neutrality rules, but he reportedly plans to participate in the vote.

Three main opposition parties, including the Minjoo Party, People's Party and the Justice Party, have agreed to vote on the impeachment on Dec. 9 when the regular session ends.

The impeachment motion states that President Park comprehensively and gravely violated laws and the constitution in her office for nearly four years. Park took office in February 2013.

It says Park's breach of laws and constitution was threatening enough to justify the expulsion of the president and that Park betrayed legitimacy and trust granted by the general public.

The constitutional violations, according to the impeachment bill, include the president's permission of her longtime confidante Choi Soon-sil and other associates of Choi to meddle in state affairs and influence the appointment of government officials behind the scenes.

Also included in the breach of the constitution is the government's initial bungling of rescue operations in one of the country's most devastating maritime disasters on April 16, 2014 when a passenger ferry Sewol sank in waters off southwestern South Korea.

Controversy arose over the whereabouts of the president for seven hours right after the ferry tragedy occurred. The impeachment bill says President Park failed to recognize what was happening during the "golden time" for rescue.

Park's inappropriate response to the disaster has been denounced for contributing the most to the death of over 300 passengers, mostly high school students on a class trip to the southern resort island of Jeju.

The infraction of laws referred to by the impeachment motion is the bribery. Park's decades-long friend has been charged with extorting tens of millions of U.S. dollars from large conglomerates to set up two nonprofit foundations controlled by Choi.

Prosecutors branded President Park as a criminal accomplice to Choi in multiple charges including abuse of power and extortion. The prosecution office was investigating whether Choi used her relationship with the president to grant business favors in return for donations.

The headquarters of Samsung Group was raided by prosecutors on suspicion that the country's largest family-run conglomerate bribed Choi in exchange for support from the national pension fund in last year's controversial merger of two subsidiaries of the group to create a de-facto holding company.

The offices of Lotte and SK, two of the country's top five chaebols, were also searched on charges of offering kickbacks to Choi in return for getting licenses for lucrative duty-free shop operation.
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Demand rose in South Korea for the impeachment of embattled President Park Geun-hye ahead of vote on it in parliament, a local poll showed on Thursday.

According to a Realmeter survey between Monday and Tuesday, 78.2 percent said the scandal-hit president should be impeached, up 2.9 percentage points from the previous week.

Those who go against the impeachment was down 0.4 percentage point to 16.8 percent this week a day before the impeachment motion is put to vote in the National Assembly's plenary session.

Last Saturday, the 300-seat assembly put forward the motion as Park's third address to the nation over her scandal enraged South Koreans further for the absence of her sincere apology to wrongdoings.

Park was branded by prosecutors as a criminal accomplice to her longtime friend Choi Soon-sil, who has been indicted on multiple charges including abuse of power and extortion. She became the first sitting South Korean leader to be investigated as a suspect.

To be passed through the unicameral assembly, the impeachment bill requires at least 28 ruling party lawmakers to vote in favor as there are 172 opposition and independent legislators.

Almost seven out of 10 South Koreans held President Park responsible for the initial bungling of government responses to one of the country's worst maritime disasters on April 16, 2014 when the sinking of ferry Sewol claimed over 300 lives, mostly teenagers on a school trip to the southern resort island of Jeju.

According to the survey, 67.4 percent said Park's responsibility for the catastrophe should be included in the impeachment motion. Some of ruling Saenuri Party lawmakers had opposed it.
Somerset County Treasurer will 'do what it takes' for best returns
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U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry spoke on phone with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on Thursday about continuing the discussion of a ceasefire in Syria, the U.S. State Department said.

"Secretary Kerry spoke by phone today with Foreign Minister Lavrov about the situation on the ground in Aleppo," said State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau here at the daily briefing, referring to a key battleground in Syria's civil war.

"They agreed to continue discussions about establishing a framework for a cease-fire that will allow the delivery of aid, of desperately needed humanitarian aid, as well as the safe departure of those who wish to leave the city," said Trudeau.

According to the spokeswoman, though Lavrov announced "technical discussions" in Geneva over the last weekend, the specific nature of the follow-on discussions were still being worked out.

Moscow and Washington have resumed consultations recently on the Syrian settlement after the U.S. suspended dialogue with Russia early October.

On Friday, Lavrov and Kerry met in Rome, where they agreed on a plan that would allow all militants to withdraw from eastern Aleppo.

Lavrov and Kerry met again in Hamburg, Germany, on Wednesday to discuss the ongoing multilateral efforts to achieve a cessation of hostilities in Aleppo, according to the U.S. State Department.
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Britain faces an unprecedented level of threat from terrorism and warfare, the new head of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), Britain's top secret security agency, said in his first speech Thursday.

In what was a rare public appearance by a security chief, Alex Younger, known in the security services as "C", said: "As I speak, the highly organized, external attack-planning structures within Daesh (IS), even as they face military threat, are plotting ways to project violence against the UK and our allies without ever having to leave Syria."

Despite the unprecedented level of threat, from terrorism or hybrid warfare, Younger said his message was one of confidence. Many of the threats, he said, came from ungoverned spaces in Iraq and Syria.

Younger said at the meeting that British intelligence and security services had disrupted 12 terrorist plots since June 2013.

He said MI6 would "continue to give this country the edge and be an important reason why, in the face of an increasingly complex world, Britain can remain secure, prosperous and confident, in the future, just as it has been in the past."

Younger also paid tribute to the people he called "the brave men and women, officers and agents, who work at great personal risk to keep this country safe."

While recognizing MI6's "deserved reputation as one of the best intelligence services in the world", Younger acknowledged that this would only remain the case if MI6 evolved with the seismic shifts that the data age and globalism had caused."

A statement added: "Alongside the values that MI6 defends and which define its operations, it would be their "relationship with modern technologies that would determine their effectiveness in the future."

Younger's speech was given to an audience of journalists, driven in a fleet of vehicles to MI6's headquarters on the banks of the River Thames in London. It was the first time a serving chief had spoken publicity about the security service from within its own headquarters.
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The Chinese government, through the ministry of science and technology, on Wednesday donated four modular container clinics to the Kenyan ministry of health to boost response to killer diseases in underserved Kenyan regions.

Developed by an institute under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the state-of-the-art mobile clinics will deliver advanced health care services to disadvantaged communities in Kenya.

Speaking at the handover ceremony of the mobile health facilities in Nairobi, the Economic Counselor at the Chinese Embassy in Kenya, Guo Ce, said that Sino-Kenya bilateral cooperation in healthcare delivery had reached a critical milestone.

"The modular container clinic project is an important step under the program for healthcare science and technology," Guo remarked, adding that customized mobile containers could be a respite to healthcare delivery challenges in remote parts of Kenya.

The mobile clinics are assembled using modern Chinese technology and their design is sensitive to the local environment in Kenya.

These facilities, which will be operational from February next year, will offer convenient screening and treatment of fatal ailments that blights communities in marginalized areas.

Guo said the donation of container modular clinics reaffirmed China's commitment to helping African countries improve health care services against a backdrop of a rising burden of infections and lifestyle diseases.

Errol King, Director of Synergy Innovations Limited that has partnered with the Chinese to implement the modular container clinic project in Kenya, said the project will offer durable solution to the country's endemic health care provision challenges.
More than 40 years ago, I watched young officers and men of the British Army perform a duty they had never in their wildest dreams expected to have to face: they fought for their lives against enemies of the Queen on streets and in fields of the United Kingdom.

Bewilderment was etched on their faces as they deployed for the first time amid flaming buildings and shrieking fanatics on Belfast's Falls Road in August 1969.

'Are these people savages, then?' demanded a young squaddie, gazing upon the rival sectarian mobs banging dustbin lids and baying hatred at their foes.

Around 1,000 former sevicemen, many now in their 60s and 70s, will have their actions brought under scrutiny in the legal inquiry

And indeed there was plenty of savagery in the Ulster Troubles which persisted through four decades, at bitter cost in lives and treasure  not Irish treasure, but our own cash. The British Army was called upon to hold the ring between Catholics and Protestants, then to battle against terrorists of the Provisional IRA bent on murdering soldiers and policemen.

Some men and women of the security forces died in street firefights, others at the hands of snipers who vanished after firing a single shot, others again in rural ambushes and after detonating hidden booby traps.

For all the attention lavished on tragic military lapses and blunders such as Bloody Sunday in Derry in 1972, for the most part the British Army did its thankless job with exemplary courage, devotion and good humour. Thank God it is all over now.

Or is it? This week, it has been revealed that the newly created Legacy Investigations Branch of the Police Service of Northern Ireland could reopen some or all of the 302 cases of deaths caused by the UK Armed Forces.

Former soldiers who served in Ulster and are now long retired, men in their 60s and 70s, could have to answer questions and even face charges over episodes in which they were involved in the Seventies and Eighties.

MPs have hit out at the investigation and described the new probe as a 'witch hunt'

British Army soldiers patrolling streets of Nationalist West Belfast during The Troubles in 1973

Such an adventure in archaeology, funded by the taxes of you and me, represents a monstrous injustice for many reasons.

First, it is wrong that men, and maybe a few women, who did their duty under the Union Flag all those years ago should be subjected to anxiety and perhaps calumny by a battery of lawyers interested only in enriching themselves and advancing the political interests of the Republican faction in Ireland.

It is bad enough that such terrorists as Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness have waxed fat for so long at our expense, since their retirement from the killing game.

But it becomes intolerable when past crimes of the IRA and Protestant paramilitaries remain largely unpunished, while the actions of the security forces in uniform are subjected to yet another dreary and costly official inquiry process.

We are told that terrorist murders will also be investigated. But the cost will be enormous and it is wildly unlikely that any convictions will result, partly because successive British governments have conceded pardons for a wide range of terrorist crimes  though not for the actions of the security forces.

Beyond this, I am sceptical about all legal proceedings concerning events that took place decades ago. I was in Derry on Bloody Sunday but refused to give evidence to the Saville Inquiry 30 years later because I could remember so little about what I saw. Threatened with a subpoena to appear, I told inquiry officials I would be delighted to have a day in court against them  and heard no more.

But lawyers seeking clients to represent in cases about the Mau Mau in Kenya in the Fifties, former EOKA terrorists in Cyprus and Irish Republicans have become disease-carriers, plaguing our society. The more money one lot extracts on behalf of one group of alleged victims, the more loudly others bay over long-filled graves.

Terrorist suspects accused of killing civilians or British soldiers during The Troubles are largely not being investigated

We are becoming an increasingly childish society, accepting personal responsibility for less and less while seeking to heap blame on others for more and more. A grown-up people would recognise that after a certain lapse of time, the only wise course is to move on.

Those who carry arms in the name of the Queen must, of course, be held accountable for their actions.

If soldiers abuse their power, they must pay the price before a court martial. They fight in the name of freedom, democracy and the rule of law. When they break the law, as a few do, they compromise the cause they represent.

But lawyers today are completely out of hand on the battlefield, chiefly because of the pernicious consequences of human rights law.

Some senior officers are gravely alarmed at the damage being done to military effectiveness and morale by an obsessive preoccupation with possible legal sanctions, at the expense of operations.

Lawyers were attached to every unit operating in Iraq and Afghanistan, and sometimes called upon to arbitrate on the 'proportionality' of air or artillery strikes in the middle of firefights.

Officers in today's Army are not frightened by the prospect of a bloody battle but by the risk of having their careers destroyed, or going to prison, for some breach of the enemy's human rights.

A new probe has been launched into all 302 killings by British troops in Northern Ireland during The Troubles

Britain's judges, including the highest, have shown a dismaying remoteness from reality in some of their recent decisions in this area, notably by concluding that human rights law can apply when Britain is conducting military operations abroad.

We are an ever more civilianised society, most of us lacking personal experience of war's horrors, demands and dilemmas. Lawyers, including a shocking number of judges and coroners, act as if firefights can be subjected to forensic investigations similar to those that follow passenger aircraft crashes.

They cannot and should not be. In the words of Lord Tedder, the great airman who was Deputy Supreme Commander for the 1944-45 liberation of Europe, 'war is organised confusion'.

It is wrong that civilian coroners are allowed to pass ignorant and often foolish judgments on deaths in the heat of military action, laying blame on named officers and soldiers. It is even more mistaken for police in Northern Ireland to consider reopening inquiries into past killings by British soldiers, most of them entirely proper in the circumstances of the moment.

How can we propose to inflict new traumas on veterans, some of whom went through experiences we can scarcely imagine?

A British government spokesman yesterday expressed concern that almost all investigations of historic killings address the doings of soldiers or policemen. When they killed innocents, they did so by accident. Gerry Adams's friends, by contrast, did this as a matter of policy, yet most have been granted a free pass for their ghastly crimes.

The vast majority of violent deaths in Northern Ireland between 1968 and the 21st century  more than 3,000 in all  were the work of Republican or Loyalist terrorists.

The latest commitment to new investigations suggests an equivalence between killings by terrorists and those by the security forces. This is entirely spurious.

It is one thing to uphold the rule of law by punishing government servants guilty of wrongdoing, quite another to display the sort of masochism to which we seem prey today, by hounding men and women for their roles in the service of the Crown one, two or even three generations ago.

We should stop abusing the word 'hero' to describe anybody who served in uniform anywhere in a war zone. Soldiers are like the rest of us  a mix of the good, the bad and the ugly.

But most do a dangerous and difficult job pretty well, so the rest of us may sleep easier in our beds. This they did in Ulster, in the latter years of the last century.
Just when it appeared that the shameful witch-hunt of British troops who served in Afghanistan and Iraq was coming to an end. Just as the sleazy 'human rights' lawyer Phil Shiner finally faces his comeuppance from regulators for his immoral touting for business (a fact exposed by this newspaper).

And just weeks after Theresa May assured us there would be no more vexatious hounding of the 'bravest of the brave', a new front opens in the relentless persecution of our armed forces.

More than four decades after Bloody Sunday, and eighteen years after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, police in Northern Ireland are to investigate anew all 302 killings by the Army during the Troubles.

Around 1,000 ex-servicemen  many now in their 60s and 70s  will fear the knock at the door from the Orwellian-sounding Legacy Investigation Branch.

Around 1,000 former sevicemen, many now in their 60s and 70s, will have their actions brought under scrutiny in the legal inquiry

MPs have hit out at the investigation and described the new probe as a 'witch hunt'

Officers insist they will be even-handed and examine the thousands of murders committed by Republican  and some Loyalist  terrorists. But isn't it inevitable their focus will end up on British soldiers?

As we know all too well, the IRA's victims were often 'disappeared'. With no hope of finding a body there is little chance of a successful prosecution.

Nor is there any hope of bringing to justice the 187 IRA terrorists given immunity in shameful and illegal secret deals stitched up by the Blair government  like alleged IRA terrorist John Downey who escaped prosecution over the slaughter of four Household Cavalrymen in a nail bomb attack in Hyde Park.

How skewed are the scales of justice that they sleep soundly in their beds at night while soldiers they would merrily have murdered could be put on trial.

And of course, there is still no justice for countless victims and the bereaved from IRA atrocities like the Birmingham and Omagh bombings.

Meanwhile, after the ordeal of the 12-year Saville Inquiry, seven soldiers could face prosecution over Bloody Sunday.

And all the while, IRA leaders like Gerry Adams and his henchman, Martin McGuinness, parade around like avuncular elder statesmen, knowing they will never face a single question about their bloodsoaked pasts.

The origins of this fresh outrage may pre-date Mrs May's arrival in Downing Street, but she must do everything in her power to bring it to an end. Otherwise, there won't be a single soldier left in the land prepared to fight for his country.

British Army soldiers patrolling streets of Nationalist West Belfast during The Troubles in 1973

We are told former chancellor George Osborne still believes he has a serious future in politics. If so, wouldn't he be well advised to keep his head down, tend to his constituents and try to restore the credibility he destroyed during Project Fear, instead of charging around the world filling his boots with 500,000 from speaking engagements? It was exactly this kind of obscene wealth being made by the elite for so little effort that prompted many disenfranchised voters to back Brexit  not that George will ever understand that.

The next time sanctimonious Channel 4 News presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy mounts his moral high horse perhaps he will tell the programme's few viewers how he justifies receiving 15,000 to host an aid conference in Mexico.

And while he is at it, perhaps International Development Secretary Priti Patel  a woman of some courage  can justify this mad use of taxpayers' money?
Call me an old cynic, but I'm sure that many others shared my first reaction to this week's news that a Chinese investment company had bought the pub down the road from the PM's Buckinghamshire retreat: the clear motive was espionage.

Before we knew it, I reckoned, every beer pump and urinal would be fitted with a microscopic camera and every table and bar stool would be wire-tapped to eavesdrop on VIP customers taking a break from talks at Chequers, with any indiscretions beamed instantly to Beijing.

After all, the Plough at Cadsden has been a favourite haunt of British Prime Ministers and their eminent guests since long before it achieved its more recent fame as the hostelry in which David and Sam Cameron accidentally abandoned their daughter Nancy, then aged eight, after a family lunch.

For the Chinese, it attracted particular attention in October last year as the place where Mr Cameron took their President, Xi Jinping, for fish and chips and a foaming pint, to give him a taste of authentic British culture.

My suspicions were immediately aroused by the fact the Plough wasn't even on the market when the Chinese state-backed firm SinoFortone started bidding for it

Totalitarian

My suspicions were immediately aroused by the fact the pub wasn't even on the market when the Chinese state-backed firm SinoFortone started bidding for it, with its owner Steve Hollings finally settling for an irresistible sum reported to be about 2 million.

Why were the company's bosses, who usually deal in multi-billion pound contracts such as London's Crossrail 2 project, suddenly so desperate to acquire a modest country pub (though it immodestly describes itself on its website as 'probably the most famous pub in England')? Why, if not for the possibility of overhearing juicy morsels to pass on to their political masters?

But then, the Chinese seem to be buying absolutely everything these days.

Tap into Google the words 'China buys', as I did yesterday to refresh my memory about the Plough, and the first suggestion that comes up is 'China buys Zimbabwe'!

This is followed by 'China buys Hollywood', 'China buys U.S. debt' and 'China buys Liverpool'.

Meanwhile only yesterday, agents of the Chinese state added a hefty stake in our National Grid's gas pipeline business to a portfolio that includes chunks of Hinkley Point nuclear power station, water and property companies, Britain's leading developer of artificial intelligence and even Weetabix.

I won't pretend I care deeply about who owns the producers of our breakfast cereals. Nor in most circumstances would I much mind who owned our pubs, as long as they ran them properly and didn't muck about with them too radically.

But, free marketeer though I am, with a firm belief that assets should generally be sold to the highest bidder, I can't help feeling queasy about handing over swathes of our vital national infrastructure to totalitarian China  a country with an appalling record of political and industrial espionage and no obvious concern for the interests of the people who depend on its companies for water, energy and transport.

Can it really be wise to let agents of such a state buy a pub frequented by thirsty British ministers, senior civil servants, military top brass and visiting heads of state?

Perhaps I'm being neurotic, and should take SinoFortone's boss on trust when he says that the idea of buying the Plough is to learn about British pub culture, with a view to fostering understanding between nations and opening a chain of similar watering holes in China and around the world.

Says managing director Peter Zhang: 'We are so excited about this new adventure. The English pub concept is growing very fast in China and it's the best way culturally to link people from different countries and build friendships. We see bigger opportunities where we believe we could also export the UK brand internationally.'

For the Chinese, the Plough at Cadsden attracted particular attention in October last year as the place where Mr Cameron took their President, Xi Jinping, for fish and chips and a foaming pint, to give him a taste of authentic British culture

Character

If what he says is true, it raises a question of an entirely different order from concerns about national security. Put simply, it is this: can an institution like the British pub retain any of its true character if it is uprooted from its native soil and plonked down on the other side of the world?

Having stumbled into the odd Irish-themed pub in London  none of which has anything like the atmosphere of the Dublin bars on which they are modelled  I'm inclined to believe the answer is 'no'.

After all, if an institution can't survive a journey across the Irish Sea with its nature intact, how much less chance can there be of its surviving a 5,000-mile trip from the Buckinghamshire countryside to China?

For one thing, national tastes differ enormously. Though many will disagree  particularly among the ice-cold, fizzy lager-swilling young  in my book, the only drink fully compatible with the authentic British pub experience is a pint of hoppy local bitter, served at cellar temperature.

But though this to me is the most delicious drink in the world, as Guinness is to the average Irishman, only a very rare foreigner seems to enjoy it.

Indeed, in the photographs of his visit to the Plough, President Xi has the wary look of a man who would much prefer to be drinking a slug of baijiu, the sorghum-based 'Chinese vodka'. It seems you have to grow up with bitter to appreciate it.

In the same way, I suspect the average Chinese diner would take some convincing that a pub pork pie is a culinary delight, with most preferring something more ricey or noodly.

Authentic

But tastes can be acquired, I suppose, and it may be possible to accustom the Chinese palate to a ploughman's lunch or chicken-in-the-basket, just as Britons have learned to love chow mein and crispy duck.

What I suspect cannot be transplanted to the People's Republic is the ethos of the English pub, rooted as it is in the national temperament.

If the bosses of SinoFortone want to find out what I mean, I suggest they postpone their inquiries until after the festive season. For the run-up to Christmas, when amateur drinkers pay their annual visit to the local, is the worst time of year to study what makes a proper pub tick.

Though these people have had 12 months in which to decide what they want to drink, they've never made up their minds by the time they reach the bar, asking endless questions about wines and cocktails on offer. (Cocktails??? In a pub??? It's sacrilege!!!) And when it comes to paying, they faff around with credit cards instead of having the right change ready.

Meanwhile, we thirsty regulars are left scowling as we wait to be served  unless we're lucky enough to catch the barmaid's eye. Then, if she's properly trained, she will immediately break off what she's doing to pull us our usual, without waiting to be asked.

No, if the Chinese want to grasp the essence of the British pub, they should wait until January when the amateur drinkers have retreated for another year, leaving the local to us regulars.

There they will find us, in Britain's last bastions of political incorrectness, staring gloomily into our pints and exchanging full and frank views on feminists, jobsworths, the nanny state  and, yes, our political leaders  without fear of being hauled before the authorities or dragged off to re- education camps.

Could such havens of free speech flourish in totalitarian China? Somehow I doubt it.
Prince Harrys hotting-up romance with American actress Meghan Markle  he bunked at her Toronto flat this week  suggests marriage is imminent.

Suppose Meghan is the one but prefers to pursue her showbiz career while a princess.

Will Harry follow his heart (marry her) or his head (not marry her)?

Blossoming romance: After almost three weeks apart, Harry, left in London today, and Miss Markle enjoyed a low-key weekend inside Miss Markle's apartment. The actress appeared to spend Saturday preparing for her boyfriend's arrival the following day, pictured right

Jet set: Following his tour of the Caribbean, Harry had been scheduled to return immediately to Britain on a commercial flight funded by the taxpayer. However he later took a different flight to Toronto, where Miss Markle is based while filming US legal drama Suits

Beaming: Meghan Markle was seen buying fresh flowers in Toronto on Saturday, just 24 hours before Prince Harry boarded a plane to see her. She was also seen stocking up on groceries during a supermarket trip ahead of her boyfriend's romantic two-night stopover

If they do marry and produce issue during the Queens reign, their children will be commoners.

If the mites arrive when Harrys father is on the throne, however, they can expect to be His or Her Royal Highness.

Understanding royal rules makes studying particle physics seem like a doddle, admits my source.

So why did the renowned, Scots-born, US-based academic Niall Ferguson, 52, make what he now admits was the biggest mistake of his career  coming out against Brexit?

He allowed himself to be got at by (then PM) David Cameron and (then Chancellor) George Osborne, who begged him to back Remain, confides a City friend who asked him the same question. More fool him?

BBC political editor Laura Kuenssbergs Journalist of the Year prize from the British Journalism Awards upsets commentator and ex-Radio 4 Today programme editor Rod Liddle, who declares: Its nothing to do with her politics.

'Its just the other bit of journalism thats missing. The writing-it-down stuff.

Honouring Laura, 40, meant the prize got mentioned by the BBC. Was this a consideration among organisers?

Comedian Jack Whitehall discovered while hosting the Fashion Awards that jokes must not be made about American Vogues so-important editor, Anna Wintour, 67

Comedian Jack Whitehall discovered while hosting the Fashion Awards that jokes must not be made about American Vogues so-important editor, Anna Wintour, 67.

Talking about the fad among fashion folk  mannequin challenge: freezing in public like mime artistes  he jested: If you need any tips on how to do it, just check out Anna Wintour.

'That frozen-faced lady has been perfecting it long before it was even a thing.

Ms Wintour who was present, didnt (or perhaps couldnt) laugh or smile. Neither did anyone else dare.

My November 24 column said that Matt Lucas went off the radar after the death of his ex-partner Kevin McGee in 2009.

We are happy to clarify that Mr Lucas has been involved in numerous successful stage, TV and film projects in the past seven years, and accept that he did not himself say I am destroyed after Mr McGees death.

We apologise to Mr Lucas for the distress caused.

The Garrick Clubs closed-circuit camera system has recorded an unusual incident in the Irving Room.

Says the club diary: A lady guest who was rather the worse for wear ended up performing a sort of rugby tackle on a distinguished club member, bringing him to the ground.
Invoking the fashionable, sneering buzzword of the political class and the BBC, David Cameron (remember him?) tells an American audience that he was brought down by the forces of populism. He still doesnt get it, does he?

To set the record straight, he lost the EU referendum because the electorate whose intelligence he insulted was tired of being lied to and ignored by the political elite.

In Downing Street, Mr Cameron made huge mistakes, yielding so readily to his arrogant Lib Dem Coalition partners that he often seemed more in tune with them than with voters, whose hospitals, schools and job prospects were under ever increasing strain from mass immigration.

Invoking the fashionable, sneering buzzword of the political class and the BBC, David Cameron tells an American audience that he was brought down by the forces of populism

Apparently more interested in wind farms and gay marriage than addressing the publics pressing concerns  whether about border controls, the scandal of misspent foreign aid or the human rights racket  he came across as part of an out-of-touch, we know best clique.

Yes, he deserves credit for keeping the economy on the rails (though at horrendous cost in debt). But lets face it, he owed his Tory majority in 2015 largely to his extraordinary luck in finding himself up against the unelectable Ed Miliband and the fear that Labour would form an axis with the Scots Nats.

Then came his, frankly, appalling misjudgements over the referendum.

If only Mr Cameron had been straight with the public, he could have held on. As soon as it became clear that our EU partners would offer no meaningful concessions, he should have told voters that, sadly, he was unable to recommend the renegotiated deal.

Instead, he treated the public like idiots, pretending he had secured significant reforms, while insulting them further with Project Fears infantile hysteria.

If only Mr Cameron had been straight with the public, he could have held on

Only now does he tell his US audience (in return for a rumoured hefty fee) that he wonders how long the euro can last after inflicting decades of lost growth on countries shackled to the one-size-fits-all currency.

This paper does not recall him issuing any such warning during the referendum campaign. Nor do we remember him sneering that voters who gave him power last year were the victims of populism.

No. Like Hillary Clinton in the US and Matteo Renzi in Italy, who also took voters for granted, Mr Cameron can blame only his own hubris for his woes. He was brought down by democracy.

On course for Brexit

This has been an excellent week for Theresa May. First she secured a huge Commons majority for triggering Brexit before April. Now her triumph has been crowned by a solid by-election result in Sleaford and North Hykeham.

Remember how only seven days ago Lib Dem leader Tim Farron hailed his partys victory in Richmond Park (a constituency of millionaires, where the Tories didnt stand) as an emphatic rejection of Brexit, the 2015 election and, ludicrously, of Donald Trump too?

This has been an excellent week for Theresa May

The result, he said, would change the direction of British politics. Funny, isnt it, how quiet hes gone since his party slunk in third at Sleaford, with just 3,606 votes, behind a poorly performing Ukip? As for Jeremy Corbyns Labour, beaten into fourth, the Mail will not intrude on private grief.

So much for a change of direction. Mrs May and Brexit remain bang on course.
When Wayne Meyers woke up in hospital he was shocked to find out he had been married for years and had four loving children.

When he saw the mother of his kids for the first time, he simply said: 'So, I've been told you're my wife'.

The year was 2009, but he could scarcely believe that Prime Minister Bob Hawke was no longer calling the shots.

And he was amazed at how much the Holden Commodore had changed.

Lost memories: Mr Meyers was struck by severe amnesia after he passed out from dehydration and heat stroke

Forgotten: Wayne Meyers had no memory of his wife Sharleen (right) or his four children. The young couple are pictured in 1995 with their eldest son

Days earlier the forklift driver from South Australia pulled his car to the side of the road and passed out from severe heatstroke and dehydration.

When he woke up in hospital he had lost 20 years' worth of memories.

'The last thing I can remember was waking up in the hospital bed. The nurse was filling me in on what had happened to me,' Mr Meyers told Daily Mail Australia.

'No one knew about the memory until they started asking me questions. I was stuck around 1989. I had idea where I was or what day it was.'

The biggest shock came when the nurse told Mr Meyers, 46, that his loving wife was there to see him.

'I had no idea that I was even married or who my wife was going to be,' Mr Meyers said.

'When she came I asked her if she was my wife and she said yes. It must've been pretty hard on her.'

Winding back the clock: Sharleen and Wayne are pictured on their wedding day in 2004

Falling back in love: The couple had another marriage ceremony in 2014. 'No one gets to marry the same person twice,' Sharleen (left) said

Wife Sharleen, 40, did not expect things to be easy in the wake of her husband's accident but she thought, with time, things would get back to normal.

She was wrong.

'I expected to go back the following morning and for things to be back to normal,' she said.

'But his memory was not back. I was taken aback, but you have to prepare yourself for what you can do.'

In the days that followed, she set about the painstaking task of helping him catch up on the last two decades.

'I left the hospital after a couple of hours and you could see he was always worried about whether he was doing or saying the right things,' she said.

'We started going through the photo albums. The more we did, the more I realised he remembered nothing.'

Tying the knot: Wayne and Sharleen are pictured with their four children at their second wedding in 2014

Devastating: This picture of Sharleen (left) and Wayne (right) was taken just two days before he lost his memory

WHAT HAPPENED TO WAYNE MEYERS' MEMORY? Wayne Meyers suffered severe heat stroke and dehydration after working in 46 degree heat. When he drove home he accidentally put the car's fan on instead of the air conditioning. Feeling faint, he pulled over to the side of the road and passed out. Doctors believe the dehydration was what caused his severe retrograde amnesia. Wayne was speaking out about the experience to emphasise the importance of staying hydrated when working in extreme heat. Advertisement

The world had undergone enormous change in 20 years and Mr Meyers was constantly amazed by the things he saw.

'A lot of things have changed. I couldn't figure out how our flat screen TV was working. The last thing I remember were the old tube TVs,' he said.

'Mobile phones, computers. When I left the hospital and saw my 2003 Holden Commodore I realised that technology had definitely changed.'

Wife Sharleen and their four children - three sons and one daughter - would sit him in front of the laptop and use YouTube to show him the major events of the past two decades.

'The internet was amazing to teach him about the world,' Mrs Meyers said.

'He didn't know about the Bali bombings or 9/11 or any of those massive things.'

Back to normal: Wayne is pictured with his children almost a year after he lost his memory

Although it was not without its stressful moments, Mr Meyers easily re-adjusted to family life.

'Family life came naturally,' he said.

'The kids were a bit wary when I came home, but soon they relaxed and were a bit easier to get along with.'

His wife added: 'As Wayne started getting his energy back he wanted us to tell him about all the things he used to do.

'Things like he would always come and mash the potatoes. He just started doing those things.

'The kids would re-watch movies with him and show him his tools and how they worked.'

'Remembered nothing': As Sharleen went through old photos with Wayne, it dawned on her that he could not recall a thing. The couple are pictured on their wedding day in 2004

Mr Meyers' accident happened on January 28, 2009 and in the seven years since he has not regained many of the memories he lost.

Despite his amnesia, life has slowly returned to something resembling normal.

He eventually returned to work and in 2014 he re-married his wife - exactly 20 years to the day since they first met.

'It was very special. No one gets to marry the same person twice,' Mrs Meyers said.

She added that - despite some small differences - her husband had always remained the great father and husband that she fell in love with.

'I believed from the beginning he was the very same person.

'He is a bit more of a mate to the kids now. He finds it hard to tell them off and he's a bit more mellow.
, autism and Down syndrome and often 'wanders off'

It was a phone call that left a young mum 'dead on the inside' her seven-year-old boy, who has Down syndrome and autism, had wandered away from after school care and was missing.

Perth mother-of-two Alex Ferguson open up to Kidspot about the terrifying incident which lead to her young, non-verbal son Jacson wandering the streets alone.

'So much bad stuff could have happened to him. He could have been hit by a car. He could have walked into a absolutely anyone's house. I'm too scared to ever use after care services again,' the distraught mother said.

Alex Ferguson, left, has spoken out about the moment her seven-year-old son Jacson 'wandered away' from after school care unnoticed

And if it wasn't for the kindness of an elderly woman who noticed Jacson playing in her yard, the seven-year-old's self-lead excursion could have ended much differently.

Jacson was missing for more than 50 minutes on October 27, 2015 after he wandered off unnoticed from his after-school care run by Care Australia.

The carers at the centre had tried to call his mother when they first noticed he was missing but she did not answer so they left a message.

She has revealed the message did not say they needed to speak with her urgently so she dismissed it as a call about fees or something similar which she could address when she wasn't at work.

But when they called again and she answered her heart stopped as she realised her child was not safely playing with the other children under the carers' watchful eyes.

'He could have ended up anywhere. It's terrifying to think about. These are our children. They're the most important thing in the world.'

Alex, pictured here with her husband Nathan, son Jacson and daughter Chloe said the incident on October 27 last year left her 'dead on the inside'

Jacson - who does have a tendency to wander away from activities slipped out without being noticed and was found by a kind elderly woman

Alex said her son's 'guardian angel' must have been looking after him during the time he was missing from care.

Because Jacson is non-verbal he would not be able to communicate with his parents if something bad had happened to him while he was out.

'He's still in nappies, and after the incident I begged his carers and teachers to look out for any behavioural changes when his nappy is changed,' Alex said.

The young boy who is a loving big brother has not been back to the after school care service since. The company involved was fined $30,000 for failing in their duty of care.

However they insist that two carers is adequate for the amount of children at the centre and have not increased staffing levels. This decision concerned Alex who has not put her children back in their care.

The young mother has spoken out about the incident now as the company was recently rejected from offering their services in NSW.
 Flash

South Korean parliament on Friday overwhelmingly passed a historic bill to impeach scandal-scarred President Park Geun-hye as it vaulted high past the two-thirds majority threshold.

South Korean parliament kicks off vote on presidential impeachment in Seoul Dec. 9, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

The final tally was 234 votes in favor of impeachment, with 56 against and 2 abstentions. Seven votes were invalid. One legislator did not take part in the voting.

President Park will be stripped of all powers immediately after receiving the copied result on paper. It is expected to take 3-4 hours for the document to reach the impeached president.

The first South Korean female leader became the country's second president impeached by the National Assembly.

Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn is to become acting president, temporarily assuming presidential power while the constitutional court weighs the case for as long as 180 days.

The impeachment bill was overwhelmingly passed as there are 172 opposition and independent lawmakers in the 300-seat assembly. Overcoming the two-thirds threshold required at least 28 ruling party members.

Before the vote, local media speculations varied from as few as 195 votes in favor to as many as 220 for impeachment. But, the final tally far surpassed expectations at 234 yes votes.

The result showed that at least 62 members of the ruling Saenuri Party voted for it, with 56 against. Even considering two abstentions and one refusal to participate, impeachment supporters were more than opponents in Park's own party.

The division heralds a battle between factions to dominate the governing party leadership, but the anti-Park Saenuri faction is expected to have an upper hand given that it has led the impeachment campaign.

During the vote broadcast live on TV, protesters held rallies along the wall of the parliament building in capital Seoul. After the vote result came out, people celebrated it with some broadly smiling and others hugging each other, TV footage showed.

The vote kicked off right after a quarter-hour speech by a lawmaker to explain the impeachment proposal, which was handed in last Saturday by the opposition bloc.

It took just over an hour to make the proposal speech, cast ballots and count votes. Legislators voted one by one on printed ballot paper inside closed booths.

The parliament picked the traditional way of voting to prevent a possible manipulation in electronic vote, which the unicameral assembly usually takes in passing bills.

President Park has to step aside while the constitutional court deliberates the impeachment case for as long as 180 days. The permanent removal of Park from office requires the two-thirds approval from the nine-judge court.

In 2004, former President Roh Moo-hyun was returned back to office as the court rejected the case about two months after the parliamentary impeachment.

Public opinion, however, is totally different. Park's scandal prompted millions of demonstrators to hold candlelight vigils for six straight Saturdays, demanding the scandal-hit president's immediate resignation and impeachment.

Impeachment of Roh encouraged hundreds of thousands of South Koreans to take to streets to demand the annulment of what they claimed was a political maneuver.

Roh, who was accused of calling on voters to support his own party, violated an election law that requires a president to remain neutral. The constitutional court ruled later that it was not grave enough to boot him from office.

President Park has been branded by prosecutors as a criminal accomplice, becoming the country's first sitting leader to be investigated as a suspect. A president has immunity from prosecution while in office, but Park can be indicted if the impeachment is upheld by the constitutional court. Endit
Parents are complaining of Kmart Christmas decorations as quality control appears to have fallen short.

Seasonal bunting from the discount department store has had hilarious spelling fails, with some of the decorations reading, 'Merry Christas' and 'Merrr Christmas', according to Kidspot.

Parents have taken to the Kmart Australia Facebook page to complain of the short falls, with many claiming to have purchased advent calendars with empty boxes.

'Merrr Christmas': Parents have complained of spelling fails on K-Mart bunting

Another parent has posted a photo of her bunting, misspelled, 'Merry Christas'

'This year I bought my daughter on of your advent calendars that includes the craft supplies  Today we excitedly open window number three to find nothing! It was empty,' one mother wrote on Facebook.

'I now have started the morning with an upset child, pity Kmart don't sell rum because after today I'll probably need it.'

In many cases, upset children were eventually comforted when they found the missing items of their advent calendar had fallen through to the bottom of the box.

Another image shows a women's Christmas t-shirt with the words 'Mrs. Clause', misspelling Santa's surname

Another mother said the items fallen to the bottom of the box had broken, while another claimed the items for the Kmart Blok Tech advent calendar were in the wrong boxes - meaning the building block set could not be put together in order each day.

Another image posted to social media shows a women's Christmas t-shirt with the words 'Mrs. Clause', misspelling Santa's surname.

Decorate wooden Christmas boxes 'from the North Pole' also have a typo in the 'posial service'.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Kmart Australia for comment.

Decorate wooden Christmas boxes 'from the North Pole' also have a typo in the 'posial service'

A mother complained to the Kmart Australia Facebook page about the stationary advent calendar she bought her 11-year-old son

'I now have started the morning with an upset child, pity Kmart don't sell rum because after today I'll probably need it,' a mother wrote on the Kmart Australia Facebook page

Another mother complained the items in her advent calendar had fallen to the bottom of the box and had broken, while other items were missing

Another claimed the items for the Kmart Blok Tech advent calendar were in the wrong boxes - meaning the building block set could not be put together in order each day

The Kmart Blok Tech advent calendar a mother has complained about on Facebook
She rose to fame as the stunning blonde on Prince Harry's arm but Cressida Bonas has certainly gone on to prove her worth as a budding stage star.

The budding actress has thrown her energy into her new West End role, starring as Daisy in an immersive theatre version of F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel, The Great Gatsby.

Cressida, 27, beamed as she took to the stage on the press night of her new performance and posed up with the director and her fellow stage stars after the show.

Cressida Bonas looked chic in a daring sheer shirt as she beamed on the press night of her new West End play, Gatsby, in London on Thursday night

After the show, a chic Cressida posed for photographers wearing a daring sheer shirt and skin-tight black jeans, which she offset with wedged boots.

The actress wore her hair in bouncy curls and posed up with director, Linnie Reedman, and Ludovic Hughes, who plays Jay Gatsby alongside Cressida.

The 27-year-old socialite and actress, who dated Prince Harry for two years until their split in 2014, plays leading lady Daisy Buchanan - and the show's director was reported to be 'thrilled' to have her on board.

Cressida Bonas has taken centre stage as she starred as Daisy in a new West End production of The Great Gatsby

The actress wore her hair in bouncy curls and posed up with director, Linnie Reedman

The thespian certainly seems to be getting on well with her cast mates and was seen shating a laugh with Ludovic Hughes, who plays Jay Gatsby

The Evening Standard reported at the time of her landing the tole that director Linnie Reedman was 'thrilled' to have the actress on board

In images taken on the night, Cressida can be seen dressed in an ethereal blue and gold gown with a glittering silver headband worn on her forehead.

The actress certainly seems to be getting into character and is seen in a series of animated shots, laughing, crying and dancing with Ludovic Hughes, who plays Jay Gatsby.

For the quirky theatre production, the audience came dressed in stylish Twenties garb and were served Great Gatsby themed cocktails.

The novel gained a new generation of fans in 2013 following Baz Luhrmann's big screen adaptation, which starred Carey Mulligan as Bonas's character Daisy and Leonardo DiCaprio as millionaire Jay Gatsby.

Whilst reviews of her performance are yet to be posted, if her previous turns are anything to go by, Cressida's appearance is set to light up theatre town

The budding actress has thrown her energy into her new West End role in an immersive theatre version of F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel, The Great Gatsby

The stage production, which will run at Leicester Square Theatre from the end of November until the middle of January, is directed by Linnie Reedman, who was spellbound by Bonas from her very first audition.

The Evening Standard reported that Reedman was 'thrilled' to have the actress on board.

Whilst reviews of her performance are yet to be shared, if her previous turns are anything to go by, Cressida's appearance is set to light up theatre town. Indeed, her solo performance in An Evening With Lucian Freud won her plaudits among the critics.

Ellen Francis (Jordan Baker), Cressida Bonas (Daisy Buchanan) and Bradley Clarkson (Meyer Wolfsheim) during the curtain call

Cressida, who has modelled for Mulberry in the past, showcased her model good looks as she donned a blue and gold gown in the production

Since splitting with Prince Harry, after it was rumoured that she wanted to focus on her career, her acting skills have gone from strength to strength, Bonas has been linked to Pride And Prejudice and Zombies star Douglas Booth and The Riot Club actor Freddie Fox.

But the Londoner has spent more time working on her acting career this year than her love life.

Earlier in 2016, she appeared in horror film, The Bye Bye Man and also made an appearance in TV period drama Doctor Thorne.

Her next film, Tulip Fever, in which she stars alongside Cara Delevingne, Alicia Vikander, Judi Dench, and Tom Hollander, is scheduled for release next year.
As a size 22 model, Tess Holliday has broken plenty of boundaries, and this week the mother-of-two knocked another career first off of her bucket list.

The 31-year-old stripped down to her bra and underwear and strut down the runway during her first lingerie show, and while she is often the picture of confidence, she admitted on Instagram that she was nervous to flaunt her figure six-months postpartum.

'I've never been the kind of model that gets to be part of runway shows, especially lingerie because of my size and height but I did the damn thing,' she explained.

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Breaking boundaries: Tess Holliday stripped down to her bra and underwear and strut down the runway during her first lingerie show this week

Feeling liberated: The size 22 model took to Instagram after the show to share a photo of herself along with a candid message about her experience

'My husband was cheering me on in the back and even though I was terrified, damn if it wasn't liberating!' she added.

Tess shared a stunning photo of herself showing off her sheer Catherine D'Lish dressing gown for the audience, explaining that she had participated in Buzzfeed's recreation of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show.

The runway show featured women of all shapes, sizes, heights, and ethnicities, and Tess praised the event for its inclusion.

'It's full of diversity, the way VS shows should be,' Tess added.

At the event, Tess told the cameras that she stepped out of her comfort zone when she agreed to walk in the show.

Shattering beauty standards: Tess said the show was full of diversity, 'the way Victoria's Secret should be'

Stunning look: Tess did a twirl so she could show off her sheer Catherine D'Lish dressing gown

'Today what I hope to gain is a little bit of bravery. I definitely never walked a runway in my underwear ever because no one's given me an opportunity,' she admitted.

'I was definitely really nervous to show my stomach because I don't really ever show this much of my stomach  especially because I have a five-and-a-half-month-old baby,' she said of the moment.

'But I felt like I was in good company and everyone was really supportive, so it was a really good experience.'

Tess' photo has been liked more than 25,000 times, and many people took the comments section to praise her for once again smashing yet another beauty standard.

'This is how Victoria secret should be. Beautiful women of all shapes and sizes embracing their bodies,' one woman wrote, while another said she shed tears because 'this did so much' for her.

Memories: Tess recently took to Instagram to share a photo of herself with her now-10-year-old son Rylee in 2006 (left) and a new snap of herself with her six-month-old son Bowie (right)

Looking back: The 31-year-old, who was a single mom 10 years ago, was celebrating her career, her supporter partner Nick Holliday (right), and her influence as a size 22 model

Tess is a strong advocate for body-positivity, and she frequently uses her platform to spread her message.

Earlier this week she celebrated how far she has come as a mother-of-two, taking to Instagram to share two side-by-side images of herself that were taken 10 years apart.

One features her with her now-10-year-old son Rylee when he was a baby in 2006, and the other is a new snapshot of herself posed with her little boy Bowie Juniper.

Tess posted the images in celebration of Bowie turning six months old on Tuesday, explaining: 'These photos were taken almost exactly 10 years apart, and when I realized it I had to share.'

The model went on to say that her life was completely different when she gave birth to Rylee, whose father is from a previous relationship.

Throwback: Tess also shared photos of herself when she was 'such a baby' on her Instagram Stories page

Out and about: Tess struck a post with her friend, make-up artist Priscilla Ono, last weekend

'The first is of a scared 21-year-old woman in Mississippi who just moved home, became a single mom, had no job, no money, and a dream of one day being a model or makeup artist,' she explained of the image of her and her eldest son.

'I was constantly worried about our future and ached to make a mark in the world, to be able to support myself and son doing something I loved.

'Now, 10 years later, my oldest son (in the first photo) turns 11 next month and his little brother is six months old today,' she noted. 'Not only am I supporting my family doing something I love, I have a supportive partner and I'm a freakin' size 22 model!'

Tess, who is in a long-term relationship with Bowie's father, Nick Holliday, admitted that it is even difficult for her to understand the scope of her amazing achievements.

'Sometimes I don't think I fully comprehend how amazing it is that my dream not only came true, it shattered the expectations of what society said a model "should" look like,' she said.
Queen Maxima looked to be in a festive mood as she posed for photos with Santa Claus this afternoon.

The Queen of the Netherlands, 45, was all smiles as she joined Father Christmas at the Carre Theatre in Amsterdam.

The colourfully dressed Dutch royal was in the capital to attend a television recording of The Christmas Gala of the BZT Show.

Queen Maxima made sure to pose with Santa as she arrived at the at the Carre Theatre in Amsterdam, The Netherlands

The BZT Show is a Dutch children's programme presented by Pepin Gunneweg and Jetske van den Elsen.

Maxima was her usual upbeat self as she arrived at the event which is organised by the Foundation for More Music in the Classroom.

She is the Honorary President of the Foundation which contributes to structural music education in Dutch primary schools.

Maxima greeted the smartly dressed children who awaited her arrival before being ushered inside by Santa himself.

The Dutch royal was there to attend the television recording of The Christmas gala of the BZT Show. The gala is co-organized by the Foundation for More Music in the Classroom, where the Queen is Honorary President of

The friendly royal was quick to make friends this afternoon and could be seen posing with some of her well-wishers

The mother-of-three looked chic in a multi-coloured striped dress that was fitted at the waist and featured a pussy-bow at her neck.

Opting for a wavy hair do, Maxima adorned her fashionable daytime look with a studded belt and turquoise clutch purse.

As she waved to the crowds Maxima flashed her wedding ring which complemented the matching bracelet on her opposite wrist and stunning sapphire teardrop earrings.

A chatty Maxima was eventually ushered into the Carre Theatre by an impatient Santa Claus

Showcasing her usual flair for style the Queen opted for a silk dress of clashing prints for her engagement today

Queen Maxima has certainly been showcasing her style credentials in recent weeks and decided to tone her look down last Friday as she stepped out for an official engagement in Waalre, North Brabant.

The Dutch royal went for a simple black dress with a ruched neckline and fitted skirt from Belgian designer Natan, showcasing her trim figure with a chunky waist belt.

She added a pair of black peeptoe court shoes and a rectangular chain bag, brushing her perfectly-coiffed blonde hair into a side-parting.

Maxima amde time to chat to the smartly dressed children who awaited her arrival

The royal was visiting the town in the North Brabant province to visit the De Pracht community who have been awarded one of three Appeltje van Oranje awards.

The annual award is for social initiatives that successfully connect different groups of people.

According to De Pracht's website, Maxima stayed for half an hour to talk to employees and volunteers. She was also seen chatting and interacting with children who had come to catch a glimpse of the royal outside.

The Queen was greeted by the headmaster and various senior staff, who all looked delighted to have her

Queen Maxima, 45, looked chic in a grey poncho and yellow blouse as she paid a visit to a school in Rotterdam on Wednesday
It may be sub zero temperatures in Toronto today but that was not going to stop animal lover Meghan Markle from getting her beloved pooch to the vet.

Prince Harry's girlfriend was seen wrapped up warm as she braved the icy conditions of the Canadian city to accompany her dog Bogart to the animal hospital.

The suits actress, 35, paired her chic skinny jeans with a pair of practical walking boots as she took to the snowy streets.

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It may have been sub zero temperatures in Toronto but Meghan Markle was prepared to brave the weather in order to take her pooch to the vet

Determined to keep out the December chill Meghan wrapped up warm in a puffer jacket paired with a blue bobble hat that she has been favouring of late.

And although there may be snow on the ground a stylish Meghan was sure to finish off her outfit with a pair of ice cool sunglasses.

The active actress has been spotted out and about in Toronto several times this week after her boyfriend returned to Britain after visiting her over the weekend.

Prince Harry's girlfriend was seen wrapped up warm as she braved the icy conditions of the Canadian city to accompany her dog Bogart to the animal hospital

Determined to keep out the December chill Meghan wrapped up warm in a puffer jacket paired with a blue bobble hat that she has been favouring of late

A caring Meghan even gave her hound his very own coat to ensure that he was warm

Yesterday the actress seemed to be in a bit of a rush as she headed to a Yoga class in the city.

She may have left the house in a hurry but Meghan did not forget to sport a very important accessory.

Miss Markle was spotted wearing her Prince Harry love bracelet as went to her yoga class on Thursday.

Although there may be snow on the ground a stylish Meghan was sure to finish off her outfit with a pair of ice cool sunglasses

Temperatures in Toronto are reported to be -1 degrees currently so Meghan's outfit choice was a sensible one

The Suits actress proudly wore the accessory as she stepped out in a long coat, hat and scarf in Toronto.

It has not been confirmed Prince Harry gave Meghan the bracelet but she has suggested they may have matching 'his and hers' accessories in photo posts on Instagram in which she was wearing a blue and white bracelet identical to the one sported by the royal.

Prince Harry sent rumours swirling about their relationship when he wore his own before the cameras last month.

The active actress has been spotted out and about on the street's of Toronto several times over the past week

Gifting jewellery is something that Prince Harry is known to do.

When he dated South African socialite Chelsea Davy, it was reported that he gave her jewellery as a token of his affections.

Prince Harrys relationship with TV star Meghan came to light at the end of last month when fans spotted the matching love bracelets the couple have been wearing for months.

Meghan shared a picture of herself wearing her bracelet during a stay at Soho Farmhouse in Oxfordshire earlier this year, sparking rumours that she was close to the young royal.

The besotted royal, 32, made a 1,700-mile detour to visit the American actress on the way back home from an official tour of the Caribbean on Sunday

Meghan is pictured wearing her Prince Harry 'love bracelet' at Soho farm house earlier this year

The besotted royal, 32, had made a 1,700-mile detour to visit the American actress on the way back home from an official tour of the Caribbean on Sunday.

He had been scheduled to fly directly to London from Barbados but instead stopped off in Toronto, where Miss Markle, 35, is based while filming US TV legal drama Suits.

The couple spent two nights holed up together before Harry broke cover yesterday afternoon and darted out to a waiting car and headed for the airport.

The prince took a 6.30pm British Airways flight from Toronto to London arriving at 6.25am - in time for an official engagement in the City less than four hours later.

While Harry will reimburse the public purse for the cost of his flights, the security officers seen with him outside Meghan's apartment are thought to be Canadian, and funded by Canadian taxpayers.

Less than four hours after landing in London, he arrived bleary-eyed at the annual ICAP charity day, which sees traders donate all of their profits to a series of charities, including his own, Sentebale, which supports orphans and children affected by the HIV/Aids epidemic in Lesotho.

Breaking cover: Covering his head with a hood, Prince Harry dashed out of girlfriend Meghan Markle's Toronto apartment and bundled into a waiting car, pictured, yesterday afternoon. The couple spent two nights holed up together after Harry made a detour to visit her at home

Holed up: The couple are believed to have spent the weekend inside the apartment. They last saw each other when Miss Markle visited Harry in London during a break from filming last month. Pictured, the car waits outside the actress' flat before Prince Harry emerges yesterday

Jet set: Following his tour of the Caribbean, Harry had been scheduled to return immediately to Britain on a commercial flight funded by the taxpayer. However he later took a different flight to Toronto, where Miss Markle is based while filming US legal drama Suits

After almost three weeks apart, Harry and Miss Markle enjoyed a low-key weekend inside Miss Markle's apartment.

Security staff were positioned around the property and guards with earpieces patrolled the area, a witness said.

On Tuesday afternoon, a male figure with a hood over his head ran out of Miss Markle's home and bundled into a waiting car. The vehicle sped away, followed by a security truck.

Following his 15-day tour of the Caribbean, Harry had been scheduled to return immediately to Britain on a commercial flight funded by the taxpayer.

In the hours before Harry was due to leave, aides maintained the prince would be returning to London. However he later took a different flight to Toronto.

An official said that in any situation costs incurred to taxpayers as a result of altered plans or extra flights taken would be met 'privately'.

Buckingham Palace has previously stated that members of the royal family should be 'actively discouraged' from combining official and personal trips.

Following a 2004 investigation into visits by Harry's uncle, Prince Andrew - who earned the nickname Air Miles Andy for his 'excessive' foreign travel - the Royal Household told the National Audit Office: 'Members of the Royal Family are entitled to grant-in-aid for official travel, as are their staff and, where capacity permits, other officials.

'They meet their own costs, however, for private travel. In order to avoid confusion, combining private and public engagements in the same trip is actively discouraged.'

Despite the guidance, royals do on occasion mix personal trips with official engagements.

It is unlikely that Harry's change of plans was made at the last minute because the prince has security with him at all times. As he was visiting a Commonwealth realm, local authorities would also have needed to be notified in advance.

Harry and his girlfriend are also believed to be planning a pre-festive getaway together before he returns to Sandringham in time for Christmas.

The couple have yet to make an official appearance together but Meghan continues to drop subtle hints about the budding relationship.

She has been spotted wearing a personalised gold necklace that appears to be subtly decorated with the letters M and H.
As Britain's original 'gay dads', they are used to breaking taboos.

Now Barrie and Tony Drewitt-Barlow, who in 1999 were the first gay men in the UK to father children through surrogacy, have decided to have triplets to add to their four sons and a daughter.

And, to ensure they have three girls to create a gender balance, they are using embryo sex selection. The process is illegal in Britain so the couple are having eggs tested in the US for implantation into a surrogate.

Make room for three more! Proud parents Barrie and Tony Drewitt-Barlow with their children Saffron and Aspen, both 17, Orlando, 13, and six-year-old twins Dallas and Jasper

The pair, who claim that there is 'too much testosterone' in their family, will next week ascertain the gender of ten spare embryos that have remained frozen at a US fertility clinic since their last pregnancy six years ago.

This means the triplets would effectively be quintuplets as they are from same batch of embryos as the couple's six-year-old twins, Jasper and Dallas. The twins' biological mother is a Brazilian model whom Barrie, 48, and Tony, 52, spotted on a catwalk and persuaded to donate her eggs for 50,000.

Despite the Drewitt-Barlows' claim that the triplets will complete their family, their daughter Saffron, 17, said her fathers are 'way too old' for more babies. Barrie rejects this, adding: 'There is plenty of life in me yet, look at Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood, no one is saying they are past it.

All our children are growing up so fast. My biological clock is ticking and I really would love to have more babies, as all too soon our children will be thinking about flying the nest. I need to have another princess in my life  or two or three. There's way too much testosterone in our house with four boys, Tony and I.'

The couple, who have homes in Danbury, Essex, and the US, were inspired to expand their family after Tony was diagnosed with aggressive throat cancer in 2006, from which he is now in remission.

'I've really had to talk Tony into it. Initially Tony felt that we've got enough children,' said Barrie. 'But I haven't been able to get out of my head that we have ten embryos stored in a freezer and even though they are only cells at the moment they still feel like my children.'

Breaking the taboo: Tony with Aspen and Barrie with Saffron

They plan to implant four embryos, if enough are female, so they may even end up with quads, something he would be thrilled by because 'we are financially stable and we have plenty of love to give'.

The Drewitt-Barlows made headlines around the world in 1999 when they brought home Saffron and Aspen. The twins celebrated their 17th birthdays yesterday. Biologically they are half-siblings. They share a mother but each father fertilised one egg before they were implanted into a surrogate.

We used sex selection for all of our children

Orlando, 13, is Aspen's genetic twin but was grown in the womb of a different surrogate. Twins Dallas and Jasper, six, were born from the eggs of the anonymous Brazilian model and carried by the second surrogate. The couple plan to name the triplets Milan, Paris and London.

'We are a very modern family. It's complex,' said Barrie.

'We've used sex selection for all of our children and while some people don't agree with it or accuse us of playing god, I don't agree. I feel like I need more babies because I'm selfish. But I can give my babies a good home and good upbringing.

'Some people say I'm addicted to having babies and, weirdly, I think they might be right. Fatherhood has been one of the best decisions Tony and I have made.'

Oh boy! The couple with Orlando and surrogate mother Donna

The couple's embryos are held at California Fertility Partners, a centre run by Dr Guy Ringler, one of the first fertility doctors in the world to help gay men have families.

With an estimated combined wealth of 38million from business interests, including their own British Surrogacy Centre and a clinical research company, money is no object for the pair.

To create their family has already cost them more than 250,000 in expenses, travel and medical fees, though they claim their children's love of designer clothes is a far bigger worry. They have bought Saffron a Range Rover Vogue, even though she can't yet drive, and given Aspen a Porsche.

Barrie, a trained social worker, said that if the frozen embryos are not suitable, they will pay the Brazilian model for more eggs as they want their children to be biologically connected.

If she says no, they will hold auditions in Beverly Hills. The chosen woman would have to be 'gorgeous, outgoing, confident  and I'm not worried if they are thick. Beauty is more important than brains, I want all my girls to be gorgeous, like Saffron,' he said. 'Tony and I can provide the brains from our gene pool.

Double delight: With twins Dallas and Jasper

'That's the amazing thing about surrogacy. I'm five foot six, fat and not very attractive but as two gay men we are very fussy.'

The couple has already had an offer from a UK surrogate. She has confirmed she's willing to carry triplets for undisclosed expenses, which are capped at 15,000 in the UK.

Tony added: 'I'm excited, but also nervous. I know I'm getting older, but we have been talking about this for such a long time that now is the right time to do it.' But while their sons are supportive, Saffron said: 'They are too old.

'I don't really want any more brothers and sisters to be honest. The whole family should agree with what they're planning as they are going to be living with all of us.'

The couple are in talks with TV companies who wish to follow every aspect of this pregnancy, including the birth.

Despite their happy family and the fact that the couple are feted in the gay community as a power couple, they have received thousands of threats by post and online.
Just two months before he was born, Matthew Tobias Saetern-Angeles was diagnosed with a fatal condition.

An ultrasound showed the 32-week-old fetus had hydrops, a condition that causes the lungs to fill with excess fluid.

Ten years ago there wouldn't have been any options to save him.

But this summer, surgeons at UC Davis demonstrated the incredible capabilities of modern medicine - by operating on Matthew while he was still in the womb.

While his mother Khae Saetern was still awake, a team of doctors made a small incision in her belly, inserted a catheter, and drained out the excess fluid.

Eight weeks later, on September 28, he was born healthy and stable.

It was an incredible gift for Khae and her husband Bobby Angeles - not least after suffering two miscarriages and stillbirth.

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Miracle baby: Matthew Tobias Saetern-Angeles, shortly after his birth on September 28. Two months earlier, while in-utero, he had surgery to drain his lungs of life-threatening fluid

Emotional: It was an incredible gift for Khae and her husband Bobby Angeles (pictured) - not least after suffering two miscarriages and stillbirth

'It was terrifying,' said Bobby told ABC News.

'To think that something could happen and not being able to be there if I needed to.'

RISKY SURGERY

Lead surgeon Dr Shinjiro Hirose, director of fetal surgery at UC Davis, told Daily Mail Online it is no easy feat deciding to operate.

Though the operation itself can take just a few minutes 'if everything is in the right place', there is a high risk of hurting the baby or - more likely - jeopardize the pregnancy by hitting the placenta.

It all depends on the accuracy of the ultrasound, which act as the surgeons eyes as they guide the catheter into the womb.

While his mother Khae Saetern was still awake, a team of doctors made a small incision in her belly, inserted a catheter, and drained out the excess fluid

However, doing nothing could have been worse.

Matthew had fetal hydrothorax, which causes hydrops.

It is a life-threatening case of edema (or, swelling), which drives too much fluid to leave the bloodstream and enter the tissues.

The swelling can overwhelm the baby's organ systems.

Roughly 50 percent of fetuses with hydrops do not survive.

WHAT WAS THE BLOOD CONDITION MATTHEW CONTRACTED? Matthew had fetal hydrothorax, which causes hydrops. It is a life-threatening case of edema (or, swelling), which drives too much fluid to leave the bloodstream and enter the tissues. The swelling can overwhelm the baby's organ systems. Roughly 50 percent of fetuses with hydrops do not survive. Normally, doctors have to wait for the fetus to be born premature, at which point they race to stabilize their condition. But Dr Shinjiro Hirose, director of fetal surgery at UC Davis, is pioneering a new approach. A team of doctors made a small incision in Khae Saetern's belly, inserted a catheter, and drained out the excess fluid from Matthew's tissues. Advertisement

'Fetal hydrothorax is pretty rare. You have to make the decision of whether to avoid the risks of the operation.

'Then you would be dealing with a premature baby who's sick.

'Or you can try to fix the problem, so that when he's born it's easier.

'It avoids a kind of crash-and-burn situation where there's a potential for something bad to happen.'

In this case, Dr Hirose beams, everything went smoothly.

'It was amazing to be able to do this for this couple. They're so nice, and everyone loved them.

'They're really the American Dream - two kids who came from nothing, plodding their way to get somewhere, get married, and finally when they wanted to have children they faced so many obstacles...

'To be able to deliver a healthy baby for them... that was amazing.'

GOING HOME

Khae explained that they chose the name Matthew because it means 'a gift from God'.

'He's a miracle. He's our miracle baby,' she told the network.

'I just prayed for everything to go right and for him to be ok.'

Matthew spent more than two months in the neo-natal intensive care unit as surgeons stabilized his condition, and monitored his lungs.

This week, his parents were allowed to take him home.

Going home! This was the selfie Bobby and Khae took as they headed home with Matthew

Bobby said he couldn't contain his joy.

'We just wanted to scream down the hallways, we're going home! we're going home! In the car, we took a picture of each other with the baby. We're on our way home, this is really happening,' he told CBS Sacramento.

Matthew will still need acute monitoring, Dr Hirose explains.

It is common for babies, after fetal hydrothorax, to develop a lump - often that's where the problem started.

He will have regular check-ups for now, then a CT scan at six months.

If he did have a lump, Dr Hirose would performed a fairly new style of procedure that involves three tiny incisions, as opposed to cutting open Matthew's chest.

For now, Dr Hirose sounded positive.

'It has all gone so well, and it is so good that we operating instead of doing nothing.'

JUST A FEW CENTERS OFFER THIS SURGERY

The family were in safe hands - Dr Hirose has been performing this kind of operation for years; it's been an option for fetal surgeons for about a decade.

But only a few centers offer it in the US.

Before Dr Hirose moved to UC Davis in 2014 from San Francisco - bringing his colleague Dr Diana Farmer - this was almost impossible for lower income families in central California.

For fetuses with conditions like Matthew's, the only real option was to head to the Bay Area, with its thriving and innovative medical industry.

It's risky. But it avoids a kind of crash-and-burn situation where there's a potential for something bad to happen Dr Shinjiro Hirose, director of fetal surgery at UC Davis

However, aside from the expense and physical toll of making the trip, an operation like this is rarely a drop-in situation.

After the procedure, many patients have to stay nearby to be monitored, often until the birth.

For a lot of families, a two-month stay in San Francisco - the most expensive real estate in the world - is untenable.

Dr Hirose and Dr Farmer set up their fetal surgery center in Sacramento two years ago in a bid to reach more families without the resources to save their pregnancies.

But Dr Hirose warns it's unclear when we will start to see a proliferation of facilities in other lesser-connected regions.

'There have been the tools to do this for years, but it is not simple to set up,' he explains.

'It might be the case of more training programs to get it started.
A woman born without a womb is fundraising to help pay for a surrogate so she can finally have the family she's always dreamed of.

Lisa Beavan-Mason, 31, was diagnosed with Mayer Rokitansky Kuster Hauser (MRKH) syndrome just ten years ago.

Despite her ovaries functioning properly, not having a womb means she will never be able to carry her own child.

After tying the knot with David Mason, 28, in September, the couple began searching for options to begin their family.

But they were refused IVF treatment, she turned to her best friend Laura McCrae, 38, who has offered to be the couple's surrogate.

Now the pair need to find 25,000 to cover the costs after the NHS turned down their funding request.

Lisa Beavan-Mason, 31, was diagnosed with Mayer Rokitansky Kuster Hauser syndrome when she was 21. After tying the knot with David Mason, 28, in September, the couple began searching for options to begin their family as the condition means she has no womb

Mrs Beavan-Mason, a hair salon manager from Ledbury, Hertfordshire, said: 'I never started any periods, and I was in a lot of pain - so I had an operation to find out what was wrong.

'That's when I was told I'd been born without a fully-formed womb. I wasn't given a name for it at first - I just had to try and learn to deal with it as I grew up.

'Having my own family is something I've dreamed of from a young age, but it's been difficult to come to terms with the fact it won't be as easy as I always thought.'

'Over the years I've seen my friends having babies, and it almost feels like I can't grow up - now we're married, having kids is the next step and it's heart-breaking that I'm not able to do it.'

She added: 'Being diagnosed so young helped, as I've been able to get my head round it a bit - but I do sometimes get a twinge when I see everyone with their babies, and I get that maternal pull.

'But I'm so happy for all my friends, I'm a godparent to a lot of their children and I feel so blessed.

After being refused IVF treatment, she turned to her best friend Laura McCrae (pictured together), 38, who has offered to be the couple's surrogate. But now the pair need to find 25,000 to cover the costs after the NHS turned down their funding request

'Now it's a case of if rather than when, so I try to keep positive.'

When she was 21, doctors revealed it was MRKH and told her she needed a partial hysterectomy to remove the small part of her womb that had developed.

Since the hysterectomy, she has had no problems associated with the condition despite many experiencing deafness and kidney problems.

However, surgeons managed to save her ovaries giving her the hope of having her own biological children.

Mrs Beavan-Mason struggled to come to terms with her shattered dreams over the years until she met Mr Mason five years ago.

The couple recently got married in front of all of their family and friends before going on a honeymoon to Cape Verde.

Mrs Beavan-Mason said: 'Having my own family is something I've dreamed of from a young age, but it's been difficult to come to terms with the fact it won't be as easy as I always thought'

Repeated efforts to get IVF treatment on the NHS failed, with their local Clinical Commissioning Group turning them down four times

As their relationship progressed, and they began to talk about starting a family, the pair soon realised surrogacy would be their best option.

They are even on waiting list for a womb transplant with a specialist in London, however the process to find one can be long.

Repeated efforts to get IVF treatment on the NHS failed, with their local Clinical Commissioning Group turning them down four times.

However, they were overwhelmed when Mrs Beavan-Mason's best friend offered to be their surrogate.

Despite Mrs McCrae's husband initially refusing to the idea, he came round to it after he wanted the couple to experience having their own children.

After contemplating the idea for about a year, she eventually told Mrs Beavan-Mason her kind offer.

Mrs Beavan-Mason said: 'I never would have asked any of my friends to be our surrogate, as it's such huge thing to do - but Laura approached me out of the blue and offered.

'She has five children of her own, and she said she just couldn't let us go without.

She said it was 'heartbreaking' that she was unable to have any of her own children as a result of the devastating condition

'I was amazed and overwhelmed by it all - I told her what it would involve, but she'd been researching for 12 months before she even approached us, and she was determined she wanted to do it.'

The three of them then went to the Midland Fertility Clinic and discovered they met all of their criteria.

WHAT IS MRKH? Rokitansky Syndrome, or MRKH (Mayer Rokitansky Kuster Hauser), is a congenital abnormality characterised by the absence of the vagina, womb and cervix. Women suffering from the condition will have normally functioning ovaries, so will experience the normal signs of puberty - but will not have periods or be able to conceive. The external genatalia are completely normal which is why MRKH isnt usually discovered until women are in their teenage years. Many women are able to create a vaginal canal using dilation treatment, which uses cylinder shaped dilators of different sizes to stretch the muscles. However, if this is unsuccessful then surgery will be used to stretch the vaginal canal. Following treatment women are able to have intercourse and can have their eggs removed and fertilised to be used in surrogacy. Source: www.mrkh.org.uk Advertisement

However, now it's just a case of raising the money required to cover the costs of IVF and surrogacy.

Mrs McCrae, a support worker, said: 'I remember people saying way back when we were much younger that Lisa knew she wouldn't be able to have a child, and I remember thinking how awful it must be.

'I often think about how lucky I am to have my children, and what an amazing mum she would be - I've got so many, and it seems so unfair.

'She's always talking about children, and you can see how passionate she is about them - but never ever has she moaned about not being able to have her own, she's not bitter or angry.

'She just got on with it and I thought it would be amazing if she could have her own baby.

'I've never had any problems with my five pregnancies, and I thought it would be so wonderful to be able to do this for her.

'A lot of women say they could never give up a baby, but I'm well and truly done with children and that baby phase and I know I could do it - I'm ready for mine to grow up now!'

However, since making the kind offer, she has revealed how she 'hates being pregnant'.

But she added: 'They're such an amazing couple though and they'll make the best parents, so it will all be worth it.'

To make a donation, visit www.gofundme.com/landdbabyfund
WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE ZIKA VIRUS

HOW DO PEOPLE GET IT?

MOSQUITO BITES

Zika is transmitted to people through the bite of infected female mosquitoes, primarily the Aedes aegypti mosquito.

It is the same type that spreads dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever.

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are found in all countries in the Americas except Canada and continental Chile.

Zika will likely reach all countries and territories of the region where Aedes mosquitoes are found.

SEX

The virus can also be transmitted through sex, from either a male or female partner who has been infected.

BLOOD TRANSFUSION

A few cases of apparent infection via blood transfusion have been reported.

PREGNANCY

A mother can pass the virus to her unborn fetus.

Current research indicates the greatest microcephaly risk is associated with infection during the first trimester of pregnancy, but health officials have warned an impact could be seen in later weeks.

Recent studies have shown evidence of Zika in amniotic fluid, placenta and fetal brain tissue.

HOW DO YOU TREAT ZIKA?

There is no treatment or vaccine for Zika infection.

Companies and scientists are racing to develop a safe and effective vaccine for Zika.

However, a preventative shot is not expected to be ready for widespread use for at least two or three years.

WHAT ARE THE DANGERS?

BIRTH DEFECTS

Microcephaly

The CDC concluded that infection with the Zika virus in pregnant women is a cause of the birth defect microcephaly.

Microcephaly is a condition defined by unusually small heads that can result in developmental problems, and other severe brain abnormalities in babies.

The CDC said that since the causal relationship had been established, several important questions must still be answered with studies that could take years.

The World Health Organization in an updated assessment said the 'most likely explanation' is that Zika virus infection during pregnancy is a cause of congenital brain abnormalities including microcephaly.

Brazil recently reported 1,949 confirmed cases of microcephaly believed to be linked to Zika infections in pregnant women.

It is investigating more than 3,030 suspected cases of microcephaly.

Guillain-Barre syndrome

The WHO also updated its guidelines to say the infection is a trigger of Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS), a rare neurological disorder that can result in paralysis.

Its previous statement, based on a rapid assessment of evidence, said there was strong scientific consensus that Zika virus caused GBS, microcephaly and other neurological disorders.

WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS?

People infected with Zika may have a mild fever, skin rash, conjunctivitis, muscle and joint pain and fatigue that can last for two to seven days.

But as many as 80 per cent of people infected never develop symptoms.

HOW CAN ZIKA BE CONTAINED?

Efforts to control the spread of the virus focus on eliminating mosquito breeding sites and taking precautions against mosquito bites such as using insect repellent and mosquito nets.

U.S. and international health officials have advised pregnant women to avoid travel to Latin American and Caribbean countries, and Singapore where they may be exposed to Zika.

They are also advising that men and women who have traveled to Zika outbreak areas use condoms or abstain from sex for six months to prevent sexual transmission of the virus.

HOW WIDESPREAD IS THE OUTBREAK?

Active Zika outbreaks have been reported in at least 59 countries or territories, most of them in the Americas, according to the CDC. Brazil has been the country most affected.

Africa: 1 country

Cape Verde

Americas: 49 countries

Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Aruba, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Bonaire, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Curacao, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Martinique, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Saba, Puerto Rico, Saint Barthelmy, Saint Lucia, Saint Martin, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Eustatius, St. Maarten, St. Kitts and Nevis, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos, U.S. Virgin Islands, Venezuela.

Asia: 1 country

Singapore

Oceania/Pacific Islands: 8 countries

American Samoa, Fiji, Kosrae, Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tonga.

HISTORY OF ZIKA

The Zika virus is found in tropical locales with large mosquito populations.

Outbreaks of Zika have been recorded in Africa, the Americas, Southern Asia and the Western Pacific.

The virus was first identified in Uganda in 1947 in rhesus monkeys and was first identified in people in 1952 in Uganda and Tanzania, according to the WHO.

ANY OTHER ZIKA-RELATED COMPLICATIONS?

Zika has also been associated with other neurological disorders, including serious brain and spinal cord infections.

The long-term health consequences of Zika infection are unclear.
practice is banned in Pakistan and Bangladesh, but not in India

The Allahabad High Court has held that triple talaq is cruel and questioned whether India's Muslim Personal law could be amended to alleviate the sufferings of Muslim women.

The court made the observations while dismissing the petition of Hina, a 23-year-old woman, and her husband who was 30 years her senior who had married after effecting triple talaq on his first wife.

The couple, hailing from Bulandshahr district in western Uttar Pradesh, had sought a direction to the police and Hina's mother that they stop harassing the petitioners and their safety and security be ensured.

Banned in many Muslim countries, India, which is officially secular, is one of the few nations that legally permits the practice of triple talaq, a dirvorce letter

The court held this form of 'instant divorce' to be 'most demeaning', and which 'impedes and drags India from becoming a nation'.

'Muslim law, as applied in India, has taken a course contrary to the spirit of what the Prophet or the Holy Quran laid down and the same misconception vitiates the law dealing with the wife's right to divorce,' a single judge bench of justice Suneet Kumar said.

'The question which disturbs the court is - should Muslim wives suffer this tyranny for all times?

'Should their personal law remain so cruel towards these unfortunate wives? Whether the personal law can be amended suitably to alleviate their sufferings? The judicial conscience is disturbed at this monstrosity,' the court said.

Using an ancient and controversial Islamic practice, the husband of Sadaf Mehmood, pictured, wrote 'talaq, talaq, talaq' or 'I divorce you' three times in Arabic, instantly ending their marriage of five years

'The purpose of law in a modern, secular state.... is to bring about social change. The Muslim community comprise a large percentage of Indian population, therefore, a large section of citizens, in particular women, cannot be left to be governed by archaic customs and social practice under the garb of personal law purportedly having divine sanction,' the court observed.

'India is a nation in the making, geographical boundaries alone do not define a nation. It is to be adjudged, amongst others, on the parameter of overall human development and how the society treats its women; leaving such a large population to the whims and fancies of a personal law which perpetuates gender inequality and is regressive, is not in the interest of the society and the country. It impedes and drags India from becoming a nation.'

The court observed that divorce is permissible in Islam only in case of extreme emergency.

'The view that the Muslim husband enjoys an arbitrary, unilateral power to inflict instant divorce does not accord with Islamic injunctions. It is a popular fallacy that a Muslim husband enjoys, under the Quranic Law, unbridled authority to liquidate the marriage.

'The whole Quran expressly forbids a man to seek pretexts for divorcing his wife, so long as she remains faithful and obedient to him.'

'Triple talaq is un-Constitutional and un-Quranic'

By Varun Bidhuri

As the Allahabad High Court slammed the practice of 'triple talaq' among Muslims as being gender-biased and demeaning for Muslim women, it appears that those fighting for women's rights have claimed an important victory.

However, the final verdict still rests with the Supreme Court.

Speaking to Mail Today, Zakia Soman, head of the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan or BMMA (Indian Muslim Women's Movement) which fights for the citizenship rights of the Muslims, welcomed the step - rejecting the practice as not only against the Constitution, but also calling it 'un-Islamic'.

Shaista Ali, from Bhopal, said she appealed to clerics for assistance after her husband suddenly divorced her and she was shunted from the family home, but 'they sided with my in-laws'

'I welcome the Allahabad high court's observation. There is no doubt in saying that it is un-Constitutional because it is also un-Quranic. While it is true that triple talaq is against the spirit of the Indian Constitutional, it is also a form of biased gender justice. The triple talaq is not valid in Quran too,' said Soman.

She added that since the practice was 'absolutely patriarchal' it needed to be abolished.

'The court is hundred percent correct in its observations on triple talaq. Though the petition is already pending with the Supreme Court, if we get the same observation and response from the apex court of the country, it will be a good development.

Zakia Soman, head of the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan or BMMA (Indian Muslim Women's Movement) fights for the citizenship rights of Muslims in India

'The Muslim women are also the citizens of India and they are equally entitled to their rights.'

Soman underlined the pathetic plight of Muslim women while being subjected to the divorcing practice.

'Triple talaq is causing a lot of injustice to Muslim women and needs to be stopped. It is our right as per the Constitutions as well as per the Quran.

'If political parties intervene it would be immaterial, because the government is bound by its Constitutional obligation towards the poor and for gender justice.

'The affidavit filed by the government is correct and we have said it publicly that it is correct.
Dealing with the incoming administration of the unpredictable United States President-elect Donald Trump, is a question now consuming diplomats across the world's capitals.

This is perhaps all the more the case in China, which has been left rattled this past week by Trump's hard talk on Taiwan, trade and the South China Sea.

An entirely new US approach to China under the Trump administration, hinted at in recent days by Trump and his advisers, will have huge ramifications for New Delhi.

Trump has been awarded Time Magazine's person of the year award

First, Trump upended nearly 37 years of US diplomatic protocol by speaking on the phone with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen.

The last US President or President-elect to speak with a Taiwanese leader was Jimmy Carter.

Part of the US normalisation of ties with China was an implicit recognition of 'One China' - a policy that India and all major countries follow - and a ceasing of diplomatic relations with Taiwan.

China regards Taiwan as a runaway province and goes to great lengths to prevent any international recognition of the island.

Which was why Trump's move left insiders in Beijing stunned. And Trump didn't stop with the Taiwan call.

After he was criticised by the American media for the call, he robustly defended it on Twitter, and went on to slam China for manipulating its currency and militarising the South China Sea.

Huang Jing, a leading expert on China's foreign policy at the National University of Singapore who often interacts with top decision-makers in Beijing, told MAIL TODAY, 'We have a President-elect who is very immature on international affairs, and is promoting Twitter diplomacy without much expertise in what he's doing.'

The irony is many in Beijing had initially welcomed Trump's rise because of his apparent fondness for Russia, perceptions of him as pragmatic and transactional - Chinese translations of The Art of the Deal are widely available - and the general dislike for the 'more ideological' Hillary Clinton.

An entirely new US approach to China under the Trump administration, hinted at in recent days by Trump and his advisers, will have huge ramifications for New Delhi

How will China respond to the President-elect? 'It would be best to stay put, be watchful and see what he will do once he is in the White House in January,' said Huang.

'At the same time, prepare for radical change. I don't believe Trump, no matter how unpredictable, can stand up to institutions and diplomatic norms established for decades. But if one President manages to do so, then we are all doomed.'

While it is perhaps too soon to gauge the ramifications of Trump's early moves as President-elect, what's less clear is whether he has himself thought through the possible fall-out of his robust new approach with China.

The most immediate likely consequence is an attempt by Beijing to punish or pressure Taipei, rather than confront Washington.

China is likely to test whether he will follow words with action. But when Trump has spoken of curtailing US misadventures abroad, how far would he be willing to go?

'The Chinese mainland is capable of punishing (Taiwan's) administration for any moves that crosses the red line, and it should use its power without hesitation,' said an editorial in the widely-read Party-run tabloid, Global Times.

'It is inappropriate to target Trump since he is still a president-elect.

'China can punish the Tsai administration as a way to convey a message to Trump.'

What is increasingly apparent is that Trump's moves were not, as some media first suggested, a diplomatic faux pas borne out of ignorance, but more likely a long-planned manoeuvre to signal a new approach to Beijing.

In a recent article for Foreign Policy, Trump adviser Peter Navarro, a professor at the University of California Irvine, lambasted the previous US government for reducing arms sales and shunning the interests of Taiwan, a 'beacon of democracy'.

He also slammed the Obama administration's 'pivot' to Asia, which spoke of challenging China but did little to stop Beijing's reclamation of islands and building of infrastructure on the South China Sea, describing it as 'talking loudly but carrying a small stick'.

He said Trump will rebuild the Navy, and called for deeper ties with 'US partners like Japan, South Korea, India, and even Myanmar and Vietnam' who 'view Beijing as a bully and potential aggressor that must be balanced against.'

This could certainly open new opportunities for India. Contrasting this robust security posture is Trump's impulse to withdraw from the region economically, dealing a death-blow to the 12-member Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal that excludes China.

Douglas Paal, vice-president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, notes that a 'role reversal' is taking place where China is now leading the push for both regional trade deals and climate agreement.

Already, Chinese officials have said they will push the long-drawn-out negotiations on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, which involves the 10 Asean countries plus their six partners, including China, Japan and India.

President-elect Donald Trump pumps his fist to cheers at Crown Coliseum

India's big concern is whether the deal will also open up markets for its services and skilled workers, beyond just goods.

If the deal is given fresh momentum with the expected decline of the TPP, India will have to take a call sooner rather than later.

Cao Heping, director of the Department of Developmental Economy at Peking University, suggested to Bloomberg that the new-found urgency in Beijing could see it 'finish the deal with India as an observer'.
The Sixth 'Heart of Asia' Conference in Amritsar brought together 14 Eurasian countries, including India, China, Russia, Iran and Pakistan, and representatives of 17 supporting nations led by the US and the European Union.

It reviewed their efforts to deal with the threats posed to regional peace and security by developments in Afghanistan.

Both India and Afghanistan openly asserted that these threats arose and emanated from Pakistani soil, with support from Pakistan's state machinery.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (right) shakes hands with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani (left) during the 6th Heart of Asia meeting

Challenges

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani alluded to the enhanced security challenges Kabul was facing this year, with the Taliban stepping up their armed attacks across the country.

He did not mince his words by publicly holding Pakistan primarily responsible for terrorism across his country.

He alleged that 'some states still provide sanctuary and support' for terrorist networks operating in Afghanistan.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani greet the delegates during the inauguration of the 6th Heart of Asia Ministerial Conference, in Amritsar

President Ghani pointedly referred to a statement by Taliban leader Mullah Rahamatullah Kakazada who had acknowledged that if the Taliban left their safe havens in Pakistan, they would not last even a month in Afghanistan.

While noting that Pakistan had pledged $500 million for the reconstruction of Afghanistan, he rejected Pakistan's offer of assistance.

He asserted that the money pledged by Pakistan could 'very well be used by it for combating extremism' directed at Afghanistan.

The conference, for the first time, designated several organisations from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Xinjiang and Central Asia, apart from the ISIS operating in Afghanistan, as posing terrorist threats in the region.

India can draw satisfaction from the fact that for the first time Lashkar-e-Tayyeba and Jaish-e- Mohammed were designated by such a conference as terrorist outfits.

President Ghani generously praised India for its economic assistance, describing it as 'impressive both it its scale and its system of delivery'.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi serves langar during his visit at Golden temple on the eve of the Heart of Asia Conference

There was also reference to the importance of the tripartite India-Iran-Afghanistan agreement on developing the Chabahar Port to promote regional connectivity to and through Afghanistan.

Despite these developments, India should not ignore the challenges that President Ghani's government faces both internally and externally.

It is no secret that governance in Afghanistan has been affected by differences within the Afghan government.

While the US has stepped up military supplies including the augmentation of Afghan air-power, there are logistical problems in routing American military supplies through Pakistan.

Agreement

Afghanistan has been appealing to India for over three years for urgent supply of military hardware. New Delhi is yet to firm up arrangements for this.

We should, if necessary, immediately conclude a tripartite agreement with Iran and Afghanistan to facilitate transit of arms supplies.

It is equally important that we fulfil our commitment on developing the Chabahar Port in Iran expeditiously.

India also has to recognise the reality that we are seeing the emergence of a Russia-China-Pakistan axis, when it comes to developments in Afghanistan.

We should make it clear that the tone and tenor of remarks made by Russian Special Envoy Rehman Kabulov in Amritsar on a number of issues, including our bilateral ties, are not in keeping with the spirit of our long-term friendly relationship.

The process of reconciliation within Afghanistan has achieved a small success, with the former pro-Pakistani mujahideen leader of Hizb-e-Islami, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, signing a peace agreement with the Afghan government.

But the prospects for a restoration of peace and a peace agreement with the Taliban are virtually non-existent at present.

Duplicity

While the talks between the Taliban and the Afghanistan government are meant to be exclusively 'Afghan-led and Afghan-owned', there are many others hovering around with a finger in the Afghan pie.

The initial 'facilitators' of these talks were the US, China and Pakistan. After that dialogue process broke down, largely because of what the Afghans saw as Pakistani duplicity, we are now witnessing the emergence of a new grouping of Russia, China and Pakistan, set to promote what is called an internal Afghan Peace Process.

The Russians now make out, with little evidence to substantiate what they are saying, that the real threat to regional peace emerging from Afghanistan comes from Daesh (ISIS) and not the Taliban.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani during a visit to Golden temple in Amritsar

This is obviously a line Pakistanis are pushing, recognising that Russia's primary concern is the ISIS.

One would not be surprised if the Afghans, said to be representing the ISIS, were really a front set up by the ISI.

In any case, we should not allow attention to be diverted from the fact that it is the Taliban, together with their affiliates in the Haqqani network - armed, trained and operating from safe havens in Pakistan - that constitute the main threat to the security of Afghanistan and indeed the region as a whole.

In the midst of a transition of government in the US, Washington can offer little to deal with these developments, especially as no one can predict what 'deals' the mercurial President-elect Donald Trump will hit upon, to address developments in Afghanistan.
The UK's economic growth for the final quarter this year has been dealt another blow after Britain's construction industry took a hit in October as firms failed to commit to major new projects.

The Office for National Statistics said construction output fell 0.6 per cent month on month, compared with economist estimates of a 0.3 per cent rise.

The figures come after a disappointing month for UK industry, where activity fell at its worst rate since 2012 in October, driven by a sharp contraction in mining and quarrying.

Mixed bag: Construction figures were poor but trade deficit data showed an improvement

Today's stats were dragged lower by a drop in infrastructure work and a slowdown in repair and maintenance activity, while there was a drop off in new orders for public projects such as schools and hospitals.

ONS senior statistician Kate Davies said: 'October saw the biggest jump in private house building for almost a year though less work on commercial buildings and infrastructure projects saw overall construction output down on the month.

'Meanwhile, new construction orders fell in the third quarter, thanks mainly to a large fall in orders for public projects such as schools and hospitals.'

Chancellor Hammond has promised increased infrastructure spending

New orders during the period from July to September dropped 2.4 per cent quarter on quarter, as public and other new work orders plunged 24.8 per cent, and infrastructure rose 22.4 per cent.

But Davies cautioned that both the monthly and quarterly figures 'can be quite volatile' and warned against 'reading too much into one set of figures'.

In October, the ONS tracked a decrease in all types of work except for private housing and non-housing repair and maintenance, which rose 2.4 per cent and 1.6 per cent respectively.

While the biggest drag on the monthly figures came from infrastructure, the sector should see a jump in activity if Government plans bear fruit.

In his Autumn Statement last month, Chancellor Philip Hammond earmarked 2.3billion for a new housing infrastructure fund that will support the construction of up to 100,000 homes.

He also pledged another 1.4billion for 40,000 new affordable homes, and 1.3billion for improving and upgrading Britain's roads.
Workplace software specialist ServicePower Technologies looks set to exit AIM after agreeing to be taken over by an American private equity company called Diversis Capital.

It is a decent deal. Diversis is paying 6p a share, or 13.6million, which is more than double the price of the stock before bid speculation surfaced.

Its not quite the 8p peak it hit 2014, but not bad given the share price had been as low as 2.25p earlier this year.

Takeover: Workplace software specialist ServicePower was bought by Diversis Capital

With the pound on its backside, bids from cashed-up foreign buyers such as Diversis are set become more commonplace, one suspects.

And ServicePowers take-out looks to be part of wider trend on AIM, which passed an unwanted landmark in October when the number of companies listed there dipped below 1,000.

Thats the first time this has happened since November 2004. At its peak in December 2007 the junior market was host to 1,694 growing businesses.

The fall-out from the crash of the natural resources sector has taken its toll. At the same time, AIM is now deemed an expensive way to gain stock market exposure.

Remember, it was set up in June 1995 as a lightly regulated method of accessing capital; an alternative to a full listing.

According to bosses Proactive has spoken to, the oversight from advisers employed to police companies conduct on AIM can be suffocating, while the starting price for a listing is 500,000.

For a small business that is a lot of cash; a good chunk of profits if you are making them.

We needed to be valued at over 30million to be viable on AIM; the costs are phenomenal, said Joe McTaggart, boss of the property firm Walls & Futures.

He opted from the lighter-touch ISDX share market to list his 3.3million real estate investment trust. It was a fraction of the cost, McTaggart said.

Shares on the junior market had a fairly lacklustre week on thin volumes as the AIM All Share rose 0.6 per cent, underperforming the FTSE 100, which was up 3.2 per cent.

CloudTag reached for the skies this week, with the share price more than doubling after it confirmed speculation swirling on social media that its first wearable fitness device will be delivered later this month.

With the Syria conflict apparently headed for a denouement, shares in Gulfsands Petroleum, which part-owns a gas production facility in the country, soared 111 per cent. In the last month they have tripled in value.

Investors in West African Minerals (up 25 per cent), meanwhile, appear to have bought into the iron ore rally just as its price hit reverse gear.

Elsewhere, it has been a busy and transformational week for Amryt Pharma (up 29 per cent in the last five days).

Last Friday it surprised the market by landing a 17million loan facility on very good terms from the European Investment Bank.

Funding: Amryt Pharma secured a 17million loan facility on very good terms from the European Investment Bank

Those funds will be used to bankroll the late-stage development of a drug for a rare and painful skin disorder. Then on Monday it licensed in its first commercial product.

In fact in 18 months it has managed two acquisitions, listings on the London and Dublin exchanges and raised a total of 35million.

Chaired by Harry Stafford, one of the founders of Shire, it is following an identical model to FTSE 100 drugs behemoth.

It is specialising in treatments for rare, orphan diseases where the timeline to market is truncated, the patient group small but the returns still incredibly lucrative.

It was a tough week for RedT Energy, but one that will solidify its financial position. For the energy storage specialist on Thursday said it had conditionally agreed to raise 12million.

The news of share placing knocked 34 per cent off the value of the business over the week. That said, investors who bought at the start of the year are still sitting on a 7 per cent profit.

Finally, watch out for RM Secured Direct Lending. The shares start trading on Wednesday at 1 and there has been a big demand from the institutions  25 in total, who have piled into the lender.

The company specialises in funding mid-sized firms needing 10-15million  a market that has been vacated by the high street and investment banks.
Jaeger has been struggling as shoppers flock to more upmarket chains and online rivals

Struggling Jaeger is facing another crisis after senior staff departed.

The embattled British fashion icon has been going through a brutal cost-cutting process to streamline the firm as it fights declining sales.

The brand, founded in 1884, captured the niche for elegant, flattering basics for discerning shoppers of a certain age.

It earned its place in fashion history in 1919 when it introduced the camel-hair coat to the High Street.

But it has been struggling as shoppers flock to more upmarket chains and online rivals.

Trading director Gwynn Milligan and product director Liza Canneford-Webb have both left  just a year after the company was rocked by the sudden departure of former boss Colin Henry.

Henry, who was only two years into his five-year turnaround strategy, left the company with no explanation.

Pressure has been placed on chief executive Chris Horobin, who said: 'This has been a year of good progress with a number of great people joining Jaeger completing a strong team.
HIRING GROWTH Profits at SThree will exceed market expectations as strong growth in the US and Europe made up for a slowdown in hiring in Britain.

The headhunter said profit for the year to the end of November would be slightly above the top end of market guidance of 37.3million to 39million.

BETTER BUILDING The construction slump in the third quarter of the year was not as bad as initially feared.

Output fell 0.8 per cent between July and September, said the Office for National Statistics. That was not as bad as the 1.1 per cent decline previously reported.

FRESH AIR The quest for cleaner air boosted sales for air purification specialists MayAir. Sales increased a whopping 75.7 per cent to 26.6million in the four months to October 31.

MayAir said it plans to expand its factories in China to meet growing demand.

INSURANCE BOSS Cheryl Agius is the new boss of Legal & General's general insurance business.

She was in charge of acquiring pension pots from large companies and helped the business reach 609billion of annuity sales this year.

Agius will oversee L&G's insurance tie-ups with banks and building societies.

CAR LOANS The second-hand car finance market hit 1.2billion in October, figures show  12 per cent higher than a year earlier.

Consumers bought 107,449 used vehicles on finance, according to the Finance & Leasing Association, a 9 per cent rise.

STEEL PROBE The EU is investigating whether Chinese steel manufacturers are selling steel into Europe at unfairly low prices after a complaint from EU steelmakers' association Eurofer. China said protectionism was not the answer.

TURBINE TROUBLE Two gas turbines just bought by power station Drax have failed to win electricity supply contracts. But the company was awarded 27million worth of contracts to supply electricity from existing units.

ROAD PURCHASE John Laing's infrastructure fund has bought a highway in north Wales. It has paid 28.3million for the A55 Llandegai-to-Holyhead road, a public-private partnership project.
Credit lender International Personal Finance plunged as new legislation emerged which could hit the firm's profits.

IPF, which does not operate in the UK but is listed here, lends to people with little or no borrowing history.

Yesterday the Polish ministry of justice published draft legislation which suggests changes to the amount that lenders can charge their customers.

It follows a cap on non-interest costs that lenders can charge on loans which came into effect in March this year.

Hit: International Personal Finance, which does not operate in the UK but is listed here, plunged as new legislation emerged which could hit the firm's profits

Currently borrowers cannot be charged more than 100 per cent of the value of their loan.

A further crackdown could see that brought down to 75 per cent, which would reduce the potential amount a lender can net in fees by a quarter.

A public consultation will run for 14 days before a decision is made.

IPF said it will be reviewing the proposal to assess the extent to which profit in its Polish business would be affected by the changes and is looking into strategies to mitigate the impact. Shares plummeted 43.5 per cent, or 123.9p, to 160.6p.

The collapse of retailer BHS left more than 160 empty stores on UK high streets, several of which were owned by real estate investment trust Capital & Regional.

Yesterday the company announced it had secured new tenants for former BHS shops in Blackburn and Walthamstow. Wilko will be taking the 25,000 sq ft unit in Blackburn shopping centre The Mall on a ten-year lease, while 24-hour gym firm the Gym Group has agreed to move into the 15,000 sq ft site in east London on a 20-year lease.

Capital said it was making good progress in securing tenants for two other former BHS spots in Maidstone and Redditch. Shares climbed 1.9 per cent, or 1p, to 54p.

The FTSE 100 finished up 0.3 per cent, or 22.6 points, at 6954.2. Sky stormed ahead to become the highest riser of the day after a takeover bid from 21st Century Fox emerged as trading drew to a close.

Shares rocketed 26.6 per cent, or 210.5p, to 1000p.

STOCK WATCH - FRONTIER DEVELOPMENTS Video game developer Frontier Developments announced that its latest game was set to be released on PlayStation 4 in the second quarter of 2017. Elite Dangerous is a multiplayer game set in space and is already available on Xbox and PC. The Cambridge firm said the game's latest incarnation would have custom features for PS4. Frontier is also behind popular games such as Thrillville and Rollercoaster Tycoon. In the year to May 31, it achieved revenue of 21.4million and operating profit of 1.2million. Shares closed down 0.48 per cent, or 1p, at 207p.

The banks made up much of the fallers list for the day after the regulator kicked the PPI deadline down the road.

Barclays dropped 2.5 per cent, or 5.9p, to 233.1p as Bank of America Merrill Lynch cut its rating on the stock while Lloyds lost 1.6 per cent, or 1p, to 61.7p.

Security outfit G4S soared as it appointed a non-executive director. Ian Springett will join the board on January 1.

Chartered accountant Springett has been chief financial officer and a director at Tullow Oil since 2008 and previously worked at BP for 23 years. G4S shares gained 2.1 per cent, or 4.7p, to 230.5p.

Berendsen slipped after it became the subject of a Competition and Markets Authority investigation.

The specialist laundry business had soared in the previous day's trading on a positive broker note.

Yesterday it announced that its UK Cleanroom business, which disposes of workwear and products for pharmaceutical and medical companies, was being investigated.

Berendsen said it was fully co-operating with the regulator and was keen to point out that the division, which had turnover of around 7million in 2015, only represented around 1 per cent of the group's total revenue. Shares stumbled 1.2 per cent, or 10p, to 830p.

Software firm Ideagen has bought IPI Solutions for 5.5million.

Mansfield-based IPI, which was founded in 2005, makes software for aerospace and defence companies.

It has around 400 customers including GE Aviation and Meggitt and in the year to June 30 reported profit of 600,000. Ideagen shares rose 4.7 per cent, or 3p, to 66p.

Condor Gold advanced as it settled a long-running dispute. In September 2010 it entered into an agreement with B2Gold to swap mining licences.

B2Gold and another company called Royal Gold ended up jointly filing to sue Condor over a disagreement about a royalty deal attached to its mine.

After four years of litigation a settlement has been agreed, though this may take three months to complete.
The City's reputation as a major tech hub received another boost as Japanese firm Softbank opened an office in London as the base for its 80billion investment fund.

The firm, run by Japan's second richest man, Masayoshi Son, will open offices in upmarket Mayfair for its Softbank Vision Fund private equity group.

Bosses hope it will become the world's biggest investor in technology over the next decade.

Fund base: Softbank boss Masayoshi Son, pictured this week with President-elect Donald Trump, will open offices in upmarket Mayfair

The investment is seen as a major boost to the City as Son is one of the globe's leading tech pioneers. Earlier in the summer he bought British microchip designer ARM Holdings for 24.3billion.

Rajesh Agrawal, deputy London mayor for business, said the new offices in Grosvenor Square were 'a further boost for the capital's burgeoning tech industry'.

'Softbank's decision to move to the capital shows that London is open to talent and entrepreneurship and the best place in the world to grow a business,' he said.

Ten people have been hired so far for the offices, with possibly dozens to follow.

London has been named as the best EU capital city for digital entrepreneurs for two years running due to its strong venture capital industry and financial services firms.

Announcing the fund in October, Softbank's chief executive said it would allow the company to 'step up investments in technology companies globally'.

Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund could contribute an extra 35bn over the next five years as the fund's lead partner.

Recent investments by Softbank include 795million into South Korean mobile commerce giant Coupang, and contributing to a 3.6billion fund for Chinese taxi-calling app Didi Chuxing Technology. Son has also promised to invest 40billion in US start-ups.

When it bought ARM Holdings in July, Softbank said it would create at least 1,500 new jobs at the chip designer over the next five years and keep its headquarters in Cambridge.
US and British spies have been listening in on mobile phone calls and data transfers made on passenger jets for ten years, it has been claimed.

Air France was targeted early on in the interceptions by US National Security Agency (NSA) and its British counterpart, GCHQ, according to a report.

The French flag-carrier was believed to have been selected at the time because it was seen as a terrorist target and it carried out tests in 2007 on allowing the use of mobile phones on its aircraft.

Air France was believed to have been selected at the time because it was seen as a terrorist target

The claims were made in France's Le Monde newspaper and the investigative website The Intercept, citing documents from former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden.

'The use of mobile phones with internet connections in the sky gave rise to the creation of specific programs at the NSA and GCHQ,' said Le Monde, which has access to Snowden's archive in partnership with The Intercept.

While it is not normally possible to make phone calls on planes, some carriers allow passengers to connect to a cabin wifi, allowing them to use internet-based functions on their handsets.

In 2012, at least 27 airlines allowed passengers to use mobile phones on board, including British Airways, Aeroflot, Etihad, Cathay Pacific, Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines.

Calls and data information were collected by the NSA and British GCHQ, whose headquarters is shown here

But Air France was 'such a symbol of the surveillance of communications on board airlines that the British spy agency used a drawing of one of their planes to illustrate how the interception worked'.

Asked about the British and American surveillance claims, Air France told Le Monde: 'We are visibly not the only ones to have been targeted and we know absolutely nothing about these practices.'

According to the report, internal documents from the two agencies describe the results of the 'impressive' programs - codenamed 'Thieving Magpie' and 'Homing Pigeon' - which allowed data to be collected 'almost in real time'.

In order to spy on a telephone, all that was needed was that the aircraft be cruising at an altitude above 10,000 feet, the report said.

Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor, leaked thousands of classified documents to the press in 2013

Secret aerial stations on the ground could intercept the signal as it transited through a satellite.

'The simple fact that the telephone was switched on was enough to give away its position, the interception could then be cross-referenced with the list of known passengers on the flight, the flight number, and the airline code to determine the name of the smartphone user,' the report said.

The mobile phone's function could also be disrupted, it said, forcing the user to input their access codes and thereby allowing the British spy agency to intercept the information.

Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor, leaked thousands of classified documents to the press in 2013 which revealed the vast scope of US surveillance of private data that was put in place after the 9/11 attacks.

After fleeing his home in Hawaii, he now lives in exile in Russia where he has sought asylum.
A US Marine Corps pilot whose F/A-18 crashed into the Pacific Ocean has been confirmed dead, a US official said Thursday.

Japanese rescuers earlier said they had found the missing pilot, whose plane crashed off the coast of Japan on Wednesday, but they would not say if he was alive.

Marine Corps spokeswoman Captain Sarah Burns said the pilot had been 'pronounced deceased,' and she identified him as Captain Jake Frederick.

The crashed F/A-18 plane is assigned to the US Marine Corps Air Station in Iwakuni, one of the main US military bases in Japan Brett Clashman (US AIR FORCE/AFP/File)

'Our deepest condolences go out to the family and friends of the pilot. The cause of the crash is still unknown,' Burns said.

Earlier Thursday, Japanese and US rescuers said they had expanded their search following the accident, which happened some 90 kilometres (56 miles) off the coast of southwestern Kochi prefecture.

Japan dispatched four ships and eight planes to assist in the rescue operation, it said.

Another jet was also flying on the same mission, Japan's defence ministry said.

The crashed plane was assigned to the US Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, one of the main US military bases in Japan, which hosts tens of thousands of US military personnel.
Janeen Marise Durie (pictured) was one of the carers of the stray cat who she named Bella

A neighbourhood dispute over an alleged 'murdered' stray cat got so ugly that the animal's primary carer claims it has caused her to suffer chronic depression.

Janeen Marise Durie, from Wollongong south of Sydney, launched a bid to get to the bottom of what she suspected was a 'cruel and targeted' campaign against her, and the white fluffy feline she used to take care of.

Ms Durie was one of a group of neighbours who used to look after the abandoned cat who she named Bella until the animal disappeared on July 30, 2014.

After the cat's owner moved interstate leaving the pet behind, Ms Durie cared and fed Bella for five years before she was found 'bludgeoned to death' and dumped in a garbage bin at her apartment complex on June 16 last year.

Distraught by the loss of Bella, Ms Durie called for a veterinary surgeon to conduct an autopsy to determine the cause of the cat's death because she suspected one of her neighbours killed her.

WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT

Bella the cat (pictured) was murdered before being dumped in a garbage bin on her street

Bella the cat was found 'bludgeoned to death' and dumped in a garbage bin in June last year

In a decision handed down by the New South Wales Civil and Administrative Tribunal, Ms Durie revealed how she has suffered depression as she fought for justice for her beloved cat.

For more than five years, Bella would roam the surrounding streets near Ms Durie's complex as other residents took her under their care.

But on the day she disappeared, the cat was mysteriously dropped off at an animal shelter by an unknown person, who also filled out a form to have her euthanised.

However, Ms Durie rescued the impounded feline by paying a fee for her release.

Bella was back on the street just two days later but eventually, a notice was issued by the committee of the Body Corporate to have the cat removed from the complex.

'The night before she was found dead, I heard a high-pitch screeching noise followed by a loud thud,' she told the tribunal.

'I was woken around 6am the next day to the sound of a wheelie bin.'

Ms Durie told the tribunal she suspected the 'person who took it to the pound killed her cat, thought she could not prove it.

'She believes that scream was uttered by the cat as it was being killed. In short, she believes the people who objected to the cat being in the complex, delivered it to the shelter on 30 July 2015, and killed it,' tribunal documents said.

Following the horrific death, Ms Durie set up a makeshift shrine for her beloved cat Bella

Bella the cat has been laid to rest in the garden as her owner continues to fight for justice

Ms Durie has revealed how she suffered the loss of the stray cat Bella after she was killed

The garbage bin where Bella was discovered dead after she was killed in June last year

The cat was reported missing for four days before Ms Durie discovered her lifeless body in the garbage bin in her complex.

She believed Bella was met with foul play as a post-mortem was carried out.

Ms Durie made an application to the council for access to the document signed by the person who dropped the cat off at the animal shelter.

The council granted limited access to the document without disclosing the name of the person. After various reviews, Ms Durie lodged an application with the tribunal to seek a review of the Council's decision.

The tribunal found the 'evidence of the applicant is uncontradicted, and I accept it as true, except so far as it expresses opinions about how her cat was killed by whom.

'Her opinion as to the cause of the cat's death rests on the veterinary surgeon's report, which was read to the Tribunal though not tendered, and the fact that the cat's claws were intact.

'The applicant says that cats tend to grip the road when about to be hit by a car, and their claws are shaven off by the force of impact. Is unnecessary for the purposes of this decision to make any findings on the likely cause of death.'

In her submission, Ms Durie said: 'She was a cat that luved [sic] to visit many people - a neighbourhood cat with a beautiful friendly soul. Not a nuisance cat.

'The meanness and cruelty inflicted on my cat and myself prior to and post her death has me in a state of depression for which I have sought professional help.'

Ms Durie penned a letter to the Wollongong City Council seeking access to the forms filled out by the person who dropped the cat off at the pound.

The fluffy white feline roamed the streets in Wollongong for five years until she disappeared

The fluffy feline was mysteriously dropped off at an animal shelter by an unknown person

Ms Durie revealed how she suffered depression as she fought for justice for her beloved cat

The woman has suspected there was a cruel and targeted campaign against her and Bella

The tribunal heard how Ms Durie suspected the person who handed Bella to the animal shelter was involved in the cat's horrific death and was known to her because they lived on her street.

'I believe the release of the information I seek would bring some justice for myself and the car which is all I am trying to obtain,' Ms Durie said in her submission.

'This is my beluved [sic] puss of 5 years and I have every right to find out who captured her and took her there [pound].

'She was loved by a lot of people [on our street] as [she] was the neighbourhood puss of 6 years. She was rescued as a baby trapped in a garage.

'[With] no food or water skin n [sic] bone - she was a survivor. We luved [sic] her.'

But the council claimed 'the person who delivered the cat to the shelter did not live in the woman's suburb and did not know of her relationship to the cat.

'There is no evidence to suggest that the person knew of the applicant at all, or that the person had any prior dealings with the cat,' the council said.
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Angry Germans have hit out at Angela Merkel over her proposed ban on the burka saying it is 'too little and too late' and nothing more than a political gimmick.

With almost a million refugees, many of them Muslim, now living in the country many ordinary Germans feel the conservative chancellor's proposed ban is a purely symbolic gesture.

They believe it is aimed at trying to halt the rise of the support anti-immigrant parties that threaten her re-election as President next year.

'She has only done this to try and keep the people quiet,' said 29-year-old Lars Burghrar.

'In Germany there is no other leader of her stature and she wants to make sure that she is re-elected. She is trying to create an impression that she is doing something after so much criticism about her immigration policy.'

Burka ban: Angela Merkel has called for a ban on the burka in Germany 'wherever legally possible' which would mean Muslims including Fatma el-Nasser, 18, pictured, would be banned from wearing a full veil. The nurse who was born in Berlin but whose family is from Lebanon told MailOnline: 'I have been insulted in Germany but I still feel I should have the right to choose whether I want to wear a headscarf. It's my decision, my free will.'

Symbol of oppression: Critics have argued that the proposed ban is a symbolic gesture to appease voters angry at her open door policy ahead of next year's elections. But Muslim Ebru Tosul, 26, pictured in Dortmund, is in favour of the ban and said the burka 'doesn't have a place in modern society' and 'shows a women is not being allowed to express herself in public'

Full veil outlaw: Merkel is under pressure from Germany's far right and is blamed for the mass immigration during the refugee crisis of the last two years. Muslim Dilara Polat, 19, pictured in her hijab, who lives in Berlin, told MailOnline she has experienced racism, but is against the ban because she said people should have the freedom to choose what they wear

In the industrial town of Dortmund, at the heart of the Ruhr, many people interviewed by Mail Online expressed their support for the ban.

But with Merkel under fire for her open doors policy they suspect it was more of a political gesture.

The election is expected to take place in September next year and Merkel will face tough competition from the far right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) which has enjoyed a resurgence thanks to the Chancellor's open door refugee policy in 2015 that saw a million refugees arrive last year.

AfD leader Frauke Petry has provoked controversy since she was chosen to head up the party last year and condemned for suggesting that border police should be allowed to shoot people entering the country illegally.

'Merkel has done this with an election in mind,' said a 23-year-old postal worker who asked not to be identified.

She has ruined Germany and she has done this to get back some power. I will not vote for her. Postal worker in Dortmund

'I think this is a political move and not because she thinks a ban will be any use.

'There are not that many women in Germany who wear the full face veil. It is symbolic and anyway because of what she has done to this country is too little and too late.

'She has ruined Germany and she has done this to get back some power. I will not vote for her.'

Even Muslim women interviewed by Mail Online said they supported the ban as the full face veil was a sign of oppression towards women.

'I am a Muslim, I pray and practice my religion but the burka should be banned in public places,' said 26-year-old Ebru Toslu.

'It doesn't have a place in modern society and to me shows a women is not being allowed to express herself in public.

'I respect every person's right to wear what they want because of their religion, but in a lot of cases women are not given a choice and are told to wear them.

'People who are told to wear a full face veil will never be integrated into our society and that is wrong.'

Pro-choice: German student Claire Eigeldinger, 19, pictured in Dortmund, was another against the ban because 'women should have the right to choose', although she said the burka was a 'sign of oppression'

Political gesture: Berlin rickshaw driver Max Mair, pictured, said Merkel's proposed ban was a 'reaction' to appease right-wing people in Germany frightened by the rise of ISIS - but said he didn't want a return to the 'ugly' days of a divided Germany when the Berlin Wall was still standing

Like many German cities Dortmund has a large immigrant population with more than 22,000 from Turkey, mostly based in the north of the city.

Other large groups of immigrants include Poles and over 3,500 from Romania and Bulgaria who have made it their home in recent years.

While many of the Muslim women in the city wear headscarves there were none in the wearing the full-face veil.

Student Clare Eigeldinger said women should have a choice of what they wear but thought the burka was a sign of oppression.

'There is a lot of pressure on Mrs Merkel to do something and this is her response. People are very angry that she has let in so many outsiders. Jake Muller, 16, student

'Personally I am not in favour of the full face veil. I don't think it is right that we cannot see the full face. I think it sends out the wrong impression.

'No one should be prevented from practising their religion but because of all the terrorists attacks here in Germany and in places like France people are looking more at Muslims.

'The burka makes them stand out as it says they are Muslim.'

Bianaca Bendesthh, 40, said she supported the ban on the burka.

'There are a lot of Muslims in this city and they have integrated well, but there is not place for the burka.

'But I have the impression Mrs Merkel has still only done this as people have said she has to do something about the letting in so many immigrants.'

Student Jake Muller said he believed his country has been changed beyond recognition by the huge influx of refugees.

The 16-year-old said: 'There is a lot of pressure on Mrs Merkel to do something and this is her response.

'It will only affect a small number of people so will not be that much use.

'People are very angry that she has let in so many outsiders.'

Confusion over move: Leonie Southeimer, 24, left, said she was 'astonished' at the proposal because it 'seemed to have no reason' while Layla Fassbender, 28, right, claimed it was 'only fair' for Muslim women not to wear burkas in Germany because you have to 'adopt and accept the rules' when you are living in another country

Merkel bid for re-election: Marina Aziz, 24, a Christian who is visiting Berlin from her home in Egypt, said Merkel was making a political move to show Germans 'she is not just letting refugees in'

In Berlin Dilara Polat, 19, who is unemployed and whose family is from Turkey, said that she has experience racism in Germany as a result of wearing a hijab.

'On my way home someone opened the window of a car and said, 'Run home or I will shoot you,' said the teenager.

Despite experiencing racial abuse, Ms Polat is against a headscarf boycott, adding: 'Banning the burka is a bad idea. There is no ban on people going half naked, some people even get paid to take their clothes off, but for wearing a burka they will receive a fine?'

Khtoun Nemr, 18, a Muslim nurse at Neukolln Klinikum hospital, was born in Berlin but her family is from Lebanon.

'I have been insulted in Germany but I still feel I should have the right to choose whether I want to wear a headscarf. It's my decision, my free will,' she said.

'I have been shouted at because they thought I was a refugee, but I surprised them by answering back in German. and they apologised.'

Max Mair, 51, who has lived in Berlin since he was five, said he did not want to go back to the dark days of the 1980s, the cold war and Berlin Wall when 'people did not have freedom'.

'In Germany and the rest of Europe people have turned to the right since the refugees crisis and the emergence of ISIS. Merkel is just reacting to the anti immigration feeling so that more people will vote for her.'

Mr Mair said he thought the problem was a lack of integration into German society from those refugees arriving.

He said: 'A big problem is that, particularly the women, don't learn German. When they learn the language the whole family opens up and engages with society.'

Layla Fassbender, 28, a business administration student at Berlin School of Economics and Law, said Muslim women should not wear burkas in Germany, just as she has to cover up in Muslim countries.

'When you're in another country with a different culture you have to adopt and accept the rules and the law,' she said.

Felice, 28, from Neukolln, a refugee volunteer worker was cynical of Merkel's motives with one eye on next year's election and the threat of the far right. He said: 'This isn't Merkel's idea. This comes from the right wing conservatives, even in her own party, to get more voters because they think she is too liberal on immigration.

'Merkel doesn't want to do these things but she had to keep the voters who have problems with her welcoming refugees.'

Many Germans blame immigrants for an increase in sex attacks and terror attacks.

In the Bavarian town of Ansbach earlier this year a Syrian asylum seeker injured more than a dozen people when he blew himself up outside a bar having pledged his support for ISIS.

Two months ago, Germany was stunned when 19-year-old Maria Ladenburger, daughter of an EU official, was allegedly raped and murdered as she cycled home from a party in Freiburg. A 17-year-old Afghan immigrant, known as Hussein K, has been arrested in connection with her death.

Changing lanscape of Germany: Young Germans in Dortmund, including 16-year-old Jake Muller, pictured, said their country had 'changed beyond recognition' and that people were angry that 'so many outsiders' had been let in

Lars Burghrar, 29, left, in Dortmund, was cynical of the move, claiming Merkel was 'creating an impression she was doing something' after criticism of her immigration policies, while Bianca Bendesth, 40, right, supported the ban and said there was 'no place for the burka' despite refugees generally integrating well in the city

In July, a teenage Afghan immigrant linked to ISIS went on the rampage with an axe on a train, injuring 19 people people. He was eventually shot dead by police

And racial tensions severely deteriorated after a series of sexual assaults on the streets of Cologne last New Year were blamed on immigrants.

Banker worker Torstan Tietze said the German leader had put herself in a difficult position by opening the borders and allowing in more than 800,000 people.

He said she cannot admit her policy was wrong  and disliked by millions in Germany  and so was using the ban on the burka to try and claw back support.

'She is in a difficult position. She doesn't want to offend those in favour of immigration but she knows so many people are unhappy with it.
A Kentucky county has agreed to a $3.5million settlement with the family and passengers of a teenager who was fatally shot by a sheriff's deputy as she drove away from a party.

The family of nineteen-year-old Samantha Ramsey filed a wrongful death lawsuit last year after she was shot by Boone County Sheriff's Deputy Tyler Brockman in April 2014.

Plaintiffs' attorney Al Gerhardstein announced the settlement between the family and Boone County during a news conference Wednesday.

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The family of nineteen-year-old Samantha Ramsey (left) filed a wrongful death lawsuit last year after she was shot by Boone County Sheriff's Deputy Tyler Brockman (right) in April 2014

'I'm pleased with the changes the county's willing to make,' Brandi Stewart, Ramsey's mother (pictured), said

Video from WCPO

On April 26, 2014, around 2am, Brockman responded to a report of a large party in Hebron to check whether the drivers who were leaving were sober, news outlets reported.

Ramsey, who was driving three friends, didn't stop as she left the party and hit Brockman with her car, throwing him onto the hood, Brockman said.

The deputy said he felt the car speeding up and feared for his life so he fired into the windshield four times, killing Ramsey.

Her three passengers were then held at gunpoint.

The lawsuit said Ramsey was stopping the car when Brockman fired.

Toxicology reports indicated Ramsey had alcohol and marijuana in her system.

On April 26, 2014, around 2am, Brockman responded to a report of a large party in Hebron to check whether the drivers who were leaving were sober

Ramsey, who was driving three friends, didn't stop as she left the party and hit Brockman with her car, throwing him onto the hood, Brockman said

The shooting was not shown in the footage - the smoke is coming from the car after it crashed into a ditch

WCPO, citing an evidence report, says Ramsey drove over the deputy's foot in the lead-up to the shooting, and that his foot suffered bruising and his boot had tire marks.

A grand jury declined to indict Brockman in 2014. He is still employed as a deputy in Boone County.

Following the shooting, the sheriff's office is expected to revise its use of force policy by June 30 as well as have patrol officers wear body cameras by the end of 2017, Gerhardstein said.

Boone County attorney Jeff Mando, according to Local 12, said: 'I have known Sheriff Helmig for many years.

'He is always willing to examine new policies or practices to ensure that his department is operating safely and efficiently. I appreciate the hard work done on all sides to resolve this matter.'

'I'm pleased with the changes the county's willing to make,' Brandi Stewart, Ramsey's mother, said during the news conference.

'It will protect the citizens, as well as the sheriff's deputies.'

Stewart, according to WCPO, said: 'It hasn't been easy for our family, Samantha's friends, but with these changes that they are making, hopefully it will prevent another family from going through the tragedy that we have been through.'

The mother said she and Brockman met privately, according to WLWT.
Roboticists at University of California, Berkeley, have invented a robot that can jump nearly two metres high.

The robot, called Salto (saltatorial locomotion terrain obstacles), has been designed to jump at 1.75 metres per second into the air and then jump off a wall or leap into the air multiple times in a row.

Now Duncan Haldane, a robotics Ph.D. candidate at UC Berkeley who led the work, said the researchers aim to expand Salto's abilities by taking inspiration from Parkour, the French training discipline.

The Salto robot has been created by roboticists at University of California, Berkeley

In a video by UC Berkeley about the robot, Duncan said Salto can jump better than people as it can jump higher.

He said: 'It can jump higher and faster than any other jumping robot that is out there right now.

'It has 56 per cent more jumping agility.'

Duncan added that now they are happy with how well the robot is jumping, they aim to expand the robot's abilities further by taking inspiration from Parkour.

He said: 'The closest model of what we're trying to do is human Parkour. You have these people that excel at running over buildings, bouncing off all these crazy obstacles...using stuff that would otherwise be an obstacle, like a wall, as a feature to help yourself move.'

In the future, the roboticists would like to be able to take a map of an environment, identify places where Salto can jump and then direct the robot where to jump, how high and how far.

The Salto robot can jump higher than one metre at 1.75 metres per second

The robot can also successfully jump from the floor and bounce against a wall, meaning it can jump higher

He added that he likes being able to take inspiration from animals to create better robots.

For Salto, he was inspired by galagos, or bush babies, which can jump 1.74 metres in the air.

He said: 'Biologists have found animals adapted specifically for jumping have this super crouch posture.

'The longer they stay in a crouch, the more energy they can transfer to their tendons, and the more energy they can return for jumping.
North Korea is now capable of launching a nuclear weapon, a senior US military official has warned - but it is unclear whether it can hit a target.

The secretive state can mount a nuclear warhead on a missile, the official stated, but may not be able to get the weapon back through the atmosphere without it burning up.

The unnamed official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Pyongyang is trying to overcome this limitation, and branded leader Kim Jong-un's behaviour branded 'very, very provocative'.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's behaviour has been described as 'very, very provocative'

The Pentagon is continually revising its contingency plans to deal with the possibility of a North Korean strike.

The official told reporters: 'I think they could mate a warhead with a delivery device. They're just not sure (about) re-entry.

'They're endeavoring to overcome that.'

North Korea has carried out a number of nuclear and missile tests this year, defying UN Security Council resolutions and sanctions.

In February North Korea claimed it had successfully put a satellite into orbit, with a rocket launch widely condemned as a ballistic missile test for a weapons delivery system

Kim said in August that his country is now 'fully equipped with nuclear attack capability', after a test of a submarine-launched missile.

In October, a report by the RAND Corporation warned that North Korea was the biggest threat facing the US around the world, and it is feared the country could possess up to 100 nuclear weapons by 2020.

Incoming President Donald Trump has called on China to do more to rein in its neighbor, and he told Reuters in May that he is willing to talk to the North Korean leader to try to stop Pyongyang's nuclear program.

A new rocket launching system was demonstrated in March in North Korea

There are currently around 28,500 US troops based in South Korea helping to defend the country against nuclear-armed North Korea.

The two countries have remained in a technical state of war since the 1950-53 Korean conflict.

The official said the US military was always reviewing potential responses to threats from the North, acknowledging greater attention on the issue in recent months.

North Korea now has the capability to launch a nuclear weapon, a senior US military official has warned

'We're preparing for everything that might evolve based on (Kim's) very, very provocative behavior,' the source said.

The UN Security Council, which includes China, unanimously voted to impose new, tougher sanctions on North Korea a week ago.

But neither sanctions, imposed by Washington since 1950, nor the so-called six-party talks with Pyongyang to suspend its nuclear program in return for diplomatic rewards and energy assistance, have stopped North Korea from testing nuclear devices.

In March Admiral Bill Gortney, then head of US Northern Command and responsible for protecting US airspace, told a Senate panel it was 'prudent' to assume North Korea had the ability to miniaturize a nuclear weapon and put it on an intercontinental ballistic missile that could target the United States.

Despot Kim Jong-un's regime is the biggest international threat to the US, a think-tank found in October this year

Earlier this year US General Vincent Brooks, the head of US forces in Korea, said: 'I think that they're struggling with getting the (intercontinental ballistic missile) program up and operational.'

But he added that 'over time, I believe we're going to see them acquire these capabilities if they're not stopped'.

The US missile defense system is in the process of expanding its missile interceptors to 44 from 30 by the end of next year.

Forty will be at Fort Greely, Alaska, and four at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
While some parents are familiar with their children's texting slang, some teens are now using secret sexting codes that have left many moms and dads horrified.

Teens often use abbreviations in order to type faster while texting such as 'LOL' for 'laugh out loud' and 'SMH' for 'shaking my head.'

But parent-proof abbreviations are now being used to hide the meaning of their conversations, including 'IWS' for 'I want sex' and 'GNOC' for 'get naked on camera.'

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While some parents are familiar with their children's texting slang, some teens are now using secret sexting codes that have left many moms and dads horrified (FILE PHOTO ABOVE)

Crystal Sims, the mother of two girls, told CBS2 she was unaware of the sexting codes but guessed, correctly, that 'CU46' meant 'see you for sex.'

When asked what she would do if she ever saw any of the codes on one of her children's phones, she replied: 'Oh, we would shut it down. I would shut it down.'

'They wouldn't even know what a phone was,' she added.

Some of the other secret codes include 'GYPO' for 'get your pants off'; the number '9' for 'parents watching'; 'PIR' for 'parent in room' and 'POS' for 'parent over shoulder,' according to CBS2.

Shelby LaPierre, 17, said she has seen similar codes but said she stays away from engaging in such behavior after taking advice from her father, Guy, who was shocked when learning about the codes.

A GUIDE TO TEENS' PARENT-PROOF ABBREVIATIONS IWS: I want sex GNOC: Get naked on camera CU46: See you for sex GYPO: Get your pants off 9: Parents watching PIR: Parent in room POS: Parent over shoulder Advertisement

'It never goes away and they know that,' Guy told the station.

Apps such as My Mobile Watchdog and Bark allow parents to help protect and aid their kids in making responsible choices online and when using their phones.

'You've got to stay a step ahead of what kids are getting in to so you can protect them,' Bark chief parent officer Titania Jordan told CBS2.

'Let them know that you know.'

Bark uses advanced algorithms to detect messages containing cyberbullying, or suicidal thoughts and then alerts parents of potential online dangers without them having to read through all of their child's online activities, according to the company.

A study conducted last year by Drexel University that surveyed college students revealed that 54 per cent of those surveyed reported they had sexted, with or without photographic images, as minors.
In this selfie-obsessed age it can often seem like our willingness to help others has all but disappeared.

But as this clip proves, Australians can still find the time to help out a fellow countryman in need when the moment calls for it.

This is the moment dozens of drivers stopped on the Pacific Highway in Brisbane to help roll an overturned car back on to its wheels.

This is the heartwarming moment around a dozen drivers stopped on the Riverside Expressway in Brisbane to help right a car that had flipped over

Queensland Police told Daily Mail Australia that the crash happened around 6.30pm on a stretch of the highway known as the Riverside Expressway.

While it is not known how the accident happened, the road does appear slick with rain at the time.

At least one lane of traffic was blocked causing cars to slow, which is when strangers decided to stop and help out.

The vehicle appears to have crashed in wet conditions before turning on to its roof and blocking the inside lane of the highway

Queensland police said it took around an hour for the blockage to be cleared and fortunately nobody was injured during the crash

Nine drivers can be seen in the footage helping to roll the small silver vehicle back on to its wheels to help clear the jam.

In total it took around an hour for the blockage to be cleared, and fortunately nobody was injured in the accident.
A parachuting Santa has brought Christmas joy to children whose homes were lost in an earthquake this year.

The town of Amatrice in Italy was devastated by a 6.1 earthquake

It struck central Italy, and was felt across a broad section including the capital Rome where people in homes in the historic centre felt a long swaying followed by aftershocks.

One man dressed as Father Christmas to deliver presents to the children of Amatrice, devastated by an earthquake

The earthquake struck in August this year and measured 6.1 on the Richter scale. It demolished the town

Hundreds died and thousands of children and their families are living in tents and wooden houses awaiting the rebuilding of their homes

Nearly 300 died when the quake flattened three medieval towns near the rugged Apennines while more than 400 were injured.

Since then, those who lost their homes have been living in tents and temporary wooden houses since the quake in August.

It may be a bleak Christmas for them, and to bring a smile to their faces, eight parachuters, included one dressed as Santa Claus, flew into the Italian town.

They brought gifts for the children who have been living in the makeshift town since the summer.

They also donated more than 2,500 (2,905 Euros) to the fund to rebuild Amatrice, on behalf of the Associatione Nationale Parachuditisti D'Italia.

The children watched eagerly as the parachutists dropped out of the sky to pay them a visit

When Santa landed, he brought festive joy that may have been missing for the children this year

The children received gifts and the parachutists also donated nearly 3,000 Eur for the rebuilding process

Wooden huts were built for 2,500 people who were left homeless by the quake. The little shelters feature a kitchen, bathroom and one or two bedrooms.

Amazingly, a dog and a cat survived for several days under the rubble.

A golden retriever called Romeo was pulled from the rubble of Italy's earthquake, more than nine days after he was given up for dead.

A cat called Pietro was found 16 days after the quake hit, surviving on drops of rain as it waited for rescue.

The town's children returned to school in mid-September after classrooms were put up in containers in the villages.

The children were able to return to school in mid-September but the thousands left homeless are still in tents and wooden huts

The country's education minister was on hand for the reopening ceremony, praising the 'extraordinary work' to erect classrooms in such a short period and pledging it would just be a first step.

But many villagers were left angry and confused by apparent measures taken after the 2009 earthquake to bolster the buildings against future disaster.
Theresa May's 'Jams' are less likely to send children to grammars than wealthier families, according to a new report by the Sutton Trust.

The charity found children from 'just about managing' families make up just 16 per cent of grammar intakes in selective areas  compared with 35 per cent from rich homes.

The Prime Minister has pledged to help the 'Jams'  those on low to middle incomes  with education and budget reforms.

She hopes creating new grammar schools in the poorest areas will give bright disadvantaged pupils better access to an academically rigorous education.

Children from 'just about managing' families make up just 16 per cent of grammar intakes in selective areas  compared with 35 per cent from rich homes

The findings in the report are likely to bolster arguments in favour of measures to make sure places in the new schools are not hogged by middle class families.

Currently, richer families are able to dominate many grammars because they can afford private tuition to get their children through the admissions tests.

Some schools are now introducing quotas for disadvantaged pupils, while others are creating catchment areas which prioritise locals so that rich children who live far away cannot trump poorer children living near the school.

Such measures have only been possible in the last few years following a change in the government's admissions rules.

The researchers defined Jams as those families claiming in-work tax credits and living in the bottom 40 per cent of neighbourhoods in terms of wealth.

Sutton Trust chairman Sir Peter Lampl said: 'Today's research raises concerns about the Government's plans to use new grammars as a vehicle for social mobility.

'We need to get existing grammars moving in the right direction before we consider expanding their number.'

The charity's research split families into five groups based on income, with the lowest two groups judged to be Jams, and the wealthiest families occupying the top group.

When laying out her plans for new grammar schools in September, the Prime Minister said: 'In a true meritocracy, we should not be apologetic about stretching the most academically able to the very highest standards of excellence.'

She is currently consulting on overturning a ban on creating new grammars imposed by Tony Blair in 1998  meaning there are now only 163 left in the country.

Theresa May has pledged to help those on low to middle incomes with education and budget reforms

The Sutton Trust said its research suggested that even when children are similarly bright, the most economically disadvantaged are still under-represented in selective schools.

The data also found that among pupils eligible for free school meals, white children had the lowest rate of entry to grammar schools.

In 2016, 0.7 per cent of disadvantaged White British children went to a grammar, compared with 0.9 per cent of White non-British children, 0.8 per cent of Black children, 2.8 per cent of Indian children, 5.2 per cent of Chinese children, and 1.5 per cent of other Asian children.

The report noted that higher attainment levels are part of the reason why parents like grammar schools.

It found that in grammar schools in 2014/15, 97 per cent of non-disadvantaged pupils and 93 per cent of disadvantaged pupils achieved 5 A*-C grades at GCSE including English and Maths, compared to 84 per cent of non-disadvantaged pupils and 64 per cent of disadvantaged pupils at the country's top comprehensive schools.

However, the charity said this gap is likely to be because of the attainment levels of pupils upon entering the grammar schools, as opposed to the school itself.

In response to the findings, the Sutton Trust has called on the Government to make the admissions process for grammar schools fairer before their numbers are expanded.

They have suggested providing a minimum of 10 hours test preparation for all pupils to minimise the advantage offered by private tutoring, ensuring grammar schools prioritise pupils eligible for the pupil premium, and improving outreach work to disadvantaged families.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: 'The Sutton Trust itself has highlighted the positive impact grammar schools can have on pupils from less well-off backgrounds and that's exactly why we want more young people to benefit.

'Our proposals will address the issues highlighted in the report  creating more good school places in more communities and ensuring new and existing selective schools prioritise the admission of lower income pupils and support other schools to help drive up academic standards across the system.
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Snow has dusted parts of Victoria as a cold front brings yet more cool conditions, rain and hail as the rest of Australia basks in glorious sunshine.

Despite the summer season, Melbourne residents woke to a wet, wintry start to the coldest December day in three years, with freezing temperatures plummeting seven degrees lower than the December average.

And if the cold blast continues through the month, Victorians could be treated to a white Christmas - as photos on social media show the popular Mount Buller ski field dusted by snow flakes on the slopes as temperatures drop to just -1.2 degrees on Friday morning.

Bureau of Meteorology's severe weather meteorologist Steven McGibbony said Friday will reach temperatures of up to 17 degrees - and snow is expected to fall in elevated areas.

To top it off, windy conditions will make it feel much colder than it is as hail storms are also expected to hit areas across the southern part of the state.

'It's not quite time yet for Victorians to put away winter coats or scarves,' Mr McGibbony said.

Meanwhile, Sydneysiders will enjoy the warm weather, with temperatures reaching up to 26 degrees on Friday. Perth and Darwin will be hit with a heatwave, with scorching temperatures of 37 and 35 degrees respectively.

Brisbane will be basking in temperatures of up to 30 degrees. Adelaide and Canberra will both enjoy the balmy weather of temperatures reaching 22 degrees while Hobart will record 15 degrees.

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Photos on social media show the popular Mount Buller ski field dusted by snow flakes on the slopes as temperatures drop to just -1.2 degrees on Friday morning

Victorian residents woke to a wet, wintry start to the coldest December day in three years (Pictured: Mount Buller on Friday)

Mount Buller ski field has been dusted by snow flakes on the slopes as temperatures drop to -1.2 degrees on Friday morning

Snow has blanketed parts of Victoria as a cold front brings yet more cool conditions, rain and hail (Pictured: Mount Buller)

Melbourne residents woke to a wet, wintry start to the coldest December day in three years

The cold blast comes as Melbourne residents woke to a bout of unusual weather on Thursday with temperatures plunging ten degrees in just an hour after a relatively balmy night.

Across the city, the temperature hovered at about 21 degrees for majority of the night before rising to 25.7 degrees at 4.30am and then plummeting to 16 degrees at 5.20am as a strong cold front swept through at dawn.

A severe weather warning was in place for the rest of Thursday with gale force winds expected to reach 110 km/h and heavy rain.

The stormy weather set in by 6.30am and the city is only expected to reach a top of 23 degrees.

Residents in Horsham, Warrnambool, Seymour, Maryborough, Ballarat, Geelong and Melbourne have been warned of damaging winds. A gust of 93 km/h was recorded at 4.30am in Mt William.

Emergency services have advised people should move their vehicles under cover and away from trees as well as securing large outdoor items.

Melbourne residents have woken up to a bout of unusual weather with temperatures plummeting ten degrees after a relatively balmy night

Across the city, the temperature hovered at about 21 degrees for majority of the night before rising to 25.7 degrees at 4.30am and then plunged ten degrees as a strong cold front swept through at dawn

Rain shrouded the city on Thursday morning and many residents opted to stay indoors after the unexpected dumping

Some decided to stay in bed after waking up to the icy conditions and dumping of rain

The cold spell is set to continue on Friday with temperatures so low there may be snowfall on elevated areas

One woman posted a picture snuggled up under a blanket with her dog and said it was the perfect morning to stay in and cuddle

The overnight temperatures were relatively high overnight after a warm day on Wednesday (pictured)

The cold spell is set to continue on Friday with temperatures so low there may be snowfall on elevated areas.

The pollen count is high for Melbourne and Geelong and classed as 'extreme' in Melbourne's east. This has triggered fears of further thunderstorm asthma cases.

Last month, eight people were killed by thunderstorm asthma with emergency services and hospitals sent into meltdown after struggling to find enough supplies to treat 1,900 triple-0 calls.

On Thursday, Melbourne residents took to social media to complain about the 'dreadful weather'.

'Melbourne weather: Rain, wind, sun, rain, wind, rain.. oh and sun,' one man wrote, clearly unimpressed with the city's 'four seasons in one day'.

'Wow really Melbourne? Sunny and warm yesterday and pissing down rain this morning!' another woman observed.

Some decided to stay in bed after waking up to the icy conditions and dumping of rain. One woman posted a picture snuggled up under a blanket with her dog and said it was the perfect morning to stay in and cuddle.

A severe weather warning was also issued for the Snowy Mountains in NSW on Thursday morning with gales of 110 km/h expected to thrash alpine areas above 1800 metres.

Across the city, the temperature hovered at about 21 degrees for majority of the night before rising to 25.7 degrees at 4.30am and then plummeting to 16 degrees at 5.20am as a strong cold front swept through at dawn

On Thursday, some enjoyed the dumping of rain from the comfort of Melbourne airport, but were concerned the wild weather may cause delays

The unexpected rain made it difficult for this Melbourne resident to continue excavator work around his pool

The cold spell is set to continue on Friday with temperatures so low there may be snowfall on elevated areas

Ominous clouds rolled across the city before midday and thunderstorms were expected in the afternoon

FORECAST: WHAT THE WEATHER LOOKS LIKE AROUND AUSTRALIA SYDNEY Friday: Min 19, Max 26. Sunny Saturday: Min 17, Max 24. Partly cloudy Sunday: Min 18, Max 26. Possible shower BRISBANE: Friday: Min 25, Max 30. Showers, possible storm Saturday : Min 21, Max 27. Partly cloudy Sunday: Min 20, Max 27. Partly cloudy ADELAIDE Friday : Min 12, Max 22. Partly cloudy Saturday : Min 10, Max 25. Sunny Sunday: Min 12, Max 30. Sunny DARWIN Friday : Min 26, Max 35. Partly cloudy Saturday : Min 25, Max 35. Possible storm Sunday: Min 25, Max 34. Shower or two MELBOURNE Friday : Min 11, Max 17. Shower or two Saturday : Min 11, Max 19. Mostly cloudy Sunday: Min 13, Max 22. Partly cloudy CANBERRA Friday : Min 8, Max 22. Sunny Saturday : Min 6, Max 25. Mostly sunny Sunday: Min 9, Max 27. Mostly sunny PERTH Friday : Min 18, Max 37. Sunny Saturday : Min 20, Max 37. Sunny Sunday: Min 17, Max 31. Shower or two HOBART Friday : Min 8, Max 15. Shower or two Saturday : Min 10, Max 19. Possible afternoon shower Sunday: Min 12, Max 21. Partly cloudy Advertisement

The National Parks Service of NSW recommended people postpone their travel from the Snowy Mountains until conditions improve, according to the Bureau of Meterology.

Meanwhile, southeast Queensland will have a third straight day of storms after an early-morning showing of thunder-and-lightning.

Relatively rare early morning storms rolled over the state's southeast on Tuesday and Wednesday, leaving thousands without power.

'Most people got a nice awakening around 2-4 o'clock this morning (Wednesday) and there is a potential for more activity like that north of the Gold Coast,' BoM forecaster Andrew Bufalino told AAP.

'We've got an upper trough moving over the area in combination with a coastal trough, and in combination with that we have some very moist and unstable weather conditions, and that's driving a lot of shower and thunderstorm activity across the region.'

The stormy weather is expected to ease by Friday, with more volatile conditions moving north of the Sunshine Coast.

'Wow really Melbourne? Sunny and warm yesterday and pissing down rain this morning!' another woman observed

A severe weather warning was also issued for the Snowy Mountains in NSW on Thursday morning, but Sydney had a forecast of 29 degrees
The nation is turning to gin as never before.

Artisan versions of the British spirit have made gin fashionable, pushing sales through the 1billion a year barrier.

The thirst for drinking and producing gin has even made for a controversial storyline in the Archers.

At the same time, programmes like Downton Abbey and the James Bond films have boosted exports, particularly to the USA.

And a gin and tonic drizzle cake even made an appearance on the Great British Bake Off this year.

Gin - and therefore the classic G&T - has grown massively in popularity among young people, pushing sales through the 1billion a year barrier

Britons bought the equivalent of 40 million bottles - or 1.12billion G&Ts  in the past year.

Sales through pubs, bars and restaurants went up 19per cent reaching 619m, while the figure through the High Street rose by 13per cent to 437m.

The details come from the Wine & Spirits Trade Association (WSTA), which said 40 new gin distilleries opened up across the country during the year.

On its own, gin is an unremarkable, albeit powerful, spirit, distilled from barley, maize or wheat.

Its success has been driven by the addition of a bizarre range flavourings, everything from traditional juniper to more exotic botanicals, herbs and spices, grape skins, acorns, seaweed and even ants.

And there is good money to be made from these designer gins. A 70cl bottle of Da Mhile organic seaweed gin, which is made in Wales, is 30.

Dorset Dry gin, which is 35.95, includes juniper along with elderberries, samphire and handpicked New Forest gorse flowers.

Anty Gin, made by the Cambridge Distillery, is the worlds first gin infused with the essence of ants. Sold by Selfridges, a 70cl bottle comes in at an eye-watering 220.

Gin has undergone a remarkable journey from the scourge of the working classes to a style statement.

It started out in the 1700s as a medicine and, bizarrely, was sold as a cure for gout and indigestion, but most attractive of all, it was cheap.

In the 1730s notices could be seen all over London. The message was short and to the point: Drunk for 1 penny, Dead drunk for tuppence.

Gin distilleries, such as this one set up in Gatwick Airport, have seen a recent resurgence after the heyday of gin in London in the 1730's

In London alone, there were more than 7,000 dram shops, and 10 million gallons of gin were being distilled annually. Gin was hawked by barbers, pedlars, and grocers and even sold on market-stalls.

The drink rendered men impotent, and women sterile, and was a major reason why the birth rate in London in the mid-1700s was overtaken by the death rate.

Such was its impact on women that it became demonised as mothers ruin, provoking governments of the day to impose punishing tax rates and restrictions on sales.

Consumption declined dramatically and it was not until the 1970s that a revival began as the gin and tonic became a favourite of the respectable suburban dinner party set.

Today, gin has been reinvented again by the hipster classes with more than half of gin drinkers under 35. In the 2016 International Wine & Spirits Competition, 96 gins from the UK won medals.

The WSTA said three out of every four bottles of gin sold around the world are from the UK.

And British gin is now sold overseas in 139 countries with America, Canada, Spain and Germany buying the most. We sold 159m of British gin to the Americans in 2015, which is up by 553per cent in a decade.

The WSTA chief executive, Miles Beale, said: 2016 can now be remembered as the Great British Gin Take Off.

He said the UK government should support producers by cutting the duty charged on gin, which currently makes up 76per cent of the purchase price.
for 'something you hate in some distant, mean-spirited suburb

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One innovative thinker has come up with his own rustic solution to unaffordable housing in Melbourne, by building his own house out of garbage.

Julian Morgans didn't want to pay for a 'little something you hate in some distant, mean-spirited suburb where it's always windy and your friends never visit'.

The median price for a house in Melbourne is $693,500 according to realestate.com.au

Instead, armed with some recycled wood, he headed to a Campbellfield nature reserve and built his own for free, documenting the process for Vice.

Julian Morgans toasting his new life as a property owner outside the house he built out of garbage

The property can accommodate up to two people at $13 a night, and furry friends are also more than welcome

He used recycled wood found in a rubbish dump to build with and construction was completed in a few days

Enlisting the help of his friend Jim, the pair nailed some posts and chipboard together on a chosen piece of land.

'Other friends were concerned that we weren't architects or builders, or that we didn't get council approval. But those guys didn't understand. Building houses is easy,' Morgans wrote.

Construction only took a few days and when completed, Morgans new abode was finished, complete with artwork on the white walls and some plants.

He even got the seal of approval from performer Vanilla Ice who called the DIY job a 'ball of fun'.

However the American rapper, who hosts a home renovation show called The Vanilla Ice Project, initially took Morgans project very seriously and raised concerns his new property would be bulldozed.

But the rustic property still stands, despite windy weather knocking it to the ground earlier this year, and is available to rent out via Airbnb.

Enlisting the help of his friend Jim, the pair nailed some posts and chipboard together on a chosen piece of land

The 'Micro-Lux Rejuvenation Hut' boasts a minimalist open plan living and sleeping area by 'the crystal clear waters of Merri Creek'

Morgans new abode was furnished with a bed and a table, with some plants and artwork for decoration

A shot of the living area in the house made out of garbage which was given the seal of approval by performer Vanilla Ice

The bright blue corrugated iron roof keeps the rain off and pairs nicely with the white walls

The 'Micro-Lux Rejuvenation Hut' boasts a minimalist open plan living and sleeping area by 'the crystal clear waters of Merri Creek'.

The property can accommodate up to two people at $13 a night, and furry friends are also more than welcome.

One reviewer has already called it: 'the best place I've ever stayed in my entire life, what a gem!'

Vanilla Ice initially took Morgans project very seriously and raised concerns his new property would be bulldozed

Morgans parents weren't too sure how to feel over his creation while sitting down over lunch
The US and British-led coalition has killed 50,000 Islamic State militants in the last two years in Iraq and Syria, a senior U.S. military official said today.

US leaders have routinely expressed reluctance to disclose specific numbers, and note that IS has been able to replace fighters rapidly, particularly early on.

In August, Lt Gen Sean MacFarland said about 45,000 combatants have been killed in action.

The Us and British-led coalition in the Middle East has killed more than 50,000 ISIS fighters in Iraq and Syria, an official confirmed today. Pictured is an Iraqi Army artillery gun firing on ISIS positions in Mosil

But younger militants are replacing the fallen and vehicle-based explosives, pictured, are becoming less sophisticated

The fighting is still affecting civilians, including this boy pictured being treated for injuries to his arm

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, the military official said coalition airstrikes could be more aggressive in places like Mosul, where Iraqi troops are battling to retake the city, but civilian casualties are a risk.

The official would not detail any specific proposals for increasing the fight that may be under discussion with the Obama administration, but said there are some things under consideration, including sending additional resources.

The official was not authorised to discuss the matter publicly so spoke on condition of anonymity.

Asked for details, the official said there are enough special operations forces currently deployed, but a key issue under discussion is what forces may be needed to help the Iraqi troops hold Mosul once Islamic State fighters are pushed out of the city.

Air Force Col John Dorrian, a spokesman for the U.S. military in Iraq, echoed suggestions that the ongoing military campaign is reducing the numbers and capabilities of the Islamic State group.

'Unfortunately we are seeing younger fighters; perhaps adolescent age, rather than adults,' Col Dorrian said.

He added that the vehicle-borne explosive devices are less sophisticated than they have been.

Col Dorrian said that while earlier vehicle bombs were carried in armored vehicles, lately IS has been using regular vehicles.

Life is going on for civilians in displacement camps, including Jassim Mohammed, right, and his bride Amena Ali, pictured, who celebrated their wedding in a camp near Mosul

Plumes of smoke rising from burning buildings and vehicles are still a common sight each day

'What that tells us is they're beginning to run out of those resources,' said Dorrian, speaking via teleconference from Iraq.

'It doesn't mean that it's not still an extraordinarily dangerous situation. They are not going to go quietly, but they are going to go.'

Seven weeks into the operation to retake Mosul, Iraqi fighters have been pushing through the eastern section of the city.

They have been hitting fierce resistance from Islamic State insurgents who took control of the city two years ago.
Up to 1,000 retired soldiers in their 60s and 70s face a police witch-hunt some 40 years after they battled terrorism in Northern Ireland.

MPs and military chiefs last night condemned the 'disgraceful' decision by the Police Service of Northern Ireland to re-examine every single British Army killing during the Troubles.

Its taxpayer-funded Legacy Investigation Branch is to look at 238 'fatal incidents' involving the Army in Ulster, which led to 302 deaths. It will mean UK veterans being investigated as potential murder or manslaughter suspects over actions they took decades ago at the height of the IRA's terrorist campaign.

The news comes only two months after Theresa May pledged that Britain's forces would be protected from such witch-hunts.

This morning the Prime Minister's spokeswoman reiterated that troops who served in Iraq 'should not be hounded unnecessarily' but seconds later said it was right that investigations into historical Northern Ireland killings should go ahead.

But the spokeswoman denied claims that this position was hypocritical.

A new probe has been launched into all 302 killings by British troops in Northern Ireland during The Troubles

Two years ago, the British government was ordered to pay 10,000 to each of the families of the 10 IRA men shot dead by troops in Northern Ireland after judges in Europe ruled the terrorists' human rights had been violated

British Army soldiers patrolling streets of Nationalist West Belfast during The Troubles in 1973

These are very different issues, different conflicts, this is about reconciliation in Northern Ireland,' she said this morning.

We want to take steps that are going to secure a stable, secure future for NI, this is not fresh or new.

The Northern Ireland veterans could face new charges, trials and even jail. Ironically, the new inquiry was announced on the day that the human rights lawyer who led the hounding of British troops who fought in the Iraq War faced disgrace. Phil Shiner admitted drumming up the claims against soldiers.

He pleaded guilty to a string of misconduct charges and confessed he acted without integrity when he accused soldiers of war crimes.

Although the Northern Ireland review will also look at deaths that the IRA were responsible for, many suspected terrorists have been granted pardons or 'comfort letters' intended to protect them against prosecution.

At the Conservative Party Conference in October, the Prime Minister had promised to protect British troops from witch-hunts. She said: 'We will never again  in any future conflict  let those activist Left-wing human rights lawyers harangue and harass the bravest of the brave, the men and women of our Armed Forces.'

Her official spokeswoman reiterated her position today: Weve been very clear of the steps the Government will take to make sure that our brave soldiers should not be hounded unnecessarily and the investigations into allegations around Iraq should be properly focused and completed in the most efficient way possible.'

At the Conservative Party Conference in October, Theresa May, pictured on a visit to Bahrain earlier this week, had promised to protect British troops from witch-hunts. She said: 'We will never again  in any future conflict  let those activist Left-wing human rights lawyers harangue and harass the bravest of the brave, the men and women of our Armed Forces'

But asked how this position was consistent with the ongoing investigations into killings by soldiers in Northern Ireland, the spokeswoman said: 'The Government has been very clear that it is important that we deal with the legacy issues if we want to really achieve reconciliation in Northern Ireland and move forward.

And as part of the Stormont House agreement there are provisions to establish historical investigations unit  we do think it is important that we find a way forward to deal with some of the impracticable issues that there has been over the years that successive attempts have failed to deliver.

But there was fury yesterday at the news that hundreds of elderly UK veterans  many suffering serious illnesses  will be put through another ordeal.

MPs and military chiefs compared the treatment of British soldiers to that of suspected IRA bomber John Downey, who escaped prosecution for the 1982 Hyde Park bombing, which left four soldiers and seven horses dead, because he was given a police guarantee he was immune from prosecution. Downey has always denied involvement and pleaded not guilty at the Old Bailey in 2014.

BLOODSTAINED TERRORISTS WHO WON'T BE PROSECUTED Nearly 200 IRA terror suspects received 'get-out- of-jail-free cards' from Tony Blair's government. They are believed to include: NESSAN QUINLIVAN Escaped from HMP Brixton in 1991 using a gun hidden in a shoe, and shot a passerby. He was awaiting trial over a suspected IRA assassination plot. Arrested in Ireland for firearms offences in 1993, Quinlivan was jailed for four years. He was freed in 1996 as part of the early release programme and successfully fought extradition attempts in 2000, arguing he would have been freed by July 2001 under terms of the Belfast Agreement. NESSAN QUINLIVAN: Escaped from HMP Brixton in 1991 using a gun hidden in a shoe, and shot a passerby DERMOT FINUCANE While serving 18 years in the Maze prison for explosives offences, Finucane masterminded the 38-man mass IRA breakout in 1983 with his brother Seamus. Another brother Pat, a solicitor, was murdered in 1989. He initially fled to the US with Kevin Artt. Arrested in Ireland, but beat extradition attempts and is thought to be in Dublin. DERMOT FINUCANE: While serving 18 years in the Maze prison for explosives offences, Finucane masterminded the 38-man mass IRA breakout in 1983 with his brother Seamus RITA O'HARE Pictured here with Sinn Fein party president Gerry Adams, O'Hare was wanted in connection with attacks on British troops in the early 1970s. Arrested in Northern Ireland in 1972 for the attempted murder of a British Army officer in Belfast the previous year. Released on bail, she fled to Dublin. Irish High Court ruled in 1978 she should not be extradited to the UK because her alleged offence was 'political'. O'Hare is the co-treasurer of Sinn Fein. RITA O'HARE: Pictured here with Sinn Fein party president Gerry Adams, O'Hare was wanted in connection with attacks on British troops in the early 1970s LIAM AVERILL Notoriously escaped from the Maze prison dressed as a woman in 1997 while serving life for shooting dead two Protestants in 1994. Arrested in 2014 for drink-driving in Londonderry, he was fined 30 after telling a judge that was all the cash he had. In 2000, while on the run, Averill was awarded 5,000 by the European Court of Human Rights because he was not given a lawyer for 24 hours after his arrest. LIAM AVERILL: Notoriously escaped from the Maze prison dressed as a woman in 1997 while serving life for shooting dead two Protestants in 1994 KEVIN ARTT Convicted of the murder of Maze prison deputy governor Albert Miles, who was shot dead in front of his wife, Artt escaped in 1983 during the mass IRA breakout. After fleeing to the US, he was caught by FBI agents in 1992. Avoided extradition to the UK after the US ruled that his claims of unfair conviction in Northern Ireland must be investigated before sending him back. KEVIN ARTT: Convicted of the murder of Maze prison deputy governor Albert Miles, who was shot dead in front of his wife, Artt escaped in 1983 during the mass IRA breakout JOHN DOWNEY Escaped prosecution for the 1982 Hyde Park bombing which left four Household Cavalry soldiers and seven horses dead because he was given a guarantee he was immune from prosecution. Now living freely in a waterfront cottage in Donegal. JOHN DOWNEY: Escaped prosecution for the 1982 Hyde Park bombing which left four Household Cavalry soldiers and seven horses dead because he was given a guarantee he was immune from prosecution Advertisement

Tory MP Johnny Mercer, a former Army officer who has campaigned on behalf of British troops, said: 'This is a witch-hunt, as well as total and complete betrayal by the Government of those who have done its bidding.

'If we could demonstrate in Government just some of the courage our Armed Forces have displayed over the years in Northern Ireland, the entire historical allegations money machine would end.'

A former serving member of 14 Intelligence Company who served for nine years during the Troubles added: 'You cannot have a normal life. My wife is very conscious of it because she has a husband who has this hanging over him. Peace should not be one-sided and this has become solely about the Armed Forces who stood between the evil IRA and the British public they were trying to burn alive.'

Terrorist suspects accused of killing civilians or British soldiers during The Troubles are largely not being investigated

MPs have hit out at the investigation and described the new probe as a 'witch hunt'

Downing Street also intervened, saying the Police Service of Northern Ireland was wrong to focus 'almost entirely' on the past actions of the security services when looking at the Troubles.

The Prime Minister's official spokesman added: 'It is important to recognise that the overwhelming majority of those who served in Northern Ireland did so with great bravery and distinction.'

Last night, the PSNI insisted that its Legacy Investigation Branch was reviewing every one of the 3,200 deaths during the Troubles, including those murdered by Republican terrorists.

The force said it was also reviewing the cases of 187 on-the-run paramilitary suspects who received 'comfort letters'  dubbed 'get-out-of-jail-free cards'  mistakenly saying they were not wanted by police.

The number of British soldiers set to be probed is understood to be about 850. This is because many times several soldiers opened fire at once during shootings.

Of the 302 people killed by the British Army, about half were IRA or Loyalist terrorists, while the others were considered tragic accidents such as civilians caught in the crossfire.

Around 1,000 former sevicemen, many now in their 60s and 70s, will have their actions brought under scrutiny in the legal inquiry

Sir Hugh Orde set up the PSNI's Historical Enquiries Team in 2006, when he was chief constable of the force, to review every death during the Troubles. It aimed to bring closure to those who had lost loved ones in the strife

Any leads were passed to a specialist unit for investigation. But the unit, staffed by expensive retired police officers from the mainland, was disbanded in 2013 following budget cuts and a critical report by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary.

Chief Constable Matt Baggott, then head of the PSNI, replaced the HET with the in-house Legacy Investigation Branch. Because of concerns over the quality of the military reviews, these killings were re-examined.

One ex-British soldier, ex-Warrant Officer (Class 1) Dennis Hutchings, 75, has already been charged with attempted murder after a probe into the fatal shooting of an IRA suspect  later found to be innocent  in 1974.

WEREN'T DEATHS OF THESE IRA MEN JUSTIFIED? PATRICK KELLY: Kelly's unit attacked Loughgall police station in County Armagh with a 200lb bomb in 1987. As the eight gang members jumped from a van, the SAS opened fire, killing them all SEAMUS MCELWAINE: Convicted of one murder and linked to a further ten. He escaped from prison in 1983 but was killed by the SAS in 1986 DESSIE GREW: Wanted for the murder of an RAF corporal and her baby. Killed by the SAS in 1990 JAMES LYNAGH: 'The Executioner' was suspected of being the assassin of Sir Norman Stronge, the Ulster Unionist Party speaker, in 1981. He was killed in the Loughgall ambush PETER CLEARY: Masterminded the 1976 Kingsmill Massacre when 10 Protestant workers were shot dead. Arrested for another murder, Cleary tried to grab a soldier's rifle and was shot Tony Doris (left), Lawrence McNally (centre) and Pete Ryan (right) were preparing to assassinate a high-ranking UDR officer in 1991 when the SAS ambushed their car, killing all three Advertisement

Mr Hutchings, who is due to stand trial next year over the death of John Pat Cunningham, 27, near the village of Benburb, Co Armagh, said: 'I feel anger, totally, totally let down, I feel hung out to dry. That's what has happened to all of us. We are being thrown to the wolves.

'We were doing our duty, a job that we were sent to do. It is a life or death decision. It might not be your life, it could be one of your patrol's lives.'

Two days before the shooting, Mr Hutchings' patrol had been caught in a firefight after discovering an IRA gang transporting a cache of arms. Four terrorists were captured and later convicted. The great-grandfather added: 'I kept people safe from terrorists and now I'm being treated myself like a terrorist. It's disgraceful.'

Colonel Richard Kemp, who served eight tours in Northern Ireland in the 1980s and 1990s, said soldiers should not be 'hounded this way'.

Yesterday, Assistant Chief Constable Mark Hamilton, head of the PSNI's Legacy and Justice Department, said: 'The HMIC report into HET raised significant concerns. The decision was taken to re-examine military cases to ensure the quality of the review reached the required standard. This was announced as part of our response to the HMIC report at the time, it is not a new development. It was communicated publicly in July 2013.

'There is no new single probe or bespoke inquiry into deaths attributed to the British Army. All Troubles-related deaths will be reviewed by LIB.'

An MoD spokesperson said: 'The overwhelming majority of those who served in Northern Ireland did so with great bravery and distinction.
Today she is a fierce and independent tigress, but just four years ago Aasha was even afraid of the water.

The Bengal tiger was just 30 pounds when she was rescued from a traveling circus and taken in by Vicky Keahey in March 2011.

Keahey, the founder of In-Sync Exotics Wildlife Rescue and Educational Center in Texas, knew something was wrong when she found out Aasha weighed so little despite being nine-months-old.

Most tigers weigh 30 pounds by the time they're three-months-old. But something was especially wrong with Aasha.

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Aasha the Bengal tiger was just 30 pounds when she was rescued from a traveling circus and saved by In-Sync Exotics Wildlife Rescue and Educational Center in March 2011

Aasha, nine-months-old at the time, was covered in bald spots and suffering from ringworm. She even had bite marks from a much larger tiger she was forced to share a cage with

Four years later, this is Aasha today. An incredibly healthy, strong and independent tigress

Aasha wasn't getting proper care at the circus, who forced her to share a cage with a much larger tiger who often bit her, according to The Dodo.

But that wasn't all. There were bald spots nearly covering Aasha's entire body and her skin was dry and cracked, so severely that some areas were even bleeding.

When she first saw Aasha in person, Keahey immediately knew the little cub had ringworm.

Aasha was isolated in an enclosure at the center, where Keahey would visit twice a day to giver the tiger the necessary medication and keep her company.

She also gave Aasha a special medicated bath daily, although the little cub often tried to run away.

'I knew I was going to have to handle her in order to get her well,' Keahey said.

Recovery was not quick for the unlucky cub, who had to take medicated baths daily despite her fear of the water

But thanks to the love of Vicky Keahey, the center's founder, Aasha began to grow stronger

She soon loved the water so much, that Keahey put a small tub in her enclosure to play in

After eight weeks, the fuzz started to grow back on the bald spots. And soon Aasha stopped trying to escape from bath time.

'By the time the treatments were over, Aasha loved the water so I put a small tub in [her enclosure] for her to splash in,' Keahey said.

Aasha grew bigger and bigger and after eight months finally 'looked like a real tiger'.

It was time to introduce her to fellow tigers at the center, and she had an immediate connection with one named Smuggler.

'We loaded her up and put her right next door to Smuggler,' Keahey said. 'He went crazy for her and was always showing off for her.'

Perhaps Smuggler sensed that two tigers had much in common. He, like Aasha, had also been rescued from a terrible early life.

After eight months Keahey decided Aasha was ready to be introduced to fellow tigers, and she had an immediate connection to one named Smuggler (pictured together)

Aasha has now been with Smuggler for four years, and looks as happy as can be

Keahey said Aasha is now a 'gorgeous girl' who loves living with and 'beating up on' Smuggler

When the US Border Patrol Agents found smugglers trying to sneak him across the US - Mexico border, Smuggler was in a wire dog crate so small he couldn't turn around.

He was four-months-old at the time, already 20 pounds underweight and had a permanent scar across his forehead from trying to escape.

Smuggler had an incredible recovery after he was transferred to the center in Wylie, where he would soon meet his future mate.

There was an immediate attraction between him and Aasha, so Keahey began to set up supervised playdates so they could begin to 'date' each other.

Now they are living in the same enclosure and have been together for four years.

It has been an incredible transformation for Aasha, now holding her own as she splashes Smuggler in the tub with the very water that she used to fear.
The white police officer who killed a fleeing black man with five shots to the back was not cleared because one jury member instantly refused to convict him of anything, DailyMail.com reveals.

Michael Slager walked free of both murder and manslaughter at the end of a five-week trial - a decision greeted with outrage.

But now it can be disclosed that the jury knew it could not bring a conviction from the start of their deliberations because one member - a white man - said: ''Officer Slager has a good character. I can't convict him.'

The jury also dismissed a murder charge within minutes of starting deliberating as none of its members believed the cop acted with malice.

And the deadlock on a manslaughter conviction was because of two holdouts - including the white man - who would not accept the charge, the jury's foreman told DailyMail.com.

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Scott (left), 50, was hit five times by Slager's (right) bullets from behind in April 2015. Slager was charged with murder, but a jury failed to reach a verdict on Monday after a five-week trial. A second court hearing is slated for next year

Clear conscience: Dorset Montgomery (right) was the jury foreman and its only African-American member. He said he believed the panel had fulfilled its civic duty. But Scott's brother Anthony (left) said he could not understand the verdict

Breakdown: Montgomery revealed that half of the jury was undecided about whether or not convict Slager (above leaving court on Monday) of manslaughter

The drama inside the jury room was disclosed by Dorsey Montgomery, who was both foreman and the only African-American on the jury.

He defended the decisions of the jury and said his conscience was clear.

'I am satisfied we did out civic duties and it was a fair decision to say we couldn't reach a verdict,' he said.

'There were ten of us who wanted Slager guilty of manslaughter. But two of the jurors disagreed.

'We had to distinguish between fear and heat of passion and for me there was enough to find him guilty of manslaughter and so did nine other jurors. But we couldn't all agree - except that it wasn't murder.'

Told that Scott's family had expressed dismay at the decision to allow Slager free, he said: 'My conscience is clear.

'I believe there is going to be another trial and I hope the new jurors know that the best thing they can do is listen, listen and listen.'

The case attracted huge attention, primarily because of the video footage released within hours of the death of Slager shooting Scott in the back five times.

However Montgomery said he had not seen the footage before the trial, and that the outrage at the time of the death had largely passed him by, allowing him to approach the case with an open mind.

He said: 'I saw a man being shot in the back and for that reason I was ready to convict the officer of manslaughter' he said.

'There was a lot of discussion and at times it was very emotional but it was all very fair.'

'I did my job as a juror to the best of my ability which I was asked to do. The others had their own views, but as far as I am concerned the policeman shot a man running away in the back and that for me was a manslaughter conviction.'

The shooting dead of 50-year-old grandfather Scott came at a time when there had been heightened tension and scrutiny of police officers gunning down African-American suspects.

Scene: Montgomery was the lone black person on the jury and the foreman. He had not seen the video footage of Scott being shot by Slager until the trial

Evidence: The video included footage which appeared to show Slager putting the taser beside Scott's body.

The former shop worker was the only black juror and nine others were rejected by Slager's defense.

But Montgomery said: 'I didn't feel under any pressure at all as an African-American. I had to look at the evidence as it was given and nothing else.

'Obviously people have their own perceptions about what went on, but I believed the officer did not show any malice if any kind.'

But Scott's brother spoke of his 'utter disappointment' at the jury not returning a murder verdict.

Anthony Scott told DailyMail.com: 'I don't know what more evidence this jury needed.

'What this means to me is that it wasn't enough for them to see a man running away and getting shot from behind by a police officer five times.

'I am utterly disappointed and believed there were eleven who were ready to convict on murder or manslaughter and only one who could not.

'We have to look to a fresh jury and the re-trial.

Grief: Slager shot dead Walter Scott, a 50-year-old unarmed black man from North Charleston, South Carolina last April (Walter Scott's mother above)

Not over: The solicitor in the case has revealed that they will be trying Slager (above) again as soon as possible following the mistrial

'I know the district attorney in Charleston will be taking a consensus from those jurors and I hope the state and federal prosecutors get together and see what can be done.

'The whole world has seen what happened, but evidently this jury could not see it like that.'

He said the jury which examined the evidence over five weeks had 'missed a great opportunity to show that justice prevails in America.'

The April 2015 shooting of Scott was captured on widely distributed cellphone video that renewed a national debate about how blacks are treated by law officers.

It was filmed on a cell-phone by barber Feidin Santana who said he was surprised Slager was not convicted as the video clearly showed a man running away and being gunned down.

The trial lasted more than a month, heard from 55 witnesses and led to four days of deliberation before a mistrial was declared.

Scott and his family had given a short statement outside Charleston County Courthouse on Monday after the jury reported deadlock focusing their remarks on their quest to see a retrial and peace.

We believed that the jury would hear the case and look at the evidence as it stood and not with their hearts or anything else. 'The jury didn't need no more evidence. The defense blew a lot of smoke that made you believe that there was struggle and that Walter had grabbed his taser and pointed it at him. Anthony Scott

Anthony Scott,55, said his anger had grown since Monday and he wanted to warn America of the dire consequences if former officer Slager was not convicted.

He said: 'Mr. Slager is a felon. He is a murderer. He is walking the streets a free man today. He killed my brother like he was some kind of animal.

'I am tired of all this and I am left wondering what more evidence does a jury need to convict him. The whole world has seen the video.

'My brother was running away, posed no threat to this police officer and yet he continues to lay the card that his life was threatened and he acted in self-defense.'

He added: 'We believed that the jury would hear the case and look at the evidence as it stood and not with their hearts or anything else.

'The jury didn't need no more evidence. The defense blew a lot of smoke that made you believe that there was struggle and that Walter had grabbed his taser and pointed it at him.'

He pointed to the testimony of an eyewitness contradicting that evidence and said: 'This was a man trying to run away from a man trying to taser him.

'What motivated Walter to run initially I don't know. He did have a bench warrant for child support, but if that is why he ran I don't know.

'I don't think it was a good move on his part, but running from a cop doesn't warrant being shot five times and being beat up.

'The police officer was the one who initiated a violent fight.

'Slager thought he was going to get away with it. It is a horrible, horrible situation.

'There was no remorse in the court room, Slager was just saying my brother was wrong or did something wrong.

But there is zero chance of him being innocent. But there is no more you can give a jury.'

He said allowing Slager to be found innocent made him fear for the reaction from 'black people in America and the world over.'

He said Monday's sudden ending without a verdict had also allowed him and his family to have a welcome break from the attention foisted upon them.

'In some ways I am almost relieved because it has been a long journey in the court room, five weeks, day and day out. But we just want justice for Walter and we won't and can't stop until we get that.

'We are God-fearing people. But I am angry and the anger hasn't stopped. The forgiveness hasn't begun, not from me.

'I am ready to go back to court and start the process and get it done so he can receive justice and the healing process can begin for all the family.'

He said authorities should examine new ways to 'revamp' the justice system in the US and look to other countries where a majority verdict is acceptable from juries having a tough time in agreeing a verdict.

He added: 'Slager needs to be found guilty because he is.
Home Secretary Amber Rudd announced last night that the UK will provide additional support to Greece to help deal with the unprecedented number of immigrants travelling from Turkey to the continent

A British immigration hit squad will be sent to the Greek islands to deport migrants after fewer than 750 were returned under a 5billion deal with Turkey.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd will today deploy a team of 40 British officials to the popular holiday islands such as Kos and Lesbos.

Since March, all new arrivals on the islands are supposed to be stopped from crossing to the Greek mainland and sent back to Turkey.

But figures released yesterday reveal just 748 have been returned in the 10 months since the costly deal, which included a 500m contribution from Britain.

Furthermore European officials believe as many as 4,000 people registered in Greeces migrant camps are unaccounted for and could have slipped north into the rest of Europe.

Home Office minister Brandon Lewis will today attend a meeting of European interior ministers in Brussels as concerns grow the deal with Turkey is on the verge of collapse.

Last night in a statement to MPs, Miss Rudd wrote: The UK will announce an additional package of support to Greece including up to an extra 40 staff over the winter period to support this process and ease congestion on the increasingly over-crowded islands.

In particular, we are looking to provide flow management, case-workers and interpreters and returns expertise.

EU leaders in March agreed to hand over six billion euros (5billion) to Turkey and loosen travel restrictions for its 80 million citizens if the country took back all those landing on the Greek islands.

The number of crossings from Turkey has been dramatically cut to around 80 a day, but remains much higher than the number of people being sent back, a European Commission report found yesterday.

Demonstrations inside a migrant camp in Lesbos. The pact between Turkey and the EU was designed to deal with the immigration crisis in Greece, returning failed applicants to Turkey

Just 748 people have been returned to Turkey under the agreement including 394 Pakistanis, 61 Afghans, 68 Algerians, 42 Syrians, 26 Bangladeshis, 18 Iranians, 17 Iraqis, 16 Sri Lankans and 15 Moroccans.

The pace of returns from Greece to Turkey is too slow, the report warned as it revealed just four people were sent back in the first two weeks of November.

As a result, additional pressure is put on the already overstretched reception facilities on the Greek islands, and this has contributed to recent public order incidents, it said.

There are 16,295 migrants present on the islands despite only 8,204 places in official camps and temporary accommodation. Greek authorities report the presence of around 62,000 on both the mainland and islands.

Belgium last month evacuated its border officials from the Greek islands because of fears over their safety.

Volunteers help migrants and refugees on a dingy as they arrive at the shore of the northeastern Greek island of Lesbos, after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey in March

Overcrowded camps have been set ablaze as the inhabitants grow frustrated that they are being stopped from continuing to Europe.

A site on the island of Chios was torched after police accused migrants of stealing fireworks and alcohol from local shops.

Turkeys president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been threatening to open its borders to allow migrants to flood into Europe in revenge for MEPs voting to stall talks on it becoming an EU member.

His warning came last month after the European Parliament voted to recommend that accession talks are suspended because of the crackdown in Turkey following the failed coup in July that has included a plan to bring back the death penalty.

Migrants, who are waiting to cross the Greek-Macedonian border, fight between themselves at a makeshift camp near the village of Idomeni, Greece, earlier this year

He told the EU: Listen to me. If you go any further, then the frontiers will be opened, bear that in mind.

Meanwhile, the EU has recommended that member states resume sending asylum seekers back to Greece from March next year, after transfers were halted for five years because of poor conditions there.

Under the EUs Dublin asylum rules, the country where a migrant first lands must process their asylum request.
A Melbourne hospital has banned a charitable father from delivering Christmas presents to sick kids while dressed as Santa.

Brian Linkhorn collected 'enough presents to cover a lounge room floor' from charities and businesses and was hoping to hand them out in Monash Children's Hospital.

But he said the hospital refused because a new policy banned presents being given out to 'protect our patients from cross infection' and to 'respect their privacy'.

A Melbourne hospital has banned charitable father Brian Linkorn from delivering Christmas presents to sick kids while dressed as Santa

Mr Linkhorn said he was told: 'You can come into the hospital and I can give you a tour of the ward but we will not be visiting children on the ward or handing out gifts to children.'

He told 3AW radio his step-daughter came up with the idea when she was in hospital and bought presents for a six-year-old girl she saw having a hard time.

Mr Linkhorn has a Working With Children check and has worked for ambulance companies for 30 years, including 15 years in emergency when he lived in Auckland.

'I've been at the coalface so I understand privacy and if there's a kid in isolation surely Santa can wave through the window and leave a present to be given to them after it's been checked,' he told host Neil Mitchell.

He collected 'enough presents to cover a lounge room floor' from charities and businesses and was hoping to hand them out in Monash Children's Hospital (stock image)

The 57-year-old said he had played Santa for his current ambulance employer before, where he works in patient transit, and even has the red and white suit.

Monash Hospital denied it had 'banned Santa' and merely wanted to ensure there were not multiple people dressed as Father Christmas visiting on the same day.

'What weve done is speak to the Elves to make sure that we dont have Santa visit multiple times a day,' it said.

'We get lots of calls from amazingly generous people wanting to bring Santa into the wards, and hes always keen to visit.

Monash Hospital denied it had 'banned Santa' as it has an official Father Christmas visiting every year (pictured in 2015)

'But as you can imagine we cant really let Santa visit multiple times every day in December. It might be a bit confusing for our patients.'

It said an official Santa visited every year on Christmas Day and it was happy to receive gifts to hand out.

'There are a few basic requirements to make sure theyre appropriate and not an infection control risk, but we try to help every toy find a home with a child,' it said.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Mr Linkhorn for comment on Monash's response.
A married former Wisconsin high school teacher sobbed in court after she was sentenced to two years in prison for having sex with a male student.

Sara Domres, 29, cried and hung her head as she was led away in handcuffs following Wednesday's sentencing.

The former New Berlin West High School teacher pleaded guilty in August to sexual assault after she was accused of repeatedly sleeping with one of her teen students, including once at a motel on the night of her husband's bachelor party.

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Former New Berlin West High School teacher Sara Domres, 29, (pictured left and right) has been sentenced to two years in prison for having sex with a student

As part of her sentence, Domres will have three years of probation after serving two years in prison and must register as a sex offender,The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

Domres, who has no prior criminal record, also must not have contact with the victim or his family or with a school besides those she may attend.

Waukesha County Circuit Judge Lee Dreyfus told Domres during sentencing that her crime 'went well beyond a mistake in judgement' or a single moment of weakness.

He said it was to meet her needs, not those of a child, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

Domres told the judge that because she is now barred from the teaching profession, and because of extensive media coverage, the consequences of her actions had been increased tenfold.

She nor her sister, father or mother-in-law, who spoke on her behalf in court, said what started her relationship with the teen boy.

The victim's family did not appear in court or submit any impact statement, according to the Journal Sentinel.

Back in April, Domres was criminally charged but pleaded not guilty then, claiming she had only hugged the male student when they met outside school.

Domres pleaded guilty in August to sexual assault after she was accused of repeatedly sleeping with one of her teen students, including once at a motel on the night of her husband's (above) bachelor party

But court documents said she began a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old student at the high school in the 2014/2015 school year.

The student, who has not been identified, told police that he had sex with her between 10 and 15 times.

According to a criminal complaint, they had sex at the Park and Ride parking lot on Moorland Road in New Berlin, Wisconsin, in July last year and also at the Motel 6 off Bluemound Road in Brookfield on the night of Domres' husband's bachelor party.

Police were able to confirm that the boy's phone had connected to the WiFi at the motel and that Domres paid for the room in cash.

Afterwards, the boy told police that she had sent him selfies while on her honeymoon.

The criminal complaint said that the boy was in Domres' English class and began to send texts to each other frequently after they 'became friends.'

On one occasion, Domres' husband caught the two of them together in the parking lot of the New Berlin Ale House which led to a verbal confrontation.

But it was one of the victim's concerned friends who reported the relationship to authorities and police began to investigate in January this year.

School officials learned of the allegations on January 15, according to Fox, and placed Domres on administrative leave.

She was later fired after an internal investigation by the school district.

According to the criminal complaint, Domres had sex with the boy at the Motel 6 off Bluemound Road in Brookfield (file photo)

It is believed that the relationship had been going on since May last year and that the teenager was a virgin before he started having sex with his teacher.

Over the course of their investigation, police uncovered more than 1,000 text messages sent between Domres and the student, who she called 'baby boo'.

'Baby Boo, I love you now & forever! Please be mine forever & ever. Always, your baby girl. P.S. Good luck on your quiz [smiley face],' one of the messages read.

'Hopefully you've been thinking of me Baby Boo. I should go because he will be home soon. I love you. Be good, think of me and no one else! Ha ha,' another text from Domres said.

In another conversation, Domres asked the boy if she should marry her now-husband.

'You're extremely attractive to me!!! I can't wait for our night we are doing it no matter what!!!' she said.

The two also exchanged physical letters, which the boy kept.

One note, exchanged in class, included the following messages: 'We will have to plan something soon. I want a night again. Xoxo.'

'Yes! Definitely soon. I really want another night with you too baby boo!'

'I want to do you (smiley face symbol) NOW!!'

Domres was fired from her role at New Berlin West High School (above) after school officials conducted an internal investigation

The messages show that Domres was afraid of the consequences if their illicit relationship would be revealed.

After police confiscated her phone, they found that she had made a Google search for 'what's the prison sentence for a teacher sleeping with a student.'

And in a one message to the student, she asked him to stay quiet even if they did break up.

'I love you, too, baby and will forever. I'm just saying that if you ever don't, please still love me enough as a person to know how much that'd hurt me,' she said.

'You are amazing and mean the world to me. I want to be yours forever.'

It is unclear whether the two continued their relationship even after Domres got married her husband, her high school sweetheart in August 2015.

But investigators said she did send the boy selfies on her honeymoon.

Her husband stayed by her side after her arrest and appeared in court when she maintained her innocence in April.
A US Marine pilot who had always dreamed of flying has died after ejecting from his plane during a training exercise off the coast of Japan.

The body of Captain Jake Frederick was found by the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense yesterday having ejected from his F/A-18 a day before about 120 miles southeast of a Marine Corps airfield in Iwakuni in western Japan.

His devastated mother Donna said her son's dream was to fly and that she was pleased he fulfilled it.

The body of Captain Jake Frederick was found by the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Thursday having ejected from his F/A-18 a day before about 120 miles southeast of a Marine Corps airfield in Iwakuni in western Japan

Captain Frederick was 'a beloved son', his mother told Stars and Stripes.

'Flying was his dream,' she added. 'He got to do that.'

Marine Corps spokesman Lieutenant Joshua Hays said that Frederick was from Texas and based at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in Havelock, North Carolina.

He was on a rotational deployment to Japan and the cause of the crash is under investigation.

The pilot's Facebook page is littered with pictures of his pregnant wife Kiley and their young son.

The 32-year-old leaves his pregnant wife Kiley with whom he already had a young boy (pictured)

Dozens of friends have commented on what a wonderful couple the pair were.

Captain Frederick, 32, was a graduate of Ray High School, and Principal Cissy Perez told K3 News: 'On behalf of the W.B. Ray teachers and staff, we express our deepest sympathy to the family.

'We will hold a moment of silence tomorrow in honor of our Ray Texan.

'From the words of our alma mater, "True to Ray he will always be".'
Some of the countrys busiest railways are to grind to a halt next week as unions double up to heap misery on hundreds of thousands of commuters.

Southern Railway yesterday lost a High Court legal battle to halt unprecedented industrial action by drivers that will bring the besieged network to a standstill ahead of Christmas.

The fresh strikes  set to cause the biggest delays in recent years  will hit passengers amid months of ongoing strikes by a fellow union in a dispute over the role of conductors.

Some of the countrys busiest railways are to grind to a halt next week as unions double up to heap misery on hundreds of thousands of commuters

MPs have warned the systematic disruption is causing hundreds of commuters to fear losing their jobs, while one Southern Railway passenger was denied a new job because she cannot get to work on time.

Patients who use Southern services to reach London for vital treatment said they were being severely affected by the industrial action.

One man from Burgess Hill, West Sussex, told the Daily Telegraph he had been forced to leave a cancer drug trial in the capital as a result.

And Dawn Laker, who escorts her mother from Uckfield in East Sussex to the Royal Marsden Hospital by train, said the unions action was creating extra stress. If the drivers strike goes ahead Im not sure what we will do, she said.

It also emerged yesterday that London mayor Sadiq Khan had shared cups of tea with the union bosses conspiring to bring chaos to the railways.

The unions behind the strikes  Aslef and the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT)  both mounted disruptive campaigns in protest at driver-only trains being rolled out by Southern.

Patients who use Southern services to reach London for vital treatment said they were being severely affected by the industrial action

Drivers union Aslef  whose general secretary Mick Whelan was reportedly paid 128,126 last year  argue the system, which is used on lines across the country, is inherently unsafe.

Meanwhile the RMT, whose boss Mick Cash was reported to have been paid 137,344 last year, is striking on behalf of conductors, claiming that leaving drivers responsible for closing doors will put passengers at risk.

Most Southern services will be halted on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday next week and six days in January after a judge yesterday refused to stop members of Aslef walking out. It comes as RMTs action this week led to the cancellation of around half of Southerns services.

The unions latest strikes were due to end last night, but it is plotting another 48-hour strike from a week on Monday, with a three-day walkout from New Years Eve.

Anthony Smith, chief executive of watchdog Transport Focus, last night said by working together the unions would ensure no Southern services would run while others will be severely overcrowded. He said: It is vital all parties in this dispute sit around the table to bring the services back to normal as soon as possible.

It also emerged yesterday that London mayor Sadiq Khan had shared cups of tea with the union bosses conspiring to bring chaos to the railways

RMT, whose boss Mick Cash (pictured) was reported to have been paid 137,344 last year, is striking on behalf of conductors

Southerns parent company Govia Thameslink Railway had argued at the High Court that the strike action planned for next week would unlawfully restrict freedom of movement provisions under EU law.

Judge Sir Michael Burton said the strikes would cause massive disruption to the public with trains carrying up to 500,000 passengers a day being cancelled. But he refused to grant an injunction blocking what GTR had called unprecedented strike action.

The legal ruling came after Conservative MP Nick Herbert revealed one of his constituents had a vital job offer withdrawn when the employer realised she would travel on Southern.
The Home Office has extended its contract with three private companies that provide asylum seekers with accommodation, in a move that could see Britain's asylum bill skyrocket.

It is currently costing British taxpayers 546.8million a year  or 1.5million a day  to house asylum seekers, and recent figures show that the number of applications, including dependents, increased by a third to 41,563 in March, reaching their highest level since 2004.

The contracts have been extended despite controversies with providers G4S, which painted asylum seekers' doors red, and Serco, which was forced to apologise after hiring a stretch limo to ferry a party of asylum seekers from London to Manchester.

Home Office Minister Robert Goodwill announced in a written statement that despite criticisms from charities and MPs, the contracts, including that of a third provider Ready Homes, will be extended to 2019.

It is currently costing British taxpayers 546.8million a year  or 1.5million a day  to house asylum seekers

He said he is 'committed to ensuring that destitute asylum seekers are accommodated in safe, secure and suitable accommodation' and 'are treated with dignity', and he added that improvements will be made to asylum seeker housing.

Mr Goodwill did not reveal how much the improvements to asylum seekers' homes would cost the taxpayer.

The previous G4S contract, signed in 2012, cost the government between 600 and 700million to accommodate as many as 18,000 asylum seekers in 4,500 homes, mainly in north-east England.

Mr Goodwill said: 'Firstly I have increased the amount of money that the Home Office pays for the provision of welfare officers and staff property management.

'This is in direct response to feedback that more attention is needed to ensure that asylum seekers receive the welfare support they need and are able to raise any concerns they have with the accommodation providers.

The number of applications, including dependents, increased by a third to 41,563 in March, reaching their highest level since 2004

'It will also ensure that property standards continue to be closely managed and further improved, and that sufficient suitable property is available.

'The money will only be available for the employment of additional resources engaged directly on these customer focused activities.'

The Home Office will work with contractors to ensure they have enough homes and reduce the reliance on contingency arrangements - which include hotels.

Home Office Minister Robert Goodwill announced that the contracts will be extended to 2019

He has also introduced a new higher price band for any increases in the number of asylum seekers requiring accommodation to allow providers to operate in wider areas.

He added: 'The department will continue to monitor the providers closely to ensure that they comply with the requirements of the contract and work closely with non-Government Organisations (NGOs) and service users to respond to feedback and continue to improve the system.'

Tory backbench MP David Davies called on the government to take a tougher stance on bogus claims.

He told The Express: 'Clearly there is an expectation we are going to see further increases in asylum claims.

'My view is the vast majority who are coming in are doing so for economic reasons and the Government needs to be tough in sending back those who don't pass the test.'

Ukip immigration spokesman John Bickley added: 'At a time when we're told by the Bank of England governor that the working class has not seen a rise in living standards for a decade we see a Tory government throwing money we can ill afford at an asylum system which is highly discredited in the eyes of the average voter, who believes the bulk of people claiming asylum are economic migrants.

Tory backbench MP David Davies called on the government to take a tougher stance on bogus claims

'It's really important there is a renewed focus on helping failed asylum seekers back to their home nations.'

'No doubt the private companies used by the Government to carry out the housing of so-called asylum seekers will continue to place these people in our poorest communities where pressure on public services is already approaching breaking point.'

Tory MP Charlie Elphicke said: 'These vulnerable people should be properly looked after and it's welcome to see plans to take the pressure off the Kent and Dover frontline by increasing the number of local authorities housing asylum seekers. But as asylum claims continue to soar it's more vital than ever that we take back control of our borders.

'It's really important there is a renewed focus on helping failed asylum seekers back to their home nations.'

A Home Office spokesman said: 'The UK has a proud history of granting asylum to those who need our protection and we are committed to providing safe accommodation while applications are considered.
Nick Clegg's wife Miriam Gonzalez Durantez hasn't ruled out following her husband into politics, as I revealed this week.

And she is certainly upping the ante when it comes to taking on her rivals.

She has now lashed out at former UKIP leader Nigel Farage on her food blog Mum And Sons, where she has published a recipe for 'Fake Ferrero Rochers' inspired by the loud-mouthed Brexiteer.

'I have been thinking of making this recipe ever since I saw Nigel Farage celebrating a party at the glitzy Ritz hotel in London with a huge tray of Ferrero-Rochers,' she writes.

Miriam Gonzalez Durantez (right) lashed out at former UKIP leader Nigel Farage (left) on her food blog Mum And Sons

'The party was full of multi-millionaire media owners, powerful journalists and people whose fortunes amount (individually) to around 800 million . . . 800 million!!

'God knows how a privately educated man, ex-City trader, who enjoys an MEP salary and is backed by the very wealthiest part of the establishment has managed to trick so many people into making them think he is 'anti-establishment'. It beggars belief.'

Surely much in the same way her privately educated husband did, since Clegg attended 36,462-a-year Westminster School before eventually becoming leader of the Liberal Democrats?

The highly paid lawyer, who has released a recipe book based on the blog, even suggests covering the chocolates with 'golden candy paper', which 'you can buy in Amazon very cheaply'.

'So here you have the recipe for fake Ferrero-Rocher,' concludes Mrs Clegg. 'As fake as the anti-establishment credentials of Farage.

'If you manage to forget about the Farage connotations, these are actually really-really nice.'

It's not the first time that Miriam, 48, has cast aspersions on the culinary tastes of her adversaries.

In the summer she revealed her horror at being presented with Hellmann's mayonnaise alongside a roast chicken during a 'get-to-know-you' dinner hosted by Samantha Cameron at Downing Street.

At the time, she was accused of sneering and taking revenge on the Camerons after five difficult years.

However her husband defended her comments, claiming only a person 'sensitive' about their kitchen skills would take offence.

Youre more likely to see Brussels sprouts in Nigella Lawsons frying pan rather than used as home decorations

Youre more likely to see Brussels sprouts in Nigella Lawsons frying pan rather than used as home decorations.

But the Domestic Goddess, 56, has decked her house out this Christmas by hanging them from her front door. The unusual wreath costs 39.

While sprouts are the Marmite of the vegetable world  you either love them or hate them  they do have qualities especially sought after at this time of year.

The Romans used the sprout as a natural Alka-Seltzer when heavy-drinking statesman Cato (234-149BC) endorsed them as the best hangover remedy available.

Best not eat the ones on Nigellas door as theyre made out of papier mache.

Evelyn Waugh's girl blasts 'social media pharisees'

He was one of the 20th centurys greatest novelists. Now Evelyn Waughs great-granddaughter Constance Watson has felt compelled to defend him from charges of racism.

Black Mischief, arguably one of Waughs most renowned novels, continues to be vilified by politically correct prudes (PCP), she tells Heat Street. These PCPs have been given a new lease of life on social media. But heres the thing: his critics are missing the point. Waugh ridicules women, Jews, fascists, Arabs, the French, upper-class white colonials, as well as indigenous populations, therefore showing himself to hold intense disdain for humanity.

Comedy is used to reveal the absurdity of the human race.

The social media pharisees are missing the joke.

He's the most excitable judge on Strictly, but Bruno Tonioli insists X Factor star Simon Cowell is even more theatrical.

Ive known Simon Cowell for years, since the mid-1980s  and hes the nicest company, the 61-year-old says.

Hes very funny, very camp. He says Im camp, but hes camper than a row of tents.

He's the most excitable judge on Strictly, but Bruno Tonioli insists X Factor star Simon Cowell is even more theatrical

TV presenter Trinny Woodall has had a surprising volte face after publicly criticising Kate Mosss friend and make-up artist Charlotte Tilbury.

The 52-year-old beauty fanatic, who last month claimed Rosie Huntington-Whiteleys make-up for M&S was just as good and half the price, has now filmed a video in which she showers Tilbury with praise.
President-elect Donald Trump says he is fighting to defend 'every last American job' and has been calling a list of 10 companies to tell them to stay put.

'It's gonna be fun,' Trump said of his jobs push, which has already included an intervention to preserve jobs at a Carrier plant in Indiana.

'I actually love calling these companies. I say give me a list of 10 companies that are leaving,' Trump told a crowd in Iowa on his multi-state 'Thank you' tour where he once again ran through the states where he beat Hillary Clinton.

'I actually love calling these companies and saying, 'Hi.' And I get the president of this company,' Trump explained. 'I say, 'Hi, how are you doing?''

Trump said he wanted to see Apple and other firms build 'big plants' here, and said Iowans 'know the name of one of the companies' he's in contact with  which could mean he was talking about Maytag, which has slashed jobs in Des Moines.

President-elect Donald Trump continued his 'Thank you' tour in Iowa, and ran through states that he won against Hillary Clinton

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's plane arrives in LaGuardia Airport, December 8, 2016, in New York

Guards provide security for US President-elect Donald Trump as he arrives at Trump Tower on 5th Avenue on December 9, 2016, in New York

President-elect Donald Trump, surrounded here by guards in New York, says he is fighting to defend 'every last American job' and has been calling a list of 10 companies to tell them to stay put

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's plane arrives in LaGuardia Airport, December 8, 2016, in New York

Des Moines police officers remove protesters as President-elect Donald Trump speaks to supporters during a rally

'Oh, Hello, Mr. President-elect,' Trump said the execs respond, as he described the personal interventions he has been having with CEOs.

'By the way, while we're on the phone: Don't leave, please don't leave,' Trump said he tells them. Then he promised the crowd: 'You'll be seeing a lot more success.'

Trump's intervention with parent firm United Technologies over Carrier layoffs in Indiana has gone over well with the public in surveys, although he got into an angry spat with a local union leader who blasted Trump for inflating the number of jobs saved. Critics have fretted that Trump's personal interventions will distort the market as Trump cuts deals and firms threaten layoffs for concessions.

'When I look at these trade deals that I have been studying so much over the lsat little while, I actually think that they meant to make them good for other nations,' Trump said, turning to trade. 'They're killing us. We we tired of this?' Trump said.

He called out Apple  a company whose CEO has been invited to a tech meeting at Trump Tower.

'We want to see Apple, and we want to see these great companies start building plants in the United States. that's what I want to see. Big plants  they're biggest plants.'

Trump crowed about his better-than-predicted support among women voters in the campaign against a candidate vowing to break the 'glass ceiling.'

'I kept hearing for months I'm not gonna do well with women,' Trump said.

'I kept saying, why? What's wrong with women? I think women are  I said, 'I'll trade the men for the women, right?' I'll trade the men.'

Trump appeared in Iowa Thursday, after holding similar 'Thank you' events in Ohio and North Carolina

Trump said he chose longtime Iowa Governor Terry Brandstad for U.S. ambassador to China because he 'knows China and likes China'

Trump shakes hands with Governor of Iowa Terry Branstad, his pick to be U.S. ambassador to China

'And then we had the election, I did great with women. I led in many categories,' Trump said.

Trump appeared with Iowa governor Terry Branstad, who he has selected to be his ambassador to China, a country he slammed throughout the campaign.

But he indicated that Branstad got the nod because he gets along well with the Chinese.

'So when it came to thinking about the ambassador to China, right? I started saying now wait a minute, this is big stuff,' Trump said. 'And I can't tell you how many people wanted that position.'

'It's not bad, you go over there, you live like a king,' he ad-libbed.

Trump blasted members of the 'NeverTrump' movement, saying they were now on 'life support'

Then he discussed meeting with Branstad, an early supporter, and his 'beautiful wife.'

'They're looking to work on that relationship' with China, he said. 'He knew [China's] current leader years ago and he said he will be the ultimate leader when he was just a young guy,' Trump explained, referencing Branstad's trade missions to China decades ago.

'The man knows China and likes China,' Trump said. 'Better to like China if you're going to be over there, do we agree?;

Trump kept up his criticism of Beijing during the rally, which was part of a 'thank you tour' to express gratitude to states that helped him win an upset victory over Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton last month.

'You have the massive theft of intellectual property, putting unfair taxes on our companies, not helping with the menace of North Korea like they should, and the at-will and massive devaluation of their currency and product dumping,' Trump said of China. 'Other than that, they've been wonderful, right?'

Trump once again reeled through his election victories, as well as a media victory, getting Time's 'Person of the Year.'

'I was lucky enough to receive the Time person of the year,' Trump told the crowd. 'They used to call it man of the year but they can't do that any more, so they call it person  they want to be politically correct, that's okay,' he added.

Trump couldn't resist going through his list of stunning electoral wins, on a tour his staff pointedly isn't calling a 'victory tour.'

He noted the size of his Iowa win, calling it a 10-point Iowa win (it was 9 points and change).

'And then we won Florida, and we won South Carolina, and we won North Carolina, and we won Pennsylvania, and we won Michigan and we won Wisconsin and we won Georgia, and Texas. And Utah. Remember Utah?' Trump said.

Earlier, Trump travelled to Columbus, Ohio, where he met with victims who were senselessly slashed by Ohio State University student Abdul Razak Ali Artan, who rammed a campus crowd with his vehicle and then starting stabbing victims.

'The families have come through this so well,' said Trump, calling survivors of the attack 'great people, amazing people.'
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Two bonsai masters have shared ancient secrets behind the art and mastery of their centuries old trees, which are lovingly maintained every single day.

Bonsai is a traditional Japanese art form in which wild trees are grown in miniature pots, and derives from the ancient art of 'penjing' in China.

Award-winning bonsai sensei, Kunio Kobayashi, in Japan and bonsai museum curator, Jack Sustic, in the U.S. have shared how they care for some of the world's longest-living bonsai, likening the art form to caring for a child.

Award-winning bonsai sensei, Kunio Kobayashi, and bonsai museum curator, Jack Sustic have shared ancient secrets behind the centuries-old trees. Trees are pictured at the Shunkaen Bonsai Museum in Tokyo, Japan

For Kobayashi, who has been doing bonsai for 30 years, he said paying careful attention has helped him keep an estimated 1,000-year-old juniper tree alive and thriving

'Often people say bonsai are like children, and they really are,' Sustic - who cares for bonsai that are hundreds of years old in the national collection at the U.S. National Arboretum in Washington, DC - told CNN.

'You care for them, you're concerned for them, you worry about them. If they look healthy and beautiful you are proud and want to show them off.'

One of the bonsai trees Sustic looks after includes a 400-year-old Yamaki white pine that survived the Hiroshima nuclear bombing in 1945.

'It's a very humble art. When you work on bonsai, we're working on their schedule, not ours,' Sustic said.

'I have to make my schedule based on the time of the year, and when it's best to do certain tasks on certain trees.'

Bonsai is a Japanese term that literally means 'planted in a container' when translated.

Chinese Juniper at the National Bonsai and Penjng Museum, National Arboretum in Washington, DC. In the informal upright style, the trunk takes a dramatic detour before returning above the trunk

Bonsai at National Bonsai and Penjng Museum, National Arboretum in Washington, DC. In the semi-cascade style, the apex trails below the lip of the pot

Originally grown in the far east, bonsai trees have become a pastime for people all over the world, with experts and enthusiasts describing the pint sized plants as 'living, breathing art.'

Bonsai has been practiced in Japan and China since 706 AD.

The living art form was reportedly first introduced to Japan in the 6th century by a group of Japanese Zen Buddhism students returning from their overseas travels.

It can be practiced with almost any woody-stemmed tree or shrub species that produces branches strong enough to be cultivated and will remain small through pot confinement and pruning.

Bonsai trees have to be monitored daily for signs of disease or pest infestations.

If grown in the right conditions and developed in the right way, the fragile plants can live for hundreds of years.

Unlike many other plants in the far eastern tradition, bonsai is a style of growing plants that does not have any agricultural or medicinal purpose.

Jack Sustic, the museum curator at the U.S. National Arboretum (bonsai shown above), cares for bonsai that are hundreds of years old in the national collection there

Sustic, pictured, saw his first bonsai while serving in the army in East Asia

Instead their main use is for contemplation.

For Kobayashi, who has been doing bonsai for 30 years, he said paying careful attention has helped him keep an estimated 1,000-year-old juniper tree alive and thriving, the masterpiece at his Shunkaen Bonsai Museum in Tokyo.

'I am always caring for my bonsai trees. It's as necessary for me as eating every day,' he told CNN.

He said one cannot care for bonsai without knowing the basics, regardless of how much love and passion they have.

'It takes six to 10 years of apprenticeship to learn those basics by repeating them over and over,' he said.

Sustic warns the biggest mistake people often make when they get a bonsai is bringing it inside but they need to spend the majority of their life outdoors.

'Indoor bonsai trees exist, but the majority of species have to live outside,' he told CNN.

'They can come inside for three or five days, but need to spend the vast majority of their life outside. If not, they will slowly die.'

A bonsai shown at the Shunkaen Bonsai Museum. Bonsai trees on average grow to be about one inch, known as a poppy-seed size bonsai to 80 inches, known as an Imperial bonsai

Analyzing beauty: A bonsai enthusiast admires a display of trees at the National Arboretum in Washington

Bonsai shown above at the Shunkaen Bonsai Museum. Kobayashi said: 'I am always caring for my bonsai trees. It's as necessary for me as eating every day'

BONSAI: THE ART OF REPLICATION Bonsai is the reproduction of natural tree forms in miniature. It has been practiced in Japan and China since 706 AD.



Bonsai can be practiced with almost any woody-stemmed tree or shrub species that produces branches strong enough to be cultivated and will remain small through pot confinement and pruning. Although they are miniature replicas, Bonsai trees should not be kept indoors at all times. Like normal growing plants, they need light and moisture. If cultivated correctly, Bonsai can last for hundreds of years. Advertisement

Sustic, who saw his first bonsai while serving in the army in East Asia, said bonsai often do not look great in the beginning, likening it to a 'Charlie Brown Christmas tree.'

However, he said with the right tools, including concave pruners, they can go from ugly ducklings to beautiful swans.

'You can create a bonsai pretty quickly if you have the right tools,' he told CNN.

'The best tools to have are concave pruners. If you remove a branch, these pruners will create a concave cut in the trunk.

'It heals over flush, so you will never know there was a branch there.'

But he noted if you were to cut a branch with normal pruners, it would result in 'a bump' called a callous.

'It's like when you wound your body and it creates a scab,' he said.

Sustic said in order to keep the tree alive, he has to re-pot the trees every two years, depending on the species, which in turn generates new roots and keeps it 'healthy.'

Other ways Kobayashi and Sustic care for bonsai include watching the way the trunk and branches move to ensure a natural look and using wire on the branches.

'We use wire to position the branch where we want the branches to grow,' Sustic told CNN.

'Depending on the species, the wire stays on for a month or over a year.

'The important thing is that we monitor the trees. We don't want the branches to start growing and become scarred by the wire.'

Bonsai trees on average grow to be about one inch, known as a poppy-seed size bonsai to 80 inches, known as an Imperial bonsai.

The rarely growing beyond four-feet tall and take between three and five years before the train can be trained.
It is the second major prostitution bust in the area after 10 women were arrested

The women and men who were arrested ranged from 24 to 58 years old

A one-eyed sex worker who bears a striking resemblance to a character from the Walking Dead has been arrested.

Tiffany Dawn Evans, 30, was among 11 people arrested in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, when police made a massive prostitution bust on Wednesday night.

And based off her mugshot, the 30-year-old would not look out of place as an extra one state over in Georgia - where the Walking Dead is set and filmed.

Tiffany Dawn Evans (left), 30, who was charged with prostitution on Wednesday, appeared to have one eye in her mugshot and was reminiscent of a character from the Walking Dead (right)

Evans' right eye was so cloudy it was almost non-existent, while she also had marks on her face and stringy hair.

She was charged with prostitution, drugs and unlawful to advertise for sale, manufacture or possess.

The rest of the women and men arrested, aged from 24 to 58 years old, were busted not far from a stretch of tourist waterside resorts off South Kings Highway.

All of those arrested in the sting were charged with prostitution and some were hit with additional drugs charges as well.

The 30-year-old (left) appeared to have only one eye in her mugshot, which caused some to compare he to a zombie from the Walking Dead (right)

Christy Lynn Patterson, 32, (left) was arrested for prostitution, while Michelle Renee Rowan, 24, (right) was arrested for drugs and prostitution

Police said the group were busted during an undercover prostitution operation in the area.

It is the second large-scale prostitution bust at Myrtle Beach after police arrested 10 other women, aged between 25 and 54 years, just last week.

Myrtle Beach police spokesman Lt. Joey Crosby pledged at the time to continue working to address prostitution.

He said the issue was important to address because it was a crime that could lead to other criminal activity.

Those arrested on Wednesday include: Tiffany Dawn Evans, 30, Ashley Janay Pearl, 25, Christy Lynn Patterson, 32, Michelle Renee Rowan, 24, Amisha Nichole Eller, 28, Jules Roy Hixenbaugh, 56, Gary Lewis Clark, 58, Desiree Dawn Mcgill, 35, Jose Juan Cruz-toribo, 32, John Henry Brown, 58, Jose Torres-platas, 37, and Daniel Quardre Bryant, 23.

Desiree Dawn Mcgill, 35, (left) and Amisha Nichole Eller, 28, (right) was arrested for prostitution

Jose Juan Cruz-toribo, 32, (left) and Ashley Pearl,25, (right) are both facing prostitution charges
Dennis Hutchings, 75, has been charged with attempted murder over the fatal shooting of an IRA suspect more than 40 years ago

A British Army veteran said he had been 'thrown to the wolves' over the fatal shooting of an IRA suspect more than 40 years ago.

Dennis Hutchings, 75, has been charged with attempted murder after the killing was re-examined by a legacy unit set up by the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

The great-grandfather had previously been assured twice that he would not be dragged before the courts for being in the military unit which gunned down John Pat Cunningham, 27, at the height of the Troubles.

He assisted Northern Ireland's Historical Enquiries Team (HET), which reviewed the case in 2011, and was told by investigators that the matter was closed.

But in April last year, after the files had been passed to Northern Ireland's Public Prosecution Service, he was told he would be charged.

Mr Hutchings, who served 26 years in the Life Guards with distinction, is set to stand trial next year for the 1974 Armagh killing  and faces jail if convicted. The veteran, who is seriously ill and has been told he has less than two years to live, has even had his passport confiscated by the Northern Irish authorities.

The former corporal major believes the investigation is designed to appease IRA families.

He spoke out for the first time on Wednesday about his anger at his life being turned upside-down after he was cleared over the events which took place 42 years ago.

Mr Hutchings, of Cornwall, said: 'I feel anger, totally, totally let down, I feel hung out to dry. That's what has happened to all of us. We are being thrown to the wolves.

'I feel betrayed. We all feel betrayed. We were doing our duty, a job that we were sent to do. The big thing about these incidents is that you have seconds to make a decision, not minutes, not hours, but seconds.'

Distinguish: Mr Hutching served for 26 years in the Life Guards but faces trial next year for the 1974 killing. He faces jail if convicted despite only having two years to live

He added: 'MPs need to get off their backsides and do something about this. It is persecution of the military.'

In June 1974, Mr Hutchings was leading a patrol of four soldiers in Eglish, County Tyrone, when they came across an IRA unit moving firearms and explosives ahead of an attack.

He challenged the group of about ten and a firefight broke out. Four men were arrested and later convicted of terrorist offences, while the rest fled.

Betrayed: The former corporal major said he felt anger, totally, totally let down and hung out to dry

Two days later, the troops carried out a search of the area in a bid to track down the missing Republicans and came across Mr Cunningham, who they believed was an armed IRA suspect, near the village of Benburb.

As he ran away across a field some members of the patrol opened fire, killing him. It later emerged that the victim was an innocent member of the public who had the mental age of a child between six and ten.

After a Royal Ulster Constabulary probe at the time, the soldiers were told they would face no further action. But in 2011, Mr Hutchings was traced by the HET which was reviewing the shooting. The other two troops present on the day are dead. The Government apologised for the death in 2013.

But when the HET handed over the report in 2013, the PSNI's legacy investigation branch re-opened the case following a re-examination of the evidence. Even though there is no forensic evidence, no weapons from the time and all the witness are dead, Mr Hutchings was charged with attempted murder  despite Mr Cunningham being killed.
The 78-year-old said she is 'far too busy to retire' but that she has to move on

She has been presenter of Australian Story since the program

Beloved ABC journalist Caroline Jones has announced she is leaving the network that she joined in 1963 and will quit as presenter of Australian Story.

Ms Jones has presented Australian Story since its launch in 1996. In a press release, she said she is leaving the program to attend to 'other loyalties.'

'I'm far too busy to retire, but now there are some other loyalties claiming my attention, and I move on to the next phase of my life with gratitude. There's always another adventure ahead,' the 78-year-old broadcaster said on Friday.

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The beloved ABC journalist Caroline Jones announced Friday she is leaving the network that she joined in 1963

'This is not an easy decision for me. The ABC is in my DNA. So is Australian Story, and that will not change,' Ms Jones said.

Ms Jones, who was raised in the rural town of Murrurundi, NSW, gave special mention to the 'generous Australians who tell us their stories, giving profound insights into the complexity of our human condition in a speedily evolving world.'

Gaven Morris, Director of News at the Australian Broadcast Corporation, called Ms Jones a 'legend of Australian journalism, a trailblazer, an inspiration and a role model for so many women in the media.'

Among many accomplishments, Ms Jones was the first female reporter on This Day Tonight, Australia's first national nightly current affairs program, which she joined in 1968.

In 1988, Ms Jones was made an Officer of the Order of Australia and in 1997 she was voted one of Australia's National Living Treasures.
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Mount Hotham (pictured) has received a sprinkling of snow

Snow has dusted parts of Victoria as a cold front brings yet more cool conditions, rain and hail as the rest of Australia basks in glorious sunshine.

Despite the summer season, Melbourne residents woke to a wet, wintry start to the coldest December day in three years, with freezing temperatures plummeting seven degrees lower than the December average.

And if the cold blast continues through the month, Victorians could be treated to a white Christmas.

Mount Buller and Mount Hotham in the Victorian Alps have been dusted by snow flakes with an overnight low of -2 degrees and -2.4 degrees on Friday morning respectively.

'Summer snow, just decorating the trees for Xmas,' a spokesman from Mount Hotham resort tweeted.

The Bureau of Meteorology says snow showers are possible down to 1200 metres until Friday afternoon as many Victorian towns are experiencing temperatures in the mid-teens - but windy conditions mean apparent temperatures are down in single figures.

BoM's severe weather meteorologist Steven McGibbony said Friday will reach temperatures of up to 17C - and snow is expected to fall in elevated areas.

To top it off, windy conditions will make it feel much colder than it is as hail storms are also expected to hit areas across the southern part of the state.

'It's not quite time yet for Victorians to put away winter coats or scarves,' Mr McGibbony said.

Meanwhile, Sydneysiders will enjoy the warm weather, with temperatures reaching up to 26C on Friday. Perth and Darwin will be hit with a heatwave, with scorching temperatures of 37 and 35 degrees respectively.

Brisbane will be basking in temperatures of up to 30C. Adelaide and Canberra will both enjoy the balmy weather of temperatures reaching 22C while Hobart will record 15C.

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Snow dusted trees on Mount Hotham on Friday with an overnight low of -2.4 degrees recorded just after 8am

Photos on social media show the popular Mount Buller ski field dusted by snow flakes on the slopes as temperatures drop to just -1.2 degrees on Friday morning

Victorian residents woke to a wet, wintry start to the coldest December day in three years (Pictured: Mount Buller on Friday)

Mount Buller ski field has been dusted by snow flakes on the slopes as temperatures drop to -1.2 degrees on Friday morning

Snow has blanketed parts of Victoria as a cold front brings yet more cool conditions, rain and hail (Pictured: Mount Buller)

Melbourne residents woke to a wet, wintry start to the coldest December day in three years

Snow dusted trees on Mount Hotham on Friday with an overnight low of -2.4 degrees recorded just after 8am

The cold snap has been fine for resident Steven Wong who says Melbourne is simply a city spoiled for choice.

'We offer visitors and residents a choice of their favourite weather,' he posted to Facebook.

'If you are sick and tired of summer, then Melbourne puts on winter for you - right in the middle of summer.'

The snow comes as Melbourne residents woke to a bout of unusual weather on Thursday with temperatures plunging ten degrees in just an hour after a relatively balmy night.

Across the city, the temperature hovered at about 21 degrees for majority of the night before rising to 25.7 degrees at 4.30am and then plummeting to 16 degrees at 5.20am as a strong cold front swept through at dawn.

A severe weather warning was in place for the rest of Thursday with gale force winds expected to reach 110 km/h and heavy rain.

The stormy weather set in by 6.30am and the city is only expected to reach a top of 23 degrees.

Residents in Horsham, Warrnambool, Seymour, Maryborough, Ballarat, Geelong and Melbourne have been warned of damaging winds. A gust of 93 km/h was recorded at 4.30am in Mt William.

Emergency services have advised people should move their vehicles under cover and away from trees as well as securing large outdoor items.

Melbourne residents have woken up to a bout of unusual weather with temperatures plummeting ten degrees after a relatively balmy night

Across the city, the temperature hovered at about 21 degrees for majority of the night before rising to 25.7 degrees at 4.30am and then plunged ten degrees as a strong cold front swept through at dawn

Rain shrouded the city on Thursday morning and many residents opted to stay indoors after the unexpected dumping

Some decided to stay in bed after waking up to the icy conditions and dumping of rain

The cold spell is set to continue on Friday with temperatures so low there may be snowfall on elevated areas

One woman posted a picture snuggled up under a blanket with her dog and said it was the perfect morning to stay in and cuddle

The overnight temperatures were relatively high overnight after a warm day on Wednesday (pictured)

The cold spell is set to continue on Friday with temperatures so low there may be snowfall on elevated areas.

The pollen count is high for Melbourne and Geelong and classed as 'extreme' in Melbourne's east. This has triggered fears of further thunderstorm asthma cases.

Last month, eight people were killed by thunderstorm asthma with emergency services and hospitals sent into meltdown after struggling to find enough supplies to treat 1,900 triple-0 calls.

On Thursday, Melbourne residents took to social media to complain about the 'dreadful weather'.

'Melbourne weather: Rain, wind, sun, rain, wind, rain.. oh and sun,' one man wrote, clearly unimpressed with the city's 'four seasons in one day'.

'Wow really Melbourne? Sunny and warm yesterday and pissing down rain this morning!' another woman observed.

Some decided to stay in bed after waking up to the icy conditions and dumping of rain. One woman posted a picture snuggled up under a blanket with her dog and said it was the perfect morning to stay in and cuddle.

A severe weather warning was also issued for the Snowy Mountains in NSW on Thursday morning with gales of 110 km/h expected to thrash alpine areas above 1800 metres.

Across the city, the temperature hovered at about 21 degrees for majority of the night before rising to 25.7 degrees at 4.30am and then plummeting to 16 degrees at 5.20am as a strong cold front swept through at dawn

On Thursday, some enjoyed the dumping of rain from the comfort of Melbourne airport, but were concerned the wild weather may cause delays

The unexpected rain made it difficult for this Melbourne resident to continue excavator work around his pool

The cold spell is set to continue on Friday with temperatures so low there may be snowfall on elevated areas

Ominous clouds rolled across the city before midday and thunderstorms were expected in the afternoon

FORECAST: WHAT THE WEATHER LOOKS LIKE AROUND AUSTRALIA SYDNEY Friday: Min 19, Max 26. Sunny Saturday: Min 17, Max 24. Partly cloudy Sunday: Min 18, Max 26. Possible shower BRISBANE: Friday: Min 25, Max 30. Showers, possible storm Saturday : Min 21, Max 27. Partly cloudy Sunday: Min 20, Max 27. Partly cloudy ADELAIDE Friday : Min 12, Max 22. Partly cloudy Saturday : Min 10, Max 25. Sunny Sunday: Min 12, Max 30. Sunny DARWIN Friday : Min 26, Max 35. Partly cloudy Saturday : Min 25, Max 35. Possible storm Sunday: Min 25, Max 34. Shower or two MELBOURNE Friday : Min 11, Max 17. Shower or two Saturday : Min 11, Max 19. Mostly cloudy Sunday: Min 13, Max 22. Partly cloudy CANBERRA Friday : Min 8, Max 22. Sunny Saturday : Min 6, Max 25. Mostly sunny Sunday: Min 9, Max 27. Mostly sunny PERTH Friday : Min 18, Max 37. Sunny Saturday : Min 20, Max 37. Sunny Sunday: Min 17, Max 31. Shower or two HOBART Friday : Min 8, Max 15. Shower or two Saturday : Min 10, Max 19. Possible afternoon shower Sunday: Min 12, Max 21. Partly cloudy Advertisement

The National Parks Service of NSW recommended people postpone their travel from the Snowy Mountains until conditions improve, according to the Bureau of Meterology.

Meanwhile, southeast Queensland will have a third straight day of storms after an early-morning showing of thunder-and-lightning.

Relatively rare early morning storms rolled over the state's southeast on Tuesday and Wednesday, leaving thousands without power.

'Most people got a nice awakening around 2-4 o'clock this morning (Wednesday) and there is a potential for more activity like that north of the Gold Coast,' BoM forecaster Andrew Bufalino told AAP.

'We've got an upper trough moving over the area in combination with a coastal trough, and in combination with that we have some very moist and unstable weather conditions, and that's driving a lot of shower and thunderstorm activity across the region.'

The stormy weather is expected to ease by Friday, with more volatile conditions moving north of the Sunshine Coast.

'Wow really Melbourne? Sunny and warm yesterday and pissing down rain this morning!' another woman observed

A severe weather warning was also issued for the Snowy Mountains in NSW on Thursday morning, but Sydney had a forecast of 29 degrees
The controversial Muslim woman at the centre of a burqa row who could become the first person in Australia charged with 'disrespect laws' has hit back saying she has done nothing wrong and is misunderstood.

Moutia Elzahed, the wife of a convicted terrorist, could be charged for refusing a judges orders to stand in court, under new behaviour laws which carry jail term or a $1100 fine.

But speaking exclusively to Daily Mail Australia on Friday, Moutia Elzahed said she was not concerned about any investigation into her conduct in Sydney's District Court this week.

Moutia Elzahed, the wife of a convicted terrorist, could be charged for refusing a judges orders to stand in court

Hamdi Alqudsi speaks to the media at the NSW Supreme Court in Parramatta, Sydney

Moutia Elzahed, the wife of a convicted terrorist, could be charged for refusing a judges orders to stand in court, under new behaviour

'I have done nothing wrong,' the mother-of-two said.

'I feel happy, very happy about everything,' Ms Elzahed said.

Ms Elzahed, one of two wives of Islamic State recruiter Hamdi Alqudsi, caused controversy when she refused to remove the veil covering her face to give evidence in court, over a civil case in which she alleges she was assaulted when Counter Terrorism police raided her home, in 2014.

During the same hearing, which Ms Elzahed brought about against the police, she refused to stand for Judge Audrey Balla, with her barrister telling the court his client 'won't stand for anyone except Allah'.

Ms Elzahed did not appear concerned by the attention her refusal to reveal her face and stand in court had caused, saying she stood by her strict religious beliefs.

Ms Elzahed did not appear concerned by the attention her refusal to reveal her face and stand in court had caused

'You are all missing the point. People who say rude things about me do not understand my beliefs,' she said

'You are all missing the point. People who say rude things about me do not understand my beliefs.'

The Attorney-General Gabrielle Upton has reportedly urged the Solicitor-General to consider whether she should be charged.

'The law is there to be used. Everyone who appears in court must abide by the rules,' Ms Upton told Daily Mail Australia.

Ms Elzahed lives in a small weatherboard public housing home with one of her sons and at least one grey cat south of Sydney. The family moved into the house in Sydney's south-west more than a decade ago.

Neighbours recalled her wearing 'normal clothing' - rather than her religious garb - to hang the washing out on the line more than a decade ago. However, they have only seen her in her black niqab in recent years.

The woman is married to Islamic State recruiter Hamdi Alqudsi

Neighbours recalled her wearing 'normal clothing' - rather than her religious garb - to hang the washing out on the line more than a decade ago

Her 'gorgeous' sons used to play with the grandchildren of some neighbours when they were younger. 'You couldn't get better kids,' recalled one neighbour, who also recalled seeing Alqudsi working on cars in the backyard.

Ms Elzahed is suing the Commonwealth government and the state of New South Wales, claiming assault and battery during September 2014 Operation Appleby raids on her home.

In a statement of claim, lawyers for Ms Elzahed allege police punched her in the ear, eye and head; screamed at her; humiliated her and handcuffed her in 'an aggressive and hurtful manner'.

She is joined in the lawsuit by her two teenage sons and her husband Alqudsi. Both governments are defending the claim.

Judge Balla has said she hopes for a decision by the end of the term.
Ronald Bert Smith Jr (pictured), was pronounced dead at 11.05pm at the Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, where he was executed by lethal injection

A 45-year-old death row prisoner coughed and heaved for 13 minutes while being executed for murdering a store clerk.

Ronald Smith, 45, was pronounced dead at 11.05pm at the Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, where he was executed by lethal injection, a spokesman for the Alabama Department of Corrections said.

Smith visibly struggled for nearly half of the 30-minute execution, clenching his fists and raising his head at the beginning of the procedure.

The former Eagle scout Smith was killed on Thursday for the convenience store murder in 1994, raising questions about whether or not the lethal injection is humane.

A prison guard performed two consciousness checks before the final two lethal drugs were administered.

During the first one, Smith moved his arm. He raised his right arm again shortly after the second consciousness test.

Smith was executed after the U.S. Supreme Court lifted a second stay on the execution, having twice put it on hold on Thursday. He was originally scheduled to die at 6pm.

The Supreme Court gave no explanation for any of its three orders issued in the case on Thursday.

The Supreme Court granted a last-minute hold to stop Alabama carrying out another man's death sentence a month ago. Justices gave no reason for the stay in that case either.

Alabama's death penalty process is under scrutiny after the high court ruled in January that a similar death penalty law in Florida gave judges too much discretion.

Smith was executed after the U.S. Supreme Court lifted a second stay on the execution, having twice put it on hold on Thursday. He was originally scheduled to die at 6pm. The execution was carried out at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility (right)

EXECUTION DRUG MIDAZOLAM HAS BEEN CRITICIZED BEFORE Alabama uses the sedative midazolam as the first drug in a three-drug lethal injection combination. Midazolam has been criticized after executions in Oklahoma, Ohio and Arizona during which inmates writhed or gasped or after the execution process extended for unusually long periods of time. Lawyers for Ronald Smith said that movements he made Thursday demonstrate that he wasn't anesthetized during the execution. Oklahoma's use of midazolam as the first in a three-drug protocol was challenged after the April 2014 execution of Clayton Lockett, who writhed on a gurney, moaned and clenched his teeth for several minutes before prison officials tried to halt the process. Lockett died after 43 minutes. A state investigation into Lockett's execution revealed that a failed line caused the drugs to be administered locally instead of into Lockett's blood. Ohio and Arizona have used midazolam as the first in a two-drug protocol. Ohio inmate Dennis McGuire repeatedly gasped and snorted over 26 minutes during his January 2014 execution. The state abandoned that method afterward and has yet to resume executions. Arizona halted executions after the July 2014 lethal injection of convicted killer Joseph Rudolph Wood, who took nearly two hours to die. Smith and other Alabama inmates argued in a court case that the drug was an unreliable sedative and could cause them to feel pain, citing its use in problematic executions. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a challenge by Oklahoma death row inmates that they had failed to prove that the use of midazolam was unconstitutional. Robert Dunham is executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit that does not take an official stance on capital punishment but is critical of its application. He said Smith's execution reinforces the argument that midazolam shouldn't be used in executions. 'What occurred during the execution itself is exactly what the medical experts have been saying is likely to occur when midazolam is asked to do something that drug is not designed to do,' he said. 'It is not designed to render somebody unconscious and insensate.' At the beginning of his execution, Smith heaved and coughed repeatedly, clenching his fists and raising his head. A prison guard performed two consciousness checks on Smith Thursday before the final two lethal drugs were administered. In a consciousness test, a prison officer says the inmate's name, brushes his eyelashes and then pinches his left arm. During the first one, Smith moved his arm. He slightly raised his right hand after the second consciousness test. The meaning of those movements will likely be debated. One of Smith's attorneys whispered to another attorney, 'He's reacting,' and pointed out the inmate's repeated movements. The state prison commissioner said he did not see any reaction to the consciousness tests. 'We do know we followed our protocol. We are absolutely convinced of that,' Alabama Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn said Thursday evening. When asked if the movements indicated there was a problem with the execution, Dunn said: 'There will be an autopsy that will be done on Mr Smith and if there were any irregularities those will hopefully be shown or borne out in the autopsy. I think the question is probably better left to the medical experts.' Dunn declined to say whether Smith was given an additional dose of midazolam after the first consciousness test. Source: Associated Press Advertisement

Smith was convicted of capital murder in the November 8, 1994, shooting death of Huntsville store clerk Casey Wilson during a failed robbery.

A jury voted 7-5 to recommend a sentence of life imprisonment, but a judge overrode that recommendation and sentenced Smith to death.

Wilson was pistol-whipped and then shot in the head during the robbery, court documents show.

Surveillance video showed Smith entering the store and recovering spent shell casings from the bathroom where Wilson was shot, according to the record.

'The trial court described Smith's acts as 'an execution style slaying'. Tonight, justice was finally served,' Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange said in a statement.

Smith replied, 'No ma'am' when asked by the prison warden if he had any final words.

Trial testimony showed Smith had been an Eagle Scout and a member of the National Honor Society, but struggled with alcoholism as an adult.

U.S. Supreme Court justices twice paused the execution as Smith's attorneys argued for a delay, saying a judge shouldn't have been able to impose the death penalty when a jury recommended he receive life imprisonment.

Four liberal justices said they would have halted the execution, but five were needed to do so.

Smith was the 20th person executed in the United States this year and the second in Alabama, the non-profit Death Penalty Information Center said

Smith's attorneys had urged the nation's highest court to block the planned execution to review the judge's override.

Smith's lawyers argued a January decision that struck down Florida's death penalty structure because it gave too much power to judges raises legal questions about Alabama's process.

In Alabama, a jury can recommend a sentence of life without parole, but a judge can override that recommendation to impose a death sentence.

Alabama is the only state that allows judicial override, they argued.

'Alabama is alone among the states in allowing a judge to sentence someone to death based on judicial fact finding contrary to a jury's verdict,' attorneys for Smith wrote Wednesday.

Lawyers for the state argued in a court filing Tuesday that the sentence was legally sound, and that it is appropriate for judges to make the sentencing decision.

Judge Lynwood Smith, now a federal judge, sentenced Smith to death.

He likened the killing to an execution, saying the store clerk was beaten into submission before being shot in the head in a crime that left an infant fatherless.

In overriding the jury's recommendation, the judge also noted in court records that, unlike many other criminal court defendants, Ronald Smith came from a middle-class background that afforded him opportunities.

Smith, the son of a NASA contract employee, became an Eagle Scout at 15, but his life spiraled downward because of alcoholism, according to a clemency request to Alabama's governor.
A man who escaped from a Georgia jail almost 50 years ago has died after his cancer and health battles exposed him to authorities after applying for social security and medicare benefits.

Robert Stackowitz, 71, had managed to evade authorities for much of his adult life after he escaped from a prison work camp in Carroll County in Georgia in 1968.

But when authorities eventually caught up with him in a small town in Connecticut in May this year, Stackowitz was already dying from numerous health complications.

He had spent much of his later years dealing with a number of illnesses, including bladder cancer, heart failure, breathing problems and diabetes.

Stackowitz died in hospital on Monday.

Robert Stackowitz died in a Connecticut hospital on Monday aged 71 after battling serious health issues. He had spent decades on the run after escaping from a Georgia jail in 1968

The 71-year-old's death came just weeks after a judge ruled he could remain free on parole so he would not have to die in jail.

Stackowitz's decades on the run finally unraveled back in May after he made the mistake of filing for social security and medicare benefits under his real name.

He had used the alias Robert Gordon for much of the 48 years he had been a fugitive.

The Georgia Corrections Department had long ago stopped looking for Stackowitz after he escaped from the prison in 1968.

He had been convicted of forcible robbery and had only served two years of the 17-year sentence before he fled.

Stackowitz had access to a vehicle for his prison duties because he said he was trusted with repairing nearby school buses.

'One morning I just got in the truck and drove myself away,' he told The Hartford Courant newspaper. 'I got on a plane and I was back in Connecticut before they even knew I was gone.'

Stackowitz was convicted in 1966 (left) of forcible robbery in Georgia. He escaped from jail and spent 48 years on the run until authorities arrested him in May this year (right)

His decades on the run unraveled back in May after he filed for social security benefits under his real name. He had used the alias Robert Gordon for the 48 years he had been a fugitive

Stackowitz managed to build himself an unassuming, crime free life in the rural town of Sherman in western Connecticut where he was known as Robert Gordon.

STACKOWITZ'S FUGITIVE LIFE Robert Stackowitz was arrested and convicted in 1966 in Georgia over forcible robbery. He served two years of a 17-year sentence in Carroll County prison camp. Stackowitz escaped from jail in 1968 after he drove away in a prison vehicle. He got on a flight back to his home state of Connecticut. He built a life for himself in rural town of Sherman. Stackowitz bought a house, ran a boat repair business and had a long-term girlfriend. Stackowitz fell ill with various conditions, including bladder cancer and heart failure. He applied for social security and medicare benefits under his real name, which was flagged with Georgia official earlier this year. Stackowitz was arrested at his home on May 9, 2016. Authorities tried to get him extradited back to Georgia but a judge ruled against it in October given his health. Stackowitz died in hospital on Monday, December 5. Advertisement

He had a house, ran his own successful boat repair business, taught shop at a local high school and was in a long-term relationship with his girlfriend Cindy Derby, now aged 61.

But then he started battling serious health issues and forgot to use his alias when applying for social security and medicare benefits.

The Georgia Corrections Department decided to look at open fugitive files when Stackowitz's social security request was flagged.

They tracked him down and arrested him at his home on May 9. He spent four nights at the Bridgeport jail before posting bail.

His arrest was widely publicized and shocked those in the small town.

He had kept his past secret for decades and none of his friends, or even his girlfriend, knew he was a wanted fugitive.

'He never told anybody. I'm glad I didn't know because then I would have always worried,' his girlfriend, Derby, told the NY Times.

'I didn't have to worry for 21 years. It wasn't any of my business.

'He's a good guy who lived a clean life for the past 48 years and he did something wrong that caught up with him.'

Stackowitz's health started to deteriorate quickly after his arrest and Social Security and Medicare denied his application for benefits.

Stackowitz managed to build himself an unassuming life in the rural town of Sherman in western Connecticut where he lived in this house and ran a boat repair business

He was in a long-term relationship with his girlfriend Cindy Derby (right) who wasn't aware he was fugitive until authorities arrested him in May

A Connecticut judge dropped the fugitive-from-justice charge against Stackowitz in October, which meant he did not have to be extradited back to a Georgia jail

Georgia officials initially fought for him to be extradited back to the state he had escaped from decades earlier.

But his attorney, Norm Pattis, argued that extraditing Stackowitz would only kill him given his serious health issues.

Stackowitz couldn't even make his last court appearance because he was too sick.

In October, a Connecticut judge dropped the fugitive-from-justice charge against Stackowitz.

Georgia officials withdrew their extradition request and accepted a parole supervision plan after learning of Stackowitz's illnesses.

'I just want to die here at home where I live. I don't want to die in jail in Georgia, or on the way,' Stackowitz told the The Hartford Courant after the charge was dropped.

His attorney Norm Pattis broke the news of Stackowitz's death on Thursday.

'We weren't kidding when we said sending him back to Georgia would kill him,' Pattis said.
A plastic surgeon specialising in skin cancer treatment has been charged with sexually assaulting five of his female patients.

The 53-year-old had fled Australia when he was made aware of the investigation in 2014 before he was arrested at Gold Coast Airport last week, police allege.

He allegedly put his fingers in the women's mouths and touched their breasts inappropriately while working at his Rockhampton practice and in a hospital ward.

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The 53-year-old charged with sexually assaulting five patients owned, and was working at, Sunshine Plastic Surgery practice

He has been charged with six counts of sexual assault in relation to five patients aged between 37 and 57.

The accused allegedly indecently assaulted the patients between 2009 and 2013 while working as a consultant at Mater Hospital and at his Sunshine Plastic Surgery practice.

A patient first came forward in 2013. A further four patients made complaints following police investigations.

'[The investigation] was only commenced with one female victim to start with,' Detective Inspector Darrin Shadlow, of Capricornia Crime Group, said on Friday.

He was also working as a consultant at Rockhampton's Mater Hospital

'However during the investigation investigators did speak with a number of other female patients of this doctor and they subsequently made complaints.

'It is alleged the sexual assaults include inappropriately placing his fingers in the mouths of the victims as well as touching the females on the breast.'

Det Insp Shadlow said the further four women to have made complaints had taken a long time to make complaints because they were not confident or were not aware the alleged touching was inappropriate.

'It was a matter of [the victims] not being confident and also not realising it was inappropriate, the actions of this doctor,' he said.

The man allegedly left the country in 2014, despite being aware of the investigation.

He had been working at his practice and the Mater Hospital at the time of the alleged indecent assaults, between 2009 and 2013

'He left the country in 2014, hence the time between the investigation being finalised and him being charged,' Det Insp Shadlow told the press conference on Friday

'He left the country in 2014, hence the time between the investigation being finalised and him being charged,' Det Insp Shadlow told the press conference.

'He certainly was aware of the investigation.'

Det Insp Shadlow said the allegations were particularly concerning because the accused was working as a medical professional.

'It's a breach of trust,' he said.

Police have appealed for any further victims to come forward.

'If there is other victims out there, male or female, who do believe they have been inappropriately dealt with by this doctor, or any doctor, they should certainly contact Rockhampton police,' Det Insp Shadlow said.
Former prime minister Bob Hawke wants Australia to become the dumping ground for the world's nuclear waste - and took the time to declare his views while accepting a degree for his leadership on 'environmental protection' .

Mr Hawke - who has recently turned 87 spoke out while receiving an honorary degree on Friday at the University of Sydney.

'We now have the capacity either, on the one hand, to improve the standards and quality of life of all of mankind or, on the other, to destroy life as we know it,' he said.

Former prime minister Bob Hawke wants Australia to become the dumping ground for the world's nuclear waste

Mr Hawke - who has recently turned 87 spoke out while receiving by receiving an honorary degree on Friday at the University of Sydney

'Let me assure you that's not the fanciful imaginations of an old man. The fact of global warming will not go away whether you are president elect of the United States or a humble citizen of Australia.'

He believes nuclear energy will need to be included in a mix of sources to combat climate change.

He said Australia could use money generated by disposing of the world's nuclear waste to close the gap between the living standards of indigenous Australians and the rest of the population.

'The greatest stain on the character of this great Australian nation is the large gap, yawning gap, between our aboriginal citizens and the rest of us in regard to health, education, living conditions, incarceration rates and life expectancy.'

'Let me assure you that's not the fanciful imaginations of an old man. The fact of global warming will not go away whether you are president elect of the United States or a humble citizen of Australia.'

He said Australia could use money generated by disposing of the world's nuclear waste to close the gap between the living standards of indigenous Australians and the rest of the population

The veteran politician is known for his leadership in economic reforms, environmental protection and introducing several initiatives including Medicare

The veteran politician is known for his leadership in economic reforms, environmental protection and introducing several initiatives including Medicare.

The 23rd prime minister received his doctorate alongside graduating students at ceremony in the Great Hall, with his wife Blanche d'Alpuget and his three children from his first marriage in the audience.

'He is a truly great Australian whose contribution to our nation has been extraordinary and indeed genuinely legendary,' University of Sydney Chancellor Belinda Hutchinson said on Friday.

The doctor of letters adds to a long list of the former leader's honours including an Order of Australia.

The 23rd prime minister received his doctorate alongside graduating students at ceremony in the Great Hall, with his wife Blanche d'Alpuget and his three children from his first marriage in the audience
Leigh Sales has delivered a powerful statement on why women feel unsafe when walking home at night in response to a Melbourne council's considers switching off security cameras installing following the shocking rape and murder of Jill Meagher.

'If you're a woman, you'll know the anxious feeling of walking alone at night, maybe to your car, hoping that you're safe,' Sales said in a segment on7.30 which aired on Thursday.

'If you're a man, you may think I'm exaggerating  just ask any woman if she knows that feeling.'

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Leigh Sales said:' 'If you're a woman, you'll know the anxious feeling of walking alone at night, maybe to your car, hoping that you're safe.'

Meagher was murdered by serial rapist Adrian Bayley 2012 as she walked home from a party at a pub on Sydney Street, Brunswick.

Leigh Sales' powerful speech was delivered in a segment discussing how CCTV cameras can help to prevent crimes against women .

Sales said men would 'just have to take a woman's word of it'.

The show, which aired on Thursday, took a detailed look at safety across Melbourne and how women felt in their home city.

After the brutal killing of Jill Meagher four years ago, nine CCTV camera's were installed around Brunswick Street in a bid to make the area safe.

After the murder of Jill Meagher in 2012 nine new CCTV cameras were installed in the Brunswick Street region

But this week Moreland council debated whether they were worth the cost, and whether they could be removed in three years time.

The focus of the segment was on an interactive map where women can drop a pin and say how they feel in that particular area.

Susan Legena from Plan International Australia told the ABC the results had been staggering.

The interactive map allows women to mark were they felt safe and unsafe across Australia

'We do research all over the world with young woman that we work with and some of the results show that young women in Australia feel more unsafe than their counterparts in places like Pakistan, Cairo, Delhi, Nicaragua,' she said.
A deranged ice addict who sexually assaulted and bashed in a grandmother's skull with a hammer could walk free from prison in less than 10 years.

Christopher Coombs was sentenced to a maximum 14 years jail including time for four unrelated assault and larceny charges.

The 40-year-old is eligible for parole in nine years and four months for the attack that left the Wollongong pensioner, 77, wishing she had died.

Her son said it was a miracle she survived the horrific injuries as he stood dismayed outside Parramatta District Court on Thursday following sentencing.

'She's going to be in and out of hospital for the rest of her life. She has said, "It probably would have been better if I'd died",' he told the Illawarra Mercury.

The caved-in skull of a grandmother, 77, who was bashed with a hammer after being raped by Christopher Coombs, who was sentenced to 14 years jail

'She was a lovely lady and now she's a shell. I'll put a tea cup down and she'll jump. She's been robbed of her life.'

The son said the sentence did not reflect the devastating effect the attack on July 6 last year had on his mother.

Judge Penelope Wass said the sentence length was intended to be 'not crushing in all the circumstances' so as not to 'destroy any prospects of rehabilitation'.

Coombs knew his victim lived in the ground floor unit near him from the sole conversation they had eight months before he broke in at 3.30am through a balcony door left ajar for her cat.

He attempted to rape her before carrying out another sexual assault while she resisted.

Then he put a tie around her neck, forced her to the floor and repeatedly bashed her head with the hammer.

Neighbours found her in a pool of blood with her skull caved in, a shattered cheekbone, broken jaw and nerve damage in her eyelid.

The court heard Coombs barely remembered the attack because he had gone off his medication and was high on ice at the time.

Coobs (pictured) could walk free from prison in just nine years and four months

Psychological reports detailed his history of drug use, depression, narcissistic personality disorder and bi-polar disorder.

He pleaded guilty, shaving off 25 per cent off his sentence, and convinced the judge he was remorseful and had a shot at rehabilitation.

Judge Wass also accepted Coombs was carrying the hammer for protection against 'real and imagined enemies', after his own skull was broken in a 2009 assault that had caused him to develop PTSD.

The victim's son lashed out at the judgement that Coombs did not intend to use the hammer on his mother when he broke in.

'How can [the court] accept [Coombs] carried a hammer to protect himself? How can that be OK? It's not as if it's a random attack. He knew there was a vulnerable old lady in there,' he said.

Judge Wass rejected defence claims Coombs hit the woman because he feared she would bite his penis, because he already had her restrained.
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It is a stunning heirloom that has been passed down the royal generations - from Queen Mary, to Queen Elizabeth II, to Princess Diana and to the future Queen, the Duchess of Cambridge.

The dazzling diamond and pearl Cambridge Lover's Knot tiara was once owned by Prince William's mother Princess Diana - and was kept in a safe at Buckingham Palace after her 1997 death before it was handed to Kate.

The tiara, which Diana said was so heavy it gave her headaches, was made by Royal jewellers Garrard in 1914 to Queen Mary's personal design, from pearls and diamonds already in her family's possession.

The dazzling diamond and pearl Cambridge Lover's Knot tiara has been passed down the royal generations, from Queen Mary, to Queen Elizabeth, Princess Diana and to the Duchess of Cambridge, who wore it for a Buckingham Palace reception on Thursday night

The Duchess, left, completed her outfit with the Cambridge Lover's Knot tiara, which she was pictured wearing for the first time at the same event last year. The diamond and pearl tiara was a wedding gift to the Duke of Cambridge's late mother Diana, right, and was one of her favourites

The tiara was made by Royal jewellers Garrard in 1914 to Queen Mary's personal design, left, from pearls and diamonds already in her family's possession. In her will, Queen Mary left the tiara to the Queen, second from left, who wore it frequently, including at an evening event in 1955. By this point, the top layer of pearls had been removed and returned to Queen Mary's brooches. In 1981 she gave it as a wedding present to Prince William's mother, Diana, second from right, who wore it for the first time at the state opening of parliament that November. It is now in the Duchess of Cambridge's collection; she wore it for the second time last night, right

It was a copy of one owned by her grandmother, Princess Augusta of Hesse, who married the first Duke of Cambridge, seventh son of King George III, in 1818.

The Duchess of Cambridge wore it at Buckingham Palace's annual Diplomatic Reception last night.

It is only the fifth time that Kate has been seen in one of the Queen's heirlooms - the first being at her wedding.

The piece is a replica of an 1818 design and the design is based on one owned by Queen Mary's grandmother, Princess Augusta of Hesse.

The piece gets its 'Cambridge' name from a tiara owned by Princess Augusta of Hesse, the Duchess of Cambridge. She was gifted the piece when she tied the knot with Prince Adolphus in 1818.

Princess Augusta then handed the heirloom down to to her eldest daughter, Augusta Caroline, when she wed Grand Duke Friedrich Wilhelm of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.

This is only the fifth time that the Duchess has been seen wearing one of the Queen's heirlooms, one of which was at her wedding to Prince William

The Duchess of Cambridge wore the Cambridge Lover's Knot tiara when she attended the Diplomatic Reception in 2015

The piece gets its 'Cambridge' name from a tiara owned by Princess Augusta of Hesse, the Duchess of Cambridge, left. She was gifted the piece when she tied the knot with Prince Adolphus in 1818. Princess Augusta then handed the heirloom down to to her eldest daughter, Augusta Caroline, right, when she wed Grand Duke Friedrich Wilhelm of Mecklenburg-Strelitz

Queen Mary, Princess Augusta of Hesse's granddaughter, then commissioned her own piece inspired by her grandmother's. She used her existing jewels - including her dismantled Some Ladies of England Tiara, pearls from the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara and pearls from her favourite brooches - to create the bespoke piece.

Queen Mary later removed the top layer of pearls and returned them to her brooches.

In her will, Queen Mary left the tiara to the Queen, who wore it frequently, including at an evening event in 1955.

In 1981 she gave it as a wedding present to Prince William's mother, Diana, who wore it for the first time at the state opening of parliament that November.

Diana also wore the tiara in 1985 on an official visit to Washington with Prince Charles.

The tiara has a strong French influence, made to a new-classical design on 19 open work diamond arches and enclosing an oriental pearl drop from a diamond lover's knot bow.

The dazzling diamond and pearl Cambridge Lover's Knot tiara was once owned by Princess Diana

It is all surrounded by single diamonds and upright oval pearl spikes.

The tiara is fairly heavy even by royal standards and was said to have given Diana headaches when she wore it.

The Princess of Wales wore the Spencer family tiara on her wedding day because it was lighter. It had a diamond and gold scroll design.

The Duchess of Cambridge wore the Cambridge Lover's Knot tiara when she attended the Diplomatic Reception in 2015, and again last night.

It will be considered a touching tribute to the mother-in-law that the Duchess, now a mother of two herself, never met.

The tiara has a strong French influence, made to a new-classical design on 19 open work diamond arches and enclosing an oriental pearl drop from a diamond lover's knot bow, surrounded by single diamonds and upright oval pearl spikes.

It is not the only piece of jewellery Kate wears that once belonged to Diana. Prince William famously gave her his late mother's distinctive diamond and sapphire engagement ring.

The dazzling diamond and pearl Cambridge Lover's Knot tiara - The piece is a replica of an 1818 design and the design is based on one owned by Queen Mary's grandmother, Princess Augusta of Hesse - The piece gets its 'Cambridge' name from a tiara owned by Princess Augusta of Hesse, the Duchess of Cambridge. She was gifted the piece when she tied the knot with Prince Adolphus in 1818 - Princess Augusta then handed the heirloom down to to her eldest daughter, Augusta Caroline, when she wed Grand Duke Friedrich Wilhelm of Mecklenburg-Strelitz - The piece originated in the mid-Georgian period. Experts say the style is a nod to the Gothic Revival - The design - the knot bows - feature across the full length of the design, hence the name Lovers Knot - Queen Mary, Princess Augusta of Hesse's granddaughter, then commissioned her own piece inspired by her grandmother's - She used her existing jewels - including her dismantled Some Ladies of England Tiara, pearls from the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara and pearls from her favourite brooches - to create the bespoke piece - The piece was passed to Queen Elizabeth II after Mary's death in 1953 - The piece has been passed down the generations ever since, from Queen Mary, to Queen Elizabeth II, to Princess Diana and to the future Queen, the Duchess of Cambridge The piece, pictured, is a replica of an 1818 design and the design is based on one owned by Queen Mary's grandmother, Princess Augusta of Hesse Advertisement

Diana regularly wore the piece during her lifetime. L-R: In Hong Kong in 1989, at the Itamaraty Place, Brasilia, for an official banquet given by President in 1991, and in New Zealand during April 1983

L-R: The Princess of Wales arrives back at Buckingham Palace after the state opening of parliament in 1991. Diana wearing the piece at a royal event in the early 1990s and at a state event in 1990

Kate was full of smiles as she appeared in the Cambridge Lover's Knot tiara, only the second time she has worn it after it was passed down to her from Prince William's mother Princess Diana

The Duchess of Cambridge pictured arriving at the Diplomatic Reception in 2015 (left) and in 2016 (right) - wearing the same tiara
Detectives trying to find the killer of Karina Vetrano, who was strangled and beaten to death while jogging in New York in broad daylight, hope a controversial new DNA technique might solve the case.

The 30-year-old's body was found in a marshy area near a park on August 2 after she failed to return to her father's home in Queens.

Investigators developed a DNA profile of the killer from material found under Vetrano's fingernails, on her neck and on her phone, but it did not match anyone in law enforcement DNA databases.

The hunt for Karina Vetrano's killer has been big news in New York ever since her body was discovered in August

NYPD detectives want to use a new technique - looking for his relatives, using DNA, but are in danger of stirring up a hornet's nest of civil liberties concerns.

The technique, known as familial DNA searching, has made inroads in several states and in Britain and other European countries in the last decade.

New York state officials will meet today to discuss whether to introduce it, after a request from prosecutors as hopes of catching the killer with traditional methods start to fade.

Detectives chased 85 tips, interviewed runners, looked for clues in Vetrano's personal life and examined surveillance video and even panhandling reports.

Vetrano's family, desperate for justice, are pressing for the technique to be used.

Mourners carry the casket of Karina Vetrano from St Helen's Church following her funeral in the Howard Beach section of Queens. Four months later her murder remains unsolved

Karina's mother, Cathy, said: 'Our only goal in life is to find out who did this to our daughter. So if there's any method available to do that, we want it done.'

But critics say the technique is a DNA dragnet that can single out otherwise law-abiding people for scrutiny due to family ties.

Donna Lieberman, the New York Civil Liberties Union's executive director, said: 'A policy that implicates New Yorkers in a criminal investigation solely because they are related to someone with DNA in the state's databank is a miscarriage of justice.'

Ten states, including California, Texas and Florida, conduct familial DNA testing.

Ohio announced this week that its first effort had yielded an arrest in the kidnapping and rape of a six-year-old girl and the attempted abduction of a 10-year-old girl.

British police have also been using it successfully for some time.

In May this year Christopher Hampton, 64, was jailed for life for the previously unsolved murder in 1984 of Melanie Road, 17, in Bath, England. Hampton was identified after his daughter's DNA appeared on the database when she was involved in a 'minor incident'.

Karina Vetrano (pictured) was killed while in the middle of her daily run. She is believed to have scratched her killer in the struggle and his DNA was found under her fingernails

Familial DNA's greatest success was in identifying Lonnie Franklin Jr as the 'Grim Sleeper', a serial killer whose crimes spanned from 1985 to 2007.

Franklin was convicted and sentenced to death in Los Angeles earlier this year after a search came up with his son, Christopher.

But several states have prohibited the technique, including Maryland and the District of Columbia.

Detectives and prosecutors will today ask the New York Commission on Forensic Science to authorize familial searching.

Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said yesterday: 'This tragic murder has been exhaustively investigated using every tool currently available.' asking the state Commission on Forensic Science to authorize familial searching.

The commission's spokesman Janine Kava said yesterday they wanted to provide law enforcement with 'cutting-edge tools' to solve crimes 'without compromising individual protections.'

Surveillance video has captured slain jogger Karina Vetrano running a long a street near her home, just moments before she was brutally murdered in Howard Beach, New York

Concerns about familial DNA searching hit home for New Orleans filmmaker Michael Usry in 2014, when police showed up with a warrant to get his DNA as a possible suspect in a 1996 killing in Idaho.

A crime scene DNA sample was similar to that of Usry's father, who had voluntarily given it for a non-profit genealogy project.

The Grim Sleeper serial killer, Lonnie Franklin Jr (pictured), was finally identified after detectives in Los Angeles resorted to familial DNA searching

The baffled filmmaker spent a month worrying what would happen before further testing cleared him.

'It was a very weird situation,' he said.

Erin Murphy, a New York University law professor who has studied the issue, said: 'We don't subject some people to disparate treatment because of taint of blood. It's a violation of some of our foundational principles.'

Supporters say familial DNA investigations can be structured to pursue only strong leads and do it discreetly.

California strives to investigate them without letting on to the potential suspects or their family members.

'The idea that we're rousting relatives, innocent people, it's a fabrication,' says Rockne Harmon, a retired California prosecutor and prominent voice for familial DNA searching.

But for Cathy Vetrano asks civil liberties campaigners to put themselves in her shoes: 'If any person who thinks it's unfair was in this situation I think they would be feeling differently.'
Police have released footage of the chilling moment an off-duty New York corrections officer was shot dead in her car.

Alastasia Bryan, 25, was on her way to work when she was shot multiple times in the head and torso in the Flatlands neighborhood of Brooklyn on Sunday night.

She was sitting in her parked car near Avenue L and E 73rd Street while she made a phone call at about 9.15pm.

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Police released chilling footage of the moment New York corrections officer Alastasia Bryan, 25, was gunned down in her car in Brooklyn on Sunday

Police released footage on Thursday of the moment she was killed in a bid to identify two men shown in the surveillance video.

The footage shows a suspect approaching Bryan's car and firing five shots into the driver's side window.

Flashes of light can be see in the video as the suspect fires the gun.

Police said the suspect then fled westbound on Avenue L and got into a gold or tan-colored 4-door Hyundai Elantra.

Bryan had been working at the Anna M. Kross Center on Rikers Island for a month before she was killed.

Alastasia Bryan, 25, was sitting in her car making a phone call when she was shot multiple times in the head and torso. She was pronounced dead at the scene

Police released footage on Thursday of the moment she was killed in a bid to identify two men shown in the surveillance video

The footage shows a suspect approaching Bryan's car and firing five shots into the driver's side window. Flashes of light (pictured) can be see in the video as the suspect fires the gun

Authorities believe the killing may have been targeted, but have not released a motive.

Police sources told the NY Daily News the suspect may have been a contract killer. Investigators suspect a Rikers Island inmate put a hit out on her.

Her ex-boyfriend had been arrested 31 times and was involved with two domestic incidents with Bryan back in 2015, according to the Daily News.

The Correction Officers' Benevolent Association issued a statement following her death saying the correction family was 'shocked and grieving the horrific murder.'

'There are no words that can express the depth of this tragedy. The COBA will do everything we can to support the officer's family during this time and we will not rest until the assailant or assailants are brought to justice,' Correction Officers' Benevolent Association President Elias Husamudeen said.

Anyone with information is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS.

Bryan had been working at the Anna M. Kross Center on Rikers Island for a month before she was killed

Police found five bullet holes in the driver's side window of Bryan's car
Another 11-year-old boy was charged with wounding and common

stabbed with a pair of scissors

The 11-year-old boy was

stabbed by classmate at Dakabin State School, north of Brisbane

A Year 6 student has been stabbed 'with a pair of scissors' by a classmate at a Brisbane primary school.

The 11-year-old boy was allegedly stabbed in a Year 6 classroom at Dakabin State School, north of Brisbane at 2pm on Thursday.

A relative of a child at the school, who did not wish to be named, told Pine Rivers Press a child had stabbed their classmate with a pair of scissors.

The 11-year-old boy was allegedly stabbed in a Year 6 classroom at Dakabin State School (pictured), north of Brisbane at 2pm on Thursday

A Year 6 student has been stabbed 'with a pair of scissors' by a classmate at a Brisbane primary school (stock image)

'Police attended a wounding incident at an educational facility north of Brisbane, a Queensland Police spokesperson said.

'As a result an 11-year-old male has been charged with wounding and common assault.

'Another 11-year-old male was transported to Redcliffe Hospital for treatment to a leg wound.'

Principal Kelly Jeppesen confirmed the incident occurred and said counselling has been made available to those affected, The Courier Mail reported.

She said the injured student was 'recovering well'.
An emergency missing child alert has been issued for a teenage girl that authorities say was abducted on Sunday by a 37-year-old man who is wanted for child molestation.

A Levi's Call, Georgia's Amber Alert, was issued for 15-year-old Calah Noel Waskow.

She 'was abducted by Jason Johnson,' Columbia County Emergency Services Division director Pam Tucker said on Facebook Thursday.

Tucker said the girl 'is believed to be in extreme danger'.

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An emergency missing child alert has been issued for a Calah Noel Waskow (left), ateenage girl that authorities say was abducted on Sunday by 37-year-old Jason Johnson (right), who is wanted for child molestation

Columbia County Emergency Services Division director Pam Tucker posted this message

Video courtesy of WLTX:

The Facebook post described Calah as a 'white female, 5'4" with blonde shoulder length hair'. It said Johnson is 'a 5'8", 175lb, white male'.

Tucker said that authorities are seeking 'a tan 1998 Ford Crown Victoria with South Carolina Tag KVJ240'.

Johnson is wanted for aggravated child molestation, child molestation, enticing a child for indecent purposes, and contributing to the delinquency of a minor, according to the Columbia County Sheriff's Office.

Johnson is wanted for aggravated child molestation, child molestation, enticing a child for indecent purposes, and contributing to the delinquency of a minor

Authorities had waited to activate an alert because they at first believed Calah was a runaway, according to a report from Fox 13.

Her mother Nora Waskow discovered the girl wasn't in her room Monday and contacted the sheriff's office, WRDW reports.

Nora told the TV station: 'My daughter was friends with his daughter. That's how he I guess got introduced to my daughter.'

She has said the window screen was removed, with no signs of forced entry.

Pictured are Calah's parents, Nora and Rick Waskow

Nora discovered the girl wasn't in her room Monday and contacted the sheriff's office

Deputies say Calah and her alleged abductor were seeing each other, and that the girl was taken from her Evans residence, the TV station reports.

Calah's father Rick Waskow told WRDW: 'We just want to get this nightmare over with.

'Bring her home safe, bring her home today safe and sound. Don't hurt our baby.'
Yoko Ono has labelled America a 'war zone' in a Facebook post sharing a picture of John Lennon's blood-splattered glasses.

'Every day, 91 Americans are killed with guns,' she said.

She posted the picture on the anniversary of the death of the slain Beatle as a plea for gun control in the country, saying: 'We are turning this beautiful country into a War Zone.'

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Yoko Ono posted this picture to her Facebook page tagging her son Sean Ono Lennon

John Lennon was shot dead at his home in New York in 1980 but Ono said the pain of his loss is still 'hollowing'.

She said: 'Together, let's bring back America, the green land of Peace.

'The death of a loved one is a hollowing experience.

'After 36 years, our son Sean and I still miss him.'

The picture showing the smeared-red glasses was accompanied by a statistic.

'The death of a loved one is a hollowing experience. Our son Sean and I still miss him,' said Ono

John Lennon with his wife Yoko Ono at a gallery party in 1971, nine years before his death

'Over 1,200,000 people have been killed by guns in the USA since John Lennon was shot and killed on December 8, 1980,' said Ono.

The post has already got more than 30,000 likes on Facebook since it was posted two days ago.

While many people have shown their support for Ono's message, some are using the comments section to argue in support of guns.

John Lennon was shot dead as he stood in the archway of his New York apartment, The Dakota, by crazed fan, Mark David Chapman.

Chapman shot Lennon five times in the back from about 10 feet away and after killing him sat at the scene of the crime reading Catcher in The Rye.

He remains incarcerated to this day at maximum security prison Wende Correctional Facility in New York after pleading guilty to murder of the superstar.

The anniversary of John Lennon's death was also marked by the estate of George Harrison.

The estate of the former Beatles guitarist tweeted a throwback photo of Lennon and Harrison and wrote: 'He would come around my house a lot and my mother would give us little glasses of whiskey. #quote #RememberingJohn.'

Harrison died of cancer in 2001 at the age of 58.

The anniversary of John Lennon's death was also marked by the estate of George Harrison
A drug addict who was injecting a gram of methamphetamine a day has recalled the moment he changed his life around after pointing at attempting to shoot an Aboriginal man while high on the drug.

Patrick Smith, 43, from the northern NSW town of Yamba, sold so much high grade methamphetamine his annual turnover was once $200,000.

He admits he knew he was destroying lives by selling ice, fuelling young people's addictions and turning their world into a miserable existence, The Daily Telegraph reported.

But it wasn't until Mr Smith fired his firearm on a man because he was having a loud argument that something within him snapped.

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Patrick Smith (pictured) was one of the 'heaviest ice dealers' in northern NSW, using the money he earned to pay for his own $1000-a-day habit

Patrick Smith has been clean now for four months and wants to spend the next 20 years helping ice addicts get off the drug

'I went out on veranda with a loaded cut-down shotgun,' Mr Smith said.

'When they got loud I went off at them, so they came to the gate  Kooris  and [one man] said "Think youre a goer ya [sic] white c**t and I said "Yeah ya black c**t and pointed the gun about one metre from his face.

'He said "Go on pull..." I did and it misfired.'

It was at this low point the 43-year-old decided it was time to make a change.

Mr Smith was dealing for 20 years all to feed his own massive ice addiction, which cost him only $400, rather than the street value of $1000, because he was buying so much of the product.

The 43-year-old decided to turn his life around after he pointed the gun at a man and tried to shoot him

'I've been off my face for 20 years,' he told Daily Mail Australia last year. 'I once went 17 days with only eight hours sleep, one lot of four hours and two lots of two.

'I'd just keep topping up and topping up. Not many ice addicts could take the amount I was taking.'

During his longest binge, Mr Smith drove for 16 hours from Yamba to Sydney and back again when he was so wired by sleeplessness and the drug that he was swerving all over the road.

He says that because of ice his children have never seen him straight and 'hate my guts'. His own father has no respect for him and he turned a good family upbringing into nothing.

On one 17-day ice binge, Patrick Smith (pictured) drove from northern NSW to Sydney and back 'swerving all over the road' on the 16-hour round trip

Mr Smith said he became one of the 'heaviest methamphetamine dealers in northern NSW' and that he would sell 'pretty pure stuff', making him the sort of man any parent wouldn't want their children to meet.

'I'd cry when I saw some of them. I didn't want them to start in the first place and I'd say 'don't get on it, it'll ruin your life', but ice is everywhere now.

'There's a lot of guys out there now who want to be the kingpin of ice dealing, plastic gangsters. It's become that widespread.'

But four months ago, Mr Smith made the difficult decision to abandon his ice habit, in part because the scene was 'becoming too violent'.

He said despite the money he made selling ice, he has ended up with nothing and is flat broke and living with his mother.

The 43-year-old says he 'has a conscience' about the destruction he has wreaked in people's lives and now he is trying to use his story to help other ice addicts.

'I want to spend the next 20 years repairing the damage I have done. I want to get the message out to people taking ice.

'Don't let anyone make you feel guilty if it's only a few months or less than a week you've been clean. Every day clean is a good day, believe me.

'I have bad times. Last week, I had an awful week. I get depression and I'm on anti-depressants, and the first two months of being off ice were really hard.'

'But being off it is so much better than taking it. My Mum's stoked.'

The widespread distribution of the drug ice in regional Australia saw one Rockhampton mother to build this metal cage (above) to prevent her 17-year-old son from going out and buying drugs

Patrick Smith was 19 years old and living in far northern Queensland when he started smoking cannabis with a friend.

He had grown up in a loving family, in the towns of Gladstone and Ingham, where his father, was a respected figure as the a fire chief and president of the local Rotary club.

But Patrick went the opposite way, and turned his heavy cannabis habit to a career in drug dealing. He also moved on to using speed, the powdered form of amphetamines that is used to create ice.

Then, six years ago, he switched to taking ice, and selling the product.

'I was never violent, but I don't drink alcohol and I didn't mix ice with acid or pingers [ecstasy]. For me, ice was just the thing.

'Once some people are on it they can drink nearly a carton of beer and not feel any effect, but then they lose the plot.

Patrick Smith injected up to a gram of ice a day and says the danger for young people is they smoke ice thinking it's just a recreational drug

'I have seen so much aggression and violence and some people nearly die because the stuff they've taken is cut to the s***house.

'The most popular [cutting agent] is MSM powder [Methylsulfonylmethane, used for reducing muscle and joint swelling] because when you shoot it up it melts with the ice.

'But all these young people are taking it, smoking it like it's a social drug, and they can't handle it.

'That's the most damaging thing, the way smoking ice is so accepted and young fellows who are just losing it. I've got into about a hundred fights with people on ice.'

He said he was lucky never to have been searched or arrested while he was carrying drugs.

Mr Smith's best advice for ice users is 'to go to a doctor and tell them straight up what you've been doing.

He did that four months ago, and his honesty startled his doctor, but allowed him to get on ant-depressants appropriate for him and start putting some distance between his sober self and the urges of daily addiction.

He says it was 'the best decision' he had ever made. While he had always had his mother's support, 'she didn't know much about [my ice addiction], but I'd go weeks without contacting her, I wouldn't answer the door.

After giving up ice and suffering terrible nightmares and the need to take Valium to quell his panic, he decided to go public about his drug history, standing up at a local meeting and calmly laying out his history as a dealer and ice user.

Mr Smith has since had tattoos inked on his body to remind him to never return

The response from the community was overwhelming. Patrick said he supported the 'dob in a dealer' policy adopted in Victoria, which had not made him popular with some of his old circle of friends.

'They'll be better off as a result. I am helping friends get off ice and I want to help anyone who needs it. I'll probably never see my kids again, but I want to help anyone who needs it,' he said.

Mr Smith has started his own Facebook page, Patrick Smith Fighting Ice, and he welcomed 'anyone to contact me on Facebook.

'Every single moment you say 'no' counts,' he said. 'Everyone tries to say 'oh it's only been a few weeks or a few months'. Being clean is a good day.'
The rise in hate crimes following Britain's vote to leave the European Union has come to a halt, new figures have revealed.

Reports of racially and religiously aggravated offences are now at 'similar levels' to before the Brexit vote, the Solicitor General has said.

Robert Buckland QC said everyone was 'concerned' that hate crimes reported to police shot up 41 per cent in the month following the referendum.

Responding to a question from Tory MP David Rutley, who said he was 'very worried' by the rise, Mr Buckland stressed that the Government is 'committed to tackling hate crime in any form'.

Shocking: These are examples of abuse the Jewish and Eastern European communities have suffered recently

Speaking in Attorney General questions in the Commons, he said: 'You are right to raise this issue because I think we were all concerned with the spike that clearly occurred after the referendum.

'The total number of racial and religiously aggravated offences reported in July this year was 41 per cent higher than the previous year.

'But I'm happy to report that the number of that type of reported offence has now declined and are at similar levels to before the referendum.'

The latest figures come after Polish factory worker Arek Jozwik, 40, died following a vicious beating by a teenage mob in a suspected hate crime.

Figures announced by Solicitor General Robert Buckland (left) come after Polish factory worker Arek Jozwik (right) died following a vicious beating by a teenage mob

CCTV images have been released by police showing Mr Jozwik and two friends having an argument with the gang in Harlow, Essex last month. Six teenagers have been arrested and released on police bail.

The Jewish and Eastern European communities have been subject to campaigns of intimidation and abuse with some calling them 'vermin' and saying they should leave Britain or be killed.

The National Police Chiefs' Council said this has since subsided and there have been four consecutive weeks of reductions.

Figures provided by forces in England, Wales and Northern Ireland show police logged 2,778 hate crimes and incidents from August 5 to 18.
Furious punters claimed the Milwaukee business MobCraft Beer was making light of sexual assault by listing 'Date Grape' in its top eight options

A brewing company who gave customers the option of naming its next craft beer 'Date Grape' was bombarded with angry messages.

Furious punters claimed the Milwaukee business MobCraft Beer was making light of sexual assault by listing the name in its top eight options.

The company realized they had been tricked into the name by someone coming up with the play on words of 'date rape', a serious sexual crime, and removed it as an option.

It was listed as number two in the company's search for a new name, and it prompted anger from residents.

Nicole Johansen from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, said: 'Dear MobCraft, I'd love an explanation on this.

'Which part of this did you think was appropriate? Is it the part where you are promoting rape culture? Is it the part where you chose to trivialize sexual assault?

'Did you think that by using advertising like this, somehow, you were not helping shame victims, supporting rapists, creating a society that disregards womens rights and safety, and helping to normalize sexual violence?

'Did you know that one in three women are survivors of sexual violence? Did you know that 600 people are raped every day in the USA, one every two minutes?

'Did you know that 1 in 6 reported cases will never see the inside of a courtroom? I'm sure you didn't. However, your ignorance is no excuse.

'If you can't tell... I'm appalled that as a business you chose to think this was appropriate advertising.

'My suggestion - take any proceeds from your events this month and donate them to the victims of sexual violence - that's the very least you could do.'

MobCraft Beer quickly realized it had been hoaxed and issued an apology, saying it was donating a percentage sales to Taproom - a rape crisis center in Milwaukee.

'There was an offensive name of a user submitted beer in this month's vote,' the company owner Henry Schwartz posted on the company's Facebook page.

'Our monthly vote let people submit ideas for the beers. We did not have a process for screening names before the vote rounds started.

'I feel horrible that this oversight happened, the beer name has been changed and we now have a process where our team vets names before they ever appear publicly.

'We would never promote rape culture as it is very serious issue never to be joked about. Again my apologies for this.'

Many jumped to defend the company, saying it had nothing to say sorry for and some even showed support for the name.

But others, including Elizabeth Katt-Reinders, tweeted: 'Rape is not a joke. Glad MobCraft Beer apologized but it never should've made it that far without staff catching it.'
The family of an eight-year-old girl allegedly stabbed in the heart by a woman who thought the child was possessed by Jesus are maintaining a bedside vigil.

Relatives are praying together at the youngster's hospital after she was violently stabbed while asleep in a 1million townhouse in Stockbridge, Edinburgh.

Following the attack in the early hours of Wednesday, the girl was taken to the city's Royal Hospital for Sick Children, where she remains in a 'critical condition'.

An eight-year-old girl is in a critical condition after she was allegedly stabbed by a 48-year-old woman at a 1million home in Edinburgh. Forensic officers are pictured at the home today

The girl's uncle told The Sun: 'It has been a huge shock. We are all just praying for my niece.'

The woman, who cannot be named, was taken to the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary for treatment.

Forensic teams and police could be seen entering the house in Danube Street in the upmarket area of the capital as of Friday.

One neighbour, who asked not to be named, said: 'I don't know what's happened there but it must be very serious, the police and forensic team have been there all day and night.

'I know the house was sold recently and I've seen a woman coming and going from the place but I don't know who she is.'

Another neighbour said that the woman moved to the large house in June this year.

'When I've seen her on the street she's always been very friendly,' she said.

'She moved in around June and completely gutted the place and I mean gutted it. She replaced everything.

The girl is said to have been in bed asleep when she was knifed in the heart at a five-bedroom townhouse in Stockbridge, Edinburgh, in the early hours of Wednesday

'I know that she is a very famous interior designer and designs for hotels and stuff like that. I've not heard anything about what's happened, I've been looking on the news all night to see if anything comes up.

'The police have not told us anything and it has been quite scary not knowing.'

Another local, who was visibly shocked by the incident, said: 'I really can't believe what has happened, this is such a friendly street.'

Other residents said they would see the woman and a little girl walking a dog.

One said: 'I don't know her very well but I've spoken with her a couple of times because she has a similar dog to mine.

'She seemed friendly but a little shy. She moved in earlier this year and I think it took around six months to renovate the house, it was a major job.'

Incident: The woman and child were discovered by police inside the five-bedroom townhouse in Stockbridge, Edinburgh, in the early hours of Wednesday

She added: 'It's such a friendly street, nothing like this ever happens.'

A spokesman for Police Scotland said: 'Police in Edinburgh were called to an address in Danube Street where an eight-year-old girl was found with serious injuries.

'She was taken to the Royal Hospital for Sick Children where she remains in a critical condition and specialist detectives are currently supporting her family.

'A 48-year-old woman was taken to the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary after being found with serious injuries within the address.'
A teacher at a university has been accused of forcing students slap each other for being late to class.

Shocking footage posted to Chinese social media showed the teacher, identified as Lu Ping, encouraging male and female students to slap each other, according to People's Daily Online.

At one point, the teacher even steps in to slap two students himself.

Brutal punishment: A teacher in Gansu Province, China, forced students to slap each other

The man was a teacher at Hexi University School of Medicine in Gansu Province, central China, Huanqiu News reported.

The footage, uploaded to Chinese social media site Weibo on Thursday, appears to have been shot covertly.

It was accompanied by a caption that claimed the incident happened because the students were late for class.

In the video, the teacher could be heard threatening that he would slap the students if they did not slap each other or if they did not slap hard enough.

The pairs seemed to be separated by gender as men slapped men and women slapped women

A participant: At one point the teacher joined and slapped two of the students involved

They were only allowed into the classroom once they completed the physical assault.

The Gansu Provincial Department of Education started investigating the incident after the video emerged and became widely shared on social media on Thursday.

In a statement, it said: 'Hexi University has been investigating the incident overnight and held an emergency meeting to look at how the incident should be dealt with.'

A statement posted to the institution's official Weibo account early on Friday confirmed the incident had taken place.

The teacher involved has now been dismissed in accordance with Chinese law, according to the statement.

Shame: A girl stares at the ground following her public humiliation at the hands of her sadistic teacher

Senior officials at the college also visited the students involved and Lu Ping was asked to apologise to them.

Further, the college plans to start a campaign promoting awareness into the expected behaviour from teachers.

This is not the first extreme punishment of Chinese students.

MailOnline previously reported on how a 10-year-old pupil jumped to his death on teachers orders.
A fat squirrel got stuck in a manhole cover, unable to get free because of its big hips.

A passer-by noticed the unlucky rodent in the Giesing area of Munich, capital of the south-eastern German state Bavaria.

They called an animal rescue centre, which sent help in the form of worker Franziska Baur.

Olivio the squirrel was spotted in Munich, Bavaria by a passer-by stuck in a manhole cover due to his unnaturally large hips

The rescuer from Animal Action found the red squirrel using the last of its strength to claw at the iron manhole cover, but to no avail.

Animal Action said of the creature: "Its front claws had been severely weakened by the desperate attempts to get free."

The animal was cold as well as weakened by its ordeal but the rescue operation proved problematic.

Ms Baur was unable to pull the squirrel out from above because its hips would not fit through the small hole on the edge of the manhole.

She said: "The situation seemed hopeless."

But wearing thick gloves and with the help of the passer-by who discovered the squirrels predicament, she lifted the manhole cover a few centimetres and pushed first one paw, then the other back through the hole.

A rescuer from Animal Action eventually freed him after an hour-long ordeal

Once its shoulders were free, the animals head could slip out.

The rescue took around an hour, after which Ms Baur wrapped the squirrel in a warm towel and took it to the Squirrel Protection Association in Trudering, a borough of Munich.

There the squirrel was named Olivio.

He is recovering well after having his front claws weakened by trying to free himself

Evelyne Menges from the animal rescue centre from Munich said: "The squirrel should not be immediately released after such a rescue due to its state of shock. It needs professional assistance to recover peacefully."

How it managed to get itself stuck in the manhole remains an unanswered question but Mrs Menges said such incidents were becoming more common in urban areas.
A family unwittingly uncovered an alleged human-trafficker after purchasing a cadaver from him.

The family, from northern China, bought the corpse to bury with their dead son as a 'ghost bride'. But during the burial, they were shocked to hear noises coming from from the coffin, People's Daily reported.

They opened up the box to discover that the victim, later found to be a deaf-mute woman who was trafficked to the area, was still alive.

The 'ghost bride' (pictured above), was sent to hospital after she was discovered alive inside the coffin in Hunan province

The incident took place in mid July but the details have only recently come to light according to the report.

A family from Linzhou in north-east China had bought the female corpse for 30,000 Yuan (3,448) to use as a 'ghost bride'.

GHOST MARRIAGE Earliest wedding can be dated back to 1700 BC, peaking at Tang Dynasty

Ghost wedding may involve one dead person and a living sacrifice, or two dead persons

Practice still prevalent in rural areas

Leading to grave robbing, human trafficking and killings for corpse brides

Source: China Daily Advertisement

The tradition allows parents of men and women who died before they wed to be married after their death.

In the ritual, two dead bodies are buried together to indicate a marriage has taken place.

According to People's Daily, the family received the body of the woman, identified as Zhao Mei, on July 15.

They dressed her up for the burial before they put the body into the coffin and nailed it shut.

But during the burial, the family heard slapping sounds coming from within the coffin.

Linzhou police rescued several other women (pictured) held by the alleged traffickers

The alleged traffickers would use the women for prostitution and sold them on as wives, according to the report. Above, one of the victims

The terrified family opened the coffin to discover that Zhao was still alive. They reported the incident to the police and Zhao was sent to Linzhou People's Hospital.

Zhao was deaf-mute and was mentally retarded, according to the report. She was unable to provide additional information to the police.

However, through their investigation, officers were able to track down six people allegedly involved in a human trafficking ring.

They would use the women for prostitution and sold them on as wives, according to the report.

One of the men, identified by his surname Li (pictured above), admitted to being involved in the crime according to the report

One of the alleged traffickers, identified by his surname Li, admitted to the police that he gave the deaf-mute woman tranquilizers dissolved in a bottle of water before he delivered 'the body' to the family, according to the report.

Linzhou police also told local media that they rescued five other female victims from the alleged traffickers.

One of the alleged traffickers had previously been convicted for trafficking according to Guancha.
is officially known as a crinoid and they are rarely seen swimming

The mesmerising moment a Feather Star was caught swimming through the sea was captured by a professional diver.

The beautiful creature, officially called a crinoid, was filmed by Dutch diver Els van den Eijnden off the coast of Bali.

Crinoids are not uncommon in areas where coral grows, but they are hardly ever seen swimming.

The beautiful creature, officially called a crinoid, was filmed by Dutch diver Els van den Eijnden off the coast of Bali

Crinoids are not uncommon in areas where coral grows, but they are hardly ever seen swimming

Since they are almost always found attached to rocks or coral the footage is extremely rare

Since they are almost always found attached to rocks or coral the footage is extremely rare.

In this case it appears the creature has been knocked from its base and has to swim.

References to half-bird half-fish sea animals in old texts are thought to be crinoids, which belongs to the same family as star fish and sea urchins.
Robert Burke, 54, (pictured) fired a shotgun at his wife more than 30 years ago 'as a joke'

A man who fired a shotgun at his wife more than 30 years ago 'as a joke' has become the first to be convicted under the 'Clare's Law' domestic abuse scheme.

Robert Burke, 54, boasted to a colleague about the 'prank' in February last year.

His shocked workmate applied to police for information about Burke's past and officers began investigating  leading to the landmark conviction.

Clare's Law, named after Clare Wood, who was murdered in 2009 by her ex-boyfriend, allows people to ask police for details about a person's background if they are feared to be an abuser.

Burke, from Rosyth, Fife, a first offender, claimed he fired a blank cartridge at his wife as a joke.

Burke admitted that on or between November 20, 1984 and December 31, 1988 he assaulted his wife Selina Burke, pointed a shotgun at her and discharged it.

He was given a community service order, with 190 hours of unpaid work, at Dunfermline Sheriff Court on Wednesday.

Depute fiscal Claire Bremner had told the court that the couple married in 1982, had three children, and separated in 2014.

Burke's wife had described him as 'controlling and manipulative' from an early stage.

She said he collected weapons such as axes, air rifles and crossbows and used them for target practice in a quarry.

At some point Burke came into possession of a shotgun.

His wife was in bed when he opened the door and pointed it at her. He said 'that's it' and pulled the trigger.

There was a loud bang and flash. She screamed but Burke laughed and left the room.

In 2010, Burke's wife told him their relationship was over, and he smashed a laptop.

He also admitted malicious damage to the device between November 1 and 30, 2010.

Burke (pictured) has now become the first person to be convicted under the 'Clare's Law' domestic abuse scheme

The couple eventually split up in May 2014.

The assault came to light after Burke began working beside a woman in February 2015.

He boasted about the incident with the shotgun, adding: 'She was even more p****d off when I pulled the trigger.'

The woman was concerned for the wellbeing of Burke's new partner and contacted his ex-wife to check if this was true.

When she confirmed it, she contacted the police. James Moncrieff, defending, said Burke had the gun for a short period then got rid of it.

The solicitor said of the shooting incident: 'He thought at the time it was a joke. He now realises it was a very foolish thing to do. He was in his 20s at the time.

'He says their relationship was good at the time and doesn't accept he was controlling and manipulative.

'He accepts things became strained later. It was a very ill-advised prank when he was a young man.'

Sheriff Charles Macnair said: 'You pointed a shotgun at your wife and discharged it. It must have been terrifying for her even if it contained a blank.'
Amazon could be about to launch its own British bricks-and-mortar supermarket where shoppers pay with their phone because it has no cashiers.

The internet giant's business idea, called 'Amazon Go', allows customers to grab the items they need and walk out without going to a till.

A special phone or tablet app uses a range of sensors detecting what shoppers take off shelves and bills it to their Amazon account if they don't put it back.

Shoppers use the app to enter the shop through a turnstile - and do the same when leaving with their food later.

Amazon has registered a British trademark, paving the way for a potential launch in the country - but it has already built one in Seattle now being tested by staff.

New vision: The online retail giant recently announced that it will open a 1,800-square ft Amazon Go store to the public in Seattle next year - Amazon staff are already testing it (pictured)

Amazon Go will use technology that automatically detects when products are taken from or returned to shelves, allowing customers with the Amazon Go app to walk out of the store without queuing or scanning their items

The online retail giant recently announced that it will open an Amazon Go store in Seattle next year, after Beta testing.

NO CHECKOUT STAFF?! HOW AMAZON GO SHOP WORKS To enter the store, customers simply open the Amazon Go app and place it to a sensor located on what appears to be a turnstyle in the entrance. The app uses computer vision, sensor fusion and deep learning to detect what customers take off the shelves and what they end up putting back. When youve found the items you need, just walk out of the store and everything is charged to your Amazon account  the system will also send you a receipt. Although there are no cashiers - there are staff on the floor to help. Advertisement

The registering of a UK trademark on December 5 is the clearest sign yet that the firm is about to expand the concept into Britain.

Amazon Go will use technology that automatically detects when products are taken from or returned to shelves, allowing customers with the Amazon Go app to walk out of the store without queuing or scanning their items.

Shortly after leaving, customers will be charged for their shopping via their Amazon accounts.

Nicla Di Palma, an equity analyst at wealth manager Brewin Dolphin, says the model may be more successful on this side of the Atlantic.

'I would say that it is even more likely to work in the UK than in the US,' she said earlier this week.

'For example, one of the reasons why Fresh & Easy - Tesco's business in the US - did not succeed was that they were focusing on self-checkout, whilst the American consumer likes service.'

The internet giant's business idea, called 'Amazon Go', allows customers to grab the items they need and walk out without going to a till - and they have registered a UK trademark

To enter the store, customers simply open the Amazon Go app and place it to a sensor located on what appears to be a turnstyle in the entrance way. This technology also detects what items you grab from or return back to the shelves

The store, called Amazon Go, lets customers enter using an accompanied app, grab the items they need and are able to walk out without stopping at a register

This futuristic store uses the same types of technologies found in self-driving cars  computer vision, sensor fusion and deep learning. This allows the system to know what items you pick up and put back

When you decide not to purchase and item you've grabbed, just put it back and the technology will automatically remove it from your virtual cart

Amazon already has a presence in the British grocery market through a wholesale deal inked with Morrisons earlier this year.

Amazon's 1,800 square foot (168 square metre) Seattle store is set to focus on food-to-go, groceries such as milk, bread, cheese and chocolate, and will sell Amazon Meal Kits.

Bosses say there will be lots of staff - stocking shelves and prepping food - but not any cashiers

Bosses say there will be lots of staff - stocking shelves and prepping food - but not any cashiers.

This futuristic stores will use the same types of technologies found in self-driving cars  computer vision, sensor fusion and deep learning.

And the firms 'Just Walk Out Shopping' premise is what has made a checkout-free store possible.

This technology detects what items you grab from or return back to the shelves, and keeps track of these changes in a virtual cart that can be viewed via the Amazon Go app.

When youve found the items you need, just walk out of the store and everything is charged to your Amazon account  the system will also send you a receipt.

To enter the store, customers simply open the Amazon Go app and place it to a sensor located on what appears to be a turnstyle in the entrance way.

Other than brick-and-mortar locations, the eCommerce giant will also launch drive-in locations where workers bring out online grocery orders to the customers vehicle, they said.

The firm is said to be developing license-plate reading technology for this project, which should help make the process run more efficiently.

People familiar with the matter said these brick-and-mortar stores could take a year or more to open while Amazon explores new locations.

Half of the stores will be designed as click-and-collect facilities that customers drive-up to and grab their online orders.

The other half will be traditional grocery stores with shopping carts, aisles and cashiers.
Simon Day was on M1 when Mercedes van and Toyota Prius started racing

He filmed the van pull into outside lane in front of the Prius, forcing him to brake and swerve towards the central reservation, agitating the driver

The footage shows the Prius then pull in front of the van and slam on his brakes

After the crash both the other drivers fled, leaving Mr Day with damaged BMW

The moment an innocent motorist was nearly wiped out in the M1 fast lane as road rage bubbled over between two duelling drivers at 70mph was captured by horrifying dashcam footage.

Simon Day, 58, was driving from London on the M1, near south Leicester last month when a feud erupted between a Mercedes van and a blue Toyota Prius.

Construction worker Mr Day saw the van pull into the outside lane in front of the Prius, forcing him to brake and swerve towards the central reservation, agitating the driver - who decides to get revenge by 'brake testing' his rival.

Simon Day, 58, was driving from London on the M1, near south Leicester last month when a feud erupted between a Mercedes van and a blue Toyota Prius in front of him

The van pulled into the outside lane in front of the Prius, forcing him to brake and swerve towards the central reservation

The footage shows the Prius then pull in front of the van and slam on his brakes at 70mph, leaving the van unable to stop in time so he swerves into Mr Day's lane, crashing into him.

The crash resulted in around 1,500 worth of damage to Mr Day's blue BMW 320 - and almost sent him flying into the central reservation.

Neither the Prius or van driver stopped after the smash.

Mr Day, from Nottingham said: 'It's nasty and it's bad driving.

'I think it is abysmal. The driver in the Prius is a complete k**b and needs to be stopped.

'I would love to ring the police and give them his registration number because I'm sure he would lose his license but you can't see it in the video.

'I want to raise awareness to these dangers. It could've killed me.

'I think it's shocking that these b******s didn't stop. They decided to leg it.

The footage shows the Prius pull in front of the van in the middle land and then slam on his brakes

The Prius driver then decided to get revenge by 'brake testing' his rival

The van was unable to stop in time so he swerves into Mr Day's lane, crashing into him

'I've got the number for the van. It's clearly visible and my insurance have already spoken to the company about it but it's the Prius car who retaliated.

'I was behind the Prius and the van forced its way out to overtake and the Prius driver gets angry about it.

'I saw something was up with the Prius so I wanted to get past them. I knew that he would be angry with the driver.

'I just wanted to get ahead and I pulled forward but unfortunately the Prius brake tested and the van had to go right and then it clipped me.

'I broke sharply and thought 'oh god'.

'I didn't know how badly the car had been damaged until I had a look at the service station.'

The crash resulted in around 1,500 worth of damage (pictured) to Mr Day's blue BMW 320 and almost sent him flying into the central reservation

Mr Day's car had a broken front grill, the bonnet was crushed and the headlights had been pushed into the engine. Neither the Prius or van driver stopped after the smash.

Mr Day's car has been in repair since the incident where it was discovered that the car's front grill was broken, the bonnet was crushed and the headlights had been pushed into the engine.

Mr Day claims that the cost to this damage will be around 1500.

Mr Day said: 'The majority of people I have showed this to have been quite shocked and said the Prius driver is a complete and utter idiot.

'However some have said I was hogging the lane but I was driving completely safely, I couldn't go in another lane.

'It's a good example of why you should have a camera in your car.'

Express Bifolding Doors Ltd, who the van driver was working for, were contacted for comment.
Islamists have killed six people in a bomb blast on a road used to transport tourists to the pyramids in Egypt.

The explosion rocked a checkpoint near a mosque in the western Talibiya neighbourhood of the Egyptian capital Cairo shortly before Muslim Friday prayers this morning.

All of the victims were police officers either in or near their car while four civilians were hurt when the device went off near a bin.

The bloodied bodies of several policemen could be seen at the scene next to police vehicles that had been stationed there.

The bomb went off on Pyramids road, the main avenue leading from the city centre out to the Giza pyramids.

Islamists have killed six people in a bomb blast on a road used to transport tourists close to the pyramids in Egypt

The explosion rocked a checkpoint at Al Haram street in the Egyptian capital Cairo this morning

Police cordoned off the area with yellow tape and searched for more explosives while emergency crews treated victim

Police cordoned off the area with yellow tape as they searched for more explosives.

The attack, close to a government building in a middle class neighbourhood of Cairo, was the latest in a series of security incidents in Egypt often claimed by radical Islamists.

The interior ministry said in a statement that the explosion took place next a checkpoint, killing two officers, a low ranking policeman and three conscripts.

Eyewitness Ahmed Al-Deeb described a scene of carnage, with dead and dying policemen lying next to wrecked cars. One of the policemen had blast fragments in his chest and two more had lost legs, he told Reuters Television.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

Friday's bombing came days after the interior ministry said police killed three members of the Hassam Movement in the country's south, and weeks after it announced breaking up one of the group's cells.

Militants have repeatedly attacked policemen and soldiers since the army overthrew Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 and unleashed a bloody crackdown on his followers.

The attack, close to a government building in a middle class neighbourhood of Cairo, was the latest in a series of security incidents in Egypt often claimed by radical Islamists

The interior ministry said in a statement that the explosion took place next a checkpoint, killing two officers, a low ranking policeman and three conscripts

An Egyptian explosives expert examines damage to a police vehicle following a deadly bomb explosion in Cairo

The blast took place on Pyramids road, the main avenue leading from the city centre out to the Giza pyramids

Most of the attacks are conducted in the Sinai Peninsula by a branch of the Islamic State group, which has killed hundreds of soldiers and policemen there.

But militants have also targeted security forces and government officials in the capital.

An Egyptian judge in one of the trials of Morsi, who was detained after his ouster, escaped unharmed last month when a car bomb exploded as he drove by.

That attack came days after a roadside bombing targeting a police convoy killed a passerby.

In September, militants set off a car bomb as the country's deputy state prosecutor was passing. He too escaped unharmed.

Egyptian explosives experts look for evidence at the site of a bomb explosion in Cairo, Egypt

The explosion took place early on Friday on Pyramids road, the main avenue leading from the city centre out to the Giza pyramids. A woman walks past the scene

The attack, close to a government building in a middle class neighbourhood of Cairo, was the latest in a series of security incidents in Egypt often claimed by radical Islamists

Most of the Cairo attacks in recent months have been claimed by two little known militant groups, Lawaa al-Thawra and the Hassam Movement.

Police say they are affiliated with Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood movement, which was banned months after his overthrow and listed as a terrorist organisation.

The Brotherhood, which espoused grassroots work and change through elections, denies it is involved in violence.

The group had been the country's largest opposition movement under veteran strongman Hosni Mubarak and dominated polls after his overthrow in 2011.

In 2012, it won a presidential election with its candidate, Morsi, whose divisive rule led to mass protests a year later that prompted the army to overthrow him.

Hundreds of his supporters were killed in protest clashes with police and the army in the following months.

The Brotherhood now operates as an underground and splintered movement, with some of its followers believed to have embraced attacks against policemen while others insist on non-violence.

Most of the Cairo attacks in recent months have been claimed by two little known militant groups, Lawaa al-Thawra and the Hassam Movement

The bombing appeared to have targeted two police SUVs parked along the road at a mobile checkpoint, according to reports
Ivanka Trump was pictured smiling broadly on Friday as rumors swirled that she will take on the First Lady role for at least a year while Melania stays on in New York to see her son finish elementary school.

Slovenian-born Melania is reportedly keen to stay in New York until 10-year-old Barron finishes in final year at a prestigious private elementary school in the city.

Ivanka is currently one of several Vice Presidents at the Trump Corporation but has been reportedly seeking to unwind herself from that role ahead of her father's inauguration as the 45th President on January 20.

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All smiles: Ivanka Trump skipped a winter coat on Friday morning despite the frigid New York City temperatures

First Lady material? Ivanka (right) is reportedly considering accompanying her father on some official visits in the absence of his wife, Melania

The last President to move into the White House without a First Lady was Grover Cleveland, who was a bachelor until his marriage in 1886.

Heat Street report that Ivanka, who played a key role in his campaign, may be angling to play the role of the ceremonial sidekick.

Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, have reportedly been house-hunting in Washington DC.

The couple both attended last month's meeting between President-elect Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, which was seen as a breach of diplomatic protocol, especially as Ivanka was in the process of launching her new fashion range in Japan at the time.

Family affair: Trump's daughter Ivanka (center) and her husband, Jared Kushner (far left) were present when Donald Trump met Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe last month

Absent: Melania Trump (right) is said to be keen to stay on in New York until the summer, so their son Barron (left), can complete his final year at Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School in Manhattan

Kushner's father Charles, a multi-millionaire real estate developer, was jailed in 2005 for tax evasion, witness tampering and making illegal donations to the then Governor of New Jersey, Jim McGreevey, a Democrat.

The current Governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, was one of the first big names in the Republican Party to endorse Trump but his hopes of landing a key job in Trump's Cabinet seem to have been dashed.

Ivanka and her husband are both understood to be influential figures in the transition team, who the President-elect holds in high regard.

Former House Speaker John Boehner yesterday compared Trump to Teddy Roosevelt, who he said was another 'larger than life' character.

Roosevelt dispatched his daughter, Alice, on a global tour that took her to Japan, China, and the Philippines.
A man narrowly escaped an assassination attempt on his life with only minor injuries in a shocking attack near a Dutch primary school, which was caught on CCTV.

In the harrowing video, two men can be seen chasing the victim and firing shots at him as he runs away in a parking lot in Amsterdam-Osdorp, the Netherlands.

Police have released video of the attack in a desperate appeal to identify the masked assailants.

The victim reportedly had no idea why he was targeted, according to The Sun.

The 30-second video shows the harrowing moment the victim runs for his life as his assailants chase him through the streets of Amsterdam.

The two masked men can be seen parked slightly obscured by a fence near the victim's car in the car park of the primary school. They both wore helmets to conceal their identities.

Earlier, the men on the scooter can be seen parked partially obscured by a fence near the victim's car

Later, as the victim approaches his car, the men approach him on their scooter.

He quickly realises something is afoot and takes off - all the while being shot at by one assailant running behind him as the other tails on the scooter.

The victim only realised one of the bullets had hit his arm after he escaped.

As the victim approaches his vehicle, the assailants pull up to him

The victim quickly realises something is afoot and runs for his life

One attacker is hot on his trail and follows him, pistol in hand

He fires a number of shots at the victim as he runs behind him and his partner in crime follows on the scooter

Footage from another camera shows the victim rounding the corner still running for his life

The scooter can be seen parked at the primary school on the night of October 3.

It was later found on fire near the scene of the crime.

Both the victim and his attackers have not been named by police, though they have released a sketch of what they believe the gunman to look like.

The terrifying incident took place in Iwan Kantemanplein, a street in south-western Amsterdam the morning of October 4.

Police are appealing for members of the public to assist in identifying the masked men.
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A photographer has captured haunting images of an abandoned shopping mall where broken gumball machines, empty storefronts and lonely teddy-bears are a sad reminder of its heyday.

The snapper whose niche is 'exploring the forgotten' headed to the eerie Union Station Mall in Atlanta, Georgia for the project before it was demolished to make way for film studios, Atlanta Metro Studios.

The series of creepy images show bleak former shop units and the eerily still mall corridors with shop frontage still intact.

A photographer who specializes in 'exploring the forgotton' took the last photos of Union Station Mall in Atlanta, Georgia

Another picture shows an abandoned teddy bear sitting in a child's restaurant high chair.

Other shots show hanging baskets with dead leaves falling over the sides and motionless escalators that have been put out of action.

An image from outside of the retail complex shows its grand scale as the large car park is completely deserted.

The anonymous photographer took the photos for his website Abandoned Southeast.

The striking photographs were taken using a Canon DSLR camera.

The mall was abandoned in 2010 because of lack of public interest and knocked down in 2014 to make way for film studios

The American photographer took the photos using a Canon DSLR camera for his website Abandoned Southeast

He said: 'I love discovering what is left in abandoned places. People are amazed at what sort of things are left behind.'

The haunting images of the mall with its empty storefronts, broken machines and dead plants are a sad reminder of its heyday

The anonymous photographer said the abandoned mall had become a playground for skateboarders and adventure seekers

The anonymous photographer said the abandoned mall had become a playground for youngsters.

He said: 'The vacant mall was a target for skateboarders, scrappers and the occasional adventure seeker.

'In one photo, you can see tire tracks inside one department store from where vandals drove a truck inside to steal copper and other valuables.'

The mall was opened in August 1980 as the Shannon Mall and had several department stores as its main attraction, including Sears and Mervyn's.

The mall was opened in August 1980 as the Shannon Mall and had several department stores as its main attraction, including Sears and Mervyn's

In 2006, the shopping center was renamed as Union Station to boost business but in 2009, there were only thirty-two shops left in the mall

In the 1990s the mall was taken over by new managers and renovations began but it started to decline along with the local neighborhood, meaning shoppers were going elsewhere and many big-name shops closed.

In 2006, the shopping center was renamed as Union Station to boost business but in 2009, there were only 32 shops left in the mall. It eventually closed in 2010.

In 2014 the mall was demolished to make way for film studios, Atlanta Metro Studios.

'People are amazed at what sort of things are left behind in abandoned places,' added the creator of Abandoned Southeast.

'They often ask what happened after the place closed and here the mall was demolished to build a movie studio.

'I love discovering what is left in abandoned places.'

In 2014 Union Station Mall was demolished to make way for film studios, Atlanta Metro Studios
Labour MPs who defied their constituents to vote against the Governments Brexit plans are being targeted for the sack at the next election.

Ukip said it would focus resources on trying to unseat the five Labour MPs who voted against Brexit in Mondays historic vote despite the fact their constituents had backed Leave.

And Tory MPs said the refuseniks had a duty to resign and fight their seats at by-elections if they refused to accept the views of their constituents.

Nearly 90 MPs voted against the Commons motion this week calling for the EU divorce process to start by the end of March

The call came as diehard Remainers warned they would continue to fight a guerrilla war in parliament against leaving the EU.

Former Attorney General Dominic Grieve said that in legal terms the thumping 461 to 89 Commons majority represented no more than a grand opinion poll.

A total of 89 MPs voted against the Governments call to trigger exit talks by the end of March. Most represented heavily Remain areas in Scotland and London.

But a handful of Labour MPs voted against the call, even though a majority of their constituents had backed Brexit.

They were joined by one SNP MP and another from Welsh nationalist party Plaid Cymru.

Gerard Batten, Ukip Brexit spokesman said the party would target them at the ballot box. These MPs have just written their own political epitaphs.

Their action is a clear invitation to Ukip to remove them at the earliest possible opportunity.

Labour's Graham Allen (left) and Paul Farrelly (right) are among those set to be targeted by Ukip at the next general election

Angela Smith (left) and Barry Sheerman (right) have also been accused of betraying their constituents by voting against triggering Brexit by March

The five Labour MPs were joined by one SNP MP, Eilidh Whitford (MP for Banff and Buchan, left) and another from Welsh nationalist party Plaid Cymru, Jonathan Edwards (MP for Camarthen east, right)

Tory MP Andrew Rosindell said the MPs involved should consider resigning if they had any integrity.

Fellow Tory Andrew Bridgen, said: MPs are accountable and when we have a general election they are held to account.

I am sure voters will bear that in mind, but it is for every MP to defend the way they vote.

The MPs defying their constituents to vote against Brexit were: Graham Allen (Nottingham North); Paul Farrelly (Newcastle-under-Lyme); Angela Smith (Penistone and Stocksbridge); Chris Evans (Islwyn); Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield); Jonathan Edwards (Plaid Cymru, Camarthen east); and Eilidh Whitford (SNP, Banff and Buchan).

Mr Sheerman urged his critics to bring it on.

I was elected with a good majority to look after the long term interests of my constituents and because of that I voted the way that I did on Wednesday night, he said.

Former Tory attorney general Dominic Grieve (left) accused Brexit hardliners of pursuing a 'fantasy' Brexit and ignoring the need to tackle the real issues. Chris Evans, MP for Islwyn (right) is the seventh MP Ukip is targeting

The Prime Minister (pictured choosing a design for her Christmas card) has said she wants to invoke Article 50 - the formal two year process for leaving the EU - by March

Of course I took note of the very close Brexit vote, but look at the percentage of people who actually voted.

There was a significat percentage of voters in my constituency who didnt vote. I will fight as long as I can to make sure we get the best deal possible.

Miss Smith said: Those who voted yesterday against the government amendment did not vote against Brexit or indeed against triggering Article 50, but rather against an unrealistic timetable as far as Parliamentary scrutiny is concerned.

The row came as Remain supporters warned they would continue to resist the Governments Brexit plans.

Former Labour Cabinet minister Ben Bradshaw said he had voted against the Brexit timetable because it was unnecessarily tight.

He warned that many more MPs  including some Tories  would vote against Article 50 unless ministers produce a detailed White Paper on their negotiating stance.

And he said rebels would try to amend Brexit legislation to tie the Government s hands on key issues, such as membership of the EUs single market.

Mr Bradshaw said there was a huge majority in the Commons for us to stay in the single market, or at least enjoy tariff-free, unfettered access.

A string of EU leaders have warned that the UK can only stay in the single market if we accept free movement, submit the rulings of the European Court of Justice and continue to pay into the Brussels budget  all of which are anathema to many Brexit supporters.

Mr Grieve said there was a fundamental misunderstanding about the significance of this weeks historic vote.

Asked if the vote and the referendum were grand opinion polls, Mr Grieve said: Yes, thats a very good way of putting it.

But of course both have great political force, but it doesnt change the law of the land.
will not allow council to hold citizenship ceremonies on Jan 28

The City of Fremantle in Western Australia will hold citizenship ceremonies on Australia Day rather than January 28 after caving into pressure from the federal government.

The council had moved its traditional January 26 Australia Day events to January 28 'out of respect for Aboriginal people' who view it as an invasion anniversary.

Mayor Brad Pettitt said the council had been excited about giving people the opportunity to become Australian citizens during the One Day festival in Fremantle on that date.

The City of Fremantle will hold citizenship ceremonies on Australia Day rather than January 28 after caving into pressure from the federal government (stock image)

Mayor Brad Pettitt (pictured) said the council had been excited about giving people the opportunity to become Australian citizens during the One Day in Fremantle festival on that date

But assistant immigration minister Alex Hawke told Dr Pettitt the Commonwealth would not allow the City of Fremantle to hold citizenship ceremonies as part of the planned January 28 events because it would give an anti-Australia Day message.

'This was never about the citizenship ceremony,' Dr Pettitt told ABC radio on Friday.

'It was about offering people what we thought would be a really inclusive alternative celebration to Australia Day, two days later, which was meant to be inclusive, another option, another choice, rather than telling people what they should or shouldn't do.'

Mr Hawke welcomed the decision and said January 26 was a perfectly appropriate choice for an Australian citizenship ceremony.

'The government's view is that citizenship ceremonies are non-commercial, apolitical, bipartisan and secular,' he said.

'They must not be used as forums for political, partisan or religious expression or for the distribution of material which could be perceived to be of a commercial, political or religious nature.'

Mr Hawke welcomed the decision and said January 26 was a perfectly appropriate choice for an Australian citizenship ceremony
Police officers tasered a naked man who was walking down the street attacking parked cars.

The nude man can be seen walking down the street hitting cars as the video begins before standing in the middle of the road and obstructing moving vehicles.

As the clip continues the well-built car attacker notices the cameraman and walks towards the car in Pennway Street in Philadelphia before he is subdued.

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As the clip continues the well-built car attacker notices the cameraman and walks towards the car in Pennway Street in Philadelphia, USA, before he is subdued

The nude man can be seen walking down the street hitting cars as the video begins before standing in the middle of the road and obstructing moving vehicles

As he starts to panic the cameraman shouts for the gathering policemen to 'hit him' and asks what they are waiting for.

The shot pans away from the man before capturing his anguished scream as he falls down the ground after being struck by the taser.

The footage was taken on Pennway Street in by astounded bystander Ramon Cannon.

The shot pans away from the man before capturing his anguished scream as he falls down the ground after being struck by the taser

The man can be heard screaming on the floor when he is handcuffed by police, appearing to be saying, 'I'm scared'

'This man stripped down as he walk up and down the street yelling and beating up cars before being tasered and brought down by cops,' he said.
Mary Brown, 52, was arrested for trespassing at a gas station in Miami

A shocking video shows the moment cops arrest a double amputee while she is thrashing around on the floor having fallen from her wheelchair.

Mary Brown, who has both her legs amputated from the knee down, can be heard shouting and crying in the disturbing footage.

Officers from Miami-Dade police department can be seen standing above the disabled woman deliberating on what to do.

Brown, 52, shouts: 'Stop hurting me,' as the two policemen handcuff her.

She then says: 'You see what you did?' as she falls from her wheelchair to the floor outside the Chevron gas station in Homestead, Florida.

'Would you get me up off this ground?'

Miami-Dade police officers let her thrash around on the floor as they handcuffed her

Police were called to the gas station when Brown had refused to leave the premises after being asked to leave.

They arrested her for trespassing but a concerned onlooker, Jay King, filmed the shocking scenes.

'It doesnt have to go that far to where you cant at least pick her up off the floor,' he told 7 Miami News.

'No matter what she did, it wasnt that bad.'

Brown said: 'Just because I dont have legs, I still was in my chair, and I deserved some respect.'

She was taken to jail in an ambulance and released the next day.

Brown said: 'Just because I dont have legs to move about like everyone else, I still was in my chair, and I deserved some respect.

'I asked for help, help, help, over and over again.

'No one came.'

Brown told 7 News Miami that she's considering a lawsuit and said: 'I was treated very wrong.'

After the video went public Miami-Dade Police department released a statement promising to review its policy to arresting disabled people.

'We realized that as an agency we need to provide our law enforcement officers additional resources to aid them in facilitating the transport of disabled individuals, so that situations such as these are handled in a more amicable manner in the future.'

Brown told 7 News Miami that she's considering a lawsuit.
Populist anti-Islam Dutch MP Geert Wilders has declared the judges who found him guilty of discrimination against Moroccans are 'on the wrong side of history' in a series of tweets on Friday.

He was acquitted of hate-speech in a closely watched trial ahead of next year's key election.

In their verdict, the judges said 'the inflammatory character of the way in which the statements were made have incited others to discriminate people of Moroccan origin.'

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Wilders, who was not present at the trial, commented on the character of the judges who delivered his verdict

Judges Elianne van Rens, Henry Stone House and Sijbrand Wreath presided

But they added that there was 'insufficient evidence' that his words at an election rally in 2014 amounted to incitement to hatred.

The judges also dismissed the prosecution's request to impose a 5,000 euro fine on the far-right MP, whose Freedom Party (PVV) is eyeing an upset victory in the March 2017 polls.

'In this case, the most important question is whether Wilders has crossed a line. This judgement has answered that question,' the judges said in their verdict.

'Therewith, the chamber finds that justice has been done. Consequently, no punishment is imposed.'

Wilders was quick to react on social media, tweeted a number of responses to the verdict and posting personal message on his Youtube account.

Though he now has a criminal record after being found guilty of discrimination against Moroccans, publicity from the trial will only improve his popularity

Wilders, 53, immediately gave notice that he intended to appeal his conviction, as he believed it was 'a big loss for freedom of speech.'

The most recent opinion polls predict the PVV will top the vote, saying it could seize 34 seats in the 150-seat lower house of Dutch parliament, some 10 seats ahead of his nearest rival, Prime Minister Mark Rutte's Liberals.

Rather than hurting the controversial lawmaker, observers say his trial has boosted his popularity among Dutch voters, worried about the influx of immigrants and driven by eurosceptic sentiments.

The comments were made at a 2014 rally where he asked supporters if they wanted 'fewer or more Moroccans in your city and in the Netherlands'

Amid a string of populist victories in Europe and the November election of Donald Trump as the next US president, the outcome of the Dutch vote will be keenly watched.

The three-week trial of Wilders had focused in particular on a statement made at a 2014 local government election rally in The Hague, when he asked supporters whether they wanted 'fewer or more Moroccans in your city and in the Netherlands'.

When the crowd shouted back 'Fewer! Fewer!' a smiling Wilders answered: 'We're going to organise that.'

Prosecutors told a three-judge bench they had taken Wilders to court because 'racist remarks need to be stopped' after police received 6,400 complaints about his comments.

'Wilders singled out an entire group of citizens without making any distinction,' the judges ruled.

'This group has less rights to reside in the Netherlands. Therewith, this statement can be regarded as affecting the dignity of this group as a whole. It is insulting for the entire group.'

Throughout their case, prosecutors quoted numerous examples of Dutch-Moroccans who said they felt like 'third-rate citizens' and that even 'children are afraid' because of the politician's statements.

Wilders boycotted most of the high-profile trial, and refused to appear in court for the verdict.

Just before the judgement was read, he said in a tweet: 'Whatever the verdict, I will continue to speak the truth about the Moroccan problem, and no judge, politician or terrorist will stop me.'

Just before the verdict, Wilders tweeted that he would 'continue to speak the truth about the Moroccan problem'

If elected as the lowlands country's new prime minister, Wilders has vowed to confiscate Korans, close mosques and Islamic schools, shut Dutch borders and ban migrants from Islamic countries among a raft of other anti-Islamic moves.

His views have seen him receive death threats including from terror groups such as the Islamic State group and Al-Qaeda. He is guarded at all times and called the 'best protected man in The Netherlands'.

Political observers say Wilders will benefit either way from the verdict due to the publicity the trial has generated.

The conviction however will mean he has a criminal record which could for example impact travel plans to the United States, popular daily tabloid Algemeen Dagblad said.
The sister of a prisoner accused of escaping from Pentonville jail has appeared in court along with the man who allegedly broke out with her brother.

Kelly Baker, 21, allegedly helped her brother, Matthew avoid recapture following his alleged escape from the north London prison last month.

James Whitlock, 31, who allegedly escaped from prison with Baker, 28, also appeared at Blackfriars Crown Court via videolink this morning.

Kelly Baker is accused of helping her brother after he escaped from Pentonville prison

The pair are said to have fooled guards by folding blankets and stuffing pillows to make it appear as if he was still in bed.

Whitlock was due to enter a plea to one count of escaping from prison, but the matter was adjourned until 19 December, so it could be joined to Matthew Baker's case.

Whitlock was being held at Pentonville on remand after being charged conspiracy to burgle. He is due to stand trial for that matter at Snaresbrook Crown Court on 23 January.

At the time the alleged escape, Baker was due to be sentenced on 11 November for stabbing a 25-year-old man with a broken glass and a knife at a flat in Dagenham, Essex.

After the alleged escape, Baker was arrested at his sisters home in Ilford on November 9. Kelly Baker, 21, was due to enter a plea today, but the matter was adjourned to a further case management hearing.

Matthew Baker (left) and James Whitlock (right) are said to have escaped from jail last month

Baker and Whitlock are said to have used used diamond-tipped cutting equipment to slice through the prison bars.

Whitlock, who was arrested at an address in Homerton, east London on 13 November is charged with one count of escape, to which he is yet to enter a plea.

Kelly Baker, of Ilford, is charged with harbouring an escaped prisoner or, in the alternative, assisting an offender.
Austria has revealed its 'word of the year' - a mammoth 51-letter reference to the country's presidential elections.

The German word 'Bundespraesidentenstichwahlwiederholungsverschiebung' has been translated as 'the delay in the repetition of the presidential run-off'.

More than a third of 10,000 voters chose the recently created term as their top pick in an annual language poll, run by the University Graz.

It took more than 350 days of delays and bitter mud-slinging for ex-Greens chief Alexander Van der Bellen (right) to finally be elected president by beating Norbert Hofer (left)

Counting 51 letters in German, 'the word's meaning and length are a symbol and ironic commentary for this year's political events,' the jury said in a statement.

The term also reflects the language's unique ability to 'add substantives at will and create new words with unlimited lengths.'

It took more than 350 days of delays and bitter mud-slinging for ex-Greens chief Alexander Van der Bellen to finally be elected president on December 4.

The German word 'Bundespraesidentenstichwahlwiederholungsverschiebung' has been translated as 'the delay in the repetition of the presidential run-off'. Alexander Van der Bellen was elected president on December 4

The first run-off in May against his far-right rival Norbert Hofer was annulled over procedural breaches. The October rematch then had to be postponed to December over faulty glue on postal vote envelopes.

Meanwhile, 'Oexit' - the contraction invented for discussions about Austria's exit from the European Union - was voted ugliest word of the year.
The growing army of cats in Whitehall has gained another two recruits - with Evie and Ossie moving into the Cabinet Office.

The rescue moggies join Downing Street's 'chief mouser' Larry at the heart of the government.

With Palmerston resident in the Foreign Office and Gladstone at the Treasury, it takes the cat count to five.

The arrival of Evie at the Cabinet Office takes the cat count in Whitehall to five

The Cabinet Office has also released a photograph of Ossie, Evie's son. The pair are rescue cats from the Celia Hammond Animal Trust

Evie's arrival was revealed in a tweet by senior civil servant. She is named after Dame Evelyn Sharp  the first female permanent secretary.

Meanwhile, her son Ossie is named after civil service procedural guru E.C.B Osmotherly.

The pair are rescue cats from the Celia Hammond Animal Trust. They will not be a burden on the taxpayer as officials look after their wellbeing.

Pictures were posted on the official Cabinet Office Twitter feed today, along with the message: 'Welcome to our new cats Evie & Ossie, rescued by @CeliaHammond. Arrived in time to celebrate our 100th birthday & catch some mice!'

It is yet to be seen how the latest additions will get on with the existing denizens.

Larry has been well-known for clashing with Palmerston, and the two have been photographed swiping violently at each other in Downing Street.

Both were brought to their political homes from Battersea Dogs and Cats home in south London.

Chancellor Philip Hammond has been forced to lock up his pet dogs - Welsh terrier called Rex and a dachshund named Oscar - in Downing Street - to keep them safe from attack by Larry.

Larry is the chief mouser of Downing Street but he is no longer the sole feline in Whitehall

Relations between Larry and Palmerstone (pictured) at the Foreign Office have frequently been tense

The burgeoning feline presence in Whitehall will further irritate MPs - who are banned by parliamentary rules from having cats on the estate.

The Houses are plagued by mice by demands for cats to be brought in to help keep numbers down have been repeatedly rebuffed on practical and health and safety grounds.

Minister for the disabled Penny Mordaunt was given a slap on the wrists earlier this year when she posted photographs of her Burmese, called Titania, on the hunt in parliament.

'A great believer in credible deterrence, I'm applying the principle to the lower ministerial corridor mouse problem,' she wrote on Twitter.

Gladstone, the Treasury's moggy, is named after the famous former PM and Chancellor
Violent police officer: Steven Riding, 46, of Kilsyth, Lanarkshire, battered the three women but claimed they were lying

A policeman who carried out a 22-year campaign of violence against his two ex-wives and a girlfriend has been jailed for five years.

Steven Riding, 46, of Kilsyth, Lanarkshire, battered the three women but claimed they were lying and forced them to give evidence against him.

He grabbed his first wife Susan Riding by the throat and dragged her down the stairs, banged her head against walls and forced her face against a sofa.

Riding then attacked his second wife Lorna King before going on to assault his girlfriend Samantha Lindsay, Airdrie Sheriff Court was told.

The Police Scotland officer was found guilty of 15 domestic abuse charges and was condemned for causing incalculable harm as he was jailed.

Riding was arrested and charged after his victims gave statements to police in 2014. The court heard he beat Mrs Riding various times from 1992 to 1997.

He also attacked Miss King and assaulted Ms Lindsay. Ridings defence counsel said he still denied the offences but accepted he was going to prison.

During one incident Riding grabbed Mrs Riding by the throat and dragged her down a staircase by the hair before pinning her to the ground.

Attacks: Riding (pictured) grabbed his first wife by the throat and dragged her down the stairs, banged her head against walls and forced her face against a sofa

He would also regularly bang her head against walls and doors at their home and restrict her breathing by forcing her face against a sofa and a mattress.

In 1995 he grabbed her by the hair and then repeatedly rubbed her head into a pizza which was on lying the ground and he knocked her unconscious at a house.

After the couple divorced, Riding married Miss King, a police civilian worker, in 2002 but returned to his violent ways.

He was found guilty of a series of assaults against her at three addresses over an eight year period.

After his second marriage broke down, he dated Miss Lindsay after meeting her in 2011.

He was found guilty of seizing her by the neck, repeatedly slapping and kicking her over a three year period at a house.

Riding married his first wife, who is now 45, in August 1992 and divorced her in early 2002. He married Miss King, 49, in Northern Ireland later that year.

Miss King had earlier told how she was glad she spoke out against him. She said: I was nervous giving evidence and discussing parts of my private life.

But its a necessary evil to ensure his proven violent behaviour stops. It was important for me to attend to try to some way form a closure on a difficult and stressful chapter.

As time moved on, I could anticipate when he was becoming angry. One time, he had me by the throat and I had to wear a scarf to work as there was bruising to my throat.

There was emotional abuse every three or four weeks and, when it was physical, it was always the neck and throat in a restraining way.

Niall McCluskey, defending, said of Riding: He is realistic and appreciates that the court will inevitably impose a custodial sentence.

He has no previous convictions and no other cases to come before the court. Although he will leave the police force dishonourably he has served the public since 1990.

He is a protected prisoner and in effect has been in solitary confinement but that may change if he gets a transfer to an appropriate prison. He retains the support of his family.

Sentencing Riding, Sheriff Morag Galbraith said: You have been convicted by a jury of very serious and very violent crimes against three women who loved you.

The harm you have caused to them has been incalculable. The court would like to acknowledge the bravery of these women for coming to give evidence against you.
The balcony from which the 51-year-old man fell on the Costa Del Sol

A British holidaymaker has died after plunging from the third floor of his Costa del Sol hotel.

The 51-year-old, named locally as Mark Woodward, was staying with his girlfriend at the two-star Hostal El Cid in the popular tourist town of Fuengirola when he fell.

It happened at around 3.30pm yesterday. It is thought his unnamed partner was in the room with him at the time.

The results of a post-mortem which was due to take place this morning/yesterday morning (FRI) have not been made public.

No-one from the hostal which has themed rooms based on different figures from world history including Julius Caesar and Karl Marx, was available for comment.

Police are still investigating but say there is nothing to indicate the death was the result of a crime.

The nationality of the dead mans partner, who is he only thought to have started dating recently, is not known.

In June 2011 Swedish tourist Sandra Eleonora Karlsson, 19, was stabbed to death at the hostal a five-minute walk from the beach by a 30-year-old Moroccan immigrant.

The Swedish friend she was sharing a room with was injured in the sexually-motivated attack after trying to defend herself.

The man's partner is understood to have been in the room with him before he fell

The female pair had travelled to Spain and checked into the hostal for the second year running to celebrate the end of the academic year.

A worker at the hostal managed to wrestle the knife from the attackers hand with the help of an off-duty police after the injured teenager raised the alarm.

He was sentenced to 35 years in prison in February 2014.
Police in Germany have arrested two teenagers for plotting an Islamic terrorist attack.

One of the suspects was seized in Aschaffenburg, Bavaria, the other in Mannheim in Baden-Wuerttemburg.

Aged 15 and 17, police say they were planning a bombing or shooting at a public building in Aschaffenburg.

Police in Germany have arrested two teenagers for plotting an Islamic terrorist attack (file picture)

Their scheme was foiled due to police surveillance. Police have seized Islamist propaganda, ISIS flags and electronic devices including smart phones from the pair.

Police have not ruled out the possibility that the duo are mentally ill.

German security services have been on high alert in recent months over the possibility of -Islamist attacks.

The country was targeted by a series of attacks this past summer, including two in the southern state of Bavaria that were both claimed by ISIS.

In the first attack, a 17-year-old Afghani with an ax attacked passengers on a train in Wurzburg before being shot dead by security forces. A week lateran attacker set off a bomb outside a cafe in Ansbach, killing himself and wounding 12 others.

One of the suspects was seized in Aschaffenburg, Bavaria, the other in Mannheim in Baden-Wuerttemburg (file picture)

In August, German authorities arrested a man on suspicion of storing materials that could be used as explosives. The suspect also had items in his apartment glorifying ISIS.

In late September, police arrested a 16-year-old Syrian refugee in Cologne on suspicion he was planning a bombing.
Jailed for six years: Ben Catterill raided the houses of wealthy families to pay for his 30,000 dream wedding at a stately home

A brazen bridegroom was jailed for more than six years after raiding the houses of wealthy families to pay for his 30,000 dream wedding at a stately home.

Ben Catterill, 32, of Yeadon, West Yorkshire, used the money to raise 5,000 for a deposit for his planned wedding to fiancee Katie Henderson, 29.

The couple were hoping to get married at Castle Howard in North Yorkshire, but he was caught when Henderson told police what he had done after a row.

And while on remand Catterill had an affair with prison worker Sarah Ellahi - exchanging hundreds of texts, naked photographs and erotic letters - which saw her jailed for four months.

Catterill had been raising money to pay for the wedding in September 2015 after raiding homes for Tag Heuer watches, Louis Vuitton bags and Tiffany jewellery.

Leeds Crown Court heard the criminal had been bragging about doing burglaries on Millionaires row.

An investigation then uncovered evidence that linked Catterill and Henderson to burglaries across Leeds and text messages between the pair revealed their crimes.

Fiancee: Katie Henderson, 29, of Middleton, West Yorkshire was convicted of handling stolen goods and was sentenced to 18 months in prison, suspended for two years

Avoided jail: Henderson, who is pictured at her home today, and Catterill chose the prestigious wedding venues most expensive package despite having no legitimate income

The court heard despite having no legitimate income Catterill and Henderson chose the prestigious wedding venues most expensive package.

Their plans included a ceremony in Great Hall with a string quartet then a reception with canapes, a three-course meal and drinks for about 60 guests at 140 a head.

They visited the castle again for menu tasting sessions and boasted details of a designer florist they planned to use.

But what the venues staff didnt know was that the pair were planning to fund their big day with the proceeds of burglaries at homes in Alwoodley, Tinshill and Farsley.

Texts from the pairs phones found Catterill making references to grafting and the pair discussing the sale of 4,000 worth of gold jewellery and holidays abroad.

They also found exchanges between the pair as they argued as Catterill was at the scene of one of the burglaries.

Brazen bridegroom: Catterill had been raising money to pay for the wedding in September 2015 after raiding homes for Tag Heuer watches (left) and Tiffany jewellery (right)

Stolen goods: Photos were found on 29-year-old Katie Hendersons phone of luxury items taken in the burglaries, including Louis Vuitton bags (pictured)

Other enquiries showed they had splashed out on a number of expensive holidays and lived a luxury lifestyle without any legitimate source of income.

Photos were found on Hendersons phone of luxury items stolen in the burglaries, including Louis Vuitton bags and a diamond ring.

Catterill pleaded guilty to two burglary dwellings at addresses in the Tinshill and Alwoodley area of Leeds.

He was also found guilty of a further offence of burglary and aggravated vehicle taking following a trial.

CCTV footage showed him arriving to commit a burglary in Alwoodley in a vehicle stolen in Farsley only one hour before.

After he dumped the stolen vehicle, he was pursued by officers in his own vehicle and found in possession of screwdrivers, gloves, balaclavas and stolen goods.

Great expectations: The couple were hoping to get married at Castle Howard in North Yorkshire, but Catterill was caught when Henderson told police what he had done after a row

An examination of his phone uncovered videos of Catterill wearing a distinctive Lewis Hamilton Tag Heuer timepiece that had been stolen in the Tinshill burglary.

The couple were sentenced in June but the case could not be reported as Catterill faced charges in relation to him having an affair in prison and an assault trial.

Catterill had struck up an affair with a prison worker while on remand and admitted the offences on the same day he was jailed for the burglary.

The court heard Ellahi, 27, abused her position as a family liaison worker at Armley Prison after becoming besotted with Catterill.

The pair struck up a relationship but were rumbled thanks to hundreds of texts and explicit pictures being recovered - and Catterill became tied up in two court cases.

The items seized by prison staff were banned material, and as well as nude pictures of Ellahi, love letters which were erotic and sexual in nature were also found.

Top venue: Their plans included a ceremony in Great Hall with a string quartet then a reception with canapes, a three-course meal and drinks for about 60 guests at 140 a head

Catterill was given a six-month sentence - to run consecutive to his six-year sentence for the burglaries - after pleading guilty to passing a prohibited item inside a prison and conveying a list C article.

Ellahi, of Leeds, was given a four-month prison sentence after pleading guilty to misconduct in a public office and conveying a list C article into prison.

Henderson, of Middleton, was also convicted of handling stolen goods and was sentenced to 18 months in prison, suspended for two years.

Detective Inspector Neil Thompson, of Leeds District Crime Team, said: The lavish lifestyle that Catterill and Henderson were living came at a very high human price for the burglary victims who had to suffer the indignity of having their homes invaded and their hard-earned possessions stolen.

This couples extravagant plans for a luxury wedding and the matter of fact way in which they discussed committing crimes by text message shows a complete disregard for the impact of these offences on the victims.

They were brought to justice as a result of a thorough and detailed investigation which uncovered clear evidence linking them to the crimes.
Police have arrested a 65-year-old woman after a grandmother-of-10 was killed in a hit- and-run at a retail park.

Olwyn Fulton, 84, was fatally injured in the incident at the Parkway Shopping Centre in Middlesbrough on Wednesday.

Cleveland Police said a local woman has been arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving and failing to stop at the scene of a collision, and she remains in police custody.

The force said the dead pensioner had a son and a daughter, and 10 grandchildren.

Officers are appealing for witnesses and would particularly like to hear from anyone who was in the area at around 11am on Wednesday December 7 and who may have dashcam footage.
A package thief stole a parcel full of poop from the front porch of a homeowner who left it there in a ploy to stunt a crime spree.

CCTV footage picked up the brazen criminal walking towards the front door of the property in Riverside, California.

Unbeknown to the thief, the package is a sealed box full of dog dirt which was gathered by the homeowners the Zarembas following a party for their Great Dane.

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A package thief stole a parcel full of poop from the front porch of a homeowner who left it there in a ploy to stunt a crime spree

Mike Zaremba told CBS Los Angeles: 'At first I really felt violated even though I knew what was inside the package, I was still like, he stole from me.

'Since weve lived at this house weve had three packages stolen, so just trying to get back at somebody.

'Our Great Dane had her first birthday so my wife threw her a birthday party. We had seven or eight dogs here.

'As you can imagine, lots of land mines.'

CCTV footage picked up the brazen criminal walking towards the front door of the property in Riverside, California

Unbeknown to the thief, the package is a sealed box full of dog dirt which was gathered by the homeowners the Zarembas following a party for their Great Dane

The disgruntled family gathered the dog mess, placed them in the parcel and left it at the front of their house for opportunist thieves after three of their parcels had already been stolen from their home.

Cops have tracked down the alleged culprit, Daniel Aldama, according to CBS.

Ronel Newton of the Riverside Police Department told the news outlet: 'He dropped it as soon as he found out.
In the wake of Brexit and other nationalist and populist movements, European nations have been warned they will disappear unless they stay within the EU.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said on Friday that Europe's economic and demographic weight in the world is diminishing, so EU countries must stand together.

Mr Juncker said the idea of the European Union is failing because some governments are not following the Commission's quotas for taking in refugees.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker (pictured) warned European nations to stick together in the EU because they won't be able to exist as single nations in 20 years

At an event commemorating the EU's landmark Maastricht Treaty, Mr Juncker warned that in ten years Europe's share in the world economy would fall to 15 per cent from the current 25 per cent.

In 20 years, no European countries would be part of the G7 group of the world's top seven economies.

He said while at the start of the last century, Europeans represented around 20 per cent of humankind, this had fallen to between 5 and 7 per cent at the start of this century and would further shrink to 4 per cent by the end of it.

'So those who do think the time has come to deconstruct, to put Europe in pieces, to subdivide us in national divisions, are totally wrong,' Mr Juncker said.

'We won't exist as single nations without the European Union.'

Mr Juncker (pictured) said the idea of the EU is failing because some governments are not following the Commission's quotas for taking in refugees

He was referring to the rising support for anti-EU rhetoric across Europe, culminating in the British referendum to leave the EU, and the growing popularity of nationalist and populist movements in France, Italy, Poland, Hungary and elsewhere.

Mr Juncker said the migration crisis, which has seen some 1.4million asylum-seekers arrive in Europe since the start of last year, had destroyed the idea of the EU as a bloc based on commonly agreed rules.

This was because some governments were refusing to comply with quotas put forward by the Commission saying how many refugees they must accept.

'That's something new. For the first time in post-war European history, not all the member states are applying the commonly agreed rules,' Mr Juncker said.
A Florida police dog that died during a confrontation with an armed fugitive was actually shot by friendly fire, officials said.

Volusia County Sheriff's Office spokesman Gary Davidson said on Thursday that two deputies opened fire as 34-year-old Eddie Powell punched and fought with K-9 Forest while pointing a gun at one of the deputies, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

Forest was shot two times while out looking for Powell around 7pm on November 22.

Volusia County Sheriff's Office spokesman Gary Davidson said on Thursday that two deputies opened fire as 34-year-old Eddie Powell punched and fought with K-9 Forest (pictured) while pointing a gun at one of the deputies

Forest (pictured) was shot two times while out looking for Powell around 7pm on November 22. Officials determined that there was no evidence that Powell fired his gun during the fight with Forest

Powell ran from a home police were investigating and Forest chased him down. He and the dog were fighting when he pointed a gun at deputies, officials told the newspaper.

Deputy Brandon Ellis and Sgt Brodie Hughes then shot toward Powell after he opened fire, according to Davidson.

Powell managed to escape and Forest was taken to DeLand Animal Hospital, where he died.

The suspect, who was wanted in Georgia, was also hit and arrested a day later following a police search.

Officials determined that there was no evidence that Powell fired his gun during the fight with Forest.

Eddie Powell (pictured) faces charges of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer and battery on a police dog

Powell faces multiple charges, including aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer and battery on a police dog.

Sheriff Ben Johnson backed his deputies, saying he still holds Powell responsible for Forest's death.

'Our deputies were put into a deadly threat situation and were forced to defend themselves,' he said.

'As far as I'm concerned, Eddie Powell is responsible for the death of Forest just as surely as if he had pulled the trigger.'

Johnson said in a statement to the Sentinel: 'Sadly, unintended consequences sometimes occur in shooting situations.

'This doesn't change the fact that Forest died a hero while trying to subdue a dangerous gunman.'

It's not clear which deputy fired the fatal shots.

A memorial processional is scheduled for the K-9 on Friday.
Around 400 African migrants forced their way into the tiny Spanish enclave of Ceuta today, the biggest group in a decade to storm the walled city bordering Morocco in search of asylum.

The group - mainly men - forced their way through two entry points in the 20-feet barrier that surrounds the Spanish enclave.

Footage posted online by the El Faro de Ceuta newspaper showed dozens of migrants, including men without shoes and shirts, shouting 'Spain' in delight as they crossed into Ceuta.

A Spanish government spokesman said: 'You have to go back to the early 2000s to see numbers like this.'

African migrants sit on top of a border fence during an attempt to cross into Spanish territories, between Morocco and Spain's north African enclave of Ceuta today

The Red Cross said it had treated 103 people for minor injuries sustained during the assault, and 25 had been taken to hospital.

Spain's Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido said about 80 migrants were missing on the Spanish side of the border as of midday.

Carmen Echarri, editor of El Faro de Ceuta newspaper, said Spanish security forces had been overrun as migrants had struck at several different parts on the border barrier, using scissors and cutting tools to get through wire fencing.

'Everyone was surprised' by the assault, she said.

The Red Cross said it had treated 103 people for minor injuries (pictured) while 25 had been taken to hospital

Spanish junior minister for security, Jose Antonio Nieto, will visit Ceuta today to investigate the incident.

Some 10,800 migrants have arrived in Spain in 2016, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Ceuta, along with Melilla, another Spanish territory in North Africa, have the European Union's only land borders with Africa.

They are favoured entry points for African migrants seeking a better life in Europe, who get there by either climbing over the border fence or by swimming along the coast.

Some of the 400 African migrants react joyfully after crossing the border fence between Morocco and Spain's north African enclave of Ceuta earlier today

The objective for migrants entering Ceuta illegally is to reach a temporary Spanish residency rights centre where they can, in principle, request asylum.

In 2014 a group of 15 migrants drowned as they tried to swim to Ceuta from a beach in neighbouring Morocco.

At the time, rights groups and migrants said Spanish police tried to keep them from reaching the shore by firing rubber bullets and spraying them with tear gas.

In October a group of about 220 people managed to storm two entry points into Ceuta, injuring 35 migrants and three security officers.

Migrants stand together after storming a fence to enter the Spanish enclave of Ceuta today
A squadron of state-of-the-art fighter jets have been deployed to a Russian air base less than 200km from the border with Finland.

Four Sukhoi Su-35S jets, described by Russia's defence ministry as 'super-maneuverable' have landed at the base in Karelia.

Capable of supersonic speeds, the jets - the best fighter planes in the Russian fleet - are able to carry guided 'air-to-air' class missiles, as well as anti-submarine missiles and guided aerial bombs.

Capable of supersonic speeds, the jets - the best fighter planes in the Russian fleet - are able to carry air-to-air and anti-submarine missiles

They are also armed with cannons which can fire 1,500 rounds per minute, the Russian Ministry of Defence states, and are well equipped for dodging missiles.

Video showed the jets arriving at the base today, where they are being made available to be deployed.

Kremlin officials say the planes will help protect Russia's northwestern frontier, RT reports.

The jets have arrived at the base in Karelia, less than 200km from the border with Finland

They are also armed with cannons which can fire 1,500 rounds per minute, the Russian Ministry of Defence states, and are well equipped for dodging missiles

Last month Finland's defence minister said officials hope military activity in the Baltic Sea can 'calm down' after Russian missiles were deployed in Kaliningrad.

Jussi Niinisto said: 'We naturally support peaceful co-existence. And we practice an active policy of stability.'
are so bad that he has been unable to return to work a week later

An off-duty Bronx EMT ended up taking a ride in one of his own ambulances after suffering severe burns when an e-cigarette exploded in the pocket of his pants.

Ricardo Jiminez, 24, ended up suffering excruciatingly painful second-degree burns to his thigh and right hand.

It happened after the device exploded as he drove through Manhattan last Friday.

Ricardo Jiminez, 24, suffered second-degree burns to his thigh and right hand

Graphic images show the painful injuries the EMT staffer has had to endure as a result

Jiminez has been unable to return to work since the incident occurred last Friday

'I went to reach down to take the batteries out of my pocket and they just blew up,' the 24-year-old told the Daily News. 'There was smoke everywhere, like a fog in my car.

'The batteries were making little noises. Soon as that happened, I put my car in park, jumped out of the car, and a police officer saw me taking off my pants.'

Writhing in pain on the sidewalk, an ambulance was called and Jiminez was rushed to Harlem Hospital for treatment.

One week later and the pain is still unbearable meaning he has been unable to work.

The e-cig exploded in the pocket of his pants and Jiminez was forced to take them off outside

The 24-year-old was rushed by ambulance to Harlem Hospital for treatment of his injuries

Doctors are evaluating whether skin grafts are necessary for the badly burned EMT.

Jiminez said that he purchased the batteries from a store on Broadway in Harlem for $15

Jiminez was also left with scars 18 to 24 inches in length on his thigh and right hand, leaving him unable to drive.

Nearly a week later, Jiminez said the pain remains intense and he's still unable to work.

Doctors are now deciding whether skin grafts are necessary for the badly burned man.

Jiminez revealed he purchased the batteries from a store on Broadway in Harlem for $15.

'When I bought them, they said they were the best battery,' said Jiminez to the Daily News. 'After a full charge, it can go for a full day. I bought a spare because my device takes two batteries, just in case.'

His lawyer is now asking the FDNY to look at the items as well as his clothes that were burned, before deciding whether to sue the manufacturers.

The e-cig explosion burned a whole through his jeans as seen in this photo

Jiminez is now waiting for the results of testing on the potential evidence before deciding whether to sue

According to FEMA, 80% of e-cigarette explosions happen during charging

Electronic cigarettes and other battery-operated electronic smoking devices occasionally do catch fire. There were 25 reports of e-cigarettes exploding between 2009 and 2014, according to the US Fire Administration.

However, the Food and Drug Administration found 134 reported cases of fires, explosions or overheating between 2009-2015, with dozens of lawsuits filed in Florida, New York and California related to e-cig fires.

The problem with e-cigarettes seems to be their lithium battery, according to one report, which stores a great deal of energy in a small space.

According to FEMA, 80% of e-cigarette explosions happen during charging.

In 2014, a man in Scotland died when his e-cig exploded near his oxygen tank, according to The Scotsman.
A pair of secret Santas have paid off the outstanding meal accounts for students at a western Pennsylvania elementary school.

Amy Larcinese, the principal at H.W. Good Elementary School in Herminie, said some students can't afford to keep their cafeteria accounts up to date for the two meals they receive in school each day.

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Principal Amy Larcinese (pictured) says a pair of secret Santas have paid off outstanding meal accounts for some 44 of the students at her school

Some students at H.W. Good Elementary School in Herminie, Pennsylvania, can't afford to keep their cafeteria accounts up to date for the two meals they receive in school each day

'For some our kids the only meal they get are the two they get in school,' Larcinese told KDKA about some of her more than 300 students.

'I know that it's not that they don't want to pay their account balances, they just can't afford to do it right now.'

An anonymous couple showed up Wednesday and asked to settle all unpaid accounts  which covered 44 accounts totaling nearly $1,000.

One family owed more than $400, according to the Greensburg Tribune-Review.

An anonymous couple showed up at the school (pictured) Wednesday and asked to settle all unpaid accounts  which covered 44 accounts totaling nearly $1,000

The principal says the donor used to have a child in the school and 'just wanted to give back to the district'

The donors paid for the lunches for one child for the rest of the month after learning that pupil had an especially large account balance.

The principal says the donor used to have a child in the school and 'just wanted to give back to the district.'

'It's an amazing feeling someone would want to help as many students as they have,' Larcinese told KDKA.

'There are very good people in this world,' the principal added.

Parents at the school will be notified about Santa's gift  but the secret will remain.
Two 'faithless electors' in Colorado are taking their case to federal court.

Colorado Democrats Polly Baca and Robert Nemanich are trying to overturn a law requiring them to give their Electoral College votes to the candidate who won a majority of ballots in their state.

U.S. District Court Judge Wiley Daniel will hear their case on Monday, Politico reports. Daniel is a Bill Clinton appointee.

Hillary Clinton won Colorado - but the electors are part of a group that's pushing for Electoral College reforms.

Two 'faithless electors' in Colorado are taking their case to federal court. Colorado Democrats Robert Nemanich and Polly Baca are trying to overturn a law requiring them to give their Electoral College votes to the candidate who won a majority of ballots in their state

Rebel electors want to free up Republicans whose state laws require them to vote for Trump to cast their ballot for someone else. Mitt Romney and John Kasich have been floated as consensus picks.

'If we cannot use the Electoral College as a deliberative process ... then we ought to do away with it,' Baca told Politico.

Baca was the first Hispanic woman to hold a seat in Colorado's state senate and she co-chaired the Democratic National Convention in 1980 and 1984. She was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 2000.

Nemanich told Politico that five of his state's electors had agreed to a protest vote, creating a six-person coalition. Colorado has nine electoral votes.

To keep Trump from winning, 'faithless electors,' as they're known, need to convince 37 Republican electors from voting for Trump on Dec. 19.

Trump has 306 electoral votes to Clinton's 232. The Constitution mandates a candidate reach 270 to become the next president.

Clinton has nowhere near enough votes to win. If Trump does not win, the burden falls on the House of Representatives. The Republican-run body could choose to side against Trump and put in someone like Kasich or Romney.

It's the longest of long shots. If Democratic electors from Washington and Colorado follow through with their plan, they'll be the largest group of defects since 1872.

'The voters have spoken, and we think that folks will do what the voters have asked them to,' Trump spokesman Jason Miller said Thursday. 'It's not something that we're part concerned by.'

Miller said Trump enjoyed a 'pretty decisive victory' in the election. Since then, his spokesman said he's observed 'people coalescing around this new president and what he intends to do for the country.'

He called the faithless elector effort and the recounts in three states 'shenanigans' and said it's 'time to look ahead.'

To keep Trump from winning, 'faithless electors,' as they're known, need to convince 37 Republican electors from voting for Trump on Dec. 19

One member of the electoral college claims he has received dozens of graphic death threats from people urging him to cast his vote for Hillary Clinton.

Michael Banerian (pictured), a Michigan elector, says he's received death threats from unhappy voters who want him to defect from Trump

Michael Banerian, a 22-year-old elector from Michigan, has received several 'aggressive' emails, some of which include 'talk about shoving a gun in my mouth and blowing my brains out', he told the Detroit News.

Another email stated 'You're a hateful bigot, I hope you die', Banerian said.

But the Republican college student said he has every intention of casting his vote for Donald Trump, who won the state's 16 electoral votes by a narrow margin of 10,704.

Electors across the country have been barraged with phone calls and emails from voters urging them to become 'faithless electors,' too, on Dec. 19.

Clinton won more than 2.6 million ballots in the popular vote than Trump. But it's the Electoral College that decides the presidential election.

In most states, electors must cast a vote for the winner of the statewide popular vote or face fines ranging from around $500 to $1,000.

Other states such as Arizona, Idaho, and Georgia don't have a rule against rogue electors.

Clinton won more than 2.6 million ballots in the popular vote than Trump. But it's the Electoral College that decides the presidential election

Colorado's Democratic elector Michael Baca, on the other hand, is trying to rally electors behind Mitt Romney or John Kasich and is trying to coax Republican electors away from Trump

Michigan law mandates that a faithless elector's vote is void and Banerian remained resolute, anyway, saying: 'Even if I could, I wouldnt be remotely interested in changing my vote.

'The people of Michigan spoke, and its our job to deliver that message,' he added.

Unhappy citizens have also targeted other electors in states like Arizona, Idaho, and Georgia.

'It is total harassment,' Robert Graham, an elector and chairman of the state Republican Party, told the Arizona Republic.

Arizona elector Saron Geise estimates that she has received as many as 8,000 calls and says she has stopped picking up altogether.

Green Party candidate Jill Stein pushed for and won recounts in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan. A judge has since halted the recount effort in Michigan, cementing Trump's win there

Michael Baca, a registered Democrat who supported Bernie Sanders, is one of the Colorado Democrats coaxing Republican electors away from Trump.

Even if he is unsuccessful in his efforts, Baca, who is not related to Polly Baca, said: 'I do think that a byproduct would be a serious look into Electoral College reform.'

Their work became more difficult after Michigan's results came in. In winning the state, Trump widened his count by 16 Electoral College votes.

Green Party candidate Jill Stein pushed for and won recounts in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan. A judge has since halted the recount effort in Michigan, cementing Trump's win there.
Corrections Minister Bill Byrne said he had been bashed twice by fellow prisions

Their relationship allegedly caused his father to murder Tiahleigh Palmer

was charged with incest over his foster sister's murder

The foster brother of schoolgirl Tiahleigh Palmer has applied for bail

The foster brother of slain Queensland schoolgirl Tiahleigh Palmer has applied for bail.

Trent Jordan Thorburn, 19, is charged with incest, perjury and attempting to pervert the course of justice over Tiahleigh's suspected murder.

Thorburn, who has been in custody since his arrest in September, lodged an application for bail in the Brisbane Supreme Court on Friday, which is set to be heard on December 14.

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Trent Jordan Thorburn, 19, (right) is charged with incest, perjury and attempting to pervert the course of justice over Tiahleigh's (left) suspected murder

Rick Thorburn (left), his wife Julene (middle right) and two sons, Josh (middle left) and Trent (right) have been charged with a string of offences in relation to the death of Tiahleigh Palmer

Corrections Minister Bill Byrne confirmed Thorburn had told guards he'd twice been bashed in jail by fellow prisoners only after the officers saw the second assault.

'The truth or otherwise of that is being established in an investigation,' Mr Byrne said.

Tiahleigh was last seen alive on October 30 last year when she was dropped off at Marsden State High School, south of Brisbane.

A missing person alert was only issued six days later, hours before her body was found by three fishermen on the banks of the Pimpama River.

Her foster father Rick Thorburn, 56, was charged with her murder in September.

Foster mother Julene Thorburn, 54, and her son Josh, 20, last month pleaded guilty in the Beenleigh Magistrates Court to one count each of perjury and attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Tiahleigh was last seen alive on October 30 last year when she was dropped off at Marsden State High School

Thorburn told guards he'd twice been bashed in jail by fellow prisoners only after the officers saw the second assault
A Victorian business has been slapped with $30,000 in fines and legal costs after a workers little finger and the skin on his hand was ripped off by a machine.

The man was working with a machine that printed on, glued, cut and folded cardboard boxes alongside a manager at packing and supply business JT Dixon Pty Ltd in early February.

Inspecting a problem with a printing machine, the worker reached in but his hand became caught and was 'skinned' as he pulled it free.

A Victorian business has been slapped with $30,000 in fines and legal costs after a workers little finger and the skin on his hand was ripped off by a machine (stock image)

The machine required three people to operate it and could run through 100 boxes in a minute.

The man and his manager climbed onto the machine while it was running to investigate an issue with the print quality on the boxes.

After the manager climbed off the machine to speak with a colleague, the worker reached down to touch the ink to see whether it was wet or dry.

His right hand became caught in rollers and was degloved as he pulled it free.

The worker also lost his little finger and the top of his middle finger.

JT Dixon pleaded guilty in the Geelong Magistrates' Court and was fined on Wednesday for failing to provide a safe workplace and plant, WorkSafe Victoria said in a statement on Friday.
NATO forces in the eastern Mediterranean are reportedly hunting for Russian submarines which are capable of sinking aircraft carriers.

US Navy P-8 Poseidon jets, operating from a base at Sigonella, Sicily, are said to be looking for one or two Russian Navy submarines operating underneath a NATO flotilla not far from the coast of Syria.

The Aviationist said the Russian submarines were believed to be Oscar II class vessels, which are known as 'carrier killers'.

The Oscar II class submarine (pictured) is the largest attack subs ever built and was designed to target aircraft carriers STOCK PHOTO

The Oscar II class, which weigh 18,000 tonnes and have a crew of around 100, are the largest submarines ever built.

The Kursk, which sank in the Arctic Circle in 2000 with the loss of 118 lives, was an Oscar II class sub.

The Russians subs are thought to be in the vicinity of France's flagship aircraft carrier, the Charles De Gaulle.

A US Navy Poseidon P-8 jet (pictured) is searching for the subs in eastern Mediterranean now

The USS Eisenhower is also said to be in the region.

Today's incident comes amid increasing tension between Russia and NATO, as an increasingly belligerent President Putin seeks to throw his weight around in Europe and the Middle East.

He is thought to be taking advantage of the United States having a 'lame duck' president.

The President-elect, Donald Trump, was complimentary towards Putin during the election campaign and is expected to seek to improve relations after his inauguration next month.

Trump is expected to make major shifts in State Department policy over Syria and also possibly regarding Ukraine, Crimea and Eastern Europe.

The Oscar II class subs were designed in 1975 and built up until 1996. Four years later one of them, the Kursk, sank in the Arctic Circle STOCK PHOTO

The Russian submarines are reported to be prowling around close to the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle (pictured), which is now in the eastern Mediterranean

Last month the Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov arrived in the eastern Mediterranean as part of a flotilla designed to support the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his efforts to defeat rebel groups in Aleppo.

Today's cat-and-mouse chase involving American and Russian ships and submarines has echoes of The Hunt for Red October, the Tom Clancy book which was later turned into a film starring Sean Connery as renegade Soviet submarine commander Marko Ramius.

The Oscar II class submarines, which were built between 1975 and 1996, were originally designed for the Soviet Navy and were supposed to take out US and other NATO aircraft carriers in the event that the Cold War became a hot war.

Oscar II submarines are equipped with SS-N-19 'Shipwreck' missiles which are capable of taking out a ship the size of a carrier.

Earlier this year Russia started the process of replacing the Shipwreck missiles with SS-N-26 'Strobile or SS-N-27 Sizzler' missiles.

An American P-8 jet has been flying over the eastern Mediterranean today trying to locate the subs, which are in the area of a NATO battlegroup

Although carriers like the Charles de Gaulle have plenty of planes to defend them, they remain vulnerable to submarine attack.

The commander of the Russian sub or subs in the Mediterranean will be using today as an exercise to test out his crew and how well they can avoid detection from the 'enemy'.

Although Russia and NATO are not at war, the sub's commander will consider it a success if he is able to slip away undetected.

The NATO battlegroup commander will want to be able to give the sub the impression that he has been detected and, in the event of a war situation, would have been destroyed.

The Oscar II class are inferior to the Akula II class, which are said to be virtually undetectable.

In the film The Hunt For Red October, Sean Connery (pictured) played a Soviet submarine commander playing a game of cat-and-mouse with the US Navy during the Cold War
Patients with back pain might want to think twice before turning to this unusual alternative treatment.

A video of an alternative medicine practitioner repeatedly impaling his patient's lower and upper back with different tools has recently emerged from China.

Simply watching the footage will make you wince. But the treatment is an efficient means to combat chronic muscle pain, according to one Chinese medicine expert.

An alternative medicine practitioner can be seen manoeuvring a T-shaped spike in and out of the patient's lower back

At the beginning of the video, a patient is seen lying on the bed with most of her body uncovered.

An alternative medicine practitioner can be seen manoeuvring a T-shaped spike in and out of the patient's lower back.

The needle, known as 'bone decompression needle', was drilled into her body.

The practitioner stuck the implement in and out of the woman's lower back and into her coccyx region.

Blood was seen seeping out after the tool was removed.

The tool is said to be used to relieve bone pressure by drilling into them.

Michael Chung, Chinese medicine lecturer of Chinese University of Hong Kong told MailOnline that in this particular video, the tool is likely to be used to treat the deep chronic pain around the lower back.

The needle, known as 'bone decompression needle', was drilled into her body repeatedly

A long, thick silver needle was also impaled into the left side of the patient's neck (above)

And the treatment did not stop there.

The practitioner changed to a scalpel and punched a hole on the patient's neck, and another two on the patient's upper back.

Then, a long, thick, silver needle was impaled into the left side of the patient's neck.

The same needle was also inserted into the hole on the patient's upper back. The practitioner pressed so hard that the skin became swollen and red.

The thick needle looks different from the filiform needle commonly seen in Chinese acupuncture.

Chung explained that the thick needle is used in 'acupotomy,' a special branch of acupuncture technique.

The same needle was also inserted into the hole on the patient's upper back. The practitioner pressed so hard that the skin became swollen and red

The scalpel-like instrument in the video is used to combat chronic pain resulting from soft tissue disorder and abnormal bony growth.

Chung told MailOnline: 'It is believed that tension developed by the muscles and tendons could be released more effectively.'

He added that topical anaesthetics should have been applied on the patient before the operation.

The disturbing clip posted to Miaopai, a video sharing platform in China, has spurred online discussion.

A user joked: 'I felt the pain in my butt while watching this video.'

Another added: 'Did they sanitise the needle? What's this? I am so afraid that the patient will become paralysed afterwards.'
Penelope Russell, 48, has an astonishing criminal record dating back to 1980

Britain's most prolific female thief is back behind bars after clocking up her 249th crime.

Penelope Russell, 48, has an astonishing criminal record stretching back more than three decades - starting when she was aged just 12.

The drug user has now been jailed for ten months at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court after she admitted stealing a purse from a woman in Marks and Spencer.

Judge Paul Glenn said: 'You have been a persistent offender since the age of 12. You have been convicted of 249 offences.

'I have never seen a woman with more convictions recorded than that. The vast majority are offences of dishonesty.

'You targeted a female shopper by bumping into her and stealing her property while she was distracted.

'The handbag contained a phone, cash and documents including a driving licence, debit cards, keys to the car and to the house.

'When people lose those sort of items it causes significant distress and inconvenience.

'You continue to use drugs. The risk of you re-offending is very high indeed.

'The only appropriate way of dealing with your case is an immediate custodial sentence.'

The court heard her latest crime took place when she bumped into her victim before stealing her 250 handbag which contained a 350 iPhone and a purse with 300 cash.

She was recognised by police officers who studied CCTV and she was arrested several weeks later.

Prosecutor Julian Taylor said the victim was at the fish counter at Marks and Spencer in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, on June 6 this year when Russell targeted her.

The drug user has now been jailed for ten months at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court after she admitted stealing a purse from a woman in Marks and Spencer (pictured)

He said: 'She [the victim] thought nothing of it until a few moments later when she noticed her 250 handbag was missing.

'It contained a 350 iPhone and a purse with 300 cash. The police looked at CCTV and saw the defendant in the vicinity.'

Russell was arrested and interviewed on August 28.

She told officers she had no money as her husband passed away in April and her father was dying of cancer.

She admitted stealing the handbag which was hanging off the woman's trolley.

The offence happened while Russell was subject to a suspended sentence for theft, assault and racially aggravated harassment, alarm or distress

Russell, of Fenton, Stoke-on-Trent, also admitted breaching a suspended jail sentence.

Brian Williams, defending, said Russell had wasted years of her life by taking drugs.
In the dock: Peter Morgan, 54, is accused of murdering escort Georgina Symonds, 25, who he says he fell in love with after a midlife crisis

A millionaire property tycoon was having sex with three escorts during his 'mid-life crisis' before he strangled the one he 'loved' in the grounds of his castle, a court heard today.

Married Peter Morgan, 54, paid Georgina Symonds, 25, for sex twice a week before agreeing to give her up to 10,000-a-month to only sleep with him.

Giving evidence at his murder trial, the developer told how he first started seeing escort Georgina and other prostitutes when he 'hit 50' - around three years before he throttled her in the bungalow where she lived next to his 13th century castle.

Morgan, who is worth more than 20million, has described his 'mid life crisis' where he paid for sex with Georgina and two other women, named in court as V1 and V2.

Videos and images found by police showed Miss Symonds and another escort engaging in sexual activity on agricultural machinery - there were also glamour shots next to a tank and a fire engine he bought himself as presents.

When his wife Helen, 50, found out about his prostitute habit - which included threesomes - he told her he 'wouldn't give up seeing George' but agreed to stop having sex with anyone else.

He told his trial at Newport Crown Court that he left his wife after falling in love with Miss Symonds and persuaded her to give up sex work if he paid her between 7,000 and 10,000 and saw him five nights a week.

Peter Morgan, 54, had sordid romps with call girls at his castle before meeting Georgina Symonds (left and right), 25, who moved in to a house in his grounds for 10,000 a month

Another property in his large portfolio is Pencoed Castle, pictured, near Llanmartin, Newport, where his victim lived rent free until she died

Morgan, who denies murder on the grounds of diminished responsibility, killed her in a bungalow which he owned and where she lived rent free in Llanmartin, Newport, on January 12.

He said: 'It came around my 50th birthday. It just hit me that nothing lasts forever.'

MORGAN'S SEX WITH ESCORTS FOUND ON IPHONE Miss Symonds (pictured), Morgan and another escort were photographed in the marital bed at Beech Hill Farm The jury heard that Miss Symonds iPhone was examined by police following her death and a number of images and videos were found. There were pictures of Miss Symonds and Morgan engaging in sexual activity, with white powder on parts of her body. Miss Symonds, Morgan and another escort were photographed in the marital bed at Beech Hill Farm. A third escort was pictured standing in front of the Army tank at the property. There were images of Miss Symonds naked in the marital bed at Beech Hill Farm. She was also seen stroking a cat there while wearing Morgans wifes dressing gown. In other pictures, Miss Symonds was pictured in underwear with dogs at the property. There were selfies of Miss Symonds and Morgan in bed, selfies of Miss Symonds alone and films of Miss Symonds in sexually explicit poses. Videos and images showed Miss Symonds and another escort engaging in sexual activity on agricultural machinery. Advertisement

He told the jury how he had started using escorts in 2011 after visiting a lap dancing bar in Cheltenham.

'I hadn't really looked at anything like that before,' Morgan said.

'I was shown an escort site called Adult Work and I looked at the website from my own mobile phone.'

Morgan saw it listed around 500/600 escorts in the Cardiff and Newport area close to his home in the Monmouthshire countryside.

Morgan said told how he paid 130-an-hour for sex with an escort in Cardiff Bay - and then booked more once a month.

He said: 'I liked it because it was very unemotional. I remember the first time I shook her hand when I left.'

Newport Crown court heard he paid Georgina 150 during their first sex meeting - and then saw her again two weeks later.

He said: 'I don't know what it was. I just seemed to get on with her. It was the first time I went back to see one.

'I had no intention of seeing with someone more than once until I met her. I liked her and it was nice and local.'

Father-of-two Morgan said he continued to see other escorts but realised Georgina meant more to him than 'just an escort'.

He paid her 1,000 to say overnight in a windmill he owned for sex before meeting twice a week.

The court heard how he also took her Christmas shopping spending more than 1,000 on clothes and shoes.

He also had 'three way' relations with Ms Symonds and other escorts.

'I can't remember if I suggested it or if George suggested it,' Morgan said.

But Morgan said Georgina would become 'annoyed' when she found out he was also 'seeing' other people.

Millionaire Peter Morgan (pictured) claims her death was not murder bevayse he has Asperger's syndrome which clouded his judgement, a court heard

Morgan said: 'I would see her more often than anyone else. There was another girl I was seeing for a couple of months in 2014. I'd see one on the Tuesday and one on the Friday.'

He said he had been faithful to his wife Helen, 50, apart from having sex with a prostitute in Amsterdam on business trip a decade earlier.

Newport Crown Court has heard how Morgan strangled Georgina with a twine ligature after hearing that she planned to leave him.

He killed her at her home in his castle grounds in Llanmartin, Gwent, before wrapping the body in plastic and duct tape and hiding it in farm buildings behind his family home.

But he confessed to police that he killed her when she was reported missing.

Georgina was recorded saying she wanted Morgan to sign over the property to her and then planned to 'fleece him', the court heard

The court earlier heard how he made his fortune by manufacturing steel farm buildings before selling the company.

Millionaire Peter Morgan told how his wife Helen first discovered he was seeing other women in February 2013.

Morgan said he sent flowers to another escort identified as V1 in court who lived in nearby Usk - and his wife found a telephone number written on a notepad.

She confronted Morgan who confessed about his relationship with her and also with Georgina.

Morgan said: 'I confessed to seeing Georgina. She knew nothing about Georgina until that point.'

Morgan said his wife 'wasn't very happy at all' and told him to stop seeing V1.

He said: 'It come as a bit of a surprise about George. I said I'd stop seeing V1, but I wouldn't give up seeing George.'

Morgan told his wife he was in a sexual relationship - but did not reveal she was an escort.

He said: 'My wife accepted this and allowed me to see her on a limited basis - once every three weeks.

'But I saw her more often than that. I would see her about once a week.

'I wasn't giving her money every time, I would just buy her things instead.'

He gave her a Range Rover worth 12,000 in November 2013.

Morgan said he became more aware of his appearance - losing two stone in weight and had his teeth capped after V1 suggested he do this.

He said he started seeing V1 again along with another woman identified as 'V2'.

In August 2014, Morgan said Ms Symonds came to stay with him for a week in his matrimonial home at Beech Hill Farm while his wife and daughters were on holiday.

He said: 'It meant I could still do what was necessary during the day. Just sorting and answering emails and just general bits and pieces.'

Over the next few months, Morgan said Georgina wanted to give working as an escort.

He said: 'She said she wanted to give up and if I give her 7,000 a month that would cover what she needed and she would be able to not work.

'I wase was happy with this arrangement because it made her happy. I think I loved her.'

Peter Morgan (pictured) is accused of strangling the former burlesque dancer at the bungalow where she lived on the grounds of his castle in Llanmartin, South Wales

He bought her a coat in October 2014 for 1,400 from a clothes shop and gave her monthly cash - after she agreed to take all the information about herself off the internet and stop seeing 'clients'.

Morgan told how his relationship with Georgina became more intense and he moved out of his home with his wife in April 2015 - nine months before the killing.

His victim moved into a bungalow in the grounds of Pencoed Castle, his 45-bedroomed manor house, during the summer of 2015.

He said: 'I would see her around five times a week. Then I was giving her 7,000 a month with money from my company.

'I don't think I made any direct payments into her account. I would normally give her a cheque or pay it into her account for her.'

The court heard how she began to take drugs and drink after her father committed suicide in March.

Morgan said: 'She was taking cocaine and drinking vodka all the time. She had around 700 worth of cocaine on the first couple of nights. A little bag was 40, so this must have been around 35 bags.'

He allegedly killed her at her home in his castle grounds in Llanmartin, Wales before wrapping the body in plastic and duct tape and hiding it in farm buildings behind his family home.

Morgan of Llanellen, near Abergavenny, denies murder saying he was suffering from diminished responsibility and had Asperger's syndrome.
Two women are suing a groom and the event company that ran his wedding reception after they allege he flew a drone that hit them in the head at the New Hampshire event.

Kneena Ellis, of Seabrook, and Kelly Eaton of Peabody, Massachusetts, claim in their December 1 suit that they suffered permanent physical and emotional injury as a result of the August 8 incident.

The suit says Barry Billcliff had flown the drone to take pictures at his wedding reception at Searles Castle in Windham.

Kneena Ellis (left) and Kelly Eaton (right) claim in their December 1 suit that they suffered permanent physical and emotional injury as a result of the August 8 incident during Barry Billcliff's wedding

The suit says Barry Billcliff (pictured with his wife Nichole) had flown the drone to take pictures at his wedding reception at Searles Castle in Windham. It says the drone collided with the women while they were on the dance floor

It says the drone collided with the women while they were on the dance floor.

Eaton claims that the out-of-control drone fractured her nose and orbital bone and left her with a concussion, the Boston Herald reported.

Ellis said the drone's propellers struck her head, leaving a gash that needed more than 20 stitches. She also said she suffered a concussion.

Billcliff, 38, told the Herald he was operating at his wedding but said that he wasn't controlling it when it crashed.

He said that he was near the stage listening to friends perform a song written for the couple.

His attorney, Andrew LaCourse, backed up Billcliff's claims and said his client wasn't operating the drone at the time of the crash.

Eaton claims that the drone fractured her nose and orbital bone and left her with a concussion. Ellis said the drone's propellers struck her head, leaving a gash that needed more than 20 stitches. She also said she suffered a concussion. Pictured is the Searles Castle in Windham

Billcliff said that he was operating the drone (file photo) at his wedding but said that he wasn't controlling it when it crashed. He said he's still unsure who was behind the controls at the time of the incident

'It's regrettable somebody got hurt,' LaCourse said.

'How would anyone think that anything like that would ever happen on their big day?' he said.

When the paramedics arrived, Billcliff said 'that pretty much ended it', adding that his bride, Nichole, was in a 'really, really bad mood'.

Billcliff told the Herald that his wife 'got really mad at me and thought that I just completely ruined the wedding'.

But he insists that he wasn't controlling the drone and is still trying to figure out who was when it lost control.

When the paramedics arrived, Billcliff (right) said 'that pretty much ended it', adding that his bride, Nichole (left), was in a 'really, really bad mood'

The vice president of the Searles Castle, Scott Robb II, said he never gave Billcliff (left and right on the dance floor with his wife) permission to fly the drone and had told him to ground it when he saw him flying it. Robb said the DJ told him Billcliff was operating it at the time

The newlywed said he uses his drone for his off-road adventures and wanted to use it for the wedding.

The vice president of the Searles Castle, Scott Robb II, told the Herald that he never gave Billcliff permission to fly the drone and had even told him to ground it when he saw him flying it.

Robb called for an ambulance after the drone had crashed and he saw blood gushing from a woman's head.
Labour slumped to a new low today after a new poll revealed support for Jeremy Corbyn's party has fallen to 25 per cent.

It is the party's worst showing since the deeply unpopular Gordon Brown was Prime Minister in September 2009.

The Tories have stretched their lead to 17 points, while a boost in support for the Lib Dems puts Tim Farron's party on 11 per cent, one point behind Ukip.

Labour slumped to a new low today after a new poll revealed support for Jeremy Corbyn's party has fallen to 25 per cent

The YouGov poll, conducted over two days earlier this week, also found that Theresa May is more than three times as popular than Mr Corbyn.

Even the answer 'don't know' is scored more than twice as much as the unpopular Labour leader.

Nearly half (49 per cent) said favour Mrs May as Prime Minister, while just 16 per cent said they would prefer Mr Corbyn, while 35 per cent said they couldn't decide between the two.

Asked who they would vote for if there was a general election tomorrow, 42 per cent of respondents said Tory, 25 per cent said Labour, 11 per cent said Lib Dems and 12 per cent said Ukip.

The Tory lead has risen by five points in the last week.

The YouGov poll also found that Theresa May is more than three times as popular than Mr Corbyn

Today's poll compounds the misery for Labour after the party was humiliated in yesterday's by-election in Sleaford and North Hykeham.

Mr Corbyn's party slumped humiliatingly from second place last year to fourth behind Ukip and the Liberal Democrats.

Although new Tory MP Caroline Johnson's victory in the safe Conservative seat was never thought to be in doubt, the scale of Labour's collapse will cause alarm in the party.

Its share of the vote was slashed nearly in half, with the only crumb of comfort the fact that there was no repeat of the disaster in the Richmond by-election last week when it lost its deposit.

Senior figures warned that Mr Corbyn's weak stance on immigration was driving voters into the arms of Ukip.

The veteran-left winger has repeatedly refused to back targets for reducing inflows, arguing that curbing numbers is not a priority. Instead he stresses the importance of stopping wages being undercut.

But Welsh Labour leader Carwyn Jones said Mr Corbyn's views and those of his small clique of allies such as shadow home secretary Diane Abbott were 'London-centric' and out of step with the wider population.

Theresa May, pictured with children outside No 10 yesterday as she switched on the Downing Street Christmas tree, has stretched the Tory lead over Labour to 17 points, the latest poll showed today

Even the answer 'don't know' is scored more than twice as much as the unpopular Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, pictured at the Party of European Socialists Council in Prague last week

'That is not the way people see it outside London. London is very different: it is a cosmopolitan city and has high levels of immigration. It has that history. It is not the way many other parts of the UK are,' he told the Guardian.

'People see it very differently in Labour-supporting areas of the north of England, for example. We have to be very careful that we don't drive our supporters into the arms of Ukip.'

Labour MP Jess Phillips said the party's messages on Brexit and immigration had been 'all over the place'.

'I think we have got to listen when people talk about immigration,' she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. 'I think we have to talk about limits.'

Ms Phillips questioned whether Mr Corbyn was capable of putting forward proposals on immigration that could command widespread support.

She suggested that the country needed a 'pause for breath' while it considered how to deal with the rising population.
Nigel Farage has made an extraordinary pitch for a role negotiating an end to conflict in the Middle East.

The former Ukip leader insisted he could help settle differences in the world's most volatile region as he is 'good at bringing people together'.

He argued that his strong personal relationship with US president-elect Donald Trump would be useful with forging a 'coherent approach'.

The bold bid comes after Theresa May rebuffed a call from the billionaire tycoon for Mr Farage to be made British ambassador to the US.

The former Ukip leader (pictured in Trump Tower with the president elect last month) insisted he could help settle differences in the world's most volatile region

The MEP - famously pictured with the incoming commander-in-chief in Trump Tower shortly after his stunning victory - has vented his fury at being shunned by the Prime Minister.

In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, Mr Farage reiterated that he is ready to do whatever he can to bolster the Special Relationship.

He said when he held the meeting with the president-elect last month he realised he wanted to 'build something' rather than 'knock something down'.

'What came from that meeting was a very strong feeling in my head that I'd spent most of my career trying to knock things down. I've been quite good at it, too,' Mr Farage said.

'But I thought after that meeting, here was a chance to build something, here was a chance to play a constructive role.'

He said the election of Trump was an opportunity to create a 'proper US-UK relationship'.

A trans-Atlantic free trade deal would 'put the wind up the German car industry' and strengthen the government's hand in the Brexit negotiations, he argued.

There is also potential to 'redefine' the Nato military alliance, according to Mr Farage.

Vladimir Putin's forces are supporting Syrian ruler Bashar Assad against rebels, including the notorious bombing campaign against Aleppo

'There is a very big threat to Nato, and it is not Donald Trump, it is Jean-Claude Juncker, who is determined to use the Trump victory to say let's get rid of the Americans and form our own army,' the MEP said.

'That is very dangerous, and Britain has a huge role to play as the defence bridge between Europe and America.

'Trump is in a position to say, "OK, let's redefine what Nato is: everyone pays their way, and if you seek to undermine us with a European army, we're out of here."'

But the most surprising remarks by Mr Farage came when he stressed the possibilities of working with Trump to defuse tensions in the Middle East.

He said it was crucial to have a 'coherent approach to ISIS and everything else'.

'I'm not suggesting that I can do everything but I do think that I'm quite good at negotiating, I'm quite good at bringing people together,' Mr Farage said.

Asked whether that meant he wanted to bring peace to the Middle East, he replied: 'I'm good at bringing people together... When it comes to business I am.'

The Middle East has a myriad of problems that have proved largely intractable for decades - if not centuries.

Mr Farage made light of Trump's call for him to be made ambassador to the US last month by handing round Ferrero Rocher at a party

Trump said during the presidential campaign that he wants to take a tougher line against ISIS.

But he has also signalled he may be more willing to work with Russia on key issues.

Vladimir Putin's forces are supporting Syrian ruler Bashar Assad against rebels who are currently backed by the West.

The action has notoriously included a bombing campaign against rebel stronghold Aleppo that has left thousands dead or injured and lacking basic supplies.
A New York City police officer who was allegedly drunk during his shift, has been stripped of his gun and badge.

Officer Richard Evans was accused of being drunk on the job during his Thursday midnight to 8am shift at the 52nd Precinct in Norwood, a neighborhood in the Bronx.

A photo that was obtained by the New York Post shows the officer sleeping in a chair with his belly exposed in the station's locker room last year.

Officer Richard Evans was stripped of his gun and badge after he was accused of being drunk on the job during his Thursday midnight to 8am shift at the 52nd Precinct in the Bronx. This photo was taken last year in the locker room and officers believed he was drunk then as well

Authorities have determined that Evans (left and right) is 'unfit for duty' amid the allegations that he was drunk while responding to an incident. The 44-year-old was on shift when he and his partner responded to a report of a dispute between neighbors

Attorney Eric Sanders told the newspaper that other officers believed he was intoxicated at the time.

Authorities have determined that Evans is 'unfit for duty' amid the allegations that he was drunk while responding to an incident.

'He was clearly inebriated. He was slurring his words,' a police official told the Post.

The 44-year-old was on shift when he and his partner responded to a report of a dispute between neighbors, sources told the newspaper.

Someone at the scene accused Evans of being drunk.

He denied the allegation, but his partner called a supervisor anyway.

Someone at the scene accused Evans of being drunk. He denied the allegation, but his partner called a supervisor anyway. Another individual captured video of Evans and made a complaint to 311. Evans (pictured) was immediately suspended without pay

The officer reportedly described as a problem drinker. Sources told the Post that he's 'having issues' and no one has been able to do anything about it. Pictured is the 52nd Precinct in Norwood

Another individual captured video of Evans and made a complaint to 311, sources told the Post.

Shortly after being declared fit for duty, Evans reportedly went back to the precinct and was interviewed by a duty captain who suspended him.

NYPD spokesman, J Peter Donald told the Post that Evans, who earned nearly $128,800 this year, was suspended without pay.

In April 2011, Evans posted on Facebook about going to 'beerfest' to get his 'drink on'. Another post followed saying that he really doesn't think his 'liver can take overtime'

The officer was reportedly described as a problem drinker.

Sources told the Post that he's 'really sick and having issues' and no one has been able to do anything about it.

In April 2011, Evans posted on Facebook about going to 'beerfest' to get his 'drink on'. Another post followed saying that he really doesn't think his 'liver can take overtime'.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan met Friday to discuss their policy agenda, a spokeswoman for Ryan said.

The spokeswoman, AshLee Strong, gave no details. Officials in Trump's team said the meeting was taking place but did not elaborate.

Ryan gave a brief statement to reporters afterward, but offered no hints about what he called a 'very exciting meeting.'

U.S. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan met with President-elect Donald Trump on Friday morning at Trump Tower in New York

Trump and Ryan battled during the presidential campaign but their new partnership in Washington has meant they speak about once a day

'I really enjoyed coming up here and meeting with the president-elect,' he said. 'We had a great meeting to talk about our transition. We are very excited about getting to work and hitting the ground running in 2017 and put this country back on track.'

Trump squeezed him in before jetting to Louisiana to appear at GOP Senate candidate John Kennedy's get-out-the-vote rally in Baton Rouge.

Differences between Ryan and Trump during the presidential campaign have reportedly given way to a productive working relationship as the Republican president-elect prepares to take office on Jan. 20.

Ryan, the top House Republican, has said the two men speak almost every day.

Trump has been meeting with experts, advisers and candidates for senior positions in his administration since winning the Nov. 8 election. He has nominated a dozen people already.

He has yet to fill the position of secretary of state, however.

The long list of possible candidates for that job now includes former Ford Motor Co CEO Alan Mulally, Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway told Fox News on Friday.

Ryan delivered the briefest of statements to the press, calling it a 'very exciting meeting' bit providing no details

A meeting with Democratic U.S. Senator Joe Manchin was rescheduled from Friday to Monday to accommodate work in the Senate on a government funding bill, Manchin's spokesman said.

The House passed legislation on Thursday to fund federal agencies until April 28.

The bill now rests with the Senate, where Democrats are upset over the temporary, rather than long-term, extension of healthcare benefits for retired coal miners, a key constituency in Manchin's state of West Virginia.
A school bus driver who stranded his vehicle in floodwater with 23 children on board has been jailed for 12 months.

Former soldier Graham Jones, 53, told York Crown Court he made a 'genuine mistake' when he drove the children, aged between 11 and 18, into floods.

The 53-year-old passed two road closed signs, leaving the bus stuck in thigh-deep water, with passengers having to be rescued by firefighters in North Yorkshire.

A jury found him guilty of dangerous driving on Friday after deliberating for about an hour.

Judge Paul Batty QC told Jones that he did not understand why he had not pleaded guilty to the offence given the overwhelming evidence against him.

Graham Jones drove past two road closed signs before stranding his vehicle in floodwater

The judge told him he displayed 'vaunted arrogance' in the witness box as he tried to explain to the jury why he took the schoolchildren from the village of Newton-on-Ouse, near York, through one flooded area of Tollerton Lane and then into an even deeper stretch, which the judge described as 'an expanse of water as far as the eye could see'.

Judge Batty said: 'God knows why you drove through and, of course, the inevitable happened.'

He said: 'God knows what the children were thinking about as this was happening.'

Judge Batty told Jones he showed no appreciation of the danger he put the children in and 'the potentially devastating consequences that could have occurred because of your dangerous, your reckless act'.

He said: 'This was an extremely bad case of dangerous driving. The consequences that could have followed simply do not bear thinking about.'

Jones told the jury of seven men and five women that he went through the first section of floodwater on January 5 because he thought it was shallow enough not to cause him any problems.

But he said that when he entered the second section, he realised water was coming in through the side door of his bus.

Jones said he put the vehicle in reverse but the bus began to move sideways until it got stuck in a roadside ditch.

He said both he and the children were traumatised by what happened as firefighters had to wade into the water to carry everyone on board to safety.

Jones said some of the teenagers broke a window as he tried to reassure them and urged them to stay on the vehicle until help arrived.

'It was a genuine mistake,' he said.

And he added: 'I did not put the children's lives in danger. No, I did not class it as dangerous.'

Judge Batty told prosecutors that the quick-thinking teenager who phoned the emergency services from the bus should be identified and granted a 50 reward from public money.

Jones repeatedly denied driving dangerously, although he admitted his driving was careless

He also told Jones, who was convicted of drink-driving in 1999, that he will be banned from driving for four years.

The judge said he had taken into account the defendant's exemplary record as a soldier for 23 years and, after that, his service for a further 11 years providing security for RAF bases.

Judge Batty told Jones that the incident happened after floods of 'Biblical proportions' in the York area and as the children, who were heading for Easingwold School, were starting their first day back after the Christmas holidays.

He said the area was notorious for flooding and he did not accept Jones's evidence that he did not see one of the 'road closed' signs.

And the judge said he 'utterly rejected' the defendant's claim that the water had got deeper by the time police filmed the road three hours after the incident.

Earlier, Julian Tanikal, defending, said: 'He has been genuinely upset by the predicament he put those children in.'

Mr Tanikal asked for his client's prison sentence to be suspended but Judge Batty refused.

He told the judge that Jones lost his job with Stephenson's of Easingwold after the incident but the firm gave him a reference and he was later employed as a driver by a firm in Harrogate.

Jones, of Linton Woods Lane, Linton-on-Ouse, was found guilty of one charge of dangerous driving after a one-day trial.
Mugshot of Tyler Sinkus Smither who is charged with two counts of indecent liberties with a child

The mother of an 11-year-old boy found naked pictures of his pastor on his mobile phone.

The Florida woman recognized the man in the indecent photos and typed his phone number into Facebook.

It led her to Harbor United Methodist Church pastor Tyler Sinkus Smither.

The 30-year-old youth pastor from Wilmington, North Carolina was arrested and is charged with two counts of indecent liberties with a child.

An affidavit, written by a New Hanover County Sheriffs Detective Christina Starman, says that Smither first contacted the boy using a chat website, Omegle.

The pair began talking and Smither allegedly sent photos of his face and other parts of his body including his genitals, reports Star News Online.

His distinctive tattoos were also visible.

'The suspect did not stop the conversation and continued to send nude photos of himself, as well as ask for more photos of the juvenile,' Detective Starman wrote in the affidavit.

Lead pastor at the church, Russ Nanney, told Star News that Smither's employment with the church ended the day he was arrested.

It is believed that Nanney addressed the situation in a sermon he gave two days after Smither's arrest - although he did not refer to him by name.

Smither allegedly sent photos of his face and other parts of his body including his genitals to the 11-year-old boy and asked him to send photos back

Speaking to the congregation Nanney said: 'He is a man who was loved, a man who we trusted, a man with whom we share memories and laughter with, but a man who fell.

'I have yet to process this. I have processed it in my head, but not in my heart.'

The mother of the boy found the naked pictures thanks to a parental control option she had set up on her son's phone.

Verizon, his cell provider, notified her that a stranger had been contacting her son so she had a look on the phone.
An illegal immigrant from Mexico who is wanted for killing two people in a hit-and-run accident in Kentucky has been deported from the United States eight times, the federal government said on Wednesday.

Miguel Angel Villasenor-Saucedo, a 40-year-old Mexican national, was living illegally in Louisville, Kentucky, when he allegedly drove drunk and killed two women on October 22, WAVE-TV reported.

The incident occurred at approximately 5:30am on the Outer Loop roadway in Louisville.

Local traffic police reported that two women who had just been involved in a separate accident were standing next to their car when they were struck by a vehicle driven by Villasenor-Saucedo, according to WAVE.

Miguel Angel Villasenor-Saucedo (above), a 40-year-old Mexican national, was living illegally in Louisville, Kentucky, when the hit-and-run took place on October 22

The suspect then sped off. Police have been searching for Villasenor-Saucedo since the incident.

One of the women struck in the accident was identified as Migidalia Morell-Manso, 49, WAVE reported.

Villasenor-Saucedo was indicted in absentia for illegally re-entering the United States by a federal grand jury.

If convicted, he faces up to two years in federal prison.

He is also facing charges from Kentucky authorities for leaving the scene of an accident and failing to maintain insurance and an operators license, according to The Courier-Journal.

One of the women struck in the accident was identified as Migidalia Morell-Manso (above), 49

Villasenor-Saucedos undocumented status was confirmed in a statement released by the Justice Department.

Federal records show that Villasenor-Saucedo was apprehended by border patrol agents on at least four occasions in Texas.

In June and September 2011, he told law enforcement that he had swam across the Rio Grande River near Brownsville.

On another occasion, he said that he had rafted across the river and came ashore near Hidalgo, Texas.
A ten-year-old girl who fought back when two men attempted to gang-rape her was set on fire and thrown into a well.

The schoolgirl is fighting for her life after the attack in Jharkhand, in eastern India.

She was playing outside her home in the village of Kandra when two men approached her with sweets.

The young girl refused, and was dragged to a nearby stone-crushing unit, where the men stripped her and tried to rape her, the Hindustan Times reports.

The horrific attack happened in the village of Kandra, in eastern India, leaving the girl fighting for her life

When she tried to escape, they poured kerosine on her, which they set alight before throwing her into the well.

It was only when a woman who was passing by heard her cry that she was pulled out by villagers, and she was taken to hospital with severe burns.

Charges of attempt to rape and attempt to murder have been registered against two men, who have yet to be found, while five suspects have been detained for questioning.

The young girl suffered 60 per cent burns, the Indian Express states.

Police discovered a jerry can, matchsticks and burned clothes belonging to the girl nearby, according to reports in India.
The best-selling author of 'Water For Elephants' desperately wants to sell 156 Hatchimal toys that she bought for more than $23,000 in the hopes of reselling them at a higher price.

Sara Gruen, who lives in Asheville, North Carolina with her husband and their three sons, spent $23,595 to purchase the toys on eBay after Black Friday. Demand for Hatchimals has been so high this Christmas season that parents have struggled to get their hands on them. The interactive toys come in an egg and need to be cajoled until they hatch, at which point children can take care of them and teach them tricks.

Gruen said she wanted to resell her Hatchimals and use the money to pay the legal fees of a man she believes was wrongfully convicted of murder 23 years ago. She claimed she had already racked up $150,000 of debt trying to get the man's case back before the Supreme Court and that she was working on a documentary series about the convict, whom she has not named.

Others have tried to profit from the Hatchimals craze. Two Arizona brothers began stocking up on the toys in October and said they had recouped their $5,000 investment by selling only 40 out of the 100 ones they had snatched. Other re-sellers currently have Hatchimals fetching $100 or $200 on websites such as eBay and Amazon.

But Gruen was shocked to see that eBay would only allow her to sell three Hatchimals per week, meaning she would be able to get rid of less than ten toys before Christmas. Gruen thought she had run up the credit cards for nothing and quickly saw what she thought was a clever plot turn into a nightmare.

Author Sara Gruen (left) spent $23,595.31 to purchase 156 Hatchimals (right, file picture) on eBay after Black Friday and hoped to sell them at a higher price

But Gruen (pictured with her inventory) was shocked to see that eBay would only allow her to sell three Hatchimals per week, meaning she would be able to sell only ten by Christmas

'Now there are Hatchimals stacked up around every side of my office. I am having Hatchimal nightmares,' Gruen wrote on Facebook.

'I have a fortune invested, only one venue to offload them, and in only three weeks they will magically transform into useless pumpkins that will take up space in my office FOREVER, and have caused my financial ruin.'

Hatchimals typically cost $50 or $60. But re sellers have hiked up prices as the toys have grown increasingly hard to find.

Gruen said she couldn't sell her Hatchimals on Amazon without a letter from the manufacturer, Canadian company Spin Master. Bonanza, she said, wouldn't let her because she hadn't previously sold Hatchimals.

'It felt like I got hit with a freight train. I waited until the next morning to tell my husband that I'd completely ruined us,' Gruen told Philly Voice.

'He should have murdered me. I ran up the credit cards for this. But, he feels sorry for me. He feels bad that I feel bad. I married a saint.'

Gruen said she started to have 'Hatchimal nightmares' after realizing that it would be hard to sell the 156 Hatchimals that filled her home (pictured)

The author wrote a lengthy Facebook post explaining why she had gone on a Hatchimal-buying frenzy, then announcing she had opened her own online store to sell them

Gruen eventually created her own online store to sell the toys and said on Facebook two days later that she had gotten rid of 40 per cent of her inventory, as well as four Hatchimals donated to children in need. Her Hatchimals are currently listed between $189 and $219. Each comes with a signed copy of one of her books.

EBay removed the restrictions on Gruen's account after verifying she had the stock she claimed. Bonanza gave her approval, but Gruen closed her storefront there regardless.

EBay told the DailyMail.com in a statement: 'EBay applies selling limits to help ensure a safe and consistent experience for all eBay members. We may increase or decrease seller limits based on a sellers current selling practices or performance.

'In certain instances, eBay may place limits on accounts or on particular categories and items until we can confirm certain information, selling practices are addressed, and/or a positive selling history is established.'

Amazon said: 'We want customers to be able to shop with confidence on Amazon. We consider several factors when determining qualifications and criteria to sell certain products. For certain products, brands and categories, Amazon requires additional performance checks and other qualification requirements.'

Some Facebook users were outraged at the thought that Gruen would try to raise money by reselling toys, and accused her of taking advantage of parents trying to fulfill their children's Christmas wishes.

'Honestly at this point I don't really care what your profit is! There are plenty of other ways to raise money! Not preying on families who wish to buy what is originally a semi non-expensive Christmas gift for their children and asking 3 times a mark up! one of them wrote.

Some Facebook users were outraged and accused Gruen of taking advantage of parents who were only trying to fulfill their children's wishes for Christmas

Demand for Hatchimals (file picture) has been so high that even manufacturer Spin Master said its expectations were exceeded. Additional toys were expected to hit the shelves in December

Gruen is not the only one who has tried to cash in on the Hatchimal gold rush. Two Arizona brothers, Mike and Stan Zappa, spent $5,000 to buy 100 Hatchimals in October. By the time Gruen purchased her own toys, they had sold 40 and recouped their investment.

The Zappa brothers bashed Gruen's approach, saying she had arrived too late and bought them at too high a price.

'We are not trying to be negative here, but spending $24,000 on a product at its inflated price is probably the worst business decision we've ever seen in terms of economics. Economics 101: Buy low, sell high,' Mike told Philly Voice.

This advisory, currently displayed on Hatchimals' website, tries to appease parents struggling to find the toys as Christmas looms

'This woman reacted to a market well into the demand craze around Black Friday. Now she has inventory and she can't get rid of them! Every day that goes by, the market for a product adjusts as the demand begins to settle!' he had previously written on Facebook.

Amazon currently has several listings for Hatchimals going above $200. One of them goes as far as $295.

Hundreds of auctions on eBay reach around $100. A listing for four Hatchimals has reached $455.

Spin Master, meanwhile, is trying to appease parents who are struggling to find Hatchimals as Christmas looms.

'The consumer response to Hatchimals has been extraordinary, exceeding all expectations. This is a special season and we don't want anyone to be disappointed, nor do we support inflated prices from non-authorized resellers,' an advisory on the company's website reads.

'While additional product will hit retail shelves in December, we anticipate this inventory will also sell out quickly. We have increased production and a whole new batch of Hatchimals will be ready to hatch in early 2017.'
Department of Interior has itself been hit by claims of corruption - and scandal over years of persistent sexual

ethics prone over claims she ran campaign operations out of her government office

But she is the subject of an

Donald Trump's frontrunner to lead the scandal-plagued Department of the Interior is a congresswoman currently under a House ethics investigation for misusing government funds.

Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Republican Congresswoman, is at the top of Trump's short list for secretary of the Department of the Interior, sources close to the transition told the Dailymail.com, and could be announced as soon as Friday.

But as the subject of an ongoing ethics probe, McMorris Rodgers's appointment could complicate Trump's election promise to 'drain the swamp' in Washington D.C.

Congressional investigators have been looking into allegations the 47-year-old congresswoman from Washington state ran campaign operations out of her government office and sent aides to campaign events on the taxpayer dime.

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Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a GOP congresswoman from Washington state, is expected to be President-elect Donald Trump's pick for Interior Secretary. Together they're pictured above in November at the clubhouse of Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey

Questions: Cathy McMorris Rodgers (right) is being investigated over ethics code violation allegations

The probe was launched nearly three years ago, and although investigators have stayed tight-lipped on the matter, sources confirmed that it remains open.

The investigation could be hurdle to a Senate confirmation, particularly since lawmakers have raised concerns about a string of recent corruption, sexual harassment, and nepotism scandals at the Department of the Interior.

But it could be a double-victory for McMorris Rodgers if she's appointed. The House Ethics Committee often shelves its investigations into lawmakers if they leave congress before the cases are resolved.

In 2014, a separate congressional oversight office looking into the case found 'substantial reason to believe that Representative McMorris Rodgers used congressional funds, staff, and office space for campaign activities.'

According to the Office of Congressional Ethics report, McMorris Rodgers blurred the line between her congressional office and campaigns for reelection and Republican leadership between 2010 and 2012.

The office found indications that her House aides did campaign work on the government clock, including traveling for campaign events and a trip to the 2012 Republican National Convention.

She also allegedly used House office space and resources for debate prep and videos, and used a paid campaign consultant to help her get ready for congressional media appearances.

McMorris Rodgers told investigators that she did have a campaign debate prep meeting at her congressional office because she was worried her home would be too noisy due to her children.

She has denied knowledge of any wrongdoing and said her aides were responsible for managing the firewall between her House and campaign work.

The Department of Interior has hit by claims of corruption, with female employees coming forward to report persistent sexual harassment at Grand Canyon National Park (pictured)

The ethics office recommended the case to the House Ethics Committee, which took over the probe in early 2014.

The committee has declined to publicly address the case, and a spokesman told the Dailymail.com that he had 'no comment.'

At least one former McMorris Rodgers aide has spoken out publicly about the probe, claiming that he faced retribution from McMorris Rodgers and her close aides for cooperating with investigators.

The staffer, Todd Winer, said the congresswoman 'defamed' him in the media by planting stories that suggested he made up stories of wrongdoing by McMorris Rodgers because he was disgruntled after being fired.

'[McMorris Rodgers's] work to expose, slander, and intimidate a cooperative witness in a Congressional investigation is an unprecedented abuse of power,' Winer wrote in an open letter to media outlets in 2014, published in Roll Call.

'In addition, CMR has violated numerous Congressional rules, lied about those violations, and worked to cover them up. That will become crystal clear as the Ethics Committee continues its work.'

Winer also said the House Ethics Committee was investigating his allegations of reprisals, and claimed there is evidence McMorris Rodgers and aides lied to Office of Congressional Ethics investigators.

He did not respond to an emailed request for comment or phone calls to a listed number.

A spokesperson for McMorris Rodgers did not respond to request for comment.

Her potential appointment has already sent her colleagues vying to replace her as head of the House Republican Conference, a senior GOP leadership position, Politico reported on Thursday.

The Department of Interior (one of their signs pictured above at Wee Thump Joshua Tree Wilderness) is in charge of the management and conservation of federal land and natural resources

The Department of the Interior has been plagued by scandal over the past year, prompting the House Committee on Natural Resources to hold a hearing on the department's 'culture of corruption' last May.

Female employees recently came forward to report persistent sexual harassment by male staff at the Grand Canyon National Park, saying they have been groped, propositioned for sex, and photographed up their skirts.

One top official was also caught giving jobs to friends and relatives, and another recently published an outside book in violation of ethics rules.

Another senior official with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was recently caught spending $96,000 in government money on personal travel, and was paid $400,000 by an outside group that receives grants from his office.

Ethics questions were also raised after the department was forced to shutter an geological lab in Colorado last spring, amid reports that analysts had intentionally manipulated environmental and energy data for decades.

The inspector general for the Department of the Interior referred 29 cases of alleged criminal misconduct to the Justice Department last year, although Republicans criticized the law enforcement agency for only prosecuting 12 of those cases.

Senior leaders at the Department of the Interior are accused of turning a blind eye to misconduct within the agency.

The department's top oversight official told congress earlier this year that she was 'continually surprised by the variations of misconduct brought to our attention,' adding that 'management avoids discipline altogether' by transferring problem employees to other positions.
A love rat teamed up with his girlfriend to humiliate his secret lover by posting naked pictures of her on Facebook.

Juan Majendie, 30, from Finchley in North London, left his victim unable to sleep with stress after sharing photos of her in sexual positions on two fake Facebook accounts.

The incident took place after Majendie decided to end his relationship with the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

Juan Majendie, 30, and his girlfriend Illona Wroblewska, 22, (both pictured) shared naked photos of his lover on Facebook - but avoided jail

He had been struggling to decide between her and his partner Illona Wroblewska, 22, and initially told the victim he would end his relationship for her.

However, he had a change of heart and told his lover he did not want to see her again.

Shortly after the relationship ended, the victim received a threatening letter from Ms Wroblewska.

Wroblewska warned the woman that she had naked photos of her and would post them online unless she stayed away from Majendie.

Emily Morrison, prosecuting, said: She told her that Mr Majendie was the one cheating on her.

On June 7, the victim woke up at 9am to find two fake Facebook accounts set up, one in the name of her friend. They contained seven pictures of her, one of which was naked.

In others the victim was in sexual poses or states of undress.

She felt great embarrassment that her friends had seen them, her boss had seen them.

Ms Morrison read an emotional victim statement from the complainant, which said: I cannot sleep, I need to take medication.

The victim received a threatening letter from Wroblewska telling her she had got her hands on naked images of the woman

He was my partner for four years, and those pictures were taken two years ago.

I loved and trusted him. How can I trust anyone now?

The court heard how the victim had not been back to work since the pictures were seen by her colleagues.

She said: Its a professional environment. Id on occasion been asked to be duty manager.

I feel my two years have been stripped away. Im naked again. 

James Hasslacher, defending, said that while his client had been at fault - it was really a dispute between his girlfriend and his former lover.

He :The real battle that took place was in fact between the women.

Mr Majendie adopted and approves of her action afterwards. Its an ongoing offence, he joins in after its started.

Hes not saying 'its not all me', just its a lot to do with her, which is true.

Majendie and Wroblewska both admitted disclosing private photographs at separate hearings.

Sentencing Majendie, Judge Caroline English said: This is a thoroughly obnoxious offence.

She [the victim] couldnt eat, she couldnt sleep.

Majendie (pictured, with girlfriend Wroblewska) was told by Judge Caroline English that he had committed a 'thoroughly obnoxious offence'

She will be forever wondering if anyone undertakes an Internet search of her name in the future if these pictures will emerge.

It is plain that you played these women off against each other, and you are a highly manipulative individual.

You played hard and loose with their emotions.

You are very lucky over how your partner was dealt with at the lower court, because for me this offence crosses the custody threshold by a country mile.

If both of you had been before me you would both be facing imprisonment.

Majendie was handed a two-month suspended sentence, ordered to pay compensation of 750 and costs of 530.

He was also given a restraining order, banning him from contacting the complainant directly or indirectly until further notice.

Wroblewska, from Finchley, north London, was given a six week prison sentence suspended for 12 months during a hearing at Thames Magistrates earlier this year.
But she was never charged in her stepson's

The step-mother of an Oregon boy who has been missing for six years has had a restraining order taken out on her by her boyfriend, after she allegedly threatened him with a knife.

Terri Horman, who now goes by her maiden name Moulton, was the last person to see seven-year-old Kyron Horman alive before he disappeared from his Portland, Oregon school in June 2010.

While police never called her a person of interest in the case, she was the subject of public suspicions in the boy's disappearance, including the boy's father who has since divorced her.

Moulton, 46, moved to Northern California last year to escape the 'haters' who think she killed Kyron, and that's where she met and started dating Joseph Cristobal.

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Terri Moulton (left) has had a restraining order taken out on her by her boyfriend. She was the step-mom of Kyron Horman (right), an Oregon boy who went missing in June 2010

Cristobal, a Sacramento adult caregiver, filed a restraining order against his live-in girlfriend on November 28, when she held a knife up to him and threatened him and his family.

'She was trying to put a knife  a kitchen knife to my face and then she was telling me that if I talked to law enforcement that something is going to happen to me or my family,' he told KGW.

He told the news station that he now fears for his life.

'I don't even know what she's capable of,' he added.

Cristobal also said that he didn't know about his girlfriend's connection to the Horman case until recently and that he is suspicious of her.

'She has two phones. One that she calls a burner phone and one that she normally uses for her personal stuff,' he said.

No charges have been filed in the incident, but a hearing has been scheduled for December 16.

That same day, Moulton is due in court for another matter stemming from an issue with her former male roommate in Marysville, California.

Earlier this week, it was revealed that Moulton allegedly stole her roommate's gun and then failed to show up in court to face the charges of grand theft firearm.

Kyron's birth mother, Desiree Young (pictured together), said of Moulton's arrest for grand theft firearm: I think that her time is running out and I think that she knows that'

Moultons roommate in California reported his handgun missing in August 2015, accusing the woman of taking it from his safe without permission. When Sacramento police went to interview Moulton, they said she had the missing firearm in her possession.

Moutlon was arrested and booked into the Yuba County Jail in early July 2016 on a misdemeanor charge of grand theft of a fireman after she failed to show up in court for her arraignment in November 2015.

Moulton was released on bail the same day and later pleaded not guilty to the theft charge. She is due back in court for a hearing on December 16, reported OregonLive.com.

Kyron's biological mother, Desiree Young, has long blamed Moulton for her sons disappearance. In the wake of her arrest in California, Young told KGW the gun charge further reinforces the idea that we have the right person.

Moulton was the last person to have seen Kyron on the morning of June 4, 2010, when she dropped him off at school. Above is the last picture of Kyron, taken by Moulton, at the child's science fair the morning he disappeared

I think that her time is running out and I think that she knows that. We are getting closer and closer to her and I think that she should be scared, Young said.

The woman also suggested that Moulton might harm someone else before she is finally held accountable for whatever happened to her son.

Terri Moulton, then still known as Horman, gave her first interview about Kyron's disappearance to ABC's Good Morning America in January, lamenting that her life was turned upside down in the wake of the tragedy.

'I saw him walking down to his room. My vision of him is the back of his head almost at the door,' Horman recalled, speaking of Kyron. 'That's what I see when I sit here and think about him  that's my last thought.'

In the weeks and months after Kyron's disappearance, Moulton (pictured second right) said their family, including the boy's biological mother, Desiree Young (second left), turned against one another. The boy's father Kain Horman pictured on the far right

Moulton (pictured left in August 2010) has never been charged in Kyron's disappearance or named a person of interest

Shortly after 8am on June 4, 2010, Horman dropped off Kyron at Skyline Elementary School for the science fair. She took photos of her stepson in front of his project and then left to run some errands with her daughter, Kiara. That was the last time she saw the bespectacled 7-year-old boy with a gap-toothed smile.

At 2.30pm that day, when Terri and her then-husband Kaine Horman, headed to the bus stop to meet Kyron from school, they learned from the bus driver that the second-grader was not there.

Moulton then called Kyron's elementary school and was told that he wasn't there either, even though his jacket and book bag still hung on a hook in a classroom. By that point, the boy had been unaccounted for for six hours.

A large-scale search operation was then launched but failed to turn up any clues.

Several weeks later, Terri Horman failed a polygraph test - an outcome she has blamed on her emotional state.

Nearly two months after Kyron had gone missing, Horman's husband, Kaine, left her with their daughter after the couple had an explosive argument. Their divorce was finalized in 2013.

In court filings, Kaine Horman said he believes Terri 'is involved' in Kyron's disappearance CNN reported.
Dutch prosecutors say the suspect was planning to carry out a terrorist atrocity

They also found an ISIS flag and four boxes of highly

A terror suspect with a loaded AK-47 and ISIS flag has been arrested in the Dutch city of Rotterdam, it has emerged.

Police found the Kalashnikov with two full magazines when they swooped on the 30-year-old's apartment in the port city.

Prosecutors say he was planning a terrorist attack and also had a haul of highly explosive illegal fireworks. Anti-terror police launched a raid after a tip-off from the Dutch intelligence services.

A terror suspect with a loaded AK-47 and ISIS flag has been arrested in the Dutch city of Rotterdam (pictured), it has emerged

Detectives searched the individual's apartment after receiving a tip-off from intelligence agency AIVD, prosecutors said.

As well as the gun, four boxes of highly explosive illegal fireworks were also found along with mobile telephones and 1,600 euros (1,340) in cash.

'He is suspected of preparing a terrorist crime,' the prosecutors said in a statement on Friday. A large image of the flag of jihadist group ISIS was also found.

The suspect's identity was not released, in line with Dutch privacy guidelines.

He was brought before a magistrate in Rotterdam today and is being held in custody for two weeks as investigations continue.

The Netherlands' terrorism threat level has been at one below the highest level since March 2013, meaning that officials believe there is a realistic chance of an attack.

The arrest was made on the same day that anti-Islam Dutch MP Geert Wilders was found guilty of discrimination against Moroccans - but acquitted of hate speech in a closely-watched trial ahead of next year's key elections.

Judges decided not to impose any sentence or fine, and Wilders immediately vowed to appeal against what he said was a bid to 'neutralise' him ahead of the March polls.

The 30-year-old was arrested on suspicion of preparing a terrorist crime. An image of an ISIS flag was found in the apartment (file picture of an ISIS fighter)

The Wednesday arrest was not the first time a terror suspect has been detained in Rotterdam.

In March, a 32-year-old Frenchman was arrested at the request of French authorities who suspected him of involvement in a terror plot. De Bruin said Wednesday's operation had no connection to that arrest.

Dutch law enforcement agencies have been on high alert across the country since the November 2015 bombings in Paris, and the March suicide attacks on the Brussels metro and airport. Both France and Belgium neighbour the small northern European country.

Last week, the European police agency Europol warned that terror networks such as ISIS are evolving their tactics to attack soft targets across the continent.

And the Dutch counter-terrorism agency has warned that fighters who left to join ISIS in Iraq and Syria could pose a threat as they return home.

About 270 Dutch people left to join the jihadists, and about 40 former fighters are known to have returned from combat in Syria and Iraq, where most have been fighting against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

Another 190 Dutch citizens including women and children are still in Syria and Iraq, the agency said in a report last month while 44 fighters have been killed.

'The number of returning jihadist fighters will pick up should the 'caliphate' be militarily defeated or collapse,' the agency said in its latest 'Terrorism Threat Assessment'.
Bad teacher: California English teacher Trudy Hill, 32, has been charged with oral copulation with a minor and sending harmful matter to a minor

A high school teacher from California has been arrested for allegedly having oral sex with her 17-year-old student and sending him obscene photos.

Trudy Hill, 32, an English teacher at Santa Teresa High School in San Jose, turned herself in to police on Thursday and was charged with oral copulation with a minor and sending harmful matter to a minor. She posted bail and was released on bail the same day.

According to police, Hill carried on an inappropriate relationship with the male student between August and November 2016.

Investigators alleged the educator used her position of authority to exploit the victim into a sexual relationship.

Hill has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the criminal investigation and a separate internal probe launched by the school district into the allegations against her.

So far, only one alleged victim has been identified, but police are not ruling out the possibility there may be others, reported San Jose Mercury News.

East Side Union High School District Superintendent Chris Funk said Hill has been with the district for nine years and taught English at Santa Teresa for three.

Hill, who has been at Santa Teresa High School in San Jose (pictured) for three years, is accused of carrying on a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old student between August and November

Video courtesy: KRON

'I was very blindsided by the allegation and very disappointed that it happened at one of our schools,' Funk told ABC 7 News.

In the wake of Hills arrest, Funk released a statement on behalf of the school district saying, in part: 'We are shocked and deeply disturbed by these allegations. We want to assure the community that the safety and well-being of our students is our highest priority.

The superintendent added that the district is cooperating with the police investigation and providing support to the victim and his family.
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Drone footage released by the Syrian army shows the devastating reality of its once greatest city - now reduced to ashes at the hands of rebels.

Bombed-out buildings and destroyed roads, the result of ground fighting and air strikes, could be seen in the footage released on Thursday as the army pressed ahead with an offensive to retake all of Aleppo, once Syria's most populous city.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said that reclaiming Aleppo would swing the course of the nearly six-year civil war in his favour.

Though the city has largely been reclaimed, air raids in Old Aleppo in the city centre and intense clashes in the south of the eastern sector are still reported at an alarming rate.

The drone appears to rise from the ashes as it mounts to view the tattered horizon of the city.

The Syrian army released the video to show the scale of the city's destruction.

Craters from air strikes cover the landscape and illustrate the horrifying reality of the effects of war.

The footage was captured by a drone and released on Thursday by the Syrian army

They hope to document the devastation experienced by the war-torn city

Aleppo, once the most populous city in Syria, has largely been reclaimed from rebels

Syria's government has retaken at least 85 percent of east Aleppo, which fell to rebels in 2012, since beginning its operation on November 15.

The government resumed air strikes on remaining rebel-held territory in east Aleppo on Friday, a day after regime ally Moscow announced a 'pause' in the assault, a monitor said.

On Thursday evening, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Syria's army was halting its three-week operation to recapture east Aleppo in order to allow the evacuation of civilians.

But on Friday afternoon, the Britain-based Observatory, a monitor of the war, said the government's air raids had resumed, targeting several of the few neighbourhoods in the east still held by the rebels.

There were no immediate details of casualties in the strikes.

Air strikes have resumed in rebel-occupied areas of east Aleppo, though there have been no immediate details on casualties in th estrikes

The strikes resumed just after ally Moscow announced a 'pause' in the assault



The U.N. human rights office says it has received reports that hundreds of men have gone missing after crossing from rebel-held eastern Aleppo into government-controlled areas of the Syrian city.

Spokesman Rupert Colville said Friday that family members have reported losing contact with the men, who are between the ages of 30 and 50, after they fled opposition-held areas of Aleppo around a week or 10 days ago.

Colville says the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights is also concerned by reports that some civilians trying to flee are being blocked by armed opposition groups and in some cases being fired upon.

The U.N. has reported hundreds of men have gone missing after fleeing the eastern part of the city from rebel-held areas to government-controlled areas

The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights is also concerned by reports that some civilians trying to flee are being blocked by armed opposition group

In a briefing in Geneva, he said 'civilians are being used as pawns and prevented from leaving.'

Russia began a military intervention to bolster President Bashar al-Assad's government against rebels in 2015, but says it is not participating in the operation to retake Aleppo.

However, the Russian military says it has helped more than 8,000 civilians leave the rebel-controlled eastern part of the city.

As government forces take over rebel-controlled territory, they're forced to inspect many of their rivals' ammunition

Syrian fighters investigate the war materials of their adversaries in the Jdeideh neighbourhood on Friday

A government fighter inspect mortar shells they discovered inside a room in the Bab al-Nasr district of Aleppo's Old City

The military's Center for Reconciliation in Syria said early Friday that 8,461 civilians, including 2,934 children, have left Aleppo's eastern neighborhoods in the last 24 hours.

The center said 14 militants surrendered their weapons and were granted amnesty.

The statement came hours after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Syrian government troops suspended their active operations in Aleppo to allow the evacuation of civilians.
Died in his cell: Mariusz Krezolek (pictured) was serving at least 30 years in prison for killing four-year-old boy Daniel Pelka

The stepfather who abused and murdered four-year-old Daniel Pelka died in his prison cell from a heart attack, an inquest has heard.

Mariusz Krezolek, 36, was serving at least 30 years in jail for killing the boy when he was found dead in his cell at HMP Full Sutton in East Yorkshire.

He complained of chest pains to prison staff only a few hours before he was found dead by guards in his cell as they did their morning rounds on C-wing.

Krezolek and his partner Magdalena Luczak systematically starved Daniel and locked him in a box room, where he slept on a urine-soaked mattress.

The stepfathers death in January came six months after his partner and Daniel's mother, Luczak, was found hanging in her prison cell at HMP Foston Hall in Derbyshire.

Questions were raised at an inquest yesterday over whether an ambulance should have been called when he told of his chest pains, reported the Hull Daily Mail.

Horrifying case: Krezolek and his partner Magdalena Luczak (left) systematically starved Daniel (right) and locked him in a box room, where he slept on a urine-soaked mattress

Prison and probation ombudsman Nigel Newcomen said it was 20 minutes before a nurse arrived to see Krezolek and no ambulance was called.

He added that there were concerns over staff not following procedures for serious medical emergencies when they received reports of his chest pains.

However, Mr Newcomen said: They should have called an ambulance but I cannot say this would have prevented Mariusz Krezolek's death.

Assistant coroner Oliver Longstaff concluded at Hull Coroners Court that Krezolek's death was due to natural causes.

In a statement, staff nurse Linda Bellass said: For me the chest pains and breathlessness were a red flag. Krezolek was crouched on the floor.

He complained of pain which he said was different to what he normally had with his bowel problem.

I advised him to come to the healthcare unity for an ECG assessment but he refused. I wanted to check for cardiac issues but he said no, no.

He was demanding medication but I said it could only be prescribed by the doctor.

Jail: Krezolek was found dead in his cell at HMP Full Sutton (above) in East Yorkshire in January

Daniel died after he was dunked in a cold bath and hit over the head before being shut in his room. A judge found Krezolek delivered the fatal blow.

Krezolek was jailed for life for killing the boy - who resembled a 'famine victim' at the time of his death and foraged for scraps of food from his school bin.

A Prisons Service spokesman said at the time of his death: Staff immediately attempted resuscitation but he was pronounced dead shortly after.

The case of Daniel Pelka brought an outpouring of grief in Coventry and the West Midlands after the little boy was found dead at his home in March 2012.

Despite his weight plunging to just 1.5 stone after a six-month campaign of abuse, his situation was ignored by numerous government agencies because of 'stressed' staff and bad record keeping.

He weighed less than a toddler and stood six inches smaller than average when he died a few months short of his fifth birthday with at least 30 injuries to his emaciated body.

His killers, both originally from Poland, blamed each other for the head injury which ultimately caused Daniel's death. They were found guilty of his murder at a trial in 2013.
Olga Perez Stable Cox, an instructor in Orange Coast College's psychology department, set off a firestorm of criticism for a series of comments on President-elect Donald Trump

A California professor has set off a firestorm of criticism after telling her students Donald Trump's election was an 'act of terrorism.'

Olga Perez Stable Cox, an instructor in Orange Coast College's psychology department, made her comments during a recent human sexuality class, as seen in video posted by a student on Tuesday.

She calls President-elect Trump a 'white supremacist' and Vice President-elect Mike Pence 'one of the most anti-gay humans in this country.'

'And so we are in for a difficult time but again I do believe that we can get past that,' the professor said, as heard in footage of the lecture.

'Our nation is divided, we have been assaulted, its an act of terrorism,' she added. 'One of the most frightening things for me and most people in my life is that the people creating the assault are among us.'

Cox told her students (pictured) Trump is a 'white supremacist' and Vice President-elect Mike Pence 'one of the most anti-gay humans in this country'

The school's College Republicans have filed a formal complaint with the office of college president Dennis Harkins.

'The video, shot during a class on human sexuality, was submitted anonymously to us and we wanted to share it to raise awareness on this issue,' said club president Joshua Recalde-Martinez, a sophomore majoring in political science, to the Huffington Post.

'We want other students to know that we will help protect them against the constant leftist indoctrination we are experiencing in class by exposing behavior like this.'

In a letter, an attorney representing the club, Shawn Steel, called the professor's statements 'inflammatory' and 'extreme.'

'Several of her students were shocked by her behavior,' the lawyer wrote to the school administration.

The school's College Republicans, headed by club president Joshua Recalde-Martinez (pictured), have filed a formal complaint with college administrators

FULL TRANSCRIPT FROM OLGA PEREZ STABLE COX 'white supremacist and a vice president that is one of the most anti-gay humans in this country. And so we are in for a difficult time but again I do believe that we can get past that. Our nation is divided, we have been assaulted, its an act of terrorism. 'One of the most frightening things for me and most people in my life is that the people creating the assault are among us. It is not some stranger from some other country coming and attacking our sense of what it means to be an American and the things that we stand for and that makes it more painful because Im sure that all of us have people in our families and our circle of friends that are part of that movement and it is very difficult ... we are way beyond Republicans and Democrats and were really being back to being at civil war  I dont mean that in a fighting way but our nation is divided as clearly as it was in Civil War times. 'And my hope is we will get leadership to help overcome that. I will go over some coping skills but before i do that I want you to know that the optimist in me, first of all, we are the majority, more of us voted to not have that kind of leadership, and we didnt win because of the way our electoral college is set up but we are the majority and thats helping me to feel better. 'Im relieved that we live in California it is one of the best states and I love that and I love living here but im especially proud of our Legislature who did put out a message ... one of the things Im doing to cope is to look for positive messages and look for some hope thats the optimist in me  and California legislative leaders did put something... and these are things you can find....' Advertisement

'Shes using her power as a teacher who gives grades, with a captive audience, to basically scare and shame students,' said Steel, a former chairman of the California Republican Party, as reported by the OC Register.

'Its alarming. Its scare-mongering. Its irrational. Its a rant  and it doesn't belong in the classroom,' Steel added.

The attorney wants the professor to apologize and take an anger-management class, the OC Register reported.

As of Friday morning, the video had been seen by more than 19,000 people and shared some 363 times.

Cox, who has taught at OCC for 30 years, has not made a statement regarding the incident.

But her union, the Coast Federation of Educators, said on Facebook: 'This is an illegal recording without the permission of the instructor. The student who is sitting in assigned seating will be identified and maybe be facing legal action.

In a letter to OCC officials (pictured), attorney Shawn Steel called the professor's statements 'inflammatory' and 'extreme'

The Coast Federation of Educators, who represents Cox, said the recording of the comments is illegal and could land the student in trouble

California's education code says electronic classroom recordings are prohibited  and students in willful violation face disciplinary action.

School officials are still investigating the complaint against the professor and the context in which the comments were said, Harkins told the OC Register.

'Orange Coast College supports the respectful discussion or discourse of ideas and opinions that exist between students, faculty and staff or the community,' Harkins told the newspaper.

'One of the real purposes of the college experience is to share and interact with people who have different opinions on complex issues.'
The vice president says he was 'embarrassed' by this year's presidential campaign.

'So much for the shining city on the hill,' Joe Biden reflected on Thursday.

Biden said the fight between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump should have been about policy. It became a war of insults.

The vice president says he was 'embarrassed' by this year's presidential campaign. Joe Biden, seen conversing with Hillary Clinton yesterday on Capitol Hill, said the election should have been about policy. It became a war of insults

'This has been a very tough election. It's been ugly, it's been divisive, it's been coarse, it's been dispiriting,' he said at a New York University forum in Washington, D.C.

The vice president lamented that the general election 'was more a battle of personalities than it was a battle of ideas, in my view.'

Biden noted that he's met with nearly every major head of state in the last 35 years.

'I find myself embarrassed by the nature of the way in which this campaign was conducted,' he said.

Biden later shared a stage with Clinton at an event on Capitol Hill. The former U.S. Senators spoke at a ceremony honoring retiring Democratic leader Harry Reid.

Biden and Clinton are pictured together on the campaign trail in August in Biden's childhood hometown, Scranton

Clinton addressed her election loss from the podium.

'This is not exactly the speech at the Capitol I hoped to be giving after the election,' she said. 'But after a few weeks of taking selfies in the woods, I thought it would be a good idea to come out.'

Biden kept his remarks focused on Reid, who was the top Democrat in the Senate during Obama's eight years in office, and the tough votes he had to cast on the White House's behalf.

He shared a laugh with Clinton and a hug and a kiss with her at the event before departing.

The VP is in Canada meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau today. Biden told reporters earlier this week he could challenge Trump in 2020 but says he was mostly joking.

Biden shared a stage with Clinton on Thursday after his remarks. The former U.S. Senators spoke at a ceremony honoring retiring Democratic leader Harry Reid

Clinton addressed her election loss from the podium. 'This is not exactly the speech at the Capitol I hoped to be giving after the election,' she said

Biden gave Clinton and a kiss before departing. Earlier in the day he thumped Trump and Clinton, saying, 'This has been a very tough election. It's been ugly, it's been divisive, it's been coarse, it's been dispiriting'

Biden said Thursday at the NYU event that many Americans feel they are 'worse off than they really are' after the latest national election.

'There's a sense that the country that our institutions aren't working, and maybe we can never get them to work,' he said. 'For a lot of folks it feels as if we're more divided than we have ever been in our history and that the election brought out the worst in the political system.'

The media shares in the blame, he contended. News outlets spent their time covering Trump's provocative statements, he said, instead of policy discussions.

'Hillary Clinton was the single most qualified on the fact of it to run for president of the United States that we've had, period. It wasn't that she didn't have all these ideas. She did. But the press, you didn't cover it,' Biden argued, according to CNN.

The vice president said, 'It wasn't your fault...When a guy talks about grabbing a woman's private parts, when a guy says some of the incredibly outrageous things that were said, it sucks up all the oxygen in the air.'

President Obama's spokesman said Thursday afternoon, after Biden's NYU speech, 'there are plenty of times where I think all Americans, certainly a large number of Americans, were disturbed by what they saw' in the election.
Officers Jason Orsa and Brian Murphy resigned effective December 1 for the 2006 beating of Obed DeLeon (pictured)

Two Chicago police officers who were recorded on video while beating an ex-convict at a restaurant in 2006 while off-duty have resigned instead of facing the prospect of being fired.

The Chicago Police Department says Officers Jason Orsa and Brian Murphy resigned effective December 1.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration released security surveillance videos in August under the Freedom of Information Act.

The videos show Murphy jumping up from his table with his gun drawn at Obed DeLeon, then 22, and ramming him into a wall.

According to the videos and court records, Orsa joined Murphy and Murphy's friend in repeatedly punching and kicking DeLeon.

The Chicago Police Department says Officers Jason Orsa and Brian Murphy resigned effective December 1 for the 2006 beating of Obed DeLeon (pictured)

Murphy approached DeLeon and pointing his police-issue semi-automatic pistol at his head, before pushing him against a wall (arrow points where fight started)

The officers' discipline case has been in the courts for years.

The Illinois Supreme Court recently denied an appeal of their dismissals.

The resignation comes a week before the monthly meeting where officials could have moved to remove them from the force, after the pair exhausted their legal appeals against the firing.

The incident happened in March 2006.

Orsa, Murphy, and fellow officer Daniel McNamara were eating at the Taco Burrito King of Harlem Avenue after visiting a nearby bar, local media reported.

DeLeon, now 32, walked in to get food for his pregnant fiancee and complained that a car was blocking the entrance to the parking lot.

Video shows Murphy approaching DeLeon and pointing his police-issue semi-automatic pistol at his head, before pushing him against a wall.

DeLeon was punched and kicked as Orsa and McNamara, as well as their Marine friend who had served in Iraq, helped out.

The resignation comes a week before the monthly meeting where officials could have moved to remove them from the force, after the pair exhausted their legal appeals against the firing

Orsa, Murphy, and fellow officer Daniel McNamara were eating at the Taco Burrito King of Harlem Avenue (pictured) after visiting a nearby bar when the beating happened

It could not be determined if McNamara struck the victim, and he was suspended for 18 months.

The three officers originally told investigators that DeLeon, who had gang tattoos, had said he was a 'cop killer'.

There was no audio on the surveillance cameras in the restaurant to back this claim up.

Five years after the incident in March 2006, Orsa and Murphy were sacked by the Chicago Police Board.

But their dismissals were thrown out by a Cook County judge in 2012, and they remained in the force until an Illinois appeals court upheld the board's original decision to fire them last month.
Boris Johnson has refused to apologise after he criticised British ally Saudi Arabia and was rebuked by the Prime Minister.

Mr Johnson sparked furore when he accused the state of being behind 'proxy wars', but insisted 'any crisis in the Gulf is a crisis for Britain' as he talked about the UK's historic ties with the region.

In a speech in Bahrain on Friday, the Foreign Secretary emphasised the strength of British relations with Gulf nations as he spoke to Arab leaders just days the revelation of the criticism emerged.

Mr Johnson suffered a humiliating slap down from Number 10 when he claimed Saudi Arabia was 'puppeteering', and Conservative predecessor Sir Malcolm Rifkind has said the 'jury's out' over his future in the job.

But he is said to have told the Prime Minister he would not apologies for the remarks he made.

Boris Johnson (L) and Bahrain's Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa (R) make their way to the IISS Regional Security Summit

Boris Johnson speaks at the IISS Regional Security Summit "The Manama Dialogue" in Manama, Bahrain, after he made a gaffe in Saudi Arabia

According to the Telegraph, Mr Johnson met with the Prime Minister on Thursday ahead of his trip to Saudi Arabia on Saturday.

The paper said the Foreign Secretary is not willing to apologise and will deliver 'difficult messages' as well as fostering strong relationships with the country.

Addressing the International Institute for Strategic Studies Manama Dialogue in Bahrain, Mr Johnson did raise the conflict in Yemen where Saudi Arabia is supporting the internationally-recognised government against Iran backed Hoothi rebels.

Insisting it had been worth spending 12 years negotiating the nuclear deal with Iran, he added: 'I think we must build on this foundation and try to develop a better relationship with Tehran.

'But that can only happen if Iran plays by the same rules and exercises its influence in diplomacy and by dialogue.'

Mr Johnson said Saudi Arabia is 'securing itself from bombardment by the Hoothis'.

The Foreign Secretary arriving ahead of his speech, in which he appeared to charm the audience

He added: 'But I must also share my profound concerns, which I'm sure is universal in this room, about the present suffering of the people of Yemen.

'I think we can all agree on this key point, that force alone will not bring about a stable Yemen, and that's why we in London have been working so hard with all our partners to drive that political process forwards.'

Mr Johnson appeared to charm the audience in a typically colourful speech, triggering laughter among the guests as he talked of selling sand to the Saudis for their golf courses and described London as the 'eighth Emirate'.

Telling the conference 'Britain is back east of Suez', he said 3 billion will be spent on military commitments in the Gulf over the next 10 years.

'That's deepening a partnership that is stronger than with any other group of nations in the world outside Nato,' he said.

Boris Johnson is too 'dangerous' to be Foreign Secretary and should be moved to a more 'comfortable' role in Cabinet, Malcolm Rifkind said

Sir Malcolm Rifkind, who served as Foreign Secretary in the 1990s, said Mr Johnson is too 'dangerous' to be Foreign Secretary and should be moved to a more 'comfortable' role in Cabinet.

Theresa May checked his speech beforehand to ensure he doesn't make any further diplomatic gaffes.

She rebuked the Foreign Secretary yesterday after his comments were revealed.

No 10 effectively cut Mr Johnson off at the knees by disowning his remarks.

And the Prime Minister's spokesman all but demanded him to apologise when he visits Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, on Sunday.

But it is understood he has no intention of doing so, risking further conflict with Mrs May, who saw him off to become Prime Minister in the summer.

Mr Rifkind suggested Mrs May move Mr Johnson to a safer job in Cabinet to avoid future diplomatic problems.

Former Tory Foreign Secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind, pictured, delivered the damning criticism of Mr Johnson after he made another diplomatic blunder this week by criticising Saudi Arabia

Mr Johnson's remarks were in stark contrast to Theresa May's praise for the Kingdom in an interview for TV channel Al Arabiya

'He's made his extraordinary impact, both in Britain and elsewhere, as a celebrity. As a foreign secretary you can't be a celebrity,' Mr Rifkind told the BBC today.

Harold Macmillan was once foreign secretary and in his memoirs he said foreign ministers are either dull or dangerous - well, Boris certainly isn't dull,' he told BBC Radio Four's Today programme.

Boris Johnson is understood not to be planning to apologise or correct his remarks criticising Saudi Arabia when he visits the capital Riyadh on Sunday, risking further conflict with Mrs May. Pictured, the two rivals last month during the Colombian State Visit

Asked if Mr Johnson was fit to be Foreign Secretary, Sir Malcolm said: 'The jury's out, if I can put it that way. This is early days. It's a question of his temperament.

'The rest of the world are entitled to know that when Boris Johnson, as Britain's Foreign Secretary, speaks, they are hearing the United Kingdom's foreign policy, they should not be expected to assume that what he says publicly on one occasion may be completely in conflict with that foreign policy.

'What I am saying is, he might end up being more comfortable in another senior Cabinet position.'

Responding to Sir Malcolm's comments, Mrs May's official spokeswoman said: 'The Prime Minister has made clear she has got full confidence in the Foreign Secretary.

'He is doing important work on a whole range of difficult issues and difficult conflicts.'

The spokeswoman said it was 'usual' for No 10 to have advance oversight of speeches by ministers and Mr Johnson's address in Bahrain tonight is no different.

Asked if she expects him to apologise to the Saudis on Sunday, she said: 'He will be in Riyadh on Sunday. He will have the opportunity there with his discussions with senior Saudi representatives to talk about the Government's policy and the Government's approach.'
Female workers at a Russian emerald mine have complained about 'gestapo-style harassment' during strip search checks to ensure they are not stealing valuable gems.

The random naked searches involve women standing unclothed on a cold concrete floor, and can lead to 'intimate questions during check ups', allege staff.

They were even threatened with intrusive examinations 'in a gynaecological chair' if they protested about the regime at Malyshevskoye emerald mine in the Ural Mountains, they claim.

Workers say they have to endure horrific searches at their workplace, which leaves them feeling humiliated

A group of women employees from the mine told local media: 'Hardest of all is the so called selective naked check up.

'It means that any of us can be selected in the middle of the working day and delivered to the naked check up room.

'It is a cold room with concrete floor and a cracked window.

'Women have to get completely undressed while every millimetre of their clothing is checked.

'If we complain about standing on the cold floor, their response is rough and implies that everyone of us is a potential thief, with an emerald buyer waiting across a fence.'

The strip searches are conducted even though the plant is bristling with CCTV cameras, and the staff wear special uniforms without pockets

The actual naked checks are conducted by women security operatives, but the women are often quizzed by male colleagues, they said.

'The security men make all sorts of dirty hints as to where exactly we can hide gems - and say that after New Year we can be checked daily on a gynaecological chair,' alleged the group.

'One of our girls felt so awful after one of this humiliating naked check ups that she had to call an ambulance.'

The 'harassment is harshest for workers of the ore sorting room', which only has female staff, reported The Siberian Times.

'The security men make all sorts of dirty hints as to where exactly we can hide gems - and say that after New Year we can be checked daily on a gynaecological chair,' claim activists

Male workers are treated 'with more respect', although they also go through routine naked checks'.

The strip searches are conducted even though the plant is bristling with CCTV cameras, and the staff wear special uniforms without pockets.

Some security staff 'make you feel as if you're being interrogated by the gestapo', they claimed.

The women complainants wrote to a human rights commission and the state labour inspection team, but were not happy with action taken in response

It appeared 'their main aim is to choose a victim and humiliate her all day long'.

A new security team was drafted in last year, after a change in director, they said.

'We are prohibited to stay in the toilet for more than 10 minutes.

'If we stay longer this is considered to be violation of the regime and we have to answer all sort of questions from the security.

'Quite often the answers are too intimate.

'There can be all sorts of reasons why a woman might need to spend more than 10 minutes in the toilet.

'Answering the questions is even harder given that the security officers are mostly men.'

Female workers say the questions they are asked are too intimate, and they are left feeling humiliated

News agency URA.ru spoke to representatives of the plant who insisted: 'The checks are the same for everyone, for example, the director goes through a check after going down the mine.'

The naked checks have been underway since 2006 - but the previous security team connived with workers to allow the theft of emeralds, according to a mine source.

'Several small security companies worked here and factory workers co-operated with them, so ore was taken out,' he said.

'We stopped it and hired proper security.'

He denied the claim about use of a gynaecological chair as 'not true. We have more serious issues to address.'

The women complainants wrote to a human rights commission and the state labour inspection team, but were not happy with action taken in response.

Officials say they carry out the searches to ensure that valuable gems are not stolen from the emerald mine

The mine official said: 'No-one has ever complained about the check, except for one particular shift.

'But three female workers from this shift were detained as they attempted to take crystals out.

'These female workers have also violated instructions several times.

'They were supposed to raise a hand and show that it was empty each time after their took a gem off a belt and put it into a container, but they didn't do so.
An amorous Florida couple have been charged with indecent exposure after police say they were caught having sex in public.

The incident that landed the libidinous pair, identified as 26-year-old Ashley Wetzel and 50-year-old Henry Niblack, occurred just before 10:40pm Wednesday in the area of 3 Avenue North and Mirror Lake Drive North, not far from a St Petersburg park.

According to an arrest report, Niblack and Wetzel were seen having a sexual intercourse in front of people passing by on the sidewalk.

Caught with their pants down: Ashley Wetzel, 26 (left), and Henry Niblack, 50 (right), have been charged with exposure of sexual organs after the two were allegedly caught having a tryst on a city street in Florida

The report, first obtained by The Smoking Gun, offers graphic details of the encounter, describing how Niblack was allegedly observed 'throwing his hips back and forth, inserting his penis into Wetzel's vagina.'

The responding officer noted in his report that both Niblack and his partner had their pants around their ankles.

The pair were arrested at the scene and each was charged with a misdemeanor count of exposure of sexual organs.

Niblack, a construction worker from St Petersburg, was released from jail Thursday after posting $150 bond, while Wetzel remained in custody on $650 bond.

Both suspects have criminal records: Wetzel has a pending case against her stemming from theft charges and a past conviction on a charge of trespassing, while Niblack's rap sheet includes charges of domestic violence, possession of marijuana and violation of injunction.
President-elect Donald Trump will appoint Washington Republican Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers to run the Interior Department, according to reports swirling around the nation's capitol on Friday.

McMorris Rodgers is a key part of the majority leadership in the House of Representatives. Her position as chair of the Republican Conference makes her the highest-ranking GOP woman in Congress.

If she is Trump's pick, his cabinet will be one woman short of the most female-packed in history for an incoming president.

President-elect Donald Trump met with Cathy McMorris Rodgers on November 20; she is reportedly his pick to head the Department of the Interior

Linda McMahon (left) will head the Small Business Administration when Trump takes office, and Nikki Haley (right) will be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations

Betsy DeVos (left) will be secretary of education, and Elaine Chao (right) will lead the Transportation Department

The president-elect has already chosen South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley to represent the U.S. at the United Nations; Elaine Chao to run the Transportation Department; Betsy DeVos as secretary of education and Linda McMahon to head the Small Business Administration.

The Wall Street Journal put McMorris Rodgers' name in the mix on Friday morning. Separately, a Trump transition source told DailyMail.com that she was the top candidate for the Interior posting.

President Barack Obama currently holds the record with six women serving in his initial cabinet.

Then-Senator Hillary Clinton was his first secretary of state in 2009. Hilda Solis ran his Labor Department. Obama chose Kathleen Sebelius, then the governor of Kansas, to head the Department of Health and Human Services.

Then-Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano was Obama's initial homeland security secretary. Karen Mills was his first Small Business Administration chief. And Susan Rice served as Obama's first United Nations ambassador pick.

Hillary Clinton (top) started 2009 as the newly minted secretary of state; Hilda Solis (left), Kathleen Sebelius (center) and Janet Napolitano were Obama's picks for Labor, Health and

Liberals criticized Trump during the presidential campaign season as a misogynist, citing decade-old demeaning comments about females as evidence that he couldn't match Clinton's record as a women's advocate.

McMorris Rodgers would be expected to lead an effort to open up federal lands and waters to fossil-fuel development, the Journal reported.

She has also put significant muscle behind promoting hydropower, a renewable alternative energy source that is her state's bread and butter.

President Obama has put millions of acres of land and oceans off-limits to oil and gas exploration, something Trump has signaled that he would like to reverse.
President Barack Obama has ordered a review of cyberattacks that targeted Democratic organizations and operatives during the 2016 elections, with an eye toward releasing at least some of the findings, the White House said today.

'The president has directed the intelligence community to conduct a full review of what happened during the 2016 election process,' Lisa Monaco, Obama's homeland security advisor, told reporters at a breakfast newsmaker event Friday.

The objective is to have the review completed before the end of Obama's term and get it into the public domain before President-elect Donald Trump moves into the White House.

The push, initiated just this week, runs parallel to congressional calls for an inquiry, but wasn't inspired by them, according to the White House.

Monaco said at a breakfast hosted by The Christian Science Monitor that it was vital to 'understand what this means, what has happened and to impart some lessons learned.'

US President Barack Obama will leave the White House on January 20, 2016 to be replaced by Republican President-elect Donald Trump Aris Messinis (AFP/File)

She said Obama expects a report before he leaves office on January 20 and Republican Donald Trump assumes the presidency.

The move comes after Democrats in Congress pressed the White House to reveal details, to Congress or to the public, of Russian hacking and disinformation in the election.

Some Republican lawmakers, including Arizona Senator John McCain and South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, also have called for congressional probes of what happened.

'When it comes to all things Russia, I am going to be kind of hard-ass,' Graham told a reporters in the Senate last month, as DailyMail.com reported.

Democratic lawmakers also have pushed for a bipartisan commission to investigate the meddling in U.S. elections from abroad.

Confidential emails from the Democratic National Committee and John Podesta, a top advisor to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, were steadily leaked out via WikiLeaks in the months before the election, damaging Clinton's ultimately losing White House effort.

The administration has already determined that the Russian government was behind the hacks, but the internal inquiry will seek to 'understand what this means, what has happened and to impart some lessons learned,' Obama's homeland security advisor Lisa Monaco said

The review is to be completed by January 20, when President-elect Trump, who benefited from the hacking of Democratic groups, takes office

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's team complained about the Russian hacking during the campaign. Hacked emails revealed that staffers had their own concerns about her infamous private email server, creating negative headlines in the final days of the campaign

Clinton campaign chair John Podesta's personal account got hacked and his emails were posted on WikiLeaks during the campaign. Embarrassing disclosures followed

The White House said Friday at leaset some of the information would be made public.

He's requested this report be completed and submitted to him before the end of his term, said White House spokesman Eric Schultz.

Schultz noted that the Obama and McCain campaigns had intrusions in 2008. He said there are no known hacks from 2012 but they review will include that year as a precaution, based on what we know now.

We are committed to ensuring the integrity of our elections, and this report will dig into this pattern of malicious activity timed to our elections, Schultz said. The assessment will specifically look at activity that coincides with U.S. elections, he said.

We're going to make public as much as we can, Schultz said, but considering that the report will contain highly sensitive and maybe even classified information some intelligence will be held back.

Given that the directive to launch this review was just this week we want to make sure that that process unfolds in all due accord, the White House official said.

The DNC hack, on the eve of the Democratic convention, revealed a series of damaging emails, and fueled Clinton rival Senator Bernie Sanders' contention that that the party had been working to aide Clinton.

The Podesta hack had Team Clinton playing defense for the final weeks of the campaign, as emails revealed all manner of deliberations about Clinton's private email server, Clinton Foundation matters, and exposed fissures within Clinton's network of political operatives about how to handle the conflicts.

The US Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in a statement on October 7, one month before the election, stated that 'the Russian Government directed the recent compromises of emails from US persons and institutions, including from US political organizations.'

'These thefts and disclosures are intended to interfere with the US election process,' they said.

But in an interview published Wednesday with Time magazine for its 'Person of the Year' award, Trump dismissed the findings of the country's leading intelligence services.

Asked whether the intelligence was politicized, Trump answered: 'I think so.'

'I don't believe they interfered. That became a laughing point, not a talking point, a laughing point. Any time I do something, they say 'oh, Russia interfered.''

'It could be Russia. And it could be China. And it could be some guy in his home in New Jersey.'

Germany's domestic intelligence agency on Thursday reported a spike in Russian propaganda and disinformation meant to destabilize German, Reuters reported.
Donald Trump has invited primary foe Carly Fiorina to his New York City headquarters for a meeting.

The president elect will see the former Hewlett Packard exec and Republican presidential candidate on Monday, a spokesman for the transition says.

The Republicans have been on bad terms since Trump was caught insulting Fiorina, saying in front of a reporter, 'Look at that face.' She endorsed Trump in the fall - then yanked her support when his 'grab them by the p****' tape was exposed.

Donald Trump has invited primary foe Carly Fiorina to his New York City headquarters for a meeting

Trump insisted he was talking about Fiorina's 'persona' but she didn't take it that way.

'I think women all over this country heard very clearly what Mr. Trump said,' Fiorina told him at their next debate.

He replied, 'I think shes got a beautiful face and shes a beautiful woman.'

Fiorina suggested in an interview with CNBC that Trump's comment was sexist.

'Donald Trump has said many things about other candidates, but he has not talked about their appearance,' she said.

Defending himself on The View, Trump said Fiorina 'failed miserably at Hewlett Packard and ran for the Senate and lost in a landslide and now running for president. I'm talking about her persona.'

She was 'one of the worst' CEOs ever, he later said of her tenure at as the head of the head company, from 1999 until she was fired in 2005.

Fiorina ran for the U.S. Senate against incumbent Democrat Barbara Boxer in 2010. She currently lives in Virginia.

She sought the presidency in 2016, dropping out after the second round of voting in the party primary, New Hampshire, in early February.

Two and a half months later she joined forces with Texas' Ted Cruz, signing on as his running mate near the end of his campaign in a last-ditch effort to keep Trump from winning the Republican nomination.

In September, she endorsed the last GOP candidate standing - Trump - in order to keep Democrat Hillary Clinton from winning.

Fiorina joined forces with Texas' Ted Cruz, signing on as his running mate near the end of his campaign in a last-ditch effort to keep Trump from winning the Republican nomination

He detente with Trump was short lived. Three weeks later she was calling on him to drop out

He detente with Trump was short lived. Three weeks later she was calling on him to drop out.

Fiorina said Trump should 'step aside' and let Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, his running mate, top the GOP's ticket.

'Donald Trump does not represent me or my party,' she said on Facebook a day after the Access Hollywood video hit the Internet.

Fiorina said she spent 'years warning Americans that Hillary Clinton is unfit to be President' and continued to believe that a conservative must preside over the White House 'to restore accountability, opportunity and security.'

'For the sake of our Constitution and the rule of law, we must defeat Hillary Clinton,' she said. 'Today I ask Donald Trump to step aside and for the RNC to replace him with Gov. Mike Pence.'

She laid down her sword a day after he won the election.
Three Chippewa Falls food pantries received deliveries of food from the Feed My People Food Bank on Thursday in a program co-sponsored by the food bank and WWIB-FM.

This is the first year that St. Francesca Resource Center, at the corner of Allen and High streets, The Community Pantry, 105 N. Bridge St., and First Presbyterian Church Food Pantry, 130 W. Central St., are benefiting from the program thats been in existence for five years.

The three food pantries are helping to provide food to the 1 in 9 people who struggle with hunger in Chippewa County, according to the food bank.

WWIB asked its listeners to give up small things and to donate the money saved to the 60 Ways in 60 Days campaign, which helps residents struggling with hunger. Those donations are then matched by local businesses.

To find out more about hunger in Western Wisconsin, visit www.fmpfoodbank.org or call Feed My People at 715-835-9415.
Georgia has accused the Department of Homeland Security of trying to hack its election systems in an attempt to mine information on voters.

The charge was leveled against the organization by Georgia's Secretary of State Brian Kemp in a letter sent to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson on Thursday.

Kemp claimed a computer traced back to the federal agency tried to break through the state office's firewall just one week after the presidential election.

He added the alleged effort was unsuccessful.

Georgia has accused the Department of Homeland Security of trying to hack its election systems. Pictured is a woman casting her vote in Atlanta

'At no time has my office agreed to or permitted DHS to conduct penetration testing or security scans of our network,' Kemp wrote.

'Moreover, your department has not contacted my office since this unsuccessful incident to alert us of any security event that would require testing or scanning of our network.'

Kemp's letter went on to speculate what he described as a 'large unblocked scan event' could have been some sort of security test.

The secretary went on to ask for details about the incident, including whether the agency did in fact conduct the unauthorized scan, who authorized it and whether other states might have been similarly probed.

Kemp cited the federal law against knowingly accessing a computer without authorization or exceeding authorized access, which is a felony.

He described the incident as 'especially odd and concerning' given that he is a member of the U.S. Election Infrastructure Cybersecurity Working Group run by the federal agency.

Georgia accused the Department of Homeland Security of trying to breaks its firewall. Pictured are two women with their children voting in Lawrenceville, Georgia

The hacking charge was leveled against Homeland Security by Georgia's Secretary of State Brian Kemp (pictured, middle)

Homeland Security spokesman Scott McConnell said the department got Kemp's letter and is 'looking into the matter.'

'DHS takes the trust of our public and private sector partners seriously, and we will respond to Secretary Kemp directly,' McConnell said.

Forty-eight states accepted offers by the Homeland Security Department to scan their networks ahead of the presidential elections.

The scans looked for vulnerabilities that hackers could exploit by hackers. The U.S. also described how states could patch their networks to make it more difficult to penetrate them.

Georgia was among two states that did not accept the department's offer. It said it had contracted with an outside agency and already implemented protective measures.

Brian Kemp made his allegations in a letter sent to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson (pictured)

'They offered to provide these services, we declined it and then we determine they attempted to hack our system,' said David Dove, chief of staff and legal counsel for Kemp's office.

Dove said the state was alerted at the time the attack occurred.

Georgia's system holds personal information on more than 6.5 million residents, more than 800,000 corporate entities and more than 500,000 licensed or registered professionals.

The office registers voters, tracks annual corporate filings, grants professional licenses and oversees the state's securities market.

U.S. officials stepped up outreach to the states in the months prior to the November election after hackers targeted elections-related systems in more than 20 states.

The FBI warned state officials of the need to improve their election security after hackers attempted to hack systems in Illinois and Arizona.

The attempted hacks involved efforts to mine data from their voter registration systems.
Arthur Peebles, 18, had been bullied for years and suffered mental health problems before he died by suicide on November 1

Mourners donned their capes, masks and plastic props as family and friends paid a final tribute to a comic book fan with a superhero-themed funeral.

Teenager Arthur Peebles died by suicide on November 1 after years of bullying and mental health problems.

His family said the 18-year-old found solace in comic book characters, such as Superman and Spiderman, as well as Toy Storys Buzz and Woody.

It prompted his mother, Jacqueline Peebles, to organise a special funeral in recognition of her only sons passion.

Speaking to the Press Association on the eve of the service in Morden, Surrey, Ms Peebles said: 'Arthur had enough doom and gloom going on in his head during his little life, and I thought "Im not sending him away with doom and gloom too".

'He loved his superheroes - that was his world. He was a superhero to us and we wanted to give him the send-off he deserves.'

Ms Peebles arrived at the service dressed as She-Hulk, while other characters included Batman and Captain America.

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Jacqueline Peebles, Arthur's mum, before his funeral. She was dressed as She-Hulk

Arthur's friends and family dressed as some of his favourite superheroes during his funeral

Mourners dressed as superheroes recognise Arthur's passion. He found solace in comics

A little levity was provided when members of the family spotted one late arrival, struggling up the driveway in a large Buzz Lightyear costume.

The coffin was decorated with the Superman logo, while the service also featured an extract from Iron Giant, Arthurs favourite film.

Music during the service included See You Again by Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth, and Ill Be Missing You by Puff Daddy and Faith Evans.

A superhero's send-off: Arthur's coffin was decorated in superhero memorabilia

Pallbearers dressed as superheroes prepare to carry Arthur's coffin during his funeral at North East Surrey Crematorium in Morden. The funeral was conducted by Co-op Funeralcare

Members of Arthur's family, including his mum (third right) release doves before his funeral

Ms Peebles, who released doves in her sons name before the service, said Arthur was a pure soul who was loved by his friends for his wit and intellect.

But his slight build and gentle nature made him a soft target for bullies - starting at the age of five when older children tied a noose to a tree and said they wanted to hang him, she said.

Ms Peebles said she hoped Arthurs death at the age of 18 would raise awareness of bullying and prompt authorities and parents to take greater action against those who torment others.

She said: 'He was never one for conflict. He never drank alcohol, fizzy, tea or coffee, only water which he said was "brain juice". Hes never been to a pub, a club, experienced anything with a woman - he died a virgin, a pure soul.

As a child, Arthur would dress up as his favourite superhero characters, such as Buzz Lightyear

Arthur's fascination with superheroes, including Spiderman, began when he was a child

'Like many children, Arthur was a victim to bullying from a young age. He suffered from mental health problems which resulted in him tragically taking his own life. We want his funeral to raise awareness of mental health issues to ensure that young people like Arthur get access to the support they need.

'Arthur was my superhero and now Im going to drive this forwards and be his.'

Co-op Funeral Director Cindi Gordon, who led the funeral dressed as She-Ra from the He-Man comic books, said: 'I can honestly say, conducting a funeral dressed as She-Ra has to be a personal first.

Co-op Funeralcare Director Cindi Gordon dressed as She-Ra leads Arthur's funeral cortege

'Its inspirational how Arthurs mum Jacqueline has approached the loss of her son.

'At a truly devastating time, shes managed to put her feelings to one side and help us do everything possible to arrange a funeral that reflects her son Arthurs life. Even down to her plans to scatter his ashes in America, a place he longed to visit.'
No 10 faced claims of hypocrisy today after insisting investigations into killings by British soldiers in Northern Ireland are vital to safeguard the Peace Process but at the same time insisting Iraq veterans should not be hounded.

Up to 1,000 retired soldiers in their 60s and 70s face a police witch-hunt some 40 years after they battled terrorism in Northern Ireland.

MPs and military chiefs last night condemned the 'disgraceful' decision by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) to re-examine every single British Army killing during the Troubles.

But the Prime Minister's official spokeswoman defended the investigations today, insisting: 'It is important that we deal with the legacy issues if we want to really achieve reconciliation in Northern Ireland and move forward.

A new probe has been launched into all 302 killings by British troops in Northern Ireland during The Troubles

And as part of the Stormont House agreement there are provisions to establish historical investigations unit  we do think it is important that we find a way forward to deal with some of the impracticable issues that there has been over the years that successive attempts have failed to deliver.

But answering questions seconds earlier about the disgrace of British troops who faced accusations of war crimes for carrying out their duties in Iraq, the spokeswoman reiterated Theresa May's pledge that Britain's forces would be protected from such witch-hunts.

The spokeswoman said: Weve been very clear of the steps the Government will take to make sure that our brave soldiers should not be hounded unnecessarily and the investigations into allegations around Iraq should be properly focused and completed in the most efficient way possible.

Our focus has been on making sure that we bring an end as quickly as possible to any unnecessary investigations and I think we have taken steps to do that and the Prime Minister has worked very closely with the Secretary of State for Defence on that and they have a similar mind about these issues.

Two years ago, the British government was ordered to pay 10,000 to each of the families of the 10 IRA men shot dead by troops in Northern Ireland after judges in Europe ruled the terrorists' human rights had been violated

British Army soldiers patrolling streets of Nationalist West Belfast during The Troubles in 1973

Faced with claims of hypocrisy, No 10 denied there was a contradiction between how soldiers who served in Northern Ireland and Iraq were treated.

These are very different issues, different conflicts, this is about reconciliation in Northern Ireland,' the PM's spokeswoman said.

We want to take steps that are going to secure a stable, secure future for NI, this is not fresh or new.

The PSNI's taxpayer-funded Legacy Investigation Branch is to look at 238 'fatal incidents' involving the Army in Ulster, which led to 302 deaths.

It will mean UK veterans being investigated as potential murder or manslaughter suspects over actions they took decades ago at the height of the IRA's terrorist campaign.

The Northern Ireland veterans could face new charges, trials and even jail. Ironically, the new inquiry was announced on the day that the human rights lawyer who led the hounding of British troops who fought in the Iraq War faced disgrace. Phil Shiner admitted drumming up the claims against soldiers.

He pleaded guilty to a string of misconduct charges and confessed he acted without integrity when he accused soldiers of war crimes.

At the Conservative Party Conference in October, Theresa May, pictured on a visit to Bahrain earlier this week, had promised to protect British troops from witch-hunts. She said: 'We will never again  in any future conflict  let those activist Left-wing human rights lawyers harangue and harass the bravest of the brave, the men and women of our Armed Forces'

Although the Northern Ireland review will also look at deaths that the IRA were responsible for, many suspected terrorists have been granted pardons or 'comfort letters' intended to protect them against prosecution.

At the Conservative Party Conference in October, the Prime Minister had promised to protect British troops from witch-hunts. She said: 'We will never again  in any future conflict  let those activist Left-wing human rights lawyers harangue and harass the bravest of the brave, the men and women of our Armed Forces.'

But asked how this position was consistent with the ongoing investigations into killings by soldiers in Northern Ireland, the spokeswoman said: 'The Government has been very clear that it is important that we deal with the legacy issues if we want to really achieve reconciliation in Northern Ireland and move forward.

And as part of the Stormont House agreement there are provisions to establish historical investigations unit  we do think it is important that we find a way forward to deal with some of the impracticable issues that there has been over the years that successive attempts have failed to deliver.

But there was fury yesterday at the news that hundreds of elderly UK veterans  many suffering serious illnesses  will be put through another ordeal.

MPs and military chiefs compared the treatment of British soldiers to that of suspected IRA bomber John Downey, who escaped prosecution for the 1982 Hyde Park bombing, which left four soldiers and seven horses dead, because he was given a police guarantee he was immune from prosecution. Downey has always denied involvement and pleaded not guilty at the Old Bailey in 2014.

BLOODSTAINED TERRORISTS WHO WON'T BE PROSECUTED Nearly 200 IRA terror suspects received 'get-out- of-jail-free cards' from Tony Blair's government. They are believed to include: NESSAN QUINLIVAN Escaped from HMP Brixton in 1991 using a gun hidden in a shoe, and shot a passerby. He was awaiting trial over a suspected IRA assassination plot. Arrested in Ireland for firearms offences in 1993, Quinlivan was jailed for four years. He was freed in 1996 as part of the early release programme and successfully fought extradition attempts in 2000, arguing he would have been freed by July 2001 under terms of the Belfast Agreement. NESSAN QUINLIVAN: Escaped from HMP Brixton in 1991 using a gun hidden in a shoe, and shot a passerby DERMOT FINUCANE While serving 18 years in the Maze prison for explosives offences, Finucane masterminded the 38-man mass IRA breakout in 1983 with his brother Seamus. Another brother Pat, a solicitor, was murdered in 1989. He initially fled to the US with Kevin Artt. Arrested in Ireland, but beat extradition attempts and is thought to be in Dublin. DERMOT FINUCANE: While serving 18 years in the Maze prison for explosives offences, Finucane masterminded the 38-man mass IRA breakout in 1983 with his brother Seamus RITA O'HARE Pictured here with Sinn Fein party president Gerry Adams, O'Hare was wanted in connection with attacks on British troops in the early 1970s. Arrested in Northern Ireland in 1972 for the attempted murder of a British Army officer in Belfast the previous year. Released on bail, she fled to Dublin. Irish High Court ruled in 1978 she should not be extradited to the UK because her alleged offence was 'political'. O'Hare is the co-treasurer of Sinn Fein. RITA O'HARE: Pictured here with Sinn Fein party president Gerry Adams, O'Hare was wanted in connection with attacks on British troops in the early 1970s LIAM AVERILL Notoriously escaped from the Maze prison dressed as a woman in 1997 while serving life for shooting dead two Protestants in 1994. Arrested in 2014 for drink-driving in Londonderry, he was fined 30 after telling a judge that was all the cash he had. In 2000, while on the run, Averill was awarded 5,000 by the European Court of Human Rights because he was not given a lawyer for 24 hours after his arrest. LIAM AVERILL: Notoriously escaped from the Maze prison dressed as a woman in 1997 while serving life for shooting dead two Protestants in 1994 KEVIN ARTT Convicted of the murder of Maze prison deputy governor Albert Miles, who was shot dead in front of his wife, Artt escaped in 1983 during the mass IRA breakout. After fleeing to the US, he was caught by FBI agents in 1992. Avoided extradition to the UK after the US ruled that his claims of unfair conviction in Northern Ireland must be investigated before sending him back. KEVIN ARTT: Convicted of the murder of Maze prison deputy governor Albert Miles, who was shot dead in front of his wife, Artt escaped in 1983 during the mass IRA breakout JOHN DOWNEY Escaped prosecution for the 1982 Hyde Park bombing which left four Household Cavalry soldiers and seven horses dead because he was given a guarantee he was immune from prosecution. Now living freely in a waterfront cottage in Donegal. JOHN DOWNEY: Escaped prosecution for the 1982 Hyde Park bombing which left four Household Cavalry soldiers and seven horses dead because he was given a guarantee he was immune from prosecution Advertisement

Tory MP Johnny Mercer, a former Army officer who has campaigned on behalf of British troops, said: 'This is a witch-hunt, as well as total and complete betrayal by the Government of those who have done its bidding.

'If we could demonstrate in Government just some of the courage our Armed Forces have displayed over the years in Northern Ireland, the entire historical allegations money machine would end.'

A former serving member of 14 Intelligence Company who served for nine years during the Troubles added: 'You cannot have a normal life. My wife is very conscious of it because she has a husband who has this hanging over him. Peace should not be one-sided and this has become solely about the Armed Forces who stood between the evil IRA and the British public they were trying to burn alive.'

Terrorist suspects accused of killing civilians or British soldiers during The Troubles are largely not being investigated

MPs have hit out at the investigation and described the new probe as a 'witch hunt'

Downing Street also intervened, saying the Police Service of Northern Ireland was wrong to focus 'almost entirely' on the past actions of the security services when looking at the Troubles.

The Prime Minister's official spokesman added: 'It is important to recognise that the overwhelming majority of those who served in Northern Ireland did so with great bravery and distinction.'

Last night, the PSNI insisted that its Legacy Investigation Branch was reviewing every one of the 3,200 deaths during the Troubles, including those murdered by Republican terrorists.

The force said it was also reviewing the cases of 187 on-the-run paramilitary suspects who received 'comfort letters'  dubbed 'get-out-of-jail-free cards'  mistakenly saying they were not wanted by police.

The number of British soldiers set to be probed is understood to be about 850. This is because many times several soldiers opened fire at once during shootings.

Of the 302 people killed by the British Army, about half were IRA or Loyalist terrorists, while the others were considered tragic accidents such as civilians caught in the crossfire.

Around 1,000 former sevicemen, many now in their 60s and 70s, will have their actions brought under scrutiny in the legal inquiry

Sir Hugh Orde set up the PSNI's Historical Enquiries Team in 2006, when he was chief constable of the force, to review every death during the Troubles. It aimed to bring closure to those who had lost loved ones in the strife

Any leads were passed to a specialist unit for investigation. But the unit, staffed by expensive retired police officers from the mainland, was disbanded in 2013 following budget cuts and a critical report by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary.

Chief Constable Matt Baggott, then head of the PSNI, replaced the HET with the in-house Legacy Investigation Branch. Because of concerns over the quality of the military reviews, these killings were re-examined.

One ex-British soldier, ex-Warrant Officer (Class 1) Dennis Hutchings, 75, has already been charged with attempted murder after a probe into the fatal shooting of an IRA suspect  later found to be innocent  in 1974.

WEREN'T DEATHS OF THESE IRA MEN JUSTIFIED? PATRICK KELLY: Kelly's unit attacked Loughgall police station in County Armagh with a 200lb bomb in 1987. As the eight gang members jumped from a van, the SAS opened fire, killing them all SEAMUS MCELWAINE: Convicted of one murder and linked to a further ten. He escaped from prison in 1983 but was killed by the SAS in 1986 DESSIE GREW: Wanted for the murder of an RAF corporal and her baby. Killed by the SAS in 1990 JAMES LYNAGH: 'The Executioner' was suspected of being the assassin of Sir Norman Stronge, the Ulster Unionist Party speaker, in 1981. He was killed in the Loughgall ambush PETER CLEARY: Masterminded the 1976 Kingsmill Massacre when 10 Protestant workers were shot dead. Arrested for another murder, Cleary tried to grab a soldier's rifle and was shot Tony Doris (left), Lawrence McNally (centre) and Pete Ryan (right) were preparing to assassinate a high-ranking UDR officer in 1991 when the SAS ambushed their car, killing all three Advertisement

Mr Hutchings, who is due to stand trial next year over the death of John Pat Cunningham, 27, near the village of Benburb, Co Armagh, said: 'I feel anger, totally, totally let down, I feel hung out to dry. That's what has happened to all of us. We are being thrown to the wolves.

'We were doing our duty, a job that we were sent to do. It is a life or death decision. It might not be your life, it could be one of your patrol's lives.'

Two days before the shooting, Mr Hutchings' patrol had been caught in a firefight after discovering an IRA gang transporting a cache of arms. Four terrorists were captured and later convicted. The great-grandfather added: 'I kept people safe from terrorists and now I'm being treated myself like a terrorist. It's disgraceful.'

Colonel Richard Kemp, who served eight tours in Northern Ireland in the 1980s and 1990s, said soldiers should not be 'hounded this way'.

Yesterday, Assistant Chief Constable Mark Hamilton, head of the PSNI's Legacy and Justice Department, said: 'The HMIC report into HET raised significant concerns. The decision was taken to re-examine military cases to ensure the quality of the review reached the required standard. This was announced as part of our response to the HMIC report at the time, it is not a new development. It was communicated publicly in July 2013.

'There is no new single probe or bespoke inquiry into deaths attributed to the British Army. All Troubles-related deaths will be reviewed by LIB.'

An MoD spokesperson said: 'The overwhelming majority of those who served in Northern Ireland did so with great bravery and distinction.
American hero-astronaut John Glenn will lie in state in Ohio's capitol building next week, before his body is flown to Washington, DC for burial.

The 95-year-old passed away on Thursday, ending a legendary life in which he was a decorated fighter pilot, a trailblazing astronaut and long-serving Ohio senator.

Details for his funeral, burial and remembrance ceremonies were revealed on Friday, as the nation continues to mourn the loss of one of the brightest stars of the space age.

Flags are currently being lowered to half-staff in honor of Glenn on all public buildings across the country, by order of President Obama.

John Glenn will lie in state at Ohio's capitol building before being laid to rest in Arlington National cemetery, it has been revealed

The decorated fighter pilot turned astronaut turned senator passed away on Thursday at the age of 95. In 1962, he became the first American to orbit the Earth (left). In 1998, he returned (right) to space to study its effects on the elderly, making him the oldest man to go into space at the age of 77

The public viewing at the Ohio Statehouse and a memorial service at Ohio State University's Mershon Auditorium is planned for next week; the dates and times were being worked out Friday, said Hank Wilson of the John Glenn School of Public Affairs. Statehouse officials meet Monday to authorize the public viewing.

Glenn, who died Thursday at age 95, was the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962 and the oldest man in space at age 77 in 1998. A U.S. Marine and combat pilot, he also served as a U.S. senator, representing Ohio, for more than two decades.

He is to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C.

Tributes from the nation's leaders and others continued Friday.

John Glenn's body will lie in state next week at the Ohio capitol building (above)

His body will then be flown to Washington D.C. for burial at Arlington National Cemetery

'Throughout his life, Senator John Glenn embodied the right stuff,' Defense Secretary Ash Carter said in a statement. 'Our military in particular benefited from his courage and dedication ... But just as important as what John Glenn accomplished is how he accomplished it: with a combination of fierce determination and profound humility, and always with integrity.'

Glenn was a fighter pilot in World War II and Korea and served on the Senate Armed Services Committee, among other Washington service.

In his eastern Ohio hometown of New Concord, the John and Annie Glenn Museum, usually available this time of year only for special tours and events, opened Friday with free admission.

Char Lyn Grujoksi, of Connersville, Indiana, stopped in after spotting a roadside sign for the museum while driving home from Pittsburgh and listening to a radio report on Glenn. The museum is in the astronaut's converted boyhood home. Grujoski and her daughter left impressed.

'He was a true American hero, someone who loved his country and served it,' she said.

House Speaker Paul Ryan ordered the flags on all Congressional buildings be lowered in Glenn's honor

President Obama followed, ordering the flags on all public buildings across the country (including the White House, above) lowered

Glenn was born July 18, 1921, in Cambridge, Ohio, and grew up in nearby New Concord. He wed his childhood sweetheart, Anna Margaret Castor, in 1943. The couple spent their later years between Washington and Columbus.

He and his wife served as trustees at their alma mater, Muskingum College, and Glenn also promoted his namesake School of Public Affairs at Ohio State, which houses his private papers and photographs.

His long political career, which included a failed 1984 run for the Democratic presidential nomination, enabled him to return to space in the shuttle Discovery in 1998, 36 years after going into orbit in Friendship 7 as part of Mercury, the first U.S. manned spaceflight program. He turned his Discovery mission into an educational moment about aging.

Schools, a space center and the Columbus airport are named after him.
She has been out promoting the book for four weeks now in addition to hosting her show, and had to sit out Thursday night's program due to a cold

Kelly has also reportedly been nicknamed 'Me-again' by some at Fox News due to her constant press

The battle to sign Megyn Kelly continues to heat up, with a new report claiming that both NBC and ABC have joined CNN in pursuing the Fox News host, whose contract with the network is up in July.

The 46-year-old is 'currently in talks with NBC' an industry executive tells Vanity Fair, while ABC 'renewed, and perhaps sweetened, its effort to woo Kelly' in the past month according to a person familiar with the discussions.

And Kelly seems to be making things a bit easier for the networks too according to a person with knowledge of her discussions, who said that money 'may now be less of an issue' for the host of The Kelly File.

That revelation comes a little less than two weeks after it was reported that CNN President Jeff Zucker was 'moving the Himalayan mountains to get [Kelly]' on the network but could not match the $20million-a-year salary that Fox News already had on the table.

Meanwhile, Kelly's non-stop press appearances to promote her new memoir Settle For More over the past four weeks have reportedly earned her a new nickname at Fox News - 'Me-again.'

The non-stop interviews, appearances and book signings on top of her daily hosting duties also seem to have left Kelly a bit under the weather, as she was forced to skip her show on Thursday.

'I'm off tonight b/c I am sick (my voice is gone/cough) but I'll be back on Monday assuming I can speak!' wrote Kelly to a concerned fan on Twitter Thursday night.

She also included that fan's message, which stated that he had now stopped watching Kelly's Fox News co-worker Bill O'Reilly's program in favor of her show.

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Chnage of scenery: Megyn Kelly (above in May) has reportedly been in talks with both ABC and NBC about the possibility of moving to a new network

Hard work: She has been out promoting the book for four weeks now in addition to hosting her show, and had to sit out Thursday night's program due to a cold (Twitter message above)

ABC was one of the first networks to go after Kelly, with president Ben Sherwood reportedly approaching her back in October.

She was also reportedly shown a 'recruitment presentation' by ABC at some point that ran through some of the legends who have worked at the network, ending with a photo of herself.

None of those who reported on Kelly's talks with ABC were able to reveal however where she might be placed should she sign with the network.

When asked to comment about Kelly's possible future with ABC, a representative for the network said: 'As much as we appreciate and admire Megyn Kellys talents, this is simply not true. There has never been an offer of any job.'

Little is known meanwhile of Kelly's reported dealings with NBC, and when she began these talks with the network. A spokesperson for NBC declined to comment.

Kelly's personal publicist, Leslee Dart of 42West, did however comment on the Vanity Fair story by saying: 'Peo ple can parse language any way they want.The fact of the matter is that fortunately Megyn Kelly has been presented with more opportunities than ever before.

'She is incredibly grateful and is taking the time she needs to make this important decision for her family and her career.'

Zucker on the other hand has also been after Kelly for some time, but could not match the money that the Murdochs were offering Kelly to stay at Fox News.

Drudge reported earlier this month that Zucker is hoping to have Kelly anchor a show in the 8pm or 9pm hour on the network, which would mean Anderson Cooper's two-hour block of AC360 which currently airs at both those times would be cut in half.

It is unclear what Kelly would get out of the move however, as in addition to a lower salary CNN continues to lag well behind Fox News in the ratings.

Zucker and Kelly are already well acquainted, having been spotted together this past July when the Fox News star and her contributor pal Dana Perino stopped by the CNN Grill while in Philadelphia for the Democratic National Convention.

Kelly spent the night chatting with Cooper and Zucker while also posting a photo of herself and Perino posing with CNN anchor Don Lemon, who invited her to the party.

That photo of a smiling Kelly partying with her peers was taken just hours after The New York Times reported that her co-hosts at the convention, Bret Baier and Brit Hume, were refusing to speak with her off camera over the exit of Ailes one week prior.

Kelly's contract with Fox News is up in July, and the network has reportedly already offered her over $20million to stay (Kelly above in 2011 while hosting America's Choice on Fox News)

Fox News insiders who spoke with Drudge said that Kelly is 'despised' the other on-air talent at the network, which if true could mean that going to CNN for less money would not be that big of an issue for Kelly.

She would be getting a 'fresh break' after a tempestuous 18 months where she was attacked by everyone from President-elect Donald Trump to her former boss Roger Ailes said one insider.

What's more, she could finally go head-to-head with Bill O'Reilly, who is referred to as her 'arch-nemesis' in the story.

That is not a guarantee however, as even if she does leave Fox News to join CNN there is still a chance that O'Reilly could be leaving the network around the same time as his contract is also coming to an end.

There have been reports circulating for months as well claiming that there is little chance that both O'Reilly and Kelly would resign their contracts, though neither of the two has said anything to confirm that claim.

The uncertain relationship between the pair made headlines however just last month after comments O'Reilly made about Kelly during an appearance on CBS This Morning.

O'Reilly was asked during his appearance on the morning news show if Kelly might appear on his Fox News program to promote her book, to which he replied: 'I don't know. We'll see if she's going to be on the show or not. I want to be that candid. I'm not that interested in this.'

That is when anchor Norah O'Donnell, a longtime friend of O'Reilly's, cut in and asked: 'You're not interested in sexual harassment?'

A clearly annoyed and angry O'Reilly replied to this by saying: 'I'm not interested in basically litigating something that is finished that makes my network look bad. Okay?

'I'm not interested in making my network look bad at all. That doesn't interest me one bit.'

O'Reilly's seemed to be referencing the chapter in Kelly's book where she details Ailes' sexual harassment of her and her decision to cooperate with the company's investigation into its CEO this past July.

Co-workers: It is unclear what Kelly (above in 2014 with Bill O'Reilly) would get out of the move to CNN, as the network is offering less money and lags well behind Fox News in the ratings

Claim: There have been numerous reports claiming some at Fox News have been angry with Kelly (left) ever since the ousting of Roger Ailes (left)

The preternaturally cool and collected Kelly responded to O'Reilly's comments the very next day, during her own appearance on CBS This Morning.

'Well I will say this, I am very proud of the fact that I discussed this with Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch before I wrote this chapter in my book, and we were all on the same page,' she said.

'And it was an important chapter to include and I am proud of them that they feel as I do, that sunlight is the best disinfectant.'

When she was then asked about O'Reilly's claim that she was making Fox News look bad, Kelly replied: 'I believe that Roger Ailes made the company look bad.'

O'Reilly and Kelly currently have the top-rated programs on Fox News, which has been the most watched basic-cable network for 21 of the past 22 weeks.

Kelly has been with Fox News since 2004, first as a corespondent and then slowly working her way up to hosting her own show in 2010, America Live.
The humble mince pie is at the centre of a Christmas price war.

The average price of a mince pie is down by 7 per cent on a year ago and supermarkets have launched a raft of deals.

The fall in the price of mince pies is at odds from Brexit doom-mongers who warned a vote to leave the EU would put up the cost festive treats.

In an attempt to lure in holiday shoppers, supermarkets have lowered the prices of mince pies from last year by an average of 7 per cent

The fall in prices has been seen in a survey of 20 lines sold by leading supermarkets conducted by BrandView for The Grocer magazine.

Standard packs of six own-label mince pies are retailing at an average of 96p, which is a 6 per cent drop from last year.

The figure for six own-label iced mince pies is down by 16 per cent to 1.07.

In contrast, prices for own-label premium mince pies are marginally higher than last year at an average of 2.04 for six, up from 2 last year.

A box of six Mr Kipling mince pies are currently 15 per cent more expensive at an average of 1.58.

In terms of deals, Tesco and Morrisons are running two-for-2 deals on selected boxes of branded and own-label lines, while Asda is offering 10p off six own-label mince pies.

Standard packs of six own-label mince pies are selling at an average of 96p and six own-label iced mince pies is down to 1.07

Waitrose has a two-for-5 deal on 12 premium mini mince pies.

Sainsburys has price cuts across its own-label range, taking 30p off six standard mince pies, bringing them down to 1. There is 50p off six premium mince pies, cutting the price to 2.

The price cuts come amid warning that ingredients like flour, sugar, butter and raisins are becoming more expensive due to the weakening of sterling in the wake of the Brexit referendum vote.

Retail expert, Martin Wood, of IRI, told The Grocer: Mince pies are a headline product for Christmas, and its all about baskets and footfall at this time of year.

Mince pie price cuts have come despite warnings that ingredients for the holiday treats would increase in price because of the weakening sterling

Manufacturers would like to negotiate price increases, but the retailers are under pressure to keep prices as stable as they can.

There is also some good news on brandy butter and standard Christmas puddings, which are also cheaper.

The cost of brandy butter is down by an average of 4 per cent on a year ago. Tesco has taken 10p off its 150g own-label premium brandy butter, bringing it down to 2.30. Sainsburys has reduced its 200g of own-label premium brandy butter by 35p to 2.50
This is the hilarious moment two neighbours fought with snow shovels after a heated argument while clearing their paths.

An eyewitness caught the winter warriors on camera in the city of Nizhny Novgo, central Russia.

The video footage, which quickly went viral after it was posted online, begins with the two men using their shovels to clear their paths of snow.

Bust up: This is the hilarious moment two neighbours fought with snow shovels after a heated argument while clearing their paths

They start to get in each other's way and one man suddenly launches a shovel full of snow at his rival who immediately retaliates and a snow fight begins.

Starting about three 10 feet apart, the men take it in turns to aim shovels of snow at each other as they gradually get closer and closer.

And they finally end up giving up on the snow altogether and just bash each other with their shovels instead.

Tense: An eyewitness caught the winter warriors on camera in the city of Nizhny Novgo, central Russia

Coming together: The video footage, which quickly went viral after it was posted online, begins with the two men using their shovels to clear their paths of snow

The two men eventually separated with no harm done and both go back to their chores.

Nizhny Novgorod, shortened to Nizhny by locals, was known as Gorky from 1932 to 1990 after the writer Maxim Gorky who was born there.

The city is an important economic, transportation and cultural centre in the vast Volga-Vyatka economic region and it is centre of Russia's river tourism industry.
In one of the poorest countries in Asia, Ronald dela Rosa, director general of the Philippine National Police (PNP), is treated more like a rock star than a police chief.

Crowds flock to him in public, thrusting their phones out to capture the moment in a selfie. A trail of fans follows him around the country.

As does a trail of dead bodies.

Aside from President Rodrigo Duterte, dela Rosa, whose nickname means 'rock', is the central figure in the countrys ongoing drug crackdown that began on July 1.

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Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, left, places the hat of the new police chief, Ronald dela Rosa, during the 'Assumption of Command' ceremonies at police headquarters in Manila

Government officials, including dela Rosa, display to press plastic bags full of methamphetamine, during a drug raid at a waste management facility in Manila this year

Since then, more than 5,800 people have been killed by either police operations or vigilante groups, according to Foreign Policy Magazine.

Photos of corpses with their heads wrapped in tape and left on streets with signs labeling them 'pushers' or 'drug dealers' have triggered international outrage - but has led to dela Rosa being lauded for his heroism.

The United States, a close ally of the Philippines, said it was 'deeply concerned' by the reports of the killings and the State Department urged Duterte's government to abide by human rights norms.

Dela Rosa's anti-drug beliefs earned a revered place for him in the hearts of the majority of Filipinos, who believe drugs are at the root of all crimes and will destroy the country.

Bato reacts as he presents the two suspected drug pushers, who were arrested for methamphetamine during a news conference

Dela Rosa talks with two suspected drug dealers. His anti-drug beliefs earned a revered place for him in the hearts of the majority of Filipinos, who believe drugs are at the root of all crimes

The only people who can save the Philippines from monetary and spiritual collapse? Dela Rosa and President Duterte.

Duterte claimed there are three million drug users in the country, and said in September that he would slaughter them, 'like Hitler'.

Likening himself to the Nazi leader, Duterte said in a speech in his hometown of Davao City: 'I'd be happy to slaughter them. At least if Germany had Hitler, the Philippines would have (me). You know my victims, I would like (them) to be all criminals, to finish the problem of my country and save the next generation from perdition.

Philippine National Police Chief Dir. Gen. dela Rosa talks to Kerwin Espinosa, who according to police is a drug lord, during a joint hearing session at Senate headquarters in Manila

A frustrated dela Rosa wipes his tears after answering questions during a committee hearing

The former military man testifies during a Philippine Senate hearing on drug-related killings

Statistics from the Dangerous Drugs Board show that there are only 1.8 million users among the countrys population of more than 100 million.

Dela Rosa has done Duterte's bidding with zeal. He's turned the president's experiment to make the Philippines a 'drugless society' into an unofficial national policy.

Heavily-armed police tour neighbourhoods and ask suspected drug users to voluntarily surrender. So far, more than 700,000 people have surrendered, according to CNN.
The father of a 14-year-old Reno boy who was shot by a campus police officer after swinging a knife in a schoolyard has defended his son's actions on social media, arguing that the teen had armed himself against bullies, and questioned the officer's decision to open fire on him.

The boy, identified by a local newspaper as Logan Clark, remained in critical but stable condition Thursday at a Reno hospital suffering from a gunshot wound sustained during the confrontation at Hug High School Wednesday morning.

His father, Justin Clark, revealed on Facebook that Logan, once a 'superior athlete,' has lost a part of a lung as a result of the shooting but was expected to survive.

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The father of a Reno teenager, identified as Logan Clark, 14, who can be seen above brandishing what looks like a knife at classmates, has defended his son's actions

'Now he won't have the ability that he had before, so he won't have the chance to go to college or any other way to use his gift. Cuz it's gone,' Mr Clark wrote in a Facebook update, which has since been deleted, along with other comments pertaining to his sons shooting, reported the Reno Gazette Journal.

Logan Clark was shot in an outdoor courtyard at Hug High School at around 11.30am after Reno police said he was threatening other students and refused orders to drop the knife.

A video posted online in the hours after the bloodshed appeared to show a male teenager wearing a blue shirt and white pants pacing and wielding a large kitchen knife in a circle of onlookers in an outdoor quad.

Another clip appeared to capture the sound of a single gunshot and several students screaming before the camera shows the boy writhing in pain on the ground.

Speaking to reporters Thursday, Washoe County School Superintendent Traci Davis thanked the campus police officers 'who acted swiftly to protect the safety of our students.'

Had it not been for their quick action and professionalism, I truly believe that the outcome could have been much worse for our students, Davis said.

Blood can seen on the face of the seemingly angry teen as he swipes at his peers with a huge knife

However, David Houston, a high-profile criminal defense attorney who has been hired by Justin Clark to represent his son, has said in a statement provided to NBC News on Thursday he has many questions as to 'what happened and what could have been done to avoid the use of lethal force.'

The lawyer suggested that the officer who fired the shot had alternative methods at his disposal that could have rendered the situation harmless, he told the station KRNV, before adding: It is my belief we do not send our children to school to be shot.

Houston's past clients have included former pro wrestler Hulk Hogan and Joe Francis, founder of the 'Girls Gone Wild' video empire.

Justin Clark, Logan's father, claimed that school officials were aware that his son was being bullied and should have taken steps to prevent it.

He wrote on Facebook: 'To idiots that think Logan was wrong know he was being bullied he is not the kind to back down.

'He brought the knives because he was gonna b jumped and he was the school knew of this and failed to act.' (sic)

A Reno police officer stands guard outside Hug High School on the north side of Reno on Wednesday while other officers talk after the shooting

The teen was shot by a school cop and fell to the ground before being taken to hospital, where he was listed in critical but stable condition Thursday

Shots fired: Procter R. Hug High School in Reno, Nevada, was put on lockdown Wednesday after a police-involved shooting

During the incident, the school was placed on lockdown prompting many concerned parents to rush to the school gates

One of the parents, Demick LaFlamme claimed his son, Demick Jr, was a friend of the wounded student.

Mr LaFlamme told the Reno-Gazette Journal that he believed that Logan had been bullied in the days leading up to the incident.

He explained: 'He's a good kid. All of his friends like him. Hell, even I love him and I don't like kids.

'The kids take bullying into their own hands, and he was shot for it.'

Mr LaFlamme also criticized police for their handling of the situation and for shooting the teenager.

'There are alternatives. Mace, for one, pepper spray,' LaFlamme told CBS News.

Jason Trevino, chief of police for the Washoe County School District, speaks to reporters Thursday at the school district's headquarters in Reno a day after the shooting

Washoe County School Superintendent Traci Davis thanked the officer for his swift actions

He added: 'How could they shoot a kid in front of a bunch of other kids? My kid was right there. He could've been hurt. My son tried to go help [Logan] and the police told him to back off.'

Police had initially declined to confirm reports immediately after the shooting that the teen had been armed with a knife.

But Police Chief Jason Soto later acknowledged that the boy was 'armed with at least one knife and threatening other students' during a fight at the high school in a working class neighborhood on the city's north side.

The armed student failed to comply with the school police officer's verbal commands to drop the knife, and the officer ultimately fired his service weapon, 'striking the student and ... stopping the threat,' Soto said.

'Once the threat was stopped, the officer immediately began to provide medical aid to the student until emergency medical assistance arrived,' Soto said. He refused to take any questions.

Parents wait outside Hug High School after the officer-involved shooting Wednesday

Video courtesy of KOLO

A regional officer-involved shooting team led by Reno police interviewed the campus officer, who was placed on routine paid administrative leave, Reno police officer Tim Broadway said.

Broadway told reporters earlier on Wednesday that more than 40 students witnessed the incident, including many who shot cellphone video that police want to see before the public.

'There's multiple videos out there,' said Broadway, the department spokesman. 'There's some very disturbing video out there. But there are other events that led up to this incident, so please don't react to those.'
John Glenn (right) was confident and outgoing while Annie was shy and reserved, though some mistook her for mentally ill due to her stammer. The Glenns are seen in the 1998 photo just before John's return to space

Annie Glenn was all too content to watch from the sidelines as her husband, the famed astronaut and former US Senator John Glenn, basked in the spotlight of public adoration after becoming the first American to orbit the Earth.

While John soaked up the attention, Annie shunned it, for she was hiding a secret from the public  she was a stutterer.

'As the wife of a famous astronaut, I had to deal with being constantly in the public eye,' she once told The Washington Post in 1984.

'I had to deal with the press. And if this wasn't hard enough, I had to do it all with a severe handicap.'

Annie Glenn's condition, which many mistook for a mental defect, meant that she struggled to pronounce 85 percent of the words that came out of her mouth.

That meant that simple, mundane tasks that others take for granted  like talking on the phone, going to the grocery store, and interviewing for a job  invited difficulties and ridicule, according to USA Today.

John Glenn (right), the former astronaut and US senator, passed away on Thursday at the age of 95. He was married to Annie Glenn (left) for 73 years

'For Annie, stuttering meant not being able to take a taxi because she would have to write out the address and give it to the driver because she couldn't get the words out,' John Glenn once said.

'It would be too embarrassing to try to talk about where she wanted to go.'

'Going to the store is a tremendously difficult and frustrating experience when you can't find what you want and can't ask the clerk because you are too embarrassed of your stutter.'

During one instance, she wasn't able to speak well enough to call 911 after her daughter was hemorrhaging blood as a result of her stepping on a nail, the Associated Press reported.

Her stutter was so pronounced that as a child she relied on her sister, Jane, to complete her sentences.

But when she met John Glenn in early childhood, she knew he was different.

'He would just wait patiently until I finished trying to get the words out,' Annie Glenn told Muskingum University professors in a 2010 video interview.

The couple met when they were young children, instantly becoming best friends

While John Glenn was an outgoing former war hero and world famous astronaut who liked the spotlight, Annie shunned it. The Glenns are seen in this November 8, 1998, file photo

From a young age, Annie Glenn had a severe stutter that made it difficult for her to pronounced 85 percent of the words that came out of her mouth

Annie's condition meant that mundane tasks which required verbal communication - like shopping for groceries - were excruciatingly difficult

Annie's predicament was even more stressful given that she was the wife of a national hero and beloved public figure. Her husband, John, is honored with a parade in Washington, DC, on February 26, 1962 just days after his return from his historic space flight

The scrutiny that comes with being the wife of a war hero and world famous astronaut only compounded the problem for Annie Glenn.

'Those were difficult times for me,' she said.

'In times of difficulty or defeat, it's easy to think that we really have no choices. That we are trapped. I know I felt that way. Having tried, having failed so many times.'

Then, one day in 1973, the couple was watching the 'Today' show.

A doctor was discussing a new method of treatment for stutterers, an intensive three-week program in Roanoke, Virginia.

Annie enrolled. They made her relearn each letter of the alphabet. They forced her to go to a shopping center and . . . shop. To ask questions, for the first time.

They weren't allowed to call friends or family for that three weeks. When it was over, Annie picked up the telephone.

'When I called John, he cried,' Annie said. 'People just couldn't believe that I could really talk.'

And when she got home, according to John Glenn's memoir, she talked.

He recalled one of her first lines: 'John, I've wanted to tell you this for years. Pick up your socks.'

Joking aside, she was 53 years old, and she had found her calling.

Annie Glenn went on to become a champion of the disabled.

The turning point for Annie came in 1973, when a television news program featured a therapeutic training class designed to help stutterers

After completing the three-week course, she was a changed person. 'When I called John, he cried,' Annie said. 'People just couldn't believe that I could really talk'. John Glenn and his wife are feted at a parade in New Concord, Ohio, on March 3, 1962, to celebrate his space flight

Annie Glenn (far left), John, and daughter Caroline are seen in front of their Ohio home in 1965. Annie would give speeches at her husband's campaign rallies and advocate for the disabled

After she would give a speech on the campaign trail during rallies in support of her husband, she would seek out the disabled in the crowd, those who were usually overlooked.

'After years of cruel slurs, of being overlooked by strangers, Annie Glenn seeks out the handicapped,' The Washington Post wrote in 1984.

'In a crowd, she heads straight for those in wheelchairs. She has a sort of radar; finds the shyest person in the room and takes the time to draw him out.'

'A group of deaf people were in the audience at one of her husband's speeches,' the Post wrote.

'Afterward, Annie Glenn went over to them and soon was learning sign language. As the press crowded around Glenn, he looked over at his wife, who was signing "I Love You" to the deaf.'

'"That's what you should be covering," he told the reporters.'

Annie Glenn has been recognized for her work with stammerers.

In 1983, she received the first national award of the American Speech and Hearing Association.

In 2004, Annie Glenn was inducted into the National Stuttering Association Hall of Fame.

Ohio State University, where she worked as an adjunct professor in the Speech Pathology Department, named a street on its campus Annie and John Glenn Avenue in 2015.
If you thought Donald Trump was the face of Americas anti-establishment movement, hold on to your chapeaus: A wild wind is rising.

Want to know whats more anti-establishment than a president-elect who refuses to play by the rules? How about similarly spirited electors going AWOL and sending someone else to the Oval Office?

Could it happen? Might.

A movement headed by a mostly Democratic group calling itself Hamilton Electors is trying to convince Republican electors to defect  not to cede the election to Hillary Clinton but to join with Democrats in selecting a compromise candidate, such as Mitt Romney or John Kasich. It wouldnt be that hard to do.

Mathematically, only 37 of Trumps 306 electors are needed to bring his number down to 269, one less than the 270 needed to secure the presidency.

On the Hamilton Electors Facebook page, elector Bret Chiafalo, a Democrat from Washington, explains the purpose of the Electoral College. If you havent previously been a fan of the electoral system, you might become one.

Bottom line: The Founding Fathers didnt fully trust democracy, fearing mob rule, and so created a republic. They correctly worried that a pure democracy could result in the election of a demagogue (ahem), or a charismatic autocrat (ahem), or someone under foreign influence (ditto), hence the rule that a president must have been born in the U.S. We know how seriously Trump takes the latter.

Most important among the founders criteria for a president was that he (or now she) be qualified. Thus, the Electoral College was created as a braking system that would, if necessary, save the country from an individual such as, frankly, Trump.

It is worth noting that 50 former Republican national security officials and foreign policy experts co-signed a letter saying that Trump would be a dangerous president. Do we simply ignore them?

At least one Republican elector, Christopher Suprun, has decided to pay heed. In an op-ed in Tuesdays New York Times, Suprun, a paramedic in Texas, outlined all his reasons for not rubber-stamping Trump, saying that he owes a debt not to his party but to his children. He urged others to join him.

This, apparently, they can do, though some states may impose penalties. Hamilton Electors are raising funds to pay any such costs that may accrue.

Alexander Hamilton, suddenly a star both on Broadway and Main Street, wrote that the Electoral College affords a moral certainty that the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications.

Electors would prevent the tumult and disorder that would result from the candidates exploiting talents for low intrigue, and the little arts of popularity. Speaking of Trump. How wise our founders were. And how unwise are we to pay so little attention to their far-keener insights.

It is, perhaps, a sign of these upside-down times that Democrats, usually preferring the popular vote, are suddenly genuflecting to the Electoral College and Republicans, who so often defer to the founders original intent, shift principle so swiftly, presumably in hopes of taking the ultimate escalator ride in the golden palace of King Trump. Tut-tut.

Meanwhile, those on both sides who remain opposed to Trump are dismissed as either sorry losers or as dining on crow and sour grapes. But the stakes are too high  and the evidence of Trumps presidential aptitude deficit too severe  for such trivializing designations. His demonstrated lack of judgment and impulse control should send shivers down the spines of all Americans in consideration of the nuclear arsenal he is poised to have at his fingertips.

Thats not all of it, but its enough. Without consulting advisers or sleeping on it, for which he is not known, Trump can authorize a nuke upon the slightest provocation  or none. All previous presidents have had the same authority, of course, but all have also been experienced statesmen, nary a reality-show celebrity (nor snake-oil salesman) among them.

Trumps friends have told me theyre confident hell solemnly respect the burden of such power, but nothing thus far justifies their faith. After his election win, Trump hasnt much bothered himself with intelligence briefings. He ignored 37 years of diplomatic precedent by chatting with the president of Taiwan, upsetting China. He spoke like an inarticulate ninth-grader with Pakistans prime minister, according to that countrys readout. Trump apparently told the prime minister that hes a terrific guy doing amazing work and that Trump is ready and willing to play any role that you want me to play to address and find solutions to the outstanding problems. Oh, really? Which ones?

Electors are scheduled to meet Dec. 19 in their respective states to cast their final ballots. If there are 37 Republicans among them with the courage to perform their moral duty and protect the nation from a talented but dangerous president-elect, a new history of heroism will have to be written.

Please, be brave.
The President Elect of the United States called the First Minister of Scotland today for a 'brief introductory conversation'.

Donald Trump discussed the 'long-standing relationship between Scotland and the United States' in a phone call with Nicola Sturgeon - who had made clear her support for Hillary Clinton during the American presidential election campaign.

But Scotland's First Minister went on to congratulate Trump on his election win and 'express her belief in the values Scotland and the United States share'.

Nicola Sturgeon and Trump enjoyed a discussion about the shared values between their countries

The tycoon owns two major golf courses in Scotland, where his mother was born

The Scottish Government said the pair discussed the relationship between their two countries during a telephone conversation this morning.

Their chat comes after the SNP First Minister warned Trump about 'equality, diversity, tolerance'.

The SNP First Minister had previously slammed the tycoon as 'deeply abhorrent' and warned his election would not reduce her to 'diplomatic silence' about racism or misogyny.

But in her formal response to the shock election results, Ms Sturgeon wrote she hoped Mr Trump's ties with Scotland could be 'strengthened'.

The First Minister, who last year stripped Mr Trump of his role as a business ambassador for Scotland, has faced questions over how her criticism of the president-elect could impact on Scotland following his election victory.

Trump at the opening of The Trump International Golf Links Course in 2012 in Balmedie, Scotland

The SNP First Minister had previously slammed the tycoon as 'deeply abhorrent'

Donald Trump has long made clear his connection with Scotland - where he owns two major golf courses, including a controversial one he set up in Aberdeenshire.

His mother Mary Anne Trump (nee MacLeod), who died in 2000 aged 88, was born in Scotland.

The youngest child of a family of ten, Mary Anne MacLeod was born in 1912, in the small village of Tong on the Isle of Lewis. Her family were ex-crofters and her father worked as a fisherman, but the island's economy was destroyed by the huge loss of local men in World War I.

Economic necessity drove her to follow three of her sisters and start a new life in the U.S. Mary, whose first language was Gaelic, took the SS Transylvania from Glasgow to New York in 1930.

In 2006, the tycoon bought Menie Estate, a 600-hectare property just north of Aberdeen - planning to transform it into a world-class golf resort.

The President Elect of the United States Donald Trump called the First Minister of Scotland today

However, local landowners and environmentalists campaigned fiercely against the development - claiming it would wreck the landscape.

Despite the protests, the Republican was eventually granted permission to build a course on the site.

Earlier this year, Mr Trump credited his battle with the people of Aberdeenshire with preparing him to be voted in as the next president of the United States.

And l ast year, Mr Trump blasted the Scottish Government as 'small-minded and parachial' and labelled Alex Salmond a 'has been' after he lost a legal battle against an offshore wind farm being built in the view from his Menie Estate golf resort in 2014.

The tycoon at Trump Turnberry Golf Course and Resort in Ayrshire, Scotland, in 2014

The tycoon had wanted to block plans for an 11-turbine scheme in the bay near the site.

However when he visited Turnberry in June, Mr Trump was asked about the prospect of Scottish independence and said: ''I'll leave it up to the people.

'I love the people of Scotland. That is why I built, in Aberdeen, one of the great golf courses in the world.

'I've gotten to know the people of Scotland so well through my mother and everything else.

'The people of Scotland are amazing people and that question really has to be addressed to the people.

'It was a very, very close vote (in 2014) and I don't know that people want to go through that again.

'I was here when people were going through that vote.
for Donald Trump 's cabinet he said, 'Not from me'

Emanuel was on Capitol Hill on Thursday - asked by DailyMail.com if he had any Democrats to

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel made his political aspirations known quickly when a D.C. consultant asked him Thursday if he planned to run for president in 2020.

Emanuel, a former congressman and White House chief of staff, gave consultant Neil Hare the bird. Twice.

The exchange occurred in front of The Hill's Megan Wilson, who an eyewitness identified to the mayor as a journalist.

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TALK TO THE HAND:Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel made his political aspirations known quickly when a D.C. consultant asked him Thursday if he planned to run for president in 2020

Emanuel, known for his crassness, was on Capitol Hill Thursday for the unveiling of retiring Senator Harry Reid's portrait. He delivered remarks at a Washington think tank, the Brookings Institution, on Friday

'Shes a reporter,' someone pointed out, according to Wilson's report.

The mayor replied: 'I dont give a f*** who she is.'

Hare is President of Global Vision Communications, a Washington-based firm that advises businesses and corporations on messaging an development.

Emanuel, known for his crassness, was on Capitol Hill Thursday for the unveiling of retiring Senator Harry Reid's portrait. He delivered remarks at a Washington think tank, the Brookings Institution, on Friday.

The Chicago Sun-Times says he was meeting with Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx in D.C. this week to ask for additional assistance before his former boss leaves office.

Emanuel was President Barack Obama's first chief of staff. He resigned in 2010 to run for mayor.

Donald Trump has pledged to defund sanctuary cities, like Chicago, to force them to fall in line with federal immigration laws.

At the Reid event Thursday DailyMail.com asked Emanuel if he had any Democrats in mind for the president elect's unfinished cabinet.

'Not from me,' he said.

Trump is said to be considering Senators Heidi Heitkamp and Joe Manchin for appointments. Manchin was supposed to meet with the president-elect today but a spokesman for Trump says their discussion was moved to Monday.

Emanuel stopped by Trump Tower on Wednesday.

He told reporters afterward that he had a 'very good meeting' with the incoming president.

They discussed Oval Office 'operations, how to make that work,' he said, and illegal immigration.

Emanuel says he 'spoke out strongly' in favor of cities that do not offer up illegal immigrants for deportation and delivered a letter to Trump signed by 14 of the nation's mayors asking him not send away illegal immigrant students.

Emanuel stopped by Trump Tower on Wednesday. He told reporters afterward that he had a 'very good meeting' with the incoming president

The Democrat promised illegal immigrants living in his city they could stay after Trump upset Hillary Clinton in the election.

'To all those who are, after Tuesday's election, very nervous and filled with anxiety as we've spoken to, you are safe in Chicago, you are secure in Chicago and you are supported in Chicago,' Emanuel said. 'Chicago will always be a sanctuary city.'

Trump told a Time Magazine this week that he was still deciding what to do with illegal immigrants who were brought to the United States when they were children and call the country home.
The German state of Bavaria has passed a controversial new integration law requiring all immigrants to respect the 'dominant' local culture.

The state's governing Christian Social Union (CSU) said the new legislation was being introduced to cope with an influx of hundreds of thousands of asylum-seekers under German Chancellor Angela Merkel's 'open-door' refugee policy.

Germany took in more than 1 million migrants last year, after Angela Merkel announced it would accept all Syrians escaping from the war-torn country.

The policy is based on an integration law passed by the German government in early August, but each of the country's 15 states can choose whether to implement it or not.

Germany took in more than 1 million migrants last year, after Angela Merkel announced it would accept all Syrians escaping from the war-torn country

It has attracted criticism from left-wing politicians, and it is not expected other states will all adopt the policy, as Bavaria is more right-wing than most.

Following the influx of migrants, Bavaria was the first state to dictate where asylum seekers will live, in an attempt to stop them gathering in segregated communities within Germany.

'We are guaranteeing that migrants in Bavaria live with us, not alongside us,' said minister for social affairs Emilia Muller.

The state's governing Christian Social Union (CSU) said the new legislation was being introduced to cope with an influx of hundreds of thousands of asylum-seekers

The law also provides extra funding for schools and German language classes, and much of the legislation was uncontested.

However, critics of the law have questioned whether it gives the same importance to aspects of German culture like Lederhosen

However, opposition MPs attempted to filibuster the bill to stop it passaging through parliament over a clause which requires immigrants to respect Bavaria's dominant culture.

The bill calls on immigrants to respect Bavaria's Leitkultur, a German word meaning dominant or leading culture.

However, critics of the law have questioned whether it gives the same importance to aspects of German culture like Lederhosen and beer festivals, as to the equality of men and women.

'We do not need a guiding culture in this integration law because all this is already covered much better in the Bavarian constitution,' Markus Rinderspacher, leader of the opposition Social Democratic Party (SPD)said in parliament.

Defending the new law, Ms Muller told MPs: 'It prevents the emergence of parallel societies governed by Sharia, religious codes or tribal customs, instead of our laws and values.'
Brian Williams has called out Donald Trump's transition team for spreading fake news stories.

Williams, who was suspended for six months and lost his spot as NBC Nightly News anchor for exaggerating stories about his time in Iraq and New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, blasted the President-elect's team on MSNBC on Tuesday night.

'Fake news played a role in this election and continues to find a wide audience,' the 57-year-old said.

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Brian Williams has called out Donald Trump's transition team for spreading fake news stories

He had earlier taken aim at Trump's national security adviser Michael Flynn, whose son was booted from the team for sharing fake news stories.

'Flynn's son was fired by the Trump transition today for passing on fake news stories via Twitter. But his dad, the retired Army three-star general has passed on some gems himself,' he said.

'Here are a few: Clinton is involved with child sex trafficking and has "secretly waged war" on the Catholic Church, as well as charges that Obama is a "jihadi" who "laundered money for Muslim terrorists".'

He then discussed a Buzzfeed News study that found more of the stories Trump himself tweeted came from Breitbart than any other outlet.

Williams (left, in Iraq in 2007, and right, hosting Meet the Press in 2008), who was suspended for six months and lost his spot as NBC Nightly News anchor for exaggerating stories about his time in Iraq and New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, blasted the President-elect's team

Flynn's son (left) was fired by the Trump transition today for passing on fake news stories via Twitter. But his dad, the retired Army three-star general (right) has passed on some gems himself,' Williams said

Bill O'Reilly, host of the O'Reilly Factor on the Fox News channel couldn't resist having a dig at Williams with the above tweet

It comes after Williams was forced to admit in February 2015 he wasn't aboard a helicopter hit and forced down by enemy fire during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

He had told versions of the story about how the aircraft was shot down for more than a decade.

Crew members on the 159th Aviation Regiment's Chinook that was hit by two rockets and small arms fire had previously said the ex-NBC anchor was nowhere near the aircraft or two other Chinooks that had been flying in formation when they took fire.

According to the crew members, Williams arrived about an hour later on another helicopter after the other three had made an emergency landing.

'I said things that weren't true,' Williams told Matt Lauer in an interview on Today in June 2015, 'I own up this.'

'This was clearly ego driven, the desire to better my role in a story,' he said.

Williams had previously been the most-watched nightly news anchor and just last year he had signed a highly lucrative contract reportedly worth about $10million a year for five years.

An NBC News inquiry last April found Williams had exaggerated his reporting on a total of 11 occasions including in his award-winning reporting of Hurricane Katrina.
So many parents pulled their kids from the tour, the whole trip has had to be cancelled

were part of a dance troupe and were travelling to Palo Alto, a sister city of Oaxaca

A group of Mexican schoolchildren have cancelled their trip to the United States over concerns for their well-being after Donald Trump won the presidency.

Grupo Folklorico, a dance troupe involving middle-school and high-school students from Instituto Blaise Pascale in Oaxaca, Mexico were planning to visit Palo Alto in California to perform, next spring.

But after Trump's win, the children's parents are now so concerned about how sensible a trip to the U.S. would be, given the current political climate.

A group of Mexican exchange student from Oaxaca have cancelled their trip to the U.S. because of safety concerns in the wake of the presidential election

Grupo Folklorico say the organization has canceled a trip to the U.S. due to concerns over the 'socio-political situation' of the coming Trump presidency

'They are parents like... parents anywhere,' said Bob Wenzlau, the organization's president to the Huffington Post 'When they are sending their children without their being there, there's a heightened sensitivity, like any of us have.'

'We know we can tell them things are safe here,' Wenzlau said. 'But in their view, sending the kids to anywhere in the U.S. in this climate could still be risky.

'These are parents that are afraid to send their children into a little bit of harm's way up here,' he said. 'They're a long way away.'

Despite Palo Alto being a relatively affluent city in the San Francisco Bay area, which voted overwhelmingly for Hillary Clinton, the distinction may not be apparent or reassuring to parents in Mexico that was often a target of Trump's during the campaign.

Initially just a few of the parents stopped their children from going on the trip, but it soon became untenable as more began to follow suit

An email to the parents from Wenzlau, as seen by the Palo Alto Online noted the trip was cancelled because of 'the sociological-political situation in the U.S.A.'

It states: 'parents don't know what will happen under the new government and are not prepared to risk sending their child. Given the number of cancellations, it is no longer artistically or logistically possible to undertake this trip.

'We are incredibly saddened to have to notify you of this ... and we would like to thank you for your continual support of the project,' the email states, adding that next year the group will consider if a trip in fall of 2017 or spring 2018.
Shops are being warned to end their 300million gift card rip-off.

Customers are being shortchanged because some cards expire within just six months.

Others carry hidden fees that quickly make them worthless. The Government is seeking a minimum two-year expiry period and fairer terms and conditions. Often cards do not even carry use-by dates.

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Industry data shows that 5.40 of every 100 put on gift cards is never spent  handing retailers a windfall of almost 6million a week.

A Mail investigation found that stores have a huge range of different policies, meaning many customers try to use their cards only to find they have expired.

Guy Anker, of the website Money Saving Expert, said: Gift cards are risky. If a firm goes under, you lose your money. But, on top of this, it can be incredibly difficult to find out when a gift card expires.

The end date is often hidden and many people wind up losing their money. Any card that expires in under a year is not long enough.

Habitat, White Stuff, French Connection, Costa and Ticketmaster gift cards expire at one year. M&S, Reiss, Lakeland, House of Fraser, Fat Face and Body Shop set a limit of two years, Zara offers three years and Ikea, iTunes and Starbucks have no expiry date at all.

Lord Foster, Liberal Democrat business spokesman, said stores should scrap use-by dates completely. Hidden and confusing expiry dates on gift cards mean millions of people risk being caught out again this Christmas, he said.

Scrapping these unfair rules would be a welcome gift from stores to their customers. In the long term, the Government must step in and introduce a two-year minimum rule so everyone knows where they stand.

Shoppers can also be caught out by hidden fees. One 4 All cards, which can be used with over 100 retailers including Debenhams, M&S, House of Fraser, Gap and H&M and Waterstones, do not expire.

But after 18 months, a 90p charge is applied each month. A 10 gift becomes worthless within two and a half years. Spa vouchers are often valid for only six months. The Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy is discussing the issues with the UK Gift Card and Voucher Association.

Shops are being warned to end their 300million gift card rip-off as it's revealed some cards expire within just six months (file picture)

The Government is seeking a minimum two-year expiry period and fairer terms and conditions. Often cards do not even carry use-by dates (file picture)

A spokesman said: We have worked with businesses to encourage expiry dates of at least two years for gift cards and to increase transparency about any small print that consumers could miss. The spokesman said many stores were moving to a two-year minimum. The Government fell short of proposing legislation  as Ireland did last year. Instead it is hoping retailers will sign up to a voluntary code.

Officials are still considering whether customers should be protected when a retailer issuing gift cards goes bust as happened with Borders bookshop, Woolworths, Jessops, JJB Sports, Austin Reed and HMV.

The gift card association says each card is logged and tracked on computer systems  causing administrative expense.

Retailers also say that allowing gift cards to sit on their books could cause accountancy problems if there were a run of redemptions.

The association has so far refused to bow to pressure to introduce a two-year minimum term for gift cards as part of its voluntary code for stores.

Its director Gail Cohen said: The UKGCVA continues to work with its members, the industry and BEIS, to develop best practice guidelines with regards to gift card expiry dates.
Oxford Police said no one was arrested in the shoplifting incident

Victoria's Secret issued an apology on Facebook to Houzah and the other woman

because manager thought they were together since they were black

She believes she was told to leave

Two black Alabama women were kicked out of a Victoria's Secret store after a third black woman was caught shoplifting.

Kimberly Houzah used Facebook Live to broadcast the incident that occurred on Wednesday at the Quintard Mall in Oxford, KTLA reported.

Houzah was in the store when an employee accused a third black woman of shoplifting.

In the beginning of the video, another woman can be heard arguing with the store manager and asking her why she and Houzah were getting kicked out because someone, whom they didn't know, was caught stealing.

Kimberly Houzah (left and right in the store) used Facebook Live to broadcast the incident that occurred at the Victoria's Secret store inside the Quintard Mall in Oxford, Alabama. She and another woman were kicked out of the store after a third black woman was caught shoplifting

Houzah (pictured) said that the manager didn't check her bag and she didn't accuse her of stealing

The woman, believed to be the manager, told the women: 'I just need y'all to go.'

Houzah said the woman wasn't able to tell them why they had to leave, prompting her to believe it was because they were all black and she thought they were affiliated with the woman accused of stealing.

In the video, she warned others about coming to the mall as she walked out of the store.

She said that she would have never thought 'in a million years that that would have happened to me'.

Houzah said: 'She didn't check my bag. She didn't accuse me of stealing, but because I'm black and another black person happened to get caught stealing, we got to be affiliated.'

The 11-minute video captured Houzah's reaction to the incident, including one moment when she burst into tears as she was walking to her car.

'I can buy anything in there I want,' she said, as she tried to hold back tears.

She told KTLA that she doesn't 'feel like everybody racist'.

The 11-minute video captured Houzah's reaction to the incident, including one moment when she burst into tears (right) as she was walking to her car. The 27-year-old and more than 20 of her supporters returned to the lingerie store Thursday to demand an apology for the incident

Victoria' Secret released a statement (pictured) on Facebook apologizing to Houzah and the other woman the next day

'But I'm just trying to understand why, "cause we just happened to be three black women in Victoria's Secret  that we gotta be together."'

The 27-year-old and more than 20 of her supporters returned to the lingerie store Thursday to demand an apology for the incident.

Victoria's Secret released a statement on Facebook apologizing to Houzah and the other woman shortly a day after the incident.

'We take the experience of our customer at the Quintard Mall very seriously and have reached out to her directly to express our sincere apology,' the statement read.

'What happened at our store should not have happened and does not represent who we are or what we stand for.

'Victorias Secret is adamant that all customers regardless of race be treated with dignity and respect at all times.'

The retailer said the employee involved in the incident was no longer with the company, but they didn't specify whether she quit or if she was fired.
Bruce Marchant, 61, was charged with murder, kidnapping and rape in the death of Sierra Bush, an 18-year-old honors student at Boise State University

A 61-year-old man has been arrested in New York in connection with the rape and murder of an Idaho college student.

NYPD and Idaho cops on Thursday nabbed Bruce Marchant, 61, at the Veteran's Administration Hospital on East 23rd Street in Manhattan.

He's been charged with murder, kidnapping and rape in the death of Sierra Bush, an 18-year-old honors student at Boise State University who disappeared on September 27.

Bush, who also goes by the name of Simon, was found a month later  strangled and naked near a creek in Idaho City in October.

'He's horrific,' Bush' father, Phil Bush, told the New York Daily News after the arrest. 'What he did was just horrible.'

Phil Bush added: 'That they figured out who it was and apprehended him all the way over in New York is something wonderful about our system.'

Bush (pictured), who also goes by the name of Simon, was found strangled and naked near a creek in Idaho City in October

Bush, an 18-year-old honors student at Boise State University, had disappeared a month earlier

Idaho police had been keeping tabs on Marchant for much of the investigation, which spanned some 200 interviews over the past months.

On Tuesday, cops got wind of his location and reached out to NYPD for assistance in the arrest.

'They had been keeping an eye on him,' prosecutor Brian Naugle told the News.

'They were following his whereabouts throughout the investigation.'

Idaho police had been keeping tabs on Marchant for much of the investigation, which spanned some 200 interviews over the past months

Idaho authorities say they will seek to extradite Marchant back to Idaho. The timing of that isn't clear.

Marchant recently lived in a home owned by Bush's father, the Idaho Statesman reported.

Marchant previously served 20 years in Idaho prisons following an armed robbery and assault on a police officer in northern Idaho.

Idaho Department of Correction spokesman Jeff Ray said Marchant was released on September 26, 2008, after serving the full 20 years.

Marchant (pictured after previous arrest) previously served 20 years in Idaho prisons following an armed robbery and assault on a police officer in northern Idaho

He is being held in New York, where he was nabbed at the Veteran's Administration Hospital in Manhattan (pictured), and will be extradited to Idaho

'We are confident that the case will be successfully prosecuted,' said Bart Green, Bush's stepfather.

'And we look forward to a successful conviction, so that it provides a measure of justice for Sierra and, hopefully, so that this individual is taken off the streets for the rest of his life  so he can never harm anyone again.'

Boise County Chief Deputy Coroner Mike Johnson said Bush's cause of death was a type of asphyxiation, but didn't provide additional details.
Robert Williams' (above) 16-year-old daughter complained when a student at her school wore a Confederate-themed hooded sweater

The father of a black student enrolled at a high school in a Pittsburgh suburb was outraged on Thursday after administrators refused to bar another student from wearing clothing that bore the Confederate flag on the grounds that he was exercising free speech.

Robert Williams, whose 16-year-old daughter attends Plum High School in Plum, Pennsylvania, complained to administrators after his daughter objected to a classmate's Confederate-themed hooded sweatshirt.

'My daughter shouldn't have to endure or be subjected to hatred, bigotry, or any kind of racial animus,' Robert Williams told KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh.

After the initial complaint, the school forced the student to remove the hoodie, leading Williams to believe the matter was settled.

A few days later, however, the same student wore the controversial garb once again, prompting Williams to renew his protest.

This time, school administrators told him that the hoodie was protected by the First Amendment and thus was permissible.

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The school cited a 1969 case that was heard by the Supreme Court  Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District.

In that legal case, students wanted to wear black armbands to protest the Vietnam War.

The student wore a hooded sweatshirt that bore the emblem of the Confederate flag. Similar paraphernalia (like those seen above) are available for sale online

In its ruling, the court said that 'students don't shed their constitutional rights at the school house gates.'

Plum Borough School District Superintendent Timothy Glasspool told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that the decision to allow the hoodie was justified by the fact that it did not cause enough of a disruption among other students.

'We cannot restrict students' speech absent of something that would disrupt the school day,' Glasspool said.

Williams disagreed, saying that the Confederate flag should be viewed as a divisive symbol akin to the swastika because they both 'imply things that aren't very nice.'

'Now it's being used as a symbol for 'white power.' My daughter is afraid to be in class with this student. It's disruptive to her learning environment,' Williams said.

'As a black man, it is abhorrent that this is being allowed in the school.'

Administrators at Plum High School (seen in the stock image above) say that the student is protected by First Amendment rights that guarantee freedom of speech

Glasspool said that school administrators were placed in an uncomfortable situation when they asked the student in question not to wear the garment.

'We had a conversation with the student and his father,' he said. 'The father believes that his son is entitled to wear that. It's turned into a situation where one student's rights clashes with another's.'

Glasspool said that administrators would be required to revisit the matter only if a harassment complaint is filed against the student.

Thus far, no complaint has been forthcoming.

Glasspool added that the school dress code, which bans clothing that are 'lewd, vulgar, obscene, or profane,' does permit articles of clothing that bear the Confederate flag and swastikas.

'There's nothing in our policy that says a student cannot wear a swastika,' he said.

'If it significantly disrupts the school day, then they cannot.'

While the school insists that it is upholding free speech rights, Williams is not convinced.

'To see this is what's going on at my child's school and that (the district) is doing nothing about it is upsetting and insane,' Williams said.
Following his shock split with his wife of 21 years, Karl Stefanovic may have another problem on his hands over the future of his $8 million harbourside home.

Construction on the Today's co-host Cremorne home, on Sydney's North Shore, has not even been completed.

And if the sale doesn't go ahead it could cost up to $800,000 thanks to a non-refundable deposit.

Karl and estranged wife Cassandra Thorburn announced their split earlier this year and it is believed the modern four-bedroom home could go to Ms Thorburn as part of a property settlement, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

The Today show co-host pictured with wife of 21-years Cassandra Thorburn

Karl Stefanovic could lose $800,000 deposit on $8 million harbourside home after splitting with wife this year

The stunning waterfront home is set to boast four bedrooms across three floors with open-plan living spaces.

A swimming pool, steam room and a wine cellar are also set to be part of the modern pad.

Settlement is due in the first quarter of 2017, by which time construction is expected to be finished.

After the couple announced the end of their marriage, the Australian TV personality moved out of their family home in Lindfield, on Sydney's Upper North Shore, where Ms Thorburn remained.

The stunning waterfront home boasts four bedrooms across three floors with open-plan living spaces

Construction on the $8million home is expected to be finished in the first quarter of 2017

If the sale of the stunning property doesn't go ahead it could cost up to $800,000 thanks to a non-refundable deposit

The property was put onto the market in November and quickly sold after just 11 days, the Daily Telegraph reports.

The upper North Shore family home is believed to have fetched to as much as $4 million, much more than $2.3 million the former couple paid six years ago.

The 1915 five-bedroom cottage features a striking white interior along with marble fireplaces and pressed metal ceilings.

The family could previously keep cool in the air-conditioned garage or rock out in the music room.

The three level Cremorne home was purchased before Karl and Cassandra's separation

The 1915 five-bedroom cottage features a striking white interior

The family could previously keep cool in the air-conditioned garage or rock out the music room

The Lindfield property was put onto the market in November and quickly sold after just 11 days

The upper North Shore family home is believed to have fetched to as much as $4 million, much more than $2.3 million the former couple paid six years ago

Karl has reportedly spent his time at the home of brother Peter and his fiance, Today newsreader Sylvia Jeffreys, since his marriage breakdown

Karl was recently spotted in Melbourne, the hometown of food blogger pal Sofia Levin, who says they're no more than friends

Karl has reportedly spent his time at the home of brother Peter and his fiance, Today newsreader Sylvia Jeffreys, since his marriage breakdown.

Their luxurious townhouse in Sydney's east features two master-sized bedrooms with balconies, two bathrooms and a private backyard terrace with a water feature wall.

Karl was also reportedly staying with his best mate and billionaire James Packer in Bondi and his cameraman brother, Tom.

He was rumoured to be seeing food blogger Sofia Levin after the pair were spotted together in Sydney.

But Levin told Woman's Day, that while she and Karl text and FaceTime each other several times a week, they're just friends.
A woman who was five months into her pregnancy claims she miscarried because a nurse gave her the wrong drugs.

The woman, who was treated at a hospital in Shanghai, says she was given an abortion pill by an inexperienced nurse in July this year.

The drugs, she says, caused her baby to be delivered prematurely in August and as a result, it could not be saved.

Zhao Li's husband took a photo, left, of the label of the drug, right, that a nurse mistakenly prescribed to her

The woman, identified as Zhao Li, went for a regular check-up at Pudong Maternity and Infant Health Hospital in Shanghai, on July 1, People's Daily reported.

Her results led doctors to recommend that she stayed at the hospital for further care.

She received fluids through a drip while she was staying at the hospital.

However, on the morning of July 3, Zhao developed a red rash on her body, indicating that she was allergic to her prescribed drugs, according to the report.

Her doctor prescribed her Dydrogesterone, a drug used to prevent miscarriage, to help with her pregnancy.

Zhao was treated at Pudong Maternity and Infant Health Hospital in Shanghai (pictured above)

But a nurse, who according to Zhao had just started working at the hospital, gave her Mifepristone, an abortion drug, instead.

The nurse insisted it was the correct drug when questioned multiple times.

But both Zhao and her husband remained sceptical and took a photo of the pill blister before she took it.

When the couple asked other nurses about what Zhao had taken, the hospital staff were alarmed to discover that the wrong drugs had been administered.

She was taken to another hospital for emergency treatment.

Due to Zhao's condition, doctors advised her to drink water and vomit in order to try and purge the drug from her system, which she duly did.

Zhao said she had gone in for a regular check-up. Above, a room at Pudong Maternity and Infant Health Hospital in Shanghai

Despite having blood samples and her vomit taken for analysis, doctors were not able to conclusively confirm how much drug she has absorbed.

Afterwards, she returned to Pudong Maternity and Infant Health Hospital to continue her care.

Later that evening, Zhao says she experience stomach pains, vomiting and had vaginal bleeding.

She was eventually discharged on July 21.

When the expectant mother returned for a check-up on August 22, the results indicated that the baby was quite weak.

Despite medical staff's best efforts, her baby was delivered prematurely on August 29, by which time Zhao was 23 weeks pregnant.

Traumatized: Zhao Li and her husband (left) told their story to reporters in China. However, the hospital (a spokesperson pictured right) denied they were to blame

Zhao said: 'The baby was breathing at the time. But the hospital staff said he was too young and could not save him.'

Pudong Maternity and Infant Health Hospital denied that the Mifepristone caused Zhao's miscarriage, People's Daily reported.

A spokesperson admitted to reporters that the nurse administered the wrong drugs but said that as Zhao was 16 weeks pregnant at the time, the drug would not have significantly impacted her baby.

The spokesperson cited an independent report by medical experts, which was based on a healthy pregnancy.

The two parties are currently negotiating compensation according to The Paper.

The nurse who was involved was temporarily dismissed from her position, with some of her pay docked, but is now back at work according to the report.
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A plane destined to become the first solar-powered craft to break through the stratosphere has been officially unveiled.

The SolarStratos, which has already successfully flown around the globe, and is set to blast off to space in 2018 and is capable of flying 82,000 feet (25,000 metres) above the Earth.

While in the past, trips to the stratosphere have required large quantities of energy or helium, the SolarStratos plane uses solar power for 'the equivalent environmental footprint of an electric car'.

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'Our goal is to demonstrate that current technology offers us the possibility to achieve above and beyond what fossil fuels offer,' said Raphael Domjan, creator of PlanetSolar, following the plane's official unveiling in Payerne, Switzerland. The solar craft is pictured next to the one of the spacesuits that will be worn by the pilot and passenger

THE SOLARSTRATOS - Two-seater plane - 28 feet (8.5 metres) long - 81.4 feet (24.8 metres) wingspan - 32-kW electric engine - 20 kWh lithium-ion battery - 72 sq feet (22 sq m) solar cells - Can fly for 24 hours - Can fly at 82,000 ft (25,000 m) Advertisement

Interested parties can pledge 55,000 (46,308/$58,448) to be guaranteed to experience one of the high altitude flights.

'Our goal is to demonstrate that current technology offers us the possibility to achieve above and beyond what fossil fuels offer,' said Raphael Domjan, creator of PlanetSolar, following the plane's official unveiling in Payerne, Switzerland.

'Electric and solar vehicles are amongst the major challenges of the 21st century.

'Our aircraft can fly at an altitude of 25,000 metres and this opens the door to the possibility of electric and solar commercial aviation, close to space.'

In November, SolarStraos first revealed plans for a five-hour mission to space and back, during which the plane and pilot will be subjected to frigid temperatures and extremely low pressures.

The plane is just 28 feet (8.5 metres) long and runs on a 32-kW electric engine and 20 kWh lithium-ion battery, charged by the craft's 72 square feet (22 square metre) solar cells, which cover each wing.

It has a wingspan of 81.4 feet (24.8 metres).

The craft, built by PC-Aero, can seat two people and is capable of more than 24 hours of flight.

According to the firm, SolarStratos is the first commercial two-seater solar plane, and will be the first solar craft to breach the stratosphere.

Its hangar was completed in November, two years after the project launched, New Atlas reports, and this will serve as the operational base.

The SolarStratos, which has already successfully flown around the globe, and is set to blast off to space in 2018 and is capable of flying 82,000 feet (25,000 metres) above the Earth. Pictured is the aircraft's official unveiling Payerne, Switzerland

The plane, pictured at its official unveiling, is just 28 feet (8.5 metres) long and runs on a 32-kW electric engine and 20 kWh lithium-ion battery, charged by the craft's 72 square feet (22 square metre) solar cells, which cover each wing

Raphael Domjan, creator of PlanetSolar, is pictured next to the solar-powered plane, along with one of the spacesuits that will be worn by the pilot and passenger

In November, SolarStratos revealed its plans for a five hour mission to space and back, during which the plane and pilot will be subjected to frigid temperatures and extremely low pressures

The first mission to the stratosphere is set to take place in 2018. From up so high, passengers will be able to see first-hand the curvature of the Earth and witness the stars during the daytime

The plane is just 8.5 meters long and runs on a 32-kW electric engine and 20 kWh lithium-ion battery, charged by the craft's 22 square meter solar cells, which cover each wing

The mission comes just months after Solar Impulse II made the first ever round-the-world flight powered by solar energy.

And before this, pilot Raphael Domjan led the first trip around the world in a solar-power boat, which was completed in May 2012.

After this achievement demonstrated travel with renewable energy would be possible, Domjan says it's now necessary to 'go even further and overtake what has been achieved with fossil fuels.'

A stunning video revealed by SolarStratos reveals what a flight on the ground-breaking might look like.

According to the firm, SolarStratos is the first commercial two-seater solar plane, and will be the first solar craft to breach the stratosphere

In the first mission, it's expected the plane will take two hours to ascend to space, 15 minutes to 'stay up with the stars,' and three hours to descend.

From up so high, passengers will be able to see the curvature of the Earth and witness the stars during the daytime.

'Wouldn't it be essential to go higher to show the capacity of renewable energy, here on the surface of our planet?' the website says.

'Beyond this adventure, our project is to open a door on a commercial electrical or solar aviation on the edge of space, with the aim of achieving unique travel with private passengers or scientists.'

The craft will not be pressurised as a result of weight restrictions, and the pilot will have to wear an astronaut's pressurized suit, in another solar energy first.

'For a hundred years it was necessary to use large quantities of energy or helium to reach the stratosphere,' the team continued.

But, this also means Domjan will not be able to leave the plane to use a parachute.

During the journey, both the plane and pilot will experience temperatures as cold as -70 degrees C, along with pressures around 5 per cent those felt on Earth.

According to the SolarStratos team, the mission will be a challenge to both human and technological capabilities, and could pave the way for renewable energy travel.

'Now we are going to open the way for manned solar and electric aviation on the edge of space.'
An incredibly rare and unusual type of crystal, once dismissed as impossible to exist, has been identified on a piece of meteorite in Russia.

With a strange repeating structure, for years researchers believed quasicrystals could only be made artificially.

Now the discovery, published in a new paper, marks the third finding of the bizarre materials in their natural form.

An incredibly rare and unusual type of crystal, once dismissed as impossible to exist, has been identified on a piece of meteorite in Russia .The discovery, published in a new paper, marks the third finding of the bizarre materials in their natural form

A HISTORY OF QUASICRYSTALS With a strange and irregular structure, for years researchers believed quasicrystals could only be made artificially. Researchers discovered the first naturally formed quasicrystals in the early 2000s, after years of manufacturing artificial samples. Princeton physicist Paul Steinhardt and colleague Luca Bindi, from the University of Florence, found a grain of an aluminium, copper, and iron mineral with five-fold symmetry. In 2015, Steinhardt and his team found a second quasicrystal. Now, sixteen years later, the third specimen has been identified. Advertisement

The crystal, identified in a new paper published in Scientific Reports, was analysed by researchers at the University of Florence, Caltech and Princeton.

The material came from a meteorite found in the Khatyrka region of the Russian far east five years ago.

The team found a tiny sample of quasicrystal, just a few micrometres wide, after scanning the meteorite using scanning electron microscopy.

The two examples of natural quasicrystal found previously were taken from the same meteorite, but were different patterns.

The latest version features a kind of symmetry not seen naturally before, called icosahedral symmetry.

This an exotic pattern featuring 60 points of rotational symmetry, made up of aluminium, copper and iron.

'What is encouraging is that we have already found three different types of quasicrystals in the same meteorite, and this new one has a chemical composition that has never been seen for a quasicrystal,' co-author Paul Steinhardt from Princeton University, told Motherboard.

Quasicrystals, short for quasi-periodic crystals, defy the symmetrical rules that define crystals  they are ordered, but not periodic.

'If you want to cover your bathroom floor, your tiles can be rectangles or triangles or squares or hexagons,' said Patricia Thiel, a chemistry and materials science expert at Iowa State University.

'Any other simple shape won't work, because it will leave a gap. In a quasicrystal, imagine atoms are at the points of the objects you're using.'

The latest version features a kind of symmetry not seen naturally before, called icosahedral symmetry. This an exotic pattern featuring 60 points of rotational symmetry

The grain came from a sample of the Khatyrka meteorite, pictured, pieces of which were found in Russia's Koryak Mountains

The material came from a meteorite found in the Khatyrka region of the Russian far east five years ago

Researchers believe energy from an extreme shock to an asteroid could cause a quasicrystal to form in space. The only naturally occurring quasicrystals have all been discovered on pieces of meteorite. Artist's impression

HOW QUASICRYSTALS ARE MADE IN SPACE Earlier this year a Caltech study found what could be the mechanism behind how quasicrystals form in space. The study led by Paul Asimow, a professor of geology and geochemistry at the California Institute of Technology, hypothesized energy from an extreme shock to an asteroid could have caused a quasicrystal to form. The 'impossible' structure would be created through a cycle of compression, heating, decompression, and cooling. To test this, Asimow simulated the collision between two asteroids. He took thin slices of minerals from the meteorite  including metallic copper-aluminium alloy found in nature only in the Khatyrka meteorite  and sandwiched them in a puck-like case. Then, they sawed open the sample and polished it. In several spots, they found, the impact had smashed the elements together and created microscopic quasicrystals. Advertisement

Researchers discovered the first naturally formed quasicrystals in the early 2000s, after years of manufacturing artificial samples.

Princeton physicist Paul Steinhardt and colleague Luca Bindi, from the University of Florence, found a grain of an aluminium, copper, and iron mineral with five-fold symmetry.

In 2015, Steinhardt and his team found a second quasicrystal.

Now, sixteen years later, the third specimen has been identified.

'Quasicrystals are a peculiar form of solid in which atoms are set in a non-periodic structure,' said Dr Bindi, who led the study.

'Up until a few years ago it was thought that these compounds could only be artificial,' Dr Bindi said.

For years materials like this were only 'created in laboratories and exploited to make common use objects, such as non stick lining for pans and shaving blades, thanks to its exceptional resistance characteristics.'

Earlier this year a Caltech study found what could be the mechanism behind how quasicrystals form in space.

The study led by Paul Asimow, a professor of geology and geochemistry at the California Institute of Technology, hypothesized energy from an extreme shock to an asteroid could have caused a quasicrystal to form.

The 'impossible' structure would be created through a cycle of compression, heating, decompression, and cooling.

To test this, Asimow simulated the collision between two asteroids.

He took thin slices of minerals from the meteorite  including metallic copper-aluminium alloy found in nature only in the Khatyrka meteorite  and sandwiched them in a puck-like case.

In several spots, they found, the impact had smashed the elements together and created microscopic quasicrystals. Quasicrystals defy the symmetrical rules that define crystals  they are ordered, but are not periodic. On the outside, quasicrystals are solid minerals that look like normal, but it is their inner structure that fascinates scientists
The humble umbrella has received a modern makeover.

A team of former Samsung engineers has developed a smart umbrella which connects directly to users' smartphones.

The umbrella tells users when it's going to rain, vibrates when a text or call comes through, and helps users find their lost phone.

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A team of former Samsung engineers have developed a smart umbrella which connects directly to users' smartphones. Pictured here is the full range of colours available

OPUS ONE SPECS Priced at

60cm straight umbrella

Auto open & manual close

Fiberglass ribs & aluminum shaft

Premium 'pongee' fabric

Gyro sensor

Bluetooth 4.1 connectivity

LED & vibrator notification

1 Year battery life Advertisement

The device connects to its user's smartphone via bluetooth, and pulls in weather data every morning.

When it's time to head outside, users can simply shake the handle to discover the weather that awaits them that day.

The umbrella's gyro sensor detects the movement, and an LED lighting system reacts to indicate whether or not an umbrella is needed.

A red light flashes when it is going to be a rainy day, while green appears to give the all-clear.

Bluetooth connectivity means that the umbrella can alert you of incoming push notifications on your phone, too.

The handle vibrates in response to incoming messages and calls.

The umbrella will also remind users when they have left their phone behind, vibrating when the umbrella and phone are too far apart.

And this 'find me' function works both ways - users who leave the umbrella behind will get a notification on their phone.

The umbrella tells users when it's going to rain, vibrates when a text or call comes through, and will even track lost phones

The umbrella will also remind users when they have left their phone behind, vibrating when the umbrella and phone are too far apart. And this 'find me' function works both ways - users who leave the umbrella behind will get a notification on their phone

Korean company Opus One developed the umbrella, nicknamed 'Jonas', with rainy England in mind, offering two gentlemanly design options.

One aesthetic for buyers of the 83 ($105) umbrella resembles one of the Queen's guard, while another dons a smart British bowler hat.

The 60cm umbrella has an auto-open function, lightweight fibreglass ribs and an aluminium shaft.

Topped with premium 'pongee' fabric, the device is a top-end umbrella even without its 'smart' features.

The 60cm umbrella has an auto-open function, lightweight fibreglass ribs and an aluminium shaft

The device uses a quartet of AAA batteries which, according to the company, should last a whole year with normal use

Topped with premium 'pongee' fabric, the device is a top-end umbrella even without its 'smart' features

The device uses a quartet of AAA batteries which, according to the company, should last a whole year with normal use.

The umbrella is already available in Japan and Korea, and the startup is currently looking for investors to help them spread the device West.

'We believe our masterworks will help create a whole new lifestyle for the connected world,' Opus say on their website.

'We wanted to focus on just one feature which would change the objects identity entirely and create something new.

'We hope to create something completely unique, something that gets us excited, and something that is beneficial for all users.'

The umbrella is already available in Japan and Korea, and the startup is currently looking for investors to help them spread the device West

Korean company Opus developed the umbrella, nicknamed 'Jonas', with rainy England in mind, offering two gentlemanly design options
Samsung has confirmed that it will permanently disable the troubled Note 7 in the US.

The Korean firm will issue an update on 19 December that will stop the handset from charging, rendering it useless.

The issue was first reported when an alert detailing the impending update reportedly went out to a Note 7 user on the US Cellular network, say reports.

Samsung was forced to recall around 2.5 million Note 7 handsets following multiples reports of the built-in batteries catching fire and exploding.

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Samsung has confirmed that it will permanently disable the troubled Note 7 in the US. The Korean firm will issue an update on 19 December that will stop the handset from charging, rendering it useless

The idea behind the updates is to encourage those users who have not already returned their recalled handsets to do so.

'Consumer safety remains our highest priority and weve had overwhelming participation in the U.S. Note 7 Refund and Exchange Program so far, with more than 93 percent of all recalled Galaxy Note 7 devices returned, said Samsung in a statement.

'To further increase participation, a software update will be released starting on December 19th that will prevent U.S. Galaxy Note7 devices from charging and will eliminate their ability to work as mobile devices.

'If you have not yet returned your device, you should immediately power it down and contact your carrier to obtain a refund or exchange'.

According to an image of an alert obtained by The Verge, a Note 7 user was told: 'As of December 15th, Samsung will modify the software to prevent the Galaxy Note 7 from charging. The phone will no longer work'.

Samsung has now confirmed that this update will roll out on 19 December.

The South Korean company at first put the problem down to the battery manufacturing process, but reports say there was a fault in the phone itself. The new reports say the fires were caused by a design flaw that squeezed the phone's battery pack to dangerous pressure levels

Earlier today, Samsung confirmed to MailOnline that an update is coming to Note 7 users in Europe that will prevent handsets from charging past 30 per cent.

'As part of our absolute focus on customer safety, we are rolling out a new battery software update to all remaining Galaxy Note 7 devices in Europe from 15th December that will limit the maximum charging capacity of the devices to 30 per cent.

'The previous battery software update, which limited the maximum charging capacity to 60 per cent, has helped to drive a high rate of return, with over 90 per cent of Galaxy Note 7 devices in Europe replaced to date.

WHAT CAUSED THE FIRES? Ms Shedletsky and colleagues took apart one of the phones and found it did not leave enough space for the battery to swell when it expanded during charging. 'When batteries are charged and discharged, chemical processes cause the lithium to migrate and the battery will mechanically swell,' the blog says. 'Any battery engineer will tell you that it's necessary to leave some percentage of ceiling above the battery, 10% is a rough rule-of-thumb, and over time the battery will expand into that space. 'Our two-month old unit had no ceiling: the battery and adhesive was 5.2 mm thick, resting in a 5.2 mm deep pocket.' The researchers said this flaw could have been overlooked when Samsung engineers developed the phone. Advertisement

'This new battery software update is specifically designed to reinforce to the remaining minority of customers to immediately replace their device via their local Galaxy Note 7 Replacement Programme'.

While Samsung originally put the problem down to the battery manufacturing process, reports earlier this week claim there was a fault in the phone itself.

The new reports say the fires were caused by an 'aggressive' design flaw that squeezed the phone's battery pack to dangerous pressure levels.

Samsung axed its Galaxy Note 7 smartphone in October this year, stopping production of the faulty device a day after it halted global sales of the product and offering everyone their money back.

The South Korean tech giant said it made the final decision to stop production for the sake of consumer safety, after a huge number of the phones overheated and spontaneously burst into flames.

At the time, Koh Dong-jin, Samsung's mobile president, told reporters in Seoul: 'The flaw in the manufacturing process resulted in the negative electrodes and the positive electrodes coming together.'

But Anna Shedletsky, hardware engineer and chief executive of tech company Instrumental, was not satisfied with Samsung's explanation for the flaming phones.

This is because, after initial attempts to fix the problem, Samsung decided to recall every handset and cancel the product line.

'If it was only a battery part issue and could have been salvaged by a re-spin of the battery, why cancel the product line and cede several quarters of revenue to competitors?' Ms Shedletsky wrote in a blog post.

Ms Shedletsky and colleagues took apart one of the phones and found it did not leave enough space for the battery to swell when it expanded during charging.

'When batteries are charged and discharged, chemical processes cause the lithium to migrate and the battery will mechanically swell,' the blog says.

Earlier this year Samsung users took to social media to share pictures since the first incidents were reported in August

A full-page ads in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Washington Post admitted the company 'fell short' on its promise of delivering 'breakthrough technologies that enrich people's lives'

IS SAMSUNG SET TO DITCH THE HEADPHONE JACK? The latest rumours of what could be called the Samsung Galaxy S8 claim to 'confirm' that the handset will not have a headphone jack. This move will free up space for other components, a larger battery and possible loud front-facing stereo speakers. It is also speculated that Samsung is tossing out the home button and replacing it with an finger recognition system inside of the display. A bezel-less design also means Android users will have an edge-to-edge screen. Advertisement

'Any battery engineer will tell you that it's necessary to leave some percentage of ceiling above the battery, 10 per cent is a rough rule-of-thumb, and over time the battery will expand into that space.

'Our two-month old unit had no ceiling: the battery and adhesive was 5.2 mm thick, resting in a 5.2 mm deep pocket.'

The researchers said this flaw could have been overlooked when Samsung engineers developed the phone.

'It's possible that Samsung's innovative battery manufacturing process was changing throughout development, and that the newest versions of the batteries weren't tested with the same rigour as the first samples,' they said.

'We are conducting a thorough investigation and will release the results as soon as they are finalised,' a Samsung spokesman told MailOnline.

'We understand the need for answers, but do not wish to say anything prematurely and cannot comment on these reports.

'We appreciate the continued patience of our valued customers as we work diligently through this process.'

A Southwest Airlines plane was evacuated after smoke coming from an overheated Samsung device filled the cabin

A Galaxy Note 7 burning at a Burger King in South Korea was caught on video by someone eating at the fast food restaurant. A staff member removed it while wearing an oven glove

New renders of what could be Samsung Galaxy S8 surfaced in October and they suggest the device will incorporate a dual-lens camera design and remove the home button for an edge-to-edge screen.

It's speculated that Samsung could design a fingerprint-sensing display or place the feature behind the tempered glass.

Because levels of concentration will be increased with a 'full screen', pictures and videos should be much clearer and even go so far as to produce a 3D effect.

A picture taken by the customer inside the plane shows the phone's burned screen

In September, a Jeep burst into flames in Florida after the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 set alight when it was put on charge
There is an estimated one hundred million pieces of space junk floating around our planet.

Now a new vessel is on its way to put a stop to this - a 'space junk' collector made with the help of a fishnet company.

A rocket bound for the International Space Station carrying the vessel blasted off from the southern island of Tanegashima at around 10:30 pm local time (13:30 GMT).

A rocket bound for the International Space Station carrying the vessel blasted off from the southern island of Tanegashima at around 10:30 pm local time (13:30 GMT)

HOW IT WORKS The vessel uses a so-called electrodynamic tether, which is made from thin wires of stainless steel and aluminium. One end of the strip will be attached to debris big enough to damage working equipment. The electricity generated by the tether as it swings through the Earth's magnetic field is expected to have a slowing effect on the space junk. This should, scientists say, pull it into a lower and lower orbit. Advertisement

Since the Soviet-launched Sputnik satellite in 1957, decades of space exploration has produced a hazardous belt of orbiting debris.

Scientists at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) are now experimenting with a tether to pull junk out of orbit around Earth.

This will clear up tonnes of space clutter including cast-off equipment from old satellites and pieces of rocket.

The vessel uses a so-called electrodynamic tether, which is made from thin wires of stainless steel and aluminium.

One end of the strip will be attached to debris big enough to damage working equipment.

The electricity generated by the tether as it swings through the Earth's magnetic field is expected to have a slowing effect on the space junk.

This should, scientists say, pull it into a lower and lower orbit.

Eventually the detritus will enter the Earth's atmosphere, burning up harmlessly long before it has a chance to crash to the planet's surface.

JAXA worked on the project with Japanese fishnet manufacturer Nitto Seimo to develop the cord, which has been about 10 years in the making.

The vessel uses a so-called electrodynamic tether, which is made from thin wires of stainless steel and aluminium. One end of the strip will be attached to debris big enough to damage working equipment. Artist's impression

There are one hundred million pieces of space junk floating around our planet, according to research earlier this year. Now a new vessel is on its way to put a stop to this - a 'space junk' collector made with the help of a fishnet company (pictured)

Scientists at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) are now experimenting with a tether to pull junk out of orbit around Earth. This will clear up tonnes of space clutter including cast-off equipment from old satellites and pieces of rocket

'The tether uses our fishnet plaiting technology, but it was really tough to intertwine the very thin materials,' company engineer Katsuya Suzuki told AFP.

'The length of the tether this time is 700 metre (2,300 feet), but eventually it's going to need to be 5,000 to 10,000 metre-long to slow down the targeted space junk,' he added.

Previous experiments using a tether have been done in recent years.

A spokesman for the space agency said it hopes to put the junk collection system into more regular use by the middle of the next decade.

There is an estimated one hundred million pieces of space junk floating around our planet. Artist's impression of the space junk, pictured

THE WORLD OF SPACE JUNK Since the first object, Sputnik One, was launched into space 53 years ago, mankind has launched thousands of spacecraft, satellites and rockets into space. This has created a swarm of tens of millions of pieces of debris. The rubbish circling the planet comes from old rockets, abandoned satellites and missile shrapnel. But it also includes a missing spatula, a lost glove and a stray toothbrush. Bags of rubbish ejected into space by cosmonauts on board the Mir Space Station also still pose a risk. Among the more unusual items to be added to the list of space junk was a spatula dropped by astronaught Piers Sellers while conducting repairs on the space shuttle discovery in 2006. A tool bag was lost by astronaut Heide Stefanyshyn in 2008 and it added to the hazards in orbit until it burned up in 2009. A glove was lost by astronaut Ed White on the first US space-walk and a pair of pliers were lost during a space walk in 2007. Advertisement

'If we are successful in this trial, the next step will be another test attaching one tip of the tether to a targeted object,' he added.

The capsule, called Kounotori, or stork, also contained nearly 5 tons of food, water and other supplies for the ISS

The Japanese capsule which blasted off today has also sent much-needed supplies to the International Space Station.

Friday's successful launch from Japan comes a week after a Russian shipment was destroyed shortly after lift-off.

The Russian rocket accident and the grounding of one of Nasa's commercial suppliers make this delivery all the more urgent. The spacecraft should arrive at the station Tuesday.

The capsule, called Kounotori, or stork, also contained nearly 5 tons of food, water and other supplies, including new lithium-ion batteries for the station's solar power system.

Astronauts will conduct spacewalks next month to replace the old nickel-hydrogen batteries that store energy generated by the station's big solar panels.
Facebook users are reporting a bug that is publishing their old posts without permission.

While some users believe that they have been hacked, others say the bug could be linked to a Facebook app update that was released yesterday.

It is not clear whether the problem is limited to any one region, but reports of the issue have emerged in both the US and UK.

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It is not clear whether the problem is limited to any one region, but reports of the issue have emerged in both the US and UK, according to complaints posted on Twitter

Most users who have taken to Twitter to complain say one or two old posts have been republished.

In one instance, however, a massive 59 old posts had been republished on a user's account.

The problem appears to be affecting images cross-posted from Facebook-owned Instagram, with one user saying: 'For some reason Instagram is reposting old posts to Facebook all by itself'.

The bug may be a result of the version 74.0 iOS app update, which was released yesterday, although Facebook has yet to confirm this.

' I updated the iOS app last night and it has since reposted dozens like they were new ones all by itself,' said one Facebook user on Twitter.

One user told MailOnline that a link he had originally posted on 15 September had showed up today as a new post (pictured). The same happened with another post from 16 June

Another Facebook user told MailOnline that a link he had originally posted on 15 September had showed up today as a new post.

'It also did same with another post from June 16,' Barry Graubart told MailOnline.

'I have since changed the posting dates for both, since I was starting to get comments and likes on them and didn't want to confuse people with old news.

'Otherwise, my feed and my stream look normal'.

'Well, at least the old news problem may distract us from fake news for a day or so', he added.

Facebook has been contacted for comment.

Some complaints suggested that the bug may be a result of the version 74.0 iOS app update, which was released yesterday

Yesterday, the social network announced that is is testing custom location-based camera filters that overlay pictures and videos  similar to Snapchat's geo-filters.

Users build frames on any design platform, submit them to Facebook and then friends nearby will have access to the creations.

Users can choose from a range of frames themed after causes, neighborhoods, events and more, reports TechCrunch.

This new addition is part of Facebooks master plan to convince users to share more, as it was reported earlier this year that personal stories dropped 21 per cent year-on-year across the platform.
Will you marry me? may well be one of the most romantic sentences one person can say to another  but it sounds terrifying coming from a monkey.

Scientists have managed to recreate the primate proposal based on what the words would sound like through a macaque's voice box.

The findings suggest that monkeys have the biological hardware for speech, but lack the brainpower, resolving an issue which has long-divided scientists.

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Scientists have managed to recreate what it would sound like if monkeys could talk. By analysing their vocal anatomy, the researchers found that monkeys have the necessary biological hardware for speech, but lack the brain power

Despite sharing over 96 per cent of our DNA with some apes, humans remain the only primate to have mastered speech.

Researchers have pondered why this is the case, with a string of failed attempts to try and train chimps and other brainy apes to talk.

The consensus had been that these animals simply lacked the necessary hardware for speech.

But the latest findings from a team of researchers from Princeton University and the University of Vienna have turned things on their head.

HOW DID THEY MAKE MONKEYS TALK? For humans, speech stems from air passing through the larynx. The sounds are fine tuned by the lips and tongue, which change its shape. One example are the sounds 'bat' and 'bot', which start with the same route sound but is tweaked by the facial components. Researchers looked at the computer models of the vocal tract of macaques. They found it was capable of producing vowel sounds and even whole words and sentences. When compared with simulation of human vocal tracts, the monkey speech was understandable but sounded uniquely macaque-like. The researchers believe their findings end a long-running debate which argued other primates were unable to speak because they lack the vocal anatomy. Instead, they claim they have the hardware, but lack the necessary brain power for speech. Advertisement

By analysing the vocal tracts of macaques, they found that the animals have the potential to make all five vowel sounds which form the basis of human language.

The team created computer simulations of air vibrations through the animals throats, recreating what a sentence - will you marry me? - would sound like.

Although slightly creepy, the simulations reveal that the sentence was clearly intelligible, but not as precise as human speech.

In humans, speech stems from the larynx, with the sounds fine tuned by the movements of the lips and tongue.

One example are the sounds 'bat' and 'bot', which start with the same route sound but is tweaked by the facial components.

When the macaque's call was processed by a computer model of its vocal tract, the researchers found it was capable of producing the vowel sounds and even whole words and sentences, which were understandable but sounded uniquely macaque-like.

I hope this study overturns forever the widespread myth that vocal tract limitations are the reason apes and monkeys can't speak, Professor Tecumseh Fitch from the University of Vienna, told MailOnline.

By analysing the vocal tracts of macaques, they found that the animals have the potential to make all five vowel sounds which form the basis of human language

Beyond primates, the findings indicate that other animals could have the latent power of speech.

The anatomy for speech may have been available to ancient primates in our evolutionary past - before old world monkeys like the macaques, and apes likes chimps and humans, split off.

But it was a relatively recent shift in brain power that enabled humans to master such complex communication.

Researchers looked at the computer models of the vocal tract of macaques. They found it was capable of producing vowel sounds and even whole words and sentences

Profess Fitch added: 'I think, combined with other data, this shows that virtually any mammal has the flexibility to produce a wide range of speech sounds - including dogs or pigs.

'So yes, by implication also other primates including extinct hominid ancestors.'

The findings indicate that the anatomy for speech may have been available to ancient primates in our evolutionary past - before old world monkeys like the macaques, and apes likes chimps and humans, split off

Professor Asif Ghazanfar, Princeton Neuroscience Institute added: Now nobody can say that it's something about the vocal anatomy that keeps monkeys from being able to speak  it has to be something in the brain.

Even if this finding only applies to macaque monkeys, it would still debunk the idea that it's the anatomy that limits speech in nonhumans.

Now, the interesting question is, what is it in the human brain that makes it special?

As for whether we could train monkeys and apes to speak, it appears that even with the available technology at out fingertips, it would be unlikely.

Professor Ghazanfar told MailOnline: 'The neural circuits that generate speech are large in scale and complicated.

'After all, producing a vocalization requires the coordination of respiration, vocal fold tension and shaping your mouth in particular ways (all at the same time)...and producing speech requires doing that in long sequences of such coordination.'

The findings are published in the journal Science Advances.

The findings indicate that the anatomy for speech may have been available to ancient primates in our evolutionary past. But it was a relatively recent shift in brain power that enabled humans to master such complex communication
Many people would be willing to do just about anything if it meant theyd stay young for life  like jump out of a plane, eat 100 cockroaches, and even chop off a finger.

This is according to a new study, which investigated youthful desires and the sacrifices were willing to make to achieve them.

Millennials were most likely to choose lifelong youth of all the age groups, and theyd go to great lengths in order to get it.

Many people would be willing to do just about anything if it meant theyd stay young for life  like jump out of a plane, eat 100 cockroaches, and even chop off a finger, according to a new study. A stock image is pictured

The team at BodyLogicMD surveyed 2,000 people in the United States for the Pursuit of Youth study.

Participants were asked not only about youth, but lifelong fitness and sexual potency.

Across the board, favourite food would be the first thing to go, with 59.2 percent indicating theyd give this up for a lifetime of physical fitness, 52.5 percent willing to give it up for youth, and 40.2 percent sacrificing it for sexual potency.

The team at BodyLogicMD surveyed 2,000 people in the United States for the Pursuit of Youth study. Participants were asked not only about youth, but lifelong fitness and sexual potency

Many participants were also willing to give up their phones, pets, and even the internet to fulfil these desires  though at 15.2%, they were far less likely to leave the internet behind when lifelong sexual potency was the goal compared to physical fitness and youth.

Unsurprisingly, no one who hoped to achieve sexual potency for life was willing to give up sex.

But, some would do so to gain lifelong youth (13.5%) and physical fitness (12.4%).

The researchers also asked the respondents what extreme actions theyd be willing to perform to be young for life.

The majority (34.7%) said theyd jump out of a plane (though there was no indication of whether there would be a parachute involved or not). And, the researchers note, lifelong youth may have its advantages, but it doesnt include immortality

The researchers also asked the respondents what extreme actions theyd be willing to perform to be young for life. And, the responses varied based on gender

The majority (34.7%) said theyd jump out of a plane (though there was no indication of whether there would be a parachute involved or not).

And, the researchers note, lifelong youth may have its advantages, but it doesnt include immortality.

A group almost as large (32.5%) said theyd be willing to eat 100 cockroaches, and another (31.2) would give up their ability to taste.

Many people would choose other paths over lifelong youth, including landing a dream job, finding true love, leading a normal life with very good looks, and having their family

A number of participants were also willing to swim with sharks (26.7%), chop off a finger (18.4%), give up all technology (13.5%) and become celibate (13.4%).

Few people said they would never take another shower (6.3%), give up the ability to hear (2.2%), give up the ability to walk (1.6%), and give up the ability to see (1%).

And, the responses varied based on gender.

While far more men were willing to each 100 cockroaches, women were more likely to say theyd become celibate.

The researchers also studied the differences based on relationship status, and found that across all areas  divorced or separated, in a relationship, married, or single  the majority of people said theyd give up true love to be young for life

People 18-29 years old were most interested in staying young forever, and the desire declined almost steadily with age. Noticeably, respondents became generally less interested in lifelong youth as they aged, the researchers note

Still, many people would choose other paths over lifelong youth, including landing a dream job, finding true love, leading a normal life with very good looks, and having their family.

In the would you rather experiment, youth only won over winning the lottery.

The researchers also studied the differences based on relationship status, and found that across all areas  divorced or separated, in a relationship, married, or single  the majority of people said theyd give up true love to be young for life.

Most, however, would not give up their family.

Millennials were most likely to choose lifelong youth of all the age groups, and theyd go to great lengths in order to get it

IS TEENAGE BLOOD THE KEY TO ETERNAL YOUTH? In a series of new trials, researchers have found that injecting the blood plasma of 18-year-old humans into old mice rejuvenates both the body and brain, improving cognition and allowing them to frolic about like their younger counterparts. According to Alkahest, the company behind the experiments, blood plasma may hold the secrets to youth, and a similar technique could one day be used in procedures for humans. The findings were presented at the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in San Diego, California, New Scientist reports. The firm, whose mission is to enrich the health and vitality of humankind through transformative therapies that counterbalance the aging process, injected 12-month-old mice with blood samples from 18-year-old humans twice a week for three weeks. After three weeks, the researchers noted improvements in the mices performance on a range of tests, Following the injections, the older mice were better at remembering their way around a maze  and, they ran around an open space like the younger group. Advertisement

People 18-29 years old were most interested in staying young forever, and the desire declined almost steadily with age.

Noticeably, respondents became generally less interested in lifelong youth as they aged, the researchers note.

Less than 64 percent of respondents aged 70 or older were interested in turning back the clock.

Maybe theyve realized something about the benefits of growing old that the rest of our respondents havent had the time to figure out yet.
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The European Space Agency has revealed a new video of a remarkable valley on the red planet that experts agree could be the 'best bet' for finding alien life.

Based on images taken by ESAs Mars Express, it shows a flight over Mawrth Vallis, a 600 km-long, 2 km-deep outflow channel at the boundary of the southern highlands and the northern lowlands of Mars.

It is one of the largest valleys on Mars, and scientists say it may have been habitable up to 3.6 billion years ago.

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The stunning video shows a flight over Mawrth Vallis, a 600 km-long, 2 km-deep outflow channel at the boundary of the southern highlands and the northern lowlands of Mars.

CANDIDATES FOR EXOMARS The Esa has identified four candidates for a Mars landing in its ExoMars 2020 mission. These are Mawrth Vallis, Oxia Planum, Hypanis Vallis and Aram Dorsum. Each of these locations are relatively close to the equator and contain 'ancient rocks where liquid water was once abundant.' Advertisement

The movie begins at the mouth of the channel in Chryse Planitia, and heads towards the apparent source region in the Arabia Terra highlands.

The 4 billion year-old plateau is characterised by many impact craters, indicative of its great age.

Zooming in, patches of light and dark deposits are revealed.

The light-toned layered sediments are among the largest outcrops of clay minerals  phyllosilicates  on Mars.

Their presence indicates the presence of liquid water in the past.

The variety of water-bearing minerals and the possibility that they might contain a record of an ancient, habitable environment on Mars led scientists to propose Mawrth Vallis as a candidate landing site for the ExoMars 2020 mission.

The animation is based on a colour mosaic and digital terrain model derived from data collected by the high-resolution stereo camera on Mars Express and released earlier this year

Mawrth Vallis is roughly 373 miles (600 km) long and more than a mile deep.

Its name comes from the Welsh word for Mars - Mawrth, and the Latin word for valley.

And, long ago, huge amounts of water passed through the area, beginning at a higher elevation region and spilling into the northern plains.

Based on images taken by ESAs Mars Express, it shows a flight over Mawrth Vallis, a 600 km-long, 2 km-deep outflow channel at the boundary of the southern highlands and the northern lowlands of Mars.

The animation is based on a colour mosaic and digital terrain model derived from data collected by the high-resolution stereo camera on Mars Express and released earlier this year

These features can be seen at the lower right and top left of the image, respectively.

The valley sits on the border between the southern highlands and the northern lowlands, according to the Esa, and is home to phyllosilicates.

These light-toned structures are weathered clay minerals which indicate the past presence of liquid water.

According to the space agency, the remains of volcanic ash in the form of a dark cap rock may protect traces of ancient microbes in the clay.

To create this image, the researchers combined nine photos taken by the Express spacecrafts high-resolution camera.

Mawrth Vallis is roughly 373 miles (600 km) long and more than a mile deep. Its name comes from the Welsh words for Mars, and the Latin word for valley. Pictured, images from ESA Mars Express are combined with MOLA topography data from NASAs Mars Global Surveyor

The craft has been orbiting the red planet since 2003, and Mawrth Vallis has been an area of great intrigue for years.

Earlier this month, it was revealed that Mars may have been covered in networks of lakes and streams for roughly a billion years longer than previously thought  with implications for its potential to host life during that time as well.

Nasa researchers made the discovery by dating 22 impact craters on the planet.

'We discovered valleys that carried water into lake basins,' said Sharon Wilson from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.

'Several lake basins filled and overflowed, indicating there was a considerable amount of water on the landscape during this time.'

Wilson and colleagues found evidence of these features in Mars' northern Arabia Terra region, by studying images from cameras on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

They also used data from Nasa's Mars Global Surveyor and the European Space Agency's Mars Express.

'One of the lakes in this region was comparable in volume to Lake Tahoe,' Ms Wilson said, referring to a California-Nevada lake that holds about 45 cubic miles (188 cubic km) of water.

'This particular Martian lake was fed by an inlet valley on its southern edge and overflowed along its northern margin, carrying water downstream into a very large, water-filled basin we nicknamed "Heart Lake".'

The chain of lakes and valleys in the Heart Lake valley system extend for about 90 miles (about 150 km).
Presentation of Report: Coordinating Humanitarian Efforts to Protect Iraqi and Syrian Minorities

Contact: World Council of Churches, +41 79 507 6363; www.oikoumene.org/press

GENEVA, Dec. 9, 2016 / Christian Newswire / -- As the populations of Syria and Iraq feel the toll of armed conflicts in their countries, the World Council of Churches (WCC) and Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) have released a joint study, " Protection needs of minorities from Syria and Iraq ." On 12 December, media and public are invited to the Palais de Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, for a press conference and seminar presenting the report, and analyzing what it means for future efforts to protect religious minorities and build peace in Syria and Iraq.

Speakers include Ambassador Hans Brattskar, permanent representative of Norway to the United Nations in Geneva; Rev. Dr Olav Fyske Tveit, general secretary, World Council of Churches; Peter Prove, director, International Affairs, World Council of Churches; Arne Sveras, advisor for Peace and Reconciliation, Norwegian Church Aid; Fr Emanuel Youkhana, CAPNI-Christian Aid Programme for Northern Iraq; Thaer Ghandour, media and communications advisor, ABAAD - Lebanon - Resource Centre for Gender Equality.

What: Press conference and seminar on Protection Needs of Minorities from Syria and Iraq

When: 12 December, press conference at 09.30 in Salle III, seminar at 13.30-15.00 in Salle VII.

Where: Palais des Nations, Salle III (press conference), Salle VII (seminar), Geneva, Switzerland

Moderator: Marianne Ejdersten, WCC director of communication

Media contact: Please contact WCC director of communication Marianne Ejdersten: mej@wcc-coe.org, +41 79 507 63 63

UN media accreditation must be acquired prior to the event.

Invitation for questions: Media and public are kindly invited to submit questions via e-mail to Marianne Ejdersten, mej@wcc-coe.org.

About the report:

The impact of conflicts on civilian populations in Iraq and Syria is immense, forcing the displacement of many, and causing trauma from violence, loss or injury of loved ones, sexual violence, exploitation and abuse, ongoing insecurity and persecution.

And while many issues are common for minorities in Iraq and Syria, the two countries stand at different crossroads. The WCC-NCA study complements already available information by contributing to the understanding of protection-related needs of minority groups from Syria and Iraq. It is geared towards humanitarian actors, for them to attune, coordinate and harmonise their efforts to provide relevant life-saving assistance and sustainable long-term solutions for all groups in the society.

The WCC and NCA report "The protection needs of minorities from Syria and Iraq"

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 348 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 550 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is the Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, from the [Lutheran] Church of Norway.
Europe is going to get yet another low-cost flying option due to a collaboration between two of the continent's largest airline operators.

Etihad and TUI are joining together to launch a fleet of around 60 aircraft, making it one of the largest budget airlines, serving tourist destinations from airports in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

The TUI Group will spin off its German airline TUIfly into a separate company together with some operations from Air Berlin after its supervisory board approved the move.

The new venture, set to launch in April 2017, is part of a wide-ranging restructuring plan at Air Berlin, part-owned by Abu Dhabi-based Etihad and battling to stem losses (stock image)

The new venture, set to launch in April 2017, is part of a wide-ranging restructuring plan at Air Berlin, part-owned by Abu Dhabi-based Etihad and battling to stem losses.

Based in Vienna, it will be 24.8 per cent owned by TUI, 25 per cent by Etihad and the remaining 50.2 per cent will be controlled by an Austrian foundation.

The new airline is joining a crowded and competitive market of low-budget airlines in Europe, with the likes of Ryanair, easyJet, and Vueling already dominating.

TUIfly will be combined with Air Berlin's Niki unit in a move that could bring financial relief for Germany's second largest carrier after Lufthansa.

Etihad said in a statement it was still working through that process and would provide a further update in due course.

TUI hopes spinning off its leisure airline into a new venture with Etihad will reduce costs and make better use of flights and crew during the quieter winter months.

The new airline is joining a crowded and competitive market of low-budget airlines in Europe, with the likes of Ryanair (pictured), easyJet, and Vueling already dominating (stock image)

The announcement in October that they were in talks prompted resistance from workers at TUIfly worried about job and pay cuts, with crew calling in sick and forcing the cancellation of dozens of flights.

Management defused the row by agreeing to keep pay and conditions in place for three years.

TUI said that those commitments remained in place and were currently being negotiated in more detail.
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At first sight it looks like mindless chaotic destruction.

Incredible archive pictures and video from 1984 show a Boeing 720 being flown into the ground and erupting in flames.

But this was anything but mindless.

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Incredible archive pictures and video from 1984 show a Boeing 720 being flown into the ground and erupting in flames

The crash was in fact a controlled impact demonstration by Nasa and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to test a fuel additive they hoped would inhibit the ignition of fires in the event of a crash

The plane was also loaded with sensors and video cameras to produce data that it was hoped could lead to aircraft safety improvements

It was in fact a controlled impact demonstration by Nasa and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to test a fuel additive they hoped would inhibit the ignition of fires in the event of a crash.

The plane was also loaded with sensors and video cameras to produce data that it was hoped could lead to aircraft safety improvements. New galley and stowage-bin attachments, windows, seat designs and fireproof materials were on board and being put to the test.

And afterwards footage of dummies placed in the seats would be carefully analysed.

In the lead up to the crash  at Rogers Dry Lake at Edwards Air Force Base in California - the Boeing undertook 14 test flights with the modified fuel incrementally added while engine performance was monitored.

New galley and stowage-bin attachments, windows, seat designs and fireproof materials were on board and being put to the test

The experiment didnt go entirely to plan - the idea had been for the 720 to crash-land with its wings level exactly on the runway center-line, allowing the fuselage to remain intact as the wings were sliced open by eight steel posts cemented into the lakebed, Nasa said. But as the jetliner descended to the lakebed its left-wing dropped and contacted the ground first, short of the wing cutters

On the morning of December 1, 1984, the plane took off for its final flight, controlled remotely by Nasa research pilot Fitzhugh Fulton and laden with 76,000lbs (34,500kg) of fuel.

The experiment didnt go entirely to plan.

The idea had been for the 720 to crash-land with its wings level exactly on the runway center-line, allowing the fuselage to remain intact as the wings were sliced open by eight steel posts cemented into the lakebed, Nasa said.

But as the jetliner descended  from a height of 2,300 feet  to the lakebed its left-wing dropped and contacted the ground first, short of the wing cutters.

Nasa said: This caused the nose of the airliner to swing to the left as it skidded on the lakebed surface at about a 45-degree angle. As a result, one cutter struck the inboard engine on the right wing, destroying the engine and causing a massive fuel leak that immediately erupted in flame.

The huge airliner touches down but immediately veers to the left, avoiding the wing cutters

This stunning image shows the airliner spinning round and erupting in flames - after being crashed by remote control

The huge amount of fuel on board - far more than an airliner at the end of its flight would be carrying - created an inferno that burned for an hour

The airliner continued to yaw to the left until it was nearly sideways, causing the damaged right wing to break off and fold over as the fuselage was engulfed in a massive fuel-fed fireball. The fire took more than an hour to fully extinguish.

The fuel additive was never brought into use as the test showed that it was ineffective in reducing the propagation or intensity of fire, according to Nasa.

However, the test did yield huge quantities of safety-related data.

Nasa said: The Controlled Impact Demonstration validated the expenditure of an estimated $5 to $7 million over the course of four years for the project.

Nasa said: 'Research data from the project... yielded new data on impact survivability that helped the FAA establish new rules regarding fire prevention and fire-retardant materials'

The fuel additive was never brought into use, as a result of the test, as it showed that it was ineffective in reducing the propagation or intensity of fire, according to Nasa

Cameras inside the airliner showed the crash dummies being shaken and small panels falling during the crash-landing, although the seats remained attached to the floor. The new seat designs, flight data recorders, galley and stowage-bin attachments, fireproof materials and windows were tested under real-world conditions. Research data from the project in these areas yielded new data on impact survivability that helped the FAA establish new rules regarding fire prevention and fire-retardant materials.

A serving airline captain told MailOnline Travel that the test underscored how real-life crashes are a necessity.

He said: The apparent "failure" of the test illustrates how theory will only get you so far in aviation and that sooner or later you have to test-fly things in the real world.

It should be borne in mind that the aircraft was deliberately crashed into barriers designed to break it up, and that it appears to have been landed with the wheels up - both these things make the film incredibly spectacular but less representative of an operational aircraft crashing.

The fire that erupted was far larger than one that would break out if a commercially operated airliner crashed, he said.

He added: Another factor is the decision to land with such a large amount of fuel on board - typically aircraft plan to land at their destination with enough fuel to go-around, divert to an alternate airfield and land there with 30 minutes fuel remaining.

On a 767/777/787 type aircraft that is typically around 5,000kg of fuel - enough to cause a fire but not one that would burn for an hour.

Cameras inside the airliner showed crash dummies being shaken and small panels falling during the crash-landing, although the seats remained attached to the floor. A serving airline captain told MailOnline Travel that the test underscored how real-life crashes are a necessity
Airlines could let passengers make in-flight phone calls using Wi-Fi under a proposal from federal regulators.

Flight attendants and others, however, have complained that the calls could be disruptive and trigger more air rage incidents between passengers.

But the US Department of Transportation (DOT) said that it envisioned allowing the calls if airlines tell all customers about the policy when they buy their tickets.

Airlines could let passengers make in-flight phone calls using WiFi under a proposal from federal regulators

With this warning in place, customers could make other travel arrangements if they feared sitting next to passengers chatting on their phones.

There is a 60-day comment period, and the proposal leaves the door open to the possibility that federal officials could still impose an outright ban.

The Federal Communications Commission prohibits passengers from making cellphone calls during flights, but not Wi-Fi calls.

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in a statement: '[The] proposal will ensure that air travellers are not unwillingly exposed to voice calls, as many of them are troubled over the idea of passengers talking on cell phones in flight.'

In 2014, the department issued a request for public comments on the possibility of permitting the calls and the response was overwhelmingly negative.

Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, said anything short of a ban on calls is 'reckless'.

Flight attendants have commented previously that they fear the calls could lead to fights between passengers who want to make calls and passengers who don't want to listen to the conversations.

Nelson said: 'It threatens aviation security and increases the likelihood of conflict in the skies. It threatens safety for crews and passengers.'

Flight attendants have said previously that they fear the calls could lead to fights between passengers who want to make calls and passengers who don't want to listen to the conversations (file image)

However, the U.S. airlines' trade group opposes a government ban on in-flight calls.

A spokeswoman for Airlines for America, Kathy Grannis Allen, said: 'We have long held that this was not a matter for DOT to regulate, and we believe airlines should be able to determine what services can be safely offered in-flight and make those decisions based on what is in the best interests of their passengers and crew members.'

Southwest Airlines and Alaska Airlines said they have no plans to allow voice calls.

Southwest spokesman Brian Parrish explained: 'Our customers have expressed concerns regarding the potentially disruptive nature of in-flight voice calls.'

Alaska Airlines spokeswoman Bobbie Egan said the carrier surveyed passengers a few years ago and got 'a strong reaction' that they didn't want calls.

A Delta Air Lines spokeswoman noted that the carrier has opposed voice calls for several years.

United Airlines said it was reviewing the proposal and would listen to the views of customers and employees.

American referred questions to the trade group. JetBlue did not have an immediate comment.
Tourism highlights dont always live up to hype.

But for some tough critics even the Earths highest mountain fails to impress.

To save you from disappointment, travellers and locals have taken to an online forum to share tips on attractions that arent worth seeing in person - they range from bustling hubs like Times Square to revered artworks such as the Mona Lisa.

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Redditors warned that New Yorks Times Square, particularly on New Years Eve, should be avoided at all costs

A Redditor posted the question 'What is not worth seeing in person?' and 24 hours later it had attracted over 6,000 comments.

The top comment, from SmoSays, is the hilariously understated assessment of Mount Everest by his Nepali co-worker who said: Its just a big hill!

While most travellers havent scaled Mount Everest, so cant weigh in on this appraisal, it was man-made attractions that attracted the most vitriol.

Redditors warned that New Yorks Times Square, particularly on New Years Eve, should be avoided at all costs.

They describe experiences of being trapped by crowds with little or no access to bathrooms in the citys biting winter temperatures.

Native New Yorker Minimindless shared: Twelve am came around, 5,4,3,2,1 and I wanted out! It took about two hours just to leave Times Square. It was horrible and I only enjoyed it when it was over. It's really something to either never do or do once in your life.

Claiming that locals avoid the hotspot on New Years Eve, Doublestitch said: That event is pretty much entirely people from out of town.

#I mean really, when you've endured New York City winters at midnight, wouldn't you rather stay indoors at a party or take a taxi to a bar?'

New York icon the Empire State Building also took a lashing from the online community.

SixFiveSax said: Top deck of the Empire State Building. Not worth the money.

'The top deck of Rockefeller Center is much cooler. Part of the reason why is that you can see the Empire State Building from there and the NYC skyline isn't really complete without it.

ZanyD added: I personally recommend the observatory at World Trade Center. You can see Brooklyn, Ellis Island, the bridges and even Jersey. It's simply beautiful. I definitely think its way cooler than the Empire State Building.

An LA resident described Hollywood Boulevard as 'terrible' and not worth visiting

On the West Coast, locals tried to shield tourists from the shock of seeing Hollywood Boulevard in person.

Resident According To Me said: Hollywood Boulevard is terrible. I've lived here for ten years, and when you've seen it once, you're done.

'My heart sinks a lot when I have to go there for any reason. Tourists are constantly stopping in the middle of the sidewalk to take a picture of one of the Walk of Fame stars. Every souvenir shop is exactly the same. Food and drink is expensive because the prices are marked up for tourists.

Art fans voiced their disappointment when faced with the Mona Lisa located at the Louvre in Paris.

Thebloodofthematador said: The Mona Lisa? About the size of a piece of printer paper, and you already know what it looks like.'

Tusangre added: You also can't get very close to it and there will always be 100 people crowded around it trying to look at it.

There's also (or at least there was when I went) a painting the size of the wall directly opposite the Mona Lisa, which is pretty awkward.

Concurring, ChampMcClusky shared: 'Yep, super small. Also, it's by itself on a huge white wall. There are so many other more interesting and complex pieces in the Louvre. And since everyone else is crowding around it, there's a lot of quieter and less crowded exhibits to enjoy!'

Tourists complained that the Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci is much smaller than they expected and is always surrounded by lots of other people

Another historic highlight that came under scrutiny from hard-to-please travellers was the Sphinx in Egypt.

Sirius_55_Polaris said: The Sphinx. It's much smaller than I expected and is so damaged that the face is almost gone - although it's right next to the Pyramids of Giza, which definitely are worth seeing!

A tourist favourite for capturing comical photos failed to impress acssarge 555, who commented: The Leaning Tower of Pisa. It's pretty cool but yeah it's just a tower that's leaning.

History enthusiasts keen to discover Salems gruesome past, meanwhile, were warned to stay away by locals.

Massachusetts resident NorthConwayCalvary said: I'd say save your time and don't go to Salem... too many hipsters and wanna be "witches" roaming the streets blocking traffic, taking pictures, and just generally being rude. Salem has history, just stay away.

Cheeriocheerio93 added: Unless you are a giant history buff it will be no fun for you at all the witches were never hung in Salem, just the trials.
Anticipation is growing around which ten celebrities will appear in the upcoming season of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here.

In a new promo posted to the Channel 10 show's Twitter account on Thursday, eager fans were again reminded a US sitcom star is one of the mystery contenders.

The image flashes with a teaser of the expected celebrities' high-profile occupations and is captioned with: '*Puts thinking hat on*'.

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Who could it be? In a new promo posted to the Channel 10 show's Twitter account on Thursday, eager fans were again reminded a U.S. sitcom star is one of the mystery contenders

In a video promotion released on Monday, Dr. Chris Brown told fellow show host Julia Morris 'a famous US sitcom star' will be heading into the South African jungle with their fellow contestants.

Giving perhaps the first real clue to the star's identity, Julia replied: 'Let's make him feel welcome, doctor,' alluding to their gender.

Chris was on The Project last week to discuss the new season's cast and panelist Peter Helliar quizzed him on who the American actor was.

'Let's make him feel welcome, doctor': The new promo starring co-hosts Dr Chris Brown and Julia Morris (pictured) shows the pair talking about the guests for the show's new season

'Jerry Seinfeld!' he yelled out twice, pointing directly at Chris.

He then added, 'Jennifer Aniston!' before being shut down by Chris, who replied: 'I want to point out I don't know.'

Waleed Aly then turned to Peter jokingly and said, 'Ted Danson!' to which Peter said, 'Ted Danson would be great.'

Jungle fever? The Project panelist Peter Helliar guessed Jerry Seinfeld, who is touring Australia next year, could be the surprise U.S. sitcom star appearing in next season's show

Possibility: Both Jennifer Aniston [pictured left] and Ted Danson [right] have starred in popular sitcoms in America and are potential contenders for the upcoming season of the reality show

The Brady Bunch star Maureen McCormick, 60, famously took part in the first season of the reality show.

The show's producers have apparently cast 'flirty singles' for the upcoming show to spice things up after a ratings decline was seen from the first to second season.

'They (the producers) cast this year with a feisty cast in mind and a flirty cast,' host Julia Morris told The Daily Telegraph last week.

Dream team: In a video promotion released on Monday, Chris told Julia 'a famous US sitcom star' will be heading into the South African jungle with their fellow contestants




She's the high-flying lawyer who courted controversy with her no holds barred criticism on My Kitchen Rules.

But Zana Pali doesn't look like she has been spending much time in the kitchen lately, holidaying with her husband Gianni Romano in the Maldives.

The reality TV stars have been spending time in the sun, sharing photos of their beach holiday to Zana's Instagram.

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No apron in sight! My Kitchen Rules' Zana Pali flaunts her curves in a white swimsuit while holidaying with husband Gianni Romano in the Maldives

The enviable snaps show the pair relaxing in an over the water villa and basking in the picture-perfect turquoise water.

One picture shows the brunette lawyer, who made it to the semi-finals of My Kitchen Rules, perched at the water's edge.

She wears a white one-piece which flaunts her curves and cleavage.

That's a 10 out of 10: The loved-up lawyers tuck into an enviable breakfast feast while on the enviable holiday

Zana's long dark locks fall casually over one shoulder and she covers her eyes in brown sunglasses.

The budding blogger captioned the photo by detailing what wildlife she had spotted in the ocean so far.

'Exploring the Indian Ocean,' the lawyer wrote.

'So far we've found two stingrays, one big turtle and lots of rainbow fish.'

Surf's up: The 25-year-old beauty shows off her tan while taking in gentle waves at a beach

Loved up: The pair declare their affection for each other by writing into the tropical destination's sand

In another photo, the couple are eating a decadent feast over the water.

The 25-year-old beauty wears her hair loose over her shoulders as she eats breakfast in a bikini.

Her lawyer husband looks equally beachy in a loose buttoned shirt and shades.

'Breakfast of champions!' Zana captions the photo.

Don't fall in! The 25-year-old lawyer, who courted controversy on the reality show, relaxes in a sundress over the turquoise water

'Cannot believe how incredible the food is here!'

During the couple's time on the My Kitchen Rules, Zana was slammed by social media for her critical remarks of other people's dishes.

She also rubbed people the wrong way by claiming the show's $250,000 first prize 'isn't a lot of money for us because our jobs pay a lot'.

But she later told News Corp that she had come from a 'poor family'.

'I dont want to be known as this rich girl,' the 25-year-old said.

'I worked really hard to get to where I am.'
Sarah Jessica Parker was busy setting up shop in the US capital this week.

The 51-year-old actress was all smiles at the opening for her line SJP by Sarah Jessica Parker's first stand-alone boutique.



The Sex And The City starlet let people catch a glimpse of the Washington DC store Thursday.

The shop is located at MGM National Harbor, the DC area's newest casino and shopping center, and opens to the public December 9.

Setting up shop: Sarah Jessica Parker is opening a shop for her line SJP by Sarah Jessica Parker. The brand's first stand-alone location is in Washington DC's MGM National Harbor

The Emmy winning talent look dazzling in a sparkly pair of heels from her own collection at the appearance.

The Failure To Launch actress shined in a flowy black long sleeved dress and a collection of shiny chains, rings, bracelets.

Her signature blonde tresses were styled in loose waves as she welcomed people to the luxury line's brand new location.

Customer service: The First Wives club actress took a hands on approach while setting up shop on Thursday. In this shot, she's shows off her retail chops perfecting a shoe display

Show and tell: The Divorce actress was excited to invite people into SJP's flagship location. Before the boutique, the line was only available through retailers like Bloomingdale's, Net-a-Porter and Nordstrom

The First Wives Club actress loved taking a hand-on role in the store's creation.

'Its been very exciting to have been involved in all steps of the process, from on-site construction visits to the actual layout and design of our boutique.

'I'm honored to be included in this massive undertaking'

Before the boutique, her line was only available through retailers like Bloomingdale's, Net-a-Porter and Nordstrom.

The brand, which focuses on accessories like shoes and handbags, is dedicated to creating quality goods.

A pair of heels will set you back around $240 and a SJP handbag costs around $700.

Capital chic: The Failure To Launch actress was very involved with creating the DC store. Parker said she was 'honored to be included in this massive undertaking'

The star's iconic Sex In The City character Carrie Bradshaw was famously enamored with footwear.

The fashionista's obsession was inspired by Parker's own passion for shoes.

In addition to her business endeavors, right now the Ohio born actress is starring in HBO's Divorce with Sideways actor Thomas Hayden Church.
She rose to fame after appearing on Australia's Next Top Model in 2013.

And Abbie Weir did very well to draw attention to herself as she just managed to avoid a wardrobe malfunction while stepping out of the surf at Bondi Beach on Thursday.

Flaunting her toned pins and slender arms in a sexy one-piece swimsuit, the 20-year-old oozed sex appeal as she strolled along the sand.

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Sizzling! Model Abbie Weir showed off her slender physique in a grey swimsuit as she stepped out of the surf at Bondi beach on Thursday

Abbie's blonde locks were slicked back away from her face following the swim.

Her grey bathers clung to her body to reveal her slender frame, while her complexion appeared flawless despite wearing no makeup.

The Sydney-based model wasn't shy about flashing plenty of flesh in her swimmers, which cut very low to reveal a hint of side boob.

Beach babe: The 20-year-old narrowly avoided flashing her boobs in the low-cut bathers

Abbie, who hails from Maclean in New South Wales' north coast, exuded confidence as she strutted her sun-kissed physique across the beach.

The model was accompanied by her pal Tim Dormer, the former Big Brother contestant who confirmed this week that he's in a same-sex relationship.

The friends are often seen in each other's company and on social media, attending glitzy social events around Sydney.

Making a splash: The former Australia's Next Top Model star oozed confidence as she enjoyed a swim

Controversial: The Sydney-based blonde caused a stir at the 2014 David Jones fashion show, after losing a great deal of weight

Reality star: Abbie first rose to fame in 2013 after appearing on Australia's Next Top Model

Tim, who won Big Brother in 2013, confirmed to Who magazine on Thursday that he's 'found love' with his best friend Ash Toweel.

The socialite, who now lives with Ash in an apartment in Sydney's Bondi, says he has 'finally found love' and first knew there was something 'special' between the pair when they took a 'spontaneous' weekend away together in Byron Bay in 2014.

Meanwhile, in 2014, Abbie defended her incredibly thin frame after walking in the David Jones fashion show.

Friends: Abbie spent her beach outing with former Big Brother star Tim Dormer (pictured)

18 at the time, she revealed her weight loss was spurred by her time at Paris Fashion Week, where the models were encouraged to be super thin.

'I've just come back from couture which is Fashion Week in Paris,' she told Sydney Confidential.

'It is a different market to Australia so you do have to look a different way in Paris to book those jobs.'
Having been a working actress in Hollywood, Taraji P. Henson has become a household name.

And since landing her major role as Cookie Lyon on Empire, the stunning celebrity can now add author to her list of accomplishments.

And while promoting her upcoming book, Around the Way Girl, on the View on Thursday, the 46-year-old was merry and bright in a colourful, striped dress.

Colourful! While promoting her upcoming book, Around the Way Girl, on the View on Thursday, Taraji P. Henson, 46, was merry and bright in a colourful, striped dress

The mum of Marcel Johnson added extra glamour to her look with a pair of trendy, gold-and-black heeled booties.

The pretty brunette kept warm in a denim-like overcoat, complete with cougar-faced buttons.

Taraj kept her medium locks straight and parted to one side. For make-up, the actress kept all attention on her lips with a bright red colour.

It's all in the details: The mum of Marcel Johnson added extra glamour to her look with a pair of trendy, gold-and-black heeled booties

The Hidden Figures star is currently promoting her book, Around the Way Girl.

According to her publisher, Simon and Schuster, Tarji's book will tell her story of struggle and ultimately, of worldy success.

The piece, available now, will discuss her Vietnam vet father, her mother who suffered at the hand of violence and her life as a single mum.

TV host: In addition to her book, the actress will host her second annual Tarji's White Hot Holidays on Thursday at 8 p.m

In addition to her book, the actress will host her second annual Tarji's White Hot Holidays on Thursday at 8 p.m.

The special, which will air on Fox, is a variety show that will feature skits and performances put on by Pharrell Williams, Alicia Keys, and Snoop Dogg, to name a few.

'I grew up watching Carol Burnett and Sonny and Cher and Solid Gold. I was always a fan of variety style television shows,' she told E! News.

'Singing and dancing, that's why I fell in love with musical theater.'
On Wednesday night, Nia Vardalos celebrated the opening of her new play Tiny Beautiful Things off-Broadway at The Public Theatre.

Adapted from the autobiographical 2012 book by Cheryl Strayed, the production was directed by Thomas Kail of Hamilton fame.

Vardalos stunned in front of the cameras, posing in a black dress that emphasised her svelter-than-ever figure and exposed part of her black bra.

Festive: On Wednesday night, Nia Vardalos celebrated the opening of her new play Tiny Beautiful Things off-Broadway at The Public Theatre

A strip of sheer fabric ran down the outfits front, crisscrossed by solid black lace patterns. That strip was flanked by two thinner translucent lines on each side.

Shortly above the elbow, her solid sleeves became lacy and partly see-through, and below they elbow they fanned out.

Her hem stopped halfway down her thigh, allowing the 54-year-old to showcase her toned legs. She'd completed her outfit with black stilettos.

Lacy: The 54-year-old stunned in front of the cameras, posing in a black dress that emphasised her enviably svelte figure and exposed part of her black bra

Tiny Beautiful Things, which the My Big Fat Greek Wedding star wrote, also features her as its leading lady, Strayed herself.

Using what she's learned from her own life, Strayed creates an online persona called Sugar and dispenses advise to a fanbase that grows enormous and devoted.

The Winnipeg native's castmates include Alfredo Narciso, Phillip James Brannon, and Natlie Woolams-Torres.

Protean talents: On top of starring in the play, the Winnipeg native adapted it from the 2012 autobiographical book by Cheryl Strayed

This company of performs stood at one point for a group photo with Marshall Heyman, who's credited as having 'co-conceived' the play with Vardalos and Kail.

Also in that picture with them was Oskar Eustis, who since 2005 has been serving as Artistic Director at The Public.

At one point, Vardalos, Brannon, Narciso and Woolams-Torres also posed with Strayed herself, who'd got on a flowing purple velour dress.

Tiny Beautiful Things began its off-Broadway run on the 15th of November and is scheduled to close on New Year's Eve.

Group photo: The My Big Fat Greek Wedding star (third from right) smiled with her castmates Alfredo Narciso (second from left), Philip James Brannon (third from left) and Natlie Woolams-Torres (second from right) as well as director Thomas Kail (centre), Marshall Heyman who helped conceive the play (left) and Public Theatre Artistic Director Oskar Eustis (right)
"No one is more hated than he who speaks the truth."



Plato





"This country has shed more blood for the freedom of other people than all the other nations in the history of the world combined, and I'm tired of people feeling like they've got to apologize for America."

Sen. Fred Thompson (R-TN)







In a time of universal deceit  telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

George Orwell, the author of 1984







"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.""Americans are so enamored of equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom.""A return to first principles in a republic is sometimes caused by the simple virtues of one man. His good example has such an influence that the good men strive to imitate him, and the wicked are ashamed to lead a life so contrary to his example."Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?' Expediency asks the question, 'Is it politic?' But conscience asks the question, 'Is it right?' And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but because conscience tells one it is right.
They celebrated their three year anniversary in July after meeting and falling in love on season one of The Bachelor Australia.

But Tim Robards and Anna Heinrich, who portray the picture perfect relationship on Instagram, appeared frostier than usual as they dined together on Thursday night.

Anna was seen yawning as she grappled Tim's hand while the pair walked to Pink Salt in Sydney's Double Bay.

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Tense: Bachelor's Tim Robards and Anna Heinrich, who portray the picture perfect relationship online, appeared frostier than usual as they dined together in Sydney's Double Bay

Holding onto his forearm, Anna seemed disinterested in engaging with her beau as she looked off into the distance while walking with Tim.

Tim also appeared disengaged with his partner as he looked around rather than speaking to Anna as they continued to walk down the Sydney street.

Anna, who had her sleek blonde hair tied back in a neat ponytail, struggled to smile when finally reaching the restaurant.

The blonde reality star cut an casual chic figure in high-waisted shorts and a black high necked tank top pairing the outfit with strappy black heels.

Heated: The couple appeared to be having a tense conversation

Bored? Anna and Tim appeared to disengage with one another as they walked toward's the Sydney restaurant. The blonde beauty yawned at one point as she grasped Tim's hand

Tense: Tim appeared engrossed by the menu as Anna struggled to smile throughout their meal together

She was seen carrying a black handbag for the occasion which later disappeared as the pair sat down to dine.

Scowling at the menu, Anna seemed disappointed by the choices being offered to her for dinner at the luxury Mediterranean restaurant.

After spending almost a week in tropical Bali to celebrate her 30th, it would appear Anna yearns for the days of eating Indonesian cuisine and relaxing in hammocks.

Tim, who cut an equally casual figure for the night, seemed in happier spirits than Anna as she spoke to her partner.

Decisions, decisions: Anna appeared to look at the menu for some time while her partner Tim sat across from her at the table

Disappointment? Anna's already sour expression grew as she continued to peruse the luxury Mediterranean restaurant's menu

Not happy! Anna looked unhappy with the selection of food at Pink Salt as she scowled while scanning the menu

With his fingers over his mouth and his chin resting in his hands Tim focused on what appeared to be a tense conversation with his girlfriend.

The brunette Bachelor heartthrob wore a blue button up shirt and grey shorts pairing the outfit with brown shoes.

When Daily Mail Australia approached Tim and Anna's Management for comment, they insisted the tense pictures were a result of pangs of hunger.

'Anna and Tim were hungry. And being a busy Thursday night they hadn't made any reservation for dinner. This was the second restaurant they'd been to.

Contrast: The frosty pictures of Thursday night's dinner were a stark contrast to the picture perfect relationship often portrayed online

Distracted: Tim and Anna both seemed to focus their attention on the menu at the restaurant than engage in conversation

Deep thought: Anna appeared unable to make a decision as she looked at the menu

'The images were captured of them finding out that most of the things they wanted to order weren't available on the menu!'

The pictures come as a stark contrast to the loved up snaps during the couple's trip to Bali, in which they were often seen smiling and cuddling up to one another.

In pictures posted to social media, the pair beamed as they celebrated Anna turning one year older.

Fans have continued to probe the pair on their engagement plans on Instagram asking why they still haven't seen Tim pop the question.

Unhappy? Tim looked at his menu as Anna grit her teeth in what appeared to be a tense conversation

Trouble in paradise? Neither Tim nor Anna cracked a smile throughout the meal or when walking on the Sydney street

Casual chic: Anna wore white high-waisted shorts and strappy heels paired with a high collared black singlet top for the heated dinner on Thursday

One user said: 'Awesome pic beautiful as always, when are we going to hear wedding bells?'

While another said: 'Bout time you two got married, don't you think?'

Whether the constant questions about their nuptials added to the apparent tension on Thursday night's date is yet to be confirmed.

What's going on? The pictures from Thursday seemed out of the ordinary with the pair often posting loved up snaps on social media (pictured in Bali for Anna's birthday bash)

Loved up: Anna and Tim have been together for three years and have been spending their time in Bali over the last week for Anna's 30th

Enviable romance: The pair are often seen kissing in exotic locations in pictures posted to Instagram

Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald in August Anna revealed that she expects Tim will pop the question soon.

'I'm definitely not engaged at the moment,' she laughed. But I think it will come. There has been that pressure ever since we got together.

'We know it's all there and we know everyone is constantly watching and waiting, but I think that's what I love about him so much, that he hasn't sort of succumbed to the whole pressure.

Picture perfect: Tim and Anna's relationship appears to have no cracks as the pair often pose for selfies looking closer than ever after three years

'When will we hear wedding bell's?': Fans often probe the loving couple about their engagement plans quizzing them on when Tim hopes to pop the question

'For us, it's about getting to know each other': Anna revealed earlier this year, that getting to know one another is the most important part of their relationship and marriage will come later

'For us, it's about getting to know each other and that's exactly what we're doing, we love each other's company and it's not so much about, 'Let's get married straight away to please other people'.'

In October, Tim appeared nervous as he spoke to The Daily Edition's Sally Obermeder and Tom Williams on the topic of marriage, saying: 'We're definitely getting closer.

'I've gotta make something that's very left of centre, where she's not expecting it,' he said.
Shes the Aussie bombshell whos well-known for having her fair share of blonde moments.

And on Friday, radio personality Sophie Monk suffered arguably her most embarrassing blunder yet.

The 36-year-old, who is filling in for Kyle and Jackie O on KIIS FMs breakfast program, mistook Opposition Leader Bill Shorten for a Home And Away star in a prank pulled by her co-host, Matty Acton.

Blonde moment: After an awkward interview that lasted several minutes Sophie suddenly realised she was being pranked by Opposition Leader Bill Shorten.

Bill Shorten was in on the act, with the popular politician pretending to be a Summer Bay star named Bruce.

Sophie, who admits to not keeping up with politics, failed to recognise Bill as they sat down together for the interview.

She fell for his claim that he was an actor on the long-running Australian soap and was confused as to why he was dressed for the interview in a suit and tie, and arrived with an entourage.

Not a political junkie: The busty blonde doesn't keep up with politics and failed to recognise Bill Shorten.

'I saw all your people out there. Theyre all wearing suits. Its a bit Men In Black, Sophie said.

The awkward interview proceeded for a few minutes before Sophie realised she was being set up.

'This is so mean,' laughed Bill as he revealed the prank. The politician was clearly enjoying being in on the joke, grinning along.

That's awkward: Bill Shorten grinned along as shocked Sophie figured out she was actually interviewing the Labor leader, and not a Home and Away star.

The blondes jaw dropped and she put her hands over her face, shielding her face from embarrassment.

'Why am I always the fool?' Sophie sighed, as she jolted from her chair in shock.

'I've got no dignity! she exclaimed. 'I'm so rude and sorry.

Set-up: It's not the first time Sophie has been pranked whilst on-air at KIIS FM. Six months earlier, Sophie interviewed an actual Home and Away star who posed as Bill Shorten.

The prank is an inversion of a joke that was played on the star, earlier in the year.

Six months ago Sophie was the subject of another trick, when an actual Home And Away star arrived at the studio pretending to be Bill Shorten.

Although Sophie was embarrassed by the original prank, the blonde has failed to brush up on her political knowledge in the time since.

'Suck a d**k': Earlier this year Sophie was left stunned after the original prank, when it was revealed she WASN'T interviewing Bill Shorten. Shocked, the star swore and made rude gestures.
Bindi Irwin waved goodbye to boyfriend Chandler Powell on Friday.

The 18-year-old uploaded an emotional tribute to the American on Instagram after he jetted back to his homeland.

Bindi thanked the professional wakeboarder for the 'wonderful' few months he spent in Australia, gushing that he means 'the world to me'.

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Emotional farewell: Bindi Irwin uploaded an emotional tribute to boyfriend Chandler Powell on Instagram after he jetted back to America on Friday

Her caption read: 'You are flying back to the USA today. Dropping you off at the airport & waving goodbye, it never gets easier. Thank you for the most wonderful adventures these last few months.

'We even got to celebrate your 20th birthday here in Australia together, hiking through the Great Dividing Range! I've known you since you were 16 and every day, from the very first day I met you, you've been my sunshine.'

The photo accompanying the caption caught the cute couple out in the wild as Bindi rests her head on Chandler's shoulder.

Loved-up: The photo caught the cute couple out in the wild as Bindi rests her head on Chandler's shoulder

On hand: Before flying back to his native Florida, the 20-year-old had been helping out around Australia Zoo and joining Bindi in her wildlife conservation role

Quality time: The couple got to celebrate Chandler's 20th birthday together as well as hiking through the Great Dividing Range

Before flying back to his native Florida, the 20-year-old had been helping out around Australia Zoo and joining Bindi in her wildlife conservation role.

The brunette doesn't expect to be without her beau for too long, however, suggesting they will reunite in the near future.

She said: 'I will see you again soon! Thank you for everything, you always make me smile, no matter how far apart we may be.

'Have fun while you're away, go find lots of manatees in Florida for me! I miss you so much already. You really do mean the world to me.'

Bindi expects to be reunited in the near future, saying: 'I will see you again soon! Thank you for everything, you always make me smile, no matter how far apart we may be'

Family: Chandler seems to have fit in well with the Irwin family, winning the approval of Bindi's younger brother Robert

Upon seeing the post, Chandler responded in an equally affectionate manner.

He said: 'You are my world and mean everything to me. Thank you for the best adventures and memories I could ever have wished for. I miss you so much already but will see you soon.'

Chandler's return home comes in the wake of Women's Day reporting that the loved-up pair were set to move in together.

The publication also reported that they were soon to become engaged, rumours which were dismissed as 'false' by a spokesperson for Australia Zoo.
She's fresh off the Victoria's Secret runway in Paris.

And Georgia Fowler joined her model pal Tahnee Atkinson for a swim in Sydney's affluent suburb of Vaucluse on Friday.

The genetically-blessed pair showed off their enviable physiques in tiny bikinis as they posed for the snap.

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Hot stuff! Tahnee Atkinsin was joined by Victoria's Secret model Georgia Fowler for a swim as they flaunted their bikini bodies in Sydney

Sharing the image on her Instagram page, Tahnee wrote: 'Georgia & I wearing @kenniandkai // Sonic Tops with Pac & Rally Bottoms (sic ).'

The former Australia's Next Top Model winner took the opportunity to spruik her swimwear line, which she launched together with her sister Kaila this year.

Throwing one arm each in the air as they posed, Tahnee and Georgia, both 24, looked effortlessly flawless in their matching bathers.

Fresh off the runway: Georgia, who was born in New Zealand and raised in Australia, has recently walked her first Victoria's Secret show in Paris

Tahnee flashed ample cleavage in a black crop top, while showing plenty of skin in a tiny pair of string bottoms.

The sun-kissed pair oozed confidence as they showed off their endless pins and sculpted abs.

Appearing makeup-free after their swim, the girls looked flawless and fresh-faced in the Summer snap.

Finally! Georgia's debut for the lingerie giant comes after five years of tough auditions

With her drenched brunette locks worn out, Tahnee grinned from ear to ear as she struck the pose, showing off a small tattoo on her hip bone.

Georgia, who was born in New Zealand, starred in her first Victoria's Secret fashion show last month after five years of auditions.

Days after walking the catwalk in Paris, Georgia appeared to still be pinching herself as she took to social media to express her gratitude.

Thrilled: Days after the show, the 24-year-old thanked her lucky stars via a social media post, writing: 'So blessed and grateful to be given the chance to walk the #VSFashionShow'

The brunette beauty shared an image of herself in her costume from the night with her extensive social media following, and attached a lengthy emotional caption.

'So blessed and grateful to be given the chance to walk the #VSFashionShow among the most beautiful and hard working women in the industry,' Georgia wrote.

'I'm so appreciative for all the people that have backed me since day one.

'Five years of sweat and tears was all worth it to have this moment. Wish we could do it all over again!'
Fans usually see her looking perfect and pristine in conservative ensembles on the Today show.

But on Thursday, Sylvia Jeffreys dared to bare by flashing her bra as she stepped out in a black dress for coffee in Double Bay.

The 30-year-old's dress featured sheer material on the chest, giving onlookers an eyeful of her decolletage.

Daring to bare: Sylvia Jeffreys flashed her bra as she stepped out for coffee in Sydney's Double Bay on Thursday

Sylvia, who is engaged to fellow Today star Peter Stefanovic, accessorised with a tan handbag.

She also hid her famous face behind a pair of sunglasses and wore a fedora on her head.

It's unclear if the blonde beauty's obscured appearance was to hide from fans, or simply to protect her flawless complexion from the harsh rays of the sun.

Sheer delight! The 30-year-old's dress featured sheer material on the chest, giving onlookers an eyeful of her decolletage and enviable cleavage

The esteemed journalist recently got engaged to beau Peter after he proposed during a romantic trip to Europe.

The brother of Today show host Karl Stefanovic got down on one knee and proposed to the star back in July.

He shared a snap of the pair standing in a vineyard in France, with Sylvia showing off her ring.

The happy couple are set to tie the knot some time next year.
She's certainly had her hands full taking care of two boys and starring in a number of projects lately.

The Jordana Brewster was spotted on Thursday multi-tasking as she ran errands in Los Angeles while taking care of her three-year-old son, Julian Brewster-Form.

The 36-year-old actress opted to go makeup free on the outing, wisely letting her skin breathe.

Super mom! Jordana Brewster was spotted on Thursday in Los Angeles crossing the street with her three-year-old son, Julian Brewster-Form

The Fast And Furious star wore a turtleneck sweater for the brisk December day that she paired with dark denim jeans, distressed at the bottoms, and booties.

Her long brunette tresses were down and parted to the side as she opted to go make-up free, shielding behind her glasses.

While juggling multiple bags over her shoulder and on her arm, her oldest son Julian - who was born via surrogate - looked content to be with his mom as he donned a plaid shirt and beanie to keep warm.

Holding tight: The 36-year-old actress ran errands while holding on to her son and a number of bags across her shoulder

Casual cool: The Fast And Furious star opted for a turtleneck sweater and distressed jeans, wearing glasses, while her son opted for a plaid shirt and beanie

Meanwhile, Jordana is currently starring in FOX's reboot of Lethal Weapon alongside Clayne Crawford and Damon Wayans.

She is also set to be featured in Fast and Furious 8, slated to release in April 2017, as well as continuing to work with POND's as a brand ambassador.

Telling People Magazine amid the second birth of her son - Rowan - via gestational surrogate in June, she said: ' Whats wonderful about motherhood is that you're constantly busy. There's so much to do and I dont miss idle time at all.'

Busy mom: The Lethal Weapon star is married to producer Andrew Form and also raises six-month-old Rowan Brewster-Form who was born via surrogate as well as Julian

And she's not hesitant to continue expanding her family telling E! News: 'I say two or three. Because there's always the possibility of twins.'

The Secrets and Lies actress raises her two sons with husband and producer Andrew Form.

The two met on the set of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre in 2005 and got married in May 2007 in the Bahamas.
Frolicking with your ex while on holiday with your new partner isn't considered a good idea in many people's book.

But Alex Mytton, 25, threw caution to the wind as he chased former flame Jess Woodley, 20, across a beach in Barbados as his current squeeze Lottie Moss, 18, looked on forlornly.

The Made In Chelsea heartthrob jogged after his pretty co-star as the trio walked along the water's edge on Thursday.

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Three's a crowd? Alex Mytton (centre) is holidaying in Barbados with girlfriend Lottie Moss (left) and former flame Jess Woodley (20)

Reaching after her with his arm outstretched, he eventually made contacted with Jess's shoulder as she tilted her head back smiling.

Alex showed off his muscular legs in a small pair of grey shorts and wore a matching grey Represent tee and Nike trainers.

Jess displayed her toned midriff in a cropped white top and denim hotpants which she wore with a chunky pair of sandals.

Playful: The Made In Chelsea heartthrob jogged after his pretty co-star as the trio walked along the water's edge on Thursday

Gotcha! Reaching after her with his arm outstretched, he eventually made contacted with Jess's shoulder as she tilted her head back smiling

Take that: Jess fought back and gave Alex a shove on the shoulder

Having fun: Jess then got Lottie involved in the action by chasing her through the surf, which put a smile on the model's face

On the move: Lottie looked to be having a blast on her getaway

She sported a dark fedora and shades, and clutched a blue beach towel as she walked.

Lottie went barefoot on the sand and teamed denim shorts with a navy vest top which revealed a glimpse of her tum.

Jess then got Lottie involved in the action by chasing her through the surf, which put a smile on the model's face.

Getting Lottie on the bottie: Cheeky Jess looked as though she was about to slap pal Lottie on the bottom at one point during the trio's beach stroll

Gooseberry? Jess didn't seem to mind playing third wheel to the genetically-blessed pair

Coordianted: Alex showed off his muscular legs in a small pair of grey shorts and wore a matching grey Represent tee and Nike trainers

Beach babe: Jess showed off her toned midriff in a cropped white top and denim hotpants and a chunky pair of sandals

Hands full: She wore a dark fedora and shades, and clutched a blue beach towel as she walked

Footprints in the sand: Lottie went barefoot on the sand and teamed denim shorts with a navy vest top which revealed a glimpse of her tum

Toned: Alex couldn't resist whipping his top off to reveal his chiselled torso

Liquid lunch: The trio headed into a beach bar for a refreshing beverage

Getting along famously: There didn't appear to be any awkwardness between Jess and Lottie

Friendly: Jess waved heartily to another customer at the bar

Free-spirited: With a smile on her face, she slipped off her sandals

Stepping out: It looked like Jess was heading away from the bar for a cigarette

Alex couldn't resist whipping his top off to reveal his chiselled torso, before the trio headed into a beach bar for a refreshing beverage.

He and Jess were formerly dating before he shared a high-publicised relationship with co-star Binky Felstead.

When Jess joined the Made In Chelsea cast in 2015, it was revealed that Alex had been texting her behind then-girlfriend Nicola Hughes' back.

In the end, in order to appease Nicola, Alex told Jess on camera: 'We cant really talk anymore' and seemingly ended their friendship.

Lottie and Alex have been linked since early October when it was falsely believed that she had rekindled the flame with ex-boyfriend Sam Prince.

Pretty as a picture: Jess's cute dimples came out as she smiled
She's the reality star-turned-socialite who is known to flaunt her prodigious bust.

And Zilda Williams, 33, remained true to form on Thursday as she arrived at the Vans party in Sydney, wearing a plunging sun-dress that showcased her surgically-enhanced assets.

The notorious party-goer was photographed at the event alongside fellow Bachelor alum Jacinda Gugliemino, who at one stage competed against her for the attention of the show's star Sam Wood.

Zilda Williams, 33, arrived at the Vans party in Sydney wearing a plunging sun-dress as she partied with fellow Bachelor alum Jacinda Gugliemino

While Zilda and her brunette pal enjoyed their chance reunion, the pair made sure to keep their distance from Lana Jeavons-Fellows, who came runner-up on The Bachelor.

Lana, who has become an Instagram model since appearing on The Bachelor, looked quirky in a denim wrap dress with flared sleeves.

Also attending the event was blogger Sarah Ellen and Big Brother stars Lisa Hyde, Ryan Ginns and his actress girlfriend Charlotte Best.

While Zilda and her brunette pal enjoyed their chance reunion, the pair made sure to keep their distance from Lana Jeavons-Fellows, who came runner-up on The Bachelor

Lana recently recalled the heart-breaking moment she was forced to respond to Sam Wood after he rejected her during the Bachelor finale last year.

Appearing on the Mamamia Bach Chat podcast, she recounted: 'He said to me, 'Do you have anything to say?' And I was just completely in shock and I was just like, 'Nope!''

'And then it was just awkward silence,' she added. 'And then (the producers) were like, 'You have to say something'.

Also attending the event was Puberty Blues actress Charlotte Best (left) and blogger Sarah Ellen (right)

Cute couple! Former Big Brother winner Ryan Ginns (far left) accompanied his girlfriend Charlotte to the event

'And I was like 'Oh, yeah that was... that was a bit of a surprise'.'

The 28-year-old continued: 'In the original cut, it was just silence. I was just so shocked.'

Lana has since moved on with entrepreneur Jake Meah, officially announcing their romance with a raunchy photo shoot and exclusive interview with NW Magazine.
They fell in love on The Bachelorette.

And Georgia Love was spotted attending the Royal Croquet Club opening day in Melbourne on Friday with her boyfriend Lee Elliott.

The couple's date may feel familiar to the 28-year-old brunette, who spent an afternoon playing croquet with Matty J during the series.

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This looks familiar! Georgia Love and Lee Elliott were spotted at Melbourne's Royal Croquet Club on Friday, after the Bachelorette shared a very similar date with Matty J on the show

It was also the very date where Georgia and Matty shared their first kiss.

At the time, Georgia and Matty both giggled through their date, with the former newsreader revealing how she felt about the hunk when they first met.

Admitting she thought his demeanor was 'in between confident and cockiness' when they first met, but her feelings towards him changed when she got to know him better.

Feeling festive: Georgia and Lee were both seen grinning from ear to ear as they enjoyed their Melbourne outing

After a round of croquet, they sat down in front of a romantic picnic set up just for them.

She asked him what was the craziest thing he had ever done on a first date, to which he replied: 'Probably like tried to kiss a girl in front of heaps of cameras.'

Through a giggle, Georgia replied, 'Really? Have you done that a lot, have you?' before they shared their first kiss.

Flashback: Georgia and Matty shared flirty banter while getting to know each other during the game

After locking lips, she gushed: 'I'm glad that Matty kissed me because it was a good kiss.'

Despite their chemistry and Matty's affinity for Georgia, he was left heartbroken during the finale, when the Melbourne-based beauty chose Lee instead.

Meanwhile, Lee was grinning from ear to ear as he posed with his beloved girlfriend, both clutching a croquet mallet.

Romantic: The pair locked lips in their very first kiss during that date, with Georgia calling it 'a good kiss'

Steamy: It wasn't the first kiss shared between Georgia and Matty, with the hunk making it all the way to the finale

Georgia showed off her slender pins in a white lace playsuit and cream wedges as she wrapped her arm around Lee's waist.

The plumber meanwhile, sported navy blue trousers and a white shirt, which he teamed with a cream blazer.

Georgia later took to Instagram to share a fun snap from her date with her man.

'We're swinging into the silly season with a spot of croquet, darling!' she wrote in part of her post.
She is often seen stepping out in her workout gear as a self-confessed fitness fanatic.

But Gemma Atkinson seized the opportunity to glam up on Thursday night as she attended the grand opening of Restaurant 8 in Manchester.

The Emmerdale actress, 31, looked effortlessly stunning in a mint suit blazer and quirky bowler hat as she headed to the swanky new eatery with a selection of her Emmerdale co-stars.

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Looking mint! Gemma Atkinson, 31, seized the opportunity to glam up on Thursday night as she attended the grand opening of Restaurant 8 in Manchester

The Bury native showed off her casually chic sense of style in the ensemble, which revolved around a stand-out mint green blazer.

The clean cut jacket was of a traditional style, with structured lapels and pockets, but still maintained a vintage feel with tan-coloured elbow patches and buttons on the sleeves.

She teamed the garment with simple black skinny jeans - keeping the look plain and dark underneath to draw more attention to the soft and feminine pastel hue.

Green dream: The Bury native showed off her casually chic sense of style in the ensemble, which revolved around a stand-out mint green blazer

The British beauty then accessorised with studded black heels and an old-fashioned bowler hat, for a further quirky and vintage touch.

Leaving her brown tresses loose, the headwear helped to keep loose strands off her face in order to display her clear and glowing complexion to all.

She kept her makeup bronzed and dewy and added only a strong brow and a slick of deep red lipstick, to enhance her naturally stunning features.

Simple but effective: She teamed the jacket with simple black skinny jeans - keeping the look plain and dark underneath to draw more attention to the soft and feminine pastel hue

Natural style: The British beauty then accessorised with studded black heels and an old-fashioned bowler hat, for a further quirky and vintage touch

Flashing a winning smile, Gemma oozed confidence as she arrived at the new restaurant and posed beside her fellow soap stars Antony Quinlan and Joe Gill.

The star's enviably leggy and toned figure was clear for all to see in her tight-fitting jeans - having developed a love for healthy living in recent years.

The 5ft 9in actress transformed into a fitness fanatic after emerging as a glamour model and Hollyoaks pin-up in the Noughties, and now says she has the confidence to 'ignore' her critics.

Smile! She kept her makeup bronzed and dewy and added only a strong brow and a slick of deep red lipstick, to enhance her naturally stunning features

Speaking on This Morning earlier this year, she revealed: 'People say to me "Real women have curves." Well I don't  I am straight up and down!'

She continued: 'It's mostly men actually, they say women shouldn't have muscles.

'But that's like me saying to a man that unless they look like Arnold Schwarzenegger, they're not a man, which isn't right. I just ignore all the trolls.'

Gemma, who plays Carly in the Emmerdale, has also used her social media platform to empower others about their body image, taking to Instagram to post several inspiring messages about being confident in your own skin.

Feeling good: Flashing a winning smile, Gemma oozed confidence as she arrived at the new restaurant and posed beside her fellow soap stars

It's getting hot in here: Gemma later stripped off her jacket to reveal a black chiffon vest underneath as she posed with co-stars Antony Quinlan (L) and Joe Gill (R)

She wrote beside one post: 'Nowadays we seem to be pressured into looking a certain way or reaching a certain standard of "perfect." It's sad that people would choose to look a certain way & prioritise that over their own health!'

She added: 'You are SO much more then a 'body shape' or a number on a scale. Remember that.

'Don't let anyone tell you that you're too this or too that. For a stranger to have such a negative opinion on YOUR body means they are 1000% unhappy with their own.'
In secret, behind locked gates, our Nation's Oldest City dumped a landfill in a lake (Old City Reservoir), while emitting sewage in our rivers and salt marsh. Organized citizens exposed and defeated pollution, racism and cronyism. We elected a new Mayor. We're transforming our City -- advanced citizenship. Ask questions. Make disclosures. Demand answers. Be involved. Expect democracy. Report and expose corruption. Smile! Help enact a St. Augustine National Park and Seashore. We shall overcome!
BRIAN VINER: Philippa lives in Edinburgh, where she works in a dreary sales job and is passed over for promotion. 'You are at the right level for you,' says her condescending boss.
Sarah Harris shared an adorable moment with her 11-month-old son on Thursday.

The Studio 10 host filmed herself walking into baby Paul's room after he awoke from a nap before adding it to her Instagram story.

The toddler, clearly excited to see his mum, stood up in his cot to greet her before taking a tumble back onto his bed.

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Baby love: Sarah Harris shared an adorable moment with her 11-month-old son Paul on Instagram on Thursday

Sarah opened the door to his room while the caption 'my favourite time of the day!!!' appeared on screen.

She then approached the cot to find the toddler sitting up in his bed before he stood up as she approached.

After asking her son if he had a nice sleep, the 35-year-old was met by the bright-eyed youngster as he stood upright, clutching a blanket in his hand.

Favourite time: The Studio 10 host filmed herself walking into baby Paul's room after he awoke from a nap before adding it to her Instagram story

Nap time: She approached the cot to find the toddler sitting up in his bed before he began to stand up as she approached

He's awake! The 35-year-old is met by the bright-eyed youngster as he stands upright, clutching a blanket in his hand

Taking a tumble: In an adorable moment, Paul lost his balance and fell onto his mattress before quickly getting to his feet once again

In an adorable moment, Paul lost his balance and fell onto his mattress before quickly getting to his feet once again.

Sarah has been a mother since December last year when she and husband Tom Ward welcomed Paul into the world.

Ever the professional, the journalist returned to hosting the Channel Ten panel show after just four months of maternity leave.

However, Sarah will be enjoying some well-earned time off over the summer with The Bachelorette star Georgia Love filling in for her.

Working mum: The journalist returned to hosting the panel show after just four months of maternity leave

Stand-in: Sarah will be enjoying some well earned time-off over the summer with The Bachelorette star Georgia Love filling in for her

The former Tasmanian newsreader debuted on Studio 10 in late November ahead of taking the reigns during TV's non-ratings period.

After her first show Georgia paid tribute to Sarah, writing on Instagram: 'If someone could have told me when I was a fledgling journo at uni that Sarah Harris would be posting about me I would have keeled over!

'Was such a pleasure working with you this morning and I'm still in disbelief I get to step into your unfillable shoes (well, chair) while you're away. Girl power!'
Jennifer Aniston bundled up on Thursday while heading to a chat show appearance in Los Angeles.

The 47-year-old actress donned a classic pea coat and printed scarf while heading into the Jimmy Kimmel Live studios in Hollywood.

The pretty blonde was on her way to discuss her new raunchy comedy Office Christmas Party.

Classic beauty! On Thursday, Jennifer Aniston, 47, displayed her trademark style as she made her way to the Jimmy Kimmel Studios in LA

The Friends star has been making the rounds promoting the R-rated comedy that opens on Friday.

She added a fun accent to her look with a long, printed scarf.

Jennifer completed her outfit with a pair of cuffed jeans and heeled ankle boots.

Winter-weather wear: The Mother's Day star kept warm in a long pea coat layered over a top

The film's premiere took place on Wednesday in Hollywood.

Jennifer, who's known for her black ensembles, skipped the colour in favor of a colourful print.

Katy Perry also attended the premiere and even snapped several pics with the rom-com star. Despite having shared the same ex in John Mayer, the two women appeared friendly as ever.

On good terms! On Wednesday night, the Office Christmas Party premiere took place in Hollywood. It was also attended by Katy Perry, who shares the same ex as Jennifer

Jennifer has been actively promoting her film.

While she does not have any office Christmas parties to reflect on, she does recall Christmas celebrations from her earlier years.

'My mom and I would go to Tavern on the Green [in NYC]. Wed treat ourselves to a Christmas Eve dinner there, she told Parade.

'Id wake up, spend Christmas with my mom and then Id go with my dad to my stepmoms in Jersey. Then Id go to my grandmothers in Pennsylvania and see all the Greeks. I traveled a lot of ground. And I looked forward to it. Especially when you got to the Greeks, because theyre so much fun. And I did get a nice little stash of goodies.'
WARNING: Story contains graphic content

Amy Schumer's love life mirrors her stand-up act: a few f-words, some blush-worthy phrases and a lot of laughs.

The 35-year-old comic on Thursday proved as much, revealing on her Instagram Story an exchange with boyfriend Ben Hanisch that proves she works blue on AND off the stage.

In the back-and-forth, the Trainwreck actress asked Hanisch, a 30-year-old Chicago furniture maker, if he was 'dying tired' - and he seemed to take it to mean something suggestive.

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Caught in the act! Amy Schumer, 35, and boyfriend Ben Hanisch, 30, seen here earlier this year in NYC, engaged in a funny, sexy text exchange the comic posted on social media Thursday

Back and forth: The lovers joked around about their plans for the evening in a series of texts

Lots of love: The pop culture superstar and Windy City woodworker have been dating for more than a year

'I'm fine!!!' he wrote. 'Probably too tired for sex tho.'

Naturally, the Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo author fired back with a witty response, telling her boyfriend, 'F--- you! Who even asked you.'

Hanisch, at that point, seemed a bit more confident in his potency, as he assured Schumer he would be up to the task of lovemaking if the opportunity presented itself, boasting he could 'get it up.'

The entertainer, responding to the initial rejection, joked she was going to go on with her evening without bothering with the hygienic preparation one might make with a night of romance ahead. She wrote: 'OK I won't wash my vagina h---. I'll wash everything but that.'

Funny lady: The comic has a variety of mediums to communicate with her fans, such as stage, television and social media

Always on: Schumer, seen here hamming it up at the Met Gala in May, continues to maintain her status as one of comedy's most popular stars

Crazy in love: The texting paramours looked happy and content at an award show in January

Hanisch seemed to have other plans in mind, as he requested she wash her rear end - though like a true gentleman, he said, 'Please.'

The star of Comedy Central's Inside Amy Schumer could no longer contain herself at the explicit hysterics, as she responded, 'Hahahahahaha.'

Prior to Hanisch, Schumer was previously in relationships with fellow comic Anthony Jeselnik and professional wrestler Dolph Ziggler, whose real name is Nick Nemeth.

It was a very good year: Hanisch and Schumer look to be ending 2016 with their relationship going strong

Schumer last year revealed an anecdote about more off-color text hilarity she was involved in, via a prank she pulled on Katie Couric.

Schumer, speaking with Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show in July of 2015, said that she and the veteran broadcaster were seated next to one another at Glamour Women of the Year Awards.

As Couric walked away from the table to seek out her husband, John Molner, Schumer grabbed Couric's phone and put her comedy chops to work.
She sent the rumour mill into meltdown in October after being photographed kissing ex-NRL star Eric Grothe Jr.

But Sophie Monk, 36, has slammed reports that she and the handsome sportsman were ever an item.

'It wasn't really dating,' Sophie told Daily Mail Australia this week.

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'We weren't dating': Sophie Monk, 36, has slammed romance rumours after being spotted kissing ex-NRL star Eric Grothe Jr in October

'One photo can do a lot, as well. We weren't dating, but now it's on my list forever,' she said.

'I've got a list of people. If I looked on my dating list, it's like not even a third of the guys I've actually dated. It's just insane!'

Headline-maker: 'I've got a list of people. If I looked on my dating list, it's like not even a third of the guys I've actually dated. It's just insane!' she complained

It two months after Sophie told KIIS FM's The Kyle and Jackie O Show that she had in fact been dating Eric, but that their romance was an on-and-off relationship that lasted for two years.

She also confirmed to the radio shock jocks that the relationship was over, telling them: 'I don't have a boyfriend.'

Explaining why she kept the details of their romance secret, Sophie said: 'When you become public it only creates drama. We wanted to keep it private and special.

Former flame: Sophie has enjoyed a series of high-profile relationships, including a brief engagement with Benji Madden (right)

'But now it's off again,' She concluded, before adding: 'It's all good!'

Sophie has enjoyed a series of high-profile relationships, including a brief engagement with Benji Madden.

She was also engaged to businessman Jimmy Esebag before breaking up just months after announcing the happy news.

She has also been rumoured to have dated Ryan Seacrest, Adam Levine and Jason Statham.
It can happen to anyone... even Jennifer Aniston.

But when it came to the Friends favorite wearing a coat with the price tag still on it to a screening of her new movie Office Christmas Party, the A-lister had a good if not privileged explanation.

The 47-year-old admitted that not only had she worn the coat before but she had been given it after shooting a commercial.

Uh oh! Jennifer Aniston talked on Jimmy Kimmel Live! about wearing a coat with the price tag still on it to a screening of her new movie Office Christmas Party

Appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Aniston admitted that in the photo 'I look like something horrible happened to me'.

She went to reveal, regarding the incident that occurred on Monday in New York: 'I wore that coat at least four times.'

'It was gifted to me from a commercial I did,' she added.

Whoops: Aniston had forgotten to remove the tags from her coat before heading to the Office Christmas Party screening in New York City on Monday

Aniston admitted that in the photo 'I look like something horrible happened to me'

Kimmel teased her that she had simply walked off with the coat, without asking. But she assured him it was a gift.

'I wore it home and I didn't realize...' she said and then added referring to the photo of herself with the tag still on, 'four wears later [and you see this]'.

The coat in question was a $2000 Celine coat, however the price of the item was not visible on the tag.

She went to reveal, regarding the incident that occurred on Monday in New York: 'I wore that coat at least four times.'

'It was gifted to me from a commercial I did,' she added

The Just Go With It actress plays the CEO of a company called Zenotek, banning the titular fete only for it to proceed extravagantly anyway in the comedy Office Christmas Party.

Her character Caroline Vanstone has an irreverent brother called Clay (TJ Miller), who runs a branch of the corporation and becomes the man behind the revelry.
Lady Gaga was spotted on Thursday evening emerging from LAX, having just returned stateside after a trip abroad.

She'd lately been in London, where on Wednesday she paid a surprise visit to the LGBT homelessness charity the Albert Kennedy Trust.

The top she'd worn to LAX was tied up at the front, showing off her toned midriff as she walked out of the International Arrivals section of the airport.

Been along time but I'm back in town: Lady Gaga was spotted on Thursday evening emerging from LAX, having just returned stateside after some time in London

Though that slightly sheer dress shirt was primarily white, it was speckled all over with large pink stars.

Similar stars were splattered all over jeans, which otherwise were a dark blue cover streaked with lighter faded sections.

The 30-year-old let her platinum blonde hair flow free from beneath her pale pink cowboy hat, similar to the one she'd worn on the cover of her new album Joanne.

When you got it: The top she'd worn to LAX was tied up at the front, baring her toned midriff as she walked out of the International Arrivals section of the airport

Always plugging: The 30-year-old let her platinum blonde hair flow free from beneath her pale pink cowboy hat, similar to the one she'd worn on the cover of her new album Joanne

Accessorising with a pair of round sunglasses and a rectangular camel-coloured purse, she'd slid into a stylish pair of metallic high-heeled boots.

Her Snapchat Story that evening saw her sat at a white Roland piano, dogs yapping at her feet as she began to play.

Naturally, she launched into Million Reasons, a country-tinged ballad off of Joanne that's become one of its singles.

Back to work: Her Snapchat Story that evening saw her sat at a white Roland piano, her dogs yapping at her feet as she began to play

'I bow down to pray': Naturally, she launched into Million Reasons, a country-tinged ballad off of Joanne that's become one of its singles

She's been plugging the song ceaselessly, as in New York City on The Howard Stern Show, in Paris at the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, and even in Los Angeles itself during the American Music Awards at the Microsoft Theatre.

Moving her head emphatically over the candle-strewn piano whilst she played, she belted the song's line: 'I bow down to pray' during multiple posts in the Story.

Once she finished up the song, white text across the bottom of the screen indicated Gaga felt it was 'so good to be at my white piano sometimes'.
On Thursday night, the San Francisco Film Society threw an event giving an SF Honour award to the new Damien Chazelle film La La Land.

Its stars, Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling, arrived to the red carpet at the Castro Theatre in complementary outfits.

She in black, he in black and charcoal, the colleagues showcased their irrepressible chemistry as they stood for photos alongside one another.

Complementary outfits: On Thursday, La La Land stars Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone walked the red carpet at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco, where the San Francisco Film Society was honouring their film

The 28-year-old had let her red hair fall free over her shoulders. Her neckline was roughly rectangular, though with curves in the place of angles.

The short-sleeved dress cinched about her enviably svelte torso before fanning out in pleats below the waist, culminating in an asymmetric hem.

Pink and green floral designs were speckled across the gold backdrop of the stilettos she'd picked out for the evening.

Basic black: The short-sleeved dress cinched about her enviably svelte torso before fanning out in pleats below the waist, culminating in an asymmetric hem

All smiles: The 28-year-old's neckline was roughly rectangular, though with curves in the place of angles

Meanwhile, the 36-year-old had popped on a charcoal suit, but rather than a dress shirt, had opted for a black polo shirt.

Chazelle isn't the first filmmaker to pick up on their onscreen compatibility; Gosling and Stone have previously co-starred in Crazy, Stupid, Love and Gangster Squad.

La La Land, its director's follow-up to his acclaimed drama Whiplash, returns to the 2014 film's focus on musical performers. Unlike Whiplash, La La Land is a musical.

Pop of colour: Pink and green floral designs were speckled across the gold backdrop of the stilettos she'd picked out for the evening

Chic as ever: Meanwhile, the 36-year-old had popped on a charcoal suit, but rather than a dress shirt, had opted for a black polo shirt

Gosling plays a jazz pianist who strikes up a romance with the aspiring actress played by Stone as both struggle for recognition in Los Angeles.

Having debuted in August at the Venice Film Festival, the film flung itself all over the world on the festival circuit before its December 9th limited release in America.

By December 16th, the film will enjoy a wide release stateside, though it won't get the same in Britain until the 13th of January.
He capped off a rather memorable year by becoming an OBE at Windsor Castle this time last week.

And Eddie Redmayne and his wife Hannah Bagshawe celebrated his achievement at the star-studded OMEGA Constellation Globemaster dinner at Marcus restaurant in London's The Berkeley hotel in Knightsbridge on Thursday night.

Mingling with the likes of Downton Abbey actress Laura Carmichael, the Oscar-winning actor, 34, and his other half both dressed to impress in elegant Gucci ensembles as they enjoyed a night off their parenting duties at the glittering event.

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Plenty to smile about: Eddie Redmayne and his wife Hannah Bagshawe celebrated his OBE at the OMEGA dinner at Marcus restaurant in London's The Berkeley hotel on Thursday night

The Theory Of Everything star - who is International ambassador for luxury watch brand OMEGA - looked every inch the dapper dude in an olive green velvet two piece, which he teamed with a crisp white shirt and navy tie.

Hannah, 33, who tied the knot with long-term love Eddie in a romantic ceremony at Babington House in Somerset in December 2014, opted for a high-fashion look in a black dress with floral embroidery.

The publicist looked as though she was having a blast as she chatted to actress Laura Carmichael, 30, while enjoying the intimate four-course dinner at the two Michelin starred eatery, specially designed by chef Marcus Wareing.

Eddie said: 'I think this man [Marcus] is a genius. I'm one of those obsessive people who loves watching cooking programmes but has never actually cooked anything from a cooking programme myself.'

Best of British: Mingling with Downton Abbey actress Laura Carmichael, the Oscar-winning actor, 34, and his other half enjoyed a night off their parenting duties at the glittering event

Dressed to impress: Hannah, 33 opted for a high-fashion look in a black dress with floral embroidery as she she chatted to Laura, 30, inside the luxury watch event

Laura - best-known for her role as Lady Edith Crawley in period drama Downton Abbey - looked equally glamorous in a stunning cream and wine-coloured floral dress, which she teamed with a tailored black blazer.

Also in attendance at the glittering event were the likes of retired Olympic gold heptathlete Denise Lewis, actress Daisy Lewis, and three times gold medal-winning Olympic rowers Pete Reed and Andrew Triggs-Hodge.

It's been quite a year for Eddie, who welcomed his first child, daughter Iris Mary, into the world in June.

And his stellar 2016 was capped off last week when he collected an OBE (Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) from Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle in Berkshire in recognition of services to drama.

Suited and booted: The Theory Of Everything star - who is International ambassador for luxury watch brand OMEGA - looked every inch the dapper dude in an olive green velvet two piece

Cute couple: Eddie and long-term love Hannah tied the knot at Babington House in Somerset in December 2014 and welcomed their daughter, Iris Mary, in June

But the Eton-educated star admitted that while being a parent was 'wonderful', he was feeling a little sleep deprived on his big day because of little Iris.

'She does have the habit of knowing when you have a big day, like today', he sighed.

'And she was up until four in the morning, so both my wife and I came today with matchsticks under our eyes. Other than that she is on cracking form.'

Of his latest honour, he said: 'It was absolutely wonderful.

'Also being with such extraordinary people the whole experience is incredibly humbling and also getting to be in Windsor Castle is breathtaking, around Christmas as well with all the decorations.'

Boys' night out: Eddie posed with OMEGA president and CEO Raynald Aeschlimann (L) and Marcus Wareing (C), who designed the four-course dinner at the two Michelin starred eatery

Dinner date: The talented thespian, 34, flashed a glimpse of his luxury timepiece as he chatted to his fellow guests at the meal

Cream of the crop: Actress Daisy Lewis (L) and blogger Doina Ciobanu (R) both looked glamorous in elegant cream ensembles as they arrived at the event

Pressed on what the Queen had said to him, the Danish Girl star said: 'She was asking me whether I prefer film or theatre, and asked me if I enjoyed it.

'Im very lucky to do something I am passionate about - Im very grateful to do something I love because it is a rare thing.'

Eddie said it was 'an extraordinary thing' to receive his OBE, adding: 'It is something that I had never thought of and it was never in my wildest imagination.'

Eddie and Hannah started dating in 2012 after previously being friends since their school days.

Talented trio: Eddie posed with three times gold medal-winning Olympic rowers Andrew Triggs-Hodge (L) and Pete Reed (R) inside the event

They first met when the actor was studying at Eton College, while Hannah was boarding at a nearby girls' school.

However their friendship turned to romance when Eddie invited her to visit him in Italy while he was filming Les Miserables.

The couple tied the knot in an intimate ceremony at Babington House in Somerset in December 2014.

What an honour: Eddie's stellar 2016 was capped off last week when he collected an OBE from Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle in Berkshire in recognition of services to drama
He made headlines last week after troubling images showed him stumbling shirtless on the streets of Sydney.

Now, fallen rocker Daniel Johns has returned to Facebook after a brief social media hiatus.

The 37-year-old musician posted an interview on Thursday featuring film director Josh Wakely, in which he hailed Daniel 'a genius.'

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He's back! Fallen rocker Daniel Johns has returned to Facebook after he was seen stumbling shirtless on the streets of Sydney

'Its the most overused word in the modern lexicon, and I dont use it often, but Daniel is a stone-cold genius,' the filmmaker said in an interview with Artist Waves.

Daniel worked on Wakely's latest project, Beat Bugs - an animated Netflix series - to recreate Beatles songs for children.

'He does things that take your breath away,' Wakely continued.

'I would tell him what I wanted the song to sound like and he would go about manifesting that. I would then lay the process out once he did that.'

Full of praise! The 37-year-old musician shared an interview with film director Josh Wakely

'Daniel is a stone-cold genius': Josh Wakely sang Daniel's praises in the interview the Silverchair singer shared on Facebook

Daniel's post comes just days after he was seen collapsing in front of horrified onlookers in Sydney's exclusive suburb of Double Bay.

In broad daylight, Daniel was photographed shirtless and stumbling as he leaned on his friend Joshua Mullane for support.

The unshaven rocker had smeared pink lipstick and smudged black eyeliner across his face and was flaunting his various crude tattoos and a notable pot belly.

Worse for wear: Daniel was seen collapsing in front of horrified onlookers in Sydney's exclusive suburb of Double Bay last week

Troubled times: The unshaven rocker had smeared pink lipstick and smudged black eyeliner across his face and was flaunting his various crude tattoos and a notable pot belly

An onlooker told The Daily Telegraph the two friends were making fools of themselves.

'Double Bay was so busy because of Christmas parties, so a lot of people witnessed his antics,' they said.

'He was making quite a scene and people had their phones out and were filming him.'

'A lot of people witnessed his antics': An onlooker said Daniel was making a fool of himself on his day out with friend Joshua Mullane
Stranger Things' lead actress Millie Bobbie Brown has been hailed as Hollywood's biggest new name and is in line to rake in more than $3 million a film at the tender age of 12.

And the boys of Netflix's breakout hit of the year also showed off their star power as they filmed scenes for season two of the nostalgic, sci-fi drama in Atlanta on Thursday.

Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo and Caleb McLaughlin were spotted riding away on their trusty bikes as they undoubtedly attempted to get to the bottom of the spooky goings-on in the city of Hawkins.

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The boys are back! Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo and Caleb McLaughlin were on set to film scenes for season two of Stranger Things in Atlanta on Thursday night

Season one of the show, which pays homage to 1980s genre films, was based around the disappearance of 12-year-old Will (Noah Schnapp) and the discovery of a psychokinetic girl Eleven (Millie Bobbie Brown).

And while the two weren't present on set, their co-stars were right in character as they braved the darkness to solve more mysteries in the small make-believe city in Indiana.

Finn, 13, who plays Mike Wheeler on the show and develops quite the crush on Eleven (Elle), was spotted peddling away on his bike with his pals.

Caleb, who takes on the role of Lucas, and Gaten, who plays Dustin, were later spotted filming together.

Discussing the Upside Down? Caleb, who takes on the role of Lucas, and Gaten, who plays Dustin, were later spotted filming together for the nostalgic, sci-fi drama

Having fun: Quite a different weekday night for the average teen, the boys couldn't resist flashing a smile in-between scenes for the eighties Indiana based series

Quite a different weekday night for the average teen, the boys kept the camaraderie alive as they flashed smiles in-between scenes.

The cult hit, which also stars nineties grunge favourite Winona Ryder, racked up 8.2 million viewers in the first 16 days since its release in July.

It draws influences from the work of the likes of George Lucas, John Carpenter and Steven Spielberg, with the latter hailing it as the best show of the year.

The boys were seen for the first time on the Stranger Things set in Atlanta last month, alongside fellow cast-members Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton and Joe Keery.

Filming begins: The boys were seen for the first time on the Stranger Things set in Atlanta last month alongside co-star Noah Schnapp (second from left) who mysteriously vanished in the first season

Powerful performance: Noah's disappearance was met by the arrival of a psychokinetic girl Eleven, played by Teen Vogue's Breakout Star Of The Year, Millie Bobbie Brown

'Back in production see you next year!' Last month, Stranger Things' directing duo Ross & Matt Duffer shared an upside down picture of the first table reading

While Millie was noticeably missing, the show's directing duo Ross & Matt Duffer confirmed her participation in the second series.

They shared an upside down black and white picture of the first table reading of the second season script and Millie was front and center on it.

However, it's unclear just how many episodes Eleven - who was based on E.T. - will be in after vanishing into ash with the monster in the finale.

'011 is back! It's official!' the British tween proudly announced to her 3M social media followers with a black and white snap with her co-stars.

'Can't wait to be back working with this lovely cast again for #strangerthings thank you to the amazing duffer brothers for having el back for a second season!'

'011 is back! It's official!' Sitting front and center was none other than Millie, confirming her return as traumatised Eleven (Elle)

Talented: Millie has been hailed as Hollywood's biggest new name and is in line to rake in 3m a film at the tender age of 12 thanks to her portrayal in Stranger Things

Millie, who was named as Teen Vogue's Breakout Star of 2016, was described by industry bible Variety as harbouring the kind of presence some actors take a lifetime to acquire [and] is about to be cast in a lot of projects.

And while she is set to command millions for her upcoming Hollywood projects, her parents nearly went bankrupt after they moved from the UK to LA to back her stardom.

Stranger Things returns to Netflix in 2017.
She readily admitted to having a crush on Joel Dommett and even got the seal of approval from his mother.

And it seems Ferne McCann's luck is in as the I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! star has agreed to go on a date with her.

Appearing on Friday's episode of This Morning, the jungle hunk, 30, wasted no time making the proposition, labelling her a 'lovely girl', despite the fact they haven't met.

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New couple? Appearing on Friday's episode of This Morning, Joel Dommett, 30, agreed to go on a date with Ferne McCann after she admitted to fancying him on the show

Chatting with Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford, he was asked how he felt after hearing that she'd publicly declared her love for him.

'Thats lovely,' he admitted. 'I think shes absolutely wonderful.'

Slightly confused, Eamonn then rambled: 'Unfortunately shes married  oh no she's not? I just thought'

Not-so coy: After Joel entered the I'm A Celebrity jungle last month, Ferne admitted she had her eye on the comedian, announcing on This Morning: 'It's no secret that I have a crush!'

Undeterred, Ruth asked Joel if he would consider taking the This Morning showbiz correspondent out on a date, to which he was happy to oblige.

'Shes Ferne McCann not Ferne McCant so well have to set that up  live on TV!' he said, adding: 'Ill have to check with (my mum) Penny.'

But Ruth was quick to inform him: 'We have, she said she was a nice girl!'

Somewhat baffled, Joel then quipped: ;I love how youve asked my mother before you asked me.'

Probing questions: Chatting with Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford, Joel was asked how he felt after hearing that Ferne had publicly declared her love for him

'That's lovely': Chatting with Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford, he was asked how he felt after hearing that she'd publicly declared her love for him, admitting: 'thats lovely'

His just desserts: Joel finally got his strawberry cheesecake after missing out in his Dingo Dollar challenge with Wayne Bridge

His precious: It didn't look like Joel was letting go of his favorite dessert

After Joel entered the I'm A Celebrity jungle last month, Ferne admitted she had her eye on the comedian, announcing on This Morning: 'It's no secret that I have a crush on Joel. I like him.

'I think he's really funny, he's got great abs, he's got a great body, he's eye candy but I think the reason why people are loving him is that he's a normal guy and he's witty. He's got great banter.'

Ferne then got the chance to speak to his mother, as Penny appeared on the show via satellite from Australia where she had flown out to support him.

Smitten: Ferne wasted no time explaining why she fancied Joel, describing him as 'really funny,' adding 'he's got great abs, he's got a great body, he's eye candy'

Celebrations: Joel was welcomed to studio with a confetti cannon

Cheers: Joel couldn't help but giggle as he waited for the confetti to stop

Holly Willoughby was keen to know if Ferne, who politely introduced herself to Penny during the chat, is Joel's type, but Penny was pretty coy in her answer.

'I'm sure he would think she's wonderful. He finds lots of people interesting,' she said.

Holly pressed on, asking if Ferne should be jealous of Joel's campmate Carol Vorderman who has struck up a flirty friendship with the comedian in the jungle.

'He's been bought up well, he's very respectful of women,' Penny explained, adding that her boy is a 'superstar,' for conquering his fear of heights during the terrifying Bushtucker Trials.

Eager: Asked if he would take her out, Joel quipped: 'Shes Ferne McCann not Ferne McCant so well have to set that up  live on TV!' he said, adding: 'Ill have to check with (my mum) Penny'

Already pals: Ferne previously had the chance to speak to his mother, as Penny appeared on the show via satellite from Australia last month where she had flown out to support him

As the chat rounded up, Ferne called out: 'Enjoy your stay at the Versace hotel Penny!' referring the to the plush hotel the campmates' families stay in during their Australia trip.

Holly was quick to quip though: 'She's not your mother in law yet Ferne!'

Earlier in the week Ferne told Holly and her co-host Phillip Schofield that she had googled Joel's sex tape, admitting: 'I watched it. I quite fancy Joel.'

The comedian was falsely duped into having internet sex with someone posing as Russian model Natalia Noir in a video that was leaked recently online.
She's had a jet-set year after shooting to fame on ITV2 show Love Island.

And Kady McDermott is closing out 2016 with another sun-soaked getaway, hitting Australia with her Love Island beau Scott Thomas.

The 20-year-old Kent-born make-up artist looked sensational as she showed off her tanned and toned curves in a skimpy yellow bikini during a beach day on the sunny Gold Coast this week.

This is the life: Kady McDermott is closing out 2016 with another sun-soaked getaway, hitting Australia with her Love Island beau Scott Thomas

Kady flaunted her impressive tan in her summery swimwear as she enjoyed the sun-soaked beaches and hotel pool with her man.

The dark-haired beauty's incredible figure was on show in her neon bright bikini, with the halter neck design highlighting her ample assets.

She left her long hair loose, and slipped on a pair of aviator shades to keep cool in the scorching temperatures.

Me and my man: The 20-year-old looked sensational as she showed off her tanned and toned curves in a skimpy yellow bikini during a beach day on the sunny Gold Coast this week

Wow factor: The Kent-born make-up artist flaunted her impressive tan in her summery swimwear as she enjoyed the sun-soaked beaches and hotel pool with her man

In a world of their own: Kady and her Love Island beau cuddled up on the beach

Scott meanwhile showed off his equally impressive physique in a pair of turquoise swimming shorts.

The lovebirds frolicked on the sand before cooling off with a dip in the ocean and some smooches in the pool.

The adventurous pair even tried their hands at surfing at one point during the fun-packed day.

Cooling off: The besotted couple couldn't keep their hands off one another as they hit the pool with some refreshing ice lollys

Strike a pose: Kady and Scott flaunted their impressive tans after spending a week in Australia to support Scott's twin brother Adam on I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here

Giving her a lift: Kady jumped onto her hunky beau's back as they went for a paddle

Kady met her beau after Love Island kicked off in May, leading to a tumultuous start to their romance before they cemented their relationship and moved in together earlier this year.

The couple flew home from their getaway on Wednesday, after spending time on the Gold Coast to support Scott's' twin brother Adam on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here.

While out in Aus Kady reportedly made fix claims against I'm A Celebrity bosses during the finale of the show on Sunday.

Do we dare? The couple appeared to be contemplating the waves as they prepared to try their hands at surfing

I got you babe! Kady struck the perfect pose as Scott gave her a push on the board

She's a natural: The reality show star laughed as she crashed through the shallow surf

One for the album: Kady and Scott looked like the picture perfect couple in their idyllic surroundings

I wanna hold your hand: Kady looked gorgeous in her bejewelled bikini

The reality beauty headed Down Under with Scott to throw their support behind Adam, although after he came third in the show on Sunday night's final she is said to have slammed producers.

While Emmerdale actor Adam slaved away in the jungle, the Kent-born beauty joined the Thomas family, including Coronation Street star Ryan and their parents, in cheering him on from the outside.

During Sunday night's final, the remaining three came down to comedian Joel Dommett and Scarlett Moffatt, who finished in second and first place respectively, ahead of Adam.

Tanned duo: Scott rocked a pair of tiny turquoise shorts and a black vest

Packing it in: The couple flitted from the beach to the hotel pool during their chilled day

What a beauty: Kady had obviously been working on her tan since touching down in Aus

Sweet treat: The pair couldn't take their eyes off each other during their pool session

While the Emmerdale actor took his place gracefully, by thanking his supporters and congratulating Scarlett - Kady and Scott were reportedly more disgruntled.

In now-deleted Tweets, the Mirror report that Kady penned: 'Fix. Good night' before adding: 'They knew their winner before the show even started... Anyway he's the winner in our eyes he did AMAZING!!!! #KingAdam'.

Scott's note was more subtle in approach, as the Tweet reportedly read: 'Wow don't get that at all I'm sorry!'

Aside from her angry outbursts, the brunette beauty was still keen to show off her incredible figure as she took to Instagram throughout the trip.

What a year! Kady met her beau after Love Island kicked off in May, leading to a tumultuous start to their romance before they cemented their relationship and moved in together earlier this year

We are family: The reality beauty headed Down Under with Scott to throw their support behind Adam
The former Home and Away star has had a busy year.

And so Samara Weaving decided to kick her feet up at an awards season party in Los Angeles on Thursday.

The 24-year-old rocked a classic Hollywood look for the star-studded event, right down to the statement red lip.

Old school: Samara Weaving turned heads at an awards season party in a fitted black dress with a statement red lip and blonde curls

She flaunted her svelte frame in a fitted calf-length black dress with off the shoulder detailing.

The dress featured what appeared to be velvet texturing, apart from a small area towards the bottom of the frock, where a slight split showed off the actress' trim pins.

Samara highlighted her blue eyes with a bronze smokey eye and tied in her statement lip by painting her nails in a similar shade of deep red.

Glowing! In addition to her full red pout, the former Home and Away star highlighted her blue eyes with a bronze smokey eye

The young starlet wore her blonde locks in glamorous curls, which were swept over to one side and seen resting over her shoulder.

She kept her look simple, and accessorised with only a pair of drop earrings with a dark pearl on each.

Over the last 12 months, Samara has been working on a number of projects, including two movies.

She stars alongside Bella Thorne in horror movie The Babysitter, set to be released next year.

The actress has also worked on Mayhem, an action movie about a virus which makes people act out their wildest impulses, with The Walking Dead's Steven Yeun.

Busy bee! Samara has been working on a number of projects this year, including two movies alongside Bella Thorne and Steven Yeun

Samara's grown-up look is a far cry from her attempt at styling a long black dress during her high school days.

Last month, the Adelaide-born beauty shared a throwback photo of her school formal with Instagram followers.

It showed her in a tight black dress with cut-outs on the chest and waist, which she claimed she bought from 'a hippy in a surf shop'.

Samara's now well groomed locks had also been self-styled into a thick fringe, and an abundance of eyeliner shielded her eyes from view.

She also told her fans the bracelet on her wrist was actually a broken belt.
The South Sydney Rabbitohs star married his bikini model sweetheart just a week ago.

And as George Burgess and Joanna King finish up their holiday in Byron Bay, the rugby league player took a moment to gush over his blushing bride.

In a post shared with his 158,000 Instagram followers, he thanked those who were there on the day and those who weren't.

Feeling lucky: George Burgess took a moment out from honeymooning with wife Joanna King to gush over the big day and thank everyone who attended

'What an unbelievable day it was last Saturday getting married to my queen @joanna.m.burgess,' he wrote.

'It was everything we could have imagined. Thanks to everyone who was a part of our special day, and those who were there in spirit.'

The couple were married in a small ceremony in Noosa last Saturday, in the presence of family and friends.

Relaxed: The pair have been holidaying in Byron Bay since their intimate Noosa wedding

She's a lucky lady! The South Sydney Rabbitohs player described his pregnant wife as his 'queen' and their wedding day as 'unbelievable'

According to the wedding photographer, the pair tied the knot outdoors, under an 'ancient tree'.

Afterwards, the pair spent a few days in Byron Bay on what Joanna described as a 'honey/babymoon'.

Photos show the newlyweds soaking up the sun, visiting a farm and cafe, and exploring what appears to be a rainforest.

Where to next? The pair have left Byron Bay, but it is not known if they have returned home or if they are still honeymooning

The British hunk proposed to Joanna in January this year, much to the devastation of his admirers.

The pair then confirmed in September they are expecting their first child, eight months after the sportsman dropped to one knee.

Joanna, a lingerie model and interior design student, is expected to give birth early next year.
The Rob & Chyna Baby Special airs in just over a week.

And in a newly released E! clip of the show fans get to see the moment new dad Rob Kardashian, 29, meets his daughter for the first time.

Blac Chyna is seen lying in her hospital bed as the couple prepare to welcome their first child via Cesarean section.

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Life-changing moment: Rob Kardashian is seen meeting his daughter Dream for the first time in a new clip shared by E! on Friday

Rob's mother Kris Jenner is in the room as little Dream is welcomed into the world and she tells the newborn tot: 'This is dad!'.

Viewers will also get to see Rob and Chyna's extravagant baby shower.

In one clip Scott Disick says to Rob: 'I thought this was a chill thing, I didn't think it was like the Oscars,'

Welcoming her to the world: Rob's fiancee Blac Chyna is seen in hospital waiting for her Cesarean section with soon-to-be mother-in-law Kris Jenner in the room

The couple share a tender moment as they await the arrival of their first child on November 10 at Cedars Sinai

King Cairo's fourth birthday celebrations are also documented in the hour-long special.

King is the son Chyna, 28, shares with her ex-fiancee Tyga, who now dates Rob's sister Kylie, 19.

The Rob & Chyna Baby Special airs December 18 on E!

On Thursday Rob shared a first smiling photo of daughter Dream, this one to celebrate her first month of life.

The Keeping Up With The Kardashians star has been loving his new role as a father, despite voicing fears about his lack of baby knowledge.

Going all out: Viewers will also get to see Rob and Chyna's extravagant baby shower

Entertainment: The couple enjoys watching a belly dancer at the event

Golden girl: Chyna, 28, is seen all glammed up for the lavish occasion

Time for celebration: Friends and family - but not Rob's sisters Kim, Kourtney and Khloe - gathered for the baby shower

Alongside another snap of his tot Rob wrote: 'Sleep baby .... best thing that has ever happened to me in my life.'

Dream Kardashian was born to Rob and Chyna on November 10 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

The new parents started dating in January with Rob proposing in April before confirming they were expecting a child together in May.

Quite the party: In one clip Scott Disick says to Rob: 'I thought this was a chill thing, I didn't think it was like the Oscars,'

On Thursday Rob shared a first smiling photo of daughter Dream, this one to celebrate her first month of life
Fans of the show have been requesting a revival for years, and their wish has been granted - kind of.

On Thursday night, Courtney Cox, 52, was spotted hitting up classic celebrity hot spot Craig's for a girl's night out with Jennifer Aniston, 47.

Lisa Kudrow, 53, was also said to be in attendance, although she was not pictured.

The beloved trio met at the exclusive restaurant in WeHo - which features new American fare with Italian influence and is always swarming with paparazzi - but quickly dashed inside for privacy.

Reunion: Courteney Cox, 52, Jennifer Aniston, 47, and Lisa Kudrow (not pictured), 53, were spotted out at Craig's in West Hollywood on Thursday night

Cox, 52, opted for comfort as she wore a black t-shirt tucked into a pair of stone washed denim jeans with a boot-cut flare.

She covered up with a black, structured peacoat and her booties were made of patent leather.

The Cougar Town starlet looked youthful and fresh as her signature dark tresses were let loose in natural waves around her slender face and she wore minimal makeup.

The blue-eyed beauty seemed mildly perturbed by the cameras surrounding them as Aniston reached out to her, flashing her eight-carat diamond engagement ring.

Comfy: Cox, 52, opted for comfort as she wore a black t-shirt tucked into a pair of stone washed denim jeans with a boot-cut flare

Confused: The blue-eyed beauty seemed mildly perturbed by the cameras surrounding them as Aniston reached out to her, flashing her eight-carat diamond engagement ring

Rocks: Aniston flashed her eight-carat diamond ring

Well-deserved: Jennifer looked excited to be out on the town for a girl's night as she was dropped off by a private car

Jennifer, who recently made a surprise appearance on SNL, looked excited to be out on the town for a girl's night as she was dropped off by a private car.

Her makeup featured rose gold tones and was fresh and pretty.

Her blonde locks were straight with a center part.

Cox was spotted out the night before having a girls night with jewelry designer Jennifer Meyer.

So nice she went twice: Cox was spotted out the night before having a girls night with jewelry designer Jennifer Meyer at Craig's

The duo stopped by Catch, LA's current trendiest dining spot.

Following their Catch pit stop, they headed over to Craig's.

Cox must have enjoyed herself, because she brought her two Friends co-stars back the next night.

TMZ caught up with the ladies and asked Cox what she thought of SNL making fun of Aniston's character Rachel.

'I thought it was hilarious!' she commented before making her way in.

Golden Globe Award winner Aniston's new comedic film, Office Christmas Party, hit theaters on Friday, December 9.

Aniston plays Carol Vanstone, an uptight CEO who attempts to shut down her hard-partying brother's (played by T.J. Miller) branch, pushing him to throw an epic Christmas office party to impress a client and close a sale.

The film also stars Jason Bateman and Olivia Munn.

Meanwhile, SAG Award winner Courteney was last seen in the drama Mothers and Daughters, which came out this past May.

Taking it easy: The SAG Award winner was last seen in the drama Mothers and Daughters, which came out this past May

And Kudrow is currently lending her voice to The Boss Baby, an animated comedy set for release in March 2017 that stars the blonde starlet along with Alec Baldwin and Steve Buscemi.

Though they are all still active in Hollywood, none of the actresses are strapped for cash.
He's one of Hollywood's biggest heartthrobs.

And on Friday's episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Ryan Gosling even swept Ellen, 58, off her feet when he came to discuss Christmas presents for his three girls and promote his new film La La Land.

The 36-year-old actor was in luck - though he was stumped as to what to get his leading ladies for the holidays, the comedienne had some interesting ideas for him.

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Good friends: Ryan Gosling, 36, wanted to greet Ellen DeGeneres, 58, properly when he came to visit her for Friday's show

When Gosling joined the talk show host, he mentioned he thought she might be mad at him.

The Notebook actor's reasoning was that the welcome he received from the comedienne was not as warm as it had been during his previous appearance in July.

To make up for the poor greeting, Gosling scooped DeGeneres into his arms and cradled her, to the audience's delight.

'Thank you for having me,' he mumbled jokingly as the hilarious blonde planted a kiss on his cheek.

Cold welcome: The Notebook actor was disappointed by the welcome he received from the comedienne, which was not as warm as it had been during his previous appearance in July

The Crazy, Stupid, Love actor let go of Ellen mercifully, and the funny duo went on to speak about the upcoming holidays with his three girls.

'Ez was a little too young last year,' he relayed, explaining that his two-year-old daughter Esmeralda has not grasped the concept of Christmas and gift-receiving just yet.

'What does she want [for Christmas]?' DeGeneres prodded.

Easy age: Gosling divulged that his two-year-old daughter Esmeralda still doesn't know she can ask for presents on Christmas

'I don't think she understands that you can ask for something just yet,' Ryan replied, 'It's a real sweet spot. We can give her anything.'

Gosling and Mendes have been together since 2011 and share oldest daughter Esmeralda and seven-month-old daughter Amada.

Though Ryan wouldn't divulge what he plans to get for Eva, Ellen had some ideas of her own.

Santa's little helper: Ellen had a few ideas for what Ryan should get his three girls

Ellen pulled out a set of stick-on nails, with each nail featuring an image of Ryan's face on it.

'That seems like a terrible idea, but alright,' the Canadian actor said, rejecting her first idea as he flashed the soles of his Christian Louboutin boots.

Ellen also had a pair of leggings with a montage of the actor displayed across the material and a Ryan Gosling colouring book.

Wish granted: Gosling lamented that his Roomba is lonely and he wants to get another one to keep it company

Ryan also revealed what he wants for Christmas.

'I'm gonna get us a Roomba for our Roomba,' the actor said, not a tone of sarcasm in his voice, 'I feel bad for it because it works tirelessly...It's complicated, and I want to get a Roomba for our Roomba this year.'

'I got you something, I know more about you thank you think I do, which is why we should hang out,' Ellen teased as she pulled out a Roomba with her face on it.

'Is that like the one you have, or is this fancier?'

'It's a lot more beautiful than the one I have,' the actor replied sweetly.

Gosling went on to talk about his new film La La Land co-starring Emma Stone, which he described as 'an old Hollywood musical.'

The movie, for which Ryan had to learn piano in three months, has been critically acclaimed and has already rendered Oscar buzz.

La La Land hits US theaters on Friday, December 9.
He returned from Australia where he took part in popular reality show I'm A Celebrity earlier this week.

But it seems Adam Thomas is settling straight back into normal life as he embarked on a Christmas shopping trip with his brother Scott on Friday.

The 28-year-old Emmerdale star, who came third in the jungle competition, looked casually cool in jeans and a thick leather jacket - clearly adjusting to the chilly temperatures of his home town, Manchester.

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The boys are back in town! Adam Thomas, 28, (L) settled back into normal life on Friday as he enjoyed a spot of Christmas shopping with his twin brother Scott (R) in Manchester

The soap star looked worlds away from his jungle persona in trendy black jeans and a sleek leather jacket.

Showing off his trendy style back home, Adam also added an old-fashioned flat cap to the look as he stocked up on Christmas presents for his friends and family.

The actor was joined by his twin brother Scott, who matched his casual-cool style in black ripped jeans and a bomber jacket.

Back to his best: The soap star looked worlds away from his jungle persona in trendy black jeans and a sleek leather jacket as he headed out with his twin and another friend

The hunk, who rose to fame on this year's series of Love Island, also added a hat to protect himself from the rainy weather of the North, but sported a deep golden tan having also jetted Down Under to support his bro.

Adam finished third behind comedian Joel Dommett and new jungle Queen Scarlett Moffatt on this year's I'm A Celeb.

During his time on the show, the Waterloo Road star earned himself the nickname Mr Bushtucker Trial, after competing in no less than 11 - where he managed to earn a whopping 49 stars.

Success story: Adam finished third behind comedian Joel Dommett and new jungle Queen Scarlett Moffatt on this year's I'm A Celeb

Speaking to Ant and Dec in his exit interview, he admitted: 'It's been a lot tougher than expected; I never thought it would be that tough. You have your up days and your down days.

'At the beginning, I found it really tough but as the days went on, it became easier. I can't believe I got to the final three.

'It's unbelievable. I was in there from the start and I'm in there 'til the end.'

Man of the hour: The Waterloo Road star earned himself the nickname Mr Bushtucker Trial, after competing in no less than 11 - where he managed to earn a whopping 49 stars

At some points during the competition, Adam was favourite to win the show, and his ultimate placing in third lead many, including Scott's girlfriend Kady McDermott, to dub the programme a 'fix'.

The Love Island starlet - who is dating Adam's brother Scott - tweeted after the results that there must have been some wrongdoing.

In now-deleted tweets, the Mirror report that Kady penned: 'Fix. Good night' before adding: 'They knew their winner before the show even started... Anyway he's the winner in our eyes he did AMAZING!!!! #KingAdam'.

Controversy: Adam was favourite to win the show at many points of the show, and his placing in third lead many, including Scott's girlfriend Kady (above), to dub the programme a 'fix'

Scott's note was more subtle in approach, as the tweet reportedly read: 'Wow don't get that at all I'm sorry!'

Despite fix claims however the star took to social media to express his happiness at being reunited with his stunning fiancee Caroline Daly and adorable young son Teddy.

Posting a sweet snap of him and his little boy with a huge fast food feast on Instagram, the curly-haired star wrote to fans: 'Thank you for getting me to the final had the best adventure ever and that's down to you lot...finally back with my boy and @caz_daly couldn't be any more happier ...

Before adding: 'Now time to eat what I want when I want !!! Thanks again people.'
She welcomed her darling baby boy Anaca to the world on October 5.

And Candice Swanepoel has been showering social media with snaps of the cutie since then.

On Friday, the Victoria's Secret Angel shared an adorable shot of the tot looking over her shoulder, possibly being burped.

Mother love: On Friday, Candice Swanepoel shared an adorable shot of Anaca looking over her shoulder, possibly being burped, captioned, 'Two months of pure joy with my little love'

The 28-year-old captioned it: 'Two months of pure joy with my little love.'

The beautiful blonde, who hails from South Africa, showed off her back in a white bra with narrow straps crossing her back.

Tiny Anaca looked as cute as could be in a white onesie.

It snagged 180,00 likes from her 10 million adoring fans in just two hours.

Tiny bump: Candice and her fiance Hermann Nicoli, a 34-year-old Brazilian model, strolled around Soho in New York in May just one month after announcing their happy news

Candice shares her little boy with fellow model and fiance Hermann Nicoli, 34.

She and the Brazilian native have been together for 11 years after meeting in Paris when she was just 17.

They got engaged in August 2015 but the arrival of little Anaca, whose name is a Brazilian word for a bird, delayed their wedding plans.

Introducing their baby boy: Candice took to Instagram, captioning this black and white shot of the newborn tot, 'Life is sweet. Anaca 5th October'

Meanwhile, even though Candice is a doting mother she may have been missing not being with her Victoria's Secret Angels at the fashion show in Paris, which aired on CBS on Monday.

She posted a Throwback snap of herself at last December's Victoria's Angels Fashion Show in a beautiful white bra and pants embellished with gold sequins plus her feathery white wings.

Candice captioned the gorgeous snap:'Goodluck angels! With you in spirit.'
The oldest host in Westworld's sci-fi theme park was spotted looking quite casual while shooting her latest film.

Evan Rachel Wood showed off a toned bicep and unshaven armpit on the set of indie-flick A Worthy Companion in Montreal, Canada on Wednesday.

The actor signed on to the thriller to play the character of Laura, a troubled woman in her 30s, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Look natural! Evan Rachel Wood showed off a toned bicep and unshaven armpit on the set of indie-flick A Worthy Companion in Montreal, Canada on Wednesday

The star was styled very naturally, wearing minimal makeup for this particular shot.

Evan Rachel's hair was pulled back with a messy, center part that complimented the overall aesthetic.

Her outfit included a sleeveless top with a half-zip neckline and a simple, black choker necklace and thick band bracelet.

Don't mess with her! The star scowled in one photo, looking out as she was seated beside a dark-haired woman talking to a man who faced away from the camera

Westworld's Dolores Abernathy scowled in one photo, looking out as she was seated beside a dark-haired woman in conversation with a man, who was dressed in a suit jacket and faced away from the camera.

The scene was very rustic, complete with antique-looking lamps, what appeared to be pilsner glasses of beer and a wooden pony keg.

The 29-year-old actor smiled as a member of the crew perfected her hair for the shot.

Smiles on set: The 29-year-old actor smiled as a member of the crew perfected her hair for the shot

Filming on the independent movie started in November according to IMDB, so production is well underway.

Other stars that join her in the cast include Julia Sarah Stone of Aftermath and Denis O'Hare of This Is Us and The Good Wife.
She's newly single after splitting from her husband of two years last month.

And what better way for Scheana Shay to let off some steam than party it up in Las Vegas, which the reality star did in a big way on Thursday.

The Bravo personality hopped on the bar at the Coyote Ugly Saloon and belted out songs including LeAnn Rimes' Can't Fight The Moonlight.

Letting loose: Vanderpump Rules' Scheana Shay lived it up in Las Vegas on Thursday night following her split from her husband of two years

The moment was captured on camera as the 31-year-old took the mic alongside two bartenders.

Scheana wore spandex leggings, thigh-high boots and a tank top for the night out.

'Mission accomplished!' The Sur server captioned a snap of her in action on Twitter.

She also shared numerous Snapchats throughout the evening as she danced and sang along at the famous bar.

Scheana tweeted LeAnn Rimes asking if she should sing her hit Can't Fight The Moonlight when she visited the Las Vegas Coyote Ugly bar

Letting her hair down: Scheana danced to Rimes' hit at the famous bar

The reality star took a little break from Twitter this week after receiving backlash from fans over comments she made on Vanderpump Rules about her co-worker Lala Kent dating a married man.

Scheana was accused of being a hypocrite by commenters referring to her affair with Eddie Cibrian in 2006, who was married to Brandi Glanville at the time.

The pretty brunette hit back at some of her haters, writing: '2006! 10 years. A decade. Never said what I did was okay. Also the difference is- I didn't know and she did! No social media in '06.'

Single and ready to mingle: The 31-year-old TV star looked to be having a blast in Sin City

Sexy senorita! The star bust a move showing off her midriff in a crop top

Looking fab: Scheana showed off her outfit as her night began which consisted of spandex leggings and thigh-high boots

After that she wrote: 'To all of my fans, I love you more than anything but I can't with the negativity. I'm the furthest from a hypocrite. Need a tweet break.'

Eddie is now married to Rimes, who he also had an affair with, in 2009, triggering the demise of his marriage to Brandi.

Amusingly Scheana tweeted LeAnn, 34, who wrote the song Can't Fight the Moonlight which featured in Coyote Ugly the movie.

Scheana has been accused of being a hypocrite after criticizing co-worker Lala Kent for dating a married man. Scheana had an affair with Eddie Cibrian, who was married to Brandi Glanville at the time, in 2006

'Heading into @CoyoteUglyLV so, @leannrimes should I get on the bar and sing Can't Fight The Moonlight? jk' she tweeted the country star on Thursday.

LeAnn wrote back 'lol That's a must!'.

Meanwhile Scheana announced her split from producer Mike, 29, last month, telling TMZ: 'We might have failed at our marriage, but we are committed to succeeding as friends and will continue to support each other's personal happiness and professional success.'

They wed in 2014 in a ceremony at the Hummingbird Nest Ranch in Santa Susana, California, and their nuptials were televised.

'We are committed to succeeding as friends' The reality star split from Mike, 29, last month after two years of marriage




She is known for her striking good looks as one of the faces of luxury fashion house Burberry.

And Suki Waterhouse proved why she has carved such a successful career as a model on Friday, as she stepped out in New York City in an impeccably stylish fashion.

The model and actress, 24, looked effortlessly glamorous in a chic fur coat and leather flat clap as she embarked on a wintry stroll around the West Village.

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Stunning: Suki Waterhouse, 24, proved why she has carved such a successful career as a model on Friday, as she stepped out in New York City in an impeccably stylish fashion

Suki did not let her trademark glamourous style falter for her casual day, as she headed out in a show-stopping black fur coat.

The clasically chic jacket, featuring large lapels and vintage gold buttons, certainly kept her warm from the chilly East Coast temperatures as the chunky fur shielded her famous model frame.

Keeping the outfit striking from head to toe, the British beauty teamed it with vibrant red leather trousers, which hugged and elongated her enviably slender legs.

Fur-tastic: Suki did not let her trademark glamourous style falter for her casual day, as she headed out in a show-stopping black fur coat

Effortlessly mixing casual and formal styles, the blonde layered a simple white T-shirt underneath and kept comfy but cool in leather heeled ankle boots.

The beauty then accessorised with an unusual leather flat clap, adorned with a silver brooch on one side, to tie the look together in her signature kooky style.

The Redken model left her blonde locks in their every day state and kept make-up to a minimum to flaunt her naturally stunning facial features and clear skin.

Leather lady: Keeping the outfit striking from head to toe, the British beauty teamed it with vibrant red leather trousers, which hugged and elongated her enviably slender legs

The outing sees a quick return to the States for Suki - after she presented the award for Best Screenplay at the London Evening Standard Film Awards the previous evening.

However she looked completely relaxed as she embarked on her casual day out - despite recent claims that her ex-boyfriend Bradley Cooper is due to become a father.

Suki recently admitted to Glamour that she is on a dating app in the hope of finding love, following her split from Hollywood actor, 41, in March last year.

Casual cool: Effortlessly mixing casual and formal styles, the blonde layered a simple white T-shirt underneath

Adding to her heartbreak however, it has since been rumoured that Bradley's new model girlfriend Irina Shayk, 30, is expecting the pair's first child.

Suki and the American Sniper star first met the Elle Style Awards in London in 2013, but called an end to their romance last year.

Page Six reported in March last year that the actor dumped Suki because he felt neglected following his Broadway stint in the Elephant.

Hats off to her! The beauty then accessorised with an unusual leather flat clap, adorned with a silver brooch on one side, to tie the look together in her signature kooky style

The column also reported that he was upset that Suki decided not to spend Valentine's Day with him in the Big Apple, instead enjoying a girls' weekend away in Texas.

The split came as a surprise as it was claimed that couple were house hunting together in London.

Suki has been taking her mind off the breakup however by promoting her upcoming film, The Bad Batch, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September.

The film, which is a follow-up to Ana Lily's directorial debut A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night, also stars Jim Carrey, Keanu Reeves, Jason Momoa and Diego Luna.
Former Channel [V] presenter Danny Clayton is gracing computer screens in a new short-form music show, nine months after the channel's shock axing.

News Corp reports he is hosting an online show called Baffle, which features interviews with Australian musical acts.

The show is being broadcast through a new Australian streaming service called Snackable TV, launched last week.

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New gig: Former Channel [V] Danny Clayton is back with a new music show being broadcast through an online streaming service called Snackable TV

So far Danny has interviewed rockers The Delta Riggs for the online platform.

The former VJ said it was amazing to be back filming video content.

'The moment I started filming, that buzz and adrenaline rush came back,' Danny told News Corp.

Past work: The music aficionado had previously made a name for himself hosting on Channel [V]

'I just love TV, presenting and hosting, its the best. It feels so natural.'

The music aficionado has returned to work after months of travel.

'When Channel V came to an end, I packed up straight away and took off travelling,' he said.

Travel days: After the station's shock axing in February, Danny went travelling for months

'I went to Italy and Greece, I did the Glastonbury festival and then London, I went to Burning Man in Nevada, chilled in Lake Tahoe ... it was a brilliant time.'

In February, Channel [V] made the shock announcement it was ceasing broadcast after 21 years on the air.

The station had launched the careers of industry stalwarts Osher Gunsberg and Carissa Walford.

'I loved every moment': At the time of the shock announcement, Danny took to Twitter to express his sadness

The channel merged with [V] Hits channel, cutting long form shows to only music videos.

Danny fell four months short of his 14th year anniversary at the channel.

'That is nearly half my life and 1000s of hrs of live TV. I loved every moment,' he tweeted at the time.

Channel [V] alumni: Besides launching Danny's career, the station was also responsible for making Osher Gunsberg famous

'Decades of music, concerts, punters, rock-stars, laughs, gaffs, jokes, tears, smiles and mostly love went into a sensational place.'

Danny is not the only Channel [V] alumni to find work on the internet since the station folded.

Yumi Stynes, 41, has made a YouTube channel called Zero F**ks Cooking.
John Legend is well aware that he may have already written the biggest hit of his entire career.

After its release in 2013, All Of Me shot to number one in 11 countries - including Australia - sold more than 12 million copies and is closing in on one billion YouTube views.

And following the release of his new album Darkness and Light earlier this month, the American star told The Courier Mail on Thursday that it will be hard to ever recreate the love ballad's success.

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Hard to beat: John Legend told The Courier Mail on Thursday that it will be hard to ever recreate the success of 2013 hit All Of Me

He said: 'I didn't ever try to pressure myself to match the commercial success of All Of Me; it can't get much bigger than that song and you should be grateful for that success.'

The 37-year-old penned All Of Me for his wife Chrissy Teigen, and he can be seen serenading his partner in the accompanying video.

And while Chrissy was his inspiration for his biggest hit to date, John had a new muse for his latest album - his first in three years.

Smash hit: After its release in 2013, All Of Me shot to number one in 11 countries around the world, sold more than 12 million copies and is closing in on one billion YouTube views

Tribute: The 37-year-old penned All Of Me for his wife Chrissy Teigen, and he can be seen serenading his partner in the accompanying video

Inspiration: Chrissy and John married in 2013 - two years after they got engaged

The couple's first child arrived earlier this year and the ten-time Grammy Award winner says daughter Luna inspired new material - even before she was born.

He said: 'I had songs going around in my head about my daughter before I even met her. There are a bunch of other songs about Luna that didn't make the album because I like to keep going until I find the right song.'

The doting dad recently recorded a special message for his toddler with the cast of Sesame Street - and he revealed that Luna and wife Chrissy represent the 'Light' part of his new album.

Play time: The couple's first child arrived earlier this year and the ten-time Grammy Award winner says daughter Luna inspired new material - even before she was born

Proud father: The doting dad recently recorded a special message for his toddler with the cast of Sesame Street

Happy: The Ohio native revealed that Luna and wife Chrissy represent the 'Light' part of his new album

Political activism accounts for the 'Dark' side and the artist's Twitter followers will be well aware of his passion for politics.

John also penned an open letter to outgoing President Barack Obama, published on Saturday, thanking him for his 'outstanding service to our country' before urging him to change drug incarceration laws.

His country's future is soon to be in the hands of Donald Trump and the Ohio native believes his tenure will leave a lot of people worried for their futures.

He said: 'I think if he governs like he promises to govern, there are a lot of people who have reason to be concerned, a lot of different groups that he singled out for suspicion, for hatred, for discrimination.'

The publication also report that John is set to tour Australia before the end of 2017 - although nothing has been officially confirmed.
She just closed out one of the most iconic events in fashion.

But on Friday, it was back to business as usual for supermodel Alessandra Ambrosio who's back from Europe following the 2016 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show.

Looking flawless, the 35-year-old Brazilian bombshell was spotted showing off her chic street style at the Brentwood Country Mart.

Back to real life: Alessandra Ambrosio, 35, showed off her flawless street style as she stopped by the Brentwood Country Mart on Friday

The Angel strutted the streets of Brentwood just as she would the Balmain runway, wearing an oversized, turtleneck, moss green jumper that featured green straps as embellishments on either side of the tunic.

The jumper - from label Concepto - was definitely a statement piece, especially when worn as a dress with thigh-high boots.

The mom-of-two's body was completely covered thanks to her nude-toned, pointed five-inch boots, yet she still managed to look effortlessly sexy.

Always appealing: The mom-of-two's body was completely covered thanks to her nude-toned, pointed five-inch boots, and Concepto dress yet she still managed to look effortlessly sexy

Her hair was pulled back into a low bun and she wore reflective aviator sunglasses teamed with dangling earrings.

She swung her Hermes Etoupe Togo Birkin Bag ($22,950) over her arm as she headed back to her car.

The look was chic and yet laid back at the same time.

Pricey: She swung her Hermes Etoupe Togo Birkin Bag ($22,950) over her arm as she headed back to her car

Low maintenance: Her hair was pulled back into a low bun and she wore reflective aviator sunglasses teamed with dangling earrings

The catwalk queen is still basking in the success of the VS Fashion Show, which she and Adriana Lima closed out.

Her cleavage and taut torso was on full display in the sexy plush number which she rocked with matching panties and garter belt.

A pair of never-ending thigh high lace-up stilletos encased the genetically-gifted supermodel's stems.

Shut it down: The catwalk queen is still basking in the success of the VS Fashion Show, which she and Adriana Lima shut down

Alessandra first walked in the annual show in 2000, alongside supermodels Tyra Banks, Gisele Bundchen, Heidi Klum and Naomi Campbell.

This year, Gigi and Bella Hadid, Kendall Jenner and Irina Shayk all joined the Angels on the runway, while Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars and The Weeknd performed.
They've been enjoying a sun-soaked break in the Bahamas together.

And things got a little explicit on a boat ride between Lottie Moss and Alex Mytton on Friday.

Setting sail on an ironically-named Bottom Party Boat, the 18-year-old half-sister of Kate Moss couldn't help but pull down her beau's swimming shorts as he stood over her at the back of the boat.

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Buns in the sun! Cheeky Lottie Moss can't help but pull down boyfriend Alex Mytton's swimming shorts revealing his rear on romantic boat trip in Barbados

Cheeky: Setting sail on an ironically-named Bottom Party Boat, the 18-year-old half-sister of Kate Moss couldn't help but pull down her beau's swimming shorts as he stood over her at the back of the boat

In turn, she revealed the Made In Chelsea hunk's toned posterior for all to see, as he grabbed hold of his lilac shorts and tried to keep his modesty covered up.

But Lottie was determined to get them off, as she was seen yanking at the shorts, capturing the attention of their boating companion Jess Woodley, who co-stars on Made In Chelsea with Alex.

Alex, 25, even had to steady himself by grabbing onto the boat rails as Lottie clawed at the shorts, trying desperately to unclothe her boyfriend in front of Jess, 20.

Their flirtatious shenanigans didn't stop there.

Hello, sailor! Alex certainly caught the attention of the two blondes with his muscly physique

Alex akimbo: The Made In Chelsea hunk and co-star Jess had their legs in the air while Lottie grabbed hold at one point

Model material: Lottie's briefs were incredibly skimpy to show off her slender frame

At one point, Alex and Jess were both seen on their backs, at the stern of the boat, legs in the air, while Lottie clutched onto them howling with laughter.

Later, she stood behind Alex as he sat down and climbed onto his shoulders, straddling his neck.

Jess looked on and appeared to dance for the duo, her arms outstretched, drink in hand.

At one point, the presumed captain of the ship - a gentleman in a red T-shirt - was seen approaching the threesome, potentially telling them to be careful as they larked around at the back of the boat.

Young love: Lottie and Alex have been linked since early October when it was falsely believed that she had rekindled the flame with ex-boyfriend Sam Prince

Womanising ways: Alex and Jess formerly dated before he shared a high-publicised relationship with co-star Binky Felstead

Beach babe: Lottie Moss, 18, was rocking a quirky mismatched bikini that showed off the bird tattoos on her rib cage

The trio were joined by others on the boat, including a woman in a black swimsuit who's attention was peaked as Lottie tried to take off Alex's shorts.

In a quieter moment, Lottie was seen teetering on the edge of the vessel, looking down at the clear waters, perhaps contemplating whether or not she'd like to take a quick dip.

Earlier on, the three celebs were seen in the sea, with Jess joining the lovebirds in the water for a cuddle, wrapping her arms around both of them in a bizarre embrace.

Determined not to be left out, the flirty blonde nuzzled up to Lottie and MIC Lothario Alex.

All aboard! The trio then took to a 'party boat' to soak up more rays on the water

Barely-there: The beauty's briefs cut into single strings at the side and rose into an eye-wateringly skimpy thong at the back

Clad in a mismatched bikini comprising a navy top and yellow, frill embellished briefs, she wrapped her legs around gal pal Lottie and threw her arms around Alex's neck.

Lottie didn't seem to mind, and there certainly appeared to be no rivalry between the girls.

Kate Moss' half-sister also rocked a mismatched bikini - seemingly borrowing her briefs from Jess.

She teamed the itsy bitsy grey garment with a beige top in the same sporty style.

Aye Aye, captain! The trio were joined by others on the boat, including a woman in a black swimsuit who's attention was peaked as Lottie tried to take off Alex's shorts

Dare devil: Alex teetered on the edge of the boat as they sailed through the waters

Hiding behind a pair of white rimmed, cat eye shades, the blonde bore a striking resemblance to Jess.

Alex certainly appeared to be enjoying himself as he relaxed on his exotic break, splashing around in the sea with the girls.

Alex and Jess formerly dated before he shared a highly-publicised relationship with co-star Binky Felstead.

When Jess joined the Made In Chelsea cast in 2015, it was revealed that Alex had been texting her behind then-girlfriend Nicola Hughes' back.

Safety first! At one point, the presumed captain of the ship - a gentleman in a red T-shirt - was seen approaching the threesome, potentially telling them to be careful as they larked around at the back of the boat

He's got a type! Jess and Lottie looked strikingly similar as they restocked on supplies for their beach day

Larking around: Later, she stood behind Alex as he sat down and climbed onto his shoulders, straddling his neck

In the end, in order to appease Nicola, Alex told Jess on camera: 'We cant really talk anymore' and seemingly ended their friendship.

However, since ending his relationship with Irish beauty Nicola, Alex has been spending a lot more time with Jess.

Lottie and Alex have been linked since early October when it was falsely believed that she had rekindled the flame with ex-boyfriend Sam Prince.

Man overboard: Alex seemed determined to get into the crystalline waters of the Caribbean Sea

Shall I? Lottie seemed to contemplate whether or not she should leave the boat and go for a dip

The unlikely pair enjoyed a string of dates together and have fast become inseparable.

Lottie has been mingling in the same social circles as the MIC crowd, partying with the likes of Topshop heiress Chloe Green, who previously appeared on the show.

The blonde beauty has been linked to several suitors in the past - having enjoyed lunch in June with pop star Conor Maynard, and flirted with Geordie Shore star Ricci Guarnaccio on Twitter.

Frolicking: Alex was loving it as he flopped around in the afternoon sun on the beach
He turned 80 over the summer and celebrated 56 years in show-business while he was at it.

And Robert Redford defied his age as he took a dip in the sea off the coast of Mexico on Friday, not afraid to show off his body in a pair of small black swimming trunks.

The All The President's Men star looked fantastic for his age as he displayed a toned and healthy physique as he hit the waves with his wife of 7 years Sibylle Szaggars.

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Still got it at 80! Robert Redford looks in great shape as he takes a dip in the sea in tiny black speedo... 43 years after fans fell for his charm in The Way We Were

Enjoying a pre-Christmas break in the sun the red-haired actor was spotted wading into the surf and relaxing by the beach.

The former 'Sexiest Man Alive' and star of The Natural had no shame in going Au Naturale in a tight black speedo.

Robert and long-term partner Sibylle married in 2009 at the Louis C Jacob Hotel in Hamburg,Germany.

She had moved in with Redford in the 1990s and shares his home in Sundance Utah.

Au Naturale: The former 'Sexiest Man Alive' and star of The Natural had no shame in sporting a tight black speedo

A few weeks ago, Robert was among the recipients of President Barack Obama's Presidential Medal of Freedom.

He was joined in the accolade by the likes of Ellen DeGeneres, Diana Ross, Robert DeNiro and Michael Jordan.

He was honored for his role as an actor, director, producer, businessman, and environmentalist, his Academy Award for Best Director and for his Lifetime Achievement Award.

Notably, he is responsible for creating the Sundance Institute, and of course, the now world famous Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, where he lives.

Age defying: Robert Redford defied his age as he took a dip in the sea off the coast of Mexico on Friday, not afraid to show off his body in a pair of small black swimming trunks

Surf's up: Enjoying a pre-Christmas break in the sun the red-haired actor was spotted wading into the surf and relaxing by the beach

The actor said his intention in creating the institute and film festival was to give independent filmmakers a shot in getting their stories heard.

'While I was doing large studio films, I was also able to make these smaller films that I thought would give me more satisfaction because they were different stories to be told,' he has explained. 'But it was just me doing it. It needed to be expanded and so I thought, "What about other people like myself?" Thats what led to the idea of Sundance.'

However, last month, after spending half a century in front of the camera, the Hollywood icon announced he will soon be retiring from acting.

Retiring: Last month, after spending half a century in front of the camera, the Hollywood icon announced he will soon be retiring from acting

The way he was: Robert starred in the 1973 movie The Way We Were, leaving fans swooning

The Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid actor revealed that he would like to stop acting following the completion of two upcoming projects.

Robert, who admitted he was 'getting tired' of the profession.

'I'm an impatient person, so it's hard for me to sit around and do take after take after take,' said the star. 'At this point in my life, age 80, itd give me more satisfaction because Im not dependent on anybody.'

'It's just me, just the way it used to be, and so going back to sketchingthat's sort of where my head is right now,' Robert said, after being asked if he considered pursuing painting again.

Hollywood hunk: Robert was - and still is - an icon of the silver screen, working as an actor for 56 years

'So, I'm thinking of moving in that direction and not acting so much. I've got two acting projects in the works: Our Souls at Night, with Jane Fonda, a love story for older people who get a second chance in life, and Old Man with a Gun, a lighter piece with Casey Affleck and Sissy Spacek.

'Once they're done then I'm going to say, "Okay, thats goodbye to all that," and then just focus on directing.'

During the interview, Robert recalled some of the pitfalls of fame, recalling a time when he visited grandson Dylan's elementary school for Grandfather's Day, only to be flooded with attention by other family members.

Now a producer and Oscar winning director, Robert is known for his various iconic movie roles and his Academy Award nominated performance in The Sting

'I remember that Grandparents Day and realising, "Jesus, Dylan and Lena, they dont know. They're probably wondering what the hell is going on here, because I'm going to Grandparents' Day but I'm suddenly not a grandparent. I'm a celebrity."

'People would come up to me and they wanted autographs and I'm thinking, "Wow, this feels very uncomfortable." It was very disturbing.'

Now a producer and Oscar winning director, Robert is known for his various iconic movie roles and his Academy Award nominated performance in The Sting.

It's a hit: Redford starred alongside Paul Newman in 1969 hit Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Robert has four children with his first wife Lola Van Wagenen, who he was married to from 1958 to 1985.

The actor and Lola's first son Scott tragically died in 1959 from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
While Kim Kardashian is out of spotlight, her little sister Kylie Jenner is busy taking over as the new business queen of the family.

The 19-year-old attended the opening of her new pop up shop at the Topanga Westfield mall in Los Angeles on Friday.

The Keeping Up With the Kardashians star - who unveiled her beauty empire earlier this year - greeted hundreds of screaming fans who turned out to see the new store.

Selfie time! Kylie Jenner attended the opening of her new pop up shop in Westfields in Los Angeles on Friday

Teen queen: She skipped the glamour for her appearance, instead dressing down in comfortable clothes and very little make-up

Some of her fans had been queuing since 4.30am.

Kylie skipped the glamour for her appearance, instead dressing down in comfortable clothes and very little make-up.

She was clad in a red hoodie with matching trainers and black leggings, and wore her long raven hair down.

Crazy for Kylie: Some of her fans had been queuing since 4.30am

'It's all for you': Kylie shared a snapshot of her admirers waiting outside the store

Her trademark: The shop front features Kylie's name in white with a black gloss design dripping down the front of it, just like on her lip kits

'Thanks to YOU!': Kylie posted a Snapchat photo of people queuing up in the early hours of the morning

Her littlest fan: The Keeping Up With The Kardashians star was joined by King Cairo, her boyfriend Tyga's four-year-old son

The teen entrepreneur - who built up her cosmetics company over two years - gave fans a sneak peak of what is inside the store on Snapchat.

In a video clip she shows a Christmas tree full of her lip kits and official merchandise including an orange hooded jumper with white flames on the arms.

The store front features Kylie's name in white with a black gloss design dripping down the front of it, just like on her lip kits.

That's a lot of lip kits!: The shop features a whole wall of Kylie's lip kits, colour coordinated

She's come a long way: It has been just one year since the teen released her first lip kit

Raunchy: The design is also echoed inside the store, along with topless photos of the teen posing with her boyfriend Tyga

Love Kylie: There's also a neon pink sign of Kylie's autograph, and part of the shop is based on her bedroom

Feeling festive: Kylie's Snapchat revealed that there's even a huge Christmas tree in the store

The design is also echoed inside the store, along with topless photos of the teen posing with her boyfriend Tyga and a pink neon sign of her autograph.

The shop is selling all things Kylie, including apparel, lingerie, accessories, phone cases and her 2017 calendar.

According to the Kylie Cosmetics website, the shop - which is in partnership with Shopify - will remain open 'while supplies last'.

A closer look: The tree is decorated with lip kits, along with silver baubles and white snow

Get it before it's gone: The shop will remain open 'while supplies last', and Kylie products usually sell out extremely quickly

Sneak peek: The merchandise includes apparel, accessories, lingerie and phone cases

Also available online: Those who couldn't make it to the store can buy Kylie's products online on Saturday

Yum: Shopify provided cupcakes for the occasion, including some decorated with edible lip kits

And given the reality star's track record of having her new products sold out within minutes, it's likely that won't be for long.

Kylie designed the interior of the store herself and even based one section of it on her bedroom.

'Part of the store actually replicates the design, decor, and furniture located in Kylies own bedrooma perfect way for fans to experience the glamour and luxury loved by the youngest member of the famed Kardashian / Jenner family,' the site stated.

'Can't wait': Kylie has been teasing the opening of the pop up shop on social media

Finishing touches: She also gave fans a glimpse at the interior which she had designed herself

'She cares a lot about the experience of the customers': Kylie has been 'heavily involved' in putting the store together, Shopify Plus VP & GM Loren Padelford told fashionista.com

Getting up early just for Kylie: It's no surprise there was a huge crowd, given that Kylie's lip kit products have often sold out within minutes

Shopify Plus VP & GM Loren Padelford told fashionista.com that the Kylie store may be the 'biggest pop-up ever'.

He added of the teen: 'She's very heavily involved; she's been in the store deciding what she wants it to look like.

'She cares a lot about the experience of the customers and wants them to feel like they're a part of her world.'

Selfies for all: The 19-year-old stopped to pose for photos with her adoring fans

Protection: Kylie had a burly security guard with her who kept fans from mobbing the teen

Happy to help: The star's fans were thrilled when she stopped to chat and take photos with them

Keeping casual: Kylie dressed down in a red hoodie and trainers with black leggings

The items will also be available for purchase online from Saturday, Kylie revealed on her subscription based website thekyliejenner.com.

Meanwhile, the brunette beauty has revealed she plans to drop a restock of her popular Holiday Collection at 3pm (PST) on Friday.

It has been just one year since Kylie released her first lip kit, and she then launched Kylie Cosmetics earlier this year.

Bare-faced beauty: The reality star went make-up free and wore her dark hair down

Right this way: Kylie was ushered inside her store, which opened at 10am
Angola awaits successor to long-ruling leader Dos Santos

Angola is expected to formally announce the end of President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos' controversial 37-year rule Saturday, and name a successor to lead the ailing African oil-producing country.

News of the veteran leader's impending retirement, announced on state radio on December 2, has made front page news in Angolan newspapers all week.

But the ruling Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), in power since 1975, has officially remained silent on the matter.

Angola's state radio announced on December 2 that President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos is to retire after ruling for 37 years Alain Jocard (AFP/File)

On Saturday, on the 60th anniversary of its founding, the party is expected to confirm that Dos Santos, 74, will not seek another term as president in the 2017 party elections.

It will also likely announce that he will be succeeded as head of the party by his current defence minister, Joao Lourenco, 62.

Angola does not directly elect a president, but rather the leader of the winning party automatically becomes head of state.

In all likelihood, the retired general Lourenco will succeed Dos Santos - one of the longest ruling leaders in Africa - after the party elections next August.

The departure, announced in a closed-door meeting of the MPLA's central committee last week, does not come as a complete surprise.

Dos Santos himself announced in March his intention to end his political career.

"President Dos Santos had been planning to step down in 2018," said Alex Vines, Africa program director at the British think tank Chatham House.

"But I think a combination of Angola's economic conditions and less good health brought his plans forward."

After years of spectacular growth thanks to an oil boom, like many crude-producing nations Angola has suffered a sudden downturn in the last two years due to a prolonged drop in oil prices.

Last week, national oil company Sonangol, managed by Dos Santos' daughter Isabel, announced it would not be paying out dividends to the state this year - a first for the country's main source of foreign currency.

- 'Nothing will change' -

While it will be a new page in the history of Angola, the departure of the former Marxist guerrilla fighter is unlikely to shake up the running of the country.

This is to the chagrin of critics who have been denouncing Dos Santos' "dictatorship" for years.

"Nothing will change with people who, when they could have, didn't dare - whether out of fear or self-interest - to make a difference," said journalist William Tonnet, a critic of Dos Santos.

Expected successor Lourenco is an ex-artillery general who was trained in the former Soviet Union. He is seen as a true son of his party, as is interior minister Bornito de Sousa, who is expected to become his deputy.

"These are two apparatchiks, two pure products of the party who remain under its control," said Benjamin Auge of the French Institute of International Relations.

"The room to manoeuvre will be extremely limited. They will defend the president's record, without starting a revolution."

However, Angola-watchers notice both men do not have ties to the oil industry, a sector considered to be closely guarded by the president's family.

"Joao Lourenco is one of those rare leaders in the MPLA who hasn't dirtied his hands in this corruption business," said activist Nuno Alvaro Dala, who was recently convicted and then pardoned for an alleged coup attempt.

Some have suggested that Dos Santos's retirement was purposefully instigated by a hostile faction within the MPLA.

The announcement could be "the expression of discontent within the party, particularly over the position of the president's children," said Didier Peclard, a professor at the University of Geneva.

"If that were the case, then hypothetically it could be a way of precipitating a transition."

Award-winning journalist and writer Rafael Marques refuses to believe this, and disputes the idea of a more palatable faction within the inner circle of the MPLA.

"Angolans will move from one dictator to the next," he said. "Change is not coming tomorrow."
UN calls on Myanmar's Suu Kyi to visit crisis-hit Rakhine

The UN has urged Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi to visit the north of Rakhine state, where the army is accused of carrying out a brutal crackdown on the Muslim Rohingya minority.

The Nobel peace prize winner has faced growing international criticism for not stopping the military's campaign, which has pushed more than 20,000 Rohingya over the border to Bangladesh.

Escapees have told AFP shocking stories of mass rape, murder and arson at the hands of security forces, which took control of the area after deadly raids on police posts in October.

Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi has faced growing international criticism for not stopping the military's campaign in Rakhine state Roslan Rahman (AFP/File)

Malaysia has accused the army of "genocide", a charge Myanmar officials have vehemently denied.

Suu Kyi, a veteran democracy activist who came to power in March, has described the situation as "under control" and asked the international community to stop stoking the "fires of resentment".

In a statement released in New York on Thursday, UN special adviser on Myanmar Vijay Nambiar appealed directly to the peace icon to intervene.

"The adoption of a generally defensive rather than proactive approach to providing security to the local population (has) caused frustration locally and disappointment internationally," he said.

"I also appeal to Daw Suu to visit Maungdaw and Buthidaung and reassure the civilian population there that they will be protected," he added, referring to the locked down area in Rakhine.

On Friday diplomats from the US and several European countries added their urgent calls for access to the region, saying they were "concerned by delays" in resuming aid deliveries.

"Tens of thousands of people who need humanitarian aid, including children with acute malnutrition, have been without it now for nearly two months," the diplomats said in a statement.

The bloodshed presents the biggest challenge to Suu Kyi since her party won Myanmar's first democratic elections in a generation last year.

It has galvanised Muslim nations around the region, with protesters decrying the crackdown as the culmination of years of discrimination and abuse suffered by the stateless Rohingya.

On Sunday, Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak taunted Suu Kyi, who the former junta kept under house arrest for almost 20 years, before a crowd of some 5,000 protesters in Kuala Lumpur.

"What's the use of Aung San Suu Kyi having a Nobel prize?" he asked the protesters.

"The world cannot sit and watch genocide taking place."

Activists say Buddhist-majority Myanmar's stateless Muslim Rohingya minority are among the most persecuted in the world.

More than 120,000 have been trapped in squalid displacement camps since the last major outbreak of violence erupted in Rakhine in 2012.

UN says up to 30,000 Rohingya have abandoned their homes in Myanmar

Former UN chief Kofi Annan (centre) meets with the Muslim community in Kyatyoepyin village in Maungdaw, Rakhine state, on December 3, 2016 Aung Kyaw Moe (Advisory Commission on Rakhine State/AFP)

Myanmar's military has been blamed for a military campaign, which has pushed more tens of thousands of Rohingya over the border to Bangladesh Ye Aung Thu (AFP/File)
Ghana opposition celebrates as media projects vote win

Opposition challenger Nana Akufo-Addo has a clear lead in Ghana's hotly contested presidential election, local media reported Friday, although official results have yet to be released two days after the vote.

And supporters of incumbent President John Mahama insisted he had emerged triumphant again, despite acknowledging losses in the parliamentary contest.

Joy News television gave Akufo-Addo just under 54 percent of votes counted in 251 out of 275 constituencies in an election seen as a test of stability in Africa's most secure democracy.

New Patriotic Party presidential candidate Nana Akufo-Addo has a clear lead in Ghana's pesidential election, local media report PIUS UTOMI EKPEI (AFP)

Crowds of jubilant supporters were partying at the home of the 72-year-old New Patriotic Party (NPP) leader, who had already claimed victory on Thursday, a day after the vote.

Dozens of NPP activists dressed entirely in white took to the streets to celebrate Akufo-Addo's arrival, waving red, white and blue party flags.

Mahama, who Joy News said had gained 44.5 percent of the vote, pledged to respect the results, as his supporters voiced confidence they had won.

"I want to assure the nation that we will respect the outcome of the elections, positive or negative," the charismatic 58-year-old said at his Accra residence.

He called for calm and patience over the slow pace of the count.

"Let's allow the EC (electoral commission) to carry out its constitutional mandate. We'll make Ghana proud no matter (the) outcome," he said on Twitter.

Ghana's election agency had said it would need at least 72 hours after polls closed before it would be able to publish the final official results.

- 'Disappointing' turnout -

Election commission head Charlotte Osei told reporters that turnout was around 49 percent.

"This is way below our history in elections so far and it's quite disappointing," she said.

However independent observers from the US-based National Democratic Institute (NDI) said 69 percent of the electorate had cast ballots.

Akufo-Addo had told a cheering crowd at his home on Thursday that he was "confident" he had won, drawing the condemnation of independent observers who said it was too early to call the election.

George Lawson, deputy general secretary of Mahama's National Democratic Congress (NDC) party also dismissed Akufo-Addo's claim.

"We are sure the president will carry the day," he told AFP, while conceding the NDC had lost ground in parliament.

The election was "very peaceful and very transparent, our democracy is growing".

- 'Generally credible' -

If neither leading candidate wins more than 50 percent of votes there will be a run-off in December.

The winner will serve a four-year term in the former British colony, a once booming country that has seen its economy slow, currency deteriorate and inflation soar.

Tensions were palpable after the election was tainted by sporadic violence in a country once hailed by US President Barack Obama for its peaceful transitions of power.

Independent observers said that the "polling and counting processes were generally credible".

Mahama, who came to power in 2012 after beating Akufo-Addo, has urged voters to "stay the course", promising to deliver more infrastructure projects.

Akufo-Addo is making his third bid for the top job.

His NPP has blasted Ghana's poor economic growth rate -- estimated at 3.3 percent in 2016, the lowest rate for two decades -- and laid out a radical vision to transform the country's economy.

Ghana is the world's second biggest producer of cocoa after Ivory Coast and Africa's second biggest gold producer after South Africa.

But it was forced to turn to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2015 for a bailout as global commodity prices tanked.

Ghana's elections have been historically close, with Mahama narrowly winning in 2012 with 50.7 percent. Akufo-Addo unsuccessfully challenged Mahama's victory in the courts.

Manji Cheto, senior vice president at Teneo Intelligence analysts, said Ghanaians appeared to have used the polls as a protest vote.
Buzz Aldrin discharged from New Zealand hospital

US moonwalker Buzz Aldrin was discharged from a New Zealand hospital Friday, a week after he was evacuated from the South Pole after a health scare.

"Bye bye New Zealand! Hope to see you again," his manager Christina Korp tweeted with a photo of a relaxed Aldrin sitting in an aircraft.

Aldrin, 86, the second man to walk on the moon, became the oldest person to reach the South Pole before he was evacuated to a hospital in the New Zealand city of Christchurch.

US moonwalker Buzz Aldrin became the oldest person to reach the South Pole before he was evacuated to a hospital in the New Zealand city of Christchurch FABRICE COFFRINI (AFP/File)

He was told by doctors he would not be discharged until congestion on his lungs cleared and Korp tweeted earlier they hoped to be back in the United States by the weekend.

Earlier Friday, Aldrin paid tribute from his hospital bed to former astronaut John Glenn who died in Ohio aged 95.
Syrian army tightens grip on Aleppo but IS back in Palmyra

The Syrian army tightened its grip on rebels besieged in Aleppo with thousands of civilians but suffered a setback as jihadists retook much of the ancient city of Palmyra.

Air strikes pummelled the shrinking rebel enclave in east Aleppo as US Secretary of State John Kerry said the Syrian regime's "indiscriminate bombing" amounted to crimes against humanity.

Western powers meeting in Paris called for peace talks to resume and for civilians to be allowed to leave Aleppo, where tens of thousands have already fled the offensive.

Syrian pro-government forces pictured in front of Islamist graffiti in Aleppo's Bab al-Nairab neighbourhood on December 10, 2016 George OURFALIAN (AFP)

The diplomatic flurry came as a US-backed alliance announced it would launch the second phase of its battle for the Islamic State group's de facto Syrian capital of Raqa further east.

Washington announced it was sending an additional 200 troops to support that offensive against IS.

The three-week-old assault by the Russian-backed regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad aimed at retaking all of Aleppo has triggered mounting international outrage.

Speaking in Paris, Kerry said the regime's "indiscriminate bombing" of Aleppo amounted to "war crimes" and "crimes against humanity" and he called for Russia and Assad's other backers Iran to show "a little grace" and help end it.

American and Russian officials were due to gather in Geneva for what Kerry called a bid to stop Aleppo "being absolutely, completely, destroyed".

Aleppo has witnessed some of the most brutal violence of Syria's nearly six-year war.

In less than a month, forces loyal to Assad have overrun around 85 percent of east Aleppo, a rebel stronghold since 2012.

UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura said the world is watching "the last steps" in the Aleppo battle and evacuating civilians must be a priority.

- Bombing 'unreal' -

Air strikes and regime rocket fire battered the last remaining rebel districts Saturday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The strikes were so intense that windows in the west rattled.

"The bombing is unreal," said Ibrahim Abu al-Leith, spokesman for the White Helmets rescue force inside Aleppo, speaking from one of the last rebel-controlled zones in the southeast.

"The streets are full of people under the rubble. They are dying because we can't get them out," he told AFP.

The Observatory said 19 civilians were killed Saturday by rebel rocket fire into government-controlled districts, taking to 139 people the number killed there by rebel fire since November 15.

Another 413 civilians have been killed in east Aleppo in the same period.

Moreover, the NGO Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations, condemned a possible chlorine gas attack on Friday in the Kallash neighbourhood of Aleppo.

"Victims at the medical facility reported symptoms consistent with the choking agent, chlorine gas. 25 victims are reported to have experienced suffocation and difficulty breathing," they said.

The opposition has repeatedly accused the regime of using chlorine gas on rebel zones, which Damascus denies.

A joint investigation by the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) found that several units of the Syrian army had used toxic weapons against three villages in northern Syria in 2014 and 2015.

With the fighting intensifying Saturday after a brief respite, a UN General Assembly resolution demanded an immediate ceasefire and urgent aid deliveries.

But both Moscow and Damascus have rejected talk of a ceasefire without a rebel withdrawal -- a demand that opposition groups have refused.

After meeting opposition representatives on Saturday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said the opposition was willing to resume peace talks "without pre-conditions".

However, a diplomatic source told AFP the opposition required a political transition in Syria before it would agree to take part.

- Civilians flee -

"There can be no military solution in Syria," British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said in Paris, urging "a return to a political process with the credibility necessary for all parties to commit to an end to all the fighting."

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said: "We demand that the regime, but also Iran and Russia, let people leave the conflict zone."

The Observatory said another 2,000 civilians fled Aleppo's remaining rebel-held districts Saturday.

State news agency SANA gave a number of 3,000, and said they had been taken to the temporary shelter in Jibrin, about 10 kilometres (six miles) east of the city.

The UN Friday expressed concern about reports of hundreds of men going missing after fleeing to government-held territory.

The fall of east Aleppo would be the biggest blow for the rebels since the war began in 2011.

It began as a widespread protest movement against Assad's regime but has since evolved into an all-out war that has seen jihadists such as IS rise to prominence.

IS re-entered Syria's famed ancient desert city of Palmyra Saturday after being driven out eight months ago, the Observatory's Rami Abdel Rahman said.

"After a quick advance, IS now controls most of the city of Palmyra except the southern part," he said.

"The airport which is outside the city (just to the east) is now surrounded by jihadists."

Syrian and Russian warplanes were in action, "but the problem is that there are not enough Syrian forces in the city", he said, adding that Russian air strikes on Palmyra increased in the evening.

At least 100 members of pro-government force members have been killed by IS in and around Palmyra since Thursday, the Observatory said.

In May last year, IS seized several towns in Homs province including Palmyra, which is on UNESCO's world heritage list.

They caused extensive damage to many ancient sites in Palmyra before being ousted in March by Syrian regime forces backed by Russia.

Conflict in Syria Thomas SAINT-CRICQ, Sophie RAMIS (AFP)

Destruction in Aleppo's Bab al-Nairab neighbourhood, pictured on December 10, 2016 George OURFALIAN (AFP)

US Secretary of State John Kerry addresses the media in Paris on December 10, 2016 PATRICK KOVARIK (AFP)

A Syrian family arrives at a checkpoint manned by pro-government forces after leaving Aleppo's eastern neighbourhoods on December 10, 2016 George OURFALIAN (AFP)
US Pentagon chief reassures Afghans ahead of Trump era

Pentagon chief Ashton Carter sought to reaffirm US commitment to Afghanistan on Friday, as uncertainty lingers over President-elect Donald Trump's strategy on America's longest war in the face of a resilient Taliban insurgency.

Carter met Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and American troops on his last official trip to Afghanistan before he hands over the reins to Trump's pick for defense secretary, the hardline retired general James Mattis.

Carter's surprise visit comes as concerns mount over growing insecurity in Afghanistan, where around 10,000 US troops are assisting struggling Afghan forces to combat a dogged Taliban insurgency along with Al-Qaeda and Islamic State militants.

Pentagon chief Ashton Carter Brendan Smialowski (AFP/File)

"America is, and will remain, committed to a sovereign and secure Afghanistan," Carter told reporters at a joint press conference with Ghani.

"We stand with the people of Afghanistan who have put themselves at risk and sacrificed so much."

Ghani thanked Carter for the US military support and the sacrifices of American troops in Afghanistan, even as uncertainty looms over Trump's presidency.

Trump has given surprisingly little details on his expected foreign policy, with even fewer specifics on how he will tackle the war in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan got scarcely a passing mention in the bitterly contested US presidential election -- even though the situation in the conflict-torn country will be an urgent matter for the new president.

The Taliban are ramping up nationwide attacks despite the onset of winter, when fighting usually ebbs, even as international efforts intensify to jumpstart peace talks.

Fifteen years and hundreds of billions of dollars since the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, the security situation in the country remains fraught and Afghan forces are struggling to contain the conflict.

One of the most important questions facing Trump on Afghanistan is how many American troops will stay in the country, observers say.

President Barack Obama was forced to slow a planned withdrawal of US troops in the face of Taliban gains, and about 8,400 will remain in the country when he leaves office early next year.

Mattis, whose nicknames in the military include "Mad Dog" and the "Warrior Monk", has led troops in Afghanistan and has previously criticised Obama's plan to pull forces from the country.

Carter landed at Bagram Airfield, the largest US military base in Afghanistan, where four Americans were killed in a suicide bombing in November, in a major breach of security.
Strikes to continue while 'bandits' remain in Aleppo: Lavrov

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday that Syria's Aleppo will continue to be bombed by the Moscow-backed regime as long as rebels remain in the devastated city.

"After a humanitarian pause, (the strikes) have resumed and will continue for as long as the bandits are still in Aleppo," Lavrov told journalists at a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

A day earlier at the foreign ministers' meeting in Hamburg, Germany, Lavrov had told Russian journalists that the Syrian army had halted fighting in eastern Aleppo amid an operation to evacuate civilians.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov addresses a press conference during the foreign ministers' meeting of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Hamburg on December 9, 2016 John Macdougall (AFP)

Asked about the comment Friday, as Aleppo was again under heavy bombardment, Lavrov said: "I did not say that the military operations were completely stopped, I said they were suspended for a certain time to allow civilians wishing to leave to do so.

"Everyone understands it, our American partners understand it."

Russia's top diplomat voiced hope that all sides could soon reach a truce agreement for Aleppo, as the United States and Russia plan an expert-level meeting in Geneva Saturday.

But Lavrov also accused the American side of "strange" behaviour for allegedly flip-flopping on their own proposal which involved allowing rebels to leave Aleppo if they first give up their heavy weapons.

"If the American experts do not change their mind again as they did a few days ago... then there is a good chance for an agreement on a final settlement of the situation in Aleppo," said Lavrov.

Under the plan being considered, he said, both the disarmed fighters and civilians could leave the devastated city through corridors to either the city of Idlib or to the Turkish border.

But he also said that, on the US side, "while the left hand is doing something constructive, the right hand opens the floodgates of arms deliveries to the fighters".
India arrests former air force chief in chopper scam

Indian investigators Friday arrested the country's former air force chief S. P. Tyagi over a scandal-hit deal with Anglo-Italian firm AgustaWestland to supply high-end helicopters to India.

India suspended the deal in 2013 following accusations AgustaWestland paid bribes to win the contract for 12 helicopters intended for use by the prime minister and other VIPs.

India's Central Bureau of Investigation arrested Tyagi in New Delhi over his alleged role in bribing officials to swing the deal in favour of AgustaWestland.

Indian slueths arrested former air force chief S.P.Tyagi over his alleged role in bribing officials to swing the deal for high-end helicopters in favour of AgustaWestland Rouf Bhat (AFP/File)

"An investigation was going on and yes we have arrested him," Kanchan Prasad, a spokeswoman for CBI told AFP.

The 556-million-euro deal is also being investigated separately by Italian authorities, with the boss of AgustaWestland's parent company Finmeccanica being arrested in 2013.

Italian prosecutors suspect kickbacks worth about 10 percent of the deal -- 50 million euros -- were paid to Indian officials as bribes.

Indian detectives had raided the home of Tyagi in 2013 as they investigated allegations of bribery.

Tyagi and Finmeccanica have denied any wrongdoing.

India has already received three of the helicopters, intended to be used by such dignitaries as the prime minister and the president, but delivery of the remaining nine has been scrapped.
Nigeria suicide attacks toll reaches 45: emergency service

Two female suicide bombers on Friday killed 45 people and wounded 33 others when they detonated their explosives in a crowded market in Nigeria's restive northeast, the emergency service said

The army had earlier put the death toll at 30.

"From our updated records we have 45 dead and 33 injured in the twin suicide bomb explosions in Madagali," said Sa'ad Bello of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) in Adamawa state.

Nigeria has formed a regional military coalition involving Cameroon, Chad and Niger to eradicate Boko Haram Stefan Heunis (AFP/File)

While there was no immediate claim of responsibility, the blasts bore all the hallmarks of Boko Haram, which regularly uses women and young girls to carry out suicide attacks in its seven-year insurgent campaign in the troubled region.

Military spokesman Badare Akintoye had earlier said "at least 30 people have been killed in the suicide blasts carried out by two female suicide bombers in the market."

A local government official and the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) confirmed the attack.

"The two bombers who (were) disguised as customers, detonated their suicide belts at the section of the market selling grains and second-hand clothing," said Yusuf Muhammad, the chairman of Madagali local government.

The attack on Madagali, which was recaptured by Nigerian forces from Boko Haram jihadists in 2015, was the third time the town has been targeted since December last year when two female suicide bombers killed scores.

Market trader Habu Ahmad said Friday's blasts happened around 9:30 am (0830 GMT).

"It was dead bodies and wounded people in the midst of blood, spilt grain and abandoned personal effects," he said.

- 'Under control' -

Ibrahim Abdulkadir, NEMA spokesman for the northeast, said rescue teams had been deployed to the scene.

He said security agents had cordoned off the scene of the explosions.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari condemned the attack in a statement on Friday, vowing to put "an end to this senseless loss of innocent lives."

"This latest attack is obviously an act of desperation, but the Nigerian military will neither be distracted nor relent," he said.

He urged Nigerians to be more vigilant and immediately report any suspicious activity to the nearest security agents.

"The battle against terrorism is a joint effort involving all citizens, both government and governed.

"Together, Nigerians can and will defeat the evil that is Boko Haram," he added.

Buhari had told a security conference in Senegal on Wednesday that the situation in the region was "under control".

Boko Haram is seeking to impose a hardline Islamic legal system on Nigeria's mainly-Muslim north.

Its campaign of violence has killed at least 20,000 people and displaced some 2.6 million since 2009.

Nigeria's military campaign against the jihadists is increasingly bogged down as it confronts suicide attacks, looting and indiscriminate slaughter.

The United Nations has warned that the affected region faces the "largest crisis in Africa".
Fresh records for US stocks; European shares mostly up

Wall Street stocks surged to fresh records yet again Friday, with all three major indices jumping to new highs for the second straight session.

Optimism about a new era of economic growth ushered in by the US elections "has unleashed a rush of animal spirits that hasn't been seen in some time," said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare.

Gains in US markets were biggest in the Dow, which jumped 0.7 percent to 19,756.85, closing in on the 20,000 threshold and adding another to a string of record closes.

All three Wall Street stocks surged to fresh records December 9, 2016, reaching new highs for the second straight session Bryan R. Smith (AFP/File)

Tokyo also enjoyed big gains, climbing 1.2 percent to finish at another fresh high for 2016.

Paris, London and Frankfurt scored moderate gains, while Milan tumbled due to bad news for the world's oldest bank, Monte dei Paschi.

Milan ended 0.7 percent lower, dragged down by Monte dei Paschi di Siena (BMPS), whose stock tumbled over 10 percent after reports the European Central Bank had denied it more time to raise the cash it needs to avoid being wound down.

BMPS on Wednesday asked the ECB for two more weeks to find the funds, saying political instability created by Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's resignation had left investors reluctant to commit funds.

But the ECB's supervisory board was reported to have said "no" Friday, upping pressure on the Italian government to bail out the ailing institution.

The news out of out Italy "added to the euro's broadly heavier tone" after the European Central Bank on Thursday announced it was extending its bond-buying program, said Omer Esiner, analyst at Commonwealth Foreign Exchange.

London saw a late flurry of activity after European pay-TV broadcaster Sky said it had received an informal takeover approach from US media-entertainment giant 21st Century Fox. Sky shares closed 26.7 percent higher at 10 pounds, which compares with a 10.75 pounds price tag per share in the offer.

Fox, which said key items are still under discussion and there is no guarantee the transaction will be finalized, lost 2.0 percent.

Coca-Cola jumped 2.5 percent as it announced that Muhtar Kent will step down as chief executive in May to be replaced by president and chief operating officer James Quincey.

- Key figures around 2200 GMT -

New York - Dow: UP 0.7 percent at 19,756.85 (close)

New York - S&P 500: UP 0.4 percent at 2,259.53 (close)

New York - Nasdaq: UP 0.5 percent at 5,444.50 (close)

London - FTSE 100: UP 0.3 percent at 6,954.21 (close)

Frankfurt - DAX 30: UP 0.2 percent at 11,203.63 (close)

Paris - CAC 40: UP 0.6 percent at 4,764.07 (close)

Milan - FTSE MIB: DOWN 0.7 percent at 18,292.65 (close)

EURO STOXX 50: UP 0.4 percent at 3,198.98

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 1.2 percent at 18,996.37 (close)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng: DOWN 0.4 percent at 22,760.98 (close)

Shanghai - Composite: UP 0.5 percent at 3,232.88 (close)

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0558 from $1.0612 Thursday

Dollar/yen: UP at 115.29 yen from 113.95 yen

Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2576 from $1.2586

Oil - West Texas Intermediate: UP 66 cents at $51.50 per barrel

Oil - Brent North Sea: UP 54 cents at $54.33 per barrel
Jury sees US church shooter's calm confession

Dylann Roof said he killed nine African Americans in a Charleston church because of alleged crimes by black people against whites and expressed support for Adolf Hitler in a taped confession shown Friday at his federal death penalty trial.

There were neither tears nor anger from Roof in the two-hour confession made the day after the shooting, as the then 21-year-old stared straight ahead with his hands in his lap.

"Well, I killed them, I guess," the self-described white supremacist said with a chuckle, according to The Post and Courier newspaper.

Dylann Roof was accused of shooting nine people dead at a black church in Charleston in 2015 Handout (LASTRHODESIAN.COM/AFP/File)

Roof told two FBI agents interrogating him that he deliberately chose "Mother Emanuel," the oldest African Methodist Episcopal church in the US South, as the scene of his crime.

"I wasn't going to go to another church because there could be white people there," he said, after chuckling when admitting he had committed the carnage, according to local ABC television affiliate WCIV.

When asked if his goal had been to become a martyr, Roof responded: "Yeah, that would be nice, sure."

The gunman said he was first inspired after reading online about a neighborhood watchman's 2012 killing of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin that sparked widespread protests and was a catalyst for national outrage over violence blamed on law enforcement against African Americans.

"And then for some reason after I read that, I typed in, for some reason I typed in black on white crime. And ever since then..." Roof said.

"I had to do it because somebody had to do something because black people are killing white people every day. They rape 100 white people a day."

Roof could not even initially recall how many people he had shot, telling investigators it was just five.

- 'I support Hitler' -

The video marks the first time the public has heard Roof speak at length about the grisly June 17, 2015 attack. Sobs could be heard in the courtroom as the video was shown, local media reported.

Roof had a total of eight ammunition magazines, each loaded with 11 bullets rather than the full 13.

That means the total number of bullets was 88, an abbreviation used by white supremacists to represent the Nazi salute "Heil Hitler."

"I support Hitler," Roof said during the confession.

The last magazine, which was found unspent, he said was meant for him.

The FBI made the stunning admission last year that Roof should not have been able to buy the .45 Glock semi-automatic handgun that killed the parishioners, citing a breakdown in the background check system and paperwork confusion.

Before the atrocity, Roof sat with parishioners in a Bible study group at the church.

"I was sitting there thinking about whether I should do it or not," he said.

He was arrested the next day during a traffic stop in North Carolina, about 250 miles (400 kilometers) north of the site of the shooting in Charleston, South Carolina.

- Stone-faced -

Roof has not said anything in court since the trial kicked off Wednesday, maintaining a stone-faced demeanor and refusing to lift his eyes from the defense table where he sat. even as photographs of his blood-soaked crime scene were displayed and a survivor called him "evil."

Roof's own mother had a heart attack during a survivor's tearful testimony and had to be hospitalized on Wednesday.

The 22-year-old faces the death penalty if convicted on hate crimes charges over the massacre.

Prosecutors refused to accept his offer to plead guilty to the 33 federal charges against him in exchange for a life sentence. So Roof then entered a not guilty plea.
Fresh Congo rebel violence displaces 13,000: UN

Fresh fighting between rebels in the Republic of Congo and government forces has displaced an estimated 13,000 people, the United Nations refugee agency said Friday.

The violence has been concentrated in the country's southeast, where members of the Ninja Nsiloulou militia have battled the army, according to UNHCR.

"We are afraid some 13,000 displaced people soon may not have enough to eat," UNHCR spokesman William Spindler told reporters in Geneva.

Congo has been on edge since a constitutional referendum last October ended a two-term limit on presidential mandates Habibo Bangre (AFP/File)

People in the area are "also having trouble getting health care and education because so many state-employed medics and teachers have fled," he added.

The rebel group, commonly known as the Ninjas, fought two civil wars against the government in the 1990s and were seen as having disbanded after agreeing to a peace deal in 2003, although sporadic clashes have continued.

Spindler said that the uptick in violence in recent weeks has included an attack on a military vehicle in southeast Mindouli district that killed two people.

In October, at least 14 people were killed including children in an attack on a train in Mindouli also blamed on the Ninjas.

The rebels are led by Frederic Bintsamou, a Protestant pastor who is called the Prophet by his admirers.

Bintsamou came out in favour of presidential candidate Guy-Brice Parfait Kolelas, who lost to longtime leader Denis Sassou Nguesso in elections in March, which the opposition say was marked by massive fraud.
China fails to block UN meeting on N. Korea rights abuses

The UN Security Council on Friday met to discuss North Korea's "appalling" human rights situation, overriding a bid by China, Russia and three other countries to block the meeting.

It was the third time Beijing has failed to stop the annual discussion at the Security Council since a UN commission of inquiry in 2014 accused Pyongyang of committing atrocities unparalleled in the modern world.

Angola, Egypt and Venezuela joined China and Russia in a vote in favour of scrapping the meeting. But nine countries including Britain, France and the United States supported the move in the 15-member council. Senegal abstained.

UN Security Council has approved five sets of sanctions since North Korea first tested a nuclear device in 2006 Kena Betancur (AFP/File)

Chinese Ambassador Liu Jieyi argued that the council should focus on threats to global peace and security, saying North Korea's human rights situation should not be considered as such a menace.

"The Security Council is not a forum for discussing human rights issues and still less for the politicization of the human rights issues," he said.

This discussion is "detrimental, with no benefit whatsoever," he added, urging council members to "avoid making any rhetoric or actions that may provoke or lead to escalation of the tensions."

Pyongyang's sole ally and trade partner, China has long argued that international efforts should firmly focus on talks to denuclearize North Korea.

US Ambassador Samantha Power shot back that "it stretches credulity, really, to suggest... that the brutal governance practiced by the regime is neutral for international peace and security."

- Truly appalling -

The UN commission of inquiry found compelling evidence of torture, execution and starvation in North Korea, where between 80,000 and 120,000 people are being held in prison camps.

Over the past year, UN rights officials have interviewed 110 North Korean defectors, many of whom spoke of torture and ill-treatment in detention, UN rights official Andrew Gilmour told the council.

Some North Korean detainees were kept in isolated cells so small they were unable to sit and many were deprived of food, water, he said.

"There has been no improvement in the truly appalling human rights violations in the country," said Gilmour.

The meeting followed the adoption just a week ago of tougher sanctions against North Korea, including new measures to curb the reclusive state's coal exports to China, in response to Pyongyang's fifth and biggest nuclear test.

South Korea's Ambassador Cho Tae-yul told the council that North Korea had squandered $200 million on two nuclear tests and 24 missile launches -- funds that Cho said should have been spent on easing the dire humanitarian situation.

Some 60,000 North Koreans have been sent to work abroad to earn hard currency for the Pyongyang regime in what amounts to forced labor, Cho said.

"The council discussion of Pyongyangs disastrous human rights record shows that crimes against humanity cannot be ignored, and that those responsible for atrocities in North Korea should face justice," said Phil Robertson, Human Rights Watch's deputy Asia director.

The rights group urged the council to move beyond putting a spotlight on North Korea's rights violations and begin work on bringing those responsible to justice.

The General Assembly has encouraged the Security Council to refer North Korea to the International Criminal Court for war crimes investigation, but China is likely to block any such move with its veto power.
Turkey court drops case against Israelis over ship storming

An Istanbul court on Friday dropped a case against four top former Israeli commanders who were being tried in absentia over the 2010 deadly storming of a Turkish ship bound for Gaza that caused an over half-decade crisis in ties.

Ten Turkish citizens lost their lives as a result of the raid that saw Israeli commandos storm the Mavi Marmara ship. But dropping the charges was a key pillar of a deal agreed between Israel and Turkey this June to normalise bilateral ties.

The deal had been keenly supported by Turkey's NATO ally the United States which has always supported the key alliance between Israel and overwhelmingly Muslim Turkey.

Lawyers and families hold pictures of victims and shout slogans outside the Istanbul courthouse on December 9, 2016, to protest a deadly 2010 raid by Israeli commandos on a Gaza-bound aid ship Ozan Kose (AFP)

An arrest warrant for the four charged was also withdrawn, Gulden Sonmez, a lawyer for the victims, wrote on Twitter after a closed door hearing in Istanbul.

Mustafa Ozbek, a spokesman for the Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) charity which organised the bid in 2010 to break Israel's Gaza blockade, confirmed to AFP that the case had been withdrawn.

Prosecutors had been seeking life sentences for the alleged involvement of former Israeli military chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi, former navy chief Eliezer Marom, former military intelligence head Amos Yadlin and former air force intelligence chief Avishai Levy, who went on trial in absentia in 2012.

The decision had been expected after the prosecutor told the Istanbul court last week that the case against the Israelis should be dropped because of the agreement.

Before the verdict was read out, tumult erupted in the courthouse as lawyers and supporters of the victims denounced what they said was a travesty of justice.

Lawyers and families walked out of courtroom shouting "damn Israel" and "Mavi Marmara our honour".

"No matter what court decides about those who committed the crime... we believe that they were convicted by both the law and the conscience of the people," said the victims' lawyer Yasin Samli.

"We were thrown out of the court room," added Cigdem Topcuoglu whose husband was killed on board the Mavi Marmara, adding: "We want justice, nothing else".

- 'Trampling on the law' -

Turkey and Israel agreed the normalisation after they held long-running secret talks in third countries with Israel offering an apology over the raid and $20 million in compensation.

Israel also agreed to allow Turkish aid to reach Gaza as part of the agreement.

Under the terms of the deal, both sides also agreed individual Israeli citizens or those acting on behalf of the Israeli government would not be held liable -- either criminally or financially -- for the raid.

"Political considerations are outside the scope of this case. To decide based on political motives amounts to trampling on the law," said Mehmet Sari, head of the Turkish lawyers' association.

One of the final key elements of returning to normal relations was the exchange of ambassadors.

Israel's envoy Eitan Naeh presented his credentials to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier this week.

Meanwhile, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim's policy advisor Kemal Okem will start work as Turkey's ambassador to Israel in the next days.

But the two sides are already working to bring cooperation back to former levels and are holding talks on building an ambitious pipeline project to pump Israeli gas to Turkey and Europe.

Nevertheless, considerable tensions remain with Erdogan presenting himself as a champion of the Palestinians and regularly meeting with Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal.

Israel, the United States and the European Union all view Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip, as a terrorist organisation.

Ankara has also loudly condemned a bill being discussed in the Israeli parliament to limit the volume of calls to prayer at mosques.

Ten Turkish citizens lost their lives as a result of the raid that saw Israeli commandos storm the Mavi Marmara ship, pictured in an Istanbul shipyard on May 30, 2011 Mustafa Ozer (AFP/File)
US-Russia talks Saturday to 'save' Aleppo from destruction: Kerry

US Secretary of State John Kerry said US and Russian officials would meet on Saturday in a bid to stop the Syrian city of Aleppo "being absolutely, completely destroyed".

Kerry arrived in Paris on Friday ahead of parallel talks on Saturday aimed at pushing for a ceasefire in Aleppo, where retreating rebels backed by the United States face an onslaught from Syrian forces supported by Russia.

US officials will meet their Russia counterparts in Geneva to try to "come to some kind of arrangement where we can see how civilians may be protected and what can happen with the armed opposition", Kerry said.

Syrian pro-government forces walk past rubble in old Aleppo's Jdeideh neighbourhood on December 9, 2016 George OURFALIAN (AFP)

He did not sound upbeat about the chances of success, however, with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Russian President Vladimir Putin seemingly intent on pushing home their advantage in Aleppo.

The rebels now control only a pocket of Syria's second city, whose fate is seen as pivotal to the outcome of a nearly six-year-old war that has killed more than 300,000 people.

- 'Worst catastrophe since WWII' -

"What is happening in Aleppo is the worst catastrophe, what is happening in Syria is the worst catastrophe since World War II itself. It's unacceptable," said Kerry at the US embassy in Paris.

He added: "I know people are tired of these meetings, I'm tired of these meetings. People are sort of 'oh, another meeting'.

"But what am I supposed to do? Go home and have a nice weekend in Massachusetts, while people are dying? Sit there in Washington and do nothing?"

Alongside the Geneva meeting, foreign ministers from the Western and Middle Eastern backers of Syria's weakened opposition, including Kerry, will gather in Paris on Saturday for talks.

"We are working hard with people that we even have disagreements with in order to see if we can find a way, in the name of humanity and decency, to be able to protect those lives and try to separate combatants and move the process forward," said Kerry.

A US official stressed that the Geneva talks will be at a "technical" level, "not foreign minister level", to discuss modalities of a possible ceasefire, aid supplies and the evacuation of civilians and rebel fighters.

"Kerry is definitely not going to Geneva, not heading up these talks," said the official, adding that Washington had long said that the UN must be involved.
Trump says Giuliani won't be in cabinet

President-elect Donald Trump announced Friday that outspoken former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, a key surrogate on the campaign trail, would not join his incoming administration after he takes office next month.

Giuliani had been a candidate for the prestigious cabinet job of secretary of state, but subsequently came under scrutiny in the US media over business dealings that could pose conflicts of interest.

Observers in the United States and around the world have been on tenterhooks for weeks as to whom the incoming Republican president will pick to be America's next top diplomat, but Trump said Friday that Giuliani had removed his name from consideration for any position during a meeting on November 29.

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani arrives at Trump Tower on November 22, 2016 in New York TIMOTHY A. CLARY (AFP/File)

"Rudy would have been an outstanding member of the cabinet in several roles, but I fully respect and understand his reasons for remaining in the private sector," the president-elect said in a statement.

"He is and continues to be a close personal friend, and as appropriate, I will call upon him for advice and can see an important place for him in the administration at a later date," he added.

Giuliani, a former federal prosecutor, made his name by leading New York on and after the September 11 attacks, earning the moniker "America's Mayor."

After Trump's shock election victory last month, he made no secret of his desire for the secretary of state position, said Friday that he now looked forward to continuing to work in his law and consulting firms.

"This is not about me; it is about what is best for the country and the new administration," said Giuliani in the statement released by Trump's transition team.

"From the vantage point of the private sector, I look forward to helping the president-elect in any way he deems necessary and appropriate," he added.

Trump praised the 72-year-old Giuliani as an "extraordinarily talented and patriotic American" and that he would "always be appreciative of his 24/seven dedication to his election campaign.
Mexico finds 110 suffocating migrants in trailer after crash

MEXICO CITY (AP)  Mexican immigration authorities say 110 migrants were found trapped and suffocating inside a freight trailer after the truck crashed in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz.

Officials say the cargo truck was apparently speeding when it hit another truck early Thursday on a highway near the city of Coatzacoalcos. The driver fled.

Mexico's national immigration institute says the migrants were found packed and suffocating inside the trailer. Some were injured in the crash.

The agency says most of the migrants are from Central America and 48 of them are younger than 18.
Official: Bristol-Myers Squibb to pay to settle allegations

SAN DIEGO (AP)  Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. will pay $19.5 million to settle allegations that it promoted the anti-psychotic drug Abilify for unapproved uses and misled doctors about its dangers, it was announced Thursday.

California Attorney General Kamala Harris announced the settlement of a state business code violations lawsuit on the same day that the final agreement was received by a San Diego court.

New York-based Bristol-Myers Squibb denies any wrongdoing but agreed to various marketing restraints.

Abilify is manufactured by another company, Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc. In a statement, Bristol-Myers Squibb said it has not marketed the drug since 2013.

"We are pleased to put this matter behind us so that we can focus on making transformational medicines for patients battling serious diseases," the statement said.

The lawsuit suit stemmed from an investigation by California, 42 other states and the District of Columbia into the marketing of Abilify for so-called off-label uses.

Abilify is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder and Tourette's disorder in adults and children. It generated $5.5 billion in sales in 2014.

California alleged that Bristol-Myers Squibb promoted the schizophrenia drug for unapproved uses on children and for elderly patients with dementia.

An FDA-approved medication guide from Otsuka says medicines such as Abilify can produce an increased risk of death in elderly patients with dementia-related psychosis and that antidepressant medicines may increase suicidal thoughts or actions in some children.
Australian-Chinese consortium wins bid for cattle empire

SYDNEY (AP)  The Australian government on Friday approved the sale of the nation's largest cattle empire to Australia's richest woman and her Chinese business partner, ending a drawn-out battle over foreign ownership of farmland.

The country's largest private landholding, S. Kidman & Co. Ltd., will be acquired by Outback Beef, an Australia-China consortium majority owned by billionaire Gina Rinehart, with a 33 percent stake held by Shanghai CRED Real Estate Stock Co. Ltd., said Treasurer Scott Morrison.

In May, the government said that the collection of cattle ranches covering more than 101,000 square kilometers (39,000 square miles) in four states would never be sold to foreign interests, after vetoing a Chinese-led bid.

Foreign ownership of farmland is a thorny issue in Australia, where many worry that Chinese-owned farms could supply Australian-grown produce to Chinese parent companies at discount prices or refuse to sell to Australian buyers.

In October, Rinehart said she was willing to pay the entire 386.5 million Australian dollars ($288 million) for the land if regulators blocked her Chinese partner.

Under the proposal approved Friday, Rinehart's company, Hancock Prospecting Pty. Ltd., would control the board and day-to-day operations of the business, Morrison said in a statement.

The biggest property in the empire will be acquired by a neighboring farming family. That ranch lies partially inside a vast Defense Department-controlled rocket firing range, which had raised security concerns about foreigners owning leases there. Morrison said removing the ranch from Outback Beef's control had mitigated those concerns.

"The treasurer's approach to the sale of Kidman enabled a local Australian company to pay a fair market price and retain Kidman in Australian control," Rinehart said in a statement.
President-elect Donald Trump defeated former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton despite spending half as much as the leader of a relatively unified Democratic Party, according to the latest financial disclosure reports.

Clinton held her fundraising edge until the very end. She spent about $132 million in the final period of the campaign, even as Trump's spent $95 million after firing up his fundraising operation. The periods cover October 20 through November 28.

Over the course of the campaign, when outside superpacs are added, Clinton and allied groups spent $1.2 billion, according to Politico. Trump and his allies spent a comparably paltry $600 million.

Then it comes to receipts brought in by the campaigns themselves over the course of the race, Trump raised $340 million to Clinton's $581 million. Clinton had a head start, not to mention a vaunted funraising operation and a long line of top bundlers who aided her efforts.

President-elect Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton despite spending half as much as she did, when outside group spending is considered

She also had the advantage of being expected to win by many top figures on Wall Street and in industry, not to mention the media.

Trump boasted about his campaign's spending efficiency throughout the campaign, including during the primaries, when he defeated a series of well-funded opponents.

The mogul personally kicked in $66 million, including $10 million in the campaign's final stretch

Trump's campaign spent about $95 million in the final push for the White in its final push for the White House, according to new fundraising reports filed Thursday.

Hillary Clinton assembled a vaunted fundraising operation and 900-person staff, but still ended up losing

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Brad Parscale, Trump's digital director who was empowered with spending decisions across the campaign, credited strategic last-minute investments with helping propel the political newcomer to victory.

He told The Associated Press the campaign and Republican Party spent about $5 million in get-out-the-vote digital advertising targeted in the final few days to Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Florida.

Trump's spending on media buys doubled in the final period, despite the candidate's sometimes dismissive statements about the utility of TV ads. He spent $39 million, p from $19 million during the period, according to CNBC.

That proved critical; some of those states were won by razor-thin margins. Trump peeled all of them away from the Democratic column.

"You think, what if we hadn't spent that?" Parscale said. "We might not have won."

The numbers don't account for external factors that were as critical as any carefully crafted TV ad. Trump got an enormous amount of free or 'earned media' through his unonventional use of Twitter, call-in interviews to cable shows, and regular appearances on prime time Fox News shows such as 'Hannity.'

And even as Clinton tried to boost her own image and eviscerate Trump with paid ads attacking his treatment of women, she had to contend with a non-stop drip of bad publicity brought on by her own decision to use a private email server. She also was dealt a blow by external factors like the hacking of her campaign chairman John Podesta, which led to a slew of embarassing and negative stories.

The reports filed Thursday with the Federal Election Commission cover Oct. 20 through Nov. 28.

Over the course of the primary and general elections, the Trump campaign raised about $340 million. That included $66 million that the billionaire businessman contributed from his own pocket. The Clinton campaign, which maintained a longer and more concerted fundraising focus, brought in about $581 million.

President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence react to supporters during a rally, Thursday, Dec. 8, 2016, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Another investment that he said paid dividends was $7 million to air a two-minute "closing" television commercial. "Our movement is about replacing the failed and corrupt political establishment with a new government controlled by you, the American people," he said as images from his rallies rolled across the screen.

The final FEC report showed the extent of the Trump advertising splurge. The campaign spent nearly $39 million on last-minute TV ads and another $29 million on digital advertising and consulting work done by Parscale's firm.

Clinton's campaign placed a far greater emphasis than Trump on television advertising, a more traditional way of reaching swaths of voters. She spent $72 million on TV ads and about $16 million on internet ads in the final weeks.

The former secretary of state also spent more than $12 million on travel  about double what Trump spent. Clinton, who not only had a money advantage over Trump but a staffing edge, spent more than $4 million on a nearly 900-strong payroll.

Still, Clinton's top campaign aides have acknowledged in post-election appearances that it didn't always spend money in the right places.

Her campaign manager Robby Mook said at a gathering of political strategists and journalists last week at Harvard University that he regretted not putting more staff in Michigan. When the state certified its results  20 days after the election Trump had won by just under 11,000 votes.

Outside groups that spent money on the presidential election also filed reports Thursday.

Trump got help from the super political action committees Future 45, Make America Number 1 and Rebuilding America Now.

Future 45 and a partner nonprofit that does not disclose donors spent late in the campaign but became Trump's biggest outside investors. Las Vegas casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam, together gave $10 million to Future 45 in the final weeks of the campaign, the new reports show.

Former wrestling executive Linda McMahon, who Trump named this week as head of the Small Business Administration, gave $1 million to the group in October. She'd earlier given $6 million to Rebuilding America Now.

Make America Number 1 benefited from a $1 million donation by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, now an executive on the Trump transition team.

On Clinton's side, Priorities USA  which raised and spent more than any super PAC in history  landed $16 million in the final weeks of the campaign. That brought its total haul to about $192 million.

Some of the group's final seven-figure contributions came from its most loyal donors: media mogul Haim Saban and investors James Simons and Donald Sussman.

The 2016 election is over  but the fundraising continues.

The president-elect has raised millions of dollars since Nov. 8. That money is coming in mostly through purchased merchandise such as hats and ornaments and is paying for Trump's "thank you" tour, which took him to Ohio and Iowa on Thursday.

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Clinton decries rise of fake news in Capitol speech

WASHINGTON (AP)  Hillary Clinton decried the rise of fake news as an "epidemic" during a speech on Capitol Hill.

Clinton addressed fake news during a speech for retiring Nevada Sen. Harry Reid at the Capitol Thursday.

Clinton warned that "it's now clear that so-called fake news can have real-world consequences," an apparent reference to an incident involving a gunman who fired multiple shots inside a Washington pizza shop that has become the target of a fake conspiracy story.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks during a ceremony to unveil a portrait of Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., on Capitol Hill, Thursday, Dec. 8, 2016, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Clinton said the issue "is not about politics or partisanship. Lives are at risk. Lives of ordinary people just trying to go about their days to do their jobs, contribute to their communities."

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Panel rejects British company's $1.3B case against Indonesia

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP)  An international tribunal has ruled against a London-listed mining company seeking $1.3 billion in compensation from Indonesia's government for terminating coal mining licenses that were forged by an Indonesian business partner.

The World Bank-affiliated International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes ruled earlier this week that Churchill Mining's entire investment in East Kalimantan was tainted by the fraud and wasn't protected by international investment treaties.

The tribunal ordered Churchill, which was joined in the case by its Australian subsidiary, to pay costs of $9.4 million to the Indonesian government.

The company said in a statement it believes there are grounds for the decision to be annulled.

The tribunal's 210-page ruling said all 34 permits and related documents for the mine were forged, possibly with the help of an official in the district that was home to Churchill's 2.73 billion ton thermal coal deposit.
North Korean delegation back from paying respects to Castro

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP)  A delegation of North Korean officials headed by one of Kim Jong Un's chief lieutenants returned to Pyongyang on Friday after visiting Cuba to pay respects to Fidel Castro, whom North Korea has called a "great comrade."

The delegation, led by Choe Ryong Hae, also took the opportunity to do some rare diplomatic spadework with South American leaders.

Choe, one of the North's most powerful officials under leader Kim Jong Un, met with the presidents of Bolivia, Venezuela and Nicaragua while in Havana, according to the North's state-run media. Details of the meetings were not known, though the state media reports said the presidents praised the North and its socialist policies.

Choe Ryong Hae, center left, a vice chairman of North Korea's Workers' Party, shakes hands with Deputy Foreign Minister Ri Kil Song, center right, as a delegation arrives at the Pyongyang Airport in Pyongyang, North Korea Friday, Dec. 9, 2016. The delegation of North Korean officials headed by one of Kim Jong Un's chief lieutenants returned to Pyongyang on Friday after visiting Cuba to pay respects to Fidel Castro, whom North Korea has called a "great comrade." (AP Photo/Jon Chol Jin)

Choe was met at Pyongyang's airport by Cuba's ambassador.

Though he has been the focus of numerous rumors speculating whether he is in or out of favor, Choe has emerged as one of the most visible officials in the Kim Jong Un regime. Among other trips abroad, he made a surprise trip as head of a delegation to the 2014 Asian Games, held in Incheon, South Korea, and this year went to the Rio Olympics.

Kim Jong Un, who assumed office in late 2011 after the death of his father, Kim Jong Il, has yet to travel abroad or officially meet any foreign heads of state.

North Korea has made a point out of showing its solidarity with Cuba since Castro's Nov. 25 death, going so far as to declare a three-day mourning period in his honor.

South Korean media have suggested the North's high-profile response to Castro's death might be at least in part a reflection of concern in Pyongyang that Havana may be more willing to develop relations with Seoul now that the era of Fidel Castro is over.
Coast Guard suspends search for 2 crew members off Aleutians

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP)  The Coast Guard says it's suspending a search for two missing crew members off Alaska's Aleutian Islands.

Thursday night's announcement came two days after three other members of the crew were rescued from their sinking fishing vessel.

Capt. Laura Dickey says that the "decision to suspend a search is never an easy one" and it's done only after thoroughly evaluating search efforts.

The Coast Guard says the three from the 117-foot Exito were rescued Tuesday night by a good Samaritan vessel.

The agency says the three were taken to Dutch Harbor, 14 miles to the southwest, with no signs of serious injuries.

After the rescue, the search continued for the two through Thursday.
Populist lawmaker Wilders convicted of anti-Moroccan chants

AMSTERDAM (AP)  Populist anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders was found guilty Friday of insulting and inciting discrimination against Moroccans, a conviction he immediately slammed as a "shameful" attack on free speech and an attempt to "neutralize" him.

Presiding Judge Hendrik Steenhuis said the court would not impose a sentence because the conviction was punishment enough for a democratically elected lawmaker.

Wilders was not in court for the verdict that came just over three months before national elections. His Party for Freedom is narrowly leading a nationwide poll of polls and has risen in popularity during the trial.

FILE - In this Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2016 file photo populist anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders prepares to address judges at the high-security court near Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam. Judges are set to deliver their verdicts in the politically charged hate speech trial of Dutch anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Wilders quickly released a video message, in English and Dutch, slamming the judgment and vowing to appeal.

"Today, I was convicted in a political trial which, shortly before the elections, attempts to neutralize the leader of the largest and most popular opposition party," Wilders said. "They will not succeed."

The politically charged prosecution centered on comments Wilders made before and after the Dutch municipal elections in 2014. At one meeting in a Hague cafe, he asked supporters whether they wanted more or fewer Moroccans in the Netherlands. That sparked a chant of "Fewer! Fewer! Fewer!"  to which he replied, "we'll take care of it."

Prime Minister Mark Rutte, speaking after the verdict, underscored that he and his Liberal Party would not consider forming a coalition with the Party for Freedom unless Wilders retracts the comments.

"That is our stance and it remains our stance," Rutte said at his weekly press conference.

Prosecutors say that Wilders, who in 2011 was acquitted at another hate speech trial for his outspoken criticism of Islam, overstepped the limits of free speech by specifically targeting Moroccans.

He had insisted he was performing his duty as a political leader by pointing out a problem in society.

On Friday, he was convicted for the interaction with the crowd of supporters in the Hague cafe, which judges said was carefully orchestrated and broadcast on national television. He was acquitted for similar comments he made in a radio interview a week earlier, which the judges said did not amount to inciting hatred.

Steenhuis stressed that freedom of expression was not on trial.

"Freedom of speech is one of the foundations of our democratic society," the judge said. But he added: "Freedom of speech can be limited, for example to protect the rights and freedoms of others, and that is what this case is about."

Abdou Menebhi, president of the Euro-Mediterranean Center for Migration and Development, welcomed the judgment.

"For us, it's a very important verdict," he told The Associated Press. "This gives the Moroccans who felt like victims a renewed belief in a democratic society."

He said it also sent a message to Wilders' supporters.
Officials: Friendly fire from deputies killed police dog

DELTONA, Fla. (AP)  Officials in Florida say a police dog that died during a confrontation with an armed fugitive was actually shot by deputies.

Volusia County Sheriff's Office spokesman Gary Davidson told local news outlets Thursday that two deputies opened fire as 34-year-old Eddie Powell punched and fought with K-9 Forest while pointing a gun at one of the deputies. There was no evidence that Powell fired his gun during the Nov. 22 fight.

Authorities say Powell, a fugitive wanted in Georgia, was also hit and was arrested the next day following a massive search. He faces multiple charges, including aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer and battery on a police dog.
UN plans urgent meeting on South Sudan; aid group expelled

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP)  South Sudan has expelled the country director of the Norwegian Refugee Council, the aid group announced Friday.

The group's secretary-general, Jan Egeland, gave no details in a statement but called the expulsion of Victor Moses "a serious setback to our humanitarian work" in the East African country where civil war erupted three years ago.

Earlier Friday, NRC spokeswoman Tuva Bognes told The Associated Press that a staffer had been detained by South Sudan's National Security Service after its officials came to the aid group's offices in the capital, Juba, on Thursday.

Bognes said the NRC had no idea why their colleague had been taken away.

South Sudan Minister of Information Michael Makuei and other South Sudanese officials could not be reached for comment.

The NRC has been in South Sudan since its independence in 2011, and it stepped up its activities after civil war broke out. Tens of thousands have been killed in the fighting, and more than one million people have fled the country.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recently warned that there is "a very real risk of mass atrocities being committed in South Sudan, in particular following the sharp rise in hate speech and ethnic incitement."

The United Nations' top human right body said it plans to hold a special meeting Wednesday to discuss the situation in South Sudan.

The hastily arranged meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Council was scheduled based on a request Friday from the United States and others, citing "the importance and the urgency of this situation."

The Geneva-based body has no power to sanctions countries but it can decide to carry out formal investigations of human rights abuses and its resolutions carry moral weight.

Egeland, the NRC secretary-general, called on South Sudan's government to reverse its decision to expel the country director, saying the removal "may negatively impact the ability for humanitarian organizations at large to operate in South Sudan."

Last week, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator said South Sudan's government had placed a series of restrictions on the delivery of aid. In the month of November, the U.N. recorded more than 80 incidents where aid workers had been attacked or blocked from doing their job.

South Sudan's government has repeatedly promised aid workers full access across the country.

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Former neo-Nazis behind Germany's successful far-right rehab

BERLIN (AP)  Felix Benneckenstein was a rising star on Germany's far-right scene, a young songwriter whose rousing guitar anthems made white nationalism sound romantic and rebellious.

But when fellow neo-Nazis attacked a friend and Benneckenstein, still in his early 20s, found himself in jail, the doubts he'd ignored for years came to the surface.

"It was a rude awakening," he recalled. "You have an idea of what's wrong with the world and believe you've discovered hidden truths...And to then realize that everything you've done to yourself and others in the past years was built on lies is a bitter moment."

In this Oct. 12, 2016 photo Stefan Rochow, a former far right extremist, poses for a photo prior to an interview with the Associated Press in Berlin. He is a member of a small but effective network of former neo Nazis working to help people leave the far-right scene. Spread across Germany they work closely with an organization called EXIT that provides quick, non-bureaucratic advice to extremists who want out. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

After almost a decade on the far-right fringes, Benneckenstein is now part of a small but effective network of former neo-Nazis helping people to leave the scene. Spread across Germany, they work closely with an organization called EXIT that provides quick, unbureaucratic advice to extremists who want out.

At a time when extreme nationalism is on the rise in Europe again, EXIT has helped hundreds of neo-Nazis start a new life, according to its founder Bernd Wagner, a former East German police detective. Some of those answering the hotline at EXIT, which has a sister organization in the United States, have dropped out of the far-right movement themselves.

These former neo-Nazis call themselves the 'Action Group' and try to meet in person at least once a year. The meetings aren't advertised, and journalists aren't invited because some members fear their identity could be revealed to friends and colleagues unaware of their past. Last month The Associated Press received unprecedented access to the group's two-day retreat at a former police training center tucked away in a wood in the eastern state of Saxony  notorious for its strong far-right presence.

About a dozen people  mostly young, mostly male  came to talk about their past and brainstorm ways to reach out to those still inside the neo-Nazi scene.

"It does a lot for people that they can talk about the old days, not like old warriors who've won battles but about the mistakes they made in their lives," said Wagner. "They're still looking for direction in a highly complex and diverse reality."

People who join the far right typically share a common history: an early interest in politics, a feeling that they were outsiders or underdogs, and anger at what they regarded as injustice around them.

Benneckenstein was 13 when he came into contact with white nationalism. At first it was more teenage rebellion than genuine sympathy that drew him to the extreme right.

"I found the Nazi scene abhorrent. My little brother has Down Syndrome and of course I knew what happened to disabled people under Hitler," he recalled.

But Benneckenstein enjoyed the music his new friends were listening to, and like many young Germans, he felt his generation was being unfairly penalized for their grandparents' mistakes. He fell for historical revisionism, to the extent of denying the Holocaust.

"I wanted to rid myself of a certain guilt one has because of Germany's history," he said.

Soon his friends were bombarding him with information. First they radicalized him, and then he radicalized others. Going by the stage name 'Flex,' he composed nationalist songs that included lines such "Am I criminal because I want to change the world" and "I'm ready to rise up against everything that stands in our way."

Some of those in his circle were arrested for planning to bomb a Jewish center in Munich. Benneckenstein insists he was never involved in organized violence, though it was seen as a legitimate response to attacks from left-wing demonstrators. "If you want to be part of it, as I did, you have to be able to use violence," he said.

When his friends were attacked, Benneckenstein, who resembles a young Matt Damon, called EXIT. He and his girlfriend left the far-right movement. Since then he has become the go-to guy for remorseful neo-Nazis in Germany's southern state of Bavaria.

First contact requires trust on both sides, as well as a willingness to hear the other side out. For people who are ready to quit the far right immediately, the group helps them leave quietly.

"Then there are the others who get in touch and want to talk through the whole ideology, which is also an important step," he said. "Because if they contact me they are contacting a traitor."

The current situation in Germany has given greater importance to the work of the Action Group, which has almost 40 members. The country has seen a surge in attacks against migrants, and far-right groups have claimed that the government is intentionally trying to import foreigners to weaken or even abolish the German population.

Two years ago, the Action Group made headlines when it got the public to 'sponsor' a far-right march. The stunt caught the neo-Nazis off guard: for every meter (yard) they marched, ten euros (dollars) were donated to an anti-Nazi campaign. The group followed up last year by soliciting donations to anti-hate speech organizations for each racist post on Facebook.

To former neo-Nazis like Benneckenstein, recent political developments are worrying.

"I'm hardly concerned by the refugees, but I am concerned by the mood that's resulting from this," he said. "Everyone can see how the political picture in Germany is changing at the moment."

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Follow Frank Jordans on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/wirereporter

In this Thursday, Nov. 3, 2016 photo former far right extremists Felix Benneckenstein, right, and Falk Isernhagen, left, arrive for an interview with the Associated Press during a retreat for former neo-Nazis in Schleife, eastern Germany. They part of a small but effective network of former neo Nazis working to help people leave the far-right scene. Spread across Germany they work closely with an organization called EXIT that provides quick, non-bureaucratic advice to extremists who want out. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)

In this Nov. 30, 2016 photo Stefan Rochow, a former far right extremist, center, checks documents of refugees in Schwerin, northern Germany. Rochow works in a cafe Wednesday afternoons to help refugees from Syria and Iraq adapt to life in Germany. He is part of a small but effective network of former neo Nazis working to help people leave the far-right scene. Spread across Germany they work closely with an organization called EXIT that provides quick, non-bureaucratic advice to extremists who want out. (AP Photo/Frank Jordans)

In this Thursday, Nov. 3, 2016 photo former far right extremists Felix Benneckenstein, left, and Falk Isernhagen, right, speak to the Associated Press in Schleife, eastern Germany. They are part part of a small but effective network of former neo Nazis working to help people leave the far-right scene. Spread across Germany they work closely with an organization called EXIT that provides quick, non-bureaucratic advice to extremists who want out. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)

In this Thursday, Nov. 3, 2016 photo Bernd Wagner, head of 'EXIT' an organization that helps people leave the far-right scene, speaks to the Associated Press in Schleife, eastern Germany. Some former neo Nazis are part of a small but effective network working to help people leave the far-right scene. Spread across Germany they work closely with an organization called EXIT that provides quick, non-bureaucratic advice to extremists who want out. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)

In this Thursday, Nov. 3, 2016 photo Bernd Wagner, head of 'EXIT' an organization that helps people leave the far-right scene, speaks to the Associated Press in Schleife, eastern Germany. Some former neo Nazis are part of a small but effective network working to help people leave the far-right scene. Spread across Germany they work closely with athe organization called EXIT that provides quick, non-bureaucratic advice to extremists who want out. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)

In this Thursday, Nov. 3, 2016 photo participants arrive at a retreat for former neo-Nazis in Schleife, eastern Germany. Some former neo Nazis are part of a small but effective network of former neo Nazis working to help people leave the far-right scene. Spread across Germany they work closely with an organization called EXIT that provides quick, non-bureaucratic advice to extremists who want out. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)
Bombing on Cairo road to pyramids kills 6 Egyptian police

CAIRO (AP)  A bombing on a main Cairo road leading to the Giza pyramids killed six police and wounded another three on Friday, the deadliest attack on security forces in the capital in more than six months.

The bombing, near a mosque on a wide avenue often used by tour buses, hit a police checkpoint, smashing several cars and blowing the windows out of police SUVs. Gravel, debris, and leaves littered the ground, as investigators inspected the area and masked troops stood guard with automatic weapons.

"We heard the blast and rushed to the scene and found police vehicles damaged," said Abdel Hamid Abdulla, who was nearby. "We saw some police were injured, and some of their legs had been cut off," he said.

Egyptian explosives experts look for evidence at the site of a bomb explosion in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Dec. 9, 2016. Egypt's state-run news agency says the explosion has killed several police and wounded others. MENA says the explosion took place early Friday on Pyramids road, the main avenue leading from the city center out to the Giza pyramids. It says the blast targeted security forces, without elaborating on what caused the explosion. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

State-run news agency MENA said the blast targeted security forces but did not elaborate on what caused the explosion. A security official said that two bombs placed in the area exploded during a security patrol. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief journalists.

A shadowy group called Hasm, or "Decisiveness," which the government suspects is linked to the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood, claimed responsibility for the attack. It has claimed previous attacks in Cairo, including a shooting against the country's former chief Muslim theologian and a car bomb against the chief prosecutor's deputy. Both escaped unhurt.

"There is no safety or security for you as long as we hold our weapons in jihad for God, there is either victory or martyrdom," the group said in a statement posted online.

Insurgents have carried out a number of attacks in Egypt since the 2013 military ouster of an elected Islamist president. The violence has been concentrated in the northern Sinai Peninsula, where Islamic State-linked militants are battling the army.

Friday's attack was the deadliest in Cairo since May, when gunmen opened fire on a microbus filled with plainclothes police in the suburb of Helwan, killing eight of them. IS claimed the attack.

Most of the attacks in Cairo have been small-scale bombings, including one in October that targeted a police convoy and killed a pedestrian bystander.

Friday's attack comes as President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi is defending tough economic measures undertaken by his government to address a growing financial crisis and secure a $12 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund.

The government floated the Egyptian pound last month and slashed fuel subsidies, steps that were welcomed by the IMF and the business community but caused a spike the price of many goods, worsening the economic plight of ordinary Egyptians.

The austerity measures could fuel a backlash against el-Sissi, who rose to power after leading the military ouster of President Mohammed Morsi three years ago. Morsi had been freely elected a year earlier, but his rule proved divisive and the military stepped in amid massive protests demanding his resignation.

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Associated Press writer Maamoun Youssef contributed to this report.

Egyptian explosions experts look for evidences at the site of a bomb explosion in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Dec. 9, 2016. Egypt's state-run news agency says the explosion has killed several police and wounded others. MENA says the explosion took place early Friday on Pyramids road, the main avenue leading from the city center out to the Giza pyramids. It says the blast targeted security forces, without elaborating on what caused the explosion. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

Egyptian policemen and explosives experts look for evidence at the site of a bomb explosion in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Dec. 9, 2016. Egypt's state-run news agency says the explosion has killed several police and wounded others. MENA says the explosion took place early Friday on Pyramids road, the main avenue leading from the city center out to the Giza pyramids. It says the blast targeted security forces, without elaborating on what caused the explosion. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

An Egyptian explosives expert looks for evidence at the site of a bomb explosion in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Dec. 9, 2016. Egypt's state-run news agency says the explosion has killed several police and wounded others. MENA says the explosion took place early Friday on Pyramids road, the main avenue leading from the city center out to the Giza pyramids. It says the blast targeted security forces, without elaborating on what caused the explosion. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

An Egyptian policeman directs a woman away from the site of a bomb explosion in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Dec. 9, 2016. Egypt's state-run news agency says the explosion has killed several police and wounded others. MENA says the explosion took place early Friday on Pyramids road, the main avenue leading from the city center out to the Giza pyramids. It says the blast targeted security forces, without elaborating on what caused the explosion. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

A woman walks past the site of a bomb explosion in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Dec. 9, 2016. Egypt's state-run news agency says the explosion has killed several police and wounded others. MENA says the explosion took place early Friday on Pyramids road, the main avenue leading from the city center out to the Giza pyramids. It says the blast targeted security forces, without elaborating on what caused the explosion. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)
Indonesia soldier found alive 2 weeks after helicopter crash

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP)  A missing soldier has been found alive two weeks after the helicopter he was aboard crashed in a remote area of Borneo, Indonesia's army said Friday.

The army said in statement that 1st Lt. Yohanes Syahputra was found by locals on a road between two villages Thursday in a weakened state due to lack of food with wounds to his hands, waist and legs.

The discovery was reported by radio to a military post.

The Bell 412 EP helicopter that crashed Nov. 24 was carrying five soldiers including two pilots to Long Bawan, a remote town near the border with Malaysia, when it lost contact with its base.

One pilot was rescued three days later when the wreckage was located in rugged terrain. Three others were found dead.

Army spokesman Sabrar Fadhilah said Syahputra will be evacuated to the town of Tarakan for medical examination.

Indonesia, a sprawling archipelagic nation of more than 250 million people, has been plagued by transportation accidents in recent years, from plane and train crashes to ferry sinkings. Overcrowding, poor infrastructure and unenforced safety rules are often to blame.
Suspect arrested over explosion at mosque in Germany

BERLIN (AP)  German authorities have arrested a man suspected of setting off homemade explosive devices outside a mosque and a conference center in Dresden in September, prosecutors said Friday.

The 29-year-old man from Dresden was arrested on Thursday. Authorities also seized objects that could be used to make explosives, and DNA evidence linked the suspect to the blasts, prosecutors said.

The entrance of the Fatih Camii mosque was damaged in the explosion on Sept. 26. An imam with his wife and two sons were inside at the time, but weren't hurt.

FILE - In this Sept. 27, 2016 file photo policemen stand in front of the entrance of the Fatih Camii mosque in Dresden, eastern Germany. German prosecutors have arrested a man Thursday suspected of setting off homemade explosive devices outside the mosque. They said Friday, Dec. 9, 2016, that authorities also seized objects that could be used to make explosives. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer, file)

The second device exploded shortly afterward on a terrace between a hotel and a conference center. The man is also suspected to have placed a fake bomb on a bridge in Dresden three days later.

The explosions came a few days before events marking Germany's national day in Dresden, where the anti-Islam PEGIDA movement is based.

The Bild daily reported that the suspect had appeared as a speaker at a PEGIDA event in the summer of 2015.
S. Korean impeachment sales: Goodbye Park, hello free room

SEOUL, South Korea (AP)  For many South Korean business owners, President Park Geun-hye's impeachment Friday was a moment to celebrate  with a sale.

A hotel in the harbor city of Busan put a banner outside saying that all of its rooms were free Friday to mark Park's suspension as president, pending a court ruling on whether to remove her permanently from office.

Mom-and-pop restaurants, coffee shops, a music shop and a clothing store were among businesses offering discounts.

Banners are displayed to celebrate President Park Geun-hye's impeachment in front of a hotel in Busan, South Korea, Friday, Dec. 9, 2016. For many South Korean business owners, Park's impeachment Friday was a moment to celebrate  with a sale. The banners read "All hotel rooms are free" and "Park Geun-hye to step down." (Jo Jung-ho/Yonhap via AP)

Hong Young Tack, who runs a coffee shop in western Seoul, offered a $1 discount for his $5 cups of coffee.

"I wanted to share the good news with my guests," said Hong, 32, owner of Coffee No. A. "I wish this will lead to good luck in everything, a recovery in the economy and more guests for me so I can maintain this shop well."

As the influence-peddling scandal involving Park and a longtime confidante unfolded, South Korean consumer sentiment hit its lowest level in seven years in November.

The owner of a restaurant selling $2 rice rolls known as gimbap in western Seoul said she will sell them for 25 percent less until Saturday to celebrate. A group of food truck owners selling popular street food including spicy rice cakes offered free food on Saturday afternoon to celebrate.

One ramen restaurant owner was selling beer and ramen for 2,340 won, or about $2, because of the 234 lawmakers who voted in favor of impeachment.
Germany: teens arrested over suspected extremist attack plan

BERLIN (AP)  Prosecutors say two teenagers have been arrested in Germany on suspicion that they were planning an Islamic extremist attack.

State prosecutors in Karlsruhe said the two Germans, ages 15 and 17, were arrested on Thursday. Prosecutors said the two were suspected of trying to procure firearms for a possible attack on an unidentified public facility in the Aschaffenburg area, southeast of Frankfurt.

Police seized Islamic extremist propaganda, flags of the Islamic State group and cellphones. They found no firearms.
Pope taps Allentown, Pa bishop for Rockville Centre

VATICAN CITY (AP)  Pope Francis has named a new bishop for Rockville Centre, New York, tapping the bishop of Allentown, Pennsylvania whose diocese is one of six undergoing a statewide grand jury investigation into clerical sex abuse.

Bishop John Barres has said the Allentown diocese is fully cooperating with investigators and noted that since 2002, it has given county prosecutors all records of accused priests.

The abuse scandal, which exploded in the U.S. in Boston in 2002, has heated up recently in Pennsylvania. In March, a state grand jury report said two former bishops who led the Altoona-Johnstown diocese had helped cover up the abuse of hundreds of children.
Poland's PM, businessmen hold talks in Albania

TIRANA, Albania (AP)  Poland's prime minister has urged the European Union to move faster to start membership talks with Albania, saying the country is an "important element for security and stability in Europe and the region."

Beata Szydlo was in the Albanian capital, Tirana, Friday for talks on European security and integration and on economic cooperation with Albania.

At a news conference with Prime Minister Edi Rama, Szydlo said Albania's foreign policy is in line with that of the EU, a factor that should encourage the opening of membership talks.

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, right, speaks during a press conference with his Polish counterpart Beata Szydlo in Tirana, Friday, Dec. 9, 2016. Szydlo is in Albania for top-level talks on European security and integration and on bilateral cooperation in the economy. (AP Photo/Hektor Pustina)

She stressed that Albania, the only NATO member in the Western Balkans, "guarantees stability and security" in the region.

The two governments signed agreements on cooperation in culture, investment agencies and chambers of commerce.

Romana Vlahutin, the EU ambassador in Tirana, told Albania on Friday that it needed to start soon to implement the judicial reforms agreed in July. "Any other scenario ... would delay progress," she said.

The justice reforms aim at rooting out bribery and ensuring that judges and prosecutors are politically independent. The European Commission has made those reforms a condition for starting membership negotiations.

Its start has been delayed after the Constitutional Court suspended one key law that was challenged from the opposition, now waiting for an opinion from the Council of Europe's Venice Commission.

"We hope that the opinion of Venice Commission will give clear guidance so that vetting can start, that judicial reform can be implemented and that Albania can move on its path to the European Union," Vlahutin said.

The response from the Venice Commission is expected this weekend.

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Scilowska reported from Warsaw, Poland.

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, right, arrives with his Polish counterpart Beata Szydlo for a press conference in Tirana, Friday, Dec. 9, 2016. Szydlo is in Albania for top-level talks on European security and integration and on bilateral cooperation in the economy. (AP Photo/Hektor Pustina)

Albania Prime Minister Edi Rama, left, and his Polish counterpart Beata Szydlo review the honor guard in Tirana, Friday, Dec. 9, 2016. Szydlo is in Albania for talks on European security and integration and on bilateral cooperation in the economy. (AP Photo/Hektor Pustina)
Coca-Cola names Quincey as next CEO, Kent stays as chairman

NEW YORK (AP)  Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent will step down from that role next year and be succeeded by the company's No. 2 executive, at a time when people are drinking less sugary soda including its flagship Coke drink.

Chief Operating Officer James Quincey, long expected to become the next CEO, will take over leadership of the world's largest beverage maker on May 1, the company said Friday. Kent will remain as chairman of the board.

Quincey, who's worked at Coca-Cola for about two decades, has led its drive to cut down the sugar in its drinks and said Friday that he'll continue to do that as CEO. He also said he'll keep pushing for more low-calorie beverages and for offering soda in smaller cans and bottles.

FILE - In this May 8, 2013 file photo, Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent speaks during a news conference in Atlanta. Coca-Cola said Friday, Dec. 9, 2016 that Kent will step down as CEO next year and be replaced by Chief Operating Officer James Quincey. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)

He said he wants to "stay relevant" with customers by continuing to "digitize" the business, selling Coca-Cola's drinks online, through food delivery companies and any other platform customers go to in the future.

"The iPhone didn't exist when Muhtar became CEO," Quincey said.

The Atlanta-based company has been diversifying its drinks to try to adapt to changing tastes. U.S. sales volume for regular Coke is down 14 percent over the past decade, according to the industry tracker Beverage Digest, while Diet Coke's volume is down 29 percent.

So last year Coca-Cola rolled out nationwide a milk drink called Fairlife that it said had more protein and less sugar than regular milk. It also makes Sprite, Fanta and Dasani water, and has invested in options like bottled teas that have bigger growth potential.

The company is in the midst of selling off its bottling businesses to independent companies who will handle the bottling of sodas and its other drinks. This means less revenue, but fewer costs, for Coca-Cola as it focuses on selling syrups and concentrates to the bottlers as well as expanding its brands. Coca-Cola's annual revenue has fallen in the past four years and Wall Street analysts expect revenue for the current year to fall about 5 percent from the year before. In October, the company said its third-quarter profit fell 28 percent.

Quincey, 51, spent much of his career with the company in Latin America and was named president and chief operating officer last year. Wall Street analysts said they had expected Quincey to be promoted to the top job, but some thought it would be announced early next year.

Analysts at Stifel said "job one" for Quincey is to improve revenue growth. Shares of The Coca-Cola Co. rose $1.06, or 2.6 percent, to $42.04 in afternoon trading Friday.

Kent, 64, will continue as chairman of the board after he steps down as CEO. He has been CEO for more than eight years and first joined the company nearly 40 years ago.

Coca-Cola is the second beverage company to announce a CEO change in the past several days. Last week, Starbucks Corp. said Howard Schultz will step down as CEO next year and stay on as the coffee chain's executive chairman.

Change is also coming to Coca-Cola's board. It had said Thursday that Howard Buffett, the son of billionaire investor Warren Buffett, would retire from the board and not seek re-election next year. Analysts at Bernstein were concerned it could signal that Warren Buffett, whose holding company Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is Coca-Cola's largest shareholder, could sell Coke stock.

Warren Buffett didn't mention his stake Friday but said he was pleased with the CEO succession plans.

"I know James and like him," Buffett said in a statement, "and believe the company has made a smart investment in its future with his selection."

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This story has been corrected to say that Kent has been CEO for more than eight years, not seven.
Japan launches much-needed supplies to space station

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP)  A Japanese capsule blasted off with much-needed supplies for the International Space Station on Friday, a week after a Russian shipment was destroyed shortly after liftoff.

The Russian rocket accident and the grounding of one of NASA's commercial suppliers make this delivery all the more urgent. The spacecraft should arrive at the station Tuesday.

"Have a safe flight," French astronaut Thomas Pesquet said in a tweet from the space station. "Looking forward to your arrival!"

Japan's H-IIB rocket with a capsule called Kounotori, or stork, lifts off at the Tanegashima Space Center in Tanegashima, southern Japan, Friday evening, Dec. 9, 2016. The Japanese capsule contains nearly 5 tons of food, water and other supplies, including new lithium-ion batteries for the International Space Stations solar power system. (Ryosuke Uematsu/Kyodo News via AP)

The capsule  called Kounotori, or white stork  contains nearly 5 tons of food, water and other supplies, including six new lithium-ion batteries for the station's solar power system. Astronauts will conduct spacewalks next month to replace the old nickel-hydrogen batteries that store energy generated by the station's big solar panels.

This is Japan's sixth shipment to the 250-mile-high outpost, currently home to Pesquet, two Americans and three Russians. It launched from Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan.

Launches by SpaceX, meanwhile, have been on hold since a September rocket explosion on the pad in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The helium pressurization system in the rocket's upper stage was breached, resulting in a massive fireball.

The company hopes to resume flights next month from Southern California. Iridium Communications satellites will be aboard that initial launch. A space station supply run is supposed to follow a few weeks later from Cape Canaveral.

In a televised interview from the space station following Friday's launch, NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson said there are already enough supplies to last until spring. The Japanese shipment will stretch that out even further. The Russians lost a spacesuit in the Dec. 1 launch accident, among many other items, she noted.

"Spaceflight's not an easy thing," Whitson said. "We just have to keep pressing ourselves to do the right thing, make sure we're doing all the right tests ... so that we don't have these problems."

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Online:

NASA: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

Japan's H-IIB rocket with a capsule called Kounotori, or stork, waits for liftoff at the Tanegashima Space Center in Tanegashima, southern Japan, Friday morning, Dec. 9, 2016. The Japanese capsule was launched late Friday evening with much-needed supplies to the International Space Station. The Kounotori contains nearly 5 tons of food, water and other supplies, including new lithium-ion batteries for the stations solar power system. (Ryosuke Uematsu/Kyodo News via AP)

This still image taken from NASA shows the liftoff of Kounotori, as it sets to deliver supplies to International Space Station, on Friday, Dec. 9, 2016 at the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan. The cargo spaceship is carrying 5.9 tons of supplies including food, drinking water and other daily necessities for astronauts on board the ISS, seven ultrasmall satellites developed by some universities and firms, and Japanese-made lithium-ion batteries for use on the space station. (NASA via AP)
Legal experts say Turkey went 'too far' in coup response

ISTANBUL (AP)  Turkey went "too far" with emergency measures adopted following a failed July 15 coup attempt, a panel of constitutional law experts said in an opinion adopted Friday.

The Venice Commission of the Council of Europe, the continent's leading human rights organization, said Turkish authorities had good reasons to declare a state of emergency in response to a "dangerous armed conspiracy," but concluded that Ankara's measures contravened the country's constitution and international law.

The opinion took particular issue with the collective dismissal of "tens of thousands of public servants" on the basis of lists appended to emergency decrees rather than "verifiable evidence" in each individual case.

The Venice Commission, an advisory body for legal and constitutional issues, said that while some public employees had connections to the network of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, which Ankara blames for the attempted coup, past contact with Gulen's organization should not amount automatically to criminal or disciplinary liability.

Turkish authorities consider the Gulen movement to be a terrorist organization on par with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, and the Islamic State group.

Gulen, who denies masterminding the coup attempt, has long lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania. Turkey has asked the United States to extradite him to face justice.

The panel observed that people were fired or arrested based on "connections" to a terror group that were "too loosely defined and did not require a meaningful connection with such organizations."

The expert opinion, which will be made public in full on Monday, also expressed concern from the increase of pre-trial detention without judicial review from four to 30 days.

Turkish officials did not respond directly to the opinion, which coincided with the United Nations-designated Human Rights Day.

But Anadolu Agency quoted Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu as saying, "Many countries failed both to comprehend the barbaric (July 15) attack on human rights and the democratic order of the Turkish people."

Cavusoglu also recalled how the squashed coup attempt claimed 248 lives and injured 2,193 others.

Turkey has arrested over 37,000 people and dismissed or suspended more than 100,000 others in the civil service, judiciary, police, military and other institutions since the abortive putsch.
Top Greek court to rule on Turkish servicemen

ATHENS, Greece (AP)  The Greek Supreme Court will consider a request by Turkey to extradite eight military servicemen who fled to Greece by helicopter after a failed military coup in July.

The high profile case was referred to the country's highest court Friday, upon the request of a state prosecutor. No date has been set for the hearing.

In three separate rulings, lower courts approved the extradition of three officers but rejected the request for the other five.

All eight servicemen deny participating in the coup attempt and an alleged plot to assassinate President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. They flew to a Greek border town from neighboring Turkey.
Kenyan army says 4 al-Shabab extremists killed in firefight

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP)  A Kenyan army spokesman says soldiers on patrol have killed four extremists suspected of being members of the al-Qaida-linked Somali group al-Shabab.

Lt. Col. Paul Njuguna says other extremists escaped Friday's firefight in the Hulugho area of eastern Kenya.

Al-Shabab has vowed retribution after Kenya sent troops to Somalia to fight the group in late 2011.

Al-Shabab has carried out more than 100 attacks in Kenya since 2011, including the 2013 Westgate Mall attack in which 67 people died and the 2015 attack on Garissa University in which 148 people, mostly students, died.
Reinhold apologizes to Dallas police, embarrassed by arrest

DALLAS (AP)  Actor Judge Reinhold has apologized to police, saying he's embarrassed that he was arrested after a confrontation with security at Dallas Love Field Airport.

Police arrested the 59-year-old actor Thursday afternoon on a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge after he refused a Transportation Security Administration screening. It is punishable by a fine of up to $500.

Reinhold apologized after his release from jail Friday. He says he walked through a TSA scanner but refused to let agents examine his backpack, which contained DVDs and CDs.

This undated photo provided by Dallas County Sheriff's Department shows Edward Judge Reinhold. Actor Judge Reinhold has been arrested on a disorderly conduct charge after a confrontation with security agents at Dallas Love Field. A Dallas Police Department statement says the 59-year-old actor was arrested Thursday afternoon, Dec. 8, 2016, after Transportation Security Administration employees reported that he refused to submit to a screening at a checkpoint. (Dallas County Sheriff's Department via AP)

He indicated that his "self-righteous indignation" was connected to an adverse reaction he had to medication for a respiratory infection earlier in the week.

Reinhold, who lives in Little Rock, Arkansas, appeared in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" and "Beverly Hills Cop."

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Verdict on Haiti vote challenges kicked up to highest court

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP)  A Haitian electoral tribunal says it's incapable of ruling on legal challenges filed by three presidential candidates who lost a preliminary tally in a landslide.

The Friday decision means Haiti's highest electoral court will now have to examine challenges by losing factions in the Nov. 20 elections.

It's not clear how long it will take a panel of judges from the National Office of Electoral Disputes to issue a binding verdict.

Preliminary results show that Jovenel Moise easily won a presidential election redo against 26 rivals and no runoff would be needed.

But the results showing victory for the political newcomer backed by Haiti's previous elected leader were quickly challenged by his three nearest competitors.
2 teen girls in Morocco acquitted of homosexuality charges

MARRAKECH, Morocco (AP)  A Moroccan judge has acquitted two teenage girls put on trial for homosexuality, charges that angered LGBT rights groups who have long argued that same-sex relationships should not be a crime.

The girls, ages 16 and 17, had faced up to three years in prison according to a law forbidding "lewd or unnatural acts with an individual of the same sex." One of their mothers reported the two to police in October.

The judge in Marrakech ruled Friday that the girls must remain under parental authority until they turn 18.

Their defense lawyer, Rachid El Ghorfi, expressed relief at the acquittal. Ghorfi says, "They should have never been in front of the prosecutor or the judge."
Snow doesn't mean drought is over in northern New England

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP)  The ground is covered with snow and starting to freeze across northern New England, but that doesn't mean the drought is over.

Most of Maine remains in a severe drought going into the winter, and the freezing ground means there won't be any major groundwater replenishment until the spring when the snow melts, said Tom Hawley, hydrologist with the National Weather Service.

Surface water levels across the state are now in the normal range, but groundwater levels are going to take longer to recover. Much will depend on the level of the snowpack.

"We just hope we can build up the snowpack so we have a decent amount of snow on the ground for the spring melt," Hawley said.

The Maine Drought Task Force was told Friday that the situation has improved since September and October, when officials were carefully monitoring some public water supplies.

The Maine Emergency Management Agency is aware of only two reports of dry wells in the past two weeks, compared to hundreds over the course of the summer and earlier in the fall.

Recent weeks have brought rain and snow to the region, and more precipitation is on tap for next week. But the long-term forecast is uncertain.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration currently projects equal chances of this winter having above-normal or below-normal precipitation.

The Maine State Housing Authority has received another infusion of emergency funding  $200,000  to help low-income residents drill new wells, said MEMA Director Bruce Fitzgerald. The agency received $250,000 over the summer, and that was "gone in a flash," he said.

Going forward, Poland Spring, the Good Shepherd Food Bank and American Red Cross are partnering to get bottled water to people whose wells dry up, he said.
An early morning fire at a central Virginia marina destroyed about a dozen boats Friday, sinking some and sending others ablaze down the James River.

No injuries were reported in the blaze at the Richmond Yacht Basin, said Capt. Taylor Goodman of the Henrico Fire Department.

Fire officials estimate 12 to 15 boats were likely destroyed, Goodman said, along with part of a boat storage structure.

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An early morning fire at a central Virginia marina destroyed about a dozen boats Friday, sinking some and sending others ablaze down the James River

Smoke is seen from a burning marina on the James River on Friday. Several boats burned during a fire at the Richmond Boat Basin

No injuries were reported in the blaze at the Richmond Yacht Basin, said Capt. Taylor Goodman of the Henrico Fire Department

'The problem is, so much of the structure over the boats has collapsed down on it, it's hard to tell' the extent of the damage, he said.

The blaze was first reported about 7am by a neighbor who went to the scene and alerted people staying on their boats, Goodman said.

Tony Wolpert lives in a nearby home, saw smoke around 7am, went to the scene and called 911 - and ran on the docks yelling there was a fire, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported.

Three people exited their boats after he alerted them, Wolpert told the newspaper.

Fire officials estimate 12 to 15 boats were likely destroyed, Goodman said, along with part of a boat storage structure

Firefighters works to put out the fire at Richmond Yacht Basin

Mitch Romig, from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, was renting a houseboat at the marina for the night, the newspaper said.

'We heard someone running around saying the marina was on fire. So we got up and got off the boat as quickly as we could,' he told the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

'It was pretty big already (when we got off the boat). I don't know how many boats on the end were all already ... on fire  pretty big flames.'

The blaze was first reported about 7am by a neighbor who went to the scene and alerted people staying on their boats, Goodman said

Dave Hughes told WTVR he was woken up by 'a popping and banging,' and headed outdoors, only to spot his boat on fire.

He told the station: 'I immediately knocked on my neighbor's door. David Napier, my good friend. I got him out safely yelled, "Fire."'

Hughes said: 'I've lost all of my possessions and that's not even on my mind. What's on my mind is both of us are safe.'

Napier told WTVR he got himself and Hughes to safety in his boat, recalling: 'I went up, started the boat, came down, untied two lines [and] went back up to put the boat in gear.

'At that point, it had started to melt the swim noodles we use and it was burning my back. So, we got out just in time. It was right over top on my head.'

Images from the area show a plume of smoke visible from several miles away.

Some of the vessels were floating downriver on fire late Friday morning. Five or six boats have sunk, marina President Max Walraven said.

Some of the vessels were floating downriver on fire late Friday morning. Five or six boats have sunk, marina President Max Walraven said

A Henrico County fire boat was trapped by the burning dock and sustained 'quite a bit of damage,' Goodman said.

It's not yet clear what started the blaze.

Goodman told WRIC: 'It was a pretty remote area, no fire hydrants so we had to bring water on engines and tanker trucks so there were very long hose lays to bring water in.'

He told the TV station: 'Were going to have to go through we're going to have to look at each boat individually to see if there was anything on them to have contributed to fire spread ignited the fire or anything like that.'

Goodman had said he expected firefighters to be at the scene the rest of the day Friday and possibly into Saturday.

The marina is in southeastern Henrico near the Chesterfield border, about 10 miles from downtown Richmond.
Prince Andrew to press: End false stories about daughters

LONDON (AP)  Britain's Prince Andrew wants the media to leave his daughters alone.

The prince issued a strongly worded personal statement on Friday calling for an end to "speculation and innuendo" about his daughters, and denying reports of a feud with big brother Prince Charles.

Andrew, the third of Queen Elizabeth II's four children, slammed recent newspaper stories that he said "have no basis in fact."

FILE - In this Friday, April 29, 2011 file photo, Britain's Prince Andrew, center, and his daughters Princess Eugenie, left, and Princess Beatrice leave Westminster Abbey after the wedding of Prince William to Catherine Middleton, in London. Britains Prince Andrew is asking the media to cease speculation and innuendo about his daughters, and denies hes feuding with elder brother Prince Charles. Andrew, the third of Queen Elizabeth IIs four children, released a strongly worded statement Friday, Dec. 9, 2016 slamming recent newspaper stories that have no basis in fact. (AP Photo/Gero Breloer, File)

He denied claims he has asked for royal titles to be bestowed on any future husbands of his daughters, 28-year-old Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, 26.

And he said "there is no truth to the story" of a split with Charles over his daughters' role in the royal family.

British newspapers have reported that Andrew, whose title is Duke of York, wants his daughters to receive taxpayer-funded salaries for their royal work.

The princesses carry out royal duties part-time, but also are building careers. Eugenie works for an art gallery, while Beatrice has had jobs in the financial sector.

Andrew, 56, said he could not stand by and watch the media speculate about his daughters "based on my purported interventions, which are completely made up and an invention."

The princesses' mother Sarah, Duchess of York, also on Friday asked people to "stop bullying the York family."

On a visit with her daughters to a cancer unit for teenagers, she said she was proud Beatrice and Eugenie had taken time off from their jobs for the charity visit.

"Let's focus more on this and less on tittle-tattle gossip," she said. "Stop bullying the York family, please."

Britain's royals have become increasingly willing to speak out against perceived intrusions.
It's Trump's war soon: Afghan future is cloudy at best

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP)  Afghanistan has fallen so far from Americans' consciousness that some may have forgotten it's called the forgotten war.

It also is America's longest war. Now in its 16th year and showing little sign of ending, it will soon be the responsibility of Donald Trump, two presidents removed from the October 2001 invasion.

During the presidential campaign, neither Trump nor Democrat Hillary Clinton offered new ideas for breaking the battlefield stalemate. They hardly mentioned the country, let alone a strategy.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, right, and U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter, left, wave after a press conference at presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, Dec. 9, 2016. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Friday that the United States will stick with Afghanistan for years to come. (AP Photos/Massoud Hossaini)

And yet, the war that began as America's response to 9/11 grinds on as nearly 10,000 U.S. troops train and advise the Afghan army and police, hopeful that at some point the Afghans can stand on their own against the Taliban  or better, that peace talks will end the insurgency.

A look at the war Trump inherits from President Barack Obama, what U.S. troops are doing and why the outlook is so clouded.

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THE U.S. MISSION

While Obama was a longtime critic of the Iraq war, he always cast the Afghanistan fight as vital.

Shortly after taking office in 2009, Obama looked to fix what he saw as U.S. failures in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He tripled troop levels in Afghanistan, but the surge did not force the Taliban to the negotiating table. Pakistan remains a sanctuary for the Taliban.

In December 2014, the U.S. ended its combat role in Afghanistan, but there will be at least 8,400 troops there when Trump takes office.

American troops and their coalition partners perform two tasks: The first, Operation Resolute Support, is to train and advise Afghan forces fighting the Taliban. The second, Operation Freedom's Sentinel, is to hunt down and kill al-Qaida militants, as well as those affiliated with the Islamic State and other groups using the country as a hideout and potential launching pad for attacks.

"The interests we are pursuing here are clear and enduring," Defense Secretary Ash Carter said during a visit Friday. He cited the goals of preventing another 9/11-type attack on America and helping Afghanistan attain enough stability to remain a long-term security partner.

The U.S. performs its counterterror work in Afghanistan in two ways. First, it goes after al-Qaida and Islamic State operatives as a U.S.-only mission. Gen. John Nicholson, the top U.S. commander in the country, said last week that U.S. special operations forces have conducted 350 such missions in 2016  an average of nearly one per day. These killed or captured nearly 50 leaders and other members of al-Qaida, he said.

Secondly, U.S. forces operate with Afghan special forces in hunting Islamic State fighters; these operations have killed the top 12 IS leaders in Afghanistan, Nicholson said.

He said that of the 98 militant groups designated by the U.S. as terrorist organizations, 20 are in Afghanistan, the world's highest concentration. That alone says much about the inconclusive  some would say failed  outcome of Obama administration's efforts.

Nicholson said Friday the remnants of al-Qaida, the group whose 9/11 attacks were the reason the U.S. invaded, still "has the intent" to attack America.

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THE OUTLOOK

Nicholson and many U.S. generals who preceded him see reason for hope in the country. They point to modest progress against corruption and expanded opportunities for women.

He said he is confident the Afghan army, which suffered heavy losses in 2016, will continue to improve.

"It was a tough year," he said. "They were tested. They prevailed."

His predecessor, retired Gen. John Campbell, says the Afghans deserve continued support.

"The Afghan government is now taking on the Taliban more so than ever before," he said Friday in an email exchange.

Some analysts, however, worry that the Obama administration missed opportunities to improve security and strengthen the government.

Frederick W. Kagan, a military historian and director of the Critical Threats Project at the American Enterprise Institute, says security has deteriorated despite U.S. efforts to build up the army and police.

"If that's not good," he said of Afghan security, "nothing else matters. And it's not good."

Kagan says Obama is leaving his successor a worrisome situation.

"We're sliding toward the collapse of this government and potentially a renewal of the civil war," he said.

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TRUMP'S WAR

Trump will not have an easy time disentangling the U.S. military from Afghanistan, short of an unlikely decision to simply walk away. He has said little about the country but has called broadly for an end to "nation-building" efforts.

Michael Flynn, the retired Army lieutenant general who will be Trump's national security adviser, sees Afghanistan as part of a broader war the U.S. must fight for generations.

"We defeated al-Qaida and the Iranians in Iraq, and the Taliban and their allies in Afghanistan. Nonetheless, they kept fighting and we went away," he wrote in his 2016 book, "Field of Fight." ''Let's face it: Right now we're losing, and I'm talking about a very big war, not just Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. We're in a world war against a messianic mass movement of evil people, most of them inspired by a totalitarian ideology: radical Islam."

Trump's choice to lead the Pentagon, retired Marine Gen. James Mattis, is a veteran of combat in Afghanistan. He has written that the U.S. devotes too few resources, guided by too little strategic clarity, to Afghanistan. But how that translates into action by the next White House is unclear.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, right, hugs U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter, left, after a press conference at presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, Dec. 9, 2016. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Friday that the United States will stick with Afghanistan for years to come. (AP Photos/Massoud Hossaini)
France's court annuls Kazakh banker's extradition to Russia

PARIS (AP)  A top French court refused to hand over a Kazakh banker-turned-dissident to Russia despite accusations he embezzled millions, saying it considered the extradition request from Moscow to be "politically motivated."

Hours after Friday's ruling, Mukhtar Ablyazov walked free from a French prison, hugging his son, brother and lawyer. It was a surprise twist in a winding legal saga that has lasted years and spanned several countries.

Ablyazov's lawyers had asked France's Council of State to block his extradition, fearing Russia would quickly send him back to Kazakhstan.

Mukhtar Ablyazov, second from left, leaves the Fleury Merogis prison, escorted by his son Madiyar, right, and his lawyers, in Fleury Merogis, south of Paris, Friday, Dec. 9, 2016. A top court in France refused Friday to hand a Kazakh banker-turned-dissident charged with embezzling billions over to Russia, saying it considered the extradition request from Moscow to be "politically motivated." (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

The Council of State noted in its decision that the Kazakh and Russian authorities have "repeatedly" held consultations on Ablyazov's case. Requests for the return of criminal suspects can be rejected if they are judged to be politically motivated.

A former energy minister who founded an opposition party in Kazakhstan, he was charged by Kazakh authorities with stealing billions of tenge from a bank he founded, BTA.

Russia, a close ally of Kazakhstan, says its citizens were also defrauded in the collapse of the bank.

There was no immediate reaction to the ruling from BTA or Russian or Kazakh authorities.

"We are thrilled with the result today," Ablyazov's lawyer, Peter Sahlas, told The Associated Press. "This is a huge step forward for human rights law in France and Europe."

Last year, France's top appeals court, the Court of Cassation, had approved Ablyazov's extradition. The French government signed an extradition decree in September 2015, but Ablyazov appealed to the Council of State, France's highest administrative body.

Ablyazov didn't speak about his ordeal after being released from the Fleury-Merogis prison outside Paris late Friday night.

His 24-year-old son Madiyar couldn't contain his emotions. "Oh wow, we just feel so great. It is so unexpected today," he said. "We are so glad to have Dad back finally ... It's the best New Year's present."

Ablyazov's lawyers argued he was being pursued because of his activities as an opposition leader in autocratic Kazakhstan, and feared he would not get a fair trial in Russia or Ukraine. They also suspected he could be eventually transferred to Kazakhstan.

The banker fled Kazakhstan amid the nationalization of BTA Bank. He was arrested in southern France in 2013 on embezzlement allegations. Both Russia and Ukraine have requested his extradition. France has no extradition agreement with Kazakhstan.

___

Schaeffer reported from Fleury-Merogis.

Mukhtar Ablyazov, left, is welcomed by his son Madiyar, as he leaves the Fleury Merogis prison, in Fleury Merogis, south of Paris, Friday, Dec. 9, 2016. A top court in France refused Friday to hand Ablyazov, Kazakh banker-turned-dissident charged with embezzling billions over to Russia, saying it considered the extradition request from Moscow to be "politically motivated." (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Mukhtar Ablyazov, centre, waves as he leaves the Fleury Merogis prison, in Fleury Merogis, south of Paris, Friday, Dec. 9, 2016. A top court in France refused Friday to hand the Kazakh banker-turned-dissident charged with embezzling billions over to Russia, saying it considered the extradition request from Moscow to be "politically motivated." (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Mukhtar Ablyazov, center, leaves the Fleury Merogis prison, in Fleury Merogis, south of Paris, Friday, Dec. 9, 2016. A top court in France refused Friday to hand the Kazakh banker-turned-dissident charged with embezzling billions over to Russia, saying it considered the extradition request from Moscow to be "politically motivated." (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Mukhtar Ablyazov, second from left, is applauded by his lawyers as he leaves the Fleury Merogis prison, in Fleury Merogis, south of Paris, Friday, Dec. 9, 2016. A top court in France refused Friday to hand a Kazakh banker-turned-dissident charged with embezzling billions over to Russia, saying it considered the extradition request from Moscow to be "politically motivated." (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Cue the music, cue the drama! Lee Daniels introduces 'Star'

NEW YORK (AP)  The title of Lee Daniels' latest venture, "Star," might very well identify this celebrated producer-director-writer. His films include "Monster's Ball," ''Precious" and "The Butler," while two seasons ago he roared into series TV with Fox's smash music drama "Empire."

But "Star," a sort of "Empire" encore, refers instead to the lure of stardom on an ambitious singing trio, and, more specifically, to the fiery young woman calling the shots. Her name happens to be Star.

Star is played by Jude Demorest, who joins real-life fellow newcomers Brittany O'Grady (as Star's sister Simone) and Ryan Destiny (as Alexandra) in portraying this defiant threesome out to beat the odds in the show-biz sweepstakes and make a fresh start in their lives.

This image released by Fox shows Jude Demorest, from left, Ryan Destiny and Brittany O'Grady in "Star," a new series by Lee Daniels, premiering Wednesday at 9p.m. EST on Fox. (Annette Brown/Fox via AP)

"Star," which premieres Wednesday at 9 p.m. EST on Fox, also features Queen Latifah as the girls' surrogate mother and Benjamin Bratt as a down-on-his-luck talent agent. It was co-created by Daniels, who directed the first two episodes and has been heavily involved in all the subsequent writing and editing.

"We want to get it off the ground in the right way," he says, copping to a bit of weariness from his heavy involvement. "It's a delicate time. You really have to get people hooked into the characters."

While "Empire" depicts the glitzy but cut-throat world of music at its pinnacle, "Star" is planted at the gritty entry level.

But how did the series come about?

Daniels explains that, after feasting on movie success, he resolved a while back to give TV a try.

"I did a pilot. I thought, 'OK, I can check THAT off my bucket list.' I assumed it wouldn't get picked up. Then it got picked up."

It was "Empire."

"Then Fox said, 'You want to do another one?' I said, 'OK.'"

He stewed over what that new series should be, and gathered what he calls "a hodgepodge of things that inspired me: 'Dreamgirls,' 'Valley of the Dolls,' 'Sex and the City'; a girls' show with music and a little bit of edge."

Plus original vocal-and-dance numbers.

"It's hard enough telling a story," he declares with a roll of his eyes. "I must be a masochist to want to add music! It has to be seamless  you can't just bust out into a musical number. But I enjoyed it so much with 'Empire' we did it again.

"And I wanted to talk about race, about where we are racially in America. So the lead girl (Star) is white, her sister's half-black, and, just to turn things upside down, the third girl, who is black, is the rich girl."

That was the show as envisioned.

"Then HE became president," says Daniels, perhaps getting a little ahead of himself. But his point is clear: With half of its 13 episodes completed, Daniels worries that the ground has shifted under his series as it has with so much else. "This show is a little bit about what's going on today, but now it's more of an escape. Because I think people just can't bear what's going on now. The show is for those of us who can't bear it."

But for Daniels  a gay black man who, growing up, felt like an outsider in his "West Philly" neighborhood  escape isn't really what he aims to give his audience. Actually, he wants to share a bit of what he's learned living what he calls, sardonically, his "zany life."

"When I was 7, I watched somebody killed," he says. "And also when I was 10.

"I'm 57 (on Christmas Eve) and I'm alive, without HIV, and that's a miracle: I watched so many friends die in my arms, many of whom I had slept with. So when you've got a foundation of bullets whizzing by you or somebody dying in front of you, and parents who didn't embrace you, you have a wealth of stuff at your command. I only just now started going to therapy. But before that, all my therapy was my work. I just spilled it out.

"My work is all about from whence I cometh," says the man who found his way to Los Angeles and landed his first job as a receptionist at a nursing agency. "I'm living a dream today. I'm blessed. And I'm here to give you what you're craving, which is a story that you can identify with; voices that you don't hear and faces you don't see. At least, not onscreen every day."

___

EDITOR'S NOTE  Frazier Moore is a national television columnist for The Associated Press. He can be reached at fmoore@ap.org and at http://www.twitter.com/tvfrazier. Past stories are available at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/frazier-moore

_____

Online:

http://www.fox.com
South Africa company to buy Stillwater Mining Co. for $2.2B

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP)  The company that owns Montana's largest mining complex announced Friday that it will be acquired by a South African company for $2.2 billion in a deal that requires U.S. government approval.

Sibanye Gold Limited will buy Littleton, Colorado-based Stillwater Mining Company under a merger agreement expected to close in the second quarter of 2017, said Stillwater Chief Executive Officer Mick McMullen.

Sibanye (sih-BAHN'-yay) also will assume $500 million of Stillwater's debt.

Stillwater is the only U.S. producer of platinum and palladium, precious metals used in catalytic converters to reduce pollution from cars and tracks, and as jewelry. It employs more than 1,400 people at two mines in southern Montana's Beartooth Mountains and at a smelter and refinery in the small Montana town of Columbus.

As precious metals prices dropped in recent years, the company cut its workforce significantly, including about 120 workers from the Stillwater Mine and the Columbus facility. With prices rising for palladium, most of those workers have since been rehired and McMullen said he does not anticipate further job losses stemming Friday's announcement.

"It's business as usual," McMullen told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "These guys (Sibanye) have bought into a company that's not a turnaround story. This thing is running itself."

A U.S. subsidiary of Sibanye will pay $18 per share in cash in the acquisition, Stillwater said. Sibanye also will take on some of Stillwater's debt.

Stillwater's pending plans to expand operations with two mining projects located near its existing mines and known as Blitz and Lower East Boulder will continue.

The deal was approved unanimously by Stillwater's board of directors, of which former Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer is chairman. The two-term governor and other board members will resign when the deal closes.

Scott McGinnis with United Steelworkers Local 11-0001, the union for much of the company's workforce, said miners had no further information about the impact of the deal but will meet with Sibanye representatives on Monday.

The acquisition must be approved by the two companies' shareholders and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, an inter-agency committee that reviews takeovers of U.S. businesses by foreign entities.

Stillwater also owns copper deposits in Ontario, Canada, and in Argentina.

Shares of Stillwater (SWC) rose sharply on the news, closing at $17.32 a share on the New York Stock Exchange, an increase of almost 18 percent.

American depository shares of Sibanye plunged to $7.10 on the NYSE, a drop of more than 15 percent.

___
Cyber threat underestimated despite risks as high as burglary, survey shows

The threats posed by cyber attacks are still greatly underestimated by the majority of Britons, new research from BT claims.

The telecoms giant found that 60% believe they are more likely to be the victim of a physical break-in than of a cyber crime despite figures suggesting the two are just as likely.

Cyber attacks have affected customers of TalkTalk, the Post Office, video site Dailymotion and Yahoo among others this year.

Many internet users do not have sufficient online security

However, BT Security's research found that just 10% of those surveyed thought their WiFi or smartphone could be the most likely source of a crime.

Commander Chris Greany from City of London Police said the statistics did not support this idea.

"The Crime Survey of England and Wales showed that people are much more likely to be a victim of digital crimes in the UK, with almost half of all crime now either fraud or cyber crime," he said.

"Just as people protect their home from burglary, so they also need to protect their digital presence. Many broadband and telephone providers now offer free security solutions and we strongly encourage everyone to take advantage of these to ensure they are protected against the less visible dangers online and over the phone."

But BT's research claims few are proactive when it comes to securing their devices, with 40% of 16-to-24-year-olds admitting they use the same password across different devices and accounts, something cyber experts say is one of the most common ways hackers can breach an account.

Mark Hughes, BT Security's chief executive, said: "People must ensure that they are protecting themselves and their family from increasingly sophisticated cyber threats such as phishing emails, malware and inappropriate web content."

Nick Viney, from Intel Security, said: "The reality is that digital crimes are thriving. Recent research from Intel Security showed that stolen credit and debit card data can be bought and sold for between 13 and 23 in the UK alone.
Boris Johnson charms Gulf leaders days after Saudi Arabia 'proxy wars' comment

Boris Johnson has emphasised the strength of British relations with Gulf nations as he gave a public speech to Arab leaders just days after it emerged he had criticised ally Saudi Arabia.

The Foreign Secretary failed to directly address the furore he sparked when he accused the state of being behind "proxy wars", but insisted "any crisis in the Gulf is a crisis for Britain" as he talked about the UK's historic ties with the region.

Mr Johnson suffered a humiliating slap down from Number 10 when he claimed Saudi Arabia was "puppeteering", and Conservative predecessor Sir Malcolm Rifkind has said the "jury's out" over his future in the job.

Boris Johnson has addressed Gulf leaders in Bahrain just days after accusing British ally Saudi Arabia of being behind 'proxy wars'

Addressing the International Institute for Strategic Studies Manama Dialogue in Bahrain, Mr Johnson did raise the conflict in Yemen were Saudi Arabia is supporting the internationally-recognised government against Iran backed Hoothi rebels.

Insisting it had been worth spending 12 years negotiating the nuclear deal with Iran, he added: "I think we must build on this foundation and try to develop a better relationship with Tehran.

"But that can only happen if Iran plays by the same rules and exercises its influence in diplomacy and by dialogue."

Mr Johnson said Saudi Arabia is "securing itself from bombardment by the Hoothis".

He added: "But I must also share my profound concerns, which I'm sure is universal in this room, about the present suffering of the people of Yemen.

"I think we can all agree on this key point, that force alone will not bring about a stable Yemen, and that's why we in London have been working so hard with all our partners to drive that political process forwards."

Mr Johnson appeared to charm the audience in a typically colourful speech, triggering laughter among the guests as he talked of selling sand to the Saudis for their golf courses and described London as the "eighth Emirate".

Telling the conference "Britain is back east of Suez", he said 3 billion will be spent on military commitments in the Gulf over the next 10 years.

"That's deepening a partnership that is stronger than with any other group of nations in the world outside Nato," he said.

Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson has defended the Foreign Secretary's criticism of the kingdom, insisting he was "absolutely right".

She told BBC Radio 4's The Westminster Hour: "I think Boris Johnson was absolutely right about what he said about proxy wars, and about Saudi and about Iran. And I agree with his analysis. Now, that might not be the position of the UK Government, but guess what - I am not in the UK Government, and I think he was right."

Theresa May's official spokeswoman said the Prime Minister has "full confidence" in Mr Johnson, but also told reporters his comments were his own personal view and they do not reflect Government policy.

And she pointedly noted that Mr Johnson will have the opportunity to set out official policy - of Britain's desire to strengthen its ties with Saudi Arabia and support for its controversial military involvement in Yemen - when he travels to the desert kingdom.

Asked if No 10 was right to distance itself from Mr Johnson's comments, Ms Davidson said: "I think there is a long standing diplomatic convention about not panning your allies in public. I think that this situation, particularly in Yemen, is desperate. I think that the UK Government is trying its hardest to make a dreadful situation better and I absolutely understand why the UK Government had to come out and say what it said - but I don't think Boris was wrong."
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger getting to work on several new contracts

Arsene Wenger has revealed Arsenal are working to get several key players tied down to new deals at the Emirates Stadium.

Contract extensions for both Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil have dominated the back pages this week, with reports the pair are seeking parity with the highest-paid players in the Premier League.

Wenger said on Thursday morning that he will not allow the pair to leave Arsenal even if they do not sign fresh contracts, opening up the possibility that the two most expensive signings in the club's history could leave for free.

Arsene Wenger is looking to tie a number of Arsenal players down to new deals at the club.

But, as well as Ozil and Sanchez, there are a host of other big names who are yet to sign new terms with the Gunners.

Kieran Gibbs, Olivier Giroud, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Mathieu Debuchy and Jack Wilshere all have a year and a half left on their current contracts.

And Wenger said it is normal to be in such a situation before announcing talks had opened with a number of those players whose contract ends are in sight.

"There are six or seven cases at the moment but that is the usual case, it is every year like that," he said.

"That explains to you why we have a lot of work to do but you are only interested in two cases (Sanchez and Ozil)."

A number of names were then put to Wenger, starting with Giroud, and the Frenchman said of his compatriot: "We work as well on Giroud."

He also confirmed talks had opened with Oxlade-Chamberlain, who has impressed in recent weeks, especially in the 5-1 thrashing of West Ham last Saturday.

Wenger said last month he will also look to talk to Wilshere, currently on loan at Bournemouth, in the new year.

Injured duo Per Mertesacker and Santi Cazorla have just over six months remaining on their deals, although Arsenal have the option to take up another one-year extension with both players.

Mertesacker is back training following a serious knee injury in pre-season while Cazorla has just undergone surgery on an injured Achilles.

Wenger said of the Spaniard that the club "will extend certainly with Santi Cazorla," meaning the 31-year-old is likely to remain at the Emirates despite reported interest from his homeland.

While most of those negotiations take place in the background, it is the deals for Ozil and Sanchez which will rumble on.

But Wenger says Arsenal have to look at the bigger picture regarding the pair, and insists the club could cope with losing them in the future.

"Arsenal is a big club," he added.

"It is not one or two players who will make the difference to the club. The importance is that we are today in a financial position that is strong, that was not the case before.

"That means as well we are in a position where we can plan our future, and do what we want to do.

"What is important is always to take care of the values of the club, and the identity of the club, and not to depend too much on one or two players. The history of Arsenal is bigger than that.
Brexit blamed for hold-up in case of woman 'imprisoned' by Saudi father

A delay in resolving a High Court case about a young woman who claimed she was being imprisoned by her father has been attributed to Brexit.

Amina Al-Jeffery, 21, who grew up in Swansea and has dual British and Saudi Arabian nationality, has complained that her father locked her up in his flat in Jeddah because she had "kissed a guy".

Her father, Saudi academic Mohammed Al-Jeffery, has disputed her allegations and said he was trying to protect her.

Amina Al-Jeffery (Family handout/PA)

In August, Mr Justice Holman said her father had to "permit and facilitate" his daughter's return to England or Wales by September 11, but she has not returned.

The case was adjourned until Friday in the hope that a private face-to-face meeting between Miss Al-Jeffery and her solicitor, Anne-Marie Hutchinson, would get to the bottom of the matter and allow it to be resolved "once and for all".

But the judge was told that the meeting in Jeddah had not taken place because of travel difficulties encountered by Ms Hutchinson.

Her bid to get a visa was thwarted because her Irish passport did not have the required two clear pages side by side and, when she applied for a fresh passport, she was told there was a backlog because of Brexit.

Adjourning the case until February 13, the judge said: "There you have it. The reach of Brexit has even impacted on progress in this case. Who would have foreseen it?

"She needed two pages side by side, an Irish passport and there was a backlog because of Brexit.

"But these things happen and we have to accommodate them."

At a previous hearing, the judge said he had heard that Miss Al-Jeffery's relationship with her father was much improved and some of the restrictions placed upon her had been relaxed.

Miss Al-Jeffery said she now had a mobile phone, a computer and her passports - although her British passport was said to have expired - and she was working as an intern.

She had repeatedly said she wanted the legal proceedings to come to an end as they were hampering the restoration of family relationships.

Lawyers for her father said he had agreed that she could travel in and out of Saudi Arabia at any time although, as a formality, he would require her to ask permission which would always be given.
Danish MP suggests shooting at boats carrying migrants

COPENHAGEN, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Security forces should shoot at the boats of migrants trying to reach the European Union illegally, a member of parliament for the Danish government's main political ally, the Danish People's Party, suggested on national television.

"The only efficient way is to turn the boats and say: 'You cannot sail within this national border and if you do, you will either be shot at or be turned around and sailed back," Kenneth Berth, the EU spokesman for anti-immigrant party, said on broadcaster DK4 on Tuesday.

Berth later softened his statement on Facebook, saying he did not mean that people should be shot at, but that NATO-ships could shoot in the air as a warning.

Party spokesman Soren Sondergaard told Reuters that shooting at refugees is not the official party line.

The Danish People's Party got 21 percent of the popular vote in last year's general election, making it the second-largest party in parliament.

Denmark has implemented tough immigration policies since a heavy influx of refugees last year, including border control and a controversial "jewellery bill".
Everything you need to know about the South China Sea conflict - in under five minutes

By William Johnson
Deutsche Boerse CEO sees further hurdles ahead in LSE merger

FRANKFURT, Dec 8 (Reuters) - The chief executive of Deutsche Boerse on Thursday said its planned merger with London Stock Exchange was still a long way off, even if European regulators should give it the green light.

"There are a series of national and regional approvals still pending after that," Deutsche Boerse CEO Carsten Kengeter said at an economic conference in reference to an investigation by European antitrust regulators.

"So it is still not clear at all that everything will work out," Kengeter added.

Concerned the $28 billion tie-up could hinder competition in key financial market activities, the EU has opened a full investigation into the deal and the European Commission is expected to detail its objections in the second week of December.

Both companies can appeal against these or make concessions.

A thumbs up from the EU would then require the local watchdog in Germany's state of Hesse, where Deutsche Boerse is based, to approve the merger. Sources had previously told Reuters the regulator was concerned over a loss of power if Deutsche Boerse became part of the larger London-based group.

The owner of the Frankfurt stock exchange is obliged by law to support the development of Frankfurt as a centre for securities trading and Hesse's market watchdog has yet to give its view on the planned merger.
Islamic State makes advances towards Palmyra -monitor

BEIRUT, Dec 8 (Reuters) - The Islamic State group in Syria attacked the Syrian army near the city of Palmyra on Thursday, killing dozens of soldiers and advancing to within four kilometres (2.5 miles) of the city, a war monitor said.

The Syrian army, backed by Russian jets, recaptured Palmyra, the site of a Roman-era city and spectacular ruins, from Islamic State in March after the jihadist group seized it in May 2015.

On Thursday the jihadists gained control over Qasr al-Halabat, to the southwest of Palmyra, Jabal Hayan, to the west, South Sawamea to the northeast and the Hawaisis region to the northwest, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

At least 34 Syrian soldiers were killed, including at least eight officers, and there were also deaths on the Islamic State side, the Observatory said.

Islamic State has been on the back foot in both Syria and Iraq since late last year, losing much of its territory in both countries as well as some of its most senior figures, killed in air strikes.

The group took advantage of chaos during Syria's civil war to seize territory there and in Iraq in the summer of 2014.
Reuters Health News Summary

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Can virtual reality games help with phantom limb pain?

(Reuters Health) - Virtual reality games designed for amputees to experience movement in missing limbs might help reduce painful sensations from the absent body part, a small experiment suggests. Most amputees experience some "phantom" pain that seems to come from a lost limb. For about a third of them, it becomes so severe that it worsens their disabilities, makes it harder for them to use prosthetic limbs and impacts their mental health and quality of life, researchers note in The Lancet.

EU regulator accepts Sanofi/Regeneron's Dupixent product for review

The European Medicines Agency (EMA), the European Union's health regulator, has accepted for review the Dupixent product being developed by drugmakers Sanofi and Regeneron , the companies said on Thursday. Dupixent is aimed at adults with eczema or moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis (AD), who are candidates for systemic therapy.

Athletes may need to work more than the rest of us to avoid the flu

(Reuters Health) - Athletes who cram in extra workouts over the holidays to avoid packing on extra pounds also need to take extra precautions to avoid getting sick, recent guidelines stress. In some ways, athletes are just like the rest of us. They're more susceptible to colds and the flu when they get too little sleep or drink too much alcohol.

Demand from French hospitals ensures healthy trade in leeches

French hospitals have long been using leeches to prevent blood clots after surgery and their use looks set to expand as scientists say the animal could in future be used to treat problems including rheumatism and osteoarthritis. For the last 23 years, Brigitte Latrille has been cultivating leeches in her laboratory near Bordeaux, and says she is doing a roaring trade.

ER visits for severe sunburn rack up millions in costs

(Reuters Health) - Although sunburns are highly preventable, they are still responsible for tens of thousands of expensive visits to U.S. emergency rooms each year, according to a recent analysis. The total tab in 2013 for sunburn-related emergency room visits was $11.2 million, researchers report in The American Medical Association's journal Dermatology, with the great majority of cases among people under age 30.

Horizon Pharma aborts key Actimmune trial; shares plunge

Horizon Pharma Plc's shares tumbled 18 percent after the company ended a late-stage trial that was testing its drug, Actimmune, as a treatment for a rare neuromuscular disorder that has no approved medicines. Actimmune failed to demonstrate a statistically significant benefit over a placebo in patients with Friedreich's ataxia (FA) on a scale used to measure progression of the disease, the company said.

Bristol-Myers Squibb to pay $19.5 million to settle off-label promotion case

Drugmaker Bristol-Myers Squibb Co will pay $19.5 million to resolve multi-state allegations that it improperly promoted a schizophrenia treatment for uses not approved by the U.S. government, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said on Thursday. The company's agreement with 42 other states and the District of Columbia centers on charges that Bristol-Myers Squibb promoted its Abilify anti-psychotic drug for use in children and elderly patients with dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

People with traumatic brain injuries more likely to go to prison

(Reuters Health) - Men and women who suffered traumatic brain injuries had more than twice the risk of winding up in a federal prison in Canada as their uninjured peers, a new study shows. That doesn't surprise Dr. Geoffrey Manley, a neurosurgeon who runs a trauma center. He knows all too well the long-term struggles of survivors of traumatic brain injuries.

Conjoined twins who faced each other separated in California surgery

Doctors separated conjoined twins at a California hospital, where the pair of 2-year-old girls who faced each other were recovering in stable condition after 17 hours of surgery, officials said on Thursday. Separation surgery is performed about five times a year in the United States, with doctors successfully handling the last one nearly two months ago in New York City on twin boys joined at the head.

U.S. surgeon general e-cigarette report sparks controversy
Further promising data seen with Biogen Alzheimer's drug -study

Dec 8 (Reuters) - Gradually increasing the dose of Biogen Inc's experimental Alzheimer's disease drug appeared to reduce the risk of brain swelling compared to higher fixed doses, interim 12-month results from a small study released on Thursday showed.

The closely watched drug, aducanumab, led to significant reductions in amyloid plaques in the brain compared with a placebo among the 31 early-stage Alzheimer's patients given titrated, or gradually increased dosing, according to data from the Phase I study.

"These data appear solid to us, and if anything provide additional confidence in the program and viability of the titration regimen," Evercore ISI analyst John Scotti said in a research note late on Thursday.

Any successful Alzheimer's drug is expected to reap multibillion-dollar annual sales.

In the group of trial patients given titrated dosing, 35 percent experienced a side effect involving a fluid shift in the brain, compared with 55 percent given a high fixed dose, Biogen said.

Biogen last year began enrollment in two Phase III trials of aducanumab using titrated dosing, but those results are still several years away, said Samantha Budd Haeberlein, the company's vice president, clinical development.

The amyloid reduction and slowing of mental decline seen in patients in the titration portion of the Phase I study after 12 months of treatment were similar to what was reported earlier this year for patients who received fixed doses of aducanumab.

Full details of the study were being presented at an Alzheimer's meeting in San Diego on Friday.

Patients in the study had either mild or prodromal, meaning early pre-symptomatic, Alzheimer's disease, researchers said.

Aducanumab works by removing brain plaques largely made from a protein called beta amyloid. Other companies have also tried to develop drugs that block beta amyloid, but all failed to significantly slow cognitive declines, and some were also associated with brain swelling.

The most spectacular recent failure was Eli Lilly and Co's experimental solanezumab, designed to soak up beta amyloid from the bloodstream.

Lilly last month said its infused drug failed to slow mental decline, compared with placebo, among patients with mild Alzheimer's. That largely dashed hopes for the drug and cast further doubt on whether beta amyloid is the right target for attacking the memory-robbing disease that affects millions of people.

Some Alzheimer's experts have suggested the approach might work very early in the course of the disease. They said once brain plaques can be observed it may already be too late for the drugs to provide significant benefit.

Biogen shares rose 1.45 percent to close at $289.54.
Chinese cardinal says Vatican must stand up to Beijing

By Pak Yiu and Lisa Jucca

HONG KONG, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Cardinal Joseph Zen, the most senior Chinese Catholic cleric, says the participation of an excommunicated prelate at two bishop ordinations in China was a "slap in the face" for Pope Francis just as Rome seeks a historic deal with Beijing.

Bishop Lei Shiyin, who was excommunicated by the Vatican in 2011 for accepting his appointment without papal approval, took part in the ordinations of new bishops in the cities of Chengdu and Xichang, in southwestern China, last week.

While the Catholic priests selected to be bishops enjoyed the backing of both Rome and Beijing, the active participation of the excommunicated Lei was an act of defiance by Beijing, Zen said in an interview with Reuters.

Under church law, clergy who have been excommunicated - the harshest punishment that can be imposed on a Catholic - cannot actively participate in liturgical acts such as an ordination.

"It's really a slap in the face of the Holy Father. After such a long dialogue, they still show no kindness towards the authority of the pope," said Zen, the most vocal critic of the Vatican's attempt to seek a rapprochement with Beijing.

The Chinese Communist government says bishops have to be appointed by the local Chinese Catholic community and refuses to accept the authority of the pope, whom it sees as the head of a foreign state that has no right to meddle in Beijing's affairs.

Lei is one of eight Chinese bishops appointed with Beijing's backing that Rome considers illegitimate.

The two sides have been at loggerheads since the expulsion of foreign missionaries from China after the Communists took power in 1949.

PUSH FOR DEAL

Under Pope Francis, the Vatican is making a push to heal the rift with Beijing by seeking an agreement on how to choose bishops in China.

But the Vatican should speak up when Catholic norms are openly violated, said Zen, who added he was surprised that the church hierarchy had remained silent.

"The big mistake is that to please the Beijing government, the Vatican abstains from doing many things they are supposed to do," said Zen. "When you see such an excommunicated bishop come to the ceremony, you must shout. You must tell the good bishops to stop the ceremony!"

A senior Vatican prelate familiar with the negotiations told Reuters that, while the Holy See appreciated Zen's concerns about dialogue with government, the situation in China "is not black and white and the alternative (to an agreement) is a deeper schism in the Church".

Chinese Foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said Beijing's position on the operations of the church in China was consistent.

"I believe that the international community is very clear about this," he said. "We will not accept unjust criticism."

WAITING FOR A MIRACLE

Since the election of Pope Francis, closed-door negotiations between Vatican and Chinese government officials have received new impetus and a working group was set up earlier this year to hammer out a deal on the bishops, Reuters has reported.

Cardinal Zen, a former Bishop of Hong Kong, said he was supportive of having a dialogue between the two sides as a way to solve long-standing problems. But he was also sceptical that a positive conclusion could be reached.

For example, he said the Church could accept some intervention by the Chinese government in the process of selecting bishops, but could not cede the pope having ultimate authority in the matter.

Zen also said the so-called underground Catholic church, which swears allegiance only to the pope and which he said had suffered greatly under state repression, should not be forced by an agreement between the Vatican and China to submit to government control.

The 84-year-old cardinal, who is originally from Shanghai and has a great following among Chinese Catholics, said he had voiced his concerns in letters to the pope, but had so far only received an acknowledgment and an exhortation to pray together.

"On the part of the Vatican, the goal of dialogue is to have a real religious freedom for our church in China. The goal of the government is to have complete control of that Church. These two goals are contradictory," Zen said.
U.N. urges Myanmar's Suu Kyi to visit country's divided northwest

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 8 (Reuters) - The United Nations urged Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Thursday to visit the country's divided northwest to reassure civilians they will be protected amid accusations that soldiers have raped Rohingya Muslim women, burnt houses and killed civilians.

Myanmar's military and government have rejected the allegations. Soldiers have poured into the area along Myanmar's frontier with Bangladesh, responding to coordinated attacks on three border posts on Oct. 9 that killed nine police officers.

Suu Kyi last Friday accused "the international community" of stoking resentment between Buddhists and Muslims in the Myanmar's northwest.

"The refusal by the Myanmar authorities to take a strong stance against hardliners, and the adoption of a generally defensive rather than proactive approach to providing security to the local population, have caused frustration locally and disappointment internationally," Vijay Nambiar, special advisor to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, said in a statement.

"Only by responding concretely to these concerns will the government be able to resolve the crisis and preserve its international standing," said Nambiar, appealing to Suu Kyi to visit Maungdaw and Buthidaung in Rakhine State.

The army crackdown in Rakhine State has killed at least 86 people and sent 10,000 fleeing over the border to Bangladesh. The crisis poses a challenge to Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi, who swept to power last year on promises of reconciliation.
US defense chief reassures Afghans amid questions over Trump's policies

By Idrees Ali

KABUL, Dec 9 (Reuters) - The United States will "remain committed" to Afghanistan, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Friday, amid questions about what President-elect Donald Trump's foreign policy will mean for the country as it faces a renewed Taliban insurgency.

Carter arrived in the Afghan capital earlier on an unannounced visit and met U.S. troops and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.

"America is, and will remain, committed to a sovereign and secure Afghanistan," Carter told a news conference with Ghani.

Trump has given few details of his foreign policy plans, with surprisingly few specifics on Afghanistan, where nearly 10,000 U.S. troops remain more than 15 years after the Islamist Taliban were toppled by U.S.-backed Afghan forces.

Afghanistan was barely mentioned during a bitterly fought election campaign, which largely focused on domestic issues, between Republican Trump and his Democratic rival, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton.

Trump, however has said the United States should stop carrying out "nation building".

Ghani and Trump spoke by telephone last week and the Trump transition team said in a statement they discussed the "terrorism threats facing both countries". [ nW1N1D90GK]

Speaking with reporters at Bagram air base north of Kabul later on Friday, General John Nicholson, the commander of U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan, said it was important for the United States to remain committed in Afghanistan.

"Our policy of having an enduring counterterrorism effort alongside of our Afghan partners is, in my view, very sound and something we need to continue," Nicholson said.

Leaders of five out of the 20 designated militant organizations in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region had been killed and Islamic State had lost two-thirds of its territory, something that needed to continue in future, he said.

Carter said the Trump transition team had not asked to speak to Nicholson, but he would be made available if requested.

One of the most important questions facing Trump on Afghanistan, former officials and experts say, is how many U.S. troops will stay on there.

Acknowledging that Afghan security remained precarious and Taliban forces had gained ground in some places, President Barack Obama shelved plans to cut the U.S. presence almost in half by year's end, opting instead to keep 8,400 troops there through to the end of his presidency in January.

Ghani thanked Carter for the U.S. military contribution and its sacrifices in the conflict.

James Dobbins, a former U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan, said Afghanistan would not figure highly for Trump, given the fight against Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq.

This, Dobbins said, was likely to mean that the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan would remain unchanged, at least in the short term.

Trump will inherit a challenging security situation in Afghanistan.
Romania - Factors to watch on Dec. 9

Here are news stories, press reports and events to watch which may affect Romanian financial markets on Friday.

AVERAGE WAGE

Romania's national statistics board will public average wage data for October at 0700 GMT.

DEBT TENDER

Romania sold a planned 500 million lei ($119.91 million) worth of Feb. 2020 treasury bonds on Thursday, with the average accepted yield at 1.97 percent, central bank data showed.

LEFTISTS

Romania's Social Democrats Party, which leads opinion polls before a Dec. 11 election, has pledged to raise social spending in 2017 and plans to offset this with ministerial budget cuts to help keep down the budget deficit.

CEE MARKETS

Central European currencies and long-dated government bonds eased on Thursday after the European Central Bank said it would cut its monthly asset purchases from April but extend the bond buying until the end of 2017.

For the long-term Romanian diary, click on

For emerging markets economic events, click on

For an index of all diaries, click on
No respite for Libya after Islamic State driven from coastal city

By Aidan Lewis

TUNIS, Dec 8 (Reuters) - As Islamic State's last defences crumbled this week in their Libyan bastion Sirte, dozens of women and children used as human shields stumbled dazed and dust-caked from the rubble.

Fighters from the armed groups that defeated the jihadists feted the end of a punishing six-month battle by flying Libyan flags over the Mediterranean city, once known mainly as the home town of late dictator Muammar Gaddafi, more recently as the main stronghold outside Syria and Iraq of Islamic State's caliphate.

But the campaign has been far from the unifying event some had hoped for. Celebrations have been muted by the risk of jihadist counter attacks and the potential for renewed war among Libya's military factions.

The past week's developments give a measure of the chaos still enveloping Libya, five years after the NATO-backed uprising that overthrew Gaddafi.

Just hours after the last district in Sirte was cleared, fighters in a newly formed force swept up from the desert south of the city towards Libya's Oil Crescent, looking to recapture ports that had changed hands three months before.

Tripoli has seen its worst clashes for more than a year as the capital's militias rolled tanks onto the streets in a feud infused with ideological and political disputes.

And in the main city in the east, the self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) continued to suffer heavy casualties as it struggles to secure parts of Benghazi against Islamist-led rivals after more than two years of warfare.

A half-formed, U.N.-backed government based in the capital looks increasingly helpless to stop the turmoil - though Western powers insist that it represents the only path towards peace.

U.N. Libya envoy Martin Kobler told the Security Council this week that while a peace plan signed a year ago had stalled, weapons were still being delivered into Libya, the economy was facing "meltdown", and the country remained a "human marketplace" for migrants trying to reach Europe.

Gains against militants in Sirte and Benghazi were "not irreversible", he added.

The campaign in Sirte was led by brigades from Misrata, an influential port east of Tripoli. They launched their offensive in May when militants advanced up the coast towards their city.

The U.N.-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) scrambled to take command, but only ever had nominal control over fighters on the ground, some of them with different agendas beyond the campaign in Sirte.

The brigades hoped the battle would be finished in weeks, but their progress was halted by Islamic State snipers, suicide bombers and mines. By mid-summer, with casualties mounting and an official request from the GNA, they called in the help of U.S. air support. Nearly 500 strikes were carried out over Sirte between Aug. 1 and early December.

After the last buildings in Sirte's Ghiza Bahriya neighbourhood were secured on Tuesday, jubilant fighters paraded through the streets, chanting that the deaths of more than 700 men from within their ranks had not been in vain.

But there have been no such scenes in Misrata, a city whose fighting force was forged in the 2011 uprising and string of military campaigns in the years that followed.

COMEBACK?

"Every time after we win a war we celebrate," said Ahmed Algennabi, a 28-year-old salesman in a Misrata perfume shop. "But now I don't think that it's the end of this war, and I expect more fighting against Islamic State."

Fear of an Islamic State comeback or insurgent campaign is the stated reason for not declaring an official end to the operation in Sirte.

Libyan security officials say a significant number of militants left Sirte before the battle or in its early stages, and that Islamic State has cells along Libya's western coast as well as in the hinterlands. Even as the fighting continued in Sirte's residential neighbourhoods, the group carried out attacks from behind the front lines, including suicide bombings and a major ambush.

Military officials say they will now move to deal with this threat by securing the desert valleys south of Sirte and chasing down fugitive militants.

But they are also nervous about Khalifa Haftar, the commander of the LNA in the east, who has fought on the side opposed to Misrata's brigades in a stop-start national conflict since 2014, and has recently been boosted by his own military advances.

In September, with Misrata's fighters still tied up in Sirte, Haftar's forces moved to seize the Oil Crescent ports, some of them just 200 km (125 miles) to the east, and many see him edging towards national power.

State control is still absent, and any patriotic feeling fostered by the campaign in Sirte is likely to dissipate soon, said Libyan analyst Tarek Megerisi.

"Now it's over it's just back to business as usual, because none of the divisions have been healed, none of the drivers of conflict have been stopped or put on hold," he said.
PRESS DIGEST - Bulgaria - Dec 9

SOFIA, Dec 9 (Reuters) - These are some of the main stories in Bulgarian newspapers on Friday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

STANDART - The receivers of bankrupt Corporate Commercial Bank said they have appealed in court deals between depositors and creditors of the bank worth some 448 million levs ($243.17 million). Separately, they have opened legal procedures against the bank's creditors worth 438 million levs.

-- The parliament voted on new, tougher penalties for drivers who speed up or drive under the influence of drugs or alcohol. (24 Chasa, Trud, Standart, Monitor, Sega, Monitor)

- The elected president Rumen Radev met with the ambassadors of the European Union countries. (Trud, Sega, Standart)
Poland - Factors to Watch Dec. 9

Following are news stories, press reports and events to watch that may affect Poland's financial markets on Friday. ALL TIMES GMT (Poland: GMT + 1 hour):

ALIOR BANK

Alior Bank after several years can achieve a return on equity ratio of above 10 percent, Michal Krupinski, chief executive of PZU, which controls the bank, told Rzeczpospolita daily.

OVOSTAR UNION

Ukrainian egg producer Ovostar plans to buy one of its competitors in Poland, Puls Biznesu daily said.

BECTON DICKENSON

Medical equipment supplier Becton Dickenson plans to hire 250 people in its shared services centre in Wroclaw on top of 350 employees it already has, Puls Biznesu said.

POCZTA POLSKA

Poland's dominant post company, the state-owned Poczta Polska, will suffer a loss of 100 million zlotys ($23.93 million) in 2016, Gazeta Wyborcza daily said. The company plans another price hike for its postal services.

SIKORSKI AIRCRAFT CORP.

Sikorski Aircraft Corp. will supply the Chilean army with six Black Hawk helicopters produced in Poland, Fakt tabloid said.

****Reuters has not verified stories reported by Polish media and does not vouch for their accuracy.****
Turkish jets hit IS targets in Syria, al-Bab highway under control - army

ISTANBUL, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Turkish warplanes destroyed 10 Islamic State targets in northern Syria while rebels backed by Turkey seized control of a highway between the key regional towns of al-Bab and Manbij, the Turkish army said on Friday.

The military moves are part of Turkey's almost four-month-old "Euphrates Shield" operation to support the rebels, which aims to push the jihadists and Kurdish militia fighters away from the Syrian border area.

Friday's statement from the Turkish military said Turkish jets had destroyed seven buildings and three control points used by the jihadists in four different parts of the region.

The onslaught followed a Turkish state media report on Thursday that Ankara had sent 300 commandos to northern Syria to reinforce the operation.

The Turkish-backed forces are now besieging al-Bab, the last urban stronghold of Islamic State in the northern Aleppo countryside. Their advance potentially pits the Turks against both Kurdish fighters and Syrian government forces.

The army statement said Free Syrian Army rebels had to a large extent achieved control over the highway between al-Bab and Manbij, a town which was wrested from Islamic State in August by Kurdish-led forces backed by the United States.

Ankara regards the Kurdish YPG, a key component of those forces, as a hostile group with deep ties to Kurdish militants who have fought a three-decade insurgency in Turkey.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has said Manbij is a target for the "Euphrates Shield" operation after it seizes al-Bab.
Key facts about Islamic State in Libya

TUNIS, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Libyan forces are trying to secure the city of Sirte after ousting Islamic State from its former North African stronghold in a battle that lasted nearly seven months.

Here are some facts about Islamic State in Libya:

ORIGINS

Islamic State drew on existing pockets of militancy in Libya, establishing its first major presence in Derna, an eastern city with a strong Islamist tradition.

It also profited from a security vacuum caused by the turmoil that followed Libya's 2011 revolution, and from 2014 a conflict between loose alliances of armed groups loyal to factions based in Tripoli and the east.

In October 2014 militants from al Qaeda-linked group Ansar al-Sharia who largely controlled Derna announced they were transferring their loyalty to Islamic State. Ansar al-Sharia members in several other parts of eastern and central Libya also switched allegiance.

Jihadists who returned from fighting in Syria with the Libyan al-Battar battalion also made up part of the jihadist group's initial presence in Libya.

Senior emissaries were sent to the country by Islamic State's leadership in Iraq, including former leader Abu Nabil al-Anbari, Bahraini preacher Turki Bin Ali, and Saudi national Abu Habib al-Jazrawi.

GEOGRAPHICAL SPREAD

Islamic State affiliates appeared in several places in eastern Libya including Benghazi, the country's second-largest city, and Ajdabiya, close to some of Libya's main oil export terminals.

In Sirte, hometown of late dictator Muammar Gaddafi, Islamic State took full control in early 2015. The group eventually extended its presence along a coastal strip of about 250 km (155 miles) either side of the city.

Islamic State also established a presence in parts of Libya's vast southern desert, and built up sleeper cells in urban centres in northwestern regions including the capital, Tripoli.

Sabratha, a coastal city in the far west, became an important hub for Tunisian members of the jihadist group plotting attacks in their home country.

In many areas, however, Islamic State struggled to expand or retain territory. In Derna, the group was chased out by rival Islamists and other opponents, and in Sabratha local brigades took on militants in February in the wake of a U.S. air strike.

LEADERSHIP

Many of those appointed to senior positions in Islamic State's Libyan branch were foreign, drawing on large numbers of recruits from countries including Tunisia, Egypt and Sudan, according to security and intelligence officials in Misrata.

Some senior figures were dispatched from the Middle East. These included Wissam Abd al-Zubaidi, also known as Abu Nabil al-Anbari, a former intelligence official and IS governor from Iraq who arrived in Libya in 2014 to lead operations there and was killed in a U.S. air strike in Derna in November 2015.

In March, Islamic State publication Al-Naba named Abdul Qadr al-Najdi as the new leader. Najdi is thought to be the new name for Abu Habib Jazrawi, a Saudi earlier dispatched to Libya by Islamic State's leadership in Iraq. Regional media reported that he was recently replaced by a Tunisian, Jalaludin Al-Tunsi.

Keen to fight the perception that it was a foreign import, Islamic State also placed Libyans among its leadership in the North African country. A number of senior Libyan figures were killed during the battle in Sirte.

ATTACKS

Among the first major attacks claimed by Islamic State in Libya was a January 2015 armed assault on the luxury Corinthia Hotel in Tripoli in which nine people were killed, including foreigners.

In the weeks that followed, Islamic State released videos of dozens of Christian hostages from Egypt and Eritrea being beheaded and shot in mass executions, two of which were carried out on beaches.

From February 2015, the militants also targeted Libya's oil facilities, causing extensive damage and further reducing the oil production on which the Libyan economy is highly dependant. In January 2016, attacks against major oil terminals at Es Sider and Ras Lanuf caused significant damage to storage tanks.

The same month, a bombing targeting police recruits in the north-western town of Zliten killed about 60 recruits, the highest death toll from a single attack since the 2011 uprising.

In early May the jihadists pushed north-west from Sirte towards Misrata, briefly capturing the small town of Abu Grain and several villages in the area. That advance triggered the counter-attack that developed into the campaign to recapture Sirte.

RULE IN SIRTE

As in Syria and Iraq, militants set up a proto-state in Sirte, registering and taxing local businesses and taking over public offices and services.

Islamic State also enforced its ultra-hardline rule on Sirte's residents, prompting many who had not already left the city to flee. Smoking was banned, barber shops closed, women and teenage girls were made to wear long black robes, and boys were trained as fighters.

There were regular public punishments. Suspected thieves had their hands chopped off and residents accused of spying were shot dead, their bodies put on public display for several days.
Hundreds of men from east Aleppo missing - UN rights office

GENEVA, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Hundreds of men from eastern Aleppo have gone missing after leaving rebel-held areas, the United Nations' human rights office said on Friday, voicing deep concern over their fate at the hands of government forces.

U.N. human rights spokesman Rupert Colville told a news briefing the office had heard "worrying allegations that hundreds of men have gone missing after crossing into government-controlled areas" of Aleppo.

"Given the terrible record of arbitrary detention, torture and disappearances, we are of course deeply concerned," he said.

Some 100,000 civilians are believed to remain in the "ever-shrinking" opposition-held areas of the city, he said, also citing reports that rebels had prevented some civilians from fleeing to safety, which would be a potential war crime.
Egypt security forces hit by two bombings in a single day

By Giles Elgood

CAIRO, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Egyptian security forces were hit by two roadside bombings in a single day on Friday that killed six policemen and wounded six in Cairo and the north of the country, security sources and officials said.

The attacks come as the government of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi faces an insurgency waged by Islamist groups.

In the first incident, on Friday morning, a recently emerged Egyptian militant group claimed responsibility for a bomb in Cairo that the interior ministry said killed six policemen and wounded three others at a checkpoint on a main road leading to the Pyramids.

The Hasm Movement, which has claimed several attacks in Egypt in recent months, said it set off the bomb which, security sources said, also injured four civilians.

Eyewitness Ahmed Al-Deeb described a scene of carnage, with dead and dying policemen lying next to wrecked cars. One of the policemen had blast fragments in his chest and two more had lost legs, he told Reuters Television.

The second attack came on Friday evening in the Kafr El Sheikh governorate in the Nile Delta, where a roadside bomb killed a civilian and injured three policemen, security sources said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

The bomb was detonated remotely as a police car drove by, but it exploded seconds after the vehicle passed, sparing the lives of the officers, the sources said.

SINAI INSURGENCY

The government is taking on militants in the Sinai Peninsula, where militants loyal to Islamic State are based, and Islamist groups elsewhere in the country.

Security forces killed three gunmen on Tuesday in a raid on a hideout in southern Egypt they said was used by Hasm, which they described as an armed wing of the Muslim Brotherhood. The Brotherhood says it is a peaceful organisation.

Hasm, the Arabic word for decisiveness, has accused judges of sentencing thousands of innocent people to death, or jailing them for life, at the behest of the military.

Egyptian judges have issued death sentences against hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood supporters since 2013, when President Mohamed Mursi, a member of the group, was overthrown by the army and arrested.

The Brotherhood, which won Egypt's first free elections after the 2011 uprising that ended Hosni Mubarak's 30 years in power, has since been banned and its leaders and members have largely been imprisoned or driven into exile or underground.

Since the crackdown, other small groups, including Hasm, have emerged. Hasm claimed responsibility in September for an assassination attempt on a senior prosecutor.

Militants loyal to Islamic State based in the Sinai have killed hundreds of soldiers and police.
Turkey-backed rebels close in on Islamic State-held Syrian city al-Bab

By Humeyra Pamuk

ISTANBUL, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Turkey-backed rebels closed in on an Islamic State-held city in northern Syria on Friday, foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said, with Turkish tanks and warplanes supporting the assault.

Hundreds of Arab and Turkmen fighters seized at least two villages west of al-Bab, the rebels said. The city is of strategic importance to Turkey, partly because Kurdish-dominated militias have also been trying to take it from the jihadists.

Turkish state media said late on Thursday that Ankara had sent 300 commandos to northern Syria to reinforce "Euphrates Shield", the operation it launched three and a half months ago to push both Islamic State and Kurdish fighters back from the border.

"With our help, rebels have closed in on al-Bab," Cavusoglu said in comments published on state broadcaster TRT's website. "The operation here is expected to be completed soon."

The Turkish army said its air strikes on Friday morning destroyed 34 Islamic State targets, including militant bases, shelters, vehicles mounted with guns and ammunition depots. It hit 10 targets the day before.

The military also said the rebels it backs had seized control of a highway between al-Bab and Manbij, a town some 50 km (30 miles) to the east.

"There is a major assault under way," said a fighter with the Turkmen Sultan Murad brigade, speaking from inside Syria. "God willing we will break (IS) resistance this time. Very powerful troops were sent last night."

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the war through a network of sources in the country, confirmed there was an increased number of Turkish troops with the Euphrates Shield forces and that they were shelling heavily as they attempted to advance on al-Bab on Friday.

The Observatory said explosions triggered by Islamic State had caused casualties in a village close to al-Bab. It also said it had received information that 12 civilians were killed and 10 wounded by air strikes and bombardment by Turkish forces targeting the city.

The advance of the Turkish-backed forces potentially pits them against both Kurdish fighters and Syrian government forces in an increasingly complex battlefield.
Dutch politician Wilders convicted of discrimination against Moroccans

By Toby Sterling and Anthony Deutsch

AMSTERDAM, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Judges on Friday convicted Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders of discrimination against Moroccans but levied no punishment in a ruling that could influence elections just three months away.

It was the first time that Wilders, whose anti-Islam comments have forced him to live under 24-hour protection for a decade, has been convicted for his outspoken views.

Wilders, who is leading in some polls before national parliamentary elections on March 15, said he would appeal the "totally insane" verdict and accused the court of bias.

The charges against Wilders stem from a 2014 campaign rally, when he led a group of supporters to chant they wanted "Fewer! Fewer! Fewer!" Moroccans in the Netherlands. A smiling Wilders concluded: "we're going to take care of that."

Reading the decision of a three-judge panel, Presiding Judge Hendrik Steenhuis said "no one is above the law", including politicians. Wilder had planned the inflammatory remarks beforehand and insulted the entire group of people of Moroccan origin in the Netherlands, he said.

"If a politician crosses the line, that doesn't mean free speech is being restricted," he said. "A crime cannot be protected by the right to free speech."

In a videotaped response to the verdict, which he did not attend in person, Wilders said: "I will never be silenced".

He said the ruling was an attempt to "neutralize the leader of the largest and most popular opposition party in the Netherlands."

Moroccan-Dutch organisations welcomed the verdict for drawing a clear line about the limits of free speech.

"This ruling protects minorities in our country from the racist poison that is seeping into our society," said anti-discriminatiin platform NBK, which previously filed a failed lawsuit against Wilder in 2007.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte declined to comment on the ruling because the case is under appeal. But he said his liberal VVD party, which is virtually tied with Wilders in opinion polls, ruled out sharing power with him unless he takes back the comments about Moroccans.

Steenhuis said Moroccans form a clearly defined population within the Netherlands that Wilders had singled out as having less rights to reside in the Netherlands. About 400,000 people of Moroccan origin live in the Netherlands.

"This statement can be regarded as affecting the dignity of this group as a whole. It is insulting for the entire group," the ruling said.

In closing remarks on Nov. 23, Wilders told judges his remarks were obviously not intended as a call to genocide -- he has never advocated violence -- but rather a reference to his official party platform.

Measures he endorses that could lead to fewer Moroccans include a ban on immigration, expelling Moroccans with dual nationality who commit crimes, and a "voluntary repatriation" policy.

Prosecutors, who rejected Wilders' assertions the trial was politically motivated and an unfair attempt to limit his right to free speech, had asked that a fine of 5,000 euros ($5,300), but no prison sentence, be imposed.

Wilders appeal is likely to last throughout the parliamentary election campaign, which runs for six weeks before voting on March 15.
Slovenian October exports fall yr/yr; expected to rise in months ahead

LJUBLJANA, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Slovenian exports, the main driver of the country's economy, fell by 0.7 percent year-on-year in October, mainly because sales to other European Union members declined, the statistics office said on Friday.

It also said exports in the first 10 months of the year rose by 3.6 percent compared with the same period of 2015.

Analysts said exports are expected to rise in coming months as economic indicators in the EU remain favourable. The European Central Bank said on Thursday the euro zone economy was expected to expand 1.7 percent next year versus the 1.6 percent forecast earlier.

"Economic activity is still relatively good ... so I expect Slovenia's GDP growth will surely be above 2 percent this year," said Igor Masten, a professor at Ljubljana's Faculty of Economy.

He added that export figures were reflected in industrial output, which fell by 0.6 percent from September to October, although October industrial output was up by 6.6 percent compared to October last year.

"It is possible that exports are down mainly due to lower prices of export products which have decreased after a fall of global raw material prices," Masten said.

Euro zone member Slovenia, which narrowly avoided an international bailout for its banks in 2013, exports about 70 percent of its production, mainly to other EU members, particularly Germany, Italy and Austria.
Reuters Odd News Summary

Following is a summary of current odd news briefs.

Guatemalans burn Trump effigies to scatter evil spirits

Revelers in Guatemala set ablaze cardboard representations of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump wearing devil horns during a traditional ceremony, "La Quema del Diablo", or the Burning of the Devil, held ahead of Christmas every year. Trump's hardline stance on immigration during his presidential election campaign, including a promise to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, has drawn anger from Latin Americans in the United States and around the world.

Actress Sofia Vergara faces lawsuit from her own frozen embryos
EU mediates Russia, Ukraine gas dispute talks

By Alissa de Carbonnel

BRUSSELS, Dec 9 (Reuters) - EU officials are mediating between Ukraine and Russia over gas supplies on Friday, their first talks since the former Soviet republic stopped buying gas from Gazprom last November.

Since relations broke down over Russia's annexation of Crimea and support for pro-Russian separatism, Ukraine has relied on gas from storage and reverse flow purchases from EU neighbours.

Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak and his Ukrainian counterpart Ihor Nasalyk met in talks hosted by the European Commission's energy chief Maros Sefcovic, who is seeking to guarantee winter gas transits to Europe via Ukraine.

The 28-nation bloc relies on Russia for about a third of its gas, most of it flowing through pipelines across Ukraine. Gas pricing disputes disrupted deliveries in 2006 and 2009 - causing painful shortages in freezing weather in some EU nations.

Concerns over new supply cuts in Europe have grown. But EU sources were sceptical over a deal being brokered on Friday.

Ukraine's state energy company Naftogaz said on Thursday it had 13.2 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas in storage and was buying around 55 million cubic metres per day from EU neighbours to its west.

"It's enough gas to see us through to the end of winter," Naftogaz CEO Andriy Kobolyev told journalists in Brussels.

Ukraine has exhausted funds from a European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) loan to buy 1.8 bcm of gas from six European firms this year, he said, but can still draw on a $500 million World Bank loan.

Gazprom and Naftogaz have taken their dispute over gas contracts running through 2019 to an international arbitration court in Stockholm, each claiming about 30 billion dollars.

Ukraine wants to amend the long-term contract over gas purchases and transits, saying some elements run counter to Ukrainian and EU anti-trust law.

A ruling on the gas supply terms is expected by April, Kobolyev said, and on transit terms in the second quarter.

Until then, discussions hosted by the EU are limited to terms on pricing and volumes for winter gas supplies, based on prepayment by Ukraine.

The talks this winter are taking place some weeks later than two previous rounds of discussions. EU sources said Russia had delayed talks as it waited for a decision by the Commission, allowing it to pump more gas via the Opal pipeline link to Germany, which bypasses Ukraine.
Syrian government forces press attack in east Aleppo

By Laila Bassam and Lisa Barrington

ALEPPO, Syria/BEIRUT, Dec 9 (Reuters) - The Syrian army pressed an offensive in Aleppo on Friday with ground fighting and air strikes in an operation to retake all of the city's rebel-held east that would bring victory in the civil war closer for President Bashar al-Assad.

"The advance is going according to plan and is sometimes faster than expected," a Syrian military source told Reuters.

The Syrian army and its allies had recaptured 32 of east Aleppo's 40 neighbourhoods, about 85 percent of the area, he said.

Reuters journalists, rebels and a monitor confirmed the military thrust. There were no reports the Syrian army had made significant gains.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the Syrian army had suspended military activity to let civilians leave rebel-held areas, RIA news agency reported.

The army and its allies tried to advance on two fronts, a Turkish-based official with the Jabha Shamiya rebel group said.

"Helicopters, warplanes and rocket bombardment like every day. Nothing has changed," the official said. Despite the bombardment, "the guys are steadfast," the official added.

During a tour of Old Aleppo on Friday, which the Syrian army took control of this week, Reuters journalists counted the sound of nine air strikes in about half an hour. Fighting could be heard from other areas nearby.

The Russian air force and Iran-backed Shi'ite militias are fighting in Aleppo on the government side. Rebel leaders have given no sign they are about to withdraw as the civilian population is squeezed into an ever-decreasing area.

Russian Defence Ministry official Sergei Rudskoi said on Friday up to 10,500 Syrian citizens had fled parts of east Aleppo still controlled by rebels in the last 24 hours. This could not be independently verified.

Syrian government and allied forces have in the last two weeks driven rebels from most of their territory in what was once Syria's most populous city. The rebels have controlled the eastern section since 2012, and Assad said in an interview published on Thursday that retaking Aleppo would change the course of the civil war across the whole country.

The Syrian government now appears closer to victory than at any point in the five years since protests against Assad evolved into an armed rebellion. The war has killed more than 300,000 people and made more than half of Syrians homeless.

Outside of Aleppo, the Syrian army declared a ceasefire in several areas around Damascus and the northwestern province of Idlib beginning on Friday evening, without saying how long it would last. There was no immediate comment from rebels.

ROCKETS, BOMBS, ARTILLERY

But there was no sign of any such truce inside Aleppo.

"There are aerial raids on the city's neighbourhoods with highly explosive incendiary bombs, barrel bombs and artillery shelling," a fighter with the Nour al-Din al-Zinki rebel group on an eastern Aleppo frontline told Reuters.

In Old Aleppo, newly recaptured by the government, there was widespread destruction in the UNESCO World Heritage Site, with fire-damaged ancient buildings, structures reduced to rubble and spent ordnance everywhere.

At the side of a road sat a woman in her late 20s, veiled, dressed in black, and weeping as she cradled her baby.

"My son was born after three months of siege. There were no hospitals, no diapers, no milk," she said. "My milk is dry from fear and panic."

Dozens of displaced civilians, including children, had gathered in the road with their belongings after fleeing the Saliheen district, where battles continued.

Maher Tashtash, aged nine, said the bombardment had been frightening and rebels had told them they faced death if caught by the army. His brother Mohammed, 12, said they had hidden in a cellar until the fighting passed.

Even the dead were not spared the carnage. In the Dar al-Islam cemetery near Ibn Sina street in al-Hamdaniya, graves were destroyed. People were burying corpses in open public ground.

The United Nations estimates about 100,000 people are now squeezed into an "ever shrinking" rebel-held pocket of Aleppo with virtually no access to food, water or medical care.

In rebel-held Aleppo, a Reuters journalist said there were intense clashes on Friday in Sheikh Saeed district in the south of the eastern sector, where the Observatory and a Syrian military source said government forces advanced on Thursday.

Fighting also took place northeast of Aleppo, where Turkey has intervened to support rebels against both Islamic State fighters and Kurdish groups. Turkish-backed rebels closed in on the Islamic State-held city of al-Bab with Turkish tanks and warplanes supporting the assault, Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said.

"NO NEGOTIATIONS NOW"

Moscow and Washington have discussed a ceasefire to let civilians escape eastern Aleppo and aid enter. Russia also wants the United States to urge rebel fighters to abandon their territory and accept transport out.

U.N. envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura told the Security Council on Thursday there were signs fighters in Aleppo may want to leave and the council should help them go, diplomats said.

The Syrian government said on Friday it was ready to resume dialogue with the opposition, without external intervention or preconditions. Rebels said no such contacts were taking place.

"There are no negotiations now, except what's being discussed internationally," said Zakaria Malahifji, head of the political office of the Aleppo-based Fastaqim rebel group, speaking from Turkey. "We have asked for the evacuation of civilians who want to leave and of the injured. The fighters are determined to stay and face things."

U.S. and Russian officials will meet in Geneva on Saturday to discuss Aleppo, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said in a news briefing on Friday.

The talks will focus on achieving a pause in the fighting, the delivery of humanitarian aid to civilians, and ensuring a safe departure for those who want to leave, Toner said.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who has invested months of intensive diplomacy on Syria, acknowledged the exasperation many feel.

"I know people are tired of these meetings. I'm tired of these meetings. ... what am I supposed to do? Go home and have a nice weekend in Massachusetts while people are dying?" Kerry said at the U.S. embassy in Paris, according to a State Department transcript.

"What is happening in Aleppo is the worst catastrophe - what's happening in Syria is the worst catastrophe since World War Two itself. It's unacceptable. It's horrible."

The U.N. General Assembly voted 122 to 13 on Friday to demand an immediate cessation of hostilities in Syria, humanitarian aid access throughout the country and an end to all sieges, including in Aleppo. General Assembly resolutions are non-binding but can carry political weight.

The European Union said on Friday it would introduce more sanctions on Syrian individuals and entities over the Aleppo offensive.

The U.N. human rights office said hundreds of men from eastern Aleppo were missing after leaving rebel-held areas, voicing deep concern over their fate at the hands of government forces.

The government has dismissed reports of mass arrests, torture and extrajudicial killings by its forces as fabrications. Rebels for their part deny they have prevented civilians from leaving opposition-controlled areas.
Rosneft says has enough oil as Glencore raises stakes in Russia

By Olga Yagova

MOSCOW, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Rosneft said on Friday it has enough oil to fulfil new contracts with Swiss trader Glencore as markets gear up for a fierce battle between some of the world's largest merchants for supplies from the Russian company.

Moscow said this week that a consortium of Glencore and Qatar would buy a 19.5 percent stake in Rosneft for over 10 billion euros in one of the biggest energy deals of 2016.

Glencore said it would inject only 300 million euros of its own equity into the deal while getting a contract for an extra 220,000 barrels per day of supply from Rosneft.

Most analysts saw the deal as a cheap way for Glencore into getting ahead of rivals - Trafigura and Vitol - in securing lucrative Russian barrels.

However, traders said it was unclear where Rosneft would get the oil volumes for Glencore before 2018 unless it decided to scrap some of its existing deals with rivals.

"The volumes of the new contract (with Glencore) have been calculated based the already existing contracts and production plans," Rosneft said in written comments to Reuters.

"Rosneft has enough resources to fulfil the obligations."

Glencore, the world's second largest oil trader after Vitol, has long been a core partner with Russia, trading commodities from aluminium to grain and held minority stake in aluminium producer Rusal and mid-sized oil firm Russneft.

In 2013, Glencore and Vitol joined forces to loan Rosneft $10 billion and help it buy rival oil firm TNK-BP - in exchange for huge oil supplies of 67 million tonnes over 5 years.

RIVALRY WITH TRAFIGURA

But then Russia came under U.S. and European sanctions for its actions in Ukraine which made it much more difficult to lend more money to Rosneft.

However, rival Trafigura, the world's third largest oil trader, found a way to provide Rosneft with short-term funding, not covered by sanctions. As a result, Trafigura now handles the biggest volumes from Rosneft.

"I really don't know where Rosneft can get new volumes for Glencore. They either have to cancel existing contracts or have a deal to start supplies only from 2018," said a Russian crude trader familiar with Rosneft's oil flows.

Another trader said he also saw no spare volumes that Rosneft could allocate to Glencore. "Maybe they will grow cooperation in refined products," he said.

Rosneft, which exports around 110 million tonnes of oil a year via European and Pacific ports as well as to China, will need to find some 11 million tonnes of extra crude for the new contract with Glencore, traders say.

Trafigura and China's CNPC, the biggest buyers of Rosneft volumes, purchase about 23 million tonnes per year each which makes them also the biggest importers of Russian crude oil.

Prior to the new agreement, Glencore was buying 8.5 million tonnes a year and Vitol 5 million under contracts that do not expire before 2018.

The remaining volumes are either committed to European and Asian refiners PKN Orlen, Lotos, Total, Shell and Eni, Ruhr Oel, Chemchina and JX Nippon or sold under short-term contracts to various trading houses until March.

Traders said in theory from March, Rosneft could stop holding short-term tenders for oil from the Baltic and the Black Sea to free up volumes for Glencore.

But such a strategy could be risky as Rosneft needs tenders to guarantee attractive pricing for much bigger long-term deals.

Rosneft has also acquired smaller rival Bashneft but most of its exports have been also pre-sold to Vitol until 2021.
OSCE members urge parties to Ukraine conflict to meet commitments

HAMBURG, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Member states of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) agree on the need for the parties to the conflict in eastern Ukraine to meet their commitments to end the violence there, the group's chairman said on Friday.

Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who is also Germany's foreign minister, said the 57 member states, at a two-day meeting in Hamburg, had also backed a "structured dialogue" on security and arms control in Europe.
Obama orders review of 2016 election cyber attacks

By Jeff Mason

WASHINGTON, Dec 9 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama has ordered intelligence agencies to review cyber attacks and foreign intervention into the 2016 election and deliver a report before he leaves office on Jan. 20, the White House said on Friday.

In October, the U.S. government formally accused Russia of a campaign of cyber attacks against Democratic Party organizations ahead of the Nov. 8 presidential election, and Obama has said he warned Russian President Vladimir Putin about consequences for the attacks.

The review and its timeline are a signal that Obama wants the issue addressed before he hands power to President-elect Donald Trump, who cast doubt on Russia's hacking role and praised Putin during the campaign.

Obama's homeland security adviser, Lisa Monaco, told reporters the report's results would be shared with lawmakers and others.

"The president has directed the intelligence community to conduct a full review of what happened during the 2016 election process ... and to capture lessons learned from that and to report to a range of stakeholders, to include the Congress," she said during an event hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.

White House spokesman Eric Schultz said the review would be a "deep dive" that would look for a pattern of such behavior over several years during election time, dating as far back as the 2008 presidential election.

He noted that Obama wanted the review completed under his watch. "This is a major priority," Schultz said.

During his campaign for the White House, Trump called on Russia to dig up missing emails from his opponent, Hillary Clinton, from her time as secretary of state under Obama, a fellow Democrat. That move prompted critics to accuse him of encouraging foreign actors to conduct espionage.

The New York businessman has said he is not convinced Russia was behind the attacks.

"I don't believe they interfered," Trump told Time magazine about Russia in an interview published this week. "That became a laughing point, not a talking point, a laughing point. Any time I do something, they say, 'Oh, Russia interfered.'"

People Trump has nominated for top national security posts in his new administration have taken a harsher stance toward Moscow.

Russian officials have denied all accusations of interference in the U.S. election.

Obama has come under pressure from Democratic lawmakers to declassify more intelligence on the alleged hackings.

A government source said the review was sparked in part to respond to those demands as well as to determine how much material related to the subject could be made public.

"Given President-elect Trump's disturbing refusal to listen to our intelligence community and accept that the hacking was orchestrated by the Kremlin, there is an added urgency to the need for a thorough review before President Obama leaves office next month," Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said in a statement.

Monaco said cyber attacks were not new but might have crossed a "new threshold" this year.

When she was working as a senior Federal Bureau of Investigation official in 2008, she said, the agency alerted the presidential campaigns of then-Senator Obama and Republican Senator John McCain that China had infiltrated their respective systems.

"We've seen in 2008 and in this last election system malicious cyber activity," Monaco said.
Germans see refugees as biggest problem despite falling numbers

By Michelle Martin and Thorsten Severin

BERLIN, Dec 9 (Reuters) - More than half of Germans see refugees and integration as Germany's biggest problem, a survey showed on Friday, despite the number of newcomers falling significantly on the year.

A record 890,000 mainly Muslim migrants from the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere arrived in Europe's largest economy in 2015, prompting concerns about security and integration.

Arrivals have slowed this year, with the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) saying on Friday around 305,000 new asylum seekers were registered in its 'EASY' computer system in the first 11 months of 2016; but 'EASY' numbers are seen as too high as some migrants get registered more than once.

The BAMF received 26,438 asylum applications in November - a fall of around 54 percent on the year.

Nonetheless, a survey by pollster Forschungsgruppe Wahlen for broadcaster ZDF found 58 percent of Germans deem refugees and integration the most important problems Germany is facing.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's popularity has waned since migrants started arriving in large numbers last summer and she expects next year's federal election, in which she plans to run for a fourth term, to be "tough like no other".

Merkel, whose conservatives have lost support to the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, hardened her stance on migrants' integration in Germany at a congress this week and her Christian Democrats (CDU) passed a resolution on cracking down on dual citizenship.

Fifty percent of Germans think she is doing a good job on refugee policy while 45 percent think her work in this area is "rather bad", the survey of 1,234 people conducted from Dec. 6 to 8 showed.

Almost two-thirds (60 percent) worry that spending on refugees means money is being saved elsewhere and 52 percent fear that migration will push up crime rates. Just under a third (30 percent) fear that Germany's cultural and social values are under threat due to the refugees.

Newspaper Die Welt said on its website that migrants from North Africa were seldom deported from Germany.

It cited an answer from the government to a question from the opposition far-left Linke party as saying that a combined total of 281 Moroccans, Tunisians and Algerians had been deported from Germany in the first three quarters of 2016 after more than 13,000 North Africans arrived here last year.
U.S. corn, soy, wheat stocks outlooks steady with Nov view- USDA

By Mark Weinraub

WASHINGTON, Dec 9 (Reuters) - The U.S. Agriculture Department left its domestic supply estimates for corn, soybeans and wheat unchanged on Friday, holding usage forecasts for all three commodities steady with its November outlook.

On the global front, the government raised its ending stocks outlook for corn, soybeans and wheat due to increased production outlooks in countries such as Brazil and Australia.

"They're just punting until next month," said Jim Gerlach, president of A/C Trading. "There's nothing wrong with doing that. Why make a big change until you see the quarterly stocks report?"

In its monthly supply and demand report, USDA said that U.S corn ending stocks for the 2016/17 marketing year will come in at 2.403 billion bushels, 10 million bushels below the average of estimates given in a Reuters survey of analysts.

U.S. soybean ending stocks of 480 million bushels were 10 million bushels higher than the average of trade forecasts. U.S. wheat ending stocks were pegged at 1.143 billion bushels, 4 million bushels above market expectations.

Chicago Board of Trade soybean <_0S:_> corn <_0C:_> and wheat <_0W:_> hovered closed to unchanged after the report was released.

The export outlook for both corn and soybeans was left unchanged despite the recent fast pace of shipments, as strong competition from South American countries was expected in 2017.

"In recent years, early-season U.S. corn export commitments have not been a robust indicator of final exports," USDA said.

It said world ending stocks of corn would be 222.25 million tonnes, up from its November outlook of 218.19 million tonnes. Analysts, on average, had been expecting world corn ending stocks at 219.24 million tonnes.

The government bumped its estimates of Brazil corn production to 86.50 million tonnes from 83.50 million tonnes.

For wheat, USDA raised its world ending stocks outlook to 252.14 million tonnes from 249.23 million tonnes. It also raised its estimate of the Australian wheat harvest to 33 million tonnes from 28.30 million tonnes. Analysts had expected wheat ending stocks of 250.33 million tonnes.

World ending stocks of soybeans were pegged at 82.85 million tonnes, up from 81.53 million tonnes in November and bigger than the 81.31 million tonnes forecast by analysts. Global soybean production was raised to 338.00 million tonnes from 336.09 million tonnes.

USDA lowered its domestic soyoil end stocks view to 1.552 billion lbs from 1.658 billion lbs to reflect increased usage by the biodiesel sector.
OSCE to replace drones shot down over east Ukraine

HAMBURG, Dec 9 (Reuters) - The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe on Friday launched a tender for long-range drones after losing eight such aircraft over eastern Ukraine since it began a monitoring mission there.

"Many of our drones were electronically destroyed or shot down," OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier told reporters during a two-day ministerial meeting in Hamburg.

He said the group had suspended the use of the drones, which can fly 150 km (93 miles), after the losses, which Russian-based separatists - who are battling Ukrainian troops for control of the Donbass region - were mainly responsible for.

The OSCE, a 57-member human rights and security watchdog, ski has been using unmanned planes to help monitor the lines of conflict and augment the work of over 700 human observers in eastern Ukraine, often providing access to areas where monitors have been blocked.

The OSCE said it had also lost two medium-range and five short-range drones.

Zannier said the OSCE also planned to invest more in other high-tech equipment to aid its work, including motion-activitated mounted camera that can transmit infrared data, as well as commercial satellite imagery.

A spokesman for Schiebel, which made the drones that were shot down, said the firm planned to submit a bid for the tender.
A Framework Agreement was signed with China Merchants Port Holdings Company Limited yesterday for what the government called revitalization of the Hambantota Port on a Private Public Partnership (PPP) model.

The Ministry of Development Strategies and International Trade said in a statement that the agreement was executed in accordance with the Cabinet decision in this regard. It outlines the understanding between the Government of Sri Lanka and Chinese State-owned Corporate - China Merchants Port Holdings Company Limited.

A Concession Agreement is to be executed, upon completion of a due diligence to be performed by the China Merchants Port Holdings Company Limited, the statement said.

The government is to convert a percentage of the loans obtained from China to build the port equity under this programme.

President Maithripala Sirisena, on his second anniversary in office, will declare open the Ruhunu Development Area Project in January. The port development is also part of this project. At present action is being taken to obtain 15,000 acres of land for the proposed investment zones.
State Minister of Finance Lakshman Yapa Abeywardana said the COPE report on the Treasury Bond Issue would be taken up for debate on priority basis at the very first session of Parliament in 2017 and a special fast track judicial procedure would put be put in place to conclude the legal process and punish the culprits as early as possible.

After the debate, the Speaker will send the COPE report to the Attorney General for necessary legal action.

Elaborating on a number of vital decisions taken at an extraordinary Group Meeting of the SLFP on Tuesday night chaired by President Maithripala Sirisena at his residence, Minister Abeywardana told the media at his Ministry yesterday that the bond scam had tarnished the image of the unity government, the Central Bank and the UNP beyond repair because this government came to power to do the opposite.

The unity government was formed with a firm pledge to bring corrupt politicians and officials before the law and duly punish them but not to protect them, he added.

Minister Abeywardana vowed that the SLFP was determined that under no circumstances, the SLFP would not let culprits of the infamous bond scam off the hook and punish them according to the law of the land and collect the ill gotten lucre from them.

The SLFP also decided to hold the forthcoming local government polls on the mixed and ward system and rejected totally the suggestions to hold the next election under the much corrupt and criticized old PR system.

We, the SLFP are totally against the conducting of local government polls under the old system and fully committed to hold it under the mixed First Fast the Post and PR System and Ward system that ensures the direct public representation at each and every ward in local government bodies.

Minister Abeywardana also said President Sirisena gave instructions to Local Government and Provincial Councils Minister Faizer Musthapha to make arrangements to conduct much delayed local government polls as early as possible at the group meeting.

We hope that the Asoka Peiris delimitation committee report will submit its report to Minister Musthapha before December 31. Then, Minister Musthapha is required to gazette the election under the rules and regulations recommended by the 2012 Local Government Electoral (Amendment) Act that brought the mixed voting system and ward system.

But if some one went to courts challenging the recommendations of the delimitation report, it will take time and we will not be able to hold the polls in the first quarter in 2017. But we will try our best to hold the local government polls in the first quarter in 2017, Minister Abeywardana stressed.

Minister Abeywardana pooh poohed the speculations made by Parliamentarian Udaya Gammanpila to the effect that the government was in a move to abrogate in a bid to prevent the COPE report on the bond scandal and ETCA and added the suggestion was only a wishful thinking of a politician who sought cheap publicity as he did not have points to talk about. (Sandun A Jayasekera)

Video by Buddhi
The National Freedom Front (NFF) yesterday urged the Secretary to the Ports and Shipping Ministry to refrain from signing the agreement to sell the Hambantota Port to a Chinese company which was scheduled to be signed yesterday and warned him of the consequences, threatening that he would be the first person answerable before the FCID when a new government comes to power.

Addressing a media briefing, NFF Leader Wimal Weerawansa said the government was in a mission to sell off a valuable national resource to the China Merchants Holdings Company and added that it would directly affect the future generations of the country.

The Hambantota Port was constructed at a total expense of USD 1,691 million by the former government and the Sri Lanka Ports Authority. After signing the agreement 80 per cent of the port would be owned by the China Merchants Holdings Company and only 20 per cent of it would be owned by Sri Lanka, he added.

He said China Merchants Holdings Company had expressed intention to own the Hambantota Port on a 99 years lease by paying USD 1080 million as a down payment to Sri Lanka.

Meanwhile, he said the Ports and Shipping Minister, the port authority Chairman and the Sri Lanka Ports Authoritys Board of Directors were against this move.

Therefore, the government made their way to move ahead with this agreement with China by presenting a cabinet paper, offering the Secretary to the Ports and Shipping Ministry with the powers to sign the agreement, he added.

He said the countrys economy would also be at risk with this step and added that it would be a competitive threat to the Colombo Harbour. (Kalathma Jayawardhane)
The Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) said yesterday that while they had expressed their condolences over the death of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa her death was a great relief to Sri Lanka.

JHU national organizer Nishantha Sri Warnasinghe pointed out that the late chief minister was an anti-Sri Lankan leader who harassed Sri Lankans in India and always acted contrary to the interests of our country.

She harassed our Buddhists monks, players, businessmen and those who went on pilgrimage to Tamil Nadu. She also fought to take over the Katchchativu Island and instigate separatism in the in the North and East for her petty political gains.

Mr. Warnasinghe said the defeat of Hillary Clinton was also a happy moment for Sri Lanka as she also had an ulterior motive with regards to Sri Lanka. Secretary Clinton said that an economic embargo should be imposed on Sri Lanka and that war crimes allegedly committed by us should also be investigated fully. Therefore it is a good time that has dawned for the country internationally, he said.

He said he expected that the new Tamil Nadu Chief Minister would adopt a friendlier approach towards Sri Lanka.

He said Prisons Reforms, Rehabilitation, Resettlement and Hindu Religious Affairs Minister D. M. Swaminathan should reveal how many Sinhalese people had been resettled in the North and East, how many lands had been released to them and how much had been spent on resettling them.

No steps have been taken to resettle Sinhalese in the north and east. Minister Swaminathan revealed in Parliament that Rs. 80 million had been spent to build Kovils in the north and east. We would like him to reveal how much had been spent to build Buddhist temples there, he said.

He said the Government should reveal its stance on the resolution approved by the Northern Provincial Council, prohibiting the construction of Buddhist temples in the North.

Mr. Warnasinghe said Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe had said that there were no legal provisions for the Provincial Councils to adopt such resolutions and added that if it was so Provincial Councils should be dissolved.

Commenting on Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe apologizing for the UNP burning the Jaffna Library, he said it was an admirable move and added that no Tamil politician had ever appologised for the devastation caused to Buddhist Temples by the Tamils. (Ajith Siriwardana)
ith isolationism, divisiveness and extreme right-wing populism appearing to be going global, the world marks Human Rights Day today amid growing uncertainty, fears and unpredictability.

After World War II the United States, as the worlds leading superpower assumed political, moral and economic leadership of the free world. But with the stunning victory of super billionaire Donald Trump in the US presidential election on November 8th and the surprising Brexit vote for Britain to leave the European Union, the global political equation is changing.



This week the Time magazine chose the controversial Mr. Trump as its Person of the Year 2016 but described him as the President of the Divided States of America. Mr. Trump widely seen as being consistently inconsistent and unpredictable, has suggested he wants to make the US great again essentially through a policy of isolationism, which prevailed prior to the World War II. In any event with Mr. Trump proclaiming white supremacist policies and describing key issues like climate change as a hoax made in China, the US appears to have lost its moral leadership of the free world. However, even before Mr. Trump, the hypocrisy of the Western world led by the US was apparent through its double standards on the application of Human Rights. The Obama-Clinton era was particularly glaring in this regard with its emphasis on regime change in countries that did not tow its line. Suffering was brought on millions of people in many countries around the world through this interventionism of the US and its Western allies.



With Britain deciding to pull out of the European Union and similar patterns emerging in several other countries including Italy, Holland and Australia, the EU also appears to be losing its moral right to preach on vital issues such as Human Rights. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has emerged as a possible alternative to play the role of the US President. But there is growing right-wing pressure in Germany with about 900,000 refugees coming in this year from war ravaged areas such as Syria and Iraq.

It is in such a confusing and conflict filled context that the United Nations Human Rights Commissioner Zeid Raad Al Hussein issued a powerful statement to mark Human Rights Day 2016. Todays events in the world make many among us anxious  even fearful. We see human beings in pain. Decent values under attack. Messages of hatred and intolerance  divisive visions of the world which drive increasing selfishness. Isolation. Scapegoating. Violence. And in this toxic tide of hatred which is slowly rising in many societies, some of the deepest, most essential principles which safeguard peaceful societies risk being swept away, he warned.



The Jordanian Prince, in an impassioned appeal added: We need to stop this. And I believe we can. We  you and I  can draw the line. We dont have to stand by when the haters drive wedges of hostility among communities. We can build bridges. We can raise our voices. We can stand up for the values of decent, compassionate societies. When someone is abused and afraid, we can step forward to help safeguard her or his rights. When a vulnerable person is bullied, we can step in. Wherever there is discrimination and exploitation, we can speak up and let it be known that we oppose this, and seek to stop it. We can join others to publicly lobby for better leadership, better laws and greater respect for human dignity. Wherever we are, we can make a real difference in someones life  perhaps many lives. Local steps make global movements. It starts with all of us taking practical steps to reaffirm our belief in humanity and equality. The UN Human Rights Office works to promote and protect human rights around the world. We work for a world built by We the peoples, as the UN Charter says.



The UNs outgoing Secretary General Ban Ki Moon also echoes such views. All of us can and must act in our daily lives to advance the human rights of the people around us. This is the driving force behind a new global campaign being launched by the United Nations Human Rights Office Stand Up for Someones Rights Today. Wherever we are, each of us can make a difference for human rights: in our neighbourhoods, in school, at work, on social media, at home and even in sporting arenas across the world. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights reminds us that recognition of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family are the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.
Maxtherm Perfect Business Solution Services Ltd CEO Madura Gamanayake (left) receiving the provincial Gold and national Silver award

Perfect Business Solution Services (Pvt) Ltd (PBSS), a leading business software solutions provider withpresence primarily in Sri Lanka, Maldives and Middle East, recently clinched the Gold award for Western Province and National Silveraward at the Entrepreneur of the Year Awards 2016, both under the medium category.

Held on the 7th of December and organized by the Federation of Chambers of Commerce of Sri Lanka (FCCISL), the awards recognizes small extra-large enterprises from across the country who play a vital role in the local economy.

Madura Gamanayake, Managing Director of PBSS, said We are delighted to have being recognized and awarded with a national award at the FCCISL Entrepreneur of the Year Awards. This is a tribute to all our employees, partners and stakeholders for being with us on our journey for the last 14 years. We are growing day by day with plans to expand our offerings and also branch out to other countries, and we are confident to thrive in similar achievements in the future.

The event was held under the theme "Innovation and Sustainability for Transformation" in its 21st year. It provides a platform of recognition and opportunity to be highlighted for all the hard-work put in, overcoming all challenges in a highly competitive environment.

The Perfect Business Solution Services team

An ISO certified business organization having their own product portfolio catering to many industry sectors, PBSS is today even stronger with the integration of Sage and SAP Business One solutions including continuous research and development in creating locally-made, world-class products.

PBSS has launched its own Sri Lankan-made Perfect Pay/HRM which is an enterprise level HRM solution for small to large businesses. Its products include SAP Business One ERP, Sage Evolution ERP, Sage 50 (Peachtree), Sage My Business, POS Solutions, HRM Solutions, Payroll and TAS Solutions, various Perfect Integrations for ERP, amongst many others that caters to many industry sectors and divisions. PBSS provides industry verticals such as School Management Solutions, Service Manager & Work Shop Management, Advanced Job Costing, Fleet Management etc. The company also conducts training programs, and has its presence in Sri Lanka, Middle East and Maldives.

Established in 2002, PBSS today boasts over 600 clients in Sri Lanka and globally. The company is a super platinum partner including one of the top 10 for Sage Evolution ERP having more than 110 ERP deployment in Sri Lanka and Maldives. PBSS signed up for the SAP Business One partner with SAP and with that the company now offers two market leading ERP solutions to its clients. SAP Business One includes all the processes need to run your entire business. Unlike niche solutions, it provides complete business management functions covering financials, sales, customers, inventory, and operations added Gamanayake.
This poor pooch narrowly escaped death after being chased by a wild stallion.

It was a close call for Maggie, an English Setter, who was set upon by the angry horse.

The two-year-old pet looked petrified as it ran towards the safety of owner and wildlife photographer, impressively captured the heart-stopping moment.

Maggie was out with Mr Palmer on a falcon hunt for sage-grouse in Wyoming's Red Desert when they stumbled across the herd.

Thankfully Maggie was unharmed. (Daily Mail)
hose who have known or met the second Prime Minister of then Ceylon are but a few among the living now, albeit few relatives. Those who are living but yet remember to give the information are even less in number.

Some of us were fortunate, to have had memorable encounters, with the much loved figure and to have been brought up in households where it is ensured that fond memories of a great man are passed on to the next generation-to inform that there did live such great leaders.

When I put pen to paper, on a life of an extraordinary man, this precisely is the reason.

What better tribute would be fitting, I thought on the occasion, than recording the views and experiences of those actually involved in the preparation of the tedious task undertaken over the last months, the making of the statue and the installation of it, in preparation of this unveiling of a brand new statue. No doubt that is how he, Dudley Senanayaka would have wanted it.

Never has there been a time  post independence, so much than now, where the mere mentioning of the name Dudley Shelton Senanayaka, is immediately followed by heavy sighs of sadness and a wish with a prayer for politicians of his caliber to emerge.

This was a common phenomenon experienced by many of the Dudley Senanayaka Memorial Society Committee members who were tasked with the work at hand after the decision to install a new statue of Prime Minister Dudley Senanayaka adjacent to what is commonly known as the Kanatte Roundabout was made.

At the function arranged tomorrow, where President, Maithripala Sirisena will unveil the new Bronze statue and will also officially declare the name of the roundabout too, fittingly to be known hereafter, as the Dudley Senanayaka Roundabout which was earlier known as the Borella Kanatte Roundabout.

The story of the new Bronze statue began with the newly reorganized Dudley Senanayaka Memorial Society, which gathered at the Board Room of the Young Mens Buddhist Association early this year.

"The new statue to be in bronze and one that would be true to the shape and form and to the height and stature of the 2nd Prime Minister was tasked to the renowned sculpture Gunasena Kurulugama.Outstanding"

The old statue being removed

Photos by Charnika Imbulana



Its patrons, Rukman Senanayaka, President of the Society, Dr. Karunasena Kodithuwakku and the Societys Secretary, Chandima De Silva who collectively spearheaded the Committee at its first meeting, before the death anniversary in April, informed of the decision with much enthusiasm.

Representatives of the committee members, grand nephews, Ruwan Wijewardena and Vasantha Senanayaka, both now Parliamentarians serving the Government of Sri Lanka were also present.

The new statue to be in bronze and one that would be true to the shape and form and to the height and stature of the 2nd Prime Minister was tasked to the renowned sculptor Gunasena Kurulugama.Outstanding work of Kurulugama already adorns the City of Colombo with the statues such as, of N.M. Perera, Lakshman Kadirgamar, Peter Kenaman, Gamini Dissanayaka and Dharmasiri Senanayake.

A recipient of the Kala Vibushana awards, Kurulugama was ecstatic at being given the task and told that to do one of Dudley Senanayaka is an honor and a challenge.

After its completion while meeting him at the site of the installation taking place, Kurulugama said The work on the statue took nearly three months . The statue is made out of cement in bronze colour and weighs 800 kilos and has a height of 8 feet 6 inches, he revealed.

"My husband was the SLFP Borella organizer at the time, he intervened and made an appeal to the RD that he would take it upon himself to relocate the statue"



Mr. Chandima De Silva Secretary to the Dudley Senanayaka Memorial Society, in addition to seeing the entire operation of the old statue that was removed and the installation of the new one, was also tasked to the renaming of the roundabout too, to its successful implementation with his own team and spearheading the organizing of the ceremony for the unveiling of the new bronze statute.

The Dudley Senanayake statue that stood at the Borella Kanatte Roundabout was originally at the Borella Main Junction, the intersection of four roads.

Records show that the first statue installed in that location in Borella in memory of Dudley Senanayaka soon after his untimely death, was carefully moved to the Kanatte Roundaboute to safeguard it from road expansion and development was in fact the timely and good deed of late Barethe Lakshman Premechandra.

Speaking to his wife Mrs. Premechandra, who was herself a follower of Mr. Dudley Senanayakas politics, more details were found.

Describing the time she said Dudley Senanayaka was my hero. We would admire and respect him as our leader in his time and after. I would collect all the memorabilia and is in the possession of a large collection of his election time badges, hand- outs and newspaper articles.

My husband was the SLFP Borella organizer at the time, he intervened and made an appeal to the RD that he would take it upon himself to relocate the statue.

Politician, Late Barethe Lakshamn Premechandra, had offered to take the responsibility personally of paying the taxes for the new location for which the wife continues to make payment to this day.

When the location was to be decided on, Premechandra made sure that the statute does not get situated in the island at the Centre of the Borella Kanatte intersection therefore he personally chose carefully a suitable place for its re-location on the side of the Kynsey road turn off.

"At 35 years of age, and four decades have passed since his untimely death, such is the magnitude of the affection and reverence of this great leader but yet a man of the common people"



Eventually Premachandra received the letter authorizing installation. Recalling the incident Mrs. Premachandra said upon receiving the letter, my husband would joke with me saying he took best care of my hero and it was ironically located a stones throw away from his own office and he added that would be able to keep an eye on it for its safety.

Although it is over 60 years since he stepped into the lime light as the son of the father of the nation, at 35 years of age, and four decades have passed since his untimely death, such is the magnitude of the affection and reverence of this great leader but yet a man of the common people. The public outpouring to help is testimony, to the fact that he was a firm favourite of all walks of life, and a leader of all time.

Tomorrow the new bronze statue will be unveiled adjacent to the Dudley Senanayaka Roundabout.



(The writer Charnika Imbulana Munasinghe is a Committee Member of the Dudley Senanayaka Memorial Society. She is the niece of late P.C. Imbulana, a founder member of the UNP and former President of the D.S. Senanayake Memorial Society. Imbulana held the post of Deputy Minister of Agriculture in the Dudley Senanayaka Government.)
The purchase of a tombstone from an antiques store led a California artist on a journey to find its rightful place.

Alexandra Grant bought the marker in Buffalo, Wyoming, in 2000. Etched on the tombstone was the name Lena Davis, a girl who died on July 19, 1880. The stone, she was told, was from a ranch in eastern Wyoming.

Intuitively, Grant said, she knew it didnt belong at the store so she decided to buy it.

I saw the tombstone both as a beautiful piece of folk art in great condition, as well as something more significant, she said.

Over the next decade, the Los Angeles woman kept the stone, thinking of herself as its caretaker until she decided it needed to be back in the public realm. That decision resulted in her discovering, through a connection of people she normally wouldnt have ever met, that the tombstone was stolen from the rural Pleasant Home Cemetery in Polk County in the 1940s.

Grant was told the theft was the oldest unsolved crime in the county.

She made the decision to travel halfway across the country, along with the tombstone, to have it placed back in the cemetery and documented the adventure in the film Taking Lena Home.

The documentary, which took five years to complete and is Grants first film, will be shown 7 p.m. Dec. 16 at the Stromsburg Civic Center by the Polk County Historical Society. Grant, who directed the film, will be on hand for a post-show discussion at the free event.

Since its premier in August at the Grand Rapids Film Festival in South Dakota, the documentary has also been shown in cities in Nebraska, Kansas, Texas and Iowa.

The reception has been overwhelming, Grant said.

How the tombstone from rural Nebraska ended up in Wyoming is still a mystery. Its journey home started when Grant listed the stone on eBay at an inflated price, hoping the price tag would only draw interest from museums or historians.

Then genealogist Julie Middendorf entered the story. The Scotia woman had recently read a story about someone finding a headstone at a garage sale and questioned why anyone would sell, let alone buy, such an item when it should be in a cemetery. She wondered if those types of sales also happened online. That led to her finding Davis tombstone for sale by Grant.

Using her historian skills, Middendorf quickly learned about Davis, including that she was buried in the Polk County cemetery.

The Polk County Sheriffs Office was notified, and it contacted Grant to inform her that the memorial was stolen. She wanted to return it, but instead of just mailing it Grant decided to deliver the stone herself and film the experience.

The film documents her travels from Los Angeles to Polk County in November 2011 to turn the tombstone over to the sheriffs office and her return trip to Nebraska in 2012 for a ceremony in the cemetery celebrating the memorial being replaced. Several people are interviewed in the film including law enforcement from Polk County, Middendorf, the couple who owned the Wyoming antiques store, members of the Polk County Historical Society and relatives of Davis.

In the film, Grant said by caring for Davis tombstone she came to understand how important cemeteries are for family history and stories.

She hopes viewers of the film will gain a sense of connection; that even a life as short-lived as Davis bonds generations together.

I cant think of a better definition of what a work of art is. And what greater cause than to connect people generations later, who may not know each other or come from the same background, but has, as their core values, integrity and love, Davis said.
South Koreas Parliament today voted to impeach President Park Geun-hye, an aloof conservative who took a hard line against North Korea and rose to power with strong support from those who revered her father, the military dictator Park Chung-hee, the New York Times reported.

The vote against Ms. Park, the nations first female leader, followed weeks of damaging disclosures in a corruption scandal that has all but paralyzed the government and produced the largest street protests in the nations history. Her powers will now be suspended as the Constitutional Court considers whether to remove her from office.

Ms. Park has been accused of allowing a shadowy confidante, the daughter of a religious sect leader, to exercise remarkable influence on matters ranging from choosing top government officials to her wardrobe, and of helping her extort tens of millions of dollars from South Korean companies. The scandal, which gained national attention less than two months ago, has cast a harsh light on collusion between the presidency and big business in one of Asias most dynamic economies.

A total of 234 lawmakers voted for impeachment, well over the required two-thirds threshold in the 300-seat Parliament. The vote was by secret ballot, but the outcome indicated that nearly half of the 128 lawmakers in Ms. Parks party, Saenuri, had joined the opposition in moving to oust her.

Parliaments motion for impeachment, accusing Ms. Park of extensive and serious violations of the Constitution and the law, will now be taken up by the Constitutional Court, which has six months to decide whether the charges are true and merit her ouster.

Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, a former prosecutor and staunch defender of Ms. Park, will serve as acting president in the meantime. If the court votes to remove Ms. Park, South Korea will hold an election for a new president in 60 days.
What does Patali know about politics that Harini doesnt know?

Sri Lanka is going through great pains to get its economy in order after the
Thawheed Jamaath's General Secretary Abdul Razeek, remanded on charges of defaming Buddhism and reprimanding Ven. Gnanasara Thera in filth, was today released on bail.

Colombo Additional Magistrate Chandana Kalansuriya released Mr. Jamaath on a cash bail of Rs.10, 000 with two sureties of Rs.1 million each.

The Magistrate warned the secretary to desist from making any statements defaming any religion and if he did so his bail would be cancelled and re-remanded till the end of the case. (Shehan Chamika Silva)
Dealing with the incoming administration of the unpredictable United States President-elect Donald Trump, is a question now consuming diplomats across the world's capitals. This is perhaps all the more the case in China, which has been left rattled this past week by Trump's hard talk on Taiwan, trade and the South China Sea.

An entirely new US approach to China under the Trump administration, hinted at in recent days by Trump and his advisers, will have huge ramifications for New Delhi.

First, Trump upended nearly 37 years of US diplomatic protocol by speaking on the phone with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen. The last US president or president-elect to speak with a Taiwanese leader was Jimmy Carter.

Part of the US normalisation of ties with China was an implicit recognition of "One China" - a policy that India and all major countries follow - and a ceasing of diplomatic relations with Taiwan. China regards Taiwan as a runaway province and goes to great lengths to prevent any international recognition of the island.

Which was why Trump's move left insiders in Beijing stunned. And Trump didn't stop with the Taiwan call.

After he was criticised by the American media for the call, he robustly defended it on Twitter, and went on to slam China for manipulating its currency and militarising the South China Sea.

Huang Jing, a leading expert on China's foreign policy at the National University of Singapore who often interacts with top decision-makers in Beijing, told Mail Today, "We have a president-elect who is very immature on international affairs, and is promoting Twitter diplomacy without much expertise in what he's doing."

The irony is many in Beijing had initially welcomed Trump's rise because of his apparent fondness for Russia, perceptions of him as pragmatic and transactional - Chinese translations of The Art of the Deal are widely available - and the general dislike for the "more ideological" Hillary Clinton.

An entirely new US approach to China under the Trump administration, hinted at in recent days by Trump and his advisers, will have huge ramifications for New Delhi.

How will China respond to the President-elect? "It would be best to stay put, be watchful and see what he will do once he is in the White House in January," said Huang.

"At the same time, prepare for radical change. I don't believe Trump, no matter how unpredictable, can stand up to institutions and diplomatic norms established for decades. But if one president manages to do so, then we are all doomed."

While it is perhaps too soon to gauge the ramifications of Trump's early moves as president-elect, what's less clear is whether he has himself thought through the possible fall-out of his robust new approach with China. The most immediate likely consequence is an attempt by Beijing to punish or pressure Taipei, rather than confront Washington.

China is likely to test whether he will follow words with action. But when Trump has spoken of curtailing US misadventures abroad, how far would he be willing to go?

"The Chinese mainland is capable of punishing (Taiwan's) administration for any moves that crosses the red line, and it should use its power without hesitation," said an editorial in the widely-read Party-run tabloid, Global Times. "It is inappropriate to target Trump since he is still a president-elect. China can punish the Tsai administration as a way to convey a message to Trump."

What is increasingly apparent is that Trump's moves were not, as some media first suggested, a diplomatic faux pas borne out of ignorance, but more likely a long-planned manoeuvre to signal a new approach to Beijing.

In a recent article for Foreign Policy, Trump adviser Peter Navarro, a professor at the University of California Irvine, lambasted the previous US government for reducing arms sales and shunning the interests of Taiwan, a "beacon of democracy".

He also slammed the Obama administration's "pivot" to Asia, which spoke of challenging China but did little to stop Beijing's reclamation of islands and building of infrastructure on the South China Sea, describing it as "talking loudly but carrying a small stick".

He said Trump will rebuild the Navy, and called for deeper ties with "US partners like Japan, South Korea, India, and even Myanmar and Vietnam" who "view Beijing as a bully and potential aggressor that must be balanced against."

This could certainly open new opportunities for India. Contrasting this robust security posture is Trump's impulse to withdraw from the region economically, dealing a death-blow to the 12-member Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal that excludes China.

Douglas Paal, vice-president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, notes that a "role reversal" is taking place where China is now leading the push for both regional trade deals and climate agreement.

Already, Chinese officials have said they will push the long-drawn-out negotiations on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, which involves the ten Asean countries plus their six partners, including China, Japan and India.

India's big concern is whether the deal will also open up markets for its services and skilled workers, beyond just goods. If the deal is given fresh momentum with the expected decline of the TPP, India will have to take a call sooner rather than later.

Cao Heping, director of the Department of Developmental Economy at Peking University, suggested to Bloomberg that the new-found urgency in Beijing could see it "finish the deal with India as an observer".

"We don't have to wait for India," he said. "India can choose to join after the benefits are borne out in a couple of years."
Sen. Deb Fischer said Thursday she is eager to work with President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to "roll back harmful rules and regulations" promulgated by the Obama administration.

Trump has chosen Scott Pruitt, a critic of climate change regulations, to head the agency, subject to Senate confirmation.

As Oklahoma's attorney general, Pruitt sued the EPA over its regulation of emissions from power plants.

Fischer said the federal agency has been engaged in "extreme overreach" and it's time to "return EPA to its intended mission of implementing laws, not creating new ones."

Responding to another Trump nomination during a telephone conference call from Washington, Fischer said she supports granting a waiver for retired Marine Gen. James Mattis to be considered as the president-elect's choice for secretary of defense.

Current law prohibits recently retired military officers from serving as the civilian head of the Department of Defense. The law erects a barrier of seven years; Mattis has been retired for four years.

Fischer, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said she fully supports the nomination of Mattis and expects there will be "tremendous support" for him in the Senate.

On another topic, Fischer said she finds it "very frustrating" to have legislation enabling construction of a new veterans medical center in Omaha stalled in the closing days of the 2016 Congress by a unanimous-consent objection raised by Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia over a separate issue.

Manchin, a Democrat, has put a hold on the bill pending Senate action to provide a longer-term solution to a shortfall in mine workers' health care benefits, a critical issue in his state.

Legislation to keep the federal government funded through April 28 includes a temporary four-month patch to keep those benefits flowing.

"I think it's going to be difficult to get (the veterans medical center) done now," Fischer said. Failure to act before adjournment of the 2016 Congress means the legislation would need to be introduced again next year.
The Sixth "Heart of Asia" Conference in Amritsar brought together 14 Eurasian countries, including India, China, Russia, Iran and Pakistan, and representatives of 17 supporting nations led by the US and the European Union. It reviewed their efforts to deal with the threats posed to regional peace and security by developments in Afghanistan.

Both India and Afghanistan openly asserted that these threats arose and emanated from Pakistani soil, with support from Pakistan's state machinery.

Challenges

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani alluded to the enhanced security challenges Kabul was facing this year, with the Taliban stepping up their armed attacks across the country. He did not mince his words by publicly holding Pakistan primarily responsible for terrorism across his country.

He alleged that "some states still provide sanctuary and support" for terrorist networks operating in Afghanistan.

President Ghani pointedly referred to a statement by Taliban leader Mullah Rahamatullah Kakazada who had acknowledged that if the Taliban left their safe havens in Pakistan, they would not last even a month in Afghanistan.While noting that Pakistan had pledged $500 million for the reconstruction of Afghanistan, he rejected Pakistan's offer of assistance.

He asserted that the money pledged by Pakistan could "very well be used by it for combating extremism" directed at Afghanistan.

The conference, for the first time, designated several organisations from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Xinjiang and Central Asia, apart from the ISIS operating in Afghanistan, as posing terrorist threats in the region.

India can draw satisfaction from the fact that for the first time Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed were designated by such a conference as terrorist outfits.

President Ghani generously praised India for its economic assistance, describing it as "impressive both it its scale and its system of delivery".

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani during a visit to Golden temple in Amritsar.

There was also reference to the importance of the tripartite India-Iran-Afghanistan agreement on developing the Chabahar Port to promote regional connectivity to and through Afghanistan.

Despite these developments, India should not ignore the challenges that President Ghani's government faces both internally and externally.

It is no secret that governance in Afghanistan has been affected by differences within the Afghan government. While the US has stepped up military supplies including the augmentation of Afghan air-power, there are logistical problems in routing American military supplies through Pakistan.

Agreement

Afghanistan has been appealing to India for over three years for urgent supply of military hardware. New Delhi is yet to firm up arrangements for this. We should, if necessary, immediately conclude a tripartite agreement with Iran and Afghanistan to facilitate transit of arms supplies.

It is equally important that we fulfil our commitment on developing the Chabahar Port in Iran expeditiously. India also has to recognise the reality that we are seeing the emergence of a Russia-China-Pakistan axis, when it comes to developments in Afghanistan.

We should make it clear that the tone and tenor of remarks made by Russian Special Envoy Rehman Kabulov in Amritsar on a number of issues, including our bilateral ties, are not in keeping with the spirit of our long-term friendly relationship.

The process of reconciliation within Afghanistan has achieved a small success, with the former pro-Pakistani mujahideen leader of Hizb-e-Islami, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, signing a peace agreement with the Afghan government. But the prospects for a restoration of peace and a peace agreement with the Taliban are virtually non-existent at present.

Duplicity

While the talks between the Taliban and the Afghanistan government are meant to be exclusively "Afghan-led and Afghan-owned", there are many others hovering around with a finger in the Afghan pie.

The initial "facilitators" of these talks were the US, China and Pakistan. After that dialogue process broke down, largely because of what the Afghans saw as Pakistani duplicity, we are now witnessing the emergence of a new grouping of Russia, China and Pakistan, set to promote what is called an internal Afghan Peace Process.

The Russians now make out, with little evidence to substantiate what they are saying, that the real threat to regional peace emerging from Afghanistan comes from Daesh (ISIS) and not the Taliban. This is obviously a line Pakistanis are pushing, recognising that Russia's primary concern is the ISIS.

One would not be surprised if the Afghans, said to be representing the ISIS, were really a front set up by the ISI.

In any case, we should not allow attention to be diverted from the fact that it is the Taliban, together with their affiliates in the Haqqani network - armed, trained and operating from safe havens in Pakistan - that constitute the main threat to the security of Afghanistan and indeed the region as a whole.

In the midst of a transition of government in the US, Washington can offer little to deal with these developments, especially as no one can predict what "deals" the mercurial President-elect Donald Trump will hit upon, to address developments in Afghanistan.
Hurriyat leaders have failed time and again and most Kashmiris know that. Yet, nobody is willing to admit it. Their persuasion to resolve the prolonged Kashmir issue as per the aspirations of Kashmiris may be genuine, but Hurriyat leaders have utterly failed to meet expectations.

In November 2015, Hurriyat hawk Syed Ali Shah Geelani in an interview to local daily Rising Kashmir said that the people of Kashmir have failed the leadership, while the leadership has not let them down. Geelani was referring to the people who, despite the boycott calls from the Hurriyat leadership, participated in large numbers in the 2014 Assembly election.

Then came 2016, and the same Kashmiris who were looked down upon by the Hurriyat leaders, made incomparable sacrifices. Since July 8 - in the unrest that followed the death of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani - 115 people have died, 15,000 injured, 22 maimed, 505 women molested, 65,000 houses, shops and other businesses damaged, 37 schools arsoned, 9,700 people arrested and 608 Kashmiris detained under the Public Safety Act.

The people of Kashmir have once again been left disillusioned by the politics of Hurriyat leaders.

After five months, those on the streets of Kashmir are posing one question to the Hurriyat leadership: What have you achieved?

In the unrest that followed the death of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani, 115 Kashmiris have died, 15,000 injured and 22 maimed. Credit: Reuters

This is not the first time the Hurriyat leadership has proved to be a sheer disappointment. Over the years, Kashmiris have made enough sacrifices to provide a platform to the Hurriyat leaders to pursue their agenda, only to be let down.

After failing to yield any favourable results following the agitations of 2008 and 2010, the Hurriyat leadership came under severe criticism for their lack of strategy; yet, in the 2016 uprising, most Kashmiris put their weight behind the leadership in the hope that the Hurriyat would be able to deliver on the ground.

The 2016 uprising resonated with the world forum solely because of the resilience of the Kashmiri people. The atrocities committed by the government forces were covered by most international media outlets and there was a ripple of concern in New Delhi to undertake undesirable steps to restore peace to the Valley.

However, the absence of a proactive strategy by the Hurriyat ensured the situation was bypassed without troubling the power corridors at the Centre.

Today, we are back to ground zero. The momentum has been lost. The international media has vanished. Kashmiris are fed up of the incessant hartal calls and cursing Hurriyat leaders for having wasted their precious lives.

On November 12, former Hurriyat chairman Abdul Ghani Bhat struck the first discordant note against the Hurriyat leaders' response to the current unrest: "Our leaders are like the blind rider on a lame horse. The horse cannot run and they (the Hurriyat) don't know where to take it."

The first time the Hurriyat exhibited signs of failure was on November 6, when they called up stakeholders to discuss the future course of protests. It was beyond the comprehension of a lay Kashmiri as to what urged the Hurriyat leaders to seek advice from the business fraternity, lawyers and the civil society after observing a shutdown for four months.

The move indicated that they were never sure what to do with this uprising and merely floated with the tide.

Yes, leaders need suggestions, but when it comes to defining the future course of a movement, the onus lies on the leadership to rise to the occasion and make key decisions. Unfortunately, Hurriyat leaders seem to lack this zeal for decision making.

On December 6, in the middle of the weekly protest, the Hurriyat invited tourists and yatris to visit Kashmir and enjoy the hospitality and the beauty of the paradise on earth. This was the final nail in the coffin. It was a clear message to the people of Kashmir that the Hurriyat is now no longer interested in continuing with the protests and, instead, keen on wrapping up the schedule.

There is no doubt unprecedented support for the Hurriyat in Kashmir, but at the same time, their repeated failures and dubious strategies have created a sense of cynicism in the minds of the people as to whether they have the ability to propagate Kashmiris' right to self-determination.

It may sound good to our ears that Kashmiris have achieved moral victory, and succeeded in highlighting the Kashmir issue on the international forum. But the reality is that New Delhi is having the last laugh. Despite Kashmir witnessing the longest spell of hartals stretching over four months, the Modi government has not budged an inch from its guarded position and maintains that Hurriyat leaders are no party to the Kashmir dispute.




1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.

2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.

3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament of the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.

4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.

5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.

6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.

7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.

8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.

9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.

10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.

11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)

12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.

13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.

14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.

15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.

16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.

17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.

18. Gain control of all student newspapers.

19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.

20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.

21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.

22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."

23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."

24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.

25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.

26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."

27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."

28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."

29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.

30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."

31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.

32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.

33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.

34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.

36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.

37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.

38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand.

39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.

40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.

41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.

42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use united force to solve economic, political or social problems.

43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.

44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.

45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike.
GSK plc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the creation, discovery, development, manufacture, and marketing of pharmaceutical products, vaccines, over-the-counter medicines, and health-related consumer products in the United Kingdom, the United States, and internationally. It operates through four segments: Pharmaceuticals, Pharmaceuticals R&D, Vaccines, and Consumer Healthcare. The company offers pharmaceutical products comprising medicines in the therapeutic areas, such as respiratory, HIV, immuno-inflammation, oncology, anti-viral, central nervous system, cardiovascular and urogenital, metabolic, anti-bacterial, and dermatology. It also provides consumer healthcare products in wellness, oral health, nutrition, and skin health categories. The company offers its consumer healthcare products in the form of nasal sprays, tablets, syrups, lozenges, gum and trans-dermal patches, caplets, infant syrup drops, liquid filled suspension, wipes, gels, effervescents, toothpastes, toothbrushes, mouthwashes, denture adhesives and cleansers, topical creams and non-medicated patches, lip balm, gummies, and soft chews. It has collaboration agreements with 23andMe; Lyell Immunopharma, Inc.; Novartis; Sanofi SA; Surface Oncology; Progentec Diagnostics, Inc.; Alector, Inc.; and CureVac AG., as well as strategic partnership with IDEAYA Biosciences, Inc. and Vir Biotechnology, Inc. The company was formerly known as GlaxoSmithKline plc and changed its name to GSK plc in May 2022. GSK plc was founded in 1715 and is headquartered in Brentford, the United Kingdom.
The Clorox Company manufactures and markets consumer and professional products worldwide. It operates through four segments: Health and Wellness, Household, Lifestyle, and International. The Health and Wellness segment offers cleaning products, such as laundry additives and home care products primarily under the Clorox, Clorox2, Scentiva, Pine-Sol, Liquid-Plumr, Tilex, and Formula 409 brands; professional cleaning and disinfecting products under the CloroxPro and Clorox Healthcare brands; professional food service products under the Hidden Valley brand; and vitamins, minerals and supplement products under the RenewLife, Natural Vitality, NeoCell, and Rainbow Light brands in the United States. The Household segment provides cat litter products under the Fresh Step and Scoop Away brands; bags and wraps under the Glad brand; and grilling products under the Kingsford brand in the United States. The Lifestyle segment offers dressings, dips, seasonings, and sauces primarily under the Hidden Valley brand; natural personal care products under the Burt's Bees brand; and water-filtration products under the Brita brand in the United States. The International segment provides laundry additives; home care products; water-filtration systems; digestive health products; grilling products; cat litter products; food products; bags and wraps; natural personal care products; and professional cleaning and disinfecting products internationally primarily under the Clorox, Ayudin, Clorinda, Poett, Pine-Sol, Glad, Brita, RenewLife, Ever Clean and Burt's Bees brands. The Clorox Company sells its products primarily through mass retailers; grocery outlets; warehouse clubs; dollar stores; home hardware centers; drug, pet and military stores; third-party and owned e-commerce channels; and distributors, as well as a direct sales force The company was founded in 1913 and is headquartered in Oakland, California.
The following companies are subsidiares of Novartis: 1 A Pharma GmbH, Abadia Retuerta S.A, Admune Therapeutics, Advanced Accelerator Applications, Advanced Accelerator Applications, Advanced Accelerator Applications International SA, Advanced Accelerator Applications S.A., Advanced Accelerator Applications S.r.l., Advanced Accelerator Applications USA Inc., Aeropharm GmbH, Alcon, Alcon  Couvreur NV, Amblyotech, Amblyotech Inc., Arctos Medical, Arctos Medical AG, Australia Pty Ltd, Beijing Novartis Pharma Co. Ltd., BioMedical Research Co. Ltd., CELLforCURE, Cadent Therapeutics, Cadent Therapeutics Cambridge, Cellerys, Cellerys AG, CellforCure, Chiron Corporation, Ciba-Geigy Japan Limited, Co. Ltd, CoStim Pharmaceuticals, CoStim Pharmaceuticals Inc., Coalesce Product Development Limited, Corthera, Development Co. Ltd., EBEWE Pharma Ges.m.b.H Nfg. KG, Encore Vision, Endocyte, Endocyte Inc., Eon Labs Inc., Farmanova Saglik Hizmetleri Ltd, Fougera Pharmaceuticals, Fougera Pharmaceuticals Inc, Gyroscope Therapeutics, HEXAL AG, Hexal, IDB Holland BV, Iberica S.L.U., Ilaclari Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S, JSC Sandoz, Japat AG, Kedalion Therapeutics Inc., Lek Pharmaceuticals d.d., Lek S.A., Manufacturing Pte Ltd , Navigate BioPharma Services Inc, Neutec Pharma Limited, Novartis (Hellas) S.A.C.I., Novartis (Singapore) Pte Ltd, Novartis (Taiwan) Co. Ltd, Novartis (Thailand) Limited, Novartis Argentina S.A., Novartis Australia Pty Ltd, Novartis Austria GmbH, Novartis Biociencias S.A., Novartis Biosciences Peru S.A., Novartis Bioventures AG, Novartis Business Services GmbH, Novartis Capital Corporation, Novartis Chile S.A., Novartis Corporation, Novartis Corporation Sdn. Bhd., Novartis Deutschland GmbH, Novartis Ecuador S.A., Novartis Farma S.p.A., Novartis Farma  Produtos Farmaceuticos S.A., Novartis Farmaceutica S.A, Novartis Farmaceutica S.A. de C.V., Novartis Finance Corporation, Novartis Finance S.A., Novartis Finance Services Ltd, Novartis Finland Oy Espoo, Novartis Gene Therapies, Novartis Gene Therapies EU Limited, Novartis Gene Therapies Inc., Novartis Grimsby Limited, Novartis Groupe France S.A., Novartis Healthcare A/S, Novartis Healthcare Philippines Inc., Novartis Healthcare Private Limited, Novartis Holding AG, Novartis Hungary Healthcare Limited Liability Company, Novartis India Limited, Novartis Inflammasome Research, Novartis Integrated Services Limited, Novartis International AG, Novartis International Pharmaceutical Investment AG, Novartis Investment Ltd, Novartis Investments S.a r.l., Novartis Ireland Limited, Novartis Israel Ltd, Novartis Korea Ltd., Novartis Middle East FZE, Novartis Netherlands B.V., Novartis Neva LLC, Novartis New Zealand Ltd, Novartis Norge AS, Novartis Ophthalmics AG, Novartis Optogenetics Research Inc., Novartis Overseas Investments AG, Novartis Pharma (Logistics) Inc., Novartis Pharma (Pakistan) Limited, Novartis Pharma AG, Novartis Pharma B.V. , Novartis Pharma GmbH, Novartis Pharma GmbH, Novartis Pharma K.K., Novartis Pharma LLC, Novartis Pharma Maroc SA, Novartis Pharma NV, Novartis Pharma Produktions GmbH, Novartis Pharma S.A.E., Novartis Pharma S.A.S., Novartis Pharma Schweiz AG, Novartis Pharma Schweizerhalle AG, Novartis Pharma Services AG, Novartis Pharma Services Romania S.R.L., Novartis Pharma Stein AG, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Canada Inc., Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Limited, Novartis Pharmaceuticals UK Limited, Novartis Poland Sp. z o.o., Novartis Portugal S.G.P.S. Lda., Novartis Ringaskiddy Limited, Novartis Saglik Gida ve Tarim Urunleri Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S, Novartis Saudi Ltd., Novartis Securities Investment Ltd, Novartis Services Inc., Novartis Slovakia s.r.o., Novartis South Africa (Pty) Ltd, Novartis Sverige AB, Novartis UK Limited, Novartis US Foundation, Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics Inc, Novartis Vietnam Company Limited, Novartis de Colombia S.A., Novartis de Venezuela S.A., Novartis s.r.o., Oriel Therapeutics Inc., PT. Novartis Indonesia, Protez Pharmaceuticals, Pte Ltd, Research Inc, Salutas Pharma GmbH, Sandoz A/S, Sandoz AG, Sandoz B.V., Sandoz Canada Inc., Sandoz Egypt Pharma S.A.E., Sandoz Farmaceutica S.A., Sandoz Farmaceutica Lda., Sandoz GmbH, Sandoz Hungary Limited Liability Company, Sandoz Ilac Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S., Sandoz Inc, Sandoz Industrial Products S.A, Sandoz International GmbH, Sandoz K.K., Sandoz Limited, Sandoz Manufacturing Inc., Sandoz NV, Sandoz Pharma K.K, Sandoz Pharmaceuticals AG, Sandoz Pharmaceuticals d.d., Sandoz Philippines Corporation, Sandoz Polska Sp. z o.o. , Sandoz Private Limited, Sandoz Pty Ltd, Sandoz S.A. de C.V, Sandoz S.A.S., Sandoz S.R.L., Sandoz S.p.A., Sandoz South Africa (Pty) Ltd, Sandoz Ukraine LLC, Sandoz d.o.o. farmaceutska industrija, Sandoz do Brasil Industria Farmaceutica Ltda, Sandoz s.r.o., Selexys Pharmaceuticals Corporation, Shanghai Novartis Trading Ltd., Societe par actions SANDOZ, Spinifex Pharmaceuticals, The Medicines Company, The Medicines Company, Triangle International Reinsurance Limited, Trinity River Insurance Co Ltd, Vedere Bio, Vedere Bio ll, Xiidra, Ziarco, and Ziarco Group Limited.

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Deutsche Telekom AG, together with its subsidiaries, provides integrated telecommunication services. The company operates through five segments: Germany, United States, Europe, Systems Solutions, and Group Development. It offers fixed-network services, including voice and data communication services based on fixed-network and broadband technology; and sells terminal equipment and other hardware products, as well as services to resellers. The company also provides mobile voice and data services to consumers and business customers; sells mobile devices and other hardware products; and sells mobile services to resellers and to companies that purchases and markets network services to third parties, such as mobile virtual network operators. In addition, it offers internet services; internet-based TV products and services; and information and communication technology systems for multinational corporations and public sector institutions with an infrastructure of data centers and networks under the T-Systems brand, as well as call center services. The company has 242 million mobile customers and 22 million broadband customers, as well as 27 million fixed-network lines. Deutsche Telekom AG has a collaboration with VMware, Inc. on cloud-based open and intelligent virtual RAN platform to bring agility to radio access networks for existing LTE and future 5G networks; and partnership with Microsoft to deliver high-performance cloud computing experiences. The company was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Bonn, Germany.
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The 8th ARLEM Plenary Session will be held on 22-23 February 2017 in Malta, during the Maltese Presidency of the European Union



The ARLEM members adopted ARLEM's priorities for 2017 as detailed in the Action Plan as well as the recommendations, during the Plenary Session on 23 February.



Furthermore, the plenary session adopted two draft ARLEM reports: on energy and climate change, by rapporteur Mohamed Sadiki, Mayor of Rabat (Morocco) and on cross-border cooperation, by rapporteur Francesco Pigliaru (IT/PES), President of Sardinia Region. The Nicosia initiative to support the Libyan municipalities and the European Neighbourhood Policy was also discussed.



The ARLEM Plenary was held back to back to the CoR Bureau meeting in Malta and a conference on migration on 22 February, co-organized by the European Committee of the Regions and Malta, to which all ARLEM members were invited.


On Friday, lawmakers in South Korea impeached the President Park Geun-hye marking a swift and stunning fall from grace for the first female leader of the country amidst protests, which attracted millions to fill the streets to unite against her.

Following the vote, officials in parliament delivered formal documents by hand to the presidential house that stripped the president of her powers and allowed the No. 2 official in the country Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, to take the reins of leadership until a ruling by the Constitutional Court on whether Park will be permanently removed from office.

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That decision can take as long as six months to be taken, per South Korea law.

Following the vote, Park spoke prior to a closed door Cabinet meeting and said she was sorry that the people of South Korean had to experience the turmoil due to her negligence and a lack of virtue during a time when our economy and security both were facing difficulties.

Hwang said separately that he wanted the opposition and ruling political parties along with parliament to gain strength and wisdom in order for them to return more stability to the entire country and to the people as quickly as possible.

Park was called at one time the Queen of Elections due to her ability of pulling off wins for her political party. Park recently has been surrounded at the Blue House by millions of people in South Korea, who have been in the streets protesting.

The people are livid over what federal prosecutors said was collusion by the president with a friend of many years to exhort money from businesses and give the confidante extreme sway over decisions made by the government.

Protest organizers said close to 10,000 people had gathered outside the National Assembly demanding lawmakers pass the motion for impeachment.

Some spend the previous night in the streets following long travels from places outside the capital.

Fights broke out between angry farmers, who are anti-Park, some of whom drove their tractors from their farms to the National Assembly, and the police.

When the vote for impeachment took place, a number of them raised their hands and jumped about both laughing and cheering.

The passing of power has prompted the countrys prime minister to order the defense minister for South Korea to place the military at high alert to brace for any possible provocation by their neighbor North Korea.
The following companies are subsidiares of Abbott Laboratories: 3A Nutrition (Vietnam) Company Limited, ABON Biopharm (Hangzhou) Co. Ltd., AGA Medical Belgium, AGA Medical Corporation, AGA Medical Holdings Inc., ALR Holdings, AML Medical LLC, APK Advanced Medical Technologies LLC, ATS Bermuda Holdings Limited, ATS Laboratories Inc., Abbott, Abbott (Jiaxing) Nutrition Co. Ltd., Abbott (UK) Finance Limited, Abbott (UK) Holdings Limited, Abbott AG, Abbott Asia Holdings Limited, Abbott Asia Investments Limited, Abbott Australasia Holdings Limited, Abbott Australasia Pty Ltd, Abbott B.V., Abbott Bahamas Overseas Businesses Corporation, Abbott Belgian Investments, Abbott Bermuda Holding Ltd., Abbott Biologicals B.V., Abbott Biologicals LLC, Abbott Bulgaria Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Capital India Limited, Abbott Cardiovascular Inc., Abbott Cardiovascular Systems Inc., Abbott Delaware LLC, Abbott Diabetes Care Inc., Abbott Diabetes Care Limited, Abbott Diabetes Care Sales Corporation, Abbott Diagnostics GmbH, Abbott Diagnostics International Ltd., Abbott Diagnostics Technologies AS, Abbott Doral Investments S.L., Abbott Equity Holdings Unlimited, Abbott Equity Investments LLC, Abbott Established Products Holdings (Gibraltar) Limited, Abbott Finance Company SA, Abbott Financial Holdings SRL, Abbott France S.A.S., Abbott Fund Tanzania Limited, Abbott Gesellschaft m.b.H., Abbott GmbH & Co. KG, Abbott Health Products LLC, Abbott Healthcare (Puerto Rico) Ltd., Abbott Healthcare B.V., Abbott Healthcare Costa Rica S.A., Abbott Healthcare LLC, Abbott Healthcare Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Healthcare Private Limited, Abbott Healthcare Products B.V., Abbott Healthcare Products Ltd, Abbott Holding (Gibraltar) Limited, Abbott Holding GmbH, Abbott Holding Subsidiary (Gibraltar) Limited, Abbott Holding Subsidiary (Gibraltar) Limited Luxembourg S.C.S., Abbott Holdings B.V., Abbott Holdings LLC, Abbott Holdings Limited, Abbott Holdings Poland Spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Abbott Hungary Korlatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag, Abbott Iberian Investments (2) Limited, Abbott Iberian Investments Limited, Abbott India Limited, Abbott Informatics Asia Pacific Limited, Abbott Informatics Canada Inc, Abbott Informatics Corporation, Abbott Informatics Europe Limited, Abbott Informatics France, Abbott Informatics Germany GmbH, Abbott Informatics Netherlands B.V., Abbott Informatics Singapore Pte. Limited, Abbott Informatics Spain S.A., Abbott Informatics Technologies Ltd, Abbott International Corporation, Abbott International Enterprises Ltd., Abbott International Holdings Limited, Abbott International LLC, Abbott International Luxembourg S.ar.l., Abbott Investments Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Ireland, Abbott Ireland Financing Designated Activity Company, Abbott Ireland Limited, Abbott Japan Co. Ltd., Abbott Kazakhstan Limited Liability Partnership, Abbott Knoll Investments B.V., Abbott Korea Limited, Abbott Laboratories (Bangladesh) Limited, Abbott Laboratories (Chile) Holdco (Dos) SpA, Abbott Laboratories (Chile) Holdco SpA, Abbott Laboratories (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Abbott Laboratories (Mozambique) Limitada, Abbott Laboratories (Pakistan) Limited, Abbott Laboratories (Philippines), Abbott Laboratories (Puerto Rico) Incorporated, Abbott Laboratories (Singapore) Private Limited, Abbott Laboratories A/S, Abbott Laboratories Argentina Sociedad Anonima, Abbott Laboratories B.V., Abbott Laboratories C.A., Abbott Laboratories Finance B.V., Abbott Laboratories GmbH, Abbott Laboratories Inc., Abbott Laboratories International LLC, Abbott Laboratories Ireland Limited, Abbott Laboratories Limited, Abbott Laboratories Limited - Laboratoires Abbott Limitee, Abbott Laboratories NZ Limited, Abbott Laboratories Pacific Ltd., Abbott Laboratories Poland Spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Abbott Laboratories Products B.V., Abbott Laboratories Residential Development Fund Inc., Abbott Laboratories S.A., Abbott Laboratories SA, Abbott Laboratories Services Corp., Abbott Laboratories Slovakia s.r.o., Abbott Laboratories South Africa (Pty) Ltd., Abbott Laboratories Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Abbott Laboratories Trustee Company Limited, Abbott Laboratories Uruguay S.A., Abbott Laboratories Vascular Enterprises, Abbott Laboratories d.o.o., Abbott Laboratories de Chile Limitada, Abbott Laboratories de Colombia S.A., Abbott Laboratories de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Abbott Laboratories druzba za farmacijo in diagnostiko d.o.o., Abbott Laboratories s.r.o., Abbott Laboratories(Hellas) Societe Anonyme, Abbott Laboratorios S.A., Abbott Laboratorios S.A., Abbott Laboratorios del Ecuador Cia. Ltda., Abbott Laboratuarlari Ithalat Ihracat ve Ticaret Ltd.Sti, Abbott Laboratorios Lda, Abbott Laboratorios do Brasil Ltda., Abbott Limited Egypt LLC, Abbott Logistics B.V., Abbott Management GmbH, Abbott Management LLC, Abbott Manufacturing Singapore Private Limited, Abbott Mature Products International Unlimited Company, Abbott Mature Products Management Limited, Abbott Medical (Hong Kong) Limited, Abbott Medical (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Abbott Medical (Portugal) Distribuicao de Produtos Medicos Lda, Abbott Medical (Schweiz) AG, Abbott Medical (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Abbott Medical (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical Australia Pty. Ltd., Abbott Medical Austria Ges.m.b.H., Abbott Medical Balkan d.o.o. Beograd (Novi Beograd), Abbott Medical Belgium, Abbott Medical Canada Inc./ Medicale Abbott Canada Inc., Abbott Medical Danmark A/S, Abbott Medical Devices Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical Espana S.A., Abbott Medical Estonia OU, Abbott Medical Finland Oy, Abbott Medical France SAS, Abbott Medical GmbH, Abbott Medical Hellas Limited Liability Trading Company, Abbott Medical Ireland Limited, Abbott Medical Italia S.p.A., Abbott Medical Japan Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical Korea Limited, Abbott Medical Korlatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag, Abbott Medical Laboratories LTD, Abbott Medical Nederland B.V., Abbott Medical New Zealand Limited, Abbott Medical Norway AS, Abbott Medical Overseas Cyprus Limited, Abbott Medical Sweden AB, Abbott Medical Taiwan Co., Abbott Medical U.K. Limited, Abbott Medical spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Abbott Middle East S.A.R.L., Abbott Molecular Inc., Abbott Morocco SARL, Abbott Nederland C.V., Abbott Nederland Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Netherlands Investments B.V., Abbott Norge AS, Abbott Nutrition Limited, Abbott Nutrition Manufacturing Inc., Abbott Operations Singapore Pte. Ltd., Abbott Operations Uruguay S.R.L., Abbott Overseas Cyprus Limited, Abbott Overseas Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Overseas S.A., Abbott Oy, Abbott Point of Care Canada Limited, Abbott Point of Care Inc., Abbott Poland Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Procurement LLC, Abbott Products (Philippines) Inc., Abbott Products (Spain) S.L., Abbott Products Algerie EURL, Abbott Products B.V., Abbott Products Distribution SAS, Abbott Products Egypt LLC, Abbott Products Limited, Abbott Products Limited Liability Company, Abbott Products Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Products Operations AG, Abbott Products Operations LLC, Abbott Products Romania S.R.L., Abbott Products Tunisie S.A.R.L., Abbott Products Unlimited Company, Abbott Resources Inc., Abbott Resources International Inc., Abbott S.r.l., Abbott Saudi Arabia Trading Company, Abbott Scandinavia Aktiebolag, Abbott Sociedad Anonima de Capital Variable, Abbott South Africa Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Strategic Opportunities Limited, Abbott Trading Company Inc., Abbott Universal LLC, Abbott Vascular Devices (2) Limited, Abbott Vascular Devices Limited, Abbott Vascular Inc., Abbott Vascular Instruments Deutschland GmbH, Abbott Vascular International, Abbott Vascular Japan Co. Ltd, Abbott Vascular Limitada, Abbott Vascular Netherlands B.V., Abbott Vascular Solutions Inc., Abbott Ventures Inc., Abbott West Indies Limited, Abbott drustvo sa ogranicenom odgovornoscu za trgovinu i usluge, Advanced Neuromodulation Systems Inc., Alere, Alere (Shanghai) Diagnostics Co. Ltd., Alere (Shanghai) Healthcare Management Co. Ltd., Alere (Shanghai) Medical Sales Co. Ltd., Alere (Shanghai) Technology Co. Ltd., Alere A/S, Alere AB, Alere AS, Alere AS Holdings Limited, Alere BBI Holdings Limited, Alere Bangladesh Limited, Alere China Co. Ltd., Alere Colombia S.A., Alere Connect LLC, Alere Connected Health Limited, Alere Connected Health Ltd., Alere Diagnostics GmbH, Alere DoA Holding GmbH, Alere GmbH, Alere GmbH (Austria), Alere GmbH (Germany), Alere HK Holdings Ltd., Alere Health B.V., Alere Health BVBA, Alere Health Corp., Alere Health Sdn Bhd, Alere Health Services B.V., Alere Healthcare (Pty) Limited, Alere Healthcare Connections Limited, Alere Healthcare Inc., Alere Healthcare Nigeria Limited, Alere Healthcare S.L., Alere Holdco Inc., Alere Holding GmbH, Alere Holdings Bermuda Limited, Alere Holdings Pty Limited, Alere Home Monitoring Inc., Alere Inc., Alere Informatics Inc., Alere International Holding Corp., Alere International Limited, Alere Lda, Alere Limited, Alere Limited (New Zealand), Alere Medical BVBA, Alere Medical Co. Ltd., Alere Medical Pakistan (Private) Limited, Alere Medical Private Limited, Alere North America LLC, Alere Oy Ab, Alere Philippines Inc., Alere Phoenix ACQ Inc., Alere Pte Ltd, Alere S.A., Alere S.r.l., Alere S/A, Alere SAS, Alere San Diego Inc., Alere Scarborough Inc., Alere Spain S.L., Alere Switzerland GmbH, Alere Technologies GmbH, Alere Technologies Holdings Limited, Alere Technologies Limited, Alere Toxicology AB, Alere Toxicology Inc., Alere Toxicology S.r.l., Alere Toxicology Services Inc., Alere Toxicology plc, Alere UK Holdings Limited, Alere UK Subco Limited, Alere ULC, Alere US Holdings LLC, Alere s.r.o., Alisoc Investment & Co, Amedica Biotech Inc., Ameditech Inc., American Generics S.A.S., American Medical Supplies Inc., American Pharmacist Inc., Antares S.A., Apica Cardiovascular Limited, Aquagestion Capacitacion S.A., Aquagestion S.A., Arriva Medical LLC, Arriva Medical Philippines Inc., Arvis Investments Limited, Atlas Farmaceutica S.A., Avee Laboratories Inc., Axis-Shield AD III AS, Axis-Shield AD IV AS, Axis-Shield AS, Axis-Shield Diagnostics Limited, Axis-Shield Ltd., BBI Animal Health Limited, BBI Diagnostics Group 2 Public Limited Company, Banco de Vida S.A., Bioabsorbable Vascular Solutions Inc., Bioalgae S.A., Biohealth LLC, Biosite Incorporated, Bosque Bonito S.A., Branan Medical Corporation, Brandex Europe C.V., British Colloids Limited, CFR Chile S.A., CFR Interamericas EL Salvador Sociedad Anonima de Capital Variable, CFR Interamericas Nicaragua Sociedad Anonima, CFR Interamericas Panama S.A., CFR Pharmaceuticals, California Property Holdings III LLC, CardioMEMS LLC, Caripharm Inc., Cephea Valve Technologies, Cephea Valve Technologies Inc., Colibri Medical Aktiebolag, Comercializadora y Distribuidora CFR Interamericas Honduras S.A., Concateno South Limited, Concateno UK Limited, Consorcio Tecnologico en Biomedicina Clinico-Molecular S.A., Continuum Services LLC, Cozart Limited, Dextech S.A., Diagnostik Nord GmbH, Distribuciones Uquifa S.A.S., Domesco Medical Import-Export Joint-Stock Corporation, Duphar International Research B.V., Endocardial Solutions, Epocal (US) Inc, Esprit de Vie S.A., European Chemicals & Co, European Drug Testing Service EDTS AB, European Services S.A., Evalve Inc., Evalve International Inc., FARMINDUSTRIA S.A., Fada Pharma Paraguay Sociedad Anonima, Fadapharma del Ecuador S.A., Farmaceutica Mont Blanc S.L., Farmacologia Em Aquicultura Veterinaria Ltda., Farmacologia en Aquacultura Veterinaria FAV Ecuador S.A., Farmacologia en Aquacultura Veterinaria FAV S.A., Fernwood Investment S.A., First Check Diagnostics LLC, Focus Pharmaceutical S.A.S., Forensics Limited, Forestcreek Overseas S.A., Fournier Pharma Corp., Fournier Pharma GmbH, Fournier Pharmaceuticals Limited, Framed B.V., Gabmed GmbH, Garden Hills LLC, Global Analytical Development LLC, Globapharm & CO LP, Glomed Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Golnorth Investments S.A., Gynocare Limited, Gynopharm Sociedad Anonima, Gynopharm de Centroamerica S.A., Gynopharm de Venezuela C.A., Hi-Tronics Designs Inc., IDEV Technologies Inc., IG Innovations Limited, IMTC Finance B.V., IMTC Holdings B.V., IMTC Technologies Inc., Ibis Biosciences LLC, Igloo Zone Chile S.A., Igloo Zone S.L., Inmobiliaria Naknek S.A.C., Innovacon Inc., Instant Tech Subsidiary Acquisition Inc., Instant Technologies Inc., Instituto de Criopreservacion de Chile S.A., Integrated Vascular Systems Inc., Inverness Canadian Acquisition Corporation, Inverness Medical (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Inverness Medical Innovations Australia Pty Ltd., Inverness Medical Innovations Hong Kong Limited, Inverness Medical Innovations SK LLC, Inverness Medical Investments LLC, Inverness Medical LLC, Inverness Medical Shimla Private Limited, Inversiones K2 SpA, Inversiones Komodo S.R.L., Ionian Technologies LLC, Irvine Biomedical Inc., Kalila Medical, Kangshenyunga S.A., Knoll UK Investments Unlimited, LLC VeroInPharm, Laboratoires Fournier S.A.S., Laboratorio Franco Colombiano Lafrancol S.A.S., Laboratorio Franco Colombiano del Ecuador S.A., Laboratorio Internacional Argentino S.A., Laboratorio Synthesis S.A.S., Laboratorios Lafi Limitada, Laboratorios Naturmedik S.A.S., Laboratorios Pauly Pharmaceutical S.A.S., Laboratorios Recalcine S.A., Laboratorios Transpharm S.A., Laboratory Specialists of America Inc., Lafrancol Dominicana S.A.S., Lafrancol Guatemala S.A. Sociedad Anonima, Lafrancol Internacional S.A.S, Lafrancol Peru S.R.L, Lake Forest Investments LLC, Lightlab Imaging Inc., Limited Liability Company Abbott Laboratories, Limited Liability Company Abbott Ukraine, Limited Liability Company VEROPHARM, Lung Fung Hong (China) Limited, Mansbridge Pharmaceuticals Limited, MediGuide LLC, MediGuide Ltd., Medscreen Holdings Limited, Metropolitana Farmaceutica S.A., Midwest Properties LLC, Murex Argentina S.A., Murex Biotech Limited, Murex Biotech South Africa, Murex Diagnostics Inc., Murex Diagnostics International Inc., Natural Supplement Association LLC, Negocios Denia Sociedad Anonima, Neosalud S.A.C., Nether Pharma N.P. C.V., NeuroTherm LLC, Normann Pharma-Handels GmbH, North Shore Properties Inc., Novamedi S.A., Novasalud.com S.A., Nutravida S.A., OJSC Voronezhkhimpharm, Omnilab Iberia Sociedad Limitada, OptiMedica, Orgenics France SAS, Orgenics International Holdings B.V., Orgenics Ltd., PBM-Selfcare LLC, PDD II LLC, PDD LLC, PT Alere Health, PT. Abbott Indonesia, PT. Abbott Products Indonesia, Pacesetter Inc., Pantech (RF) (PTY) LTD, Pembrooke Occupational Health Inc., Penagos S.A., Pharma International Sociedad Anonima, Pharmaceutical Technologies (Pharmatech) S.A., Pharmatech Boliviana S.A., Polygon Labs S.A., Quality Assured Services Inc., RF Medical Holdings LLC, RTL Holdings Inc., Ramses Business Corp., Recben Xenerics Farmaceutica Limitada, Redwood Toxicology Laboratory Inc., Rich Horizons International Limited, SC VEROPHARM, SJ Medical Mexico S de R.L. de C.V., SJM International Inc., SJM Thunder Holding Company, SPDH Inc., Saboya Enterprises Corporation, Salviac Limited, Scanax AS, Sealing Solutions Inc., Selfcare Technology Inc., Shandong Abbott Dairy Product Co. Ltd., Shanghai Abbott Medical Devices Science and Technology Co. Ltd., Shanghai Abbott Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., Shanghai Si Fa Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Sinensix & Co., Spinal Modulation LLC, St. Jude Medical, St. Jude Medical AB, St. Jude Medical ATG Inc., St. Jude Medical Argentina S.A., St. Jude Medical Asia Pacific Holdings GK, St. Jude Medical Atrial Fibrillation Division Inc., St. Jude Medical Brasil Ltda., St. Jude Medical Business Services Inc., St. Jude Medical Cardiology Division Inc., St. Jude Medical Colombia Ltda., St. Jude Medical Coordination Center, St. Jude Medical Costa Rica Limitada, St. Jude Medical Europe Inc., St. Jude Medical Export Ges.m.b.H., St. Jude Medical GVA Sarl, St. Jude Medical Holdings B.V., St. Jude Medical India Private Limited, St. Jude Medical International Holding, St. Jude Medical LLC, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings II, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings NT, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings SMI S.a r.l., St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings TC S.a r.l., St. Jude Medical Mexico Business Services S. de R.L. de C.V., St. Jude Medical Middle East DMCC, St. Jude Medical Operations (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., St. Jude Medical Puerto Rico LLC, St. Jude Medical S.C. Inc., St. Jude Medical Systems AB, St. Jude Medical Turkey Medikal Urunler Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Standard Diagnostics Inc., Standing Stone LLC, Swan-Myers Incorporated, TC1 LLC, Tendyne Holdings Inc., Tendyne Medical Inc., Thoratec Delaware LLC, Thoratec Europe Limited, Thoratec LLC, Thoratec Switzerland GmbH, Tobal Products Incorporated, Topera GmbH in Liquidation, Topera Inc., Tremora S.A., Tuenir S.A., TwistDx, UAB Abbott Laboratories, UAB Abbott Medical Lithuania, Union-Madison Realty Company Inc., Unipath Limited (dba Alere International/aka Cranfield), Unipath Management Limited, Unipath Pension Trustee Limited, Veropharm, Veropharm Limited Liability Partnership, Vida Cell Inversiones S.A., Vida Cell S.A., Vivalsol, W&R Pharma Handels GmbH, Western Pharmaceuticals S.A., X Technologies Inc., Yissum Holding Limited, ZonePerfect Nutrition Company, eScreen Canada ULC, eScreen Inc.,      ( ), and Abbott Laboratories Baltics.

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A Louisa County man has been charged with involuntary manslaughter after the shooting death of a friend last week, according to the Louisa County Sheriffs Office.

On Dec. 2, 25-year-old Joseph Brenden Hudson died shortly after he was shot at a house on Daniel Road.

That same day, authorities arrested Michael William Davis, 26. He is charged with involuntary manslaughter and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Authorities said Davis and Hudson were friends and coworkers.

In 2015, Davis pleaded guilty to felony manufacturing of a controlled substance, according to court records.

Davis currently is being held without bond at the Central Virginia Regional Jail in Orange. He is scheduled to appear in Louisa County General District Court on Jan. 10.
BRISTOL  The University of Virginias College at Wise pumped $84 million into the states economy and had a $64 million overall economic impact in Southwest Virginia in 2015, according to a new economic impact study.

The study, conducted by Tripp Umbach and released Thursday, revealed that the colleges 387 employees generated spending in Virginia and supported 680 jobs. UVa-Wise employees, students and visitors spend money locally, which supported 586 jobs in the LENOWISCO and Cumberland Plateau planning districts of Southwest Virginia, it states.

The analysis shows that UVa-Wise has a tremendous impact on Virginia and the region, Chancellor Donna P. Henry said. The cumulative effect is even more impressive when the impact our employees, students and visitors have on the economy is examined. Our college has had the support of the region for more than 60 years, and it is encouraging to see that the campus is supporting the regions economy in numerous ways.

Tripp Umbach studied the economic, employment and government impacts of the University of Virginia, which includes the flagship campus in Charlottesville and the college in Wise.

According to the study, UVa-Wise was responsible for nearly $33.5 million in government revenues generated when the college, its employees, its 2,000 students and numerous visitors purchased goods in Virginia in 2015.

In terms of community impact, UVa-Wise faculty, staff and students generated more than $5.8 million in charitable donations and volunteer services, the study revealed.

Tripp Umbach reported that on-campus events, visits from students and families and from others on college business spread money through local spending. The impact of those visits was $6.1 million, which supported 67 jobs and brought in more than $403,000 in state and local tax revenue, according to the report.

The economic impact of the students in fiscal year 2015 was $5.2 million, which supported 58 jobs and produced $287,000 in state and local taxes, the study states.

Research conducted on campus by students and faculty resulted in $2.6 million in economic impact and supported 24 jobs, the study states.

Colleges and universities have major impacts on the communities and regions in which they operate, and we are eager to find additional opportunities to engage our students and faculty in ways that will continually add value to Southwest Virginia and the broader region, said Vice Chancellor for Economic Development and Engagement Shannon Blevins.

UVa generates $5.9 billion annually within Virginia and supports 51,653 jobs, according to the study.
Supporters of Charlottesville City Councilor Wes Bellamy voiced their admiration and made the case that he should keep his teaching job at the Albemarle County School Boards meeting Thursday night.

Bellamy, who teaches computer science at Albemarle High School, has been on paid administrative leave since late November after a number of past tweets deemed by many to be racist, sexist and homophobic were unearthed by blogger Jason Kessler, who has called for Bellamys removal from his public positions.

During the public comment portion of the meeting, a handful of people spoke to the School Board, while many more in the audience displayed their support by holding up signs or standing in agreement with the speakers.

After the public comment period, board member Steve Koleszar said the School Board would not be addressing or providing any updates regarding Bellamy that night.

But at Thursdays meeting, those who spoke asked the School Board to take into consideration the work that Bellamy has done for the county schools, its students and the community and to give him a second chance.

Don Gathers, a city resident and friend of Bellamys, was one of them.

He did indeed make some poor choices that are truly indefensible, but I ask that you recognize and realize that our country is one of second chances, Gathers said. And I am asking as a brother in Christ and as a friend that you all do indeed recognize the necessity to give this young man a second chance.

So for those of you who have not made a decision, for those of you that have made a decision, I pray, I implore you, I beg of you to please give this young man a second chance, he added.

Hodari Hamilton, pastor at First Baptist Church on West Main Street where Bellamy attends, asked the School Board to think about how they decide to ultimately deal with the situation.

Im asking that you deal with him as an employee privately, generously and not give room to the anger and meanness that some have  not you of, course  that some have been pushing really, really hard, he said.

Uriah Fields, a county resident, said that while he condemns the things that Bellamy tweeted in the past, he said hes hopeful the School Board will bring him back and let him do the fine job that hes done.

In addition to taking leave from his teaching position, Bellamy resigned from his governor-appointed position on the Virginia Board of Education.

During Mondays City Council meeting, which also was attended by a large number of supporters, Bellamy addressed his past statements and the fallout over the past few weeks.

Im sorry for my tweets that I sent in my early to mid-20s  Im not looking to defend or justify my words. They are indefensible, he said. They dont reflect the man I am or the things I believe today.

Kate Acuff, chairwoman of the Albemarle County School Board, had announced that Bellamy had agreed to go on administrative leave amid the School Board investigation.

We appreciate the concerns of those who have contacted our school division regarding social media postings that have been attributed to Mr. Wes Bellamy, a teacher at Albemarle High School, a statement from Acuff said. Many of these postings contain extremely vulgar and offensive language that directly contradicts the values of our school division. The School Board rejects these statements in their entirety.
This story, which originally appeared in Saturdays Daily Progress, is being republished with several corrections.

The University of Virginia will buy the power generated by a planned 17-megawatt solar power array outside of Richmond under a new agreement with Dominion Virginia Power.

When completed in October 2018, the 160-acre facility in King William County  also known as UVa Hollyfield Solar Facility  will be capable of meeting 12 percent of the universitys current electric demand.

Dominion will develop the property, which will feature 65,000 solar panels capable of powering 4,250 homes at peak output. Under the terms of an agreement with UVa, Dominion will continue to operate the facility, which will generate power for the university for the next 25 years.

Hollyfield will be the largest dedicated solar facility for a Virginia university. The university estimates it could reduce UVas carbon dioxide output by 18,000 metric tons annually.

The university aims to reduce its greenhouse gas output to 25 percent below 2009 levels by the year 2025.
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New Delhi: Home-grown auto major Mahindra & Mahindra today said it will stop production on certain days this month besides its planned annual maintenance shutdown at some of its automotive and tractor plants to adjust inventories.

"The company will be undertaking scheduled maintenance shutdown at some of its automotive and tractor plants in December 2016," Mahindra & Mahindra said in a BSE filing.

The company further said it will also "observe on need basis a few days as 'No production days' at some of its automotive and tractor plants", including the Chakan plant of its wholly-owned subsidiary Mahindra Vehicle Manufacturers as part of its efforts to optimise inventories during December year-end.

"The management does not envisage any adverse impact on the availability of products in the market due to adequacy of stocks to serve the market requirements," the company said.

Demonetisaion hit automobile sales in November, especially in rural areas. The company had reported 21.85 per cent decline in its total sales in November while its tractor sales tumbled 21 per cent last month.

The stock of Mahindra & Mahindra was trading at Rs 1,193.05 during the mid-day trade, down 1.1 per cent from its previous close on BSE.
To counter the slowdown in economic growth, Mr Sujan Hajra, Chief Economist, AnandRathi, feels the government should boost peoples spending power in all possible ways.

Hyderabad: With cash crunch affecting business badly, analysts feel the government should boost purchasing power of people by easing credit flow to take the economy out of demonetisation blues.

Since last November 8, all cash and credit transactions stalled in the country. While cash purchases of high ticket items got affected by cash shortage, loan-driven sales like cars and real estate got halted because bank staff became full-time money changers.

According to experts, the Indian economy is going to slow down this quarter and the coming quarter unless people's spending power was boosted. Post-demonetisation, we expect a further weakening of the growth prospects, particularly in sectors which have a higher share of informal sector such as agriculture, construction and some service sectors, said D.K. Srivastava, chief policy advisor, EY India.

To counter the slowdown in economic growth, Mr Sujan Hajra, Chief Economist, AnandRathi, feels the government should boost peoples spending power in all possible ways.

The government can ask the departments to speed-up the approved spending, advise banks to cut lending rates and speed up credit appraisal and disbursements. The government can also offer overdraft facilities on low balance Jandhan accounts and increase credit limits under Kisan credit cards to boost rural spending, he said.

With RBI hinting at progressively lowering cash reserve ration, bank lending rates could come down gradually. If banks fast track the loan processing, the credit-led growth in sectors like consumer durables, real estate, cement and steel will pick up.

Demonetisation exercise could not yet be called a failure. It seems too early to take the call that demonetization would not provide any windfall to public spending, Mr Hajra said.

First, a big chunk of money is yet to come to the banking system. If a sizable part of this does not come back to the system, then it would eventually be a windfall for the government. Second, there is little information about the voluntary disclose of unaccounted for money that can be made till December 30, 2016. It is possible that such disclosures would gather pace by end December 16 and this too would be windfall for government, he said.

There are expectations that the current year income declaration by many individuals and companies would go up substantially versus the last year statements. This would also cause tax windfalls for the government.
Mumbai: While near month-long promotions have become mandatory and decisive in the success of a film, filmmakers have often gone to quirky extents to get their film to be in the news.

But a recent fad, that seems to be catching up gradually seem to be resorting to seemingly dissociated open letters, right before the release of the concerned party's films.

Yash Raj Films took to their twitter feed to share an open letter penned by 'First Lady' Rani Mukerji, addressed to her daughter on the eve of her first birthday. Incidentally, the day also marks the release of Aditya Chopra's latest directorial, the Ranveer Singh-Vaani Singh starrer, 'Befikre'. The letter even uses the word 'carefree' towards the end, quite conveniently.

The letter, which at first sounds like a mother's earnest jubilation over her fresh found motherhood, the more you read it, the more you realise how subtly it echoes what Adi claims to be the feel and vibe of the film, in his own earlier open letters.

Adi himself had resorted to an open letter to his late father, the legendary Yash Chopra, while announcing 'Befikre'.

In recent times, Amitabh Bachchan himself had come in for some serious flak, for having penned an open letter addressing his grand-daughters on feminism, women empowerment and their safety, right in the wake of the release of the much-acclaimed 'Pink,' with tackled the very same issues.

Farhan Akhtar had also written an open letter addressing his daughter, right around the time when the promotions of his film, Rock On!! 2' was about to start full throttle.

While to promote and generate optimum traction for your film is the right of every filmmaker and artiste, is it really an ethical mean to bring in your family to purportedly address social issues, to buy sentimental brownie points?
The creative advertisement was not only backlashed, but also projected Ranveer in a bad light.

Mumbai: Recently, the 'Befikre star Ranveer Singh landed in controversy and was labelled a sexist when an ad, he has featured in, allegedly objectified women.

In the ad Ranveer was seen in a corporate setting, wearing formals, carrying a girl on his shoulders with a caption that outraged many. The caption in question read: Don't hold back. Take your work home.

The creative advertisement was not only backlashed, but also projected Ranveer in a bad light. Ever since the ad released, Singh has received numerous comments and posts from various sections of the society, including film stars like Siddharth (of Rang De Basanti fame), criticising Singh for allegedly encouraging something as sexist as this ad.

Soon enough, Ranveer cleared his stand by saying, It was important to give the brand creative freedom while designing their campaign, but I guess we got it wrong on one of those billboards and Im sorry this happened but its a thing of the past.. we rectified it immediately by having that hoarding taken down ASAP from everywhere over 30 cities overnight. I treat all women with the utmost respect both professionally and personally and would never do anything to disrespect them.

Seems like the clarification from the actors side didnt do much as the issue has taken an ugly turn for Ranveer. A lawyer has filed a complaint against Ranveer and has also requested the National Commission for Women to issue a notice to the star and the ad organizers.

I have seen an advertisement hoarding of Jack & Jones company on social media and some online news reports in which famous Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh could be seen posing slinging a woman on his shoulder, suggesting that women are nothing more than objects. Then theres a punch line by the side that says Do Not Hold Back, Take Your Work Home, the lawyer, Gaurav Gulati, was quoted as saying in reports.

The lawyer further said that such statements demean women and also portray a bad image of actors who would do such cheap stunts for money.
Aishwarya has also worked in SLB's period drama 'Devdas' and 'Guzarish'. Ash had bagged Filmfare's 'Best Actress' award for 'Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam' and 'Devdas'.

Mumbai: Bhansalis period drama Padmavati is already making headlines for its strong star cast and larger-than-life set. Based on the life of tyrant ruler Alauddin Khilji, the film has seasoned actors like Ranveer Singh, Shahid Kapoor and Deepika Padukone playing central characters in it.

While Ranveer plays the onscreen authoritative ruler Khilji, Shahid Kapoor will be the titular characters, played by Deepika Padukone, husband Raja Ratan Singh.

Now, buzz is that Sanjays self-proclaimed muse Aishwarya Rai Bachchan will also do a special appearance in the movie. Keeping Ashs persona in mind, Bhansali has reportedly written a solo-performance song for the former beauty queen.

A source close to the development told Dna, Bhansali spoke to Ash and they both are really keen to make it work. The song will be filmed during a 15-20 day schedule, which includes rehearsals at a suburban studio. Ash also has a few dialoguesThis (the song) will be completely different from any thing seen before, the source added.

Aishwarya was last seen in Ae Dil Hia Mushkil opposite Ranbir Kapoor. Her role had earned her rave reviews from fans as well as critics.
Mumbai: Ever since Katrina Kaif made her debut on social media, the actress has been setting the Internet on fire with her breathtaking pictures. Recently, Katrina was all over news for her sizzling bikini pictures from Maldives where she was shooting for a magazine's bridal collection.

And now the actress has shared yet another new picture which is a part of her underwater photoshoot. Donning a nude coloured bikini, Katrina looks mesmerizing as ever. The picture has a soothing serene vibe to it which one cannot miss.

The actress shared the picture with her fans on Facebook with caption, "There is a beautiful serenity about underwater shots.."

On work front, the actress will be next seen in Anurag Basu's 'Jagga Jasoos' which also stars her ex beau Ranbir Kapoor.
Raees has found itself embroiled in multiple controversies merely hours after its trailer launch  not that its a bad thing in Bollywood. The first controversy was it stepping on the Roshans toes by coinciding the release with Kaabil. The second controversy surfaced on Thursday when members of the citys Shia community protested the use of religious symbols in the film. A scene in particular that depicts holy symbols during a Moharrum procession has upset the community, which has written to the additional commissioner of police and social security branch.

Stills from Raees trailer

Some concerned members of the community based in Mumbai decided to approach Javed Shroff, a prominent personality in the community. Nanji (Shia community member) and the others informed me about the objectionable scenes and requested me to take up the issue with the concerned authorities so that the filmmakers remove it not only from the trailer but also from the film, said Shroff who is also the secretary of the Mumbai Regional Congress Committee. He added that as the issue affected Shias across the country and the world, he had also requested Leader of opposition in Parliament Gulam Nabi Azad, MP Ahmad Patel and MP Rajiv Shukla who is on personal good terms with SRK, to resolve the issue amicably.

Mr Sajjad (Pilloo) Nanji, a member of the community, on seeing the trailer of the film said that he was surprised to see that the main character (Khan) participating in a Moharrum procession which has all the religious symbols and flags that are carried by the devotees during actual processions held all over the world. If including the religious rituals followed by the Shias to commemorate the martyrdom of the Imam Hussain and his family in Karbala was not enough, Khan is seen jumping over the flags and symbols in an action scene.

The letter to the police has requested Khan to withdraw all such scenes, and intimated them about a possible peaceful protest in case the request is not met.

When contacted, Shilpa Handa from the films PR agency Spice said that they were still trying to understand the nature of the complaints.
Mumbai: According to a well-known website, aceshowbiz.com, OK! Magazine has reportedly claimed that the couple are headed for a 300 million divorce because Amal wanted kids and George did not.

"Amal wanted kids, he didn't. She'll get his fortune and his Lake Como villa, reported the magazine.

"While they love each other, they might be realising they want different things in life," a sourcewas quoted as saying.

The source also revealed that their growing differences can be attributed to a long list of grievances that has brought the relationship to a perilous crossroads.

"When George and Amal first got together, their friends thought they were a perfect match. But now some are expecting them to announce a split," reportedly added the source.

The couple, who got married in 2014, are living separately as Clooney feels the mounting pressure to have children. The actors reluctance in having kids has left Amal crushed.

Amal, on the other hand, has a taste for high life and lavish spending, prompting an impatient George to move to London.

"As a result of all this conflict, the power couple are now living separate lives," the magazine says, "Amal could make out like a bandit if they divorce," reportedly said the source.
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The venue of the inaugural function of the 21st IFFK, the sprawling Nishagandhi auditorium, turned out to be symbolic in reverse. The venue did not reflect the mood of the festival, instead it offered a profound contrast. The formerly open-air auditorium, with a capacity to hold 3000, is no more open, it has been permanently roofed by an army-green sturdy sheet, which when viewed from a bird's vantage will look like a giant green buterfly. But IFFK, from its 21st version on, will be open than ever before. For the first-time ever, the festival recognised the presence of the third gender; it gave out delegate passes to the transgender community, and, whats more, some of the theatres will have separate toilets for TGs.

Chalachithra Academy chairman Kamal, while opening his speech at the inaugural function, addressed not just brothers and sisters, but also transgender friends. The guest of honour, Amol Palekar, could not have been more thrilled. My film Daayra was denied rightful entry to IFFI, when it was held in this city in 1997. But the passion of film lovers in this city allowed me to hold a parallel screening for my film, he said and added: Incidentally Daayra was a film about transgenders and I feel proud that this city has become the first one in the country to throw open the doors of their film festival to transgenders who have been discriminated for so long. According to culture minister A K Balan, IFFK is also the festival with the largest number of women participants.

The 21st IFFK will also throw light on the suffering of migrants. The opening film, the Afghan movie Raftan, which is about a young Iranian couples attempt to flee their country for Europe, has set the tone. Mr Balan said the death of three-year-old Kurdish boy Alan Kurdi whose dead body was washed up on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea would be the tragedy that would animate the 21st IFFK. As many as 184 films from 62 countries will be showcased at the IFFK in 490 screenings. There will nine sections: competition films (instead of the usual 14, there will be 15 competition films), curated sections, Indian Cinema Now, World Cinema, Malayalam Cinema Today, Country Focus (Kazhakhstan), Jury films, retrospectives and homages.

The festival office and premises became alive with delegates even before its official inauguration of the IFFK in Thiruvananthapuram on Friday. (Photo: DC)

The retrospectives are of British filmmaker Ken Loach and south Indian filmmaker K.S. Sethuma-dhavan. There will also be a special screening of Iranian auteur Mohsen Makhmalbafs The Nights of Zayandeh-Rood, the film that was spirited out of Irans archives 26 years after it was banned by the Shah. The films will be shown in 11 theatres, with a total capacity of 9000. The six-member jury will be headed by Palestine filmmaker Michel Khleifi and will include Seema Biswas, Kazhakstan filmmaker Serik Aprymov, Iranian actress Baran Kosari, and Durban Film Festival programmer Pedro Pimenta.

There will also be FIPRESCI and Netpac juries. The customary Aravin-dan Memorial lecture will be delivered by Ethiopian writer and director Haile Gerima, known for his highly acclaimed movie 'Sankofa' (1993). An alumnus of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Film and Television, Gerima has spent over 40 year making high value, low budget films outside of commercial institutions.

Plum seats reserved for VIPs at Tagore Theatre

The organizers of the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) may repeatedly swear by its non-elitism, but Tagore Theatres plum seats were reserved for VIPs at the first show on the first day.The viewers who proceeded to occupy a few vacant seats at one of the top rows were stopped, as an official informed them that it was reserved for VIPs. The official told Deccan Chronicle that there were instructions from the Chalachitra Academy to reserve the seat for VIPs. However, no one had mentioned who these VIPs were. So whoever who tried to sit in these seats would be asked if they were VIPs. Viewers who were denied the seats would scowl at the official.

One of those to be stopped from sitting here was filmmaker Lal Jose, as the official did not know him by his face. As soon as he made his identity clear, he was allowed to sit. He said that for a moment he doubted if he was not a VIP, the official said. As the seats remained vacant till 10 a.m, the shows start time, another official informed that the VIPs can now be accommodated on the balcony. (Tagore balcony has poorer seats.)

DC asked Academy chairperson Kamal if there were VIP seats at IFFK. He looked shocked, and said he would inquire into it. When the same question was put to the festivals artistic director Bina Paul, she said, Not a single seat was reserved. I was there. When it was pointed out that this reporter saw it happen, she said that they might have been expecting a minister or a guest. When asked to define who these guests were, Bina Paul said that some seats would be reserved for jury, filmmakers who show their films, critics and others who will be taking part in IFFK events. The official in question did not even know which guest was expected and was only waiting for a familiar face.

Ruckus as media passes were not ready

The media cell at IFFK was at the receiving end of a lot of flak, as media passes were not ready on Friday morning. Some who had to be turned away as their passes were not ready, suspected that there was discrimination in the delivering of passes. They alleged that certain media agencies with allegiance to the Left government were given the passes. The officials and volunteers looked helpless as some started shouting at them. There was a shortage in the number of RFID cards delivered, they said.

We had given an order for 13,000 RFID cards. However, towards the final days several registrations had happened. Since media was the last to register, their passes were printed on the cards only in the end, an official said. Booklets too fell short. This time there were close to 2000 registrations from the media fraternity, according to officials. Around a 1000 media passes could be delivered before the first show. As the passes were awaited, officials allowed entry for the media persons whose registrations were approved.

IFFK regular who made it to Cannes

Randu Kurippukal (Two Notes), a diploma film, in which the actors were the filmmakers family, is now touring the world and reaping gold at festivals. The short film by K. Gireesh Kumar was screened at Cannes Short Film Corner and the Indian Panorama non-feature section of International Film Festival of India 2016. It was not shortlisted at the International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala. That is fine. Each selection jury has its own aesthetics and point of view, says Gireesh. The film has won the Golden Royal Bengal Tiger Award at Kolkata International Film Festival and John Abraham National Award 2016 at SiGNS Film Festival. When Deccan Chronicle rang him up, Gireesh was about to leave for Mumbai where the film would be screened at the Cut-in National Students Festival 2016.

K. Gireesh Kumar

One literally runs out of breath listing all the accolades it has heaped. But he says, it is a good film not just because others say it is. It is a serious attempt at good cinema. Moreover, it is very challenging to get non-actors, especially ones family, to act. Among the actors were his nine-month-old son Satyajit. I am his father, no? I know how to make him laugh, he says. Or to cry, he adds. Neither his parents, both retired teachers, nor his wife has acted even in a school skit. The only experienced actor in the films is his friend P T Manoj, a painter, who has acted in amateur theatre productions.

*He purposely chose the language they use in their daily life for dialogues. The film is very local, but in content, it is universal. Cinema, anyway, has a language, which speaks without the aid of any spoken language, he says. He is no stranger to awards. Last year, his documentary 8 Rooms and 9 Doors had won the Golden Owl Award at the Cut-in Festival. And his short film Jalasayanam won the Golden Royal Bengal Tiger Award at KIFF in 2014 as well as XIX International Faludi Academia Film Institute Festival, Budapest, Hungary, in 2015.

He is from Trikkaripur near Payyannur, where numerous film societies like John Abrahams Odessa would show world cinema at least once a month. When one grows up in a place vibrant with theatre, Theyyam and cinema, it is but natural to be a filmmaker, he says. Gireesh has been a regular at IFFK, except during the time he was studying at Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI). IFFK is our Sabarimala, he says. To study, he went on leave for five years from his job as a teacher at Government LPS, Manjeswaram.
Rating:

Director: Aditya Chopra

Cast: Ranveer Singh, Vaani Kapoor

If the idea of one night stands, partying till dawn and traveling to exotic locations excites you, then Befikre is definitely for you! Director Aditya Chopra, who is back after eight long years, will take you on a free holiday to snow-laden exotic locales at the cost of just a movie ticket price. A tale of cliche romance, Befikre has everything that will leave you scratching your head.

Shyra (Vaani Kapoor), an Indian girl who is born and brought up in Paris is a tour guide by profession. Unlike every other character we come across, Shrya, a vivacious girl, is not looking for true love. However, she incidentally meets Dharam (Ranveer Singh), who moved from Delhi to perform stand up at his friends club. The two, who feel a strong attraction towards each other, get into friends with benefits scenario but as we have seen in every movie, Shyra and Dharma eventually fall in love. The two move in together but after spending a year, they part ways and decide to remain friends.

Shyras friend hook her up with her boss Anay and the two develop feelings for each other but Dharam continues to be Shyras closest pal. Dharam accidentally meets Christina and decides to marry her. And what happens next is the most expected thing you will experience in Befikre.

Yashrajs discovery Vaani Kapoor is so stunning that she lights up the screen whenever she comes in front of the camera. She is quite impressive than her subtle debut in Shuddh Desi Romance. Her French accent and appearance suits her. Ranveer Singh is flawless as chirpy, natural and comical. The only good part of the film is the feisty chemistry between the two. The highlights of the film are surely Ranveers butt naked act and Vaanis bold attempt to smooch effortlessly in her lingeries. With so much boldness, the reviewer wonders what censor board was actually doing?

The story penned by Aditya Chopra has turned out be an amalgam of all his previous romantic films. His last directorial Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi was a damp squib and now the director is back with yet another film which will leave you with a dismal face. Few sequences of the film will remind you of Salaam Namastey, Neel And Nikki, Mohabbatien and the magnum opus Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge. The narrative of the film is even similar to Rani Mukerji and Saif Ali Khan starrer Hum Tum. The song where Ranveer and Vaani realize their love for each other is shot exactly like Ho Gaya Hai Tujhko To Pyaar Sajna from DDLJ. Even the climax is a replica of Namastey Londons scene which was shot in a church. Barring the beautiful Paris and hot smooches, Befikre is a big let down. In a desperate attempt to save the script, the writer has included unnecessary gay humour that will make your head spin.

The music by Vishal-Shekhar is a savoir. Title track 'Ude Dil Befikra', Nashe Si Chadh Gayi, You And Me and Labon Ka Karobar are fresh and nicely shot. The cinematography by Kaname Onoyama is breathtaking. Paris has never looked this pretty before. But the film is too dragged out in the second half.

When a film doesnt have a plot, even good performances cant save it from sinking. Befikre is like any other love story and seems more like a holiday trip for the films team. The only good thing about it is its melodious music, good-looking actors and their fair performances. If you are expecting a unique plot then trust me, you will come out disappointed. We advise you to watch Befikre with a strap of a disprin.
And the war is on. As the two big actors-turned-politicians  Chiranjeevi and Balakrishna  will be seen battling it out this Sankranthi, fans cant hide their

curiosity and excitement. Balakrishnas 100th film Gautamiputra Sathakarnis promotional video was released a few days back and now Chiranjeevis 150th film Khaidi No.150s teaser has been released. However, it doesnt look too appealing (to Balayyas fans).

Balakrishna in Gautamiputra Sathakarni

Chiranjeevis teaser is not interesting as the actor is doing a serious film, but they are coming up with a comedy edge to it. However, this makes Balakrishnas

fans happy since both films are going to be heads-on at the box-office, says a source.

Another interesting point is the politics behind it all. Both the actors have decided to host the audio release event in Andhra Pradesh, not in Hyderabad, which is usually the practice for all the film audio functions. Balakrishnas audio launch is on December 16 in Tirupati and Chiranjeevi is planning to host his films

audio release on December 25 in Vijayawada. This gives these actors a way to display their political prowess in AP and this show is like a teaser before the next

election, added the source.

Chiranjeevi belongs to the Congress Party while Balakrishna is with the Telugu Desam Party and is also an MLA from Hindupur.
Mumbai: Controversies have always followed fashion trends that people adopt in India, especially when it comes to women, and while diktats have been passed against girls wearing jeans and over women dressing a certain way in temples, educational institutions have also come under fire for such rules.

While hostels at premiere institutions have come under for such rules including those setting restrictions on women roaming around with male friends, its Mumbais prestigious St Xaviers college which has come out with another such announcement.

While sleeveless tops and shorts were already not allowed on the campus, the latest clampdown is on ripped jeans, and the reason being cited for this strange rule is that the trend mocks the poor.

The decision clearly didnt go down well with students who thought a complete ban was unreasonable and as they are not allowed on campus for wearing ripped jeans, many described it as an attack on their personal space.

While the Mumbai University doesnt have any such dress code, St Xaviers college has autonomy and hence have taken the decision, as authorities described torn jeans as an embarrassment to the institute. They said that its a mockery of the poor who are compelled to wear torn clothes in absence of an option.
Although the interdependence on alcohol and festivity is obvious in all societies that use alcohol, it appears stronger in ambivalent drinking cultures, where one needs a reason to drink.

Imagine heading to a pub with your friends to celebrate an occasion and placing your order with the exasperated bartender, whos endeavouring to avoid eye contact and take your order. What drink would you like? turns into a silly set of questions, more often than not, which includes Whats the occasion? The answers may be apparent, but you often need to be prepared to face such interrogations.

From the Roman Saturnalia and the Bacchanalia of Ancient Greece, to Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Rio, Notting Hill and every carnival, festival, jubilee and feast in between, almost all cultures associate alcohol with celebration. The connect between drinking and festivity is so strong that we often find it hard to imagine one without the other.

Although the interdependence on alcohol and festivity is obvious in all societies that use alcohol, it appears stronger in ambivalent drinking cultures, where one needs a reason to drink. These can be compared to integrated drinking cultures where drinking is a moral, neutral element of life, which requires no justification.

Wine in France  not spirits and beer  is considered a suitable accompaniment to a meal. Its also an appropriate drink for celebratory events. Beer, in turn, is most appropriate for informal, relaxation-oriented occasions. It also signifies social status in countries like Poland, where wine is regarded as a high-status, middle-class drink, while beer and vodka are ordinary for the working class.

In France, again, the aperitif is drunk before the meal, white wine is served before the red, brandy and digestifs are served only at the end of the meal. These clearly define culture, and traditional practices.

Certain drinks have become symbols of national identities: Guinness for the Irish, tequila for the Mexicans, vodka for the Poles and Russians, whisky for Scots, and so on. To choose, serve  or, indeed, refuse  ones national drinks can be a powerful expression of their loyalties and cultural identities. The national drink is often the symbolic locus for positive, even idealised or romanticised images of culture and the way of life. In Peru, alcohol is consumed before any work requiring strength or energy, such as roofing, sowing, and other communal work. The belief is that a tipple gives the user power and will to perform his duties.

Whether alcohol is measured as a social integrator, status indicator, situation definer, or even simply signifies drinking culture, it punctuates our lives from the cradle to the grave. A few drinks to wet the babys head is a common practice in many cultures. In Poland, christenings are celebrated at local taverns! The drinks are an integral part of the ritual celebrations for all major life-cycle events: first, the hair-cutting ceremony for the boys, the ear-piercing ceremony for the girls, confirmation, birthdays, marriages and funerals.

Despite the questions of why and what, the fact remains that drinking is an essential element of celebration and social bonding; the choice of your drink is rarely a matter of personal taste. So, what are we celebrating?

Ketan is a food and beverage manager with MARS Hospitality
Mental health patients said that their pets helped by distracting them from symptoms and upsetting experiences such as hearing voices or suicidal thoughts. (Photo: Pixabay)

Washington D.C.: The unconditional love and support of pet provides an immediate source of calm and therapeutic benefits for owners with long-term mental health conditions, says a new study.

The findings were published in the open access journal BMC Psychiatry. Researchers from the University of Manchester suggested that pets should be considered as main source of support in the management of long-term mental health problems.

"The people we spoke to, through the course of this study, felt their pet played a range of positive roles such as helping them to manage stigma associated with their mental health by providing acceptance without judgement," said lead study author Dr Helen Brooks from the University of Manchester.

"Pets were also considered particularly useful during times of crisis. In this way, pets provided a unique form of validation through unconditional support, which they were often not receiving from other family or social relationships. Despite the identified benefits of pet ownership, pets were neither considered nor incorporated into the individual care plans for any of the people in our study," Brooks added.

The team interviewed 54 participants, aged 18 and above, who were under the care of community-based mental health services and had been diagnosed with a severe mental illness.

The participants were asked to rate the importance of members of their personal network including friends, family, health professionals, pets, hobbies, places, activities and objects, by placing them in a diagram of three concentric circles.

Anything placed in the central circle was considered most important; the middle circle was of secondary importance and the outer circle was for those considered of lesser importance.

The pets played an important role in the social networks of people managing a long-term mental health problem, as 60 percent placed their pet in the central most important circle and 20 percent placed their pet in the second circle.

The participants stated that their pet helped by distracting them from symptoms and upsetting experiences such as hearing voices or suicidal thoughts.

"These insights provide the mental health community with possible areas to target intervention and potential ways in which to better involve people in their own mental health service provision through open discussion of what works best for them," Brooks explained.
The 18-year-old victim had sustained serious injuries in the attack on Wednesday and was admitted to ICU at a hospital where she succumbed to her wound. (Photo: Representational Image)

Mumbai: A teenage girl's throat was slit open by her brothers who disapproved of her alleged relationship with a boy here, police said on Friday.

The 18-year-old victim, a resident of suburban Borivali, had sustained serious injuries in the attack on Wednesday and was admitted to ICU at a hospital where she succumbed to her wound last night, they added. Her body has been sent for post-mortem.

According to police, the duo had repeatedly advised their sister against having relationship with the boy.

"After committing the crime, one brother surrendered himself at MHB Colony police station, while the other was caught from locality," a police official said.

"Further probe into the matter is on," he added.
A police team had gone to Prasad's house to arrest him in connection with a case related to irregularities in floating tender for supply of answer sheets of the Intermediate examination to BSEB. (Photo: Representational Image)

Patna: Main accused in the eight crore Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) tender scam, Diwakar Prasad, was found dead on Thursday under mysterious circumstances, prompting allegations from his relatives that he was murdered by the police.

His family alleged that Prasad was pushed by cops from the rooftop, leading to his death. The police officials, however, denied the charge, saying that Diwakar jumped off the building after seeing the cops who had gone to arrest him.

A police team had gone to Prasad's house to arrest him in connection with a case related to irregularities in floating tender for supply of answer sheets of the Intermediate examination to BSEB.

Diwakar owned a printing press in Patna, which was earlier raided by the member of the special investigation team (SIT) probing the scam.

Bihar topper scam 2016 is a corruption scandal in Bihar which came into limelight on 31 May 2016 when the Bihar School Examination Board ( BSEB) Arts and Humanities topper Ruby Rai, Science topper Saurabh Shrestha and third topper in Science stream Rahul Kumar were interviewed by television channels and they were unable to answer to basic questions.

Ruby Rai, student of Vishnu Roy College, Kiratpur Raja Ram village in Vaishali district pronounced Political Science as 'Prodigal Science' and described it as a subject related to cooking.

Science topper Saurabh Shrestha was unaware of electron and proton and wrongly said alumunium is the most reactive element.

After the video of their interviews went viral, a three-member SIT was formed by the Bihar state government to look into the fraud. Manu Maharaj, Patna special SP is heading the special investigation team.
Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court on Friday granted respite to Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu in cash for vote scam by allowing his quash petition against an order passed by the Anti-Corruption Bureau special court.

The ACB special court had directed the probe agency to reinvestigate the case, in which Telangana TDP MLA Revanth Reddy and other party leaders were involved.

The court had issued the order on a private complaint filed by YSRC MLA Alla Ramakrishna Reddy, who alleged involvement of Chandrababu Naidu in the case.

The ACB was ordered to reopen the case under Section 156 (3) of the CrPC, which empowers the magistrate to check police performance and monitor it besides naming persons mentioned in the complaint as accused.

Aggrieved by the order, Chandrababu Naidu had moved a criminal petition seeking to quash the order passed by the ACB court, contending that the court has erroneously granted the order in a pending case in which the ACB sleuths have already filed charge sheet against some of the accused and investigation is still on over alleged role of other accused.

Siddhartha Luthra, senior counsel appearing for AP CM, argued that there is no provision under the criminal jurisprudence for issuance of second FIR when an investigation is pending in a case and there is also no scope to allow intervention of a third party who is no way connected with the alleged offence in a case pertaining to the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Luthra contended that the complaint was purely based on political vengeance.

After hearing the arguments, Justice T Sunil Chowdary quashed the order passed by the ACB court. He also made it clear that the order will not preclude the ACB to go ahead with the investigation pending against other accused in the case.

In May 2015, Revanth Reddy was caught red-handed by ACB authorities while he was offering bribe to TRS MLA Stephenson.
New Delhi: Amid strong attack by Opposition over demonetisation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday took to Twitter to assert that the short term pain will pave the way for long term gains and insisted that farmers, traders and labourers stand to gain from this step.

In a series of tweets, Mr Modi spoke about the benefits of demonetisation and said the country has a historic opportunity to embrace increased cashless payments.

I salute the people of India for wholeheartedly participating in this ongoing Yagna against corruption, terrorism & black money, he said.

Together, we must ensure #IndiaDefeatsBlackMoney. This will empower the poor, neo-middle class, middle class & benefit future generations, the Prime Minister added.

I always said that the governments measure will bring a degree of inconvenience but this short term pain will pave way for long term gains, the Prime Minister said.

He said the decision has several gains for farmers, traders, labourers, who are the economic backbone of our nation and no longer will the progress and prosperity of rural India be curtailed by corruption & black money. Our villages must get their due.

He went on to add, We also have a historic opportunity to embrace increased cashless payments & integrate latest technology in economic transactions.

The tweets came amid strong attack by Opposition against him over demonetization decision.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the maintainability of appeals filed by Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala against the 2007 award of the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal (CWDT) on sharing the river water.

A three-judge bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra said that all the appeals filed by the southern states against the Tribunal's award are maintainable, though the Centre had asserted that the apex court had no jurisdiction to hear appeals against the award of the tribunal.

"We hold all the appeals maintainable. Interim order to continue. List the matter for further hearing on December 15," a bench also comprising justices Amitava Roy amd A M Khanwilkar.

On October 18, the apex court had directed Karnataka to keep supplying Tamil Nadu with 2,000 cusecs of water till further orders.

The bench had also said it would first go into the issue of maintainability of appeals filed by Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala against the award of tribunal and then hear arguments on the report filed by the Supervisory Committee formed to assess the ground realities in the Cauvery basin region.

The Centre, through Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, had raised a preliminary objection claiming that the CWDT award amounted to a final decree in the dispute and the apex court had no jurisdiction to hear appeals against the award of the tribunal.

But the states had contended that their appeals were maintainable saying the Supreme Court had the jurisdiction to adjudicate the appeals filed by the state against the award of tribunal and that no statute can take away the appellate powers of the apex court under Article 136 of Constitution.

However, Puducherry supported the stand of the Centre that the appeals filed by Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala are not maintainable.

Earlier, Rohatgi had argued that Supreme Court had no jurisdiction to adjudicate the appeals pertaining to the dispute relating to use, distribution and control of inter-state water or river valley.

The attorney general had said as per the constitutional provisions, the inter-state water dispute tribunal is headed by a retired Supreme Court or High Court judge and its decree has a force like that of a decree of the Supreme Court and thus the apex court cannot hear the appeals against its own order.

The apex court-appointed panel had in its recent report suggested doing away with "outdated and unscientific water application techniques" to resolve the wrangle, saying both Karnataka and Tamil Nadu were facing water shortage which had created unemployment and financial hardship for the people.

It had said the neighbouring riparian states needed to appreciate interest of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry to protect their established irrigation and Karnataka's aspirations for development and educate their people accordingly.

The panel in its 40-page report had noted that farmers in both states were in severe distress and adequate crop compensation must be provided to them.

The Supreme Court had on October 4 directed Karnataka to release 2,000 cusecs Cauvery water every day to Tamil Nadu from October 7 to 18 and deferred its order asking the Centre to set up Cauvery Water Management Board (CWMB) till it finally decided on appeals relating to the age-old dispute. It had yesterday directed Karnataka to continue to supply Tamil Nadu with 2,000 cusecs of water till further orders.

The apex court had also directed the Centre to establish the CWMB, saying once it was constituted, its team would visit the sites to take a prima facie view of the ground reality and submit a report.

On October 1, Karnataka had moved a review petition in the apex court against its three orders on Cauvery water release to Tamil Nadu and direction to the Centre to create the CWMB.

In its review petition, Karnataka said "grave miscarriage of justice" has been caused to it pursuant to the three apex court orders of September 20, 27 and 30, by which it was directed to release 6000 cusecs of water till October 6 and the Centre was to constitute the Board by October 4.
Chikkamagaluru/Hubballi: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said here that a decision will be taken on the demand to restore reserve forest status for the Kappatagudda region in Gadag, at a meeting of the State Wildlife Board.

Asked about the charge by senior BJP leader, Jagadish Shettar that the state government had withdrawn the tag to allow gold mining in the area, the chief minister shot back, Shettar always makes charges. BJP leaders are experts in making baseless allegations.

Later at a function in Mudigere, Mr Siddaramaiah said his government was ready to waive off farm loans of upto Rs 10,000 taken from cooperative banks provided the Union government came forward to waive off another Rs 35,000 borrowed from nationalised banks.

I will be meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Friday and will discuss with him the waiver of farmers' loans, he promised.

Home Minister Dr G Parameshwar, who is in-charge of Chikkamagaluru, heaped praise on the Chief Minister, saying the state had achieved financial stability under him. He claimed Karnataka stood first among all states in development. Minister for Energy, D.K. Shivakumar addressed the gathering.

Seers, greens to launch legal battle

Several environmentalists and pontiffs are planning to launch a legal battle against the state governments decision to withdraw the conservation reserve tag for Kappattagudda hill forest in Gadag district.

A new mode of opposing the governments move comes in the wake of an unsuccessful meeting of the delegation with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in Belagavi during the legislature session last week.

These environmentalists are alleging that Karnataka Wildlife Board, headed by Mr Siddaramaiah, has removed the tag under pressure from the mining and windmill lobby as these hills are rich in deposits of iron ore and gold. They expressed apprehension that the move would destroy various species of medicinal plants in an area spread over 18,000 hectares in Shirahatti and Mundaragi taluks. Therefore, they are planning to launch an awareness campaign, and take villagers into confidence before launching the legal battle. The government has withdrawn the forest reserve status without taking environmentalists and religious heads into confidence. Medicinal plants in the hills are falling prey to the superstition of the people as it has been tradition in the region to burn the forest to appease rain god. A Conservation reserve tag for Kappattagudda will facilitate erection of a fence around the region. This will help protection of vegetation and wildlife by preventing forest fire. Therefore, we are planning to take up a legal battle by approaching the green bench, says environmentalist C S Arasanal.
New Delhi: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday called on Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh, and requested them to sanction at the earliest drought and flood relief funds of over Rs 5,000 crore to the state.

Siddaramaiah met the two Union ministers separately. State minister T B Jayachandra and special representative of the Karnataka government in New Delhi, Appaji C S Nada Gouda were also present.

According to sources, Siddaramaiah updated the Home Minister about the impact of drought and floods on agricultural crops as well as the farming community, and urged him to take action at the earliest to release the central aid.

The Chief Minister had also sought an appointment with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but he failed to get it.

In the meeting with the Union Home Minister, the Chief Minister informed that the state had already submitted a memorandum seeking a central aid of Rs 4,702 crore for drought-hit farmers in the 2016 kharif season and Rs 386 crore to take up relief works in flood-hit areas of the state.

A central team, which visited the state last month to assess the situation, has already submitted the report and based on which the Agriculture Ministry has prepared a note.

In a separate meeting with the Union Agriculture Minister, Siddaramaiah raised concerns about delay in releasing central aid to drought-hit farmers in the state.

According to the sources, the Home Minister is expected to soon call a meeting to decide on the quantum of relief funds to be released to Karnataka from the National Disaster Relief Fund (NDRF).

Karnataka is facing drought for the sixth consecutive year and has declared 110 talukas of 25 districts as drought-hit during the 2016 kharif season. Siddaramaiah also met Congress President Sonia Gandhi and conveyed birthday wishes to her.
With four day holiday starting from Saturday, the House will meet again on Wednesday. The session, which has seen very little business being transacted, is scheduled to conclude on Friday next. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: The 16-day long deadlock over demonetisation in the Lok Sabha deepened today with government hitting back at agitating opposition and demanding its apology for paralysing Parliament, triggering fresh round of protests.

As soon as the House assembled for the day, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge rose to make some points but BJP members latched on to President Pranab Mukherjee's certain obervations made on Thursday, to target the opposition party.

Soon, a verbal spat broke out between the two sides and the Speaker adjourned the House till 1130 hours.

When the House met again, Kharge said the Opposition was ready for debating demonetisation and has been continuously requesting for it. "We are ready for debate on demonetisation and its repercussions," he said.

However, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar immediately shot back saying the Opposition has disrupted the House for 16 days and held it to ransom and they must tender an apology.

"For 16 days they have disrupted the House and held it hostage. Majority wanted to debate. But Congress, TMC and Left members are not allowing the House to function. The situation has reached such a stage that the President had to speak against the disruption. They must tender apology to the people of the country," he said.

BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi said for protests and sit-ins, as suggested by the President, Jantar Mantar is the best place and not the Parliament and hence the Opposition must apologise.

BJP veteran L K Advani, who had on Wednesday expressed his displeasure over the continuing impasse in the House, was at one point seen pacifying agitated ruling party members. As the pandemonium continued, the Speaker adjourned the House till noon.

The impasse continued when it re-assembled and HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar tabled a bill amid the din before the Speaker adjourned the House for the day.

With four day holiday starting from Saturday, the House will meet again on Wednesday. The session, which has seen very little business being transacted, is scheduled to conclude on Friday next.

Earlier, the House remembered the Parliament attack of 2001 and recalled the courage of 8 Delhi Police, CRPF and Parliament Security Service Personnel who had laid down their lives defending the people inside the Parliament complex. The Speaker took up the matter today as the Lok Sabha will not meet on December 13.
CHENNAI: Come February 24, a grand memorial in memory of late Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa is likely to stand tall on the Marina Beach where she was buried on Tuesday. The design for the memorial, expected to be a grand structure, is likely to be ready in the next few days after which construction work would start.

Ever since Jayalalithaa was buried some 30 metres away from where her mentor M.G. Ramachandran lies, thousands of AIADMK cadre and common people have been streaming in to pay their respects to the late Chief Minister. Senior ministers Edappadi K. Palanisamy, P. Thangamani, M.R. Vijayabhaskar, C. Vijayabhaskar and others visited the memorial and paid their respects too.

Highly placed sources in the AIADMK Government told Deccan Chronicle that a grand memorial is likely to be thrown open on February 24, 2017  on what would have been Jayalalithaas 69th birthday. Dedicating the memorial to the nation on Ammas birthday would be the greatest tribute that one can pay to her. All efforts would be taken to ensure that the memorial stands tall on that great day, a senior AIADMK functionary said. Sources revealed a Government Order regarding sanctioning of the memorial is expected in the next couple of days.

A team police officers and officials from PWD visited the memorial site on Thursday to review and oversee security arrangements that have been made to facilitate people to pay their respects. The sources said the design of the memorial would be given to a reputed architect and it is likely to be cleared by the top brass of the AIADMK.

The AIADMK plans to make the memorial imposing one and chose to bury her inside the MGR memorial to ensure that party loyalists would continue to come in droves to pay their respects. Huge crowds of AIADMK loyalists and common people, especially from southern districts, still make it a point to stop at the MGR memorial to pay their respects. And some even tell their children Ah, I can hear MGRs watch ticking.
Chennai: The Income Tax department has seized at least Rs 106 crore in cash, including Rs 10 crore in new currency, and gold bars weighing 127 kg in searches at multiple locations in the city to check tax evasion post demonetization.

This is the largest seizure of new currency notes after the old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes were scrapped on November 8. The I-T operation had been launched on Thursday.

Officials said S Reddy, a contractor working with the state government, has claimed the entire money and the gold as his own and is being questioned. "127 kg gold in 1 kg bars and Rs 96 crore in old currency and Rs 10 crore in Rs 2,000 notes have been seized by the sleuths after the operation," top I-T department officials said, adding "this is an unprecedented amount that the tax department has seized in recent times".

The department carried out the searches based on intelligence inputs about the activities of Reddy and few others for the last few days. Officials said the agency was investigating how the new notes in such a large quantity were stashed by the individual. The bundles of the new Rs 2,000 had no banking slips on them. They said the I-T teams had launched operations on at least eight locations of a "syndicate" involved in currency conversion.

The officials said a number of documents related to financial transactions, entries of gold sale and records of sale/purchase have also been seized by the tax sleuths. At least three people of the alleged syndicate are being questioned while few others are under the radar, they said. "He (Reddy) is a contractor working with the state government. He is claiming the entire cash and gold to be his own. Further probe is on," they said.

The I-T department, they said, will share the case details with the Enforcement Directorate and CBI for further probe into money laundering and corruption angles. Some bank officials are also under the scanner of the taxman.

The tax department had made the largest seizure of Rs 5.7 crore cash in new notes in Bengaluru few days ago after which two other central probe agencies, the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate, had taken over the cases to probe instances of corruption, money laundering and large-scale hawala transactions in the wake of the currency scrap on November 8.
The RBI would like to think it is magenta, but it looks more pink in the eyes of the people with even Amitabh Bachchan quipping that his movie is now more popular thanks to the pink notes.

Chennai: In raid after raid income-tax officials have been digging out large stashes in bundles of Rs 2,000 notes in the last few weeks clearly indicating that black money hoarders have managed to charge their undisclosed assets to new pink notes of Rs 2,000.

The RBI would like to think it is magenta, but it looks more pink in the eyes of the people with even Amitabh Bachchan quipping that his movie is now more popular thanks to the pink notes.

Thursdays seizure of Rs 88 crore worth new notes from the premises linked to J. Sekhar Reddy, a TTD board member and PWD contractor in Chennai, once again proving that those with influence have managed to change huge quantities of money with the connivance of bank officials. And this while ordinary people are forced to stand in the Sun in front of banks to get their Rs 4000 or so from their hard earned money deposited in the bank.

Income-tax officials have been freely hinting that bankers have been using details of hundreds of accounts holders in the banks  and they could very well belong to you and me - to exchange notes against those accounts and help black money holders to change currency notes in large scale. The commission for doing this might go up to 20 per cent.

As these transactions against your account details cannot be reflected in the account book, bankers use account details from know your customer (KYC) dossiers in order to exchange old notes into new ones.

You will never know if the banker had used your identity or bank details to exchange old notes belonging to somebody else as it was never recorded in your account statement. By the time government came to know about it and started taking action against bankers, the damage was already done, an I-T official noted.

This is how crores of rupees in bundles of new pink coloured Rs 2,000 notes ended up in the hands of influential people while aam aadmi waited in queues patiently every day to withdraw money from banks, the official noted.

Chennai police exposed major chinks in the banking industry when they arrested four bankers for allegedly helping to launder lakhs of money.
New Delhi: In a significant development, India and influential East Asian nation Vietnam on Friday signed a civil nuclear cooperation agreement, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserting that it will further strengthen the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries.



The two countries also signed three other agreements -- to enhance aviation links, to jointly work in the area of energy efficiency and promotion of parliamentary cooperation.



The four pacts, aimed at boosting the relations, were signed here in presence of Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and visiting President of Vietnam's National Assembly Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan after their talks on enhancing the ties.



Ngan, who is leading a Vietnamese Parliamentary delegation, also met the Prime Minister who said the Agreement on Cooperation in Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy "will further strengthen the comprehensive strategic partnership between India and Vietnam."



Modi recalled his earlier meeting with Ngan in Hanoi during his visit to Vietnam in September.



He said that Ngan, as the first woman to head the National Assembly of Vietnam, is a source of inspiration to women across the world.



Modi welcomed increased Parliamentary interactions between India and Vietnam, and called for instituting an exchange programme for young parliamentarians of the two countries.



Cooperation Agreement between the Lok Sabha of the Republic of India and the National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam



The civil nuclear agreement with Vietnam, an influential East Asian nation, comes close on the heels of India signing a similar pact with Japan.
New Delhi: Income Tax officials on Friday raided an Axis Bank branch in the national capital and identified at least 44 fake bank accounts. According to reports, the accounts did not follow KYC norms and old notes worth Rs 100 crore were deposited in them.

The raid was carried out at the Chandni Chowk branch of the bank. Axis bank officials are being interrogated in the matter.

According to reports, a total of Rs 450 crore had been deposited in the branch since November 8, the day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes.
Hemlata Sharma allegedly shouted at the organisers and the artists in the summit and took the painting to the police station. (Photo: Videograb)

Jaipur: A person was arrested for allegedly creating ruckus at an art summit in Jaipur as he along with some local activists raised objection over a painting, calling it obscene, police said on Friday.

Vijay Shankar Pandey was arrested under section 151 of CrPC (Arrest to prevent the commission of cognisable offences) last night following the complaint of the organisers of the Jaipur art summit, they said.

Pandey, along with a female activist Hemlata Sharma had protested over the display of a painting depicting a woman at the Ravindra Manch in Jaipur on Thursday.

Sharma allegedly shouted at the organisers and the artists in the summit and took the painting to the police station.

After some arguments at the police station, the woman returned without registering any case, SHO of Lalkothi police station Ishwar Singh had said on Thursday, adding the paining was handed over to artist Radha Vinod Sharma.

Later, the organisers registered a complaint following which Pandey was placed under arrest.

The painting which was handed over to Radha Binod Sharma, a London based artist, has been reinstalled.

"It was indeed most unfortunate that some persons came and forcibly took away a painting entitled 'Anubhav'. The painter also got hurt in the scuffle," founder of the summit Shailendra Bhatt said.

"The painting has been reinstalled at the same place," he said in a statement.

The summit, which seeks to promote tribal and traditional art forms, is being held from December 7 to 11 at Ravindra Manch in Jaipur. Artists from 25 countries are participating.
Mumbai: The crime branch of city police on Friday seized Rs 85 lakh cash in Rs 2,000 notes from a person at Matunga in central Mumbai, police said.

The cash was seized by unit 5 of the crime branch from Babasaheb Ambedkar road this afternoon, Mumbai Police spokesperson Ashok Dudhe said. A probe is underway in this regard, the officer added.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday greeted Congress president Sonia Gandhi on her birthday.

"Birthday wishes to Smt. Sonia Gandhi. May Almighty bless her with a long life filled with good health," he said in a tweet.

However, the Prime Minister's cheerful message comes despite the massive onslaught by the Congress, especially party vice president Rahul Gandhi, on the Centre over demonetisation.

On Thursday, Rahul compared Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Roman emperor and then accused him of banning high-value notes to benefit a few people like e-wallet company Paytm.

"The idea behind a cashless economy is that a few people must get maximum benefits from these (cashless) transactions, this has damaged the nation," the Congress vice president said at an opposition protest against the currency ban on the Parliament's premises.

"If they let me speak in the Lok Sabha I will expose this nexus. How PayTM is actually 'Pay to Modi' ", Rahul said accusing the Prime Minister of having a nexus with corporates.
New Delhi: Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has written to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee expressing "deep pain" over her allegations against the army for its recent exercise at toll gates in the state and said they can "adversely" impact the morale of the armed forces.

In a strongly worded letter, Parrikar said that while political parties and politicians may have the luxury of making "wild and unsubstantiated allegations against each other", one needs to be extremely careful while referring to the armed forces.

"Your allegations in this regard run the risk of adversely impacting the morale of the country's armed forces and the same were not expected from a person of your standing and experience in public life," the Minister said.

Banerjee, who has been opposing the Centre's demonetization move, had accused it of deploying the army at toll plazas in West Bengal without informing the state government and described it as "unprecedented" and "a very serious situation worse than Emergency".

The Trinamool Congress had refused to leave her office in Kolkata till the Armymen were withdrawn from toll plazas, and had asked whether it was an "army coup", drawing sharp reaction from the Centre.

Terming it as "avoidable controversy" over the exercise carried out by the Eastern Command in West Bengal and other states under the jurisdiction to collect information about the movement of heavy vehicles at toll gates, Parrikar, in his letter to Banerjee dated December 8, said it is carried out by all formations of the army all across the country for many years.

He said the exercises are held as per the dates convenient to the army in consultation with agencies of the state government.

"I have been deeply pained by your allegations as reported in the media. If only you had enquired with the agencies concerned of the state government, you would have come to know of the extensive correspondence between the Army and the state agencies including the joint inspection of sites carried out by them," Parrikar said in his letter to Banerjee.

Describing Indian army as the "most disciplined institution of the country", he said the nation is proud of their "professionalism and apolitical conduct".

He added that the army authorities were forced to put the record straight in the matter by presenting evidence of their communication with the state agencies concerned including rescheduling of the data collection operations on their response.
Parrikar said had Mamata enquired about it with the state agencies, she would have come to know about the communication that took place between the army and the concerned authorities regarding the exercise carried out by them. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: Responding to a letter written by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee regarding the his expression of pain about painting the army in poor light recently, Trinamool Congress leader Sukhendu Sekhar Roy urged the Centre not to politicise the issue.

"We have all the respect for the Indian Army as they are safeguarding the territory and integrity of our country. It is better on the part of government not to politicise the army in political interest. We have also submitted the details as to how, without the concurrence of the state government, the army was deployed on December 1. What the defence minister has stated is rubbish," he said.

Member of Parliament Derek O' Brien charged the Centre with playing politics on the issue.

"Look who is playing politics. The letter has not even reached the chief minister of Bengal and it has already been leaked in the media in Delhi," Derek O' Brien said.

Promising a befitting reply from his party, O' Brien said, "When the letter does reach Bengal, we will give him a befitting reply. Mamata Di will give a strong reply to the defence minister, because, we have a strong case."

Parrikar, in a letter written to Mamata Banerjee expressed his pain over dragging the army into politics and doubting its intentions.

Parrikar said had Mamata enquired about it with the state agencies, she would have come to know about the communication that took place between the army and the concerned authorities regarding the exercise carried out by them.

"I have been deeply pained by your allegations as reported in the media. If only you had enquired with the concerned agencies of the state government, you would have come to know of the extensive correspondence between the army and the state agencies, including the joint inspection of the sites carried out by them," Parrikar said.

Hinting at the impact it would have on the morale of the armed forces, Parrikar said that such a thing was not expected from a person of her standing and experience in public life.

He further said that political parties may take digs at each other, but one needs to be careful while referring to armed forces.

On December 1, when the army was deployed at two toll plazas in West Bengal for carrying out a routine exercise, Mamata alleged that the deployment was made without any prior information to the state government.

The army, however, in a series of letters, clarified that it was only a routine exercise and that it was in continuous communication with the Kolkata Police.
As the four occupants, including a woman, failed to give any satisfactory explanation about the source of cash in their possession, they have been detained, police said. (Photo: Representational Image)

Ahmedabad: Police on Friday seized Rs 76 lakh cash in denomination of Rs 2,000 from four persons in Surat and detained them as they failed to explain source of the money.

This morning, police intercepted a car with Maharashtra registration near Classic Complex in Sachin GIDC area and during the search found 38 bundles of the Rs 2,000 tender, with total face value of Rs 76 lakh, Surat Police said in astatement.

"As the four occupants, including a woman, failed to give any satisfactory explanation about the source of cash in their possession, they have been detained and brought to police station," it said.

They have been identified as Dipti Patel (30), a resident of Navsari, Girish Patel (45), a resident of Valsad, Arun Amrutar (58) and Rann Kumar Singh (46), both hailing from Nashik in Maharashtra.

"We have informed the Income Tax department about the seizure. We will hand the four persons to I-T for further questioning," said ACP and Surat Police PRO Nita Desai.
Bengaluru: Union Information and Broadcasting Minister M Venkaiah Naidu on Friday said it was "too early" to discuss anything about BJP's alliance with AIADMK in the new political scene unfolding in Tamil Nadu after the demise of its supremo and former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa.

"It is too early to discuss anything (about alliance), just now only last rites of madam (Jayalalithaa) were performed. Secondly, there is no election now. There is no alignment. There is no realignment also now. Let us wait and see," Naidu, a senior BJP leader, told reporters in Bengaluru.

Naidu was responding to a question about the role of the Centre and BJP in the emerging power play post the passing away of Jayalalithaa, which has caused a huge political vacuum in the highly polarised politics of Tamil Nadu and thrown up several imponderables within the AIADMK.

Asked if his describing AIADMK as a "natural ally" meant that it would join the NDA fold, Naidu said, "Natural is the word used by a section of media friends. I have not used that word. I said there is an ideological affinity to some extent. This is the word I used."

On some issues, he said, AIADMK was supporting the Modi Government and on some others, it was critical.

"They are an independent party. We did not have an electoral alliance (with them). Whether we will have an alliance or not in future, there is a lot of time. This is not the time to discuss," he added.

Asked what role BJP has considering the "fragmentation" in AIADMK following Jayalalithaa's demise, Naidu shot back, saying "Why should I talk about fragmentation, that is a figment of imagination. I do not know."
An army official said they were still sifting through the debris and a final statement on the incident will be issued once the operation was called off. (Photo: AP)

Srinagar: Three Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants were killed in a 36-hour gunbattle with security forces in Bijbehara area of Anantnag district in Kashmir which ended on Friday.

A civilian was also killed by stray bullet on Thursday during law and order problem.

"Three holed up terrorists eliminated; bodies of two terrorists & three weapons recovered," Army's Northern Command said in a tweet.

Army officials at Srinagar-based 15 Corps Headquarters, however, refused to comment on the operation.

A police official said two bodies were recovered from the debris of the house where the ultras were hiding.

The slain militants were both locals and identified as Majid Mohiuddin Zargar of Qoimoh in neighbouring Kulgam district and Ruhul Amin Dar of Vessu in Anantnag district.

"The bodies have been handed over to their kin for last rites," he said.

He said one of the bodies was severely burnt. One army jawan was injured in the gunfight that began in the early hours on Thursday.

The security forces had cordoned off the area on Wednesday evening following information about presence of Lashkar-e-Taiba militants there.

A 24-year-old man was killed allegedly after being hit by a "stray bullet" near the site of encounter.

Arif Shah, a resident of Sangam area of Anantnag district, was hit by the "stray bullet" when security forces were dealing with a group which was indulging in stone-pelting near the encounter site, the official said.

However, locals alleged that Shah was killed in security forces action against protesters.

They also claimed that several other persons were injured in the clashes between protesters and security forces.
Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court on Friday asked RBI to explain by Dece-mber 14 its stand on all-owing farmers to repay their agricultural loans by using old denomination notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 in Primary Agriculture Cooperative Societies (PACS) in their villages.

A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice A. Shankar Narayana, while hearing a petition by Boda Mangiah and seven farmers of Krishna district, said, It is time for the RBI to take a call on the issue of facilitating the farmers to clear their agricultural loans, which they have taken from PACS, before the end of December, so that they can seek a loan for the coming rabi (winter) season.

The petitioners told the court that the PACS and even the District Cooperative Central Bank to which these PACS are affiliated are not allowed to take money in old denomination notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000.

They brought to the notice of the court that they have some old savings in their homes and old currency notes are not useful to repay the agricultural loans.

Mr D. Prakash Reddy, senior counsel appearing for the RBI, said that the government has not recognised PACS as one of the windows which can receive the de-notified currency.

Reacting to the submission of the senior counsel, the bench said that this is a serious problem which will affect agricultural activity.

The bench made it clear that the farmers have to be shown a way to clear agricultural loans before the end of December.

Counsel for the petitioners urged the court to allow the PACS to collect money from farmers in old notes and deposit the same in the account of respective DCCBs (district co-operative central banks) or AP Cooperative Central Bank.
Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court on Friday granted relief to AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu by allowing his petition to quash a special ACB court order to the TS Anti-Corruption Bureau to probe the role of other alleged suspects in the cash-for-vote scam.

The ACB court on August 29 had ordered the investigation on a complaint by YSRC legislator from AP Alla Ramakrishna Reddy. This order was quashed by Justice T. Sunil Chowdary, while allowing a criminal petition filed by Mr Naidu.

The MLA had told the ACB court that the anti-corruption agency had failed to probe the role of Mr Naidu in the case of alleged bribing of no-minated TS MLA Elvis Stephenson during the MLC elections in Telan-gana to vote in favour of the TD candidate. The legislator alleged that the audio tapes of phone conversation of Mr Naidu and Mr Stephen-son showed the involvement of Mr Naidu.

Justice Chowdary said the basis for filing the complaint was the alleged conversation but there was no mention of how Mr Ramakrishna Reddy had secured the tape. He observed that the MLA had filed the complaint by obtaining the documents by other means.

The judge noted that the possibility that he had filed the complaint in order to take political and personal vengeance against Mr Naidu could not be ruled out. The MLA had no locus standi to file the complaint, the judge said.

The judge also considered the argument of ACB counsel V. Ravikiran Rao that if the AP legislator was allowed to intervene in the investigation, thousands of people may file similar petitions under the guise of public interest.

No case was proven against me: Naidu

Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu said on Friday that not a single case out of the 125 filed against him had been proven in court. Integrity can neither be bought nor borrowed, he said.

He said everybody knew about the cash-for-vote case and told YSRC leaders to lead life with integrity.

Meanwhile, YSRC MLA Alla Ramakris-hna Reddy said he would appeal the HC verdict.
Minister Mahender Reddy with one of the sons of Satyanarayana Reddy, absconding builder of the structure that collapsed in Nanakramguda.

Hyderabad: The builder of the under-construction building that collapsed in Nanakramguda on Thursday, Satyanarayana Singh, is alleged to be an associate of transport minister Mahender Reddy. His sons Saketh and Anil Singh are part of TRS cadre. Saketh Singh contested the GHMC elections in 2016 from Serlingampally, as an Independent candidate after he was denied a TRS ticket, but he lost.

The builder is said to have threatened GHMC officials whenever they visited. Whenever a GHMC official visited the site, Singh used to frighten him. He was threatening to file a complaint with the ACB. Construction has been going on for five months, the source said.

Minister Mahender Reddy denies knowing the builder. I dont know the builder. I have no deals with them, he said.
Bengaluru: The newly re-elected national president of Janata Dal (Secular) H.D. Deve Gowda held PM Modi responsible for non-functioning of parliament for over two weeks on the issue of demonetisation which virtually forced President Pranab Mukherjee to advise opposition members to attend the session without disrupting the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

Addressing the party national executive committee meeting held here on Friday, he sought to know what had prevented Mr Modi from making a statement in both Houses to end the impasse. The opposition parties were only demanding that the PM address them so that the Houses function normally. Instead, Mr Modi was maintaining a stoic silence. Things had gone from bad to worse ever since the PM announced scrapping of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes in a bid to end to black money and over 100 people had died standing in queues to withdraw money from banks.

No rebels on JD(S) core panel

Sending a strong message to suspended legislators, the new state core committee does not have any of those who had raised the banner of revolt against the Janata Dal (Secular) leadership and more so against state party chief H.D. Kumaraswamy.

The new committee is headed by Mr Kumaraswamy and members include Basavaraj Horatti. Bandeppa Kashempur, B.M. Farooq, Madhu Bangarappa, B.B. Ningaiah, Venkatrao Nadgouda, Alkod Hanumanthappa, Sharada Poorya Nayak, G.T. Deve Gowda, Srimant Patil and T.A. Sarawana.

Tough days ahead for Siddaramaiah govt

H.D. Kumaraswamy, who has been re-elected president of state JD(S), predicted difficult days ahead for the state government, with two of its officers, reportedly close to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and PWD Minister, H C Mahadevappa, being caught with unaccounted properties worth crores.

Addressing the partys National Executive Committee meeting here, he recalled that the joint raid by the Income Tax department and the Enforcement Directorate on the two officers had led to a discovery of crores in the new `2000 denomination notes and benami properties.

The duo are being interrogated to find out if they had any political help in stashing such a huge amount in the new currency notes. The Siddaramaiah government will be in trouble once the investigation progresses, he warned.

Noting that one of the officers caught had worked as a chief engineer in the BBMP and allegedly played a role in a tender scam involving Rs 15,000 crore, he claimed JD(S) workers had raided the civic agency and caught him red-handed. But sadly, the documents pertaining to the scam were gutted in a fire in the BBMPs record room, he regretted.

Lambasting the BJP, he said it had no moral right to talk against corruption as it had sown its seeds while in government and the present government was only watering them.
Hyderabad: Telangana Congress chief Uttam Kumar Reddy demanded the resignation of municipal administration minister K.T. Rama Rao over the collapse of a multistoried illegal building in Nanakramguda here.

A multi-crore road scam came to light recently. Several lives were lost in a building collapse in Nanakramguda. Municipal administration minister K.T. Rama Rao should re-sign from his post owing up moral responsibility for the incident, he said.

He said the government has failed to act despite such incidents repeating in the state.
New Delhi: Former IAF chief S P Tyagi on Wednesday denied allegations that he had influenced the 3,600-crore deal for VVIP helicopters in favour of Italy's AgustaWestland.

"My first reaction is shock... How can anybody say this, on what basis?" Tyagi replied when asked whether he was involved in the VVIP chopper scam.

"They have blamed me for corrupt practices in which I changed the height to assist AgustaWestland, although this decision was not against the public interest. But I was nevertheless being (called) corrupt," the former IAF chief said.

"It would appear that the part of the loot came to me. I am shocked," he said.

Referring to the case, he said, "This is not a new case. (It has been) going on for years. All the evidences were also presented to the court in Milan itself. The trial court in Milan gave judgement in which they said there was no case of corruption."

"Same evidence was now produced in High Court. They seem to feel that it was done in corrupt practices. Why they have said it I am not in a position to comment," he said.

Asked pointedly whether he had received money for the Augusta deal, Tyagi said, "No, no, no, no. This question hurts me."

Asked whether his family members had received kickback, he said, "No, no no."

On the change of height parameter of the helicopters, Tyagi said this is in public domain why the height was changed and who changed it.

He said it involved two governments led by NDA and UPA and the National Security Advisors of both the governments were part of the meetings.

"They insisted on SPG and SPG got into it. They did not like the height, they did not like the single window...these are all in the public domain," he said.

Defending himself, he said, "Proforma clearance was given to me. The decision must have been taken by the government. The users were VVIP. IAF was not the user. SPG had to be consulted, therefore PMO stepped in. Otherwise PMO does not come into air force purchase. They took the decision and they asked the air force to change the requirement."

"SPG was not happy with the cabin height. SPG guards will not be able to stand with their guns to protect VVIP. These were issues and they discussed at length. Then decision was taken. IAF was asked to redo them. Now you are saying chief of AIF changed to assist Augusta. It was a collective decision," he asserted.

When told that Congress president Sonia Gandhi's name came up repeatedly for allegedly lobbying for the deal, Tyagi said, "All the documents available with Italian court are also available to investigating agencies. For the past three years, the investigating agencies have looked into all these documents. They have interviewed former Cabinet Secretary, former NSA, former DG of SPG."

We are still investigating with all the documents. Some of the documents have not been received and you have already decided who is corrupt... I find it very strange."
Peter Mukerjea is escorted after being produced by the CBI at the Esplanade court in Mumbai (Photo: PTI)

Mumbai: Former media baron Peter Mukerjea, arrested in Sheena Bora murder case with his wife Indrani, on Friday filed an application in the CBI court here seeking permission to use a laptop in the prison so he could write his autobiography.

"I want to write an autobiography and for that I want a laptop without Internet in the jail," Peter told the special CBI court judge H S Mahajan during the hearing today.

In a handwritten application, Peter also said he was finding it very difficult to write in long-hand. If allowed, he would work on the laptop for four hours a day and afterwards hand it back to jail authorities, the application said.

"(I am) 61 years old and suffering from occasional memory fatigue and laptop will be of great help to aid in continuing the work without locating details during the writing and scripting process," Peter said in the application.

He also applied for permission to go to Bangalore to attend the wedding of his niece.

CBI is likely to file its reply to his applications on December 14.

The court is likely to hear arguments on framing of charges in the Sheena Bora murder case on December 19.

Interestingly, the court had at the last hearing granted the prime accused in the case Indrani Mukerjea's application seeking permission to deposit some demonetised currency notes in the bank (through someone outside the jail).

Indrani, her former driver Shyam Rai (who has turned approver in the case) and her former husband Sanjeev Khanna are accused of killing her daughter Sheena inside a car in April 2012. Peter is accused of being party to the conspiracy.
Kolkata: In keeping with her strident anti-Centre stance over demonetisation, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today alleged that the Modi government was not allowing opposition parties to speak on the issue in Parliament, describing it as "most unfortunate".

"This is most unfortunate. The opposition parties wanted to speak on demonetisation and run the House. Why did the government not allow the opposition to speak? This means the cat is out of the bag. The cashless have now become faceless," she said in a statement.

The Trinamool Congress supremo's latest salvo came a day after she demanded Prime Minister Narendra Modi's resignation on the ground that the note withdrawal had led to an "economic disaster" in the country and he had "no moral right" to continue.

Alleging that the country's growth and business have been hit due to demonetisation, she had said the Prime Minister "doesn't trust" anyone and he "doesn't understand" what is good for the country.
Karachi: The turnout at the walk organised last Sunday by Citizens against Weapons (CAW) was heartening. Started in 2014 by some concerned citizens, the campaign is catching on. I had joined them at a rally on an intersection of a busy area in Karachi two years ago. There were then barely 50 protesters. On Sunday, there were 400 or so. One of them, activist Naeem Sadiq, whose motto is say no to guns, has been working on this goal for a decade. He and his colleagues want to rid the whole country of guns and the message is gaining adherents as a larger number of people  that does not include our rulers  begin to understand the significance of deweaponisation in ending violence. One of CAWs key demands is, In compliance with Article 256 of the Constitution, all private militias regardless of their patrons must be completely disbanded.

This is a valid demand, in view of the private militias that have mushroomed all over Pakistan. One doesnt know whether they carry licensed weapons or illegally acquire guns which have flooded the country since 1979. The emergence of private militias is a disturbing development and has ominous implications when we consider sectarian violence in Pakistan. Various lashkars and sipahs was linked to the targeting of Shia doctors in the 1990s and the suicide bombings of Shia congregations. Such groups change their name whenever they are banned but their sectarian bias does not change. The government might be trying hard to provide protection to this community but how much can it do? Thus Arbayeen (Imam Husains chehlum) passed peacefully on Nov. 21, with no major sectarian incident taking place.

The tight measures adopted by the administration helped though they caused a lot of public inconvenience. There was a price to be paid for security such as switching off mobile and internet services till late in the night, and combing the entire route of the main procession and erecting barriers. All this was accepted as unavoidable because sane-minded citizens, whether Shia, Sunni or non-Muslim, do not want to see more violence. But this has not changed the overall picture of sectarian violence in Pakistan which continues to be gloomy. How can one be hopeful when steps are not being taken to eliminate violence by addressing its root causes? The masterminds who plot sectarian attacks and guide the killers are allowed to roam freely to plan their next nefarious move. It is the man pulling the trigger who is captured or killed, that is if he hasnt self-destructed in his quest for paradise.

A security researcher gave me horrific figures for sectarian attacks and the number of casualties resulting from them, though he said that it was difficult for him to give accurate data for the number of Shias killed. In a society in which all sects are quite integrated in most neighourhoods with a few exceptions, a bomb attack on a place of worship or a procession kills indiscriminately. According to the security consultant I spoke to, 995 attacks, that can be termed sectarian, occurred in 2007-16. A total of 2,909 people were killed and 4,888 injured. This also included some attacks on Sunni scholars by a Shia group calling itself Sipah-i-Mohammad.

The key question to be asked is why are the masterminds and the handlers not being taken to task? Individually, the foot soldiers cannot run the war. They need funds and strategic planning and coordination which only high-level leadership can provide. We know well that the sectarian terrorist outfits did not drop out of the sky. We also know how the security establishment had created them as strategic assets. Gen. Hamid Gul may be dead but we remember his boasts about his role in the creation and training of the Taliban. The mujahideen in Afghanistan mutated into various lashkars some of which were tasked with fighting Pakistans war in India-held Kashmir.

They may not have been sectarian in their design originally, but did Dr Frankensteins monster not free himself from his creators grip to wreak havoc on his creators loved ones? The sectarian dimension came in largely by virtue of the Saudi role in funding madressahs that allowed the masterminds to equip the rank and file with guns. Messages are now being circulated that members of the Shia community should have armed guards to protect their majlises. This is inadvisable as it will destabilise the situation further. CAWs mission should become the mission of all vulnerable groups, while the support and understanding of enlightened and tolerant majority is a source of strength for this particular community. The need is for the powers-that-be to refrain from patronising the masterminds and not use them as so-called strategic assets. Our defence and foreign policies should be handled by the right quarters. The tail should not wag the dog.

By arrangement with Dawn
A month has passed. Opinion is unanimous that demonetisation has failed as an instrument to end terror or black money. Brazen terror strikes continue. The shadow industry for converting black into white has perversely got a boost from a new business vertical  converting old black into new black. Worse still, the economy has taken a severe hit in the process. The good news is that committing mistakes is a sign of executive action. Mistakes fade from public memory if the government learns from them and takes corrective action. So what is the learning? First, black money is too pervasive to be substantively reduced either via anti-corruption legislation; strong-arm tactics like raids or moral persuasion. What can and must be done is to reduce the incentives for avoiding or evading tax. The former is easier than the latter. Tax avoidance is a direct outcome of numerous tax exemptions. These must be rationalised and reduced. Tax exemptions are a non-transparent way of providing a subsidy to either an individual or a business. Because it is not transparent it is difficult to target exemptions narrowly and guard against perverse unintended outcomes. The real estate boom and subsequent bust is one such.

Putting indirect and direct tax together, the incidence of tax at the highest level can be around 43 per cent on an income of just Rs 83,000 ($1,220) a month if the entire amount left over after paying income-tax is spent on purchasing services or goods. In the United States, the federal income tax rate of 33 per cent is attracted by an income of $75,000 per year. The US is nine times wealthier than India. Factoring in the income differential, the comparable income level in India would be $8,300 per year (Rs 5.6 lakhs per year or Rs 47,000 per month). At this income level, the marginal rate in India is just 20 per cent. But numerous deductions reduce the effective incidence of tax by a further 10 percentage points. Loan repayment and interest payments for house building, fixed income investments in postal savings, public sector enterprises and infrastructure, capital gains re-invested in specified government bonds, capital gains on equity held for a paltry one year  all qualify for a tax rebate.

These exemptions distort the fixed income market for attracting savings into banking and private business entities. They also do nothing to pull in new taxpayers. On the contrary, these exemptions serve as avenues for parking black money through substitution. Instances abound of the entire salary being deposited in such investments with living expenses met from other undisclosed sources. The finance minister proposed, last year, a lower rate of corporate tax of 25 per cent for new assesses if no tax deductions were availed. A similar strategy of reducing the marginal income-tax rate should be followed in Budget 2017 to widen the tax base. Reducing the marginal rate from 30 to 20 per cent can pull in new taxpayers. A simultaneous declaration of an intention to reduce the rate further to 15 per cent, depending on the revenue surge, would provide the much-needed assurance of medium-term stability in the tax architecture. The incentives being provided for digital payments and selective targeting of high-profile tax evasion could provide the push factor towards better tax compliance. The lesson here is that in a democratic, open economy, incentives work better than directives.

The second lesson is that whilst politics always drives government policy, the consequences of ignoring well-honed governance principles are severe. Institutions matter for sustainable results. Why are 32,290 gazetted tax officers powerless to perform? Are we aware that 36 per cent of available Grade A tax positions are vacant? Is it appropriate that the academic requirements for becoming a tax officer do not mandate having either a masters in commerce or economics or being a chartered accountant? Nor are candidates tested psychologically for their motivations or their ability to put the public interest first. All these red flags show that tax collection has never been a priority. We tend to focus overly instead on the spending departments. The ability to tax and to punish citizens as per the law is the best metric of sovereignty. To build institutional support for targeting black money we should take a leaf from the British Raj. During the colonial period, the district collectors were the flag-bearers of the Raj. Today, their successors  the Indian Administrative Service  occupy the same high status. But they do everything except collect tax. Those who collect tax  the Central Board of Direct Taxes and the Central Board of Excise and Customs  are condemned to be second-class bureaucrats, perpetually subservient to a revenue secretary from the IAS.

The IAS is an elite because it is treated as such by the government. It attracts the best. It trains and gives its members the opportunity to be leaders. If collecting tax is a national priority, we must give the tax officers the privilege of being an elite and leading the tax effort. This will mould them, over time, into being leaders rather than mere camp followers. A healthy parallel is the possible formation of a tri-services command, in the defence ministry, to establish a direct link between the defence minister and the armed forces. This architecture must be replicated in the department of revenue. Create a Supreme Tax Council of secretary-level officers, expert in direct and indirect tax, led by a chairperson in the rank of a minister of state, reporting directly to the finance minister. Consequential changes in the method of recruitment, training, functions, powers and upgrade in the service conditions of the tax services can follow. Targeting black money is a medium-term task. No government has had the gumption or the political capital to sustain the process. The personal charisma and overwhelming public support that Prime Minister Narendra Modi enjoys places the buck for tax reform squarely at his door.
The Allahabad high courts observations on triple talaq should help towards dismantling a system of patriarchal superiority that retards gender justice. Intertwined with this abhorrent practice is the larger question of personal laws of one community not having precedence over the rights granted to all under the Constitution, making it a highly sensitive issue for Indias pluralist society. The politicisation of this issue has resulted in the continuation of this practice in India, that is banned in many Muslim nations. It breaches many first principles of equality. Just saying talaq thrice in quick succession to end a marriage, or even texting it on social media or SMS, was never part of Islam. It was originally meant to signal an intention to divorce, with at least a years time for rethinking.

Triple talaq has been distorted in India, and its far more important to ban this than use it as a wedge to encroach on Muslim personal laws. The ability to see the issue in its two distinct parts may be there, but this tends to get muddled in the public discourse due to extreme positions taken by political and religious entities. If the law is to prevail, as it should, a much-needed social reform will be sustained, although the practice is not the norm and might even be statistically quite insignificant. Liberal Muslims will certainly back the courts observations even if clerics defend the practice as they have to believe in their own interpretation of the Holy Quran in order to stay relevant within their community.
Irony. Pathos. Sorrow. Intrigue. Suspense. Plus dollops of cynicism. A solitary woman, who chose never to marry or have children, was elevated to the position of the ultimate universal mother  amma. Millions of devotees blindly believed in the Amma Cult, and were emotionally devastated when J. Jayalalithaa died this week. How did she  a fiercely private, proud and arrogant woman  convince so many followers, that behind the infamous cape, was a soft heart bleeding for the masses? There are so many fascinating contradictions in the Amma narrative. On the surface, there was absolutely nothing maternal about her. She was known to be curt, ruthless and self-centred. Isolated and remote, cut off from her biological family, Jayalalithaa was married to politics and politics alone. Intolerant of the slightest criticism, she was known to vanquish enemies swiftly and efficiently.

Her dealings with lesser beings (almost everyone!) were similarly cold-blooded and lethal. So... how did the amma persona survive? It cant be just through her shrewd, acts of largesse (amma rice, amma water, amma canteens etc). Others have taken this route and failed. Yes, she bussed a few semi-naked babies for photo ops (which she apparently loathed), but beyond those rare demonstrations of tenderness, Jayalalithaa was hardly a likeable lady. Feared, yes. But not likeable. How will historians decode her unique brand? Her charisma? Who can explain her undeniable mystique? Her love-hate relationship with the media is well-documented. She made no bones about her contempt for the fourth estate. In turn, she was despised by terrorised reporters on her beat. Now that she is dead and gone, countless stories will come tumbling out from assorted sources, who knew a lot but were too scared to talk during her lifetime. In India, it is customary to heap praises on dead leaders  their lifelong enemies also join the chorus.

Strange that Jayalalithaa died without creating a will or nominating a successor. It was assumed her long-time confidante and partner Sasikala Natarajan was the chosen one. But then, why was she not elevated or officially anointed during ammas lifetime? Considering the intimacy of the relationship over decades, and given Jayalalithaas high intelligence, its hard to believe she did not nominate heirs to her hefty estate. Her 25,000 square home alone is valued at more than Rs 100 crores. And lets not even talk about her kilos of gold and diamond jewellery, her over 10,000 silk sarees and 750 pairs of sandals. And this is a small part of the laundry list. Amma, was clearly a hoarder. Well... where is the hoard? Who gets it? Then comes the funeral. Sasikala must have had a super-efficient team working for the dreaded moment well in advance. How else was she able to organise the elaborate casket in record time, complete with intricate engravings?

For how many days/months had Sasikala been anticipating this eventuality? When precisely did Amma really, really die? Will it ever be disclosed? The timing of the announcement was obviously a well-calibrated political strategy. As was the hasty swearing in of the new CM at midnight. The public cannot be kept in the dark these days. And hospital authorities are obliged to reveal hard medical facts about public figures. With the leader gone, Sasikala has now become the de facto CM of the state... the official remote control. Its a role she is familiar with and has been playing for years. Perhaps, she will test the public mood before grabbing the hot seat herself. It is assumed Amma trusted Sasikala and nobody else. People say Jayalalithaa was emotionally controlled by just one individual  Sasikala. But is that a fact? If that was so, Amma would have left everything to her officially  the keys to the state and her personal wealth.

It was Sasikala and her kin who occupied positions of importance on the truck accompanying the gun carriage at the funeral. It is reported that Jayalalithaas only surviving blood relatives were not allowed to meet her at the hospital and all but one (her nephew Dipak Jayakumar did the final rites along with Sasikala) were pushed away during the funeral. Jayalalithaa had been successfully isolated from all but the sycophants. These sort of machinations only take place when there is a hell of a lot at stake for a politicians minders  particularly those without official recognition, position or status. With Jayalalithaa gone, it will be interesting to see how many vultures emerge out of nowhere to challenge Sasikala and claim a piece of the gigantic cake.

Now that the pre-ordered sandalwood casket has been lowered into its rightful spot on Marina Beach, it can be safely concluded a new pilgrimage centre has been created to perpetuate the Amma mythology  never mind the many scandals and charges Jayalalithaa faced during her lifetime. A screen goddess will soon be positioned as a political goddess. Yes, she was bold, fearless and cerebral. Yes, she took on the system, fought ferociously, and gave opponents a hard time. Yes, the women of her state revered her, so did the poor who saw a messiah in their amma .Yes, it must have been very tough for her to survive in that prejudiced, patriarchal environment. But who says a life in politics is easy for anybody?

She was a careful construct of her mentor MGR, who propelled her career in movies and politics, but did not give her the one thing she may have craved  the status of a wife. She was repeatedly humiliated by him and his family. There was hardly a period in her young life when she wasnt exploited. Then came her intense relationship with life companion Sasikala (with more than one bitter falling out in between). These two women became the odd couple, challenging the old guard, battling enemies, encouraging grown men to prostrate themselves at the feet of their Queen. Puratchi Thalaivi gave as good as she got when she was alive. Its a shame she seems to have been outsmarted and manipulated in the end. Perhaps by the only people she ever trusted. Goodbye, Amma. Your children will miss you.
Researchers are using a so-called electrodynamic tether made from thin wires of stainless steel and aluminium. The idea is that one end of the strip will be attached to debris which can damage working equipment -- there are hundreds of collisions every year.

Japan launched a cargo ship Friday bound for the International Space Station, carrying a 'space junk' collector that was made with the help of a fishnet company. The vessel, dubbed "Kounotori" (stork in Japanese), blasted off from the southern island of Tanegashima just before 10:27 pm local time (1327 GMT) attached to an H-IIB rocket.

Scientists at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) are experimenting with a tether to pull junk out of orbit around Earth, clearing up tonnes of space clutter including cast-off equipment from old satellites and pieces of rocket. The launch was successful as "the satellite was removed from the rocket" and put into the planned orbit about 15 minutes after the liftoff, JAXA spokesman Nobuyoshi Fujimoto on Tanegashima told AFP.

More than 50 years of human space exploration since the Soviet-launched Sputnik satellite in 1957 has produced this hazardous belt of orbiting debris. There are estimated to be more than 100 million pieces in orbit, posing a growing threat to future space exploration, scientists say.

Researchers are using a so-called electrodynamic tether made from thin wires of stainless steel and aluminium. The idea is that one end of the strip will be attached to debris which can damage working equipment -- there are hundreds of collisions every year.

The electricity generated by the tether as it swings through the Earth's magnetic field is expected to have a slowing effect on the space junk, which should, scientists say, pull it into a lower and lower orbit.

Eventually the detritus will enter the Earth's atmosphere, burning up harmlessly long before it has a chance to crash to the planet's surface. JAXA worked on the project with Japanese fishnet manufacturer Nitto Seimo to develop the cord, which has been about 10 years in the making.

"The tether uses our fishnet plaiting technology, but it was really tough to intertwine the very thin materials," company engineer Katsuya Suzuki told AFP. "The length of the tether this time is 700 metre (2,300 feet), but eventually it's going to need to be 5,000 to 10,000 metre-long to slow down the targeted space junk," he added.

Previous experiments using a tether have been done in recent years. Another spokesman for the space agency has said it hopes to put the junk collection system into more regular use by the middle of the next decade.

"If we are successful in this trial, the next step will be another test attaching one tip of the tether to a targeted object," he added. The cargo ship launched Friday is also carrying other materials for the ISS including batteries and drinking water for the astronauts living there.

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Apple is planning a major hardware and software overhaul with its iPhone launch next year as the company will be celebrating its 10th anniversary. However, if reports are believed to be true, Samsung might just beat them to it.

The South Korean tech giant is reportedly planning an all-screen display with their next Galaxy S8 handset launch. Samsung Electronics Co. will create an all-screen front for the Galaxy S8 smartphones coming out next year and scrap the physical home button, people with direct knowledge of the matter said, reported Bloomberg. The bezel-less displays will provide more viewing real estate while a virtual home button will be buried in the glass in the lower section, the people said, asking not to be identified because the details havent been released. The new phones will only come with wraparound displays using organic light-emitting diode technology, the people said, the report further added.

At the same time, several rumours regarding Apples speculated move have suggested that next years iPhone could come with a new display technology that allows Apple AAPL 0.98 per cent completely cover the face of the handset with glass. The display will reportedly stretch from one end of the device to the other and will come equipped with a Home Button integrated into the glass.

Samsung is targeting a March release of the S8, that could be delayed until April, the people said. Samsung is adopting tougher testing procedures in the wake of the Note 7 debacle that could push back the launch by about a month, one of the people said, the Bloomberg report added. Since the phones have a record of burning up, it needs time for these phones to be verified as safe. How safe the phones turn out to be is more important than any hardware innovation, said Greg Roh, an analyst at HMC Investment Securities Co. It will take about a month or two for people to actually start opening their pockets, he said. While Samsung is expected to announce its new handset by April, Apple will not be unveiling any new devices before September.

Neither Samsung nor Apple has confirmed their plans for any future handsets.

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Germany's domestic intelligence agency on Thursday reported a striking increase in Russian propaganda and disinformation campaigns aimed at destabilizing German society, and targeted cyber attacks against political parties.

"We see aggressive and increased cyber spying and cyber operations that could potentially endanger German government officials, members of parliament and employees of democratic parties," Hans-Georg Maassen, head of the BfV spy agency, said in statement.

Maassen, who raised similar concerns about Russian efforts to interfere in German elections last month, cited what he called increasing evidence about such efforts and said further cyber attacks were expected.

The agency said it had seen a wide variety of Russian propaganda tools and "enormous use of financial resources" to carry out "disinformation" campaigns aimed at the Russian-speaking community in Germany, political movements, parties and other decision makers.

The goal was to spread uncertainty, strengthen extremist groups and parties, complicate the work of the federal government and "weaken or destabilize the Federal Republic of Germany".

The agency said it had seen a "striking increase" in spear-phishing attacks attributed to Russian hacking group APT 28, also known as "Fancy Bear" or Strontrium. It is the same group blamed for the hack of the U.S. Democratic National Committee this year and a cyber attack on the German parliament in 2015.

The attacks were directed against German parties and lawmakers and were carried out by government bodies posing as "hacktivists", the agency said.

German officials have accused Moscow of trying to manipulate German media to fan popular angst over issues like the migrant crisis, weaken voter trust and breed dissent within the European Union so that it drops sanctions against Moscow.

But intelligence officials have stepped up their warnings in recent weeks, alarmed about the number of attacks.

Last month, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she could not rule out Russia interfering in Germany's 2017 election through Internet attacks and misinformation campaigns.

Estonian Foreign Minister Sven Mikser on Thursday said he expected Russia to continue a campaign of "psychological warfare" and spreading false information after the cyber attacks launched during the U.S. election.

"It's a pretty safe bet that they will try to do it again," he told Reuters in Hamburg at a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. "They will try to surprise us. Thats something that we should be very careful to look at and try to protect ourselves from."

Estonia has acted to shore up its cyber security after attacks that shut down private and government websites in 2007, which Estonia blamed on Russia. The Kremlin denied involvement.

Russian officials have denied all accusations of manipulation and interference intended to weaken the European Union or to affect the U.S. presidential election.

U.S. intelligence officials had warned in the run-up to the Nov. 8 presidential election of efforts to undermine the credibility of the vote that they believed were backed by the Russian government.

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The company has officially announced a new initiative in partnership with Qualcomm this week.

Earlier this week, Microsoft announced their partnership with Qualcomm. Their aim is to bring full 32-bit Win32 compatibility to ARM devices that run Windows 10 by next year. This will allow Microsoft to attain cross-platform compatibility.

According to a report published by Extreme Tech, the companies are planning on launching new devices that will essentially be based on an unspecified Qualcomm hardware by the end of 2017. These devices will be designed in a way that are compatible with both, ARM and 32-bit Win32 applications via emulation. Moreover, x86 applications are also expected to be supported.

Microsoft is calling these systems cellular PCs, the report further added.

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Microsoft will bring ARM architecture to Windows 10 notably for better cellular connectivity.

Microsoft on December 8 announced to bring ARM architecture to Windows 10 through a partnership with Qualcomm notably for better cellular connectivity.

For the first time, customers will be able to experience the Windows they know with the apps, peripherals and enterprise capabilities they require, on a truly mobile, power-efficient, always-connected cellular PC, Microsoft wrote on its blog.

The partnership will allow hardware makers to build a range of new Qualcomm Snapdragon-powered Windows 10 PCs that could run x86 Win32 and universal Windows apps, including Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Office and popular Windows game.

Also, Microsoft is in plans to launch a few Windows 10 update to enable a direct support for the ARM chip processor.

The Qualcomm-powered devices are expected to be in market by next year, Microsoft wrote.

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Technical trade secrets were stolen from the steel production and manufacturing plant design divisions of ThyssenKrupp AG in cyber attacks earlier this year, the German company said on Thursday.

ThyssenKrupp, one of the world's largest steel makers, said it had been targeted by attackers located in southeast Asia engaged in what it said were "organized, highly professional hacker activities".

In breaches discovered by the company's internal security team in April and traced back to February, hackers stole project data from ThyssenKrupp's plant engineering division and from other areas yet to be determined.

"ThyssenKrupp has become the target of a massive cyber attack," the industrial conglomerate said in a statement.

Globally, cyber attacks on banks, retailers and other businesses have led to widespread consumer and financial data losses in recent years. ThyssenKrupp's disclosure followed last week's attack on Deutsche Telekom routers that caused outage for nearly 1 million customers.

While revelations of industrial espionage are far rarer, estimates put the costs to businesses in the billions of dollars. China was frequently blamed for such commercial hacking attacks until the United States and China agreed not to hack each other's businesses.

German business magazine Wirtschafts Woche reported the attacks hit sites in Europe, India, Argentina and the United States run by the Industrial Solutions division, which builds large production plants. The Hagen Hohenlimburg specialty steel mill in western Germany was also targeted, the report added.

The company declined to identify specific locations which were infected or speculate on likely suspects. It said it could not estimate the scale of the intellectual property losses.

BIG BANG COUNTER-ATTACK

ThyssenKrupp said it waited to publicize the attack while it identified, then cleansed infected systems in one concerted, global action before implementing new safeguards to monitor its computer systems. "It is important not to let the intruder know that he has been discovered," a spokesman said.

A criminal complaint was filed with police in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and an investigation is ongoing, it said. State and federal cyber security and data protection authorities were kept informed at each stage, as well as Thyssen's board.

Secured systems operating steel blast furnaces and power plants in Duisburg, in Germany's industrial heartland in the Ruhr Valley, were unaffected, the company said.

No breaches were found at its marine systems unit, which produces military submarines and warships.

A previous cyber attack caused physical damage to an unidentified German steel plant and prevented the mill's blast furnace from shutting down properly.

The country's Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) revealed two years ago that the attack caused "massive damage", but gave no further technical details and the location of the plant has remained shrouded in mystery.

Subsequent media reports identified the target as a ThyssenKrupp facility, but the company has denied it was hit.

The industrial conglomerate, along with Airbus parent EADS, were the targets of major attacks by Chinese hackers in 2012, according to a Der Spiegel report.

The company, a big supplier of steel to Germany's automotive sector and other manufacturers, is looking to form a joint venture of its European steel operations with India's Tata Steel to combat over-capacity in the sector.

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The White House said on Thursday that it raised concerns about China's new cyber security law during a meeting with a Chinese official after the latest round of talks between the two countries on cyber crime.

U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice met with Chinese State Councilor Guo Shengkun to discuss the importance "of fully adhering" to an anti-hacking accord signed last year between the China and the United States, National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said.

The deal, brokered during Chinese President Xi Jinping's state visit to Washington in 2015, included a pledge that neither country would knowingly carry out hacking for commercial advantages.

Rice told Guo that the United States was concerned "about the potential impacts" of a law that China adopted in November aimed at combating hacking and terrorism.

Critics of the law say it threatens to shut foreign technology companies out of various sectors deemed "critical," and includes contentious requirements for security reviews and for data to be stored on servers in China.

Rights advocates also say the law will enhance restrictions on China's Internet, already subject to the world's most sophisticated online censorship mechanism, known outside China as the Great Firewall.

Rice met with Guo after the third round of high level talks on cyber security between China and the United States was held on Wednesday.

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Lawton, Oklahoma: Authorities are investigating after the carcass of a wild hog was dumped in the parking lot of an Islamic center in Oklahoma.

Lawton Police spokesman Sgt. Tim Jenkins says security cameras showed a person dropping the carcass at about 2 am, on Wednesday, at the Islamic Center of Lawton, about 120 kms southwest of Oklahoma City. The Lawton Constitution reports that a police sergeant spotted the bloody carcass Wednesday morning and contacted the city's animal control division, which removed the hog.

The Quran, the holy book of Islam, prohibits Muslims from eating pork, and pigs have been used to taunt or offend Muslims.

Hassan Ahmed, the Director of the center, says he's not particularly concerned about finding the culprit and instead wants to educate the community about Islam.
Carter is scheduled to meet Afghan President Ashraf Ghani later in the day. (Photo: AFP)

Bagram: US Defense Secretary Ash Carter on Friday made an unannounced visit to Afghanistan to consult with military commanders and deliver a pre-holiday pep talk to US troops. It is Carter's last planned trip to Afghanistan before handing off his Pentagon responsibilities to his designated successor, retired Marine Gen James Mattis.

Carter is scheduled to meet later in the day with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. The US has about 10,000 troops in Afghanistan to train and advice Afghan security forces combating a resilient Taliban insurgency. US special operations forces are hunting down al-Qaida and Islamic State militants.

Carter's visit comes amid concerns that despite improvements in Afghan government defences, Taliban forces are gaining leverage and are continuing to use neighbouring Pakistan as a sanctuary.

By US estimates, the Afghan government controls slightly less than two-thirds of the country's population. The Taliban holds sway over about 10 per cent, and the remainder of the population is "contested."

US commanders have praised Afghan soldiers for taking the lead in battles against the less well equipped Taliban, but they have been suffering heavy casualties across the country.

Prior to Carter's arrival, his press secretary, Peter Cook, said Carter wants to get a full rundown on operations. "In his meetings with senior Afghan officials, the secretary will discuss the growing capabilities and resilience demonstrated by Afghan security forces in recent months," Cook said. "He will also discuss ongoing efforts to continue building Afghan combat capacity including aviation."

President Barack Obama had planned to reduce US troop numbers to about 1,000 by the time he left office in January, but he scrapped that approach in the face of Taliban gains. The US military has been in Afghanistan since it led an invasion force in October 2001 to overthrow the Taliban regime.

The US has suffered more than 2,200 deaths in Afghanistan, including more than 1,800 killed in action, since the war began.

President-elect Donald Trump has not said how he will approach the Afghanistan problem but has denounced what he calls US nation-building projects.
The Nobel peace prize winner has faced growing international criticism for not stopping the military's campaign. (Photo: AP)

Yangon: The UN has urged Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi to visit northern Rakhine state, where the army is accused of carrying out a brutal crackdown on the Muslim Rohingya minority.

The Nobel peace prize winner has faced growing international criticism for not stopping the military's campaign, which has pushed more than 20,000 Rohingya over the border to Bangladesh, bringing tales of mass rape, murder and arson.

The crackdown was launched in response to deadly raids on police posts in October.

Malaysia has accused the army of "genocide" - charges Myanmar officials have vehemently denied.

Suu Kyi has described the situation as "under control" and asked the international community to stop stoking the "fires of resentment".

In a statement released in New York on Thursday, UN special adviser on Myanmar, Vijay Nambiar appealed directly to the peace icon to intervene.

"The adoption of a generally defensive rather than proactive approach to providing security to the local population, have caused frustration locally and disappointment internationally," he said.

"I also appeal to Daw Suu to visit Maungdaw and Buthidaung and reassure the civilian population there that they will be protected," he added, referring to the locked down area in Rakhine.

The bloodshed presents the biggest challenge to Suu Kyi since her party won Myanmar's first democratic elections in a generation last year.

It has galvanised Muslim nations around the region, with protesters decrying the latest crackdown as the culmination of years discrimination and abuse suffered by the stateless Rohingya.

On Sunday Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak taunted Suu Kyi, who the former junta kept under house arrest for almost 20 years, before a crowd of some 5,000 protesters in Kuala Lumpur.

"What's the use of Aung San Suu Kyi having a Nobel prize?" he asked the protesters. "The world cannot sit and watch genocide taking place."

Activists say Buddhist-majority Myanmar's stateless Muslim Rohingya minority are among the most persecuted in the world.

More than 120,000 have been trapped in squalid displacement camps since the last major outbreak of violence erupted in Rakhine in 2012.
Sydney: A mentally imbalanced methamphetamine addict, Christopher Coombs, 40, sexually assaulted and bashed in the skull of a 77-year-old woman with a hammer, and it is likely that he would be out of prison in less than 10 years.

Coombs broke in to her house around 3:30 am, on July 6, 2015, through the door that was kept ajar for the lady's cat. He knew the victim through a single conversation that they had eight months prior to the incident.

Initially, he had tried to rape her, but when she resisted he performed sexually depraved acts on her. Afterwards, he put a tie around her neck, forced her on the floor and repeatedly bashed her head in with a hammer. She was found in a pool of blood, with severe damages to her face and skull, by her neighbours.

Coombs was sentenced to jail for 14 years for unrelated assault and larceny. However, he would be eligible for parole in nine years and 4 months, for an attack which left the lady hoping she was dead.

Speaking to a local newspaper, Illawarra Mercury, the lady's son said,"She's going to be in and out of hospital for the rest of her life. She has said, 'It probably would have been better if I'd died.'"

He also said that her survival is in fact a miracle, while he stood outside the Parramatta District Court on Thursday.

The attack on his mother will have devastating effect on her life and he said, the sentence given to Coombs was barely enough.

"She was a lovely lady and now she's a shell. I'll put a tea cup down and she'll jump. She's been robbed of her life," he said.

The sentence was passed keeping in mind the intent which was to rehabilitate the convict and not destroy any chances of the same with a harsher term, Judge Penelope Wass remarked.

Coombs' psychological analysis reveals the history of his drug use, depression, narcissistic personality and bi-polar disorder.

The court was informed that Coombs was off his medicine and too inebriated at the time, to remember the attack.

Pleading guilty to the charges brought against him, Coombs managed to reduce 25% of his sentence, convincing the judge of his contrition and that, he still has a chance in rehabilitation. The Judge also accepted that after his own skull was broken in 2009, Coombs developed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) which prompted him to carry the hammer for protection against "real and imagined enemies".

"How can [the court] accept [Coombs] carried a hammer to protect himself? How can that be OK? It's not as if it's a random attack. He knew there was a vulnerable old lady in there," the victim's son said.

Christopher Coombs was initially charged with attempted murder, but the charges were dropped in plea bargain.
The victim, Melody Moon from Yeovil, Somerset, had parted ways from her partner Jamie Mitchell as he had become violent and possessive. (Photo: YouTube Screengrab)

Yeovil, Somerset: A man was arrested for luring his ex-partner to his house in England and violently attacking her as revenge after she broke up with him, police have said.

According to a report in the Daily Mail, the victim, Melody Moon from Yeovil, Somerset, had parted ways from her partner Jamie Mitchell as he had become violent and possessive.

Unable to digest the fact that Moon had left him, Jamie flew in to a fit of rage and devised a plan to harm her, said the report. He therefore persuaded her to visit his house under the pretext of sorting out the differences between them.

However, when Moon reached Jamies place, he wrapped his hands around her throat and punched her.

Dragging Moon by her hair, Jamie said to her, You're going to die. He also told her that he was going to bite her face so that no man would ever look at her.

As his face came towards mine I realised in disbelief he was sinking his teeth into my skin, biting my cheek, lips and ears, Moon was quoted as saying.

The victim was left with a fractured eye socket, broken cheekbone and nose with deep cuts all over her body.

Jamie had torn into my face 21 times. It felt like he'd tried to eat me alive. When I saw my reflection I didn't recognise myself either. I thought Jamie was right, no one will ever look at me again. I looked like a monster, she said recalling the horrific ordeal.

Jamie was arrested after a neighbour heard the victims screams and informed the police. He was slapped with a two-year suspended sentence and was banned from making any contact with Moon. He was also made to attend building better relationships' training programme.

Moon was left with mental as well as physical scars and was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. She is being treated for anxiety.
Slain Al Qaeda chief Bin Laden's half-sister, Sana Mohammed Bin Laden, her mother, Raja Bashir Hashim, and his brother-in-law, Zuhair Hashim, were killed, along with pilot Mazen Al-Aqeel Da'jah Salem.(Photo: PTI)

London: A Jordanian pilot may have been suffering from "mental overload" when he crash-landed a plane in the UK, killing three members of Osama Bin Laden's family and himself, an inquiry has found.

The jet overshot the runway at Blackbushe Airport in Hampshire on July 31, 2015 and crashed into a car auction site.

The Air Accidents Investigations Branch (AAIB) said emergency warnings prior to landing may have "saturated the pilot's mental capacity".

The 57-year-old pilot and three passengers survived the crash but died in a severe fire.

Slain Al Qaeda chief Bin Laden's half-sister, Sana Mohammed Bin Laden, her mother, Raja Bashir Hashim, and his brother-in-law, Zuhair Hashim, were killed, along with pilot Mazen Al-Aqeel Da'jah Salem.

The AAIB report said the private Saudi-registered Phenom 300 jet, travelling from Milan, Italy, landed at high speed and touched down with only 438m of runway remaining.

It collided with an earth bank before crashing into a British Car Auctions site, losing one of its wings and bursting into flames among parked cars.

The AAIB said the three passengers appeared to have made an unsuccessful attempt to open the cabin door, the BBC reported.

The report said the pilot may have become "fixated on landing" because of "a very high workload situation" in the final minutes of the flight.

He made an emergency climb to avoid colliding with a microlight, and then came close to a second light aircraft. The jet then began "a very high-speed descent", dropping at up to 3,000ft per minute.

The pilot ignored six "pull up" warnings from the aircraft's Terrain Avoidance and Warning System (TAWS), touching down at a speed of about 135 knots (155mph).

The AAIB said the 66 messages and alarms in the final three-and-a-half minutes of the flight may have created "audio overload" and "mental stressors".

"It is possible that in these circumstances the pilot... fixated on his initial strategy (landing) and lacked the mental capacity to recognise that the approach had become unstable," the report said.

Following the crash, the jet's operators have installed co-pilots on all Phenom 300 flights.
Campaigners have called on Europes largest online social networking service, Vkontakte, based out in St Petersburg to ban such forums which are used as a medium to discuss ideas related to sleep rape. (Photo: AFP)

St Petersburg: Expressing outrage over online communities where men exchange tips on how to drug their wives and girlfriends and make them available for sex while being unconscious, women in Russia have called for a ban on sleep rape.

According to a report in the Daily Mail, campaigners have called on Europes largest online social networking service, Vkontakte, based out in St Petersburg to ban such forums which are used as a medium to discuss ideas related to sleep rape.

Sleep rape or sexsomnia is a condition in which a person engages in a sexual act while asleep. In some cases, sexsomnia is considered as a part of sexual assault  amounting to rape.

There are online communities in VK where men are discussing the best medication to give their wives and girlfriends so they can have sex with them while they are asleep in such a way that they don't feel it, and can't remember anything afterwards - without their consent, said the report.

A report prepared by the campaigners gave details about one such group with more than 2,000 members. One of the members had posted a message saying that he had spiked his partners tea and she lost consciousness in 40 minutes.

Another one posted a message asking for most effective tips on sleeping pills so that his partner doesn't feel anything during sex.

People calling for a ban on such forums have been repeatedly told by the VK network that such blanket bans are inappropriate as the do not spread hatred or violence.

Vkontakte has around 370 million accounts and is one of the largest social networking websites in Europe.
Stockbridge, Edinburgh: An eight-year-old girl was brutally stabbed in the Scottish capital city by a 48-year-old woman after mistaking her to be possessed by Jesus.

A report by the The Scottish Sun stated that the victim was in a critical condition after being knifed in the heart at a USD 1 million home in Stockbridge, Edinburgh.

Immediately after the attack, the victim was rushed to the Royal Hospital for Sick Children where she is being treated upon and is being supported by her family and relatives.

Police said that the victim was fast asleep when the incident took place. The relationship between the minor girl and her attacker is unknown. However, according to some of the witness accounts, it was established that the woman mistook the girl to be possessed and attacker her.

Its really touch and go. This was an awful incident. Its claimed the woman thought the girl was possessed by Jesus. There was lots of blood in the house as the woman also suffered some injuries, the report stated.

I dont know whats happened there but it must be very serious, the police and forensic team have been there all day and night. I know the house was sold recently and Ive seen a woman coming and going from the place but I dont know who she is, a neighbour was quoted as saying.

Some of the neighbours of the woman said that she had recently moved in and that they did not know much about her. Another local said that they had seen the woman and the victim walking a dog.

The woman had also sustained some injuries during the attack and was taken to the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary for treatment.
The attack left the MP feeling "spoiled and impure", MP Michelle Thomson told the House. (Photo: Twitter)

London: A British lawmaker on Thursday recounted during a parliamentary debate on violence against women how she had been raped as a 14-year-old.

Scottish National Party MP Michelle Thomson told colleagues she was attacked by an acquaintance following a youth event, as the House of Commons marked the UN International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

"It was early evening. He told me he wanted to show me something in a wooded area and at that point, I must admit, I was alarmed," recalled the SNP member.

"I did have a warning bell -- but I overrode that warning bell because I knew him and therefore there was a level of trust in place.

"It was mercifully quick and I remember first of all feeling surprise, then fear, then horror as I realised I quite simply couldn't escape," she added.

Too afraid to tell her parents, the attack left the MP feeling "spoiled and impure", she told the House.

However, 37-years on, Thomson said she now saw herself as "a survivor" and "not a victim".

Holding back tears, parliament speaker John Bercow said her words had "left an indelible impression on us all" as Thomson was comforted by fellow MPs.

Rape Crisis Scotland national co-ordinator Sandy Brindley praised the MP for "sending a strong message".
Islamabad: The differences over formation of a probe commission took centre stage at a hearing into the 'Panamagate' case in the Supreme Court on Friday with Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf saying it will boycott such a panel and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's family agreeing to it.

The Supreme Court adjourned the hearing in the case till first week of January as differences over formation of a probe commission dominated the procedings.

A five-judge larger bench is hearing the Panamagate case after Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and four other petitioners approached the apex court, alleging that ill-gotten money was used by Sharif's family to buy flats in London, which were run through offshore companies as shown in Panama papers leak.

The court sought opinion about setting up an independent commission as it said that the evidence presented by the parties was not enough to decide the case.

But PTI counsel Naeem Bokhari announced the party's decision to boycott a commission to probe the Panamagate scam. However, Sharif's lawyer Salman Aslam and his children's counsel Akram Sheikh told the court their clients would accept the decision to set up a commission.

Meanwhile, Awami Muslim League (AML) leader Sheikh Rashid, presenting his own stance in the absence of a lawyer, asked the court to give a decision instead of waiting for winter break or setting up a commission.

After these arguments, the court adjourned the case till first week of January as Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali said that the two-week court vacations will start from December 15.

Significantly, chief justice Jamali would retire on December 30 and the current bench would become dysfunctional.

According to the court, a new bench would be formed headed by the new chief justice Mian Saqib Nisar, who will take oath on December 31, and the case will be heard from the beginning before the new bench.
In a significant move, the US Congress has said that USD 400 million in aid to Pakistan cannot be released unless the defence secretary certifies that Islamabad is "taking demonstrable" steps against the Haqqani network, which is accused of targeting American interests.



Passed by the Senate by 92 to 7 votes yesterday, the 2017 National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA) in facts imposes four conditions on Pakistan to be eligible for USD 400 million of the USD 900 million of the Coalition Support Fund (CSF).



Passed by the US House of Representatives (by 375 to 34 votes) last week, NDAA 2017 now heads to the White House for President Barack Obama to sign it into law.



As per NDAA2017, the defence secretary needs to certify to the Congress that Pakistan continues to conduct military operations that are contributing to significantly disrupting the safe haven and freedom of movement of the Haqqani network in Pakistan and that Pakistan has taken steps to demonstrate its commitment to prevent the group from using its territory.



The defence secretary also needs to certify that Pakistan actively coordinates with Afghanistan to restrict the movement of militants, such as the Haqqani network, along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border; and finally that Pakistan has shown progress in arresting and prosecuting Haqqani network senior leaders and mid-level operatives.



US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter had refused to give a similar certification to Pakistan this year as a result of which Islamabad was not given a USD 300 million under CSF.



The Haqqani network has carried out a number of kidnappings and attacks against US interests in Afghanistan. The group is also blamed for several deadly attacks against Indian interests in Afghanistan, including the 2008 bombing of the Indian mission in Kabul that killed 58 people.



NDAA-2017 "refocuses security assistance to Pakistan on activities that directly support US national security interests and conditions a significant portion of funding on a certification from the secretary of defence that Pakistan is taking demonstrable steps against the Haqqani Network in Pakistani territory," said Senator John McCain, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.



NDAA allows for reimbursement of Pakistan for security activities along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, including providing training and equipment for the Pakistan Frontier Corps in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.



However, members of the Conference Committee expressed concern that Pakistan continues to delay or deny visas for US personnel that could assist with the provision of such training. Given this situation, the report recommends the Pentagon to condition reimbursements for training and equipment with appropriate access by US personnel.



It also expressed concern about the persecution of groups seeking political or religious freedom in Pakistan, including the Balochi, Sindhi and Hazara ethnic groups, as well as religious groups, including Christian, Hindu and Ahmadiyyas.



It said the defense secretary should continue to closely monitor the provision of its security assistance to Pakistan and ensure that it is not using its military or any assistance provided by the US to persecute minority groups.
Underlining that both India and the US stand to benefit greatly from deeper engagement, a group of three eminent experts from a top American think-tank have called on the incoming Donald Trump administration to establish an early connection with a "rising" India.



"Establishing an early connection with a rising, and like-minded, India could be an early win for the Trump administration," wrote three experts from Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) -- Kathleen H Hicks, D C Richard M Rossow and John Schaus.



"It will take regular efforts from senior-level officials across government departments and agencies to bring India and the United States closer together. As Secretary Carter's trip to India highlights, both countries stand to benefit greatly from deeper engagement," the op-ed said.



The India-US defence relationship, built over multiple administrations in both Washington and Delhi, has started to blossom in the past three years, it said.



"As President-elect Donald Trump and his national security team identify key priorities for his administration, continuing to strengthen US-India ties should be near the top of their agenda," CSIS experts said.



The CSIS observed that early outreach by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the United States signaled to both Washington and his own bureaucracy that he was serious about engagement.



"Similarly, President-elect Trump could send an important early signal of his intent to cooperate closely with India by arranging a meeting with Prime Minister Modi in the first 100 days President Trump is in office," it said.



Asserting that there are a wide range of issues to address, CSIS experts said the change in personnel that comes with a new American administration, combined with typical turnover within India's government, could lead both countries to "forget" the patterns of engagement and cooperation that have been so fruitful over the past two years. In greater South Asia, it said the US increasingly sees India as a partner for solving enduring challenges.



This is not to say that US' relations with Pakistan or Afghanistan will neatly align with Indian positions or that the two countries will agree on every action, it noted.



"However, the strategic challenges facing both nations are drawing them closer as they seek ways to reach common objectives. Communication on shared interests and capabilities in South Asia is critical to ensure that the United States and India cooperate instead of compete in the region," the CSIS said.



It said the benefits to the US of stronger ties with India are growing with each new avenue of cooperation. "Over the past three years, thanks largely to the joint efforts of Secretary Carter and Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, the two countries have advanced cooperation on issues ranging from military exercises to defence trade," the op-ed said.



"US defence firms have sold over USD 10 billion in defence equipment to India in the last decade, making India one of our largest defence markets. These acquisitions in turn, benefit India by giving its armed forces a significant capability boost while simultaneously increasing interoperability with the United States and other regional partners," it added.



Underscoring the importance of developing new ways to work with India, Secretary Carter created new mechanisms within the Pentagon to directly support the accelerated implementation of US-India cooperation -- the 'India Rapid Reaction Cell' and the 'Defense Technology and Trade Initiative', the experts noted.



These initiatives have played a critical role in breaking through traditional bureaucratic roadblocks, enabling the two countries to sign an important agreement on logistics cooperation, and they have demonstrated to the Indian government that the United States is truly committed to India as a partner worthy of priority treatment.



"The Trump administration should commit to continuing and possibly expanding these programmes. It could create further momentum by making an early push for additional meetings of the Joint Working Group on Aircraft Carrier Technology Cooperation," the CSIS experts said.


Freedom fighter H S Doreswamy has said that demonetisation is a good move to root out black money but similar efforts should be sustained at regular intervals for the desired results.



Addressing the gathering at the inaugural convention of Karnataka State Sarvodaya Samaj, organised by Karnataka Sarvodaya Mandal and District Sarvodaya Mitra Mandala, here on Friday, he said, poor had continued to remain poor while the rich seemed unaffected. He said it is every citizens responsibility to eradicate poverty, and industrialists should provide details of transactions so as to maintain transparency.



He said most industrialists like Ambani brothers, Gautam Adani and Tatas are making profits and the marginalised sections of the society and farmers are suffering a lot. He urged the government to eradicate poverty by monitoring transaction details of business tycoons.



Doreswamy said, while the salary of peoples representatives had crossed lakhs, most politicians are concerned only about their personal growth. He said a move like demonetisation would not be able to cleanse the present system as even elections are based on money and only those with a strong financial backing get elected.



Doreswamy lauded the efforts of members of Sarvodaya Mandala for working towards the welfare of people since Independence. He said members had earlier opposed the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and G-7 agreement but in recent years, there had been a decline in the number of members. He said there was a need to strengthen the mandala for the welfare of the society.



Mandala president Surendra Koulagi said economic status and social development had created an attitudinal shift between the people in the society and it is necessary to establish values in the nation to maintain equality.


Biology should be integrated with technical courses to enhance the career prospects of students, said Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) Vice Chancellor Karisiddappa. Karisiddappa was addressing a gathering during the inaugural ceremony of an international conference on Electrical, Electronics, Communication, Computer and Optimisation Techniques (ICEECCOT-2016) organised by GSSS Institute of Engineering and Technology for Women (GSSSIETW) here on Friday.



The VC said, Knowledge of biology is vital for students to take up research work and it would be helpful if the subject is integrated with technical courses. Karisiddappa said the conference is relevant for researchers working on projects related to development of the country. All branches in engineering are inter-related and researchers should familiarise themselves with technology to build their career and also contribute towards the nation, he said.



Karisiddappa said, educational institutions should produce industry-ready professionals. He said VTU would extend support to institutions for organising seminars and conferences which can help boost talent and knowledge among students.



In his inaugural address, Krishnaraj Madhavjee Sunjiv Soyjaudh, professor of Communication Engineering, University of Mauritius, Reduit, Republic of Mauritius, said conferences and seminars are helpful to researchers in building their technical growth at the industry level. Upgrading technology in reputed universities across India is the need of the hour. Adoption of learning methods of the University of Mauritius by Indian institutions would help in creating more talented professionals, he said.



The conference aims at offering a podium to scientists and engineers from different backgrounds to present and discuss their latest research ideas, results, potential applications and possible road ahead broadly in the areas of electronics, communication, electrical engineering and interdisciplinary areas of control engineering, robotics, internet, network security and cloud technologies.



B S Bindhumadhava of IEEE, Bengaluru, Sreenivas Gupta, vice president, GSSSIETW, O Prathap Kumar, joint secretary, Vanaja B Pandit, secretary, R K Bharath, CEO, GSSSIETW, M A Chandrashekar and principal K A Sumithra Devi were also present.


Karnataka Sahitya Academy chairperson Malati Pattanashetti said Kannada language will be richer that if Tulu, Kodava, Arebhashe and Beary languages are developed. At an interaction Bhasha Bandhavya held as a part of Samskritika Samarasya meet held at Field Marshal Cariappa College Ground in the city on Thursday, she said all languages are treasure houses of knowledge and experience. The versatility of the regional languages must be preserved. This can be made possible if Kannada and other regional languages are kept alive. The linguistic academies Konkani, Tulu, Beary, Arebhashe and Kodava should work for this purpose, she said.



Kanaka Studies and Research Centre coordination officer Ka Ta Chikkanna said that only those who can experience the beauty of languages can have command over languages. The cultural aspects are involved in every language, he said.



According to the information provided by Unesco, there are 7,900 languages in the world. There are 3,852 languages in India and 440 of them have script. More than 3,000 languages do not have their own scripts. As much as 190 languages are in the verge of extinction and 79 are endangered. Koraga language of Karnataka is one among them, he said.



Sudha weekly magazine assistant editor B M Hanif said Beary, Kodava, Konkani and Arebhashe languages are used by the general public. There is no hard and fast rules regarding the grammar. Beary language has a history of 1,400 years. This shows that a language can exist even without a script. There may be around 15 lakh people who speak the language, he said.



Work on Beary-Kannada-English dictionary by the Beary Sahitya Academy is in progress. 20% of the words in the dictionary are pure Beary words. The language has an intellectual background. Konkani, Kodava and Beary languages have contributed to the development of Kannada language, he said.



Journalist Aitichanda Ramesh Uttappa said Kodava language is on the verge of extinction. The language represents a culture. Due to various reasons, the number of people who speak Kodava language has decreased.



According to the 2001 census, only 1.66 lakh people speak Kodava language. This shows that if the primary education is not carried out in mother tongue, it may prove to be detrimental for the existence of the very language, he said.


The process of installing solar lamps at all houses of Amasebailu Gram Panchayat is nearing completion and with this, Amasebailu Gram Panchayat is all set to become the first Solar Gram Panchayat in Udupi district.



Amasebailu Charitable Trust President A G Kodgi told reporters that Amasebailu has two villages, Rattadi and Machattu, with 1,872 houses. The trust had chalked out programmes to instal solar lamps at all households in 2012 itself. But owing to various reasons, the project was delayed. The installation of solar lamps was started in May this year and India Pvt. Ltd was entrusted with the responsibility of installing lamps. According to the conditions agreed upon in the tender, the company gave a five-year guarantee for solar lamps with a half-yearly maintenance and a provision to replace faulty lamps.



In the first phase, 397 houses were illuminated and 548 houses were covered in the second phase. The third phase of lighting 73 houses is currently under way. The estimated cost of the project is Rs 2.13 crore and about 20% of the cost has been shared by Karnataka Renewable Energy Development Ltd, 30% by the ministry of energy and Rs 25 lakh from district administration.



Amasebailu PDO Bhaskar Shetty said some families have already installed solar lamps before the commencement of the project. About 20 streetlights light up with solar power, Shetty said.



There are 30 temples and a mosque in the Gram Panchayat jurisdiction and efforts are on to promote solar lamps in places of worship as well, he said. Vishwesha Theertha Swami of Paryaya Pejawar Mutt has agreed to sponsor the installation of solar lamps in these places of worship, Kodgi said.



The cost for installing two solar lamps was Rs 9,900, while it was Rs 16,000 for four lamps. The beneficiaries had to pay Rs 3,000 for two lamps, while it cost Rs 6,000 for four solar lamps.



In the case of Koraga community beneficiaries, the Gram Panchayat has borne the amount of Rs 3,000 per beneficiary while in the case of other Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes beneficiaries, it had spent Rs 2,000 per beneficiary for installation of lamps, he said.



With the accomplishment of the project the efforts of the district administration, Gram Panchayat, Amasebailu Charitable Trust, Karnataka Bank and Sri Kshetra Dharmasthala Rural Development Project have borne fruit, he said.


Additional Chief Secretary to Government of Karnataka (Higher Education) Bharat Lal Meena said the state government has entered into an agreement through which sharing of human resources is enabled among private universities, government colleges and grant-in-aid colleges in the State.



He said the teachers from grant-in-aid, government, private colleges and universities can upload the videos of their lecture to the server of the Higher Education Department to be shared among those who would like to learn from it. Some well-known private universities and colleges have already uploaded their teaching methodology and lectures on the web portal, he said while speaking at a conference on Issues and Concerns of Affiliated Colleges organised by the College Development Council of Mangalore University here on Friday.



Answering to an attendance in the classroom needs to be replaced with the new e-attendance software by the teachers, he said. It will allow teachers to mark attendance on smart devices, such as smartphones and the same data getting registered in the server as well. This will also prevent tampering of the attendance, he felt.



Bharat Lal Meena said the government has introduced e-feedback system, a part of Gnana Sangama, the governments ambitious initiative to adopt technology in higher education. The e-feedback system is linked to the attendance and timetable of a student. The feedback will be uploaded to the server and college principals can monitor the feedback and the feedback would also help the teachers to improve their teaching skills, he said.



Information and communication technology (ICT) initiatives have been introduced to facilitate ease of academic reach for students in colleges and universities, he said. At present, the ICT implementation has become a top-down approach. The use of ICT should penetrate down to all the colleges in rural areas as well. The teachers should make use of the ICT tools, thereby improve the quality of education, he said.

Calling upon teachers to prepare the new generations to face future, he said colleges and universities are temples of learning. Students are the biggest stakeholders of education system. The perception of teachers on government colleges should change, he said.



Stressing the need for accreditation of colleges, he said educational institutions that are not accreditated should make an effort to achieve it. Hardly a few colleges and universities have a record of their alumni. The alumni can be a source of funding for the colleges and universities. The colleges that come under Mangalore University jurisdiction can serve as a skill hub of the world, he said.



UGC Additional Secretary Dr P Prakash said affiliated colleges should strive to impart quality education to students. Though education sector requires 6% of the GDP, only 3.8% has been earmarked for education and in this, only 1.4 % comes to higher education, he said.



There is a need to address the issue of permanent affiliation and accreditation for colleges. The UGC has introduced e-PG Pathshala, an ambitious project to make available high quality e-content for students of post graduate courses, he said.



Presiding over the programme, Mangalore University Vice Chancellor K Byrappa said the full lecture of teachers in the university would be recorded and uploaded on its web portal. The college teachers should make use of the state-of-the art laboratories in the university and write research proposals to funding agencies of the government to get grant for research activities. The teachers should bring in inclusiveness in higher education, he said.


Police have arrested two men who acted as surety for criminal suspects by forging property documents, a senior officer said. The third suspect remains at large. C Manjunath Gowda, 27, was deep in debt and was looking to make a quick buck. His two friends  Krishnappa, 48, and Puttaswamy  suggested that he stand surety for habitual offenders and help them get bail. They will pay him in return.



In December 2014, Manjunath created fake documents of a property owned by his brother C Rame Gowda in survey number 175/2 in Robertsonpet, Kolar district. He forged his brothers signature and affixed his own photograph on the document. He submitted the document to the 8th ACCM court in Bengaluru, acting as surety for an accused named Seena alias Kariya Seena. The court released him on bail, the officer added.



Seena, after getting bail, failed to attend a hearing. Police went looking for him but he was elusive. On December 1, 2016, police approached Rame Gowda and asked him to appear before court as Seena was absconding. Rame Gowda was stunned to learn that his property document had been provided as a surety. Police took him to court where he was asked to pay fine and help trace Seena, the officer said.



Rame Gowda then learnt what his brother was up to. He approached the court and said it was his brother who impersonated him. He also submitted documents to show the reality of Manjunath.



The assistant registrar of the city civil and sessions court filed a case against Manjunath at Chandra Layout police station. Police then arrested him and he spilled the beans. Manjunath said that he, along with Krishnappa and Puttaswamy, had created several fake documents under different names and acted as surety for many accused in exchange for money, another senior police officer said. The Chandra Layout police said they had also arrested Krishnappa but Puttaswamy was absconding.


The BBMP has begun to crack down on commercial activities in residential buildings but has done no survey to identify the number of such violations. On the other hand, three other government agencies Bescom, Commercial Taxes and the Labour Department have done surveys and are armed with more reliable data than the BBMP.



The BBMPs database shows the presence of around 50,000 shops and commercial establishments in the city. The Palike arrived at this number based on the number of shopkeepers and commercial establishments that have a trade licence. But there are said to be many which are being run illegally. There are many shops. But only 50,000 commercial establishments have obtained licences, said a Palike officer.



A senior Bescom officer said the number of licences obtained for commercial activities under low tension-3 (LT3) category in the BBMP limits is 5.6 lakh whereas the number of LT3 connection across Bescom limits is 8.47 lakh. The labour department too had done a survey, which shows the existence of 3.12 lakh shops and commercial establishments in Bengaluru.



The Commercial Taxes Department shows that 5.72 lakh traders have enrolled under Karnataka VAT, of which, a majority are in Bengaluru. Despite ailing financially, the BBMP has not been serious about collecting trade licence fees, which could have been a major source of revenue.



The Palike had repeatedly warned traders and building owners to obtain trade licence or face action, but to no avail. Not only did existing shops thrive, new shops in residential buildings came up in gross violation of the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act and the Town and Country Planning Act.



A Palike engineer, who handled the vigilance department, said the main reason why there is no data on illegal shops and no action is taken against them, is that those in the BBMP administration are highly compromised.



Such shops are a regular source of income for ward engineers, health inspectors, police and other people. Due to these reasons, we could never prepare a database, let alone take action against them, said the engineer.


L Bheema Naik, special land acquisition officer (Bengaluru), prime accused in the suicide of his car driver K C Ramesh Gowda is at large.





The police have formed three teams to nab Naik, a KAS officer and his private driver Mohammed, who is also an accused in the case. The police have served notices to Naik. Notices have been sent to his office and house. The police have submitted an application in the Judicial Magistrate of First Class court, seeking permission to inspect Naiks office and house.



Meanwhile, Naik and Mohammed have approached the District Principal and Sessions Court here, seeking anticipatory bail. The application moved by Naiks counsel is likely to come up for hearing next week.



A police officer said that they have interrogated Shashi and Suresh, friends of Ramesh Gowda. They have told the investigators that Naik had assaulted them once in the past. The police also verified the bank accounts of Ramesh Gowda and found no big transaction.






Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has shot off an angry letter to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who charged that the Indian Army might attempt a coup in the eastern state to dethrone her government. Parrikar said he was deeply pained by the charge, which can adversely affect the morale of the armed forces.



While politicians may have the luxury of making wild and unsubstantiated allegation against each other, one needs to be careful while referring to the armed forces. It was not expected from a person of your standing and experience in public life, he wrote. Parrikars communication follows Mamatas accusations against the army earlier this month after seeing armymen in several toll plazas across the state.



While the Army Eastern Command in Kolkata clarified that it was a routine data collection drill being carried out in knowledge of the authorities, Mamata had a different theory.



The army is deployed without informing the state government. This is unprecedented and a very serious matter. Is this a military coup? I will stay at the secretariat to guard our democracy, she said and stayed at the secretariat for the night. A day later, the defence minister denied the charges in the Lok Sabha.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday promised Chief Minister Siddaramaiah that the Centre will take a decision soon on releasing funds to state to take up relief works in drought and flood hit areas.





Siddaramaiah, who met Singh here, told reporters that the Union Minister has promised to release the fund at the earliest.



The chief minister, who sought over Rs 5,000 crore to the state for taking up drought and flood relief, explained to Singh the impact of the natural calamities on agriculture. He said the state had already submitted a memorandum seeking a Central aid of Rs 4,702 crore for drought-hit farmers in the 2016 kharif season and Rs 386 crore to take up relief works in flood-hit areas.



A Central team, which visited the state last month to assess the situation, has already submitted its report. Based on the report, the Agriculture Ministry has prepared a note.



In a separate meeting with Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh, the chief minister urged him to announce a bonus of Rs 700 per quintal over and above the support price for the millets to promote their cultivation.



The Central government has already declared the minimum support price (MSP) for ragi at Rs 1,725/quintal, jowar hybrid at Rs 1,625/quintal and jowar Maldani at Rs 1,650/quintal for the 2016-17 crop year (July-June).



We strongly urge an enhancement of MSP for ragi and jowar for this season. Since MSP has already been announced, at this stage declaration of bonus can be considered as an option, Siddaramaiah said.



In a representation made to the Agriculture Ministry, Siddaramaiah said that the state wants to promote production of these two nutri-cereals, which are climate smart crops and can be grown in rainfed and drought-prone areas.



State to file review plea on Cauvery



Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday said that the state government will file a review petition before the Supreme Court seeking a modification of its order that Karnataka continue to release 2,000 cusecs of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu every day. Legal experts will be consulted in this regard, he said. Siddaramaiah, however, welcomed the Supreme Court decision that it had Constitutional powers to hear the appeals filed by Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala against the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal final award.
The Jammu and Kashmir Police on Friday said that the DNA samples of the two militants, killed in a gunfight in Anantnag district, have been collected for identification.



An encounter had raged at Hussanpora village, which lies close to Chief Minister Mehbooba Muftis ancestral Bijbehara town on Wednesday evening and amid heavy firing, it continued till Friday.



Earlier, police sources had claimed that three militants, all locals, were killed but none of their bodies were recovered. The armys Northern Command on Friday tweeted, Three holed up terrorists eliminated; bodies of two terrorists & three weapons recovered.



One army personnel was injured in the gunfight. As the encounter was on, clashes between security forces and stone pelting protesters had erupted on Thursday in which one civilian was killed.
Describing demonetisation as the biggest scam, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Friday said his speech in the Lok Sabha  if allowed to speak  could cause an earthquake. I will make such revelations that Modiji will not be able to sit (and listen). If they allow me to speak in Parliament, then you will see what an earthquake it will be, he said. Rahul said he was ready with his speech and that the government had assured the Opposition that the Lok Sabha would take up the debate on Friday.



The government had said they would allow us to make speeches. I want to speak, but the government is running away from a debate, Rahul said soon after the Lok Sabha was adjourned due to Opposition disruption. He charged that demonetisation was the biggest scam in the history of independent India.



He accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of shying away from a debate on the issue that has affected farmers, daily wagers, working class and small businesses across the country. I want to express the view of the common public in the House and want to unravel the scam done by Narendra Modi. I will expose the real reason behind demonetisation, but I have been stopped, Rahul said.



A united Opposition has been protesting the implementation of the demonetisation decision since the Winter Session began on November 16. It had first insisted on an adjournment motion on the issue and took a step back by agreeing to a debate under Rule 184, which is considered to be a milder rap on the knuckles.



Speaking about the on-going protests in both the Houses of Parliament, he said it was the responsibility of the government to run the House. We want a vote (following debate) because people from the BJP will vote for us on demonetisation, Rahul said.
Former chief of air staff S P Tyagi and two others were arrested on Friday in connection with a Rs 450 crore scam in the purchase of helicopters.Tyagis is the first high profile arrest in the AgustaWestland choppers purchase case, and he bears the ignominy of being the first armed forces chief to be put behind bars in a corruption case. Besides Tyagi, who retired in 2007, his cousin Sanjiv alias Julie Tyagi and lawyer Gautam Khaitan were also arrested by the CBI.



Front companies

Finmeccanica, the Italian company that produces AgustaWestland choppers, is said to have paid bribes to the tune of Rs 450 crore through a maze of companies. The Indian government scrapped the contract in January 2014 amid corruption charges. This happened soon after Finmeccanicas then chief executive Giuseppe Orsi was arrested in Italy for paying bribes to secure the order. He is now serving a jail term.



Family network

According to CBI officials, the investigations revealed deals through middlemen and relatives, including Sanjeev Tyagi. The total deal was for Rs 3,767 crore and the bribe came to 12%, according to the CBI. Tyagi and 12 others, including his cousins Sanjeev, Rajeev and Sandeep, were named in an FIR in 2013.



They were named on charges of cheating, corruption and criminal conspiracy. The Enforcement Directorate had also registered a money-laundering case. The CBI had earlier questioned Tyagi, his cousins and his lawyer. Former Goa governor B V Wanchoo, then chief of the Special Protection Group, and former national security adviser M K Narayanan were among those questioned by the CBI.



Tyagi as chief of the Indian Air Force conceded to reduce the service ceiling for VVIP helicopters from 6,000 m to 4,500 m, thereby favouring the Italian company. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had in its report this August had said that the Defence Ministry had set the benchmark price at an unreasonably high Rs 4,877 crore, while the manufacturer had quoted Rs 911.5 crore less.



The ministry also deviated from the procedures laid down for acquisition, it had noted. Under S P Tyagi, the Indian Air Force brought down the minimum altitude capacity for VVIP helicopters from 6,000 metres to 4,500. With this tweaking, FinMeccanica became eligible to sell choppers for the use of the President and other VVIPs.



The choppers had to fly to such high-altitude areas as Siachen, and the air force had earlier sought better helicopters. It had also opposed lower-altitude choppers citing security.




The city police have decided to appoint nodal officers at PU and degree colleges in Bengaluru East to prevent crimes involving college students.





A decision was taken in this regard at a meeting of coordinators of 60 PU and degree colleges, government hostels and paying guest accommodation facilities. The meeting was held at Ramamurthynagar police station as part of a crime prevention strategy.



We have decided to appoint nodal officers at every college. We will hold a meeting of college students, parents and nodal officers at every college within a month to devise an action plan to prevent students from committing crimes, additional commissioner of police (East) P Harishekharan told DH.



The police held the coordination meeting in view of the increase in the number of college students caught for drug peddling, eve teasing, consumption and sale of tobacco products, ragging and prostitution.



It was decided to form a WhatsApp group with jurisdictional police inspectors to exchange information about illegal activities. Crimes involving African students were highlighted at the meeting.



The police decided to keep strict vigil on wheelie stunts by students in particular. The police have decided to organise a series of crime awareness programmes at colleges.



The coordinators discussed ill-effects of crimes on students and counselling to overcome challenges.



The police have directed college managements to install CCTV cameras inside and outside college buildings.




Following her death, the demand for former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaas biography is going up. Some of Bengalurus book stores say they have been placing orders in hundreds for the book, which is available in Tamil and English.





Eleven copies of Amma - Jayalalithaas Journey from Movie Star to Political Queen authored by Vaasanthi, were sold at the Bookworm store on Church Street, on Wednesday. The store ran out of copies the following day and said they have placed orders again to meet the demand.



It was released earlier this year but it was not in demand. We were selling at most, one or two copies a week, said Krishna Gowda, owner, Bookworm.



Raghava N, a techie, who bought the book, told DH, I was prompted by a friend to watch her interview with Simi Garewal. I was in awe of the frankness with which Jayalalithaa answered all questions. Hence, I was drawn to know more about her.



Customers also said that it was after her death that the other side of the actress-turned-politician came to fore. We knew about her populist schemes. As I was not keen on politics, I did not pay any attention to her political career. After her death, I got to see a different side of her on social media, added Gracy, another customer.



At Sapna Book House in Gandhinagar, they had five copies, which were all of sold a day after her death, according to Krishnamurthy, a staff member there. Sunita, manager, Sapna Book House, Residency Road said that they sold around 7-8 copies on the day she died and have now run out of copies.



Anish Chandy, head, sales and business development Juggernaut Books, New Delhi, who are the publishers of the book, said the demand has skyrocketed across the country.



In just two days, we distributed 20,000 copies of the book. Now, the number of prints in demand is 25,000. It was ranked 2,000 in Amazon, but on the day she died, the book shot up to the third rank, he added.



Amazon, one of the biggest online e-tailers, has limited the number of copies to two per person.




7 December 2016 (Columbia University)  Scientists have found evidence in a chunk of bedrock drilled from nearly two miles below the summit of the Greenland Ice Sheet that the ice nearly disappeared for an extended time in the last million years or so. The finding casts doubt on assumptions that Greenland has been relatively stable during the recent geological past, and implies that global warming could tip it into decline more precipitously than previously thought. Such a decline could cause rapid sea-level rise. The findings appear this week in the leading journal Nature. The study is based on perhaps Earths rarest geologic sample: the only bit of bedrock yet retrieved from the ice sheets base, more than two decades ago. The authors say that chemical isotopes in it indicate that the surface was exposed to open sky for at least 280,000 years during the last 1.4 million years. The reason would have been natural, probably tied to cyclic natural climate changes that have caused ice ages to wax and wane. The scientists say that in the most conservative interpretation, there might have been only one ice-free period that ended 1.1 million years ago. But, more likely, they say, the ice vanished multiple times for shorter periods closer to the present. Greenland contains about 684,000 cubic miles of ice  enough to raise global sea levels about 24 feet if it were to melt completely. Unfortunately, this makes the Greenland ice sheet look highly unstable, said lead author Joerg Schaefer, a paleoclimatologist at Columbia Universitys Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. If we lost it in periods of natural forcing, we may lose it again. With human-induced warming now well underway, loss of the Greenland ice has roughly doubled since the 1990s; during the last four years by some estimates, it shed more than a trillion tons. No one knows exactly what it might take to make the ice collapse, or how long that might take. Some models project that it will melt partially or completely over the next 2,500 to 10,000 years, depending on the amount of greenhouse gases humans pour into the air. Ice loss from Greenland now accounts for about a quarter of the current sea-level rise, which is about 3 millimeters a year, but this could accelerate. Projections of sea-level rise during this century hover around 3 or 4 feet, but many, including the one from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, do not take Greenland into account. More drastic models put the potential rise much higher. Coauthor Richard Alley, a glaciologist at Pennsylvania State University, said the study doesnt say that tomorrow Greenland falls into the ocean. But the message is, if we keep heating up the world like were doing, were committing to a lot of sea-level rise. This could take centuries or millennia, he said. The rock core was recovered in July 1993 by a U.S. scientific team working in southeast Greenland at the highest part of the ice sheet. It took them five summers to drill through 3,056 meters (about 10,000 feet) of ice and sediment. Then they punched 1.55 meters (5 feet) into the underlying bedrock. The ice cores have since formed the basis of many important paleoclimate studies. Scientists tried early on to analyze the rock as well, but only in the last year or so have lab techniques become sophisticated enough to tease out the needed information, said coauthor Robert Finkel, a scientist at the University of California, Berkeley, and adjunct senior research scientist at Lamont, who participated in the ice drilling. Within the rock, the scientists found traces of radioactive beryllium-10 and aluminum-26  isotopes produced by tiny particles from outer space that constantly bombard the planet. The isotopes decay at known rates, and since they cannot be created if the rock is covered with ice, their abundance can be tied to how long ago the rocks were exposed. Modelers agree that the region where the core came from would be one of the last to melt were the ice sheet to disappear. The authors thus concluded that the ice sheet must have been down to less than 10 percent of its current size when this site was ice-free. The question of how stable the Greenland ice sheet has been in recent geologic times has been controversial. While some recent studies report evidence that it has remained largely unchanged, there is also evidence that it disappeared in the more distant past, and several studies suggest that the ice wasted to various extents at different points in more recent times. Studies of seafloor sediments off various parts of Greenland have found remains of pollen and other materials dated to a periodic warming cycle about 400,000 years ago, and this has been interpreted to mean that Greenland could have been largely ice-free then. Other studies suggest that the ice surface was substantially reduced during the last major warming cycle some 120,000 years ago, raising sea levels by 12 to 18 feet. But these studies give no clear picture of how long such episodes lasted, and the evidence they use is less direct. Here we have no question  we interrogated the surface directly, Finkel said. Was there ice over you or not? Jeff Severinghaus, a paleoclimatologist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography who was not involved in the study, called the evidence very direct and incontrovertible. The study challenges some prevailing thought on the stability of the ice sheet in the face of anthropogenic warming, he said. We can now reject some of the lowest sea-level projections, because the models underpinning them assume continuous ice cover during the last million years. Thomas Stocker, a climate scientist at Switzerlands University of Bern who also was not involved in the study, said, It shows that the Greenland ice sheet has been much more dynamic than thought. He agreed that the results have implications for projections of sea-level rise. Scientists have been arguing back and forth about the potential forces that might tip the Greenland ice into quick decline. These could include water percolating from the surface to lubricate the ice sheets bottom, or massive ice streams discharging icebergs into the ocean. This study shows we are missing something big about how the system works, and we need to find out what it is, fast, Schaefer said. While the rock core took five years to emerge and more than 20 years for lab techniques to catch up, such research may move faster now. A consortium of U.S. scientists has designed a new drill capable of penetrating deep ice much faster, with the aim of bringing up bedrock rather than ice cores. The apparatus could take a half-dozen samples each year from Greenland or Antarctica said Severinghaus, who is involved in the project. But it has not yet been deployed; the obstacle is funding, which would probably have to come from the U.S. government. The studys other authors are Nicolas Young and Roseanne Schwartz of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory; Greg Balco of the Berkeley Geochronology Center; Marc Caffee of Purdue University; Jason Briner of the University at Buffalo; and Anthony Gow of the U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory.

Contact

Kevin Krajick

kkrajick@ei.columbia.edu

(212) 854-9729
Peter Clarke, EETimes

12/8/2016 01:01 PM EST

LONDON--ARM Ltd. announced the availability for evaluation and licensing of its Artisan physical IP platform for the 7nm 7FF FinFET process from TSMC, as well as a design win at that level with Xilinx Inc.

The IP set does not include support for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, which is expected to be deployed later.

"The physical IP platform is available for tape outs in 1H17. We see some engineering samples in 2017," Ron Moore, vice president of marketing in the physical design group at ARM, told EE Times Europe. However, it is not clear that there is a performance, power or area benefit in selecting the 7FF process over the 10FF process.

Click here to read more ...














The well-overdue levy on soft drinks promised by the UK government is starting to materialise after ministers published a draft legislation that paves the way for it.

The government holds its ground on plans to bring a soft-drink tax to the UK next April 2018 in an attempt to combat the rising tide of obesity and type 2 diabetes.

The fight for soft drink taxes had intensified ahead of the release of the legislation in the UK, with industry mightily trying to water it down ever since its been announced in March.

But, the public momentum around the tax is such now that it will be hard for industry to stop it before it comes into effect next year.

According to the governments plan, the tax will be applied to both producers and importers of sugary drinks, with the notable exception of pure fruit juices, sugary milkshakes and yoghurt drinks.

As for alcoholic drinks, those with up to 1.2 per cent of alcohol and carrying a lot of sugar will be included in the levy.

Two bands of tax have been proposed by the government, depending on whether drinks come with 5g or more than 8g of added sugar per 100ml. Rates have yet to be set.

It is estimated by the Office for Budget Responsibility that the levy could add 18p to 24p to the price of a litre of fizzy drink for customers, which could raise a revenue source of up to 520 million in a year.

The drinks industry has repeatedly tried to oppose the charge, with British Soft Drinks Association director-general, Gavin Partingto, claiming that there is no evidence that sugar taxes have any impact on levels of obesity.

This is not what Cancer Research UKs projections of the knock-on-effect of the tax show. The 20 per cent sugar tax could help curb consumption and prevent 3.7 million cases of obesity over the next decade.
One month ago, on this very day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared that the currency notes of 500 and 1000 denominations would no longer be legal tender post midnight on that day. Since the demonetisation announcement, a lot has happened and it wouldnt be wrong to say that almost every single citizen of this country has been affected by this decision. While some have been in full support of the demonetisation, some have expressed their doubts and some have gone as far as to call it an outright mistake. But there is no denying that technology has played a key role in this entire month - be it through digital payments, mobile wallets, locating an ATM with cash or helping people express their opinion about this decision.

But has it all been beneficial? If yes, how much? Let us have a look at some of the most significant tech milestones and statistics from the past month.

Mobile wallets and Digital payments

Without cash in the peoples hands, the only way to go immediately was electronic payments. Now, those two words encompass a wide array of payment methods like debit or credit cards, mobile wallets, online transfers and more. Needless to say, in most cases, retail stores have mostly been using cards. In fact, as revealed by RBI there are nearly 75 crore electronic cards in the country out of which 72 crores are debit cards. These are mostly used by the general populace to withdraw money from ATMs. The most common way these are used for digital payments is at PoS terminals at retail stores. Now, these retail stores obtain these PoS machines from their banks, which normally charges them an MDR (Merchant Discount Rate) which in the end gets charged to the customer. But to encourage card payments during this period, banks have waived off such charges associated with card payments.

When it comes to mobile wallets, the effects were almost immediate. According to Paytm, the company registered a 200% hike in a number of app downloads and 250% surge in the number of overall transactions and transaction value within hours of the announcement on November 9. The number of Saved Cards also grew by 30% during that time, pointing at a strong set of repeat customers the platform has now acquired. The company had noted 1000% growth in money added to the wallet and 400% growth in the transaction value of offline payments at the same time. All of this culminated to the over 435% increase in Paytms overall traffic within hours on Nov 8. One wouldnt be too wrong in saying that while there are a lot of options and alternatives when it comes to mobile wallets, Paytm does seem to be the popular choice, which could be due to their prolonged presence in the market coupled with their aggressive marketing across all platforms.

This is a representation of online conversations regarding demonetisation

But on the other hands, these numbers and accomplishments are to be taken with a bit of salt. According to recent numbers released by RBI, it does appear that mobile wallets have been bloating the numbers before announcing them. For example, according to Paytm, they are registering about 32.5 lakh transactions worth 60 crores daily. However, according to RBI in the initial days of December, 8 mobile wallets and payment services had approximately 25 lakh transactions worth 60 crore made across them. Also, while these platforms do claim to be secure at multiple levels, it is true that online transactions, even more so on the mobile, do come with their own share of risk and you should be extremely careful about which network you are on when you are using, say, your banks mobile app. Needless to say, download these apps only from official sources like the Google Play Store or the App Store. At the same time, its encouraging to see that apps and service providers are taking steps to secure their apps. At the time of writing this PayTM just announced an app password feature on their mobile app that lets you set a secure Pin, Password, Pattern or Fingerprint to use the app.

Cash still here, but will it persist?

On the other hand, the demand for cash has also surged with the little available in the market. According to RBI, during a period of 10th November 2016 to 5th December 2016, RBI has supplied the general public has supplied to the public banknotes of various denominations worth  3.81 trillion. So there is obviously a large section of the economy that still needs cash. Banks have since reported to RBI that such exchange/deposits effected from November 10, 2016, upto November 27, 2016, amounted to  8,44,982 crore (exchange amounted to  33,948 crore and deposits amounted to  8,11,033 crore). They have also reported that the public has withdrawn, during this period,  2,16,617 crore from their accounts either over the counter or through ATMs. And all of this is happening offline.

So is the increased usage of payment wallets a panicked reaction that is going to subside once the market has enough cash again? Not anytime soon if the trends are to be believed. While Paytms results are already quite clear, rival Mobikwik is not be left too far behind as according to reports, their own transaction volumes rose 7,500%, and their mobile apps lite alternative saw 20 lakh downloads in just two days of its launch. In fact, you can yourself see how many advertisements from digital payment providers have recently popped up on billboards, websites and even on the radio. According to a report by Assocham and market research firm RNCOS, the demonetisation move coupled with the flagship Digital India initiative will push the e-wallet industry to a 90% growth in the next 6 years.

The UPI answer?

A key solution in this situation could have been UPI, the payment method introduced by the NPCI in April 2016. Since then, over 30 banks have implemented UPI functionalities and quite a few third party apps, like PhonePe from Flipkart, have come into the market to let people avail UPI. But due to lack of awareness and a general confusion due to multiple platforms that could be used, there still seems to be no clear indication of UPI being significantly used for digital transactions.

Offline Payments

So it does seem that the onus lies on digital wallets. But the immediate question that arises from there is - how will the offline India, the part that has no access to the internet or maybe even a smartphone, get themselves out of this? The answer once again lies within technology. Take Tonetag for example. They have a sound based model of payments between smartphones which they recently expanded to feature phones as well. All a user needs to do is to call a toll-free number and register their card details for the first time, and when they are at a Tonetag enabled vendor, they need to call the toll free number. The merchant will then play a specific tone from his Tonetag enabled phone which will be processed by the IVR servers behind the call, which in turn will process the payment - all without internet from the customers side. Paytm has also implemented an offline payment method via a phone call that works on your existing Paytm wallet.

The Tech Market

While tech might be providing solutions to the demonetisation-hit citizens of the country, the industry itself has some areas that have been hit adversely. According to a report from International Data Corporation (IDC), the consumer devices market, especially the PC and mobile devices market, is being negatively hit in Q4 2016. According to Jaipal Singh, Market Analyst, Client Devices, IDC India Considering the poor sales due to the current cash crunch in the country, earlier estimates for Mobile phone has been revised downwards by 4.5 percent. CY Q3 2016 smartphone and feature phone shipments were 32.3 Million and 39.9 Million units respectively. CY Q4 2016 feature phone shipments are likely to decline sharply by 24.6 percent and smartphones are expected to see 17.5 percent decline sequentially.

Twitter trends related to demonetisation

On the e-commerce front, there were some initial but significant setbacks as major retailers saw a drop in cash-on-delivery orders up to 30%, with the immediate effect being mass returns of COD orders. But most e-commerce sites have welcomed the move as it pushes people to transact online which is better operationally.

Out of the Box

There are startups that are offering interesting services in the light of demonetisation. DoneThing, a Gurgaon-based, on-demand personal assistance service, allows people to request an executive to stand in an ATM or bank line in their stead. When their turn comes, customers are accordingly apprised about it, who have to be present and deposit the cash themselves.

A few websites and apps are also offering a feature to locate ATMs near you that have cash. CashNoCash from Quikr is a popular option and even Walnut offers a similar feature in the app. However, there is no certainty regarding how these services maintain accuracy, apart from the option of the info being crowdsourced. Does that make them reliable enough? Afraid not!

Even Paytm is adding to its already feature packed app. Take Nearby, a feature on the app that lets you see all Paytm accepting merchants around you, even the ones where you can submit your KYC documents to upgrade your Paytm wallet.

In Conclusion

There is no doubt that the effects of technology on demonetisation and vice versa have been quite significant for the duration of the past one month. From new problems to innovative solutions, tech has been involved in all of it and it is far from over. In fact, some of the significant innovations and features mentioned earlier in the article have emerged in the last few days. So, contrary to the initial estimates by the authorities, even one month into demonetisation it is still too early to say which way the long term results will flow. But without any doubt, this is the fintech revolution that would have taken a few more years to arrive in India without demonetisation. What do we make of it? That depends on us.

Image Courtesy: MaxusKaleidoscope
The IBM Watson artificial intelligence has often been in the headlines - for composing music, playing chess and even cooking food. Looking at it up close, however, is a different experience. The makers of IBM Watson and its multiple deep neural branches were in India today, and spoke about how IBM has been collaborating with the Government of India, along with private institutions, to bring cognitive technology to commonplace spheres of life.

The cognitive technology is not just about artificial intelligence, but is a combination of AI, machine learning and deep neural networks, and are often present in the mundane, statistical forms. The information, however, can be crucial in India's push for smart cities. As Sriram Raghavan, Director of IBM India Research told us, "The key is to encourage certain schools and institutions to come forward and set precedence, which will work wonders in removing initial notes of inhibition among many about automated technology." It is this that IBM is aiming for, and has reportedly held talks with the Government of India to partner and provide Watson's Career Training cognitive platform in line with the NCDS programme.

"The Internet of Things is an equally pivotal factor, and the rise in awareness and enthusiasm surrounding IoT will be crucial in taking cognitive platforms to everyday households," added Raghavan. True to his word, the technology on display today included Watson's Intelligent Operations Centre - a centralised platform for city mayors and authorities to monitor, track and address grievances. While the algorithm in itself is intelligent and tracks responses, alleviated concerns and other governance factors, what would make India complete the prospect of converting to smart cities are IoT appliances including connected heavy vehicles and city services. Cognitive platforms and IoT, in short are partner technologies, reliant on each other for widespread implementation.

Amidst all of this, the company showed something fun - the Aero Assist robot as a commercial forefront of IBM Watsons intelligent capabilities. The affable little robot, standing at a feet and half, has image recognition sensors in place of eyes, and can recognise you as an authorised person. It can also dance, wave at you, and do push ups. Against the rather austere setup of Watsons practical implementation, Aero Assist is somewhat based on Nao, and forms a very interesting recreational robot for homes.

Here, too, IBMs focus remains on smart cities. IBM wants to employ this at airports, with authentication setups being the key area of implementation. Such robots are also being looked at as concierge services, where they can guide individuals, greet them and interact with them. We did not get a chance to see the full implementation of its interactive features, but the glimpses are promising. We have already seen similar humanoids in action elsewhere, but where Watson stands apart is in its diversity of application.

The core platform is now being implemented in farmlands, to provide weather, irrigation, farm statistics, future predictions, and status of farm produce. Integrated HR portals can make use of the algorithms to gauge attrition factors in office, and hence, reduce inefficient employment. For students, Watson can provide insight into career interests, and relay instant statistics from IBMs data pool on myriad streams, the end result of an academic course, and hence being an interactive job-academic platform to improve skill training in India.

The groundwork, to sum up, has been put in place, and IBM is in talks with the Government and private institutions to start implementing Watson services all across in India. What remains to be seen is how Digital India ventures accept these moves.
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Metal Tiger (MTR), an AIM listed investor in strategic natural resource opportunities has secured 10 license extensions and acquired two new concessions for its joint venture (JV) project with MOD Resources in the Kalahari Copper Belt in Botswana.

Two-year licence extensions have been granted for 10 JV licences and an agreement has been reached to acquire two additional licences, which will secure around 200km of the prospective structural zone which hosts the T3 Resource.

The T3 Resource is located on the Kalahari Copper Belt in northern Botswana and is part of the MOD/MTR joint venture Botswana Copper/Silver Project.

Chief Executive Officer of Michael McNeilly said: With the grant of the 10 licence extensions and the agreement to acquire two new concessions the joint venture has increased our ground holding over the Kalahari Copper Belt and crucially we have secured the westward extension of the T3 host structure right up to the Namibian border.

The companys RC rig is currently drilling to test the T3 host sequence extending up to 3km west of proposed open-pit. The infill diamond drilling results have reinforced the potential to expand and upgrade the current T3 Mineral Resource.

We are encouraged by the results of the infill drilling which show that there is good potential for not only increasing the current total Resource but upgrading more of it into the Indicated category. Furthermore, we have the prospect of the current RC drilling and planned infill drilling extending the currently open mineralisation westwards, said McNeilly.

The share price rose 9.22% to 1.61p at 0920 GMT on Friday.
Petro Matad was forced to issue an update on Friday, as its share price plunged more than17%.

It confirmed that there was nothing further to update at this stage.

The AIM-traded company said it continues to expect that the approval from the Mongolian Government of the reassignment of the interest in Blocks IV and V is likely to occur before the end of 2016.

Following the approval, Petro Matad will hold 100% of Blocks IV and V, and a payment of $5m will be due to the company from Shell, the board said in a statement.

The company's formal farmout process is in progress.

Petro Matad said there had been significant interest expressed in its blocks and several companies were now reviewing the information in the data room.

Therefore, the company has extended the bid deadline to February 2017.
PPHE Hotel Group said on Friday that Arenaturist, in which it has a controlling stake, has agreed to buy the freehold interests in two hotels in Germany.

It will buy Art'otel Cologne and Art'otel Berlin for 54.5m from an unnamed third party. Opened in 2010, Art'otel Cologne is located on the Rheinaudocks in the centre of Cologne, while Art'otel Berlin is a 152-room hotel in the Charlottenburg area.

PPHE said this is the first step towards developing Arenaturist into a leading Central and Eastern European leisure and hospitality company with a business model that includes owning and managing its own assets and those of others, primarily under the Park Plaza brand.

President and chief executive officer Boris Ivesha said: The board is delighted with the acquisition of the freeholds of these two hotels in Cologne and Berlin which we have managed under our wholly owned Art'otel brand for a number of years.

The group's portfolio in Germany consists of eight hotels and this latest acquisition highlights our commitment to our presence in gateway cities in Europe."

At 1210 GMT, the shares were down 0.4% to 685p.
Six Egyptian policemen were killed in Cairo on Friday after a bombing at a police checkpoint in the capital, state media reported.

The state-run MENA news agency said the attack occurred on a road leading to the Giza pyramids. Three policemen were also injured in the explosion, which has been claimed by the terrorist Hasm Movement.

The bombing destroyed several cars, near a mosque on a wide avenue often used by tour buses to travel to the famous pyramids.

"We heard the blast and rushed to the scene and found police vehicles damaged," said witness Abdel Hamid Abdulla.

"We saw some police were injured, and some of their legs had been cut off," he said.
Under the terms of the acquisition, the Irish food distributor - known for its banana business - will receive 2.23 in cash for each of its shares, which is a premium of around 49% to the closing price on Thursday.

Fyffes shareholders will also be paid a final dividend in respect of calendar year 2016 of 0.02 per share in cash, bringing the total amount to 2.25 per share.

Chairman David McCann said: We believe this transaction represents a compelling proposition for our shareholders and crystallises the substantial value created in recent years through the various strategic developments and the strong operating performance of our group.

Our employees, customers, suppliers and joint venture partners will benefit from Fyffes being part of an enlarged group with greater scale, reach and resources to broaden and accelerate delivery of Fyffes' strategic objectives. We look forward to working with the Sumitomo team to develop and enhance our group's strategy and to build on its long track record of successful growth.

Sumitomo said it has secured acceptances from 27% over its shareholders and expects the deal to complete by the first quarter of next year.
Defeated US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton made a rare public appearance on Thursday in which she warned of the dangerous nature of so-called "fake news" articles.

The issue of falsified news articles appearing on social media websites has become a hot topic in the weeks following the election, including the high-profile controversy known as "Pizzagate", in which a piece appeared accusing Clinton and her campaign aides running a paedophile ring through a pizza shop.

Hundreds of fake articles were circulated in the weeks leading up to the November election about the campaigns of both Clinton and her victorious opponent Donald Trump.

A poll conducted by Ipsos and Buzzfeed found that 75% of people in the United States had believed a fake news article during the election campaign this year.

Speaking during a farewell dinner to veteran Democrat senator Harry Reid, Clinton referred to the issue as an "epidemic" which could cost lives.

"This is not about politics or partisanship. Lives are at risk, lives of ordinary people just trying to go about their days to do their jobs, contribute to their communities," Clinton said. "It is a danger that must be addressed and addressed quickly."

"It is imperative that leaders in both the private and pubic sector step up to protect our democracy and innocent lives," Clinton added.

Clinton has spoken out very little since her defeat to Trump, as she spends most of her time near her home in New York. She was widely expected to defeat the businessman to take the White House, but succumbed to a surprise defeat last month.
United States president-elect Donald Trump has made another controversial choice for his administration, after he picked CKE Restaurants chief executive Andrew Puzder to lead the Department of Labor.

Fast food Puzder has consistently argued against raising the minimum working age in the US, believing it to stunt job growth. He has also been accused in the past of perpetrating domestic violence, which may add weight to the case against his nomination.

CKE operates such restaurants as Carl's Jr and Hardee's, and Trump said Puzder has shown a record of fighting for workers, making him an ideal candidate to lead the department.

"Andy will fight to make American workers safer and more prosperous by enforcing fair occupational safety standards and ensuring workers receive the benefits they deserve, and he will save small businesses from the crushing burdens of unnecessary regulations that are stunting job growth and suppressing wages," Trump said in a statement.

However, several officials have criticised the choice and said that it signals a bad move for the lower class of workers.

Outspoken Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren was one of the most vociferous critics of Puzder, alleging that he "got rich squeezing front-line workers on wages, overtime & benefits."

"Appointing Andrew Puzder to run the agency responsible for protecting workers is a slap in the face for every hard-working American family," she tweeted.

The US Department of Labor is the body charged with regulating wages and ensuring safety in workplaces. Workers' unions have also been critical of Puzder's appointment.

AFL-CIO union president Richard Trumka said that Puzder's "business record is defined by fighting against working people."
IP Group , the developer of intellectual property-based businesses, said its portfolio company, Oxford Sciences Innovation (OSI) had raised 230m in a new round of financing.

OSI provides capital and scaling expertise to businesses driven by intellectual property developed at the University of Oxford.

After completiing the financing round, IP said its undiluted 8.1% beneficial stake in OSI will be valued at 55.5m, representing an unrealised fair value gain to the group of 8m.

IP Group has committed a further 7.5m to OSI as part of this funding round. OSI's capital base previously stood at 350m but, following the round, is now close to 600m, IP said.

"Some of Asia's leading technology companies and sovereign wealth funds, as well as European industrialists, are among the wave of new investors," IP said.
Britain's ruling Conservative Party retained its Sleaford and North Hykeham seat in a by-election on Thursday, easily fending off the challenge from UKIP in another contest dominated by the impact of Brexit.

The seat became vacant after sitting MP Stephen Phillips resigned in protest at the government's refusal to consult parliament on its plans to leave the EU after June's referendum.

Local Conservative Caroline Johnson (pictured, left) was victorious with a healthy majority of 17,570 votes, leaving the UKIP candidate Victoria Ayling a distant second with 4,426. In a major embarrassment, the main opposition Labour Party finished fourth behind the Liberal Democrats, having been second at the last General Election.

Turnout was poor at only 37%.

Senior Labour MP Vernon Coaker said the focus on Brexit had damaged the party's hopes of making inroads in the Conservative's majority.

Clearly for us, this was not the result we might have hoped for. It was a difficult seat. Lets remember this is a safe Tory seat, Ukip came here expecting to do much better than they did so its a bad result for them, the Guardian reported.

The challenge for us was because of Brexit. Everything was about Brexit. The messages about the A&E, the NHS, the messages about infrastructure, all of that got lost to an extent in the swirl around Brexit.

The nightmare for Labour was put into sharp perspective when former Conservative finance minister George Osborne said: The disintegration of the Labour Party is not good for democracy. Oppositions are meant to try to win by-elections, not slip from 2nd to 4th.
UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson embarked on a tour of the Middle East on Friday overshadowed by critical comments he made about the Saudi Arabian regime.

Having been slapped down by the prime minister's office, Johnson was placed under further pressure when a Conservative Party grandee suggested he could be moved to another Cabinet post.

Johnson was recorded at an event in Rome saying the Saudis were detablising the region by engaging in proxy wars. Britain has a close economic relationship with the regime built largely on sales of military hardware.

"There are politicians who are twisting and abusing religion and different strains of the same religion in order to further their own political objectives, he was heard to say in footage of the event released by the Guardian.

"That's one of the biggest political problems in the whole region. And the tragedy for me - and that's why you have these proxy wars being fought the whole time in that area - is that there is not strong enough leadership in the countries themselves."

Johnson was swiftly rebuked by Prime Minister Theresa May's spokesperson who said the Foreign Secretary's views did not represent the government's position.

He is to deliver a keynote speech at a major regional conference in Bahrain on Friday before heading to Saudi Arabia on Sunday.

May's spokesperson said the prime minister had "full confidence" in Johnson but that his comments at a conference in Italy were his own personal view, but, in a clear warning to her fellow Tory, also stated that he would be able to set out official policy when he meets Saudi counterparts.

However, former Conservative Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind said the jury was out on Johnson's future in the role and suggested that if he continued to offer personal views at odds with government policy "inevitably the prime minister would say - look is his role adding to the benefits for the United Kingdom".

"He might end up being more comfortable in another senior cabinet position," Rifkind said.
Britains final salary pension funds have slashed their ownership of stock-market listed companies to just 7% of their total holdings following a huge shift in recent years to overseas stock markets and government bonds. The move away from owning UK stocks emphasises how dependent Britains estimated 13.5 million past and present final salary scheme members have become on returns from shares in US, continental and emerging market companies to generate a retirement income.  Guardian

Food prices will rise unless the government ensures EU citizens can work in the UK after Brexit, according to industry groups representing the major supermarkets and food manufacturers, including the owner of Marmite. The open letter to the government is signed by 30 food and drink industry bodies, including the Food and Drink Federation, which represents major suppliers, including Marmite maker Unilever and Mr Kipling owner Premier foods; the British Retail Consortium, which counts Tesco, Sainsburys, Asda and Morrisons among its members, and the National Farmers Union.  Guardian

The British economy has received a post-Brexit vote of confidence from one of Americas best known companies after McDonalds announced it will move its non-US operations to London, abandoning its base in Luxembourg. The fast-food giant has chosen the UK to establish a new holding company to collect hundreds of millions of pounds a year in royalties from its international franchise operations.  Telegraph

The long-feared moment of bond tapering in the eurozone has arrived. The comfort blanket is being pulled away - gently - for the first time since the region first crashed into a debt crisis. The European Central Bank has tried to cushion the blow with dovish rhetoric and a glacially slow exit but there is no denying that monetary policy has reached a critical turning point. "The ECB has delivered an unwelcome surprise," said Luigi Speranza from BNP Paribas. - Telegraph

Businesses plan to cut back on investment and wages next year to protect profits after Brexit, according to the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. In its latest economic forecast, built on the views of corporate clients, the ICAEW argues that investment will fall sharply and pay will expand at its slowest pace in four years as unemployment creeps up. - The Times

The European and US authorities are examining Glencores Rosneft deal for a possible violation of sanctions against Russia, an American official has said. Glencore and Qatar are in advanced talks to buy a 10.2 billion stake in the state-controlled oil producer, from the Russian government. Rosneft, which produces one barrel in every 20 globally, was put under economic sanctions by the EU and the US in 2014 in response to Russias actions in Ukraine.  The Times
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Inflation, abortion on voters' minds ahead of upcoming election

What are the most important issues for Ohio voters? We canvassed the state as the midterm election nears. Here's what we learned.
EU acts against Germany, UK and five others countries over Volkswagen diesel scandal

The EU initiated action yesterday against Germany, the UK and five other member states for failing to police emissions cheating by car makers following the Volkswagen diesel scandal.

As frustration mounts in Brussels over what EU officials consider as governments colluding with the powerful car industry, the EC is taking recourse to its strongest measure in a bid to force nations to crack down on health-harming nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions from diesel cars.

German officials, who have maintained that EU law was poorly framed had not expected Brussels to take on the EU's leading power and also its biggest car manufacturer, especially with the unity of the bloc on test by Eurosceptics and the UK's vote to leave.

The action yesterday comes as a sign that the EU executive, was coming under pressure from the European Parliament, in order to prove its worth to voters, according to commentators.

Germany, the UK, Spain and Luxembourg stood accused of not taking the kind of action Volkswagen had faced in the US over its use of illegal "defeat device" software to mask real-world NOx emissions blamed for respiratory illnesses and early deaths.

Reacting to the announcement, German Transport minister Alexander Dobrindt said, "Germany is the only European country to have implemented a comprehensive list of measures to prevent unauthorised use of defeat devices," Reuters reported.

EU law was framed in almost identical language as US rules to ensure carmakers did not use software intended to deceive regulators on emissions. The 28-nation bloc, however, had nothing like the Environmental Protection Agency to enforce regulations, which was left to member states, which also determined the penalties. Also no system for mandatory Europewide recalls of defective vehicles had been put into place.

According to the commission, the UK and Germany also broke the law by refusing to share information gathered by their national authorities while investigating ''irregularities'' concerning nitrogen oxide emissions from diesel cars made by Volkswagen and other manufacturers.

Czech Republic, Greece and Lithuania still needed to pass legislation making it possible to penalise automakers for using such cheating methods, the commission said.

''Abiding by the law is first and foremost the duty of car manufacturers,'' Elzbieta Bienkowska, the European commissioner for industry, said in a statement. ''But national authorities across the EU must ensure that car manufacturers actually comply with the law.''
Local writer Ann Garratt has taken some time out to talk with me about her involvement in the compilation and production of the MEAS writers book of short stories, Wild Atlantic Words.

MEAS writers group have been in existence since 2007, the group grew out of a creative writing workshop, funded by the VEC and organised by MEAS which means respect in Irish.

The group of writers of three men and four women have been meeting in various locations to hone their literary skills and writing talents. Writers from Lifford, Killybegs, Mountcharles and Dunkineely are ably represented in the stories of the newly produced Wild Atlantic Words. Each of the writers produced three short stories for the book, immersed with local and emotional connections from the west coast and Donegal.

So why did they decide to begin writing the book? Ann explains that Clarrie Pringle had always had an ambition to produce a collection of short stories as a publication and so began the writing and crafting. Meeting one evening a week in each others homes since April 2016 the creative endeavour began. With the help of editing by Carolyn Farrar the musings and writings became a reality.

The publication has been produced with with financial assistance from the Education & Training Board (ETB), local councillor John Campbell and Donegal County Council Arts office.

The group have amassed a wealth of writing experience, Ann has published her memoir, Marie Hannigan has written for Fair City, amongst other things. Charlie, Darren and Malachy have all published books recently. Sally Neery has read on Sunday Miscellany and more recently, both Ann and Sally have read at the Allingham Arts Festival. Ann says reactions to the book from other people have been all positive and with lots of encouragement.

I asked Ann about the dynamics of writing in a mixed group. Having both men and women in the group lends itself to different views a new perspective. Everyone is encouraged to write something for the night which you bring and read . The rest in the group critique it in a positive and encouraging way. Fledgling writers can be put off so easily by negative comments so you have to be sensitive to peoples efforts. It is a well-balanced group, supportive, not negative.

Ann explains that writing does not come easy to her. Writing, editing, re-working it, and always being careful to make the piece real. She recounts that when she gets stuck in writing she then applies the mantra of co-writer Marie Hannigan whose favourite saying is Dig deep. Impact on the emotions and draw it out. Ann imparts her advice for aspiring writers. There are different methods of writing, some plan everything, some start with a few words, others tell the story and then write about it, everyone is different but the important thing is to keep writing everyday.

Finally Ann says: The stories in Wild Atlantic Words are fictional, of humour, horror, sadness and some will make the reader smile as they look back at the past. The tales are far reaching and pull on memories, events, characters and emotional recall from varied locations along the west coast and in particular Donegal.

Wild Atlantic Words was officially launched recently in the Manhattan Steakhouse, Donegal Town by Mayor Patricia Callaghan and Donegal County Councillor John Campbell. With Christmas in mind it would certainly make a lovely present.

The book is available locally from Four Masters Donegal Town, Novel Idea Ballyshannon, Easons book shops Letterkenny and on line at Amazon and on Kindle.

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A well-known Letterkenny charity campaigner has channeled the spirit of Elvis for a new CD he has released to help the Ray of Sunshine Foundation.

John Wilkie has reinvented himself as The King to record a new three track CD for this worthy cause that help provide schools for children in Kenya rescued from sex trafficking.

The new release is called The King and I and features three tracks, I just cant help believing, Bridge Over Troubled Waters and America Trilogy, all in the style of Elvis Presley.

John has been entertaining his social media friends in recent months when began impersonating Elvis and singing a range of his classic hits.

A keen performer and community activist, John says he then decided to record a few track to help the work of the Ray of Sunshine Foundation.

I just thought I could do a few tracks and see if I could raise a few euros for the Ray of Sunshine Foundation to help their work in Kenya. I record the CD at Pine Hill Studios and it is now on sale through Veritas in Letterkenny, Martin Andersons Sonder Cafe, or directly through myself, he stated.

Highland Radio presenter, Shaun Doherty, hosted John on his show for the launch of the The King and I and praised him for this unselfish act.

The Ray of Sunshine Foundation has been bringing volunteers from all over Ireland to the poorest of the poor in underdeveloped countries having special regard for the plight of children particularly in their educational needs.

They undertake building projects such as schools to empower children through education and give them a chance at a brighter and better future to improve their quality of life and give them a chance to get out of the poverty trap.

They previously built a school for young girls trafficked and now they have plans to build a school for boys that have been rescued from the same fate.

The next Ray of Sunshine mission is due to take place in in January and February of 2018 when the charity will be travelling to Mombasa.

They are now calling on skilled tradespeople who can give 11 days out of their lives to travel with them and assist in the build.

For more information visit www.rayofsunshine.ie
Veteran Donegal County Councillor Sean McEniff, who is in the Intensive Care Unit of a Dublin hospital, may never be able to give evidence in any court, a special sitting of Ballyshannon District Court was told today.

Mr McEniff, 81, who took ill while abroad and was flown to a Dublin hospital in an induced coma, is sought by the defence as a witness in an alleged assault case which has been before a special sitting of Ballyshannon District Court on a number of occasions.

At this mornings special sitting Judge Paul Kelly described the line of questioning by counsel for the defence as absurd and inappropriate in relation to the medical condition of a witness.

Former Bundoran Town Councillor Florence McNulty, 56, of The Palace, Main Street, Bundoran, has denied assaulting Garda Helen Munnelly on February 10, 2014.

Her son Joseph McNulty, 34, of Doran Close, Bundoran, and her husband Thomas McNulty, 57, of Main Street, Bundoran, has denied abusive or insulting behaviour on the same date.

Solicitor Gerry McGovern, for Mr McEniff, handed in evidence from both the initial medical report from the Hospital in Gran Canaria and from the Mater Private Hospital in Dublin which indicated that the veteran councillor was in the ICU unit of the Mater Private Hospital in Dublin, after being flown home by Air Ambulance from Gran Canaria.

Mr. McGovern said, I wish to make it clear that Cllr. McEniff is merely a witness on behalf of the defence in this case. There is no indication when he will be able to give evidence and I do not know if he will ever be in a position to give evidence in any court in the land.

Supt. Colm Nevin handed in a letter to the judge from the Mater Private confirming the councillors medical condition.

Mr. Johnnie McCoy, for the defence, said there was a pattern of not wanting to give evidence, by Cllr. McEniff who he said was an essential witness in the case. He said that while they had medical certificates, they did not know what was wrong with Cllr McEniff.

Judge Paul Kelly said, This is an absurd objection that you are making. Cllr. McEniff was admitted by Air Ambulance to the Mater Private on November 12. I dont know what else you want. Are you questioning the veracity of these reports? It is totally inappropriate for you to cast aspersions on them. Do you think there is nothing wrong with him? We do not have to know what is actually wrong with him. I am at a complete loss to know what assistance Mr. McEniff could be in this case at all.

Mr McGovern added, The dogs in the street know what happened to Mr. McEniff and that he is seriously ill. All the papers have published it. Again, I would say that he is just a witness in this case.

Judge Kelly: I am blue in the face and fed up - this case is about an alleged incident that happened in the car park. I am at a complete loss as to why it is so important to your clients to produce Sean McEniff as a witness.

Supt. Colm Nevin said, I cannot see what evidence Mr. McEniff can bring to this case. At the outset I said that I would proceed with the case in his absence. I think it is plain to see what is going on. It is just a stalling matter. I think this case should proceed.

Counsel for the defence, Mr. McCoy, argued the Sean McEniff was central to the whole incident and that is why it it was crucial that he attend. Mr McCoy said it may be that Mr McEniff could give evidence in three months; that Mr McEniff was an essential witness for the defence and that his absence severely affected the defence in its case.

Judge Kelly reserved a decision on the issue of evidence from Mr McEniff until Friday next in Ballyshannon at 10am.
Members of the 28 Inf Bn were presented with a 1916 Centenary Commemorative Medal by the Minister with Responsibility for Defence, Paul Kehoe on Friday at Finner Camp.

Nationwide over the next ten days members of the Defence Forces who served this year will receive a 1916 medal which had previously only been presented to people who participated in the 1916 Rising.

The medal is awarded nationally to anybody in the Permanent Defence Force and serving members of the Reserve Defence Forces.

The 1916 Medal was first introduced in 1941 and was awarded to veterans of the Rising or their next of kin.

Minister Kehoe TD, Minister with Responsibility for Defence, said the medal represents a very special acknowledgement from the Government to the men and women of Oglaigh na hEireann, both Permanent and Reserve, who have served during this centenary year.

The medal highlights the Governments appreciation of the excellent work undertaken by all of you, while at home and overseas, and your commitment to excellence which is the hallmark of our Defence Forces, he said.

Privilege

The minister added: It has been a privilege for me to be here today to express not only my gratitude, but that of the Government, for your contribution in honouring our forebears, and lending dignity and respect to all the commemorative ceremonies this year.

The Government, in awarding this medal is commemorating the centenary of the Easter Rising and recognising the central role played by Oglaigh na hEireann both in the past and in this important year, he told soldiers on parade at the 28th Inf Bn gym.

Speaking in relation to the medal he said: I believe that it is a fitting tribute and thank you from the Government, on behalf of the people of Ireland, to our Defence Forces. I hope that the members of the Defence Forces who continue to serve or who have served during this centenary year will wear this medal with pride and in doing so accept the gratitude of the Government and the Irish people for their dedication to duty during this commemorative year.

Lebanon

Speaking to the Donegal Democrat after the ceremony, the Minister acknowledged the role of the 109th Infantry Battalion currently serving in Lebanon with the United Nations Interim Force.

Many of those on duty in Lebanon are from the north west with the 28th Infantry Battalion, based in Finner Camp, the main contributing unit with 59 personnel.

Peace keeping duties are so important. I visited the troops a number of weeks ago to wish them a happy Christmas and a happy New Year, but most importantly a safe and successful trip. We can take the work of the defence forces for granted but that's one thing I don't. I have such respect and appreciation for the men and women who are serving there.

In a reference to the recent recognition of Irish soldiers, again many of them from the north west who were honoured for their bravery while serving as part of a 150-strong Irish UN battalion under Commander Patrick Quinlan during the 1961 Siege of Jadotville, the Minister agreed it was appropriate and timely that they would be recognised.

It was important that this happened and here today I met the grandson of one soldier who was there, so Im well aware how relevant it is to people here and throughout the country.

On Friday soldiers who received the 1916 medal were joined by family and friends and students from nearby schools at the ceremony. Dignitaries attending included the Mayor of Donegal County Council, Cllr Terence Slowey.
Louths Polar Plunge for Special Olympics Ireland proved to be another massive success with a biggest ever turnout at Clogherhead Beach.

Over 150 fundraisers braved the chilly waters of the Irish Sea and declared themselves Freezin For A Reason in aid of Special Olympics athletes in the region.

Over 7000 has been raised so far with even more pledged in the coming weeks.

The Special Olympics Polar Plunge is a nationwide annual event since 2008. In 2016, the icy challenge was staged for the third time in Clogherhead.

The event, which is supported by the Law Enforcement Torch Run and the Garda Siochana, was timed for high tide at the popular beach and a fly-by from the Irish Coast Guard Rescue Helicopter 116.

The Clogherhead RNLI Lifeboat Station was the operations hub for the day.

Members of the defence forces from Aiken Barracks Gormanston Camp erected large tents for changing facilities with some also taking part in the plunge itself.

A number of distinguished guests were in attendance including Mayor of Drogheda Oliver Tully and Special Olympics Patron Mary Moran (Dundalk).

Guests of Honour included athletes Breege Heeney and Edward Kennedy from Drogheda Special Olympics Clubs.

Two-time Olympian, modern pentathlete and Special Olympics Ambassador, Natalya Coyle was the first to arrive.

Schools taking part included: Scoil Mhuire, Trim; St Louis, Dundalk; Dunshaughlin Community College; Our Ladys Greenhills from Drogheda.

Regional Fundraising Coordinator Louise Duffy said: The Special Olympics Polar Plunge is really is going from strength to strength in Louth. Taking a dip in the Irish Sea in December isnt the most pleasant thing in the world, but what really makes it worthwhile is the atmosphere and the camaraderie you see amongst locals and the people who travel to the event.

Having the Gardai Siochana, the defence forces and emergency first responders here ensures the event runs smoothly, but they also add a huge amount of excitement to the event. Fundraisers get a massive boost when they see them getting involved and getting in the water too, which they did brilliantly this year again. Our Special Olympics athletes appreciate it the most though  it means a huge amount to them to see people getting Freezin For A Reason!
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If theres one thing the start-up world is full of, its buzzwords. In an industry where speed of disruption and change are the only two constants, many tech trends are here today and sadly, gone tomorrow.

So the industry and even the wider community can be forgiven for thinking that Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) could be (pardon the pun) illusions or more short-lived buzzwords. But are they?

The early birds

Many angel and other early stage investors dont think so. I dont think. Along with two other women, I invested in Sydney-based VR company Humense almost a year ago when the technology was just gaining momentum. This was just around the time funding into this sector started taking off. A report shows that $1.7 billion was invested into AR and VR in the 12 months to March 2016  with almost $1.2 billion invested in the first quarter of 2016 alone.

If you compare these numbers against the nearly $4 billion that investors have put into the market since 2010, it shows the scale of growth of the technology and mainstream potential for it. The biggest investment recipient with almost $800 million was Magic Leap, a company working on contact lenses with virtual reality functionalities.

Angel and venture capitalists are not alone in acknowledging this growing phenomenon. Top of the investment ladder are companies such as Google (which invested in Magic Leap), Facebook, Intel, and Alibaba. According to Wired, Facebook (which acquired Oculus Rift last year) has over 400 people working on VR and most recently announced it is investing $250 million more into developing VR content. Other companies such as Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, etc., have also dedicated staff to research AR and VR. What we are seeing now is just the tip of the iceberg.

Why AR/VR, why now?

While the concept of VR isnt recent, lowered cost of handset and hardware production has made it more accessible to start-ups to experiment with. Added to this is another very important reason AR and VR are taking off  we, as human beings are looking for more unique and immersive experiences in everything we do.

From how we play games to how we shop and work, our experiences are getting more personalised and simulated. In an age where society is constantly looking for more, AR/VR deliver it. These technologies are using the age-old concept of storytelling to bring the world around people to life. People can now not just touch and see digital experiences; they can get entrenched and engage more deeply with it.

The Wired article puts it aptly stating that:

VR does two important things: One, it generates an intense and convincing sense of what is generally called presence. Virtual landscapes, virtual objects, and virtual characters seem to be therea perception that is not so much a visual illusion as a gut feeling. Thats magical. But the second thing it does is more important. The technology forces you to be presentin a way flatscreens do notso that you gain authentic experiences, as authentic as in real life. People remember VR experiences not as a memory of something they saw but as something that happened to them. Experience is the new currency in VR.

You need not look beyond the PokemonGo craze to get a sense of how experiences are merging our real and virtual worlds.

Whats next?

While mainstream application of AR and VR will still take a while, the technologies are slowly demonstrating potential beyond their gaming heritage. From shaping shopping experiences to how we watch movies, the future is filled with possibilities. But the technology will only be as good as the content and experiences it delivers.

To maintain the investment momentum, AR and VR have to focus on making the technology relevant to a wider group of people and focus on making money off it. Given the nascence state of the industry and the lack of defined financial models, it will not win over all investors  especially mainline VC firms such as Series B onwards. Only sound revenue models and mainstream adoption / application will help win over later stage investors.

Regardless of when AR or VR become mainstream, theres no denying that the size and valuation of the market is increasing steadily. Just recently, Humense announced that it received funding from Chinese e-commerce giant Alibabas investment arm. Beyond the dungeons and dragons, the land of virtual is getting more real every single day.

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Cost-free secondee

There are several administrative details you need to take care of before you start your employment with the ECB. Within the first few days of arriving in Germany you will also need to register with the German authorities and, if need be, open a SEPA compliant bank account.

The time it takes to obtain a criminal record certificate can vary substantially depending on your country of residence. Make sure you start this procedure as soon as you are sure that you are going to join the ECB. Security clearance

Before coming to Frankfurt

Documents to be provided before the start of employment

Once you have received your secondment contract, please send the following documents as soon as possible to the specified person and address:

the signed duplicate of your secondment agreement

the privacy statement and security self-declaration form for selected candidates

the criminal record certificate (does not need to be translated into English)

a copy of your passport/ID card (please note that you will be required to show your passport/ID card when you start work at the ECB)

Security clearance

To protect the institution and its reputation, the ECB employs only individuals whose criminal history (if any) does not call into question their capacity to maintain high standards of professional ethics in the performance of their duties at the ECB. Please submit the completed privacy statement and security self-declaration form for selected candidates and a criminal record certificate (which does not need to be translated into English) before commencing employment.

Please send both documents in the original by post to:

European Central BankSecurity Division - ClearanceSonnemannstrasse 2060314 Frankfurt am MainGermany

To facilitate the security clearance process:

send both documents together

use your official name consistently on all documents

ensure that all fields are filled in

make sure your handwriting is legible

send them to the Security Division  not to the HR department

Useful information

The time it takes to obtain a criminal record certificate can vary substantially depending on your country of residence. Make sure you initiate this procedure as soon as you are sure that you are going to join the ECB.

We do not reimburse the cost of obtaining a criminal record certificate.

Your security clearance will be granted solely on the basis of these two documents.

In most cases, we process security clearance within five working days.

Please contact us via e-mail if you have any concerns or questions regarding security clearance.

Have a look at the introduction to security clearance for more information.

Accommodation

Your accommodation costs will be borne either by yourself or your employer. Various property websites provide information if you want to look for your temporary accommodation  simply type the words "Frankfurt Immobilien" into a search engine.

Travel arrangements

You are responsible for making your own travel arrangements. The costs will be borne either by yourself or your employer.

Childcare facilities

Many children in Germany between the ages of one and six attend Krabbelstube/Krippe or Kindergarten, although this is not compulsory. While, by law, children aged one and above are guaranteed a childcare place, it can be difficult to find one.

Subject to the availability of places, the ECB may be able to offer you childcare for your children between three months and six years of age if you are seconded to the ECB for at least one year. Places may not be available immediately, depending on the age of your child and your desired start date.

For further information, please refer to the section entitled Life in Frankfurt.

International schools

In addition to German state schools, Frankfurt also has a number of international schools.

Please see the section Life in Frankfurt for more information.

After your arrival in Frankfurt

All costs relating to your secondment, including salary, are covered by yourself or your employer.

Registration with the German authorities

Secondees who are EU nationals

Within two weeks of arriving in Germany, cost-free secondees who are nationals of an EU country (and their family) must register their place of residence with one of the Burgeramter (registration offices) of the town/city in which they live. This must be done in person. You do not have to register if your stay in Germany will not exceed three months. But it is advisable to do so if your contract with the ECB is likely to be extended beyond this time period (as it may help avoid an unnecessary fine).

If you are married, or have children, the original marriage and birth certificates need to be provided with the International Certificate or a certified German translation. If you are divorced, the same applies for the divorce certificate.

You will also need to present a letter from your landlord/rental property manager confirming that you are renting accommodation. This letter has to include the name and address of the landlord/rental property manager, the date on which you will be moving in, the address of the rental property and your name. Failure to comply could result in a 1,000 fine for the landlord.

Planning to live in Frankfurt?

A full list of registration offices in Frankfurt can be found here.

Note that you will receive a verbal warning if you only manage to register with the Frankfurt authorities between two and four weeks of taking up residence in this city. Thereafter, you may be fined. Fines start at 15 and the amount payable will depend on the length of the delay.

EU nationals do not need a residence permit

A German residence permit is not required for EU nationals. The Meldebescheinigung (the certificate issued when registering your place of residence with a Burgeramt)  together with your personal ID card or passport  is sufficient proof that you are officially registered in Germany as a citizen of another EU country.

Secondees who are non-EU nationals

Cost-free secondees who are nationals of a non-EU country must obtain the relevant visa/permit before arriving in Frankfurt. Further information on the requirements can be obtained from the Auswartiges Amt (German Federal Foreign Office).

Non-EU nationals (and their family) must register their place of residence with one of the Burgeramter (registration offices) of the town/city in which they live as soon as possible. A full list of registration offices in Frankfurt can be found here.

If you are married, or have children, the original marriage and birth certificates need to be provided with the International Certificate or a certified German translation. If you are divorced, the same applies for the divorce certificate.

You will also need to present a letter from your landlord/rental property manager confirming that you are renting accommodation. This letter has to include the name and address of the landlord/rental property manager, the date on which you will be moving in, the address of the rental property and your name. Failure to comply could result in a 1,000 fine for the landlord.

Salary and costs of secondment

All costs relating to your secondment, including salary, are covered by yourself or your employer.

Health insurance

Health insurance

The ECB will not provide any health cover. We therefore recommend that you retain your current health insurance cover for the duration of your secondment.

Accident insurance

The ECB does not provide any accident insurance cover for cost-free secondees.
Fixed-term employee

In addition to this salary, you may be entitled to an expatriation allowance and several family-related allowances, as well as benefits on appointment.

Your contract specifies your period of employment with the ECB, your position title and working arrangements, as well as your gross annual salary.

At the ECB we care about you and your family and the time you spend together. Thats why we offer a range of flexible working arrangements such as part-time and teleworking and the possibility to apply for special leave for personal or family reasons. New parents have the possibility to apply for paid maternity leave and unpaid parental leave. Furthermore, as a means to pursue your personal needs or aspirations, there are opportunities to request unpaid leave on personal grounds or to take up appointment with another organisation.

There are restricted traffic zones/low emission zones within the city centre (Umweltzone/green zone) where only cars displaying specific environmental badges/stickers (Feinstaub-Plaketten) are allowed to circulate. The badges/stickers can be obtained for 5 at the Kfz-Zulassungsstelle, in the Burgeramter in Frankfurt, at TUV, DEKRA and from car garages. You will need to bring your car ID (Fahrzeugschein) in order to purchase one. Vehicles without an environmental badge/sticker may not pass through the green zone and penalties apply.

If the distance from your place of residence to the ECB exceeds 50 km and irrespective of the means of transport used, the ECB pays the following lump sums on appointment of service (aimed at covering all travel costs):

The ECB will reimburse the related cost of insurance. Please ask your chosen service providers to include the cost of insurance in their offers  the insurance is meant to cover the full value of your belongings or any damage incurred during the removal. Each removal company should inform you about what needs to be done to ensure that your personal belongings are adequately insured (this involves completing the related value declaration).

Expenses incurred in the alteration, fitting, or extension of furniture and/or other effects will not be reimbursed. Any costs related to services provided by craftsmen such as electricians, carpenters or plumbers (for the installation and adjustment of built-in kitchens or similar at the new location) are also not covered.

The personal effects of the staff member and their family members are included in normal removal costs. Removal expenses related to pets (e.g. dogs and cats), bigger animals (e.g. horses) and cars can also be reimbursed.

Please note that, should the three quotations submitted appear excessive, the ECB reserves the right to seek quotations from other removal companies.

Note: while reimbursement of your removal costs will be limited to the cheapest offer received, you are free to choose another removal company. However, you would need to bear any excess costs going beyond the approved reimbursement amount.

Note: we recommend that you contact removal companies as soon as you have been selected for a job. The removal industry is usually very busy, especially in July and August.

Your removal costs will be reimbursed if the procedure outlined below is followed.

If you have been hired from a location more than 50 kilometres away from the ECB and are moving to the Frankfurt area, the ECB will reimburse your removal costs.

Various property websites provide information if you want to look for your temporary or permanent accommodation  simply type the words "Frankfurt Immobilien" into a search engine.

If you do not know Frankfurt, we recommend that you familiarise yourself with the city before deciding on your longer-term accommodation.

However, please note that while the ECB covers the services provided by the CKRS, you will be liable for any additional costs arising from the use of these services

The Cheryl Koenig Relocation Services Group (CKRS) will help you and your family relocate to the Frankfurt area. This relocation service, which is fully covered by the ECB, includes:

As you have been offered a fixed-term contract, you will be working at the ECB for a longer period of time. If your place of recruitment is more than 50 km from the ECB, you will be entitled to relocation services and removal services or you may prefer to stay in temporary accommodation until you decide on the longer-term accommodation.

Working far from home comes with certain challenges and we know it. To offset the cost of moving your residence to Frankfurt, the ECB offers a number of appointment benefits and services.

Ensure that you initiate this process in good time to avoid any delay to your start date.

The medical report must be provided in English, including if a doctor in your country of residence carries out the examination.

Please send the completed medical questionnaire to the Medical Adviser at least ten days before your contract starts.

You do not have to undergo a medical examination if you have already been given medical clearance under a previous fixed-term contract awarded within the past three years.

Medical clearance is mandatory for all employees starting at the ECB on a fixed-term contract. This also applies if you have already worked for the ECB on a different type of contract.

Have a look at the introduction to security clearance for more information.

Please send both documents in the original by post to:

To protect the institution and its reputation, the ECB employs only individuals whose capacity to maintain high standards of professional ethics in the performance of their duties at the ECB is not called into question. Therefore, please submit the completed privacy statement and security self-declaration form for selected candidates and a criminal record certificate (which does not need to be translated into English) before commencing employment.

On your first day at the ECB, you will receive a notification with a link to review your personal data and submit your bank account details via the Start HR Process app.

Once you have received your employment contract, please send the documents marked with an * to the specified person and address as soon as possible. All other documents can be submitted by e-mail as well:

Once you have been offered a position, please send as soon as possible the following documents for contract preparation:

The time it takes to obtain a criminal record certificate can vary substantially depending on your country of residence. Make sure you start this procedure as soon as you are sure that you are going to join the ECB.

There are several administrative details you need to take care of before you start your employment with the ECB. Within the first few days of arriving in Germany you will also need to register with the German authorities and, if need be, open a SEPA compliant bank account.

Allowances and benefits

We also offer several allowances and benefits on appointment.

If you are recruited from outside Germany, you may be entitled to an expatriation allowance. A household allowance, a child allowance and an education allowance can also be granted to you depending on your personal circumstances. You can also benefit from:

Subsistence allowance

You are eligible for a subsistence allowance of 103 per day for a maximum of 90 days if you decide to temporarily maintain your current residence, and continue to do so during the entire period for which the subsistence allowance is requested, while you are still in temporary accommodation in the Frankfurt area.

Once a removal to the Frankfurt area is finalised, this is interpreted as your having settled in permanent accommodation and, therefore, the entitlement to subsistence allowance ceases.

Current residence means the accommodation in which you lived for at least three months before joining the ECB, i.e. in your home country or in the country where you were employed or lived when you were recruited by the ECB. NB: you are not eligible for benefits on appointment if, prior to the fixed-term contract, you were providing services to the ECB on an agency or consultancy contract, in which case your place of recruitment is considered to be Frankfurt.

The allowance increases by 23 per day for each family member accompanying you during your contract period.

Installation allowance

In order to cover any additional costs that may incur when settling in Frankfurt, and upon presentation of a copy of the rental contract, we will pay you a provisional allowance of one months basic salary. This is an advance payment in the first month of your contract. However, your entitlement exists only if you complete the probationary period. This allowance can increase to two months basic salary, depending on your family circumstances.

Depending on your entitlement, you can submit your claim for allowances and other benefits via the Start HR Process app once you have joined the ECB.

Public transportation benefit

On your first working day, you are able to order a ticket for public transportation  it is offered by the ECB in cooperation with RMV, the Frankfurt regional public transportation association, and it offers attractive discounts up to 38% vs. regular RMV seasonal tickets.

Work/life balance

At the ECB we care about you and your family and the time you spend together. Thats why we offer a range of flexible working arrangements such as part-time and teleworking and the possibility to apply for special leave for personal or family reasons.

New parents have the possibility to apply for paid maternity leave and unpaid parental leave. Furthermore, as a means to pursue your personal needs or aspirations, there are opportunities to request unpaid leave on personal grounds or to take up appointment with another organisation.

Health insurance

ECB health insurance

The ECB offers health insurance administered and re-insured by Allianz Care. The legally binding insurance conditions are contained in the ECBs Staff Rules.

You can opt either to be covered by this plan or to retain your current insurance cover (in which case you must provide the ECB with proof of cover, e.g. a copy of your insurance card). You can inform us of your decision via Start HR Process app once you have joined the ECB.

Cost of ECB health insurance

A monthly contribution  a third of the total cost  will be deducted from your pay if you choose to be covered by the ECBs plan. The ECB will pay the remaining two-thirds.

Cover for dependants

Your dependent children and spouse/recognised partner (depending on his/her income) can also be covered under the ECBs plan. It is not possible to cover further family members or other dependants under the ECBs plan.

In order to add your dependants to the health insurance scheme you will need to submit the following:

a copy of your marriage certificate/recognition of partnership

evidence of your spouses/recognised partners gross annual income for the previous year

a copy of the birth certificates of any children

This can be done via the Start HR Process app once you have joined the ECB.

Long-term care insurance

The ECB also offers long-term care insurance to cover the risk of extended loss of autonomy.

You will only be covered by the long-term care insurance, if you have ECB health insurance.

Cost of the long-term care insurance

A monthly contribution  a third of the total cost  will be deducted from your basic salary. The ECB will pay the remaining two-thirds.

Cover for dependants

Your dependent children and spouse/recognised partner (depending on their income) can also be covered under the ECBs long-term care insurance subject to medical clearance and provided they are insured in the ECB health insurance. It is not possible to cover further family members or other dependants under the ECBs long-term care insurance.

Accident insurance

Participation in the ECBs accident insurance scheme is compulsory for all ECB staff members. It provides 24-hour worldwide cover against all work and non-work related accidents. It also covers accidental death and disability benefits.

Cost of the accident insurance

One-third of the premium is paid by staff members, while the remaining two-thirds are paid by the ECB.

Cover for dependants

Family members are not covered by this insurance.

Advisory service on non-ECB health and long-term care insurance

When you start working at the ECB you may have questions about your insurance  should I participate in the ECB health and long-term care insurance? What benefits does it cover and how do they compare to my current plan? Should I include my family members? What options do I have when leaving the ECB? Can I go back to the national health system in my home country once I leave the ECB?

The ECBs external insurance advisor, Funk Vorsorgeberatung GmbH (Funk), will answer your questions and provide the information you need to make a decision.

Contacts

Funk can be reached by phone from Monday to Friday, 10:00-15:00 CET (hotline: +49 30 250092-911) or via email (Insurance.Advisory@funk-gruppe.de)

Pension

If you join the ECB on a fixed-term contract, you will automatically become member in the ECB Pension Scheme. The Scheme provides you with leaving benefits or an income after you retire from the ECB. It also provides benefits for your family in the event of your death.

The mandatory monthly pension contribution is paid both by you and by the ECB. Your part of the contribution is deducted from your salary before tax.

In addition, you can choose to make monthly contributions of up to 12% of your basic salary before tax and thereby enjoy additional benefits upon retirement.

Please visit the Pension area on the Intranet for further details upon joining the ECB.

Creche and schooling

Childcare facilities

Staff on contracts of longer than 12 months have the opportunity to enroll their children aged between three months and six years in one of the ECBs creches (kindergarten). Due to the limited number of places the allocation of places is administered via a waiting list. Places may only become available after several months of waiting time, depending on the age of your child and your desired start date. Its recommended to explore alternative childcare options in Frankfurt in parallel. The ECB Childcare Mediation service provides assistance in this search.

European School Frankfurt

If your children are over the age of four, they can join the European School Frankfurt (ESF) in the pre-primary, primary or secondary cycle. The school has four language sections (German, English, French and Italian) and offers mother tongue tuition in all EU languages. As an ECB staff member, you are exempt from paying the tuition fees, but extra-curricular activities and meals must be paid for. Please refer to the website of the ESF for further details.

Other schools

In addition to German state schools, Frankfurt is well endowed with a range of international schools.

If they occur, fees for these schools have to be paid by the member of staff directly, but a portion of them will be reimbursed by the ECB on the basis of the education allowance.

Please see the section Life in Frankfurt for further information

Integration of spouses/recognised partners

The ECB is fully aware of the difficulties involved in relocating to Frankfurt for an extended period and wishes to support your spouse/recognised partner in having a smooth integration in the new community.

Further information about what is available for your spouse and what you should know about the city of Frankfurt can be found under.

Registration with the German authorities

Within two weeks of arriving in Germany, ECB staff members and their families must register their place of residence with one of the Burgeramter (registration offices) of the town/city in which they live. This must be done in person. You do not have to register if your stay in Germany will not exceed three months. But it is advisable to do so if your contract with the ECB is likely to be extended beyond this time period (as it may help avoid an unnecessary fine).

If you are married, or have children, the original marriage and birth certificates need to be provided with the International Certificate or a certified German translation. If you are divorced, the same applies for the divorce certificate.

You will also need to present a letter from your landlord/rental property manager confirming that you are renting accommodation. This letter has to include the name and address of the landlord/rental property manager, the date on which you will be moving in, the address of the rental property and your name. Failure to comply could result in a 1,000 fine for the landlord.

Planning to live in Frankfurt?

A full list of registration offices in Frankfurt can be found here.

Note that you will receive a verbal warning if you only manage to register with the Frankfurt authorities between two and four weeks of taking up residence in this city. Thereafter, you may be fined. Fines start at 15 and the amount payable will depend on the length of the delay.

EU nationals do not need a residence permit

A German residence permit is not required for EU nationals. The Meldebescheinigung (the certificate issued when registering your place of residence with a local registration office, i.e. a Burgeramt)  together with your personal ID card or passport  is sufficient proof that you are officially registered in Germany as a citizen of another EU country.

Visa requirements for non-EU spouses

Non-EU spouses planning to join an ECB spouse in Germany, nationals of countries for which an entry visa is compulsory (visumpflichtige Staaten), will need to apply for a D visa at the German embassy/consulate where they reside before coming to Germany. Please notify your HR contact at the ECB as soon as possible if this applies to your spouse. Our Staff Info Point will then try to help with the visa process by officially notifying the Auswartiges Amt (German Federal Foreign Office). Further information on visa requirements can be obtained from the website of the Auswartiges Amt.

Once the non-EU spouse has entered Germany, he/she must register with a Burgeramt (registration office) together with the ECB staff member. Please then apply for a Sonderausweis (special ID card) as soon as possible through our Staff Info Point. With the Sonderausweis, non-EU citizens who are family members of ECB employees are entitled to live and work in Germany.

Visa requirements for non-EU partners

Non-EU partners are not entitled to a Sonderausweis. Unlike non-EU spouses, they must go through the normal process of applying for a regular residence and work permit at the Auslanderamt (Aliens' Office). The same applies if the non-EU partner can already live and work in another EU country.

Currently, non-EU nationals have to contend with a rather long and difficult permit application process. So you are advised to check what the requirements are with the nearest German embassy/consulate before leaving your country of residence. This could help prevent disappointment later on.

Bank account

Your salary and benefits can be paid into any account in the European Union, provided that your bank is SEPA-compliant. You can also open a bank account in Germany (leaflets on the various banks are available at the Staff Info Point in room HS 15.10 of the main building).

Many banks require their clients to register their place of residence at a local Burgeramt (please see the section on Registration with the German authorities) before they can open a new bank account.

Your bank account details can be provided by completing your personal data via the Start HR Process app once you joined the ECB.
Short-term employee

There are several administrative details you need to take care of before you start your employment with the ECB. Within the first few days of arriving in Germany you will also need to register with the German authorities and, if need be, open a SEPA compliant bank account.

The time it takes to obtain a criminal record certificate can vary substantially depending on your country of residence. Make sure you start this procedure as soon as you are sure that you are going to join the ECB.

Before coming to Frankfurt

Documents to be provided before the start of employment

Once you have been offered a position, please send as soon as possible the following documents for contract preparation:

a copy of your highest educational qualification (e.g. bachelors or masters degree certificate)

certificates of employment or reference letters confirming your work history (i.e. confirming work periods and job titles), please note that the originals may be requested at any time during your contract period

Once you have received your employment contract, please send the following documents as soon as possible to the specified person and address:

the signed duplicate of your contract*

the privacy statement and security self-declaration form for selected candidates*

the criminal record certificate* (does not need to be translated into English)

a copy of your passport/ID card (please note that you will be required to show your passport/ID card when you start work at the ECB)

On your first day at the ECB, you will receive a notification with a link to review your personal data, submit your bank account details and confirm your accommodation details via the Start HR Process app.

Security clearance

To protect the institution and its reputation, the ECB employs only individuals whose criminal history (if any) does not call into question their capacity to maintain high standards of professional ethics in the performance of their duties at the ECB. Please submit the completed privacy statement and security self-declaration form for selected candidates and a criminal record certificate (which does not need to be translated into English) before commencing employment.

Please send both documents in the original by post to:

European Central Bank Security Division - Clearance, Sonnemannstrasse 20, 60314 Frankfurt am Main, Germany

To facilitate the security clearance process:

send both documents together

use your official name consistently on all documents

ensure that all fields are filled in

make sure your handwriting is legible

send them to the Security Division  not to the HR department

Useful information:

The time it takes to obtain a criminal record certificate can vary substantially depending on your country of residence. Make sure you start this procedure as soon as you are sure that you are going to join the ECB.

We do not reimburse the cost of obtaining a criminal record certificate.

Your security clearance will be granted solely on the basis of these two documents.

In most cases, we process security clearance within five working days.

Please contact us via e-mail if you have any concerns or questions regarding security clearance.

Have a look at the introduction to security clearance for more information.

Accommodation

We will pay for your accommodation for the duration of your stay, provided that the distance between your place of residence upon recruitment and the ECB exceeds 50 km. You can either stay in one of the residences below, with which the ECB has a special arrangement, or move into your own private accommodation. Please see Private accommodation and lump-sum for temporary accommodation for further information.

To ensure that only those colleagues who are eligible can reserve a place in one of the residences, the ECB regularly provides the residences with the names of new staff members and certain details about their contracts. This also allows the ECB to comply with its legal obligation to provide initial accommodation to staff, as set out in the Conditions of Employment and Staff Rules.

Privacy statement for temporary accomodation

ECB residences

The ECB has agreements in place with the following three accommodation providers:

Apartment Residenz

Living Hotel Appartements Johann Wolfgang

Mercure Hotel & Residenz Frankfurt Messe

If you opt to stay in one of these residences, you will be offered a self-catering apartment (for single occupancy), which includes a kitchenette and a bathroom. The ECB will pay your invoice for the single occupancy directly, but you yourself must pay any costs for additional occupants or other non-covered items (such as meal service or potential damages caused to the apartment during your stay) directly to the residence. For this purpose, the residences may ask you for your credit card details or another form of payment guarantee.



You may check in up to one week before the start date of your contract and must check out at the latest on the day following the end date of your contract. Please book directly via email (not via any online booking system) at least 15 days prior to your check-in date. Once booked, any issues relating to your stay at any of the residences should be taken up with the provider directly. Please contact the ECB if you have cancelled your reservation and would like to request the 1,250 lump sum for temporary accommodation. See Private accommodation and lump sum for temporary accommodation for further information.

Please note that your accommodation arrangements will not be automatically extended if your contract with the ECB is extended. In such cases you will need to take further action. Please see the relevant steps outlined on this website.



Cancellation Policy

The minimum period for your stay is one calendar month. Your stay will end automatically at the end of the period contracted with the residence.

If you wish to move out of the accommodation before the end of the contracted period, you can only do so at the end of a calendar month, and you must notify the residence in writing at least 14 days in advance (this also applies if you decide to terminate your contract with the ECB prematurely).

If you decide not to move into the accommodation initially but have already booked it, the following notice periods apply:

If the first day of your booking falls in the period from the first to the 14th day of the month you must notify the residence in writing at least 14 days before the end of the month preceding the start date of your booking

If the first day of your booking falls in the period from the 15th day to the end of the month you must notify the residence in writing at least 14 days before the start date of your booking

If for any reason you fail to cancel your booking in line with the conditions set out above and this generates additional costs for the ECB, the ECB will  save for justified cases  charge you the rental cost of your accommodation until the next possible date on which the contract can be terminated. Get in touch with your residence directly to find out about the costs involved if you fail to respect the cancellation policy when terminating the contract early.

Important information

The following steps must be strictly observed when looking for an apartment in one of the above residences:

Contact any of the providers listed above as soon as possible (i.e. directly after having signed your contract) prior to your planned arrival date and ask if they have fixed order apartments available. Note: it is extremely important that you ask for fixed order apartments only.

apartments available. it is extremely important that you ask for fixed order apartments only. If the provider of your choice does not have fixed order apartments available, please make sure to contact the next provider(s) of your choice and ask for fixed order apartments.

apartments. If none of the above providers have fixed order apartments available, please contact the providers according to the above ranking (i.e. 1st rank: Apartment Residenz, 2nd rank: Living Hotel Appartements Johann Wolfgang, 3rd rank: Mercure) and ask if they have reserved apartments available.

In order to ensure that you can benefit from our apartment agreements, your booking needs to be confirmed by the provider, at the latest, 15 days prior to your check-in date.

In case none of the providers have fixed order apartments or reserved apartments available, please contact accommodation.ecb@ecb.europa.eu as soon as possible and at least 7 days prior to your planned arrival date.

Please note that non-adherence to the above guidelines may lead to the ECB being unable to assume the costs for your apartment  you may also not be allocated an apartment for your desired check-in date.

Please also note that you may be allocated to another residence if the providers named above do not have capacity.

For contractual reasons, depending on the occupancy levels in the various residences, you may be asked to move residences during your stay  this is especially likely if your contract with the ECB is extended and you want to continue benefiting from the residences. If this happens, the above procedures need to be observed again and consequently there is no guarantee for you to stay in your current residence. You will not be able to refuse an ECB request to move residences, except if you decide to move to privately arranged accommodation, in which case you can apply for a lump-sum for temporary accommodation (see below).

We wish you a very nice stay at your accommodation. Should you have any questions, please contact accommodation.ecb@ecb.europa.eu.

Private accommodation and lump sum for temporary accommodation

If you would prefer to move into private accommodation instead of staying at one of the residences above, for example for family reasons or for longer-term stays, you can request to receive an accommodation allowance. You can inform us of your decision via Start HR Process app once you have joined the ECB, and by submitting a copy of the rental agreement in your name. If your request is approved, you will receive a lump sum of 1,250/month for your temporary accommodation. If you change from one of the ECB`s residences to private accommodation please comply with the cancellation policy outlined above.
Trainee

There are several administrative details you need to take care of before you start your traineeship with the ECB. Within the first few days of arriving in Germany you will also need to register with the German authorities and, if need be, open a SEPA compliant bank account.

The time it takes to obtain a criminal record certificate can vary substantially depending on your country of residence. Make sure you start this procedure as soon as you are sure that you are going to join the ECB. Security clearance

Before coming to Frankfurt

Documents to be provided before the start of your traineeship

Once you have received your traineeship agreement, please send the following documents as soon as possible to the specified person and address:

the signed duplicate of your traineeship agreement*

the privacy statement and security self-declaration form for selected candidates*

the criminal record certificate* (does not need to be translated into English)

the medical certificate* (please see the link below)

a copy of your passport/ID card (please note that you will be required to show your passport/ID card when you start work at the ECB)

a copy of any relevant diplomas or certificates (post-secondary level education only). Please note that the originals may be requested at any time during your contract period

You can also submit the above documents, with the exception of those marked with an *, by e-mail.

On your first day at the ECB, you will receive a notification with a link to review your personal data, submit your bank account details and confirm your accommodation details via the Start HR Process app.

Security clearance

To protect the institution and its reputation, the ECB employs only individuals whose criminal history (if any) does not call into question their capacity to maintain high standards of professional ethics in the performance of their duties at the ECB. Please submit the completed privacy statement and security self-declaration form for selected candidates and a criminal record certificate (which does not need to be translated into English) before starting work at the ECB.

Please send both documents in the original by post to:

European Central Bank Security Division - Clearance, Sonnemannstrasse 20, 60314 Frankfurt am Main, Germany

To facilitate the security clearance process:

send both documents together

use your official name consistently on all documents

ensure that all fields are filled in

make sure your handwriting is legible

send them to the Security Division  not to the HR department

Useful information:

The time it takes to obtain a criminal record certificate can vary substantially depending on your country of residence. Make sure you start this procedure as soon as your intention to join the ECB is clear.

We do not reimburse the cost of obtaining a criminal record certificate.

Your security clearance will be granted solely on the basis of these two documents.

In most cases, we process security clearance within five working days.

Please contact us via e-mail if you have any concerns or questions regarding security clearance.

Have a look at the introduction to security clearance for more information.

Medical clearance

You need to provide a certificate, in English, confirming that you are fit to start your traineeship at the ECB" prior to your traineeship start date. This certificate can be issued by your general practitioner and does not need to be accompanied by any medical examination results.

Trainee grant

The trainee grant is 1,070 per month. This amount is increased to 1,940 per month for trainees who have completed at least two years of PhD study and who apply for a traineeship vacancy requiring this level of qualification.

You will receive a letter specifying the amount of your trainee grant. No tax is deducted from this grant by the ECB. Please note, however, that it may be taxable in your home country.

Accommodation

If the distance from your place of recruitment to the ECB exceeds 50 km and you decide to temporarily relocate, we will pay for your accommodation for the duration of your stay. You can either stay in one of the residences with which the ECB has a special arrangement or receive a lump sum for temporary accommodation and move into your own temporary private accommodation. Please see Private accommodation and lump sum for temporary accommodation for further information.

If the distance from your place of recruitment to the ECB is less than 50 km and you decide to temporarily relocate, please bear in mind that you will not receive a lump sum for temporary accommodation for private accommodation. You can, however, request accommodation in one of the residences with which the ECB has a special arrangement.

To ensure that only those colleagues who are eligible can reserve a place in one of the residences, the ECB regularly provides the residences with the names of new trainees and certain details about their contracts. This also allows the ECB to comply with its legal obligation to provide initial accommodation to staff, as set out in the rules governing the ECBs traineeship programme.

Privacy statement for temporary accomodation

ECB residences

The ECB has agreements in place with the following three accommodation providers: Apartment Residenz, Living Hotel Appartements Johann Wolfgang and Mercure. If you opt to stay in one of these residences, you will be offered a self-catering apartment (for single occupancy), which includes a kitchenette and a bathroom. The ECB will pay your invoice for the single occupancy directly, but any costs for higher occupancy as well as for any other non-covered items (such as meal service or potential damages caused to the apartment during your stay) must be paid directly to the residences by the trainees themselves. For this purpose, the residences may ask you for your credit card details or another form of payment guarantee.

You may check in one day prior to your first working day and check out one day after your last working day. Please book directly via email (not via any online booking system) at least 15 days prior to your check-in date. Once booked, any issues related to your stay at any of the residences should be taken up with the provider directly. Please contact the ECB if you have cancelled your reservation and would like to request the 750 lump sum for temporary accommodation instead. See Private accommodation and lump sum for temporary accommodation for further information.

Please note that your accommodation arrangements will not be automatically extended if your contract with the ECB is extended. In such cases you will need to take further action. Please see the relevant steps on this website.

Cancellation Policy

The minimum period for your stay is one calendar month. Your stay will end automatically at the end of the period contracted with the residence.

If you wish to move out of the accommodation before the end of the contracted period, you can only do so at the end of a calendar month, and you must notify the residence in writing at least 14 days in advance (this also applies if you decide to terminate your contract with the ECB prematurely).

If you decide not to move into the accommodation initially but have already booked it, the following notice periods apply:

If the first day of your booking falls in the period from the first to the 14th day of the month you must notify the residence in writing at least 14 days before the end of the month preceding the start date of your booking

If the first day of your booking falls in the period from the 15th day to the end of the month you must notify the residence in writing at least 14 days before the start date of your booking

If for any reason you fail to cancel your booking in line with the conditions set out above and this generates additional costs for the ECB, the ECB will  save for justified cases  charge you the rental cost of your accommodation until the next possible date on which the contract can be terminated. Get in touch with your residence directly to find out about the costs involved if you fail to respect the cancellation policy when terminating the contract early.

Important information

The following steps must be strictly observed when looking for an apartment in one of the above residences:

Contact any of the providers listed above as soon as possible (i.e. directly after having signed your contract) prior to your planned arrival date and ask if they have fixed order apartments available. Note: it is extremely important that you ask for fixed order apartments only.

as soon as possible (i.e. directly after having signed your contract) prior to your planned arrival date and ask if they have apartments available. it is extremely important that you ask for fixed order apartments only. If the provider of your choice does not have fixed order apartments available, please make sure to contact the next provider(s) of your choice and ask for fixed order apartments.

apartments. If none of the above providers have fixed order apartments available, please contact the providers according to the above ranking (i.e. 1st rank: Apartment Residenz, 2nd rank: Living Hotel Appartements Johann, 3rd rank: Mercure) and ask if they have reserved apartments available.

In order to ensure that you can benefit from our apartment agreements, your booking needs to be confirmed by the provider, at the latest, 15 days prior to your check-in date.

Only if none of the providers have fixed order apartments or reserved apartments available, please contact accommodation.ecb@ecb.europa.eu as soon as possible and at least 7 days prior to your planned arrival date.

Please note that non-adherence to the above guidelines may lead to the ECB being unable to assume the costs for your apartment  you may also not be allocated an apartment for your desired check-in date.

Please also note that you may be allocated to another residence if the aforementioned providers do not have spare capacity.

For contractual reasons, depending on the occupancy levels in the various residences, you may be asked to move residences during your stay  this is especially likely if your contract with the ECB is extended and you want to continue benefiting from the residences. If this happens, the above procedures need to be observed again and consequently there is no guarantee for you to stay in your current residence. You will not be able to refuse an ECB request to move residences, except if you decide to move to privately arranged accommodation, in which case you can apply for a lump sum for temporary accommodation (see below).

We wish you a very nice stay at your accommodation. Should you have any questions, please contact accommodation.ecb@ecb.europa.eu.

Private accommodation and lump sum for temporary accommodation

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Twitter on Tuesday suspended the account of Richard Spencer, one of the leading voices of the alt-right movement, amid a wider crackdown on hate speech and cyberbullying. It also expanded the use of several existing tools and changed policies to make it easier for users to fight back against abuse and harassment.

Twitter suspended the accounts of Spencer, president of the National Policy Institute, a white nationalist think tank. It also suspended the account of the organization, as well as the accounts of its online magazine and Washington Summit Publishers, which is Spencers book publishing firm.

Spencer referred to the move as corporate Stalinism.

The suspensions and larger crackdown come amid an increase in reported hate crimes since the presidential election, which was praised by a number of alt-right groups while thousands of protesters took to the streets in cities across the country.

The Twitter rules prohibit violent threats, harassment, hateful conduct and multiple account abuse, and we will take actions on accounts violating those policies, a Twitter spokesperson told TechNewsWorld.

Twitters mute button, which allows users to block certain accounts, has been enhanced to allow users to block keywords, phrases and entire conversations they consider offensive, similar to the Unfollow feature on Facebook.

Who Ya Gonna Call?

The change comes months after the widely reported onslaught against Ghostbusters star and Saturday Night Live cast member Leslie Jones. After being bombarded by racist and sexist attacks, she temporarily unplugged her own Twitter account.

Twitter provides an opportunity for users to have more control of their experience on the site, said Zach Fuller, paid content analyst at Midia Research. I expect the feature to be welcomed by the Twitter community.

The mute function for words and hashtags applies only to user notification, and the tweets will still show up in the timeline and via search, Twitter noted.

Twitters hateful conduct policy already bans conduct that targets users based on race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religion, age, disability or disease. The new tools give users a more direct ability to report that type of abuse going forward.

Twitter has retrained all of its support teams on the cultural and historical context of hateful conduct, and it has implemented a refresher program.

The company had received feedback from users that people didnt always know where or if they could report hateful conduct, especially if not targeted at them personally, Twitter spokesperson Brielle Villablanca told TechNewsWorld.

Red Lines

Policing hate speech on a social network can be difficult, because it begins to creep into activity that is considered censorship, noted Jim McGregor, principal analyst at Tirias Research.

Eventually, artificial intelligence will make it easier, he told TechNewsWorld, but that is going to be further into the future  and even then, nothing is perfect, because AI needs to learn and adapt just like a human.

Despite those concerns, cracking down on hate speech and abusive behavior will be important for social networks to avoid driving users away altogether.

Cyberbullying has been an ongoing problem on Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms, and it reportedly was a factor in Twitters inability to find a buyer last month, when companies such as Salesforce, Disney and others considered making a bid for the company.
More than 1 million Google accounts have been breached by Android malware dubbed Gooligan, Check Point reported Wednesday.

The malware roots infected devices and steals authentication tokens that can be used to access data from various Google apps including Gmail, Google Docs, G Suite and Google Drive.

It potentially affects devices running Android 4 and 5.

Devices are infected when their users download legitimate-looking apps from third-party Android app stores, or click on poisoned links in SMS or other messages that lead to infected apps, Check Point said.

Android application development and installation is similar to the Wild West, said Thomas Pore, director of IT and services at Plixer.

While there are rules and security vetting, its still very easy to get yourself in trouble, he told TechNewsWorld.

A Question of Identity

Gooligan is a new variant of the Android malware campaign found in the SnapPea app, according to Check Point.

However, it could be a variant of Ghost Push, as Adrian Ludwig, Googles director of Android Security, has suggested.

Google last year found more than 40,000 apps associated with Ghost Push, he said, noting that the companys systems now detect and prevent installation of more than 150,000 variants of the malware.

How Gooligan Works

Gooligan-infected apps send data about infected devices to the campaigns command and control server, then download a rootkit such as Vroot or Towelroot.

That raises the question of why Google hasnt done anything to prevent the risky activity.

Support is expensive, and, when youre Google or any other vendor, said Michael Jude, a program manager at Stratecast/Frost & Sullivan.

You have to plan allocation of resources for these things, since there are always user problems, he told TechNewsWorld.

Once the device is rooted, Gooligan downloads a new malicious module that lets it

steal a users Gmail account and authentication token information, which bypasses Googles two-factor authentication and other security mechanisms;

install apps from Google Play and rate them to raise their reputation; and

install adware to generate revenue.

The malware also fakes device information such as IMEI and IMSI, so it can download an app twice but make it appear that the downloads are on different devices, thus doubling the potential revenue from the apps.

Apps infected by Gooligan include Perfect Cleaner, WiFi Enhancer, Memory Booster, Battery Monitor and Weather.

Protecting the User

Google has removed from Google Play apps associated with the Ghost Push family, and apps that benefited from installs delivered by the malware, Googles Ludwig noted.

It also has improved Verify Apps to protect users in the future.

Google has notified users known to have been affected by Gooligan. It also has removed their Google Account tokens and provided them simple instructions to sign in securely, Ludwig said.

Further, it has been working with the Shadowserver Foundation, as well as multiple major ISPs that provided the infrastructure used to host and control Gooligan, in order to take down the infrastructure.

Devices with up-to-date security patches are safe, Ludwig said. Those with a system image, like Googles Nexus and Pixel devices, can remove the malware through a system software reinstall.

Owners of newer devices, including those compatible with Android 6.0, have Verified Boot enabled, and can remove Ghost Push easily, Ludwig pointed out.

Patches often are delayed by wireless carriers because they need to test them for compatibility first.

Gooligan is turning out to have serious repercussions, Enderle said, so I wouldnt be surprised if Google and the carriers are discussing update periodicity right now.
SINGAPORE  Dyes and chemicals company, Huntsman Textile Effects has announced that it has entered into a collaboration agreement with Viyellatex Group, the Bangladesh-based vertically integrated group of textile manufacturing companies. Under this agreement, Huntsman will support Viyellatex's mills to streamline operations and optimise processes, train technical staff, and make recommendations to help improve yield and productivity. It is also hoped the agreement will help Viyellatex maintain its edge in the textile industry by leveraging Huntsman's R&D capabilities, innovation and focus on sustainability.
YANGON - More than 100 textile industry stakeholders, among them apparel brands, NGOs, trade union representatives and suppliers, recently attended H&M's Fair and Equal conference in Yangon, Myanmar. Key note speeches from the ILO's development partner relations coordinator Peter Rademaker, Impact's founder and director Rosey Hurst and H&M Group's head of sustainability Anna Gedda, were followed by a panel discussion and several break-out sessions about social topics such as fair living wages.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released a final environmental impact statement Wednesday giving the green light to genetically engineered (GE) creeping bentgrass, a highly invasive grass genetically engineered by Monsanto and Scotts to withstand what would normally be a fatal dose of the herbicide glyphosate.

Decades-old outdoor experiments have proven the novel grass impossible to control, as it escaped from controlled plots and invaded irrigation ditches, river banks and the Crooked River National Grassland, crowding out native plants and the wildlife that depends on them. Despite more than a decade of efforts and millions of dollars, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Scotts and Monsanto have been unable to exterminate the escapes. Now the USDA has granted the industrys request that it relinquish any authority over the GE grass.

USDAs approval of this genetically engineered grass is as dangerous as it is unlawful, said George Kimbrell, a senior attorney for the Center for Food Safety. The agency is giving Monsanto and Scotts a free pass for the harm their product has already caused farmers and the environment and is irresponsibly gambling future harm on nothing more than their empty promises.

The GE bentgrass has already illegally contaminated at least three counties and the ultralight grass seeds and pollen have proven impossible to eradicate. Farmers and noxious weed experts in eastern Oregon have been outspoken critics of the proposal to approve the grass. In response to widespread contamination, GE creeping bentgrass was declared a noxious weed in Malheur County in 2016. With this approval responsibility for controlling the contamination now shifts from USDA, Scotts and Monsanto to become solely the problem of individual farmers and landowners.

It just tears me up to think about the environmental and economic havoc this grass could wreak upon our community, said Jerry Erstrom, farmer and chairman of the Malheur County weed board. The USDA has ignored the concerns of farmers in the areas affected by the existing contamination. I just cant believe that they will turn this loose and let Scotts and Monsanto walk away from what they did here.

Unlike USDA the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has recognized the danger of the novel GE grass and its likelihood of spreading out of control, concluding that if approved it is likely to jeopardize the continued existence of the endangered Willamette daisy and Bradshaws lomatuim and harm the critical habitat of the endangered Fenders blue butterfly and Willamette daisy.

This outrageous decision by regulators to ignore the ongoing harm to Oregon farmers, endangered species and the precious landscape we all share is a disturbing reminder that federal regulators dont primarily serve taxpayers and citizens, but rather the wishes of corporations like Monsanto and Scotts, said Lori Ann Burd, director of the environmental health program at the Center for Biological Diversity. Those of us dedicated to protecting Oregons natural resources will explore all legal options necessary to place the burden of controlling this invasive weed back where it belongson the shoulders of the corporate profiteers who brought it into the world.
Monsanto is facing yet another lawsuit over its alleged negligent handling of PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), a banned and highly toxic group of chemicals that the company manufactured decades ago. But this time its not another city suing the biotech giantits an entire state.

Highly toxic PCBs have been found throughout Washington state, with more than 600 suspected or confirmed contamination sites, including Wenatchee River. Flickr

Washington is suing Monsanto over widespread PCBs contamination, the first U.S. state to take such an action. Gov. Jay Inslee and Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced the lawsuit, filed in King County Superior Court, at a press conference in Seattle on Thursday.

According to the Associated Press, Washington is seeking damages on several grounds, including product liability for Monsantos alleged failure to warn about the dangers of PCBs; negligence; and trespass for injuring the states natural resources.

Before switching operations to agriculture, Monsanto was the sole manufacturer of the compound, which was used to insulate electronics, from 1935 until 1977. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) banned PCBs in 1979, due to its link to birth defects and cancer in laboratory animals. PCBs can also have adverse skin and liver effects in humans. Not only that, the chemical also lingers in the environment for many decades.

PCBs have been found in bays, rivers, streams, sediment, soil and air throughout Washington state, with more than 600 suspected or confirmed contamination sites from Puget Sound to the Wenatchee River, Lake Spokane to Commencement Bay, Ferguson said.

He noted that Washington has spent tens of millions of dollars on cleanup efforts but the toxic pollutants have caused harm to protected salmon and orcas. The state is seeking hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars from Monsanto.

Seattle Sues Monsanto Over PCB Contamination, Becomes 6th City to Do So https://t.co/F2bGa2EySG @justlabelit @TrueFoodNow  EcoWatch (@EcoWatch) January 28, 2016

Ferguson also claimed that Monsanto produced PCBs for decades while hiding what they knew about the toxic chemicals harm to human health and the environment.

He cited Monsantos internal documents showing the company knew about the dangers of PCBs way back in 1937, including one document that stated how tests on animals revealed systemic toxic effects from prolonged exposure from inhaling PCB fumes or ingestion.

Furthermore, as the AP reported, in 1969, a Monsanto committee on PCBs declared:

There is too much customer/market need and selfishly too much Monsanto profit to go out  There is little probability that any action that can be taken will prevent the growing incrimination of specific polychlorinated biphenyls  as nearly global environmental contaminants leading to contamination of human food (particularly fish), the killing of some marine species (shrimp), and the possible extinction of several species of fish eating birds.

Despite having that information, the company told the public not to worry. That same year, Monsanto sent a letter to New Jerseys Department of Conservation that stated, Based on available data, manufacturing and use experience, we do not believe PCBs to be seriously toxic.

Although PCBs have been banned for decades, the toxic compound is still detected in the environment today. This warning sign was displayed near New Yorks Hudson River in 2013. NOAA

The St. Louis-based corporation has been served with similar PCB contamination lawsuits from at least eight other West Coast cities including Seattle and Spokane in Washington state. The cities of Portland in Oregon and Berkeley, San Diego, San Jose, Oakland and Long Beach in California have also filed suits. Those cases are pending.

Monsanto has dismissed its latest PCB contamination case. Company spokesman Scott S. Partridge said in a statement to the AP that the case is experimental because it seeks to target a product manufacturer for selling a lawful and useful chemical four to eight decades ago that was applied by the U.S. government, Washington State, local cities, and industries into many products to make them safer.

PCBs have not been produced in the U.S. for four decades, and Washington is now pursuing a case on a contingency fee basis that departs from settled law both in Washington and across the country. Most of the prior cases filed by the same contingency fee lawyers have been dismissed, and Monsanto believes this case similarly lacks merit, Partridge continued.

Monsanto Ordered to Pay $46.5 Million in PCB Lawsuit in Rare Win for Plaintiffs https://t.co/sJMwzMfG67 @TrueFoodNow @GMWatch  EcoWatch (@EcoWatch) May 26, 2016

Monsanto has historically prevailed in lawsuits filed against the company over human illness related to PCBs. But in a rare win for plaintiffs this past May, a St. Louis jury awarded a total of $46.5 million in damages to three plaintiffs who claimed that exposure to PCBs caused them to develop non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

That lawsuit also accused Monsanto of continuing to sell the compounds even after learning about its dangers and falsely assuring the public they were safe.

Washingtons lawsuit comes just days before shareholders decide on Bayer AGs $66 billion acquisition of Monsanto that would create the worlds largest seed and pesticide company. The pending deal is currently undergoing state and federal antitrust investigations. The vote will take place on Dec. 13.
Portland, Oregon is suing Monsanto over contaminating the citys waterways with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), a highly toxic group of chemicals that endangers human health and the environment.

Downtown Portland and the Steel Bridge from the east side of the Willamette. The city has spent more than $1 billion cleaning up pollution in the river. Photo credit: Flickr

Portland City Council unanimously passed a resolution Wednesday authorizing city attorney Tracy Reeve to sue the biotech giant.

Portlands elected officials are committed to holding Monsanto accountable for its apparent decision to favor profits over ecological and human health, Reeve said in a statement. Monsanto profited from selling PCBs for decades and needs to take responsibility for cleaning up after the mess it created.

Map showing general area of concern for pollution at the Portland Harbor Superfund site. Photo credit: EPA

Portland is now the seventh West Coast city to sue Monsanto over PCB contamination, joining Seattle, Spokane, Berkeley, San Diego, San Jose and Oakland.

According to a statement from the plaintiffs law firm Gomez Trial Attorneys, Portland has spent and will continue to spend significant public funds to investigate and clean up PCB contamination in the Willamette River and Columbia Slough. The chemical is also one of the main targets of the massive Portland Harbor Superfund cleanup project.

Travis Williams, executive director of Willamette Riverkeeper, explained to KGW: In our case there are PCBs widely distributed throughout Portland Harbor and thats one of the main reasons it was listed as a superfund site back in December of 2000.

The city has spent more than $1 billion cleaning up the Willamette, Portland mayor Charlie Hales told OPB.

The citizens of Portland dug deep in order to pay for cleaning up our mess, and other businesses should be held to that standard, Hales added.

Portland Council votes to authorize the city attorney to file suit against Monsanto for PCB #pollution in Willamette & Columbia Slough.  Amelia Templeton (@ameliaOPB) March 16, 2016

As EcoWatch mentioned recently, PCBs were once used to insulate electronics decades ago. Before switching operations to agriculture, Monsanto was the sole manufacturer of the compound, raking a reported $22 million in business a year.
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Seattle joins the growing list of cities in the American West that has slapped Monsanto with a PCB lawsuit. PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, is a highly toxic chemical that the company manufactured decades ago.

The City of Seattle aims to hold Monsanto responsible for costs of PCBs contamination in its waterways and and drainage infrastructure. Photo credit:

Flickr

The complaint, filed on Monday with the U.S. District Court in Seattle, alleges that Monsanto knew that the chemicals were polluting the environment and causing harm to people and wildlife, as Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes explained to The Seattle Times.

When the profit motive overtakes concern for the environment, this is the kind of disaster that happens, Holmes added. Im proud to hold Monsanto accountable.

According to Seattlepi.com, the suit concerns PCB contamination in 20,000 acres that drain into the lower Duwamish, which is a federal Superfund site (meaning its so polluted that that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has to help with cleanup). It also concerns areas that drain to the East Waterway adjacent to Harbor Island, also a federal Superfund site.

The lawsuit also states:

PCBs were detected in 75 percent of more than 1,000 samples collected from catch basins and drainage lines in the Lower Duwamish drainage area. In the East Waterway drainage areas, PCBs were detected in 82 percent of samples collected with in-line grabs of sediment in drainage pipes and PCBs were detected in 73 percent of samples collected from catch basins in street right-of-ways.

The city is likely seeking millions of dollars from Monsanto to pay for the cleanup. The ultimate cost depends on how far you go in cleanup, Holmes told Seattlepi.com, adding that it would be impossible clean up all the PCBs found mainly in the citys industrial zone.

Under a consent decree issued by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Washington Department of Ecology, Seattle already needs to spend at least $27 million to build a treatment plant to remove pollutants, including PCBs, from stormwater.

However, as The Seattle Times pointed out, the plant will only cover a mere 1.25 percent of the 20,000 acres that drain to the Lower Duwamish.

Monsanto has faced a spate of PCB contamination lawsuits over the decades and several this year alone. In 2015, the cities of Spokane, San Diego, San Jose and Oakland also sued the company over PCB-contaminated sites.

Although PCBs have been banned for decades, the toxic compound is still detected in the environment today. This warning sign was displayed near New Yorks Hudson River in 2013. Photo credit: NOAA

Before switching to agribusiness, Monsanto was the primary manufacturer of PCBs in the U.S. from 1935 to 1979. PCBs, which were used to insulate electronics, was banned in 1979 by the U.S. EPA over human health and environmental concerns.

The chemical has been detected in waterways around the world, and can cause damage to aquatic life, wildlife as well as human health. PCBs have been known to negatively effect the human immune, reproductive, nervous and endocrine systems, and cause cancer.

In an email to KUOW/EarthFix, Monsanto spokeswoman Charla Lord said the company is reviewing the lawsuit and its allegations but added that Monsanto is not responsible for the costs alleged in this matter.

PCBs sold at the time were a lawful and useful product that was then incorporated by third parties into useful products, she wrote. If improper disposal or other improper uses allowed for necessary clean up costs, then these other third parties would bear responsibility for those costs.

It has been reported that Monsanto allegedly knew that PCBs were toxic well before the 1979 ban but continued production of the profitable compound anyway. Think Progress reported:

In a 1970 internal memo, agrochemical giant Monsanto alerted its development committee to a problem: Polychlorinated Biphenylsknown as PCBshad been shown to be a highly toxic pollutant.

PCBssold under the common name Aroclorwere also huge business, raking in some $10 million in profits. Not wanting to lose all of these profits, Monsanto decided to continue its production of Aroclor while alerting its customers to its potentially adverse effects. Monsanto got out of the PCB business altogether in 1977two years before the chemicals were banned by the EPAbut just because the company no longer produces the toxic substances doesnt mean it can forget about them completely.

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Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad has been nominated to serve as U .S. Ambassador to China in Donald Trumps Administration, a pick that has some of Big Ags biggest players celebrating.

Donald Trump has chosen Iowa Governor Terry Branstad as ambassador to China. Twitter

Branstad is the longest-serving governor in U.S. history with 22 non-consecutive years and going under his belt. During his tenure, he has built significant relationships with Iowas agribusinesses and has helped spur trade of the states beef, pork and soy products to Asian consumers, and once struck a $4.3 billion deal with Chinese officials for Iowas exports.

This past October, China signed a $2.1 billion deal for Iowa soybeans to feed Chinese livestock. In November, less than a week after Trumps presidential win, Branstad traveled to China to promote Iowa beef and pork. It was his seventh such trip to China as governor.

The Republican governors friendship with Chinese president Xi Jinping goes back three decades after Xi visited rural Iowa in 1985.

Ensuring the countries with the two largest economies and two largest militaries in the world maintain a collaborative and cooperative relationship is needed more now than ever, Branstad said after Trumps announcement.

I'm honored and humbled to accept this responsibility as Amb to China; Iowa will never be far from my heart #iagov https://t.co/kkyXBYNElZ  Terry Branstad (@TerryBranstad) December 7, 2016

At a Wednesday meeting in St. Louis with United Soybean Board and the American Soybean Association, Monsanto chief technology officer Robb Fraley praised the president-elects latest top-level pick.

[Fraley] said Branstads past work on behalf of biotech acceptance and advocacy for U.S. agriculture makes him an excellent choice for the role, according to Farm Journal editor Susan Luke.

China, Monsanto and Iowa are all linked by the humble soybean. Monsanto controls 90 percent of soybean production in the U.S. and Iowa happens to be a top soybean grower, with 97 percent of the states soybeans grown from genetically modified (GMO) seeds. China is the worlds largest soybean consumer, importing about 25 percent of all U.S. soy produced.

Soybeans sold to China are the largest U.S. agricultural export as their value rose from about $400,000 annually during 1996-97 to as high as $14.5 billion in 2014, Fred Gale, U.S. Department of Agriculture agricultural economist told ChinaDaily USA.

Chinas booming population is driving increased meat consumption and increased imports of corn and soybeans to feed livestock. Incidentally, China has banned the cultivation of GMO crops, as Chinese consumers are generally fearful of the foods perceived health risks. Rather, the country buys GMO soy for cooking oil or animal feed. But in recent years, China has pushed for the domestic commercialization of GMO soybeans, spending billions on research. President Xi himself called for the domestic cultivation of GMO crops in 2014.

Branstads nomination was also praised by Iowa Corn Growers Association president Kurt Hora, noting that China does not just buy corn to feed its animals, its also a large buyer of U.S. ethanol.

China is an important market for U.S. corn in all forms including the second-largest purchaser of U.S. ethanol last marketing year; and a critical buyer of U.S. distillers dried grains (DDGS). The China/Hong Kong market is also the third largest customer for both U.S. pork and beef exports, Hora said.

Corn ethanol has been touted as an energy alternative, but the biofuel might be worse than petroleum when total greenhouse gas emissions are considered, Scientific American explained.

Mother Joness Tom Philpott called Trumps choice of Branstad a gift to Big Ag, highlighting the governors close ties to Bruce Rastetter, the CEO of Summit Agriculture Group, a major Iowa pork and ethanol producer, who contributed $164,875 towards Branstads run for governor in 2010. Eldon Roth, CEO of Beef Products International, contributed another $152,000.

Not only that, back in 2011, the governor also tapped Rastetters brother Brent, who then ran a business constructing industrial-scale hog-rearing facilities, to the states Environmental Protection Commission. Branstad also signed into law one of those infamous ag gag bills, championed by Big Ag, that make it a crime to secretly document conditions inside livestock farms, Philpott wrote.

Ronnie Cummins, the director of the Organic Consumers Association, criticized Trumps latest pick.

[The selection of] Iowa Governor Terry Branstad for U.S. Ambassador to China is good news for the factory farm cartel, the ethanol lobby, Big Pharma Bayer and Monsanto, but very bad news for organic consumers and farmers, as well as everyone in the world who cares about justice, healthy food and soils, the environment, humane treatment of animals and re-stabilizing our dangerously out-of-control climate, Cummins told EcoWatch.

Ken Roseboro, the editor and publisher of the Organic & Non-GMO Report, agreed.

As an Iowan, Ive seen that Governor Terry Branstad has been a big supporter of factory farms in Iowa, which threaten the environment, human health and quality of life for Iowans, Roseboro told EcoWatch. His appointment as Ambassador to China is likely to accelerate that unsustainable trend since China is deeply involved in Iowas pork production and factory farms.

Health and environmental advocates have been very critical of Trumps recent slew of nominations for his incoming administration. Just yesterday, the president-elect announced his pick of Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to head the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 350.orgs Executive Director May Boeve called Pruitt a fossil fuel puppet.

Donald Trump appears destined for the Guinness Book of Records for appointing the most corrupt and dangerous administration officials in U.S. history, Cummins told EcoWatch. If I were a Reality TV host, my message to Donald and his cronies would be clear: Youre fired.
Hundreds of U.S. veterans that joined the historic uprising at Standing Rock at a pivotal moment ahead of a key victory are turning attention to their next act of solidarity, this time to stand with communities suffering from the ongoing water crisis in Flint, Michigan.

One of the main organizers who brought together more than 2,000 veterans to form a human shield around water protectors at Standing Rock in the face of an anticipated violent crackdown, U.S. Army veteran Wesley Clark Jr., said that while details of the trip to Flint arent finalized, the move is on the agenda.

Protecting sacred land and water is a duty we all share. We will continue to stand together. #NoDAPL pic.twitter.com/HEkaUostAt  Our Revolution (@OurRevolution) December 6, 2016

We dont know when we are going to be there, Clark, who is the son of retired U.S. Army General and former Democratic presidential nomination hopeful Wesley Clark Sr., told the Flint Journal, but we will be heading to Flint.

This problem is all over the country, he added. Its got to be more than veterans. People have been treated wrong in this county for a long time.

Local residents told the Flint Journal that they hope a visit from the veterans could help bring much-needed media attention to the water crisis, which has fallen out of the news spotlight in recent months even though thousands of homes left with contaminated pipes still dont have guaranteed access to safe drinking water.

Both the struggle against the US$3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline and the Flint water crisis have been described as emblematic cases of environmental racism.

The months-long struggle spearheaded by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North Dakotamet with brutal repression including the use of dogs, pepper spray, rubber bullets, water cannons in freezing temperatures and other military equipmentscored a victory Sunday when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers denied a final permit for developers to tunnel under Lake Oahe to complete the pipeline on its current path. Although Standing Rock Chairman Dave Archambault II has encouraged water protectors to head home for the winter after the win, many have decided to stay at the resistance camps, bracing for more battles against the contentious project, which could be re-approved on an alternate route.

The 1,172-mile pipeline was already rerouted once from its original path near the majority-white town of Bismarck, North Dakota, to pass instead through treatied Native land and sacred Indigenous burial sites near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation.

In Flint, the water crisis was sparked in April 2014 when an unelected emergency manager switched the citys water source from Lake Huron to the long-contaminated and corrosive Flint River. Complaints about water quality surfaced within months, but it wasnt until October 2015 that Flints water was switched back, leaving a massive infrastructure problem of heavily corroded pipes and lead contamination. According to local media, an estimated 550 homes have had their lead-contaminated pipes swapped for new ones in the town of nearly 100,000 people.

Some have drawn parallels between the racial dimensions of the threat the Dakota Access Pipeline poses to the Standing Rock Sioux water supply and the water contamination impacting mostly Black residents in Flint. In both cases, authorities have been slow to take the concerns of the affected racialized communities seriously and act on their demands.

These are people who have been just as oppressed and in some other forms more oppressed than Black folks, Flint resident and veteran George F. Grundy told the Flint Journal in reference to the struggle at Standing Rock, adding that shows of solidarity have made him believe that the human spirit is larger than any corporate entity.

Before the veterans head to Flint, Clark and a group of his fellow veterans offered a powerful show of historical reckoning with Native Americans in North Dakota on Monday.

In front of Indigenous leaders, some of the veterans recognized the history of genocide against Native Americans and asked for forgiveness for the militarys role in war crimes and violent attempted extermination that targeted tribes. Sioux tribe spokesperson Leksi Leonard Crow Dog accepted the apology.

The fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline has brought together some 200 Native American tribes in support of the water protectors and garnered solidarity from hundreds more environmental, human rights and Indigenous groups.

Reposted with permission from our media associate teleSUR.
ECSU ROTC Cadets Commissioned as U.S. Army Officers

Three Elizabeth City State University Military Science students are now second lieutenants in the United States Army.

On Friday, Dec. 09, 2016, one day before the December 2017 ECSU Commencement, seniors Demetrius Lamar Adams, Timmay Janenell Beale, and Janae Chasity Elder were commissioned as officers in the U.S. Army before a crowd of family, friends, faculty, and military officers.

The ceremonys guest speaker was Brig. Gen. R. Scott Dingle. Speaking to the crowd, and addressing the newly commissioned officers directly, Dingle spoke of the commitment of family, of school, hard work and leadership.

Without you, he said, addressing family members, they would not have achieved what they are achieving today.

Family, Dingle said, helped build these young officers into leaders.

They are getting ready to lead men and women, he said.

Dingle said the new officers have spent the past four years as ECSU students, working hard to become military officers.

All that hard work was worth it because today you are going to be second lieutenants in the United States Army, said Dingle.

Dingle said that from day one, you are automatically in charge. These three young officers, he said, are the leaders that men and women in the military will look to for answers.

They will, he said, be tested and challenged.

Thats part of being a soldier in the United States Army, said Dingle.

After Dingles speech, the students took their oaths and officially became officers. Their insignia bars were appended to their uniforms by family and friends.

Each officer then received the ceremonial first salute and offered a few words of thanks to family, friends, and faculty.

Demetrius Adams is from Gatesville, North Carolina. He majored in engineering and will be assigned to the Armys signal corps.

Timmay Beale is from Hampton, Virginia. She majored in business administration and will be assigned to the adjutant general corps.

Janae Elder is from Pikesville, Maryland. She majored in biology and will be assigned to the chemical corps.

All three student officers are December 2017 ECSU graduates.
Via PLOS Currents Outbreaks: Community Event-Based Surveillance for Ebola Virus Disease in Sierra Leone: Implementation of a National-Level System During a Crisis. The abstract:

INTRODUCTION: There are few documented examples of community networks that have used unstructured information to support surveillance during a health emergency. In January 2015, the Ebola Response Consortium rapidly implemented community event-based surveillance for Ebola virus disease at a national scale in Sierra Leone.

METHODS: Community event based surveillance uses community health monitors in each community to provide an early warning system of events that are suggestive of Ebola virus disease transmission. The Ebola Response Consortium, a consortium of 15 nongovernmental organizations, applied a standardized procedure to implement community event-based surveillance across nine of the 14 districts.

To evaluate system performance during the first six months of operation (March to August 2015), we conducted a process evaluation. We analyzed the production of alerts, conducted interviews with surveillance stakeholders and performed rapid evaluations of community health monitors to assess their knowledge and reported challenges.

RESULTS: The training and procurement of supplies was expected to begin in January 2015 and attain full scale by March 2015. We found several logistical challenges that delayed full implementation until June 2015 when the epidemic was past its peak. Community health monitors reported 9,131 alerts during this period. On average, 82% of community health monitors reported to their supervisor at least once per week. Most alerts (87%) reported by community health monitors were deaths unrelated to Ebola. During the rapid evaluations, the mean recall by community health monitors was three of the six trigger events. Implementation of the national system achieved scale, but three months later than anticipated.

DISCUSSION: Community event based surveillance generated consistent surveillance information during periods of no- to low-levels of transmission across districts. We interpret this to mean that community health monitors are an effective tool for generating useful, unstructured information at the village level. However, to maximize validity, the triggers require more training, may be too many in number, and need increased relevance to the context of the tail end of the epidemic.
(Photo: Reuters / Mike Hutchings)South Africa's President Jacob Zuma celebrates his re-election as party president alongside newly-elected party deputy president, Cyril Ramaphosa (L,) at the National Conference of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) in Bloemfontein Dec. 18, 2012. South Africa's ruling ANC re-elected Zuma as its leader, setting him up for seven more years as head of state of Africa's biggest economy

A group of bishops and senior Anglican clergy in South Africa have rejected a suggestion by the national president, Jacob Zuma, that that religious leaders "stay out of politics and rather pray" for their country.

The Anglican members from the Western Cape region represented by clergy from Cape Town, False Bay and Saldanha Bay said they were "alarmed" by Zuma's pronouncement.

"As clergy whose ministry in South Africa spans many years and who have witnessed and participated in the long and painful struggle against oppression, we reject the President's comments," it said in statement.

"We wish to remind the president of the invitation of his illustrious predecessor, former president Nelson Mandela, to the clergy in particular, to speak out strongly against those who in the democratic South Africa abused their power, misused their authority, misled their people and corrupted the trust placed in them."

Earlier in December Zuma addressed thousands of followers of the Twelve Apostles' Church in Christ members in a massive stadium in the east coast city of Durban in which he said the Church should avoid meddling in political matters, noting they are there to pray.

'CHURCH MIRED IN POLITICS'

"It is sad to see the church and church leaders getting mired into matters of politics instead of praying for leaders. I urge the Church to pray for us as leaders' pray for our people to stop the hatred. I urge you to assist us to build a stable nation built on love'" Zuma was quoted as saying in the South African newspaper, The Times.

http://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2016/12/04/Stay-out-of-politics--pray-for-us-instead-Zuma-tells-church-leaders

The Anglican group said faith communities of South Africa have a "time-honored" history and responsibility to speak truth to power, provide a moral compass in times of confusion, encourage the disheartened and voice the needs of those who feel unheard and marginalized.

In that tradition, the leaders noted that communities are in pain caused by increasing violence and unemployment under the watch of elected leaders. The also spoke of growing and gross inequality between the haves and the have nots.

The Anglican leaders belong to the Church of the Province of Southern Africa which is a member of the World Council of Churches, the South African Council of Churches, and the All Africa Council of Churches.

Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for this fight against the then racist ideology of apartheid in South Africa was the former national Anglican leader as Archbishop of Cape Town.

Religious leaders of the South African Council of Churches like Rev. Frank Chikane' Bishop Malusi Mpumlwana and Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein have called on to Zuma to step down due to the plethora of corruption and mismanagement issues he faces.

The current Anglican archbishop, Thabo Makgoba, who also confronted apartheid has been an outspoken critic of corruption and xenophobia in South Africa often raising the ire of authorities.

"We see little moral and accountable leadership. We see a divided Cabinet and ruling party at war within itself - while around us we hear the cries of children and mothers both hungry and vulnerable to the evils of poverty and abuse.

'PEOPLE'S GROWING DISCONTENT'

"We witness a growing discontent amongst our young people. In a country blessed with abundant resources and with more than enough to share, we feel the anger of students seeking free tertiary education and understand their cries.

"In a land of the dispossessed we note the slow pace of land reform and hear the calls of those who seek to retake what was stolen from their forbears," the leaders said.

The leaders emphasized their rejection of Zuma's advice not to engage in political matters.

"Our people live there, work there, suffer, cry and struggle there. We live there too and cannot and will not stop commenting or acting on what we see and what, in our opinion, is unjust, corrupt and unacceptable to God's high standards of sacrificial love," they said.

They noted that South Africa is part of God's world, where all people irrespective of race, status, sexual preference and age, are one family and rejected any calls which aimed at sowing divisions among them.
Victoria's Education Minister James Merlino has called for an inquiry and offered an apology to the state's students following a disastrous technical glitch that caused VCE results to be released five days early.Students who received their results in error were justified in feeling "angry, upset, confused and disappointed" said Merlino.More than 2,000 Year 12 students found themselves receiving their Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) early on Wednesday evening. Students who registered for an SMS alert during a 90-minute period were affected by the error, according to Suzanne Connelly of the Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre (VTAC)."Between 7:00pm and approximately 8:30pm, if a student logged on to register to get the SMS, it was only those students who received their ATAR," said Connelly."So for students who had already logged on and didn't re-log on last night, they wouldn't have got it."Both the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) and VTAC confirmed that the results sent out due to the glitch were accurate."Clearly a significant error has been made and I understand how angry and confused students and their families must be feeling because of this mistake, it is unacceptable," Merlino added.Another 40,000 VCE students in Victoria will receive their results on Monday.Connelly was unable to shed light on why the system had malfunctioned, saying, "We do know that the behaviour of the program was completely different to what had been tested, approved and signed off, but it's still under strict investigation at the moment."Nick Wakeling, education spokesperson for the Opposition, was scathing of the mistake."If you can't manage the IT system within your own department, then what does that tell Victorians about the way in which they run education in this state?" he said.The SMS service used by VTAC and VCAA is provided by Salmat Digital. The technical glitch comes just weeks after VTAC launched a crackdown on schools that leak ATAR results, imposing, among other penalties, bans on schools accessing early results for up to five years if they are found to have broken rules.
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.
How can EU cities and regions make use of the European Investment Banks funding and advice for their development projects? What role can the European Fund for Strategic Investments play to help municipalities and regional governments boost their investment?

Discover the answers to these and other questions through the series of videos and factsheets below, developed for a massive open online course (MOOC) by the European Committee of the Regions and the EIB.
Today was the first day of the year that I needed to start the car a few minutes early, a sure sign that winter has arrived.

The chill of winter always brings a flurry of memories of days spent trackside back home in Maine, specifically along the Bangor & Aroostook. Serving the northern half of Maine, the B&A* operated through harsh country and the drama of man versus nature almost always revealed itself on an epic scale come winter. The most dramatic display of that battle came when the managers at Northern Maine Jct. called for a plow extra.

Even today, the phrase B&A plow extra brings a sense of excitement to me. As a kid, I remember sitting on the floor of my parents living room as my Dad and his friends looked at slides of past adventures to Madawaska, Millinocket and Oakfield in search of the plows. As the images of a red plow screaming across landscape were illuminated on the screen before me, I daydreamed of someday seeing that show for myself.

That chance finally came in 1998. My Dad had gotten word that the B&A had dispatched a plow extra to clear the main line south to Northern Maine Jct. With little time to spare, we loaded up the truck and headed north, hoping wed make it to NMJ before the plow. An hour or so later, we were positioned along the tracks just north of the junction, confident that the plow hadnt been through yet. After waiting for what seemed like forever, the cold winter afternoon was interrupted by the unmistakable sound of a single-chime horn off a B&A plow. Moments later, two GP7s rounded the curve pushing an old Russell plow. Unfortunately, they werent pushing much snow. Apparently, the deep stuff that had necessitated the plow extra further north was nonexistent on the south end of the railroad. However, I had gotten a taste of the drama of a B&A plow extra and I wanted more.

Two years later, during the winter of 2000, I finally got a taste of that excitement. In fact, I got more than a taste. Word had spread among our circle of friends that the B&A would be running a plow extra on a Saturday morning out of Oakfield. By the time the crew arrived at the yard early that morning, the storm had been replaced by a clear blue sky. After hooking up the power, firing up the wood stove in the plow and fixing the headlight (remember, these plows werent used that often), the train headed south, busting every drift it found along the way. I was finally getting the chance to see a B&A plow extra in all its glory, throwing a wave of white stuff 40, 50 or 60 feet into the woods. It was exhilarating.

South of Millinocket, the snow from the previous day had been followed by freezing rain, creating a top layer of ice. As B&A X-52 South roared around the curve near South Twin Lake it was obvious that they were pushing more than snow  as evidenced by the loud scraping noise. I suddenly remembered a little piece of advice my Dad had given me earlier in the day: Shoot, duck and run. Dad always likened chasing a plow extra to a sport  almost like a railfan version of an obstacle course race where you have to run, duck and jump to get your shots. I was now about to experience that sport first hand.

After I grabbed my shot  a rare, well-composed image by 12-year-old Justin  I quickly turned around for the going-away shot. As I framed it up, a tsunami of snow and ice grew behind me. Before I knew it, I was knocked down into the snow bank and buried under a pile of snow. My Dad, who had heeded his own advice, picked me up and dusted me off. Seconds later we were back in the car and heading toward the next location.

A few weeks later, a yellow box of Kodachome slides had come back in the mail. Among the dozens of photos from that day was a tilted shot of trees and snow: apparently I had taken a photo at the exact moment I was pelted with snow. The train is of course nowhere to be seen, but I still keep the shot as a reminder of the excitement and insanity of chasing a B&A plow extra.

As I type this on a Thursday night next to the fire, one of the tabs open on my computer is the weather forecast for Saturday. Were supposed to get dumped on here in Montana on Friday night and while the sane thing might be to stay inside, part of me wants to pack up the cameras and head trackside. In search of the same adventure and excitement I sought 16 years ago at South Twin Lake with my Dad.

*I realize the Bangor & Aroostooks official AAR reporting marks are BAR and that B&A has long been associated with the Boston & Albany. However, to those of us who were born and raised in the Pine Tree State, the B&A will always stand for the Bangor & Aroostook.
Chief Minister to be asked about living wage



Chief Minister Howard Quayle MHK

The introduction of a living wage on the Isle of Man will be discussed in this month's sitting of Tynwald.

Ramsey MHK Lawrie Hooper will ask the Chief Minister whether there are plans to bring in such a provision on the Island.

The living wage - which is already in place in the UK - varies from place to place, but is designed to give workers a high enough pay packet to cover the basic costs of living.

The minimum wage is currently being reviewed on the Island.

Howard Quayle will give his views on the living wage at Tynwald question time on Tuesday.
TT team quits sport



Dan Kneen competing for Mar-Train Racing at the Macau GP earlier this year.

One of the teams that competes at the Isle of Man TT is pulling out of the sport.

Mar-Train Racing - whose riders include Manxman Dan Kneen - released a statement saying they are withdrawing from the sport after 11 years.

The team had an option to extend their deal with Yamaha for two more years, but decided not to take the option up.

Gary Johnson gave the team their first TT podium in the Supersport class in 2015.
Six months of sometimes heated discussion came to a close Thursday after Carlisle Borough Council voted 5-2 vote to pass a Human Relations Ordinance.

Carlisle becomes the 37th municipality in the state to have such an ordinance.

Council members Sean Crampsie, Dawn Flower-Webb, Robin Guido, Sean Shultz and Tim Scott voted yes. Council members Perry Heath and Connie Bires voted against it. Crampsie proposed the ordinance.

Carlisle is an open and accepting community. Were open for business for everyone, Crampsie said. Everyone can rent here, and were going to serve everyone in Carlisle. Were not going to discriminate, and if you do discriminate, theres going to be an avenue for those discriminated against to now come to, Crampsie said.

The ordinance is intended to foster equality and equal opportunity for those in the LGBTQ community by establishing a volunteer human relations commission, a complaint procedure and a mediation process. The Human Relations Commission will go into effect in March. Councilman Sean Shultz said council will direct borough staff to advertise the four volunteer positions and get applications printed in the meantime.

The ordinance makes it unlawful for anyone to engage in discrimination related to employment, housing and commercial property or any public accommodation where it is not currently prohibited by other state or federal laws.

Pennsylvanias Human Relations Act  which the ordinance largely mirrors  currently provides these protections, including protection from discrimination at public accommodations, to all of these classes of people except sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression.

Prior to the vote, Council President and Mayor Tim Scott opened the floor up to the 400 or so people in attendance with a desire to have their thoughts on the ordinance heard for the final time.

Some shared their personal experiences on how their lives had been affected by discrimination; others shared how they felt their freedom of conscience was being infringed upon. After more than 1 hours of public comment and eventual chants of vote from the crowd, Scott moved on to comments from his fellow councilors, who thanked one another for a civil process that evolved over the past six months. Crampsie described it as how democracy works.

Religious organizations are exempt from the ordinance but individuals are not. Several business owners expressed concern about this at the meeting.

What I fear most about this ordinance is that it will empower the LGBT community to punish me, said Brad Wenger, of Wenger Meats & Ice.

No, were not going to discriminate based on religion, Crampsie said. No matter what you believe in, no matter who you are, youre going to have an opportunity in Carlisle.

Guido thanked council, saying she appreciated the fact that through discussions and legal questions, council was able to be kind to each other and civil.

After the meeting, Christin Kapp, a vocal supporter of the ordinance since its introduction, had one word to describe how she felt: Relieved.

I think its a mistake, said Art Amundsen, a financial adviser in the borough. I think its a very unhealthy thing. Its led to serious problems in other communities.

Display of support

Borough halls front steps saw arguably just as much action as the meeting chambers inside as multiple shows of support preceded the actual meeting. Around 200 members of Dickinson Colleges representatives, including students, faculty, staff and interim President Neil Weissman, marched in the cold from the Stern Center on campus to borough hall.

We just hope to express support, Weissman said.

The college had been a proponent for the ordinance at recent meetings, with students expressing their desire for an inclusive community to learn in. Weissman wrote a letter to council and spoke with The Sentinel about why the ordinances passage was important to the college and the borough.

A prayer vigil also took place outside Borough Hall with candles handed out by Jennifer McKenna, a local minister. Kapp, Pat LaMarche (a local advocate for the boroughs homeless), and their friends strung a chain of more than 850 feet of safety pins around the hall in an attempt to show that Carlisle was a safe place.
Since 8 November 2016, for the third time in modern Indian history, the central government has declared notes of certain denominations to no longer be valid legal tender. When announced by the Prime Minister on 8 November, it was pitched as a measure, inter alia, to tackle the black money problem in India. Since then, the justification has changed; it is now supposed to make India a cashless society. The chaotic effects of demonetisation have been in the banks and ATMs which are out of cash, the businesses suffering severe losses, and the loss of income and assets of the poorest (Bharadwaj 2016; Gopalakrishnan 2016). Not to mention the people who are said to have died as a result of standing in the queues (Wire 2016), the shock of having lost their money or some proximate reason, whose ultimate cause lies in the unprepared and ill-thought-out manner in which the demonetisation exercise has been carried out.

The larger effects of demonetisation on the Indian economy are debatable. There are, however, questions that have been raised about the manner in which demonetisation has been carried out by the government. Several petitions have been filed in the high courts and in the Supreme Court as well, challenging the demonetisation or its specific aspects. No final verdict has been rendered at the time of writing this, but if the approach of the Madras, Karnataka and Bombay High Courts is anything to go by, the courts seem reluctant to interfere in the process. While the Supreme Court did make a few stray observations about the difficulties being faced by people as a result of demonetisation, it has not stepped in either.

This does not mean that there are no legal problems with the current demonetisation exercise. The petitioners challenging it have questioned the legality of the manner in which it has been done, the specifics of certain moves and the rights violations it possibly entails. These require some serious discussion, not only in the context of demonetisation, but also for what it tells us about the state of the rule of law and constitutional government in India.

To this end, therefore, this article will address the legality of demonetisation in three parts. In the first part, the legality of the demonetisation through notifications will be discussed. In the second part, the implications of demonetisation on the right to property will be discussed. In the final part, I argue that the way demonetisation has been carried out is against the rule of law.

Legality of Demonetisation

Unlike in the past two instances in 1946 and 1978, on this occasion, demonetisation has been done through the issuance of notifications (Notification Nos SO 3407[E] and 3408[E]) under subsection (2) of Section 26 of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934. Under this section, the central government has the power, in consultation with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), to declare any series of notes of any denomination to no longer be legal tender. It has been contended by some petitioners that the said power cannot be exercised to declare all series of a note to no longer be legal tender. They point to the fact that the previous demonetisation exercises were carried out through ordinances which later became laws passed by the competent legislature, to contend that the present exercise cannot be carried out merely by the central government issuing notifications for this purpose.

While there is some merit in this line of thinking, it is not legally tenable. The interpretational argumentthat any cannot mean allfinds no support in the principles of interpretation or in well-established Supreme Court precedents. Section 13 of the General Clauses Act, 1897 states that unless the context otherwise requires, in a statute, the singular includes the plural. Moreover, contrary to the assertions of the petitioners, in L D A v M K Gupta (1994) and in Sk Mohammed Omer v Collector of Customs (1970), the Supreme Court has held that the term any includes all. Any series in Section 26 of the RBI Act should, in all circumstances, include all series of a given denomination and there is no other provision in the RBI Act or any other law which requires it to be given a more restricted meaning.

What of the constitutional argument that demonetisation necessarily requires a law to be passed by Parliament?

For context, the Janata Party government enacted the High Denomination Bank Notes (Demonetisation) Act, 1978 after promulgating an ordinance to this effect first. Like the notifications in the context of 500 and 1,000 notes, the demonetisation act declares 1,000, 5,000 and 10,000 notes as no longer being legal tender. It also provides for a mechanism for deposit and exchange of these notes within a specified time. Crucially, however, the demonetisation act prohibits persons from accepting or tendering the demonetised notes in any context, though it does not make it a criminal offence to do so.

Under the present demonetisation exercise, there is no legal prohibition against accepting or tendering 500 and 1,000 notes. It only means that it is not against the law to refuse to accept such notes. The matter has however been confused by the exemption clauses in Notification No 3408 (as amended, repeatedly since the announcement). It does not make clear if the places where the note is required to be accepted are obligated under law to do so, and, if they do not, whether they are liable for any penalty.

Under the Constitution, certain things can only be done by a law made by Parliament. The fixing of Supreme Court and high court judges salaries for instance, appropriations from the public exchequer, and limitations on the right to life and liberty, among other things, can only be done by a law enacted by the legislature. This does not imply that everything that the government does automatically requires a law made by legislature, and certainly not demonetisation.

Right to Property and Legitimate Expectation

Another plausible argument that could be made against the demonetisation exercise is that it is a violation of the right to property protected under Article 300-A of the Constitution (Reddy 2016). Unlike in the Constitution as it was originally brought into force, the right to property now is merely a right against expropriation of property without the authority of law. Even though the words of Article 300-A are analogous to those in Article 21, the protections against the deprivation of property are not in the nature of substantive due process as Article 21 has been interpreted to mean.

In the context of demonetisation, it has been argued that Notification No 3407 extinguishes the right to property without any authority of law. Specifically, it is contended that limits on withdrawal of cash from bank accounts and exchange of the notes are contrary to the mandate of Article 300-A. Therefore, it has been said, by refusing to let people withdraw their money in cash, the government has restricted the right to property, and, by placing limits on exchange, extinguished the right entirely.

The argument is not without merit. The Supreme Court in Bishamber Dayal Chandra Mohan v State of Uttar Pradesh (1982) has held that an Executive Order is not law for the purposes of Article 300-A. This could be extended, therefore, to mean that unless the legislature allows imposition of cash withdrawal limits under a specific provision, or passes a new law, the government is constitutionally prevented from doing so.

There are two possible responses to this argument. One is based on the RBI Act itself and the other on the Constitution. In exercising this power under Section 26(2) of the RBI Act, the government has ancillary powers to enable it to carry out the demonetisation smoothly. Arrangements obviously have to be made to replace the currency, and the lawmakers were quite aware that the exercise is difficult in a vast country like India and enough discretion needs to be given to the government to make the necessary arrangements. To that extent, currency withdrawals and exchange limits are also traceable to Section 26(2) of the RBI Act because they are in furtherance of a demonetisation exercise and not for other purposes. The doctrine of ancillary powers is well recognised legally.

A second argument addressing this can be made with reference to the powers of the executive traceable to Article 73 of the Constitution. This provision vests the union executive powers on those subjects that the Parliament has power to make laws on, as listed in Schedule VII. The only limitation on this power is that it has to be exercised in accordance with law made by Parliament. Therefore, where Parliament has made a law, executive power has to be exercised in accordance with such law, and even where it has not, the executive is still free to act.

At the moment, there is no provision in any law that prohibits the central government from imposing limits on cash withdrawals from banks or exchange of cash. There is also no provision that vests this power with another agency such as the RBI. There is, therefore, no limitation on this power and when the central government has issued Notification No 3407, it has done so partly in exercise of the executive power under Article 73.

The question still remains: Would this amount to an infringement of the right to property without the authority of law?

Even if it is assumed that limiting cash withdrawals and exchanges is a violation of the right to property (it is not necessarily so since it has been held that regulating the use of property is not an infringement on the right itself [K T Plantation (P) Ltd v State of Karnataka 2011]), the fact that this has been done by the executive on the basis of either a statutory power or a constitutional power means that it has been done with the authority of law. The Supreme Court, in holding that a mere executive order would not be law for the purposes of Article 300-A has also gone on to hold that a rule, delegated legislation, a statutory order or anything that has the force of law, that is, lays down norms (as opposed to specific directions to an individual [Gulf Goans Hotel Company Private Limited v Union of India 2014]) is law for the purposes of Article 300-A. Notification Nos 1307 and 1308 are not directions to specific authorities, but lay down norms binding on all banks and persons holding accounts. In the absence of any law to the contrary, such norms are valid and enforceable.

There is one problematic aspect of the demonetisation exercise when it comes to cash withdrawals. When demonetisation was announced on 8 November 2016, it was stated by the Prime Minister that cash exchanges would be allowed till 30 December 2016. This was also indicated in Notification No 3407. This information was repeated through advertisement in newspapers and other media. However, in a sudden volte face, all cash exchanges in banks were stopped with effect from 25 November. This was done by giving a four-hour notice on 24 November. This came after cash exchanges were restricted from 4,500 to 2,000, that too for the entire duration of time till 30 December. Exchanges are now allowed only at RBI branches located in state capitals.

Such a rollback raises serious ethical and moral questions about the governments behaviour. Can it promise one thing to citizens, legally, and repudiate it in less than three weeks? If the government assures citizens that their money is safe and they have plenty of time to have it exchanged, and when people have acted upon it, given the massive queues that have formed around banks, would it be justified in going back on this promise with no notice in a short time?

Legally, such actions of the government could be challenged as a violation of the doctrine of legitimate expectation. Originally evolved by United Kingdom courts (Schmidt v Secretary of State for Home Affairs 1968), it has been applied in Indian Courts (Navjyoti Cooperative Group Housing Society v Union of India 1992). This doctrine simply means that where a citizen has taken a certain benefit on the basis of the governments promise, the government cannot later deny the benefit to the citizen. It does not apply to the laws made by Parliament, but only to executive acts. A person who has not exchanged her notes and who does not have a bank account could, therefore, make a claim on this basis asking for the original timelines to be restored.

It is a different matter that the government could plead impossibility in complying with the courts orders to restore cash exchanges since it is quite likely that it does not actually have enough cash to meet the demand. This would also expose the utter lack of preparation and foresight in the demonetisation exercise.

Rule of Law

While the demonetisation per se is probably legally sound, the manner in which the government has responded to events afterwards has been chaotic and misguided. The daily announcements with changing rules and new prohibitions not only cause disorder, but also undermine the rule of law in the country. The cornerstones of what constitutes rule of law are stability and certainty in norms (Fuller 1964). The daily barrage of demonetisation announcements, ad hoc and ill-thought-out as they are, also point to a fundamental breakdown in the rule of law. Given the vast scale of the demonetisation exercise, affecting as it does every part of the country and virtually every sector of the economy, the haphazard way in which it is being carried out suggests a regime ill-equipped, or simply incompetent, to do it properly.

Apart from the deaths caused or the jobs lost, demonetisations lasting impact may be the general populaces loss of faith not only in the currency, but also in the governments ability to govern in accordance with the rule of law.

References

Bharadwaj, Ankur (2016): Demonetisation and the Economy: Signs of Distress Everywhere, Business Standard, 1 December.

Bishamber Dayal Chandra Mohan v State of Uttar Pradesh (1982): SCC, SC, 1, p 39.

Fuller, Lon (1964): The Morality of Law, New Haven: Yale University Press.

Gopalakrishnan, Shankar (2016): Demonetisation Is a Permanent Transfer of Wealth from the Poor to the Rich, Scroll.in, 25 November, viewed on 5 December 2016, http://scroll.in/article/822402/demonetisation-is-a-permanent-transfer-of-wealth-from-the-poor-to-the-rich.

Gulf Goans Hotel Company Private Limited v Union of India (2014): SCC, SC, 10, p 673.

K T Plantation (P) Ltd v State of Karnataka (2011): SCC, SC, 9, p 1.

L D A v M K Gupta (1994): SCC, SC, 1, p 243.

Navjyoti Cooperative Group Housing Society v Union of India (1992): SCC, SC, 4, p 477.

Reddy, Prashant (2016): Is the Modi Governments Restriction on Bank Withdrawals Supported by Law? Scroll.in, 14 November, viewed on 5 December 2016, http://scroll.in/article/821484/is-the-modi-governments-restriction-on-bank-withdrawals-supported-by-law.

Schmidt v Secretary of State for Home Affairs (1968): EWCA Civ 1, [1969] 2 Ch 149 at 170171, Court of Appeal (England and Wales).

Sk Mohammed Omer v Collector of Customs (1970): SCC, SC, 2, p 728.

Wire (2016): The Costs of Demonetisation: Death Toll Rises to 82, Eight Million Workers Remain Unpaid, Wire, 2 December, viewed on 5 December 2016, http://thewire.in/84025/the-of-demonetisation-death-toll-rises-to-82-eight-million-bidi-workers-remain-unpaid/.
On 8 August 2016, the Rajya Sabha passed the Mental Health Care Bill, which has been years in the making having been introduced in the Rajya Sabha first in 2013. The magnitude of the burden of mental illness coupled with the gaps in care had added to the urgency for having a progressive legislation. While the bill is a major advance over the Mental Health Act 1987, the need for enlightened legislation, which recognises the rights of individuals and responsibilities of a civilised society, demanded a nuanced understanding of the complex issues.

Mental Health Act, 1987
The decay of the Samajwadi Party, the overt dominance of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by the Other Backward Classes (OBCs), and the steady accretion of the minority vote to the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) are all scripting a new political paradigm in Uttar Pradesh (UP), just ahead of the assembly elections scheduled for FebruaryMarch 2017.

The most visible aspect of the political shifts in UP is the feud threatening to rip apart the ruling Yadav clan. The public sniping involving UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, his sire Mulayam Singh Yadav, his uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav, his fathers cousin Ram Gopal Yadav, and politician and family friend Amar Singh, is seen as the outcome of generational transition and thus, not necessarily detrimental to the party in the long term.
After providing support to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government for four years (200408), the communists were ditched by the Congress party. At this crucial juncture, the Congress did not hesitate to join hands with the Samajwadi Party (SP). How did the Congress dare to use and throw the ally on whose support it had been able to form the government? Leave alone the number count, it should have honoured the commitments made in the common minimum programme. It was moral turpitude of the highest order.

The communists are sinners, no less. They have played with the sentiments of the people who voted for them (60 members of Parliament), not for just sitting outside the government and supporting it. While in government, they could have injected the elements of socialism into the planning and policy formulation of India, but they chose otherwise. Are they unable to understand the fact that participation in the government provides a platform to put forward your viewpoint in an effective manner and widen the horizons of your ideology by enlarging and strengthening the party cadre? Are they so unwise? Certainly not. Some people feel that there must have been some deal, bigger than the IndiaUnited States nuclear deal that became a point of contention, and the communists pulled out their support from the UPAI. Will they please announce what price they have charged for selling off the sentiments of their voters and conscious citizens?
The German company ThyssenKrupp AG yesterday announced that hackers had stolen technical trade secrets from its steel production and manufacturing plant design divisions, Reuters reports.

ThyssenKrupp has become the target of a massive cyber attack, the company said in a statement.

The company said the attack involved organized, highly professional hacker activities, and the hackers were located in southeast Asia.

The breach was discovered in April and traced back to February, Reuters reports. The company waited to announce the breach until all infected systems were identified and cleaned, and new safeguards were implemented.

According to Reuters, a cyber attack two years ago caused massive physical damage to an unidentified German steel plant. While media reports at the time identified the plant as belonging to ThyssenKrupp, the company denied it.

BitSight vice president Jake Olcott told eSecurity Planet by email that manufacturers hold some very sensitive trade secrets, both for themselves and for their customers. As is becoming the case more and more, hackers are infiltrating third parties in the supply chain in order to obtain sensitive data, he said. This event should be a wake up call to anyone sharing sensitive information, including plans or IP, to have a thorough understanding of their partners cybersecurity performance.

And Absolute Software global security strategist Richard Henderson said by email that manufacturing companies boards of directors need to make cyber security a top priority. Attackers are not going to stop probing your infrastructure for cracks for even a moment, he said. Todays news should be a wake up call for many companies: cyber thieves will come back to drink from the well again and again.

A recent survey conducted by Deloitte and the Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity and Innovation (MAPI) found that almost 40 percent of manufacturing companies were affected by cyber incidents in the past 12 months, and 38 percent of those impacted said the breaches resulted in damages of more than $1 million.

Manufacturers are innovating at an unprecedented rate, integrating cutting edge technologies in products, automating the shop floor, connecting supply chains, and increasingly investing in valuable intellectual property, Deloitte & Touche vice chairman Trina Huelsman said in a statement. While these advancements should position them for future growth, the industry is also likely to experience an acceleration in the velocity and sophistication of associated cyber threats.

The top motives of cyber attacks, according those surveyed, were financial theft, intellectual property theft, and targeted attacks on senior executives for financial gain or access to company strategies or investments.

Seventy-six percent of companies surveyed transmit product data over Wi-Fi, and 52 percent said their connected products store and/or transmit confidential data, including Social Security and banking information.

Cyber risk is a critical part of every manufacturing environment and demands attention from every employee, contractor, and business with whom a company interacts, MAPI president and CEO Stephen Gold said in a statement. The most effective approach will rely on more than the CIO or CISO by also engaging the board and C-suite. Company leadership needs to understand their comprehensive cyber risk profile to appropriately allocate resources to mitigate risk.
Impact is thought to have had a fundamental role in the creation of asteroids and planets from the dust of the early solar system. Scientists from Imperial College London (UK) are performing some of the first gas gun experiments at the ESRF to recreate these dynamic conditions.

In order to reconstruct the conditions that led to the creation of the planets, a team of six scientists from Imperial College London, had to load up a van full of scientific instrumentation, cross the Channel and a big chunk of France to find themselves at the ESRF fourteen hours later. It may sound a bit convoluted, but there is no other way around it. The highly transient nature of our sample loading, coupled with the intrinsic heterogeneity of our specimens has presented a real measurement challenge for the dynamics community, explains Daniel Eakins, Deputy Director of the Institute of Shock Physics at Imperial College. High energy X-ray beamlines, such as the ID19 tomography and imaging beamline at the ESRF, are therefore becoming instrumental to build-up a hierarchical picture of dynamically compressed matter., he adds. The crown jewel in their equipment is the gas gun, which is used to mimic the extreme conditions present during the primordial universe.

David Chapman (left) and Daniel Eakins (right) installing the gas gun on ID19. Credits: C. Argoud/ESRF.

The goal is to understand how early dust in space agglomerated to provide insight into how planetary systems were formed. We work closely with Drs. Gareth Collins, also of Imperial College, and Phil Bland at Curtin University, whose recent simulations of astrophysical impact events have prompted re-examination of the nature of impact-driven consolidation in the early solar system. Our experiments seek to provide the first experimental validation of these models, by studying the local mesoscopic compaction response of bi-modal silica powder mixtures., explains Eakins.

A common way of dating meteorites consists in correlating their phase composition to their respective formation pressures. It is widely believed that at the beginning of the solar system, the impacts of dust were more violent than later on. Thanks to the gas gun set-up, the scientists can apply high-velocity impact onto the powder samples in the same way as it was done in the origins of planets and record it at the same time. This will hopefully increase understanding of meteorite formation, as well as help refine models of planetary impact and formation.

In the control hutch of ID19. Credits: E. Escauriza.

This weekends experiment takes place in the framework of a Long Term Proposal. In three years, the scientists will develop a gas gun that will be made available to other users in the future. It is now on ID19 but researchers can use it on other beamlines where impact of events are required. A gas gun available for the general users programme of the ESRF will allows us to welcome a new community: shock physicists, outlines ID19 beamline responsible Alexander Rack. Especially with ESRF EBS, where we can progress to unprecedented ultra-high speed imaging, we will be able to depict dynamics which have never been seen before.

The Imperial College team with the collaborators from ID19. Credits: C.Argoud/ESRF.

The team from Imperial is joined by Amitay Cohen, a scientist from the Nuclear Research Centre in Israel. In parallel to the gas gun, he will develop a so-called Hopkinson pressure bar to study the dynamic behaviour of materials at lower compression rates.

The potential use of the gas gun goes beyond academia. The mining industry could benefit from this instrument, as they try to understand the optimal way to extract minerals from rock, explains David Chapman, scientist of Imperial College.

The scientists setting up the gas gun (right) and the cameras (left) for the experiment. Credits: E. Escauriza.

Text by Montserrat Capellas Espuny
To reach me for collaborations, sponsorships, and event invitations, I am contactable at

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Younited Italia, Nicola Manzari e il nuovo Coo, Luca Faccini e Head of Growth e Domenico Petraroli e General Counsel
"I was terrified," the victim said after the sentencing. "I still am. I have no means to support myself and my children, but I was terrified Id end up dead if he came back ... I cant give up. I just cant. I want to. Trust me I cry every single day. I am scared and heartbroken for my kids. My sons cant grow up watching me be hit. My daughter cant watch me walk around with a black eye and me act like its okay."
Yesterday (8 December), the European Union and Vietnam held the sixth round of their annual enhanced Human Rights Dialogue, in the context of the EU-Vietnam Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA). Both sides consider human rights to be an essential part of their bilateral relations. The Dialogue serves as a constructive platform for the exchange of knowledge, best practice and experience on the human rights situation in Vietnam.

The Human Rights Dialogue also serves as a vehicle for the EUs support for the Southeast Asian countrys reform efforts. Yesterdays talks focused on legal and judicial reforms in Vietnam, the freedoms of expression, of religion, belief, peaceful assembly and association, labor rights, the promotion of the rule of law and due process, combatting torture and ill-treatment, arbitrary detention, capital punishment, support to Vietnamese civil society organizations and to human rights defenders, and engagement within the United Nations framework.

The European Union also reiterated its continuous support to the implementation of the UN Convention against Torture as well as to the sharing of the best practices in legal review processes. The EU also shared its experience on the fight against trafficking in human beings. The upcoming visit of the European Parliament Sub-Committee of Human Rights in 2017 serves as an opportunity to further advance inter-parliamentary cooperation on human rights.

The EU also used yesterdays meeting to raise its concerns regarding the ongoing harassment and detention of an increasing number of human rights defenders and activists. The EU highlighted the importance of making sure that all detainees can receive visits, including from lawyers, medical personnel and family members, in accordance with the Vietnamese Constitution and international human rights law. EU leaders urged their Vietnamese counterparts to release all persons detained for peacefully exercising their freedom of expression.
INDIANAPOLIS, Dec. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Eli Lilly and Company today presented detailed results of its phase 3 EXPEDITION3 trial at the 9(th) Clinical Trials on Alzheimer's Disease (CTAD) meeting. As previously disclosed, solanezumab did not meet the primary endpoint in the EXPEDITION3 clinical trial, a study of solanezumab initiated in people with mild dementia due to Alzheimer's disease (AD), and Lilly will not pursue regulatory submissions for solanezumab for the treatment of mild dementia due to AD.

"The results of EXPEDTION3 are without question disappointing," said Eric Siemers, M.D., distinguished medical fellow at Lilly. "However, Lilly remains committed to finding solutions for this devastating disease. We will continue to analyze study results and work with the external scientific community in the hopes of uncovering findings that will help shape and advance future Alzheimer's disease research."

Lawrence S. Honig, M.D., Ph.D., professor of neurology at Columbia University Medical Center and principal investigator of the EXPEDITION3 study, presented the data at the meeting.

"Alzheimer's is a challenging disease that researchers have been committed to studying for some years," Dr. Honig said. "Now is not the time to give up. While the outcome of this study is not what we had hoped for, it is reasonable to believe that disease modifying therapies to slow down the progression of Alzheimer's disease will be discovered."

A Summary of Key ResultsWhile the study results, including many secondary clinical endpoints, directionally favored solanezumab, the magnitudes of treatment differences were small. Primary Endpoint

--- Patients treated with solanezumab did not experience a statistically

significant slowing in cognitive decline compared to patients treated

with placebo. This finding represented an 11 percent reduction in

decline (p=.095), as measured by the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment

Scale-Cognitive (ADAS-Cog(14)) subscale. The ADAS-Cog(14 )measures a

person's cognitive functions, including memory, attention and language

abilities.(1)

Key Secondary Clinical EndpointsAs the primary endpoint was not met in this study, the p-values for the efficacy secondary statistical analyses were not adjusted for multiple comparisons.

--- Patients treated with solanezumab had a 13 percent slowing of cognitive

decline (p=0.014) compared to patients treated with placebo as measured

by the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). The MMSE is the most

commonly used test for complaints of problems with memory or other

mental abilities and can be used by clinicians to help diagnose dementia

and to help assess its progression and severity. It consists of a series

of questions and tests, each of which scores points if answered

correctly. The MMSE tests a number of different mental abilities,

including a person's memory, attention and language.(2)

-- The Clinical Dementia Rating-Sum of Boxes (CDR-SB) scale showed a 15

percent slowing in decline (p=0.004) between patients treated with

solanezumab and patients treated with placebo. The CDR-SB scale measures

cognitive and functional performance -- in areas such as memory,

orientation and personal care -- through semi-structured interviews of

patients and their family members or other reliable informants.(3)

-- Patients treated with solanezumab had a slowing of decline in complex

activities of daily living compared to patients treated with placebo.

This finding represented a 14 percent slowing of decline (p=.019) as

measured by the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study-Instrumental

Activities of Daily Living (ADCS-iADL). The ADCS-iADL scale measures a

person's independent performance in complex activities of daily living

such as participating in a conversation, preparing a meal or

shopping.(4)

-- A different functional measure, the FAQ (Functional Activities

Questionnaire), did not show a statistically significant difference

between patients treated with solanezumab and patients treated with

placebo (7 percent reduction in decline, p=0.140). The FAQ scale is a

different informant-based measure of functional abilities. Informants

provide performance ratings of the patient on ten complex higher-order

activities.(5)

Biomarkers

Changes in plasma a-beta were similar to those seen in previous studies, and the differences between treatment and placebo groups were statistically significant. Changes in amyloid deposition as measured by positron emission tomography (PET) imaging did not reach statistical significance between treatment and placebo groups.

Adverse events

--- Events more frequent in the solanezumab treatment group that were

statistically significant include: spinal osteoarthritis (1.1 percent in

the solanezumab group, 0.4 percent in the placebo group), dysuria (0.9

percent in the solanezumab group, 0.2 percent in the placebo group),

vitamin D deficiency (1.4 percent in the solanezumab group, 0.6 percent

in the placebo group), and nasal congestion (1.2 percent in the

solanezumab group, 0.4 percent in the placebo group).

-- The incidence of vasogenic edema (ARIA-E or amyloid-related imaging

abnormality-edema/effusions) was approximately 0.1 percent of patients

treated with solanezumab and 0.3 percent of patients on placebo.

About Solanezumab

Solanezumab is Lilly's phase 3 monoclonal antibody being studied as a potential therapy for people with mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer's disease (EXPEDITION-PRO), preclinical Alzheimer's disease (Anti-Amyloid Treatment in Asymptomatic Alzheimer's "A4"), and Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer's Disease ("DIAN").

About EXPEDITION3

EXPEDITION3 is a multinational, phase 3 trial of solanezumab in more than 2,100 patients diagnosed with mild dementia due to Alzheimer's disease. The study includes an 18-month placebo-controlled period followed by an open label extension. Enrollment was completed in 2015 and the last patient visit for the placebo-controlled period occurred in October 2016. EXPEDITION3 is the first phase 3 trial to evaluate only people with mild dementia due to Alzheimer's disease.

About Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimer's disease is a fatal illness that is believed to start with changes in the brain that may begin 20 years or more before symptoms appear.[6] Those changes cause a progressive decline in memory and other aspects of cognition that eventually lead to dementia.

Dementia due to Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia, accounting for 60 to 80 percent of dementia cases.(6) There are currently an estimated 47 million people living with dementia worldwide.(7) The number of people affected by dementia is expected to be nearly 75 million in 2030 and 131 million in 2050.(7) Estimates vary, but experts suggest that as many as 5.4 million Americans may have Alzheimer's disease.(6)

(CONTINUA)
Embryos have, through their father, sued for the right to be born. From the story in People Magazine:

The legal battle between Sofia Vergara and her ex-fiance Nick Loeb over her frozen embryos continued Tuesday after a right-to-live lawsuit was reportedly filed against the actress on behalf of the fertilized eggs.

Court papers filed in Louisiana list the embryos as plaintiffs Isabella and Emma, according to the New York Posts Page Six. The alleged suit asks that Loeb be given full custody of the fertilized eggs so he can have them implanted in a surrogate and so the plaintiffs could receive a trust fund set up for them.

Responding to these reports, Vergaras lawyers issued this statement to PEOPLE: Next week the judge presiding over the case was to rule on Ms. Vergaras request for sanctions against Mr. Loeb for refusing to comply with a court order, and on her motion for summary judgment-seeking dismissal of the case he filed against her, attempting to get control of pre-embryos that he created with Vergara.
Cumberland County 4-H youths, volunteer leaders and families participated in the annual holiday caroling Monday for residents at the Claremont Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center in Carlisle.

The participants sang holiday carols while visiting the residents and sharing with them handmade holiday greeting cards made by the 4-H members during their club meetings and the countywide events.

In light of the holiday spirit, members and leaders of the Cumberland County 4-H Goat and Farm Stock Clubs presented the Garman family of Carlisle with a donation of nearly $1,400 to assist with 7-year-old Tara Garmans medical expenses.

Garman was diagnosed with Juvenile Batten disease, a rare genetic disorder, and has since been undergoing treatment.

Members and volunteers of the 4-H clubs raised the funds through organizing and staffing a petting zoo at the East Pennsboro Pumpkin Fest Oct. 8-9. The 4-H members also provided the farm animals for the petting zoo including a calf, chickens, goats, a goose, piglets and rabbits.

Administered in Pennsylvania by Penn State Extension, 4-H has more than 6 million members across America learning leadership, citizenship and life skills. Cumberland County has an extension youth development educator administering the local 4-H program through non-formal education and outreach.

For more information about the Penn State Extension 4-H program in Cumberland County, visit http://extension.psu.edu/cumberland, or contact the 4-H department at 717.240.6500.
1. Paperwork: early preparation pays off in the long-run

2. Finding somewhere to live: consider a short rental option

3. Schools and family: factor in term times

4. Moving your possessions: finding the best deal

5. Is healthcare covered? Think IPMI for peace of mind
        : 30        ; 7    
Friday, December 9, 2016

This Saturday, December 10 from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., come visit Treasure House Books on the Plaza in Old Town Albuquerque for a fun time with Gail Rubin talking about her new book, KICKING THE BUCKET LIST: 100 Downsizing and Organizing Things to Do Before You Die. Shes bringing her famous homemade dark chocolate peppermint toffee to share!

The Alibi alternative weekly had this to say about the event:

Ever wonder what will happen to that priceless Pez collection youve been building for over 20 years when you go to that big toy box in the sky? Or the box of orphaned electronics cables that went to  something? Ill tell you what happens: Some poor doofus has to lug them to the curb, cursing your corpse the whole way. How about instead, you quit thinking about yourself and go listen to author death educator Gail Rubin as she discusses her book, Kicking the Bucket List: 100 Downsizing and Organizing Things to Do Before You Die, this Saturday, Dec. 10, from 1 to 3pm at Treasure House Books and Gifts. The event is free, so theres no excuse to go on leaving your problems to the next jerk. (Joshua Lee) More information at the Alibi website. Treasure House Books is located at 2012 South Plaza NW in Old Town Albuquerque. KICKING THE BUCKET LIST makes a great gift for those who want to drop a not-so-subtle hint that its time to clear the clutter!
Lifesaving Resources will conduct its 15th annual INTERNATIONAL ICE RESCUE TRAIN-THE-TRAINER ACADEMY, February 16 - 19. in Portland, Maine. This training is open to First Responders from throughout North America and is designed to train and authorize hese personnel as Ice Rescue Instructors. Upon successful completion of this intensive 4-day Academy, graduates will be authorized to conduct Ice Rescue training programs on behalf of their own agencies and departments and to certify their students who successfully complete the training.

The 4-day training program includes 11 hours of classroom training and over 20 hours of practical training conducted on and through the ice. Instructor candidates will wear approved Ice Rescue Suits that are designed to provide buoyancy to the students, as well as insulate them from the cold and keep them dry. The candidates will spend the first two days learning the various ice rescue skills, and during the next two days, they'll practice teaching the knowledge and skills to one another.

The purpose of the Lifesaving Resources' Ice Rescue training programs is to provide first responders with the knowledge and skills required to safely and effectively respond to incidents on and through the ice. Certification is valid for 5 years from the course completion date and the curriculums meet/exceed NFPA 1670 Standard for Technical Rescue.

Tuition includes lodging and meals for the 4 days, as well as all books and materials. For additional informaiton, please access the Lifesaving Resources' website at www.lifesaving.com, or call 207/967-8614.
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Oil advanced as Saudi Arabia was said to have informed its customers it will stand by its commitment to cut production before OPEC meets with producers from outside the group to discuss reductions.

Futures climbed as much as 1.3 percent, extending Thursdays 2.2 percent gain. Saudi Arabian Oil Co.s customers have received notice that January crude shipments will be cut in line with the Nov. 30 OPEC agreement, a Gulf oil official said. Russia will fulfill its pledge to cut output by as much as 300,000 barrels a day if OPEC follows through on its commitment, according to a Russian government official familiar with the matter.

Ten non-OPEC nations, including Mexico, are expected to attend the meeting with the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries in Vienna on Saturday, people familiar with the matter said.

The group will accept natural declines from some nations, rather than insisting on active cuts, in its effort to secure a 600,000-barrel-a-day reduction from nonmembers, according to people familiar with the matter. Getting nations from outside the group to join in the cuts is important because OPECs reduction alone could fall short of OPECs goal to drain stockpiles.

Theres a growing consensus that OPEC and non-OPEC countries will succeed in coming to an agreement tomorrow, John Kilduff, a partner at Again Capital LLC, a New York-based hedge fund that focuses on energy, said by telephone. These Saudi notices to refiners that they are in the process of following through with the cuts makes the accord much more real than it has been.

West Texas Intermediate for January delivery rose 66 cents to $51.50 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Its the highest close since Monday when prices closed at a 16-month high of $51.79. Prices slipped 0.3 percent this week.

Brent for February settlement increased 44 cents, or 0.8 percent, to $54.33 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The global benchmark crude closed at a $1.89 premium to February WTI.

Oil market volatility, as measured by the Chicago Board Options Exchange Crude Oil Volatility Index, has tumbled since the OPEC agreement. The index fell to the lowest since October on Friday.

The expected productions cuts have sent explorers rushing back to the U.S. shale patch.

Rigs targeting crude in the U.S. rose by 21 to 498, the largest weekly addition of oil rigs since July 2015, according to Baker Hughes Inc. data reported Friday. After two years of declines, rigs hit bottom in May at 316. Shale drillers have since added 182 rigs, restoring activity to levels last seen in January.

All four of the largest basins boosted activity, with the Permian in West Texas again leading the charge with an 11-rig hike, for a total of 246 drilling for crude in the nations busiest field.

Part of this is probably companies squaring up budgets at the end of the year; maybe they had some extra room to spend, Andrew Cosgrove, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, said Friday in a phone interview. I would imagine theyre trying to take advantage of everything they possibly can at this point.

This is the second time in four weeks that explorers have added at least 19 rigs in a single period. After two years of budget slashing, oil industry spending in the U.S. is forecast to expand the most of any region in the world, climbing 25 percent next year to $82.8 billion, according to Evercore ISI.

North American shale will now have the opportunity to prove if it can fill the role as the worlds swing producer, James West, an analyst at Evercore, wrote this week in a note to investors. The stage is unequivocally set for substantial activity increases in North America in 2017 while most other energy producing regions scale back operations.

Voter Guide: What to know for the midterm election Your guide to the Texas and San Antonio races and candidates on the Nov. 8 ballot.

Buyers of Saudi crude have been informed that the kingdom will stand by its promise to cut output by 486,000 barrels a day to just over 10 million, PIRA Chairman Gary Ross said in a note to clients. The cuts will mainly affect shipments to Europe and North America. Saudi Aramco will maintain full term-crude supplies to at least five Asian customers for January, said five officials at the regions refineries.

Kuwait Petroleum Corp. said work is underway to reduce output starting in January, consistent with the OPEC deal, state-run news agency KUNA reported.

Russia sees a higher risk that OPEC might fall short of its commitment to cut after the groups November output increase and will seek to address on Saturday how it will fully comply with the deal, the Russian official said, asking not to be identified in line with government policy. OPEC has agreed to trim 1.2 million barrels a day from January.

Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Oman, Mexico, Russia, Sudan, South Sudan, Bahrain, Malaysia and Equatorial Guinea are expected to attend Saturdays meeting with OPEC in Vienna, people familiar with the matter said.

So far, only Russia and Oman have agreed to cut actual output, they said. Kazakhstan said freezing oil output at November levels may make sense, Interfax reported, citing Energy Minister Kanat Bozumbayev.

Theres optimism about the OPEC-non-OPEC meeting, Stephen Schork, president of the Schork Group Inc., a consulting company in Villanova, Pennsylvania, said by telephone. Theres a lot of bullish money thats being thrown in the market. Its all Wall Street money.
A San Antonio-area all-you-can-eat buffet company mired in Chapter 11 bankruptcy wants to liquidate its assets  totaling more than $130 million  to avoid lengthy court proceedings.

Buffets LLC, based in Hollywood Park, and its affiliates are asking Chief U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Ronald King to approve a plan to auction off its land, equipment, furniture and intellectual property, among other assets.

The plan was scheduled for a hearing in Kings court today but was postponed until Jan. 11. David Parham, a lawyer who represents Buffets, declined to comment. Calls to attorneys representing creditors were not returned.

The company, which originally planned to continue operations after shuttering a little more than half of its 300 restaurants, now believes the best way to get the most money for its creditors is through a sale of substantially all of the debtors assets, Buffets said in an October court filing. Simply put, the debtors do not have the liquidity to finance a lengthy Chapter 11 case.

A committee of Buffets unsecured creditors have objected to the proposed sale process, arguing in a Nov. 14 filing that the sale is for an improper purpose intended to transfer money to company insiders who could purchase the assets for little or no consideration while shielding officers and directors from liability.

The debtors proposal to put these potentially valuable assets up for sale and open the bid to insiders is troubling, to say the least, and illustrates why the debtors should not be allowed to run the sale process, the committee argued.

The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March, reporting $133 million in assets and roughly $105.2 million in liabilities, according to court documents detailing the companys finance in May in U.S. bankruptcy court.

Its liabilities also could grow. King ordered Buffets to produce a list of tipped employees who worked at the companys restaurants from Jan. 1, 2014, to the day the company filed for bankruptcy so those employees may determine whether they are eligible for minimum wage or overtime claims under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.

Voter Guide: What to know for the midterm election Your guide to the Texas and San Antonio races and candidates on the Nov. 8 ballot.

Buffets restaurants include HomeTown Buffet, Old Country Buffet, County Buffet, Fire Mountain, Ryans and Tahoe Joes Famous Steakhouse, and are managed by Food Management Partners. Prior to the bankruptcy, the company and its affiliates operated more than 300 restaurants in 35 states. Buffets closed 74 restaurants in February and 92 the night it filed for bankruptcy.

Buffets restaurants have long been steeped in financial woes. The company  known as Buffet Restaurants Holding Inc. prior to its August 2015 sale to Alamo Ovation LLC, another Hollywood Park company  filed for bankruptcy in 2012. Another iteration of the company declared bankruptcy in 2008.

The company attributed its bankruptcy to lagging sales since it was bought by Alamo Ovation and an $11.4 million judgment against the company in October 2015 awarded to a Nebraska couple whose husband contracted salmonella after eating at an Old Country Buffet in Wyoming in 2010. It also said 166 of its restaurants that were later closed werent performing well.

jfechter@express-news.net

Twitter: @JFreports
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The scandal surrounding FourWinds Logistics, the bankrupt San Antonio oil field services company with close ties to state Sen. Carlos Uresti, continues to takes its toll.

On Thursday, the third FourWinds official charged in connection with a scheme to defraud investors pleaded guilty to a single felony charge.

Laura Jacobs, FourWinds comptroller, faces up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release and as much as a $250,000 fine when she is sentenced on March 10.

Former FourWinds co-owner and Chief Operating Officer Shannon Smith entered a guilty plea on Monday. That followed a plea last month by Eric Nelson, the companys former e-commerce and marketing director. All three officials were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Chris Gober, Jacobs lawyer, declined to comment after the plea hearing.

FourWinds traded sand used in fracking to extract oil and gas from shale rock. It entered into joint ventures with investors, some of whom have accused former CEO Stan Bates of wasting their money on personal expenses, expensive gifts, exotic car rentals and vacations. Bates, who has not been charged, has disputed the allegations.

FourWinds filed for bankruptcy in August 2015, listing more than $14 million in debt. Bates was forced into his own personal bankruptcy proceedings less than two months later.

The companys demise and subsequent FBI investigation were reported by the San Antonio Express-News in August.

Uresti, who provided legal services and served as outside general counsel for FourWinds for four or five months in late 2014, said in August that he had been contacted by the FBI as a witness in an investigation of FourWinds and Bates.

According to people familiar with the investigation, however, Uresti is the target of a grand jury investigation weighing possible public corruption charges related to his multiple roles at FourWinds.

Uresti reported on a state financial disclosure form that he owned shares in FourWinds, but he initially failed to disclose a $40,000 loan he received from the company. He later amended the form after the Express-News report.

The San Antonio Democrat, who won re-election last month, also received a $27,000 commission after Harlingen resident Denise Cantu invested $900,000 in a joint venture with FourWinds. Cantu, a former Uresti legal client, ended up losing about $800,000 on the investment.

Uresti declined to comment about FourWinds last week. Last month, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick quietly removed Uresti from a high-profile appointment to the joint committee that makes budget recommendations to the Legislature.

According to the charging document filed against Jacobs, the object of the FourWinds conspiracy was to induce individuals into investing in the company and then providing false and misleading information so investors would remain as partners.

Jacobs, who has said she served as comptroller from May 2014 through October 2015, is accused of sending an investor a December 2014 email containing a spreadsheet that falsely showed that the investors money was used to purchase sand. The charging document didnt detail how the money was actually spent.

Voter Guide: What to know for the midterm election Your guide to the Texas and San Antonio races and candidates on the Nov. 8 ballot.

Jacobs testified in Bates personal bankruptcy that she paid Bates personal bills, including car payments, with FourWinds money and recorded them as owners draws.

pdanner@express-news.net

Twitter: @AlamoPD
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Looking for your next great holiday cookie? Try biscochitos  with a spiked chocolate sauce.

This shortbread-like cookie was featured last week during a National Public Radio interview with Ignacio Alvarez, the president of San Antonios Lux Bakery.

He and his bakery came to the attention of NPR after he took his wife, Frances, to a dinner featuring public television star Pati Jinich.

After the dinner, Alvarez spoke with Jinich and gave her his card. In the course of subsequent conversations, she passed his name along to her staff and his name and card made their way to folks with NPR.

The bakery is known for its powdered sugar-covered pan de polvo, so Alvarez created a cookie that was similar.

The biscochito is in the same family as the pan de polvo, he said. I changed it a little from our recipe. I didnt want to give away the family jewels.

The NPR story was about cookies for adult tastes.

More Information



Recipe: Biscochitos with Chocolate Sauce See More Collapse

They asked me, Can you do a cookie with alcohol? he said. I told them, Ill make you a chocolate sauce with alcohol.

The recipe works with just about any liqueur, but he prefers Licor 43, a citrusy and herbaceous liqueur from Spain.

Although the sauce contains only a little alcohol, he says if people dip enough chocolate, they may get socially lubricated. Thats a phrase he learned while in the beer business.

So enjoy your cookies responsibly.

etijerina@express-news.net

Twitter: @etij
It is time to select a holiday tree to decorate to celebrate Christmas and even New Years Day. Coincidentally, this is also one of the best times of the year to plant trees in the landscape. With the availability of sheared and naturally shaped conifers with their roots still attached, you can accomplish both goals with a single purchase.

Area nurseries have several tree varieties from which to choose if you want to go this direction.

For sheared trees, look for Aleppo pine or Italian stone pine, both are attractive holiday trees and will prosper in the landscape in our alkaline soil and patterns of drought followed by rainy weather. Plant them in full sun.

Many of the Aleppo pines planted close together on Kelly AFB in San Antonio grew straight and tall, but typically, the Aleppo pine grows in a sprawled open shape to about 40 feet tall and 20 feet wide. It has a moderate growth rate.

Italian stone pine also is called umbrella pine because at maturity it has a rounded crown on a straight trunk. The species grows slowly to 45 feet in our area, but may grow to 100 feet in ideal conditions. The trunk is attractive with plates of orange-colored bark.

Rosemary and Japanese blueberry are not conifers, but they make attractive sheared plants that can be decorated for the holidays and planted afterward in the landscape.

Among those species of conifers that have a natural conical shape that can be used for a living holiday tree are Arizona cypress, deodar cedar and some of the ornamental junipers.

Arizona cypress has a bluish-green foliage. It is very drought tolerant and the dense crown is a favorite source of cover for birds. Some books say Arizona cypress grows rapidly to 90 feet tall, but in my experience in Central Texas landscapes, the species grows at a moderate rate (2 feet per year) to about 40 feet tall with a base that is 20 feet across.

Deodar cedar grow to 40 feet. The gray green foliage hangs on the long pendulous branches very attractively. The one issue with deodar is its cold sensitivity. Many of the mature plants have had their peak frozen back. The tree is still functional and attractive, but the top is flattened. With increasingly warmer winters, that may not be an issue for newly planted trees.

A number of the ornamental junipers have attractive conical shapes that also work well as a holiday tree. Select the variety that meets your idea of a holiday tree and will grow to the mature size that will meet your landscape needs.

Using a live plant as a Christmas tree and then a landscape tree works best if you do some planning. The trees with roots are heavy, so have plenty of help and a two-wheel cart available to move it from the vehicle to its holiday spot and then to its permanent home in the landscape.

Limit the amount of time that the tree serves as Christmas tree to three weeks. It will have to be watered in its container, so it will have to be placed on a tray or on the porch.

Dig the planting hole to the depth of the plants root system and two to three times as wide as the container. Watering in the tree and mulching over the root system is particularly important. For detailed information on planting the living tree after its stint as a holiday decoration, visit plantanswers.com.

Calvin Finch is a retired Texas A&M horticulturist. calvinfinch@gmail.com
The majority of the citys housing bond committee voted Thursday to include 13 neighborhoods across the city in an urban renewal plan that will go to voters in May and that officials hope will be a first step toward creating more affordable housing in San Antonio.

The committee voted 22-4, with one abstention, to move forward with the list of 13. At least one committee member said he was voting no because he felt that the list was too long and made the bond more likely to fail. Others expressed concern about the last-minute inclusion of an area with a mobile home park whose owner has been cited for serious code violations.

The committees recommendations will be presented to the City Council on Wednesday. The council will decide Thursday which areas to include in the urban renewal plan.

The $20 million housing bond is the first ever in San Antonio and will go to voters for consideration May 6 along with four other bond packages: streets, drainage, parks and facilities.

The money from the housing bond would go toward preparation of land for redevelopment to facilitate the building of affordable or mixed-income housing, or mixed-use developments.

But the housing committee wasnt picking projects. Rather, it was picking areas of the city where these projects could be built later.

If voters approve the housing bond, the citys urban renewal agency, OUR SA, would have the option to buy properties in any of the areas included in the urban renewal plan. The city would prepare the land for redevelopment, such as by installing utilities and infrastructure, and sell the properties to nonprofit or for-profit housing developers. The developers would have to build to the citys specifications and with city oversight.

The areas are spread across the city and are in every council district except 9 and 10.

The committee whittled down the list of eligible areas from 16 to 12 at its last meeting, Nov. 17.

The list grew to 13 Thursday after a new area was added at the recommendation of the District 8 representatives on the housing committee and the office of District 8 Councilman Ron Nirenberg. The area, near Babcock and Prue roads, includes two parcels  some vacant land and another property where the Oak Hollow mobile home park now sits. The owner of the park, whos been cited for failing to address major unsanitary conditions including overflowing septic tanks, has said he plans to evict all the residents rather than address the issues, according to District 8 committee members.

District 6 committee members raised concerns about the late addition of Oak Hollow to the list, saying it would damage the bond in voters eyes because it was so last-minute and because the city had pledged not to displace any residents.

As the property owner already plans to evict the residents, the idea is to include the area on the list in the hopes that affordable housing could be built on the site and residents could eventually have the option to return, said Coda Rayo-Garza with District 8.

District 10 representative Ricardo Jimenez, from the beginning one of the most vocal and critical members of the committee, said he believed that the list should be whittled down to three or four areas because this is the first time the city is going out for a housing bond and, already, its a confusing issue that even committee members have struggled to understand.

But most committee members agreed that San Antonio desperately needs more affordable housing and multiple options for locations. Studies show that there is a need for 153,000 affordable units in the city today.

vdavila@express-news.net
AUSTIN  Like millions of Americans who wanted to have their say, more than 100 men inside a West Texas treatment center for sexually violent predators registered to vote in last months presidential election.

Local election officials, however, refused to count their ballots, a decision that attorneys say likely violates federal and state laws.

The tossed-out votes now are the subject of a growing legal fight in the small town that once begged to get the treatment center for the jobs and the multimillion-dollar payroll that it brought, but now appears to be having second thoughts about the more than 200 convicted sex offenders that came with it.

They didnt want us going out into their community, so they made us vote by mail, and now theyre denying us the right to vote at all, said Clarence Brown, 54, one of the men in the Billy Clayton Center whose ballots were rejected. This place isnt supposed to be a prison, but this run-down, bigoted little town is trying to make it one so we cant exercise our constitutional right to vote. Even if they dont like us, what they have done is not legal.

Brown said he and 65 other men at the center have filed a challenge to the decision to reject their ballots by Early Voting Ballot Board Judge Steve Busby. They said they plan to ask the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the case as a violation of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which makes it a federal crime to prevent a qualified voter from casting a ballot.

Officials with the Texas Civil Commitment Office that operates the sex offender program and top elections officials at the Texas Secretary of State Office acknowledged the problem, but said there is little they can do.

Lamb County elections officials contend it was not their decision, and referred questions to Busby. He did not return repeated phone calls to explain the decision.

Documents show the state laws that Busby cited in rejecting the ballots were the same ones state officials used to allow the men to vote by mail: They were disabled, they were confined and could not get to a polling place to vote and that they had fully discharged their prison sentences.

It sounds like a pretty clear violation, said Buck Wood, an Austin lawyer and expert on Texas elections law. If they completed their sentences, they should have been allowed to vote.

Under Texas law, felons who have completed their prison sentences are entitled to vote.

State files show the fight began earlier this year when Brown and as many as a dozen other men at the Clayton Center registered to vote in the March primaries. County officials advised them to vote by mail, records show, but none were counted.

There was grumbling, and I asked the county how they could vote, to resolve this in the future, said Marsha McLane, executive director of the Texas Civil Commitment Office. There were three options: They could either go to a polling place on election day or they could bring a polling place to the center to let them vote there or they could do it by absentee ballot.

Officials confirmed that before all the men in the states civil-commitment program were moved to Littlefield in September 2015, many had voted in Houston, Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth and other locations where they were housed in jails and halfway houses.

Because many of the men at the Littlefield facility did not have proper identification cards to cast ballots in person, the civil commitment agency transported the prospective voters  about 50 of them  to a Texas Department of Public Safety office in Lubbock to get state-approved ID cards. Each man paid the $21 cost for the cards, McLane said.

Internal state emails show Lamb County officials in May nixed in-person voting as an option, and again urged absentee ballots to avoid problems with local residents, including the possibility of violence.

I will assure you that if the ballot by mail does not work, I will not intentionally violate anyones constitutional right to vote, County Judge Mike DeLoach wrote in a May 24 email to McLane. I am gravely concerned if you bring your residents into town to vote, it is going to cause problems  in fact, it is not a maybe or a possibility  it is going to. My concern is not only for the public and their safety, but also for your facility/staff and your residents safety; neither the county nor the city maintain resources to provide security at polling places.

DeLoach also noted that while 30 men wanted to vote at the time, up to 300 eventually may want to vote in the future, a number that could impact local election races.

As of Monday, the center housed about 240 men.

DeLoach did not return calls requesting comment.

By late May, DeLoach said he had asked County Attorney Scott Say to request a legal ruling from Attorney General Ken Paxton on whether the men could vote absentee by claiming the disabled exemption. The Secretary of States Office soon signed off on the mail ballots for the men.

It can reasonably be argued that a person who has been clinically assessed ... to the point where the individual civilly committed and is unable to leave the commitment facility without being accompanied is disabled for purposes of voting by mail, Caroline Geppert, a staff attorney in the Elections Division, wrote in a May 31 email to the civil commitment agency. Such an individual may credibly claim to have a sickness or condition that prevents the person from voting in person without the need for personal assistance.

Alicia Pierce, a spokesperson for Secretary of State Carlos Cascos, confirmed that election officials had approved mail ballots for the men. In a message to the agency, DeLoach said that was good enough to resolve the issue for county officials.

Then, on Nov. 17, Brown and 65 other men received notice that the ballot each had mailed was rejected by the Early Voting Ballot Board and was not counted. Three state laws were listed: Those covering disability, confinement in jail and the qualifications to be a voter.

Privately, several local and state officials said they disagree with the decision, noting that Early Ballot Voting Boards in most counties only compare signatures on mail ballots to validate their authenticity, as well as other record-keeping details, and does not disqualify ballots for other reasons. The state handbook for those boards confirms that.

Ten days after the election and a day after Busby officially rejected the ballots, Say, who serves as both the district and county attorney in the community of 6,300 residents, asked the attorney general to determine whether the men who voted can claim a disability, a ruling that could block future voting if that option is nixed.

If that happens, McLane said she plans to transport eligible voters from the center to a local polling place despite the objection of local officials.

The law appears to be clear. I dont want to get sued, she said.

While advocates insist Texas law makes it a misdemeanor for anyone who influences or attempts to influence a voter not to vote or to vote in a particular manner, state election officials said they do not believe that law covers the Littlefield situation.

It seems to be applicable to bribery or coercing someone to vote or not to vote, not specifically relayed to counting the vote, Pierce said.

Wood disagreed.

Taking a persons ballot and throwing it out is coercion, he said.

Bill Marshall, a Houston attorney who represents Brown and other men at the treatment center, said the case appears to be a clear denial of voting rights, especially since some of the mens ballots were counted and others were not.

The feds should go after this, he said.

mike.ward@chron.com
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Texas has always been the turtle in this countrys long-distance race to achieve sanity in its marijuana laws.

Consider that in the early 1970s, the maximum sentence in Nebraska for your first pot-possession conviction was a week in jail. In Texas, it was life in prison. During that same period, it was a less serious offense in Texas to castrate a man than to give him a marijuana joint.

Its this ignoble history  and the narrow-minded thinking that accompanied it  that state Sen. Jose Menendez, D-San Antonio, is fighting with SB 269, the bill he filed Tuesday. Its the senators second attempt in the past two years at comprehensive legislation that would allow doctors to recommend cannabis for patients suffering from a wide range of medical conditions.

Menendezs first attempt, during the 2015 legislative session, didnt make it past the Senates Health & Human Services Committee. Instead of that potential home run, lawmakers opted for a bunt single, with the Texas Compassionate Use Act, a law (signed in June 2015 by Gov. Greg Abbott) that offered only the slightest crack in the states impenetrable wall of resistance to medical marijuana.

Under the Compassionate Use Act, cannabis must come with a prescription (rather than a mere recommendation) from a doctor, must have low quantities (less than .5 percent) of THC, and can be provided only to patients with intractable epilepsy.

Legalization advocates rightly complained that the law was so narrow as to be nearly pointless, but we have to be thankful for small favors when it comes to Texas marijuana laws. Conceptually at least, the law recognized that marijuana could have medicinal value, and that amounted to a step forward. That conceptual step makes Menendez hopeful that his colleagues will be amenable to letting Texas join the 28 states that have meaningful medical-marijuana laws.

It will be a tough battle, and Menendez is encouraging supporters of his bill to make their voices heard by contacting Abbotts office.

Marijuana advocates in this state have long bemoaned the unique political factors that make Texas so loathe to expand its collective mind on weed. The greatest progress on marijuana legalization around the country has been achieved by a coalition of progressive criminal-justice reformers and libertarian-leaning conservatives.

But this states conservative wing has never subscribed to the live-and-let-live libertarian ethos, and progressive Texas Democrats have been reluctant to take a stand, aware that with Mexico on our southern border, they could be branded as soft on drug cartels.

Jamie Balagia, a local attorney and legalization advocate, said this to me in 2014: We get no respect from either party. The Democrats claim to support it, but they never do anything. And the Republicans, when they were in college they all smoked weed, but now they sit there and wave the flag and the Bible.

Menendez, to his credit, has taken action. He attributes his epiphany on the issue to watching his father-in-law battle cancer three years ago.

As he was going through the treatment, he was having all kind of issues, from nausea to lack of appetite, Menendez said. My oldest son did a ton of research and he was talking about how my father-in-law might get some relief from medicinal marijuana.

My father-in-law was in a tremendous amount of pain, but he didnt want to be in the stupor that the opioids put him in. But he also didnt want to break the law (by using marijuana).

The more Menendez studied the issue, the more he realized that Texas was forcing seriously ill people to leave the state so they could find relief from their pain. One man moved to New Mexico and called himself a medical refugee. A Texan with multiple sclerosis told Menendez he is thinking about moving his family to Colorado.

At his Tuesday press conference, Menendez said, I filed this bill because doctors, not politicians, should determine the best treatment for severely ill patients.

Thats what it comes down to. For too long, our marijuana laws have been at the mercy of uninformed elected officials, who are guided by old-school just say no ideology, rather than medical science or human compassion.

As Menendez likes to point out, what were really debating about is nothing more than a set of molecules. Along those lines, he quoted a doctor who decried the personification and prejudice of this particular set of molecules.

During the 2017 Legislative session, the most problematic molecules for Menendez will be the ones floating around in the stubborn brains of his colleagues.

ggarcia@express-news.net

Twitter: @gilgamesh470
John Glenn, a freckle-faced son of Ohio who was hailed as a national hero and a symbol of the Space Age as the first American to orbit the Earth, then became a national political figure for 24 years in the Senate, died on Thursday in Columbus, Ohio. He was 95.

His death was announced on Twitter by Gov. John Kasich of Ohio.

Glenn had recently been hospitalized at the James Cancer Center at Ohio State University in Columbus, though university officials said at the time that admission there did not necessarily mean he had cancer. He had heart-valve replacement surgery in 2014 and a stroke around that time.

In just five hours on Feb. 20, 1962, Glenn joined a select roster of Americans whose feats have seized the countrys imagination and come to embody a moment in its history, figures like Lewis and Clark, the Wright brothers and Charles Lindbergh.

It was an anxious nation that watched and listened that February morning, as Glenn, 40 years old, a Marine Corps test pilot and one of the seven original American astronauts, climbed into Friendship 7, the tiny Mercury capsule atop an Atlas rocket rising from the concrete flats of Cape Canaveral in Florida.

It was a short flight, just three orbits. But when Glenn was safely back, flashing the world a triumphant grin, doubts were replaced by a broad, new faith that the United States could indeed hold its own against the Soviet Union in the Cold War and might someday prevail.

Glenn was reluctant to talk about himself as a hero. I figure Im the same person who grew up in New Concord, Ohio, and went off through the years to participate in a lot of events of importance, he said in an interview years later.

Glenn did not return to space for a long time. President John F. Kennedy thought him too valuable as a hero to risk losing in an accident. So Glenn resigned from the astronaut corps in 1964, became an executive in private industry and entered politics, serving four full terms as a Democratic senator from Ohio and in 1984 running unsuccessfully for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Finally, 36 years after his Mercury flight, in the last months of his final Senate term, he got his wish for a return to orbit. Despite some criticism that his presence on the mission was a political payoff, a waste of money and of doubtful scientific merit, the hero of yesteryear brought out the crowds again, cheering out of nostalgia and enduring respect as he was launched aboard the space shuttle Discovery on Oct. 29, 1998. At 77, he became the oldest person to go into space.

In retirement from the Senate, Glenn lived with his wife of 73 years, Anna (he always called her Annie), in a suburb of Washington in addition to Columbus. Ohio State University is the repository of papers from his space and political careers.

John Herschel Glenn Jr. was born on July 18, 1921, in Cambridge, Ohio, the only son of a railroad conductor who also owned a plumbing business, and the former Clara Sproat. A few years later, the Glenns moved to New Concord, a small town in southeastern Ohio with a population of little more than 1,000.

It was small but had a lot of patriotic feeling and parades on all the national holidays, Glenn once said. Wanting to do something for the country was just natural, growing up in a place like New Concord.

Glenn began his journey to fame in World War II. In 1939, he enrolled at Muskingum College in his hometown to study chemistry, but he took flying lessons on the side. Shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, he signed up for the Naval Aviation cadet program and after pilot training opted to join the Marines. As a fighter pilot, he flew 59 combat missions in the Pacific, earning two Distinguished Flying Crosses and other decorations. Glenn saw more action in the Korean War, flying 90 combat missions and winning more medals.

Then, in 1959, newly promoted to lieutenant colonel, he heeded a call for test pilots to apply to be astronauts for the fledgling National Aeronautics and Space Administration. He and six other pilots were selected in April of that year.

The 1962 space mission came after two months of one postponement after another, sometimes for mechanical problems, often for bad weather. Once Glenn had to wait six hours, fully suited, in the cramped Friendship 7 capsule before officials called off the launch. But he projected confidence. You fear the least what you know the most about, he said at the time.

At the end of the first orbit, an automatic control mechanism failed, and Glenn took over manual control. He would see three sunsets in a brief time. He puzzled for a while about fireflies outside his window. NASA later determined that it was his urine and sweat, which was being dumped overboard and turned to frozen crystals glowing in sunlight.

A faulty warning light signaled that the capsule heat shield, designed to protect it in the fiery descent back to Earth, had come loose and might come off during re-entry. The signal was erroneous, but no one could be sure. Ground controllers ordered that a retrorocket unit attached under the heat shield by metal straps not be jettisoned after firing in order to give added protection and reduce the risk of premature detachment of the heat shield.

In the flush of fame, Glenn toured the country publicizing the space program, visiting aerospace plants and waving to cheering crowds and signing autographs. But he always had his eye on another flight into space.

One night in December 1962, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy invited the Glenns to dinner at his home in McLean, Virginia. In the course of the evening, the attorney general suggested that Glenn run for public office. With the backing of a powerful Kennedy, he might have a good chance at a Senate seat from Ohio in the 1964 election.

Glenn eventually took the advice, but had to quit the race after being seriously injured in a bathroom fall. He spent the next decade working as an executive of the Royal Crown Cola Co.

In 1970, Glenn ran again for the Senate, but lost in the Democratic primary to Howard M. Metzenbaum. Four years later, Glenn won the primary and breezed to victory in the general election, beginning a 24-year career in the Senate.

Over the years, Glenn earned the respect of Senate colleagues as an upright, candid and diligent legislator. Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., described Glenn as a workhorse who was especially well-informed and a forceful voice on defense issues.

As a senator, Glenn developed an expertise in weapons systems, nuclear proliferation issues and most legislation related to technology and bureaucratic reform. He generally took moderate positions on most issues, though in his last two terms his voting record became more liberal. He was an enthusiastic supporter of President Bill Clinton.

The senator drew admiring audiences in his run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984, but his wooden speaking style and lack of a cogent campaign message were blamed for his poor showing at the polls.

The one blemish on Glenns squeaky-clean political reputation came in the 1980s, when he was one of five senators present at a meeting with federal regulators concerning accusations of savings and loan association fraud against Charles H. Keating Jr., a former Ohioan. The meeting smacked of impropriety and political pressure. Because Glenn had no further contact with Keating, who eventually was sent to prison, the Senate decided that he did nothing deserving discipline.

In recent years, honors continued to come his way: the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Congressional Gold Medal and election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The NASA Lewis Research Center in Cleveland was renamed the John H. Glenn Research Center.

Glenn is survived by his wife; two children, Carolyn Ann Glenn of St. Paul, Minnesota and John David Glenn of Berkeley, California; and two grandsons, Daniel and Zach Glenn.

Glenn was a flier, almost to the end.

In one of the interviews at this time, he was reminded that Tom Wolfe, the author, had recently judged him the last true national hero America has ever had.

Glenn gave another of his dismissive aw-shucks responses: I dont think of myself that way, he said. I get up each day and have the same problems others have at my age. As for as trying to analyze all the attention I received, I will leave that to others.
On Wednesday, law enforcement in Jefferson City reportedly caught sight of a white Chevrolet pickup truck believed to be the one used by two suspects involved in the shooting and stabbing of a Leadwood man.

According to St. Francois County Sheriff Dan Bullock, pursuit of the pickup truck began around 8:30 p.m. but was ended because of bad weather. They were last seen traveling south on Highway 54.

He added that the search continues for suspects Angela Laycock, 34, and Timothy (aka Anthony) Perkins, 37, in the early Tuesday morning stabbing, shooting and axing of Laycocks critically injured husband, Silas Laycock, 43, at the Leadwood home the three shared, along with the Laycocks four children.

A friend of the victim told the Daily Journal that the Laycocks had been separated for a long time and that Angela Laycock, who was dating Perkins, often went by her boyfriends last name.

Bullock reported Silas Laycock was stabbed with a knife, struck multiple times with an ax and shot once with a shotgun. The sheriff added that it is believed that the victim, the two suspects and the four children were all at the home at the time of the assault.

Laycock was transported by ambulance to a St. Louis hospital Tuesday afternoon after he drove himself to a Leadwood convenience store seeking help. It was reported that the man underwent surgery on Tuesday, but his condition remains unknown.

Bullock said its believed that after attacking Laycock, the suspects  along with the four children  left the home in a white 2006 Chevrolet pickup truck, possibly with Montana plates, although the plates may have been removed. The license plate number on the vehicle is unknown.

The pickup truck is thought to be occupied by the two suspects and the four children. The suspects may be armed with a .38 caliber handgun and a 20 gauge shotgun.

According to Bullock, charges have yet to be filed against the suspects, but a stop and hold is out on the vehicle so authorities can talk to Angela Laycock and Perkins about the attack. Also, although the sheriff said his department has had no previous contact with the suspects, his deputies had spoken with several law enforcement agencies that have had prior dealings with the pair.

Bullock asked anyone spotting the vehicle to call the St. Francois County Sheriffs Department at 573-431-2777 or 911. The suspects should not be approached as they are considered to be armed and dangerous.

Were still looking for them and all agencies are involved, he said. Weve had some tips and leads come in and were following up on those now.

The Daily Journal will continue updating the story as new details become available.
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The Prairie Doc: Men, you can thank women for your good health

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Northern Irish farmers in disadvantaged areas will gain 8 million to fund a one-year 'transitional scheme' for the Areas of Natural Constraint (ANC) scheme.

The ANC scheme provides payments to eligible farmers to cover additional costs and lost income due to constraints on agricultural production in severely disadvantaged areas.

Northern Ireland's Agriculture Minister Michelle McIlveen said farming in disadvantaged areas comes with 'distinct challenges'.

That is why I have decided to continue to help support these farmers by extending the ANC scheme for another year. This scheme will put 8 million into the farmers pockets, in addition to the support they receive from Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) Pillar I funding, she said.

Ulster Farmers Union deputy president Victor Chestnutt says that the announcement is an 'important commitment'

Farmers will be able to apply to the 2018 ANC scheme on their 2017 Single Application Form. This will be a rollover of the current scheme and will consist of a one year payment to farmers in severely disadvantaged areas.

Ulster Farmers Union deputy president Victor Chestnutt says that the announcement is an 'important commitment' for those farming in severely disadvantaged areas.

While we would have preferred a larger allocation for a longer period of time, we have to be realistic about how this scheme was going to be funded, said Mr Chestnutt.

Currently there are no existing funds within the Rural Development Programme to support the continuation of the scheme and the transfer of funding from Pillar 1 to Pillar 2 was an option we werent prepared to consider, he said adding that it was commendable that the Minister managed to secure funding, through the Northern Executive, which can provide support to producers in severely disadvantaged areas for a further year.

'Vital production'

Primary production of beef and lamb from severely disadvantaged areas makes a vital contribution to the red meat industry in Northern Ireland by producing a large percentage of suckled calves, store lambs and breeding ewes that are destined for the lowlands for further production.

As we know, margins from livestock production are tight, while in severely disadvantaged areas there is also the reality that the complex landscape and tough climatic conditions means there are limited opportunities to diversify into other enterprises, said the UFU deputy president.

It is also crucial to acknowledge the contribution that livestock production in these areas make to the conservation of our rural environment whether that be in supporting biodiversity, our growing tourist industry or reducing the risk of costly wildfire incidents, which have often resulted as a consequence of land abandonment. All of these factors help to contribute to a coherent argument for providing an additional support package for these farms.

While this is a positive outcome from a difficult set of circumstances the UFU says it cannot ignore the fact that this is only a short term solution. Income on severely disadvantaged areas is much lower than lowland farms, and there is a dependency on less favoured area and agri-environment schemes to sustain these farms.

So while this ANC transition funding is welcome, there is still a major income deficit to contend with, said Victor Chestnutt. In the short term there is a need for the Minister to focus on delivering an agri-environment scheme as quickly as possible and the continued delays are at this stage verging on farcical and the longer the delay the greater the adverse impact on our local farms and environment. In the longer term after the UK leaves the European Union, the opportunity will exist with the creation of a new UK agriculture policy for this to be genuinely addressed.
Welsh farming union NFU Cymru has given evidence to the National Assembly for Wales Environment and Rural Affairs Committee to emphasise the 'devastating impact' that bovine TB is having on farms across Wales.

NFU Cymru President Stephen James and County Adviser Peter Howells visited the Senedd on Thursday 8th December to highlight to politicians that the disease continues to cause 'untold heartache and stress' to cattle farmers across Wales, while also placing enormous emotional and financial strain on farming families.

NFU Cymru has explained the union has been 'clear and consistent' in calling on the Welsh Government to put in place a TB eradication strategy in Wales that removes disease from cattle and wildlife sources.

Wales has announced a regionalised approach to tackle bovine TB

Speaking after giving evidence at the meeting, NFU Cymru President Stephen James, said: Farmers are playing their part in tackling bovine TB through cattle-based measures, but there remains a lot of frustration in the industry that the reservoir of infection that exists in wildlife has not been confronted. The disease must be actively removed from the badger population in areas where TB is endemic.

Today we made it clear that future TB eradication measures implemented by the Welsh Government should be based on sound evidence and science-based policy decision making and that all sources of the disease must be tackled effectively if were ever to have any chance of eradicating bovine TB in Wales.

Welsh Governments A refreshed TB Eradication Programme consultation closes on Tuesday 10th January 2017.

'New regionalised approach'

In October, the Welsh government has announced a new 'regionalised approach' to tackle the cattle disease bovine TB.

As part of the Welsh governments refreshed bovine TB Eradication Programme, 'Low, Intermediate and High TB Areas' will be established across Wales based on bovine TB incidence levels. The government is consulting on the measures to be applied to protect the Low TB Area and to reduce disease in the Intermediate and High TB Areas.

Bovine TB is the biggest threat to beef and dairy farmers across large parts of Wales. Over the past 12 months nearly 9,500 cattle have been slaughtered as a result of this disease, a 38% increase from last year.

The situation is worse in endemic areas of the country with Pembrokeshire suffering a 40% increase in slaughtered cattle, Carmarthenshire 78% and Clwyd an increase of 137% in the 12 months to July 2016 compared to the same period in the previous year.

Since January 1996 the number of animals slaughtered in Wales as a result of bovine TB has reached a staggering figure of 118,488 animals - that is equivalent to 23% of the total number of adult cattle on farms across Wales today.
Consumers shopping for Christmas sprouts this year could find themselves with less of a choice after British crops are seeing losses from diamondback moths pests.

Diamondback moths, often called 'super-pests', have been arriving in the UK from continental Europe in record numbers and are insecticide resistant.

Rothamsted Research's Dr Steve Foster, who led the research, said: "Pyrethroids are normally the first choice of insecticides against moth pests but these tests indicate that resistance is present in the UK DBM population over a wide geographical spread."

Diamond-back moth

National Farmers' Union said it will be working closely with supermarkets with regards to any supply scares after growers in Lincolnshire reported failures in up to 60% of their crops.

Diamond-back moth may infest crops throughout the UK and the larvae can cause damage to the foliage of cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, Brussels sprout, kale, Chinese cabbage, swede, turnip, oilseed rape and radish.

Large infestations can cause damage to up to 100% of plants but yield losses will depend on the impact of damage on plant growth and quality. Good control is particularly important where the marketable part of the plant is damaged (cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, Brussels sprout).

'Biggest pile of damaged sprouts ever seen'

Farmer Mike Capps, of RM Capps Ltd, near Boston in Lincolnshire, told the BBC the damage had been considerable: "We've had the biggest pile of damaged sprouts ever seen. Weve actually had one field where we have thrown away about 60% of the crop, so we are below production cost."

Earlier this week, it was reported that one of the biggest vegetable growers in the Channel Islands lost his entire Christmas supply to the diamond-back moth.

A report on behalf of AHDB Horticulture, an agricultural research firm, found there was a large migration of diamond-back moths in late May. These moths laid eggs quite soon after they arrived in the UK and their caterpillars had caused considerable damage in some locations.

Infestations are sporadic, so control may not be necessary in every crop in every year. Weather that favours migration from continental Europe increases the risk of infestation, as the diamond-back moth does not overwinter in the UK in large numbers at present. The moths are relatively poor flyers but may be transported long distances by the wind.
Agricultural cooperatives are 'crucial' for farmers to innovative, add value to produce and follow consumers trends, a European cooperative has said at a Business Forum.

Up against increasing challenges and low growth markets across Europe, agricultural cooperative Copa and Cogeca said the need for cooperatives to be innovative is more important than ever.

Mr Magnusson, Cogeca President, said at Cogecas' Business Forum: "We face many challenges today ranging from climate change, volatile markets, increasing consumer demands, investment in new products, producing more with less to meet growing food demand."

"To meet these, its more important than ever for the cooperative to add value to their products to respond to consumers demands. New, innovative products that respond to short and long term consumer trends need to be developed in order to penetrate the market. Its also important to find new export markets for quality produce", he added.

Numerous agricultural cooperatives have underlined the need to position and differentiate the product in the market, with a lot of attention on innovative packaging, labelling, branding, quality and good production standards.

Mr Magnusson stated that good planning is also important, with an emphasis on analysis of market risks. One successful example cited involved the creation of a ready-made salad which became successful in France. The product then made its way into the UK and Spanish markets.

"These discussions are part of on-going work towards cooperative development across Europe. Building networks is part of this process," Mr Magnusson concluded.
Dale Farm has raising its base milk price by 1 pence per litre effective from 1 November.

This follows increases in July, August, September and October. When the increase is applied, this will take the total price paid to farmers to over 27p/l for milk of average constituents.

Commenting on the decision, Dale Farm Group Chairman, John Dunlop, said: This is the fifth consecutive month that Dale Farm has increased its milk price, resulting in an uplift of almost 10p/l since 1 July - a further positive move for our farmer owners, which equates to almost 80m extra over 12 months.

On top of this we also paid a 4p/l bonus on additional milk produced, as part of a milk production scheme. The initiative was hugely successful and resulted in an additional 0.274p/l in November across the milk pool  an increase which will make a significant difference to our contributing members.

We continue to work with our customers to secure much needed market returns. This involves remaining focused on driving dairy consumption and value for consumers through new innovations including Dale Farm Vitamin D Milk, Dale Farm Pots of Goodness yogurts, Dale Farm Protein Milk, and existing hero brands Dromona, Spelga and Fivemiletown."
Hundreds of farmers in areas that were badly affected by last winter's storms are still waiting to receive emergency funding to restore agricultural land.

The winter floods struck on December 4 2015 with intense rainfall hitting farming communities in Cumbria, Lancashire, Northumberland, Yorkshire, County Durham and Greater Manchester.

Two thirds of surveyed Cumbrian farmers suffered damage to riverbanks, over half were left with gravel deposits on their land while more than 700 sheep were killed by flood waters.

The National Farmers Union (NFU) was instrumental in establishing the Farming Recovery Fund, and around 1,100 applications have been made totalling over 9million. The fund covers activities such as drain and boundary repairs and reseeding.

Last winter's floodings caused havoc for many farmers

However, NFU Deputy President Minette Batters said it was extremely frustrating that hundreds of farmers were bracing themselves for another winter while still waiting for funding to help recover from the previous one.

Storm Desmond and the subsequent flooding brought devastation to farming businesses and many are still feeling the effects. Farmers have faced months of uncertainty over access to the flood recovery fund, piled on top of delays to their annual farm payments. This is totally unacceptable and must be resolved as a matter of urgency.

Scotland and Northern Ireland had their farming recovery funds done and dusted by the middle of 2016. So why are so many farmers in England being forced to wait for their emergency funding? The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) created some delays when processing the original applications. But we appreciate that they are still waiting to receive claims from affected farmers partly due to the high level of evidence farmers are required to submit.

'Whole catchment approach'

Early next year, the NFU will be launching its flooding manifesto. This will set out policy asks and action for government and others to mitigate flood risk in the future.

Miss Batters continued: We believe a whole catchment approach to flood management must be adopted. This includes accurate consideration of the importance of the food and farming industry  one that contributes 108bn to the economy, employing more than 1 in 8 people of the workforce. Some of our most productive and highest value agricultural land is in the floodplain or coastal regions, vulnerable to flooding, and deserves to be protected.

Natural flood management schemes do have a place and Defra Secretary of State Andrea Leadsoms recent confirmation that 15million will be assigned for natural flood management is a step towards finding such a scheme. However, they are not a universal solution and must be used alongside a package of measures across the catchment to improve flood resilience to both urban and rural communities, including traditional hard-engineered structures and their maintenance.

Miss Batters said in order for the UK to improve resilience across the country, two things are crucial - accurate modelling and suitable funding.

She said: Flood models must be continually updated to account for the extreme weather events which are becoming all too regular.

Capital and maintenance budgets for flood risk management must also be reviewed. As we increase the number of assets improving the resilience of rural and urban areas to flooding, maintenance budgets have to be increased to cope with the demands placed on the pot of money. In short, the governments strategy to manage future flood risk must be to plan, protect and pay."
Conservative MP Tim Loughton organised a meeting with Defra Secretary of State Andrea Leadsom in West Sussex to speak to farmers about farm policy.

The visit to Applesham Farm, Coombes, near Lancing, was arranged by Tim Loughton MP (East Worthing & Shoreham) and hosted by farmer Hugh Passmore. Applesham is an 850-acre beef, sheep and arable farm in the heart of the South Downs National Park.

West Sussex NFU chairman David Exwood said: We were pleased with the dialogue we had with the Minister. The NFU is successfully driving home importance of British food and farming to government ahead of the forthcoming Brexit negotiations and trade deals. But there is still much work to do on future policy.

Brexit and the need for a new domestic agriculture policy dominated discussions between the farmers and the Minister. The meeting was also attended by Environment Agency chief executive Sir James Bevan, West Sussex NFU chairman David Exwood, West Sussex NFU deputy chair Caroline Harriott and West Sussex NFU council delegate John Ford. There were talks with the Environment Agency chief on Internal Drainage Boards.

Farming underpins the UKs largest manufacturing industry - food and drink - which is worth 108billion and employs 3.9million people.
UK veterinary associations have welcomed the announcement of a 4 million package of support for local livestock farmers, which includes measures to continue the progress of the Bovine Viral Diarrhoea (BVD) eradication programme.

The funding, provided under the EU Exceptional Adjustment Aid, will enable livestock farmers, including milk producers, to apply for financial assistance in the culling of BVD Persistently Infected (PI) calves, within four weeks of an initial BVD test, and replacement of the animal.

President of the British Veterinary Associations Northern Ireland Branch Seamus OKane said: Ensuring support for farmers, and, by extension, vets, to combat BVD was one of the key recommendations we called for in The veterinary professions manifesto for Northern Ireland, which we launched in the run up to Mays elections, so we are encouraged by the Ministers announcement.

Persistently Infected animals do not always look unwell, but they do produce vast quantities of virus throughout their lives so are a significant source of infection to other animals. Providing financial compensation to encourage the swift removal of these animals from a herd is major step forward in the control of BVD.

British Veterinary Association President Gudrun Ravetz said the announcement by the Northern Ireland Agriculture Minister Michelle McIlveen underlines her 'pragmatic approach' to get the best results for animal health and welfare.

The removal of PIs is the key to any successful BVD eradication programme, especially when its backed up by the effective Government, veterinary profession and industry approach that were seeing in action.

The support package also intends to improve pig meat quality; manage soils and nutrients more effectively; and help farmers receive training in business planning and risk management.
Farmer, 20, who took over family farm after tragedy scoops award
"The program will be assessed in three years and the intention would be to continue it, but hopefully by then we would have increased our presence in those markets and individual producers are building a reputation for their brand."
While application of lime to trial plots in 2011 and monitoring since had shown rapid and significant improvement in soil pH levels - in contrast to untouched control plots which became "extremely acidic" in that time - there was no corresponding increase in pasture production, Dr Staines said.
Although the State election is not to be held until early next year, the phoney election has already started, with Colin Barnett's Liberals announcing that the basis of their campaign will be to flog off parts of the State's infrastructure so that it can acquire newer models.
"It has been a bit of a learning curve but knowing we can keep the grain and sell into a higher priced market later on is a bonus, particularly when you've got no handling fees and transport costs," he said.
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Two 14-year-old boys have been charged in connection with having a gun at Unity Reed High School in Manassas this week. The gun was not brandished toward other students and was not part of an
Voter Guide: Everything Cumberland County voters need to know

Early voting is underway, with local, state and federal races on the ballot in Cumberland County.
The next chapter for the real-time series 24 is right around the corner with 24: Legacy, and today FOX have confirmed that the series will be airing on their channel in the UK in February next year.

24: Legacy comes to the UK in February

Announcing the news, Head of Programming at FNG UK, Toby Etheridge said: "Cult classic 24 has been re-booted, bringing this genre-defining series to a whole new audience, with a brand new noble-yet-troubled protagonist who can trust no one. Fans of the original won't be disappointed, 24: Legacy is a gripping, edge-of-your-seat thrill ride, in the real-time format that 24 is famed for. 24: Legacy joins FOX's fantastic February line-up, alongside brand new episodes of Legion and The Walking Dead."

David Smyth, Senior Vice President and Managing Director, Europe, Twentieth Century Fox Television Distribution added: "The 24 franchise has an incredible fan base, and they will love the return of this iconic brand. Its trademark action-packed episodes will give fans that familiar rush of adrenaline. This time, with a brilliant new cast, we will see a hero go through the adventure for the first time, which will make 24: Legacy the perfect start for new audiences to discover what 24 fans have known about the series since day one."

The series will follow the journey of Sergeant Eric Carter (Corey Hawkins), a man who led an elite squad of American Army Rangers in Yemen six months before, killing terrorist leader Sheik Ibrahim Bin-Khalid before his followers declared a fatwah against Carter, his squad and their families. This forced them into witness protection, but an attempt on Carter's life makes it clear that all has been exposed.

Hoping to stop further attacks, Carter teams up with Rebecca Ingram (Miranda Otto), the woman who coordinated the raid that brought Bin-Khalid down. Stepping down from her post of National Director of CTU, she now supports her husband Senator John Donovan (Jimmy Smits), who's campaigning to become the President of the United States.

The show looks set to bring a lot of action, chaos and drama to the small screen as it asks the characters and the viewers, who can you ever really trust?

24: Legacy premieres in the UK on Tuesday, February 14 at 9pm on FOX.

by Daniel Falconer for www.femalefirst.co.uk

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Bollywood diva Priyanka Chopra has won hearts internationally with truckloads of talent - be it bagging the lead role in 'Quantico' and 'Baywatch' or collaborating with international artistes for her singles. With the new title of a producer with her recent Marathi release, 'Ventilator', she is currently in an exciting phase of her life.



With Hollywood closing in for Christmas and New Year's, she will soon fly back to India. In an interview to a daily, the actress said that she was unsure about what she was getting into. But though there were cultural differences, and the newness was scary, she wasn't afraid to clarify it. And so, over a period of time, things changed after working with the best in the business, and she is more certain of herself.



She went on to speak about the stereotypes she has faced. Speaking well in English has been the most common one. "How I look Puerto Rican and not Indian," she added.





Next Story : Not Your Average Gift: Our Handpicked Thoughtful Diwali Gifts
The consumption of cotton in India is likely to increase in the ongoing year owing to new mills, said Union textiles minister Smriti Irani. The production and consumption of cotton as predicted by the cotton advisory board (CAB) for this season (1st October, 2016 to 30th September, 2017) are 351 lakh bales and 313 lakh bales (of 170 kgs each), respectively.

An increase in the installed capacity in spinning sector is another reason why the surplus of production over consumption is expected to decline in the coming years, said Irani in a written reply to Lok Sabha.

Multiple steps are being taken by the government to increase production. Department of agriculture, cooperation and farmers welfare has implemented cotton development programme with a focus on cropping system approach under national food security mission (NFSM) in 15 major cotton growing states since 2014-15 with an aim to increase production and productivity.

The consumption of cotton in India is likely to increase in the ongoing year owing to new mills, said Union textiles minister Smriti Irani. The production and consumption of cotton as predicted by the cotton advisory board (CAB) for this season (1st October, 2016 to 30th September, 2017) are 351 lakh bales and 313 lakh bales (of 170 kgs each), respectively.#

Under the scheme, thrust is given for transfer of latest technology to cotton growers through front line demonstration (FLD) on integrated crop management (ICM), intercropping, desi and extra long staple cotton and high density planting system. The scheme is being implemented through state department of agriculture (SDA), Indian council of agricultural research (ICAR), state agriculture universities (SAUs) and krishi vigyan kendras (KVKs) among others.

With a view to promote cotton farming, during cotton season 2016-17, cooperation and farmer welfare has fixed minimum support price for medium staple length cotton at Rs 3860 per quintal and for long staple at Rs 4160 per quintal. Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) has been entrusted with procurement of cotton from farmers at minimum support price (MSP) to protect the interest of farmers by giving MSP to their produce to avoid distress sale.

In another reply to Lok Sabha, Irani said that during cotton season 2015-16, Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) purchased seed cotton equivalent to 8.44 lakh bales at minimum support price (MSP). CCI procured 5,95,159 bales, 1,16,799 bales and 51,501 bales of cotton from Telangana, Maharashtra and Gujarat, respectively.

During cotton season 2015-16, cotton prices in the country abnormally increased in the month of May/July 2016 due to damage by white fly pests in northern region and pink boll worm attack in Gujarat region and panic buying by the mills to cover their lean season requirement.

In order to safeguard the interest of the textile industry including micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), the ministry of textiles decided in July, 2016 to sell the balance unsold stock available with CCI to MSMEs through e-sale so as to provide them some relief from cotton price volatility in the market and stabilise the market prices. Accordingly, all cotton stocks of CCI were sold. (KD)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
Disney, in association with YOOX, world's leading online luxury fashion retailer, has launched its first online fashion and lifestyle store. Disney's digital window will host latest designer collaborations inspired by Disney, Disney.Pixar, Star Wars and Marvel across apparel, accessories, footwear and interiors, which will be accessible on YOOX's homepage.

Products inspired by the popular characters of Disney like Olympia Le Tan's unique clutches inspired from Alice in Wonderland, Kenzo's sweaters portraying the protagonists of Disney's The Jungle Book and others will be available on YOOX. Very soon, it will also be adding new Disney collections, including those connected to upcoming movie launches, stated a press release.

Apart from the products, Disney's digital window on YOOX will also feature exclusive content celebrating the magical world of Disney such as Star Wars and Marvel stories. For over 70 years, the iconic characters of Disney, Star War and Marvel have been a source of inspiration for many adult fashion and lifestyle brands.

Disney's playful imagination was a great inspiration when I invented YOOX in 1999, so it is an enormous pleasure to combine Disney's timeless brand with YOOX's innovative spirit, further delighting our customers with creative content and hard to find products, said Federico Marchetti, founder of YOOX.

At The Walt Disney we like to push the boundaries by creating groundbreaking designs which blur the line between conventional products and art, taking creativity to a whole new level, said Francesca Gianesin, vice president of Fashion & Lifestyle, The Walt Disney Company EMEA. Our collaboration with YOOX is grounded in Disney's 'consumer first' strategy and our insights and knowledge of the adult consumer. We know what this demographic wants and through YOOX we are now delivering it, ensuring they have access to the product they want, when they want it. We are confident that our collections will surprise and delight YOOX's customer base and we look forward to bringing a bit of Disney magic to their lives.

YOOX is the world's leading online lifestyle store for fashion, design and art. It has always catalysed unexpected, unconventional and creative synergies, entertaining and surprising customers, playing a keyrole in the current generation's relation with e-commerce. (RR)
The $48 billion target for textiles and garment exports for 2016-17 may be hard to achieve, mainly due to less demand in major markets like the US, EU and China. However, the government has taken several measures to promote exports. These include the special package for garment sector announced in June this year, and various export promotion schemes.

When asked whether the target would be hard to achieve due to less demand from the US, EU and China, Union textiles minister Smriti Irani replied in the affirmative, media reports said.

Informing about the steps taken by the government to help the textile and garment industry achieve its export target, the minister, in a written reply to the Lok Sabha, said a special package of incentives was announced in June 2016 to promote garment exports. The package includes relaxation in certain labour laws, income tax concession, 100 per cent employers' contribution to EPFO by government, rebate of state levies for exports, etc.

The $48 billion target for textiles and garment exports for 2016-17 may be hard to achieve, mainly due to less demand in major markets like the US, EU and China. However, the government has taken several measures to promote exports. These include the special package for garment sector announced in June this year, and various export promotion schemes.#

In addition, the government implements various export promotion schemes to promote exports of all the segments in the sector on a sustained basis, Irani said. These include, Interest Equalisation Scheme, Merchandise Exports from India Scheme, Market Access Initiative, Market Development Assistance and Duty Drawback.

India's total textiles and apparel exports stood at $40 billion in 2015-16 compared to target of $47.5 billion. (RKS)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
ATE has tied up with BMSvision to bring a proven and world-class Manufacturing Execution System (MES) to the textile industry in India. Leading companies all over the world rely on the Belgian Monitoring Systems (BMS) MES for the daily management and optimisation of their operations. ATE will exclusively market BMSvisions MES products in India.

With over 35 years of experience, BMS is a leading global supplier of MES, with focus on the textile industry. BMSvision offers a wide variety of sensors, MES products and covers all textile manufacturing processes. It is the leading supplier in the field of automated on-loom fabric inspection. Under the name WeaveMaster, it offers a very powerful loom monitoring system.

With the Cyclops scanner and the QualiMaster fabric quality management system, BMSvision offers a unique quality assurance solution for weavers. KnitMaster monitors circular as well as warp knitting machines. For the carpet industry, BMSvision offers TuftMaster  a system to monitor tufting machines as well as carpet looms.

ATE has tied up with BMSvision to bring a proven and world-class Manufacturing Execution System (MES) to the textile industry in India. Leading companies all over the world rely on the Belgian Monitoring Systems (BMS) MES for the daily management and optimisation of their operations. ATE will exclusively market BMSvision's MES products in India.#

Further, the SpinMaster and the TwistMaster are systems used to make for better yarn manufacturing. Leading companies all over the world rely on the BMS MES for the daily management and optimisation of their operations. BMS has been present more than 30 years in the Indian market and was formerly known as BARCO.

With over 75 years experience in the textile industry, ATE is a domain expert across the textile value chain providing end-to-end solutions. The expertise of these partners  ATE and BMSvision  will help many customers in the Indian textile industry improve quality and productivity. (RKS)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
The Indian Garment N Fabric Expo (IGFE) 2017 will kick off from January 7 in Colombo, the capital city of Sri Lanka. The 3-day exhibition will witness participation of exhibitors from India doing business in readymade garments, fabrics, ladies wear and gents wear among others. It is an opportunity for B2B firms to connect with the consumers of Sri Lanka.

IGFE 2017 will also host live fashion show on all three days of the programme. The B2B exhibition that is open to the public will be organised by Value Fair N Expo that bridges the gap between buyers and sellers by providing them a platform to expand their business. The exhibition is supported by The Southern Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industries and The Textile Association India.

Founded in 2016, Value Fair N Expo aims at developing an international stage for periodical gatherings for exchanging views, talents, doing business, services like B2B exhibitions, B2C exhibitions, theme events, promotional activities etc. (RR)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
CLO Virtual Fashion, developers of 3D garment visualisation technologies to build a sustainable landscape for the fashion industries, is set to expand 3D simulation technology in the European market, with the opening of its new office in Munich, Germany, to provide customer service to help improve design development processes with 3D garment simulation.With a substantial amount of current and potential users incorporating 3D technology in the Europe region, CLO realises the need for this technology and has seen a 121 per cent increase in European regional sales growth and almost a 300 per cent increase in European user growth from 2014 to 2016.

CLO Virtual Fashion, developers of 3D garment visualisation technologies to build a sustainable landscape for the fashion industries, is set to expand 3D simulation technology in the European market, with the opening of its new office in Munich, Germany, to provide customer service to help improve design development processes with 3D garment simulation.#

Industry trends show that fashion and retail brands in European markets are more apt to integrate 3D simulation into the product lifecycle. European companies typically have in-house sample rooms or are in close proximity to their manufacturers, and are therefore more aware of the sampling process and attuned to its pitfalls.Daniel Seo, director of operations in Europe said, In an effort to be closer to our larger clients based in Europe, it made sense to open an office in Munich. Furthermore, providing localised support while elevating our relationships with our European clients is part of our company philosophy as we have always been a company focused on the user, ultimately leading to an intuitive solution for the fashion and apparel industries.Additionally, the company announced recently the launch of CLO Enterprise 3.0 which improves on nonlinear simulation, linear garment measures, and symmetric arrangements catering for faster and more accurate design. (GK)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
Dassault Systemes, a world leader in 3D design software, 3D Digital Mock Up, and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions, has announced that Gurmen Group, leading ready-to-wear menswear firm in Turkey, with brands Ramsey and KIP, has chosen the My Collection industry solution experience to optimise the development of its fashion collections.Gurmen Group had been seeking an industrial solution for some time to allow its brands to collaborate more efficiently on a single unified platform. Based on diligent research and a deep market offering assessment, which lasted over a year, the group decided that Dassault Systemes' My Collection industry solution experience was the best-in-class fashion solution to address its requirements. Its objective is to deploy the solution within a six-month timeframe.

Dassault Systemes, a world leader in 3D design software, 3D Digital Mock Up, and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions, has announced that Gurmen Group, leading ready-to-wear menswear firm in Turkey, with brands Ramsey and KIP, has chosen the My Collection industry solution experience to optimise the development of its fashion collections.#

Based on the 3Dexperience platform, the My Collection industry solution experience will provide Gurmen Group with a unified digital environment that connects internal and external stakeholders, integrates its value chain, and improves visibility, flexibility and decision support. Teams will collaborate in a single environment, spending less time chasing and duplicating data and more time on developing and sourcing items. With My Collection, Gurmen Group will accelerate time to market of its Ramsey and KIP collections and its teams can better focus on creative work.Chris Colyer, vice president, consumer goods and retail industry, Dassault Systemes said, Dassault Systemes' 15 years of fashion industry experience and the 3Dexperience platform offer a new, digital approach to collaborative innovation for on-trend and on-time collections that can create value. We are seeing more and more apparel companies of all sizes in all markets adopt this approach and its depth of functionalities, for maximum visibility across seasons, categories, products, and variations. (GK)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
The very beautiful Hollywood actress Scarlett Johansson said she has always wanted to play the character of a Disney Princess. She has been trying to get a similar role for the last twenty years.

"Right now I think we both share the dream that I will someday be a Disney princess, but it's probably not going to happen. I've been asking for that job for the past 20 years, and nobody has booked me" Johansson said in a statement.

The actress continued, "When you see films from 50 years ago, the characters reflected what people wanted to project to the world, which was very black and white and guarded, or idealistic or whatever."

"It's not that way anymore. The films that have a better audience reaction now are the ones where the characters are flawed." Johansson added.

Scarlett Johansson also talks about how the celebrities are being victimised on social media platforms.

"You know, I didn't grow up in the glare of social media. That stuff wasn't an issue when I was a teenager," she said.

"I remember watching MaCaulay Culkin dealing with the media, but it was because he had that Shirley Temple effect and he was making so much money. That was a very unusual situation." Johansson stated further.
Deep concerns about sharing information online revealed

Digital Britain seeking digital detox, especially overwhelmed millennials

Financial institutions most trusted, technology companies least, with personal information

Companies encouraged to prioritise cybersecurity and educate consumers

Consumers are fearful about their online security, with more than a third (37 percent) willing to take themselves "off the grid" to protect their privacy. This is the top line finding of Britain's Digital DNA, a new report featuring a UK-wide survey of over 1,500 consumers by global management consultancy, Oliver Wyman.

The reportconducted to explore the public's digital behaviour and attitudes to technology, reveals that nearly half (45 percent) of British adults are worried about sharing their personal information online. However, nearly one third (32 percent) feel obliged or have to do so in order to navigate modern life, with over half (54 percent) saying that they couldn't live without the internet for more than a day and 12 percent for more than an hour.

Overwhelmed millennials claim they are most in need of a digital detox, with nearly a third (31 percent) of 18-34 year olds actively seeking out opportunities to go offline, compared to only 20 percent of those aged 35-54 and 14 percent of those aged 55-74.

The report comes just ten days after the Investigatory Powers Act was passed into law, widening the Government's digital surveillance powers. The passing of the new law, dubbed by its critics as the 'Snoopers' Charter,' is likely to further increase consumer fears about privacy online.

Chris McMillan, Partner, Oliver Wyman Labs the data and technology arm of the business, said:

"It appears our digital addiction runs deep, but with this comes anxiety about privacy so much so that Brits, especially overwhelmed millennials, are willing to undergo a 'digital detox'; avoiding emails and texts. The recent passing of the Investigatory Powers Act, as well as news about new data breaches will only bring this worry into greater focus. Businesses need to do more to protect private data, and educate consumers on what the data they collect is being used for."

Financial institutions top the survey as the most trusted companies with our personal information, with technology companies being the least trusted:

The most trusted companies with personal information are:

Financial institutions (only 11 percent don't trust them)

Healthcare providers or insurers (13 percent don't trust them)

Car or home insurers (17 percent don't trust them)

The least trusted companies with personal information are:

Technology companies e.g. e-commerce sites and search engines (37 percent don't trust them)

Supermarkets or grocers (31 percent don't trust them)

Mobile phone operators (27 percent don't trust them)

McMillan continues, "For consumers to embrace our digital future without fear and anxiety, companies across all sectors need to prioritise cyber security. They also need to act fast when there are breaches. Financial institutions are the most trusted in our survey because they put a lot of investment into educating consumers about the security measures they take to protect them, assuaging the worry many of us feel when handing over our personal information."

Other public concerns over digital and technology revealed by the survey include:

Social isolation

The survey revealed that men between aged between 25 and 34 are missing out most human contact, with 43 percent of male respondents in that age bracket admitting that social media prevents them from seeing their friends as much as they would like. This is compared to 32 percent of women in the same age group and an average of 22 percent across all age groups.

Feeling left behind by technology

Nearly a third (31 percent) of the UK admitted that they can't keep up with new technology. The feeling of being 'left behind' by new developments appears to be as acute for under 24s as it is for those in middle age. The survey revealed that 29 percent of 18-24 year olds feel out of touch with the latest technology, the same number as those aged between 55 and 64.

About Oliver Wyman

Oliver Wyman is a global leader in management consulting. With offices in 50+ cities across 26 countries, Oliver Wyman combines deep industry knowledge with specialized expertise in strategy, operations, risk management, and organization transformation. The firm's 4,000 professionals help clients optimize their business, improve their operations and risk profile, and accelerate their organizational performance to seize the most attractive opportunities. Oliver Wyman is a wholly owned subsidiary of Marsh McLennan Companies [NYSE:MMC]. For more information, visit www.oliverwyman.com. Follow Oliver Wyman on Twitter @OliverWyman.

About the research:

A survey of 1,560 consumers in the United Kingdom was carried out by Innofact in October 2016, on behalf of global management consultancy Oliver Wyman.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161208005096/en/

Contacts:

For Oliver Wyman:

Lucy Chapple, 0203 696 5800

lucy@standagency.com

or

Millie Daly, 0203 696 5800

millie@standagency.com
Smiths Detection today announced the official opening of its new UK centre of excellence for trace detection, located in Hemel Hempstead. The new facility, which is located approximately 11 miles from its previous location in Watford, provides improved and more efficient customer operations; new amenities for employees; and the opportunity for future growth and development.

This modern "fit for purpose" facility, which covers a total of 67,000 square feet, provides excellent capabilities for engineering, research and manufacturing. It has been specifically designed to ensure that maximum operational efficiencies are achieved across every area of its operation, supporting the long term business growth for Smiths Detection.

Delivering state of the art security solutions to key markets including aviation, military and emergency responders, the products manufactured previously at Watford and now at the Hemel Hempstead site are truly impressive. To date more than 25,000 explosive detectors and over 220,000 chemical detectors have been manufactured at Smiths Detection's facilities and delivered to customers across the globe.

"The relocation of our operations to our new state of the art facility here in Hemel Hempstead was a necessary step to ensure that we remain competitive on a global scale," commented Richard Ingram, President of Smiths Detection. "We had quite simply outgrown our previous facility in Watford and needed a site that would allow us to respond quickly and adapt to our customers' growing demands. Close to 300 employees have moved to Hemel Hempstead and I would like to thank the hard-working project team which made this possible."

The Rt Hon Mr Mike Penning, MP for Hemel Hempstead, officially opened the facility as guest of honour. He commented "I'm delighted to be able to welcome Smiths Detection to the area. Hemel Hempstead is a growing town and, with access to skilled people and good infrastructure, more and more technology companies like Smiths Detection are moving into this area and driving demand for even more skilled employees".

About Smiths Detection:

Smiths Detection is one of five operating divisions of Smiths Group, a global technology company listed on the London Stock Exchange. Employing over 22,000 people in more than 50 countries, Smiths Group applies leading-edge technology to design, manufacture and deliver innovative solutions that meet our customers' needs.

Smiths Detection is a global leader in threat detection and screening technologies for the military, air transportation, homeland security and emergency response sectors. Our experience and history across more than 40 years at the frontline, enables us to provide unrivalled levels of expertise to detect and identify constantly changing chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive threats, as well as weapons, contraband and narcotics. Our goal is simple to provide the security, peace of mind and freedom of movement upon which the world depends. For more information visit www.smithsdetection.com

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161208005974/en/

Contacts:

Smiths Detection

Karen Kulinski, Director Marketing and Communications (EMEA)

+49 (0)611 9412 422

karen.kulinski@smithsdetection.com
TEL AVIV, ISRAEL -- (Marketwired) -- 12/08/16 -- Dronomy, a software start-up focused on building knowledge into construction projects through analysis of data collected by drones, announced today it had secured funding from Mitsui Fudosan's corporate venture capital fund "31VENTURES Global Innovation Fund I", jointly operated by Global Brain Corporation.

The construction market is estimated by the World Economic Forum at almost $10 trillion, while drone-based solutions for the construction market are estimated by Goldman Sachs to accumulate to over $11 billion in the next five years. Construction companies, developers and sub-contractors are starting to realize the benefits of using unique technological solutions as part of their business processes to reduce ever-occurring project delays, cost overruns and disputes, which can account for a significant percentage of a project's overall costs. Dronomy captures unique and frequent project data using autonomous drones, and analyzes it into actionable information that is shared over the cloud to all relevant project stakeholders.

"We are proud to have Mitsui Fudosan, through its CVC arm 31VENTURES, among our investors," says Ori Aphek, Dronomy's CEO. "We are consistently receiving extraordinary feedback from customers who experience what our solution can do for them. This is now ratified by one of the world's largest players in our market. Our ability to make consumer drones fly low and close in construction sites, capture the right visual data, translate it into knowledge, and appropriately deliver this knowledge is what makes us different."

"It did not take us long to realize the outstanding business potential of Dronomy, which led us to making our first-ever investment in an Israeli technology company," explains Akira Sugawara, General Manager of 31VENTURES. "The construction market, its challenges and the opportunities it encapsulates are well known to us. We were impressed to see how Dronomy and its remarkable team understand and address these challenges."

This funding round will allow the company to launch its solution into international markets and to ramp-up its customer acquisition, starting in Q1 2017. The company's existing investors, including Battery Ventures, Lool Ventures and Oryzn Capital, have also participated this funding round.

For more information on Dronomy, visit www.dronomy.com.

For more information on 31 VENTURES, please visit www.31ventures.jp/en/

About Dronomy

Dronomy was founded by two physicists who were enthusiastic to make drones fly autonomously. The company has quickly identified the gap in the ability of construction companies to frequently and accurately monitor their construction sites. With Dronomy, mapping, monitoring, inspecting and sharing site details becomes part of the daily site routine. Construction companies can build knowledge into their projects and execute site monitoring missions so easily and safely that it becomes a daily routine, reducing costs and project delays. Dronomy is powered by a highly experienced and enthusiastic team with expertise in construction, drones, computer vision, software and 3D modeling, and is backed by top-notch VCs and private investors.

About Mitsui Fudosan's Venture Co-creation Department "31VENTURES"

Mitsui Fudosan is a leading real estate developer in Japan. Mitsui Fudosan has been accelerating its efforts in co-creation with startups for the ultimate goal to create new industries both to strengthen Mitsui Fudosan's business and to expand the scope of its operations. In April 2015, Mitsui Fudosan established the Venture Co-creation Department, 31VENTURES, to achieve co-creation of new industries together with startups by providing fully integrated venture capital services, "Finance," "Support" and "Community," for ambitious startups.

Rebecca Buckman

Battery Ventures/for Dronomy

becky@battery.com




HAMBURG (dpa-AFX) - German drug discovery solutions company Evotec AG (EVTCY.PK, EVOTF.PK) announced Friday a strategic alliance with biotechnology start-up Forge Therapeutics, Inc. to advance its novel Gram-negative antibiotic programme targeting 'LpxC' for the treatment of bacterial infections including those caused by drug resistant 'superbugs'. LpxC has been recognised as an attractive antibacterial target for more than the past 15 years. However, its progress has been troubled by a lack of suitable chemical starting points. Forge has been applying its proprietary metal-binding pharmacophores or MBP library and processes and has been able to identify potent drugable inhibitors of LpxC. The company said the alliance will be focused on lead optimisation of these inhibitors with the goal of identifying a development candidate in the next couple of years. Evotec will, through a team of more than 10 scientists, contribute cutting-edge biochemistry, microbiology, medicinal chemistry, structural biology, computational chemistry, ADME/PK/analytical, and programme management. Mario Polywka, Chief Operating Officer of Evotec, said, 'The antibiotic field has been suffering from an innovation void over the last 30 years and requires significant intellectual and financial stimulus to address the issues of resistance. Importantly, Forge's novel LpxC programme coupled with Evotec's unrivalled drug discovery platform and expertise offers significant promise in addressing this issue.' 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.
STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Dec 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

During 2017, Electrolux will continue to focus on innovative product launches delivering great consumer experiences, in combination with a strong emphasis on cost efficiencies. Market demand in Electrolux largest markets, Europe and North America, is expected to grow moderately.

Market demand has been positive in Europe in 2016, although there have recently been signs of softer demand in some markets, including the UK. Demand for appliances in Europe is expected to grow by about 1% in 2017.

Appliance demand in North America has grown for almost four consecutive years. We expect continued stable development and forecast volume growth of 2-3% in 2017. Continued pressures on household disposable income in Brazil and Argentina are forecast to have a negative impact on market volumes in these countries, which account for the majority of Electrolux sales in Latin America. Market demand in Argentina and Brazil together, is expected to decrease by approximately 5% in 2017.

The work to increase operational efficiency continues and the net cost efficiency is planned to contribute positively with approximately SEK 1.6 bn for the year, excluding the impacts of raw materials and currency fluctuations. The Group's capital expenditure level is expected to amount to approximately SEK 4 bn.

Commodity prices in general have been trending upwards during 2016. Electrolux costs for raw materials are expected to increase by approximately SEK 900m in 2017 based on current market projections.

Currency movements have been volatile throughout 2016. Recently, there have been reinforced fluctuations in several of Electrolux major currencies, most notably the Egyptian Pound which was floated in early November 2016. For 2017, at current exchange rates, a negative transaction impact for the Group of SEK 250m is expected. However, Electrolux expects a positive translation impact of SEK 250m.

Electrolux is focused on achieving sustainable profitability in all business areas, with high priority on securing a Group EBIT margin of 6% over the business cycle. This will be achieved through innovative product launches and an active product portfolio management, in combination with product and structural cost efficiencies. In all, this will create additional value for our customers, employees and shareholders.

CONTACT:

For further information, please contact:

Catarina Ihre, Vice President Investor Relations at +46 (0)8 738 60 87

Electrolux Press Hotline, +46 8657 6507.

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

http://news.cision.com/electrolux/r/electrolux-expectations-for-2017,c2145394

The following files are available for download:
LONDON, ENGLAND -- (Marketwired) -- 12/09/16 -- Condor Gold (AIM: CNR), the AIM-listed gold exploration company, is pleased to announce it has reached terms of a settlement with B2Gold Corporation ("B2Gold") and Royal Gold, Inc. ("Royal Gold") over a disputed Net Smelter Return Royalty ("NSR") over part of Condor's flagship La India Project in Nicaragua, which hosts a high grade NI 43-101 compliant mineral resource estimate of 18.08 Mtonnes at 4.0 g/t for 2.31 Moz gold. Condor is also acquiring from B2Gold approximately 3,508 hectares of land surface rights which cover the area of the estimated mineral resource and reserves and the proposed mine site infrastructure.

Highlights:

-- Condor reaches terms of a settlement on 3% NSR with B2Gold and Royal Gold. -- The settlement clears the way for the Project to advance towards the construction of a 1Mtpa processing plant with capacity to produce 100,000 oz gold p.a. from a single open pit. -- Purchase from B2Gold of 3,508 hectares of land surface rights covering the mine site infrastructure and the area of the mineral resource and reserve. -- Purchase of land surface rights from B2Gold removes an obstacle and allows the project to progress. -- Settlement of NSR dispute and purchase of land surface rights de-risks the Project.

Mark Child, CEO comments:

"I am pleased to have negotiated the terms of the settlement over a 3% NSR on part of Condor's La India Project. It ends four years of litigation in the Canadian and Nicaragua courts with B2Gold and Royal Gold. It clears the way to progress Mina La India to construction by providing clarity to potential funding partners over a protracted NSR dispute. I am equally pleased to have acquired surface rights in respect of 3,508 hectares of land from B2Gold, which covers the area of the mine site infrastructure required for the base case 1Mtpa processing plant with capacity to produce 100,000 oz gold p.a. from a single open pit. The purchase of the land surface rights removes an obstacle to construction, not least because B2Gold undertook litigation against Condor in Nicaragua in relation to these rights. The purchase of land surface rights will facilitate negotiations with local land owners and allows the project to progress forming part of Condor's strategy of de-risking the Project and achieving a clear path to production".

Background: In September 2010, Condor and B2Gold (the "Parties") entered into a legally binding agreement to swap concessions in Nicaragua (see RNS dated 6th September 2010). In summary, Condor owned the 22sq km Cerro Quiroz Concession, which is adjacent to B2Gold's producing mining on the La Libertad Concession and B2Gold owned the 65 sq km La India Concession. B2Gold wanted to acquire the Cerro Quiroz Concession as it increased its concession package adjacent to a producing gold mine. Condor had accumulated a package of four concessions that cover an area of 96 sq km around the historic gold mine on the La India Concession, had worked in the area for 4 years and was consolidating a concession package in La India Gold District. The Parties incorporated two new companies in Nicaragua. La India Gold S.A. which today is 100% owned by Condor and Cerro Quiroz S.A. which is currently 80% owned by B2Gold and 20% by Condor. The concession swap agreement resulted in the transfer of the La India Concession to La India Gold S.A. and the Cerro Quiroz Concession to Cerro Quiroz S.A. Condor was aware of a 3% NSR on the La India Concession at the time of the concession swap, but was not provided with a copy of the NSR agreement until almost 2 years later. After consulting legal counsel, the Board of Directors of Condor determined that the NSR was not applicable to the La India Concession. B2Gold and Royal Gold jointly sued Condor in Canada and B2Gold's Nicaragua subsidiary company, Triton Minera S.A. filed four court cases against Condor's local subsidiary in Nicaragua.

The Settlement: Condor has entered into an Amended and Restated Net Smelter Royalty Agreement ("A&R NSR Agreement") with International Royalty Corporation ("IRC", a subsidiary of Royal Gold), which is conditional upon (among other things) the withdrawal of all law suits in British Columbia, Canada and Nicaragua by B2Gold and Royal Gold against Condor and its affiliate companies (the "Settlement"). As part of the Settlement, Condor, B2Gold and IRC will enter into an Assignment, Assumption, Novation and Consent Agreement whereby Condor will assume the liability of a 3% NSR within an Area of Interest ("AOI") on La India Project in favour of IRC. In addition, the Settlement provides for covenants not to sue and releases to be mutually given by the parties in respect of matters relating to the Settlement. Due to a number of necessary steps required to withdraw litigation in the courts in Nicaragua and registering the security on the concessions impacted by the AOI as defined by the A&R NSR Agreement, it is expected that it may take three months for the Settlement to complete.

The La India Project covers an area of 313.4 sq km and comprises ten contiguous and adjacent concessions that are 100% owned by Condor; they have been acquired over a 10 year period. The four concessions total 96 sq km (El Rodeo, El Cacao, Real De La Cruz and Santa Barbara) acquired by Condor prior the concession swap with B2Gold are excluded from the 3% NSR under the A&R NSR Agreement. The La India Concession and some or all of the concessions acquired by Condor after the concession swap with B2Gold will be subject to the 3% NSR: La Cuchilla, Tierra Blanca, El Zacatoso, La Mojarra with the exception of the Espinito-Mendoza concession and the area covered by the former Espinito San Pablo concession. Condor estimates a total of 138.9 sq km is within the AOI. This means approximately 90% of the Company's current indicated and inferred resources on La India Project will be subject to a 3% NSR under the A&R NSR Agreement. An area of 174.5 sq km is excluded from the AOI and 3% NSR. See Map below:

To view the map, please visit the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/1079546.jpg

Acquisition of 3,508 Hectares of Land Surface Rights from B2Gold and disposal of 20% Cerro Quiroz S.A.

Following the execution and delivery of a settlement agreement to effect the Settlement, Triton Mineral S.A. will execute and deliver to Condor a document transferring certain land surface rights covering the area that hosts an estimated resource of 18.08 Mtonnes at 4.0 g/t for 2.31 Moz gold. In 1996, a predecessor company to B2Gold paid approximately US$720,000 to acquire approximately 3,508 hectares of land surface rights (known locally as possession rights) from over 120 individuals. As part of the Settlement, Condor will acquire these land surface rights from B2Gold in exchange for its 20% shareholding in Cerro Quiroz S.A. which owns the Cerro Quiroz Concession adjacent to La Libertad Concession. Condor is in the process of acquiring 800 to 1,000 hectares of rural land required for the mine site infrastructure to support a 1mtpa, 2,800tpd processing plant capable of processing 100,000 oz gold p.a. The area of the mine site infrastructure is within the 3,508 hectares of land surface rights. The acquisition of the land surface rights removes an obstacle and should greatly assist Condor's land acquisition team in its negotiations with local property vendors within the 3,508 hectares area.

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of EU Regulation 596/2014.

For further information please visit www.condorgold.com.

About Condor Gold plc:

Condor Gold plc was admitted to AIM on 31st May 2006. The Company is a gold exploration and development company with a focus on Central America.

Condor completed a Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) and two Preliminary Economic Assessments (PEA) on La India Project in Nicaragua in December 2014. The PFS details an open pit gold mineral reserve of 6.9 Mtonnes at 3.0 g/t gold for 675,000 oz gold, producing 80,000 oz gold pa for 7 years. The PEA for the open pit only scenario details 100,000 oz gold production pa for 8 years whereas the PEA for a combination of open pit and underground details 140,000 oz gold production pa for 8 years. La India Project contains a total attributable mineral resource of 18.08 Mtonnes at 4.0 g/t for 2.31 Moz gold and 2.68 Moz silver at 6.2 g/t to the CIM Code.

In El Salvador, Condor has an attributable 1,004,000 oz gold equivalent at 2.6 g/t JORC compliant resource. The resource calculations are compiled by independent geologists, SRK Consulting (UK) Limited for Nicaragua, and Ravensgate and Geosure for El Salvador.

Disclaimer

Neither the contents of the Company's website nor the contents of any website accessible from hyperlinks on the Company's website (or any other website) is incorporated into, or forms part of, this announcement.

Contacts:

Condor Gold plc

Mark Child

Executive Chairman and CEO

+44 (0) 20 74932784



Beaumont Cornish Limited

Roland Cornish and James Biddle

+44 (0) 20 7628 3396



Numis Securities Limited

John Prior and James Black

+44 (0) 20 72601000



Farm Street Media

Simon Robinson

+44 (0) 7593 340107




KIEV, Ukraine, December 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

DCH Group with its considerable experience of managing industrial assets (including those of chemical industry) has repeatedly expressed its interest in acquiring the shares of Odessa Port Plant PSC. In this connection it was decided to consider a possibility of participating in the enterprise's privatization tender set by the State Property Fund of Ukraine for October 14, 2016.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161208/447064 )

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161208/447065 )



On submitting an application and signing a confidentiality agreement with SPF and OPP DCH got access to information about the plant's activities including reports of consultants who had prepared the enterprise for its privatization. DCH together with PwC auditors held legal and financial auditing of Odessa Port Plant PSC.

DCH Group highly appreciates the work and efforts undertaken by the State Property Fund of Ukraine in order to prepare Odessa Port Plant PSC for the tender. Yet, while the analytical work was being done, we obtained additional information on financial and economic activities of the enterprise that was not mentioned in the text published in the official bulletin of the State Property Fund, the Privatization Details, No. 87 (1003) of October 31, 2016. This information is of great importance for the investor.

Namely, it was revealed that the actual accounts payable are not less than at $85 mln., their most pessimistic variant might exceed $350 mln. This practically increases the price of purchasing OPP for its prospective buyers to $550 mln. and more in comparison with the price of the enterprise's shares on sale at the moment. Besides, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine has warranted the enterprise's examination; enforcement proceedings were started on September 20, 2016, information on those can be found in the public record of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine.

To our deep regret the State Property Fund of Ukraine did not afford DCH representatives an opportunity to participate in the face-to-face negotiations on terms and conditions of acquiring OPP shares. As a result, our suggestions concerning controversial issues remained undiscussed, and the issues themselves remained open because their compromise solution was not developed.

Thus, the complete text of our 15 comments was sent to the State Property Fund of Ukraine in writing. Taking into account everything mentioned above, acquiring the shares of Odessa Port Plant PSC with its loss-making activities, a substantial volume of accounts payable and their constant increase, unsettled and vague situation in terms of vital issues of the enterprise's activities entails a high risk to DCH of losing its investment.

For this reason DCH Group has to withdraw from the tender for acquiring the enterprise's block of shares on conditions offered by the State Property Fund of Ukraine. At the same time DCH would like to stress its interest in future acquisition of OPP and its readiness to further cooperate on the issue.
BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - The pound retreated from early highs against its major counterparts in pre-European trading on Friday. The pound pared gains to 1.2562 against the greenback, 1.2763 against the franc and 143.71 against the yen, from its early highs of 1.2596, 1.2806 and 144.13, respectively. The pound retreated from an early 3-day high of 0.8417 versus the euro, edging lower to 0.8457. The pound may find support around 1.235 against the greenback, 140.5 against the yen, 1.22 against the franc and 0.86 against the euro. 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.
Alytus, Lithuania, 2016-12-09 09:38 CET (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The following resolutions were made during the Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders held on 09 December 2016:THE AGENDA QUESTION: The reduction of the authorised capital of AB "Snaige"THE DECISION:To reduce the authorized capital of AB "Snaige" for the purpose of eliminating the loss in balance of AB "Snaige". The authorized capital will be reduced by 3,169,791.60 euro. The authorized capital is reduced by reducing nominal value of existing shares by 0.08 euro per share. The nominal value of the share after reduction will be 0.30 euro per share. To approve changes of p. 4.1 and p. 5.1 of the articles of association, related to reduction of the authorized capital of AB "Snaige", as follows:"4.1. The authorized capital of the Company is EUR 11,886,718.50 (eleven million eight hundred eighty six thousand seven hundred eighteen euro and 50 eurocents)." and "5.1. The authorized capital of the Company is divided into 39,622,395 (thirty nine million six hundred twenty two thousand three hundred ninety five) shares. The nominal value of one share is 0,30 euro (thirty eurocents)."To approve the new redaction of the changed articles of association.To authorize the General Manager of the Company Gediminas Ceika (with the right to reauthorize) to perform all necessary actions relating to implementation of approved decisions by the extraordinary shareholders meeting and to sign changed articles of association.Attached:Articles of association.Managing Director Gediminas Ceika +370 315 56206Attachment:https://cns.omxgroup.com/cds/DisclosureAttachmentServlet?messageAttachmentId=607751
PUNE, India, December 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

The report"Polyurethane Composites Marketby Type (Glass, Carbon), Manufacturing Process (Lay-Up, Pultrusion, Resin Transfer Molding), End-Use Industry (Transportation, Building & Construction, Electrical & Electronics), Region - Global Forecast to 2026", published by MarketsandMarkets, the global market is projected to reach USD 909.8 Million by 2026, at a CAGR of 5.9% from 2016 to 2026.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160303/792302 )

Browse 121 market data Tables and 83 Figures spread through 173 Pages and in-depth TOC on"Polyurethane Composites Market "

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Increase in demand of polyurethane composites from the transportation, building & construction, electrical & electronics, wind power energy industries is propelling the growth of this market.

Fiber glass polyurethane composites is the fastest-growing fiber type segment of the global polyurethane composites market

The fiber glass polyurethane composites are estimated to account for the largest share of the polyurethane composites market in 2016, and is projected to be the fastest-growing type segment from 2016 to 2026. The growth is mainly attributed features such as superior strength, flexibility, durability, stability, light weight, heat, and moisture resistivity that make fiber glass polyurethane composites more preferred choice in industries.

Download PDF Brochure @ http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownload.asp?id=71823668

Lay-up segment is anticipated to grow at the highest CAGR from 2016 to 2026

The lay-up segment is anticipated to grow at the highest CAGR in global polyurethane composites market from 2016 to 2026. Low cost and ease of ease of processing makes lay-up manufacturing process as one of the prominent manufacturing process for polyurethane composites.

Transportation is the fastest-growing end-use industry segment of the global polyurethane composites market

The transportation segment is estimated to account for the largest share of the global polyurethane composites market in 2016, and is projected to be the fastest-growing segment from 2016 to 2026. This growth can be attributed to the increased demand for the use of polyurethane composites in the automobile industry, due to its light weight and superior physical and mechanical properties.

Asia-Pacific is the largest market for the polyurethane composites in 2016

Asia-Pacific is the largest Polyurethane Composites Market in 2016. This increased demand can be attributed to the growing demand for polyurethane composites from the end-use industries such as transportation, building & construction, electrical & electronics, and wind power energy in this region.

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Key players operational in the market include BASF SE (Germany), Bayer AG (Germany), Hexcel Corporation (U.S.), Huntsman Corporation (U.S.), SGL Group (Germany), Toray Industries, Inc. (Japan), The Dow Chemical Company (U.S.), Wanhua Chemical Group Co., Ltd. (China), Sekisui Chemical Co., Ltd. (Japan), Owens Corning (U.S.), and SGL Group (Germany).

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9 December 2016

Conroy Gold and Natural Resources plc

("Conroy" or "the Company")

RESULT OF ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

AGM STATEMENT

At today's Annual General Meeting of Conroy Gold and Natural Resources plc (AIM: CGNR, ESM: CGNR.I), the gold exploration and development company focused on Ireland and Finland, the Chairman, Professor Richard Conroy, made the following comments:

"This year has seen further excellent progress for your Company. Excellent drilling results have been reported for Clontibret together with structural studies confirming continuity of the gold lodes - an essential step for mine development. A Scoping Study prepared by independent consultants Tetra Tech Wardrop has demonstrated that the established JORC compliant resource of over 0.6 million oz Au (Gold), at Clontibret, on 20% of the target area, is technically and financially viable.

"Additionally the Clontibret gold deposit and the adjacent Clay lake gold target have now been brought together as a single mining project with a multi-million ounce gold resource targeted.

"The excellent drilling results at Clontibret included high grade gold and wide intersections.

These included 2.25m grading 10.47 g/t gold, including 0.50m grading 25.85 g/t gold and 5.75m grading 5.04 g/t gold together with the discovery of five new gold zones.

"Gold lode continuity at Clontibret was confirmed by structural studies by independent geologist Dr Francis Murphy. This new study complemented your Company's ongoing drilling programme and is a further major step forward with your Company's plans for development at Clay Lake - Clontibret.

"The Clay Lake target has been shown by gold-in-soil studies to be approximately 3km in length, up to 2km in width and to have a surface area of over 200 hectares (c500 acres). The results of structural studies and wide zones of gold mineralisation by drilling and trenching already reported indicate the potential for high tonnage and overall gold content at Clay Lake.

"A quantitative risk assessment by consultant geologist Professor Garth Earls, who has now joined your Company as a director, has established an initial combined exploration target of five million ounces of gold across the Clay Lake - Clontibret project.

"We have also continued work at other sites and four new gold zones were intersected on the Glenish property.

"This year we will continue to develop the mine plan at Clontibret whilst also increasing the resource."

All resolutions were duly passed.

For further information please contact :

Conroy Gold and Natural Resources plc Tel: +353-1-661-8958 Professor Richard Conroy, Chairman Allenby Capital Limited (Nomad) Tel: +44-20-3328-5656 David Hart/James Thomas/Nick Harriss Hybridan LLP (Broker) Tel: +44-20-3764-2341 Claire Louise Noyce/Niall Pearson/William Lynne IBI Corporate Finance Limited (ESM Adviser) Tel: +353-766-234-800 Ger Heffernan / Jan Fitzell Lothbury Financial Services Tel: +44-20-3290-0707 Michael Padley Hall Communications Tel: +353-1-660-9377 Don Hall

Visit the website at: www.conroygold.com
WINNIPEG, MB--(Marketwired - December 09, 2016) - 3D Signatures Inc. (TSX VENTURE: DXD) (the "Company" or "3DS") is pleased to announce two additional strategic appointments to its Board of Directors and its Clinical and Scientific Advisory Board respectively. Helen Stevenson, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Reformulary Group Inc., has been appointed to the Company's Board of Directors. Dr. Ian Smith, will be stepping down from the Board of Directors and will be joining the Company's Clinical and Scientific Advisory Board ("CSAB"). Both appointments will help shape 3DS' clinical priorities and its path towards commercial success.

About Helen Stevenson

Helen Stevenson is Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Reformulary Group Inc., a company dedicated to helping manage prescription drug costs for employer drug plans while promoting better patient health outcomes. Ms. Stevenson was formerly Executive Officer of Canada's largest provincial drug program, the Ontario Public Drug Program by Order-In-Council, as well as Assistant Deputy Minister at the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. Ms. Stevenson led two major transformations in the prescription drug system; first with Ontario's Bill 102 (2006) and, more recently, with the Province's generic pricing reforms (2010). In addition, she led many of Ontario's drug system initiatives, including the Drugs for Rare Diseases Framework, Ontario Narcotics Strategy, Ontario Citizens' Council, MedsCheck medication review program, Compassionate Access Program, Competitive Agreements Framework, and the Drug Innovation Fund. Ms. Stevenson is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Auto Sector Retiree Health Care Trust, and a former member of the Board of North York General Hospital.

Widely recognized as a champion of value-based pricing and outcomes, 3DS will greatly benefit from Ms. Stevenson's unique experience in managing healthcare budgets at both the government level and for private payers -- two stakeholder groups that will be beneficiaries of 3DS' value-based personalized medicine strategies. Ms. Stevenson brings a unique biopharma perspective on advancing novel therapeutics with physicians and payers, which will be instrumental when addressing the industry's need for personalized and appropriate use of cancer therapies, a central focus for 3DS as it aims to rapidly commercialize a new class of biomarkers and companion diagnostics for a variety of cancers and dementia.

About Dr. Ian Smith

Dr. Ian Smith was an inaugural and invaluable member of 3DS' Board of Directors. He shares founder Dr. Sabine Mai's vision for advancing the personalization of medicine and is now an esteemed member the Company's Clinical and Scientific Advisory Board.

Dr. Smith is currently the Chairman of the Centre for Imaging Technology Commercialization. His past research and commercialization achievements include significant success in the field of magnetic resonance imaging. Dr. Smith is a former Director General of the NRC Institute for Biological Sciences in Ottawa, and founder and Director General of the Institute for Biodiagnostics, in Winnipeg. He is a passionate advocate for the advancement of diagnostics for the early detection and treatment of disease, and successfully started nine companies (such as Novadaq and IMRIS), with a present value of $2.5 billion with more than 300 employees in Canada and worldwide.

From 2001 to 2016, he served as a Member of the Manitoba Premier's Economic Advisory Council. He was appointed Officer of the Order of Canada in 2008 for his leadership in the advancement, development and commercialization of Canada's diagnostic technologies, notably magnetic resonance imaging, in the field of health care. In addition, Dr. Smith received the 2008 Outstanding Achievement Award of the Public Service of Canada, presented to individuals who have displayed long-term excellence throughout their careers in Canada's public service. He was awarded the Queen's Gold (2002) and Diamond (2012) Jubilee Medals for his contributions.

Dr. Smith is widely recognized as a successful pioneer and creator of value for med tech companies with a disciplined scientific and business acumen that was critical to 3DS as is formed the Board, management team and early strategic priorities. As a member of the CSAB, he will make important contributions including leveraging his imaging expertise and professional network, so that 3DS can complete the development of its proprietary TeloView' software. Upon completion, TeloView' will comprise a fully automated, scalable and end-to-end solution for 3DS' clinical lab partners to submit 3D images and generate and deliver personalized medical reports.

Comments from the Chairman

"We are honored to welcome Dr. Smith to our Clinical and Scientific Advisory Board and Ms. Stevenson to our Board of Directors. Dr. Smith is a renowned scientist who will continue to be invaluable in guiding the development of this entirely new class of minimally invasive biomarkers," said John Swift, Chairman of 3D Signatures Inc. "Ms. Stevenson is a significant new addition to our team who brings strategic experience both at the government level and within private industry, in addition to her global networks and deep biopharma insights which will be of great benefit to the Company as we rapidly move towards commercialization," he remarked.

Helen Stevenson's appointment to the Board of Directors is pending approval from the TSX Venture Exchange.

Granting of Options

The Company has granted 210,000 incentive stock options (the "Options") to directors, officers and employees of 3DS, at an exercise price of $0.76 per share. The Options are exercisable for a ten-year period from the date of grant, December 9, 2016, and vest as follows: 135,000 options at the date of grant and 75,000 twelve months later. A total of 4,647,956 options are now issued and outstanding and 24,827 remain for future issuance. The Options are granted pursuant to the Company's stock option plan, which was most recently approved by the shareholders of the Company at the annual general meeting of shareholders held on February 29, 2016.

About 3DS

3DS (TSX VENTURE: DXD) is a personalized medicine company with a proprietary software platform based on the three-dimensional analysis of chromosomal signatures. The technology is well developed and supported by 16 clinical studies on over 1,500 patients on 13 different cancers and Alzheimer's disease. Depending on the desired application, the technology can measure the stage of disease, rate of progression of disease, drug efficacy, and drug toxicity. The technology is designed to predict the course of disease and to personalize treatment for the individual patient. For more information, visit the Company's new website at http://www.3dsignatures.com.

Forward-Looking Information

This news release includes forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause the actual results of the Company to be materially different from the historical results or from any future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. All statements within, other than statements of historical fact, are to be considered forward looking. In particular, the Company's statements that it expects to benefit greatly from its association with the individuals named in this news release is forward-looking information. Although 3DS believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Risk factors that could cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from the results expressed or implied by forward-looking information include, among other things: market demand; technological changes that could impact the Company's existing products or the Company's ability to develop and commercialize future products; competition; existing governmental legislation and regulations and changes in, or the failure to comply with, governmental legislation and regulations; the ability to manage operating expenses, which may adversely affect the Company's financial condition; the Company's ability to successfully maintain and enforce its intellectual property rights and defend third-party claims of infringement of their intellectual property rights; adverse results or unexpected delays in clinical trials; changes in laws, general economic and business conditions; and changes in the regulatory regime. There can be no assurances that such statements will prove accurate and, therefore, readers are advised to rely on their own evaluation of such uncertainties. We do not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

For further information, please contact:

Hugh Rogers

VP Corporate Finance

204-582-0922

investors@3dsignatures.com
LONDON, December 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Waterman Group is pleased to announce the appointment of Michael Strong as Non Executive Director following the retirement of Geoff Wright.

Michael was previously employed by CBRE, the US publicly quoted company and leading real estate adviser, as Chief Executive Officer and President of Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). He also held a position as Executive Chairman of EMEA and, during a 15-year period, successfully implemented organic and acquisitive growth strategies which saw the business employee numbers grow from 1,500 to 11,000.

Currently, Michael is a Non Executive Director of NHS Property Services Limited where he chairs the Asset and Investment Committee and is a member of the Remuneration Committee. He is also a Non Executive Director at GCHO Holdings Limited, the parent of Geoffrey Osborne Limited which is a private company involved in construction development and investment activities.

Commenting on the Board changes, Michael Baker, Chairman, said; "We are delighted to welcome Michael to the Board. His diverse experience brings a breadth of expertise which will be of considerable value to our business. We also wish to take the opportunity to thank Geoff Wright for his valuable contribution over the last ten years."

About Waterman Group

Waterman Group is a multidisciplinary consultancy providing sustainable solutions to meet the planning, engineering design and project delivery needs of the property, infrastructure, environment and energy markets. Founded in 1952 and listed on the London Stock Exchange since 1988, Waterman has grown into a leading engineering and environmental consultancy with offices throughout the UK, Australia and Europe. Waterman works with government agencies, local authorities, government-regulated industries and private sector clients to provide innovative, sustainable and economic solutions across a wide spectrum of business activities.The firm has extensive experience in property and buildings, environmental consultancy, power and energy, roads, highways and rail infrastructure, urban and regional planning. Award winning teams provide professional consultancy services throughout the complete life cycle of the asset starting from initial surveys and concept planning, through to design, delivery, project management, supervision and on-going maintenance. See more information onhttp://www.watermangroup.com
DUBLIN, Dec 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "High Temperature Resin Market by Type (Epoxy, Silicone, Acrylic, Polyester, Polyethersulfone, Alkyd, Polyurethane, Phenolic, Polyetheramide), Appication (Adhesives & Sealants, Paints & Coatings, Composites), and Region - Global Forecast to 2026" report to their offering.

The global high temperature resin market is estimated to reach USD 4.88 Billion by 2026, at a CAGR of 4.44% from 2016 to 2026

The increasing demand for the high temperature resin as an alternative to mechanical fasteners in high end applications, growth in application areas, increasing demand for high temperature composite resins in railway and aerospace interior applications, and the increasing demand for thermoplastic resin in composite applications is driving the global high temperature resin market.

These resins are used in end-use industries where high mechanical performance is required. These include automotive & transportation, aerospace & defense, electrical & electronics, industrial, marine, and building & construction. High temperature resins are used in these industries in the form of adhesives & sealants, paints & coatings, and composites.

The market for the high temperature epoxy resins was the largest in terms of volume in 2015. High temperature epoxy resins are widely used for protective coatings due to the superior properties, such as high adhesion, impact resistance, flexibility, chemical and solvent resistance, and others. High temperature epoxy resins offer a unique combination of adhesion, chemical resistance, and physical properties that provide high protection against severe corrosive environments. They are extensively used in industrial applications such as refineries, chemical plants, and marine equipment, such as, offshore drilling platforms, and merchant ships.

The Asia-Pacific region is expected to grow at the fastest rate in the global high temperature resin market, in terms of value and volume, from 2016 to 2021. The increasing demand from emerging economies, such as China and India, and the increased sales of high-end vehicles, and electrical & electronics appliances, are expected to drive the growth of the Asia-Pacific high temperature resin market. China, India, and Thailand are major hubs of automotive production, which require the use of the high temperature resin in the manufacture of adhesives for these applications.

Currently, China is the world's largest consumer of the high temperature resin in terms of volume with many leading players investing in the country to establish new manufacturing facilities. The growth of the high temperature resins market in China is driven by foreign investments, cost-effective labor, and the availability of inexpensive raw material. The electronics industry is the largest in the country with double digit growth, annually. Due to the high exports and trade agreements, China's marine industry is growing at a high rate, which is also a key end-user industry of the high temperature adhesive resin.

Key Topics Covered:

1 Introduction

2 Research Methodology

3 Executive Summary

4 Premium Insights

5 Market Overview

6 Industry Trends

7 Patent Details

8 High Temperature Resin Market, By Type

9 High Temperature Resin Market, By Application

10 High Temperature Resin Market, By Region

11 Competitive Landscape

12 Company Profiles

BASF SE

DIC Corporation

DOW Corning Corporation.

E.I. Dupont De Nemours and Company

and Company Henkel AG & Co. KGaA

Hexion Inc.

Huntsman Corporation

Mitsui Chemicals Inc.

Royal Tencate N.V .

. Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC)

Solvay S.A.

Wacker Chemie AG

For more information about this report visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/xwjj4f/high_temperature

About Research and Markets

Research and Markets is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

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CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - The Canadian dollar climbed against its most major counterparts in the European session on Friday, as oil prices rose ahead of a summit between OPEC and non-OPEC countries taking place in Vienna this weakened, in order to finalize output cuts agreed last month.



Crude for January delivery rose $0.31 to $51.15 per barrel.



The Saturday meeting will see more discussion on coordinating cuts to production among the members outside the OPEC to halt a supply glut and restore balance in the market.



The cartel last week committed to cut output by 1.2 million barrels a day from January, adding to another 600,000 million barrels a day in reduction proposed by its non-members.



The European markets are higher, after the European Central Bank extended its massive bond-buying program, but at a slower pace of EUR 60 billion a month.



Investors look ahead to next week's Federal Reserve meeting amid expectations the U.S. central bank will raise rates by a quarter percentage point to a target range of 0.5 percent to 0.75 percent.



The loonie showed mixed performance in the Asian session. While the loonie held steady against the euro and the greenback, it declined against the aussie. Against the yen, the loonie rose.



The loonie advanced to a 1-1/2-month high of 1.3166 against the greenback, compared to Thursday's closing value of 1.3190. The loonie is likely to find resistance around the 1.30 mark.



The loonie strengthened to 1.3947 against the euro, its highest since July 2015. The next possible resistance for the loonie may be found around the 1.36 area.



Figures from Destatis showed that German exports and imports recovered in October from September.



Exports grew 0.5 percent in October from September, when shipments slid 1 percent. Nonetheless, the pace of growth was weaker than the expected 0.9 percent.



The loonie firmed to a 7-1/2-month high of 87.10 against the yen, up from a low of 86.37 hit at 5:15 pm ET. Further uptrend may see the loonie challenging resistance near the 88.5 level.



Data from the Bank of Japan showed that Japan M2 money stock rose 4.0 percent on year in November, coming in at 951.8 trillion yen.



That exceeded forecasts for 3.7 percent, which would have been unchanged from the October reading.



On the flip side, the loonie edged down to 0.9868 against the aussie, compared to Thursday's closing value of 0.9843. If the loonie extends decline, 1.01 is possibly seen as its next support level.



Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed that Australia's total number of home loans fell a seasonally adjusted 0.8 percent on month, coming in at 53,769.



That topped forecasts for a decline of 0.8 percent following the 1.6 percent increase in September.



Looking ahead, U.S. wholesale inventories data for October, U.S. University of Michigan's preliminary consumer sentiment index for December and U.S. Baker Hughes rig count data are set to be published in the New York session.



At 8:00 am ET, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, European Parliament President Martin Schulz, Netherlands Finance Minister and Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem and other officials are schedlued to speak at the 25th anniversary of Maastricht Treaty, in Maastricht, Netherlands.



At 10:15 am ET, European Central Bank Executive Board Member Benoit Coeure is expected to participate in a panel discussion on 'Policy Responses: Restoring Public Trust in Economic Reforms' at a conference on 'Challenges to More Sustainable and Inclusive Growth in Europe', hosted by the Council of Europe Development Bank, in Paris.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de
WARWICK, England, December 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

New OvuSense fertility monitor App and Sensor promises hope for couples who are trying for a baby. OvuSense is a class 2 medical device that includes a Fertility App and personal Sensor. OvuSense is the only monitor that predicts and confirms ovulation, in real time, with 99% clinically proven accuracy. The Times named OvuSense, "best for fertility" in their article rounding up the best Apps for healthcare. [1]

Rob Milnes, CEO: "We set out to make OvuSense completely different - by going back to the key principles of the science and working with leading clinicians in development and clinical trials, we were able to discover a way of using temperature to predict ovultion in real time. Being named 'Best for Fertility' by The Times recognizes the hard work we've all put into making OvuSense the best fertility monitor money can buy." [2]

Kate Davies, fertility nurse specialist: "The key to OvuSense is that it monitors 'core temperature', providing a direct indication of the Progesterone released during ovulation. That's why I recommend OvuSense to all my patients."

Kirsty became pregnant with her first baby: "OvuSense helped to make me more aware of my natural ovulation signs in order to try and conceive. It happened! I used OvuSense for two months and now I'm pregnant after 8 long years of trying!"

Notes:

OvuSense was created by UK start-up eHealth company, Fertility Focus Ltd, based in Warwickshire. http://www.ovusense.com

Real time 24 - hour advance ovulation prediction: OvuSense provides a day's advance notice of when you are going to ovulate in real time along with your 4-day ovulation window - proven in the clinical analysis to be correct 96% of the time.

OvuSense provides a day's advance notice of when you are going to ovulate in real time along with your 4-day ovulation window - proven in the clinical analysis to be correct 96% of the time. 8 - day fertile window: OvuSense provides a full 8-day fertile window

OvuSense provides a full 8-day fertile window Fully certified:OvuSense is a fully regulated medical device and complies with all necessary certifications for the countries in which it is available - CE mark in Europe , FDA 510(k) in the USA , CMDCAS in Canada,TGA in Australia .

1: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/good-health-theres-an-app-for-it-wz3gt7q3p'shareToken=8164848b73192632b078eb7124d18d08 - The Times

2: http://www.ovusense.com/uk/clinical-information - clinical References

Media queries call: +44-(0)1926-400054 / Laura.Underwood@fertility-focus.com
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - December 9, 2016) - Los Andes Copper Ltd. (TSXV: LA) ("Los Andes", or the "Company") is pleased to announce the closing of the first tranche of its non-brokered private placement announced in its News Release dated December 2, 2016, raising $8,040,000.

On December 8, 2016, the Company issued 26,800,000 units (the "Units") priced at $0.30 per Unit. Each Unit consists of one common share of the Company (a "Unit Share") and one detachable share purchase warrant (a "Warrant") entitling the holder thereof to purchase one additional common share of the Company (a "Warrant Share") at a price of $0.45 per Warrant Share for a period of 3 years. The Unit Shares, Warrants and Warrant Shares are subject to a hold period expiring on April 9, 2017.

Turnbrook Mining Ltd. ("Turnbrook"), the Company's largest shareholder, subscribed for the 26,800,000 Units and assigned its 26,800,000 Warrants to a third party. The sale of the Units to Turnbrook constituted a related party transaction under TSX Venture Exchange Policy 5.9.

The Company will continue to accept subscriptions over the coming weeks in respect of the 3,200,000 Units that remain available for purchase pursuant to the Private Placement.

The proceeds of the Private Placement will be used to fund a proposed work program on the Company's Vizcachitas project and for general working capital purposes.

For more information please contact:

Antony Amberg, President & CEO

Tel: (56-22) 954-0450

Aurora Davidson, Chief Financial Officer

Tel: 604-697-6207

E-Mail: info@losandescopper.com or visit our website at: www.losandescopper.com

Certain of the information and statements contained herein that are not historical facts, constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of the Securities Act (British Columbia) and the Securities Act (Alberta) ("Forward-Looking Information"). Forward-Looking Information is often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "seek", "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "expect" and "intend"; statements that an event or result is "due" on or "may", "will", "should", "could", or might" occur or be achieved; and, other similar expressions. More specifically, Forward-Looking Information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such Forward-Looking Information; including, without limitation, the achievement and maintenance of planned production rates, the evolving legal and political policies of Chile, the volatility in the Chilean economy, military unrest or terrorist actions, metal and energy price fluctuations, favourable governmental relations, the availability of financing for activities when required and on acceptable terms, the estimation of mineral resources and reserves, current and future environmental and regulatory requirements, the availability and timely receipt of permits, approvals and licenses, industrial or environmental accidents, equipment breakdowns, availability of and competition for future acquisition opportunities, availability and cost of insurance, labour disputes, land claims, the inherent uncertainty of production and cost estimates, currency fluctuations, expectations and beliefs of management and other risks and uncertainties, including those described in Management's Discussion and Analysis in the Company's financial statements. Such Forward-Looking Information is based upon the Company's assumptions regarding global and Chilean economic, political and market conditions and the price of metals and energy, and the Company's production. Among the factors that have a direct bearing on the Company's future results of operations and financial conditions are changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined, a change in government policies, competition, currency fluctuations and restrictions and technological changes, among other things. Should one or more of any of the aforementioned risks and uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from any conclusions, forecasts or projections described in the Forward-Looking Information. Accordingly, readers are advised not to place undue reliance on Forward-Looking Information. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise Forward-Looking Information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Not for distribution to United States Newswire Services or for dissemination in the United States
CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - The Japanese yen continued to be lower against its major rivals in the European session on Friday. The yen weakened to more than a 10-month low of 115.16 against the greenback and a 3-day low of 145.10 against the pound, from yesterday's closing values of 114.03 and 143.49, respectively. The yen dropped to 121.69 against the euro and 113.05 against the Swiss franc, compared to Thursday's closing quotes of 121.02 and 112.19, respectively. The yen declined to a 1-year low of 82.52 against the kiwi, 7-1/2-month lows of 86.09 against the aussie and 87.36 against the loonie, down from Thursday's closing values of 81.79, 85.09 and 86.44, respectively. If the yen extends slide, it may possibly find support around 118.00 against the greenback, 148.5 against the pound, 126.00 against the euro, 116.00 against the franc, 84.00 against the kiwi, 88.00 against the aussie and 89.00 against the loonie. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
LONDON, December 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has selected ICIS LNG EDGE analytics platform as a primary data provider for launching its recentIEA Global Gas Security Review report-How flexible are LNG markets in practice?

The paper makes use of an extensive LNG EDGE database of global production outages categorised according to their various causes.

Global production growth has been impacted not only by delayed start-ups but by a variety of outages at existing liquefaction plants, many of which have been in service for decades. The Global Gas Security Review 2016, the first edition of a new annual series, examines the evolving global gas market structures and looks at the market's ability to respond to potential shocks.

Continual monitoring by dedicated teams of analysts and journalists at ICIS ensures LNG EDGE users can go beyond news headlines to uncover global and train-specific views on LNG production.

LNG EDGE provides an integrated analytics platform that fuses real-time vessel-tracking and editorial coverage with a proprietary database of infrastructure, LNG supply contracts, tenders, and plant outages, all with unprecedented levels of granularity.

To view the IEA report click here

To take a trial of the latest LNG EDGE click here

About ICIS

ICIS is the world's largest petrochemical market information provider and has fast-growing energy and fertilizer divisions. Our aim is to give companies in global commodities markets a competitive advantage by delivering trusted pricing data, high-value news, analysis and independent consulting, enabling our customers to make better-informed trading and planning decisions. We have more than 30 years' experience in providing pricing information, news, analysis and consulting to buyers, sellers and analysts.

With a global staff of more than 800, ICIS has employees based in Houston, Washington, New York, London, Montpellier, Dusseldorf, Karlsruhe, Milan, Mumbai, Singapore, Guangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai, Yantai, Tokyo and Perth. Some 350 of ICIS's staff are journalists engaged in reporting market prices and news, and ICIS is fully committed to upholding the highest journalistic principles of verification, corroboration and authentication. ICIS has a compliance framework that along with its methodologies and business processes adheres to the requirements of the IOSCO PRA Principles.

ICIS is a division ofReed Business Information, part ofRELX Group

About Reed Business Information

Reed Business Information provides information, analytics and data to business professionals worldwide. Our strong global products and services hold market-leading positions across a wide range of industry sectors including banking, petrochemicals and aviation where we help customers make key strategic decisions every day. RBI is part of RELX Group, a world-leading provider of information and analytics for professional customers across industries.

http://www.reedbusiness.com

About RELX Group

RELX Group is a world"leading provider of information and analytics for professional and business customers across industries. The group serves customers in more than 180 countries and has offices in about 40 countries. It employs approximately 30,000 people of whom half are in North America. RELX PLC is a London listed holding company which owns 52.9% of RELX Group. RELX NV is an Amsterdam listed holding company which owns 47.1% of RELX Group. The shares are traded on the London, Amsterdam and New York Stock Exchanges using the following ticker symbols: London: REL; Amsterdam: REN; New York: RELX and RENX. The total market capitalisation is approximately 27.1bn GBP / 31.8bn Euro / 34.3bn USD

http://www.relx.com

Media contacts

Tara Sabanandan, Marketing Manager, ICIS

Email:tara.sabanandan@icis.com

Direct:+44 (0) 207 911 1713




CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - The Japanese yen extended its early slide against its major rivals in the European session on Friday amid risk appetite, as European shares rallied tracking record close from the Wall Street and oil prices advanced ahead of a summit of major crude producers in Vienna this weekend.



The European Central Bank on Thursday signaled that it would extend stock purchases through December 2017, although it scaled back the purchase amount to EUR 60 billion a month, starting in April. The decision pulled down the euro and euro area bond yields, while lifting stocks.



Oil prices climbed, with investors awaiting a meeting of OPEC and non-OPEC countries taking place in Vienna on December 10, in order to finalize output cuts agreed last week.



Investors look ahead to next week's Federal Reserve meeting amid expectations the U.S. central bank will raise rates by a quarter percentage point to a target range of 0.5 percent to 0.75 percent.



Data from the Bank of Japan showed that Japan M2 money stock rose 4.0 percent on year in November, coming in at 951.8 trillion yen.



That exceeded forecasts for 3.7 percent, which would have been unchanged from the October reading.



The currency has been trading in a negative territory in the Asian session.



The yen weakened to more than a 10-month low of 115.16 against the greenback and a 3-day low of 145.10 against the pound, from yesterday's closing values of 114.03 and 143.49, respectively. Continuation of the yen's downtrend may see it challenging support around 118.00 versus the greenback and 148.5 against the pound.



The yen dropped to 121.69 against the euro and 113.05 against the Swiss franc, compared to Thursday's closing quotes of 121.02 and 112.19, respectively. The next possible support for the yen may be found around 126.00 against the euro and 116.00 against the franc.



The yen declined to a 1-year low of 82.52 against the kiwi, 7-1/2-month lows of 86.09 against the aussie and 87.36 against the loonie, down from Thursday's closing values of 81.79, 85.09 and 86.44, respectively. If the yen extends slide, it may possibly find support around 84.00 against the kiwi, 88.00 against the aussie and 89.00 against the loonie.



Looking ahead, U.S. wholesale inventories data for October, U.S. University of Michigan's preliminary consumer sentiment index for December and U.S. Baker Hughes rig count data are set to be published in the New York session.



At 10:15 am ET, European Central Bank Executive Board Member Benoit Coeure is expected to participate in a panel discussion on 'Policy Responses: Restoring Public Trust in Economic Reforms' at a conference on 'Challenges to More Sustainable and Inclusive Growth in Europe', hosted by the Council of Europe Development Bank in Paris.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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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.
PUNE, India, December 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

According to a new market research report "Finance Cloud Market by Solution (Financial Reporting and Analysis, Security, Governance, Risk and Compliance), Service, Application, Deployment Model, Organization Size, Vertical, Region - Global Forecast to 2021", published by MarketsandMarkets, the market size is expected to grow from USD 9.89 Billion in 2016 to USD 29.47 Billion by 2021, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 24.4% during the forecast period.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160303/792302 )



Browse 75 market data Tables and 57 Figures spread through 161 Pages and in-depth TOC on"Finance Cloud Market"



http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/finance-cloud-market-1053.html

Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report.

The major drivers of this market include need for business agility and focus, green IT and increasing need for customer management.

"Professional Service market is estimated to dominate the Finance Cloud Market share during the forecast period."

The professional services segment is estimated to have the largest market share in the Finance Cloud Market. The organizations focus on offering specialized services to achieve greater customer experience, achieving operation efficiency at a reduced cost and time is driving the demand for finance cloud services across the globe. The Finance Cloud Market is growing at an exponential rate since most of the players are focusing on providing specialized services for the market. Rapid growing demand for customer satisfaction with better and faster support and its reliable and efficient integration are some of the other drivers impacting the services market.

"Customer Management is expected to grow at high CAGRs during the forecast period. "

The customer management application of Finance Cloud Market is witnessing a potential growth in comparison to the other applications owing to the benefits it offers such as lowered costs, improved productivity, advanced data analytics and much more. The financial services, banking and Insurance companies are opting for this application to quickly address customer queries and concerns, keeping in minds the long term benefits and achieving a competitive advantage. The major players in this market are Amazon web Services (AWS), Oracle, SAP, Google, IBM, Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), Microsoft Corporation and Salesforce.com.

"North America is the leading region in terms of market share in the Finance Cloud Market space."

North America is expected to hold the largest market share and dominate the Finance Cloud Market in 2016, due to the larger internet penetration rate and strong economy that has shifted isolated infrastructure to cloud in the region. APAC is expected to grow at the highest rate during this forecast period. Reduce CapEx spending, low IT management complexity, improved agility and security are some of the major driving factors contributing to the growth of cloud computing in the North America.

Inquiry before Buying @ http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Enquiry_Before_Buying.asp?id=1053

The major vendors covered in the Finance Cloud Market for the study are Oracle Corporation (California, U.S.), Google, Inc. (California, U.S.), International Business Machines (California, U.S.), Corporation (New York, U.S.), Amazon Web Services Inc. (Washington, U.S.), SAP SE Inc. (Walldorf, Germany), Computer Sciences Corporation (Virginia, U.S), Microsoft Corporation (Washington, U.S.), Salesforce.com (California, U.S.), Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd (Guangdong, China) and Capgemini (Paris, France).

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http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/financial-analytics-market-1303.html



BFSI Security Market by Information Security (IAM, Encryption, Disaster Recovery, UTM, Firewall, Security and Vulnerability Management, IDS/IPS, Data Loss Protection, Antivirus & Antimalware) & Physical Security - Global Forecast to 2021

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AS Trigon Property Development announces that Parnu city government adopted with its resolution no. 664 dated 05.12.2016 the detail plan of the area between Niidu street, Ehitajate road and Haru road, which covers the properties belonging to AS Trigon Property Development.Adopting of the detail plan annuls the detail plans previously drafted for that area: Niidu str 9 and Niidu str 11 detail plan (adopted with Parnu city government resolution no 88 on 21.02.2005) and Niidu str 9, 9a ja 11 detail plan (adopted with Parnu city council decision no 74 on 18.09.2014).The need to arrange new planning derives from the preference of small industrial plots and from the possibility to merge new plots with each other. The previously planned land use (principal purpose of land use) will remain the same according to the intended detail plan. Forming of new land plots will be carried out in the area and the percentage distribution of the principal purpose of land use set out by the comprehensive plan will be re-distributed, also the transport land principal purpose is added for the purpose of managing the area.The materials of the adopted detail plan have been made available on the Parnu city website: http://amphora.lv.parnu.ee/amphora_public/index.aspx?itm=1436625Additional information:Aivar KempiMember of the Management Board+372 6679200info@trigonproperty.com

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.
9 December 2016

Anglo African Agriculture plc

("AAA" or the "Company")

Results of General Meeting

Anglo African Agriculture plc (LSE: AAAP), is pleased to announce that at its General Meeting held today, all Resolutions as set out in the Notice of General Meeting were duly passed.

Ordinary Resolutions Passed

1. THAT the purchase by the Company from ZRH Nominees (0105) Ltd, being a company connected with George Roach, a director of the Company, of 5,150 ordinary shares in Dynamic Intertrade Agri (Pty) Limited for up to 150,000, to be satisfied by the issue of Shares, be approved.

2. THAT in accordance with section 551 of the Companies Act 2006 as amended (the "2006 Act"), the directors be generally and unconditionally authorised to allot Shares or grant rights to subscribe for, or to convert any security into, Shares, up to an aggregate nominal value of 94,896, provided that this authority shall, unless renewed, varied or revoked by the Company in general meeting expire at the conclusion of the next annual general meeting or on 30 April 2017, being the date which is 6 months after the last accounting reference date of the Company, (if earlier) save that the Company may at any time before such expiry make an offer or agreement which might require Shares to be allotted after such expiry and the directors may allow Shares to be allotted in pursuant of such offer or agreement notwithstanding that the authority hereby conferred has expired.

This resolution revokes and replaces all unexercised authorities previously granted to the directors of the Company in accordance with section 551 of the 2006 Act but without prejudice to any allotment of shares or grant of rights already made, offered or agreed to be made pursuant to such authorities.

Special Resolutions Passed

3. THAT, subject to resolution 2 above being duly passed, the directors be generally empowered pursuant to sections 570 and 571 of the 2006 Act to allow equity securities (as defined in section 560 of the 2006 Act) as if section 561(1) of the 2006 Act did not apply to any such allotment pursuant to the general authority conferred on them by resolution 2 above (as varied from time to time by the Company in general meeting) provided that power is limited to:

3.1 the allotment of equity securities in connection with a rights issue or any other offer to holders of Shares in proportion (as nearly as may be practicable) to their respective holdings and to holders of other equity securities as required by the rights of those securities or as the directors otherwise consider necessary, but subject to such exclusions or other arrangements as the directors of the Company may deem necessary or expedient in relation to treasury shares, fractional entitlements, record dates, legal or practical problems in or under the laws of any territory or the requirements of any regulatory body or exchange;

3.2 the allotment of up to 94,896,000 Shares issued for cash (otherwise than pursuant to paragraphs 3.1 above);

and the power hereby conferred shall, unless renewed, varied or revoked by the Company in general meeting, expire at the conclusion of the next annual general meeting or on 30 April 2017, being the date which is 6 months after the last accounting reference date of the Company, (if earlier) save that the Company may, before such expiry make an offer or agreement which would or might require equity securities to be allotted after such expiry and the directors may allot equity securities in pursuance of such offer or agreement notwithstanding that the powers conferred by this resolution has expired.

For further information, please contact:

Anglo African Agriculture plc +44 (0) 20 7440 0640 David Lenigas, Non-Executive Chairman

Rob Scott, Non-Executive Director

VSA Capital Limited (Financial Adviser and Broker) +44 (0) 20 3005 5000 Andrew Raca / James Asensio

Notes to Editors:

Anglo African Agriculture (LSE: AAAP) is a London Stock Exchange Main board listed food manufacturing and agricultural commodity trading company. AAA is the 100% owner of Dynamic Intertrade (Pty) Limited.

Dynamic, works from its modern 3,000 m FSSC compliant facility in Cape Town and is focused on the manufacture, import and distribution of herbs, spices and seasonings for the food manufacturing sector. It has the required approvals and licenses to export Dynamic's products globally. Dynamic also offers Halaal and Kosher Certification on all of its products and these products can either be purchased under Dynamic's own brand or contract packed and labelled under customer's own label. Dynamic has created its own bottled spice range and is looking to commercialize it both locally and internationally.

http://www.dynamicintertrade.co.za
Cities learn from each other's sustainable development experience

GUANGZHOU, China, Dec. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Co-hosted by the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC), the United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), the World Association of Major Metropolises (Metropolis) and Guangzhou Municipal Government, the 3rd Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation (the Guangzhou Award) and 2016 Guangzhou International Urban Innovation Conference were held in Guangzhou from December 5 to 8. Together with the concurrently staged Guangzhou International Innovation Festival, the series of events were abbreviated as One Award, One Conference and One Festival.

This year's conference is themed on Global Wisdom for Local Solutions and the series of events were attended by some 800 guests.

The biennial event recognizes the top five urban innovation projects from around the world. It aims to facilitate the exchange of urban innovation experiences, learning from successful cases, and advocating scientific ideas to drive sustainable development.

"The Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation has made a very positive impact," said Parks Tau, President of United Cities and Local Governments, a co-organizer of the event.

Selected from 301 innovation projects submitted by 171 cities, the winners were: Songpa-gu in South Korea, Qalyubia in Egypt, Copenhagen in Denmark, Boston in the United States and La Paz in Bolivia.

The event is expected to enhance the communication between cities and countries, set examples for local governments and to seek solutions to global challenges such as climate change, poverty and gender inequality.

"In the past, people thought the national government could change things, but now we realize it is communication between national and local governments that makes changes," said Beate Weber-Schuerholz, Co-Chair of Guangzhou Award Jury, former mayor of Heidelberg.

Ma Peihua, Vice-chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, participated in the conference. Hegave high praise to the Guangzhou Award and highlighted the profound influence of the event.

"This event has brought the wisdom of the world together and it will help our province to better implement the innovation-driven development strategy and make Guangdong an innovation hub in China," said He Zhongyou, Deputy Governor of Guangdong.

"We are focusing our efforts to make Guangzhou a hub-based networked city that can gather the global innovation resources and elements to establish a sophisticated open economic system," said Wen Guohui, Mayor of Guangzhou & Co-president of UCLG and the Metropolis.
MONTREAL, QUEBEC -- (Marketwired) -- 12/09/16 -- Highlights of the news release:

-- GeoMegA to sell its gold portfolio for $2,500,000 to Groupe Ressources Geomines for 17,857,143 shares at $0.14 per share. -- Geomines to complete a transaction with Black Springs Capital Corp. and rename the resulting issuer to Kintavar Exploration Inc. -- GeoMegA intends to distribute to its shareholders, after the closing of the QT, approximately 7,827,464 of the shares received from sale the of the non-REE assets. -- GeoMegA to hold approximately 19.9% of the issued and outstanding shares of the resulting issuer.

Geomega Resources Inc. ("GeoMegA" or the "Corporation") (TSX VENTURE: GMA) announces that it has signed a Conditional Gold Claims Sale Agreement (the "Sale Agreement") with a privately owned corporation, Groupe Ressources Geomines Inc. ("Geomines"). The Sale Agreement concerns all the non-rare earth elements ("non-REE") related assets held by GeoMegA and are comprised of the Anik, Riviere a l'Aigle, McDonald, Gaspard, Comptois, Lac Storm, 3G and Maryse properties. The Sale Agreement will be done in conjunction with the closing of a transaction between Geomines and Black Springs Capital Corp. ("BSC") pursuant to which BSC will acquire all of the outstanding shares of Geomines (the "Acquisition"). Geomines has an exploration portfolio, comprised of the WHN and Boisvert properties located in the Province of Quebec (the "Geomines Properties"). The Acquisition will constitute the "Qualifying Transaction" ("QT") of BSC, a "capital pool company", as such terms are defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange (the "Exchange"). Subject to the Exchange's approval, upon completion of the Acquisition, the combined entity (the "Resulting Issuer") will continue to carry on the business of Geomines as currently constituted.

In connection with the closing of the Acquisition, BSC intends on obtaining shareholder approval for a continuance of BSC from the Business Corporations Act (British Colombia) to the Business Corporations Act (Quebec) (the "Continuation"), completing a capital restructuring (the "Capital Restructuring"), including the consolidation of its share capital on a basis of two (2) pre-consolidated shares (each a "BSC PreShare") for one (1) post-consolidated share (a "BSC PostShares"), and changing its name to Kintavar Exploration Inc. Upon completion of the Capital Restructuring, BSC's 6,500,000 BSC PreShares and 400,000 options currently outstanding will be consolidated respectively into 3,250,000 BSC PostShares and 200,000 post-consolidation options.

Under the terms of the Sale Agreement, an all share transaction, Geomega will receive a total of 17,857,143 BSC PostShares of the Resulting Issuer at a deemed price of $0.14 per share, a value of $2,500,000 representing the book value of the Non-REE assets as of the date of the closing.

Under the terms of the Acquisition, an all share transaction, current Geomines shareholders will receive a total of 10,714,286 BSC PostShares of the Resulting Issuer at a deemed price of $0.14 per share, a value of $1,500,000 representing the book value of the Geomines Properties as of the date of the closing.

The total value of the Sale Agreement and the Acquisition is $4,000,000, excluding any shares of Geomines issued as part of the financings described further below. The Acquisition and the Sale Agreement will be carried out by parties dealing at arm's length to one another. GeoMegA intends to distribute to its shareholders, after the closing of the QT, approximately 7,827,464 of the shares received from the sale of its non-REE assets and will hold approximately 19.9% of the issued and outstanding shares of the resulting issuer.

After the closing of the Sale Agreement, GeoMegA will retain its core assets, namely the Montviel property, its holdings and assets in Innord Inc. and its holdings of the Resulting Issuer. GeoMegA is expected to be the largest shareholder of the Resulting Issuer, post-QT and closing of the financings.

Geomines and BSC will proceed over the following weeks with all the required regulatory filings, approvals and financing initiatives.

A finder's fee of 190,476 BSC PostShares shall be paid, subject to the approval of the Exchange, to each of Ansacha Capital Inc., Hexagon Ventures Inc. and Laurentian Bank Securities for being instrumental in introducing the parties.

FINANCINGS

BSC will complete a bridge private placement financing of a minimum of $75,000 and a maximum of $100,000 (the "Bridge Financing"), of BSC PreShares at the subscription price of $0.0525 per share. The closing of the Bridge Financing will not be conditional to the closing of the Acquisition.

The Sale Agreement is conditional, as part of the QT, on the closing of a financing of a minimum of $1,400,000 and a maximum of $3,000,000 in Geomines and/or BSC, (the "Concurrent Financing"), resulting in the issuance of a maximum of 21,428,572 BSC PostShares at a deemed price of $0.14 per share (or $0.18 per share issued on a flow-through basis) and 10,714,286 BSC PostShares purchase warrants at a minimum exercise price of $0.18 for a period of 24 months.

RESULTING ISSUER MANAGEMENT

It is currently contemplated that on completion of the Acquisition, the directors and the officers of the Resulting Issuer will consist of the following persons and up to three additional directors and a Chief Financial Officer to be named by GeoMegA prior to closing:

-- Kiril Mugerman, President, Chief Executive Officer and Director -- Alain Cayer, Vice-President Exploration -- Maxime Lemieux, Director

"The signing of the Conditional Gold Claims Sale Agreement is a major step towards having the financial markets recognize the value of GeoMegA's non-REE assets," commented Mr. Kiril Mugerman, President and CEO of GeoMegA. "With the Qualifying Transaction between Geomines and BSC, we believe we will be able to raise sufficient funds to begin a more aggressive exploration program of the assembled properties portfolio and start to realize their full potential. Furthermore, with the exploration and management teams readily available for both GeoMegA and Kintavar, we see many synergies which will lead to both companies being more productive and cost efficient. In addition, with respect to our Montviel REE project and the separation technology being developed by Innord, we have made significant progress over the last 24 months. With successful demonstration of our proprietary hydrometallurgical process for the Montviel mineralization in 2015 and the development of two prototypes by Innord in 2016 with the goal of reaching 1 kg/day throughput, it is now a fitting opportunity to proceed with this transaction to isolate our gold exploration projects and grow their and GeoMegA's shareholder's value."

The BSC PreShares are currently halted from trading, and the trading of the shares is expected to remain halted pending completion of the Acquisition.

Completion of the Acquisition is subject to a number of conditions including, but not limited to, completion of the Minimum Concurrent Financing, the Continuance and the Capital Restructuring, the satisfaction of BSC, Geomines and GeoMegA in respect of the due diligence investigations to be undertaken by each party, the completion of a definitive agreement in respect of the Acquisition, closing conditions customary to transactions of the nature of the Acquisition, approvals of all regulatory bodies having jurisdiction in connection with the Acquisition, Exchange acceptance and, if required by the Exchange policies, majority of the minority shareholder approval. Where applicable, the Acquisition cannot close until the required shareholder approvals are obtained and there can be no assurance that the Acquisition will be completed as proposed or at all. Upon completion of the Acquisition the Resulting Issuer intends to be listed as a Tier 2 "mining issuer" under the rules of the Exchange.

For further information about the transaction between BSC and Geomines, GeoMegA management recommends investors to consult the publicly disseminated press release of BSC from December 9, 2016.

About the GeoMegA non-REE properties

The Anik property (approx. 8,500 hectares, 100% owned) is situated 40 km to the south-east of the town of Chapais and 55 km to the south of the town of Chibougamau, in Quebec. Located in the Opawica-Guercheville deformation corridor, host to several gold mines and deposits. The eastern portion of the property is located less than 7 km from the Joe Mann mine and the Lac Meston and Phillibert deposits. The western portion of the property is located less than 10 km to the south of the Monster Lake and Fancamp gold projects. In addition, the main gold zones of the Nelligan property, a joint venture between Vanstar Ressources and IAMGOLD, are surrounded to the north, south and east by Anik property boundaries at a distance of less than 1,500 metres.

The Riviere-a-l'aigle property (approx. 9,000 hectares, 100% owned) is located in the Lake Windfall area, 55 km to the south of the town of Chapais and 100 km to the east of the town of Lebel-sur-Quevillon. The area has seen an increase in gold exploration over the last several years, primarily by Osisko Mining. The property is characterised by very strong geochemical gold anomalies coinciding with a network of faults and shear zones. The southern border of the property is in contact with the Urban Barry property of Osisko Mining.

Other properties in GeoMegA's portfolio (approx. 13,950 hecates, 100% owned) include Maryse, Lac Storm, 3G, Gaspard, Comptois and McDonald which are gold projects with targets based on lithological and geochemical anomalies.

Except for Lac Storm, all the properties are located within the northern portion of the geological Abitibi Subprovince, are road accessible and, benefit from other public infrastructure and access to skilled workforce. All the properties are free of royalties.

About the Geomines properties

The WHN (approx. 9,056 hectares, 100% owned) and Boisvert (approx. 9,309 hectares, 100% owned) properties are adjacent to each other and are located west of the Mitchinamecus reservoir, 100 km north of the town of Mont-Laurier. The properties cover an area of almost 200 square kilometres accessible by a network of logging and gravel roads. A hydro-electric power substation is located 14 km to the east of the properties.

The properties are located in the north-western portion of the central metasedimentary belt of the Grenville geological province. Many gold, copper and silver mineralized showings have been identified on the properties to date, with many characteristics suggesting of Iron Oxide Copper Gold ore type deposit (IOCG). The mineralizing system appears to be a later stage event that has not been subject to the strong deformation forces arising from the Grenville orogeny. Multiple geophysical and geochemical surveys, conducted by Geomines and other companies, confirm the presence of multiple anomalies that have yet to be followed up on with field work. No drilling has been done on the WHN property and only one drilling campaign of 15 drill holes (386 m) was completed in 1971 by Noranda in one small sector of the Boisvert property.

Osisko Mining holds a 2% NSR on 39 claims and 1% NSR on 21 other claims of the Boisvert property. The royalty agreement, originally signed between Amixam and Niogold, will carry over with the property.

About GeoMegA (www.geomega.ca)

GeoMegA is a mineral exploration and evaluation company focused on the discovery and sustainable development of economic deposits of metals in Quebec. GeoMegA is committed to meeting the Canadian mining industry standards and distinguishing itself with innovative engineering, stakeholders' engagement and dedication to local transformation benefits.

78,208,049 common shares of GeoMegA are currently issued and outstanding.

About Groupe Ressources Geomines Inc.

Geomines is a privately owned junior mineral exploration company based in Quebec with a portfolio of exploration properties, comprised of WHN and Boisvert, both located in the Province of Quebec.

About Black Springs Capital Corp.

Black Springs Capital Corp is a capital pool company. The Company is engaged in identification and evaluation of assets or business with a view of completing a qualifying transaction.

Regulation 43-101 Disclosure

Alain Cayer, P. Geo., MSc., Vice-President Exploration of GeoMegA, is the Qualified Person under the guidelines of National Instrument 43-101 respecting Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects who supervised and approved the preparation of the technical information in this news release.

Cautions Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This news release contains forward-looking statements regarding our intentions and plans. The forward-looking statements that are contained in this news release are based on various assumptions and estimates by the Corporation and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. As a consequence, actual results may differ materially from results forecasted or suggested in these forward-looking statements and readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. We caution you that such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, as discussed in the Corporation's filings with Canadian securities agencies. Various factors may prevent or delay our plans, including but not limited to, contractor availability and performance, weather, access, mineral prices, success and failure of the exploration and development carried out at various stages of the program, and general business, economic, competitive, political and social conditions. The Corporation expressly disclaims any obligation to update any forward- looking statements, except as required by applicable securities laws.

Contacts:

Kiril Mugerman

President and CEO

GeoMegA

450-641-5119 ext.5653

kmugerman@geomega.ca




The J.M. Huber Corporation announced today that it has signed a definitive agreement to sell the Silica business unit of Huber Engineered Materials (HEM) to Evonik Industries AG-a global specialty chemicals company.

The transaction will include HEM's Silica facilities in North America, Europe and Asia. Until the transaction closes, Silica continues to operate as part of HEM. For 2016, Huber's Silica business unit is expected to achieve revenue close to $300 million and an adjusted EBITDA of approximately $60 million.

The sale of Silica will not affect HEM's other business units, which include Fire Retardant Additives and Ground Calcium Carbonate.

Mike Marberry, President and Chief Executive Officer of Huber, noted, "Silica has been part of Huber since the 1950s and paved the way for the Company's global expansion in engineered materials. While it is difficult to part with a longstanding business, we expect Evonik to be an excellent fit for our Silica customers and our Silica employees." The transaction is subject to government approvals and is expected to be completed within the second half of 2017.

Explained Marberry, "Once the deal is closed, Huber expects to redeploy the proceeds from this sale to strategically invest in our core engineered materials businesses to further strengthen our portfolio of specialty products."

By integrating Huber's silica operations into its business, Evonik will be able to expand its position primarily in North America and Asia. "Huber Silica will be an outstanding reinforcement for our growth segment Resource Efficiency," said Klaus Engel, Chairman of the Executive Board of Evonik. "In addition, it will offer the opportunity to strategically develop Evonik's corporate portfolio."

Huber's Silica business is oriented towards the dental care sector. To date, Evonik's silica business has been focused more strongly on industrial applications, for example in the tire and coatings industry. Bringing together these two entities will create a global integrated silica business that is better positioned to serve customers around the world.

Representing J.M. Huber in the transaction were BofA Merrill Lynch, Moelis Company LLC, and Jones Day.

About J.M. Huber Corporation (www.huber.com)

J.M. Huber Corporation, headquartered in Edison, New Jersey (U.S.), operates a portfolio of companies with a focus on its core engineered materials businesses. Founded in 1883, today Huber is one of the largest family-owned companies in the U.S. The diversified, multinational company creates products that are used in a broad range of consumer and industrial applications, including fire retardant additives and smoke suppressants, personal care, food, beverage, pharmaceuticals and building materials.

About Huber Engineered Materials(www.hubermaterials.com)

Huber Engineered Materials, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia (U.S.), is a global business focused on engineered specialty ingredients that enhance the performance, appeal and processing of a broad range of products used in industrial and consumer-based applications. With an expertise in inorganic materials, it has a portfolio of high value products: specialty silicas and silicates, alumina trihydrate, magnesium hydroxide, molybdate compounds and industrial, food and USP grade calcium carbonate.

About Evonik Industries AG (www.evonik.com)

Evonik is a global leader in specialty chemicals, active in more than 100 countries world-wide. In its fiscal year 2015, more than 33.500 employees generated sales of about Euro 13.5 billion and an operative, adjusted EBITDA of about Euro 2.47 billion.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161209005413/en/

Contacts:

J.M. Huber Corporation

Robert Currie, 732-603-5746

r.currie@Huber.com
PUNE, India, December 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

The report"Automotive E-tailing Marketby Vehicle Type, Vendor (OEM and Third Party), Product Label (Branded and Counterfeit), Components (Infotainment, Interior Accessories, Engine Components, Tires, and Electrical Products), Technology, and Region - Global Forecast to 2021", published by MarketsandMarkets, The global market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 12.53% during the forecast period, to reach USD 49.07 Billion by 2021 from an estimated USD 27.19 Billion in 2016.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160303/792302 )

Browse 86 market data Tables and 75 Figures spread through 166 Pages and in-depth TOC on"Automotive E-tailing Market"

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/automotive-e-tailing-market-50123881.html

Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report.

The major factors behind the growth of the global Automotive E-tailing Market are increasing internet penetration, higher vehicle population coupled with the higher vehicle age in different countries.

Third Party vendors are the biggest sellers in the global Automotive E-tailing Market

Third party vendors such as Amazon, Alibaba, and Ebay are the biggest players in the global Automotive E-tailing Market. Availability of broad range of products, features such as price comparison, customer reviews, and the discounts are the major factors driving the global market for online sales of automotive components.

Online tire sales: Expected to increase in developing countries

Among various automotive components, tires are the mostly commonly sold component online. The ease of replacing a tire means that most automotive customers prefer to buy it online. The U.S., China, and Japan are countries that have large vehicle populations, which require frequent tire changes, which makes them forerunners in the online tire market.

North America holds the largest market share for E-commerce software platform market for 2016

North America is currently the largest market for e-commerce software platforms. The drivers for this growth are increased spending on e-commerce platforms by large retailers, who have invested in dedicated mobile platforms, and high internet penetration rate. In North America, the U.S. is the revenue hot spot for this market and would dominate throughout the overall forecast period.

Make an Inquiry: http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Enquiry_Before_Buying.asp?id=50123881

Asia-Pacific: Projected to witness highest CAGR for Automotive E-tailing Market

Asia-Pacific is projected to be the largest market for Automotive E-tailing Market due to growing economies of countries such as China and India. Growth of technological infrastructure, increasing internet penetration, convenience of online shopping and existing vehicle population are the major factors for Asia-Pacific to be the fastest growing market. Additionally, countries like China, India, Japan and South Korea are more inclined towards adopting new technologies such as using internet and smartphones, which has also accounted for such huge growth in this market for automotive components online sales.

The major market players in the global Automotive E-tailing Market are Advance Auto Parts (U.S.A.), Alibaba Group Holding Limited (China), Amazon.com Inc. (U.S.A.), Delticom AG (Germany), O'Reilly Auto Parts (U.S.A.), Flipkart (India) and eBay Inc. (U.S.A.) etc. which have their presence in not only the domestic but in the international market as well.

Browse related reports:

Online Advertising Market by Search Engine Marketing, Display Advertising, Classifieds, Mobile, Video, Lead Generation, Rich Media - Global Advancements, Forecasts & Analysis (2014 - 2019)

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/online-advertising-market-163283909.html

Digital Transformation Market by Solution (Cloud Computing, Big Data, Mobility, and Social Media), Service (Professional and System Integrators), Business Type (B2B, B2B2C, & B2C), End User, Deployment type, Vertical, and Region - Global Forecast to 2021

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/digital-transformation-market-43010479.html

About MarketsandMarkets

MarketsandMarkets is the largest market research firm worldwide in terms of annually published premium market research reports. Serving 1700 global fortune enterprises with more than 1200 premium studies in a year, M&M is catering to a multitude of clients across 8 different industrial verticals. We specialize in consulting assignments and business research across high growth markets, cutting edge technologies and newer applications. Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model - GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors.

M&M's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "RT" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets. The new included chapters on Methodology and Benchmarking presented with high quality analytical infographics in our reports gives complete visibility of how the numbers have been arrived and defend the accuracy of the numbers.

We at MarketsandMarkets are inspired to help our clients grow by providing apt business insight with our huge market intelligence repository.

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Technavio has announced the top five leading vendors in their recentprivate-label food and beverage market in the USreport. This research report also lists 21 other prominent vendors that are expected to impact the market during the forecast period.

This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161209005028/en/

Technavio publishes a new market research report on the private-label food and beverage market in the US from 2016-2020. (Graphic: Business Wire)

In the US food and beverage market, private labels are no longer seen as supplier low-cost and low-quality products, but as credible and viable alternatives to national brands. People look for value for money, irrespective of whether the product is being offered by a national brand or a private label. Private labels are traditionally more successful in segments where product differentiation is low, such as meat products and fresh produce items.

Competitive vendor landscape

The private-label food and beverages market in the US is fragmented, with the presence of many small and large vendors that compete based on price, quality, innovation, service, reputation, and promotion. Increased competition in the market is expected to result in a reduction of product prices in the market, which will negatively affect profit margins of the vendors and the growth of the market.

"Intense competition among vendors and rapid changes in technology are significant risk factors. The competition has led to an increase in the number of M&A, where smaller entities are being acquired by or being merged with major players," says Poonam Saini, a lead foodresearchanalyst from Technavio.

To survive and succeed in this highly competitive environment, it is imperative for vendors to distinguish their products and service offerings through a clear and unique value proposition.

Request a sample report: http://www.technavio.com/request-a-sample?report=54873

Technavio's sample reports are free of charge and contain multiple sections of the report including the market size and forecast, drivers, challenges, trends, and more.

Top five private-label food and beverage market vendors in the US

Costco

In addition to national brands, Costco sells through its private-label brand named Kirkland Signature. Kirkland Signature products are premium products offered to members at prices that are generally lower than national brand prices. These products generally carry higher margins than the national brands and represent a growing portion of the overall sales.

In 2015, Costco introduced new Kirkland Signature items such as organic 2% milk, organic liquid eggs, organic coconut water, artisan breads, and light beer. The sales of all organic products reached USD 4 billion during the FY2015.

Kroger

The sales of private labels generate revenue of nearly USD 20 billion annually for the company. Kroger sells private labels through its brands Kroger, Private Selection, Simple Truth, Simple Truth Organic, HemisFares, Heritage Farm, Comforts for Baby, Big K, and Pet Pride. The company manufactures 40% of its products, leading to stronger margins and enabling faster product launches in the market.

Trader Joe's

It is one of the leading private-label retailers in the US with vast product offerings. The company is opening new stores across the US to make its presence stronger in the country. It launched a variety of new products, which include Turkish Fig Bites, Super Seed Ancient Grain Blend, Cold Pressed Watermelon Juice, and new Dark Chocolate Covered Honey Grahams, providing consumers with new and innovative food and beverage products.

Walmart

Walmart is one of the key leading players in the private-label food and beverage market and offers low-cost alternatives to national brands. Some of its major brands in the market are Sam's Choice, Great Value, Dr. Thunder, and Price First. Close to 40% of the products sold in Walmart are private-label brands that are produced by contract manufacturers for the company.

Wegmans

Wegmans is a major vendor in the US private-label sector. While Wegmans stores feature national and other brands, the company focuses on promoting its own private-label brands. It pursues an aggressive private-label strategy that includes frequent product updates and innovations. The company's private-label products feature distinctive and creative packaging. On average, Wegmans stores are larger than most supermarkets (about 75,000 to 140,000 square feet).

Browse Related Reports:

Food Retail Market in Saudi Arabia 2016-2020

Organic Food and Beverages Market in Europe 2015-2019

Global Fruit Spreads Market 2016-2020

Do you need a report on a market in a specific geographical cluster or country but can't find what you're looking for? Don't worry, Technavio also takes client requests. Please contact enquiry@technavio.com with your requirements and our analysts will be happy to create a customized report just for you.

About Technavio

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. The company develops over 2000 pieces of research every year, covering more than 500 technologies across 80 countries. Technavio has about 300 analysts globally who specialize in customized consulting and business research assignments across the latest leading edge technologies.

Technavio analysts employ primary as well as secondary research techniques to ascertain the size and vendor landscape in a range of markets. Analysts obtain information using a combination of bottom-up and top-down approaches, besides using in-house market modeling tools and proprietary databases. They corroborate this data with the data obtained from various market participants and stakeholders across the value chain, including vendors, service providers, distributors, re-sellers, and end-users.

If you are interested in more information, please contact our media team at media@technavio.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161209005028/en/

Contacts:

Technavio Research

Jesse Maida

Media Marketing Executive

US: +1 630 333 9501

UK: +44 208 123 1770

www.technavio.com
Global program to recognize and promote cutting-edge innovation in the insurance sector

Efma and Accenture (NYSE:ACN) have issued a joint call for entries for the second annual Innovation in Insurance Awards, with insurance and bancassurance companies invited to submit their entries by 8 March 2017.

For information on submitting an entry, please click here or visit www.efma.com/innovationininsurance/.

Accenture partnered with Efma, a global association comprising more than 3,300 insurance and banking members, to launch the global awards program in 2016. The annual awards seek to recognize outstanding new services and encourage innovation across the sector, while providing a forum to share industry insights and best practices.

The first round of the awards attracted more than 224 submissions from 148 institutions across 37 countries.

"These awards will unearth the best insurance innovation in the world, while providing a unique platform for executives to come together, learn from each other and take away new ideas to improve their business," said Karine Coutinho, deputy general manager and head of delivery at Efma, and project leader of the awards initiative.

Piercarlo Gera, senior managing director, Financial Services, Accenture Distribution Marketing said: "As insurers continue to grapple with a challenging macroeconomic environment, changing customer behavior and wave after wave of new regulations, technology's role as an enabler has never been more prominent. Old business models are being up-ended by nimble, new solutions, so it's imperative that insurers constantly look for new approaches. These awards are a critical part of that process."

The 2017 Innovation in Insurance awards will canvass the best solutions across five categories:

Connected Insurance or Ecosystems : Innovations that use the Internet-of-things to create new business models by effectively combining insurance with technology, ecosystem services and partners.

: Customer Experience and Engagement : Innovations that radically enhance the way insurance players engage customers. New approaches may include seamless and personalized experiences across physical and/or digital channels, new customer management (service) models, and innovative management of customer loyalty and satisfaction.

: Intelligent Automation : Innovations that leverage the disruptive power of artificial intelligence technologies (such as intelligent automation, robotics, machine learning etc.) to deliver sophisticated, effective business solutions.

: Best Disruptive Product or Service : Innovations that enhance, extend or replace the traditional offering, creating new profit pools by serving new customer segments or existing segments in new ways, and entering or creating new markets typically beyond the reach of insurance players.

: Global Innovator: The most innovative insurer. The global winner is the organization whose corporate vision commits it successfully to continuous innovation and transformation, to the development and leadership of a broad ecosystem of partners extending beyond insurance, and to the exploitation of emerging technologies that improve the experience of its customers and the performance of its business.

Global Innovator is a special category for which the jury will select finalists based on the other four categories. Across all categories, an Innovation Committee will shortlist finalists for each award, with a jury of insurance executives and Efma members then voting for the winners.

The winners will be announced at the Efma Insurance Summit in London on 26 April 2017. Information about last year's categories and award winners is available here.

About Efma

A global non-profit organisation, established in 1971 by banks and insurance companies, Efma facilitates networking between decision-makers. It provides quality insights to help banks and insurance companies make the right decisions to foster innovation and drive their transformation. Over 3,300 brands in 130 countries are Efma members. Headquarters in Paris.Offices in London, Brussels, Barcelona, Stockholm, Bratislava, Dubai, Mumbai and Singapore. Learn more at www.efma.com.

About Accenture

Accenture is a leading global professional services company, providing a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations. Combining unmatched experience and specialized skills across more than 40 industries and all business functions underpinned by the world's largest delivery network Accenture works at the intersection of business and technology to help clients improve their performance and create sustainable value for their stakeholders. With approximately 384,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries, Accenture drives innovation to improve the way the world works and lives. Visit us at www.accenture.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161209005537/en/

Contacts:

Efma

Florence Chatelet, 33 6 77 43 02 32

florence@efma.com

or

Accenture

James Murphy, 1 917-452-0588

james.p.murphy@accenture.com
The global warm air heater marketis expected to grow at a CAGR of about 3% during the forecast period, according to Technavio's latest report.

This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161209005032/en/

Technavio publishes a new market research report on the global air heater market from 2016-2020. (Graphic: Business Wire)

In this report, Technavio covers the market outlook and growth prospects of the global warm air heater market for 2016-2020. This market is divided into residential and non-residential end-user segments

The residential sector leads the market, having registered a market share of 57.5%, was valued at USD 1.99 billion in 2015. The growing economic activities in emerging countries combined with government initiatives to provide housing for all will create a significant demand for air heaters. Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems are gaining popularity in the consumer goods segment as customers are allocating a considerable household fund share to these systems.

Technavio's research study segments the global warm air heater market into the following regions:

EMEA

Americas

APAC

EMEA: largest warm air heater market

Europe started recovering from the Eurozone crisis in 2013. Since then, the region has been witnessing a rise in construction activities, mainly in the residential sector. Easy credit facilities and changing consumer preferences are boosting the demand for warm air heaters in the region. Additionally, the governments in this region have set strict regulations regarding energy efficiency of heating systems. There is an increased adoption of monitoring systems like building energy management systems (BEMS) to enhance efficiency of equipment. This is resulting in a largescale replacement of traditional heating systems with sustainable systems, which has added an impetus to the market in this region.

The Middle East experiences extreme climatic conditions, where air heaters become a necessity during the night. Rapidly growing population and rising disposable incomes are allowing for easy adoption of these technologies into residential and non-residential buildings. Also, Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries have been investing toward the planning and development of smart and economic cities. Countries like Qatar and Dubai are witnessing a surge in construction of commercial buildings. With these projects being undertaken during the market forecast period, the air heater market will have high prospects in the region.

Request a sample report: http://www.technavio.com/request-a-sample?report=54869

Technavio's sample reports are free of charge and contain multiple sections of the report including the market size and forecast, drivers, challenges, trends, and more.

Americas: energy-efficient heating systems to drive market

The US is the leader of the warm air heater market in the Americas. The construction industry in the region, combined with efforts to modernize the country's infrastructure will drive the warm heater market. In the non-residential sector, The Canadian and Latin American markets are also witnessing significant growth owing to the flourishing construction industry. Improving business and residential environments and a need for energy-efficient heating systems will drive market growth.

"Advances in air heaters in the US will benefit from non-residential construction spending and the continued improvements in residential construction activities. Heat pumps and warm air heaters are likely to account for the highest demand by 2020. The demand for heat pumps, having both heating and cooling capabilities, will be supported by the rising sales of non-residential buildings. By contrast, warm air heaters will be extensively used in the residential buildings," says Gaurav Mohindru, one of the lead analysts at Technavio for unit operations research.

APAC: construction spending drives warm air heater market

"In developing countries like India and China, the real estate industry grew by 49.3% in 2013. Tier 1 and 2 cities in these countries are seeing investments driven by infrastructure development, especially in the residential sector. Nearly 200 million people are likely to shift to urban areas in the next decade, calling for rapid urbanization and infrastructure developments. These factors will positively influence the growth of the HVAC market in APAC," says Gaurav.

APAC is heavily investing in construction industry, accounting for a majority 45% of the world's building stock (2014 figures), and represents approximately 40% of the global construction spending. China is the largest construction market in the world, with an additional 1 billion square meters of residential and commercial buildings to be constructed during the forecast period. Other countries such as India, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Singapore will also contribute to the growth of commercial construction in the region.

The top vendors in the global warm air heater market highlighted in the report are:

Winterwarm Heating Solutions

Kroll Energy

AmbiRad

Powrmatic

Johnson Starley

Browse Related Reports:

Global Tankless Water Heater Market 2016-2020

Global Smart Solar Market 2016-2020

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Do you need a report on a market in a specific geographical cluster or country but can't find what you're looking for? Don't worry, Technavio also takes client requests. Please contact enquiry@technavio.com with your requirements and our analysts will be happy to create a customized report just for you.

About Technavio

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. The company develops over 2000 pieces of research every year, covering more than 500 technologies across 80 countries. Technavio has about 300 analysts globally who specialize in customized consulting and business research assignments across the latest leading edge technologies.

Technavio analysts employ primary as well as secondary research techniques to ascertain the size and vendor landscape in a range of markets. Analysts obtain information using a combination of bottom-up and top-down approaches, besides using in-house market modeling tools and proprietary databases. They corroborate this data with the data obtained from various market participants and stakeholders across the value chain, including vendors, service providers, distributors, re-sellers, and end-users.

If you are interested in more information, please contact our media team at media@technavio.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161209005032/en/

Contacts:

Technavio Research

Jesse Maida

Media Marketing Executive

US: +1 630 333 9501

UK: +44 208 123 1770

www.technavio.com
MOSCOW (dpa-AFX) - Reflecting concerns about foreign intervention in last month's elections, President Barack Obama has ordered an investigation into hacking-relating activity by the Russians. Obama's Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Advisor Lisa Monaco told reporters of the review at a breakfast arranged by the Christian Science Monitor on Friday. 'The president has directed the intelligence community to conduct a full review of what happened during the 2016 election process,' Monaco said. 'It is to capture lessons learned from that and to report to a range of stakeholders.' She added, 'We maybe crossed into a new threshold and it is incumbent upon us to take stock of that, to review, to conduct some after-action, to understand what this means, what has happened and to impart those lessons learned.' The review comes as U.S. intelligence officials have accused Russia of hacking Democratic officials and political committees ahead of the election. Monaco said the findings will not necessarily made public amid concerns doing so could impede the intelligence community's ability to identify malicious actors in the future. 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.
OTTAWA, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 12/09/16 -- Government data is an important resource that can drive innovation, inform businesses, and enhance government accountability.

The Honourable Scott Brison, President of the Treasury Board, is in Paris, France, today leading Canada's delegation at the Open Government Partnership Global Summit, where he announced that Canada is taking a leadership role in the global movement to improve transparency and open government.

The Minister announced that Canada will adopt the International Open Data Charter. This is a key commitment in Canada's 3rd Biennial Plan to the Open Government Partnership, and it will support strategic partnerships with governments and civil society organizations in Canada and around the world. The shared global principles expressed in the Charter reflect the Government of Canada's ongoing commitment to making government data open by default.

Minister Brison also announced that Canada endorses the "Paris Declaration, 4th Global Summit of the Open Government Partnership: Collective Actions to Accelerate Open Government." Canada will partner with other governments to share best practices and support peer learning on the following themes:

-- Using data to promote sustainable development and fight climate change -- Employing online tools for digital collaboration -- Applying principles and policies to release more open data -- Promoting budget transparency -- Modernizing the criminal justice system through information technology and citizen engagement

Quick Facts

-- The Open Government Partnership is an international multi-stakeholder initiative that brings together more than 70 governments and hundreds of civil society organizations. -- The Paris Declaration encourages governments and civil society organizations to sign up to collective actions that will advance open government in their countries and around the world. -- Other Government of Canada activities to strengthen openness and transparency include: -- Reviewing the Access to Information Act, with legislation to be introduced in early 2017 and a full and now-mandatory review to follow in 2018. In May 2016, the Government issued the Interim Directive on the Administration of the Access to Information Act, which enshrined "open by default" in government policy and eliminated all access to information fees except for the initial five dollar filing fee. -- Updating and modernizing the Policy on Communications and Federal Identity to clarify the role of departmental officials in ensuring government information is made available to Canadians in a more complete and timely manner. According to the new directive, subject matter experts, including scientists, can speak publicly about their work without being designated. -- Releasing a new Policy on Results to improve the timeliness, transparency and clarity of reporting to Parliament, so that Canadians know how the Government spends their tax dollars, what results are expected from their programs, and how they are being measured and achieved. -- Working with parliamentarians to better align the Budget and Estimates processes so that Canadians can more easily track how the Government spends their money.

Quote

"Government information belongs to the people we serve and it should be open by default. By adopting the Charter and signing on to the Paris Declaration, Canada is taking steps to drive innovation and play a leadership role in matters of openness and transparency on the world stage."

-Scott Brison, President of the Treasury Board

Associated Links

International Open Data Charter - Principles

Open Data 101

Third Biennial Plan to the Open Government Partnership (2016-18)

Paris Declaration, 4th Global Summit of the Open Government Partnership: Collective Actions to Accelerate Open Government.

Follow us on Twitter: @TBS_Canada.

Contacts:

Jean-Luc Ferland

Press Secretary

Office of the President of the Treasury Board

613-369-3163



Media Relations

Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat

613-369-9400



TTY (telecommunications device for the hearing impaired)

613-369-9371






WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., is expected to be President-elect Donald Trump's nominee as Secretary of the Interior, according to numerous media reports.



A source close to the Trump transition team told USA Today the timing of the announcement of Rodgers' selection has not been determined.



McMorris Rodgers currently serves as the chair of the House Republican Conference, making her the fourth highest-ranking Republican in the House and the highest-ranking GOP woman.



As head of the Interior Department, McMorris Rodgers would play a key role in Trump's plans to open up federal lands and waters to oil and gas development.



The nomination of McMorris Rodgers would further anger environmentalists after Trump's choice of anti-regulation climate change skeptic Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency.



In a statement, League of Conservation Voters President Gene Karpinski argued nominating McMorris Rodgers would put a massive 'for sale' sign on public lands.



'In Congress, Rep. McMorris Rodgers has consistently voted to prioritize drilling on our public lands and waters, including in sensitive areas like the Arctic, and even to open up our public lands for sale to the highest bidder, said Karpinski.



'Not only that, she refuses to accept settled climate science, which is disturbing but hardly surprising given that Big Polluters have spent over $350,000 to keep her in office,' he added, 'She simply should not be put in charge of stewarding America's wildlife, national parks and other majestic landscapes.'



If McMorris Rodgers becomes head of the Interior Department, it would also open a key position in the House Republican leadership and the GOP may feel pressure to elect another woman for the role.



(Photo: Gage Skidmore)



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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LETHBRIDGE, ALBERTA -- (Marketwired) -- 02/03/17 -- Robix Environmental Technologies, Inc. ("Robix" or the "Corporation") (CSE: RZX)(CSE: RZX.CN)(FRANKFURT: R0X) announced today that the Corporation, subject to regulatory approval, has granted incentive stock options to purchase a total of 2,559,000 common shares, at an exercise price of $0.22 per common share, to a director, officer and consultants of Robix. The options expire on February 3, 2020, in accordance with the Corporation's stock option plan. Robix has determined that exemptions from the various requirements of Multilateral Instrument 61-101 are available for the issuance of the options to the director and officer of the Corporation (Formal Valuation - Issuer Not Listed on Specified Markets; Minority Approval - Fair Market Value Not More Than 25% of Market Capitalization).

Robix also announced that it intends to settle outstanding indebtedness of $275,000 through the issuance of 1,375,000 common shares of the Corporation at a deemed price of $0.20 per common share (the "Debt Settlement"). The common shares issued in connection with the Debt Settlement will be subject to a hold period of four months from the date of closing.

Finally, Robix also announced that it has settled an outstanding debt of Formation Fluid Management Inc., which company was acquired by Robix on October 7, 2016 (see Robix's October 11, 2016 news release), in connection with a change of control fee owing to Canaccord Genuity Corp. pursuant to a financial advisory letter. Pursuant to the settlement, Robix agreed to pay Canaccord $250,000 plus GST and issue 750,000 common shares, which common shares are subject to a hold period that expires on June 4, 2017.

About Robix:

The Corporation is an "industrial products/technology" company, offering to investors a unique opportunity to participate in a leading company in the business of ownership of patents, and their development from commercialization to worldwide expansion through various business arrangements. Robix owns a Clean Ocean Vessel ("COV") patent, which is an oil spill recovery vessel design with the capability to recover oil in rough and debris laden sea conditions. Robix has recognized a worldwide market opportunity for effective containment, recovery and disposal equipment, particularly in the oil spill protection industry, and it proposes to develop a business model as a service provider, and/or equipment provider under licensing agreements with other industry participants, wherein Robix will use its COV patented design solution.

Neither Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Contacts:

Robix Environmental Technologies, Inc.

Nathan Hansen

President & CEO

250-683-8957

nathan@robixfuels.com



Robix Environmental Technologies, Inc.

Robin Ray

Chief Financial Officer

403-327-3094

robin@robixfuels.com

www.robixfuels.com




GoDaddy Inc. (NYSE: GDDY), a US cloud platform dedicated to small, independent ventures, entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Host Europe Group (HEG), for 1.69 billion (US$1.79 billion).

The transaction, which includes 605m paid to the selling shareholders and 1.08 billion in assumed net debt, is expected to close in the second quarter of 2017, subject to customary regulatory and other closing requirements.

Currently owned by international private equity firm Cinven, which acquired the company in August 2013, and led by Patrick Pulvermuller, Group CEO, HEG is a large privately-owned web services provider serving more than 1.7 million small businesses and web expert customers in Europe. Its brands are 123Reg, Domain Factory, Heart Internet and Host Europe. The company has offices in Germany, the U.K., France, Spain, Romania, and Bulgaria, including

With the acquisition, GoDaddy intends to integrate the majority of HEGs business while exploring strategic alternatives for HEGs PlusServer managed hosting business, including a possible sale.

Combining GoDaddys global technology platform with HEGs presence in Europe will enable the rapid deployment of a broader range of products to customers and allow for better scale of product development and go-to-market investments across both companies.

With a series of acquisitions, GoDaddy is trying to capture an ever-increasing market share of the lucrative web hosting industry, much like conglomerates like EIG (Endurance International Group). Even then, reputable independent providers like SiteGround are still thriving with a focus on quality service and great support.

Pulvermuller will lead the combined companys European operations. He will report to Andrew Low Ah Kee, GoDaddys Executive Vice President of International. GoDaddys European team will report into Pulvermuller.

FinSMEs

09/12/2016
Dronomy, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based developer of software focused on building knowledge into construction projects through analysis of data collected by drones, raised a funding round of undisclosed amount.

Mitsui Fudosans corporate venture capital fund 31Ventures Global Innovation Fund I, jointly operated by Global Brain Corporation, and existing investors Battery Ventures, Lool Ventures and Oryzn Capital, participated in the round.

The company intends to use the funds to launch its solution into international markets and to ramp-up its customer acquisition, starting in the first quarter of 2017.

Led by Ori Aphek, CEO, Dronomy provides construction companies with software tools to frequently and accurately map, monitor, inspect and share site details, build knowledge into their projects and execute site monitoring missions routinely, reducing costs and project delays. The solution captures unique and frequent project data using autonomous drones, and analyzes it into actionable information that is shared over the cloud to all relevant project stakeholders including developers and sub contractors.

FinSMEs

09/12/2016
What Kajol was to Karan Johar, her contemporary Aishwarya Rai Bachhan is to his idol Sanjay Leela Bhansali.

Bhansali's special bond with Rai is well documented and now he has managed to rope in the beauty for a special appearance and song sequence for his next, the period drama Padmavati.

Mumbai Mirror reports that both parties are keen on making the special appearance work. The song sequence will be filmed during a schedule of 15 to 20 days in a suburban studio. Interestingly, Rai was last seen dancing in Bhansali's 2010 drama Guzaarish on the song Udi sung by Sunidhi Chauhan.

Post that, she went on a five-year sabbatical to make the most of motherhood. She returned to the silver screen last year with Sanjay Gupta's suspense thriller Jazbaa which saw her playing a gritty lawyer. Her next Omung Kumar's biopic Sarbjit was also a serious role as she played the sister of the titular character who was wrongly convicted in Pakistan for crossing the Line of Control. Her last release was Karan Johar's romantic drama Ae Dil Hai Muskil which saw Rai dance for a couple of shots with Ranbir Kapoor on the song Bulleya.

But it will be Padmavati in which she will do a full- fledged dance number. She has enthralled the audience with her swift dance movements in Bhansali's past two movies in Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and Devdas. Her jugalbandi with Madhuri Dixit on Dola Re Dola was a casting coup which was replicated in Bhansali's last film Bajirao Mastani with Priyanka Chopra and Deepika Padhukone in a friendly dance-off on the Marathi number Pinga.

However, Zee News reports that Rai's song in Padmavati will not see her in a dance-off with Padukone but will be on completely different lines. While neither Bhansali nor Rai has confirmed the news yet, her fans are hoping to see her share the screen space with Padukone, Ranveer Singh and Shahid Kapoor in the period biopic.
Befikre, starring Ranveer Singh and Vaani Kapoor, releases today  Friday, 9 December. Before your read our reviews, here's a quick lowdown on what to expect from the film:

Befikre quick review: Ranveer Singh shines in fun, flirty first-half of Aditya Chopra's good-looking film

Romance, but not in typical YRF style

Yash Raj Films has sold us a certain idea of romance for a long time now. This is the noble, sacrificial kind of love, the kind in which beautiful people prefer to dress in pastel shade, where getting approval from ma-bauji is as important as the attraction between the lovebirds itself. And of course, it's the kind of love that lasts forever. Befikre, however, is turning that template around. Dharam (Ranveer) and Shyra (Vaani) make no secret of their desire for each other, but (as evinced by the trailers at least) their attraction comes with no emotional or dramatic baggage. They're just looking to have a good time, and not necessarily commitment or promises of happily ever after.

Lots of liplocks

First we had all those steamy posters of Ranveer and Vaani kissing. Then there was an entire song called 'Labon Ka Kaarobaar', which if the posters didn't make evident, drove home the point that there was going to be kissing, and lots of it, in Befikre. At one point, it seemed like that is all the film would have. We're guessing director Aditya Chopra took the French setting of his story very literally.

The other songs from the film did manage to show us that the sparkling chemistry between Vaani and Ranveer was worth looking forward to:

A desi version of No Strings Attached?

When the trailer of Befikre released, Firstpost's Swetha Ramakrishnan wrote:

"Both the leads, Vaani (who plays Shyra) and Ranveer (who plays Dharam) are shown to be carefree and uninhibited. The markers are there; she has red hair, he slaps a cop for a date with her, they have multiple one-night-stands (and neither are, obviously, looking for something serious), there's a lot of alcohol and dancing and canoodling involved.

The natural question to ask is, what happens after the dust settles? Befikre reminds you of films like Friends With Benefits and No Strings Attached, and even in those films the couples eventually fall in love. Given this is a Yash Raj film, it is safe to say that these two will fall in love. And if they don't, we'll be mighty impressed. Bollywood has never had a film where the lead pair doesn't fall in love. That is an interesting concept to explore because even in real life, we have so many relationships/flings that don't necessarily end up in love/marriage. Befikrewill be the first film in a long time to break the "love" spell."

The film was written for Ranveer

Aditya Chopra is returning to direction after eight years with Befikre. And the reticent filmmaker has mirrored at least some part of the open, uninhibited nature of his film by penning a series of letters, shared on social media, talking about his creative inspirations. A couple of the missives that caught our eye were where Adi (as the YRF honcho is referred to) talks about the long journey between his first film  Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge  and Befikre. Adi talks about how, if he were starting out as a director today, DDLJ might not have been the film he would have made  simply because as individuals, we're exposed to so much more today, than back in the late 90s, when the SRK-Kajol starrer was made. He also writes if how he sees many of Shah Rukh Khan's attributes in his new leading man, Ranveer. In fact, Adi also says that he wrote Befikre expressly with Ranveer in mind. A fine compliment indeed!

Read: Aditya Chopra compares Shah Rukh Khan to Befikre actor Ranveer Singh in an open letter

The setting  Paris  was as important to Befikre as its lead actors

Vaani Kapoor has talked about how Aditya Chopra made very clear right at the start that this wasn't just a love story between Dharam and Shyra; there was a third and very important character, and this was Paris  the city of love.

The terror attacks in Paris in November 2015 then, posed a serious dilemma. "Just when we were prepped to begin shooting in November last year, the 13/11 Saint Denis terror attacks hit the city. There was nervousness about feasibility of shooting in Paris, with some advising Adi sir to shift to another city. But having conceived the film entirely in Paris and laced with its inherent spirit of joie de vivre, he decided to shoot here. In a manner, Befikre advocates the typical Parisian spirit of living carefree, and he thought that standing by this idea was very important, in the wake of such aggression," Ranveer Singh was quoted as saying, when launching the trailer at the Eiffel Tower earlier this year.

Will Befikre manage to wow audiences  and critics  today? Stay tuned, we'll be bringing you our impressions from the film every step of the way!

Also on Firstpost: Ranveer Singh and Vaani Kapoor spill their secrets on The Firstpost Show ahead of Befikre
Director Peter Berg and Mark Wahlberg earlier made Lone Survivor a few years ago, which delved into good old-fashioned American heroism in real life mission impossible type physically stressful situations. The pair is back for Deepwater Horizon, another drama thriller that traverses similar territory but has slightly more effective results.

This time were taken back to the real life 2010 oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, which turned out to be the biggest US environmental disaster of all time. Wahlberg plays Mike, a family man who heads out for three weeks to the oil rig Deepwater Horizon to work with his boss Jimmy (Kurt Russell). Aboard the rig hes shocked to see the carelessness the BP Oil execs have displayed in running it. Many security protocols are forgotten to save a few bucks and Mike realises that something will go very wrong very soon. Sure enough, theres a malfunction and the rig goes up in flames, rapidly taking down everyone aboard and threatening a large scale environmental gaffe.

Once disaster strikes Deepwater Horizon becomes a standard issue Wahlberg movie where he has to rescue everyone around him and leap off to safety in the last minute. What makes this slightly more interesting than a usual disaster movie is that the film explains what exactly went wrong with the oil rig and how the malfunction actually happened. Especially since it recreates a real life incident the film does a good job of spelling it out in simple words how mud and gas suddenly went up the rigging pipes because of lack of expenditure on maintenance, and how everything that is going wrong could be fixed with proper scientific methods.

The film also refreshingly doesnt pull any punches on the evilness of the BP execs responsible for this disaster. The main BP villain named Donald is played by John Malkovich with an evil accent and makes no attempt to hide his smarmy behavior in cutting down costs to make the operation environment friendly. It gives the audience a chance to really despise the Donald character and give BP the hate that they deserve, even when the actual monster of the film, the oil rig is spewing fire and killing everyone on board.

Most of the action set pieces are quite nightmarish, as Wahlberg and his people run around trying to avoid being burnt, dodging falling cranes and being hit by debris. Mikes wife (played by Kate Hudson) serves as the audiences eyes who watches the nightmare unfold on TV reports and is helpless, fearing for the lives of everyone on board. Like most of Bergs films Deepwater Horizon is technically solid and is fortunately less jingoistic than you expect it to be. Unlike most of his previous work celebrating American heroism isnt the centerpiece as much as introspecting about large corporations and how their greed can spell disaster for the whole world.

Its not a great film per se because you still get the disaster movie cliches you have seen a hundred times in similar movies, and Wahlberg isnt exactly the most charming person you tend to root for. But its an effective one considering the social message it renders.

Watch the trailer here:
Los Angeles: Actor George Clooney and his wife Amal are reportedly living separate lives and are ready for a $300 million divorce.

"Amal and George divorce announcement! $300 million split rocks Hollywood!" blares the latest headline of OK! Magazine, reports aceshowbiz.com.

"Amal wanted kids, he didn't. She'll get his fortune and his Lake Como villa," the report quotes a source as saying.

"While they love each other, they might be realising they want different things in life," a source said, adding that the couple's "growing divide" is allegedly due to a "long list of grievances" that have now brought the relationship "to a perilous crossroads".

The source added: "When George and Amal first got together, their friends thought they were a perfect match. But now some are expecting them to announce a split."

George was "feeling the mounting pressure" to have children and had reluctantly agreed, according to the source. "But as I understand it, he's since backed away from that decision, and Amal is crushed," said the insider.

George allegedly plans to move to Britain as he's "growing impatient" at Amal's "taste for the high life" and lavish spending.

"As a result of all this conflict, the power couple are now living separate lives," the magazine says, "Amal could make out like a bandit if they divorce."

The Hollywood star and the British human rights lawyer married in 2014.
Discount was the bait that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley used repeatedly in his speech on demonetisation in a bid to push people towards digital payment modes, a month after Prime Minister Narendra Modi made an announcement to annul Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.

At Firstpost, we spoke with personal finance expert, Jitendra P Solanki, founder, JS Financial Advisors, a financial planning firm to decode the positives and the negatives of the speech of the FM. Solanki said that what is perplexing about the announcement is that the Finance Minister has not made it clear that the discounts being offered is for a limited period or not. "To be able to enthuse more people to get on to digital mode of payments, the government must ensure deep penetration of banking facilities across the country, besides good internet connectivity. Otherwise, the thrust toward digitisation may affect businesses and livelihoods of people," he said.

Amit Trivedi, financial market trainer, author, says that Jaitleys announcement was a nudge to people to adopt cashless transactions. The force was applied by the demonetisation announcement on 8 November and Jaitley gave a nudge on 8 December. He sees demonetisation and Digital India as two sides of the same coin with the goal being to get the country to go cashless in a major way. Though the plan is huge, implementation will throw up hurdles, he says, given the size of the country and the education levels of the people.

Tarun Birani, Founder and Director of TBNG Capital Advisors, feels that though there may be initial discomforts experienced by people, digital payments will become part of our routine. "Indians are accustomed to change and adapt as long as there are freebies. We are very value conscious."

Lets take a look at each of the 10 discounts offered by Jaitley:

Announces 0.75 percent discount for people buying petrol, diesel via digital payment platforms. A total of 4.5 crore consumers buy petrol and diesel worth Rs 1,800 crore daily. In one month, digital payments have doubled to 40 percent. The government expects fuel transactions worth Rs 2 lakh crore to be carried out via digital mode.



What the government is doing is forcing people to go digital and use any type of card, be it debit or credit card to get to digital mode of payments. This will have only a limited effect, say analysts. It must be remembered that any usage of cards on the digital mode has a cost factor unlike offline payment methods. Why would anyone pay more, even if it is only the case of 75 paise discount as the government has announced with regard to buying petrol and diesel via digital payment platform?

Effective 1 January 2017, 0.5 percent discount would be available for people buying monthly seasonal tickets in the suburban railway networks through digital payment mode, starting from the Mumbai suburban railways.

This discount will only help users who are familiar and comfortable making digital payments. Though this move of the government too can be suspected to give a certain push to the number of people opting for online mode of payments, the large majority will hesitate to get on to the digital bandwagon. People are still wary of using the medium and there is a trust deficit. This is because many people are aware that credit and debit cards password numbers can be photographed, copied or the details siphoned off . Case in point, Kerala ATM fraud a few months ago. Unless security challenges are not addressed, people will be hesitant to use digital modes of payment. Cyber laws are very weak in India and people will have to make repeated visits to call centres, banks in case of a fraud. Even after making repeated rounds to banks and call centres, there is no certainty the user will get his money back. However, this announcement will give a push to digital users who will go all out and use it with the added incentive of a discount.

"Monetary incentives alone may not be enough," says Trivedi. He wants the government to clarify on online charges for payments of utility bills. " If I want to pay my electricity bill online, there is a charge to be paid online. These payments and bookings will have to be streamlined," he says.

Insurance cover worth Rs 10 lakh for travellers who book railway tickets through digital mode

Insurance was always available with the Railways and those who opted for online booking were aware of it. However, insurance was optional and customers would not avail it. Now this facility is extended to digital payment methods. However, its benefit is questionable as it is a 'forced' manner of getting people to adopt a new technology.

A discount of 5 percent for transactions on digital payment mode for railway facilities like catering, retiring rooms

With this discount, what the Railways are doing is asking customers to pay for using Railway facilities using digital modes. A five percent discount is not much of a margin and not many would opt for it.

Buying general, life insurance policies from the websites of public sector insurance firms and using the same for paying premium would attract discounts of 10 percent and 8 percent respectively.

This is a curious offer. Why is the FM only focusing on public sector insurance firms? This is hardly a discount at 8 and 10 percent. With this offer what the government is doing is ensuring business for public sector insurance companies. This is a biased decision. Discrimination between public and private insurance firms in this manner is unwarranted. Just for the sake of the discounts being offered, no one will opt for a public sector insurance firm. Besides, there are other aspects that come into play when one buys a insurance.

NABARD will give RuPay card to people who possess Kisan Credit Card.

RuPay card has gained a market share in comparison with Visa and Mastercard because it is offered by banks. However, extending it to kisan credit card may not lead to any significant strides in business. Will the kisan, for whom it is intended, use it? Though the government has opened Jan Dhan accounts for the bankless, it has largely remained zero balance accounts. For RuPay card to make a difference to the farmer, he has to know bank transactions. Banking services need to penetrate remote villages and far flung areas in the country. Has the credit card gained popularity with the farmer as of now? It is debatable.

Seeking to expedite the digital switchover, the government has decided to provide two point-of-sales machines each to villages with and over 10,000 population. A total of one lakh villages will be selected for the purpose across the country.

Currently, the number of Point of Sale (POS) machines are too low. For a population of 10,000, this can work provided villagers have a bank account and also an income to be able to swipe money off machines. If there is not much income then the use of POS machines will be limited.The other major hurdle for government is infrastructure -- Internet connectivity in urban areas are not up to the mark. So what is the government talking about?

A 10 percent discount on digital payments for RFID or fastags for highway toll has also been made.

This is one of the good things in the announcement made by Jaitley. A 10 percent discount is good enough for digital payments for RFID, said Jitendra Solanki of JS Financial Advisors. But there is a catch here too. With security remaining a cause for concerns, how many will whip out their debit or credit cards or use mobile wallets for highway toll is to be seen.

"Incentives are the only way to bring about a change in habit," says Birani.

In order to ensure government departments and public sector enterprises go on a cashless path, the Merchant Discount Rate will not be borne by customers for public dealings.

This is a also a good move by the government as it concerns payment to government departments. Going cashless will provide benefits to citizens.

Public sector banks are advised that merchants should not be required to pay more than Rs 100 per month as monthly rental for PoS terminals/Micro ATMs/mobile POS from the merchants to bring small merchant on board the digital payment ecosystem.

This is a good move, too. To use a POS machine, a merchant has to pay around Rs 250 or Rs 300 to the bank. This was a big hurdle for small shopkeepers. To pay just Rs 100 per month is an affordable fee and many shopkeepers will now be encouraged to use it and increase their business.
In a second income tax raid conducted on Axis Bank, one of the country's largest private sector bank, in less than a week's time, the I-T deparment said it has found Rs 100 crore deposited in 44 fake accounts at the bank's Chandi Chowk branch in New Delhi, News 18 report said.

The I-T department is believed to be questioning the manager of Chandni Chowk branch, says report.

Another report says that so far Rs 450 crore had been deposited in Axis bank post the government's note ban exercise.

Axis Bank in a statement said the lender is cooperating with investigators and will take action on wrongdoers. "The bank is committed to following the highest standards of corporate governance and has zero tolerance towards any deviation on the part of any of its employees from the set model code of conduct. Strict action will be taken against any employee found deviating from the guideline . We would also like to add that we are cooperating with the investigating agencies," the statement said.

Recently, Axis Bank said it had suspended its 19 officials allegedly involved in illegal activity post demonetisation. The bank suspended 19 officials including 6 of Kashmere Gate branch of Delhi itself, Axis Bank executive director Rajesh Dahiya had said.

Earlier this week, the Enforcement Directorate arrested two Axis Bank managers in New Delhi and seized 3 kg gold bars in connection with its money laundering probe in a racket of illegally converting old notes in connivance with banking authorities.

The agency's probe till now, after it registered a criminal complaint under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on 30 November, found that huge monies were transferred through RTGS transfers to some shell companies including a case where the Director of such a firm was a "petty labourer."

The agency identified the two managers as Shobit Sinha and Vineet Gupta, working at Axis bank's Kashmere Gate branch, and said they were arrested late yesterday under the provisions of PMLA.

The case was first detected by the Delhi Police after it intercepted three people with cash of about Rs 3.7 crore in old notes, in front of the said Axis Bank branch last month, and the ED took cognisance of the police FIR to slap money laundering charges against the accused.

The Income Tax department too had carried out its action in this case and had surveyed the bank branch and later searched the residential premises of the duo.

With PTI inputs
Bhind (MP): A young IPS officer was attacked allegedly by liquor barons, including supporters of former BJP MLA Narendra Singh, in Bhind district when he tried to check illegal sale of liquor on the day when another promising officer was crushed to death allegedly by the mining mafia.

The alleged incident occured yesterday when some liquor shops located on the Etawah and Lahar Road were selling liquor illegally despite the administration declaring a 'dry day' (prohibiting sale of liquor) on the occasion of Holi, police

said today.

When this was brought to the notice of IPS officer Jaidevan, posted as Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) in Bhind, he immediately rushed to the spot along with the police force and questioned them, police sources said.

However, members belonging to the liquor mafia attacked them with lathis and by pelting stones forcing police to

retreat from the spot, police said, adding that no one was injured in the incident.

A case was registered in this regard against Narendra Singh, his seven supporters, and 18 other unidentified persons. So far, no arrests have been made in this regard, the sources said.

Bhind Collector Akhilesh Shrivastava has issued a showcause notice to the district excise officer A Rangshahi for failing to prevent sale of illegal liquor.

Yesterday, Narendra Kumar Singh, a young IPS officer, was crushed to death under the wheels of a tractor-trolley allegedly by a member of the mining mafia when he tried to stop the vehicle carrying stones at Banmore in Morena district of Madhya Pradesh.

PTI
By Devika Krishna Kumar

| NEW YORK

NEW YORK Oil prices rose about 1 percent on Friday, trading within a narrow range, on hopes that non-OPEC producers meeting in Vienna over the weekend would agree to cut output to bolster the group's own agreement to limit production.Both Brent and U.S crude futures, however, were on track for their first weekly loss in four weeks. A strong U.S. dollar .DXY that makes greenback-denominated crude more expensive to many buyers, pressured oil, keeping both benchmarks nearly 2 percent below the highs reached late last month after the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) announced plans to cut production. [USD/]On Saturday, OPEC oil ministers will meet non-OPEC producers in Vienna to seek help in curbing a global glut.The price gains were slightly pared after data showed U.S. energy companies this week added 21 oil drilling rigs, the biggest weekly increase since July 2015. [RIG/U]U.S. crude's West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures CLc1 rose 63 cents to $51.47 a barrel, a 1.2 percent gain by 1:44 p.m. EST (1844 GMT), trading narrowly between $50.86 and $51.66

Brent crude LCOc1 futures rose 30 cents to $54.19 a barrel, a 0.6 percent gain, after dealing between $53.77 and $54.46.Many market watchers questioned how willing non-OPEC countries could be to cut output. Russia has said it would cut 300,000 barrels per day, meaning other non-OPEC producers combined would need to pledge the same amount to lower output by the 600,000 bpd OPEC wants. Russia's No.2 oil producer Lukoil said it was ready to take part in output cuts.Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan have also expressed willingness to cut output.

Russia plans to hold more talks on Friday with some OPEC and non-OPEC nations about unresolved issues, two Russian sources told Reuters. However, Energy Minister Alexander Novak said there would be no oil talks with OPEC on Friday night."We see event odds as skewing towards a slightly positive price impact," Macquarie Research analysts said in a note."That said, we believe a status quo outcome that keeps the November deal intact is the most probable scenario and hinges on a repeated commitment from Russia (300,000 bpd). In addition to potential cuts from Oman, this scenario could also include softer commitments due to natural declines (e.g. Mexico) or other less credible cuts."

Mexico could contribute as much as 150,000 bpd to the non-OPEC oil cuts, a source told Reuters.OPEC last week agreed to slash production by 1.2 million bpd in the first half of 2017. Saudi Arabia and Iraq plan to supply full contracted volumes of crude to Asia in January, in an effort to retain market share in Asia, but Saudi Arabia ordered supply cuts to U.S. and European buyers. (Additional reporting by Libby George in London, Osamu Tsukimori; in Tokyo; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Adrian Croft)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
By Neil Jerome Morales and Karen Lema

| MANILA

MANILA When Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, the man dubbed "Trump of the East", told U.S. businesses to pack their bags if they didn't like his anti-American rhetoric, the huge and growing outsourcing industry got a little nervous.It's now the real Donald Trump who has businesses worried here, after the U.S. president-elect vowed to bring offshored jobs home from places such as the Philippines, a big provider of back-office services for corporate America.The Southeast Asian country accounts for 12.6 percent of the global market for business-process outsourcing (BPO), which has been growing 10 percent a year for the past decade, according to the IT & Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP). The industry body predicts the BPO industry could be adding 100,000 jobs annually with earning revenues of $38.9 billion by 2022, although global outsourcing consultants believe that could even reach $48 billion within four years.Three-quarters of the $23 billion sector services U.S. firms."It's a U.S.-centric business," said Manuel Pangilinan, president of PLDT (TEL.PS), which provides telecoms for the sector. "To the extent that Trump compels, persuades or incentivises the BPO businesses to return ... it will impact our business or the industry as a whole."It's going to be a tough one, not only for us, but for the economy as a whole."TRUMP TWEETS

In a string of tweets on Sunday, Trump threatened "retribution or consequences" for companies that move operations out of the country, as well as a 35 percent tariff on their goods sold back to the United States.That could leave the Philippines exposed, with companies such as Citibank, JPMorgan (JPM.N), Verizon (VZ.N), Convergys (CVG.N), Genpact (G.N) and Sutherland Global Services key to jobs that were forecast to increase to 1.8 million full-time Filipinos by 2022.It's not just companies in the Philippines that are worried. Anticipating a more protectionist U.S. technology visa program under a Donald Trump administration, India's $150 billion IT services sector will speed up acquisitions in the United States, industry sources there say. Companies also plan to recruit more heavily from college campuses, expecting the Trump administration to tighten up on temporary visas for India's high-tech workers.

WAIT AND SEE

Philippine businesses and BPO firms that spoke to Reuters said some trade delegations had deferred visits and potential foreign investors in the industry were taking longer with their due-diligence procedures. And they were doing so even before Trump won the U.S. presidential election on Nov. 9.Duterte's volatility has drawn comparisons to Trump and his hostility towards Manila's long-time ally the United States has shocked investors and even his own cabinet.He told President Barack Obama to "go to hell" over the U.S. president's concern about Duterte's war on drugs, threatened to scrap U.S.-Philippines defense pacts, and in October announced before China's political elite his "separation" from the United States.That remark rattled some U.S. firms, said Juan Victor Hernandez, an IBPAP trustee, who told Reuters that four companies put their decisions on hold immediately. He declined to name them.Hernandez said uncertainties over Trump's policies affected potential investors rather than existing ones, such as JP Morgan, which is staying put. "So far, they are still hell-bent on the Philippines, number one," he added.

'PACK YOUR BAGS'

Philip Goldberg, who until recently was the U.S. ambassador in Manila, said he took more calls from investors in his last three months than during his whole tenure. All were about Duterte's anti-American vitriol."They are very nervous," Goldberg told news channel ANC. "They don't know what it means." While aware of those concerns about him, Duterte was defiant: "Go ahead. Pack your bags," he told reporters before flying to Japan in October. "We will sacrifice. We will recover." Julius Guevara, head of research at Colliers Philippines, said while U.S. investors were concerned about Duterte and Trump, firms that are already in the Philippines are unlikely to leave."If it's more profitable for them to continue having operations here in the Philippines, I don't think Trump can do anything about it," he said.

Charito Plaza, an ally of the president and director general of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority, said Duterte would ask Trump to be kind to U.S. firms looking at the Philippines.But it wasn't clear if Duterte did that when the two spoke last Friday. Duterte said he felt a rapport with Trump and "assured him of our ties".But the only policy issue Duterte mentioned afterwards was his drugs crackdown, which he said Trump understood.GROWTH DRIVER

Policy makers have been banking on BPO overtaking remittances as the mainstay of one of the world's fastest-growing economies.The BPO sector's recent growth plan said it wasn't Trump or Duterte that posed the biggest challenge to the industry but automation. The plan aims to boost mid- to high-skilled labor from 53 percent of the workforce to 73 percent by 2022 to meet that challenge. That would push annual incomes from $19,100 to $21,600 with jobs that diversify beyond voice services andfocus on higher-value IT support. Economic planning minister, Ernesto Pernia, told Reuters he was optimistic the Philippines' competitive costs and services would insulate its BPO sector from Trump, and the BPO jobs that Filipinos do might not appeal to Americans.Duterte's talk shouldn't be taken too seriously, either, Pernia said."I think investors should listen to the economic planners and not the president," he said. (Writing and additional reporting by Martin Petty; Editing by Bill Tarrant)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
By Rania El Gamal and Alex Lawler

| VIENNA

VIENNA Saudi Arabia has told its U.S. and European customers it will reduce oil deliveries from January as Russia signaled that a commitment from non-OPEC producers to join OPEC's output limits still faced challenges. Saudi Arabia told the customers about lower supplies in line with the output reduction agreed by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries last week, according to a Gulf oil industry source familiar with Saudi oil policy."We told our customers of the allocations and the compliance with allocations (for the cuts) for Saudi Arabia is 100 percent," the source said. He said cuts to Asian refiners would be lower than those to Europe, the United States and to major oil companies. "We are cutting more in the U.S. because the inventories ... are very high," the source said.OPEC will meet non-OPEC producing countries in Vienna on Saturday, hoping non-OPEC will commit to cutting 600,000 barrels per day after its own members agreed to cut 1.2 million bpd last week.OPEC sources said nine non-OPEC countries were set to join the meeting: Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Oman, Mexico, Russia, Sudan, South Sudan, Bahrain and Malaysia. Bolivia may also attend the talks, according to an OPEC source. So far only Russia and Oman have pledged cuts, with one OPEC source saying Mexico could also contribute. In contrast, Kazakhstan plans to boost output in 2017 as it launches the long-delayed Kashagan project.Russia is expected to shoulder half of the non-OPEC cut, but on Friday Moscow signaled there were snags that needed to be addressed before a deal could be reached.

"Russia sees risks ahead of the deal if questions are not resolved," a Russian government source told Reuters."One hundred percent compliance is critical for the deal ... It's essential for non-OPEC to have a responsible approach towards the deal," the source said, adding there was also concern about rising OPEC supplies.OPEC's second largest producer Iraq has notified U.S. and European buyers of its crude about planned cuts, according to an industry source familiar with the matter. State-run Kuwait Petroleum Corp (KPC) said it planned to notify its international crude customers soon about reductions to their allocations.

Iraq and Kuwait have committed to cuts to their oil outputs of 210,000 bpd and 131,000 bpd respectively under the OPEC deal.NO CUTS FOR ASIA

Sources at eight refiners in Asia told Reuters they had been notified by state oil giant Saudi Aramco that in January it was set to supply full crude amounts. Of those eight, three refiners said they would load extra volumes they had requested. The sources declined to be identified as they were not authorized to speak to the media.

"It's quite telling as there are not only no supply cuts, but they have given extra volumes," one of the sources said, indicating that the move underscored that producers were eager to maintain market share in Asia.Some of the extra volumes were committed before the OPEC meeting on Nov. 30, when output cuts were agreed."It seems that Saudis do not trust Mr. Sechin after his mockings back in 2008/2009 as he repeatedly promised and disappointed them on cuts," Commerzbank analyst Eugen Weinberg told the Reuters Global Oil Forum, referring to Igor Sechin, the CEO of top Russian oil producer Rosneft. (ROSN.MM)"I see the Saudi strategy for January deliveries to Asia as a confirmation of this distrust."Sechin has long been a harsh critic of cooperation with OPEC. However, Sechin has kept a low profile recently and this week agreed to sell a stake in Rosneft to a consortium of commodities trader Glencore and Qatar - a key ally of Saudi Arabia in OPEC. (Additional reporting by Florence Tan in Singapore, Osamu Tsukimori in Tokyo, Jane Chung in Seoul, Ron Bousso in London. Writing by Ahmad Ghaddar and Dmitry Zhdannikov; Editing by Adrian Croft and David Evans)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
By David Lawder

| WASHINGTON

WASHINGTON President-elect Donald Trump is stacking his trade transition team with veterans of the U.S. steel industry's battles with China, signaling a potentially more aggressive approach to U.S. complaints of unfair Chinese subsidies for its exports and barriers to imports.Led by Wilbur Ross, a billionaire steel investor and Trump's nominee for commerce secretary, Dan DiMicco, the former CEO of steelmaker Nucor Corp (NUE.N), and three veteran steel trade lawyers, the team is expected to help shift the U.S. trade focus more heavily toward enforcement actions aimed at bringing down a chronic U.S. trade deficit, Washington trade experts said. Based on their past efforts, this could include more challenges to China's trade practices through the World Trade Organization and more U.S. government-initiated anti-dumping and anti-subsidy cases against a wider range of Chinese products. The latter would be argued before the U.S. International Trade Commission - a forum where the steel industry has had considerable success.Ross, DiMicco and other leaders of Big Steel have been on the front-line battles against the world's export superpower.Hit by a flood of cheap imports from China and other countries, the U.S. steel industry has brought 16 new cases in the past three years, seeking punitive duties from the Commerce Department to combat below-cost dumping and unfair subsidies that slashed prices of various steel products to historic lows last year, causing layoffs at U.S. steel mills. (See graphic tmsnrt.rs/2gUFGAf)Some of these cases have resulted in massive penalties against Chinese imports, including duties of more than 500 percent on Chinese cold-rolled steel used in autos and appliances. Lawyers Robert Lighthizer and Jeffrey Gerrish have represented United States Steel (X.N) and Stephen Vaughn has represented AK Steel (AKS.N) in these cases. The three are also part of Trump's trade team.Lighthizer, Gerrish, Vaughn, Ross and DiMicco either declined to comment for this story or did not respond to Reuters' requests for interviews.Trade experts familiar with their views and their history of confrontation with China, however, say they will not be afraid to push the limits of what is legal under World Trade Organization rules in defense of U.S. trade interests. Lighthizer, who along with DiMicco is considered a strong candidate to be the new U.S. Trade Representative, is known for his work during the Reagan administration pressuring Japan into voluntary export restraints.

PUSHING WTO LIMITS

"Bob Lighthizer is very smart, very strategic and totally fearless," said a Washington attorney who has worked with him for three decades and asked not to be named because Trump's USTR selection process was still under way. "If he's in charge you can expect him to use every tool available to create leverage to get China and anyone else to stop the cheating. He is no fan of the WTO."Lighthizer told a congressional panel in 2010 that the WTO's dispute resolution system was ineffective and that the United States "should consider aggressive interpretations of WTO provisions that might help us deal with Chinese mercantilism."

Such tactics could include imposing temporary import quotas and surcharges and factoring in the effect of currency manipulation into U.S. anti-dumping duties, he said.Ross, who advised Trump's presidential campaign on economic issues, has signaled he will use access to the lucrative U.S. consumer market as leverage to negotiate better trade terms. The United States is China's biggest export market.During his presidential campaign, Trump vowed to levy a punitive 45-percent tariff on Chinese goods and label Beijing a currency manipulator. It is not clear though whether he will follow through on those threats once he takes office.Ross told CNN last week that Trump will not be "willy nilly slapping a 45 percent tariff on everything," but will maintain the threat of tariffs as part of negotiations.If DiMicco is named head of USTR, his personal blog gives some indication of how he would approach China. He has accused China of waging a "mercantilist trade war" on the United States for two decades, through currency manipulation, unfair subsidies and intellectual property theft.

On the issue of currency manipulation, many economists disagree, saying Beijing is no longer keeping its yuan artificially undervalued to make its exports cheap, citing the hundreds of billions of dollars in reserves it has spent to prop up the yuan's value this year.A key question for Trump's trade team is how far they can push China to change its trade practices without provoking a trade war that will hurt both countries."If what they plan to do is get a little scratchier with China on enforcement within the existing WTO rules, that's OK," said Scott Miller, a China trade expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "But if they go outside those guardrails, it will be unpleasant because that will draw retaliation." He Weiwen, vice president at the Center for China and Globalization, a government-affiliated think-tank in Beijing, said any punitive action against China by the Trump administration would invite a retaliatory response."We will certainly respond in the same way," he said, adding that Washington and Beijing "should find good solutions that are acceptable to both and not go to extremes. It will hurt both."Chinese state media have warned that any new tariffs imposed by Trump would lead to retaliation against Boeing (BA.N) aircraft, Apple (AAPL.O) iPhones and U.S. corn and soybeans. (Additional reporting by Michael Martina in Beijing; Editing by David Chance and Ross Colvin)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
CBI's arguments in Patiala court

According to CNN- News 18, these are the CBI's arguments in Patiala House court when SP Tyagi and the two others were produced over the AgustaWestland scam.

- Criteria of 6,000 ft was to fly in areas like Ladakh

- In 2005 when SP Tyagi took over, Agusta did not even have choppers for demonstration

- NSA in 2005 had also opposed single vendor system for procurement

- Minimum flying ceiling became 4,500 ft after Tyagi took over as Indian Air Force chief

- In 2004, IAF had remained firm on 6,000 ft ceiling

- Agusta was ruled out because of ceiling constraints

- A French company was fulfilling criteria of 6,000 ft ceiling

- Searches in Switzerland showed incriminating evidence

- Custody required to confront accused, retrieve bribe money

- Sufficient evidence of bribe being paid to SP Tyagi, others

- SP Tyagi met AgustaWestland officials in private

- Gautam Khaitan routed bribe money from Agusta to India

- SP Tyagi purchased huge agricultural land when he was IAF chief

- SP Tyagi never declared land purchases to any aithorities

- Tyagi has failed to give explanation to give source of the money for land procurement

The CBI is asking for custody because they have certain incriminating evidence against the accused which they cannot reveal now. CNN-News18 reports that evidence from Mauritius and Italy has startling details.
New Delhi: In a sudden and first of its kind action, the CBI arrested former Air Force Chief SP Tyagi, his cousin Sanjeev, and a lawyer in the sensational Rs 450 crore bribery case in the procurement of 12 VVIP helicopters from UK-based AgustaWestland during the UPA-2 government.

Tyagi, 71, who retired in 2007, was called for questioning at CBI headquarters along with his cousin and Chandigarh-based lawyer Gautam Khaitan, who were taken into custody after nearly four hours of grilling, CBI sources said.

These are the first arrests in the case by CBI, three years after it registered an FIR in 2013 to probe the allegations in the aftermath of the details of the scam emerging in Italy where the prosecutors levelled allegations of corruption in the deal against the chief of Finmeccanica, the parent company of AgustaWestland.

In a statement in the evening, CBI spokesperson Devpreet Singh said, "It was alleged that Chief of Air Staff (CAS) entered into a criminal conspiracy with other accused persons, and in 2005, conceded to change IAF's consistent stand that service ceiling of VVIP helicopters at 6,000 metres was an inescapable operational necessity and reduced the same to 4,500 meters."

She said such changes in operational requirements (ORs) made the private company based at the UK (AgustaWestland), eligible to participate in the Request for Proposal for VVIP helicopters. "It was revealed during investigation that such undue favours were allegedly shown to said UK-based private company by accepting illegal gratification from the accused vendors through middlemen/relatives including his cousin and an advocate etc. who accepted the illegal gratification for exercising influence through illegal means, or using personal influence over the concerned public servants," CBI spokepserson said.

Singh said the arrested accused persons will be produced before the competent court on Saturday, where their remand would be sought. In media interviews during the last three years, Tyagi and his cousin had strongly denied having taken any bribes to influence the deal.

Rejecting the allegations, Tyagi had said the change of specifications, which brought AgustaWestland into contention, was a collective decision in which senior officers of Indian Air Force, SPG and other departments were involved. CBI had claimed that Khaitan accepted having taken money from European middlemen Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa but insisted it was not kickbacks to influence the deal.
New Delhi: On Friday, the Supreme Court upheld the maintainability of appeals filed by Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala against the 2007 award of the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal (CWDT) on sharing the river water.

A three-judge bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra said that all the appeals filed by the southern states against the Tribunal's award are maintainable, though the Centre had asserted that the apex court had no jurisdiction to hear appeals against the award of the tribunal.

"We hold all the appeals maintainable. Interim order to continue. List the matter for further hearing on 15 December," a bench also comprising justices Amitava Roy amd A M Khanwilkar.

On 18 October, the apex court had directed Karnataka to keep supplying Tamil Nadu with 2,000 cusecs of water till

further orders.

The bench had also said it would first go into the issue of maintainability of appeals filed by Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala against the award of tribunal and then hear arguments on the report filed by the Supervisory Committee formed to assess the ground realities in the Cauvery basin region.

The Centre, through Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, had raised a preliminary objection claiming that the CWDT award amounted to a final decree in the dispute and the apex court had no jurisdiction to hear appeals against the award of the tribunal.

But the states had contended that their appeals were maintainable saying the Supreme Court had the jurisdiction to adjudicate the appeals filed by the state against the award of tribunal and that no statute can take away the appellate powers of the apex court under Article 136 of Constitution.

However, Puducherry supported the stand of the Centre that the appeals filed by Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala are not maintainable.

Earlier, Rohatgi had argued that Supreme Court had no jurisdiction to adjudicate the appeals pertaining to the dispute relating to use, distribution and control of inter-state water or river valley.

The attorney general had said as per the constitutional provisions, the inter-state water dispute tribunal is headed by a retired Supreme Court or High Court judge and its decree has a force like that of a decree of the Supreme Court and thus the apex court cannot hear the appeals against its own order.

The apex court-appointed panel had in its recent report suggested doing away with "outdated and unscientific water application techniques" to resolve the wrangle, saying both Karnataka and Tamil Nadu were facing water shortage which had created unemployment and financial hardship for the people.

It had said the neighbouring riparian states needed to appreciate interest of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry to protect their established irrigation and Karnataka's aspirations for development and educate their people accordingly.

The panel in its 40-page report had noted that farmers in both states were in severe distress and adequate crop compensation must be provided to them.

The Supreme Court had on 4 October directed Karnataka to release 2,000 cusecs Cauvery water every day to Tamil Nadu from 7 to 18 October and deferred its order asking the Centre to set up Cauvery Water Management Board (CWMB) till it finally decided on appeals relating to the age-old dispute. On Thursday, it had directed Karnataka to continue to supply Tamil Nadu with 2,000 cusecs of water till further orders.

The apex court had also directed the Centre to establish the CWMB, saying once it was constituted, its team would visit the sites to take a prima facie view of the ground reality and submit a report.

On 1 October, Karnataka had moved a review petition in the apex court against its three orders on Cauvery water release to Tamil Nadu and direction to the Centre to create the CWMB.

In its review petition, Karnataka said "grave miscarriage of justice" has been caused to it pursuant to the three apex court orders of 20, 27 and 30 September, by which it was directed to release 6000 cusecs of water till 6 October and the Centre was to constitute the Board by 4 October.
Follow live updates of Cyclone Vardah here

Port Blair: With the deep depression over Southeast Bay of Bengal intensifying into cyclonic storm "Vardah", the Andaman and Nicobar administration on Thursday requested the Defence Ministry to provide air sorties to expedite the movement of tourists trapped in the islands and ensure essential supplies.

Approximately 1000 tourists are stranded due to bad weather out which 320 are foreign nationals: Jagdish Mukhi,Andaman Governor to ANI  ANI (@ANI_news) December 9, 2016

In view of the inconvenience faced by the tourists who are held up in Havelock and Neil Islands mainly due to inclement weather, Andaman and Nicobar Lt Governor Jagdish Mukhi has directed all hotel owners in the two islands to provide accommodation and food to the stranded tourists free of charge for the period of extended stay both as a humanitarian gesture and as part of Corporate Social Responsibility.

According to ANI, Mukhi said that approximately 1,000 tourists are stranded due to bad weather, out of which 320 are foreign nationals by Friday morning. The agency had reported the number of stranded tourists to be around 1,400 on Wednesday.

Rescue halted in Havelock Island

Meanwhile, as we reported on Thursday, the four ships despatched by the Indian Navy for rescuing the 800 trapped tourists in Havelock Island were waiting outside the harbour, unable to start the operation due to inclement weather.

"The ships will hold position and return only after picking up the tourists," said a Defence Ministry spokesperson in Kolkata.

On Thursday, Mukhi held a detailed meeting with the administrative officials and other stakeholders including tour operators' association, hotel owners and directed the Directorate of Shipping Services to make all possible efforts to send boats to Havelock and Neil Islands once the sea conditions improved.

The administration has also asked the tour operators not to take any tourist towards North and Middle Andaman as a precautionary measure, till the weather improved.

The Directorate of Tourism is coordinating with all airline agencies for the smooth and timely return journey of the tourists to their respective hometowns, a release from the Andaman and Nicobar administration said.

High rainfall expected

However, the MET Office has forecast heavy rainfall and wind at a speed of 45-55 kilometres per hour during the next 24 hours. The tourists have been advised to stay in their rooms and stay away from coastal areas until further notice.

The cyclonic weather witnessed in the Islands since Tuesday has resulted in the uprooting of trees, disruption of the power supply and flooding of some of the low-lying areas. However, there is no report of any loss of life, from any parts of the Islands so far.

All the Emergency Operation Centres across the islands are functioning round the clock and are on high alert. The situation is being monitored at the highest levels round the clock.

Cyclone Vardah to hit Andhra Pradesh by 12 December

According to a press release issued by India Meteorological Department on Thursday at 2 pm, Cyclone Vardah "is very likely to move nearly northwards for some more time, then northwestwards and cross Andhra Pradesh coast between Nellore and Kakinada around forenoon or noon of 12 December 2016." However, there is a possibility of slight weakening of the system before landfall, it said.

CS VARDAH about 250 km west-northwest of Port Blair. To cross Andhra Pradesh coast on 12th Dec. by evening. Visit https://t.co/wRl94BzRXr pic.twitter.com/V7HbWOvUVN  India Met. Dept. (@Indiametdept) December 9, 2016

The IMD release also advised fishermen not to venture into sea along and off Andhra Pradesh coast from 10 December onwards. Meanwhile, N Chandrababu Naidu, chief minister of Andhra Pradesh requested all citizens on Twitter to remain indoors.

As Cyclone #Vardah may bring heavy rains to AP, I appeal to people of coastal districts to stay safe. We're monitoring the situation.  N Chandrababu Naidu (@ncbn) December 9, 2016

The IMD release also warned light to moderate rainfall at many places with isolated heavy falls over coastal Andhra Pradesh from 11 December evening, and warned fishermen not to venture into sea along and off the Andaman Islands and adjoining sea areas during next 24 hrs and Nicobar Islands and adjoining sea areas during next 12 hrs.

With Agency inputs
A WhatsApp message that I received today questions the logic behind demonetisation in a cheeky sort of way. It reads:

"Economists who have supported present demonetisation: Amitabh Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, Ajay Devgn, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Baba Ramdev, Virendra Sehwag (sic), Virat Kohli. Economists who have openly opposed and criticized #demonetisation till now: 1. Larry Summers, Amartya Sen, Meera Sanyal, Raghuram Rajan, Manmohan Singh" and so forth.

While juxtaposing the views of noted economists with achievers in other fields who may not be proficient in economic theories, the argument tries to colour the very idea of demonetisation as foolish. Problem is, the author weakens the case by providing partial information. Just as some economists have opposed demonetisation, many noted economists have backed it too. Therefore, by giving us partial information, the argument taps into the grey area between truth and falsehood with plausible deniability as an exit route.

This is also the dominating impression that emerges by reading Manmohan Singh's much-discussed column in Friday's edition of The Hindu. Ever since his retirement from public life, Singh has undergone a curious transformation from a weak premiere to an outspoken, bold interventionist. After sleepwalking through his 10-year term as prime minister when he remitted power to his party boss in a stunning act of bad faith, the erudite economist these days is used by the Congress more as a moral tool to beat the present government with.

But the problem with this strategy is that though Singh has never been personally charged with making money for himself, his turning of a blind eye to the corruption scandal blazing all around him while occupying the highest seat of power weakens considerably his moral authority as an occupant of exalted preaching pulpit. Also, as this columnist has argued before, Singh has frequently let his political compulsions interfere with the objectivity of his assessment as an economist.

It is with some degree of curiosity that one went through Singh's article to find if there were any new points in addition to the speech he had recently delivered in Rajya Sabha where he termed demonetisation as "organised loot and legalised plunder."

Unfortunately, while the rhetoric quotient of Singh's column remains high, he fails to furnish any convincing arguments against the currency ban. If, as he claims, the idea is a "mammoth tragedy" and a right, royal mess, the Cambridge-trained economist never dips into his famed erudition to present doable solutions.

Aside of the doomsday prophecy, Singh paints a sorry picture of India's poverty, the plight of informal economy and the helplessness of the unbanked which ironically is the most scathing critique yet of his own incompetence as a policymaker and holder of public office with over four decades of experience.

Singh has never been given credit for his writing skills but he does a Mark Antony in his column. Taking a cue perhaps from Antony's 'Brutus is an honorable man', Singh stresses on "the need to tackle black money" too frequently to punch a hole in the intention behind Narendra Modi's drive. Amid all the chicanery and figures of speech, two broad points emerge from Singh's editorial. One, the breakdown of trust between the government and the people due to the sudden decommissioning of notes and two, the hardships that the populace has been subjected to.

"In one impetuous decision," writes Manmohan Singh, "the Prime Minister has shattered the faith and confidence that hundreds of millions of Indians had reposed in the Government of India to protect them and their money."

There can be no denying that Modi's move has come as a rude jolt and the point that demonetisation may erode the trust in paper money issued by a sovereign nation is well-taken.

As has been noted, the populace, despite hardships, has been by and large rallying behind the government. Their trust in Modi's purpose remains intact. Whether or not black money will be eradicated is for economists to argue and taxmen to calculate. The moot point, however, is that people still believe in Modi's intention. BJP's recent by-poll victories  voting for which took place well into the implementation of currency ban  in Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and sweeping wins in Maharashtra and Gujarat civic polls would indicate that the electorate has largely sanctioned the process, howsoever inconvenient.

However, when it comes to trust between the government and the citizens, Manmohan Singh should know that he was voted out of office because his government lacked the very trust that he now talks of. People may or may not be behind demonetisation but they were most definitely not behind the tsunami of scams that unfolded before their eyes during UPA 2 and they spoke by throwing the Congress out of power.

As far as the suffering of the poor is concerned, venerated economist Singh should know what is it that hurts the poor the most. It is corruption and Singh's government was neck-deep in it.

Was the trust of the poor not shattered and confidence of millions not eroded when 2G, CoalGate, Adarsh Housing Society scandal, chopper scam, RailGate, banking sector scam, CWG scam exploded into public consciousness one after the other? Can Singh absolve himself of all responsibility? Does he not bear still the albatross of dishing out a corrupted government around his neck that made and kept people poor?

In a research paper written this year on institutional corruption and how it exploits the poor, Murali Patibandla of Indian Institute of Management Bangalore writes about institutional corruption (as) a situation where influences within an economy of influence tend to weaken the effectiveness of an institution, especially by weakening public trust of the institution. In India's case, the UPA's rule from 2004 to 2014 presented large-scale corruption on several fronts. One can observe qualitatively that the public lost trust in the government... ********(italics mine)******* The coal blocks allocations was one of the biggest corruption scandals in India under the UPA rule from 2004-14. Even the Prime Minister's office was accused of corruption in the allocation of coal blocks to powerful business men and groups. The central government of the UPA regime allocated coal blocks to powerful business men at prices far below their opportunity cost. The CAG showed the magnitude of loss to the exchequer."

As a celebrated economist, Singh, more than any other commentator, would know how "public lost trust in the government" because it saw the UPA 2 as a government of the crony capitalists, by the crony capitalists and for the crony capitalists. It is interesting and a little ironic that the man who headed this corrupted government now talks of erosion of trust between government and the people and tries to lecture the incumbent on it.

According to Transparency International's Global Corruption Barometer, "corruption hits poor people hardest  with devastating consequences. A bribe demanded by a police officer may mean that a family cant afford school fees or even food to eat. Corruption also means that the services people depend on  from drinking water to health clinics  suffer. They are often are of a low quality or not sufficient to meet societys most basic needs. Corruption siphons off monies needed to improve them while also distorting policy decisions, such as where roads and schools are built."

Singh appears to admit that Indian economy is too dependent on cash but just as the WhatsApp message quoted in the beginning of the piece, suffers from errors of omission, never explaining that too much cash in an economy makes it easier to generate black wealth.

He writes: "It is indeed true that Indias cash to GDP ratio is very high vis-a-vis other nations. But this is also an indicator of the Indian economys dependence on cash. Consumer confidence is an important economic variable in a nations growth prospects. It is now evident that this sudden overnight ban on currency has dented the confidence of hundreds of millions of Indian consumers, which can have severe economic ramifications."

In an article published in January last year, Times of India details how Indians' love for cash is placing a heavy burden on the economy. "The RBI and commercial banks annually spend around Rs 21,000 crore ($3.5 billion) in currency operations costs while citizens of Delhi alone spend Rs 9.1 crore and 60 lakh hours in collecting cash. The scale of this burden is unique to India considering that it is among the most cash-intensive economies in the world with a cash-to-GDP ratio of 12%, almost four times as much as other markets such as Brazil (3.93%), Mexico (5.3%) and South Africa (3.73%)."

And what is the cost incurred? According to the article, "There are many reasons why India has to pay such a high price. One is the need to frequently reissue notes due to poor handling  low-value notes have to be replaced in less than a year. The other reason is the need to frequently upgrade security features and replace old notes. There is a huge cost in pulling old notes out of circulation and replacing them. India also has unique issues in logistics and in some places the currency notes have to be transported by helicopter."

It is indeed staggering that Singh, who as chief economic adviser to the government, RBI governor, chairman of Planning Commission, Union finance minister and finally as the prime minister of India for two terms failed miserably to bring the unbanked into the banking net and adopt more of the informal economy into the formal sector. He is correct in pointing out that these sectors have been hit hardest. But Singh fails to mention that what he failed to achieve in his various roles in public office for over four decades, Modi has done in less than four years.

In just over two and a half years, over 25 crore Indians have been brought into the banking net and now receive government subsidies directly into their account. There can be many mistakes in the implementation of demonetisation, but it is a truism that the only person who makes mistakes is the one who tried. Modi tried, maybe failed, maybe succeeded. The jury is still out. But Manmohan Singh did not even try. He would be well advised to maintain his silence.
Three people were killed and many are still feared trapped under the debris after a multi-storied, under construction building collapsed in Hyderabad on Thursday night.

According to a report by ANI, one accused has been arrested by the police and search for the other accused is underway.

The incident occurred in Nanakramguda, an information technology suburb under the limits of Hyberabad police commissionerate limits.

Hyderabad building collapse UPDATE: Death toll rises to five after one more body was recovered #Nanakramguda  ANI (@ANI_news) December 9, 2016

1 lady & 1 child rescued alive, 2 teams working. As of now 8 more are trapped inside: RK Pachnanda DG, NDRF on Hyderabad building collapse pic.twitter.com/gX8Kl8bB0O  ANI (@ANI_news) December 9, 2016

#UPDATE Hyderabad building collapse: 1 accused arrested, Police looking for another accused who is absconding.  ANI (@ANI_news) December 9, 2016

Seven storey building collapses in Nanakramguda area of Hyderabad. More details awaited pic.twitter.com/n0uDQxYW0G  ANI (@ANI_news) December 8, 2016

Police said a seven-storied building collapsed. Construction workers and their families who were asleep were trapped under the rubble.

Police and fire brigade personnel launched rescue operation. National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams also joined the rescue work.

Rescue workers pulled out 12 people from the rubble and shifted them to a nearby hospital.

Cyberabad Police Commissioner Sandeep Shandilya said 15 to 20 people could be trapped under the debris.

About 10 families, mostly labourers, were living in the premises of the building, according to Hyderabad Mayor B Rammohan.

Telangana Home Minister N Narsimha Reddy and several other leaders and officials rushed to the spot where rescue work is underway.

Reddy said violation of rules has been noticed in the construction of the building.

Telangana Home minister N Narshimha Reddy said different figures were being given on the number of persons trapped under the debris. "Nobody is saying exactly," he said.

State Excise Minister T Padma Rao said the number of persons trapped would be known only after the debris are removed.

"Unless the slabs are removed, we can not say responsibly. Six slabs have fallen on one another. Neither I nor you can say... It would be known only after the slabs are removed, how many workers are there.

"Some say six persons have died and some say seven died. Nobody knows how many were there and how many killed, but the truth would come out only after the slabs are lifted," he said.

The immediate priority right now is to remove the debris and ascertaining how many were trapped, he said.

The government would act tough against those responsible for this tragedy for any violation of rules, the Excise Minister said.

Expressing anguish on the collapse of the multi-storey building, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao directed ministers from the city to take care of the rescue and relief operation.

He also directed officials to take the help of NDRF personnel.

Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) Commissioner B Janardhan Reddy said no body had been recovered so far.

Efforts were on to remove the debris and the administrative machinery has been pressed into service, he said.

"At this stage, it is difficult to say the cause of the collapse," the Commissioner said.

With inputs from agencies
Kerrville, TX (78028)

Today

Cloudy skies early, followed by partial clearing. Slight chance of a rain shower. High 79F. Winds S at 15 to 25 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy skies during the evening followed by isolated thunderstorms overnight. Low 66F. Winds SSE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 40%.
The political row over the recent army drill at toll plazas in West Bengal flared up again on Friday, with Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar dashing off a stinging letter to Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, saying her allegations can "adversely" impact the morale of the force, and Banerjee hitting back over his "wild assertion".

In the two-page letter, Parrikar told her that he was "deeply pained" over the allegations regarding the deployment of army personnel and the same was not expected from a person of her standing and experience in public life. Parrikar said that while political parties and politicians may have the luxury of making "wild and unsubstantiated allegations against each other", one needs to be extremely careful while referring to the armed forces.

"Your allegations in this regard run the risk of adversely impacting the morale of the country's armed forces and the same were not expected from a person of your standing and experience in public life," he said.

Banerjee, who is a strident opponent of the Centre's demonetisation move, had accused it of deploying the army at toll plazas in West Bengal without informing the state government and described it as "unprecedented" and "a very serious situation, worse than Emergency".

The Trinamool Congress stayed put in her office in Kolkata overnight on 1 December in protest against the deployment and had asked whether it was an "army coup".

Terming it as "avoidable controversy" over the exercise carried out by the Eastern Command in West Bengal and other states under the jurisdiction to collect information about the movement of heavy vehicles at toll gates, Parrikar, in his letter dated 8 December, said it is carried out by all formations of the army all across the country for many years. He said the exercises are held as per the dates convenient to the army in consultation with agencies of the state government.

"I have been deeply pained by your allegations as reported in the media. If only you had enquired with the agencies concerned of the state government, you would have come to know of the extensive correspondence between the army and state agencies, including the joint inspection of sites carried out by them," Parrikar said.

Hitting back, Banerjee said, "I take strong exception to your wild assertion that my articulation of the rights of the state government vis-a-vis army deployment without clearance has impacted the morale of the armed forces. Your general observations about the political parties and politicians to have the luxury of making wild and unsubstantiated allegations may be apt for your party, but we do not belong to that group," she said in a two-page reply.

The chief minister also maintained that the Ministry of Defence has not taken prior permission of the state government for large deployment of army personnel in civilian areas. Parrikar said the army authorities were forced to put the record straight in the matter by presenting evidence of their communication with the state agencies concerned including rescheduling of the data collection operations on their response.

TMC MP Derek O' Brien charged the Centre with playing politics on the issue. "Look who is playing politics. The letter has not even reached the chief minister of Bengal and it has already been leaked in the media in Delhi," he said.
How does one honour the great Maratha warrior, Shivaji?

There are many ways than merely naming places after him. First, it was Victoria Terminus that was renamed in his honour and then the airports at Santa Cruz and Sahar. Now, they have decided to add the title of 'Maharaj' to the two transport hubs.

Merely renaming a building, road, landmark, travel hub etc is not enough. It never can be. There are better ways to commemorate the great founder of the Maratha empire, who sent chills down the collective spine of the Mughals. For instance, we could respect him by going by his ideals and his conduct.

A couple of years after his coronation, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj had written to a subedar of in Prabhavali, on how he wanted his administration to function:

Go from village to village. Conduct meetings with farmers and take stock of the prevailing situation. Determine if the farmers have the capability and human resources for cultivation of land. Those who have the capability and the manpower but do not have the necessary agricultural implements, bulls, or do not have adequate food grains for sustenance can be provided with funds to purchase two to three bulls and a few sacks of grains. Once the farmers attain a certain level of self-sufficiency, the principal the principal amount of funds given to them can be gradually recovered. In this effort, even if 2,00,000 lakh laris are spent, as long as wasteland is brought under cultivation, taxes increased and farmers made self-sufficient, such expenditure is acceptable to us. (Source: Maharashtra Human Development Report 2002)

The cited report interpreted it thus: Investment has to be made in the present for the future, welfare or the well-being of the people had to be the cornerstone of governance, create a new order sensitive to the needs of the common people. Latter day social reformers and political leaders drank at the fountain of his wisdom.

Apparently, the political leaders of back then are nothing like contemporary ones, who like to tilt at the windmills. Or use smoke and screens to build images. Or give a spin to just about everything and keep the citizen as the lowest priority. If you see how the state of Maharashtra has built up huge public debt and has the countrys largest share of farmer suicides, misgoverned cities and towns, and malnutritioned children in tribal areas, we know where the state stands.

Icons are remembered, cults are built, but their values are forgotten except for trite references to them in public speeches. Jyotiba Phule, BR Ambedkar, Sahu Maharaj are some of those. Theres a political purpose behind these. Instead of reaffirming even an intent to work as they did, the addition of 'Maharaj' is seen as politics: To win Maratha votes.

Back to the renaming of renamed places, let me use a quote  quite cliched, it comes from the great William Shakespeare: Whats in a name? from his Romeo and Juliet. This had come to my mind when the grand Victoria Terminus in Mumbai was rechristened Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus in 1996. It was done to honour the Maratha warrior.

Such renaming meant little, because even the most ardent devotee of Shivaji began to use it in its abbreviated form  CDT; just like he or she had with Victoria Terminus  VT. Both Victoria and Shivaji went into the background. So much for giving names of the greats, if they are to be reduced to two or three letters.

The renaming of Mumbais Sahar airport which served the city came about around the same time, and the Shiv Sena was leading the Maharashtra government. It may be recalled that the states capital had been also renamed Mumbai. To many a user, it is even now the Mumbai airport. Earlier, the domestic wing was known after the village in which it was situated, Santa Cruz.

Now, the honorific 'Maharaj' has been added to the names, making it more respectful. And cumbersome for use. CST becomes Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, or in its abbreviation, CSMT. Likewise, the airport. What this means is while commemorating Shivaji the first time around, Shiv Sena had fallen short. Now the BJP, in saddle, has added 'Maharaj', and the BJP was the Senas partner in power during 1995-99.

This is not the Sena and the BJPs predilection. In 2000, when the Sena-BJP was ousted from power and Congress-Nationalist Congress Party occupied the seats of power, they announced the Prince of Wales Museum's renaming. It recalled that a promise to pack of Prince of Wales into oblivion and bring in Shivaji with Maharaj included was made in 1993, when the Congress was at the helm.

What's in a name, indeed?
On Tuesday, Rahul Gandhi set a lot of tongues wagging in Tamil Nadu. His presence at the funeral of late chief minister J Jayalalithaa may have been a matter of courtesy and respect for a fellow politician, but what he did not do was of more significance.

The Gandhi scion did not visit Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) chief M Karunanidhi, who has been hospitalised since 1 December at the Kauvery Hospital in Chennai. The DMK and the Congress have been in an alliance since early 2016 when they joined hands to contest the state Assembly polls. Almost a month ago  on 8 October, Rahul had flown in to Chennai to visit Jayalalithaa when she was in hospital. He was not allowed to see her but doctors at the Apollo Hospital in Chennai briefed him about her health and the treatment being given to her. Then too, Rahul did not drop in on the DMK chief.

DMK leaders are seething with anger at the perceived insult. Rahul Gandhi has never really liked the DMK or our leader, said a senior DMK leader on condition of anonymity, He made a phone call to Kanimozhi (Rajya Sabha MP and Karunanidhis daughter) and enquired about our leaders health. But that is all for show. He was probably asked to do so by the local Congressmen. No leader in the DMK, contacted by Firstpost, wished to comment on record on this issue.

Congress leaders though brush aside any allegations of politics behind Gandhis seeming faux pas. He (Rahul) had a very tight schedule and did not have the time to meet the DMK leader, said senior Congressman Peter Alphonse while speaking to reporters on Thursday.

Cosying Up To The AIADMK?

Not only did Gandhi send out a clear signal to ally DMK, he also made a show of cosying up to the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) at Jayalalithaas funeral. Rahul, former minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, state Congress President Thirunavukkarasu and M Natarajan were seated side by side in the front row of the state funeral. Natarajan is the once estranged husband of Sasikala, confidante of Jayalalithaa  he now appears to be back in the limelight following Jayas demise. Sasikala, her husband Natarajan and her entire family, including brother VN Divakaran, nephews TTV Dhinakaran, TTV Sudhakaran, TTV Bhaskaran as well as sister-in-law Ilavarasi and her son Vivek were all seen standing prominently around Jayalalithaas body, as if to claim appropriation of her political legacy.

The intrigue deepens as more information emerges about goings on prior to Jayas demise on 6 December. It is well-known that state Congress chief Thirunavukkarasu and Natarajan are thick friends and also hail from the same Thevar caste, a dominant OBC caste in the southern districts of the state. Thirunavukkarasu was firmly in the Jayalalithaa faction in 1987 when the ruling party split into two factions  one favouring late chief minister MG Ramachandrans wife Janaki and the other rallying behind Jaya. In 1989, both factions merged and Jaya emerged as the supremo of the party.

Sources told Firstpost that a few days before Jayas demise, Congress Thirunavukkarasu and M Natarajan had a long meeting. At Jayalalithaas funeral subsequently, another strong signal was sent out in terms of the choice of seating of Congress leaders and Natarajan.

A senior AIADMK leader who did not wish to be named said that the party was going through a churn and no one really knew what was happening. There are a lot of problems within now, he said, The cadre and many of us do not want the Mannargudi family at the helm of the party. A power struggle is going on and the Congress is trying to take advantage of this, he said.

A few party workers to whom Firstpost spoke fumed at how Natarajan was treated by Rahul. This man could not have come anywhere near our Amma when she was alive and now he is sitting near Rahul and acting as if he owns the party, said these workers almost in unison, and asked, Who is he to do all this?

One theory behind Natarajan claiming access to the Congress high command is that caste ruptures are likely to erupt within the ruling party. Thevars, the caste to which Sasikala and Chief Minister O Panneerselvam belong, are seen as commanding more power within the party, while Gounders, a dominant caste in the western belt which the AIADMK swept this year, are now jostling for a share in power. In the power tussle between Thevars and Gounders, the AIADMK can afford to lose up to 25 MLAs out of the present 134, according to sources. In the event of a maximum of 25 unhappy MLAs walking out of the party, the AIADMK could hope to bank on the Congress nine MLAs to keep the government intact.

Another more credible theory is that the headless AIADMK is now being seen as easy pickings for national parties like the Congress and the BJP to make inroads into the southern state and act as a fresh alternative to the DMK.

The BJP is upping the pressure on the AIADMK now, said political analyst Aazhi Senthilnathan. In order to counter this, the AIADMK may be trying to show closeness to Congress. There is a need for the party to show that they are not at the mercy of the BJP or any single party. Natarajan is a man who has contacts in all parties - the BJP, the Congress and even within the DMK. This could be a move to balance things between the BJP and the Congress  it could be a signal to the BJP that they should not push the party too much. The AIADMK will keep its options open as far as the Congress and BJP is concerned, he said.

Notwithstanding the politicking with the two national parties, the AIADMK has enough problems of its own as it struggles to contain the emergence of a number of power centres who hitherto bowed in obeisance to Amma. Panneerselvam, Sasikala and the Mannargudi clan will face stressful days ahead in their fight for power with other leaders of the party. The party will have to hold its General Body meeting before 31 December in order to elect a new general secretary, a post thus far held first by MGR and later by Jayalalithaa. Who gets this plum post will determine which way the AIADMK will go in the near future.

The author tweets @sandhyaravishan
So far most Indians either laughed, mocked, ridiculed or ignored Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi's words while a relatively smaller number of people thought his anger was genuine and believed in his future day potential heard him patiently.

However, even hardcore Congress loyalists didn't foresee a situation where his spoken words inside Parliament would shake the earth, that too in the next few days, when the Winter Session of Parliament ends on 16 December.

The cynics, non-believers, and rationalists who don't believe that an ordinary mortal has the potential to shake the earth either by words or by physical action should take it firsthand from Rahul Gandhi. There is a message for the believers in Hindu mythology also, none of the Dashavtars had the power to shake the earth at will, that too by uttering a few words. If Rahul comes true to his words, then he would become a person who would be forever revered by a huge mass of people.

"If they allow me to speak in Parliament you will see what an earthquake will come," Rahul told media persons outside Parliament.

The magnitude of the threat that his words implied didn't dawn on those who heard it there and all over the country via television and digital means. The Parliament House or Sansad Bhawan built in 1927 is an old structure and there have been real apprehensions that this grand building is unsafe and it was about time for the Parliament of India to move to shift to a new and modern mega structure. Imagine a situation when an earthquake strikes India with Lok Sabha in Parliament House as the epicentre.

Pakistan should take note of Rahul's words. It could well be time for the neighbour to rejoice. It need not pamper and train terrorists, give undue importance to army and ISI, wage a proxy war against India, send terrorists to bomb innocent civilians, army, security establishments and in turn be a hate figure for India and most of the world. It should somehow manage to create a situation when Rahul could speak in Parliament before the first league of the current session ends. With Parliament House as an epicentre of a high-intensity earthquake, then one need not say, the implications would be unimaginable.

The brass in Pakistan should note that they clearly have four days before them. Parliament will now open on Wednesday and Rahul will have an opportunity to speak. But if Rahul fails to speak on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday for whatever reasons then Pakistan will have to ensure that his anger is sustained for another month-and-half, end of January when Parliament opens for the second round of Winter session.

But Rahul also has to play a role to make sure he causes an earthquake  order his party men and convince Trinamool Congress and CPM to let the debate on demonetisation start.

As for the Congress, it would ideally like him to shake the earth after the adoption of CWC recommendation of requesting his mother Sonia Gandhi to vacate her post of party president, which she currently occupies and anoint him to the Grand Old Party's throne. Even then the Congress would like that an earthquake of the nature Rahul wants never happens, for it would uproot all existing structures. The existing leadership can't claim immunity from the shaking tremors and devastation.

Or perhaps Rahul has the power and command to cause a kind of guided and controlled earthquake that has a devastating impact only for the ruling BJP and its leader Narendra Modi.

One could argue that Rahul's statement of causing an earthquake through a speech should not be taken in literal terms as in shaking of mother earth but go by its rationale  shake the ruling Modi regime in such a way that it is uprooted from power. Let's examine that potential.

The dedicated coterie to the Gandhi-Nehru family took Rahul's threat far too seriously and deserted Parliament House, perhaps rushing to their homes, in Delhi or in whatever far-flung states they belong to get their finest of dresses ready. They would surely like to save their lung power, regain their voices, be seen to be fresh, smartly dressed for the possible swearing-in when the change of regime happens after Rahul caused an earthquake and uprooted Modi's regime. Same was true for other opposition parties. Some ruling party MPs in Rajya Sabha perhaps thought it prudent to get away and discuss the possible future scenarios.

What else can explain only three Congress MPs were present in Rajya Sabha in the afternoon when it re-assembled on Friday, after Rahul's sound bite to the media. Thanks to the power of electronic and digital media that big breaking news on Rahul's claim had spread faster than wildfire. Lok Sabha was in any case adjourned till 11 am Wednesday. Without a quorum, at least 10 percent members total strength of the House (Article 100 of Indian Constitution) are to be present for the continuance of proceedings, the Chair after ringing the bell for three minutes quietly adjourned the House till 11 am Wednesday.

Rahul thinks that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is fearful of facing and his party MPs on the floor of the House because Congress vice-president's powerful oratory and substance of revealing that demonetisation was India's biggest ever scam.

All political parties in Parliament should make it possible for Rahul to speak. It is going to be an event, which every Indian would like to see  how an earthquake can happen and with what intensity. Modi government and the ruling BJP beware. The rest of the world would also be keenly watching the event to understand how the Congress party vice-president who till other day was considered listless suddenly acquired superhuman capacities, literal or otherwise.
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AMSTERDAM Police acting on a tip-off from the Dutch intelligence agency arrested a 30-year-old "terrorist" suspect and seized an arsenal of weapons in the port city of Rotterdam on Friday afternoon, prosecutors said.Detectives found a Kalashnikov AK-47 rifle, four boxes of illegal highly explosive fireworks, a large depiction of the Islamic State flag, several mobile phones and 1,600 euros in cash when they searched the suspect's apartment."He is suspected of preparing a terrorist crime," prosecutors said in a statement. Judges ordered the suspect remanded in custody.The Netherlands' terrorism threat level has been at one below the highest level since March 2013, meaning that officials believe there is a realistic chance of an attack.

As in many European countries, intelligence officials have repeatedly warned of the threat posed by Dutch citizens who have returned from fighting alongside the Islamic State militant group in Iraq and Syria.The investigation was "still in full progress," national prosecution spokesman Wim de Bruin said. "At this moment we have only one suspect," he said, adding that he could not rule out further arrests. He did not expect prosecutors to release further details on Friday.

After attacks by Islamist militants in France, Belgium and Germany, the Netherlands is considered a potential target, because it supports U.S.-led military operations against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

Europe's largest port, Rotterdam is home to a diverse and transient populations as well as to one of the Netherlands' largest Muslim communities. (Reporting By Thomas Escritt, Toby Sterling and Anthony Deutsch; editing by Ralph Boulton)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
By Gabriela Baczynska

| BRUSSELS

BRUSSELS Eastern European Union states remain at loggerheads with "frontline" countries such as Greece and Italy over sharing the burden of caring for asylum-seekers reaching EU frontiers, officials said on Friday.Largely uncontrolled arrival of some 1.4 million people from the Middle East and Africa in the past two years, many fleeing Syria's civil war, has triggered bitter EU infighting. Dispute centres on how countries far from the main migration routes should help frontline peers like Greece, Italy and Malta. "It is very important that there is a common agreement, which is what we still don't have now," said Slovak interior minister Robert Kalinak. "We need to work more with our colleagues from Poland and Hungary, and also Greece and Italy on the other side."EU migration chief Dimitris Avramopoulos said it was vital that member states overcome their differences and agree on common rules on handing asylum-seekers to be prepared for any future spike in arrivals.Nearly all of the 350,000 migrants and refugees to reach Europe's shores this year have arrived in Greece and Italy, with Italy becoming the main gateway to Europe this year.

ITALY AND GREECE

The EU border agency Frontex said on Friday that November arrivals across the Mediterranean to Italy stood at 13,740 people, more than four times the figure for last year.

Germany, Sweden and Austria, the wealthiest countries and destinations of choice, also want some sort of permanent relocation scheme to share people out more evenly. But Poland and Hungary refuse to take in asylum-seekers, saying admitting Muslims would distort the makeup of their societies. They resist Brussels' efforts to impose relocation quotas.

Italy has criticised easterners and threatened to block any further work on EU budgets, which normally provide billions of euros of development funds to Poland and its neighbours to allow them to catch up with their western peers. The Council of Europe, a rights organisation, and aid group International Rescue Committee, criticised on Friday a separate Brussels proposal to resume returning some asylum-seekers to Greece.[nL5N1E32Q0] (Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
By Will Dunham

John Glenn, who became one of the 20th century's greatest explorers as the first American to orbit Earth and later as the world's oldest astronaut, and also had a long career as a U.S. senator, died in Ohio on Thursday at age 95.Glenn, the last surviving member of the original seven American "Right Stuff" Mercury astronauts, died at the James Cancer Hospital at Ohio State University in Columbus, said Hank Wilson, a spokesman at the university's John Glenn College of Public Affairs, which Glenn helped found.Glenn was credited with reviving U.S. pride after the Soviet Union's early domination of manned space exploration. His three laps around the world in the Friendship 7 capsule on Feb. 20, 1962, forged a powerful link between the former fighter pilot and the Kennedy-era quest to explore outer space as a "New Frontier."President Barack Obama, who in 2012 awarded Glenn the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, said: "With John's passing, our nation has lost an icon.""When John Glenn blasted off from Cape Canaveral atop an Atlas rocket in 1962, he lifted the hopes of a nation," Obama said in a statement. "And when his Friendship 7 spacecraft splashed down a few hours later, the first American to orbit the Earth reminded us that with courage and a spirit of discovery there's no limit to the heights we can reach together."President-elect Donald Trump said on Twitter the United States had lost "a great pioneer of air and space in John Glenn. He was a hero and inspired generations of future explorers."As the third of seven astronauts in NASA's solo-flight Mercury program to venture into space, Glenn became more of a media fixture than the others and was known for his composure and willingness to promote the program.Glenn's astronaut career, as well as his record as a fighter pilot in World War Two and the Korean War, helped propel him to the U.S. Senate in 1974, where he represented his home state of Ohio for 24 years as a moderate Democrat.His star was dimmed somewhat by a Senate investigation of several senators on whether special favors were done for a major campaign contributor. He was cleared of wrongdoing.Glenn's entry into history came in early 1962 when fellow astronaut Scott Carpenter bade him "Godspeed, John Glenn" just before the Ohio native was rocketed into space for a record-breaking trip that would last just under five hours.'VIEW IS TREMENDOUS'

"Zero-G (gravity) and I feel fine," was Glenn's succinct assessment of weightlessness several minutes into his mission. "Oh, and that view is tremendous."

After splashdown and recovery in the Atlantic, Glenn was treated as a hero, addressing a joint session of Congress and feted in a New York ticker-tape parade.Glenn had been hospitalized since Nov. 25. He "died peacefully," according to a statement from his family and Ohio State University. "He left this earth for the third time as a happy and fulfilled person," the statement said."Glenn's extraordinary courage, intellect, patriotism and humanity were the hallmarks of a life of greatness. His missions have helped make possible everything our space program has since achieved and the human missions to an asteroid and Mars that we are striving toward now," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said.Glenn's experiences as a pioneer astronaut were chronicled in the book and movie "The Right Stuff," along with the other Mercury pilots. The book's author, Tom Wolfe, called Glenn "the last true national hero America has ever had.""I dont think of myself that way," Glenn told the New York Times in 2012 to mark the 50th anniversary of his flight. "I get up each day and have the same problems others have at my age. As far as trying to analyze all the attention I received, I will leave that to others."Glenn's historic flight made him a favorite of President John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert, who encouraged him to launch a political career that finally took off after a period as a businessman made him a millionaire.

HERO STATUS

Even before his Mercury flight, Glenn qualified for hero status, earning six Distinguished Flying Crosses and flying more than 150 missions in World War Two and the Korean War.After Korea, Glenn became a test pilot, setting a transcontinental speed record from Los Angeles to New York in 1957.The determination and single-mindedness that marked Glenn's military and space career did not save him from misjudgments and defeat in politics. He lost his first bid for the Senate from Ohio in 1970, after abandoning a race in 1964 because of a head injury suffered in a fall.He was elected in 1974 and was briefly considered as a running mate for Democratic presidential candidate Jimmy Carter in 1980. But a ponderous address at the Democratic National Convention - people walked out - caused Carter to remark that Glenn was "the most boring man I ever met."Glenn sought the Democratic presidential nomination himself in 1984 but was quickly eliminated by eventual nominee Walter Mondale, Carter's vice president. His failure was all the more stinging because he had been touted as an early front-runner.

In the Senate, Glenn was respected as a thoughtful moderate with expertise in defense and foreign policy. His luster was dulled, however, by a Senate investigation of the "Keating Five" - five senators suspected of doing favors for campaign contributor Charles Keating Jr. The panel eventually found Glenn did nothing improper or illegal.BACK TO SPACE

He took a leading role in seeking to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, especially to Pakistan. He was the author of a law that forced the United States to impose sanctions on India and Pakistan in 1998 after both countries conducted nuclear tests.He also was a staunch advocate of a strong military and took a keen interest in strategic issues. He retired from the Senate in 1999.Thirty-six years after his maiden space voyage, Glenn became America's first geriatric astronaut on Oct. 29, 1998. He was 77 when he blasted off as a mission specialist aboard the shuttle Discovery. He saw it as a blow to the stereotyping of the elderly."Maybe prior to this flight, we were looked at as old geezers who ought to get out of the way," Glenn said after his nine-day shuttle mission. "Just because you're up in years some doesn't mean you don't have hopes and dreams and aspirations just as much as younger people do."John Herschel Glenn Jr. was born on July 18, 1921, in Cambridge, Ohio.In his latter years, he was an adjunct professor at the John Glenn College of Public Affairs.He had a knee replacement operation in 2011 and heart surgery in 2014.Glenn is survived by his wife of 73 years, his childhood sweetheart, Annie Castor. They had two children, David and Lyn. (Reporting by Will Dunham in Washington; Additional reporting by Irene Klotz in Cape Canaveral, Fla., and Ben Klayman in Detroit; Editing by Bill Trott and Peter Cooney)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
By Ju-min Park

| SEOUL

SEOUL Jubilant South Koreans celebrated with cheers, hugs and selfies on Friday, after lawmakers voted to impeach embattled President Park Geun-hye over an influence-pedalling scandal that had drawn huge crowds to weekly protests demanding she step down.The impeachment motion, passed by 234 lawmakers with 56 opposed, suspends Park's powers and leaves the Constitutional Court to decide whether to uphold the motion and remove Park from office or reject it and reinstate her.A large crowd of demonstrators gathered outside parliament in anticipation of the outcome greeted the news with cheers."I feel great!" said 54-year-old rice farmer Im Chae-jum. "I thought it was going to pass but, either way, whatever happens in parliament, we'll take Park Geun-hye down with people power."The people won!"Park's approval rating stood at just 5 percent in a poll released earlier on Friday.

Protesters waved banners and flags as they climbed on a tractor that some farmers had used to block a road outside parliament. Others took selfies before a large banner reading, "Congratulations on the impeachment of Park Geun-hye; Now let's lock her up."Several people blew horns or held up signs that read, "Victory for the people!"

Choi Ji-young, the mother of a child who died in the 2014 Sewol ferry tragedy, watched the vote from a gallery in the assembly. She was among a group of victims' relatives, who danced and chanted as they left the building."I screamed 'Hooray!'" said Choi. "This'll be a chance to get to the bottom of the disaster and hold Park and her close aides accountable."The events around the ferry sinking, which killed more than 300 people, mostly schoolchildren, have loomed over Park's presidency.

Protesters have staged massive demonstrations in central Seoul every Saturday for the last six weeks of the political crisis that rocked Park's presidency.The protests have remained festive and peaceful, centred on large, candle-lit rallies that have drawn up to a million people, by some estimates. Another was planned for Saturday.Park, 64, is accused of colluding with a friend and a former aide, both of whom have been indicted by prosecutors, to pressure big businesses to donate to two foundations set up to back her policy initiatives."Now I feel good," said Choi, holding a red rose wrapped in a yellow ribbon, a symbol of the protests against Park. "She should go to jail." (Reporting by Ju-min Park; Writing by James Pearson; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
BEIRUT The Syrian army declared a ceasefire in several areas around Damascus and the northwestern province of Idlib beginning on Friday evening, but did not say how long the pause in fighting would last.There was no immediate comment from rebels on the truce.

The areas affected included the government-besieged town of Madaya near Damascus and Kefraya and al-Foua in Idlib, which are surrounded by insurgents.

(Reporting by John Davison; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
By Michelle Nichols

| UNITED NATIONS

UNITED NATIONS The United Nations Security Council discussed on Friday what a senior U.N. official described as "appalling human rights violations" in North Korea, despite a failed attempt by China to stop the third annual meeting on the issue.China's U.N. Ambassador Liu Jieyi said the Security Council was "not a forum for discussing human rights issues and still less for the politicization of the human rights issue.""Given the current context, where a plethora of dire challenges are confronting international peace and security, the council should scrupulously honour its responsibility and focus on issues concerning international peace and security with undivided attention," Liu told the 15-member council.China, an ally of Pyongyang, called a rare procedural vote to try to stop the meeting. Nine countries voted to hold the meeting - the minimum required - while Angola, China, Egypt, Russia and Venezuela were against. Senegal abstained. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power told the council that Pyongyang had displayed increasingly aggressive behaviour throughout 2016 by conducting a record number of missile launches and two nuclear tests.

"We see the DPRK (North Korea) regime grow its illicit weapons programme rather than growing its own children," said Power, citing World Health Organisation data that one in four North Korean children suffers stunted growth from malnutrition.She warned North Korean officials, saying: "We are methodically documenting your abuses and your impunity will not last forever. When the day comes that you are publicly held accountable, we will be ready."Earlier this year, the United States angered North Korea by blacklisting its leader Kim Jong Un for human rights abuses. [nL4N19T2GN]

A landmark 2014 U.N. report on North Korean human rights concluded that North Korean security chiefs and possibly Kim himself should face justice for overseeing a system of Nazi-style atrocities. Michael Kirby, chairman of the U.N. Commission of Inquiry that drew up the report, said at the time: the crimes the team had catalogued were reminiscent of those committed by Nazis during World War Two. "Some of them are strikingly similar," he told Reuters.Andrew Gilmour, U.N. Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, told the council that there has "been no improvement in the appalling human rights violations" in North Korea.

He also warned that escalated security tensions "will further isolate the country and leave the DPRK population as usual to bear the terrible consequences, at yet further expense of their human rights."North Korea has been under U.N. sanctions since 2006 over its nuclear and ballistic missile tests.The United Nations Security Council imposed new sanctions on North Korea last month that aim to cut the Asian state's annual export revenue by more than a quarter in response to Pyongyang's fifth and largest nuclear test in September. [nL1N1DV0WP] (Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by James Dalgleish)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
By Michelle Nichols

| UNITED NATIONS

UNITED NATIONS The United Nations General Assembly voted 122 to 13 on Friday to demand an immediate cessation of hostilities in Syria, humanitarian aid access throughout the country and an end to all sieges, including in Aleppo.Thirty-six countries abstained in the vote on the Canadian-drafted resolution on the nearly six-year-old Syrian conflict. General Assembly resolutions are non-binding but can carry political weight.The Syrian army pressed an offensive in Aleppo on Friday with ground fighting and air strikes in an operation to retake all of the city's besieged rebel-held east that would bring victory in the civil war closer for President Bashar al-Assad."This is a vote to stand up and tell Russia and Assad to stop the carnage," U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power told the General Assembly before the vote. Russia is a close ally of Syria and has been providing military backing to the government for more than a year.

Russian U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters on Thursday of the resolution: "To expect that it is going to produce some kind of dramatic U-turn in the situation in Syria is unrealistic."The U.N. resolution asks the U.N. secretary-general to report in 45 days on the implementation of the resolution and with recommendations "on ways and means to protect civilians."Canadian U.N. Ambassador Marc-Andre Blanchard acknowledged that the resolution was not a solution to the conflict, but an important statement.

"It is a reminder that above all else the lives of the Syrian people should be our priority. They are our priority and the world will not stay silent while they suffer without assistance," he said before the vote. A crackdown by Assad on pro-democracy protesters in 2011 sparked a civil war and Islamic State militants have used the chaos to seize territory in Syria and Iraq. Half of Syria's 22 million people have been uprooted and more than 400,000 killed.Syrian U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari said that Syria was fighting a war on terrorism "on behalf of the entire world."

He said unilateral sanctions imposed on Syria "affect in the first place the Syrian citizens and impede the ability of the Syrian government to respond to the daily needs of Syrian citizens, particularly those who have been disadvantaged as a result of the terrorist war imposed on my country Syria."Churkin also slammed unilateral sanctions imposed on Syria. "You are slowly asphyxiating the population you ardently claim to care about," he said on Friday. (Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Toni Reinhold and James Dalgleish)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
In a recent development from Samsung, the company is a planning to go bezel-free for its Galaxy S8 smartphone next year. As per the report, the South Korean tech giant will add a virtual home button on the bottom, replacing its traditional home button.

The report further suggests that the purported Galaxy S8 is expected to come with a wraparound display using OLED technology. After the release of fatally flawed Galaxy Note 7, Samsung is going through some tough testing procedures to avoid the very same. So, Samsung might push the release date of a smartphone to April from March.

The company is under pressure as it suffered the worst decline globally in smartphone sales this quarter. Its arch rival Apple is planning to manufacture its next generation iPhones with bezel-free display and OLED technology.

Talking about specifications, the purported Galaxy S8 will come in two variants 6.2-inch and 5.7-inch display. It will be powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC, while some other variant is expected to come with home-baked Exynos processor.

With this smartphone, Samsung is expected to adopt an upgraded digital assistant that will use voice command to finish the task given by the user. In fact, the South Korean tech acquired U.S.-based artificial-intelligence software company Viv Labs Inc. in October.

Greg Roh, an analyst at HMC Investment Securities Co, said:

Since the phones have a record of burning up, it needs time for these phones to be verified as safe. How safe the phones turn out to be is more important than any hardware innovation. It will take about a month or two for people to actually start opening their pockets.

Source
In a bid to bolster the digital payments scene in India even further, PM Narendra Modi has roped in former UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani. According to a latest report from Bloomberg Nilekani has joined a panel to pave the way for digital payments in the country.

Nilekani and his 13-person committee are meeting to work out how to get more Indians to adopt digital payments. They will chalk out a roadmap to the idea of a cashless economy. The 13-member committee headed by Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu met for the first time last week. His appointment comes at a time when the country is facing challenges post demonetization of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 notes. Nilekani had spearheaded the implementation of the Aadhar card project across the country in 2012.

Nilekani told Bloomberg after the first meeting of this committee was held last week,

India has the underlying digital financial architecture in place to get this going. How quickly the government can reach everyone is a question of execution and speed.

The committee is focusing on getting more merchants to accept the United Payments Interface (UPI) that has already been rolled out by major banks earlier this year in April, and procuring more Point-of-Sale (PoS) devices. As per the report, the committee is expected to meet again this week to look at how to approach those with limited access to technology. While India has 250 million smartphone users, there are about 350 million who only have feature phones while another 350 million dont have a phone at all, Nilekani said.

Source
Among publicly traded U.S.-based companies, pharma giant Pfizer (PFE -1.96%) has outshined nearly all of its peers in terms of stockpiling cash overseas. Specifically, the drugmaker divulged in its 2015 annual report that it had a staggering $80 billion of unremitted foreign earnings.

To put this figure into context, Pfizer's shares are essentially trading at around 2.4 times its backlog of foreign profits right now.

Pfizer's foreign profits are stuck... for the moment

The long and short it is that Pfizer has literally shown no interest in repatriating these funds. And instead, the drugmaker has repeatedly attempted to perform a so-called tax inversion by buying a more tax-friendly address abroad to unlock these trapped monies.

So if you're still wondering, Pfizer's failed attempted to merge with Ireland's Allergan earlier this year really was all about the taxes, and this ginormous cash pile underscores why -- regardless of what the drugmaker's management may have said to the contrary.

Now that the U.S. Treasury Department has put some rather aggressive measures in place to discourage companies like Pfizer from moving abroad, though, tax inversions may no longer be all that feasible. Pfizer, after all, abandoned its merger with Allergan as a direct result of the Treasury's actions, and the company has yet to openly consider alternative buyout targets to lower its effective tax rate.

As things stand now, Pfizer basically has a boatload of cash stored overseas and very few ways to put it to work. That's a regrettable situation for the drugmaker and its shareholders for obvious reasons.

But that may all be about to change with President-elect Donald Trump

Donald Trump's proposed tax plan for businesses of all sizes implies a fundamental shift in policy moving forward. Digging into the details, the Trump plan is to reduce corporate taxes from 35% to 15%, putting the U.S. on par with tax havens such as Ireland. Most importantly for companies like Pfizer, though, his plan also includes a one-time tax rate of 10% on profits stored overseas.

Can Trump push his tax agenda through Congress? What seemed at first like an unpopular idea has gained some support in Washington D.C. as Trump's political appointments are made and his ideas more fully fleshed out. It seems completely likely that the Trump tax proposal could see the light of day.

Why lower corporate taxes matter to Pfizer's shareholders

Pfizer is headed by CEO Ian Read, and that's extremely important to keep in mind. Cutting to the chase, Read's background is steeped in accounting, which is why he has run Pfizer like an accountant for the most part.

Under his stewardship, Pfizer has placed a major emphasis on its bottom line, often at the expense of its top-line growth. In 2013, for example, the drugmaker spent $16.3 billion on share repurchases, compared with a mere $6.67 billion on R&D -- even though the company was facing on onslaught of patent losses.

While Pfizer has revved up its R&D budget closer to $8 billion since then, the drugmaker still kicked off 2016 with a ginormous $16.4 billion in authorized share repurchases, perhaps revealing where Read's heart truly lies. And at the risk of beating a dead horse, Pfizer's somewhat questionable decision to call off its merger with Allergan over the loss of the upfront tax benefits drives this point home, especially as this merger would have brought in a diverse mix of new growth products.

So the real question is whether a 10% one-time tax rate on foreign profits is enough to entice Read into bringing some or all of Pfizer's overseas cash back home. After all, these monies could be used for a diverse array of value-creating purposes, such as a special dividend payment or an acquisition bonanza.

Take-home message

The bottom line (pardon the pun) is that Read may balk at paying even an $8 billion tax bill because of his particular background -- implying that the drugmaker may attempt to hold out for a tax holiday on all foreign profits. Pfizer's stated position on the matter, after all, is that this $80 billion of unremitted foreign earnings is to be "indefinitely reinvested overseas." And that may, in fact, be the position of Pfizer's mega-large-cap peers as well. Stay tuned.
Oil prices extended gains for a second session running on Friday on optimism that non-OPEC producers would agree to cut output following a cartel agreement to limit production.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will meet non-OPEC nations in Vienna on Saturday seeking their help in curbing a global glut. Azerbaijan has said it will come to the Austrian capital armed with proposals for its own reduction.

Brent crude for February delivery was up 12 cents at $54.01 a barrel by 0752 GMT, after rising 1.7 percent on Thursday. The contract hit its highest since July 2015 at $55.33 on Monday.

U.S. crude for January delivery was up 32 cents at $51.16 a barrel. Both contracts have lost nearly 1 percent so far this week.

Russia has said it would cut 300,000 barrels per day, meaning other non-OPEC producers combined would need to pledge the same amount to lower output by the 600,000 bpd OPEC wants - half the reduction OPEC is making.

Kazakhstan may offer to freeze its oil output at last month's level at the talks between OPEC and non-OPEC producers in Vienna, Kazakh Energy Minister Kanat Bozumbayev said on Friday.

"There are hopes for deeper cuts as non-OPEC nations are set to cooperate in curbing production," said Tomomichi Akuta, senior economist at Mitsubishi UFJ Research and Consulting.

"But it is still uncertain whether their cuts would reach 600,000 bpd, which is providing limited support to oil gains."

OPEC last week agreed to slash production by 1.2 million bpd in the first half of 2017, that bolstered crude futures despite doubts over whether the amount was enough.

Saudi Arabia and Iraq will supply full contracted volumes of crude to Asia in January, despite OPEC's commitments to cut output as they look to defend market share in the fastest growing region for oil demand, refinery sources said.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Thursday he had agreed with Iran to call for a summit of heads of state from OPEC and non-OPEC countries in the first quarter of next year to decide on strategy for the oil market.

Global spending on oil and gas exploration in 2017 could fall below this year's $40 billion, consultancy Wood Mackenzie said.

The market is waiting on weekly data on U.S. oil rig counts issued by oil services firm Baker Hughes later on Friday.

(Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori; Editing by Richard Pullin and Manolo Serapio Jr.)
Russia plans to meet with some OPEC and non-OPEC nations on Friday to discuss unresolved issues related to a planned oil-output cut before wider talks the following day in Vienna, a Russian government source told Reuters.

Russia has committed to reduce its output by 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) in the first half of 2017 in an effort to boost oil prices. Other non-OPEC countries are being urged to cut by a similar amount in total.

OPEC, which produces a third of global oil, pledged on Nov. 30 to reduce output by around 1.2 million bpd from January 2017.

Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan are the second- and third-biggest oil producers among ex-Soviet countries after Russia. Both have confirmed their participation in the talks between OPEC and non-OPEC producers on Saturday.

"Russia sees risks ahead of the deal if questions are not resolved," the source said.

"One hundred percent compliance is critical for the deal ... It's essential for non-OPEC to have a responsible approach towards the deal."

The source did not identify the non-OPEC countries to which he was referring. The Russian Energy Ministry did not reply to a Reuters request for immediate comment. Energy Minister Alexander Novak plans to attend the Dec. 10 talks.

The source also said there were questions regarding compliance by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, pointing to an increase in oil production by the group in November.

OPEC output rose by 370,000 bpd last month, a Reuters survey showed.

A Gulf oil industry source familiar with Saudi oil policy said on Friday that Saudi Arabia had informed customers about lower oil supplies from January in line with the reduction in output agreed by OPEC last week.

Kazakhstan, which relaunched its giant Kashagan oilfield in November, may offer to freeze oil output at last month's level, Energy Minister Kanat Bozumbayev said on Friday.

Russia's output reached a post-Soviet high of 11.21 million bpd, the world's largest, in November.

Russian energy officials have said Russia would cut from November-December levels.

Iranian news agency SHANA quoted Iranian President Hassan Rouhani as telling his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro it was important for OPEC to execute the output deal in the first half of 2017 and that cooperation from non-OPEC was essential.

(Reporting by Katya Golubkova; Editing by Christian Lowe and Dale Hudson)
The worlds population is exploding and is expected to reach 10 billion people in 2050. Global farmers cant keep up with demand, raising fears that the world could face a food shortage, and more people are relying on controversial GMOs to feed themselves as a result.

Bee Vectoring Technologies (BVT), a Canadian based start-up with operations in California, says it can help farmers save more crops from pests by using bumble bees.

We have developed a technology that the control agent actually gets attached to the bee and as the bee goes to feed and pollinate the crop that control agent gets transferred right to the flowering plants, said BVT CEO Ashish Malik during an interview with FOXBusiness.com. Malik left Bayers Crop Science division this summer to focus on his new company.

BVT has already started trial runs with strawberries in Florida and is hoping to expand to indoor tomatoes, sunflowers and almonds upon approval from the Environmental Protection Agency, which it expects to receive in 2018.

The company says this way of farming uses less water and produces minimal waste, unlike what typically happens with big commercial sprayers used on crops today. The biological control agents are also natural and dont cause any harm to the bees or any unwanted pesticides on consumers food, according to Malik.

Still, there are a lot of problems in the bumble bee community. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, bees are dying at an alarming rate, forcing the agency to recommend for federal protections for certain bumble bee populations. The rusty patched bumble bee population, for example, has been decreasing at a rate upwards of 90% since the late 1990s due to disease, pesticides, climate change and habitat loss.

However, BVT says it doesnt use native bumble bees, but rather ones that are grown commercially for use on crops.

While bees may hold the key to the global food shortage, two of the worlds biggest companies are betting genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are a better solution.

German pharmaceutical giant Bayer and U.S. seed maker Monsanto (NYSE:MON) are merging in a $66 billion tie-up which could create an agricultural company that has control over a quarter of the worlds genetically modified seeds and pesticides  if the deal passes regulators.

Both CEOs warn that GMOs are needed to feed the growing population around the world.

If you look at humongous challenges that growers are confronted with of having to produce evermore on limited acreage in order to feed ever-growing populations, our purpose is to bring better solutions faster to growers so they can increase yield and with that contribute to feeding a rapidly growing population, Bayer CEO Werner Baumann told FOX Business Anchor Liz Claman back in September.

Though Malik says he doesnt think GMOs are the answer to all of our food problems and doesn't "vouch for them over fresh produce," he hopes to partner with big agriculture technology firms in the future once his start-up has matured.

We would love to take advantage of the marketing muscle that they have and the reach that they have in different crops around the world, where frankly, we would never be able to get to on our own.
If you're wondering, "What is dividend income?" then here's the short answer: Dividend income is an unexpectedly powerful way to secure a comfortable retirement. Once you read the case for dividends and learn the difference between ordinary and qualified dividends, as well as the tax rates for income from dividends, the next question you'll be asking is "Which stocks pay dividends?"

Image source: Getty Images.

Dividend basics

A dividend is a portion of a company's earnings that's paid out to shareholders, typically on a quarterly basis, though some are paid annually, monthly, or even irregularly. When a company earns a profit, it can do many things with that money. It might pay down debt, buy back shares, build new facilities, hire more workers, buy more advertising, acquire another company, and so on. Paying a dividend is just one of many options.

Some companies pay dividends to their shareholders, and some do not. Most often, relatively young and fast-growing companies won't pay dividends, because their best use for excess cash is expanding their business. (That's a way to reward shareholders, too -- making the company more successful and therefore more valuable.) When companies grow larger and have more reliable earnings, then they may choose to pay a dividend. If they fall on hard times, that payout might get reduced or eliminated, but that's generally a last resort.

Image source: Getty Images.

For portfolio performance, it's hard to beat dividends

Dividends are often thought of as investments for retirees -- stable but slow-moving. However, the historical returns of dividend stocks are far from dull. Get this: According to Ned Davis Research, from 1972 through early 2016,dividend stocks averaged an annual gain of 8.8%versus just 2.2% for non-dividend payers. Indeed, from 1930 through 2014, dividends have accountedfor about 40% of the 10.3% average annual return of the S&P 500. See? Not so boring after all, are they?

Image source: Getty Images.

Dividend yields are more exciting than they look

A 3% or 4% dividend yield may not sound that impressive, but if that's the average overall yield you're getting on a $300,000 retirement portfolio, then you're looking at $9,000 to $12,000 in annual income.

Better still, when dividends are being paid by healthy, growing companies, they tend to grow over time, boosting your effective yield -- i.e., the yield you're currently receiving based on your original investment amount. For example, if a stock is currently trading at $100 per share and paying out $4 per year in dividends, then it yields 4% for those who buy now. But if you bought your shares years ago, when the stock was trading for only $50 per share, then that $4 dividend payment now translates to an effective yield of 8%. On top of all that, the underlying stock may have gained value over time.

Dividends can be tax-friendly, too. In the eyes of the IRS, dividend income falls into one of two categories:qualified or non-qualified. Much of investors' dividend income is qualified, which means it's subject to a lower tax rate. Qualified dividends are taxed at 0% if you're in the lowest two income tax brackets, 15% if your tax bracket is 25% to 35%, and 20% if you're in the top bracket. Non-qualified dividend income is taxed at your marginal income tax rate.

What stocks pay dividends?

Hundreds of stocks pay dividends, and many of them are household names. Here are just a few examples and their recent dividend yields:

Stock Recent dividend yield AT&T

5.1% Ford Motor Company

4.8% Verizon Communications

4.6% Altria Group

3.8% Chevron

3.8% Pfizer

3.8% IBM

3.5% Coca-Cola

3.4% ExxonMobil

3.4% Procter & Gamble

3.2% General Electric

3% Intel

3%

Image source: Getty Images.

Dividend-hunting tips

Finally, as you search for great dividend-payers for your portfolio, here are some things to keep in mind:

Seek healthy, growing, promising companies -- because all dividends will be tied to the success of the companies that pay them.

Focus on the dividend yield, not the dividend amount --and, all things being equal, favor larger yields over smaller ones.

That said, be wary of huge yields. Sometimes an extraordinary dividend yield signals that a company is going through a rough time and losing share value -- not a company that loves to reward shareholders with hefty payouts. After all, the dividend yield is calculated by dividing the annual dividend amount by the current stock price; if the stock price drops, then the yield will rise. So take a close look at any yields that seem too good to be true.

Take note of how rapidly each dividend is being increased over time, because a company with a smaller yield could be the smarter buy if it's increasing its payout at a faster clip. In a few years, you might be reaping more income from a stock that yields 2% now than you would from a stock that yields 4% but has a stagnant dividend.

Examine the payout ratio, which reflects the portion of a company's earnings that's being paid out as dividends. In general, if the payout ratio is below 70% or so, then there's room for continued dividend growth. If it's 100% or more, then the dividend is unsustainable and may end up being reduced or eliminated. Bear in mind that a reasonable payout ratio can vary by industry. Real estate investment trusts, for example,have to pay out at least 90% of their income as a dividend.

Adding dividend payers to your portfolio can help it grow in the years before you retire and can provide valuable dividend income in retirement.

The $15,834 Social Security bonus most retirees completely overlook If you're like most Americans, you're a few years (or more) behind on your retirement savings. But a handful of little-known "Social Security secrets" could help ensure a boost in your retirement income. For example: one easy trick could pay you as much as $15,834 more... each year! Once you learn how to maximize your Social Security benefits, we think you could retire confidently with the peace of mind we're all after.Simply click here to discover how to learn more about these strategies.

Longtime Fool specialistSelena Maranjian, whom you can follow on Twitter, owns shares ofFord, General Electric, IBM, Procter and Gamble, and Verizon Communications. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Ford. The Motley Fool owns shares of ExxonMobil and General Electric. The Motley Fool recommends Chevron, Coca-Cola, Intel, and Verizon Communications. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
A less-than-surprising clinical failure recently sent Eli Lilly & Co. (NYSE: LLY) shares tumbling, while AbbVie (NYSE: ABBV) stock has traded sideways for most of the year. Since spinning off from its parent,Abbott, AbbVie has made an impressive effort to diversify its revenue stream away from the world's best-selling drug before it loses patent protection. Eli Lilly also has a chance to offset impending patent losses with new products.

Image source: Getty Images.

With so many moving pieces in play, investors are right to wonder which of these big pharma stocks is a better buy right now. Let's look at their strengths and weaknesses to see which comes out on top.

The case for Eli Lilly & Co.

The bottom line at Indiana's biggest pharma hasn't grown in over a decade, but the average analyst on Wall Street expects it to expand by almost 10% annually over the next five years. Lilly's next-generation diabetes treatments are largely responsible for the optimism. The drugmaker's oral diabetes therapy Jardiance reduced the risk of fatal heart attacks and strokes by 38%, and it is the first treatment to do so. Recently it earned FDA approval to reduce cardiovascular risk, and this selling point is expected to resonate with approximately 28 million Americans living with type 2 diabetes.

So far Jardiance sales have been lackluster, but type 2 diabetics have been flocking to Lilly's Trulicity. After about two years on pharmacy shelves, the injectable GLP-1 agonist finished the third quarter with sales at an annualized run rate of about $974.4 million. That's a stunning 231% leap over the same period last year.

Further out, baricitinib could pressure sales of AbbVie's injected Humira. In a late-stage study, a significantly higher percentage of patients treated with baricitinib reported improvements in pain relief and physical function after taking the pills for a year compared to those injected with Humira. The FDA is reviewing the experimental therapy's application, and if it is approved, annual sales of the janus kinase (JAK) inhibitor could peak around $3 billion in annual sales.

Image source: Getty Images.

Unfortunately, patent expirations for key products will weigh on Lilly in the quarters ahead. The main U.S. patent for Humalog expired in 2013, and sales of the drug are at a standstill. The diabetes treatment constituted 12.6% of the company's bottom line, and the next two largest revenue streams, Cialis and Alimta, will lose patent exclusivity in major markets next year.

The case for AbbVie

In contrast to the situation at Lilly, sales of AbbVie's best-selling drug are still climbing. During the first nine months of the year, Humira revenue grew 14.5% over the prior-year period to $11.8 billion. Double-digit growth of the world's best-selling drug is nothing to sneeze at, but Humira's trajectory has started to level out.

It's just a matter of time before sales of the popular anti-inflammatory begin contracting, but exactly when that will happen will be decided in the courts. AbbVie's most important U.S. Humira patent expires this month, although the company claims a big basket of patents can keep biosimilar competition at bay until 2022.

In order to offset impending losses for the drug that accounts for 63% of its total revenue, AbbVie will lean heavily on its star oncology therapy. Imbruvica became the first chemo-free option for U.S. patients with the most common form of leukemia this spring, and year-over-year revenue from the drug grew 64.5% in the third quarter to an annualized run rate of about $2 billion.

AbbVie's share of annual Imbruvica sales is expected to top out around $7 billion, which means the company will need to produce another blockbuster -- or several -- to continue expanding its bottom line over the long term in the face of Humira competition. Two assets in clinical development that might fit the bill are anti-inflammatory risankizumab and endometriosis hopeful Elagolix. Risankizumab has produced some impressive response rates in psoriasis patients with a convenient once-quarterly dosing schedule, and it could contribute around $4 billion to the top line each year at its peak.

Image source: Getty Images.

In a trial designed to support an application, Elagolix significantly reduced endometriosis-associated pain. AbbVIe intends to file an application next year, and if approved, the drug is expected to generate peak annual sales of about $2.5 billion.

Running the numbers

Five-year growth estimates predicting AbbVie's earnings will rise at an annual rate of 14.95% are clearly expecting the company's patent portfolio to allow continued expansion of Humira sales for years to come. The stock's recent price of just 12.4 times 2017 earnings estimates isn't nearly as optimistic. If the analysts are right, investors buying AbbVie at recent prices would have a lot to be happy about in 2021.

Despite a market thumping after its Alzheimer's disease candidate failed its third late-stage trial, Eli Lilly's shares are still more expensive than AbbVie's. Recently, the stock has been trading around 16.8 times 2017 earnings estimates.

Granted, Humira revenue might begin drying up faster than expected. But with a 4.3% dividend yield and a much lower valuation, it seems like taking a chance on the stock is worthwhile. That's why AbbVie is the better buy right now.

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The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Among publicly traded U.S.-based companies, pharma giant Pfizer(NYSE: PFE)has outshined nearly all of its peers in terms of stockpiling cash overseas. Specifically, the drugmaker divulged in its 2015 annual report that it had a staggering $80 billionof unremitted foreign earnings.

To put this figure into context,Pfizer's shares are essentially trading at around 2.4 times its backlog of foreign profits right now.

Image source: Getty Images.

Pfizer's foreign profits are stuck... for the moment

The long and short it is that Pfizer has literally shown no interest in repatriating these funds. And instead, the drugmaker has repeatedly attempted to perform a so-called tax inversion by buying a more tax-friendly address abroad to unlock these trapped monies.

So if you're still wondering, Pfizer's failed attempted to merge with Ireland's Allergan earlier this year really was all about the taxes, and this ginormous cash pile underscores why -- regardless of what the drugmaker's management may have said to the contrary.

Now that the U.S. Treasury Department has put some rather aggressive measures in place to discourage companies like Pfizer from moving abroad, though, tax inversions may no longer be all that feasible. Pfizer, after all, abandoned its merger with Allergan as a direct result of the Treasury's actions, and the company has yet to openly consider alternative buyout targets to lower its effective tax rate.

As things stand now, Pfizer basically has a boatload of cash stored overseas and very few ways to put it to work. That's a regrettable situation for the drugmaker and its shareholders for obvious reasons.

But that may all be about to change with President-elect Donald Trump

Donald Trump's proposed tax plan for businesses of all sizes implies a fundamental shift in policy moving forward. Digging into the details, the Trump plan is to reduce corporate taxes from 35% to 15%, putting the U.S. on par with tax havens such as Ireland. Most importantly for companies like Pfizer, though, his plan also includes a one-time tax rate of 10% on profits stored overseas.

Image source: Flickr via Disney

Can Trump push his tax agenda through Congress? What seemed at first like an unpopular idea has gained some support in Washington D.C. as Trump's political appointments are made and his ideas more fully fleshed out. It seems completely likely that the Trump tax proposal could see the light of day.

Why lower corporate taxes matter to Pfizer's shareholders

Pfizer is headed by CEO Ian Read, and that's extremely important to keep in mind. Cutting to the chase, Read's background is steeped in accounting, which is why he has run Pfizer like an accountant for the most part.

Under his stewardship, Pfizer has placed a major emphasis on its bottom line, often at the expense of its top-line growth. In 2013, for example, the drugmaker spent $16.3 billion on share repurchases, compared with a mere $6.67 billion on R&D -- even though the company was facing on onslaught of patent losses.

While Pfizer has revved up its R&D budget closer to $8 billion since then, the drugmaker still kicked off 2016 with a ginormous $16.4 billion in authorized share repurchases, perhaps revealing where Read's heart truly lies. And at the risk of beating a dead horse, Pfizer's somewhat questionable decision to call off its merger with Allergan over the loss of the upfront tax benefits drives this point home, especially as this merger would have brought in a diverse mix of new growth products.

So the real question is whether a 10% one-time tax rate on foreign profits is enough to entice Read into bringing some or all of Pfizer's overseas cash back home. After all, these monies could be used for a diverse array of value-creating purposes, such as a special dividend payment or an acquisition bonanza.

Take-home message

The bottom line (pardon the pun) is that Read may balk at paying even an $8 billion tax bill because of his particular background -- implying that the drugmaker may attempt to hold out for a tax holiday on all foreign profits. Pfizer's stated position on the matter, after all, is that this $80 billion of unremitted foreign earnings is to be "indefinitely reinvested overseas." And that may, in fact, be the position of Pfizer's mega-large-cap peers as well. Stay tuned.

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Image source: Anadarko Petroleum.

What happened

While Anadarko Petroleum (NYSE: APC) stumbled as it entered November due to poorly received third-quarter results, that disappointment did not keep its stock down for long. A positive analyst note, an asset sale, and OPEC's decision to cut production all combined to fuel a double-digit rally last month.

APC data by YCharts.

So what

Investors were not all that enthused with Anadarko's third-quarter report, which it released on Halloween after the market closed. That is because the company recorded an adjusted loss of $431 million, or $0.89 per share, which was $0.32 per share worse than analystshad expected. That wider loss came despite the fact that oil production exceeded the midpoint of the company's guidance by 13,000 barrels per day and costs declined more than anticipated.

The good news for investors is that it has repositioned so it can deliver 10% to 12% compound annual oil production growth over the next five years if oil is in the range of $50 to $60 per barrel. That outlook caused analysts at Credit Suisse to change their tune and upgrade the stock from neutral to outperform while increasing their price target from $70 to $77. That upgradeput it in an elite group with just four other oil stocks that they currently rate as outperform, includingConcho Resources (NYSE: CXO). These analysts like both Anadarko and Concho Resources because of their prolific Delaware Basin positions. Also, they saw more asset sales in Anadarko's future, which is a catalyst because it would reduce the company's absolute debt level.

That is just what happened later in the month when the company agreed to sell its East Texas position for $1 billion. The assets included its Haynesville shale gas properties as well as some associated midstream assets. These were non-core to the company given its renewed focus on oil growth assets such as those in the Delaware Basin.

Its focus on ramping up oil output appears to be coming at the perfect time now that OPEC has decided to step in to support oil prices. That announcement sent oil stocks soaring at the end of November because it likely means higher oil prices are in the forecast. Because of that, Anadarko Petroleum could deliver high-end growth in the future of 12% annually, which it can do if crude rises to $60 a barrel. Meanwhile, Concho Resources might trounce its forecast of 20% compound annual crude production growth over the next three years should oil run above its forecast.

Now what

Like most other oil companies, Anadarko has had to readjust so that it can thrive at lower oil prices. It has finally gotten into the position where it can do that starting next year, thanks to several recent strategic moves to improve its financial flexibility and asset base. Now, with OPEC back to supporting prices, the company could grow even quicker than anticipated.

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Image source: Getty Images.

What happened

Shares of Stillwater Mining Company (NYSE: SWC) soared on Friday and were up more than 18% by 12:30 p.m. EST. Driving the rally was the announcement that the platinum and palladium miner agreed to an acquisition offer by South African miner Sibanye Gold (NYSE: SBGL).

So what

Sibanye Gold is offering $18 per share in cash for Stillwater Mining, which is a 25% premium to the company's average trading price over the past month. The offer values the company at $2.2 billion and would hand over control ofthe only U.S. primary producer of platinum and palladium to the South African gold company.

For Sibanye Gold, the deal is about diversifying not only beyond its namesake commodity but outside of its home country. It also marks the company's third large deal over the past 15 months that will position it to become the world's third largest producer of palladium, an essential metal for catalytic converters used in automotive exhaust systems as well as being a critical component in fuel cells.

Sibanye Gold has already secured financing for the transaction as well as the support of its largest investors, which makes this deal more likely to go through. That leads the company to believe that it can close the acquisitionin the second quarter of next year.

Now what

Given that this is an all-cash deal at a hefty premium, it is less likely that Stillwater will draw a higher bid. Moreover, given today's rise in the stock price to roughly $17.50 per share, there's not much more upside left for those holding on. Because of that, investors should consider cashing in and investing their windfall in a stock that has more upside.

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Image source: Hess Corp.

What happened

Shares of Hess (NYSE: HES) bounded higher last month. While the company had a couple of notable news items fueling the stock, the biggest driver was OPEC's decision to cut its output, which sent oil prices -- and the company's stock -- up sharply:

HES data by YCharts.

So what

Hess' most notable news last month was the announcement of layoffs to help it cope with lower oil prices. According to reports, the company cut more than 11% of its workforce as it continues to seek ways to reduce costs amid persistently weak oil prices. Those job cuts were the company's first since the oil downturn began in 2014, and they were partially in response to the company's decision in October to cut even deeper into its capex budget, with the company now only expected to spend $2 billion this year. That is $100 million less than its previous guidance, and 50% less than last year.

That said, just because Hess is cutting investment spending does not mean it has given up on oil exploration and development. In fact, the company was one of several winning bidders in Canada's latest offshore exploration lease sale last month. The company joinedBP (NYSE: BP) and Noble (NYSE: NBL) in a 276 million Canadian-dollar bid for a parcel where Hess and Noble will control 25% stakes, while BP takes the other half. In addition, Hess, Noble, and BP teamed up on two other smaller winning bids totaling CA$137 million.

Further, last month, Hess and partners ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) and China's CNOOC (NYSE: CEO) said they planned to fast-track their Liza discovery in Guyana. The ExxonMobil-led partnership recently announcedthis "world-class discovery," which holds an estimated 800 million to 1.4 billion barrels of oil equivalent. Hess controls a 30% stake in the prospect, which could be a significant driver of future growth for the company.

However, the biggest catalyst for Hess last month was OPEC's decision to step back into the oil market and support prices by cutting its production. This agreement should reduce the glut of oil on the market more quickly and boost prices. That would help solve a critical problem for Hess, which is that its costs are too high for the current price environment because it focuses on higher-cost offshore projects. That puts it at a disadvantage to rivals that primarily focus on flexible, low-cost shale development.

Now what

The OPEC agreement could be a major driver for Hess because it should push prices higher, which would alleviate the pressure on the company to cut costs. That would make it easier for the company to continue investing in its growing supply of offshore development projects. Further, it would give Hess more cash flow to ramp up its shale output next year.

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After a month of steady increases, municipal bond yields finally reversed course this past week.

The 10-year yield on the AP Municipal Bond index was 2.665 percent, as of 5 p.m. Eastern time Friday. That's down from 2.808 percent the previous week, but it's still a lot higher than a month ago, before the election, when the yield was just 2.063 percent.

Yields on two- and 30-muni year bonds also fell. On Friday, the long-term 30-year bond yielded 3.403 percent. A week ago, it was 3.565 percent.

Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions, and prices may have climbed this past week as investors questioned whether the earlier losses were overdone. "People think that munis had sold off a little too much, and now there are buyers coming back into the space," says Jon Mondillo, a municipal bond fund manager at Alpine Funds.

The fall in yields propelled the iShares National Muni Bond ETF, the largest municipal bond exchange-traded fund, to a one-week return of 1.1 percent.

The gap, or spread, between yields of two-year and 10-year municipal bonds narrowed this week to 1.34 percent, according to the AP Municipal Bond index. Long-term bonds are considered riskier, and offer higher yields, than short-term bonds. The gap was narrower Friday than it has been in a few weeks.

CREDIT RATING OUTLOOK

Credit quality for U.S. public finance should remain fairly stable for next year, but states will likely see more downgrades than upgrades, according to a new report from S&P Global Credit.

S&P lowered state credit ratings nine times this year through December, including two downgrades for Illinois. That's a record for a single year. S&P currently has a negative outlook on 10 states, largely related to budget pressures from weak oil prices and underfunded pensions.

Expectations are better for local governments, which are benefiting from a stronger economy. Health care and housing, on the other hand, may weaken depending on the outcome of federal legislation.

"Public finance has had several years of an upgrade trend, but that trend is starting to slow down to some degree," says Larry Witte, a senior director at S&P Global and one of the authors of the report.

While municipal bond defaults are very rare, this year has seen 14 as of November, an unusually large number. Most of these were related to the Puerto Rico budget crisis. S&P expects to see a similar number of defaults in 2017, and for them to again be mostly concentrated in Puerto Rico.
Peet's Coffee & Tea, a longtime rival to Starbucks Corp , said on Friday it will invest $58 million to open a new coffee roasting facility in Suffolk, Virginia, to support its expanding business in an increasingly competitive environment.

The move from Peet's comes as Starbucks is making significant investment to stave off competition from upscale, independent coffee shops, such as Stumptown Coffee Roasters and Intelligentsia Coffee. Peet's owns Stumptown and has a majority stake in Intelligentsia.

Peet's Chief Executive Dave Burwick told Reuters the new plant will create 135 new jobs and support the company's expanding business, which includes operating cafes and selling packaged coffee via grocery stores.

Burwick welcomed the news that Starbucks Chief Executive and co-founder Howard Schultz will focus on building a new ultra-premium "Reserve" brand after he steps down as CEO in April 2017.

"We like it. The more interest there is in super-premium coffee, the more opportunities Peet's will have," Burwick said.

Peet's new 175,000-square-foot facility will more than double current capacity, said Chief Operating Officer Shawn Conway.

Burwick also said Peet's estimated sales will total $800 million this year, double what they were when Joh. A. Benckiser - the investment holding company of the Reimanns, the German billionaire family associated with Reckitt Benckiser - took Peet's private after buying the company in October 2012.

(Reporting by Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles, editing by G Crosse)
The U.S. Senate sought to wrap up work on a government funding bill on Friday before the current spending authority runs out at midnight, but a Democratic push to add benefits for coal miners risked at least a brief government shutdown.

The House of Representatives voted for the funding bill on Thursday and went home. But in the Senate, West Virginias Joe Manchin and some other Democrats were delaying a vote in hopes of adding a longer-term extension of expiring healthcare benefits for retired coal miners and their families.

Democrats have expressed some hope that Republican President-elect Donald Trump, who won the presidency with support of many blue-collar workers, would support their cause. But Republicans have so far refused to reopen the issue.

"I hope our new president-elect, who talked and got to know the miners, will speak out, incoming Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer told reporters in a hallway this week.

Trump campaign backer Robert Murray, chief executive officer of Ohio-based mining company Murray Energy Corp [MUYEY.UL], also has appealed to the president-elect to step in on behalf of retired coal miners.

"I asked him (Trump) and Vice President elect Mike Pence to be involved, verbally and in writing," Murray told Reuters in an interview Friday.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Friday that provisions in the House-passedgovernment funding bill, extending the miners' healthcare benefits through April, were better than doing nothing, which would mean the benefits would expire at the end of 2016.

But Manchin and other Democrats from coal-producing states said the miners' healthcare benefits should be extended for at least a year.

"Nobody wants to close this great institution, this government down ... But youve got to stand for something, or surely to God youll stand for nothing, Manchin, a Democrat who will be up for re-election in 2018 and whose state voted for Trump last month, said on the Senate floor Thursday night.

Trump met House Speaker Paul Ryan, a fellow Republican, in New York on Friday, and a spokeswoman for Ryan said they were discussing the policy agenda, but provided no further details.

The holdup by Manchin and others means the Senate might not be able to vote on the funding bill until sometime this weekend, possibly throwing the government into a shutdown mode for part of Saturday and Sunday. The bill would keep federal agencies funded until April 28.

(Reporting by Susan Cornwell; Editing by David Gregorio)
On Thursday at the PRI Show in Indianapolis, Ford unveiled the Shelby FP350S to the world.

Quite simply, it is a track-only Shelby Mustang that you will soon be able to walk in and place an order for at your local Ford dealership.

The FP350S, powered by a 5.2-liter V8, is not road legal but, when it comes to the track, it is all set to go.

The turn-key, track-ready car comes equipped with an FIA-compliant roll cage, Sparco safety seat, quick-release steering wheel, data acquisition system, and many performance features - such as a carbon fiber rear wing - that will help you be competitive in amateur race events.

Our goal has always been to provide those who want to race with equipment that enables them to compete and win, said Dave Pericak, global director, Ford Performance. Shelby FP350S is our latest example.

The FP350S is ready to race in Trans Am, NARA and SCCA club racing events. The vehicle will only be available in the U.S., and its price has yet to be released.

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Mustang Shelby GT350 Test Drive:
"Fast Times at Ridgemont High" actor Judge Reinhold has apologized for his headline-making arrest at Dallas Love Field airport Thursday.

Fox 4 News reported that Reinhold, 59, became uncooperative when TSA agents attempted to give him a random pat-down. The agents offered to search him in a private room, but Reinhold still refused to cooperate.

Reinhold apologized after his release from jail Friday. He says he walked through a TSA scanner but refused to let agents examine his backpack, which contained DVDs and CDs.

He indicated that his self-righteous indignation was connected to an adverse reaction he had to medication for a respiratory infection earlier in the week.



Dallas police said that the agents reported Reinhold to officers, who arrested the actor for disorderly conduct.

Reinhold's attorney, Steve Stodghill, told The Dallas Morning News Reinhold did not understand why he needed to be patted down after he had gone through the scanner without incident.

Reinhold was taken to the Dallas County jail for booking. Disorderly conduct is punishable by a fine of up to $500.

The Morning News reported that Reinhold was traveling through Dallas on his way to New Mexico, where he has a home.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Click for more from Fox4News.com.
"Legends & Lies: The Patriots" is airing a special "Forgotten Heroes" episode Sunday examining the Revolutionary War from the perspective of slaves who, despite their subjugation, took up arms to fight the British.

Throughout the war, black troops were an essential component in a war effort marked by razor thin margins of victory. By the time the Battle of Yorktown commenced, nearly one quarter of the rebel forces on hand were slaves.

These troops prove essential to victory, the surrender of the British, and the American independence that, ironically, they were not able to share in.

This special "Forgotten Heroes" installment is part of the 10-episode "Legends & Lies" series that dispels historical exaggerations and falsehoods that have developed over the years.

Executive Producer Bill O'Reilly combines his own research with the knowledge of leading experts to paint a new picture of the heroes and patriots who shaped America.

"Legends & Lies: The Patriots" airs Sunday at 8 p.m. EST on FOX News Channel.
Would you like to become pregnant in the next year? Asking teenage girls that question is one simple way to prevent unplanned pregnancies.

The remarkable drop in birth rates among teenagers hides a large gap between urban and rural teens. Between 2007 and 2015, teen birth rates dropped 50 percent in large urban counties and just 37 percent in rural counties. We can do better.

Most teen pregnancies are unplanned and unwanted. Increased use of birth control is the primary driver of fewer teenage pregnancies in urban and rural areas. So what explains the demographic difference? Formal sex education for teen boys and girls has fallen off since 2006, more in rural than urban areas. Participants in comprehensive sexuality education programs are more likely to delay starting to have sex, have fewer unprotected sexual encounters, and are more likely to use condoms and contraception. In addition, teenage girls and young women in rural areas may have reduced access to medical care and pharmacies compared to their urban peers.

Here are a few things that health care organizations and communities can do to help young women make good choices for their sexual and reproductive health.

Ask the question

Primary providers, obstetricians, and gynecologists routinely ask their adult female patients, Would you like to become pregnant in the next year? The Oregon Foundation for Reproductive Health has helped popularize that question through its One Key Question Initiative. Pediatricians rarely ask it. But they should.

Most teens who are sexually active dont want to become pregnant. Most have plans to finish school, perhaps attend college, and find a career and a partner before starting a family. Before we started asking teens that question, our county, Franklin County in central Ohio, had high rates of premature births and infant mortality. Teen pregnancies contribute to both. That was the driving force behind an idea for an outpatient birth control clinic that would offer comprehensive, teen-friendly contraceptive counseling that focused on improving access to the most effective birth control methods.

In 2014, we launched the Young Womens Contraceptive Services Program, also known as BC4Teens, at Nationwide Childrens Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. It provides a place for young women to talk about sex, birth control, sexually transmitted diseases, and more with medical experts, and get access to contraception. Because many clinicians do not have the knowledge and skills to provide teens with the most effective methods of contraception in their offices, our program also focuses efforts on educating and training medical professionals.

Listen to the answer

The question Would you like to become pregnant in the next year? is part of reproductive life planning. For women who answer No, the ensuing conversation, often called contraceptive counseling, has become the standard for guiding a discussion of lifestyle, future plans, and birth control options. A health professional trained to provide contraceptive counseling can help a woman choose the birth control method that is right for her.

In the BC4Teens program, we dont presume to know how our patients will answer the question. We encourage open discussion among our teen and young adult patients, their parents or guardians (if they are minors), and health care providers. With the use of supportive education, myth busting, teen-friendly educational materials, parental support, and more, this difficult discussion has become much less awkward.

Engage the community

Many teens and young adults dont routinely see a doctor. Thats why meeting adolescents where they are is an important part of the effort to reduce unplanned pregnancies. Our team uses community engagement as a platform to educate young men and women about preventing teen pregnancy while also encouraging young women to discuss birth control options with their partners. Offering training and online education for health care providers, holding education sessions for schools and community groups, and being a presence at local events and activities provides the opportunity to deliver the most accurate information to young people.

Offer effective options and make it easy

The medical community must move beyond simply offering teens the option of oral contraceptives and condoms to prevent unplanned pregnancy. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that sexually active teens be counseled about the full spectrum of essential contraceptives.

BC4Teens follows that advice, and provides information about, and immediate access to, all available types of prescription birth control methods, starting with the most effective ones  intrauterine devices (IUDs) and the contraceptive implant (Nexplanon). These methods are highly effective at preventing pregnancy in part because they eliminate the potential for human error, like missing a dose of an oral contraceptive or properly using a condom.

We also provide counseling on the correct use of condoms for prevention of sexually transmitted infections, and provide condoms to our patients.

Because we know its difficult for many teens to get an appointment with a family planning provider, we make available same-day appointments and evening appointments. In most cases, teens in the program are able to start their chosen contraceptive method, including IUDs and implants, on the day of their appointment.

The BC4Teens program has helped us more than double the birth control outreach at sites across the Nationwide Childrens Hospital system. One signal that it may be working is a decline in infant mortality, which is related to teen pregnancy, in Franklin County, where most of our patients live.

More than 200,000 American teenagers become pregnant each year. Most of these pregnancies are unplanned and unwanted. Unwanted pregnancy is a leading cause of girls dropping out of school and may perpetuate generational poverty. Better sex education and access to contraception can improve the lives of teens and the overall health of communities.

Elise DeVore Berlan, MD, is a physician in the Section of Adolescent Medicine at Nationwide Childrens Hospital and an associate professor of clinical pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine.
Drugmaker Bristol-Myers Squibb Co will pay $19.5 million to resolve multi-state allegations that it improperly promoted a schizophrenia treatment for uses not approved by the U.S. government, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said on Thursday.

The company's agreement with 42 other states and the District of Columbia centers on charges that Bristol-Myers Squibb promoted its Abilify anti-psychotic drug for use in children and elderly patients with dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

A company spokesman did not have an immediate comment on the settlement.

At the time the marketing of the drug occurred, such uses were not approved by the Food and Drug Administration. In 2006, the drug had received a "black box" warning stating that it could increase the risk of death for dementia patients.

Besides addressing the off-label promotion allegations, the settlement also resolves charges that the company violated state consumer protection laws by misrepresenting side effects such as metabolic weight gain.
Publix Super Markets is recalling some of its waffle and pancake mixes because its supplier announced a milk powder in the mix may be contaminated with salmonella, My Fox 8 reported.

According to a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) release, the recall affects all lot codes of the following 16-ounce products: Publix Premium Banana-Flavored Chocolate Chip Pancake& Waffle Mix (GTIN 4141503503), Publix Premium Pumpkin Pancake & Waffle Mix (GTIN 4141503703), and Publix Premium Blueberry Flavored Pancake & Waffle Mix (GTIN 4141503603).

The products were sold at Publix stores in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, Tennessee and North Carolina.

Young, old and immunosuppressed individuals may suffer severe illness if exposed to salmonella. However, most healthy individuals will experience short-term symptoms such as diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps, and recover without treatment, according to the FDA.

"As part of our commitment to food safety, potentially impacted product has been removed from all store shelves, Maria Brous, Publix media and community relations director, said in the release. "To date, there have been no reported cases of illness.

Consumers who purchased the products can return it to their place of purchase for a full refund. People with more questions may contact Publixs customer care department at 1-800-242-1227 or visit our website at www.publix.com. Customers can also contact the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) at 1-888-SAFEFOOD (1-888-723-3366).
If Sammy Jo Wilkinson had a spirit animal, it would be Marty McFly. For the past four years, the 51-year-old California resident has been using stem cell therapy to beat her secondary progressive multiple sclerosis back into remission. Gone is the paralysis to the left side of her face and the numbness in her fingers. In February, she walked for the first time in years. Im living in a future that everybody will have some day, says Wilkinson, who co-founded the patients rights group Patients for Stem Cells. Were trying to tell everybody the solution is here now, we just need a logical way to bring this to patients sooner rather than later.

According to Congress, that logical way is the 21st Century Cures Act, a labyrinthine bill that would make the most significant changes in decades to how medical treatments are tested and brought to market. Politicians are working overtime to pass it before the new year its the number one priority for the lame duck session, passing the House on Nov. 30 and advancing through the Senate last night. Final passage is expected to follow later this week.

In some ways, the legislation lives up to its name: It includes ambitious goals to advance biomedical science, and will inject $4.8 billion into a long-stagnating National Institute of Health budget. But attached to those promises is a roadmap for abandoning the gold standard of medicine in favor of an expedited middle path for drugs, medical devices, and regenerative therapies. Critics say its deregulation in sheeps clothing and worry that both science and patients are going to suffer.

Whether you applaud or decry the legislation, its almost certain to pass and be signed into law, if not by President Obama, then by the incoming administration. Which means regenerative medicine is headed for prime time. Welcome to the era of inject and see.

Medicines Wild West

In 2012, Wilkinson flew to Houston to receive her first stem cell treatment at Celltex Therapeutics. Technicians there extracted adult stem cells from her fat tissue, then cultured them for 13 days, allowing the population to expand before injecting the cells back into Wilkinson. The effects, she says, were immediate. She had less pain, more energy. But a few months later, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ruled that Celltex was violating a 2006 rule change that allowed the FDA to regulate expanded cell populations as drugs. They would need to get agency approval before being used in treatments.

These actions became the most visible confrontation in a bitter, decade-long battle between regulators and patients regarding the legality of regenerative therapies. While some companies, like Celltex, moved their operations to Mexico to skirt regulations, other small clinics with lower profiles rushed to fill the void. The FDA has been slow to investigate the proliferation of these clinics and the therapies they market. Today there are close to 600 businesses in America selling stem cell solutions for everything from deafness to Alzheimers and autism, all without FDA approval, according to a study published in February by Paul Knoepfler and Leigh Turner.

Turner, who is a bioethicist at the University of Minnesota, was surprised by the scale of exploitative behavior he found. Anyone can buy a domain name and create a website and make grandiose therapeutic claims that have no basis in reality whatsoever, he says. The situation has prompted scientists and policy wonks to dub stem cell clinics medicines wild west. The 21st Century Cures Act will change thatnot by reining in unproven, unregulated treatments, but by providing a direct path to medical acceptance. Under the act, the FDA would have the authority to grant accelerated approval for regenerative medicines, skipping straight from animal models and safety trials, over efficacy testing in humans, to post-market review. The new laws would also compel the FDA to update its regulations for such products.

That, Turner says, could be a disaster for traditional stem cell research. If you legitimize these therapies and allow businesses to commercialize them, then it becomes difficult to recruit individuals for actual phase 3 clinical trials, he says. Clinical trials have guidelines about who can and cant participate these inclusion/exclusion criteria helps to produce reliable results. People who go onto the marketplace and get an unapproved therapy wont be able to participate because their inclusion criteria becomes compromised. Theyll be lost to science, says Turner.

The Dark Echo

Knoepfler, who is a stem cell researcher at UC Davis, is worried about an even more troubling outcome: What happens once people get hurt by these therapies, either physically or financially? Phase 3 studies typically include a much larger number of participants to enable statistical assessment of clinical benefit and detection of any unusual risks not discovered in smaller studies. Eschewing this step places those risks and uncertainties squarely on the shoulders of paying patients. Because treatments arent covered by public or private insurers, patients can spend a fortune in their quest for a cure (Wilkinson has spent $90,000 out of pocket). Or worse, develop a tumor, go blind, or have a stroke and die.

I think were going to hear a lot more about that in the next few years, says Knoepfler. Which is unfortunate timing, since thats when he expects real, rigorously tested therapies to be coming online. Stem cell treatments that help diabetics grow new insulin-making pancreatic cells, halt the progression of ALS, and strengthen cardiac muscle cells in people suffering from heart failure are just some of the therapies advancing steadily down the full clinical trial pathway. Theres real hope, he says. And my worry is that the dark echo of the clinics will negatively impact the perception of the whole stem cell arena.

But people like Wilkinson dont have that kind of time. Facebook is more like an obituary page some days, and Im just tired of watching my friends die, she says. Her organization was instrumental in getting a record number of comments during the FDAs public hearings on draft guidances for stem cell therapies in September. She says shes not paid by Celltex or anyone else to be a voice for the technology, and really just wants the FDA to stop telling her what she can and cant do with her own cells.

Not so fast

While patients and regenerative medicine investors celebrate and researchers raise alarms, top FDA officials are holding their ground. In an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine last Wednesday, FDA Commissioner Robert Califf expressed skepticism about the safety and efficacy of stem cell treatments. The current excitement over the potential for stem cell therapy to improve patient outcomes even cure disease is understandable, he wrote. However, to ensure that this emerging field fulfills its potential promise to patients, we must first understand its risk and benefits and develop therapeutic approaches based on sound science.

The timing of the article suggests the FDA wont be wielding its authority to accelerate approvals any time soon. Wont, or perhaps cant. The 21st Century Cures Act doesnt exactly spell out how it will provide the necessary resources to implement all that it asks of the agency. Currently, strict conflict of interest rules and a draconian hiring process hinders the agencys ability to attract top talent. The FDA has had a hiring shortage problem for over a decade, says David Gortler, a former FDA senior medical officer. He says there are small ways to speed up the review process here and there, but nothing on the scale people are imagining. Mark my words. Nothing will happen, he says.

If so, the agency will be living up to its reputation as a creaking thorn in the side of forward progress. But according to Turner, the FDA is just a convenient scapegoat. The real thorn is simply the reality of being human. Were trying to develop truly safe and efficacious cell based therapies for what throughout human history have been intractable diseases, he says. Human biology is the challenge, not bureaucratic inertia.

And not even a plutonium-charged Delorean can change that.
A Dutch courts decision to find Geert Wilders -- the leader of the right-wing Party for Freedom -- guilty of hate speech for remarks he made on Moroccan immigration into the country is a massive victory not only for Wilders, but also for right-wing parties across Europe.

Wilders was found guilty of inciting discrimination for asking a crowd in 2014: Do you want more or fewer Moroccans in this city and in the Netherlands? When they answered fewer, fewer, Wilders replied: well take care of it. The Dutch political establishment went into paroxysms of rage over this fairly standard statement of right-wing immigration policy.

In some ways the reaction, and the verdict, is not surprising. A key tenet of the modern Western liberal consensus is to ignore the publics opinion in radically changing a countrys demographics via mass immigration. In America and across Europe, politicians have slipped into a cozy consensus on opening borders and shipping in immigrants from often-dangerous and third-world countries.

The labeling of Wilders views as hate speech in the first place is an effort to shut down debate. There is no distinction between free speech and the undefined hate speech, unless it directly tries to incite violence -- something Wilders did not do. Wilders crime, like other politicians who have been outspoken on immigration, is to dare to raise the issue at all and to challenge the open borders, multiculturalist consensus. The Wilders prosecution is the latest in a concerning trend of trying to shut down the discussion altogether.

The authoritarians behind this prosecution hope that by doing so, it will stymie the debate, and feed their narrative that Wilders is not a man of the people, but a swivel-eyed racist. But actually it will do the opposite.

The court case actually plays right into two arguments of the same populist narrative that is sweeping through the West and knocking over Western leaders like dominos -- namely that a) your government cares more about protecting immigrants than protecting you, and b) Islamic immigration in particular threatens your democratic freedoms.

Friday's verdict proves this isnt a right-wing conspiracy, but a reality. It will therefore give Wilders, as well as the populist right in Europe as a whole, a big shot in the arm.

We have seen this play out in the Netherlands before. Wilders became a more mainstream and popular figure after 2011, where he was put on trial -- and later acquitted -- for insulting the Koran and Islam, comparing the religion to fascism.

The Dutch have been particularly sensitive to the dangers Islam poses to free speech after filmmaker Theo Van Gogh was brutally murdered in the street in 2004 by an Islamist after daring to make a film criticising the religion of peace. Fridays case tells Dutch voters that the threat to their free speech is still real -- but that it is not just from Islam itself, but also from those running the country who care more about the rights of immigrants than of their own people.

Wilders Party for Freedom is leading in the polls right now ahead of the elections scheduled for March. Their numbers have risen during the trial. Expect the Party for Freedom, and similar parties across Europe, to surge in popularity in the wake of this outrageous verdict.
Across Europe leading politicians and business leaders are putting their faith in Macedonia, and its time America did the same.

This small country, still relatively fresh from independence, has been ignored for too long. Today, it is growing in influence and is now crucial to European and global security, as well as posing great opportunity for American interests.

This weekend the people of Macedonia go to the polls. I am confident they will return the ruling party to power, and that former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevksi, who first took office in 2006, will mark this tenth anniversary with another term in office.

Recent years have not been easy for Macedonia. It has struggled with domestic political deadlock, a fractured relationship with the European Union on its doorstep, and it found itself at the desperate heart of Europes migrant crisis.

Yet this result will be a welcome relief to the international community who have been applauding Gruevskis vigorous reforms to transform the economy, and his leadership in bringing stability and improved security to the region.

The fact that it has weathered these storms and grown stronger for it should be a clear signal of how resilient and influential this country can be.

So why now should America take notice, and why are so many European leaders throwing their weight behind Gruevski?

There are two clear reasons: business and security.

The past decade has seen an economic transformation in Macedonia. Business prospects in the country are healthier than ever, with some of the greatest opportunities anywhere in the world.

In the past couple of months PWC has named the country as the best in Eastern Europe and Asia for paying taxes, KMPG has rated it as one of the top new places for ease of starting a business, and the World Bank recently named it as the 10th best location in the world for doing business.

This hasnt gone unnoticed. In the UK, the vice president of the ruling Conservative Party Mark Fields MP recently met with Gruevski, commending progress, saying Macedonia should be proud of what the government has achieved.

The UK remains one of the top trading partners with Macedonia, and Fields was keen to insist that he believed his Government would ensure this relationship would keep advancing in the years to come.

With strong business and trade comes greater stability. And Macedonias role in what has traditionally been a very unstable region is vital.

Recently, Grueksis ruling party, VMRO-DPMNE, held a election rally in the capital Skopje, where the Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz addressed the crowd. It is unusual for a foreign politician to appear in another countrys election  but these are unusual times.

In less than two years more than one million refugees have sought transit through Austria, and many through Macedonia.

The countries were at breaking point. So Macedonia took a stand. It was the first country to make a move, declaring a state of emergency as it reinforced its borders to stem off routes. Foreign Minister Kurz thanked the crowd for the Governments work: Without the help of your Government we would not have been able to close the Balkan route. I am very grateful for your support, he said.

Austria is not alone. In Germany the Bavarian Prime Minister Horst Seehorfer also praised efforts, criticizing other countries for being slow to respond. We in Germany benefited from this, he said. Macedonia basically did what Germany was supposed to do. And Edmund Stoiber, a leading figure in European and German politicis, described Macedonias actions succeeding where many other countries couldnt

Increasingly European leaders are recognizing the vital role Macedonia will play in the flow of refugees, and also the flow of terror.

In June, Macedonian police arrested four men they suspected to have fought alongside ISIS. Authorities estimate as many as 130 people have fought or are currently fighting alongside Islamist groups in Syria and Iraq. And recent reports indicate as many as 1,000 individuals have traveled from the western Balkans to support militias in Syria and Iraq.

America remains the largest and most successful actor on the world stage. For our own security and our own prosperity, it is time we paid attentions to smaller countries with big potential.
Mexican drug cartels are the other terrorist threat to America. Militant Islamists have the goal of destroying the United States. Mexican drug cartels are now accomplishing that mission  from within, every day, in virtually every community across this country.

ISIS only dreams of exacting the human casualties the Mexican cartels achieve, despite decades of the War on Drugs. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) estimates heroin-related overdose deaths increased 244 percent between 2007 and 2013. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration estimated nearly 1,000,000 American heroin users in 2014.

The DEAs 2015 threat assessment says Mexican drug cartels remain the greatest criminal drug threat to the United States; no other group can challenge them in the near term. Mexican drug cartels are engaged in an insidious and deadly attack on our country  right now.

The Commonwealth of Virginia declared a public health emergency on November 21, 2016, over the growing crisis of heroin and opioid addiction.

The greatest criminal threat to the daily lives of American citizens are the Mexican drug cartels. Their corrosive power is killing Americans regardless of race, color, creed or zip code.

There has been an exponential increase and simultaneous shift, from prescription opioids to heroin (sometimes mixed with the synthetic narcotic fentanyl). For the Mexican drug cartels, the border is in Virginia, Ohio, New Hampshire, and all other communities across the country.

The American heroin market begins in the poppy fields of Mexico. Controlled by the cartels, and more recently assisted by Southwest Asians who provide agricultural production techniques (increasing both quantity and quality)  and combat training for the cartel armies (learned by fighting US forces).

The cartel armies are increasingly dangerous and more sophisticated. In May 2015, the Wall Street Journal reported foreign fighters training the Jalisco New Generation Cartel in how to shoot down Mexican Army helicopters. Its win-win for the Mexican cartels and the jihadis.

Barranca del Cobre (Copper Canyon), and the rural southwest corner of Chihuahua are the Sinaloa Cartels base for poppy production. Reportedly, the same area has the largest concentration of Islamists in Mexico  surpassed, perhaps, only by Mexico City.

None of this information is news to U.S. law enforcement, intelligence, defense or diplomatic officials. The staff of the El Paso Intelligence Center (EPIC) literally watches it all go on  right under their noses.

How can this be? Here is the unpopular answer: We have an insider threat  corrupt law enforcement officers at the municipal, state and federal levels  who are bought and paid for by the Mexican cartels.

The corruption runs the gamut from turning a blind eye to accepting monthly stipends and performance bonuses deposited in banks in, for example, Ciudad Juarez.

The corrupt law enforcement officers are aided and abetted by corrupt elected officials and crooked lawyers who know how to work the system. These are often popular local and regional public figures with business interests and standing in the community. They are also people who leverage their positions in order to never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity when it comes to enforcement.

The corrupting process is facilitated in the United States by legitimate cartel fronts, in the agribusiness and transportation industries, among others. No one likes that answer, but its the truth.

How else can tractor-trailer loads of heroin make it into the country? How has such an elaborate and efficient distribution system spread throughout the country and perpetuated itself for decades? One knowledgeable law enforcement source gave me an example: Does Walmart ever run out of milk? No. Thats exactly what the cartel distribution system is like across the entire country. It only works so efficiently because of corruption.

The greatest criminal threat to the daily lives of American citizens are the Mexican drug cartels. Their corrosive power is killing Americans regardless of race, color, creed or zip code  and that undermines public confidence in the rule of law. The cartels corrupt our trusted public officials and institutions. Their violence and cruelty know no bounds.

What will President Trump and Attorney General Sessions do differently to defeat this other threat to the United States?

They need to start by "cleaning house at the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security.
Has Ronald Reagan passed the Republican Party baton to Donald Trump?

When I suggested as much a few days ago, critics objected that I was blaspheming the Gipper. They said his ideas of limited government, individual freedom, lower taxes and peace through strength will live on forever.

Amen to that. Yes, Reagan's ideals should always be the guiding light of the GOP. Radio talk show host Mark Levin, reminded his listeners that Reagan won two landslide elections, while Trump so far has won one narrow victory. Levin says that Reagan was a real conservative, and Trump isnt, "Shame on you, Stephen Moore," he lectured.

But the critics are entirely missing my point. Trump won with states like Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, which the GOP has rarely, if ever, carried since 1984. He put together a working-class coalition that included many longtime and union Democrats in a way that few Republicans  even George W. Bush in his two victories  were able to do. He appealed to these voters with a somewhat different set of policy promises than Reagan did.

It is true that many of the voters who crossed over to the GOP were the old Reagan Democrats. But I met many union workers who told me they voted for Trump and who never before voted Republican.

These are Trump Democrats. Andy McCarthy of National Review recently spouted the new favorite line that many Republicans would have beaten Hillary Clinton. Really? Does anyone really think Jeb Bush or John Kasich or even my good friend Ted Cruz would have crashed through the Blue Wall and vanquished Hillary?

Maybe. But I doubt it.

A new Trump party shouldn't and hopefully won't toss aside the growth policies employed by Reagan. In many policy areas Reagan and Trump overlap. Trump wants to cut taxes, as Reagan did. Trump wants to revitalize the American military, as Reagan did. Trump wants to deregulate, as Reagan did.

But Trump will be more skeptical of trade deals. He is willing to spend up to $1 trillion on new infrastructure projects. He is going to be less receptive to immigration than Reagan was. But the voters of 2016 wanted these policies. They were part of his winning formula. We cant judge Trump by the standards of the 1980s  even Reagan himself might have different attitudes today about what is needed to recapture our culture and jump start growth.

Trump has made a series of promises to voters, and the party should keep its word. Im not a huge fan of a wall, but this helped get Trump elected, so BUILD THE WALL. Lets hope it has big gates for legal immigrants.

This isn't to say Republicans should turn into Smoot-Hawley trade protectionists, or throw out fiscal conservatism. When Trump is wrong, conservatives should challenge him. Reagan himself supported auto import quotas  and free marketeers were right to vote no.

Conservatives who are salivating over the prospect of three new Supreme Court nominees in the next four years, and pro-growth tax cuts, and vouchers for low-income kids, and the death of ObamaCare, and the end of anti-growth climate change derangement, need to understand that you might have to swallow some policies you dont agree with to get the good ones.

Voters will render a verdict on Trump and the Republicans in 2018 and 2020, based on whether they deliver results (jobs) for the forgotten men and women of the middle class ("the deplorables"). The Democrats abandoned these Americans by pursuing far left economic and cultural issues that, it turned out, voters hated.

If there are losers in this new era, it won't be conservatives. It will be the ruling class of political operatives who want to rush for the exits. And good riddance. They are the ones who gave us 15 years of malaise.

Conservatives shouldn't fret too much over Trump's deviations from Reagan policies. So far the Cabinet appointments and the policy priorities of his incoming administration have been nearly impeccable.

He's also showing a willingness to reach out to the other side to score policy victories and avoid paralysis. That is right out of the Reagan playbook. The Gipper was a master political strategist, perhaps even more than he was an orthodox conservative. That's how you rack up victories that are durable, a lesson Barack Obama never learned.

Trump's party is an America First party. He is likely to end the left's unpatriotic policies that always apologize to the rest of the world for our nation's faults. It's about time we put American workers first, just as Trump did when he negotiated to save 1,000 Carrier jobs that were headed to Mexico. That's leadership.

I'm not cheerleading here. A lot can go wrong with this experiment. But it is simply a reality that the Republican Party has moved in a new direction, with a new voting bloc behind it.

Voters seem to know something big is on the way. Look at how investor and consumer confidence has soared since Election Day.

Something tells me Reagan would be smiling.
The collective freakout from the crybaby left is now reaching mind-numbing levels.

Let's go through the very latest ridiculous examples. According to The Washington Free Beacon, the public relations company founded by CNN commentator and alt-radical leftist Van Jones is working with Republican Electoral College electors who plan on voting against Donald Trump on Dec. 19.

The New York Times Magazine reports that the Trump victory is so devastating to liberal women in Washington that they're now cutting their hair and dying it black to somehow feel empowered to oppose President-elect Trump.

And that's not all. The Washington Post ran a story of what crybaby lefties are now calling the "Trump 10." You know how you send your kids off to college, they gain 10 pounds the first year? Well, Clinton voters are apparently so upset at Trump that they are pigging out and packing on pounds.

And Cosmopolitan magazine put out an article with this headline: "I haven't had sex in weeks and I blame Donald Trump."

Over at ABCs "The View," we have Joy Behar and others losing their collective minds over the election. It's like they've got three Rosie O'Donnells.

One smart person said that they think that what's going to really happen is the Republicans are going to turn on him... and Pence will eventually start doing to presidency, Joy Behar said.

Watch your uterus, Whoopi Goldberg chimed in. That's all I'm saying. This new administration is bringing in something we haven't seen in a long time.

Mental illness, Behar replied.

Ladies, your uteruses will be fine.

President Obama's close adviser, Valerie Jarrett, said Trumps victory was like a punch in the stomach, let's say. Soul crushing might be another description.

Oh, it is all so very sad.

Of course, left-wing Hollywood can't take it, either. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Tina Fey claimed that President Trump will turn the country into Nazi America. And under uber-liberal Michael Moore is saying Republicans are going to bring about an onslaught of suffering from day one.

The majority of Americans -- let's say it again -- wanted Hillary Clinton, Moore said. The majority of Americans did not want Donald Trump. It is the responsibility of this minority of Democrats in Congress to block, obstruct, disrupt and do whatever they can to prevent the onslaught that is going to happen with Donald Trump.

Michael, calm down. The suffering happened under Obama. Thirteen million more Americans are on food stamps, 8 million more are in poverty and we have the lowest labor participation rate since the 1970s. All because of Obama's policies.

Finally, CNNs Chris Cuomo actually compared the president-elect and Scott Pruitt, his nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency, to segregationists. In doing so, Cuomo steamrolled over his co-host, who at least tried to interject some fairness into an otherwise loony colloquy.

He -- you know, he hasn't denied global warming. He has said -- , co-host Alisyn Camerota said.

Says it's far from settled, Cuomo snapped. Either you accept the science, or you don't. Ninety-nine percent of the scientific community says global warming is impacted by man.

CNN says the number is 90 percent --, Camerota offered.

People thought the world was flat, Cumo thundered. People thought blacks and whites shouldn't marry. People thought blacks shouldn't be equal. That doesn't mean that you accept it as fact as a leader.

All of this is beyond ridiculous. But what it all really means is this: They lost, they can't handle it.

And, hopefully, America won.
If you're in the market for a new smartphone, checking prices could give you a serious case of sticker shock. Both Google's Pixel and Apple's iPhone 7 start at $649 and go up from there, while a top-of-the-line iPhone 7 Plus sells for $969.

But if you're OK with having something that's a little less than the latest model, going with a used phone can save you a bundle. The downside? Getting a good deal  and a phone that works  takes more effort than buying a new phone off the store shelf.

If you're willing to put in some legwork to save cash, here's what you need to know about buying a used cell phone  and seven questions to ask before doing so.

Where Can I Buy a Used Phone?

Buying anything used comes with a certain amount of risk. Your new-to-you smartphone could be damaged, still under contract (meaning you won't be able to activate it with your carrier), or even stolen  so be careful when and where you buy. You have these four basic shopping options, and each has its own level of risk.

With a classified ad site like Craigslist, there are no guarantees and no return policies.

A classified ad site like Craigslist

This option involves the most risk. Because you're probably buying directly from an individual, there are no guarantees and no return policies. However, this is also where you'll find the best deals if you're careful and avoid potential scams.

An auction site like eBay or Swappa

These kinds of sites don't inspect the phones but do guarantee that products should arrive as described. Simply confirm that the product description is clear enough for you to argue the point  for example, a phone described as working doesn't turn on when you receive it  if something's amiss.

A used-tech marketplace like Gazelle

These marketplaces act as intermediaries between buyer and seller, and guarantee the transaction. The sites inspect used goods before selling them, so you're sure to get what you're paying for.

A traditional retailer selling refurbs

A certified refurbished product is guaranteed to be like-new, but it's also the most expensive used option. However, you can get a nearly new product at a good discount.

Can I Use the Phone With My Carrier or in My Region?

Different carriers use different tech to connect to their networks: CDMA (Sprint, Verizon) and GSM (AT&T, T-Mobile). Some phones are built to work on both networks. But some aren't  like certain models of the new iPhone 7  and you're locked into one or the other when you buy.

SEE ALSO: 3 Easy Ways to Use Your Phone Abroad (Without Going Broke)

If you do any international travel, know that GSM is more widely supported around the globe. You can easily swap a local SIM card into your GSM phone when you're in another country to get coverage at a reasonable cost.

Is the Phone Unlocked?

Some phones may be locked to a specific carrier, meaning you can't activate them with another carrier. This is common for a phone that's still under contract or originally bought through a carrier. Look for an unlocked phone if you aren't committed to a specific carrier, though you can usually save by buying a phone locked into a certain network.

Is It Stolen?

You may, through no fault of your own, buy a stolen smartphone. It could work for a while. But when someone reports it as stolen, it'll suddenly be as useful as a brick. The carriers will blacklist its serial number and it won't be usable.

A stolen phone could work for a while. But when someone reports it, it'll suddenly be as useful as a brick.

Some sales sites  like Swappa and Gazelle  check the serial number and make sure the phone isn't stolen before it's sold; but if you're doing a deal on Craigslist or eBay, you're on your own. The easiest way to check is to ask the seller for the serial number, and then call your carrier to see if the phone can be activated.

What Condition Is the Phone In?

You may be OK with some dings and scratches in exchange for a discount  after all, you're probably putting a case on your new smartphone anyway  but you may not want a phone that shows extreme signs of wear. While buying a phone in less-than-perfect condition can get you a serious deal, that poor condition could also indicate damage to the electronics that will haunt you down the road.

SEE ALSO: What Does Refurbished Mean? How to Tell the Difference Between Not-New Items

What's It Worth?

A used phone has no MSRP, so you need to do the research to figure out whether you're getting a good price. The model, carrier, condition, and even the color can have a big impact on price.

Is Now the Right Time to Buy?

The newer the model, the higher the price  and with recently announced models, you may not have the option to buy used or refurbished. It helps to be aware of the manufacturer's release schedule, as prices on the previous year's model often drop immediately after a new model is announced. However, patience can save you a bundle; prices should keep falling for a few months after a new model is released.

Readers, what are your used phone shopping tips? If you have a used cell phone, how has it worked out? Let us know in the comments!
Christmas in the Lone Star state has no greater defender than Attorney General Ken Paxton. So when he read my column about a middle school in Killeen that tried to censor the true meaning of Christmas, he decided it was time to jingle somebodys bells.

First, a quick refresher on the back story:

A staffer at Patterson Middle School was told she had to remove a poster depicting a scene from the cherished holiday classic, A Charlie Brown Christmas.

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The door-length poster featured Linus, a scrawny tree and that beautiful recitation of the true meaning of Christmas.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a savior which is Christ the Lord. Thats what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown, Linus said.

Dedra Shannons poster was well-received among the staff and students  but a few days later she was told by the principal that she should either have to remove the religious references or remove the entire poster.

Linus could stay but the Baby Jesus had to go.

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She said my poster is an issue of separation of church and state, Ms. Shannon told me. She said the poster had to come down because it might offend kids from other religions or those who do not have a religion.

Ms. Shannon refused to compromise her religious beliefs and ultimately removed the poster.

I wasnt going to leave Linus and the Christmas tree without having the dialogue. Thats the whole point of why it was put up.

The incident proves that public school tolerance can only be achieved by being intolerant towards Christians.

But it turns out the principal may have inadvertently broken the 2013 Merry Christmas law. That law stipulates no school official in Texas can silence a Biblical reference to Christmas.

I am proud to have voted for the Merry Christmas law in 2013, when I was a member of the legislature, Paxton said. We passed that law precisely because of this type of discrimination against people of faith.

Paxton minced no words in describing what happened in that hallway at Patterson Middle School.

This is an attack on religious liberty and a violation of the First Amendment and state law, he said. I am calling on the school board of the Killeen ISD to immediately reverse their unlawful decision.

For the past several days Ive been reaching out to the school district  but so far the superintendent has not returned my messages.

The school board has a long history of standing up for religious liberty.

Terry Delano, president of the school districts board of trustees, told me they voted to change the name of Winter Break to Christmas Break. And last year they defied the Freedom From Religion Foundations demand to cease praying before meetings.

The school district also ignored the Department of Educations demand that they open all bathrooms to the opposite gender.

These strong stances for Christianity and morality often go unreported and unnoticed, but they represent important victories in a time when our culture seems to be rotting in a cesspool, Mr. Delano wrote to me.

It sounds as if the good people of Killeen are being well-served by the school board and Im certain they will resolve this incident at the middle school  whether it was intentional or a misunderstanding.

Either way, Attorney General Paxton dropped a great big Yuletide truth bomb on the Killeen Independent School District: Dont mess with Texas and dont mess with Christmas. Otherwise, you might just find your tinsel in a twist.
I remember the quote well, My daughter used to walk over hypodermic needles and through metal detectors -- just to enter the very school that the government deemed a failure. But now, with her scholarship, shes safe and thriving academically.

Before Betsy DeVos, thousands of parents, mostly minority and below the poverty line, like the one I talked to a few years ago, lacked the empowerment to make decisions that shaped their childs destiny. The government, faced with no competition and an appetite for protecting its power, taught one way -- their way, with little to no innovation. That was until Betsy DeVos began her education reform movement in the 1990s.

Ive been lucky to work for Betsy and her various education reform organizations since 2005 in Louisiana, Washington, D.C., and nine other states  all with the mindset of supporting policy and candidates that passionately want to empower parents to make decisions for their children.

And thats the legacy of Betsy DeVos. A change agent that doesnt talk the talk, but walks the walk -by investing her time, people and yes, money, to save children trapped in failing schools. That investment, in a multitude of states, is an overwhelming success because the ultimate outcome is to shift power away from government and give it to parents who simply know how to best educate their child.

In 1963, Alabama governor George Wallace stood in the schoolhouse door to block Vivian Malone and James Hood from enrolling at the University of Alabama. As a native Alabamian, it still serves as a symbol of hate and discrimination that was an embarrassment to my state, and our nation. That symbol has a new dichotomy today; and its the very media, government officials and teachers unions that stand in front of poor, mostly minority families, denying their child access to the best education possible. That drug called power does not help children or parents. And Donald Trump should be commended for nominating Betsy DeVos to blow it up.

But the school choice oppositions voice is not overt like Wallace in the 60s. They wrap themselves in poll tested phrasing to win the PR war. How long have we heard the media and union officials say education reformers want to destroy public education and speak in terms of letting their allies create new education plans that will work over time, Just give it 10 years they say  only to hear the same verbiage used 10 years later after another failure and lost generation of children.

Betsys philosophy has always been that we need to stand up for those left behind right now, not in 10 years, not even tomorrow. Childrens lives today are worth just as much as those who will be around in 10 years.

Case in point, the state of Louisiana. In 2008, Betsy worked across the aisle by recruiting two Democratic African-American legislators to sponsor the Louisiana Scholarship Program (with a reform minded governor in Bobby Jindal). And it passed that year for only the city of New Orleans. Betsy didnt stop there. She immediately began working to expand the program statewide so all children could benefit. The unions, media and even some allies, told her not to do it  it was going to be treacherous. She kept fighting. By 2012, the Louisiana legislature passed a statewide scholarship law.

Betsys diligent focus on education reform in Louisiana helped pull students trapped in failing schools out of the abyss. The results? According to the 2015/16 Louisiana Department of Education annual report, the state now has over 74,000 students enrolled in charter schools and it has gone from zero private school scholarships awarded (to students in poor performing schools), to approximately 8,000 today (and the program is in demand, receiving double the amount of applicants every year), bringing the total publicly funded choice enrollment to over 82,000 students.

Betsys organization, the American Federation for Children, has conducted a parent survey in Louisiana, over the past seven years, to gauge the opinions of the parents whose children were being served by the private scholarship program. The results are staggering 91.2% of scholarship parents are satisfied with the program, 91.6% of parents have seen academic progress with their child, and 98.6% say their child is safe and welcomed in their school.

Betsys edict was always clear  we werent waiting for the 10 year plan to run its course. She acted fast and swift and it may have saved an entire generation of Louisianas most vulnerable children.

Charter school laws and the scholarship program were passed because Betsy DeVos led. She wasnt dogmatic about the vouchers or charter schools; she was dogmatic on making sure we empowered parents to make the best education decision for their kids.

Leadership on the education reform issue means having a tough skin and you know youve hit a nerve when the teachers unions are in full-panic mode since PEOTUS Donald J. Trump named Betsy DeVos secretary of education-designate. No doubt there will be a contentious confirmation looming once the new administration takes office.

But Betsy DeVos is standing up to the bullies in the schoolhouse door. She has stood up for those without a voice and shes done it by aggressively championing their stories at the ballot box and in the halls of government.

The education world has changed and with Betsy as the next Secretary of Education, more of that is yet to come.
By choosing retired Marine General John Kelly to serve as Homeland Security Secretary, President-elect Donald Trump appears to be assembling a 'Band of Brothers' rather than a 'Team of Rivals,' the model used by President Obama to form his first cabinet.

Reached by phone in Canberra, Australia, Kelly told Fox News, "I have been asked and would consider it an honor."

In addition to three-star General Michael Flynn, the former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Trump has now chosen two Marines - both close friends - to lead the Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security. A third Marine, General Joe Dunford, is Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

Trump tapped Gen James Mattis to be Defense Secretary pending Senate confirmation and Thursday crossed a hurdle in Congress with the House passing language as part of a budget bill that would allow for a one-time exception to the law that states that a person needs to be off active duty for seven years before serving as Defense Secretary, a role typically reserved for civilians.

Dunford, now the chairman of the joint chiefs, is a longtime friend of Kelly's. In fact, Dunford delivered the news that Kelly's son, then 2nd Lieutenant Robert. M. Kelly, also a Marine, had been killed in Afghanistan six years ago. He appeared at Kelly's front door wearing his full dress uniform.

Dunford was assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps at the time.

Kelly said when he saw his old friend at the door, he knew immediately his son was dead. Kelly is the highest ranking military officer to have a child killed in combat.

Four days after his son was killed, he delivered an emotional speech in St. Louis to the Semper Fi Society, a speech that has become iconic within the military and among military families. He called out the fact that so few families serve and so few are protecting so many.

"We are in a life-and-death struggle, but not our whole country," Kelly said in the November 2010 speech. "One percent of Americans are touched by this war. Then there is a much smaller club of families who have given all."

Dunford and his wife Ellyn attended a gala dinner that Veterans' Day. Earlier in the day, they accompanied Kelly and his wife to Dover to retrieve their son's remains.

There is no underestimating the bond that these two Marines feel for each other. They will now be in a very senior advisory role to President-elect Trump.

When asked about losing his son at his final Pentagon press conference, Kelly spoke for all Goldstar families: "I think the one thing they would ask is that the cause for which their son or daughter fell be -- be carried through to -- to a successful end, whatever that means, as opposed to 'this is getting too costly,' or 'too much of a pain in the ass,' and 'let's just walk away from it.' Because that's when they start thinking it might have been not worth it."

Kelly served as then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates' senior military adviser when the current DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson was General Counsel at the Pentagon. Kelly has been advising Johnson in recent months.

He served as the commander of the U.S. Southern Command from 2012 to 2016, when he oversaw the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, the U.S. southern border and worked with the DEA on drug interdictions.

At his final press conference in the Pentagon, Kelly told reporters that one of his frustrations was having the military's hands tied in some ways when it came to interdicting drugs, including not enough helicopters and surveillance.

"I don't need an awful lot," Kelly told reporters at the Jan. 8 press conference. "But drones would be nice, because they can stay up forever and they don't get tired, and they're less expensive to operate. But no, we have not seen anything, any increases -- certainly no drones."

He expressed concerns at the time that the U.S. had rushed to release certain prisoners who might return to the battlefield.

"Well, I mean, they're all bad boys. We have dossiers on all of them. Some of them were more effective in being bad boys than others. You know, you -- we can -- I think we can all quibble on whether 13 or 12 or 8 years in -- in detention is enough to have them -- having paid for whatever they did, but they're -- they're bad guys," Kelly said.

He is not afraid to speak his mind. Here's what Kelly said when asked about the military being told to open all combat positions to women last year:

"It will be the pressure for not probably the generals that are here now, but for the generals to come, and admirals, to lower standards because that's the only way it'll work in the way that I hear some people, particularly, the agenda-driven people here in Washington -- or in the land, the way they want it to work," Kelly told reporters Jan. 8 at the Pentagon.
President-elect Donald Trump said Thursday that the Chinese "haven't played by the rules, and they know it's time that they're going to start" as his victory tour of states that helped him win the presidency made its way to Iowa.

Trump accused Beijing of "massive theft of intellectual property" and of levying "unfair taxes on our companies," as well as "not helping with the menace of North Korea like they should."

"Other than that, they have been wonderful, right?" Trump asked rhetorically, to laughter from the Des Moines crowd.

Trump also brought Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad onstage and praised his pick to be the next ambassador to China, saying Branstad "knew how to get things done" and would improve "one of the most important relationships we have."

Trump cited Branstad's friendship with Chinese President Xi Jinping and vowed there would be "mutual respect" between Washington and Beijing.

"We're going to have mutual respect, and China is going to benefit and we're going to benefit," Trump said. "And Terry is going to lead the way."

Earlier Thursday, Trump flew to Columbus, Ohio to meet with several victims of the Nov. 28 terror attack at Ohio State University. Investigators say student Abdul Ali Razak Artan, 18, first rammed a campus crowd with his car before getting out with a knife and stabbing students before being fatally shot by police.

The president-elect spent about 30 minutes with some of the victims and their families.

"These are great people, amazing people," said Trump, who also paid tribute to the first responders who tended to the victims and shot the attacker. "The families have come through this so well."



Trump met with the families privately and aides did not immediately provide an accounting of what was discussed. But, in his brief statement to reporters, he took on the role of comforter-in-chief, avoiding the inflammatory rhetoric that has marked his response to other attacks.

Immediately following the Ohio incident, Trump had tweeted that Artan, a legal Somali immigrant, should not have been in the country. And last week, in nearby Cincinnati, Trump said lax immigration policies enacted by "stupid politicians" led to the "violent atrocity."



Later in Iowa, he did not mention the attacker but declared: "This horrific assault is just one more tragic reminder that immigration security is national security. A Trump administration will always put the safety and security of American people first."

Trump also paid tribute to former astronaunt and U.S. Senator John Glenn, who passed away Thursday at the age of 95.

The president-elect called Glenn "one of our great heroes ... a giant among men, and a true American legend who inspired generations of explorers and dreamers. We will honor his legacy by continuing to push new frontiers in science, technology, and space."

On Friday, the president-elect is to make an appearance in Louisiana to boost the Republican Senate candidate ahead of that state's runoff before holding a rally in Michigan

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The Army has reopened an investigation into a former Green Beret after he admitted during a Fox News interview that he killed a suspected Taliban bombmaker they had held in Afghanistan.

Maj. Mathew Golsteyn already had faced an initial investigation after acknowledging during a polygraph test he had killed the unarmed suspect. While that case was later closed, Golsteyn appeared on the Fox News special How We Fight in October and discussed the incident publicly.

The suspected Taliban member in question was held during the battle of Marja in February 2010. The suspect, though, was not on a list of targets U.S. forces were cleared to kill -- and after he was detained, Golsteyn said he refused to talk to investigators.

Under the rules of engagement, Golsteyn was ordered to release him.

However, Golsteyn, who was deployed to Afghanistan as part of 3rd Special Forces Group, was concerned that if he did so, the suspect would have in turn targeted Afghans who were helping U.S. soldiers.

Theres limits on how long you can hold guys, he told Fox News' Bret Baier. You realize quickly that you make things worse. It is an inevitable outcome that people who are cooperating with coalition forces, when identified, will suffer some terrible torture or be killed.

Golsteyn told Fox News he killed him.

A senior U.S. defense official confirmed to Fox News on Friday that the Army has reopened its investigation based on new evidence that includes the Green Beret's public statements. The Washington Post first reported on the reopened probe.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., is fighting the Army's decision to revisit the case. In a Dec. 7 letter to Army Secretary Eric Fanning and Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, Hunter said Golsteyn has been unfairly targeted.

The fact that his case has been reopened, on the grounds it has, is more proof of a process that, even though intended to pursue the facts, can also be leveraged for retaliation, Hunter wrote.

Golsteyn defended his actions during a phone interview with Fox News on Friday.

I made a lawful engagement of a known enemy combatant on the battlefield, he said, while also disputing characterizations that the Taliban suspect was a "detainee" since he was "never processed."

We were told that protecting the civilian population was priority number one, even at the cost of our own lives. I did that, he said.

The earlier Army investigation was undertaken after Golsteyn disclosed details of the incident during a polygraph test when he was interviewing for a job with the CIA in 2011.

According to Army documents obtained by The Washington Post through the Freedom of Information Act, Golsteyn told the CIA he had no qualms about killing the man because he couldnt have lived with himself if (the alleged bombmaker) killed another soldier or marine.

Golestyn reportedly described taking the bombmaker off base, shooting him and burying his remains in a shallow grave. He said he and two other soldiers dug up the remains and burned them in a pit used to dispose of trash.

We hashed all of this out with the Army a year and a half ago. I dont have anything that I am ashamed of," he told Fox on Friday.

Its dangerous to take combat out of its context. Combat is a horrible thing. You can take anything and make it sound uncomfortable," he added.

Golsteyn, who had been awarded the Silver Star, the militarys third-highest award for combat valor, was initially accused of murder and conspiracy. Following a lengthy investigation by a military tribunal, no formal charges were filed.

Instead, Golsteyn was removed from the Special Forces and had his Silver Star taken away.

In an email to The Washington Post, Golsteyn said he was frustrated, but not terribly surprised the Army reopened its investigation. He added that the Defense Department and Army had viciously pursued him without a discernible cause or a stated goal for over five years.

No other service members would testify against Golsteyn, even when they were offered immunity from prosecution.

Hunter says hell continue to champion on Golsteyns behalf.

Golsteyn is an American hero  a true warrior, in fact. Why the Army is hell-bent on destroying a combat heros career is truly astonishing, Hunter wrote, adding that the Army has the ability to fix this stupidity.

Army spokeswoman Lt. Col. Jennifer Johnson reportedly said in a statement that it would be inappropriate to comment further regarding an ongoing investigation.
Hillary Clinton denounced fake news during a speech on Thursday for retiring Nevada Senator Harry Reid.

Clinton called the rise of fake news an epidemic in her first speech since losing the presidential election.

"Its now clear that so-called fake news can have real-world consequences," Clinton said at the Capitol.

A recent incident involving a gunman who fired multiple shots inside a Washington pizza shop has become a target of a fake conspiracy story.

Clinton addressed the issue saying its "not about politics or partisanship. Lives are at risk. Lives of ordinary people just trying to go about their days to do their jobs, contribute to their communities."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
When you write a piece that begins I know how to be a gracious loser, youre clearly on the defensive.

And thats where Hillary Clintons communications director finds herself right now.

Jennifer Palmieri, you may recall, got into it with Kellyanne Conway when she told Donald Trumps campaign manager at a Harvard forum: If providing a platform for white supremacists makes me a brilliant tactician, I would rather lose than win the way you guys did. Conway denied doing anything of the sort, and the Hillary aide came off as, well, a less than gracious loser.

Palmieri is a pro, respected in the business, but it sounded like she hasnt come to grips with Clintons loss. So she took to the Washington Post op-ed page yesterday to defend herself.

Despite the usual politeness of the Harvard event, I decided this was a year where normal rules dont apply. Speaking the truth was more important.

Palmieiri says that while she accepts Trumps victory (though not in the popular vote), we are not laying down our principles or abandoning our supporters. But its also important for the winners of this campaign to think long and hard about the voters who rejected them.

To which I would offer two words: Al Gore.

There was zero pressure on him to meet with the former vice president, even from him. And yet Gore, the countrys most visible evangelist on battling climate change, emerged from a meeting with kind words about Trump. Mr. Inconvenient Truth said they had a "lengthy and very productive" talk, calling it "a sincere search for areas of common ground."

Oh, and Leonardo DiCaprio. Trump met with the actor and activist as well to discuss climate change.

And while were at it, the president-elect has met with several top Democratic mayors: Chicagos Rahm Emanuel, New Yorks Bill De Blasio, and Washingtons Muriel Bowser.

And Trump has stayed in touch with President Obama, who he bitterly denounced on the campaign trail, telling NBCs Matt Lauer that he has sought the presidents advice on Cabinet picks and in one instance taken that advice.

Ive gotten to know President Obama. I really like himWe have a really good chemistry together. We talk. He loves the country. He wants to do right by the country. And, of course, they disagree on many issues.

Now Im sure Trump critics will dismiss this as window-dressing. But symbolism is important when a new president is taking over a divided country.

And yes, he just nominated Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, an outspoken climate change skeptic, to run the EPA, as well as Tom Price at HHS and Ben Carson at HUD, both of whom have challenged part of the mission of those departments. But the ultimate decisions will be made by Trump.

Palmieri, meanwhile, is wedded to the notion that race was at the heart of Trumps victory, even if he did win 306 electoral votes:

I dont know whether the Trump campaign needed to give a platform to white supremacists to win. But the campaign clearly did, and it had the effect of empowering the white-nationalist movement.

I know all the criticisms of Trump: that he retweeted stuff from white supremacists; that his criticism of Mexicans and Muslims was racially divisive; that he hired Steve Bannon despite the inflammatory stuff on Breitbart. Thats fair game for debate.

But when asked about, say, David Duke or the KKK, he would always renounce their supportyet never vociferously enough for his detractors. And no politician can be responsible for every extremist who decides to offer support. Some wack jobs also backed Hillary Clinton.

Anyone who thinks Trump won the presidency because he was backed by racists and yahoos isnt being realistic about the 60 million votes he got.

Palmieri closes by suggesting that he and his team try hashtag we are all Americans. We all have a role to play here. But its the winner who carries the burden of taking the lead in uniting the country.

Its early for a sweeping judgment on whether Trump is uniting the country, given that he hasnt taken office yet. But if a Democratic president-elect was meeting with prominent conservatives and praising the GOP incumbent, he would probably garner some praise. Unity, it seems to me, is a two-way street.
The press' crusade against the spread of fake news is not going well.

Newsrooms were set abuzz Wednesday morning after a Belgian Catholic weekly published an interview in which Pope Francis supposedly condemned "fake news" as a sin. Ironically enough, the pope didn't quite do this, meaning the press pushed a bogus story claiming Francis had condemned bogus stories.

Here is exactly what the pope said, according to a translation provided by the Vatican's press office:

"The communications media have a very great responsibility. Nowadays they have in their hands the possibility and the capacity to form opinion: they can form a good or a bad opinion. The means of communication are the builders of a society. In and of themselves, they are made to build, to interchange, to fraternise, to make us think, to educate. In themselves they are positive. It is obvious that, given that we are all sinners, also the media can  we who use the media, I am using a means of communication here  become harmful. And the communications media have their temptations.

They can be tempted by calumny, and therefore used to slander, to sully people, especially in the world of politics. They can be used as a means of defamation: every person has the right to a good reputation, but perhaps in their previous life, or ten years ago, they had a problem with justice, or a problem in their family life, and bringing this to light is serious and harmful; it can annul a person. In slander we tell a lie about a person; in defamation, we leak a document, as we say in Argentina, "Se hace un carpetazo"  and we uncover something that is true, but already in the past, and which has already been paid for with a jail sentence, with a fine, or whatever. There is no right to this. This is a sin and it is harmful.

A thing that can do great damage to the information media is disinformation: that is, faced with any situation, saying only a part of the truth, and not the rest. This is disinformation. Because you, to the listener or the observer, give only half the truth, and therefore it is not possible to make a serious judgement.

Disinformation is probably the greatest damage that the media can do, as opinion is guided in one direction, neglecting the other part of the truth. And then, I believe that the media should be very clear, very transparent, and not fall prey  without offence, please  to the sickness of coprophilia, which is always wanting to communicate scandal, to communicate ugly things, even though they may be true. And since people have a tendency towards the sickness of coprophagia, it can do great harm. Thus, I would say that there are these four temptations. But they are builders of opinion and can construct, and do immense good, immense."

In short, Pope Francis' message is: Don't lie. Don't slander. Don't bear false witness.

Read more on WashingtonExaminer.com




President-elect Donald Trump has picked Goldman Sachs veteran Gary Cohn to head up the National Economic Council, Fox News confirmed Friday.

Cohn, 56, has worked at Goldman Sachs for more than two decades. If he accepts the post, he would have a major role in shaping Trumps economic policy, which could include lowering corporate taxes and a shift in U.S. trade policy.

Leaving the Wall Street gig for a Washington one would require Cohn to leave his $21 million a year job as president and chief operating officer at Goldman Sachs.

Trumps pick of another Wall Street insider from Goldman Sachs is raising some eyebrows. The president-elect repeatedly vilified Goldman on the campaign trail. However, since winning the election, he has chosen three bank alumni to fill top spots in his administration.

Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary nominee, and Steve Bannon, Trump's chief strategist and senior counselor, also worked at Goldman Sachs.

The National Economic Council helps to coordinate domestic and global issues, providing economic policy advice to the president and monitoring how the White House's agenda is implemented across the government.

If Cohn accepts the nomination, he will also be the third Goldman executive to run the NEC. Robert Rubin was the NEC director under Bill Clinton, and Stephen Friedman had the job during George W. Bush's administration.

Cohns path to Goldman wasnt the typical one. He graduated jobless from American University in Washington, D.C., and moved back into his parents' home, according to a speech he gave at his alma mater. Cohn quickly found work at U.S. Steel to appease his father, only to pivot to a Wall Street job within a few months that eventually led him to Goldman in 1990.

During the campaign, Trump repeatedly attacked his rivals over their Goldman ties.

He criticized GOP primary opponent Ted Cruz for taking loans from the bank, where Cruz's wife worked, to help pay for his Texas Senate race in 2012. And he chided Clinton for accepting large speaking fees from Goldman and for not publicly sharing what she had told the bankers.

"I know the guys at Goldman Sachs," Trump said at a South Carolina rally in February, when he was locked in a fierce battle with Cruz. "They have total, total control over him. Just like they have total control over Hillary Clinton."

Trump even featured a video of Goldman chief executive Lloyd Blankfein in a campaign ad with the voiceover, "Hillary Clinton meets in secret with international banks to plot the destruction of U.S. sovereignty in order to enrich these global financial powers, her special interest friends and her donors."

But Trump appears to have since changed his tune.

In a Dec. 9 speech in Des Moines, Iowa, Trump said, "I want people that made a fortune. Because now they're negotiating with you, OK?"

Fox News' John Roberts and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Ronald Smith

Ronald Smith executed for 1994 capital murder





Ronald Smith was executed Thursday night for committing capital murder in 1994. He was pronounced dead at 11:05 p.m.





Media witnesses said Smith gasped and coughed for 13 minutes of execution, which began at 10:25 and ended at 11:05.





He was twice administered a consciousness check, and gave a level of reaction media witnesses who have covered several executions say they have never seen.





It is the Alabama Department of Corrections' protocol to give a consciousness check after the 1st drug in the 3-drug lethal injection is given. The 1st drug is meant to anesthetize inmate's beyond consciousness. The 2nd drug is a paralytic and the third stops the heart.





The 1st conscious check was at 10:37, the 2nd was at 10:46, ADOC spokesman Bob Horton said. Kent Faulk, an al.com reporter who witnessed Smith's execution along with 2 other lethal injection executions said this was the 1st time he has seen a consciousness check given twice.





Smith's family did not attend the execution. One member of the victim's family who wished to not be identified was present.





His was the 2nd execution in Alabama this year; Christopher Brooks was executed in January for a 1992 rape and murder.





Shortly after his arrest, Smith confessed to killing and attempting to rob Wilson, a convenience store clerk and new father.





A Madison County jury found 24-year-old Smith guilty of capital murder. They voted 7-5 to sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.





2 months later, the judge overrode their decision and gave him death. He cited the "particularly heinous" nature of the crime, pointing to evidence that indicated Smith killed Wilson "execution style."





Alabama is the last state in the country that allows a judge to override a jury's recommended sentence.





In January, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Hurst v. Florida that Florida's sentencing scheme, which also allowed judicial override, was unconstitutional.





Following Hurst, The Delaware Supreme Court found that its sentencing scheme that also let judges override juries was also unconstitutional.





Smith's attorneys petitioned SCOTUS to stay the execution in light of Hurst. Despite issuing two temporary stays in the hours leading up to Smith's execution, the high court ultimately denied his appeal in a 4-4 split.





They filed another appeal asking the court to stay the execution that would have challenged the state's lethal injection protocol. The U.S. Supreme Court denied that petition as well.





Less than a month ago, SCOTUS issued a stay of execution for Thomas Arthur, who had also challenged the death penalty protocol in a complaint separate from Smith's.





The justices were again split 4-4 on whether to issue a stay, but Chief Justice John Roberts then cast a courtesy vote, allowing Arthur's execution to be delayed.





It was the 7th time Arthur avoided execution.





Both suits alleged that Alabama's death penalty process would cause cruel and unusual pain because the 1st drug administered does not properly anesthetize the condemned before injecting the 2nd and 3rd drugs. Without proper anesthetization, condemned inmates would feel burning and paralyzing sensations caused by the 2nd and 3rd drugs.





U.S. District Judge Keith Watkins ultimately ruled against Smith.





Smith's attorneys appealed his decision to the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, but that court upheld Watkins' decision.





Prior to his execution, Smith met with his mother, father, son and 4 friends. He was served a last meal at 2:34 p.m. He declined breakfast.





A practicing Methodist, 45-year-old Smith asked to receive Holy Communion at 3:30 p.m. Department of Corrections Spokesman Bob Horton said his request was granted.





Smith becomes the 2nd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Alabama and the 58th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1983. Smith becomes the 20th and last person to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1442nd overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.

 | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com



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Sources: Montgomery Advertiser, Rick Halperin, December 8, 2016
President-elect Donald Trump detoured from his victory tour Friday to stump for Louisiana Republican Senate candidate John Kennedy ahead of this weekends runoff, as the GOP aims to widen its 2017 majority in the upper chamber  and ensure an even friendlier Congress for the incoming president.

Kennedy, the state treasurer and GOP Senate candidate, introduced Trump at their Baton Rouge rally, saying Im running for Senate for the same reason Donald Trump ran for president: I want my country back.

Saturdays race between Kennedy and Democratic opponent Foster Campbell, the state public service commissioner, marks the last major election of the year  and has emerged as a postscript proxy battle between Trump and Hillary Clinton allies. Neither Kennedy nor Campbell won a majority in the November general election to replace retiring GOP Sen. David Vitter, sending the election into a runoff between the two best-placing contenders. Kennedy, leading in the polls, is considered the front-runner, but Trump was leaving nothing to chance with his visit Friday.

We need you to go to the polls and send John Kennedy to the United States Senate, Trump said. If he doesnt win, I have myself a problem in Washington.

Republicans will have a narrow 52-48 Senate majority next year if they maintain the Louisiana seat. Vice President-elect Mike Pence also campaigned for Kennedy last week in New Orleans, saying a Kennedy win would "put an exclamation point at the end of a great American victory in 2016."

Kennedy, in his remarks, noted that they started the crowded Senate race with 24 candidates.

If you lined up all 24 on this stage, you couldnt pick two more different than Foster Campbell and John Kennedy, Kennedy said. If you took Hillary Clinton, stood her upside down and shook her, Foster Campbell would fall out of her pocket.

Democrats have bolstered their fundraising efforts for Campbell, keeping him competitive with Kennedy on the cash-on-hand front. Both candidates are going into tomorrows runoff race with approximately $1.4 million.

Despite the efforts, Campbell has struggled to turn around the polls in a state where Trump decisively beat Clinton 58-38 percent. The latest RealClearPolitics average has Kennedy up by 7.5 points.

Trump also asked voters to turn out for Louisianas remaining congressional race Saturday. I also need you to elect Mike Johnson to the U.S. Congress, the 4th district, Trump stated.

FoxNews.coms Danny Jativa and Joseph Weber and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Hillary Clintons election defeat had many pundits declaring the Clinton era finally over. But a series of meetings with key Democratic donors and leaders  combined with still-fawning press coverage and even a quirky social media project driven by a longtime aide  are raising questions about what's next.

A return to the speaking circuit? Advocacy work? Assuming the role of elder stateswoman? Or even, a 2020 presidential run?

I think if she wants to run again, and my guess is she probably does, because they always do, then yes I think shes doing a good job laying the groundwork, Brad Bannon, Democratic strategist and CEO of Bannon Communications Research, told FoxNews.com.

A third presidential run -- after two grueling campaigns that both ended in defeat to a rival political sensation who captured the imagination of voters -- could be a stretch for the former secretary of state, senator and first lady.

But after a brief period of reclusion, Clinton is slowly but surely appearing more in public, and in ways that indicate a political and public future of some sort.

One clue that her team wants to keep its cachet with millennials is the viral sensation surrounding pictures of her spotted by her Chappaqua home -- in the woods, at the grocery store and elsewhere. The Twitter account @HRCInTheWild was created to track those appearances; the account was set up by longtime Clinton aide Adam Parkhomenko.

Parkhomenko is no random staffer  he created the Ready for Hillary PAC to draft her to run and was director of grassroots engagement for the 2016 campaign. His Twitter account is littered with personal letters from Clinton and photos with the candidate. Parkhomenko is such a significant player in ClintonWorld that in January The Washington Post published a lengthy profile of him.

"When you're knocked down, get right back up and never listen to anyone who says you can't or shouldn't go on." -Hillary pic.twitter.com/53JRNck89B  HRC In The Wild  (@HRCintheWild) December 5, 2016

Parkhomenko told FoxNews.com the Twitter account has nothing to do with the campaign, which he says wound down in November. He says instead it was a request from supporters and he happily obliged.

These photos have put a huge smile on her supporters' face and I think it has really pushed them to get back up and keep going after a devastating presidential loss. It has been incredible to watch the account grow, he said.

If, as Parkhomenko says, it is a response to supporters, then it has been wildly successful. The account, which had only been up for a few weeks, has over 27,000 followers on Twitter as well as countless likes and retweets, as well as corresponding accounts on Facebook and Instagram.

Saturday Night Live even did a light sketch on the in the wild phenomenon. Meanwhile, days after Vanity Fair described Clintons appearances a move from Presidential Candidate to Wandering Folk Hero, the New York Times used similar language Sunday, calling her a new folk hero in a familiar face for some Americans.

After the knock-down, drag-out battle of the campaign, the images suggest she has, unexpectedly, found peace, the piece reads.

Clinton indeed continues to enjoy favorable press coverage despite her upset defeat. Even as Time magazine declared Donald Trump its person of the year this week, the write-up on Clinton in the same edition compared her to an American Moses.

Clinton's team also has not exited the limelight quietly.

Campaign manager Robby Mook last week blamed the loss in part on FBI Director James Comeys decision to re-open the probe into Clintons use of a private email server. Meanwhile, Jennifer Palmieri, the campaigns director of communication, accused Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway of having given a platform to white supremacists, and followed it up with a barbed op-ed in The Washington Post, calling on the Trump campaign to own up to how it won. (Conway told "Fox & Friends" on Friday that "a little self-awareness would do for a team that is blaming everybody but themselves.")

Clinton herself drew attention Wednesday to what she called an epidemic of so-called fake news  which some pundits and supporters have claimed contributed to her defeat. It also was blamed for a gunman visiting a D.C. pizza restaurant over the weekend looking for answers on a Clinton-related conspiracy theory.

"Its now clear that so-called fake news can have real-world consequences," Clinton said in a speech at the Capitol.

CLINTON DECRIES FAKE NEWS IN CAPITOL SPEECH

Clinton was in D.C. to pay tribute to retiring Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid. While Reid is stepping down from his role, he is likely to remain as an elder statesman whose 2020 endorsement would hold value. Additionally, The New York Post reported Wednesday that Clinton is set to throw a party next week to thank her millionaire donors.

Some strategists believe the actions may point to at least a consideration of a run in 2020.

Its the Potomac Fever -- if you get close to being president, you cant get the smell off, and youre always going to want to do it again, Bannon said.

Parkhomenko said whatever Clinton chooses to do, her supporters will be there to support her and help amplify her message. As we can see, she never sits still and I can't imagine she will not remain active in whatever she way she thinks she can continue to have the most impact for good.

Clintons lead in the popular vote, which supporters have been touting, gives her camp an argument that Clinton at least wasnt rejected by voters in a McGovern-like defeat, and if Trumps presidency stumbles, a do-over of 2016 may appeal to some. However, Bannon warned such a call could turn off many Democratic Party activists.

While Im sure Clinton is thinking that way, Im not sure its going to work, he said. With both [Vice President Joe] Biden and Clinton, theyre going to be pretty old by then, and what Im hearing in conversations Ive had with people in the Democratic Party is everyone really wants a new face.
Its a discovery that's straight out of Jurassic Park. Scientists have found a tiny section of a dinosaurs tail trapped in amber, and not only that, it has feathers.

Dating to about 99 million years ago, or the mid-Cretaceous period, the amber containing the eight dinosaur vertebrae originally came from Myanmar. While scientists have known since 1996 that some non-avian dinosaurs had feathers, and even suspected that fact 10 years before that, this new find can teach them more about how feathers have evolved over millions of years. The feathered tail in question came from a juvenile dinosaur, likely a small coelurosaur.

"The new material preserves a tail consisting of eight vertebrae from a juvenile; these are surrounded by feathers that are preserved in 3D and with microscopic detail," Ryan McKellar of the Royal Saskatchewan Museum in Canada, said in a statement. He said the tail "was long and flexible, with keels of feathers running down each side." McKellar is a coauthor on a new study describing the discovery.

DINOSAUR-KILLING ASTEROID'S CRATER YIELDS NEW CLUES

The find shows the feathers barbs, and the microscopic barbules on them, in incredible detail; the feathers dont have a well-defined central shaft, or rachis, a fact that tells scientists more about feather evolution. The top part of the tail was darker-- a chestnut brown-- than its underside. The amber even contains remains of soft tissues that have carbonized.

Ancient bugs, like a beetle and ants, can also be seen trapped in the amber.

Paul Olsen, a paleontologist and a professor in Earth and environmental sciences at Columbia University, described the specimen as almost shocking in its detail.

This a remarkable find providing unprecedented detail for a previously poorly understood phase of feather evolution, he told FoxNews.com in an email. It is a wonderful complement to other non-avian dinosaur fossils, that while more complete than this tail fragment, can not provide the kind of extremely fine detail preserved in amber.

The discovery is described in a new study in the journal Current Biology.

Follow Rob Verger on Twitter: @robverger
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has released photographs of a Japanese mini-submarine that was sunk at the very beginning of the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941, and theyre haunting.

On Wednesday, the 75th anniversary of the date which will live in infamy, the NOAA ship Okeanos Explorer dispatched a robotic vehicle to explore two Japanese mini submarines, an event that they live-streamed.

In what marks the first US shots fired in World War II, the USS Ward fired at one mini-sub on the morning of December 7, 1941, sinking it, after it was first spotted attempting to enter the harbor, partially submerged. Ninety minutes after the Ward sunk the sub, the aerial attack by the Japanese began.

The first submarine NOAA explored-- the one sunk by the Ward-- had changed a great deal since the last visit to the wreck, with a peeling hull, two sections that separated from one another, and lots of biological growth, NOAA scientists report.

NOAA WILL LIVESTREAM DIVES TO JAPANESE MINI SUBS NEAR PEARL HARBOR

"Until now, only a handful of explorers and scientists have seen these relics of the war in the deep sea," James Delgado, the director of maritime heritage, NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, said in a statement before the dive, "but thanks to technology, anyone and everyone can now dive with us in the first live exploration of the 'midget' submarines that represent the beginning of the war in the Pacific."

The marine archaeologists involved in the exploration of the wreck hail from NOAA's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries and Office of Ocean Exploration and Research.

The aft ends of the torpedo tubes and mechanisms are visible through the gap at flange, the scientists reported in a document with their observations about the sunken sub provided to FoxNews.com by NOAA. This was for us a reminder of not only the deadly intent of the mission, but also its failure.

SUNKEN AMERICAN WWII TORPEDO BOMBER DISCOVERED IN PACIFIC

In another corner of the Pacific, in May of this year the Scripps Institution of Oceanography announced that they'd discovered the wreck of an American torpedo bomber sunk by Japanese forces in June of 1944; that crash had three MIAs associated with it.

Follow Rob Verger on Twitter: @robverger
The work of ancient astronomers reveals that the Earth's spin is slowing down  though not as much as scientists believed.

Each century, the length of the solar day, or the time it takes the planet to do a full rotation, grows by 1.8 milliseconds, according to a new study using astronomical observations going back to 750 B.C. Researchers have known that the planet's rotation is slowing because of friction caused by the tides, as water that's being tugged on by the moon's gravity sloshes against the solid Earth. However, measurements of this tidal effect suggest that the planet should be slowing in its rotation by 2.3 milliseconds per century, slightly more than the new research finds.

The difference between 2.3 milliseconds and 1.8 milliseconds over a century may seem trivial, said study researcher Leslie Morrison, who worked at the Royal Greenwich Observatory for nearly 40 years. But those fractions of milliseconds are important for understanding the ways that the Earth has changed shape since the end of the last ice age, about 12,000 years ago, Morrison told Live Science.

Ancient records

Morrison and his colleagues have been working on measuring the Earth's rotation for decades. The new study is perhaps the most comprehensive effort yet, Morrison said, mostly because the ancient Babylonians were so good at keeping records.

By 720 B.C., this civilization, located in what is now Iraq, was keeping records on clay tablets in a writing system called cuneiform. When archaeologists discovered some of these tablets in Babylonian ruins in the 1800s, the language had been lost; it took decades to decipher those original tablets.

Fortunately for modern-day Earth scientists, some of these tablets happened to contain records of eclipses, particularly solar eclipses, when the moon moves between the sun and the Earth, casting a shadow on this planet. These eclipses tended to make an impression on ancient people, Morrison told Live Science. The events also strengthened tides slightly, because the alignment between the Earth, moon and sun meant a stronger pull on the planet and its oceans.

"The descriptions of a total solar eclipse are so graphic," he said, including descriptions like, "When the days suddenly turn to night and the stars appear."

The researchers also collected eclipse observation records from ancient China, ancient Greece and the ancient Arab regions. The timing of the eclipses from these descriptions, however, conflicts with calculations of when the eclipses should have occurred if tidal friction alone explained the slowdown of the planet's rotation. In 720 B.C., Morrison said, the discrepancy was about 7 hours between what the tablets reported and what calculations based on the tidal models would have predicted.

"That discrepancy is the measure of how much the Earth has been changing over this period of time," Morrison said. Working backward from the discrepancy, the team calculated how long the days have lengthened over the centuries. He and his colleagues published their findings today (Dec. 6) in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society A.

Geophysical parameters

Calculating the Earth's rotation time down to less than a millisecond matters because that number says something about the way the very shape of the planet has changed, said Duncan Agnew, a geophysicist at the University of California, San Diego, who was not involved in the new study.

The major change since 720 B.C. relates to the end of the last ice age, Agnew said. The planet is like a memory-foam mattress, Agnew said, gradually rebounding as the ice retreats. The glaciers retreated 12,000 years ago, but the Earth has taken its time in bouncing back during the time that it's been relieved of their weight. That change in shape alters Earth's rotation , much as a figure skater can change the speed of a spin by drawing her or his arms in or throwing them out wide.

That shape change, which requires knowing the precise speed of the spin to calculate, is key for many other geophysical calculations, Agnew told Live Science. For example, when measuring sea-level change, climate scientists must be able to account for changes in the land.

"This data gives us another piece of information," Agnew said.

Morrison and his colleagues also used data on lunar occultation, or times when the moon passes in front of a star, blocking it from view, collected since the 1750s. Changes in Earth's rotation since that time are probably mostly due to changes in the dynamics of the liquid-iron core deep in the center of the Earth, Agnew said. Very little is known about this liquid core, so the measurements of its effect on the planet's spin are important for future research, he said.

This might seem like a bit of a dry subject, Agnew said, if it weren't for the staggering fact that all of these measurements would be impossible to calculate if fellow humans hadn't felt compelled to record astronomical events thousands of years ago.

"There were a bunch of guys back in what is now Iraq 2,500 years ago putting things in clay tablets.  They weren't thinking that 2,500 years later somebody was going to be writing a paper about Earth rotation," Agnew said. Those tablets were later lost and buried, only to be discovered by future generations of enterprising Homo sapiens.

"It's kind of amazing that this information exists at all," Agnew said.

Editor's Note: This article has been corrected to reflect that cuneiform is a writing system, not a written language.

Original article on Live Science.
In an effort to "shatter" Rio de Janeiro's "negative image," the city's mayor-elect Marcelo Crivella has proposed a tourist tax designed to raise funds that could be used to reimburse visitors who are mugged at any point in their stay, the New York Times reported.

Crivella's "bold proposal," which could result in a new tax for incoming air travelers, has been met with considerable backlash.

While Rio has experienced a historic amount of street crime this year, with an eye-popping 8,000 robberies reported in June 2016 alone  more than twice the amount in June 2015, per the Telegraph  some opponents feel the tax would ultimately turn off tourists to the popular Brazilian destination.

"Creating such a tax makes no sense, unless the aim is to discourage tourism in Rio de Janeiro," global tourism industry scholar Mario Beni told the Times.

Essentially, tourists visiting Rio would be paying themselves back through the tax.

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"I was in the room when he proposed the idea," Alfredo Lopes, president of Rio's Hotel Association, told the Times. "The first thing that came to mind is, 'If youre going to reimburse tourists, then as a citizen of Rio, I want my reparations, too.'"

The U.S. State Department acknowledges Rio's high crime rate but has stopped short of issuing a travel warning or alert.

"The city continues to experience high incidences of crime, including armed robberies," the department states on its website. "While criminal activity is more frequent in certain areas, there is no area in Rio that is immune."

"Tourists are particularly vulnerable to street thefts and robberies in the evening and at night especially in areas adjacent to major tourist attractions," it added. "If robbed, do not attempt to resist or fight back, but rather relinquish your personal belongings."

The latest travel advice for Brazil from the U.K.'s Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) warns that "levels of crime and violence are high, particularly in major cities."

"You should be particularly vigilant before and during the festive and Carnival periods," the FCO advises.
An Army officer who was accused of tracking down and killing an unarmed bomb-making suspect in Afghanistan is being recommended for an honorable discharge even though a military panel that looked into the case determined his conduct was unbecoming an officer.

The military panel at Fort Bragg reached the finding Sunday concerning Maj. Matthew Golsteyn.

Army Special Forces Command spokeswoman Maj. Allison Aguilar said Monday if the decision is upheld by a review board Golsteyn would be discharged under honorable conditions allowing him to keep nearly all veteran's benefits.

Golestyn earlier was stripped of a heroism medal and his right to call himself a Green Beret.

The panel of officers spent six days reviewing testimony about Golsteyn's conduct while leading a team of Special Forces troops in Afghanistan in 2010.
Five African-American men from Chicago filed a lawsuit in federal court Tuesday alleging that a temporary job staffing company discriminated against them in favor of Hispanic applicants.

According to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, the agency, MVP Staffing, used coded language to weed out African-American applicants from Hispanic at the behest of corporate clients who refused to hire them.

I know that certain clients of MVP do not want African Americans assigned to work at their company and that MVP has a policy of accommodating these requests  Rosa Ceja

The company operates in 60 offices in 38 states.

The MVP branch office that serves the plaintiffs is located in the suburb of Cicero, which borders the heavily African-American west side of Chicago.

In the Cicero area, though, 70 percent of the population is Hispanic and 30 percent is African-American.

"When we started looking into these cases, early on, we found that almost 98.2 percent of the applicants placed in jobs at one client company, for example, were Latino," Christopher Williams of the Workers' Law Office, the plaintiff's lead trial attorney, told Fox News.com.

If it was 10 Mexicans that would come at 1:30 p.m., and 25 African-Americans that were there at 4:30 a.m. and were waiting to be sent to work, they would send the Mexicans first.  Rosa Ceja

The lawsuit, which is seeking class-action status, contains statements from former MVP employees, including Rosa Ceja, 29, who was an on-site manager at one of MVP's companies in Elmwood Park, Illinois.

"I know that certain clients of MVP do not want African-Americans assigned to work at their company and that MVP has a policy of accommodating these requests," Ceja said in her statement. She added that she had been "yelled at when she assigned black workers to a client, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Court documents show that Latino workers were described as "feos" (Spanish for "ugly ones"), Ceja said, while black workers were "guapos" (Spanish for "handsome ones" or, according to the court filings, "pretty boys -- ones who don't want to do dirty work.")

"In one case, an applicant had to watch a training video; afterward there was a quiz and the video was in Spanish," Williams said.

He added that the MVP employees who were tasked to discriminate against African-Americans were disgusted by it.

Andrew Wells, Director of Workforce Development with the Chicago Urban league says that if the Hispanic applicants who were hired are undocumented, it would be because they "don't have a voice and it's harder for them to make a claim against a company that's in the wrong."

Wells addded that this case spotlights the many ways businesses try to get around laws that protect the civil rights of people.

The lawsuit includes eight counts of racial discrimination against MVP Staffing.

What we have seen in this industry is that this is a more widespread phenomenon than what we have just found in this case, with this company, attorney Joseph Sellers told the New York Times

The staffing agencies follow the requests made by the client companies even if they happen to be ones that might exclude people based on race.

Ceja was forced out of the company in 2014 after complaining about sexual harassment by an MVP van driver, the Tribune reported. While he recently was convicted of battery against her, MVP contends that Ceja voluntarily abandoned her position.

Pamela Sanchez, another MVP employee, said in her testimony that she was instructed directly by a bakery not to send black workers.

She said in a statement that she would review the names of potential workers to be sent for a shift, but if their names didnt sound Hispanic, she would overlook them, knowing they would be sent back.

Additionally, she added that she was instructed to have black applicants undergo criminal background checks, while in the case of Hispanic applicants it was not required.

If it was 10 Mexicans that would come at 1:30 p.m., and 25 African-Americans that were there at 4:30 a.m. and were waiting to be sent to work, they would send the Mexicans first, she said.

In Illinois, the unemployment rate among blacks, at about 14 percent, is nearly three times that of whites (5 percent) and nearly twice that of Hispanics (7.8 percent), according to

A May report released in May by the Economic Policy Institute showed that in Illinois the unemployment rate among blacks hovers around 14 percent, nearly twice that of Hispanics (7.8 percent).

Fox News.com called MVP for comment, but was told the company had no comment at this time.
A 400-year-old human heart that belongs to a Catholic saint is making a temporary home at a Louisiana church.

The Shreveport Times (http://bit.ly/2hbGbne ) reports that the heart of St. John Berchmans arrived Thursday at a Shreveport church that bares the saint's name.

It is the first time the relic has left the church in Belgium that it calls home.

It will be on display at the Shreveport cathedral until Dec. 18 and then it returns to Belgium.

The heart is enshrined in a silver and gold reliquary.

The Rev. Peter Mangum from the cathedral says after the first service featuring the heart that the "faith and devotion" he's seen has been "overwhelming."

___

Information from: The Times, http://www.shreveporttimes.com
A man from Florida will spend two years in jail for stealing more than $22,000 worth of merchandise from Ohio drug stores.

MARYLAND POLICE FIND, DELIVER DOZENS OF PACKAGES STOLEN FROM HOMES

Andres Arias, 36, was part of a criminal ring from Florida to New Jersey, according to the Ohio Attorney General. Arias stole Rogaine and supplements from CVS and Walgreens stores in Hamilton, Warren, Cuyahoga and Summit counties.

As part of the scheme, he flew to cities across the country, rented vehicles and drove to the targeted stores. Once inside, he concealed the stolen goods in false pockets inside his pants.

Investigators said the stolen items were shipped to Arias associates in New Jersey, who deposited money into his bank account.

Arias has repaid the $22,000. He pleaded guilty in Warren County to engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity  a second-degree felony.

Click for more from Fox 19.
Lawmakers are up for more discussions when it comes to passing the proposed death penalty bill in Congress.





One part of that bill is the mode of execution to the person convicted of a heinous crime.





Under the bill, death penalty may be executed either by hanging, firing squad, or lethal injection.





It also states that the death penalty shall be carried out from 1 year to 1 1/2 years after the judgment has become final and executory.





Lawmakers want capital punishment for a number of drug offenses.





Under the proposed bill reviving the death penalty, selling, trading, distributing, and transporting of dangerous drugs, regardless of quantity and purity, and manufacturing dangerous drugs may be punishable by death.





Any person who possesses at least 10 grams of any dangerous drugs or 500 grams of marijuana may be punished by death.





Any person - including foreigners - who brings in illegal drugs into the country, regardless of quantity and purity, may also be executed.





Lawmakers also want death for other non-drug related crimes such as kidnapping, and murder.





Any person who kills because of a price or a reward, kills during calamities, or kills with cruelty are also candidates for the execution chamber.





Rape may also be punished by death - but it still depends on how and when it happened.





Even public officials are not spared from the death penalty.





A public officer proven to have committed plunder or amassing ill-gotten wealth amounting to 50P million or more may be punished with death.





Qualified bribery or refusing to arrest or prosecute an offender after being given or receiving a gift may also be punishable by death.





Limiting death penalty to drug-related offenses, a weak law





Majority Leader Rudy Farinas said some lawmakers want to limit the death penalty to drug-related cases.





Anti-crime group Volunteers against Crime and Corruption (VACC), however, do not agree to proposed limitations to the bill.





"Hindi maganda yan. That will be tantamount to selective masyado," VACC President Dante Jimenez said. "Kung illegal drugs lang iyan, ay napakalambot at napaka-mababaw masyado sa amin." [That's not good. That will be tantamount to becoming so selective. If it's limited to illegal drugs, then it's so weak and shallow for us.]





Amnesty International, however, is all against the revival of death penalty.





The group said the re-introduction of the death penalty would be a major setback in the promotion of human rights.





"Regardless of the crime hindi kami naniniwala na ang death penalty ay tumutugon sa obligasyon ng pamahalaan na i-respeto, protektahan, at i-fulfill ang mga karapatang pantao," Amnesty International Philippines Chairman Ritzlee Santos said. "Hindi kami naniniwala na death penalty will deter crime"





[Translation: Regardless of the crime, we don't believe that death penalty would respond to the government's obligations to respect, protect, and fulfill human rights. We don't think that death penalty would deter crime.]





The group also said that criminal justice systems are vulnerable to error - which could mean executing even those who are wrongly convicted but actually innocent.

 | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com



Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE!

Source: cnnphilippines.com, December 8, 2016
While Donald Trump's transition team is not yet answering questions about his immigration plans, the business community has begun to pressure him to abandon campaign-trail pledges of mass deportation and other hard-line immigration policies.

Some large employers behind the push fear such policies would hurt the economy.

"This election clearly showed that Americans are wildly frustrated with our broken immigration system," said Jeremy Robbins, executive director of the group New American Economy. "But it would be a mistake to equate their desire for someone to secure the border with support for mass deportation or other hardline policies that would both devastate the economy and undermine core American values."

Other groups, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, are holding off, doubtful that Trump will actually create a deportation force, as he suggested before his election, to expel those estimated 11 million immigrants in the country illegally.

Robbins' organization has in recent days unveiled coalitions of business leaders and public officials that oppose an immigration crackdown  many of them Trump supporters  across Utah, California, South Carolina, Florida and Colorado with more coming in Arizona, Idaho, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Texas. Backed by its directors' deep pockets, the group is working to create a permanent infrastructure that will pressure the new administration and members of Congress in key battlegrounds even before the debate officially begins on Capitol Hill.

Trump railed against the dangers of illegal immigration throughout his campaign, but he hinted at a softer approach in a Time magazine interview published this week, saying he would "work something out" to help immigrants who were brought to the United States illegally as children and granted work permits by President Barack Obama.

On deportation, Trump told "60 Minutes" shortly after the election that he would prioritize deporting between 2 and 3 million "people that are criminal and have criminal records gang members, drug dealers" -- a plan largely in line with the Obama administration's current policy.

Trumps nominee for Labor Secretary, Andrew Puzder, a fast-food restaurant mogul, has supported Republican and Democratic compromise plans on immigration reform. At an American Enterprise Institute forum in 2013, he described a path to legalization for millions of undocumented immigrants in the country as "the right thing to do," according to a video of the event.

That support prompted criticism from anti-immigration groups like NumbersUSA. The group's Roy Beck called Puzder's nomination "disconcerting."

The business world was caught flat-footed when Trump won.

Business leaders had invested far more time coordinating immigration policy with Democrat Hillary Clinton before the election. None of the major players have had regular contact with Trump's transition team since his victory, even though Trump has vowed to make immigration a focus of the early days of his presidency.

"This is going to take a while," said Daniel Garza, executive director for the Koch Brothers-backed LIBRE Initiative, which supports a pathway to citizenship for immigrants in the country illegally and opposes mass deportation. "In the meantime we will make sure our voice is heard."

Based on reporting by The Associated Press.
A UPS driver helped rescue a woman who was being held captive in her home after she gave him a package with a note telling him to call 911, police in Missouri say.

AUTHORITIES SEEK 2 WOMEN IN ABDUCTION OF MOTHER FOUND SAFE

The woman answered the door at her house in Franklin County, Fox 2 in St. Louis reported Tuesday. After she gave him the package with the message Contact 911 written on it, he called police, according to investigators.

The man reported to be holding the woman captive was her husband, KMOV in St. Louis reported. The wife told police he beat and sexually assaulted her, and locked their 3-year-old daughter in her room for 15 hours without any food or water.

CHARGES PENDING AGAINST WOMAN IN KANSAS SLAYING, BABY ABDUCTION

Police sent in a SWAT team once they determined the man was not cooperating and might have had access to guns.

The suspect, James Jordan, 33, has a criminal record, including past charges of assault.

The child was unharmed, according to police. The UPS driver made a huge difference, Franklin County Sheriffs Sgt. T.J. Wild told KMOV.

Jordan has been charged with domestic assault, sodomy, felonious restraint, unlawful use of a weapon and endangering the welfare of a child. Bond was set at $100,000.
The Coast Guard says it's suspending a search for two missing crew members off Alaska's Aleutian Islands.

Thursday night's announcement came two days after three other members of the crew were rescued from their sinking fishing vessel.

Capt. Laura Dickey says that the "decision to suspend a search is never an easy one" and it's done only after thoroughly evaluating search efforts.

The Coast Guard says the three from the 117-foot Exito were rescued Tuesday night by a good Samaritan vessel.

The agency says the three were taken to Dutch Harbor, 14 miles to the southwest, with no signs of serious injuries.

After the rescue, the search continued for the two through Thursday.

As far as pollution from the vessel, the agency says the fuel was expected to dissipate.
Police in Maine say a former university chaplain who was estranged from his family broke into their home and killed his adult daughter, then himself.

A neighbor discovered the bodies of 56-year-old Daniel Randall and 27-year-old Claire Randall on Thursday in Hebron. Police say Daniel Randall shot and killed Claire Randall in the bathroom. They believe he then killed himself.

Police say Daniel Randall had broken into the house through a garage door. They say he had just completed substance abuse treatment.

From 2009 to 2012, Roger Williams University paid Daniel Randall as a vendor to be an affiliated chaplain.

WJAR-TV reports Randall was also a former pastor at First Congregational Church in Bristol, Rhode Island.
The Dallas Police and Fire Pension system voted Thursday to halt all withdrawals and payments from its deferred retirement program, as a series of mass withdrawals has drained more than $500 million from the fund since August.

SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS SHOW POST-ELECTION SURGE IN CONFIDENCE

The vote stopped more than $154 million in requested withdrawals from being distributed Friday. Pension officials said the withdrawals would drop reserves below the level needed to keep the fund afloat.

Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings filed a lawsuit Monday to stop the lump-sum withdrawals, which he said sped up the projected insolvency of the ailing fund to about 10 years.

AMERICANS' ODDS OF EARNING MORE THAN PARENTS HAVE PLUNGED

Both the city and pension system proposed plans to lower benefits to stabilize the fund. System officials said they were working to convert illiquid assets to liquid assets to resume monthly payments in January.

"Because [deferred retirement] participants do not have any right to a lump-sum withdrawal of [deferred retirement] funds, this method of payment may only be used when the pension system is solvent, liquid, and actuarially sound," the mayor's lawsuit contends.

"It's like watching your kids fight, and one is going to ask Mom and one is going to ask Dad. And you're sitting there watching them make a mess of things," Dallas Police Association President Frederick Frazier told Fox 4. "But the problem with this is peoples lives are at risk."

The fund was undermined in recent years by overvalued investments and risky real estate deals, as well as the generous benefits for its deferred retirement program.

Rawlings issued a statement through a spokeswoman Monday. "As a 40-year resident and taxpayer of the City of Dallas, I have chosen to personally file suit in District Court not only to protect the retirement benefits of all our police and fire personnel, but also to protect the pocketbooks of all my fellow citizens and taxpayers. I am funding this suit, and at no time will any taxpayer dollars be expended in this effort," he wrote.

The pension board's president, Sam Friar, said in a letter to beneficiaries last week that the board did not believe it could restrict access to the deferred retirement funds under the Texas Constitution.

The city and the pension board have been at odds over how to fix the funds financial problems. City officials have noted that dozens of the retirees withdrawing their funds were retiring with as much as $1 million apiece because of hefty benefit changes to the deferred retirement program voted in by members over the past two decades.

Pension officials have said the city has failed to make a financial commitment to keeping the fund solvent. They have presented options to the city for increasing its financial contribution by as much as $1.1 billion.

"It is becoming painfully clear that the mayor's reckless endgame is to bankrupt the retirement plans of first responders in hopes the state will seize control of the pension system so Dallas City Hall can rid itself of this crisis," Dallas Police Association President wrote on Monday.

A state District Court judge cleared the way last week for beneficiaries of the plan to resume voting on proposed benefit changes as part of a fix. In order for those to pass, 65 percent of the membership must approve them. The lawsuit, which will go to trial in March, seeks to invalidate the pension board's actions on the grounds that it has more members than is allowed under state law.

Click for more from Fox 4.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
David Goethel built his life off the profits of cod, trolling the waters of New England for 30 years netting the region's once-abundant signature fish.

"My slice of the American Dream was paid for from fishing," Goethel said from behind the wheel of his 44-foot fishing trawler on a windy Friday afternoon in December. "Cape Cod house, two cars, four college educations  it all came out of the fish hole in this boat."

But a controversial federal mandate is threatening to put him out of business, he claims.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, requires groundfishermen -- those who catch cod, haddock and other common bottom-dwelling species -- to carry on board "at-sea monitors." The observers, hired by three for-profit companies, are third-party workers whose task it is to observe fishermen's compliance with federal regulations and ensure annual quotas are not exceeded.

The dispute lies in the cost of the monitors and who should pay for them: Fishermen are billed on average $700 a day when a regulator is present.

NOAA, meanwhile, says monitors were placed on fishing boats like Goethel's only 14 percent of the time in 2016 -- and claims the fishing industry supported this system of regulation in 2010 when a vote went before the New England Fishery Management Council, an advisory board to NOAA that sets the rules.

"At sea monitors were originally supported by the sectors when we went from a days-at-sea form of management to a quota based form of management in 2010," said John Bullard, the regional administrator for NOAA's Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office.

Goethel and other ground fishermen are suing the U.S. Department of Commerce, seeking to avoid paying the cost for the government-trained monitors. While many factors have led to an economically struggling fish industry in the Northeast, Goethel described monitor costs as "the final financial blow" to his business.

A federal district court judge in New Hampshire ruled against the group of fisherman in August, but the Cause of Action Institute -- a Washington legal watchdog representing them -- filed an appeal last month. The nonprofit advocacy group is suing on behalf of Goethel and Northeast Fishery Sector 13, which represents groundfishermen from Massachusetts to North Carolina.

"It's a lawless act by the government," said Julie Smith, vice president of the Cause of Action Institute and the lead lawyer on the case. "If the government wants a catch monitored, the government needs to pay for the monitors -- it's that simple."

The New England Fishery Management Council set groundfish catch quotas in May 2010 to prevent overfishing. NOAA claims it was determined then that the fishing industry would cover the cost of observers on board the vessels -- their training, commute to and from the boat, supervisor salaries and other expenses.

In an effort to help an industry already suffering from economic hardship, NOAA said it agreed to subsidize those costs until 2012. The agency continued covering a portion of the costs until March 2016 when it ran out of funds to do so, a NOAA official told FoxNews.com.

Fish stocks have been on a steady decline in the North Atlantic for decades. Overfishing, as well as shifting ocean patterns and climate change, have been cited as factors in the dwindling fish numbers. The Gulf of Maine has warmed faster than any other body of water in the world, according to scientists, and some say not enough regulation is in place.

"The ground fishermen in New England have paid an economic sacrifice that, if life were fair, would result in the rebuilding in stocks but we havent seen that yet," Bullard said.

Goethel begins his work day before the sun rises, leaving the dock in Hampton at 5 a.m. and fishing some 20 miles off shore. After 12 hours at sea with his crew, Goethel, who is also a marine biologist, unloads his catch at the Yankee Fisherman's Co-op in Seabrook. On a good day, his catch brings about $1,500, and he takes home $300.

Under the observer program, Goethel must register his fishing trips on a government website 48 hours before departure. He said he does not know if a monitor will accompany the crew until he arrives at the dock in the morning. For the majority of trips, no monitor is present, but when one is, the cost to Goethel is several hundred dollars -- a fee he said he cannot afford.

"By the government's own study, 60 percent of the active boats that were registered were made nonviable the day this [mandate] was announced," Goethel said, as he lowered his net from the Ellen Diane, a trawler named after his wife and one of only six commercial ground fishing vessels still operating in the area.

Goethel said he hopes a judge will rule it is illegal on the part of the government to require such a fee and that it is considered a tax.

"I think the regulatory industry has exceeded its legal authority because only Congress can tax people," said Goethel. "This is a regulatory agency that has said, 'You will pay for at-sea monitors or you could lose your job.'"

"It's either pay or don't fish," he said. "We don't have any more money to give."

Many fishermen question the necessity of the program given the regulations already in place and searches without warrants by the Coast Guard and unannounced inspections upon returning to port.

Goethel argues that on-board monitors don't effectively deter unlawful activity.

"The fish off New England have suffered several declines in the last 100 years. I don't think any fisherman would say we don't need management -- what fishermen would say is we need rational management," said Goethel.

Some lawmakers have been vocal in their opposition to the monitor costs, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., who has questioned NOAA's claim that it does not have the funds to continue paying for the monitors.

"NOAAs at-sea monitoring fees place an impossible burden on New Hampshires small-boat fishermen and that is why Ive consistently fought against these unfair fees and interference," Ayotte told FoxNews.com Wednesday.

"I continue to strongly believe that NOAA should fully fund its at-sea monitoring program," she said.
A Georgia teen missing for nearly a week apparently was kidnapped by the father of one of her friends, local media reported Thursday.

SAN DIEGO WOMANS BODY FOUND 2 YEARS AFTER DISAPPEARANCE; MURDER INVESTIGATION OPENED

Calah Waskow, 15, vanished from her home in Evans on Sunday. Investigators said 37-year-old Jason Johnson, from North Augusta, S.C., may have abducted her and that she was believed to be in "extreme danger," Fox Carolina reported.

"My daughter was friends with his daughter," Waskow's mother, Nora, told WRDW. "That's how he, I guess, got introduced to my daughter."

JURY VIEWS CHARLESTON CHURCH SHOOTING SUSPECT'S CONFESSION: 'I HAD TO DO IT'

He was wanted on charges including aggravated child molestation, Fox 5 reported. Investigators warned the pair could have gone almost anywhere.

Johnson and the teen apparently had been seeing each other for a while, deputies told WRDW.

"I just really want him to bring my baby back home," Nora Waskow said. "I miss her so much and I'm really scared of what he could be doing to her right now."

On Thursday, South Carolina issued an Amber Alert and Georgia issued its equivalent -- a Levi's Call.

Waskow is 5 feet, 4 inches tall and weighs 98 pounds with blonde, shoulder length hair and blue eyes, according to investigators. They say Johnson is 5 feet, 8 inches tall, weighs 175 pounds, has blue eyes and may have shaved his head.

The pair may be traveling in a tan 1998 Ford Crown Victoria with South Carolina tag KVJ240, according to police.

Evans is about 10 miles northwest of Augusta, near the South Carolina border.

Click for more from Fox Carolina.
The illegal immigrant wanted for allegedly killing two people in a hit-and-run case in Kentucky had been deported eight times, the Department of Justice has confirmed.

Miguel Angel Villasenor-Saucedo, 40, is wanted for the Oct. 22 drunken car crash that killed two women in Louisville. Villasenor-Saucedo was most recently deported in 2013.

Villasenor-Saucedo fled the scene and [Louisville police] officers later obtained a criminal complaint from the Jefferson County District Court charging Villasenor-Saucedo with leaving the scene of a fatal hit and run accident," the Justice Department said in a statement. "A warrant has been issued for Villasenor-Saucedos arrest.

IMMIGRANT STUDENTS CALL ON UCONN TO PUT SUPPORT IN WRITING

The statement said the DOJ learned soon after the accident that Villasenor-Saucedo was an illegal immigrant from Mexico.

Upon learning of Villasenor-Saucedos illegal immigration status in the United States, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office began investigating Villasenor-Saucedo and found that he had previously been deported from the United States on eight occasions and did not have lawful authority to be present in the United States, the statement said.

The two women who were killed had gotten out of their car after it was involved in a separate collision. They were standing beside their car on Louisville's Outer Loop when the Chevy 1500 truck driven by Villasenor-Saucedo struck them, investigators allege.

Federal court records show four instances when Villasenor-Saucedo was caught by border patrol agents in Texas. In June and September 2011, he told border agents he had crossed the Rio Grande near Brownsville, and also rafted across the river near Hidalgo. In November 2012 he was twice stopped by border agents and told them he crossed the river near Hidalgo two times within six days, according to the Courier-Journal.
Prosecutors showed jurors video from a police interrogation in which Dylann Roof calmly admits to opening fire inside an historically black church in downtown Charleston, South Carolina.

I had to do it, the self-avowed white supremacist explains calmly in the video, made shortly after his arrest in Shelby, North Carolina. Somebody had to do something because black people are killing white people every day They rape white women every day.

ESCAPED INMATE ACCUSED IN WALMART STABBING CAUGHT AFTER TRYING TO ENTER SCHOOL

In the video, Roof explains to police that he targeted Emanuel AME Church because of its historical significance to Charlestons African-American community.

Roofs lawyers have publicly stated they expect the jury will find Roof guilty of the June 17, 2015 shooting that left nine people dead. Their focus is on sparing their client from execution.

MAN CAUGHT AFTER 48 YEARS AS FUGITIVE FROM GEORGIA PRISON DIES

But their efforts are complicated by Roofs desire to represent himself once the capital murder trial moves into its sentencing phase. Defense attorney David Bruck has made several attempts to humanize his client before the jury, only to be blocked by objections by prosecutors who argue such testimony has no relevance to the guilt phase of the trial.

This morning, U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel denied a defense motion that would have allowed jurors to hear testimony about Roofs state of mind and personal life around the time of the attack.

Throughout the proceedings, the defendant has been sitting quietly  almost motionless. FBI Special Agent Michael Stansbury testified that Roof displayed a similar demeanor during the police interrogation shortly after the shooting.

He showed no real emotion, Stansbury said.

Yesterday, prosecutors showed the jury images of Emanuel AME Church before and after the shooting. Security camera videos show parishioners entering the church for, what they expected to be, a routine Bible study. Later photos show ammunition cartridges scattered near Bibles, bullet fragments lodged in chairs and tables and victims bodies lying on the floor.

The trial has been emotionally charged for relatives of the victims, as well as Roofs family. According to an earlier motion filed by attorney Bruck, the defendants mother Amelia Amy Roof suffered a heart attack when she collapsed in court shortly after Wednesdays opening statements.

Authorities have released no updates on her condition.
Attorney General Loretta Lynch is visiting a mosque in Virginia next week amid a sharp increase in hate crimes targeting Muslims.

Lynch is scheduled to visit the All Dulles Area Muslim Society Center in Sterling on Monday morning.

She'll travel to New York City the following day for a discussion with gay, lesbian and transgender youth at Harvey Milk High School and to visit the Stonewall Inn and Stonewall National Monument.

FBI statistics released last month show reported hate crimes against Muslims rose by 67 percent in 2015 to their highest number since the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

There were 257 reported incidents of anti-Muslim bias in 2015, compared to 154 the year before.

Lynch has said the numbers should be "deeply sobering for all Americans."
locke23 said: That's incorrect. Treason is actively working against your country (giving away secrets, performing a terrorist attack, defecting, withholding pertinent information to national security, etc).



Simply not following a lawful order is insubordination.



You straight up have no understanding of military law, the criminal code or international law. Click to expand...

firstus solders don't murder woman and children. any talk that says they dois a lie. the only way that can happen is if those homos what ever they arehide behind them and start shooting. whats a us solder. to do.stand there and be shot?..and no mater how you call it. any interference with authority whilelives are on the spot no mater if its treason or insubordination is a crimein many categorysthey each do the same thing. one worse then the other.if you intifear with a police officer that's a crime. but in a war is another story
Police say the apparent shooting death of a person in a home is Memphis' 214th homicide of the year, setting a record in a city beset by gang activity and gun crimes.

Memphis police spokesman Louis Brownlee said the body of the record-setting victim was found Friday by a co-worker who went to check on a colleague. Brownlee said the body had a gunshot wound, and a preliminary investigation shows it may have been the result of a home invasion. One person is in custody.

Memphis has now surpassed the previous record of 213 homicides, set in 1993.

Memphis Police Director Michael Rallings issued a statement after the record-tying homicide was announced earlier Friday, saying it is "horrible news." He said nearly half of the victims knew their assailants.
A Minnesota hunters shooting death under mysterious circumstances last month has been ruled a homicide after initially being treated as a possible accident.

NAVY WIFES BODY FOUND 2 YEARS AFTER DISAPPEARANCE; MURDER INVESTIGATION LAUNCHED

Avid outdoorsman Terrence Brisk, 41, of Belle Prairie Township, bled to death after being shot Nov. 7 near Little Falls, northwest of Minneapolis. He was deer hunting alone at the time. Investigators initially speculated that Brisk was killed by someone who didnt realize what he had done.

We have ruled this out that this is an accidental shooting, and this is definitely a homicide, Morrison County Sheriff Shawn Larsen announced Wednesday at a press conference, according to the St. Paul Pioneer Press. The sheriff told the paper there are no suspects.

Investigators believe that whoever killed Brisk took his weapon. Fox 9 Minneapolis reported that investigators haven't found the gun, an older model rifle that the victim had owned for 20 years.

Brisk, the father of four, was hunting on wooded land owned by his parents. The station reported that there are no-trespassing signs posted on the property.

At the sheriffs press conference, Pamela Brisk asked the public for help in solving her husband's murder.

We dont understand why this has happened, and we are begging anyone with information to call or come forward so that our family can have closure and start the healing process, she said.
More than 150 mourners gathered at a southern New Jersey fire hall for a candlelight vigil held in memory of a state trooper killed in a car accident earlier this week.

MARYLAND POLICE FIND, DELIVER DOZENS OF PACKAGES STOLEN FROM HOMES

The Thursday night vigil for Trooper Frankie Williams was organized by the Leesburg Volunteer Fire Department and Maurice River Township.

Williams was often described as a "hero" at the proceedings and many spoke of his kindness.

The Egg Harbor Township man was responding to reports of an erratic driver on state Route 55 in Millville on Monday night when a motorist crossed the median and struck Williams' vehicle head-on.

The 31-year-old died at Cooper University Hospital following the crash. The driver who struck Williams, 61-year-old Lloyd Rudley, also was killed.

The crash remains under investigation.
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Prosecutors in South Carolina say they plan to play Dylann Roof's recorded confession during his federal death penalty trial in the Charleston church shootings.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Richardson says he plans to play the confession for jurors Friday as the trial enters a third day.

Roof is on trial on 33 federal counts, including hate crimes, in the shootings at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church last June. Prosecutors say Roof shot and killed nine black parishioners during Bible study there because he wanted to start a race war.

On Thursday, jurors saw stark 360-degree photographs of the crime scene in the church's fellowship hall. They saw the victims lying in pools of blood with bullets and ammunition magazines scattered around the scene.
The ensuing and seemingly inconceivable basis surrounding the Sanctuary City concept is being hotly debated, and one perspective not being discussed has far-reaching economic consequences: Liability and costs to taxpayers.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT ACCUSED OF KILLING 2 IN HIT AND RUN HAD BEEN DEPORTED 8 TIMES

Simply, each Sanctuary City opening up its municipal borders, effectively granting amnesty to those who have crossed national borders illegally, is tantamount to willingly inviting culpability and, hence, accepting liability. Lawsuits alleging government accountability and liability have already surfaced, one having been filed in a 2015 San Francisco incident.

Help Me, Dad

The Kathryn Steinle case glaringly demonstrates how this refuge trend can go horribly awry, underscoring threats to personal liberty in San Francisco. Steinle was walking with her father on a San Fran pier when an illegal immigrant shot and killed her. The murderer, whose convicted felon pedigree is appalling, was deported five times and was nevertheless walking freely among American citizens. While the illegal immigrant shooter enjoyed his sanctuary, he severed Steinles.

IMMIGRANT STUDENTS CALL ON UCONN TO PUT SUPPORT IN WRITING

At the core, San Francisco politics opted to sever any compliance with U.S. immigration laws. Instead, the city created a cocoon for illegal immigrants. Consequences pervade, with many lives lost to violent immigrants who soil American soil.

And San Francisco continues to play a complicit role.

As Republican Congressman Trey Gowdy echoed in Congressional hearings, But I swear, when I hear the term Sanctuary Citythe only sanctuary it ought to be is for law-abiding citizens Jeh Johnson, then-Secretary of Homeland Security, quietly listened. Highlighting the Sanctuary City dilemma, Gowdy posed to Johnson: How in the hell can a city tell you no? And the beat goes on.

Judicial Watch acquired information indicating soaring crime rates in San Francisco since availing itself as a Sanctuary City, turning a blind eye to federal code and violating Constitutional principles. Other cities followed suit.

Steinles father filed a lawsuit against the City of San Francisco, holding local government accountable for the preventable loss of his daughters life.

Adding insult to injury (homicide), San Franciscos lawyers are fashioning to quash the lawsuit, standing by its Sanctuary City covenant. Another sad chapter for the Steinle family, and San Fran is still wielding the pen.

The citys complicity will come with a hefty cost, and this is justonecase.

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee devoutly supports Sanctuary City solidarity, so much so that his City Hall creates its own brand of ID cards and provides them to illegal immigrants. Talk about thumbing your nose to the rule of law! Speaking of which, SF law enforcement figureheads reportedly stand with Mayor Lee and vow to uphold Sanctuary City policies and directives. Bowing to the whims of the local politicians, San Francisco Sheriffs Department (SFSD) policy precludes its law enforcement officers from informing federal authorities about detainee statuses. Compounding the issue, SFSD is prohibited from inquiring immigration status, upholding San Francisco ordinances while circumventing the U.S. Constitution. The federal/local law overlap is ongoing and contested by both sides.

Stephen Owsinski is an OpsLens Contributor and retired law enforcement officer whose career included assignments in the Uniformed Patrol Division and Field Training Officer (FTO) unit. He is currently a researcher and writer.

Click for more from OpsLens.com
A Pennsylvania school district superintendent says a student has a right to wear a sweatshirt depicting a Confederate flag even though it upsets a black student and her father.

Plum Borough School District Superintendent Timothy Glasspool tells the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (http://bit.ly/2huyFDn) courts have determined officials can't prevent the student from wearing the sweatshirt unless it disrupts the school day. Glasspool says the student has been asked not to wear the sweatshirt but has refused in part because his father believes he has a right to wear it.

Robert Williams is the father of the 11th-grader offended by the sweatshirt. He says Confederate flags "imply things that aren't very nice" and represent slavery and bondage.

Glasspool says "one student's rights clashes with another" in this instance.
Cyberbullying is one of the top threats facing American children today -- that's no exaggeration.

NO BULLYING ON THIS BUS

By comparison, schoolyard bullying seems incredibly tame. But when a child is bullied online, all of the damaging words, images and video of the bullying and the humiliation can be replayed over and over again -- and turn up in multiple places.

It's why so many people support and cheer Melania Trump, our first lady-to-be, in her stated commitment to combat cyberbullying for the sake of America's children.

THE MAGIC OF MUSIC FOR OUR KIDS

Donna Rice Hughes, president of Enough Is Enough (EIE), a non-profit based in Virginia that is dedicated to making the internet safer for all kids, told LifeZette her group enthusiastically supports Melania Trump's desire to fight cyberbullying in whatever way she can.

"She is a wonderful role model and graceful voice to encourage a culture where all people are treated with dignity and respect," said Hughes. "She is a hands-on mom who understands how cruelly kids can treat each other online."

She added, "Parents need to realize their children are not immune to online dangers and that they need to become uber-vigilant to keep them safe. It's an ongoing cyber-parenting commitment that begins around age two" -- believe it or not! -- "and lasts through 18 years old."

Hughes shared with LifeZette her passionate concerns about this key issue and what American families need to know as they negotiate their children's passage through the online world.

Question: What must parents do, practically speaking, to keep their kids safe in the online world?

Answer: When children learn to walk, we keep harmful obstacles out of their way. We place covers over electrical outlets. Before they touch a hot stove, we run to our kids to keep them safe. As children become more savvy online -- and they're becoming so at an earlier age -- we must never lose the drive to protect our kids there, either.

It's critical for every parent to recognize that no children, of any age, are immune from internet dangers when they have unrestricted access. It's why our group created a curriculum, "The Internet Safety 101 Program" -- it's a DVD, workbook and website. It helps parents become educated, equipped and empowered to protect their children from pornography, sexual predators and cyber bullies. It also explains how to keep kids safe on social networking sites, gaming and mobile devices.

Q: Let's go through the harmful content specifically so that parents truly understand what is available online. For those who are unfamiliar -- it is shocking.

A: Yes, every child with unrestricted internet access can view X-rated porn or child porn literally in seconds -- and it's all free.

In terms of online predators out there, kids can engage in behavior on the web that can put them at further risk. Social networking platforms, online gaming and 24/7 internet access via mobile devices make it more challenging today for parents to protect kids from predators, pornographers and cyberbullies who seek to harm vulnerable children.

Preventing the online exploitation of children can seem like an overwhelming task, as kids are at risk of encountering inappropriate content and dangerous people across multiple internet platforms. The good news is you don't need a Ph.D. in internet technology to be a great cyber-parent. However, you do need to make a commitment to become familiar with the technology your children use and to stay current with internet safety issues.

Q: Let's go through some of what parents must do to accomplish this -- and this includes when kids are out of the physical home and at a friend's house, let's say, or in the neighborhood, away from their parents.

A: It's essential to implement safety rules and software tools on all internet-enabled devices used by children. Focus on the positives of internet use while teaching children about the dangers and how to make wise choices online.

Parents also need to keep in communication with their kids and know with whom they're communicating. They should be aware of kids' internet privacy settings, as well as the photos and videos they share online.

Q: With all of the outreach work you've done, tell us what parents must know about next steps -- and how they can get involved.

A: We reached out [during the 2016 campaign season] to the presidential nominees from both parties to support the Children's Internet Safety Pledge, which urged the next U.S. president to lead in preventing the internet-enabled sexual exploitation of our youth online.

We were very encouraged that as the law-and-order candidate, Donald J. Trump committed to protecting children from online predation and illegal pornography by signing the pledge before the GOP convention without hesitation. The pledge's goals include a commitment to appoint an attorney general who will make the vigorous prosecution of the federal obscenity, child pornography, sexual predation, child trafficking laws and the Children's Internet Protection Act a top priority.

We look forward to working with the Trump/Pence administration to make the internet safer for children. All parents should know about the pledge and sign it; it can be found on our website.

Q: Tell us about the National Porn-Free WiFi Campaign that you launched.

A: EIE launched this campaign two years ago. It urged two corporate giants, McDonald's and Starbucks, to lead corporate America to filter their WiFi from child porn and pornography. We are very enthusiastic that McDonald's is now filtering its WiFi in nearly all of its 14,000 corporate stores in America.

Two days after EIE announced the McDonald's success, Starbucks issued a public statement that they, too, would begin filtering their WiFi in the U.S. and implementing a safe, global WiFi policy.

We're continuing to encourage other restaurant chains, hotels, airlines and libraries to filter child porn and all porn from their WiFi. We need everyone's help to convince corporate America that is offering free public WiFi to exercise responsibility by filtering dangerous and illegal content. And parents should keep current on the latest technology and safety information for ensuring that kids have a safe and rewarding online experience.

Q: Let's be blunt: What's the dumbest thing our kids can do online?

A: There are so many! The top three in my opinion would be: Posting personal information, including photos, without thinking about the negative consequences or the dangerous people out there who seek to exploit kids; looking at pornography, since it can lead to addiction and has a harmful impact on the viewer; and interacting with and trusting strangers online.

Q: What are the smartest behaviors for kids online -- the things parents must insist their kids do?

A: Keep open lines of communication about all online activities and friends -- and don't hide anything. Parents are the first line of defense here.

Q: What are some telltale signs kids may have come into contact with an online predator?

A: When kids become secretive about their online activities -- that's a red flag. Other worrisome signs: when children become obsessive about going online, or when they become angry they can't get online. Parents must also watch for phone calls from people the family doesn't know; gifts or packages in the mail from people they don't know; and any kind of withdrawal by the child from parents, family and friends.

Q: You've developed a resource center for parents. Tell us about that.

A: Yes, EIE has a comprehensive resource center on our website to help parents if their children become prey to online dangers. Also, if your child has been contacted by a suspected predator or is being sexually exploited online, call the police and report it to the Cybertipline at 1-800-THE-LOST.

And if your child has seen pornography or is consuming it -- there are many resources to help, depending on the severity of the problem. Don't assume no damage has been done. Pornography images can never be erased from the brain's hard drive. Parents must be proactive. If there is addiction, seek professional help from a licensed therapist with experience in porn exposure and addiction.

And always, always, listen to your children -- to what they say and don't say. Never shame them. You always want to keep lines of communication open and build trust.
International condemnation poured into Honduras on Wednesday over the murder of two agrarian activists the day before.

Jose Angel Flores, leader of the United Farmworkers Movement of Aguan, or MUCA by its Spanish initials, and member Silmer Dionisio George were shot in northeast Honduras after leaving a meeting in the town of Tocoa.

In recent years, MUCA has seized thousands of acres of land, much of it privately held palm oil plantations that previously had been cooperatives cultivated by the same farmworkers.

U.S. Ambassador to Honduras James Nealon condemned the killings in a statement Wednesday. He said he had offered U.S. resources to the Honduran government to help find those responsible.

"The United States of America calls for a prompt and thorough investigation and for the full force of the law to be brought to bear against those found responsible," the statement said.

The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Honduras said in a statement Wednesday that both Flores and George had been designated to receive protection by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights since 2014. The statement also said that Flores had reported an attempt on his life in April 2015.

A spokesperson at the Honduran Interior Ministry said an official statement was being prepared, but by late Wednesday the government had still not commented.

The killings follow the murder in March of environmental activist Berta Caceres who had been awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize for her work to preserve land.

After President Manuel Zelaya was ousted in a military coup in 2009, farmworkers seized about 27,000 acres of farmland. Dozens of people have died in fighting over the occupation of the land.

In May 2010, the government and MUCA agreed to reduce the violence in the Bajo Aguan Valley. But of 11,000 hectares (27,000 acres) the government promised to restore to the farmworkers, only 4,050 hectares (10,000 acres) have been handed over, the U.N. statement said.

Amnesty International said in a statement that Honduras has become a "no-go zone" for land rights activists..

"Authorities in Honduras must take immediate action to effectively protect those who work to promote and defend the basic human rights of all in the country," said Amnesty's Americas director Erika Guevara-Rosas.

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South American nations say they have suspended Venezuela from the Mercosur trade group over its failure to comply with its commitments when it joined the group in 2012.

Argentina's foreign ministry said in a statement Friday that Venezuela had failed to meet a Dec. 1 deadline to adopt certain standards required for membership. The foreign ministers of the four founding members Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay  notified Venezuela's government of the decision in a letter.

Mercosur accepted Venezuela as a member when South America was dominated by leftist governments in an effort to link the region's biggest agricultural and energy markets.

But the socialist-run Venezuela has fallen afoul of its neighbors as it has cracked down on the opposition and conservative governments have assumed power in Argentina and Brazil.

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The Australian government on Friday approved the sale of the nation's largest cattle empire to Australia's richest woman and her Chinese business partner, ending a drawn-out battle over foreign ownership of farmland.

The country's largest private landholding, S. Kidman & Co. Ltd., will be acquired by Outback Beef, an Australia-China consortium majority owned by billionaire Gina Rinehart, with a 33 percent stake held by Shanghai CRED Real Estate Stock Co. Ltd., said Treasurer Scott Morrison.

In May, the government said that the collection of cattle ranches covering more than 101,000 square kilometers (39,000 square miles) in four states would never be sold to foreign interests, after vetoing a Chinese-led bid.

Foreign ownership of farmland is a thorny issue in Australia, where many worry that Chinese-owned farms could supply Australian-grown produce to Chinese parent companies at discount prices or refuse to sell to Australian buyers.

In October, Rinehart said she was willing to pay the entire 386.5 million Australian dollars ($288 million) for the land if regulators blocked her Chinese partner.

Under the proposal approved Friday, Rinehart's company, Hancock Prospecting Pty. Ltd., would control the board and day-to-day operations of the business, Morrison said in a statement.

The biggest property in the empire will be acquired by a neighboring farming family. That ranch lies partially inside a vast Defense Department-controlled rocket firing range, which had raised security concerns about foreigners owning leases there. Morrison said removing the ranch from Outback Beef's control had mitigated those concerns.

"The treasurer's approach to the sale of Kidman enabled a local Australian company to pay a fair market price and retain Kidman in Australian control," Rinehart said in a statement.

The cattle empire was founded by beef baron Sir Sidney Kidman in 1899. The properties cover an area bigger than South Korea and almost the size of the U.S. state of Virginia.
Yesterday (Wednesday, December 7, 2016) at 03:00 explosions shattered the night sky over Damascus, a fire that erupted at the military airport of Al Mezzeh, west of the Syrian capital continued to burn. By noon, the Syrian regime released a statement blaming the attack on Israel. As usual, no comment came from Jerusalem, but the Syrian statement added another bit of information. They claimed that surface-to-surface missiles were used in the attack, and claimed they were launched from a location west of Tel Avital (Tal Abu Nada) in the Golan Heights, about 56 km from the target. If the Syrian claim is correct, this incident is the first time that Israels Defense Forces (IDF) have used precision guided surface-launched missiles, a new type of weapon procured this year.

The type of weapon and the range to the target does not leave much for guessing. Examining Israels rocket arsenal, only one precision strike rocket could reach this range  the 306mm EXTRA. But, in fact, 50 km is less than a third of its maximum range  the EXTRA can strike with the same precision, at targets 150km away. Its larger sibling  the Predator Hawk, can reach targets at 250 km with warhead twice as heavy as the EXTRA.

Although the weapon was developed more than a decade ago, EXTRA is relatively new in Israels arsenal. The IDF artillery corps fielded these weapons earlier in 2016. The IDF was not the first customer for this weapon. The designer and manufacturer Israel Military Industries (IMI) have sold these missiles to several countries in the past. In June 2016 Israel press reports mentioned the sale of Precision Guided 306mm EXTRA Rocket to the IDF.

Originally developed in collaboration with Israel Aerospace Industries, EXTRA moved under the sole responsibility of IMI. Employed as a precision weapon for operation over the horizon, the missile can be used against targets in fixed positions, guided over its trajectory using a combined sensor integrating Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites and Inertial Measurement (IMU). In this mode, the missiles can attack fixed targets based on known coordinates (exploited from aerial or satellite imagery). The rockets can also attack stationary targets, such as command posts, surface-to-air missiles, force concentrations or weapons in transit, relying on near-real-time intelligence delivering positioning data from various sources.

IMI has developed a family of precision-guided rockets, in calibers from 122 and 160mm to 306 and up to 600 mm. The largest variant is the new Predator Hawk missile, with a strike range of 250 km. All weapons have a strike accuracy of less than 10 meters (IDF officials have repeatedly determined an accuracy of 5 meters for some of these weapons).

Some analysts assessed the Israeli choice of weapon to reluctance to engage with the Russian Air Defense systems currently deployed in Syria. The Russian contingent along the Mediterranean coast (in Latakia and Tartus) currently includes a unit of S-400 air defense missiles and the Kirov class battlecruiser (Pyotr Velikiy) that carries air defense systems similar to the S-300. However, these assets are operational in Syria for months and have not prevented alleged Israeli attacks in the past.

The ground for Israels choice of weapon may be different  for many years Israel have used air-launched precision strikes, but the increasing threat and accuracy of adversary weapons could potentially hinder those capabilities. Both Syria and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah have tactical ballistic missiles with certain guidance capability, enabling them to concentrate effective attacks against Israeli air-force bases and other strategic targets, thus risking to limit the Israeli freedom of action. Maintaining precision strike capability by tactical surface launched rockets is a way to maintain a credible deterrence throughout the region  both against adversaries in the close range, as well as the long range.

If these new and precise weapons were used in the recent attack, the official Syrian announcement was, in fact, a conduit for Jerusalem to send its message to the region  Beware!
Once home to the world's fourth-largest tuna fleet and a thriving fishing industry, the catch in the Venezuelan state of Sucre is down to less than a third of what it produced in 2004.

That trade has collapsed, along with virtually every industry across Venezuela.

As a result, gangs of out-of-work fishermen have started to prey upon those who still venture out into the open sea, stealing their catch and their motors, tying them up, throwing them overboard, and sometimes shooting them.

The robberies have taken place daily this year, and dozens of fishermen have died.

"People can't make a living fishing anymore, so they're using their boats for the options that remain: smuggling gas, running drugs and piracy," said Jose Antonio Garcia, leader of the state's largest union, to the Associated Press.

Families along the coast got through the summer by eating "dog soup," a broth made from seawater and the small fish that are usually thrown back.

"Those little sardines saved all our lives," said Efren Pares, who lives in Punta de Araya village.

The Marval family has a story of their own.

A few months ago, seven of its members were preparing to return home after a full day fishing offshore when they heard shots.

"There's no way to run when you're stopped dead in the water, so I just started praying, 'God, let them leave without hurting us,'" 42-year-old Edecio Marval said.

Instead, after stealing the boat's motor and the night's catch, the men shot dead Edecio's oldest child, who had kept the group laughing all night with cheesy jokes, and two others.

As they prepared to kill Edecio's teenage nephew, one pirate shouted for the others to stop. "No, that's my friend," he said. They had fished together until last year.

So the group sped off, leaving the surviving Marvals to send flashes of light into the darkness. They wept as the bodies of their loved ones grew cold beside them.

"You hear piracy and you think of guys robbing container ships in Africa. But here it's just poor fishermen robbing other poor fishermen," said Sucre lawyer Luis Morales. "It's the same kind of crime we've seen in the streets, but spreading to the sea. Tomorrow, it will be taking over life on the farms or in the mountains."

Based on reporting by The Associated Press.
Britain's outspoken foreign secretary has stayed away from controversy in a speech to Mideast leaders after earlier criticizing ally Saudi Arabia.

Boris Johnson gave a speech Friday night marking the start of the Manama Dialogue security conference in Bahrain.

Johnson's speech came after The Guardian newspaper released a video this week of him saying U.K. ally Saudi Arabia, as well as Iran, are engaged in Mideast "proxy wars."

Friday's comments avoided that, instead focusing on how Britain was expanding its military presence in the Gulf, mentioning its under-construction naval base in Bahrain.

Johnson called Britain's decision to leave the Gulf in the 1970s a mistake, saying: "Your security is our security."

He also said he supports the Iran nuclear deal, though he stressed the need to remain "clear-eyed and vigilant."
China flew a long-range nuclear-capable bomber outside China for the first time since President-elect Donald Trump spoke with the president of Taiwan, two US officials told Fox News.

The dramatic show of force was meant to send a message to the new administration, according to the officials. It marks the second time Beijing flew bombers in the region since Trump was elected.

Even more concerning for the Pentagon, China has been seen by American intelligence satellites preparing to ship more advanced surface-to-air missiles to its contested islands in the South China Sea.

Trump's call with Taiwan's President Tsai ling-wen broke decades- long protocol after American leaders stopped communicating directly with the Taiwan president in 1979, when diplomatic ties were severed and the United States shifted to a new "one-China" policy. China protested Trump's call with President Tsai.

MANILA SAYS WILL NOT HELP US ON PATROLS IN SOUTH CHINA SEA

The Chinese H-6 bomber flew along the disputed "Nine-Dash line" Thursday, which surrounds the South China Sea and dozens of disputed Chinese islands, many claimed by other countries in the region.

The Pentagon was alerted to the Chinese flight Friday. It was the first long-range flight of a Chinese bomber along the U-shaped line of demarcation since March 2015, according to the officials.

Over the summer, Chinese bombers flew over the South China Sea and the contested islands, but they did not fly nearly as far as this one, the officials said.

At various points in recent long-range flights, Chinese fighter jets provided escorts to the single Chinese bomber.

In recent days, U.S. intelligence satellites have spotted components for the Chinese version of the SA-21 surface-to-air missile system at the port of Jieyang, in southeast China, where officials say China has made similar military shipments in the past to its islands in the South China Sea.

TRUMP'S TAIWAN CALL, TWEETS POINT TO FLASHPOINTS WITH CHINA

In February, Fox News first reported that China had deployed an advanced surface-to-air missile system, the HQ-9, to Woody Island, a contested island in the Paracel Island chain in the South China Sea, also claimed by Taiwan and Vietnam.

The HQ-9 is based on the Russian S-300 missile system and has a range of roughly 125 miles.

The Chinese SA-21 system, based on the more advanced Russian S-400, is a more capable missile system than the HQ-9.

Depending on the types of missiles used, it could extend the range up to 250 miles and target not only aircraft, but ballistic missiles as well.

The head of the U.S. military's Pacific Command, Admiral Harry Harris has repeatedly warned in the past year about China's continued military build-up or "militarization" of the South China Sea.

In October, a US Navy destroyer sailed close to Woody Island in what the Pentagon calls a "freedom of navigation" operation. The Chinese called the act "provocative." It was the fourth such operation by the U.S. Navy in the past year.

China has constructed over 3,000 acres of land atop reefs in the South China Sea in the past few years. It now has three runways and has sent bombers and fighter jets to a number of them.

TRUMP REMAINS ON DEFENSIVE AFTER CALL WITH TAIWAN PRESIDENT

In August, satellite photos appeared to show China making progress on at least two dozen hardened concrete hangers in order to land Chinese bombers and fighter jets as well as in-flight refueling planes, greatly expanding the reach of the Chinese military.

The photos were collected and studied by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington-based think-tank. They showed the construction on China's man-made islands at Fiery Cross, Subi and Mischief reefs.
Foreign diplomats in Myanmar are urging its government to allow full and unfettered humanitarian access to troubled Rakhine state, where operations by aid agencies have been curtailed while the army carries out counterinsurgency operations.

A joint statement Friday by more than a dozen Western nations including the United States raised concerns about northern Rakhine state, where human rights groups accuse the military of abuses against the Muslim Rohingya minority, including rape and burning down homes.

The government has prevented journalists and most aid workers from going to the region since the military began cracking down two months ago after nine border guards were killed by unidentified attackers.

The Rohingya, targets of discrimination in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar, are believed to face severe shortages of food and medical care.
Police have asked a former Serbian foreign minister who was a candidate to be the United Nations' next secretary-general to give a statement in connection with the unresolved killings of two army conscripts in 2004.

Serbian police said Friday that Vuk Jeremic has been called as a witness in an ongoing investigation of events that took place at an elite army compound in Belgrade while he was a presidential aide.

Jeremic served in Serbia's government when it was led by the liberal Democratic Party. He has been mentioned as a potential opposition candidate in next year's presidential election.

Jeremic says he will answer the summons. He describes it as an "attempted intimidation."

Jeremic was president of the U.N. General Assembly in 2012-13 and a candidate this year to replace Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
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A top court in France refused Friday to hand a Kazakh banker-turned-dissident charged with embezzling billions over to Russia, saying it considered the extradition request from Moscow to be "politically motivated."

Mukhtar Ablyazov's lawyers had asked France's Council of State to block his extradition, fearing Russia would quickly send him back to Kazakhstan.

The Council of State noted in its decision that the Kazakh and Russian authorities have "repeatedly" held consultations on Ablyazov's case. Requests for the return of criminal suspects can be rejected if they that are judged to be politically motivated.

Ablyazov is at the heart of a legal saga that has lasted years and spanned several countries.

A former energy minister who founded an opposition party in Kazakhstan, he was charged with stealing billions of tenge from a bank he founded, BTA.

Russia claims its citizens were defrauded in the collapse of the now-nationalized bank.

"We are thrilled with the result today,"Ablyazov's lawyer, Peter Sahlas, told The Associated Press. "This is a huge step forward for human rights law in France and Europe".

"The decision is unprecedented," he added.

Last year, another French court, the Court of Cassation, had approved Ablyazov's extradition. The French government signed an extradition decree in September 2015, but Ablyazov appealed to the Council of State, France's highest administrative body.

Sahlas said Ablyasov should be released soon from the prison where he was detained.

Ablyazov's lawyers argued he was being pursued because of his activities as an opposition leader in autocratic Kazakhstan, and feared he would not get a fair trial in Russia or Ukraine. They also suspected he could be eventually transferred to Kazakhstan.

The banker fled Kazakhstan amid the nationalization of BTA Bank. He was arrested in southern France in 2013 on embezzlement allegations. Both Russia and Ukraine have requested his extradition. France has no extradition agreement with Kazakhstan.
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France's president says his country is ready to help ongoing efforts to reunify ethnically divided Cyprus.

President Francois Hollande said France was willing to play a "useful role" in getting the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council involved in Cyprus settlement negotiations.

Hollande said after meeting with Cyprus' President Nicos Anastasiades on Friday that European Union leaders must also become engaged in the peace talks.

Over 18 months of negotiations between Cyprus' rival Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders will culminate next month during a summit in Geneva, Switzerland.

The summit will also bring together Greece, Turkey and Britain to thrash out a deal on post-settlement security arrangements.

Anastasiades says any peace deal must adhere to EU principles and laws.
Hundreds of men from Syrias rebel-held eastern Aleppo have disappeared after crossing over into government-controlled territory, United Nations officials announced Friday.

SYRIAN REBELS PROPOSE CEASE-FIRE IN ALEPPO

Given the terrible record of arbitrary detention, torture and enforced disappearances by the Syrian government, we are of course deeply concerned about the fate of these individuals, Rupert Colville, the spokesman for the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, told reporters.

Some men torn from their families claimed they were detained and questioned before their identification cards were torn up. The men reportedly were between the ages of 30 and 50.

SYRIAN TROOPS CAPTURE MAJOR ALEPPO NEIGHBORHOOD

These allegations came after weeks of territorial gains made by Syrian President Bashar Al-Assads military, with the help of Iranian militias and Russian airpower. Together these combined forces have taken back about 85 percent of territory held by the rebels, according to the BBC.

Civilians have evacuated the area in droves. An estimated 10,000 people, including 4,015 children, left obliterated neighborhoods during a Thursday humanitarian cease-fire, Russian officials have said.

Abdel Hamid, who escaped with his wife and 10 children on Thursday, painted a grim picture when speaking with AFP.

EXCLUSIVE FOOTAGE SHOWS AIRSTRIKE HITTING ALEPPO HOSPITAL

Most of the people around me were saying in any case we will die, so lets leave together. That encouraged me and we left, Hamid said.

He added: I left my house behindbut I have secured my childrens right to live. With each step I took I felt like I was getting closer to life itself.

U.S. and Russian officials were set to meet in Geneva Saturday to discuss possible solutions to the dire humanitarian crisis in that city.
Judges are set to deliver their verdicts in the politically charged hate speech trial of Dutch anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders.

Wilders, whose Party for Freedom is riding high in Dutch opinion polls three months from parliamentary elections, is charged with inciting hatred against Moroccans before and after municipal elections in 2014.

He denies the charges and insists he was performing his duty as a political leader by pointing out a problem in society. Prosecutors asked judges to fine him 5,000 euros ($5,300).

Wilders, who has said he will not attend Friday's hearing, says in an interview with national daily De Telegraaf that the outcome of the court case is irrelevant.

He says, "Whatever the verdict  acquittal or conviction  it will de facto change nothing."
The first two F-35s expected to land in Israel next week will be the first 5th Generation jet fighters the U.S. hands out to a foreign ally. The two ADIR Jets are only the beginning. Over the next eight years, Israel will receive 50 aircraft forming two full ADIR squadrons flying the F-35. No. 140 Squadron will be the first to receive the new fighters. The initial batch of 19 is being delivered in the standard A configuration while the remaining 31 will be fully equipped F-35Is, fitted with indigenous Israeli systems and weapons.

As the first 5th Generation stealth combat aircraft to enter operational service outside the USA, the ADIR introduces new dimensions of air warfare, hitherto available only for the US Air Force. The new fighter will benefit from extremely low radar signature, enabling it to operate undetected inside enemy territory and within missile defended airspace. Besides, the unique networking capability allows a team of several F-35s to share sensor information, situational picture, and tactical decisions, thus dominate an airspace much larger than previous generation fighters could do.

While the F-35 is not as fast as its predecessors, it is designed to fly longer and faster than most fighter jets, using internally stored fuel and armament, thus maintain the low-observable characteristics of the aircraft. Such sensor fusion and cooperative mission performance will enable ADIR to operate autonomously, without dependency and support on other aircraft that may be vulnerable to enemy defenses or provide early warning to the enemy. These capabilities and other attributes of the new fighter will provide the Israel Air Force a game-changing platform that has not been seen in the region since the introduction of the F-15 Eagle (by the IAF), 40 years ago.

Israel is the first, but not the only nation getting new Christmas gifts this year; Saudi Arabia is also expecting its first six Advanced Eagles this month. As for the F-35, all other operators except Israel are keeping their jets at Luke Air Force Base in the USA to support the joint training center. The US Air Forces 944th Fighter Wing is the training unit responsible for supporting all foreign customers, including Israel, South Korea, Japan, and the F-35 partner nations  Australia, Canada, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway and Turkey. However, unlike all other countries Israel opted to have its planes delivered to the country, to get the first unit operational as quickly as possible. By the end of 2017, Israel is expected to have nine ADIR jets operational.

Israel Air Force Base in Nevatim will be the first ADIR operating base. The first aircraft that arrive on Monday will help train the units cadre of aircrews and ground support personnel, by the first teams that returned from training in the USA. The new squadron is expected to reach initial operational capability (IOC) in few months. The pilots selected to man the first unit are all experienced fighter pilots but the F-35 will not be exclusive for veterans  in two years pilots fresh from flight school will be accepted to transition to the new fighter.

Throughout the training and operational use, the IAF plans to utilize flight simulators extensively. Pilots are expected to fly about half the flight hours on the aircraft and half on simulators. The rate of the simulator to flight hours may even increase after the air force gains experience with the new platform. Maintenance, including the most complex D-checks, will also be done in the country, in maintenance and support facilities that will be established specifically for the new jet.

36 years back, in July 1980 when Israel received the first F-16A fighter jets, it took the first squadron few weeks to achieve IOC and, once operational status validated, eight of the new aircraft were sent on the longest mission the IAF ever flew until then, to attack the Iraqi nuclear reactor. Nowadays Israel operates regularly over the Middle East, although Jerusalem rarely takes credit for these activities. Having a stealth fighter that can go anywhere, virtually unseen, would become a significant capability to maintain Israels claimed freedom of action.

Israels appetite for the new stealth fighter is not satisfied with the 50 jets it has already committed to buying. The Israel Air & Space Force (IAF) plans (and lobbies locally and abroad) to get the third squadron, which is likely to fly the F-35B Vertical Short Takeoff and Landing (VSTOL) variant also used by the US Marine Corps. Although the B variant is often used from aircraft carriers (RAF) and landing support ships (USMC), the fact that it can use short runways will enable the IAF to maintain operational tempo even after its bases suffer attacks from ballistic missiles or rockets. Israel already faces constant threats from hundreds of thousands of such rockets and missiles, some of them equipped with precision guidance capability enabling an efficient attack on strategic targets such as air bases. The IAF prepares for such contingency, but the introduction of VSTOL capable F-35B along with V-22B Tilt Rotor aircraft that could be used for aerial refueling of these jet fighters would provide a significant improvement in this field. While the acquisition of the B model is supported at the political level, officials within the IAF are not keen on acquiring this aircraft, due to its shorter range, the limited payload carrying capability and higher cost.

The alternative to the F-35 has always been buying more F-15s. The F-15 is still in production, and, in fact, keep getting better over time. Designated F-15 Advanced (formerly F-15SA) the new fighter jet is currently undergoing test and evaluation flights, before delivery of the first six aircraft to Saudi Arabia. Riyadh is expected to receive the new planes in few weeks. They will be based at the Royal Saudi Air Force airbase in Tabuk. The Saudi aircraft is considered the most advanced F-15 variant ever built. It is equipped with many advanced features, including two powerful engines, new AESA radar, redesigned cockpit a new generation electronic-warfare (EW) self protection system that implements capabilities developed for 5th Generation fighters (F-22/35) and infra-red search track (IRST) pods. Its speed and payload carrying capability exceed that of the F-35A, but the ADIR is superior in maneuverability, stealth, and sensor fusion performance. Qatar has also selected the F-15QA  the 36 Advanced Eagles will replace French Mirage 2000 jets made by Dassault Aviation. Qatar has an option to double the number of planes it will buy. The first batch of 36 will cost US$4 billion.

The F-35 acquisition is the most expensive procurement project ever made by Israel, but it is not the only one on the table. The IAF still maintains a powerful strike force of F-15I Raam (Thunder) aircraft that entered service in 1998. As demand for F-15s is maintained, particularly within the Middle East, the Advanced Eagle production line is expected to remain hot at least until late 2019, allowing Israel to buy few more of these planes. As a temporary measure, the Pentagon agreed to transfer 10 F-15D (two seaters) aircraft from US Air Force surplus to Israel, to compensate for attrition and provide spare parts. However, as reflected from the Qatari deal, the cost of a new F-15 (improved over the current Israeli I model) is over $110 million. In comparison, the cost of the F-35A continues to decrease, with higher volume and implementation of cost cutting measures. Despite these efforts, the price of an F-35A including its engine is still above $100 million but is expected to go below $85 million when production lines of aircraft and engines pick up higher volumes.

Photos of the F-35 taken at the Lajes air force base in the Azores, are published here courtesy of Miltary Aviation Review  Andre Inacio
As the campaign to liberate Mosul from ISIS rages on, Christian residents of surrounding villages already freed from the terror army's grip have returned to find their homes booby-trapped, in ruins and uninhabitable.

Ethnic and religious minority groups like the Yazidi and Assyrian Christians were driven from their ancestral homelands across the Nineveh Plain when the Islamic State attempted to establish their caliphate.

Also known as the Plain of Mosul, the region has long been the ancestral homeland for the Assyrian-Chaldean-Syriac Christians, along with other religious minority groups, but for the last two years they have been subjected to persecution and genocide at the hand of ISIS militants.

The villages of Bashiqa, Bartella, Karamles, Qaraqosh and Tellisqof were recently liberated from ISIS by the Nineveh Protection Units (NPU) and Iraqi Special Forces, but many of these villages have been left in complete disarray by the terror group.

In some towns, most of the infrastructure has been reduced to rubble; in others, dangerous chemical compounds have been dumped, polluting the ground. But what all the places have in common is that they are unsafe and nearly impossible for those who fled to return any time soon.

Its a catastrophe, one Assyrian from Bashiqa named Laith told FoxNews.com. Like many from his village, he was forced to flee two years ago for Kurdish-held territory. We are hearing that the situation at Bashiqa is terrible ... [ISIS] has destroyed it all.

"We hope to return with everyone here. God willing, we will return soon."

Exclusive images provided to FoxNews.com by the Illinois-based Iraqi Christian Relief Council (ICRC) show the destruction of homes and infrastructure of these villages at the hands of ISIS.

Thousands who left as refugees from their own land were forced to flee to places like Kurdish territory, Lebanon and Turkey, while others have been forced to be nomads wondering across Northern Iraq.

Everything is damaged, Jalal, an Assyrian from the village of Karamles, told FoxNews.com. Houses have been burned by fire. Theres no water, no anything. People will only return if there is some sort of promise of protection.

Officials with the NPU tell FoxNews.com that many of the homes in these villages were burnt to the ground when ISIS abandoned them, fleeing from coalition forces. Many have also been looted in the wake of their destruction.

Many Assyrians who fled say that what is immediately needed in their villages for them to return is greater security or some sort of assurance of protection from Baghdad.

The damage to these villages is hard to overstate, Robert Nicholson  executive director of the Philos Project, an advocacy and relief organization  told FoxNews.com. In one last act of vengeance, ISIS made sure that returning Assyrian families would find their homes and business shot full of holes, rigged with mines and utterly demolished.

Nicholson, like many others in the international community, say that rebuilding the region will take years and that funding is badly needed.

The road is long, but the journey is made up of single steps. We need to start small, focusing on the most important villages and work outward, he said. We need the international community to step in. All those countries in Europe and around the world that talk about preserving minority peoples, indigenous peoples, need to step up and put their money where their mouth is.

The ICRC is spearheading an initiative to help with rebuilding efforts in the Nineveh Plain. The groups Operation Return to Nineveh was launched last month to raise funds to rebuild homes and churches in Assyrian communities that were destroyed by ISIS.

Restoring these villages will be a long-term project, but it has to be done, Juliana Taimoorazy, the organizations executive director, told FoxNews.com. Its doable only if theres active security on the ground.

Taimoorazys group has also chosen to adopt one town  Tellisqof  and is in the process of raising money and resources to rebuild the village.

A lot of these [Assyrian] people are farmers and their land was polluted with chemicals by ISIS, she said. They are unable to work on the land.

We have to proceed with caution, but we have to come alongside the Assyrian people to help them rebuild. They have to return home.
The Norwegian Refugee Council says one of its staffers in South Sudan has been detained by the East African country's National Security Service.

NRC spokeswoman Tuva Bognes says security officials came to the NRC offices in the capital, Juba, on Thursday and a male employee "was asked to come along."

She didn't identify the employee and said more details would be made available Friday.

Bognes says "we have, unfortunately, no information as to why he is being held."

She tells The Associated Press that NRC staffers have not yet been able to meet with their colleague.

The nonprofit organization has been in South Sudan since its independence in 2011, and it stepped up its activities after civil war broke out there three years ago.
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Poland's prime minister has urged the European Union to speed up efforts to launch membership talks with Albania, saying the country is an "important element for security and stability in Europe and the region."

Beata Szydlo was in the Albanian capital, Tirana, Friday for top-level talks on European security and integration and on bilateral cooperation in the economy.

At a news conference with Prime Minister Edi Rama, Szydlo said Albania's foreign policy is in line with that of the EU, a factor that the European Council should take into consideration and accelerate the opening of membership talks with Albania.

She stressed that Albania, the only NATO member in the Western Balkans "guarantees stability and security" in the region.

The leaders signed a bilateral agreement on cooperation in culture.
A Dutch court convicted populist lawmaker Geert Wilders -- who is running to be prime minister -- of hate speech Friday, at the end of a trial he branded a politically motivated "charade" that endangered freedom of speech.

Presiding Judge Hendrik Steenhuis said the court would not impose a sentence because the conviction was punishment enough for a democratically elected lawmaker. Prosecutors had asked judges to fine him $5,300.

The politically charged prosecution centered on comments Wilders made before and after the Dutch municipal elections in 2014. At one meeting in a Hague cafe, he asked supporters whether they wanted more or fewer Moroccans in the Netherlands. That sparked a chant of "Fewer! Fewer! Fewer!"  to which he replied, "we'll take care of it."

Prosecutors say that Wilders, who in 2011 was acquitted at another hate speech trial for his outspoken criticism of Islam, overstepped the limits of free speech by specifically targeting Moroccans.

On Friday, he was convicted for the interaction with the crowd of supporters in the Hague cafe, which judges said was carefully orchestrated and broadcast on national television. He was acquitted for similar comments he made in a radio interview a week earlier.

In a tweet, Wilders called the verdicts "madness" and said that he had been convicted by three judges who hated his Party for Freedom.

Wilders was not in court for the verdict that came just over three months before national elections. Wilders' party is currently narrowly leading a nationwide poll of polls and has risen in popularity during the trial.

Even before the hearing, Wilders vowed not to let a conviction muzzle him.

"Whatever the verdict, I will continue to speak the truth about the Moroccan problem, and no judge, politician or terrorist will stop me," he tweeted shortly before the verdict.

He had denied the charges and insisted he was performing his duty as a political leader by pointing out a problem in society.

Before declaring Wilders guilty, Steenhuis stressed that freedom of speech was not on trial as Wilders had claimed during the case.

"Freedom of speech is one of the foundations of our democratic society," the judge said. But he added: "Freedom of speech can be limited, for example to protect the rights and freedoms of others, and that is what this case is about."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.


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Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency says a court has dropped a case against Israeli military officials charged in the deaths of 10 Turkish activists, a decision aligned with a reconciliation pact between Turkey and Israel.

Under a deal reached this year, Israel agreed to pay $20 million in compensation to the victims of a 2010 Israeli naval raid on a Turkish aid ship trying to reach Gaza. In return, Israeli nationals would not be held criminally or financially liable for the incident.

The Israeli military officials, including the former military chief, were on trial in absentia in Istanbul, held responsible for the deaths of nine activists. A tenth victim died in a hospital in 2014.

Last week a prosecutor, citing the deal, requested that the case be dropped.
German authorities have arrested a man suspected of setting off homemade explosive devices outside a mosque and a conference center in Dresden in September.

Prosecutors said the 29-year-old man from Dresden was arrested on Thursday. They said Friday that authorities also seized objects that could be used to make explosives, and that DNA evidence linked the suspect to the blasts.

The entrance of the Fatih Camii mosque was damaged in the explosion on Sept. 26. An imam with his wife and two sons were inside at the time, but weren't hurt.

The second device exploded shortly afterward on a terrace between a hotel and a conference center.

The explosions came a few days before events marking Germany's national day in Dresden, where the anti-Islam PEGIDA movement is based.
A terror suspect who apparently plotted to launch an attack in the Netherlands -- and had amassed an AK-47 assault rifle, two full ammunition clips and a painting featuring a flag used by the Islamic State -- was caught by police before he could act, prosecutors announced on Friday.

50,000 ISIS MILITANTS KILLED IN PAST 2 YEARS, SENIOR US OFFICIAL SAYS

The news emerged as European Union officials warned ISIS has sent as many as 1,500 terrorists from the Middle East to wage attacks in Europe.

CLICK TO READ THE REPORT ON HEAT STREET

Dutch officials said a search of the man's home as he was taken into custody Wednesday also uncovered four boxes of highly explosive illegal fireworks, phones and $1,687 in cash.

They announced the arrest after the suspect had appeared before an investigating judge in the port city of Rotterdam.

The suspect's identity was not released, in line with Dutch privacy guidelines.

Meanwhile, two teenagers were arrested in Germany on suspicion that they were planning an Islamic extremist attack, prosecutors said.

The two Germans, ages 15 and 17, were arrested on Thursday, according to state prosecutors in Karlsruhe. They said the two were suspected of trying to get their hands on firearms for a possible attack on an unidentified public facility in the Aschaffenburg area, southeast of Frankfurt.

Police seized Islamic extremist propaganda, ISIS flags and phones. They found no firearms.

Prosecutors said Friday there was no evidence the suspects would have been able to carry out their plan, but they were arrested on suspicion of conspiring to commit an attack. Police said they would investigate how serious the plan was and added that there were indications the two were mentally ill.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The Thai army says six drug smugglers were fatally shot in a gunbattle in the country's north when they were confronted by soldiers.

An army statement said the soldiers had received a tipoff about a drug smuggling route in the northern province of Chiang Mai. When they saw a group of men with backpacks hiking past their stakeout late Wednesday night, they ordered them to stop for an inspection but were met with gunfire.

It said six of the men were killed and two wounded in a 15-minute firefight. Soldiers seized 554,000 methamphetamine tablets, 30 kilograms (66 pounds) of heroin, 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) of opium, an AK-47 assault rifle and a short-barreled rifle.

The area is a traditional smuggling route for drugs produced largely in neighboring Myanmar.
Three members of Mexico's federal police were found burned to death inside a vehicle in the southern state of Guerrero, the Attorney General's office said Friday.

The murders took place on the highway linking the Pacific coast cities of Acapulco and Zihuatanejo, the AG Office said in a statement "profoundly lamenting" the deaths.

Authorities "will carry out an exhaustive investigation to identify and detain those responsible for such regrettable deeds," the statement said.

Mexican media outlets said the triple-murder took place around 5 pm Thursday, when a group of armed men set the officers' vehicle on fire with the cops inside.

Left next to the burned-out vehicle was a message from the killers accusing the slain cops of ties to organized crime.

Corruption is rampant in Mexico and it is not uncommon for members of law enforcement to be on the payroll of drug cartels and other criminal outfits.
The Greek Supreme Court will consider a request by Turkey to extradite eight military servicemen who fled to Greece by helicopter after a failed military coup in July.

The high profile case was referred to the country's highest court Friday, upon the request of a state prosecutor. No date has been set for the hearing.

In three separate rulings, lower courts approved the extradition of three officers but rejected the request for the other five.

All eight servicemen deny participating in the coup attempt and an alleged plot to assassinate President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. They flew to a Greek border town from neighboring Turkey.

Their lawyers in Greece argue they would not have a fair trial in Turkey.
Oregons new mandatory sick leave law legally constitutes a program and therefore is an unfunded mandate to counties, Circuit Court Judge Daniel Murphy ruled Thursday.

The ruling means counties would have the option of providing sick leave to their employees, but are not required to do so.

In May, Linn County and seven other counties filed a lawsuit that named Gov. Kate Brown and Brad Avakian, commissioner of the Bureau of Labor and Industries, as defendants. The counties argued that the Oregon Constitution requires the state to "appropriate and allocate" to local governments the necessary funds to pay for new state mandates.

The constitution also says that local governments aren't required to comply with state laws or administrative rules if the necessary funding isn't provided by the state, if the costs of the program amount to more than a hundredth of 1 percent of the local government's budget.

In Linn County, that threshold is about $14,000, but David Alderman, the countys financial officer, provided information to the court that the sick leave program would cost the county more than $41,000 annually.

The state had asked for a summary judgment to dismiss the suit, arguing in part that paid sick leave is merely an extension of an employees salary and benefits package and not a new program.

"This is not a case where the answer is crystal clear," Murphy wrote in his ruling. "However, the court is persuaded that the law defines the Sick Leave law as a program and by Section 15 of Article XI the program may not increase costs to the counties."

We are grateful the court affirmed our reading of the Oregon Constitution in this matter, said Roger Nyquist, chair of the Linn County Board of Commissioners. We have continued to ask the Oregon Legislature to not violate the unfunded mandate provision of the constitution and have largely been ignored, which brings us to where we are today.

He added, The implications of this decision may be far-reaching in that the Legislature is going to have to do the math on how bills affect local governments and their budgets. This greatly helps us in managing budgets at the local level.

Nyquist said he is thankful that the other counties (Douglas, Jefferson, Malheur, Morrow, Polk, Sherman and Yamhill) partnered with Linn County.

Linn County was represented by Nathan Rietmann of Rietmann & Rietmann LLP in Salem. Representing the state was Sarah Weston and Carla Scott of the Attorney Generals office. Calls to the state's attorneys seeking comment were not returned on Thursday because inclement weather forced the closure of many state offices.

The counties were not seeking monetary damages, but specifically wanted a ruling on whether they had to participate in the program.

The law went into effect on Jan. 1, 2016, and beginning Jan. 1, 2017, civil penalties could be assessed for noncompliance. The law requires employers to provide up to 40 hours of paid sick leave  one hour for every 30 hours worked  per year per employee.

The counties have until Jan. 8, 2017, to enter judgments enjoining the state from enforcing the Sick Leave Law.
Kumon North America Reaches New Enrollment Milestone

World's Largest After-School Math and Reading Program Surpasses 400,000 Enrollments in the United States, Canada, and Mexico

TEANECK, N.J. - Dec. 8, 2016 // PRNewswire // - As parents continue to prioritize educational opportunities outside of the classroom, Kumon North America remains at the forefront of the supplemental learning industry. This month, the proven self-learning program surpassed company milestones with more than 400,000 students now enrolled in its math and reading programs. Operating throughout the United States, Canada, and Mexico, Kumon North America is on track to provide even more children with the skills and mindset to learn new material independently.

"Children studying one to three years above grade level is a common occurrence in Kumon learning centers," said Mino Tanabe, President of Kumon North America, Inc. "Reaching this milestone shows our commitment to providing as many children as possible with an academic advantage and a love of learning."

Regarded as the world's largest after-school math and reading program, the company is headquartered in Teaneck, NJ. Globally, Kumon has a massive footprint with more than four million students enrolled in 26,000 learning centers in 49 countries. Its North American operations have seen an increase of more than 13,000 new students this year over 2015. Outside of Japan, where the learning program was founded, Kumon North America has the second largest enrollment of students.

Kumon Math and Reading Enrollment Milestones

Canada: 78,057

Mexico: 39,952

United States: 283,330

Total: 401,339

Earlier this year, Kumon was named the number one tutoring franchise in Entrepreneur's annual Franchise 500 issue for the 15th consecutive year and recognized by Entrepreneur Magazine as a 2016 "Best of the Best" for the 18th time. Kumon's consistently high industry rankings prove that parents recognize the benefit of the Kumon Method of Learning.

About Kumon Math & Reading Centers

Kumon is an after-school math and reading enrichment program that unlocks the potential of children, so they can achieve more on their own. As a comprehensive program, Kumon serves children in preschool through high school. Founded in Japan in 1958, the learning method uses an individualized approach that helps children develop a solid command of math and reading skills. Visit www.kumon.com to learn more.

SOURCE Kumon North America

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Mellow Mushroom Has Rolled into Houston

The street car stops here at 1919 N. Shephard Dr. for Houston Heights newest addition Mellow Mushroom.

HOUSTON, TEXAS (PRWEB) December 09, 2016 - The Houston Heights revitalization is breathing fresh air through the communities while paying respect to their roots, which is exactly what Todd Molyneux wanted to reflect when he designed this particular Mellow Mushroom. Inspired by the trolley, electricity and vintage transit maps, the art of Houston Heights Mellow Mushroom honors the area's history while also invoking the bustle of the commute from the suburbs to city life.

Artist Mike Truth Johnston created a futuristic color-block mural for the main dining room that represents the surrounding neighborhood, the city of Houston and the state of Texas. Another salute to the towns history is the life-sized trolley with functioning headlights that guests can dine in. The conductor is a representation of one of the founders of Mellow Mushroom.

To learn more about the interior of the Houston Heights Mellow Mushroom, guests can participate in an online art tour by following the directions on the plaque at the front of the store. The online tour features a description of the artworks and artists who created the masterpieces specifically for this location and connects guests with the artists online portfolios.

Its not just the art that takes visitors back through time but the menu as well. The hip vernacular of the sixties is showcased using terms such as Magical Mystery Tour and Funky Q. Chicken to describe their amazing menu items.

Not only are there Pizza and Calzones featured on the eclectic menu of Mellow Mushroom but also Hoagies, enlightened Salads and a half pound USDA Black Angus Carnie Burger. Patrons can dine Gluten free with pie crusts made from ancient grains. Veg out on the Vegan menu while enjoying delicacies such as the Thai Dye Pizza and Avocado Hoagie. The little ones can even Doodle-with-Dude on their activity filled Kids menu. All items on the Mellow Mushrooms menu are served with fresh ingredients that arrive at the restaurant daily.

Mellow Mushroom is furnished with a full sized bar supplied with four televisions for those who wish to wind down after a long stroll at the Downtown Houston Aquarium. Guests can feel free to participate in the bars music playlist with their interactive app by Mood Media. The patio is also a great place to sip on the local beers from Mellow Mushrooms bar menu, and, of course, there are a couple of television screens out there as well for those thrilling weekly games.

The food and art are not the only eclectic gems found at Mellow Mushroom. Their fashion line House of Shroom is full of fun threads that are featured by the employees and available for purchase at the restaurant. If online shopping is easier, the full collection can be accessed on their official website http://www.Houseofshroom.com.

Mellow Mushroom is open Sunday thru Thursday from 11:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. and Friday and Saturday between 11:00 a.m. and 11:00 p.m. Keep those eyes open for future dates for Trivia Night as well as Bingo Night.

For more information on this Mellow Mushroom location please visit the website at http://www.mellowmushroom.com/store/houston-heights and like us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/mellowmushroomhoustonheights.

About Mellow Mushroom Pizza Bakers

http://www.mellowmushroom.com

Mellow Mushroom Pizza Bakers was founded in 1974 in Atlanta, Georgia. This franchise, operated under Home-Grown Industries of Georgia, Inc., is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. For over 40 years, Mellow Mushroom Pizza Bakers has been serving up fresh, stone-baked pizzas to order in an eclectic, art-filled, and family-friendly environment. Each Mellow is locally owned and operated and provides a unique feel focused around great customer service and high-quality food.

For more information on Mellow Mushroom Pizza Bakers, like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/mellowmushroom , on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/MellowMushroom , and follow us on Pinterest at http://www.pinterest.com/mellowmushroom.

SOURCE Mellow Mushroom Pizza Bakers

Contact:

Annica Kreider

Mellow Mushroom

+1 (404) 665-7345

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SCHAUMBURG, ILLINOIS, December 7, 2016 Sunstar Americas announced today that it is joining forces with PennWells RDH magazine to launch a new monthly e-newsletter in January 2017. Called RDH Graduate, the e-newsletters content will target recent dental hygiene graduates as well as dental hygiene students.Students and new graduates are the future of our remarkable profession, said Jackie Sanders, Manager of Professional Relations for Sunstar. We are looking forward to working closely with our friends at RDH to provide these up and coming dental hygiene professionals with information and tools that can help make their careers as productive and rewarding as possible. She added that each months edition will have a focused theme, opportunities to receive free product and win prizes, and even a chance to be a guest author.We are very excited by the partnership we have with Sunstar, said Craig Dickson, publisher of the dental group at PennWell. Our objective has always been for RDH Graduate to meet the information needs that newcomers to the dental hygiene profession have. Sunstar, which also collaborates with us on the Sunstar/RDH Award of Distinction program, feels the same way about giving the right tools for the newest members of the profession to use. As a result, we have been putting our heads together in a collaborative fashion to develop content for the RDH Graduate audience, and I am very encouraged by the progress that the two companies have made.Dental hygiene students and recent dental hygiene graduates can sign up for the RDH Graduate e-newsletter at http://www.rdhmag.com/news-letter.html For more information about Sunstar, please visit http://www.gumbrand.com/. About Sunstar AmericasSunstar Americas, Inc. is a member of the Sunstar Group of companies, a global organization headquartered in Switzerland that serves oral health care professionals and consumers in 90 countries around the world. Sunstars mission is to enhance the health and well-being of people everywhere via its four business areas: mouth and body, health and beauty, healthy home, safety and technology. Sunstar Americas, Inc. provides quality oral care products under the GUM, Butler and GUIDOR brands.
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.
The Stafford Sheriffs Office said it is investigating a suspicious incident Thursday morning involving an elementary school student and a masked adult.

Sheriffs spokeswoman M.C. Morris Moncure said the incident took place about 8:30 a.m. on Village Grove Road in Stafford Lakes Village subdivision. Moncure said the student reported that as he/she was walking to the bus stop, an adult wearing a ski mask got out of a red car that was parked along the side of the road.

The adult walked toward the student while gesturing, according to the report. Nothing was said to the child, Moncure said.

The child ran to a neighbors house and reported the incident. The vehicle was described as having dents on the drivers-side fender.

Moncure said the Sheriffs Office added extra patrol in that area as the result of the report. Anyone who may have seen anything suspicious is asked to call the Sheriffs Office at 540/658-4400.
If there is one thing that President-elect Donald Trump knows how to do, it is putting people at ease.

Before the election, the people of Europe were scared to death that Trump, who they consider to be a loose cannon, would win and start World War III.

So how does Trump ease their minds? He names a retired general nicknamed Mad Dog to be his secretary of defense.

That should really calm European nerves and make the Russians, the Chinese and the Pakistanis want to go right out to the launch pads and disarm their nuclear missiles.

This is not going to be your ordinary, everyday presidency. If you didnt realize it before, you should know it by now. After all, we are dealing with a man who is more at home making the rules than playing by them.

At this point, for example, it is not even certain that Trump will live in the White House. And why should he? The billionaire has more luxurious quarters just down the street at the Trump Hotel. Living in the White House would almost be like slumming.

Even if he does move his residency to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., he has already indicated that his wife and son will not join him there until after the school year is overif then.

If he doesnt live in the White House, Trump, given his business history, may even try to rent out the executive mansion and bring in a few extra bucks to help balance the national budget. For the next four years, the government may be run from Trump Tower in New Yorkstate dinners and all.

Last week, Trump was best buddies with Carrier, who he says he had persuaded to keep jobs in Indiana and not send them to Mexico (although he said he didnt remember making a campaign promise to that effect).

This week, the president-elect is at war with Boeing, who he claims is overcharging the government for building the next Air Force One.

Will Trump even use Air Force One? There is speculation he wont. As with living quarters, the billionaires plane may be better than the ones the government owns.

He may just fly around in his own jet and charge the government mileage, which he could deduct on his income tax. Oops! I forgot. Donald reportedly doesnt have to pay any income tax for the foreseeable future because of his failed casino deductions two decades ago.

All this, of course, is creating a nightmare for the Secret Service, which declares it cant properly protect the future president in his own plane. Now the military has gotten into the act, saying it, too, wants Trump to use Air Force One for security reasons.

Oh, well! Old Mad Dog Mattis will handle that problem, perhaps like he reportedly did with those Iraqi generals who he dared to cross him.

Trump was also at war this week with Saturday Night Live because the show keeps doing hilarious skits about his many misadventures. Well, if you throw the material out there, theyre gonna use itjust like me and every other satirist in the country.

Why, Trump and Mad Dog might revisit the 1980s with a SNL skit of their own. After all, they are two wild and crazy guys.

Trumps week wasnt totally negative. The president-elect did have words of praise for Time magazine, which is making him their Person of the Year.

Isnt that one of the publications that Donald referred to as a rag during his campaign?

Meanwhile, Trump has been dabbling in foreign affairsespecially in the Far East. He accepted a telephone call from the president of Taiwan, which angered the Chinese. Then he had a photo op with a Chinese businessman who he said is going to invest millions, if not billions, in the American economy. That made the Chinese happy again.

Slow down, Donald! This is enough material for three or four columns, but I have to fit it all into one because Im sure there will be more good stuff out there next week.

If you are a columnist, ya gotta love the guy.

As they say, if you made all this up nobody would believe it.

Go, Donald!
The United States entered World War II 75 years ago this week, forever changing the trajectory of U.S. history. While the number of veterans who helped the nation transition from isolationism to world superpower is dwindling, those who are still living can often recall memories from the war as if it were yesterday.

That was the case in Stafford County on Thursday as dozens of World War II veterans gathered with their families at Stafford Airport for an event honoring their service.

Stafford County arranged the event in partnership with the city of Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County to remind members of Americas Greatest Generation that their communities have not forgotten their bravery, service and sacrifice.

Thursdays event featured a special lunch and a simulcast of the Virginia World War I and World War II Commemoration Commissions program Dawn of Infamy: America Goes to War.

You are the greatest generation, said Bob Thomas, chairman of the Stafford Board of Supervisors. You came of age when the United States was at war, leaving behind your jobs, families and churches. You witnessed death and destruction on a scale no one had experienced before.

We will continue to pass down your stories from generation to generation so that they understand your sacrifice, Thomas continued.

The event brought the past into the present as the veterans shared their wartime storiesstories they hope will never be forgotten.

John Gilliam, a 100-year-old World War II veteran, recalled serving in New Delhi, India, during the war. He spent about a year and a half there setting up a technical library for the quartermasters office.

Gilliam chuckled over memories of his good fortune. When he first arrived in New Delhi, he wanted a bicycle to get around. The captain of his company knew Gilliam from back home, and helped him to get one.

When he returned to the barracks, the other soldiers were astounded when they saw the bicycle.

They all yelled, Where did you get that?  Gilliam said.

The captain also made sure Gilliam had a mattress, a pillow and a pillowcase, and two sets of sheetswhich was more than many of the other men in the barracks had at the time. Memories of this camaraderie have stuck with him over the years.

Gilliam said it is hard to believe it has been 75 years since the beginning of the war. After the war ended, he went back to school and spent most of his career as a bank examiner.

I did nothing spectacularI just followed orders, Gilliam said.

But Spotsylvania Supervisor Greg Cebula reminded attendees that the sacrifices of the veterans did not begin or end on the battlefield. Many, he said, grew up during the Great Depression, went to war and then came home, took off their uniforms and used their talents to build the country back up again.

You showed us not only how to fight for this countyyou showed us how to live, Cebula said.

Many veterans returning home after the war bravely continued on with their lives despite heavy burdens weighing on their hearts. Joseph Adams, a retired Marine sent to the South Pacific during World War II, lost his best friend, Tommy, during the war. To this day, Adams has a picture of Tommy hanging in his home. He said that every time he walks by the picture, he thinks of him.

He died too young, Adams said. He had six sisters and he was the only boy. I never forget him, or the war. It is always at the front of my mind.

During his remarks, Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Craig Timberlake said everyone who has gone to war says the same thingthe only way to understand it is to have experienced it.

Coming home, these veterans put the war in a special, dark place in their minds, Timberlake said. But then they went on, and built America up.

Edith Garnett Holloways story of loss started before her service began. She was grieving the death of her baby girl when she joined the Womens Army Corps (WACs). She worked in the Victory Mail department at the Army Post Office while stationed at Fort Mason in San Francisco.

Pulling out a small letter, Holloway explained how letters that came to her department were opened, photographed, printed on a small piece of paper and slipped into a tiny envelope. This method gave soldiers and their loved ones an inexpensive way to communicate which also saved space on airplanes. The mail was also censored for confidential information.

I had a very interesting jobI loved it, Holloway said.

Holloway, 91, also expressed disbelief that it has been so long since the war began, but she is proud to be a veteran.

I have never been sorry I went into the service, Holloway said.

The veterans who attended Thursdays event were honored with commemorative medallions from the Virginia World War I and World War II Commemoration Commission.

The veterans will also receive honorary bricks to be placed in the future Stafford Armed Services Memorial, which will honor those who have served, those currently serving and those who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to their country. Families and friends can also buy commemorative bricks as tributes to veterans.

When I was a boy in the 1950s, every male figure in my life was a veteran, said Gil Gibson, a retired Navy chaplain, during the invocation. They taught me everything I know about life, service and sacrifice. Those of us who served after them stand forever in the shadow of their greatness.
Virginias Petersburg National Battlefield is on track to become Americas largest Civil War park after a vote Thursday in the U.S. Senate to enlarge its boundary.

The measure is part of the National Defense Authorization Act. If enacted, the provision will fulfill a long-held dream of park advocates. Starting with Rep. Randy Forbes, a Republican, and Sen. Jim Webb, a Democrat, the battlefield bill has been backed by a bipartisan group of Virginia members of Congress.

No property immediately will be added to the park, but the provision will authorize the National Park Service to incorporate battlefield landup to 7,238 acresthat is now unprotected outside the park boundary. Over time, such additions could make Petersburg one of the largest historical parks in the nation.

Already, the national battlefield commemorates 18 separate battlegrounds figuring in the longest blockade in U.S. military history. Petersburgs seesawing, hard-fought actions comprise one of the Civil Wars most complex struggles.

We are extremely excited about this new opportunity to join with the battlefield community to save our national treasures, park Superintendent Lewis Rogers said late Thursday. Nowhere else in our nations history have so many Americans fought and died for ideas they so strongly believed insome even against their own families.

U.S. Sen Mark Warner, who cosponsored the legislation with Sen. Tim Kaine, expressed pleasure Thursday that the defense bill is on its way to President Obamas desk.

Petersburg National Battlefield bore witness to the longest sustained siege in our nations military history and draws visitors from all across the country, injecting millions of dollars into the local economy every year, Warner said.

Reps. Bobby Scott and Randy Forbes sponsored the measure in the House of Representatives; it passed the House on Dec. 2.

Expanding the park will encourage more regional tourism, Warner said. It already bring more than $10 million a year in tourism revenue.

This hallowed ground bears witness to one of the longest, hardest and most decisive contests of the Civil War, Kaine said. The stories of all the combatantsincluding more than 16,000 African-American troopswill now be more accessible to the current generation.

The nonprofit Civil War Trust has helped protect more than 2,500 acres associated with the siege of Petersburg, nearly 2,000 of which couldnt be transferred to the Park Service until now. With the boundary expansion, the trust landsalong with properties protected by other conservation organizationscan be integrated into the park. That will improve visitors experiences and learning opportunities, it said.

We are grateful to the lawmakers and partner organizations who recognized the critical importance of preserving this historic Virginia landscape, Trust President James Lighthizer said. These battlefields are living monumentsnot just to the 70,000 men in blue and gray whose blood hallowed this groundbut to all of Americas veterans.

Among the sites the bill benefits are some of the wars most pivotal battlefields, including Five Forks, Peebles Farm, Reams Station, the Crater (where the Federals exploded a mine in an attempt to blow a hole in Confederate defenses), and the Petersburg Breakthrough (where a decisive Union assault led to the fall of the Confederate capital at Richmond).

A landmark 1993 study on the status of the nations Civil War battlefields commissioned by Congress recognized those sites as nationally significant historic resources. The study was updated by the National Park Service in 2010.

Petersburg National Battlefield now comprises about 2,700 acres. It includes places such as Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grants headquarters at City Point in Hopewell, as well as other land in Dinwiddie County and the city of Petersburg, such as Poplar Grove National Cemetery.

We are looking forward to the opportunity to open up new places for our children to learn about their heritage and enjoy Americas best idea, its national parks, Rogers said. We want to invite everyone to come find your park. What a great Christmas gift for our present and future generations.
YOURE an enemy of American public schools! Youre an enemy of poor American children!

Welcome to our national debatesuch as it isover charter schools, which received a shot in the arm when President-elect Donald Trump nominated Michigan charter-school activist Betsy DeVos for secretary of education. In predictably lockstep fashion, DeVos critics warned that charter schools are harming American public education; meanwhile, her champions said charters improve schooling for Americas least privileged kids.

Theyre both wrong. Nearly 3 million children now attend about 7,000 charter schools, which have witnessed astonishing successes and awful failures and everything in between. So any blanket generalization about charter schools will almost surely be false. [There are nine public charter schools in Virginia in the Richmond, Northern Virginia, Charlottesville and Tidewater areas.]

We know that some charter schools, like those in the Knowledge is Power Program, have helped poor kids make stronger academic gains than their similarly disadvantaged peers in regular public schools. But we also know that other charter schools have been cesspools of corruption and inefficiency, enriching private entrepreneurs and giving students little or nothing in return.

Sadly, many of the charters in DeVos own state fall into the second category. Drawing on the family wealth of her husband, an heir to the Amway fortune, DeVos helped push through a Michigan law allowing for an explosion of charter schools without establishing a strong mechanism for regulating them.

The result has been a boon for private investors, but not for schoolchildren. Eighty percent of charter schools in Michigan are run by for-profit entities, and most of them perform below the state average. Even more, a federal review last year found that charter schools represented an unreasonably high fraction of Michigans lowest-performing schools.

Meanwhile, DeVos helped defeat a measure that would have created a system for closing charter schools that failed. The irony was almost as rich as Betsy DeVos herself. Charter-school advocates have long insisted that their reform would force under-performing public schools to improve their product or close up shop. When charter schools came under fire for low performance, however, DeVos made sure their doors stayed open.

But its disingenuous for charter critics to focus solely on failed schools like the ones in Michigan, when they know that other charters have registered enormous successes. That echoes charter-school advocates like DeVos, ironically, who often hype high-performing charters without acknowledging all of the ones that have fallen short.

Then there are the politics of test scores, which also can be embraced or eschewed depending on the politics of the moment. Many charter-school opponents question standardized tests as an overall measure of learning, but happily invoke the tests to demonstrate that certain charters arent working as they should. In an equally inconsistent move, charter-school advocates who advertise test-score gains will sometimes question the validity of the tests when the gains dont go their way.

The real question, of course, is what kind of evidence would sway hard-core believers in either camp. In many cases, I fear, nothing would. If you cant imagine a set of facts that would alter your opinion about a given subject, its no longer an opinion; its a dogma.

And dogmas prevent real discussion, especially about the always-difficult matter of race. Although both the NAACP and the Black Lives Matter movement have recently called for moratoriums on the establishment of new charter schools, surveys consistently show that most minority voters want morenot fewercharter options. So does President Obama, whose Race to the Top initiative encouraged states to lift their caps on charter schools.

So please, charter critics, spare me the overheated rhetoric about how charters are a conspiracy to benefit white financiers on the backs of black families. Tell that to Obama and his AfricanAmerican secretary of education, John King, who helped start a successful charter-school network himself. And, most of all, tell that to the thousands of minority parents who put their children on wait lists in the hopes of winning a coveted seat at a charter school.

A wide gulf separates King from Betsy DeVos, who has supported public vouchers (for use in private and parochial schools) as well as charters. So has Trump, who pledged to reserve $20 billion in existing federal education money for vouchers. We dont know whether hell do that, of course, or what kind of difference it would make for Americas poorest kids.

But heres what we do know: Charter schools have made a difference for these kids, in some very good and very bad ways. Its time for the adults in the room to figure out which is which, instead of throwing sticks and stones at one another.
Murdock Charitable Trust gift fuels expansion of Antibody Technology Resource

The Antibody Technology Resource lab at Fred Hutch is poised to expand, thanks to new support from the Vancouver, Washingtonbased M. J. Murdock Charitable Trust.

The $475,000 grant is matched by more than $550,000 from the Hutchs privately supported Hartwell Innovation Fund to further grow the facilitys instrumentation.

Over the past five years Fred Hutchs Antibody Technology Resource has been making innovative strides in building a cutting-edge antibody-discovery platform, said Dr. Ben Hoffstrom, director of Antibody Technology. The trusts gift will enable a long-range vision for antibody technology at Fred Hutch.

As a core resource, the lab offers custom service and expertise to researchers at Fred Hutch and other institutions in the region. Its specialty is generating and screening monoclonal antibodies, proteins made by the immune system that attach to any foreign molecular target. Due to their natural ability to bind to particular targets, antibodies have a wide range of applications, including in diagnostic tests and as cancer-fighting drugs.

The new instrumentation will not only double our overall capacity, it will allow us to screen many more antibody-producing hybridoma cells, Hoffstrom explained (referring to certain lab-created hybrid cells used as antibody factories). That will, in turn, increase the likelihood of success in finding antibodies for specific applications, such as diagnostic tools for histology or potential immunotherapy reagents.

With the new capacity, Hoffstrom said, the Antibody Technology Resource can better integrate with other core resources at the Hutch, particularly the Molecular Design and Therapeutics lab, which designs and produces custom proteins using the same software and similar automation. With such integration, Hoffstrom envisions forming an antibody drug-discovery pipeline to speed the development of targeted new drugs.

This is really critically important for the Hutch, said Dr. Colin Correnti, director of protein sciences for the Molecular Design and Therapeutics core. This milestone is the culmination of several years of effort for the two core labs, Correnti said, to create a one-stop shop at Fred Hutch for antibody-based drug discovery from start to finish, just like at a biotech company.

It is incredibly impactful and enabling to be able to do that  its not something weve ever been able to do here at the Hutch, Correnti said.

The centerpiece of the new instrumentation is a robot that allows the antibody cores entire antibody-screening process to be completely automated, operating without human intervention. Once this custom workstation is installed in early 2017, Hoffstrom said, the core will be able to work around the clock to generate potentially thousands of antibodies at a time for a particular project and conduct screens to find the small handful that are likely to work best to target a specific molecule.

Now, the way we do [screening] is we have [processes] operating independently with a lot of manual intervention at each of those stages, Hoffstrom said. The new instrumentation is going to enable us to launch screens at 5 oclock in the afternoon, then harvest the data the next day.

The instruments will also add new automated capacities to the core labs operations, including the ability to isolate the DNA that codes for particular antibodies. Specialized new software will integrate the vast amount of data generated by the system and allow the team to analyze each step in the process, which will facilitate further optimization of the platform.

The antibody cores clients currently include scientists throughout the Hutch and the Fred Hutch/University of Washington Cancer Consortium, biotech companies, and several universities and research institutes primarily on the West Coast. Clients are working on a range of projects, including an HIV vaccine and cancer-killing engineered immune cells.

Hoffstrom said that the core provides more extensive screening than commercial labs, screening for antibodies to up to five targets at once, for the price of one. And while some antibodies are already commercially available to researchers, he explained, they often do not actually bind specifically to the molecule they are supposed to target, making custom antibodies useful in many different areas of research.

That is ubiquitous with a number of different antibodies in the field, Hoffstrom said. Often research teams are using suboptimal reagents and they dont realize that we can make better antibodies for slightly more than the cost of the ones that are currently available.

 Susan Keown / Fred Hutch News Service
Small Businesses Can Now Hire Better, As Enlist Launches With Much-Needed Help

Covering each stage of the process, company's software allows for automation of repetitive tasks, improved applicant tracking, more productive interviewing, and better hiring decisions, enlist reports.

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The average corporate job opening today pulls in hundreds of applications, according to ERE Recruiting Intelligence. With only a handful of applicants ever receiving an interview, managing the process can be complicated. New hiring software from enlist enables improved collaboration, focus, and decision-making, leading to more suitable, better-fitting hires for small companies and other users.

Free to try out and always affordable, enlist is designed to give modern teams exactly what they need when it comes to recruiting. By bringing hiring back under control, automating routine tasks, and encouraging teamwork and more productive interviewing, enlist recruitment software can help any company hire better.

"Hiring is a major challenge for businesses of all sizes today, and smaller companies have often felt forced to do without the tools that make things easier for others," said enlist representative Rajeev Sharma, "Our idea is to help small businesses manage their hiring better, from sourcing talent right through to making an offer to the best candidate. Users of enlist benefit from improved collaboration, organization, and candidate qualification. Interviews are often what make or break your hiring pipeline, and enlist enables more productive, focused interviewing as a matter of course. We're proud of what we have to offer, and we think many teams will do well to stop by our website to learn more."

No modern company can hope to succeed without the right talent, but finding and retaining qualified workers can be challenging. A 2015 survey of small American companies by the National Federation of Independent Businesses found that nearly half felt there was a shortage of qualified candidates for key positions. Despite this, many job openings today attract hundreds of resumes or applications, making the process of finding the right talent often especially difficult for small businesses.

With a design informed by the real, demonstrated needs of today's small businesses and teams, enlist helps users hire better. Full of features that account for every stage of the hiring process, enlist allows for improved organization, attention to detail, responsiveness, and collaboration. As a result, enlist users conduct more focused, helpful interviews and make better hiring decisions, while saving time and money along the way.

Visitors to the enlist website can request a free demo of the software today, including access to the enlist iOS app. The platform's simple, affordable pricing structure includes the ability to manage one active job with up to three participating team members for free, forever, as well as volume discounts for companies with ten job openings or more.

About enlist:

Helping your team hire better, enlist is a recruiting system that encourages collaboration, automation, focus, and improved decision making.

For more information, please visit https://enlist.io/

Contact Info:

Name: Rajeev Sharma

Organization: enlist

Address: #47, 8th Main, Kanakpura Road Bangalore, Karantaka India

Phone: 8026860373

Source: http://marketersmedia.com/small-businesses-can-now-hire-better-as-enlist-launches-with-much-needed-help/153044

Release ID: 153044

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MarTech Leader Blirt Takes Home Mayor's Innovation Gold Coast Award

October award reflects company's success at connecting the dots for clients, using technology in innovative ways to align marketing activities with business goals, Blirt reports.

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Blirt, one of Australia's leading marketing technology (MarTech) specialists, announced at https://www.blirt.com.au/ that it had recently received a major Gold Coast Business Excellence Award. As the October winner of the Mayor's Innovation GC Award, Blirt was singled out for its "significant innovation" and demonstration of an outstanding "competitive edge" in the MarTech industry.

The Gold Coast Business Excellence Awards are the most prestigious and competitive of their kind in the region. As is detailed at https://www.blirt.com.au/, Blirt offers a full range of highly effective digital marketing services and tools, from Salesforce automation and development to content marketing and strategically informed digital media production. The company's recent Mayor's Innovation Gold Coast Business Excellence Award reflects Blirt's impressive record of success at using innovative, data-driven marketing approaches to solve the business problems of clients.

"It was a real honor to accept the Mayor's Innovation GC Award for October on behalf of Blirt and everyone who works here," said Stuart Leo, Blirt founder and Managing Director, "We truly believe that technology can transform marketing and communications in powerful ways, and we never tire of helping our clients achieve results. From customer behavior and marketing expenditures to the ultimate goal of business growth, we always strive to connect the dots in ways that everyone can appreciate. That was the mission I laid out when I established Blirt, and it has guided us through many successful projects and to this prestigious Gold Coast Business Excellence Award."

Since 1996, the Gold Coast Business Excellence Awards have highlighted the region's top companies and business leaders. Each month from May through October in recent years, awards have been issued in a number of different categories, with a year-end ceremony following thereafter. In the October round this year, Blirt received the Mayor's Innovation GC Award, an honor that is bestowed upon a business from any industry that demonstrates an outstanding degree of inventiveness, resourcefulness, and creativity at addressing the challenges particular to its market.

As one of Australia's top MarTech companies since its 2012 founding, Blirt applies technology to marketing and communication in ways that "shift the needle" and produce business-building results for clients. The Gold Coast Business Excellence Awards panel was especially impressed by the innovation reflected in Blirt's proprietary integrated digital marketing service. The judges also singled out "WFMCRM," an equally innovative technology that bridges popular accounting system Xero with the Salesforce platform.

With a wide range of other services and products to offer, Blirt is one of Australia's most capable and accomplished MarTech agencies. From content marketing and automation to strategy, Salesforce development, and more, those interested can learn more at https://www.blirt.com.au/.

About Blirt:

Reinventing marketing and communications through the power of innovation and technology, Blirt provides a full range of strategy, development, production, and marketing services that help achieve business goals.

For more information, please visit https://www.blirt.com.au/

Contact Info:

Name: Stuart Leo

Organization: Blirt

Address: PO Box 103 Varsity Lakes, QLD 4227 Australia

Phone: 1300 859 323

Source: http://marketersmedia.com/martech-leader-blirt-takes-home-mayors-innovation-gold-coast-award/153024

Release ID: 153024

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Standing Rock Custom Merchandise Personalized Shirts Mugs Phone Cases Announced

5amily, a custom merchandise producer from the British Isles, launched a charitable line of Standing Rock personalized items. The collection includes shirts, hoodies, tote bags, coffee cups, phone cases and more. All profits will be donated to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.

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Online custom products store 5amily announced a wide range of personalized Standing Rock merchandise in support of the continuing Standing Rock protests. All profits go to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.

More information is available at https://5amily.com/standing-rock.

Efforts to finish the infamous North Dakota pipeline had been met throughout the year with protests from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, as the pipeline will bulldoze the historic sites of their land and endanger the Missouri River, their main water source.

The large-scale protest had thousands of people camped out in tents near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. As Chase Iron Eyes, a Standing Rock Sioux attorney and activist remarked, "We have never known a time when non-native American allies from around the country, around the world have come here in the dead of winter to stand with us, to stand together to call for a new day".

In a win for the protesters the United States Army Corps of Engineers has recently denied a permit for the Dakota Access pipeline to drill under the river. However, many protesters are suspicious that the announcement was intended to convince activists to leave so that the pipeline construction could continue unchallenged. They intend to continue their protest.

5amily, a leading personalized merchandise producer, has launched its charitable line of custom Standing Rock products. All profits made from selling the products will be donated to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in support of their efforts.

Customers can opt for fully personalized clothing in support of the Standing Rock movement. Designs are customized to reflect the location, profession or favorite hobby of the user. Slogans such as "I Am A Nurse And I Stand With Standing Rock" or "This Texas Veteran Stands With Standing Rock" will be generated to make the design a perfect means for displaying a deep and personal support to the cause.

All profits will go to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.

The line of customized products is currently one of the most comprehensive on the market. Alongside clothing, 5amily also offers customizable coffee mugs, tote bags and even phone cases. All products are printed and shipped from within the United States.

Interested parties can find more information by visiting the above-mentioned website.

For more information, please visit https://5amily.com

Contact Info:

Name: Mari Liis

Organization: 5amily

Address: PO Box 6945 Fitrovia, London, W1A 6US United Kingdom



Release ID: 152847

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Green Building Materials Market Expected to Grow at a CAGR of 17% from 2016 to 2022

Global Green Building Materials Market Information by Application (Residential, Commercial, Infrastructure, Industrial) by End-use (Exterior siding, Interior Finishing, Insulation, Framing, Roofing and others) and Region - Forecast to 2022

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Market Research Future published a Half Cooked Research Report on Green Building Materials Market that contains the information from 2014 to 2022. The Global Green Building Materials Market is expected to grow over the CAGR of around 17% during the period 2016 to 2022

Market Highlights

Green Buildings are the structures that utilize the resource efficient and environment friendly processes throughout the life cycle of the building. The market is driven by the increasing consumer awareness regarding energy efficiency and government supportive policies globally drive the market. Furthermore, the low maintenance cost, low operating cost and low water requirements the fueled the demand of the market. Health care industry by application contributes highest to the overall growth of the market. On the basis of region, North-America is the largest market both by value and volume. The global green building materials market size was valued at around USD 158 Billion in 2015 and is expected to cross USD 245 Billion at CAGR of 17% by 2022.

Key Players

The key players of global Green Building Materials Market report include-

o Alumasc Group plc

o Bauder Ltd.

o Wienerberger AG

o Binderholz GmbH

o Homasote Company

o CertainTeed Corporation

o LG Hausys Ltd.

o RedBuilt LLC

o PPG Industries, Inc.

o E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company

o Forbo International SA

o Kingspan Limited

o Lafarge Company

o BASF SE

o Owens Corning

Request a Sample Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample-request/global-green-building-materials-market-research-report-forecast-to-2022

Market Research Analysis

The market is highly application based. The factors contributing to the growth of the global green building materials market is the effective policies of the government for energy efficiency practices, growth in the health care industry and cost-effective. The market is expected to have higher growth rate as compared to the previous years. North-America is the largest region for the green building materials market, followed by Asia-Pacific. The main reason for the growth in the region includes the supportive regulatory policies & building codes in the construction & renovation of building and consumers awareness regarding environmental and economic benefits.

Taste the market data and market information presented through more than 85 market data tables and figures spread in 140 numbers of pages of the project report. Avail the in-depth table of content TOC & market synopsis on "Global Green Building Materials Market Research Report - Forecast to 2022"

Access Report Details @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/global-green-building-materials-market-research-report-forecast-to-2022

Scope of the Report

This study provides an overview of the global green building materials market, tracking two market segments across four geographic regions. The report studies key players, providing a five-year annual trend analysis that highlights market size, volume and share for North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Rest of the World. The report also provides a forecast, focusing on the market opportunities for the next five years for each region. The scope of the study segments the global green building materials packaging market as application and end-use.

o By Application

o Residential

o Infrastructure

o Commercial

o By End-use

o Insulation

o Framing

o Roofing

o Interior finishing

o Exterior siding

o Others

Make an Enquiry for this Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/global-green-building-materials-market-research-report-forecast-to-2022

About Market Research Future:

At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.

MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.

In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.

For more information, please visit https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/global-green-building-materials-market-research-report-forecast-to-2022

Contact Info:

Name: Akash Anand

Organization: Market Research Future (MRFR)

Address: Office No. 528, Amanora Chambers Magarpatta Road, Hadapsar, Pune - 411028 Maharashtra, India

Phone: +1 646 845 9312

Source: http://marketersmedia.com/green-building-materials-market-expected-to-grow-at-a-cagr-of-17-from-2016-to-2022/153190

Release ID: 153190

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Laptop & Computer Repairs Company in Sydney Wins Award. Best PC & Mac Repair

JM Computer Repairs won the 2016 Oneflare Customer Choice Award 2016 for Technology: PC & Mac Repair, coming out on top over hundreds of other competitors.

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With more than 120 five star reviews, JM Computer Repairs was named winner of the Oneflare Customer Choice Award 2016. The company took out top honours over hundreds of other entrants in the NSW Technology category. Oneflare presented the award to JM Computer Repairs on the Oneflare directory website. Details about the award can be found on the Oneflare website at https://www.oneflare.com.au/awards/technology/nsw.

Potential award recipients were required to be part of the Oneflare community in order to be in contention for the Oneflare Customer Choice Award 2016, and were judged based on outstanding customer service and many positive reviews. Entries are through nomination and the Onelfare award page states that it "represents excellence and talent across the Technology industry, including the top businesses in services such as: engineering and multimedia in NSW. These businesses were selected for having provided excellent customer experiences."

John Mavroforas, owner of JM Computer Repairs was thrilled to have the company's outstanding customer service record acknowledged and said:

""This award means a lot to us because we have always put customer service first as is obvious in our many positive online reviews and testimonials. We will continue to offer outstanding customer service, computer repair and competitive prices for everyone who uses our service."

JM Computer Repairs operates across the entire Sydney region with a focus on the Eastern Suburbs and Inner West, providing laptop, computer (PC and Mac) and other tech repairs, tutorials and service. The company works with individuals at home and small to medium sized businesses. If repairs are not possible on site, the technician will take the device back to the company's Lakemba workshop. Both pick up and drop off are part of this outstanding customer service from JM Computer Repairs.

People interested in learning more about JM Computer Repairs and the award can visit the company website, Instagram or Facebook page.

For more information, please visit http://www.jmcomputerrepairs.com.au

Contact Info:

Name: John Mavroforas

Organization: JM Computer Repairs

Address: 10 Boorea Ave, Lakemba, NSW, 2195 Australia

Phone: +61403437645

Release ID: 152976

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Story Highlights Wells Fargo/Gallup Index at highest level since January 2008

Small-business owners optimistic about new administration

Issues of greatest importance include taxes, healthcare, regulation

PRINCETON, N.J. -- Small-business owners' optimism improved to its highest level in eight years after the 2016 presidential election. The latest Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index, which measures the optimism of small-business owners, increased to +80 in mid-November from +68 in July. The November index represents the highest optimism reading since January 2008, when the index was at +83.

Increases in small-business owners' optimism about the future, rather than their opinions of their present situations, are largely behind the increases in the overall index. Many of their assessments of their present expectations are down a little, while future expectations rose on all six components of the index.

The percentage of small-business owners expecting company revenues to increase over the next 12 months rose from 48% to 58%.

Similarly, cash flow expectations are up slightly, from 65% to 70%.

Owners' view of future capital spending is also higher, with 35% in the current survey expecting to increase spending compared with 25% in the third quarter.

Expectations about adding jobs rose from 21% in the third quarter to 36% in the fourth.

Ease of obtaining credit is also up -- from 37% in the third quarter to 44% in the latest survey.

Small-Business Owners' Operating Environment Going Into 2017

Aside from the index, the latest survey finds small-business owners feeling relatively upbeat about both their businesses' operating environment in 2017 and their businesses' future.

Specifically, 45% of small-business owners, up from 31% in the fourth quarter of 2014 and the highest in four end-of-year measurements since 2011, expect their operating environment to be better in the next year compared with the current year.

Similarly, when asked if they expect their business to be better or worse off in 2017 compared with 2016, 46% of small-business owners -- up from 30% two years ago -- are optimistic.

Less than 20% of small-business owners are pessimistic in their business outlook on either question.

Small-Business Owners' Views of Operating Environment All in all, do you think the operating environment for your business in [following year] will be better, worse or about the same as [current year]? Better About the same Worse Don't know/Refused % % % % Quarter 4, 2016 45 43 11 1 Quarter 4, 2014 31 53 15 1 Quarter 4, 2013 23 51 25 1 Quarter 4, 2011 17 55 27 1 Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index

Small-Business Owners' Views of Future All in all, are you more optimistic about your business's future going into [next year] than you were going into 2016, less optimistic or about the same? More optimistic About the same Less optimistic Don't know/Refused % % % % Quarter 4, 2016 46 37 17 * Quarter 4, 2014 30 54 16 * Quarter 4, 2013 23 49 28 0 Quarter 4, 2011 21 47 32 * * Less than 0.5% Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index

Small-Business Owners Upbeat About New President and Congress

Overall, small-business owners are significantly more positive than negative about the prospect of the newly elected president and Congress. One-half (51%) of small-business owners think the actions of the new president and Congress will make their company better off, while 17% expect to be worse off and 26% feel the upcoming actions in Washington will have no impact on their business. Similarly, 61% of small-business owners believe the new president will focus on issues important to them as owners, while one-third predict he will not.

Small-Business Owners' Views of the Effect of the New President and Congress on Their Business And, do you think the actions the new president and Congress will take next year will make your company better off, worse off or don't you think their actions will have any effect on your business? Better off Worse off No effect Don't know/Refused % % % % Quarter 4, 2016 51 17 26 6 Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index

Small-Business Owners' Views of the New President's Focus on Issues Important to Them As far as you are concerned, do you think the new president will focus on the issues important to you as a small business owner, or not, when he takes office in January? Yes, will No, will not Don't know/Refused % % % Quarter 4, 2016 61 33 6 Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index

As part of the poll, small-business owners were asked to identify which issues they would most like the new president and Congress to focus on when they take office in January. The most frequently mentioned issues are taxes, healthcare and government regulations.

The importance of tax relief for small-business owners is also apparent in the responses to a question that asked owners to rate the importance of a list of issues the new president and Congress could tackle. More than eight in 10 small-business owners reported that actions relating to changes in the tax code will be extremely or very important. Seventy-six percent of small-business owners also saw actions relating to healthcare and the current healthcare law as extremely or very important.

Asked about the effectiveness of a number of ways the new administration can help small businesses grow, nine out of 10 small-business owners say that improving the overall economy would be extremely or very effective. Other highly rated potential actions that could be taken by the administration include reducing taxes on small-business owners (81% extremely or very effective) and simplifying the tax code (78% extremely or very effective).

Bottom Line

Small-business owners have become substantially more positive after the November election, returning to a level of optimism not seen since early 2008, although still not at the levels of optimism recorded in 2007 and earlier. The majority of owners believe the new president and Congress will focus on issues of importance to small businesses. Owners are particularly interested in having the nation's leaders address taxes, healthcare and regulations.

Survey Methods

Results are based on telephone interviews with 602 U.S. small-business owners in all 50 states, conducted Nov. 11-17, 2016. The margin of sampling error is 4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.

For more information about Wells Fargo Works for Small Business, visit WellsFargoWorks.com.

Learn more about how the Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index works.
Nokia's Most Awaited Smartphone Comeback Might Beat iPhone & Samsung

During the 90s, Nokia's success dominating the mobile phone industry is undeniable. Finally, the renowned brand is expected to release a smartphone that might take them back to the no. 1 spot all over again beating the current industry leaders Apple and Samsung.

A Finland-based company HMD Global has previously acquired the licensing rights to the Nokia brand which gives them the access to a number of key patents. Foxconn's subsidiary FIH Mobile Limited is tasked to manufacture the Android device.

Nokia's comeback has immediately spread out all over the internet and obviously made a noise. Many are excited for the newest Android phone. According to a report it may incorporate the qualities of a true Nokia brand which includes its tough builds, impressive battery life, user-friendly software, and its top-of-the-line camera adding the Google's open source software.

Fallen smartphone brand Nokia challenges Apple, Samsung again https://t.co/R4IiA9ZFg0 pic.twitter.com/YYuGxeNDNi  Reuters Top News (@Reuters) December 1, 2016

HMD's Chief Executive Arto Nummelan was recently interviewed by The Economic Times and shared his insights with the company's plans moving forward. According to him, the release of the Nokia smartphone in June 2016 will be distributed globally from day one of its operations. The majority will be manufactured in Foxconn's manufacturing site in India even though Microsoft is selling their factories in Hanoi.

Moreover, HMD has not yet disclosed any information with regard to its pricing but suggests that the next Nokia smartphones will cater to a wider range of market living up to the consumers' expectations. Though Nummelan said that there's a great opportunity on the mid to low price points due to the huge number of available devices within that range.

Nummelan also emphasized that the upcoming Android phone will be of premium quality. With that, they will develop a design that is easily recognizable as a Nokia brand. Not only that, the smartphone will be highly competitive in terms of its specifications and pricing. HMD is confident enough to bring back the Nokia brand to its previous state.
The Vampire Diaries Season 8 Cancellation Update: Nina Dobrev A No-Show; Angry Fans Threaten Boycott! Ian Somerhalder, Paul Wesley Desperate?

It seems like Nina Dobrev has truly turned her back on "The Vampire Diaries," the television show that skyrocketed her to celebrity status. "The Vampire Diaries" Season 8 is said to be the series' final season but with Dobrev nowhere in sight, fans have threatened a serious boycott.

Several fans have taken to Twitter to express their frustration at Dobrev's no-show in "The Vampire Diaries" Season 8. "Not gonna watch tvd season 8 til nina is back," tweeted user krishild. "I don't feel like watching until Nina returns. It's not TVD without her. I'll watch it when she comes back," wrote another user, MichelleReneeF2.

In an interview with ET last October, Plec said that both she and Dobrev "100 percent" wanted her to be on "The Vampire Diaries" Season 8 and the only issue they had was with regards to the actress' schedule. "I would be devastated if it weren't to work out, so I have a feeling the cards will be in all our favor," added Plec.

After showrunner Julie Plec's hints of Dobrev's return to the series, fans have gotten their hopes up. It's only natural for them to feel angry as the "The Vampire Diaries" Season 8 now nears its halfway point but Elena is still nowhere to be seen.

Some are still waiting for her character, Elena Gilbert, to be reunited with resident bad boy Damon Salvatore (Ian Somerhalder) in "The Vampire Diaries" Season 8. Elena was last glimpsed in the show's sixth season when she was put into a coma by Malachai Parker, the leader of the Gemini Coven. As long as Bonnie Bennet (Kat Graham) is alive, Elena will be in deep slumber, only to awaken when Bonnie dies.

According to Celeb Dirty Laundry, Dobrev has moved on from the "The Vampire Diaries" Season 8 to focus on her career in the Hollywood film industry. Presently, she's been touring around the world with Vin Diesel to promote their new movie, "xXx: Return of Xander Cage."
Suits Season 6B Latest Spoilers, Rumors & Predictions: What Will Happen To Pearson Specter Litt After Jessicas Exit? New Characters Coming In?

After managing partner Jessica Pearson (Gina Torres) has officially left "Suits" Season 6B during its midseason finale, a cloud of gloom hangs heavily over Pearson Specter Litt Law Firm as remaining partners Harvey Specter (Gabriel Macht) and Louis Litt (Rick Hoffman) decide what to do with it on their own.

Torres, who is based in Los Angeles, bid the "Suits" Season 6B cast goodbye because of difficulties traveling to and from the set in Toronto. Her exit has posed possibilities of who may take over and the kind of future that awaits the firm without Jessica.

New Character Joins 'Suits' Season 6B Cast?

It's possible that a new character may take charge of Pearson Specter Litt. Although "Suits" Season 6B executive producer Aaron Korsh previously told Deadline that a new series regular would not be added to take Torres' place, there is some room in the show for a recurring cast member. This new character might be offered a place in the firm in "Suits" Season 6B.

Perhaps Mike Ross (Patrick J. Adams) may enter the picture as a partner in "Suits" Season 6B. After his dramatic release from prison, Harvey and Louis might think of asking him to join them. Despite not having a license, Mike has proven to be a great lawyer and his presence in the firm has added a lot of excitement to "Suits."

Troubled Times in 'Suits' Season 6B for Harvey and Louis

On the other hand, Harvey and Louis could decide to take matters in their own hands. But based on a preview teaser released for "Suits" Season 6B, Harvey and Louis' partnership could spell trouble in "Suits" as they navigate a comical yet complicated relationship. TVLine reported that it will be a tough transition, especially for Harvey.

According to "Suits" Season 6B official synopsis, the two "more than ever will rely on the wit and intuition of Donna (Sarah Rafferty) and Rachel (Meghan Markle), their most trusted advisors, to keep them on track." Will Pearson Specter Litt manage to stand on its own even without Jessica? Find out when "Suits" Season 6B returns to USA Network on Jan. 25, 2017 at 10 p.m. EST.
Flynn further said in the interview he had personally seen photos of such signs in Texas.





A CNN KFile review of available information about the terror threat along the US-Mexico border could not corroborate Flynn's claim. CNN's KFile asked Flynn for clarification about the Arabic signs, but received no reply. A Trump transition spokesman declined to comment. A spokesperson for the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) "respectfully" declined to comment.



"I know from my friends in the Border Patrol in CBP that there are countries -- radical Islamist countries, state-sponsored -- that are cutting deals with Mexican drug cartels for some of what they call the 'lanes of entry' into our country," Flynn said in an interview with Breitbart News on SiriusXM radio. "And I have personally seen the photos of the signage along those paths that are in Arabic. They're like way points along that path as you come in. Primarily, in this case the one that I saw was in Texas and it's literally, it's like signs, that say, in Arabic, 'this way, move to this point.' It's unbelievable."



"This rise of Muslims and radicalized Muslims coming into our country illegally is something that we should pay very, very close attention to," he added.
Samsung Galaxy S8 Released Date, News & Update: Replaced Features For Its Competitiveness Yet Believed To Be A Copycat?

Samsung having a stiff competition with Apple kept its eyes on the price that is customer satisfaction. Because of this, Samsung is looking for ways to make its Galaxy S8 competitive with Apple's iPhone 7. Hence, Samsung is said to replace some of Galaxy S8's feature to make it a flagship smartphone.

Samsung will replace the physical Home button with a non-moving variant embedded right behind its AMOLED screen of which is likely the same as the long-rumored feature for next year's iPhone. The firm is also believed to adopt USB-C for charging and data transfer that is the same with some of Apple's devices.

As it can be remembered, the New MacBook has only one port track in a single USB-C port. Many people wondered why makers of Apple's New MacBook have created only one port to such device. This tiny USB produces a lot of benefits. One of which is it's reversible, which means that it can fit in the right way, the first time users will plug it.

Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus will Drop the 3.5mm Headphone Jack and Physical Home Button https://t.co/KSY0eOtI7a #GalaxyS8 #SamsungS8  iGyaan (@igyaan) December 7, 2016

Moreover, it was Sam Mobile which confirms the earlier report. It even states that Samsung will ditch the 3.5mm headphone jack to make the phone thinner and lighter. This feature will be able to free up more space inside for a bigger battery. "Samsung may also integrate stereo speakers which some believe will be made in collaboration with Harman, a company that Samsung is acquiring for $8 billion."

I Download even added that aside from its features "Galaxy S8 is also said to integrate the praised Viv personal assistant which was developed by Siri creators a few years ago and purchased by the South Korean conglomerate in October 2016. " Galaxy S8 is set to unveil in February.

Samsung's Galaxy S8 and Apple's devices have some similarities. Does it seem to suggest that Samsung could be a copy-cat?
Apple Latest News & Update: Who Is Winning Between iPhone and Samsung In The Patent Dispute Case?

The legal battle between Apple and Samsung is coming to an epic ending. The two giant leaders in the smartphone industry have been going at it for years. Smartphone users can now purchase the devices involved in the patent dispute.

But how did the Court ended such controversial case? Samsung versus Apple started in 2012. According the report of The Verge, "In 2014, a jury decided that Samsung infringed on Apple's quick links patent and company's swipe to unlock patent. Apple was also ordered to pay $158,400 for infringing on a Samsung patent photo and video gallery feature."

Supreme Court sides with Samsung in patent dispute with Apple, tosses out a $399 million judgment. https://t.co/Gcid89x689  The Associated Press (@AP) December 6, 2016

Mid-October this year, the Supreme Court heard the case and legal experts didn't expect the court to render judgment late this year. They were expecting for the release of the ruling in 2017. Obviously, the Court released its decision this week which shocked Apple and Samsung users.

According to CNET's report Ed Black, CEO of the Computer & Communications Industry Association, "This was a pivotal court case for the technology industry and it is encouraging to see the law interpreted and applied in a way that makes sense in a modern era and protects both inventors and innovation." This statement comes as a relief for all users of Apple and Samsung smartphones.

The Court ruled in favor of Samsung when it decided that the basis for calculating damages is only the part of the device that infringed patents and not the whole product. On the other hand, this can also be a win from Apple because Samsung still needs to pay an undetermined amount because of infringing parts of iPhone's design.

Therefore, the court resolved issue on how to calculate the damages that Samsung must pay to Apple for infringing patents. But the lower court will determine the exact amount.


"iOS 10.2 Jailbreak" Release Date, News & Update: Apple Shames Pangu With Unbreachable Firmware, Jailbreak Not Possible

Nearly three months after the release of the latest OS of Apple devices, hackers remain clueless of the security flaws of the next generation iOS 10. With the Cupertino tech giant releasing Beta 7 of iOS 10.2 update, they are still silent on the latest jailbreaking tool.

In previous releases, tool developers feasted on the security breaches of iOS and released their jailbreak tool in a matter of days. But this is not the case with iOS 10.2. Even renowned Chinese hacking group Pangu was mum, and remains to be heard if it has breached iOS 10 like its predecessors. Though it claimed to have the jailbreak tool of iOS 10 days before its release, Pangu is yet to show proof of it.

Impenetrable Firmware

With this development, Apple meant business when it pointed out that the newest iOS 10 contains a security patch that makes iOS completely impenetrable. During the September 13 launch, Apple dared hackers and software developers to find a bug in the firmware while offering $100,000 reward for party that can penetrate the breach. iOS 10 also went through a rigorous beta release cycle, with 8 beta seeds in total for both developers and testers.

With the release of beta 7 of iOS 10.2 this week, Apple crushed hopes that iOS 10 jailbreak could still be possible while ending the cat-and-mouse relationship of the Cupertino giant and firmware security hackers from around the world.

The latest tools released by Pangu were jailbreak 9.0.0 and 9.3.3. However these may not be useable as of today with Apple assuring that its devices will never be jailbroken again.

What's with iOS 10.2 beta update?

The newest iOS 10.2 patch is equipped with over 70 new emojis like shrug and fingers crossed, additional camera and TV app settings. With it, your iPhone has now the easiest way to express celebrations and love message effects with more new wallpaper options.

Meantime, with the unbreachable iOS 10 firmware, iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch users can turn to TweakBox and Mojo. With these, user can install apps that are not available in Apple Store. With the uncertainty of a jailbreak tool, fans can start looking into these apps as handy alternative.

Watch the changes of iOS 10.2 beta 7 here:
EPL Week 15: Manchester City vs. Leicester City Preview, Prediction, TV Schedule and Live Stream

Leicester City is set to host Manchester City at the King Power Stadium on December 10 as part of Week 15 of the English Premier League season. The defending EPL champions are looking to snap a five-game winless streak in the league while Man City copes with the absence of Fernandinho and Sergio Aguero.

Leicester City vs. Manchester City Match Details, TV Schedule and Live Stream Links

Date: December 10, Saturday

Venue: King Power Stadium in Leicester, England.

Start Time: 12:30 PM ET, 5:30 PM GMT

Channel: NBC (USA), BT Sport 1 (UK)

Live Stream: NBC Live, BT Sport App, fuboTV

Leicester City vs. Manchester City Match Preview

The Foxes comes into Week 15 with just 13 points and they are currently sitting 16th in the EPL table. They are dangerously in danger of getting relegated as the defending champions continue to underperform this season.

Leicester City is on a five-game winless streak in the league as they lost their last game against fellow bottom-dwellers Sunderland, 2-1. It was a very disappointing performance for Claudio Ranieri's side and they followed it up with an embarrassing 5-0 defeat against Porto in the Champions League.

On the other hand, fourth-place Manchester City is also coming off a defeat against league-leading Chelsea, 3-1, last weekend. It was a wakeup call for Pep Guardiola and his side. However, the loss also cost them two players for the next several league games.

According to Goal.com, Sergio Aguero is given a four-game ban for his dirty sliding tackle on David Luiz in the final minutes of their match. Fernandinho, who choked and shoved Cesc Fabregas during the scuffle, was given a three-game suspension.

Possible Formation and Starting XI

Leicester City (4-4-2) Ron-Robert Zieler; Danny Simpson, Wes Morgan, Robert Huth, Christian Fuchs; Riyad Mahrez, Daniel Amartey, Andy King, Marc Albrighton; Shinju Okazaki, Jamie Vardy

Manchester City (4-2-3-1) Claudio Bravo; Pablo Zabaleta, John Stones, Aleksandar Kolarov, Gael Clichy; Kevin de Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan; David Silva, Yaya Toure, Raheem Sterling; Kelechi Iheanacho



Prediction: Manchester City defeats Leicester City 3-1.
Apple iPhone 7 Latest News & Update: Most Controversial Feature Proves To Be A Non-Issue As Explosive Sales Continues

Despite all the hullabaloo over the Apple iPhone 7's disputable ditching of the headphone jack, a design decision that some believed would turn off a good percentage of prospective buyers, unexpected astounding sales is still on the rise. The iPhone 7's improved front and back cameras with optical image stabilization deliver much-improved photos, especially in low-light. Battery and water resistance advances are sensible upgrades to a familiar phone design. Also, a faster processor, a slightly better battery life and more onboard storage than the previous year's models for the same price are plus factors.

Global Consumer Panel Shows Apple iPhone 7 Demand Higher Than Anticipated

Kantar Worldpanel ComTech released recent sales data and, according to them, year over year iOS growth in the United States checked in at 7 percent. This is largely driven by higher than expected demand for the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. Certainly, it might be recalled that even Apple was rather surprised by the stronger than expected response to the iPhone 7 Plus, brought about in widespread shortages throughout the first few weeks after its release, BGR reports.

IPhone 7 Demand Still Up; The Numbers Speak For Itself

Correspondingly noteworthy is that the Apple iPhone 7 was the top-selling smartphone in the US from August through September 2016. With a 10.6 percent share, it is a remarkable feat given that the device was only offered for seven weeks in the market during that 12-week time frame. Incidentally, the iPhone 7 Plus was the fourth most popular device with a 5.3 percent share.

Conflicting ideas sparked among the consumers as the iPhone 7 may be best known for the feature it removed: the headphone jack, which will force users to buy a USB-C adapter or use expensive Bluetooth headphones, writes Tech.Mic. There are a dongle and compatible wired headphones in the box, though. The iPhone 8's release date is fast approaching, which means it's crunch time for Apple smartphone owners considering an upgrade.
'One Piece' Chapter 849 Spoilers, Latest News & Update: Pudding Deceives Big Mom for Sanji!

"One Piece" fans are already surprised by Lady Pudding's decision to not marry Sanji. Now the spoilers are hinting at more twists and turns in the Plot. Reports are indicating that Lady Pudding deceives Big Mom and cancels the wedding. It seems "One Piece" chapter 849 will take some interesting turns.

Straw Hat Luffy may challenge Big Mom into a fight even if he is in prison. However, Big Mom ignores him saying that she is not interested in fighting with him.

At the end of Episode 848 of "One Piece" Pudding reveals her secret plan to Luffy and Namy. Pudding is determined to reveal Big Mom's manipulative moves to Sanji. She will also tell him that Luffy and Namy are imprisoned by her mother. Pudding will try to help Sanji's friends in escaping from her mother. Pudding is not bothered about the consequences of her revelations to Sanji. In the process she is ready to sacrifice herself as her love for Sanji is selfless, Noted Travelers Today. She is determined to stop the wedding and in Chapter 849 of "One Piece" she will set Sanji free.

As Pudding is very impulsive and unpredictable Sanji must know about her moves. She might try to take her life and complicate the entire plot. Sanji's understanding of Puddings plans will impact the Straw-Hat Pirates. If Pudding is successful in taking her life Big Mom will avenge her death, speculated Gack Hollywood.

In "One Piece" chapter 849 Carrot and Chopper will be successful in escaping the Mirror World. They can help Luffy and Namy in escaping the prison. Fans will be pleased if all of them can stop Lady Pudding from committing suicide. Reports are also indicating that at the end, all of them will be able to escape Whole Cake Island and subsequently will be united in the battle with Big Mom. However, these developments are not confirmed yet.
"Limitless'"Season 2 Air Date, News & Update:CBS Considers Petition, Airs 2017, Plot Focuses On Rebecca Harris Instead Of Brian Finch?

The air date of "Limitless" Season 2 has been placed in jeopardy as CBS claimed that "Limitless" has not reached enough ratings to have another season. On the contrary, numerous online petitions are made by "Limitless" fans to appeal the decision of CBS through online petitions on Change.org and ThePetitionSite to make "Limitless" Season 2 happen, all of which are seems to become fruitful now.

Gamenguide reports that the show has been confirmed canceled by the creator of "Limitless" Season 2 himself, Craig Sweeney. However, even if CBS claimed that the "Limitless" has not received a fair number of ratings to make the station air them again, thousands of petitions online are calling for "Limitless" Season 2. This is also said to be the reason why CBS has changed its mind and decided to give "Limitless" Season 2 a slot for 2017.

On the other hand, it can be remembered that one of the reasons why "Limitless" has been reported to canceled, is the fact that it's plot and the showrunner is too simple and predictable. In connection to this, since NZT plot is crucial for the story of "Limitless" Season 2, the turnaround is to transfer the spotlight from Brian Finch to Rebecca Harris. Rebecca Harris is Brian Finch's handler on FBI, a predominant character on the "Limitless" and she also tried NZT on one of the show's episodes.

According to reports, Rebecca Harris would solve the mystery of Senator Morra's past that would end up to how his father was found dead right after her birthday. CBS is still quiet about "Limitless" Season 2 and nothing are fully confirmed yet, however, will the growing number of online petitions "Limitless" Season 2 will surely be possible. Do you think Rebecca Harris is better than Brian Finch when they are both on NZT? Tell us what you think below! Stay tuned for more of your 'Limitless" Season 2 updates!

Read Next: 'Drone' Latest News & Updates: How To Register My Drone Gift This Christmas? Details Here
PlayStation 4 Latest News & Update: Console Sold More Than 50 Million Units? What Sony Plans Next? Is PlayStation 5 Still Coming?

Sony has announced the most updated number of sales of its latest console, the PlayStation 4: 50 million units by the current week. In this calculation, all the PS4 models, such as the original version, the slim edition and the latest PS4 Pro comes in.

Launched in November 2013, 40 million handsets had been sold through May 2016, showing great growth this year . There is no reliable data to compare with the biggest competitor on the console of Sony, the Xbox One, since Microsoft has not disclosed their numbers publicly. Some estimates, however, indicate that Caixa walks a little behind: according to NVIDIA, 29 million units of the company console founded by Bill Gates were sold in full, while a calculation by the NPD Group says that the Xbox One and Its issues have sold more than the PlayStation 4 in 2016.

In any case, Microsoft should receive a considerable boost in sales of Xbox One when the edition called Project Scorpio, with support for 4K, is released, possibly in the second quarter of 2017.People can say that the eighth generation of consoles is made up of the PlayStation 4 and two other consoles. By best efforts that Microsoft (Phil Spencer) has done to keep the Xbox One platform competitive, the Sony console now has a global installed base above the sum of its competitors, including also the failed Nintendo Wii U. From November 15, 2013 until December 6, 2016, 50 million units of PlayStation 4 were sold worldwide.

The account includes the new PS4 slim and PS4 Pro. Apparently Sony sold many consoles during the true Black Friday in civilization, perhaps breaking the Xbox One S winning sequence in the US. Until May, the PlayStation 4 platform had sold 40 million consoles, so we have approximately ten million units sold per semester. And yes, the Japanese really expect to sell another 10 million PS4 consoles (slim and Pro) by the end of the 2016 fiscal year, in March 2017. It is not doubt it can.
Meghan Markle Steals Kate Middleton Status; Desperate to Be a Princess? Prince Harry's Girlfriend a Pushy, Social Climber, Says Actress' Sister

Ever since Prince Harry and Meghan Markle revealed their budding romance in the public, people did not waste any time to know what the couple is up to every day. More and more news about them is taking over the headlines of many magazines and tabloids. Recently, news claims that the couple is getting more serious and it will not be a big surprise if the "Suits" actress will be the next Kate Middleton of the royal family.

Meghan Markle as Pippa and Kate Middleton

As time pass by and reports pointed out that it will not take any longer for Meghan Markle to say "I do" to Prince Harry, rumor has it that people started comparing the actress to Kate Middleton. From the way they dress to the way they interact with people.

Many fans of Kate Middleton do not agree with how the media compare the Duchess of Cambridge to the actress as the princess is way better than Meghan Markle. Fans are also not in favor of saying that Markle will act side-by-side with Middleton in many royal occasions as they are convinced that the actress might steal the spotlight from their bet since she is a new addition to the family.

Speaking of occasion, in Mirror's report, there is one time where both Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle wore the same lace dress and of course, though there are commenters who is neutral in choosing who wore it best, majority of fans are siding with Kate, one even says that why would they even compare someone "who pretends to be many things for a living" to Prince William's wife and next to the queen's throne?

Moreover, when Meghan Markle was also compared to Pippa and Kate Middleton, a commenter from Mail Online wrote: "Her romance with the Prince isn't about HIM and her feelings towards him as an individual, but rather his title and the opportunity to borrow from it! She needs to be dismissed."

Meghan Markle Steals Kate Middleton "Favorite Royal Status"?

According to CDL, it seems like Meghan Markle is slowly stealing the spotlight from Kate Middleton as the latter is now "desperate to regain her favorite royal status." She and Princess Sofia seems to be the newest favorite princesses in the palace and it makes the Duchess of Cambridge a bit worried.

Adding on, even being compared to Princess Diana is already stolen from Kate Middleton as the site reported that people see the late princess' humanitarian work to Meghan Markle.

Meghan Markle, a social climber in the making?

According to TheSun, Meghan Markle's sister, Samantha, called her as a social climber who does not deserve to be a royal. The 51-year-old mother of three revealed that Meghan has always been dreaming about being a princess and she always prefer Prince Harry over Prince William. Adding on, she also revealed that the royal family might be shocked about how her sister treated her family and the truth would kill her romance with the prince.
Samsung Note 7 Latest News & Updates: Samsung Canada Urges Note 7 Users to Refund Or Exchange Their Units, More Details Here!

Samsung Canada has recently announced that it is deactivating the service for the remaining Samsung Note 7 devices in Canada market. Canadian consumers will be able to return or exchange their Note 7 devices, which secures nearly 90 percent of the devices brought into the market.

According to Slash Gear, Samsung Canada's move compels owners to surrender their Samsung Note 7. This isn't actually news as Australian carriers have been doing it already. The devices will be ceased to operate as smartphones and will be downgraded to being an offline notepads, media players and mirrors.

Functional limitations on the Samsung Note 7 devices include battery charge limitation around 60 percent like other countries that has implemented the same restriction and it will also disable Bluetooth and Wi-fi. News Wire reports that this takes effect as early as Dec. 12, 2016 and effective Dec. 15, users will not be able to connect to any Canadian mobile networks to use date, make calls and send text messages.

Samsung strongly suggests that users who are still using the Samsung Note 7 to go back to the stores where the device were purchased between Dec. 7 and Dec. 15 to make a refund or exchange units. Samsung continues to notify users regarding this with a push notification about the network deactivation.

In the event of giving away or selling the Samsung Note 7, the company reminds these owners that this action is deemed illegal. "As a recalled product, Note7 device owners are legally prohibited from selling or even giving away the recalled device. We would like to remind customers that they need to return their Note7 device," reads Samsung post on its website.

Samsung is headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul and a South Korean multinational conglomerate company. It has several subsidiaries and associated businesses where most of these are united under Samsung brand. Lee Byung-chul founded the company in 1938.
Court Says No! Samsung C5, C7 Did Not Copy iPhone 6, 6S Designs; 3 Hidden Secrets Of The Case

iPhone maker Apple had reportedly lost a case against the South Korean company, Samsung Electronics in the Supreme Court. It should be noted that a $400 million damage suit was awaiting Samsung for literally making clones of the iPhone 6. However, Samsung took the matter to Supreme Court which denied Apple the $400 million claim as previously ordered by the appeals court.

The American Supreme Court has been noted to side with the South Korean conglomerate in the issues of smartphone patent disputes with the giant tech company in California. However, it is expected that the multi-suit feuds between the two companies may not end as the copying trend continues. Apparently, the Supreme Court has sent the case back to the Court of Appeals to figure out exactly how much the design features were in value to the iPhone.

It should be noted that back in 2012, a federal jury in San Jose decided that Samsung did copy several features of the iPhone. As it turns out, Apple had patented the design which include the rectangular body, rounded corners and grid of apps on the home screen. Note that, Samsung just rolled out the C5 and C7 with nearly every bit of design to mirror the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, LA Times reported.

Samsung was able to gain popularity since releasing the Apple-look-alike on the Galaxy lineup. A certain judge back then ordered Samsung to pay out its entire profit for infringing the smartphones, banking up on the 1887 patent law. However, Samsung took this matter to the Supreme Court as the company did not want to spend such a large amount on the case.

In other news, Samsung is expected to quickly try to rake in more cash with the iPhone clones before its next face-to-face with Apple in court. Note that in the year 2015, Samsung has already doled out $548 to Apple. Overall, Apple was also granted roughly $930 million in damages.

The iPhone featured patented designs of a rounded-corner front, among others that Samsung thought of copying the designs but would not pursue paying out such extreme loads of cash. However, Apple reportedly notes that the success of the iPhone was largely tied to its innovative designs. However, note that other smartphone manufacturers also took the cue from the iPhone in its designs. Watch the Top 10 Smartphones that Look like an iPhone here:
Microsoft Surface Pro 4 News & Update: Criticizes MacBook Pros Touchpad; $200 Off On Dec. 16, Where To Buy?

Microsoft Surface Pro 4 was all over the recently ended Black Friday deals. It should be noted that Best Buy sold entry-level Microsoft Surface Pro 4 devices with Intel Core M3 along with a keyboard for $600. In contrast, the 12-inch M3-powered MacBook still came in a higher cost despite the Black Friday sale.

Furthermore, it is also believed that the Type keyboard cover on the Microsoft Surface Pro 4 was effective enough. Microsoft Surface Pro 4 reviews have also criticized the integrated touchpad. It should be noted that the MacBook uses a wireless mouse or alternatively, a Surface Pen for navigation, CNET reported.

Microsoft Surface Pro 4, on the other hand, has showed up on the company's list of deals for the holiday season. The Microsoft Surface Pro 4 reportedly went on sale in the U.S. for $649 as part of Microsoft's 12 Days of Deals promotion. The Microsoft Surface Pro 4 was made available at the entry-level price powered by an M3 processor. Additionally, Microsoft Surface Pro 4 models are also expected to get $200 off on Dec. 16 with a free Type Cover. It is further expected that Microsoft Surface Pro 4 deals will still continue well after the holidays.

In other news, as the Microsoft Surface Pro 4 was found among the 12 Days of Deals, other devices such as tablets and PCs are also slated to get big discounts. For example, those who opt to buy the Xbox One console on Dec. 8 may get two $50 games for free. Additionally an HTC Vive or an Oculus Rift may be available the next day with a $100 gift card like in Amazon.

Microsoft Surface Pro 4 is also slated to be offered with a $50 Microsoft store gift card on the last day, Dec. 16. The internal specs for the 12.3 inch device will come with 4GB of RAM as well. Overall, up to $159.99 savings is expected on the deal, according to report. Watch the review here:
[Breaking News] Verizons Samsung Galaxy S7, S7 Edge Not Getting Nougat Beta Program; Time To Shift To Other Network?

Samsung will continue with the Android 7.0 Nougat beta testing for the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge and Samsung Galaxy S7. However, Verizon-owned handsets of the both models will not be included. According to reports, the carrier has notified the Samsung Galaxy Beta app users that their phones will remain in the original software for the rest of the trial.

This means that when Samsung starts to release another Nougat beta build for the Samsung Galaxy S7 and Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, they will not be accessible to the Verizon owners.

Samsung Galaxy S7 and Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge reports indicate that the owners will have an option to either stay with the current Nougat beta build that have been installed or choose to roll back to an Android 6.0..1 Marshmallow.

It should also be noted that Verizon owners will have to wait for the next official Nougat update, which is reported to be early next year, to begin the roll out for both the Samsung Galaxy smartphones.

Meantime, Samsung Galaxy S7 and Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge users on other networks can receive the latest Nougat beta if they have an active Samsung account. They can also have the said Nougat beta by installing the Samsung Galaxy Beta Program app from Samsung Galaxy Apps Store, according to Android Authority.

Meanwhile, Samsung has made the process of Android 7.0 Nougat testing more convenient, as the Korean tech giant confirms to re-open the Beta Testing Program for consumers and developers. The registration, which started in November this year, has already been reopened for the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge users in the UK, while those in the US may have to wait for the program in just a few days.

Recent reports suggest that Samsung Galaxy S7 users will also have the official Android 7.0 Nougat update in December. Moreover, the unlocked Samsung Galaxy S7 users in Asia are reported to receive the update first, followed by those in Europe and the US. Alongside the launch of the Android 7.0 Nougat is the release of guides to present an overview of the changes and new features that will be brought by the update to the smartphone users, University Herald reported.

Watch Samsung Launches Android 7.0 Nougat Galaxy Beta Program:
The Late Night Show With Stephen Colbert News & Update: James Corden Will Take Over For Colbert In The Show

Stephen Colbert started hosting the Late Show just last year. But there are already rumors that he might be getting replaced by James Corden.

It is possible the comedian will be offered Mr. James Corden's 12.30am slot which means he could use raunchier jokes - but would probably attract a smaller audience. James Corden has previously told multiple outlets that the switch isn't going to happen.

But insiders close to "The Late Show" countered that Stephen Colbert's job is safe. And a source exclusively told Page Six that "The Late Show" is not moving to LA - but that Colbert's producers are exploring taking the show to LA for a week of remote shows with Stephen Colbert."They are just, exploring going to LA for a week with Colbert," as explained by Page Six.

Colbert's producers have been calling around to different venues in LA to accommodate "The Late Show," we hear including the Hollywood Pantages Theatre. But plans are just preliminary.

"They have been talking about this for a long time, but there's no chance it could happen before next fall. The talk is that CBS would offer Colbert the chance to do an edgier show at 12:30 a.m., which he is actually more suited to," as stated by The Insider.James Corden told Howard Stern that it's never going to happen.

"I just think it's silly. We have no plans to flip the two shows," as stated by CBS executive Glenn Geller. Since summer, James Corden's career has gotten brighter. He's been picked to host the Grammys after his Carpool Karaoke segment has attracted the likes of Adele, Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and Madonna.

"We now have Colbert and Corden, both are doing extraordinarily well. Colbert had a little bit of a rocky start, but his ratings are going way up, and James Corden has become an Internet sensation. So both of them are very profitable, which wasn't the case in the latter years of Letterman and our 12:30 show," as stated by Les Moonves Network.
Candace Cameron Bure Tired Of Being A Superwoman; Leaves ABC's "The View"

Candace Cameron has returned to ABC's morning chatfest, "The View" after some hiatus. However, she came back with a sad announcement. She revealed she will be exiting the morning show.

The "Fuller House" star Candace Cameron has been one of the hosts of "The View" for two seasons already. She recently took some time off to focus filming on her current project in California.

According to Variety, Candace Cameron is now going to make her "Netflix and chill" plan happen; saying goodbye to her co-hosting gig on ABC's morning show and focusing on her Netflix series project. On Thursday's episode, the "Fuller House" actress said she feels happy and sad as well as because she came back merely to announce she will leave the show. She said it was a hard decision to make.

Even so, Candace Cameron explained, her commitments to "Fuller House" and its network has become bigger as the show progresses. The actress has been working on Netflix's "Fuller House" reboot and "The View" at the same time.

Thus, every week, she has to travel back and forth from Los Angeles to New York -- which, of course, is exhausting for her and her family. Candace Cameron also explained she wants to spend more time with her children.

Additionally, Candace Cameron took some time to thank her co-hosts Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar for welcoming her on the show. She also said she tried to be like Superwoman having multiple jobs but now, she is going to "not try anymore." She also expressed her gratitude towards Barbara Walters, the creator of the show, and to Candi Carter, "The View's showrunner.

Meanwhile, Carter issued a statement saying it was a pleasure working with Candace Cameron. She also applauded the actress for being "a devoted mother, talented actress, and passionate co-host who never hesitated to speak her mind," Fox News reports.
Windows 10 Latest News & Update: Microsoft Chooses Qualcomms Snapdragon Chips To Enable Windows 10 On Mobile Devices

A collaboration between Microsoft and Qualcomm will allow Qualcomm's ARM-based chips to run Windows 10 and native Windows apps. At the recent WinHec 2016, Microsoft also demonstrated a re-compiled version of Windows 10 for ARM, together with several native X86 Windows apps running in emulation mode on the platform, which worked seamlessly.

"To deliver on customers' growing need to create on the go, Microsoft announced that Windows 10 is coming to ARM architecture through a partnership with Qualcomm, Microsoft said. "For the first time, customers will be able to experience the Windows they know with the apps, peripherals and enterprise capabilities they require, on a truly mobile, power-efficient, always-connected cellular PC." Qualcomm and Microsoft both believe that the timing couldn't be more perfect, as they've teamed up to allow Windows 10 on mobile devices powered by next-gen Snapdragon processors.

Windows 10 On Qualcomm: Windows And Arm Details

To recall, Microsoft tried to get developers create new applications compatible with both the x86 architectures and ARM using its Universal Windows Platform. However, Windows RT and Windows Phone Mobile, the two operating systems that were supposed to make ARM appealing, failed to make a mark amongst consumers.

This time, however, Microsoft is positive that the team up will allow hardware partners to build a selection of Snapdragon-powered Windows 10 PCs that run universal Windows apps and x86 Win32. The company singled out Adobe Photoshop, as well as its Window games and Office suite.

Windows 10 On Qualcomm: Qualcomm Is The First To Emulate Win32 Programs

Qualcomm's press release states that the Qualcomm Snapdragon is expected to support mobility to cloud computing on Windows 10. However, despite high-end ARM chips now being able to offer excellent computing experience when running native platforms, we are yet to see if the same will work out for the x86 emulation. In the end, it will depend on how Microsoft implements it. The first PCs running Windows 10 powered by Snapdragon chips are slated to release as early as next year, 2017.
Samsung News and Update; The Rise Of Samsung Series S8

After the unsuccessful journey of the previous Samsung model Note 7, expect Samsung to build a new model that will bring back the trust and interest of the people to them. This upcoming year 2017, a lot of new model smartphone will compete to become the smartphone of the year and as usual, Samsung is one of the brands that always have entry of their new phone models every year.

And this coming year 2017, Samsung will entry their Galaxy S8 along those competitors. We expect that this model Galaxy S8 will features a huge difference compared to their recent models that will makes people attracted. One of their features is the bezel-less body design.

This feature provides a larger screen view with 1440x2560p resolution. This model 5.7 inches provides a 64 up to 128 GB internal and capable of up to 256 GB external SD card. When it comes to model platform, Android OS v7.0 was installed. The battery of Samsung S8 was built-in, a non-removable Li0lon battery with a fast charging feature. This model offers 5 different colours such as black, white, gold, silver and pink gold.

Phone from the future? Samsung Galaxy S8 reportedly has an 'all-screen' design https://t.co/VOAlKuY61o pic.twitter.com/fnRh32VlYb RT  Tekki (@Tekki_co) December 8, 2016

According to bloomerg, Samsung S8 will feature all-screen design and expect to have no physical home button and will appear only under screen display. The bezel-less model provides viewers to view real estate feature.

More reports also relayed that the Samsung Galaxy S8 Edge, the model will hit the market this coming February 28, 2017. It was said to be the most smartphone series of Samsung. This Samsung S8 will have more advance features compared to last model s7. The S8 model consist of a lot interesting features that brings the device more attractive and technical and makes it to be the most attractive look model with a slim design.
Tokyo Ghoul Season 3 Air Date, News & Update: Winter 2016 Release Unlikely; Series Delayed Due To Hunter X Hunter? Plot Details

Fans continue to wait for the premiere of "Tokyo Ghoul" Season 3. It's been a year since the animated series last hit the small screens and viewers can't wait for its return and find out what's next for Ken Kaneki.

"Tokyo Ghoul" Season 3 was believed to come out this year, as previously reported by GamenGuide. It was mentioned in a report by Anime Maru that the series will return in winter 2016 but latest reports suggest that this will not be the case. Furthermore, Studio Pierrot will no longer be in charge of the animation as Madhouse has taken over.

Otakukart also reported that "Tokyo Ghoul" Season 3 will feature a darker plot that the series may be rated as not appropriate for younger audiences. The report also stated that this change in the overall plot could be a result of Madhouse taking over the animation. Although this may make sense, there is really no official word from the executives or the network that would air the series.

Fans can only hold on to the fact that "Tokyo Ghoul" Season 3 is happening despite the lack of updates. However, the exact release date is anybody's guess. Some reports claimed that the series will return this year, while others speculated that it would be in 2018. Reportedly, the series would take time to return to the TV screens because manga creator Sui Ishida is said to be focused on "Hunter X Hunter." There wouldn't be enough material for a third season animated series, although it was rumored that the next installment will be based on the manga "Tokyo Ghoul: re."

Nevertheless, spoilers for "Tokyo Ghoul" Season 3 have emerged online. It was rumored that Kaneki will finally become a complete Kakuja and he will also be dealing with a new villain. Furthermore, Season 3 is also expected to explore on romance and also Touka's backstory. Fans can just stay tuned to GamenGuide to get the latest scoop on "Tokyo Ghoul's" new season.
Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Release Date, Specs, News & Update: Note 7 Successor Carries Advanced Safety Features; 2017 Launch With Galaxy S8

Samsung Galaxy Note 8 is expected to come out in 2017 with Flagship smartphone Samsung Galaxy S8 and fans could no longer wait to see if the South Korean company has improved its safety features. The recent controversy of Samsung Galaxy Note 7 has certainly put the future releases of the tech giant on the spotlight. Now, new reports have emerged suggesting that Samsung Galaxy Note 8 will indeed come with better safety features than its predecessor.

Nonetheless, Samsung has yet to confirm the development of the new phablet device. However, it has become a subject of numerous rumors and speculations all over the Internet for quite some time now. According to reports, the goal of the company is to make the handset compensate for the failure of Samsung Galaxy Note 7. If rumors prove to be true, Samsung Galaxy Note 8 will not only come with advanced safety features, it will also carry impressive specs and features.

In a report by The Verge, Samsung is already planning to disable the controversial Galaxy Note 7 in the US after several exploding incidents. According to the report, the company is planning to release an update that would prevent the device from charging. The modification is said to happen on Dec. 15; however, the tech giant has yet to make the report official. What else should fans expect in Samsung Galaxy Note 8?

Meanwhile, the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Note 8 will carry a whopping 5.7-inch screen with 4K capabilities. Reports are circulating that the device will run on a Snapdragon 830 processor from Qualcomm paired with 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB internal storage capacity.

Not only will it run on a powerful chipset, the new Samsung Galaxy Note 8 will also have Google's newest mobile operating system, the Android 7.0 Nougat. According to reports, the phablet could be launched along with Samsung Galaxy S8 during the Consumer Electronics Show 2017 in January. Stay tuned for more news and updates about Samsung Galaxy Note 8.
'The Walking Dead' Season 7 Episode 7 Recap; Episode 8 Spoiler: Negan To Arrive In Alexandria

Zombies and survival are somehow a generic formula in most post-apocalyptic movies and games in the present time. But, despite its genre, it is a truth that The Walking Dead fans, who had been tracking the show for almost six years, have made it as somewhat not just a habit, but something already part in their daily activities, more of like a necessity. And as episodes pass by, the story gets more intense.

And by the way, the creator of the show, Robert Kirkman, had chosen to use the word "walkers" in replace to zombies, since he wanted to make the show unique from other post-apocalyptic movies or series. That's what he said at Express.

So much for the trivia! Now, here's what happened during the show's last episode (episode 7 this 7th season) for those who failed to watch or somehow wanted to refresh things instantly.

Well, Daryl was challenged upon seeing a slipped key, with a message telling him to go. But the question is: Is it genuine or is it a bait? Creepy to think with, but it will really give Daryl a very hard time in reflecting, or more of like discerning.

Furthered by Chicago Tribune, Spencer cannot help himself from hating Rick, who was, for him, responsible for the death of his parents, when they decided to kill people from the Savior's outpost. This is what he shared to Father Gabriel. But to the questions where that hate or grudge leads him into, what the fans know that Spencer was deeply hurt by the loss of his parents.

Now, for the spoilers, Latin Post had released an article saying that Negan will be in Alexandria, the place where people really wanted to live for survival. In the next episode of The Walking Dead season 7, surely the impatient fans will no longer walk like dead.
Dont Fall For These Holiday Gift Exchange And Shopping Scams On Facebook

It's that time again of the year for shopping sprees and gift exchanges, and scammers have found a way to exploit the spirit of gift-giving on Facebook.

The Better Business Bureau (BBB) has issued a warning to consumers to avoid the "secret sister gift exchange" scam that has been making the rounds on Facebook. Essentially, the post invites participants to buy gifts valued at $10 for strangers and they can receive as much as 36 gifts in exchange. But there's a catch as users need to share vital personal information like their home address before they can join the gift exchange. Not only that, the BBB adds that gift chains like these are illegal and participants can be penalized for mail fraud.

The sister gift exchange scam has already churned out plenty of variations, such as the "holiday wine bottle gift exchange", or the "wine gift card exchange." Again, the Facebook post emphasizes that the user needs to buy only one bottle of wine worth $15 or the equivalent wine gift card to receive between 6 - 36 bottles of wine from other participants.

The BBB has also added that these kinds of gift chains are similar to pyramid schemes, and not to mention illegal and dangerous to personal security. If gift exchanges are a must-have for you, the best thing to do is to do it by person and not through Facebook. Less chances of getting scammed as well.

Shopping scams are also going viral on the social network. Users can be led to deceptive shopping websites by clicking on sponsored posts from Facebook and think it's the real deal just because it's sponsored. Farnoosh Torabi, fraud expert and financial ambassador from Chase, advises consumers to use credit cards for online shopping and check out websites diligently before buying anything.

If users come across fraudulent or suspicious ads or posts, the best way to deal with them is to report them on Facebook.

Find out more about the scams here:
Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Latest News & Updates: Samsung Is Restricting The Max Battery Charge To 30% In Europe

It's not a good time to be Samsung right now, nor a Samsung Galaxy Note 7 user. By this time, it's very well known that the phablet had shipped with very severe battery problems causing it to explode almost indiscriminately. It's even gotten to the point where the phone is now officially banned from a number of airlines and airplanes, forcing Samsung to go back to the drawing board and figure out a way to bounce back from this crisis.

It's getting even worse for the Samsung Galaxy Note 7, as there are now even reports of Samsung limiting the maximum battery charge for the phablet to only 30%. TechRadar is reporting that the company is restricting the battery remotely via a software update; while it's already dropped the limit to as low as 60% this way in the UK, US, and Australia, this would be the first time it would take it down this low. This is because Samsung really wants people to stop using the phone already and decrease whatever liability it has from exploding Note 7s.

Other rumors surrounding the new Samsung Galaxy Note 7 update say that the software will not lower the maximum charge of the battery, but instead stop the phone from charging its battery altogether. A rumor from Android Authority claims that this update will arrive in the US next week, December 15. It has to be noted, however, that network US Cellular issued the announcement, not Samsung, which means people will have to take it with a grain of salt.

Samsung already has a Galaxy Note 7 Replacement Program in place, and the new software update is also to encourage users to switch their models for new ones that are apparently safer. 90% of European Samsung Galaxy Note 7 users have already exchanged their phones, according to the company, and so far the news of exploding phones seems to have slowed since.
'Longmire' Season 6 Air Date, News & Update: Another Season, Another Journey of Walt & Vic In Absaroka, What Can Change Netflix?

"Longmire" Season 6 has been finally set to return on the Netflix Channel to bring a final end to the series that has captured the hearts of the many. It would be another season for the journey of Sheriff Walt Longmire and Deputy Sheriff Vic Moretti in Absaroka county. However, is there still a way that Netflix' decision could be averted to add more seasons to the series?

It has been reported by Gamenguide that "Longmire" Season 6 is already getting ready for its big comeback but this will be its last season. Many fans have aired their support for the renewal of the series. Yet, the response from the network remains negative. It is impossible at this point in time or in the future that "Longmire" Season 6 can go on for another season at Netflix.

The conclusion is that, "Longmire" Season 6 is a "short-timer" according to TVseriesfinale. Walt Longmire (Rob Taylor) and Vic Moretti's (Katee Sackhoff) adventures are only meant for a six-season series, not more than that. It is even good enough that the show has got three more seasons from Netflix.

The cast of "Longmire" Season 6 and even Craig Johnson, the writer of the book are more than happy to have been saved by Netflix after the cancellation of the show by A&E. Being renewed for three more seasons and being given more airing time have brought great pride and joy to everyone already. With this, the executive producers themselves, Greer Shephard, John Coveny and Hunt Baldwin promised to bring out the best ending for the cast and the fans alike.

"Longmire" Season 6 is expected to be aired sometime in the middle of 2017, probably in August to October. It can be recalled that the previous seasons were aired in August and September. Hence, it is very possible to have Sheriff Longmire back on his horse riding in these months of 2017.
The new rules would apply to employees, and elected and appointed officials.
This log includes incidents in which there might have been a public disturbance or a risk to the public. Information comes from the Corvallis Police Department, the Benton County Sheriffs Office and Oregon State Police. It does not include all calls for service. The status of incidents might change after further investigation. Locations are approximate. People arrested or suspected in crimes are considered innocent until proven otherwise.

Corvallis Police Department

THURSDAY, DEC. 8

DUII: 2:33 a.m., Northwest Grant Avenue and 20th Street. An officer arrested and charged Christopher Rodolfo Leal, 30, no address listed, with DUII following a traffic stop. Leal had a reported blood alcohol content of 0.19 percent.

Benton County Sheriff's Office

WEDNESDAY, DEC. 7

ASSAULT: 6:07 p.m., 100 block of North Ninth Street, Monroe. A woman reported that she was assaulted by Donald Glenn Barron Jr., 46, of Monroe. A deputy responding reported that Barron denied the assault. The deputy arrested and charged Barron with fourth-degree assault and booked him into the Benton County Jail.

Oregon State Police

WEDNESDAY, DEC. 7

FAKE PERMIT: 9:01 am., 606 S.W. 15th St. A trooper contacted a man who was alleged to have been using a fake parking permit. The man, Guanghui Yu, 38, of Corvallis, reportedly admitted to using a fake permit. Yu was cited on a charge of theft of services.

TUESDAY, NOV. 29

TREE THEFT: 7:18 a.m., Northwest Monroe Avenue and 11th Street. Facilities employees reported finding an area where trees had been cut down and removed. A trooper investigating reported that there also was damage to a shrub in the area. There were no witnesses and no suspects in the case.
Benton County joined the growing chorus of voices vowing to protect residents who are in the country illegally as well as other groups who may have something to fear from the incoming Trump administration.

By a 3-0 vote Dec. 6, the Board of Commissioners declared Benton County a sanctuary county.

The declaration reads, in part: The recent political climate has galvanized support of anti-immigrant, Islamophobia, anti-LGBTQ, anti-people of color, anti-women policies resulting in many individuals afraid for their safety and the loss of civil liberties.  We must act now and always to uphold our commitment to be a community free of prejudice, bigotry, and hate.

The document goes on to say, Benton County will not participate in or facilitate any federal efforts to register individuals based on their religious affiliation or other status. The Sheriffs Office will respect the rights of and provide equal access to all individuals, regardless of religion, race, and ethnicity or immigration status.

Benton Countys declaration comes on the heels of similar statements issued by Oregon State University and the Corvallis School District. The Corvallis City Council planned to consider a sanctuary declaration Dec. 12, and Corvallis Police Chief Jon Sassaman recently reaffirmed that his officers will not arrest anyone for immigration violations.

Nationally, several large cities and a number of counties have previously declared themselves sanctuaries for people in the country illegally, and some have reaffirmed that stance in the wake of campaign promises by President-elect Donald Trump to conduct large-scale deportations once he takes office. Trump has softened that stance somewhat since winning the election, but many people remain concerned about the possibility of mass deportations.

No one testified against the sanctuary declaration during the Dec. 6 Board of Commissioners meeting, but six people urged the commissioners to go further by adopting language put forward by the King Legacy Advisory Board, a panel that advises Corvallis officials regarding issues of race and diversity.

Among other things, that proposal says that the County Sheriffs Office will not inquire about an individuals immigration status or engage in activities designated to ascertain the immigration status of any person.

Jasper Smith, a county employee who serves on the King Legacy Advisory Board, said 29 Oregon county sheriffs have publicly pledged not to enforce immigration laws, but Bentons has not.

Many people in our community feel threatened and bullied by recent events, and we owe it to them to let them know we will stand by them, he said.

Dennis Aloia, the countys chief operating officer, pointed out that the sheriff is an elected official rather than a county employee and thus cant be ordered by the commissioners to take a particular stance.

You can understand the quandary we had in preparing this, said Commissioner Annabelle Jaramillo, who drafted the sanctuary declaration.

In the end, the commissioners voted to adopt the declaration as drafted by Jaramillo, with the proviso that the language could be changed later.

After the meeting, Jaramillo acknowledged that the declaration was primarily a symbolic gesture but added it was important to express support for immigrants, Muslims and other groups targeted by the heated rhetoric of the presidential campaign.

I dont know that it gives them a lot of protection, she said. What I hope it does is reassure them.

Trump and some congressional Republicans have threatened to withhold federal funds from local governments that resist immigration enforcement efforts, but Jaramillo said that wouldnt force Benton County to withdraw its promise of sanctuary.

If push comes to shove, I suppose we could turn down the money, she said. I think we would still say that people should feel safe here and that we want to protect their human rights.

Benton County Sheriff Scott Jackson was in Bend for a conference at the time of the meeting and did not attend. Reached by phone, however, he said his agency would continue to abide by Oregons sanctuary law, which prohibits the use of state resources to enforce federal immigration laws.

I understand people are fearful, Jackson said, but what the Sheriffs Office has done in the past is how we will continue to operate.
Transcription

1 Associated with: Cyprus-American Chamber of Commerce Proud member of: 1st Edition - Issue 1, June 2010 Address by CyABA President Dear CyABA Members and friends, It is indeed an honor and a privilege to be addressing you as the President of this esteemed Association. Together with the newly elected Board of Directors, we will continue to enhance, promote and expand the business opportunities for our members with companies related in products and services from the United States of America and vice versa. Page 2 Address by US Ambassador Dear CyABA members: For over a decade, the Cyprus-American Business Association has been one of the most important partners of the U.S. Embassy in Cyprus. Together, we have built a business bridge that connects our two countries and strengthens our relationship. I am committed to continuing this endeavor and look forward to advancing our common agenda during my tenure in Cyprus. CyABA profile The Cyprus-American Business Association, operating under the auspices of the Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and Industry, was established in 1997, and it is in the service of local companies representing American products and services in cooperation with the American Embassy in Nicosia, Cyprus. The Association works to provide effective and practical facilitation in encouraging, promoting and enhancing the economic and trade relations between Cyprus and the United States and act as a platform to exchange ideas and views on how to enhance the socio-economic ties between the two countries CyABA Annual General Meeting followed by dinner speech The Cyprus-American Business Association held it's Annual General Meeting on Wednesday February 24th at the St. Raphael Hotel in Limassol, followed by a dinner speech featuring Mr. Bijan R. Kian, Board Member of the US Ex-IM Bank as the keynote speaker Page 3 Page 2 Inside this issue 3 3 CyABA s involvement at the Cyprus New York Business Forum AGM followed by speech from the US export import Bank 5 4 The First Ever Regional Franchise Conference in Cyprus Articles by CyABA members 6 The US Embassy in Cyprus Commercial Office

2 2 Board of Directors President Mr. Chris Christodoulou Vice President Mr. Nicolas Philippou Honorary Treasurer Mr. Miltiades Miltiadou Members Mr. Achilleas Demetriades Mr. Kyriacos Kokkinos Mr. Sotos Jacovides Mr. Aris Anastassiades Mr. Constantinos Constantinou Mr. Alkis Iacovides Mr. Antonis Karpasitis Mr. Phanos Pitiris Mr. Arion Petasis Mr. Athos Pitas Mr. George Flouros Mr. Demosthenes Mavrellis Mr. Antonis Skoullos Mr. Anthony Indianos Mr. Roddy Kyriakides Mr. Charles Welch Mr. Paris Zachariades Director Mr. Christos Ph. Petsides Secretary Mr. Andreas Papadouris CyABA Business News Newsletter Address: Cyprus-American Business Association P.O BOX 21455, CY 1509, NICOSIA, CYPRUS, Tel: , Fax: Editing and designing by FMW Financial Media Way 23  Armenias street, Office 101, Strovolos 2003, Nicosia - Cyprus Tel: , Fax: Address by the President of CyABA Address by the U.S. Ambassador We want to help you succeed, as current or potential representatives of U.S. businesses in Cyprus. Whether you have a major business opportunity to develop, are simply looking to import U.S. products, or want to become an agent or distributor for a U.S. company, the Embassy s Commercial Section can provide valuable assistance, reaching out to thousands of U.S. companies through the U.S. Department of Commerce s network. It is our commitment to provide information and do workshops on Intellectual Property Rights, support efforts on Science & Technology, and assist Energy Companies from the USA to help Cyprus and in turn our members. Health is another field that we support and will assist to develop better health care institutions for Cyprus, as well as to establish a level of health care that will attract Health Tourism. We are planning to organize a Trade trip to the USA with members interested to explore further business opportunities and extend our efforts to improve further our bilateral trade relations with the USA. CyABA will continue to be a member of the US Chamber of Commerce and also of the European Council of American Chambers of Commerce and through both it will share and also obtain valuable information and support for the benefit of our members. We also would like to thank the Economic and Commercial Section of the USA Embassy in Nicosia and especially the US Ambassador for their valuable help in our efforts to achieve our goals and mission. Finally, we welcome new members that deal with USA products or services and together with our existing membership we all can do more for our Association. Thank you. Mr. Chris Christodoulou President CyABA, P.O.Box CY-1509, NICOSIA Tel: Direct, Fax: E Mail: The Commercial Section s website ( is updated frequently to keep you informed of recent developments, including information on new Government of Cyprus tenders, upcoming trade shows and exhibitions in the U.S. and Cyprus, helpful links, and the services we offer. The website also includes a link to the Business Service Provider program, which lists Cypriot companies wishing to do business with U.S. partners in Cyprus or the United States. I wish you great success. Sincerely, Frank C. Urbancic Application Form (Annual fee: 200) Name of Company.... Line of Business.... Company Reg. No (For Cyprus Based Companies):.... Postal Address:.... P.O.Box:... Town Code Tel:... Fax: Web-Site Reference (If available)... Name of representative... Date.. Signature..... Please mail Application and Payment: Cyprus-American Business Association P.O BOX 21455, CY 1509, NICOSIA, CYPRUS Tel: , Fax: Web-Site: From page 1 From page 1

3 Recent Events New York Business Forum The Cyprus-American Business Association was actively involved in the organisation of a successful Business Forum in New York, on September 24, 2009 promoting Cyprus as an International Business and Financial Centre. The event was organised by the Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and Industry in cooperation with the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, and the Cyprus Trade Centre in New York. The President of CyABA, Mr. Chris Christodoulou represented the Association, and also addressed the audience during the Forum, promoting CyABA and its activities. A large number of Cyprus and American high rank officials and important representatives from the two business communities attended the event. H.E the President of the Republic of Cyprus Mr. Demetris Christofias honoured the Business Forum, addressing the audience. The Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, Mr. Antonis Paschalides, and the President of the Nicosia Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and Board Member of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mr. Christodoulos Angastiniotis, also addressed the audience. Mr. Marios Klitou (Baker Tilly Klitou), Mr. Christies Christodoulou (Deloitte Ltd, Cyprus), Mr. Panikos Tsaillis (PWC Cyprus), Mr. George Pelaghias (Law offices of Christodoulos G. Pelaghias) and Mr. Michael Mavrides (Bingham MacCutchen LLP, New York) where the keynote speakers of the event. During the Forum, the speakers presented the advantages of Cyprus as an international business and financial centre, and also the rather stable, and healthy Cyprus economy. The prospects for further increasing the business and financial cooperation between Cyprus and the US were also discussed. During his visit to New York, Mr. Christodoulou also met with officials from the Cyprus U.S. Chamber of Commerce, being stationed in New York, and discussed ways and means that the two Associations can cooperate. A follow up meeting will take place during October 13, at the Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Following the Business Forum, on September 25, Mr. Christodoulou also attended a scheduled Working Breakfast, organised by the Cyprus Investment Promotion Agency. CyABA AGM followed by dinner speech Entrepreneurship as a Way of Life The Cyprus-American Business Association, the Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the US Embassy, and Penta Marketing Art ( cosponsored a special event featuring Mr. Ben Casnocha a 21 year old phenomenon business man, entrepreneur and author, who delivered a speech on the subject Entrepreneurship as a Way of Life. The event took place on Tuesday, October 20 at 18:00 at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Audiences of all ages and backgrounds attended the event, learning how the skills one needs to develop and run a successful business can also be applied to everyday life by businesspersons and non-businesspersons alike. The Cyprus-American Busiimport (Ex- In) Bank who deness Association (CyABA), livered a speech on the being associated with the subject The US Ex-Im Bank: Cyprus Chamber of ComWhat we do and how we merce and Industry, held its can help Cyprus BusinessAnnual General Meeting on es. A large number of busiwednesday February 24th ness people, and other key at St. Raphael Hotel in Lipersonalities from the massol. Cyprus economic and busiduring the AGM the Presiness mainstream attended The US Ex-Im Bank: dent of the Association, Mr. the event. The President of What we do and how we can Chris Christodoulou adthe Cyprus-American Busihelp Cyprus businesses dressed the Members with an ness Association, Mr. Chris overview of the Association s Christodoulou, the US Amactions during bassador, H.E Frank C Urbancic, and the President of The AGM was followed by a dinner-speech, featuring the Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mr. Mr. Bijan R. Kian, Board Member of the US export- Manthos Mavrommatis, also addressed the audience. Farewell lunch to the Cyprus US Embassy Economic Section Chief, Mr. Jim Carouso The CyprusAmerican Business Association Board of Directors honoured, the ongoing Cyprus US Embassy Economic Commercial Section Chief, Mr. Jim Carouso, at a special lunch following the Association scheduled Board Meeting, on May 25 at the Sitio Cafe-Restaurant in Nicosia. Mr. Carouso will depart from Cyprus and assume new duties in Indonesia as of July Also present at the lunch was the US Ambassador in Cyprus, H.E Frank C. Urbancic, the CCCI President, Mr. Manthos Mavrommatis, and the CCCI Secretary General, Mr. Panayiotis Loizides. 3

4 Future Events Presenting the upcoming Regional Franchise Conference to the Minister of Commerce Industry and Tourism Mr. Antonis Paschalides At an extraordinary meeting held at the U.S. Embassy in Nicosia on May 28, Ambassador Urbancic and his staff presented to Commerce Minister Antonis Paschalides plans for a Regional Franchise Conference to be held in Limassol, October 14-15, Joining them were the event s co-sponsors from PricewaterhouseCoopers, Marfin Laiki Bank, the Cyprus Investment Promotion Acency, and CyABA represented by the president of its franchise association (Paris Zacharides) as well as the Board s president and vice-president. The Minister appreciated that this is the first time a U.S. Embassy has sponsored such an event, as well as, the financial benefits and investment opportunities for Cyprus that will result from the many visiting franchise company representatives and entrepreneurs from the U.S., the Eastern Mediterranean region, and the Balkans. Minister Paschalides pledged his Ministry s full support to ensure the Conference is as successful as possible. CyABA members receive a discounted participation fee to attend the Conference. Be Your Own Boss But Not Alone Join Us at the First Ever Regional Franchise Conference in Cyprus The Cyprus-American Business Association, in cooperation with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), Marfin Laiki Bank, the Cyprus Investment Promotion Agency, and the US Embassy will sponsor a Regional Franchise Conference. The event will take place on October 14-15, 2010 at the Amathus hotel in Limassol. The main scope of the event is to promote Cyprus as an ideal region franchising centre, and to promote the general franchising concept in the region. The first day of the event will feature international experts in franchising and related fields speaking to entrepreneurs from throughout Eastern Europe and the Middle East on franchising as a business model. The second day is devoted to a series of workshops and time for one-on-one appointments between franchise companies and entrepreneurs interested in becom- ing franchisees. For more information on the Conference's key concepts, agenda, etc. please visit the website. Leading American franchise companies, including Hard Rock Cafe, NexCen Brands (The Athlete's Foot, Marble Slab Creamery, Pretzel Maker, Shoebox NY, Maggie Moo's), Century 21, Focus Brands (Cinnabon, Carvel), Dale Carnegie, YUM! Brands (Pizza Hut, KFC, Taco Bell), and Abrakadoodle, have already confirmed they will be there to present their franchise concepts and look for new franchisees in the region. Many more are expected to confirm shortly. The Cyprus-American Business Association (Amcham Cyprus) have secured a discounted rate for all it s Members, who can register for participation and accommodation online through the Conference website. The fee for all CyABA Members that register early (before August 15), is set at 100 Euro, whilst the non-member early registration fee is set at 150 Euro. Late registration fees (after August 15) are set at 150 Euro and 200 Euro for CyABA Members and nonmembers respectively. If you wish to register with the preferred rate for CyABA members or would like more information regarding the Conference, please contact either Ms. Ephie-Yvonnie Charalambidou, Commercial Specialist (Tel or or Ms. Anna Agrotou, Commercial Assistant (Tel or at the U.S. Embassy. Please note that you will not be able to register at the discounted rate unless you have your company specific code from the U.S. Embassy. US Trade Fairs Listing for International Buyer Program (IBP) 2010 Event Premiere Orlando 2010 InfoComm 2010 American Association for Clinical Chemistry 2010 FIME International Medical Expo 2010 International Woodworking Machinery & Furniture Supply Fair International Baking Industry Exposition Sector Cosmetics / Toiletries Audio / Visual Equipment Health Care Services Drugs / Pharmaceuticals Forestry / Woodworking Machinery Food Processing / Packaging Eq Location From To Orlando Las Vegas Anaheim Miami 6/6/2010 6/9/2010 7/25/2010 8/11/2010 6/7/2010 6/11/2010 7/29/2010 8/13/2010 Atlanta 8/25/2010 8/28/2010 Las Vegas 9/26/2010 9/29/2010 4

5 Articles by CyABA members Pirates of the (Caribbean) Gulf of Aden The1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) defined piracy as "illegal acts of violence, detention, or depredation (plundering, robbing or pillaging) committed for private ends by a private ship on the high seas, i.e. outside the jurisdiction of any country." Piracy in the 21st century! It sounds strange and even like a movie script, but believe it or not piracy is back and on the rising. It has been almost extinct for hundreds of years; however it has reappeared since the end of the cold war and has been rapidly rising in the latter years. News reports of actual battles between the navy forces of various countries and pirates in the Gulf of Aden, or the seizure of large tankers with millions worth of crude oil aboard, or a vessel carrying electronics or foods, should not be surprising. What is eye-catching about the latest attacks is the scale of the pirates' ambition. Many ships have been attacked during the last few years in and around the Gulf of Aden, the Somali Coast and the Indian Ocean. Most of their targets are easy to attack and there are lots of them: about twenty thousand oil tankers, freighter and merchant vessels transiting the Gulf of Aden each year. All the pirates have to do is to find one of them. The scene- The armed speedboat arrives guided by GPS. The ship, its cargo, captain and crew are easy targets for the pirates because the cargo ship is unarmed whilst the pirates usually carry rifles and grenade launchers. Today pirate attacks are regular. Many pirated cargo ships and their crews are anchored and guarded in port as ransom. Pirates demand large sums of money and hostages and ships remain imprisoned for the negotiations can go on for weeks or even months. When the pirates get the money the crew and ship are released. The military response of the international community to the pirate attacks has brought about a show of unity by many countries. Military counter-piracy operations are conducted by naval ships from a Combined Task Force form many countries like the USA, a number EU states, Russia, China and India. However many of the attacks have taken place under the nose of this mighty military presence. Modern piracy is a big threat for the vessels all over the world and specifically in the Gulf of Aden and in the Indian Ocean. Some of its costs and effects are: A pirate attack can place the life of the members of the crew at risk and involve the destruction for the ship, the cargo and in addition, a substantial loss to the ship owners. Alternative and longer routes create greater fuel and voyage times and thus escalating the costs of commerce in general. Military costs. Additional insurance costs. Whilst the international community is working to find the most effective ways of prevention and repression of the phenomenon of piracy, the shipping companies perceive the need for the effective risk management of the piracy hazards but also the importance to secure the suitable insurance in order to protect their operations. Crisis Management insurance solutions are being offered by the insurance industry for decades. Hundreds of millions of dollars were paid in such claims. In relation to the Kidnap-Ransom-Extortion coverage, the insurers utilize specialized consultants that are located around the world ready to immediately respond to crisis situations. In the event that an insured vessel is hijacked, they work closely with the multiple stakeholders involved to negotiate the safe release of the ship, crew and cargo. With piracy incidents rising dramatically around the world, it s not just the shipping industry that is under attack. We now find many countries co-operating to provide a military umbrella of safety and many insurers working with security firms to help protect ships, crews and cargoes. Stavros Florides Senior Manager Chartis Cyprus LTD Telephone Facsimile Preparing Businesses for the Self-Service Revolution Consumers are demanding more self-service options. They enjoy the convenience, ease-of-use, privacy and speed enabled by new self-service technologies, which are springing up in a large number of industries. In addition, consumers are increasingly comfortable using a variety of self service channels to interact with business, such as the Internet, mobile devices, automated teller machines (ATMs), selfcheckout and kiosks. In a recent edition, TIME magazine s top-10 list identified selfservice as the second big idea that s revolutionary and changing the world! The article highlights how businesses everywhere are relying more and more on self-service to provide better customer service. This adoption is accelerating and extends across many industries as people use self-service kiosks in airports, hotels, train stations, banking centers and grocery stores. In fact, kiosks are virtually everywhere. The self-service revolution is real: consumers demand it, businesses depend on it. Whether we are banking, shopping, traveling or interacting with a service provider, more of us look for, and expect, self-service as an essential convenience that improves our overall experience. With each wave of technology we have seen massive opportunities for banks, non-banks and IT ven- dors to reinvent the industry, so that they can provide consumers with a channel choice. In this new wave of self service technologies there is more change taking place across all industries now and over the next five years than seen in the last fifty. It is critical to recognize that at the fundamental level, it is consumer acceptance of technology, rather than technology itself that brings about widespread change. Consumers embrace technology that is convenient or that makes their day to day lives more convenient. Technology enables change, but consumer behaviour and acceptance drive it. Through the years of the Internet explosion many commentators suggested that this new channel would replace traditional channels. It is clear, however, that this has not been the case. Each channel innovation has complemented rather than replaced the existing infrastructure. In order to thrive and survive in this ever-changing marketplace, businesses need to recognize how swiftly consumers are embracing these merged channels of mobile, Internet and point-of-service and respond with industry-specific solutions across all channels. Mr. George Flouros, Managing Director of NCR Cyprus 5

6 The US Embassy in Cyprus Commercial Office From the time it was created, the Cyprus-American Business Association has worked in close cooperation with the US Embassy in Nicosia, Cyprus, by co-organising business, and commercial events, and exchanging ideas and information regarding business and economic matters. Actually, members of the commercial office are being placed as honorary ex-officio Board Members for better coordination, and direct contact with the Association. Below you can find some important information, sent by the US Embassy in Cyprus, regarding doing business, and investing in America. Invest in the United States of America Foreign direct investment (FDI) plays a major role in the U.S. economy, both as a key driver of the economy and an important source of innovation, exports and jobs. The United States has always provided foreign investors a stable and welcoming market. As a place to do business, the United States offers a predictable and transparent legal system, low taxes, outstanding infrastructure, and access to the world s most lucrative consumer market. Invest in America is the primary U.S. Government mechanism to manage foreign direct investment promotion. Efforts are focused on outreach to foreign governments and investors, support for state governments investment promotion efforts, and addressing business climate concerns by serving as ombudsman in Washington for the international investment community. While our primary mission is to provide U.S. companies with information about foreign markets, the International Trade Administration (ITA) also provides assistance for companies who desire to invest in America. The "Invest in America" initiative, found at contains resources for foreign companies looking to expand into America. While we do not provide direct research on the American market the way that we do for the Cyprus market, we can provide certain amounts of assistance. Please contact Mrs Ephie Yvonnie Charalambidou US Embassy Commercial specialist at or by at for questions about Invest in America
On August 3rd, 2016, Emirates Flight 521 carrying 282 passengers and 18 crew crashed while landing at Dubai International Airport. One fire fighter died in the rescue effort, but all the passengers and crew survived. The plane was almost entirely destroyed by fire. See pictures and video here. DigitalGlobe captured an image of the airport just five days later. Being a busy airport, the wreckage had been moved out of the way, but can still be seen:

We also noticed that in that location if you switch to historical imagery Google Earth incorrectly continues to show the default layer. Only when you switch to older images or zoom out does it disappear. It appears Google has got some settings wrong on the imagery there.

While investigating other imagery updates, including some flooding in Australia in September, we came across some patches of blurred imagery:

At first it looks like censorship, but given the location and the large number of blurred patches (at least eleven), we believe it is where there were clouds in the original image. Normally, for the default layer, Google replaces cloudy patches with older imagery. However, something appears to have gone wrong in this case. We later found the same effect in Bangladesh, so it is not an isolated incident.

Also in Bangladesh we came across a strip of imagery that at first looks like it is out of alignment or has been misplaced. However, on closer inspection we believe it is simply that the river has changed significantly between May 2016 (the strip) and November 2016 (the background) when the two images were taken.

To see the locations mentioned in this post in Google Earth, download this KML file
Siegburg Christmas Market : State security forces investigate sale of swastika-like rings

Siegburg A woman has been accused of selling swastika-like rings at the Siegburg Christmas market. The rings have been confiscated and the security forces are investigating.

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Sandra Skupski-Vrecar would never have thought the rings on display at her jewellery stand would cause such an uproar. She is accused of selling items with anti-constitutional symbols  namely swastikas. The 45-year-old denies any connection to the right-wing movement and is annoyed about the hasty assumptions made by state security. A hearing has been set for next week.

Sandra Skupski-Vrecar sells dream catchers, biker jewellery and numerous good luck symbols from many different countries and cultures at her stand at the small Christmas market in front of Kaufhof on Kaiserstrae in Siegburg. A concerned citizen informed the police about rings that were decorated with a sun wheel. This Asian lucky symbol looks very similar to the swastika, which is banned under the constitution in Germany.

Police spoke to Sandra Skupski-Vrecar at the start of the Christmas market and told her about the citizens concerns. She willingly showed the rings to the officers. The rings didnt sell well, I have hardly sold any up to now. They were at the front of the display so the cabinet did not look empty, she explained. I saw them as a lucky symbol and sold them as such. I would never have thought I would get into difficulties because of them, she added.

The police told state security in Bonn and asked what they should do. They were told to detain Skupski-Vrecar and her boyfriend Jurgen Paczka, who said he had nothing to do with the trade and was only at the stand at the time as a stand-in, and to confiscate the rings.

Under paragraph 86a of the Criminal Code, the distribution of propaganda relating to anti-constitutional organisations is punishable with up to three years in prison or a fine. Simon Rott from police headquarters in Bonn explained that this includes symbols similar enough to be mistaken for banned symbols.

The two accused have been invited to a hearing in the middle of next week. Proceedings have not yet been commenced but Skupski-Vrecar has engaged a lawyer.

She has been running her business for ten years and is at the small Siegburg Christmas market for the third time. The people here know me and know that I have absolutely nothing to do with the right-wing scene, Skupski-Vrecar explained.

She bought the rings as a one-off purchase from an Asian wholesaler about two years ago because she liked the foreign symbol. I have lots of multi-cultural good luck symbols in my shop, including ones from Asia, she said.
An opportunity for foodies and beer lovers to get lost in a world of food and drink from a hand-selected range of food trucks and breweries from around New Zealand.
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Protecting the worlds oceans  an important goal of Germanys climate diplomacy

The worlds oceans are vital to our survival. They regulate the global climate and are a source of food and income for billions of people. Only a very small part of the seas enjoys legal protection, however. Our diplomats are working in New York right now to change this state of affairs.
Phones box doubles up as a VR headset

The first thing you will notice about the Alcatel Idol 4 is its unique packaging. The smartphone ships with white plastic box that is also a VR headset and also includes a pair of JBL earphones. The VR headset is designed well but we will test in the detailed review of the smartphone to give a final verdict.

Design and Display

From the initial expressions, we have to say, Alcatel Idol 4 does look and feel good in hands. The smartphone has an aluminum frame and glass on back and front with a glossy finish that is a fingerprint magnet. The rear can also get scratches easily, so I recommend a case for it in everyday usage.

What I really liked about the handset is its compact form factor. Alcatel Idol 4 easily fits in one hand and will please consumers who are not fond of bulky handsets with large displays.

The 5.2-inch IPS LCD display offers a resolution of 1080p and is quite bright. The colour tones are natural and viewing angles are also good.

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Audio

Audio is one of the key selling points of Alcatel Idol 4. The smartphone has reversible speakers, the first of its kind that makes it stand out from the competition. It doesn't matter how you hold or keep the handset on a flat surface, the audio will keep coming through. It's quite simple, if the handset display is facing upwards, the two speakers unit on front, one at the top of the display and other at the bottom will play audio, and if the smartphone is placed upside down, then the rear speaker unit will start playing the audio.

The 3.6 watt speaker units offer clear and loud audio but they don't handle bass very well. However, you can tweak the audio with the phone's inbuilt settings.



Besides, you also get JBL earphones in the package, which offers decent quality sound.

SEE ALSO: Alcatel Idol 4 First Impressions Video

Software and Boom Key

Alcatel Idol 4 runs on Android 6.0 marshmallow and is mostly stock Android. The smartphone has a neat software trick that Alcatel calls reversible UI. It changes the screen interface according to the smartphone's orientation. So you can hold the smartphone in any orientation and the screen UI will modify itself as per the situation.

Another highlight or I would say an attempt to differentiate the handset from the lot is the addition of a dedicated key to enhance the smartphone usage experience in everyday life. And this attempt kind of works as well. The smartphone has a circular button on the right side- Boom key, which can be programmed for music, camera, interface, etc. The key gives you instant access to camera. Pressing and holding the button, even if the handset is in standby mode puts the camera into burst mode to take photos in quick succession.

The Boom key also optimizes the audio and enhances the clarity, audio and bass levels. However, I feel that this is something a phone should offer without any trigger button. Besides, the Boom key adds effects in videos you play, artistically shuffles the photos in the gallery for instant sharing and creates a 3D effect (parallax UI effect) for the launcher.

SEE ALSO: Lenovo K6 Power First Impressions

Camera

Alcatel Idol 4 has a 13MP rear camera with dual-tone LED flash. The camera has no shutter lag and pictures come out to be decent. The camera uses a f/2.0 aperture and is also equipped with Phase Detection Auto Focus (PDAF).

The front 8MP camera is not among the best shooters we have seen around in this price point.

We will talk more about the camera performance and will show the sample shots in the detailed review of the smartphone.

Hardware

The Alcatel Idol 4 is powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 processor and is backed by a 3GB RAM. The smartphone has 16GB of internal storage, which can be further expanded up to 512GB via microSD card. The smartphone has a 2,610 mAh battery unit.

SEE ALSO: LG V20 First Impressions video

We didn't notice any stutters in the initial testing but the real performance will be tested in detailed review of the smartphone.

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On Friday, Politico education writers Caitlin Emma, Benjamin Wermund, and Kimberly Hefling published an article excoriating Education Secretary-designate Betsy DeVos for the alleged poor performance of Michigans charter-school sector. But the best available evidence on Michigan charters, of which DeVos has long been a proponent, belies that conclusion.

The authors compare Michigans charter and traditional public schools in the state, and note that the states charter schools scored worse on [a nationally representative test] than their traditional public-school counterparts. However, such raw comparisons are an inappropriate way to tease out the true effects of a policy innovation such as charter schools. Students who choose to attend charter schools may be fundamentally different from those who elect to remain in traditional public schools.

Consider the metaphor of a terminally ill patient given six months to live. I give him a drugcall it Devoserinthat extends his life expectancy to two years. Politico might then write a story with the headline: Devoserin patients only have two years to live!

Just as a healthy person would not take a drug meant for the sick, students attending high-quality traditional public schools are much less inclined to enroll in charters. An accurate accounting of the benefits of Michigan charters must compare charter-school students to how they would have performed if they had remained in their local traditional public schoolnot to traditional public schools as a whole.

Fortunately, such a rigorous comparison exists. The evidence, published by Stanford Universitys Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO), merits just a single to be sure paragraph halfway through the 1,700-word Politico report. But its findings contradict most of the other statistics offered in the article.

The CREDO researchers compare charter school students to demographically similar students in traditional public schools. Each charter school student is matched to one or more traditional public school students of the same race, gender, socioeconomic status, prior academic record, and other characteristics. Then the researchers compare each charter students academic progress to the progress of his match.

Using this method, the researchers find that the average Michigan charter school student gains two months of learning per year relative to what his achievement would have been in a traditional public school. In Detroit, the gains are three months per year. As the researchers write, These findings position Michigan among the highest performing charter school states CREDO has studied to date.

This is a key distinction: while DeVos detractors point to Michigan charters low absolute achievement, the more informative metric is the charters performance relative to comparable traditional public schools. Indeed, according to the CREDO research, a majority of Michigan charter schools (59 percent for math and 66 percent for reading) have below-average absolute performance, but also outperform comparable traditional public schools.

Michigans charter sector has not, of course, been able to solve every problem. In particular, charters have not been able to bring students in poverty up to the achievement level of their non-poverty peers. Similar concerns exist for special education students and English language learners.

But this is not an argument for abandoning charter schools or the school choice model more generally. The evidence on Michigan charters is promising, and the sectors opponents must consider that they would be taking months, if not years, of learning gains away from the students who need them most. Charter opponents ought also to consider that test scores are only one reason parents might elect to use charters: other concerns abound, student safety being chief among them.

DeVos opponents can criticize Michigan charter schools for not doing enough. But it would be worse than inconsistent not to also level that complaint against the states traditional public schools. Far from being a drag on student learning outcomes, the best research to date shows that charters are part of the solution.

Preston Cooper is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute. You can follow him on Twitter here.

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Asus Zenfone 3 Zoom Spotted on TENAA with Dual-Rear Camera, Early 2017 Release Possible News oi -Chakri Kudikala The design of the rear camera looks similar to that of Apple iPhone 7 Plus.

Asus, the Taiwanese smartphone giant, unveiled their Zenfone 3 series of smartphones at their Z3NVOLUTION event back in May 2016. The company has released a good number of phones in the same series including the Zenfone 3 Laser and Zenfone 3 Max.

However, it looks like the company isn't done yet. A new Asus smartphone with the model number Z01HDA is spotted on the Chinese certification site, TENAA. However, going by the camera setup, the smartphone seems to be the Zenfone 3 Zoom.

Also Read: Alcatel Idol 4 First Impressions: A Value For Money Android Smartphone

But, there is no confirmation on the megapixel count of the dual camera. One source suggests that both the cameras are of 16MP and the other indicates that one will be of 16MP sensor and the other one will be of 13MP. To recall, the Asus Zenfone Zoom came out with special optical zoom capabilities, and we are expecting the same with the Zenfone 3 Zoom as well.

The TENAA listing also revealed the purported specifications of the phone. The Asus Zenfone 3 Zoom will feature a 5.5-inch 1080p display with a curved 2.5D glass on top of it. Having said that, the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 chipset will power the Zenfone 3 Zoom as well. But, there is some confusion regarding the RAM on this device as the listing suggests three variants of the phone with 2GB/3GB/4GB of RAM along with 16GB/32GB/64GB of internal storage.

Also Read: Asus Zenfone 3 Max First Impressions: Big Battery, Neat Design, And Comfortable Footprint

Also, the smartphone will be backed by a large 4850mAh battery and boots Android Marshmallow based Zen UI out-of-the-box. Currently, there are no rumors regarding the release date of this smartphone, but do make a note that Asus is holding an event at the CES 2017, where the Zenfone 3 Zoom is expected to be unveiled.

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LeEco, Coolpad Jointly Working on Cool 1S Flagship Smartphone, Benchmark Score Revealed News oi -Prajith LeEco and Coolpads jointly made smartphone could be a true flagship.

After collaborating a couple of times earlier, LeEco and Coolpad are partnering once again for what could be called the Cool 1S. However, unlike the earlier smartphones, the upcoming device will bear flagship-level hardware.

For the uninitiated, LeEco and Coolpad have already outed two smartphones jointly called the Cool1 Dual (currently not available in India) and the more recently launched Cool Charger 1C. Both these devices are aimed at budget smartphone buyers.

Also Read: Nokia D1C Android Smartphone Prices Tipped Ahead of Its Launch

Anyways, talking about the Cool 1S, an image of the smartphone surfaced online showing off its benchmark scores. As per the leaked image, the smartphone managed to touch around 160000 points (159039 to be precise) which is not entirely surprising since the smartphone is rumored to be powered by a 2.35GHz Snapdragon 821 chipset.

Also, it's clearly visible from the leaked images that the device will run Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow out-of-the-box with a layer of LeEco's EUI 5.8 atop.

Apart from the above-mentioned features, the leaked images won't reveal much about the device.

With that being said, recently a 'Cool' labeled smartphone was spotted paying a visit to TEENA (a Chinese Telecom equipment certification authority). If both these smartphones are assumed to be one and the same, i.e Cool 1S, then the smartphone may feature a 5.5-inch Full HD (1080p) display, 4GB/6GB of RAM, 32/64/128GB of internal storage space, a 16MP rear camera, an 8MP selfie shooter, and a 4,000mAh battery.

Also Read: LG Likely Prepping Mid-Range Smartphone Dubbed V5, Suggest Leaked Renders

Pricing details are still scarce, and as far as the launch is concerned, given the fact that the smartphone has already cleared TEENA, the launch is imminent.

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Nokia D1C Android Smartphone Prices Tipped Ahead of Its Launch News oi -Prajith Nokia D1C Android smartphones prices leaked and its not what we expected.

In what appears to be an attempt to redeem its lost glory, Nokia is planning to launch Android-powered smartphones in 2017. Recently, HMD Global - the company responsible for bringing back the Finnish company to smartphone business had also confirmed that Nokia-branded smartphones will see the light of the day in early 2017.

And if rumors are anything to go by, most of the specifications of the upcoming smartphones have already been revealed except for the pricing. Thanks to the folks at Nokiapoweruser, we now have the pricing details as well. Yes, that's right! The pricing details of the Nokia D1C has been tipped ahead of its official launch.

No Apple iPhone 8; Next Year's iPhone May Not Be a Huge Upgrade, Says a New Report

If you've been following our coverage regularly, you'd know that the Nokia D1C is rumored to come in two models - 2GB and 3GB RAM variants. As cited by the source, the 2GB variant will be priced at USD 150 (approximately Rs. 10,105) whereas the 3GB variant will come with a price tag of USD 200 (approximately Rs. 13,474).

Going by the rumors, the two variants will differ in terms of the material used to design them. The affordable variant will come with a polycarbonate body while the slightly other variant is speculated to don an all-metal unibody design. Also, the 2GB RAM variant will sport a 5-inch display while the 3GB RAM model will have a 5.5-inch screen with the Full HD (1080p) resolution being a common aspect among the two.

Other rumored specifications include a 13MP rear camera (a 16MP camera is also expected), an 8MP front-facing camera, 1.4GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 chipset, Adreno 505 GPU, and Android 7.0 Nougat out-of-the-box.

Also Read: Bluetooth 5 Brings 2x Speed and 4x Range in Comparison to Bluetooth 4.2

The smartphone is expected to be launched at MWC 2017. There's also a rumor that the company will launch a few feature phones before it showcases Android power smartphones.

What do you think about the Nokia D1C? Are you excited about the company's upcoming smartphones? Do share your views in the comments section below.

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Overall, Double XL is a well-made film that might be liked by gentry in all shapes, sizes, and age too. By the way, do not miss the interval!!
Russia fueling 'unprecedented' terror threat against UK: MI6 chief

Iran Press TV

Thu Dec 8, 2016 6:15PM

The head of UK's MI6 spy agency Alex Younger says that Russia is the main contributor to an "unprecedented" terrorism threat Britain currently faces.

In his first public speech since taking office in November 2014, Younger said Thursday that Moscow's military efforts in coordination with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government against the Daesh (ISIL) terrorists were threatening Britain's security.

"I believe the Russian conduct in Syria - allied with that of Assad's discredited regime - will, if they do not change course, provide a tragic example of the perils of forfeiting legitimacy," he said.

"We cannot be safe from the threats that emanate from that land unless the civil war is brought to an end," the spymaster said of Syria's years-long struggle with foreign-backed militant groups.

He made the remarks as the Damascus government has made significant victories in purging Takfiri terrorists from militant-controlled areas of the Syrian city of Aleppo, one of the group's main strongholds.

Pointing that British security forces had disrupted 12 terrorist plots since June 2013, Younger said Daesh had developed a "highly organized external attack planning structure" to attack the UK and other Western countries "without ever having to leave Syria."

In another tongue-in-cheek jab at Russia, Younger blasted countries that have been trying to undermine Western governments through cyber attacks.

The US government has also leveled such charges against Moscow. The accusations reached their peak during this year's presidential election cycle.

Democrats and the government of US President Barack Obama constantly accused Russia of trying to disrupt Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's campaign and influence the election in favor of President-elect Donald Trump.

"The connectivity at the heart of globalization can be exploited by states with hostile intent to further their aims of deniability. They do this through means as varied as cyber-attacks, propaganda or subversion of democratic process," the MI6 chief said.

Younger's remarks against Russia were in contrast with Trump's view of Syria, who deems Moscow as a key player in the fight against terror in the Arab country.

Over the past few months, London has been constantly calling on the EU to unite and repel the "Russian aggression" by deploying more military forces in Eastern Europe.

The anti-Russian rhetoric has angered the Kremlin, with Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov dismissing the allegations as "Russophobic hysteria."

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British Spy Chief Accuses Russia of Seeking to Undermine Western Security, Politics

By Jamie Dettmer December 08, 2016

Britain and Western nations are facing grave threats to their security and political systems from the hostile propaganda output and cyber attacks by rival states, the head of Britain's espionage service MI6 warned Thursday. Alex Younger, in his first major public speech as "C," the designation given the head of the Secret Intelligence Service, singled out Russia for its high-tech subversion.

Speaking to reporters at MI6's headquarters on the River Thames in central London, Younger warned that "the risks at stake are profound and represent a fundamental threat to our sovereignty."

He added, "The connectivity that is at the heart of globalization can be exploited by states with hostile intent to further their aims deniably. They do this through means as varied as cyber attacks, propaganda or subversion of democratic process."

Hearings planned on hacking

The MI6 chief's warning comes as pressure mounts on U.S. President Barack Obama from congressional Democrats to disclose more information on Russian hacking activities during the 2016 U.S. elections. The White House has not responded to a letter signed last week by every Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, calling for the declassification of "additional information concerning the Russian government and the U.S. election."

In a rare public statement in October, U.S. intelligence chiefs accused the Kremlin of being behind the hacking of the Democratic National Committee's computer system and of the email's of Hillary Clinton's campaign staff. The computer intrusions were directed by some of "Russia's senior-most officials" in an unprecedented effort to influence the elections, the chiefs said.

Democratic and Republican lawmakers say they plan to hold formal hearings into what they worry was meddling by Russian in the U.S. presidential race. Fears are mounting among Western officials that the Russian intelligence services will target the coming elections in Germany and France.

Complex, risky work

Britain's Alex Younger said in his remarks that high-tech subversion "should be a concern to all those who share democratic values." British spies trying to defeat the threat face complex and risky work. The British intelligence chief also hit out at Russia for its military backing of the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, warning that the risks mount of more Syrians being driven toward extremism.

"In defining as a terrorist anyone who opposes a brutal government, they alienate precisely that group that has to be on side if the extremists are to be defeated," he said. "Meanwhile, in Aleppo, Russia and the Syrian regime seek to make a desert and call it peace. The human tragedy is heartbreaking," he added.

The terrorist threat to Britain and Europe from militant groups such as Islamic State would continue as long as the Syrian civil war raged, he said.

Russia waging "hybrid war"

U.S. intelligence analysts say they have been monitoring hundreds of fake news and disinformation sites that can be traced to Russia  all part of a broader effort to interfere with Western democracy and weaken established parties.

In July, a senior European Commission official said that Russian propaganda had deeply penetrated all EU member states, helped by local politicians eager to exploit the confusion sown for their own purposes.

Speaking in Brussels, Jakub Kalenski, a member of the European External Action Service task force assigned with studying Russian propaganda, said Russian-sourced disinformation can be seen across Europe, and he argued Russia is waging a "hybrid war."

According to Kalenski, the Kremlin is matching different tactics and methods depending on the countries being targeted. In the Baltic countries, the target is the Russian-speaking population, via Russian television channels, said Kalenski; but, in Central European states such as Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, the subversion is more disguised, with hundreds of disinformation websites being used. In Scandinavia, propaganda was being put out on social media by state-sponsored internet trolls posting inflammatory comments.

German company targeted

This week, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump questioned claims that Russia interfered in the U.S. elections via cyber warfare. "I don't believe they interfered," Trump said in an interview with Time magazine; but, he did acknowledge they could be included in a list of those possibly responsible for the hacking of Democratic computers.

"It could be Russia. And it could be China. And it could be some guy in his home in New Jersey. I believe that it could have been Russia and it could have been any one of many other people, sources or even individuals," Trump said.

Meanwhile, in Germany, the steel-making and engineering giant ThyssenKrupp disclosed Thursday that hackers had stolen technical trade secrets earlier this year. "ThyssenKrupp has become the target of a massive cyber attack," the corporation said in a statement.

ThyssenKrupp executives said the hackers were located in southeast Asia. The company did not detail what secrets had been stolen. The company's product range includes industrial machines and shipbuilding and it is highly active in defense production, including building submarines for Israel.

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Luke creates first F-35 undergraduate pilot curriculum

By Staff Sgt. Grace Lee, 56th Fighter Wing Public Affairs / Published December 08, 2016

LUKE AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz. (AFNS) -- The first class of undergraduate pilots began training through the newly written F-35 Lightning II curriculum Dec. 5 in the F-35 Academic Training Center at Luke Air Force Base.

The day was long awaited as Luke personnel worked to create the syllabus for several years.

"The start of the F-35 B-course class today is the culmination of years of work by thousands of U.S. and partner active-duty, civilian, industry and government personnel," said Maj. Matthew Mayer, the 56th Fighter Wing F-35 Program integration chief. "Specifically over the past several years, the Luke F-35 team has taken delivery of the world's newest leading edge combat aircraft. They put it through the wringer to fully understand its capabilities then based on lessons learned, designed a training program to produce world-class F-35 pilots and support personnel for decades to come.

"This was no easy task. Many traditional 'fourth-generation' support, maintenance and operations methods and procedures needed updating, modifying, or all together recreation. Many open minds have engaged that challenge and succeeded in laying a solid foundation to carry the U.S. and its allies into the future of combat aviation."

The course is more than seven months long. The first few weeks will be focused on academics and simulators. The remainder of the course will be a combination of flying, academics and simulators.

Traditionally, only pilots with prior fighter jet experience were chosen to fly the F-35. Under the new F-35 curriculum, pilots with no prior experience flying fighter aircraft will be able to learn to fly the F-35 as their first fighter jet.

"The six pilots selected have flown the T-38 Talon," said Lt. Col. Matthew Hayden, the 56th Training Squadron commander. "The pipeline for undergraduate pilot training is first training on the T-6 Texan II and then they will be selected into either a fighter track or a cargo/tanker track. Our pilots have been track selected into the fighter track so they went on to fly the T-38 to earn their wings. Afterward they went through a course called Introduction to Fighter Fundamentals during which they also flew the T-38. The IFF is essentially a shorter course that is a snapshot of mission sets we typically do in a fighter. From there, pilots are branched off into either the F-16 (Fighting Falcon), F-22 (Raptor), A-10 Thunderbolt II or in this case, the F-35."

The need to create the curriculum arose to ensure the future and growth of the F-35 community.

"Pilots that are fresh out of pilot training have an advantage because since they have no fighter jet experience, they are able to better absorb what we teach them and don't come with habits that more experienced fighter pilots may bring when learning a new platform," Hayden said. "The new syllabus also benefits the Air Force in the long run by building experience in the F-35 and shaping the F-35 platform and the community."

As students go through the course, adjustments will be made to the syllabus as needed.

"Throughout the course we will be gathering the lessons learned by phase," Gette said. "Then the lessons learned will be vetted and pushed up to influence syllabus changes."

One F-35 student pilot shares his feelings about the course.

"We're all very grateful and excited to be here," said Capt. Anthony Nejman, a 61st Fighter Squadron F-35 student pilot. "I'm really looking forward to flying again and can't wait to get in the seat of an F-35."

The creation of the new F-35 syllabus and start of the first class marks a monumental moment for not only Luke AFB but the Air Force overall.

"We've entered a new phase of training F-35 pilots," said Col. Benjamin Bishop, the 56th Operations Group commander. "The student pilots starting today are the future of the F-35 program because five, 10, 15 years from now when these pilots assume leadership roles, they are going to lead the community with a different perspective. It is a phenomenal opportunity today to innovate and to take this airplane into the next step."

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Taiwan to mark 70th anniversary of recovery of Taiping Island

ROC Central News Agency

2016/12/08 22:30:57

Taipei, Dec. 8 (CNA) President Tsai Ing-wen () will attend the opening on Friday of an exhibition to mark the 70th anniversary of the recovery of the Republic of China's control over Taiping Island in the South China Sea, during which she will also videoconference with the commander on the island.

Entitled "Sustainable Governance and Enduring Peace: An Exhibition Commemorating the 70th Anniversary of the Recovery of the South China Sea Islands," the exhibition will run until Dec. 19 at Academia Historica, which is co-organizing the event with the Ministry of the Interior.

The president will give a speech at the opening and also talk to the commander of Taiping Island, the organizers said.

The exhibition will cover the history, strategic location and sustainable development of Taiping, showcasing historical documents, artifacts, photographs and videos, the organizers said.

According to the ministry, two military vessels carrying officials from the interior and national defense ministries, Navy officers and meteorological personnel arrived on Taiping on Dec. 12, 1946, marking the Republic of China's reclaiming of sovereignty over the island, the largest islet in the Spratly Islands.

Since then, the ROC has built infrastructure on the island, the ministry said.

The South China Sea is a disputed region, with six countries -- Taiwan, China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei -- claiming part or all of the islands in the resource-rich region and their surrounding waters.

(By Sophia Yeh and Elaine Hou)

ENDITEM/AW

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ELKO  The members of Bristlecone Audubon invite the community to their 27th Elko Christmas Bird Count on Dec. 17.

Prior to the turn of the century, people engaged in a holiday tradition known as the Christmas Side Hunt. They would choose sides and go afield with their guns; whoever brought in the biggest pile of feathered (and furred) quarry won. Conservation was in its beginning stages around the turn of the 20th century, and many observers and scientists were becoming concerned about declining bird populations. Beginning on Christmas Day 1900, ornithologist Frank Chapman, an early officer in the then budding Audubon Society, proposed a new holiday tradition-a Christmas Bird Census-that would count birds during the holidays rather than hunt them.

So began the Christmas Bird Count. Thanks to the inspiration of Frank M. Chapman and the enthusiasm of 27 dedicated birders, 25 Christmas Bird Counts were held that day. The locations ranged from Toronto, Ontario, to Pacific Grove, California with most counts in or near the population centers of northeastern North America. Those original 27 Christmas bird counters tallied around 90 species on all the counts combined. This year marks the 117th Christmas Bird Count.

Each December, birders interested in participating in the CBC can sign up and join in through the Audubon website. From Dec. 14 through Jan. 5 each year tens of thousands of volunteers throughout the Americas brave snow, wind, or rain, and take part in the effort. Audubon and other organizations use data collected in this long-running wildlife census to assess the health of bird populationsand to help guide conservation action.

The data collected by observers over the past century allow researchers, conservation biologists, and other interested individuals to study the long-term health and status of bird populations across North America. When combined with other surveys such as the Breeding Bird Survey, it provides a picture of how the continents bird populations have changed in time and space over the past hundred years.

There is a specific methodology to the CBC, and all participants must make arrangements to participate in advance with the circle compiler, but anyone can participate. Each count takes place in an established 15-mile wide diameter circle, and is organized by a count compiler. Count volunteers follow specified routes through a designated 15-mile diameter circle, counting every bird they see or hear all day. The Elko Count Circle includes portions of Elko, Spring Creek, and South Fork. Its not just a species tally  all birds are counted all day, giving an indication of the total number of birds in the circle that day.

If you are a beginning birder, you will be able to join a group that includes at least one experienced birdwatcher. If your home is within the boundaries of a CBC circle, then you can even report the birds that visit your feeder on count day as long as you have made prior arrangement with the count compiler.

Everyone is welcome for the bird count and all levels of experience can participate. New birders will be partnered with experienced members.

Observers meet at 7:30 a.m. at one of two locations, one in Elko and one in Spring Creek. Groups will go out on assigned routes which take an average of four to six hours to complete. At 4:30 p.m. all count information is turned in at the annual potluck dinner where the data is compiled and preliminary results can be announced.

For more information contact: Lois K. Ports at 775-753-2569 or ports@frontiernet.net by Thursday, Dec. 15th.
U.S. Department of Defense

Press Operations

News Transcript

Presenter: Colonel John Dorrian, Operation Inherent Resolve spokesman December 08, 2016

Department of Defense Press Briefing by Col. Dorrian via teleconference from Baghdad, Iraq

CAPTAIN JEFF DAVIS: Good morning.

So, our briefer today from Baghdad is a WiFi password.

All right. There he is. J.D., just before we get started, we want to make sure we can hear you and you can hear us.

COLONEL JOHN DORRIAN: I've got you loud and clear, Jeff. Thank you.

CAPT. DAVIS: Thanks.

Ladies and gentlemen, we're pleased to be joined today by Colonel John Dorrian, the spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve, coming to us live from Baghdad.

J.D., we'll turn it over to you for your opening remarks, and take questions from here.

COL. DORRIAN: Excellent.

Well, good morning. I -- we'll start with Syria and we'll move on to Iraq.

In Syria, we're accelerating our airstrikes on ISIL fighters and resources in support of Syrian defense forces' offensive in Raqqah. In the last month, we've conducted nearly 300 strikes, enabling the liberation of more than 270 square miles from ISIL. These strikes have destroyed about 90 fortifications and over 50 vehicles, and continue to disrupt ISIL supply routes, ISIL's ability to fund its operations from the illicit sales of oil in Iraq.

Strikes against ISIL-affiliated oil infrastructure routinely and severely reduced their revenue stream that had provided millions of dollars in revenue. We're doing the same thing in Syria to create pressure on the enemy as operations to isolate Raqqah are ongoing.

I draw your attention to the map of Syria depicting progress in the SDF operation to isolate Raqqah. Liberating territory in northern Syria has freed up thousands of civilians from ISIL, but many remain displaced. Many of those people are moving into Manbij, but unfortunately as they move in that direction, and even as they find refuge in and around the city, they're being targeted by ISIL small arms and IED attacks.

The SDF, with its Arab elements, has enabled the establishment of a governance structure representative of the local population. And they've begun providing services to the people of Manbij, including having opened more than 240 schools since its liberation. A similar model with local governance is in the works for Raqqah once it is liberated.

As the SDF isolates Raqqah, the number of SDF fighters continues to grow, as another Arab brigade joins the SDF with more than 1,000 citizens, men and women joining to reclaim and protect their homes. More than 1,500 new SDF fighters are in training now to join the ranks to liberate Raqqah and to defend the forward line of troops. More than 90 percent graduating are Arabs, which is critical to the liberating and establishing of governance for citizens in the area.

One notable force is the Syrian elite forces, who are led by Ahmad al-Jarba, an influential member in the region who has the ability to mobilize local forces in support of the offensive. The SDF has been from Raqqah, and they've been fighting ISIL there since the occupation of the city. The SEF now consists of approximately 45,000 fighters, more than 13,000 of which are Arab.

Finally, this week we're facilitating joint discussions with Turkey, the SDF and other coalition partners to promote de-escalation in the area. Diplomacy and continued coordination will ensure ISIL's lasting defeat. These meetings are starting points in addressing a challenging situation. Again, every party to these discussions has an overriding interest in common. This is the defeat of ISIL, an enemy that threatens us all.

In Mosul, Iraqi security forces continue to make incremental progress in clearing the city, with the CTS clearing additional areas in eastern Mosul, while the 9th division of the Iraqi army penetrated the city on the southeast axis. The opening of a new axis forces ISIL to react to that advance, reducing their ability to concentrate combat power on the eastern axis.

Coalition air and artillery strikes continue to damage this enemy, engaging tactical units on the battlefield, vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices, supply routes, and excavating equipment in the past few days.

As some of you have detected, our strike reports reflect more strikes in and around Mosul on supply routes, key terrain, and excavating equipment. These strikes have been conducted to reduce the ability of ISIL to rotate forces, resupply, and use vehicle-borne improved explosive devices against the Iraqi security forces.

As you know, four of the five bridges across the Tigris were disabled. Coalition strikes cratering the routes leading to that final bridge have further disrupted the enemy. ISIL have continued rudimentary repairs, so far with very little success. We've also created roads leading to locations where the ISF is operating. This is done to help protect the ISF from vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices.

As you saw last night, the coalition conducted a precision strike on ISIL fighters who had seized part of the Al Salam hospital complex in southeast Mosul and were using the facility to fire heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades at the Iraqi security forces in the area.

The ISF requested the strike to facilitate the retrograde of their forces to a safer and defensible position. We don't take lightly any decision to strike a target that would normally be a protected facility. The commander has directed a review of the facts leading up to the decision to strike the hospital on December 7th, and the coalition at this time has no reason to believe that procedures were not followed properly or that unintended effects were achieved. We've not seen any indications at this point that civilians were harmed in the strike.

Nevertheless, it is appropriate to set the details to assure we can fully answer questions associated with a strike such as this, and to assure our processes for such circumstances are as refined as possible.

Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, I'll be delighted to take your questions.

CAPT. DAVIS: We'll start with Lita Baldor from the Associated Press.

Q: Hey, J.D. Just a couple more questions -- details, if you could, on Al Salam. Can you give us a better sense of whether or not the Iraqis have been pushed completely back out of there? And what the impact was on the Iraqi security forces? We're hearing that there were a lot of casualties. If you have any assessment on that.

And when you're talking about looking into the hospital strike, has there been a decision to conduct an investigation into the strike? Or is this just one of the early review processes that you're looking at to determine if an investigation is needed?

COL. DORRIAN: I'll start with your second question first, Lita.

At this point, it's just an assessment to just go over the facts, make sure that we have properly accounted for everything that was done and all the decisions that were made at this time. So it's not an investigation. It's just an assessment of what was done.

For your second question, I'm going to have to leave it to the Iraqi Security Forces to provide details with regard to their casualties. It was a very difficult battle, but the Iraqi security forces had advanced into an area pretty deeply into Mosul at this complex. And what we did is conduct this strike in order to allow them to fall back to a more defensible position.

Just to be clear, I've seen some mis-reporting on this. This was not a total fall-back. This is a few hundred yards. So they're in -- they're very near the city, that facility, and they've made significant progress into southeastern Mosul. This is a very helpful development because what it does is it forces Daesh to react to that advancing force. They did so in a, you know, very tough battle last night. So the Iraqi security forces have dug in and they're protecting the terrain that they have. And the ISIL fighters are going to have to react to that advance. That's a good thing for the Iraqis.

Q: To follow up, how certain is the coalition that the hospital was not continuing to serve as an actual hospital with patients? Or does the coalition believe that all civilians and patients were out of the hospital?

COL. DORRIAN: Well, it's very difficult to ascertain with full and total fidelity. So what we're going to do is review the intelligence that led into the decision. We haven't seen any indication that we achieved any unintended effects, in other words, civilian casualties or anything like that at this time.

So, we didn't -- didn't have any indication that civilians were at risk at the time of the strike.

CAPT. DAVIS: Okay. Next, we'll go to Bill Hennigan from the Los Angeles Times.

Q: Hey, J.D. Just to follow up on that, I assume that you had been watching the facility for some time. Would you know if civilians hadn't been seen there for, what, more than 24 hours or something like that?

COL. DORRIAN: Bill, this is -- this is the types of details that we're going to go into as we do this assessment, just to make sure that we've got full fidelity on all those facts. We didn't have any indication that there would be any problem with the strikes. The Iraqis were operating in that area and they were under very heavy fire from Daesh. The strikes were conducted in the interest of trying to protect that ground force and enable them to retrograde to safe terrain.

Q: Okay. Got it.

Now, the Iraqi parliament's recent -- the law that they passed regarding the PMF, how has that changed -- has that changed the coalition's calculus when it comes to providing air cover for those forces?

COL. DORRIAN: Well, at this time, it's too early to determine what the impact of the legislation is. It wasn't a very detailed law. It's only a page-and-a-half in text. And right now, the government of Iraq is building the rules that will go around the implementation of the law. So we really kind of have to wait and enable and assess and see what they're going to do with regard to the implementation of the law and the manner in which they're going to do that.

In the meantime, we strike Daesh targets all around Iraq all the time. And sometimes, that, you know, provides positive impacts for any force that's operating anywhere in those areas. So, there is some incremental benefit to Popular Mobilization Forces as we conduct those strikes.

And in addition to that, often what we find, as is the case in Tal Afar, the Popular Mobilization Forces are partnered with the Iraqi army. And we do continue to conduct strikes in support of the Iraqi army in coordination with them.

Q: So -- so previously, the U.S. and coalition were not providing any air cover for the PMF full stop. So are you saying that that's changing now?

COL. DORRIAN: Bill, I'm not -- I'm not sure that your understanding of what was going on previously is -- is 100 percent correct. We had always struck Daesh targets all around Iraq when it was in, you know, a part of the coalition plan, a part of the Iraqi plan to liberate areas.

So, if there was some kind of an incremental benefit to the popular mobilization forces as they advanced as a result of that, that wasn't something that we were going to deny the positive benefit of taking that strike if we had an opportunity to do it. That's not what we were doing.

So, we've always, since this campaign begun, coordinated all of our strikes with the Government of Iraq.

They are working a plan, they share the plan with us, they also incorporate these Popular Mobilization Forces apart of it. Just to be clear on that point, as well, I've seen a little bit of misreporting on -- on what the make up of the Popular Mobilization Forces is, some of them are Sunni Arabs, some of them are Christian, Yazidis, Turkmen.

Not just Shia and not just affiliated with Iran. So, when it is a part of the government of Iraq's plan and -- and those forces are operating and doing what the government needs them to do or they're partnered with Iraqi army and Iraqi police or the CTS.

We conduct strikes in support of those forces. All those things have been ongoing, that -- that really hasn't changed at all.

Q: Well, I do believe that there was no coordination between the U.S. coalition and the PMF at all. If -- if coincidentally, that the U.S. was providing air strikes and the PMF benefited from that, then that was a -- that was simply that, a coincidence.

But now, it seems that you're describing a situation in which coalition aircraft could be providing air support for PMF forces.

COL. DORRIAN: No, our --

(Laughter.)

CAPT. DAVIS: Here we go. We need to top up our account.

(Laughter.)

A testing, one, two, three. J.D. can you hear us? We lost you for a second.

COL. DORRIAN: Yep, I can -- I can hear you, Jeff, can you hear me?

CAPT. DAVIS: Yep, we got you -- we got you back.

I'm sorry, I think Bill do you want to repeat your question?

Q: Not really. I guess it seems as -- it seems as though that -- that the situation has changed a bit in terms of the way that okay.

Do you got me J.D.?

COL. DORRIAN: I do, Bill.

You know what, the situation hasn't changed at all. We continue our coordination with the Iraqi security forces, we continue our coordination with the government of Iraq.

Its not direct coordination with the Popular Mobilization Forces and the rules with regard to coordination with organizations that have American blood on their hands or any of that kind of stuff, none of those things have changed at all.

CAPT. DAVIS: All right.

Next, to Laurent Barthelemy with Agence France-Press.

Q: Hi -- hi, colonel. I would like to go to Syria. You mentioned discussions to deescalate in northern Syria. I'd like to know if you could -- if you could describe these discussions, who are -- who are participating to -- who is participating to these discussions and what's at play?

COL. DORRIAN: Well, you know what, I really can't provide a tremendous amount of detail or fidelity. But I thought it would be of interest to let you know that those discussions are happening.

That's progress that's better than, you know, what was happening before. But that's, you know, a nascent and somewhat fragile step. So I really can't give a play-by-play on what those discussions are, I hope you understand.

But it is significant and it is an ongoing effort to try and make sure that all these groups, our partners and our allies, remain focused on fighting Daesh because all of us have the same interest in defeating them.

Q: I suppose the discussions are about Manbij, because the Turks have made clear their intention to go to Manbij. So is there a risk of some fight between the Turks and the forces that are now holding Manbij?

COL. DORRIAN: Again, I really can't get into the details for you. I wanted to give you an update to let you know that the conversations were happening, but just really can't get too much into detail on what the substance of those discussions are. I hope you understand.

Q: Do you think there is a risk of a fight between the Turks and the force -- the forces that are now holding Manbij?

COL. DORRIAN: You know, it's really inappropriate for me to get into speculation. There have been instances where -- previous instances where there has been an exchange of fire between the SDF and the Turks -- the Turkish military. That has already occurred at different times during the campaign.

So what we're trying to do is make sure that we keep all these operations de-conflicted, and to maintain a dialogue that keeps everyone focused on fighting Daesh.

CAPT. DAVIS: Next to Jim Sciutto with CNN.

Q: Hi, Colonel Dorrian. Thanks very much.

Are you concerned about the difficulty that civilians in Mosul have in escaping the fighting there? And is there any truth to reporting that under pressure from PMF, Iran, that that kind of western outlet has been closed off, and that civilians are paying a price for that?

COL. DORRIAN: Well, certainly the protection of civilians has been a centerpiece, a foundational element of the campaign to liberate Mosul. Prime Minister Abadi has been very clear on this during the planning cycle, and from the very beginning of operations to liberate the city. He's been very clear about that with the Iraqi security forces who, by the way, have done -- really gone to extraordinary measures to try and protect civilians in the city.

And really, Iraqi -- you know, all Iraqis should be very proud of the manner in which they're conducting themselves in the city, because they're doing, you know, a tremendous amount to protect civilians under the direst of circumstances. They're up against a barbaric enemy that's gone out of their way to do everything they can to increase the danger in the city, including use of vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices in civilian areas; the use of human shields -- all of the types of things that mean that, you know, they are really the worst people in the world, and they have to be eradicated from Mosul as efficiently and as quickly as possible.

So we share the Iraqi security forces' concern for civilians. This is something, though, that we're going to have to be very careful about. We supported the Iraqi plan to keep civilians in place. The reason for that is it's very dangerous to egress from the city because of ISIL snipers. And to leave your home in ISIL's hands may mean that ISIL will have more opportunity to plant many of the -- the booby traps and explosive devices that we've seen in some of the other areas.

Q: Do you need -- just as a matter of follow -- snipers, of course, are a danger, but so -- so -- so is an advancing army, right? So -- so how do you balance that?

COL. DORRIAN: Well, I -- I would say that I would submit to you that you're -- when somebody is shooting at you and targeting you purposely, like a Daesh sniper --

CAPT. DAVIS: Sorry.

So, a brief reminder while we have a pause here, we do have a senior military official that will be coming to the press office at about 12 noon. That'll be a discussion I understand it's going to now be on background vice off the record. So, you will not want to miss that. 12 noon in the press office immediately following this.

Password reset.

Sorry, ladies and gentlemen.

Tell him if we can't get it up right away, switch to phone.

STAFF: All right.

CAPT. DAVIS: All right, we're back.

Okay, J.D., I think we lost you again for a second, you're back now. Can you hear us?

COL. DORRIAN: I've got you loud and clear, Jeff. I'll take Jim's question. I wanted to point out the fact that the snipers who are purposely firing directly at you pose a much greater danger than the force that's trying to liberate you and taking extraordinary measures to protect you.

CAPT. DAVIS: This is Carla Babb from Voice of America.

Q: Hi, colonel, thanks for doing this.

Going back to the PMF, does the U.S. and the Iraqis still have assurances that the PMF is not going to enter Mosul proper during this fight and that that was something that was stressed prior to the fight beginning?

COL. DORRIAN: All indications that we have is that the Popular Mobilization Forces continue to execute the plan that Prime Minister Abadi approved. So, that plan is for them to remain outside of Tel Afar and disrupt the egress route from Mosul towards either Tal Afar or Syria. They've been very successful in doing that. Mosul is completely surrounded on all sides and Daesh have no ability to resupply or reinforce their fighters.

Q: And then, if I may go back to the hospital, to follow up on Lita's question, you said that there are no indications that civilians were hurt or killed during the strike. But my question is on the building outside the one that was targeted. Do you know if civilians are in that hospital, and if that hospital is operational for civilians? Maybe not in that particular building, but elsewhere in the complex?

COL. DORRIAN: Carla, these are among the details that we're going to go through in the assessment so I don't -- I don't know right now but we're going to look into that and that'll be a part of the assessment.

CAPT. DAVIS: Richard Sisk from Military.com.

Q: Hi colonel, in the strike on the hospital, can you say what assets were used? Manned or unmanned?

COL. DORRIAN: Those were -- were manned assets. Those were aircraft so they're precision-guided munitions, all of them. That's the only kind that we've been using, especially in a populated area like Mosul.

Q: (Off mic.)

CAPT. DAVIS: J.D., I don't know if you heard that, he'd asked you if it was F-16s.

COL. DORRIAN: I'll have to take that as a question. I don't know if it was F-16s. I'd have to check.

Q: In Syria, can you tell us, are we still withholding support, airstrikes for the Turks?

COL. DORRIAN: Well, to be clear, we have continued to conduct a lot of operations with the Turks, but there is a part of the plan that's a part of our national -- or part of the coalition effort and then there's a part that's a national effort on their part.

So, if you're referring to the Turkish military and the partnered force going into al-Bab or isolating al-Bab with the intent to liberate it, we have -- we have not conducted strikes in -- in support of that operation.

Q: And lastly, sir, has CJTF been asked by international organizations to provide relief airdrops into Aleppo?

COL. DORRIAN: Operations in Aleppo do not have -- they are not a part of the charter here really because Daesh are not present -- present in significant numbers in Aleppo and we're here to fight Daesh.

Q: But sir, have you been asked?

COL. DORRIAN: Not to my knowledge.

CAPT. DAVIS: To Dan Lamothe from the Washington Post.

Q: Colonel, good evening. Thanks very much for your time.

I wanted to ask you about the situation as far as the resupplying of these ISIS fighters. You mentioned, I mean obviously they're encircled. The bridge has -- both their bridges are out. This has gone on several weeks now. What's your assessment of their ability to either manufacture vehicle-borne IEDs at this point or -- or just small arms. What are -- what are they working with, what do you think they have left?

COL. DORRIAN: Well, Dan, thanks for that.

You know, they've had more than two years to prepare for this battle so they have significant resources packed away within the city at various points, but those resources are finite and being depleted. And part of this campaign, one of the reasons why the Iraqi security forces are using overwhelming force and have completely encircled the city, is that they understand that as this effort goes on with each passing day, Daesh as fewer fighters and fewer resources at their disposal.

We've already seen that some of their fighters unfortunately were seeing younger fighters; perhaps adolescent age, rather than adults. That's unconscionable on their part, but it is a long list of things that they do that are unconscionable.

We've also seen their vehicle borne improvised explosive devices don't have the exotic level of machining that we've seen in previous iterations -- a lot of the ones have been used before. So we've even seen the use just regular vehicles rather than the up armored versions that are much more difficult to stop.

So, what that tells us is they're beginning to run out of those resources. It doesn't mean that it's not still an extraordinarily dangerous situation. They are not going to go quietly, but they are going to go.

CAPT. DAVIS: Okay, next to Thomas Watkins, Agence France-Press.

Q: Hi, J.D. -- excuse me -- hi, J.D.

Actually it's to build bit on -- excuse me -- to build a bit on Dan's question, what -- we are coming up to the two month mark since the offensive was launch. What is your assessment today, of the number of ISIL casualties -- killed and/or wounded in the Mosul operation?

COL. DORRIAN: I would say many hundreds of fighters are gone. We don't release -- we don't release casualty statistics and we don't consider them a measure of merit, but I can tell you that the enemy is taking very significant casualties, as difficult as they are making it for the Iraqi security forces.

I can assure you that their fighters are being expended at a much faster rate than -- than are the Iraqis. It's still very, very dangerous fighting, it's very, very difficult, but, you know, eventually we're going reach critical mass where the enemy is going to begin to break and then things will start to accelerate.

Q: Many hundreds for many weeks now. Would you -- Would you go into the thousands at this point?

COL. DORRIAN: You know what; I really don't want to get into more details. I think we will just leave it at that. They're -- they are expending fighters at an accelerated rate, an unsustainable rate, especially given the fact that they're completely surrounded without the ability to reinforce.

Q: Just on a different topic, if I may. Do you have any assessment or thoughts to share of the video that Daesh release with the kidnapped British journalist, John Cantlie has been publicized in the last 24 hours?

COL. DORRIAN: We don't have any details beyond what -- what you've probably seen in open sources, or at least I don't have any that I could offer in this forum. So, it's a very unfortunate situation. It's the type of things that Daesh is known for. You know, they're an existential threat to anybody that falls into their grip, and unfortunately, this poor gentleman is being used for propaganda. So, it's another of the terrible things that Daesh does.

CAPT. DAVIS: Next to Lucas Tomlinson, Fox News.

Q: Colonel, the chancellor of the Kurdistan Regional Security Council told Fox News last night that over 1,500 Peshmerga have been killed fighting ISIS. Over 10,000 have been wounded. He complained about not enough support from the U.S.-led coalition, including not just heavy weapons, but also protective equipment, body armor. Are you concerned about these high levels of casualties and is the coalition doing more to help the Pesh who's part of this vanguard to destroy ISIS.

COL. DORRIAN: Well, we've -- we've done a tremendous amount to equip our partners, both the Iraqi security force and the Peshmerga. We've continued conducting strikes, a tremendous number in order to support their advance and to protect them. That's, you know, ball park 6,000 -- 6,000 ordnance that have been dropped on Daesh targets since we've started this Mosul liberation campaign.

We do know that, you know, no matter how many resources that we -- we pour into the situation, ISIL remains a very dangerous enemy. We try to provide our partner forces what they need in order to be successful and to achieve the objectives that they have put together with the Government of Iraq and the Kurdish Regional Government. But, other than that I don't really have any further detail to offer.

Q: Can you talk us about -- walk us through the challenges of going into Western Mosul. So far the battles predominantly been in eastern half of the city and we're told that Western Mosul is going to be even more intense than it is now.

Can you talk us through some of those challenges?

COL. DORRIAN: Well, I think it'd be very difficult to predict with any accuracy, exactly what awaits in western Mosul. What we've actually seen is that ISIL has done a tremendous amount to try to bring fighters across and confront the Iraqi security forces, particularly the CTS in the eastern part of the city. They've done that throughout the campaign, until they were disrupted from doing so by the strikes on the bridges that would enable that.

So, we'll have to wait and see. We don't want to get into the business of prognosticating on things where we don't have a tremendous amount of fidelity or detail. But, I doubt that there's a lot of people sitting there cooling their heels in western Mosul, while the predominant force that they have is being destroyed in eastern Mosul.

Q: Has the Iraqi plan changed with regards to Mosul. At the beginning, the western half of the city, where the western outlying area was left open for ISIS fighters to escape, presumably so the coalition could target them. But now with the PMF moving in a blocking position to surround the city.

I was just wondering, is this because of Iran's influence and has the plan changed? Because initially there was criticism that western Mosul was open and now there's been a shift. I was just wondering, had there been a change in the plan?

COL. DORRIAN: Well, the only plan that I'm aware of being executed is the plan of the government of Iraq. Every force that's fighting to liberate Mosul, is either working in cooperation with, or under the command and control of the Government of Iraq. We're here with their permission, and we're executing a plan supporting the plan that they are trying to execute.

The Popular Mobilization Forces that are operating to the western part of the city are conducting those operations in concert with and under the command and control of the prime minister -- the Government of Iraq.

So I've seen the reports that you're referring to, but all I -- all I know about this is that the government of Iraq is making the calls. They're determining the disposition of forces. There's no other nation that's making that determination, government of Iraq is making that plan and executing it and we support that.

CAPT. DAVIS: I think we have one follow up from Bill Hennigan.

Q: Yeah. Your picture's frozen on the screen and it's kind of freaking me out. But I just want to get back to a point that you said at the top about -- I think you called these -- these -- these new Syrian forces the Syrian elite forces?

COL. DORRIAN: That's correct, Bill.

Q: These folks from -- you said they're from Raqqah? And how -- how -- how big of a force if it?

Q: Yes, what is it comprised of?

COL. DORRIAN: Well, it's about 90 percent Syrian Arabs. And let me see if I have any details. I'll have to double check the size of that force and we'll get back with you, Bill.

Q: It -- it seems as though they're the ones that are spear heading this -- this effort in Raqqah? Is that -- is that an accurate characterization?

COL. DORRIAN: I think I would be accurate to say that they've joined the SDF effort to isolate Raqqah.

CAPT. DAVIS: And others before we sign off?

All right, J.D., we thank you for your time.

And thank you everybody for coming to see us today. We'll see you again soon.

COL. DORRIAN: Thanks very much, Jeff.

Team, I'm sorry this was a little bit rough with regard to the technology. We'll keep working it.

http://www.defense.gov/News/News-Transcripts/Transcript-View/Article/1025099/

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U.S. Department of Defense

Press Operations

News Release

No. NR-430-16 December 08, 2016

Joint India-United States Statement on the Visit of Secretary of Defense Carter to India

U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter made an official visit to India at the invitation of Raksha Mantri Shri Manohar Parrikar today, marking the seventh interaction between the two leaders. Raksha Mantri Parrikar and Secretary Carter reviewed the tremendous progress made in bilateral defense ties and discussed the immense promise for the future of India-U.S. security cooperation.

Both sides exchanged views on regional security issues including the threat posed by terrorism. They agreed to continue further strengthening the bilateral counter-terrorism cooperation and underlined the need to ensure that terror groups receive no patronage from any State.

Citing common values and our shared desire for peace and prosperity in the Asia Pacific and Indian Ocean region, the two leaders reflected on the convergence of interests that have driven the strategic and technological "handshakes" between our nations, and led to historic progress in our bilateral relationship.

India-U.S. defense relations in recent years have moved along a remarkable upward trajectory. Marked progress on agreements, including the signing of a defense framework agreement in 2015, have laid a blueprint for collaboration between our defense establishments and enabled deeper cooperation. Joint exchange opportunities  in both personnel and training exercises  have expanded and strengthened our bilateral cooperation. The recent signing of the logistics exchange memorandum of agreement (LEMOA) has facilitated additional opportunities for practical engagement and exchange.

Today we finalized India's designation as a "Major Defense Partner" of the United States. The designation as a "Major Defense Partner" is a status unique to India and institutionalizes the progress made to facilitate defense trade and technology sharing with India to a level at par with that of the United States' closest allies and partners, and ensures enduring cooperation into the future.

Raksha Mantri Parrikar and Secretary Carter applauded the deepened scope of India-U.S. military-to-military ties, which includes a dramatic increase in defense trade.

With regard to technology, both sides welcomed the tremendous progress achieved under the Defense Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI) and committed to explore new proposals and other innovative opportunities forco-production and co-development. The emergence of DTTI as an integral and enduring component of India-U.S. security cooperation is a sign that the relationship has matured to a level of strategic importance. DTTI will strengthen India's "Make in India" initiative and both sides committed to convening all new DTTI working groups prior to the next DTTI Group meeting anticipated for February 2017.

Raksha Mantri Parrikar and Secretary Carter agreed that the strong partnership between our countries is lasting and will thrive and grow for decades to come.

****

http://www.defense.gov/News/News-Releases/News-Release-View/Article/1024228/

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Government of Morocco - TOW 2A, Radio Frequency (RF) Missiles (BGM-71-4B-RF) and Support

Media/Public Contact: pm-cpa@state.gov

Transmittal No: 16-52

WASHINGTON, Dec. 8, 2016 -- The State Department has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to the Government of Morocco for TOW 2A, Radio Frequency (RF) Missiles (BGM-71-4B-RF), and related support. The estimated cost is $108 million. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency delivered the required certification notifying Congress of this possible sale on December 7, 2016.

The Government of Morocco has requested a possible sale of one thousand two-hundred (1,200) TOW 2A, Radio Frequency (RF) Missiles (BGM-71-4B-RF) and fourteen (14) TOW 2A, Radio Frequency (RF) Missiles (Fly-to-Buy Lot Acceptance Missiles). Also included with this request is U.S. Government and contractor engineering, technical and logistics support services; and other related elements of logistics and program support. The estimated MDE sale is $101 million. The total estimated value is $108 million.

This proposed sale will contribute to the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping to improve the security of a Major Non-NATO Ally that continues to be an important force for the political stability and economic progress in North Africa. This proposed sale directly supports Morocco and serves the interests of the Moroccan people and the United States.

The proposed sale of TOW 2A Missiles and technical support will advance Morocco's efforts to develop an integrated ground defense capability. Morocco will have no difficulty absorbing this equipment into its armed forces.

The proposed sale of this equipment and support will not alter the basic military balance in the region.

The principal contractors involved in this program are: Raytheon Missile Systems, Tucson, Arizona. There are no known offset agreements proposed in connection with this potential sale.

Implementation of this proposed sale will require the U.S. Government or contractor representatives to travel to Morocco.

There will be no adverse impact on U.S. defense readiness as a result of this proposed sale.

This notice of a potential sale is required by law and does not mean the sale has been concluded.

All questions regarding this proposed Foreign Military Sale should be directed to the State Department's Bureau of Political Military Affairs, Office of Congressional and Public Affairs, pm-cpa@state.gov.

-30-

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Joint press point with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and the President of the Republic of Estonia, Ms. Kersti Kaljulaid

NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organisation

08 Dec. 2016

(As delivered)

President Kaljulaid, please be welcome to NATO headquarters, it's a great honor to have you here and it was a great pleasure to meet with you.

And we have just finished a very constructive and good meeting where we addressed many different issues. But I would like to start by thanking Estonia for being such a steadfast Ally for many years and we are very grateful for the many different contributions you give to the Alliance. We have Estonian troops deployed in Afghanistan, you contribute also with all the expertise and excellence you have in the cyber area where we have the NATO Cyber centre of excellence in Estonia and this is really an important tool in enhancing the capabilities and the knowledge for the whole Alliance when it comes to cyber defence.

We also very much appreciate and commend you for being one of the Allies that is spending 2% of GDP on defence. This is really important, especially in times where we see new threats and new challenges and you lead by example by spending 2% of GDP on defence so we are grateful for that, and your investments in defence also contribute to a fair burden sharing and thereby also strengthening the transatlantic bond.

NATO can count on Estonia and Estonia can count on NATO. Allied jets keep your skies safe. And Allied ships patrol the Baltic Sea and we are stepping up our presence on land as well. At the Warsaw Summit, we decided to enhance our forward presence in the three Baltic countries and Poland. And we are on track when it comes to the deployment of the battalion, a multinational battalion to Estonia, and the battalion is going to be led by the UK but also forces from other NATO Allied countries will be part of this multinational battalion. So we think that the fact that we are delivering on the promises to strengthen our collective defence is very important for the whole Alliance but of course especially important for Estonia and other Baltic countries and Poland because you see that we are following up on what we said we should do. Then I would also like to thank you for your strong personal commitment to the Alliance and I'm looking forward to working with you and I hope that this is just the beginning of many meetings here in the NATO headquarters, in Estonia, but also in other places so that we can further develop our excellent cooperation, so once again, welcome to NATO.

MODERATOR: Thank you very much we'll start with Eastern Kavalich (sic) please.

Q: Hi, Johann Estralla (sic) from Estonian Public Broadcasting. Two questions to Mr. Stoltenberg, this week a lot about EU and NATO cooperation has been said in this house; I would like you to point out a few practical things what NATO and the EU can do together in the Baltic region that would really make sense and be useful for both NATO and the EU, and the Baltic States. And second, tackling Russian propaganda is, I believe, one of the things that has been talked about a lot. Right now, there are about 20 people who are dealing with it under the framework of the EU; should we put more emphasis on this and more resources? Thank you.

JENS STOLTENBERG (NATO Secretary General): First you're right that NATO-EU cooperation has been top of the agenda this week because it was the main issue at our Foreign Ministerial meeting which ended yesterday and there, we endorsed a package of more than 40 concrete measures on how to strengthen NATO-EU cooperation, addressing many different areas. I think all of these measures will be, in different ways, relevant for the Baltic region but let me just mention some, few examples. We are, we have agreed to strengthen our cooperation when it comes to cyber defenses because we see an increased cyber threat against all NATO allies and we have agreed to exchange best practices, we have agreed to do more when it comes to research, and then of course, the Centre of Excellence in Estonia is a key tool to achieve exactly that, to strengthen cooperation with NATO-EU on, on cyber. We have decided to increase our cooperation when it comes to hybrid threats. This combination of military and non-military threats and means of aggression and, we have agreed then to have playbooks describing who's going to do what, so we can coordinate efforts if needed, between the European Union and NATO. If a nation is under any kind of hybrid attack or hybrid threat, then we can work together on infrastructure, on resilience, on continuation of government, on many other areas where we need coordinated efforts by the European Union and NATO in a hybrid or during a hybrid threat or attack. We have also agreed to do more exercises and that's also (inaudible) for the Baltic Sea region and we have agreed on many many other issues, maritime cooperation. So, I think that all the whole list is actually in different ways relevant for the Baltic States. Then countering propaganda is also actually one part of the NATO-EU cooperation. We will exchange information, we will work together, but both for the European Union and for NATO, we have to understand that the first responder is the member state because they are closest to the challenge, they know the language, they know the social context where this propaganda or this information is taking place. What NATO can do, and EU can do, is to, can, is to coordinate efforts; it's to provide facts and figures. We will do that but I think that the first responder is the nations and we very much believe that when we see, for instance propaganda, our response is not propaganda. But, we believe in open free societies so, facts, the truth will prevail over propaganda, so open debate where we all participate with the facts and the truth, is the best way also to fight this information and the propaganda.

MODERATOR: Thank you, gentleman here please.

Q: Karl (inaudible) from (inaudible). Mr. Secretary General it is currently very easy for Russia to cut off, in the worst case scenario, the re-enforcements for the Baltic region. What can NATO do about it? And on a related topic you have mentioned many times that NATO's answer to Russia's military buildup must be proportionate. Russia has huge numbers of troops and very serious military equipment on our borders. How exactly is four battalions proportionate answer?

JENS STOLTENBERG: First of all in our military planning we are taking into account the Russian military buildup also in the Baltic Sea region and that's also one of the reasons why we have decided to increase our presence, four presence in the three Baltic countries and in Poland. And you have to remember that both the presence of multi-national brigades, sorry multi-national battalions in the three Baltic countries and Poland but also the establishment of the NATO four situation units to small headquarters in the three Baltic States and Poland. They are, they're also to establish better cooperation, coordination with the home defense forces the Estonian forces, the Lithuanian forces, the Latvian forces and the Polish forces and they are there also to help, prepare, plan for re-enforcements if needed. So the idea is not that that four battalions alone shall be the only tool, the only component, in delivering deterrence on behalf of NATO, but they are key because they are forward, they are in the Baltic region, they are linked up to the home defense forces and, they are linked up to the NATO Force Integration Unit and thereby also enabling and making it easier to have re-enforcements, if needed. And re-enforcements can of course come, before we see a conflict. The whole idea with re-enforcements is to prevent the conflict; it's to send a clear message of deterrence. So if needed we will deploy, based on early warnings, based on intelligence, based on information, to send a clear signal that NATO is there to protect all allies against any threat and we have to also understand that the fact is that, that these battalions are multi-national, sends the message we want to send, that an attack on one ally will trigger the response from the whole Alliance. So, for instance, when you are going to have a UK-led battalion in Estonia, with also participation from other nations, that will send a very clear signal about our willingness to to re-enforce if, if needed. This is backed by, for instance, the new Spearhead Force, it's a high joint readiness, also they're a Spearhead Force, they're a new brigade we have which can be deployed very rapidly if needed. And behind that again we have the NATO Response Force and behind that we have the following forces. So, so we have forces that can be deployed, that can provide the necessary deterrence if, if needed. The last thing was that when I say proportionate, it is proportionate to the scale of the challenge we face. We don't see any imminent threat against any NATO ally, we will not anyway, match soldier by soldier or plane by plane; that's not a way we respond in a proportionate way, but we respond in a proportionate way making sure that we respond to the scale of the challenge. We see, in a way that makes sure, that NATO continues to deliver credible defense and tripling size of the NATO Response Force, the new High Readiness Joint Task Force and the battalions and the NATO Force Integration Units. All that provides the necessary deterrence and defense and the protection of all the Baltic countries.

MODERATOR: That's all we have time for. Thank you very much.

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USS Oklahoma City Returns to Guam

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS161208-10

Release Date: 12/8/2016 8:32:00 AM

By Commander, Submarine Squadron 15 Public Affairs

SANTA RITA, Guam (NNS) -- Los Angeles-class attack submarine USS Oklahoma City (SSN 723) returned to its homeport of Apra Harbor, Guam, Dec. 8, following an eight-month engineering overhaul in San Diego.

Oklahoma City, under the command of Cmdr. Thomas O'Donnell, is returning to Guam after successfully completing their docking selected restricted availability (DSRA) on time and $4 million under budget.

"The crew has done an outstanding job during the DSRA," said O'Donnell. "I'm incredibly proud of the work they have completed to ensure we are ready to respond when and where we are needed, and I know we are all excited to be home again with our families and friends."

Oklahoma City was docked in floating dry dock USS Arco (ARDM 5) in Point Loma for its overhaul, which included nuclear maintenance, a shaft replacement, and a factory overhaul of the diesel generator. During the submarine's time in San Diego, the crew also welcomed a new commanding officer with O'Donnell taking the helm in August.

"Oklahoma City is a great asset and brings a lot to the fight," said Capt. David Schappert, commander, Submarine Squadron 15. "Their completion of a successful maintenance period means they are ready to train and operate at the tip of the spear."

Oklahoma City was commissioned July 9, 1988, and is the second ship of the U.S. Navy named for the capital of Oklahoma. Measuring more than 360 feet long and displacing more than 6,900 tons, Oklahoma City has a crew of approximately 140 Sailors. Oklahoma City is capable of supporting various missions including anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface ship warfare, strike warfare and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.

Oklahoma City is a member of Commander, Submarine Squadron (COMSUBRON) 15, which is located at Polaris Point in Apra Harbor, Guam. COMSUBRON 15 staff is responsible for providing training, material and personnel readiness support of four Los Angeles-class attack submarines stationed in Guam. The submarines and submarine tenders USS Frank Cable (AS 40) and USS Emory S. Land (AS 39) are part of the U.S. Navy's forward-deployed naval force and are capable of meeting global operational requirements.

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US Navy, Queensland Government Partner with Industry at Biofutures Conference

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS161208-13

Release Date: 12/8/2016 9:34:00 AM

By Lt. Marycate Walsh, Chief of Information Public Affairs

BRISBANE, Australia (NNS) -- A two-day Biofutures Industry Forum hosted by the Queensland government and U.S. Navy at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre commenced today in Brisbane, Australia.

The forum will bring together biofutures industry leaders from each step in the supply chain to collaborate and discuss the production of biofuels that meet both jet and marine specifications; all while forming and strengthening professional relationships between the nations.

"The Navy has always been in the energy-innovation business- from wind to coal, coal to oil, and now alternative fuels," said Deputy Under Secretary of the Navy for Management, Tom Hicks. "Throughout these changes, we have worked closely with the government and with industry to put into place the supporting infrastructure."

Hicks was joined by the Queensland Premier, the Honorable Annastacia Palaszczuk, to kick off the forum activities, however this wasn't the first time these two have met. In August of this year, the Queensland government and U.S. Navy forged a Statement of Cooperation, promising to explore the research, development, supply and sale of alternative fuels.

"We have committed to fully explore the role Queensland can play in helping the U.S. Navy meet its future energy needs and this vision for the Great Green Fleet," said Palaszczuk. "The U.S. Navy understands the scale and undertaking of this venture."

Hicks said in his opening remarks that partnerships like the one shared between U.S. and Australia are critical to maintaining security in the Asia-Pacific theater, and that a diverse energy supply can have a positive impact on operational capability.

U.S. Navy ships and aircraft require no changes to engine modifications or operational procedures to use alternative fuel blends, and many platforms operate every day on these blends. Also, Secretary of the Navy, Ray Mabus, set the goal to source 50 percent of the total operational energy consumption from alternative energy sources by 2020.

The Biofutures Industry Forum has over 150 participants representing stakeholders from each step in the supply chain, the Australian government and the U.S. military.

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MKI ARG, 11th MEU Conduct Amphibious Drills in the Gulf of Aden during Exercise Alligator Dagger

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS161208-25

Release Date: 12/8/2016 3:27:00 PM

From 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit Public Affairs

GULF OF ADEN (NNS) -- U.S. Marines and Sailors of the Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group (MKI ARG)/11th Marine Expeditionary Unit (11th MEU) are rehearsing amphibious operations and conducting combat sustainment training in the vicinity of Djibouti throughout December during Exercise Alligator Dagger.

Led by Naval Amphibious Force, Task Force 51/5th Marine Expeditionary Brigade (CTF 51/5), the exercise involves all three ships of the MKI ARG and enables the Marines and Sailors of the 11th MEU to conduct the comprehensive amphibious operations which keep their skills ready for crisis response and contingency operations throughout the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility.

"We can use small teams or the whole force; we can travel vast distances, hit multiple objectives, and we do it all from the sea, day or night," said Col. Clay C. Tipton, commanding officer, 11th MEU. "We can bring hope to our partners and allies, or destruction to our enemies. We are ready to support any mission from the air, land, or sea."

The exercise will focus on amphibious assaults; helicopter-borne raids; visit, board, search and seizure (VBSS) operations; air strikes; defense of the amphibious task force; mechanized movements with tanks and light armored vehicles; integrated ground-and-air fires; tactical recovery of aircraft and personnel; ground reconnaissance; combat marksmanship; convoy operations; and quick reaction force and casualty evacuation rehearsals.

Arriving in the 5th Fleet area of operations Nov. 30, the MKI ARG is comprised of amphibious assault ship USS Makin Island (LHD 8), the command ship for Amphibious Squadron (PHIBRON) 5 and the 11th MEU; amphibious transport dock USS Somerset (LPD 25); and amphibious dock landing ship USS Comstock (LSD 45).

The 11th MEU is a sea-based Marine Air-Ground Task Force comprised of a ground combat element, Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 4th Marines; an aviation combat element, Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron (VMM) 163 (Reinforced); a combat logistics element, Combat Logistics Battalion 11; and a command element with a commanding officer who leads the entire MEU.

While in the region, the southern California-based Navy-Marine Corps team falls under CTF 51/5, and will help ensure the free flow of commerce, provide crisis response and support ongoing missions in the 5th Fleet area of operations.

"Our ability to rapidly augment ongoing missions, conduct new operations, or be the first responders to an emerging crisis is the unique value of the ARG/MEU," said Capt. Mike Crary, commander, PHIBRON 5. "With our ships, aircraft, logistical equipment, Sailors and Marines, we are capable of handling multiple missions at one time. We are a self-contained, self-sustained task force capable of conducting everything from humanitarian assistance to combat operations."

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China urges efforts for fair, reasonable maritime order

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 19:38, December 08, 2016

UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- China on Wednesday called for efforts to promote the rule of law on the oceans and seas and maintain a fair and reasonable maritime order.

Wu Haitao, the deputy permanent representative of China to the United Nations, made the statement as he was taking the floor at the UN General Assembly on the topic of oceans and the law of the sea.

With the concerted efforts of China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations countries, the situation in the South China Seais moving toward a positive direction as the issue is returning to the right path of negotiated discussion, Wu said.

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea has set down balanced provisions regarding the rights and obligations of states parties in the peaceful use and conservation of the oceans and seas, Wu said. He added that all parties must interpret and apply the convention and its dispute settlement mechanism with good will and in an accurate and comprehensive manner.

Right now, the attention of the international community is focused on the negotiations on an international agreement on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity beyond areas of national jurisdiction, he noted.

"The new agreement must not compromise the rights of navigation, scientific research, fishing and mining that countries enjoy under the convention," he said.

"Parties should engage in thorough exchanges and consultations during the negotiations, fully consider the legitimate need of countries, developing countries in particular, to use marine biological resources, and advance the negotiating process steadily. It is undesirable to seek a result in haste," he said.

China appreciates the positive contributions by the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf to the maintenance of the balance between the legitimate rights and interests of coastal states on the one hand and the overall interests of the international community on the other, and to the promotion of the stability of the international maritime order, he said.

Meanwhile, the senior Chinese diplomat also called for efforts to strengthen international cooperation to realize the sustainable development of the oceans and seas.

China has put forward the initiatives of developing a "blue economy" and building "the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road," which are believed to greatly promote international cooperation on maritime affairs, he said.

"The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development sets a higher bar for us in the protection and sustainable use of the oceans and seas," he said.

"We must foster the awareness of a community of shared future for mankind, engage in close cooperation, and join hands in tackling various challenges related to the oceans and seas," he said.

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Chinese navy marks 70th anniversary of recovering Xisha, Nansha Islands

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 20:12, December 08, 2016

BEIJING, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- The People's Liberation Army(PLA) Navy on Thursday commemorated the 70th anniversary of the recovery of the Xisha and Nansha Islands.

In compliance of the Cairo Declaration and Potsdam Proclamation, China in November and December 1946 designated officials to proceed to the Xisha and Nansha Islands by four warships to take over the islands, illegally occupied by Japan.

Ceremonies were held to demonstrate that China resumed the exercise of sovereignty over the islands.

"Recovering these islands was an important achievement of China's war against aggression, demonstrating that China was firmly safeguarding the post-war international order and affirming the nation as defending its rights and interests in the South China Sea," said PLA Navy Commander Wu Shengli at the commemoration.

Wu said construction on the islands and reefs are "lawful, justified, and reasonable" being in Chinese territory.

China is committed to resolving the disputes in a peaceful manner through negotiations and consultations, controlling differences through regulations and achieving a win-win solution through mutually beneficial cooperation, Wu said.

He stressed that history should be respected, and stability maintained by strengthening mutual trust and deepening cooperation, so that peace and development in countries in the South China Sea is assured.

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UN brands Israeli bill to legalize settler units as 'unequivocally illegal'

Iran Press TV

Thu Dec 8, 2016 7:15PM

The United Nations has condemned as "unequivocally illegal" a recent Israeli bill to legalize some 4,000 settler units in the occupied West Bank, saying the move would be in contravention of international law.

In a Thursday statement, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein called on elements inside the Israeli regime to revise their support for the bill, which would retroactively grant legal status to settler units built on private Palestinian land.

"Israel, as the occupying power, must respect the private property of Palestinians, regardless of whether or not compensation is provided," Zeid said in a statement, warning that if enacted, the bill would have far-reaching consequences.

Israel has built thousands of illegal settler units for over half a million Israelis in the occupied West Bank.

The international community regards all settlements as illegal. The Tel Aviv regime has, however, continued to expand its illegal construction activities, defying warnings that the move could hamper the so-called Middle East peace talks.

The controversial bill on settler units has already sparked huge anger, even inside the occupied territories. However, members of the Israeli parliament on Wednesday voted to advance the bill.

Zeid said the settlements are "the principal cause of a wide range of human rights violations inside the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem."

"All Israeli settlements -- whether outposts built without formal approval but often with the support of the Israeli authorities ... or settlements approved by Israel -- are clearly and unequivocally illegal under international law and constitute one of the main obstacles to peace," he said.

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Let me welcome you to our unending discussion on the Unintended Consequences of Unwanted Horses in the U.S. including Wild Horses.

TOPIC 1: Since 2008 when horse slaughter ceased in the U.S., to 2016, 1,151,000 (one million one hundred fifty-one thousand) head have been exported to Mexico and Canada for slaughter for human consumption, primarily in Europe. Is it more humane to transport unwanted horses far away for slaughter, or closer?

AN RITE: We expect within 20 years (another 2,000,000 horses exported for slaughter), people all over the world will quit eating horsemeat.

TOPIC 2: In your survey of 1000 random U.S. citizens, 80% declared to be anti-slaughter. Less than 2% (2 million) actually own a horse. 978 people you surveyed did not own a horse; 20 did. Random surveys in the U.S. show that 97% eat meat; 3% are vegetarians. If you wanted to get a good recipe for vegetables, who would you ask?

AN RITE: Thats like comparing apples to oranges.

TOPIC 3: This fall the Board advising the BLM on Wild Horse and Burro Program voted 8-1 to allow euthanasia to control over-population of the 67,000 burros and feral horses today. 27,000 would be an acceptable number to maintain the ecosystem. Today the BLM spends nearly $50 million ($50,000,000) annually for upkeep. In ten years since the slaughter ban, adoptions, rescues, chemical neutering, pleading and even your contributions have not slowed the Unwanted Horse problem. Why have the AN RITES taken opposition to the BLMs plan to save itself?

AN RITES: You dont get it. Do all of you animal users think reason and common sense, even unintended consequences, mean anything to urban America? Its not worth one sad-eyed puppy in the commercials.

TOPIC 4: When they shut down horse slaughter plants in 2007, almost every equine-related association predicted dire consequences. They have all come true, and theyve all been to the detriment of Americas horses. In good conscious, how much longer can you contribute to this on-going tragedy?

AN RITES: As long as the money keeps rollin in! Nope, Im just kiddin! Really, as long as we can convince the urban donors to feel sorry for other peoples horses weve got it made. Oh, and we cant thank enough the truck drivers, sale barns and Indian tribes that still keep the unwanted horse population under control by hauling them out of the country; 150,000 last year! If it werent for them wed be in one heck of a wreck!

TOPIC 5: What do you think has been your greatest asset?

AN RITES: Cowardly politicians.
UN agency slams violence at Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon

Iran Press TV

Thu Dec 8, 2016 2:17PM

A UN agency has strongly denounced armed violence in the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon.

Chris Gunness, a spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), said the ongoing violence at the Ain al-Hilweh camp had put civilian lives in danger.

The UN official added that fighting near four UNRWA schools in the camp was "putting at considerable risk the lives of students."

"As a humanitarian organization we are significantly concerned that armed violence and disturbances taking place in Ain al-Hilweh, where tens of thousands of Palestine refugees live, affects the security, safety and the enjoyment of rights of its residents, including children's rights to education," Gunness noted.

The remarks come after an armed person entered UNRWA schools earlier this week -- in contravention of the neutrality and inviolability of United Nations facilities -- and ordered students to leave. The incident prompted the UN agency to close all of its facilities at the camp on Monday and Wednesday.

The Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp, which is located southeast of the port city of Sidon, also houses fighters and militants belonging to various armed groups.

The camp has been scene of violent clashes between members of the Jund al-Sham militant group and the Fatah movement, the Palestinian Authority (PA)'s ruling party, over the past few months.

In September, the Lebanese army confirmed that it had arrested a high-ranking commander of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group at the site.

Lebanon-based Arabic-language daily As-Safir, citing military officials, reported that the senior Daesh figure, identified as Imad Yassine, was about to carry out a series of attacks aimed at "inflicting the largest number of casualties and hitting the Lebanese economy and tourism sectors."

The leading Lebanese daily added that Yassine was also planning to fire a barrage of rockets into the Israeli-occupied Palestinian lands.

Lebanon has been suffering from the spillover of militancy in neighboring Syria. Terrorists have been active on the Lebanese areas situated close to the Syrian border.

The Takfiri terrorists operating in the Middle Eastern state have suffered major setbacks over the past few months as the Syrian army, backed by allied fighters, has managed to liberate several strategically important areas.

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Philippines 'will likely not allow US to launch South China Sea patrols from its territory'

Iran Press TV

Thu Dec 8, 2016 10:33AM

The Philippines says it is highly unlikely that it will continue to allow the US military to use the Southeast Asian country as a springboard for its so-called freedom of navigation patrols in the disputed South China Sea.

Philippine Defense Minister Delfin Lorenzana made the remarks on Thursday, suggesting that the US ships and aircraft could use bases in Guam  territory near the Philippines that is administered by the US  and the Japanese island of Okinawa, or its warplanes could be dispatched from aircraft carriers to conduct patrols in the contested waters.

Before incumbent President Rodrigo Duterte came to power in late June, some US aircraft and ships used to stop in the Philippines on their way to patrols in the disputed South China Sea, where China has large-scale territorial claims. The patrols are meant to signal to China that the US does not recognize the Chinese claims.

China claims sovereignty over almost all of the South China Sea, which is also partially contested by Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam, and the Philippines.

The US's military presence in the region  halfway around the world  has also led to worries of an increasing risk of accidental collisions that could spark a consequential wider conflict.

Washington presumes it would be limiting China's maritime influence in the sea by invoking "freedom of navigation" rights. Furthermore, the US has been taking sides with several of China's neighboring countries in their territorial disputes in the busy sea, in which five trillion dollars in ship-borne trade passes annually.

China has, in response, accused Washington of meddling in regional issues and deliberately escalating the situation in the region.

China-US relations are generally marked by simultaneous cooperation and tacit conflict.

The US, the Philippines' colonial ruler until 1946, currently serves as the South Asian country's main military ally but has also been highly critical of President Duterte's brutal crackdown on crime, specially drug trade, which has killed some 3,000 people over the past five months.

The relations between Washington and Manila have been particularly complicated lately by Duterte's angry reaction to criticism from the White House of his violent battle to rid the country of drug dealers.

In October, in his yet strongest tirade against Washington, Duterte told US President Barack Obama to "go to hell," adding that he may eventually decide to "break up with America." He said Washington had refused to sell some weapons to his country but he did not care because Russia and China were willing alternative sources.

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U.S. Congress Passes Massive Defense Bill, Including Global Magnitsky Rights Measure

Mike Eckel December 08, 2016

The U.S. Congress has backed legislation giving the president new, broader authority to impose sanctions on human rights abusers worldwide, building on an earlier law that has infuriated the Kremlin.

The measure, formally known as the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, passed the Senate in a 92-7 vote on December 8 as part of a larger bill that sets guidance for U.S. defense priorities for the coming year.

The new measure is modeled after the Magnitsky Act, a law passed in 2012 that punishes Russians deemed by Washington to be rights violators by barring them from the United States and freezing any assets they hold there.

That law is named for Sergei Magnitsky, a whistle-blowing Russian lawyer who helped uncover evidence of a massive tax fraud. He was jailed and later died in a notorious Moscow jail. His supporters, Western governments, and international rights groups say he was tortured and denied medical treatment.

Most of the 39 Russians hit by the 2012 law were accused of being connected either to Magnitsky's death in 2009, or the $230 million tax scam that he identified while working with the investment firm Hermitage Capital Management.

Incensed by the U.S. law, the Kremlin retaliated in 2012 by banning the adoption of Russian children by U.S. citizens and barring some Americans from entering Russia.

'Gross Rights Violators'

he new legislation authorizes the president to impose visa bans, to freeze financial assets, or other punitive measures against anyone who targets whistle-blowers exposing corruption or citizens exercising basic rights like freedom of speech, religion, or assembly.

It also targets foreign government officials engaged in "significant corruption," such as illegally acquiring state assets or hiding ill-gotten gains offshore.

The Senate had passed a stand-alone version of the amendment last year, but its fate in the House was uncertain. So its backers, led by Senator Ben Cardin (Democrat-Maryland), attached it to the defense bill as a backup, according to one congressional official familiar with the procedure.

Because the larger defense policy bill, formally known as the National Defense Authorization Act, is a must-pass piece of legislation -- since it affects U.S. military operations worldwide -- outgoing President Barack Obama is expected to sign it into law. The House passed the bill earlier this month.

"Gross violators of human rights and those who engage in serious acts of corruption cannot escape the consequences of their actions even when their home country fails to act," Cardin said in a statement. "Visiting the United States and using our financial institutions are privileges that should not be extended to the worst actors in the international system."

Vigorous Lobbying

The new measure does not single out Russians for special scrutiny, but as it made its way through congressional committees, it faced what Magnitsky's family and allies said was a vigorous lobbying campaign, quietly backed by the Kremlin, to undermine the widely accepted narrative surrounding the tax fraud and Magnitsky's death.

The legislation, either as a stand-alone bill or as amendment to the defense bill, encountered little opposition.

The most prominent skeptic in Congress has been Representative Dana Rohrabacher (Republican-California), who has traveled to Moscow and reportedly met with representatives of the Russian prosecutor-general's office, and with a close ally of President Vladimir Putin.

At a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee hearing held a day before the vote, Rohrabacher repeated his argument that such human rights legislation should not bear Magnitsky's name, suggesting that might needlessly offend or provoke Russia.

"I think the Russians were mistreated in the Magnitsky case because that title of that bill is maybe suggesting that something was done that has not been proven yet," he told the subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia, and Emerging Threats, of which he is the chairman.

If the measure does make it into law, it is also unclear whether Obama's successor, Donald Trump, will use the authority once he assumes office on January 20.

Trump has signaled he wants a more conciliatory approach toward Russia, and has shown little interest publicly in global human rights issues.

Ukraine Military Assistance

The defense bill contains other provisions likely to irritate the Kremlin, including a ban on funds for military-to-military contact between the Pentagon and the Russian Defense Ministry -- a response to Russia's annexation of Crimea and its involvement in the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

A related spending measure earmarks $350 million in military and security assistance for Ukraine, but half of those funds are contingent on Ukraine doing more to clean up corruption and waste in its armed forces. The measure also authorizes the supply of lethal weaponry, which Ukraine has demanded for months to help its forces battling Russia-backed fighters in eastern regions.

The Obama administration has repeatedly rebuffed calls in Congress, and elsewhere, to supply lethal weaponry, which would include antitank missile systems, fearing that it would provoke Russia and escalate the fighting in eastern Ukraine further.

The legislation also withholds funding from the Defense Department for matters related to Russian surveillance flights over the United States. Those flights are authorized under a 2002 agreement known as the Open Skies Treaty, but some officials in Washington voiced fear that the Russian flights were using a high-tech camera with sensors to significantly boost surveillance capabilities.

The bill requires defense officials to report to Congress that the Russian flights wouldn't violate the treaty before funding is released.

Source: http://www.rferl.org/a/congress-russia-flobal- magnitsky-bill-passed/28164350.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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Kerry Warns Against Rising 'Authoritarianism' In OSCE Region

RFE/RL December 08, 2016

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has warned of the "danger of authoritarian populism" and the risk of a retreat on the protection of basic human rights in a region stretching from the ex-Soviet Union across Europe to the United States.

Kerry spoke on the first day of a December 8-9 meeting in Hamburg, Germany, of foreign ministers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which includes the United States, EU states, and former Soviet republics such as Russia, among others.

In "too many places...in the OSCE region" there has been "a rise of authoritarian thinking, accompanied by backsliding on human rights, restrictions on independent media, a spike in acts of intolerance, and hate crimes," he said.

The secretary of state went on, citing "growing corruption in too many countries" and "moves by certain leaders to change constitutions in an effort to consolidate power."

"We all see what's happening -- growing corruption in too many countries, the increase in authoritarianism, moves by certain leaders to change constitutions in an effort to consolidate power, false news being spread through new platforms of the media, torture being actually advocated in certain quarters," Kerry said.

He also called for efforts to put an end to the "suffering and the stalemate" in the portion of eastern Ukraine known as the Donbas, where fighting between government forces and Russia-backed separatists has killed more than 9,700 people since it erupted in April 2014 following Russia's seizure of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine.

"The conflict in the Donbas and the occupation of Crimea have gone on for too long and at a tremendous human cost on both sides of the line of contact," Kerry said.

He said the United States was renewing its call for full implementation of the Minsk accords -- a February 2015 agreement aimed at ending the conflict. Fighting continues despite the deal and there has been little progress toward implementation of its political aspects.

Kerry met earlier in the day with civil-society activists from Azerbaijan, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Ukraine.

He said that Washington would keep speaking out about "the shrinking space" for civil-society activism, which he said was under pressure in some countries as a result of restrictive laws and the misuse of broad antiextremism legislation, according to the State Department.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the fighting in eastern Ukraine and violence earlier this year in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, which is in Azerbaijan but is controlled by ethnic Armenians, were among developments that show "how fragile the peace framework in Europe still is or has become again."

This framework "seems disordered these days, the supporting pillars have become fragile, rhetorics have become harsher, especially between East and West. I am also saying this with the violence in eastern Ukraine -- which has reoccurred in recent weeks -- in mind. I am saying it with a view to the escalations in Nagorno-Karabakh in April."

He said the OSCE played an "irreplaceable role" and that its instruments for "conflict prevention, conflict management, and conflict aftercare" should be made "even more effective."

"We need common answers for new global challenges like terrorism, extremism, cyberattacks, and especially we need to -- and this is going to be an ongoing issue -- build trust where it has been lost," he said.

With reporting by AP, Reuters, and AFP

Source: http://www.rferl.org/a/germany- steinmeier-seek-cooperation-from-russia- ahead-osce-meeting/28162918.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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EU States, Parliament Remove Key Obstacle To Visa-Free Travel For Ukraine, Georgia

RFE/RL December 08, 2016

European Union member states and the European Parliament have struck a deal to end a dispute that had been holding up a decision to allow Ukrainians and Georgians visit the bloc without needing a visa.

"This agreement is balanced, and is extremely important for both the effectiveness and credibility of the union's visa-liberalization policy," a December 8 statement quoted European Council President and Slovak Interior Minister Robert Kalinak as saying.

"The fact that we have reached an agreement should open the door to further progress on visa-liberalization talks with other countries that meet all the necessary requirements," said Kalinak, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency.

Separately, European Parliament member Agustin Diaz de Mera said the deal "will facilitate the immediate consideration of the two visa-liberalization proposals for Georgia and Ukraine."

Writing on his Facebook page, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko hailed "encouraging news from Brussels."

The statement said EU countries and lawmakers agreed to a compromise text on a regulation to strengthen the suspension mechanism that can be applied to all visa-liberalization agreements in emergencies amid fears over immigration and terrorism.

The regulation now has to be submitted to the European Parliament for a vote at first reading, and to the European Council for adoption.

Under the deal, the executive European Commission or EU states will be able to suspend quickly a country's visa exemption for nine months.

The EU can extend the suspension period for a further 18 months, but through a more complex procedure.

Visa waivers may be reintroduced if there is a surge of citizens from a non-EU country like Ukraine or Georgia staying irregularly in EU territory or if nationals from that country are deemed to pose a security threat.

They can also be reintroduced if there is a rise in unfounded asylum applications or a lack of cooperation on returning migrants.

Ukraine and Georgia are seeking greater integration with the West, but have been frustrated with the pace of EU moves to bring them closer.

Both former Soviet republics have faced military aggression from Russia in recent years, as well as other efforts by Moscow to increase its influence.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Brussels correspondent Rikard Jozwiak, Reuters, AFP, and Interfax

Source: http://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine- georgia-visa-free-travel- eu-agreement/28163387.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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What's In Kyrgyzstan's Constitutional Referendum?

Bruce Pannier December 08, 2016

The people of Kyrgyzstan go to the polls on December 11 to vote on amendments to the country's constitution. They are familiar with constitutional referendums; this is the seventh in 25 years of Kyrgyz independence. Another, in 1994, was on the presidency.

As has been true in each of the previous referendums, it's a yes-or-no option. Voters cannot cherry-pick individual amendments from among the more-than-two-dozen proposed changes, some slight, some large.

The changes receiving the most attention deal with shifting power from the president and the parliament to the prime minister and the government. But there are other very important changes included in this package.

First, some background.

Kyrgyzstan's current constitution was approved in the country's last referendum, in June 2010, right after President Kurmanbek Bakiev was ousted from power. That basic law changed Kyrgyzstan's form of government from presidential to parliamentary. It was the first time any country in Central Asia had adopted a parliamentary system. That constitution also included a clause that no changes would be made until 2020.

Now, even some of the architects of that constitution admit the need for some changes. But critics of this referendum argue that the timing is bad, since a presidential election is tentatively scheduled for October 2017, so they say amendments would be more wisely made after that date. In any case, this package of amendments was rushed through; a case in point is the approval of the date of this referendum before parliament had even formally approved the holding of such a referendum.

The changes at the top are what most people are looking at, but actually they are not the most dramatic changes being proposed.

Article 36, Paragraph 5, currently reads, "Persons reaching the age of consent shall have the right to marry and create a family." That would be changed to "a man and a woman reaching the age of consent shall have the right to marry and create a family."

The implications for Kyrgyzstan's beleaguered lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community are clear. They can have no recognized, formal bond and some of the more conservative elements in Kyrgyzstan will likely see this clarification as legitimizing their campaigns against what they consider "nontraditional" relationships.

Article 41, Paragraph 2, says, "Everyone shall have the right to apply in accordance with international treaties to international human rights bodies seeking protection of violated rights and freedoms." The amendment would remove the next sentence, which currently reads, "In the event that these bodies confirm the violation of human rights and freedoms, the Kyrgyz Republic shall take measures to their restoration and/or compensation of damage"

Those familiar with the case of Azimjon Askarov, an ethnic Uzbek rights activist convicted of participating in the June 2010 violence in southern Kyrgyzstan, will see the reason for the change. In April, the UN Human Rights Committee called on Kyrgyzstan to immediately release Askarov and annul his conviction.

Article 26 of the constitution deals with a defendant's rights -- presumption of innocence, right to a trial, and so on. An addition to Article 26 would tighten laws on statutes of limitation but make clear there is no statute of limitation for the "crimes of genocide and ecocide." The Kyrgyz public is environmentally conscious, which has presented problems for mining companies, particularly foreign mining companies working in Kyrgyzstan, who have been accused of damaging local ecosystems.

Under the proposed changes, the constitution's preamble would include language likely to appeal to Kyrgyz nationalists. Added to the "unwavering conviction and firm will to develop and enhance the Kyrgyz statehood, protect state sovereignty and unity of the people," are the words "[and] to develop its language" -- note the singular -- "and culture."

Article 50, Paragraph 2, guarantees that no one can deprive Kyrgyzstan's citizens of their citizenship. But the amended constitution would allow authorities to revoke citizenship in certain cases, the most likely being if a citizen has left to join Islamic militant groups in the Middle East or Afghanistan or Pakistan.

And now for the proposed changes in the government.

The prime minister currently may "appoint and dismiss the heads of local public administrations upon proposals of local "keneshes" in accordance with the procedures of the law (Article 89, Paragraph 7)." The amended version is shortened, and the prime minister may simply "appoint and dismiss the heads of local public administrations."

Changes to Article 87 would allow the prime minister, with parliament's approval, to appoint and dismiss ministers.

Under the amendments, the prime minister must be a parliamentary deputy, something not required under the current constitution. Further, the prime minister and first deputy prime minister would keep their deputy mandates and be able to vote in plenary sessions. In the event that either of these two officials resigns, is dismissed, or for whatever reason ceases to carry out the duties of their posts, "their deputy powers are restored in full (Article 73, addendum)."

Under the amendments, Kyrgyzstan's president would no longer chair the Council of Defense, essentially head of the military and law enforcement organizations, but would become chair of Security Council (Article 64, Section 9, Paragraph 1). The responsibilities of the Security Council are not clear.

There are many changes to the vetting or dismissal processes for judges at various levels all the way to the Supreme Court. The president would have the right to change judges in regional and city courts. People with a tarnished reputation would be excluded from holding state posts.

There are also new rules for parliamentary factions to withdraw from a ruling coalition, and an extension from 15 to 25 days for a coalition to nominate a candidate for prime minister.

An interesting addition to Article 68, Paragraph 2, which currently reads, "Officials exercising the powers of the president shall not have the right to call early elections of the Jogorku Kenesh or dismiss the government," would include "or be a candidate for the post of president in early elections for president."

The history of Kyrgyzstan's suggests this referendum should pass by an overwhelming majority. Whether most voters are familiar with all the changes they are approving is another question, of course.

RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service, known locally as Azattyk, contributed to this report. The views expressed in this blog post do not necessarily reflect the views of RFE/RL

Source: http://www.rferl.org/a/kyrgyzstan -constitutional-referendum- whats-at-stake/28164053.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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Vietnam Starts Active Work on Disputed South China Sea Reef

Sputnik News

22:19 08.12.2016(updated 00:14 09.12.2016)

Recent satellite imagery shows Vietnam initiating dredging activity on Ladd Reef, a disputed territory in the South China Sea. This is Hanoi's latest attempt at validating their claims in the region, and the move may antagonize China, who continues to claim most of the waterway.

US-based imaging company Planet Labs produced a photo from November 30 showing several unidentified ships between the open sea and the lagoon in a freshly-dug passage.

The reef, which sits on the southwestern edge of the Spratly Islands, is also claimed by Taiwan, and contains only a lighthouse and an outpost housing a small group of Vietnamese soldiers. At high tide, the reef is completely submerged. The Spratly Islands are said to contain untapped oil and natural gas reserves, as well as opportunities for commercial fishing and shipping.

Tensions between China and Vietnam in the South China Sea began in 1988 when Beijing emerged victorious in a battle with Hanoi over the Spratlys, killing 64 Vietnamese troops in the process.

Washington has been critical of China's militarization of the region, and claims that Beijing has added 3,200 acres of land in the area over the last three years to build aircraft hangars, ports, communications equipment, and runways.

While it is is not clear why Vietnam has begun the dredging, analysts have indicated that similar work on other reefs usually signals more construction. In August, Hanoi discreetly installed rocket launchers on several islands in the Spratlys capable of striking Beijing's military installations in the area.

Vietnam's Deputy Defense Minister, Senior Lieutenant-General Nguyen Chi Vinh said at the time that the reports were "inaccurate" and there were no launchers, but offered that the country is entitled to engage in such actions should they find it necessary.

"It is within our legitimate right to self-defense to move any of our weapons to any area at any time within our sovereign territory," he remarked.

Trevor Hollingsbee, a retired naval intelligence analyst with Britain's Ministry of Defense, said, "We can see that, in this environment, Vietnam's strategic mistrust is total and they are rapidly improving their defencesThey're doing everything they can to fix any vulnerabilities  and that outpost at Ladd Reef does look [like] a vulnerability."

Planet Labs also showed China doing some dredging work of its own, in an attempt to repair storm damage done to structures they have built on the Paracel Island chain. These activities began earlier this year at North Island, located about 7 miles north of Woody Island, where Beijing has stationed surface-to-air missiles and houses a large military base.

 Sputnik

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Soaring Costs, Design Issues Press US Navy to Simplify Littoral Warship Program

Sputnik News

19:15 08.12.2016

Concerns in the US Congress over cost overruns, production delays and ad hoc changes to correct faulty designs in a Navy effort to build a fleet of high-speed coastal frigates raises the prospect of further cutbacks in the program, the General Accountability Office (GAO) said in a report on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  The GAO made no new recommendations, instead noting that it has made numerous proposals in the past that the Defense Department failed to implement.

"Many of the LCS's [Littoral Combat Ship] capabilities are yet to be demonstrated and the frigate's design, cost, and capabilities are not well-defined," the report stated. "Soon, Congress will be asked to make key decisions that have significant funding and oversight implications, but without having important information."

For example, Congress will be asked to authorize construction of 12 new ships before the Defense Department can produce independent estimates or explain the vessels' ultimate combat capabilities, the report explained.

The GAO report noted that the program is already seven years behind schedule, with the final product unable to meet performance goals such as sprint speeds of up to 50 nautical miles per hour and a range of 1,000 nautical miles at a cruising speed of 40 knots.

Moreover, the report cited the most recent cost estimate for each ship of $478 million, more than double the original estimate $220 million, due in part to major design changes after construction of the vessels began.

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter recently cut the program's target of a 55 ship fleet to 40 vessels.

 Sputnik

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Stoltenberg Cites 'Russian Buildup' as Cause of NATO Presence in Baltics, Poland

Sputnik News

17:10 08.12.2016(updated 17:51 08.12.2016)

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg claimed that the alliance is taking into account Russia's "military buildup" in its military planning.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  He claimed that the alleged Russia's buildup is the reason for NATO's decision to increase presence in three Baltic countries and Poland.

"First of all, in our military planning we are taking into account the Russian military buildup, also in the Baltic Sea region, and that's also one of the reasons why we have decided to increase our presence in the three Baltic countries and in Poland," Stoltenberg told reporters after a meeting in Brussels with Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid.

"We have to remember that both the presence of multinational battalions in the three Baltic countries and Poland, but also the establishment of NATO units with small headquarters in the three Baltic states and Poland, they are there also to establish better cooperation and coordination with the home defense forces  the Estonian forces, the Lithuanian forces, the Latvian forces and the Polish forces," he said.

"And they are there also to help prepare a plan for reinforcements if needed," Stoltenberg said.

Since 2014, NATO has been building up its military presence in Europe, especially in Eastern European countries neighboring Russia, using Moscow's alleged interference in the Ukrainian conflict as a pretext. Moscow has repeatedly denied the claims and warned NATO that the military buildup on Russia's borders is provocative and threatens the existing strategic balance of power.

During the last NATO summit in July, NATO resolved to strengthen its military presence in Eastern Europe on a rotational basis with four battalions in Poland and in the Baltic nations. During the 2014 summit, NATO established a 5,000-strong Very High Readiness Joint Task Force in response to the alleged Russian threat.

 Sputnik

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Conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh May Escalate at Any Moment

Sputnik News

16:23 08.12.2016

Current situation in Nagorno-Karabakh is dangerous and the conflict may escalate at any moment, Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said on Thursday.

BAKU (Sputnik)  The foreign minister added that recent statements of Armenian authorities gave no reason for optimism and indicated Armenian unwillingness to engage in constructive talks.

"The April escalation of the conflict was a vivid reminder that today's situation existing on the line of contact of Armenia and Azerbaijani troops is dangerous and has a potential to worsen at any time with unpredictable consequences," Mammadyarov said at the 23rd Ministerial Council of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in Hamburg.

He pointed out that Azerbaijan was the most interested party in changing the current state of affairs.

"In this context, we assess the high-level substantive discussions in Vienna and St. Petersburg as positive steps in the right direction and we are thankful to the co-chair countries, particularly to the Russian president, Mr. Vladimir Putin, for all his efforts in this regard," Mammadyarov emphasized.

Azerbaijan's Armenian-dominated breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh proclaimed its independence in 1991. After the military conflict ended in 1994, Azerbaijan lost control over the region. Violence erupted in Nagorno-Karabakh on April 2, 2016 and led to multiple casualties. The parties to the conflict signed a Russian-brokered ceasefire on April 5, but mutual accusations have not stopped so far.

On May 16, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev met in Vienna to discuss the conflict. The sides reiterated there could be no military solution to the conflict and reaffirmed their commitment to 1994 and 1995 peace agreements. The presidents also agreed to finalize the OSCE investigative mechanism as soon as possible to reduce the risk of further violence.

On June 20, the presidents of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia met in St. Petersburg where they reaffirmed their commitment to achieve steady progress in political settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and agreed to increase the number of OSCE monitors working in the conflict zone.

 Sputnik

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Dec. 8

Kyle L. Jones, 28, of Coeur D Alene, Idaho was arrested at 11th and Silver Street for unlawful use of an emergency number (911). Bail: $2,000.

_____

Johnny C. Creekpaum, 44, of Elko was arrested on a warrant on Interstate 80 for failure to appear on a misdemeanor crime. Bail: $1,536.

_____

Hector G. Guerrero, 23, of Wendover, Utah was arrested at the Red Garter Inn for trafficking a controlled substance, robbery, resisting a public officer, and on a NCJIS detainer. Bail: $71,200.

_____

Keith C. Kruse, 57, of Silver Springs was arrested at 13th Street and Idaho Street on a warrant for failure to appear after bail on a misdemeanor crime. Bail: $1,625.

_____

Audie J. Noble, 27, of Elko was arrested at 12th and Riverview for driving with a suspended drivers license; possession of a controlled substance; possession of less than or equal to 1 ounce of marijuana; and use or possession of drug paraphernalia. Bail: $6,735.

_____

Craig E. Smith, 24, of Elko was arrested at 3920 Idaho St. for violation of condition of suspended sentence. Bail: No bail listed.
Survey: Afghans Pay $3 Billion in Bribes Annually

By Ayaz Gul December 08, 2016

An anti-corruption watchdog says Afghans paid an estimated $3 billion in bribes in the past year, registering an almost 50 percent increase compared to 2014.

The findings are part of a biennial national corruption survey released Thursday by Integrity Watch Afghanistan.

According to the survey, "Respondents who dealt with the courts reported they were asked for bribes an astounding 55 percent of the time." Results were not much better when they dealt with prosecutors or municipal governments.

"The amount of bribes estimated is much higher than the Afghan government revenue estimates for 2016," the report says, describing corruption as the third-biggest problem Afghans face, following insecurity and unemployment.

The survey determined corruption is a major factor in fueling the Taliban insurgency and called for President Asharf Ghani's government to introduce promised reforms.

The devastating level of corruption undermines state legitimacy and erodes public trust, said Sayed Ikram Afzali, the group's executive director, while introducing the survey results in Kabul.

"Institutional capture coupled with petty bribes paid by citizens on a daily basis due to systemic corruption has become so serious that it threatens national security," he warned.

"The early euphoria that accompanied the inauguration of the National Unity Government in October 2014 has largely dissipated, leaving a populace that is disappointed, angry, and fearful about the future," the survey noted.

The government had no immediate reaction to the report's findings.

Foreign Minister Salahuddian Rabbani briefed NATO foreign ministers meeting Wednesday in Brussels on his country's anticorruption measures.

"Our central message remains clear: Afghanistan will spare no efforts to eliminate corruption and ensure accountable and transparent governance across Afghanistan," the minister vowed.

On Wednesday, the San Francisco-based Asia Foundation also released its annual survey of the Afghan people, which cited corruption among major issues facing the war-ravaged country.

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Taliban Seeks Recognition for Qatar Office, Direct Talks With US

By Ayaz Gul December 08, 2016

Afghanistan's Taliban has demanded official recognition for its political office in Qatar, direct talks with the United States and removal of senior members from a U.N. blacklist, describing these as preliminary steps to peacefully ending its insurgency.

A Qatar-based Taliban spokesman, Sohail Shaheen, has asserted the presence of U.S.-led foreign troops in Afghanistan is the "root cause" of war and its continuation.

The "foreign occupation forces" are undermining the country's sovereignty and freedom of its politics as well as the government, he added.

"That is why there is need for America and its allies to come to the table for direct talks with the Islamic Emirate (the Taliban) for negotiating an end to the occupation," Shaheen said.

If peace is the objective of the other side, he asserted, then the Taliban must be allowed to open its "Political Office" in Qatar and names of its senior members be removed from the U.N. black list.

"These obstacles in the way of establishing peace cannot be simply ignored," Shaheen said, warning that "mere slogans and statements" (by the other side) would further complicate the issue rather than promoting Afghan peace.

The Taliban maintains an unofficial political office in Doha, the capital of the Gulf state, for meetings with Afghan and foreign interlocutors.

The controversial facility was formally opened in 2013, but the move outraged the Afghan government, forcing Qatari authorities to stop the Taliban from officially using it. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has also refused to give recognition to the Taliban's office.

Instead, he has intensified military operations against insurgents in Afghanistan and has even recently asked for the United Nations to declare Taliban chief Mullah Hibatullah as global terrorist

The stepped up Taliban hostilities this year have allowed the insurgents to inflict heavy casualties on Afghan forces and capture more territory, diminishing hopes for any peace talks between the warring sides. Ghani's move to demand the U.N. blacklist the Taliban leader deals another blow, says Michael Kugelman of the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington.

"If Kabul is willing to so bluntly reject the Taliban's preconditions for talks, then it's effectively sent a signal that talks are off the table for the foreseeable future," Kugelman told VOA.

President Ghani has also been harshly critical of neighboring Pakistan for not uprooting alleged Taliban sanctuaries on its soil he says are prolonging the war and bloodshed in his country.

Islamabad denies the charges.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, however, claims its leaders have been guiding the insurgency from within Afghanistan. Speaking to VOA, he asserted that "any institutions" established to serve Afghan refugees in Pakistan have recently been relocated to mainly southern Afghan provinces, including Helmand, where most districts are controlled by insurgents.

But Afghan officials dismiss the assertions and insist Pakistani authorities continue to harbor Taliban insurgents.

"We reject recent claims by the Taliban that the group's leadership council has relocated to southern Helmand province from Pakistan," Afghan Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani told NATO foreign ministers' meeting Wednesday in Brussels.

"Such claims have no merit and are aimed at diverting attention from a lack of sincere effort by some to combat terrorism effectively, and in good faith," Rabanni said in a veiled reference to Pakistan.

Pakistan's foreign ministry spokesman, Nafees Zakaria, on Thursday again rejected the Afghan allegations as "regrettable".

"Pakistan has been doing everything for taking action against terrorist and militant groups for not allowing to use our soil. This is a matter of fact. Afghan government should engage with Pakistan in counterterrorism cooperation and border management instead of blaming Pakistan for all its problems in Afghanistan."

Zakaria went on assert that anti-Pakistan militant groups are using Afghan soil for attacks inside Pakistan and called for Kabul to take action against them.

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Over 1,700 Takfiri European terrorists back home: Report

Iran Press TV

Thu Dec 8, 2016 9:46AM

An EU report warns that a third of the estimated 5,000 European nationals who traveled to Iraq and Syria to join Takfiri terrorists have returned home, probably with a mission to launch attacks.

The report, to be presented to EU interior ministers on Friday by the bloc's counter-terrorism coordinator Gilles de Kerchove, said as many as 1,750 Takfiri terrorists may have returned home.

Fifty-percent of the terrorists remain in the battle theater, which amounted to between 2,000 and 2,500 Europeans, while between 15 to 20 percent of those who joined the terrorists have died, the report added.

There were two types of "foreign terrorist fighters" returning, the report said, identifying them as "those in the majority that will drift back, and those who will be sent back on specific missions, which are of most concern."

Even some European women and children born or raised in areas under the control of Daesh could present a security threat as they may have been influenced by the group's Takfiri ideology, it added.

Some returnees have been convicted and serving prison sentences, while some others are being carefully monitored and some are free in their communities, the report said without giving any figures.

Last month, Belgium warned that Takfiri terrorists were increasingly returning to Europe. Daesh claimed responsibility for March 22 Brussels attacks which killed 32 people. The attackers were linked to November 2015 attacks in Paris, which killed some 130 people.

According to the new report, "there is also a significant foreign terrorist fighter contingent with Daesh in Libya which might attempt to use their nationality or family connections to return to Europe."

It said the European Takfiris remain in touch with Daesh via social media networks, and are greatly migrating from the mainstream Twitter social networking service to Telegram end-to-end-encrypted messaging service.

Some 30,000 militants from over 100 countries have reportedly traveled to Syria and Iraq since 2011 to join the ranks of Takfiri terrorist groups.

Eager to see the back of the Syrian government, many European countries initially turned a blind eye to the flow of citizens to the Middle East, ignoring warnings that they would return someday and hit back at home.

On Monday, Russian Foreign Ministry's Elijah Rogachov said more than 3,200 Russian citizens have gone to Syria and Iraq to join terrorist groups there.

Rogachov told Arabic-language al-Baghdadia television network that international terrorist threats have taken on a new form due to the activities of Daesh terror network in recent years.

"The group was initially active in Iraq and Syria, but gradually the threats spread to other countries and regions of the world, like North Africa, South and Southeast Asia as well as Europe, and we feel it now in Russia," he said.

"According to our estimates, the threat comes from militants of Russian origins who were recruited in Iraq and Syria. There are more than 3,200 Russians present in the conflict zones," he added.

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Demands Intensify for Answers on Russian Meddling in US Election

By Michael Bowman December 08, 2016

U.S. lawmakers of both political parties said the American people are owed a thorough accounting of Russia's meddling in last month's presidential election, with one prominent Republican urging sanctions on Russian hackers.

"It's pretty clear that Russia was involved in this past election, and collected data from both sides but released data for one side only [to hurt Democrats] in an effort to skew the election," the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Dianne Feinstein, told VOA.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham concurred.

"There's a lot of evidence they interfered in our election by hacking into systems and joining forces with others to release information that was favorable to one side versus the other," Graham said. "And that's a precedent you cannot allow to go unchecked."

"I want to find out what they did, fact versus fiction, and come up with sanctions that really will bite on Russia  on individuals in Russia [responsible for hacking]," Graham added.

Such intentions set up a potential confrontation with President-elect Donald Trump, who has asserted that the election was free of Russian involvement.

In a rare public statement in October, U.S. government officials said cyber attacks on Democratic political organizations and the emails of former Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton's staff were directed by "Russia's senior-most officials."

Several Democrats from both houses of Congress have written the White House urging the release of more information on the subject.

Feinstein did not add her name to the letter, and said patience is needed for now.

"Certain investigations are still going on. And I think they ought to be completed prior to any release of information," Feinstein said. "One day it will all come out."

Even more probes are possible. Democratic Congressmen Eric Swalwell and Elijah Cummings Wednesday introduced legislation that would create a bipartisan panel to investigate Russian meddling.

Republican Graham said the issue is not partisan. While Democrats were targeted this past year, he said Republicans could be in another nation's crosshairs in the next election.

"What if the Iranians do this?" Graham said. "If Trump is tough on the Iranians as he says he's going to be, you could see a nation hacking into the Republican side. And that leads to chaos."

Questions remain as to how foreign hackers obtained emails from Clinton's campaign and published them via WikiLeaks in the closing stretch of the presidential campaign.

Democratic Senator Ben Cardin said he expects more information will be forthcoming from the outgoing Obama administration.

"They have information. They've shared that information, and I've been in briefings where I've come to know some of the things that have happened," Cardin said. "I expect they are evaluating how to respond  there are still weeks left in this administration."

Wayne Lee contributed to this report

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German Spy Chief: Russia Trying To 'Destabilize' Germany Ahead Of Elections

RFE/RL December 08, 2016

German intelligence says Russia is trying to destabilize German society with an intensifying campaign of propaganda, disinformation, and cyberattacks ahead of federal elections next year.

"We see aggressive and increased cyberspying and cyberoperations that could potentially endanger German government officials, members of parliament, and employees of democratic parties," Hans-Georg Maassen, head of the domestic BfV intelligence agency, said in a December 8 statement.

The warning came two months after U.S. intelligence publicly accused Russia of directing cyberattacks against American political figures and organizations in order to interfere with the U.S. electoral process ahead of the November 8 presidential election.

Russia has repeatedly rejected accusations that it was behind those attacks. There was no immediate official response from Moscow to Maassen's statement on December 8.

Maassen cited "increasingly aggressive cyberespionage" against German political entities as part of a mounting body of evidence "of attempts to influence the federal election next year."

The BfV noted a "striking increase" in the number of attacks attributed to a hacking group known as Fancy Bear, which security experts have linked to Russian intelligence. The group has been blamed for the hacks of the U.S. National Democratic Committee this year and the German parliament in 2015.

'Enormous' Spending

The BfV also said it had observed a broad array of Russian propaganda instruments and "enormous use of financial resources" to target Russian speakers, policymakers, and political groups in Germany with "disinformation" campaigns.

Russian state media have repeatedly seized on stories about crimes committed by migrants in Germany, tying them to Chancellor Angela Merkel's decision to allow hundreds of thousands of immigrants fleeing violence in the Middle East into the country.

Maassen last month cited a case in which a Kremlin-controlled television network reported that a teenage Russian girl in Berlin was abducted and raped by migrants, fueling outrage in Russia and among Russian-speakers in Germany.

German authorities later concluded that the account of the alleged crime had been fabricated.

In his December 8 statement, Maassen added that recent cyberattacks targeting German politicians could have been aimed at collecting compromising information about them.

He said his agency expects a further increase in cyberattacks ahead of next year's elections, which have not yet been set but are expected to be held in September.

With reporting by AP and Reuters

Source: http://www.rferl.org/a/germany-maassen-russia- destabilize-elections/28164207.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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India Grounds 280 Crash-Prone Military Helicopters

Sputnik News

17:31 07.12.2016

Present holding of helicopters in Army Aviation Corps is 73 percent of the authorized strength. Grounding of light utility helicopters may further aggravate the problem in securing forward areas.

New Delhi (Sputnik)  The recent deaths of three army officers in a helicopter crash has forced Indian armed forces to take the precautionary measure of grounding its ageing fleet of 280 of small helicopters. These choppers mainly comprise the Cheetah (Aerospatiale) and the Chetak (Aloutte III).

Both Cheetah and Chetak have single engines unlike two in the modern models that make the latter more reliable in emergencies. The machines also lack autopilot, weather radar, duplicity of systems and on-board computer for engine control.

Meanwhile, the state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has produced and tested a home-grown Light Utility Helicopter (LUH) and offered it as a replacement for Cheetah and Chetak. However, the Indian Army has been skeptical of HAL's capability to deliver on time.

This clash of interests has been put to a course correction by the Government's move to have 'Make India initiative' by getting LUHs manufactured in India with full technology transfer from Russia. Under this arrangement, a total of 200 Ka-226T Helicopters are to be supplied by the Indo-Russian joint venture (JV).

"The cost details and timelines for delivery of the first batch of helicopters will be worked out after the formation of JV and signing of the contract on delivery. In addition to manufacturing Kamov Helicopters and its spare parts, the JV shall also establish its repair and overhaul facilities in seven years from the date of supply of first batch of helicopters," says Subhash Bhamre, India's Minister of State for Defense.

The Chetak and Cheetah light utility helicopters are considered the lifeline for army formations and troops deployed at icy heights, especially the Siachen Glacier, the world's highest battlefield. Due to the arduous terrain of India's Eastern and Northern borders, this class of helicopters is essential for maintaining enhanced defense preparedness and operational readiness, but the flying machines have become almost archaic considering the outdated technology they are based on.

 Sputnik

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Indian Missile BVRAAM Fails Trials Yet Again

Sputnik News

18:25 08.12.2016(updated 18:38 08.12.2016)

Indian plans to produce a beyond-visual-range missile that matches French, Russian and Israeli air-to-air missiles have suffered a setback. Despite a reshuffle in DRDO and inking of the MTCR, the Astra failed yet another test.

New Delhi (Sputnik)  The Indian Air Force suffered a heart ache when its home-grown beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile (BVRAAM) failed to perform during a trial held in Balasore on Wednesday.

Sources said the 'Astra missile' exploded immediately after it was fired from an aircraft. The missile lost velocity within seconds and banked sharply downwards. It exploded on the eastern coast of Odisha. Astra is being developed by India's Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO).

The Modi Government had made top level reshuffles in DRDO in order to make it performance oriented. India has also joined the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) which gives it greater latitude to import missile technologies and components.

Indian scientists had informed the government in last week of November about their intention to soon test fire the indigenous BVRAAM so that commercial production could start quickly for fitment on MiG-29, Mirage-2000 and the indigenous Tejas.

The project has already been delayed for more than four years due to technological challenges and delay in availability of critical components.

Last December, scientists had successfully tried the Astra's ECCM (electronic counter-counter measure) features that counter the enemy's attempt to jam its operation. Scientists claim that the 60-km plus missile has high maneuverability and the capability to engage and destroy aerial targets at supersonic speeds.

An IAF Sukhoi-30 MKI had fired the Astra during the 'Iron Fist' fire-power demonstration in the deserts of Rajasthan this March.

Undeterred by the setback, DRDO scientists are also developing a more powerful BVRAAM Astra Mk 2 with a range of 100 km.

 Sputnik

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US Says Major Defense Partner Status for India 'Very Close to Finishing Line'

Sputnik News

17:55 08.12.2016(updated 17:58 08.12.2016)

US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter hopes that Barack Obama will grant India the status of a major defense partner (MDP) soon. On his seventh visit to India, the MDP and LSA will be Carter's achievements in furthering Indo-US defense ties.

NEW DELHI  On his seventh and last visit to India as US Defence Secretary, Ashton Carter is hopeful of Barack Obama according major defense partner (MDP) status to India

"It's [MDP] very close the finish line. It permits us to do things with India that have never been possible before. And it creates a presumption of approval for transactions with India," Carter was quoted on the US Department of Defense website.

Indian Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar responded by observing that defence relations are a major driver of Indo-US bilateral relations.

The two Defense Ministers were speaking to the media after holding delegation level talks. For India, the meeting was part of its balancing act between Russia and the US. Parrikar had recently met his Russian counterpart Gen Sergey Shoigu in New Delhi and proposed joint ventures in producing spares for military equipment. The intention is to meet the demands of not just Russian origin Indian military equipment but to cater to other countries with similar defense hardware.

India expects lower barriers to importing high-end defense equipment once Obama okays the MDP status. India has presented a long wish list of technology transfer based cooperation in several meeting of the Indo-US Defence Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI).

India has so far balanced the US and Russia in importing defense equipment. It recently signed a contract with the US for importing light howitzers. This was preceded by an understanding with Russia for importing three frigates and S-400 missiles.

Carter has been successful in persuading the Indian government to sign the Logistics Sharing Arrangement, a modified version of the Access and Cross Sharing Arrangement (ACSA) with several other quasi-military allies. However the pact has not become operational because of technical issues on the Indian side.

 Sputnik

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Indian Army Searching For New Sniper Rifle Supplier

Sputnik News

07:58 08.12.2016

The Indian Army is eyeing the purchase of sniper rifles that would have a higher range than the Russian Dragunov sniper rifle currently in use in the country, Indian media report.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The rifles will need to be able to take down targets at 1,200 meters (0.7 miles) and the Indian Army needs about 5,000 of them, which is too high a number to produce domestically in a cost beneficial manner, The Economic Times said on Thursday.

The rifles will be given to India's infantry units stationed along the border, the newspaper specified, saying that a wider range could help save lives.

Over the past few weeks, dozens of Indian and Pakistani soldiers and civilians have been killed in cross-border firing.

Tensions have been simmering between India and Pakistan after a deadly attack on the Uri military base in the India-administered Kashmir in September. New Delhi has accused Islamabad of backing terrorism in the disputed region, but Pakistan denied any role in the insurgency.

 Sputnik

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Iran says in US interest to respect nuclear deal

Iran Press TV

Thu Dec 8, 2016 11:50AM

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says it is in the interest of the US to remain committed to last year's landmark nuclear deal between Tehran and the P5+1 group of countries.

Addressing a seminar in Tokyo on Thursday, Zarif said that the agreement was "multilateral" and endorsed by the UN Security Council but the US has a "less than respectable" history in abiding by international laws.

"I'm not basing our hope on an illusion that people will respect international law out of their goodwill or good natures," he said.

He made the remarks after the US Senate voted unanimously last week to extend the Iran Sanctions Act (ISA) for 10 years.

The bill includes penalties against Iran's banking sector as well as its energy and defense industries. The bill needs to be signed into law by US President Barack Obama.

Criticizing the move by the US Senate, the top Iranian diplomat said that anti-Iran sanctions have not worked in the past and would accomplish nothing if strengthened.

"Sanctions will harm us, but won't break us," he said.

He also noted that other parties to the nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), would be unlikely to buy into the US sanctions.

On Wednesday, the supervisory committee tasked with monitoring the implementation of the JCPOA ratified measures in response to the move by the US Senate.

Members of the committee, headed by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, denounced the move as a breach of the accord.

The committee members studied retaliatory measures and approved them in case of possible future violations, stressing that the Islamic Republic would closely monitor the US government's moves and react proportionately.

Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council  the United States, France, Britain, China and Russia  plus Germany started to implement the JCPOA on January 16.

Under the deal, Iran undertook to put limitations on its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of nuclear-related bans imposed against Tehran.

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ELKO  The National Weather Service has issued a winter storm warning for northern Elko County and the Ruby Mountains.

Locations above 6,500 feet could get 5-10 inches of snow through 4 a.m. Sunday, while elevations above 7,500 feet could get 1 to 2 feet.

Snow intensity and coverage will increase early Friday morning, stated the warning. The heaviest snow is expected to occur during the day on Saturday before tapering off late Saturday night.

Wind gusts could reach 40 mph, adding to the potential for difficult travel conditions.

Motorists are advised to be alert to rapidly changing road conditions if traveling across higher terrain or mountain passes. Mountain City Highway and U.S. 93 could be particularly impacted, the warning stated.

Northern Nevada valleys were blanketed in snow Thursday but will see mostly rain instead of snow on Friday and Saturday, as highs climb into the 40s both days, according to the forecast.
Iraqi airstrikes kill dozens of Daesh terrorists near Syria border

Iran Press TV

Thu Dec 8, 2016 4:43PM

Dozens of Daesh terrorists have been killed after Iraqi aircraft pounded the positions of the Tafkiri militants near the border with Syria, the Iraqi army says.

Iraq's Joint Operations Command (JOC) confirmed in a statement on Thursday that the Iraqi Air Force had carried out two strikes on al-Qa'im the previous day.

According to the command, the first airstrike targeted a two-storey building housing 25, mostly foreign militants, led by a commander named as Abu Maysar al-Kawkazi from the Caucasus region.

Among the foreign militants who are operating in Syria and Iraq, there is a significant number of Chechens and other extremists from North Caucasus, who were previously fighting against Russian security forces.

The JOC noted that the second strike hit a hideout hosting 30 to 40 Daesh Takfiri terrorists, also mostly foreigners.

The statement strongly rejected allegations that the air force had targeted civilians in the Daesh-held area of al-Qa'im, describing the claims as propaganda by the Takifiri terrorist group.

Amaq, a news outlet affiliated to Daesh, released a video late Wednesday, claiming that dozens of civilians had died in air attacks by Iraqi jets.

The JOC has said a blast there was caused by a car bomb that either went off accidentally or was detonated by Daesh terrorists for propaganda purposes.

Iraqi officials have called for a thorough investigation into the air raids. Parliament Speaker Salim al-Jabouri has said those responsible for the tragedy must be brought to justice, and receive due punishment.

The airstrikes came as government forces and their allies pushed ahead with a multipronged operation to flush Daesh extremists out of Mosul, which serves as their last stronghold in Iraq.

On Wednesday, Iraqi forces recaptured eight villages in northern Mosul from Daesh. The Iraq Special Forces further managed to wrest control over al-Elam neighborhood in eastern Mosul.

The commander of the Nineveh Liberation Operation, Lieutenant General Abdul Amir Yarallah, announced in a statement that the area was "fully liberated" and the Iraqi national flag was raised over several buildings there.

On October 17, Iraqi army soldiers and their allied forces launched an operation to retake Mosul from Daesh terrorists.

The Iraqi forces' advance has, however, been slowed down due to the presence of hundreds of thousands of civilians, many of whom are prevented from leaving Mosul by Daesh.

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Iraqi parl. speaker demands investigation into fatal airstrikes

Iran Press TV

Thu Dec 8, 2016 11:38AM

Iraq's Parliament Speaker Salim al-Jabouri has called for a thorough investigation into airstrikes purported Daesh positions in a western border town which left dozen of civilians dead.

The airstrikes in the militant-held town of al-Qa'im near the Syrian border the previous day targeted "civilian shopping centers, causing the martyrdom and wounding of dozens," Jabouri said on Thursday.

He said those responsible for the tragedy must be brought to justice, and receive due punishment.

Hospital sources and local authorities said three airstrikes against Qa'im claimed the lives of around 60 people, including 12 women and 19 children.

"The speaker holds the government responsible for such mistakes, asking them to open an immediate inquiry to find out the truth of the incident and to guarantee that civilians are not targeted again," a statement released by his office read.

The airstrikes came as government forces and their allies pushed ahead with a multi-pronged operation to flush Daesh extremists out of Mosul, which serves as their last urban stronghold in Iraq.

On Wednesday, Iraqi forces liberated eight villages in northern Mosul from the grip of Daesh militants. The Iraq Special Forces further managed to wrest control over the al-Elam neighborhood in eastern Mosul.

The commander of the Nineveh Liberation Operation, Lieutenant General Abdul Amir Yarallah, announced in a statement that the area was "fully liberated" and the Iraqi national flag was raised over several buildings there.

Iraqi army soldiers and their allied forces launched joint operations on October 17 to retake Mosul from Daesh terrorists.

The Iraqi forces' advance has however been slowed down due to the presence of hundreds of thousands of civilians, many of whom are prevented from leaving Mosul by Daesh.

The United Nations says more than 82,000 civilians have experienced forced displacement in the wake of Mosul liberation operation.

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Iraq Parliament Urges Gov't to Investigate Deadly Airstrikes in Qaim Town

Sputnik News

17:59 08.12.2016

Iraqi Parliament Speaker Salim Jabouri urged the government on Thursday to carry out a thorough investigation into deadly airstrikes in Qaim town near the western border with Syria, controlled by the Daesh militants.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The operation in Mosul has been ongoing since October 17. The offensive is led by Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and Iraqi soldiers backed by the US-led anti-terror coalition.

"The speaker holds the government responsible for such mistakes, asking them to open an immediate inquiry to find out the truth of the incident and to guarantee that civilians are not targeted again," a statement released by Jabouri's office read, as quoted by the Iraqi Press TV news network.

The airstrikes, carried out on Wednesday, targeted "civilian shopping centers, causing the martyrdom and wounding of dozens," Jabouri said, as quoted by the news network. Media reports claimed that airstrikes on Qaim killed about 55 people, including women and children.

The command of the Iraqi armed forces on Thursday on denied reports that it had mistakenly bombed civilian targets in the western town of Qaim, held by Daesh terrorist group.

They noted that the media could not have gained access to credible information on Qaim as the town is under control of Daesh.

The command stressed that the Iraqi Air Force acted in accordance with intelligence data, and stroke only positions of terrorists. The military hoped to eliminate up to 60 foreign fighters.

The attacks come amid the ongoing Iraq operation to liberate Mosul, which was occupied by Daesh (outlawed in Russia) in June 2014. On Wednesday, the Iraqi armed forces and anti-terrorist units launched an offensive against positions of terrorists in several districts of Mosul simultaneously.

 Sputnik

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Libya: Security Council reaffirms full support for political agreement signed a year ago

8 December 2016  Expressing deep concern over the serious political polarization resulting in a deterioration of the security, economic and humanitarian situation in Libya, the Security Council today reiterated its support for the United Nations envoy for Libya, who leads efforts in facilitating implementation of the political agreement signed about a year ago.

Issuing a press statement overnight, the 15-member Council also reiterated support for efforts of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) and encouraged the envoy and the Mission to intensify their efforts in facilitating implementation of the Libyan Political Agreement.

The release of the statement followed the briefing on 6 December by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Martin Kobler, who noted that implementation of the political deal has stalled.

The Agreement rests on four main principles: ensuring the democratic rights of the Libyan people, the need for a consensual government based on the principle of the separation of powers, oversight and balance between them, as well as the need to empower state institutions like the Government of National Accord so that they can address the serious challenges ahead, respect for the Libyan judiciary and its independence.

In the press statement, the Council expressed its deep concern over the challenging political and security context in Libya and the serious political polarization resulting in a deterioration of the security, economic and humanitarian situation as well as the recent escalation of violence between armed groups in Tripoli, calling on all parties to immediately heed the Presidency Council's appeal to cease fighting.

Reaffirming full support for the Agreement and calling on all parties to accelerate its implementation, the Council reiterated the importance of the continued inclusiveness of the Agreement and renewed its strong call on all parties in Libya to be part of and to engage constructively with the Agreement in good faith and with sustained political will.

The Council urged all Libyan stakeholders, especially those not currently fully engaged in the process, to work together with the Presidency Council to resolve outstanding issues and focus all Libyan efforts on rebuilding the country.

The Council reiterated its grave concern about the terrorist threat in Libya, in particular from Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as Da'esh), groups proclaiming allegiance to ISIL, and groups affiliated with Al-Qaida, welcomed progress made in the fight against terrorist groups, notably against ISIL, in Sirte and in Benghazi, and noted with concern the information that ISIL elements may have dispersed to other parts of the country.

The Council also urged Libyans across the political and security divide to unite and join forces under unified command in their fight against ISIL in the service of their country and called on armed actors to halt violence against civilians.

The Council reaffirmed its strong commitment to the sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity and national unity of Libya.

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Pakistan Denies Existence of Nuclear Arms Agreement With Saudi Arabia - Ministry

Sputnik News

10:50 08.12.2016(updated 14:07 08.12.2016)

Pakistan does not have any agreements on nuclear cooperation with Saudi Arabia, Pakistani Deputy Foreign Minister Tasneem Aslam told Sputnik.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  In May 2015, media reports emerged claiming that Saudi Arabia had made a move to purchase a weapon from Pakistan.

"There is no such agreement. Unfortunately most such reports emanate from New Delhi," Aslam said.

"We have always opposed nuclear proliferation. Before India conducted a nuclear test in 1974, Pakistan suggested declaring South Asia a nuclear-weapon-free zone. Following India's test, we were driven to engage in development of nuclear weapons," Aslam said.

Pakistani Deputy Foreign Minister then pointed out that Pakistan has not been able to discuss the introduction of a strategic deterrence regime with India: "At the same time, we are still offering India to introduce a strategic deterrence regime to prevent incidents and the use of nuclear weapons. We are nuclear states, and we need to act more responsibly. <> Pakistan's offer still stands, but India refuses to discuss this issue."

Currently, a small number of countries possess nuclear weapons: the US, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan and North Korea.

The US, Russia, the United Kingdom, France and China are the only countries recognized as nuclear-weapon states by the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

 Sputnik

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Pakistani Foreign Ministry Rules Out Possibility of Daesh Seizure of Country

Sputnik News

10:48 08.12.2016(updated 10:52 08.12.2016)

According to the Pakistani deputy foreign minister, Pakistan does not consider possible seizure of the country's territory by Daesh.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Pakistan does not consider possible seizure of the country's territory by Daesh, Pakistani Deputy Foreign Minister Tasneem Aslam told Sputnik on Thursday.

"That is not possible because now we have stronger border control with Afghanistan," Aslam said, answering the question about the likelihood of Daesh capture of Pakistani territories.

She added that Pakistan strengthened border control and took necessary measure to prevent terrorists from entering the country's territory.

"We are trying to regulate traffic. We do not want to stop Afghans from coming to Pakistan but we do want to regulate it, we do not want terrorists to come in the garbs of ordinary Afghans and create problems for us. So we are now building border posts even in areas that are not regulated, for instance, the mountain passes. We would have post that would monitor the traffic," Aslam said.

She also noted that Pakistan and Russia were unlikely to undertake joint actions against Daesh militant group, but information exchange is possible.

"Joint action per se is difficult because in this region Daesh doesn't hold any territory. It's an ideology, distorted warped ideology that some people try to spread so we have to be mindful of the fact that we stop this distorted concept reaching our region. So it's more at the level of having exchange of information and perceptions because it's not like Syria of Iraq where they hold certain territories," Aslam said.

 Sputnik

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South Korea opposition introduces motion to impeach Pres. Park

Iran Press TV

Thu Dec 8, 2016 9:32AM

South Korean opposition parties have introduced a motion in the parliament to impeach embattled President Park Geun-hye over an influence-peddling scandal.

The parliament in South Korea formally introduced the impeachment motion on Thursday, accusing Park of violating the country's constitution and colluding with a close friend, who is currently jailed and faces charges of fraud and abuse of power.

The motion will be put to a full vote at the National Assembly on Friday and, if adopted, will go to the Constitutional Court for final approval, setting off a process that could take several months.

Support from two-thirds of the country's 300 parliament members is required to impeach Park. The three opposition parties and independent anti-Park lawmakers hold a total of 172 seats. Park's ruling party has also withdrawn support for the president.

If impeached, Park's presidential powers would be immediately suspended and the Constitutional Court would have 180 days for deliberations to make a ruling on her fate.

Park's presidency has been rocked by scandalous revelations of influence peddling and a subsequent investigation.

South Koreans have been rallying in huge numbers in the capital, Seoul, over the past several weeks to demand her resignation.

Choi Soon-sil, President Park's long-time confidante, is detained over allegations that she interfered in government decisions despite having no official role or security clearance. Choi is also accused of exploiting her ties to the president to bully corporations into granting large sums of money to businesses and foundations that she controlled.

Prosecutors named Park, who has immunity from prosecution while in office, as an accomplice in the case but she has denied the accusation.

The South Korean leader has apologized for the influence-peddling scandal. Her approval rating has plunged to a record low for a sitting president.

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South Korean Parliament Introduces Bill to Impeach President Park

Sputnik News

12:12 08.12.2016

The South Korean parliament introduced a bill to impeach President Park Geun-hye amid a political and corruption scandal and officially set up the date for the vote, Yonhap news agency reported on Thursday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The parliament is set to held an anonymous vote during its Friday session scheduled for 2 p.m. local time (05:00 GMT), though Park's fate would be ultimately decided by the Constitutional Court.

Since a two-thirds majority in the 300-seat legislature is needed for the impeachment process to start, and opposition parties members and individual candidates comprise 172 people, at least 28 lawmakers from the ruling Saenuri Party should endorse the motion.

About 40 lawmakers from the ruling party reportedly promised to support the impeachment initiative, according to the news outlet.

Political scandal around the president broke out in late October when media reported that Park allowed Choi Soon-sil, her friend and "shadow adviser," who held no official post, to edit her speeches thus letting her influence the country's policy. Moreover, Choi was suspected of pressuring South Korean big corporations and extorting money from them for her noncommercial funds. A total of $70 million was transferred to the bank accounts of these funds.

Choi was officially charged on November 20 and the prosecution said that the president was also involved in the scandal. As a result, thousands of people took to the streets demanding the president's resignation.

On December 3, South Korea's opposition parties handed an impeachment motion against the president.

 Sputnik

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Putin Signs New Information Security Doctrine

By Danila Galperovich December 08, 2016

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed off on a new "information security doctrine," replacing the one he issued in 2000, during the first year of his rule. While experts in Moscow saw no surprises in the new document, they also said it reflects the Kremlin's increasingly repressive policy toward the media and civil society more generally.

The 16-page directive describes itself as "a document for strategic planning in the sphere of ensuring national security" and "the basis for the formulation of state policy and the development of public relations in the field of information security."

The Russian Security Council experts who authored the doctrine describe the informational environment in which Russia exists almost in military style. The document states that foreign states are strengthening their intelligence activities targeting Russia, and that threats are growing involving "the use of information technology for the purpose of causing damage to the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and political and social stability of the Russian Federation."

According to the document, "the special services of certain states" are expanding ways of "exerting informational-psychological pressure aimed at destabilizing the internal political and social situation in various regions of the world and leading to the undermining of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of other states. These activities involve religious, ethnic, human rights and other organizations, and also particular groups of citizens, in so doing extensively using the capabilities of information technologies."

Media bias

The information security document states that foreign media are increasingly using material that contains a "biased assessment" of Russian government policy, and that Russian media are frequently the victims of "open discrimination" abroad, where "obstacles are created" for Russian journalists trying to do their jobs.

It also says "informational pressure" on Russians, particularly young people, is increasing, "with the aim of diluting traditional Russian spiritual-moral values," and that this must be resisted.

The document calls for the "development of a national system of management of the Russian segment of the internet," arguing that "the resources necessary to ensure the safe and stable functioning of the internet" have not been properly distributed among countries, making it impossible to manage the internet according to "joint, equitable principles" based on "trust."

Commenting on the new information security doctrine, one of the founders of the Russian internet, Anton Nosik, told VOA it is a product of the psychology and ideology of the country's leadership. Russia's leaders, he said, subscribe to a conspiracy theory involving the "Dulles Plan"  a fictitious plan to destroy the Soviet Union by secretly undermining its cultural heritage and moral values, said to have been hatched by early Cold War-era CIA chief Allen Dulles.

"From the point of view of this belief that the Dulles Plan really exists, they describe as their historic mission countering everything which, in their view, the Dulles Plan sets out," said Nosik.

He also said that the information security document reflects the Russian authorities' complete distrust of anything foreign.

"They have a principle: a foreigner is an enemy, a foreigner is an agent of a foreign government, and any action by a foreign person is being carried out in the interests and at the direct orders of a foreign government," said Nosik. "And the single goal of all governments overseas is to harm the interests of Russia."

Still, Nosik predicted the new information security doctrine would have little "practical meaning" in everyday life.

Repressive trend

Maria Lipman, editor-in-chief of Counterpoint, a Moscow-based journal published by The George Washington University, also said she doubts the new information security doctrine will itself guide the authorities' actions. At the same time, she said it reflects the authorities' increasingly repressive approach to the media, and to freedom of expression more generally, since Putin was reelected Russia's president in 2012.

"The trends visible in this document reflect the general atmosphere of the last four years," she said. "I mean the changes in domestic politics that occurred with the return of Vladimir Putin to the Kremlin. Repressive legislation, actions against those who assert their right to freedom of assembly, toward people who go to rallies or protests, pressure on the independent press, on media that attempt to follow an editorial line not approved by the government and that act on the basis of their professional and ethical standards."

According to Lipman, the government has started intervening in areas that were left alone after the fall of the Soviet Union  "the sphere of personal life, the spheres of sexual and religious preferences, and everything involving art and culture."

"All of that is becoming the preserve of the state, its prerogative," she said. "Given this background, the information security doctrine does not seem surprising or new, and does not imply an even greater crackdown."

Slam on rights activists

The chairman of the board of the Memorial Human Rights Center, Alexander Cherkasov, told VOA he was also not surprised that the information security doctrine views Russian human rights activists as agents of foreign security services.

"They believe that any independent action is by definition hostile," he said, adding that this view will ultimately have dire consequences for Russia.

"In today's world, without feedback, policy adjustments, adjustments based on criticism from political parties, independent media and...human rights defenders, the state is doomed to make wrong decisions, promote different kinds of erroneous tendencies and, in the end, collapse," he said.

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Syria army forces liberate 85 percent of eastern Aleppo from militants

Iran Press TV

Thu Dec 8, 2016 5:56PM

The Syrian army troops and their allied forces are now in control of about 85 percent of militant-held eastern part of Aleppo as they press ahead with an all-out offensive to fully dislodge foreign-backed terrorists from the northwestern city.

On Thursday, the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported heavy clashes between government troops and militants in the occupied areas of eastern Aleppo, including Bustan al-Qasr, Saif al-Dawla, Zibdiya, Sukkari and Kallaseh.

Intense bombardment has been reported on militant positions in the embattled city while Syrian armed forces are also conducting clean-up operations in the liberated areas.

The intensity of the Syrian army's offensive has cornered the militants in a shrinking enclave in Aleppo's southeast on the defensive, forcing them to demand five-day ceasefire, in a call viewed as an attempt to rebuild their ranks.

According to the Observatory, some 80,000 civilians have fled from the militant-held areas to government-controlled parts.

Syria has set up several humanitarian corridors to facilitate the exit of civilians from the eastern districts. Reports coming out of Aleppo say the terrorists are using people as human shields to slow the army's advances.

The Observatory said Wednesday that Syrian government forces liberated the entire neighborhoods in Old City of Aleppo as part of a large-scale military operation to flush foreign-backed Takfiri militants out of the strategic city.

The London-based monitoring group added that Syrian soldiers had established complete control over the historic area after militants withdrew in the face of army advances overnight.

In a recent interview, President Bashar al-Assad said the victory in the battle for Aleppo will be "a huge step" in bringing the war in Syria to an end.

"It's true that Aleppo will be a win for us, but let's be realistic, it won't mean the end of the war in Syria. But it will be a huge step towards this end," Assad said in an interview with Al-Watan newspaper.

Diplomatic efforts in limbo

On the diplomatic front, Russia and the US, which have been backing opposite sides of the conflict in Syria, have failed to hammer out an agreement on the situation in Aleppo this week.

On Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Syrian forces had paused active military operations in eastern Aleppo amid a large effort to secure the exit of civilians.

The top Russian diplomat further said Russian and US experts are to meet in Geneva on Saturday to hold talks on the situation in Aleppo.

UN Syria humanitarian advisor, Jan Egeland, said earlier in the day that Moscow and Washington remain "poles apart" in trying to agree on terms for evacuations from eastern Aleppo.

Negotiations over aid plans have all failed and produced "nothing," he said, adding that it was up to the United States and Russia to reach an agreement on evacuations from the Aleppo's eastern sector, where some 8,000 militants are believed to be holed up.

On Tuesday, Russia and China vetoed a UN Security Council resolution which would have mandated a seven-day ceasefire in Aleppo, saying the draft proposal put to vote did not include any talk about the exit of gunmen from the eastern neighborhoods of Aleppo.

Russia and Syria are also against lengthy pauses in anti-terror battles in Aleppo, saying such truces would merely help the Takfiri militants rebuild their strength.

Moscow is engaged in an aerial campaign against Takfiri terrorists in Syria since September 2015.

Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Thursday it conducted an operation overnight in cooperation with Syria's Red Crescent to evacuate 150 civilians, many disabled or sick, from a health facility in recently-liberated Old City.

"These patients and civilians had been trapped in the area for days, because of heavy clashes nearby," said ICRC Syria delegation head, Marianne Gasser, who added, "Many of them cannot move and need special attention and care. It must have been terrifying for them."

EU twisting facts on Syria: Russia

On Thursday, Moscow also engaged in a war words with the European Union over the issue of aid delivery in Aleppo.

The Kremlin, in a statement, slammed as "outrageous twisting of the facts" a statement by EU foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, who said the bloc was the only party providing aid to Syria.

Russia, "unlike other international players, is actively supplying thousands of tons of humanitarian aid to various regions in Syria, including the liberated areas in eastern Aleppo, at the risk of Russian military lives," the statement said.

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Russia says 'close to understanding' with US on Aleppo

Iran Press TV

Thu Dec 8, 2016 10:11AM

A senior Russian official says Moscow and the US are close to reaching an understanding on the situation in the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Thursday that the two countries had exchanged documents regarding the crisis over the past several days, but he was circumspect about the prospects.

"We are close to reaching an understanding, but I want to warn against high expectations," Ryabkov said.

The Kremlin said on Wednesday that a potential US-Russia deal to allow Syrian militants to safely leave the besieged city was still on the agenda.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was scheduled to meet his American counterpart John Kerry in Hamburg, Germany, later on Thursday.

The two men on Wednesday discussed the situation in Aleppo, including the delivery of humanitarian aid to civilians, according to US State Department spokesman John Kirby.

Syria's largest city has been the scene of fierce clashes between government forces and foreign-backed militants.

With foreign-backed militants on the verge of total rout, the US and its allies have been urging Russia to pressure the Syrian government into a ceasefire.

Syrian troops and their allies have managed to retake more than two-thirds of the territory that used to be under the control of the militants.

In an interview with al-Watan newspaper expected to be published on Thursday, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said Aleppo was the "last hope" of militants and their supporters after their failure in the battles of Damascus and Homs.

The Syrian president said the militants' defeat in Aleppo would fully change the course of battle in Syria.

On Thursday, as the army advances continued, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said nearly 150 civilians, most disabled or in need of medical care, were evacuated overnight from Dar Al-Safaa hospital in Aleppo's recently-liberated Old City.

Marianne Gasser, the head of the ICRC in Syria, said the patients and civilians had been trapped in the area for days because of heavy clashes nearby and as the front line kept drawing closer.

The ICRC said the evacuation was conducted jointly with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, during which 118 patients were taken to three hospitals in the west of Aleppo and 30 people were transferred to shelters, also in the west which is under the government control.

Syrian government forces on Tuesday seized control of all parts of the Old City in their operation to flush out Takfiri militants from the strategic northwestern city.

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UN Adviser Says U.S., Russia 'Poles Apart' On Aleppo

RFE/RL December 08, 2016

The United States and Russia are "poles apart" in trying to agree on terms for evacuations from rebel-held areas of Aleppo, UN humanitarian adviser Jan Egeland says.

Egeland told reporters in Geneva on December 8 that months of negotiations over aid plans had produced "nothing," and that it was up to the United States and Russia to pull together to agree an evacuation of besieged eastern Aleppo.

Syrian and Russian leaders have rejected pleas from rebel forces and Western powers for a cease-fire in Aleppo and pressed their campaign to retake the city in its entirety.

In an interview published on December 8, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said victory in the battle for Aleppo would be a "big gain" for his government but that it will not be the end of the war in Syria.

Rebels are estimated to have lost 75-80 percent of the territory they once controlled in Aleppo since mid-November.

Hundreds of people have been reported killed and tens of thousands displaced by the fighting in the past few weeks.

The UN has said the remaining rebel-held areas, where food supplies are exhausted and there are no functioning hospitals, may hold 8,000 fighters among more than 100,000 civilians.

Syria opposition activists on December 8 reported intense government bombings of a number of neighborhoods that remain under rebel control.

Aleppo Truce Talks Continue

On the sidelines of a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Hamburg, Germany, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said he was "hopeful" about reaching an agreement with Russia over Aleppo but that he was still waiting for "certain feedback and input."

He spoke to reporters after meeting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov twice on December 7-8.

Also on December 8, Turkey's presidential spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, said there was "intense diplomatic activity" in order to bring about a cease-fire in Aleppo and the delivery of humanitarian aid.

Kalin said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was personally engaged in the effort and had spoken three times with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.

In London, Britain's foreign intelligence chief accused Russia and the Syrian government of blocking efforts to end the war in Syria and defeat the extremist group Islamic State (IS) by treating all opponents of Assad as terrorists.

"Russia and the Syrian regime seek to make a desert and call it peace. The human tragedy is heart-breaking," Secret Intelligence Service head Alex Younger said on December 8. "We cannot be safe from the threats that emanate from that land unless the civil war is brought to an end."

Younger suggested that Russia's involvement in Syria, where it has backed Assad's government throughout the more than five-year civil war, is undermining efforts to eliminate that threat.

"As I speak, the highly organized external-attack-planning structures within [IS], even as they face military threat, are plotting ways to project violence against the UK and our allies without ever having to leave Syria," he said at the MI6 headquarters in London.

Western governments say a campaign of air strikes that Russia launched in September 2015 has mainly targeted rebels rather than IS militants.

Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross says nearly 150 civilians were evacuated from a hospital in an area of Aleppo recently recaptured by the Syrian Army.

The evacuation took place late on December 7 in the Old City's Meshatyeh district, a statement said. https://www.icrc.org/en/document/sarc-and-icrc-evacuate-150-civilians-aleppo-frontline

Most of the civilians were "disabled or in urgent need of care."

They were trapped inside the former old people's home because of heavy fighting nearby.

With reporting by Reuters, AP, and AFP

Source: http://www.rferl.org/a/syria-russia-us-poles-apart- on-aleppo-un-envoy-says/28163809.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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U.K. Spy Chief: Russia, Assad 'Seek To Make A Desert And Call It Peace

December 08, 2016

Britain's foreign intelligence chief says that Russia and the Syrian government are blocking efforts to end the war in Syria and defeat the extremist group Islamic State (IS) by treating all opponents of President Bashar al-Assad as terrorists.

"Russia and the Syrian regime seek to make a desert and call it peace. The human tragedy is heart-breaking," Secret Intelligence Service head Alex Younger said on December 8. "We cannot be safe from the threats that emanate from that land unless the civil war is brought to an end."

In his first major public speech in two years in the job, Younger suggested that Russia's involvement in Syria, where is has backed Assad's government throughout the more than five-year civil war, was undermining efforts to eliminate that threat.

"As I speak, the highly organized external-attack-planning structures within [IS], even as they face military threat, are plotting ways to project violence against the U.K. and our allies without ever having to leave Syria," he said at the MI6 headquarters in London.

Western governments say a campaign of air strikes that Russia launched in September 2015 has mainly targeted rebels rather than IS militants.

Younger said that 12 terror plots had been foiled since June 2013 in the United Kingdom, which he said was facing an unprecedented threat from terrorism.

Based on reporting by Reuters

Source: http://www.rferl.org/a/syria- russia-make-a-desert-call it-peace/28163760.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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Syria, Russia Reject Cease-Fire Calls, Vow To Retake Aleppo

RFE/RL December 08, 2016

Syrian and Russian leaders on December 7 rejected pleas from rebel forces and Western powers for a cease-fire and pressed their campaign to retake Aleppo, aiming for a victory they said would "change the course" of the six-year war.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in media interviews echoed reports from independent monitors and news media saying government forces appear on the verge of taking full control of the city, Syria's most populous before the war, after years of rebel control in the east.

Rebels are estimated to have lost 75 percent to 80 percent of the territory they once controlled since mid-November, including most recently the Old City. Recapturing Aleppo would represent Assad's most important stride to date toward ending their long-running rebellion.

"Aleppo will completely change the course of the battle in all of Syria," Assad told the Al-Watan newspaper in an interview due to be published on December 8, according to excerpts released to the media.

"It won't mean the end of the war in Syria," he added, "but it will be a huge step toward this end."

Assad said the chances of a cease-fire are "practically nonexistent" at this point.

"The Americans in particular are insisting on demanding a truce, because their terrorist agents are now in a difficult situation," Assad told the newspaper.

Assad described Aleppo as the "last hope" of rebels and their backers "after their failure in the battles of Damascus and Homs," pro-Damascus television Al-Mayadeen reported on December 7.

Rebel groups and six Western powers repeated calls for a cease-fire in the city on December 7, warning of a humanitarian disaster there.

In a joint statement, the United States, Britain, Germany, Italy, France, and Canada also denounced Assad's government and its ally Russia for "their obstruction of humanitarian aid."

Damascus and Moscow have insisted that rebels must agree to leave Aleppo before they will consider a cease-fire.

Tens of thousands of civilians are still trapped in the remaining rebel-held areas of Aleppo.

"The artillery shelling is nonstop," a resident told the AP news agency by messaging service, describing the humanitarian situation as "really tough."

But Assad told Al-Mayadeen that "the decision to liberate all of Syria is taken and Aleppo is part of it."

Assad said he consulted with Russia about his decision to press ahead with the campaign.

"No decision is issued without discussions between the two countries" on a daily basis, he said.

Russia has given Assad crucial military and diplomatic backing throughout the conflict, which began with a forceful government crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in 2011 and erupted into a civil war that has killed more than 250,000 people.

Moscow helped turn the tide of the war in the government's favor with a major campaign of air strikes that began in September 2015 and that Western governments say has mainly targeted rebels rather than Islamic State militants.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who accused the United States this week of backing out of a commitment to help arrange an orderly withdrawal of rebel forces from Aleppo, met with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on December 7 in Hamburg, Germany.

No breakthrough was announced after the meeting. Kerry said he and Lavrov discussed "the extraordinarily dire situation in Aleppo" and they would "connect" again on December 8.

Lavrov said he affirmed his support for a proposal he said the United States made last week that involved a complete rebel withdrawal from eastern Aleppo -- a plan from which he said the United States has since backed off.

Meanwhile, a top lawmaker in Moscow said the odds are Aleppo will be "fully liberated" by the end of the year.

"I believe Aleppo will be fully liberated in the immediate future, maybe even before the end of the year," Frants Klintsevich, first deputy chairman of Russia's Federation Council Defense and Security Committee, told TASS.

"This will happen regardless of whether an agreement is reached between Russia and the U.S. on letting militants leave the eastern part of the city," he said.

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, and TASS

Source: http://www.rferl.org/a/syria-russia- reject-cease-fire-offers-west-rebels-vow-retake- aleppo-assad-lavrov-kerry/28162817.html

Copyright (c) 2016. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Russia Says Syrian Army Has Suspended Operations In Eastern Aleppo

RFE/RL December 08, 2016

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says the Syrian army has suspended combat operations in rebel-held eastern Aleppo, Russian media reported.

Lavrov, speaking on the sidelines of an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) meeting in the German city of Hamburg on December 8, said the move would allow the evacuation of some 8,000 civilians trapped in the battle zone.

"I can tell you that today, combat operations by the Syrian army have been halted in eastern Aleppo because there is a large operation underway to evacuate civilians," he said.

Lavrov said after talks with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Hamburg that they had agreed Russian and U.S. military experts would meet in Geneva on December 10 to define "ways and means for a final solution of the problem of eastern Aleppo according to which all the militants leave it as well as those civilians who want to do so."

"We are close to reaching an understanding, but I want to warn against high expectations," The Russian Interfax news agency quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying.

Kerry said after meeting Lavrov that he was not confident but "hopeful" about reaching a deal, and was still waiting for "certain feedback and input" from Moscow.

U.S., Russia 'Poles Apart'

The White House said it would adopt a "wait and see" approach on whether Moscow halts military operations in Aleppo.

Earlier, UN Humanitarian adviser Jan Egeland said the United States and Russia were "poles apart" in trying to agree on terms for evacuations from rebel-held areas of Aleppo.

Egeland told reporters in Geneva on December 8 that months of negotiations over aid plans had produced "nothing," and that it was up to the United States and Russia to pull together to agree an evacuation of besieged eastern Aleppo.

Syrian and Russian leaders have previously rejected pleas from rebel forces and Western powers for a cease-fire in Aleppo and pressed their campaign to retake the city in its entirety.

In an interview published on December 8, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said victory in the battle for Aleppo would be a "big gain" for his government but that it will not be the end of the war in Syria.

Syrian government forces have recaptured around 75 percent of eastern Aleppo in recent weeks.

Rebels had controlled the area since 2012.

Intense Bombings

Hundreds of people have been reported killed and tens of thousands displaced by the fighting in the past few weeks.

The UN has said the remaining rebel-held areas, where food supplies are exhausted and there are no functioning hospitals, may hold 8,000 fighters among more than 100,000 civilians.

Syria opposition activists reported on December 8 that intense government bombings of a number of neighborhoods that remain under rebel control.

Also on December 8, Turkey's presidential spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, said there was "intense diplomatic activity" in order to bring about a cease-fire in Aleppo and the delivery of humanitarian aid.

Kalin said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is personally engaged in the effort and had spoken three times with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.

In London, Britain's foreign intelligence chief accused Russia and the Syrian government of blocking efforts to end the war in Syria and defeat the extremist group Islamic State (IS) by treating all opponents of Assad as terrorists.

"Russia and the Syrian regime seek to make a desert and call it peace. The human tragedy is heart-breaking," Secret Intelligence Service head Alex Younger said on December 8. "We cannot be safe from the threats that emanate from that land unless the civil war is brought to an end."

Western governments say a campaign of air strikes that Russia launched in September 2015 has mainly targeted rebels rather than IS militants.

With reporting by Reuters, AP, and BBC

Source: http://www.rferl.org/a/russia-lavrov -east-aleppo-syria-army-operations- suspended/28164299.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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Pentagon Announces Creation of New Armed Rebel Group to Fight for Raqqa

Sputnik News

21:05 08.12.2016(updated 23:10 08.12.2016)

A new group called the Syrian Elite Forces has appeared in northern Syria in the fight against Daesh terror group, Operation Inherent Resolve spokesman John Dorrian announced in a press briefing on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  Dorrian explained the SEF has teamed up with the Syrian Defense Forces (SDF) in their efforts to combat Daesh in Raqqa.

"A new fighting force known as the Syrian Elite Forces (SEF) which is 90 percent Syrian Arabs has been organized in northern Syria," Dorrian stated.

"It's accurate to say they have joined the SDF effort to isolate Raqqa," Dorrian added.

Raqqa has been the Syrian-based headquarters of Daesh since 2014.

Dorrian was unable to provide information about the size of the SEF contingent.

 Sputnik

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Syrian Army Suspends Combat Operations in Aleppo - Lavrov

Sputnik News

20:08 08.12.2016(updated 20:48 08.12.2016)

The Syrian army suspended combat operations in Aleppo on Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

"Combat operations by the Syrian army in east Aleppo have been suspended because the largest operation of evacuation of civilians from east Aleppo is being carried out. A column of about 8 thousand people, it's a tremendous operation," Lavrov said.

The Russian foreign minister said that Western states have not proposed any concrete steps to solve the humanitarian crisis in Aleppo.

Lavrov said that Russia is aimed to "fight terrorists in Syria till the end" in accordance to a UN Security Council resolution.

"Our strategy is very simple as it is based on a UNSC resolution which states that terrorists should be relentlessly fought until their full elimination."

He also said that the UNSC resolution stipulates solving humanitarian issues and launching a political process in the country.

He said that the United States does not target al-Nusra Front terrorist group.

"As for al-Nusra Front, the US doesn't 'touch' it at all, but during all our talks they [US authorities] strived to formulate agreements in such a way to exclude al-Nusra Front as a target for strikes," Lavrov said.

"We cannot accept that as al-Nusra Front is recognized by the UN, the US, Russia and other countries as a terrorist organization," he emphasized.

Lavrov also said that Russian and US experts will discuss militants' pullout from Aleppo during a meeting in Geneva on December 10.

The Russian top diplomat called on UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan De Mistura to stop "sabotaging" the Syrian political process. He also called for a new round of the Syrian peace talks.

 Sputnik

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Sides 'poles apart' on agreeing access to civilians trapped in Aleppo, UN Senior Adviser reports

8 December 2016  Discussions on how to assist civilians caught in the crossfire inside war-ravaged Aleppo continue to be difficult "because the Member States that are supposed to help us get access [are] poles apart on what is happening in Syria," United Nations Senior Adviser Jan Egeland said today in Geneva.

"We are not having a united humanitarian diplomacy on the parties and we see that in a diminishing access on the ground," he told reporters after a meeting of the Humanitarian Access Task Force of the International Syria Support Group (ISSG).

The ISSG has established the respective taskforces on humanitarian aid delivery and a wider ceasefire. They have been meeting separately since early this year on a way forward in the crisis. Russia and the United States are the co-chairs of the taskforces and the ISSG, which also comprises the UN, the Arab League, the European Union and 16 other countries.

Mr. Egeland reported that the Syrian Government had approved a plan for access in order to reach 800,000 of the 930,000 people that the UN is trying to reach and that for the first time, eastern Aleppo is on the list of approved places. He acknowledged, however, that there has been a greater possibility of crossing a stable front line in November, when the UN was refused access.

He underscored that the UN has been trying to access east Aleppo every day since it was besieged on 7 July. Since then, three major plans have failed.

"I have never, in my many, many years of humanitarian negotiations, been in as difficult negotiations and as frustrating talks that produced nothing in spite of thousands of contacts with all of the parties, and it is with bitterness and frustration that we have to report that we have not been able to evacuate even the wounded," he announced.

In order to provide humanitarian assistance, cooperation is necessary from the Government of Syria, the Russian Federation, various armed opposition groups, opposition health directorates, and others who must all agree on where, how, what conditions, guarantees, protection standards, and logistics.

"If only one disagrees," he said, "the whole thing fails."

The hope for humanitarian corridors will only become a reality if there is a ceasefire. Meanwhile, the intense battle scene continues and the civilian population has dramatically moved its location.

Mr. Egeland called for a pause so that civilians remaining in east Aleppo would be able to leave safely, as well as for a better protection system for those who are able to leave. The UN has received reports about confiscated identification cards, arrests, and mal-treatment. The Senior Adviser lamented that such reports have been impossible to confirm without full access to the area.

Nor does the UN have full access to Government-controlled areas of western Aleppo, a result of which has been unconfirmed and mixed reports.

"Some say Aleppo is falling, some say Aleppo is liberated," the Senior Adviser reported.

As winter plunges the city into freezing temperatures at night, the UN and its affiliate agencies, including the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, are anxious over their ability to provide winter shelter to the hundreds of thousands living in "a totally war-ravaged area."

Members of the press questioned Mr. Egeland about the recent attack on a Russian hospital, the practical constraints of being able to access Aleppo, the some 700 wounded and sick children who remain in the city, and the status of talks between the United States and Russia.

Mr. Egeland condemned the recent attack that left several at the Russian hospital dead, adding that so far 770 health workers have been killed throughout the war. He also referred to "desperate appeals from inside Aleppo" and said that while Russia was committed to discussing how to organize evacuations, it would not promise a pause.

He shared that in the coming hours, stakeholders would concentrate on how to make evacuations possible and hoped that co-chairs of the United States-Russia talks would be able to provide "the beginning of something better."

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Kerry 'Hopeful' About Aleppo Ceasefire Agreement with Russia

By VOA News December 08, 2016

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday said the Syrian government has stopped all active military operations in Aleppo and a meeting has been scheduled Saturday between U.S. and Russian military experts to discuss the situation moving forward.

"An agreement has been reached for our military experts and diplomats to meet on Saturday in Geneva to finish the work that was being done on all these days on the document that defines ways and means for a final solution of the problem of eastern Aleppo according to which all the militants leave it as well as those civilians who want to do so," Lavrov said.

Earlier in the day Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said he was "hopeful" about a potential ceasefire agreement with Russia to end fighting in Aleppo.

After meeting with Lavrov, Kerry told reporters he was still waiting for "certain feedback and input," but said "we're working on something here," without going into further detail.

Earlier Thursday, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad indicated that his soldiers would continue to fight until the five-year-old conflict is over.

Assad made the vow in an interview published Thursday in the state-owned newspaper al-Watan, one day after Syria's Russian-backed army gained control over three-quarters of Aleppo's Old City, which had been under rebel control since 2012.

Assad said a victory in Aleppo would not mean an end to the war, but represents a huge step towards that end.

The president also rejected any thoughts of a truce in Aleppo, as long as the rebels remain in the city. Rebel forces have proposed a five-day cease-fire to ensure the humanitarian evacuation of civilians, promising to discuss the future of Aleppo once that had been achieved.

Jan Egeland, senior advisor to the United Nations Special Envoy for Syria, said during a press briefing said the Syrian government had given the U.N. permission to access eastern Aleppo, but the organization was helpless to transport aid into the city if there was no pause in fighting.

"A humanitarian corridor is only a humanitarian corridor if there is ceasefire in and around the corridor," he said. "There has to be a pause. At the moment those who try to go through the crossing point, try to escape are caught in cross fire, they are caught in shelling, they are, they risk being hit by snipers."

Egeland said he had been in contact with Russian officials, who promised him there would be an evacuation organized, but the officials failed to promise a pause in the fighting.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said Thursday that it had evacuated about 150 civilians in need of urgent medical care from a hospital in the Old City. "Many of them cannot move and need special attention and care," ICRC spokeswoman Marianne Gasser told reporters.

Tens of thousands of civilians are thought to be trapped in eastern Aleppo despite a huge surge of refugees fleeing in the past two weeks for the relative safety of government-controlled western districts. Monitors last week estimated that 18,000 civilians in the east had moved into western neighborhoods and more than 9,000 others into a Kurdish-controlled district.

The United States, along with Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Britain, called Wednesday for an immediate cease-fire in Aleppo and condemned Russia for interfering with attempts to bring humanitarian aid to those civilians trapped in the Syrian city.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors and reports on Syria's civil war, says 369 civilians have been killed in the offensive on east Aleppo, including 45 children. Another 92 civilians - including 34 children - were killed by rebel shelling on government-held west Aleppo.

U.N. special envoy Stefan de Mistura said last week he expected eastern Aleppo to fall to government forces by the end of December, without a negotiated settlement to end the four-year rebel occupation.

State Department correspondent Steve Herman contributed to this report.

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EU Warns Against Attacks on Civilian Infrastructure in Aleppo - Source

Sputnik News

00:20 09.12.2016

The European Union called on all the parties concerned not to attack civil infrastructure and to provide civilians with the opportunity to receive humanitarian relief after the shelling of Russian hospital in Aleppo, a EU representative told RIA Novosti Thursday.

BRUSSELS (Sputnik)  On Monday, the Russian mobile military hospital in Aleppo was shelled, allegedly by the Syrian opposition militants, killing two military medics and wounding another. Soon after the attack, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow regretted that the international community had shown a rather reserved reaction to the shelling.

"As far as we understand, those facts are being investigated. All parties to the conflict must abide by international law and refrain from indiscriminate attacks on civilians and civil infrastructure," the EU representative said, commenting on the incident.

The EU representative added that it was important to ensure humanitarian access to the Aleppo citizens as well as safe medical evacuation.

Over the recent months, Aleppo became a major battleground in Syria, which has been in the state of civil war since 2011. The battles around Aleppo involve government forces, jihadists, and numerous opposition groups. Eastern Aleppo is currently encircled by government troops, and the fighting has affected thousands of civilians still trapped in the city. The recent Damascus' offensive has resulted in liberation of large territories in the eastern part of Aleppo.

 Sputnik

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After the rancorous US election campaign, and President-elect Donald Trumps oft-repeated promise to build a wall between the United States and Mexico , international attention has very much been on that northern border. The situation along Mexicos porous 1,000-kilometer southern frontier with Guatemala, meanwhile, has made far fewer headlines.

Migrants detained in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas. CUARTOSCURO

More information Mexico detiene al dia a 522 migrantes

But in 2015 alone, Mexican authorities detained 190,366 people on that border who were trying to reach the United States  that is a total of 522 people a day and is the highest figure seen since 2005, with the Mexican governments Programa Frontera Sur (Southern Border Program) largely responsible for this spike.

Under the initiative, which was designed to stem the flow of people passing through on their way to the US, there has been a jump in the number of operations aimed at capturing immigrants entering Mexico.

These detainees remain deprived of their liberty in centers run by the National Institute of Migration (INM) for months on end, according to a new report by the Mexican migrant rights group Sin Fronteras (Without Borders).

What do these people have to lose if their life is in danger in their own countries? Sin Fronteras report

In the middle of 2015, the result was clear: the program meant there were more Central American migrants being detained in Mexico than in the United States, says the group in its Detention without Exception report.

The Frontera Sur program was launched in 2014 by Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto together with the then-president of Guatemala, Otto Perez Molina. Enrique Pena at the time made assurances that the aim of the program was to safeguard the rights of migrants entering the country and boost security in the region as a whole. To ensure an orderly flow at the border, people crossing would be presented with either a cross-border worker pass or a card for regional visitors.

But migrant-rights groups have accused the new program of making it even more dangerous for people traveling without documents by forcing people smugglers to push their activities further underground.

The Sin Fronteras organization argues that the implementation of the Southern Border Program against a backdrop of high levels of violence across Mexico has seen migrants putting their welfare in the hands of the hitmen and gangs who control the countrys illegal immigration networks  sometimes in collaboration with the authorities. In early October, authorities in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas exposed an illegal immigration network operated by municipal police and headed up by the brother of the mayor of the town of Chiapa de Corzo.

There were more Central American migrants being detained in Mexico than in the United States in 2015

The report by Sin Fronteras stresses that the number of migrants entering the country from the south continues to rise despite the expansion and militarization of operations targeting this group, with authors noting that people who are seeking a better life are capable of confronting even the most sophisticated systems of control.

What do these people have to lose if their right to life is in constant danger in their own countries? the report asks.

From 2000 to 2015, a total of 2.1 million undocumented migrants were detained in Mexico and placed in detention centers.

During this process, these people faced a series of violations of their human rights, which range from a lack of information as they were processed through the system, to physical and mental health problems and limited access to resources to help them mount a defense, said United Nations Commission on Human Rights representative Alan Garcia at an event marking the release of the Sin Fronteras report.

English version by George Mills.
Taiwan will continue to cooperate with new U.S. administration

ROC Central News Agency

2016/12/08 20:04:56

Taipei, Dec. 8 (CNA) Premier Lin Chuan () said on Thursday that the government will continue to cooperate with United States President-elect Donald Trump's administration in the areas of trade, economics, security and others, based on existing bilateral relations, according to a press release issued by the Cabinet.

Speaking at a meeting with members of a delegation from the National Committee on American Foreign Policy (NCAFP), a U.S. nonprofit, nonpartisan activist organization dedicated to the resolution of conflicts that threaten U.S. interests, Lin said the development of Taiwan-U.S. relations has strong bipartisan support in the U.S.

Lin was quoted as saying "we will closely cooperate with the new U.S. administration and seek to further deepen bilateral ties."

The premier also expressed the hope that the U.S. will continue to help Taiwan in its efforts to participate in international organizations.

During the meeting, Lin exchanged opinions with his guests on a wide range of topics, including Taiwan's policies on foreign affairs, cross-strait relations and industrial development, the statement indicated.

The NCAFP delegation, headed by the organization's president Rosemary DiCarlo, is currently visiting Taiwan.

(By Tai Ya-chen and Romulo Huang)

enditem/AW

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Turkey's Post-Coup Purge Weakening NATO Military Alliance

Sputnik News

19:33 08.12.2016(updated 19:35 08.12.2016)

There has been an almost 50 percent reduction in the number of Turkish military officers in NATO, a US General has admitted. The scale back is as a result of the ongoing crackdown against Turkish military officers, ordered by president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, following a failed coup bid on July 15th.

US General Curtis Scaparrotti admitted at a NATO meeting in Brussels on December 7 that NATO was being out under increasing pressure by Ankara.

One hundred and fifty Turkish soldiers have been forced to leave their positions, as part of the ongoing crackdown on the Turkish military by the government.

General Scaparrotti acknowledged that losing so many seasoned soldiers so quickly had "placed an extra load on our remaining people" and on the organization.

"The Turkish have a fairly sizeable number of officers that were either detained, some recalled from here, that worked for us here, and some retired from active service."

General Scaparotti said that he was worried for the officers:

"My concern is about the care for them and their families as well."

In a debacle that is stunting both Turkey's military ambitions in Syria, as well as its role in NATO, Mr. Erdogan is continuing to exact revenge and weed out his nation's military structures.

The Turkish Air Force has been hit particularly hard. At least 300 officers have been dismissed, leading to the grounding of five F-16 fighter squadrons.

In November 2016, Turkey's own Defense Minister, Fikri Isik, said that the Turkish Armed Forces now need to recruit more than 30,000 new personnel, some of them currently just students, over the next four years.

Meanwhile, Turkey still has NATO obligations to maintain. Since its accession in 1952, Turkey has been seen by Europe as a vital bulwark against threats to the continent's outer borders. Its strategic geographical location hosts important military bases, and in 2015 Turkey paid 2.1% of it's GDP into the military alliance  that's a significantly higher percentage than many of its fellow NATO members, including Germany (1.2%) and Canada (1%).

Indeed, the admission of the strain on Turkish military personnel comes shortly after NATO chief General Jen Stoltenberg highlighted the importance of Turkey in NATO, particularly with regards to relations with Russia.

On Monday 5th December, General Stoletenberg said:

"The fact that Turkey's talking to Russia is not contradicting the fact that Turkey is a committed and key NATO ally, actually, for NATO it is a part of our approach to Russia that we talk to them."

Republican presidential candidate businessman Donald Trump gestures during the Republican Presidential Debate, hosted by CNN, at The Venetian Las Vegas on December 15, 2015 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

 AFP 2016/ Robyn Beck Trump Says NATO 'Obsolete', US Paying Too Much for Joint Defense So, now NATO is facing an existential crisis on several fronts. There are serious uncertainties over the recently approved "EU Army" and how it may undermine the clout of NATO.

Furthermore, US president-elect Donald Trump has displayed a stony antipathy towards the military alliance, hinting that he may withdraw support for NATO, if other members do not pay more into the organization themselves.

The forced removal of experienced Turkish soldiers, will do little to improve morale or provide stability.

 Sputnik

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British Gov't Distances Itself From Boris Johnson's Saudi, Iran 'Proxy War' Comments

December 08, 2016

The British government has distanced itself from comments made by Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson who accused Iran, Britain's ally Saudi Arabia, and other Middle Eastern states of engaging in "proxy wars."

Prime Minister Theresa May's spokeswoman Helen Bower said they are Johnson's own views and do not reflect Britain's policy on Saudi Arabia and its role in the region.

The Guardian newspaper published on December 7 footage of a conference in Rome last week in which Johnson talks of Middle Eastern politicians "twisting and abusing religion and different strains of the same religion in order to further their own political objectives."

The foreign secretary said there was a lack of "big characters" in the region who were willing to "reach out beyond their Sunni or Shi'ite or whatever group to the other side and bring people together and to develop a national story again."

"That is what's lacking," he added. "And that's the tragedy."

He went on, saying "that's why you've got the Saudis, Iran, everybody, moving in and puppeteering and playing proxy wars."

The video emerged as British Prime Minister Theresa May said she was "clear-eyed about the threat" that Iran poses to the Middle East and said she would work with Persian Gulf nations to "counter that threat."

She made the comments on December 7 to Gulf Cooperation Council representatives from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry responded by saying Britain is "not in a position to accuse others of interfering in regional affairs."

Based on reporting by The Guardian

Source: http://www.rferl.org/a/boris-johnson-iran-saudi -arabia-proxy-wars/28163215.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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287M for two more Royal Navy ships as work begins on the next

8 December 2016

Work starts on new Royal Navy ship as MOD signs 287M contract to build two more Offshore Patrol Vehicles in the UK.

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) has signed a manufacturing and support contract worth 287 million to build two more Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPVs) for the Royal Navy, safeguarding hundreds of Scottish jobs.

Minister for Defence Procurement, Harriett Baldwin will announce the contract today to build the two new ships, named HMS Tamar and HMS Spey, shortly before pressing the button at the Govan shipyard to cut the first steel on HMS Tamar.

The contract with BAE Systems Maritime  Naval Ships boosts the UK's fleet of next generation River class OPVs from three to five ships. These five ships will begin to enter service in 2018, in support of the Royal Navy's mission to protect national interests at home and around the world.

The work enabled by the 287 million contract will include the building of HMS Tamar and HMS Spey as well as support for all five of the new ships.

Work on the five new vessels is sustaining 800 jobs at shipyards on the Clyde through contracted work and by guaranteeing the crucial manufacturing skills needed to build the Navy's future Type 26 Frigates. The OPV programme sustains around 800 Scottish shipbuilding jobs on the Clyde with additional jobs sustained at more than 100 companies in the UK supply chain.

Minister for Defence Procurement Harriett Baldwin said:

"This contract will deliver two more modern Offshore Patrol Vessels, HMS Tamar and HMS Spey, for the Royal Navy and safeguard vital shipbuilding skills and hundreds of jobs in Scotland."

"Protected by a rising Defence budget, the OPV programme is an important part of the Government's 178 billion plan to ensure our armed forces have the equipment they need."

HMS Tamar and HMS Spey will be manufactured at the Govan shipyard before being floated to Scotstoun to be fitted out. They are expected to be delivered in 2019.

Chief Executive Officer at the MOD's Defence Equipment and Support Organisation, Tony Douglas, said:

"This agreement will deliver two more Offshore Patrol Vessels which the Royal Navy will use to protect the nation's interest at home and around the world."

"These modern ships will have a versatile flight deck, improved firefighting equipment and greater storage and accommodation than previous vessels, giving UK sailors a decisive advantage on a huge range of operations."

Like the other vessels of its class, HMS Tamar and HMS Spey will carry out counter-terrorism, anti-piracy, anti-smuggling and maritime defence operations, and are expected to be equipped with a 30mm cannon and a flight deck capable of receiving a Merlin helicopter.

Displacing around 2,000 tonnes, they will have a maximum speed of 24 knots and will be able to sail 5,500 nautical miles before having to resupply.

BAE Systems is currently exploring a number of export opportunities with international customers for OPV. The Brazilian Navy operates three Amazonas Class corvettes which are based on the design of the River Class OPV and were built at BAE Systems' facilities in the UK.



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US to Help With Training Up to Four Ukrainian Battalions in 2017

Sputnik News

01:12 08.12.2016(updated 01:24 08.12.2016)

The United States will advise on training up to four battalions in Ukraine throughout 2017, 7th Army Training Command spokesperson Lacey Justinger told Sputnik.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  The US advisors will focus on advising Ukrainians as they train up to four battalions, Justinger said.

"Beginning in January 2017, Joint Multinational Training Group-Ukraine, under the oversight of US Army Europe and the 7th Army Training Command, will focus on advising Ukrainians as they train up to four battalions throughout the year," Justinger said on Wednesday.

In July 2015, the Pentagon announced that the country would continue training and advising Ukrainian security forces in the country's west.

"As part of this mission, the US Army will work with the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense on training center, cadre, and institutional level development," Justinger said.

The spokesperson noted that the American training mission is currently in transition from being led on the ground by the California Army National Guard to the Oklahoma Army National Guard.

The effort of the Joint Multinational Training Group-Ukraine will contribute to the country's long-term military reform and help improve Ukraine's defense capabilities and training capacity, the spokesperson said.

"This effort is part of our long-running defense cooperation with Ukraine, is taking place at the invitation of the Ukrainian government, and is authorized by Congress until September 2017," Justinger concluded.

Since 2014, the United States has provided Ukraine with $600 million in military assistance, including training, equipment and reform advisory effort, according to the US Department of Defense.

 Sputnik

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Alan Burkitt-Gray speaks to Don MacNeil, chief operating officer of GTT, about its company restructuring after coming out of Chapter 11 and its strategic roadmap for the next 12 months.
After an 18-month delay, Spain is to send a further 100 military personnel to Iraq, increasing its presence there to 400. It will also extend the presence of its Patriot anti-missile batteries in Turkey, and for the third year running, contribute four fighter jets to the NATO force monitoring the air space over the Baltic republics, along with a mechanized unit to Latvia, also under the command of NATO.

Spain's Colonel Julio Salom, right, commander of the Besmayah base. MINISTERIO DE DEFENSA

The measures, delayed by the 10-month political impasse following inconclusive elections in December 2015, were announced on Tuesday by Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis at a NATO meeting of foreign ministers to bid farewell to US Secretary of State John Kerry.

Among the personnel being sent to Iraq will be 25 members of the Civil Guard, who have been specifically requested by the government in Baghdad to help train police officers to be sent to areas liberated from ISIS.

A total of 2,235 military personnel, including Civil Guard officers, are based abroad

The Spanish mission participating in the international coalition against ISIS has already trained some 6,000 Iraqi soldiers since the first forces arrived at Besmayah base, 40 kilometers south of Baghdad, in February 2015, according to the Spanish Defense Ministry.

Spain is part of a US-led global coalition in Iraq made up of 65 countries, with 21 involved in training members of the Iraqi Armed Forces.

Spanish troops in Iraq are mainly involved in training Iraqi troops in dealing with improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

A team of Spanish green berets has recently been stationed at a base near Mosul to train Iraqi commando units that have been actively involved in fighting to recapture territory held by ISIS.

Spanish troops have already trained some 6,000 Iraqi soldiers

Spain has agreed to keep Spanish Patriot missile batteries at the Incirlik for another six months to protect Turkey from potential threats from neighboring Syria.

Despite the purge of thousands of members of the Turkish military in the wake of the failed coup this summer, among them many who were due to contribute to NATO units, the United States and its allies have not criticized President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is seen as a key ally against Russia, Syria and Iran.

Spain is to join the Canadian-led 1,000-strong NATO battalion posted to Latvia in the wake of Russias annexation of Crimea in the spring of 2014.

The country will continue its presence over Baltic airspace to protect against Russian incursions as part of a mission based in Amari, in Estonia. Some 100 Spanish military personnel have been there since 2015.

Before the end of the year the Cabinet is expected to approve the continuation of all Spains overseas military missions. A total of 2,235 personnel from the army, navy and air force, along with the Civil Guard, are based abroad. In Lebanon, they are part of an international team monitoring a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. The country also takes part in the EUs Operation Atalanta mission to reduce piracy in the Indian Ocean, as well as patrolling the central Mediterranean as part of efforts to combat people trafficking from Libya, and in Mali, where soldiers help train the army to defeat Jihadists operating in the Sahel.

English version by Nick Lyne.
William Wolf saw a vehicle sitting in the median as he drove to work. He stopped to see if he could offer assistance to the driver.

What Wolf saw inside was a man with a gunshot wound to the back of his head.

This began the investigation of a double murder-suicide by Danville police and Pittsylvania County sheriffs deputies Thursday morning.

The running vehicle parked in the median led police to find the bodies of Linda Lawson Milam, 53, and Mark Steven Duncan, 57, at 908 Luna Lake Road, where Danville firefighters were called to the house Thursday morning for a structure fire.

Their deaths are the 15th and 16th homicides in Danville this year.

Wolf, a newspaper carrier, saw a car sitting in the median around 2 a.m. Thursday, he told the Danville Register & Bee.

The vehicle was still running, and had its headlights on, Wolf said. He observed the driver hunched over in the car and called 911.

When more than 10 minutes passed, he went to the vehicle to investigate.

Using a flashlight, Wolf said he observed the inside of the car and saw who police identified as Dylan Roy Milam, 25, sitting in the drivers seat with a gunshot wound to the back of his head. Police said the wound appeared to be self-inflicted.

Wolf caught a glimpse of the scope of the gun inside the vehicle, he said. The barrel of the gun was pointing up at the driver.

Wolf thinks it was a short style rifle. He called 911 back with what he saw.

It turned my stomach, Wolf said. It was a pretty gruesome sight.

When Pittsylvania County sheriffs deputies arrived, they questioned him and I let them do their investigation, he said.

Deputies used an emergency window punch to gain entry into the vehicle, Wolf said.

The vehicle was registered to 908 Luna Lake Road, and Danville police went there to continue the investigation.

Upon arrival, police found the house on fire and called Danville firefighters and rescue personnel for assistance.

In the process of extinguishing the fire, members of the Danville Fire Department discovered two deceased individuals inside of the residence, according to a Danville police news release.

Linda Milam and Duncan were identified as the victims, the news release continued. The two had injuries consistent with gunshot wounds.

The bodies of all three people have been transported to the Roanoke Medical Examiners Office for further investigation.

The Danville Police Department and the Pittsylvania County Sheriffs Office are working on the case, but a suspect is not being sought in the case.
State legislators are seeking leadership roles on the Board of Directors at the New College Institute out of what they describe as frustration over the direction of the 10-year-old higher education center in Martinsville.

The board is scheduled today to consider changes recommended by its bylaws committee that would allow legislative members to serve as officers on the governing body as well as on its executive committee.

If the board approves the changes, legislators intend to nominate state Sen. William M. Stanley Jr., R-Franklin County, as chairman, as well as potentially one other legislative member as an officer and two on the executive committee.

Stanley recently confirmed publicly his interest in running for attorney general next year, but he said this week he would not seek statewide office if he is elected chairman of the New College board.

This is not about politics or my political future, he told the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Its about the future of the New College Institute and Southside Virginia.

If I am elected chairman, I can assure you were going to do great things for NCI and I will not run for attorney general, he said.

Del. Daniel C. Marshall, R-Danville, said this week that he also is interested in a leadership role on the institute board. Id like to at least be on the executive committee, Marshall said in an interview Thursday.

Five legislators already serve on the institute board under an exemption from the state prohibition against members of the legislative branch serving on the governing boards of executive branch agencies under the separation-of-powers article of the Constitution of Virginia. The prohibition prevents those who make laws from having the power to execute them.

The exemption also applies to 20 other governing boards of executive agencies, including the Roanoke Higher Education Center and Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center, both of which are chaired by state senators, as well as the Southside Virginia Higher Education Center and, most recently, the Virginia Growth and Opportunity, or GO Virginia, board.

In addition to Stanley and Marshall, the board includes Senate Finance Co-Chairman Emmett W. Hanger Jr., R-Augusta; Del. Charles D. Poindexter, R-Franklin County; and Del. Les R. Adams, R-Pittsylvania.

Hanger said this week that he supports the bylaw change to allow legislators to serve as officers in part because the current chairwoman, Gracie Agnew, has indicated to him that she does not want to serve another term. Agnew did not respond to a request for comment.

I think its probably a good thing, particularly at this moment, Hanger said.

Uncertain future

The expected move comes amid uncertainty over the future of the institute. It was founded in 2006 to complete four-year degrees for residents of economically depressed areas of Southside but had positioned itself as a regional asset for workforce training under former state Sen. William C. Wampler Jr., R-Bristol, who retired last year as its executive director.

The Times-Dispatch reported in August 2015 that Wampler had received total compensation of $450,000 a year during his 3-year term as executive director, during which he used his influence at the General Assembly and what now is called the Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission to raise $19.2 million to build a technologically advanced center in a long-neglected area of Martinsville.

Now, the New College is looking for a new, permanent leader and considering a proposal to affiliate with Longwood University in the face of pressure by the Harvest Foundation, a community nonprofit organization that committed $50 million in 2006 to create an institution to award four-year degrees in the region.

On Sept. 1, the Harvest Foundation informed the New College Foundation, formed to support the institute, that it would condition the release of almost $26 million remaining under the challenge grant either to establishing the New College as a new four-year college or university or becoming a branch of an existing state university.

However, the Harvest Foundation recognizes that the NCI Board and the commonwealth may choose to decline to either of the foregoing alternatives and determine that a path other than a four-year college or university is best for NCI and the community, Senior Program Officer F. DeWitt House Jr. wrote to NCI Foundation Chairman Kimble Reynolds Jr.

While we will respect NCIs and the commonwealths right to make that decision, it would not satisfy the state purpose or the requirements of the Challenge Grant, which would terminate at the end of the Transition Grant period, House wrote.

Harvest agreed to provide $450,540 for transition costs through the end of the year, with a final report due Jan. 31.

Allyson K. Rothrock, executive director of the Harvest Foundation, said the initiative always has been based on the need to provide opportunities for higher education in an area in which few people have one.

One of the reasons we went after the higher education opportunity was because our numbers were so low for baccalaureate degrees and graduate degrees, she said.

Rothrock said just 8.6 percent of the population of Martinsville and Henry County have a four-year college degree, and about 11 percent in the region did more than 10 years ago.

Our challenge is still the same challenge, she said.

The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia has considered the options for the institute, which the General Assembly directed in the budget to develop a comprehensive plan for providing higher education programs.

After considerable consultation with legislative, executive, higher education and community leaders, I conclude that the best path for educational progress in the Martinsville/Henry County area is to imbed the educational assets of the New College Institute within Longwood University, SCHEV Director Peter Blake told legislative leaders in a letter Nov. 9.

One challenge of the NCI model is the lack of institutional investment, Blake said. A strong, more visible and intentional affiliation with Longwood will help to overcome that hurdle.

Such an affiliation should not be a branch campus in the traditional sense, in which programs from the main campus are replicated afar, he added. In fact, based on conversations with legislative leaders and others in the community, I conclude that the university should consider establishing a unit of Longwood designed specifically to meet the higher education needs of Martinsville, Henry County and the surrounding region.

Rothrock, at Harvest, said Longwood President W. Taylor Reveley IV worked closely with former Gov. Gerald L. Baliles in developing legislation more than a decade ago to create the New College Institute.

He understands higher education can make a difference here, she said of Reveley. Weve got an interested party with the resources at their fingertips that we desperately need.

Longwoods interest

Reveley confirmed his longstanding interest in the New College and its mission. Longwood cares about Southside deeply, always has, he said.

The university has worked closely with the New College since its founding, particularly in helping education students complete their four-year degrees. Weve got open ears and are receptive to NCI reaching out to us, the president said.

But Stanley and some other legislators on the board have other ideas, expressed in a resolution they intend to introduce in the General Assembly session that will begin Jan. 11. The resolution would direct SCHEV to study the possibility of allowing Patrick Henry and Danville community colleges to award baccalaureate degrees.

The draft resolution does not mention the New College, but Stanley said the idea would be for the institute and community colleges to work together in providing four-year degrees in the fields of engineering, information technology and nursing.

We feel it is necessary to take action now so that all of the progress that has been made not continue to be stalled, Stanley said in an interview. We cant afford to do nothing.

Marshall said the budget had directed the institute to develop a strategic plan for the future this fall. Basically, it was not done, he said.

Stanley said he and some other legislators are frustrated by the boards failure to hire a new executive director or even formally consider the permanent appointment of interim Executive Director Leanna Blevins, who has been with the institute since its inception more than 10 years ago.

However, Hanger said the decision on a new leader should wait until decisions are made about the institutes future.

You dont go out and recruit somebody until you decide where youre going to go with the institute, he said.

Stanley said he and Marshall also feel thwarted in efforts to establish a well-defined mission for the institute or a formal memorandum of understanding with the New College Foundation, which owns the 52,000-square-foot Building on Baldwin and rents it to the institute for about $300,000 a year.

Since joining the New College board four years ago, Stanley said he had seen great strides in getting a top-of-the-line education center for Southside Virginia for educating our children.

Subsequently, he said those gains had been threatened by a lack of action.

Ultimately, Marshall said the decision about the New Colleges future, either with Longwood or some other party, would have to be approved by the General Assembly and its budget committees.

General Assembly members know how to make it work, he said.
The United States government has issued an updated travel warning to its citizens who are planning to go to Mexico, noting that US nationals have been the victims of violent crimes, including homicide, kidnapping, carjacking, and robbery in various Mexican states.

Soldiers training in Mexico.

More information EE UU renueva la alerta de viaje a Mexico por la violencia

In one sense, the warning is little more than a formality. It is regularly updated for Mexico as it is for 20 other countries, and the US State Department notes the extensive effort to counter criminal organizations that engage in narcotics trafficking and other unlawful activities throughout Mexico, as well as efforts to ensure safety at major tourist destinations.

However, US authorities also warn of the dangers of a country caught up in a decade-long drug war, noting that gun battles between rival criminal organizations or with Mexican authorities have taken place on streets and in public places during broad daylight.

There were 29,000 murders in Mexico from January to September 2016

As a result, US citizens have also been urged to defer non-essential travel to locations including parts of the states of Chihuahua and Colima, and a handful of cities in Mexico State as well as most of Michoacan, Guerrero, Sinaloa and Tamaulipas.

The following states are not subject to any specific US travel warnings: Campeche, Chiapas, Guanajuato, Hidalgo, Mexico City, Puebla, Queretaro, Tabasco, Tlaxcala, Veracruz and Yucatan.

The US travel warning comes against a backdrop of rising violence in Mexico, with 29,000 murders registered in the country in the year to the end of September. Of those murders, 16,749 were assassinations. If that trend continues for the rest of the year, 2016 will be the most violent 12 months since Mexicos embattled President Enrique Pena Nieto came to office in 2016.

The US warning notes Mexicos extensive effort to counter criminal organizations

A UCLA study published in January said the rise in the number of homicides in Mexico from 2000 to 2010 has reduced the average life expectancy of its citizens.

According to the study, life expectancy among men who live in the north, the most violent part of the country, had fallen by three years over the period.

Mexico continues to make headlines for all the wrong reasons. Recently, police in Mexicos Gulf Coast state of Veracruz said 14 criminal suspects had been killed in a gun battle with a patrol of Mexican marines.

English version by George Mills.
LONDON, ENGLAND--(Marketwired - Dec 9, 2016) - Condor Gold (AIM:CNR), the AIM-listed gold exploration company, is pleased to announce it has reached terms of a settlement with B2Gold Corp. ("B2Gold") and Royal Gold Inc. ("Royal Gold") over a disputed Net Smelter Return Royalty ("NSR") over part of Condor's flagship La India Project in Nicaragua, which hosts a high grade NI 43-101 compliant mineral resource estimate of 18.08 Mtonnes at 4.0 g/t for 2.31 Moz gold. Condor is also acquiring from B2Gold approximately 3,508 hectares of land surface rights which cover the area of the estimated mineral resource and reserves and the proposed mine site infrastructure.

Highlights:

Condor reaches terms of a settlement on 3% NSR with B2Gold and Royal Gold.

The settlement clears the way for the Project to advance towards the construction of a 1Mtpa processing plant with capacity to produce 100,000 oz gold p.a. from a single open pit.

Purchase from B2Gold of 3,508 hectares of land surface rights covering the mine site infrastructure and the area of the mineral resource and reserve.

Purchase of land surface rights from B2Gold removes an obstacle and allows the project to progress.

Settlement of NSR dispute and purchase of land surface rights de-risks the Project.

Mark Child, CEO comments:

"I am pleased to have negotiated the terms of the settlement over a 3% NSR on part of Condor's La India Project. It ends four years of litigation in the Canadian and Nicaragua courts with B2Gold and Royal Gold. It clears the way to progress Mina La India to construction by providing clarity to potential funding partners over a protracted NSR dispute. I am equally pleased to have acquired surface rights in respect of 3,508 hectares of land from B2Gold, which covers the area of the mine site infrastructure required for the base case 1Mtpa processing plant with capacity to produce 100,000 oz gold p.a. from a single open pit. The purchase of the land surface rights removes an obstacle to construction, not least because B2Gold undertook litigation against Condor in Nicaragua in relation to these rights. The purchase of land surface rights will facilitate negotiations with local land owners and allows the project to progress forming part of Condor's strategy of de-risking the Project and achieving a clear path to production".

Background: In September 2010, Condor and B2Gold (the "Parties") entered into a legally binding agreement to swap concessions in Nicaragua (see RNS dated 6th September 2010). In summary, Condor owned the 22sq km Cerro Quiroz Concession, which is adjacent to B2Gold's producing mining on the La Libertad Concession and B2Gold owned the 65 sq km La India Concession. B2Gold wanted to acquire the Cerro Quiroz Concession as it increased its concession package adjacent to a producing gold mine. Condor had accumulated a package of four concessions that cover an area of 96 sq km around the historic gold mine on the La India Concession, had worked in the area for 4 years and was consolidating a concession package in La India Gold District. The Parties incorporated two new companies in Nicaragua. La India Gold S.A. which today is 100% owned by Condor and Cerro Quiroz S.A. which is currently 80% owned by B2Gold and 20% by Condor. The concession swap agreement resulted in the transfer of the La India Concession to La India Gold S.A. and the Cerro Quiroz Concession to Cerro Quiroz S.A. Condor was aware of a 3% NSR on the La India Concession at the time of the concession swap, but was not provided with a copy of the NSR agreement until almost 2 years later. After consulting legal counsel, the Board of Directors of Condor determined that the NSR was not applicable to the La India Concession. B2Gold and Royal Gold jointly sued Condor in Canada and B2Gold's Nicaragua subsidiary company, Triton Minera S.A. filed four court cases against Condor's local subsidiary in Nicaragua.

The Settlement: Condor has entered into an Amended and Restated Net Smelter Royalty Agreement ("A&R NSR Agreement") with International Royalty Corporation ("IRC", a subsidiary of Royal Gold), which is conditional upon (among other things) the withdrawal of all law suits in British Columbia, Canada and Nicaragua by B2Gold and Royal Gold against Condor and its affiliate companies (the "Settlement"). As part of the Settlement, Condor, B2Gold and IRC will enter into an Assignment, Assumption, Novation and Consent Agreement whereby Condor will assume the liability of a 3% NSR within an Area of Interest ("AOI") on La India Project in favour of IRC. In addition, the Settlement provides for covenants not to sue and releases to be mutually given by the parties in respect of matters relating to the Settlement. Due to a number of necessary steps required to withdraw litigation in the courts in Nicaragua and registering the security on the concessions impacted by the AOI as defined by the A&R NSR Agreement, it is expected that it may take three months for the Settlement to complete.

The La India Project covers an area of 313.4 sq km and comprises ten contiguous and adjacent concessions that are 100% owned by Condor; they have been acquired over a 10 year period. The four concessions total 96 sq km (El Rodeo, El Cacao, Real De La Cruz and Santa Barbara) acquired by Condor prior the concession swap with B2Gold are excluded from the 3% NSR under the A&R NSR Agreement. The La India Concession and some or all of the concessions acquired by Condor after the concession swap with B2Gold will be subject to the 3% NSR: La Cuchilla, Tierra Blanca, El Zacatoso, La Mojarra with the exception of the Espinito-Mendoza concession and the area covered by the former Espinito San Pablo concession. Condor estimates a total of 138.9 sq km is within the AOI. This means approximately 90% of the Company's current indicated and inferred resources on La India Project will be subject to a 3% NSR under the A&R NSR Agreement. An area of 174.5 sq km is excluded from the AOI and 3% NSR. See Map below:

To view the map, please visit the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/1079546.jpg

Acquisition of 3,508 Hectares of Land Surface Rights from B2Gold and disposal of 20% Cerro Quiroz S.A.

Following the execution and delivery of a settlement agreement to effect the Settlement, Triton Mineral S.A. will execute and deliver to Condor a document transferring certain land surface rights covering the area that hosts an estimated resource of 18.08 Mtonnes at 4.0 g/t for 2.31 Moz gold. In 1996, a predecessor company to B2Gold paid approximately US$720,000 to acquire approximately 3,508 hectares of land surface rights (known locally as possession rights) from over 120 individuals. As part of the Settlement, Condor will acquire these land surface rights from B2Gold in exchange for its 20% shareholding in Cerro Quiroz S.A. which owns the Cerro Quiroz Concession adjacent to La Libertad Concession. Condor is in the process of acquiring 800 to 1,000 hectares of rural land required for the mine site infrastructure to support a 1mtpa, 2,800tpd processing plant capable of processing 100,000 oz gold p.a. The area of the mine site infrastructure is within the 3,508 hectares of land surface rights. The acquisition of the land surface rights removes an obstacle and should greatly assist Condor's land acquisition team in its negotiations with local property vendors within the 3,508 hectares area.

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of EU Regulation 596/2014.

For further information please visit www.condorgold.com.

About Condor Gold plc:

Condor Gold plc was admitted to AIM on 31st May 2006. The Company is a gold exploration and development company with a focus on Central America.

Condor completed a Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) and two Preliminary Economic Assessments (PEA) on La India Project in Nicaragua in December 2014. The PFS details an open pit gold mineral reserve of 6.9 Mtonnes at 3.0 g/t gold for 675,000 oz gold, producing 80,000 oz gold pa for 7 years. The PEA for the open pit only scenario details 100,000 oz gold production pa for 8 years whereas the PEA for a combination of open pit and underground details 140,000 oz gold production pa for 8 years. La India Project contains a total attributable mineral resource of 18.08 Mtonnes at 4.0 g/t for 2.31 Moz gold and 2.68 Moz silver at 6.2 g/t to the CIM Code.

In El Salvador, Condor has an attributable 1,004,000 oz gold equivalent at 2.6 g/t JORC compliant resource. The resource calculations are compiled by independent geologists, SRK Consulting (UK) Limited for Nicaragua, and Ravensgate and Geosure for El Salvador.

Disclaimer

Neither the contents of the Company's website nor the contents of any website accessible from hyperlinks on the Company's website (or any other website) is incorporated into, or forms part of, this announcement.
TSX:TML

TORONTO, Dec. 9, 2016 /CNW/ - Treasury Metals ("Treasury Metals" or the "Company") (TSX: TML) is pleased to announce that due to strong investor demand, the Company has increased its previously announced non-brokered private placement of flow-through common shares from $2 million in aggregate gross proceeds to $2.5 million in aggregate gross proceeds (the "Offering"). All other terms and conditions of the Offering remain unchanged from the Company's initial announcement on December 7, 2016.

The $2.5 million gross proceeds of the Offering will be used for the advancement of the Company's Goliath Gold Project and to expand the successful exploration program including conversion of further underground resources to Indicated category for use in future feasibility level mine design. Additionally, proceeds from the Offering will also allow the Company to advance into the second phase of its current exploration program. The Phase II drilling program will focus on high-priority exploration targets directly to the northeast of the current resource area.

The Offering is expected to close on or about December 21, 2016. Closing of the Offering is subject to receipt of regulatory approvals, including the acceptance of the Offering by the Toronto Stock Exchange. The flow-through common shares issued pursuant to the Offering will be subject to a four-month hold period under applicable securities laws in Canada.

The Company may pay a finder's fee of 6% cash commission to certain parties with respect to services provided in connection with the Offering.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy the securities described herein in the United States. The securities described herein have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States or to the account or benefit of a U.S. person absent an exemption from the registration requirements of such Act.

To view further details about the Goliath Gold Project, please visit the Company's website at www.treasurymetals.com.

About Treasury Metals Inc.:

Treasury Metals Inc. is a gold focused exploration and development company with assets in Canada and is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange ("TSX") under the symbol "TML". Treasury Metals Inc.'s 100% owned Goliath Gold Project in northwestern Ontario is slated to become one of Canada's next producing gold mines. With first-rate infrastructure currently in place and gold mineralization extending to surface, Treasury Metals plans on the initial development of an open pit gold mine to feed a 2,500 per day processing plant with subsequent underground operations in the latter years of the mine life. Treasury Metals is currently in the mine permit process and working towards completion of a feasibility study on the Goliath Gold Project.

Follow us on Twitter @TreasuryMetals

Forward looking Statements

This release includes certain statements that may be deemed to be "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address events or developments that management of the Company expect, are forward-looking statements. Actual results or developments may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Treasury Metals disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, save and except as may be required by applicable securities laws.

SOURCE Treasury Metals Inc.
Toronto, Ontario (FSCwire) - Stans Energy Corp. (TSX-V: HRE, OTCQB: HREEF), ("Stans" or the "Company") announces amended closing terms to its previously announced non-brokered private placement financing (See Press Release dated September 13, 2016 and October 4, 2016, November 9, 2016).

The Proposed Offering of Common Shares

The closing of the private placement has been adjusted to December 28, 2016. The private placement financing is for a placement of up to $600,000 (the Offering Amount) consisting of up to 12,000,000 units at a price of $0.05 per Unit. Each Unit will consist of one common share in the capital of the Company and one share purchase warrant (each whole warrant a Warrant). Each Warrant will be exercisable to acquire one additional common share of the Company for a period of 60 months at a price of $0.06per common share.

6,050,000 common shares for gross proceeds of $302,500.00 were issued in this placement. Finders Fees of $2,000 were paid to Cannacord Gennuity. The Finders Fee represented 5% of the gross proceeds collected by Cannacord Gennuity with an allotment for 40,000 finders warrants which represented 5% of the shares issued to Cannacord Genuity clients who participated in Placement. The Finders Warrant are exercisable to acquire one common share of the Company at a price of $0.06 commencing on November 10, 2016 for a period of 60 months.

Combined Insider participation in the Placement totalled $55,000. Stans intends to use the gross proceeds from the Offering to fund the legal and technical due diligence for the Pervomayskiy Lithium Mineralization Stockpile (the Stockpile) and Zaibaikalsky Mill (the Mill) and associated infrastructure.

Stans intends to use the gross proceeds from the Offering to fund its ongoing corporate overhead and conducting of due diligence on the Pervomayskiy Lithium Mineralization Stockpile and Zaibaikalsky Mill. Proceeds will not be used to pay management fees, nor is it proposed to make payments to any related parties.

The Offering is open to all accredited investors and financial institutions, subject to certain limitations. Any existing shareholder interested in participating in the Offering should contact the Company in accordance with the contact information set forth below. The Company may pay registrants a cash commission of 5% of the gross proceeds of this Offering in respect of investors solicited or introduced by such registrants. Registrants will also be entitled to receive warrants to purchase that number of common shares of the Company as equals 5% of the total offering subscribed by investors solicited or introduced by such registrants, at an exercise price of $0.06 per share, for a term of 60 months.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Closing of the Offering will be subject to certain closing conditions, including the approval of the Toronto Stock Exchange.

About Stans Energy

Stans Energy Corp. is a resource development company focused on advancing rare and specialty metals properties and processing technologies Stans is now transitioning into a supplier of materials and technologies that will assist in satisfying the future energy supply, storage and transmission needs of the world. Previously, the Company acquired, among other things, the right to mine the past producing rare earth mine, Kutessay II, in the Kyrgyz Republic Due to the expropriation actions taken by the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic, the Company is undertaking international arbitration litigation to protect the Companys rights and recover damages estimated at over US$210,000,000, caused by the Republic.

We seek safe harbour.

Contact Details

Rodney Irwin David Vinokurov

Stans Energy Corp. Stan Energy Corp

Interim President & CEO VP Corporate Development

rodney@stansenergy.com david@stansenergy.com

647-426-1865 647-426-1865

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS: This document includes forward-looking statements as well as historical information. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, use of proceeds from the Offering, the completion of the Offering, the continued advancement of the company's general business development, research development and the company's development of mineral exploration projects. When used in this press release, the words will, shall, "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect", "intent", "may", "project", "plan", "should" and similar expressions may identify forward-looking statements. Although Stans Energy Corp. believes that their expectations reflected in these forward looking statements are reasonable, such statements involve risks and uncertainties and no assurance can be given that actual results will be consistent with these forward-looking statement. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ from these forward-looking statements include the potential that fluctuations in the marketplace for the sale of minerals, the inability to implement corporate strategies, the ability to obtain financing and other risks disclosed in our filings made with Canadian Securities Regulators.

To view this press release as a PDF file, click onto the following link:public://news_release_pdf/StansDec92016.pdfSource: Stans Energy Corp. (TSX Venture:HRE, OTCQB:HREEF)

To follow Stans Energy Corp. on your favorite social media platform or financial websites, please click on the icons below.

Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com

Copyright  2016 Filing Services Canada Inc.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) , Latin Americas oldest guerrilla group, declared a voluntary unilateral ceasefire last September after more than half a century of war, and decided to use words to defend their political ideals. This shift means, among other things, a transition from their bellicose tone to a more parliamentary register  as well as a language that is more suited to social media.

FARC guerrillas watch TV at a camp. JOAQUIN SARMIENTO (AFP)

To that end, rebel soldiers have started to publish posts via their YouTube channel and several Twitter profiles. Their last experiment was to have a go at the viral phenomenon known as the Mannequin Challenge.

The video Apartes de la vida guerrillera, or Snippets of Guerrilla Life, was published on December 7 on YouTube. The viewer first hears a rap tune accompanied by a guitar as the camera shows a rebel camp at an unknown location. As with all the Mannequin Challenge video, the viewer is taken on a tour around the scene, where all those who appear remain completely motionless, as if frozen in time.

There are no weapons in sight, now that the FARC no longer uses them as a symbol of their struggle

In this particular recording, there are no weapons in sight, now that the FARC no longer uses them as a symbol of their struggle. One group is working at their computers, another is playing chess, and a woman is speaking on a cellphone. Two soldiers greet one another, a few others are engaged in daily chores and three women are paying close attention to an explanation by someone who appears to be a teacher. The video shows their day-to-day life, according to what rebels say on their official Twitter profiles. FARC leaders have also shared the video on their own social media pages.

Just as Michelle Obama, Beyonce and Hillary Clinton used the viral Mannequin Challenge for their own ends, the FARC is making use of this strategy to separate what they see as the reality from the myth. There are no guns or military uniforms or any war paraphernalia on display  the scene could take place in any village in Colombia. They have been developing this strategy for months with other types of images: rebel soldiers who dream of studying, rebels who come from humble peasant stock, rebels who want peace, rebels who sing and dance Short clips of no more than two minutes in which they share good wishes over an emotional musical score that makes the viewer want to share  the recipe for any viral video.

Still, the videos have not reached as many viewers as hoped. The Mannequin Challenge got more than 2,000 views 24 hours after it was published on their YouTube channel, which only has a little over 1,000 subscribers, and on their Twitter profiles where 80,000 people follow. Their videos usually draw 400 to 1,000 views, apart from their version of Ode to Joy, Beethovens Symphony No. 9  that received more than 40,000 views.

FARC rebels appear to have learned the basic recipe for a viral video. They have disarmed, and many of their victims, tired of years of violence, have accepted their plea for forgiveness. But the stigma attached to the guerrilla group is stronger than the impact made by an emotional video of a rebel soldier  albeit one who has been stripped of all his war symbols.

English version by Dyane Jean Francois.
To OUR Gourmet Retailer Readers

While Gourmet Retailer no longer exists as a separate print publication and website, Progressive Grocer will continue to feature new content about boutique retailing in our ongoing coverage of Independent Grocers.

Please update your Gourmet Retailer bookmark and check our Independent Grocers topic page regularly for updates and fresh content.

-- The Progressive Grocer Team
A ways to go

'Hear our voice'

After serving three years as the lone woman in the S.C. Senate, Katrina Shealy is happy to have more company."The first two years, I'm not sure they knew I was there," the Lexington Republican said. "You know, every day it would be like: 'Gentlemen of the Senate -- wait, we've got to stop. We've got to start over again.' "That is slowly changing. Four women, including Shealy, were sworn in Tuesday to the state Senate, the most ever at one time in the State House's upper chamber.And while the percentage of State House seats held by S.C. women still pales in comparison to national averages, the Palmetto State's female senators say the growth of their ranks is a boon to the 46-member chamber, long dominated by men.The Senate's female membership grew to two last fall, when Margie Bright Matthews, D-Colleton, won a special election to replace state Sen. Clementa Pinckney, who was among the nine slain at Charleston's Emanuel AME Church in June 2015.Two more women were elected to the Senate last month, when former state Rep. Mia McLeod, D-Richland, and Charleston attorney Sandy Senn, a Republican, won seats."One hundred years after women got the right to vote, it's exciting to see some progress in our State House, and it's really important," said Julie Hussey, co-president of the League of Women Voters' South Carolina chapter.South Carolina now ranks 22nd in the country for gender parity in elected offices, up from 46th in the country in 1993, according to Representation 2020, a Maryland-based group that encourages women to seek public office.Still, women have a long way to go at the State House.Women make up 51.4 percent of South Carolina's population but held just 14.7 percent of the 170 seats in the S.C. Legislature last year, far below the national average of 24.4 percent.The State House also is no stranger to allegations of sexism. In 2001, an anonymous memo suggested female House pages wear revealing blouses and consider underwear "optional."Last year, state Sen. Tom Corbin, R-Greenville, publicly apologized after joking at a dinner with lawmakers that women are a "lesser cut of meat," a reference to Eve's creation from Adam's rib in the Bible.Shealy responded to Corbin's apology on the Senate floor by encouraging women not to be discouraged by obstacles to their success.Research has shown women are less likely to run for office for a myriad of reasons. For example, women still are responsible for the majority of child care and households tasks, are less likely to think they are qualified for office and are less likely to get suggestions that they run.The S.C. senators who recently have overcome those hurdles say they are excited to bring a stronger women's voice to the Senate."I'm very, very excited to be working with who I term my sister senators," Senn said. "While I'm certainly looking forward to working with my male colleagues, I do believe that women approach things differently, and we think differently."The four senators -- two Republicans and two Democrats -- already are thinking of forming a women's caucus to brainstorm issues they can rally behind.Women legislators, typically, are more sensitive to children's issues, and the needs of parents and working families, advocates say.Shealy, a Lexington Republican, said she hopes for the group's support this session in looking at the state's embattled Social Services Department and care for seniors. McLeod, a Richland Democrat, said she wants to improve on the state's dire domestic violence record and push for equal pay for women."It makes me hopeful about the future, just knowing that I serve alongside senators who understand what it's like to be a woman in this state and some of the challenges that are specific and unique to us," McLeod said.Doubling the number of women senators gives them a stronger voice, Bright Matthews said."Knowing that I have some fellow females here, neither myself nor Senator Shealy will be apprehensive about giving our perspective, because we know there will be other people out there who understand," Bright Matthews said. "Now that we have more numbers, I can assure you the Senate will see and hear our voice."Senate Minority Leader Nikki Setzler, D-Lexington, said that voice is valuable."They bring a perspective," he said. "It helps on any issue."'It engages. It empowers'Having a record number of women in the Senate also could inspire the next generation of women leaders, Bright Matthews and McLeod said."It engages. It empowers," McLeod said. "I saw that the whole time I was campaigning. Young women and little girls from across the state were engaged and paying attention."Bright Matthews said her family was surprised when she decided to run for the Senate in 2015. But then her four daughters took over her campaign, with help from her five sisters and her sorority sisters. Bright Matthews won with nearly 89 percent of the vote."When I go into my church and start talking, I see those young girls," she said. "They're ready. They saw how we did it."
Chaos on Capitol Hill ... and in Statehouses

San Bernardinos (Finally) on the Road to Recovery

Aging Pensions Problems

As state lawmakers begin preparing for their fiscal 2018 budgets, their biggest challenge is in the unknown. With Donald Trumps election, the future for key state and local funding is almost anybodys guess.With Trump in the White House next year, Stan Collender, author of, predicts that a Republican-controlled Congress will move quickly on making major changes before the 2018 midterm elections. But after this unpredictable election, few are willing to predict what exactly those changes will be. All we know now is whats on the table.In particular, Republicans in Congress and Trump's administration have proposed changes to Medicaid and municipal bond taxes that would yank millions of dollars in financial support for health care and make borrowing more expensive.Its going to be a constant series of uncertainty of whats going to happen, how its going to happen, when its going to happen and whos going to do it, warned Collender.That leaves little for states to count on when it comes to figuring out how much revenue they should expect from the federal government for certain programs. On average, federal funding accounts for 30 percent of a state's budget.Collenders advice for states is to start assessing their reliance on federal funds that could be impacted and to develop alternative budget scenarios in the event that those funds get trimmed. The same goes for planned capital spending: If financing becomes more expensive, governments will have to consider back-up plans or halting projects altogether.After four years in court, Southern Californias San Bernardino is closer than ever to exiting bankruptcy.Earlier this week, the judge presiding over the Chapter 9 case approved the citys recovery plan. In a three-page brief the city issued after the ruling, officials called it a watershed moment for San Bernardino.The recovery plan involves slashing bondholder debt and retiree health-care costs while protecting pensions. Some of the plan has already been implemented, such as consolidating the fire department at the county level and contracting out waste management services. Those department eliminations were the main way that San Bernardino reduced its employment rolls by almost half in four years -- from 1,140 to 600 people.San Bernardinos bankruptcy was unusually long . This is mainly because it was so unprepared to address its fiscal hardship until it was too late.City leaders were court-ordered to file for bankruptcy in August 2012 on an emergency basis. The following year was tumultuous. It wasnt until April 2013 that the city even assessed the reality of its finances. And that November, the mayor and city attorney were both recalled.But things have settled in recent years and started to look up: Last month, voters approved a new city charter that addresses many of San Bernardinos management issues.That San Bernardinos bankruptcy almost caught lawmakers by surprise makes it a little unique among the small club of municipalities that have gone through Chapter 9 bankruptcy in the past decade. But once it unpacked all its problems, it found the solutions werent that different from other municipal bankruptcies: manage the current costs and make uncomfortable cuts to set the city on a reasonable revenue path going forward.Given San Bernardinos particularly grueling process, its natural to celebrate the end being near. But its important to remember that exiting from bankruptcy is just the beginning for municipalities. In this respect, Chapter 9 is really a prologue for the story yet to be told.Pension plans have a host of issues, but one that doesnt get talked about as much is how investment strategy should relate to how old plans are.A quick explanation: When it comes to personal retirement investment portfolios, most financial professionals advise making investments less risky as a person approaches retirement age. That is, a portfolio that starts out mostly investing in less predictable but higher-yield stocks would slowly invest more in lower-yield but stable bonds.Pension plans dont need to make these kinds of shifts because they always have people entering the portfolio and exiting. However, that's changing.With public-sector hiring having slowed and baby boomers retiring, many pension plans are starting to skew "older." Some already have more retirees than active participants, and many are nearing a one-to-one ratio.Picking up on this, the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government released an analysis that highlights how pensions now have increased investment risk because of these demographic changes. The results arent encouraging.Taking the average funded level of pension plans -- 75 percent -- researchers looked at different possible scenarios. It found that a typical pension plan with a workforce thats increasing by 2 percent a year still has a 1 in 8 chance that its funding level will drop to crisis-level (less than 40 percent funded) in 30 years. By contrast, plan with a workforce thatsby 2 percent each year faces a 1 in 5 chance of hitting crisis level in the next 30 years. When looking at an aging plan, the numbers get worse. Even with a slightly growing workforce, a mature plan faces a 1 in 3 chance it will reach crisis level over the same time period.The institute didn't break out how many plans fall into each scenario, but it did note that about half of pension plans have hit the "mature" milestone where its current contributions into the fund aren't enough to cover annual payments to retirees. For these plans, investment income has to cover the rest or the fund loses money that year.This analysis is different from pension plans actuarial projections because the institute relied on a model that allows investment returns to vary in plausible ways. That's because the stock market has been more volatile over the past decade, and many people aren't sure whether pension plans' longstanding assumptions about investment returns will withstand the test of time.Some plans, like California Public Employees Retirement System, have a de-risking plan in place that involves adopting more conservative investment assumptions over time. But for plans that don't, the stakes are now higher if they dont perform as they have historically. Those stakes amount to increased risk that's passed on to taxpayers who have to foot the pension bill.
Among Republican ideas to transform the health care system is a proposal to allow health insurers to sell their policies across state lines.President-elect Donald Trump and Rep. Tom Price, the Georgia congressman picked by Trump to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, have backed the proposal. They and other advocates see it as a way to boost competition. The interstate sales idea is part of a general GOP blueprint to replace the 2010 Affordable Care Act, often called Obamacare.In Georgia, the interstate sale of health insurance has already had a five-year tryout.The state legislature in 2011 passed a bill letting insurers sell any policies in Georgia that they offer in other states. The legislation was hailed by supporters and business groups as a way to skirt the states required benefit coverages  such as screenings for cervical, prostate and colorectal cancer, along with mammograms  and thus lower the sticker price of insurance.The law is still in effect. But since it was passed, no health insurer has taken advantage of it.And since January, an obscure provision of the ACA has been in effect, letting individual states agree among themselves to allow sales by one anothers health insurance companies. Although several states have passed laws to move toward such a compact, none has made any deals to sell across state lines, insurance experts and regulators told The Hill in October.Each state has its own set of health insurance regulations, though large employers that self-insure (those that use their own funds to cover employees health expenses) are exempt from these state rules.Currently, the idea of eliminating barriers to interstate sales is drawing some opposition from state insurance regulators and insurance industry officials, The Wall Street Journal reported last week. That sounds like a silver bullet to solve a major problem, and there are no silver bullets, said Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon. There are no simple answers.Some Democrats have voiced concern about the erosion of state consumer protections.Graham Thompson, executive director of the Georgia Association of Health Plans, an industry group, said Wednesday that the GOP proposals aimed at helping health insurers are a positive change in tune after industry losses suffered under the Affordable Care Act.A federal law allowing interstate sales across the country could be different from the more limited Georgia experience, Thompson said. Well have to see the details.He said that one obstacle to insurers selling out-of-state policies in Georgia is that all health care is local  and all health care costs are local. So insurers would still have to strike contracts with local hospitals and other medical providers, Thompson noted.Bill Custer, a health insurance expert at Georgia State University, said a handful of other states have passed interstate insurance laws similar to Georgias, but the effect has been the same.State insurance regulators told the Journal that in states requiring locally licensed insurers to offer extensive coverage, healthy people might abandon those companies to buy bare-bones policies from out of state. That, in turn, would leave local plans insuring mostly people with health problems, who need broader, more expensive coverage. As the locally registered insurance companies absorb the financial hit, the state might feel pressure to relax standards to give them a break.But the proposals pushed by Price and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) would still require a minimum set of essential benefits at the federal level in order to qualify for tax credits, said Custer of Georgia State. So the effect of interstate insurance could be minimal, he said.Its unlikely to have a large effect on competition in any market, he said.An industry trade group, Americas Health Insurance Plans, said in a statement to Georgia Health News on Wednesday that our first interest is in providing consumers with competition and choice, which empowers them to better health and financial stability. We want to work with lawmakers to bring our experience and lessons learned to the table, and we want to cooperate and collaborate to find solutions that work for consumers.Cindy Zeldin, executive director of consumer group Georgians for a Healthy Future, said interstate sales would erode rights and protections for health care consumers, complicate their efforts to find in-network providers, and do little to nothing to improve affordability.More than 500,000 Georgians are at risk of losing their coverage if the ACA is repealed without an adequate replacement, she said. Buying a health insurance plan from Texas or Idaho isnt going to solve the problem, and would leave consumers in Georgia with little recourse if they were treated unfairly by an insurance company based in another state or in cases of fraud.
North Carolina's outgoing Republican Gov. Pat McCrory was briefly spotted in Trump Tower in New York City on Wednesday morning, but he gave no public indication about his meeting with President-elect Donald Trump.The meeting _ which was announced Tuesday by Trump's transition team _ came just two days after McCrory conceded to Democrat Roy Cooper, North Carolina's attorney general, in the state's gubernatorial race. McClatchy has made several unsuccessful attempts to reach McCrory's office since the meeting with Trump was announced.By visiting Trump on Wednesday, McCrory became the latest politician at the center of speculation over whether he'll land a job in the new administration. In total, Trump's transition team says, the president-elect has already met with more than 80 people at Trump Tower since Nov. 8.McCrory entered Trump Tower just after 10 a.m. Wednesday. The night before, he'd attended a rally and spent time with Trump in Fayetteville, N.C., during a stop on the president-elect's nationwide "Thank You" tour.Just before McCrory's arrival, Trump's pick to lead the U.S. Treasury, Steve Mnuchin, entered the building. Also at Trump Tower around the same time were Eric Trump and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, a Democrat and President Barack Obama's former chief of staff.As McCrory and Trump were sitting down to talk Wednesday, transition team officials told reporters in a conference call that the 60-year-old, one-term governor's track record on education and regulatory reforms had caught Trump's attention. Transition officials said McCrory had succeeded in North Carolina in eliminating burdensome regulations to promote economic growth and job creation.They also pointed to McCrory's background on energy issues, mentioning he had opened North Carolina up to fracking through the Energy Modernization Act in 2014. McCrory's private-sector experience includes a long career at Duke Energy. He also served on the Charlotte City Council and as the city's mayor for 14 years."There is a very good rapport between the president-elect and Governor McCrory," Trump spokesman Jason Miller told reporters Wednesday morning. "Governor McCrory is someone who the president-elect had the chance to get to know pretty well on the campaign trail this year."Miller called McCrory "someone who's viewed as a reformer" and "a very solutions-oriented leader.""Obviously (he is) someone who has a number of good ideas on how we should form this administration, and who is talented in his own right as well," Miller said.Some of Trump's recent meetings have been with allies and potential Cabinet picks to give the president-elect advice or to meet for job interviews. In the month since the presidential election, Trump has been meeting with a steady stream of lawmakers, business leaders, military leaders and media figures in his 58th-floor triplex in Trump Tower.
On Wednesday, in the afternoon, at Government House, His Excellency the Honourable Paul de Jersey AC and Mrs Kaye de Jersey hosted a luncheon in honour of Queensland librarians. Guests included: Mrs Janine Schmidt AM, Director, Mukurta Solutions; Mrs Sharan Harvey PSM, Manager, Library Services, Brisbane City Council; Ms Vicki McDonald, State Librarian and Chief Executive Officer, State Library of Queensland; Mr David Bratchford, Librarian, Queensland Supreme Court Library; Ms Katherine Brennan, Parliamentary Librarian, Legislative Assembly of Queensland; Ms Jenny Davis, Librarian - Special Collections, Brisbane Girls Grammar School; Ms Sue Hutley, Director, Library Services, Queensland University of Technology; Ms Maureen Sullivan, Director, Library and Learning Services, Griffith University; Ms Heather Todd, Director, Learning and Research Services, The University of Queensland; and Ms Cecily Pearson.

Following, at Government House, the Governor presided at a meeting of the Executive Council of Queensland.

In the evening, at Government House, the Governor and Mrs de Jersey hosted a Christmas reception where His Excellency addressed guests.
Description

 GIS - 09 December, 2016: A financing agreement amounting to Euro 2 million, which is approximately Rs 80 million, for Technical Cooperation Facility under the 11th European Development Fund (EDF) was signed yesterday between the European Union and the Republic of Mauritius in Port Louis.

The signatories were the Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Mr Pravind Jugnauth and the Head of the Delegation of the European Union in Mauritius, Mrs Marjaana Sall.

The funding under the Technical Cooperation Facility forms part of the financial envelope of Euro 9.9 million which Mauritius has received under the 11th EDF and will run until 2020 to finance technical assistance and capacity building in the Tertiary Education Sectors, Research and Innovation and in the implementation of the Government Programme. The remaining Euro 7.9 million have been earmarked for projects in the polytechnics sector and nanotechnology, amongst others.

In his address, the Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Mr Pravind Jugnauth, stressed on the strong cooperation between the EU and Mauritius while adding that the EU has always been a prominent development partner for Mauritius. He expressed the wish that this privileged collaboration and longstanding relationship will be maintained even after the expiration of the Cotonou Agreement in February 2020.

He also expressed his appreciation regarding the support of the EU with focus on the new challenges that Mauritius is facing in relation to the implementation of reform programmes and on removing barriers to our development goals. According to him, the financing agreement for Technical Cooperation Facility deems crucial to the future development of Mauritius particularly to the new era of development that the country wants to usher.

He further highlighted that most countries that have successfully graduated from a middle-income to a high income economy have done so by becoming high value-added services economy and by investing smartly in innovation. Hence, the Technical Cooperation Facility will complement the resources that are already being invested in these sectors, he added.

Minister Pravind Jugnauth recalled his recent mission to Brussels in October this year whereby he discussed with the Director at the Directorate General for Trade of the EU Commission, Mrs Sandra Gallina, about the implementation of the development cooperation chapter of the interim Economic Partnership Agreement (IEPA), and the need to expedite the signing of the relevant financial agreement regarding the envelope earmarked for the 4 iEPA countries under the 11th EDF programme.

Following his meeting, the EU has already approved a grant of Euro 7 million which is about Rs 280 million under that programme to Mauritius. The grant will be used to put in place an electronic platform to improve the ease of doing business and the investment climate in Mauritius. Moreover, the project proposal on climate smart agriculture to the tune of Euro 3 million under the Global Climate Change Alliance Plus (GCCA+) window has also been endorsed.

For her part, the Head of the Delegation of European Union in Mauritius, Mrs Marjaana Sall, reiterated the continuous support of the EU to Mauritius. According to her, the Technical Cooperation Facility is the first initiative to be approved in the framework of the 11th EDF National Indicative Programme which will support Government to finalise its Vision 2030 aimed at transforming Mauritius into a High Income Country.

EU-Mauritius Partnership

The EU-Mauritius partnership covers a wide range of policy areas, including: maritime security, trade and investment opportunities, environmental protection, climate change mitigation, migration and culture.

The 11th EDF National Indicative Programme signed in June this year, will steer the EU-Mauritius bilateral cooperation until 2020. The objective of this bilateral cooperation, endowed with 9.9 million EUR, is to accompany Mauritius to evolve from an Upper Middle Income to a High income Country in line with Government priorities.

Furthermore, the Government of Mauritius will also be able to use this Facility to finance technical assistance, studies, analytical work, training, seminars, peer to peer learning and knowledge-sharing initiatives.

The Facility will also support Government priorities to improve the human capital base and contribute to unlock growth, target the higher education sector with emphasis on Research and Innovation.
Description

GIS - 09 December, 2016: The respect for human rights are the core values to which we strongly adhere in Mauritius and the Constitution guarantees human rights so as to maintain a conducive environment for equality of people. The respect for human rights are the core values to which we strongly adhere in Mauritius and the Constitution guarantees human rights so as to maintain a conducive environment for equality of people.

This statement was made by the Secretary for Home Affairs, Mr P. Jhugroo, yesterday at the opening ceremony of a half-day workshop with members of the Standing Technical Inter-Ministerial Committee organised at Palms Hotel in Quatre Bornes in the context of International Human Rights Day observed on 10 December.

Mr Jhugroo pointed out that Mauritius, which is strongly committed to human rights, is a party to main human rights instruments. The objective, he said, is to ensure that every citizen enjoys social, cultural and political rights. He recalled that the country has been commended for its total commitment for safeguarding human rights.

Speaking about the National Human Rights Action Plan 2012-2020, the Secretary for Home Affairs underlined that it is a tool for evaluating the country's vision on human rights and its performance with regard to our international human rights obligations. It also acts as a record of government's performance with regard to the promotion and protection of human rights, he added.

The UN Resident Coordinator, Mr S. Springett, said that upholding human rights is in the interest of all while recalling that respect for human rights advances well-being for every individual, stability for every society, and harmony for the interconnected world.

He pointed out that Mauritius can boast of several achievements on the human rights front. These include: progress on Treaty body reporting, work undertaken by the Human rights monitoring Committee, progress made by the Domestic Violence Committee, the introduction of the Parliamentary Gender Caucus.

For his part, the Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, Mr D. Seetulsingh, appealed to each and every one to act as Human Rights defenders and to stand up for our rights. He spoke about issues that crop up frequently as regards human rights namely the legalisation of abortion; death penalty; Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender rights; and the new Police and Criminal Evidence Bill.

International Human Rights Day 2016

Human Rights Day commemorates the day on which, in 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In 1950, the Assembly passed resolution 423 (V), inviting all States and interested organisations to observe 10 December of each year as Human Rights Day.

The theme this year is Stand up for someone's rights today.
Description

GIS  09 December, 2016: Major projects in the construction sector, worth approximately Rs 25 billion, will be undertaken in the year 2017, stated the Minister of Public Infrastructure and Land Transport, Mr N. Bodha, during a press conference yesterday at the seat of his Ministry in Port Louis.

The construction sector, a pillar of our economy, is a macro-economic factor which brings development in the country, he added. He underlined that for year 2016, according to information gathered from the Registrar of Companies, the local authorities, Construction Industry Development Board and contractors, the growth rate of the construction sector is expected to be higher than that of the past two years.

Minister Bodha announced that tender documents have already been prepared for several projects, including repairs on Terre Rouge  Verdun Link Road. With regards the road decongestion programme, the Jumbo/Phoenix/Dowlut roundabouts and the A1-M1 Link Road, the reference designs have already been prepared and tenders will be launched next year, he said.

Regarding the Urban Terminal at Victoria Bus Station, the Request for Proposal document will be launched during the last week of December 2016 so that an evaluation can be carried out later, the Minister added.

The laying of the foundation stone of the Metro Express in March 2017 is an indication of the massive investment that will take place in the construction sector next year, he added. He also announced that two Indian companies are competing for the Metro Express project: Afcons Infrastructure Limited and Larsen & Toubro.

Promoting local workforce and construction companies are the main objectives of his ministry, he said. In this context, he added that the Ministry of Labour, Industrial Relations, Employment and Training will put in place a database so that all persons interested in the construction sector can register themselves as it is estimated that some 6,000 to 10,000 skilled workers will be required for all the projects.

The Mauritius Institute of Training and Development has launched new courses on different professions in the construction sector to encourage young people to join the sector. Additionally, biding documents will mention that plants and machinery available in Mauritius will not be imported, thus promoting local companies, the Minister underlined.
(TNS) -- BRIDGEPORT  BConnected has been disconnected.The smartphone application launched by ex-Mayor Bill Finch for residents to lodge complaints about potholes, broken street lights, unplowed roads and other headaches of urban life has been replaced.Returned Mayor Joe Ganim , re-elected a year ago, on Wednesday launched his version of BConnected. Its called Bridgeport311.I like technology, Ganim said. I like when we take a step out and do something that advances our abilities to do our job better and serve our constituents.Bridgeport311 is, in concept, the same as BConnected. Residents can use their smart phones to notify City Hall about quality-of-life issues.The complaints are forwarded directly to the responsible departments.But Ganim and his staff insisted Bridgeport311 ensures greater accountability, in part because anyone using the system from inside or outside of city government can look up the individual cases that were filed and their status.Its really, we think, the best technology in the country, said Tom Gaudett , the mayoral adviser who helped spearhead the rollout over the last few months. Bridgeport311 has already been piloted by some members of the City Council.Were really excited about it, said Councilman Anthony Paoletto Bridgeport311 is made possible through a three-year, $31,402 per year contract with originator SeeClickFix out of New Haven. Now eight years old, SeeClickFix is an online clearing house for citizen complaints.Bridgeport residents  as well as residents of towns all over Connecticut and the country  could already make use of it and a related phone application, but the company had no formal relationship with the Bridgeport.That fact obviously helped Bridgeport311 get its foot in the door for the contract with Ganim.We had several people using SeeClickFix as a community tool but no one was getting (the complaints), Gaudett said.Gaudett said the Ganim administration assessed BConnected upon taking office last December and debated whether to keep it or start from scratch.Despite the fact the application was heavily-promoted by Finch since launched in 2012, Gaudett claimed it was not widely used.And, he added, Team Ganim found that the complaints were not being promptly addressed and either routed to the wrong places or to vacant desks.Some of those issues were caused by Ganim, who laid off dozens of public employees to cut an inherited $20 million budget hole.Ganim also did away with a related initiative, Finchs CitiStat office, established in 2008 and modeled on a system in Baltimore for streamlining and improving services and for cutting costs.Ganim said Wednesday that he has high hopes Bridgeport311 will similarly ensure complaints are tackled with less effort, less manpower and more efficiently.The mayor stressed that Bridgeport311 is not a phone number and is not intended to replace the citys 911 emergency system.If you need police or fire, go to your phone and make a 911 call, Ganim said.And Gaudett added non-emergencies -- like speeding cars  should still be lodged with the police.
(TNS) -- Birmingham, Ala., isn't Silicon Valley - but the Innovation Depot is trying its darnedest to get the next big tech company to start here instead.The Velocity Accelerator is the business incubator's attempt at something like Y Combinator, the famed seed accelerator started in March 2005. A number of these accelerators have popped up nationwide where investors give a handful of tech companies seed money, an office they all share, a lot of mentoring and a short time frame before letting these companies into the world.Many of these companies fail, but many are among the tech world's biggest success stories, like Dropbox, Airbnb and Reddit, all of which came out of Y Combinator. Techstars, a similar operation in Seattle, helped fund Birmingham's own Instagift. Now, Instagift's CEO Nate Schmidt is leading Birmingham's program.The programs take 10 startup teams at a time and gives each $50,000 in seed funding. Then, they focus on building their company in a shared space in Innovation Depot. The 12-week program is designed for high tech startups focused on building products with low starting costs and high potential returns.Velocity received more than 100 applications from around the world for their first 10 spots. The chosen companies include teams from Slovakia, New York City, and even one whose founder already works in Innovation Depot.Meet the Velocity Accelerator's first class of startups:GLOW: Founders Yazmin and Jim Cavale founded GLOW, a company that aims to provide a way for women to find hair styling, spray-tanning, and makeup services from qualified professionals in their own homes through the GLOW app. Customers will be able to schedule, pay and communicate all through the app.Book-It Legal: Jack West and Walker Beauchamp founded Book-It Legal, an online marketplace connecting law students to law firms, especially for temporary projects. Law firms sometimes have to use overqualified attorneys on research projects, but don't want to spend the money for an intern or an associate. Book-It Legal posts projects Book-It Legal and students can pick them up, allowing students to gain experience in law.Planet Fundraiser: Kasey Birdsong and Drew Honeycutt founded this app that allows customers and merchants to easily donate to their favorite charities. Customers sign up, take a picture of their receipt, and Planet Fundraiser coordinates the donation. The company has already partnered with Shipt and Chick-Fil-A.Koyote: Andrew Petrovics built a hardware that can track accurate and time-specific population data based on cell phones. The hardware has potential users ranging from the government to private industry to the military.Delect: Washington, D.C.-based founders Serge Amouzou and Jeremy Feldman founded Delect, which allows restaurant customers to pay their bills directly from their phones.Healthfundit: Founders Larry Lawal and Felix Kishinevsky created Healthfundit as a platform for medical research. The company is based in Birmingham and has partnered with the National Institutes of Health to get their top projects that didn't get funded by the government.Gender Reveal: Matt Landers, founder of Innovation Depot company Platypi, got the idea for Gender Reveal during his wife's pregnancy.The Gender Reveal app will simplify the reveal process, from the doctor's office, to the party to the thank yous.Quantalytix: Founders Chris Aliotta and William Bryant were analysts at Regions Financial Corp. when they noticed an inefficiency that Quantalytix aims to solve. The goal is to build a software to assess and analyze risk in small and large banks, eventually aiming to create the Bloomberg of analytics.Likely Al: Jozef Marko and Lukas Ruttkay come to Birmingham from Slovakia after internships at Facebook and Google, respectively. They aim to create an algorithm that would tell you which image of a given set would resonate the most with an audience.MetalView: Founder Andrew Wingard aims to create a marketplace between metal industry buyers and suppliers. The marketplace will allow buyers to easily access suppliers' inventories and quickly get a quote."This class includes companies in all sectors - from finance to health to beauty to marketing, but each of them has great potential," Schmidt said in a press release. "We hope that Velocity, and the support from the Birmingham community that we've already started to receive, will help them reach their potential much faster than they would on their own."
Ameriabank: At the Vanguard of Armenia's Banking Sector

STATEMENT OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARTSAKH

SUBSCRIBERS OF UCOMS ALL TIME BEST OFFER TO ENJOY ADDITIONAL BENEFITS

Armenia-Azerbaijan: EU sets up monitoring capacity along the international borders

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PACE co-rapporteurs on Armenia concerned by reports of alleged war crimes or inhuman treatment perpetrated by Azerbaijans armed forces

There is still 35% gender pay gap: Sona Ghazaryan

Global Finance Names Ameriabank the Safest Bank in Armenia

Mikayel and Karen Vardanyans provided 136 million AMD support for the overhaul of the Myasnikyan statue, which was in unsafe state of disrepair

Believe me, as a representative of a country which uses the Schengen system very often, it is quite important. Vardanyan

I really look forward to having answers from the Azerbaijani side for these alleged gross human rights violations: Secretary General

I call on Armenian and Azerbaijani parliamentarians to use this Assembly as an agora of opportunities President Tiny Kox

UCOMS SPECIAL OFFER OF THE UNLIMITED INTERNET IS NOW TERMLESS

There is no place for the death penalty in a State that respects human rights: PACE General Rapporteur

EU and CoE call on two Member States that have not yet acceded to this Protocol  Armenia and Azerbaijan  to do so without delay

An urgent debate requested on "The military hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan".

UCOM AND PES-PES CONTINUE COOPERATION WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF EDUCATIONAL PROJECT

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The statement of the meeting between Prime Minister Pashinyan, President Aliyev, President Macron and President Michel of October 6, 2022

Largest Corporate Bond Program at the Securities Market of Armenia Completed Successfully

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This criminal act is another proof that the Armenophobia policy. Tatoyan

Nikol Pashinyan, Nancy Pelosi discuss a number of issues related to the Armenian-American agenda and regional developments

Delegation by Nancy Pelosi Accompanied by Alen Simonyan Visits Tsitsernakaberd Memorial Complex

Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi Arrives in Yerevan

Armenian Revytech, global technology leader SAP and financial services software specialist SAP Fioneer sign a cooperation agreement

With 120 million drams donated by Mikael Vardanyan, the defenders of the homeland will be treated in a new building

OSCE Chairman-in-Office and OSCE Secretary General call for immediate cessation of hostilities along Armenia-Azerbaijan border

Statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Artsakh
October

November

The civic tech community collectively gasped at the news of, the company he founded. Interim CEO Mark Jung described the exit as amicable, and pointed to severalfollowing the injection of $233 million in venture capital last year that funded several acquisitions. The changes during the transition period are aimed at preparing the company to go public. Whether anactually takes place, Jung said, remains to be seen.One of only a small group of local governments prepping their infrastructure fortoday,, is working on establishingby installing controllers at 300 key intersections. The first 2070LX controller was set up in August, and officials expect to blanket the county with the technology by fall 2017. Despite ever-increasing advances in vehicle connectivity and autonomy, even high-end passenger cars cant yet connect to public infrastructure. This project ensures that Miami-Dade County will be ready when they can.The Octoberofandgrabbed readers attention, which is understandable due to thein the growing. While GovDeliverys focus is on constituent communications, Granicus is a well-known platform for digitizing the public meeting process. The deal is backed by Vista Equity Partners, a private equity firm, which declined to offer specific revenue goals for the combined company. At the time of the merger, Granicus and GovDelivery shared approximately 100 public-sector customers in common.Several states have been grantedto the a recommendation from the 9/11 Commission to but time is running out. On Jan. 22, 2018, travelers or visitors to certain federal facilities must present an enhanced drivers license, a passport or other TSA-approved document. Besides the financial burden that states must bear to comply with the act, elements of the law contradict state constitutions. In Oregon, for example, the motor vehicle agency cannot retain records for law enforcement purposes as required by the act.As the contract award for thenears, stakeholders identified athat remain, including the nuts and bolts of how the network will be deployed and operated, as well as how much it will cost for participating agencies. The project, aimed at enabling nationwide, has had several early wins at the local level, where the concept has been tested at large-scale events like the 2016 Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, Calif.was on the agenda in a big way at the annualconference in early November, as civic technologists grappled with flipping the traditional application development process by putting customers at the forefront. One success story highlighted was, an app aimed at helping parents navigate their childrens immunization needs for school enrollment.The outcome of thejust a few days later drew shock around the world, and those in thewere no exception. As many pondered its effects on federal tech policy and innovation programs like 18F and the USDS, others drew an interesting distinction that seemed to inspire public-sector innovators: If you dont like the outcome of the election (or if you do), this is a good time to remind yourself that politics isnt government, and governing isnt someone elses problem, wrote. Its ours.
Its been a busy year in technology for the city of Cincinnati, which redesigned its permitting process and its website months ago. On Wednesday officials went live with their latest achievement, CincyInsights , a new portal to 15 different dashboards that educate and inform residents about their city.CincyInsights aggregates information  trash collection, snowplow location, police calls for service  already available in Cincinnatis open data portal , which launched about a year and a half ago. But it reconfigures that data into elements like heat maps and charts that are engaging, quickly relatable and more easily understood.City Manager Harry Black, who was hired in September 2014 and created the Office of Performance and Data Analytics as well as CincyStat, which provides data on city services, said officials want to make government more useful and valuable to residents.This, he said, is what comes after the open data portal."Its one of those things where its like when the whole open data portal movement started, people made this decision Lets build it and they will come.' But guess what? They have not come," Black said.Black discussed the problem with Chief Performance Officer Leigh Tami and both agreed that more needed to be done. "Leigh and I had several discussions about this notion of the open data portal and I dont think either one of us had gotten to the point of being impressed, even, with what we had. The question was how do we make this more valuable and more open and more relevant," he said.Roughly six months and about $55,000 later, CincyInsights is the result. It's gotten around 3,000 hits in its first 24 hours, and visitors are already submitting ideas to the Viz of the Month, an icon on the portal's home page asking for ideas on what data sets Cincinnati should visualize next.The first Viz of the month, suggested by a city intern, transforms census data into colorful charts and graphs explaining who lives in Cincinnati. Visualization software takes arcane or hard to connect data and makes it pop. The city's biggest challenge, Tami said, may have gone to its chief data officer, tasked with bringing in all that data.A data stream that's getting traction with Ohio TV news is CincyInsights' new snowplow tracker, which lets residents see where plows have been and whether theyve cleared a path to their doors.City snowplows already had GPS trackers, but the new dashboard is based on information now pulled from Zonar, a fleet management company, which houses it. The data is updated every three minutes, when snowplows are active, to the portal, which is powered by Socrata.Five staff workers and several interns handle the city's portal operations, a mix of on-premises and cloud operations.Trash collection also is monitored on an interactive map that displays colored lines, which correspond to individual trucks, with updates every 10 minutes showing where trash has been picked up.Other interactive data streams show the city's progress on filling potholes, and where police officers and firefighters have responded to calls.Portal pages include a mix of narrative and links to newspaper articles, city apps and social media feeds, medical information and dashboards.The Emergency Medical Services response data dashboard, linked from a page on the heroin epidemic, features a heat map plotting medical responses throughout the city. It's not all happy news but officials say making information palatable will help Cincinnati learn about itself."Really, the goal of CincyInsights was to create something people can access, but something they can also interact with," Tami said. "People consume information in the form of data and I think the fact that government is trying to adapt to that is really significant."Having this data at our fingertips will enable us to enhance City services and become a more efficient organization, Mayor John Cranley said in a statement.Black praised the mayor and the Cincinnati City Council for embracing data and technology, noting the issues of performance and data analytics had been raised when he interviewed for the city manager position."Once I realized there was interest in that here throughout the entire city, I realized there was a major opportunity for us," said Black, who applauded citizen interest."They get this whole data and performance thing," he said. "They like it, it excites them and they have an appetite for" it.The new portal examines data via six categories, five of which are Black's priority goals first set forth in the one-page strategic plan forged during his first 100 days as city manager: safer streets; growing economy; thriving and healthy neighborhoods; innovative government; and fiscal sustainability and strategic investment.These goals have been integrated into performance reviews and the city's budget development process, according to Black. They also should continue to inform Cincinnati's drive to become even more tech-savvy and in tune with its residents.Now CincyInsights is up and running, officials aren't resting on their laurels. Next steps include fine-tuning its dashboards, bringing in more and better data, and creating a solid base of predictive analytics."We now need to begin to have an insatiable appetite for data from wherever it is, and pull in as much data from as many different sources as possible," Black said. "Particularly as it relates to these dashboards because we want to add layers to them."
State and local governments collect data in amounts that almost defy description -- everything from health outcomes and marriage records to crime statistics and Head Start enrollments. Much of this data collection is required by federal or state law, and some is compiled at the initiative of individual agencies.But collecting data is not the same asdata, a fact that is gaining acceptance among state and local decision-makers as they move toward a more robust vision for what data can accomplish -- specifically, toward the idea that data is a strategic asset that can help policy-makers and officials manage programs more effectively and inexpensively.Many states and localities are finding innovative approaches to sharing, matching and using data to drive policy decisions, budgeting and operational decision-making. To fully understand the extent to which this is happening, The Pew Charitable Trusts has initiated a rigorous project that will help identify success stories that other governments can study, duplicate and even improve upon.One way that states can harness information for a larger strategic purpose is to take a deep dive into data that have been collected for years in order to uncover systemic failures and craft new solutions, which is what Delaware's Department of Education did in 2012.After an extensive analysis of data measuring the performance of Delaware high school students, conducted with the assistance of Harvard University's Strategic Data Project, the state determined that a large number of students whose SAT scores indicated they were capable of obtaining a college education nonetheless were not enrolled in college. From 2008 to 2011, for example, 18 percent of Delaware students who scored at least 1550 out of 2400 on the SAT did not enroll in college.With these data in hand, the state began what it called its "Getting to Zero" campaign, designed to take that 18 percent down to zero by having every college-ready student in Delaware apply for and enroll in post-secondary education. The campaign includes better training for school counselors on how to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid; the designation of October and November as college application months, during which students receive help with college applications; and a texting system that families can use to access real-time information on financial aid and other concerns.The campaign is proving to be a success. Ninety-eight percent of the state's college-ready applicants from the high school classes of 2014 and 2015, the first two years of Getting to Zero, enrolled in an institution of higher learning.New Mexico had a different problem to solve: the improper payment of unemployment-insurance claims. With support from the federal government, the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions, along with several other state workforce agencies, modernized and integrated its unemployment insurance tax and claims system, significantly decreasing fraudulent payments.But the state wanted to do more to predict and prevent overpayments. Working with a private-sector partner, state officials mined and analyzed years of data on employment by industry, prior claims, work history and other variables to uncover trends and patterns in the behavior of unemployment-insurance applicants. The data helped state officials predict where in the application process claimants were likely to provide inaccurate responses that could lead to improper payments. Armed with this information, state officials created and tested personalized messages designed to prompt claimants to provide accurate information. They found, for example, that claimants did not change their behavior when the message described the relevant law and penalties for breaking it. However, when told that nine out of 10 people in their home counties reported their earnings accurately, a quarter of claimants were more likely to report their incomes correctly.New Mexico continues to do randomized control trials to test the effectiveness of the predictions -- updating and recalibrating as needed. The department expects to see a 35 percent reduction in overpayments for a savings of $1.9 million annually.As states and localities face common challenges, the strategic use of data -- which too often sit underutilized on computer servers and in paper files -- provides an opportunity to not only improve program management but also to share innovations that other governments can use to better serve their constituents.
Policies vary widely

(TNS) -- Hennepin County, Minn.s move to shorten the amount of time it keeps e-mails could be challenged by the Minnesota Legislature sometime next year.After the recent announcement that the Hennepin County Sheriffs Office is saving many e-mails sent and received by its staff for only 30 days -- and that other county offices will soon save them for only 180 days -- one lawmaker said he plans to introduce a bill aimed at clarifying records-retention rules. Sen. Ron Latz, DFL-St. Louis Park, said hes concerned that increasingly weak record-keeping policies could limit the publics ability to learn about how their government is operating.The Freedom of Information Act has been a critical tool for citizen and press engagement with their governmental units, he said in a news release, issued shortly after the countys new policies were detailed in a Star Tribune article. Preservation of digital documents is essential for a responsive press to shine light on internal practices.Latz said hes still researching the issue and refining his plans, but he believes 30 days is too little time for an agency to keep public records before destroying them. The Sheriffs Office policy, which is already being used, calls for e-mails to be deleted after 30 days unless they are deemed necessary for a legitimate law enforcement/business purpose. E-mails kept longer are to be destroyed once an investigation, claim or other legal matter has been completed.In its policy, the Sheriffs Office says its e-mail system is not designed for long-term storage. The county, which will implement its new data retention policy for other departments in 2017, cites cost as a factor limiting how much data it holds onto.But Latz said e-mail messages might not become relevant until months after they are sent.The ability for the public to hold government agencies accountable is diminished as a result, he said.The senator said hes also not convinced that the cost of storage should be the primary reason for a change in policy. County officials have previously kept e-mails indefinitely. They say they have about 210 million e-mails stored in county accounts and receive about 6 million more each month.Around the state, other agencies policies vary considerably, with some requiring e-mails to be kept for a few months and others for years.Latz said he expects to find allies in the Legislature on both sides of the aisle. One may be Sen. Warren Limmer, R-Maple Grove, who has a long-standing interest in public data and privacy issues. Limmer said hes interested in further exploring how long agencies hold onto records, what type of records they keep and why they need to destroy them after a specific period of time.As chairman of the Senates Judiciary and Public Safety Committee, Limmer said he wants to bring the topic back to the forefront. While he said its often been difficult to get his colleagues in the Legislature interested in the specifics of public records policy, hes hopeful that some of the people elected for the first time in November might bring some new perspectives.[Latz] is noticing the same thing that I am, and its that with the advancement of technology -- and its moving in quantum leaps -- we are a little behind the times at keeping up with record keeping, and which records do we keep, Limmer said.In the House, Rep. Peggy Scott, R-Andover, chairwoman of the Civil Law and Data Practices Committee, said shes planning to meet with Limmer to discuss his concerns -- and she agrees with Latz that a 30-day retention period is too short for public e-mails.She also wants the Legislature to explore rules about personnel data, such as what should be publicly available after a public school employee leaves a job. Her other top records priorities include a discussion about whether attendance records for public officials using private suites at U.S. Bank Stadium should be public.
(TNS) -- A New Mexico Supreme Court-appointed subcommittee on Thursday passed a proposal that would give media, attorneys, welfare workers and others online access to court records.The proposed policy drew both warnings over potential privacy violations and pleas to ease access to such records.Under the proposal, attorneys, certain criminal justice workers, people representing themselves in civil court and the press would qualify to access unredacted court records through a secured online system.The proposed policy now goes to the Judicial Information System Council, another Supreme Court-appointed group, in its Dec. 15 meeting, said Barry Massey, spokesman for the Administrative Office of the Courts. If the policy passes that group next week, it could then go to state Supreme Court justices for approval during a Jan. 4 conference.The policy raised concerns because it gives remote access to unredacted court records  which can contain Social Security numbers and other personal information  to media. But Massey noted thats no different from the current policy of state District Courts allowing any member of the public to view unredacted court records by requesting them at the courthouse. Juvenile records and orders of protection in domestic violence cases would remain protected from disclosure.Under the proposed policy, those interested in such online access would have to apply to the Judicial Information Division of the Administrative Office of the Courts for login information and credentials.The proposal defines press as any person who regularly gathers, prepares, photographs, records, writes, edits, reports or publishes news or information about matters of public interest in any medium and who successfully applies to participate in online access and agrees to comply with all court rules.The proposal says that people who qualify for online access to unredacted court records must agree not to publish confidential information or protected personal identifier information as set forth in proposed amendments to the Judiciarys rules of procedure governing the public inspection and sealing of court records.The Online Access Subcommittee on Thursday heard comments from the public on the proposal.Martin Salazar, publisher of The Las Vegas Optic, told subcommittee members that the policy should give media outlets access to unredacted versions of the court records because such information helps reporters distinguish one Martin Salazar from another Martin Salazar.Arthur Pepin, director of the Administrative Office of the Courts, suggested the courts enter into agreements with media outlets that would allow the state to revoke access to the online system if personal information were misused.But Tom Horan, a lobbyist for the New Mexico Press Association, said that would require the state to decide how a media outlet had violated such agreements.The Administrative Office of the Courts received about 40 written comments from lawyers, journalists, court staff, private investigators, law professors and others.Journalists from small news organizations urged officials to accept the change in rules, bemoaning what they described as lengthy treks from the offices of rural newspapers to faraway courthouses to gather copies of legal documents.Representatives from some of the states biggest news organizations also submitted letters backing the change.The more access that the media has to public court records, the better it can inform the public, lawyer Gregory P. Williams wrote on behalf of the Albuquerque Journal and KOAT-TV.But Albuquerque lawyer Lori Millet argued that the media should not be trusted with easier access to what are already public court records.The press cannot be relied upon to accurately report on legal proceedings and the risk of misinterpretation of the contents in the online court records if allowed more access to court records is very high. That does not help anyone, Millet wrote.The state court agency also is working to make redacted versions of court records available online to all members of the public.Massey said the Administrative Office of the Courts will ask lawmakers in the next legislative session for $1.3 million to purchase software able to automatically redact personal identifying information from court records before theyre published. Officials would use the software to redact both incoming court documents as well as retroactively redact court documents already on file.Massey acknowledged the appropriation request will be tough to get through the Legislature in the upcoming 60-day session that begins in January. State courts, like all state agencies, are attempting to trim their budgets amid an estimated $69 million deficit.Any kind of appropriation is going to be a challenge right now, Massey said.
(TNS) - Days after wildfire ravaged Gatlinburg, Tenn., along with hundreds of acres in the surrounding mountainside, some residents and visitors to the area said they did not receive early warnings about the approaching fire, which has claimed 14 lives, including a couple from Memphis.The Mid-South is not immune to the threat or reality of disaster and officials in Memphis and Shelby County say the tragedy in East Tennessee is a reminder of the need to review plans and protocols for inevitable emergencies."Were not managing by crisis," said Dale Lane, director of the Office of Preparedness. "Part of our job is to constantly review and when things are happening around the country, to look at best practices and for gaps."It's because of the East Tennessee fires that Lane was asked to make sure the community's systems are in place and working, county Mayor Mark Luttrell said."We dont have any reason to believe theyre not, but anytime you have an event like that in Gatlinburg, it's really an alert for all of us to go back and check our first responder and emergency systems," Luttrell said."Our team at the Mayor's Office of Emergency Management will work jointly with Shelby County officials to ensure there will be a coordinated response," said Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland.Residents can get emergency notifications by activating their smartphones in the same way the state sends out Amber Alerts for missing children or the National Weather Service advises of weather watches and warnings, Lane said.He also recommends the ReadyTN app for emergency preparedness.In addition to pushing information through the local news outlets and social media, Lane said, Shelby County is also part of a national Integrated Public Alert Warning (IPAWS) system that gets messages out to communities.Even though emergency management officials work diligently to prepare for disasters, citizens can't be complacent about their own safety and must do their part to receive the information, said Memphis Fire Director Gina Sweat.For example, whenever she talks to groups about the importance of working smoke detectors, there are always people without them."Until it actually affects you personally, sometimes people dont heed these warnings seriously," Sweat said.The public has to help by taking responsibility for their safety, paying attention to the notices and being cognizant of what's happening around them, she said."And by all means follow instructions, especially when something catastrophic has happened," Sweat said. "Thats when it's really important. Pay attention and follow instructions."Lately, Lane said, Shelby County has been lucky, with tornado systems that skipped over the county.Even the floods of recent years have provided an opportunity for improvements when alerting citizens, he said."One of things that helped us in the flood is we now have a very robust GIS ( geographic information system) mapping platform of homes that were flooded," Lane said. "Back in January when this started happening we were able to give people in high water areas notifications, sometimes as much as 48 hours out."Additionally, the county and municipalities have in total more than 150 emergency sirens that can alert residents to an emergency."We just want to make sure that our critical systems are in place and backed up," Lane said. "We try to stay in a constant state of readiness."Meanwhile, investigators in East Tennessee have been determined that the fires there were "human-caused" and two teenagers were charged in Sevier County with aggravated arson.Among those killed were Jon and Janet Summers of Memphis, who were in Gatlinburg with their three adult sons for a birthday celebration.
(TNS) -- Georgia's Secretary of State is seeking answers on why a computer at the Department of Homeland Security was apparently used in an attempt to hack its computer network, including its voter registration database.In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp said a computer traced back to a DHS internet address attempted to breach its system."On Nov. 15, an IP address associated with the Department of Homeland Security made an unsuccessful attempt to penetrate the Georgia Secretary of State's firewall. I am writing you to ask whether DHS was aware of this attempt and, if so, why DHS was attempting to breach our firewall," Kemp wrote.A copy of the letter was also sent to the Georgia Congressional delegation, according to The Hill. Kemp said the system contained personal information on 6.5 million Georgians, 800,000 corporate entities and 500,000 licensed or registered professionals. Georgia had not given its permission for DHS to scan or test its network, Kemp added.The intrusion, which took place a week after the presidential election between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, was detected by a third-party security firm working for the state. The attempted hack was apparently unsuccessful.The Department of Homeland Security had offered its security assistance to states prior to the election, citing concerns over suspected hacking by the Russian government. Among the security services offered by DHS were cyber security scans of state networks, risk and vulnerability assessments, information sharing about cyber incidents and best practices for securing voter registration databases and addressing potential cyber threats.Georgia was one of the states declining the fed's offer.Homeland Security spokesman Scott McConnell said DHS had received Kemp's letter and is "looking into the matter.""DHS takes the trust of our public and private sector partners seriously, and we will respond to Secretary Kemp directly," McConnell told ABC News. 2016 Alabama Media Group, BirminghamVisit Alabama Media Group, Birmingham at www.al.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Levon Ter-Petrosyan ready to join election race (video)

Armenias first President Levon Ter-Petrosyan is ready to join the election campaign. He will lead the list of the Armenian National Congress (HAK), Head of the HAK parliamentary faction Levon Zurabyan said on December 9. We do not exclude negotiations with other figures but at this moment I do not see anyone, he said. If the HAK wins the elections, the force promises to significantly increase pensions, reduce gas tariffs by 25 percent and leave only five taxes from the current 15. How could this happen? Business capital flows away from Armenia to other countries, including Georgia. We will make sure that it remains in Armenia. Moreover, thanks to the simplified tax, shadow economy will come to light, Levon Zurabyan said. The HAK lawmaker also commented on the prime ministers latest statements. "Karen Karapetyan announced in Gyumri that there is no monopoly in Armenia. Now I declare that there is no government led by Karen Karapetyan in Armenia. You will not believe it. Why should we believe that there is no monopoly in Armenia then? By the way, Levon Ter-Petrosyan will address the HAK congress to be held on December 17.
F1's acquisition by Liberty Media will speed ahead early next year.

Currently, the company headed by US media tycoon John Malone has started to take over the commercial rights from CVC, but the deal is far from complete.

"I think it is too early to talk about how it (F1) will be with new owners taking charge," F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone said this week.

Now, Liberty has announced that its shareholders will get together in mid January to "vote on proposals" about the "proposed acquisition" of F1 and the renaming of the company to Formula One Group.

(GMM)
Artsakh Ombudsmans Second Interim Report on Azerbaijani Atrocities published today

The Ombudsmans Office of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic has published its second interim report on Azerbaijani atrocities during the 2016 April War. In the early morning hours of April 2, Azerbaijani armed forces launched a thoroughly planned large-scale offensive along the entire line of contact between Artsakh and Azerbaijan, deploying tanks, attack helicopters, heavy artillery, and rocket launchers. The Azerbaijani surprise and unprovoked offensive was the largest and bloodiest breach of the cease-fire regime installed in 1994 through a trilateral agreement between NKR, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The report addresses a wide range of human rights issues stemming from the Azerbaijani aggression, including beheadings, torture, and mutilation of dead bodies of combatants and civilians, as well as indiscriminate shelling of civilian objects, etc. The report was prepared based on open-source information. Artsakh Ombudsman Ruben Melikyan publicly pledged in a speech before the NKR National Assembly to launch a fact-finding mission, aiming to publish a final report on the April 2-5 events. The on-going fact-finding mission includes numerous on-sight visits, dozens of witness interviews, consultations with military, medical and technical experts, as well as information requests to the respective authorities, and media monitoring. Within the present report, three war crimes are considered, which were committed by Azerbaijani AF against NKR combatants and civilians during April 2-5 aggression against NKR. Those war crimes are: a/ Torture b/ Execution (violence to life) c/ Mutilation of dead bodies As a result of the Azerbaijani military aggression during 2-5 April 2016, the NKR side had 80 casualties (76 combatants and 4 civilians). Meanwhile, 31 of them (28 NKDA servicemen and 3 NKR civilians) fell under the control of Azerbaijan, which lasted from about one hour to more than two weeks. The most widespread war crime was mutilation (24 cases), including 21 cases of ear cuts-offs. There were 5 cases of torture (including hands cut off, and throats cut). There were 7 cases of execution, mostly by gun-shots. 27 out of the 31 NKR civilians and NKDA servicemen (about 90%), who fell under control of the Azerbaijani armed forces as a result of the Azerbaijani military aggression against NKR, were tortured, executed, or mutilated. The report was presented to the public during a press conference held in Talish village in Artsakh. The report is available here
Will KCR take Reliance big deal?

Telangana Rashtra Samithi president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, who is going all out to attract investors to the state, has received a stunning proposal from the biggest industrialist of the country  Mukhesh Ambani, the chairman of Reliance Industries Limited.

The proposal was mooted by Ambani during the recent visit of KCRs son and IT minister K T Rama Rao to Mumbai.

The proposal is that Reliance would like to venture into education field in Telangana and wants to set up a massive educational institution in a huge campus.

It will provide education from kindergarten (KG) to post-graduation (PG) to thousands of students all in the same campus.

Needless to say, the Telangana government gave it a huge publicity as if it is a major manufacturing industry providing jobs to thousands of people of Telangana. But going by the conditions Ambani had put for setting up the institution, it is pretty evident that he wants to take the Telangana government for a ride.

For setting up the campus, the Reliance wants not less than 2,000-3,000 acres of land around Hyderabad or Ranga Reddy, at a very nominal rate. Secondly, it does not want any kind of interference from the government in admissions.

The government should not question the admission process of the institutions and insist on reservations. Thirdly, the government should not question the Reliances right to decide the fee it would collect from students from time to time. Fourthly, it should not have any control over syllabus or examinations.

For that, it wants the entire Telangana educational institutions act to be amended. So, it is clearly evident that the Reliance wants to make a big business out of education at the cost of the government. If it does not benefit the people of Telangana, what is the use of offering so many sops to Ambani?

Well, it remains to be seen whether KCR will agree to these conditions.
Ambassador Richard M. Mills expresses concerns about human rights situation in Armenia

Opinion Piece by Ambassador Richard M. Mills, Jr. on the Occasion of International Human Rights Day On this day in 1948, the UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a landmark document that spelled out for the first time those fundamental human rights that deserve protection in every country, by every government. Despite the enormous progress that has been achieved in the 68 years since the declaration was signed, much work remains to be done, as many of the worlds citizens are still denied basic freedoms set out in this aspirational document. The worldwide recognition and application of the rights and freedoms enumerated in the declaration remain a goal that the U.S. Government strives for every day. The international communitys annual observance of International Human Rights Day on December 10 is an opportunity to honestly and seriously reflect on the progress that has been made and the challenges that remain, to recommit to the goal of protecting the equal and inalienable rights of all members of society, and to redouble our efforts to achieve the more perfect world envisioned in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a world in which every human being lives freely and with dignity. The promotion of human rights is a core element of U.S. foreign policy, and we work on a daily basis to press for the fundamental rights and freedoms of all people. We stand with citizens, activists, and governments around the world that do the same. We also monitor human rights practices around the globe, and the U.S. Department of the State compiles an annual human rights report for all UN member states and countries receiving U.S. assistance, as mandated by the U.S. Congress. As we commemorate International Human Rights Day today, I would like to take the opportunity to reflect on the human rights situation in Armenia - and I start by commending the Government of Armenia on the progress it has made. Armenians can be proud of the active civil society, especially in the area of protection of human rights, that exists in Armenia and that is sadly absent from many of Armenias neighbors. I particularly welcome the increasing collaboration we have seen between the Armenian government and civil society. For instance, the Ministry of Defenses newly-established Center for Human Rights and Building Integrity has engaged with civil society as it pursues its mandate to promote human rights, ethics, integrity, and anti-corruption within the military. The Investigative Committee is collaborating with NGOs on how best to address domestic violence issues and has completed a serious internal study that provides much-needed data about domestic violence cases and how they are handled by law enforcement. A third example is the sterling work of the Intra-Agency Trafficking in Persons Working Group, which has successfully joined elements of civil society, government, and law enforcement to reduce trafficking. These efforts have directly led to Armenias Tier 1 ranking on the Department of States Trafficking in Persons assessment for four years in a row, which is a remarkable achievement. As a friend of Armenia, I encourage the Government to redouble its efforts in the areas of human rights that remain of deep concern to the Armenians with whom I speak, to human rights organizations, and to the U.S. Government, and which are covered in detail in our annual Human Rights Report for Armenia. Of these, I would like to specifically mention our concerns over the use of pretrial detention in the Armenian legal system and the continuing fight against domestic violence.

Pretrial detention: Armenia has made significant strides since independence in strengthening rule of law and the judiciary, but the use of pretrial detention in Armenian courts remains a concern. Pretrial detention plays a legitimate role in the judicial process, but it should be the exception rather than the rule in a democratic society, used only as a last resort when other alternatives to ensure an accused individual will not flee, harm others, or interfere with an on-going investigation are not feasible or available. Pretrial detention should also not be used as a punitive tool to keep citizens from exercising their rights of free speech and assembly. Each pretrial detention decision needs to be fully transparent and all decisions based on a strong legal rationale, in line with international standards, and this is particularly important in sensitive political cases or when a detention decision will keep political opponents of the government and citizen activists in prison for lengthy periods. In all cases of detention, the government is responsible for protecting the human rights of those individuals remanded to their care. When pretrial detention is justified, we encourage the authorities to consider the humanitarian implications and ensure that family members and lawyers have access to standardized, transparent procedural requirements for requesting and obtaining visitation rights.

Domestic Violence: The annual 16 Days of Activism campaign, which draws to a close today, is a poignant reminder of the work that needs to be done to combat domestic violence. I want to commend the Investigative Committee for the great strides it has made in addressing this issue, but there is still much do be done by all of society. For one thing, spousal abuse and violence against women continues to be underreported, due to fear of further harm, social stigma, victim blaming, and at times, lack of training or reluctance to act within the police. Government agencies, law enforcement, and civil society should collaborate to combat stereotypes and continue to make progress towards legislation that fully protects all Armenian men, women, and children.

International Human Rights Day is a time to reflect on how much has been accomplished to strengthen respect for all citizens basic human rights in Armenia, in the United States, and around the world. It is also a time for governments and individuals to renew their commitment to ensure basic human rights are respected in their own countries and acknowledge  whether in the United States or Armenia  the work that still needs to be done to meet the promise of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The U.S. Embassy will continue working with our Armenian partners, civil society, and government on issues of human rights concern as detailed in our annual Human Rights Report  to strengthen the human rights protections and democratic values both our great countries share.
This years forecast recognizes an industry trend for slightly bigger engine sizes in Europe and China as automakers adapt powertrain strategies to tackle updated emissions regulations developed for real-world driving conditions. In these regions, a typical powertrain is a three- or four-cylinder engine with a displacement size between 1.2 liters and 1.7 liters. By rightsizing engines with available technologies, automakers are able to continue applying the benefits of smaller turbocharged engines while fine-tuning powertrain systems to further optimize fuel economy, emissions and performance.

Honeywells Transportation Systems Forecast projects that turbocharged vehicles will acount for 48% of annual global sales by 2021, up 9 percentage points from 2016. This annual sales estimate, combining both passenger and commercial vehicles, would add more than 232 million turbocharged vehicles globally between 2017 and 2021an increase of 35% from today.

In addition, Honeywells forecast calls for electric boosting products to help support compliance with more stringent national environmental standards. To this end, it is anticipated that the industry will begin moving from 12-volt battery systems to 48-volt systems.

This change opens the door for a cost-effective electric boosting technology solution featuring e-chargers and e-turbos to help improve efficiency and performance of the internal combustion engine in a mild hybrid vehicle. E-boosting products can significantly improve engine responsiveness and also provide better fuel economy. Specific to diesel, it also has the potential to significantly reduce pollutant emissions, like mononitrogen oxide (NO x ), and help meet more stringent regulations including the Real-Driving Emissions test in Europe.

Electrics and hybrids are expected to grow from a total of 3 million vehicles in 2016 to a total of 16 million by 2021. Within the electrified category, mild hybrids are expected to account for 46% of the mix; full hybrids will account for 40%; and pure electric vehicles will be most of the remaining 14%. Honeywell estimates 70% of all mild hybrid vehicles will have a turbo or multiple turbo systems (mechanical and electric). In addition, Honeywell has drawn upon its engineering competencies in the automotive and aerospace industries to create a new two-stage electrical compressor used by Honda Motor Co. for its hydrogen-powered Clarity Fuel Cell vehicle.

More findings from the forecast include:

The projected increase in annual sales of vehicles with a turbo from 38 million today to 52 million in 2021 equates to a 35% increase, or 6% CAGR (compounded annual growth rate) compared with a 2% CAGR for all global industry sales.

The global turbo business is expected to reach almost $12 billion in industry sales in 2021.

Globally, diesel engines will retain a significant share of global light vehicle sales at nearly 18 percent, due to their lower fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. Diesel engines also provide increased torque, range and driving pleasure especially for pickup trucks, SUVs and light commercial vehicles, which remain extremely popular.

Vehicle complexity will increase with the onboarding of new technology, making automotive software such as Honeywells OnRAMP Design Suite a key enabler for meeting more stringent emission regulations. The automotive industry currently spends between $2 billion and $4 billion a year just on the development and calibration of powertrain controls to manage a vehicles engine and after-treatment functions such as diagnostics. OnRAMP can reduce development time from months to days as well as help optimize engine controls of subsystems designed to reduce CO 2 and other emissions.

Regional highlights include:

In North America, more engine downsizing is expected. The current average engine size is a 3.0-liter six-cylinder. As the region continues to shift from larger naturally aspirated engines to smaller turbocharged ones, Honeywell is working to provide more twin-scroll turbo technology support, which extracts more energy from four-cylinder exhaust profiles. Honeywell expects light vehicle sales of turbocharged vehicles to grow 11 points to 33% of regional sales or more than 7 million vehicles by 2021. Turbocharged diesel engines will continue to be in demand on light-duty trucks.

Europe will easily remain the global leader with an overall turbo penetration of 74%. The mix between gasoline and diesel will shift slightly as gas turbo penetration in light vehicle sales grows 9 points to 52% in 2021. Additional technology benefits are needed as many automakers still have a gap of 15 to 30 g/km before meeting the 2021 target of 95 g/km.

In China, emissions regulations are scheduled to become the toughest in the world. These new rules will favor the development of gasoline turbocharged engines and wider adoption of electrification. China will be the highest growth market for turbocharged light vehicles with an 16 point increase in penetration of total sales. This equates to an expected 80% increase in the number of annual sales in 2021 at more than 13.5 million versus 7.5 million in 2016. Honeywell is supporting this massive turbo adoption in China especially in the three-cylinder engine segment using its third-generation gas technology. This features a wastegate with a Honeywell-developed mono-block arm and valve, reducing noise by 5 to 10 decibels and improving fuel economy by up to 0.5% with better controllability and 50 percent less wear due to repetitive motion within the turbo housing.

Other regions including Japan, Korea, India and South America will see on average a 7% growth in turbocharging volume driven by the expected recovery of South America and Southeast Asia economies, and more stringent regulations including Indias Bharat Stage 6 and Brazils Inovar-Auto and future programs.

Methodology. Honeywells annual Transportation Systems industry forecast looks at the next five years of transportation technology trends including turbo penetration as well as the growing use of automotive software and electric boosting products among anticipated global vehicle sales.

Honeywells forecast methodology is based on multiple sources including, but not limited to, macroeconomic analyses, original equipment manufacturers production and development plans shared with the company, and expert deliberations from automotive industry. The survey sample is representative of the entire industry in terms of geography, operation and fleet composition.
Hyundai outlined the development of ccOS in November, and has established an Infotainment Software Development Team in its Namyang Research and Development Center dedicated solely to developing ccOS technologies. In November, Hyundai said that ccOS would incorporate open source software including an open In-vehicle Infotainment (IVI) platform of the GENIVI Alliance.

Hyundai Motor is accelerating development of its advanced ccOS (connected car Operating System), the core platform technology for its future connected cars. The software will optimize the high-speed transmission and reception of data within the vehicle to support increasingly complex features that will lead the connected car market.

Hyundai Motors strategy to develop its own platform optimized for connected car operation is centered on advancing how vehicles communicate with their internal and external environments. Hyundai Motor will also work on other connected car technologies and related services such as smartphone and smart home connected services, intelligent remote support, fully autonomous driving, smart traffic functionality and mobility hubs.

Installed at the heart of the vehicle, ccOS will control and operate the key aspects of connected car infrastructure: the In-Vehicle Framework, Infotainment Framework and Connectivity Framework, to ensure connected cars can adapt to new innovations in safety, comfort, convenience and security.

The first ccOS-installed vehicles are set to be available in 2020 under the concept Hyper-connected Intelligent Car, after conducting substantial simulation tests to ensure compatibility. As for the new ccOS-installed concept vehicle, Hyundai Motor is to explore a variety of applicable connected car services such as OTA (Over-The-Air) software update with which customers can wirelessly update their vehicles infotainment system, without the need to visit a service center in person.

Advancing its Open Innovation plan, Hyundai Motor and Cisco are working to develop car network technology, another core platform requirement to enable the rapid development of connected cars. Hyundai Motor has also opened a new Big Data Center in China to reinforce its venture toward connected car development.
A city lien on the historic Tomahawk building on Flaming Gorge Way was lifted Tuesday night, ending a months-long dispute between the city and Green River Futures.

The Green River City Council voted unanimously to remove the lien, without discussion.

Mike Frink, a member of the Green River Futures board, said the organization plans to sell the building. Frink said the organization also plans to install fire sprinklers if the building is purchased, effectively doubling the amount of space available in the Tomahawk.

Frink also said once the building does sell, he would like to see the leftover money from the sale spent aiding Green River Main Street with beautification work. Two ideas he likes are painting the Green River Viaduct and work on an idea known as Expedition Plaza, a plaza near the U.P. Train Depot building which would feature permanent stalls for farmers market vendors. However, nothing has been finalized.

Those are just visions, Frink said.

The building, under ownership by Green River Futures, was the basis for a number of disputes between the city and the economic development agency. Most recently, a request to remove a lien on the building was tabled by the Council as a result of confusion regarding two agreements signed by the city and Green River Futures. One agreement between the two called for Green River Futures to pay the city $100,000 of the proceeds from sale of the Tomahawk, while another agreement did not. Frink said the first agreement between the two allowed for the $100,000 payment, while the second, renegotiated agreement removed mentions of any payment required by the city.

According to Frink, the organization purchased the Tomahawk in 2008. The group immediately began to seek grant funding to renovate the structure and use it to create a business incubator, which would allow small businesses to rent out space and improve downtown Green River. The city received a grant for the building from the Wyoming Business Council, but the amount was returned by the city after council members complained of a first right of refusal clause in Green River Futures sale contract with the original owner.
A man accused of stabbing another man to death in Rock Springs will undergo another examination to determine if he had a mental illness or deficiency at the time of the crime.

Charles K. Carter, 27, of North Carolina, who was charged with first-degree murder after he allegedly stabbed another man in front of the Rock Springs Loaf N Jug Foothill Boulevard location, filed an order for an examination of responsibility for criminal conduct pursuant to Wyoming Statute 7-11-304.

Prior to this filing, he had filed to have a mental evaluation to determine if he was capable of understanding court proceedings. When that evaluation came back stating Carter is mentally fit to proceed, he filed for a second examination.

All of this stemmed from when Carter pleaded not guilty by reason of mental deficiency. All proceedings since then are suspended until the results of the second examination return, which was ordered on Oct. 27, 2016.

Under the second examination, Carter will be evaluated at the Wyoming State Hospital for no more than 45 days to determine whether at the time of the alleged crime he was suffering from a mental illness or deficiency. The court is asking the examiner to determine if a mental illness or deficiency was present at the time of the alleged crime; and if so, did it contribute to the alleged criminal conduct.

According to court documents, on May 9, 2016, Rock Springs Police officers and Sweetwater County Sheriffs Deputies responded to a call of a stabbing at the Loaf N Jug Foothill Boulevard location.

When officers arrived at the scene, several people in front of the store were pointing and yelling at a guy with a knife who had run to the west side of the building. A deputy approached Carter and told him people said he stabbed another man. The deputy noticed blood on his shirt and right hand. The deputy placed Carter in handcuffs; and put him in the vehicle while the investigation continued.

This same deputy then found a folding pocket knife where Carter was at when the police cars first arrived.

The knife looked like it had blood and tissue on it.

During this time, a RSPD officer entered the store and saw a man laying on the ground in a pool of blood. People were performing CPR on him.

The officer then spoke to Daniel Hollowell, who was the supervisor for the large group of people at the store. Hollowell told the officer they were a group of door-to-door salespeople that had arrived in Rock Springs earlier that day.

He told the officer Toboris Lee was stabbed by Charles Carter; and they were both his employees.

Lee was transported to the hospital where he died from his injuries.

Prior to being transported, an officer noticed Lee had injuries consistent with stabbing injuries to his abdomen, chest, shoulder, face, palm and back.

Witness Bryan Cunningham was interviewed and said Lee and Carter got into a confrontation and Carter allegedly stabbed Lee. After he was stabbed, Lee made his way to the store and then collapsed.

Cunningham said Carter got back in the van to go when the rest of the group got back, but they told him to get out of the van. He then went to the west side of the building.

Cunningham said no punches were thrown and no one else was involved in the altercation.

Carter was then read his miranda rights and told the officer Lee had owned him $10, but Lee didnt intend on paying him back. Carter said that he told people in the van about it and they started laughing at him and it made him mad.

After the stopped at the gas station, Carter said he thought Lee was going to hit him so he pushed him. He said this happened in the store and then when they were outside of the store Lee confronted him again. Carter said he told Lee if he had a problem take care of it. He said he then felt threatened by Lee and had to defend himself for he pushed Lee and after that he blacked out. He said he recalled being in a scuffle with Lee on the ground and someone had to pull them apart. He said he was out of breath, but couldnt recall where Lee went.
The Green River Police Department responded to an alleged stabbing early Sunday morning.

At about 1:04 a.m., the GRPD responded to an undisclosed residence on West Teton Boulevard. The report initially claimed a 17-year-old male had stabbed his older brother following an altercation between the two and left the address on foot.

The victim was transported to Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County for a wound to the left side of his torso, with the extent of the injuries unknown as of press time.

Officers located the suspect and arrested him for alleged aggravated assault, interference with a peace officer and consumption of alcohol by a minor.

That wouldnt be the only serious incident local law enforcement would respond to during the week.

On Tuesday, the Wyoming Highway Patrol was involved in a high-speed chase on Interstate 80. According to Stephanie Harsha, Public Involvement Specialist for the Wyoming Department of Transportation in Rock Springs, the chase started when WHP troopers spotted a white car exceeding 100 mph and attempted to pull the vehicle over.

During the chase, the vehicle is alleged to have reached speeds near 120 mph. The chase ended when the driver, Fane Tatofi, 30, of Riverside, Calif., was arrested after leaving the vehicle near the Rock Springs Water Treatment Plant off of I-80.

Charges were not finalized as of press time, however according to jailtracker.com, Tatofi has eight pending charges listed against him. Those charges are alleged destruction of property greater than $1,000, possession of burglary tools, receiving stolen property, fleeing a police officer, possession of methamphetamine, littering, failure to maintain a single lane of travel and driving while under suspension.

Initially, Tatofi was suspected of being involved in a bank robbery in Evanston, but has since been cleared of involvement in that crime.

The Evanston Police Department still seeks the suspect in the U.S. Bank robbery Tuesday afternoon, who is described as an African-American in his 20s or 30s and was seen wearing a black hoodie, dark pants, large sunglasses and gloves at the time of the crime.
With the upcoming legislative session in Cheyenne, a lot of eyes will be looking upon the Legislative Stabilization Reserve Account, the states rainy day fund, as a solution to a lot of problems.

However, while the legislature might be tempted to pull money from that account for use in Cheyenne or the University of Wyoming, we believe some of that money would be better spent as an investment into local governments.

Those of us living in Sweetwater County are very familiar with the term rainy day. Our elected leaders have used it for years to describe whats going on in the county...
Equal opportunities, an opportunity for all (video)

Eurasia Partnership Foundation with support of the Embassy of France to Armenia and the Council of Europe Office in Yerevan will hold a discussion entitled Equal opportunities, an opportunity for all. The fight against discrimination. The purpose of the event is to open up a discussion around issues of discriminatory treatment and stigmatization, particularly, towards vulnerable groups of society and the importance of striving for equal rights and opportunities. The event will take place on December 15, 2016 at 10:00 in the French University in Armenia (UFAR), 10 David Anhaght Street, Yerevan. The following distinguished speakers will open the event: H.E. Jean-Francois Charpentier, the Ambassador of France to Armenia Ms. Natalia Voutova, the Head of the Council of Europe (CoE) Office in Yerevan Mr. Gevorg Ter-Gabrielyan, the Chief Executive Director of the Eurasia Partnership Foundation Mr. Hrach Palyan, Deputy Ombudsman of the Republic of Armenia It will be followed by the panel discussion with the participation of the following speakers: Anahit Simonyan, Womens Resource Centre Gender-based discrimination and violence against women: causes and consequences Zaruhi Manukyan, Mayri Center for therapeutic pedagogy and social therapy Integration of people with mental health problems into Armenian society, the vision of Mayri Centre Arman Sahakyan, New Generation NGO Discrimination towards people living with HIV in Armenia Natalia Voutova, Council of Europe Better understanding of the provisions and commitments under the European Social Charter The working languages of the event will be Armenian and French with simultaneous translation. The entrance is free.
Wyomings Supreme Court handed the states government agencies a tremendous opportunity recently.

The court ruled 3-2 on Nov. 30 that government agencies may charge members of the public a fee to simply look at public documents that exist only in an electronic form. Not to grab a copy and walk off, mind you. Wyomings laws have always allowed for a reasonable copying fee for someone wanting to get a hard copy of a document. The Supreme Courts ruling would apply to anyone simply wanting to see, view or inspect an electronic document.

This ruling was a bit of a surprise coming...
Thanks to the communities efforts, about 175 soldiers serving overseas will receive a care package for Christmas.

Earl McDonald, VFW Post No. 2321 Cmdr., and District No. 4 Cmdr., said most of the packages are going to Afghanistan or to the Mediterranean. In fact, 44 of the 177 packages are being sent to the USS Whidbey Island.

The care packages were put together Saturday by VFW members, local volunteers and members of a local Girl Scout brownie group.

On Monday members of the VFW, including McDonald, Jim Shoemaker, Ralph Howell, Tony Blair and Joe Tallon; and VFW Auxiliary members Sandy...
Each one is unique in its own way, but they all tell the same amazing story.

Some are life size, while others can fit in the palm of ones hand.

This past weekend, Green River residents were invited to see various interpretations of nativity scenes at the Immaculate Conception Church. More than 100 nativity scenes from about 620 families of the church were displayed on lines of tables. In front of each scene was a white notecard explaining whose nativity scene it was and why it was special to them.

The idea to display nativities came from church visitor and Immaculate Conception church m...
Ameriabank: At the Vanguard of Armenia's Banking Sector

STATEMENT OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARTSAKH

SUBSCRIBERS OF UCOMS ALL TIME BEST OFFER TO ENJOY ADDITIONAL BENEFITS

Armenia-Azerbaijan: EU sets up monitoring capacity along the international borders

PACE co-rapporteurs on Armenia concerned by reports of alleged war crimes or inhuman treatment perpetrated by Azerbaijans armed forces

There is still 35% gender pay gap: Sona Ghazaryan

Global Finance Names Ameriabank the Safest Bank in Armenia

Mikayel and Karen Vardanyans provided 136 million AMD support for the overhaul of the Myasnikyan statue, which was in unsafe state of disrepair

Believe me, as a representative of a country which uses the Schengen system very often, it is quite important. Vardanyan

I really look forward to having answers from the Azerbaijani side for these alleged gross human rights violations: Secretary General

I call on Armenian and Azerbaijani parliamentarians to use this Assembly as an agora of opportunities President Tiny Kox

UCOMS SPECIAL OFFER OF THE UNLIMITED INTERNET IS NOW TERMLESS

There is no place for the death penalty in a State that respects human rights: PACE General Rapporteur

EU and CoE call on two Member States that have not yet acceded to this Protocol  Armenia and Azerbaijan  to do so without delay

An urgent debate requested on "The military hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan".

UCOM AND PES-PES CONTINUE COOPERATION WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF EDUCATIONAL PROJECT

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The statement of the meeting between Prime Minister Pashinyan, President Aliyev, President Macron and President Michel of October 6, 2022

Largest Corporate Bond Program at the Securities Market of Armenia Completed Successfully

The statement of the Defender on the video of the execution of Armenian PoWs by the Azerbaijani armed forces

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STATEMENT BY SECRETARY ANTONY J. BLINKEN

This criminal act is another proof that the Armenophobia policy. Tatoyan

Nikol Pashinyan, Nancy Pelosi discuss a number of issues related to the Armenian-American agenda and regional developments

Delegation by Nancy Pelosi Accompanied by Alen Simonyan Visits Tsitsernakaberd Memorial Complex

Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi Arrives in Yerevan

Armenian Revytech, global technology leader SAP and financial services software specialist SAP Fioneer sign a cooperation agreement

With 120 million drams donated by Mikael Vardanyan, the defenders of the homeland will be treated in a new building

OSCE Chairman-in-Office and OSCE Secretary General call for immediate cessation of hostilities along Armenia-Azerbaijan border

Statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Artsakh
Millennials and Generation Z are flocking to Silicon Valley for jobs. No surprise, then, that many companies outside the Valley are looking for innovative ways to attract and retain star coders in a technology-driven market.

A study from Burning Glass found programming jobs are growing 12 percent faster than the market average, meaning even more competition. The challenge remains even after companies successfully secure new talent: A TEK systems study reported 42 percent of IT leaders believe their businesses struggle to retain top picks in tech.

Related: How to Attract and Keep Top Talent in 2017

A real-world case study.

Deloitte is among those revamping its employer brand to combat the problem. It already has made headlines for its decision to ditch traditional performance reviews for a growth-oriented process based on more frequent conversations and autonomy. Now, Deloitte is retooling its recruitment strategy. The goal is to not only attract a wider pool of candidates overall but also to bring in those potential hires who will thrive in the environment Deloitte has created.

Related: Here Are the Top 10 Places to Work in 2017

Joshua Kho, tech consultant for Deloitte Canada, explains that while the company's traditional process was great for recruiting business majors, the long, difficult and sometimes painful hiring process wasn't tracking for tech talent. In the past, Deloitte reps would attend college fairs and recruit based on a mix of grades and the soft skills they could see on paper. Recruitees then would go through three screening processes.

The pipeline doesn't hold for technical candidates. In fact, Kho says Deloitte actually saw fewer applicants. Kho and his team needed to rethink how they position the company and pursue tech talent. They call their solution "extreme recruiting."

An innovative solution.

Instead of waiting for individuals to apply, Deloittes recruiters are going straight to coding hot spots: hackathons, code fests and product showcases. For their pilot test of the new strategy, Kho and his team attended Hack the North, Canadas biggest hackathon. These nontraditional events are all fair game for the Extreme Recruiting Team and represent a major shift in Deloittes hiring processes, Kho says.

After an initial meeting, the Extreme Recruiting Team goes straight to an offer -- no multi-step interview process, personality test or assignment. So how can they know candidates are the right fit simply by interacting at a single event?

Three reasons why it works.

Extreme recruiting can yield much better tech candidates than the traditional or "normal" interview process. Here's why:

1. It fits the process to the person. Should we be recruiting sales reps, accountants and coders the same way? A completely different skill set requires a completely different way of recruiting. More to the point, why rely on hackathons?

Kho has a ready answer. Why not hackathons? Why conform and follow the same methods that everyone else uses?" he says. "We wanted technically literate talent. Why try and fit the person to the process when you can change the process to fit the person. Hackathons allow us to see how talent will perform under a compressed and difficult timeline. We view their actions, how they think, how they react, how they build, how they problem-solve -- all in the artificially created stress brought on by their limited timeline.

In addition to being lightning rods for technical talent, these events put Kho and his team at the center of the action. Reviewing skills on a CV or in a formal interview can't compare to this glimpse of working methods and styles.

Related: PayPal's Job Recruiting Secret: Hackathons

2. It recruits for culture fit, not just technical skills. Hackathons and other similarly structured events also require a high degree of interpersonal skills. In order to be successful, teams have to work collaboratively and communicate effectively. These time-intensive events allow no room for ego or pride.

Ultimately, hackathons are all about learning. To get far with a team, participants must be able to take feedback well and apply it to improve their designs. Feedback at hackathons comes from non-technical team members, too, which is a great trial run to see how potential hires might interact with employees from divisions such as sales or marketing.

Related: You Only Get Better With Feedback

There's also this: Hackathons typically take place over weekends, and little more than free pizza is offered. Individuals are there because they're passionate about what they do and have a desire to solve complex problems. This means that the kind of candidates Deloittes Extreme Recruiting Team meets are highly motivated. In other words, they're a perfect fit for the culture the company has created.

I can sit in a hackathon and at the end of it, know that the students who excelled here will excel in front of a client, excel in solving that client's problem, and have the confidence to know that those solutions will be delivered within the tight timelines, Kho says.

Related: How Hacking Is Helping Businesses Beyond the Tech Sector

3. It allows for generational differences in recruiting. Millennials -- and now Generation Z -- are causing major impacts. Leaders are realizing it's not just what candidates can offer a company but also what companies can offer potential employees. A Gallup survey found 87 percent of millennials rate "professional or career growth and development opportunities" as important to them in a job. In fact, the same survey reported that opportunities to learn and grow was one of the top three factors needed to retain millennials. These generations want to be challenged and given responsibility, but they also want the tools to do so.

This generation -- we, the so-called 'impatient' ones -- are looking to have an impact, to have responsibility, to change the world," Kho says. "We know that we cannot all be the future Zuckerbergs of the world, but in our own little sphere we want to enact impactful, calculated change. Companies need to speed up the hiring process, get new talent in and get them working but make the process fun, challenging and exciting. Dont hand me your vanilla list of pre-planned questions. Talk to me to find out who I am. I may be interviewing for Deloitte, but at the same time Im judging you to see if this is the right fit for me. If I accept your offer, entertain me, give me responsibility and let me grow but do so at my own pace.

Related: Recruiting at a Hackathon? 5 Tips for Success

In todays increasingly competitive job market, smart companies are revamping the playbook on their talent-acquisition strategy. Kho boils it down this way: If companies can nail this down: speed, agility and excitement in hiring -- along with impact, responsibility and growth in employment -- I believe that they have a chance at hiring and retaining their talent.

Related:

Por que el salario emocional es el mas importante para los millennials

How Extreme Recruiting Is Winning Over Millennial Tech Talent

Emerging Trends In The Shared Economy Space in 2017



Copyright 2016 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved
The jokes on us.

Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg, known as PewDiePie to now more than 50 million YouTube subscribers, posted a video earlier this week announcing he would exit the platform that made him famous if he reached the 50 million threshold.

The U.K.-based creator has been making vlogs and videos of him playing video games -- with jokes and commentary -- since 2010. This year, Forbes named the Swede the highest paid YouTuber, with reported earnings of $15 million this year.

In the inciting video last week, Kjellberg expressed irritation at being unknowingly unsubscribed from channels or not seeing content that he was subscribed to. He said that he first noticed that there was an issue when vlogs he released hadn't reached 2 million views.

Related: YouTube Star PewDiePie Posts Brilliant Reply to Those Outraged by His $7 Million Income (VIDEO)

After claiming that YouTube told him it didn't know what was happening with the apparent subscription issue, he also expressed displeasure with the recommendation algorithm YouTube has in place.

Kjellberg has the most subscribers of any creator on YouTube, he wrote a book that went to number 1 on The New York Times bestseller list and last year, he launched his own network, Revelmode, under the auspices of Maker Studios, the digital production company owned by Disney.

Related: YouTube's Biggest Star Is Getting His Own Network From Disney

A flurry of press coverage followed the announcement, with the central question being: What did this massively popular creator with a huge following stand to gain by burning it all down?

"You know when you make a joke, and it just blows up way bigger than you ever imagined?"

That's right. Having reached 50 million subscribers, Kjellberg deleted his channel at noon EST, Dec. 9, as promised -- but it was his second channel. He never specified which channel would bite the dust.

"Thanks for 50 million subs," the final screen of the video reads, "will delete PewDiePie at 100 million."

Sure, and I'm the Queen of England.

Related: YouTube Star PewDiePie's Firm Rakes in $8 Million Profit

So what can you take away from all of this?

Well, clearly the old adage that any publicity is good publicity still rings true. Kjellberg wanted to get to 50 million subscribers in an expedient fashion, and figured that his similarly-minded fan base would get him there. The move also allowed him to call out YouTube, while still showing how valuable his brand is to the platform.

He believed in his product and he went big. And whether you're a fan of his methods or not, you can't deny that it ended up working for him.

Related:

YouTube's Highest-Paid Star Just Trolled Everyone. Here's What You Can Learn.

How Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson Came Back From Rock Bottom

YouTube: los 10 videos mas vistos en 2016



Copyright 2016 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved
STAMFORD  The newest police hire got some help from Stamford Masons and the son of a fireman, who gave up his birthday money to buy a protective vest for the rookie as he chases justice.

Loki, an 18-month-old Belgian Malinois who joined the Stamford Police Department in November, was presented with a $2,565 donation on Wednesday night. The money came from the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons on Kirkham Place and Finn Murphy, whose father is city firefighter Lt. Todd Murphy.

Police K-9 Unit Sgt. Seth OBrien said the donation will go to the purchase of a custom ballistic vest expected to cost between $1,200 and $1,500 to protect Loki during high-risk calls as well as toward other needed equipment for the K9 unit.

Loki, one of eight dogs used by patrol officers, the bomb squad and the narcotics unit, will be going on almost every high risk call that the departments SWAT team is dispatched to, OBrien said.

Finn Murphy saw a flyer asking to donate for the vest on a grocery store bulletin board and decided to give all of his birthday money to help buy the vest. His donation ended up being $200 after his father matched Finns birthday money dollar for dollar.

I want to donate money to help the dog stay safe so they can have a lot of birthdays too, Finn wrote in a letter to the Masons, which ended saying, Sincerely, Finn Murphy, Soon to be 10. Todd Murphy said his son loves dogs and he felt that police pups should have the same protection as officers.

Hes a big animal lover and saw the poster and took it to heart, Todd Murphy said of his son.

Domenic Corbo, secretary for the AF & A Masons, said the fundraising idea for the vest came from the orders Worshipful Master, Michel Gomez, who leads the lodge. A benefit was held on Oct. 30 that was attended by OBrien and the K-9 Unit, who put on a demonstration. They had been hoping to raise just $1,200.

The outpouring of support from the community was overwhelming, Corbo said, adding that donations also came from Masons in Darien, New Canaan and Greenwich. We doubled the amount we wanted to raise and it was a positive feeling for everyone involved. Corbo especially thanked Murphy for his birthday donation.

Loki joined the department after OBriens German Shepherd, Cooper, retired following five years of service to the department. Cooper, 10, now lives on a spacious upstate property and is adjusting well to his new life, OBrien said.

As a Malinois  a sheepdog of the Belgian variety  Loki has a more intense disposition than his German predecessor, and has been given to first-time dog handler Logan Pavia, who joined the department in 2008. For the past six years, Pavia has been the K9 Units decoy assistant and without complaint has absorbed all the bites the departments dogs have dished out.

They are a great working breed and are very intense and they need the right handler. Logan is the right guy, OBrien said. As well as the SWAT calls, Loki goes out on building searches and when they are looking to track someone down. OBrien said those are the riskiest calls, especially when their target is carrying a knife.

jnickerson@scni.com
Microsoft has announced that it's finally making Cortana for Android and iOS available in the UK. The Cortana for Android app will be out in the UK "over the course of this week", while the iOS app will be in the iTunes App Store "in a few weeks".

Cortana's trip across the big pond and over to the UK market isn't the only news, however. The app has received a redesign on this occasion, featuring "a more simplified look and feel", in Microsoft's own words. Quick Actions put the most frequent things you use Cortana for front and center, so setting a reminder or viewing your reminders is accessible with just one tap when you don't want to speak to the assistant.

Cortana's answers now have a cleaner, full-page look, and the app is faster overall too. As before, Cortana inside these mobile apps is synced with Cortana on your Windows 10 PC, so if you set a reminder on your computer you can get it on your phone. In a similar fashion, missed call alerts are relayed to your PC, from where you can use Cortana to send a text back to whoever called you. On Android, you can go hands-free by saying "Hey Cortana" inside the app and then speaking your request.

Source | Via
Today Google is finally letting developers in on the hot Assistant action. If you're an eager developer, you can create 'Actions on Google', which is the name of the developer platform for Google Assistant. From today, developers can write Conversation Actions for Google Home, and request to be an early access partner for upcoming platform features.

Through Conversation Actions, users will be able to request things from online services using their voice. And it's going to be a conversation, as the name implies. This opens up the possibility for you as a Google Home owner to, say, order an Uber just using your voice. What's more, to use all the new Conversation Actions coming to Assistant, end-users will not have to install any additional things - such as 'skills'. That's unlike Amazon's system for the Echo smart speakers, by the way.

The list of initial partners for Conversation Actions is available here. Support for all of these is coming to the Google Home "soon". Also "soon" is when the Google Assistant inside the Pixel phones as well as the Google Assistant inside the Allo app will have access to these new features. Why are there three Google Assistants with three different feature sets at the moment? That's a good question. Finally, still in the future Google will enable support for purchases and bookings, opening the gates for even more possible use-cases.

So hopefully in a few weeks we'll see the first new experiences made available on Google Home by partner developers. The number of things the Google Assistant is able to do for you is only set to grow from this point on.

Source
When the platform was at its peak, Google dedicated a whole section of its online store to showcase a variety of smartwatches that ran Googles Android Wear. And even with the incoming launch of the newest Android Wear 2.0 happening later than sooner, convincing the general public that they need smartwatches has proven to be a difficult task.

The Huawei Watch was among the best Android Wear smart watch with its premium build, long-lasting battery life, and integrated speaker for taking calls. Not to mention the company also released a separate line of the Huawei Watch just for women.

Well, the Google Store no longer has stock of the aforementioned smartwatch in any model, not even the models for ladies. While the page still stands, the watches are simply listed as Unavailable. We don't know if the watch will be restocked, but given that it's already over a year old, chances are slim.

Smartwatches are just not flying off the shelves like tech companies would have hoped with sales declining. Even Apple refuses to release the actual number of Apple Watches the company has sold, conveniently hiding them in a general category on the companys financial reports. Though, we tend to see more folks in the wild with Apple Watches than any smartwatch.

We havent seen a major smartwatch release in a while and we wont expect any until well into next year. We can only keep our fingers crossed for a CES unveiling of some new wearable tech, though its not likely. Perhaps Google is better off teaming up with recognizable watch brands to integrate the wearable OS such as Fossil and Michael Kors have already done.

Source | Via
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Samsung might disable Note7 in the US as early as next week

In an effort to retrieve all Samsung Galaxy Note7 devices from customers, the company has already announced the official disconnection or disabling of Note7 units in New Zealand and Australia set for December 15. Meanwhile, in Canada, all communications have been disabled on Note7 devices. That means no phone calls, no Wi-Fi, and no Bluetooth connectivity.

In a message obtained by The Verge, US Cellular reached out to at least this one customer who still had a Note7.

Samsung will modify the software to prevent the Galaxy Note7 from charging. The phone will no longer work.

Nothing has been officially announced by Samsung or U.S. Cellular. So while its yet to be official, its also quite likely to happen.

This isnt the first measure Samsung has taken to encourage customers to return their beloved Galaxy Note7s. Samsung has already pushed an update to US handsets that limits the phones battery charge to just 60%.

Samsung feels that its been long enough and customers should return the phone thats forbidden from boarding any aircraft in the US as per the US DOTs (Department of Transportation) orders.

This would be Samsungs final attempt to retrieve the estimated 285K recalled Note7s that are still unaccounted for. After that, all youd be left with is an expensive paperweight or Samsung collectible.

Via
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Haiti - News : Zapping politics...





FLASH Challenges, the BCED declares itself incompetent

Following the he parties "Fanmi Lavals", "Pitit Dessalin" and LAPEH, https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-19464-haiti-elections-the-becd-deliberates-awaiting-verdict.html the Office of the Departmental Electoral Litigation (BCED) declared itself incompetent after deliberation to judge these challenges, according to Wally Desence, the President of the BCED.



AmCham asks protection

In a letter to the Chief of the Port-au-Prince Procuratorate, Carl Auguste Boisson, President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Haiti (AmCham) asks Government Commissioner Danton Leger, to take all necessary measures to protect business personalities who have recently been the object of threats and attacks as well as the property and lives of all citizens.



Arnel Belizaire recognize his defeat

Arnel Belizaire, candidate losing to the Senate for the West (who came 6th with 26,095 votes - 7.26%) recognize his defeat in the elections, and does not intend to challenge, according to him this failure is due to the lack of unity of the sector democratic.



Only 8.25% of women voted

In the elections on Sunday 20 November, only 8.26% of women voted. Only 4 women could join the parliament including 3 deputies and one senator https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-19440-haiti-elections-4-women-in-parliament-if.html



VISA for Panama, caution

In a note, the Embassy of Panama in Haiti, informs that ONLY the consular section of the Embassy is authorized to issue visas to visit Panama. The Embassy of Panama urges the public to be vigilant and prudent against crooks or false intermediaries. For all information regarding visa application procedures, the Embassy invites interested persons to contact the consular section at 157 Panamerican Street (Petion-Ville) or by phone at (509) 2813-1295 / 2813-1296.



NOTICE to owners of vehicle wrecks

Jean Michel Choute, Director of Vehicle Traffic, notifies the owners of vehicle wrecks and other objects obstructing the public road, that they have a period of 72 hours to remove them under penalty of towing, the costs of which will be for the owner.



HL/ HaitiLibre


















Published on 2016/12/08 | Source

Korean drama of the week "Queen Seon-deok" (2009)

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Directed by Kim Geun-hong, Park Hong-gyoon

Written by Kim Yeong-hyeon, Park Sang-yeon

Network : MBC

With Lee Yo-won, Go Hyun-jung, Park Ye-jin, Uhm Tae-woong, Jo Min-ki, Jeon No-min,...

62 episodes - Mon, Tue 21:55

Synopsis

The story of a beautiful queen, who has to give up her love to save the people. With historical battle scenes and a star-studded cast, Queen Seondeok of Silla is the follow-up historical drama to MBC's "Yi San" and "Jumong" for 2009!

Writer Kim Yeong-hyeon of the famous "Dae Jang Geum" will be the main writer of this new TV mini-series.

A biopic of Queen Seondeok, who was born a princess and later became the ruler of Silla, leaving behind many brilliant achievements.

During the Three Kingdoms period of Korea...

Deokman (Queen Seondeok's childhood name) was born a twin but was abandoned as a baby. She was later brought back to the Silla palace, where she joined forces with her twin sister Princess Chonmyong to oppose Mi-shil, who wanted to seize power. Mi-shil devised sinister plans to have the two Silla princesses exiled from the kingdom, and in a secretive battle, Princess Chonmyong was assassinated by Mi-shil. But Princess Deokman shrewdly enlisted the help of General Kim Yusin and eliminated her archenemy Mi-shil. She became the first female ruler of the Silla kingdom.

Starring

Princess Deokman / Queen Seondeok (actress Lee Yo-won)

"The queen is my destiny"

After surviving many crises in her life, she finally became the ruler of Silla. Her loyal followers included General Kim Yusin and Kim Chunchu. She became the first female ruler in Korea's history and laid the foundation for the unification of the three kingdoms under Silla.

She was born as the twin sister of Princess Chonmyong and had a close brush with death as a baby due to the attempted assassination by Mi-shil, who had ambitions for the throne. A loyal servant named So-hwa rescued her by fleeing the kingdom with her. She was raised outside of the kingdom and when she turned 15, she learned that she was a Silla princess. So she returned to Silla to meet her parents.

Mi-shil (actress Go Hyun-jung)

Archenemy of Queen Seondeok. As a beautiful seductress, she held sway over kings and the elite Hwarang corps. Her duty was to promote the children of the noble class to high positions, but instead she used her beauty to seduce King Jinheung and King Jinpyeong to wield enormous power. But Princess Chonmyong and Princess Deokman opposed her and stopped her from becoming the ruler.

Kim Yusin (actor Uhm Tae-woong)

A great Silla general. With a handsome face and outstanding battle skills, he became the leader of the elite Hwarang corps. With a grand vision of unifying the three kingdoms under Silla's rule, he aligns himself with Princess Deokman who puts her complete trust in him. Princess Deokman later fell in love with Kim Yusin but they were unable to be together due to a twist of fate.

**Hwarang: Hwarang were elite Silla warriors who also received training in the arts and music.

Princess Cheonmyeong (actress Park Ye-jin)

She was born as Princess Deokman's twin sister but only she was chosen to live in the palace as a princess. She grew up with everything she could desire. Due to Mi-shil's influence, she lived quietly in the palace, but she possessed charisma and intelligence. After learning that she had a twin sister, she and Princess Deokman were reunited. While trying to reinstate her sister as a princess, she was assassinated by Mi-shil.

Bidam (actor Kim Nam-gil)

Although he was the son of Mi-shil, he helped Princess Deokman become the ruler. When he saw that Princess Deokman trusted Kim Yusin more than him, he became jealous and led a revolt against Kim Yusin. .

Broadcasting dates in Korea : 2009/05/25~2009/12/22

Available on DVD from YESASIA



DVD 23-Disc Complete Limited Edition (English Subtitled - Korea Version)

Note: Due to licensing, videos may not be available in your country
Published on 2016/12/08 | Source

Korean movies opening today 2016/12/08 in Korea: "A Way Back to Mother", "Curtain Call - Movie", "STOP", "Beaten Black and Blue", "Bitch On the Beach" and "Idol Sex Scandal 2"

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"A Way Back to Mother" (2016)

Directed by Lee Soo-sung

With Ko Won, Jun Joo-woo, Kim Ye-rin,...

Synopsis

37-year-old Yuna is struggling through day by day in this handful reality. She gets a call. It's the hospital letting her know her mother is on her death bed. Yuna earns a vacation from the restaurant where she works, then leaves on a vacation for the first time in 10 years. The next morning, her boss Min-jae comes by to give her a ride.

As they get closer to Jeonju, where her mother is, Yuna gets more and more anxious. Yuna suggests to Min-jae to go to delicious restaurants, to buy her the most beautiful and expensive coffee and even suggests they stop by a famous landmark. Min-jae thinks this is weird as this is not the behavior of a daughter who is about to meet her dying mother. That night, Min-jae hears her story at The Pension they are staying in for the night...

Yuna has had an unfortunate childhood and she struggles even as an adult. One day she gets a call that her mother is dying and sets out to meet her. This trip back home is like a vacation to Yuna...

(The 4th Seoul Guro International Kids Film Festival 2016)

"Curtain Call - Movie" (2016)

Directed by Ryu Hoon-I

With Jang Hyun-sung, Jeon Moo-song, Park Chul-min, Chae Seo-jin, Lee Yi-kyung, Jang Hyuk-jin,...

Synopsis

As a B grade erotic theater group is about to close down, affected by the economic recession, they decide to perform a proper theater play for their last show as they have always been dreaming of. Their choice of play is the classic theater play, 'Hamlet'.

However, once the theater play has started running, their performance goes to an unexpected direction due to the mistakes and adlib they never thought were going to happen on the stage. Will their curtain call occur happily as they hoped in the beginning?

"STOP" (2015)

Directed by Kim Ki-duk

With Tsubasa Nakae, Natsuko Hori, Hiromitsu Takeda, Allen Ai,...

Synopsis

Following the Fukushima nuclear incident, a young couple moves to Tokyo where they realize that the wife is pregnant. She wants to have an abortion, worried the baby might have been affected by radioactive contamination and concerned it might be deformed or disabled. But the husband wants her to keep it. He persuades her that Fukushima is very different from the Chernobyl disaster, but she is still not convinced, so he visits his house in Fukushima himself, to find proof that the radioactive contamination is not so serious. However, he witnesses something quite unexpected while he is there. Can the couple truly escape the effects of the Fukushima nuclear incident? Director Kim Ki-duk made this film almost completely independently. He cast Japanese actors but shot the film as if he were a guerrilla filmmaker, without a normal crew to help as such. Like his previous film, One on One, the provocative elements of the film demand attention, and he doesn't hesitate to insist on the radical notion that to avoid nuclear accidents, we should stop using electricity. (NAM Dong-chul)

Festival

20th Busan International Film Festival (2015)

Panorama Section

"Beaten Black and Blue" (2016)

Directed by Kim Soo-hyeon

With Koo Kyo-hwan, Dong Bang-woo, Kim Sang-hyeon, Kim Kkobbi, Kang San-eh,...

Synopsis

Coincidence brings Gyohwan, a keyboard warrior who has left home and is moving from gosiwon to gosiwon, and Jeongsu, a patriotic senior citizen who has fought all his life against the left wing, together who become close like a grandfather and grandson. A black comedy about the two who each prepare for their last big event which leads to disaster.

"Bitch On the Beach" (2016)

Directed by Jeong Ka-young

With Jeong Ka-young, Kim-Choi Yong-joon, Lee Ha-yun,...

Synopsis

"Wonderful, not beautiful. Bitchy Ga-yeong"

"Plain-looking but she lives a special day"

One day, Ga-yeong walks into her ex-boyfriend's house and asks for sex. She doesn't plan on going back home without reaching her goals so she whines and Jeong-hoon is about to give in...Will Ga-yeong get what she wants?

"Idol Sex Scandal 2" (2016)

Directed by Yamappi

With Ji Won, Joo Hee, Ji Na,...

Synopsis

The requirements to become an idol!

The truth about the girls wrapped up in passion is released!

3 idol wannabes pass the audition. They get dance and acting lessons while living together. They even get sex lessions. They sleep with sponsors under the orders of their management director and managers and dream of becoming the greatest superstar ever. Will they succeed?
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The Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index, an annual list that indicates how companies are doing on LGBT-friendly policies, will be released this week. Wal-Mart was among a total of 517 companies, the most ever, that earned a perfect score of 100 points, the group said, up from 407 last year. Wal-Mart, which scored 90 points the last two years, has moved up from 40 points in 2011.

Some companies, including Salesforce.com Inc., PayPal Holdings Inc. and Dow Chemical Co., have also started working with LGBT rights advocates on plans to take on expected anti-LGBT legislation at the state level. The group met in San Francisco last month, the companies confirmed, declining further comment on specific states or tactics. In Texas alone, as many as 50 related bills may be introduced in 2017, said Matthew McTighe, executive director of Freedom for All Americans, who attended the meeting. The Washington D.C.-based organization aims to defeat laws seen as anti-LGBT.

More than 1,000 companies, including Whole Foods Market Inc. and Marriott International Inc. are poised to speak out against Texas laws seen as hostile to LGBT people, said Jessica Shortall, director of the group Texas Competes, which coordinates business response to the laws.

Wal-Mart has been among those speaking out against anti-LGBT laws at the state level, helping defeat a 2015 rule in Arkansas. Large companies such as Dow and Salesforce were key to beating back more than 150 laws in more than 30 states, although North Carolina did pass a law that forbids transgender people from using the bathroom of their choice.

Wal-Mart, the largest private employer in the U.S. and the worlds biggest retailer, has been trying to improve its image to appeal to more customers, particularly on the east and west coasts, where its reputation for low wages and poor benefits has hurt its ability to open new stores.



The corporate equality index scores companies in five categories, including insurance benefits and diversity training. The scale is from 0, where a company is not seen as meeting any requirements of an inclusive workplace, to 100, considered the most welcoming. Adding transgender health insurance coverage landed Wal-Mart its extra points this year, a move that may be largely symbolic because studies have determined that as few as 1 in 20,000 employees will use the benefit.
le most people would associate virtual reality (VR) to gaming, financial services firm Fidelity Investments is experimenting with ways it can be used in the workplace.Hence their prototype for a retirement VR app that, according to Sean Belka, senior vice-president at Fidelity Labs, could help human resources managers to keep track of employees and their retirement plans.He further explained to Fortune that VRs focus on compelling visuals could be a way for people to better digest complex information.Virtual reality represents the next step in showing off data in more captivating ways than being presented in the form of a two-dimensional spreadsheet or document, he said.In a demo presented to author Jonathan Vanian, users are initially shown a primitive digital cityscape with one skyscraper supposedly representing the company and other buildings representing competitors.Vanians initial assessment was that it seemed rather drab but Belka was quick to point out that that distinguishes it from being a game and more of a professional app.Once you enter your building, you are taken to a boardroom reminiscent of a university lecture hall where you can request to see visual representations of the employees. They are then divided into sections, depending on how long they have been with the company.The employees are presented in either red or green colour, with the latter meaning they have a solid preforming investment plan while the former means the employee might have potential retirement hiccups down the road.Although HR managers typically have access to this type of investment data on their employees, presenting the data in a more immersive matter could help them better digest the abstract information, said Vannian.Belka added that theres something visceral about seeing the data presented in the form of a three-dimensional graphic that users can manipulate  virtual reality could eventually be a hit with businesses.However, based on their tests with nearly a dozen HR customers over the past month, Belka conceded that it will take some time before people start embracing its use.Some people were excited about the possibilities the app showed could be done through virtual reality, but the general consensus was that this is only a prototype and not something ready for primetime yet.He said that they plan on rolling out this and future VR apps steadily and in a measured manner in the coming months.We are taking a somewhat realistic view. Were not looking to go to scale tomorrow, he said.
Come Get Lost for A Cause at Lost Province Brewery on Tuesday, Dec. 13 between 4 to 9 p.m. F.A.R.M. Cafe is the non-profit of the month for December at Lost Province. Lost Province will feature a special REAL.GOOD.PIZZA, made with local North Fork Farm Bratwurst and Heritage Homestead Goat Cheese.

A specially named REAL.GOOD.BEER. will be on tap and is being served through the month with 10% of proceeds benefiting F.A.R.M. Cafe. REAL.GOOD.MUSIC. throughout the evening will feature students and staff from the ASU College of Music including Evan Button, Ingrid & Victor, and local jazz favorite and College of Music faculty, Todd Wright.

Lost Province Brewing Company is committed to making the High Country community a better place to live by supporting local non-profit organizations and community groups working to make the High Country a more vibrant, healthy and just place to live. In 2016 Lost Province launched a community outreach initiative in which a local non-profit is recognized each month that is making a difference to the quality of life in our community. In December F.A.R.M. (Feed All Regardless of Means) Cafe is being recognized and Lost Province is helping to create awareness about the important work this non-profit is doing in our community.

Lost Province is hosting this Get Lost for a Cause day for F.A.R.M. Cafe on December 13. Each month, generally the second Tuesday, a different local non-profit is recognized. Lost Province will donate 10% of sales to the designated non-profit on that day each month. In addition, Lost Province provides space for the non-profit to leave information and/or a display board. Information about F.A.R.M. Cafe is available at Lost Province through December.

F.A.R.M. Cafe is a non-profit, pay-what-you-can community kitchen that builds a healthy and inclusive community. Known for REAL.GOOD.FOOD. and REAL.GOOD.COMMUNITY., F.A.R.M. Cafe provides high quality and delicious meals produced from local sources when available, served in a restaurant where everybody eats, regardless of means. The Cafe is open for lunch Monday-Friday 11 AM to 2 PM. For more information on F.A.R.M. Cafe and its mission to fight food insecurity in the High Country please visit the website at Farmcafe.org. For more information on Lost Province Brewery and its Get Lost For A Cause program visit their website at Lostprovince.com.

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By Jesse Wood

Officials in Avery and Watauga counties say that tourism in the High Country this past year has been excellent with double-digit, year-over-year growth. In some cases, occupancy tax numbers for some of the summer months surpassed record territory.

June saw record numbers. As did July and August, said Nancy Owen, a town-liaison to the Banner Elk Tourism Development Authority. Everyone is having huge weekends and even midweek. All the restaurants are slam-packed every weekend. The Best Western Hotel had the best June ever in its existence.

For year-over-year numbers, Owen said that increases for June, July, August and September were the following: 20, 10, 19, and 10 percent YOY increases. Even in the spring, which typically can be down time, saw over 10 percent in April and May months, Owen said.

Owen contributed some of the positive numbers to the unveiling of a new branding and marketing campaign of the Banner Elk TDA more than a year ago. Nearly three years ago, the TDA started working with Charlotte-based marketing consultant Craig Distl.

With the partnership, the Banner Elk TDA created a media tours, a new website, new logo and new mantra: Escape, Unwind and Indulge. Owen said the Banner Elk TDA has focused its advertising in places within five hours of the High Country, such as Charlotte, Spartanburg/Greenville and Raleigh.

Owen said the message was for folks to travel to the mountains, put down their smart phones and iPads and enjoy the small-town atmosphere of the Banner Elk, where they can hike, ski, grab a Christmas tree and dine at some of the wonderful restaurants in downtown Banner Elk.

We want them to escape the hustle and bustle of the city, Owen said. Thats what we are aiming for.

On the other side of the High Country, Blowing Rock TDA Executive Director Tracy Brown said that summer and fall were both great in terms of tourism and occupancy tax figures.

Blowing Rocks occupancy tax totals have increased this fiscal year by more than 14 percent.

And last year was a record year, so if that tells you anything, we are doing pretty dog-gone good in terms of occupancy tax collection, Brown said. We actually have a survey out to our businesses right now that will close probably next week, but word on the street is its been a great year. The traffic has been really strong, and the sales have been good.

However, Brown noted that there are concerns for what numbers October and November bring because of the forest fires throughout Western North Carolina, in particular the Horton Fire.

Though the Horton Fire was about 4 to 5 miles as the crow flies from Blowing Rock, Brown noted that media outlets in the Piedmont had headlines like Blowing Rock is on fire. Brown said that some cancellations occurred and others likely chose not to stay in Blowing Rock for a smoky Thanksgiving weekend.

That weekend in particular probably wasnt as good as it could have been, Brown said. But all in all, its been a fantastic year.

Brown said that the Blowing Rock TDA is continuing its focus on mobile advertising and also working with promoting the High Country with neighboring communities like Banner Elk and West Jefferson.

As a whole, the more people we bring up here, the better we are all going to do. We think taking that kind of approach is certainly helping, Brown said.

Watauga County TDA Executive Director Wright Tilley said that Watauga Countys occupancy tax collections are up nearly 13 percent year-over-year and the Town of Boone is up nearly 25 percent.

Part of [Boones increase] has to do with the students housed in hotels from the Standard development, Tilley said. But overall, we had a really strong summer and fall.

Tilley said that tourism in the High Country continues to trend in an upward direction and that even in the face of a presidential election, where historically tourism sees a slowdown.

We really didnt experience any of that this year, Tilley said. We are encouraged by that and hope the upswing will continue through the winter and spring and on into next summer.

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JHL states in a press release that it has encouraged its over 200,000 members to sign the initiative in order to ensure the number of police officers is sufficient to guarantee internal security, the efficiency of criminal investigations and the equal treatment of citizens.

The Trade Union for the Public and Welfare Sectors (JHL) has expressed its support for a citizens' initiative demanding that police resources be guaranteed in the legislation .

We support the idea that a minimum level for the human resources of the police [] is determined in the legislation, says Kristian Karrasch, the head of bargaining at JHL.

Police resources, he argues, have already been trimmed to an extent that jeopardises the maintenance of public safety and the realisation of basic rights in Finland. Response times have lengthened across the country. Crime clearance rates are hardly flattering and inquiries into economic crimes are not yielding results at a convincing rate, he highlights.

He also admits that addressing the issue by means of a legislative revision is hardly straightforward. Under the current circumstances, however, it could be a realistic option to guarantee the resources, adds Karrasch.

More than 17,000 people have already voiced their support for the citizens' initiative. A minimum of 50,000 statements of support are required for a citizens' initiative to be presented to the Parliament.

Mikko Paatero, a former National Police Commissioner, has calculated that the upcoming cut of 1015 million euros in the annual police budget is equivalent to the annual wage costs of approximately 200 police officers.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT

Photo: Martti Kainulainen  Lehtikuva

Source: Uusi Suomi
Blue Ridge Parkway wants to ban untreated firewood

Related Stories

Blue Ridge Parkway officials are seeking public comment on a proposed policy to allow only heat-treated firewood that is bundled and bearing a seal from USDA, or a state agency, for use in Parkway camping and picnic areas. Once finalized, this proposed policy change would take effect as the Parkway reopens its facilities for the 2017 visitor season.

A variety of destructive pests lay eggs or stowaway in firewood and are unknowingly being introduced to the Parkway through untreated firewood. New infestations are threatening southern Appalachian forests with widespread tree mortality that could devastate wildlife habitat, park biodiversity, and scenic views. In considering this change the Parkway joins Shenandoah and Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Cumberland Gap National Historical Park, Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area, as well the Virginia and North Carolina State Parks, who have adopted similar measures. Heat-treated wood is available at many locations on and off the Parkway; and visitors may still collect dead and down wood in the immediate vicinity of campgrounds and picnic areas.

If you would like to comment on the proposed change allowing only the use of heat-treated wood for fires in Parkway campgrounds and picnic areas, please submit comments electronically at the following link: http://parkplanning.nps.gov/blri-heattreatedwood through Jan. 7.
Ivita Visnevska, also known as Esala Kama, 34, with an address in Ilford, London, pleaded guilty at Limerick Circuit Court today

A mother-of-six was fined 100 at Limerick Circuit Court after she admitted marrying a man while still wed to her first husband.

Ivita Visnevska, originally from Latvia but with an address at Berberis Court, Ilford, London, yesterday pleaded guilty to one count of bigamy and to one count of knowingly providing false information on a marriage certificate application form.

The court heard the marriage registry office in St Camillus Hospital, Limerick, discovered they had serviced the false marriage five years after the ceremony, when they were contacted by authorities in Latvia.

Knowledge

On August 22, 2005, at St Camillus Hospital registry office, Visnevska (34) married fellow Latvian Alexandrs Limanovics, with whom she has two teenage daughters. The "relationship ended" in October 2008, the court heard.

A year later, on October 16, 2009, and while still married to her Latvian husband, Visnevska wed Pakistani man Mirza Azam Baig, with whom she has two sons.

Mr Baig had no knowledge that Ms Visnevska was married at the time, the court heard.

Latvian authorities contacted the Limerick registry office in 2014, telling them that the marriage between Visnevska and Mr Baig was not legal.

The court heard Visnevska is currently in a relationship with a third man, with whom she has two young children, and is due to give birth to her seventh child next May.

"She has converted to Islam and changed her name to Esala Kana," said John O'Sullivan, prosecuting.

On July 13, 2009, Visnevska and Mr Baig gave notice to the Limerick marriage registry office of their intention to wed.

Visnevska signed a declaration form, recording her marital status as "single", despite still being married to Mr Limanovics. She signed three separate forms indicating there was no legal impediment to marrying Mr Baig.

In 2014, gardai, through liaisons with Interpol, located Visnevska in London and detectives interviewed her at a police station in Stratford.

Mr O'Sullivan said Visnevska initially told gardai she wired 800 from a Western Union outlet in Limerick to a Latvian legal adviser in order to arrange to have her first marriage annulled.

Sham

Det Gda Oliver Foley told the court that gardai found no record of any transaction. He agreed that Visnevska had claimed she believed her first marriage was annulled when she wed Mr Baig, but she "could not produce any documents" to show this.

Gardai could not find any clear motive for the offences.

Det Gda Foley agreed with Visnevska's defence barrister, Brian McInerney, that she was not involved in "sham marriages" nor "marriages for sale".

"It's very, unusual," said Judge Tom O'Donnell. "It's clear what this lady did was wrong and she knew it was wrong, and she knew it was a lie - full stop."

The judge took into account the bigamy offence, and fined Visnevska 100 for providing false information on a marriage certificate.
Claims by drugs lord Christy Keane that he was asked by the owners of a stolen 1m greyhound to track down and rescue the animal are being treated as "complete rubbish" by gardai.

Keane (55), a convicted drugs dealer and head of a criminal gang at the centre of a bloody family feud for years, was released from garda custody yesterday after he was caught with Clares Rocket on Tuesday night.

The dog was stolen from its trainer's kennels in Golden, Co Tipperary, on Sunday.

A 100,000 ransom was demanded from the Limerick Full House Syndicate by "a man with a mild Dublin accent" for the dog's safe return.

Kill

Keane told the Limerick Leader newspaper that he was asked by syndicate member Thomas O'Shea to "make a few phone calls and find out what the story is about the dog".

Keane claimed he tracked down those who took the greyhound and got it back after telling them who he was.

Informed sources said last night that investigating gardai were treating Keane's claims as "complete rubbish".

Four men, including Keane, were arrested. All were released yesterday, and a file on the case is being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Keane said he told the dognappers that no ransom would be paid.

"They said they were going to kill the dog," he said.

"An hour after, they rang back again and I told him who I was. I told him who I was and that I'm from Limerick. I said, 'I swear I will track you down'. So they agreed to give me the dog.

"I said, 'We won't involve the guards or nobody, you give me the dog, throw him into my Jeep and I'll drive away'.

"Then we got another call to say where to go to get the dog. I picked up the dog in the back of a pub down outside Waterford."

Asked if he recognised the individuals, Keane said: "No, it was dark. I made them a promise I wouldn't call guards or no one. I kept that promise.

"I contacted Tom O'Shea and said, 'I have the dog - contact the guards and tell them I am on the way home with the dog and I will meet you in my house with Joe Cahill, the syndicate boss'."

Armed gardai swooped on Keane and another man as they made their way back to Limerick with Clares Rocket.

"I had to put my hands in the air and I was trying to tell them I have the dog. They tore me on to the ground and put guns to the back of my head," he said.

Keane, Mr O'Shea and Mr Cahill say they have no associations with those suspected of being involved in the theft.

Keane, who served eight years in jail after he was caught with 240,000 worth of cannabis, denied the dognapping had anything to do with drugs.

"No, this is purely for ransom," said Mr Cahill, speaking about the culprits.

"They were trying to say it was a drug thing went wrong. I've never dealt a drug in my life."

When asked if he had any connections to the drugs industry, Mr Cahill replied: "No-thing, nothing. You can ring the guards and ask them. It's only road traffic offences - that's it."

He said he makes a living by playing poker.

"I won the Sunday Millions online a couple of years ago," he said.
A low-life burglar has wrecked a charity shop just weeks before Christmas and made off with 1,500 destined for those most in need.

Gardai were last night studying CCTV footage in a bid to catch the callous thief who rampaged through the St Vincent de Paul charity shop in Cabra, north Dublin.

He took all the cash in the shop and carried off the safe from the office during the late night raid.

The extensive damage to the premises will cost more than 3,000 to repair.

Footage obtained by the Herald shows the raider bursting through the front door before rampaging through the Annamoe Terrace shop.

He severely damaged the door which he kicked several times before gaining entry.

CCTV footage shows him taking the contents of the till and making off with the safe from the back of the shop.

Shocked

The break-in, shortly after 10.15pm on Wednesday, lasted a mere three minutes.

The shop was forced to close for half-a-day yesterday because of the damage as hard-working staff came to terms with the break-in and the loss of donations.

Shop manager Dorcas More O'Ferrall said she was stunned when she arrived yesterday to open the shop and found the door shutter broken.

"I couldn't go inside. I was terrified," she told the Herald.

After alerting gardai, she entered the shop, only to find that all the cash, including the till float, the petty cash and the office safe, had been stolen on one of the shop's busiest days of the year.

"I was shocked," she said. "All the money we made yesterday had gone."

The daily takings would normally have been taken to the bank, but because the shop was so busy with people dropping off donations and buying gifts for Christmas, staff did not even have time to take a break, said Ms More O'Ferrall.

"All the hard work has been for nothing."

Among the cash stolen in the raid were donations that local children had made at fund-raising events in their schools.

The break-in, which prevented the shop from re-opening until yesterday afternoon, also meant that it could not accept much-needed donations in the run-up to Christmas during one of the busiest weeks of the year.

The burglary could not have come at a worse time for the charity, said St Vincent de Paul regional manager Mark O'Brien.

"The amount of need out there is massive," he said. "Things are pretty bad. We're seeing a lot of people still struggling with unemployment and under-employment.

"The loss in revenue means about 40 families will suffer."

The missing money would otherwise have gone to help those in need to pay for food, clothing, utilities and other basic necessities.

Principle

"The money taken by the burglar was for those people who have very little," said Mr O'Brien.

"It's not so much the amount of money that was stolen, it's the principle of it, that someone would steal from those helping the poor."

Gardai at the Bridewell are investigating the incident.

Anyone with information is asked to contact them or the garda confidential line on 1800 666 111.
A charity is appealing for baby food and nappies as the number of homeless families continues to rise.

Dublin's Capuchin Day Centre, which is run by Brother Kevin Crowley and gives food and supply packs to people without homes, said a growing number of parents now look for nappies, baby food and baby clothes.

"It's something that has raised its head in the past year," centre co-ordinator Alan Bailey told the Herald. "A lot of families are now staying in hotels.

"Monday is our official distribution date and we hand out baby food and nappies to about 90 families.

"It's a savage indictment in this day and age to think that there are people queuing for nappies.

"It really is a frightening thought."

The charity provides 800 hot meals a day at its centre in Bow Street. It also hands out between 3,000 and 3,500 hampers, an increase of 2,800 on last year's figure.

The charity said there is now a record number of 6,709 homeless people across the country.

Emergency

In Dublin, the number of homeless families has climbed to more than 1,000 for the first time.

The number of children living in emergency or temporary accommodation has risen to more than 2,000.

Anyone wishing to donate baby food and nappies can do so at the Capuchin Day Centre, 29 Bow Street, Dublin 7.

Meanwhile, another charity, Inner City Helping Homeless (ICHH), has been collecting shoeboxes filled with goods for homeless people as part of its Fill A Tram initiative.

The charity has already collected 3,295 shoeboxes and the tram will be at Connolly Station until 7pm this evening.

The number of homeless people sleeping rough in Dublin has reached more than 140 on a single night.

Homeless campaigners have also voiced serious concerns over the increase in homeless women, some of them pregnant, sleeping rough on Dublin's streets in recent months.

Former Lord Mayor Christy Burke, who works with ICHH, said the number of women sleeping rough on the streets, often under wet blankets, has increased significantly.

"Our group has noticed a jump in young women who are forced to sleep on the streets," he said.
ISRAEL21cWhen Avram Hershko was a post-doc fellow at the University of California in San Francisco from 1969 to 1971, he made an unexpected discovery that led to his receiving the 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

The professor at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology tells ISRAEL21c that he was interested in examining the mechanism that causes protein degradation in living cells. He assumed it had to do with running out of energy. Surprisingly, his experiments revealed the opposite: Proteins need energy to fall apart.

It was serendipity, he recalls.

For full story go to israel21c.org
(The Nosher via JTA)-I grew up in a traditional Jewish home eating my mom's cholent, which had been my grandma's recipe. It was always one of my favorite meals; I often chose it for birthday dinners and special occasions.

When I moved out, I took the recipe with me-but decided it was time to modernize it a bit and make it my own.

I've always loved food packed with flavor, and I'm a big fan of Mexican food, so I decided to take the family cholent recipe and reimagine it with influences of carne asada or a rustic chili. The result is Mexican cholent. It's spicy and comforting, and a favorite whenever I have friends over. I often pair it with a scoop of guacamole to cool down the heat (but you can always make it less spicy by cutting down on the chilies in adobo sauce or halving the taco seasoning-be bold though!).

Ingredients:

2-pound brisket, fat trimmed (or you can use 4 marrow bones plus 1 pound cubed beef stew)

1 onion, diced

3 garlic cloves, minced

2 Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and chopped

1 16-ounce bag cholent bean mix OR 2 cups pearl barley and 1 cup dry red kidney beans, soaked in 2 cups warm water for 10 minutes

1 7-ounce can diced green chilies

2-3 tablespoons taco seasoning (or more to taste)

1 heaping tablespoon chipotle pepper in adobo sauce (or more to taste)

32-ounce vegetable broth

1 cup brussel sprouts, cut in half (optional)

fresh cilantro, guacamole or jalapenos for serving

Directions:

Spray the inside of your slow cooker with cooking spray.

Add brisket. (You can also substitute the marrow bones and cubed beef stew, or beef flanken.)

Add onion, garlic, potatoes, canned chilies, chipotle in adobo, taco seasoning, beans (or pearl barley plus red kidney beans) and enough vegetable stock to cover. Stir gently to make sure everything is mixed. Add brussels sprouts (optional).

Set slow cooker for 8 hours on low. After 4 hours, check and add more vegetable stock (or water) if it looks too dry. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with fresh cilantro, guacamole or thin slices of jalapeno.

Aly Walansky is a writer and editor with a decade of experience in the lifestyles realm, and contributes to dozens of major publications regularly.

The Nosher food blog offers a dazzling array of new and classic Jewish recipes and food news, from Europe to Yemen, from challah to shakshuka and beyond. Check it out at www.TheNosher.com.
Celebrate Shabbat with the synagogue that feels like family. The Shabbat evening service led by Rabbi Karen Allen is on Friday, Dec. 9th at 7 p.m. The service will honor the new members who have joined the congregation during 2016. An Oneg Shabbat will follow the service. The synagogue is located at 315 North 13th St. in Leesburg, with the entrance on Center Street.

Celebrate Chanukah (in advance) on Dec. 18 at 2 p.m. at Congregation Beth Sholom. Because Chanukah falls during the school vacation, they will hold the Chanukah party early. There will be games for children and adults, traditional foods of latkes (sweet potato and regular) and jelly donuts, the Menorah lighting, and a sing-along. A reservation form can be downloaded from Beth Sholoms website. The synagogue is located at 315 North 13th St. in Leesburg, with the entrance on Center Street.

More information is available on the synagogue website: http://bethsholomflorida.org/ or by calling the synagogue at 352-326-3692.

The Rabbis Roundtable Discussion Group with Rabbi Karen Allen of Congregation Beth Sholom, will be held on Thursday, Dec. 22at 2:30 p.m. at the Sumter County Administration and Library Building (with the golden dome) at 7375 Powell Rd. (near Pinellas Plaza and 466A), Wildwood. The Rabbis Roundtable series explores the current Torah Portion and how it affects our daily lives. The roundtable provides a unique opportunity to talk with the rabbi as she leads an informal and interactive discussion focusing on topics of contemporary Jewish interest.

More information is available on the synagogue website: http://bethsholomflorida.org/ or by calling the synagogue at 352-326-3692.

Saturday, Dec. 24: Shabbat Morning Chanukah Service led by Rabbi Karen Allen, at 10 a.m. The service will include special readings and songs celebrating Chanukah. A Kiddush will follow the service. The synagogue is located at 315 North 13th St. in Leesburg, with the entrance on Center Street.

More information is available on the synagogue website: http://bethsholomflorida.org/ or by calling the synagogue at 352-326-3692.
Aaron Klein plans to expand Breitbart Jerusalem; there is talk of moving into the Hebrew market.

TEL AVIV (JTA)-Stephen Bannon recently called Breitbart News "the most pro-Israel site in the United States of America."

That will not change with Bannon leaving the far-right news website for the White House, according to Breitbart's Jerusalem bureau chief.

Saying he shares a worldview with Bannon, President-elect Donald Trump's chief White House strategist, Aaron Klein plans to expand the Israel operation, which staunchly backs the Jewish state's political right wing. There is talk of moving into the Hebrew market.

"We're here to counter the total bias of the mainstream media in coverage of Israel," Klein, 38, said in an interview at his two-story apartment near this city's beach. "We write for the American audience, a Western audience obviously at this point. I think a huge segment of Israelis also has a pretty [whetted] appetite for an outlet that isn't controlled by the leftist media mafia."

Founded in 2007 by the late conservative publisher Andrew Breitbart, who was Jewish, the site grew in prominence during the presidential campaign as one of Trump's most reliable champions. When Bannon, who ran Breitbart after its founder's death in 2012, became Trump's campaign manager and then top White House aide, the site's reputation as a gathering place for the white supremacist and often anti-Semitic "alt-right" became fodder for national debate.

Defenders of Bannon say Breitbart's fiercely pro-Israel stance refutes charges that he is an anti-Semite.

Bannon handpicked Klein to launch Breitbart Jerusalem in November 2015. Klein said he has known Bannon for years and worked "very closely" with him until the boss stepped away in August to join the Trump campaign. After being named chief strategist this month, Bannon said he would resign from Breitbart.

For Klein, the job has not changed much in Bannon's absence. He started with a more or less free rein, Klein said, because he and Bannon share a common understanding of the world and Israel's place in it.

"We've always been ideological brothers. He doesn't need to tell me what to do. We're always on the same page," Klein said.

Klein, a Yeshiva University graduate, said Breitbart does not cater to the alt-right and that he has no connection with the movement.

"I don't even know what the alt-right is," he said. "I mean there are so many articles trying to define what it is. I don't know, and I'm Breitbart's senior reporter in addition to being the Jerusalem bureau chief. So you would think if the alt-right were so significant, it would be something that I'd know more about."

The general readership's interest in Israel coverage, Klein said, is proof that the alt-right is a "fringe" element. In Klein's view, Breitbart readers are nationalists who admire how Israel copes under difficult circumstances, especially under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"There are themes here in Israel that I believe really resonate with the nationalist audience in America. Like borders. I mean that's something Israel excels at defining. I think Bibi is a role model for America," he said, using Netanyahu's nickname. "Americans in general see him as one of their heroes, one of the most respected world leaders, somebody who has in the past and even now stood up to enemies of Israel, stood up in many ways to the Obama administration, sort of an anti-establishment figure in a way."

Readers are right to see common threats to the United States and Israel, Klein said. The Jewish state, he said, is under attack by Islamic extremists as well as by American liberal elites, like the "mainstream news media," social justice activists and the Obama administration.

These supposedly shared threats, more than events in Israel, are the focus of Breitbart Jerusalem's coverage, which is mostly aggregated from other news sources and written in a straight-ahead style that contrasts with the rest of the website. The message is largely in Klein's editorial selection and framing.

On Wednesday afternoon, the only posts on the landing page that did not name a Muslim or liberal threat were about Israel buying fighter jets from the U.S. and the recently subdued wildfires that raged across Israel for a week.

Many of Breitbart Jerusalem's posts make explicit how both the U.S. and Israel are threatened. The top story Wednesday afternoon was about how the car-ramming and stabbing attack at Ohio State University two days earlier claimed by the Islamic State group resembled Palestinian terrorism in Israel.

Klein travels between the U.S. and Israel as part of his job. In addition to heading Breitbart Jerusalem, he is the website's senior investigative reporter focused on the United States. Klein's most recent investigative-style stories for Breitbart targeted Marc Elias, the lawyer who is representing Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign in a recount of votes in Wisconsin, and Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, who had just condemned Bannon's White House appointment. The stories linked both men to projects supported by financier and liberal mega-donor George Soros, an association presumed to be damning in itself.

Both men are Jewish, as is Soros. Such reporting, which elicits openly anti-Semitic comments, has fed accusations that Breitbart promotes anti-Semitism.

"Andrew Breitbart despised racism. Truly despised it," Ben Shapiro, a former Breitbart editor-at-large, wrote this month on the Daily Wire, a conservative website. "With Bannon embracing Trump, all that changed. Now Breitbart has become the alt-right go-to website, with [technology editor Milo] Yiannopoulos pushing white ethno-nationalism as a legitimate response to political correctness, and the comment section turning into a cesspool for white supremacist meme-makers."

Attorney Alan Dershowitz, himself an ardent defender of Israel, wrote in the Israeli daily Haaretz that he found no evidence Bannon is anti-Semitic, but nevertheless said Bannon and Breitbart News have made "bigoted statements about Muslims, women and others."

"Bigotry against any group should be disqualifying for high office," Dershowitz said.

Klein is Jewish. He grew up attending modern Orthodox schools and graduated from Yeshiva University before moving to Israel in 2005.

Bannon in an interview this month with The Wall Street Journal pointed to the Jews on Breitbart's staff and to Breitbart Jerusalem to refute allegations that he is personally anti-Semitic.

"Breitbart is the most pro-Israel site in the United States of America. I have Breitbart Jerusalem, which I have Aaron Klein run with about 10 reporters there," he said.

According to Klein, there are two full-time reporters in Israel. Also on the team are a copy editor, two researchers and an editor based in London. There is no office, and Klein works from home as well as a private office in Jerusalem.

With Breitbart becoming a major player in American media and talking about expanding around the world, Klein said there are plans to hire more staff, including reporters, in Israel. He would like to do more reporting on Israeli culture, business and technology to show that Israel is "more than just the conflict."

Down the line, he sees an opportunity to break into the Hebrew market-the one he described as dominated by a "leftist media mafia." There is one right-wing outlet, Yisrael Hayom, the free tabloid owned by Jewish casino magnate and right-wing mega-donor Sheldon Adelson that serves as a de facto mouthpiece for Netanyahu.

"But what about having two? What about having three?" he asked. "Why is that so threatening?"
On Wednesday, Nov. 30, Jewish high school students from all over metro Orlando gathered in Nate's Shul in Longwood for an evening of volunteering to help Israeli children with special needs. The teens were treated to a delicious Kosher Israeli dinner thanks to Eric Kessous of Kosher Gourmet in Kissimee.

The event was a partnership between CTeen of Orlando and the Orlando chapter of the Jewish National Fund. Following the Shawarma and desserts the teens were addressed by Orlando JNF Past President Jim Riola, who, together with his wife Jill, sponsored the evening.

Riola explained the importance of JNF's work with special needs children, and especially its involvement with Aleh Negev-Nahalat Elan, a one of kind, state of the art rehabilitative medical facility and village in the Negev devoted to special needs children and adults. The group then watched a video and learned about the amazing work JNF does all over Israel. "We do so much more than just plant trees," said Jim, with a smile.

Rabbi Yanky Majesky explained to the teens how giving back is not about the amount you give - it is about giving what you can. "Right now you are students and not making money, but you can help these special children in another way".

The teens then sat down to build wooden, hand painted Dreidles and make stuffed felt Torahs, along with personalized Chanukah cards, to send their love and good wishes from CTeen of Orlando to the children of Aleh Negev.

At the closing of the evening, the teens received a special Aleh Negev wristband as a gift from JNF.

"I want to thank Rabbi Yanky Majesky for giving JNF the opportunity to present one of our favorite programs and enable these kids to make a personal connection to the land and people of Israel" said Riola. "It is we who need to thank you," responded the Rabbi.

CTeen is the fastest growing Jewish youth group with over 250 chapters in 23 countries across six continents. In metro Orlando there is CTeen of South Orlando led by Rabbi Nissan and Shaina Zibel, CTeen of Maitland led by Rabbi Ed and Bracha Leibowitz and CTeen of North Orlando led by Rabbi Yanky and Chanshy Majesky. All three chapters joined for this special event.

The next CTeen event will be on Dec. 14 where CTeen will partner with the Jewish Pavilion to bring the joy of Chanukah to the elderly. For more information about CTeen or to sponsor the next event please contact Rabbi Yanky Majesky Rabbi@JewishNorthOrlando.com or 407-636-5994.
Bruce Gould (r) stands with Chief Israel Officer Eric Michaelson (l), and Israeli Fire Fighter Natan in the village of Beit Mehert, which took the brunt of some of the most serious fires.

Following six days of devastating fires that ravaged Israel, Jewish National Fund (JNF-USA) is stepping up fundraising efforts to raise the many millions of dollars needed to help the nation recover. Since Tuesday, Nov. 22, approximately 10,000 acres of forests have been destroyed by fires. Some 137 people have suffered fire-related injuries. At least 569 homes burned down throughout Israel and in Haifa alone, more than 700 homes were damaged, 37 were destroyed, 400 are uninhabitable, and 75,000 residents were evacuated.

"For a week our beloved homeland was engulfed in devastating fires forcing hundreds of families to abandon their homes on the front lines," said JNF-USA CEO Russell F. Robinson. "We are on the ground in Israel every day improving lives, but now we are needed more than ever. To answer the great need, we have launched a special campaign for the intensive reforestation of areas destroyed by fires, as well as critically needed firefighting trucks and equipment."

Local resident Bruce Gould, who is serving as the National Major Gifts chair for JNF, visited a site in Beit Mehert-one of the hardest hit areas in the greater region of Jerusalem. After seeing so much fire damage, he realized that Israel was not properly prepared for this kind of catastrophy. Standing with Israeli firefighters, he shared on YouTube the devastation caused by arson at the village he was in.

"I'm privileged to come here to see a little bit of the devastation," he said. "Something like this could have been avoided if we had the proper equipment and, yes, we've done a lot to minimize the damage by providing the firefighters with the necessary equipment, but it's not enough.

"Israel is our home," he continued. "And we planted trees and we made them grow. We watered them, but now they need our help to continue to make this a home-make it safe for everybody and I ask you to come along with me today to try to do more."

JNF-USA's partners involved in the firefighting efforts include Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael (KKL-JNF), Israel Firefighters and Rescue Services, Green Horizons, Gush Etzion, Halutza, HaShomer HaChadash, JNFuture Israel, LOTEM, Makom, Nefesh B'Nefesh, Tor Hamidbar, Western Galilee Now, and others. All have been working around the clock helping those impacted by the fires.

Daniel Atar, KKL-JNF Chairman of the Board of Directors commented, "As the principal caretaker of the land of Israel, this event has been especially brutal not only for the many thousands of residents forced to leave their enflamed homes, but also because of the destruction it caused to the environment and landscape. For more than a century, KKL-JNF has planted and cared for 250 million trees that have made Israel the green fertile country it is. This fire set us back many years and it will take a lot of time and effort to rebuild and regrow."

Yoram Levy, national spokesperson for the Israel Firefighters and Rescue Services said that this series of fires were some of the worst the country ever experienced. "What made this incredibly difficult to fight, more so than the Carmel fire in 2010, was the number of blazes that took place simultaneously all across Israel," said Levy. "We had every firefighter across the country fighting the fires and witnessing extensive damage to infrastructure, housing, and land from the north to the south and east to west. Thankfully, we experienced no casualties among our members and are now returning to normal conditions but now we have to look to the future and order many tons of new equipment to replace what we lost."

JNF-USA's fundraising efforts include raising $10,000,000 to purchase firefighting apparatus (550 new trucks needed), equipment and gear, and staffing rangers for the Elite Forest Protection Unit, a new watchtower in Helez, and drones. Additionally, funds are being raised to assist JNF-USA partners including Nefesh B' Nefesh, LOTEM-Making Nature Accessible, Gush Etzion, and Green Horizons.
Hans Knoop, wearing a jacket, and his wife, Betty, second from left, meeting the cast of the drama series "The Menten Case" in the Netherlands in 2015.

AMSTERDAM (JTA)-Forty years after his reporting exposed one of the worst war criminals in Dutch history, Hans Knoop is still celebrated in his native Netherlands as a hero.

On Nov. 23, more than a million television viewers watched a public broadcaster's historical period drama on how Knoop, a Dutch Jewish journalist, unmasked the art collector Pieter Menten in 1976 as a monster who murdered hundreds of Polish Jews and stole their property with help from German Nazis. It was the highest rating for such a production in the Netherlands.

The host of the Netherlands' most-watched talk show, Jeroen Pauw, last week called Knoop's discovery "a brilliant, unmatched journalistic achievement." He recalled how the Knoop expose led to Menten's arrest in a country that was profoundly shocked by his ability to escape justice and amass a fortune built on pillage.

But alongside this recognition Knoop, a father of two whose mild manners and amiable expression conceal a steely determination, has paid a heavy personal price for the discovery. Harassed by Menten's lawyers, supporters and even other journalists, Knoop said the scoop effectively ended his career as a working journalist in a country that many believe has still not fully owned up to its Holocaust-era history.

"Things don't always go as they should go," Knoop, 73, told JTA in an interview.

Menten, whose belated conviction for war crimes exposed deep flaws in Holland's ability to try collaborators, eventually served five years of a 10-year sentence-itself a concession to his advanced age-before he died in 1988 at 81. But Knoop said "the Menten affair meant the end of my career as an active journalist."

While Knoop considers that regrettable, he said it was no surprise.

"As I interviewed witnesses, it became clear that Menten's modus operandi was to use his influence and fortune to either buy or destroy anyone who accused him of wrongdoing," Knoop said. "That's part of the reason he was able to evade justice for so long."

Menten's unusual story in Poland began in the 1920s, when he moved there to conduct business, including with many Jewish associates. He lost all his vast property there when the Russians invaded the country's east in 1939, but regained it when the Nazis took over the territory in 1941. Menten befriended the Nazi occupation forces, tracked down his former associates and murdered them, Knoop reported.

Menten transported war booty to Holland, where after World War II he was sentenced to several months in jail for the general charge of "assisting the enemy" over his chumminess with Nazi officers. The multimillionaire art dealer escaped more serious charges by libeling his accusers, but ultimately was exposed after trying to auction off stolen goods.

Knoop, then the editor-in-chief of a medium-circulation weekly owned by the Telegraaf daily, began researching testimonies collected in Israel by the late Haaretz journalist Haviv Cnaan, whose family was among Menten's victims.

Knoop was warned off the story by people whose own careers were ruined by Menten when they threatened to expose him. He soon realized they were right.

Knoop was forced to quit the Telegraaf daily soon after his investigation was published because, he said, another reporter for the paper "began spying" on Knoop at Menten's behest. And while he toured the world giving lectures about the Menten case, no other major publication in the Netherlands would hire Knoop "because I had a stamp of my forehead," he recalled.

The attention given to the Menten affair these days is part of a wave of renewed interest in Holocaust-era complicity in the Netherlands, a country where the efforts of those who saved Jews-Holland has 5,600 Righteous Among the Nations, the world's second largest tally-have long eclipsed the widespread collaboration that led to the murder of 75 percent of Dutch Jewry. It is the highest death rate in occupied Western Europe.

Last week, the NRC Handelsblad revealed that most notaries aided the plunder of the Dutch Jews' property. The revelation followed a scandal in 2014 showing how throughout the 1960s, the government levied fines on Jews who were late paying their property taxes because they were in concentration camps. Such discoveries have prompted repeated but unheeded demands that the government formally apologize for the country's complicity in the Dutch Jews' fate.

Knoop encountered some bigotry over his exposure of the Menten affair-one colleague accused him of being overly emotional about the case because Knoop is Jewish-but he attributes his ejection from the journalistic scene to the sectarianism of Dutch publications back when they were affiliated with adversarial parties and groups, including Protestants, Catholics and Socialists.

"If you were a Telegraaf journalist, you couldn't just switch to another publication in the '70s," he said. "You'd be branded. And I was."

So Knoop set up a successful PR agency-it was one of the first in the Netherlands-which he ran alongside his activities, often pro bono, as a spokesman for Jewish organizations and as a pro-Israel columnist, among other positions.

Still, Knoop is best known for his crucial role in bringing to Menten to justice despite several death threats by the wealthy art dealer.

Knoop says he has no doubt Menten would have had him killed if he could get away with it. And while the Menten affair exposed problems in the Dutch justice system, "I knew that I was protected because if anything would've happened to me, all the arrows would point at Menten," Knoop said.

Menten's Jewish victims, regarded by the Nazis as sub-humans earmarked for annihilation, had no such protection under the German occupation. Menten hounded former associates even after they fled their former homes. Wearing SS uniforms provided to him by his friends-he was officially neither a Nazi nor a soldier-he executed his enemies by firing squad, sometime making their relatives watch as he commanded the gruesome event from an armchair with a wave of his hand. The special war crimes tribunal found him guilty in the mass murder of 20 to 30 people, mainly Jews in the Polish village of Podhorodze in July 1941.

The unusual nature of Menten's story-he is perhaps the only civilian known to have committed mass murder on that scale during World War II purely for financial gain-and the testimonies against him at first sounded far-fetched to Knoop, a skeptical and cool-headed journalist.

He was led to further doubt their veracity by Menten's proclaimed willingness to confront his accusers and feigned openness to Knoop in interviews.

"I thought, 'this is not the behavior of a guilty man,'" Knoop recalled.

But he reconsidered when Menten tried to bribe him to bury the story, and after Cnaan, the Haaretz journalist, offered eyewitness testimony of Menten's crimes.

From then on, Knoop didn't let Menten out of his sight until he was in prison. Knoop even traced Menten in Switzerland, where Menten escaped the Netherlands to avoid going to prison. Knoop was there when the Swiss police arrested Menten ahead of his extradition.

"I believe Menten was always a monster," Knoop said, "but he took off the mask only when the circumstances allowed it."
By Sean Savage

JNS.org

Improving weather conditions, a massive influx of support from the international community and efforts by Israeli first responders have enabled the Jewish state to get raging wildfires under control.

This weeks fires are expected to be among the costliest in Israeli history, with unofficial preliminary estimates projecting about $520 million in damage. The damage to Israeli homes is estimated to be more than $182 million, while destruction to public property such as roads, electrical power systems and other infrastructure amounts to at least $78 million.

These damages are on an enormous scale, the likes of which we have not encountered in any natural disaster in Israels historyonly in wars, said an official at the Israeli Finance Ministry, Yedioth Ahronoth reported. The final calculations of the damages caused by the firesboth to the states coffers and to the public in generalcould only be done weeks after the event. These are very complicated calculations.

Haifa, Israels third-largest city, was under considerable threat from the fires. More than 60,000 people were evacuated from the city as flames burned nearby. Haifa residents were able to return home after fire crews were able to get the flames under control.

At a special cabinet meeting in Haifa, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Israeli first responders for their work to combat the fires.

I salute all those who took part in dealing with this crisis, in extinguishing the fires, and in guarding life and property, Netanyahu said. We have built an impressive ability to fight fires on the ground and from the air and it proved itself. I do not want to imagine what might have happened if we hadnt built this ability.

The thousands of fires that erupted across Israel came largely as a result of extremely dry and windy weather conditions, but also from attacks by arsonists, who likely used the weather conditions as a means to inflict heavy damage on the Jewish state.

Every fire that was the result of arson or incitement to arson is terror in every way and well treat it as such, he said. Anyone who tries to burn parts of the state of Israel will be severely punished.

By Nov. 25, Israel had arrested 22 people on arson charges.

Global response

In response to the fires, the international Jewish community stepped up its efforts to provide relief to affected Israelis.

According to the Jewish National Fund, which has launched an emergency response campaign to help Israelis rebuild their homes and forests, the fires destroyed more than 32,000 acres of forests. In Haifa alone, 700 homes were damaged, 37 were destroyed and 400 were deemed uninhabitable. At least 569 homes burned down throughout Israel, and 137 people suffered fire-related injuries.

The Jewish Agency for Israel, with help from the Jewish Federations of North America, announced it will provide immediate financial assistance of $1,000 per family to Israeli families who cannot return home.

At trying times like these, world Jewry feels closely connected to what is taking place in Israel and comes to our help without hesitation, Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky said. We are proud of our partners in Jewish communities around the world, and particularly in North America, and appreciate their solidarity when it matters the most.

The international community, including several of Israels Arab and Muslim allies, were instrumental in helping the Jewish state combat the flames.

Egypt, Jordan, Azerbaijan and Turkey all sent firefighting equipment to Israel. The Palestinian Authority (PA) also pitched in, sending several fire trucks to the Jewish state. Netanyahu phoned PA President Mahmoud Abbas to thank him for his assistance, marking a rare direct conversation between the two leaders.

Israeli opposition leader Member of Knesset Isaac Herzog also thanked the Palestinians for their help, saying that from this tragedy, there is a glimmer of hope that things can be different.

The show of solidarity from Arab and Muslim allies was a welcome sign for Israel after Arabic-speaking social media users had used the hashtag Israel is burning to celebrate the fires that ravaged the country.

Several of Israels close allies in Europe, as well as the U.S., also sent firefighting equipment. America dispatched its Boeing 747 Supertanker, the largest aerial firefighting aircraft in the world. The supertanker is capable of carrying up to 19,600 gallons of fire retardant or water.

The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations expressed gratitude to the countries that assisted Israel.

Among those nations sending firefighters and equipment were Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Greece, Italy, Jordan, Palestinian Authority, Romania, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine and the U.S., the Conference of Presidents said in a press release, noting that Israel has often responded when other countries faced natural disasters or violent attacks.

The outpouring of international support for Israel in response to the widespread threats to the safety and property of tens of thousands of Israelis is an example of international cooperation at its best, said Conference of Presidents leaders Stephen M. Greenberg and Malcolm Hoenlein.
WASHINGTON (JTA)-Outgoing Secretary of State John Kerry signaled in a speech that the Obama administration was still considering action on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in its final days, although it might fall short of a direct intervention on the issue.

There's no way to "force-feed" peace between Israel and the Palestinians, Kerry said in a lengthy speech delivered Tuesday at the Women's Foreign Policy Group conference, but there are "other things we can do" to preserve a two-state solution.

It's not clear whether President Barack Obama favors any action on the two-state front, and Congress and the mainstream pro-Israel lobby have said they would vehemently oppose it.

Kerry also defended the Iran nuclear deal, as did the outgoing CIA director, John Brennan, in an interview with the BBC, part of what likely will be a full-court press by the Obama administration to persuade President-elect Donald Trump not to kill the 2015 agreement that exchanged a nuclear rollback for sanctions relief.

The Obama administration is coming under pressure from groups that favor an assertive U.S. posture on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to take steps to preserve the two-state solution before Trump takes office. Former President Jimmy Carter in a New York Times op-ed this week urged Obama to back a U.N. Security Council resolution that would recognize Palestinian statehood. J Street, a liberal Jewish Middle East policy group, also has urged Obama to take actions to preserve two states as an outcome, including backing a "balanced" Security Council resolution.

The Palestinians reportedly are preparing a resolution condemning Israel for settlement expansion that they hope a sympathetic nation will submit to the Security Council.

Kerry, who spearheaded the last major round of talks between Israel and the Palestinians, in 2013-14, said in his speech that "no one has expended as much time as I have to try to move the process forward."

"But the old saying is real: You can lead a horse to water, you can't make him drink," he said. "If they're not prepared to take the risks  everybody knows what has to be done  but if they're not ready, then there's no way to force-feed it. There are, however, other things that we can do that may try to save the possibilities of a two-state solution, and we have to think about that."

Israel vehemently opposes outside intervention, a posture that is shared by much of Congress. In September, 88 senators signed a letter urging Obama to veto any Security Council resolution that recognizes Palestine. On Tuesday, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a nonbinding resolution that called on the government to oppose any "Security Council resolutions that seek to impose solutions to final status issues, or are one-sided and anti-Israel."

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee backed the letter and the resolution, which were aimed at stemming any far-reaching final moves by the Obama administration. Obama has suggested that he is reluctant, in his final days, to hamper his successor with any last-minute major policy initiatives, including on Israel and the Palestinians. If Obama does pronounce on the issue, he may prefer a forum less dramatic than the Security Council, for instance outlining his vision for two states in a speech or news conference.

It's not yet clear how Trump would approach Israeli-Palestinian peace. The president-elect has said he would like a crack at negotiating a deal. On the other hand, with his campaign's approval, the Republican Party over the summer adopted a platform that for the first time since 2004 does not mention a two-state solution, and defers to Israel on what the parameters of peace negotiations should be.

Kerry in his speech also defended the Iran nuclear deal reached between six major powers, led by the United States, and Iran.

"Consider where we would be if Iran's nuclear program was still going ahead full steam in the middle of all of this," he said.

Kerry noted that before the negotiations began on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, as the pact is known, Iran had the ability to produce enough fissile material for a nuclear device in two months and enough highly enriched uranium to build 10 to 12 bombs.

"That's where we were  two months away from a bomb," he said. "But under our agreement, Iran agreed to actually reverse that direction altogether."

He cautioned: "The Iran agreement has made the world safer, including our allies and our friends in the Middle East."

Brennan, who is scheduled to depart as CIA director in January, told the BBC this week that it would be the "height of folly" for Trump to tear up the agreement, saying it would lead to a nuclear arms race in the region.

Trump has said he would renegotiate the deal if not abrogate it outright, and has nominated as his CIA chief Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., a fierce opponent of the agreement. The president-elect also is considering deal foes for other top national security posts.

Al Monitor, a Middle East news site, reported this week that Kerry, in private meetings with Democratic senators, urged the lawmakers to do what they can to preserve the deal. Trump has a range of executive actions at his disposal to pull the United States out of the deal. However, if he chooses not to act, Senate Democrats, while in the minority, could filibuster any congressional effort to force Trump to pull out of the agreement.

Separately, the House on Tuesday passed two bills that would advance U.S.-Israel cooperation on cybersecurity. The bipartisan bills, which would expand existing joint research and create a grant for new development, were introduced by Reps. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, and Jim Langevin, D-R.I., after they joined a congressional delegation visiting Israel this summer.

Langevin in his release alluded to what intelligence officials have said are likely Russian government-backed hacks during the past year on the Democratic Party and senior figures in the party.

"My trip to Israel with Congressman Ratcliffe was an illuminating experience and reinforced my belief that our countries have much to learn from one another when it comes to cybersecurity," Langevin said in the release. "This belief has only been reinforced in the intervening months as we saw cyber-attacks that targeted the very foundation of our nation, our electoral system."
Chabad-Lubavitch rabbis pray at the gravesite of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, in the Queens borough of New York on November 25, 2016.

More than 5,600 Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic rabbinic emissaries and communal leaders from 90 countries, hailing from as far away as Bangkok and Kenya gathered for the International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Emissaries, held in the Queens borough of New York on Nov. 25. The event is considered the largest Jewish gathering in North America. This year's conference carries an added significance as the North American Jewish community marks 75 years since the Lubavitcher Rebbe-Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory-and his wife, the Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka, of righteous memory-arrived on U.S. shores from war-torn Europe in 1941, setting into motion the world's most vigorous Jewish outreach program in history.

Its vast success is credited to its cadre of dedicated emissaries families who are willing to pick up their families and move literally anywhere in the world to bring their fellow Jews closer to Judaism.

They continue the legacy of Rabbi Schneerson, of righteous memory, who spearheaded a global Jewish revival after the Holocaust while expounding upon the Jewish teachings of Talmud and mysticism. Universally known simply as the Rebbe, Rabbi Schneerson is considered to be one of the most remarkable personalities of the 20th century. Although he passed away 22 years ago, the Rebbe's legacy remains as strong as ever.
TEL AVIV (JTA)-Call them Israel's American volunteer fire brigade.

Dozens of firefighters from across the United States put their lives on hold-leaving behind jobs and families-to help subdue the wildfires that swept Israel over the past week. While they all share a love of Israel, only a handful of them are Jewish.

"We're just firefighters. When guys hear about a situation like this one, where the Israelis are working as hard as they can, they want to come help," said Billy Hirth, a Protestant who retired last year after a 24-year career as a firefighter in Arlington, Texas, and has been coordinating the American effort from Jerusalem.

"It's a brotherhood. Firemen are firemen," he said.

Hundreds of fires flared up in Israel starting Tuesday, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee. Some 32,000 acres of forest and brush burned along with hundreds of homes and businesses.

Israeli authorities said the fires started because of an unseasonably long dry spell and high winds, and then were exacerbated by Palestinian and Arab-Israeli arsonists with nationalist motives.

Last Friday, Israel's Public Security Ministry formally requested firefighting help from the Emergency Volunteers Project, a network of over 950 American volunteers and professional first responders. By Saturday evening, with the fires coming under control, the firefighters started arriving at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport, from where they were schlepped to overstretched fire departments across the country.

Some went to work battling the remaining wildfires and those that flared up Sunday, while others chipped in with routine firefighting. The Israeli stations remain on high alert, with firefighters having worked grueling shifts over the past week.

"Many of the firefighters here, including myself, had been working for over 90 hours straight," said Oren Shishitzky, a spokesman for Israel's Fire and Rescue Authority. "Because most of the Americans were trained in Israel, they are familiar with how we operate, and they were able to easily relieve some of the burden on the crews, whether with regular fire response in local districts or in extinguishing the remaining wildfires.

"I cannot emphasize enough our appreciation that these guys dropped everything around the Thanksgiving holiday to come here."

Adi Zahavi, 39, founded the Emergency Volunteers Project in 2009 after serving as an overwhelmed first responder during the second intifada and the Second Lebanon War. He set out to prepare willing Americans to help in future crises, from wars to terrorist attacks to natural disasters. Training sessions are held in the United States and Israel. The deployment of the volunteers is coordinated with Israeli authorities.

Of the 39 firefighters now in Israel, 33 are full-timers, including the first female firefighter the group has brought to Israel, and six are part-time volunteers. Several, including Hirth, also came to Israel during the 2014 Gaza war, when the south and center of the country were bombarded with rockets. Many are now working alongside firefighters with whom they have built friendships during training.

"The quality of the American firefighters that have arrived is excellent," Shishitzky said. "They are elite firefighters, with years and years of experience. Many are veterans who serve in some of the best departments in America.

"Where there are distinctions in training and practice, those were overcome long ago with the training we have conducted."

Elan Raber, 42, is one of seven Jews among the firefighters. He flew in Sunday morning from Los Angeles, where he works for the city fire department. Raber is familiar with the station he is serving at in Petach Tivkah because he trained there with the Emergency Volunteers Program.

He said he has been responding to routine calls, like traffic accidents, elevator accidents and reports of smoke.

"I was here last year and really bonded with the guys, so I wanted to come back. They do have pretty steady action and a lot of equipment to get familiar with," Raber said. "We're coming in here while these guys have already been up for three, four days. We can basically help them out and be on standby if the wildfires come back."

Having been born in Israel and served in the Israel Defense Force, Raber views being here as a part of his "calling."

"Unfortunately, there's a lot of bad press for Israel, so I hope to show that people are willing to drop everything to show solidarity with the people of Israel. I think people see that, and it's a good thing. Firefighting was my calling, so I'm happy to help out," he said.

A fellow Jew on the other side of the country helped bring Raber to Israel on short notice. Eli Row-the Orthodox Jewish owner of Jet911, an air ambulance company based in the Queens borough of New York City-scrambled to arrange flights for the firefighters over Shabbat, something that Jewish law requires if it could mean saving lives. Row landed in Israel on Monday afternoon to thank the American firefighters for their service.

Back in the U.S., 25 firefighters are standing by in case the wildfires again begin to spread. If not, and the weather conditions improve as hoped, the firefighters in Israel are to return home at the end of the week.
(JTA)-The upset victory by Donald Trump in the 2016 elections stunned a Jewish activist and leadership class that is at times as divided as the electorate at large. JTA asked some of those leaders to describe their concerns and expectations in a series of brief essays, "Worst fears, best hopes."

Nancy Kaufman

CEO, National Council of Jewish Women

As progressive Jewish women, our hope is that as President-elect Donald Trump realizes the gravity of his new role in the U.S. and the world, he will move away from the misogynistic, racist, anti-Muslim, homophobic and anti-immigrant tone set by his campaign and many of his supporters.

We hope he will recognize the need to unite the country and reach out to the more than 50 million Americans who did not vote for him.

We hope that he can indeed be president of all the people, as he has promised he will be. We agree with the importance of addressing the economic pain in communities burdened by unemployment and falling incomes, but not at the expense of those least able to make ends meet. We hope his appointments will set a tone of inclusion and respect for all who call our country home. The idea of a Muslim registry is anathema to all of our most basic values as Americans and as Jews.

What we fear most is that President-elect Trump will do what he promised to do-appoint Supreme Court justices pledged to overturn Roe v. Wade, abandon voter rights and protections, and turn his back on women and children in need.

We fear he will deport millions of immigrants, ban Muslims from entering the United States and deny asylum to refugees escaping war and persecution. We dread a reversal of Obamacare that leaves 20 million without health insurance. We are afraid he will threaten freedom of speech and of the press.

NCJW has engaged activist women for over 120 years and we will continue doing such work to preserve all that we can in the new Trump administration. We are proud, passionate and powerful women and we will not stand idly by.

We vow to remain true to our Jewish values in the face of these unprecedented challenges. As Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel said during the days of racial segregation: "This is no time for neutrality. We Jews cannot remain aloof or indifferent."

Nathan Diament

Executive Director for the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center

A majority of Orthodox Jews voted for Donald Trump for president. They did so upon the twin bases of rejecting Hillary Clinton as the candidate of continuity (for a "third Obama term") as well as policies Trump proposed on key issues.

The foremost reason Trump earned their votes was the belief that he will be best for the security of Israel. Trump vigorously criticized President Obama's policies toward Israel. Indeed, Trump's election will have a beneficial impact before he even takes the oath of office on Jan. 20. It likely makes a rumored lame duck peace process move by Obama, at the United Nations or via a presidential address, unlikely, if not irrelevant. Moreover, Trump making good on his firm commitment to finally relocate the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem may send the most useful message to Israel's enemies in decades. Trump also regularly spoke out against the U.S.-Iran nuclear deal and promised to abolish it; those who voted for him are counting on him delivering on that promise.

On the domestic front, Trump committed himself to improving education opportunities for American children through school choice initiatives. The cost of Jewish education is the preeminent domestic issue in many Jewish households. Trump broadly spoke of redirecting $20 billion in federal education funds to school choice programs. Such a reform could spark new educational opportunity in America and dramatically address the challenge of Jewish education affordability.

Last but not least, religious liberty is the bedrock upon which American Jewry has flourished. It didn't get much discussion in the campaign, yet it motivated traditionalists in many faiths to vote for Trump. America is in the midst of a fractious debate over the interplay between expanding gay rights and religious liberty. A compromise approach that delivers fairness for all will take real leadership from the White House and bipartisan leaders in Congress. More broadly, Trump must finds ways-in rhetoric and action-to embrace the value of American society's religious and ethnic diversity and thus make good on his commitment to be the president for all Americans.

Jeremy Ben-Ami

President of J Street

The battle lines in the fight for our shared future have never been starker. The Trump administration and its allies have indicated that they may abandon the two-state solution, embrace the settlement project and undermine the Iran agreement. They have threatened to target Muslims, immigrants and other vulnerable groups.

We must now defend our shared fundamental values of tolerance, equality and democracy. My hope is that the Jewish community and our country can rise to this new challenge together, forging a better future for Americans, Israelis and Palestinians alike in the process.

Nathan Diament

We will not get there tomorrow. As Jews and as the children and grandchildren of immigrants, we remember what it means to be victims of persecution. Worryingly, I've seen deep-seated fear etched on the faces of colleagues and allies in the United States as well as in Israel, where I spent the week soon after the election.

But resistance and courage is as integral to our DNA as is our history of oppression.

In that spirit, we at J Street intend to give voice in the days and months ahead to the values of the overwhelming majority of our community. We will fight policies grounded in bigotry, we will stand up when those without power are threatened, and we will speak out against extreme foreign policy prescriptions and attempts to use military force when there are diplomatic options available.
The State of Israel's humanitarian efforts to alleviate the suffering of the casualties of the civil war in Syria will be presented on Monday, Dec. 12, 2016 at 7 p.m. at Congregation Beth Am in Longwood as representatives from Amaliah and Friends of Ziv Medical Center make their only visit to Central Florida. Speaking at Congregation Beth Am will be Yuval Rabin, chairman of the Amaliah Board and son of the late former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Moti Kahana, and America-Israeli philanthropist and founder and CEO of Amaliah.

Ziv Medical Center is Israel's northernmost hospital, located 7 miles from the Lebanese border in the north and 19 miles from the Syrian border on the east. Since February 2013, Ziv Medical Center has been treating wounded and ill Syrians, providing them with humanitarian medical assistance.

In 2014, Dr. Raul Rosenthal, Chief of Surgery of the Cleveland Clinic, visited Ziv Medical Center in Safed. Energized by the people and the power of Ziv, Raul and his wife Sima created Friends of Ziv Medical Center to inspire, teach and share. The mission of the Friends of Ziv Medical Center, a nonprofit organization, is to be committed to helping the staff of Ziv Medical Center respond to the healthcare needs and model health-driven solutions for the region. Friends of Ziv Medical Center is focused on growing the capacity of Ziv Medical Center to serve the people of the region.

Amaliah's mission is to support projects that create partnership, stability and prosperity with the Middle East. With the ceasefire deal collapsing and the UN unable to bring peace to Syria, the Amaliah organization is doing all it can to assist Syrians in need. Ongoing Amaliah Projects include the following: Preserve Syrian Jewish history by rescuing Jewish people and valuable artifacts like Torahs from Syria; Create a safe zone in Southern Syria where civil society can be restored; Provide clean drinking water for Syria; and support the economic development of women in the Middle East. Through its "Project Safe Zone," Amaliah is transporting Syrian children, women and men into Israel for Medical treatment at Ziv Medical Center in Northern Israel on "Buses of Angels" to be given medical treatment and nurtured back to health by one of Israel's top hospital staffs. Syrians don't independently decide to come to Israel in search of emergency medical assistance. Amaliah coordinates with officials in Syrian territory to have children and their families transported directly from various collection points to hospitals for treatment in Israel.

For more than five years, since 2011, perhaps the worst humanitarian crisis so far this century has been unfolding in Syria. The carnage in Syria has already claimed over 500,000 lives, an average of 262 deaths per day since the civil war began. About 70 percent of the population is without access to adequate drinking water and one in three people are unable to meet their basic food needs. The warring parties have compounded the problems by refusing humanitarian agencies access to civilians in need. Up to 4.5 million people in Syria live in hard-to-reach areas, including nearly 400,000 people in 15 besieged locations who do not have access to lifesaving aid. More than 50,000 children under the age of 15 have been killed. One in three children have endured horrific violence against them and their families, and more than 2.5 million children have no access to basic education.

Rabin has over 20 years of experience in software development, design and project management. He has held senior executive positions serving companies as diverse as AARP, The Principal Group, Visteon, Ericsson, Airbus Industries, Nokia, ARKLA (Arkansas Louisiana Gas), Samsung and the American Bureau of Shipping. Rabin truly espouses a global vision, having led initiatives for manufacturing and service companies, utilities and governments in the U.S., Israel, Europe and the Far East.

Kahana, born in 1968 in Jerusalem, has donated considerable money and time providing support for the Syrian opposition. He financed the opposition group that took senator John McCain to visit war-torn Syria, and has provided humanitarian relief for Syrian civilians. Kahana became well known for rescuing the last Jewish family from Aleppo, and recovering ancient Jewish artifacts, including Torah scrolls, in danger of destruction from synagogues in Syria. He has been called the Jewish Raoul Wallenberg for providing passports to hundreds of Syrian opposition members and their families. Three years ago, Kahana founded the organization Amaliah.org, which is now working in tandem with the Israeli Defense Force and Syrian local council, toward a goal of bringing over a million Syrians back home to a designated "Safe Zone," territory in Southern Syria on the border with Israel as well working on his book "Looking for God In Syria."

Moti Kahana

Rabbi Rick Sherwin invites the members of the Central Florida Jewish Community, the Interfaith Community, physicians, college students, and anyone who wants to support medical aid to Syrian civilians and refugees to hear the presentation by Rabin and Kahana. Rabbi Rick added, "This is an incredible opportunity to teach the wider-community and the United Nations the truth of Israel's beyond-belief humanitarian outreach. Please feel free to invite everyone who cares about the plight of people in need of physical and spiritual hugs. This is a wonderful opportunity to see the Syrian refugee crisis through Israel's eyes."

Congregation Beth Am is located at 3899 Sand Lake Road, at the corner of Line Drive and Sand Lake Road, in Longwood Florida. For more information on this informative session and ongoing activities at Beth Am refer to the congregation's web site at http://www.CongBethAm.org.
During the past few years, the resettlement of refugees has been one of the key issues in international politics. Thehorrendous conflict in Syria has forced more than half the country from their homes, with 4.8 million refugees fleeing to neighboring countries and 1 million applying for asylum in Europe.

The United Nations has taken the issue very seriously, trying to persuade countries around the world to commit to take in and resettle refugees. At the end of an international conference on the refugee crisis, which took place in Geneva this past March,United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grani said, We have heard pledges that increase the number of resettlement and humanitarian places to 185,000...but this is only the start. We heard offers to significantly increase global resettlement programs in the coming few years. And we hope that there will be several opportunities to do so in the coming months.

Similar sentiments about the importance of resettling refugees have been expressed by President Barack Obama, the European Commission, and others. With this in mind, the following fact may come as a surprise: 40 years ago this week, on Nov. 23, the U.N. actually condemned a country for resettling refugees. But this part may be less surprising: that country was Israel.

When Israel came to rule the West Bank and Gaza after the Six-Day War in 1967, it found Palestinian refugees still in the camps that they had been living in since 1948. Israel developed a plan to begin moving the Palestinians out of the squalid and cramped refugee camps, and into permanent residences. The Israeli government gave participants in the program a plot of land to build, while services such as water, electricity and sanitation were provided to these new neighborhoods. Approximately 10,000 Palestinian families left the refugee camps for these better, newer accommodations.

But on Nov. 23, 1976, the U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution calling on Israel to return the refugees to the refugee camps from which they had come from. On the same day three years laterNov. 23, 1979the General Assembly passed a similar resolution, in which it called upon Israel to desist from the removal and resettlement of Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip.

What could possibly explain this position? How could the U.N. possibly condemn a country for the crime of resettling refugees who had been abandoned in squalid camps for two decades?

The answer lies in the 1979 resolution itself. The resolution states that measures to resettle Palestinian refugees away from their homes and property from which they were displaced constitute a violation of their inalienable right of return.

The right of return is the right that the Palestinians claim they have to return to their pre-1948 homes. It is a highly debatable rightnot least because it is based on a U.N. resolution that the Arabs rejected. The right of return is usually used by supporters of the Palestinian cause as a claim against Israel. Yet on Nov. 23, 1979, the absurd happenedIsrael offered to help Palestinian refugees, but in the name of the right of return, the U.N. said Israel should not help them, but rather return them to their camps. If the Palestinian refugees would settle in comfortable living quarters, then they might not want to return to their original villagesso better they stay in the squalid camps, the resolutions logic goes. In the eyes of the supporters of the Palestinians at the U.N., the Palestinians have the right of return to their original homes, but are forbidden to move anywhere else.

This absurd resolution cuts to the heart of how Palestinian refugees are different than all other refugees in the world. With all other refugees, the focus of international organizations is humanitarian and social; the statute of the UNHCR, the U.N. body that deals with all refugees, explicitly states that its goals are not political, but humanitarian and social. Of primary importance to the U.N. body are the safety of refugees and efforts to help them build a new life. But with the Palestinians, the social and humanitarian needs of refugees and their children are of secondary importance, with the political goals taking precedence. If helping improve Palestinians lives harms the claim of a right of return and weakens the Palestinians claims against Israel, then the political goals win and Palestinians must stay in camps for decades.

With all other refugees in the world, because the focus is humanitarian and social, the aim of the UNHCR is to reduce the number of the worlds refugees each year. With the Palestinians, because their refugee status has become politicized, it is actually the U.N. bodys goal for there to be more refugees each year. Today, there are 10 times as many Palestinian refugees as there were in 1948. With all other global refugees, wealthy Arab countries can offer generous amounts of money to alleviate the situation. With Palestinian refugees, there is no incentive for countries to accept the very simple task of building permanent homes for them.

To this day, Western media will report on the squalid conditionsof the Palestinian refugee campsand indeed, the conditions that many Palestinians experience in the camps are terrible. But this week, which contained the Nov. 23 anniversary of the 1976 and 1979 U.N. resolutions, is the time to remember why their situation has not improved. Arab leaders have always treated the Palestinian refugee situation as a political tool rather than as a humanitarian crisis, and have placed political attacks against Israel above the welfare of the Palestinian people. It is the Palestinians who are born today, in the same refugee camps where their parents were born, who are suffering from that choice.

Aron White is a Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) intern.
The New Israel Fund recently received a grant to research and report on anti-Semitism on U.S. campuses. On the surface, this appears to be a welcome developmenta progressive group being mobilized to confront a major social malady plaguing institutions of higher education.

Beneath the surface of the Sept. 27 grant, however, are vested interests seeking to use this issue to cover up their role in fomenting the atmosphere that is hostile to Jewish students. The NIF is being paid by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF)a main backer of the anti-Israel activism that contributes to, enables and devolves into anti-Semitism on college campuses.

RBF provides hundreds of thousands of dollars to a number of organizations that delegitimize the Jewish state and promote the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, both on and off campus. These RBFs BDS-promoting grantees that are active on American universities include Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), Palestine Legal and the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC).

Several of the RBF grantees promote agendas that deny Israels legitimacy and advocate one-state formulas designed to eradicate the Jewish state. Zochrot, for example, envisions a de-Zionized Palestine, while Adalah systematically works in the U.S. and Europe to label Israel as a fundamentally racist state. Additionally, Grassroots Jerusalem, Who Profits and the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights (formally the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation) are all leaders in BDS campaigns in the U.S. and internationally.

In other words, the New York-based fund has made the waging of economic, political and cultural warfare on Israel a central theme of its grant-making.

As noted, many of RBFs grantees are deeply involved in myriad anti-Israel activities, either by directly coordinating and participating in them, or by providing training and legal aid to activists. JVP, for instance, has chapters on campuses throughout the country and partners with Students for Justice in Palestine in promoting divestment resolutions and organizing the notorious Israeli Apartheid Week. Additionally, JVP members participate in numerous anti-Israel events, creating a facade of Jewish support and approval for the delegitimization of Israel.

In parallel, the Palestine Legal NGO offers guidance to campus activists on activities such as setting up mock checkpoints and posting mock eviction notices on dorm room doors, advising students to post to every room in the dorm to avoid false accusations that Jewish students were targeted. In addition, officials from RBF grantees such as AFSC, U.S. Campaign and Breaking the Silence regularly speak at anti-Israel campus events.

As several in-depth reports and publications have shown, the marked increase in virulently anti-Israel activity on campuses throughout the U.S. has coincided with higher rates of anti-Semitism at these same institutions. In October 2016, Brandeis University released another installment in a series of studies on the issue. In this latest installment, university researchers found that on many campuses in the country, it appears that the high rates of anti-Semitic harassment and hostility are largely driven by hostility toward Israel.

Considering RBFs culpability in funding and enabling organizations that create this intimidating environment for Jewish students, it is curious that RBF would commission a publication that studies the rise of anti-Semitism at American colleges. Any serious publication would, ultimately, implicate RBF itself and cite its funding for anti-Israel campus groups and related organizations.

But the routine denials on the part of its grantees that anti-Israel activity can lead to or amount to anti-Semitism provide a clue as to RBFs motivations and to its desired conclusions for the study. Both JVP and Palestine Legal have attacked and rejected the U.S. State Department definition of anti-Semitism, which recognizes demonization of, application of double standards to and delegitimization of Israel as anti-Semitic. JVP and Palestine Legal falsely allege that this standard is construed to silence any criticism of Israeli policies and to censor speech. RBFs choice of NIF to conduct this study should be considered in this light.

Given RBFs extensive funding of BDS and delegitimization of Israel, it is reasonable to ask if the fund is using its financial power to whitewash its grantees involvement in fanning the flames of anti-Jewish hatred. What is less clear is why NIF would lend its name to such a charade.

Yona Schiffmiller is the director of the North America Desk at NGO Monitor, a Jerusalem-based research institute.
Can you feel the center collapsing all around you?

Looking to the left and to the rightpolitically and religiously, here and in IsraelI see the gap widening at an increasingly rapid rate. The search for The Golden Mean, the desirable balance between extremes in our lives and worldview advocated by the Rambam (Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, the 12th-century philosopher), seems unattainable.

The demographic decline at the center of the American Jewish community has been well documented. National and local studies have shown that we are moving in two opposite directions. There is the growth of the Orthodox, and particularly charedim (ultra-Orthodox) at one end, and of the nones, primarily young Jews with no affiliation to synagogues or Jewish institutions, on the other.

What we think of as the middle, the solid core of U.S. Jewry made up primarily of our communal Jewish structure and the liberal denominations, is in decline, aging out and having fewer children who follow their path. But there is recent evidence that the movement away from the center is even more pronounced; examples abound, starting at home.

The Democratic Party, where Jews have felt so comfortable for almost a century, is moving sharply to the left in the wake of Hillary Clintons shattering defeat. Sen. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, representing the progressive wing, are in ascendance. Despite their age they are the darlings of the millennials and college youth. And if Keith Ellison, an African-American convert to Islam, is chosen to head the Democratic National Committee, it will be further proof that traditional support for Israel is no longer a given in the party of Truman, LBJ and Bill Clinton.

The issue is not the Minnesota congressmans race or religion, or even his former association with the virulently anti-Semitic Rev. Louis Farrakhan.

Its his political views on the Mideast that are particularly worrisome. While he has voted for funding for Israel and supports a two-state solution, in 2014, he was one of only eight members of Congress to oppose a bipartisan bill calling for $225 million to advance Israels Iron Dome missile system when Hamas was firing missiles during the Gaza War. Four years earlier he led a letter-signing effort among Democrats in Congress urging President Obama to pressure Israel to lift the Gaza blockade, asserting that Jerusalem was collectively punishing Gaza residents.

Ellison has also been associated with Islamic organizations that oppose the U.S. and Israel.

Is the Republican Party the answer? President-elect Donald Trumps pledges of support for Israel may be appealing on the surface to some, but his lack of understanding of Mideast complexities is vast, as is his track record of reversing course on so many seemingly firmly-held policies. Uncertainty is the operative sentiment for now. And the president-elects domestic agendaincluding the Supreme Court pick, an immigration crackdown, tax breaks for the wealthy, etc.leans too far right for centrists. But no one knows what to expect in Washington, including Republican leaders.

Consider: To his credit or blame, Trump has dethroned Americas two first families, the Bushes and Clintons, blown up the Democratic and Republican parties, given rise to an alt-right movement that traffics in white nationalist anger and brought low the bar for civility and decency in our societys public discourse.

Trump is not solely to blame, but he trafficked in dividing our society between the haves and the have-nots, giving legitimacy to a white nationalist movement long on the fringes of society. His prompted, pro forma disavowals of racism of late do not convince a riled up segment of the electorate that has learned, better than his critics, to take Trump seriously but not literally. Targeting anyone in his path, from immigrants to journalists to former beauty queens, he fanned the flames of anger and frustration that cannot be contained easily. He must do better.

The flames that swept through Israel this past week were actual fires, believed to be the work of arsonists, their motives unknown. The fires reflected a dark mood in the country where young Arabs continue a persistent form of individual acts of terror, and Jews lash out at fellow Jews for not observing their same brand of Judaism.

This past week in Raanana three Reform leaders received death threats at a Reform synagogue, which was vandalized. The threat came through a note in Hebrew with the leaders names on it, accusing them of heresy. The note, placed next to a large knife, was addressed to Gilad Kariv, director of the Reform movement in Israel, Rabbi Rick Jacobs, head of the Reform movement in the U.S., and Anat Hoffman, an Israeli Reform leader and chair of Women of the Wall.

The message made reference to the holiness of the Western Wall, suggesting that the threats were tied to the effort by liberal movements to hold egalitarian services at the Wall.

The act was condemned widely, from the prime minister to Orthodox leaders in America. But as Hoffman noted, This is what happens when members of the Knesset, ministers of the state and prominent rabbis make almost daily speeches condemning Reform Jews as heretics, dogs and any other insult you can imagine.

Words have consequences, and sometimes lead to acts of horrific violence. We must ask: What holds us together as one people when we turn on each other in the name of God?

As Jews we should take pride in a foundation that gave the world the belief that each of us is created in Gods image. As Americans we are ever grateful for a nation founded on that principle, pledged to uphold high standards of human dignity and equality. But shaken by the ugly election campaign weve just endured and the bitter struggles among our co-religionists here and in Israel, we are forced to recognize that our freedoms and values are not assured; they must be preserved.

Gary Rosenblatt is editor and publisher of the New York Jewish Week, http://www.jewishweek.com, from which this column is reprinted with permission.
When my father was head of his voting precinct many years ago, all ballots were on paper. When the polls closed, the counting crew would go to work. When all the counters and recorders reached the same total twice in a row, Dad would certify the totals. That was the process for every race on the ballot.

When all races were counted, Dad would seal the ballot boxes and deliver them to the Board of Elections office.

Today, we have electronic voting, but the responsibilities at precinct voting places havent changed. When you hear accusations of widespread voter fraud, talk is about people on the local level who have to be in cahoots or just plain incompetent to produce voter fraud.

Over a 40-year span as a journalist, I worked with elections boards, election office directors and employees and precinct poll workers in the Unifour and counties in the ever-changing 10th Congressional District. They take their duties seriously.

These people are our friends and neighbors. They also are of differing political parties. They work together and they watch over each other. You can see how many people must cooperate to permit election fraud. North Carolina does not allow an elections board to be filled by one political party.

Can there be mistakes? Yes. They seem to be rare, but they have happened, and the instances of which Im aware were corrected. The mistakes and the few cases of deliberate cross-precinct voting made the papers anyway. Elections officials wanted folks to know they were on the job.

(A precinct years ago had an unexpected turnout, much bigger than normal. The precinct ran out of ballots. So, workers created hand-drawn ballots that caused an outcry and charges of possible fraud. However, the polling officials carefully documented every homemade ballot and everything turned out to be on the up-and-up.

In the follow-up, one old feller held forth with one of the best election quotes ever: Hell, I dont care if they gimme toilet paper to use as long as they count my vote.

Another incident I remember was a fraud case in North Carolina that actually went to trial. What happened was fraud in the letter of the law, but the judgment was that fraud was not deliberate and the foul-up was more incompetence than anything else. A shakeup ensued.

Another time, me and a coworker waited all night for the results from a small precinct. That was in the days when we might have to draw an election table, but all the results from every precinct would be in the paper the next day. Period.

Turned out that the precinct boss had to go to work way early in the morning and had stashed the ballot boxes  properly done  at home. The Sheriffs Department got the precinct chief and went to the home as dawn broke to retrieve the ballot boxes which were then duly deposited at the Board of Elections office.

It wasnt fraud, but a mistake in judgment. All turned out well and nobody filed a formal complaint. I am not certain if that precinct had the same poll personnel in the next election.)

We have a registration process that works. Absentee voting requires an application. If you dont get everything done right and on time, you dont get to vote. In my experience, election officials take our votes seriously. It is their job to see we get to vote and vote in the proper precinct. That means making sure our registration is in order.

We have a must-hear appeals process if we think we have been hindered or treated wrongly trying to vote. We have specific means to resolve disputes.

Im not saying there is no such thing as voter fraud, but it aint easy, especially on a scale that would result in millions of fraudulent votes. It may be easier now with electronic voting, but so far no super-geek has come forth to explain or prove it to my satisfaction. Certainly not on the local level.

The locals know their stuff and their precincts. They have the stats. Like Dad, the grassroots election workers Ive met dont quit until the numbers add up, all proper and legal.

Reach Larry Clark at wryturlc@yahoo.com.
NEWTON  Its been a long journey, but Catawba Valley Community College finally held its ribbon cutting for the new home of its Furniture Academy on Thursday.

The program is going from 6,000 square feet at its old location in the East Camps of CVCC to 38,000 square feet at the facility on Locust Street in Newton (Old Hickory Tannery). The college closed on the facility in May.

North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory also was on hand during the ribbon cutting.

He pointed to the Catawba Valley Furniture Academy as an example of how manufacturing is not a dead industry and congratulated CVCC and the county for making the investment.

Theres a need for 3,000 workers in the Catawba Valley furniture industry, according to a CVCC report.

According to furniture industry analyst Jerry Epperson, managing director of Mann, Armistead & Epperson, Ltd., the largest portion of upholstered furniture is still made in the United States. The mean annual wage in 2015 for an upholsterer according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics was $34,240. There are 35 students enrolled at CVCC with a waiting list to enroll.

The CVCC Academy focuses on seven specific skill sets: manual cutting, automated cutting, pattern making, sewing, spring-up, inside upholstery and outside upholstery.

Catawba Valley Community College President Garrett Hinshaw said the new facility was a good example of the vision he has for his school and all its partners.

When you have the responsibility we have at Catawba Valley Community College to ensure our community stays vibrant and you develop a vision and then you see this vision come to reality and were actually able to take people through a program and put them directly to work, thats what my career has been about, Hinshaw said.

While CVCC was at the forefront of the program, it got a great deal of help from the founding companies: Century Furniture, Lee Industries, Lexington Home Brands, Sherrill Furniture and Vanguard Furniture, along with several other community organizations.

Bill McBrayer from Lexington Home Brands and a member of the State Board of Community Colleges added the County Commission, the CVCC Foundation and the City of Newton also played key roles in getting the new home for the academy.

Instead of having a limited amount of students being able to come through and get educated and trained, were expanding that by twenty or more and maybe get a hundred people out here and get them trained, McBrayer said.

Hinshaw added these kinds of partnerships are the only way community colleges can secure their futures.

Its when we develop such a high level of trust within our communities to where if there is a problem, people know where to turn. They can turn to their community college, he said. Even if the problem doesnt reside with us, were partnered with so many agencies, with so many groups, we can take care of things.

The program at CVCC also is drawing interest from other community colleges across the state and country, McBrayer said.

I tell people its not rocket science. Its just a matter of getting a community or businesses to sit at a table and say heres what we need, McBrayer said.

The new building was also a good deal financially with a total price tag of $875,000 dollars with the majority of that money coming from the Catawba County Commission. The building is 10 years old but to build something similar today would cost the college $5.5 million, CVCC Vice President of Finance Wes Bunch said after the purchase in June.

Lori Price is the director of the Catawba Valley Furniture Academy.
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With less than a month to go and the government yet to announce a replacement for the outgoing chief of army staff, speculation has arisen that New Delhi may at last consider creating a chief of defence staff (CDS) position.

The CDS in some form or another is a key military reform that has been repeatedly recommended over the past three decades, would place a single officer in charge of all three services. More importantly, it would create a chief of defence staff committee staffed by officers from the army, air force and navy and ensure a joint military command structure  something lacking in India today.

Read | US-India military relationship is the closest ever: Ashton Carter

The idea of a CDS has been raised repeatedly over the past decades. It was recommended in the public sphere in the K Subrahmanyam committee report issued after the Kargil war. But there have been many similar official commissions, reports and white papers that have made a similar recommendation. And it was among a set of national security recommendations put before Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his first year in office.

A CDS and a related tri-service staff will also be important because it will provide a single-point interlocutor for the government, notably the defence ministry, to interact with in determining an integrated defence strategy and thus the budgetary allocations to support such a strategy.

Appointing a CDS by itself amounts to little. A system that allows officers from all three services to be placed in the other services has to be put in place with the idea of creating a career track that ends with being part of the CDS staff. This will do more than almost anything else to create a genuine tri-service officer corps.

Read | Made in India? Govt offers to buy 200 foreign combat jets, but conditions apply

But the real flesh on the bones of all this is the creation of an integrated military structure so that the deployment of ships, tanks and planes will happen in a joint manner rather than the present three layered hub and spoke system that exists today.

Earlier attempts were stymied by the early unwillingness of the army to surrender its predominant role in the military, by political fears that a CDS could increase the chances of a coup and opposition from the defence ministry bureaucracy who feared the creation of a body that would undermine their decision-making powers. With any luck, a Modi government with a desire to show track record of implementation will overcome these and other obstacles.

Modern warfare is about coordinating and communicating the firepower and resources that the military has available. In World War II, thousands of bombers were used to carpet bomb hundreds of square kilometres even if the actual target covered just a few city blocks. Plenty of firepower but no ability to target or coordinate the munitions that were dropped. Today, a smart weapon can bring a single warhead to bear on a single room if necessary.

Read | Navy chief on 5-day visit to Sri Lanka to boost maritime security ties

Multiply this reality across a three-dimensional battlefield and realise being able to tightly coordinate the actions of soldiers and tanks on the ground, airplanes and drones in the air and ships and submarines at sea is an enormous force multiplier.

Carl von Clausewitz, the great Prussian military theorist, wrote that being able to reduce the fog of war as a key determinant in victory versus defeat. Integration of commands is one of the key means by which the chaos and unpredictability of military action can be drastically reduced. It is a key strength of the Israeli military  it compensates for its small size by brilliantly in merging its firepower in all spheres in an efficient manner.

The US recognised this when it empowered the chairman of the joints chief of staff to become the presidents principal military adviser in 1986. Concepts like airsealand warfare were the tactical flip side to the creation of an integrated command.

The problem Indias military has today is that in any major military operation, its three services will effectively fight independently of each other. Communications between them will either be through a cumbersome process of going up and down chains of command or ad hoc conversations at the local battlefield level. Both of them are recipes for disaster in 21st century warfare where a battle will be decided in just a few hours of intense combat or in an era of cyber-offensive capabilities that can blow holes in communication networks.

Jointedness is an awkward phrase but it is arguably the most important concept in modern warfare today. Time to make it a serious part of the Indias defence structure.

pchaudhuri@hindustantimes.com
Parvez Ahmed is not happy about the fact that the rehearsals of his play Bol Ke Lab Aazad Hain Tere wont take place at the India International Centre (IIC). He wishes there were arrangements for his crew to do at least one mock performance at the venue. I should divert my mind. Lets talk about something else. They (the artistes) know the play well enough to perform it anywhere, says Ahmed.

Written by Ahmed and produced by Abhigyan Natya Association, the play will be performed at IIC on Sunday, the second day of the Jashn-e-Adab festival.

The play tells the story of the life of Faiz Ahmed Faiz -- widely considered to be one of the most progressive poets of his generation -- through his poems. Apart from his most popular poems, including Bol ke kab azaad hain tere, bol zabaan ab tak teri hai, Ahmed claims that the audience will discover his lesser known works too. He wrote on apartheid prevalent in South Africa and human rights violations in Palestine, says Ahmed.

Born in 1911 in present-day Pakistan, Faiz was a revolutionary poet and a celebrated Urdu writer. He was a member of the Progressive Writers Movement, a left-leaning, anti-imperialist writers collective. In 1990, the Pakistan Government posthumously honoured him with the nations highest civil award, the Nishan-e-Imtiaz. His work remains influential in Indian and Pakistani literature.

Like a lot of his unrevealed couplets, the play also touches upon many aspects of the poets life that people may not be so familiar with, says Ahmed. Many of us would like to believe that we know Faiz. This is not the case, points out Ahmed. His life was dramatic. He joined the British Indian Army and went to become a lieutenant colonel. He edited the socialist-English newspaper Pakistan Times but never hesitated to criticise the policies of the government of Pakistan. He was a communist but also a member of the Progressive Writers Movement.

Ahmed, the Delhi bureau chief of Pakistans ARY news, hails from Ujjain. He was active in theatre in school and college. In 1979, having finished his M.A. in Urdu and with a degree in Law as well, he enrolled for an M. Phil in Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi.

He became a journalist and continued to write as a hobby. His novel Mirzawadi traces the impact of Partition on people living in his neighborhood in Ujjain. Ye Dhuan Kahan Se Uthhta Hai, one of the plays he wrote, is about the affect of Partition on Muslims in India.

Ahmeds friend from Ujjain, Lokendra Trivedi, started teaching at the National School of Drama and founded Abhigyan Natya Association. Ahmeds own interest in writing and association with Trivedi ensured that he never left theatre.

In 2012, Delhis Ghalib institute asked Ahmed do a play for them. He adapted one his plays Chhoti Deodi Waliyan (Women From the Small Mansion) for stage. Abhigyan Natya Association rehearsed the play for more than a week when the secretary of the institute told Ahmed that there was a change in plan; now they had to come up with something on Faiz and perform it within 25 days. I went to the Sahitya Akademi library and read everything available on Faiz. The artistes rehearsed the play as I wrote it. We were so pressed on time, recalls Ahmed.

Much has changed, says Ahmed, from the time he started writing plays. People have scaled the budget down drastically. Recently, someone asked me to perform a play in Bhopal with just two or three artistes. I said it was not possible. I dont work like that, he shrugs.

Apart from Ahnmeds play, the fifth edition of Jashn-e-Adab, a two-day festival to promote Hindustani culture, has quite an appealing lineup. There will be discussion on the status of language vis-a-vis university culture, a poetry recitation by Javed Akhtar, Tom Alter reciting Miza Ghalibs poetry and Dastangoi (storytelling) by Darain Shahidi and Poonam Girdhani.

What: Poetry festival Jashn-e-Adab

When: December 10-11, 9 am to 9 pm

Where: India International Centre, Max Mueller Marg

Entry is free

Contact: 8826537919

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Will the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections be held through February and March, or April and May?

The Election Commission (EC) on Friday directed the state government to send across a fresh schedule of the high school and intermediate board examinations by December 15, generating widespread speculation on likely dates for the upcoming polls. Jitendra Kumar, principal secretary of the state secondary education department, said the Uttar Pradesh Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad (UPMSP) had earlier announced that the board examinations would be held from February 16 to March 20.

However, in keeping with the ECs directive, the UPMSP will prepare a fresh schedule and send it to the poll panel for approval, he added.

The UPMSP had announced on Thursday that the board examination would be held from February 16 to March 20. Almost immediately, the EC directed state chief secretary Rahul Bhatnagar to put the schedule on hold. The development spurred speculations in political circles that the assembly polls would be held in the February-March period, considering that the EC had asked the UP government to not hold the board examinations around that time.

Read | EC puts UP high school, intermediate exam schedule on hold

State government officials will meet members of the EC at New Delhi on December 15 to discuss the matter. Kumar said the state government will ensure that the examinations dont clash with the election schedule, which is expected to be announced by the electoral body at the absolute fag end of the year.

An official present at the meeting said on the condition of anonymity that the EC is likely to announce the assembly election schedule by December 25, and polling would be undertaken between February and March. The EC directed us to place the board examination schedule on hold because it is mulling over the polling dates in UP and four other states (Punjab, Uttarakhand, Manipur and Goa). All the five states will go to the polls early next year, he added.

Highlights The UPMSP had announced on Thursday that the board examination would be held from February 16 to March 20. Almost immediately, the EC directed state chief secretary Rahul Bhatnagar to put the schedule on hold. The Election Commission (EC) on Friday directed the state government to send across a fresh schedule of the high school and intermediate board examinations by December 15.

However, other sources said the poll dates could even be declared in early January.

State chief electoral officer T Venkatesh confirmed the directive issued to the state government. The EC also asked the UPMSP to announce a fresh board examination schedule after holding consultations with it. Secondary education director Amar Nath Verma was asked to ensure this, he said.

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati has already directed party workers to gear up for the winter polls, taking the lead over rival parties. Leaving nothing to chance, she has finalised candidates for 403 assembly seats and addressed nearly six rallies across the state to galvanise the party cadre.

We are ready for an early election, said BSP national general secretary Naseemuddin Siddiqui.

Read | EC tells 5 poll-bound states to consult it before announcing exam schedules

SK Prasad, a political observer, said chief election commissioner Nasim Zaidi had expressed the desire to increase the poll percentage from 60% in 2012 to 75% in 2017 during his visit to Lucknow this September. Voter count will rise if the election is held during the winter, he had said.

The recent deputation of Venkatesh to New Delhi also added to the speculation over the election dates. Unconfirmed reports suggest that the state government gave the nod for the CEOs central posting, so the new appointee would have time to make preparations if the election was to be held in May.
The fourth day of the five-day Winter Session in the MP assembly witnessed uproarious scenes on Thursday, with the Opposition demanding a discussion and probe into the alleged Simhastha scam.

Congress MLA Jeetu Patwari raised a query on the Simhastha during Question Hour. He alleged the government had quoted different figures on similar questions on Simhastha, which he claimed corroborated the Congress charges that there was a huge scam during Simhastha, demanding a reply from the urban administration and development minister Maya Singh.

Spurred by his question, his fellow party colleagues raised the point regarding different answers to at least three questions on Simhastha, including one asked in the Parliament.

Acting leader of the Opposition Bala Bachchan, chief whip Ramniwas Rawat and other MLAs made repeated demands to the speaker to allow a discussion on Simhastha scam and also malnutrition as promised by the speaker. They also wanted a ruling by the speaker in the House over their demand.

Maya Singh said there was no anomaly in figures as the replies were given on different dates and after updating the information till that particular point of time. Panchayat and rural development minister Gopal Bhargava raised a question against propriety behind the MLAs asking several questions on a same subject and termed it as wastage of time of the assembly and the government.

Speaker Sitasharan Sharma also questioned Patwaris asking the minister to give a reply on the figures, saying that since he had not intimated the minister about the question and its reply asked in the parliament beforehand, he should not press his demand for a reply.

Home minister Bhupendra Singh, who was the minister in charge of Simhastha 2016, dared the Opposition to table their documents in the assembly if they could prove their charges.

Speaker Sitasharan Sharma adjourned the proceedings once for 10 minutes after Question Hour. However, he didnt concede to the Oppositions demand for the discussion. He then went ahead with the business of the House, but the Congress legislators raised their demands repeatedly for more than two hours, during which time they entered the well at least four times.

Later, talking to the media, Bachchan and Patwari alleged there had been scam of Rs 1500 crore during the Simhastha and there should be a probe into the scam by a joint committee of the ruling party as well as Opposition MLAs.

Patwari said there were in the process of seeking legal opinion to move the high court for a probe into the scam.

We will submit the documents compiled by state Congress president Arun Yadav regarding the scam in Simhastha to President Pranab Mukherjee and other dignitaries. We have already submitted the same to the Speaker, said Bachchan.
Ranveer Singh has an unconventional image that doesnt abide by the rules of suave Bollywood. His boundless energy and no filter attitude have won more than a few fans for him. Like Arjun Kapoor, Anushka Sharma and Parineeti Chopra, he too was launched under the Yash Raj banner, but he seems to be getting ahead in the race now.

Technically an outsider in the Hindi film industry, Ranveer Singh has already carved a niche for himself, and interestingly, he is not typecast yet.

Ranveer has been experimental with his looks and roles.

If Yash Raj Films found him suitable for Band Baaja Baraat and Ladies Vs Ricky Bahl, Vikramaditya Motwane cast him in Lootera, probably his most restrained performance yet. At the same time, Sanjay Leela Bhansali signed him for Bajirao Mastani, a very unlike Bollywood period drama.

Now, Aditya Chopra, one of the biggest producers in India, presents Singh as Dharam, a stand-up comedian from Delhi, who lands up in Paris in search of some fun.

A Delhi boy! Again!

Well, we wont mind till he carries it well.

Dharam meets Shyra (Vaani Kapoor) and gets enamored by her carefree stance. In fact, he thinks he has got an equal match in Shyra. Then and there begins a whirlwind affair.

Affair, because they live in-the-moment, unlike the concept of soulmates Bollywood has been feeding us since forever.

Now when they are out there for some no strings attached moments, expect a lot of songs and steamy moments. Thats also been seen as the unique selling point of the film: a lot of kissing and intimate scenes.

Befikre has been promoted with a lot of kisses thrown around in great measure for the trailer and promos.

Peppy tunes and stunning Paris offer enough incentives to sit back, relax and enjoy the latest love-saga from the Chopras. But the fear of being another rehashed, run of the mill story still looms large. Can Befikre rise above the average? Stay tuned for the complete review.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
The government on Friday is expected to launch a new TV channel named DigiShala and a new website named Cashless India post demonetisation to educate citizens about completing transactions digitally.

The ministry of electronics and IT (MeitY) has sent out media invitations saying that the new TV Channel will be launched by Union Minister of Electronics and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad and PP Chaudhary, MoS, Electronics & IT at around 3 PM.

Citizens have been facing a harrowing time after the demonetisation excercise as the Reserve Bank and governnment try to flush back liquidity in the system. Nearly 3.8 lakh crore has been deployed back in the country.

Earlier, RBI deputy governor R Gandhi had said that almost Rs 11.85 lakh crore in the scrapped Rs 500/1000 notes have come back to the banking system. He further said printing presses of the RBI and the government are working to full capacity and all efforts are being made to reach the notes in every part of the country.

In fact, during this period that is from November 10 to December 5, the RBI supplied to the public banknotes of various denominations near about Rs 4 lakh crore.

As regards lower denomination of notes, the RBI through its counters and bank branches have supplied 19.1 billion (pieces) in this period which is more than what RBI had supplied to the public in whole of last three years, he said.

The channel and the website is expected to be used in future for educating citizens about new moves, schemes of the government under the digital India programme.

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European pay-TV group Sky Plc has been approached by Rupert Murdochs Twenty-First Century Fox Inc to buy the company.

London-listed Sky said in a statement on Friday it had reached agreement with 21st Century Fox on a price of 10.75 per share, but there was no certainty that a firm offer will be made.

Foxs offer of 10.75 per share in cash, is a 36.2% premium to Skys Thursday close, and values Sky at about 18.48 billion pounds ($23.23 billion).

Fox already owns 39.1% of Sky, according to Thomson Reuters data.
The Congress has picked candidates for 90 of 117 assembly seats in Punjab that goes to polls early next year.

The partys central election committee, chaired by Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday, cleared a majority of seats barring those on which a consensus has not yet been reached among committee members.

Before it fights the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Congress is busy battling internal opposition on some key seats between its high-profile leaders.

The panel has decided to first clear seats of Congress candidates and those of new entrants from other parties who have come directly through the party high command such as Navjot Kaur Sidhu, Pargat Singh and Manpreet Badal. All three are likely to get the seats of their preference.

On the remaining seats, the screening panel headed by former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot and comprising Punjab Congress chief Captain Amarinder Singh, party affairs in-charge Asha Kumari and team of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi -- Harish Chaudhary, Rajiv Satav and Meenakshi Natrajan -- will hold more deliberations, with involvement of key leaders.

In Ludhiana, it is an open tussle between former union minister Manish Tewari and incumbent MP Ravneet Bittu, who won the seat after Tewari shied away from contesting in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

Tewari is keen to contest Ludhiana East seat. But Bittu and Ludhiana West MLA Bharat Bhushan Ashu, both close to Rahul, are opposing the move.

For Bathinda Urban, there is a keen contest between two former state finance ministers, Surinder Singla and Manpreet Singh Badal. While Amarinder is batting for Singla on the plea that it is a Hindu-dominated seat and both SAD and AAP have fielded Hindus here, Manpreetis learnt to have got a direct assurance for the seat from Rahul himself.

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The bodies of two militants and three rifles were recovered as the encounter in Arwani area of south Kashmir ended, police said on Friday.

The army, in an official tweet, said that of the three militants killed, the bodies of two were recovered. #JKOps Arwani, Anatnag Dist (J&K). Three holed up terrorists eliminated; bodies of two terrorists & three weapons recovered, said the Northern Commands tweet.

An officer at the police control room in Anantnag told HT that the two slain militants were identified as Majid Ahmad Zargar and Rahil Amin Dar. Sources added that Zargar was from Quimoh area of Kulgam district and Dar from Vessu in Anantnag and both were regional commanders of the banned outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in south Kashmir.

DGP, coordination and law and order, SP Vaid told HT that the elimination of the two militants has dealt a massive blow to the LeT ranks in the Valley. They were important militants in the Valley and it is a big blow to them, he said.

A police statement said that on Wednesday they received a specific information about the presence of terrorists at the house of Mushtaq Ahmad Ganie at Hassanpora, Tavila Arwani.

As per the information, Ganie works as an over ground worker (OGW) for LeT and not only harbours terrorists in his house, but also provides all sort of logistical support to them, the statement said.

It added that when a joint team of police, CRPF and Army cordoned off the house and entered it for searching, militants opened fire on them.

The fire was retaliated and the ensuing gunbattle lasted for almost two days. The operation concluded on Friday when a joint team of Jammu and Kashmir police and CRPFs quick action team (QAT) stormed the house and cleared it. The cover fire to the storming team was provided by army troops, the statement said.

Police have also collected DNA samples from the bodies for their further identification.
The day after Donald Trump won the American election, one of Germanys biggest newspapers, Der Speigel, simply drew his burning orange face heading towards earth like a destructive meteor. The End Of The World (as we know it)  its front-page howled. An illustration is worth a thousand articles.

Picking up a newspaper these days can leave you with a similar feeling, like the West is on the verge of a meltdown. Most European countries are facing either a financial collapse, worryingly high youth unemployment or a resurgent neo-Nazi party which wants to leave the European Union. Doom and gloom is everywhere. It could just take one big event to tip everything over the edge.

Read:Trump vows to immediately deport up to three million illegal immigrants

But there are reasons for optimism too. At first glance, the election of Trump, Europes problems and the UKs vote for Brexit represent a shift against immigration, globalisation and liberal ideals. The wider picture, however, looks a bit different.

In Britain and America what we are seeing is a dying generation lash out, angry the world is changing beyond their control. They want to reverse direction and this was their chance, perhaps the last chance, to make that happen. But they are in for a huge disappointment.

Last week the British government quietly revealed a startling fact. Last year over 27% of women who gave birth across the UK were born overseas. One in every eighth person living in the UK now was born abroad. Both these figures are at their highest for half a century.

Read:The message from Britain is clear: Indians are not welcome anymore

Londons changing population is part of a story of a divide opening up between Britains biggest cities and the rest of the country. More than two-thirds of babies born in London last year had at least one parent born overseas. This also the highest it has ever been. Not only are cities across the UK thriving, their residents are more comfortable around different cultures, languages and races. This is also changing the local politics: The UKs big cities mostly voted to remain in the EU by big margins. They are also voting less and less for anti-immigration parties.

The same urban vs rural divide is even wider in America. Trump got his votes overwhelmingly from small, declining, rural areas while Hillary Clintons votes came from big cities in the richest states.

What is behind this shift? Immigration, of course. Its hard to believe now but cities like London, New York and others were declining during the 1970s and 80s. People couldnt wait to move out. Now they are willing to pay astronomical rents to stay.

Immigrants start more businesses than the average. They bring new talent and fresh thinking. They work really hard. And they mostly live in big cities. In London they are even credited for improving the quality of schools (children who speak multiple languages do better). They have not only regenerated big western cities, they have changed the politics too.

This growing divide isnt just geographical, it is also generational. Younger Britons and Americans are more global and liberal than their parents. They are much more comfortable mixing with people of different backgrounds. Mixed-race children are the fastest growing demographic in both countries.

Read:The simplicity of referendums is exactly what is wrong with them

The speed of change is such that if the Brexit vote had been held in 2020, the result would have been the opposite. Similarly, the share of the American white population is dropping every year. Barack Obama could not have won twice if the American population looked like it did 30 years ago. Trump managed to rally older, white voters this time but in four years it will be even harder to win again.

But here is the problem. Just because cosmopolitan cities in America and Britain are booming does not mean small-town people will follow them. They are so worried by the speed and scale of the change and want to stop it. This is why they are coming out in bigger numbers now than they did before. It is because multi-racial liberalism is becoming so dominant that they are lashing out.

But change does not stop, it can only be managed. The clock cannot be turned back. The challenge for liberal and left politicians now is to find a way of hanging on to enough rural voters while keeping their younger, growing urban base happy.

Of course there are caveats to this optimism. The young, urban base isnt large enough to win power outright, yet. So building a winning coalition isnt easy. Some of those voters will also shift to the opposite side. Plus, these demographic changes are taking place faster in the US and UK than mainland Europe. But both countries play an outsized role in the Wests future.

Europe and America may look like they are retreating inwards for now but liberals have time on their side. Sometimes progress takes place one funeral at a time.

Sunny Hundal is a London-based political commentator. Twitter: @sunny_hundal

The views expressed are personal.

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Americas vice president-in-waiting Mike Pence may believe president-elect Donald Trumps extraordinary deal-making skills could come in handy in negotiating a settlement between India and Pakistan over Kashmir but thats as plausible as Trump taking his twitching fingers off Twitter.

Alarm bells havent quite gone off because New Delhi has been caught napping, but rather since those closing in on the White House have had this tendency to speak of involving themselves in the Kashmir conundrum. In 2008, presidential candidate Barack Obama mused about playing mediator. A few months into his tenure, the K-word virtually vanished from public conversations on subcontinental subjects. These are dreams that inhabitants of the Oval Office quickly wake from.

Read | Mexico senators whack Trump effigy

Nor should there be particular palpitations over the telephonic gushfest between Trump and Pakistans Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. That was probably one of those times when his minders werent conferenced in. That invitation to visit Islamabad will soon enough get a security reality check. Much of the mush will be lost in transition.

Prime Minister Narendra Modis conversation with Trump was deeper, and Trump discussed issues rather than ad libbing adjectives as hes prone to do when hes lost for words or ideas. This was evident from the disjointed nature of his primary campaign speeches and those during the process of the general, as his lines were scripted and read off a teleprompter.

There are already multiple points of contact in place. Even if India could lose a booster in Richard Verma, the US ambassador (those bottles of champagne on election night remained corked and unpopped in the embassy on Shanti Path), the incoming administration already has two Indian-Americans in its ranks, including Nikki Haley, as friendly a face as New Delhi could have wished for. Of course, one pertinent piece of the puzzle remains missing  the identity of the next secretary of state. However, there is the expectation that like Modi has forged foreign policy rather than external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, Trump will fashion his own.

Read | Trumps team of the rich and the generals

Trumps taking of a call from the Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and following up with a Tweetstorm ranting at China, is actually the most significant sign of comfort for South Block. During the waning months of the Obama presidency, Chinas regional influence was waxing, with countries like The Philippines and its own Trump-like president, Rodrigo Duterte, believing more in Beijing than Washington. And if Trump can actually get along with Vladimir Putin and Russia, India will be thrilled to see Moscow moving away from its recent drift towards China. That has led to Russia to gravitate towards Pakistan, a turn thats been difficult to digest for India. Detente between Washington and Moscow will not only curb Beijings ambitions but serve as an antacid for the recent heartburn. That malaise, for the time being, has crossed the border, as the phrases used by party organs like diplomatic rookie and outrageous remarks indicate. Thats the sort of language Trump will recognise.

If he follows through on his intent of dragooning the dragon, New Delhi will nod in appreciation. But he isnt even president yet, and again, whether the reality of office will mature his mercurial manner remains a mystery.

What could really have riled Trump, though, was that Modi won Time magazines online readers poll for its annual Person of the Year. Through the presidential campaign cycle, Trump bragged about winning every online poll. He spoke of being on the cover of Time magazine almost as frequently as he promised the build a big, beautiful wall. This double whammy must have hurt.

Read | Trump spent $66 million on election campaigns from his own pocket

That may sound like a joke but with Trump you never really know what to take seriously. The fragile nature of his ego means its easy to shatter even through satire on Saturday Night Live.

Fortunately the magazine itself did the obvious and selected the next POTUS as its POTY, the man it deems will be the president of the Divided States of America.

In Indias wonk world, though, there may be some unanimity  if Trump turns out to be a Chinese checker, the regional equation is in for a favourable recalibration.

Anirudh Bhattacharyya is a Toronto-based commentator on American affairs

The views expressed are personal

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Four people of a family were killed on Friday morning when the Honda City car they were travelling in rammed into a stationary truck near Nizampur bypass in Hapur.

Eyewitnesses said the accident took place after the driver of the car failed to spot the truck due to a dense fog cover. Three people sustained injures in the accident that took place around 9am.

According to police, the accident took place when the car with a family from Masuri in Ghaziabad was travelling back home from Vait in Hapur. The car hit the rear end of the stationary truck at Nizampur bypass. The incident took place when the highway was engulfed in dense fog the visibility on road was very poor.

A dense fog cover had engulfed the area early on Friday morning and visibility was very low. The driver probably could not spot the stationary truck and rammed into it from behind. Four people were killed in the accident. We have received a complaint in this regard and a case will be lodged, said Shailendra Rathor, circle officer (Hapur).

According to police, the deceased included the car driver Rashid, one Shahid, Shahids two-year-old daughter Zoya and his mother-in-law Jamila.

My brother (Shahid) had gone to his in-laws house and stayed there overnight. He had hired the car. His mother-in-law (Jamila) was ill and he wanted to bring her to Ghaziabad. While returning back, the family met with an accident and three of our relatives were killed. The car driver also died due to critical injuries, said Shahids brother Kale.

He said that Shahids wife Shamin and two others, Wasim and Yameen, sustained injuries in the accident.

My sister-in-law (Shamin) is critical and has been admitted to a hospital in Meerut. I have lodged a police complaint against the driver who had parked his truck on the highway, he added.

The presence of stationary trucks, parked illegally on roads, along with illegal cuts made by breaking road dividers are a common feature on NH-24. This has led to several major accidents in the past and causes traffic snarls on a daily basis.

Recent accidents on NH-24

September 30: Ttwo persons died while four others, including three minor children and a woman, were injured when a speeding mini truck broke the divider and rammed into a van coming from other side on NH-24, near Masuri, in Ghaziabad,

September 16: Four persons died when their speeding car hit a roadside tree while trying to avoid a bike over the road at Inayatpur near NH-24,

January 11: Six persons, including two BBA students, were killed in a major accident that took place over National Highway 24 (NH-24) at Masuri in Ghaziabad on Monday afternoon,

December 8, 2015: Four passengers, including the conductor, of a Haryana roadways bus were injured after the vehicle lost balance and over turned over NH-24 near Dasna during night,
Over 100 closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras installed in the Walled City in 2014 to curb crime and encroachments are nothing more than showpieces.

When theft or murder takes place in our area, we cannot hope it will be solved as police cannot retrace the sequence of events. And it has happened in various cases, said Lajpat Rai Market resident Arvind Upadhyay.

A senior police officer said Old Delhi or Shahjahanabad, a congested heritage locality that abounds in markets, witnesses a rising crime rate. Every day, we have complaints of theft at our police stations, he said.

Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL), a Public Sector Undertaking of the Union government, installed the cameras all over the area. Control rooms were set up at police stations in Kotwali and Jama Masjid with all equipment such as monitors, desktops, landlines and microphones. Officials even held a month-long trial run, sources said.

Just when ECIL was about to handover the cameras to Delhi Police, public works department started digging roads for Old Delhis redevelopment. The project involves beautification, widening of roads, laying pavements and fixing dangling cables.

In the process, CCTV camera wires were dislocated and the security gadgets have been defunct since.

We have already handed over the cameras to the police. The responsibility lies with them, said a senior ECIL officer.

The cameras were never handed over to us. Before we could get them from ECIL, they stopped working. We have taken up this issue many times with them, said deputy commissioner of police (north), Madhur Verma. He was the DCP of the district till Tuesday evening.

The non-functional cameras have stoked the concerns of residents, traders as well police.

In the backdrop of this problem, we recently had to get some cameras which are installed at major points, said the senior police officer.

Traders said the administration holds meetings, but is yet to decide on a solution. We see temporary cameras only on Independence Day, which are later removed. Our association has written many times to police to take preventive measures, said Chandni Chowk Sarv Vyapar Mandal general secretary, Sanjay Bhargav.

Sources said PWD told ECIL to consider setting up Wi-Fi cameras. However, the latter explained they may not be effective given how crowded the area is. PWD has asked ECIL to use overhead wiring till Shahjahanabad redevelopment, which is in its initial stages, is completed.

We dont want the security of the area be compromised. The issue of CCTV cameras was recently taken up with ECIL and they have been asked to submit their reply in this regard, said Shahjahanabad Redevelopment Corporation managing director, Faizi O Hashmi.

Meanwhile, traders say the redevelopment did not benefit anyone. Though roads were widened and developed, illegal traders and hawkers continued their business unhindered.

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The South Delhi Municipal Corporation will start online mutation of property by March 2017 to help tax payers submit documents and taxes related to a mutated property without visiting the zonal office.

In case of a query about the submitted documents, the department will contact them through mails or messages.

Mutation is the change of ownership in government records when the property is sold or transferred. However, the process is lengthy and takes months because it requires submitting multiple documents.

For a property with proper sale deed it doesnt take more than 5-7 days. But in cases where the taxpayer has no sale-deed or has only a power of attorney, the department faces problems in accepting the property tax, said SDMC additional commissioner, Ram Mohan Singh.

The online facility is expected to remove the need for taxpayers to visit the office multiple times and reduces the time span for the process.

To end corruption at all levels and generate more revenue, the south corporation is working on this system. Data integration regarding properties is under process, said SDMC mayor Shyam Sharma.

Read more: South Delhi Municipal Corporation proposes cashless property tax payments

A total of 3,76,540 taxpayers deposit Rs 523 crore towards property tax  an important source of revenue for the corporation. The civic body get 3,000 cases related to property mutation a year.

However the SDMC officials clarified that mutation of property means giving a notice of the transfer/devolution of property to the government department under Delhi Municipal Corporation Act 1957. It is done for the purpose of paying taxes and it does not mean a legal title/transfer in the name of person in whose name the property has been mutated in municipal records, said a senior official.
They wore rag-tag clothes and appeared to spend their days eking out a living next to signal number seven in south Delhis Safdarjung Enclave, begging for alms and living under a flyover.

But away from prying eyes, Ravi, 26 and Kadam, 24, amassed more than a lakh in cash and jewellery by allegedly breaking into houses in the area, police have said.

Their arrest in October has now sparked a first-of-its-kind crackdown on beggars and vagabonds in south Delhi, a move many say amounts to illegal profiling of the poor without proof.

In the first round of the exercise, at least 500 such people staying on footpaths and under flyovers will be taken to 16 police stations in the area, photographed and fingerprinted. More are likely to follow.

It will help keep their activities in check and if they indulge in crime, they will be easy to trace. Previously we have found their involvement in petty theft and burglary, said deputy commissioner of police (south), Ishwar Singh.

Its a step to curb the crime rate. We can ask residents if they feel any beggar is suspicious.

But others say the exercise is wrong because it brands poor and homeless people as criminals without tangible evidence. If one is responsible, the entire lot cannot be held responsible. Police are unaccountable to local government and they do whatever they want, human rights activist Indu Prakash Singh said.

Police are hand-in-glove with criminals

Police say in the future, if any crime is reported in the area, the beggars can be summoned to police stations to check for their possible involvement in case of any suspicion.

The couple  Ravi and Kadam -- roamed the streets as beggars, staking out unnamed houses in the locality and making a note of homeowners who were financially well-off or kept valuables at home, police said.

They both hailed from Rajasthans Tonk district and were caught after being spotted with an expensive-looking branded travelling bag that aroused the polices suspicion.

Police say the couple was involved in eight theft cases in south Delhis Safdarjung Enclave, Hauz Khas and Neb Sarai and have been sent to judicial custody. But many activists are doubtful whether crime of the duo is enough to launch a massive profiling programme.

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The wheels are new, and so are the engines. The odometers have clocked hardly a kilometre, and their bodies bear no dent or scratch.

It has been a month since the Delhi Police purchased 11 new vans, but they are yet to hit the road. Instead, the vehicles stand idly outside the armed police headquarters in west Delhi  ignored by all and sundry.

While some said the police havent received permission to use the diesel vans because they possess engines with outdated Euro 3 emission certification, a senior officer denied it. They have Euro 4 engines. The vehicles will be registered soon, he claimed on the condition of anonymity, but refused to explain why the vehicles havent been registered and put to use already.

Another officer said the vans can be used only after they are cleared under the exempted category.

European emission standards define the acceptable limits for exhaust emissions of new vehicles sold in EU and EEA member states. They form the basis for Indias Bharat stage emission standards.

Delhi Police decided to reduce the number of prisoners travelling in each van following an increase in instances of murder and violence aboard the vehicles. It bought the additional vans to achieve this goal.

After months of waiting, the armed police third battalion  responsible for transporting prisoners from jail to court  received 11 vans in the first week of November. Brought from Chennai, the buses were modified with additional chambers and tougher grills to separate warring prisoners.

Its been over a month. When will the department get permission to use the vans? As the new vehicles have cameras and LED screens, a policeman is stationed to guard them even during the day. Once the vehicles start, it will ease the congestion in prison vans, said a police officer.

Around 1,500 prisoners are transported from jails to courts every day. Delhi police currently have just 60 vans, besides 15 Maruti Gypsies and other cars. Most of the inmates are bundled into the vans, barring very high-risk prisoners who are transported in the smaller vehicles. At least two cases of onboard violence among prisoners are reported from vans that are packed with 40-50 people every day.

In January, 29-year-old prisoner Manoj was beaten to death by other inmates while they were returning from a Saket court in a van. In August 2015, two prisoners  Vikram Paras and Pradeep Bhola  were beaten to death by gangster Neeraj Bawana and his associates.

The rise in violent incidents inside moving vans has also prompted police to station patrol vans on routes connecting courts with jails

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The Delhi high court slammed the police on Friday for remaining clueless about the missing JNU student Najeeb Ahmed, who has been untraced for 55 days, asking how can a man just vanish suddenly.

Maintaining that it was concerned with the recovery of the boy whose mother has been running from pillar to post to be united with her son, the court said a situation, in which a missing person has not been traced for over 50 days, would create a sense of insecurity among the people.

It is over 50 days. Still you (police) do not know about his whereabouts. How can somebody vanish suddenly and police has no clue about it? Even if we think of the worst, something has to be found out. We are pained that the missing person has not been traced till date, a bench of Justices GS Sistani and Vinod Goel said.

Najeeb went missing from JNUs Mahi-Mandvi hostel on October 15, allegedly after an on-campus scuffle between him and some members of the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). The ABVP has denied involvement in his disappearance.

The bench said, We are not concerned with the scuffle. We only want that the boy is recovered and he returns to his house. We are concerned that the mother should get her child.

The courts observation came after the police and the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) informed it that Najeeb has remained untraceable till date and they were making all efforts to locate him.

The varsity and the police were responding to the habeus corpus plea filed by Najeebs 45-year old mother Fatima Nafees who was also present in the court on Friday. She has sought directions to the authorities to trace her 27-year-old son who was pursuing MSc in Biotechnology from JNU.

During the brief hearing, senior standing counsel Rahul Mehra, appearing for the police, told the bench that the Crime Branch was exploring all angles to trace Najeeb and even issued advertisements. We are diligent, We will do whatever is to be done at our level, Mehra said.
Activists have written to Delhi lieutenant-governor Najeeb Jung and chief minister Arvind Kejriwal against east civic bodys proposed 150-acre landfill site on Yamuna floodplain.

There are severe concerns about the project which is expected to come up on along Pushta Road, from Shastri Park crossing to Khajoori Khas crossing. The land belongs to the Delhi Development Authority, which has offered it to the East Delhi Municipal Corporation for developing a sanitary landfill and other municipal processing facilities after necessary clearance from Delhi Pollution Control Committee and National Green Tribunal.

Yamuna activist Manoj Misra, who has written an email expressing his concerns, says the landfill would destroy existing wetland, pollute underlying aquifers and groundwater and contribute to air pollution.

The site being in the river bed violates all legal provisions in the country that one can think of including the Water Act, Environment Protection Act and Waste Management Rules to name but few, he says.

According to Misra, the DDA plans for the site in the past were to develop it as a series of wetlands and the NGT also wanted to develop water bodies to store flood waters for the city at the site.

Sir, could there be a more senseless, dangerous and illogical plan than this and to top it, the EDMC claims it to be in PUBLIC INTEREST? the activist asks in the letter.

Read more: Yamuna too polluted to allow cultivation of vegetables, fruits, says NGT

On Monday, a bench headed by NGT chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar asked EDMC to approach the expert panel with its proposal and said it would pass orders after taking into account their recommendation. The expert committee was constituted by the green court on December 2 to look into the working of the waste-to-energy plants in the city.

An NGT judgment in 2015 barred any construction on the Yamuna floodplain. The landfill can be treated as an exceptional case, since the ones at Bhalaswa, Okhla and Ghazipur have exhausted their capacity, the petition by the corporation had said.

The green court had in 2015, issued comprehensive directions with respect to the demarcation of the Yamuna floodplains and the measures required for its protection. It also prohibited the carrying out of any construction activity on the demarcated floodplain.

Due to the scarcity of suitable land in Delhi and the utmost need for a landfill, the corporation has asked permission for the development of the site and other municipal solid waste processing facilities in the interest of the public, the petition said.

The lone landfill site in east Delhi is located at Ghazipur and has been operational since 1984. In east corporations area, around 2,200-2,300 million tonnes (MT) per day of municipal waste, 500MT of construction and debris waste and 700-800 MT of silt per day are generated, officials said. The Ghazipur site contains at least 13 million tonnes of waste and has outlived its normal life span.

Vimlendu Jha of NGO Swechha has also started a petition on change.org titled No Landfill on the banks of Yamuna, find another site.

It is the most preposterous and ill-conceived proposal in the history of Yamuna and urban governance in the country. It will sit over a source of drinking water, its in the high seismic zone, near the densely populated area and also next to several archaeological sites. We are also conveniently ignoring the situation that may arise due to flooding, we are welcoming the waste dump flowing into the mainstream of the river.

We are not against a landfill, we are against raising this landfill on the floodplains of Yamuna. Nowhere in the world has a sane government has raised a dump yard next to their surface water. We would like to request you to look for an alternate site for the landfill, else you will be solely responsible for a deliberate attempt to sabotage the flood plains, the river water and therefore public health and safety of citizens of Delhi, Jhas petition addressed to Jung, Kejriwal, Delhi Jal Board chief Kapil Mishra and NGT chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar said.

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The South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) will start a centralised grievance redressal cell in the next two months, to speed up the process of addressing the complaints of residents.

The cell will function as a call centre and be manned by professional data entry operators, in order to expedite the process of redressal. The civic body will also launch a toll-free number for the convenience of the residents. It will accept all kinds of complaints related to the civic agency, such as sanitation, health, streetlights, road and parks.

As soon as a complaint is received on this toll-free number, it will be automatically be sent to the concerned official/department, and the complainant will be issued a token. If the complaints are resolved at that level, then it will be closed and a confirmation sent to the complainant by text message, a senior SDMC official said.

If not, then it will be forwarded to the departments nodal officer. He can question the concerned official about the reason for the delay, and issue necessary instructions. We are aiming to sort out regular complaints within 24 hours and the others between 48 and 72 hours, the official said.

A person can view the complete status of his complaint by online using his token number or calling the call centre.

The system will be monitored by senior officials to ensure that residents actually benefit from the initiative. It will be the responsibility of the call centre supervisor to coordinate with officials and prepare a daily report on the number of follow ups done.

As of now, 1,000 complaints are received by the department everyday, from various sources, including the offices of the President, the Prime Minister and the chief minister. Although they are sent to the concerned departments immediately, 70 % of the issues wasnt resolved for a long time due to a lack of co-ordination. We do have sufficient staff, but lack of technology results in delaying the issue, the official said.

I reviewed the progress made on this system, recently, SDMC mayor Shyam Sharma said.

The IT department is working closely with the private concessionaire to understand the functioning of the system. The new system will help the corporation minimise the grievances and improve the functioning of the various departments, Sharma added.

Meanwhile, residents are still doubtful about the effectiveness of the new system. They said the situation would not improve unless the officials are dedicated.

The corporation is receiving complaints online at the moment. But it is automatically shown as resolved after a few days, even when it is not, said Pankaj Aggarwal, a resident of Safdarjung Enclave.

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The decision of the police to photograph and fingerprint beggars living in south Delhi just because two of them are alleged to have been involved in criminal activities shows a clear prejudice  reminiscent of the colonial days  of the State against the poor and the destitute. This cannot guarantee that crimes will end because the inflow of beggars is uninterrupted and they are scattered all over the city. That the police and other law-enforcing agencies, egged on by the relatively well-heeled people of society, reveal a bias against the poor is too well-known to be recounted. This discrimination between the treatments given to people who are visibly poor and those who are not is manifest in all areas of social life.

Till a few decades ago this was matter of only society and State policy steered clear of the issue. However, in the 1990s there started appearing government advertisements that said do not give alms to beggars because such (munificence) destroys their urge to work. This showed two things. One, this was a change in the orientation of the Indian State, which started borrowing, in distorted form, some notions of market economics that had gained currency in Britain and America some 15 years earlier. The Conservative government in Britain, inspired the right-wing economist Friedrich Von Hayek, thought that the poor were lazy and hence did not believe in working. And second, the thinking of the Indian State seems to have got spliced with societys louder voices, which have been suggesting for years on end that begging is nothing but moonlighting on the part of some who work elsewhere. Maybe in some cases it has turned out to be true, but what is forgotten is that without flesh-mortifying poverty, such a state of affairs would not have come about.

Read: Profiling the poor: Why are Delhi cops collecting fingerprints of beggars?

These also show that the State has not shed the colonial mindset even in independent India. An article published in this newspaper some months ago highlighted an important fact. When a member of the Bawaria community in UP was charged with rape, a lieutenant governor had tweeted that ex-criminal tribes were cruel and adept at committing crimes. The Criminal Tribe Act of 1871 labelled the community and many other nomadic and forest groups criminal. Once a tribe became notified as criminal, all its members were required to register with the local magistrate, failing which they would be charged with a crime under the Indian Penal Code. The law was repealed after 1947, and was replaced with another piece of legislation that sought to enrich and empower the tribes denotified. But as so often happens, far from enrichment, they were harassed by the police and often ended up as beggars in urban areas. As for the present case, the police should step up vigil in areas they think are crime-prone. But such profiling should stop because it is denigrating.
With 17,874 government-run schools operating with just a single teacher and 4,837 schools having no teachers at all, the school education department has planned the evaluation of 25,000 schools across the state based on parameters like attendance, cleanliness and quality of teaching.

The grading of the schools will start from session 2017-18 with external evaluators, and the final survey will be conducted by a reputed organisation of India. A budget of Rs 2.50-3 crore has been set aside for this evaluation, confirmed sources from the department.

In 2011, the department had launched pratibha parv across all government schools, which was presented as a comprehensive initiative for the assessment of teaching and learning, and for the evaluation of educational facilities and activities. Later, the programme became specific and a schools performance was evaluated on the basis of results.

However, this time, a report card on the school will be sent to the respective principals and will be made public.

This is an improvement. We want to see which school is lacking and which school has adequate facilities. Based on this evaluation, better technologies for classroom, innovative teaching methods and a better planning for schools can be adopted, additional chief secretary (education) Deepti Gaur Mukherjee said.

Mukherjee also said a list of excelling and poorly performing schools will be prepared, which will be uploaded on the website of the school education department. Principals will also be motivated to perform better and encourage more children to come to school as their efforts would be on a public domain, she said.

PARAMETERS FOR THE NEW EVALUATION

Attendance of students

Cleanliness in school

School infrastructure (school building condition and toilets)

Extra-curricular activities and sports

Principals personal initiatives
The office of the lead district manager Ramesh Chandra Nayak, in Sector 31 market, earlier not known even to many bank officials, has become the most sought-after by banks and the district administration since demonetisation. The office has become a war room for the past one month as the staff have made and received more than 400 calls, exchanged around 50 emails a day, and compiled a lot of data.

A lead banker or lead district manager (LDM) is an interface between banks and the government. The LDM has to coordinate with the district administration, police, state level bankers committee, RBI, regional offices of banks, labour department, provident fund department, employees state insurance corporation, and local bank branches.

Read more: Gurgaon banks turn bunkers for the war against black money

Keeping track of facts and figures related to the cash situation has become the offices primary task now even as it coordinates with the district administration and the police to maintain law and order.

The role of LDM gained more prominence as confusion prevailed after various orders by the Centre and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) regarding demonetisation. Some banks even refused to accept Rs500 and Rs1,000 notes because of the various circulars.

In such a situation, Nayak has arranged for fresh circulars, provided them to the bank officials, and explained their content and context to clear confusion.

Read more: Demonetisation blues: No work or cash, over 10,000 daily wagers leave Gurgaon

I received a call at midnight a week ago. The caller said he stood in the queue for more than five hours, but did not get cash. Such situations are beyond my control, but I attend to callers calmly and pacify them with assurances, said Nayak, as he finished a call from a bank manager asking for the next lot of cash supply.

Since the demonetisation decision came into effect, Nayaks mobile number has become public and people have started calling him to complain about banks not opening their accounts, cash not being dispensed, and even to report misbehaviour by security guards at banks.

We have to receive data on the cash situation, compile it and send it to various agencies on a daily basis. The staff here is working for more than 12 hours, he said. Besides Nayak, the office has two women staffers and two peons. Like many government offices, Nayaks office too is short-staffed and he said the office needs more manpower to monitor the cash situation by visiting banks.

Read more: A month on, Gurgaons hunt for cash continues

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The Embassy said there are almost no Vietnamese people living in this area. The Vietnamese Embassy is continuing to coordinate with Indonesian authorities to monitor and update its information.

As of the afternoon of December 7th, nearly 100 people were reported killed and over 600 others were injured by the earthquake. Immediately after the earthquake, President Joko Widodo ordered ministries and relevant agencies to appoint groups to urgently go to the scene to carry out rescue and disaster recovery efforts.

The earthquake occurred as Muslims were preparing for the first prayer of the new day. According to statistics, at least five aftershocks occurred within a few hours after the initial earthquake. Many buildings, temples, shops and other structures have collapsed.

Initial damage reports showed that a hospital and a local school were severely damaged. However, exact figures havent yet been reported.

Located in the Pacific Ring of Fire, Indonesia frequently has earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

In 2004, Aceh was most severely effected after an earthquake of 9.2 on the Richter scale set off a tsunami across the Indian Ocean region.

That disaster left more than 120,000 people dead, and Aceh was devastated./.
Actor George Clooney and his wife Amal are reportedly living separate lives and are ready for a $300 million divorce.

Amal and George divorce announcement! $300 million split rocks Hollywood! blares the latest headline of OK! Magazine, reports aceshowbiz.com.

Amal wanted kids, he didnt. Shell get his fortune and his Lake Como villa.

While they love each other, they might be realising they want different things in life, a source said, adding that the couples growing divide is allegedly due to a long list of grievances that have now brought the relationship to a perilous crossroads.

The source added: When George and Amal first got together, their friends thought they were a perfect match. But now some are expecting them to announce a split.

Human rights lawyer Amal Clooney speaks on September 12, 2016 in Stuttgart. (AFP)

George was feeling the mounting pressure to have children and had reluctantly agreed, according to the source. But as I understand it, hes since backed away from that decision, and Amal is crushed, said the insider.

George allegedly plans to move to Britain as hes growing impatient at Amals taste for the high life and lavish spending.

As a result of all this conflict, the power couple are now living separate lives, the magazine says, Amal could make out like a bandit if they divorce.

The Hollywood star and the British human rights lawyer married in 2014.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
Fourteen people, including 13 teachers from Punjabs border towns of Fazilka and Abohar, headed for different government schools in nearby Ferozepur were killed when their jeep and a truck collided in dense fog on Friday morning. The 14th victim, also from Fazilka, was the driver of the jeep, a Tata Cruiser.

The victims, including five women, were posted in Ferozepur district and had pooled in to engage the jeep for their daily commute.

The accident took place near Chandmari village, 5 km from Fazilka, when the jeep driver tried to overtake another vehicle in the fog. The jeep hit the truck and the impact was such that half of it went under the truck. The driver is absconding.

Five teachers died on the spot, while the rest succumbed to injuries in hospital.

Gopi Chand, the only teacher who survived, was rushed to Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital in Faridkot in a critical condition.

The victims included newly appointed elementary teachers Sanjiv Bagla (37), Shankar Lal (40), Sukhjeet Singh (24), Ashish, Shetal Kakkar (29), Kiran Bala (25), and Tejinder Kaur (26), all from Fazilka. The other teachers killed in the accident were Ram Pal, Sanjeev Kumar, Bindia (30), Manohar Lal (42), all residents of nearby Abohar town, and Natasha (30) of Balluana, Nazam Singh (37) of Killianwali village in Abohar, besides Sonu, the jeep driver.

One of the deceased, Tejinder Kaur, was married only 13 days ago.

Fazilka SSP Narinder Bhargav said that a case was registered under Section 304 (punishment for culpable homicide not murder) of the Indian Penal Code.
Tata group patriarch Ratan Tata has described Akhilesh Yadav as a progressive chief minister, endorsing the Uttar Pradesh leaders policies ahead of crucial state elections early next year.

Earlier, UP was lagging behind but he (Akhilesh) has taken it forward on the path of progress, Tata said on Thursday during an official programme in the presence of the chief minister and his wife Dimple, a Lok Sabha MP.

The business magnates praise will come as moral victory of sorts for the Samajwadi Party leader, who is caught in a bitter family feud with his uncle and the partys state chief Shivpal. Over the past few months, Akhilesh has been trying to build the partys campaign on the development plank, projecting himself as a leader keen to break free from the political agenda of caste and creed.

Read more: Advantage Akhilesh in SP tussle over ticket distribution?

I am very happy to be in Uttar Pradesh. CM Akhilesh Yadav has taken UP much ahead of other states, Tata added during the launch of point of sales (PoS) machines at 667 fair price shops.

Due to the vision of the progressive CM, electronic system (PoS machine) has been introduced at fair price shops to ensure ration for the poor. It is a privilege to work in UP.

Tata, himself battling a boardroom battle with ousted group chairman Cyrus Mistry, also referred to Yadav as a close friend.

The PoS machines are linked with Aadhar cards and connected with the database of National Informatics Centre (NIC). The Aadhar-enabled public distribution system (PDS) is a way to check fudging of records at fair price shops.

It is a biometric device. A beneficiary will only have to give his Aadhar number at the fair price shop. After feeding it in PoS machine, the shop owner will get all details of the customer, Pavithra Kumar, head of Tata Trust, Andhra Pradesh, told HT.
A fleet of seven ships and six helicopters evacuated all 2,376 tourists, including several foreign nationals, stranded in two islands of the Andamans due to cyclonic weather since December 5, officials said on Friday.

As the weather cleared in the morning, Navy, Coast Guard, Air Force and Union Territory (UT) administration started a joint evacuation drive and brought back all stranded tourists to Port Blair from Havelock and Neil islands of the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago.

Altogether 2,376 tourists were evacuated from the two islands and brought to Port Blair. All are safe and are taken care of, an official of the UT disaster department said.

An IMD satellite picture shows Cyclone Vardah over the Andamans (IMD)

He said three Mi 17V-5 military transport helicopters from the Air Force and three Pawan Hans helicopters of the Union Territory administration, besides seven ships from the Navy and administration have been regularly plying between the islands for the evacuation process.

Located about 40km from here, Havelock and Neil are the most popular tourist attractions in the Andamans where tourists were stranded since Monday due to torrential rains, choppy seas and heavy winds as neither aircrafts nor ships could operate due to the inclement weather.

The cyclonic storm Vardah, which was lying 250 km west- northwest of Port Blair, was very likely to intensify into a severe cyclone, according to the MeT department.

Lt Governor of the Islands Jagdish Mukhi said there was no untoward incident and no loss of life or property due to the weather conditions.

We are sending all tourists back home from Port Blair according to their flight timings. We have also made arrangements for their stay here, an official said.

Among those rescued included 12 foreigners. They included two Germans, four Spanish and one Israeli.

The IAF in a statement said three MI-17V5 were pressed into service for the rescue operation.

Total 14 sorties carried out, 11 sorties from Havelock carrying 230 passengers and 3 sorties from Neil island carrying 65 passengers, it said.
A day after a Punjab National Bank (PNB) branch was vandalised in Patti in Punjab, angry customers did not let the staff enter the bank premises on Friday.

Irked by unavailability of cash, scores of customers had damaged the bank branch on Thursday. Hundreds of customers gathered outside the bank on Friday morning and started raising anti- slogans forcing the bank staff to leave.

The bank staff took shelter in the nearby office of Punjab State Power Corporation Limited. They also tried to pacify the agitated customers, but in vain and had to return home.

A police team led by station house officer (SHO) of the city police station Bharat Bhushan persuaded the protesters and the staff was allowed to enter the branch later at around 2pm.

The branch manager said they are feeling insecure. Only two security guards were deployed on Thursday when customers stormed the bank. Police are too helpless, he added.

He further reiterated that against the daily requirement of Rs 40 lakh, bank is only getting Rs 10 lakh. We have to face the wrath of customers, especially pensioners. The situation is getting out of or hand.

Sensing the situation, five additional cops have been deployed in the bank for the staff security.
BSF personnel on Friday foiled an attempt by two intruders to cross over to India from Pakistan.

The BSF personnel of 170 Battalion were deployed on the Indo-Pak border near Chakkri Border Out Post (BOP) when they noticed that two Pakistani intruders, suspected to be smugglers, were trying to cross over the first fencing wire which was newly constructed and is without gates, a BSF official said.

The BSF personnel challenged them and opened fire but they managed to escape towards Pakistan under cover of darkness and thick fog on the border.

BSF has not found any discriminating thing when they searched the area this morning.
A Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) affiliate, the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) has punched holes in the governments push for a cashless economy by pointing out that no preparations have been made to allow the transition.

The BMS, has pointed out that though the governments intent is not questionable, the implementation is a cause of concern. For one, there are inequities in banking facilities, the BMS said, underlining how vast population is still outside the banking net.

It has also red flagged the issue of growing job losses, blaming the UPA governments economic policies for creating conditions for job cuts and the current NDA government for failing to stem the problem.

The government is going in a good direction, but there is lack of preparation, Baij Nath Rai, president of BMS told HT on the move toward cashless economy.

He said as a first move towards moving to cashless society, the government should have opened more banks, hired more staff and opened bank accounts for all those who are without one, such as contractual staff, labourers and daily wagers.

Though the BMS has supported the demonetization of higher value currency announced on November 8, it admits that the move has impacted the workers adversely. We cannot say that all the job losses have happened because of demonetization, but problems have gone up. Contractual staff and daily wagers who have no access to bank accounts have no money; and the government must ensure they are paid some cash in advance , Rai said.

He blamed reports of job cuts on the poor economic policies of the UPA government and said: As against 20 lakh job cuts in the last few years, this government in its 2.5 years tenure has been able to create only 1.35 lakh jobs, which is a very small number.

The BMS is also unhappy with the governments silence on the issue of providing social security to unorganised sector workers, such as those who work in the anganwadi sector, as Ashas in the health sector and contractual labour.

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The CBI on Friday filed charges against former telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran, his elder brother Kalanithi Maran and others in the illegal telephone exchange scam, which according to the agency caused a loss of more than 1.78 crore to the exchequer.

According to the CBI, the accused installed an illegal telephone exchange of 764-high speed telephone lines under service category, for which no bills were raised. The charge sheet also states that the lines were also wrongfully used by a private TV channel. The CBI has also named two then chief general managers of BSNL in the charge sheet.

The agency has claimed that between June 2004 and December 2006, 364 telephone lines were installed at Dayanidhis then residence in Chennais Gopalapuram. The charge sheet states that between December 2006 and September 2007 an additional 353 lines were installed at Ist Avenue Boat Club Road, the new address of the former union minister. The CBI has alleged that no bills were generated for these lines.

The investigation agency claimed that 10 postpaid mobile connections with vanity numbers were given to a television channel as per the verbal orders of the then minister and these connections were given under service category.

These telephone lines were allegedly used by the television channel for its voice, video and data usage but no bills were raised. A loss of Rs 1,78,71,393 was incurred by BSNL and MTNL, Delhi.

Timeline of the scam June 2004 - Dec 2006

CBI alleges 364 telephone lines were illegally installed at Marans Chennai residence Dec 2006 - Sept 2007

Additional 353 lines allegedly installed at Marans new residence. No bills raised

CBI alleges during this period Maran offered use of illegal lines to his brother, Kalanithi, and his Sun TV group

CBI has puts the loss to exchequer at `1.78 crore September 2013

FIR filed against the Maran brothers and the then BSNL general manager K Bramhanathan Jan 21, 2015

CBI arrest three, including Marans former secretary. The former minister claims case has been fabricated Dec 9, 2016

CBI files chargesheet against Maran brothers, Dayanidhis former secretary, and two retired BSNL general managers
The information and broadcasting ministry has asked states to ensure that public service features on the Centres campaigns like  Swachh Bharat and Beti Bachao Beti Padhao  are aired before film screenings, just like the national anthem.

The Cinematograph Act, 1952, makes it compulsory for theatres to show approved public service announcement (PSA) of not more than 22 minutes prior to the screening of the main show.

The Films Division of India, which produces these awareness films on behalf of the government, enters into an agreement with theatre owners to facilitate the exhibition of the approved films.

The government wants the cinema halls to screen features on its initiatives the same way they air spots on anti-smoking.

The central government recently waived off the 1% rental charged by the films division in exchange of supplying public services awareness films that include news features to facilitate exhibition of such films in the cinema halls of the country, the information and broadcasting ministry told Rajya Sabha in a written reply recently.

The waiver came after some filmmakers raised objections to the rental charge.

An earlier court ruling made it mandatory for theatres to show feature with messages of social relevance, irrespective of who made it . But cinema halls have been reluctant to air these films.

The Supreme Court on November 30 had made it mandatory for all cinema halls to play the national anthem before a movie is screened. Sources in the information and broadcasting ministry said a few states were not adhering to the rule despite repeated reminders.

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Five people, including a child, were injured when an unidentified person hurled a hand grenade at the house of a policeman in Imphal West district this evening, police said.

The accused hurled the grenade at the residence of Akoijam Brojen, a head constable of Manipur police, at Singjamei Mayeng Leikai.

A child and four women were injured in the explosion which occurred at around 6.25pm, police said, adding they are all out of danger.

However, their identity was yet to be established.

Local people captured the accused and beat him up injuring him seriously. He was also hospitalised.

His motive was not yet known, police said.
What kind of memory would I take with me, was how a dejected Chief Justice of India TS Thakur, who is demitting office early next month, reacted when lawyers tried to out-shout each other during a hearing on demonetisation.

CJI Thakur made his displeasure known by saying that never in his career as a judge for 23 years, has he seen such unruly behaviour when junior lawyers are shouting and attempting to pin down senior advocates, making the atmosphere of the court akin to a fish market.

Justice Thakur was anguished when some of the lawyers raised their voice to interrupt the submission of attorney general Mukul Rohatgi, who was arguing for the government, and senior advocates like Kapil Sibal and P Chidambaram.

This is not a way to argue. You people are making it a fish market. You people dont want senior advocates like Sibal to speak. See Mr Chidambaram has not yet stood up. This is very unfortunate.

In 23 years as a judge, I have not seen such behaviour. This is the last week as a judge and I would be going with a heavy heart. What kind of decorum is maintained? This is CJIs court and yet no decorum. You cant be allowed this kind of behaviour, the CJI, who will be demitting office on January 3, said.
Former prime minister Manmohan Singh said on Friday that the demonetisation of high-currency notes could have been better planned which would have saved people from the inconvenience.

Speaking on the sidelines of a conference at the Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID) , the economist-politician said that it could take some more time, when asked about a possible end to the cash crunch a month after the Centres demonetisation move.

Prodded to elaborate, he said, Please read my todays article. He was referring to his piece in a national daily where he has written that demonetisation will cause grievous injury to the honest Indian who earns wages in cash. A few days ago, speaking on the issue in the Rajya Sabha, he had termed the move of the Modi government organised loot and legalised plunder.

Manmohan Singh in Sector 19, Chandigarh, on Friday. (Ravi Kumar/HT)

Manmohan Singh at CRRID for a conference in Chandigarh, on Friday. (Ravi Kumar/HT)

(Ravi Kumar/HT Photo)

At the conference organised by the Indian Association of Social Sciences Institutions on Friday, Singhs topic was different: Education and Development: Issues, Challenges and Opportunities.

Hitting out at government schools which suffer from many handicaps, he said the quality of education has fallen to very low level. The teachers are put on many duties other than teaching such as census work, collection of data, taking students to the gathering addressed by leaders and high officials, he said.

He also hit out at private universities and colleges that have come up in large number as they are mostly for profit. The profit motive may adversely affect the quality because of cost-cutting imperatives, he said.

He advised the government to invest in education. Spending in education and health must be treated as investment in human capital formation, he said, adding that the nation must strive to achieve a long-cherished target (since 1968) of spending 6% of the gross domestic product (GDP) on education through public funding.

He lamented the fall in education standards particularly in rural areas. He also cited studies that show that students studying in Class 5 couldnt read text and do simple division and subtraction of Class-2 level.

Considered the architect Indias 1991-92 economic reforms, Singh said the nation had made considerable progress since then. He added, though, that the benefits of the progress were not equitably distributed.

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The Election Commission (EC) has directed the Uttar Pradesh education board to put the high school and intermediate board examination schedule on hold, sparking speculation over the dates for the forthcoming assembly polls.

Immediately after Uttar Pradesh Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad (UPMSP) secretary Shail Kumari Yadav declared the schedule for the 2017 board examination at a hurriedly-called press conference in Allahabad on Thursday, the EC expressed surprise over the announcement without its consultation in a communique to chief secretary Rahul Bhatnagar.

The commission asked Bhatnagar to announce fresh dates for the exams after consulting it saying that the assembly election is to be held early next year.

Sources said the poll panel has summoned principal secretary (secondary education) Jitendra Kumar and director (secondary education) Amar Nath Verma to New Delhi on Friday for a discussion. UPs chief electoral officer T Venkatesh will also be present at the meeting.

Kumar confirmed, that the state government has received a communication from the election commission to cancel the dates of the board examinations announced by UPMSP.

We are waiting for further instructions from the EC and fresh dates of the examinations will be announced only after holding consultation with the EC, he said.

The leader of UP Secondary Teachers Association Om Prakash Sharma said that its a practice that in the election year, the UPMSP holds consultation with the EC before announcing the schedule of the board examinations.

I do not understand why the UPMSP officers ignored the tradition when they were aware that assembly election is due next year. UPMSP officers should avoid confrontation with the EC, Sharma said.

In 2012 the UPMSP announced the dates of board examination after holding consultation with the EC. The examinations were held after completion of the electoral process, he added.

Speculations are rife in political circles over the election schedule and the poll panel is tight-lipped over the dates of the assembly election.

The hurry in which the state and central governments are launching and inaugurating projects shows that the EC will announce the poll schedule in the last week of this month and the election will be held in February/ March, a senior officer, who did not wish to be named, said.

Other officers counter this version, saying that the preparation for the election is going at slow pace and polling will be held in March/April.

During his visit to Lucknow on September 27, chief election commissioner Nasim Zaidi did not disclose the dates of the assembly election. When asked, he replied that according to the provisions of the Constitution, the assembly election should be held before May 28.

The EC will consider the suggestion of political parties before announcing the dates of the election, he had said.
In a move aimed at assisting the ever-increasing e-tourist visa holders, the government has sanctioned 964 new posts for the immigration department that checks and monitors people entering and leaving the country.

The Union home ministry has decided to quickly fill 964 additional posts seeking eligible candidates on deputation from paramilitary forces, a ministry official said on the condition of anonymity.

The official added that Union home secretary Rajiv Mehrishi met all stakeholders in this regard. Earlier, it was decided that only officers of the rank of the sub-inspector will be eligible to join on deputation but the ministry has decided to relax the norms now. Even graduate constables familiar with working on a computer will be allowed to join the department, the official said.

The home ministry wants to start more dedicated desks for e-tourist visa holders as soon as possible. Only 16 airports across the country are notified entry points for e-tourist visa holders. The government recently added five sea ports as dedicated entry points and expanded scope of e-tourist visa to 158 countries.

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Government may soon introduce plastic currency notes, Parliament was informed on Friday.

It has been decided to print banknotes based on plastic or polymer substrate. The process of procurement has been initiated, minister of state for finance Arjun Ram Meghwal said in a written reply in Lok Sabha to a query whether RBI proposes to print plastic currency notes in place of paper ones.

The Reserve Bank for long has been planning to launch plastic currency note after field trials.

In February 2014, the government had informed Parliament that one billion plastic notes of Rs 10 denomination would be introduced in a field trial in five cities selected for their geographical and climatic diversity. The selected cities were Kochi, Mysore, Jaipur, Shimla and Bhubaneswar.

Plastic notes have an average life span of about five years and are difficult to imitate. Also, currency notes made of plastic are cleaner than paper ones. Such notes were first introduced in Australia to safeguard against counterfeiting.

Replying to another question, Meghwal said it was informed by RBI in December 2015 that they have received some banknotes of Rs 1,000 without having security thread which were printed at Currency Note Press (CNP), Nashik, on paper supplied by Security Paper Mill (SPM), Hoshangabad.

An enquiry has been initiated by Security Printing and Minting Corporation (SPMCIL) and the units involved (SPM and CNP).

Major penalty chargesheet has been issued to the personnel concerned. Disciplinary proceedings have been initiated as per departmental rules, the minister said.

Meghwal further said action has been taken to strengthen quality procedure and online inspection system in manufacturing process and special training has been given to the persons concerned to avoid such types of mistakes in future.

Additional inspections have been introduced to ensure defect-free production, he said.
Surat police seized Rs 76 lakh in new Rs 2,000 currency notes from four people on Friday.

Based on specific tip off, the police intercepted a Maharashtra-registered Honda City (MH15 EP 4455) and recovered 3,800 notes of Rs 2,000 denomination from the boot of the car.

Surat income tax department officials will carry out a detailed probe.

Two of the detained were from Gujarat - identified as Girish Patel of Valsad and Dipti Patel, reportedly a fashion designer from Chikhli in Navsari district. The other two -- Rajkumar Singh and Arun Kashinath Amutar -- belonged to Nashik.

Police sources said the cash was brought from Nashik and it was likely to be delivered to a person in Sachin GIDC area.
Income tax officials raided an Axis Bank branch in Chandni Chowk beginning Thursday evening and said on Friday the operation unearthed more than 40 fake accounts in which large sums were deposited in old notes after November 8.

About Rs 100 crore was found in dubious accounts at the branch, reports said, but tax officials said the investigation was on and final figures would emerge later.

Shopkeepers in the vicinity said three people wearing suits entered the bank around 4pm on Thursday and the shutters were put down, to be opened temporarily later to allow female employees to leave. Other bank staff and the tax officials stayed overnight, examining records and CCTV footage. The branch opened to the public from 1pm to 3.30pm on Friday but the tax officials stayed there.

Highlights More than 40 fake accounts in which large sums were deposited in old notes after November 8. About Rs 100 crore was found in dubious accounts at the branch. Few days earlier, the Enforcement Directorate arrested two Axis Bank managers in Delhi and seized 3kg gold bars in connection with a money-laundering probe.

We have been conducting search operations based on our own intelligence reports. Suspicious transactions have been undertaken. There have been huge deposits made and we want to trace the source (of the money deposited) and the account holders, a senior government official, who did not wish to be identified, told Hindustan Times.

Read | Axis Bank under I-T scanner for Rs 30-crore hawala link

Axis Bank said it would provide full co-operation to the investigating authorities.

The bank is committed to following the highest standards of corporate governance and has zero tolerance towards any deviation on the part of any of its employees from the set model code of conduct. Strict action will be taken against any employee found deviating from the guidelines, the countrys third largest private sector lender said.

A man called to assist the officials with the CCTV footage said there were about 20 people inside.

Some officials are seeing files, examining camera footage inside the managers room. We saw that the officials of the tax department and bank employees slept in the branch itself. The women were allowed to go home, he said.

Earlier, the bank suspended 19 officials, including six from Delhi, over their alleged involvement in illegal practices after demonetisation. The bank suspended four employees on Tuesday from its Kashmere Gate branch while two others from the same office were suspended a week before.

On Sunday, the Enforcement Directorate arrested two Axis Bank managers in Delhi and seized 3kg gold bars in connection with a money-laundering probe. The bank has hired a private firm for a forensic audit.

Read | Demonetisation: Axis Bank suspends 19 employees over illegal practices
The governments move to recall high-value banknotes came under fire in Parliament and the Supreme Court on Friday, with judges questioning cash rationing by banks and opposition lawmakers accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of running away from a debate.

As a lingering cash crunch seemed to temper the initial euphoria over the high-stake policy move  aimed at curbing black money and counterfeit currency  the government has appeared less effusive about the November 8 decision. And with only three working days left, it wants to see off the winter session without any major embarrassment in Parliament.

So much so that ruling lawmakers were seen on Friday preventing a debate in the Lok Sabha, prompting opposition charges that the government didnt want to be called out on the so-called demonetisation move which suddenly culled 86% of cash in the economy.

The Opposition had initially sought a debate with a vote on demonetisation but later relented to one without voting. Only this time, the government has seemed reluctant to hold one at all. A senior minister told HT that it was not a favourable time to have a debate in Parliament.

If they allow me to speak in Parliament, you shall see an earthquake will come, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi told journalists. This is the biggest scam in Indias history. If I say this inside the House, Modiji will not be able to sit.

The Parliaments winter session has so far been lost to disruptions by opposition parties, but, in a role reversal on Friday, BJP chief whip Rakesh Singh was seen gesturing to ruling NDA MPs to get up and shout the opposition MPs down.

Residents queue in a line to withdraw money from an ATM in Allahabad. (AFP Photo)

For the government, the day was no better at the Supreme Court, which wondered if the restriction on withdrawal of legitimate and taxed money violated fundamental rights. Cash withdrawals from banks are capped at Rs.24, 000 a week, but most banks are unable to pay even that.

A bench headed by Chief Justice TS Thakur asked the government to consider fixing a minimum assured withdrawal which banks cannot refuse and allow district cooperative banks to accept banned 500-and 1000-rupee notes after stringent verification of the customers.

The court told Mukul Rohatgi, the governments top law officer, to report back the progress on this on December 14 when it will issue an interim order to reduce peoples hardship.

Did you have any projections as to how much will you receive and how much notes were to be printed? What would be your gestation period? the bench asked Rohatgi, wondering whether there was any application of mind or planning before the demonetisation announcement.

A constitution bench will be set-up to hear 25 petitions that have challenged the governments demonetisation move. The court said it will frame 11 questions for the consideration of the constitution bench.

Back in Parliament, ruling party lawmakers refused to allow Gandhi to initiate a fresh debate while parliamentary affairs minister Ananth Kumar demanded an apology from the opposition benches for disrupting the proceedings during the past days. At one point, BJP leader LK Advani was seen asking his party MPs not to disrupt the proceedings.

Later, a visibly upset Sumitra Mahajan, the Lok Sabha Speaker, adjourned the Lok Sabha till Wednesday morning.

Jao sab chhutti par (Go on leave, everyone), she said on the microphone. Her rebuke came a day after President Pranab Mukherjee castigated MPs for disruptions, asking them to run Parliament for gods sake.

With only three working days left this session, the government is unwilling to allow opposition leaders an opportunity to attack it in Parliament for peoples hardship due to demonetisation, said sources.

The Prime Minister is giving speeches across the country but is afraid of coming to the Lok Sabha and is not willing to sit there, Rahul Gandhi said, wondering about the reason for this nervousness.

Read | Those at epicentre of scams talk about earthquake: BJP hits back at Rahul

He said the government has changed the narrative on demonetisation from black money to counterfeit currency and now to campaign about turning a cashless society.

The Congress vice-president demanded that Modi come to the House so that it could be discussed what demonetisation is, who has benefited from this decision and what it means for whom.
India is aware of reports of Pakistans nuclear expansion and was taking all steps to safeguard Indias national interest, defence minister Manohar Parrikar said on Friday.

The government is aware of reports on the expansion of Pakistans capability for fissile material production for nuclear weapons, he informed the Lok Sabha. The government continues to monitor development in this regard and is committed to taking all necessary steps to safeguard national security and respond to any threat suitably and adequately.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Pakistan has 110-130 nuclear warheads while India possesses 100-120.

Meanwhile, a paper by renowned American scholars Tom Dalton and Michael Krepon A Normal Nuclear Pakistan argues that Pakistan could have the third-biggest nuclear stockpile within a decade and could end up producing 20 nuclear warheads annually.

The 48-page report warns that if Pakistan continues on its current path, in 10 years it could possess a nuclear arsenal nearing 350 weapons.

The report said Pakistan operates four plutonium production reactors while India operates one.

Pakistan has the capability to produce perhaps 20 nuclear warheads annually. India appears to be producing about five warheads annually.

The report added that given its larger economy and sizable nuclear infrastructure, India can outpace Pakistan in fissile material and warhead production if it chose to.
Calling for respecting each others legitimate aspirations, India said on Friday that China should not give a political colour to its efforts to access civilian nuclear technology, a reference to Beijings opposition to its NSG bid.

In his address to India China Think-Tanks Forum, foreign secretary S Jaishankar also pitched for bilateral cooperation in dealing with fundamentalist terrorism, expressing dismay over the two countries not being able to come together on the issue at critical international forums.

As diverse and pluralistic societies, we both face threats from fundamentalist terrorism. Yet, we do not seem to be able to cooperate as effectively we should in some critical international forums dealing with this subject, Jaishankar said.

His remarks are seen as a reference to China opposing Indias move to get Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar designated as a global terrorist by the United Nations.

Jaishankar also said, At a time of change, we should obviously pay great attention to strategic communication. This could help avoid misunderstanding and promote greater trust and cooperation.

Without mentioning Indias NSG bid, Jaishankar said there was a need for broad-basing the nuclear technology control group and stressed on deeper Indo-China cooperation on major global issues like implementation of the Paris climate agreement.

In Indias case, predictable access to civilian nuclear energy technology is key. The broad-basing of the nuclear technology control group is also helpful to a more representative international order.

Keeping in mind this solidarity of major developing states, it is important that China view this as a developmental aspiration and not give it a political colouring, he said.

Seeking deeper bilateral engagement, he said Let us at least respect each others strong sense of independence and legitimate aspirations while seeking accommodation and building trust.
It is not a bad thing for us, that the route known as the Goldene Strae or the Golden Road as we will get to know it- has escaped the attention of so many. It has been spared being overrun by hordes of tourists and as you will discover the
Several partnerships in space research are in the offing between Israel and India with the director of the Israel Space Agency (ISA) visiting Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) headquarters in Bangalore on Wednesday, the day Indias Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) placed its third resource-mapping satellite PSLV-C36 in orbit.

Both countries have collaborated in space research and technology in the past. In 2008, ISRO launched Israeli reconnaissance satellite TechSAR aboard its satellite-launching PSLV.

Read: Our country can learn a lot from India and vice versa: Israel MP Yaakov Perry

More recently, India successfully tested Barak 8 (Lightning 8 in Hebrew) in June at the Chandipur research and development base in Odisha. The surface-to-air interceptor missile was jointly developed by Indias defense research and development organisation and Israel Aerospace Industries.

Avi Blasberger, director, ISA, and Israels science, technology and space minister Offir Akunis are on a four-day visit to India to step up R&D collaborative projects in applied sciences and technology, including cyber security and big data analytics in healthcare. Space partnerships include the fields of earth observation, communication and rocket propulsion.

Connecting academic institutions and industry from both countries will stimulate knowledge creation and foster innovation, techno-entrepreneurship, intellectual property and prototypes, said Dr Harsh Vardhan, Indias minister for Science & Technology, who met Akunis on his four-day visit to India.

Joint projects on cyber security and big data for healthcare will be awarded to the partnering academic and R&D laboratories from the two countries during the next year.

Read: ISRO successfully launches third remote sensing satellite Resourcesat-2A

Israel is one of the leading countries in cyber security, or defending civilian infrastructures  such as banks, communication, railways, electricity, water etc-- from hostile penetration. Over the last two years in Israel, more than 250 companies were founded only under the title of cyber security, said Knesset-member MK Yaakov Perry, also former director of the Shin Bet (Israel security agency) and former minister of science, technology and space, who is part of the delegation to India.

Israel is in the forefront of cyber security, with companies such as Adallom offering security technology to track patterns and anomalies that could be potential security breaches for remote servers, including those running Microsofts or Googles cloud services.

Other partnerships include the fields of agriculture, water conservation, biotechnology, human genomics, nanotechnology, robotics, solar energy, information technology, lasers and electro-optics.

Israel is known as the startup nation and we can contribute, and be contributed to by Indian researchers, universities, etc. It works quite well, said Perry. India and Israel share the same values and are facing the problems, seeing the present and looking for the future. And I think that Israel can learn a lot from India and India can learn a lot from Israel.

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India and Vietnam signed a civil nuclear cooperation agreement on Friday, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserting that it will further strengthen the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries.

The two countries also signed three other agreements -- to enhance aviation links, to jointly work in the area of energy efficiency and promotion of parliamentary cooperation.

The four pacts, aimed at boosting the relations, were signed here in presence of Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan and visiting President of Vietnams National Assembly, Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, after their talks on enhancing the ties.

Ngan, who is leading a Vietnamese parliamentary delegation, also met the Prime Minister who said the agreement on cooperation in Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy will further strengthen the comprehensive strategic partnership between India and Vietnam.

Modi recalled his earlier meeting with Ngan in Hanoi during his visit to Vietnam in September.

He said that Ngan, as the first woman to head the National Assembly of Vietnam, is a source of inspiration to women across the world.

Modi welcomed increased parliamentary interaction between India and Vietnam, and called for instituting an exchange programme for young parliamentarians of the two countries.

The civil nuclear agreement with Vietnam, an influential East Asian nation, comes close on the heels of India signing a similar pact with Japan.
Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti left a Cabinet meeting midway after a rift with a BJP minister over police service restructure.

The chief minister, who had the rift with the BJP minister over her proposal to restructure the Kashmir Police Service (KPS) officers cadre, left the meeting midway, a source privy to the meeting said.

She became angry over the issue and immediately left the meeting hall and the secretariat, the source said.

As soon as the CM left the secretariat, the meeting was shifted to the office of deputy chief minister Nirmal Singh.

Soon a delegation of the ministers headed by Singh also left for the official residence of the chief minister and the meeting was still going on.

The ministers are trying to placate the chief minister, the source said.
Former Supreme Court judge Justice Markandey Katju apologised to the top court on Friday for writing a Facebook post criticising its judges and their order in a case of rape and murder.

In a two-page application, Justice Katju said he respected the judiciary and had deleted the post.

I am ready to read out the apology before the open court, Justice Katjus application said, requesting his plea for quashing contempt proceedings be heard before the winter break.

The court is yet to react to his application. Proceedings against Katju, often in news for his controversial comments, can only be scrapped if the apology is accepted.

The court will close for winter vacations on December 16 and reopen on January 3.

The court had in November issued a contempt notice to Katju for intemperate language and scandalising the judiciary.

He had criticised the judgment that commuted to life term the death sentence awarded to Govindachamy, a Kerala resident. Govindachamy had not murdered but only raped 23-year-old sales representative Soumya, the court ruled while dismissing petitions filed by the Kerala government and victims mother against a high court order clearing Govindachamy of the murder charge.

In his Facebook post, Katju said the judgement was laden with fundamental flaws. On Friday, he urged the Supreme Court to close the contempt proceedings against him.

A bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi agreed to look into the submission made by senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan, on behalf of Justice Katju, seeking an early hearing.

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A soldier aboard a military helicopter that crashed in remote Indonesian jungle more than two weeks ago has been found alive, an army spokesman said Friday.

Yohanes Syahputra was found late Thursday by villagers on Borneo island in an exhausted state, army spokesman Sabrar Fadhilah told AFP.

Thanks be to God almighty, we have found one of the passengers of the downed helicopter, Fadhilah said in a text message.

The victim was found with wounds on his hands, waist and legs, and was weak as he hadnt eaten in days.

Syahputra was aboard a Bell 412 helicopter with four other military personnel when it lost contact on November 24 over a remote stretch of Bornean jungle, the army said.

The wrecked chopper was found three days later, having crashed during a delivery run to a remote army post near the Malaysian border.

Three crew had died but one was found alive. The location was so difficult to reach the airman had to be winched by rope, the military said.

Syahputra however was not found and was feared dead, with the terrain deemed too inhospitable.

The chopper went down deep in the forested, mountainous interior of Borneo, miles from any major city.

A farmer discovered the soldier resting at a hut on the outskirts of a plantation, where he had been eating sugar for sustenance, local media reported.

He was taken to a villagers home in Long Sulit and offered food and water, the reports said.

Fadhilah said Syahputra would be evacuated for medical check ups at a hospital in Tarakan, one of the main cities on the north-eastern coast of Borneo.

The military has closely guarded the details surrounding the accident and discovery of Syahputra.

Its just the latest fatal crash for Indonesias accident-prone military.

Twelve people were killed in March when a military helicopter went down in bad weather on Sulawesi in central Indonesia.

Three died when a separate military chopper crashed into a home in Central Java in July.

Its also not the first time a passenger has made a miraculous escape in an Indonesian air disaster.

Last year a man was found alive, naked and floating in a huge volcanic lake on Sumatra island, two days after the helicopter in which he was travelling crashed.

He was rushed to hospital after being found conscious but very weak, wearing only a black watch, in Lake Toba.
Can a debate on demonetisation under no rule save the winter session of Parliament?

With barely a week left for the session, the Opposition is known to have proposed to the Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan to hold a debate on demonetization waiving off, albeit temporarily, all rules.

The Speaker of Lok Sabha and the Chairman of Rajya Sabha have powers to allow a debate on any important issue without any rules.

The Opposition initially wanted a debate which will entail voting. The government ruled this out fearing it will be outnumbered in Rajya Sabha.

As the logjam continues, the new proposal has emerged as a middle-path.

On Thursday, Congress chief whip in Lok Sabha, Jyotiraditya Scindia held a long conversation with Trinamool Congress floor leader Sudip Bandopadhyay. While the Congress and the Trinamool are likely to back the plan for a rule-less debate, the stand of the other Opposition parties were unclear.

Also on Thursday, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi said that he wanted a debate in the House. We will catch the PM inside the House. He cant run away from there, Gandhi said, referring to the Oppositions allegation that the PM is avoiding the House but speaking outside on demonetization.

For past 16 days, the House has not been able to transact business, barring the passage of the supplementary budge allocations, due to Oppositions disruptions.

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UK-based banknotes printer De La Rue on Friday clarified that it is in no way associated with printing of currency in India and does not supply currency paper to Pakistan.

On Thursday, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had alleged that the company, which finds mention in the Panama papers leaks, has been given contract for printing new currency.

Refuting reports that it has been contracted for printing of new Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 notes, the London-listed company in a statement said, De La Rue is not supplying paper for printing of Indian currency and we are not associated with printing of currency in India at present in any form.

De La Rue categorically refutes the defamatory and malicious allegations about its business.

The company also said it does not supply currency paper and is not printing currency for Pakistan, and would never supply currency paper manufactured for one country to another.

De La Rue has received no notice nor are we aware that we are blacklisted in India, it added.

The company warned that it will take appropriate steps to protect its reputation as the trusted currency printer around the world.

It supplies commercial banknote printers to 140 countries.

Finance minister Arun Jaitley had also rejected AAPs charges, saying his ministry has no dealing with the British company named in the false social media campaign.
A member of the Israels Knesset, MK Yaakov Perry has worn many hats. Hes a former minister of science, technology and space and a former director of the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), a post he held for seven years. During his term as director, he was Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabins envoy to negotiate the security arrangements with the Palestinians after the signing of the Oslo Accords (1993). After retirement, he was Prime Ministers envoy on POWs (prisoners of war) and MIAs (missing in action) under prime ministers Shimon Peres, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Ehud Barak.

In the private sector, Perry has served as president and CEO of the telecom company Cellcom and has chaired the board of several companies, including Mizrahi-Tefahot Bank.

Read: India, Israel to jointly work in space research and cybersecurity

Hes on a four day visit to India with Israels Minister of Science, Technology and Space Ofir Akunis.

Cyber security was one of the key areas of discussion. What partnerships is India seeking?

It is really impressive what we have in the level of cooperation between India and Israel in a variety of things. Security (partnerships) have been going along for almost 25 years. Its getting bigger and bigger. Many industrial, army facilities are working, getting tenders and helping to upgrade arms.

Israel is one of the leading countries in defending civilian infrastructures from hostile penetration. When I say civilian infrastructure, I mean banks, communication, railways, electricity, water... In the last two years in Israel, more than 250 companies were founded only under the title of cyber security.

The director of the Israel Space Agency visited the Indian Space Research Organisation headquarters in Bangalore. Are we looking at joint projects?

We have a major coorperation in space with ISRO. We have been there, not to the launch (site) but the headquarters. The corporation in that sense is growing.

A couple of years ago, a large communication shuttle (recon sat TechSAR) was launched by India and I am sure there will be a lot others.

India and Israel are sharing the same values and are facing the same problems, seeing the present and looking for the future. And I think that Israel can learn a lot from India and India can learn a lot from Israel.

We have agreements in science and technology and Israel is known as the startup nation. We can contribute and we can get contributions from Indian researchers and universities, which works quite well.

India is facing huge water shortages. What are the technological solutions?

We are working on large joint agriculture projects, mainly on irrigation. Israel has been able to almost solve its water shortage water by desalination. With the Indian government, we are building centres of excellence and, if Im not mistaken, we have 14. Every centre benefits thousands of farmers from Israeli know-how and technology.

Is desalination a solution? Or is it too expensive?

Israel has suffered from a shortage of water for many years. And it has been solved with the participation of the government, private sectors and clients -- meaning that the government is pushing private investors and global organisations to invest. We call it BOT project (Buildoperatetransfer) which means that the private company gets concessions to build and operate projects, which are handed over to the government after the company has made adequate profits. And it works. Also, the technology is getting cheaper. It is not cheap but it is doable.

How is Israel fuelling the tech boom?

(For software development), you need programmers and a very, very large imagination. In Israel, people are serving obligatory in the army, being recruited to units that are technology-oriented. And when they get out, they come with ideas and experience that they put to commercial use.

I know of a numerous companies that get programming done in India. You have the manpower, you have the know-how. We can share the Israeli and the Indian know-how and go to really high heights.

How can governments nurture innovation and encourage start-ups?

The government has to understand that when we talk of encouragement, it is money because startups need financing, at least in the first stages. Most startups, be it in Israel or India, are facing all kinds of difficulties in the initial stages. So encouragement by the government is essential.

In order to finance, you need joint-venture funds that will finance and invest in start-ups. Governments have to institutionalise firms that are raising money from private investors because without this infrastructure, you cannot build a real start-up culture.

And of course, you have to invest a lot in education around science and technology at the elementary and high school-level. Because if people are not studying math, physics and sciences, they have no chance.

You have to build infrastructure  financial, educational and awareness  in India. And then, if not all, but more and more people will stay in India because they will see the future and the ability.

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More than three weeks since the winter session began, both Houses have failed to conduct any meaningful business as protests over demonetisation continues to disrupt proceedings.

Friday was no different as the Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day by noon and the Rajya Sabha too witnessed multiple disruptions over demonetisation and the slashing of import duty on wheat.

A united opposition front and the government continued to blame each other for the parliamentary stalemate even as an anguished President Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday advised MPs to do their job instead of indulging in sloganeering and protests.

Parliament breaks for four days after Friday as both Houses approved of recommendations made by their respective Business Advisory Committees (BAC) to declare December 12 a holiday. December 13 had already been declared a holiday on account of Eid-e-Milad-un Nabi.

The Opposition marked the first month of demonetisation as a Black Day on Thursday, with Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi accusing Modi, who is yet to speak on the issue in Parliament, of laughing at the suffering of the people. The move had benefitted digital wallets such as Paytm while the poor faced hardship, he said.

Read | Demonetisation: Congress compares PM Modi to Roman emperor Nero

As disruptions spoiled chances of a debate on demonetisation again on Thursday, Modi took to Twitter after Gandhis blistering remarks.

I salute the people of India for wholeheartedly participating in this ongoing Yagna against corruption, terrorism & black money.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) December 8, 2016

It was on November 8 night that Modi announced that Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes would no longer be legal tender.

Follow LIVE updates from the Parliament:

2: 40 pm: With less than 20 members present in the House for the session convened after lunch, deputy chairman of the Rajya Sabha PJ Kurien decides there is not enough quorum to run the House.

MoS Naqvi mocks the leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad and Congress leader Anand Sharma for the rows of empty seats behind them. Azad retorts, Quorum is not the responsibility of the leader of the Opposition, it is that of the ruling party.

Kurien adjourns the Rajya Sabha till Wednesday, December 14 since there isnt quorum in the House even after the bell is rung twice.

Read | An earthquake will come if I speak in Parliament on demonetisation, warns Rahul Gandhi

12.50 pm: Outside Parliament, Smriti Irani refers to Rahul Gandhis earthquake comment. She says it is only the Congress party that has been feeling tremors thanks to the Congress vice president and that he has had no effect elsewhere. Rahul Gandhi overestimates the power of his oratory skills, she says.

12.35 pm: Urban development minister Venkaiah Naidu speaks outside Parliament. He says, lakhs of people committed suicide due to distress under Congress rule. Who are you preaching?

Naidu also brings up the bypoll elections held in November.

WATCH: Venkaiah Naidu says National (bypolls) voting results have come,and International(TIME) voting results have come #demonetisation pic.twitter.com/kZklSnJcZ8  ANI (@ANI_news) December 9, 2016

12.12 pm: Speaker Sumitra Mahajan is forced to adjourn the House for the day as the protests reach a deafening high. The House will reconvene again only on December 14.

'Jao sab chhutti par', says Speaker Sumitra Mahajan as she adjourns #LokSabha to meet next Wednesday @htTweets  jatin gandhi (@jatingandhi) December 9, 2016

Read | Go on leave, everyone: Sumitra Mahajan to a noisy Lok Sabha

12.11 pm: Parliamentary affairs minister Ananth Kumar said the minority was keeping the majority away from discussion. This is not the way... when the majority wants to participate in a discussion, they are disrupting, Kumar said.

They must apologise to the nation. They are wasting peoples money, he said.

12.10 pm: Despite the loud sloganeering, the Lok Sabha manages to conduct some business during Zero Hour. A motion was adopted to suspend AAP MP Bhagwant Mann for the remaining days of the winter session over breach in Parliament security.

12.05 pm: Trinamool Congress MP Derek OBrien gestures to ruling party MPs and says, They are the ones who should be running the House but they are not interested. As the din refuses to subside, the Rajya Sabha is adjourned till 2.00 pm.

It is the Govt's responsibility to run the House. Why are they blaming the Opposition? - Derek O'Brien in RS  AITC (@AITCofficial) December 9, 2016

Read | Opposition wants demonetisation debate in Parliament without any rules

12.01 pm: MoS parliamentary affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi says a bunch of items have been listed for discussion but the Oppositions protests was stalling important work from being done.

Chairman Hamid Ansari asks sloganeering Opposition members if Question Hour should run or not, as scheduled. In response, he gets a chorus of No. Ansari turns to members of the ruling government, shrugs and says, Nothing can be done in this noise.

11.45 am: Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi speaks to reporters outside Parliament. PM Narendra Modi is giving speeches across the country but why is he so scared of speaking in Parliament, he asks. This is one of the biggest scams in this history of the country and the government is running from debate; if they allow me to speak then you will see what an earthquake will come, ANI quotes Rahul Gandhi as saying.

Govt running from debate,if they allow me to speak then you will see what an earthquake will come: Rahul Gandhi #DeMonetisation  ANI (@ANI_news) December 9, 2016

11.35 am: Lok Sabha reconvenes only to be adjourned minutes later as both opposition parties and the government trade barbs over the Parliament logjam.

Before it was adjourned, Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said the Opposition was ready for debating demonetisation and has been continuously requesting for it. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar retorted that the Opposition has disrupted the House for 16 days by holding it into ransom and they must apologise.

The situation has reached such a stage that the President had to speak against the disruption, he said.

BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi said for protests and sit-ins, as suggested by the President, Jantar Mantar is the best place and not the Parliament and hence the Opposition must apologise.

Chairperson of the National Assembly of Vietnam Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan attends the Lok Sabha during the winter session of Parliament in New Delhi on Friday. (PTI)

Read | PM carried out the worlds biggest impromptu financial experiment: Rahul

11.30 am: Deputy chairman PJ Kurien adjourns the Rajya Sabha as Opposition leaders gather in the well of the House chanting, Kisan virodhi ye sarkaar, nahi chalegi (This government is anti-farmer) in the wake of the discussion on wheat import duty.

11.25 am: Congress leader Jairam Ramesh also enters the debate on the reduced import duty for wheat. If the buffer stock of wheat is so high, then why are the import duties being reduced to 0? There was expectation of bumper harvest this season since monsoon was so good. In this conditions, why did you reduce?

Farmers from other countries will celebrate. It is the 50th anniversary of the Green Revolution in India, but on this occasion the government is telling farmers they dont matter and that were going to import wheat. This is a slap on the face of agriculture, says Ramesh.

@SitaramYechury dubs the decision as deshdrohi nirnay. Says govt anticipated food riots so waived off 10% import duty on wheat. @htTweets  Smriti Kak (@smritikak) December 9, 2016

11.20 am: Union minister of food and public distribution Ram Vilas Paswan responds, There is no shortage of wheat, there is enough food grain. Opposition members react to this, with Yechury questioning the minister as to why the price is skyrocketing if there is, as the minister claims, ample stock.

Bahujan Samaj Party leader Mayawati says that the government needs to rethink demonetisation or else farmers will have to bear huge losses, theyll be ruined.

Read | Few gains, many losses: Industry comes to terms a month since demonetisation

11: 13 am: In the Rajya Sabha, Communist Part of India (Marxist) leader Sitaram Yechury brings up a news report on Import Duty being scrapped on wheat.

Zero duty imports are shameful for the country. I strongly condemn this, he said.

Mera desh badal raha hai? India was food secure. And now, importing an important staple, Wheat. Buffer stocks fall dangerously low. pic.twitter.com/6lwMk2aFwJ  Sitaram Yechury (@SitaramYechury) December 9, 2016

11.07 am: The Lok Sabha is adjourned only minutes into the days session as uproar over demonetisation stalls proceedings.

10.40 am: ANI news agency reports that Opposition leaders will meet Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan. On Thursday, amid unrelenting sloganeering by House members, she warned of harsh steps. Mahajan conducted Question Hour for about half an hour, repeatedly warning the protesting members.

It is not proper to come in front of a member and disturb them but it is happening here, Mahajan said as opposition members raised slogans near her podium on Thursday.

10.30 am: Opposition leaders meet ahead of the days session in Parliament

Read | A month of demonetisation: From peoples pain, job losses to political war
Defence minister Manohar Parrikar has written to West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who had objected to the presence of Indian Army at toll booths on national highways in the state, saying dragging the military into a controversy will hurt its morale.

In the letter, Parrikar said that while political parties and politicians may have the luxury of making wild and unsubstantiated allegations against each other, one needs to be extremely careful while referring to the armed forces.

Your allegations in this regard run the risk of adversely impacting the morale of the countrys armed forces and the same were not expected from a person of your standing and experience in public life, the minister said.

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar's letter to WB CM Mamata Banerjee, expresses pain over dragging the Army into controversy pic.twitter.com/LVAsdoscsl  ANI (@ANI_news) December 9, 2016

Senior Trinamool Congress leader Derek OBrien said that the chief minister has not received Parrikars letter and it has already been leaked to the media.

We will give a befitting reply when it comes, OBrien told ANI.

The presence of the army on a crucial Kolkata bridge last week sparked a political fight with the Trinamool Congress alleging the Centre was arm-twisting the state and the BJP blaming Banerjee of politicising a regular military action.

The war of words followed a night of drama after Banerjee refused to step out of the state secretariat Nabanna to protest against the sudden deployment of the army in the area.

Terming it as avoidable controversy over the exercise carried out by the Eastern Command in West Bengal and other states under the jurisdiction to collect information about the movement of heavy vehicles at toll gates, Parrikar, in his letter to Banerjee dated December 8, said it is carried out by all formations of the army all across the country for many years.

He said the exercises are held as per the dates convenient to the army in consultation with agencies of the state government.

I have been deeply pained by your allegations as reported in the media. If only you had enquired with the agencies concerned of the state government, you would have come to know of the extensive correspondence between the Army and the state agencies including the joint inspection of sites carried out by them, Parrikar said in his letter to Banerjee.

Describing Indian army as the most disciplined institution of the country, he said the nation is proud of their professionalism and apolitical conduct.

He added that the army authorities were forced to put the record straight in the matter by presenting evidence of their communication with the state agencies concerned including rescheduling of the data collection operations on their response.

Read| Saddening that a routine army exercise has been politicised: Manohar Parrikar

The Centre and the army rubbished the allegations, saying too much was being read into a routine exercise.

Parrikar had told the Lok Sabha that the army was conducting a routine exercise in Kolkata. The Eastern Command showed papers detailing the correspondence between the army and the local police on the issue and said the state government and the police knew about it in advance.

(With inputs from PTI and ANI)
The Income Tax department seized at least Rs 106 crore in cash, including Rs 10 crore in the new currency, and gold bars weighing 127 kg during searches at multiple locations in Chennai to check tax evasion post demonetisation.

This is the largest seizure of new currency notes after the old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes were scrapped on November 8. The I-T operation was launched on Wednesday here.

Officials said S Reddy, a contractor working with the state government, has claimed the entire money and the gold as his own and is being questioned.

127 kg gold in 1 kg bars and Rs 96 crore in old currency and Rs 10 crore in Rs 2,000 notes have been seized by the sleuths after the operation, top I-T department officials said, adding this is an unprecedented amount that the tax department has seized in recent times.

The department carried out the searches based on intelligence inputs about the activities of Reddy and few others for the last few days.

Officials said the agency was investigating how the new notes in such a large quantity were stashed by the individual. The bundles of the new Rs 2,000 had no banking slips on them.

They said the I-T teams had launched operations on at least eight locations of a syndicate involved in currency conversion.

The officials said a number of documents related to financial transactions, entries of gold sale and records of sale/purchase have also been seized by the tax sleuths.

At least three people of the alleged syndicate are being questioned while few others are under the radar, they said.

He (Reddy) is a contractor working with the state government. He is claiming the entire cash and gold to be his own. Further probe is on, they said.

The I-T department, they said, will share the case details with the enforcement directorate and the CBI for further probe into money laundering and corruption angles.

Some bank officials are also under the scanner of the taxman.

The tax department had made the largest seizure of Rs 5.7 crore cash in new notes in Bengaluru a few days back after which two other central probe agencies, the CBI and the enforcement directorate, had taken over the cases to probe instances of corruption, money laundering and large-scale hawala transactions in the wake of the currency scrap on November 8.
Both India and Bangladesh are looking at an early date for Prime Minister Sheikh Hasinas visit to India. But with the Centre failing to get West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on board, the much awaited visit is now certain not to seal the Teesta river pact for sharing water.

Though Banerjee accompanied PM Modi to Dhaka in June 2015, she seems to have given a short-shrift to Centre that hoped to sign the politically significant water sharing pact the two sides have been discussing for little over 18 years now.

For Hasina, Teesta would have helped mark a major milestone in ties with India. Though Bangladesh was hoping to get December 18 as the main day for Hasinas visit, India is finding it difficult to agree on that day due to a busy diplomatic calendar.

We have written to the West Bengal government on this regard but have not heard anything as yet. There are issues like the percentage of water from the Teesta river that will be shared between the two countries. The state will have to come on board to finalise these issues without which we cant go ahead and sign the pact, said a senior water resources ministry official.

The pact was ready for signing during the 2011 Dhaka visit of the then prime minister Manmohan Singh. Then also, Mamata pulled the rug on the pact at the last moment.

Sources said that the Centre is likely to start a fresh dialogue with the state government on the Teesta pact after March next year, once the elections in key states including Uttar Pradesh and Punjab are over. India and Bangladesh share 54 cross border rivers and a water sharing pact exists only in the case of one river.

Dhaka says that the average flow of Teesta in the last ten days of March, considered a lean season, was 315 cusecs in 2015 as compared to 550 cusecs during same period in 2014.There being not enough water is a complain that even West Bengal raises, while objecting to the water sharing pact.

No important water-sharing treaty has been signed in the world in this century, indicating how increasing water stress is making sharing and cooperation more difficult, said strategic affairs expert Brahma Chellaney, author of the book, Water: Asias New Battleground.

On the water front, we will discuss the proposed Ganga Barrage project that Bangladesh is planning to build on the Padma river. India has given its in-principle agreement and details like the existing water level and if flooding possibility on India side once the barrage becomes operational will be discussed during the PMs visit, said another ministry official.

Bangladesh has already completed the feasibility study of the 2.1km long barrage project that will improve the flow of water, even during the lean season, to areas across the border that depend on water from the Ganges.

The proposed project has a reservoir to augment the flow of water and its equal distribution, in both dry and rainy seasons, over the Ganges dependent area.
The Supreme Court on Friday sought the Centres response on a plea challenging the appointment of Gujarat-cadre IPS officer Rakesh Asthana as CBIs interim director after the government allegedly shifted out a senior officer by curtailing his tenure.

Why was senior-most officer RK Dutta, supervising high-profile 2G and coal scam cases, shifted out of agency without the nod of this court, a bench of justices Kurian Joseph and Rohinton Nariman asked while issuing a notice to the government.

You have to reply on two questions  why Dutta was shifted out of CBI by curtailing his tenure and how the CBIs interim director was appointed? the bench said.

The petition contended that after Anil Sinhas term as Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) director ended on December 2, it was incumbent upon the government to convene a meeting comprising the Prime Minister, leader of opposition and Chief Justice of India (CJI) for the appointment of a new director.

However, no such meeting was called and Asthana was appointed in violation of the law.

The petitioner Common Cause alleged that the Centre took a series of steps in a completely mala fide, arbitrary and illegal manner to ensure that Asthana was given the charge of CBI director.

Appearing for the petition, advocate Prashant Bhushan accused the government of destroying the CBI. He said the recent move destroys the objective to completely insulate the premier investigating agency. According to him, Dutta was a seasoned and distinguished officer and had been a part of the anti-corruption team for over a decade.

Additional solicitor general Tushar Mehta said he had received instructions that the government had written a letter to the CJI and was awaiting a date from him to convene the high-powered selection committee.

The leader of the opposition in LS has been informed too. A meeting shall soon be called to discuss the appointment, he told the court, assuring to get back with his response on December 16.

Asthana had held several important positions in Gujarat Police. He was also part of an SIT set up by the state to probe the Godhra train burning case.

The plea claimed that the government did not convene a meeting of the selection panel, even though it was aware that Sinha was going to demit the office on December 2. It alleged that the government had prematurely curtailed Duttas tenure and transferred him to MHA on November 30 just two days before Sinha was slated to demit office.

(With PTI inputs)

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The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday hit out at Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhis oratory skills by saying his speeches cause tremors within his party and not outside.

BJP leaders lashed out at Gandhis accusation that government is not allowing him to speak in the Parliament. His speech is ready and will cause an earthquake in the House, Gandhi claimed on Friday.

The Prime Minister is giving speeches across the country but is afraid of coming to the Lok Sabha and is not willing to sit there, Gandhi said and asked what could be the reason for this nervousness.

Many BJP leaders replied to the Congress vice-presidents accusations.

Those who are shaking after the assault on blackmoney... those who have been at the epicentre of scams for 60 years talk of earthquake today, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra tweeted.

Our party is not afraid of him or his speeches, we are ready to listen to him but he should not run away when we respond...Actually these days Mr Rahul Gandhi is annoyed his party is losing everywhere especially after he started handling affairs of the party, Union Minister and BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

In a dig at Rahul, BJP leader Smriti Irani said, Rahulji thinks too highly about his oratory skills and he himself knows how much his speeches appeal to the people...As far as tremors are concerned. I think when he speaks there are tremors within Congress not outside.

The Union textile minister added that Parliament is a platform for discussion and deliberation, so Rahul is welcome to speak but the opposition should allow the house to run.

Proceedings of both houses of Parliament have been stalled from over two weeks now due to continuous uproar over the issue of demonetization.

Latching onto President Pranab Mukherjees denouncement of disruptions of Parliaments proceedings, BJP National Secretary Shrikant Sharma said from gram pramukh (village head) to the President, everybody is angry with Congress.

Over Rs 9 crore is reportedly spent daily on running Parliament and Rahul Gandhi should count how much public money Congress has wasted by paralysing it since the beginning of the session on November 16. The government has been keen on a debate from the day one, he said.

He is making all kind of petty remarks for headlines. He is practising TRP politics and competing with Arvind Kejriwal, Sharma alleged.

Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu also hit out at Rahul for calling demonetization a foolish step.

...taking action against black money and corruption, is it foolish or keeping quiet or being silent or collaborators of those scams and scandals was foolish, he said.

The Congress party have given a rebate to debate. You are committing contempt against people of the country and contempt against democracy, he said.
Standing at the fag-end of a long serpentine queue outside the State Bank of India at Gosaba in the Sunderbans, Saphera Bibi was getting restless with every passing minute. The sun was gradually setting and she must reach home before it gets dark.

The 32-year-old woman had come from Dayapur - a remote village located in the fringes of the Sunderbans Tiger Reserve. Tigers straying in the villages is common here and sightings increase during the winter season, starting from December.

I need to reach home before darkness sets in. Tigers often swim across the river and stray into our villages. Its a regular phenomenon but becomes more likely during the winter. I have left my two children back home with my mother-in-law, she said.

Sunderbans is an archipelago of 104 islands, 54 of which have human settlements. The rest are still dense mangrove forests ruled by tigers. Rivers are infested with crocodiles and sharks. Tigers often cross the rivers and stray into the villages killing cattle and stray dogs.

Even though fishermen are regularly killed by tigers inside the forest, people rarely get killed or mauled by stray tigers inside the villages. This, however, cant be a surety. You never know when an accident could happen, said Sandhya Dolui, a septuagenarian woman from Kakmari village.

Life even at the best of times is difficult in these regions. And now it has got harder amid the cash crunch as villagers are being forced to travel for hours by rickety boats across choppy rivers to reach the banks or the nearest Customer Service Points.

But unlike other villages and towns where people can afford to reach home even at night, villagers from these remote hamlets located in the fringes of the forest, are forced to complete their outdoor jobs before sunset and get back home before night falls, said Uttam Saha, former MLA of Gosaba region.

The problem has further aggravated over the years as the male population in these villages has been dwindling. It has decreased after cyclone Aila which hit the Sunderbans in May, 2009 and crippled the rural economy dependent mostly on agriculture.

In the past, villagers used to get killed by tigers when they entered the forest. Almost every family in these villages has one or two widows whose husbands were killed by tigers. The younger generation is mostly migrating to other states to look for jobs as they dont want to risk their lives unlike their forefathers, said Saha.

This has left the women to fend for themselves and their children. Now with cash crisis looming they have an added responsibility. They now have to go to banks almost every week to stand in the queue for long hours to get some cash.

We form small groups to go to the banks together. We return together before sunset. Gosaba is a long way from here and we need to start early to return home early. We have to cross at least three rivers and change van-rickshaws an equal number of times, said Putul Dolui, who had lost her husband in a tiger attack years ago. Her son now works as a labourer in Chennai.

But then again there are women like Dolon Halder who dare to stand in the queue since 3 am in the night to get some cash. Her husband works in Chennai as a labourer and her father-in-law was killed by a tiger a few years ago. She now lives with her five-year-old-son, school going brother-in-law and mother-in-law. Her husband sends money through money order.

I cant go to Gosaba as it is too far. I have to get some cash from the Customer Service Point of the SBI at Laxbagan bazaar on Satjelia Island. But there, only the first 20 persons get cash, as funds are meager and resources limited. I had to return empty handed at least four times before. So this time I decided to stand in the queue since 3 am, said Halder, who came with a smile counting the fresh Rs 100 notes.

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Two workers were killed while another was seriously injured when a tank blew up at a factory of detergent giant Nirma at Bhavnagar on Friday morning, police said.

The mishap took place when the workers were moving a tank containing Light Diesel Oil (LDO), said sub-inspector, RN Dave, of Velavadar-Bhal police station.

The factory is located in Kala Talav area on the outskirts of the city.

The deceased were identified as Shambhu Kumar and Akhilesh. Umesh Kumar -- who was injured -- was rushed to a hospital.

After moving the tank containing LDO, two workers climbed on top of it to do some inspection. Suddenly the top portion of the tank blew off, killing both of them and injuring another worker who was standing nearby, Dave said.

We have not figured out the exact reason for the explosion. It may have occurred due to generation of gas inside the tank. It is also possible that one of the labourers lit a cigarette near the tank, the police officer said, adding that a case of accidental death was being registered.
Water level in 91 major reservoirs in the country has dipped to 64% of their total capacity from 65% last week, the government said on Friday.

According to the Union water resources ministry, 100.326 billion cubic metres (BCM) of water was available in these reservoirs for the week ending on December 8.

The stock was 126% of the storage reported during the corresponding period last year, while it is 98% of the decadal average, the ministry said in a statement.

Last week, the stock available in these reservoirs was 102.841 BCM. The total capacity of the reservoirs is 157.799 BCM.

The states which have recorded less storage vis-a-vis the corresponding period last year are Himachal Pradesh, Tripura, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, while Uttarakhand has reported levels equivalent to those reported last year.

Punjab, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Karnataka have reported better stock compared to last year.
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday hit back at defence minister Manohar Parrikar for writing a letter to her in which he alleged that she was trying to demoralise the armed forces.

Banerjee took strong exception to Parrikars comment that her allegations had impacted the morale of the countrys armed forces.

During my long political and administrative life, have never seen such political vendetta by misusing the role of an esteemed organisation (army),

I take strong exception to your wild assertion that my articulation of rights of the state government has impacted the morale of armed forces, she said in a statement issued on Friday.

Earlier, Parrikar had written to the Trinamool Congress supremo asking her to be extremely careful while referring to the armed forces.

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar's letter to WB CM Mamata Banerjee, expresses pain over dragging the Army into controversy pic.twitter.com/LVAsdoscsl  ANI (@ANI_news) December 9, 2016

Banerjee also alleged that the government is using the Army for political purposes. During my long political and administrative life, have never seen such political vendetta by misusing the role of an esteemed organisation (army), the West Bengal chief minister said in the statement.

Pained over Parrikars allegations, she said, They dont know how to write to a CM.

Dont think that it behoves a Union government minister to pass near-defamatory remarks on a CM of any State, she added.

Earlier, senior Trinamool Congress leader Derek OBrien told the ANI that the party will soon give a befitting reply to Parrikars letter.

The presence of the army on a crucial Kolkata bridge last week sparked a political fight with the Trinamool Congress alleging the Centre was arm-twisting the state and the BJP blaming Banerjee of politicising a regular military action.

The war of words followed a night of drama after Banerjee refused to step out of the state secretariat Nabanna to protest against the sudden deployment of the army in the area.

Terming it as avoidable controversy over the exercise carried out by the Eastern Command in West Bengal and other states under the jurisdiction to collect information about the movement of heavy vehicles at toll gates, Parrikar, in his letter to Banerjee dated December 8, said it is carried out by all formations of the army all across the country for many years.

He said the exercises are held as per the dates convenient to the army in consultation with agencies of the state government.

I have been deeply pained by your allegations as reported in the media. If only you had enquired with the agencies concerned of the state government, you would have come to know of the extensive correspondence between the Army and the state agencies including the joint inspection of sites carried out by them, Parrikar said in his letter to Banerjee.

Describing Indian army as the most disciplined institution of the country, he said the nation is proud of their professionalism and apolitical conduct.

(With inputs from PTI and ANI)
A month after the Centre decided to demonetise the old Rs 500 and Rs 1000 banknotes, business at Sarafa market  Indores gold jewellery hub  has dropped to 20% of its previous average sales, say jewellers. After an initial spurt in jewellery sale following the move, Sarafa market has been subdued due to liquidity crunch.

Despite the ongoing wedding season, sales are at around 20% of the average sales for this time of the year, Indore Sona Chandi Jawaharat Vyapari Sangh president Hukumchand Soni told HT. The problem is that people are short of cash and so are unwilling to spend on jewellery. At this time last year, the daily turnover at Sarafa market was about Rs 4-5 crore, which has now come down drastically.

On November 9, there was a huge rush to buy gold and some jewellers sold the precious metal at prices 50% higher than the going rate. Most jewellers made a killing for a few days, but we always knew about the adverse impact in the medium term, said a jeweller, requesting anonymity.

Apart from the prices, customers are a bit hesitant to buy jewellery in cash as they are scared of income tax scrutiny, say sources. Earlier, people buying jewellery above Rs 2 lakh in cash had to produce their PAN card, but under the new norms, jewellers have to keep records of client details for purchases made in cash even below Rs 2 lakh.

The demand for gold jewellery has also remained subdued this year due to other factors, including high gold prices. However, even though gold prices have come down to Rs 28,400 per 10 gram from a high of Rs 31,700 per 10 gram in November, there are few buyers.
Four schools functioning as Delhi Public School in Dewas and Indore regions were shut down on Thursday following an order from Delhi high court.

The schools were not registered under Delhi Public School Society, New Delhi.

The Delhi high court ruling said Delhi Public School in Dewas, Delhi Public School on Sanwer Road, DPS Kids in Indore, and DPS Play School of Dewas will be restrained from offering for service, advertising, offering for sale, adopt using and/or dealing in any manner with the well known trademarks/name DPS Delhi Public School.

The court further restrained them from representations of any manner that suggest they are connected with DPS.

The Delhi Public School Society had filed a case before Delhi high court earlier this year.

In its case, the society said that copyright violations are being done illegally by these four schools.

Justice Deepa Mishra of Delhi High Court appointed Local Commissioners Mehak Nakra, Krishna Narang, Arpan Wadhawan and Praksh Gautam to seal such fraud schools with the help of local police.

The high court appointee commissioner, with the help of local police, seized material from these schools.

During the commissioners visit, Delhi Public School Sanwer Road was found closed and all boards with DPS name/logo were found painted. The school had also apparently declared a holiday on that day.
The Madhya Pradesh governments plan to construct a modern district court complex in Indore has again run into troubled waters  this time its decision to allot 20 acre of land of the Agriculture College has attracted criticism from agriculture scientists, research scholars, students, college alumni and social activists.

Earlier the construction of the court complex next to the Pipliyahana Lake, faced opposition from environmental activists and city residents, forcing the state government to rollback its decision.

The Agriculture College, situated on Pipliyahana Road was established in 1924 and was known as the Institute of Plant Industry. The British developed the Indore method of composting at the institute, which is accepted as an ideal system of preparing organic manure the world over.

English botanist and pioneer in organic agriculture techniques Sir Albert Howard conducted a survey of the Malwa region and selected this piece of land as the best suited for setting up of an agriculture research institute, said TGK Menon , environmentalist and Padma Shri awardee for contribution in the field of introduction of environmental-friendly irrigation and farming techniques.

On one hand the Centre and state governments talk about the betterment of farmers and agriculture, stress on development of new agriculture techniques and research, and on the other hand its decision to allocate 20 acre of the institutes land for constructing a modern court complex will prove to destroy the institute completely, said KC Gupta, the secretary of the alumni association.

Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on many instances has said that promoting the agriculture sector was his primary motives, but the recent decision, which can destroy an agriculture research institute raises a question mark on his priorities, said Akhilesh Saraf, president of alumni association of the college.
Did your mother ever compare you to a next-door boy, or girl, during childhood? Did you enjoy watching popular television show Chuti Chuti during the summer holidays? Did you accompany your father to the butchers on a Sunday morning?

These are childhood memories commonly associated with every Bengali. However, by the time we get busy charting our career and making a living, these golden memories are only a blur and lost somewhere in the forgotten lanes of childhood.

However, 32-year-old Arpan Roy has turned his cherished childhood memories into a rage on Facebook! The Kolkata-born experimental physicist, who designs super stable atomic clock (for precision time measurement) in Singapore, took to doodling to relive his boyhood days and designed a page that made him an instant social media sensation. ( An experimental physicist is one who verifies physics theories by running experiments.)

Today his Facebook page, The Bong Sense, not only represents everything quintessentially Bengali, but also gets him near-rock star following on social media. It has become such a hit that Roy has started receiving a lot of proposals for merchandising.

Like Penny was a breath of fresh air in the life of experimental physicist Leonard Hofstadter in the hugely popular American television series The Big Bang Theory, Roy found his source of happiness in doodling and The Bong Sense.

I have a really serious job and even more serious colleagues. So its essential I express myself to retain my own sanity. Funny thoughts come to my mind throughout the day. I usually collect them and doodle them during lunch or after work and post them on The Bong Sense. Having a smart phone where I can doodle, add lettering, makes things a lot easier, Roy said.

His humble childhood in south Kolkata played a major role in shaping his life, especially as the creator of The Bong Sense. He said he used to come up with the most ridiculous one liners in school and make his classmates laugh. The Presidency College alumnus said drawing helps him deal with stress as it does to retrace his boyhood days.

However, the idea to come up with The Bong Sense didnt happen overnight. It started a few years ago on Quora, (an online question-and-answer site) where where Roy shared doodles apart from witty one liners. He was impressed with the comments he received on Quora.

He was missing all things Bengali in Singapore and it acted as a catalyst. He said he dearly missed Bangaliana in Singapore because he hardly met or talked to any Bengalis there.

The Bong Sense partly happened due to an internal crisis. I love researching history and culture, so I decided to combine culture with my sense of humour and a lot more people loved it than I expected. I am in my early 30s having dedicated my 20s to science and now finally I have time to indulge in my other passions, said Roy, whos been in Singapore for more than a decade.

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The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will soon install sanitary napkin vending machines and incinerators in 172 of Mumbais secondary civic schools over the next six months. The proposal, which costs Rs1.93 crore, has been passed by the civic bodys standing committee.

The proposal states that only 12% women in India have access to sanitary pads.There is also a lack of proper mechanisms to dispose of used napkins. The proposal states that disposing of a used sanitary pad in the open can produce 1 lakh germs.

Girl students in civic schools will be given metallic coins that can be inserted in to the vending machines in exchange for a pad. We are thinking of giving 10 coins a month to each girl student. We will introduce metallic coins to prevent misuse of the machines, said JR Keluskar, deputy education officer, BMC.

In 2015, the BMC started a pilot project to curb clogged drains in community toilets. Officials said the drains were clogged as sanitary napkins were being flushed. Thus, two incinerators to process used sanitary napkins were installed in the Mankhurd and Bhandup slums.

While the initial plan was to install 100 such incinerators in different slum pockets, it was stalled owing to budgetary sanctions, said a civic official from the BMCs Slum Sanitation Programme.

Officials from the civic bodys solid waste management department have estimated that napkins and diapers account for 6% of the 8,500 metric tonnes of garbage produced in the city. Through such projects, the BMC is looking at ways to dispose of this waste at the source.

It is an excellent initiative that will help many girl students. The BMC must ask private schools to take up similar projects, said Anuradha Pednekar, a Shiv Sena corporator and a standing committee member.

Read

BMC has just spent 26% of its budget

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1) In July-August , the state ATS arrested four suspects, brainwashed by the ISIS, who were planning to carry out strikes in Marathawada. The detection started on July 14, when the ATS arrested Naseen Chaus following a tip-off that he was radicalised and was planning to join the ISIS with the help of person called Farooq. However, during interrogation, the ATS learnt that Chaus wanted to bomb the police headquarters in Parbhani and Nanded during Ramzan.

2) The state ATS with NIA busted an all India module of ISIS in January and arrested 33-year-old Mudabbir Shaikh from Mumbra, who holds a diploma in software course, for contacting an ISIS handler via social networking sites. The two had plans to carry out strikes, said police sources. Cops said Mudabbir was the amir (chief) of ISISs Indian wing. While Khalid @ Rizwan Ahmed Ali Khalid, arrested from Uttar Pradesh by the ATS, was the second in command.

3) ATS officers busted the Malwani module in December 2015 and registered a case against Ayaz Sultan of Malwani, currently believed to be in Iraq under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act , 1967. Two more arrests have been made so far. While a few others, radicalised by Sultan, were traced and have been made witnesses.

4) Shah Mudassir and Shoeb Ahmed Khan, two youths from Maharashtra, were allegedly brainwashed by jihadis using internet chat rooms. The duo were arrested on October 2014 in Hyderabad during their attempt to get passports to go to Afghanistan for weapons training.

5) In first week of November 2015, a Maulana from Pusad in Yavatmal district was arrested for allegedly radicalising youths, one of whom stabbed a police constable over beef ban in September. Shoeb Khan, who was earlier arrested by Hyderabad police, has been arrested in this case as well.

6) Software techie Anees Ansari was arrested in October 2014 by the ATS for allegedly plotting to blow up a school in BKC. ATS officers said Ansari was inspired by ISIS. He was watching videos and lectures uploaded by the ISIS, as well as scanning sites for making weapons.

7) Four youths from Kalyan, Areeb Majeed, 22, an engineer, Aman Tandel, 27, Fahad Maqbool Sheikh, 24, both engineering students and Shaheen Tanki, 25, a call centre employee, had gone to Iraq to fight alongside the ISIS in May. Of the four, Areeb returned back and the case is with the NIA.

Also read

Parbhani ISIS module: Suspects used 12 email IDs, apps to chat with handlers

Malwani IS man trained in Kashmir: NIA
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Chhagan Bhujbal, who has been booked for money laundering, refused to undergo angiography until he consulted his family members, said the superintendent of the Mumbai central jail.

The jail authorities on Friday filed a reply to the plea of former AAP activist Anjani Damania, who challenged Bhujbals long stay at a private hospital while in judicial custody. In their reply, the superintendent of Mumbai central jail said that doctors had recommended an angiography for Bhujbal but he had refused to undergo the test.

Read: JJ Hospital dean denies role in referring Chhagan Bhujbal to Bombay Hospital

In a letter to the court, the officer referred to communication received from JJ hospital on Thursday where doctors had advised Bhujbal that he needed to go for the test. Bhujbal, in reply, has told the authorities that he would first like to consult his family members.

On the jail authoritys reply, special ED prosecutor Hiten Venegaokar pleaded that if the accused has refused to undergo any further tests, he should be shifted back to the jail from the hospital. Bhujbals lawyer on Friday questioned the locus of Damania for filing the application against Bhujbals hospitalisation. After hearing the arguments the court has now reserved its order on Damanias plea till December 15.

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The Centres final notification on the buffer zone  an area meant to protect the environment  around the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) up to 4km from the boundary of the park is unlikely to be any kind of defence for the city's sole green lung against construction work .

The Union environment ministrys notification on December 5 as well as the proposed development plan for the city reveals that affordable housing, tourism resorts and even small-scale industries can be permitted within the ESZ, along with road-widening projects and a Metro car shed.

The approval for such a development is subject to scrutiny by a monitoring committee, comprising thirteen members and chaired by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) commissioner.



Activists, however, have expressed concerns over the discretionary powers of the committee that they fear can lead to rampant construction.

The notification stated that the land marked in the development plan as no-development zone (NDZ) and is also in the eco-sensitive zone, may be permitted, on the recommendation of the monitoring committee and with the prior approval of the state government, to meet the residential needs of local residents.

With BMC marking the verdant Aarey milk colony as NDZ in the draft Development Plan 2034, this entire area can be opened up for affordable housing, one of the activities allowed in the NDZ under the revised draft DP 2034..

Despite being an eco-sensitive zone, cottages constructed for tourists, such as tents and wooden houses for eco-friendly tourism activities will also be allowed, as per the notification. The notification also states that beyond one kilometre from the boundary of the protected area till the end of the eco-sensitive zone, the establishment of new hotels and resorts shall also be permitted but only in pre-defined and designated areas for eco-tourism facilities as per the zonal master plan.

The notification has directed the state government to draft a zonal master plan for the eco-sensitive zone within two years, which will be used to regulate development in this area.

Environmentalist, Stalin D, said, The notification does not provide any special measures for preserving

eco-sensitive zones as all kinds of development is allowed. However, as the notification states that the high court orders will exist , thus it is not likely that the affordable housing will come up here.

Activist Godfrey Pimenta from Watchdog Foundation said, "In the revised draft DP 2034, there is a proposed reservation of 43.84 hectares of area of Aarey for rehabilitation and resettlement of slum dwellers which translate into 70,000 new tenements in Aarey under the SRA Scheme, which will increase the load on already fragile area. If 70,000 families are resettled in Aarey, there would be 2.8 lakh people in Aarey. Along with them there would be issues of extra vehicules, pollution, garbage disposal."

Urban planners also said that the reduction of the extent of the buffer zone from 10km to 4km itself will prove to be a big boost to various ongoing housing-development proposals that earlier needed a no-objection certificate from the forest department.

Pankaj Joshi, director, Urban Development and Research Institute, said, "This will now prove to be a boost to various upcoming housing projects planned within 10km of the protected area, which will not require forest NOCs."

Read: Earlier draft had banned construction within 1km from SGNP

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A tour of the Parsi Tower of Silence in Malabar Hill, scheduled on Sunday, has drawn criticism from community groups which have said that touring the cemetery is inappropriate.

The Mumbai Research Centre of the Asiatic Society, which is organising the one-hour visit, said it has obtained permission from the Bombay Parsi Punchayet, which manages the cemetery. The three-century-old forested cemetery, called Doongerwadi, has prayers halls, a fire temple and circular stone structures known as Dakhmas, or Towers of Silence, where the dead are laid out for a sky burial. Zoroastrian tradition requires the bodies to be disposed of by natural elements such as the sun and carrion birds.

Some Parsi-Zoroastrians said the cemetery should not host tours. It is not a heritage site. When non-Zoroastrians are not allowed to enter most areas of the cemetery, how will they host a tour? asked a member of the community who wanted to remain anonymous.

Shehernaz Nalwalla, a professor at Wilson College and a member of the team that is organising the walk, said the tour was non-controversial. I have taken students from Wilson College to Doongerwadi as part of a lesson on comparative religion, said Nullwalla. I started this walk in collaboration with the Asiatic Society last year. There was no hue and cry then. It is not a clandestine walk. We have spoken to the high priests, who do not have a problem, he said.

Nalwalla added that the visitors will not be taken to consecrated places. The visit is meant to help students understand the sanctity of the place. Visitors will only be taken to places that can be accessed and not to restricted areas, said Ravinder Kaur Cheema, an academician and member of the Mumbai Research Centre, Asiatic Society.

Ramiyar Karanjia, principal of Dadar Athornan Institute  a religious school  will lead the tour. It is an educational exercise, especially for non-Zoroastrian students. I have been conducting these tours for years. Only the nomenclature is different; this tour is being called a heritage walk, said Karanjia. We were wondering why there were complaints this year, he said.

The tour organisers said the tour will accommodate fewer than 30 people. Participants will have to pay Rs100 if they are members of the Asiatic Society and Rs200 if they are not. Students will be charged Rs50.

Parsi prayer halls success produces new worries

Parsi prayer halls success produces new worries

Why Parsis chose electric crematoriums? Because vultures are no more
Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday announced a slew of welfare measures for the Maratha community that has been agitating for months demanding reservations in jobs and education, but ruled out a review or dilution of the atrocities act  another of the communitys demands.

Replying to a debate in the state Assembly, Fadnavis blamed the Opposition for failing to ensure reservation for the community when it was in power. He insisted the state had presented evidence to the Bombay high court to support the cause of reservation, but also categorically ruled out any dilution of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

Necessity of the law cannot be denied, he said, and added that as there have been allegations of misuse of the atrocities act, a panel of legislators, with 40% from the SC and ST communities, will study these claims.

Fadnavis said the government will set up hostels for Maratha students in every district and an institute to conduct research in education and social issues for the welfare of Maratha youth.

To make agriculture profitable  65% of the community still depend on it  the state will invest in mechanisation and schemes for farmers. Our productivity is low, except for sugarcane. We will invest in infrastructure and mechanisation. The Annasaheb Patil Corporation for Economically Backward has been given Rs200 crore to provide capital and skill to Maratha entrepreneurs.

The CM, however, ruled out reservations for the Muslim community, saying his government did not favour reservation on the basis of religion.

Fadnavis announcements follow the state-wide movement by members of the community, which has planned a massive protest rally on December 14 at Nagpur, where the winter session of the State Legislature is in progress.

During his reply, Fadnavis repeatedly pointed out how Opposition parties ruling Maharashtra for more than five decades since the formation of the state never bothered about Maratha reservation until 2014, when they lost 42 of the 48 parliamentary constituencies.

The Opposition was not taking the issue seriously, the CM said, and asked why the Congress-NCP government had appointed Raosaheb Kasbe, a leading scholar on Ambedkar and Dalit movements, as a member on the Bapat Commission (the state panel that considered Maratha reservation) just two months before the decision on Maratha reservation. Kasbe had voted against granting reservation. Why was he appointed just two months before the commission was to make a decision? There should be a probe into this, Fadnavis said.

Fadnavis also said the Maratha community had the benefit of reservations until 1965, when it was withdrawn without reason. Even when the Mandal Commission, which gave reservations to Other Backward Classes, did not recommend reservation for Marathas, the state did not contest it.

After the 2014 Lok Sabha elections defeat, the then Congress-NCP government in the state hurriedly issued an ordinance instead of getting a law enacted by the State Legislature which would have been a strong base, he said.

He said the government is building a strong case for reservation with solid evidence  2,700 pages with references to the economic and social backwardness of the community since the era of King Shivaji, mentions by various scholars in their works, reference to the communitys condition in different works of literature and comprehensive data on the current representation of Marathas in government jobs.

The Pune-based Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, one of the countrys oldest, was asked to conduct research to present scientific evidence of economic backwardness. The government has also prepared a battery of eminent legal experts led by Harish Salve as special counsel. The CM alleged some people were trying to put two communities against each other. But most of us dont want any such situation in our state which has history of progressive politics, he said.

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Mumbais Shivaji memorial gets all clearances; stone laying ceremony soon

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The Mumbai crime branch unit 5 detained seven people involved in exchanging new currencies for the old on Friday. Officials seized Rs 85 lakh in new currency.

Police officials said a SoBo businessman had sent his representative Hitesh Shah and three associates to a spot in Matunga (East) with the new currency. The others arrived anticipating an exchange at a loss of 15%.

Shah and the three people who wished to exchange their old notes were sitting in the car when the police arrived, having received a tip-off about the illegal transaction.The police said the accused possessed Rs72 lakh in notes of Rs2000 notes Rs13 lakh in notes of Rs100.

The businessmans representative was sitting in the car with three from a second party. The businessmans associates were waiting outside. The deal was struck at a loss of 15%, wherein the second party would get Rs85 lakh in the new currency, in exchange for Rs1 crore in demonetised notes, said an officer from the crime branch.

However, the police officials have not been able to recover the old notes.

Since demonetisation was announced, several instances of duping have taken place, of which the police have registered a few. Recently, a SoBo businessman was duped of Rs50 lakh by a tea vendor. In another case, aSoBo businessman was cheated of Rs57.5 lakh by four people who told him they would use the demonetised notes to help him buy a flat.

We have detained all seven men and will hand them over to the Income Tax department. After the IT department completes their enquiry, we will see if they register a case, said an officer from the crime branch.

Deputy commissioner of police Ashok Dhude (spokesperson) confirmed the seizure. No one has been released. Our investigation is ongoing, he said.

Cash worth Rs 43 lakh in new notes seized from TV actor, two others

Cash crunch? Rs 242 crore in new currency seized after demonetisation

Syndicate busted in Mumbai for exchanging scrapped currency

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The notification on the eco-sensitive zone (ESZ)around the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) has opened the doors to extensive construction around the park, citizens groups and environmentalists have said.

While the draft notification allowed no new constructions within 1km of the parks boundary, and made no mention of the Metro III car shed, the final notification has done away with the restrictions.

The union environment ministry on December 5 issued a final notification demarcating an area of 59.456 sqkms around the 103sq km national park as the buffer zone  ranging between a radius of 100 meters and 4kms from the parks boundary. The notification allows new construction and under construction projects up to a radius of four kilometres if sanctioned by concerned local self-government under approved Development Plan under the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act.

The final notification is a clear departure from the objective to protect the protected area since the government has virtually allowed construction in ESZ, said Godfrey Pimenta of the Watchdog Foundation, a citizens group. During the months between the draft and final notifications, the builders lobby must have put pressure on the government. Development is so close to the national park border that builders would have been affected with a larger buffer zone.

Over the last one year, various groups across Mumbai have protested over the construction of the Metro III car shed in Aarey Colony, with a petition against it being heard at the western bench of the National Green Tribunal. In October, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had said that the car shed would come on Aarey land.

So many objections were sent against setting up the car shed. Despite that, the final notification has included its construction. It goes on to show that the Centre has only considered the opinion of the state government, said Pimenta.

With incidents of leopards spotting in thickets at Aarey Milk Colony and residential complexes, wildlife experts said the forest department should not be pressurised into trapping animals to avoid man-animal conflict. No matter what is constructed, leopards are going to come. If they let the leopards be, realising that they are also there to share the space, there wont be conflict, said Vidya Athreya, wildlife biologist. If the leopard is trapped and released at another location, then the animal will start attacking humans because they are displaced.

Athreya added, People have to learn to live with leopard, and therefore precautions in terms of garbage disposal by residents so as not to attract them will have to be taken.

Environmentalists have also questioned the formation of the 13-member monitoring committee that will check for compliance to the rules set by the final notification. Permissions are being masked under the guise of the monitoring committee that is headed by the BMC chief. The municipal commissioner whose mandate is to construct and not to protect will sit in judgment of his own Development Plan, said Stalin D of non-government organization Vanashakti.

Stalin added, The purpose of the ESZ is to restrict and contain the destruction. The monitoring committee then should have been the forest department, headed by the chief conservator of forests.

Read: Centre marks buffer zone around Sanjay Gandhi National Park, allows construction work

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A man was killed after the driver of a Fortuner lost control of the vehicle and rammed it into him in a parking lot of a society in Andheri on Thursday.

According to the Oshiwara police, the accident took place around 6pm in the parking lot of Samartha Angan complex in Andheri (west).

The accused, Harimohan Jha, 41, has been driving for nearly two decades. He and the deceased, Ranjitkumar Jha, 25, work as drivers in the same society and are originally from Madhubani in Bihar.

A police officer said, The accuseds shoe was torn. He was taking the car out of the parking lot. His torn shoe got stuck on the accelerator and he couldnt get it off it in time. The victim happened to be passing by when the SUV smashed him against the wall. The impact killed the man.

Ranjitkumar suffered serious injuries. Jha rushed him to Cooper Hospital but doctors couldnt save his life. Around 7pm, the police were informed by the hospital authorities.

The car has been seized by the cops.

Prima facie, Jha was not drunk but his blood samples have been taken.

He was booked for allegedly causing death due to rash and negligent driving under bailable sections of the Indian Penal Code  sections 279 and 304A.

He has been remanded in judicial custody by a magistrate court.

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Help pours in for 25-year-old Mumbai accident victim

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Around 11.30pm on Tuesday, the Mumbai police control room received several calls from people in Tardeo, all complaining about an apparently drunk pick-up jeep driver who was driving dangerously in the locality. The police set up a nakabandi at Sobo Central mall and began to chase the rash driver, who by then was already being pursued by 20 men on bikes. After a long chase the three police vehicles, helped by the bikers, managed to corner the jeep and arrest its two occupants.

As it turned out, the culprits werent drunk. They were simple in a hurry, having apparently stolen the Bolero they were driving.

According to the police, driver Om Prakash Bishnoi, 22, and his accomplice Shravan Kumar Bishnoi, 20, revealed that they had stolen the Bolero from a parking lot at Marine Lines station and were in a hurry to get out of the city.

The Tardeo police booked the two men for rash driving before handing them over to the Azad Maidan police, who registered a case of vehicle theft against them.

An officer from Tardeo police station said, Around 11.30pm on Tuesday, the Mumbai police control room got a call from residents of Tardeo who said that a man was driving dangerously. They said he seemed to be drunk and could cause a major accident if he wasnt stopped. Meanwhile, a few people on bikes, around 20, started chasing the jeep to get the driver to stop.

After getting a message from the control room, the Tardeo police set up a nakabandi outside Sobo Central mall to stop the rash car. As he was being chased by the bikers, the driver of the jeep entered the lane from the wrong direction by mistake.

When he noticed the nakabandi, he threatened the riders, took a U-turn and tried to escape. On seeing this, the two traffic police riders and a police van started chasing him, said the officer.

The police finally led the jeep to a dead end in Sir Ratan Tata Colony and left the two men with no option but to surrender.

The men were arrested around 12.30am and handed over to the Tardeo police, who contacted all police stations in south Mumbai and asked if any accidents had been reported in the past hour.

We interrogated the driver, who revealed that they had stolen the vehicle from Marine Lines station. Later in the day, we contacted the Azad Maidan police, who registered a case of vehicle theft and were given custody of the suspects for further investigation, said the officer.

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The Panvel Taluka police have arrested a 22-year-old man from Assam for allegedly raping a 17-year-old girl from Arunachal Pradesh.

The accused, Kiran Das, was on Thursday arrested under rape charges.

Das worked with a private company at Panvel and lived in a rented house at Wavanje village, the police said. He met the girl, from Lohit district of Arunachal Pradesh, a few months ago on a social networking site and befriended her. Under the pretext of marriage, Das convinced her to come to Mumbai.

Maloji Shinde, senior police inspector of Panvel Taluka police station, said, The girl left her home on November 20 and reached Panvel after four days. She started staying in Das rented house. During her stay, he established a physical relationship with her.

The girls parents, meanwhile, registered a missing persons case with the local police in Arunachal Pradesh and were searching for her.

After a few days, the girl called her family from the accuseds mobile phone and informed them about her whereabouts. She also gave the accuseds bank account number and asked for Rs5,000 so that she could return, Shinde said.

Meanwhile, the Arunachal police informed the Delhi police about the complaint. The Delhi police narrated the entire incident to their Mumbai counterparts following which a few NGOs reached Panvel.

The girls family had deposited Rs5,000 to the accuseds bank account. So we expected him to come to the bank or nearby ATMs to withdraw cash. We laid a trap and caught him on Thursday. The girl was rescued too, Shinde said.

The police have booked the accused under Section 376 (punishment for rape) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POSCO) Act.

He was produced before the judicial court on Thursday and has been remanded in police custody.

The police have not found any criminal precedent against the accused.

READ MORE

Rape cases rose by 289% in Mumbai in past 5 years.

Why no outrage over this rape victim denied permission by court to abort?

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Maharashtra Anti-terrorism Squad (ATS) is probing reports of 28-year-old Tabrez Mohammad Tambe, a resident of Mumbra in Thane, of joining terrorist organisation ISIS along with his friend from Saudi Arabia. The probe was initiated following a complaint filed by Tambes younger brother. The incident came to light after Tabrez called his parents in Mumbra and informed them that he and his friend have joined the ISIS.

A case has been registered under sections 16, 18, 18B, 38 and 39 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, on the basis of plaint registered by Saud Noor Mohammad Tambe, 26, on November 7. Saud told ATS officers that Tabrez had gone to Egypt followed by Libya with his friend Ali and later they joined the ISIS. He also claimed that Ali was the connecting link between the ISIS and his brother. Tabrez was in contact with Ali during his employment in Riyadh.
The move to lead the country into becoming a cashless economy seems to have found favour with passengers who use app-based cabs amid poor business figures. There has been a rise of 20% in passengers using the cashless mode for travel, prompting cabbies to switch to it.

On the other hand, conventional taxi and auto rickshaw drivers continued suffering losses. Sources said that business had come down by 20%. The first 10 to 15 days after demonetisation had hit them badly with profits getting slashed by 50 to 60%. The situation has only improved slightly. App-based aggregators cut a sorry figure too, with business coming down by 10%.

Taxi and auto rickshaw drivers said that immediately after the announcement to scrap notes of high denominations, people were not hailing their vehicles because of the cash crunch.

Before hailing a cab, people ask us whether we have change for Rs 2000 and Rs500 or options like Paytm, said Arul Chalak, a cabbie from Parel.

Chalak said that several drivers of black-yellow and Cool cabs wanted to switch to the cashless mode and few had even adopted it to overcome the cash crunch. We had gone to enquire about a mobile wallet at a bank, where we were told to open a current account first, he said.

Veteran taxi union leader AL Quadros said that the absence of cashless transaction options in traditional cabs made passengers choose app-based cabs and so they were thinking about adopting the cashless mode. Some service providers have approached us for it, he said .

The app based taxi aggregators like Ola and Uber were reluctant to share any facts and figures about the impact on their business after demonetization, but sources said that contrary to the popular belief, that app based cabs made profits after demonetization, even they had to suffer losses as most of the cash of delivery customers of these cabs dried up after decision.

An executive with an app based taxi aggregator, who did not wish to be named, said that for the first few days, bookings went down by at least 25-30%. There has been a slow improvement. The numbers preferring cashless transactions have gone up by 20%.

App based aggregators have also welcomed RBIs decision to waive additional factor authentication for online payments below two thousand rupees for goods and services. This waiver is a big leap in the right direction to increase the use of cards over cash, said Amit Jain, president, Uber India.

Mumbai has around 40000 black and yellow cabs and 1.05 lakh auto rickshaws, besides about 30,000 app based cabs. Of those, 70-80% vehicles are driven by two drivers in different shifts.

READ MORE

Uber urges users to sign online petition against new taxi rules for Maharashtra

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The Mumbai Crime Branch Unit 5 have seized Rs85 lakh from Matunga. They have detained four individuals for running a racket exchanging old currency into new currency. The four were caught while trying to deliver the new notes to a south Mumbai-based businessman.

The police said the accused had with them Rs2,000 notes worth Rs72 lakh and Rs100 notes worth Rs13 lakh.

An officer from Crime Branch Unit 5 said, We have detained everyone and will be handing them over to the Income-Tax department, and after they complete their inquiry we will see whether to register a case. Sources added those carrying cash were to get 50% commission.

Deputy commissioner of police Ashok Dhude (spokesperson) confirmed the seizure and said their investigation is in progress.

Also read

Cash worth Rs 43 lakh in new notes seized from TV actor, two others

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The BJP-led state government plans to soon conduct a bhoomipujan ceremony for the multi-crore Chhatrapati Shivaji Memorial in the Arabian Sea in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday said all the necessary clearances for the ambitious mid-sea memorial have been received and the government can lay the foundation stone for the project. All 12 clearances required for the project including those from the environment ministry, defence, coast guard and Navy have been taken. We will soon arrange a bhoomipujan for the project inviting the PM, Fadnavis said.

The project was originally conceived in the 1980s and has been a talking point for all political parties ever since. In the backdrop of the Maratha protests, the state is now racing ahead with the project, aiming to conduct a bhoomipujan next month before the model code of conduct comes into force for the Mumbai civic polls. Modi is scheduled to visit Mumbai on December 24 to lay the foundation stone for two Metro rail projects.

The government recently invited bids for the first phase of the construction of the ambitious memorial, entirely estimated to cost Rs 3,600 crore.

The CMs assurance on the memorial of the 17th century Maratha warrior king comes close on the heels of the state government deciding to change the names of Mumbais airport and terminus to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, adding the word Maharaj in both.

While the move was aimed at appeasing the angry Maratha community, it has drawn sharp criticism from a certain section of the population, saying the name change, just like the memorial will lead to wasteful expenditure at a time when the state is grappling with financial distress.

We are here today because of the blessings of our Maharaj. Does anyone ask how much one is spending on ones father? Does anyone ask how much ones father eats? There are some people who are raising questions about why we are incurring so much expenditure, said Fadnavis.

The entire project is proposed to come up on a 13.07-hectare rocky outcrop in the Arabian Sea, of which the state will develop 7.01 hectare in the first phase to cater to 10,000 visitors a day and the rest in the second phase to accommodate an additional 15,000 visitors a day. The memorial is touted to have the worlds tallest statue at 192m.

Read

Shivaji memorial in sea to bear stamp of Maratha architecture

Maharashtra govt asks NGT to dismiss baseless PIL against Shivaji memorial in sea

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A teacher from a school in Mumbais Kurla has resigned after being allegedly harassed for wearing a hijab, or Muslim headscarf.

In her resignation letter addressed to the management of Bharat Education Societys Vivek English High School, Shabina Khan blamed a head teacher for employing torturous techniques, including verbal abuse and intolerance against her religious garments. A hijab covers the head and neck but leaves the face uncovered.

When HT spoke to Vikram Pillai, the principal of the school, he refuted claims of religious intolerance by the school staff and said that the teachers resignation letter has been forwarded to the management.

Ive worked in the school for two years and nine months and enjoyed my job. But ever since the new head teacher took over in June 2016, the same atmosphere of school has been in turmoil, states the resignation letter submitted by Khan.

The letter further alleges that the head teacher has often verbally abused her and attacked her religious and cultural belief, more particularly on wearing hijab and headscarf to work. These tactics directly oppose my personal religious philosophy. I cannot work in such a hostile environment as it is also physically and mentally stressful for me, said Khan.

There always is a problem when a new person joins an organisation. It doesnt seem to be a major issue but can be a case of ego-clash between teachers. We have received the resignation letter and forwarded it to the management. They will take a decision by next week, Pillai said.
A day after the state assembly passed the Maharashtra Public Universities Act, officials at the University of Mumbai (MU) said it would take about six months for the new law to be fully implemented. The varsitys first development will be to fill up important positions that are currently lying vacant owing to the delay in the enactment of the law.

The crucial posts of pro vice-chancellor and Controller of Examination (COE) are among those that are vacant. We are happy that the universities bill has got the final nod from the legislative councils. Once the act is in place, we will waste no time in getting the university to function smoothly again, said M A Khan, registrar, MU. He added that it would take at least six months to get the vacant positions filled. While this current batch had to face difficulties owing to a shortage of staff, we hope we receive no such complaints henceforth, he added.

The bill was first tabled at the winter legislative session in Nagpur in December 2015, but could not be discussed owing to a lack of time. The bill was brought up in budget session in March once again, where it was decided that the bill be placed in front of a joint select committee. The committee was set up to look at objections to provisions of the act, if any, and make changes. This did not happen. It was then decided that the bill be placed for discussion during the current winter session of the legislature in Nagpur.

While the state government and university officials have approved of the new act, there is hope that it will smoothen the working of the university. The university cannot blame its shortcomings on the lack of a proper act, so its time for it to get its act together. The last year and a half has been one of turmoil for students, teachers and affiliated colleges as the vice chancellor was the sole decision maker in the absence of a law. A division of power is the key to improving the varsitys functioning, said a senior MU official.

State education minister Vinod Tawde told HT that the approval of the bill was the first big step towards improving the quality of education in universities across the state. This bill should get approved by the governor soon and by late January or early February, we will be in a position to implement the new act, said Tawde.

Posts vacant at the university

*Pro vice-chancellor: the former pro V-C chose to leave his post in May 2015 and the post remains vacant till date

*Permanent Controller of Examination (COE): In January 2016, four probable candidates were shortlisted by a committee but the process was scrapped midway because of a clause in the new Maharashtra Public Universities Bill, 2015, which has no post for Controller of Examination. The new post as per the new Act is Director (Assessment and Evaluation) and the validity of COE will only last until the new act is implemented. Similarly in May, another group of shortlisted candidates were never called for interviews in the end because the selection committee found not a single candidate eligible for the post. The third attempt to find a permanent COE was made in October this year which again hit a dead end

*Elected Members on Examination Council

*Elected Members on Management Council

*Senate

*Permanent members on the Grievance Cell: After being disfunctional for more than six months, the Grievance Cell is currently functioning with the help of ad-hoc members.

Read

New universities act: Student polls back in Maharashtra after 20 years

Mumbai varsity officials protest against autocratic V-C

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Saud Noor Mohammad Tambe, 26, a resident of Mumbra, on Wednesday approached the Maharashtra anti-terrorism squad (ATS) claiming his brother, Tabrez, 28, has joined the ISIS. Tambe alleged his brother was indoctrinated by his friend, Ali, from Saudi Arabia. The ATS has booked Ali and Tabrez under sections 16, 18, 18B, 38 and 39 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.

Tabrez, a native of Dapoli in Ratnagiri district, lived in Mumbra in a rented house with Tambe. After completing graduation, Tabrez did a diploma in cargo transport and cargo handling from the Mumbai university and had been working in Gulf countries for the past four to five years.

Tabrez met Ali while working in Riyadh, said ATS sources. They were in touch even when Tabrez came to Mumbra in 2015. Ali met Tabrezs family, visited his home in Mumbra and stayed there for around two weeks, said ATS officials.

Tambe said Tabrez told the family this month that he had joined the ISIS and was now in Iraq. A team of ATS officials have gone to Tabrezs native place and have seized the mobile phones of his family members. Police have also seized his laptop and computer. They are trying to make Alis sketch and find his nationality.

The neighbours of the Tambe brothers said the family maintained a low profile. Tabrez and Tambe hardly spoke to them, they said.

The ATS are now trying to get more details. Tambe told the police he was not aware of Alis full name and also did not know why Ali visited India.

Tabrez went to Egypt in January and later to Libya, but he stayed in touch with the family, according to Tambe. The family has alleged Ali looked like a foreign national, but the ATS is verifying the claims. We will get information on Ali from the immigration department at the city airport, said an official, requesting anonymity.

Read: Family of Kalyan youth who joined ISIS shares call details with NIA
The state legislative Assembly on Friday passed a bill to amend the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Act giving tenants of the dilapidated buildings power to redevelop or repair their tenaments, if the landlord, builder or the civic body has delayed it for more than a year.

The state government also decided to initiate an inquiry against the BMC officials responsible for delay in permitting redevelopment. The decision came after legislators alleged that the officers deliberately avoid granting permission to favour the builders.

Minister of state for urban development Ranjit Patil told the legislative Assembly that a strict action would be taken against such officials. The Assembly on Friday passed the bill amending the BMC Act by introducing section 499 (2) that would let tenants opt for redevelopment. The tenants have been given repair rights for old buildings in section 499 (1).

The government had assured of amendment in 2015, when BJP legislator Parag Alavani had moved a private member bill for it. There are thousands of BMC-owned old buildings in the city that have inhabitable asking for repairs. But, the nexus between the landlords, builders and BMC officials has been depriving them of their right. There are thousands of such cases in which the permission has been denied by the officials. Though the amendment has given the right of repairs and redevelopment to tenants, there are fears that the officials again will play spoilsport. Hence, I demanded that action be taken against those responsible for not giving the repair permissions despite applications by tenants, Alavani said.

The legislator also said the new amendment will protect the rights of tenants in the new structures even if the building was demolished due to its dilapidated conditions.

Read

New TDR policy to hit suburban redevelopment in Mumbai, say builders

Mumbais iconic Dhobi Ghat all set for a facelift
A week after the Maharashtra government scrapped the state-conducted Common Entrance Test (CET) for admission to health science courses  effectively ending the confusion about medical entrance tests in the state  parents and students are full of questions.

They have said there is lack of clarity about the 85% domicile  students from the state  seats in private institutes. They also want more information on what students need to study to prepare for the entrance test in 2017.

While we were verbally told in 2016 that 85% seats in private institutes will be kept for state domicile, no such announcement has officially been made. Similarly, we are not sure if admissions to deemed institutes will be conducted by the state or by institutes themselves in 2017, said Sudha Shenoy, parent of a medical aspirant. She added that the parents of students who will appear for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) in 2017, will soon meet to discuss these problems, before they meet officials seeking clarity.

Officials from the Directorate of Medical Education & Research (DMER) told HT that the domicile issue was settled in 2016. 85% seats in private institutes will be kept aside for students of state domicile. We will release a statement about this. However, there is little we can do about the syllabus for the entrance test. Hopefully the central government will release clear instructions soon, said Dr Pravin Shingare, director, DMER.

Parents said the CET being scrapped came as a blessing to children as they will not have to go through a series of entrance tests. However, they added that there is still some ambiguity. The NEET website mentions that students have to study the NCERT syllabus as well the common state board syllabus. The problem is that there is no common syllabus across our countrys state boards. So what do our children study? asked another parent.

In 2016, the Supreme Court mandated that admissions to all medical and dental seats be conducted on the basis of NEET scores only. After a series of petitions filed against this order, it was finally decided that for 2016, admissions to seats in government institutes will be conducted based on state CETs while private and deemed institutes will depend on NEET scores. To avoid confusion, earlier this week, the Maharashtra government made it very that NEET is the only applicable score for health science courses, whereas CET will be conducted only for engineering and pharmacy admissions from 2017 onwards.

Annual revisions

Medical and engineering entrance admission tests underwent a series of changes after 2012

In 2013, the state scrapped the medical entrance test and conducted admissions based on the National Entrance-cum-Eligibility Test (NEET)

For 2014, after the Supreme Court scrapped NEET, the state conducted its own CET examinations, based on the NEET syllabus

In 2015, the new government conducted the medical CET only on the basis of state board syllabus

For engineering admissions in 2014 and 2015, the state gave 50% weightage to scores in the JEE (Main) conducted by the CBSE and 50% to Class XII board marks

In 2016, the Supreme Court once again lifted the ban on NEET. It proposes to conduct admissions to MBBS, BDS and post-graduate courses through one common test

Also read

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NEET effect: Medical aspirants joining national tutorial chains

MH-CET merit list out: Mumbai boy scores perfect 200

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The iconic Victorias  horse-drawn carriages  found on south Mumbais Marine Drive need to go, the animal welfare board told the state government on Friday. Reason: The cruel treatment meted out to the horses.

The Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) has submitted a report to the chief secretary of Maharashtra on the cruel way in which the horses are made to haul carriages and advised it to immediately phase the carriages out by rehabilitating its operators.

The Bombay high court had directed the Maharashtra government to submit the plan for rehabilitation of 130 Victoria operators by October 24. Following this, the home department had prepared a plan to issue hawker licences to the operators for their rehabilitation, but when the proposal came before the cabinet, many ministers objected to phasing out the Victorias.

Many of them opined the government should not pay heed to the orders because they were overlapping the governments jurisdiction.

Tomorrow, we will be told to ban use of bulls for traditional ploughing. Some of us also said the Victorias in the city were a key tourist attraction in south Mumbai and they should be allowed to continue, a minister told HT.

Failing to gather consensus, the cabinet then decided to appoint a cabinet sub-committee under finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar to deliberate on the issue.

The AWBI, statutory body appointed under Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1960, submitted its report on November 24 to the government, reiterating the cruelty caused to the horses in this trade. The report has the case studies conducted by a team of officials along with police officers and representatives of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) in July this year. The report stated the horses were in a very poor condition, and had protruding rib cages and pelvic bones, swollen joints and anaemia.

We have already stated, through a letter dated July 2013, that nature has equipped horses to work only on grass or soft ground and that forcing them to work on tar roads is inherently cruel.... We advise you to issue directions to relevant departments to act accordingly and immediately, the letter states.

Dr Manilal Valliyate, director of Veterinary Affairs, PETA India, said, We, too, have approached authorities from the government urging them to submit a rehabilitation plan for horse-carriage owners, drivers. As the government drags its heels on submitting the rehabilitation plan, it is not only failing in its duty to protest the horses, but it is also putting the public at risk of traffic accidents. We will take appropriate legal remedies if the cabinet sub-committee fails to meet its objectives.

According to an official from the home department, the cabinet sub committee is expected to draw up a plan, which will protect the animals and at the same time allow Victorias to ply to maintain the tourist appeal of Marine Drive and Chowpatty.
Farmers want stations on the 30-kilometre-long Noida-Greater Noida Metro link which is under construction to be named after villages located nearby.

Many farmers groups submitted their demand letters to the Noida Metro Rail Corporation (NMRC) managing director, Santosh Yadav.

The Metro link has 21 stations and 60% of the work on it has been completed. The project is scheduled to be opened to public by December 2017. Work on the stations is in full swing.

We demand that Noida Metro Rail Corporation to follow Delhi Metro model of naming the stations like they have Rithala or Hauz Khas, etc. NMRC should name a station after a village, nearest to a particular station. Because Noida is built on farmers land, villagers should get their due and should be involved in the developmental process, said Ashok Chauhan, Samajwadi party leader, who led the group of villagers.

Read more: UP approves 15-km metro link to realty hub Greater Noida West

The stations are located in Sectors 51, 52, 50, 78, 81, Dadri Road, Sectors 83, 137, 142, 143, 144, 147, 153, 149, KP-II, KP-I, Pari Chowk, Alpha-I, Alpha-2, Delta-1 and Depot station.

NMRC said it will take up the farmers proposal in its next board meeting, which is yet to be fixed.

We received many proposals from villagers, farmers and leaders. We will take these in our board meeting to formulate a policy if we can, said Yadav.

NMRC has a policy auctioning naming rights of stations to raise funds through the bidding process.

We will auction station names in open bidding. Whoever (realty firm, MNC, corporate house or an individual) places the highest bid will be allowed to put his brand name as a prefix or suffix, said Yadav.

He said the farmers request would not affect NMRCs fund raising plan.

We can fix the brand name as a prefix or suffix even if we have named a station after a village.

NMRC is expected to hold bidding in May 2017, when all 21 stations are ready. It also gives 400 square feet area of advertising space to the company that wins the naming bid.

Read more: Make metro link to Greater Noida operational by December 2017, state tells NMRC

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Dense fog that descended suddenly on Friday morning caught the residents of Noida and Greater Noida by surprise. The weather was clear till 6.20am, after which fog covered the city from all directions throwing traffic out of gear.

The fog also engulfed the highrise societies and the poor air quality forced the residents to keep their doors and windows closed.

The 24-hour rolling average of PM10 and PM2.5 touched very poor limits. PM 10 was recorded at 238 g/m3 and PM 2.5 at 317 g/m3, according to the data of system for air quality and weather forecasting and research (SAFAR).

The permissible level of PM 2.5 is 60g/m while PM10 is 100 g/m. Levels beyond that can harm to the respiratory system as the ultra fine particulates can embed themselves deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream.

Its impossible to reach on time anywhere in this dense fog. Moreover, no traffic signals in Greater Noida work during morning hours. I had informed my office that I would be late and will drive only when visibility increases, said Gaurav Tyagi, a resident of Bisrakh area of Greater Noida west.

The minimum temperature was recorded 12C, while the maximum temperature was recorded 25C on Friday. The weatherman said that in coming days the temperature will decrease further and the fog will increase.

The visibility decreased to 50-100 metres at Yamuna and Noida-Greater Noida Expressway forcing the commuters to turn on the fog and parking lights.

It is advised that drivers and riders should install fog lights and drive with utter precaution during fog, said PP Singh, SP (Traffic), Noida. He said traffic police personnel were deployed at major crossings from early morning hours to manage traffic during fog.

In spite of district magistrates orders of changing school timings and starting schools after 9am during winters, many private and government schools in Greater Noida started school early in the morning with school buses ferrying students in dense fog.

Fog continued till late afternoon on many stretches of Noida and Greater Noida.

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Afroz runs his meat shop in a shack near Noidas Sector 31 market. Holding a butchers knife in one hand, he rests the other hand on a scaffold and laments that the past two months, particularly November, have not been good for business.

Since demonetisation, our customers have reduced. The first week was the worst, but I still get customers who offer me old notes. Winter is the time when we do good business and it is frustrating to have the year end in this manner, he said.

His ability to use online wallets or card-swipe machines is apparent in his response to being asked for his mobile phone. Smiling sheepishly, the 19-year-old said, I dont have my phone with me right now. My brother has gone to Ghazipur market for business and he is using it currently.

The past two months have been difficult for fish and meat vendors in Noida. First, the bird flu alert affected sales and then demonetisation hit these vendors who mostly use cash to conduct their business.

Every year, there is a bird-flu-alert week during which the price of chicken goes down. But this time, the bird flu was followed by notebandi (demonetisation). It has hit our business hard. The vendors in Ghazipur market now hesitate in selling us poultry on credit, said Gautam, another chicken vendor, referring to Delhis major poultry market.

At the Nithari fish market too, several vendors said demonetisation has lowered the price of their products.

The katla fish was earlier priced at Rs250 a kilo. Now, we sell it at Rs230. Similarly, Bahul fish was priced at Rs170-Rs180 a kilo, but now we sell it for Rs140. We have seen a gradual decline of Rs30-Rs40 a kilo in the prices of all our products, said Vishwanath, a fish vendor at Nithari fish market.

Explaining the reason, Sanjay, another vendor, said, A majority of our customer base comes from the Bengali community in Noida who used to visit us every morning to buy fish. Now, due to lack of cash, this luxury has gone and they visit us only twice or thrice a week. Also, we dont have a union or representative, which allows outside elements to dictate the price of our products.

Despite the recent push for cashless transactions and plastic money, only one vendor in the 20-odd shops in the market was found to be using a digital wallet service.

I have been using Paytm for the past two years and therefore I run the only shop in the area that accepts plastic money. Some customers have conducted transactions with Paytm, otherwise we usually have customers with cash, said Rehan, a chicken vendor in the market.

With experts suggesting no respite from cash shortage till the year-end, the citys meat and fish vendors are anxious that they might end up missing out in their peak season.

The period from Christmas to New Year is when we have the maximum business. We are not sure if we can have that this year, said Afroz.

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English playwright George Bernard Shaw was spot on when he said, Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.

And this was on display in Jaipur on Thursday when members of two local outfits vandalised an art show and allegedly misbehaved with the artist. The groups were protesting against the depiction of semi-nude paintings at the summit.

Members of a womens organisation Lal Sena and Rashtriya Hindu Ekta Manch, led by Hemlata Sharma and Vijay Shankar Pandey respectively, vandalised paintings at the Jaipur Art Summit because they found them to be obscene. They also had an altercation with the artist, Radha Binod Sharma.

Read | Selective nationalism: Self-proclaimed patriots seeking to bring about a change

According to a national daily, Sharma, who led the vandalism party, was quoted as saying that she was exercising her freedom of expression by taking down a painting she deemed offensive.

The hypersensitivity of people like Pandey and Sharma, which is the result of a blinkered and distorted view of culture, does not give them the right to attack anothers property or person. Unfortunately for them, that is the law of the land.

Our democracy provides ample space for dissent, but within the confines of the law  the protesting party could have filed a petition with the police. But then how would they get their 15 minutes of fame!

Read | Hindu Mahasabha activists vandalise Pakistan Airlines office in Delhi

Thankfully the likes of Pandey and Sharma are still a rarity in society  but as the proverb goes: A rotten apple can spoil the barrel. And it is precisely to avert such a danger that the law and order machinery should get cracking, and cracking hard. Some media reports said that the police have arrested Pandey, but Sharma was absconding.

Sadly, this is not the first time miscreants have disrupted art shows in the name of morality. Art shows displaying works of the late MF Husain were a constant target of the fringe and rabid Right-wing groups. Pakistani artists have been also been at the receiving end.

One of the main reasons why such groups, which see such high-handedness as the easiest way to gain fame, feel encouraged is because of police inaction or the lack of a strong message from the governments side. Quick and stern action should be taken against these self-styled culture guardians.

Read | Sambhaji Brigade vandalises mall in Maharashtra for screening Ae Dil Hai Mushkil

Such miscreants have no place in a society which, despite its several fault-lines and constraints, is inclusive.

Last checked, Sharma and Pandey were not appointed the custodians of morality  that position is left to citizens who believe in the rule of law and have a more accommodating view of life.

@VijuCherian

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Urging people to teach the Congress and the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) a lesson in the upcoming assembly elections, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal on Friday alleged that presidents of both the parties  Captain Amarinder Singh and Sukhbir Singh Badal  are in a secret pact for fielding candidates with mutual understanding.

Kejriwal, who was addressing a rally here, said the Badals and Amarinder were trying to save each other by befooling people. I have information that Sukhbir and Amarinder met recently and discussed on seats in which they can help each other. It is a secret alliance, alleged Kejriwal.

Akali MLAs quitting the party and joining the Congress is also stage-managed.

As both are aware that the SAD-BJP alliance and the Congress are not in a position to form the government in Punjab, they have decided to field candidates with mutual understanding, Kejriwal said, adding that the Akali MLAs quitting the party and joining the Congress is also stage-managed.

The Delhi chief minister, who started his Punjab tour on Friday, said both the Congress and the Akalis have looted Punjab and always tried to hide each others misdeeds. Badal withdrawing cases against Amarinder shows that they both are hand-in-glove and share a secret friendship, he added. The SAD-BJP government has ruined the state in its 10-year rule and almost every business in Punjab leads back to the Badal family.

He targeted Amarinder for the alleged Swiss bank accounts, adding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was deliberately not taking action against the Punjab Congress chief. He lashed out at state revenue minister Bikram Singh Majithia on the drug issue and accused Amarinder of shielding him.

Kejriwal reiterated that if voted to power, the AAP would wipe out drug menace from the Punjab and addicts would be rehabilitated. He also said action would be taken against private schools for overcharging from parents.
The cash crunch caused by demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes has brought the India-Pakistan trade through the Attari border here to a standstill.

As the contractor has no cash for wages of over 1,000 porters who usually load and unload trucks at the integrated check post (ICP), the bilateral trade has come to a halt.

In view of the prevailing situation, even the Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) has also instructed the customs department to put the trade through the border on a hold.

Though usually over 100 Pakistani trucks, carrying items such as cement, gypsum and dried fruits, enter India, not even a single truck came from across the border on Thursday.

Confirming this, a senior customs official said several trucks are lined up on the Pakistani side, but they are not entering India as the customs have been told to halt the trade.

There are around 1,400 labourers who work under a contractor. Due to cash crunch, the contractor is not able to pay them daily. Things were fine till the old notes were exchanged by banks, but now the labour is hardly getting any wages.

Another official said there is no point in letting Pakistani trucks in India. If goods come from Pakistan, there is no labour to unload the trucks, he added.

Rajdeep Uppal, president, Confederation of International Chamber of Commerce, said most of the labourers do not have bank accounts and they demand cash. Even those who have accounts dont accept cheques as its not easy to withdraw money from banks these days, he said.

Uppal added that the cash crunch has not only affected the labour but also traders. The orders placed by us are still stuck across the border and we are just waiting for the situation to ease.

Also, the export from India through the border has also virtually come to a standstill as trucks carrying tomatoes are not getting quarantine import permits from Pakistani authorities due to unknown reasons, traders claimed.

Talking to HT, a customs official said, While the import has totally stopped due to cash crunch, only a few trucks carrying cotton are going to Pakistan these days.

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Its been a month since Prime Minister Narendra Modi made the demonetisation announcement in a televised address to the nation, but the cash crunch that followed it is showing no signs of relenting.

Most ATMs in the tricity are running dry, and people are forced to wait in queues for hours, without any assurance of getting the cash when their turn comes. Many leading private banks have in fact placed no cash board outside their offices.

In Chandigarh, there are around 500 bank branches and 700 ATMs. In the morning, there was no cash at almost all ATMs in the bank square in Sector 17. Serpentine queues could be seen outside the cashless ATMs of the State Bank of India (SBI) and Punjab National Bank (PNB).

I am standing in the queue since 9.30am, and now it is 12.30 pm, but there is no cash in the machine. I have been waiting for three hours outside this empty ATM, just to withdraw Rs 2,000 (the daily limit). Why is there no system in place? said Ganga Devi of Kansal village who was visiting the SBI branch in Sector 17.

I had to travel all the way here as none of the ATMs on the way were functional. Yesterday, my husband took a half-day leave from office and kept standing in the queue, but when his turn came, the ATM ran out of cash, she said.

Next to this queue, there was another long queue outside another empty ATM of the SBI.

Shivani Thakur, a resident of Sector 20, who was standing in that queue, said: There is no cash in any ATM in my sector. I also visited Sectors 22 and 35, but all ATMs were non-functional there too. Finally, after checking all markets, I have reached Sector 17. to my dismay, the situation is same here. Shivani had been waiting outside the ATM for nearly three hours.

Yesterday, I waited in a queue for two hours to withdraw Rs 2,000, and today I have been waiting for more than three hours. This is sheer harassment. Banks are refusing to give cash. I cannot meet my monthly expenses standing in queues for a pittance daily, said Prakash Singh Negi, a private factory employee .

The long queue outside the PNB ATM started moving at around 12.30pm, when the machine was finally filled with cash. HDFC meanwhile, displayed a board stating that there was no cash in the branch.

In Panchkula, queues outside banks and ATMs are only getting longer by the day.

At the Sector 11 branch of the ICICI Bank in Panchkula, the queue had moved much beyond the entrance by afternoon. Other bank branches in the sector also witnessed long queues. Out of cash, many banks were returning their customers empty-handed.

Around afternoon, only the Corporation Bank ATM was operating in Sector 11, while those of ICICI, Syndicate Bank, Bank of Baroda, Yes Bank, IndusInd Bank, Vijaya Bank and Oriental Bank of Commerce were without any cash.

In Sector 10, only the SBI ATM was operational, while none was dispensing cash in Sectors 6 and 8 in Panchkula.

No cash boards hanging outside the ATMs also disappointed residents in SAS Nagar. In fact, most banks had run out of cash by 11am, while long queues were witnessed outside ATMs.

Traders and businessman are feeling the pinch owing to cash crunch, with sales estimated to have come down by around 50%. It is a tough phase for traders, as business has gone down. There is no money in the market. We are hopeful that the conditions will improve by the year-end, said a Chandigarh-based trader.

Getting limited cash, say bankers

Banks have been ruing the fact that they are getting limited cash. The branches that used to get 25 lakh from the treasury are getting just Rs 4 lakh a day.

With Rs 4 lakh, you can attend to just 40 customers. So we are running out of cash in an hour. This has been happening for the past many days, said a Panchkula-based bank manager, on the condition of anonymity.

Despite requests from banks to their customers to withdraw only the amount that they need, many people have started hoarding the new currency. They are withdrawing more than required. It is adding to the crisis, said another bank manager.

Banks say their requests to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to send additional cash has failed to yield any positive result. Employees at a bank in SAS Nagar said they are facing the heat, as on being denied cash, customers are misbehaving with them.

Usually, SBI ATMs are always functional, but today the supply of cash was less, leading to the problem, said a bank official in Chandigarh.
Panic continued in villages along the India-Pakistan border in Tarn Taran as the leopard that attacked two men on Thursday in the fields of Marhi Gorh Singh village remained still on the loose till Friday night.

Forest range officer Lakhwinder Kumar said the animal may have come from Pakistan side.

Leopards can jump up to 12 feet high. Jumping over the barbed fence on the border is not difficult for the animal, he said.

An attack by it in the village, 27km from the district headquarters, around 3 pm on Thursday was followed by a thorough search by different teams of the wildlife department. As the fog intensified, the search was suspended due to low visibility. On loudspeakers of gurdwaras, the administration asked residents to remain alert.

On Friday, the fog on the morning delayed a restart of search. A special team of experts from the Chhatbir zoo near Chandigarh was also called. A tranquiliser gun and cage remained ready, but the big cat, which was earlier believed to be a panther, remained elusive.

Senior officials, including divisional forest officer (DFO), Amritsar, Atal Mahajan, and range officers Balbir Singh Dhillon (Harike) and Lakhwinder Kumar (Patti), were leading the operations.

After going through possible hideouts, the search operation was suspended again. Teams camped at the Harike wetland and asked villagers to aleart immediately if they spot the leopard again.
Jharkhand gang lords are apparently back in action with full force and vengeance to dwarf their rivals.

Police believe the recent back-to-back murders of two persons with criminal records within a week in Jamshedpur were the fallout of the deadly turf wars among rival gangs.

The two slain persons were apparently running an extortion and contract-killing rackets that brought them in direct confrontation with fugitive Akhilesh Singh, who also runs a similar cartel in the area.

Singh, with 48 cases of heinous crimes pending against him, is one of the most powerful among the gang lords operating in the state.

This former cops son has allegedly carried out half a dozen killing, prominent ones being that of a jailor and a transporter. It is alleged that his monthly income from rangdaari (extortion) run into several crores of rupees. His operational jurisdiction is mainly around the steel city of Jamshedpur.

According to police, there are at least 18 major gangs operating in Jharkhand. These gangs are accused of being involved in managing railway tenders, mining contracts, transportation of ore, government construction jobs, agriculture and irrigation contracts and settlement of land deals and disputes at gun point.

These trigger-friendly gangs extort huge money from the businessmen, traders, miners and contractors and do not hesitate to eliminate anyone who defies them, while the police prefer to look the other way.

To flex muscle they hire jobless youngsters in their early twenties, who nurture high ambitions of earning easy money in quick time, and groom them in criminal activities.

Paradoxically majority of these gang lords are in jail. But that does not stop them from effectively operating their gangs from behind the bars. Police, on their part, however, have put rewards ranging from Rs 1 to Rs. 2 lakh on the heads of those evading arrest.

Admitting the presence of criminal networks inside jails, inspector general (CID) Sampat Meena said, We have to break these networks and plug the flaws in the system. Its the responsibility of the local SPs to prevent smooth passage of cell phones into prisons and regulate visitors coming to meet the gangsters.

According to information availed from the state police headquarters, there are six major extortion gangs operating in capital Ranchi alone. These gangs, identified by the name of their respective chiefs, are Anil Sharma gang, Luv Kush Sharma gang, Genda Singh gang, Sandeep Thapa gang, Bittu Mishra gang and Sushil Sharma gang. There are numerous cases of murder and extortion registered against them.

In coal-rich Hazaribag, the Bhola Pandey/ Kishore Pandey gang rules the roost but they keep getting stiff competition from Ranchis Sushil Srivastava and other gangs from neighbouring districts.

In iron-ore-rich Chaibasa division four gangs namely Pankaj Dubey, Bimal De, Aarju Mallik and Suraj Singh are active. But since the Maoists have a strong presence in the area, the criminal gangs are not so powerful and are often overshadowed by the Left insurgents.

Coal belt of Bokaro-Dhanbad has two prominent gangs led by Shahnawaz and Fahim Khan. Their rivalry inspired the popular Bollywood blockbusters, Gangs of Wasseypur I and II. Even drought prone and Left extremist affected Palamu division has several trigger-friendly gangsters ready to kill for a few thousand rupees.
British director John Madden seemed tired but happy when this writer met him soon after his movie, Miss Sloane, unrolled the ongoing 13th Dubai International Film Festival on Wednesday. Fatigued after a long plane journey, a series of media interviews and the excitement of seeing his movie opening to a Red Carpet reception here, but really joyous after a great screening, the auteur appears genial, his great sense of humour in tact.

Madden is best known in India for two of his films -- The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel -- both set in Rajasthan and starring actors like the Slumdog Millionaire and The Man Who Knew Infinity Dev Patel and Judi Dench (whose role as M in the Bond series is unforgettable). But she has also played Queen Elizabeth in Maddens Shakespeare in Love -- a fictional romantic affair between a woman (Gwyneth Paltrow) and the Bard of Avon (Joseph Fiennes) when he was writing Romeo and Juliet.

Maddens other memorable movie was the 2001 Captain Corellis Mandolin -- which had two great actors, Nicolas Cage and Penelope Cruz, as lovers during the Italian occupation of a picturesque Greek island during World War II. Here was an army captain, whose passion was music, not war, and, believe it or not, he was commanding a regiment of soldiers that had never been in a battle.

A still from 2001 Captain Corellis Mandolin starring Nicolas Cage.

Maddens latest outing, Miss Sloane, is far removed from the romanticism of Shakespeare in Love and the musical disposition of Captain Corelli. The Jessica Chastain-starrer, Miss Sloane, is a ruthless look at the American gun culture -- nothing to do with love or affection. Sex here is purely a physical need, and the film does not even remotely mirror the emotional upheavals one saw in the Marigold editions.

Quizzed whether he was planning a third work in the Marigold franchise, he says, no, not immediately. What about something else set in India? Admittedly, I feel very, very connected to that country. You will be surprised to hear this. There is a lot of pressure to do another Marigold.

Shakespeare in Love starred Gwyneth Paltrow and Joseph Fiennes in the lead roles.

India is an extraordinary country, and the first Marigold movie took me there. I put into it a lot of sentiments I felt about India. The film is also about people colliding with Indian culture for the first time. The energy of that place really startled me. I enjoyed doing both the Marigold movies. I love that contradictory nature of the culture.

Interestingly, India has been on my mind for a long time. I had promised my wife that I would take her there for her birthday. But the film got there first.

Switching over his Dubai opener, he avers that having lived in America for a long time, he was quite familiar with its politics. The gun is such an integral part of it, and I have always wondered why the problem of gun culture is so evasive, why it refuses to go away.

With Trump set to become the US President, there is lot of volatility. The situation is dismaying, to say the least. Politically, there is a lot of uncertainty. I would think one of the ways to tackle the evil of gun culture will be to get the grassroots involved. No mean task, though.

The festival runs till December 14.

(Gautaman Bhaskaran is covering the Dubai International Film Festival.)

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Two explosions ripped through a market in northeast Nigerias Madagali town and a survivor said they killed at least 30 people.

Since the military has dislodged the extremists from towns and villages this year, the insurgents have been attacking soft targets.

Survivor Ahmadu Gulak said the two explosions struck simultaneously at opposite ends of the market selling grains and vegetables. He said he counted at least 10 bodies and many wounded people being ferried to a nearby hospital by ambulance.

At least 30 people have been killed in the suicide blasts carried out by two female suicide bombers in the market, military spokesman major Badare Akintoye told AFP.

Several people have been injured in the attack, said Akintoye by phone from a military base in the town of Mubi, 100 kilometres (60 miles) away.

A local government official and the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) confirmed the attack.

While there was no immediate claim of responsibility, the blasts bore all the hallmarks of Boko Haram, which regularly uses women and young girls to carry out suicide attacks in its seven-year insurgent campaign in the troubled region.

The two bombers who (were) disguised as customers, detonated their suicide belts at the section of the market selling grains and second-hand clothing, said Yusuf Muhammad, the chairman of Madagali local government.

We still dont have the exact number of those injured but they are many.

Market trader Habu Ahmad said the blasts happened around 9:30 am (0830 GMT).

It was dead bodies and wounded people in the midst of blood, spilt grains and abandoned personal effects, he said.

Ibrahim Abdulkadir, NEMA spokesman for the northeast, said rescuers had been deployed to the scene.
Some 400 African migrants forced their way into the tiny Spanish enclave of Ceuta on Friday, authorities said, the biggest group in a decade to storm the walled city bordering Morocco in search of asylum.

The group forced their way through two entry points in the six-metre-high barrier that surrounds the enclave, a local government spokesperson said.

Footage posted online by the El Faro de Ceuta newspaper showed dozens of migrants, including men without shoes and shirts, letting off joyous cries of Spain! as they crossed into Ceuta.

The Red Cross said it had treated 103 people for minor injuries sustained during the assault, and that 25 had been taken to hospital.

About 20% of the group who rushed the gates had not been located by authorities as of midday on Friday, Spains interior minister Juan Ignacio Zoido said.

Ceuta along with Melilla, another Spanish territory in North Africa, have the European Unions only land borders with Africa.

African migrants sit on top of a border fence during an attempt to cross into Spanish territories, between Morocco and Spain's north African enclave of Ceuta on Friday. (Reuters )

They are favoured entry points for African migrants seeking a better life in Europe, who get there by either climbing over the border fence or by swimming along the coast.

The objective for migrants entering Ceuta illegally is to reach a temporary Spanish residency rights centre where they can, in principle, request asylum.

But Amnesty International and other rights groups have qualified Ceuta and Melilla as extralegal territories and denounced police mistreatment of migrants there.

In 2014, 15 migrants drowned as dozens tried to swim to Ceuta from a nearby beach.

At the time, rights groups and migrants said Spanish police tried to keep them from reaching the shore by firing rubber bullets and spraying them with tear gas.

In October a group of about 220 people managed to storm two entry points into Ceuta, injuring 35 migrants and three security officers.

You have to go back to the early 2000s to see numbers like this, the government spokesman told AFP.

Carmen Echarri, editor of El Faro de Ceuta newspaper, told AFP that Spanish security forces had been overrun as migrants had struck at several different parts on the border barrier, using scissors and cutting tools to get through wire fencing.

Everyone was surprised by the assault, she said.

Spanish junior minister for security, Jose Antonio Nieto, announced a visit to Ceuta, where he will brief reporters later Friday.

Some 10,800 migrants have arrived in Spain in 2016, according to the International Organization for Migration.
At least 50,000 Islamic State jihadists have been killed by the US-led coalition since it began operations in Iraq and Syria in late 2014, a senior US military official said Thursday.

A relentless operation using planes and drones from a dozen or so members of the anti-IS coalition since August 2014 has conducted some 16,000 air strikes against the jihadists in Iraq and Syria -- two-thirds of them in Iraq.

In addition, the coalition has provided training and weapons to local forces fighting IS.

I am not into morbid counts but that kind of volume matters, that kind of impact on the enemy, the official said, calling the 50,000 number a conservative estimate.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the air campaign had been the most pristine ever in terms of avoiding civilian casualties, with almost all the bombs dropped so far being smart weapons that can be steered to a precise target.

The coalition tally of civilians killed in the operations is 173 -- though critics say the real figure is far higher.

The official said the coalition had diminished ISs ranks to such a level that the simultaneous attacks being waged on Mosul in Iraq and Raqa in Syria -- the jihadists last remaining major power centers -- have been possible.

Coalition spokesman Colonel John Dorrian said earlier that in Mosul, IS was turning to adolescent fighters as its hardcore warriors got wiped out.

As this effort goes on with each passing day, Daesh has fewer fighters and fewer resources at their disposal, Dorrian said in a videocall, using an Arabic IS acronym.

He added the jihadists appeared to have run out of armored suicide car bombs, and estimated many hundreds of fighters had been killed in Mosul.

It doesnt mean that its not still an extraordinarily dangerous situation. They are not going to go quietly, but they are going to go.

The coalition has previously said it does not use a casualty count as a measure of effectiveness in the campaign to ultimately defeat (IS) in Iraq and Syria.

Despite this assertion, such figures are periodically announced.

Airwars, a London-based collective of journalists and researchers, uses local sources, photographs and media accounts to keep a detailed list of every known coalition air strike.

They have praised Pentagon efforts at accountability compared with other actors in Syria such as Russia and the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. But the group says the number of likely civilian deaths from coalition strikes is 1,957 at a bare minimum.
A bombing killed six policemen at a checkpoint in Cairo on Friday, the latest in a series of attacks in the Egyptian capital targeting security forces and officials, the interior ministry said.

The attack occurred in the western Talibiya neighbourhood of Cairo, shortly before Friday prayers and when the citys streets are mostly empty.

The bloodied bodies of several policemen could be seen at the blast site next to police vehicles that had been stationed there, an AFP photographer reported. Police cordoned off the area with yellow tape as they searched for more explosives.

The interior ministry said in a statement the explosion took place next to a checkpoint, killing two officers, a low-ranking policeman and three conscripts.

The bombing also wounded three conscripts.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

Militants have repeatedly attacked policemen and soldiers since the army overthrew Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 and unleashed a bloody crackdown on his followers.

Most of the attacks are conducted in the Sinai Peninsula by a branch of the Islamic State, which has killed hundreds of soldiers and policemen there. But militants have also targeted security forces and government officials in the capital.

An Egyptian judge in one of the trials of Morsi, who was detained after his ouster, escaped unharmed last month when a car bomb exploded as he drove by. That attack came days after a roadside bombing targeting a police convoy killed a passerby.

In September, militants set off a car bomb as the countrys deputy state prosecutor was passing. He too escaped unharmed.

Most of the Cairo attacks in recent months have been claimed by two little known militant groups, Lawaa al-Thawra and the Hassam Movement. Police say they are affiliated with Morsis Muslim Brotherhood movement, which was banned months after his overthrow and listed as a terrorist organisation.

The Brotherhood, which espoused grassroots work and change through elections, denies it is involved in violence.

The group had been the countrys largest opposition movement under veteran strongman Hosni Mubarak and dominated polls after his overthrow in 2011. In 2012, it won a presidential election with its candidate, Morsi, whose divisive rule led to mass protests a year later that prompted the army to overthrow him.

Hundreds of his supporters were killed in clashes with police and the army in the following months.

The Brotherhood now operates as an underground and splintered movement, with some of its followers believed to have embraced attacks against policemen while others insist on non-violence.

Fridays bombing came days after the interior ministry said police killed three members of the Hassam Movement in the countrys south, and weeks after it announced breaking up one of the groups cells.
Chinese official media warned Mongolia on Friday that it is politically harebrained to seek Indias help as the move will further complicate bilateral ties, amid reports that Ulan Bator sought New Delhis support to overcome financial difficulties arising out of many factors including the imposition of border tariffs against it by China.

Foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang declined to respond to a question on the Mongolian envoy to India Gonchig Ganholds reported comments on seeking Indias support to counter Chinese measures, saying he has not heard of any such remarks.

However, state-run Global Times criticised Mongolia for approaching India.

Sandwiched between Russia and China, Mongolia vows to remain a neutral state to benefit from both sides without having to get involved in a major-power competition, it said in an article.

However, it also hopes it could seek a third neighbour, which can enable the country to reap more profits by gaining more bargaining chips. But Mongolia should be alerted that it cannot afford the risks of such geopolitical games, it said.

Mongolia seems naive about the way international relations work - you cannot harm a countrys interests while hoping it can reciprocate nicely, it said, adding Mongolia should know that mutual respect is the precondition to develop bilateral relationships and hitch a ride on Chinas economic development.

It is even more politically harebrained to ask for support from India, a move that will only complicate the situation and leave a narrower space to sort the issue out. We hope the crisis-hit Mongolia will learn its lessons, it said.

Mongolia caught China by surprise by hosting the Dalai Lama last month for four days, saying that it was purely religious visit.

China protested with its Foreign Ministry spokesman saying the Tibetan spiritual leader is a political exile who has long been engaging in splitting China activities in the name of religion with the aim of alienating Tibet from China.

The spokesman, however, didnt confirm or deny a number of countermeasures including hiking over-land transit charges cancelling key bilateral talks to punish Mongolia for its erroneous action in defiance of Chinas warning.

Buddhism, which is widely followed in Mongolia, derives much of its characteristics from Tibetan Buddhism.

While Mongolia says it is purely a religious visit by Dalai Lama and there was no political strings attached to it, since he fled to India in 1959 after his separatist revolt was upset, the Dalai Lama has become a political advocate calling for the separation of Tibet under the guise of religion, the article said.

In Chinas narrative, he is much more a separatist than a religious figure. Receiving him implies endorsement of his deeds, which is highly disapproved of in both government and public discourses in China, it said.

Whether Chinas countermeasures are real or not, Mongolia should reflect on its ill-considered handling of the case, lacking diplomatic sophistication and making trouble for in-depth cooperation between both sides, it added.
Mongolias decision to seek Indias help in negating Chinas trade blockade following Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lamas visit to Ulaanbaatar is a politically harebrained move that will only complicate the situation, the Chinese state media said on Friday.

China suspended two rounds of diplomatic talks with Mongolia and hiked land transit charges for Mongolian trucks passing through its territory after the Dalai Lamas visit.

Hiking over-land transit charges, according to foreign media, is among a series of countermeasures China has adopted to punish Mongolia for its erroneous action in defiance of China's warning. A few days after the Dalai Lama's visit, China suspended indefinitely two sets of talks with the Mongolian side, which is in dire need of Chinese loans for infrastructure and development projects, the nationalistic Global Times tabloid said in a report.

It is even more politically harebrained to ask for support from India, a move that will only complicate the situation and leave a narrower space to sort the issue out. We hope the crisis-hit Mongolia will learn its lessons, the report said.

Following the visit, foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said Mongolia should adopt effective measures to eliminate the negative effects of the Dalai Lama's visit. Geng did not confirm the hike in transit fees.

According to the tabloid, Gengs statement indicated that the precondition for bringing Sino-Mongolian ties back on track is that Ulaanbaatar must realise it was wrong to touch China's red line of the Dalai Lama.

To Mongolia, the Dalai Lama could only be a religious leader, but China doesnt agree.

The Global Times used strong language to describe the Dalai Lama. But since he fled to India in 1959 after his separatist revolt was upset, the Dalai Lama has become a political advocate calling for the separation of Tibet under the guise of religion, it said.

In China's narrative, he is much more a separatist than a religious figure. Receiving him implies endorsement of his deeds, which is highly disapproved of in both government and public discourses in China, it added.

Sandwiched between Russia and China, Mongolia vows to remain a neutral state to benefit from both sides without having to get involved in a major power competition. However, it also hopes it could seek a third neighbour, which can enable the country to reap more profits by gaining more bargaining chips. But Mongolia should be alerted that it cannot afford the risks of such geopolitical games.

The third neighbour referred to in the article is apparently India.

Mongolia seems naive about the way international relations work - you cannot harm a country's interests while hoping it can reciprocate nicely, the report said. Mongolia should know that mutual respect is the precondition to develop bilateral relationships and hitch a ride on China's economic development.
President-elect Donald Trump wont be firing himself from Celebrity Apprentice.

The Republican businessman plans to remain an executive producer on the show that made him a television star, a source confirmed to Reuters.

Trump, who famously barked the catchphrase Youre fired! as he dismissed competitors on the Apprentice and Celebrity Apprentice programs, stepped down from the program last year when he entered the 2016 Republican presidential race.

Celebrity Apprentice returns to the air with actor Arnold Schwarzenegger as host on Jan. 2, 18 days before Trump is sworn in as president.

Variety, which first reported Trumps decision to remain as executive producer, said his name will air in the credits before that of Schwarzenegger, star of the Terminator movies and a two-term governor of California. The show is broadcast by NBC, a unit of Comcast Corp.

Variety said he was likely to be due a payment in the low five-figures per episode.

Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway did not confirm that Trump would retain the executive producer credit and said she did not know whether he would accept potential payments for the program.

Presidents have a right to do things in their spare time or their leisure time, she told CNN. Nobody objects to that.

I can tell you that work is his work and work is his hobby.

Debuting in 2004, The Apprentice and its spinoff, Celebrity Apprentice, featured teams trying to win Trumps favor in various money-making competitions. They were ratings hits - drawing nearly 21 million viewers at their peak - and boosted Trumps popularity after he suffered a financial downturn in the 1990s.

Trump has been speaking to lawyers and protocol experts about what he can and cannot do with his global business interests once he takes office on Jan. 20, Conway said on CNN.
SSAU seeks to prepare for launch of first Ukrainian satellite Lybid in 2017

The State Space Agency of Ukraine (SSAU) expressed hope that the first Ukrainian communications satellite Lybid built in international cooperation with Canada and Russia could be launched in 2017.

The press service of the agency reported that the situation with the implementation of the project was discussed at a recent meeting of the SSAU.

Today the Ukrainian satellite Lybid has been assembled, tested and stored waiting for its shipment to the launch site.

"Due to annexation of Crimea force majeure for the land segment appeared. This resulted in a delay in the project schedule and the increase of the project cost. Force majeure has been reined in and SSAU jointly with the Ukrainian government are doing their best to prepare for the launch of the satellite Lybid in 2017," the agency said.

The state has already invested $335.4 million in the project, the press service said.

As reported, a contract for the construction of a national telecommunications satellite Lybid was signed by the SSAU and Canada's MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) in December 2009. The MDA is the head contractor under this project. The Lybid is based on the Express-1000NT platform, developed by Russia's Reshetnev ISS.

The Canadian export agency EDS provided a $254.6 million loan under the Ukrainian government guarantees to finance the project in the summer of 2009. Initially it was planned to put the Ukrainian satellite into orbit in 2012, later it was postponed to 2013 and then to April 2014.

Since 2014 the satellite is stored at Reshetnev ISS in Krasnoyarsk (Russia) and the uncompleted launch vehicle Zenit is stored at Pivdenne Machine Building Plant named after Makarov (Pivdenmash, Dnipro).

Today the Canadian partner is holding talks with Russia to get guarantees to launch the satellite.
Millions of tonnes of food wasted in China every year could feed anywhere between 30 million and 50 million people, according to new research, with large restaurants and many schools responsible for a big share of the wastage.

The study, quoted by state media, showed that around 17 million tonnes to 18 million tonnes of food were wasted across China annually between 2013 and 2015, once again bringing into focus the problem.

The findings were made public at a recent seminar organised by the UN Environment Programme.

According to 2015 data from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the UN, one-third of all food produced for human consumption around the world (around 1.3 billion tonnes) is lost or wasted each year. This includes 45% of all fruit and vegetables, 35% of fish and seafood, 30% of cereals, 20% of dairy products and 20% of meat.

With its huge population and important social etiquette, where a host is expected to serve excess food, it is not surprising that China has had a problem with food wastage  something which could have become more serious as the economy boomed.

Cheng Shengkui from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), one of the countrys top research institutions, shared the details of the survey conducted in four cities - Beijing, Shanghai, Lhasa and Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province.

Cheng was quoted by state-run Economic Daily as saying that the team of 140 researchers and volunteers surveyed 6,983 tables of 366 restaurants in the four cities for more than 100 days.

We also interviewed more than 750 individuals, finished 7,489 questionnaires and weighed more than 32,000 dishes, he said.

Chengs team found the food is wasted more in primary and high schools in China than at universities and companies. Their research report prompted the government and Beijing's schools to launch a series of educational activities to help students save their food and avoid waste.

Liu Yao, another CAS researcher, told the state media earlier that the problem of wastage was especially severe in large restaurants, which are venues for business discussions and networking events. He said, The customers were only using dinner as a platform for negotiations. They didnt really care about the food itself.

Cheng said wastage at official banquets had been curbed since the government began its anti-corruption and frugality campaign in 2013.

Also having an impact is the government-backed Clean Your Plate campaign, which encourages people not to order too much at restaurants and to eat everything provided, he said.
Clad in white at a Berlin church, asylum seekers Saeed, Veronica, Farida and Matin were just about to become Christians on a recent Sunday.

Do you believe from the bottom of your heart that Jesus Christ is your Lord and saviour, and will you follow him every day of your life? Pastor Matthias Linke asked them. If so, say yes.

All four replied with a frank Ja, to the enthusiastic applause of the faithful at the Free Evangelical Church, and were plunged head-to-toe into a baptism basin.

I am very, very happy, I feel... how to say?, said 20-year-old Iran native Matin right after his baptism, placing his hand on his chest.

Muslim refugees have recently been taking the same step throughout Germany, where nearly 900,000 asylum seekers arrived in 2015.

Highlights Churches concede that some conversions are motivated by a desire to integrate into German society. Some refugees belief it will increase their chances of gaining political asylum. Countries that send Muslim converts to Christianity back to their homelands put them potentially at great risk. Outside their new community, the converts nonetheless usually try to remain discreet.

Church leaders have confirmed a notable, though not huge, trend upward, but have not provided statistics.

In our diocese, there are several groups of refugees who are preparing for baptism, and there are more and more requests, said Felix Goldinger, a Catholic priest in Speyer, southwestern Germany.

Many come from Iran and Afghanistan, some from Syria or Eritrea, he said.

I am currently handling a group of 20 people but I do not know how many will go through until baptism, he told AFP.

Over the course of their preparations, which last nearly a year in Goldingers diocese, potential converts are encouraged to weigh their own motivations.

During this period, it is important that they examine their original religion, Islam, and the reasons why they want to change it, he said.

We are obviously pleased that people want to be baptised, but it is very important for us that they are sure of their decision.

Goldinger said that many people recall what they have experienced in their country, including terrorist acts committed in the name of religion. They see Christianity as a religion of love and respect for life.

In Iran, said Linke, many had been in contact with unrecognised churches in the Islamic republic, where conversion is prohibited, and then had to flee.

A church member leads churchgoers into song during a Baptism ceremony for newly-converted Muslim refugees at the Evangelisch-Freikirchliche Gemeinde church in Berlin on November 27. (AFP Photo)

Other refugees met Christians on their journey to Europe.

Many people recall what they have experienced in their country, including terrorist acts committed in the name of religion. They see Christianity as a religion of love and respect for life, says a pastor.

This was the case for Saeed, a 31-year-old aeronautical engineer who spent four months in Turkey with a Christian and then became interested in his religion. Like fellow new convert Veronica, Saeed is from Afghanistan.

Reading the Bible helped in times of trouble, he says.

It was in Greece, recalled Matin, that he first came in touch with the Christian faith. After he arrived in Germany, he approached the Free Evangelical Church through his German friends.

His sister Farida followed him and they began preparations -- in German and Farsi -- for baptism.

Farida said she was looking for a church and wanted to choose her religion in complete freedom.

This is a very important reason to become a Christian, said Linke.

Among refugees who adopt Germanys dominant religion, he said, there is a strong desire to decide for themselves, in a free and personal way, the direction of their lives.

Afraid for families

Churches concede that some conversions are motivated by a desire to integrate into German society, or even by the belief that they will increase their chances of gaining political asylum.

Pastor Matthias Linke of the Evangelisch-Freikirchliche Gemeinde church baptises a newly converted Muslim refugee during a ceremony in Berlin on November 27. (AFP Photo)

Countries that send Muslim converts to Christianity back to their homelands put them potentially at great risk.

Apostasy or blasphemy can be punished with jail or death sentences in some Muslim countries, among them Iran, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan.

For jihadist groups such as the Islamic State, conversion is also a punishable sin.

There are refugees who think that if they convert, it will be easier for them to stay here, but it is not systematic, Goldinger said.

After their baptism, most of them live as Christians and come to church.

Do they change religion in order to be able to stay in Germany? This is an important issue for the authorities, said Linke, who is often consulted by the state Office for Migration and Refugees.

I have no guarantees, I can only ask them: do you really believe with all your heart? After their baptism, most of them live as Christians and come to church, he added.

Outside their new community, the converts nonetheless usually try to remain discreet.

They may face difficult situations in refugee homes, where the majority are Muslims, said Thomas Klammt, in charge of migration issues at the Union of Free German Evangelical Churches.

They may also be afraid for their families left behind in their country of origin.

Matin said he stays in contact with relatives back home -- especially his mother, who had accepted his willingness to convert.

She calls me every Sunday to ask if I have been to mass, he said, laughing.
Separate bombings in the Iraqi capital killed 10 people and wounded another 22 on Friday, according to Iraqi officials.

The Baghdad attacks mainly targeted civilians and though there was no immediate claim of responsibility, they bore all the hallmarks of the Islamic State group in what are apparently efforts by militants to distract from the Iraqi forces major offensive in the northern city of Mosul.

Mosul is Iraqs second-largest city and the IS militant groups last major urban bastion in the country.

The casualty toll for Fridays attacks was provided by police and hospital officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.

Read | Death toll in Iraq bombing claimed by Islamic State rises to 73

The operation to retake Mosul was launched in October and has been progressing slowly in recent weeks. Iraqi forces control less than a quarter of the city and have faced significant setbacks this week in Mosuls southeast.

Iraqs Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has continued to pledge that the city will be retaken by the end of the year but has also warned that IS will likely continue to launch insurgent style attacks in Iraq even after losing control of Mosul.

Read more | Iraqi troops enter another IS-held neighbourhood in Mosul
Islamic State group jihadists have killed at least 49 members of Syrian government forces in 24 hours of fighting near the desert city of Palmyra, a monitor said on Friday.

They included 15 Syrian soldiers and allied fighters killed in a Friday morning ambush near the Mahr oil field, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

IS fighters launched simultaneous attacks on several government positions in the eastern desert of Homs province on Thursday, including areas near the Mahr and Shaar oil and gas fields.

It has seized government checkpoints, silos and the village of Jazal, northwest of Palmyra, in the ongoing assault, the Observatory said.

The fighting has brought IS forces to within four kilometres (two and half miles) of Palmyra, which government forces recaptured from the jihadists in March.

The Observatory said the army had brought in reinforcements and was carrying out air strikes against IS in a bid to retake lost territory.

IS once held several key towns in Homs province, including Palmyra with its ancient ruins.

It overran the town in May last year, and systematically destroyed temples and tower tombs at the towns UNESCO World Heritage site, before being pushed out by government forces.

It is still present in parts of the east of the province, and has carried out hit-and-run attacks on government positions in recent months.

But Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said the current assault was the first to see IS seize territory since it was pushed out of most of the province.

Read more | Islamic State makes advances towards ancient Syrian city of Palmyra: Monitor
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe won parliamentary approval Friday for ratification of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, despite US President-elect Donald Trumps plan to withdraw from the 12-nation trade pact.

Upper house lawmakers approved the TPP on Friday, heeding Abes calls to push ahead with it despite Trumps rejection of the free-trade initiative championed by President Barack Obama.

Abes ruling Liberal Democratic Party has an ample majority in both houses of parliament. Ratification of needed regulatory revisions by the Cabinet is expected soon.

The market opening measures required by the trade pact are seen as a way for Abe to push through difficult reforms of the agricultural and health sectors. So far, Abe has made scant progress on a slew of changes he has proposed to help improve Japans lagging productivity and competitiveness.

Trump has vowed to take steps to exit the pact right after he takes office.

A U.S. withdrawal would kill the trade pact unless its terms are revised. The agreement between the dozen members requires both the U.S. and Japan to join to attain the required 85% of the groups total GDP since the U.S. economy accounts for 60% of that total, and Japan less than 20%.

After expending political capital to fight vested interests fearful of market opening and reforms likely to be required by the trade pact, Abe and other leaders in Asia have bemoaned the impending loss of the U.S. as TPP flag bearer.

We want to carry this out and expect others will follow suit, Abe recently told a parliamentary committee.

An opposition lawmaker, Eri Tokunaga, derided Abes insistence on going ahead with ratification as egocentric.

There is basically zero chance of this coming into effect since the next president, Trump, plans to leave it, Tokunaga told fellow lawmakers Friday.

Leaders in New Zealand and several other countries have said they still hope to find a way to rescue the initiative.

The TPP was meant to help give the U.S. a leading role in setting trade rules reaching beyond tariffs and other conventional trade barriers. Its possible demise could spur faster progress on another, much less discussed trade agreement called the RCEP, or Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. That trade grouping includes no countries from the Americas but all the big hitters in Asia: China, India, Japan, South Korea as well as Australia, New Zealand and the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Japan will launch a cargo ship on Friday bound for the International Space Station, carrying a space junk collector that was made with the help of a fishnet company.

The vessel, dubbed Kounotori (stork in Japanese), is to blast off from the southern island of Tanegashima around 10:30 pm local time (1330 GMT) attached to an H-IIB rocket.

Scientists at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) are experimenting with a tether to pull junk out of orbit around Earth, clearing up tonnes of space clutter including cast-off equipment from old satellites and pieces of rocket.

More than 50 years of human space exploration since the Soviet-launched Sputnik satellite in 1957 has produced this hazardous belt of orbiting debris.

There are estimated to be more than 100 million pieces in orbit, posing a growing threat to future space exploration, scientists say.

Researchers are using a so-called electrodynamic tether made from thin wires of stainless steel and aluminium.

The idea is that one end of the strip will be attached to debris which can damage working equipment -- there are hundreds of collisions every year.

The electricity generated by the tether as it swings through the Earths magnetic field is expected to have a slowing effect on the space junk, which should, scientists say, pull it into a lower and lower orbit.

Eventually the detritus will enter the Earths atmosphere, burning up harmlessly long before it has a chance to crash to the planets surface.

JAXA worked on the project with Japanese fishnet manufacturer Nitto Seimo to develop the cord, which has been about 10 years in the making.

The tether uses our fishnet plaiting technology, but it was really tough to intertwine the very thin materials, company engineer Katsuya Suzuki told AFP.

The length of the tether this time is 700 metre (2,300 feet), but eventually its going to need to be 5,000 to 10,000 metre-long to slow down the targeted space junk, he added.

Previous experiments using a tether have been done in recent years.

A spokesman for the space agency said it hopes to put the junk collection system into more regular use by the middle of the next decade.

If we are successful in this trial, the next step will be another test attaching one tip of the tether to a targeted object, he added.

The cargo ship launched Friday is also carrying other materials for the ISS including batteries and drinking water for the astronauts living there.
John Glenn, who made history twice as the first American to orbit Earth and the first senior citizen to venture into space, died Thursday at the age of 95.

Glenn became a symbol of strength and the nations pioneering spirit, drawing admirers from all walks of life over a long career in the military, then NASA, and the US Senate.

He was chosen along with six other military pilots as part of the Original Seven, the very first class of US astronauts in 1959 whose saga was recounted in the classic movie The Right Stuff.

The US space agency NASA was among the first to pay tribute to the legendary astronaut who went on to serve as a lawmaker for more than two decades, calling him a true American hero.

Godspeed, John Glenn. Ad astra, NASA tweeted, echoing the famous words radioed by fellow astronaut Scott Carpenter to Glenn before he circled the Earth in 1962.

Glenn died at the James Cancer Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, according to Hank Wilson, a spokesman for the John Glenn College of Public Affairs. The cause of death was not immediately announced.

With Johns passing, our nation has lost an icon and Michelle and I have lost a friend, said President Barack Obama.

John always had the right stuff, inspiring generations of scientists, engineers and astronauts who will take us to Mars and beyond -- not just to visit, but to stay, he said.

The former astronaut and veteran of two wars had been in declining health, undergoing heart-valve replacement surgery in 2014 and reportedly suffering a stroke, and was hospitalized in Columbus more than a week before he died.

John is one of the best and bravest men Ive ever known, said Secretary of State John Kerry as he paid respects to his friend and former colleague in the Senate, calling him an inspiration.

Though he soared deep into space and to the heights of Capitol Hill, his heart never strayed from his steadfast Ohio roots, said John Kasich, the governor of Glenns midwestern home state, in one of a stream of tributes flooding in for the national hero.

President-elect Donald Trump, who happened to be in Columbus when Glenns death was announced, paid his own tribute, telling a rally later in Iowa: He was a giant among men, and a true American legend.

Trailblazer

The first man to orbit Earth was Russias Yuri Gagarin in 1961.

On February 20, 1962, Glenn became the first American to accomplish the same feat, uttering the memorable phrase: Zero G and I feel fine.

Glenns flight lasted just under five hours and he circled the Earth three times, as part of NASAs Mercury project.

Thirty-six years later, on October 29, 1998, he made history again when he returned to space at the age of 77 -- becoming the oldest astronaut in space.

It was another shining moment in a career of trailblazing successes spanning decades.

Born July 18, 1921, in Cambridge, Ohio, Glenn joined the US Marine Corps in 1943, becoming a fighter pilot.

He served in the Pacific during World War II, and later in the Korean War, flying a total of 149 combat missions and downing three fighter jets over the Yalu River in the final nine days of fighting.

In 1957 he made the first nonstop supersonic flight from Los Angeles to New York and became an astronaut two years later.

After his 23-year career in the US military and space program ended in 1965, Glenn entered the Senate as a Democrat. He made two unsuccessful tries for the presidential nomination, in 1984 and 1988.

While in the Senate Glenn was politically progressive and kept a relatively low profile. He specialized in the fight against nuclear weapons proliferation and the disposal of nuclear waste.

He flew his own aircraft, a Beechcraft Baron, between the US capital and his home state of Ohio, boasting about his record time of one hour, 36 minutes from Washington to Dayton.

Grant us wisdom

Glenn also kept fit, making his return to space possible.

He regularly passed NASA physicals and pressed the space agency to consider the possibility of sending an older person -- such as himself -- into space for research, particularly on the effects of weightlessness on the elderly.

In November 2011, then 90 years old, Glenn was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, with three others, the first time the prize was bestowed upon astronauts.

We came in peace for all mankind, he said after receiving the honor, before repeating the words he spoke half a century earlier, addressing lawmakers upon returning from his orbital flight.

As our knowledge of the universe in which we live increases, may God grant us the wisdom and guidance to use it wisely.

In 2012, Obama awarded Glenn the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the countrys highest civilian honor.

The last of Americas first astronauts has left us, but propelled by their example we know that our future here on Earth compels us to keep reaching for the heavens, the president said in his tribute to the late legend.

On behalf of a grateful nation, Godspeed, John Glenn.
NASAs Cassini spacecraft has sent to Earth its first views of Saturns atmosphere since beginning the latest phase of its mission, showing scenes from high above the ringed planets northern hemisphere including an intriguing hexagon-shaped jet stream.

Cassini began its new mission phase, called Ring-Grazing Orbits on November 30.

Each of these week-long orbits - 20 in all - carries the spacecraft high above Saturns northern hemisphere before sending it skimming past the outer edges of the planets main rings, NASA said.

Cassinis imaging cameras acquired these latest views on December 2 and 3, about two days before the first ring-grazing approach to the planet, it said.

Future passes will include images from near closest approach, including some of the closest-ever views of the outer rings and small moons that orbit there.

A collage of images from NASAs Cassini spacecraft shows Saturns northern hemisphere and rings as viewed with four different spectral filters. (NASA/ Official website)

This is it, the beginning of the end of our historic exploration of Saturn. Let these images - and those to come - remind you that we have lived a bold and daring adventure around the solar systems most magnificent planet, said Carolyn Porco, Cassini imaging team lead at Space Science Institute in the US.

The next pass by the rings outer edges is planned for December 11. The ring-grazing orbits will continue until April 22, when the last close flyby of Saturns moon Titan will once again reshape Cassinis flight path, NASA said.

With that encounter, Cassini will begin its Grand Finale, leaping over the rings and making the first of 22 plunges through the 2,400-kilometre gap between Saturn and its innermost ring on April 26.

On September 15, the missions planned conclusion will be a final dive into Saturns atmosphere. During its plunge, Cassini will transmit data about the atmospheres composition until its signal is lost.

Launched in 1997, Cassini has been touring the Saturn system since arriving in 2004 for an up-close study of the planet, its rings and moons.

Cassini has made numerous dramatic discoveries, including a global ocean with indications of hydrothermal activity within the moon Enceladus, and liquid methane seas on another moon, Titan.
US President Barack Obama ordered intelligence agencies to review all the cyber attacks and foreign intervention into the 2016 election and deliver a report before he leaves office on January 20, homeland security adviser Lisa Monaco said on Friday.

Monaco told reporters the results of the report would be shared with lawmakers and others.

The president has directed the intelligence community to conduct a full review of what happened during the 2016 election process ... and to capture lessons learned from that and to report to a range of stakeholders, to include the Congress, Monaco said during an event hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.

Monaco said cyber attacks were not new but might have crossed a new threshold this year.

When she was working as a senior FBI official in 2008, she said, the agency alerted the presidential campaigns of then-Senator Obama and Republican Senator John McCain that China had infiltrated their respective systems.

Weve seen in 2008 and in this last election system malicious cyber activity, Monaco said.

In October, the US government formally accused Russia of a campaign of cyber attacks against Democratic Party organizations ahead of the November 8 presidential election.

Obama has said he warned Russian President Vladimir Putin about consequences for the attacks.

Asked if Republican President-elect Donald Trumps transition team was not concerned enough about Russias influence on the election or about other threats to the United States such as infectious disease outbreaks, Monaco said it was too soon to say.

As a presidential candidate, Trump praised Putin and called on Russia to dig up missing emails from his opponent, Hillary Clinton, from her time as secretary of state under fellow Democrat Obama.
Hong Kongs pro-Beijing chief executive Leung Chun-ying made a surprise announcement on Friday that he will not seek re-election in 2017 because of family reasons.

Leung, who has been in office since July 2012, was the target of pro-democracy protesters because of his pro-China views.

Addressing the media, Leung said he had to take care of his family in the future. Chinas official Xinhua news agency quoted him as saying he was making the decision to prevent his family from facing unbearable pressures resulting from electioneering if he runs for the election.

As a husband and father I have a responsibility...My daughter has only one father, and my wife has only one husband, he said.

Leung, the report said, had stressed that the central authorities had been very supportive of his work all these years.

I shall support whoever wins the election and whoever is capable of being appointed by the Central People's Government, he added.

Hong Kong is a special administrative region that is ruled by Beijing under the one country, two systems arrangement since 1997, when the region was transferred from the United Kingdom to China.

According to Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post newspaper, Leung, while attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Peru last month, had said President Xi Jinping approved of his work in office. But the chief executive later said the remarks should not be interpreted as an endorsement of further political ambitions.

In late 2014, Leung was buffeted by pro-democracy protests that shut down the city of 7 million for days.

The Occupy Central protesters were demanding electoral reforms and were opposed to Beijings decision to vet candidates who would be up for election in 2017. Much of the protesters ire was focussed on Leung.

Beijing had fully backed him and a front-page editorial in the Peoples Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Party of China, supported Leung and made it clear he would not be asked to step down.

Beijing will...continue to strongly support Mr Leung's leadership of Hong Kong's legal administration as well as the police's handling of illegal activities, the editorial said. Any government move to ask Leung to step down at that time would have meant a loss of face for the Communist Party.
The Association Ukrainian Stock Traders (AUST) and Ukrainian Association of Investment Business (UAIB) have turned to international financial institutions (IFIs) and other partners of Ukraine for professional help in reforming the National Commission for Securities and the Stock Market of Ukraine.

The joint open letter has been sent by the associations to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), International Finance Corporation (IFC), the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine, European Business Association (EBA) and International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO).

The professional associations on behalf of stock market players, investors and infrastructure entities support efforts of Ukrainian authorities aimed at reforming and developing the Ukrainian financial sector, particularly enhancement of institutional and financial independence of the securities commission.

The signers of the letter point out the importance of consistent work in this direction on the model of reformation of operations of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU). First the internal structure of the commission should be reorganized, including the organization, functional and material, and then the powers of the regulator should be revised.

"This phased and coherent approach increased the quality of regulation and stabilized the banking market in the short term," the signers said.

The associations believe that bringing Ukrainian legislation in line with the IOSCO goals and principals of regulation in the securities area and receiving the status of the side of the IOSCO Multilateral Memorandum of Understanding should bring trust of domestic and international investors to the national capital market.
Populist anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders was found guilty on Friday of insulting and inciting discrimination against Moroccans, a conviction he immediately slammed as a shameful attack on free speech and an attempt to neutralise him.

Presiding Judge Hendrik Steenhuis said the court would not impose a sentence because the conviction was punishment enough for a democratically elected lawmaker.

Wilders was not in court for the verdict that came a little more than three months before national elections. His Party for Freedom is narrowly leading a nationwide poll of polls and has risen in popularity during the trial.

Wilders quickly released a video message, in English and Dutch, slamming the judgment and vowing to appeal. Today, I was convicted in a political trial which, shortly before the elections, attempts to neutralise the leader of the largest and most popular opposition party, he said. They will not succeed.

Even before the hearing, Wilders had vowed not to be silenced. Whatever the verdict, I will continue to speak the truth about the Moroccan problem, and no judge, politician or terrorist will stop me, he tweeted.

The politically charged prosecution centered on comments Wilders made before and after the Dutch municipal elections in 2014. At one meeting in a Hague cafe, he asked supporters whether they wanted more or fewer Moroccans in the Netherlands. That sparked a chant of Fewer! Fewer! Fewer!  to which he replied, Well take care of it.

Prosecutors say Wilders, who in 2011 was acquitted at another hate speech trial for his outspoken criticism of Islam, overstepped the limits of free speech by specifically targeting Moroccans.

He had denied the charges and insisted he was performing his duty as a political leader by pointing out a problem in society.

On Friday, he was convicted for the interaction with the crowd of supporters in the Hague cafe, which judges said was carefully orchestrated and broadcast on national television. He was acquitted for similar comments he made in a radio interview a week earlier, which the judges said did not amount to inciting hatred.

Before declaring Wilders guilty, Steenhuis stressed freedom of expression was not on trial.

Freedom of speech is one of the foundations of our democratic society, the judge said. But he added: Freedom of speech can be limited, for example to protect the rights and freedoms of others, and that is what this case is about.

Abdou Menebhi, president of the Euro-Mediterranean Center for Migration and Development, welcomed the judgment.

For us, its a very important verdict, he told AP. This gives the Moroccans who felt like victims a renewed belief in a democratic society. He said it also sent a message to Wilders supporters to be careful.

This man is not looking for solutions for you, Menebhi said. His is an ideology of smearing Europe, migrants, Muslims, without offering alternatives.
South Korean lawmakers on Friday passed an impeachment motion against President Park Geun-Hye, stripping away her sweeping executive powers over a corruption scandal that paralysed her administration and triggered massive street protests.

The National Assembly motion -- passed by 234 votes to 56 -- transfers Parks authority to the prime minister, pending a decision by the Constitutional Court on whether to ratify the decision and permanently remove the president from office.

Read| South Koreans protest, demand ouster and arrest of president

Mass protests

The push for impeachment was driven by huge protests that saw millions take to the streets of Seoul and other cities in recent weeks, demanding that political parties remove Park if she refuses to step down.

As the lawmakers voted, hundred of protesters gathered outside the national assembly, holding banners that read: Give our country back and Impeach Park.

Its really hard to predict which way the vote will go, Saenuri legislator Hong Moon-Jong told MBC radio.

It may fall slightly short of 200 or just scrape over the line, Hong said.

The scandal that has engulfed Park has focused on her friendship with long-time confidante Choi Soon-Sil.

Choi has been charged with meddling in state affairs and using her Blue House connections to force dozens of conglomerates to donate around $70 million to two foundations she controlled.

In a first for a sitting South Korean president, Park has been named a suspect by prosecutors investigating the case.

History of corruption

High-level corruption has long been a stain on South Koreas democratic credentials and the presidential Blue House is no stranger to allegations of cronyism.

Since South Koreas first free and fair election in 1987, every president has faced graft investigations after leaving office and one -- Roh Moo-Hyun -- committed suicide as a corruption probe closed in on his family.

Their cases often involved family members who were able to leverage links to the president in a society where political influence has traditionally had a very close and unhealthy rapport with business success.

Park, the daughter of military strongman Park Chung-Hee who led the country from 1961 to 1979, was meant to be different.

Both her parents were assassinated and, estranged from her two siblings, unmarried and childless, she promoted herself as invulnerable to nepotism.

I have no family to look after nor children to inherit my property... I want to devote myself to the nation and the people, she said in a speech during the 2012 presidential campaign.
The Syrian army declared a ceasefire in several areas around Damascus and the northwestern province of Idlib beginning on Friday evening, but did not say how long the pause in fighting would last.

There was no immediate comment from rebels on the truce.

The areas affected included the government-besieged town of Madaya near Damascus and Kefraya and al-Foua in Idlib, which are surrounded by insurgents.

Read more | Syria president Bashar Al Assad says victory in Aleppo wont end the war
In a significant move, the US Congress has said that $ 400 million in aid to Pakistan cannot be released unless the defence secretary certifies that Islamabad is taking demonstrable steps against the Haqqani network, which is accused of targeting American interests.

Passed by the Senate by 92 to 7 votes on Thursday, the 2017 National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA) in facts imposes four conditions on Pakistan to be eligible for $ 400 million of the $ 900 million of the Coalition Support Fund (CSF).

Passed by the US House of Representatives (by 375 to 34 votes) last week, NDAA 2017 now heads to the White House for President Barack Obama to sign it into law.

As per NDAA- 2017, the defence secretary needs to certify to the Congress that Pakistan continues to conduct military operations that are contributing to significantly disrupting the safe haven and freedom of movement of the Haqqani network in Pakistan and that Pakistan has taken steps to demonstrate its commitment to prevent the group from using its territory.

The defence secretary also needs to certify that Pakistan actively coordinates with Afghanistan to restrict the movement of militants, such as the Haqqani network, along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border; and finally that Pakistan has shown progress in arresting and prosecuting Haqqani network senior leaders and mid-level operatives.

US defence secretary Ashton Carter had refused to give a similar certification to Pakistan this year as a result of which Islamabad was not given a $ 300 million under CSF.

The Haqqani network has carried out a number of kidnappings and attacks against US interests in Afghanistan. The group is also blamed for several deadly attacks against Indian interests in Afghanistan, including the 2008 bombing of the Indian mission in Kabul that killed 58 people.

NDAA-2017 refocuses security assistance to Pakistan on activities that directly support US national security interests and conditions a significant portion of funding on a certification from the secretary of defence that Pakistan is taking demonstrable steps against the Haqqani Network in Pakistani territory, said senator John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

NDAA allows for reimbursement of Pakistan for security activities along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, including providing training and equipment for the Pakistan Frontier Corps in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

However, members of the Conference Committee expressed concern that Pakistan continues to delay or deny visas for US personnel that could assist with the provision of such training. Given this situation, the report recommends the Pentagon to condition reimbursements for training and equipment with appropriate access by US personnel.

It also expressed concern about the persecution of groups seeking political or religious freedom in Pakistan, including the Balochi, Sindhi and Hazara ethnic groups, as well as religious groups, including Christian, Hindu and Ahmadiyyas.

It said the defence secretary should continue to closely monitor the provision of its security assistance to Pakistan and ensure that it is not using its military or any assistance provided by the US to persecute minority groups.
South Korean President Park Geun-hye, who was impeached on Friday, rose to power with the support of conservatives enamored of the economic growth ushered in by her late dictator father decades ago.

Even before the stunning fall of South Koreas first female president over allegations that she ceded government power to a corrupt confidante, Parks four years in office have been marred by a festering standoff with North Korea, a deadly ferry disaster and claims that she tried to curb free speech and labour rights.

Read: South Korean parliament impeaches scandal-hit President Park

A look at Parks rise and fall:

A DICTATORS DAUGHTER

Parks father is Park Chung-hee, one of the most divisive figures in modern South Korean history.

Some revile him as a ruthless dictator who tortured and imprisoned dissidents, while others praise him as a hero who rebuilt the country from the rubble of the 1950-53 Korean War. During his 1961-79 rule, South Koreas per capita income rose 20-fold.

After her fathers 1979 assassination, Park Geun-hye hid herself from the public eye for many years. She entered politics in the late 1990s, when public nostalgia for her father flared after South Korea was hit hard by an Asian foreign exchange crisis.

As a national legislator, she became an icon of South Korean conservatives, earning the nickname Queen of Elections for her ability to help her party win tight elections.

In early 2013, she returned to her childhood home, the presidential Blue House, after winning the presidency.

Protesters gather during a rally urging the impeachment of South Korea's President Park Geun-Hye outside the National Assembly in Seoul on Friday. (AFP photo)

NORTH KOREAN NUCLEAR STANDOFF

Days before the start of Parks single five-year term, North Korea conducted its third nuclear test.

When the UN tightened sanctions, North Korea unleashed a torrent of threats to attack Seoul and Washington with nuclear missiles.

Park still tried to reconcile with North Korea by offering large-scale aid shipments if the North abandoned its nuclear ambitions. She also ordered preparation for unification with North Korea, saying it would bring an economic bonanza, not huge financial costs.

But her overture didnt work.

North Korea, which says it needs nuclear weapons to fight off a hostile Washington, detonated atomic devices two more times, both this year. Its nasty invective has included calling her a prostitute.

Park eventually took a tough line, shutting down a jointly run factory complex in North Korea, the last remaining inter-Korean cooperation project.

Last year, the rivals appeared near a military clash following land mine blasts blamed on North Korea that maimed two South Korean soldiers.

FERRY DISASTER

An April 2014 ferry sinking that killed more than 300 people, mostly teenagers on a school trip, battered Parks leadership.

The sinking, one of the deadliest peacetime disasters in South Korean history, triggered an outpouring of national grief and raised pointed questions about public safety.

Critics say Parks government could have saved more lives if it had acted faster and organized better rescue efforts.

On the day of the sinking, Park made her first public appearance seven hours after she received the first official report about the ferry. By then, most passengers were still believed to be trapped inside the ship. But Park asked officials why they were struggling to rescue students wearing life jackets and floating on the ocean, suggesting she didnt know what was going on with rescue work.

Parks office says she communicated with officials via telephone or in writing in the seven hours before she visited a disaster office. But critics want Park to disclose more information about her whereabouts. Some lawmakers have suggested that that she might have been getting cosmetic treatment.

People react after impeachment vote on South Korean President Park Geun-hye was passed, in front of the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea on Friday.

BATTERED FREE SPEECH

Park has been criticised for unclear decision-making, infringing on freedom of speech and for showing the same high-handed leadership style of her father.

Last year, government prosecutors indicted a Japanese journalist who wrote about Parks rumored meeting with a man on the day of the ferry sinking; a Seoul court later declared him not guilty.

Parks government also sought to require schools to use only state-authored history textbooks, drawing criticism that she was trying to whitewash her fathers rule.

Earlier, the Constructional Court ordered the dissolution of a small leftist party, and the government deported a Korean-American woman it said had praised North Korea in a lecture.

Conservatives and liberals have long argued about free speech in South Korea, which shares the worlds most heavily fortified border with North Korea.

ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL WOES

Park also failed to fire the economy as her father had.

Household debt and youth unemployment have surged and many of the big-name, family-run conglomerates that her father supported as the backbone of his economic drive are hurting.

But it was a political scandal, caused by her friendship with the daughter of her former mentor, that led to millions taking to the streets in protest, and ultimately to her impeachment.

Park faces allegations that she let that friend, Choi Soon-sil, who has no official state role, manipulate government affairs and extort money from companies. The Constitutional Court will now decide whether to remove her from office.
President-elect Donald Trump said on Thursday the United States needed to improve its relationship with China, which he criticized for its economic policies and failure to rein in North Korea.

One of the most important relationships we must improve, and we have to improve, is our relationship with China, Trump told a rally in Iowa. The United States and China are the worlds two biggest economies.

China is not a market economy, he said. They havent played by the rules, and I know its time that theyre going to start.

Trump criticized China repeatedly during his presidential campaign and drew a diplomatic protest from Beijing last week after speaking by phone with President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan, which China considers a wayward province.

It was the first such top-level contact with Taiwan by a US president-elect or president since President Jimmy Carter adopted a one-China policy in 1979, recognizing only the Beijing government.

Trump kept up his criticism of Beijing during the rally, which was part of a thank you tour to express gratitude to states that helped him win an upset victory over Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton last month.

You have the massive theft of intellectual property, putting unfair taxes on our companies, not helping with the menace of North Korea like they should, and the at-will and massive devaluation of their currency and product dumping, Trump said of China. Other than that, theyve been wonderful, right?

China is not currently viewed as a currency manipulator by either the US Treasury Department or the International Monetary Fund. The World Trade Organization says Chinese tariffs on imported goods are generally higher than U.S. tariffs.

Trump brought his pick for ambassador to China, Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, onstage, saying Branstad always encouraged him not to say anything negative about China in his state.

I have so many friends there, Trump said Branstad would tell him. Branstad has said he and Chinese President Xi Jinping have a 30-year friendship. The Iowa governor has visited China at least six times, and Xi has been to Iowa twice.

Trump repeated his campaign message that he planned to prioritize the United States and American workers over global interests.

The Trump administration, which takes office on Jan. 20, would focus on two rules: Buy American and hire American, he said, adding he would keep pressuring companies not to move jobs overseas.
Authorities are investigating after the carcass of a wild hog was dumped in the parking lot of an Islamic center in Oklahoma.

Lawton Police spokesman Sgt. Tim Jenkins says security cameras showed a person dropping the carcass at about 2 a.m. Wednesday at the Islamic Center of Lawton, about 75 miles southwest of Oklahoma City. The Lawton Constitution reports that a police sergeant spotted the bloody carcass Wednesday morning and contacted the citys animal control division, which removed the hog.

Read | More mosques receive hate-filled letters from California

The Quran, the holy book of Islam, prohibits Muslims from eating pork, and pigs have been used to taunt or offend Muslims.

Hassan Ahmed, the director of the center, says hes not particularly concerned about finding the culprit and instead wants to educate the community about Islam.

Read more | 437 hate crime incidents recorded against minorities since Trumps victory
The US Senate passed a defence bill on Thursday that, among other things, declared India a major defence partner, as ministers of the two countries wrapped negotiations about the exact contours of the designation that is unique to both.

Though the designation was announced by the Obama administration in June and details were being worked out, the legislation  the National Defense Authorization Act, 2017  codified it, locking in all future administrations.

A section of the bill, which is the US military budget, declared India a major defence partner and directed secretaries of defence and state to take steps to enhance military and security ties with India and appoint an individual to oversee this.

The two officials will give Congress a report within 180 days of the passage of the bill on the state of ties, essentially in defence trade, co-production and co-development of military equipment, and steps being taken.

Neither India nor the US share this designation with another country, the details of which took time working out and were announced in New Delhi after a meeting between defence minister Manohar Parikkar and defence secretary Ash Carter.

The US legislation, passed earlier by the House of Representatives and now headed for the White House for the presidents signature, is largely symbolic, analysts say, signalling a broad congressional support for defence ties with India.

Some who were hoping for a higher designation for India  to match Americas NATO allies and Israel  will be disappointed as will be those who believe Congress could have gone further and dramatically overhauled the dynamics.

But the India designation has been welcomed widely.

I am pleased that the final National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for FY2017 includes my recommended provisions supporting the deepening of US-India bilateral defence relations, including expanded military-to-military engagement, codifying the current organisational structures in the Executive Branch that support defence trade and technological development, and requiring the resolution of impediments to bilateral security cooperation, Senator Mark Warner said in a statement.

Congressman George Holding, who moved a bill on this issue, said, The 2017 NDAA Conference Report demonstrates the bipartisan support in Congress for enhancing the US-India security and defence relationship. The included language will help to promote greater military-to-military cooperation and increase opportunities for defence trade between our two nations.

Mukesh Aghi, president of the US-India Business Council, which pushed for the Indian section in the bill, said, In this legislation, Congress sends very clear directions about the way forward, which link US bureaucratic and regulatory changes to national security and commercial objectives.
The United States will remain committed to Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Friday, amid questions about what president-elect Donald Trumps foreign policy will mean for the country as it faces a renewed Taliban insurgency.

Carter arrived in the Afghan capital on an unannounced visit and met US troops and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.

America is, and will remain, committed to a sovereign and secure Afghanistan, Carter told a news conference with Ghani.

Trump has given few details of his foreign policy plans, with surprisingly few specifics on Afghanistan, where nearly 10,000 US troops remain more than 15 years after the Islamist Taliban were toppled by US-backed Afghan forces.

Afghanistan was barely mentioned during a bitterly fought election campaign, which largely focused on domestic issues, between Republican Trump and his Democratic rival, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton.

Trump, however has said the US should stop carrying out nation building.

Ghani and Trump spoke by telephone last week and the Trump transition team said in a statement they discussed the terrorism threats facing both countries.

One of the most important questions facing Trump on Afghanistan, former officials and experts say, is how many US troops will remain there.

Acknowledging that Afghan security remained precarious and Taliban forces had gained ground in some places, President Barack Obama shelved plans to cut the US presence almost in half by years end, opting instead to keep 8,400 troops there through to the end of his presidency in January.

Ghani on Friday thanked Carter for the US military contribution and its sacrifices in the conflict.

Gen John Nicholson, the commander of US and international forces in Afghanistan, said last week there was a medium level of risk with the current number of US forces.

My assessment of our current capabilities (is that) we have adequate resources to conduct this mission at a moderate level of risk going forward...this is acceptable for what we need to conduct, Nicholson told a Pentagon briefing.

James Dobbins, a former US special envoy for Afghanistan, said Afghanistan would not figure highly for Trump given the fight against Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq.

This, Dobbins said, was likely to mean that the number of US troops in Afghanistan would remain unchanged, at least in the short term.

Trump will inherit a challenging security situation in Afghanistan. A number of provincial capitals have been under pressure from the Taliban while Afghan forces have been suffering high casualty rates, with more than 5,500 killed in the first eight months of 2016.
The National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., realizes a dream first proposed by Civil War veterans.

One of the most affecting artifacts in the Smithsonians new National Museum of African American History and Culture is also its most delicate: a thin lace-and-linen shawl. Draped on a slight mannequin form and yellowed from the passage of time, the shawl conjures up the famous woman who wore it: Harriet Tubman. Looking at it, one can picture not just the two-dimensional face that has appeared in childrens history books or that will eventually grace the $20 bill, but instead the flesh-and-blood woman who risked her life numerous times to guide enslaved people to freedom, who was employed by the U.S. government as an armed scout and spy, and who may have gathered this garment around her frail shoulders as she entered the final years of her remarkably long life.

That is the value of museums and artifacts: They make the imagined concrete, and they bring history into the present. That may be the case with this museum more than any others in the Smithsonian Institution. With culture added to history in the title, the Smithsonian is acknowledging that, the past is not even past, to quote William Faulkner, when it comes to the quest of African Americans for equality in all aspects of lifethe workplace, the battlefield, the political arena and the street.

This landmark comes at a significant time in our history, for the Smithsonian and for our country, said David J. Skorton, secretary of the Smithsonian, at a special event related to the September opening of the museum. It occurs as racial and cultural differences dominate our national discourse.

With its striking crown shape, the 400,000-square-foot museum sits in a prominent place on the Washington Monument grounds in Washington, D.C. It contains more than 3,000 artifacts representing the broad sweep of the African-American experience, from the slave ships crossing from Africa through the Civil Rights movement of the 20th century and into the current realms of politics, sports, activism and the arts. Perhaps not surprisingly, however, the emotional core of the museum lies in its 19th-century collections, in a series of galleries covering slavery, war and emancipation.

Civil War veterans spawned the idea for a national African-American history museum a century ago. In 1915, after they had been excluded from a 50th anniversary event, veterans of the U.S. Colored Troops formed a Committee of Colored Citizens of the Grand Army of the Republic as an effort to recognize their military service. This impulse later evolved into a movement to create a museum depicting the contributions of African Americans across all fields, an effort that waxed and waned throughout the 20th century until Congress finally approved the museums creation in 2003.

Once Congressional funding was secured, the Smithsonian launched an international design competition to choose the museums architects. As with the National Museum of the American Indian before it, there was widespread understanding that this museum would eschew the staid neoclassical style of older Smithsonian buildings such as the Museum of Natural History, in favor of a design that better told its unique story. Ultimately, the design was awarded to a partnership among four architecture firms, the Freelon Group, Adjaye Associates, Davis Brody Bond, and the SmithGroupJJR. Led by design architect David Adjaye, a Ghanaian British national, the design centers on two primary elements: the corona or crown, the three-tiered shape that is clad in 3,600 bronze-colored cast-aluminum panels, and the porch, a nod to African-American (and Southern) culture that is expressed in a broad welcome plaza. The corona is rooted in African history, mimicking the Yoruban Caryatid, a traditional wooden totem with a similar crown on top (an example can be found in one of the galleries). The exterior is punctuated by a series of windows, which the architects call lenses, that frame iconic scenes along the National Mall and remind visitors of African American historys rightful place in that tableau.

Inside, the museum contains 12 inaugural exhibitions organized around three themes: history, community and culture. One descends into the subterranean history gallery first, and its no coincidence that an early, and eerie, experience for visitors is to step into the recreated bowels of a slave ship. Near the ironic words of the Declaration of Independence stating all men are created equal, we see shackles that are small enough to fit a childs ankles. We read a passage revealing that, in 1857, a hundred thousand new-born babes are annually added to the victims of slavery. We see an early-1800s slave cabin, painstakingly moved and restored from Edisto Island, S.C. We see a bill of sale for a girl named Polly, aged 16, sold for $600. We also see the freedom paper carried in a tin box by Joseph Trammel in 1852, when a man of dark complexion, as the paper states, required someone elses signature to secure his basic human rights.

Rather than engage in the war of words about what Northern and Southern soldiers were really fighting for, the museum focuses on how African Americans fought for their own freedom, whether in uniform or not. The museum quotes a colored man in New Orleans, speaking in 1863: Our union friendssay we are fighting for the unionvery well let the white fight for what the[y] want and we Negroes fight for what we want.Liberty must take the day and nothing Shorter.

Wartime artifactsincluding muskets and uniformsare included alongside famous images of Sergeant Samuel Smith, an African-American Union soldier, and his family, as well as Company E, 4th U.S. Colored Troops, lined up at Fort Lincoln in Washington, in November 1865. The museum finds the latter image important enough to include it twice, once in this main history gallery and once also in the upstairs section devoted to African-American military service.

More than the artifacts, what truly distinguishes this museums slavery and Civil War section from others devoted to the period is that the story doesnt end at Appomattox Court House or with the passage of the 14th amendment. The story of hope and the quest for empowerment continues in the upper galleries, which include a segregation-era railway car, a lunch counter evoking anti-segregation sit-ins, a vintage Tuskegee Airmens plane, Michael Jacksons fedora, Gabby Douglas Olympic credentials and much more. The stories continue and they are connected, and thats the point.

Any major new building in the nations capital would be subject to criticism, but an institution this complex and this weighted with expectation was bound to receive its fair share of critique. In his review, The Washington Post architecture and culture critic Philip Kennicott expressed concern that the museum is difficult to navigate, adding that the history it tells often feels disconnected and episodic. In The Guardian, Steven W. Thrasher praised many elements of the museum but called it a monument to respectability politics that might allow people to gloss over the difficult truths of African-American lives. [A] museum like this is also bolstering a national American identity, Thrasher wrote, so it has high ambitions which deserve to be scrutinized.

The criticisms are probably warranted. This is a museum with sharp corners, literally; there is no easy, circular flow from place to place, which could also be construed as a way to keep visitors alert and engaged rather than mollified. The stories being told are so rich and resonant, the artifacts so numerous and the interactive displays so dazzling, that one can easily feel overwhelmed. And yet it is also easy to feel a sense of satisfaction that the vision of those U.S. Colored Troops a century ago, and of so many advocates since, has been fulfilled.

Will some allow that satisfaction to blind them to hard realities? Probably. But museum officials and designers clearly hope that this museum will help to start conversations rather than stifle them.

Just before her death in 1913, when she was 90 or 91 (no one knows for sure), Harriet Tubman quoted scripture to those gathered around her, saying, I go to prepare a place for you. With the opening of this moving museum, a special place has been prepared for Tubman and for so many others who have gone before and given so much. Its a place for all of us.

Kim A. OConnell, based in Arlington, Va., has written about the Civil War for The New York Times, National Parks, National Geographic News and other publications.
Some 30% of cost of Ukrainian agricultural machinery could be refunded to farmers from 2017 budget

Ukraine's Agricultural Policy and Food Ministry has said that around 30% of the cost of Ukrainian-made agricultural machinery with the localization level of 50% could be refunded from the budget.

"We want to provide UAH 500 million to support purchase of Ukrainian-made machinery with the localization level of 50%. This would be implemented via the cost refund program. Around 30% of the cost of Ukrainian machinery will be compensated by the state," Minister Taras Kutoviy said at the Doing Agribusiness in Ukraine 2016 international conference.

He said that the key Ukrainian plants manufacturing agricultural machinery have reached localization of up to 50%.

"We want the localization grow. We tell manufacturers in public, that along with the economic potential they should boost the localization level," he said.
Samsung will soon release date the updated version of Galaxy A7. The original version of the device was released in December 2015.

As per IBTimes, customers are already speculating as what to expect from the mid range device. Although Samsung hasn't confirmed or reveled any of the feature in Galaxy A7 (2017), many rumors are flying around.

A Samsung device has been in the news recently with the model number SM-A720F. This smartphone could very much be the Galaxy A7 (2017).

The device has recently received its Bluetooth, FCC and Wifi certification, circulating many features among the customers. Following that, pictures of the mobile has also been leaked online.

On AnTuTu benchmarking site, the Galaxy A7 (2017) has been listed with a 1,080x1, 920 screen resolution. The device will be powered by an Octa core Exynos 7870 processor with Mali-T830 GPU.

It will also feature an internal memory of 64 GB along with a slot for MicroSD card. The expandable memory hasn't been confirmed yet, but the consumers are hoping for at 128 GB.

Galaxy A7 (2017) will either sport a 5.5-inch or 5.7-inch screen. Furthermore, it will run on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow operating system with 3GB of RAM.

According to the leaked pictures, it seems like the device will come in two colors- Black and Gold. However, more color options can be added at the time of the launch.

Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017) is expected to be unveiled this month, and hit the market in January 2017. The price hasn't been announced yet but it is expected to be somewhere in between $350 to $400.

Apart from Galaxy A7 (2017), customers are anxiously waiting for two other smartphones from Samsung, namely Galaxy S8 and Note 8. Galaxy S8 is expected to be available for public in February 2017, whereas Note 8 may hit the market in August 2017.

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Brad Pitt feels like he is already losing the fight to Angelina Jolie with regard to the divorce and child custody battle. Jolie is somewhat using nasty ways to secure that everything will fall according to how she planned them.

Brad and Angie were once pictured as Hollywood's power and perfect couple nut that has been shattered after the announcement of divorce last September this year. When it has been confirmed, people were wondering as to the real cause until several allegations, rumors and speculations as to the life of the former couple have been slowly revealed.

It has been claimed in the past reports that Jolie is actually behind the smear campaign against Brad. A lot of negative accusations have been thrown to the actor like cheating, alcohol and drug addiction, and child abuse. But until now, none among those things has been proven true.

Because of that, HNGN previously reported that Brad Pitt has been extremely furious over Jolie's past actions and how she deals with the divorce and child custody battle. It can be recalled that Angelina Jolie just filed additional documents in the court regarding the custody case.

Brad Pitt has been left hopeless and he keeps on planning ways on how he can effectively fight his ex-wife and eventually to regain his reputation. Sources claim that Brad shared the crisis the family experience before including the ways Jolie castigates her six kids.

Rumors are claiming, in support of Brad Pitt's revelations, that Angelina Jolie just allow her kids to swear in French and rule the house. This drove Pitt to put his foot down in the household. If there were confrontations between the couple, perhaps it would be something about their parenting styles and rearing their six children as per InTouch magazine.

Meanwhile, speculations are swarming up that Pitt has also been accused of being bisexual and this is somewhat of an overestimation already. Well, Brad Pitt already had enough of all these nasty rumors about him and he is such a hopeless man.

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's divorce battle makes people wonder if the ex-couple would reconcile in the end despite the nasty revelations made starting from its filing.

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Kate Middleton and Prince William are up for another controversy more than their impending divorce rumors and that has something to do with her relationship with Queen Elizabeth.

Reports are swirling that Kate finally surrendered after suffering stress from all the pressures of being a member of the royal family. Apart from that, since William is second heir to the throne, much is also expected of her.

It has been speculated that Queen Elizabeth got so dismayed on how things are working with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Reports before suggest that Kate Middleton has been whining about her royal duties and trips. It was reported too that she is using her kids and before, her pregnancy as excuses to skip some important royal events.

And lately, as reported by Celeb Dirty Laundry, Prince William addressed the stress he experiences in the workplace, at home and even in performing some of his royal duties. What is really happening with The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to the point that they easily surrender when it comes to attending royal obligations.

According to Life and Style magazine, Kate has a silent and secret feud with Queen Elizabeth. The report further added that Kate got already tired of the Queen's constant demands and that she misses her normal life.

Because of this, since it looks like her husband is taking the Queen's side, she plans of divorcing William. But it has been claimed also that this is somewhat more of a rumor.

Meanwhile, Queen Elizabeth has been speculated that she is in fact pushing her grandson to split from Kate. Even if Prince William sees no problem with Kate Middleton, if it's the order of his gradmom, he has to obey considering the many scandals the royal family has already endured. Is the royal family ready fpr another royal split?

Well, whatever happens to Kate Middleton and Prince William, whether they will be heading for a divorce or not is beyond the control of the other members of the royal family.

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Kit Harington and Rose Leslie made for a wonderful on-screen couple in HBO's 'Game of Thrones' when they brought to life the characters of Jon Snow and Ygritte. They played lovers and the love bug also caught them in real life only to turn away along the way. Good news is that they are back again amidst rumors of Kit's relationship with his co-star Emilia Clarke.

Kit Harington and Rose Leslie have reunited as they were spotted together in Belfast recently during Thanksgiving holidays, reports Hall of Fame Magazine. According to the news outlet, Harington was seen with Leslie taking a romantic stroll along the Giant Causeway, thereby, sparking stories that they are back to being lovers and busting rumors of his affair with Emilia Clarke.



Notably, it was being said some time back that the 29-year-old actor had dumped his girlfriend for Clarke and was dating the 'Mother of Dragons.' The affair speculations caught more steam when onset photos of the two made their way to the media. Fans also started theorizing about their affair with some saying that Harington might have split with Leslie to be with Clarke. Those who wanted the two to end up together were thrilled by these stories. However, all of it has been rendered false by the reunion of Leslie and Harington. What is more, it is said that they will get engaged soon as the actor is looking forward to proposing to her, reports Hollywood Take. Their weekend holiday has brought them back into the limelight and it is very obvious that their dating has gotten serious. For those who do not remember, Harington admitted to falling for Leslie on the sets of 'Game of Thrones.' He had revealed in an interview that Season 2 of the HBO show was his favorite because he was shooting in Iceland with Leslie, who played his love interest and it became very easy for him to fall in love with her. It is also worth mentioning here that Kit Harington and Rose Leslie have been in an on-and-off relationship as they broke up in 2013 after starting off in 2010. They reunited in 2014 only to break up sometime later. However, they remained friendly and confirmed their reunion in April 2016.

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National energy company Ukrenergo has divided power lines for exporting electricity to Europe into separate lots (to export electricity to Hungary, Romania and Slovakia) in line with the sector rules, the press service of Ukrenergo has reported.

"The Burshtyn TPP Island (Ukraine)  Hungarian, Slovakian and Romanian power grids mentioned in the letter of the Energy and Coal Industry Ministry [the ministry opposed the approach of Ukrenergo] does not meet the notion of interstate flow determined in the rules, according to which access to a separate flow to each country is to be put up for an auction," Ukrenergo said.

The company said that they had to publish the details of the annual auction to export electricity before approving the issue by the Energy and Coal Industry Ministry, as the term set in Ukrainian law to publish the announcement expired on December 5.

"We are to publish the details of the auction no later than December 5, 2016 - the letter from the NCER [National Commission for Energy, Housing and Utilities Services Regulation] on December 5. The letter from the ministry was received only on December 6. On December 5 it was decided to publish the details of the annual auction for 2017," the press service said.
T he Design Museum has opened at its new home in the old Commonwealth Institute in Kensington High Street. Architects OMA and Allies and Morrison and engineers Arup restored the roof and facade of the Sixties building, while minimalist architectural designer John Pawson restored the interior.

Theres a free permanent exhibition space, two temporary galleries, a restaurant and, in the soaring atrium, the museum shop, packed with design books, magazines and design classics.

We asked senior members of the museum team  plus Pawson and design aficionado Sir Paul Smith  to pick their favourites for their Christmas list  mostly available at designmuseumshop.com.

SIR PAUL SMITH

DESIGNER

Sir Paul Smith

How apt that Smith, an advocate of colour and wit in fashion, should have picked this whimsical kettle, designed in 1983 by Richard Sapper for Alessi. Sapper said kettles should be fun. Its not in the museum shop, but you can buy it at alessi.com for 99.95. It features a whistle that plays a melody when the water boils.

Smiths choice of the 1970 Boby trolley in egg-yolk yellow (400) also mirrors his taste for the fun and funky. This multi-purpose storage unit, by Italian designer Joe Colombo, is a classic example of postwar pop design whose appeal endures. Buy it now.

Smith says: Today this use of moulded plastic seems common and familiar to us but when it was first introduced, it had never been seen before.

REBECCA HOSSAIN

MUSEUM HEAD OF RETAIL

The red Spun chair by Thomas Heatherwick for Magis (335) is a favourite because it reminds me of spinning around as a child, only in an object of design! Buy it now.

And the Vitra wooden doll No7, designed by Alexander Girard (85). I can relate to her curves and expressions. In fact, I am collecting the whole set. Buy it now.

SIR TERENCE CONRAN

MUSEUM FOUNDER

This alert-looking wooden bird (130) is a reproduction by Vitra of one once owned by 20th-century designers Charles and Ray Eames. It instantly reminds Conran of the Eameses, his design heroes.

This curious bird was an artefact they treasuredand stood in the centre of their living room for over 50 years, he says. Buy it now.

The Brown Betty teapot (from 12) might seem an unlikely design classic but, as Conran recalls, it was one of the first, and most successful items sold at Habitat, which he first opened in Chelsea in 1964. It symbolised Habitats philosophy  cheap, utilitarian, unpretentious and cheerful.

Conran also picked this copper bowl (1,010), from John Pawsons 5 Objects homeware collection. This collection is elegant, quiet and luscious. Buy it now.

DEYAN SUDJIC

DIRECTOR OF THE MUSEUM

Sudjics choice of an Anglepoise light was partly influenced by nostalgia. The first piece of design I bought, as a spotty teenager, was an Anglepoise  a Seventies design in a mustard shade.

This is a Paul Smith 2014 interpretation (160) of the Type75 lamp originally created by Anglepoise design director Sir Kenneth Grange in 2005. Smith picked out its various components in pastels or acid-bright hues. Buy it now.

Sudjic also chose a crystal decanter (700) and tumblers (95 each) by Austrian brand Lobmeyr, created by modernist architect Adolf Loos. Buy the decanter | Buy the tumblers

JOHN PAWSON

MUSEUM DESIGNER

This year is the 80th anniversary of Finnish architect and designer Alvar Aaltos iconic glass vase (46), first produced in 1936 for Finnish brand Iittala. Its softly billowing form, inspired by the fringes of lakes, marked a departure from the hard-edged modernism of the Twenties.

Today, just as they were then, the vases are mouth-blown at Iittalas factory. Pawson says: I went to Finland and stayed in the Villa Mairea, designed in the Thirties by Aalto, and remember driving past the lakes that inspired the vase. Buy it now.

The graceful contours of the Butterfly stool (467), which fuses two pieces of bent maple wood, mimic a butterflys wings  hence its name. It was created in 1956 by Japanese designer Sori Yanagi. Pawson has been a fan of his ever since buying a Yanagi-designed Sellotape dispenser in the Seventies.

JUSTIN MCQUIRK

CHIEF CURATOR

Of McQuirks choices, we zeroed in on this practical yet stylish stool in blond wood with a black lino-lined seat (180)  an Alvar Aalto creation. The first version was made in 1933 for Aaltos Viipuri Library in Finland.

McQuirk describes this stackable stool as an ever-handy, modest classic. Its a piece that has proved perennially popular: being stackable and space-saving, its perfect for all homes.
News, events, history, and other mid-week tidbits.

Tuesday, October 25, 4:30  7 p.m.

Orr Area EMS Open House

Brats and burgers will be served. Event includes a new ambulance tour and blood pressure screenings. For more info: 218-780-3798.

Orr Fire Hall

4540 Lake St., Orr

Tuesday, October 25, 12  6 p.m.

Essentia Health Job Fair

Talent recruiters and department managers will be on-site at Essentia Health-Virginia. Candidates from all backgrounds are encouraged to attendnurses, nursing and clinical assistants, surgery technicians, radiology technicians, respiratory therapists, human resource professionals, and those interested in environmental services or nutrition services. Essentia staff will greet candidates, conduct an initial screening and filter them to appropriate hiring managers for interviews. Select candidates will be verbally offered a position before leaving. Candidates are asked to bring a resume, but its not required. Attire is business casual. For more info: www.essentiacareers.org.

901 9th St. N., Virginia
Pubic joint-stock company Ukrtransgaz would announce a new tender to reconstruct compressor stations after revising the top priority directions for modernization of the Ukrainian gas transport system, Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman in parliament on Friday.

"All procedures [the tender to reconstruct Ananiev, Zadniprovska and Pivdennobuhska compressor stations] were held, but Naftogaz made another decision in the issue  this is its sovereign right. Now as I have been informed they are studying viability. There are problems with southern route [due to risks of construction of Turkish Stream] it is likely that they would revise the needs for modernizing the system [gas transport system] and would announce a new tender," he said.

As reported, Naftogaz Ukrainy did not approve the purchase of equipment and works by public joint-stock company Ukrtransgaz from public joint-stock company Sumy Machine-Building Science and Production Association (Sumy NPO) to reconstruct Ananiev, Zadniprovska and Pivdennobuhska compressor stations

Sumy NPO is protesting against the revocation of the orders.
When disasters hit

and residents are told to evacuate, horses and other large animals

are often left behind due to lack of transportation or no options for

a safe place to take them to. Its a heartbreaking scenario that

one family in Sevier County, Tennessee, faced during the recent

wildfires there.

Izzy Carroll is a

four-year-old girl from Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Her family was forced

to evacuate and left Heaven, Izzys Miniature Horse, behind. Heaven

is more than just a beloved family pet; the chestnut mare is a

therapy animal for Izzy, who has a nonverbal form of autism, and the

potential loss was heartbreaking.

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When the family was

able to return to their home and assess the damage, they saw

devastating destruction, but heard a hopeful sound.

We just heard

this scream, said Alisa Carroll, Izzys mother, in an interview

with WBIR. I could just see my whole family take off running that

way. She was there.

Heaven had survived

the fires, but not without sustaining some injuries. She had severe

burns on her face and around her mouth and it was clear that she

would need veterinary attention. But traffic in the area was still

restricted and the Carrolls didnt have a way to transport her

out of the mountains.

Heres where the

power of social media comes in.

Alisa had seen a

post on Facebook about Brian Minton, a man from the area who was

offering to help animals in the aftermath of the fires. Despite the

challenging roads, Minton was able to drive his truck and trailer to

the Carrolls home to rescue Heaven. Her face was too burned for a

halter, so she was left loose in the trailer, but safely made the

journey down the mountain.

Heaven spent the

first few days recovering at Douglas Lakeview Riding Stables and is

continuing her recovery. Fortunately, the Mini Horse is going to be

fine. A friend of the family created a Facebook group to provide updates on Heavens

condition and the familys recovery efforts. There is also a

GoFundMe page to help the family as they begin to rebuild their lives

after the fire that took almost everything.

Leslie Potter is a writer and photographer based in Lexington, Kentucky. www.lesliepotterphoto.com
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In year-over-year comparisons, the industrys occupancy fell 1.5% to 56.0%. Average daily rate (ADR) increased 0.5% to US$117.31. Revenue per available room (RevPAR) declined 1.0% to US$65.65.

The U.S. hotel industry reported mostly negative results in the three key performance metrics during the week of 27 November through 3 December 2016, according to data from STR.

In year-over-year comparisons, the industrys occupancy fell 1.5% to 56.0%. Average daily rate (ADR) increased 0.5% to US$117.31. Revenue per available room (RevPAR) declined 1.0% to US$65.65.

San Diego, California, was the only Top 25 Market to record double-digit growth in ADR (+21.6% to US$157.39) and RevPAR (+26.0% to US$101.08). Occupancy in the market increased 3.6% to 64.2%.

Washington, D.C.-Maryland-Virginia, experienced the largest occupancy increase (+3.9% to 62.0%) and the second largest rise in RevPAR (+8.8% to US$89.04).

Overall, five the Top 25 Markets experienced a year-over-year occupancy increase for the week. Eight markets recorded positive RevPAR performance.

Houston, Texas, reported the only double-digit decline in occupancy (-14.0% to 54.5%) and the steepest drop in RevPAR (-18.9% to US$55.32). ADR in the market was down 5.7% to US$101.47.

Four additional markets saw a double-digit RevPAR decrease for the week: Orlando, Florida (-15.3% to US$71.76); Miami/Hialeah, Florida (-13.4% to US$197.58); New Orleans, Louisiana (-10.2% to US$88.47); and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-New Jersey (-10.1% to US$69.69).

Miami/Hialeah reported the only double-digit drop in ADR (-10.1% to US$250.16).

View weekly U.S. hotel performance review

STR provides clients from multiple market sectors with premium, global data benchmarking, analytics and marketplace insights. Founded in 1985, STR maintains a presence in 10 countries around the world with a corporate North American headquarters in Hendersonville, Tennessee, and an international headquarters in London, England. For more information, please visit str.com.
In year-over-year comparisons, the countrys occupancy increased 1.3% to 60.0%. Average daily rate (ADR) for the week was up 1.2% to CAD137.15. Revenue per available room (RevPAR) grew 2.6% to CAD82.35.

The Canadian hotel industry reported positive results in the three key performance metrics during the week of 27 November through 3 December 2016, according to data from STR.

In year-over-year comparisons, the countrys occupancy increased 1.3% to 60.0%. Average daily rate (ADR) for the week was up 1.2% to CAD137.15. Revenue per available room (RevPAR) grew 2.6% to CAD82.35.

Among the provinces, Prince Edward Island recorded the largest year-over-year increases in each of the three key performance metrics. Occupancy in the province rose 11.6% to 46.1%, ADR was up 9.6% to CAD112.02 and RevPAR grew 22.3% to CAD51.60.

Two additional provinces experienced double-digit RevPAR growth for the week: Ontario (+12.3% to CAD94.97) and Quebec (+11.0% to CAD88.82).

No other province reported a double-digit increase in the three metrics.

Two provinces experienced a double-digit decline in RevPAR: Manitoba (-11.9% to CAD79.64) and Saskatchewan (-11.9% to CAD67.36).

Manitoba reported the largest drop in ADR (-9.8% to CAD118.71).

Saskatchewan saw the steepest decline in occupancy (-5.4% to 54.4%).

STR provides clients from multiple market sectors with premium, global data benchmarking, analytics and marketplace insights. Founded in 1985, STR maintains a presence in 10 countries around the world with a corporate North American headquarters in Hendersonville, Tennessee, and an international headquarters in London, England. For more information, please visit str.com.
Hyatt Centric Waikiki Beach Hotel Opens

Developed by Chartres Lodging Group and CoastWood Capital, Hyatt Centric Waikiki Beach offers a modern guestroom design, including floor-to-ceiling windows with panoramic views of the ocean and Diamond Head, spa-like bathrooms with Drybar Buttercup blow dryers, and spacious floorplans that enhance the guest experience.

Located in the former Waikiki Trade Center, the hotel is the first Hyatt Centric hotel in the state of Hawaii, introducing 230 contemporary guestrooms and suites in the heart of the world-famous destination. To commemorate its opening, the hotel will host a grand opening celebration on Jan. 19, 2017, that will kick-off with Hawaii's first-ever Walk For Wishes event, benefitting Make-A-Wish Hawaii.

"The revitalization of this property has been an incredible journey, and our entire Hyatt Centric Waikiki Beach family is overjoyed to welcome guests," said Charles Young, General Manager of Hyatt Centric Waikiki Beach. "We are proud to play a role in the renaissance of Kuhio Avenue. Our hotel is a true launch pad for guests to explore and discover the best of Waikiki's urban setting."

Developed by Chartres Lodging Group and CoastWood Capital, Hyatt Centric Waikiki Beach offers a modern guestroom design, including floor-to-ceiling windows with panoramic views of the ocean and Diamond Head, spa-like bathrooms with Drybar Buttercup blow dryers, and spacious floorplans that enhance the guest experience. The hotel boasts a variety of upscale amenities including a lounge pool, outdoor seating with circular fire pits, and a 24/7 fitness facility. The hotel's bar and restaurant, The Lanai, will be led by Chef Yoshi Ohata. The 1,900-square-foot eatery is set in a modern, island-inspired space and will introduce creative Pacific fusion dishes to Waikiki's culinary scene.

Several popular retailers also join the property in re-energized storefronts, including a two-level Nordstrom Rack, which opened in September 2016, Starbucks offering craft beers, wines, and gourmet appetizers in the evening hours, Jamba Juice, and American Savings Bank.

"Our vision for this hotel was to create a unique, forward-looking offering for travelers that seek to incorporate exploration into their international experience," said Maki Nakamura Bara, President and Co-Founder of Chartres Lodging Group. "Hyatt Centric Waikiki Beach reflects the spirit of exploration and discovery that is at the core of the Hyatt Centric brand and is a fantastic addition to the thriving tourism market."

Construction on the property began in summer 2015, with renovations led by Swinerton Builders, local architecture firm Group 70, and California design firm DESIGN360unlimited. Throughout the transformation, the project created approximately 600 construction jobs and 100 full-time and part-time positions.

In partnership with Make-A-Wish Hawaii, the hotel's grand opening celebration on Jan. 19, 2017 will feature the state's first Walk For Wishes fundraiser. At the walk event, key stakeholders, community members, and Hyatt Centric Waikiki Beach colleagues will come together to celebrate the legacy of the nonprofit organization and raise funds to grant wishes to local children battling life-threatening medical conditions.

A valuable land asset of Queen Emma Land Company, the redeveloped Waikiki Trade Center will directly support The Queen's Medical Center, the state's largest private, nonprofit hospital.

Hyatt Centric Waikiki Beach will be the 12th hotel in the Hyatt Centric brand's portfolio, joining hotels in North America and Latin America destinations including New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, Key West, Montevideo, Uruguay, among others. Rates start at $229.
Sales & Marketing Veteran to Oversee Marketing and Sales Initiatives for 18 Noble House Properties

Noble House Hotels & Resorts, Ltd. this week announced the appointment of Allison Kneubuhl as Senior Vice President of Marketing & Sales. In this role, Kneubuhl will oversee all marketing strategies and sales efforts and aid in growing the brand in locations with distinction and character.

"Allison Kneubuhl is an exceptional addition to the Noble House team with her extensive experience and proven track record with luxury hotels," said Founder & Chairman of Noble House Hotels & Resorts Pat Colee. "We're confident her creativity and industry insight will be a valued asset during this exciting time as we continue to grow."

With over 36 years of experience, Kneubuhl has held various sales and marketing roles with luxury brands such as Regent International Hotels, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, Pan Pacific Hotels and Resorts and Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts. Most recently, she was the president and founder of her own company, Allimar Marketing, a luxury hotel marketing services firm, where she lead marketing services for 15 years with clients like One&Only Palmilla, Sea Island Resort, Koa Kea Hotel & Resort, Kona Village, The St. Regis Los Angeles, San Ysidro Ranch and The Carneros Inn in Napa Valley.

A graduate of University of Washington with a degree in Communications, Allison Kneubuhl is based in Seattle, Washington.

A privately held company for more than 30 years, Noble House Hotels & Resorts, Ltd. was founded in 1979 by owner Patrick R. Colee as a commercial property development group, transitioning in 1994 to a hotel ownership management company. Headquartered in Seattle, Wash., the corporation owns and manages an upscale portfolio of 18 distinct and visually captivating properties spanning the U.S.
Kyiv reports 15 attacks on its positions in Donbas in past 24 hours

Weapons forbidden by the Minsk agreements were used against Ukrainian Anti-Terrorist operation (ATO) positions 15 times in the past 24 hours, the ATO staff said on Facebook.

Ukrainian ATO positions came under attack of 120mm mortars near Pisky, and grenade launchers, heavy machineguns and small arms were fired in Avdiyivka in the Donetsk sector, the report said.

In the Mariupol sector, mortars, grenade launchers, infantry combat vehicles and small arms were engaged in attacks on Shyrokyne, Talakivka, Maryinka and Vodiane, the staff said.

Lobacheve and Novo-Oleksandrivka were shelled with 82mm mortars and anti-aircraft guns in the Luhansk sector, it said.
Earlier this week, the [sometimes] reliable @DJFolk reported that Jordan Brands 2017 lineup would include the Bred Air Jordan 4 and the Shadow Air Jordan 1 which had the sneaker community buzzing.

Unfortunately, Jordan Brand has shot down those rumors. The style codes of the upcoming 1s and 4s might be similar to those aforementioned classics but as of now theyre not being retrod next year.

Its not all doom and gloom for 2017 though, as the Bred Air Jordan 13 (with 3M), Olive Air Jordan 8 and Royal Air Jordan 1s are still among the Air Jordans that are scheduled to release, so youll have plenty of options to blow your pay check on.
Released just one month after Bap sadly passed away, Reckless Heart is a collection of soulful rock tunes with and upbeat tone that is a testament to the personality of the man himself.

Lonely Street Records and the Kennedy family had worked tirelessly to try to get the album released before Bap's death, but sadly it was not to be.

Bap Kennedy had been diagnosed with pancreas and bowel cancer in May and had lived out his final months in hospice care. Tributes from the likes of Van Morrison and Ralph McLean followed the news his passing.

The family agreed that the best way to honour the legacy of the Belfast musician was to continue with the release of Reckless Heart at the earliest opportunity.

Reckless Heart was released in the UK/Ireland on December 2, with the US release being confirmed for January 27 2017. January 27 will also see the vinyl edition of the album available worldwide.

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Listen to 'Nothing Can Stand in the Way of Love' from Reckless Heart here:
Not much has changed as we take a look at the Irish Charts this week. The top three slots are filled by chart veterans Clean Bandit (Featuring Sean Paul & Annemarie), Weeknd (featuring Daft Punk) with their single 'Starboy,' and James Arthur with 'Say You Won't Let Go.'

Although there are no newly released singles to report in the top ten, several artists have jumped over twenty spaces to be in the limelight. Aoife Parle went from thirty-nine to number five this week, with her song 'Silver Lining,' which became popular this month to raise funds for Tesco's Community Fund.

Elsewhere on the charts, Mariah Carey's 'All I Want For Christmas Is You' appears in the top ten just in time for the Christmas season.
An Taoiseach Enda Kenny TD (pictured), was joined yesterday in the newly-restored Shaw Room of the National Gallery of Ireland, by the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Heather Humphreys TD, and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Paschal Donohoe TD, for the launch of the Creative Ireland Programme / Clar Eire Ildanach.

Creative Ireland is the Governments Legacy Programme for Ireland 2016. It is a five-year all-of-government initiative, from 2017 to 2022, which at its core is what is described as "a wellbeing strategy, which aims to improve access to cultural and creative activity in every county across the country."

Creative Irelands stated aims are to prioritise childrens access to art, music, drama and coding; to enhance the provision of culture and creativity in every community; to further develop Ireland as a global hub for film and TV production; to empower and support Ireland's artists; to drive investment in our cultural institutions; and to further enhance our global reputation abroad. From 2018, an annual County of Culture will also be held each year.

In a statement issued by the Department of Arts, Heritage and Regional Affairs, the initiative was explained as follows:

"Creative Ireland is built around five pillars:

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 Enabling the Creative Potential of Every Child

 Enabling Creativity in Every Community

 Investing in our Creative and Cultural Infrastructure

 Ireland as a Centre of Excellence in Media Production

 Unifying our Global Reputation

Key initiatives to be delivered in 2017 include:

 The publication of a five year Creative Children plan which will enable every child to access tuition in music, drama, art and coding

 Each Local Authority will appoint a Culture Team to drive local needs and will publish a Culture Plan for their own county

 A new annual cultural day, Cruinniu na Casca to be held nationwide on Easter Monday each year, replicating the very successful Reflecting the Rising event, which was held in Dublin this year

 The Departments of Arts and Social Protection will devise a mechanism to assist self-employed artists who have applied for Jobseekers Allowance. This would be a pilot scheme.

 A planned investment programme for Irelands cultural and heritage infrastructure, including our national cultural institutions

 An industry wide, long term plan to develop Ireland as a global hub for film, TV drama and animation

Creative Ireland will bring an enhanced level of coordination, focus and leadership to existing policies and initiatives across national and local government, State agencies, the arts and culture sector, Gaeltacht and Irish language organisations, and will provide linkages to the private business and NGO sectors.

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There were encouraging words from the podium.

Creative Ireland is about placing culture at the centre of our lives, for the betterment of our people and for the strengthening of our society, an Taoiseach, Enda Kenny said. "Together we can do extraordinary things: we can make Ireland the first country in the world to guarantee access for every child to tuition and participation in art, music, drama and coding. We can make every local authority a dynamic hub of cultural creativity. We can unlock the huge potential of our people in the creative industries. And we can make an important statement to ourselves and to the world about the interdependency of culture, identity and citizenship."

Creative Ireland, as an Ireland 2016 legacy project, is inspired by the extraordinary public response to the Centenary Programme," Minster for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs Heather Humphreys TD., said. "This year thousands of cultural events were held around the country, bringing people together in shared reflections on identity, culture and citizenship that combined history, arts, heritage and language. We now want to build on the success of the commemorations and plan ambitiously for our arts and culture sectors for the years ahead. Creative Ireland will ensure that children can participate in the arts from an early age, and it will drive cultural engagement in every county nationwide. We want to make Ireland a global hub for film and TV production, while also investing in our cultural institutions. Creative Ireland puts culture and creativity at the centre of public policy, which will benefit artists and citizens nationwide This is a very ambitious public policy initiative; possibly the most significant for the arts and cultural sectors in a generation."

When we talk about capital investment we must think beyond buildings," Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Paschal Donohoe TD, added. "We must think, primarily, about investment in human capital and human creativity. The Government recognises that high quality infrastructure is critical for a vibrant arts and culture sector and that such investment underpins social cohesion and supports strong and sustainable economic growth. I look forward to seeing imaginative, ambitious capital development plans for all of our cultural institutions that contain a clear focus on the element of creative human capital, and the good that our cultural institutions can do, beyond the confines of their physical buildings.

All in all it is an ambitious programme. It deserves a positive response. But it is vital too that everyone involved at Government level lives up to the aspirations expressed.
Have you heard a musician who makes "industrial noise that feels like an earthquake from every angle?"

Whelan's (Upstairs venue) is hosting Gross Net for the launch of their debut LP Quantative Easing. Somerville will support the band, as well as records from GIB & Mariah Black

The Belfast artists Gross Net began as a guitar/bass/drum-machine duo of Philip Quinn (Girls Names) and Christian Donaghey (Autumns), but they soon blossomed new ideas and strayed away from the initial route. Quinn eventually managed Gross Net as a solo venture and released a collection of re-commissioned tracks from past releases.

On working solo, Quinn shares, Previously I thought it unideal for me to work alone but now I find the freedom liberating. I can come up with somewhat extreme ideas that would probably be vetoed in a more band situation. In a way I feel like one of those companies that dont pay any tax; I can do whatever the fuck I want."

If you go on Thursday night, you're sure to fall into a dark, post-Brexit dystopia world." Im also keen to use themes which reflect the times were living in, certainly the darkest days Ive seen in my lifetime. Sometimes I feel like Im just constantly wading through a cultural and political cesspit. Im choking. Some of the lyrics are a bit on the nose, but theyre honest and I mean them. Theres some humour in there too, after all, if you didnt laugh youd hang yourself.

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See them on Thursday, December 15

Whelan's ( Upstairs Venue)

Show starts at 8pm and is 10

Tickets available here: https://dice.fm/event/gross-net-15th-dec-whelans-dublin-tickets
We've also tasty treats from Blink, The Jesus & Mary Chain, J. Cole & Cat Stevens

We thought the Grim Reaper might have fucked right off with himself but, no, the Hot Press flag was flying at half-mast again this week as Greg Lake succumbed to cancer.

It seemed extra poignant given that the former ELP man has become synonymous with I Believe In Father Christmas, one of the coolest of Yule songs. Thank you, Sir, for the happy memories.

To cheer ourselves up weve assembled another ace collection of Free Music Friday downloads, streams, vids and trailers, which kicks off with this stunning acoustic session from hot Nashville property Margo Price who plays the Dublin Button Factory on January 22. Well be talking to the Buffalo Prairie, Illinois firecracker in our Hot For 2017 Special, which hits stands with an almighty thud next month. Jack White adores her, and so do we.

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Cut from the same classic country cloth is this version of The Rose With The Broken Neck, which Jack White performed in Jackson, Wyoming with some old friends.

Mr. W has also helped Cat Stevens to reprise his 1960s debut single, I Love My Dog.

At The Drive-In have released their first new song in 16-years, Governed By Contagions, which they'll give you in return for your email address, which seems a fair swap. From an as-yet-unnamed album, it reminds us of the Dead Kennedys.

Also turning back the clock with the first taster from Januarys Damage And Joy album are The Jesus & Mary Chain. Hopefully this means the brothers Reid will treat us to another scabrous Vicar St. show.

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If its metal-punk spew youre after, look no further than Kralices Hate Power, which is just one of 31 tunes available free click here

Also worthy of your immediate download attention is The Life And Death Of Scenery, a full-length offering from North Carolinas LOrange and Mr. Lif. click here

Enemies say "farewell cruel rock world!" with album number three, Valuables, which can be streamed in its wonderful entirety. We're gonna miss the old scamps...

Power pop fans will love the generously endowed 18-track introduction to Fastball, an Austin band who we suspect have a few Squeeze records in their collection.

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Captain Cuts, the production trio whove worked with everyone from Ellie Goulding and Grouplove to Icona Pop and Britney, go for glory themselves with the Kanye-referencing Life Of Emo.

Legendary Dublin popsters Blink celebrate the March 23 re-release of their A Map Of The Universe album, with new tune Happy Christmas 22 (I Still Miss You).

How could we possibly resist a free album from a Finnish punk band called Flapperpuck?

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Kings & Beggars (2016) by Fladderpuck

Kings & Beggars (2016) by Fladderpuck

Peter Milton Walsh, who was briefly a Go-Between scores another massive French hit with No Song, No Spell, No Madrigal. Pretty much unknown elsewhere, the Australian may just be the oldest person on our impending Hot For 2017 list.

Overhead, The Albatross go vocal (well, sort of) on the typically coruscating Our Youth Our Younger.

J. Cole trails his Eyez album with this slick mini-doc.

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Tokyos Diskotopia label treats us to a 15-track sampler featuring offerings from the likes of Greeen Linez, A Taut Line, Outerwear and Fujimoto Testuro.

DSK F/W 2016-2017 Free Compilation by Diskotopia

Kate Moss dons a 68 Comeback Special leather jumpsuit and lip syncs her way through the vid for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra-assisted version of Elvis The Wonder Of You.

Its a Free Music Friday howaya to St. Francis Hotel, a London-Irish production duo who are making some serious waves internationally.

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Mixtape of the Week honours go to DJs Critical and Clyde who mash Kanye and Chance The Rapper up into something truly remarkable. How copyright compliant it all is were not sure.



DJ Critical Hype & DJ Clyde - Chance The Dropout

And that is where the penultimate Free Music Friday of the year slings its immaculate hook. If you want to get in before 2017, zap your links ASAP to @stuartclark66
Ukrainian and German Defense Ministries have agreed to send military advisors to Ukraine.

A corresponding agreement on the assigning of the German military advisors to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine was signed in Kyiv on Thursday by Deputy Defense Minister of Ukraine on European Integration Ihor Dolhov and Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Defense of Germany Ralf Brauksiepe, the press service of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry reported on Thursday.

Under the agreement, the German consultant will come to the National Army Academy named after Hetman Petro Sahaidachny in Lviv to provide consultations in the sphere of defense.

According to Brauksiepe, it is another evidence of the close cooperation between the two countries.
Braskem, a Brazilian company, will start up its second Houston-area plastics plant in La Porte this month, adding to the growth of the region's booming petrochemical industry.

The plant, which will open after completing construction in October, gives Latin America's largest petrochemical company an expanded Texas presence after buying plants from Sunoco and Dow Chemical Co. beginning in 2010. This is the first time Braskem will produce its ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene, known as "UTEC" in the U.S., said Chris Gee, Braskem's global business director.
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A 4-month-old Katy company is finding opportunity in rising police concerns over attacks on officers nationwide.

Veterans MFG on Thursday delivered 10 bulletproof shields that are designed to protect officers sitting in their patrol vehicles to the Katy Police Department. Founders Mike Hlozek and Billy Gibbons say they were inspired to develop the shields, which fit the vehicles' window space, by officers who said they felt vulnerable while sitting behind the wheel, tending to paperwork or other duties.

"I think it will help a lot of officers perform their job with a little more ease and comfort," Katy police Officer Steve Kelleher said this week.

The department cited a reported uptick in attacks on police for moving quickly to purchase new gear, including the shields and 60 bulletproof vests strong enough to stop even a powerful rifle shot.

"Before when officers got in shootings, it was because a subject had committed a crime and was trying to get away," Capt. Bryon Woytek said. "Now, law enforcement are being targeted for no reason at all."

Veterans MFG offers the rifle-rated shields online for $799 and pistol-rated shields for $399. Law enforcement and military members, active or retired, can receive discounts. Veterans MFG and Katy police officials would not say how much the department paid for Thursday's delivery.

This purchase comes at a time when police interaction with civilians is under increased scrutiny. Both police shootings of unarmed black men and ambush-style attacks on police have garnered headlines. Last month, law enforcement personnel in Texas, Iowa, Missouri and Florida were attacked while sitting in their vehicles.

Twenty officers across the country have been fatally shot this year in some sort of ambush, the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund reports. That is the highest number since 1995.

"The time is certainly right for all options to be considered when it comes to protecting law enforcement officers from these targeted acts of violence," said Craig W. Floyd, the memorial fund's founding president and CEO.

Better ways?

Yet John Fullinwider, co-founder of Dallas-based Mothers Against Police Brutality, believes there are better ways to protect officers. He advocates for enhanced mental health care and stricter gun control, especially for high-powered rifles, that would reduce the number of conflicts officers have to face.

Both Fullinwider and James Douglas, president of the NAACP Houston branch, want to eliminate violence on both sides.

"We ought to curb the incidents of overreaction on the part of police, but we also ought to do everything that's necessary to protect their lives," Douglas said.

Floyd said several products like Veterans MFG's shield are being explored to protect officers in their vehicles.

Another idea is a sensor that sounds an alert when someone approaches.

Ultimately, he said, police department budgets and the usability of new products will determine what is adopted.

"I like the idea that companies are looking for ways, looking for technologies, looking for products and services that can better protect our officers," he said.

Easy to pick up

Hlozek said his company's shields are shaped like car windows with a small slit so officers can see outside. They can be placed against the window when the vehicle is parked or can be kept in the passenger seat where a handle makes it easy to grab.

The shields have an arm strap and can be carried outside the vehicle, too. The edges are reinforced with metal for officers to protect themselves from threats or, if needed, attackers.

The shields purchased by the Katy Police Department weigh 11 pounds and protect against pistols and rifles, including the .257 Weatherby Magnum, .300 Winchester Magnum, AK-47 and AR-15. Lighter rifle-rated shields can be ordered, and the company makes a shield that weighs 3 pounds but protects only against pistols.

Peace of mind

Kelleher, the Katy officer, hopes the shield will provide his family some peace of mind.

"They hate to see me walking out the door because of everything that's going on," he said.

Being able to protect people like Kelleher is what drives Hlozek and Gibbons.

They previously worked in energy, and the idea for Veterans MFG blossomed after they were laid off. Hlozek, an Army veteran, said their new career is more rewarding.

"I'm doing my part to help protect our country and to help protect the people who are keeping our country safe," he said.
Republicans best tread carefully when they overhaul Obamacare.

Now that Donald Trump has won the presidency and the GOP controls both houses of Congress, the ruling party's plans for a new health care law sounds a lot less ambitious than when Texas Sen. Ted Cruz promised to repeal every word of the Affordable Care Act.

In fact, Trump has said he plans to keep the most popular features of Obamacare, such as allowing parents to keep their adult children on their plans until age 26. He wants to keep the prohibition on insurance companies denying coverage for pre-existing conditions.

Even House Speaker Paul Ryan says he doesn't want to hurt the 21 million who depend on the Affordable Care Act for insurance. That's good news, because I have long called on Republicans to fix the health care law.

Any quick repeal of the ACA would bounce 2.6 million Texans off the insurance rolls, according to reporting by my colleague Jenny Deam. And frankly Texas can't afford that, because we already have the nation's highest uninsured rate.

And we all know what uninsured people do when they get sick, right? They put off going to the doctor until they are seriously ill, and then they go to the emergency department of a public hospital. The doctors there have an obligation to treat uninsured people, who rarely pay their bills.

Those hospitals must then raise fees on people with insurance and collect taxpayer money to cover those costs. And even then, uninsured patients are a major problem for hospitals since insurance companies are pushing back on the higher fees.

The purpose of getting everyone insured is to lower costs over time by treating people before they become seriously ill and putting them into a doctor's office for treatment instead of an emergency department. Anyone who tells you that we can save money by returning to the days when 25 percent of Texans did not have insurance is not telling the truth.

The other victims of a speedy repeal of the ACA would be the primary care doctors who are treating newly insured Texans. If their patients lose their insurance, they are no longer going to those doctors, which will mean lost revenues.

Since the health care industry is the largest employer in Houston, what's good for doctors and hospitals is good for Houston.

I expect the new Congress will pass a bill repealing Obamacare early next year and proclaim victory. But when you look at the fine print, you'll see that the repeal will not go into effect until 2019. That will give Republicans two years to figure out how to keep what people love about Obamacare while fixing its problems.

Sure, they won't call it Obamacare anymore, but make no mistake, the core principle of reducing the number of uninsured will live on. To do otherwise would create suffering and bankrupt the health care industry.
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Atrocities can be so easily forgotten in the 21st century.

The maw of streaming news quickly diverts our sense of loss, astonishment or anger to the next hour's tragedy; or we hear so much about a situation we just go numb to it.

Until, maybe, the languages of literature, music and visual art speak more powerfully to our conscience. Two thought-provoking exhibitions in Houston this fall aim for just that.

Asia Society Texas Center is presenting "In the Wake: Japanese Photographers Respond to 3/11," a show from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston that examines the aftermath of March 11, 2011, when a powerful earthquake off the eastern shore of Japan triggered a devastating tsunami and irrevocably damaged a nuclear power plant.

Nearby at the Holocaust Museum Houston, Clint Willour has curated "Genocide? Man's Inhumanity to Humankind," works by Texas artists who explore how humans heap monstrosities upon each other. He used a question mark in the title because he wanted to expand viewers' thoughts about how genocide is manifested - well beyond the four official and two pending genocides recognized by the United Nations.

Visiting the exhibits, I gravitated to standout works from each show that condense sprawling ideas into single images.

More Information 'In the Wake: Japanese Photographers Respond to 3/11' When: 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturdays-Sundays, through Jan. 1 Where: Asia Society Texas Center, 1370 Southmore Tickets: Free; 713-596-9901, asiasociety.org/texas 'Genocide? Man's Inhumanity to Humankind' When: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays-Fridays, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturdays, noon-5 p.m. Sundays, through Dec. 31 Where: Holocaust Museum Houston, 5401 Caroline Tickets: $8-$12, students and children free; 713-942-8000, hmh.org See More Collapse

At the Asia Society, Ishu Han's huge "Life Scan Fukushima" pixilates a now iconic depiction of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant (which from an angle also resembles the ruins of a Roman colosseum) with tiny images of 1-yen coins - a reference to human decisions that compounded the disaster.

"Nuclear power is intimately connected with the economy, and the government stirs up the public about it as if life as we know it could not exist without it," Han writes. "The scene of that ruined edifice is the very image of ourselves."

In a similar vein, but without the blurred effect that makes your eyes hurt, Houston photographer Joe Aker has layered thousands of small images into the figure of a Tibetan monk for his digital composition "If you kill enough of them, they quit trying."

Aker said a trip to Tibet inspired him to create his piece.

"I saw what was happening to the people and culture of the Tibetan people, and it really horrified me," he said. "I got to thinking of what 99 percent of the people in the world really want and came up with four things: peace, safety for family, food and shelter. Then I began to think about all the times in which innocent people were denied these things because of war, hate and greed."

The images he overlaid onto the figure unfold as a minutely detailed timeline of horrors, taken from a string of conflicts that date from the American Civil War (one of the first wars to be captured in photographs) to the present. He also included images of "people killing others in the name of something to justify their own hate and greed," Aker said.

Willour awarded Aker's piece first place in the Holocaust Museum's juried competition because it encapsulates much of what he wants viewers to take away from the show about genocide.

"How does it start, and how is it being promulgated? What makes it continue to happen?" Willour said. "It's all over the world, and it's happening all the time."

He divided the "Genocide" show into galleries that illuminate atrocities across several centuries and six continents. The "Americana" room containing works about slavery and civil rights is particularly strong, as is a section devoted to Armenia and the Ukraine.

The captivating small paintings of Lydia Bodnar-Balahutrak's "Another Kind of Icon" honor victims of a famine orchestrated by Josef Stalin in Ukraine in the early 1930s. Nestor Topchy considers Ukraine more broadly, also referencing the Ottoman Empire, with "Your Wound or Mine?," a quiet, small mixed-media piece that looks like a ruined, ancient painting.

Sharon Kopriva's "Finale" ends the show with a magnificent drawing that makes a nuclear explosion look spacey. With a statement on the wall label, she challenges viewers to think more about what's ahead of humanity than behind it: "The past we cannot change. But our future, our destiny, we must own."

Earth-grown mushrooms make an appearance at the Asia Society's show, in Takashi Homma's series featuring specimens shot on white backdrops, in a style somewhere between botanicals and laboratory documentation. These are contaminated mushrooms gathered from woods near the Fukushima nuclear plant.

"In the Wake" covers a range of approaches, from poetic photojournalism to metaphorical compositions, conveying how profoundly life has been altered as a result of the 3/11 catastrophes, bringing seismic shifts not just to the land itself but to peoples' sense of time, memory and reality.

The tsunami killed 15,000 people and scrubbed the landscape as far as 200 miles inland. The failure of the Fukushima nuclear plant created a no-man's land with a radius of more than 12 miles that is still too dangerous to approach.

This show offers much to appreciate and ponder, including ominously beautiful and reflective daguerreotypes by Takashi Arai; Rinko Kawauchi's poignant slide show about a pair of black-and-white domesticated pigeons looking for home in a demolished village; a dark landscape from Lieko Shiga's "Rasen kaigan (Spiral Shore)" series; and Daisuke Yokota's surreal, apparitionlike compositions.

"If there has been anything important that has come of this tragedy, it has not been in the act of recording the changes in things that are visible to the eye," Yokota writes. "It has been in the act of thinking about my own consciousness and how it has inevitably been changed."

Multiply that thought.
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First published May 24, 2012  My car crept past a ranch house with a tire swing hanging from a big tree. "You can feel it, can't you?" asked NASA historian Rebecca Wright, riding shotgun. "It's very much a neighborhood."

We were driving slowly through Timber Cove  something that, in the '60s, outsiders did all the time. They came for the same reason that I did: to see the earthly homes of the men who flew into space.

Timber Cove was home to all sorts of NASA employees, but it wasn't the pocket-protected rocket scientists who attracted the slow drivers. It was the astronauts, those jut-jawed heroes as glamorous as Hollywood stars. Gus Grissom and Wally Schirra were next-door neighbors on Pine Shadows; Jim Lovell lived one street over, on Lazywood Lane. Sleepy Hollow Court was home to Scott Carpenter, Pete Conrad and, most famous of them all, John Glenn.

MISSION MOON: Relive the Apollo 11 moon landing with our Mission Moon project and podcast

The neighbors did what they could to protect the astronauts' families. They couldn't help much during missions. Before a launch, the national media built huge transmission towers and erected TV camera platforms in the astronaut families' front yards. Crowds of newsmen gathered in the front yards, and photographers shot paparazzi-style over the back fences.

But the neighbors could, at least, protect the astronaut families' privacy on other days - those days when cars drove slowly through the neighborhood, and sightseeing buses cruised the streets, everyone hoping to wave to an astronaut in his own front yard. When reporters and sightseers would ask neighbors for directions to an astronaut's house, the neighbors engaged in what one resident calls "creative misdirection."

Which is to say: They lied. Timber Cove was very much a neighborhood. And they protected their own.

"THE COMMUNITY of moonwalkers" is what the NASA historians call the Clear Lake area. I wanted a guide to show me that community in its most potent form. So I recruited Wright to ride with me through Timber Cove.

I picked her up at her office, near Johnson Space Center. As we drove, she motioned toward the office buildings, hotels and apartment complexes that line NASA Parkway. When President John F. Kennedy announced in 1961 that the United States would go to the moon, she said, there was nothing there. It was open land - pastureland, cattle ranches and vegetable farms. And the closest towns were places so tiny that the law-enforcement officials were guys who bought their own badges and drove their family cars.

From JSC, we drove east, crossing the bridge over Mud Lake. Timber Cove, about five miles away in Seabrook, was that rarest of things in 1961: a nearby subdivision.In 1958, its developers had conceived the Taylor Lake neighborhood as a lakeside getaway. "Live where the fun is," they urged in one brochure. But few families had chosen to do so.

The space rush changed all that. Timber Cove's empty lots sprouted ranch house after ranch house, most occupied by NASA families. Clumped together, full of high purpose in the middle of nowhere, the new neighbors formed tight bonds. It was a neighborhood where people knew each other's names and waved. On weekends, a man who grew up there told the NASA historians, the neighbors would gather at each other's houses for parties; where else were they going to go, out in the middle of nowhere? But even then, the dads never stopped talking about work: The engineers literally drew spacecraft designs on cocktail napkins.

Wright and I pulled up to the neighborhood swimming pool on Shorewood Drive. "This was the center of the kids' social lives," she said. I parked on the street to get a better look, and yes, what I'd heard was true.

The pool was shaped like a Mercury space capsule.

THESE DAYS, driving through Timber Cove, you have to know where to look to see signs of its history. There are no big historic markers, no plaques in front of the astronauts' houses. I'd have missed the pool if Wright hadn't tipped me off.

And I did, in fact, drive past the neighborhood signs without noticing the round Timber Cove graphic on them: Emblazoned "Home of Friends, Families and Astronauts," it's designed to look like a NASA mission patch. Civic club president Deborah Griffin says proudly that a Timber Cove shuttle astronaut actually took a Timber Cove patch into space. "Not many neighborhoods can say that, can they?" she laughed.

The neighborhood remains quietly proud of its history. It's not as space-centric as it once was, but it's still full of NASA retirees, as well as current NASA employees and contractors, and even second-generation residents, people who grew up in the neighborhood during the moon shots. It's a neighborhood full of stories.

The one that haunts me most is about astronaut Jim Lovell. On April 11, 1970, Lovell lifted off as commander of Apollo 13, bound for the moon. But two days later, an oxygen tank exploded, disabling the command module's electric system.

The Timber Cove families knew the dangers all too well. Only a few years before, Timber Cove resident Gus Grissom  cheerful, funny Gus Grissom  had been killed on the Cape Kennedy launch pad, burned to death when the command module of Apollo 1 caught fire during a pre-launch test.

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The Timber Cove families knew how easily things could go wrong. They knew that NASA's engineers were working on the fly, that the lunar module hadn't been designed for use as a lifeboat, that even if the astronauts made it back from the moon, they might burn up on Earth's re-entry.

The Timber Cove men went to work. The wives and kids watched the reports on TV. They worried. And they waited.

On April 17  six days after takeoff, four long days after the explosion  the module splashed down in the Pacific. It hadn't burned. The crew was alive.

When at last Lovell returned to Timber Cove, the neighbors could have welcomed him home with music, cheering and a raucous party. But the Timber Cove wives knew something different was required.

The night that Lovell was due to arrive, neighbors gathered at the entrance to Timber Cove,each holding a flashlight or torch. When the astronaut pulled up, everyone in the crowd quietly put one hand on his car. And solemnly, silently, they walked the car through the darkness to the Lovells' house.

"I'm glad to be back," was all Lovell said.

It was all he needed to say. He was home. And people there understood.

Lisa Gray, the Chronicle's enterprise editor for features, also runs Gray Matters.

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As a young neurosurgeon, Dr. Dong Kim noticed a pattern in patients who'd suffered brain aneurysms: About one in four would report a family history of the condition, which can lead to sudden bleeding, stroke and death.

"Oh, here we go again," Kim remembers a patient's family member saying. "Another brain aneurysm."

The observation triggered something in him. Maybe it was sympathy or curiosity  or perhaps something more personal. Whatever the reason, Kim became obsessed with the question: Is there a specific genetic trigger causing brain aneurysms, which kill some 12,000 people in the U.S. each year?

After nearly two decades hunting for an answer, it now seems he has one.

Kim, the director of the Memorial Hermann Mischer Neuroscience Institute and chair of neurosurgery at UTHealth's McGovern Medical School, led a team of researchers that found a genetic mutation that seems to cause brain aneurysms. The research team, which included Harvard University scientists, published their findings last month in Stroke, a journal of The American Heart Association.

The implications are significant: With the discovery, researchers can begin searching for other genes connected to aneurysms and someday possibly develop a genetic test to identify and treat patients most at risk, saving lives.

"It's been a long time coming," said Kim, who first received a National Institutes of Health grant 16 years ago to begin studying the question in partnership with a geneticist.

The early years were laborious. Their search for a specific gene was a bit like blindly "digging for gold," Kim said: "You don't know when you're going to hit it." Then, about a decade ago, while working at Harvard, he found what seemed like a big, neon sign saying, "Dig here."

He'd been treating a woman from Maine with a brain aneurysm and soon learned that she was the ninth person in her family to have one. Her daughter suffered an aneurysm at 12. Her mother had died of one. This, he knew, was a rare opportunity.

"Part of the problem, because this is a deadly disease, a lot of times there was this extensive family history but no way to study it," Kim said.

He set out to collect samples from as many members of the Maine family as possible  those who'd had aneurysms and those who hadn't  and search for genetic patterns. At one point, Kim even traveled to the small town where they lived and threw a family reunion to get more extended family members enrolled.

In the end, he and his fellow researchers studied 30 of the woman's relatives, ultimately honing in on a little-understood gene, known as THSD1. The protein coding gene appeared to be mutated in each of the family members who'd suffered an aneurysm and functioning normally in all of those who hadn't.

The research has taken off from there. In the latest study, the researchers confirmed the finding in an examination of 500 patients, many who'd had a known family history of aneurysms. The result also was replicated in studies of mice and zebrafish. Researchers could actually see blood pooling in the heads of the fish, which have clear skin, soon after manipulating the gene.

"It's truly a fascinating discovery," Kim said, "because, prior to this research, hardly anyone knew what this gene did or how it worked."

The coming years will be exciting, Kim said. Researchers will be racing to understand how the obscure gene works and what it can teach them about the origins of aneurysms.

He's even contemplated testing himself for the genetic mutation. He hasn't yet, he said, "but I might have to."

Most of his peers probably don't realize Kim's obsession with aneurysms has been fueled, at least in part, by personal tragedy.

His uncle died abruptly of a brain hemorrhage at the age of 34, when Kim was still a child. The same fate awaited three of his four grandparents.

Kim, one of the world's foremost neurosurgeons, acknowledged those events have quietly shaped his work, though he tries not to make too big a deal of the personal connection.

"I would say so," he said. "Absolutely."

While he's relishing this latest milestone, he knows there's much more work to be done before a treatment can be developed and lives saved. That could take another 15 or 20 years, he suspects.

"God willing," Kim said, "I'm hoping I'm around to see it."
Houston ISD board members agreed Thursday night to postpone a vote on the 2017-2018 school-year calendar after concerns were raised about conflicts with STAAR testing and the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah.

The 8-0 vote came after HISD allowed parents and the public to voice their opinions on draft calendars. Of 75,000 votes received by the district online, nearly 90 percent favored an option that would give students and staff the entire week of Thanksgiving off. Schools would have started Aug. 28, 2017 and ended June 1, 2018 under the more popular calendar.

Some parents who spoke at Thursday's meeting were upset that the district had scheduled the end of the school year before it receives STAAR scores from the state.

HISD uses STAAR results in deciding whether to promote or hold back students in third, fourth, sixth and seventh grades, one parent complained.

Sarah Becker, a parent of two HISD students, said that principals last year incorrectly told some parents their students would have to attend summer school until the district had received STAAR results.

"This year, STAAR's scores are due back to the district four days after the end of school," Becker said. "This is not a state problem - the state testing calendar is known well in advance. It's up to the district that meets all legal requirements."

At least five other school districts will approve their 2017-2018 calendars in the coming weeks. Clear Creek and Deer Park's boards will vote on calendars Monday. Cypress-Fairbanks, Alief and Fort Bend's will vote in January, with the rest set to approve calendars in February or March.

But many districts will be unable to make a long-awaited change - moving their start dates up from the fourth week of August to earlier in the month. State laws mandates that schools start no earlier than the fourth week in August, a requirement done at the behest of the tourism industry.

That makes it difficult for districts to end the first semester before winter break without shortening other holidays, like Thanksgiving.

Unless the Legislature changes the law, districts that want to begin school earlier must receive a new state designation to do so.

Districts of Innovation have more flexibility in setting their calendars, hiring and other operational aspects than most traditional public districts. To get the title, districts must meet certain state standards on tests and other measures and create an innovation plan that spells out how they plan to use their additional flexibility.

The Humble, Spring Branch and Huffman districts are among 35 Texas public-school districts that now claim the status, but more are pursuing it. They include the Alief, Stafford, Clear Creek, Conroe, Fort Bend, Katy, Tomball, Pearland and Friendswood districts.

Spring Branch's board will decide Monday if it will exempt the district from the state's start date so it can start earlier. Three of its six calendar options would have school start earlier than Aug. 28, including proposals to start school on Aug. 16 or Aug. 21. The other three options would have schools start on Aug. 28.

The Stafford, Friendswood and Katy districts hope to get their District of Innovation status approved in time to possibly move their 2017-2018 start dates up.

Fort Bend ISD is also applying for District of Innovation status, but won't have it approved in time for its 2017-2018 calendar. That has left district officials to wrestle with a tough question: How can it end the first semester before winter break without disrupting holidays?

The district could either lengthen the school day by several minutes to finish the first semester before winter break or shorten Thanksgiving break from one week to three days.

"Fort Bend ISD has had final exams after winter break in years past, and this was not well-received by parents, students, or teachers," said Amanda Bubela, a Fort Bend ISD spokeswoman. "Many felt it added additional stress as students worried about exams over break."

Some parents, like Windy Halvert from Pecan Grove, are fuming over a potentially shortened Thanksgiving break.

"I'm beyond livid," the mother said. "It's overkill. It goes against their core founding principles."

She said her sixth grade son's homework and school commitments are already too much, and that shortening the break takes away from time to unwind and bond with family.

"This is not going to work for me," Halvert said. "This is unacceptable."

In HISD, the proposed calendar will go back to the district staff so they can make changes to accommodate the STAAR test results and to ensure staff can have a day off for Rosh Hashanah, which will fall on Sept. 20 through Sept. 22 in 2017.

Trustee Jolanda Jones hesitated to pass the 2017-2018 calendar Thursday.

"Whatever we do with the calendar, we shouldn't put people of a certain religion ahead of others. It should be religion-neutral," Jones said. "I would vote against it for those reasons."

Trustee Rhonda Skillern-Jones left the meeting before the vote.

Trustee Wanda Adams made the motion to table the vote. She said that if the board had adopted the proposed calendar Thursday, it would have had to make amendments either to the calendar or to board policy in January.

The board plans to vote on the 2017-2018 calendar at their Jan. 12 meeting.

An earlier version of this article incorrectly reported that a popular school-calendar option in Houston ISD would give only students the entire week of Thanksgiving off. It would give staff the week off as well. The article also should have noted that a parent had made the claim that HISD was the only Texas district that uses STAAR results in deciding whether to promote or hold back students in third, fourth, sixth and seventh grades. It is unclear what other districts follow this practice.
In an effort to convince a federal judge that Pasadena's new City Council election system is discriminatory, civil rights lawyers effectively put the city government on trial.

Attorneys for the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund questioned city officials about the distribution of funds for setting up neighborhood associations and for capital improvements like streets and drainage. They also elicited testimony about Pasadena's decision in 2012 to end its bus service, leaving the city of 150,000 residents with no mass transit.

The purpose of the bus service testimony, lead plaintiffs' attorney Nina Perales told me, was to provide another example of the council's split on contentious issues between members representing the mostly Latino (and lower income) north side and those from the predominantly Anglo south side.

The south side bloc, aligned with Mayor Johnny Isbell, usually prevailed. Witnesses testified that fear of losing his slim majority prompted Isbell to push for a charter change creating a system of six district and two at-large council positions, replacing an all-district structure. Isbell says the new system gives residents better representation.

As I noted in a previous column, these political machinations had real-life consequences. The loss of the bus service was one of them. More than four years later, its effects linger.

In news accounts at the time, officials said the city ended its agreement with Harris County Transit because ridership was too low to justify the cost. (Monthly boardings peaked at about 4,100 in February 2012, and the city's share of the cost that year was estimated at $226,000.) Officials stuck with that response when they testified in the trial last week.

"The city was questioning the economic benefit of that program because the ridership was so low," Andy Helms, director of financial planning, testified. "It just didn't seem to make sense economically."

Virtually no transit system makes sense economically, if that requires being self-supporting through fares. The idea is that public transportation benefits the whole community and is worthy of government support, even through taxes paid by those who don't use it. We don't exempt people without school-age children from paying property taxes that fund public schools, after all.

Harris County Transit operated in Pasadena, which doesn't participate in Metro or pay its 1-cent sales tax, from January 2010 to October 2012. The death knell came when the council voted 5-3 to accept the report of a committee of two council members who reviewed cost and ridership figures and concluded the service wasn't worth continuing.

The committee's report includes this curious sentence, which I read several times without achieving comprehension: "Ridership will increase at a decreasing rate; therefore generating an increased cost per rider." This could not possibly be true unless costs rose through an expansion of service, which no one was proposing.

James Llamas, a senior associate at the Houston consulting firm Traffic Engineers Inc., said 4,100 boardings a month is "very respectable" for a service that operated only 11 hours each weekday. "In the Metro system that would be considered a successful coverage route and it would never be considered for elimination," Llamas said via email. (In transit terms, coverage routes are those that meet a need but don't necessarily generate high ridership.)

Hundreds of people turned out for a public hearing in August 2012 to plead for continuation of the service, saying they depended on the buses to get to their jobs or to make other vital trips. U.S. Rep. Gene Green, a Democrat whose district includes Pasadena, wrote a letter asking the city to reconsider its decision.

The outcome of the voting rights lawsuit is uncertain, as U.S. District Judge Lee H. Rosenthal considers the evidence she heard during the non-jury trial. But whichever way it goes, Pasadena officials could reconsider a decision that seems to have been based on flimsy evidence at best.

Isbell, 78, cannot run for re-election next year due to term limits. If he is concerned about his legacy, he might consider the effect of a gesture that would improve the daily lives of a lot of his constituents.
A former lead scientist for a project at the Johnson Space Center sued NASA in federal court this week, saying the space agency discriminated against him based on race and national origin and created a hostile work environment.

The civil rights lawsuit also names the head of NASA and the Universities Space Research Association as defendants.
During the summit of an OSCE Ministerial Council on Thursday, Canadian Foreign Minister Stephane Dion said that Ottawa does not recognize the illegal occupation of Crimea, which belongs to Ukraine.

Minister Dion reaffirmed Canadas continued support for Ukraine, reiterated Canadas non-recognition of the illegal annexation of Crimea and pressed for a diplomatic resolution to the conflict that fully respects Ukraines sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The diplomat said that the inviolability of the territorial integrity of states is a fundamental principle for the OSCE.

"The resolution of the crisis in and around Ukraine and continued support for the Special Monitoring Mission remain top priorities for Canada and continues to be the key focus of the OSCE," Canadian minister said.

Dion said that the recent attempts to force changing the European borders must be decisively resisted. He said it is contrary to international law and the Helsinki Final Act.
The Houston Police Department seized more than 300 pounds of Kush and arrested a "large-scale distributor" in an undercover sting operation Thursday night in south Houston, city officials announced Friday.

Narcotics officers also seized cocaine and firearms, officials said.
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An armed assassin and a crew of accused robbers intercepted during a failed heist of an armored car this week have been linked to the slaughter of two cash couriers in robberies this year, according to federal court documents.

Redrick Batiste - the 37-year-old gunman who died Wednesday in a shootout with police - recruited and managed four other men collared during the attempted hold-up outside an Amegy Bank, according to details of the elaborate sting operation outlined in a sworn statement by FBI Special Agent William A. Applegate filed Thursday in federal court.

Batiste bragged about cash, stolen cars and the stress of his lifestyle in the weeks leading up to Wednesday's thwarted cash grab, which would have been the ninth armored car robbery in the Houston area this year.

"Dough be on the way, man," Batiste told another man Nov. 30 during a phone call secretly recorded by law enforcement.

One of the accused crew members arrested Wednesday boasted on Facebook two days earlier that he enjoyed "counting ca$h."

Batiste was the leader of the group and executed the complicated planning for the operation, including stationing crew members outside the bank for days to monitor the coming and going of the armored vehicle, according to Applegate.

The plan called for shooting the guard then sending two men in a getaway car to grab the cash and run.

"As the courier exits the armored car with a sealed box containing the currency for the ATM, the courier is assassinated by Batiste or a member of Batiste's robbery crew, who fires a rifle from a concealed position some distance away," according to Applegate's statement.

The crew apparently started scoping out the Amegy Bank ATM in late November, even as law enforcement officers moved in to get a warrant to tap Batiste's cellphone.

"Commissary pulling up right now," one of the accused robbers told Batiste as he watched a money truck drive up to the bank. On Wednesday, Batiste was stationed at a nearby apartment complex and alleged members of his crew had lined up near the bank when Houston police moved in.

Two men fled but were captured after a brief foot chase, and two others were also arrested. Batiste opened fire on SWAT officers before he was shot in the leg and chest; he died later at Ben Taub Hospital. Houston police Thursday identified 20-year veteran Officer J. Salazar as the man who fired the fatal shots.

Two fatal heists

The four men are charged with conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery and use of firearm in furthering a crime of violence.

A multi-agency task force - including the Houston Police Department and the FBI - began investigating the armored car robberies in March, when Loomis truck courier Melvin Moore was fatally shot outside a J.P Morgan Chase Bank on Airline.

A sniper targeted Moore from afar while robbers moved in and tried to snatch the money. But Moore opened fire before dying, and the crew fled without grabbing the cash, according to Applegate's statement.

Then in August, Loomis courier David Guzman was murdered while filling a Wells Fargo Bank ATM on the Northwest Freeway. After the shooting, a car pulled up and a man leaped out to steal the money box. That time, the robbers made off with $120,000.

According to court documents, the two slayings matched Batiste's shoot-and-grab pattern.

As of now, ring members have not been charged in the fatal heists, though a stolen car tied to Batiste appears to link him to the earlier crimes, according to court documents.

The missing rental car had a cut-out hole large enough to house a rifle with a scope.

In the Wednesday operation, authorities say the crew moved into place around the bank about 9:30 a.m. only to find police ready and waiting.

Arrested and charged were Marc Anthony Hill, 46, of Spring; Nelson Alexander Polk, 37; Trayvees Duncan-Bush, 29; and John Edward Scott, 40. If convicted, they could face up to 20 years in prison on the robbery conspiracy and a mandatory minimum of five years on the firearm charge.

The accused men appeared in court Thursday morning to hear the charges against them.

They all wore casual street clothes and were handcuffed in front as they awkwardly raised their hands and swore to tell the truth.

All of the suspects qualified for court-appointed lawyers, except for Hill. He told the judge he had a $400,00 home, and she denied his request. He subsequently hired the attorney she assigned to him.

His attorney, Brian Edward Warren, said he also owns and runs a gourmet popcorn company, and has a wife and three children.

Criminal history

Bush and Polk both said they were unemployed, while Scott said his last job was at the Salvation Army.

Batiste has a long criminal history in Harris County, including arrests for drugs, drunken driving and assault. County records show he owns four properties - three houses and a vacant lot - valued altogether at about $140,000

Eight armored vehicles have been robbed in the Houston area this year, and three couriers have been killed in the past 22 months, according to the FBI.

The robberies this year more than double the number last year, but still haven't topped the 11-heist string that drew national attention in 2013.
Offering full-day prekindergarten to Texas' low-income students increases their future test scores from barely satisfactory to being on a college trajectory, according to a study released Thursday by Children at Risk and The Meadows Foundation.

Bob Sanborn, president and CEO of Children at Risk, said economically disadvantaged children who attended full-day preschool had a 40 percent greater chance of reading at a college-ready pace in third grade than their peers.

Sanborn, who announced the study's findings at Children at Risk's Education Summit, said he hopes the study's findings will nudge lawmakers to approve $236 million over the next two years to provide, full-day high-quality pre-K to students from lower-income backgrounds.

The Texas Legislature approved $118 million for pre-K programs for this school year in 2015. But the Legislature now proposes essentially cutting funding in half.

"It shouldn't be difficult when it's the biggest payback a taxpayer can get," Sanborn told the crowd of nearly 100 education leaders gathered at Houston Community College's West Loop campus. "If we want a world-class workforce, we need to figure out a way for those kids to be successful. As a researcher, the key thing you see is income has big impact on academic success, but full-day pre-K can mitigate that."

Children at Risk's study followed 47,000 economically disadvantaged over five years, focusing on major urban districts such as Houston, San Antonio, Austin and Dallas ISDs.

Districts that spent more per student on pre-K than the 2014-2015 state average saw their pre-K students do better on third grade STAAR tests.

Students who attended half-day pre-K still did better than their peers who did not attend pre-K at all, but slightly worse than their peers who attended full-day pre-school.

Melina Bautista, pre-K coordinator at De Chaumes Elementary in Houston ISD, said kindergarten teachers can tell the difference between students who attended preschool and those who did not.

"It's a challenge when you have a child that's not on par with the whole class. That becomes your target," Bautista said. "There are just no excuses to leave that child at a lower level. Every student in our school deserves a quality education."

Bautista added there is not reason a pre-K teacher shouldn't have students reading by the time they enter kindergarten.

Texas pays for half-day pre-K for children who cannot speak English or come from low-income, homeless or foster families.

It once awarded grants to districts for full-day pre-K before eliminating them in 2012-2013, when education spending was slashed by $5.4 billion. In 2015, Children at Risk and other groups lobbied the Legislature to pass House Bill 4, which approved additional funding for pre-K programs for low-income students, required data collection on pre-K staff-to-student ratios and required schools to implement family engagement plans.

That $118 million in additional pre-K funding provided grants to 578 school districts and charter schools  nearly half the state's roughly 1,200 traditional public school and charter districts. Smaller districts received a little over $3,000 while Houston ISD, the state's largest, received $9.2 million.

Sanborn said he and other advocacy groups will take the study to the 2017 legislative session in hopes of restoring funding to $118 million on high-quality pre-K programs each year instead of using that sum over two years. He said he's confident lawmakers will approve the additional funding but hopes to show legislators that full-day pre-K will result in better students, better citizens and better future workers.

"The biggest ask is for the state to look at the bigger picture and say we need high quality pre-K in Texas," Sanborn said.
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John Glenn, a freckle-faced son of Ohio who was hailed as a national hero and a symbol of the Space Age as the first American to orbit the Earth, then became a national political figure for 24 years in the Senate, died on Thursday in Columbus, Ohio.

He was 95.

His death was announced on Twitter by Gov. John Kasich of Ohio.

Glenn recently had been hospitalized at the James Cancer Center at Ohio State University in Columbus, though university officials said at the time that admission there did not necessarily mean he had cancer. He had heart-valve replacement surgery in 2014 and a stroke around that time.

In just five hours on Feb. 20, 1962, Glenn joined a select roster of Americans whose feats have seized the country's imagination and come to embody a moment in its history, figures like Lewis and Clark, the Wright brothers and Charles Lindbergh.

It was an anxious nation that watched and listened that February morning, as Glenn, then 40, a Marine Corps test pilot and one of the seven original American astronauts, climbed into Friendship 7, the tiny Mercury capsule atop an Atlas rocket rising from the concrete flats of Cape Canaveral in Florida.

It was a short flight, just three orbits. But when Glenn was safely back, flashing the world a triumphant grin, doubts were replaced by a broad, new faith that the United States could indeed hold its own against the Soviet Union in the Cold War and might someday prevail.

Glenn was reluctant to talk about himself as a hero.

"I figure I'm the same person who grew up in New Concord, Ohio, and went off through the years to participate in a lot of events of importance," he said in an interview years later.

Glenn did not return to space for a long time. President John F. Kennedy thought him too valuable as a hero to risk losing in an accident. So Glenn resigned from the astronaut corps in 1964, became an executive in private industry and entered politics, serving four full terms as a Democratic senator from Ohio and in 1984 running unsuccessfully for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Finally, 36 years after his Mercury flight, in the last months of his final Senate term, he got his wish for a return to orbit. Despite some criticism that his presence on the mission was a political payoff, a waste of money and of doubtful scientific merit, the hero of yesteryear brought out the crowds again, cheering out of nostalgia and enduring respect as he was launched aboard the space shuttle Discovery on Oct. 29, 1998. At 77, he became the oldest person to go into space.

'For the country'

In retirement from the Senate, Glenn lived with his wife of 73 years, Anna (he always called her Annie), in a suburb of Washington in addition to Columbus. Ohio State University is the repository of papers from his space and political careers.

John Herschel Glenn Jr. was born on July 18, 1921, in Cambridge, Ohio, the only son of a railroad conductor who also owned a plumbing business, and the former Clara Sproat. A few years later, the Glenns moved to New Concord, a small town in southeastern Ohio with a population of little more than 1,000.

"It was small but had a lot of patriotic feeling and parades on all the national holidays," Glenn once said. "Wanting to do something for the country was just natural, growing up in a place like New Concord."

Glenn began his journey to fame in World War II. In 1939, he enrolled at Muskingum College in his hometown to study chemistry, but he took flying lessons on the side.

Shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, he signed up for the Naval Aviation cadet program and after pilot training opted to join the Marines. As a fighter pilot, he flew 59 combat missions in the Pacific, earning two Distinguished Flying Crosses and other decorations. Glenn saw more action in the Korean War, flying 90 combat missions and winning more medals.

Then, in 1959, newly promoted to lieutenant colonel, he heeded a call for test pilots to apply to be astronauts for the fledgling National Aeronautics and Space Administration. He and six other pilots were selected in April of that year.

The 1962 space mission came after two months of one postponement after another, sometimes for mechanical problems, often for bad weather. Once Glenn had to wait six hours, fully suited, in the cramped Friendship 7 capsule before officials called off the launch. But he projected confidence.

"You fear the least what you know the most about," he said at the time.

First orbit scare

At the end of the first orbit, an automatic control mechanism failed, and Glenn took over manual control. He would see three sunsets in a brief time. He puzzled for a while about "fireflies" outside his window. NASA later determined that it was his urine and sweat, which was being dumped overboard and turned to frozen crystals glowing in sunlight.

A faulty warning light signaled that the capsule heat shield, designed to protect it in the fiery descent back to Earth, had come loose and might come off during re-entry. The signal was erroneous, but no one could be sure. Ground controllers ordered that a retrorocket unit attached under the heat shield by metal straps not be jettisoned after firing in order to give added protection and reduce the risk of premature detachment of the heat shield.

In the flush of fame, Glenn toured the country publicizing the space program, visiting aerospace plants and waving to cheering crowds and signing autographs. But he always had his eye on another flight into space.

One night in December 1962, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy invited the Glenns to dinner at his home in McLean, Va. In the course of the evening, the attorney general suggested that Glenn run for public office. With the backing of a powerful Kennedy, he might have a good chance at a Senate seat from Ohio in the 1964 election.

Glenn eventually took the advice but had to quit the race after being seriously injured in a bathroom fall. He spent the next decade working as an executive of the Royal Crown Cola Co.

In 1970, Glenn ran again for the Senate but lost in the Democratic primary to Howard Metzenbaum. Four years later, Glenn won the primary and breezed to victory in the general election, beginning a 24-year career in the Senate.

Back in space in '98

Over the years, Glenn earned the respect of Senate colleagues as an upright, candid and diligent legislator. Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., described Glenn as a "workhorse" who was especially well-informed and a forceful voice on defense issues.

As a senator, Glenn developed an expertise in weapons systems, nuclear proliferation issues and most legislation related to technology and bureaucratic reform. He generally took moderate positions on most issues, though in his last two terms his voting record became more liberal. He was an enthusiastic supporter of President Bill Clinton.

The senator drew admiring audiences in his run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984, but his wooden speaking style and lack of a cogent campaign message were blamed for his poor showing at the polls.

The one blemish on Glenn's squeaky-clean political reputation came in the 1980s, when he was one of five senators present at a meeting with federal regulators concerning accusations of savings and loan association fraud against Charles H. Keating Jr., a former Ohioan.

The meeting smacked of impropriety and political pressure. Because Glenn had no further contact with Keating, who eventually was sent to prison, the Senate decided that he did nothing deserving discipline.

As a member of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, Glenn developed the medical rationale used in arguing his case for a return flight in space.

He offered himself as a human guinea pig in tests of the physiological effects of space weightlessness, like bone-mass loss and cardiovascular, muscular and immune system changes, and how they seem to be comparable to the usual effects of aging.

In 1998, still healthy and vigorous, though not as agile as in 1962, Glenn embarked on his second venture in space, as he said in an interview, to show the world that the lives of older people need not be dictated by the calendar.

A lifetime of honors

In recent years, honors continued to come his way: the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Congressional Gold Medal and election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The NASA Lewis Research Center in Cleveland was renamed the John H. Glenn Research Center.

Glenn is survived by his wife; two children, Carolyn Ann Glenn of St. Paul, Minn. and John David Glenn of Berkeley, Calif.; and two grandsons, Daniel and Zach Glenn.

Glenn was a flier, almost to the end.

In one of the interviews at this time, he was reminded that Tom Wolfe, the author, had recently judged him "the last true national hero America has ever had."

Glenn gave another of his dismissive aw-shucks responses: "I don't think of myself that way," he said.

"I get up each day and have the same problems others have at my age. As for as trying to analyze all the attention I received, I will leave that to others."
Ninety-nine million years ago, a small nib of dinosaur tail was dipped in resin, the honey-thick liquid that plants ooze to defend against insects. Perhaps the little dinosaur died before resin enveloped its teeny extremity. If so, it was a fortuitous death for paleontologists, allowing the tail to stay in place long enough for the resin to harden into amber.

The amber hunters who dug up the segment in Myanmar assumed the encased remains were vegetation, making the amber valuable when carved into jewelry. It probably did not occur to them that their discovery could be a dinosaur tail with secrets to tell.

But a Chinese paleontologist named Xing Lida, perusing a Myanmar amber market in 2015 for objects of scientific interest, recognized the amber's true value.

"With the new specimen from Myanmar, we finally get that association between identifiable bones and feathers preserved in exquisite detail," said Ryan McKellar of the Royal Saskatchewan Museum in Canada, a paleontologist and an author of the study, to The Washington Post via email. Lida, McKellar and their Chinese and Canadian colleagues published an analysis of the tail on Dec. 8 in the journal Current Biology.

This was not the first time that paleontologists examined feathers trapped in Cretaceous amber. But without underlying body parts, doubt remained that the plumage once sprouted from dinosaurs. This amber held eight vertebral segments as well as soft tissues. Beneath the feathers were, McKellar and his co-authors wrote, "presumably muscles, ligaments, and skin" - rarities in a discipline historically reliant on fossilized bones. (Chemical analysis even found traces of iron oxides in the tail, suggesting dino blood contained hemoglobin.)

"If the authors can safely establish the authenticity of this fossil - and I have no doubts that they can - this is a truly amazing find," Gerald Mayr, an expert on fossilized birds at the Senckenberg Research Institute in Frankfurt, Germany, who was not involved with the study, told The Post via email.

X-ray images revealed that no ancient bird grew this tail. The tail tip belonged to a two-legged dinosaur called a theropod. "We can tell that this specimen came from a theropod dinosaur because the tail is flexible and the vertebrae articulate with each other, instead of being fused together to form a solid rod - which is a characteristic of modern birds and their closest relatives," McKellar said. Specifically, the researchers hypothesized the animal was a type of dinosaur called a coelurosaur, and likely a juvenile.

Coelurosaurs included the famous giants like Tyrannosaurus, but these theropods were a diverse bunch. The remains captured in amber were tiny - at just 1.4 inches, the preserved tail segment was as long as a watch face is wide. "If we extrapolate total body size from this," McKellar said, "the whole animal would have been about the size of a sparrow."

Examining the tail with microscope and CT scanner, the scientists could observe how dino feathers were arranged on the body and make out tiny, 3-D structures. It also gave the paleontologists a sense of feather pigments, plus larger-scale color patterns.

"We can see general color patterns in the tail," McKellar said. "These consist of pale or white feathers on the underside of the tail, and chestnut brown feathers on top of the tail." This coloration, however, comes with a 99-million-year-old caveat. The resin may have altered the feathers' iridescence, or changed its chemistry to "knock out" certain colors.

The feather structures themselves offered a glimpse into the evolution of plumage. "What strikes me particularly is the presence of such short, modern-type feathers on a long tail," Mayr said.

McKellar described the feathers as "fairly similar to modern bird feathers." That is, they were shaped like the feathers on modern birds' bellies and heads, which protect their insulative layers. The fossil feathers were not quite like flight feathers. "Flexible" and "fuzzy," in McKellar's words, they did not have a strong central shaft. (The coelurosaur feathers lacked a thick hollow rod - you'd struggle to stick these feathers in your cap or hold them as a quill.) The dinosaur plumage suggested that, on an evolutionary scale, the side branches of feathers developed before this main shaft.

The find was the latest in a string of high-profile discoveries involving ancient plumage. As The Washington Post reported in November, Chinese scientists recently identified microscopic pigment-containing flecks in a 130-million-year-old bird. That specimen, too, was purchased in an Asian flea market.

In this case, the ancient remains included trapped insects, which McKellar was happy to describe. "Funny enough, I mostly work on fossil wasps, and the feathers are one of those side-interests that keep me out of trouble," he said. "There are two ants in the piece of amber that belong to an extinct group (called Sphecomyrminae) which is only known from the Cretaceous. There are also the remains of a cockroach and a lucanid beetle in the amber piece." The insect species within the amber, he told The Post, indicate the resin leaked from a section of tree close to the forest floor.

Considering the pace of spectacular fossils pulled from Myanmar amber mines, Mayr told The Post he would not be surprised if the future held even more intriguing finds. "I cannot think of what a wealth of anatomical information," he said, "an amber-preserved skull of these animals would provide."
There is not enough room below to catalog all the things Christopher Suprun has been called since Monday, when the Republican presidential elector said in the virtual pages of The New York Times that he would not vote for Donald Trump on Dec. 19.

"If Donald Trump still wins, I will go into the history books as an asterisk," Suprun said Tuesday. A slight grin. "And people can use other A-words to describe me."

They have. They will. And they will not stop there.

Since Monday he has been called "traitor," "idiot," "coward," "a disgrace to Texas," "another corrupt establishment dirt bag," "attention whore" - the list goes on. He has been told to vote Trump or be prepared to get chased out of Texas, where he has lived for close to 13 years. And he has been accused of being paid off by billionaire George Soros, who's given tens of millions to the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton and was wrongly accused of funding the protests that erupted nationwide following Trump's election last month.

"See this? A 1994 Volkswagen," Suprun said when we parted ways Tuesday afternoon. "Paid off? Riiiight."

Which is to say nothing of the death threats made against the Dallas paramedic, of which there have also been many - some directed at him on Twitter, others buried in the darkest, slimiest corners of the Web. There are wanted posters featuring his image, and warnings that "you might consider moving to Cuba (because) I see no future for you in Texas, except at the end of a rope."

All because Suprun, who was among the first rescue workers on the scene when terrorists attacked the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, said he could not in good conscience write the words "Donald J. Trump" on a piece of paper Dec. 19.

His reasons are myriad, and were outlined in The Times op-ed that, since its publication online Monday, had been reprinted or reported on in countless media outlets. Here, from our interview, a primer of sorts:

"It's been the buildup. It's not one raindrop that's caused the flood," said the 42-year-old who, until recently, was one of the Dallas Morning News' Community Voices volunteer columnists. "It's been the undercutting of the Constitution, the undercutting of the First Amendment, the attacks on people critical of him and the attacks on the election itself. You can't claim 3 million illegal votes without evidence."

Which, of course, Trump did. Somewhere in between attacking Alec Baldwin and calling Taiwan's president and requesting security clearance for a man who peddles dangerously wrong conspiracy theories.

Suprun has been contemplating voting against Trump since August, when he told Politico he was considering rejecting the Republican Party's nominee because he was "saying things that in an otherwise typical election year would have you disqualified." He would later rescind that threat, insisting he was indeed going to cast his lot for Trump alongside the other 37 Texas electors.

He said Tuesday that he thought, for a moment, he might be able to get behind Trump. He thought - well, hoped, at least - Trump would release his tax returns. He thought - well, hoped, at least- that Trump would sever ties with his businesses and get off Twitter. He thought, just maybe, the president-elect would act presidential.

He considered going to Austin on Dec. 19 and just writing in John Kasich anonymously. It would have been easy. No insults, no death threats.

But, instead, he and his wife had many long talks about maybe using the opportunity to make a point, to raise some hell. They knew there would be "blowback," as Suprun likes to say when discussing the online backlash. But in the end, he said, he thought it was the right thing to do. The only thing to do.

"Do you go down and write a name that you're not comfortable with, which is honestly a lazy approach, or do you say, 'What is the right answer?'" he said. "What do you want to see for your children? Do you want to see a president who attacks the cast of 'Saturday Night Live' and The New York Times, or do you want to see a president who is making America the shining city on the hill Ronald Reagan saw?"

Suprun became an elector in May, at the Texas Republican Convention. He grew up in Charlottesville and Williamsburg, Va. - "the cradles of democracy," Suprun said, "and cradles of courage" - as the son of federal employees. He talks fondly about coming of age during the presidency of Reagan and recalls even now the name of the teacher who, in 12th grade, "forced me" to read the Federalist Papers that led to the creation of the Electoral College.

The reception to the op-ed hasn't been entirely negative. Suprun said he's received hundreds of notes and tweets in support, and emails from well-known constitutional-law professors and attorneys offering to help for free. But there are also old friends who have reached out and asked, in so many words, what the hell?

Not long ago, he was probably beloved by the very trolls who now terrorize him on Twitter - a first responder on 9/11, a patriot, a hero. He's thrown out first pitches in Arlington and Kansas City and other ballparks - no small thrill for his 13-year-old ball-playing boy. Now, some of those who likely cheered him are demanding he "get the hell out of Texas."

"I am a dad, husband, parishioner - an average guy," Suprun said. "I am making a decision that's bringing me blowback, that people are unhappy with. The worst blowback I am getting, the one I am most confused by, is when people say I am a coward. The coward is the one who has these thoughts, these concerns and just writes down Donald Trump's name."

He knows this will stick to him forever. He knew it before the op-ed ran. But so be it, he said. His conscience is clear.

"And life's gonna go on," he said.

Robert Wilonsky is a columnist for the Dallas Morning News. Readers may email him at rwilonsky@dallasnews.com
Sitting atop a rocket originally designed to rain nuclear bombs onto America's enemies, one courageous Marine lying in a cramped space capsule listened to the countdown for his launch into orbit.

John Glenn Jr., an impossibly optimistic pilot born in the nation's heartland, knew all too well that his country had fallen behind the Soviet Union in the nascent space race between superpowers. A cosmonaut named Yuri Gagarin had orbited the Earth a year earlier, the United States was the underdog, and we had pinned all hopes of catching up with the USSR on Glenn's flight.

It was an era when the superpowers stood on the brink of nuclear war, when space exploration was deemed a priority for national security and when rockets built by the U.S. had a harrowing habit of exploding on the launch pad.

As the last seconds of the tense countdown ticked away, as the world watched on black-and-white television sets, one of Glenn's fellow astronauts, Scott Carpenter, echoed the national mood of that moment with a terse radio transmission.

"Godspeed, John Glenn," he said.

Seven seconds later, fire shot from the base of the Atlas booster that launched Glenn into space and into history. Seven months later, President John F. Kennedy confidently pronounced to a crowd gathered at Rice University seven prophetic words: "We choose to go to the moon." Seven years later, astronauts saluted an American flag on the lunar surface.

John Glenn, the last of the original seven Mercury astronauts, passed into history Thursday. Unless you lived through those early days of the space race, you may find it hard to imagine how his three-orbit rocket ride shot America's national pride into the heavens.

Today, astronauts are almost anonymous, walking among us unnoticed even here in Houston where they're our neighbors. But Glenn flew into the national psyche in an era when space travelers were revered as the high-flying conquerors of a new frontier. Boys and girls clipped photographs of him out of magazines and dreamed of becoming astronauts. A generation that needed all the heroes it could get found a role model in the World War II and Korean War fighter pilot from Cambridge, Ohio.

His service to our country could have easily ended with the splashdown of his Mercury capsule, but the people of Ohio later elected him to four terms in the U.S. Senate. In 1984, more than two decades after his historic Mercury mission, he ran a respectable but unsuccessful campaign for the presidency.

And in one of the most remarkable events of his remarkable life, at the age of 77, Glenn persuaded NASA officials to send him back into orbit aboard a space shuttle flight. Somehow, he convinced them they might learn something about aging if they sent an old guy back into space after all those years. But the most important lesson anybody learned from that shuttle flight was that, even after 77 years, nobody could keep John Glenn down.

Today, at a time when people who go into public service are cynically reviled and subjected to corrosive disparagement, Glenn's story is a testament to how a brave and honorable man can live a life serving his country. And as a new president prepares to move into the White House and the future of America's space program seems up in the air, his passing should serve as an enduring reminder of our nation's proud heritage in manned space exploration.

Our world still needs all the heroes it can get. Sadly, we've lost one of America's most famous figures of the last century. So the message that echoed around the world that day more than a half century ago bears repeating.

Godspeed, John Glenn.
You've heard the story, right? A popular family pizza joint in Northwest Washington called Comet Ping Pong is actually a front for a child-abuse ring run by Hillary Clinton and her campaign chairman, John Podesta, who lives nearby. Oh, and the businesses in the same strip center, including the venerable Politics and Prose bookstore and another pizza joint run by an immigrant Egyptian family, are in on the child sex-trafficking ring, as well; they're connected by tunnels underneath the buildings, you see, as is a French restaurant across Connecticut Avenue from Comet Ping Pong. Oh, and the word "pizza" on take-out orders is code for "child."

The story has been shared millions of times by Donald Trump supporters on social media. It's so "believable" that those millions surely must have shared the impulse of a 28-year-old North Carolinian named Edgar Maddison Welch, even if they didn't act on it. Last Sunday, Welch drove to D.C., where he burst into the pizza place armed with a Colt AR-15 assault rifle, a .38-caliber Colt revolver and a folding knife. The father of two young girls was there to "self-investigate" the underground tunnels and hidden rooms, the sex workers busily transporting kids to eager buyers.

Welch chased out customers and employees, poked around the premises for about 45 minutes and fired two or three shots before surrendering peacefully to police. No one was hurt.

In addition to families with children eating a late lunch, we're surprised he didn't find another little girl - Lewis Carroll's fictional Alice, who's had some experience tumbling down a rabbit hole into a bizarre and unsettling netherworld. We seem to be tumbling with her.

We've always had crackpots, paranoiacs, conspiracy nuts and, like Welch, the pathetically gullible, but never, ever, have they been so close to positions of power and influence in the nation's capital and elsewhere. The president-elect himself has long been a fervid conspiracist - Ted Cruz's dad was in on the JFK assassination - and now, people he's appointing to high positions share his predilections. They include Gen. Michael T. Flynn, Trump's pick to be the White House national security adviser, who has spread similar nefarious nonsense about Clinton, as has his son, who, earlier this week, was relieved of his vague duties in the Trump transition for re-tweeting the pizza shop nonsense.

As you might have guessed, there's a Texas connection to all this craziness. Alex Jones, an Austin radio talk-show host and a veritable conspiracy fiend who's had Trump on his show, has been fiendishly spreading the pizzagate nonsense. Meanwhile, Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, still angling, we assume, to be Trump's ag commissioner, has turned his website into consipracy-theory central, the more outlandish the better. He's not a news organization, he told the Texas Tribune, so he shouldn't be held to the same high standard.

Except for the immigrant-run pizza place up the street from Comet Ping Pong, which may be forced out of business by the ongoing harassment, and Politics and Prose, which was still getting up to 150 hate calls a day toward the end of the week, the pizzagate nonsense may be dying down. The issue itself, though, is very much with us.

Unfortunately, solutions are not readily apparent. We respect the rights of free speech guaranteed by the First Amendment; we also respect the rights of individuals to be outrageous. And yet, something more insidious is going on when fake news is fodder not only for the unhinged but also for the fanatics among us who have lost all perspective and the cynical who would exploit their fanaticism.

Ideally, Trump, Miller and other elected officials would forthrightly repudiate fake news and the spread of scurrilous information, although we're not terribly confident such statements will be forthcoming. Beyond the politicians, we expect Google, Facebook and other social media outlets, given their unprecedented capacity to spread lies, to find ways of better policing their sites. We'd like to see classes in media literacy for high-school students and even younger, since we're all still learning about the brave new media world aborning. (Our kids could probably teach those classes.) And, we all could renew our commitment to consider the source of news we find compelling.

The Founders recognized that a government of, by and for the people relies on an informed citizenry, thus their guarantees of a free press. These many years later the "press" has wildly proliferated in ways Franklin, Jefferson, Washington and friends would have found bewildering (as do we). What hasn't changed since their day is loyalty to the truth, without which self-government cannot function.
Unbecoming

Regarding "Business leaders are preparing to clash with bigots in Austin" (Page B1, Wednesday), Chris Tomlinson's commentary clearly spells out the damaging effects that Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick's bill will have on our community and businesses.

The transgender population affected by this bill poses no threat and deserves privacy and our respect. The lieutenant governor's political motives are blatantly obvious, as is his avoidance of real issues facing Texas. How can this bill be "top priority" when children's needs are being overlooked and underfunded? There are so many other issues that should be commanding the lieutenant governor's attention.

Texans with any sense of reality, compassion and who care about our national image should write to their state representatives as Tomlinson urges. He spurred on this reader.

Linda Rehm, Houston

People's will

So, Chris Tomlinson thinks, "Business leaders are preparing to clash with bigots in Austin," and I think he's wrong because I and a lot of like-minded grandfathers, fathers and husbands, don't want their granddaughters, daughters and wives subjected to some man wanting to use the same women's public restroom they are using.

Actually I think that Tomlinson is just taking shots at the lieutenant governor as he hammers him throughout the column. It's too bad that he doesn't like Dan Patrick, but he is the elected official lieutenant governor of the state and is just doing the will of many of his constituents regarding bathroom bans.

Lawrence Keen, Pearland

Ignoring issues

It was refreshing to read the blunt language used by Tomlinson in his column. I don't know of a more apt descriptor for the narrow-minded legislators in Austin, including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, whom Tomlinson labeled a "bigot." These folks seem to be the type referred to in the Bible as those who see the mote in the eyes of others but are oblivious to the beam in their own eye.

Bill Bentley, La Porte

Straight talk

I take issue with this column about "bigots" in Austin. I applaud Lt. Gov. Patrick for his stance.

I sure do not wish for my wife to worry, or for me to worry about her, going into a LADIES public restroom and have a guy, whether transgender or not, being in the stall beside her.

Bill Wilkinson, Houston

Selfish thinking

I personally think that bathroom politics would have gone before they started but for the politicians who felt they had to get involved. Not one of those politicians is thinking in terms of what is best for all people.

Our friends who are not as we wish/think they should be have enough to contend with - a difficult life in every way - without having the specter of Dan Patrick to contend with.

Children, if taught correctly, would not have an issue at school; they would handle this without us. As for the rest of us, certainly most of us have used restrooms without gender designations, and even restrooms for the opposite sex, out of necessity.

Margaret Hansen, Houston

Offended

To use the word "bigot" in such a way in a headline is indicative of a newspaper that is truly off the rails in terms of acceptable journalism. Interesting to note also, that the definition of "bigot" given in paragraph three of the column ("people who hold blindly and intolerantly to particular opinions, who are narrow-minded and prejudiced against those they don't understand") could legitimately be used to describe the left-wing zealots whose egregious behavior we have had the misfortune to observe daily since their side lost the presidential election. You put yourselves in their camp with these name-calling tactics.

However, as a major newspaper serving a large, diverse city, you are called to a higher standard. It is one thing for Tomlinson to use the word, accompanied by a definition, inside the text of the column, quite another to put it in the headline as if it were fact.

Judy Walker, Houston
Ukraine's Interior Minister Arsen Avakov has said among items belonging to disgraced ex-Prime Minister Mykola Azarov found in a Kyiv apartment there are "interesting documents," which will be examined.

"In addition to paintings and portraits of Azarov, his pistons and swords, there are many interesting documents, which we are studying," Avakov wrote on his Facebook page on December 8.

Avakov said he will ask investigators to turn over the artifacts, which include paintings by well-known artists, old books and antique memorabilia, to a museum after they are studied.

"Why doesn't the special confiscation [law] work already, that would allow transfer of the items to the state  is a rhetorical question, but I am certain parliament will take care of this issue in the nearest future," he said.

The minister thanked policemen and policewomen for their work.

"I positively evaluate the painstaking work of criminologists in Kyiv and police operatives for achieving the result, as well as their leaders - Vadym Troyan (acting head of the National Police of Ukraine) and Andriy Kryschenko (head of the main directorate of the National Police)."

As earlier reported, on December 8 Kyiv police investigators found an apartment in Kyiv's Darnytsky district with items belonging to disgraced ex-PM Azarov. The items found are estimated to be worth at least $5 million.
A Houston High School student has tested positive for mumps.

The district will be sending a letter home to parents and guardians Friday informing them your child may have been exposed to a person with mumps at the Houston R-1 School District. The letter was posted on the districts Facebook page Friday morning.

Dr. Moss, superintendent of Houston Schools, said the district received information about the situation Thursday night. The case was confirmed Friday, he said.

We want everyone to know what is going on and what to watch for, Moss said. If your child has symptoms, get them to a doctor or health care provider.

Moss said Michelle Moseley, one of the districts two nurses, has been communicating with the Texas County Health Department.

We want to do what we can do to keep it from spreading, Moss said.

Mumps is a contagious viral illness. Symptoms can include swollen salivary glands and cheeks as well as low-grade fevers, although may people do not have symptoms. It is spread through respiratory droplets  coughing and sneezing  and saliva. Sharing cups and utensils may spread the virus.

Persons with mumps are infectious three days before to five days after the onset of parotitis. Health officials say anyone diagnosed with or suspected of having mumps should stay home for five days.

Vaccination is the best protection against the mumps infection. Children typically receive the first mumps, measles and rubella vaccine (MMR) at 12-15 months and a second dose between the ages of 4 and 6. Adults who have not had two doses of the MMR vaccine can receive it.

A mumps outbreak is ongoing at the University of Missouri, where 193 confirmed and probable cases have been reported. Events on campus have been canceled due to the situation.

PDF: Mumps letter released by Houston R-1 School District
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The number of problems arising with the work of the OSCE observers in eastern Ukraine is growing in recent years, OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier said on Thursday.

Zannier said at a meeting of the OSCE Ministerial Council in Hamburg that the number of cases of harassment and intimidation of OSCE observers is growing in eastern Ukraine.

He said that the cameras, installed by OSCE observers, are constantly under attack: the equipment is forced out of action and destroyed.

Zannier said that he welcomes the courage of the observers, who are doing everything possible to ensure peace and alleviate the living conditions of people in conflict zones.
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Twelve-year-old Autumn Peltier didn't get to deliver her speech in the presence of the prime minister, but she's still spreading her message that the Canadian government needs to protect the country's water.

Peltier, who is from Wikwemikong First Nation in Ontario, had been asked to be part of the introduction of Justin Trudeau at the Assembly of First Nations' annual meeting on Tuesday. She had prepared three handwritten pages of a speech.

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"Im not here to just have fun to travel and anything, because I have a really serious statement and I really want it to be heard," she told The Huffington Post Canada in an interview.

But when Peltier got on stage at the Hilton Lac-Leamy hotel in Gatineau, Que., she ended up with only a few moments of the prime minister's attention, as she gifted him a "water bundle" of a copper bowl containing a red cloth, some tobacco, and a copper cup.

"I said 'I'm very unhappy with the choices youve made'," Peltier recalled. "And he said 'I understand that.' And then I started crying and then after that, all I got to say is, 'The pipelines.'"

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She said Trudeau replied to her, "I will protect the water."

Peltier explained on Wednesday, "I was upset with him because he broke promises with the First Nations people when he accepted the pipelines."

Trudeau had pledged a new relationship with indigenous communities and their concerns. Last month, his Liberal government approved two major oil pipeline expansions, including the controversial Trans Mountain line through a Vancouver suburb.

Many indigenous people opposed the Trans Mountain expansion because of the environmental risk from a larger number of tankers travelling in B.C. waters.

"All that water does for our lives and the thought of water being contaminated and we wont have any clean drinking water  it makes me very sad. And it was just my chance to say it to the prime minister," Peltier told HuffPost.

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"After time, pipelines erode, they rot and break down. There have been pipelines breaking all over," she wrote in her prepared speech.

"I should not be standing here right now worrying about my future and my children and grandchildrens future," she wanted to say in front of Trudeau, who is also the minister of youth.

"Mother Earth has been in existence for billions of years and it has taken us less than a century to destroy her.... We know climate change isnt going to change tomorrow. But tomorrow is a new day and we can try to sit together and work together to discuss other ways we can save the environment."

Artist Christi Belcourt highlighted Peltier's lost opportunity in a Facebook post.

"She had a speech, but it seems they only had time on the schedule for her to present a gift," Belcourt wrote. "What a huge loss that we didn't take the time to listen to this young girl speak as what she has to say is powerful."

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Peltier is no stranger to advocacy. Last year, she travelled to the Children's Climate Conference in Sweden and shared ideas with other youth on how to create a better planet. It resulted in a manifesto that was presented to world leaders attending the COP 21 climate summit in Paris.

The 12-year-old said she's inspired by her aunt and elder Josephine Mandamin, and by her own mother.

"She used to work with all the chiefs, and she used to say I used to be all around all that stuff and big meetings, so I used to hear all that stuff when I was in the womb," said Peltier.

In her speech, Peltier referred to the extended protest by thousands of protesters in North Dakota, who are blocked construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline near a Sioux reservation.

"We came together for Standing Rock and we can certainly come together for water. I hope we can stand together in unity," she wrote.

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On Thursday, the Assembly of First Nations' Youth Council started a "water protector fund" to support protests against pipeline construction, reported CBC News.

"It's not a matter of whether Standing Rock will happen in Canada, it's a question of when," Will Landon, the group's co-chair told the outlet. "We're trying to make sure we have pre-emptive measures in place to get resources for when those camps do occur," he said.

With files from Emily Anonuevo

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OTTAWA  A veteran Conservative MP asked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday to fire Democratic Institutions Minister Maryam Monsef, suggesting that she is bungling her job.

Longtime Saskatchewan MP Tom Lukiwski asked Monsef if she realized that the reason she and the government are being ridiculed is because their MyDemocracy.ca survey is ridiculous.

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The Liberals launched the website earlier this week in effort to consult more broadly on the changes Canadians want to see in the voting system.

The survey, which does not ask simple questions such as whether voting changes should be put to the public in a referendum or whether respondents believe a partys popular vote should be reflected in the number of seats it has in the House of Commons, has been mocked online, especially on Twitter with people using #RejectedERQs to express their outrage.

I have been a member of Parliament for over 12 years, and I cannot recall a time when a minister or a government initiative has been mocked so relentlessly as this minister and this survey, he told the Commons.

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The minister appointed a panel of so-called academic experts to help her design the survey. I can see why, it is because it gives the minister a chance to blame yet another group of individuals for her own failures, Lukiwski said. Why does the Prime Minister not simply do the right thing: appoint somebody who knows what they are doing to this important file?

Trudeau was in the House for question period but Monsef stood up to defend herself and to congratulate Lukiwski for his 12 years of service.

Im sure he can agree that we all wake up every day hoping to make this a better place for all Canadians, Monsef said. We can all agree that we are all working towards creating a healthier democracy. That is what I am committed to.

For the sixth day in a row, the Liberals, and Monsef in particular, faced questions about the governments response to the opposition-dominated all-party committee report calling for a new system of voting modelled on proportional representation and for a referendum. Instead of proceeding with changes to the outdated Referendum Act before a public vote on the matter, the Grits decided ask more Canadians for their input before introducing possible legislation in the spring.

We can all agree that we are all working towards creating a healthier democracy. That is what I am committed to.

The survey, designed by Vox Pop Labs, has been criticized for posing leading questions.

For example, the survey asks if respondents believe: There should be parties in Parliament that represent the views of all Canadians, even if some are radical or extreme.

Fair Vote Canada, a group advocating proportional representation, created its own webpage http://mycanadiandemocracy.ca/ with instructions on how to fill out the survey to signal their true voting preferences.

NDP democratic reform critic Nathan Cullen said the Liberals little quiz is full of confusing and ridiculous questions and shows that the party has a credibility problem.

Conservative deputy critic Blake Richards called on Monsef to be honest with Canadians and simply admit this is nothing more than a Liberal distraction tactic?

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Monsef responded that tens of thousands of Canadians have already taken part in the survey and said Canadian political scientists had helped draft the questions  an assertion that at least one of them denied.

The survey was panned so broadly that even The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada, a union representing civil servants, used it as an example to argue against government outsourcing.

Rather than ask non-partisan public service professionals to conduct an unbiased public survey, the government chose instead to contract out the job  with predictable results, the PIPSC wrote in a press release.

So, when the final survey results are released, will the minister let Canadians know how many responses were excluded from the results and for what reason?

In the House, Cullen raised concerns that the survey could be filled out by non-Canadians and skew the results. The government House leaders parliamentary secretary, Kevin Lamoureux, said non-Canadians have a vested interest in Canadas democracy and suggested they should be allowed to fill it out as well.

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[W]hy does he or his party believe that individuals that are not citizens should not have their opinions taken into consideration? Lamoureux asked a perplexed Cullen.

Tory democratic institutions critic Scott Reid wondered if some Canadians who decline to hand over personal information might be excluded from the process.

The CEO of Vox Pop Labs says that many responses to the mydemocracy.ca survey will be rejected, Reid noted in the Commons. Not only will responses unaccompanied by personal information be thrown out but many will also be excluded that do not meet the test of what CEO Clifton Van Der Linden calls a series of screening measures to ensure that the data set is consistent with unique respondents, Reid added. To be clear, the screening test is proprietary and therefore opaque.

So, when the final survey results are released, will the minister let Canadians know how many responses were excluded from the results and for what reason? Reid asked.

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Monsef responded that providing personal information is completely optional and that all feedback would be incorporated in the final result  whether Canadians have chosen to incorporate their personal information or not.

Outside the House, Alexandre Boulerice, the NDPs deputy critic for ethics and reform, said the New Democrats are not calling on Monsef to resign because she wasnt the one responsible for the Grits promises.

Its not Ms. Monsef who promised that the 2015 election would be the last held under the current voting system, its Mr. Trudeau, Boulerice told The Huffington Post Canada. He needs to wear the responsibility for this pledge. He appointed her to this position. It is he who, at the end, will decide if they move seriously with electoral reform or not.

With files from Catherine Levesque

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The holidays are often about family, and this year, Celine Dion is really missing her husband.

The Quebec songstress recently spoke to Page Six about her holiday plans, as this year marks her first Christmas without Rene Angelil.

As a family, the couple and their three sons would go to Montana for the holidays and this year, Dion plans on re-visiting the state as a way to remember her late husband.

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"I cannot just live on like, 'I lost my husband; my children have no father,'" she told the news outlet.

"I have to stand tall and strong because this is my way of living: Stand tall, be positive, pick your battles, do the best you can and to live for today, not for tomorrow, for today, and know nothing is perfect, not everything you want will happen."

Speaking about travelling to Montana in general, Dion added her husband also put "magic into that snow" on the mountains.

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"Every time we go down, I go down with him," she continued. "My children go down thinking about him. Every time I take the lift to go up, I feel closer to him."

Angelil passed away at the age of 73 in January after a longtime battle with cancer. He was first diagnosed in 1999.

Since his death, the 48-year-old Canadian singer paid several tributes to her former manager, including picking up the Felix trophy on Angelil's behalf to honour his work in Quebec's music industry.

"Not only [was he] one of the greatest visionaries of the Quebec music industry. He was also one of the biggest fans of musical artists that ever existed," Dion said that evening in November.

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Celine Dion performs in memory and honour of her late husband Rene Angelil at the Gala Adisq awards ceremony in Montreal.

The couple got hitched in 1994 and were married for 21 years.

And as the anniversary of Angelil's death approaches, Dion says she still can't believe it's going to be a year since his passing.

I dont know when Santa Claus is coming, but if I had a wish to make this year, can you just tell him to take his time? Im not ready! Its kind of a bittersweet moment and at the same time we need to really make the holidays really happy, she told Page Six.

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Celine Dion Style Evolution (2016) See Gallery
The Embassy of Canada, the Embassy of the United States and the EU Delegation to Ukraine encourage the country to continue on the path of ambitious reforms, in particular, the establishment of the High Anti-corruption Court, new financial police and credible verification of submitted e-declarations.

"We strongly encourage the independent and credible verification of submitted e-declarations," the embassies said in a joint statement of the embassies published on December 9 on the occasion of International Anti-Corruption Day.

The embassies applauded the impressive steps taken since the Revolution of Dignity, including the adoption of constitutional amendments on the judiciary and of anti-corruption legislation, the establishment of specialized anti-corruption bodies, and the successful launch of the electronic asset declaration system.

"We also encourage Ukrainian authorities to complete the establishment of the new Asset Recovery and Management Office (AMRO) so that this institution can commence its operations in early 2017 and fulfill its critical tasks," the embassies said.

Representatives of the United States, EU and Canada voiced their support for the establishment of the High Anti-corruption Court and they stand ready to provide assistance as this process is being developed.

"We stress the importance of completing the creation of the State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) in a transparent manner, which can ensure its independence and credibility," the embassies said.
Instagram model Deddeh Howard is out to prove we all have a place in the fashion industry.

In an incredible photo series called "Black Mirror," the model, who was born in Liberia, recreates some of fashion's most iconic ads to address the lack of diversity in the fashion.

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Howard "poses" beside top models like Kendall, Gigi and Gisele and says, "it's time for more diversity and models of all races being seen."

Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything! Stand up and make progress!!#blackmirror Thanks to @raffaelphoto_com @donlemast1 and @kiwiindianmotorcycles #blackmirrorchallenge A photo posted by Deddeh Howard (@secretofdd) on Dec 8, 2016 at 9:49pm PST

"Growing up in Africa, I knew nothing about Black and White, we're all equal, it was United we stand! At least that's what my parents thought me and that's what I believe in," the model wrote on Instagram.

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"I believe we can be whoever we want to be, so don't let anyone tell you're not what you want to be. If they can do it! So can you. It's about time we stand up together ... Dream and Believe. I'm personally fighting for more diversity especially more black models to be seen on bill boards, movies, TV commercials, advertisements etc for us all. #blackmirror."

On her blog, The Secret of DD, Howard writes that she hopes her project can show the world that the opportunity to work in fashion should be accessible for everyone.

"Just like a Gisele Bundchen, Kate Moss or Candice Swanepoel gets to travel the world, shoot the most amazing campaigns and live an exciting life to inspire young girls, lets give the next generation something to believe in," she notes.

And Deddeh isn't the only model of colour to call out the fashion industry this year.

Victoria's Secret model Leomie Anderson got real with the modelling world for not providing enough makeup artists who are "competent with all races."

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This led her to create a video called "Black Model Survival Kit," to help others "survive the black model mishaps that you come up against."

Today's the day!!! Catch me and the girls taking over Paris for the @victoriassecret show on #cbs  #vsfashionshow #vsfs2016 A photo posted by Leomie Anderson (@leomieanderson) on Dec 5, 2016 at 7:14am PST

"As you may or may not know being a black model is just extra hard, there's extra work, there's extra things involved," the British model says in the video. "So I'm just going to give you my survival kit as to what I've used to save my life from hair and makeup and just black model life mishaps."

Now, more than ever, the fashion world needs to realize equal visibility of all races is needed in the industry.

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25 Influential Black Models See Gallery
Gigi Hadid is opening up about her battle with Hashimoto's disease.

Alongside Ruby Rose, Aly Raisman, Zoe Kravitz, and Lena Dunham, the 21-year-old supermodel revealed during a panel with Reebok that she has been battling the thyroid disease for the past two years and struggles to maintain a normal metabolism.

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"My metabolism actually changed like crazy this year," Hadid told the #PerfectNever crowd on Wednesday. "I have Hashimoto's disease. It's a thyroid disease, and it's now been two years since taking the medication for it, so for the [Victoria's Secret] show I didn't want to lose any more weight, I just want to have muscles in the right place, and if my butt can get a little perkier, then that's good."

After walking in her second Victoria's Secret Fashion Show just weeks ago, Hadid was called out by fans for her thin figure.

oh my @GiGiHadid ure getting too skinny , eat sumthng plzz.. I miss ur old body style  pic.twitter.com/QbUMxuIroY  sHaYnE (@zummerz23) December 6, 2016

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At this point in her career, Hadid is no stranger to being body-shamed.

Recently, Tommy Hilfiger admitted to Yahoo! Style that he put Gigi in a poncho during his fall 2015 New York Fashion Week show because she wasn't thin enough.

Gigi Hadid walks the Fall 2015 Tommy Hilfiger show.

"Our casting director said, 'She doesn't really fit because you know she's not quite as tall as the other girls, she's not quite as thin,'" the 65-year-old designer told Joe Zee.

But the blond bombshell knows how to handle body shamers.

Gigi Hadid walks the runway during the Giambattista Valli show as part of the Paris Fashion Week Womenswear Spring/Summer 2016 on October 5, 2015 in Paris, France.

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Nearly a year ago during Paris Fashion Week, Gigi was fighting a similar battle when body-shamers on Instagram posted negative comments about her appearance and size, criticizing her for having a body that's curvier than the average high fashion model.

"I represent a body image that wasn't accepted in high-fashion before, and I'm very lucky to be supported by the designers, stylists, and editors that I am: ones that know this is fashion, it's art; it can never stay the same," she writes. "If you don't like it, don't follow me, don't watch me, cause I'm not going anywhere."

A photo posted by Gigi Hadid (@gigihadid) on Sep 28, 2015 at 4:25am PDT

As noted by Refinery29, Hashimoto's, also known as chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis, occurs when "someone's immune system attacks the thyroid gland."

In Hollywood, actresses Zoe Saldana, Victoria Justice, Gina Rodriguez and Nia Vardalos also battle with the same autoimmune disease.

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Gigi's younger sister, Bella Hadid, who also walked the VS Fashion Show this year, is dealing with her own health problems.

The 19-year-old, along with mom Yolanda Hadid and brother Anwar, has chronic Lyme Disease, a tick-borne illness.

Bella Hadid walks the 2016 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show in Paris.

"It affected my memory, so I suddenly wouldnt remember how to drive to Santa Monica from Malibu, where I lived," Bella said in an 2015 interview with ES Magazine. "I couldnt ride [horses]. I was just too sick. And I had to sell my horse because I couldnt take care of it."

But leave it up to the Hadid sisters to battle through their health issues and strut their stuff with confidence.

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Once again, Kate Middleton lit up Buckingham Palace (with her jewels, that is).

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And just like Princess Di, Catherine looked flawless wearing it.

Wearing plenty of diamonds and earrings loaned to her by the Queen, Middleton looked stunning in a floor-length red beaded Jenny Packham gown, which she previously wore at a royal state dinner in 2015 in honour of the Queen's guests Chinese president Xi Jinping and wife Peng Liyuan.

The Lover's Knot tiara worn by Kate was created in 1914 and has pearls hanging from diamond knots. It passed from Queen Mary to Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.

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Queen Elizabeth then gifted Diana, Princess of Wales, the tiara for her wedding in 1981. It fast became her favourite tiara.

This is only the second time the Duchess has worn the tiara, the first being nearly one year ago at the same white tie reception hosted by the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh. It was the first time the accessory was worn in public since Diana was killed in a car crash nearly 20 years ago.

It was a year ago today we saw the Duchess wearing the Cambridge Lovers Knot tiara with her McQueen gown at the Diplomatic reception. pic.twitter.com/EXZtVlsTyA  WhatKateWore.com (@WhatKateWore) December 8, 2016

What Kate Wore notes this is only the fifth time the Duchess has worn a tiara.

It also looks like Kate could be in the red @jennypackham gown worn for the China State Dinner. pic.twitter.com/zcYEaayJ9G  WhatKateWore.com (@WhatKateWore) December 8, 2016

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Stunning as ever, Kate.

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An Ohio woman is facing charges after state troopers say she took them on a high-speed car chase while naked.

Shelly Joiner, 30, was allegedly involved in a car crash in Akron on Wednesday night, the Ohio State Highway Patrol told WJW.

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When a driver stopped to check out the accident, she allegedly stole their car.

A trooper saw the stolen, apparently disabled vehicle on Interstate 77, walked up to it and noted Joiner was driving while naked.

She sped off, leading police on a chase at speeds of up to 209 kilometres an hour, according to The Repository.

Troopers managed to box in the car and slow it to a stop.

They believe she was under the influence of drugs that spiked her body temperature, an explanation as to why she took off her clothes.

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Sgt. David Garber told The Repository she was "pretty incoherent" and "didn't answer any questions with any validity."

Joiner was charged with receiving stolen property, grand theft, operating under the influence of drugs or alcohol and failure to comply with a police officer, according to the Summit County Sheriff's Office.

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hen the sun goes to bed over the Alberta prairie and mountains, there's a subculture of photographers who do their best work under the cloak of night.

Some obsessively follow weather patterns, waiting for clear skies or stunning shows of northern lights. Others are happy to climb mountains and camp overnight, capturing what's not quite visible to the naked eye through stunning, long-exposure photos.

Others like to play with special effects, creating amazing light streams and stunning light orbs.

The Huffington Post Alberta caught up with one of the founders of the amazing Instagram account, We Own The Night Alberta (@weownthenight_ab), to find out the method behind some of the most stunning portraits of Alberta we've ever seen. This is what Kevin Cripps (@adaptive_kromatics) had to say:

Q: What is the lifestyle of a night photographer like?

A: I think for each of us it is different, but I suspect many of us spend a lot of time looking at weather patterns and hoping for the biggest aurora borealis show we have ever seen! Of course there is always the Milky Qay that we get to shoot for a few brief periods during the summer. Night shooters also tend to spend their daylight hours looking for interesting foreground objects, as that can make or break a great night image!
Danita Delimont via Getty Images Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press.Kiev is an important industrial, scientific, educational and cultural centre of Eastern Europe. It is home to many high-tech industries, higher education institutions and world-famous historical landmarks. The city has an extensive infrastructure and highly developed system of public transport, including the Kiev Metro.

An anti-establishment movement gains momentum in the West. Democracy has an in-built remedy against the self-destruction -- grass-root initiatives as a way to reconnect the existing institutions with ordinary people. This remedy requires that volunteer initiatives go beyond their usual role of a service provider. The experience of volunteers in Ukraine is instructive: they are heading toward becoming a watchdog of the government.

Following the 2013-2014 revolution of dignity and Russia's subsequent aggression that resulted in the annexation of Crimea and Ukraine's loss of control over a part of its territory in Donbass, Ukraine's people have faced the need to start the process of state and nation building over again. The West is expected to provide help and assistance in this difficult moment in Ukraine's history, especially Canada with its significant population of Ukrainian descent. What is usually overlooked, however, is how Ukraine may be of assistance to the West in making democracy work more efficiently on a daily basis.

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The prevalent discourse focuses on what the West can teach Ukraine. Quite a lot indeed. A country suffering from protracted war, widespread corruption and the lack of a tradition of effective government needs to take lessons on how to modernize virtually every aspect of the existing public institutions.

Is there something that Ukraine can teach the West? The question is not as outlandish as it may seem at first sight. Ukraine's unique experience in fighting for human dignity may be of relevance in reviving democratic institutions elsewhere.

Yet it is definitely not up to the Ukrainian government to be a role model. That government is perceived as highly corrupt (Transparency International, TI, ranks it 130 out of 168 based on the criterion of public service cleanness).

Who then could eventually go beyond the role of a pupil? Volunteers. The volunteer movement is probably the most valuable thing that Ukraine has produced recently. The volunteer movement has been consistently perceived among the top three most trusted institutions in the country (along with the church and the military).

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The argument that Ukrainian volunteers may potentially be considered a role model for Westerners needs to be clarified. After all, Canadians' degree of involvement into voluntary associations tends to be one of the highest in the Western world.

A survey conducted by Kyiv International Institute of Sociology in September 2016 shows that the total volume of monetary contributions (without in-kind donations) made by Ukrainians to charities and voluntary initiatives during past 12 months amounts to 0.4% of GDP, which does not exceed similar figures in Canada (0.4-0.5%). Median volunteer hours per year in Ukraine are close to 120 against 55 in Canada, but the ratio of volunteers to adult population in Canada is higher (47% against 7%).

The fact that Ukrainian volunteers often provide services and goods that their state fails to supply seems to make their case less relevant for the West. The peak in the volunteer movement coincided with the early stages of Russia's aggression. Ukraine's army turned out to be unprepared not only to curb the covert (in Donbass) and overt (in Crimea) invasion but also to offer assistance to the civil population in the zones of conflict and to take care of the wounded and the veterans. Fortunately, the Canadian armed forces hardly expect to receive food, clothing, medication and military equipment from Canadians as a condition for their operation.

The area in which Ukrainian volunteers have some unique experience of potential interest for Westerners lies elsewhere. It entails attempts to control the government on a daily basis. It is precisely because the governments in the West are believed to be less corrupt (Canada is ranked the 9th on the TI list) and more effective in supplying public goods that their constituency tends to take too much for granted, as far as their government institutions are concerned. As a result, volunteer initiatives that focus on controlling the delivery of public services are rare if not inexistent.

Ukraine's volunteer movement has roots in the 2013-2014 attempt to create institutions that would protect the human dignity of its citizens. After initially having no choice but to serve as a substitute for their failed state, Ukrainian volunteers are progressively moving toward the realization of a much bolder task, that is of interest for ordinary people in the West, namely to control the government on a continuous basis and not to take anything related to the government for granted.

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Ukrainians create most checks and balances from scratch. In a way, Ukrainian volunteers may be compared with the builders of the first modern democratic nations in the 18th and 19th centuries. Yet their example may be relevant for Canadians since there are also a number of issues concerning the operation of their government that call for grass-root initiatives.

Access to the law is one of them. One's right to equal treatment before the law is a foundation of human dignity. This is why Ukrainian volunteers increasingly turn their attention to reforms of that country's law enforcement system: the police, the office of the attorney general, and the courts.

In contrast to Ukraine, the principles of the rule of law are believed to be respected in Canada. However, access to the law still has a problematic character in North America. A party that is better represented has more chances of winning regardless of the merits of the other, poorly represented, party.

The seriousness of this issue is acknowledged and addressed with the help of various legal aid programs, the pro bono work done by the barristers etc. What is often missing, nevertheless, is the willingness not to take the efficiency of such remedies provided by the government and professional associations for granted, the willingness to take bottom-up initiatives in this and several other areas.

It is exactly here that the experience of Ukrainian volunteers seems particularly relevant. Volunteer associations in the West may and perhaps should become again a watchdog and an advocate in addition to being a service provider.

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Austrian experts believe that Austria must pay more attention to cooperation with Ukraine.

Chairman of the Institute for the Danube Region and Central Europe Erhard Busek said in Kyiv on Friday at a briefing following the results of the Austrian-Ukrainian days that there are reports about the situation on the border, but not the whole of the political situation in the country. He said it is necessary, because a war is being waged on Ukrainian territory. In addition, it is necessary to report about the country's economic development.

According to him, it is necessary to establish more civil society contacts between Austria and Ukraine.

Former Stability Pact Coordinator of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe Gustav Gressel said that the Austrian side should provide Ukraine with more support. He said the Austrian side, unfortunately, belongs to the category, which does little to help Ukraine. This is surprising, because Austria helped the Baltic countries and other states a lot, when the European Union was expanding.

According to him, Europe should fight the Russian propaganda together with Ukraine to join efforts.

Senior Researcher of the European Council on Foreign Relations Stefan Haybock noted that Austria talks about Ukraine little. He said that they know little about Ukraine and when they turn on the news they hear that this is just a small country in the east and there is no constant news about Ukraine. Haybock said they are not informed about the progress of reforms in the field of law enforcement, justice and legislation.
By Alex Chartrand

"Citizen engagement is needed to fight impunity, corruption and social inequalities. The engaged citizen is able to place himself above his particular interests, to live the values and principles of human rights, to be useful to his community, and to remain in harmony with his environment. It is part of the solution for Haiti to finally get out of the situation in which it finds itself."

The Citizenship Engagement Program in Haiti, developed in the context of post-earthquake reconstruction, provides Haitian citizens with the toolkit and pedagogical tools "JE m'engage, ensemble NOUS batissons" (I commit, together WE build) to facilitate co-operation within communities, with the common goal of economic, social and cultural development based on human rights. At the heart of the process is a national network of civil society actors - including Viles Alizar, program manager at the Reseau national de defense des droits humains (RNDDH).

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In 2008, a friend of Viles Alizar suggested that he participate in the International Human Rights Training Program (IHRTP), offered by Equitas every year in Montreal. Initially hesitant, he talks about it today as a landmark experience that has had a major impact on him and his work in human rights education in Haiti: "After my participation in the IHRTP, I was able to develop new behaviours. The most important thing in all of this is that, I learned to live by the values of human rights. After my participation, I became much more enterprising and more resilient. "

Based in Port-au-Prince, Viles has been working for the RNDDH for close to 20 years, which he describes as "a body of proximity and protection of the rights of society". The RNDDH works on two distinct fronts: education and the monitoring of national institutions.

Viles and the RNDDH offer training to organizations so that they can put initiatives in place for the protection of human rights. They work with groups such as teachers and pupils to familiarize them with basic concepts of human rights as well as with the national police and Haitian magistrates, in order to better respond to complaints from citizens who are victims of violations of their rights.

As for the monitoring of national institutions, the RNDHH was able to document serious violations by institutions such as the police, prison services, the electoral system and the judicial system. The monitoring work grew following the 2010 earthquake to include, among other things, gathering information on the conditions of people living in displacement camps and ensuring the respect of their rights.

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According to Viles, the billions of dollars promised or invested are not enough for the post-earthquake reconstruction in Haiti. There is a need to rebuild the country so that it is no longer vulnerable and for the population to be more resistant and resilient to disasters, as sadly demonstrated by Hurricane Matthew in October 2016. The objective is therefore to rebuild Haitian society on new foundations, not only material, but above all focusing on inclusive development, solidarity and human rights.

And this is exactly what the Engaged Citizenship Program is about, an exchange and sharing program developed by Viles and his colleagues in the collective Partenaires pour la citoyennete engagee with the support of Equitas.

The impact of the work of this civil society alliance demonstrates the importance of citizen engagement and human rights education in rebuilding a society that needs to take control of its own development. "Without human rights, the advent of democratic rule of law in Haiti will be difficult to achieve."

Alex Chartrand is Editor at Equitas  International Centre for Human Rights Education

This story is part of the series We are human rights changemakers to celebrate Equitas' 50th anniversary. All through 2017, Equitas invites you to discover stories of 50 inspiring human rights defenders. These are but a few of the hundreds who have changed lives around the world through human rights education with Equitas' support.

The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of CCIC or its members.

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Chris Wattie / Reuters Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada October 31, 2016. REUTERS/Chris Wattie

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently expressed frustration around the current cannabis landscape, explaining, "Until we have brought in the proposed system... the current prohibition stands," and encouraging police to enforce the law, particularly as it pertains to the continued expansion of medical cannabis dispensaries in major cities across Canada.

The response has been one of uniform frustration from many angles, but I don't believe Justin Trudeau actually lied about the Liberal party's intentions on the cannabis file.

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From the very beginning, the emphasis has always been on restricting and regulating access to cannabis. In September 2015, Trudeau said he would not like to see cannabis sold at corner stores. In 2014, Trudeau said his government would legalize and make it more difficult -- not easier -- for children to get their hands on marijuana (which implies more regulation).

As early as 2013, he was quoted saying, "Our government has no interest in seeing any of these drugs legalized or made more easily available to youth," and more recently he has been reaffirming the intention that, "our approach on legalizing marijuana is not about creating a boutique industry or bringing in tax revenues." The budget did not even include any mention of marijuana.

The biggest mistake of the Liberal party in the lead up to legalization has certainly been the continued enforcement of cannabis laws.

To claim now that Trudeau lied seems confusing -- no government could really get away with a legalization 'free for all,' but more importantly, a majority of Canadians don't want that. While there is certainly more room to have an open conversation about job creation, tax revenue, and stimulating our economy, often many of these objectives, whether we want to admit it or not, can be at odds with a public health approach to legalization.

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When he says the government is not trying to "appease recreational users," it's in reference to a system that needs to work for both cannabis users and a majority of the population who are not actually regular cannabis users.

I will agree that there has been a marked shift in how Justin Trudeau seemed to acknowledge the role of medical cannabis dispensaries early on -- hinting that there may be room for them in an eventual legalized regime. However, it's important to point out the dispensary landscape has changed drastically over the last two years. Now that seems a bit hazier, where dispensaries, in most cases outside Victoria and Vancouver, have been pushed further away from participation in impending legalization.

However, it's likely that municipalities and provinces will be given some discretion to implement distribution models that make sense in their jurisdictions. Victoria, as probably the best example of how it could work, offers a lot of knowledge and experience in the case of making on site dispensing work under a recreational model.

The biggest mistake of the Liberal party in the lead up to legalization has certainly been the continued enforcement of cannabis laws. While Canadians have many opinions on how legalization should roll out, most would likely agree that the most pressing issue is the ongoing criminalization of cannabis.

People simply don't deserve to be punished under a law that is widely regarded as doing more harm than good to Canadian citizens. This didn't have to mean "decriminalization" in the typical sense, it could have been simply an order to stop prosecuting possession charges and offer pardons.

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While there is an argument to be made about the difficulty of transitioning from a decriminalization-type system to legalization, models such as Portugal show decriminalization doesn't have to be an all or nothing approach -- in their case, they've decriminalize the possession and use of a substance, and yet continue to enforce laws around trafficking and production of drugs. The possession of small quantities of those drugs was shifted to a public-health rather than criminal issue. When the possession of cannabis accounts for such a large majority of drug offenses in Canada, there is a very common sense argument to be made from many angles about immediately halting arrests.

But the plan has always been to "legalize, regulate, and restrict access to marijuana" -- while this brings up many questions about the right or best way to legalize cannabis in Canada (and we should be critical of what these plans mean)-- it's what the Liberals have always represented in their approach to cannabis legalization.

This article originally appeared on Lift.

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CatLane via Getty Images Christmas money jar with American currency and topped with bow

Almost half of all charitable donations occur over the holiday season. That means that Canadians are currently considering where to direct roughly $5 billion dollars to support good causes. Charitable giving is something that is deeply personal, reflecting your values and life experience. But there are some practices that everyone can follow to give well. If you are thinking about giving to a charity, consider these four points.

1. Don't obsess about overhead.

A lot of people use "overhead costs" as a tool for comparing charities. This approach assumes that better charities have lower overhead costs, but that is untrue. First, even though overhead costs are not directly connected to providing a service they can be very important indirectly.

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It costs money to hire qualified, knowledgeable, trustworthy staff. It costs money to maintain equipment, plan for the future and continually improve. These costs may legitimately be higher depending on what the charity does. Overhead costs can provide information about whether a charity is using its money effectively, but without context it can be misleading.

Look at overhead costs if you wish, but don't use it as your only barometer of a charity's effectiveness. Although extremely high overhead costs can signal a problem, for most cases it does not provide meaningful information about how much good a charity does. If overhead is more than, say, 40 per cent of a charity's activities, it may be a problem. Otherwise, don't worry about it too much.

2. Think about effectiveness, but don't rely on "effective altruism."

We all want to support good charities, but effective altruism is the wrong approach. Effective altruists commit to donating to the charity that can save the most lives for a given amount of money. It sounds compelling enough, but there are several problems with this line of reasoning.

First, there is no good way to compare the relative effectiveness of charities. This is chiefly because "impact" is much more difficult to measure for some causes than others.

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A charity that distributes vaccines will have a relatively easy time calculating how many deaths it has prevented. Measuring impact will be much more difficult for, say, a group that provides cultural awareness training to teachers working in First Nations communities.

Even though we all intuitively know that this type of training will help teachers to be better at interacting with their students, proving what effect it has had would require long-term studies that are simply too expensive for most charities.

Donating money is a financial transaction but it is also a way that you connect to a community.

Effective altruism asks people to fund charities with an immediate, direct, and observable impact -- to the detriment of equally worthy but more difficult to measure causes.

But even if we could find a good way to measure and compare the relative cost per impact of different charities, we shouldn't. Some of the most vulnerable beneficiaries are also those that are the hardest - and therefore most expensive -- to reach. Charities should be trying to reach the people that need their help the most, even if it is more expensive.

Moreover, it is perfectly legitimate for you to give to a charity because it is in your community or because you feel personally close to the cause. Donating money is a financial transaction but it is also a way that you connect to a community, whatever that happens to be. You should feel personally connected to your donation.

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If you want to donate to a big charity, the Money Sense rankings could be a good starting point. It rates Canada's 100 biggest charities not only by efficiency, but also fundraising costs (slightly better than overhead costs), transparency, and financial sustainability.

The ranking is imperfect, but it could be a good starting point if you need ideas about where to donate. Another option is the Charity Intelligence rating.

3. Think about setting up a monthly donation.

One-time donations are a mixed blessing for charities: even though they are happy for any contributions, it is difficult for charities to plan when giving can be episodic and finicky. A charity that receives a lot of donated money at one time might be pressured to expand its services, only to find that it cannot afford to sustain new programs when donations drop off in future months and years. Bigger charities can often absorb these cycles, but small and local charities may have a much more difficult time.

This is especially true when giving is prompted by an emotional reaction to specific events, because the way that people feel at that moment is unlikely to reflect their giving practices in future years. For instance, after the U.S. presidential election John Oliver encouraged people to donate to a non-profit investigative journalism organization called ProPublica. After that show, ProPublica's donations increased to "about 10 times the rate" to which the organization is accustomed. Obviously, ProPublica is not complaining about the windfall. But it may face difficulties in future years if givers fail to provide the same level of support.

Think about the charities whose need will be the greatest right now.

You should think about charitable giving as a commitment to an organization. One option that many charities offer is the monthly donation. You won't be locked in for life, of course -- you can end your monthly contribution at any time -- but the regularized monthly installment of, say, $20, is something that the organization can use to plan its activities for the future. That stability means your dollars go further.

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If you are going to do a one-time donation, think about the charities whose need will be the greatest right now. Charities experience increased demand for their services in times when communities are doing the worst, and this can also be the time where they are the most financially strained. For example, local nonprofits in Fort McMurray have had the double burden of dealing with financial strain from the wildfires while simultaneously facing unprecedentedly high demand.

4. Consider donating to a less sexy cause.

Some causes are consistently overfunded, while others are consistently underfunded. Even though donations should be personal, take some time to think about which important cause needs your money the most. For instance, breast cancer receives the most research funding even though other cancers -- notably lung and colorectal cancer -- kill more people. Pulmonary disease, diabetes, suicide and heart disease are bigger killers but receive less donated money than breast cancer.

Researchers have found that charitable donations generally do not help the poor: more charitable dollars go to projects that benefit the middle and upper classes. That is because a lot of people donate to causes like universities, art galleries and schools in suburban neighborhoods, which are often not accessible to the poor.

The most underfunded charitable causes tend to be those that deal with aspects of society that we do not like to talk about. Some examples include shelters for victims of domestic violence, legal aid clinics and mental health charities.

Although it is legitimate to donate to causes that are personal to you or affect your community, you might want to think about where your charitable dollars are most needed.

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Bill 41, the Patients First Act, became law on Dec. 7, 2016 -- an announcement met with disappointment and even outright anger by front-line doctors across Ontario.

So much anger that, with the support of the Ontario Medical Association, doctor after doctor after doctor, from all corners of Ontario, are resigning from committees tasked with turning the Patients First Act into reality.

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They will still care for their patients and serve their communities.

But doctors will no longer help the government play this ridiculously expensive game of musical chairs. They will not waste time expediting the government's sketchy schemes. The Liberals are on their own -- even the PCs and NDP voted against the Patients First Act.

On the surface, doctors disengaging may not sound like much. But doctors on LHIN committees help translate thought into meaningful action, law into practical reality. So doctors disengaging will throw a wrench into the works.

Doctors disengaging will throw a wrench into the works.

Administrative bodies like the Ministry of Health, LHINs and CCAC know how to divvy up funding among various health service providers. They do it poorly -- as the auditor general revealed in last year's and this year's reports -- but it's familiar territory. However, these mainly bureaucratic bodies have no clue what makes doctors, nurses and allied health providers tick. Many do not know what patients need and even if they did, would not know how to meet that need. Many do not understand the inner workings of the system they now control.

Doctors, on the other hand, are embedded in the health-care system. From hospitals to home care to hospices, from clinics to house-calls, from retirement homes to nursing homes, from WSIB to public health, from imaging to treating to operating -- we coordinate and provide patient care.

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Our knowledge and skill in direct patient service and health system policy simply cannot be replaced.

We share the playground and work happily within team environments. Midwives help deliver babies, but they are not trained in C-sections or advanced neonatal resuscitation. Nurse practitioners excel at patient education and managing common illnesses, but their scope of practice is not at all the same as that of a family doctor. Mental health workers counsel well, but they cannot replace a psychiatrist or a psychologist. Allied health workers and doctors complement one another's abilities. They do not replace one another. Doctors offer unique insight and expertise.

So, the LHINs need doctors to pull off the Liberal transformation agenda -- within the government's tight deadlines. If they don't, they themselves will be replaced by government-appointed supervisors. The threat is implicit in the Patients First Act, an iron fist wrapped in a velvet glove.

Hundreds of my colleagues volunteered thousands of hours at meetings, offering ideas for visionary health-care reform. Yet none of it made it into the Patients First Act. So although this government says it seeks the opinion and advice of industry experts, it ignores all that is offered. In fact, perusing the Standing Committee minutes, this government ignores the advice of doctors, nurses, patient advocates, caregivers and hospitals. Frankly, I'm tired of the Liberals talking out of both sides of their mouths.

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This goes beyond issues of physician contracts and funding. Industry experts are coming out against the Patients First Act. Valuing -- and funding -- bureaucracy over patient services will put patients dead last.

The Liberals have stated, there is no extra funding for health care in Ontario. If the health-care budget was a pie, a bigger slice for bureaucracy and flawed health care transformations means less left over for services people actually use: doctors, nurses, personal support workers, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, nursing home beds and hospital beds.

We are turning our backs on those who willfully ignore our warnings and our advice.

So my elderly patient loses out, the one whom I just accepted as a favour though my practice is full; the one with dementia and end-stage liver disease; the one who was discharged from hospital even though he requires 24/7 supervision; the one who, like hundreds of others, is on a wait list for a nursing home bed -- beds that are becoming as unlikely as a unicorn sighting.

My other patients lose out, the ones waiting for surgery be it, cataracts or knee replacements; the ones waiting for specialist consults, be it psychiatry or neurology; the ones waiting for imaging or investigations, be it for ankle pain or a cancer diagnosis.

Again, I am not alone in this concern. I hear it from my colleagues: the palliative patient who may very well die before he gets adequate home care. Or the developmentally delayed elderly woman who herself is a caregiver for her elderly husband. Or the pregnant Toronto women who cannot access obstetric care because of an irrational funding cap. Or the patients whose surgeries have been delayed again because hospital funding ran out.

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This health-care system is so overburdened, underfunded and mismanaged that it no longer provides patients with reliable, timely or even universal access to care.

Ontario needs genuine health system reform. Instead we get the Patients First Act.

Doctors are hopping mad. So we are turning our backs on those who willfully ignore our warnings and our advice. They will now stand alone as their committees and sub-committees waste more time and more taxpayer money on a sketchy health care "transformation." Responsibility for the ensuing mess will rest squarely on this government's shoulders.

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Dan Riedlhuber / Reuters Alberta Premier Rachel Notley speaks to the media on the death of former Alberta Premier Jim Prentice, who was killed in a plane crash, at the Alberta legislature in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada October 14, 2016. REUTERS/Dan Riedlhuber

"The chant rose ritually, as at the last moment of a dance or a hunt. 'Kill the pig! Cut his throat! Kill the pig! Bash him in!'" -- William Golding, Lord of the Flies, 1954

Lord of the Flies is a classic 21st century novel that describes how a group of English schoolboys stranded on a desert island descend from civilization into savagery.

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Initially, Ralph emerges as the natural charismatic leader, employing his reason and pragmatism to institute a system of smoke signals, plans for building shelters, and a process for democratic representation. Over time, Ralph's rival -- the violent and authoritarian Jack -- lures the majority of boys over to his leadership: the appeal of war paint, the hunt, and domination becomes too great for the group of boys to resist.

At the apex of the plot, the boys are all chanting, egging each other on to slaughter a wild boar with their makeshift weapons. Jack and his gang do indeed "cut his throat," and parade the pig's head around the island on a stick.

This well-known allegory offers two stark choices: Ralph or Jack; civilization or savagery?

An "innocent chant, not to be taken literally" may now be a bellweather for further division in our usually civil discourse.

The degeneration of political discourse that we have seen in the past few years offers nearly as stark a choice. Social media is now the main source of news for most people, with uninformed opinions, name calling, threats of violence and emotional melodrama characterizing a great deal of "debate." And now, the heart-wrenching spectacle of the U.S. election so recently concluded has finally filtered into Canadian politics.

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What some have dismissed as an "innocent chant, not to be taken literally" may now be a bellweather for further division in our usually civil discourse.

It is possible that Albertans who called on democratically elected Premier of Alberta Rachel Notley to be "locked up" for fulfilling her mandate may not have meant their words literally. Perhaps they found it a relief, an amusement, to lift an American phrase from the last election, directed at another loathed public figure (who was also obliquely threatened with assassination, twice, by the president-elect).

It is possible that these are "just words" and "just anger," or "just a joke," although it hardly need be noted that unlawful confinement is a Criminal Code offence and punishable by federal law.

Threats like these can never be justified in terms of freedom of speech or "anti-political correctness." The self-indulgence, the underlying menace, and the thinly veiled barbarism of this chant are an attempt at intimidation, and undermine the democratic process and the civil discourse that guides our way of life.

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It is not simply the "chattering classes" or "elites" whose sensibilities are rightly disturbed. It is everyone who has ever had any experience with a dictatorship or authoritarian regime; it is anyone who has ever had violence or forcible confinement threatened against them; it is anyone who has ever seen how the thin veneer of civilization can erode into anarchy.

Nor can the "lock her up" rallying cry ever be dismissed as harmless simply on the basis that people are out of work. Both sets of my grandparents (coal miners on one side, farmers on the other) were mired in poverty for most of their adult lives, yet I cannot imagine any of them using the shield of free speech to incite a crowd against an elected official who was fulfilling her democratic mandate.

Words lead to thought, and thought to action.

It is worth noting Lord of the Flies was written less than a decade after the Second World War by an author who had served in the British army and had seen first-hand the evil that humans are capable of. As a writer, Golding was acutely aware of the Holocaust, the continuing threat of nuclear warfare, and the threat of authoritarian dictators that arose during the post-1945 world order.

The economic instability of working class America has some features in common with the unemployment and economic depression of Alberta. But in neither case can hardship be used as a pretext for threats of imprisonment, violence and murder (which Notley has been subjected to since her election in 2015). Those who excuse and dismiss these barbaric words must remember the lessons of the 21st century, and how easy it is for a society -- big or small -- to descend into authoritarianism, anarchy, war and bloodshed.

Every society has a choice: do we take the side of Ralph and fight for civilization in the form of rules, morality and the rule of law, or do we descend with Jack and his animal savagery, his brute power and his raw thirst for domination?

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Yes, these are "just words" so far, but words matter. Words lead to thought, and thought to action. Those who are suffering must always be given a voice and a platform; but it is up to all of us speak up in circumscribing the limits of barbarism.

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The five things you need to know on Friday, December 9

1) DAVE REGRET RIEN

The tiny DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, is not in the Ivy League. But it must have a hell of a lot of cash because it manages to attract big name speakers from Tony Blair to John Major to Mikhail Gorbachev. And last night another ex-Factor politician, David Cameron, turned up to give his first major speech since quitting No.10.

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There was the no-sugar-Sherlock line that "rising populism cost me my job, but more notable was the fact that he did not regret calling the EU referendum that powered his own political self-harm. An unrepentant Cameron said: I believed - and still believe - the fact that we hadnt had a referendum on this issue for 40 years, in spite of the EU changing and changing, was actually beginning to poison politics. He claimed that poison wasnt just in his own party, though some may say thats as much a self-delusion as Blairs on Iraq.

As for life after No10, the ex-PM did have a nice gag. "People often ask me, 'How are you sleeping?' and I say 'I sleep like a baby  I wake up every hour calling for my mother." Jokes aside, I was struck by his line on the euro (I wonder how long it can last). Yet the most interesting was his lack of regret in arguing so strongly for Remain - and what sounded like an admission that his heart really isnt in Brexit still. He says he decided to quit because I think I might have lacked passion for delivering that outcome.

Now hes no longer an MP, we will find out from Companies House once a year how much Cameron gets for his speeches. George Osborne meanwhile has to declare his income more regularly and the Mirror splashes that he has earned more than 500,000 in less than two months making speeches: a whopping hourly rate of 26,055. Much more than a JAM makes in a year.

2) MAY THE 4TH BE WITH YOU

One week on from the Brexit by-election in Richmond Park, and normal service was resumed in the Sleaford and North Hykeham by-election overnight as the Tories cantered to victory. Caroline Johnson (an NHS consultant and another woman - more proof that Cameron really did modernise selections) won an impressive 53% of the vote.

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The battle for second place looked frankly like bald men fighting over a comb. UKIPs came second but its vote dropped to just 13.5%. The Lib Dems improved to take third on 11%, but Labour slipped to fourth on 10%. Before the contest, I went through all the recent general election results and Labour was for a long time the natural second place, so the result really is not a good one for Jeremy Corbyn.

Corbyn of course likes to focus on local council by-election results and they were mixed last night. Labour gained a Tory seat in Shropshire, but lost one in Staffordshire (where it came fourth - having been first - losing to an Independent). Labour held a university ward in Lancaster, perhaps proof that Corbyn is holding his own among the student/metropolitan vote. As always, local by-elections are a mass of complex factors, but given JC insists on citing them, it's worth recording.

There is more grief for Corbyn in the Guardian. Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones says his party is out of touch on immigration: The danger is thats a very London-centric position. That is not the way people see it outside London. As for the Momentum Trotskyist takeover, Jez ally Jon Lansman reveals hes not walking away from the movement he founded to get Corbyn elected (and whose data he controls).

3) BEAN THERE, DONE THAT

Hes blond, hes a maverick and he led a rebellious uprising that caught the world by surprise. But while many see our Foreign Secretary as a dashing Boris of Arabia, others see him as a hapless Mr Bean.

When Boris Johnson arrives in the Gulf today, hell be surrounded by a sandstorm of controversy over his candid remarks about Saudi puppeteering and playing proxy wars. No.10 decided to smack him down yesterday in uncompromising fashion, not least as Theresa May had just spent days trying to build alliances not wreck them.

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The BBCs Frank Gardner, who knows the Saudis better than most, said this morning that they were cutting Boris some slack and were waiting for his inevitable clarification (a jokey apology wont work in this case). But Gardners explanation for the Saudis being so sanguine was not exactly complimentary: There are some people in this part of the world who see him as a little bit of a Mr Bean character. Whitehall source say the Saudis havent batted an eyelid, as most of this stuff is already said behind closed doors.

Perhaps what was most notable was the number of people rallying round to defend Boriss candour (hes right about the Saudis in Syria, if not in Yemen, the line goes). Andrew Mitchell, Crispin Blunt, Dan Hannan backed him. Significantly, so too did housing minister Gavin Barwell, whom the Telegraph quotes as saying its perfectly right that we should raise these issues. But former Foreign Secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind told Today that Bozza ought to have known he couldnt go so public - and may be better suited to another job.

With many Tory backbenchers worried that DD is the only one of the Three Brexiteers who has the PMs ear (and respect), the real proxy war may be over the Cabinets power rankings.

BECAUSE YOUVE READ THIS FAR

Watch this Uber driver get his passengers to sing along to Mariah Carey. And they love it.

4) BIG TAX AND FRIES

McDonalds decision to move its international HQ from Luxembourg to the UK looks like a real boost for post-Brexit Britain. Its certainly a far cry from their pro-Remain warnings in the referendum that unemployment would rise if the UK quit the EU, but business is business and low tax rates are a premium. The small matter of a kicking from Brussels over state aid may be a factor too. Still, Maccy Ds pays billions in tax every year (unlike the new tech dudes) so that can only help our coffers.

Professor Prem Sikka of Essex Business School told the BBC this morning that our lower corporation tax and other sweetener advantages did make the UK now look like more of a tax haven than Luxembourg. Of course, banks worried about passporting are thinking of heading the other way over the Channel - and the Irish sea (Canary Dwarf in Dublin is a tempting English-speaking, post-Brexit option for some in the City).

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But one of the most interesting stories today is the FTs publication of a transcript of David Daviss meeting with a key figure from the Corporation of London (ie The Citys local council) in November. The memo claims DD said he was only considering a transition deal to be kind to the EU. He also said the EUs inflexible approach on immigration meant it was unlikely the UK would achieve access to the single market. Which is kinda big potatoes. DEXU says the FT account of the meeting did not properly reflect government policy or [Mr Daviss] view.

5) ARISTO AMBUSH

The House of Lords is usually a sedate, polite place. But today may see passions rise if Tory peers carry out plans (as revealed on HuffPost HERE yesterday) to filibuster a bill to end the bizarre by-elections for hereditaries. Bruce Grocotts private members bill wont make a huge dent in the numbers of the ever-expanding Lords, but it would end the current system.

Yes, whenever a hereditary peer dies, a by-election is held in order to maintain their numbers. But the electorate is very select indeed: only fellow hereditary peers from the same party can actually take part (this meant that when a Lib Dem was chosen recently, just three people voted). The only people actually elected to our second chamber are those who have a peerage by birth. Some see this as a national embarrassment, others as a mild constitutional quirk.

Grocotts bill would end the practice of trying to keep the number of hereditaries at 92 (as decreed in Tony Blairs 1999 Lords reform deal). Tory hereditary peers Lord Trefgarne and Lord Caithness have tabled shedloads of amendments in a bid to talk on each of them and ensure the bill runs out of time today in its Committee Stage. The Lords is a self-regulating House, and its Speaker cant intervene as directly as in the Commons. But expect lots of hubbub if such tactics are deployed.

COMMONS PEOPLE

Listen to our latest CommonsPeople podcast HERE. We chew the fat about the Brexit motion, immigration and Sleaford. Oh, and there's a quiz on who has and hasn't been the Time Person of the Year.

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

Beauty is on the inside. Today's narcissism, sexist advertising and quest for perfection, has rendered this message a faint whisper. How can a society that prioritises external beauty to such a high level, relearn to value this ideal?

The Pirelli Calendar, or "The Cal" as it was once called, is famed for its portraits of beautiful models, snapped by the world's best photographers. Since its beginning, the Pirelli Calendar has been considered a global confirmation of beauty for the women that grace it; the prestige launching supermodels into the fashion stratosphere. If you're not familiar, they are usually photographed nude. The brand says the calendar "anticipate[s] trends and test[s] new provocative communication strategies." Which, to the naked eye, is a hard to see through the peachy bottoms and pert nipples. However, this isn't your typical oil-smeared garage calendar - there are only 2,000 copies printed each year, reserved for celebrities and the company's key clientele.

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What's different this year? 2017 sees a dramatic step away from Pirelli's trademark nudity. Photographer Peter Lindberg said he captured the images in "'a cry for beauty today against the terror of perfection and youth". Titled 'Emotional', the photographs feature Hollywood actresses including Dame Helen Mirren, Julianne Moore, Robin Wright and Lea Seydoux. No Terry Richardson-style innuendo - just beautiful portraits of women bearing all without undressing. Emotionally naked.

While this kind of naked might disappoint those who Google "sexiest women in the world" or the "sexiest poker players", here are the top three takeaways from the 2017 Pirelli calendar to say f**k you to perfection.

1. Cover Up

Forget Free The Nipple, the focal point of this year's edition is its lack of nudity. The catalogue features soft black and white images of these often fully-clothed stars. We hear the adage 'less is more' less and less. Remember when butt-slit jeans were a thing? Thank you again, Kardashian clan.

While nudity - be it advertising or films - increases, so do the impossible standards of beauty. Campaigns targeted at more realistic forms of beauty have created a buzz online, but so far it has remained just that. Here, in one of the most well-known demonstrations of otherworldly beauty and nudity, Lindberg keeping his models clothed signifies a step down a long road.

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2. Ageing Should Be Celebrated, Not Feared

Our forever-young society, where the answer to ageing is found in bee venom and blistering surgical peels, blinds from the fact that ageing is a natural and normal process. In one image in the calendar, Kate Winslet asked specifically for her hands to be shot because she loved the way they've aged over the years.

The media wants women cryogenically frozen - just five minutes watching television advertising will tell you that. Caution: wrinkles may result in loss of husband, job and place in society. Even Hollywood's brightest stars are not exempt from this sexism: watch Amy Schumer's 'Last F**kable Day' for a comic take on double standards for female actors.

The more women who are seen looking really 40, 50, or 60, will make ageing less 'unfathomable' or 'scary' for future generations.

3. Real is Sexy

Photographer Annie Leibovitz took the lead in choosing "strong but natural" women including Serena Williams and Amy Schumer for Pirelli 2016. These photos were not retouched and Peter Lindberg continued this statement. Speaking to Huffington Post UK, the photographer said "the goal [...] is to show the real women [...] not the stretched and manipulated, emptied women you see in the magazines today."

Women's magazines aren't a friend to women. Being told 'five easy ways to get abs', while knowing that most images within the publication will have been retouched smarts with hypocrisy. The double standard of lectured self-improvement crossed with idolised perfection is the advertising industry's most dangerous and effective mind control weapon. At this point, who is on our side?

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This week, activists across the world celebrated as the Army Corps of Engineers announced that it would not grant the permit for the Dakota Access pipeline to drill under the Missouri river. This followed campaigning efforts from local Standing Rock Sioux tribe and thousands of Native American supporters from across North America and further afield, who argued that if the pipeline was approved, their spiritual lands would be compromised and local waters would be contaminated, threatening their livelihood. With a message that resonated with indigenous rights activists and environmentalists everywhere, campaigners were successful in forcing officials to back down.

The announcement was, however, met with scepticism from some first-nation Americans. With a heavy awareness that the DAPL would appeal the decision, many tribe members were cautious about celebrating too soon. After all, exploitation of indigenous groups, particularly in excavation projects, is common place: in Australia, historically aboriginal lands have been named as the preferred site for a nuclear waste dump, and in Nigeria, the indigenous Ogoni people have, according to numerous reports, been subjected to ethnic cleansing in the course of mishandled oil extraction projects.

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It's clear then that the exploitation of indigenous peoples is commonplace. So what set Standing Rock aside from the cases of groups in Australia, Nigeria and so many more? The answer is clear: a global coalition of activists. And no case study demonstrates more clearly the importance of activism in the struggle for indigenous rights than the situation in West Papua.

West Papua forms half of the Papua island, to the west of Papua New Guinea in South-East Asia. The island itself is split in half. The indigenous people of West Papua have Melanesian roots, and culturally and ethnically enjoy many similarities to the people of Papua New Guinea. However, the region's fraught history and decades of political turmoil have left it without international recognition. It was formally colonised by the Dutch in 1898, and while the Netherlands began a process of decolonising the region following the Second World War, this was co-opted when Indonesia asserted a claim over the territory. Papuans fought back, declaring independence in 1961, but Indonesia soon retaliated by invading, backed by the Soviet Union. The situation was exacerbated when the US, prompted by fears of spreading Communist influence, interfered, brokering a deal with Indonesia to grant her control over West Papua. This was in theory meant to be followed by a referendum with the end goal of self-determination, but this never happened.

Since then, the military occupation of West Papua has resulted in over 500,000 deaths. The occupation has devastated indigenous people and scarred West Papuan communities: the Biak massacre of 1998 is a particularly haunting example of this. On the anniversary of the unsuccessful Papuan declaration of independence, over 200 independence demonstrators were forced by the army into two Indonesian naval vessels and taken to two different locations to be thrown into the ocean. In the following days, the protesters' bodies washed up on Biak's shores, or were snarled in fishing nets.

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The Biak tragedy is just the tip of the iceberg. Aside from the scores of unlawful deaths, there are widespread reports of violence, including sexual violence, against civilians. In a public report to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights in 1999, the Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women concluded that the Indonesian security forces used rape "as an instrument of torture and intimidation" in West Papua, and "torture of women detained by the Indonesian security forces was widespread". Political prisoners engaged in peaceful demonstration are routinely convicted in unfair trials, and large numbers have yet to be released. The depth of suffering in West Papua is such that, in 2004, a groundbreaking report from Yale Law School referred to the Indonesian policy in West Papua as "genocide"- a label which was, apparently, taken lightly by the international communiyu.

It has been clear for a while now that the situation in West Papua has reached, and remained at, crisis point. So how do we explain the lack of public awareness and concerted policy responses? The problem is that most campaigns and activist movements are catalysed by news stories that shock us and compel us to take action, but there is a distinct lack of reporting on the West Papua situation. West Papua is effectively off limits to international journalists, and the penalties for flouting the region's restrictive laws are severe: if discovered without permission they are arrested and deported by the Indonesian authorities. Some have even been attacked and imprisoned. Indonesian President Joko Widodo announced earlier this year that Papua would be open to foreign journalists, but this does not reflect the reality on the ground.

This is worsened by the fact that Indonesian authorities have made it near impossible for many NGOs to operate in West Papua: organisations such as the International Red Cross, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have all been denied access, and their vital services denied along with it.

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West Papua represents one of the most atrocious systems of repression of indigenous peoples that we see in the world today. But the Standing Rock victory shows us that the will, manpower and resources do exist to mount an effective opposition tothreats to indigenous peoples' rights. Even if it isn't possible to go to West Papua and prevent these atrocities from happening directly, there is still a lot that each of us can do: you can support the fundraising efforts of the few NGOs that are allowed to operate in West Papua, you can write to your Member of Parliament, you can share resources and information with friends, family and colleagues, and you can help increase the public awareness that is so sorely needed to effect change.
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It's 2016 and the stress epidemic is at an all-time high. It almost feels like everyone is stressed out. Yet, right at our fingertips, consumers now have access to cutting-edge wearables, smartphones, and other technologies that can help them combat stress and improve their overall health. You now have the means to take it upon themselves to be proactive about stress and its long-term effects. While individuals may have greater access to advanced technologies and applications that can help them manage stress themselves, numerous organizations are providing employees tools to reduce stress through corporate wellness programs.

In recent years, the number of corporations offering employees corporate wellness programs has risen dramatically. In fact, according to a recent article published by the Chicago Tribune, corporations spent approximately $6 billion on wellness in 2013 and that number may exceed $8 billion in 2016.

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To that point, organisations implementing employee wellness programs has been increasing largely because of the impact employee stress and stress-related health problems are having on their financial bottom line. For many employers, high employee stress levels have lead to increased absenteeism, higher health insurance costs, decreased company productivity, and other costly problems.

Employee stress and stress-related health problems are costing employers more and more every year. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), U.S. employers are losing approximately $225.8 billion every year due to productivity losses related to employee absenteeism. In 2011, Kronos published the Kronos Global Absence Survey which found, among other things, that the most common reason employees "play hooky" from work is because they "felt stressed/needed a day off."

Leading companies around the world are providing corporate wellness programs aimed at helping employees reduce their stress and improve their overall health. Adobe, Aetna, Ford, General Mills, Goldman Sachs, Google, Intel, and other leading corporations have implemented wellness programs that include a stress reducing technique called mindfulness. Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) is described by WebMD as "a program that helps you learn to calm your mind and body to help you cope with illness, pain, and stress.", and it has decades of evidence-based practice behind it, pioneered by Jon Kabat-Zinn at the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine.

A number of studies have been conducted within the past decade about the effectiveness of corporate wellness programs and mind-body techniques when it comes to reducing stress. A 2010 study by Harvard Business School, "What's the Hard Return on Employee Wellness Programs?" found that employee wellness programs improved employee productivity, reduced absenteeism, and helped boost employee morale.

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A 2012 research paper entitled "Effective and Viable Mind-Body Stress Reduction in the Workplace: A Randomized Controlled Trial," published in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, takes a look at worksite stress management programs based on two mind-body stress reduction techniques; therapeutic yoga and mindfulness. The research found that "both the mindfulness-based and therapeutic yoga programs may provide viable and effective interventions to target high-stress levels, sleep quality, and autonomic balance in employees." In addition, the paper states that "emerging evidence also suggests that mind-body programs may demonstrate cost savings through decreased medical utilization (measured by office visits to community health centers), medical insurance claims, and increased productivity."

Corporate wellness programs provide a number of benefits for both employers and employees. For employees, a corporate wellness program that features stress reduction techniques can help them decrease their overall healthcare costs, avoid acute medical events, prevent chronic health problems, improve workplace efficiency, and provide other benefits leading to a better quality of life. For employers, reducing employee stress via a corporate wellness program can help the company reduce absenteeism, improve on the job safety, and increase work productivity. The biggest benefit for employers is the reduction in costs associated with stressed and unhealthy employees. U.S. employers are losing approximately $300 billion every year due to stress-related employee absenteeism and healthcare costs.

An effective corporate wellness program begins with wearables, smartphones, and machine learning. Wearables and smartphones include components such as physiological sensors and accelerometers that can be utilized by applications to provide detailed health and stress information. Wearable and smartphone applications can leverage machine learning (and artificial intelligence) to deliver interventions and stress reduction techniques in real time; techniques such as mindfulness, deep breathing exercises (device-guided breathing), biometric feedback, and meditation. Machine learning also allows applications, like BioBeats' Hear and Now, to provide real-time insights into an individual's stress levels and overall health.
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I have seen four new patients already this week. One was referred to me by her employers. They really want to keep her. She's a nice person and does an excellent job for the company - when sober.

She's the lucky one. When most people lose control of their drinking, I never hear from their employer, because they no longer have one. Usually they have just been kicked out.

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I've heard some harrowing stories about people losing control of their lives after losing control of their drinking. When people first come to me, I tell them they need to think about the consequences of their drinking, especially the binge drinking. I ask them: what has happened to you that made you feel embarrassed or ashamed - and that word is important, ashamed - afterwards? What's been the effect on your livelihood, your employer's opinion of you, your family's?

Often their heavy drinking is evident to colleagues at work parties, clients' functions, summer barbecues, where they would become inebriated and embarrass co-workers, and more importantly embarrass the company's clients (which bosses absolutely won't tolerate). Some people keep their heavy drinking covered up in their private lives but it manifests itself at these work functions and the genie - as well as all the alcohol - is out of the bottle.

If you think you have a drink problem - and are drinking red-eyed in the last chance saloon - often it's just best to avoid office functions like the Christmas party. Make an excuse. In truth, no one really cares if you go or not. Don't put yourself in a high-risk situation. It is incredibly difficult to be a dysfunctional drinker and a controlled drinker.

Alcohol disinhibits you, and some drinkers think 'oh s***, I'll just have another one.' As they say in Alcoholics Anonymous, alcoholics just press that 'don't care anymore' - or stronger words to that effect - button, and top up.

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If you are going to go to the office party and drink, but worry about your alcohol intake, you need to alternate wine and water, avoid spirits, eat beforehand, arrive late and leave early.

If you have a drink problem, you need to sit down with a professional and consider the consequences - to your family, your physical health and then things like your appearance. Are you starting to look like a boozer? I ask patients whether their drinking is affecting their mental health - making them feel guilty, and that word again, ashamed. Is it affecting their relationship with their family? A patient said to me the other day: "My daughter said 'you'd rather have a drink than talk to me'."

I am a bit ambivalent about Dry January. If you have to be dry for a month, does that mean you have a significant drink problem in the first place? As Alcoholics Anonymous would say, giving up alcohol is a 'one day at a time' process. Often, after Dry January, people resume drinking alcohol to excess as if January never happened.

On the positive side, sometimes people do need to give up alcohol to realise just how bad they felt when they were drinking. Patients are often motivated to give up alcohol by their appearance, because they are under so much pressure in today's society to look a certain way. That pressure is huge.

I have a patient whose skin was breaking up as a result of alcohol, they had psoriasis. Now their skin is fine. This is an important confidence booster in our image obsessed world.

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But there are loads of benefits to giving up alcohol; your blood sugar will normalise, you will feel much more clear-headed, less depressed and you will have more money in your wallet. If you spend, say, around 20 a week on 2 bottles of wine, you will save 1,040 by the year's end.
Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers does not support the initiative to relocate in Ukraine refugees according to quotas established by the European Union (EU) in exchange for Ukrainians receiving visa-free travel in EU countries, Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman has said.

"This is not the position of the Ukrainian government vis a vis refugees. Our position is very clear and understandable: We do not support such initiatives," Groysman said in Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada on Friday, responding to a question of a parliament deputy about the sacking of Deputy Justice Minister Serhiy Petukhov, who allegedly supported such an initiative.

As earlier reported, at the end of 2016 Deputy Justice Minister dealing with questions of European Integration Petukhov proposed that Ukraine fulfill a quota of one of EU member states to relocate refugees in Ukraine in exchange for Ukrainians receiving visa-free status in EU member states.

"It is no secret that taking such a decision on Ukraine [extending visa-free status] was influenced in large measure by the flight of refugees from Syria. The influx of refugees caused a negative reaction of voters against refugees, and EU leaders hesitated to give Ukraine visa-free status. If this is our biggest problem, then, maybe, this can solve it! I would propose to the EU that Ukraine voluntarily satisfy a quota for taking in refugees [of a EU member state]. I think our country could take the quote of, let's say, the Netherlands [for resettling Syrian refugees]," Petukhov wrote on his Facebook page.
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There is no silver bullet to solve Britain's housing crisis. Building more homes is vital, of course - and last month's Autumn Statement has been widely welcomed for its measures on housing supply, including 7.2 billion for housing and infrastructure. But supply alone is not the solution to the complex web of housing challenges we face. That's why other measures that escalate the Government's reforms of the private rented sector (PRS) are at least as important. When taken together with previous announcements, these will have a much more immediate impact on the 10 million people renting privately.

The PRS is central to understanding the challenge that ministers face in tackling the housing issue. The number of private renters now tops 10 million following a decline in social housing stock, and this is only likely to increase with sustained house price rises (an increase of 7.7% in the last year alone) far outpacing sluggish wages (wage growth is hovering at just above 2% annually). The problem is that conditions in the PRS are significantly worse than all other tenures; security of tenure is a rarity, with the average tenancy lasting around two and a half years; and wealth inequalities are widening as those priced out of buying a home spend an increasing proportion of their incomes on renting.

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Many of these issues can be traced to the structure of the market, which is dominated by amateur and semi-professional Buy to Let (BTL) landlords - 89% of landlords are private individuals. It's clear that over the last few years ministers have increasingly - and rightly - seen the market as in need of reform. Concerns about Soviet-style intervention have given way to an acceptance that improving regulation in places, reorienting and 'professionalising' the market in others, and looking at improving supply are all ways to make life better for the squeezed middle.

In the last parliament we saw efforts to tackle rogue landlords and improve conditions, such as legislation to tackle retaliatory eviction. Now ministers appear to have fully grasped the nettle. The Stamp Duty Land Tax levy on Buy to Let purchases was a radical step by the last Chancellor, and along with an end to tax relief on mortgage interest for Buy to Let investors - put a brake on investment, and has already had a significant dampening effect on the market. In April, when the levy came into force, sales dropped by 45% and landlord confidence fell to an all-time low.

The new Government has continued this agenda by banning letting agent fees in the Autumn Statement. With average costs of 300-400 and the average tenant moving every two and a half years, this is a significant boost for living standards and will empower tenants otherwise stuck in poor conditions. And the Treasury has given the Bank of England more powers to restrict BTL lending.

The key is to look at these reforms from the point of view of an average BTL landlord's business model, which is unlike that of other investors in that yields and capital gains are not at its heart. Instead, it relies on rental income being high enough to cover mortgage repayments - and over a couple of decades the mortgage is paid. Taking on letting agent fees, facing additional borrowing costs as lending is restricted, paying the Stamp Duty levy, losing tax relief and operating within a tighter regulatory environment make BTL investments a much less attractive proposition.

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With the financial model making less sense for BTL investors, we need to ask what sort of private rented sector we want to build in their place. It makes sense to focus on replacing rental stock lost as BTL landlords leave the market with new Build to Rent developments led by institutional investors, such as Legal & General. Institutional investors can provide security of tenure for tenants; newer stock means better conditions; and a private sector-led approach reduces the cost to the public purse. Moreover, the Build to Rent market is essentially a new one and does not compete directly with other forms of new housing supply. That means it can play a big part in meeting our overall housebuilding needs. But while the Government has made encouraging noises about building across tenure types, and introduced different initiatives to support Build to Rent, the SDLT levy and changes to commercial taxation are making it difficult for a sector still in its infancy to grow at scale.

I suspect that over time these policy issues will be ironed out. If they are, we face another problem. The Build to Rent sector has a different business model to BTL landlords, based around yields. Currently, the annual rate of return is only 7.5% per annum compared to the traditional build to sell model that generates 17.5% annually on average. What this means is that current Build to Rent developments tend to be focused on those able to pay high rents - largely young professionals in our big cities.

This approach risks under-serving what is often called the mid-market - those who are "just about managing", and live outside of our biggest cities where rents are (relatively) modest. They tend to be young families on median incomes and have little prospect of home ownership in the short to medium term, but are seeing an increasing proportion of their incomes eaten up by rents. These are the very people the Government wants to help.
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I have quit my civil service 'job for life' for the uncertainty of unemployment and the even greater uncertainty of having absolutely no idea what I want to do.

I am part of the millennial generation, and many of us are known for wanting both total fulfilment and flexibility in our careers; we value meaning and a work/life balance over money. Whilst of course this is a sweeping generalisation, it is one that I very firmly fall into, alongside many colleagues, friends and acquaintances that I speak to.

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Whenever I tell people what I do (sorry, did) for a living, there is usually a genuine element of curiosity and surprise. I have walked away from a career where I get to work with some inspirational leaders on issues like what would happen if a deadly pandemic influenza strain raged across the UK, or if there was wide scale industrial action. I have played a part in approving and rejecting business cases worth tens of millions of taxpayers' money, and have assisted in launching an initiative to get women back into the workplace after having children. I have even helped evacuate hundreds of British nationals from a war zone.

When I put it like that, even I am questioning my decision...

But every single one of those jobs involved commuting with my nose in someone's armpit for two hours a day (literally - I am 5'1"), sitting at a desk, in front of a computer, going to the occasional meeting, and coming home again. And again. And again.

Making sure there are enough hospital beds during a strike? Commute. Behind a desk. Commute. Repeat.

Evacuating people from a war zone? Commute. Behind a desk. Commute. Repeat.

Limiting the spread of a deadly pandemic flu? Commute. Behind a desk. Commute. Repeat.

To the outside reader, these jobs must sound fascinating and unquestionably fulfilling, but for me the reality meant that it could have been a desk job anywhere, on any issue. There were several hundred emails a day, a smattering of meetings and phone calls, and leagues of inefficient bureaucracy. It involved being entirely sedentary with no daylight or fresh air - all day every day. The routine and inactivity of daily life is something I am completely unable to move past, a feeling that no lunchtime walk could alleviate.

I know this is something every office worker must experience fairly regularly, but for me it is all consuming. I have realised that whilst this is the dream career for many, the lifestyle that accompanies it is not for me at this stage of my life. This feeling is something I have heard expressed by numerous friends and colleagues and I decided that I wanted to do something about it and see if there was another way.

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So I am starting again, from scratch. From the point when you are asked as a child what you want to be when you grow up and you say [astronaut/dustbin man/train driver/fairy princess].

I am going to try 25 careers before I turn 25, which is precisely a year away. There will be a fair few astronaut fairy princess jobs in there, and a few slightly more realistic ones.
Ron Chapple Stock via Getty Images

Last week the Prime Minister confirmed that freedom of religion and freedom of speech lie at the heart of Britain's "strong tradition" of religious tolerance. Tomorrow, as we mark International Human Rights Day, it is vital to remember that religious rights are human rights.

Freedom of thought, conscience and religion - more often abbreviated to "freedom of religion or belief" - is a human right for everyone, guaranteed in Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. And yet too often it is a neglected right: at best ignored or misunderstood, at worst severely violated.

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As we mark International Human Rights Day, we recognise that all human rights set out in the Universal Declaration are inter-dependent and equally important. Freedoms of religion, expression, association and movement, for example, hang together. There is no hierarchy of rights. However, if people are denied the freedom to choose, practice, share and change their beliefs, what use are the other freedoms? The outgoing UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Dr Heiner Bielefeldt, describes freedom of religion or belief as a "gateway" to other freedoms.

Around the world, freedom of religion or belief has never been under as much attack as it is today. "Massive violations of freedom of religion or belief are currently taking place," according to Dr Bielefeldt. The genocide facing Christians, Yazidis and Muslims at the hands of ISIS in Syria and Iraq is unspeakable. The ethnic cleansing of the Muslim Rohingyas from Burma is horrific. Baha'is in Iran, Ahmadiyya Muslims in Pakistan and Indonesia, Uighur Muslims, Falun Gong practitioners and Tibetan Buddhists in China, and Christians across the Middle East, Africa and Asia and in parts of Latin America such as Cuba, face continuing persecution. And, as the latest report by the International Humanist and Ethical Union illustrates, in parts of the world it is as dangerous to not have a religious belief as it is to have one. Atheists such as Alexander Aan in Indonesia are jailed because they do not believe in God. Article 18 of the UDHR, properly applied, should protect the rights of everyone, of all beliefs and none.

In his final report to the United Nations, Dr Bielefeldt argues that this right is "multifaceted", protecting not simply freedom of worship but "the free development of religious or belief-related identities, bearing witness to one's existential conviction by freely communicating" beliefs with others. It is about "all aspects of religious and belief-related life", not only what one believes in one's heart and mind, but about the community which arises from that and the conduct that it entails. He confirms what the Equalities Commissioner has said, and what the new report from the Lawyers Christian Fellowship and the Evangelical Alliance report "Speak Up" concludes - that freedom of religion or belief is important, being "in turn foundational for many of our other freedoms, human rights and civil liberties."

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Governments, Dr Bielefeldt argues, have the obligation to respect, protect and fulfil the implementation of human rights standards. In too many parts of the world, it is the State that is the primary violator of freedom of religion or belief - whether through unjust restrictions and regulations and violent persecution, as in communist countries such as China, Cuba, Vietnam, Laos and North Korea, or through discriminatory laws that contribute to a climate of intolerance and extremism, such as blasphemy laws in Pakistan and Indonesia and their equivalent in Burma, or through allowing a culture of impunity to exist where perpetrators of religiously-motivated violence are never brought to justice, or through an education curriculum that promotes hatred or intolerance. According to the Special Rapporteur, "arguably the most widespread pattern of State-induced violations of freedom of religion or belief relates to harassment by an uncooperative bureaucracy that may treat people belonging to certain religious communities with contempt, hostility or suspicion". Even in Britain and other western democracies, we are not exempt from this challenge.

The outgoing UN Special Rapporteur believes there is a "lack of awareness" around the world about the importance of freedom of religion or belief, and that the full scope of this basic human right is "often underestimated". On this International Human Rights Day it is time to change that.

In 212, Tertullian said: "It is a fundamental human right that every man should worship according to his own convictions" and in 1819 Thomas Jefferson argues that: "The constitutional freedom of religion is the most inalienable and sacred of all human rights". In 2016, at home and abroad, it is time to actively promote, protect and uphold this basic right of freedom of religion or belief once more. That is why it was so encouraging to hear the Prime Minister confirm in the House of Commons recently the importance of maintaining "'the jealously guarded principle' of the ability to speak freely...respectfully and responsibly about one's religion" in this country today.

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Fiona Bruce is Member of Parliament for Congleton and Chair of the Conservative Party Human Rights Commission.
As the song goes; 'It's the most wonderful time of the year' and that magic is now played out by parents up and down the UK, wanting to deliver that extra-special Christmas memory to their children! As we are now on the run-up to Christmas, families, particularly children, will be feeling that rise of excitement and the popularity of special event holidays have become a feature on Christmas wish-lists! Special secret surprise trips to see Father Christmas in his hideaway in Lapland, are one such seasonal 'event' holidays!

Sadly, each year we receive complaints from parents who have been severely disappointed by the failure of the promise provided by the 'real' Father Christmas brochure. We have heard of holidaymakers experiencing a rushed 'day' trip, with little of what was promised or indeed having to deal with children's disappointment at not seeing Father Christmas, to serious injuries as a result of tobogganing or other activities!

To help you choose and get the best from that last minute getaway to the 'North Pole', here are my 5 top tips to get you going!

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1.Check the detail: One of the most important disappointments comes from parent's discovering that there is not enough time to experience it all! Many holidaymakers choose a day trip because it suits their pocket, but if you intend to book you need to check your travel times and measure that against what they say you will experience. You need to factor in flight delays and ask yourself; 'will we have enough time to do all of this'? You should also check the small print to see if there are any limitations to the attractions along with extra charges - that could affect your enjoyment and pocket! One great way to understand what you may get for your money is to check out travel review sites - what do they say? Compare and contrast the different experiences; only when you are satisfied that the experience they claim you will have is possible, should you book, but,

2.Prepare for crowds: Another disappointment expressed by holidaymakers is that they found their experience to be chaotic because of the large numbers of people at some of the locations! It is vital that you check on this before you book and determine how big the complex is and the numbers of people who would normally visit on any given day - if the tour operator is not forthcoming, then call the location (English is widely spoken) or check out those travel reviews before you book! If it's something smaller or more intimate you are looking for, do that research before you book!

3.Clothing: It's going to be cold! Some travel companies offer additional clothing when you get there, but some holidaymakers have told us that these were not available. If you are going to travel to this climate-zone, think about what you are going to wear before you go. Just before Christmas, some low-cost supermarkets in the UK offer great ski/winter wear gear at a really low price! I have personally found this clothing to be of very good quality and well worth the money and great for our own winter - you should think about this investment no matter what the brochure may say!

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4.Food: Whilst Nordic countries offer cuisine suitable for Western European palette's, you should prepare for something different! It is not uncommon to be offered Reindeer or other similar Nordic fare and you will see the pelts of these animals offered for sale. Whilst some holidaymakers have expressed shock to us, consumers should be aware that you are travelling to a different culture and way of life and you should prepare for what you will see, smell and taste - make sure you prepare your children for this experience!

5.Travel Safe: It is absolutely vital, even if you are only travelling for one day, to carry with you fully comprehensive Travel Insurance to protect you against accidents! As Lapland is a region within Finland, you should also bring your European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) with you. If you intend to take part in any activity such as tobogganing, then advise your Travel Insurer to make sure that you have adequate cover!
(Professor Jeffrey Sachs Special Advisor to the UN Secretary-General, and Director, UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (left) and Nev Hyman Founder of NevHouse (right)

Late last month saw the 22nd United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP22). In the wake of Donald Trump's US presidential victory and his very clear stance on climate change as very visible bullshit, the conference has taken on a new imperative. Trump's stance has understandably caused considerable anxiety amongst the global community with imagery and rhetoric of an impending catastrophe looming large on the horizon. And this is in stark contrast to the optimism following the Paris Agreement on Climate Change (PACC) coming into force on 4 November.

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But, as US Secretary of State John Kerry said in his address at COP22 some issues look a bit different when you're actually in office compared to when you're on the campaign trail. And sure enough in an interview with theNew York Times published on 22nd November Mr. Trump refused to repeat his promise to abandon the international climate accord and indicated that he was keeping an open mind.

And as the dust settles, debate and analysis will continue. What is clear is that the imperative to educate, research, enhance understanding and communicate issues relating to sustainable development and climate change has never been more stark. And to that end someone else was in Marrakesh speaking at COP22. Nev Hyman Founder of Firwire Surfboards and now founder of Nevhouse.

I met Nev over three years ago at the Global Surf Cities Conference in 2013 on the Gold Coast in Australia after which he gave me a lift to the QuikSilver Pro Contest. And from that point on I have not only followed the Nevhouse initiative but also made it a central case study of my research. Nevhouse it a system for creating prefabricated homes from recycled materials that are culturally relevant in multiple countries and communities. What instantly struck me were the incredible sustainable development related solutions that this initiative represents from energy and pollution through to poverty alleviation.

Speaking to Nev in 2013 he explained Nevhouse in a nutshell:

"This is a flat pack, erect and dismantle in two days, inexpensive home. It is resistant to bacteria, low or no maintenance, earthquake, wind and fire resistant and it will last generations whilst diverting waste from landfill, off the streets and out of the rivers turning it into houses for the poor. It also brings attention to the millions of homeless globally. This is a very compelling story that captures everyone's imaginations as it ticks every box whilst bringing positive attention to charitable causes and government initiatives"

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And with this prescient statement in mind this is exactly what has happened. It has captured the imaginations of the global media, prime ministers and the general public. The innovative design and global relevance ensured that Nevhouse was the recipient of the Australian Good Design Award for Sustainability and also awarded Best in Category for Architectural Design - Commercial and Residential Architecture in May this year.

And now at the highest political level the sustainable development potential of Nevhouse has been recognised by Professor Geoffrey Sachs. Sachs is world-renowned professor of economics, expert in sustainable development and senior UN advisor. He is the co-recipient of the 2015 Blue Planet Prize, the leading global prize for environmental leadership. He has twice been named among Time Magazine's 100 most influential world leaders. According to the New York Times he is probably the most important economist in the world. Sachs invited Nev to speak at the COP22 conference on Sustainable construction: energy efficiency and sustainable materials. Talking to me about the experience Nev Said:

"What an honour it was too have been invited to speak, albeit briefly, at the world's leading climate change conference - COP22 in Marrakesh. Interestingly I did not realise that COP22 was the follow-up conference from the Paris climate change talks last year. Silly me. To be on the same stage as Prof Jeffrey Sachs was a career highlight for me, and he doesn't even surf! Haha -This is all new ground and I must say I am loving every second of being able to offer a solution provided by the amazing Nev House team that will help those with less than us, whilst also helping to reduce the scourge of plastic in the environment. Stoked!"

This is a significant recognition of the incredible sustainable development related solutions that Nevhouse can offer the world. And as with any world changing innovation the journey from idea to reality has not been a straight or easy path. And I am exploring these issues as part of my research which will be presented in detail in Surfing and Sustainability. In essence, for me this is an example of where from humble beginnings and a love of surfing and the ocean an initiative has emerged that has multiple sustainability related gains.

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STEFAN ROUSSEAU via Getty Images

Prior to the EU Referendum, then Prime Minister, David Cameron, made it clear the result would be respected, arguing "You cannot have neverendums. You have referendums." His 9.3 million taxpayer-funded leaflet made this very clear.

Now the Remain campaign have lost the Referendum, they have not been so gracious in defeat. And after Cameron's early retirement, veterans like former Prime Minister Tony Blair, Ken Clarke, Peter Mandelson, Danny Alexander, Paddy Ashdown and Nick Clegg have come back into the fray to fight against Brexit.

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It's Blair who will launch the biggest challenge it seems, in a cynical attempt to resurrect his disgraced political career. Part-funded by Richard Branson and the Virgin Group, Blair will apparently launch the 'Tony Blair Institute' in the New Year. This will have a focus on "trying to make globalisation work for all", and will fight Brexit as being "close-minded" and "isolationist". It is clearly a revival of New Labour in everything but name, and will seek to recapture the political centre ground.

Blair and his cronies certainly have seen an opportunity in front of them, and believe they are politically skilled enough to get somewhere with this. Many Remainers are so bitter about Brexit they would delight in the thwarting of democracy. It's no stretch to say they could switch their party based on a Brexit stance. No wonder the Lib Dems will vote against the triggering of Article 50; they are going for broke to attract the Remainers.

This discontent has grown under Labour's Leader Jeremy Corbyn, who had led a remarkably weak Remain campaign. This, along with Labour's hard-left stance, is causing a rapid loss of support. With a disillusioned Labour centre-left wing, Tony Blair has clearly seen an opportunity to recapture the centre ground. We should expect Blair to make a strong opposition. After all, he is an opportunist.

It is vital to get to the bottom of why Blair is mounting this challenge. After his track record in Government, this is clearly not a matter of conscience. We should also doubt his real concern for the United Kingdom or Europe, having contributed to the 2008 recession and weakened global security after the Iraq war.

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This is nothing more than we should expect from Blair. This is only about his power and reputation. Both are in a dire state at the moment, and Blair is deeply unpopular with the British people for his actions in the past. This is something he certainly wants to change, and he sees this as an opportunity for him. Blair can quickly become popular with disgruntled Remainers, who will support anyone who tries to thwart Brexit.

As for power, the Tony Blair Institute could become a force in British politics in the future. Labour and the Conservatives could easily lose disappointed Remainers. If these voters are not convinced by the Lib Dems, Blair may seize the opportunity to get back into the political scene.

Fortunately, the more sensible Eurosceptics have the upper hand. Blair will ultimately fail because he cannot change the record of history. His mistakes cannot be rectified, and the Great British Public will never forget the damage he has done.

Meanwhile, the Remoaners have little to stand on. Brexit is the clear democratic will of the people, supported by the largest absolute vote in British electoral history. Their arguments during the campaign were false, and Project Fear is being continuously proven wrong. The UK will be leaving the European Union, so we must tell Blair defiantly to 'bring it on'.

Though Blair's project is likely to fail, we should recognise what is really behind it. Blair is driven by self-interest and opportunism. The British people are driven by the love for their country and its people. It's clear which side will win, and soon we will Get Britain Out of the EU.

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See the 'Big Five' up close and look after Kenya's wildlife...

The thunder of hooves fills the air. The dust rises to form a hazy screen in the sweltering heat of the morning. The deafening, unrelenting brays of 'gnu, gnu' begin and the riverbank fills up with an endless moving mass.

Thousands of wildebeest are about to make the dangerous crossing of the Talek River in the Maasai Mara. Herds upon herds traipse along the sandy bank. It's like a scene from The Lion King - and here I am, sitting in an open-top safari truck, about to see one of nature's greatest phenomena in all its glory - the great African migration.

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Their leaps are gallant, forceful and determined. Their mission: to make the safe crossing to the 'other side' where they can continue their journey to the Kenya-Tanzania border, where greener pastures await in the Serengeti. The whole scene is a mix of disorder and chaos, bravery and instinct. Their dark brown coats merge into one as they criss-cross each other when they jump.

In reality, they have just seconds to get across. Five hungry crocodiles are waiting down river for that one missed footing. They don't have to wait long. A young antelope enters the stream. The crocs glide over, quietly positioning themselves. One opens its jaw wide and fits the whole rear end of the animal into its mouth. My partner Brad and I audibly gasp in unison. The crocodile flings his head from side to side and drags the flailing wildebeest underwater. And then, it's over. Nature at its most raw and unapologetic.

The Wild Mara plains

Located in the Narok region of southern Kenya, the Maasai Mara covers 583 square miles. This is not only the place to see Africa's 'Big Five' (elephant, buffalo, rhinoceros, leopard, lion), but the place to see them in action - making kills, feeding, looking after young and, during the dry season, migrating.

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The Mara does not disappoint. We are lucky to see three spectacular crossings in one day and several lion families playing and feeding. At one point a cheetah walks up to our vehicle and takes shelter from the scorching sun, under the back wheels. Amazing.

The sad effect of tourism

We could have seen more - but we choose to stay away from some sightings. Why? Because of the packed safari vehicles thundering along the gravel roads to the latest scene. It's uncomfortable to watch as scores of trucks gather around an animal.

Unfortunately, crowding is common here - especially in high season when there is huge pressure to deliver sightings to tourists. We see it again as two jeeps cut off a herd of wildebeest as they gallop towards the water. It's horrifyingly disruptive - the kind of malpractice that can alter wildlife behaviour.

According to Drew McVey, Technical Advisor at WWF Kenya, carelessness by guides and drivers can lead to tragedy - and to ensure your safari prioritises the animals' welfare, it's important to carefully select where you stay.

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'Go to the camps directly,' he suggests. 'This makes sure you get people who are most passionate about the Mara. Camps like this ensure that you receive a qualified guide.

'In the worst cases, we have seen cheetah and lion cubs run over as drivers rush or get too close, or predators abandoning kills and even their cubs. The disturbance of animals in dry season, when food is low, can result in catastrophic events - animals dying.'

We arrange our game drive directly with Aruba Mara owner, Gerdi Simon, who shares our feelings about safari ethics. Our guide, Joseph from Aruba Mara Camp, is a part of the local Talek Maasai tribe and knows the reserve well. We tell him we don't want to race across the park and we want to keep our distance so as not to disturb the wildlife. An alternative option would have been staying within a conservancy - although more expensive, your fees go to a good cause.

'The conservancies are a joint partnership between the local Maasai communities and private tourism operators,' explains Drew. 'A part of your fees go directly to supporting local community projects and benefiting local residents. There is [also] a limited number of vehicles and strict rules to ensure wildlife welfare.'

After sunset

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The Mara gates close at sunset, which means by dark we are tucked up on the couches in Aruba Mara's serene bar room. We are impressed at this humble camp, offering everything from self-catered campsites to spacious, comfortable tents with en suite. We opt for the latter - a welcome bit of luxury.

Our time in the Mara is, in all honesty, bitter-sweet. Witnessing the great migration and Africa's wildest predators in their natural habitat is the most incredible, unforgettable experience.

Seeing drivers chase or crowd the wildlife for the benefit of a good view, is saddening. If this continues, we may no longer be able to enjoy these animals in their true element. We are grateful our camp and guide respect this beautiful ecosystem. It has never been more important to pick a safari experience carefully.

The deal

A 'Big' Tent (double) at Aruba Mara camp, including two daily game drives and full board, start from 115 Euros (around 100) pppn. Camping starts from 7 Euros pppn. To book, visit aruba-safaris.com or email Gerdi on info@aruba-safaris.com

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Ever since I was a young girl, maps fascinated me. My father had gifted me a globe on my 7th birthday. I would look at it for hours, and lose myself in the glories of exploration. "We are here ma'am" said Ibrahim, our driver, a stout man with sharp features approaching his mid-40s. And there we were. I wouldn't have believed it myself, that here I was, parked outside a small village in Morocco. It had been a long time since then; now twenty-two, yet the explorer in me smiled a hearty smile as I exited the vehicle.

Bhalil, a small village tucked away beside the distant mountains, stood calm and tranquil. To the unaccustomed eye it was just an ordinary village that reeked with poverty. "Is this it??" I asked myself. "It couldn't be" replied the voice inside. Ibrahim led the way. I followed him on a narrow and deserted street, a dead, calming silence had taken over me. The sun stood distinct in the sky. The street ended, leading us right into the village. I stood momentarily and peered across the uphill on which the village rested. I was mesmerized by the eye-catching houses that were painted in pastel shades of pink, yellow and blue. It was a spectacular wave of colour and life that stood on the dusty, barren land. I could hear soft gales of laughter from the children playing with stones on the side. We ascended uphill on the dusty broken roads. The sun smiled at us.

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I wanted to capture every detail of this alluring town that even blinking felt like a loss of precious time. I'd been in Morocco for four days, and visited beautiful places but this struck me as something authentic, away from the tourist facades that occupied the most popular parts of the country, this was real.

Cool air blew our way, stronger the more climbed up. On left hand side ran the remains of what seemed to be a canal, neglected by the mountains which once used to provide it with fresh streams of water, now stood there dry and dead.

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We carried on until we reached an uneven platform, with two women sitting beneath the shade of a lonely olive tree outside a broken door, its paint decaying as it struggled to hold firm its handle which was half falling off. The women were carefully forging some strings together. 'Ah they must be making the buttons' I thought to myself. Prior to our arrival I was reading about the women of Bhalil, who are known for creating the traditional jelleba buttons. Each versatile string forged together using a complex technique, I know I certainly wouldn't be able to master, yet the end result; a subtle ball of extraordinary detail, used as buttons for Morocco's traditional attire.

'Wait wait' signalled Ibrahim as he approached a petite old woman stood at the door of what seemed to be a residence of some sort. Her warm smile was surrounded by loose folds of skin; she wore a black head scarf tied in a knot under her chin, and a faded yellow maxi accompanied by a chequered apron around her waist. After a brief conversation with her, Ibrahim insisted that we come in "please come please." We were welcomed in by the very endearing old lady, Naima.

The interior of the house was something I'd not quite ever seen; the walls had a stalagmite texture and formed an uneven arch above our heads, the ceiling lazily painted with a sharp shade of yellow. "We are standing inside a natural cave house" said Ibrahim, snapping me out of my fascination into a whole new realm of curiosity. He went on to explain that the village of Bhalil is notable for its unique cave houses located in the old part of the village. We sat down on the assorted sofas aligned across the edges of the cave, my eyes couldn't help but wander around every corner, when I realised that the sink had no tap, Ibrahim explained to me the cave houses have no access to water inside so they have to go outside to the local water source to get the water every day. Its only when you sit amongst those less fortunate than you that you realise that things you take for granted are actually blessings.

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Naima didn't speak much, but her hospitality spoke for itself, she prepared fresh Moroccan tea and walked slowly towards us with the tray in her delicate hands, she glanced up at us with a brief toothless smile she softly said 'Marhabba' (Welcome). She placed the tray on the crooked table in front of us which was scattered with photographs and letters. It seemed like Naima was used to having visitors from all around the world.

Her late Mother Um Aicha was frequently visited by tourists, who sat with her and took photographs, it soon become a tradition that whenever someone would visit the cave they take a photograph and later post it to Naima with a letter. Her mother was 90 when she passed away two years ago explained Naima, her family had been cave dwellers for over 300 years, generation after generation living in this very cave. Ibrahim pours the tea into a cup, if you've ever had tea in Morocco, you will most likely notice two things: the tea is poured from very high up and an extra glass is also poured. I watched him carefully, wondering if I'd ever be able to master the art of Moroccan tea pouring, most likely not!

We sipped on the fresh mint tea, the very smell of it reanimates the spirit, Naima sat quietly for a moment then pointed at the tea and with her limited English, she jokingly said "Moroccan whisky" she giggled to herself; it was hard not to join in.

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I sat next to Naima and asked for a photograph; every time she smiled her eyes would squint a little, just like mine did. Ibrahim burst into laughter every time he attempted to take the photograph. "what's so funny Ibrahim" I asked "You and Naima same same" said Ibrahim, he'd obviously seen some sort of resemblance, he showed me and Naima the picture and she smiled, she held my hand and said " abnatay", Ibrahim told me that it meant "my daughter" my heart melted, I felt overwhelmed that someone I'd just met could treat me with utmost respect and love, it was beautiful.
As we approach the end of 2016 and we begin to look back over the past twelve months, it can certainly feel like this year's been a particularly tough one.

For some, it feels as if our country has never been so divided, and on a global level the disharmony and destruction that we've seen throughout 2016 is worrying to say the least. But in the wake of all of this discord, there is one positive story that I think deserves some attention.

#givingtuesday is the international day to do good stuff for charity, and in its third year in the UK, this campaign says a lot about the generous British spirit, and our desire to do good for others.

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The campaign is supported by some of the UK's biggest brands and charities, and asks that people commit to doing something in support of their favourite charity or cause on one day of the year (this year 29th November). That action can be whatever they want, and in a year when we've seen little consensus on anything, that freedom is most likely very welcome.

The day is a celebration of charity, of generosity, and of kindness. From the small cafe in Stockport which donated profits on the day to a local charity, to the 8 year old boy who sold his toys to raise money for War Child, this campaign was full of wonderful, inspirational stories of humankind.

The day also extended further, to the big businesses of the world. Often facing criticism for putting profits before people, businesses used the day to show just how important charitable acts are to them and to their customers. Morrisons raised 10,000 at their tills with the help of customers for Sue Ryder Hospice Care, Virgin companies donated space across all of their websites to talk about charities, the Entertainer - getting ready for its busiest time of the year - gave up all of their high street windows to display messages of thanks to staff and customers who support good causes all year round. This is the kind of high street I think we all want - yes, one that gives us sales, but also one that shows it has a heart.

The day was the UK's number 1 topic on social media, it broke a world record for charitable donations, with over 1,600 partners taking part, it seems as though it's a movement that's not going anywhere anytime soon.

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The power of #givingtuesday rests with the coalition of people that come behind it. It's probably one of very few things that can claim support from both Jeremy Corbyn, David Cameron and Tony Blair, for example. But it's strength lies in its ability to unite, and particularly in 2016 that seems like something we should all welcome. In a year when far more has divided us as a country, such unity has been a long time coming.
Mark Hawtin and Chris Woodcock, GAM

When artificial intelligence (AI) last had a revival as a research and development area in its own right back in the 1980s, the reaction was mixed. Claims that robots would alleviate the drudge jobs from our lives and free up plentiful leisure time were balanced against fears of a Terminator-style cyborg uprising, where humans became enslaved by their robotic overlords. Perhaps fortunately, neither result proved correct, but the failure of such ambitious claims led to an 'AI winter', from which the science and technology industry has only just emerged.

AI research has had some breakthroughs in recent years, with computers beating humans at complex games like chess and Go. But this time round the big developments are focused around specific goals, which are more likely to have subtle impacts and stay largely behind the scenes from a consumer perspective.

Machine learning is one of the more prominent sub-sets of the AI universe, and has been the main sector for a lot of the breakthrough developments. Part of the machine-learning spectrum is 'deep learning' - a method that layers data to create neural networks, not unlike the way the brain learns, sparking excitement within the investment community. Why? This is the technology that allows Google to filter your emails and for Netflix to deliver viewing recommendations that you might actually want to watch. While these might sound rather trivial applications, they are big wins for the consumer engagement and brand loyalty.

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The ability to offer a customised service that gives the user a richer experience with increased engagement (which can lead to increased sales), is the real value in the technology. Heavy-hitters Google, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft have all embraced machine learning to ensure they remain the go-to brands with the easiest, most helpful and efficient platforms.

Amazon enjoyed an AI double whammy on Black Friday. First, one of its best-selling items was Amazon Echo - a Bluetooth speaker designed to function as a digital butler, using AI and an internet connection to answer its owner's queries through intelligent voice server Alexa, building on the popularity of Apple's Siri. Second, the company has embraced AI as a service tool to refine its 'you might also like' suggestions, hinting at future purchasing options.

Amazon, alongside other internet retailers, has enlisted the French digital marketing specialist Criteo to help carve out its market share. Criteo offers intelligent AI-led 'retargeting' technology; they are the company behind the side-bar ads that follow you around the internet to remind you of items you browsed but didn't end up buying. It also suggests smart options for other choices you may wish to consider. They employ AI to deliver the most suitable suggestions, and their success has led to heavy adoption, hence the reason it has become such a prominent feature when browsing.

Such AI-based strategies are working: Amazon's Black Friday 2016 revenues doubled those of a normal day, while Cyber Monday's numbers across the internet are set to have climbed even higher.

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So while the early AI hype focused on human-performed jobs being replaced by robot operatives, the more subtle adoptions of the technology that focus on specific goals have proved more effective. AI systems that enhance the user experience, whether that be shopping, social media (do you know...have you seen...?), virtual assistants or bespoke health analysis, are hotly being adopted.

AI has undergone a turbulent evolution from its first mention in Greek mythology, where the blacksmith Hephaestus makes himself mechanical assistants. In terms of the Gartner Hype Cycle - which represents the maturity, adoption and social application of technologies - AI is close to its peak and the sector may need to pause to digest all the developments of recent years.
Two Ukrainian soldiers were wounded in the Donbas Anti-Terrorist operation (ATO) zone, Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesman Andriy Lysenko said.

"No Ukrainian servicemen died but two suffered injuries in the hostilities over the past day," Lysenko told a press briefing in Kyiv on Friday.

In the Luhansk sector, the hostiles conducted three attacks on Ukrainian army positions, he said. Two mortar attacks were observed east of Popasna, and a third attack employing an anti-aircraft gun was seen near the village of Lobacheve.

According to Lysenko, the hostiles fired ten mortar mines near the Donetsk airport area in the Donetsk sector, and Ukrainian army positions in Avdiyivka experienced a 90-minute attack using small arms and grenade launchers, he said.

In the Mariupol sector, the hostiles fired mortars in the Vodiane-Shyrokyne sector.
Luke Smitherd is a British writer best known for his 2015 novel The Stone Man. Shortlisted by the Amazon.com audiobook service Audible as one of their recommended books for 2015, The Stone Man is a mix of horror and science fiction describing the consequences of a statue that comes to life and cannot be stopped as it marches across England.

Smitherd has published several other books over a writing career that now spans about six years. His new book "Kill Someone" is out today (December 6) and importantly this is the first time one of his books is being published by a major publisher, rather than being self-published on Amazon. Audible has decided that they want to publish Kill Someone and are covering the production and marketing costs for this new novel.

Not many self-published authors get shortlisted for major awards then crossover from self-publishing to being represented by a publisher so I contacted Smitherd to ask him about the new book and how it feels to finally be recognised by the industry.

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Initially I asked him about the story and inspiration for Kill Someone: "If you had to kill a random stranger in order to save the lives of five other people then could you do it, how would you choose the victim, and how would you do it? If you are just an ordinary person and not a killer then how would this scenario affect you?" He added: "It's about choice and guilt and deciding where the benchmark of acceptability really is."

As with other stories by Smitherd, it's a dark story reminiscent of Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror, blending elements of science fiction, horror, and social comment. Smitherd's stories make you believe in the fantastic and he has a knack for describing a bizarre situation and then asking what if this really happened? How would a story play out if these characters found themselves in this situation?

Smitherd differs from many other self-published authors in that he has always taken audiobooks seriously. All his books are available as audiobooks, often with him reading his own work.

He explains: "I think if you are an author today and you are not doing audiobooks then you are hugely missing out. Audiobooks are my print and Kindle income again - I have doubled my income doing audiobooks. This is because you are tapping into completely different readers. I get emails from people who say 'I don't have time to read, but I listened to your book in the car and I was late for work because I carried on listening after I had parked.' Comments like that are just great to hear. People with kids, or very busy jobs, might prefer to consume books by listening to them. The car, or the gym, might be the only time they get to listen to a book without being disturbed."

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Smitherd also added that there has been a revolution in audiobook use in recent years: "Audiobooks are no longer boxes of tapes or CDs, you just get an app on your smartphone and download or stream the content. It's all really simple and integrated into your phone, especially with apps like Audible."

I was curious to know how authors can create an audiobook if they don't have a publisher helping them find an actor or voice artist to record the content. Smitherd said: "Audible has a service called Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX) which is a community where you can find help to record your book as an audiobook. I have a background in performance in music so I have managed to record several of my own books, but not everyone is comfortable doing this and ACX allows you to find a voice artist. Then you can either pay the artist by the hour to record your book or you can find someone happy to work for free on the condition that you then share royalties on the audiobook."

Smitherd is clearly a writer who is going places in 2017 and is already being noticed internationally, particularly in the US market. I asked him how he feels about publishers finally noticing his work and what is the single biggest advantage of working with a 'real' publisher. He said: "Marketing. A friend of mine told me that she saw someone reading one of my books on a train. People labour under the misconception that a publisher will get your books everywhere and that's not always the case, but marketing is the single biggest advantage of working with a publisher."
Last week, China handed over responsibility for hosting the annual G20 Summit to Germany, where 20 of the world's most influential economies will gather in Hamburg next July.

As a concept born out of the need for multilateral cohesion in the wake of the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s, it's fitting that the Summit returns to Europe's economic powerhouse - and from an international development perspective, the initial outlook on Germany's presidency of the G20 is a positive one.

Alongside the traditional focus on the global economy, Chancellor Merkel announced this weekend an expanded focus on development issues. That focus includes implementation of the Global Goals, women's economic empowerment, effective responses to global pandemics and improving the conditions for investment in Africa. There are ambitious plans to use the G20 presidency to help reshape globalisation to work better for everyone, by strengthening the stability of the world economy, investing in sustainability and innovation and increasing the G20's responsibility on issues like poverty eradication.

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The German government is also calling on the G20 to take on more responsibility on issues like the refugee crisis and migration. That said, in a year when Germany faces a Federal Election alongside its G20 presidency, the extent to which the divisive issue of the refugee crisis will feature as a core focus of the summit remains to be seen.

There are more than 65 million forcibly displaced people worldwide - a crisis of proportions that have not been seen since the Second World War. Having lost homes, livelihoods and all sense of stability, refugees are amongst the most vulnerable people in the world. Over half of the refugee population is under the age of 18.

G20 nations represent 85% of the world's GDP and yet roughly the same percentage of the world's refugees are currently seeking shelter in developing countries. There are notable exceptions to the rule, but there can be no doubt that G20 nations could and should be doing more to unify behind a commitment to scale up support for refugees.

However divisive the headlines may be, this is an issue that deserves its place at the summit. If you'd like to lend your voice to helping ensure that it does, please take the time to sign our petition.

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Another day, another Islamic religious leader says something wacky that makes headlines. My heart sinks.

A religious leader (whatever that is) thinks that Peppa Pig is unsuitable for Muslim children and proposes a suitable alternative. Peppa Porcupine perhaps? A male porcupine, of course. And instead of splashing in puddles, he should sit cross legged and learn Arabic scripture by heart. Have you ever noticed how giggly and fun Islamic religious leaders are?

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To defend Peppa Pig is so ludicrous to me that I refuse to do it. Can you name one old cartoon where the protagonist is a cute fun loving girl? Enough said. Muslim parents watch Peppa Pig to enjoy a giggle with their toddler and use her as a distraction while they shovel green vegetables into them. If you prick us, our blood is probably pink and sugary from all the Percy Pigs we are eating while we watch Peppa.

To me, the problem is twofold.

First, Islam is not a centralised religion. We do not have a Pope, Archbishop or Chief Rabbi to think carefully about statements before releasing them to the press. Any old self-appointed crazy can declare himself a religious leader and say whatever he likes. If you ask enough Christians, you will find one that will say Sesame Street's Ernie and Bert sleeping in the same bed is gay and unholy. But that Christian won't get into the news, will he?

Which leads me to the second issue: the media is lining up to present Muslims in a bad light. Bad news is good for business and constantly showing Muslims as "The Other" sells papers and gets clicks online. Oh, it's December and here are the stories that Muslims are trying to ban Christmas. (Incidentally, Jesus is the second most revered prophet in Islam; we believe in both the immaculate conception and second coming. But more importantly, do you think we would miss out on presents, food and glitter? Not likely!)

There is a huge liberal, easy-going Muslim population. Some of them may even be your friends and can drink more prosecco than you. We are perfectly capable of doing what all other liberal religious people do: ignore the bad bits and take spiritual guidance from the good bits.

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I suppose there probably is a market for religious cartoons but I will bet a cool million those cartoons are dreadful. Kids don't want to watch cartoons where you learn some naff pious message. They want to giggle at something naughty. Don't we all?
ANDREW COWIE via Getty Images

Research by the National Autistic Society recently revealed that just 16% of autistic people are in full time work, a percentage which hasn't changed since 2007. This is the end product of living in a society where autistic people are let down at every stage in life. As a politician with a particular interest in autism, and a parent of an autistic child, we have come together to set out a simple plan of ideas which could make life better for autistic people (One in 100 people according to the National Autistic Society) as well as those who educate and care for them.

Early diagnosis and intervention enables small changes to be made before behaviours become so ingrained that they are almost impossible to change. Waiting times for diagnosis for autism and child mental health remain a postcode lottery. In some cases it can be up to a year before children are seen even for an initial referral appointment, but the waiting time for diagnosis is often much longer. One nine-year-old boy wrote a letter saying "When I wake up there's this horrible feeling down inside me... I could just kill myself and I wouldn't have to face today". Despite the fact that paediatricians believed this boy to be on the autism spectrum, he had been waiting two years for a proper diagnosis. What would society say if we made people wait two years to be treated for a broken leg?

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At school, parents who successfully get their children assessed as having special needs should get the help they need. However, many autistic children do not, because their parents do not understand how the system works or are not sufficiently articulate to challenge their local education authority. Nationally, 86% of Special Needs Tribunal cases are won by parents, which results in millions of pounds of tax-payers money being wasted on legal fees. It is a particular injustice that only the more articulate, sharp-elbowed middle class parents are likely to appeal their child's case in the first place.

Parents may also not know how best to deal with their autistic child, which can be draining at the best of times and may involve using different techniques to those you will find in the multitude of "how to be a good parent" books. Something needs to change to ensure that parents are routinely supported and equipped with strategies to cope with bringing up an autistic child.

At school things are not made easier. According to a survey carried out by the charity "Ambitious about autism", 40% of parents reported that their son or daughter had been informally and illegally excluded in the last 12 months and 20% had been excluded formally. This is evidence that more must be done to support autistic children (and others with special educational needs) to ensure that the support they get is not just focused on the 3 Rs but also on learning behaviours which others acquire naturally as they get older.

For employees in customer service/front desk jobs such as doctor's surgeries there is also a need to provide training on autism awareness. That way, rather than rolling their eyes or not knowing what to do in order to cope with an autistic child who is having a meltdown they can learn strategies and techniques to manage these situations calmly and sensitively. Maybe just as women who are expecting babies wear "Baby on Board" badges, should parents with autistic children be given some form of simple card to explain the challenges they are dealing so as to inform customer service staff of the need to be a bit more patient and tolerant? Some parents may not want this but others will see this as a way of reducing their stress levels during these experiences. Some countries have gone further than the UK in treating autism as one would a physical disability, for example by providing a disabled badge for parking your car.

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Transitions to adulthood are a vital area where much more needs to be done. There is very little information on whether children find it easier to work in certain professions (for example ones where routine and structure is required). Only by learning more about how autistic children do later in life can we make sure that their education is sufficiently tailored to maximise the chances of them entering the workplace successfully.

Only a combination of more resources, more dedication, more support and more understanding will help ensure that every autistic child lives a life worth living.

Norman Lamb is the Lib Dem MP for North Norfolk and a former health minister
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Over the last few days my Facebook page has seen a lot of action. And I've been pretty busy parrying intolerant comments and unfriending people I thought I knew.

This is the first time I have devoted any serious effort or attention to communicating via Facebook but I have learned a lot.

The first thing I learned was that a lot of people consider racism and misogyny to be "opinions" and that a significant number of those "opinion holders" feel that expressing this sort of thinking is their right.

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Their sense of entitlement surprised me. I did know about the racism. And, after going house to house for Obama in 2008 and 2012, I had a pretty good idea of how far it went.

But I was unprepared to see people presenting their "position" on racism as if it was something they'd arrived at after long and considered thought. Probably my favorite comment was from a man who called his racist ideology "intellectual diversity" and demanded my respect.

The next thing that surprised me was the way in which misogyny appeared upon my page. Its expression was subtle but pervasive, a current in our use of language that I have somehow missed.

Here is how I caught it.

In voicing my shock and sadness over the results of this election I got a lot of unsolicited Facebook advice. After a while I began to notice a trend. Men were advising me to stop being a "crybaby," quit "bitching" and ditch the "hysteria." Women encouraged me to "support" our publicly abusive president-elect and offered a dozen different versions of "just make nice."

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It took awhile but eventually I got it. This is misogynistic bias and it exists on both sides of the gender gap. Both men and women have a lot to learn about what gender equality really means. Something I find sad.

The last thing that jumped out at me, was a lesson learned from some of my more spiritual Facebook friends. Not all spiritual people did this but a significant percentage were a surprise.

I heard these so-called spiritual people plead for national unity and acceptance and - kind of unbelievably - the importance of loving and embracing those (Trump supporters) who don't "share our views." And I have to say irrevocably that this kind of acceptance isn't spiritual at all.

It is true that spiritual people don't like divisiveness or judgment. But that doesn't mean that we will, or should, support those who do. It means that, if we are any kind example of what spirituality really means, we will be fight what is happening to our country with everything we've got.

This is what I intend to do.

So to anyone who is listening -

The real language of division is not the line that I am drawing in the sand or the words I use to explain my thoughts. The real language of division is the terminology that rationalizes what's happening to our country and the words that have served as a smokescreen for far worse things in far worse times.

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To me, being a spiritual person is absolutely meaningless if I don't stand up for what I know is right and oppose what is wrong. I hope that most of the readers of this blog will agree. But if you don't, this blog probably isn't where you're supposed to be.

And if anyone is wondering about the picture I posted with this article - meet Paul Robert Schneider, the first Protestant minister to be martyred by the Nazis. Know that thousands of religious men and woman of all faiths followed - many of whom were taken in the early days, before the general population fully understood what was going on.

While it's hard for me to believe that we could ever fall that far, I've been learning a lot of things lately that I didn't know before. Sadly, I do think it's very possible that we are in the early days of something that's very, very dark.


 Oceana | Eduardo Sorensen

December 7 marked the anniversary of one of the most notorious attacks in U.S. history, when the Empire of Japan attacked American naval and military forces at Hawaii's Pearl Harbor. The nation was instantly plunged into mourning - and war. President Roosevelt told a shocked world that December 7 was "a date which will live in infamy." Earlier this week, on this somber anniversary, President-elect Donald Trump nominated Oklahoma Attorney General E. Scott Pruitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency. While a cabinet appointment can never compare to the more than 2,400 American lives lost on that day in 1941, I fear that, for those of us who care passionately about the world's oceans, this date will once again "live in infamy."

The EPA currently stands at the forefront of the fight against climate change. Under President Obama's Clean Power Plan, unveiled last year, the EPA sets emission reductions goals for power plants and states. The plan is designed to reduce carbon emissions from power plants by 32 percent by 2030 (based on a 2005 baseline). Power plant emissions of other pollutants that cause harmful smog and soot - like sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides - would also be reduced. The EPA Clean Power Plan is the centerpiece of U.S. efforts to meet the commitments made in the Paris Agreement.

One of the many downstream effects of climate change is ocean acidification. The oceans absorb much of the carbon dioxide that we emit. And when that carbon dioxide dissolves into our oceans, it increases the acidity of the water. According to NOAA, the oceans have increased in acidity by about 30 percent since the Industrial Revolution. Preventing further acidification by addressing climate change is crucial for the health of the oceans: among other changes, the chemical shifts caused by acidification hinder shell development in important species of shellfish and corals, threatening their survival and potentially disrupting the entire ocean food web.

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With so much at stake, the head of the EPA must be someone with a firm commitment to sound environmental stewardship and a sense of responsibility to future generations. From this point of view, the Pruitt announcement is a travesty. Calling Pruitt "an aggressively bad choice," the New York Times Editorial Board wrote: "Had Donald Trump spent an entire year scouring the country for someone to weaken clean air and clean water laws and repudiate America's leadership role in the global battle against climate change, he could not have found a more suitable candidate than Scott Pruitt."

As the Attorney General of Oklahoma, Pruitt collaborated with other attorneys general and oil and gas companies to fight the EPA, even sending an accusatory letter to the agency that was actually "written by lawyers for Devon Energy, one of Oklahoma's biggest oil and gas companies, and was delivered to him by Devon's chief of lobbying," according to a New York Times investigation. For years, he has collaborated with the fossil fuel industry to fight efforts to address climate change - through lawsuits and activism - in exchange for a growing national profile and millions of dollars in political contributions.

But we don't have to rely on the New York Times to know that this man is unfit to lead the EPA. Indeed, Pruitt calls himself a leading advocate against the EPA on his own LinkedIn page.
I live in the Shenandoah Valley, in Virginia's 6th congressional District.

The District is 2:1 Republican, and so my challenge to Mr. Goodlatte in 2012, as the Democratic nominee for the District's seat in Congress, was a very long shot in terms of winning the seat. But it gave me an excellent platform from which to try to get the truth to penetrate the fog of lies and hypocrisies with which the majority of the electorate of this area has been indoctrinated.

It was an adventure for which I will always be grateful, even if I also discovered that -- as seems also to be the case nationwide -- the bubble the right-wing has crafted over the past generation has been rendered almost impervious to any evidence or logic that would challenge the orthodoxies of the right.

But having run against Mr. Goodlatte -- who has been rewarded for his consistent willingness to do his party's bidding by being made the Chair of the House Judiciary Committee -- I have a pretty good idea of who he is and what he is about.

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So when something striking about Goodlatte crossed my path the other day, I felt inspired to lay out the following portrait of hypocrisy and chutzpah the facts reveal.

*********************

Somehow I am not on Bob Goodlatte's (R-VA-06) email list, but a fine letter to the editor in the Northern Virginia Daily alerted me to my "representative's" latest foray into the realm of rankest hypocrisy.

The letter, by my fellow Shenandoah County resident, Mary Gessner, quoted Goodlatte's email -- sent in the wake of the Republican victories in the recent election -- as declaring that "division will do nothing to benefit our country," and then proceeding to express the hope "that we will now have an avenue to move bipartisan legislation that has been stalled over the past eight years."

No word from Goodlatte about how such "bipartisan legislation" got stalled for the past eight years. But letter-writer Gessner provides that missing word: "The Republican led House and Senate spent the last eight years refusing to do anything."

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Nor is there word from him about the prominent role that Goodlatte himself has played in making sure that nothing moved forward. No word, that is, about how, for the past four years, Goodlatte has been chair of the House Judiciary Committee, and used that plum position to make sure that bills supported by a majority of Americans -- on immigration reform, on reasonable laws to keep guns out of the wrong hands -- went nowhere.

The best word to describe Goodlatte's present plea for progress is hypocrisy. Second place in the apt-word contest might be chutzpah.

The famous story used to illustrate the meaning of "chutzpah" is about the young man who murders his father and mother and then throws himself on the mercy of the court, for he is but a poor orphan. So now we have Goodlatte, willing accomplice of stalling the very progress he now celebrates the opening of an avenue to achieve.

But hypocrisy hits the nail on the head. What Goodlatte really stands for -- and this seems the consistent guiding principle of his political conduct -- is serving purely partisan interests. (And it is likely not incidental that being a reliable party hack brings rewards from the party for the ambitious politician-- like heading an important House committee.)

Stripped of the hypocrisy, Goodlatte's real message is, "Now that my Party is calling the shots, let's get things done." When the other Party was in the driver's seat, his position was across-the-board obstructionism.

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We've seen this kind of hypocrisy from Goodlatte before-- on his signature issue.

Goodlatte has long been an outspoken proponent of a Balanced Budget Amendment. Let us set aside that his signature idea is an awful idea, one that would cripple the nation's ability to deal with the ups and downs of the business cycle, one that if it had been in effect during the recent economic collapse would have turned the Great Recession into a Great Depression. (But perhaps we should not be too hard on Goodlatte about this: the economic insights that his signature issue ignores are only 80 years old.)

The merits of the idea aside, Goodlatte's history on the issue would be wonderfully strange, would be inexplicable -- unless, that is, we understood that "hypocrite" and "partisan" are the organizing principles of Goodlatte's politics.

The history is this: Goodlatte started advocating for his Balanced Budget Amendment in the 1990s; he went silent on the issue in the period from 2001-2009, during which time he seemed to have no trouble voting for budget after budget that cumulatively more than doubled our national debt; and then from 2009 onward, he was again a full-throated, piously righteous advocate of his proposal to require that the federal budget always be balanced.

If one were looking for principle, one would be puzzled by the contradiction. But the puzzle is solved as soon as one realizes that principle has nothing to do with it.

Just as with obstructionism vs. moving forward, so also with deficit-spending vs. balanced budget. The rule is, partisan interest is paramount, and "principle" is just a hypocrite's window dressing.

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The rule for Goodlatte has nothing to do with fiscal responsibility, but rather, the rule is: when the Democrats are in power, wave the flag of fiscal restraint, the better to keep the opponent from instituting their programs; when the Republicans are in power, spend whatever it takes to do what we want to do.

That such a man is able to win election now 13 straight times, and seems secure in being able to continue being returned to office until he chooses to retire, is a sad commentary on the state of our democracy.

The people are so far from understanding who really serves them, and who exploits them, that one fears that the day might eventually come that they would elect a truly terrible person -- a liar, a con man, an unmitigated self-server -- even to the White House.
By Hong Soon-do, Beijing correspondent, AsiaToday - As there is a strategy called "human-wave strategy," many men can become a weapon. It's true considering the present economic reality where an individual is a consumer. From this point of view, Chinese tourists, known as "youkers," are strategic resources that can certainly be weaponized.

Recently, there have been many suspicious circumstances in which the Chinese government secretly enforced its policy of cutting the number of tourists visiting the countries and regions in conflict with the mainland. In fact, this has been widely acknowledged by most of Chinese industry officials who asked for anonymity.

[The rapidly growing number of Chinese tourists is showing the sign of the weaponization. The photo shows youkers on a farm tour in Thailand./ Source: search engine Baidu]

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According to Beijing sources on Thursday, nearly 120 million Chinese tourists went overseas in 2015, and the number is expected to double to 200 million by 2020. Obviously, tourism players around the world are seeking to attract such enormous bonanza. In fact, countries like South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong have been benefited from Chinese tourists as their top destinations till recently.

However, those countries are expected to experienced a dramatic decrease in the number of youkers in the future because the Chinese authorities are pushing their own tourism industry to cut the number of youkers in an effort to be engaged in weaponization. It seems South Korea is being one of the victim countries suffering from China's strategy after it decided to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) and signed the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) with Japan, fueling tensions in South Korea-China relations. Korean tourism industry officials in Beijing revealed that such a large number of Chinese tourists are now missing from the Korean market.

Taiwan and Hong Kong are no exceptions. They saw 30% and 20% decline, respectively, in tourists from China in November over the previous year. This is mostly because Beijing has been unhappy about Taiwan seeking independence and Hong Kong's rising anti-Mainland sentiment. Japan seems to be standing aside from such bad luck. However, there is a possibility of even bigger misfortune since it has a frosty relationship with China.
The European Parliament will consider the bill A8-0235/2016 on December 15 which provides for the suspension of the visa-free regime for third countries.

The debate on the agreement on the suspension mechanism for the visa-free regime for Georgia and Ukraine will be held on December 14, and the matter will be put to the vote on December 15, according to a report on the European Parliament website.

As reported, on December 8, the Committee of Permanent Representatives to the EU (Coreper) approved on behalf of the EU Council the text of the agreement, as agreed with the European Parliament, on the suspension mechanism for a visa-free regime.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin subsequently said all political obstacles to the introduction of the EU visa-free regime for citizens of Ukraine have been removed.

"This matter is currently absolutely outside the politics, it is a technical matter, a matter of organization of the voting," Klimkin said.

"Will they have enough time next week - it's just a matter of going through all the voting, and there are five of them, if I am not mistaken. If they don't have enough time next week, then they will be sure to complete the procedure during the first [plenary week of the European Parliament] in January," the minister said.
"Our climate is warming at an alarming, unprecedented rate and we have an urgent duty to respond," world leaders concluded at the 22nd United Nations Climate Conference (COP22). Representatives from almost 200 nations gathered in Morocco from November 7 to 18 for the first global meeting since the Paris Agreement on climate change entered into force.

We should respond with urgency, but also with intelligence.

Today, thousands of large dams are being planned and built around the world. More than a million dams already block half the rivers on the planet. Hundreds of hydropower projects are planned or under construction in the Amazon alone. Many are promoted as clean energy and as solutions to climate change.

But that's just not true.

Researchers at Washington State University recently concluded that dams are an important source of greenhouse gas emissions. In addition to carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide, dams release large amounts of methane, a gas that traps 34 times more heat than carbon dioxide. The findings were published in the scientific journal Bioscience.

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Far from being a solution, dams actually aggravate climate change.

Until now, scientific evidence had suggested that dams in tropical areas emit greenhouse gases. The WSU study, however, concluded that reservoirs emit greenhouse gases regardless of their latitude or their purpose (power generation, flood control, navigation or irrigation).

The researchers concluded that, globally, reservoirs emit approximately 1.3 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions generated by mankind.

That's greater than the total annual emissions of Canada.

Further studies are required to quantify exactly how much dams emit and to understand how they vary according to the particular conditions of each reservoir. For now, it seems that variables such as temperature and eutrophication (increased nutrients in water that increase algae and decrease oxygen) may be the most relevant.

Currently, greenhouse gas emissions from dams aren't monitored. Yet every day, they're released into the atmosphere, contributing to climate change. Globally, our climate accounts aren't complete.

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The WSU study marks a milestone in our understanding of the true role dams play in creating climate change.

It's essential that scientific policies, programs, standards, and analyses take these emissions into account. National and international bodies--including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Green Climate Fund, and private companies--must incorporate current and future dam emissions in their assessments.

Only then will be have clear accounts. Only then can we avoid, by ignoring clear evidence, continuing to make climate change worse--particularly for the most vulnerable among us.

It's worth noting that dams have severe impacts on human rights. They're also very expensive and take decades to plan and complete.

What's more, viable alternatives to dams have already been found, such as wind, solar and other alternative energy solutions. They are cheaper, more efficient, and quicker to build.

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To respond to climate change with urgency, intelligence, and effectiveness, we have to be clear on its causes. We have to account for all significant contributors, including dams.

We have this opportunity today. And we have no more time to lose.


A movie helped Jordan make Petra its top tourist draw.

You probably never heard of Mada'in Saleh. Chances are you won't, either - unless some Hollywood studio films a blockbuster movie at this remote spot in Saudi Arabia, much like George Lucas put Jordan's "lost city" of Petra on the map in his 1989 hit, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Mada'in Saleh, by the way, is Petra's sister city and a big dot - about 300 miles south of Petra - on the ancient Incense Road from southern Arabia to the Mediterranean.

The movie helped spark Petra's modern-day prominence as Jordan's No. 1 tourism attraction. Not so with Mada'in Saleh, also known as Hegra. Look close and you might spot Mada'in or Hegra on a map running alongside (more or less) but inland from the Red Sea.



King Solomon cuddles with the queen of Sheba in Jerusalem.

It's possible that Makeda, the queen of Sheba, took the Incense Road from Arabia to Jerusalem by way of Petra - about a 1,400-mile trip - for her biblically reported visit to King Solomon a thousand years before Christ. The sight of her caravan of nearly 800 camels loaded with gifts for the king, mainly frankincense and myrrh, gold, spices and precious gems, must have been a real eye-popper.

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What are frankincense and myrrh? They're aromatic resins from scraggy trees, once used for everything from making rooms smell nice to religious ceremonies. They have some medicinal powers, too. Frankincense, for instance, has been tagged as "an ancient form of penicillin." The lands ruled by the queen of Sheba were said to have been covered by vast fields of such uber valuable trees - making her one of the most powerful women (if not THE most powerful) on the planet

Historians disagree on where Sheba was. Some say it was in Yemen (aka the kingdom of Saba) edging southwest Arabia. Still others point to the Kebra Negast, the Ethiopian holy book, which claims Sheba was in Ethiopia.

If you've been to Petra, you likely know this city is where the Incense Road and the Silk Road from China among major trade routes from Asia criss-cross before going on some 90 miles to Gaza and other ports on the Mediterranean. Guides probably told you Petra was the capital of the ancient Nabataean empire. But they may not have mentioned the empire's No. 2 city down the coast at Mada'in, which anchored the southern tip of the empire. Nor the many similarities between the two cities.



One of Petra's gems is its iconic Treasury facade.

Both, for example, are packed with temples, shrines, tombs and other buildings carved out of sandstone, and both boast ingenious water management systems (an absolute must for trade caravans passing through). True, Mada'in has nothing to compare to two of Petra's gems, the towering Treasury (the building featured in Lucas' movie) and the hilltop Monastary (you need to climb 800 steps to get there). Petra is also considerably larger and has many more restorations among the carved structures. Both, however, are spread out over several miles and have been designated as UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

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Mada'in is particularly known for its 111 monumental tombs, mostly elaborately decorated. You'll know you've come across the largest tomb when you see it - it's the four-story-high Al Farid Palace, carved from a single rock and standing alone in the desert.
Since his first day in office, Secretary of State John F. Kerry has maintained that economic policy is foreign policy and vice versa. This principle recognizes that the bellwether for a country's success depends squarely on the soundness of its economic policies and whether it allows businesses - within and without its borders - to operate in environments of transparency, consistency, and predictability.

Combating corruption is critical to establishing and maintaining such environments. Corruption poses a major threat to global prosperity and it undermines the rule of law, government institutions, and human dignity. The World Bank has estimated that $1 trillion of transactions worldwide are tainted by bribery each year.

The United States has been robustly engaged on a wide variety of fronts to address corruption, from legislative efforts at home, to foreign assistance and bilateral and multilateral diplomacy. But while governments can take a leading role in addressing corruption, other stakeholders also need to step forward, including civil society organizations, businesses, the media, and ordinary citizens, so we can collectively take action to fight the root causes of graft.

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That is why, as we mark International Anti-Corruption Day, I want to bring attention to a critical weapon that is gaining recognition in the fight against corruption. This is the principle of corporate liability, which can play a key part in ensuring international business is conducted in an aboveboard manner, free of corruption and bribery.

Corporate liability ensures that companies and corporations can be held responsible for the illegal actions of their employees. In other words, companies can be held just as liable for wrongdoing as the individual officers, employees, or agents involved in the offense.

When a legal system embraces corporate liability, the effects can be profound. For example, in the United States, the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) authorizes regulators, including the Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission, to hold corporations liable when their employees engage in foreign bribery.

Because corporations are on the hook for the actions of their employees, they have a real incentive to discourage employees from engaging in bribery or other corrupt behavior. In effect, this makes corporations themselves instrumental agents in the fight against foreign bribery.

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In addition to our country's enforcement of the FCPA, I am pleased to note that because of the Anti-Bribery Convention - the world's foremost international agreement to address foreign bribery - and the peer review of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Working Group on Bribery, many countries have adopted corporate liability laws for the first time.

This is real progress considering that 16 of the 41 Convention Parties had no established system for corporate liability prior to the Convention. And while the Convention obligates its Parties to establish corporate liability only for bribery of a foreign public official, many Parties have either adopted a broader form of corporate liability, or started with foreign bribery and then widened the scope.
The forecast was not good when my girlfriend and I boarded a plane for Antigua this past spring. It was coming up on our one-year anniversary though and feeling in optimistic mood we took off for the West Indies Island. Within a couple hours of landing we were basking in the sun at Curtain Bluff, an utterly comfortable resort awash in faded British colonial elegance. The main draw for me was being able to walk out of our room onto a deserted beach strewn with a half dozen hammocks and nearly nothing else. I even managed to find one shaded by a supporting tree and fell asleep to the sound of the waves crashing into the soft sand. She headed to the bay beach where there was drink service and more hospitable waters. When I joined, it wasn't long before I was floating on my back just off the shore. Because of my newly relaxed state, my body felt like air and effortlessly floated on top. She paddled next to me in a floating pool lounger, and we laughed defiantly about how wrong the forecast had been.

That might have been a bit premature. After another day of sun-baked bliss, the clouds darkened and the sky opened up to release an unprecedented flood. It started as we checked into the lush oasis Hermitage Bay. With just 27 individual cabins accessed by narrow winding pathways through dense greenery that give off a rainforest vibe, this is a place to come to get lost. Unfortunately, with the rain pouring down at a near unrelenting pace, for us it was also a place to get moist. Luckily, the food is outstanding so our days were happily spend in the open air dinning room with a dark wood roof that provided shelter from the storm. A local quipped that it's never rained this much outside of hurricane season. Dishes like a tamarind glaze duck breast served with sweet potato custard and a jerk spiked coconut risotto carbonara helped soften the blow of this revelation, as did a stream of finely mixed cocktails.

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A brief respite came one afternoon as we were eating lunch, and the sun peaked out from a dark hovering mass of clouds. I raced for one of the kayaks resting on the beach. My instinct was to paddle as far out as we could (my girlfriend came along reluctantly) and pack as much activity into this gift of a dry spell. With the water lapping at our sides and waves doing their part to carry us out, we moved at a good clip away from land until the droplets started falling again. Then it was a race back to land as the patter increased. All was well until the kayak flipped onto the beach throwing us into the sand. Nothing a massage couldn't fix though. The Spa at Hermitage Bay towers above the other structures and resembles a Buddhist temple. Listening to the ocean mirror the rhythmic patterns of my masseuse put me into a trance before dinner.
Frustrated Hispanic businessman standing at podium

Donald Trump waged a campaign for president that was utterly appalling.

To be sure, political campaigns in general are notorious for being negative. But Trump took it down to a depth that we have never before seen.

His entire campaign consisted of nothing more than outrageous attacks and insults, over and over again, many of which, of course, were flat-out lies. Even to this day, Trump has offered almost nothing in terms of substantive policies.

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Instead, his messages were filled with empty rage. He railed on and on about how everything in the nation is terrible. This is a disaster, that is a disaster, everything is a disaster. Our leaders are stupid. The entire system is rigged. Everything is corrupt.

Trump's contentions were all overblown hyperbole and complete nonsense. He never attempted to engage in any serious discussions about the legitimate issues facing our nation.

Trump's approach to his opposing candidates was to simply hurl at them one egregious insult after another. "Lyin' Ted," "little Marco," "low-energy Jeb," "crooked Hillary," and on and on. He never attempted to present the voters with a clear choice by delineating his policies and contrasting them with his opponents' policies.

During the general election, Trump did nothing but wage an abominable scorched-earth campaign against Hillary Clinton in the most vile of terms. He accused her of running a criminal enterprise, asserted that she belonged in jail, and attacked her for her husband's marital infidelities. Trump never attempted to compare and contrast his substantive positions against hers.

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And guess what?

It worked. Trump won the election. His vacuous, vicious, dumbed-down, substance-free, burn-it-to-the-ground campaign actually prevailed.

This sets a terrible precedent. This is not how elections are supposed to be conducted. The whole point of elections in a democracy is for different candidates to present different ideas for governing in a clear manner so citizens can make an informed decision about the proper direction for the nation. Otherwise, elections have no meaning.

Trump, however, won the election by completely avoiding all substantive discussions, and instead by conducting ever greater sensationalized attacks against his opponents. And as we all know, nothing breeds success like success. So now, more and more Trump copycats will emerge of candidates running for office by waging ever more despicable attack campaigns.

This bodes ill for the nation. It is another step down in our gradual decline away from integrity, honor, and principles.

Trump may have won the election for himself, but he did so at a steep cost for everyone else.
INDIANAPOLIS, IN - DECEMBER 1: President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence meet workers as they take a tour of Carrier Corporation in Indianapolis, IN on Thursday, Dec. 01, 2016. (Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

"You better keep your eye on your kids. We know what car you drive." That's the kind of threats a local union official is getting after President-presumed-elect Donald Trump tweeted something bad about him.

"You gonna die. Death is coming to you real soon." A Florida woman is arrested for threatening the parents of a child killed at Sandy Hook. Trump-tied "fake news" sites claim the shootings there were a "hoax" intended to push gun control.

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A guy shows up at a Pizza shop based on conspiracy theories -- some pushed out by Trump insiders, others by the same Trump-related websites and radio shows that pushed the Sandy Hook hoax -- claiming Hillary Clinton runs a child sex trafficking ring from its basement. He brings an assault rifle,"... terrifying customers and workers with his assault-style rifle as he searched Comet Ping Pong, police said. He found no hidden children, no secret chambers, no evidence of a child sex ring run by the failed Democratic candidate for president of the United States..."

Is this the "new normal" for our country?

Trump Attacks Local Union Leader

The latest example of this top-down attacking involves Chuck Jones, the president of United Steelworkers (USW) local 1999. Local 1999 represents workers at Indiana's Carrier furnace and air conditioner manufacturer.

After Trump falsely announced that he had made a deal to "save" 1,100 Carrier jobs Jones said Trump had, "... for whatever reason, lied his a-- off." (See LA Times, Trump's Carrier jobs triumph looks more like a sham every day.)

Trump publicly responded to Jones on Twitter,

Chuck Jones, who is President of United Steelworkers 1999, has done a terrible job representing workers. No wonder companies flee country!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 8, 2016

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and

If United Steelworkers 1999 was any good, they would have kept those jobs in Indiana. Spend more time working-less time talking. Reduce dues  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 8, 2016

This is the next President of the United States publicly attacking a guy who is president of a local union in Indiana, singling him out for national attention. And this national humiliation and endangerment by the next President of the United States is because the guy told the truth after Trump did not.

According to the Washington Post report, Donald Trump insulted a union leader on Twitter. Then the phone started to ring., "My first thought was, 'Well, that's not very nice,' " he told The Washington Post on Wednesday night. "Then, 'Well, I might not sleep much tonight.' "

Then things started to get bad,"Half an hour after Trump tweeted about Jones on Wednesday, the union leader's phone began to ring and kept ringing, he said. One voice asked: What kind of car do you drive? Another said: We're coming for you.

He wasn't sure how these people found his number.

'Nothing that says they're gonna kill me, but, you know, you better keep your eye on your kids,' Jones said later on MSNBC. 'We know what car you drive. Things along those lines.'"

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But there's more to it. Attacking a union's leadership, saying "no wonder companies are fleeing the country," the union should have "kept those jobs in Indiana" and saying the union should "spend more time working-less time talking. Reduce dues." is classic management anti-union propaganda. Saying the union is costing jobs is a union busting tactic intended to drive a wedge between the union and rank-and-file workers.

This anti-union action shows the mindset of Trump toward working people. It sends a signal. If unions try to help their membership, and challenge Trump's tactics and facts, Trump will attack them and threaten their leadership.

Support For Jones: #ImWithChuck

Not everyone is intimidated by these attacks on individuals by the next president.

In response to Trump's attack on Jones, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka issued this statement,"Chuck Jones is a man of passion, conviction and integrity who would do anything for his union brothers and sisters. President Gerard is exactly right - Chuck is a hero. An attack on him is an attack on all working people.

Chuck is right to call out the president-elect for inflating the number of jobs that will be saved at Carrier. He understands better than anyone that these are more than numbers--they are people with families to support and bills to pay.

Instead of attacking those who have been working hard to save jobs, the president-elect needs to engage with local union leaders at Carrier and at his hotel in Las Vegas. Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas is breaking the law by not bargaining with its newly unionized employees. Mr. Trump will soon occupy the White House. His words and actions need to befit that office."

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Scott Paul, President of the Alliance for American Manufacturing tweeted this about Jones,

Chuck's a man of deep integrity. He'd do anything to keep jobs here. Trump got half a loaf for workers. Chuck's right to call Trump out. https://t.co/kxeVukiHZw  Scott Paul (@ScottPaulAAM) December 8, 2016

Also on Twitter, the hashtag #ImWithChuck has messages of support of Jones.

This Is The Next President?

Trump, believe it or not, is president-elect of the United States. That is a position of great power, commanding great influence over what people think and do. When Trump or those around him "punch down" and publicly attack individuals or advance bizarre conspiracy theories, it puts people in danger. Trump and those around him don't seem to care. And by publicly not caring and continuing to do it, it starts to look like intent.
(The second of a series of four reflections observing the Obama presidency in real time; for the first, see the earlier posting, 'The Gap between Promise and Performance'.)



It was never going to be easy to govern America in a progressive fashion, given the scale of the economic crisis left in place by the Bush Administration and the destabilized nature of the Middle East in the wake of the Iraq War. The legacy of the Bush Administration was always going to make life difficult for whoever followed them into power; but then, there is nothing particularly unusual in that. The legacy of Republican misrule is something that Democratic presidents often inherit. They often find that the political compass shifts in their direction only when more conservative political actors have failed so badly as to discredit themselves, in the process giving progressive politicians access to power and the opportunity to act. Which is why Democrats always need a politics that can respond to and capitalize upon inherited difficulties, a politics that can strengthen the hold of the party on power by successfully addressing things that Republicans had failed to do. They certainly needed such a politics in 2008; and for a moment, indeed, it did look as though they possessed one. The Obama Administration began 2009 in a confident, even a hegemonic fashion, with Republican self-confidence low and unregulated capitalism in visible free-fall: but after 2010 that pattern of confidence, capacity and free-fall incrementally reversed itself. A Democratic progressive hegemony was not sustained - to our immense long-term cost - and instead political gridlock replaced social reform.

There are at least three reasons for this change in fortunes. Two of the three cannot be laid at Barack Obama's own door. They are more our fault than they are his; but the third is not. That is Obama's alone: and we need to deal with all three (two here, and one in the posting to follow)

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The failure to elect a governing coalition

In retrospect, presidencies always look as though they were inevitable, but of course that is rarely if ever the case. It was certainly not the case for Barack Obama. On the contrary, there is a very real sense in which Barack Obama arrived at the White House as a relatively unknown phenomenon - as a president who was only accidentally in power, and one who was there primarily because of two sets of things for neither of which he bore any direct responsibility. Obama reached the White House in part only because of a growing revulsion, in wide swathes of the American electorate, with the policies and performance of the second Bush Administration. He reached there too in part because of the severity of the financial crisis which serendipitously occurred on Bush's watch. The election result in 2008 was, in that sense, as much (or even more) a negative vote against Bush than it was a positive one for Obama.

Moreover, though he found himself facing a Congress that was also in Democratic hands, that control was itself not something he and his team had created. Rather, he and his incoming Cabinet were the accidental beneficiaries of the way in which the Democrats had consolidated their hold on power in Washington by putting into particularly vulnerable House seats very conservative Democrats - candidates who had effectively canvassed as blue-dog Democrats while exploiting the growing alienation of moderate Republicans from the Bush presidency. The result was a temporary coming together in 2009 of an early Obama presidency and a Congressional majority for Democrats - the electoral base of both built on anti-Bush soil - a temporary majority that would be washed away very quickly once the revolt against Bush had been replaced by the presence in the White House of a Democrat, and a black Democrat at that.

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This erosion of the Democrats' governing majority during the first term of the Obama presidency had two moments, not just one. When that majority held - which it did until the 2010 mid-terms - Obama as president still found that it required an enormous amount of political compromise within Democratic ranks to effect even modest legislative reform. Wall Street reform was only achieved - via the Dodd-Frank Act - only after the more draconian of its oversight proposals had been significantly diluted. In the case of the Affordable Care Act, the damage inflicted on the original proposals ran deeper still, with the Act seriously weakened by the absence of a public option which could not be created because of opposition from blue-dog Democrats as well as from the remaining Republicans.

The public spectacle of this bitter and prolonged internal party wrangling then impacted directly the House elections of 2010. For by then, both the passage of time and the revival of confident Republican rhetoric had combined to muddy the public perception of the causes of the financial crisis; and the recessionary effects of that crisis continued to be lived on a daily-basis by key sections of that electorate - only now recessionary effects that were lived and experienced as a stress point on Obama's watch rather than on that of George W. Bush. An electorate willing to vote into Congress blue-dog Democrats in 2008 switched back in significant numbers in 2010 to voting for even more conservative Republicans - giving the Administration what Obama called at the time a "shellacking" - and in the process effectively blocked the ability of the Administration to continue its reform program. That blockage was obvious long before the end of Obama's first term, and was very clear by its end.

The lesson to be drawn from this is also clear. It is that just as the Republicans have a solid governing majority whenever they take both houses of the Congress because they are united around a common agenda for which they can legitimately claim a popular mandate, so too must the Democrats. Indeed, it is vital that the Democratic Party follow the Republican lead here: organizing themselves internally to unite the House, the Senate and the White House around an equally coherent and more progressive agenda. Because whenever the Democratic coalition fails to do this, the best that they end up with is a Democrat in the White House (because of the demographic advantage that the Party normally enjoys in any country-wide contest; because, that is, of the country-wide growth of minority populations that the Democrats have long serviced better than Republicans) only then to face a House (elected from narrower and now heavily gerrymandered constituencies) and even a Senate that is in the full control of the other party. And that other party had absolutely nothing to gain, and everything to lose, from collaborating in any way with a progressive White House. Republicans have no interest in seeing the political class in Washington DC collaborate on domestic policy reform. On the contrary, the Republican Party leadership know that ultimately it is they and their anti-federal reform programs, and not their Democratic Party opponents, who ultimately benefit from gridlock in Washington - not least because the daily experience of that gridlock makes it ever more difficult for Democrats to pitch the case for the use of big government as a vehicle of progressive change.

The failure to defeat Republican intransigence

Which brings us to the Republicans, who are - from any kind of progressive viewpoint - currently in a particularly uncooperative frame of mind. For all the scale of his victory on November 8th, it is still clear that supporting Donald Trump was a stretch for many mainstream Republicans, something they did largely for anti-Clinton reasons rather than pro-Trump ones. Yet for all the internal party feuding that was such a feature of the last months of the Republican presidential campaign in 2016, the fact that Donald Trump was the nominee that Republicans chose to fight over - the fact that he was chosen at all - tells us that though the Republican Party is still a broad church, it is not as broad now as once it used to be. We would all do well to understand Donald Trump's selection as the Party's nominee, therefore, as reflective of changes deep in the base of the Republican Party - changes that in the last decade have drained the party of any tolerance for (or membership by) liberal/centrist Republican Party activists. With them gone, the base of the Party is now significantly more conservative than even the bulk of Republicans in the Washington political class, and even less willing than those Washington legislators to compromise with their more progressive alternatives. The problem the Democrats have, when seeking compromises of that kind, is that via its ever-tightening control of the selection process for Republican legislators through internal party-primaries dominated by Tea Party activists and worse, the conservative base of the Republican Party now calls all the main shots on the political right.

The Republican Party base currently contains at least four overlapping constituencies.

It contains social conservatives largely animated by their opposition to same-sex marriage and a woman's right to choose. It contains a libertarian current that is largely indifferent to abortion and marriage issues (and is often quite liberal on these issues), but highly animated by opposition to increasing government regulation: certainly animated against regulations on gun ownership and use, and sometimes animated even against regulations on environmental protection and conditions of employment at work. It contains a Tea Party base into which some of those social conservative and libertarian elements merge, but which tends to be made up of people "whiter, older, better educated and wealthier than the average American," or as Theda Skocpol and Vanessa Williamson found "Republican, white, male, married and older than 45." That Tea Party wing of the Republican coalition has thus far proved to be more concerned with the standard Republican mixture of fiscal rectitude, low taxation and traditional family values than with either the social agenda or libertarian concerns, while remaining "in general supportive of programs they see as helping Americans like themselves" such as Social Security and Medicare. Tea Party ire tends to focus instead on federal spending directed at the idle poor, those here illegally, or any over-indulged youth - more focused and very intense.

What Donald Trump's campaign then added to that pre-existing Republican mix were people whom Hillary Clinton inadvisably once labeled "the deplorables:" namely angry, frustrated, mainly white, non-college educated low-paid workers and their immediate family members in areas of severe economic deprivation, supplemented in both number and volume by overtly sexist, racist and xenophobic conservatives - a radical right-wing fringe that has long been there in the background of the Republican coalition but who until lately had been largely silenced behind walls of political correctness sustained by Republican Party elites no less than by Democratic Party ones.

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What held those four groups together during the Obama presidency, given their different social centers of gravity and their differing pivotal agendas, was far more opposition to Barack Obama himself than it was unity around any alternative Republican candidate. Indeed, so lacking in that alternative was the Republican Party during the Obama second term that it took 16 would-be Republican presidential candidates to give initial vent to the various elements within the party coalition. It took so many in fact that the one who eventually slipped through to the nomination was the one freest of dependence on any particular wing of the party. For those of you who know your nineteenth-century French history, the Republicans in 2016 went in search of their Napoleon Bonaparte, and ended up with a modern-day equivalent of Napoleon the Third.

First posted, with full academic citations, at www.davidcoates.net.
Perhaps the best quality of President-elect Donald Trump is his ability to find the best people for key positions. That is a major reason for his business success and it will be a major reason for his eventual success as President of the United States.

Take General James "Mad Dog" Mattis for instance. Here is a man who is universally loved and respected by those he's served with and has the unique combination of leadership skills and resume accomplishments to make him the ideal fit for the job of Secretary of Defense.

People know General Mattis from his tough quotes and his "take no prisoners" attitude, but what some don't realize is he is also an extremely intelligent man who always looks at all sides of an issue before deciding on what works best. This is a man who required the men serving under him to read books about the culture of their opponents in battle and had those same men attend cultural sensitivity training so they would be mentally and emotionally equipped in addition to physically equipped.

Sure, he likes to kick a little ass, but he's a smart strategist and a deep thinker, too, as anybody who served under him in Iraq and Afghanistan will tell you.

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That's why in addition to "Mad Dog," he's also been called "The Warrior Monk." Mattis is nuanced: He wants to destroy our enemies, but do it in a well-thought out, strategic way, as evidenced by his criticism of a lot of mistakes that were made during the Iraq War. He thinks Iran is a major threat, but also favors working on a diplomatic solution rather than just tearing up the Iran deal and starting from scratch. He realizes Israel is under assault, but also recognizes that there are people on the other side of the conflict suffering, too. He wants to stop future attacks but recognizes that torture is not an effective method of extracting information.

And that's another great thing about James Mattis: He has the guts to speak his mind, no matter what. President-elect Trump proclaimed his support for bringing back waterboarding on the campaign trail, but a few weeks ago, he backed off. Why? Because James Mattis told him he's seen no evidence that it works.

Which is another great thing about President-elect Trump: He will surround himself with the best and brightest and actually listen to their opinions. Donald Trump knows what all great men know, which is that he doesn't know everything. While he has shown the strength to be authoritative on important issues, he has also shown a willingness to take input from those around him who may know certain subjects better than he does. That is the mark of a great executive and a wise leader.

A brilliantly qualified General, who is willing to speak his mind, leading the Defense Department with a President who is both shrewd enough to appoint that General and smart enough to listen to him. That is a terrific combination and come January 20, we, as Americans, will all be grateful to have both of them serving our interests.
With winter approaching and the new year only a few weeks away, right now is a great time to start thinking about your next tropical getaway that involves sunny blue skies and white sanded beaches.

In this post, you'll get ideas for some of the best, hidden tropical islands to visit in 2017. I've been to each of these islands over the last 3 years, and I can personally attest that they are all fantastic.

Let me clear that you will not read about the popular, touristy, money-making islands such as St. Lucia, Ibiza, or Boracay - but rather, those untouched coastlines and hidden beauties that you may never have heard of before. These are islands where a few dollars will take you far. These are islands that don't have wifi (or very limited access). These are places where the people may live in poverty, but they are very welcoming to foreigners and their smiling faces will make you feel at home.

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If you need help or advice planning your trips, don't hesitate to contact me directly!

7 Tropical Islands to Visit in 2017

1. Siquijor, Philippines

My favorite island on earth, and one that is hardly ever talked about, is called Siquijor. Located in the Central Visayas region, Siquijor is only accessibly by boat and it's a must-visit if you find yourself in the Philippines. My favorite thing to do in Siquijor is rent a motorbike ($5USD per day) and spend 3 hours riding around the island. You will see more waterfalls, beaches, coconut trees, and stunning views than you can keep track of. Filipinos are also very friendly and welcoming, so you will never feel out of place.

2. Sumba Island, Indonesia

Did you know that Indonesia has more than 17,000 islands? Tucked away on the Southernmost part of the archipelago is an island called Sumba, which is known for it's high mountains, endless rice fields and indigenous people who rarely come into contact with the outside world. Don't forget about the beaches, most notably Nihiwatu, where the only resort is on the island.

3. Nacula Island, Fiji

Fiji is composed of 330 islands, so it might be a hard decision to choose which one is best to visit. The main island is called Viti Levu (where the airport is), but isn't nearly as photogenic as some of the surround ones. Take a short ferry ride to the Yasawas islands (group) and discover a place called Nacula Island, where you'll see slanted palm trees planted in white sand and overlooking the crystal clear sea. Nacula also offers world class scuba diving with white tip sharks.

4. Dominica, Dominica

Not to be confused with the Dominican Republic, travel farther southeast to find one of the world's smallest countries called Dominica. Known as the "Nature Island of the Caribbean," Dominica has no shortage of hikeable volcanoes, jungle treks, amazing wildlife and red rock plateaus on the turquoise-blue Caribbean waters. With a small population of 72,000 and surface area of 29 by 16 miles wide, it's not common to cross paths with other tourists. Don't miss a stay in Calibishie - a village in the Northeast that has some of the friendliest people on earth.

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5. Rosario Islands, Colombia

Did you know that Colombia has tropical Caribbean islands? I didn't either until I was in Cartagena and heard about the 1-hour boat ride to Rosario Islands. You can see sea turtles, sharks, and dolphins swimming in their natural habitat, as well as lay on the beach and eat fresh lobster, crab and octopus with coconut rice, plantains and salad. Oh - and don't forget to see Pablo Escobar's mansion and his actual sunken plane on one of the beaches.

6. Koh Lipe, Thailand

Thailand has many tropical islands which are all quite similar to each other. You may know about the famous Full Moon Party which happens monthly on Koh Phangan, but if you cross overland to the West side of Thailand, you will learn about Koh Lipe. Head over to Pattaya beach, grab yourself an ice cold Chang beer and get a $4 Thai massage in the sand. When you're too hot from the blistering sun, grab some fins, a mask and a snorkel and jump in the sea to see hundreds of species of fish.

7. Efate, Vanuatu

Most people have only heard of Vanuatu because the famous American show, Survivor, filmed a series there. The South Pacific archipelago, consisting of 83 small islands of volcanic origin, has only a population of 200,000 people who have carried on traditions for centuries. The main island of Efate offers a lovely coastline, shipwreck diving and picture-perfect views no matter where you look. Above all, my favorite part about Vanuatu is the kind hearted locals who will welcome you into their culture with open arms.
New York, NY USA - July 16, 2016: Donald Trump speaks during introduction Governor Mike Pence as running for vice president at Hilton hotel Midtown Manhattan

It's been a week since the presidential election and the apocalypse has not occurred. The real life reality show "The Apprentice" starring Donald Trump has seemingly stunned America.

Many believe Mr. Trump would not receive the Republican nomination. He did.

Many believe Mr. Trump would not be elected president. He was.

Despite Mr. Trump's protestations that the election was rigged, the outcome seems clear: he is our president-elect.

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We are both are registered Democrats and campaigned and voted for Secretary Clinton. We are members of some of the groups Mr. Trump has insulted: Latinos, African-Americans, lesbians and gays. We recognize his racism, sexism, xenophobia, Islamophobia and more.

But, for now, we will not be taking part in any anti-Trump protests or rallies.

We recognize that the election is, as Van Jones coined it, a "whitelash." It was a hostile reaction to the election of a black man we both admire, and a rejection of a political insider who is not only aligned with President Obama but also linked to her husband, former President Clinton, and is a woman.

We did #StandWithHer. But clearly, a decisive number of folks did not support her, and the election result is what it is.

It is too late for protests about the election or the Electoral College.

It is time to do what both candidates have called for--a version of South Africa's post-apartheid "Truth and Reconciliation." It is time for us to be in the present and work toward uniting the country. It is time to mobilize and "stay woke" for the 2018 and 2020 elections.

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In his first interview after the election, on "60 Minutes," Mr. Trump said he wanted to unite America. He also is backing down from his election rhetoric to abolish the Affordable Care Act. And he has abandoned "Hillary For Prison."

Leslie Stahl, who conducted the interview, said: "I think he wanted the public to know that he understood that he had to switch gears and pay attention to the responsibilities now."

And so it is. Let's focus on the present and the future and not the past.

Let's shift our energies from protesting Trump to registering voters for early voting, getting the vote out, paying attention to the other two branches of government, and keeping our civil liberties and rights especially around reproduction, immigration, and marriage equality intact.

We have work to do around education, health, and wealth.

Here's to moving forward, Here's to truth, reconciliation and uniting all Americans.

Peace, love, gratitude, compassion and blessings.
Just some catching up to do:

* Chick Corea is wrapping up an amazing--dare I say unprecedented run at the Blue Note club in New York city. Taking advantage of his 75th birthday, which was actually back in June, Chick has called in friends and collaborators from almost (but completely) every aspect of his career to do, literally, more shows than I can count in more styles than I can assimilate. Corea gets my vote for the most versatile composer/performer alive, and these shows--many of which were filmed--demonstrated that capacity beyond argument.

The shows include (get ready for a lot of names: The "Chick Corea Elektrik Band" with Chick on keyboards (as always) Eric Marienthal (saxes), Frank Gamble (guitar), John Patitucci (bass), Dave Weckl (drums). Next up was a Miles tribute with Kenny Garrett (saxes), Wallace Roney (trumpet), Mike Stern (guitar), Marcus Miller (bass), Brian Blade (drums). Then came the Three Quartets Band, Steve Gadd (drums), Eddie Gomez (bass), Ben Solomon (sax), the Leprechaun Band, Steve Gadd (drums), Gayle Moran Corea (vocals), Steve Wilson (sax & flute), Michael Rodriguez (trumpet), Steve Davis (trombone), Eddie Gomez (acoustic bass), some electronica experiments, a flamenco band, a show with the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra, 13-Piece Big Band (8 horns, guitar, bass & drums) from that city, a series of piano duets with Brad Mehldau, Herbie Hancock and Gonzalo Rubalcaba, a show with vibist Gary Burton and the Harlem String Quartet. These shows were followed by a show with the Origin II band which, was Ravi Coltrane (sax), Steve Wilson (sax & flute), Steve Davis (trombone), Carlitos Del Puerto (bass), Marcus Gilmore (drums), an acoustic set up of Return to Forever music with Coltrane and Hubert Laws (flute), Avishai Cohen (bass), Lenny White (drums), a duet with John McLaughlin, and another night of RTF music John McLaughlin (guitar), Victor Wooten (bass), Lenny White (drums), which ends this weekend.

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I caught three of these shows. The one with the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra, the one with Gary Burton and the Harlem String Quartet and the allegedly acoustic RTF show that was not really all that acoustic. For each of these shows, the Blue Note was as packed as any room I've ever been in with an impressive $85 cover each night, with people lined up down the block every night for the late show as the early shows let out. The vibe was relaxed and friendly. Chick wore flannel shirts and jeans and joked around with the crowd as if he knew all of us. Some of the numbers were rehearsed, some were not, though I could not always tell the difference. I will always remember the version of "Round Midnight" that Chick arranged for Burton and the Harlem String Quartet which was soul-piercing in its beauty. The acoustic RTF show, which stuck almost exclusively to the band's first album, was a marvelous combination of band leaders submerging their egos into a single expressive element that, simultaneously embraced each's individuality and musical genius. And the Trondheim Orchestra, which was the one where someone else--a dude from Trondheim as it happens--arranged all Corea compositions anew had a marvelous spontaneity to it as it appeared that Chick had never seen some of them before playing them.

One is tempted to treat all of the styles embraced above as a gimmick but that would not be accurate at all. Each of them brought out a different aspect of Corea's genius, which is both casually worn, and unspeakably impressive when considered as whole. I look forward to the inevitable multi-volume dvd/cd releases, where I can watch and listen with a little more legroom.

* Jazz@LC is hosting an extremely interesting show this weekend featuring Steve Miller and Jimmie Vaughan playing tribute to the great T-Bone Walker. Some music historians choose Walker as "the founding father of electric blues guitar." For instance Pete Welding argues that "no one has contributed as much as long or as variously to the blues as he has. Miller, many people don't know, began as a striaghtforward white blues guy; his godfather was literally Les Paul. He spent much of his youth in Chicago playing with Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Buddy Guy, Paul Butterfield, and James Cotton. Like Vaughan, he hails from Texas and the combination of these two influences, joined by his own simultaneously catchy, energetic and also mellow/spacey oeuvre makes for an extremely interesting and satisfying combination. In addition to Vaughan the band features, B-3 organist Mike Flanigin, the awesome vocalist Brianna Thomas, pianist Shelly Berg, alto saxophonist/clarinetist Patrick Bartley, tenor saxophonist Craig Handy, baritone saxophonist Lauren Sevian, trumpeter Mike Rodriguez, bassist Yasushi Nakamura, and former Earth Wind & Fire drummer Sonny Emory.

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* Next weekend marks another set of Jazz@LC Big Band shows, wth

Wynton Marsalis, Music Director and Saxophonist Sherman Irby and Guest Vocalist Catherine Russell. These are always fun, and I look forward to them every year; they combine a sense of playfulness with the innovation and creative expression that mark every Jazz@LC orchestra performance. The shows begin on the evening of December 14, but on Sunday afternoon, December 18 they are

offering their first "Relaxed Performance" of the show. These shows are designed "to provide families with children or adults with autism, learning difficulties or other sensory and communication needs the opportunity to enjoy Jazz at Lincoln Center performances in a more relaxed environment." What a great idea, huh? Kudos to the folks at the orchestra for taking into account the rarely met needs of this deserving but underserved audience.

This Relaxed Performance will include:

Adjustments to sound and lighting in the production

Free support resources to assist families prepare for the theater visit

On site trained staff and volunteers

Designated quiet areas where families can view the concert on a HD screen

As with the above, they take place in the Rose Theater. More info at jazz.org
NEW YORK, NY - NOVEMBER 22: President-elect Donald Trump walks through the lobby of the New York Times following a meeting with editors at the paper on November 22, 2016 in New York City. Trump, who has held meetings with media executives over the last few days, has often had a tense relationship with many mainstream media outlets. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

In a December 2 tweet that rattled embassies on the other side of the world, President-elect Donald Trump shredded nearly four decades of U.S. diplomatic protocol when he announced he had accepted a congratulatory call from Taiwan's president. Seen as a public slight to China, which views Taiwan as a breakaway province, Trump's move set off a flurry of international speculation and concern about America's relationship with China, which boasts one of the most important economies in the world.

The next day, the New York Times heralded the news on the front page: "Trump Muddies China Relations With Taiwan Call." What was so odd about the article -- yet what's become such a hallmark of Trump transition coverage to date -- was that the Times was unable to provide any insight into why the president-elect had made such a baffling move. "Mr. Trump's motives in taking the call, which lasted more than 10 minutes, were not clear," the paper conceded.

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The Times didn't publish a single quote, either on or off the record, from any Trump aides or advisers shedding light on the diplomatic controversy. Instead, the Times was left to quote Trump's tweets on the topic of Taiwan tweets which, of course, are public and anyone can read.

That's extraordinary. Yet sadly it's also become the norm during the one month since Election Day. It wasn't as if the Trump team, by its own standards, was being unusually secretive about Taiwan. It's simply been unusually secretive about everything, leaving the press with few avenues of information. (Remember the time, days after the election, when the caught-in-the-dark press corps didn't know where Trump was?)

Recall the Times' front page on November 22, when the paper touted as the day's biggest news offering a newly released YouTube clip from Trump in which he discussed the goals of his first 100 days. There again, locked out from any advisers with insights, reporters were reduced to transcribing the two-and-a-half-minute infomercial and treating it as breaking news (i.e. "Mr. Trump offered what he called an update on his transition").

Question: Isn't that more how monarchs and figureheads are covered, not presidents of the United States? I kept asking myself that question last Wednesday when CNN's daytime coverage for hours revolved around the image of Trump's plane sitting on a runway in preparation for his trip to Ohio. Is the nation that eager to catch a glimpse of Trump, who lost the popular vote in November and boasts a miserable favorable rating for a newly elected president?

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Soon after the election, I warned that if journalists' game plan in dealing with Trump was wishing and hoping that he'd change, then they'd be doomed, and so would news consumers. One month after the election, the doomsday appears to be looming larger.

And yes, the stakes are that high. "The Trump transition has put in stark relief the very foundations of the profession of journalism in modern America," writes historian Rick Perlstein.

From Politico, here's a quick reminder about how Trump openly disrespected the press this year, and will likely continue to do so:

"He did not allow the press to travel with him on his plane, which meant they were not in his motorcade and often, because of travel snafus, were left behind. He's banned outlets for months at a time and called out specific reporters he didn't like. And despite the years of tradition that the White House allows journalists into the building, has them travel with the president in a protective pool and that the press secretary holds a daily briefing, none of that is guaranteed in any sort of law. It is just tradition, and not many believe a Trump White House will keep that going."

And don't forget, Trump hasn't held a press conference since late July.

Instead of Trump's historic lack of access prompting the press to be even more aggressive and vigilant in its coverage, we seem to be entering Stockholm Syndrome territory, where too many battered journalists seem to think that if they're nice to Trump and paint him as a success -- as taking on big business and scoring a big Carrier jobs victory -- that he'll stop bullying them. They hope he'll grant them access and won't shred all White House press protocols starting next year.

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But that ship has sailed, my friends. The best way for journalists to cover Trump moving forward is to assume they'll never have any access. That means news organizations can, and should, stop fretting about possibly offending Trump. That opens up possibilities for detailed reporting on his sprawling web of conflicts. (Even if it arrives a bit late.)

And they should stop dancing around the fact that he constantly tells bald-faced lies. When Trump pushed out his fantasy that if it weren't for "millions" of people who voted "illegally" he would've won the popular vote, way too many news outlets simply typed up the assertions without properly stressing that Trump's claim was categorically false. (Even Trump's attorneys don't believe it.)

If the press can't swiftly and collectively knock down this nonsense, journalists are opening the door to every conceivable crackpot claim in the near future. Is the press really prepared to play he said/he said with Trump and his surrogates about whether the earth is flat, or the moon is made of cheese? Because that's the direction we're heading in if Trump's team is allowed to advance its preferred "post-truth" presidency, where there's "no such thing" as facts.

Meanwhile, the timid press corps really needs to stop normalizing the outlier and radical nature of Trump's transition and the people he's appointing. During the first month of transition coverage, when not erroneously tapping Trump adviser and white nationalist Steven Bannon as a feel-good "populist," journalists for weeks turned away from the dark, hateful rhetoric of retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who has been tapped to become Trump's national security adviser.

One week before Election Day, Flynn, a high-profile Trump surrogate in the press, tweeted out a fake news article claiming Hillary Clinton was linked to "sex crimes with children." That, of course, is insanely irresponsible behavior for any adult, let alone a retired general, let alone Trump's soon-to-be national security advisor.

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But for weeks, while profiling Flynn, the press politely looked away from the specific instance of him hyping a rancid allegation about Clinton. Instead, in long articles about Flynn, news consumers were told about Flynn's "outspokenness," his "fiery temperament," how he throws "sharp elbows," and isn't afraid to "ruffle feathers." Those were some ways that The Washington Post, CNN, the Times and NPR categorized Flynn's erratic behavior. Yet none of those profiles mentioned his "sex crimes with children" tweet, which seems like a glaringly obviously example of Flynn's at-times shocking behavior.

Right after the election, the Post's Margaret Sullivan rightfully urged her colleagues "to keep doing our jobs of truth-telling, challenging power and holding those in power accountable."

Raise your hand if, over the last four weeks, you've been awed by the Beltway media's tireless drive to hold Trump accountable.
British Prime Minister Theresa May's speech at the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Summit deserves a solid 10/10. Starting off with "Gulf security is our security" was a pleasant surprise and a much-welcomed statement. Compared to the soon-to-be-dismissed Obama administration, May came across as bold and better informed when she stated that she was "clear-eyed" about the security threat that Iran posed, and that the UK would work with the Gulf states to counteract Tehran's "aggressive regional actions." Knowing exactly which buttons to press, she paid homage to 200 years of bilateral relations with Manama and Gulf reform plans, and confirmed the UK's participation in Dubai's Expo 2020. However, one should be wary of the Brits when they come bearing gifts. On the one hand, of course this is all excellent news for the region, particularly as it comes alongside an actual commitment of a military presence and assistance to Gulf nations in building up their defense capabilities. On the other hand, we must not forget the realities on the ground that may have resulted in this sudden British warming up. Ever since this summer's Brexit vote, the UK has been scrambling to secure a favorable position and global guarantees for when it leaves the European Union (EU). It is no surprise, then, that the emphasis on ramping up trade with the GCC took up a major part of May's speech and her pre-Summit negotiations. This is without doubt a good opportunity for GCC countries -- unilaterally and collectively -- to strengthen ties with the UK, and if the British government abides by the commitments made in Manama, one cannot but expect a mutually beneficial future for all parties involved. However, mere lip service is no longer sufficient; it is actions, not words, which both sides should be after. The UK should not expect to be able to have its cake and eat it, as a recently leaked memo seems to explain of their EU-exit strategy. Nobody anticipates that the UK will completely cut ties with Iran, particularly given that the two countries have only just re-established political ties. However, one would like to see Hamid Baeedinejad -- the newly appointed Iranian ambassador, who submitted his credentials to Queen Elizabeth II a few days ago -- summoned and questioned should Tehran continue its destabilizing acts in the region. Furthermore, there seems to be a vast contrast of views within the British government between PM May -- who whilst in Manama criticized Tehran and lauded Riyadh for its visionary leadership -- and her Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson who criticized Saudi Arabia, and seemingly blamed it alongside Iran for the region's turmoil, during the second annual Med conference, which was held a few days ago in Rome. What also does not help May's position are reports of the keenness of Boris Johnson, as well as that of UK trade and investment delegations, to visit Tehran and ease US President-elect Donald Trump's criticism of the nuclear deal. Any trade with Tehran should be coupled with guarantees that prevent Iran from using its newly earned cash to continue financing terrorism. After all, nobody in their right mind would argue against the fact that a nuclear-free Iran is safer for both regional and global security. However, British officials and companies should remember that it is very likely that any money that Tehran generates off their back may end up straight in the pockets of Houthis attacking Makkah, Syrian President Bashar Assad barrel-bombing his people, or Iranian militias killing innocent civilians in Iraq. If we are to hold May to her words and commitments to the security of the region, then curbing her government's own enthusiasm toward Tehran is the least to be asked. *This blog was originally published in Arab News.
Troubled teens are popular on Broadway.



Dear Evan Hansen set in today's digital age, focuses on a socially awkward and isolated 17-year-old boy, while A Bronx Tale boasts a wannabe teen wiseguy in 1960s New York.

Both musicals offer vastly different takes on teen angst.

Dear Evan Hansen, at the Music Box, posits a sweet, but troubled boy. He's riddled with social tics and his caring, but overworked single mother (Rachel Bay Jones), has sought psychiatric help for his profound anxiety.

One answer -- writing upbeat letters to himself -- has unintended consequences. Evan (an amazing Ben Platt) shows up to school with a broken arm and tellingly, no one has signed his cast. Connor (Mike Faist), a troubled loner dressed in "school shooter chic" remedies that oversight.

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But Conner's bravado masks inner torment -- and his suicide kick-starts the drama. By accident, he takes a letter Evan has written to himself. And suddenly, the wayward boy has a friend. Evan initially tries to correct the mistake, but when it gives him -- and other isolated classmates -- a new life, he's all in.

Plus, the truth would alienate his dream girl, Connor's sister Zoe (Laura Dreyfuss).

Snarky Jared (Will Roland) creates a false reality to cement the "friendship" and thanks to social media, where memory goes viral, Evan discovers purpose and identity. Connor's grieving parents (Michael Park and Jennifer Laura Thompson), heartened by the collective sympathy, get much-needed solace.

In fact, this production is a paean to the lonely and isolated, a fervent and lyrical plea to remember that everyone matters. "Is anybody waving back at me?" ends the song "Waving Through a Window." The moving music and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul touchingly capture the pain and heartbreak of kids left outside the circle.

The ironies abound, and the nuanced performances underscore how we cling to meaning and purpose -- even when it has dubious origins. Fake news, murky truths contribute to this 21st-century story where community, however its defined, becomes everything.

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Michael Greif's charged direction, coupled with David Korins' spot-on set design and an excellent cast, deliver an absorbing show.

The Hansen ethos -- "No one deserves to disappear" -- is memorable. And explains why audiences are gripped from the first moment to the last.

Conversely, Chazz Palminteri's autobiographical A Bronx Tale, now at the Longacre, morphed from off-Broadway play in 1989 to Hollywood movie to Broadway musical.

The story takes place over eight years in the gritty Belmont neighborhood of the Bronx, when young Calogero (a knockout Hudson Loverro) witnesses a murder outside his tenement.

The shooter is Sonny (an appealing Nick Cordero) the neighborhood Mafia big shot who takes the boy under his wing.

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Sonny is treated like a king, as is Calogero, to the consternation of his father (Richard H. Blake), a decent hardworking bus driver who orders his son to stay away from Sonny and his crew, guys named Eddie Mush and JoJo the Whale.

But in a tough neighborhood, the lure proves too great. "The working man's a sucker," Sonny tells the youngster.

Once Calogero hits 17 (Bobby Conte Thornton) and high school, he hides his brains and ability, fearful his friends will mock him. But as he embarks on his own adult adventures, he seeks advice from Sonny, who balances menace with the occasional tender moment.

While the story line poses a classic dilemma between good and bad, the execution is conventional and Sergio Trujillo's choreography, which was electric in On Your Feet!, seems tired. Alan Menken's pop score is melodious -- "One of the Great Ones," Sonny's tribute to women is especially catchy -- but the show offers little dramatic tension until the last 20 minutes.

Still, the popular story, co-directed by Robert DeNiro and Jerry Zaks, has its fans and the solid cast, with strong performances from Thornton and the magnetic Cordero, won't disappoint them.

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DuPont, Gap Inc., General Mills, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Hilton, Kellogg Company, Levi Strauss & Co., L'Oreal USA, NIKE, Mars Incorporated, Schneider Electric, Starbucks, VF Corporation, and Unilever.

What does this list of companies bring to mind? A diverse set of global enterprises? Companies focused on a single type of product? How about a list of companies that realize the dangers of climate change and are doing everything they can to limit its damage through action?

Yes, you guessed it, these are all companies that are backing a Low-Carbon USA. More than 365 companies and investors have sent a message to President Obama, President-elect Trump, and other U.S. and international leaders in support of the Paris Agreement. The letter along with the complete list of companies supporting the agreement can be found at http://www.lowcarbonusa.org/

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A few key excerpts from the letter confirm the sentiments we heard in an address on Wednesday by the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry here at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change 22nd Conference of Parties in Marrakech, Morocco.

The Low Carbon USA letter states that "We want the U.S. economy to be energy efficient and powered by low-carbon energy. Cost-effective and innovative solutions can help us achieve these objectives. Failure to build a low-carbon economy puts American prosperity at risk."

"Last year, investment in renewable energy was at an all-time high--nearly $350 billion," Secretary Kerry stated. "But that only tells you part of the story. An average of that $350 billion is the first time that we've been able to see that money outpacing what is being put into fossil fuels."

Both the letter and Secretary Kerry's remarks focus on the U.S. economy--an economy where growth in renewable energy markets is the key to our future. This is not a question of if the world will pivot to low- carbon energy sources, but when. That pivot has begun, and U.S. companies are begging government leaders to do their part in promoting our economic interests so that the United States can remain competitive in a low-carbon world.

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*****

The Low Carbon USA letter goes on to state that "We pledge to do our part, in our own operations and beyond, to realize the Paris Agreement's commitment of a global economy that limits global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius."

Secretary Kerry, meanwhile, stated that "Most businesspeople have come to understand: investing in clean energy simply makes good economic sense. You can make money. You can do good and do well at the same time."

This is no longer a political issue, it is an economic and humanitarian issue. It is clear that businesses are moving forward in their efforts to keep the global temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius, and they recognize that while saving the planet from the devastating impacts of uncontrolled temperature rise, they can move the US economy in a direction where companies can make money and do good.

Here is what these companies are requesting of our elected officials;

We call on our elected U.S. leaders to strongly support:

1.Continuation of low-carbon policies to allow the U.S. to meet or exceed our promised national commitment and to increase our nation's future ambition

2.Investment in the low-carbon economy at home and abroad in order to give financial decision-makers clarity and boost the confidence of investors worldwide

3.Continued U.S. participation in the Paris Agreement, in order to provide the long-term direction needed to keep global temperature rise below 2C

Low Carbon USA letter

"China alone invested more than $100 billion," Secretary Kerry said on Wednesday. "Ultimately, clean energy is expected to be a multitrillion dollar market--the largest market the world has ever known. And no nation will do well if it sits on the sidelines, handicapping its new businesses from reaping the benefits of the clean-tech explosion."

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With the goal of harnessing the untapped potential of Iranian-Americans, and to build the capacity of the Iranian diaspora in effecting positive change in the U.S. and around the world, the West Asia Council has launched a series of interviews that explore the personal and professional backgrounds of prominent Iranian-Americans who have made seminal contributions to their fields of endeavour. We examine lives and journeys that have led to significant achievements in the worlds of science, technology, finance, medicine, law, the arts and numerous other endeavors. Our latest interviewee is Asieh Namdar.

Asieh Namdar is an Anchor for CCTV America in Washington, D.C. She comes to CCTV with more than 20 years of experience at CNN, where she served as an anchor for CNNI, a senior writer for HLN, and a contributor to CNN.com.

Namdar has written and reported on many international stories, including the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the tsunami disaster in Asiain 2004, the disputed 2009 election and protests in Iran, and typhoon Haiyan as it hit the Philippinesin 2013.

Namdar has conducted one-on-one interviews with Nobel Peace-Prize Laureate Shirin Ebadi, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Jordan's Queen Rania, Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, and best-selling author Azar Nafisi.

Recently, she spoke one-on-one with Iran's foreign minister, Javad Zarif, on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.Please check (here)

In 2004, she traveled to ancient city of Bam in Iranfor a humanitarian mission after a deadly earthquake. It was her first trip to her native Iransince she left at the age of 12. Namdar has been recognized for her work by numerous Iranian-American organizations. She graduated from the University of California at Berkeley, where she earned a bachelor's degree in communications.

Tell our readers where you grew up and walk us through your background. How did your family and surroundings influence you in your formative years?

I grew up in Tehran, Iran until the age of 11. I have wonderful memories of my childhood. I was always surrounded by cousins and aunts, and summers by the pool or winter trips to the mountains to ski were very joyous times. And of course the excitement over the Persian new year, Norooz, and buying new clothes and shoes, a ritual for every Iranian girl. The 1979 Islamic revolution changed all that. Mom, dad, and my older sister and I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area. My aunt had been living there for years, and helped us find an apartment to begin a new life in America. I attended summer school to learn English. Everything was foreign to me. Things only got more difficult once I started school. Changing classes was confusing, the locker combination never worked--I had no idea what I was doing. I felt alone and isolated. Lunch-time was the absolute worst because I had no one to dine with. I would sit in a corner by myself pretending I was doing homework, so at least I looked busy. The hostage crisis made me even more of an outcast. I was the "skinny, strange kid" who came from "EYE-RAN," the country that had taken 59 American hostages. No one talked to me, and when they did, I had no idea what they were saying and why they were laughing. Middle school years were by far the toughest, and the loneliest period of my life. Academically, socially, emotionally, I was a mess and constantly in tears.

Since you started your journalism career, you have been committed to debunking stereotypes. How did you challenge people's assumptions about your identity?

For one, I'm always trying to pitch stories about Iran you don't often see in mainstream US media--the types of stories that dig deeper and move beyond the headlines. During my 20+ years at CNN, I did countless reports on Iranians making a difference in the world, and my move to CCTV-America has not dampened my enthusiasm for these types of stories. The inspirational reports on two remarkable women who started "Mahak" Cancer center and "OMID Foundation" make me especially proud. Please see(here) and (here).

My dark middle school years probably played a role in my relentless pursuit to have more stories about Iran on the air. People would ask questions like, "Do you have cars, or do you ride camels over there" ... "Do you live on an oil field" ... The endless questions made me more determined than ever to be an ambassador of sorts. To talk about the wonderful Iran I knew, the culture, the food... to show pictures, invite kids over and try to positively impact their perceptions.

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How did your job at CNN compare to your work for CCTV? Have you learned much about China and the country's global perspective through your work at the station?

My early training in journalism began at CNN in Atlanta more than 20 years ago. It's where I started my professional career. I will always be grateful for the experience and Ted Turner's pioneering vision for a 24-hour news network. It's also where I met my husband and some of my closest friends.

I've been at CCTV-America in Washington D.C. for nearly three years. I've met some remarkable journalists who share my passion for news. I know more about China and the world NOW than ever before. We do first-rate reporting from every corner of the globe, including Africa, Latin America, Asia (including West Asia) and the U.S. We provide viewers with an alternative source of news and analysis. It's important to see the world - from all perspective not just a Western one. I believe it has made me a better journalist.

In your opinion, what are the most profound changes that journalism has undergone in the last two and a half decades?

The biggest change in Journalism over the past few years is the rise of social media and technological advances. From Iran's "Green Movement" to the Arab revolutions, to the war on terror, ordinary activists turned into citizen journalists, posting their eyewitness accounts and videos on twitter and Facebook. You no longer need a fancy camera and a crew to report breaking news. How often have we seen shaky videos captured on cell-phones go viral? Unfortunately, there's always a downside. Social media has helped terror groups spread their message of hate and to recruit sympathizers. The heart-wrenching videos of hostages and executions - often posted on social media.

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You've interviewed many prominent people over the years, from Nobel Peace-Prize Laureate ShirinEbadi, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter to Jordan's Queen Rania, the late Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Who would you say was your toughest and/or most illuminating interviewee?

That's a difficult question to answer. They were all gracious and warm. President Carter was my first big interview as a young journalist. He was patient and kind, even after learning I was of Iranian origin! I developed a special connection with Nobel Peace Laureate, Iranian Shirin Ebadi, the first Iranian to win the award. I was so proud to be sitting next to her, and didn't want the conversation to end. Jordan's Queen Rania -talked openly and passionately about gender issues and challenges facing women. I will never forget Benazir Bhutto's courage, and humility; she was fearless. The interview I was perhaps the most anxious about and that kept me up at night, was the one with Iranian Foreign Minister, Javad Zarif, in 2014. There was so much at stake at the time, with the nuclear negotiations. I kept thinking the Iranians would back out and the interview and that it wouldn't happen. Also, I had a lot of questions and wanted to make sure I got to all of them in the time slot we were given, which, luckily, I did.

As a professional journalist, do you think that the U.S. media reflect the diversity West Asian people, especially women?

The short answer: no. I think there has been some progress, but there's still a long way to go. The women of West Asia/Middle East -- Iranian and Arab... Muslim, Christian or Jewish --. are often lumped in one category. But we are not a homogeneous mass. Iranian women, for the most part, are educated, ambitious politically and socially active and are often pushing the boundaries imposed by Islamic laws, which is not the kind of portrayal we often see in the media.

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How can the media do justice to the modern reality of women in West Asia and North Africa?

In an ideal world, it would be refreshing to see news organizations go beyond the politics and the rhetoric to explore and highlight the complexities--the diversity-- of the women in the region. The young, the old, the working class, the stay-at-home moms, the musicians, the artists, the scientists, the lawyers, the entrepreneurs, etc.

In the course of your career, what have been some of the key challenges that you have encountered?

I love my job at CCTV-America, and I work with hardworking and talented journalists from every corner of the world. But moving to Washington without my family has been a huge challenge. My life and entire support system in Atlanta seemed to vanish with my move--a new job, a new town, a new life, outside my comfort zone. And for someone who hates change, it seemed I had made the biggest change of my adult life. As a mother, I'm often consumed with tremendous guilt being far away from my daughters and my husband. And more than two years after my move, my biggest concern is still my 16-year-old daughter. I'm away from home at a time when she needs me the most. I have a supportive, loving husband who is an incredible father, so that helps. My move did not impact my oldest daughter as much. She's finishing her last year in college. So far, we've all adapted, and we see each other every chance we get. On a professional level, I've been fortunate for the most part. But I do remember, when I first started my on-air career, someone in the business told me that I should consider changing my name. "Too tough to pronounce", he said. He also told me if I had a "British accent," I would get further ahead in my career. I did not listen, and I seemed to have done just fine.

What are some common myths about the journalism profession?

Most people think it's a glamorous job but Journalism is hard work. It needs much discipline. It's about having a natural curiosity about the world. It's about working every holiday, and crazy graveyard shift hours, and loving what you do, despite all the challenges.

For those who aspire to become journalists, what do you recommend they study in school and how can they get their first job?

Internships are the best way to discover whether you really love the news business. You get a sense of the hours and the rolling deadlines. Plus, you meet people who can inspire you, and guide you along the way. I had a number of internships starting my junior year in college - at local TV stations, and the CNN bureau in San Francisco. With the help of amazing role models, I learned how to research, write and conduct interviews. And as I found out quickly, just because I got A's on my college essays, that didn't make me a good writer in broadcast journalism. A different set of skills are involved; one needs broad knowledge, and to be able to perform under pressure, faced with constant deadlines. What you study in college, and your major--do not make a difference. What DOES: Your passion, drive, hard work, and attitude.

Can you share your thoughts on your Iranian-American identity? What does it mean to be an Iranian- American to you?
When it comes to doctrine, we progressive Christians have nothing for which to apologize. We don't believe the old dogma that gets in the way of kindness, inclusion, science, and common sense. No wonder, then, that few of us know much about "apologetics", a major preoccupation of evangelical and fundamentalist Christians who memorize answers to the dozens of common objections to their doctrines.

Recently I met with a student in an emotional crisis because she questioned the doctrines of the campus evangelical club to which she belongs. She was deeply disturbed about the origin of the Christian Bible. She rightly questioned the dogma that it is the literal Word of a supernatural God. She realized that the whole edifice of evangelical theology is founded on the assumption that the Bible is the true, final, authoritative expression of God's will. But if the Bible is the product of human beings with their own points of view and axes to grind, rather than directly inspired by The Guy in the Sky, that pulls the ace out of evangelicalism's tottery house of cards.

She asked specific questions, and I gave her specific answers. After forty-five minutes, she stood up and left because otherwise she was going to be late for class. As she walked out the door, I realized that while I answered her questions, I had failed to ask her ones that were just as important. Why does this question matter to you? How do you feel about your doubts and uncertainties? What is at stake for you in this exploration? Are you afraid that if you died right now, you might end up in hell? This is a real concern of many evangelical Christians who harbor doubts about the beliefs they are expected to espouse.

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Progressive Christian unapologetics begins with deep compassion for people who have been mortally terrorized with the threat of eternal damnation for failing to accept doctrines that don't make sense to folks like this student who was blessed, or perhaps cursed, with a keen intellect and a natural curiosity.

We have little to defend, but a lot to describe. Because the oppressive religion that drove this smart, inquisitive young woman into an emotional and spiritual crisis has come to define Christianity in America. If we want to be effective in offering a viable alternative, we must explain our faith at three levels: street signs, elevator speeches, and "white papers".

Some progressive Christian "street signs":

Love is our God: kindness is our religion

We keep the faith and drop the dogma

Our deeds are our creeds

The Jesus story is a true myth

We take the Bible seriously, not literally

Questions matter more than answers

Our way to God is good, and so are other ways

Park your car in our lot, but not your brain

God is bigger than our religion

God evolves and so does our faith

We celebrate same-sex marriages

A progressive Christian "elevator speech": In loving fellowship, we progressive Christians follow the historic traditions of Christian faith, interpreting and practicing them in light of social and scientific progress. We worship God, who is Love, and we follow Jesus' way of radical compassion. We find grace in intellectual engagement with our faith. We believe there is more value in questioning than in absolute answers. The Bible gives us a beautiful language to express our spiritual experience: we find inspiration in its myths and its poetry. We affirm that other religions can be as good for others as ours is good for us: we are eager to learn from other faiths. We are called to preserve our earth as a heavenly place of peace, justice, kindness, inclusion, and beauty. (More at The 8 Points of Progressive Christianity)

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"White papers": books such as my own "Open Christianity" or my condensed version of the same thesis: "What Is Progressive Christianity?"

At one point in my conversation with the student, as I was describing the stories about Moses in the Hebrew Scriptures as mythological, she asked: "What about the plagues? You don't believe that the Nile turned to blood?" I answered: "No, but it is still an important part of the myth of the Exodus." Following an apologetic script, she said, "But it could have been an algae bloom in the water that turned it red." If that was the case, the red of the Nile was neither blood nor miracle, but rather a natural phenomenon needing no explanation based on supernatural intervention. One branch of evangelical apologetics consists of attempts to validate the miracle stories of the Bible in this futile manner.
A new political force in America was unleashed on Tuesday and how the Democratic Party reacts to it could determine its future as a major party.

The working class has spoken and any party or politician going forward better listen or they will be tossed out--Donald Trump the next time too.

This election has struck what should be a fatal blow to the Clintons' Democratic Leadership Council movement. Bill Clinton moved the Democratic Party to the center-right at about the same time that Tony Blair did with the British Labour Party.

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Both cut their traditional ties to labor unions in the 1990s to embrace the economic neoliberalism of their 1980s predecessors Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher: welfare reform, deregulation, privatization and free trade.

The effect on workers has been devastating. Millions have been thrust out of a middle-class lifestyle. They have seen their plants close and jobs shipped to cheap labor markets overseas.

They've seen the economy shift from production to financial speculation. And they've seen the greatest transfer of wealth in decades to the obscenely rich.

These workers have also seen wealthy liberals who've benefited from the system regard themselves as superior. They hear Democratic politicians like Hillary Clinton call them deplorable.

On Tuesday the workers spoke.



But is the Democratic Party listening? It had better. The future of the party may depend on it.

For the past two decades Rust Belt workers voted for Democratic candidates--twice for Barack Obama (proving they aren't all deplorable racists). They were counting on change. Instead the Democrats took them for granted. But they have now rudely slapped the party in the face.

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In Britain, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is fighting to dismantle Blair's so-called New Labour movement. This week we learned in a leaked speech Bill Clinton gave last year that he denigrated Corbyn, saying Labour "went out and practically got a guy off the street to be the leader" of the party. "When people feel they've been shafted and they don't expect anything to happen anyway, they just want the maddest person in the room to represent them."

This is typical of the Democrats' smugness, their careerism and contempt for ordinary Americans.

Corbyn is fighting to restore the Labour Party's historic ties to the working class. The Democratic Party had better do the same.

So far they are blaming everyone but themselves for having created this workers' backlash.

Sexism, the media, FBI Director James Comey, Vladimir Putin, Jill Stein and even Clinton cheerleader Bernie Sanders (for "poisoning the youth vote") have all been blamed.

A former Clinton operative speaking on Fox News said the day after an election loss a campaign engages in the "blame game." He said "everybody is being blamed but Secretary Clinton."

Pursuing Solutions

There are solutions to economic injustice but few in power pursue them because it's not in their self-interest. And politicians these days of any party act primarily on self-interest and their backers' interests, which is inimical to democracy.

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Without a sharp turn to the left to regain workers' support, the Democratic Party risks becoming totally irrelevant. New Democratic Party leaders committed to workers must emerge. They have four years to prepare. Senators Sanders and Elizabeth Warren tarnished themselves as leaders who can achieve this by supporting a center-right candidate. They failed to acknowledge that Clinton was too alienated from workers who in the end abandoned the party to gamble on Trump.

Sanders had been offered the head of the Green Party ticket by Stein. She says he never answered her. Had they run together it is more than conceivable they would have gotten the 15% in the polls to enter the debates, where Sanders would have been a lofty alternative to Clinton and Trump.

Rust Belt workers may well have chosen Sanders. But instead the Democratic Party got a huge wake up call that would be suicidal to ignore. They won't admit it but they now know that Sanders was running the right campaign to defend workers' interests. If the party leadership continues to deny this it will be a very long four years indeed.

The Rust Belt working class can't be blamed for the choices they were given. Without Sanders, and with the ueber-Establishment Clinton instead, they sent a demagogue to the White House, clinging to the hope that he might keep his promises: to end ruinous trade deals, bring back manufacturing jobs to the U.S., create jobs by rebuilding the infrastructure, avoid new wars and clean the D.C. swamp of corruption.

Judging by the people being mentioned for his cabinet it's already looking dodgy. If Trump fails to fulfill his promises, the voters he so skillfully riled up might well send him packing in 2020. If the Democrats don't reform they will be in trouble in four years too.

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That leaves the notoriously difficult path for a third party that represents the interests of ordinary Americans to get to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. But it might be the only alternative left.

Media Also Repudiated

This election was a repudiation not only of the Democratic Party, but also Establishment Republicans, Wall Street, celebrity culture (who flocked to Clinton) and the news media. The shock to the American political system is unearthing stunning admissions one would never have imagined hearing.

On Fox News the morning after the election a group of personalities (calling themselves journalists) were suddenly talking about class in America, a normally taboo subject.

One of them said journalists didn't understand this election because none of them know anyone who makes less than $60,000 a year.

These pampered performers don't even mix with some members of their own profession. I can introduce them to plenty of journalists making less than that, let alone Rust Belt workers.

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Will Rahn of CBS News accused the media of missing the story, "after having spent months mocking the people who had a better sense of what was going on. This is all symptomatic of modern journalism's great moral and intellectual failing: its unbearable smugness."

He says working class people have "captured the imagination of journalists, who have come to talk about them like colonial administrators would talk about a primitive inland tribe that interferes with the construction of a jungle railway: They must be pacified until history kills them off."

These are stunning admissions that would never have happened without this election result. But one wonders how long such introspection in the corporate media will last. After it totally got the Iraq story wrong and contributed to the disastrous 2003 invasion there were mea culpas. But that didn't last long as corporate media campaigns for new wars.
If you've ever sung the more popular Christmas carols, you've run across the word. If you attend a Christian church in December, you can barely escape it.

The word is Savior. And until this year, it's left me cold.

Yes, I get the Christian theology behind the word. The very name Jesus means save, or something like it. In Jesus, God became a human being to save us.

From what? From our sins, apparently. As the carol says, we are to "rest ye merry, gentlemen" because Christ came "to save us all from Satan's power when we were gone astray."

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There's a good deal of truth to be plumbed here. But the term Savior still sounds so abstract.

That changed for me on November 8. Since then, like many other people, I have been sitting with the scorched-earth wreckage of the U.S. presidential campaign--bringing it into my silent prayer and meditation, simply observing the horror and dread I felt initially, letting insights bubble to the surface. This kind of contemplative practice, I've found, often reveals wisdom about what to do next, where to go, what stance to take.

Somewhere in the past month, a raw feeling came up from somewhere in my deepest self: boy, do I need a Savior right now.



It's easy to take that the wrong way. People hear Savior and think of someone who will take all their problems away. With a proper Savior, life could be easy, triumphant, pain-free. Atheists deride that kind of idea as magical thinking, and they're right. It doesn't seem to be the way God works, not very often anyway. So maybe this need for a Savior is just a holdover from childhood, something to be recognized and put aside.

But religious imagery is more useful than that. It often speaks to--and helps us understand--some of the heart's deepest yearnings. Even though God rarely "saves" in deus ex machina fashion, the yearning for a Savior remains. What else might that say?

Maybe it says that we all need an open loop.

So often our lives, individual and collective, become a closed loop. An election delivers fearsome prospects that we cannot change or come to terms with. The pain from the loss of a loved one never seems to go away. Addiction keeps an iron grip on those it has claimed. The legacy of oppression limits generations from making decent lives for their families. In short, we get stuck--in our own history, our own emotional complexes, the dysfunction of our own communities.

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Sometimes, in individual cases, the sheer force of will, choice, and effort is enough to "rise above" this. Often it's not. The closed loop becomes a sprung trap, permanently holding us in its grip. We need something, someone, to break through that loop: not necessarily with rescue, but rather with strength we do not have, hope we cannot muster, companionship for the isolation that comes with the closed loop.

Maybe, in short, what the closed loop brings--what we need saving from--is despair.

The Christmas story has a great deal to say about this. It is the story of God's breaking through: not just visiting humanity, but choosing to become human, to live in that closed loop we all encounter, including the inevitable loop of birth and death. In this tale, God becomes powerless, as a baby born to a powerless family in a conquered nation, one closed loop inside another.

It's also a story about the birth of possibility: the possibility that the closed loop is never completely closed, the possibility of God's breaking through at any moment, at least with presence and hope, the possibility that dispels despair.

Anyone who delivers this kind of possibility to our closed-loop lives deserves the name Savior.

Typical of faith narratives, it's not just about God. As people of empathy and compassion, we too hold out the possibility of breaking through the closed loop of others. Our presence with a friend trapped by her loneliness, our work to right the wrongs of past oppression, our twelve-step programs: in all of these, we break through someone else's closed loop and help them regain a sense of the possibility life holds. We get to bring salvation.

One oft-used prayer in the Christian monastic tradition is a hymn attributed to Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, speaking about the Savior to come: "In the tender compassion of our God, the dawn from on high shall break upon us, to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace."

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I cant believe that I was so lucky, she said. I cant believe that I got to love this person. And I also got them to love me too.
11:00 13.12.2016 Interfax-Ukraine to host press conference 'Support Freedom of Choice of Running Business'

1 min read

On Tuesday, December 13, at 11.00, the Interfax-Ukraine News Agency's press center will host a press conference "Support Freedom of Choice of Running Business." he participants will include head of the office of the National Investment Council Yulia Kovaliv, member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Economic Policy MP Viktoria Ptashnyk member of the National Commission on Securities and Stock Market Oliana Hordiyenko; Chairman of the Ukrainian Bar Association's Committee for Corporate Law and Stock Market, partner at the Aequo law firm Anna Babych; Chairman of UCMA Expert Council on Corporate Law and Governance, partner at Investor Relations Agency Oksana Paraskeva (8/5a Reitarska Street). Admission requires press accreditation.
By Adele Charbonneau



Informal workers are the lifeblood of cities around the world. They sell vegetables on the streets, clean the homes of the more affluent, hawk goods at markets and collect and recycle waste. These livelihoods keep families out of extreme poverty, yet informal workers face many challenges, including harassment from authorities, exclusion from urban plans and lack of work-related social protection. Based on stories from Bogota, Bangalore, Chittagong and Johannesburg, this article will highlight four ways to help empower informal workers and provide them with a powerful voice in the fight for their rights.

Informal workers are essential contributors to the city and its functioning; therefore, improving their livelihoods is an important part of sustainable and equitable urbanization. Jorge Bela and Olga Abizaid take the example of Bogota, Colombia, where the Asociacion de Recicladores de Bogota (ARB) has led a series of legal and political battles that have brought significant positive change to recyclers. After a 2003 ruling by the Constitutional Court, the administration of the then-mayor Gustavo Petro finally decided in 2011 to formally include recyclers in the municipal waste management system. Under this system, recyclers were to be paid a fixed amount for the actual waste recycled. In addition, the ARB provides many services to its member: it offers courses on safety and new techniques, as well as in women's leadership, among many other programs. However, the future for Bogota's recyclers is still full of uncertainty, as the new administration has announced the creation of a completely new system, one that's fully privatized.

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In Bangalore, India, the Supreme Court also played an important role in recognizing the role of informal workers. In 2014, the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act was passed. Yet, the implementation of this law has been slow. In May 2016, rules to create Town Vending Committees (TVC), where 40% of the members should be street vendors, were still being drafted. However, the empowerment of informal workers should not only been sought through legislation. Aditi Hastak mentions the collaborative effort of residents, Citizens for Sustainability (CIFoS) and the Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT), to create a street design that includes street vendors. The survey of the street vendors to map them is ongoing and the effort intends to develop a street where vendors are not sidetracked but are an important part of the ecosystem.

For Sumaiya Nehla Saif, the way forward for garment workers in Chittagong, Bangladesh, is education and the possibility to study in the Asian University for Women. Through a specific program, Pathways to Promise, which started in August 2015, 22 young garment workers have become students. The program provides them with two years of preparatory courses, including English, mathematics, computer and critical thinking skills. The students are also offered free boarding, meals, healthcare and other essential needs for college. AUW has also looked into the financial responsibility of the workers towards their families and has asked the employers to utilize their corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds to provide the women with their usual monthly salaries for five years, even without guarantee that these workers will go back to work for them. However, there are still about four-million workers who suffer from poor working conditions and unacceptable wages, and similar projects are called for to ensure a more dignified future for them.

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At another level, in Johannesburg, South Africa, while rights, wages, legislation and living conditions all remain key issues, one team has branched away from traditional activism to establish a talk show called the 'The Ma(i)de Sessions', to speak with and about South African society from the point of view of one of its most ubiquitous but invisible people, black domestic workers. Tariq Toffa quotes the duo of young black professional women, Mbali Njomane and Tuliza Sindi, who established 'The Ma(i)de Sessions' in early 2016; they see the project as a work of empowerment to "awaken historically unheard voices whilst elevating them to their rightful place in our social, cultural, and economic narratives." The team plans to develop the platform to bring these "invisible" people together with other diverse groups into one conversation: "I'm talking about bringing together taxi drivers, Jewish trust fund kids, Afrikaner capitalists, and Indian housewives for instance," say Njomane and Sindi.

These articles presented initiatives from around the world to empower informal workers. Check out more of the discussion on informality on URB.im and contribute to the debate.
Photo by Rhododendrites, Wikimedia

The 2016 election may be the most confounding political event in living memory. And the need to understand it is urgent. That a candidate so obviously lacking in virtue, principal, and understanding of the world beyond his own narrow ambitions, should break out from the large field of Republican contenders and win the nomination speaks volumes about the failure of the Republican establishment to offer a credible vision for America's future. That so many Americans would choose an outcome that is so obviously to their detriment calls for an explanation.

And on the other hand, that the tone deaf Democratic Party establishment considered Hillary Clinton entitled to their loyalty may at first be understandable. But ignoring the unparalleled enthusiasm engendered by Bernie Sanders, then putting every possible obstacle in his way, and actually plotting to sabotage his campaign, revealed a very undemocratic mentality at the core of the party establishment.

And how should we evaluate the American people? Are we smart enough to recognize that we are losing our social solidarity and confronted with very serious contradictions in our society, but too dumb to recognize where positive change may lie? Are we incapable of recognizing the people and policies that could change what really needs to change?

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Now that the choice has been made, we will see the wisdom of the electorate (or the lack of it). Will Donald Trump, for instance, prove to have a coherent set of values and an adequate understanding of the world, or will he fall under the influence of corporate lobbyists, or figures with an even more authoritarian bent than himself? What happens if the Trump train shows itself to have no positive destination, or worse yet, goes off the rails?

Donald Trump may be a vulgar, narcissistic, and immature human being, but the extreme degree to which the major media focused on and even exaggerated his faults will only accrue to their discredit. From the beginning they gave him more time than he deserved; we were treated to a moral train wreck in slow motion. I remember the prescient words of my own personal trainer, who admits to knowing nothing about politics, saying that since no one trusts the media, a lot of people were going to automatically think there must be something good about Donald Trump.

Actually, Trump's critique of NAFTA and the TPP are anti-globalist policies that most progressives would agree with. His call for the reinstatement of the Glass-Steagall act is, on the face of it, more progressive than Hillary's positions on financial reform. And finally, his much maligned lack of antagonism toward Russia may be a more sensible and humane policy than the demonization of Russia, a very alarming and unjustified belligerence that only neo-cons could love. Hillary added her shrill voice to the chorus of militarists who want nothing less than full-spectrum dominance by the American Empire. In this regard, Donald Trump was almost a model of modesty and fair play.

The Democratic Party misjudged not only the so-called "basket of deplorables," but the American people as a whole. So self-satisfied in their granting complete entitlement to Hillary Clinton, ignoring the lukewarm reception given to her by the public, ignoring the many reasons for which she has lost the trust of many people, ignoring, too, the tens of thousands of people who right up to the day before the election were willing to stand in line for hours on cold nights to hear Donald Trump. Perhaps, the bottom line for many Americans was that Donald Trump represented change (at any cost) and Hillary represented more of the same.

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And why is it that no one in journalism or the media ever brought up Hillary's complicity in some of the greatest tragedies of our time. The fact that the greatest refugee problem since at least the Second World War was entirely generated by poorly conceived interventions in the Middle East by American power. Much of it began with the Afghan and Iraq wars, which President Bush initiated, and Hillary supported for a long time. But even more significantly, she was the primary cheerleader for the attack on Libya, which led to the destruction of civil society there and opened the floodgates of African emigration from the coast of Libya which had until that time been effectively policed by Qaddafi. Hillary as Secretary of State also lent American support for Islamic extremists in Syria, which has been the cause of millions more refugees.

Furthermore, Hillary has stood with the shameful record of the Obama administration toward whistleblowers. Courageous people like Manning, Snowden, Kiriakou, and Assange who risked so much, have paid such a high price for bringing to light facts which should never have been secret. Condemned, imprisoned, confined, or exiled, this is how the Democratic (and Republican) establishment treats truth-tellers, while the policy-makers who approved illegal surveillance, torture, war crimes, backing Islamic terrorists in Syria, and covert operations yet to be revealed wear suits of respectability.

But to return to the aftermath of the election -- two days before the election Congressman Alan Grayson initiated a poll. "If the Presidential candidates were Democrat Bernie Sanders and Republican Donald Trump, for whom would you vote?" The results were: Sanders 56%, Trump 44%. Grayson reported: "That would have been the largest presidential victory since 1984 (Reagan vs. Mondale), and the largest Democratic victory since 1964 (Johnson vs. Goldwater). Bernie Sanders would have won more than 400 electoral votes. He would have swept every Atlantic state except South Carolina. He would have prevailed in every state bordering Mexico, including Texas, which the Democrats haven't won since 1976."

Bernie ran a heroic campaign. In June 2015 about 16 months before the election, I witnessed the effect of one of his earliest speeches at a time when his popularity was said to be about 2%. I felt in my soul and said to anyone who would listen, that Bernie can touch the hearts of the American people; he can be our next president, unless it is stolen from him. There are many ways that elections and primaries can be rigged or stolen -- some of them within the bounds of legality, and some of them definitely not. Major discrepancies in exit polling data compared to final results always favored one candidate, and one candidate alone: Hillary Clinton. The outcomes in New York and California, particularly, raise questions that need to be answered.

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His was not a perfect campaign, either -- too much emphasis, perhaps, on socialist giveaways, which, by the way, is not really why people got excited about him. But anyone who sensed his authenticity -- especially those who have watched him over decades fighting for the well-being of the average American, and making wise choices in foreign policy -- knew that Bernie could be trusted to do the right thing. Up in the Northeast Kingdom region of Vermont where Democrats are few and far between it was common at election times to see signs for Bernie and Bush in the front yards of farmers and the working poor. These hard-scrabble conservatives understood that Bernie, to use that now so popular military expression, "had their back."

Hillary, always the handmaiden of neo-liberalism, would have continued Obama's subservience to the financial fraudulence of Wall Street. This is what the Democratic Party has become. The Democratic Party has become a partner to oligarchy, to neo-liberal economics, and to neo-con militarism. Even under the benign, gracious, and mild administration of Barack Obama bad things have happened: vicious and counterproductive drone attacks have multiplied; the relatively wise and moderate Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel was removed without explanation and replaced with "liberal" neo-con, Ashton Carter; the financial fraud of the banksters has gone unpunished; fracking continues unabated despite local resistance; GMO and agribusiness lobbyists rule the Department of Agriculture claiming science is on their side, "science" they paid for; more whistleblowers have been prosecuted than in any previous administration; more weapons than ever have been sold, including to Saudi Arabia, which continues to use them to slaughter many thousands of innocent civilians in Yemen; the Ukraine was subjected to an illegal American organized and financed coup, and eventually turned over to fascistic nationalists, GMO promoting agribusiness, and frackers, meanwhile blaming Russia for aggression in Crimaea; while certain elements of the US government continue to incite and threaten Russia, Iran, and China.

Meanwhile, those in denial of present realities still cling to the idea that the Democratic party has been the party of humane liberalism, progressive ideals, and the wishes of the vast majority of Americans. They congratulate themselves for the unwieldy and problematic Affordable Care Act, minor gains in environmental protection and alternative energies, and the relatively small cultural victories, the "boutique political issues" such as gay and transgender rights. And let us remember that the crown jewel of Hillary's reign at the State Department, the Iran Nuclear Treaty, may have been an exaggerated solution to a nearly nonexistent problem: neither did United States intelligence nor any international watchdog agency actually accuse let alone prove Iran had a weapons program. Furthermore, the religious dictatorship of Iran, whatever one thinks of it, has always maintained that nuclear weapons are strictly against Islamic law and have no practical use anyway. The neo-con agenda which aims at full-spectrum dominance in a uni-polar world must always seek to create enemies to justify the growth of the military-industrial complex and its own twisted sense of purpose.

In the area of finance, the Democrats have failed to question the actualities of the Federal Reserve Bank, oblivious to the idea that it is an unconstitutional, and therefore illegal, privately owned monopoly that creates money merely by entering numbers in a computer and whose books remain un-audited and inaccessible the public. Most liberals seem to have no idea that without the Federal Reserve's cooperation, the military-industrial complex could not proceed with its lavish expenditures, because the American people would not tolerate the cost to themselves, costs that are now hidden and paid for by the central bank's capacity to supply as much money as the war machine needs. This is an area never mentioned by Democratic politicians, and yet it is at the heart of what is impoverishing Americans and enriching the .01%.

Americans are confused. They have the sense that something is really wrong, that great injustices are being perpetrated, that their lives and their futures are being taken from them, and not really knowing who to blame, not being able to sufficiently connect the dots, or connect any dots for that matter, many of them would rather hurl rocks through the window of the establishment for no good reason other than to register their protest. The so-called "deplorables" have voted against the deplorable policies of both the Republican and Democratic parties. Even though poll after poll reveals that the vast majority of Americans support what are basically progressive policies, too many Americans allow themselves to be coerced by fears, by scapegoating, by false patriotism and the delusions of American exceptionalism.

And the Democrats, for their part, need to not only clarify a progressive vision for this country, hammering hard on the oligarchy, the financial tyranny, the wastefulness of the military-industrial complex, the bogus and counterproductive "War on Terror." These forces need to be confronted on the basis of both moral values and fiscal responsibility. Perhaps in this election Americans sensed that they had no real choice, and so a surprising number defiantly chose what even they realized was the nihilistic option. Other Americans, including those who voted for Trump, are not the enemy. The lack of empathy on both sides of the divide only contributes to further polarization.

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If Americans are given a real alternative to neo-liberal economic tyranny and neoconservative militarism, would they make the wrong, disastrous choice again? There are truths that need to be communicated to the wounded and/or hardened hearts of the American people, communicated by leaders who can break through the false reality maintained by mainstream and even "alternative" media, who can speak with authenticity and heart. The consideration of Rep. Keith Ellison has head of the Democratic National Committee is promising.
Corruption is a live topic today. Since 2005, international anti-corruption day has been "celebrated" on December 9, in hopes that a visible day marking the topic can raise awareness about corruption and bolster a sense that something can be done to combat and prevent it. The large biannual International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC17) in Panama City ended on December 4, where some 1300 very diverse participants addressed a multitude of issues, from green eyeshade detail, lawyerly discourse, to lofty principles such as trust. The meeting concluded with a commitment that: "Together we will strengthen our web of anti-corruption activists. Together, the public sector, business and civil society will hold the corrupt to account. It is Time for Justice, Equity, Security, and Trust." The activists, many part of Transparency International, come from all over the world, widely different in ideology and approach, but they share a gutsy determination to hold leaders to account.

More tellingly, corruption is a leading topic in political discourse, from Washington to Manila to Kabul to Nairobi to Abuja. The belief that corruption is pervasive drives much of the anger that we see reflected in extremist movements, secular and religious. It fuels the populist surge and the sense of rot that discredits governments and politicians in widely different countries and cultures. America's political campaign featured narratives about a Washington swamp with bloated, rotten bureaucracies wasting or diverting public resources. The narratives can be misleading, undermining courageous political leaders and public servants, but many see little beyond stories about corrupt practices.

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Why, many ask, are people, especially young people, are attracted by what seem cruel ideologies and unrealistic ideas? Studies of recruitment strategies of ISIL, Boko Haram, Al-Shabaab, and Al Quaeda find that both personal experience with injustice and perceptions of government corruption play central roles, far more than religious identities or narratives. The perceptions are dangerous and are surely a call to action.

The Panama IACC, scholarly analysis, and a wide range of experience suggest that corruption can indeed be addressed and that decent public service is quite feasible. It can justly be seen as a basic human right. Not long ago some believed that corruption was embedded in cultures, that it might even have benefits by "greasing the wheels", but such hypotheses are debunked in the light of popular anger that links widely different societies. Corruption is rightly described as a cancer.

Part of the answer to corruption takes us into highly political realms: fighting corruption obviously takes political will, determination, and persistence. Leaders are needed. It is also tied to legal and judicial systems: laws, police, and enforcement. It demands detailed, technical work, on widely varied topics: some issues have long historical roots, like public procurement and accountability. Others, for example sextortion, have recently come into the light. Fighting corruption demands a wide participation of society, including business and religious institutions. Investigative journalism, use of new technologies, and creative films and other communication can make a difference.

Both in setting standards for leadership and in the grass roots campaigns ethics are vitally important. And this highlights the surprising, even bizarre fact that religious communities and leaders are not as prominent in the international anti-corruption and integrity coalitions as one might expect, given that the job of religious institutions is, in significant part, to help set values, and appeal to the better angels of human nature.

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Anti-corruption activists have been somewhat leery about taking too moral a tone about corruption, tending towards economic justifications or practical arguments about lost revenues and benefits. An all-too-common unease about engaging with religious institutions contributes. And while the language of equity, social justice, trust, and accountability are vital principles in many religious traditions, other traditions look askance at the approaches of some anti-corruption activism. And there's a disconnect, like oil and water, between exhorting against corruption and the practical work needed to "drain the swamp".
Well Deserved Peace At Last In This Country Of Promise

When I began paying attention to Colombia, in 2008, the country was maligned, misunderstood, and mistrusted for two reasons -- Pablo Escobar and the terrorist group known as FARC.

Even back then, Pablo was long dead (he'd been shot by Colombian police while fleeing across the rooftop of his aunt's home in Medellin in 1993 in the climax of a now legendary gunfight immortalized in typically voluminous form by Medellin artist Fernando Botero).

However, Las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, the Revolutionary Armed Guard of Colombia, carried on their terrorizing ... as they have been doing now for more than half a century.

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During my first visit to Colombia, I met with an attorney in Medellin, Juan Dario Gutierrez. Juan Dario has since become a trusted advisor, business partner, and great friend.

During my first conversation with him years ago, Juan Dario made a prediction:

"The FARC have horrified and terrified my country for decades," Juan Dario told me, "but they are becoming obsolete. Our country has made a priority commitment to education. We are teaching our children, training them and preparing them for good jobs ... as the economy is growing and more jobs are being created.

"This is our plan," Juan Dario continued, "for making the FARC irrelevant.

"Historically, the group has been able to grow in number and in power by appealing to the uneducated and the unemployed ... especially unemployed youth who saw little future and were easy targets for FARC's false promises.

"We've found over decades that fighting FARC is a losing proposition. Fighting them means going to them, finding them, rooting them out in the jungle.

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"Better to deprive them of their life's blood ... which is new recruits.

"Already, their numbers have been reduced by tens of thousands."

For the past 15 years, Colombia's economy has expanded steadily, averaging better than 4% growth per year, year on year.

A growing economy means more jobs. A better educated population means more people to fill those jobs. Colombia's unemployment rate today is a record-low 8.3 percent.

More people with jobs, especially more young people with jobs, means fewer folks up for hiding out in the jungle thinking up ways to torment and terrorize the general population.

As Colombia has worked for years to marginalize the FARC, its President Santos has engineered another, more direct approach to ridding his country of the terrorist cancer. Since taking office in 2010, Santos has been working to reach a peace accord with FARC rebels. For his efforts, he was the sole recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize this year.

After long months at the negotiating table with FARC leaders in Havana, Cuba, Santos thought he'd achieved an agreement earlier this year. Then, in a vote that surprised the world, on Oct. 2, Colombian voters rejected Santos' proposal in a national referendum.

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Displaying his typical open-minded optimism, Juan Dario wrote to me following that vote to say:

"This is the type of news that can't be catalogued as good or bad easily. For all of us who were rooting for the 'Yes' vote, the news isn't that bright.

"For the other half of the country, the news is brilliant.

"It is too soon to be forecasting what will happen now, but at least two signs of hope have emerged. First, FARC has stated directly that they are not considering raising arms again.

"Second, the 'No' coalition accepted an invitation from President Santos to sit down and discuss their concerns with an eye toward reopening the peace talks ..."

Now, this week, we have the news that Colombia's Congress has approved a revised peace deal with FARC in a vote that should be the final word. By pushing the new deal through Congress, Santos has bypassed the need for another referendum.

"When the first deal was trashed," Juan Dario wrote me the morning after his country's Congress voted to approve the new agreement, "we all expected a new proposal to be negotiated and eventually approved.

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"I don't think anybody was counting on the renegotiation happening so quickly, though. However, it appears that this could be the real thing ..."

For decades, Colombia was written off by foreign investors and the world's tourists ... for good reasons.

Now both of those reasons -- both Pablo and his cocaine-trafficking goons and the terror-spreading FARC -- seem officially history.

I enjoy rooting for the underdog. I guess that's one reason I've developed the attachment I have to this country these past eight years I've been getting to know her. She and her people have been down ... but never out.

Now they're showing the world what they're made of. As one of Colombia's most enthusiastic supporters, I couldn't be more delighted.

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A country at a turning point is an interesting place to spend both time and money.

Heads up: Colombia is at a big-deal turning point.

Kathleen Peddicord

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Earlier on Huff/Post50:
In this Cognitive Business interview, we draw on SASs enterprise artificial intelligence position and outlook with Oliver Schabenberger, SAS Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer.

Oliver Schabenberger, SAS Executive VP and CTO | Source: SAS

You should know that Schabenberger explains things thoroughly, though in a manner thats easy to understand and apply. This may be a side-effect of being a recovering academician, as Schabenberger puts it himself.

The IDC named SAS the leader in the advanced and predictive analytics market in their Worldwide Business Intelligence and Analytics Tools Software Market Shares report. What does it mean to be the largest global market shareholder of advanced analytics and why is this important for the enterprise?

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Advanced analytics innovation has been at the heart of what SAS has done for 40 years. The past four decades saw a lot of innovation in analytics, and technology and methodology have greatly matured. But the field is not standing still; it is developing and evolving. Modern machine learning, deep learning and cognitive analytics are ushering in a new period of advanced analytics where the data take center stage. Edge analytics and streaming data analytics are challenging us to move analytic capabilities inside networks and inside devices.

As the largest global market shareholder of advanced analytics, we cater to all segments of the market. We help large customers and small ones. We solve the biggest and most complex of analytical challenges and the simple, straightforward ones.

Businesses of all sizes are moving toward data-driven decisions, and analytics are key. Today, enterprises have much greater data awareness and data literacy. But data without analytics is value not yet realized.

We generally distinguish descriptive analytics from predictive analytics. The former uses inward-looking methods based on historical data to answer the question what has happened. The latter uses forward-looking prediction methods to address what might happen and when might it happen. Enterprises that start their analytics journey with descriptive insights based on historical data moves toward more forward-looking predictive methods to help guide the business. Advanced analytics empower predictive methods and the optimization of business processes.

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My mission is to provide analytic solutions for the continuum of data challenges our customers encounter and to help guide customers along their analytic journey. For example, cloud computing has democratized access to compute resources, but, in my opinion, has only begun to democratize analytic insight. The advanced in advanced analytics should not mean advanced programming skills required. If everyone has access to data and access to compute resources, then we need to enable ubiquity of data with ambient advanced analytics.

To lead the market in advanced analytics requires more than crafty implementations of complex algorithms that can solve difficult optimization problems at enterprise scale. You clearly need that. You also need to understand and support the analytic life cycle in the enterprise: the flow from data exploration to model development and to deployment and model management. For example, a model developed to determine whether a debit card transaction was fraudulent is not static. It needs to be monitored and adjusted as conditions change.

Whats the story behind SASs expansion from machine learning to deep learning and cognitive computing offerings and how will this help the enterprise customer?

SAS has offered its customers advanced modeling and machine learning capabilities for decades, through our programming language and through our solutions. We also have strong offerings in analytics for unstructured data, specifically text mining and contextual analytics. Capabilities such as content categorization, entity extraction, sentiment analysis and question-answer systems are not new to SAS.

Machine learning is a data-driven approach for classification, prediction and pattern recognition. These approaches have ascended in recent years compared to traditional modeling techniques, aided by access to more data, increasing interest in predictive analytics, and the rise of data science as a discipline. SAS has covered this space for decades.

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The combination of big data and big compute has helped to propel forward in modern machine learning approaches based on deep neural networks, also known as deep learning. The excitement and fascination of deep learning is to use the data in a different way. Data continues to drive the approach  rather than the model  but it is used for algorithms to acquire skills. Rather than training a decision tree on a set of data so that the tree can classify the data well, deep neural networks learn to classify by abstracting the regularities in the data in layers.

The expansion for SAS with respect to deep learning and cognitive analytics has several facets: (1) To add deep learning based analytic approaches to our classical approaches in order to provide choices, to support greater automation and problem solving with less domain knowledge. (2) To provide deep learning tools to our customers that enable them to train modern machine learning models on their data. (3) To embed cognitive computing and deep learning into SAS products, in support of a more human-like interaction between user and software, and in support of greater personalization and more dynamic behavior.

Enterprise customers are looking towards artificial intelligence, deep learning, and cognitive computing because these techniques promise accuracy and automation, without the prerequisite of deep domain knowledge. The keys to building accurate learning systems are large volumes of quality data, compute power, and tools. We are providing the tools and analytic infrastructure to derive insight, and this insight will increasingly be the result of AI techniques applied to enterprise customer data.

Enterprise customers also need to drive analytics and data-driven decisions through their organizations. Analytics are increasingly requested, interpreted and consumed by those not trained in data science and statistics. Visualization was one driver toward self-service analytics. Cognitive technologies are taking it to the next level, a natural interaction between user and software: request analytics in natural language (keyed or spoken), retrieve the analytic insight at the appropriate level of complexity depending on the user and with situational awareness.

We are committed to making natural human interactions with SAS software a reality.

Can you tell me about the newest high-speed in-memory analytics platform youre working on?

Our newest platform is SAS Viya, our third in-memory, scalable, high-performance architecture. But SAS Viya is more than an architecture; it is truly a platform that allows customers to build the analytic enterprise. It is a paradigm shift for SAS.

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We built SAS Viya the same way we approach all our software solutions  innovating to meet our customers needs and to respond to market forces. Our customers asked for speed and scale, for flexibility, resilience, and elasticity. And they asked for a service-oriented, open and accessible platform that is easy to deploy, manage, update and monitor. At the same time, we saw an opportunity to tackle some technical debt and to simplify to a common SAS platform for data and analytics.

We boiled this down to four pillars or business requirements for SAS Viya: the need for an open, unified, powerful platform that is built for the cloud.

Our journey into high-performance analytics began 40 years ago. SAS has always handled big data problems and provided the best, highest-performing algorithms. In 2009, the pace accelerated with the move to distributed computing on multi-core commodity hardware. In the years that followed, we learned how to move advanced analytics and data management to environments that scale from single computers to many machines. SAS Viya is the culmination of that effort, and we are very proud of it.

What challenges do you see for enterprise AI?

The artificial intelligence (AI) applications we are discussing these days belong to the class of weak AI, where we try to solve a specific, narrowly defined human task. By contrast, strong AI aims to develop machines that can think at the level of a human, or above.

Current advances in weak AI are based on applying deep neural network algorithms that are learning a skill such as predicting an outcome, classifying an object, or recognizing a pattern. That is accomplished almost entirely in a supervised fashion, where labeled data is training an appropriately built neural network. For example, the network learns to identify objects on images, because it was passed a large number of images on which objects were already identified (labeled).

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Once we understand how these systems are built, some of the challenges for enterprise AI are apparent.

The data quality is paramount because data does the programming. To reach acceptable levels of accuracy on new observations, you need large amounts of training data. The systems do not learn beyond the regularities of the training data, however. They cannot generalize to other conditions and situations than those the system was exposed to during training. A system trained to perform automated trading might behave poorly when the market conditions change in a way not reflected in the training data. The systems do not learn by automatically adapting to new situations; the student is only as good as its teacher.

Many enterprises are changing from a product-centric model to a customer-centric model. AI systems can help to better understand your customer, and to automate interactions and recommendations. If those decisions are made by systems that learned from data alone, then you need a holistic view of the customer. Many enterprises still find their data siloed in different parts of the organization.

The second important piece in developing a deep learning AI system is the deep neural network. It consists of connected layers that abstract the derivation of the output, the sentiment of a customer, for example, from the input, which might be an image of the customer or a chat transcript. While it is well understood which type of network applies to which type of input data  convolutional networks for images, recurrent networks for text and time series, for example  it is highly important to build the networks. A neural network that works well for one set of data might perform poorly on a different set. The battle for talent in data science has just intensified; the latest skirmish is about AI programmers.

AI systems based on deep learning are black boxes and difficult to explain. You cannot describe how the predictions will change when you change the input in a certain way. That will affect their acceptance in highly regulated industries and where transparency of decisions is key. You might not have to justify how email is summarized, but you might have to explain why a loan application was denied. Well, it works is not necessarily a satisfactory answer.

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What insider advice do you have for enterprises looking to use AI?

Do not buy into the hype that the robots and algorithms are coming for the jobs. Yes, artificial intelligence is on the rise, and it will affect every industry. But this effect will be mostly in knowledge augmentation, not knowledge replacement. AI and machine learning are very good at performing narrowly defined tasks. These can be highly complex tasks like driving a vehicle or playing Go, or translating text from one language into another. But the algorithms cannot have creativity, innovation or common sense.

If you are interested in AI applications in your enterprise, look for high-frequency, repetitive tasks that do not require context understanding, creativity or judgment. These are the tasks where knowledge augmentation through AI is useful. So rather than replace the customer service representative with a bot, maybe you want to use AI to augment the representatives interaction with the customer to become more valuable.

You need to create boundaries around AI algorithms to make sure they do not step out of line  they can learn bad things, and they can behave poorly in unfamiliar situations. You need to rethink your framework for testing and validation of data-driven processes.

It is unlikely that AI will replace the processes and business rules you have built. Do not throw them away. Enterprises that bring AI successfully into their processes will understand how to combine AI with technologies and approaches that are built on traditional models. The ensemble might be the winning combination.

Look for areas where AI and cognitive computing can be applied to business problems. Ask yourself, Where do I have a lot of data? Where could we benefit from more automated decisions? Where do I need more personalized interactions and fewer business rules? Look for activities and systems that can be automated and simplified using data, and remember that the biggest opportunities might come from assisting your employees.

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Oliver Schabenberger is Executive Vice President and Chief Technology at SAS. He spent six years at Michigan State and VA Tech teaching statistics. Schabenberger earned a Master of Science in Statistics and a PhD. in Forestry. He is the principal architect of SASs newest high-speed, in-memory analytics platform. Schabenberger is also a musician, a wine lover and a Formula 1 fan.
In her 2013 memoir, activist Malala Yousafzai recounts a moment that changes not only the course of her destiny but that of many other young girls across the world. On a trip in northwest Pakistan, she comes across a girl selling oranges who is unable to read or write. Disturbed by the discovery that this girl had not received an education, Malala makes a decision that she famously continues to see through: "I would do everything in my power to help educate girls just like her. This was the war I was going to fight."



This year, Human Rights Day calls on everyone to stand up for someone's rights. Malala's example is what we all need to do more of: stand up for the rights of young women and girls in health, education and beyond.



It is no secret that gender equality remains an unfulfilled promise in most parts of the world. The integration of gender equality into the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development reflects a growing body of evidence that it has multiplier effects across many spheres of development. Despite this recognition, gender inequalities persist throughout the world, ranging from women's disproportionate burden of unpaid work and lack of access to economic resources to widespread violence against women and girls including early and forced marriage and harmful practices.



Young women and girls in particular are being left behind. They are often excluded from decision-making processes, they continue to face severe disadvantage and exclusion in education systems throughout their lives, and they often have little to no agency over their futures and their bodies. When young women and girls are deprived of their sexual and reproductive health and rights, their right to education, their right to freedom from violence, their right to accessible, affordable and adequate health care without discrimination, this has grave implications for the health and well-being of humanity at-large.



In the starkest terms, current HIV trends tell us that young women and girls are being left the furthest behind when it comes to their right to health: their right to live long and productive lives. Last year, nearly 7,500 young women aged 15-24 years contracted HIV every week, the vast majority in southern Africa. Discrimination, gender-based violence, laws which fail to protect and empower women and girls and poor educational and employment opportunities increase young women and girls' potential exposure to HIV. There is also an unacceptable lack of adolescent and youth-friendly sexual health and HIV services across the world.



To that end, a gendered approach is critical as a young woman is twice as likely to contract HIV as a young man. In the hardest hit countries, girls account for 80 percent of new infections among adolescents. This means we urgently need to scale up our investments in effective HIV prevention efforts for young women and adolescent girls. These efforts should focus on challenging harmful social norms and making youth-friendly HIV and essential health services as well as comprehensive sexuality education available to young women and girls, among other things. We also need to put in place the conditions that ensure young women and adolescent girls can claim their rights, access prevention and treatment services and live free of violence and discrimination. Stopping child marriage and improving access to treatment will also have a strong, measurable impact. Men and boys have an important part to play.



As a part of its follow up on the Global Commission on HIV and the Law, UNDP has conducted a systematic review of age-of-consent laws in 25 countries which contribute to 80% of all new HIV infections in adolescents. The aim is to help countries improve their legal and policy environment for young women and girls and young men and boys so that they can better access essential services. This will help ensure that adolescents are not excluded from or denied access to HIV testing services and life-saving treatment.



There has never been a more pressing time in our history to stand up for the rights of young women and girls. If we want to make any significant progress on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, we need to place young women and girls front and center of our efforts. If we hope to eliminate HIV in young girls and women, we must seek out new approaches that address the structural drivers that heighten their risk of contracting HIV, including poverty, violence, a lack of education, and the uneven distribution of power in society. How we move forward from this moment could mean the difference between a more equitable world--where human rights and good health are the norm and not the exception--or an unjust one characterized by illness, inequity and a dearth of human rights.



Let's choose the right path. Let's be inspired by Malala, the 15-year-old girl who would not take no for an answer.
VETERANS DAY, 2016--They were a band of brothers, a tiny one, but proud.

The ranks of military aviation have remained overwhelmingly white for decades. With the exception of the famed fighter pilots of World War II known as the Tuskegee Airmen, a unique unit of black pilots in a segregated force, very few aviators in the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines were nonwhite. That is still true.

There were some efforts to change that by recruiting more volunteers from predominantly black schools and neighborhoods. The military newspaper Stars and Stripes reported in 2003 that African-Americans made up 13 percent of the U.S. population, 20 percent of its military, but barely 2 percent of its Navy and Air Force pilots. That segment probably is even smaller now, since recruiting efforts have declined with the withdrawal of American forces from foreign battlefields.

"We were a band of brothers," said Clyde Romero, one of four African-American helicopter pilots who served together in Vietnam as part of a distinguished, gung-ho air cavalry unit: C Troop, 2/17 Cavalry, 101st Airborne Division.

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C Troop, known as the Condors, very likely was the only unit of its size in Vietnam with four black pilots.

Remarkably, three of the four black Condors--Romero, Eldridge Johnson of Little Rock, Ark.; and Robert Farris of Yadon, Pa.--left the Army after their tours in Vietnam, joined the Air Force, won commissions and became fixed-wing pilots. When they retired from the military, all three veterans piloted commercial airliners for major carriers and have kept in touch for more than four decades.

The fourth person in their small band, shown shirtless in a photo taken at their troop's headquarters at Phu Bai, South Vietnam in 1971, was Warrant Officer 2 James Casher, who was shot down and wounded in Laos but was rescued, recovered from his wounds and returned to his unit. He earned a Silver Star, the nation's third highest award for combat valor, flying a Cobra helicopter gunship in Vietnam's notorious A Shau Valley. Casher finished his tour and went home, supposedly to go to medical school when his military hitch was up.
BY: ROBERT MAGUIRE

The Federal Election Commission announced today that it has deadlocked along party lines on whether to further investigate whether a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization called Carolina Rising should have disclosed the donors that funded its political ads in 2014 or register as a political committee.

The deadlock ensures that the agency will drop the matter.

The complaint against the group was filed in October 2014 by the North Carolina Democratic Party, but focused only on whether Carolina Rising should have disclosed the donors funding two ads that ran shortly before the election that year. The FEC's Office of General Counsel said no, noting that there was no proof that Carolina Rising had received the funds "for the purposes of furthering" the ads, which is the criteria that triggers donor disclosure for a 501(c) nonprofit.



Dallas Woodhouse at the Tillis campaign's victory party, wearing a "Thom Tillis" hat.

The FEC's three Republican commissioners agreed with the OGC's conclusions. But the two Democrats and one independent on the commission voted to find reason to believe that Carolina Rising failed to "organize, register, and report as a political committee" and failed to disclose its donors, based on significant information that was not considered in the original complaint or the OGC's analysis.

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Commissioners Ann Ravel and Ellen Weintraub pointed to the fact that the group spent $4.7 million on pro-Tillis ads, which amounted to a full 97 percent of its overall expenditures that year -- meaning that, as a social welfare organization, it did almost nothing other than run candidate ads. In addition, they cited a TV clip of the group's president at the Tillis victory party, wearing a Tom Tillis hat, saying "$4.7 million. We did it."

"As we have seen before, when this Commission leaves a vacuum by failing to enforce clear law," Ravel and Weintraub wrote, "new organizations rush in to fill the void, knowing that they will suffer no consequences."

Carolina Rising and setting

Among politically active nonprofits that use the tax code as cover for anonymous donors to spend millions of dollars influencing elections, Carolina Rising stands out as one of the most clear-cut apparent offenders of the rules that prohibit these groups from engaging in too much political activity and excessively benefiting a private party -- in this case, Tillis and the GOP.

The 501(c)(4) social welfare organization was formed by a Republican political operative, Dallas Woodhouse, just months before the 2014 midterm elections in North Carolina, a state that would see unprecedented amounts of money spent in its Senate race.

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In the final months of the election, the new group spent almost all of its funds on ads supporting Tillis, then the speaker of the state Senate, in his successful bid to unseat incumbent Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan. On Election Day, Woodhouse went on live TV from the floor of the Tillis victory party, wearing a Tillis hat, saying that his group had spent $4.7 million to get Tillis elected.

Nonprofit "social welfare" organizations like Carolina Rising are not supposed to devote more than 49 percent of their resources to politics and don't have to disclose their donors to the public. But over the years, as the Supreme Court has loosened campaign finance regulations and as the FEC and the IRS have largely stood down from policing these groups, they have become vehicles for hundreds of millions of dollars in political spending at the state and federal level. As tax-exempt nonprofits, the groups are supposed to benefit the public broadly and not any person or specific group of people, like a political party or candidate for office.

As the Center for Responsive Politics reported last year, Carolina Rising did both to a spectacular degree. Within months of its founding in March of 2014 by Woodhouse -- who has since gone on to be executive director of the North Carolina GOP -- it had spent millions on glowing ads supporting one candidate in one race, Thom Tillis.



Because they were framed as issue ads, lacking the "magic words" calling on voters to support Tillis or oppose Hagan, only the spots that ran within 60 days of the election had to be reported to the FEC. Carolina Rising reported spending $3.3 million to the commission -- though that alone made up 70 percent of the group's total outlays. Another $1.5 million was spent by the group in August, more than 60 days out from the election.

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With a mailbox at a Custom Postal store in a Raleigh stripmall as its only address, Carolina Rising performed no significant, demonstrable social welfare activity.

And once the election was over, the organization appears to have ceased to have any significant operations. Its website was updated just twice in 2015, and the phone number on the site has been disconnected.

Despite being the principle name listed on the group's now-expired charitable registration at the N.C. Secretary of State's office, as well as on the group's incorporation records, Woodhouse told CRP in an email that he was no longer affiliated with Carolina Rising. Another board member, Lorri Pickens, said in an email that she left the Carolina Rising board in October 2014, just before the election.

When pressed as to who could provide updated tax returns for Carolina Rising, Woodhouse referred us to a lawyer at Parker Poe in Raleigh and asked not to be contacted further regarding Carolina Rising "as I have long left this organization and and not involved in anyway." In a response to CRP, Steve Long at Parker Poe said he would "obtain the Form 990 from Carolina Rising" and "forward it" next week.

Deadlock

The statement of reasons signed by the FEC's two Democratic commissions, Ann Ravel and Ellen Weintraub, called groups like Carolina Rising the "latest but not the last innovation in shrouding campaign funds from public view." They further said the FEC "is rarely handed a plainer admission" about a group's actual activities than Woodhouse's admission on live TV from the Tillis victory party.

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Steven Walther, an independent commissioner who usually sides with the Democrats, did not sign on to the letter, but he did vote in favor of requiring Carolina Rising to disclose its donors.

It would have taken a majority vote of the six-member commission to move forward with a full investigation.

The all-too-fitting kicker to this story, though, is that if the FEC had decided to act against Carolina Rising and require it to register as a political committee, its main benefactor would be revealed to be Crossroads GPS, another politically active nonprofit that doesn't disclose its donors. In other words, even in the best case scenario, the FEC would have told the public what CRP has already reported, rather than the true identity of Carolina Rising's funders.

But it's the IRS that is charged with ensuring that nonprofits like Carolina Rising actually provide a social welfare value to the general public. The tax agency is responsible for evaluating the activities of nonprofits, but it rarely denies or revokes the exempt status of prominent politically active nonprofits. The liberal watchdog group CREW filed a formal complaint with the IRS in October 2015 highlighting the issue of private benefit in connection with Carolina Rising's spending in the 2014 midterms.

When we asked former head of the IRS exempt organizations division Marc Owens last year about Carolina Rising and private benefit, he referred to it as a "private benefit slam dunk," saying that the group "was formed to support Mr. Tillis, and they did that."

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Find it to depressing to read the news? That's why we do it for you.

1. President Barack Obama has ordered U.S. intelligence agencies to investigate election related hacking by the Russian government. This shit is getting real. More here.

2. More than 1,000 Russian athletes benefited from state-sponsored doping from 2011 to 2015. Conclusion: the Russian government is doing some shady stuff (see above). More here.

3. South Korea has impeached their president, Park Geun-hye, following a corruption scandal. Park will be removed from office if the courts agree with the decision of impeachment. Considering her approval rating is at 4%, her chances don't look good. More here.

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4. Boko Haram continues reign of terror in Nigeria with two female suicide bombers killing at least 30 people in a market square in Magadali. 2016 continues chalking up the tragedies. More here.
President-elect Trump's National Security Advisor Michael Flynn during a media interview said, "Islam is a political ideology based on a religion." This contradicts the lived experience of Muslims. But more alarmingly it opens the door for denying Muslims in America their First Amendment rights. If Islam is not a religion then mosques need not be afforded protections enjoyed by churches. Insidious surveillance becomes defensible. In the worst case scenario it normalizes the idea of Muslim-registry and internment camps. Of course, one statement by an administration official does not imply policy but Flynn is hardly the lone member of a potential Trump administration harboring apocalyptic views about Islam and Muslims. HUD nominee Ben Carson also expresses views similar to those of Michael Flynn.

Attorney-General nominee Jeff Sessions favor intensive vetting of immigrants from Muslim countries. He defines such vetting as, "Questions can be asked: Do you believe in religious freedom, do you believe in Sharia law or the Constitution, and do you respect minorities such as women and gays?" The irony is rich. VP-elect Mike Pence advocated gay "conversion therapy" using tax-payer money and signed a bill that allow legalized discrimination against the LGBT community. Sessions voted for a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. Moreover, it remains unclear as to how the U.S. government intends to determine which applicants and countries are Muslim. After all, not all people from Muslim-majority countries are Muslim and sizeable Muslim minorities exist in many countries. Yahya from Syria could be Christian while John from Germany a Muslim. The obvious inefficacy of such policy prescriptions are only matched by their bigotry.

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Trump's pick to lead the CIA, Mike Pompeo naively divides Muslims into two categories. Those who are with "us" and those who are against "us." For those against "us" he said, "I have a missile that is looking for you." Trump's own idea of a "Muslim ban" catapulted him to the top during the primary. Despite subsequently expressing many variations of this odious idea the original statement that ominously reads, "Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States," remains on the Trump campaign website.

Unlike Obama's foreign policy team, the Trump team insists that calling terrorism by Muslims as "Islamic terrorism" is a necessary prerequisite to fight against terror. Trump's chief horse-whisperer Steve Bannon views "jihadist Islamic fascism" as not only an existential struggle but also a continuation of the ancient enmity between the Christian West and the Islamic world. Not coincidently, ISIS also views its fight with the West in similar apocalyptic and messianic terms. Taken in totality, the stage seems set for a clash of civilizations, something both Presidents Bush and Obama assiduously avoided.

While escalation in rhetoric has drawn admiration from Trump supporters, the toll this is taking on the Muslim community in America is palpable. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), known for their dedication to fighting hate and bigotry, documented 867 hate incidents in the 10 days since Trump was elected. Nearly 300 of those incidents included direct references to the rhetoric promoted by Trump and his campaign. Anti-Trump incidents also took place but comparatively the numbers were much smaller at about 23. Such trends ought to elicit heightened concerns partly because they are a continuation of ominous developments that started in last year. Pew Research Center, using FBI's hate crime statistics, reports that in 2015 "the number of physical assaults against Muslims in the United States reached 9/11-era levels," representing nearly 35 percent of all hate-crimes and a over 60 percent increase from the previous year. Numbers for 2016 will not be known until later next year but anecdotal reporting suggests a worsening trend.

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For today and tomorrow the pope invited city mayors to Vatican for the summit "Europe: Refugees Are Our Brothers and Sisters". I am honored that Gdansk's efforts on running the Immigrants Integration Model have been noticed by Francis and I will be able to deliver a speech on our actions.

During the first day of the summit.

Pope Francis has been calling for solidarity with refugees many times. When visiting Poland in July, the pontiff stressed the need of "readiness to welcome those fleeing from wars and hunger, and solidarity with those deprived of their fundamental rights, including the right to profess one's faith in freedom and safety". We should carefully listen to these words and start looking for the best solutions for our planet. Solidarity is part of our essence, and a fundamental brick of the European dream. Forgetting that value, means condemning our future.

The summit in Vatican has been called to shed light and to offer solutions to the threat posed to global stability by the growing presence of over 125 million refugees. The focal point of the summit is mayors' role in coping with this challenge. During the summit the mayors will be having an opportunity to share our commitment with the Pope, who believes that mayors should raise their voices to promote bridges, not walls.

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The Pope support for mayors is especially important for us, in Poland, where the central government does not want to be a part of European solidarity on solving the humanitarian crisis. Instead they prefer to ignite anti-refugee fears, which is contrary to Christian values.

Representing my city of Gdansk and the EU's Committee of Regions, I will tell the Pope and summit participants about our actions on integrating immigrants, mostly from former Soviet countries, who have been arriving to Gdansk. There are many actions we may be proud of - we have established new services for immigrants, such as: Polish language courses, City Team against Discrimination, volunteer services for immigrants, special service point for immigrants at the City Hall. We have been the first city in Poland, and one of the firsts in CEE region, to have such a program.

During the first day of the summit.

We are ready to share our experience and good practices with other cities. Gdansk is the city of Solidarity and Freedom, where Lech Walesa started a peaceful revolution in the 80s. I believe that today, in very turbulent times, Gdansk may be a part of another peaceful revolution - helping those who suffer, who lost their homes and seek for safety for their families.
In his book, Blood at the Root: A Racial Cleansing in America, author Patrick Phillips describes in graphic detail how white people in Forsyth County, Georgia, launched a campaign in 1912 to drive 1,098 black citizens out the county. Phillips says it was a "coordinated campaign of arson and terror." They burned homes and churches of black people and worked to make sure Forsyth County was "all white."

Driving black people out of American cities, or black people leaving Southern cities on their own, was and is a common occurrence in American history. In the case of Forsyth County, three black laborers were accused of raping and murdering a white girl in 1912. Black people, specifically black men, being accused of disrespecting a white woman was a common reason given for lynching but it often did not take such an accusation to rile up resentful white people. The three blacks were lynched in Forsyth County, and afterwards, white mobs drove the black population out of Forsyth County. They were threatened and harassed; their homes were burned, their crops destroyed, as well as their farm animals. Black people, in terror, left Forsyth County in droves.

What happened in Forsyth County was not uncommon. In the 1915 case of Anthony Crawford of Abbeville, South Carolina, it was the fact that he dared argue with a white man over the latter's refusal to pay him the price of his cottonseed as he was paying white farmers. Crawford objected and argued with the white man - something which was forbidden - and for that, he was arrested. He was put in jail but was beaten by white mobs who stormed the jail, beaten again after he regained consciousness, tied to the back of a buggy and dragged through the streets to a place where he was finally hung, and then his body riddled with 200 bullets. Following this horrific lynching, black people in Abbeville were ordered out of the city. They obliged. The economy of the city suffered as the source of labor for the fields was forced out, but it did not matter. White supremacy forced the migration of literally hundreds of thousands of black people out of cities across the South.

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What happened in Forsyth County and in Abbeville, and in countless other cities in the South is called, simply, ethnic cleansing, and it is never talked about.

It is easy and perhaps convenient to blame the ruthlessness of white terror against black people on an organization. The Ku Klux Klan is the most potent buzz word used in America to prick the ears of those who decry racism and racial violence, but Phillips in his book shakes that tendency loose from its comfortable berth. Most of the violence committed against black people, lynching included, was done not by an organized group, but by everyday farmers and citizens of the cities. The KKK, in Forsyth County, Georgia in 1912, was not a major player in the lynching of the three black people, or in the ethnic cleansing ordered by white people after the incident. The perpetrators were ordinary, "good, Christian" people.

Phillips says that attaching the violence to the KKK absolves ordinary people from responsibility of racial violence. The going accusation of the violence coming from a rogue group allows white people in general to breathe a sigh of relief, but Phillips gives a history of the Klan that few of us know. The original Klan was "stamped out in 1871" after the passage of the Ku Klux Klan Act, he writes. That act actually enabled victims of KKK violence to sue in federal court. The U.S. Justice Department was empowered by the Act to suppress Klan activities during Reconstruction, and as a result, "was able to arrest and convict many of the group's earliest, most violent members," Phillip writes. Because of that, the group's leader at the time, a former Confederate general named Nathan Bedford Forrest, called for the organization to disband, and by 1872, "federal prosecutions had rendered the original KKK all but defunct."

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There was no KKK for more than 40 years after that, writes Phillips.

Phillips writes that the original Klan was not like we see it today. The modern version of the Klan was created by Hollywood. D.W. Griffiths made the film, The Birth of a Nation, based Thomas Dixon's play, The Clansman. The "modern" version of the KKK came from behind the lens of a camera. The KKK was depicted as a noble group, formed to defend white womanhood. It was Griffiths, for the sake of drama, who put KKK members in white robes with white hoods (they had not dressed like that before this film), and it was Griffiths who had even their horses draped in white. White people, including President Woodrow Wilson, who hosted a screening of the movie in the White House, were enthralled by the film, which not only deified white women, but demonized black people, specifically black men.

Griffith's movie didn't come out until three years after the lynching of the three black people accused of murdering a white woman in Forsyth County, Georgia. Phillips' point was that those who carried out acts of domestic terrorism were not members of the Klan, but where "farmers and field hands, blacksmiths and store clerks, and in all likelihood, even a few elected officials."

What the ordinary people wanted was to "take their cities back." They resented the gains made by black people during Reconstruction. They resented the intrusion of the federal government into their affairs. They wanted white supremacy to be able to function as it always had, and it was the common people who worked to make sure that was the reality.

There is no question that there are organized hate groups in this nation and indeed all over the world. But the power of hatred comes from the ground up; leaders who tap into the resentment, fear and anxiety of the masses are the ones who inspire violence against people. It is not "outsiders" who wreak havoc against the masses, it is the masses themselves who call the shots. Leaders who feel the spirits of the masses "radicalize" them and the work of maintaining the structure of the Empire is done by the people.



Radical, Christian terrorism is an inside job.

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There is just a little too much credence given to the supposed power of "outsiders." Outsiders were said to be the cause of black people growing discontent with their oppression. The idea has always been preposterous, because it assumes that black people liked being oppressed and would have "stayed put" if outsiders had not manipulated them.

The hatred and violence we see comes from the masses; shrewd leaders, again from the inside, know how to manipulate those hate-filled emotions in a way that causes cruel and brutal violence.
An Open Letter to President-Elect Trump From Ron Garan, Col. USAF, (Ret)

Congratulations on your election victory. Thank you for your words of conciliation in the early morning hours following the election, and your "pledge to every citizen of our land that (you) will be president to all Americans."

You also reached out to people who did not support you to ask for guidance and help, "so that we can work together and unify our great country." I am one of those people.

As a citizen of this great nation, I respectfully offer guidance on immediate steps that can help start the process to bring everyone "together as one united people."

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First, reconsider your promise to cancel every one of President Obama's executive orders and programs on your first day in office. As a businessman, and now as president-elect, you know orderly transitions matter.

Canceling the health insurance of millions of Americans without a fully functioning system to replace it will disrupt if not destroy the lives of those who depend on it.

Consult the science community as you plan. As a NASA astronaut who lived and worked in space, I know Earth is not flat, that we live in a highly interrelated and interdependent biosphere, that climate change is real. People so often speculate that if world leaders could see Earth from space like astronauts and cosmonauts do, everything would be different. I believe this is true. Please consider these thoughts from men and women who are among the few who have seen our planet from space.

http://j.mp/CallToEarth

Unilaterally pulling out of the agreements the United States made with other nations during the COP-21 Paris Climate Conference, puts America on a dangerous path threatening the future of the world. In the short-term, we will alienate the other signatories, and demonstrate that our words and promises mean nothing.

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You said during your victory speech, "I want to tell the world community that while we'll always put America's interests first we will deal fairly with everyone, with everyone, all people and all other nations. We will seek common ground not hostility, partnership not conflict." I assure you that canceling America's commitment to the 2015 Paris Climate Conference will be seen by the world as an act of hostility and conflict.
On November 11, 2016, US State Department spokesman Mark Toner announced that the United States could unilaterally scrap the Iran nuclear deal if President-elect Donald Trump was willing to walk away from it. This announcement fuelled a heated debate on the viability of renegotiating the Iran nuclear deal and the implications of Trump's hawkish stance towards Iran on the balance of power in the Middle East.

Even though Washington's abandonment of the Iran nuclear deal would probably result in the re-implementation of sanctions against Tehran, Iranian policymakers have been surprisingly sanguine towards Trump since his election as president. The relatively relaxed atmosphere in Iran can be attributed to Tehran's belief that Trump is unlikely to plunge the United States into direct confrontation with Iran. Iranian policymakers also believe they can exploit growing strains in the US-Saudi Arabia relationship to expand Tehran's geopolitical influence in the Middle East and increase Iran's leverage over the outcomes of ongoing conflicts in the region.

Assessing the Likelihood of a US-Iran Confrontation under Trump

Even though Donald Trump has frequently warned that Iran is likely to violate the terms of the Obama administration's nuclear deal, the practical difficulties associated with overhauling the agreement could prevent a radical change in US-Iran relations under Trump. This point was illustrated by a recent position paper authored by two of Trump's leading advisors on Israel, lawyers David Friedman and Jason Greenblatt. In this position paper, the status of Jerusalem, Palestinian statehood and protecting Israeli settlements featured prominently, but Iran was strikingly omitted. Republican Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Tennessee Senator Bob Corker also opposes a unilateral abrogation of the Iran nuclear deal and could act as a moderating influence on Trump.

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The contradiction between Trump's bombastic rhetoric and calls for caution from his advisors has eased concerns in Tehran about the trajectory of US-Iran relations. According to political analyst and consultant Mahan Abedin, many Iranian policymakers view Trump as a pragmatic dealmaker who is less likely than neoconservative Republicans to initiate a military confrontation against Iran. A recent pro-Trump essay by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's official news agency arguing that Trump's popularity heralded an "awakening" in American politics underscores the growing sense of optimism in Tehran.

While leaving the Iran nuclear deal intact is probably the shrewdest geopolitical option, there is still a high probability that Trump could cave to political pressure from members of his own party and re-inflame tensions with Iran. During the 2016 Republican primary cycle, Trump's leading rivals, Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Florida Senator Marco Rubio were staunch opponents of the Iran nuclear deal. Trump's approach to Iran is especially likely to resemble that of his former adversaries if former US Ambassador to the UN and hardline neoconservative John Bolton is appointed as Secretary of State. Bolton has repeatedly insisted that military confrontation with Ayatollah Khamenei's and regime change in Iran is the only way to ensure stability in the Middle East.

As journalist Ron Kampeas recently noted, a flip-flop on the Iran nuclear issue could increase the risk of a hardline conservative challenger running against Trump in 2020. Opposition to Obama's grand bargain with Iran is extremely intense amongst the GOP's base. Pressure from conservatives in Congress could force Trump to renegotiate the Iran deal even if his political inclinations suggest otherwise.

In addition, Trump will face pressure from members of his own party to condemn Iran's authoritarian system and human rights abuses. In March 2015, Rubio chastised President Barack Obama's unwillingness to express firm solidarity with the Iranian opposition during the 2009 Green Revolution protests. While it is unlikely that external pressure will cause Iran to liberalize its political institutions, remaining silent on the democracy issue could deepen Trump's rift with neoconservatives and advocates of American normative hegemony.

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As unilaterally scrapping the Iran nuclear deal would unnecessarily increase the risk of Iran producing a nuclear bomb, Trump should eschew pressures to completely throw out Obama's normalization framework. Stating his unequivocal commitment to a peaceful resolution to the Iranian crisis will also improve Trump's relationship with European leaders. The EU recently urged Trump to not follow through on his promise to scrap the Iran nuclear deal.

To appease Republicans in Congress, Trump should pressure Iran to scale back its sponsorship of terrorism, hostility towards Israel and destabilizing involvement in Iraq by tightening the snapback provisions of the deal. This policy will ensure that the US avoids a costly military confrontation with Iran and will likely satisfy all but the most hardline opponents of engagement with Iran in the GOP Congress.

The Implications of a Trump Presidency for Iran's Geopolitical Influence

Even though Trump's victory will likely strengthen the alliance between Washington and the Israeli right, many Iranian policymakers are quietly optimistic that Trump's isolationist worldview will give Iran an opportunity to significantly bolster its international influence. Iran's optimism is rooted in Trump's confrontational rhetoric towards Iran's primary regional nemesis: Saudi Arabia.

While it remains unclear whether Trump will actually pressure Saudi Arabia to pay a premium for US military assistance, there are compelling early signs of a sharpened deviation from traditionally cordial US policies towards Riyadh. In contrast to Saudi Arabia's fierce opposition to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Trump has expressed interest in cooperating with Assad. On November 12, Trump argued that overthrowing Assad's government would be a poor decision, as it would risk an unnecessary confrontation with Russia.

Expressing solidarity with Assad and his allies has been a recurring theme of Trump's presidential campaign. In October 2016, Trump stunned Republican establishment figures and openly contradicted his senior foreign policy advisors by praising Iran's role in combatting ISIS. Even though Trump will face considerable political pressure to undo his praise of Iranian involvement in Syria, his pro-Assad leanings could lead to more direct Washington-Tehran security cooperation in Syria.

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However, if Iran's geopolitical role demonstrably increases relative to Saudi Arabia's, Trump could face considerable pressure from Republicans to improve the Washington-Riyadh relationship and counter-balance against Tehran. During the 2016 Republican primary campaign, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a staunch Trump ally, endorsed Saudi Arabia's decision to execute Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr. As Peter Beinart noted in his January 2016 article for The Atlantic, Christie's view is indicative of an overarching pro-Saudi bias within the GOP. Rubio arguably adopted the most extreme pro-Saudi position of all presidential candidates by calling for the deployment of US troops alongside Saudi troops in Yemen.

To assuage his Republican critics and still maintain his commitment to cooperation with Russia, Trump will likely continue US arms sales to Yemen while distancing Washington from Saudi Arabia's objectives in Syria. This balancing strategy will prevent Saudi Arabia from defecting completely from Washington's orbit and uphold Trump's willingness to cooperate with the Russia-Iran pro-Assad bloc.

Even though Trump has vowed to crack down hard on Iran, he is unlikely to convert his hawkish rhetoric into concrete policies unless Iran unilaterally violates the terms of the nuclear deal. Trump's scathing criticisms of Saudi Arabia also provide considerable opportunities for Iran to bolster its geopolitical influence. Regardless of the policy course Trump ultimately chooses, he will face a difficult struggle to implement his campaign promises, appease neoconservatives in the GOP and adopt a nuanced position in the Iran-Saudi Arabia struggle for regional primacy.


Padmini Prakash, India's first transgender news anchor.

*This article first appeared on Wear Your Voice Magazine*.

Incredible India, in all its marvelous contradictions, has surprised us all by hiring its first transgender news anchor, Padmini Prakash. Prakash has been leading a daily primetime news program on India state Tamil Nadu's Lotus TV since August 15.

For such a conservative country, it's amazing that Padmini is not the first transgender person to headline a show on Indian television: that honor goes to Rose, who was the first transgender person to have her own talk show. She even opened her program with an episode about the street harassment problem in the country. And last year, India elected its first transgender mayor, Madhu Bai Kinnar, in Raigarh, Chhattisgarh -- who also happens to be from the Dalit or "untouchable" caste -- and also hired its first transgender college principal, Dr. Manabi Bandopadhyay.

The hijra

In many places in the world, transgender communities do their best to stay hidden. While they are still marginalized, India's hijra -- a term that refers specifically to a subgroup of male-to-female trans individuals -- live their lives out in the open, often in commune-like living arrangements led by a guru. India even recognizes a "third gender" for hijra, and this information is included on their passports and other identity documents. Hijra are often called on during special occasions like a birth, marriage or other celebration, to bestow blessings upon the home and family.

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Some argue that the term "transgender" isn't appropriate to describe the hijra community in India and the phrase "third gender" is more accurate, but hijra often use the terms trans and transgender to self-identify.

One of my first memories from when my family moved to New Delhi in the early 1990s was the cadre of hijra who came to our first home, welcoming us to the neighborhood (and, of course, seeking some baksheesh for their trouble). Bollywood songs were blaring, the hijras' faces were garishly painted and they danced and sang for us in bright and sparkling outfits. But underneath the frivolity of their performance, everyone could see these were powerful people who you'd never want to cross.

Being a conservative Sri Lankan, my father's fragile masculinity was threatened by the hijra -- he refused to pay them. Our neighbor had to warn that if we didn't give them something for their time, they would make our lives a living hell and it would potentially become dangerous to stay in our home. This particular group of hijra had been known to throw bricks and stones through windows and physically intimidate families who did not pay their respects. My mother went out, paid them and thanked them kindly; they blessed us and our house and promptly danced off, arms in the air, bangles jangling and music blaring. I'd seen so many wild things in my life even at that early stage of 13, but meeting hijra at our home in Vasant Vihar was one of the most fascinating.

Hijra have appeared in Indian history art, and literature as far back as the Kama Sutra, which was written sometime between 400 BCE and 200 CE. They also appear in the epic poem The Ramayana: when Rama leaves Ayodya, fulfilling his 14-year exile, he goes into the forest, where he is followed by a huge group who then witness his heroic speech. So moved are hijra by his words, they remain in that spot until he returns 14 years later. As a reward for their devotion, Rama confers upon them the ability to bestow blessings on auspicious days like births and weddings, a ceremony that is now known as badhai -- the same singing and dancing that took place at our home.

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Hijra also appear in The Mahabharata, where the hero Arjun becomes Arjuna, assuming a hijra identity to disguise himself -- even going so far as to perform hijra ceremonies while incognito. Arjuna marries Iravan, a warrior who offers to sacrifice himself to the Goddess Kali so that the Pandavas may win the Kurukshetra War. In southern India, some hijra call themselves aravanis and claim Iravan as their creator. Each year between February and March in Tamil Nadu, hijra celebrate a visually stunning 10-day Mayana Kollai ceremony, reenacting the wedding of Lord Krishna (Arjun/Arjuna) and Iravan, replete with Iravan's sacrifice and a mourning ritual for his death. Ellen Barry writes for the New York Times: "Any trace of human expression is lifted, and the kothis begin to resemble the deities they worship. The ordinary is tethered to the divine."

In recent years, a beauty pageant has been added to the event, along with a variety of health seminars that have focused on HIV/AIDS, since this population is particularly vulnerable to sexually transmitted diseases; many hijra make their livings as sex workers. Hijra from all over India travel to attend the festival, as do many thousands of others.

Hijra first began appearing in Bollywood films in 1974 in Kunwaara Bap, and tended to appear as caricatures for comic relief purposes. The first nuanced and sympathetic appearance of hijra in Hindi films wasn't until 1995, in Mani Ratnam's Bombay, and there have been many more in the years since, including documentaries like the BBC Three's India's Ladyboys and the National Geographic's Taboo, which explore life in hijra communities as well as the many dangers they face.

While there is a healthy fear of upsetting a hijra community, there is still a great deal of violence against them that mostly takes place when they are on their own or if they are a sex worker. The Indian government may recognize a third gender, but they don't recognize sexual violence against them, and often hijra are raped, beaten, and assaulted -- even by the police, if they report any crimes. The HIV/AIDS rate among transgender folks in India is 8.2 percent -- much higher than the national prevalence of .31 percent, according to Avert. Many hijra don't have the same access to education, health care and other social services that other Indian citizens do. Also, third-gender hijras are barred from voting in India's elections, giving them less power over their governance.

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The battle for hijra and trans rights

In 2014, the Supreme Court of India officially recognized the hijra community as "third gender" and proposed a series of rights and measures to protect them, including the right to self-determination of their gender identity. According to the Hindustan Times, "This meant that people could identify their own genders without having to seek certification and was meant to do away with years of oppression and torture at the hands of state actors who refused to recognize transpeople."

Earlier this year, a Transgender Rights Bill was proposed by social justice minister Thaawarchand Ghelot, but trans activists in India found language in the bill was not only misgendering (referring to hijra as "he"), but also was seriously lacking in concrete plans and steps that the trans community in India can take, especially when actively being discriminated against. The new bill also mentions nothing about recourses or processes to combat violence against the trans community by the police.

"This is a huge gap, since so many transgender persons face police violence," Gowthaman Ranganathan, a lawyer based in Bengalaru, told The Hindustan Times. The bill will rely on doctors and "appropriate government actors" to determine whether or not an individual is eligible for trans benefits, and there are no guidelines in place as to who these doctors and government officials would be -- nor whether they have the qualifications to make decisions about other people's gender identities. The Hindustan Times also notes, "This has infuriated activists, who say the provision encourages gatekeeping of identities, and will lead to corruption and favouritism as many will be forced to compete for meagre resources."

"The gatekeeping will exclude many transpeople, including those who haven't yet or don't want to undergo operations," L. Ramakrishnan from the Chennai-based NGO Saathii told The Hindustan Times. "The Supreme Court said transgender is not about body parts. This is a draconian provision open to abuse."

While the political battle to protect the human rights of the transgender and hijra communities in India continues, earlier this year fashion designer Sharmila Nair dedicated her new line of clothing to the transgender community, even going so far as to call it Mazhavil, the Hindi word for "rainbow," and has hired two transgender women to be its spokesmodels in an unprecedented move for India's fashion industry.

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However, the most marginalized of the marginalized in India's trans community are trans men. According to New Delhi TV: "The term transgender is often understood to refer to hijras or transgender women. But this definition leaves out other identities, like transgender men, who are yet to find recognition. ... The reason, they say, is that they have no support system, no spaces of their own." At the 2015 Hijra Habba, a conference focusing on issues of the trans community, 350 trans women attended, but only five trans men.
I thought that my article from October 2013, originally published in the San Diego Daily Transcript, applied today, given the talk of a potentially pending shutdown. Citizens and the military should not be tricked by any potential legislation discussing pay for the military while looking at a government shutdown. It won't enable the military to continue normal operations.

The federal government has partially shut down. And National Institutes of Health employees, National Park Service employees, non-essential congressional employees and all federal employees deemed nonessential are furloughed.

At the eleventh hour Sept. 27, the House and Senate unanimously passed the Pay Our Military Act. A bill with bipartisan support is rare these days, but don't be fooled. This was a trick!

Sure, military families are receiving their pay. Let me not take away the importance of that. But as a recently separated veteran, remembering other shutdowns and debt ceiling crises and the uncertainties it caused, I understand the great angst felt by many military personnel and families.

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Here is some of what is now going on because the government is closed:

 Families are unable to get medical treatment because civilian medical employees have been furloughed.

 Commissaries are closed, forcing military families (many of whom make so little that they are on WIC and food stamps) to shop at local grocery stores rather than at government subsidized commissaries, where groceries are routinely 33 percent cheaper.

 Dining facilities staffed by civilian employees are closed or overwhelmed due to civilian furloughs.

 Morale, welfare and recreation facilities are closed. Troops use these to relax, call home, tour cities they've never been and so on.

 Mail is not being delivered on military bases. Sure, the U.S. Postal Service is operating, but military post offices are not, because their civilian employees have been furloughed.

 Human resource functions have ceased, as they are run by civilians who have been furloughed. The irony of that would be laughable if it wasn't so serious.

And there's more:

 The Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego continues to function and recruits must hydrate regularly. The portable toilets at the range on Camp Pendleton, however, are not being serviced, so recruits are unable to use the restroom.

 Undergraduate and graduate service schools have furloughed all civilian and federal non-uniformed instructors. That means senior officers are being paid large sums of money, but many are not attending classes or they are attending truncated classes.

Some estimates put almost three quarters of the civilian intelligence work force (not necessarily just defense, but definitely contributing to and supporting the mission) furloughed at the moment, with even greater numbers coming.

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Can you imagine what danger this poses?

In our already over-inflated defense budget (trust me, I was there), we are creating more work and more burden for the people who, for often very little pay, make our sons', daughters', brothers', sisters', and friends' lives easier. This means that while they are unable to use the services to which they are entitled, they are having to work longer hours.

We owe it to the men and women who put their country ahead of themselves and their families to pay them and afford them their duly constituted benefits.

Yes, the GOP, while insisting we pay our military and praise their accomplishments, is also the GOP that voted to shut down government.

One of the most egregious actors in all this, and there have been a few, is Texas Republican and Tea Party Caucus member Randy Neugebauer, who had the gall to slap troops and veterans in the face by heading to the World War II Memorial in Washington and accosting a park ranger for enforcing closures that he voted for and helped make happen.

Then the chairman of the Republican National Committee shows up at the Memorial with a check in hand saying the committee would pay for security people to be hired so the monument would open.

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What?

Clearly, when you pull stunts like this, all show and tell for TV cameras and other media, you are shameless and absent any visible moral center.

You have insulted every veteran, from Korea to Vietnam, from Iraq to Afghanistan. You haven't tricked any veteran who depends upon these services, services to which they are entitled, services pledged in sacred trust to them by the United States of America -- and services for which many others have bled and died for on freedom's behalf.

And, as we veterans haven't been tricked, neither has Sen. Ted Cruz nor the House Republican leadership succeeded in tricking the rest of the country -- especially our men and women still in uniform -- but you have given them serious concern as to what their futures hold once they, too, are veterans.
Before the incoming Trump Administration starts implementing concrete measures to build the President-elect's promised wall with Mexico, it might want to consider other ways to secure our borders that require a lot less concrete.

Two innovative and road-tested alternatives are particularly noteworthy, in large part because they treat our continental neighbors as partners in border security, rather than problems to be walled off.

As the designated new head of Homeland Security, John Kelly, will soon discover, engagement with Mexico in particular will be critical to accomplishing many of the new Administration's border security goals.

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The first cooperative model that deserves a hard look comes from Canada, with whom we share a 5,525-mile border, the world's longest. Some 40 percent of it is water, with the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River making up the biggest part of the maritime boundary.

Criminals have long exploited this watery domain to smuggle drugs, guns, untaxed tobacco and illegal aliens to ready markets in both countries. If the U.S. Coast Guard or Royal Canadian Mounted Police, who have the law enforcement mission here, spotted smugglers on the water, the bad guys could simply zip across the maritime boundary to escape their pursuers.

Worried in the post-9/11 world that a weapon of mass destruction could easily replace illegal cigarettes, the U.S. and Canada decided in 2005 this security gap had to be closed.

They began a pilot program called Shiprider on the Detroit River to test the idea of putting officers with arrest powers from both countries on a single vessel. Before they deployed, the officers were given specialized training on the other country's criminal procedures.

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With an RCMP officer on board, a U.S. Coast Guard vessel in hot pursuit across Lake Ontario, for example, can now keep going when it hits Canadian waters, because the RCMP officer oversees any apprehensions and arrests. Coast Guard personnel on RCMP vessels play the same role in American waters. The pilot program worked so well the two countries signed a permanent agreement in 2011 and have now expanded it to five border zones.

You may think this was a no-brainer. After all, we have numerous trusted-traveller and joint law enforcement programs with Canada to protect our common boundary.

But as I learned during two diplomatic assignments in Canada, Canadians are highly sensitive to perceived U.S. encroachment on their sovereignty, and have very restrictive gun laws. Under Shiprider, an armed, uniformed, U.S. Coast Guard officer could theoretically detain a Canadian citizen in Canadian waters, under the RCMP's supervision. The same would be true for an RCMP officer in American waters.

That Canada and the U.S. were able to overcome these reservations in the name of securing the border shows how committed we both are to countering criminal or terrorist threats along the border, and how powerful doing it together can be.

This is border security without the concrete.

The Trump Administration has the opportunity to apply this same cooperative approach to our southern border, where several promising models also exist.

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One of the most innovative is a 2015 U.S.-Mexico agreement that permits U.S. and Mexican customs agents to work in each other's country inspecting merchandise headed to their home country. The idea here is to push the border out, allowing U.S. customs agents to "pre-clear" U.S.-bound trucks well south of the border.

This enhances U.S. border security in two ways. First, the agents can detect potential hazards like drugs or agricultural pests before they enter the U.S., which has obvious benefits to our homeland. And by pre-clearing trucks away from the border, they can relieve the sometimes-acute congestion at the ports of entry. This gives U.S. agents at the border a better shot at spotting possible threats, and also speeds legitimate trade.

But getting to this preclearance agreement required a major concession by Mexico. Before it could be signed, Mexico had to amend its firearms law to allow U.S. officials to carry their weapons in Mexico.

Mexicans are even more sensitive than Canadians to real or perceived U.S. violations of their sovereignty, as I witnessed during my posting there from 2004-2006. Allowing uniformed American customs agents with guns on their hips to work in Mexico is shows how far they are willing to go to secure the border.

This should not come as a total surprise. Mexicans also worry about the border. Where Americans see drugs and unauthorized immigrants moving north, they see illegal guns and undeclared bulk cash shipments going the other way.

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We both want to protect the nearly $1.5 billion in merchandise trade that crosses the southern border every day, especially since Mexico buys more U.S. products than any other country except Canada.

Walling off the entire southern boundary at great cost sends a hostile message that could snuff out the very cooperation needed to make our borders truly secure, especially if we want Mexico to help deal with the growing number of refugees fleeing violence in Central America before they arrive at our border.


Katrina Lenk and Tony Shalhoub in The Band's Visit

Photo: Ahron R. Foster

"Nothing is as beautiful as something you don't expect," Katrina Lenk sings midway through The Band's Visit, the new musical from the Atlantic Theater Company. That sentiment--about the beauties of the unexpected, set to a soaring melody by David Yazbek--applies pretty much in full to The Band's Visit itself: a surprising, tuneful, humorous and uplifting new musical.

The source material--Eran Kolirin's 2007 film about an Egyptian Orchestra on an accidental overnight visit to a small Israeli town in 1996--does not quite suggest what is in store for us; clashing cultures, butchered language, and inbred mistrust come to mind. Matters are altogether different when the Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra comes to Bet Hatikva at the invitation of the local Arab Cultural Center. Only, they are looking for Petah Tikva; Bet Hatikva, local restaurant owner Dina (Ms. Lenk) explains, has no Arab Cultural Center, no Israeli Cultural Center, no culture at all. "Build a road to the middle of the desert, pour cement on the spot," and that's where they are. The action takes place as the locals open their homes to the musicians over the long night, until the next bus comes through.

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The show begins tentatively, as the Egyptians--led by their uncomfortably stodgy conductor, Tewfiq (Tony Shalhoub)--engage in something of a comedy of errors. (The only advice we can offer to this endearing musical, still in its developmental stages, is to reconfigure the first fifteen minutes or so.) At that point, Dina--asked about her ex-husband--launches into "It Is What It Is," one of those 'men in my life' songs, whilst she viciously disembowels a watermelon with all the force of Mrs. Lovett's "Worst Pies in London."

This is Yazbek--one of our most colorful composer lyricists, of The Full Monty and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels--in top form. Moments later, a different group of locals and visitors bond over music, prompting middle-aged widower Avrum (Andrew Polk) to explosively explain how he met his wife. "Love Starts on a Downbeat" spills out into the streets of the village and thrusts out into the audience. Here, as in many places in the score, we seem to be getting the Yazbek of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown; this is all to the good, as that unjustly overlooked score is full of wonder (and the music logically has a shared Mediterranean flavor).



John Cariani, Katrina Lenk and Daniel David Stewart in The Band's Visit

Photo: Ahron R. Foster

Soon thereafter, Yazbek gives his heroine a lushly beautiful song about the jasmine wind floating from the west, bringing "honey in my ears, spice in my mouth." It's the magic of the desert and the spell of the music, written in a style which mixes Arabic rhythms with Israeli--but is also based in the common language of American musical theatre. (It is no accident that the locals and the foreigners break the ice, at two points, with brief quotations from "Summertime" and "My Funny Valentine.")

This critical concentration on Yazbek's work is not intended to overlook the book by Itamar Moses (The Fortress of Solitude), a skillful mix of comedy and sentiment without turning crass or cheap. He and Yazbek spread their dozen songs so many of the villagers have their own moment in the spotlight, interspersed with numerous spots reserved for Ms. Lenk (and wisely so). The cast is a relatively large seventeen, which includes several onstage musicians who double as members of the Egyptian band. Director David Cromer keeps the action moving, making constant use of the turntable in Scott Pask's set. (The skimpy scenery and overworked turntable make one wonder whether the designs were fully utilized for the production at the Atlantic. The scenery, at present, is not quite up to Pask's usual level of ingenuity.) The effective, cross-cultural orchestrations are by Jamshied Sharifi, with the eight-piece band led by Andrea Grody.

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The acting company--almost all of whom are fresh faces hereabouts--is uniformly good. Lenk, who spent time as a replacement in Once, wins our hearts with song after song. Emmy-winner Shalhoub ("Monk") gives a commanding performance as the initially formal leader of the band, while John Cariani (Something Rotten!) is tender as an unemployed and unemployable father. The aforementioned Mr. Polk, Daniel David Stewart and Ar'iel Stachel shine in their respective solos.

Which takes us back to Mr. Yazbek's contributions. "Papi Hears the Ocean" is touching, "Haled's Song of Love" ("Melt the Ice") is lovely, and "Something Different" is likely to leave you absolutely beaming. The show ends with "Answer Me," a 'come together' song which builds into a grand choral arrangement that washes over the house. The performance is capped by a short jam session from the visiting band.



Tony Shalhoub (left) and Ar'iel Stachel (right) in The Band's Visit

Photo: Ahron R. Foster
2015 was supposed to be a year of honours and glory for Volkswagen: it was about to steal the crown from Japanese rival Toyota and dominate the global automobile market. Then came September, and the revelation that one of the most admired companies in the world had falsified engine emissions tests.

In a matter of days, dishonour fell on the corporation and its top management, accused of breaking the trust of its customers and the public.

Volkswagen fell hard. Within a few days, a quarter of the company's market value evaporated. Public outrage forced CEO Martin Winterkorn to resign, and the firm lost ground in all major markets, retreating from leading positions it had patiently built over decades. Adding insult to injury, legal bills and liabilities started piling up as prosecutors across the globe investigated the company.

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A year after the scandal, nobody knows how long it will take for Volkswagen to fully recover. The healing process, research tells us, involves a combination of explanation, contrition, and rehabilitative change. The hubristic "Das auto" tagline is already history. Major management and strategic changes are under way. No doubt the turnaround will require considerable expense and time.

The explosive nature of scandals

Scandals are intriguing social phenomena. They involve misconduct - real or alleged - that runs counter to established moral norms. The transgression is often known before scandal emerges. In Victorian London, everyone knew Oscar Wilde was gay, but mostly ignored that fact until he was sent to jail for it.

Likewise, early evidence of Volkswagen's misconduct was published in a 2014 scientific study but remained otherwise under the radar.

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Publicity is what turns transgression into scandal. Acting as a detonator, it forces third parties (who might have otherwise turned a blind eye) to denounce the perpetrators. Once the story is out there, bystanders have no other option than to condemn the publicised transgression. Scandals then start diffusing. In the age of social media and instant global news, they spread like wildfire.

Former associates of the perpetrator and actors categorised as being similar quickly suffer from a suspicion of culpability - "If Volkswagen does it, others probably are too, right?"

At this point, being guilty or innocent does not really matter. The taken-for-granted assumption that corporations act in a morally acceptable manner vanishes; entire sectors become subject to public scrutiny.

The practices of Ford, BMW, Renault-Nissan, and others, are questioned. Eventually, misbehaviour casts a cloud over a whole industry.

Corporate scandals as regulatory devices

Corporate scandals are not always bad news. When they weaken one or more central players, they open market opportunities to competitors. In the aftermath of the Enron scandal, for instance, the "big four" audit firms ended up capturing most of Arthur Andersen's former clients. In November 2015, Fiat-Chrysler and Volvo both recorded all-time high sales in the US.

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Scandals may also have a greater virtue: they call attention to moral issues and durably affect how consumers and stakeholders evaluate organisations. In an ongoing research project with a researcher at Columbia University, we find evidence that the organisations best positioned to benefit from scandal are those which provide a close substitute to the perpetrator's product and are known for enforcing stricter norms. In other words, scandals provide the most virtuous firms with a competitive edge.

In all, corporate scandals contribute positively to the long-term evolution of industries. Scandals shed light on organisational practices that used to be formally condemned yet commonly ignored, such as cooking the books (such as Parmalat) or struggling with research (such as Theranos).

By exposing misconduct to the public eye, scandals generate moralising discourses and bring the question of organisational norm enforcement to the forefront of the political debate.

They also force governments and regulators to redefine and enforce stricter rules. While the clamour of the 2001 infamous Enron bankruptcy has long faded away, the Sarbanes-Oxley accounting rules, implemented in the wake of the scandal to tighten financial disclosures and limit conflicts of interest, guide and constrain the accounting practices of millions of corporations today.

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New rules of the game

A year has passed since Dieselgate, and the global automobile industry is already different: playing with regulatory tests is clearly no longer an option. Not only has the cost of cheating tests has become exorbitant but the probability of being caught is now almost certain, with regulators in all countries tightly scrutinising emission test results.

The result is much more than symbolic: actual engine emission reductions are in order across the industry. Faced with the true cost of meeting emission targets, automakers such as Renault and Toyota are already phasing out diesel engines and reorienting their research and development effort towards low-emission technologies.

Others will follow suit, because Dieselgate displaced the nature of organisational competition. In the post-emission scandal car industry, the players best able to innovate and offer truly cleaner propulsion systems are the ones that will survive and thrive.

Volkswagen's top managers learnt the lesson firsthand. They recently announced the firm's ambition to become the world leader in electric cars by 2025.
I was in Gothenburg Sweden recently just a few days after the US election. The occasion was the Annual Congress of the Association of European Conservatoires (AEC), which attracted some 350 delegates from 40 countries and 170 organizations. It may be called a European Association but the AEC also encourages and attracts leaders from conservatoires across the globe from Mexico and China, to Australia, Singapore and the United States.

Gothenburg is situated on the west coast of Sweden and is the second largest city in the country with a population in the metro area of nearly one million. It's a very beautiful city, founded in 1621, with a style of architecture in the old part of town heavily influenced by the Germans and Dutch (the fish market in photo above). The people are charming and the food, in particular the fish, really quite exceptional. My only challenge was the weather, which unsurprisingly for November was very cold and wet. It reminded me of why I enjoy Mediterranean living these days!

The annual Congress is always hosted by a member organization and this time the responsibility fell to the Academy of Music and Drama, which is part of the University of Gothenburg. It's a new academy founded in 2005 and now has 700 students studying the types of courses you would expect and some that you might be delighted to see developing like Music Improvisation, Folk and World Music. The students were very much in evidence during the Congress and we managed to hear them in different types and genres of music from classical to Middle Eastern.

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The AEC has a particular style and culture that encourages participation and debate with a gentle touch. Maybe this style comes from the President Pascale De Groote (in photo R), whose daytime job is Dean of the Royal Conservatoire in Antwerp. Pascale is a former dancer whose warm words of welcome and commentary seemed to trace charming pirouettes around the assembly. She is a remarkable force for good in the music world and her tenure as President, which comes to a close this year, has been a great success. The AEC had planned for us a serious and absorbing three days with the opportunity to meet new and old colleagues and friends around the theme "Diversity, Identity, and Inclusion." Given events on the global political stage this theme seemed to come almost from another time and yet it provided us all with the opportunity to see and discuss some truly exemplary projects and programs.

The Keynote speaker was the double bassist and improviser Anders Jormin whose talk really set the tone for all our discussions. He began by playing for us an improvisation based upon a Spanish folksong, which he embellished with colors and sounds I have seldom ever heard on the instrument. This is a musician at the height of his creative powers providing an innovatory path for the future of music. Then he began his talk and his arguments blended and improvised on the Congress' theme revealing its opposites of Uniformity, Conformity and Exclusion and then leading us to a resolution through Cultural Diversity, Cultural Identity and Ethnic Inclusiveness. His positive words, insights, and energy seemed to stay as a leitmotif throughout the Congress.

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Then there were the formal sessions, run in parallel so as to maximize opportunities for total immersion. I found myself attracted to discussions on the Challenges of Refugees and how music institutions could address their problems. Two quite remarkable students from the Prins Claus Conservatorium Groningen--Setareh Nafisi and Rosie Taekema, who are both just completing their undergraduate studies--were the presenters. The exceptional and highly professional video, which they have created and presented to us with such passion, was totally compelling and illustrated the Congress theme in Technicolor. These two students and their new organization The World We Live In deserve serious attention and the Prins Claus should receive many honors for encouraging such innovation and creativity.

There were several similarly inspiring sessions such as More Music in the Classroom. This presentation focused on an innovative Dutch program that is returning the joys of singing to kids at elementary schools. I confess that I was not aware that such a simple and yet essential part of growing up had been withdrawn from nearly all the schools in Holland. The Director of this new program, Jantien Westerveld, has somehow managed to galvanize support from the great and good in her country through what I can only describe as sheer determination. She has managed to bring Dutch Royalty and a major corporate donor together to garner the necessary financial support as well as activating children, parents, teachers, musicians and even the government around the impact and power of singing in the classroom. I hope that this program will have long-term sustainability.

The many other programs that excited me during the Congress included Beyond the West, Beyond the Classical, and The Musician as Creative Entrepreneur which both challenged orthodoxy and shared new models of practice. And surrounding all of these formal sessions were the creative collisions of networking, discussion and debate. And it was then that it dawned upon me:

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There were, in fact, two Conference discussions happening. One was in the Bubble of the Congress agenda and theme, reassuring in its structure and familiarity, redolent of tradition and history and now with the much-needed spice of new ideas and new developments. And the other was contained in conversations over coffee, dinners or a glass of wine. This conversation was about the geopolitical situation the World now faces, a time of major upheaval which seems to have the potent force of a historic change to our assumed trajectory. The US election that week was seen as the clarion call to arms for what has been described as the Populist movement, loosely defined as those totally opposed to the establishment, its social and economic elites and values.

The US election and what this might mean for the future was central to discussions. This was added to by all the Europeans talking about the seismic shift in politics across their continent. This shift is most definitely to the Right as evinced by Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Austria, and the yawning chasms appearing with the forthcoming elections in France and the Netherlands. Even Sweden, that great bastion of Social Democracy, was not free from the rise of a third party on the Right. Italians talked about their Prime Minister's act of foolishness in calling for a referendum that might well further destabilize the EU and, indeed, on December 4 voters soundly defeated him and forced his resignation. And, of course, everyone was worried about the widening cracks to the structure of the EU created by BREXIT. Discussions were intense and concerned. But these Global political issues never found their way into the formal Congress sessions, which stayed within the Bubble. Until that is, the last session of all, the Congress dinner.
Xi calls for strengthened ideological work in colleges

Chinese PresidentXi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of Central Military Commission, speaks at a two-day meeting on ideological and political work in China's universities and colleges, which wound up on Dec. 8, 2016 in Beijing, capital of China. (Xinhua/Ju Peng)

Chinese President Xi Jinping has said ideological work in colleges should be integrated into the entire education process, underlining the need of firm Party leadership in higher education.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks at a two-day meeting on ideological and political work in China's universities and colleges, which concluded Thursday.

Members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee Liu Yunshan, Wang Qishan and Zhang Gaoli attended the meeting, together with other senior officials and college officials.

As higher education is a key factor in a country's development potential, it is urgent for China to improve the quality of its higher education, Xi said.

China's unique history, culture and national conditions have dictated the development path for higher education and colleges featuring socialism with Chinese characteristics, according to Xi.

As higher education shoulders the major responsibility of cultivating successors for the socialist cause, it must adhere to correct political orientation, Xi said, adding that only by cultivating first-class talent can universities become world-class institutions.

Improving the ability to cultivate talent is the core work of higher education and must be the focus, Xi said.

"China's higher education institutions are under the leadership of the CPC, and are socialist colleges with Chinese characteristics, so higher education must be guided by Marxism, and the Party's policies in education must be fully carried out," said Xi.

The president called for greater efforts to teach Marxist theory to help students lay an ideological foundation for their lives.

Ideological and political work is fundamentally work about individuals, Xi said. The work must focus on students, caring for them, serving them, and helping them improve in ideological quality, political awareness, moral characteristics and humanistic quality to enable them to develop both ability and integrity, according to Xi.

"Students should be educated to be aware of the development trends of China and the world at large," Xi said, adding that they should develop firm beliefs and confidence in lofty communist ideals and socialism with Chinese characteristics.

"Students should be encouraged to integrate their own ideals and pursuits into the cause of the nation," Xi said, urging colleges to educate their students to be bold trailblazers and "translate their ideals into concrete actions."

Xi stressed that colleges should make full use of classroom teaching, strengthening teaching on ideological and political theory through reforms to make ideological and political education more appealing.

Xi urged college teachers to be "disseminators of advanced ideology and culture" and "staunch supporters of governance by the Party," so that they can better guide students in their growth.

Adherence to the Party's leadership is essential to the development of higher education in the country, Xi said, calling for efforts to ensure firm Party leadership in the field and "build colleges into strongholds that adhere to Party leadership."

Xi called on Party authorities to prioritize the ideological and political work in colleges and strengthen their leadership in the field.

Party authorities should increase their contact with intellectuals in colleges, befriend them and sincerely listen to their opinions, Xi said.

Xi stressed the importance of the leadership of college Party committees, asking them to strengthen the construction of grass-roots Party organizations and improve their ability in ideological and political work.

Hailing the contributions made by college staff involved in ideological and political work, the president called for more efforts to foster qualified officials and teachers for colleges.

Liu Yunshan said that Xi's remarks are guidelines on ideological and political work for colleges under the current circumstances, urging authorities to act accordingly.

Liu also called on authorities to realize the significance of improving the ideological and political work and uphold the Party's leadership over colleges.
By Nigel Topping, CEO of We Mean Business -

Earlier this year I placed a bet:

"By December 31 2029 one of the world's top ten car manufacturers in 2015 (Volkswagen, Toyota, Daimler, GM, Ford, Fiat Chrysler, Honda, Nissan, BMW, SAIC) will stop manufacturing cars powered by internal combustion engines."

There's no money riding on this - just my professional reputation. It is up on the Long Bet section of the Long Now Foundation website. But I'm feeling very confident.

BMW has already said it will electrify its entire range, as has Volvo. Volkswagen plans to introduce 20 new all-electric cars by 2020, with a manufacturing plan capable of building "2 to 3 million all-electric cars a year by 2025". Norway and Holland have declared intentions to ban emissions-producing vehicles by 2025, and in October Germany's Bundesrat passed a resolution to ban the internal combustion engine starting in 2030. India's Road Minister also recently announced an ambition for the country to become a "100 percent electric nation" by 2030.

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Even oil and gas executives are saying that their era is coming to an end. Royal Dutch Shell recently forecast demand for oil could peak within five and fifteen years. While oil industry consultant Wood Mackenzie forecasts that as much as 10 percent of global gasoline demand could be cut by 2035.

It appears the death of the internal combustion engine is finally happening. The only question now is 'when', not 'if'.

Why has this moved so quickly from the possible to the inevitable? Because the question marks surrounding cost, range and charging have all now been answered. Battery costs are plummeting, and Bloomberg New Energy Finance predict that electric vehicles (EVs) will be cheaper than petrol cars by 2022. A Nissan Leaf can already receive a 80% charge in 30 minutes, and that will only improve. There are electric buses that have achieved 600 miles on a single charge. 'Range anxiety' will soon be a quaint historical term. And I've managed to get this far into a blog about EVs without mentioning Tesla, who this year received 400,000 pre-orders of its new Mark 3 in just two weeks.

Once you have the right range and price, and you can charge at home so you never need to go to a petrol station again, why would anyone buy a petrol car? In order to meet air quality targets, every city could go electric for public transport within the next ten years.

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What does this mean for business? We already see examples of oil companies like Statoil and Total starting to diversify into off-shore wind, battery storage and solar. DONG Energy (Danish Oil and Natural Gas) is the number one investor in British offshore wind and is now considering divesting its remaining oil and gas assets. While Shell is also looking to boost its strategic acquisitions in the green energy space to take a "leading role" in the growing sector.

For car companies it means the biggest disruption since the internal combustion engine itself. There will be a reshuffling of the pack in terms of winners and losers, but it's a transition that's definitely achievable. Success in the automotive industry centres around design, supply chain management and marketing. All of those skills just need to shift focus to a different power source. Meanwhile, investing in a new internal combustion engine R&D facility now would risk backing a stranded asset.

Infrastructure also needs to keep up with, or ideally stay ahead of, demand. There is evidence from California that when employers put charging stations in their car parks, employees are 20 times more likely to buy an EV. And of course electrifying the fleet without decarbonising electricity generation doesn't solve the problem (although even if all the electricity came from coal, EV emissions are still 20-30 percent less than petrol vehicles),

EVs may only account for 1% of the market share right now, but don't underestimate the potential for exponential growth. Currently growing by 60% a year, it is on a typical technology adoption S-curve, and we are at the beginning of the exponential take-off. Someday there will only be hobbyists who continue to drive petrol cars.

The real challenge is in the automotive supply chain. There could be fewer jobs in the car industry because EV is a simpler technology with fewer parts. Though an increase in the volume of cars being produced globally could partially offset this, there will certainly be a lot of labour disruption. That is a question for society and should not be ignored.

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How many generals are too many at the top tier of a presidential administration? What level of attention to the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor is too low?

We now have an answer to the second question, and we may be on the verge of finding out the answer to the first, with Donald Trump having already made the former heads of Central Command, Southern Command, and the Defense Intelligence Agency, respectively, his picks to be the secretary of defense, secretary of homeland security, and national security advisor. And the most famous general of all, David Petraeus, is waiting in the wings as what looks to me at least as the best choice among Trump's announced candidates for secretary of state.

We already have the answer to the second question. The 75th anniversary of Pearl Harbor received surprisingly short shrift with the commemoration of the catastrophe that catapulted America from relative isolation into the leadership of the modern world essentially left to the Navy.

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Perhaps not wanting to step on the toes of the outgoing administration, Trump -- a Vietnam War draft evader who also gave short shrift to to Veterans Day -- merely tweeted a Pearl Harbor remembrance linking only to a slightly longer, though nice enough, statement on his Facebook page.

But Obama put out only a brief statement of his own for the 75th anniversary of the most famous thing ever to happen in his hometown of Honolulu, Hawaii. The vice president, the secretary of state, the secretary of defense, none took the lead in Obama's stead. Aloha.

As it happens, Obama will host Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in a first ever visit to Pearl Harbor by a Japanese head of government on the two days after Christmas.

That may well be an epic event. But it will of necessity be about the two nations, and the heartening and critically important alliance they have forged together after years of brutal fighting across the Pacific in the war that President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Congress officially declared 75 years ago today.

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What will likely be lost in what should be a kumbayah moment for two nations amidst our slow-rolling Asia-Pacific Pivot is the importance of Pearl Harbor for this nation, especially as it transitions to the first president never to have served in government or the military.

It was a shocked and still strikingly insular nation that that the supremely worldly FDR led into war 75 years ago today. He had prodded, cajoled, schemed, inspired, and ramrodded America through the Great Depression and into the rejection of a profound isolationism. An isolationism, let's recall, epitomized by the "America First" slogan Trump appropriated for his own campaign from aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh. Who was, to be very clear, a Nazi sympathizer who privately accepted a high Nazi decoration from Hitler and who, in the guise of aviation expertise, provided gross disinformation about the supposed strength of Nazi air power that led to bad strategic decisions by the democracies trying to defend Western Europe.

Clearly Trump did not know this, nor does most of America, which in the present ADD media culture starts getting very vague about ancient historical events taking place before 9/11.

Showing his love for generals, which is perhaps an adjustment for his own lack of military or intelligence background, Trump keeps touting Douglas MacArthur and George Patton as his heroes. But he also does not know that MacArthur, who was a brilliant but very uneven figure, essentially lost the Philippines 75 years ago today by leaving his powerful air force sitting on its runways and in its hangers to be pulverized by Japanese bombers.

In contrast, Patton's record holds up extremely well across the board. His combat record, that is. Patton had grave fits of intemperate behavior away from the battlefield. FDR had to personally intervene to save Patton's career, though the general was far more politically conservative than his president, because he recognized Patton's brilliance in combat command.

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Trump keeps on saying that his pick as defense secretary, retired Marine General James Mattis, is the Patton of our time. Fortunately, Mattis's temperament is by all accounts much more even-keeled than that of Patton, who you definitely would want to command a critical offensive but would not at all want to oversee the overall with its panoply of complex and sensitive relationships.

The story of how FDR and the nation pulled together after Pearl Harbor, carrying on to a complex and hard-fought victory and what would have been an even more effective and sophisticated role as global superpower had Roosevelt lived is essential for understanding today's world.

That is especially so with such an inexperienced and, for all his obvious shrewdness, under-educated president about to take office.

Unfortunately, it's another missed opportunity for Obama, who I had hoped would be a great explainer for a complicated world.

At the least, I hope that the dwindling ranks of veterans of that fateful day -- which FDR called "a date which will live in infamy" but which also served as the bloody crucible for the birth of a new and greater America -- will get their deserved attention when Obama and Abe meet after Christmas.

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What this election reveals to me is to the extent to which American society, but more generally the dominant paradigm of consumer society, is on a collision course with Creation. Since being elected, Mr. Trump is prioritizing creating jobs, growing businesses, drilling oil and gas, mining coal, and expanding infrastructure, including highways and oil pipelines. The broader societal goal is to expand material consumption and consumer society. It therefore makes sense for him to say that we should roll back the EPA's environment protection's and the UN's climate change accord, because both of these may limit the unrestrained growth of material and consumer society, especially one fueled by fossil fuels. The election is helpful is clarifying that we are heading full steam ahead for the iceberg.

I attended the recent UN climate change conference in Marrakesh, Morocco, as well as the Fez Climate Conscience Summit. Both included religious figures from many of the world's faiths, from Marrakesh to Bangladesh. Dozens of religious and lay leaders all agreed that the global ecological crisis is not just a scientific or a political problem--it is also a religious and spiritual challenge. We must act on climate change to leave our children a livable planet. Worldwide interfaith leadership and cooperation provided hope for spurring climate action. Priests, imams, rabbis, and monks joined hands in Morocco near where about 500 years ago European Christians and Moroccan Muslims fought one of the epic battles of pre-modern times.

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An ocean away, the majority of religiously observant American Christians elected a president who opposes any action to address climate change. The election results were a bitter pill to swallow for many of the climate delegates hailing from Bangladesh to Marrakesh. According to exit poll surveys conducted by the New York Times, Donald Trump received the support of 81% of white Evangelicals, 52% of Catholic voters (and higher among white Catholics), 58% of Protestants or other Christians, and 56% of those who attend religious services once a week. Millions of faith adherents support political leaders who deny climate change, but often without informed input from their religious leadership.

Donald Trump has called climate change "a hoax" and following his election, appointed Scott Pruitt to lead the EPA. Pruitt is a passionate climate denier and close ally of the fossil fuel industry who will most likely, as his track record suggests, dismantle the climate policies set forth by the Obama administration.

As Stanford professor Dr. Robert Proctor points out in his op-ed, Climate Change in Trump's Age of Ignorance, "Judging purely from his transition team, Mr. Trump's administration could be more hostile to modern science--and especially earth and environmental sciences--than any we have ever had."

The United States is the world's second biggest emitter behind China. It accounts for 16 percent of cumulative global greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, President-elect Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress have a significant influence in regards to climate policy, and also on how seriously other countries work to address climate change.

Last year, in his Encyclical Laudato Si', On Care for Our Common Home, Pope Francis wrote, "Superficially, apart from a few obvious signs of pollution and deterioration, things do not look that serious, and the planet could continue as it is for some time. Such evasiveness serves as a licence to carrying on with our present lifestyles and models of production and consumption... Still, we can see signs that things are now reaching a breaking point, due to the rapid pace of change and degradation... The earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth." (Paragraphs 59, 61, and 21)

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While Pope Francis is the spiritual leader of Catholics and not Protestants or evangelicals, this election has shown us that, for most religious American voters, care for our common home is not a significant enough issue to sway their vote. The question that must be asked is: Why?

A 2014 survey by the Public Religion Research Institute and the American Academy of Religion sheds some light. It found that "most Americans who attend religious services at least once or twice a month hear little from their clergy leaders about the issue of climate change. Just over one-third of Americans say their clergy leaders speak about climate change often (11%) or sometimes (25%). More than 6-in-10 Americans say their clergy leaders rarely (29%) or never (33%) reference climate change."

In the reverse, the survey also found a correlation between clergy speaking about climate change and the number of congregants who believe that climate change is occurring and human caused. "Americans who say their clergy leaders speak at least occasionally about climate change are more likely to be climate change believers than Americans who tend not to hear about climate change in church."

According to a recent poll by Yale and George Mason universities, the vast majority of Americans do not view climate change as a moral or religious issue. One sees that the low incidence of American clergy teaching on climate change, and by extension, environmental issues in general, is reflected in how American citizens view the issue of climate change.

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The fact that nearly every eight years a president of the United States is elected who implements policies that show that he has no awareness of environmental issues, reflects a broader trend within American society. The fact that recent governments in Canada, Australia and South Africa have been led by climate deniers or those who oppose action to address climate change reveals an underlying issue present in many countries. The problem is not climate change- the problem is excessive materialism, a mentality that we can do whatever we want on this planet, and that there are no consequences for our actions. To quote Dr. Proctor, "The global climate catastrophe gets short shrift, largely because powerful fossil fuel producers still have enormous political clout, following decades-long campaigns to sow doubt about whether anthropogenic (human-caused) emissions are really causing climate change." 98% of climate scientists writing in peer reviewed journals say they are.

What is particularly striking is that the 2016 election was decided in Trump's favor by victims of climate change. Four weeks before the election, Hurricane Matthew battered the Southeastern U.S., killing 28 people while causing over 1 million homes and businesses to lose power, and damaging billions of dollars of property. The hardest hit states were North Carolina and Florida. In North Carolina, thousands of people were stranded in high water, and 1.4 million people required assistance. In Florida and North Carolina, even people who were directly impacted by an extreme weather event exacerbated by climate change still voted for a candidate who will oppose action to address its causes. And those two states decided the election-- by a thin margin in Florida.

Scientists say that that is likely only the beginning. A group of eighteen scientists, including the leading climatologist Dr. James Hansen, released a report that the current rate of global warming may melt the ice caps and rise sea levels to such an extent that by the time I am old hundreds of millions of people will need to flee their homes, threatening the ability of human society to continue. The question I find myself asking myself is, how can a person survive a climate-change-exacerbated flood and then, only a few weeks later, vote for a candidate who denies there is such a thing as climate change?

To be fair, Hillary Clinton's embrace of fracking for gas, and her running mate Kaine's embrace of offshore oil drilling, indicate that their approach to curbing climate change would likely not lead to the level of change required in order to avert catastrophic global heating. As Climate Analytics notes, "We need to consume 12-14 gigatonnes of emissions less than what we currently do, or 25% less, to stay on course with the 1.5 degree celcius limit by 2030. Limiting to below 1.5 degrees by 2100 requires reduction by 70-95%. Greenhouse emissions need to be zero by 2060/2080 (at the current rate)." As 350.org points out, this "new math on climate change shows that every new fossil fuel project -- every coal mine, every gas well, every oil pipeline-- violates the goals laid out in the Paris climate accord." Both Democratic and Republican climate policies are not likely to enable humanity to stay below the 1.5 celcius rise in global temperatures needed in order to avert catastrophic climate change.

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The ascendance of a president intent on "drill baby drill" signals that the paradigm of those who support continued exploration and exploitation of fossil fuels is still very strong. That should be little surprise, because some of the largest companies in the world today are fossil fuel companies and the industrial lifestyle of billions of people is powered by this energy source.
Amid treasurer race, where Kansas puts its money is increasing an issue

As the race for state treasurer heats up, debate about how Kansas is investing its KPERS portfolio and state funds has increased.
Renovation of a heavily eroded bridge in south Chinas Hunan has started after photos of its worm-eaten columns have gone viral on the Internet, prompting the local government to take swift action.

The scarred and worm-eaten Lishui Bridge , located Zhangjiajie City, was seen earlier with its thinning columns. The exposing reinforcing bars had led to speculations on the bridges construction safety.

The issue was only brought to the public two months ago, when a power station nearby released water of the river for maintenance, thus exposing the bridges foundation and columns.

Meanwhile, bridge experts in Hunan province has inspected the construction and found no immediate risks. The bridge was built six years ago but until now it has already costed the local government a total of RMB 87.29 million (USD 12.7 million) for maintenance.
Todays column is from the 11th annual Internet Governance Forum (IGF), this year in Guadalajara, Mexico. IGF is a United Nations-sponsored multi-stakeholder conference. Unlike many U.N. events, it is open not just to representatives of member states, but also to civil society (non-profits), academia and industry.

To that end, there are people here from numerous governments around the world as well as advocacy groups and technology companies, including Google, Facebook and Microsoft.

Im here speaking on three panels in my capacity with ConnectSafely.org.

Countries represented include the United States and most European nations, but also much of Africa, Latin America and Asia  including some countries, such as China, Russia and Iran, where online human rights activists have particular challenges.

Just about any topic about internet policy is fair game at this conference, and there are workshops on inclusion and accessibility, net neutrality, online protection of children, empowerment of women, safety, privacy and security implications of the internet of things, as well as discussions about censorship and free expression.

I was asked to moderate a session titled Free Expression and Extremism: An Internet Governance Challenge. Another session, Social Media and Youth Radicalization in the Digital Age, covered similar ground.

Both sessions explored vexing issues for governments, social media companies and advocacy groups hoping to curtail radicalization and terrorism without limiting free speech. And, like many complex issues, finding a consensus was impossible.

At both sessions, there wasnt even an agreement that the terms extremism or radicalization are appropriate ways to describe the problem. As the moderator of the social media radicalization session put it, The definitions itself of radicalization are very diverse. They differ from country to country, context to context.

Indeed, I remember a student group in Berkeley during the 60s called Radical Student Union, which was radical only in the literal sense that it sought to get to the root of social problems like war and inequality.

Even the word extremism is subject to interpretation, sometimes depending on whos in power. I was in Russia a few years ago, when the government had just passed a law against expressing extremist views online. In some cases, these extremist views were nothing more than expressing opposition to Vladimir Putins policies.

Yet, there is no question that there are radicals and extremists engaged in dangerous acts that, too often, result in the loss of human life. And there is also no question that some of these groups successfully use the internet and social media to recruit, radicalize and, in some cases, activate individuals to carry out atrocious acts.

There are numerous strategies that can be employed to combat what I think most would agree to be dangerous online radicalization, but the most widely discussed are censorship and so-called counter speech.

Censorship, which includes blocking or removing offensive content, has been shown to be ineffective in tackling extremism, and potentially counter-productive, according to a report from London-based Quilliam Foundation, which was represented on our panel.

Guy Berger, director of UNESCOs Division of Freedom of Expression and Media Development, agreed. There is no clear evidence that censorship actually reduces radicalization, he said at the panel about youth radicalization.

Counter speech is the posting of positive comments, video or other media to counter negative or harmful postings. Its a strategy often used not just to counter extremism, but also cyberbullying and online harassment.

While far from a panacea, counter speech has been shown to be at least somewhat effective. It drowns out the content that is promoting violence, promoting hate or promoting fear, said Indrajit Banerjee, also of UNESCO.

Indeed, a report from the London-based Institute for Strategic Dialogue concluded, The use of counter-narrative messaging with measurable impact is replicable and scalable, though not without difficulty.

Facebook, Twitter and Google have experimented with counter-speech efforts that could be effective in reaching target audiences and driving conversations among them, according to The Verge.

One conversation during my workshop focused on the line between legitimate free speech and expression, including protests and non-violent civil disobedience on the one hand, and what could be considered dangerous radical or extremist speech on the other.

The closest we had to consensus was a general agreement that speech which specifically advocates or encourages violence fits that definition. But someone raised the example of pizzagate, the fake news story that alleged a pizza restaurant in Washington, D.C., was the center of an online child pornography ring sponsored by a close associate of Hillary Clinton.

The conspiracy theory reportedly convinced one individual to take matters into his own hands by showing up at the pizza restaurant with a rifle so that he could self-investigate the bogus theory. The weapon was discharged, but it was a matter of luck that no one was hurt or killed as an indirect result of this piece of fake news, which had been widely circulated on Reddit, Twitter, Facebook and other platforms.

It would be a stretch to claim that those who promulgated or shared this fake story intended to incite violence, but that easily could have been a consequence of their online actions.

Michael Flynn, Jr., the son of Trumps pick for national security adviser, left the presidential transition team after tweeting, Until #Pizzagate proven to be false, itll remain a story. The left seems to forget #PodestaEmails and the many coincidences tied to it. At least in this case, there was a consequence to spreading fake news.

Despite the general lack of consensus, there was one point of agreement among all who spoke at my workshop. Potentially dangerous extremism, radicalization, hate speech and fake news are not limited to any single ethnicity, religion, nationality or ideology.

Source: http://www.mercurynews.com/2016/12/07/un-forum-tackles-online-extremism/
State-backed Evergreen Health has been barred by the Maryland Insurance Administration from selling health insurance for individuals pending federal approval of its proposal to convert from a cooperative to a for-profit insurer.Evergreen is one of a handful of surviving health insurance co-ops that were set up under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). There were originally 23, but dismal market conditions have whittled that number down to just a handful.The Baltimore Sun reports that Evergreen has been struggling to keep afloat in the face of financial pressures that have forced it to consider the offer of an anonymous group of investors and convert to a for-profit insurer. Now it waits on approval from the Federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which manages the co-ops and fielded a $65 million start-up loan to Evergreen.Evergreens future is even more unclear with President-elect Donald J. Trump saying on several occasions that he had plans to axe the ACA.If you look at the Affordable Care Act and why they created co-ops to begin with  a focus on medical outcomes, disease management  Evergreen is the poster child of what Congress tried to accomplish, said Maryland Insurance Commissioner Al Redmer Jr in the Baltimore Sun report.Evergreens privatization is expected to affect some 9,000 policyholders both on and off the insurance marketplaces created by the ACA.
The Board of Health will vote on the program at a special meeting the day after the City Council receives a report.

Pittsfield Health Officials Wait for Council Comments on Needle Exchange

PITTSFIELD, Mass.  It is very unlikely the City Council will change the mind of the Board of Health when it comes to opening a needle exchange. But, the board does want to wait until the council has a chance to weigh in before making its decision.

Board on Wednesday decided to delay a decision on whether to give the authority for a needle exchange to open. The program is intended to help combat a growing number of hepatitis and HIV cases. Tapestry Health currently runs two programs in Western Massachusetts and is in the process of opening ones in North Adams and in Greenfield. The nonprofit has presented multiple times to city officials, with the latest appearance last month

"I've only received positive endorsement from the people I've spoken to," Board of Health member Jay Green said, but cautioned about being presumptuous about what the City Council members are thinking.

The board is mostly in favor of signing the documents allowing qualified organizations to pursue opening an exchange. Member Cynthia Geyer said the statistics show that the programs reduce the sharing of needles and spread of disease.

"It is not just about providing clean needles, it is a touchpoint to access other services," Geyer said.

Tapestry has already presented to the City Council's Public Health and Safety subcommittee , which will file a report with the full council on Dec. 13. Then the Board of Health members will listen to the council's input and make a decision the following day during a special meeting.

"The process needs to move forward. I think it is clear throughout the state that the jurisdiction for this is the Boards of Health," said member Dominica D'Avella.

And that thought was echoed by nearly every member of the board. Member Steve Smith recently visited the exchange in Holyoke and said, "that gave me such a comfort level with opening the same kind of service to the folks here in Pittsfield. I am ready to sign whatever it takes to get the ball rolling."

Yet, the Board of Health doesn't mind waiting a week to hear what the council has to say. The board is losing three members by the end of the month though, so will call a special meeting to take the vote before a new board is formed in January.

The authorization doesn't put a timeline on the opening, it just allows Tapestry to start the process with the Department of Public Health, which funds the program. The funding is still questionable. Gov. Charlie Baker has issued mid-year budget cuts, which reduced Tapestry's funding by 10 percent.

"We are in negotiation with figuring out how much we are able to get for the North Adams program and the Greenfield program, which we are starting up soon," Liz Whynott, director of the Syringe Access Program for Tapestry Health, said. Tapestry will appear before the North Adams Redevelopment Authority on Monday on the use of a city-owned building.

The state Department of Public Health prioritizes the opening of needle exchanges, so Whynott believes there is still state support to open one in Pittsfield.

"This is a regionwide issue and just opening one up in North Adams won't solve the problem at all," Whynott said.

Health Director Gina Armstrong told the board that the city's administration wants a public outreach effort to engage the public. D'Avella said public engagement is "incredibly important" and can be done as the plans for one evolves.

Whynott said Tapestry does its own round of public outreach when looking to open any needle exchange and Pittsfield wouldn't be different.
(Xinhua) 09:51, December 09, 2016

[File photo]

China's Fujian Grand Chip Investment Fund (FGC) announced on Thursday on its website to withdraw its offer for German chip equipment maker Aixtron.

FGC said in the announcement that the takeover offer has lapsed. Meanwhile, already acquired papers would be expected to be re-booked on December 13.

Aixtron's CEO Martin Goetzeler told the German newspaper Handelsblatt that he is disappointed and now authority agencies are needed in the interest of security and jobs.

Goetzeler added that Aixtron would be threatened to face hard cuts and losses of jobs without the sale.

"We have noted that the bidder has withdrawn his offer to take over Aixtron," a spokesman for the Germany Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) was quoted as saying by German media.

This means that the examination of the federal government for the issue of a clearance certificate is no longer necessary, the spokesman added.

In October, BMWi suddenly withdrew the clearance certificate for FGC. The ministry then reopened the review of the 670-million-euro (715-million-U.S. dollar) deal after it was initially approved on Sept. 8.

Last week, U.S. President Barack Obama blocked FGC's purchase of Aixtron's U.S. business despite objections from China.
LONDON DEC 08 (People's Daily Online)  New figures published by City of London Corporation today shows that the total tax contribution for the financial services sector reached 71.4 billion in the year to 31 March 2016.

The contribution, which is the last set of financial services tax data to be published before Brexit negotiations commence, is 11.5% of total UK government tax receipts.

The report, which was produced by PwC, shows banks and insurance firms were the highest overall tax-paying sub-sectors, due to reforms in corporation tax and the bank levy.

Overall, employment generates the largest amounts of tax paid into the public finances, accounting for 47.8% of total receipts. Financial services employs 1.1million people across the UK (3.4% of the workforce), while the study found average employment taxes per employee were over 32,000. Reforms on pension drawdowns, which came into force in April this year, are also represented in employees tax totals but is expected to level out in next years data.

Mark Boleat, Policy Chairman at the City of London Corporation said:

As one of the UKs biggest service exporters, its understandable the sector also contributes a considerable amount of tax. Despite this, the sector arguably stands most to lose as negotiations loom. It makes it clear the argument that Government should be engaging with firms as it approaches talks with the remaining EU 27, and the pulling of the political trigger.
Foxconn said on Dec. 7 that the group was conducting a preliminary evaluation of potential investment opportunities in the U.S. After direct discussion with relevant units abroad, Foxconn promised that relevant details will be released. However, the investment is not yet confirmed.

As a proxy factory of many Apple products, including iPhones, Foxconns announcement may reveal the possibility of iPhones made in the U.S. Statistics indicate that Foxconn has established more than 200 subsidiaries and accredited agencies under the development strategy of roots in China and operations around the globe.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump also remains committed to the localized manufacturing of American companies, especially Apple, which may put Foxconn at the top of his agenda. Media reports noted that Trump received a phone call from Timothy D. Cook, CEO of Apple. During the call, Trump asked Cook to manufacture Apple products in the U.S. instead of China, Vietnam and other places.

Trump also promised to provide preferential policies and tax cuts for Apple. After Trumps election, Cook released a memorandum to Apple employees stressing the importance of diversification and inclusiveness.
Imperial Valley News Center

International Trade Administration Supporting American Businesses

Washington, DC - With a staff of more than 2,200 people, which includes our trade and industry specialists in Washington, DC, as well as Commercial Diplomats in 108 U.S. cities and over 75 markets, the International Trade Administration works every day to support American companies looking to export into new markets.

That commitment now includes our How to Export video series, which we launched last month and will continue through 2017. This six-part video series offers insights on how firms can plan market strategy, find foreign buyers, make the export sale, and secure payment. You can click here to find out more information about the video series.

But the benefits of trade extend far beyond greater sales and profits. As we enter the holiday season, it is a fitting time to reflect on how trade and investment can drive such important outcomes as securing the competitiveness of our workers, helping sustain our environment, and improving the lives of people throughout the world. So it is important to remember this point when discussing the services ITA provides to the American business community.

One example involves the connection between foreign direct investment (FDI) and workforce development. U.S. subsidiaries of foreign businesses are an important source for workforce development in the country. Some of these firms are conducting apprenticeship programs to develop the skills necessary for American workers to succeed in high-demand careers. This dovetails into the important work of our SelectUSA programour whole-of-government campaign to attract foreign direct investment. Every dollar of new investment SelectUSA facilitates$22.5 billion in new investments over the past five yearslays the foundation for the workforce development that will ensure American competitiveness in the21st century economy.

There is also the complex challenge of securing energy sustainability and sustainable development; a challenge that requires a solution tied to renewable energy and energy efficient technologies. But the transformative impact of these technologies relies on their being disseminated at a global scale. ITA is doing its part by helping U.S. Smart Cities technology producers identify and cultivate export opportunities in global markets. That support was on display last month when we held our Discover Global Markets business forum in Chicago, which was dedicated entirely to Smart Cities technologies. Export counseling was provided by Commercial Diplomats from roughly 20 markets to the nearly 300 U.S. exporters in attendance, while matchmaking sessions were held between those exporters and buyers from Vietnam, Qatar, and the Philippines. Our work in this area was also on display during a recent hydrogen fuel cell trade mission to the U.S. from Japan. Alongside the Department of Energy, SelectUSA met with trade mission participants to discuss investing in the United States.

Then, there is the crucial task of combating hunger and malnourishment. A core tool in this fight is ready-to-use-therapeutic formulas (RUTFs), which is an accessible, inexpensive food source for those suffering from malnutrition. But producers need to leverage global markets in order to bring RUTFs directly to those who need it the most. So we are proud that our Commercial Service is supporting the effort to bring RUTFs to needed communities; specifically by assisting Missouri-based non-profit Project Peanut Butter (PPB). We supported PPB through its factory renovation, helping complete local business registrations, securing local utilities, formalizing local partnerships, and setting up quality control systems. Today, that facility produces 65,000 sachets of RUTF a day that are sold to United Nations agencies.

When ITA and the American business community partner together, we have the potential to help secure a better business environment for our companies, a better future for our workers, and a better world for everyone.

Ken Hyatt is the Acting Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade
Imperial Valley News Center

Giraffes Are Vulnerable: World Conservation Leaders Announce Species Status Change

San Diego, California - World conservationists made a major announcement today, in response to a dramatic decrease in the population of an iconic animal: All giraffes are now listed as vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Natures (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species. Giraffes were previously listed as species of least concern.

The declaration comes three months after the IUCN World Conservation Congressthe largest and most comprehensive environmental decision-making forum in the worldreviewed a grim report detailing the dwindling numbers of giraffes remaining on the planet. While the news isnt good, conservationists say todays vulnerable status declaration may bring much-needed attention to the dire state of affairs for giraffes, and greater support for organizations working to stem the tide of giraffes silently going extinct.

This status change for giraffes will hopefully mean greater action for giraffe conservation, said David OConnor, a community-based conservation ecologist at San Diego Zoo Global. This announcement could lead to greater focus, attention and vital help for giraffe conservationso that the giraffe conservation community is able to save these gorgeous, graceful and environmentally important animals, and ensure that they'll remain the watchtowers of the savanna for generations to come.

For years, conservationists have worked tirelessly to track and count the speciesanalyzing existing data, conducting giraffe counts and even tracking individual giraffes. Assessing giraffe population numbers can be challenging and expensive work, requiring aerial surveys and long hours in the field monitoring and counting giraffes, often in remote areas with rough terrain.

Following their extensive work, researchers concluded the worlds population of giraffe continues to decrease collectively, with only a little over 95,000 individuals now left in their native habitats. That is a 40-percent drop over the last 20 years, sparking concern that if the trend continues, these iconic animals could become extinct in the wild within a generation.

In many African countries, some giraffe subspecies have increased in population, while others experienced very dramatic declines of up to 80 percent. The alarming downward trend is due to poaching, habitat loss and overgrazing of resources by livestockwith certain giraffe subpopulations decreasing so rapidly they have become extinct in seven African nations. San Diego Zoo Global has partnered with the Giraffe Conservation Foundation, Northern Rangelands Trust, and The Nature Conservancy, as well as other conservation organizations, to help conserve giraffes in East Africa. This year, a team of scientists from the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research launched a conservation project with Kenyan pastoralists to find ways to collaborate and protect giraffes in the savanna, including creating a fenced sanctuary for giraffes.

Scientists are also analyzing how giraffes change of status will impact the findings of a groundbreaking genetic study, released two months ago, that found a genetic basis that divides giraffes into four distinct species. Currently, one giraffe species is recognized, with nine subspecies. The study, published in the scientific journal Current Biology, identifies for the first time four new giraffe species: northern giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis), southern giraffe (G. giraffa), reticulated giraffe (G. reticulata), and Masai giraffe (G. tippelskirchi)with some of the current subspecies, such as Rothschilds, genetically included in these new full species designations. If accepted, combined with giraffes new Red List status, this new study will have major impacts on zoos across the globeincluding the San Diego Zooas well as research and conservation priorities for efforts across the African continent.

Bringing species back from the brink of extinction is the goal of San Diego Zoo Global. As a leader in conservation, the work of San Diego Zoo Global includes on-site wildlife conservation efforts (representing both plants and animals) at the San Diego Zoo, San Diego Zoo Safari Park, and San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research, as well as international field programs on six continents. The work of these entities is inspiring children through the San Diego Zoo Kids network, reaching out through the internet and in childrens hospitals nationwide. The work of San Diego Zoo Global is made possible by the San Diego Zoo Global Wildlife Conservancy and is supported in part by the Foundation of San Diego Zoo Global.
Cheetah Cubs Sisters Being Raised By Caring Keepers

Escondido, California - This morning, a crowd gathered outside the window of the Animal Care Center nursery at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park in hopes of seeing a pair of female cheetah cubs. The duo was born Nov. 19, 2016 and when their mother didnt care for them, animal care staff had to intervene. Since then, a team of eight has been caring for them, bottle feeding them a formula specifically designed for cheetahs, weighing them daily to monitor their health, and simulating the grooming that they would normally receive from their mother.

These cheetah sisters dont have names yet, but staff call them Yellow and Purple because of the colors of temporary ID markings put on their tails. As the cubs grow, the bottle feedings will become less frequent and at four weeks old, the pair will start to receive solid food. When they reach 70-days-old, they will be weaned from their cheetah formula.

Guests visiting the Safari Park this month can see the cheetahs in their nursery at the Nairobi Station between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. At this phase in their development, they are sleeping about 22 hours a day but are expected be more active as they mature. The lights in the nursery are usually turned off to mimic the dark den where they would typically spend their first five weeks with their mother.

The San Diego Zoo Safari Park is one of nine breeding facilities participating in the cheetah Breeding Center Coalition (BCC). The goal of the coalition is to create a sustainable cheetah population that will prevent extinction of the worlds fastest land animal. San Diego Zoo Global has been breeding cheetahs for more than 40 years, with more than 150 cubs born. It is estimated that the worldwide population of cheetahs has been reduced from 100,000 in 1900 to just 10,000 left today, with about 10% now living in zoos or wildlife parks.

Bringing species back from the brink of extinction is the goal of San Diego Zoo Global. As a leader in conservation, the work of San Diego Zoo Global includes on-site wildlife conservation efforts (representing both plants and animals) at the San Diego Zoo, San Diego Zoo Safari Park, and San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research, as well as international field programs on six continents. The work of these entities is inspiring children through the San Diego Zoo Kids network, reaching out through the Internet and in childrens hospitals nationwide. The work of San Diego Zoo Global is made possible by the San Diego Zoo Global Wildlife Conservancy and is supported in part by the Foundation of San Diego Zoo Global.
Workshop to Strengthen Faith-Based Engagement in Combating Anti-Microbial Resistance

Washington, DC - The Secretarys Office of Religion and Global Affairs, the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, and the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See -- in partnership with the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University and Caritas Internationalis -- are hosting a workshop to strengthen faith-based engagement in combating the emergence and spread of anti-microbial resistance (AMR). The workshop will take place December 12-15 in Rome, Italy.

The workshop will serve as a forum in which faith-based organizations, including health associations, can identify and develop individual and collaborative actions to combat AMR. Religious organizations, which are often heavily involved in health promotion initiatives, are key stakeholders in mobilizing individual and community action, advancing social and medical practices in their local networks, and advocating for high-level support in addressing AMR.

Approximately 35 healthcare providers, medical practitioners, and related representatives from faith-based and international health organizations will participate. The workshop will highlight challenges and best practices facing the medical, education, communications, religious, and private sectors in combating AMR, and will provide a forum to share best practices and an opportunity for faith-based organizations to streamline their contributions to the global effort to counter AMR.

The United States is committed to working domestically and internationally to prevent, detect, and respond to infections caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria by implementing measures to mitigate the emergence and spread of antibiotic-resistance and ensuring the continued availability of therapeutics for the treatment of bacterial infections.
White House Announces New Commitments to the Equal Pay Pledge

Washington, DC - The White House launched the Equal Pay Pledge in June at the first-ever United State of Women Summit, encouraging companies from across the American economy to take action to advance equal pay. Today we are announcing new signatories to the White House Equal Pay Pledge and highlighting the critical role that businesses can play in reducing the national gender pay gap.

These 44 newly-committed employers bring the total number to more than one hundred companies and organizations that collectively employ millions of Americans. The new commitments are from a diverse range of employers, including AT&T, eBay, The Estee Lauder Companies, InterContinental Hotels Group, Mastercard, Yahoo, Square and Zillow Group.

Equal Pay has been an Administration priority since President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law as his first piece of legislation. Policies that ensure fair pay for all Americans and that help businesses to attract the strongest talent can not only narrow the pay gap, but also boost productivity and benefit our economy.

Today, women make up nearly half of the U.S. labor force and more women than ever are the breadwinners in their families. More women are also working in positions and fields that have been traditionally occupied by men. Yet in 2015, the typical woman working full-time all year in the United States earned only 80 percent of what the typical man earned working full-time all year. The pay gap is even greater for African American and Latina women, with African American women earning 63 cents and Latina women earning 54 cents for every dollar earned by a white non-Hispanic man. The gender wage gap continues to be a very real and persistent problem that continues to shortchange American women and their families.

Employers for Pay Equity Business Consortium

This year on Womens Equality Day, a group of White House Equal Pay Pledge employers formed an independent business consortium, Employers for Pay Equityto help private industry players share best practices and develop better hiring, promotion, and pay policies. Today, Employers for Pay Equity is announcing a partnership with Simmons College to carry the consortiums work forward. Simmons College will play a leading role in hosting the consortium to establish pay equity as a best business practice and a means to grow a more equitable workforce for all Americans.

These private sector companies and organizations share a commitment to equal pay and their pledges build on the Administrations record of empowering women and girls.

By signing the Equal Pay Pledge, these employers are:
Reading is gateway to empathy during holidays

West Lafayette, Indiana - A Purdue University professor recommends reading, including books without words, to help children understand the thoughts and feelings of others, which can be particularly important during the holidays.

Judy Lysaker, associate professor in the College of Education, said understanding other people is becoming more and more important, especially at a time of year when emotions are at the forefront.

"I don't think we're doing as well as we used to in imagining what other people are thinking, feeling, believing and why," she said. "When feelings are intense and traditions emphasize those feelings, as happens during the holidays, it can be a particularly important time to understand the thoughts and feelings  the inner worlds  of others."

Reading, Lysaker said, is a vehicle for helping us all understand other people. Much of her research is in the area of wordless picture books in which the reader narrates the book's images and characters.

"You get to see how children make sense of characters, or if they attribute thoughts or feelings to them as they narrate orally," she said. "It's an indication that they're imagining the inner worlds and realties of others in the story."

Determining a person's thoughts, feelings and beliefs in a story is called social imagination. It allows a person to imagine the context clues such as gestures or eye contact that they would see in an actual conversation.

"Empathy and social imagination feed into the larger idea that we have a human capacity for understanding each other, and we ought to be developing that as a central part of our educational system. Reading is the perfect place to integrate that," Lysaker said.

For children, reading provides opportunities for knowing themselves and others. Reading helps to understand others because it lets children enter a vicarious social world where they can practice.

"There's no consequence if you mess up," Lysaker said. "It's a safe place to have a reaction that you might not be proud of having in a real circumstance, and you can catch yourself, take a look at your own feelings and discussion them with others  especially if you have a great teacher and a great classroom."

As we become more and more technologically advanced, Lysaker said people need to take time to ask what we understand about the world and other people.

"We are beginning to notice that social media is not necessarily improving our relationships with one another," she said. "We're not getting any better at imagining what other people are like because we're on social media all the time  especially kids in middle school and high school. It's almost as though the social media posts we consume and texts we receive become the reality of the other person, instead of us really trying to imagine their experience."
Secretary Kerry Meets With Central Asian Foreign Ministers

Washington, DC - U.S. Secretary of State Kerry met today with four Central Asian foreign ministers on the margins of the OSCE Ministerial Meeting. Welcoming ministers from Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, the Secretary regretted that the Foreign Minister of Turkmenistan was unable to make it to Hamburg while noting the continued strong commitment by all five countries to the C5+1 diplomatic platform.

The group continued the talks begun in Samarkand last November during Secretary Kerrys historic trip to Central Asia, and built upon this August in Washington. This was the fourth time the ministers have met to discuss regional issues of mutual interest, such as economic connectivity, regional security, environment and climate change, and humanitarian issues.

The Secretary congratulated the ministers on their countries 25th anniversary year of independence, and celebrated United States recognition of their independence and our support for the sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity of each of their countries.

Secretary Kerry underscored the U.S. commitment to the C5+1 diplomatic platform as a means to work with the Central Asian countries on regional and global challenges, and highlighted our support for the region. The Secretary and the four foreign ministers also discussed the progress made on the five joint projects, which were agreed upon in August at the C5+1 ministerial meeting in Washington. Secretary Kerry reiterated our commitment to the C5+1 format as we broaden and deepen our relationship with the Central Asian states.
Secretary of State John Kerry's Meeting With Civil Society Leaders

Washington, DC - Secretary of State John Kerry met with a group of civil society activists from Europe and Central Asia in Hamburg, Germany on the margins of the 23rd Ministerial Council Meeting of the 57-nation Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). The activists were participants and leaders of a parallel civil society conference convened by the Civic Solidarity Platform, a network of more than 80 non-governmental organizations from the OSCE region.

Secretary Kerry used the meeting to express the United States enduring commitment to supporting the essential work of human rights defenders, lawyers, independent journalists, and other members of civil society. He noted that only through strengthening democratic governance, respecting the rule of law, and welcoming the contributions of an informed civil society can governments achieve durable security and prosperity. He welcomed recommendations presented to him by the activists, which identified concrete areas for action by OSCE participating States and OSCE institutions.

The activists from Azerbaijan, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Ukraine, including Crimea, raised specific cases of concern and broader trends in their countries and regions. Secretary Kerry affirmed that the United States would continue to raise concerns about the shrinking space for civil society activism caused by restrictive laws and practices, such as the false labeling of civil society organizations as foreign agents, and the misuse of broad anti-extremism laws to persecute peaceful members of religious and ethnic groups and those with dissenting views.
Energy Department Accelerates Clean Energy Advancement at Federal Facilities

Washington, DC - The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced $3 million in funding for three projects to speed the adoption of energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies at facilities across the federal government. As the nations largest single user of energy, the federal government is leading by example and these projects will reduce carbon emissions, while strengthening Americas economic, energy, and environmental security.

Through DOEs standardized Energy Savings Performance Contract (ESPC) ENABLE performance contract, agencies can more quickly install energy conservation measures such as lighting and solar photovoltaics at smaller facilities as compared with a traditional ESPC but still allow agencies to make facility improvements with no added cost to the taxpayer. This supports federal goals to improve and streamline innovative financing, so agencies can achieve 30 percent of their electricity from renewable energy sources by 2025. Smaller buildings represent significant energy savings opportunities for many federal agencies.

Todays Assisting Federal Facilities with Energy Conservation Technologies (AFFECT) will help the DOEs Federal Energy Management Programs (FEMP) lead the way to bring clean energy projects to federal facilities. The selected agencies will use the AFFECT awards to institutionalize the use of ESPC ENABLE at their agency and identify a pipeline of at least 10 candidate projects sites to use ESPC ENABLE. Once established, each agency will implement energy savings projects using their new ENABLE process. Each agency will be awarded a $1 million grant. Cost shared with industry, the total investment will be over $50 million in Phase Two. Additionally, the three agencies identified a potential total investment of over $1.3 billion that these agencies could implement if they applied their ESPC ENABLE process aggressively across their portfolio of small-sized facilities.

Programs funded under the Energy Departments Federal Energy Management Program are:

Department of Agriculture (U.S. Forest Service)  This program proposes to expand its use of ENABLE from two regions to 10 regions overall. The agency has demonstrated an impressive understanding of how to institutionalize the ESPC ENABLE process within its organization, and there is high-level and broad support throughout the organization. The U.S. Forest Service is committed to developing $15 million worth of energy savings projects.

General Service Administration (Public Building Service)  This program will utilize a proven ESPC Team, the General Service Administrations (GSA) Project Management Office (PMO), to institutionalize the ESPC ENABLE process across the entire organization. GSA is committed to developing $18 million worth of energy savings projects.

Department of Defense (U.S. Air Force)  This program has identified organizational barriers experienced with performance contracting in the past, and has developed a plan to overcome them with the newly created Office of Energy Assurance (OEA) to ensure an efficient, effectively ESPC ENABLE process that will be institutionalized within the Air National Guard. Air Force is committed to developing $18 million worth of energy savings projects.

The Department's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) accelerates development and facilitates deployment of energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies and market-based solutions that strengthen U.S. energy security, environmental quality, and economic vitality.
US President-elect Donald Trump announced on Wednesday his intent to nominate Iowa's longest-serving governor Terry Branstad to be his administration's ambassador to China, an appointment well received in both China and the United States.

Though speaking no Chinese, Branstad is well-known for his long-standing friendship with China and in particular with President Xi Jinping. The two first met in 1985 during Xi's first trip to the US with an agriculture delegation from North China's Hebei province. Branstad was in his first term as governor.

Branstad invited Xi, then China's vice-president, back to Iowa in 2012. Over the years, Branstad has led four trade missions to China and made China one of the top trade partners of Iowa, a major agriculture producer of soybeans, corn and pork.

I was in Iowa in early 2013 when Branstad spoke at events marking the 30th anniversary of the sistership tie between Iowa and Hebei, established in 1983 when Branstad was governor. I interviewed him on phone in September last year just days before Xi paid a state visit to the US and before Branstad went to Seattle to meet Xi. He talked at length about how he and those in Iowa who hosted Xi in 1985 were so proud to be referred to by Xi as "old friends".

There is no doubt that Trump's decision, though described by some as a political payback, is a goodwill gesture to China and reflects his willingness to maintain good US-China relations.

This is despite his blunder last week to take the phone call from Taiwan leader Tsai Ing-wen, thus seriously breaking decades of protocol between China and the US since they established diplomatic ties in 1979.

The Chinese government has shown much restraint in responding to Trump's erratic behavior in a hope to have a smooth start with the next US administration. After all, China-US relations is just too important to be ruined by one incident.

But Trump and some of his advisors need to understand that the Taiwan question is not something to be flirted with. The question hits a nerve of each and every Chinese on the mainland and it is one of the core interests for China. Trump also needs to listen to smarter advisors when he, through his Twitter last week, accused China of depreciating its currency, an allegation that is contrary to both facts and the assessment by US Treasury Department. What the Chinese government has been doing is just the oppositepreventing the yuan from depreciating. And this is great news for the US economy, according to people like Fred Bergsten, top currency expert of Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Despite the much talk among Americans about Trump's inconsistency and unpredictability, it is too early to tell anything about Trump given his inauguration is still more than 40 days away.

However, there is much hope among many Chinese that as a businessman, Trump will be more interested in pursuing practical win-win cooperation with China instead of indulging in geopolitical games.

The third round of the China-US High-Level Joint Dialogue on Cybercrime and Related Issues held this week in Washington is a good example how the two nations can turn a once contentious issue into new highlight of bilateral cooperation. Both stand to win when they join hands to fight cybercrime and maintain a hotline instead of shouting at each other through their news media outlets.

There are so many areas for potential win-win cooperation for the two nations. Sending Branstad to China is a positive sign that Trump wants to tap that potential.
Canada, France, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom and United States Leaders' Statement on the situation in Aleppo

Washington, DC - A humanitarian disaster is taking place before our very eyes. Some 200,000 civilians, including many children, in eastern Aleppo are cut off from food and medicine supplies. Aleppo is being subjected to daily bombings and artillery attacks by the Syrian regime, supported by Russia and Iran. Hospitals and schools have not been spared. Rather, they appear to be the targets of attack in an attempt to wear people down.

The images of dying children are heart breaking. We condemn the actions of the Syrian regime and its foreign backers, especially Russia, for their obstruction of humanitarian aid, and strongly condemn the Syrian regime's attacks that have devastated civilians and medical facilities and use of barrel bombs and chemical weapons.

The urgent need now is for an immediate ceasefire to allow the United Nations to get humanitarian assistance to people in eastern Aleppo and to provide humanitarian relief to those who have fled eastern Aleppo. The opposition have agreed the UN's four point plan for Aleppo. The regime needs to agree to the plan too. We call on the Syrian regime to do this urgently to alleviate the dire situation in Aleppo; and call on Russia and Iran to use their influence to help make this happen.

We urge all parties in Syria to adhere to international humanitarian law, including the Geneva Conventions. UN SG Ban Ki-moon has spoken about war crimes being committed in Syria. There must not be impunity for those responsible. We call on the UN to investigate respective reports and gather evidence to hold the perpetrators of war crimes to account. We are ready to consider additional restrictive measures against individuals and entities that act for or on behalf of the Syrian regime.

At the same time, Russia is blocking the UN Security Council, which is therefore unable to do its work and put an end to the atrocities. The regime's refusal to engage in a serious political process also highlights the unwillingness of both Russia and Iran to work for a political solution despite their assurances to the contrary. We support the efforts of the UN Special Envoy de Mistura to resume the political process through negotiations. Only a political settlement can bring peace for people in Syria.




This Isnt Our Last Love Letter



Dear Don Don,

Way back in 92



I walked into the room and knew



Never felt this way before



I shook your hand while gazing into your eyes



And the feeling grew



As I took a seat I knew



A love that would have my heart



Forever



I knew



Way back in 92





They say love at first sight doesnt always last or isnt true



We were the exception to that rule



Our love had no where to hide



A spark set fire



As if this is how the universe started





I never doubted our love or what we could do



Together we grew



Forming a bond everlasting



That became our glue



My euphoria was YOU



Im eternally grateful for the love and life we shared



For how fortunate we were :



to have and to hold

through sickness and in health

Til death do us part



Until we are together again



This isnt our last love letter



I love you with all my heart and soul



Yours forever,



Deirdre (Mrs. Hank Snow)





Im fortunate to have fallen in love with, marry and make a life with the sharpest, coolest, funniest, most rare, bad ass, tender loving, loyal man on the planet, my husband Don Imus.









A True American Hero

I dont know why it has been so hard for me to write about my dear friend Don Imus.



I certainly know what he meant to me, my family, my charity, my hospital and the millions of fans that listened and loved him for so many years.



I keep reading all the beautiful condolences that people are writing about how much a part of their lives were effected by listening to him over the years.

But what most people dont talk enough about is what he did for all of us.

In every sense of the word, he was an American Hero. His work with children with so many different illnesses and his dedication to their future was unmatched by anyone I have ever known or heard about.



Besides raising over $100,000,000 for so many causes, he took care of young people for over 20 years in a state where he could not breathe. Along with his incredible wife Deirdre, he created a world where children were not defined by their disease. That was a miracle! He was a miracle.

I will miss him ever day for the rest of my life.

I was blessed to be a part of his and Deirdes life.

No one will ever do what he did.

I love you Don Imus - A TRUE AMERICAN HERO





David Jurist

IMUS IN THE MORNING

FIRST DAY BACK!
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Italy's education ministry received a nasty shock after a poll seeking to find out what the most beloved book among children returned an unwelcome entry.

The cross-country survey of 140,000 secondary school classrooms was intended as a means to understand which works by Italian authors were the most popular, but somehow ended up including Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf, according to La Repubblica.

Mein Kampf (My Struggle), is the partly-autobiographical work that outlined Hitler's ideology, and formed the basis for Nazism. It was written while he was imprisoned following his failed Putsch in Munich in November 1923, and published on 18 July 1925.

Ten classes in Palermo, Cantanzro (Calabria), Potenza (Basilicata), Tivoli and Gaeta in Lazio, Udine, Trieste and Piacenza, selected Hitler's book as one of their favourite reads.

Alessandro Fusacchia, from the Italian ministry for education, called the choice particularly nasty but added that the book was not eligibile for the vote in any case, because the pupils were asked to select books by Italian authors that had been published since the year 2000.

We are investigating, but we were convinced it was not a bad interpretation of the request, but rather a free voice, he said.

He noted that teachers, rather than students, had been responsible for submitting the final responses, which were chosen following class discussions about reading.

However he went on to praise the high level of participation and the variety of other books that were selected, calling it a great celebration of books and reading.

The Local reports that the top three books selected by students were Bianca come il latte, rossa come il sangue (White As Milk, Red As Blood) by Alessandro D'Avenia, Io Non Ho Paura (I'm Not Scared) by Niccolo Ammaniti, and Gomorra by Roberto Saviano.

Gomorra is a non-fiction investigative book that documents Saviano's infiltration of various aspects of daily life controlled or affected by the Camorra, a powerful mafia-like organisation which began in the region of Campania and its capital Naples.

Votes were cast for over 10,000 different titles, with a total of 138,000 schools and 3.5 million students taking part in the survey between 1 June and 1 December.

Mein Kampf recently went on sale again in Germany after a 70-year-ban by the state of Bavaria, which owned the copyright. That copyright expired on 31 December 2015 and it went back into print, with most German-Jewish organisations welcoming the publication.
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A man who gets paid $4,000 to slice a single leg of ham says he has devoted his body and soul to his craft.

Florencio Sanchidrian has cut jamon for everyone from Barack Obama to the King of Spain, and says the secret to his success is knowing the product inside out.

He told Munchies that he knows everything about the pig, from its birthplace, to where it was stored, along with the humidity and air temperature.

He said the key to being a good cortador de jamones is to try to manipulate the joint as little as possible and when serving the meat, help people appreciate it with all of their senses.

When asked if he had ever been pitted with an usual request mid-slice, Sanchidrian recalled an instance involving one of the worlds greatest actors and directors.

I remember Robert Redford asked me if he could cut the ham himself. He loved it and tried four different parts of it. He said it was outstanding.

No stranger to quirkiness, hes even been filmed slicing a whole leg while a guitarist thrums a traditional Spanish tune.

The Spaniard, who considers himself an ambassador for his countrys much loved Iberian ham, cuts the meat every year across all five continents to educate people on its prominence. But whats the big deal?

Iberian pigs are a native Spanish race of black pigs that are raised and bred only in the south west of the country in the Iberian Peninsula.

"A huge number of them live freely or partially roam free and make the most of the resources of the land, where they graze acorns and grasses. Feeding on these plants is what gives each piece its characteristic colour, flavour, aroma, and fatty texture that melts in the mouth."

Compared to other hams like Italian prosciutto it also has a more complex curing process and timespan which can take anywhere between 18 to 36 months, which is twice or more than the maturation time of a regular serrano ham".

 British butchers create the worlds most expensive sausage

Other than being recognised as one of the four gastronomic jewels of cuisine, Iberian ham is also great for your health. Unlike other red meats, it contains a large number of mono-unsaturated fatty acids which help to lower cholesterol and improve cardiovascular function.

Its a product that stands out for its high nutritional value, providing the body with natural antioxidants, protein, and numerous essential minerals and vitamins.

It is a pleasure for all of the senses.
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Makers of spirits hailed 2016 as the year of gin after it was revealed we are now drinking more of the juniper-flavoured tipple than ever.

Annual sales topped 1 billion for the first time as the UK collectively knocked back 283,000 hectolitres of the spirit, equivalent to 1.12 billion gin and tonics.

Sales in bars and restaurants rose 19 per cent in the year and the publics unquenchable thirst for the spirit has seen the booming industry open 40 new distilleries in that time.

Mothers ruin has undergone a remarkable image transformation and is now considered fashionable and sophisticated. The modern gin craze, unlike its eighteenth century predecessor, is good news for the economy as UK gin brands have benefited from Americas love for hit shows like Downton Abbey and the James Bond franchise. The UK sold 159m worth of British gin to the US in 2015 - a fivefold increase over the last decade.

WSTA chief executive Miles Beale said: There are many reasons why people may not feel like celebrating 2016 but the WSTA are pleased to give you something happy to reflect on - 2016 can now be remembered as the Great British Gin Take Off.

We hope that government supports our innovative gin makers who have driven an extraordinary increase in UK exports, up 166 per cent since 2000.

William Hogarth's, 'Gin Lane' depicted a nightmarish view of the effects of the spirit on London during the first 'Gin Craze'. (Bloomberg)

Beale also took the opportunity to urge the Government to cut excise duty. The UK spirit industry is one of the most heavily taxed in Europe with 76% of a bottle of spirits accounted for by tax, the fourth highest duty rate for spirits in the EU.

Lets make sure gin continues to boom in 2017, he said.

Sainsburys said predicts customers stocking up on booze for christmas will splash 1 million on gin on 23 December alone.

Louise Loveder, Sainsburys buyer for spirits said: Millennials in particular have developed a taste for more premium gin offerings, and are the age group most likely to push the boat out and spend more on a bottle of gin this Christmas.
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Bernie Sanders has branded US President-elect Donald Trump "a pathological liar.

The Vermont senator, who ran against Hillary Clinton to be the Democratic presidential nominee, told MSNBC Mr Trump changes his mind every single day.

He said: What do you do when you have a President-elect, soon to be President, who  and I say this not happily but I think most people who observe him would agree  is a pathological liar who changes his mind every single day?

The answer - I am working very hard on this, and we need the help of the American people obviously - is to build a movement of millions of people who actually are following reality.

Thats the challenge. Real change in this country  I am more and more convinced of it  is not going to come from Capitol Hill, its going to come from grassroots America.

The left-wing senator has been a vocal critic of the President-elect following the billionaire businessman's shock victory over Hillary Clinton in the 8 November election. Mr Sanders has previously suggested some of the claims made by the President-elect are delusional and totally insane.

Mr Trump has been accused of making a number of untrue accusations in recent weeks.

Last month he claimed the presidential election had been undermined by millions of people who voted illegally but refused to provide evidence to support his claims, leading the New York Times to brand him a liar.

He has previously claimed Barack Obama is a secret Muslim who was born outside the US, said climate change is a hoaxinvented by the Chinese and suggested during the Republican primary contest that the father of rival Ted Cruz had been involved in the shooting of President John F Kennedy.

Donald Trump's most controversial quotes Show all 14 1 /14 Donald Trump's most controversial quotes Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On Isis: "Some of the candidates, they went in and didnt know the air conditioner didnt work and sweated like dogs, and they didnt know the room was too big because they didnt have anybody there. How are they going to beat ISIS?" Getty Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On immigration: "I will build a great wall  and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me and Ill build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words." Reuters Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On Free Trade: "Free trade is terrible. Free trade can be wonderful if you have smart people. But we have stupid people." PAUL J. RICHARDS | AFP | Getty Images Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On Mexicans: "When Mexico sends its people, theyre not sending their best. Theyre sending people that have lots of problems. Theyre bringing drugs. Theyre bringing crime. Theyre rapists." Getty Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On China: "I just sold an apartment for $15 million to somebody from China. Am I supposed to dislike them?... I love China. The biggest bank in the world is from China. You know where their United States headquarters is located? In this building, in Trump Tower." Getty Images Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On work: "If you're interested in 'balancing' work and pleasure, stop trying to balance them. Instead make your work more pleasurable." AP Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On success: "What separates the winners from the losers is how a person reacts to each new twist of fate." Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On life: "Everything in life is luck." AFP Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On ambition: "You have to think anyway, so why not think big?" Getty Images Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On his opponents: "Bush is totally in favour of Common Core. I don't see how he can possibly get the nomination. He's weak on immigration. He's in favour of Common Core. How the hell can you vote for this guy? You just can't do it." Reuters Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On Obamacare: "You have to be hit by a tractor, literally, a tractor, to use it, because the deductibles are so high. It's virtually useless. And remember the $5 billion web site?... I have so many web sites, I have them all over the place. I hire people, they do a web site. It costs me $3." Getty Images Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On Barack Obama: "Obama is going to be out playing golf. He might be on one of my courses. I would invite him. I have the best courses in the world. I have one right next to the White House." PA Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On himself: "Love him or hate him, Trump is a man who is certain about what he wants and sets out to get it, no holds barred. Women find his power almost as much of a turn-on as his money." Getty Images Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On America: "The American Dream is dead. But if I get elected president I will bring it back bigger and better and stronger than ever before and we will make America great again." GETTY

The Independent has contacted Mr Trumps team for comment.

Mr Sanders, who is 75 and has been a senator since 2007, has become a leading Democrat figure after losing the partys presidential primary to Mrs Clinton in a race that proved to be much closer than many commentators expected.

The Vermont senator built up a large support base among left-wing Democrats and beat Mrs Clinton in a number of states she was expected to win easily.

Following Mr Trumps surprise election as the next US President, Mr Sanders was appointed to a senior leadership position among Democrats in the US Senate.

The President-elect is currently on a victory tour of the states that delivered him victory last month. He is also in the process of finalising appointments to his Cabinet in advance of his inauguration as President on 20 January.
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Donald Trump was crowned Times Person of the Year for being the man to dominate the news agenda so dramatically in one year.

But the President-elect isnt happy with that title - he wants something altogether more masculine, believing the gender neutral person is just Times attempt at being - you guessed it - politically correct.

Mr Trump told supporters are a rally in Iowa on Thursday night: They used to call it Man of the Year but they cant do that anymore so they call it person  they want to be politically correct, thats OK."

Unlike the US election, this title was less of a surprise. Mr Trump's ability to command headlines with controversy and provocation is unmatched, and he was recognised by Time for reminding America that demagoguery feeds on despair and that truth is only as powerful as the trust in those who speak it, for empowering a hidden electorate by mainstreaming its furies and live-streaming its fears and for framing tomorrows political culture by demolishing yesterdays.

TIME 2016 Person of the Year Shortlist Show all 11 1 /11 TIME 2016 Person of the Year Shortlist TIME 2016 Person of the Year Shortlist Simone Biles Getty TIME 2016 Person of the Year Shortlist Feng Zhang Getty TIME 2016 Person of the Year Shortlist Dr Mona Hanna-Attisha Getty TIME 2016 Person of the Year Shortlist Hillary Clinton Getty TIME 2016 Person of the Year Shortlist Recep Tayyip Erdogan Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters TIME 2016 Person of the Year Shortlist Nigel Farage Pcture: Getty TIME 2016 Person of the Year Shortlist Beyonce Getty Images TIME 2016 Person of the Year Shortlist Narenda Modi Getty TIME 2016 Person of the Year Shortlist Vladimir Putin Getty TIME 2016 Person of the Year Shortlist Donald Trump TIME 2016 Person of the Year Shortlist Mark Zuckerberg Getty Images

Mr Trump was announced as the winner of a list where figures are shortlisted based on the impact they had within the year, for better or worse. In a striking juxtaposition, Angela Merkel, the German chancellor who took direct action to alleviate the devastating refugee crisis, became the fourth woman to be announced as the Person of the Year last year, followed second by Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, the leader of Isis and the man who was one of the direct causes of it.

Mr Trump gave an interview filled with bombast about his plans for the future, including a promise that illegal immigrants who rape or kill are finished. He was otherwise vague about his policies.
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Last night, Young Thug set the internet on fire after footage surfaced online in which he disparaged several female Alaska Airline employees. In the viral footage, Thugger offers the airline workers $15,000 to quit their jobs while calling them nappy, ants, and bum b**ches. He also said they look African while trying to further insult them.

On Twitter, the consensus was to drag Thug for his offensive comments. After all, before he became a famous rapper, he was the youngest of 11 children raised by a middle-class black woman in the Jonesboro South projects in Atlanta.



The 25-year-old rapper has since tweeted and deleted an attempt to justify his comments by saying that his message wasnt meant for all black women just the two employees he berated in the video. This didn't help his case by any means. So, Thug hopped on social media on Thursday afternoon to address critics who are claiming that hes internalized anti-blackness.

Watch Young Thug address his critics in his own words below.
Four university students in rabbit costumes staged a live public welfare protest in Wuhan, Hubei province, demonstrating their opposition to fur clothing by pulling hair from subway passengers.

All four are majoring in advertising at Wuhan Huaxia University of Technology. Their stunt, which took place on Dec. 6, was a practicum for their course on advertisement execution.

The rabbit costumes were chosen as a reminder of animal fur used for clothing, since rabbit fur is commonly used to trim coats and gloves, said Zhang Mengyi, one of the four students.

"We planned the activity to make people realize how animals suffer when their fur is plucked out," she explained.

According to Zhang, passengers displayed a range of reactions to the activity. Some were frightened, but some registered indifference. Many were also angry, even though no actual hair was pulled out. Most expressed understanding after the students explained their task.

Pan Jun, the lecturer for the course, said her students' performance changed the traditional way of displaying public welfare ads, and she was therefore prepared for unexpected results. However, prior to the practicum, she reminded all her students that performance art must also obey basic etiquette and not cause social disturbance.
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A species of fish has evolved remarkably quickly so it can live in rivers and seas contaminated with highly toxic pollutants that would normally kill them, scientists have discovered.

Atlantic killifish taken from four sites on the United States east coast were found to be up to 8,000 times more resistant to a complex mix of chemicals such as dioxins, heavy metals, hydrocarbons and other substances.

The researchers sequenced the genome of nearly 400 killifish and found they had managed to adapt to their new environment.

This was because they had a high degree of genetic difference between individuals, which is a distinct advantage when the environment changes dramatically.

So when the pollution became too much for some fish in the four sites, enough killifish were able to cope  because by chance they had genetic traits that enabled them to do so  to maintain a viable population.

However the researchers cautioned that most animals would not be able to evolve fast enough to cope with such sudden changes.

Professor Andrew Whitehead, of University of California, Davis, said: Some people will see this as a positive and think, Hey, species can evolve in response to what were doing to the environment.

Unfortunately, most species we care about preserving probably cant adapt to these rapid changes because they dont have the high levels of genetic variation that allow them to evolve quickly.

Recommended Fish prefer eating plastic to food even though it could kill them

The killifish were taken from New Bedford Harbour in Massachusetts, Newark Bay in New Jersey, off Bridgeport in Connecticut, and the Elizabeth River in Virginia which had been heavily polluted since the 1950s and 1960s, the researchers reported in the journal Science.

The fishs genes were then compared to other killifish taken from unpolluted areas nearby, enabling the scientists to discover how they had evolved to cope.

Killifish are not a source of food for humans but are eaten by other marine species.

The researchers suggested there should be more research into the genes which protect against pollution, saying this might help explain why some humans and other animals are more affected by it than others.

Science news in pictures Show all 20 1 /20 Science news in pictures Science news in pictures Pluto has 'beating heart' of frozen nitrogen Pluto has a 'beating heart' of frozen nitrogen that is doing strange things to its surface, Nasa has found. The mysterious core seems to be the cause of features on its surface that have fascinated scientists since they were spotted by Nasa's New Horizons mission. "Before New Horizons, everyone thought Pluto was going to be a netball - completely flat, almost no diversity," said Tanguy Bertrand, an astrophysicist and planetary scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center and the lead author on the new study. "But it's completely different. It has a lot of different landscapes and we are trying to understand what's going on there." Getty Science news in pictures Over 400 species discovered this year by Natural History Museum The ancient invertabrate worm-like species rhenopyrgus viviani (pictured) is one of over 400 species previously unknown to science that were discovered by experts at the Natural History Museum this year PA Science news in pictures Jackdaws can identify 'dangerous' humans Jackdaws can identify dangerous humans from listening to each others warning calls, scientists say. The highly social birds will also remember that person if they come near their nests again, according to researchers from the University of Exeter. In the study, a person unknown to the wild jackdaws approached their nest. At the same time scientists played a recording of a warning call (threatening) or contact calls (non-threatening). The next time jackdaws saw this same person, the birds that had previously heard the warning call were defensive and returned to their nests more than twice as quickly on average. Getty Science news in pictures Turtle embryos influence sex by shaking The sex of the turtle is determined by the temperatures at which they are incubated. Warm temperatures favour females. But by wiggling around the egg, embryos can find the Goldilocks Zone which means they are able to shield themselves against extreme thermal conditions and produce a balanced sex ratio, according to the new study published in Current Biology journal Ye et al/Current Biology Science news in pictures Elephant poaching rates drop in Africa African elephant poaching rates have dropped by 60 per cent in six years, an international study has found. It is thought the decline could be associated with the ivory trade ban introduced in China in 2017. Reuters Science news in pictures Ancient four-legged whale discovered in Peru Scientists have identified a four-legged creature with webbed feet to be an ancestor of the whale. Fossils unearthed in Peru have led scientists to conclude that the enormous creatures that traverse the planets oceans today are descended from small hoofed ancestors that lived in south Asia 50 million years ago A. Gennari Science news in pictures Animal with transient anus discovered A scientist has stumbled upon a creature with a transient anus that appears only when it is needed, before vanishing completely. Dr Sidney Tamm of the Marine Biological Laboratory could not initially find any trace of an anus on the species. However, as the animal gets full, a pore opens up to dispose of waste Steven G Johnson Science news in pictures Giant bee spotted Feared extinct, the Wallace's Giant bee has been spotted for the first time in nearly 40 years. An international team of conservationists spotted the bee, that is four times the size of a typical honeybee, on an expedition to a group of Indonesian Islands Clay Bolt Science news in pictures New mammal species found inside crocodile Fossilised bones digested by crocodiles have revealed the existence of three new mammal species that roamed the Cayman Islands 300 years ago. The bones belonged to two large rodent species and a small shrew-like animal New Mexico Museum of Natural History Science news in pictures Fabric that changes according to temperature created Scientists at the University of Maryland have created a fabric that adapts to heat, expanding to allow more heat to escape the body when warm and compacting to retain more heat when cold Faye Levine, University of Maryland Science news in pictures Baby mice tears could be used in pest control A study from the University of Tokyo has found that the tears of baby mice cause female mice to be less interested in the sexual advances of males Getty Science news in pictures Final warning to limit "climate catastrophe" The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has issued a report which projects the impact of a rise in global temperatures of 1.5 degrees Celsius and warns against a higher increase Getty Science news in pictures Nobel prize for evolution chemists The nobel prize for chemistry has been awarded to three chemists working with evolution. Frances Smith is being awarded the prize for her work on directing the evolution of enzymes, while Gregory Winter and George Smith take the prize for their work on phage display of peptides and antibodies Getty/AFP Science news in pictures Nobel prize for laser physicists The nobel prize for physics has been awarded to three physicists working with lasers. Arthur Ashkin (L) was awarded for his "optical tweezers" which use lasers to grab particles, atoms, viruses and other living cells. Donna Strickland and Gerard Mourou were jointly awarded the prize for developing chirped-pulse amplification of lasers Reuters/AP Science news in pictures Discovery of a new species of dinosaur The Ledumahadi Mafube roamed around 200 million years ago in what is now South Africa. Recently discovered by a team of international scientists, it was the largest land animal of its time, weighing 12 tons and standing at 13 feet. In Sesotho, the South African language of the region in which the dinosaur was discovered, its name means "a giant thunderclap at dawn" Viktor Radermacher / SWNS Science news in pictures Birth of a planet Scientists have witnessed the birth of a planet for the first time ever. This spectacular image from the SPHERE instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope is the first clear image of a planet caught in the very act of formation around the dwarf star PDS 70. The planet stands clearly out, visible as a bright point to the right of the center of the image, which is blacked out by the coronagraph mask used to block the blinding light of the central star. ESO/A. Muller et al Science news in pictures New human organ discovered that was previously missed by scientists Layers long thought to be dense, connective tissue are actually a series of fluid-filled compartments researchers have termed the interstitium. These compartments are found beneath the skin, as well as lining the gut, lungs, blood vessels and muscles, and join together to form a network supported by a mesh of strong, flexible proteins Getty Science news in pictures Previously unknown society lived in Amazon rainforest before Europeans arrived, say archaeologists Working in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, a team led by archaeologists at the University of Exeter unearthed hundreds of villages hidden in the depths of the rainforest. These excavations included evidence of fortifications and mysterious earthworks called geoglyphs Jose Iriarte Science news in pictures One in 10 people have traces of cocaine or heroin on fingerprints, study finds More than one in 10 people were found to have traces of class A drugs on their fingers by scientists developing a new fingerprint-based drug test. Using sensitive analysis of the chemical composition of sweat, researchers were able to tell the difference between those who had been directly exposed to heroin and cocaine, and those who had encountered it indirectly. Getty Science news in pictures Nasa releases stunning images of Jupiter's great red spot The storm bigger than the Earth, has been swhirling for 350 years. The image's colours have been enhanced after it was sent back to Earth. Pictures by: Tom Momary

If we know the kinds of genes that can confer sensitivity in another vertebrate animal like us, perhaps we can understand how different humans, with their own mutations in these important genes, might react to these chemicals, Professor Whitehead said.

George Gilchrist, programme director at the US National Science Foundation's Division of Environmental Biology, which helped fund the study, said the research had found just one molecular pathway had enabled the killifish to tolerate normally lethal levels of pollutants.

This pathway may play a similar role in many animals exposed to pollutants, with slightly different adaptations in response to different toxicants, he said.
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The number of Britons developing the two most common forms of skin cancer is set to soar because people are taking more foreign holidays, scientists have warned.

Cases of non-melanoma skin cancers (NMSC) are forecast to rise by 78 per cent by 2025 as people are exposed to harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays during increasingly common overseas breaks.

The study, which was published in the British Journal of Dermatology, found there were likely to be around 380,000 cases of NMSC in 2025  up from 213,000 in 2015.

Scientists did not include the deadliest type of skin cancer, called melanoma, but this is also expected to become more common.

Treating the skin cancer epidemic will cost the NHS up to 465m a year by 2025, a sharp rise on the 261m spent in 2010.

Researchers from Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital and the National Cancer Registration and Analysis Service used official data to predict the rise.

Dr Nick Levell, president of the British Association of Dermatologists and one of the authors of the study, said "NMSC is largely a disease of older people, as it is mainly linked with cumulative sun exposure, and so numbers will increase with changing UK demographics, producing a growing burden on healthcare resources.

"However, the ageing population isnt the only reason why we are seeing these increases. Other factors include the rise in affordable foreign holidays, which has allowed more people to visit sunny climates, and the widespread popularity of tanned skin in British society, encouraging people to spend more time in the sun and on sunbeds."

13 ways to help prevent cancer Show all 13 1 /13 13 ways to help prevent cancer 13 ways to help prevent cancer Stopping smoking. This notoriously difficult habit to break sees tar build-up in the lungs and DNA alteration and causes 15,558 cancer deaths a year 13 ways to help prevent cancer Avoiding the sun, and the melanoma that comes with overexposure to harmful UV rays, could help conscientious shade-lovers dodge being one of the 7,220 people who die from it 13 ways to help prevent cancer A diet that is low in red meat can help to prevent bowel cancer, according to the research - with 30 grams a day recommended for men, and 25 a day recommended for women 13 ways to help prevent cancer Foods high in fibre, meanwhile, can further make for healthier bowels. Processed foods in developed countries appear to be causing higher rates of colon cancer than diets in continents such as Africa, which have high bean and pulse intakes 13 ways to help prevent cancer Two servings of fruit and three servings of vegetables a day were given as the magic number for good diet in the research. Overall, diet causes only slightly fewer cancer deaths than sun exposure in Australia, at 7,000 a year 13 ways to help prevent cancer Obesity and being overweight, linked to poor diet and lack of exercise, causes 3,917 deaths by cancer a year on its own Getty 13 ways to help prevent cancer Dying of a cancer caused by infection also comes in highly, linked to 3,421 cancer deaths a year. Infections such as human papilloma virus - which can cause cervical cancer in women - and hepatitis - can be prevented by vaccinations and having regular check-ups 13 ways to help prevent cancer Cutting back on drinks could reduce the risk of cancers caused by alcohol - such as liver cancer, bowel cancer, breast cancer and mouth cancer - that are leading to 3,208 deaths a year 2014 Getty Images 13 ways to help prevent cancer Sitting around and not getting the heart pumping - less than one hour's exercise a day - is directly leading to about 1,800 people having lower immune functions and higher hormone levels, among other factors, that cause cancers 2011 Getty Images 13 ways to help prevent cancer Hormone replacement therapy, which is used to relieve symptoms of the menopause in women, caused 539 deaths from (mainly breast) cancer in Australia last year. It did, however, prevent 52 cases of colorectal cancers 2003 Getty Images 13 ways to help prevent cancer Insufficient breastfeeding, bizarrely, makes the top 10. Breastfeeding for 12 months could prevent 235 cancer cases a year, said the research AFP/Getty Images 13 ways to help prevent cancer Oral contraceptives, like the Pill, caused about 105 breast cancers and 52 cervical cancers - but it also prevented about 1,440 ovarian and uterine (womb) cases of cancer last year 2006 Getty Images 13 ways to help prevent cancer Taking aspirin also prevented 232 cases in the Queensland research of colorectal and oesophagal cancers - but as it can also cause strokes, is not yet recommended as a formal treatment against the risk of cancer

Experts also said the NHS was under-equipped to cope with the rise in skin cancer cases.

Matthew Gass, of the British Association of Dermatologists, said: The UK has been fighting to combat the rising tide of skin cancer over the last few decades, and this research shows that things are going to get worse.

As it stands many dermatology departments are struggling to manage the increasing rates of skin cancer, at a cost to people with other skin diseases. This situation will be made even worse by rising staff shortages.

"We are not being allowed to train an adequate number of doctors to cope with the current workload in dermatology resulting in almost a quarter of consultant dermatologist posts in the UK being unfilled.

This workforce shortage will only get worse in the future.

NMSC cancers consist of basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and the less common squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). They killed 781 people in the UK in 2014, according to official statistics.

Non-melanoma skin cancers can occur anywhere on the body but are most common on areas of skin that are exposed to the sun. They appear gradually and tend to get bigger over time.

NMSC often look like a scab or sore, lump, or scaly patch of skin appears red or inflamed. They are usually treatable when caught early but will not go away by themselves.
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Two brothers convicted of a "sadistic" attack on two boys when aged 10 and 11 have been granted anonymity.

A senior judge on Friday granted indefinite anonymity to the brothers - who were given custodial terms after admitting causing grievous bodily harm following the attack in Edlington, South Yorkshire, in 2009 - at a High Court hearing in London.

The boys were lured away from a park to a secluded spot after being promised to shown a toad.

They were then subjected to a 90-minute assault where they were throttled, hit with bricks, made to eat nettles and stripped and forced to sexually abuse each other.

Sir Geoffrey Vos - who heard that the brothers have new identities, are no longer in custody and are now both in their late teens - said he was satisfied that the anonymity order was in the public interest.

He said neither the brothers' original names nor their new identities could be revealed.

Phillippa Kaufmann QC was instructed by staff from the Official Solicitor's office, which helps vulnerable people involved in court cases.

She said evidence showed that there was a "real possibility" that the brothers would be attacked by vigilantes if their names became known.

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The application had been made as the younger brother approached his 18th birthday.

It was not formally opposed by any media organisation - although a reporter covering the hearing argued that journalists should be allowed to reveal the brothers' original names.

Another judge had already granted the pair anonymity until they were 18.

The case shocked the nation when it first came to light in 2009 and a damning review of the Doncaster social services failures lead to the unqualified apology from the authoritys director.

Recommended Damning report finds children are at risk due to poor social services

The chairman of the Doncaster Safeguarding Children Board, Roger Thompson, said at the time that the case was preventable and many important lessons needed to be learnt.

Nick Jarman, the interim director of Doncaster social services, said in response to the reviews findings: "I would like to start by offering an unqualified apology on behalf of Doncaster Council for the admitted failings which led to this terrible incident.

"In particular, I would like to apologise to the victim of this case and their families and offer my apologies also to the residents of Doncaster."

In 2012, then Education Secretary said the Doncaster Safeguarding Children Board report was inadequate and that the nine agencies involved with the family missed 31 opportunities to intervene.
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The number of male victims of domestic abuse has gone up while the rate among women has fallen, according to new figures.

About 1.2 million women and 651,000 men said they were domestic abuse victims in England and Wales in the year to March 2016, the smallest gap between the sexes on record.

This equates to 7.7 per cent of women and 4.4 per cent of men, compared with 8.8 and 4 per cent respectively in the previous year.

Recommended Number of women convicted of domestic violence at record high

Around 1.03 million domestic abuse-related offences were reported to police and accounted for one in 10 of all crimes recorded.

According to data released by the Office for National Statistics, police concluded a crime was committed in 421,000 of these incidents.

However only 100,930 cases were actually prosecuted, leading to 75,235 convictions, representing about 7.5 per cent of reports to police and just four per cent of the figure produced by the survey.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 31 October 2022 GBs James Hall competes during the mens parallel bars qualification at the World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 October 2022 People dressed in Halloween costumes paddle board along the river Avon in Christchurch, Dorset PA UK news in pictures 29 October 2022 Members of the public take pictures as police officers remove activists from a road during a Just Stop Oil protest, in London Reuters 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, 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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 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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

Women are far more likely than men to be killed as a result of domestic violence, according to the ONS.

Of the 432 domestic homicides between April 2012 and March 2015, 73 per cent were female and 27 per cent were male.

Polly Neate, chief executive of charity Womens Aid, welcomed the latest statistics as a means of highlighting domestic abuse, but said they failed to reflect the true situation.

She said the figures do not take into account important context, including the impact of abuse on the victim, the severity of the violence, where there were multiple incidents, or if they formed a pattern of coercive control.

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It would be dangerous to interpret these figures without taking these crucial factors into consideration, said Ms Neate.

We know that nearly half of women killed in the UK are killed by an intimate partner or former partner, compared with six per cent of men killed and not always by a woman, and we know that the overwhelming majority of victims of repeated patterns of coercion and control, are women, and that on average two women a week are killed by a partner or ex-partner in England and Wales.

We are talking to the ONS about these serious concerns and working with them to make sure the data captured is relevant, accurate and helpful in tackling domestic abuse and ending violence against women and girls.

 Fifty Shades domestic abuse - London Live

Women's Aid added that domestic abuse convictions may often fall through because women decide not to pursue charges and there may not be enough evidence for the CPS.

The number of women convicted of domestic violence has tripled, from 1,850 to 5,741, over the past decade.

Domestic abuse is defined as any incident, or pattern of incidents of controlling, coercive, threatening behaviour, violence or abuse between those aged 16 or over who are, or have been, intimate partners or family members regardless of gender or sexuality.

It can also involve psychological, physical, sexual, financial or emotional abuse.
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The fates of more than 1,000 refugee children are hanging in the balance after the British Government ended the current phase of transfers from France to the UK, campaigners have said.

A final group of 79 children who lived in the Calais Jungle was due to take place on Friday, bringing the total number who have arrived in Britain to at least 500 since the camp was demolished in October.

The vast majority are believed to have family members in the UK, giving them the right to be reunited under the EU Dublin Regulation, while the remainder were resettled under an Immigration Act amendment proposed by Lord Alf Dubs, who came to Britain as a child refugee from Nazi Germany.

 Calais jungle children given special welcome in Croydon

Im dismayed to learn that the emergency transfer scheme is to cease having only just begun, he said.

Had the bridge been pulled up so soon after the start of the Kindertransport, through which my life was saved, many of us would never have made it to Britain.

Lord Dubs urged the Government to continue work to shut down people trafficking and protect the most vulnerable migrants and refugees trying to reach the UK.

The Citizens UK group said hundreds of refugee children who remain in French centers have a right to reach Britain either under EU law or the Dubs amendment.

Members warned that any delay in transfers could fuel the emergence of more refugee camps in northern France as people risk their lives to cross the English Channel by jumping on lorries, trains or ferries.

Desperate children will not stop trying to reach their families here in Britain, said Rabbi Janet Darley, a spokesperson for Citizens UK, said.

By closing the door once again the Home Office will leave hundreds no choice but to head back to Northern France to risk their lives.

Calais Refugee Children arrive in UK Show all 9 1 /9 Calais Refugee Children arrive in UK Calais Refugee Children arrive in UK A coach carrying the first group of unaccompanied minors from the Jungle migrant camp in Calais to be brought to Britain arrives at an immigration centre in Croydon, south London Reuters Calais Refugee Children arrive in UK A Catholic priest chats to Muslim Imans as they wait for the arrival of the coach carrying the first group of unaccompanied minors from the Jungle migrant camp in Calais to be brought to Britain arrives at an immigration centre in Croydon, south London Reuters Calais Refugee Children arrive in UK Fourteen migrant children from the 'Jungle Camp' in Calais are due to arrive in the UK today to be reunited with relatives Getty Calais Refugee Children arrive in UK Young men are escorted after stepping off a coach at the Home Offices Lunar House Getty Calais Refugee Children arrive in UK A boy is escorted after stepping off a coach at the Home Offices Lunar House after arriving from the Calais 'Jungle Camp' Getty Calais Refugee Children arrive in UK UK Border Force staff escort the first group of unaccompanied minors from the Jungle migrant camp in Calais to be brought to Britain as they arrive at an immigration centre in Croydon, south London Reuters Calais Refugee Children arrive in UK A young boy arrives on a coach at the Home Offices Lunar House after leaving the Calais 'Jungle Camp.' Fourteen migrant children from the 'Jungle Camp' in Calais are due to arrive in the UK today to be reunited with relatives Getty Calais Refugee Children arrive in UK British former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, center, flanked by Bethany Gardiner-Smith, left, from the Citizens UK charity and Bishop of Croydon Jonathan Clark speaks to the media about the 14 migrant children who will be resettled in the UK, outside Croydon Minster church in Croydon, south London AP Calais Refugee Children arrive in UK Asif Khan whose brother Aimal Khan was one of fourteen migrant children who arrived in the UK, speaks to the media outside Lunar House in Croydon, south London. The 25-year-old chef has been living in the UK for 11 years, having fled Afghanistan himself. His brother Aimal Khan, 14, also from Afghanistan, had been stranded in the Jungle for six months PA

The alternative to the safe and legal routes, that these children are entitled to, are unsafe and illegal ones - train tracks on the one hand and people traffickers on the other hand.

Bishop Jonathan Clark said news of the sped up transfers ending would be welcomed by no one but the people traffickers of Calais who make a terrible living out of the failure of British and French authorities to honour their obligations.

The Refugee Youth Service (RYS) warned last month that a third of the children it was tracking in October had already gone missing, prompting grave concerns for their wellbeing.

They were among around 1,700 children who were moved from the Jungle to state care on 2 November.

Amber Rudd previously warned that British authorities would not accept any new unaccompanied minors arriving in Calais after the clearance started.

The Home Secretary told MPs that no new arrivals would be considered over fears of encouraging more children to make the perilous journey to the French port.

Through this process it is important we do not encourage more children to head to Calais, risking their lives in the hands of traffickers, she added.

Refugee girls walk towards an official meeting point set by French authorities as part of the evacuation of the Calais Jungle on 24 October 2016 (AFP/Getty Images)

That's why we will only consider those present in the camps before the start of clearances of the operation.

Stand Up to Racism campaigners were planning to send a delegation to Calais in support of thousands of refugees still living around the French port on Saturday.

The Home Office said only the current phrase of transfers started as a consequence of the Jungles demolition had stopped, as part of plans drawn up with French authorities.

Robert Goodwill, the minister for immigration, said more than 750 refugee children have arrived in the UK so far, with many reunited with family members and other cared for by local authorities.

The remaining children are safe and in the care of the French authorities, he added.

The Dubs process has not ended. More eligible children will be transferred from Europe, in line with the terms of the Immigration Act, in the coming months and we will continue to meet our obligations under the Dublin Regulation.

Officials said the Government needed to insure that the number of children taken was in line with available local authority capacity but did not specify any limit on numbers.

More than 4,700 refugees have died attempting treacherous sea journeys to Europe this year  the deadliest on record  and many more have died attempting to enter Britain by jumping on lorries, trying to walk through the Channel Tunnel or swim across.
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Around 200 lawyers and academics have said moves by the UK and other nations to discourage support for the pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement may violate fundamental human rights.

An open letter signed by legal experts from Britain and 14 other European nations said the boycott of Israeli companies and goods manufactured in the Occupied Palestinian Territories was a lawful exercise of freedom of expression.

France, the United Kingdom, Canada and certain state legislatures in the United States, have adopted laws and taken executive action to suppress, outlaw and in some instances, criminalise the advocacy of BDS, the letter added.

US: BDS-supporting groups defy state funding cuts

Such measures aim to punish individuals, companies and private and public institutions that adopt ethically and legally responsible business, investment and procurement decisions.

In February, the Cabinet Office issued guidance saying that apart from where legal sanctions, embargoes and restrictions have been imposed, procurement boycotts by public authorities were inappropriate.

In a statement, it said such boycotts undermine good community relations, poisoning and polarising debate, weakening integration and fuelling anti-Semitism.

Any public body found to be in breach of the regulations could be subject to severe penalties, it added, without specifying what they would be.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, welcomed the move but it was met with consternation from the Palestine Liberation Organisation and BDS movement.

Leicester City Council is among those to have boycotted products produced in Israeli settlements in the West Bank with a law passed in 2014.

But it was cleared of anti-Semitism alongside two other councils at the High Court in June after the charity Jewish Human Rights Watch lodged a complaint.

Anti-boycott measures were signed into the US Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) by Barack Obama last year, while BDS activists have been found guilty of inciting discrimination in France and the Canadian parliament passed an anti-boycott motion in Feburary.

Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are widely regarded as illegal under international law, with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights expressing fresh concern over the issue on Thursday.

Zeid Raad al-Hussein said proposed legislation in Israel that would allow the retroactive legalisation of construction on privately owned Palestinian land would violate international law.

The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Show all 10 1 /10 The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Medics evacuate a wounded man from the scene of an attack in Jerusalem. A Palestinian rammed a vehicle into a bus stop then got out and started stabbing people before he was shot dead AP The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Israeli ZAKA emergency response members carry the body of an Israeli at the scene of a shooting attack in Jerusalem. A pair of Palestinian men boarded a bus in Jerusalem and began shooting and stabbing passengers, while another assailant rammed a car into a bus station before stabbing bystanders, in near-simultaneous attacks that escalated a month long wave of violence AP The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Getty Images The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Palestinians throw molotov cocktail during clashes with Israeli troops near Ramallah, West Bank. Recent days have seen a series of stabbing attacks in Israel and the West Bank that have wounded several Israelis AP The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Women cry during the funeral of Palestinian teenager Ahmad Sharaka, 13, who was shot dead by Israeli forces during clashes at a checkpoint near Ramallah, at the family house in the Palestinian West Bank refugee camp of Jalazoun, Ramallah AP The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies A wounded Palestinian boy and his father hold hands at a hospital after their house was brought down by an Israeli air strike in Gaza Reuters The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Palestinians look on after a protester is shot by Israelis soldiers during clashes at the Howara checkpoint near the West Bank city of Nablus EPA The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies A lawyer wearing his official robes kicks a tear gas canister back toward Israeli soldiers during a demonstration by scores of Palestinian lawyers called for by the Palestinian Bar Association in solidarity with protesters at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City, near Ramallah, West Bank AP The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Undercover Israeli soldiers detain a Palestinian in Ramallah Reuters The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Palestinian youth burn tyres during clashes with Israeli soldiers close to the Jewish settlement of Bet El, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, after Israel barred Palestinians from Jerusalem's Old City as tensions mounted following attacks that killed two Israelis and wounded a child

At least 570,000 Israeli settlers live in around 130 settlements and 100 outposts in the West Bank according to UN figures.

The open letter said the BDS movement aimed to encourage Israels compliance with international law and that states that outlaw BDS are undermining this basic human right and threatening the credibility of human rights by exempting a particular state.

Signatories include Sir Geoffrey Bindman QC, chair of the British Institute of Human Rights, Alain Pellet, Chevalier of the Legion d'Honneur in France, Guy Goodwin-Gill, a former legal adviser to the UN and Lauri Hannikainen, a member of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance.

A spokesperson for the British Government said it had made its position on boycotts clear.

While we do not hesitate to express disagreement with Israel whenever we feel it necessary, we are firmly opposed to boycotts, he added.

We believe that imposing sanctions on Israel or supporting anti-Israeli boycotts would not support our efforts to progress the peace process and achieve a negotiated solution.

The position potentially conflicts with the Foreign Offices Overseas Business Risk assessment for Israel states that the Government does not encourage or offer support to business with the occupied territories.

EU guidelines introduced in November 2015 also require products made in settlements to be labelled as such, rather than being marked Made in Israel.
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A teenager who was stabbed to death in London has been identified as a former child refugee who spent time in the Calais Jungle.

Khalid Safi was attacked outside a Tesco store in Acton last week. He was rushed to hospital but later died, with the postmortem giving cause of death as a stab wound through the heart.

The 18-year-old settled in the UK five years ago after fleeing his home in war-torn Afghanistan.

Khalid, who had recently moved to London to work at his uncles business in Croydon, had spent time in foster care in Peterborough and Birmingham after arriving in the UK alone.

Friends told of their devastation at his death after he came in search of a peaceful life.

Khalid Safi was stabbed to death in Acton on 1 December (Metropolitan Police)

He came here for a better and more peaceful life but he was still murdered. It shows that youre not safe anywhere, Akii Ahmadzai, who had been friends with Khalid for five years, told the Standard.

He was like a brother to me, its a really emotional time. Khalid was a lovely guy who never had anything bad in his heart.

The attack happened around 6:30pm on 1 December in the Victoria Road area of Acton.

A 19-year-old woman was arrested in Redbridge on 7 December on suspicion of conspiracy to murder. She has been bailed to return on a date in early January 2017.

Officers have appealed for witnesses to come forward.

Detective Chief Inspector Sam Price said: There were a lot of people in the area of Victoria Road at the time of the incident and, while we have spoken to several people, I believe that not everyone has come forward at this time.

Contact police with information on 020 8721 4054 or contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
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Large international banks in Britain are pleading to remain subject to European Union laws for up to five years after Brexit.

In a submission to the Treasury, drafted by three of the UKs biggest law firms, the finance giants ask to stay under the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice as part of a transition period.

The latest twist is another headache for Theresa May's Government as it works to trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty by March next year, which would begin a two-year countdown to the UK's departure from the EU.

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The report has been received as a fairly serious piece of work, one banker at a large international firm told news agency Reuters.

It focuses on the legal underpinning of a transitional arrangement. Its a heavyweight legal piece of work.

The document warns of the potential shock to the British and European economies if the transition period is limited to just two years after Article 50 is invoked.

According to Reuters, some Treasury officials support the proposal, but Ms May and Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, David Davis, have not committed to it publicly.

The Treasury has said that Chancellor Philip Hammond is listening closely to the financial sectors views.

If a deal is not struck, the submission says there is a risk that some banks will have to freeze some of their EU business operations, because they will not have sufficient time to rearrange their operations and set up subsidiaries on the Continent.

 Former Attorney General condemns 'vitriolic' attacks on Brexit judges

It normally takes banks as long as three years to relocate, and regulators will be flooded with requests during Brexit, the document warns.

"This is important in order to avoid potential damage to the 'real economy' that is reliant upon uninterrupted access to financial services," it adds.

A number of banks are in "advanced talks" over a mass move to Paris, according to a French regulator.

 Brexit battle: Supreme Court hearing begins

Richard Tice, co-chairman of the Leave Means Leave campaign, which is backing a 'hard Brexit', claimed the banks were exaggerating.

"This is nonsense. It is just the banks, frankly, not dealing with the issue," said property developer Mr Tice, who co-founded the Leave.EU campaign with Ukip donar Arron Banks.

The country voted for change and the sooner they wake up and accept it the better.

Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Show all 12 1 /12 Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Brexit protest: Thousands march in London A woman poses with a home-made European Union flag as Remain supporters gather on Park Lane in London to show their support for the EU in the wake of Brexit PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Remain supporters demonstrate in Parliament Square PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Tens of thousands of people gathered to protest the result of the EU referendum PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London A majority of people in the capital voted to remain in the European Union Reuters Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Protesters chanted: What do we want to do? Stay in the EU PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London The march follows a similar rally in Trafalgar Square that was cancelled due to heavy rain  but which tens of thousands of people turned up to anyway Reuters Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Britain voted to leave the European Union in a referendum by 52 per cent to 48 per cent Reuters Brexit protest: Thousands march in London But support for the Leave campaign in urban areas and among young people was significantly lower Rex features Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Marchers gathered at Park Lane at 11am and marched towards Parliament Square PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Some protesters held up baguettes in a display of affection for our continental neighbours PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London The disparity between different parts of the country has promoted a four million signature petition calling for a second referendum and even a renewed push for Scotland to cede from the UK PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London The events organiser, Kings College graduate Kieran MacDermott, wrote: We can prevent Brexit by refusing to accept the referendum as the final say and take our finger off the self-destruct button" Reuters

The paper was drawn up by law firms Linklaters, Freshfields and Clifford Chance, and was described as "technical support to those developing a negotiating position for the UK". All the law firms declined to comment to Reuters.

Finance accounts for around 10 per cent of Britain's GDP, compared to about four per cent in Germany.

The document suggests the European Court of Justice, detested by British eurosceptics, should settle any disputes during the transition.

"We well understand the political sensitivity to that proposition," it adds.

The Supreme Court, which has retired to consider whether Theresa May has the power to trigger Article 50 herself or whether she needs parliament's approval, heard a "six-year-old child" could see the flaws in the Government's plan.

A 55-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of threatening Gina Miller, the businesswoman spearheading the legal challenge, online.
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A senior Conservative and former Foreign Secretary has suggested Boris Johnson be turfed out of the Foreign Office, following the row over comments he made on Saudi Arabia.

Sir Malcolm Rifkind said a foreign secretaries should not be celebrities and indicated that Mr Johnson could even be dangerous in the role and may be more comfortable in another job.

It comes as Mr Johnson prepares for an awkward meeting with Saudi rulers, after being recorded saying the country is playing proxy wars in the Middle East, and that the regions nations lack strong leadership.

The footage was hugely embarrassing for Theresa May who had only just returned from the Gulf on a relationship-building trip.

Tory grandee Sir Malcolm said: He's made his extraordinary impact, both in Britain and elsewhere, as a celebrity. As a foreign secretary you can't be a celebrity. Harold Macmillan was once Foreign Secretary and in his memoirs he said foreign ministers are either dull or dangerous  well, Boris certainly isn't dull.

Asked if Mr Johnson was fit for the job, Sir Malcolm told BBC Radio Four's Today programme: The jury's out, if I can put it that way. This is early days. It's a question of his temperament.

 Boris Johnson: Saudi Arabia is playing proxy wars

The rest of the world are entitled to know that when Boris Johnson, as Britain's Foreign Secretary, speaks, they are hearing the United Kingdom's foreign policy. They should not be expected to assume that what he says publicly on one occasion may be completely in conflict with that foreign policy.

What I am saying is, he might end up being more comfortable in another senior Cabinet position.

Mr Johnson will deliver a keynote speech at a major regional conference in Bahrain on Friday before heading to Saudi Arabia on Sunday.

Ms May's official spokesperson said the Prime Minister had full confidence in Mr Johnson but told reporters his comments at a conference in Italy were his own personal view and did not reflect Government policy.

 Sky News presenter gives Boris Johnson a 'pub quiz'

She pointedly noted that Mr Johnson will have the opportunity to set out official policy, of Britain's desire to strengthen ties with Saudi Arabia and support for its controversial military involvement in Yemen, when he travels to the kingdom.

Ms May spoke with Saudi King Salman during her visit to the Gulf this week, when she assured him she would be enhancing and strengthening their relationship.

The Guardian published footage of Mr Johnson's comments to the Med2 conference in Rome last week, in which he lumped Saudi Arabia in with Iran when he raised concerns about puppeteering in the region.

He said: "There are politicians who are twisting and abusing religion and different strains of the same religion in order to further their own political objectives. That's one of the biggest political problems in the whole region.

Theresa May descends the steps of her plane upon arrival at Sakhir Airbase in Bahrain (Getty Images)

And the tragedy for me  and that's why you have these proxy wars being fought the whole time in that area  is that there is not strong enough leadership in the countries themselves.

The Foreign Secretary said there were not enough big characters in the region who were willing to reach out beyond their Sunni or Shia group. He said: That's why you've got the Saudis, Iran, everybody, moving in and puppeteering and playing proxy wars.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "As the Foreign Secretary made very clear on Sunday, we are allies with Saudi Arabia and support them in their efforts to secure their borders and protect their people. Any suggestion to the contrary is wrong and misinterpreting the facts."

Tory member of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee Nadhim Zahawi defended Mr Johnson, saying: Whether it's the Saudi diplomats, or the Bahrainis, or the Kuwaitis, they absolutely rate Boris Johnson, as do his colleagues in the Foreign Office. This is a storm in a teacup. There is nothing here.
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Boris Johnson has used his first speech since his controversial comments about Saudi Arabia, to underline his "profound concern" at the suffering of people in Yemen.

Mr Johnson said stability in Yemen, which has been heavily bombarded by a Saudi-led coalition, could not be brought about by force alone.

It follows reports that Mr Johnson has refused to apologise for his claim last week that Saudi is involved in a "proxy war" in Yemen  words which embarrassed Theresa May who had just returned from a relationship-building trip to the Gulf.

The furore over those comments has also sparked a row in the Tory party, with critics claiming Mr Johnson should leave the Foreign Office and others backing him, like Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson who said he is "absolutely right".

After outlining his "profound concern" over suffering in Yemen at an event hosted by the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Bahrain today, Mr Johnson went on: "I think we can all agree on at least this key point, that force alone will not bring about a stable Yemen. Thats why we in London have been working so hard with all our partners to drive that political process forwards.

"The same point about the need above all for a political solution can be made about every other conflict and struggle in this region."

Mr Johnson sought to realign his rhetoric in some way with Ms Mays by launching an attack on Russian and Iranian backing for the regime of Bashar Assad in Syria.

 Boris Johnson caught on video accusing ally Saudi Arabia of playing proxy wars

But at the Med2 conference in Rome last week, Mr Johnson accused all politicians in the region of "twisting and abusing religionin order to further their own political objectives."

He added: "And thats why you have these proxy wars being fought the whole time in that areathere is not strong enough leadership in the countries themselves."

Mr Johnson then lumped the Saudis in with Iran suggesting the two nations are both "puppeteering and playing proxy wars".

Afterwards, Ms Mays official spokesperson said the Foreign Secretarys comments were his own view and did not reflect Government policy, and indicated Mr Johnson would have a chance to recant when he visits Saudi leaders on Sunday.

Despite the reported incidents of civilian deaths and the worsening humanitarian situation in Yemen, the UK has signed off 3.3bn in arms sales to Saudi Arabia since the start of its offensive, with the Foreign Secretary himself having previously defended the exports.

The row over Mr Johnson's original comments continued today after Ms Davidson told BBC Radio 4s Westminster Hour: "I think Boris Johnson was absolutely right about what he said about proxy ways, and about Saudi and about Iran.

 The world has forgotten the Yemen war, says senior UN humanitarian official

"And I agree with his analysis. Now, that might not be the position of the UK Government, but guess what? I am not in the UK Government and I think he was right."

On Downing Streets treatment of the Foreign Secretary she said: "I think there is a longstanding diplomatic convention about not panning your allies in public.

"I think that this situation, particularly in Yemen, is desperate. I think that the UK Government is trying its hardest to make a dreadful situation better and I absolutely understand why the UK Government had to come out and say what it said - but I dont think Boris was wrong."

Earlier in the day ex-Tory Foreign Secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind suggested Mr Johnson could be "dangerous" in his job and indicated that it might be better if he were moved.
(Xinhua) 15:04, December 09, 2016

WASHINGTON, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- The third China-U.S. ministerial dialogue on fighting cyber crimes and other related affairs issued Thursday a list of positive fruits as the two sides worked hard to strengthen cooperation in cybersecurity.

The dialogue was co-chaired by China's State Councilor and Minister of Public Security Guo Shengkun with U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson.

During this round of dialogue, both sides endorsed the establishment of the dialogue mechanism as beneficial to bilateral communication and enhanced cooperation, and both regarded further solidifying, developing, and maintaining the dialogue mechanism as beneficial to mutual interests.

Both sides recommitted to cooperate on investigating cyber crimes and related matters emanating from China or the United Statesand to refrain from cyber-enabled theft of intellectual property with the intent of offering competitive advantages to companies or commercial sectors, said the document.

China and the United States identified a number of areas for future cooperation on enhancing cybersecurity, including enhancing network hygiene by cleaning and patching malware infections in respective networks, engaging in regular reciprocal sharing of malicious IP addresses, malware samples and other network protection information.

The two countries pledged to continue discussion on future cooperation in cybersecurity of critical infrastructure, and to hold as early as possible in 2017 a China-U.S.government and technology company roundtable to discuss cybersecurity issues of mutual concern.

As to the fight against cyber terrorism, both sides acknowledged the seminar on misuse of technology and communications to facilitate violent acts of terrorism held in November this year in China. Both sides will consider holding another seminar in 2017.

The two countries agreed that the dialogue should continue to be held each year.

In his remarks to the meeting, Guo noted that under the auspices of Chinese President Xi Jinpingand his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama, China-U.S. cooperation in safeguarding cybersecurity is booming and has yielded positive outcomes in cracking down on cyber crimes and related matters.

Calling the current China-U.S. cooperation in cybersecurity a link between past and future, Guo proposed that the two sides press on in using the dialogue mechanism as the main channel for communication in tackling cybersecurity issues, give prompt and effective response to the requests from the other side, and constructively manage their differences.

The U.S. side said that China and the United States share common interests in fighting cyber crimes and protecting cybersecurity, and the high-level dialogue mechanism also serves as a crucial platform for candid communication and enhancing mutual understanding and trust between law enforcement officials of the two countries.

According to 2014 data from the Cyberspace Administration of China, China has been a victim of cyber-attacks. More than 10,000 websites are tampered with every month, and about 80 percent of government websites suffered attacks, mainly originating in the United States.

Also, the Internet Society of China reported that 84 percent of Internet users in the country have been affected by personal information leaks. The number of Internet users in China hit 710 million in June this year.

China's top legislature in November adopted a cybersecurity law to safeguard sovereignty on cyberspace, national security and the rights of citizens.
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European Parliament chief negotiator Guy Verhofstadt has put forward a proposal for British nationals to keep associate EU citizenship after Brexit if they individually want to.

Mr Verhofstadt says he says he will be putting the idea on the table in EU negotiations and including it in his mandate. Such a proposal, if enacted would allow Brits to keep some of the benefits of European Union citizenship.

What are the details?

There arent really any, other than a few lines included in the original amendment by MEP Charles Goerens. That amendment suggested nationals of former EU member states could opt in, keep free movement rights and get a vote in the European Parliament elections.

Surely this is unworkable?

Not necessarily  dual nationality already exists. Other countries have also granted citizenship en masse to citizens of other countries before: Russia has offered passports to Russian-speaking residents of eastern Ukraine and Georgia, for instance.

So people could be subject to different rights?

Unlikely: this is about citizenship rather than jurisdiction or anything to do with courts. If as a UK citizen you go to Japan, you would be subject to Japanese laws but still retain the advantages of a UK citizen when in the UK.

Is this going to happen?

It seems doubtful. The EU would be unlikely to impose this plan without the consent of the British Government, and the Government would be unlikely to agree to it because it would politically enrage the eurosceptics that Theresa May must keep on side.

Additionally, the European Parliament is not the only part of the EU negotiating with the UK. The Council and the Commission are less likely to want to adopt the plan for a couple of reasons.

Above all, the idea may literally be too good to be true: if Brits can have their cake and eat it by leaving the bloc but keeping the advantages of EU membership, why wouldnt others do so? For EU leaders in the Council wanting to stop the collapse of the EU it may not be something they would consider for this reason.

But when we reported the original amendment, it seemed unlikely that this idea would go further than that  and it is 2016, so anything could happen.

So whats the point in this?

It certainly gives the EU negotiators an advantage in negotiations by putting something extremely popular on the table that the British Government is unlikely to agree to. It undermines the idea that Theresa May is speaking for the whole of the UK and acting in the national interest if she is throwing away the rights of large numbers of her citizens.

Similarly, the proposal also focuses minds on the advantages of EU membership, which have been completely absent from the referendum debate so far.

Guy Verhofstadt is also a liberal MEP and the Liberal Democrats in the UK will be able to back this wholeheartedly. That may or may not be deliberate.

Whatever the motivation and however unlikely it is to come to pass, this feels politically shrewd.
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A leaked memo has confirmed that Britain will enter the Brexit talks with what has been dubbed the have our cake and eat it game plan.

David Davis, the Brexit Secretary, also told a private meeting in the City of London that it would be kind to the EU if Britain agreed to strike a transitional exit deal.

The document records Mr Davis predicting that the Article 50 exit clause will be triggered in very late March  and that opponents in Parliament will run out of speakers.

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And it underlines earlier hints that, if the EU proves hostile in the negotiations, Britain will cut taxes and regulations to lure overseas investors.

It has previously been suggested that corporation tax will be cut to 10 per cent  despite warnings that the EU will inevitably respond by slapping fresh restrictions on trade.

The memo  of a meeting with the City of London Corporation  lays bare how Britains opening gambit will be the have our cake and eat it approach, in Boris Johnsons much-mocked phrase.

On the single market, it says Mr Davis told the gathering it is unlikely that the UK will achieve access because of Theresa Mays red line that free movement of people must be curbed.

 Theresa May unveils latest Brexit soundbite

However, if Britain struck a Canada-style trade deal with the EU after Brexit, that would be unlikely to pose a significant problem as most advantages would be gained.

Supreme Court Brexit Challenge Show all 13 1 /13 Supreme Court Brexit Challenge Supreme Court Brexit Challenge People wait to enter the public gallery outside the Supreme Court ahead of the challenge against a court ruling that Theresa May's government requires parliamentary approval to start the process of leaving the European Union, in Parliament Square, central London Reuters Supreme Court Brexit Challenge Gina Miller, co-founder of investment fund SCM Private arrives at the Supreme court in London on the first day of a four-day hearing Getty Supreme Court Brexit Challenge A man waves the EU flag in front of the Supreme Court Getty Supreme Court Brexit Challenge Satirical artist Kaya Mar poses with two of his paintings in front of the Supreme Court Getty Supreme Court Brexit Challenge Pro-Europe protestors dressed as Supreme Court Justices stand outside the Supreme Court ahead of the first day of a hearing into whether Parliament's consent is required before the Brexit process can begin. The eleven Supreme Court Justices will hear the government's appeal, following the High Court's recent decision that only Parliament can trigger Article 50 Getty Supreme Court Brexit Challenge The eleven Supreme Court Justices will hear the government's appeal, following the High Court's recent decision that only Parliament can trigger Article 50 Getty Supreme Court Brexit Challenge Businesswoman Gina Miller arrives at the Supreme Court ahead of the first day of a hearing into whether Parliament's consent is required before the Brexit process can begin Getty Supreme Court Brexit Challenge Attorney General Jeremy Wright arrives at the Supreme Court in London EPA Supreme Court Brexit Challenge Protesters outside the Supreme Court in London, where the Government is appealing against a ruling that the Prime Minister must seek MPs' approval to trigger the process of taking Britain out of the European Union PA wire Supreme Court Brexit Challenge A protesters wearing a judge's wigs and robes stands outside the Supreme Court ahead of the challenge against a court ruling that Theresa May's government requires parliamentary approval to start the process of leaving the European Union, in Parliament Square, central London Reuters Supreme Court Brexit Challenge A protester holds up a placard outside the Supreme Court ahead of the challenge against a court ruling that Theresa May's government requires parliamentary approval to start the process of leaving the European Union, in Parliament Square, central London Reuters Supreme Court Brexit Challenge Pro-Europe protestors dressed as Supreme Court Justices stand outside the Supreme Court Getty Supreme Court Brexit Challenge A man waiting to enter the public gallery waves a European Union flag outside the Supreme Court ahead of the challenge against a court ruling that Theresa May's government requires parliamentary approval to start the process of leaving the European Union, in Parliament Square, central London Reuters

Crucially, the memo states: Will trigger Article 50 with an opening approach of open access on all services and goods without tariffs in the UK.

Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrat leader, said: David Davis is completely deluded to think you can leave the single market while maintaining full access to it.

He should be listening to the concerns of businesses that trade with Europe every day instead of sticking his head in the sand.

The reality is that a hard Brexit would hit jobs and mean less tax revenue for our schools and NHS.

On Article 50, the memo says Mr Davis liked the fact it acts as a deadline and requires a resolution to be found.

It admits likely defeat in the Supreme Court appeal, saying: Court case means it will likely now be triggered in very late March.

Will use an expedited process and allow five days for the Bill to pass. Hinted that he would allow longer than necessary to proceed through Parliament, as they would run out of speakers to oppose the Bill and the Lords would start to tie itself up and not make a coherent argument.

 David Davis says UK Government could pay money to EU for single market access

Speaking in mid-November, Mr Davis is recorded saying he is not really interested in a transitional deal to cushion the Brexit effect, as championed recently by Mark Carney, the Bank of England Governor.

However, he accepted Britains sudden departure could compromise the EUs financial stability and would be more in favour if the EU asked Britain for a transition, saying: I will be kind.

Ms May's official spokeswoman refused to discuss the contents of the memo, but said that it represented one interpretation of the discussion.
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Andy Burnham has broken with Labour colleagues by suggesting Britain may need to pull out of the EUs single market to reverse de-industrialisation of the North.

The front-runner to be Greater Manchesters first mayor demanded the right to pick winners  which, he argued, is not possible with current EU state aid restrictions.

Mr Burnham criticised politicians whose sole focus after Brexit is to preserve access to the single market, accusing them of trying to rerun the referendum campaign.

And he said: If that means we cant get some flexibility on state aid rules well, maybe thats not necessarily going to be right for the North.

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I think the North needs to adopt a very different approach now in terms of the way we create the industry of the future. Its about becoming more interventionist.

Mr Burnham backed a recommendation for a Brexit negotiating committee of the North to be set up, to push the regions different industrial priorities and to examine the "trade off" with single market membership.

Pointing to renewables, advanced manufacturing and digital industries, he told a conference in Leeds: In the north of England, we have got to start saying we are going to pick some winners  we are going to be strong in these areas. If London is the service capital, we are going to be the industrial and manufacturing capital of this country.

The former shadow Home Secretary traced the Brexit result to anger about decline in the Norths industrial towns  if not its thriving big cities  and politicians lack of answers.

He said: It seems to me to be the case that, not just Westminster, but Europe, didnt have a good enough answer to de-industrialisation.

The comments put Mr Burnham on a collision course with senior Labour figures who have demanded Theresa May make single market membership  or, at least, tariff-free access  her top priority.

However, they put him in agreement with Jeremy Corbyn, who has also welcomed the likely death of EU rules restricting state aid because of Brexit.

In his September conference speech, the Labour leader said he would be pushing his own Brexit agenda  using withdrawal to shift Britain to the left. In Manchester, Mr Corbyn said that agenda would include the freedom to intervene in our own industries, without the obligation to liberalise or privatise our public services.

It is the second time this week that Mr Burnham has sparked controversy, after his call to end free movement of people because it was undermining the cohesion of our communities and the safety of our streets. On that row, he is on the side of a growing number of Labour backbenchers who want their party to accept immigration curbs  in the teeth of opposition from Mr Corbyn.

Both immigration restrictions and a more interventionist industrial policy are likely to play well in next Mays election to be Greater Manchesters first metro-mayor. The role would make Mr Burnham one of Britains most powerful elected figures, with the devolution to the city-region of powers over health, transport, housing, planning, policing and skills.
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Nigel Farage said he has no regrets about being poor after leaving the City for Ukip in the early nineties.

In an intervew with The Telegraph, the four-time former Ukip leader said "some of my very clever friends" from his time in the City are now worth "300 or 400" million.

Pressed on whether an MEPs salary of 85,000 plus expenses and had left him poor, he said: "Look, Im 52, I have no regrets. Im not poor, but I dont drive smart cars, I dont go on fancy holidays. All my money has gone on my kids education."

"I had lunch with a friend on Sunday, hes worth 60 (million). Some of my very clever friends are worth 300 or 400. I have no regrets about being poor, he said.

Mr Farage said he still had offers to return to the City but "I need to do exciting things."

He admitted his support for Donald Trump had caused his "biggest ever rift with Ukip."

Mr Farage said: "There were several things he said on the campaign trail I didnt like. Dealing with protesters, the total ban on Muslims, the women thing, of course I dont agree with that.

"I dont agree with everything he says, but do I think he represents the right things for America and the West? Yes, and I never doubted that."
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Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is pledging to fully sign the UK up to an international convention a guaranteeing standards of care and support for domestic abuse victims.

In a speech he will say a future Labour government will ratify the Istanbul Convention and will also promise to do more to bridge the pay gap between men and women.Marking International Human Rights Day, Mr Corbyn will say: We will put women's rights and freedoms, human rights, at the heart of our programme for government.

In Britain, under this Conservative administration, a historic international treaty which sets legally binding standards to prevent and tackle domestic abuse remains nothing but a piece of paper.

I pledge that a Labour government will ratify the Istanbul Convention and put it into effect, giving all survivors of domestic abuse the right to access to the specialist services they need to rebuild their lives and live in safety.

Labour in government will change the law to make equal pay subject to external audit or payroll inspection. That will work for women, whether in the professions or on the shop floor. We cannot carry on accepting the yawning gap between men and women's pay.

And a Labour government will ensure there is a legal right to time off for equalities reps in the workplace who play a crucial role in making equality legislation stick.

The Istanbul Convention, otherwise known as the Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence was opened in 2011. It has been signed by the UK but not ratified by it.

Countries who are party to the convention include France, Spain, Sweden and the Netherlands.

Mr Corbyn will also insist a Labour government will wage war on misogyny, promising to measure every piece of legislation, and every policy, by the yardstick of its impact on women before it is brought before Parliament and put into practice.

If it works against women, it will fail that impact test, he will say.

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The Labour leaders pledge comes a month after a coalition of womens organisations called for the Government to end its gender blind approach to policymaking.

Research by the 13 womens groups including the Womens Resource Centre, Rape Crisis, Womens Aid and the Fawcett Society, determined that the current approach was creating unfair and discriminatory policies.
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Labour is heading for an electoral disaster in 2020, one of the partys MPs has warned after its poor performance in the Sleaford and North Hykeham by-election.

The party came in fourth, taking just 10.2 per cent of the vote, a fall of seven per cent since the 2015 general election, when Labour came second.

The Conservatives won with 53.5 per cent, comfortably beating Ukip in a contest that was seen as a test of Theresa Mays handling of the Brexit vote.

Veteran Labour MP David Winnick said the result was a "appalling" for the party, and said Labours leadership needed to shake off its bunker mentality.

Even if one takes into account that the by-election turnout was considerably lower than in the general election, it was an appalling result for Labour, the Walsall North MP told the Press Association.

If we were to continue in this way then the indications are 2020 will be an electoral disaster and the possibility of a Labour government very remote indeed.

The sort of bunker mentality that seems to exist at the moment at the highest levels of the party needs to recognise what is happening in the outside world.

The Conservative candidate, Dr Caroline Johnson, said in her victory speech that she looked forward to strengthening the Government's majority in Parliament so Theresa May, our Prime Minister, can get on with the job of triggering Article 50, leaving the European Union and building a country and economy that works for everyone.

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Ukip had hoped to capitalise on the prime ministers reluctance to reveal the Governments Brexit plans, but suffered a fall of 2.2 per cent in the vote since the general election.

Victoria Ayling won 13.5 per cent of the vote for the party, with leader Paul Nuttall, who was at the count, hailing a great result for the party  his first as leader.

Labour MP Vernon Coaker defended his party's performance, but said Labour's message was lost as Brexit became the key point of debate.

He said: It was a difficult seat. Let's remember this is a safe Tory seat, Ukip came here expecting to do much better than they did so it's a bad result for them. But clearly for us, this was not the result we might have hoped for.

Supreme Court Brexit Challenge Show all 13 1 /13 Supreme Court Brexit Challenge Supreme Court Brexit Challenge People wait to enter the public gallery outside the Supreme Court ahead of the challenge against a court ruling that Theresa May's government requires parliamentary approval to start the process of leaving the European Union, in Parliament Square, central London Reuters Supreme Court Brexit Challenge Gina Miller, co-founder of investment fund SCM Private arrives at the Supreme court in London on the first day of a four-day hearing Getty Supreme Court Brexit Challenge A man waves the EU flag in front of the Supreme Court Getty Supreme Court Brexit Challenge Satirical artist Kaya Mar poses with two of his paintings in front of the Supreme Court Getty Supreme Court Brexit Challenge Pro-Europe protestors dressed as Supreme Court Justices stand outside the Supreme Court ahead of the first day of a hearing into whether Parliament's consent is required before the Brexit process can begin. The eleven Supreme Court Justices will hear the government's appeal, following the High Court's recent decision that only Parliament can trigger Article 50 Getty Supreme Court Brexit Challenge The eleven Supreme Court Justices will hear the government's appeal, following the High Court's recent decision that only Parliament can trigger Article 50 Getty Supreme Court Brexit Challenge Businesswoman Gina Miller arrives at the Supreme Court ahead of the first day of a hearing into whether Parliament's consent is required before the Brexit process can begin Getty Supreme Court Brexit Challenge Attorney General Jeremy Wright arrives at the Supreme Court in London EPA Supreme Court Brexit Challenge Protesters outside the Supreme Court in London, where the Government is appealing against a ruling that the Prime Minister must seek MPs' approval to trigger the process of taking Britain out of the European Union PA wire Supreme Court Brexit Challenge A protesters wearing a judge's wigs and robes stands outside the Supreme Court ahead of the challenge against a court ruling that Theresa May's government requires parliamentary approval to start the process of leaving the European Union, in Parliament Square, central London Reuters Supreme Court Brexit Challenge A protester holds up a placard outside the Supreme Court ahead of the challenge against a court ruling that Theresa May's government requires parliamentary approval to start the process of leaving the European Union, in Parliament Square, central London Reuters Supreme Court Brexit Challenge Pro-Europe protestors dressed as Supreme Court Justices stand outside the Supreme Court Getty Supreme Court Brexit Challenge A man waiting to enter the public gallery waves a European Union flag outside the Supreme Court ahead of the challenge against a court ruling that Theresa May's government requires parliamentary approval to start the process of leaving the European Union, in Parliament Square, central London Reuters

The challenge for us was because of Brexit. Everything was about Brexit. The messages about the A&E, the NHS, the messages about infrastructure, all of that got lost to an extent in the swirl around Brexit.

But we're proud of what we did. We kept our deposit which some people said we were going to lose. Some people said we were going to come fifth, we didn't come fifth.
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Half of all immigrants held in detention centres in the UK do not have any legal representation, according to a new report.

Cuts in legal aid have reduced the estimated number receiving legal help from 80 per cent to 50 per cent, meaning that thousands of people waiting to find out if they will be granted the right to remain in the UK are doing so without any legal help at all.

According to the Bail for Immigration Detainees (BID) survey, the impact of reductions in legal aid for immigration detainees made in April 2013 also mean that one in five have never received any legal assistance at all.

Growing numbers of detainees are now held in prisons, where only one in 20 has access to any kind of independent legal advice about their case.

Only a quarter of people in immigration detention now have access to legal aid. Most of the rest cannot afford the fees.

BIDs Policy & Research Manager John Hopgood said: The situation described by detainees underlines the bleak situation that people being held in immigration detention face  made pointlessly and unjustly worse by the Governments ill-conceived cuts to legal aid.

 Theresa May criticises 'activist left-wing human rights lawyers'

Around half of the 30,000 people who are detained every year are released without being deported. They face being separated from their families and locked up often without proper explanation: a scary and frustrating experience.

That so many people are forced to go through that without access to the legal help they need is unacceptable  and at odds with the British value of the rule of law. The only way to right this wrong is to ensure that legal aid is automatically available to the people who need it the most.
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Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage believes he can help bring peace to the Middle East because "Im quite good at bringing people together".

Mr Farage made his pitch as he admitted he had "spent most of my career trying to knock things down" and said he was gripped by the desire - after meeting with US President-elect Donald Trump and posing for that now-famous photograph - "to play a constructive role" in world affairs.

He believes he can work with Mr Trump to built a "coherent approach" to Isis and "everything else" in the Middle East thanks to his business skills, he said in an interview with the Daily Telegraph.

The MEP said: "Im not suggesting that I can do everything but I do think that Im quite good at negotiating, Im quite good at bringing people together.

"When it comes to business I am."

Mr Farage was once again a source of embarrassment for the UK Government when he beat Prime Minister Theresa May to congratulating Mr Trump on his election victory in person.

He said he thought the magnate was someone with whom the UK could do business, though added he was not "the ambassadorial type".

He added: "Whatever talents or flaws I have got I don't think diplomacy is at the top of my list of skills."

No 10 later rejected suggestions Mr Farage could be the "third person" in the relationship between the PM and her US counterpart.

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But less than two weeks after the visit, Mr Trump gave Mr Farage another boost when he tweeted: "Many people would like to see @Nigel_Farage represent Great Britain as their Ambassador to the United States. He would do a great job!"

Mr Farage told the Telegraph he wanted to built a "proper US-UK relationship".

He said: "Firstly on trade, because it would be good for business, but it would massively strengthen our hand in negotiations with the EU, because a UK-US free-trade deal puts the wind up the German car industry."

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And he echoed Mr Trump's criticisms of Nato. He added: "There has been no substantial thought about what Nato is for since the Berlin Wall came down. Trump is right about members not paying their way.

"Britain has a huge role to play as the defence bridge between Europe and America. Trump is in a position to say,'OK, lets redefine what Nato is: everyone pays their way, and if you seek to undermine us with a European army, were out of here.'"
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An emerging Egyptian terrorist group has claimed responsibility for a bombing that killed six security officers near the Pyramids of Giza on Friday.

The Hasm Movement said it was behind an explosion targeting a checkpoint on a main road near the tourist attraction in Cairo.

The blast struck near a mosque on Pyramids Road, the main avenue leading from the city centre out to the Giza pyramids, which is often used by tour buses, according to the state-run Mena news agency.

Egyptian explosives experts look for evidence at the site of a bomb explosion in Cairo, Egypt, on 9 December (AP)

The bombing appeared to have targeted two police vehicles parked along the road at a mobile checkpoint.

It completely destroyed one of the vehicles and severely damaged the other. Dozens of people gathered at the scene as police cordoned off the area.

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The Egyptian interior ministry said two officers, a police officer and three conscripts were killed, with three more wounded.

The Hasm, or Hassam Movement, has claimed several recent attacks in statements circulated online, including the attempted assassination of Egypt's former Grand Mufti in August.

Friday's bombing came days after the interior ministry said police killed three Hasm Movement members in southern Egypt as part of efforts to break the group's cells.

The Islamist militant group first emerged in July, when it claimed the assassination of police chief Major Mahmoud Abdel Hamid, the Janes Information Group reported.

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

Isis Egyptian affiliate has been behind a string of similar attacks targeting Egyptian security forces over the past year.

In May, militants opened fire on a bus filled with plainclothes police in the Cairo suburb of Helwan, killing eight of them.

An explosive device also struck a police convoy in Cairo in October, killing a pedestrian bystander, and several shooting and grenade attacks have been launched.

Isis Wilayat Sinai faction is waging a long-running insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula and was behind the downing of a Russian passenger plane flying from Sharm el-Sheikh in October 2015.

Insurgent attacks have intensified since a 2013 military coup that ousted Mohamed Morsi, the democratically elected leader of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood party.
A total of 1,555 bullets weighing 47.5 kilograms were discovered in Jixi, Heilongjiang province, believed to be left by Japanese aggressors during the Second World War.

The bullets were in two broken steel boxes when they were found by a villager on Dec. 6. Wrapped in anti-corrosive paper, they were well preserved and could still inflict strong force once loaded, said an officer from the border police station. This is the largest-scale discovery of bullets ever unearthed in Jixi, which is an important anti-Japanese war base in northeastern China.
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Two schoolgirl suicide bombers have killed up to 56 people and wounded dozens more in a coordinated attack on a crowded market in the northeastern Nigerian town of Madagali, local officials said.

The bombings bore the hallmark of Islamist militant group Boko Haram, which has been waging an insurgency to set up a state adhering to a strict interpretation of Muslim laws in the northeast. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Yusuf Mohammed, chairman of the local district government, said the bombings left up to 56 people dead and wounded 57 on Friday.

Major Badare Akintoye, a spokesman for an army unit in the nearby town of Mubi, said the attacks had been carried out simultaneously by two schoolgirls.

Boko Haram has frequently targeted crowded areas  such as markets, places of worship and refugee camps  in suicide bomb attacks across northeast Nigeria and in neighbouring Cameroon and Niger.

The jihadist group has killed some 15,000 people and forced more than two million people to flee their homes.

Nigeria's army has pushed the militant group back to its stronghold in the vast Sambisa forest in the past few months.

While Friday's market attack highlighted Boko Haram's ability to mount strike civilians in urban areas, the frequency with which the group does so has fallen.

Reuters
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A judge has acquitted two teenage Moroccan girls on trial for homosexuality after they were allegedly "caught kissing and hugging on the roof of a house" in Marrakech.

The girls, aged 16 and 17, had faced up to three years in prison according to a law forbidding lewd or unnatural acts with an individual of the same sex. One of their mothers reported them to police in October.

The charges angered LGBT rights groups, who have long argued that same-sex relationships should not be a crime.

The judge in Marrakech ruled on Friday that the girls must remain under parental authority until they turn 18.

Their defense lawyer, Rachid El Ghorfi, expressed relief at the acquittal and said: They should have never been in front of the prosecutor or the judge.

A passer-by had photographed them and sent pictures to the families of the girls who informed the police, and the two girls were arrested on the same day, it was reported.

LGBT+ rights around the globe Show all 9 1 /9 LGBT+ rights around the globe LGBT+ rights around the globe Russia Russias antipathy towards homosexuality has been well established following the efforts of human rights campaigners. However, while it is legal to be homosexual, LGBT couples are offered no protections from discrimination. They are also actively discriminated against by a 2013 law criminalising LGBT propaganda allowing the arrest of numerous Russian LGBT activists. AFP/Getty LGBT+ rights around the globe Brunei Brunei recently introduced a law to make sodomy punishable by stoning to death. It was already illegal and punishable by up to 10 years in prison AFP/Getty LGBT+ rights around the globe Mauritania Men who are found having sex with other men face stoning, while lesbians can be imprisoned, under Sharia law. However, the state has reportedly not executed anyone for this crime since 1987 Alamy LGBT+ rights around the globe Sudan Both male and female same-sex sexual activity is illegal under Sudanese law. Men can be executed on their third offence, women on their fourth Getty LGBT+ rights around the globe Saudi Arabia Homosexuality and gender realignment is illegal and punishable by death, imprisonment, whipping and chemical castration Getty LGBT+ rights around the globe Yemen The official position within the country is that there are no gays. LGBT inviduals, if discovered by the government, are likely to face intense pressure. Punishments range from flogging to the death penalty Getty LGBT+ rights around the globe Nigeria Both male and female same-sex sexual activity is illegal and in some northern states punishable with death by stoning. This is not a policy enacted across the entire country, although there is a prevalent anti-LGBT agenda pushed by the government. In 2007 a Pew survey established that 97% of the population felt that homosexuality should not be accepted. It is punishable by 14 years in prison Reuters LGBT+ rights around the globe Somalia Homosexuality was established as a crime in 1888 and under new Somali Penal Code established in 1973 homosexual sex can be punishable by three years in prison. A person can be put to death for being a homosexual Reuters LGBT+ rights around the globe Iraq Although same-sex relationships have been decriminalised, much of the population still suffer from intense discrimination. Additionally, in some of the country over-run by the extremist organisation Isis, LGBT individuals can face death by stoning Getty

Women and girls rarely are charged under Morocco's law prohibiting homosexual activity.

Human Rights Watch group has previously urged the Moroccan government to consider repealing the relevant penal code, arguing: Repealing the ban on same-sex acts among consenting adults would both affirm Moroccans right to privacy and help to protect people from hate crimes.
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Albert Woodfoxs story is perhaps one of the greatest miscarriages of justice which any man living has ever endured. He was released from prison earlier this year after serving close to 44 years in solitary confinement for a murder he didnt commit.

His case epitomises the endemic and undeniable horror of racism in the US criminal justice system. Alongside two other young African American men, Herman Wallace and Robert King, their story has become infamous around the world as that of the Angola Three.

The men were serving prison sentences on other charges in the early Seventies at former slave plantation Angola prison in Louisiana. As active members of the Black Panther movement, they had organised petitions and hunger strikes to protest racial segregation, violence and mistreatment of black prisoners. They say their activism led them to be seen as trouble makers by prison staff and sparked a racist campaign to see them charged with the murder of a prison guard they did not commit.

The case brought against them has since been widely discredited, following tarnished eye witness statements, lost DNA evidence and alleged misconduct by the prosecution. Woodfox claims one eye witness in the case who claimed to have seen him commit the murder was later revealed to have been blind  a point which reveals the dark and disturbing farce of the case. Another witness in the case, a fellow inmate serving life for rape, was allegedly promised a pardon, cigarettes and birthday cake in exchange for testifying against them.

The men say they were victims of racial discrimination and corruption. But despite their protests, the case saw them thrown into solitary confinement for decades.

The three men spent decades in solitary confinement in Louisiana (Creative Commons)

Robert King was eventually released in 2001 following an appeal after he pled guilty to a lesser charge, after serving 29 years in solitary. Herman Wallace was released in 2013 after 42 years in solitary confinement  he died three days later of liver cancer.

Woodfox continued to protest his innocence and fight his case and in 2014, judges upheld unanimously that his conviction had been secured as a result of racial discrimination. He eventually entered a plea on a lesser charge and was finally released in February of this year. For 43 years he lived in a 6ft x 9ft cell largely without human contact or communication, waiting for justice.

We meet on the day of the US election, on the eve of the announcement of presidential results. He is about to give a talk at Anglia Ruskin University, alongside Robert King, about the mens experiences and continued racism in the US criminal justice system. For a man who has endured such unfathomable injustice, he bears no signs of bitterness but is quietly dignified and intensely focused on ensuring racism is the US is taken seriously so no one else will have to endure his pain. He speaks with tremendous gravitas wrapped in low, old-school American husk.

Ive never received an official apology from the government and I really dont expect one, he tells me. No apology is going to give me back 44 years of my life. No apology is going to make up for the pain and suffering weve had to endure.

One might expect him to be overwhelmed by the contrast a busy life in the modern world presents compared to life in solitary or take time to adjust, but since his release and reunion with King, the pair have been giving talks around the world to raise awareness of their experiences and ongoing injustices. When I meet them they have just returned from talks with the UK chapter of Black Lives Matter, with whom they have been discussing conditions this side of the pond. Ive been running [around] since I was released from prison. Ive had a few days here and there but what King and I are trying to do in raising awareness is far more important than any personal time.

President Trump protests Show all 20 1 /20 President Trump protests President Trump protests Patrons hold a sign as people march by while protesting the election of Republican Donald Trump as the president of the United States in downtown Los Angeles, California Reuters President Trump protests Demonstrators rally following the election of Republican Donald Trump as President of the United States, in Oakland, California Reuters President Trump protests Demonstrators march following the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States Reuters President Trump protests Thousands of protesters rallied across the United States expressing shock and anger over Donald Trump's election, vowing to oppose divisive views they say helped the Republican billionaire win the presidency AFP/Getty Images President Trump protests Demonstrators protest outside the Chicago Theatre in Chicago, Illinois Getty President Trump protests A police officer aims a launcher after demonstrators threw projectiles toward a line of officers during a demonstration in Oakland, California Reuters President Trump protests An officer examines a vandalized police vehicle as demonstrators riot in Oakland, California Reuters President Trump protests Demonstrators take over the Hollywood 101 Freeway just north of Los Angeles City Hall in protest against the election of Republican Donald Trump as President of the United States Reuters President Trump protests A woman holds up a sign reading 'Trump you are an Idiot' as demonstrators gather during a protest against President-elect Donald Trump outside the City Hall building in Los Angeles, California EPA President Trump protests A masked demonstrator gestures toward a police line during a demonstration in Oakland, California Reuters President Trump protests Demonstrators protest against the election of Republican Donald Trump as President of the United States, near the Trump International Hotel & Tower in Las Vegas, Nevada Reuters President Trump protests Musician Lagy Gaga stages a protest against Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on a sanitation truck outside Trump Tower in New York City Getty President Trump protests A woman yells as she takes part in a protest against President-elect Donald Trump in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood AP President Trump protests A man dressed in red-white-and-blue sits on the curb during a protest against President-elect Donald Trump in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood AP President Trump protests A protester sets off fireworks during a protest against President-elect Donald Trumpin Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood AP President Trump protests University of California, Davis students protest on campus in Davis, California, U.S. following the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States Reuters President Trump protests An Oakland police officer checks out damage after a window was broken by protesters at a car dealership in downtown Oakland, Calif AP President Trump protests A protester faces a police line in downtown Oakland, Calif AP President Trump protests President-elect Donald Trumpis victory set off multiple protests AP President Trump protests A fire burns during protests in Oakland, Calif AP

Woodfox tells me he is not convinced racism in the US has quelled at all since the Angola Threes convictions in 1972. He says: There has been no progress. None whatsoever. That was one of my surprises when I was released from prison. The conditions that existed 44 years ago are still in America During the 44 years that I was inside, I was aware of changes through TV, magazines and newspapers, so I was aware of what was going on  the [election of] the first African American president.

But slowly I began to realise that the blatant racism in America had not changed at all. It wasnt as obvious, but still as dehumanising and still as destructive as racism can be.

He cites the presidential election as proof of this. Woodfox says he has begrudgingly backed Hillary Clinton as the lesser of two evils but would have loved the opportunity to tick Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren at the ballot box. He is visibly horrified by the notion of Trump as a credible candidate and what that says about the nation: Today voters are deciding whether to vote for a man who is openly a racist and a bigot  to put him in the most powerful position in the country. I think that speaks volumes as to whether changes exist in America and whether they have been sufficient.

After say our goodbyes, Woodfox and King address a packed and eager auditorium of Anglia Ruskin students who hang on their every word; flickering between disbelief and incensed outrage as they hear the injustice the men have experienced. Hours later the election results slowly start to trickle in, revealing that against all the polling predictions Trump has clinched the race to the White House and will be the next president of the United States. As the night continues protests break out around the country. In the weeks that follow, accounts of hate crimes and racist attacks in the US grow. Its difficult to disagree with Woodfox and see how much racism has really changed beyond the superficial or the socially acceptable.

To find out more about the Angola Three and the work of Albert Woodfox and Robert King's work, visit their campaign website here
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A group dedicated to protecting climate scientists from legal attack has created a new pamphlet to help researchers deal with harassment following Donald Trump's election as US president.

The Climate Science Legal Defense Fund (CSLDF) started writing the guide the day after the election, and will make it available for the thousands of experts who will descend on the upcoming annual conference of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.

Its co-founder, Joshua Wolfe, told the New Yorker: "There is a lot of fear among scientists that they will become targets of people who are interested in science as politics, rather than progress."

The guide will be called 'Handling Political Harassment and Legal Intimidation: A Pocket Guide for Scientists'.

It comes after Mr Trump named climate-change sceptic Scott Pruitt as head of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Mr Pruitt, a close ally of the oil and gas industry, has been one of the EPA's fiercest critics during Barack Obama's administration, describing it as "unlawful and overreaching".

President Donald Trump life in pictures Show all 16 1 /16 President Donald Trump life in pictures President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump poses in a rocking chair once used by President John F. Kennedy at his New York City residence Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Developer Donald Trump with his new bride Marla Maples after their wedding at the Plaza hotel in New York Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump and Celina Midelfart watch the match between Conchita Martinez and Amanda Coetzer during U.S. Open. She was the date whom Donald Trump was with when he met his current wife Melania at a party in 1996 Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas serving as the grand marshal for the Daytona 500, speaks to Donald Trump and Melania Knauss on the starting grid at the Daytona International Speedwa Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Developer Donald Trump talks with his former wife Ivana Trump during the men's final at the U.S. Open Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump and his friend Melania Knauss pose for photographers as they arrive at the New York premiere of Star Wars Episode : 'The Phantom Menace,' Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Billionaire real estate developer Donald Trump talks with host Larry King. Trump told King that he was moving toward a possible bid for the United States presidency with the formation of a presidential exploratory committee Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump answers questions as Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura looks on in Brooklyn Park. Trump said on Friday he 'very well might' make a run for president under the Reform Party banner but had not made a final decision Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Billionaire Donald Trump makes a face at a friend as he sits next to Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso before the start of the 2003 Miss Universe pageant in Panama City Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Entrepreneur Donald Trump is greeted by a Marilyn Monroe character look-a-alike, as he arrives at Universal Studios Hollywood to attend the an open casting call for his NBC television network reality series 'The Apprentice.' Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump and Simon Cowell present an Emmy during the 56th annual Primetime Emmy Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump and Megan Mullally perform at the 57th annual Primetime Emmy Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump, poses with his children, son Donald Trump, Jr., and daughters Tiffany and Ivanka Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Billionaire Donald Trump told Miss USA 2006 Tara Conner on Tuesday she would be given a second chance after reported misbehavior Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump holds a replica of his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame as his wife Melania holds their son Barron in Los Angeles Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures U.S. property mogul Donald Trump stands next to a bagpiper during a media event on the sand dunes of the Menie estate, the site for Trump's proposed golf resort, near Aberdeen, north east Scotland Reuters

The CSLDF was founded in 2011 and states on its website: "In recent years, many of our brightest scientific minds have been taken away from their research to spend time defending frivolous lawsuits.

"Climate scientists who present their findings in the media have been faced by an onslaught of abuse by a small group of unprincipled individuals and organizations. "

The group called Mr Pruitt's nomination "disastrous".
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A US student has called for college campuses to do more to reassure students who support Donald Trump, so that they are not left feeling uneasy about expressing their political views.

Amanda Delekta, a second-year student at the University of Michigan, said she was initially elated when the former reality star won the US Presidential election last month.

But she said her happiness faded after she saw the backlash on campus by her fellow students who started holding vigils to mourn the result and a professor cancelled a class because students would be upset about the result.

She decided to write a letter to the universitys president, which was later published online in which she said it was shameful to live in a nation where individuals are afraid to voice their beliefs for fear of being shamed.

Ms Delekta, who is the campus political director of the college's Republican group, said she was appalled that the university's president, Mark Schlissel, had endorsed the vigil in an email saying: Nobody has died, the United States has not died; democracy is more alive than ever.

Simply put, the American people voted and Trump won. People all around the country voted for him and over 60 million people backed his candidacy.

To encourage students on campus to grieve over the results is fear mongering and creates an even more polarized campus.

Had Secretary Hillary Clinton won the election and Trump supporters held a vigil, they would have likely been called white supremacists, racists, sexists, and bigots.

President Trump protests Show all 20 1 /20 President Trump protests President Trump protests Patrons hold a sign as people march by while protesting the election of Republican Donald Trump as the president of the United States in downtown Los Angeles, California Reuters President Trump protests Demonstrators rally following the election of Republican Donald Trump as President of the United States, in Oakland, California Reuters President Trump protests Demonstrators march following the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States Reuters President Trump protests Thousands of protesters rallied across the United States expressing shock and anger over Donald Trump's election, vowing to oppose divisive views they say helped the Republican billionaire win the presidency AFP/Getty Images President Trump protests Demonstrators protest outside the Chicago Theatre in Chicago, Illinois Getty President Trump protests A police officer aims a launcher after demonstrators threw projectiles toward a line of officers during a demonstration in Oakland, California Reuters President Trump protests An officer examines a vandalized police vehicle as demonstrators riot in Oakland, California Reuters President Trump protests Demonstrators take over the Hollywood 101 Freeway just north of Los Angeles City Hall in protest against the election of Republican Donald Trump as President of the United States Reuters President Trump protests A woman holds up a sign reading 'Trump you are an Idiot' as demonstrators gather during a protest against President-elect Donald Trump outside the City Hall building in Los Angeles, California EPA President Trump protests A masked demonstrator gestures toward a police line during a demonstration in Oakland, California Reuters President Trump protests Demonstrators protest against the election of Republican Donald Trump as President of the United States, near the Trump International Hotel & Tower in Las Vegas, Nevada Reuters President Trump protests Musician Lagy Gaga stages a protest against Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on a sanitation truck outside Trump Tower in New York City Getty President Trump protests A woman yells as she takes part in a protest against President-elect Donald Trump in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood AP President Trump protests A man dressed in red-white-and-blue sits on the curb during a protest against President-elect Donald Trump in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood AP President Trump protests A protester sets off fireworks during a protest against President-elect Donald Trumpin Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood AP President Trump protests University of California, Davis students protest on campus in Davis, California, U.S. following the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States Reuters President Trump protests An Oakland police officer checks out damage after a window was broken by protesters at a car dealership in downtown Oakland, Calif AP President Trump protests A protester faces a police line in downtown Oakland, Calif AP President Trump protests President-elect Donald Trumpis victory set off multiple protests AP President Trump protests A fire burns during protests in Oakland, Calif AP

The 20-year-old has now launched a petition which has been signed by 383 people which calls on the university to respect different political opinions.

It is sickening to be generalized in such horrible ways by people who claim to preach open-mindedness and support for all," she said.

What hurts me even more is that the university is not encouraging students to understand each other and the complicated choice it is to select a President, but have instead has chosen to foster hate, blatantly catering to a certain group of students on campus while indirectly ignoring others.

The Independent has contacted Mr Schlissel for comment.

* This article initially reported that Ms Delekta had called for university campuses to be "safe spaces" for supporters of Donald Trump. We would like to clarify that Ms Delekta did not use that term directly nor suggest that supporters of Mr Trump required designated spaces in which they could express their views without opposition or critique. The headline and opening paragraph of the report have now been amended. 19/12/16
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A rogue Electoral College voter who has vowed not to vote for Donald Trump claims more electors are likely to join him.

Christopher Suprun, a Republican from Texas, has vowed to vote for someone else when the Electoral College makes its decision on who will be the next US President on 19 December.

He said he had been a Trump supporter during the campaign but started to have doubts a few weeks ago when the former reality star started making claims about millions of illegal votes in the election.

Mr Trump insisted he had only lost the popular vote because three million illegals had voted for his rival Hillary Clinton.

Ms Clinton has currently won more than 2.7 million votes more than Mr Trump and no evidence of significant voter fraud has come to light.

Mr Suprun told ABC News Powerhouse Politics podcast: "I think he [Trump] is the only candidate I am aware of who ever asked a foreign country to hack his political opponents email account to find out what is in them, which I consider almost an invitation to espionage.

We know he has been a demagogue. He has not attempted to unite the country. Even when Time magazine made him their Person Of The Year, they called him 'President of the Divided States of America'. And, finally, most objectively, he seems to have financial conflicts of interest which he wont resolve.

Mr Suprun declined to give details but claimed there were other electors who have reached out to him and said he was confident that he wouldnt be the only one voting for someone other than Donald Trump who is carrying a Republican elector seat.

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It comes after two electors from Democrat states, Michael Baca of Colorado and Bret Chiafalo of Washington state, set up the Hamilton Electors, a campaign to convince others to go against their states wishes.

The group said Alexander Hamilton, a Founding Father of the US, had proclaimed that the Electoral College was designed so the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications.

Recommended What happens when the US electoral college votes for the President

So, they believe, electors have a constitutional duty to block Mr Trumps path to the White House.

American elections are not determined solely by the number of votes cast. The Electoral College is made up of 538 voters, distributed between the states according to population size and allocated based on how each state voted.

The system is designed to give sparsely populated states, such as Alaska, more of a say in deciding who becomes president and to avoid one region becoming overly dominant.

Some states have pledge laws which allow them to prosecute electors who do not vote in accordance with the state-wide result, who are known as "faithless electors", but Mr Suprun is not facing this threat as Texas is not one of them.
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Joe Biden reassured people concerned about what effects a Donald Trump presidency will have on the Obama administrations green policies that it is likely very little will be undone.

President-elect Trump has made it clear that he does not believe in the validity of climate change. He had even gone so far as to call it a hoax by China in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive.

Adding to fears among those concerned for the environment, he appointed a climate change denier  Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt  to head the Environmental Protection Agency.

But Mr Biden suggested that the policies in place have firmly taken root, and will be difficult for the incoming administration to dismantle, no matter how many fervent climate change deniers serve in the Cabinet.

There is a constituency that crosses party lines. Regardless of whether the next administration is as aggressive as we have been  and Im not suggesting they intend to  there is no way to turn back this tide that has begun to roll, Mr Biden said at a Canadian environmental summit on Friday.

The Obama administration has invested heavily in renewable energy, raised vehicle fuel standards, and adopted the Clean Power Plan for states to reduce their carbon emissions.

10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Show all 10 1 /10 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A group of emperor penguins face a crack in the sea ice, near McMurdo Station, Antarctica Kira Morris 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Floods destroyed eight bridges and ruined crops such as wheat, maize and peas in the Karimabad valley in northern Pakistan, a mountainous region with many glaciers. In many parts of the world, glaciers have been in retreat, creating dangerously large lakes that can cause devastating flooding when the banks break. Climate change can also increase rainfall in some areas, while bringing drought to others. Hira Ali 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Smoke  filled with the carbon that is driving climate change  drifts across a field in Colombia. Sandra Rondon 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Amid a flood in Islampur, Jamalpur, Bangladesh, a woman on a raft searches for somewhere dry to take shelter. Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable places in the world to sea level rise, which is expected to make tens of millions of people homeless by 2050. Probal Rashid 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Sindh province in Pakistan has experienced a grim mix of two consequences of climate change. Because of climate change either we have floods or not enough water to irrigate our crop and feed our animals, says the photographer. Picture clearly indicates that the extreme drought makes wide cracks in clay. Crops are very difficult to grow. Rizwan Dharejo 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Hanna Petursdottir examines a cave inside the Svinafellsjokull glacier in Iceland, which she said had been growing rapidly. Since 2000, the size of glaciers on Iceland has reduced by 12 per cent. Tom Schifanella 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A river once flowed along the depression in the dry earth of this part of Bangladesh, but it has disappeared amid rising temperatures. Abrar Hossain 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A shepherd moves his herd as he looks for green pasture near the village of Sirohi in Rajasthan, northern India. The region has been badly affected by heatwaves and drought, making local people nervous about further predicted increases in temperature. Riddhima Singh Bhati 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A factory in China is shrouded by a haze of air pollution. The World Health Organisation has warned such pollution, much of which is from the fossil fuels that cause climate change, is a public health emergency. Leung Ka Wa 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Water levels in reservoirs, like this one in Gers, France, have been getting perilously low in areas across the world affected by drought, forcing authorities to introduce water restrictions. Mahtuf Ikhsan

As a result, Biden said, people and companies have spent less on energy than before.

Reality has a way of intruding. Whatever uncertainty exists around the near-term policy choices of the next president, Mr Biden said, I am absolutely confident the United States will continue making progress on this path to a low-carbon future.

And thats because many of the trends Ive mentioned have taken hold and are no longer dependent on government initiatives. They are market-drive, they are common sense.

Still, Mr Trump has said he will undo the Clean Power Plan during his first 100 days in office, while eliminating unwarranted restrictions on fracking, and pull the US out of the Paris Agreement  the historical global pact to address and curb climate change.

One of the things the President and I are proudest of accomplishing over the last eight years, Mr Biden said, is debunking the myth that America cant grow our economy and bring down emissions at the same time."
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The moment a dog said goodbye to her dying owner has been caught on camera and shared across social media.

Ryan Jessen, from California, was taken to hospital last month after what he thought was a migraine turned out to be a ventricular brain haemorrhage.

As friends and family sat by the 33-year-olds bedside, staff permitted his pet dog, Mollie, to also be present.

The hospital did the sweetest thing for us and allowed us to bring my brother's dog in to say goodbye so she'd know why her human never came home. If you knew my brother, he really loved his sweet dog, Mr Jessens sister Michelle said on Facebook.

The video was posted on December 1 and has been shared over 87,000 times and has received over 9.1 million views.

Ms Jessen said the family will be keeping Mollie and a photo was later shared by Mr Jessens mother showing the dog sitting on a sofa.

The family has said he has donated his organs.

Ms Jessen also added Mr Jessen's heart was due to save the life of a 17-year-old boy in time for Christmas.
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The polar vortex could be back as soon as next week after a three-year hiatus, ready to bring record-low temperatures to much of North America, according to forecasters.

As shown by weather maps and forecast models, there are similarities between the last polar vortex in 2014 and with weather patterns expected next week.

"Upper-level atmosphere configuration very similar in scale & magnitude as infamous Jan 2014 #PolarVortex popularized by me and @afreedma," meteorologist Ryan Maue said on Twitter.

In 2014, the Midwest saw its coldest weather in two decades, which lasted until March. Roads were iced over, thousands of flights were canceled or delayed. Wind chills as low as minus 51 degrees celsius (60 degrees below Fahrenheit) killed at least nine people. Farmers struggled to keep their cattle alive, while others worried about their crops. In Newfoundland, Canada, a power outage hit 90,000 homes in January 2014.

Extremely cold weather is expected again in the Midwest and Northeast on Tuesday. Temperatures are anticipated to drop by between five and 20 degrees, compared to this week.

While Chicago is bracing for temperatures in the teens, other cities will be hit by single digits.

"The air mass on the way for the middle of December is likely to be substantially colder when compared to that of this past week and this weekend," AccuWeather meteorologist Paul Pastelok said.

In pictures: 'Polar vortex' hits US Midwest and Northeast Show all 30 1 /30 In pictures: 'Polar vortex' hits US Midwest and Northeast In pictures: 'Polar vortex' hits US Midwest and Northeast USA An AAA emergency technician assists a motorist on Bidwell Avenue in Buffalo, New York In pictures: 'Polar vortex' hits US Midwest and Northeast USA Ice forms on the shore of the East River due to unusually low temperatures caused by a Polar Vortex in New York In pictures: 'Polar vortex' hits US Midwest and Northeast USA A man braves the cold and walks along the shore of Lake Michigan as temperatures remain in the negative digits in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. A 'polar vortex' of frigid air centered on the North Pole dropped temperatures to the negative double digits at its worst In pictures: 'Polar vortex' hits US Midwest and Northeast USA Snow is piled high along the street outside the front of a home in Indianapolis, Indiana. A deadly blast of arctic air shattered decades-old temperature records as it enveloped the eastern United States, canceling thousands of flights, driving energy prices higher and overwhelming shelters for homeless people In pictures: 'Polar vortex' hits US Midwest and Northeast USA Jennifer Berry watches the sunset from a lifeguard chair at a beach on Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis. Shortly after daybreak in the Twin Cities, thermometers had inched their way up to anywhere from 8 to 13 below zero In pictures: 'Polar vortex' hits US Midwest and Northeast USA Ice builds up along Lake Michigan at North Avenue Beach in Chicago, Illinois In pictures: 'Polar vortex' hits US Midwest and Northeast USA Chicago hit a record low of -16 degree Fahrenheit this morning as a polar air mass brought the coldest temperatures in about two decades into the city In pictures: 'Polar vortex' hits US Midwest and Northeast USA Ice builds up along Lake Michigan as temperatures dipped well below zero in Chicago, Illinois In pictures: 'Polar vortex' hits US Midwest and Northeast USA Clouds of steam rise from the Mississippi river during -14 Degrees Fahrenheit (-25 degrees Celsius) weather, in Minneapolis, Minnesota In pictures: 'Polar vortex' hits US Midwest and Northeast USA A view of the War Memorial in Indianapolis, Indiana. According to news reports, Indianapolis received about 30 centimeters of snow and the morning temperature was -9 degrees Celsius In pictures: 'Polar vortex' hits US Midwest and Northeast USA A horse drinks water from a hole in a frozen water tank in Enid, Oklahoma. Record low temperatures were set in at least two Oklahoma cities as a frigid front moved into the state In pictures: 'Polar vortex' hits US Midwest and Northeast USA Ron, a bison at Brookfield Zoo, is covered in snow and doesn't seemed phased by the frigid temperatures or snow blowing through the Chicago area. The zoo was closed due to the snowstorm and sub-zero temperatures In pictures: 'Polar vortex' hits US Midwest and Northeast USA A woman walks through a gust of blowing snow in frigid cold temperatures though downtown Chicago, Illinois. A blast of Arctic air gripped the mid-section of the United States, bringing the coldest temperatures in two decades In pictures: 'Polar vortex' hits US Midwest and Northeast USA Washburn High School's information board reads -14 Degrees Fahrenheit (-25 degrees Celsius), in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Schools in the area were closed due to the severe weather In pictures: 'Polar vortex' hits US Midwest and Northeast USA Patrick O'Brien dressed up in a Spiderman superhero outfit goes for a run in -25 degrees Celsius weather, in Minneapolis, Minnesota In pictures: 'Polar vortex' hits US Midwest and Northeast USA Snow is piled up high in front of Home Depot in the South Bay shopping center after a two day winter storm in Boston, Massachusetts In pictures: 'Polar vortex' hits US Midwest and Northeast USA A man wears a face mask and heavy clothes while walking through downtown Springfield, in blowing and falling snow as a strong winter storm moves through the Midwest. Temperatures not seen in years are likely to set records in the coming days across the Midwest, Northeast and South, creating dangerous travel conditions and prompting church and school closures In pictures: 'Polar vortex' hits US Midwest and Northeast USA A city snow plow clears a street of snow in an almost deserted downtown as strong winds and snow move through the Midwest in Springfield In pictures: 'Polar vortex' hits US Midwest and Northeast USA A man prepares to remove his plow stuck in a snow bank as snow and wind swirls in St. Louis In pictures: 'Polar vortex' hits US Midwest and Northeast USA A Delta airlines plane is seen taking off while the fleets other planes sit on the tarmac at JFK Airport, New York In pictures: 'Polar vortex' hits US Midwest and Northeast USA Four homeless men warm themselves on a steam grate by the Federal Trade Commission, blocks from the Capitol, during frigid temperatures in Washington. A winter storm that swept across the Midwest this week blew through the Northeast, leaving bone-chilling cold in its wake In pictures: 'Polar vortex' hits US Midwest and Northeast USA Nicholas Simmons warms himself on a steam grate with three homeless men by the Federal Trade Commission, just blocks from the Capitol, during frigid temperatures in Washington In pictures: 'Polar vortex' hits US Midwest and Northeast USA New York City Department of Parks & Recreation employees clear out snow from Carl Schurz Park after an overnight storm dropped up to 7 inches of snow in New York City. The Northeast and Midwest regions of the United States were hit with a large amount of snowfall accompanied by blizzard-like winds and plummeting temperatures this week In pictures: 'Polar vortex' hits US Midwest and Northeast USA A man falls while slipping on ice during freezing rain on Roosevelt Island, a borough of Manhattan in New York In pictures: 'Polar vortex' hits US Midwest and Northeast USA A couple walks through the winter white-out on Swan Avenue in Webster Groves In pictures: 'Polar vortex' hits US Midwest and Northeast USA Few cars drive on Interstate 44 in Fenton. Snow-covered roads and high winds were creating dangerous driving conditions from Missouri to Delaware ahead of a 'polar vortex' that'll bring below-zero temperatures not seen in years to much of the nation in the coming days In pictures: 'Polar vortex' hits US Midwest and Northeast USA People carry bundles of warm weather wraps as they arrive outside Lambeau Field before the start of the NFL Wild Card playoff game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Green Bay Packers in Green Bay, Wisconsin In pictures: 'Polar vortex' hits US Midwest and Northeast USA Joe (R) and Rick (L) Pecki wait for the gates to open outside Lambeau Field before the start of the NFL Wild Card playoff game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Green Bay Packers in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Temperatures are around 5 degrees (-15 C) and are expected to go lower throughout the next few days In pictures: 'Polar vortex' hits US Midwest and Northeast USA An icy tennis ball was no deterrent for Laura Jorgensen's dog Wilber while they played in a dog park in sub-zero weather as the midwest braces for the coldest temperatures in nearly twenty years to arrive in later today in Minneapolis, Minnesota In pictures: 'Polar vortex' hits US Midwest and Northeast USA James Schlafer and his wife Diana Schlafer of Minneapolis went for their daily four to five mile walk in sub-zero temps as the midwest braces for the coldest temperatures in nearly twenty years to arrive in later today in Minneapolis, Minnesota

As for weather beyond next week, cold weather could last into the spring. According to an October study, published in the journal Nature, the polar vortex in February has moved towards Europe and Asia over the last three decades, meaning very cold days in the US are more common in February and March. The study found the change was likely related to the loss of Arctic sea-ice loss, but could also be due to increased snow cover in the Eurasian continent.

During the last vortex, every state in the US saw temperatures dip below 32 degrees fahrenheit in the beginning of January 2014, even in Hawaii.

Vortexes are fairly common, happening three times in the 1980s.

Defined by the National Weather Service, a polar vortex is a large area of low pressure and cold air surrounding both of the Earths poles. It always exists, but weakens in the summer and gets stronger in the winter.

The "vortex" part refers to the counter-clockwise flow of air that keeps the colder air near the Pole.

"When the polar vortex is strongest, you're less likely to see cold air plunge deep into North America or Europe. Occasionally, though, the polar vortex is disrupted and weakens. This happens when the stratosphere warms," according to weather.com.

"When the polar vortex is weakened, a piece of the polar vortex can surge farther south, helping to push Arctic cold into portions of North America and Europe."
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A man who has passed legislation to effectively ban abortion once admitted he had never thought about why women have terminations.

Jim Buchy, a Republican politician in Ohio, was among legislators in the state who has passed a bill to ban abortion after the foetus has a heartbeat.

As this occurs at around six weeks into pregnancy, it is thought this would effectively ban abortion by outlawing it before women become aware of their pregnancy and arrange a termination.

Mr Buchy, a staunchly anti-abortion politician, once caused controversy when he admitted he had never thought about why women have abortions. In 2012, during an interview with Al Jazeera, he was asked about his attempts then to limit abortions to the time before a foetus has a heartbeat.

A reporter asked: What do you think makes a woman want to have an abortion? In response, Mr Buchy appears startled and is lost for words. After a pause he says: Well, theres probably a lot of reas-  Im not a woman. Im thinking now if Im a woman why would I want to get Some of it has to do with economics.

A lot of it has to do with economics. I dont know. Its a question Ive never even thought about.

World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Show all 29 1 /29 World reaction to President Trump: In pictures World reaction to President Trump: In pictures London, England AP World reaction to President Trump: In pictures London, England Reuters World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Manila, Philippines Getty Images World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Manila, Philippines Getty World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Mosul , Iraq Getty World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Manila, Philippines AP World reaction to President Trump: In pictures New Delhi, India Reuters World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Karachi, Pakistan EPA World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Jakarta, Indonesia Reuters World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Lagos, Nigeria AP World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Kabul, Afghanistan AP World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Jerusalem. Israel Reuters World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Moscow, Russia Reuters World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Seoul, South Korea AP World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Lagos, Nigeria AP World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Peshawar, Pakistan EPA World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Jakarta, Indonesia Reuters World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Hyderabad, India AP World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Kolkata, India AP World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Sydney, Australia Getty World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Sydney, Australia AP World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Aleppo, Syria Reuters World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Mexico City, Mexico AP World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago Reuters World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Jerusalem, Israel EPA World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Baghdad, Iraq Rex World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Gaza Strip, Palestinian Territories Rex World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Tokyo, Japan Rex World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Mexico City, Mexico Getty

The Ohio bill follows other attempts to restrict abortion access by Republican politicians across the US. It is thought that such attempts may increase under the Donald Trump administration as GOP legislators feel emboldened by his presidency.

In Texas, state health officials have proposed that women who have abortions will be required to have funerals for the foetus.
A new piece of evidence related to the Nanjing Massacre has been donated to a private museum in Nanjing, Jiangsu province. Japanese war criminal Hisao Tani wrote in Chinese calligraphy on a scroll, boasting of Japanese soldiers' valiance in Nanjing in 1937, when over 300,000 people were killed within six weeks.

On Dec. 8, the Nanjing Civil Museum on the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression unveiled the latest donation from noted historian Yu Ge. The scroll is the height of an average adult, and has become wrinkled over the years. Valiant invasion of Nanjing, is written in Chinese characters on the scroll, along with Tanis signature.

Hisao Tani was a commander of the Japanese Army's Sixth Division during the war. He and his troops committed mass murders, rape, looting and destruction in Nanjing. Tani was executed on April 26, 1947.

This is direct evidence of the atrocities committed during the Nanjing massacre, Yu told Nanjing-based news site Longhoo.net. At a press conference, Yu said he gave the scroll to the museum for free so that the public can better understand history.

Nanjing is where [the scroll] belongs, where the atrocities happened, he said.

According to Yu, the scroll was likely made during the propaganda campaign in Japan in 1938, for which Tani was called back to his home country. It may have been given to his superior, Terauchi Hisaichi, to boast of his achievements. The scroll likely then became separated from Hisaichi after Japan lost the war.

Yu said he bought the scroll in 2007 from a Japanese website. He said he identified the scroll as authentic based on a mark that Tani left at the end of his message, Longhoo.net reported. An identical mark was also left by Tani on an army flag during the war, along with his signature. The flag has been preserved by the Memorial Hall of the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders.

The army flag and scroll are reportedly the only two remaining relics featuring Tani's handwriting. Both will be displayed at the museum and memorial hall.
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Portland city council in Oregon has voted to introduce a tax on companies whose chief executives earn in excess of 100 times more than their workers.

The measure was voted in by three to one in the first US legislation of its kind to compare the highest and lowest salaries paid by firms in a bid to address income equality.

The change will see corporate income tax increase by 10 per cent if a companys CEO-to-worker salary ratio is 100-1, increasing to 25 per cent for a ratio of 250-1 or more.

Officials predict the tax will bring in an extra $2.5m (2m) a year when its introduced in January 2018, with the money raised going towards programmes designed to help homeless people.

City commissioner and former environmental lawyer Steve Novick, who proposed the measure, said around 540 publicly traded companies could be affected by the tax hike, although it was unclear how many have the requisite CEO-to-worker pay ratios to trigger the surcharge.

Mr Novick said the plans were inspired by French economist Thomas Pikettys book Capital.

He also modelled the measure on a similar bill that was proposed in the Californian senate in 2015, but failed to pass.

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When I first read about the idea of applying a higher tax rate to companies with extreme ratios of CEO pay to typical worker pay, I thought it was a fascinating idea. It was the closest thing Id seen to a tax on inequality itself. Mr Novick told the New York Times.

However, Sandra McDonough, Portland Business Alliances president and CEO, said she felt businesses were an easy target for the empty gesture.

We think theyd be far better off trying to work with business leaders to create more jobs that will lift people up and improve incomes, she told the New York Times.
Sign up to our free fortnightly newsletter from The Independent's Race Correspondent Nadine White Sign up to our free fortnightly newsletter The Race Report Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

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President Obama has said he absolutely has been the victim of racism during his time in office.

The US President suggested the criticism he faced from whites in Southern states was a result of the colour of his skin.

He told CNN: "There's a reason why attitudes about my presidency among whites in Northern states are very different from whites in Southern states.

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Are there folks whose primary concern about me has been that I seem foreign, the other? Are those who champion the "birther" movement feeding off of bias? Absolutely.

Racism was not a major element of mainstream Republican opposition to his presidency but was an issue on the political fringe, he added.

Mr Obama has faced repeated questions about whether he was born in the US  despite there being no evidence he was not.

President-elect Donald Trump is among those who suggested Mr Obama is not really American and that his birth certificate is a fake.

However, Mr Trump has shifted his position in recent months, saying: President Barack Obama was born in the United States, period. Now, we all want to get back to making America strong and great again.

Barack Obama hands out his final Presidential Medal of Freedom awards Show all 10 1 /10 Barack Obama hands out his final Presidential Medal of Freedom awards Barack Obama hands out his final Presidential Medal of Freedom awards Tom Hanks Barack Obama smiles before presenting actor Tom Hanks with the Presidential Medal of Freedom Getty Barack Obama hands out his final Presidential Medal of Freedom awards Cicely Tyson President Barack Obama presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to actress Cicely Tyson Getty Barack Obama hands out his final Presidential Medal of Freedom awards Michael Jordan Michael Jordan waits to receive his medal Getty Barack Obama hands out his final Presidential Medal of Freedom awards Melinda and Bill Gates Melinda and Bill Gates receive their medals Getty Barack Obama hands out his final Presidential Medal of Freedom awards Ellen DeGeneres and Robert De Niro Robert De Niro comforts Ellen DeGeneres after she becomes emotional accepting her medal Getty Barack Obama hands out his final Presidential Medal of Freedom awards Eduardo Padron President Barack Obama awards the Presidential Medal of Freedom to higher education advocate and Miami Dade College President Eduardo Padron Barack Obama hands out his final Presidential Medal of Freedom awards Diana Ross Diana Ross and President Obama Getty Barack Obama hands out his final Presidential Medal of Freedom awards Robert De Niro Obama awards Robert De Niro the Presidential Medal of Freedom Getty Barack Obama hands out his final Presidential Medal of Freedom awards Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Barack Obama congratulates National Basketball Association all-time leading scorer and social justice advocate Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Getty Barack Obama hands out his final Presidential Medal of Freedom awards Ellen DeGeneres Comedian and talk show host Ellen DeGeneres wipes away tears as her citation is read before being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by U.S. President Barack Obama Getty

Mr Obamas former senior adviser, David Axelrod, who now runs the University of Chicagos Institute of Politics, agreed that the President had suffered from racial prejudice.

He told CNN: 'It's indisputable that there was a ferocity to the opposition and a lack of respect to him that was a function of race."

Mr Axelrod recounted an incident in which a powerful Republican had told Mr Obama: "You know, we don't really think you should be here, but the American people thought otherwise so we're going to have to work with you."

The comments were made during a CNN documentary special, The Legacy of Barack Obama, that aired on Wednesday night.

 Obama: I'll weigh in on Trump's presidency if necessary

Some experts have previously suggested Mr Trumps shock victory in the 8 November presidential election was a result of racism against Mr Obama.

Michael Tesler, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Columbia, said: Obamas presidency rapidly accelerated the pre-existing relationship between party identification and racial attitudes.

Moreover, he activated a previously non-existent partisan divide according to attitudes about Muslims  one that contributes to partisan sorting even after controlling for racial attitudes."

The issue of race has never been far from the surface during Mr Obamas presidency. In 2012, following the shooting of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager in Florida, he divided opinion by saying if he had a son he would look like Trayvon.

The current President also came under pressure during the Black Lives Matter protests over the shootings of unarmed black Americans by police officers. Many urged him to do more to support the protestors, while others criticised him for not being stronger in defending law enforcement agencies.

Mr Obama will hand over the presidency to Mr Trump on 20 January.
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Two men named Robin Williams and Tupac were arrested last week after being caught in possession of $69,000 (55,000) of marijuana.

Authorities noticed signs of criminal activity as the group travelled along an Arizona highway in a white Chevrolet pickup.

The famously named suspects were stopped with a third man, and officers uncovered five large plastic wrapped packages of the drug hidden in a toolbox in the bed of the truck.

The marijuana weighed 114.7 pounds and narcotics officials confirmed they were investigating the find.

Tupac Crum, 19, Robin Williams, 21, and Erick Harris Jr, 22, all from Albuquerque, were taken to Gila County jail after their arrest and charged with numerous drugs offences.

Through interagency cooperation and the combination of our resources, we will continue to remove dangerous drugs off the streets, Arizona department of public safety assistant director, Lt. Col. Hunter said in a statement on the department's website.

Together we are committed to making communities in Arizona safer through the aggressive enforcement of our states drug laws.
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Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani has removed himself from consideration for a top spot in the Trump administration.

Mr Giuliani was believed to be a lead contender for the role of Secretary of State. But the Trump transition team said that the man once called "America's Mayor" ruled himself out for the position.

Among the men in consideration to run the State Department are former presidential candidate and once Massachusetts Gov Mitt Romney, Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson, former Ford CEO Alan Mulally, Sen Bob Corker, and retired Admiral James Stavridis.

Recommended Goldman Sachs president expected to be economic council director

According to the Trump transition team, Mr Giuliani had withdrawn from consideration on 29 November, although the precise reason remains unclear.

"This is not about me; it is about what is best for the country and the new administration," Mr Giuliani said of his decision. "Before I joined the campaign I was very involved and fufilled by my work with my law firm and consulting firm, and I will continue that work with even more enthusiasm."

Mr Giuliani will keep his position as vice chairman of the transition team.

 Rudy Giuliani appears to forget 911 attacks when blaming all Islamic terror on Obama and Clinton

The President-elect lauded Mr Giuliani for his tireless work on the campaign trail, acting as Mr Trump's most vocal surrogate in the race against Hillary Clinton.

"He is and continues to be a close personal friend," Mr Trump said, "and as appropriate, I will call upon him for advice and can see an important place for him in the administration at a later date."

He added: "Rudy would have been an outstanding member of the Cabinet in several roles, but I fully respect and understand his reasons for remaining in the private sector."

President Donald Trump life in pictures Show all 16 1 /16 President Donald Trump life in pictures President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump poses in a rocking chair once used by President John F. Kennedy at his New York City residence Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Developer Donald Trump with his new bride Marla Maples after their wedding at the Plaza hotel in New York Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump and Celina Midelfart watch the match between Conchita Martinez and Amanda Coetzer during U.S. Open. She was the date whom Donald Trump was with when he met his current wife Melania at a party in 1996 Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas serving as the grand marshal for the Daytona 500, speaks to Donald Trump and Melania Knauss on the starting grid at the Daytona International Speedwa Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Developer Donald Trump talks with his former wife Ivana Trump during the men's final at the U.S. Open Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump and his friend Melania Knauss pose for photographers as they arrive at the New York premiere of Star Wars Episode : 'The Phantom Menace,' Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Billionaire real estate developer Donald Trump talks with host Larry King. Trump told King that he was moving toward a possible bid for the United States presidency with the formation of a presidential exploratory committee Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump answers questions as Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura looks on in Brooklyn Park. Trump said on Friday he 'very well might' make a run for president under the Reform Party banner but had not made a final decision Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Billionaire Donald Trump makes a face at a friend as he sits next to Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso before the start of the 2003 Miss Universe pageant in Panama City Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Entrepreneur Donald Trump is greeted by a Marilyn Monroe character look-a-alike, as he arrives at Universal Studios Hollywood to attend the an open casting call for his NBC television network reality series 'The Apprentice.' Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump and Simon Cowell present an Emmy during the 56th annual Primetime Emmy Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump and Megan Mullally perform at the 57th annual Primetime Emmy Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump, poses with his children, son Donald Trump, Jr., and daughters Tiffany and Ivanka Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Billionaire Donald Trump told Miss USA 2006 Tara Conner on Tuesday she would be given a second chance after reported misbehavior Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump holds a replica of his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame as his wife Melania holds their son Barron in Los Angeles Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures U.S. property mogul Donald Trump stands next to a bagpiper during a media event on the sand dunes of the Menie estate, the site for Trump's proposed golf resort, near Aberdeen, north east Scotland Reuters

A Trump transition aide told Politico that Mr Romney, Sen Corker, and Mr Tillerson are the three front-runners. The aide said that Mr Giuliani's public audition for the role did not sit with the transition team well.

"Giuliani started doing interviews with himself, and that bothered people. You never want to be more controversial than the boss," the aide said

"The issue with Trump is you need to close the deal when he's in the mindset. He's not in the Rudy mindset anymore."

One associate close with Mr Giuliania, Tony Carbonetti, said that the mayor was only interested in serving as Secretary of State.

"He didn't want another job in the administration," he told Politico. "I think when he realised it was becoming a distraction, he decided it was time to remove himself from consideration. I don't think there was a lot more to it than that."
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Donald Trump will keep his executive producer credit on NBCs Celebrity Apprentice throughout his presidency.

Trump is the original star of the television series that will kick off its 15th season new host Arnold Schwarzenegger on January 2. In the shows final credit sequence, Trumps name will air following the shows creator Mark Burnett, who distanced himself from the Republicans presidential campaign last year. Then, he condemned the hatred, division, and misogyny of Trump's presidential platform.

Following his derogatory comments toward Mexican immigrants last year, NBC Universal distanced themselves from Trump, saying they would only air Celebrity Apprentice because he was completely removed from the series. Robert Greenblatt, the companys chairman, also promised that Trump would never return to Celebrity Apprentice as long as hes with the company.

It's currently unclear if Greenblatt is leaving the company.

On Thursday, not only did people criticize yet another conflict of interest for the business mogul turned president-elect, but disavowed NBC, a company who owns a major news network, for having a financial stake in a series with the next president.

MGM typically pays its producers in the range of five-figures but its currently unclear how much the president-elect will make next year.
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The World Health Organization (WHO) has urged US President-elect Donald Trump to expand Obamacare, the signature policy of the outgoing President that Mr Trump has called an "incredible economic burden".

The WHO said it wanted Mr Trump's administration to "make sure that the social contract is expanded and that all U.S. citizens have access to health care".

The real-estate magnate has appointed Congressman Tom Price, a fierce critic of the Affordable Care Act, as his health secretary. During his campaign Mr Trump promised that on day one of his presidency he would ask Congress to "immediately deliver a full repeal" of the Act.

Agnes Soucat, the WHO's director of health system governance and financing, said there were various ways of providing health cover to more people, and it amounted to "political choices."

The United States is the only country among the 35 member states of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development not to provide universal health care, a key UN sustainable development goal for 2030, she said.

Obamacare has provided some 25 million previously uninsured Americans with health cover. Republicans say it has created unwarranted government intervention in personal healthcare and private industry.

Mr Price has long championed a plan of tax credits, expanded health savings accounts, and lawsuit reforms to replace Obamacare.

He has insisted that Republicans can keep the protections for those with existing medical conditions without mandating that all individuals carry coverage or pay a penalty to support an expanded insurance pool.

Donald Trump's most controversial quotes Show all 14 1 /14 Donald Trump's most controversial quotes Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On Isis: "Some of the candidates, they went in and didnt know the air conditioner didnt work and sweated like dogs, and they didnt know the room was too big because they didnt have anybody there. How are they going to beat ISIS?" Getty Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On immigration: "I will build a great wall  and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me and Ill build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words." Reuters Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On Free Trade: "Free trade is terrible. Free trade can be wonderful if you have smart people. But we have stupid people." PAUL J. RICHARDS | AFP | Getty Images Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On Mexicans: "When Mexico sends its people, theyre not sending their best. Theyre sending people that have lots of problems. Theyre bringing drugs. Theyre bringing crime. Theyre rapists." Getty Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On China: "I just sold an apartment for $15 million to somebody from China. Am I supposed to dislike them?... I love China. The biggest bank in the world is from China. You know where their United States headquarters is located? In this building, in Trump Tower." Getty Images Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On work: "If you're interested in 'balancing' work and pleasure, stop trying to balance them. Instead make your work more pleasurable." AP Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On success: "What separates the winners from the losers is how a person reacts to each new twist of fate." Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On life: "Everything in life is luck." AFP Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On ambition: "You have to think anyway, so why not think big?" Getty Images Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On his opponents: "Bush is totally in favour of Common Core. I don't see how he can possibly get the nomination. He's weak on immigration. He's in favour of Common Core. How the hell can you vote for this guy? You just can't do it." Reuters Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On Obamacare: "You have to be hit by a tractor, literally, a tractor, to use it, because the deductibles are so high. It's virtually useless. And remember the $5 billion web site?... I have so many web sites, I have them all over the place. I hire people, they do a web site. It costs me $3." Getty Images Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On Barack Obama: "Obama is going to be out playing golf. He might be on one of my courses. I would invite him. I have the best courses in the world. I have one right next to the White House." PA Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On himself: "Love him or hate him, Trump is a man who is certain about what he wants and sets out to get it, no holds barred. Women find his power almost as much of a turn-on as his money." Getty Images Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On America: "The American Dream is dead. But if I get elected president I will bring it back bigger and better and stronger than ever before and we will make America great again." GETTY

Republicans are divided over how quickly an Obamacare repeal should go into effect, with some saying a delay would give them time to work on a replacement, instead of throwing millions of Americans out of their health insurance with no substitute.

Ms Soucat said: "There are different strategies to make universal health care particularly pro-poor. So what we are saying is, yes, this would be a setback if people would lose coverage."

Mr Trump has said he will move quickly in replacing the policy, though he has also indicated  after meeting with Mr Obama in the Oval Office in November  that some parts of the programme may be retained.
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Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and head of Burma's young government, has been called upon by the UN to "listen to her inner voice" and halt the violence against the persecuted Rohingya minority.

At least 10,000 members of the Muslim ethnic group have been driven across the Bangladeshi border by threat of violence in recent weeks.

Rape, arson and the slaughter of dozens of civilians have also been documented, and a closed military zone has been declared in the northern state of Rakhine, which is home to around 1,400,000 Rohingya.

In pictures: Burma protests against Rohingya Muslims Show all 5 1 /5 In pictures: Burma protests against Rohingya Muslims In pictures: Burma protests against Rohingya Muslims Burma Buddhist nationalists demonstrate against the UN and the return of Rohingya Muslims in Yangon In pictures: Burma protests against Rohingya Muslims Burma Hard-line Buddhist monks lead a demonstration against Rohingya migrants who were resettled in Rakhine state after being found at sea while fleeing Burma following anti-Muslim violence EPA In pictures: Burma protests against Rohingya Muslims Burma Buddhist monks demonstrate against the UN and the return of Rohingya Muslims in Yangon In pictures: Burma protests against Rohingya Muslims Burma Buddhist nationalists demonstrate against the UN and the return of Rohingya Muslims In pictures: Burma protests against Rohingya Muslims Burma Radical Buddhist nationalists protest the international pressure on Myanmar to accept the repatriation of persecuted Rohingya boat refugees

The crackdown was initially launched in response to the killing of nine policemen by Rohingya militants. But its ultimate goal is "the ethnic cleansing of the Muslim minority in Myanmar", the UN refugee agency's chief in Southern Bangladeshhas said.

Ms Suu Kyi, the feted pro-democracy activist who spent 15 years under house arrest before being elected as Myanmar's State Counsellor in 2015, has failed to visit Rakhine since the outbreak of violence.

Instead, she has repeatedly defended the purges, attacking foreign intervention in the region and demanding: "show me a country without human rights issues.

"I call upon Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to listen to her inner voice and speak directly to the people of Myanmar," the Special Adviser of the United Nations Secretary-General on Myanmar, Vijay Nambiar, responded in a formal statement. "People of all communities in Myanmar must jointly oppose the violence, disunity and division that are being instigated by a small group of criminal elements in the region."

 Rohingya Muslims fleeing Burma recall the horrors they left

"Furthermore, a reiteration of her promise to address the root causes affecting the local population, namely that of citizenship and status, and to provide relief to the internally displaced since 2012, would go a long way to relieve tension."

After Britain annexed what is now Rakhine in 1826, Muslim labourers were brought over from Bengal to work the land. Land disputes were heightened by ethnic differences, and after the British armed Rohingyan militants to fight during the Burmese war, they ignited a sectarian rebellion which lasted until the 1960s.

Under the military juntas which held the country then known as Burma in an ethnocentrist Buddhist grip for decades, the Rohingyans faced state violence and discrimination on such a scale the UN has called them "the world's most persecuted people."

Following riots in 2015, the Rohingyan 'boat people' fled across South-East Asia. Hundreds drowned, and other refugees found themselves incarcerated in Bangladesh or forcibly deported back to Myanmar.

Effectively stateless, the Rohingya were not allowed to vote in 2015, and looked on as Ms Suu Kyi swept to power in Myanmar's first democratic elections for a quarter-century.

The activist known as 'The Lady' was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for "striving to attain democracy, human rights and ethnic conciliation by peaceful means." But she has shown little interest in the scorched villages or shallow mass graves in Muslim regions of her country.
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South Korea has voted to impeach its president Park Geun-hye over a corruption scandal involving some of the countrys largest companies.

The vote means Ms Park, the countrys first female president, will also become the countrys first democratically elected leader to be impeached.

The vote in the National Assembly was passed by 234 votes to 56, indicating many members of the presidents ruling Saenuri party supported the motion.

I declare that the bill to impeach President Park Geun-Hye has just been approved, speaker Chung Se-Kyun announced in parliament.

Whether you support or oppose it, all lawmakers and South Korean people who are watching this grave situation unfold must feel so miserable and heavy at heart.

I deeply wish that such tragedy in our constitutional history will not be repeated ever again, he added.

South Koreas constitutional court will decide whether to uphold or reject the vote  a process which could take up to six months.

Ms Park is suspended with immediate effect, bringing an end to her term in office which became mired in a bizarre corruption scandal that saw millions take to the streets in protest.

The prime minister will become the acting president until the court returns its verdict.

The vote followed recent opinion polls which showed 78 per cent of Koreans supported her impeachment.

The scandal erupted after it emerged a close friend and mentor of the president, named Choi Soon-sil, allegedly used her relationship with Ms Park to extort over $70m from firms including Samsung, LG and Hyundai.

Vast crowds took to the streets of Seoul as the scandal unfolded, demanding an end to Ms Parks presidency.

Prior to the impeachment bills introduction, Ms Park said she was willing to resign voluntarily if parliament shortened her term.

South Korea military exercise in pictures Show all 11 1 /11 South Korea military exercise in pictures South Korea military exercise in pictures US Marines prepare U.S. Marines from 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force, Battalion landing team deployed from Okinawa, Japan participate in the U.S. and South Korean Marines joint landing operation Getty South Korea military exercise in pictures Troops land on the beach U.S. Marines from 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force, Battalion landing team deployed from Okinawa, Japan participate in the U.S. and South Korean Marines joint landing operation Getty South Korea military exercise in pictures Troops hide between amphibious vehicles U.S. Marines from 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force, Battalion landing team deployed from Okinawa, Japan participate in the U.S. and South Korean Marines joint landing operation Getty South Korea military exercise in pictures Snipers U.S. Marines from 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force, Battalion landing team deployed from Okinawa, Japan participate in the U.S. and South Korean Marines joint landing operation Getty South Korea military exercise in pictures Explosions on the sea U.S. Marines from 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force, Battalion landing team deployed from Okinawa, Japan participate in the U.S. and South Korean Marines joint landing operation Getty South Korea military exercise in pictures Snipers line up U.S. Marines from 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force, Battalion landing team deployed from Okinawa, Japan participate in the U.S. and South Korean Marines joint landing operation Getty South Korea military exercise in pictures Simulated sea warfare U.S. Marines from 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force, Battalion landing team deployed from Okinawa, Japan participate in the U.S. and South Korean Marines joint landing operation Getty South Korea military exercise in pictures View from the land U.S. Marines from 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force, Battalion landing team deployed from Okinawa, Japan participate in the U.S. and South Korean Marines joint landing operation Getty South Korea military exercise in pictures Troops come ashore U.S. Marines from 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force, Battalion landing team deployed from Okinawa, Japan participate in the U.S. and South Korean Marines joint landing operation Getty South Korea military exercise in pictures Parachutists come to earth U.S. Marines from 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force, Battalion landing team deployed from Okinawa, Japan participate in the U.S. and South Korean Marines joint landing operation Getty South Korea military exercise in pictures A soldier in camouflage U.S. Marines from 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force, Battalion landing team deployed from Okinawa, Japan participate in the U.S. and South Korean Marines joint landing operation Getty

The corruption scandal had paralysed the South Korean government in recent weeks. The vote to impeach Ms Park leaves a power vacuum amid chaos in the country that faces a slowdown in growth and heightened tensions with its unpredictable neighbour, North Korea.

Ms Park is yet to comment on the results of the vote, but she is due to attend a meeting with her cabinet and the prime minister who will assume the role of interim president.
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Populist anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders has been convicted in a hate speech trial by a court in the Netherlands.

Wilders was found guilty of insulting a group and inciting discrimination after leading a chant against having Moroccans in the country.

But Judge Hendrik Steenhuis resisted prosecutors calls to fine him 5,000 and said the court would not impose a sentence on Wilders.

Instead, he said the conviction alone was punishment enough for a politician who has been democratically elected.

 Dutch anti-Muslim politician Geert Wilders reacts to hate speech trial

Wilders is the leader of the far-right Freedom Party which is currently leading in national polls and is forecast to surge ahead of its rivals at the countrys election in March 2017.

The trial focused on an episode in 2014 at a cafe in The Hague where Wilders, in front of television cameras, asked supporters whether they wanted more or fewer Moroccans in the Netherlands, sparking a chant of fewer, fewer, fewer, to which he replied well take care of it.

Wilders branded the trial a politically motivated charade and said it endangered freedom of speech.

Before declaring Wilders guilty, Judge Steenhuis stressed that freedom of speech was not on trial, as Wilders claimed.

Freedom of speech is one of the foundations of our democratic society, the judge said. But he added: Freedom of speech can be limited, for example to protect the rights and freedoms of others, and that is what this case is about.

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

Wilders was not in court when the verdict was read, but even before the case went ahead, he said he would not let a conviction muzzle him.

"Whatever the verdict, I will continue to speak the truth about the Moroccan problem, and no judge, politician or terrorist will stop me," he tweeted shortly before the verdict.

Speaking after the verdict was announced, Wilders said his conviction of discrimination and inciting hatred was insanity and said the three judges who handed down the ruling were haters of his far-right Freedom Party (PVV).

Three PVV-hating judges declare Moroccans a race and convict me and half of the Netherlands. Insane, he wrote in a tweet shortly after the verdict.

Wilders was previously acquitted of hate speech at another trial in 2011 for his outspoken criticism of Islam.
[File photo]

An autistic boy in the U.K. has happily received samples of his beloved sippy cup from its Chinese manufacturer after his father desperately launched a campaign to replace the boy's current, worn-out cup.

Ben Carter, 14, has been sent to the emergency room twice for dehydration, as he refuses to drink water without his favorite green cup. Carter has been using the same cup since the age of 2, and his current one is falling apart. Carter's story came to the attention of the cups manufacturer after his fathered tweeted for help, according to the BBC.

The cups manufacturer, Dongguan-based Jackel China Limited (JC), sent the boy's family 50 samples, whose color and shape were approved by Carter's father. The boy was pleased by the unexpected gifts, and JC has promised to produce 1,000 more cups to ensure a lifetime supply, CCTV reported on Nov. 9.

According to Nanfang Daily, the green cup went out of production in 2003. JC made great efforts to retrieve the cups production record in order to discover its original design. The cups may take two to three weeks to manufacture, and will require the use of three pieces of dedicated equipment.
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His party is leading the polls in the Netherlands and he has now been found guilty of inciting discrimination against immigrants in a hate speech trial, but who exactly is Geert Wilders and does he have a chance of winning?

This months trial is not the first time Wilders pronouncements on the subject of Islam have landed him in the dock.

A Dutch court acquitted him of charges of hate speech in 2011 after he compared the Quran to Hitlers Mein Kampf and called for a towel-head tax on Muslim women who wear the veil  comments the judged deemed rude and denigrating but on the edge of what is allowed.

Wilders called that acquittal a victory for freedom of expression in the Netherlands. His willingness to flaunt supposed political correctness is at the core of his appeal. Like many populist leaders across Europe, he succeeds in painting himself as an outsider.

In a statement before his recent trial, he described himself as a politician who says what the politically correct elite do not want to hear.

His unvarnished remarks on immigration have won him much support and if polls are to be believed, his party would come out of the elections in March as the largest single party with a strong moral case for attempting to form a government.

Born in the Dutch city of Venlo, the youngest of four children, Wilders political career began as a speechwriter for Peoples Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) before he became a member of the House of Representatives in 1998.

The key juncture, however, came in 2004 when Wilders renounced his party affiliation over its openness to Turkish membership of the European Union.

Wilders kept his seat and sat in Dutch parliament as a one-man party called Groep Wilders (Wilders Group) before founding the Party for Freedom (PVV) in 2006.

Its most recent manifesto, published in August, promised to ban all mosques and migrants from Islamic countries.

Islam featured heavily in the 11-point plan, which promised to root out elements of other faiths that were contrary to the countrys order.

What experts have said about Brexit Show all 11 1 /11 What experts have said about Brexit What experts have said about Brexit Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond The Chancellor claims London can still be a world financial hub despite Brexit One of Britains great strengths is the ability to offer and aggregate all of the services the global financial services industry needs This has not changed as a result of the EU referendum and I will do everything I can to ensure the City of London retains its position as the worlds leading international financial centre. Reuters What experts have said about Brexit Yanis Varoufakis Greece's former finance minister compared the UK relations with the EU bloc with a well-known song by the Eagles: You can check out any time you like, as the Hotel California song says, but you can't really leave. The proof is Theresa May has not even dared to trigger Article 50. It's like Harrison Ford going into Indiana Jones' castle and the path behind him fragmenting. You can get in, but getting out is not at all clear Getty Images What experts have said about Brexit Michael OLeary Ryanair boss says UK will be screwed by EU in Brexit trade deals: I have no faith in the politicians in London going on about how the world will want to trade with us. The world will want to screw you  that's what happens in trade talks, he said. They have no interest in giving the UK a deal on trade Getty What experts have said about Brexit Tim Martin JD Wetherspoon's chairman has said claims that the UK would see serious economic consequences from a Brexit vote were "lurid" and wrong: We were told it would be Armageddon from the OECD, from the IMF, David Cameron, the chancellor and President Obama who were predicting locusts in the fields and tidal waves in the North Sea" PA What experts have said about Brexit Mark Carney Governor of Bank of England is 'serene' about Bank of England's Brexit stance: I am absolutely serene about the  judgments made both by the MPC and the FPC Reuters What experts have said about Brexit Christine Lagarde IMF chief urges quick Brexit to reduce economic uncertainty: We want to see clarity sooner rather than later because we think that a lack of clarity feeds uncertainty, which itself undermines investment appetites and decision making Getty Images What experts have said about Brexit Inga Beale Lloyds chief executive says Brexit is a major issue: "Clearly the UK's referendum on its EU membership is a major issue for us to deal with and we are now focusing our attention on having in place the plans that will ensure Lloyd's continues trading across Europe EPA What experts have said about Brexit Colm Kelleher President of US bank Morgan Stanley says City of London will suffer as result of the EU referendum: I do believe, and I said prior to the referendum, that the City of London will suffer as result of Brexit. The issue is how much What experts have said about Brexit Richard Branson Virgin founder believes we've lost a THIRD of our value because of Brexit and cancelled a deal worth 3,000 jobs: We're not any worse than anybody else, but I suspect we've lost a third of our value which is dreadful for people in the workplace.' He continued: "We were about to do a very big deal, we cancelled that deal, that would have involved 3,000 jobs, and thats happening all over the country" Getty Images What experts have said about Brexit Barack Obama US President believes Britain was wrong to vote to leave the EU: "It is absolutely true that I believed pre-Brexit vote and continue to believe post-Brexit vote that the world benefited enormously from the United Kingdom's participation in the EU. We are fully supportive of a process that is as little disruptive as possible so that people around the world can continue to benefit from economic growth" Getty Images What experts have said about Brexit Kristin Forbes American economist and an external member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England argues that the economy had been less stormy than many expected following the shock referendum result: For nowthe economy is experiencing some chop, but no tsunami. The adverse winds could quickly pick up  and merit a stronger policy response. But recently they have shifted to a more favourable direction Getty

In 2008, a short film called Fitna made by Wilders, which presented Islam as an inherently violent religion caused international outcry. He was due to show the film in the British House of Lords in 2009 when the then Home Secretary issued a statement saying Wilders would be refused entry to the UK should he attempt to enter.

The decision was overturned on appeal later that year and Wilders was invited back again to show his film in January 2010 by Lord Pearson, a UKIP peer, and cross-bencher Baroness Cox.

In a press conference afterwards he described the Prophet Muhammad as barbarian, a mass murderer and a paedophile, once again causing outrage.

As well as being anti-immigration, Wilders and the PVV are fierce opponents of the European Union.

He was one of the most prominent figures in the No campaign for a referendum on the European Constitution in 2005, when 62 per cent of Dutch voters rejected the treaty in a precursor of todays anti-European sentiment.

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

After the result Wilders described himself as incredibly happy that the Dutch voter has rubbed it in the faces of the political elite in The Hague and Brussels.

Since then he has attempted to align himself with the French National Front and its leader, Marine Le Pen, in the European Parliament. However, an attempt to form a parliamentary grouping alongside right-wing parties from Italy and Belgium to slay the monster in Brussels foundered.

After the vote for Brexit, Wilders was quick to propose that the Dutch should hold a referendum on their membership of the European Union.

And he has promised to hold one if he becomes Prime Minister.


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A man has been arrested on suspicion of preparing an Isis-inspired terror attack in the Netherlands after police found a loaded Kalashnikov and explosives alongside the groups flag.

The Dutch Public Prosecution Service (Openbaar Ministerie) said the 30-year-old suspect was taken into custody on Wednesday.

Searches of his home in Rotterdam uncovered an AK-47 with two loaded magazines, four boxes of highly explosive illegal fireworks, mobile phones and 1,600 (1,300) in cash alongside a painting of the Isis flag.

The suspect, who has not been identified, will remain in custody for at least two weeks as investigations continue.

His arrest came a day after Belgian police detained a suspected cell of Isis supporters who were recruiting foreign fighters for the so-called Islamic State.

The Belgian federal public prosecutors office said a court extended the detention of three suspects on Friday on charges of recruiting people to travel to Syria and financially supporting Isis.

Numerous terror plots have been uncovered in Europe since the group declared its caliphate in 2014 and Europol has warned further attacks remain likely across the continent.

Terrorism in 2016: Terror attacks in Europe claimed by Isis Show all 9 1 /9 Terrorism in 2016: Terror attacks in Europe claimed by Isis Terrorism in 2016: Terror attacks in Europe claimed by Isis Policemen outside Rouen's cathedral during the funeral of Jacques Hamel, the priest who was killed in a church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray in Normandy on 26 July during a hostage-taking claimed by Islamic State group Joel Saget/AFP/Getty Images Terrorism in 2016: Terror attacks in Europe claimed by Isis Two jihadists, both 19, slit Hamel's throat while he was celebrating mass in an attack that shocked France as well as the Catholic Church Joel Saget/AFP/Getty Images Terrorism in 2016: Terror attacks in Europe claimed by Isis Muslims place flowers and hold a minute of silence in front of the church if Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, western France, where French priest Jacques Hamel was killed on 26 July Charly Triballeau/AFP/Getty Images Terrorism in 2016: Terror attacks in Europe claimed by Isis Two people hold each other by the new makeshift memorial in Nice, in tribute to the victims of the deadly Bastille Day attack at the Promenade des Anglais Valery Hache/AFP/Getty Images Terrorism in 2016: Terror attacks in Europe claimed by Isis The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the truck attack that killed 84 people in Nice on France's national holiday. Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, 31, smashed a 19-tonne truck into a packed crowd of people in the Riviera city celebrating Bastille Day Valery Hache/AFP/Getty Images Terrorism in 2016: Terror attacks in Europe claimed by Isis Police work at a site where a Syrian migrant set off an explosive device in Ansbach, southern Germany, on 25 July, killing himself and wounding a dozen others Daniel Roland/AFP/Getty Images Terrorism in 2016: Terror attacks in Europe claimed by Isis A Syrian migrant set off an explosion at a bar in southern Germany that killed himself and wounded a dozen others in the third attack to hit Bavaria in a week. The 27-year-old, who had spent a stint in a psychiatric facility, had intended to target a music festival in the city of Ansbach but was turned away because he did not have a ticket Friebe/AFP/Getty Images Terrorism in 2016: Terror attacks in Europe claimed by Isis Police officers walk along train tracks in Wuerzburg southern Germany on 19 July, a day after a man attacked train passengers with an axe. German authorities said they had found a hand-painted IS flag among the belongings of the man, an asylum seeker from Afghanistan, who seriously injured four members of a family of tourists from Hong Kong in his rampage Daniel Roland/AFP/Getty Images Terrorism in 2016: Terror attacks in Europe claimed by Isis German police killed a teenage assailant after he attacked passengers on a train in Wuerzburg, southerg Germany with an axe and a knife on 18 July, seriously wounding three people Karl-Josef Hildenbrand/AFP/Getty Images

The Paris and Brussels attacks were carried out by militants deployed by commanders from their strongholds in Syria, while other atrocities like the Nice massacre and German train attack were carried out by extremists apparently inspired by the groups propaganda.

No attacks have so far been launched in the Netherlands but the country is among Isis targets as a member of the US-led international coalition bombing its militants in Syria and Iraq.

The Dutch government extended air strikes by four F-16 fighter jets from Iraq into Syria in January and they have taken part in operations helping push fighters out of key strongholds including Fallujah and Manbij.

More than 260 extremists have travelled from the Netherlands to join Isis in Syria or Iraq since 2012, according to a report released by its National Coordinator for Terrorism and Security.

At least 42 are known to have been killed, 40 have returned and 170 Dutch men, women and children are thought to remain in the groups territories.
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More and more refugees are converting from Islam to Christianity as they settle in Germany, churches have said.

Footage showed three refugees recently being baptised at the Evangelical-Freikirchlichen Gemeinde in Berlin.

Matthias Linke, the priest, asked them: Do you believe from the bottom of your heart that Jesus Christ is your Lord and saviour, and will you follow him every day of your life?

One of four newly-converted Muslim refugees attends a Baptism ceremony at the Evangelisch-Freikirchliche Gemeinde church in Berlin on 27 November (AFP/Getty Images)

They all answered yes in German, the AFP news agency reported, and were plunged into a baptism basin. Afterwards members of the congregation sang, applauded and hugged their new members.

A lot of them come to Germany and think, here I can choose my religion and I want to choose a religion of freedom, Mr Linke said.

For many Iranians that Ive baptised, Christianity is the religion of freedom.

Felix Goldinger, a Catholic priest in Speyer, said many of the refugees he has baptised come from Iran and Afghanistan, as well as from Syria or Eritrea.

Adel, a 25-year-old Iraqi refugee, said he feared the reaction of other Muslim refugees and that his own brother attempted to prevent him contacting Christian friends.

After converting to Christianity in Spandau in January, he told the Berliner Morgenpost it was the happiest day of my life.

Refugees settle in Germany Show all 12 1 /12 Refugees settle in Germany Refugees settle in Germany Germany Mohamed Zayat, a refugee from Syria, plays with his daughter Ranim, who is nearly 3, in the one room they and Mohamed's wife Laloosh call home at an asylum-seekers' shelter in Vossberg village on October 9, 2015 in Letschin, Germany. The Zayats arrived approximately two months ago after trekking through Turkey, Greece and the Balkans and are now waiting for local authorities to process their asylum application, after which they will be allowed to live independently and settle elsewhere in Germany. Approximately 60 asylum-seekers, mostly from Syria, Chechnya and Somalia, live at the Vossberg shelter, which is run by the Arbeiter-Samariter Bund (ASB) charity 2015 Getty Images Refugees settle in Germany Germany A refugee child Amnat Musayeva points to a star with her photo and name that decorates the door to her classroom as teacher Martina Fischer looks on at the local kindergarten Amnat and her siblings attend on October 9, 2015 in Letschin, Germany. The children live with their family at an asylum-seekers' shelter in nearby Vossberg village and are waiting for local authorities to process their asylum applications. Approximately 60 asylum-seekers, mostly from Syria, Chechnya and Somalia, live at the Vossberg shelter, which is run by the Arbeiter-Samariter Bund (ASB) charity Getty Images Refugees settle in Germany Germany Kurdish Syrian asylum-applicant Mohamed Ali Hussein (R), 19, and fellow applicant Autur, from Latvia, load benches onto a truckbed while performing community service, for which they receive a small allowance, in Wilhelmsaue village on October 9, 2015 near Letschin, Germany. Mohamed and Autur live at an asylum-applicants' shelter in nearby Vossberg village. Approximately 60 asylum-seekers, mostly from Syria, Chechnya and Somalia, live at the Vossberg shelter, which is run by the Arbeiter-Samariter Bund (ASB) charity Getty Images Refugees settle in Germany Germany Mohamed Ali Hussein ((L), 19, and his cousin Sinjar Hussein, 34, sweep leaves at a cemetery in Gieshof village, for which they receive a small allowance, near Letschin Getty Images Refugees settle in Germany Germany Mohamed Zayat, a refugee from Syria, looks among donated clothing in the basement of the asylum-seekers' shelter that is home to Mohamed, his wife Laloosh and their daughter Ranim as residents' laundry dries behind in Vossberg village on October 9, 2015 in Letschin, Germany. The Zayats arrived approximately two months ago after trekking through Turkey, Greece and the Balkans and are now waiting for local authorities to process their asylum application, after which they will be allowed to live independently and settle elsewhere in Germany Getty Images Refugees settle in Germany Germany Asya Sugaipova (L), Mohza Mukayeva and Khadra Zhukova prepare food in the communal kitchen at the asylum-seekers' shelter that is their home in Vossberg village in Letschin Getty Images Refugees settle in Germany Germany Efrah Abdullahi Ahmed looks down from the communal kitchen window at her daughter Sumaya, 10, who had just returned from school, at the asylum-seekers' shelter that is their home in Vossberg Getty Images Refugees settle in Germany Germany Asylum-applicants, including Syrians Mohamed Ali Hussein (C-R, in black jacket) and Fadi Almasalmeh (C), return from grocery shopping with other refugees to the asylum-applicants' shelter that is their home in Vossberg village in Letschin Getty Images Refugees settle in Germany Germany Mohamed Zayat (2nd from L), a refugee from Syria, smokes a cigarette after shopping for groceries with his daughter Ranim, who is nearly 3, and fellow-Syrian refugees Mohamed Ali Hussein (C) and Fadi Almasalmeh (L) at a local supermarket on October 9, 2015 in Letschin, Germany. All of them live at an asylum-seekers' shelter in nearby Vossberg village and are waiting for local authorities to process their asylum applications, after which they will be allowed to live independently and settle elsewhere in Germany 2015 Getty Images Refugees settle in Germany Germany Kurdish Syrian refugees Leila, 9, carries her sister Avin, 1, in the backyard at the asylum-seekers' shelter that is home to them and their family in Vossberg village in Letschin Getty Images Refugees settle in Germany Germany Somali refugees and husband and wife Said Ahmed Gure (R) and Ayaan Gure pose with their infant son Muzammili, who was born in Germany, in the room they share at an asylum-seekers' shelter in Vossberg village on October 9, 2015 in Letschin, Germany. Approximately 60 asylum-seekers, mostly from Syria, Chechnya and Somalia, live at the Vossberg shelter, which is run by the Arbeiter-Samariter Bund (ASB) charity, and are waiting for authorities to process their application for asylum 2015 Getty Images Refugees settle in Germany Germany German Chancellor Angela Merkel pauses for a selfie with a refugee after she visited the AWO Refugium Askanierring shelter for refugees in Berlin Getty Images

The number of conversions has not been officially counted but the phenomenon dates back at least to 2013, when a handbook on baptising asylum seekers was released by Germanys evangelical church (EKD).

In recent years asylum seekers - either alone or as a family - have increasingly turned to the Christian faith and asked church communities whether they could be baptised, its introduction reads.

This is a special challenge, not only for asylum seekers, but also for parish priests, parishioners and parishes, who guide those being baptised for many hours, sensitively and responsibly.

 Refugees rescued and brought to shore in the Mediterranean

Some of the new converts were first introduced to Christianity in Germany or en route to Europe, while others had previously attempted to follow the religion in countries like Iran, where the faith is restricted or persecuted.

There is concern that some conversions could be motivated by the belief that it will increase the chance of being granted asylum in Germany, where Christianity is the dominant religion.

Isis is among the jihadist groups killing Christians in Iraq and Syria, while the faith can be persecuted using apostasy or blasphemy laws including Iran, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan.

Almost 900,000 asylum seekers arrived in Germany last year, mostly from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, when Angela Merkel opened the borders to those risking their lives to reach Europe in deadly sea crossings.
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Refugees are dying of hypothermia as thousands continue desperate attempts to cross the Mediterranean Sea in plummeting temperatures and worsening winter weather.

While European leaders have hailed the success of a deal aiming to stop migrant boats being launched from Turkey to Greece, the number of asylum seekers taking the longer and more treacherous route from Libya to Italy has increased dramatically.

More than 4,700 refugees have died attempting sea journeys to Europe this year, of drowning, fuel inhalation and suffocation in overcrowded dinghies. Now, the cold itself is taking lives.

 A day rescuing refugees from the Mediterranean Sea

At least two women have been killed by hypothermia in the past week. Rescuers with the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said it was the first time they had seen refugees die from the condition.

Helmi Emmen, a nurse on the Aquarius search and rescue ship, said they were found on a rubber dinghy packed with around 120 migrants off the coast of Libya on Sunday.

It was only after around 60 people had been rescued from the boat that medics saw two women lying on the floor. One was not breathing and was pronounced dead following attempts at CPR on the deck.

The other woman was still breathing and had a pulse, said Ms Emmen. We put her on oxygen but she stopped breathing and her pulse was going down. We didnt succeed in saving her.

Both women were young and thin, most probably undernourished from their long journey and stay in Libya, and were wearing only thin T-shirts as a defence against the cold and water filling the boat.

It is the first time we have seen a hypothermia death but we expect this to happen more, Ms Emmen said. We are trying to be prepared for it.

The Italian coast guard discovered 11 more bodies in another boat on Tuesday, while a commercial ship carrying out a separate rescue found three people dead.

In pictures: A day of refugee rescues in the Mediterranean Sea Show all 7 1 /7 In pictures: A day of refugee rescues in the Mediterranean Sea In pictures: A day of refugee rescues in the Mediterranean Sea A baby being taken on to MSF's Bourbon Argos ship from a boat carrying 130 migrants and refugees Lizzie Dearden In pictures: A day of refugee rescues in the Mediterranean Sea A refugee boat carrying 101 people being rescued by MSF's Bourbon Argos Lizzie Dearden In pictures: A day of refugee rescues in the Mediterranean Sea A refugee boat carrying 101 people being rescued by MSF's Bourbon Argos all images by Lizzie Dearden In pictures: A day of refugee rescues in the Mediterranean Sea A baby among refugees on a boat carrying 185 people off the coast of Libya Lizzie Dearden In pictures: A day of refugee rescues in the Mediterranean Sea Migrants and refugees sleeping after being rescued by MSF's Bourbon Argos ship Lizzie Dearden In pictures: A day of refugee rescues in the Mediterranean Sea A crew from MSF's Bourbon Argos ship rescuing a boat carrying 130 migrants and refugees off the coast of Libya, at sunrise Lizzie Dearden In pictures: A day of refugee rescues in the Mediterranean Sea A woman in a stretcher being lifted onto MSF's Bourbon Argos ship from a boat carrying 130 migrants and refugees off the coast of Libya Lizzie Dearden

As well as the danger of boats capsizing or starting to sink in rough seas, several disasters this year have been caused by fuel spills giving off toxic fumes and causing severe chemical burns.

Many refugees are weakened by malnutrition, disease and injuries from Libya, where many are detained, beaten and tortured by gangs exploiting thousands of migrants trapped in the country by its ongoing civil war.

Some of those The Independent met on a rescue ship earlier this month said they had not wanted to depart in rough seas but were forced into boats at gunpoint by armed gangs.

Andrej Mahecic, from the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said warnings to European leaders about the soaring death toll had fallen on deaf ears.

The likelihood of dying has spiralled in 2016 to one in every 88. Last year it was one in 269, he told The Independent.

For the Central Mediterranean route from Libya to Italy is even higher, it is one death to almost every 47 arrivals.

Mr Mahecic said refugees were taking longer and more perilous routes to Europe following the EU-Turkey deal, with smugglers switching from wooden boats to flimsy dinghies to lower costs and evade detection by authorities.

Research by the Unravelling the Mediterranean Migration Crisis (Medmig) project partly blamed Britain and other European nations for record deaths, concluding that the refusal to open up legal routes for those seeking safety in Europe has increased demand for people smuggling on ever more dangerous routes.

But there has been no repeat of the public outrage sparked by the death of Alan Kurdi, the three-year-old Syrian boy whose body washed up on a Turkish beach after a boat carrying his family to Greece sank in 2015.

Rob MacGillivray, Save the Childrens head of rescue operations, said the refugee crisis had become the biggest non-story he has ever seen as Europes attention turns elsewhere.

A man being taken to hospital from MSF rescue ship the Bourbon Argos in Catania, Sicily (Lizzie Dearden)

It is desperately frustrating, he added. Saving peoples lives at sea is probably the most fundamental humanitarian action you can take part in, its governed by international law.

Our presence in the Mediterranean is reflective of a failure of European countries to do the rescue work.

In previous years, the onset of winter weather has caused a sharp decline in the number of boats sent by smugglers into the Central Mediterranean, now the deadliest sea passage in the world.

But although crossings to Greece have slowed to a trickle as migrants are detained under the threat of deportation, the number arriving in Italy has exploded.

More than 27,000 asylum seekers were rescued and taken ashore in October, compared to under 9,000 in the same month of 2015, while the figure in November was 13,400  an increase of 10,000 on the year before.

Boats have shown no sign of stopping in December, with up to 800 migrants rescued every day in the Mediterranean.

At least four died after an inflatable boat capsized between Morocco and Spain on Wednesday, and a group of 27 Syrian refugees including a pregnant women and children from the city of Aleppo were towed shore in Cyprus the previous day.

Of more than 350,000 migrants and refugees to have arrived by sea in Europe this year, a quarter are Syrian, 13 per cent from Afghanistan and others from countries including Nigeria, Iraq, Eritrea, Pakistan and Guinea.

As the treacherous crossings continue, almost all rescue boats have pulled out of the search zone off the coast of Libya for the winter, making it increasingly likely refugee vessels will not be spotted by authorities and sink without a trace.

Ms Emmen said SOS Mediterranees Aquarius was the only humanitarian ship left in the Mediterranean, leaving the Italian Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre to deploy inexperienced commercial and naval ships to dinghies in distress.

She added: It doesnt seem like the boats are going to stop.
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The Syrian army has paused its ground operation against rebels in the embattled city of Aleppo, Russias foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has said.

I can tell you that today, combat operations by the Syrian army have been halted in eastern Aleppo because there is a large operation underway to evacuate civilians, Sergei Lavrov told reporters in Germany on Thursday after meetings with US counterpart John Kerry.

Around 8,000 vulnerable people and those in need of medical evacuation would be taken out from the ever-shrinking rebel-held territory in the east of the divided city, Mr Lavrov said.

Rebel activists and civilians on the ground said that although fighting eased overnight, the ground and air assault by regime forces continued with barrel bombs dropped on Friday morning.

Aleppo is finished. There is nothing left except a few residents and bricks, Mohammed Abu Jaafar, head of the east Aleppo forensic authority, said in a recorded voice message shared with reporters. This may be my last call.

Also on Thursday, the head of the UNs humanitarian agency said that the Syrian government had authorised UN aid to enter east Aleppo for the first time since siege barricades went up in August.

The aid would reach about 85 per cent of the 930,000 people across Syria who live under siege conditions, Jan Egeland said, although such plans have not resulted in actual deliveries in the past.

Dahiyet al-Assad - Aleppo Show all 16 1 /16 Dahiyet al-Assad - Aleppo Dahiyet al-Assad - Aleppo A girl who fled areas of conflict rides a vehicle in Dahiyet al-Assad, west Aleppo city, Syria REUTERS/Ammar Abdullah Dahiyet al-Assad - Aleppo Rebel fighters from the Jaish al-Fatah (or Army of Conquest) brigade have a tea in a building under construction Getty Dahiyet al-Assad - Aleppo A rebel fighters' armoured vehicle in Dahiyet al-Assad Reuters Dahiyet al-Assad - Aleppo Rebel fighters from the Jaish al-Fatah (or Army of Conquest) brigades sit on a tank Getty Dahiyet al-Assad - Aleppo Abandoned magazine of shells after rebel fighters took control of Dahiyet al-Assad Reuters Dahiyet al-Assad - Aleppo Rebel fighters ride a pick-up truck with civilians who fled areas of conflict in Dahiyet al-Assad, west Aleppo city, Syria Reuters Dahiyet al-Assad - Aleppo A rebel fighter gestures with a girl who fled areas of conflict while they ride a pick-up truck in Dahiyet al-Assad Reuters Dahiyet al-Assad - Aleppo Smoke rises near a damaged road in Dahiyet al-Assad, west Aleppo city, Syria Reuters Dahiyet al-Assad - Aleppo Syrians carry their belongings as they leave the southwestern frontline neighbourhood of Dahiyet al-,Assad Getty Dahiyet al-Assad - Aleppo A view shows a damaged minaret of a mosque after rebel fighters took control of Dahiyet al-Assad, Syria Reuters Dahiyet al-Assad - Aleppo Rebel groups have pledged to push from newly captured positions in the Dahiyet al-Assad district towards Hamdaniyeh. Rebels and allied jihadists launched a major offensive on October 28, 2016 to break through government lines and reach the 250,000 people living in the city's east Getty Dahiyet al-Assad - Aleppo Rebel groups have pledged to push from newly captured positions in the Dahiyet al-Assad district towards Hamdaniyeh Getty Dahiyet al-Assad - Aleppo Rebel fighters from the Jaish al-Fatah (or Army of Conquest) brigades hold a position at an entrance to Aleppo, in the southwestern frontline neighbourhood of Dahiyet al-Assad Getty Dahiyet al-Assad - Aleppo Smoke billows from the frontline district of Dahiyet al-Assad following an attack by rebels on Syrian regime forces in the northern city of Aleppo Getty Dahiyet al-Assad - Aleppo Syrians carry their belongings as they leave the southwestern frontline neighbourhood of Dahiyet al-Assad Getty Dahiyet al-Assad - Aleppo People who fled areas of conflict ride a pick-up truck in Dahiyet al-Assad, west Aleppo city, Syria Reuters

More than 80,000 people of east Aleppos 250,000 strong population have fled to regime and Kurdish held areas in the past two weeks to escape the heavy fighting as President Bashar al-Assad pushes to retake control of the entire city, contested since 2012.

Conditions for civilians have worsened since government-allied troops managed to cut off rebel supply lines to the area in August, leaving residents living under siege. Intense regime bombing campaigns, backed by Russian firepower, have left the areas medical facilities struggling to cope.

The civil service defence team inside the rebel enclave estimated on Thursday that 800 people had been killed in the last two weeks of bombing alone.

 Aftermath of airstrike in Aleppo

While rebels called this week for a five-day humanitarian truce, the Syrian government has indicated that it will push for a total military victory in Aleppo.

White House spokesperson Josh Earnest said any pause in fighting would be welcomed. [This is an] indication that something positive could happen but we're going to have to wait and see whether those statements are reflected on the ground, he said.

Our approach to the situation has been to listen carefully to what the Russians say, but scrutinise their actions.

Russian and US military experts are expected to meet in Geneva on Saturday to discuss the situation in the city.
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Arab representatives of Israel's parliament have threatened to sue Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over comments he made about Palestinians in the wake of huge wildfires that caused unprecedented damage in Israel and the West bank last month that are thought to have been fanned by arson.

Members of the Arab Joint List party have asked Israels Attorney General, Avichai Mandelblit, to open a case into public threats Mr Netanyahu made saying anyone found guilty of starting the fires would be treated as terrorists and their citizenship revoked.

We are facing arsonist terror. In front of arsonist terror we are also facing incitement and also arson. For us they are the same. And we will bring our full legal force to get those responsible," he said on November 25.

A law against incitement to violence exists on the books in Israel, but the attorney generals office reviews high profile matters on a case-by-case basis.

"Netanyahu is someone who systematically incites against us. We have two goals: To officially classify him as an inciter, and for us to gain more legitimacy here in Israel," head of the Joint List Ayman Odeh said.

"While he constantly makes such comments, we want to make him think twice about saying the things he does in the future."

Mr Netanyahu's office could not be immediately reached for comment.

Several other high-ranking officials called for harsh punishments for perpetrators of the fires, including home demolitions -a common tactic used against Palestinian citizens of Israel. "Only those to whom the country does not belong are capable of burning it," right wing Education Minister Naftali Bennett said in a tweet.

Wildfires last month caused thousands to evacuate the city of Haifa (AP)

Such language was dangerous, and could incite Israelis to acts of revenge against Palestinians, the Joint List said.

If appeals to the attorney general and the Israeli High Court fail, the party will take Netanyahu to trial internationally instead, Mr Odeh said. However, legal experts told Al Jazeera such action was unlikely to be successful, and Joint Lists threats are empty, designed to pacify Palestinian anger over the fallout from the fires.

 Israel accept help from Palestine after forest fires

Forty Palestinians were arrested in connection to the some 1,700 fires that raged through northern Israel and parts of the West Bank at the end of November, shutting down roads and schools and causing the evacuation of 60,000 people in the city of Haifa. Twenty-four are still being questioned, an Israeli police spokesperson said.
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US President Barack Obama has waived prohibitions in the US Arms Export Control Act, which will allow the country to arm groups that are currently fighting in Syrias civil war.

The waived sections of the law will allow the US to provide defence articles and services to forces within Syria allied to the US, the White House said on Thursday, a decision which is essential to national-security interests.

It is believed that the move will allow President Obama to arm the mainly Kurdish coalition fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), who are currently gearing up to retake the northern city of Raqqa from Isis.

Strengthening the SDF is strategically important for the US, giving them a future counter against President Bashar al-Assads forces, as US-backed rebel groups elsewhere in the country have crumbled.

The decision, however, is likely to further inflame US relations with Turkey, which views the Kurdish forces fighting against Isis as terrorists.

Turkey launched its own anti-Isis operation to clear the group from the border region in August, with a secondary motive of curbing any Kurdish appetite for expansion in the region.

 Kurds capture Isis fighter

US support for the Kurdish administration in Rojava is a source of tension between the Nato allies.

Speaking on Thursday, US State Department spokesperson Elizabeth Trudeau said that the US position on arming the Syrian opposition will not change even if the Syrian government is successful in retaking the contested city of Aleppo.

Whether US support for Sunni rebels in Syrias six-year-old civil war will continue under President-elect Donald Trumps administration is unclear.

Mr Trump has suggested that the US and the Syrian government could work together in order to combat the threat of Isis in future.
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A Turkish court has halted a case brought by victims of the Israeli raid on the Mavi Marmara aid ship that killed 10 people.

A lawyer for the victims' families said the case was stopped on Friday following a deal in June designed to restore ties between Turkey and Israel.

Israeli-Turkish relations broke down in 2010 when Turkish pro-Palestinian activists were killed by Israeli commandos enforcing a naval blockade of the Gaza Strip.

The soldiers had raided a ship, the Mavi Marmara, leading a flotilla to the Hamas Islamist-run Palestinian territory.

Israel agreed to pay out $20m (16m) to the families of those killed on the vessel, a crucial element in the restoration of ties.

The summer's rare rapprochement in the divided Middle East was driven as much by the prospect of lucrative Mediterranean gas deals as by mutual concern over growing security risks.

The case was brought on behalf of victims of the Israeli raid, with Israel's chief of staff, naval commander, head of intelligence for the air force and head of military intelligence - all absent from the court - as the defendants.

At the final hearing on Friday, too many of the plaintiffs' lawyers and victims' families had gathered to fit in the courtroom. Tensions rose when some were not allowed inside, leading to protests and shouts of 'Allahu akbar' (God is greatest).

The judge called in the riot police to remove one co-plaintiff who refused to leave the courtroom. The families of the victims and lawyers chanted in protest and walked out before the verdict was read.

Prosecutor Huseyin Aslan argued that the case had no legal foundation after Turkey and Israel's deal, according to broadcaster CNN Turk.

Israel had demanded that its military officers and government officials be indemnified against prosecution on war crimes allegations. With Friday's court decision, arrest warrants for the four Israeli defendants have been lifted.

The Independent reported in October that families feared the case would be dropped after the deal.

Agencies contributed to this piece
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Human rights are at risk of unravelling under unprecedented pressure and the rhetoric of fascism is being normalised, the United Nations has warned.

The UNs human rights chief Prince Zeid bin Raad Zeid al-Hussein also described 2016 as a disastrous year.

Ahead of the International Human Rights Day on Saturday, Mr Hussein's speech gave a thinly veiled assessment of conflicts in the Middle East and of the recent wave of anti-immigration politics.

Recommended Boris Johnson braced for embarrassing trip to Saudi Arabia

2016 has been a disastrous year for human rights across the globe, Mr Hussein said. If the growing erosion of the carefully constructed system of human rights and rule of law continues to gather momentum, ultimately everyone will suffer.

Mr Hussein, the United Nations high commissioner for Human Rights, referenced the war in Syria.

 No End to Torture in Bahrain - Human Rights Watch

An estimated 11 million Syrians have fled their homes since the outbreak of civil war in March 2011 and around one million of them have requested asylum in Europe.

He said it had unleashed a massive refugee crisis, extremist movements that are subjecting people to horrific violence, climate change, discrimination and yawning economic disparities.

The Jordanian warned that the failure of many leaders to deal with such issues has pushed many to turn to the siren voices exploiting fears, sowing disinformation and division, and making alluring promises they cannot fulfil.

Human rights attacks around the world Show all 10 1 /10 Human rights attacks around the world Human rights attacks around the world China Escalating crackdown against human rights activists including mass arrests of lawyers and a series of sweeping laws in the name of national security. Getty Images Human rights attacks around the world Egypt The arrest of thousands, including peaceful critics, in a ruthless crackdown in the name of national security, the prolonged detention of hundreds without charge or trial and the sentencing of hundreds of others to death. Getty Images Human rights attacks around the world Gambia Torture, enforced disappearances and the criminalisation of LGBTI people; and utter refusal to co-operate with the UN and regional human rights mechanisms on issues including freedom of expression, enforced disappearance and the death penalty. Getty Images Human rights attacks around the world Hungary Sealing off its borders to thousands of refugees in dire need; and obstructing collective regional attempts to help them. Getty Images Human rights attacks around the world Israel Maintaining its military blockade of Gaza and therefore collective punishment of the 1.8 million inhabitants there, as well as failing, like Palestine, to comply with a UN call to conduct credible investigations into war crimes committed during the 2014 Gaza conflict. Getty Images Human rights attacks around the world Kenya Extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances and discrimination against refugees in its counter-terrorism operations; and attempts to undermine the International Criminal Court and its ability to pursue justice. Getty Images Human rights attacks around the world Pakistan The severe human rights failings of its response to the horrific Peshawar school massacre including its relentless use of the death penalty; and its policy on international NGOs giving authorities the power to monitor them and close them down if they are considered to be against the interests of the country. Getty Images Human rights attacks around the world Russia Repressive use of vague national security and anti-extremism legislation and its concerted attempts to silence civil society in the country; its shameful refusal to acknowledge civilian killings in Syria and its callous moves to block Security Council action on Syria. Getty Images Human rights attacks around the world Saudi Arabia Brutally cracking down on those who dared to advocate reform or criticise the authorities; and committing war crimes in the bombing campaign it has led in Yemen (pictured) while obstructing the establishment of a UN-led inquiry into violations by all sides in the conflict. Getty Images Human rights attacks around the world Syria Killing thousands of civilians in direct and indiscriminate attacks with barrel bombs and other weaponry and through acts of torture in detention; and enforcing lengthy sieges of civilian areas, blocking international aid from reaching starving civilians. Getty Images

His comments follow the 23 June Brexit vote, the surprise US election of Donald Trump and the defeat of Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzis referendum on constitution change.

All have been claimed, including by former Ukip leader Nigel Farage and far-right French politician Marine Le Pen, as victories for anti-establishment populism.

Hate crimes have spiked dramatically after the 70-year-old billionaire tycoon's 8 November election triumph.

In some parts of Europe, and in the United States, anti-foreigner rhetoric full of unbridled vitriol and hatred, is proliferating to a frightening degree, and is increasingly unchallenged, said Mr Hussein.

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

The rhetoric of fascism is no longer confined to a secret underworld of fascists, meeting in ill-lit clubs or on the 'deep net'.

It is becoming part of normal daily discourse.

During her tour of the Gulf earlier this month, Theresa May has dined with the leaders of the human rights abusing countries of Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait.
Google held its developer day on Dec. 8 in Beijing, and will hold another event in Shanghai next week. These events mark the first time Google Developer Day has been held in China since 2011. Several media outlets speculated that the shift might be sign of Googles comeback in China, though senior officials with the company didnt directly address these rumors.

Scott Beaumont, the Greater China president of Google, hailed the potential of the Chinese market, especially the mobile terminal market. According to Beaumont, a start-up is established in the Chinese market every seven minutes, and 50 percent are digital firms.

In a bid to attract Chinese developers, Google launched the Google Developers website, which involves development tools such as API of SDK, Android Studio and Search, Map and Chrome. However, Scott gave a simple and abrupt reply - No plans, nothing to say - when asked about the potential return of Google to China.

In an exclusive interview with Tencent, Beaumont claimed the present website was just a small portion of Google services, and that more assistance would be provided in the future. Google will help Chinese developers go global, he added.
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In 1959, the busiest airport in the world was Midway, south-west of downtown Chicago. Within three years, the title had moved. But not far  just 25 miles north, to OHare airport.

MDW, as it is known, was considered too small for the impending Jet Age. Chicago was the aviation junction for the US, and it needed room to maintain its lead. So Orchard Field, north-west of downtown, was chosen as the location for a mega-hub. It kept the code (ORD) even as it adopted the name OHare.

The city fathers chose wisely: OAG, the global purveyor of airline intelligence, has named Chicago OHare as the worlds top mega-hub. How is the champion chosen? OAG looks at every arriving flight, and counts the number of legal connections within six hours.

With a connectivity index of 1,204, OHare is way ahead of its nearest competitor, Atlanta. The two airports tussle constantly for title of busiest airport in the world, and the Georgian venue is presently ahead. But for the traveller who wants to maximise their travel options, Illinois is the state to be in.

Working down the list, the Lone Star State is next: Dallas-Fort Worth is third  10 places higher than its Texas rival, Houston George Bush.

Next come Denver and Charlotte. The top five show that population size isnt everything for an airport. Neither city, nor Atlanta, comes close to one million people, yet the trio are global hubs.

Americas biggest city, by some measure, is New York  yet the city doesnt even make it to the top half of the 50 mega-hubs. Newark is 26th, JFK 31st.

Completing the heavyweight half-dozen: Los Angeles (LAX). Yes, the first six mega-hubs are all American.

I would never have guessed the airport in seventh place: Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, from which dozens of domestic flights radiate.

For the rest of the top 10, its back to the US: Seattle, San Francisco and Phoenix.

Rank Airport 1 Chicago O'Hare (ORD), US 2 Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson (ATL), US 3 Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW), US 4 Denver (DEN), US 5 Charlotte Douglas (CLT), US 6 Los Angeles (LAX), US 7 Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta (CGK), Indonesia 8 Seattle-Tacoma (SEA), US 9 San Francisco (SFO), US 10 Phoenix Sky Harbor (PHX), US

The rest of the world gets a look in at 11, in the shape of Haneda  Tokyos biggest airport. To find Europe represented, you must wade through Minneapolis-St Paul, Houston and Detroit before you reach number 15.

Heathrow will be please to be placed above the other European hubs, but Britains biggest airport is only fractionally ahead of Sydney. Canada waves a flag at 19, in the shape of Toronto, while Frankfurt scrapes into 20th place.

The next decade is a cheerfully multicultural repertoire of key business locations that are also splendid tourist cities: Amsterdam, Delhi, Sao Paulo, Las Vegas, Mexico City, New York (Newark), Singapore, Mumbai, Paris and Vancouver. Well, you might not be booking instantly for 48 Hours.

You will spot some surprises further down the list  either for their poor placing or for doing remarkably well. Hong Kong, Miami and Istanbul will be disappointed to be down in the 30s, while Melbourne and Bogota are probably pleasantly surprised. Dubai, which handles more international passengers than any other hub, only just scrapes in at 48  embarrassingly behind Baltimore-Washington, the US capitals second airport in the table.

But the real winner? Chicago Midway, which makes it in at 38, six decades after its death warrant was signed. OAG has even come up with a separate list of Top 25 Low-Cost Megahubs. Its topped by Midway, which is a key hub for Southwest. Stansted makes a showing as the best-placed British airport at number 20, with Gatwick at 24. And best in Asia? Another written-off airport, Don Muang in Bangkok. A decade ago, when shiny new Suvarnabhumi opened, the original was written off. But today it is thriving once again. Theres evidently plenty of room in the hub club.

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After Theresa May's midweek Article 50 coup and the Conservative's win in the Sleaford and North Hykeham by-election, Labour has barely 24 months to save itself to become a credible political force again. Under Jeremy Corbyn and Diane Abbotts Marxist junta, Labour is becoming a footnote, little more than an irrelevant sideshow, not a serious contender to form the next government.

On the basis of the Sleaford result  her first real test as Prime Minister  May should not sack Boris Johnson but promote him to her general election mascot on a war footing. May has already proved herself more than capable of winning a majority at a snap general election on her own merits. With her St Bernard Boris on board, she may gamble on ascending to Alpine peaks at the next general election.

To fall out with Boris at this stage would leave him languishing on the back benches as a stalking horse, Heseltine-style, poisoning the well, always ready to pounce and make his bid for No 10. Just as the glittering prize of a May majority dangles like a bauble on the No 10 Christmas Tree, sending Boris down would see it smashed on the pavement, with any hope of a the first Tory landslide for decades dashed for good.

May has the kugels to win big, but only with Boris unleashed, not shut up in the kennel with a muzzle.

Anthony Rodriguez

Middlesex

Gina Miller deserves praise, not abuse

In response to your article (Man arrested for threatening woman who led Brexit legal challenge, 7 December), how shameful that in the UK today anyone who speaks out for what they believe in is subjected to abuse and death threats, and even more shameful that the threats are based on gender and race.

Is this what our country has become now  a place where the only views that count are those of bigoted white males? On the other hand, how wonderful that the person making a stand for democracy in our multicultural country is neither white nor male.

I am deeply grateful to Gina Miller for attempting to ensure that the terms of Brexit are properly scrutinised by our elected representatives. For most of us, this is the most momentous political event of our lifetimes, so thank goodness someone is making sure it is given the most careful possible consideration.

Lynda Newbery

Bristol

Not everyone stood aside at the Warsaw Uprising

Robert Fisk is right to remind us of the unspeakable horror of the Warsaw Rising in 1944. But not everyone stood aside. As he mentions, the Royal Air Force did try, and in particular the South African Air Force made 12-hour flights from Italy to drop supplies  weapons, food and medical equipment. Sixty-nine South Africans were killed and 25 SAAF Liberators were shot down. For every ton of supplies dropped into Warsaw, one bomber was lost. It was perhaps the South African Air Forces costliest single campaign.

Euan Nisbet

London

Snoopers charter stokes online privacy fears

This week the chief of MI6 gave a rare briefing to journalists on the threat caused by cyberattacks and defended the new Investigatory Powers Act or snoopers charter.

Government and businesses face a huge challenge to overcome consumer fears around privacy being eroded by technology. Consumer trust is low and our research shows that two-thirds do not trust the Government with their personal data. Technology companies, including social media groups, are not far behind.

In addition our research confirms the huge incidence of cybercrime: almost 1 in 5 UK consumers told us they had been the victim of fraud or hacking online, which supports the ONS figures that show cybercrime is almost as common as all other crime combined in the UK.

Its clear that consumers understand sharing personal information is a necessary part of modern life, but the priority now must be to allay their anxieties about privacy, or risk alienating those who should draw the greatest benefit from all this digital innovation.

Chris McMillan, partner, Oliver Wyman Digital

London

The majority aren't always right

The wishes of the majority are not always right. Indeed they are often terribly wrong.

In 1940 when France capitulated, it was only a united effort by Churchill and Atlee that overturned a motion in parliament to seek a settlement with Germany  by just two votes! Had this decision been put to the people of Britain, then a majority (estimated at 72 per cent) would have voted for such a settlement and to leave Europe to its fascist fate.

There are times when the majority of people make terrible decisions  especially when incited by fear, hate and anger. On these occasions it is the duty of the minority to fight on for what they know to be right. To merely submit to the mass would be a dereliction of our duty to society.

I will, until my dying day, fight for the retention of unity in Europe.

The EU is an imperfect but all embracing unity that was created by great statesmen and stateswomen over sixty five years. We the (48.5 per cent) minority have a duty to fight on to retain that unity.

Martin Deighton

Woodbridge
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Some 15 years after the collapse of the Taliban government in Afghanistan, the country stands at a crossroads. While gains have been made since the regimes fall on 9 December 2001, the nation faces an array of security, political, and economic risks, despite the fact that more than 100bn has been spent by Washington alone in the country.

The biggest challenge is the countrys internal security situation, with insurgency from Taliban militants having spread to more than 30 of 34 provinces. Since 2009, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan has recorded 23,000 conflict-related deaths and 41,000 injuries, with some 70 per cent of people living in major cities residing in makeshift camps, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council.

In the midst of this chaos, many Afghans are leaving the country. In 2015, more than 250,000 refugees and migrants arriving in Europe were from Afghanistan, second to Syrians, according to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

 Afghanistan: Fifteen years since US-led invasion

US military officials recently asserted that the balance between the Taliban and Afghan government-led forces is effectively a stalemate. This is despite foreign military losses reaching some 3,500 killed and 33,000 wounded by the end of 2014, with US personnel accounting for the majority of these casualties. The conflict has become Washington's longest military intervention since the Vietnam War.

The continuing foreign presence includes around 8,500 US military personnel. While most Nato troops left in 2014, Washington will (subject to changes from the incoming Trump administration) keep these officers in the country until at least the end of 2017. The international force remains vital for ensuring training and cohesion for the approximately 350,000-strong Afghan police and military personnel, which may otherwise disintegrate.

Fears have been repeatedly raised that the current foreign force, now less than a 15th of the previously 150,000-strong combat presence, is not big enough. US Senator John McCain, chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has said that the international drawdown has left the country vulnerable to an upsurge in Taliban violence.

Hence, the Afghan government has been advancing currently stalled reconciliation and peace talks with the remnants of the Taliban regime that collapsed in 2001. The influence of neighbouring powers, especially Pakistan, could be key in facilitating any eventual deal. While an agreement looks a long way off, the government secured a similar deal with the armed opposition group of the Hezb-i-Islami, led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, in September.

The news is not good on the economic front either, despite a fresh $15.2bn in foreign aid being pledged by the international community in September. Reconstruction has been slow, unemployment remains above 40 per cent, and over 1 million Afghans are internally displaced in the country, with more than 3 million more refugees believed to be in Pakistan and Iran.

Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear Show all 16 1 /16 Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2001 Afghans at the Killi Faizo refugee camp desperately reach for bags of rice being handed out to the thousands who escaped the bombardment in southern Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom. (Chaman, Pakistan, December 4, 2001) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2002 Mahbooba stands against a bullet-ridden wall, waiting to be seen at a medical clinic. The seven-year-old girl suffers from leishmaniasis, a parasitical infection. (Kabul, March 1, 2002) All photos Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2003 A mother and her two children look out from their cave dwelling. Many families who, fleeing the Taliban, took refuge inside caves adjacent to Bamiyans destroyed ancient Buddha statues now have nowhere else to live. (Bamiyan, November 19, 2003) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2007 Students recite prayers in a makeshift outdoor classroom in the Wakhan Corridor, a mountainous region in northeastern Afghanistan that extends to China and separates Tajikistan from India and Pakistan. (Northeastern Afghanistan, September 2, 2007) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2007 Bodybuilders in the 55-60 kg category square off during a regional bodybuilding competition. Many Afghan men, like others around the world, feel that a macho image of physical strength is important. (Kabul, August 6, 2007) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2008 A woman in a white burqa enjoys an afternoon with her family feeding the white pigeons at the Blue Mosque. (Mazar-e-Sharif, March 8, 2008) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2009 Addicts inject heroin while trying to keep warm inside the abandoned Russian Cultural Center, which the capital citys addicts use as a common gathering point. Heroin is readily available, costing about one dollar a hit. (Kabul, February 9, 2009) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2009 An elderly man holds his granddaughter in their tent at a refugee camp after they were forced to flee their village, which US and NATO forces had bombed because, they claimed, it was a Taliban hideout. (Surobi, Nangarhar Province, February 7, 2009) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2009 Seven-year-old Attiullah, a patient at Mirwais Hospital, stands alongside an X ray showing the bullet that entered his back, nearly killing him. Attiullah was shot by US forces when he was caught in a crossfire as he was herding sheep. (Kandahar, October 13, 2009). Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2010 US Army Sargeant Jay Kenney (right), with Task Force Destiny, helps wounded Afghan National Army soldiers exit a Blackhawk helicopter after they have been rescued in an air mission. (Kandahar, December 12, 2010) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2010 An Afghan National Army battalion marches back to barracks at the Kabul Military Training Center. (Kabul, October 4, 2010) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2014 Eid Muhammad, seventy, lives in a house with a view overlooking the hills of Kabul. He and millions of other Afghans occupy land and housing without possessing formal deeds to them. (Kabul, November 21, 2014) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2014 Razima holds her two-year-old son, Malik, while waiting for medical attention at the Boost Hospital emergency room. (Lashkar Gah, Helmand Province, June 23, 2014) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2014 Young women cheer as they attend a rally for the Afghan presidential candidate Ashraf Ghani. (Kabul, April 1, 2014) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2014 Burqa-clad women wait to vote after a polling station runs out of ballots. (Kabul, April 5, 2014) Paula Bronstein Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear 2015 Relatives, friends, and womens rights activists grieve at the home of Farkhunda Malikzada, who was killed by a mob in the center of Kabul. Farkhunda was violently beaten and set on fire after a local cleric accused her of burning a Quran. (Kabul, March 22, 2015) Paula Bronstein

It is estimated that Washington has spent around $110bn on Afghan reconstruction since 2001  more than the total cost of the Marshall Plan that helped to rebuild Europe after the Second World War. But this has not been optimally spent. It is reported that around 80 per cent of the money has been given to US organisations in military, security and maintenance contracts, and consultancy projects.

Since 2001, the Afghan economy has not diversified from drug exports such as opium and heroin, despite the fact that the country is abundant in natural resources, with an estimated value of some $3trn. Corruption is another related problem; Transparency International ranks Afghanistan as the third most corrupt state in the world.

Despite this difficult picture, there remains cause for optimism  not least because numerous gains have been achieved since the unseating of the Taliban. One success is the countrys fledgling democracy. The countrys national unity government has also survived more than two years after a landmark power-sharing agreement was reached in 2014 between President Ashraf Ghani and the Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, the former foreign minister. This followed a disputed presidential ballot between Ghani and Abdullah when up to 1 million votes were thrown out for fraud.

The creation of the national unity government, and the election of Ghani, represented the first democratic transfer of power in the countrys history. While there have been significant tensions between him and Abdullah that could yet explode in the next presidential election, the fact that the national unity government has not collapsed has helped consolidate the power and legitimacy of the new post-Taliban political system.

Other gains include Afghanistans accession to the World Trade Organisation and wider moves to revive economic links with the outside world, including the modern Silk Road, a new rail route connecting the country to China and Central Asia, and an electricity grid project across Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Pakistan. Meanwhile, there are 10 million children, including girls, enrolled in school; there is a greater recognition of womens rights; and technologies such as the internet and mobile phones are now available across the nation.

But the country is still at a crossroads. These gains, and Afghanistans fledgling democracy, remain fragile. If the reconciliation process with the remaining remnants of Taliban forces cannot be achieved quickly, there is the serious prospect of greater political, security and economic instability.

Andrew Hammond is an associate at LSE IDEAS (the Centre for International Affairs, Diplomacy and Strategy) at the London School of Economics
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Would it not be a good thing if Boris Johnson had been speaking for the Government in Rome, last week, when he said, Youve got the Saudis, Iran, everybody, moving in and puppeteering and playing proxy wars?

A spokeswoman for Theresa May said yesterday that the Foreign Secretarys comments did not reflect Government policy but, given that what he said was eminently sensible, wouldnt it have been better if they did? Malcolm Rifkind, a former foreign secretary, questioned today whether Johnson had the temperament for the job.

But if by temperament we mean the ability to avoid telling the truth about the Saudi Arabian regime, should we not welcome a Foreign Secretary who tells it like it is? After all, what is the worst that could happen?

The alliance would be over

If Johnson had been speaking for the UK Government when he said the Saudis were fighting proxy wars, twisting and abusing religion and different strains of the same religion in order to further their own political objectives, the Saudi royal family would have been offended. Presumably they were offended anyway  but as long as Johnson is repudiated by his Prime Minister, everyone can pretend, diplomatically, that the UK-Saudi alliance continues to be strong.

The Saudis know, after all, what most Western politicians say about them privately, and that diplomacy is built on hypocrisy. But if the UK Governments policy changed, co-operation would be at an end.

 Boris Johnson: Saudi Arabia is playing proxy wars

The sale of arms would cease

The most obvious and visible effect of breaking off relations would be the end of British arms sales to the Saudi government. This would cost thousands of jobs, which is never a good argument on its own, but is something that no one can treat lightly.

Johnson was uncomfortable on the The Andrew Marr Show on Sunday as he defended arms sales to Saudi Arabia, saying, in effect, that he was very worried about it but that there was no hard evidence of British weapons being used in human rights violations in Yemen, where the Saudis are fighting on the side of the government against a Shia insurgency.

Intelligence co-operation would end

This is always the trump card played by prime ministers in defence of the geostrategic relationship. Tony Blair and David Cameron in particular used to suggest that Saudi intelligence co-operation was directly responsible for averting horrible terrorist attacks.

Recommended Theresa May is wading into a dangerous sectarian conflict

The trouble is that the benefits of co-operation have to be secret; normal citizens have to take the word of senior politicians and spy chiefs that the intelligence is as valuable as they say it is. That has become harder to do after the intelligence failure of the Iraq war, but again it is not something that can be dismissed lightly.

Reform in Saudi might be set back

A more principled argument is the age-old engagement is better than isolation. This is that the best way to promote human rights, democracy and equality for women in Saudi Arabia is to engage with the regime, and especially with the more reform-minded elements of it.

That was the argument behind the prison services contract which Theresa May supported as Home Secretary  although it had actually been the responsibility of Chris Grayling as Justice Secretary, before he was replaced by Michael Gove, who cancelled it.

A policy of telling the Saudi regime what a backward-looking, regional trouble-making despotism it is might strengthen the conservative elements of the large and faction-ridden ruling family and put back the cause of progress.

Iran might be emboldened

Finally, breaking off relations with Sunni Saudi would tip the balance of regional power in favour of the Saudis Shia rival, Iran. Johnson may have written a column for The Daily Telegraph 10 years ago saying, Give Iran the bomb: it might make the regime more pliable, but it must be doubted whether he believes it now.

 Boris Johnson 'not worried' about Trump and Putin's relationship

(Once again, that is the trouble with appointing a newspaper controversialist to high office: he will always be followed by his own disobliging quotations.)

Barack Obamas achievement of a deal with Iran, by which it has accepted constraints on its ambition to acquire nuclear weapons, may not be undone by Britain going it alone in censuring Saudi Arabia, but it might help Donald Trump to undermine the current Presidents policy.

We would finally have an ethical foreign policy

All the same, if the British Government publicly criticised Saudi policy in Yemen, its domestic human rights record and the murky sponsorship of terrorism by elements of the kingdoms rulers, Boris Johnson could at least hold his head up on the international stage and stand up for the values which this country professes.
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Boom and bust economic theory suggests that, however we regulate banks, we should expect another financial crisis in the near future. With Goldman Sachs president and COO as the new national economic council director under Donald Trump, that theory might materialise a lot quicker.

Besides the anti-gay, anti-women, anti-Jewish, anti-Muslim men and women that are already in the cabinet of hell, Mr Trump has just appointed one of the most powerful men on Wall Street and a key architect of the 2008 financial crisis.

Pinning blame for the worlds financial crisis of 2008 on one man or one bank would not be fair, but Gary Cohn and his entourage at Goldman Sachs is a good place to start.

Recommended Goldman Sachs president expected to be economic council director

What is indisputable is the root of the crash: the systemic mis-selling of risky assets from banks to consumers. Sub-prime mortgages were handed out like free candy on Halloween. And when consumers started defaulting like a pack of lemmings throwing themselves off a cliff, banks were swirling overhead like vultures. But before long, banks crashed too, ultimately leading to global instability and the destruction of people's livelihoods.

Mr Trump said he wanted to "drain the swamp" of Washington DC.

So why did he hire someone who is second in command at one of the biggest Wall Street banks and who is known for his "abrasive" management style and his appetite for taking financial risks?

The bank that he built up lost billions of dollars during the crisis, and $1.2 billion of that was lost from the residential mortgage business alone - a section of the business he had pushed to expand before 2008.

"Of course, we regret that we did not do many things better: like having less exposure to leveraged loans, which caused us approximately $5 billion in losses, having less exposure to mortgages, and, it should go without saying, we wish we had seen more proactively the effects of the housing bubble," he told Congress in 2010.

The losses were, he said, proof that the bank and consumers all went down together. Yet somehow, Cohn stayed dry on board that massive, sinking ship.

The champion of trickle-down economics earned more than $60 million between 2012 and 2015 alone - not including shares and stock options etc - and he, along with every other white, middle-aged man with a Rolex, escaped imprisonment for the US governments largest bailout in history. In goverment, he can liquidate all his shares in the bank, worth $212 million, tax free.

 Donald Trump's controversial cabinet

Mr Trump also admitted that he had been rooting for the housing crisis. As a real estate developer in the wreckage of the crisis, he made a fortune from picking up bargains. Oh well, that's capitalism right?

Now just a few years after the crash, perhaps the memory of peoples suffering has dimmed in Cohn's brain, or the hunger for risk-taking is back.

Cohn has given numerous speeches to universities and has consistently lobbied Congress, arguing that although banks are safer now than pre-2008, they are not better. His logic is that banks being hampered by regulations means that consumers suffer. Has he conveniently forgotten how much we suffered without regulations less than a decade ago?

Forget the Dodd-Frank Act and large capital buffers for banks. The era of less regulation, no ring-fencing and big risk-taking will be back within a few months.

The barefaced hypocrisy of Trumps cabinet seemingly has no limits. Thanks to an ignorant, narcissistic, self-entitled president-elect, people all over the world will face the consequences of a cabinet of yet more white, self-entitled, self-serving hypocrites who will rub their hands with glee every time they see a buying opportunity.

The golden rule in capital markets is that for every seller, there is a buyer on the other end of that trade, ready to take advantage. But Cohn and his generation forget that when he takes a risk, the world takes a risk with him.
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The tragedy that has unfolded across the Mediterranean Sea is among the biggest humanitarian disasters that the Western world has witnessed in recent years. Thousands have drowned in a desperate quest to reach the safety and opportunity of Europe, many embezzled for all have while at their most vulnerable. Homeless and many having lost all family members on the way, those who make it to Europe have done so to find it irrevocably divided and often hostile to those who still consider it a promised land. Those who survive the brave journey have found themselves lifted from one torn civilisation to another.

In normal times, the flow of refugees across the waters is stemmed somewhat during the most dangerous winter months. The poet Warsan Shire wrote: No one puts their child in a boat unless the water is safer than the land. In December, the seas are too rough and the risks too high for even those with nothing left to take a punt on a new life.

Recommended Refugees dying from hypothermia as boat crossings continue into winter

But in the past 12 months things have changed. Now we learn that refugees fleeing Libya and elsewhere in the Middle East and Africa are setting sail for Europe despite the cold weather, and are failing to meet their destination because they are freezing to death in the process. It the first time that large numbers of refugees are attempting the journey at this time of year, and many of them are reportedly not doing so by choice.

People traffickers are understood to be forcing hundreds of migrants on to boats and out to sea through brute force. Journeys are being made not only out of desperation but also under duress. Traffickers are, there can be no doubt, profiting from misery, pain and loss of human life. But continuing to offer sanctuary to those they seek to exploit, as well as being morally right, does not in itself create this terrible situation.

Refugee crisis - in pictures Show all 27 1 /27 Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugee crisis - in pictures A child looks through the fence at the Moria detention camp for migrants and refugees at the island of Lesbos on May 24, 2016. AFP/Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Ahmad Zarour, 32, from Syria, reacts after his rescue by MOAS (Migrant Offshore Aid Station) while attempting to reach the Greek island of Agathonisi, Dodecanese, southeastern Agean Sea Refugee crisis - in pictures Syrian migrants holding life vests gather onto a pebble beach in the Yesil liman district of Canakkale, northwestern Turkey, after being stopped by Turkish police in their attempt to reach the Greek island of Lesbos on 29 January 2016. Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees flash the 'V for victory' sign during a demonstration as they block the Greek-Macedonian border Refugee crisis - in pictures Migrants have been braving sub zero temperatures as they cross the border from Macedonia into Serbia. Refugee crisis - in pictures A sinking boat is seen behind a Turkish gendarme off the coast of Canakkale's Bademli district on January 30, 2016. At least 33 migrants drowned on January 30 when their boat sank in the Aegean Sea while trying to cross from Turkey to Greece. Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A general view of a shelter for migrants inside a hangar of the former Tempelhof airport in Berlin, Germany Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees protest behind a fence against restrictions limiting passage at the Greek-Macedonian border, near Gevgelija. Since last week, Macedonia has restricted passage to northern Europe to only Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans who are considered war refugees. All other nationalities are deemed economic migrants and told to turn back. Macedonia has finished building a fence on its frontier with Greece becoming the latest country in Europe to build a border barrier aimed at checking the flow of refugees Refugee crisis - in pictures A father and his child wait after being caught by Turkish gendarme on 27 January 2016 at Canakkale's Kucukkuyu district Refugee crisis - in pictures Migrants make hand signals as they arrive into the southern Spanish port of Malaga on 27 January, 2016 after an inflatable boat carrying 55 Africans, seven of them women and six chidren, was rescued by the Spanish coast guard off the Spanish coast. Refugee crisis - in pictures A refugee holds two children as dozens arrive on an overcrowded boat on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugee crisis - in pictures A child, covered by emergency blankets, reacts as she arrives, with other refugees and migrants, on the Greek island of Lesbos, At least five migrants including three children, died after four boats sank between Turkey and Greece, as rescue workers searched the sea for dozens more, the Greek coastguard said Refugee crisis - in pictures Migrants wait under outside the Moria registration camp on the Lesbos. Over 400,000 people have landed on Greek islands from neighbouring Turkey since the beginning of the year Refugee crisis - in pictures The bodies of Christian refugees are buried separately from Muslim refugees at the Agios Panteleimonas cemetery in Mytilene, Lesbos Refugee crisis - in pictures Macedonian police officers control a crowd of refugees as they prepare to enter a camp after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A refugee tries to force the entry to a camp as Macedonian police officers control a crowd after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees are seen aboard a Turkish fishing boat as they arrive on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing a part of the Aegean Sea from the Turkish coast to Lesbos Reuters Refugee crisis - in pictures An elderly woman sings a lullaby to baby on a beach after arriving with other refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A man collapses as refugees make land from an overloaded rubber dinghy after crossing the Aegean see from Turkey, at the island of Lesbos EPA Refugee crisis - in pictures A girl reacts as refugees arrive by boat on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees make a show of hands as they queue after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures People help a wheelchair user board a train with others, heading towards Serbia, at the transit camp for refugees near the southern Macedonian town of Gevgelija AP Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees board a train, after crossing the Greek-Macedonian border, near Gevgelija. Macedonia is a key transit country in the Balkans migration route into the EU, with thousands of asylum seekers - many of them from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia - entering the country every day Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures An aerial picture shows the "New Jungle" refugee camp where some 3,500 people live while they attempt to enter Britain, near the port of Calais, northern France Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A Syrian girl reacts as she helped by a volunteer upon her arrival from Turkey on the Greek island of Lesbos, after having crossed the Aegean Sea EPA Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees arrive by boat on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Beds ready for use for migrants and refugees are prepared at a processing center on January 27, 2016 in Passau, Germany. The flow of migrants arriving in Passau has dropped to between 500 and 1,000 per day, down significantly from last November, when in the same region up to 6,000 migrants were arriving daily.

Pressure on the British Government to act to solve the refugees crisis has waxed and waned along with public sentiment. Earlier this year politicians announced they would take 3,000 of the most vulnerable child refuges from the Calais Jungle camp, which was later destroyed by authorities. After the Brexit vote, however, attitudes on immigration have hardened. But responding to negative views about immigration by attempting to shut off migrant routes is too simplistic an answer to the ongoing tragedy in the Mediterranean.

When The Independent boldly printed the devastating image of young Alan Kurdis lifeless body on a Turkish beach in September 2015, this title urged Government to find a fast and humane solution to the refugee crisis. Now that call must be made yet again  but, this time, with an additional caution to take seriously the sheer complexity of the situation that now presents.

This is a time for both moral and practical leadership. Until now, our Government has only found it necessary to respond to the refugee crisis when public sentiment has meant it is politically expedient to do so. When thousands are facing death from drowning and hypothermia over the coming winter months, our politicians are duty-bound to act now  however complex the world in which they work has become.
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The British Governments fawning on the absolute monarchs of the Gulf, whose authority is enforced by beheadings, lashings and the torture chamber, is at once contemptible and pathetic. It is a measure of Britains decline as a great power that it is only in tiny, toxic, sectarian Bahrain, where Sunni rulers suppress the Shia majority, that Theresa May can expect a regal reception.

May added her own few drops of venom to the raging sectarian warfare between Sunni and Shia in the region by targeting Iran. She said she was clear-eyed about the Iranian threat to an audience of largely fundamentalist Sunni Gulf leaders for whom the words Iran and Shia are demonic and interchangeable.

In Bahrain, the monarchy blamed the peaceful democratic uprising during the Arab Spring in 2011 on a deep-laid Iranian plot.

I spoke later the same year to doctors who had worked in a hospital in central Manama, the Bahraini capital, where they had treated injured protesters. After the demonstrations were crushed with the backing of Saudi troops, the doctors had been savagely tortured for using a complex piece of medical equipment that the Bahraini security forces had convinced themselves was the means by which Iran gave the protesters their instructions. It is this type of paranoia that May is feeding, though an independent inquiry found no evidence of Iranian involvement in the protest movement.

In pictures: Aleppo bombing Show all 14 1 /14 In pictures: Aleppo bombing In pictures: Aleppo bombing Bombing in Aleppo Smoke rises after airstrikes on the rebel-held al-Sakhour neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria April 29, 2016. Reuters In pictures: Aleppo bombing Bombing in Aleppo A Syrian family runs for cover amid the rubble of destroyed buildings following a reported air strike on the rebel-held neighbourhood of Al-Qatarji in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, on April 29, 2016. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Aleppo bombing Bombing in Aleppo A man reacts as he stands on blood stains at a site hit by airstrikes in the rebel held area of Aleppo's al-Fardous district, Syria, April 29, 2016. Reuters In pictures: Aleppo bombing Bombing in Aleppo The damage of the airstrikes in the rebel-held area of Aleppo on April 28 Reuters In pictures: Aleppo bombing Bombing in Aleppo The damaged the Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF)-backed al-Quds hospital after it was hit by airstrikes, in a rebel-held area of Syria's Aleppo Reuters In pictures: Aleppo bombing Bombing in Aleppo Syrians evacuate an injured man amid the rubble of destroyed buildings following an air strike on a rebel-held of Aleppo on April 29, 2016. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Aleppo bombing Bombing in Aleppo People inspect the damage at a site hit by airstrikes, in the rebel-held area of Aleppo's Bustan al-Qasr AP In pictures: Aleppo bombing Bombing in Aleppo A man leads a woman in tears and child out of the scene after airstrikes hit Aleppo AP In pictures: Aleppo bombing Bombing in Aleppo Civil defence members search for survivors after an airstrike at a field hospital in the rebel held area of al-Sukari district of Aleppo Reuters In pictures: Aleppo bombing Bombing in Aleppo A Syrian boy is comforted as he cries next to the body of a relative who died in a reported air strike in the rebel-held neighbourhood of al-Soukour in the northern city of Aleppo Getty Images In pictures: Aleppo bombing Bombing in Aleppo A Syrian family walks amid the rubble of destroyed buildings following a reported air strike in the Bustan al-Qasr rebel-held district of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo Getty Images In pictures: Aleppo bombing Bombing in Aleppo Syrian civil defence volunteers and rescuers remove a baby from under the rubble of a destroyed building following a reported air strike on the rebel-held neighbourhood of al-Kalasa in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo Getty Images In pictures: Aleppo bombing Bombing in Aleppo Syrians help a wounded youth following an air strike on the Fardous rebel held neighbourhood of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo Getty Images In pictures: Aleppo bombing Bombing in Aleppo Syrian civil defence volunteers evacuate people from a damaged building following a reported airstrike in the rebel-held neighbourhood of Tareeq al-Bab in the northern city of Aleppo

Downing Streets rebuttal of Boris Johnsons demonstrably correct view that Saudi Arabia wages proxy wars in the Middle East is equally mendacious. Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have taken a leading role in funding and supplying weapons to extreme jihadi insurgents in Syria, as US leaders  including President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, supplemented by leaked documents  have made clear.

The Saudi intervention in Yemen, where airstrikes have devastated a country of 25 million people, differs only from its other interventions in that the Saudi role is overt and the suffering even more massive.

The humiliating and discreditable British posture in the Gulf is presumably a desperate attempt to find new allies in the run-up to Brexit. This might seem to be a good moment to do so, since the winners and losers in the wars that have engulfed Syria and Iraq over the last five years are becoming apparent. The only surprising aspect of the British initiative is that we seem, as we did in Iraq and Afghanistan, to be joining the losing side.

Recommended Boris Johnson deserves our admiration for calling out Saudi Arabia

It is a moment of decision in Syria as the Syrian Army and its allies are close to overrunning east Aleppo, the last big urban enclave of the armed opposition. Their victory means that President Bashar al-Assad will stay in power, something that his many enemies were prone to discount until recently. Touchingly out of date with these developments on the battlefield, British policy remains that Assad must go before political progress is possible.

A similarly decisive moment has arrived in Iraq, though the security forces are making slower progress than in Aleppo in driving Isis from Mosul east of the Tigris River. Isis is deploying mobile squads of experienced fighters hidden in a vast network of tunnels backed up by hundreds of suicide bombers, snipers and mortar teams. The Iraqi security forces have lost almost 2,000 soldiers in November, according to the UN, but the superior firepower and numbers of the Iraqi government backed by the US-led air coalition are likely to overwhelm Isis in the long-run.

The victories of Assad and the Baghdad government will determine the political landscape of the Middle East for decades to come. The wars have been so long and so savage because Syria and Iraq have provided the battlefield on which more than half a dozen powers have fought out their differences. Since the second half of 2011, the advance and retreat of all sides in Syria has been determined by how much support they could get from their outside backers  Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar for the insurgents and Russia, Iran, Iraq and Hezbollah for Assad  in terms of men, money, arms, ammunition and airstrikes.

It is a regional war and its outcome will affect the whole area from Pakistan to Nigeria, as well as being a sectarian conflict, primarily but not exclusively between Sunni and Shia, which impacts on all the 1.6 billion Muslims in the world.

 Islamic State video purports to show fighting in Mosul

But how can we be sure that we are seeing a turning point in such a complex battle involving so many players with such divergent interests?

Isis and the armed opposition in Syria, led by Jabhat al-Nusra, formerly the al-Qaeda affiliate, fight quasi-guerrilla campaigns in which the loss or gain of territory does not necessarily tell one who is winning. The crucial change in the battle for east Aleppo is essentially political. Nusra, Ahrar al-Sham and the core fighting units have received little help, verbal or physical, from their former sponsors in Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. If these three did not support the rebels while they still held east Aleppo, it is unlikely that they will do so after the rebels have lost it.

The romantic image of heroic guerrillas standing alone anywhere in the world has always understated the degree to which they depend on outside powers. Possibly, the Turks and Saudis could sustain low level guerrilla warfare against Assad for a long time, but they would risk retaliation from victorious governments on the Shia side.

Foremost among the losers in this war are the Sunni Arab communities in Iraq and Syria, who have been defeated in their long struggle for power with the Shia and Kurds. Syrian exiles and their media sympathisers play down the sectarian and ethnic nature of the conflict, just as the Shia and Kurdish exiled opposition from Iraq did before the US-led invasion of 2003 in order to lure the US into overthrowing Saddam Hussein. We are going to be the new Palestinians, a young Sunni journalist from the city of Ramadi in Iraq lamented to me, shortly before 70 per cent his city was destroyed by US airstrikes and Iraqi Army artillery.

Iran is a winner in this historic conflict so far. It was the essential ally of Assad from 2011 to 2015, when Russia intervened militarily with its air force. The fear of extermination by Isis and al-Qaeda clones forced Shia communities together, including those with very different theologies. Overall, Iranian and Russian determination to support Assad was always deeper than that of the opposing alliance of Sunni states led by Turkey and Saudi Arabia, which replaced Qatar as the principal foreign backer of the Syrian insurgents in 2013.

Russia has re-established itself as a great power, if not a superpower, through the Syrian war. This was an ideal conflict for Moscow because Assad was always stronger and his domestic opponents weaker than they looked. President Putin did not have to deploy enormous resources to make a decisive difference. Though Putin is much demonised in the West, the enthusiasm of Western governments to get rid of Assad has ebbed steadily, as it became clear that the only alternative to him was Isis or Nusra.

 Theresa May: Islamic State's days as occupying force numbered

Governments and public in the Middle East tend to exaggerate or understate American power in the region. In reality, the US position remains strong, with every Iraqi unit approaching Mosul including a US soldier calling in airstrikes while, behind the scenes, the US is orchestrating the logistics for the entire operation. In Syria, the US military alliance with the Kurdish paramilitaries has been highly effective in driving back Isis and closing the border with Turkey.

British officials and diplomats seem to lose their sense of what is achievable. Just over a year ago David Cameron announced that Britain was joining the war against Isis in Syria with all the brio of Henry V landing in France before the battle of Agincourt. The following nine months produced just 65 airstrikes by the RAF, which lacks identifiable targets and allies on the ground. As in Iraq in 2002, Afghanistan in 2006 and Libya in 2011, British high ambitions to be more influential in the Gulf will be thwarted by limited knowledge and inadequate resources.
BD is investing millions of euros in a new division in Limerick

A medical devices company is to create 100 jobs when it opens a research and development division.

BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) is to open a centre of excellence in Limerick in a 21 million euro investment in the national technology park.

The expansion, supported by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise & Innovation through Industrial Development Agency (IDA) Ireland, will double the company's workforce in the city.

The new division will initially be focused on product and software development, clinical research instrumentation and prototype development, primarily for the company's life sciences businesses.

Ellen Strahlman, executive vice president R&D and chief medical officer for BD, said: " Customers will include hospitals, laboratories and clinics, reference laboratories, industrial laboratories, physicians' office practices, alternate site health care, academic and government institutions, and research facilities. Limerick will be very important for our strategic growth."
If the level of financial support offered by the UK government to UK farming under the BAP is lower than under the CAP, will this provide the Irish agri-food sector with greater export opportunities?

The magnitude of any opportunity for the Irish agri-food sector will depend on several factors:

A contraction in the indigenous UK supply of agri-food commodities such as beef, sheep meat, butter or cheese might be expected to lead to opportunities for Irish exporters.

However, the competitiveness of Irish exports to the UK market in the future will depend on whether tariffs are applied to EU and non-EU exporters to the UK.

The uncertainty over the shape of both future UK agricultural and UK agri-food trade policy is unlikely to be resolved rapidly. The process of negotiating the UK exit from the EU and of agreeing a new trade agreement with the EU could extend beyond 2020.

This means that the current uncertainty concerning access to Irelands most important market in the post-Brexit era will continue.

For the next two years at least, while the UK will certainly remain an EU member, access to the UK market will continue to be unimpeded.

However, the challenge faced by the Irish agri-food sector will prepare it for a world where the UK is not as important or lucrative a market for Irish agri-food exports as it is currently.

What will be the impact of high and low barriers for agriculture post Brexit?

If the UK does not remain a member of the Single Market, then any UK trade policy put in place will mean at least some increase in the costs of exporting to and importing from the UK for the Irish agri-food sector.

Without access to the Single Market, UK exporters would face the so called EU common external tariff when exporting goods to Ireland and other EU Member States. This is the tariff that the EU currently applies to imports from fellow WTO members.

In these circumstances it is not clear what tariffs Irish exporters to the UK market would face, as it would be a decision which the UK government would independently make. In this regard, the UK would have two options:

No tariffs on imports to the UK: If the UK chooses not to levy any tariffs on imports of agri-food goods, ie, to unilaterally liberalise trade, then the terms of market access for Irish firms to the UK will be just as they are now. However, Irish exporters would still face greater competition in the UK, as countries such as Argentina, Australia, Brazil and New Zealand would now also then have tariff-free access to the UK market.

EU/WTO tariffs on imports to the UK: If, on the other hand, the UK exits the EU, and as a WTO member decides to adopt the existing EU levels of tariff protection, then Irish and other EU suppliers will face new trade barriers.

These new barriers to trade would be similar to those faced by existing non-EU suppliers to the EU market. The cost of Irish exports in the UK would increase due to the imposition of tariffs and could exceed the price of exports to the UK from non-EU countries. What is clear is that both of these UK trade policy outcomes would reduce the differential between the price of Irish exports to the UK and exports to the UK from non-EU countries.
Li is seeking a "daughter" to travel with her to Sanya. (Photo/Zhengzhou Evening News)

A woman surnamed Li shared a message on WeChat on Dec. 7, saying that she is looking for a "daughter" to travel with her to Sanya in Hainan province.

Applicants should be outgoing girls between 19 and 24 years of age, according to the post. Li will cover the accommodation and transportation fees, and give the surrogate daughter an iPhone 7 as a gift.

Li is seeking a "daughter" to travel with her to Sanya. (Photo/Zhengzhou Evening News)

Li lives in Zhengzhou, Henan province. She and her husband have both been retired for a number of years. The couple likes travelling and hiking. Her husband is unavailable to go on the trip to Sanya, and their daughter works in Canada. Therefore, Li decided to seek a travel companion online.

"I want to find a caring girl who can chat with me. College students are preferred," she explained.
Inland Fisheries Ireland is investigating a major fish kill on the Owentaraglin River, a tributary of the Munster Blackwater River, in North West Cork.

Fisheries Officers discovered more than 1,200 fish mortalities over a two kilometre stretch of the river near the village of Kiskeam.

Inland Fisheries Ireland immediately commenced investigations following discovery of the fish mortality and is following a direct line of enquiry. The cause of the fish kill is believed to be a large discharge of raw slurry into the river, it says.

Fish species affected by the pollution in this important spawning river include salmon, brown trout, eel and stickleback. In particular, significant numbers of gravid hen salmon were among the mortalities.

Aside from the large number of fish killed, there was significant damage to the spawning beds and wider aquatic habitat, which will have implications for the fish population in the area into the future.

Sean Long, Director of the South Western River Basin District said: It will take years for River Owentaraglin to recover to its former condition as a result of this pollution. Inland Fisheries Ireland is reminding farmers of the importance of complying with EU Regulations on the storage or movement of slurry.

"Recreational angling contributes 836m to the Irish economy annually and supports upwards of 11,000 jobs, often in rural and peripheral communities.

"Inland Fisheries Ireland is committed to protecting the fisheries resource for the communities it serves across the country and we are grateful to landowners and the farming community for their assistance in maintaining a clean and healthy environment in our lakes and rivers.
From ploughing matches to kale fencing to Charolais shows, rural Ireland was busy this week.

The Charolais Show and Sale in Roscommon was a busy affair, while the Limousin show and sale in Kanturk was also held.

With just weeks to Christmas the Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture Andrew Doyle paid a visit to the Parkmore Christmas tree farm and Rosanna Davidson was also on hold to help promote Irish Christmas trees.

Carlow farmers Paddy and Paul Brennan were busy at work on their kale crop in Ballinkillen while Johnny Lynch - the man behind Macroom Buffalo mozzarella collected a nice award for his cheese.

Nuala Hourihane was honoured for years of work with the Charolais society at its Christmas Crackers Show and Sale in Elphin.

The Supreme Champion at the fatstock show and sale in Skibbereen was a Belgian Blue cross heifer, which weighted in at 755kg.
One of the countrys busiest credit unions has been slapped with a near 100,000 fine for not doing enough to prevent money laundering.

The Central Bank of Ireland has imposes the fine of 98,000 on Bray Credit Union Limited for breaches of the Criminal Justice Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (AM/CFT) Act 2010.

The lender was also reprimanded for breaches of the act that regulators found had persisted for as long as five years and seven months.

Bray Credit Union has 26,886 members and is in the top 11pc of credit unions by asset size.

The Central Bank is concerned that a credit union of its size and scale was found to have breached key AML/CFT requirements for such an extended period of time, said director of enforcement, Derville Rowland.

The failure by Bray Credit Union to apply adequate identification and verification measures to members and to scrutinise their transactions meant that it lacked critical information to allow it to properly fulfil its obligations to monitor, identify and report unusual and potentially suspicious activity and created an unacceptable risk of money laundering and terrorist financing, she added.

The chief executive of Bray Credit Union, Bernie Robinson, accepted the findings, but said there is no suggestion that the credit union was aware of or facilitated money laundering.

Bray Credit Union confirm that we were subject of an Central Bank investigation. The credit union co-operated fully in the investigation and settled at an early stage in the process. The credit union has now rectified the breaches and introduced appropriate controls, he said.

Bray Credit Union remains one of the strongest, most robust credit unions in the country, with assets of 118m, he added.

It is business as usual for us and we currently have over 50m available to lend, he said.
One of the country's busiest credit unions has been slapped with a near 100,000 fine for not doing enough to prevent money laundering.

The Central Bank of Ireland has imposed the fine of 98,000 on Bray Credit Union Limited for breaches of the Criminal Justice Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (AML/CFT) Act 2010.

The lender was also reprimanded for breaches of the act that regulators found had persisted for as long as five years and seven month.

Bray Credit Union has 26,886 members and is in the top 11pc of credit unions by asset size.

"The Central Bank is concerned that a credit union of its size and scale was found to have breached key AML/CFT requirements for such an extended period of time," said director of enforcement Derville Rowland.

"The failure by Bray Credit Union to apply adequate identification and verification measures to members and to scrutinise their transactions meant that it lacked critical information to allow it to properly fulfil its obligations to monitor, identify and report unusual and potentially suspicious activity and created an unacceptable risk of money laundering and terrorist financing."

The chief executive of Bray Credit Union, Bernie Robinson, accepted the findings, but said there is no suggestion that the credit union was aware of or facilitated money laundering.

"Bray Credit Union confirm that we were subject of an Central Bank investigation.

"The credit union co-operated fully in the investigation and settled at an early stage in the process. The credit union has now rectified the breaches and introduced appropriate controls.

"Bray Credit Union remains one of the strongest, most robust credit unions in the country, with assets of 118m," he said.

"It is business as usual for us and we currently have over 50m available to lend."
Irish fruit firm Fyffes is to be acquired by Japanese giant Sumitomo Corporation in a massive 751.4m cash deal, the company has said.

The Dublin headquartered firm, which is most commonly known for its bananas, will be snapped up by Swordus Ireland Holding Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sumitomo.

Under the terms of the deal Fyffes shareholders will be entitled to receive 2.23 in cash for each ordinary share. The acquisition represents a premium of around 37pc of Fyffes' all-time high share price of 1.62, which occurred on April 22 of this year.

Shareholders in the Irish company will also be paid a final dividend for this calendar year of 2c per share, brining the total amount going to shareholders up to 2.25

Fyffes chairman David McCann said the deal is a "compelling proposition".

"Our employees, customers, suppliers and joint venture partners will benefit from Fyffes being part of an enlarged group with greater scale, reach and resources to broaden and accelerate delivery of Fyffes' strategic objectives.

"We look forward to working with the Sumitomo team to develop and enhance our Group's strategy and to build on its long track record of successful growth," he said this morning.

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Sumitomo managing executive officer Hirohiko Imura said his company has long-admired Fyffes for its market-leading position.

"We believe that our offer represents a great reward for Fyffes' shareholders. We are grateful that the McCann family has provided an irrevocable commitment of support and is entrusting us to continue with them the rich Fyffes heritage.

"Sumitomo will provide Fyffes with experience, support and investment to continue to build on the tremendous Fyffes skills and experience and reach greater potential."

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The Japanese firm said it intends expanding Fyffes into new markets as well as expanding its produce offerings. Fyffes already operates in the pineapple, banana, mushroom, and melons markets.

The deal remains subject to approval from Fyffes shareholders and High Court sanction. However, Sumitomo said it has received "irrevocable undertakings" to vote in favour of the deal from shareholders that own a 27.21pc stake in the company's issued share capital.

Sumitomo operates across 66 countries and employs more than 65,000 personnel. The company is valued at around $15bn with $8bn of cash on its balance sheet at the end of March.
In what is believed to be his first residential development since spectacularly going bust in 2012, former billionaire builder Bernard McNamara is poised to embark on a multi-million-euro housing scheme in north Co Dublin, the Irish Independent has learned.

Using a company called Roxtip, Mr McNamara is planning a project in the seaside commuter town of Donabate.

Filings at the Companies Registration Office for Roxtip show that its directors are Michael McNamara and Cepta Ryan. Mr McNamara's full name is Michael Bernard McNamara.

Ms Ryan is Mr McNamara's sister-in-law.

The company has applied to Fingal County Council to build 36 houses on a one-hectare site in Donabate.

Property firm Ganly Walters handled the sale of the land on which the houses are planned.

The site had a price tag of 1.3m, and is understood to have been sold earlier this year. The development will probably require in the region of another 6m to complete. Mr McNamara is not understood be financing it directly, but is not thought to be working with any other developer on the project.

An adjoining site has planning permission for almost 100 homes, in a development being pursued by builder Noel McAllister. Coincidentally, the firm that handled the planning process for that scheme is also managing the planning process for Mr McNamara's project.

Mr McNamara is intending to build three-bedroom houses on his site.

He told the Irish Independent that the homes would be aimed at the starter market and would be "high quality".

The scheme is modest compared to the mega-deals he was involved in during the boom.

The former Fianna Fail councillor led a group of investors in the 140m acquisition of Dublin's landmark Shelbourne Hotel in 2004. They spent another 90m refurbishing and extending it.

The purchase and refurbishment were funded by Bank of Ireland and Anglo Irish Bank. Loans attached to the property were sold during the recession to US investment firm Kennedy Wilson in 2014.

Mr McNamara also spearheaded the consortium that paid 288m for the Burlington Hotel in Dublin, and was also involved in the group that paid a staggering 412m for the Irish Glass bottle site in Dublin's Ringsend in 2006. The Burlington was bought by US private equity firm Blackstone for 67m in 2012.

Mr McNamara went bankrupt in the UK in 2012, with debts of 1.2bn.

He had moved to Britain in 2011 and emerged from that bankruptcy in 2014.

The builder has recently worked on office construction projects in Dublin.

He led the development of a 25m office block beside St Stephen's Green on behalf of businessman Denis O'Brien.

One of Mr McNamara's companies also built the Longboat Quay apartment complex in Dublin during the boom.

Last year, it emerged that there were fire-safety defects at that scheme. Mr McNamara has offered to do fire-safety repairs at cost at the property.
RBS was rescued by a 45bn (38bn) taxpayer-funded bailout at the height of the credit crisis. Photo: Bloomberg

Ulster bank owner Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has lost a court battle to withhold transcripts, notes and interview records from thousands of retail investors suing the bank over an ill-fated, 12bn (10m) share sale in 2008.

Judge Robert Hildyard yesterday rejected an attempt by RBS to class the documents as legally privileged and confidential. It was a judgment welcomed by a group of 27,000 retail investors, who hope the information will bolster their case ahead of a trial next March.

"I accept that the court has discretion to prevent disclosure and inspection, or impose conditions, in an exceptional case ... But I have not been persuaded that this is such a case," Judge Hildyard said.

RBS said it may appeal the judgment.

The bank attempted to settle the multi-billion pound lawsuit with an 800m (675m) out-of-court deal on Monday. But only institutional investors accepted the offer, dropping their part of a claim that alleges the bank misrepresented its parlous financial state when asking investors to stump up cash in 2008.

Shareholders lost around 80pc of their investments after the bank's near collapse, just months after the cash call. RBS was rescued by a 45bn (38bn) taxpayer-funded bailout at the height of the credit crisis, a third of which went into Ulster Bank. (Reuters)
Declan Dolan has been appointed as group treasurer for Irish lender Permanent TSB.

Mr Dolan has been performing the treasurer role on an interim basis over the past 12 months.

He was a key member of a restructuring plan which resulted in the completion of a 9bn deleveraging programme.

The restructuring plan saw PTSB sell its UK subsidiary CHL for around 2.7bn back in September of this year. The bank also sold its Irish commercial real estate book in Ireland.

Mr Dolan was also responsible for securing 500m worth of funding for PTSB at a rate of 0.25pc. The debt was raised through a securitisation of residential backed mortgages.

Declan is an outstanding treasury professional, said Jeremy Masding, Permanent TSB ceo. He has overseen some of the most critical financial transactions in the Groups recovery and we are delighted to appoint him to this important role.

Mr Dolan will report to interim chief financial officer (cfo) Patricia Carroll.

The company stated it will appoint a permanent cfo in the early months of 2017.
"It's total nonsense that Japan said it will keep pace with Europe and the U.S. by not admitting China's market economy status," said Chinese expert Cheng Cheng.

According to Japanese media, the country's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has denied China's market economy status (MEP), claiming that it will continue to impose anti-dumping duties. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Dec. 8 at a Trans-Pacific Partnership meeting that dumping by Chinese state-owned enterprises violates market order. He pointed out that Chinese steel enterprises are selling their products at a very low price due to China's overcapacity, saying such behaviors have caused huge losses for steel enterprises in other parts of the world.

However, Dec. 11 marks the 15th anniversary of China's entrance to the WTO. The organization should admit China's MEP based on Chinas WTO accession protocol. Bai Ming, an expert from the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation under the Ministry of Commerce, said in an interview that Japan violates the rules of market economy when it tries to contain China's economic and trade development through tariff increases. This behavior will not only cause new conflicts between the two countries, but will also negatively impact their already-weak mutual trust, he added.

In addition, starting in 2019, Japan has decided to remove China, Brazil, Malaysia, Mexico and Thailand from its preferential tariff framework, claiming that China is not a market economy and that the latter nations violated international market rules through dumping.

Some experts believe that Japan also wishes to cover its financial deficit by removing China from the framework. According to the Japanese Ministry of Finance, imports from the 50 developing countries that enjoyed preferential tariffs in 2015 reached 1.32 trillion yen, among which goods from China accounted for more than 60 percent. Japan lost 33 billion yen due to preferential tariffs, and more than 90 percent of those losses came from the five countries above.

Cheng holds that removing China from the preferential tariffs framework is totally different from the denial of China's MEP. He said Japan has no advantage in the economic gamble with China and the U.S., and that Japan has to take unfair measures in order to contain China.
The company that owns brands like fashion retailer Zara has been accused of using aggressive methods to cut its tax bill. Photo: Bloomberg

The world's biggest fashion group, which includes brands like Zara, has been accused of using Ireland to slash its global tax bill by as much as 1bn.

Inditex - the world's biggest clothing retailer and owner of brands including Zara and Massimo Dutti - used "aggressive" techniques to sidestep at least 585m in taxes from 2011 to 2014, according to Green party lawmakers in the European Parliament.

Without an overhaul of European Union policy, "multinationals and their tax consultants, together with states which choose to engage in destructive tax competition, will continue to get around efforts to clamp down on profit-shifting and tax avoidance", said the Greens/EFA group in the Parliament in a report released in Brussels yesterday.

The Spanish clothing giant rejected the content of the report, saying it was "based on mistaken premises that lead to erroneous conclusions".

Inditex said it scrupulously complies with tax rules in all the markets where it operates.

Inditex is the latest target of the Green MEPs, whose previous reports threw the spotlight on how furniture maker Ikea may have avoided paying at least 1bn in taxes to European Union nations over six years.

Controlled by Spanish billionaire Amancio Ortega, Europe's richest person, Inditex posted 20.9bn in sales last year, from 7,100 stores in 93 countries. Other Inditex brands are growing, but Zara still accounts for two-thirds of sales.

The Green Party report comes as the EU probes the legality of tax deals that international companies such as Amazon.com and Starbucks struck with governments.

The European Commission in August slapped a bill of 13bn plus interest on Apple over what it called an illegal accord with Ireland.

Inditex has been using aggressive corporate tax avoidance techniques between 2011-2014, mainly in the Netherlands, Ireland and Switzerland, the Greens said.

The techniques used are "currently legal," but raise "questions whether Inditex pays taxes where its real economic activity takes place," the report said.

"Operations between companies of the group are audited regularly by the tax authorities," Inditex said in a statement yesterday, adding that it acts always with "maximum fiscal responsibility."

The Greens called for mandatory country-by-country-reporting "of key financial data," a common consolidated corporate tax base and a minimum corporate income tax throughout EU.

Responding to the Greens' report in February, Ikea Group said it paid about 822m in corporate income tax globally, "which equals an effective corporate income tax rate of just below 20pc."

At a European Parliament hearing in March, Ikea said its tax affairs are in line with international rules, echoing comments by other firms targeted by EU probes, including McDonald's and Apple. (Bloomberg)
The future of hundreds of jobs at the Irish arm of outsourcing giant Capita have been thrown into doubt after its British parent put the business up for sale in a surprise move aimed at slashing costs in response to Brexit.

Capita Asset Services (CAS), which is headed in Ireland by chief executive Robbie Hughes (inset), provides outsourced services to the financial sector, including managing loans for the likes of Nama and IBRC.

It grew rapidly during the crash as traditional banks slashed their headcount or left Ireland altogether.

In Britain, Capita Group blamed a slowdown linked to Brexit for its dramatic move to exit businesses.

Capita employs around 1,900 staff in Ireland, but its understood that 264 of them work for the Capita Assets Services unit in Ireland that is directly affected by the sale plan.

Capita Group said it intended to cut 3pc of the company's global workforce of 69,000, as well as selling units.

Analysts called the CAS business being put up for sale as the company's "crown jewel".

In a statement, Capita said it was to "dispose of the majority of the Capita Asset Services division (CAS businesses) and a small number of other businesses which no longer fit Capita's core business strategy".

The company would also look for other savings, Capita chief executive Andy Parker said.

He was "absolutely" confident that the move would allay any need to raise capital or cut the company's dividend, he said.

Capita has hired Goldman Sachs to sell the unit and has already had interest, Mr Parker added.

Capita is predominantly UK-based, unlike bigger rivals such as G4S and Serco that have been sheltered to a large degree from Brexit-related fallout by their bigger geographical footprint.

The firm's share price has halved this year on London's FTSE 100, making it the worst performing stock on the index.

Capita has cut its profit forecast to 515m (610m) from a previous estimate of 535m as recently as September.

In October of this year, Capita's Irish business was hit with a 1.1m fine from the Central Bank for conducting some business here without proper authorisation.

The Central Bank found that the company had been in breach of regulations regarding the administration of investment funds and had failed to report the infractions quickly enough.
DELL Irelands general manager, Niamh Townsend, is being replaced as the companys Irish boss by Aisling Keegan, a 17-year veteran of the company.

The switch has been announced as Ms Townsend begins a period of maternity leave.

Ms Townsend said that she looks forward to returning to the company in a leadership role following her maternity leave.

In a statement, Dell paid tribute to Ms Townsend for achieving consistent year-on-year growth, beating the competition and getting the company to the market leadership position in client commercial and storage.

The company added: Niamhs leadership has also been recognised externally, including being named WMB Businesswoman of the Year in 2015.

Ms Townsends replacement, Aisling Keegan, has been the companys general manager for private large commercial business in Dell UK for the last five years.

I am delighted to take up the role of vice president and general manager for Ireland, she said. This is a time of enormous technological change and we believe we have a leadership role to play in working with Irish organisations in the public and private sector to help support their digital transformation agenda.
Judge Reinhold is best remembered for roles in 1980s movies such as as Beverly Hills Cop and Fast Times At Ridgemont High (AP)

Judge Reinhold was arrested after a confrontation with security agents at Dallas Love Field Airport (Dallas County Sheriff's Department/AP)

Actor Judge Reinhold has been arrested on a disorderly conduct charge after a confrontation with security officials at a Texas airport.

Dallas Police Department said the 59-year-old was arrested on Thursday afternoon at Dallas Love Field Airport after Transportation Security Administration employees reported that he refused to submit to a screening at a checkpoint.

Reinhold's lawyer Steve Stodghill said Reinhold cleared security but his bag raised an alarm. He was taken aside by airport security for a pat-down and resisted.

He was taken to Dallas County jail for booking. Disorderly conduct is punishable by a fine of up to 500 dollars.

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Reinhold is remembered mainly for roles in 1980s movies such as Beverly Hills Cop and Fast Times At Ridgemont High.
The X Factor will return this autumn. (SYCO/THAMES TV/PA Wire)

Liam Payne and Cheryl Cole attend the Chopard Trophy Ceremony during The 69th Annual Cannes Film Festival on May 12, 2016 in Cannes, (Photo by Venturelli/WireImage)

Liam Payne has launched a war of words against former manager Louis Walsh on Twitter.

Although Liam has not yet publicly commented on girlfriend Cheryl Cole's pregnancy, it appears he's feeling very protective over the mother-to-be.

His argument with Louis kicked off after the X Factor judge was questioned about Cheryl this week.

At a photocall for this weekend's X Factor final, Louis was asked how he'd feel if Simon Cowell asked Cheryl Cole to return to the show as a judge.

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Louis responded: "Well Simon wouldn't invite Cheryl back because we have Nicole.

"We have Nicole and Sharon, we don't need another girl."

He then jokingly told the reporter to "go and f**k off now".

Louis added: " No silly questions, seriously. It's not about Cheryl. Don't be stupid man."

Liam clearly took offence to Louis' response and took to Twitter to share his frustration.

"Congratulations Louis Walsh for setting the worst example of handling media for his band who are about to step into a very hard industry," he told his 23 million followers.

Congratulations Louis Walsh for setting the worst example on handling media for his band who are about to step into a very hard industry  Liam (@LiamPayne) December 9, 2016

Maybe it's about time you realise it's not all about you and shut the fuck up for once, let them speak  Liam (@LiamPayne) December 9, 2016

"Maybe it's time you realise it's not all about you and shut the f**k up for once, let them speak."

The band Liam was referring to are 5 After Midnight, finalists on this season's X Factor.
Donald Trump with daughter Ivanka and son Donald Trump Jr on The Apprentice

US President-elect Donald Trump won't be firing himself from Celebrity Apprentice.

The Republican businessman plans to remain an executive producer on the show that made him a television star, a source confirmed to Reuters.

Trump, who famously barked the catchphrase "You're fired!" as he dismissed competitors on the Apprentice and Celebrity Apprentice programs, stepped down from the program last year when he entered the 2016 Republican presidential race.

Celebrity Apprentice returns to the air with actor Arnold Schwarzenegger as host on January 2, 18 days before Trump is sworn in as president.

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Variety, which first reported Trump's decision to remain as executive producer, said his name will air in the credits before that of Schwarzenegger, star of the "Terminator" movies and a two-term governor of California. The show is broadcast by NBC, a unit of Comcast Corp.

Variety said he was likely to be due a payment in the low five-figures per episode.

Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway did not confirm that Trump would retain the executive producer credit and said she did not know whether he would accept potential payments for the program.

"Presidents have a right to do things in their spare time or their leisure time," she told CNN. "Nobody objects to that.

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"I can tell you that work is his work and work is his hobby."

Debuting in 2004, The Apprentice and its spinoff, Celebrity Apprentice, featured teams trying to win Trump's favor in various money-making competitions. They were ratings hits - drawing nearly 21 million viewers at their peak - and boosted Trump's popularity after he suffered a financial downturn in the 1990s.

Trump has been speaking to lawyers and protocol experts about what he can and cannot do with his global business interests once he takes office on January 20, Conway said on CNN.
A 36-year-old army consultant therapist slipped and fell in a TGI Fridays restaurant after her long floaty dress and high heels became entangled, the Circuit Civil Court has heard.

Joanne Smith, who lost a 60,000 damages claim against the restaurant, denied she had difficulty walking on the night of November 9, 2013, and claimed she slipped and fell on water.

She told the court that she and husband Aidan decided to have dinner at TGI Fridays, St Stephens Green, Dublin, after they had gone to a Ludovico Einaudi concert at the National Concert Hall.

Smith, a mother of two of Raphoe Road, Crumlin, Dublin, told barrister Eamon Marray, for the restaurant, that she was wearing a long black dress and high heels and had no difficulty walking.

The court heard that as she was following a waitress and her husband to their table, Smith slipped and fell, landing heavily on her left side and hand. She had been embarrassed and stunned.

She said she got up and joined her husband who had been unaware she had fallen. Her dress had been wet and she had seen water spillage on the floor.

The court heard she suffered pain in her lower back, left leg and wrist. She had been out of work for several weeks and sued Chicago Rock Cafe Ltd, trading as TGI Fridays, of Leisureplex Retail Park, Malahide Road, Coolock, Dublin, for negligence.

TGI Fridays denied liability and claimed Smith had made no complaint on the night about the floor or her dress being wet. The restaurant claimed Ms Smith had fallen because her dress and heels became entangled.

Mr Marray said former TGI Fridays manager, Ms Robin Sadler, had been informed of the fall and immediately went to see Ms Smith. Counsel said Ms Sadler had not seen any water spillage on the floor.

Sadler said she gave Ms Smith an ice-pack for her wrist and the couple was offered a complimentary drink as a gesture. She said Ms Smith did not complain about the floor being wet.

Judge James ODonohoe said Ms Smith, a respectable person working in the Defence Force, had given a truthful account of what she believed had happened that night, but he preferred the restaurants version of events. He dismissed Ms Smiths claim and awarded legal costs against her.
Doctor Bernadette Scully, who is on trial for the manslaughter of her daughter in 2012. Photo: Collins

Dr Bernadette Scully wept in the witness box yesterday as she described how she held her daughter in her arms. Photo: Collins

The trial of a GP charged with the manslaughter of her profoundly disabled daughter that the mother was "very reluctant" to give her the sedative it is alleged she gave her daughter a toxic dose of the day she died.

Dr Bernadette Scully (58) of Emvale, Bachelor's Walk, Tullamore, Co Offaly has denied the manslaughter of Emily Barut (11) by an act of gross negligence.

The prosecution alleges she gave toxic amounts of the sedative chloral hydrate to her daughter on 15 September 2012.

A private nurse specialising in disabilities said Dr Scully had provided a level of care that was "100 pc plus" for Emily.

Noreen Roche, with 40 years nursing experience, visited Dr Scully's home on June 29 2009 at the request of a solicitor in relation to a family law case and had observed her caring for her daughter.

Emily's disabilities were severe, she was visually impaired, her hearing was also impaired and her epilepsy was "severe, complicated and difficult to control."

She needed 24 hour one-to-one care, said Ms Roche.

Emily was unable to communicate; stand, walk or sit and wore a nappy.

Her feeding needs were 'most complex' and her mother cooked all organic food and liquidised it very finely while her drinks had to be thickened so that she did not aspirate fluid into her lungs.

Ms Roche referred to the intensive exercise regime which saw Emily strapped into a standing frame and which she said meant that the child did not show the signs of contracting muscles that might have been seen in children with disabilities in the past.

She also said that Emily had not been admitted to hospital with multiple chest infections that might have been expected in a person at risk of aspirating fluids.

She made a note that Emily suffered screaming fits and that chloral hydrate was the only medication that relaxed her and helped her to sleep "but that the mother was very reluctant to use it."

Ms Roche said that chloral hydrate was used as an anti convulsant and that it was more frequently used in the past but that she still occasionally saw it prescribed for children.

She observed that Dr Scully was "hassled, anxious and run off her feet" from caring for her daughter and working four days a week as a GP and received 29 hours a week of care from the health service but she was unsure of this continuing due to cutbacks.

She said Emily was one of the most profoundly disabled cases she had come across and that she had wondered if the quality of her care had assisted in her survival.

The care Dr Scully provided was "100 percent plus", she said.

Meanwhile, she told how she has previously seen how the onset of puberty in young female patients with epilepsy made the status of their attacks "more severe and frequent," requiring a reevaluation of medication.

The court heard that the post-mortem report conducted by State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy had noted signs of the early stages of puberty in Emily.

Ms Roche said: "It is a big consideration to be taken into account."
Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 9

Trend:

Over the past 24 hours, Armenias armed forces have 41 times violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops, said Azerbaijans Defense Ministry Dec. 9.

Armenian army was using large-caliber machine guns.

The Azerbaijani army positions located in the Aghdam and Kokhanabi villages of the Tovuz district of Azerbaijan underwent fire from the Armenian army positions located in the Mosesgekh village and on nameless heights of the Berd district of Armenia.

Moreover, the Azerbaijani army positions were also shelled from the Armenian positions located near the Armenian-occupied Shikhlar, Yusifjanli, Javahirli villages of the Aghdam district, Kuropatkino village of the Khojavand district, Horadiz village of the Fuzuli district, as well as from the positions located on nameless heights of the Goranboy, Tartar, Khojavand, Fuzuli and Jabrayil 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.
NO criminal charges will be brought in relation to the tragic death of a 14-year-old girl scout from Dublin last year.

Aoife Winterlich from Walkinstown, Dublin 12 died after she was swept into the sea off Hook Head, Co Wexford on a weekend scouting trip.

The teen was rescued from the sea by the Irish Coast Guard but later died on December 11 2015 at Our Ladys Childrens Hospital in Crumlin.

Gardai in New Ross investigated all aspects of the incident, examining photos, maps, emergency rescue reports and CCTV footage in their preparation of a file for the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). The file was submitted to the DPP last August.

Superintendent John McDonald of New Ross Garda Station informed Dublin Coroners Court that no prosecution was directed.

The full details of how the teenagers death occurred will be heard at Dublin Coroners Court next year.

Aoife Winterlich was a member of the 55th South Circular Road scout group in Dublin. She was on a weekend scouting trip when the incident occurred around 2pm on Sunday December 6 2015.

Four young people were swept into the sea during a heavy swell in the aftermath of Storm Desmond. Two of the four made it back to shore, while two were winched to safety by the Irish Coast Guard Waterford based helicopter.

Aoife Winterlich fell into the sea as rescuers attempted to bring on her board the helicopter. She was immediately recovered from the sea and both teenagers were flown to hospital, arriving within 17 minutes of the initial call out.

An inquest into the death of Miss Winterlich opened at Dublin Coroner's Court earlier this year.

Her mother Ann Winterlich attended a brief hearing into her daughter's death where the inquest was opened and adjourned last June. Ms Winterlich gave evidence of the formal identification of her daughter at Our Ladys Childrens Hospital.

Witnesses to appear at the inquest next year may include Miss Wintrlich's scout peers and leaders, members of the Irish Coast Guard involved in the rescue at Hook Head, ambulance personnel, paramedics, medical staff and investigating Gardai.

Coroner Dr Myra Cullinane will have the option to examine maps, photos, reports and CCTV footage as part of the inquiry. The coroner adjourned the inquest for full hearing next March.
A MOTORIST who left two pals with life-changing injuries after a drink-driving crash in a 350 wreck of a car has been jailed for six years.

Seamus ODonnell, (27), from Oillean Teora, Crolly, Co Donegal, pleaded guilty at Letterkenny Circuit Criminal Court today to dangerous driving causing serious bodily harm to brothers Sean and Liam Ryan in a crash outside Dungloe at 5.35am on October 5, 2014.

Judge John OHagan said repeated comments from him and continued coverage in the press about road traffic incidents in Donegal continued to go unheeded.

Like a lot of cases in Donegal is a disaster for everybody, said the judge.

How long do I and my colleague have to keep beating the drum to persuade young people to take control and responsibility. The press advertise each and every tragedy which occurs. Who listens to either me or them?

Gda Colm MacIntyre told the court that he was called to the scene of the two-vehicle crash.

He said ODonnells Toyota Avensis ended upside down in a ditch after the crash and ODonnell was arrested on suspicion of drink-driving. The Ryan brothers were rushed to Letterkenny hospital for treatment before being transferred to hospitals in Dublin.

Gda MacIntyre said he later recovered CCTV from a pub in Loughanure which showed ODonnell had drank six pints there before leaving with a carry-out at 1.47am.

Witnesses later recalled seeing ODonnell drive his car at speed on roads in the area prior to the collision with a motorist driving an Audi A3.

In a victim impact statement Sean Ryan said he was later told he was on the verge of death.

He said he was put into an induced coma and doctors had deemed him not compatible with life. They thought I would not survive and I would not survive any surgical procedures.

He said he suffered horrific head injuries, lost part of his skull and part of his right front skull is still missing.

He continued to suffer memory loss, social anxiety and leak of fluid from his brain.

His brother Liam suffered a broken pelvis, broken leg, multiple cuts and bruises and he suffered post traumatic stress.

The court heard both brothers had moved to Thurles, Co Tipperary, after they recovered from their injuries. Both men had been best friends of ODonnell, a trainee welder and farm worker.

Judge John OHagan said ODonnell, who had a previous conviction for drink-driving in 2010, had bought a 350 wreck of a car.

He said the accused had been drinking, had no insurance or NCT certificate and the consequences of his actions had been absolutely catastrophic.

The judge said the case was one reason why car insurance premiums are rising.

Why do insurance premiums go up? People drive without insurance and the insurance companies have to pay up anyway and those who do pay contribute to that compensation, he said.

The judge added: In the case of Sean Ryan, he literally had his face smashed in and it had to be re-constructed by the excellent medical people in our hospitals. They literally wired his skull back together again. What happened to him is never going to go away.

I have heard his story so many times here in Donegal. But you cant put the clock back. It cannot be undone.

The judge said he accepted ODonnell was deeply remorseful for his actions, had pleaded guilty at an early stage and was taking action to deal with his addiction to alcohol.

He said he was mindful that the Court of Appeal had doubled the sentence he had given Shaun Kelly he killed eight people in a car crash in Inishowen in 2010, from four years with two suspended to eight years with four suspended.

Unlike the Kelly case, he said, ODonnell was a drink-driver driving without insurance.

He sentenced ODonnell to six years in prison for dangerous driving causing serious bodily harm, suspending the last three years of the sentence.

He also imposed concurrent sentences of six months each for driving without insurance and drink-driving and banned ODonnell from driving for ten years.
A mother of six has been fined 100 at Limerick Circuit Court after she admitted marrying a man while still married to her first husband.

Ivita Visnevska, originally from Latvia but with an address at Berberis Court, Ilford, London, pleaded guilty to one count of bigamy, and to one count of knowingly providing false information on a marriage certificate application form.

The court heard yesterday that the marriage registry office in St Camillus Hospital, Limerick, discovered they had serviced the false marriage five years later after they were contacted by authorities in Latvia.

Bigamy carries a maximum seven-year jail sentence on indictment.

On August 22, 2005, at St Camillus Hospital registry office, Ms Visnevska (34) married fellow Latvian Alexandrs Limanovics, with whom she has two daughters. The "relationship ended" in October 2008.

On October 16, 2009, and while still married to her Latvian husband, Ms Visnevska wed Pakistani man, Mirza Azam Baig, with whom she has two sons. Mr Baig had no knowledge Ms Visnevska was married at the time.

Latvian authorities contacted the Limerick registry office in 2014 informing them that the marriage between Ms Visnevska and Mr Baig was not legal.

Ms Visnevska is currently in a relationship with a third man with whom she has two young children, and is due to give birth to her seventh child, next May.

On July 13, 2009, Ms Visnevska and Mr Baig gave notice to the Limerick marriage registry office of their intention to wed.

Ms Visnevska signed a declaration form, recording her martial status as 'single', despite still being married to Mr Limanovics. She signed three separate forms indicating there was no legal impediment to marrying Mr Baig.

In 2014, gardai, through liaisons with Interpol, located Ms Visnevska in London. Judge Tom O'Donnell fined Ms Visnevska 100 for providing false information on a marriage cert.
The High Court has reserved judgment in the case brought by businessman Denis O'Brien against the State and a Dail committee.

Ms Justice Una Ni Raifeartaigh said she would deliver her ruling on the legal action after Christmas.

Arguments for both sides in the case concluded yesterday, after a seven-day hearing.

Mr O'Brien had claimed the outcome of proceedings he brought against RTE last year was effectively decided by remarks made by TDs in the Dail, which disclosed details of his personal banking affairs.

His lawyers maintained statements made by Social Democrats TD Catherine Murphy and Sinn Fein TD Pearse Doherty breached his rights and the separation of the powers of the Oireachtas and the courts.

He brought the case against the State, the Clerk of the Dail and the Dail Committee on Procedure and Privileges.

Lawyers for the defendants argued that statements made by TDs in the Dail were protected by parliamentary privilege under the Constitution.

They contended the courts had no jurisdiction to intervene in the process of the freedom of speech in the Oireachtas.

Mr O'Brien was the only witness to give evidence.

Eileen Barrington SC, for Mr O'Brien, said there had been "a deliberate and knowing undoing, not just of a court order but of the proceedings because proceedings were in effect determined."
A taxi driver has been convicted of sexually assaulting a young woman as he was bringing her home from a city centre pub.

Augustin Ion (49) groped the woman's breast and held her head back against the car seat outside her house. He also asked her to come with him into the back seat and asked if he could come into her house with her.

A jury with a 11 to one majority rejected Ion's claims that the woman was extremely aggressive, told him to f**k off and drive and refused to pay the fare.

He claimed she only made a complaint to gardai because she thought he was going to report her for not paying him. Prosecuting counsel Eilis Brennan BL told the jury this was a tissue of lies.

The jury took just under three hours to return the guilty verdict following a single day of evidence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

Ion has been released on bail pending sentence on January 23 next. The prosecution consented to bail on condition that Ion agreed not to drive a taxi in the meantime or to apply for a new passport.

Ion of Garrynisk Square, Tallaght, Dublin and originally from Romania had pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting the woman outside her home on the night of November 20, 2014.

The woman told Ms Brennan that she was in a city centre pub with friends where she had one red wine and four or five vodkas over the course of about five hours. She said she left at about 11.30pm because she had a headache and was in work the next day.

She lived about five minutes away but decided to get a taxi because she didn't want to walk alone down dark alleyways. She got in the front of the taxi out of habit because she was from the country where that was the done thing, she said.

She was holding her head and told Ion she had a headache when he asked what was wrong. Ion started rubbing her neck as they stopped at the traffic lights. She told him she was fine and he continued to drive.

When they reached her house he started rubbing the back of her head and kissed her on the side of the face. He grabbed her breast and asked her if she wanted to get in the back seat. He also asked her if he could come inside with her.

The woman said she froze and told Ion she had to go. Ion told her just wait five minutes before holding her head back against the seat rest.

I was panicking, she said. I kept thinking he was going to drive away with me in the car.

The fare was between 6 and 7 and that she gave him 20. She asked him for 10 back and told him to keep the change before getting out. She noted his name and some of his registration before going into her house.

Defence counsel Gerard Charlton BL asked the woman why she gave the man a tip if she was so scared.

I just wanted to go, I didnt want to aggravate him, she responded.

Ion told gardai in interview that the woman was very drunk when she got into the car. He said when he asked her if she was going to be sick she responded f**k off and drive.

He said when they arrived at the destination she didn't have any money and told him again to f*8k off. Ion said he threatened to call gardai and the woman responded that she would call gardai and claim that he trapped her in his car.

He said she then got out without paying. He did not call the gardai because he was very busy with fares, he said.
Kathleen Dunne leaves the Four Courts yesterday after a High Court action saw her awarded a six-figure sum. Photo: Collins Courts

A woman has been awarded 140,000 by the High Court for injuries she received when she tripped on an uneven footpath.

Kathleen Dunne, of Whitestown Green, Blanchardstown, Dublin, sued Dublin City Council over the fall at the corner of Westmoreland Street and Aston Quay in the city on September 3, 2014.

Mr Justice Michael Hanna said she suffered "a very nasty injury indeed".

Ms Dunne was hospitalised for a number of weeks, and may eventually develop arthritis and require a knee replacement as a result.

He was satisfied the council was negligent arising out of the trip on what was "a seam" or a trench in the pavement, which experts had stated was not in compliance with the recommended standard.

She was on her way to a nearby convenience store at the time, the court heard.

The pavement had previously undergone work to remove telephone boxes and underground services, the judge said.

He was satisfied there was a hazard left as a result of the work.

Damages

While it might be a hazard many could pass over, that was not the case for the "unfortunate" Ms Dunne "when she met her Waterloo".

The judge also said there was no doubt she had suffered.

He found her to be "truthful if a little cagey as people sometimes are in this foreign environment".

Mr Justice Hanna awarded her 40,000 in general damages and 100,000 for damages into the future.

He agreed with a request from the defence to put a stay on his order in the event of an appeal, provided 50,000 is paid over by December 19.
Aidan O'Driscoll pictured at a protest against the visit of Queen Elizabeth in 2012. Picture: Collins Photos

Aidan ODriscoll (37) was shot dead in an ambush in Blackpool, Co Cork yesterday

Former Real IRA chief Aidan O'Driscoll was gunned down by former associates in a localised dispute, gardai and well-placed dissident sources now believe.

The 37-year-old, who was nicknamed 'The Beast', was ambushed by two men in balaclavas as he was walking along the Old Commons Road in Blackpool on the northside of Cork city at around 5pm on Wednesday.

He was shot in the back before the gunman pumped two further bullets into him as he lay dying.

Locals came to his aid and he was rushed by ambulance to Cork University Hospital (CUH) where he underwent emergency surgery. But he died a short time later.

Gardai have begun examining a number of lines of enquiry and tonight senior security sources and underworld contacts have revealed that O'Driscoll was targeted as part of a local dispute with republicans who he previously associated with.

One source familiar with the case said: O'Driscoll had fallen out with a long line of people but at the moment it would appear that this is a localised dispute.

Gardai had examined his connection to Limerick based dissidents but this is very, very unlikely. Likewise they have not ruled out a revenge attack by local drugs gangs but again there is no evidence for this.

O'Driscoll was the former Officer Commanding of the Real IRA in Dublin but was kicked out of the group after a row with Alan Ryan, who was himself murdered in September 2012.

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He returned to Cork after the dispute and was shot in the legs as part of a punishment style attack in June 2013. In a statement the group said he was shot for "un-republican activities".

Despite this he sought out other allies in the shady dissident world and soon hooked up with a suspected murderer, who is originally from Northern Ireland, in Limerick City in spring 2015.

The pair worked for a Limerick businessman as painters and decorators but sources say they were heavily involved in criminality and extortion.

How either of these men came to be in Limerick at this time is a mystery but they certainly weren't welcome guests," one Limerick source said.

O'Driscoll would travel up and down from Cork and often he would stay with friends in Limerick. He would also stay in hotels. He was a menacing presence in the city."

During one particularly violent incident a man was lured to a house in the city and his feet were nailed to the floor in a bid to extort 15,000.

O'Driscoll was arrested and questioned over this attack but was never charged. A number of people are currently before the Special Criminal Court in relation to this alleged assault.

Sources said 'The Beast' wasn't seen around Limerick after that and is thought to have attempted to re-forge links with former Cork associates.

Detectives will closely examine these relationships as part of their investigation.

O'Driscoll had two children with a previous partner and was due to get married in the new year.

Earlier on Thursday gardai appealed for help with their investigation into O'Driscoll's murder.

Superintendent Michael Comyns said at a press conference: "We have to keep an open mind. Again as I say it is really early in the investigation. We have no idea why this shooting took place yesterday evening. Mr O'Driscoll is a son, a father and we will be using all our resources to solve this."

Supt Comyns said: "Anybody who was in this area (Blackpool) yesterday evening from 4pm onwards -- this is a very busy area at this time of the evening and we are looking for anybody if they could contact us. The number we are giving is the Anglesea Street number. It is 021 4522 000."
Students at Queen's have hit out after the university issued a graduation ceremony style guide banning short skirts and cleavage - telling women not to dress like Kim Kardashian.

Students at Queen's have hit out after the university issued a graduation ceremony style guide banning short skirts and cleavage - telling women not to dress like Kim Kardashian.

The so-called style guidance has been criticised by students, who said they found it "deplorable" that an academic institution would tell women how to dress.

Graduates were greeted with the advice, entitled 'Style tips for graduation week: Wear it well' as they registered online for the formal event.

It stated that former architecture student Thom Dickerson, who runs his own self-titled private tailoring company based in Belfast, had shared his top tips for students.

Under a 'Build your outfit around your hood and gown' heading, graduates were informed how not to clash the hood and gown with their colour palette.

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It also recommended that men, whether they wore Oxfords or brogues, should "stick to leather and dark shades".

Mr Dickerson went on to say: "Possibly the biggest mistake I see at graduation is girls treating the event like a night out.

"Graduation is a formal event and the dress code should match this. Short skirts and cleavage on show are totally out of the question. Think Grace Kelly, not Kim Kardashian, at least until the day is done: you can always change before heading out."

It further favoured "discreet safety pins" for ladies to wear to avoid any "last minute wardrobe disasters".

It stated that anyone who had represented the university at sport should wear the club tie, either in Trinity, Windsor or a four-in-one hand knot.

A scathing email sent to the university from a post-graduate and seen by the Belfast Telegraph said that the advice was "offensive and condescending".

"I find that it gives legitimacy to the stereotype that university education is for the middle classes," she said. "As a woman, however, the part I find utterly deplorable is the way in which it advises women how to dress. Being told what to wear, being judged for our attire and being told certain attire says certain things about you as a woman is still a daily occurrence.

"I understand that the university wishes graduation to be a formal event. So, why couldn't they simply state 'formal attire'? Looking to the comparisons the university has made here, it's pretty degrading. The reserved, conservative Grace Kelly is the example of 'good' while the 'louder' more 'risque' Kim Kardashian is 'bad'?

"Isn't that the same old, same old we've been trying to rally against for years now? The article draws a very definitive line between male and female attire. The most offensive part of it all is the way in which it confirms the stereotypical good girl and pits her against the stereotypical bad girl.

"And, furthermore the 'cleavage on show' being 'totally out of the question' feels like a piece of advice that would have been handed down to girls in a convent.

"Are we not a bit more mature than making cleavage out to be 'bad' or even 'sacrosanct'? I feel massively condescended to and genuinely offended to be offered this advice."

Queen's said the webpage included news, tips and information for graduating students. "This is a dynamic webpage which is constantly updated. It currently includes stories about the achievements of our most recent graduates," it added.

Other universities also issue guidance on graduation attire. On the Ulster University website, it recommends that graduates "dress appropriately".

"While the university does not prescribe what style of clothes should be worn... graduation is a formal ceremonial occasion marking an important achievement and stage in a student's life," it says.

"Jeans, T-shirts, trainers and other casual items of clothing are not considered appropriate... we recommend securely fitting shoes with a suitable heel height... as graduates are required to walk up and down ramps and/or steps to the platform to receive their award."
A mix-up during an economics exam in NUI Galway led to students at the university being given both the answers and the questions during an exam.

A mix-up during an economics exam in NUI Galway has led to students receiving both the answers and questions to an exam, according to local reports.

A statement released to Independent.ie confirmed that there was a problem with an economics paper due to a to a printing issue.

It read: "Earlier this week an issue arose with an economics exam paper which was dealt with promptly by the University.

"NUI Galway is satisfied that the necessary measures were taken to ensure that students are not adversely impacted. A printing error on part of the economics paper was identified and addressed during the exam.

"Students were advised of a revised marking scheme to address the issue."
Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 9

By Seba Aghayeva  Trend:

Armenia avoids substantive negotiations on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement, strengthens its military presence in the occupied Azerbaijani territories, and by all means tries to maintain the status quo, said Azerbaijans Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov during the meeting with Herbert Salber, the EU special representative for the South Caucasus.

The sides met on the sidelines of the OSCE Ministerial Council in Hamburg.

The presence of the Armenian armed forces in the occupied Azerbaijani territories remains the main reason for escalation of the conflict in the region and it is the main obstacle to conflicts resolution, the minister said.

As for the EU citizen diplomacy measures implemented in the conflict settlement, Mammadyarov noted the importance of continuing the dialogue between the Azerbaijani and Armenian communities in Nagorno-Karabakh.

The parties also mulled the prospects of developing the Azerbaijan-EU cooperation.

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.
Kayleigh Hogg and her fiance Nicholas Hesford celebrate receiving their PhDs from Queens University. Photo: Andrew Towe Parkway Photography

Students at Queen's Universtiy Belfast have hit out after the university issued a graduation ceremony style guide banning short skirts and cleavage - telling women not to dress like Kim Kardashian.

It said women should "think Grace Kelly", rather than the US reality television personality and socialite, when choosing outfits.

The so-called style advice has been criticised by students at the university, who said they found it "deplorable" that an academic institution would tell women how to dress.

Graduates were greeted with the section, entitled 'Style tips for graduation week: Wear it well', as they registered online for the formal ceremonial event.

It states that former architecture student, Thom Dickerson, who runs his own self-titled private tailoring company based in Belfast, has shared his top tips for students.

Mr Dickerson goes on to say: "Possibly the biggest mistake I see at graduation is girls treating the event like a night out.

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"Graduation is a formal event and the dress code should match this. Short skirts and cleavage on show are totally out of the question.

"Think Grace Kelly, not Kim Kardashian, at least until the day is done: you can always change before heading out."

A scathing email sent to the university from a post-graduate student and seen by this newspaper states that the advice was "offensive and condescending".

"I find that it gives legitimacy to the stereotype that university education is for the middle classes," she said.

"As a woman, however, the part I find utterly deplorable is the way in which it advises women how to dress."

Queen's University Belfast did not respond to a request for comment last night.
Abina Ring with photos of (left to right) Reece, Sarah and Amy. Photo: Limerick Voice

The mother of a woman who was stabbed to death along with her friend and two children has spoken for the first time about her fears at the killer emerging from behind bars.

Abina Ring (51) lost her daughter Sarah (25) and her grandchildren Reece (3) and five-month-old Amy when they were murdered by John Geary at their home in Newcastle West, Co Limerick, on November 15, 2010.

Expand Expand Previous Next Close When Sarahs friend Alicia Brough returned to the house, Geary killed Alicia and three-year-old Reece. Photo: Steve Humphreys Mum Sarah Hines was brutally killed by her ex-partner John Geary who then turned on his five-month-old daughter Amy. Photo: Press 22 / Facebook

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Whatsapp When Sarahs friend Alicia Brough returned to the house, Geary killed Alicia and three-year-old Reece. Photo: Steve Humphreys

The 37-year-old murdered his ex-partner and their five-month-old daughter because she had left him.

He also killed Sarah's three-year-old son Reece and her friend Alicia Brough (20) because they happened upon the scene.

The Central Criminal Court heard gardai had found two knives and a screwdriver at the scene - but believed up to five weapons had been used.

Geary then travelled by bus to Kilkee, Co Clare, where he checked into a guesthouse and had a drink at the bar.

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He had a full breakfast the following morning, before going to two pubs. He was arrested in the second pub that afternoon.

In an interview with the 'Limerick Voice', Sarah's heartbroken mother, Abina, said her grief was compounded by her fear of what might happen when Geary was released. Originally from Milford in Co Cork, Geary was given four concurrent life sentences for the murders in 2013.

"He will get out; he's probably thinking about it already. How will my boys react?" said Ms Ring.

"Life should mean life. He might be an old man by the time he's free, but he can still hurt someone."

"I've been living day to day, my children keep me going," said the mother-of-six.

The grieving mother suffered a heart attack after finding out the details of her daughter's murder.

"The guards told me all the details because they thought John was going to plead not guilty, and they wanted to prepare me for what was going to come up in court," she said.

"I started getting pains down my arm. It was the shock of what I had been told."

The heartbroken mother warned how violence can visit anyone's doorstep.

"You see things like this on the news and think that's not going to happen to me," said Ms Ring.

"But it could happen to you, your sister, your daughter, your neighbour, your friend.

"I think Sarah would tell people to be careful.

"If you don't feel safe, get out. If you see someone in an abusive situation, help them."

It is believed Geary became obsessive after the relationship fell apart months before the murder.

"He always wanted to know where she was and who she was with," Ms Ring added.

She believes more can be done to prevent more tragedies like her own family's.

"There should be a registry for people with a violent history," she said.

"That way, when you bring someone into your home, you can see who they are."
The British Government's advisory body Public Health England (PHE) has claimed e-cigarettes are at least safe enough to be used as a quitting aid.

E-cigarettes leave young people at risk of nicotine addiction, brain-development problems and mood disorders, the US surgeon general has warned in a wide-ranging report published yesterday.

America's most senior doctor, Vivek Murthy, said e-cigarette use among young people and young adults was "not safe" and "now a major public health concern".

The British Government's advisory body Public Health England (PHE) has claimed e-cigarettes are at least safe enough to be used as a quitting aid.

But Dr Murthy warned that any nicotine exposure is harmful to the developing brain and said that teachers, parents and health officials should discourage under-25s from taking up the e-cigarette habit.

"Most e-cigarettes contain nicotine, which can cause addiction and can harm the developing adolescent brain," said Dr Murthy. "Compared with older adults, the brain of youth and young adults is more vulnerable to the negative consequences of nicotine exposure.

"The effects include addiction, priming for use of other addictive substances, reduced impulse control, deficits in attention and cognition, and mood disorders.

"Although e-cigarettes generally emit fewer toxicants than combustible tobacco products, we know that aerosol from e-cigarettes is not harmless.

"Healthcare providers, parents, teachers, and other caregivers should advise youth about the dangers of nicotine and discourage tobacco use in any form, including e-cigarettes."

Dr Murthy said the negative health effects and potentially harmful doses of heated chemicals in e-cigarette liquids are not completely understood.

But he warned they could become a gateway to smoking normal cigarettes, saying vaping "is strongly associated with the use of other tobacco products among youth and young adults, particularly the use of combustible tobacco products".

His strongly-worded report said that serious action was needed to keep the products out of the hands of the nation's young people.

The report comes after a PHE study last year encouraged smokers to switch to e-cigarettes, claiming they are 95pc less harmful.

However, the PHE report came in for much criticism from some scientists writing in the 'British Medical Journal' (BMJ) and 'The Lancet'.

They said it was based on poor-quality evidence and pointed to links between some experts involved in the study, the tobacco industry, and firms that manufacture e-cigarettes.

Britain's only lung cancer charity, the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation, said it shared the same concerns as Dr Murthy.

Paula Chadwick, chief executive of the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation, said: "We understand that some people chose to use them as a bridge on the way to quitting smoking entirely, and that makes sense.

"But, in truth, the only safe substance to inhale into your lungs is pure, clean air.

"So we welcome the contribution made by the surgeon general to the worldwide debate about the use of e-cigarettes".

However, PHE defended its stance, saying regulations were tougher in the UK to prevent youngsters using e-cigarettes.

Professor Kevin Fenton, national director of health and wellbeing at Public Health England, said: "We recognise the concern about youth uptake of e-cigarettes in the US where establishing regulations, especially on marketing, has been difficult.

"The position in the UK is very different.

"We have comprehensive regulations in place including a ban on selling e-cigarettes to under-18s and tough restrictions on advertising, as well as minimum standards for safety, maximum nicotine levels and health warnings on packs.

"Our review of the evidence found e-cigarette use carries a fraction of the risk of smoking, a conclusion reiterated by the Royal College of Physicians earlier this year.

"No new evidence has been published to contradict this, however we are closely monitoring any emerging evidence ."

Some 59pc of vapers also smoke regular cigarettes alongside, while 53pc said they used vaping as an aid to quitting regular smoking. ( Daily Telegraph London)

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
The maker of cystic fibrosis drug Orkambi said it is willing to examine a system where it would only be paid in full in cases where the medicine is of proven benefit to the patient.

Although over 500 people with the illness want to try the expensive drug, it is believed around only 120 will actually respond to it.

The war of words continued between Vertex and health authorities here in advance of a new round of talks to agree a price which would make it available to Irish patients.

Vertex said that it is important that senior decision-makers such as Health Minister Simon Harris and HSE chief Tony O'Brien be "around the table".

Mr Harris replied that he is precluded from the talks and called on the company to stop spinning and get on with the negotiations.

A spokeswoman for the HSE said the negotiating system will be the same.

"Negotiations will be conducted through the established procedures that have been, and are accepted by pharmaceutical companies for negotiations of this type," she said.

In response, a spokeswoman for Vertex said it is less about who is across the table and more about having senior officials who can make a firm decision on the issue at this point.

As of yesterday evening, no date for the resumption of the talks had been set.

She said: "We have a shared goal to help people in Ireland get Orkambi as soon as possible.

"As such, we are calling on the HSE to ensure that our next meeting results in a definitive resolution to a process that has already taken too long.

"We have committed that the senior decision-makers from Vertex will attend."

The proposals put forward will include a risk-sharing scheme where the company will be reimbursed for the patients who are given the drug and have a positive improvement in specific areas such as breathing control.

This would limit the HSE's overall payout.
The leader of Sinn Fein, Gerry Adams, has said that he does not know who killed prison officer Brian Stack in 1983.

Mr Adams facilitated a meeting between an IRA member and the murdered mans sons, Austin and Oliver, in 2013. During that meeting, details of Brian Stacks murder were disclosed.

Speaking on RTE Radio One this morning, Adams said that he does not know who committed that murder and also questioned Austin Stacks account of the meeting.

He said: I dont have information on a crime... Austin Stack has said that the individual we met told us he had met the perpetrators. He didnt tell us that.

Mr Adams also said that he was under the understanding that the Stacks were happy to keep their meeting with the IRA member confidential and honour agreements were made prior to the arrangement.

He said: The two of us sat down and put together a process that could have worked and it was based on confidentiality and trust. I actually thought I had developed a good working relationship with Austin.

They said they wanted to know if the IRA had killed their father, they wanted acknowledgement, they wanted closure.

"They said they didn't want revenge, [they said] were not interested in anyone going to jail, Mr Adams also told the programme.

In an interview with RTEs Prime Time last night, Austin Stack said he was confident that he knew the identity of the IRA member he met.

He also once again called on Gerry Adams to hand whatever information he has over to the gardai.

Mr Stack also criticised both Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin, for what he described as political point scoring in relation to his fathers death.
Orla O'Connor Director of the NWCI, Dearbhail McDonald Group Business Editor Irish Independent Deirdre Clune MEP and Lynn Boylan MEP pictured at the National Womens Council of Ireland forum on combatting violence against women at Wood Quay. (Pic Steve Humphreys)

Christina Olsen (Council of Europe) and Lynn Boylan MEP pictured at the National Womens Council of Ireland forum on combating violence against women. (Photo Steve Humphreys)

Orla O'Connor Director of the NWCI, Dearbhail McDonald Group Business Editor Irish Independent Deirdre Clune MEP and Lynn Boylan MEP at the National Womens Council of Ireland forum on combating violence against women

The Irish education system is burying its head in the sand when it comes to domestic violence, a conference heard today.

Orla OConnor, director of the National Womens Council of Ireland, said the education system is doing virtually nothing to educate school children about domestic abuse and sexual violence.

Even though at least one in five Irish women is a victim of domestic violence, the issue is never discussed at the primary school level and it should be if we are to stop the cycle of violence, she told Independent.ie.

Look at all the children this is affecting. Yet there is no programme in schools around abusive relationships, she said.

This issue is shrouded in stigma and shame, she said.

Teachers are also not adequately trained in being able to spot the signs when a child is being abused or living in an abusive family environment, she said.

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She made the comments following a half-day forum in Dublin this morning on Combating Violence Against Women.

Dublin MEP Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) who was one of the speakers, said the Irish government should avail of a 4m fund from the EU that has been earmarked for each member state next year to raise awareness on domestic violence.

I would love to see the Irish government embark on an education programme for our school children which particularly focused on our boys, she told the forum.

Too often the message that is circulated not just in Ireland, but internationally, is one of telling girls and women how to protect themselves, measures they need to take when out at night, when consuming alcohol, she said .

Wouldnt it show how far Ireland has come as a small nation if instead of teaching girls how to protect themselves, we educated our boys not to be violent against women?

The forum, organised by European Parliament and the Irish Observatory on Violence Against Women, was part of Womens Aids 16 Days of Action Campaign Opposing Domestic Violence.
A mother-of-three has hit out at a shopkeeper who has a sign in his shop stating only three students can be admitted entry at any one time.

Lisa Bracken, who questioned the shop owner about his policy, claims he responded by saying Students are all thieves.

Speaking on RTE Radio 1s Liveline, Ms Bracken said it was unfair to tar all students with the one brush.

He didnt say some students are thieving, he said all. I have three children and none of them are thieves.

Its horrible to make all students out to be thieves.

The shop is located in the Glasnevin area of Dublin and Ms Bracken said she will not be giving it any more business.

I certainly wont be going near the shop in future. At the end of the day, those same students he allows in are buttering his bread. Not all students are thieves.

Paul Doyle, a shop owner from Castleknock in Dublin, agreed with the man limiting the number of students who can enter the shop.

Im being robbed blind by students, he said.

I have the shop myself next door to a school. Some of them do it, but not all of them.

Another caller, who was a Garda for thirty years, said the shop owner in Glasnevin has a right to protect his shop.

Hes just trying to protect his business. All parents will tell you, including myself, that your kids are perfect. No parent knows everything their child does when theyre out.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 9

Trend:

Finland supports peaceful settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, as well as the activities of the OSCE Minsk Group, said Peter Stenlund, secretary of state at Finlands Foreign Ministry, during his meeting with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov.

The meeting was held as part of the 23rd OSCE Ministerial Council in Hamburg, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry told Trend Dec. 9.

The Azerbaijani foreign minister informed Stenlund about the negotiation process on the conflicts settlement.

Mammadyarov noted that the conflict must be resolved in accordance with the norms and principles of international law within Azerbaijans territorial integrity, sovereignty and internationally recognized borders.

Following the substantive high-level discussions in Vienna and St. Petersburg, Armenia is trying to disrupt the negotiations aimed to resolve the conflict by resorting to various provocations, he added.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
A Dail committee probing Nama's controversial 1.6bn Project Eagle deal wants to quiz the agency on why notes from board meetings weren't retained.

TDs on the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) have decided to recall Nama to explain why it did not retain its contemporaneous notes of two board meetings in the months before the 2014 sale of it's Northern Ireland loan book.

Its understood that Nama chief executive Brendan McDonagh is to be invited to appear before the committee again as early as next week.

The plan for a further public meeting means it is increasingly unlikely that the PAC's report on the Project Eagle will be published before the new year as had been planned.

The new invitation for Nama to appear came after TDs requested copies of any contemporaneous notes - in their original format - used in preparation of the minutes of board meetings held on December 12, 2013 and January 8, 2014.

Nama responded to the PAC saying that once minutes are adopted by the board, they are the official record of that particular meeting.

As a result, the Board Secretarys contemporaneous notes of the meeting are transitory records and are not retained.

PAC chairman Sean Fleming said: "I find it surprising that at key meetings where the sale of Northern Ireland assets worth 1.3bn was being discussed that notes from which the minutes were to be prepared have not been retained by NAMA.

"Put simply, this means these records have been disposed of and were destroyed."

He said Nama has been recalled to explain the matter and he expects a meeting of PAC early next week.

A spokesman for Nama said: "We have not received any notification of this from the Committee as yet. Therefore we have no comment to make on the matter at this time."

TDs are examining Project Eagle after the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) found that a probable loss of 190m (223m) was incurred in the sale.

Nama has rejected this finding.
Martin McGuinness had to withdraw from a planned trip to China this week on doctors' advice as he undergoes medical tests, it emerged last night.

According to a Sinn Fein statement, Northern Ireland's Deputy First Minister did not travel abroad so that a medical assessment could be carried out on him.

It read: "The Deputy First Minister withdrew from a planned visit to China this week on medical advice and to enable doctors to conduct a medical assessment.

"Martin McGuinness is fulfilling his responsibilities as Deputy First Minister working with his departmental political advisers.

"There has been no disruption to the work of the Executive Office during this period."

There was surprise last Friday when it was announced that Mr McGuinness would not be heading to China.

Instead, First Minister Arlene Foster travelled alone on the four-day visit, undertaking meetings in Shanghai and Beijing.

Both the Executive Office and Sinn Fein had refused to elaborate further on the reasons for his absence.

The Executive Office had also refused to say whether Mr McGuinness was working at Stormont this week.

Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams sent his best wishes to the minister.

"I'm sure everybody who values his work will send best wishes to Martin, Bernie and their family," he said.

"I met with Martin as normal at Stormont on Monday," said Mr Adams.

"I have been in regular contact with him since and he is totally committed to fulfilling his duties."
One of Gerry Adams's key lieutenants is facing charges over his alleged role in the establishment of the Sinn Fein/IRA 'Kangaroo Court' system, the Irish Independent can reveal.

Gardai believe a close associate of Mr Adams has "perverted the course of justice" after he sanctioned an internal IRA investigation into the alleged rape of two individuals.

One of the men, Louth father Paudie McGahon, last night told this newspaper that Sinn Fein and the IRA are guilty of crimes such as rape and murder.

Mr Adams is already embroiled in the most serious crisis of his political career after he named four individuals, including three serving Sinn Fein politicians, as having information about the brutal murder of prison officer Brian Stack.

Two of the men were named by Fine Gael TD Alan Farrell in the Dail. They are Dublin North West TD Dessie Ellis and Kerry deputy Martin Ferris.

Brian Stack's son Austin yesterday dramatically confronted Mr Adams at a press conference in Dublin, demanding he come clean on the 1983 murder.

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Significantly, Mr Stack asked Mr Adams to name the senior IRA figure who met members of the Stack family close to the Border in August 2013.

During the meeting it was admitted that the IRA was responsible for the murder.

Mr Adams yesterday refused to name the IRA man he contacted. The Louth TD cited the Peace Process as one of the reasons behind his decision not to name the individual, who is key to the live Garda investigation into the Stack murder.

But it can now be revealed that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) is considering charges against a senior figure in relation to the staging of an internal probe into the rape against two men in 2002.

One of the victims, father and Louth man Mr McGahon, last night spoke for the first time since his allegations were first brought into the public domain.

"Gerry Adams has faced accusations this week in relation to a murder. He is also leader of a party that is facing questions in relation to cases of rape and paedophilia," Mr McGahon told the Irish Independent.

In 2012, Mr McGahon revealed in the Irish Independent and on BBC's 'Spotlight' programme that he was raped by an IRA man before being subjected to an IRA 'kangaroo court'.

He is the second victim of IRA sex abuse to go public. Mairia Cahill was the first.

Mr McGahon will detail his response in an interview to be aired with 'Newstalk Breakfast' today.

The young father expressed his full support for Austin Stack and the Stack family.

"I think he [Mr Stack] is an incredible witness. He has the neck to do it and fair play to him. I applaud the man," Mr McGahon said.

On his experience of the kangaroo court, Mr McGahon stated: "It was like walking into a Sinn Fein Ard Fheis, there was that many of them around, scattered all around the house, on the stairs, downstairs, upstairs, at the front door, in the room itself."

He revealed that the adjudicator of the kangaroo court "shook hands with us before we left".

The man, according to Mr McGahon, added: "Lads that's dealt with, we already interviewed your perpetrator and he's of no trouble to you anymore... By the way, you have no need to contact the gardai. Trust us, we have dealt with it."

Mr McGahon said during the interview: "Sinn Fein and the IRA are one, they are a cult... They have no respect for the general public."

On watching Mr Adams's statement to the Dail: "Only for I love the TV that I have in my sitting room, I would have kicked the TV in.

"If Gerry Adams was to jump into a slurry pit he'd jump out smelling of roses."
Ruth Hyland takes her dog Millie for a run yesterday on Bertra Beach near Westport, Co Mayo, as Ireland continues to bask in unseasonably warm weather. Photo: Paul Mealey

Green Party leader Eamon Ryan has warned that Ireland needs to ramp up tackling climate change as he pointed out "they are cutting the grass on Leinster lawn in the middle of December".

His remarks come amid something of a winter heatwave as temperatures across the country are forecast to peak at 13C again today. Met Eireann said these temperatures were "higher than usual for the time of the year".

Speaking in the Dail, Mr Ryan told the Government it must "fundamentally change our entire economic model and we need to do it quick" to deal with the threat of climate change.

"It is 25 degrees Celsius above average today in the Arctic," he added.

Mr Ryan suggested Ireland needed a "modern-day TK Whitaker" to take charge of the country's response to the issue.

Dr Whittaker, an acclaimed economist and civil servant, turned 100 yesterday and Mr Ryan wished him a "happy birthday".

He said Ireland needed to move away from fossil fuels and added that energy and transport greenhouse gas emissions were going up by 5pc, when they should be going down by that amount.

He asked Housing Minister Simon Coveney - who was taking leaders' questions - what was stopping the Government "from taking real serious action".

Mr Coveney said ministers were committed to the Paris Agreement on climate change, adding: "The programme for Government is very clear that the Government's ambition is not to fudge the climate change agenda."
A teenager and two other men were arrested after a high-speed pursuit in the Clondalkin area of Dublin last night

A teenager and two other men were arrested after a high-speed pursuit in the Clondalkin area of Dublin last night.

Gardai spotted a vehicle driving dangerously on the Nangor Road at approximately 10:30pm.

The vehicle then failed to stop for gardai when the alarm was raised.

It is believed that air support from the garda helicopter, as well as several garda vehicles were involved in the chase, before the men were apprehended in the Neilstown Road area.

The men arrested were aged 18, 24 and 25-years-of age.
A heartless raider smashed into a charity shop and made off with a safe and the day's takings of 1,500, which were destined to help needy people this Christmas.

Gardai were last night examining CCTV footage in a bid to catch the culprit who broke into the St Vincent de Paul charity shop in Cabra, north Dublin, on Wednesday night.

It is understood the thief made off with around 1,500 in cash.

St Vincent de Paul regional manager Mark O'Brien said the 3,000 damage to the shop plus the loss of earnings couldn't have come at a worse time for the Catholic charity.

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It was also forced to close the shop for half a day.

"The amount of need out there is massive," he said. "Things are pretty bad out there. We're seeing a lot of people still struggling with unemployment and under-employment."

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Whatsapp Damage to the front door of the St Vincent de Paul Shop in Cabra after there robbery. Photo: Kyran O'Brien

Mr O'Brien said the loss of revenue meant "about 40 families will suffer as a result". The cash would otherwise go to help the poor pay for food, clothing, utilities and other basic necessities.

Shop manager Dorcas More O'Ferrall said she was stunned when she arrived to open the store and found the door shutter broken.

After alerting gardai, she entered the store and was horrified to find the till float, petty cash and the office safe had been stolen on one of the shop's busiest days of the year.

"All of the money we made yesterday was gone," she said.

The daily takings would normally be lodged in the bank, but because the shop was so busy with people dropping off donations and buying gifts staff didn't have time to deposit the money, she said.
UNICEF estimates that an average of 353,000 babies are born around the world each day. Here in Ireland, we account for approximately 200 of that daily rate. Women may have given birth since the dawn of time, but while biology is the same the world over, birth customs can vary hugely from country to country...

Finland

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Since the 1930s, expectant mothers have been provided with a box by the Finnish State. The box is filled with (among other things) bodysuits, outdoor gear, a sleeping bag, bathing products, nappies, bedding and toys. Also contained within the box is a small mattress - making the box baby's first bed. The maternity package is designed to give all children in Finland an equal start in life, regardless of their background, and is credited with helping Finland achieve one of the world's lowest infant mortality rates.

Throughout the decades, the contents of the baby box has changed to reflect changing times, including the falling in and out of favour of disposable nappies and the removal of bottles and soothers to promote breastfeeding. The scheme was originally available only to low-income families but that changed in 1949 when the box was made available to all mothers-to-be, as long as they attended medical pre-natal checks. The box thereby not only provided mums with essentials for taking care of their babies, but steered them towards medical care and away from a previously very high infant mortality rate. Even today, 95pc of expectant Finnish mothers still opt for the maternity box, in spite of the availability of a cash-grant alternative. The gender-neutral contents make it suitable for either boy or girl. It's no surprise really that Finnish mothers are considered amongst the happiest in the world.

Spain

Anna, originally from Barcelona but living in Ireland with her husband and two children, explains that natural birth is very much promoted in Spain. C-section rates are typically quite low. Mothers and fathers are both expected, if possible, to attend ante-natal classes and significant discussions take place around birth plans. Most births are midwife-led and doctors are only called upon in the event of complications. In keeping with their close-knit family ties, births where all the family are present are on the rise, though Anna adds that this is very much dependent on the birth being categorised as low-risk. The Spanish are generally considered very family-oriented and most of the support that a woman receives after giving birth will come from her family.

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Whatsapp Homebirths are very popular in the Netherlands - they make up approximately 55pc of all births planned.

Veering away from the traditional, a more unusual and probably lesser-known ritual which takes place in Northern Spain, involves the placing of babies on a mattress for El Salto del Colacho (meaning the 'Devil's Jump'). During this ritual, a person dressed as El Colacho (the Devil) jumps over the babies to cleanse their souls.

Gambia and Senegal

Midwife Montserrat, who spent time in both Gambia and Senegal, was initially very surprised when she saw the reactions of new mothers in both countries to their newborn babies. Montserrat discovered that the behaviour and custom came about as a result of a high infant mortality rate. Typically, in Gambia and Senegal, women gave birth either at home or in poorly-equipped hospitals, and conditions largely led to the high mortality rate. It became customary for the women to turn their heads away from the baby once the child was born. Superstition led them to believe that they could fool the 'gods' into thinking that the child was not important and so the gods would let the child live. The women feared the baby would be taken away if they appeared too happy.

Poland

Expand Close Typically, in Gambia and Senegal, women gave birth either at home or in poorly-equipped hospitals, and conditions largely led to the high mortality rate. / Facebook

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Whatsapp Typically, in Gambia and Senegal, women gave birth either at home or in poorly-equipped hospitals, and conditions largely led to the high mortality rate.

Marta, who is from Poland originally but now lives in Ireland with her husband and their four children, says that pregnancy is much more medically managed in Poland, with more frequent hospital visits and many more scans - to a point that Marta believes is almost excessive. C-section rates are very high while breastfeeding rates and levels of support are one of the most obvious differences Marta sees between the two countries. Bottle-feeding is very unusual in Poland and Polish women who are struggling with breastfeeding, or may need to stop for medical reasons, will usually persist until every option has been exhausted.

Lactation consultants are more readily accessible in Polish hospitals, something which Marta found was very different in her experience of Irish maternity hospitals. One notable difference Marta found during childbirth in Ireland was the flexibility around birthing positions. Polish women typically give birth in "gynaecological birthing chairs" and are discouraged from considering any other positions. While provisions for paid maternity leave in Poland are in excess of Ireland's 26 weeks, a lack of job security makes it difficult to avail of the full entitlement.

Asia

Many parts of Asia, including Malaysia, China and Singapore, practice "confinement" for 30 days after giving birth. Mum of two Cindy, from Malaysia, lives in Hong Kong and explains that the older generation believed that after giving birth, a woman's pores were open, so it was important not to catch a cold which could lead to swelling, arthritis or rheumatism in later life. While the stringent practice of not showering or washing one's hair during the period of confinement is largely a thing of the past, a new mum is confined to the house wearing long trousers and slippers for a month after giving birth. Some women hire a confinement lady to stay with them for the month. The confinement ladies prepare food for the mothers (according to the Chinese, certain foods and drinks are forbidden, such as cold water and fruits). They also clean and take care of the new baby so that the new mother can rest and recover.

The Netherlands

Homebirths are very popular in the Netherlands - they make up approximately 55pc of all births planned. Births in Holland are generally midwife-led and most women will not see a gynaecologist during their pregnancy. Mothers who opt for a hospital birth are unlikely to receive an epidural as they are only given one if it's convenient to the anaesthesiologist's schedule. A huge benefit to all mothers is the Dutch 'Kraamzorg' maternity home care system. This service is available to all mums, irrespective of whether they have had a hospital or home birth. A professional maternity nurse calls to the home of the new mum for eight to 10 days, helping her with breastfeeding, bathing and caring for the baby. The nurse also helps to take care of other children, as well as prepare meals and perform light housekeeping.

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Germany

Elke is a mother of two from Germany. She explains that there are many options available to an expectant mother, depending on her preference. A midwife is assigned to a mum at the beginning of her pregnancy and midwife-led units called 'birth houses' are available to low-risk mums. In labour, homeopathic pain relief options are available to mothers who don't want medical pain killers.

Elke says that Once your baby is born and you are at home, the midwife who was assigned to you at the beginning of the pregnancy calls to see you once a day for five days. Following that, she calls every second or third day and eventually just once a week. She will treat any birth injuries and provide creams or ointments at no cost to the new mother. Baby is also checked at every visit and the midwife helps mum to learn all the new skills required to take care of baby. This midwife is available to you for six months, whenever you need help or support.

France

And finally to the country where women are pregnant that little bit longer. Deirdre from Ireland lives in France with her husband and three children. She explains that a pregnancy is deemed 41 weeks long in France - because they count from the first day of supposed conception. Toxoplasmosis is a big fear for pregnant women, Deirdre adds, largely because of the rare manner in which they tend to eat their meat. Hospital stays are also longer, with women typically staying in for almost a week after the birth of their baby. Breastfeeding rates, while rising, are still lower than many of their European counterparts and those who do it tend not to breastfeed for very long.

Family and mothers-in-law are generally the main source of support and a lot of emphasis is put on the importance of the parents' relationship. Deirdre found she was actively encouraged to put baby in her own room once she turned one month old. She also finds that there is a lot of pressure on women to regain their figure but, on a very positive note, every woman in France, after childbirth, is entitled to a series of physiotherapy sessions to aid with pelvic floor recovery.
Proper planning and the occasional 'escape route' will help you keep your cool during the Christmastime chaos.

"It's the most wonderful time of the year...

With the kids jingle belling

And everyone telling you, 'Be of good cheer'

It's the most wonderful time of the year"

So go the lyrics of the first verse of the Andy Williams classic, and while for so many it is the "most wonderful time of the year", for others it can be the most stressful period too. With demands on your time, wallet and patience, it's easy to get lost in the stress of the festive season.

With presents to find and wrap, food to prepare and plans to organise, many people find themselves feeling the strain as Christmas fast approaches. I personally think that the festive pressure really starts to mount from the beginning of December. Relatives come to stay, work parties loom, as do the pantomimes, the visits to see Santa, the 'must have' gifts, as well as what seems like the endless list of things to do for the big day itself.

All this combined with some late nights, rich food and perhaps a few tipples more than you'd normally have, means that we tend to burn the candle at both ends, making the Christmas stress even worse.

So what can you do to cut down on all that stress?

Plan ahead

Start making a list of things you need to do for Christmas this week.

Buying presents

When you care about those closest to you, it is not unusual to want to buy them something special. Sometimes you may feel the pressure to buy something that is outside your price range. Try to remember that presents don't represent what you feel for someone. Don't go into debt. It's so easy to overspend at Christmas. It is a good idea to stick to what you can afford.

Shop online

While shopping locally has many advantages (and it's always good to support those small local businesses), high streets and big shopping centres just before Christmas can be mayhem. And with hundreds of other stressed people breathing all that same air, online shopping might be a good alternative. You can shop day or night at a time that works for you from the comfort of your own home. You'll not only save time and be less stressed, but will probably save money too, as there are less distractions on the way to the massive queues at the tills.

Christmas cards

It's still a tradition in Ireland to send and receive lots of cards so start now, if you can, and write a few cards each night after the kids have gone to bed. Then post them altogether when you have them completed, but don't forget to ask your post office about the last day for international post. Last year I had the sense to type and print my labels. I saved the file and now all I have to do is hit the print button.

The day itself

Christmas day can often mean a full house. It may just be your immediate family; however, it is not unusual to have grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins all under the one roof for Christmas. This means lots of different demands and personalities to get a handle on.

It is a good idea to remember to try and respect people's space and, if things are getting on top of you, try to take some time out. Pop out for a quick walk or listen to some Christmas carols as you prepare dinner, or take a few moments after dinner to chill in a quiet place (you'll likely find me hiding in the toilet!).

It's a good idea to have some pre-planned excuses to escape from proceedings if they get too stressful. Be imaginative and use things such as leaving the room to make a phone call or perhaps checking on a neighbour. Having a couple of escape routes in the bag will reduce stress and allow you to leave a 'situation', even for a few minutes. It will help clear your mind and relax you.

Most important are the kids

Creating some Christmas magic for your children needs to take priority We have a saying in our family: 'Christmas is all about the kids'. But the reality is that children can get totally stressed out too by all the rushing around.

So vow to send your own stress on a holiday for their sake, as well as yours.

Try to slow down and lower your expectations as far as the Christmas celebrations go. You and your kids will enjoy your Christmas much more if you are calm and relaxed about the whole thing.

Spend meaningful time together

Call a halt to the preparations and go to see a Christmas film or go for a special meal/treat with your children. Even something as simple as a walk in the park is a peaceful retreat from the Christmastime chaos.

Help your kids see past the presents

Many children get stressed by the materialism of the Christmas season. Talk to them about your own family's cultural (or religious) traditions by chatting to them for a few minutes each day. Kids love to hear about the 'olden days' and nostalgia is good for the soul for you too. It will help young children see beyond the materialism and zone in on the more traditional side of Christmas.

Involve your children

It's easy for the kids to feel left out as you panic, running around like a headless turkey trying to get everything ready on time. Get them involved and give them a sense of purpose within all the festivities by writing up a special 'to do' list for them. Make it fun though: not just jobs! They'll quickly cop on to that.

Don't neglect routine

As far as possible, stick to the mealtimes and bedtimes your kids are used to. Babies and toddlers especially find great comfort in routine and they'll be reassured by knowing that some things continue to stay normal, even amidst the chaos. It will also give you a break in the evening/during naptime, which is so important for you too.

Get physical

Make sure there's some physical activity in the mix for all the family: exercise promotes the release of endorphins, which help relieve stress and tension. The fresh air will do you all the world of good - and the hot chocolate you make when you get home tastes all the nicer.

Remember to have fun

Remember it's your Christmas too so try to relax and have fun, laugh and be merry. If you find others around you difficult, then try to rise above it. If things don't go exactly according to plan, try not to stress. Instead, laugh about them and make them into fun memories that you can talk about during Christmases to come. Just think that your kids can recant in the future the tale of "that time mum set fire to the turkey!"

Have a great, stress-free Christmas break.

Olivia Willis is the co-founder of Irish family lifestyle website familyfriendlyhq.ie, which has information for parents, things to do, daily articles, reviews, competitions and expert family advice.

Top tips for a cracking family Christmas

If you have a full house this Christmas, dont waste time on personal issues: Let bygones be bygones. Christmas is not about opening up old wounds.

Dont hurdle yourself into DIY crafting projects unless you have the time and the resources. If homemade was your wish for this year and its not working out, surrender, outsource it/buy it and make it a goal for next year. Dont beat yourself up. Its likely that nobody will even notice.

Stick to recipes that you are confident with and good at. Now is not the time to be experimenting, especially if you are feeding the hordes.

Book a delivery slot early with a supermarket that delivers on Christmas Eve, and order your groceries online. Be sure to do this early, as those slots fill up quick.

Limit all the commitments. Try to spend more time at home, instead of packing in all that catching up with everyone prior to Christmas. Instead, schedule a catch up in the New Year when cabin fever will have set in. Youll enjoy it all the more as January can be such an anti-climax and its super to have something in the diary for after all the Christmas crazy.

Do not overestimate how much you can achieve on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Many recipes can, at least in some part, be made ahead of time and frozen thus reducing tasks in the immediate run-up to Christmas Day.

Delegate the responsibility for certain jobs to other family members since this will reduce your workload. Keep your list for next year. Itll need the odd tweak but will give you reminders of the sorts of things you need to think about.

Know when to stop! Decide when you will stop your Christmas preparations and start to relax and enjoy yourself. Work towards and try to stick to this goal. Remember that Christmas is mums holiday too.
Details added (first version posted on 14:48)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 9

By Elmira Tariverdiyeva  Trend:

The format of the OSCE Minsk Group has full consistency regarding the continuation of efforts to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict on the basis of previously agreed principles, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

He made the remarks Dec.9 at a press conference in Hamburg following the Dec. 8 meeting of the OSCE Ministerial Council, the website of the Russian Foreign Ministry reported.

Earlier, heads of delegation of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair countries published a statement regarding the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict following the 23rd meeting of the OSCE Ministerial Council in Hamburg Dec. 8.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, US Secretary of State John Kerry, and French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault remain fully committed to a negotiated settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, according to the statement.

"The Co-Chair countries are prepared to host a meeting of the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan when they are ready," the statement said. "Continuous and direct dialogue between the presidents, conducted under the auspices of the Co-Chairs, remains an essential element in building confidence and moving the peace process forward."

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.
(L-R) Joan Smalls, Kendall Jenner, Gigi Hadid and Adriana Lima poses backstage during the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show on November 30, 2016 in Paris, France. (Photo by Dominique Charriau/Getty Images for Victoria's Secret)

Gigi Hadid and Bella Hadid pose backstage prior to the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show on November 30, 2016 in Paris, France. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images for Victoria's Secret)

Canadian singer/songwriter The Abel Tesfaye a.k.a The Weeknd (L) cheer alongside Victoria's Secret Angels US model Martha Hunt, Portuguese model Sara Sampaio, Brazilian model Lais Ribeiro, US model Gigi Hadid, US model Kendall Jenner, Chinese model Liu Wen, Chinese model Sui He, Brazilian model Izabel Goulart and Chinese model Ming Xi during the 2016 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show at the Grand Palais in Paris

For the past couple of weeks, it's likely you've been seeing pictures of nubile young women in their underwear with bouncy hair floating around the internet. That's because every December, we're treated to (or is it that we must endure?) the Victoria's Secret "fashion show". I've put that title in inverted commas because, let's face it, this pop culture phenomenon isn't really about showing off the latest in underwear trends. No, it's more an excuse for ladies and gents alike to gawk at the most popular models of the moment in their scanties, and develop crushes, aspirations, and let's face it, insecurities.

Last week, the Victoria's Secret posse took to the runway in Paris to model the brand's knickers, bras and sleepwear, as well as cumbersome angel wings that money actually can't buy. It was typically over the top, featuring some outfits that no woman in her right mind could or would wear, even in the bedroom.

It was, as always, a procession of stunning doe-eyed women with legs for days, groomed to perfection with rock-hard abdominal muscles, and showing as much bikini line as physically possible without it being indecent.

The show was globally televised this week, and featured performances from musical artists Bruno Mars, The Weeknd and Lady Gaga. Much like the 'Toy Show' (ahem), the show has grown from a small segment of Fashion Week into an anticipated event in the calendar. The first few years, it wasn't televised at all, but in 2001 the show moved from its pre-Valentine's slot in February to the beginning of the festive season, and began being broadcast.

Expand Close (L-R) Joan Smalls, Kendall Jenner, Gigi Hadid and Adriana Lima poses backstage during the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show on November 30, 2016 in Paris, France. (Photo by Dominique Charriau/Getty Images for Victoria's Secret) / Facebook

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Whatsapp (L-R) Joan Smalls, Kendall Jenner, Gigi Hadid and Adriana Lima poses backstage during the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show on November 30, 2016 in Paris, France. (Photo by Dominique Charriau/Getty Images for Victoria's Secret)

It takes a big model to earn her Victoria's Secret wings, although of course I mean that in terms of stature. Many of the modern supermodels have walked the gilded runway, particularly those famous for having more curvy and feminine figures than their high-fashion counterparts.

Tyra Banks was one of the first "Angels", followed by Heidi Klum, Alessandra Ambrosio (pictured), Miranda Kerr and Karlie Kloss.

These days, the "Insta-models" take centre stage. Reality TV star Kendall Jenner and the British Fashion Institute's new Model of the Year Gigi Hadid made their debuts in last year's shows, but this year solidified their relationship with the brand by donning wings.

Gigi's younger sister Bella joined the troupe, which also featured Joan Smalls, Elsa Hosk, Lily Aldridge and show veteran Adriana Lima. Being a veteran at the age of 35 is the norm in the world of Vicki's knickers, just so you know.

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In the age of widespread nouveau-feminism, the show is as derided as it is celebrated. Why should we have a prime-time show featuring women in their pants, one that entirely focuses on their outer shell? Is this the male gaze gone wild?

On the other hand, why shouldn't we admire the hard work these women clearly put into their bodies, and since when is it anti-feminist to have body goals, or admire pretty lingerie?

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In all honesty, I'm just kind of over the show. It is what it is, indicative of the world we live in, and the whole point of it is actually to sell underwear to 20-something women; titillating men is simply an added bonus.

But do I wish we were less focused on women's bodies? Absolutely. Do I think that this parade of aesthetics makes many of us feel bad about ourselves? Yes, indeed. Do I think it contributes to young girls feeling that they must look a certain way? Most definitely.

Expand Close Gigi Hadid and Bella Hadid pose backstage prior to the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show on November 30, 2016 in Paris, France. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images for Victoria's Secret) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Gigi Hadid and Bella Hadid pose backstage prior to the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show on November 30, 2016 in Paris, France. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images for Victoria's Secret)

But you could say that about the 'Sports Illustrated' swimsuit edition, about regular fashion shows and photoshoots, about the porn industry, about the awards season red carpets. Victoria's Secret is not to blame for our fascination with the female form, it's simply grown in tandem with interest in it.

I don't envy the Angels their punishing workout regimes or the pressure to be thin enough to walk a runway like that with confidence. This year, many seemed thinner than ever, particularly Gigi, a super-slim girl that in the past has spoken out about being body-shamed in the modelling industry.

Model Irina Shayk is said to be pregnant with her first baby, and she was one of the more covered-up models on the night, because a bump is so not on brand.

If the show is not going to go away (and it's not, it's a money-maker), then may it at least be more inclusive? Fuller-figured models like Ashley Graham have been on magazine covers all over the world, so why not on a lingerie runway? Her figure is far more representative of the majority of women.

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So perhaps the VS head honchos should look at adding more women of Graham's ilk to its bevy of incredibly slender beauties. Just a suggestion.
Hundreds of African migrants living illegally in Morocco try to enter Ceuta and Melilla each year

Some 400 migrants from Africa have stormed a border fence to enter Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta from Morocco, the Spanish interior ministry said.

Two police officers and three migrants suffered cuts and bruises in the early morning crossing, a ministry official in the city said.

Hundreds of African migrants living illegally in Morocco try to enter Ceuta and Spain's other North African enclave city of Melilla each year, hoping to reach a better life in Europe.

Most are intercepted on the spot and returned to Morocco.

Those that make it across the six-metre (20ft) high border fences head for temporary migrant accommodation centres.

They are eventually repatriated or let go.

AP
Judge Reinhold is best remembered for roles in 1980s movies such as as Beverly Hills Cop and Fast Times At Ridgemont High (AP)

Judge Reinhold was arrested after a confrontation with security agents at Dallas Love Field Airport (Dallas County Sheriff's Department/AP)

Actor Judge Reinhold has been arrested on a disorderly conduct charge after a confrontation with security officials at a Texas airport.

Dallas Police Department said the 59-year-old was arrested on Thursday afternoon at Dallas Love Field Airport after Transportation Security Administration employees reported that he refused to submit to a screening at a checkpoint.

Reinhold's lawyer Steve Stodghill said Reinhold cleared security but his bag raised an alarm. He was taken aside by airport security for a pat-down and resisted.

He was taken to Dallas County jail for booking. Disorderly conduct is punishable by a fine of up to 500 dollars.

Reinhold is remembered mainly for roles in 1980s movies such as Beverly Hills Cop and Fast Times At Ridgemont High.

AP
The fire station featured in the 1984 film Ghostbusters is in New York (AP)

A British man flew his girlfriend all the way across the pond to New York City so he could propose to her at the fire station used in the Ghostbusters franchise.

Wearing a hard hat and safety vest, Giles Baugh dropped to one knee at Ladder 8 in Tribeca and asked Melissa Ward to marry him.

Ms Ward, who said she has learned to embrace Mr Baugh's Ghostbusters fandom, happily agreed.

The proposal took several months of planning, The New York Daily News said.

A city employee convinced the FDNY to go along with Mr Baugh's stunt so long as the proper safety precautions were taken.

The 1903 fire station is currently undergoing a 6.5 million dollar (5.1 million) renovation.

Mr Baugh said he can recite his favourite scenes from the 1984 film verbatim.

AP
People react after impeachment vote on South Korean President Park Geun-hye was passed Pic via Reuters

Jubilant South Koreans celebrated with cheers, hugs and selfies on Friday, after lawmakers voted to impeach embattled President Park Geun-hye over an influence-pedalling scandal that had drawn huge crowds to weekly protests demanding she step down.

The impeachment motion, passed by 234 lawmakers with 56 opposed, suspends Park's powers and leaves the Constitutional Court to decide whether to uphold the motion and remove Park from office or reject it and reinstate her.

A large crowd of demonstrators gathered outside parliament in anticipation of the outcome greeted the news with cheers.

"I feel great!" said 54-year-old rice farmer Im Chae-jum. "I thought it was going to pass but, either way, whatever happens in parliament, we'll take Park Geun-hye down with people power.

"The people won!"

Park's approval rating stood at just 5 percent in a poll released earlier on Friday.

Expand Close Protesters celebrate after hearing the President Park Geun-hye's impeachment in front of the National Assembly in Seoul. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Protesters celebrate after hearing the President Park Geun-hye's impeachment in front of the National Assembly in Seoul. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Protesters waved banners and flags as they climbed on a tractor that some farmers had used to block a road outside parliament.

Others took selfies before a large banner reading, "Congratulations on the impeachment of Park Geun-hye; Now let's lock her up."

Several people blew horns or held up signs that read, "Victory for the people!"

Choi Ji-young, the mother of a child who died in the 2014 Sewol ferry tragedy, watched the vote from a gallery in the assembly. She was among a group of victims' relatives, who danced and chanted as they left the building.

"I screamed 'Hooray!'" said Choi. "This'll be a chance to get to the bottom of the disaster and hold Park and her close aides accountable."

The events around the ferry sinking, which killed more than 300 people, mostly schoolchildren, have loomed over Park's presidency.

Expand Close Protesters celebrate after hearing the news of President Park Geun-hye's impeachment in front of the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea. (Photo: AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Protesters celebrate after hearing the news of President Park Geun-hye's impeachment in front of the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea. (Photo: AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Protesters have staged massive demonstrations in central Seoul every Saturday for the last six weeks of the political crisis that rocked Park's presidency.

The protests have remained festive and peaceful, centred on large, candle-lit rallies that have drawn up to a million people, by some estimates. Another was planned for Saturday.

Park, 64, is accused of colluding with a friend and a former aide, both of whom have been indicted by prosecutors, to pressure big businesses to donate to two foundations set up to back her policy initiatives.

"Now I feel good," said Choi, holding a red rose wrapped in a yellow ribbon, a symbol of the protests against Park. "She should go to jail."
Explosives experts look for evidence at the site of a bomb explosion in Cairo, Egypt (AP)

A bombing on a main road in Cairo leading to the Giza pyramids has killed six police officers and wounded another three.

It is the deadliest attack on security forces in the Egyptian capital in more than six months.

The bombing, near a mosque on a wide avenue often used by tour buses, hit a police checkpoint, smashing several cars and blowing the windows out of police SUVs.

Gravel, debris and leaves littered the ground as investigators inspected the area and masked troops stood guard with automatic weapons.

"We heard the blast and rushed to the scene and found police vehicles damaged," said Abdel Hamid Abdulla, who was nearby.

"We saw some police were injured, and some of their legs had been cut off," he said.

State-run news agency MENA said the blast targeted security forces but did not elaborate on what caused the explosion.

A security official said that two bombs placed in the area exploded during a security patrol.

A shadowy group called Hasm, or Decisiveness, which the government suspects is linked to the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood, claimed to be behind the attack.

It has claimed previous attacks in Cairo, including a shooting targeting the country's former chief Muslim theologian and a car bomb targeting the chief prosecutor's deputy. Both escaped unhurt.

"There is no safety or security for you as long as we hold our weapons in jihad for God, there is either victory or martyrdom," the group said in a statement posted online.

Insurgents have carried out a number of attacks in Egypt since the 2013 military removal of an elected Islamist president.

The violence has been concentrated in the northern Sinai Peninsula, where Islamic State-linked militants are battling the army.

Friday's attack was the deadliest in Cairo since May, when gunmen opened fire on a microbus filled with plain clothes police in the suburb of Helwan, killing eight of them. IS claimed the attack.

Most of the attacks in Cairo have been small-scale bombings, including one in October that targeted a police convoy and killed a pedestrian bystander.

Friday's attack comes as President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi defends tough economic measures undertaken by his government to address a growing financial crisis and secure a large loan from the International Monetary Fund.

The government floated the Egyptian pound last month and slashed fuel subsidies, steps that were welcomed by the IMF and the business community but caused a spike in the price of many goods, worsening the economic plight of ordinary Egyptians.

The austerity measures could fuel a backlash against Mr el-Sissi, who rose to power after leading the military removal of President Mohammed Morsi three years ago.

Mr Morsi had been freely elected a year earlier, but his rule proved divisive and the military stepped in amid massive protests demanding his resignation.

AP
Former US astronaut Buzz Aldrin has been discharged from hospital in New Zealand after being evacuated from the South Pole for medical reasons.

Aldrin's manager, Christina Korp, posted a photo on Twitter showing him relaxing and smiling on a plane with the message "Bye Bye New Zealand! Hope to see you again! (But next time for vacation and not evacuation)."

The 86-year-old, who was the second man to walk on the Moon, said earlier he was eager to return to his home in Satellite Beach, Florida, to spend Christmas with his family.

The adventurer was evacuated from Antarctica last week after becoming short of breath and showing signs of altitude sickness.

He was flown from the South Pole to McMurdo Station, a US research centre on the Antarctic coast, and then on to Christchurch, where he was admitted to hospital.

Aldrin said in a statement last Saturday that he had some congestion in his lungs and had been advised to rest in New Zealand until it cleared up and to avoid the long flight back to the US until he was ready.

He appeared to be in good spirits during his time convalescing. His doctor was named David Bowie, the namesake of the late singer who was obsessed with space.

"You can't make this stuff up," Ms Korp wrote on Twitter. Aldrin posted a photo of the doctor flanked by Ms Korp and his daughter Jan, both wearing T-shirts saying "Get your ass to Mars".

While in hospital, Aldrin was visited by Nasa deputy administrator Dava Newman. And Ms Korp noted that Aldrin had been "Resting but flirting with all the nurses!"

Earlier on Friday, Aldrin posted a tribute to former astronaut and senator John Glenn, who died on Thursday aged 95.

"As I sit in hospital and just heard that my friend John Glenn has passed away, I feel fortunate to be recovering from my own illness, but saddened that we lost another space pioneer and world icon," Aldrin wrote on his website.

AP
Details added (first version posted on 17:03)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 9

By Seba Aghayeva  Trend:

The OSCE Minsk Group (MG) co-chairing countries should take the necessary measures to ensure Armenias participation in the negotiations on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement, Hikmat Hajiyev, spokesman of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, told Trend Dec. 9.

The latest statement of the OSCE MG co-chairing countries reaffirms that the current situation is unacceptable and dangerous, and can lead to an escalation at any time, said Hajiyev, commenting on the statement made Dec. 8 by the OSCE MG co-chairs.

Earlier, heads of delegations of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing countries published a statement regarding the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict following the 23rd meeting of the OSCE Ministerial Council in Hamburg Dec. 8.

Russias Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, US Secretary of State John Kerry and French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault remain fully committed to a negotiated settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, said the statement.

Co-chair countries are prepared to host a meeting of the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia when they are ready, the statement said.

Continuous and direct dialogue between the presidents, conducted under the auspices of the co-chairs, remains an essential element in building confidence and moving the peace process forward, according to the statement.

Hajiyev noted that the statement also lists the steps that must be taken for a gradual settlement of the conflict and withdrawal of Armenians from the territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh, ensuring the return of IDPs to their native lands.

Azerbaijan has repeatedly stated that the presence of Armenian Armed Forces in the occupied Azerbaijani territories is the main cause of tensions in the conflict zone, and it prevents the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict from being settled, Hajiyev said.

Escalation of the situation on the contact line of Armenian and Azerbaijani troops in early April with the instigations and provocations by Armenia once again demonstrated the inadmissibility of preserving the status quo, he noted.

Entire international community, particularly the OSCE MG co-chair countries, has repeatedly stated the inadmissibility and the instability of the status quo, Hajiyev said. Withdrawal of the Armenian Armed Forces from the occupied Azerbaijani territories may become the first step in changing the status quo.

Hajiyev went on to add that Azerbaijan appreciates the highest level meetings in Vienna and St. Petersburg as positive steps towards substantive negotiations.

Armenia puts forward conditions, avoids meetings, undermines the agreements reached in Vienna and St. Petersburg, causes escalation on the frontline and openly conducts a policy to undermine the peace process in order to avoid substantive talks, Hajiyev said.

The attempts of Armenia to consolidate its military presence in Azerbaijans occupied territories, to illegally change the demographic and cultural character of these areas demonstrate the true purpose of that country, Hajiyev added.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @Asebaa
A schoolgirl sparked alarm when she got onto live Tube tracks in the UK.

Union leaders have stepped up demands for job cuts on London Underground (LU) to be reversed after a member of the public raised the alarm when the girl got onto the tracks.

The Rail, Maritime and Transport union said the incident at Latimer Road in west London highlighted the threat to safety caused by leaving stations unstaffed.

A passenger called LU on a mobile phone when the girl was spotted on the tracks while other travellers looked on in amazement.

The incident took place at the station which is on the Hammersmith and City Line.

RMT general secretary Mick Cash said: "RMT warned Tube bosses again and again that the job cuts they were proposing would leave many stations unstaffed.

"This is exactly what happened at Latimer Road where it took a passenger with a mobile phone to let London Underground know that a schoolchild has been wandering across electrified track while trains run."

Members of the RMT and the Transport Salaried Staffs' Association are currently refusing to work overtime as part of industrial action over job cuts and the closure of ticket offices.

Mr Cash said: "London's Tube stations have been operating on the basis of our members' goodwill. Now that our members are refusing to work six day weeks and additional hours the system is collapsing."

The unions said LU was now advertising for "travel ambassadors" at up to three times the rate for a shift that would be paid to a station assistant.

A memo from LU said services and stations were busier than usual because of "exceptional circumstances", offering payments of between 160 and 250 a shift.

TSSA general secretary Manuel Cortes said: "We are glad to see TfL (Transport for London) finally concede publicly that we need more staff helping customers on the Tube. But this ambassador recruitment programme is nothing more than a sly and underhand tactic to undermine staff's refusal to work overtime - an action they overwhelmingly voted for to underline their concern that the Tube is not being run properly or safely.

"There is nothing unforeseen about the current circumstances. TfL sacked too many people back in April when they closed ticket offices and our members have become worn out by the overtime they are working to keep stations open.

"Getting more staff back helping customers at stations and monitoring safety is at the heart of our dispute."
The UK RSPCA is investigating an incident at a hotel in Wales following claims that a cat was killed on the premises.

Officers from the animal protection organisation spoke with hotel staff on Saturday, after rumours spread online that the feral animal had been beaten to death with a rolling pin.

Hotel manager Glen Evans expressly denied this, telling the Daily Post that staff had spent eight hours trying to capture the animal: I can confirm the cat was not killed by a rolling pin, which has been said on social media," he said.

The cat wasnt a kitten. It was a young cat and had been hanging around for a couple of days and probably got into the hotel premises because it has been very cold recently.

The staff dealt with an unexpected situation which represented a significant health and safety hazard."

The hotel was been inundated with angry posts on social media, with many describing the killing of the cat as "disgusting" and "inhumane".

A statement on the hotel's Facebook page, which has since been removed, said: "The Royal Oak Hotel is able to confirm that RSPCA attended its premises on Saturday, December 3, following public concerns over an alleged incident with a feral cat.

The staff involved believed they had dealt with an unforeseen set of circumstances in a prompt and lawful manner in order to protect the health and wellbeing of others.

It was with regret that the feral cat was humanely euthanised as lawfully provided for when dealing with any animal legally classified as vermin.

Having reflected upon their actions, the staff involved understand why such an incident will upset people as the destruction of any animal is regrettable no matter what the circumstances.

We have cooperated fully with the RSPCA and provided them with an open and full account of events as they transpired.

They have conducted face to face interview with relevant senior management.

To date, we have received no complaint or indication that any unlawful act took place on company premises.

We will take swift and appropriate action should this change.

A spokesman for the RSPCA said: We can confirm that we are investigating reports about the death of a cat in the Betws y Coed area.

This is an ongoing investigation, and we cannot comment further at this time.

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
Four-month-old Archie Joe Darby and his 22-month-old brother Daniel. Archie died when their family dog attacked him. (Photo: Provided by family/PA Wire)

A four-month-old baby who was snatched from his mother's arms by the family dog and savaged died as the result of an accident, an inquest conclude

Mother-of-two Jade Rogers was with her two young sons when the Staffordshire bull terrier-type dog, called Bailey, entered the room and attacked, a hearing at Essex Coroner's Court in Chelmsford was told.

Baby Archie Joe Darby died after he was bitten by the animal at the house in Harwich Road, Colchester, on October 13.

Miss Rogers managed to save her other son Daniel-Jay, who was 22 months old at the time, and Essex coroner Eleanor McGann praised her for her "bravery" in fighting off the aggressive animal.

Detective Inspector Gary Biddle, senior investigating officer, said the boys' mother barricaded the dog in the conservatory and had to hold the door shut to prevent it from continuing to attack her children.

"Jade called the ambulance service and did a heroic job removing the dog from the house to a conservatory area," he said. "Because of the behaviour of the dog, being very aggressive at the time, Jade barricaded herself against the door to stop the dog getting back into the house.

"She could not leave the door and let the ambulance service in.

"Fortunately police attended very quickly. They shouted through the letter box to understand why she couldn't get to the door and she shouted out why.

"We were left with no option but to force entry.

"They saw Archie lying on the floor face down with significant injuries and Daniel sitting on the sofa with significant head injuries in a very upset state.

"The children were removed to Colchester General Hospital."

Archie was pronounced dead at 4.02pm.

Police called specialist dog handlers to remove the dog and it took several officers to achieve this.

"We had to use specialist equipment to do that because of his continued aggressive behaviour," said Mr Biddle. "It never stopped for the whole time until it was put to sleep."

In a statement given to police, Miss Rogers said she was alone in the house with her two children at the time of the attack.

She had moved into the house, which belonged to her sister Clare Ferdinand and her sister's husband John Ferdinand, the week before, and Mr Ferdinand had left the address around an hour before the attack.

Mr Biddle said: "Jade was in the living room with her two children. She had Archie in her arms. She was on the phone to Dan [her partner]. They were 'facetiming' each other."

Read More

He said the dog entered the living room while Miss Rogers was on the phone.

"It growled and immediately attacked Daniel," Mr Biddle said. "Jade went to get up and tried to move the dog out of the room.

"It went straight for Daniel's head, started biting and shaking his head while she had Archie in her arms.

"She tried to pull the dog off Daniel. It dropped Daniel and pulled Archie out of her arms.

"It then shook Archie around the room then dropped him.

"Jade said she knew instantly that Archie was dead. She decided to save Daniel, thought 'I can save Daniel', ran into the kitchen with him, grabbed the phone and dialled 999.

"The dog was still having a go at Daniel, grabbed him off the kitchen counter.

"On the 999 call you can hear him attacking Daniel and you can hear Jade shouting and screaming, trying to get the dog off."

The inquest heard that the dog belonged to Mr and Mrs Ferdinand and they had been his owners for around four years.

Read More

They got Bailey from a dog rescue centre and no previous concerns had been raised about his behaviour.

Mr Biddle said officers traced a previous owner of the animal to find out why they had returned him.

"She [the previous owner] had a little Jack Russell dog that used to attack Bailey and injure him, so she felt it was unfair to keep Bailey," said Mr Biddle.

A post-mortem examination on Bailey concluded that the dog was healthy and well-kept.

Police took advice from the Crown Prosecution Service and were satisfied no offences had been committed, he said.
Gillian Ewing who was one of the six people killed when a bin lorry lost control, hitting Christmas shoppers in Glasgow. (Photo: Police Scotland/PA Wire)

Jacqueline Morton who was one of the six people killed when a bin lorry lost control, hitting Christmas shoppers in Glasgow. (Photo: HMRC/PA Wire)

The scene in Glasgow's George Square after a bin lorry crashed into a group of pedestrians which has left six people dead. (Photo: Andrew Milligan/PA Wire)

Stephenie Tait who was one of the six people killed when a bin lorry lost control, hitting Christmas shoppers in Glasgow. (Photo: Police Scotland/PA Wire)

Jack Sweeney who was one of the six people killed when a bin lorry lost control, hitting Christmas shoppers in Glasgow. (Photo: Police Scotland/PA Wire)

The scene in Glasgow's George Square after a bin lorry crashed into a group of pedestrians which has left six people dead. (Photo: Andrew Milligan/PA Wire)

Lorraine Sweeney (left) and her granddaughter Erin McQuade (right) who were two of the six people killed when a bin lorry lost control, hitting Christmas shoppers in Glasgow. (Photo: Police Scotland/PA Wire)

Harry Clarke, o was driving a bin lorry when it crashed killing six people. (Photo: Andrew Milligan/PA Wire)

A family's bid to have lorry driver who blacked out behind the wheel privately prosecuted has been rejected.

A court bid to bring a rare private prosecution against Glasgow bin lorry crash driver Harry Clarke has been rejected by senior judges.

The family of three crash victims took their case for the 59-year-old to be put on trial to the Appeal Court in Edinburgh earlier this year.

The unusual legal move followed a controversial Crown Office decision not to prosecute Mr Clarke, who had blacked out behind the wheel on the day of the fatal crash in December 2014.

Judges Lady Dorrian, Lord Menzies and Lord Drummond Young had been considering the Bill for Criminal Letters since hearing final arguments in the case in October and ruled on Friday the family cannot pursue a private prosecution of Mr Clarke.

The court also rejected a similar plea for a private prosecution of motorist William Payne, lodged by the families of students Mhairi Convy and Laura Stewart, who were knocked down and killed in Glasgow in 2010.

Read More

Mr Clarke was driving the bin lorry when it went out of control in Queen Street on December 22 2014, killing six people in total.

Relatives of crash victims Jack and Lorraine Sweeney, aged 68 and 69, and their granddaughter Erin McQuade, 18, brought the private prosecution attempt to court.

Stephenie Tait, 29, Jacqueline Morton, 51, and Gillian Ewing, 52, also died in the collision.

A fatal accident inquiry (FAI) last year heard Mr Clarke lost consciousness at the wheel and he had a history of health issues - including a previous blackout in 2010 when at the wheel of a stationary bus - but had not disclosed his medical background to his employers or the DVLA.

The Crown Office insisted there was insufficient evidence in law to raise criminal proceedings against Mr Clarke but the families of the victims disagreed.

In the separate case, Ms Convy, 18, and Ms Stewart, 20, were walking in Glasgow's North Hanover Street on December 17 2010 when a Range Rover apparently lost control, mounted the kerb and hit them.

An FAI found the crash happened after Mr Payne suffered a ''vasovagal episode'' and temporarily lost consciousness.

He was initially accused of causing the deaths of the students but the charges against him were dropped in November 2013.

The three judges heard detailed arguments in September and October from the families and from the Crown, who did not support either private prosecution bid.

In a brief hearing, judge Lady Dorrian told the court the Bills would be refused in either case.

There was audible sobbing from a member of the public gallery as the decision was given.

During the earlier hearings, which could not be reported at the time, Lord Advocate James Wolffe QC argued there was "not sufficient evidence to support prosecution" in either case.

It is important that prosecutors can take decisions independently - and must be free to take unpopular decisions, he argued.

John Scott QC, representing Mr Clarke, said the prosecution bid wanted to rely on the sheriff's FAI conclusions but that the determination of the sheriff was not admissible in evidence.

The solicitor advocate also said other parties have started considering private proceedings in other cases and to grant this one could "open the floodgates".

Gordon Jackson QC, for Mr Payne, said the Crown had made the correct decision on the evidence.

He argued the whole purpose of FAIs could be undermined by the threat of private prosecutions, with no-one wanting to give evidence over fears they could later face charges.

The sheriff who oversaw the bin lorry FAI ruled the accident might have been prevented if Mr Clarke had "told the truth" about his history of blackouts.

Sheriff John Beckett QC found Mr Clarke "repeatedly lied in order to gain and retain jobs and licences", and "deliberately concealed relevant information from the DVLA".
Three boys have been charged with murdering a teenager outside a takeaway.

Two 14-year-olds and a 15-year-old were charged over the death of Hussein Ahmed, 19, who was stabbed to death in Harrow, west London.

The boys, who cannot be named because of their age, will appear in custody at Willesden Youth Court on Friday.

They are also charged with GBH wounding with intent and attempted GBH wounding with intent.

Mr Ahmed, from Edgware, north London, died after being knifed outside the Kebabish takeaway on Northolt Road, Harrow, at 5.10pm on Friday November 18.

A 17-year-old boy and a 23-year-old man were also arrested in connection with the murder probe. They were re-bailed to a date in mid-January after answering bail.

A 16-year-old boy also arrested in connection with the investigation remains on bail to a date later this month.
MPs were reduced to tears yesterday as they listened in silence while a colleague revealed she was raped as a 14-year-old girl.

Michelle Thomson, the independent MP for Edinburgh West, said she felt "ashamed" after a man she knew took her into the woods and assaulted her as he walked her home from a youth event.

Speaking in a debate about eliminating violence against women, Ms Thomson told the House of Commons: "I'm not a victim, I'm a survivor."

She revealed she hadn't told her parents and that despite being happily married for 25 years, the rape had "fatally undermined" her self-esteem.

Ms Thomson (51) said the attack had been "mercifully quick" but added that it had left her feeling "spoiled and impure and felt revulsion toward myself".

She told MPs: "When I was 14 I was raped. As is common, it was by somebody who was known to me.

"He had offered to walk me home from a youth event and in those days everybody walked everywhere, it was quite common to do that.

"It was early evening, it wasn't dark. I was wearing - I'm imagining, I'm guessing - jeans and a sweatshirt.

"He told me he wanted to show me something in a wooded area and at that point, I must admit, I was alarmed. I did have a warning bell - but I overrode that warning bell because I knew him.

"To be honest, looking back, at that point I don't think I knew what rape was. It was not something that was talked about."

Ms Thomson said her senses were "absolutely numbed", telling MPs: "Thinking about it now, 37 years later, I cannot remember hearing anything when I replay it in my mind."

She added: "It was mercifully quick and I remember first of all feeling surprise, then fear, then horror as I realised I quite simply couldn't escape - because he was stronger than me, and there was no sense even initially of any sexual desire from him, which I suppose, looking back, again I find odd."

After the incident she said she didn't tell her parents, her friends or the police. "I bottled it all up inside me," she said.

"I hoped, briefly and appallingly, that I might be pregnant so that would force a situation to help me control it."

Ms Thomson said she felt "ashamed" that she had "allowed this to happen to me".

She added: "I felt I was spoiled and impure and really felt revulsion toward myself. I, of course, then detached from the child up to then I had been.

"Although, in reality, at the age of 14 it was probably the start of my sexual awakening. At that time, remembering back, sex was something that men did to women and perhaps this incident reinforced that early belief." ( Daily Telegraph, London)
Sarah Ferguson and Prince Andrews two daughters, Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice. Photo by Charlie Crowhurst/Getty Images for Ascot Racecourse

Prince Andrew has said there is "no truth" in rumours of a rift between him and the Prince Charles over his daughters' participation as members of the royal family.

Making a rare public statement, Andrew posted a link on Twitter in response to recent rumours regarding Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice.

He said: "It is a complete fabrication to suggest I have asked for any future husbands of the Princesses to have titles.

"There is no truth to the story that there could be a split between The Prince of Wales and I over my daughters' participation as members of the Royal Family and any continued speculation is pointless."

Andrew's response came after reports claimed he would seek to persuade the Queen or Charles to make any future son-in-laws earls.

His statement added that as a father, he wishes for his daughters to be "modern working young women" who happen to be members of the Royal Family.

He continued: "When they do support the Royal Family in its work, this is very much appreciated by my family and most importantly by those organisations and to those for whom their participation makes such a difference to their lives.

"Whilst I appreciate, as granddaughters of the Queen, there is considerable interest in my daughters, I cannot continue to stand by and have the media speculate on their futures based on my purported interventions, which are completely made up and an invention."

Earlier on Friday, the Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson spoke of her pride in her daughters and made the plea "stop bullying the York family".

She was speaking as her daughters became patrons of the Teenage Cancer Trust, calling their "hard work" an example of "good parenting".

Sarah and the two princesses visited a specialist teen cancer unit in London to mark the occasion, meeting young people with the disease.

Sarah said: "Both the Duke and myself, we could not be more proud of this moment because these are two girls that work so hard in their own careers, have taken time off today to spread the word of teen cancer, which is so important, and then go back to work.

"It's really an extraordinary example that, I think, good parenting and listening to your children and getting them to take responsibility for their own actions."

The Teenage Cancer Trust provides specialist care and support for young people with cancer, giving them the chance to connect with others of the same age.

Beatrice spent time talking to Harry Sadler at the University College Hospital unit, who has been diagnosed with a rare form of brain cancer.

The 17-year-old said the princess was polite and "vibrant", and he added: "She listened to me."

Beatrice was in turn inspired by the Colchester student, saying: "His strength taught me so much. I learnt a huge lesson today from Harry."

Sarah said she is proud of her family's charity work, adding: "Let's focus more on this and less on tittle-tattle gossip.

"Stop bullying the York family, please."
Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 9

By Anakhanum Hidayatova  Trend:

Azerbaijan has long ago expressed readiness for a meeting with the Armenian delegation in Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), however, Armenians have always avoided it, Samad Seyidov, head of the Azerbaijani delegation to PACE, told Trend Dec. 9.

Seyidov, who is also the chairman of the international and interparliamentary relations committee in Azerbaijans Parliament, was commenting on the PACE initiative to hold such a meeting.

Earlier, President of the PACE Pedro Agramunt made a proposal to hold a meeting of Azerbaijani and Armenian delegations in the PACE.

Azerbaijan has always insisted on this meeting, however, the Armenians state that if the meetings are held in the OSCE Minsk Group format, there is no need for discussion within the framework of the Council of Europe, Seyidov said.

He added that the meetings between the delegations, as well as between the heads of communities of Nagorno-Karabakh would make it possible to review the situation on the conflict in detail.

The Azerbaijani side has repeatedly expressed its position  we are ready for a meeting. If the Armenian delegation also expresses its readiness, it will be up to PACE to organize the meeting, he said.

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 the author on Twitter: @Anahanum
Hillary Clinton has decried the rise of fake news as an "epidemic" in her first speech since losing the US presidential election last month.

Mrs Clinton addressed fake news during a speech for retiring Nevada senator Harry Reid at the Capitol in Washington.

The Democrat warned that "it's now clear that so-called fake news can have real-world consequences", an apparent reference to an incident involving a gunman who fired multiple shots inside a Washington pizza shop that has become the target of a fake conspiracy story.

Mrs Clinton said the issue "is not about politics or partisanship".

She added: "Lives are at risk. Lives of ordinary people just trying to go about their days to do their jobs, contribute to their communities."

AP
Dutch authorities announced the arrest after the suspect had appeared before an investigating judge in Rotterdam

Dutch police detained a man on suspicion of preparing a terrorist crime after finding a Kalashnikov rifle, two full ammunition clips and a painting featuring an Islamic State flag at his home, prosecutors have said.

The suspect was detained on Wednesday by a special arrest team in the port city of Rotterdam following an investigation that was triggered by a tip from the Dutch General Intelligence and Security Service, prosecutors said in a statement.

The 30-year-old man appeared before an investigating judge on Friday and was ordered to be held for two more weeks.

Along with the weapons and image of the IS flag, officers who searched the man's home also uncovered four boxes of highly explosive illegal fireworks, mobile telephones and 1,600 euro (1,340) in cash.

Wim de Bruin, a spokesman for the National Prosecutor's Office, said investigators do not think at this stage that other suspects are linked to the Rotterdam resident.

"The whole investigation and information from the intelligence services was linked to this one man," Mr De Bruin said.

"But I don't know what else might come out of the investigation."

Mr De Bruin said the nature of the threat the man allegedly posed remained unclear.

"That is part of the investigation, but not known," he said.

The suspect's identity was not released, in line with Dutch privacy guidelines, but Mr De Bruin said he was a Dutch national.

Last month, the Dutch intelligence service warned that the country remained at risk from Islamic extremists inspired by IS. The threat level for the country is at four on a scale that rises to five.

The Wednesday arrest was not the first time a terror suspect has been detained in Rotterdam.

In March, a 32-year-old Frenchman was arrested at the request of French authorities who suspected him of involvement in a terror plot.

Mr De Bruin said Wednesday's operation had no connection to that arrest.

AP
Syrian residents fleeing the violence gather at a checkpoint, manned by pro-government forces, in the village of Aziza on the southwestern outskirts of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo yesterday.

The United States and Russia must broker an evacuation from east Aleppo, UN Syria humanitarian adviser Jan Egeland said yesterday, as a local politician warned that 150,000 people there faced "extermination".

Five months of negotiations over aid plans had produced "nothing", Mr Egeland said, and it was up to the US and Russia to try to coordinate a deal.

"The member states that are supposed to help us get access to civilians in the crossfire are poles apart in how they regard what is happening in Syria," he told reporters after a weekly Syria humanitarian meeting led by the US and Russia.

US secretary of state John Kerry said after talks in Hamburg with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov that he was "hopeful" about reaching an agreement but he was awaiting "certain feedback and input".

Opposition groups in eastern Aleppo were simply asking for a pause in the fighting to allow people to leave, with no strings attached, Mr Egeland said.

Hungry

Russia wants eastern Aleppo's citizens to leave via four humanitarian corridors, although it will not let food go in to supply the hungry population.

"Russia said they will definitely be discussing with us how to organise the evacuations, but they are not any more promising any pause [in fighting]," Mr Egeland added.

More than 800 people had been killed and between 3,000 and 3,500 wounded in the past 26 days, while those still trapped awaited an effective death sentence and needed safe passage, Aleppo council president Brita Haji Hassan said.

"Today 150,000 people are threatened with extermination," he added.

A Unicef volunteer was shot dead in a "child-friendly space" and a mortar hit another UN location, with no casualties, but both sites temporarily suspended work, the UN said.

Nearly 150 sick and disabled civilians were evacuated overnight from a hospital in Aleppo's old city, the first major medical evacuation, the International Committee of the Red Cross said.

The UN described east Aleppo's health situation as "catastrophic".

Some 1,500 people needed medical evacuation, including 500 "seriously wounded", said Tawfik Chamaa, of the Union of Syrian Medical Relief Organisations.

The UN estimates about 33,000 people have been displaced in the past 10 days, including about 20,000 going into government-held areas. But Syria's government said 30,000 had been registered in government-held zones alone.

Russia wants rebels and their families to be evacuated to the rebel-held town of Idlib, but the rebels want evacuees to go to northern Aleppo province.

Mr Egeland said the local council in Idlib had informed the UN that the town could not receive any more people because it was already too full of displaced people.

Meanwhile in Damascus, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said victory in the battle for Aleppo would be a "big gain" for his government but that it would not end the civil war.

His comments came as his troops were pushing further into the rebel-held enclave in eastern Aleppo, in swift advances that were hardly possible earlier in the bitter conflict, now in its sixth year.

Deeply divided since 2012 between Syrian government and rebel-controlled areas, more than three-quarters of the rebel section has now fallen under the government's control, including the symbolically important ancient Aleppo quarters.

Yesterday, opposition activists said intensive bombings took place in the al-Sukkari and Kallaseh neighbourhoods in the area still held by rebels.

State TV said the troops were about to storm the two districts. Al-Sukkari is in the southern part of eastern Aleppo, an area that has become home to the majority of the displaced civilians who stayed behind. Kallaseh is near the old city.

Disabled

The International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) said meanwhile that it had evacuated 148 disabled civilians and others in need of urgent care from a facility in Aleppo's old city after fighting had calmed down there.

The ICRC said in a statement yesterday that the evacuation was undertaken jointly with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and was completed late on Wednesday.

The people had been trapped in a facility that was originally a home for the elderly and included mental health patients, elderly orphans and patients with physical disabilities. Some were injured civilians who had sought refuge there.

"They were forgotten," said Pawel Krzysiek, ICRC communication co-ordinator in Damascus. The evacuees were taken to hospital and shelters in the western, government-held part of Aleppo.
Parks in Paris have been closed as the French capital deals with an infestation of rats.

Professional exterminators with decades on the job are struggling to recall infestations as bad as those now forcing the closure of parks, where rats brazenly feed in broad daylight.

Nadine Mahe des Portes inadvertently stepped on a rat on her walk back from work through the city.

"I heard a terrible squeak," the property agent recalled with a shudder. "I thought I'd stepped on a child's toy or something."

City Hall threw open one of the closed parks, the Tour Saint-Jacques square a street away from the River Seine, to show journalists its latest anti-rat drive.

The furry creatures were everywhere, sauntering across footpaths, grazing under bushes and far more bothered by pigeons competing with them for breadcrumbs than by people walking past and the rattle and hum of the rush hour.

Unfortunately for City Hall's exterminators, they also seemed totally uninterested in recently laid traps baited with poison.

The park attendant, Patrick Lambin, said his morning round had yielded just one victim.

Before the park was closed in November, rats foraging for food hung off the rubbish bins and regularly scampered through the children's play area, sowing panic, he said.

Mr Lambin suspects the infestation has been made worse by Parisians and tourists who leave food out for the pigeons and, in particular, a homeless man who comes by most mornings with bags of stale bread recovered from local eateries.

"The rats are profiting," he said.

In a 39-year career of extermination, City Hall's Gilles Demodice said he had rarely seen anything quite like it.

"A few years back, you'd not see so many rats during the day," he said. "Now it's night and day, all the time. So it's a big worry."

European Union regulations governing the arsenal of poisons and traps that can be used against rats have complicated the job of extermination, he explained.

He said they used to drop biscuits of poison directly into rats' nests and seal them up, but that technique is no longer allowed, forcing them to instead lay black plastic boxes of poison - which the rats studiously ignored - among the bushes.

"It's a lot less effective," he said.

AP
The Christmas tree and nativity scene are lit up in St Peter's Square (AP)

The Vatican's Christmas nativity scene has an unusual addition this year - a spire from one of the dozens of churches and basilicas that were damaged or destroyed in this year's central Italy earthquakes.

The spire from the St Benedict Basilica in Norcia, along with some rubble, lay next to the life-sized nativity scene that was unveiled at a ceremony in St Peter's Square.

The Vatican said offerings left there will go towards rebuilding the Norcia church oratory, damaged on October 31.

Pope Francis urged visitors to recall that Jesus was a refugee of his time, born in a manger because there was no room at an inn.

He said: "Those who visit this scene are invited to rediscover its symbolic value, a message of fraternity, sharing, welcome and solidarity."

AP
Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 9

By Elmira Tariverdiyeva, Anakhanum Hidayatova  Trend:

Azerbaijan and NATO steadily develop and strengthen cooperation, William Lahue, head of NATO Liaison Office to South Caucasus, told Trend Dec. 9.

Lahue noted that NATO and Azerbaijan will continue work within the Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP) in 2017.

Azerbaijan cooperates with NATO in this format for many years, said the NATO official, adding that the country continues to support NATO operations in Afghanistan, cooperate with the Alliance in various formats, including the bilateral format.

Azerbaijan and NATO cooperate within the Partnership for Peace program. Earlier, the NATO adopted a document of the fourth stage of the Individual Action Plan within the partnership for 2015-2016.

The meetings are held in Baku and Brussels to analyze the fulfillment of the objectives of the partnership as part of this plan and the Planning and Review Process (PARP) together with the NATO International Staff.

Around 27 of 41 tasks of the partnership adopted by Azerbaijan within PARP refer to the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan. Some adopted objectives of the partnership have been fulfilled. The work is underway to fulfill other long-term objectives of the partnership.
On Wednesday, Dec. 7, the Rowan County Sheriffs Office began investigating a robbery at Rons Quick Grocery that occurred at about 8:15 p.m.

The suspect entered the store wearing a hoodie shirt with his hand inside his pockets, as if holding a weapon, and demanded money, law enforcement said. CID Detectives released images to the media and placed them on social media sites. The responses from the public led to the identification of the suspect as 32-year-old Bryan Williams Gibson of Salisbury.

Through the course of this investigation, detectives made contact with Kannapolis Police, and they also had obtained an arrest warrant for Gibson for a larceny from Family Dollar in Kannapolis.

Sheriffs Detectives obtained arrest warrants for Gibson for felony robbery, and he was entered wanted in NCIC.

Anyone with information can contact Detective Travis Zimmerman at 704-216-8706, Lt. Chad Moose at 704-216-8687 or Crime Stoppers at 1-866-639-5245.
A workshop on methods to maintain equipment used for petroleum analysis was conducted at Baku Higher Oil School (BHOS). It was held at the initiative of BIOLAB company (Turkey) for BHOS administration, academic teaching staff and students. Chief Executive Office of BIOLAB Ltd. Sinan Vasfi, Head of the company Representative Office in Azerbaijan Bakhtiyar Mammedzadeh, BIOLAB Ltd. Sales Manager in Azerbaijan Kenan Atakishiyev, as well as officials and specialists of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Azerbaijan Republic, SOCAR, BP and other companies.

Opening the workshop, the BHOS Rector Elmar Gasimov welcomed the guests and told them about BHOS work, prospects successes in its activities. He also emphasized the importance of the students involvement in internship, on-the-job-training and scientific activities. The rector informed that 17 first-years students at BHOS are Presidential Scholars. This is a great achievement for our students, he said. Elmar Gasimov also told about effective cooperation of the Higher School with international companies.

Speaking about BIOLAB, the Chief Executive Officer of the company informed that BIOLAB has 30-year experience in procurement, commissioning, installation and maintenance of the equipment for analysis of oil and oil products, and conducting trainings in this field. The company is headquartered in Ankara and supplies necessary laboratory equipment BP, Shell, Exxon, Turpash and other companies. One sphere of our activities is holding discussions and consultations about systems for maintenance of the equipment for oil and oil products analysis for youth education and industry development, he said.

At the meeting, a Cooperation Agreement between BHOS and BIOLAB company was signed. According to the agreement, BIOLAB will provide opportunities for BHOS students internships and on-the-job and professional development training courses within the Higher Schools Lifelong Learning program. The company shall also work with BHOS in organizing research and practical conferences, workshops and lectures. In addition, the agreement stipulates joint usage of library and information resources of two organizations by both BIOLAB employees and BHOS teachers and students.

The workshop participants received detailed information about main methods and technologies used for oil analysis and their advantages for production companies and facilities. They were also informed that it is very important to conduct oil quality monitoring and use modern equipment for oil elements analysis. At the end of the meeting, the company representatives answered questions asked by the workshop participants.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec.9



By Leman Zeynalova  Trend:



On the eve of the meeting with non-OPEC nations, the market is shifting into a wait-and-see mode as OPEC and US production levels will be monitored closely in the coming months, Anthony Headrick, energy market analyst at CHS Hedging LLC, told Trend Dec.9.



Regarding the record high oil production by OPEC countries in November, the expert said that although this will make the task more difficult, OPEC intends to keep individual country-level adjustments intact as a sign they intend to fulfill the agreement.



Supply from OPEC increased to 34.19 million barrels per day (bpd) in November from 33.82 million bpd in October, a Reuters survey said.



Any revisions to targets will likely be made after the six-month period, according to Headrick.



The expert also commented on the remarks recently made by former Saudi Arabia Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi.



Earlier, Ali al-Naimi said that OPECs agreement to cut production for the first time in eight years has the potential to balance the oil market, as long as everyone sticks to it, but "the unfortunate part is we tend to cheat.



History shows OPEC is apt to cheat on production quotas, but in the case of the recent agreement, that would risk eroding the credibility and influence of OPEC as an organization and would extend oversupply, leading to lower prices, said Headrick.



During the Vienna meeting held Nov.30, OPEC members decided to implement a new OPEC-14 production target of 32.5 million barrels per day.



The decision was made in order to accelerate the ongoing drawdown of the stock overhang and bring the oil market rebalancing forward.



OPEC has invited 14 non-OPEC countries to the meeting to be held in Vienna Dec.10. The invited countries are Russia, Mexico, Oman, Kazakhstan, Bahrain, Colombia, Congo, Egypt, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Bolivia, Brunei, Uzbekistan.



Only Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Oman, Mexico and Russia have agreed so far to meet the group on Dec.10 for talks aimed at widening a deal to reduce output.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec.9



By Leman Zeynalova  Trend:



Iraqs Oil Minister Jabbar Allibi expressed hope to witness a stability in the oil market during the first half of 2017.



Allibi said that Iraq is going to participate in the meetings of OPEC with the producers from outside the organization in Vienna Dec.10, according to the website of Iraqi Oil Ministry.



He noted that the decision of OPEC to cut the production and the response of the producer countries from outside the organization is a significant step to control the extra production in the global market during the next period, and elevate the prices gradually.



The commitment of the producer countries inside and outside the cartel can be an effective key factor to stabilize the oil market and achieve the common targets, according to the minister.



He pointed out that Iraq was and still working on to stabilize the oil market and maintain the unity of OPEC.



During the Vienna meeting held Nov.30, OPEC members decided to implement a new OPEC-14 production target of 32.5 million barrels per day.



Iraq undertook the second biggest cut after Saudi Arabia, as the country agreed to reduce its oil output by 210,000 barrels per day to 4.351 mbd.



OPEC has invited 14 non-OPEC countries to the meeting in Vienna Dec.10. The invited countries are Russia, Mexico, Oman, Kazakhstan, Bahrain, Colombia, Congo, Egypt, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Bolivia, Brunei, Uzbekistan.



Only Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Oman, Mexico and Russia have agreed so far to meet the group for talks aimed at widening a deal to reduce output.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec.9

By Leman Zeynalova  Trend:

The outcome of the trilateral gas talks between Russia, Ukraine and the EU will obviously have implications for the entire region, said European Commission Vice-President for Energy Union Maros Sefcovic.

He made the remarks during the First Central European Day of Energy (CEDE) in Brussels, according to the website of the European Commission.

As you know, energy plays a pivotal role in EU relations with Russia, as one of our main gas suppliers, said Sefcovic. In this context, I am convinced that Ukraine should continue to play a decisive role as a transit country for Russian gas exported to the European Union also after 2019.

The trilateral gas talks will kick off in Brussels Dec.10.

The talks, which will be chaired by Sefcovic, will be attended by Russia's and Ukraine's Ministers for Energy, Alexander Novak and Ihor Nasalyk, as well as top representatives of Ukraines Naftogaz and Russias Gazprom.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 9

By Elena Kosolapova - Trend:

The Kazakh Senate (Parliament's upper chamber) has approved a bill on an amnesty for about 30,000 convicts and people held in pretrial detention, Sputnik- Kazakhstan reported.

Within the amnesty, 1,500 people behind the bars will be freed and the rest would have their prison terms shortened.

The amnesty was proposed by President Nursultan Nazarbaev on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Kazakhstan's independence.

Earlier the bill was approved by Kazakh Mazhilis (Parliament's lower chamber). It is expected that it will signed into law by Nazarbaev before Independence Day on December 16.

Follow the author on Twitter: @E_Kosolapova
Single-digit reduction in NBS rates The revised NBS rates for ensuing Rabi season have been announced by the Government of India. New rates have not seen much steeper cuts as was widely anticipated; therefore, positive for complex (NPKs) fertilizer companies. This brings much comfort to the domestic complex fertilizer companies as a steeper cut would have entailed higher inventory losses. 03 Nov 2022 11:10 AM

October 2022 auto sales: PV and CV segments continue to impress Underlying demand trend has stayed strong for PV and CV segments. Analysts at IIFL Securities estimate October 2022 wholesale dispatches in PV, MHCV and LCV segments to have grown 30%, 24% and 14% YoY, respectively. They expect the above segments to clock 25-35% volume growth in FY23. 02 Nov 2022 11:43 AM

Initial signs of moderation in API cost pressures: IIFL Securities High raw-material inflation, elevated freight expenses, and normalization in marketing spends have impacted margins of Indian pharma players over the past 12 months. However, some of these API/RM cost pressures have started abating in Q3CY22. Cipla, Sun, JB Pharma and Torrent remain IIFL Securities top-picks in the pharma sector owing to lowest risk to IIFL Securities margin and earnings estimates for these companies. 01 Nov 2022 10:53 AM
Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 9

By Elena Kosolapova - Trend:

Kazakh Prime Minister Bakhytzhan Sagintayev and Czech Minister of Industry and Trade Jan Mladek discussed prospects of future cooperation at the meeting in Astana, Kazakh prime-ministers web-site reported.

During the meeting, the sides discussed prospects for further trade and economic cooperation between the two countries, especially in the field of renewable energy, engineering, agriculture, cultural and educational cooperation, the web-site said.KAzakh

The parties expressed their willingness to further strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation in various sectors, including oil and gas, agriculture, transport, construction, automotive, tourism, environmental protection.

The trade turnover between Kazakhstan and Czech Republic amounted to $199.41 million in January - October 2016 compared to $271.86 million in the same period of 2015. Kazakhstan is the third largest supplier of oil to the Czech Republic after Russia and Azerbaijan.

From 2005 to the first half of 2016 the gross inflow of direct investment from the Czech Republic to Kazakhstan amounted to $182.9 million, the gross outflow of direct investments from Kazakhstan to the Czech Republic amounted to $14.5 million.

Follow the author on Twitter: @E_Kosolapova
The Obama administration might be winding down but the Bureau of Indian Affairs is offering tribes a huge opportunity to address one of their most pressing economic development concerns.

Tribes have long complained of unfair systems of taxation imposed on businesses that set up shop on their homelands. States and local governments are quick to assert authority on reservations, demanding a cut of the sale of goods to non-Indians.

That leaves tribes reluctant or unable to impose their own taxes, thus depriving them of a key source of revenue. But that could be changing now that the BIA plans to update the Indian Trader Regulations for the first time in more than 30 years.

Modernizing the Indian Trader Regulations will help to promote self-determination and economic development for Tribes across the country, Deputy Secretary Michael Connor, the second-in-command at the Interior Department , said in a press release . The regulations governing Indian Traders are long outdated and do not reflect or respect current business practices occurring in Indian Country.

A notice that will be published in the Federal Register on Friday explains the problem with dual taxation. Under existing systems, revenues end up going to state and local governments, bypassing the tribal communities that typically need the money the most.

"Dual taxation of traders and activities conducted by traders and purchasers can impede a tribes ability to attract investment to Indian lands where such investment and participation are critical to the vitality of tribal economies," the forthcoming notice states. "Tribal communities continue to struggle with unmet needs, such as in their schools and housing, as well as economic development, to name a few. Moreover, beyond the operation of their governments, tribes continually pursue funding for infrastructure, roads, dams, irrigation systems and water delivery."

The revenues bypassing Indian Country can be staggering. In Washington, the Tulalip Tribes are losing out on about $40 million a year under a taxation system that's being challenged in federal court.

In North Dakota, the numbers are even more outrageous. In the last three years, Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation has been deprived of more than $1 billion due to the way the state imposes taxes on energy development on the reservation.

"We wish the numbers were only $40 million," Chairman Mark Fox said at a tribal conference last year when dual taxation was discussed. "A billion dollars. Not $40 million. A billion dollars."

To build the case for changing the system, the BIA has scheduled a series of consultations with tribes to find out more about taxation and other issues. Although the meetings will begin after Republican president-elect Donald Trump is sworn into office, it would be difficult -- though not impossible -- for the new administration to stop the effort.

Our nation-to-nation relationship, our treaty and trust responsibilities and our North star of tribal self-determination and self-governance guide our obligation to consult early and often with tribes as we consider policies that have tribal implications, Larry Roberts, the de facto leader of the BIA, said on Thursday. We encourage tribes to participate in this rulemaking process to ensure that the path forward is the result of tribal input.

But since a solid rule hasn't been proposed at this time, it would be up to the incoming administration to develop one. Trump has yet to name someone to lead the Interior Department, much less someone to run the BIA, so tribes are still in the dark about the direction of the president-elect.

The leader of Trump's Native American Coalition , however, is encouraging Trump to open the door to more economic development in Indian Country. Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-Oklahoma), a citizen of the Cherokee Nation , says tribes should be in control of what happens on their homelands

"In working with the incoming administration, I am confident that we can improve the land trusts and allow the tribes to be independent in determining their own use of resources and land," Mullin said in a statement . "It is time to end the overreaching paternalism that has held American Indians back from being the drivers of their own destiny."

Thursday, February 23, 2017

Seattle area Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Southeastern U.S. Thursday, March 2, 2017

Southern California Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Billings, Montana Thursday, March 9, 2017

Rapid City, South Dakota Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Prior Lake, Minnesota

The tribal consultations on the Indian Trader Regulations will take place on the following dates:

Forthcoming Federal Register Notice: Traders with Indians (To Be Published December 9, 2016)

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Related Stories: Rep. Markwayne Mullin denies speculation of 'privatizing' tribal land (12/7) Nick Zaiac: Let tribes decide what to do with their own homelands (12/7) Indian Republicans associated with Trump seek trust land changes (12/5) Republicans get behind Trump as new challenges emerge for tribes (11/18) Sacred land protection efforts face questions with Donald Trump (11/18) Native women lead massive march to White House to stop Dakota Access Pipeline (11/16) Tribes working to protect Indian health with Donald Trump in office (11/11) Tribes brace for change with Republicans in control in Washington (11/10) Rep. Cramer confirms Donald Trump's embrace of Dakota Access Pipeline (11/10) Quinault Nation calls for tribal inclusion in Donald Trump's transition team (11/09) Navajo Nation leaders congratulate Donald Trump on big victory (11/09) Standing Rock Sioux Tribe calls on President Obama to reject Dakota Access Pipeline amid uncertainty (11/09) Doug George-Kanentiio: The war on Natives and our Earth begins (11/09) Dakota Access Pipeline stands to gain with Donald Trump in the White House (11/09) Republican Donald Trump secures huge victory in stunning upset (11/09) Navajo veteran who once worked for Trump praises GOP nominee (11/4) Navajo Republicans host Trump campaign for event in New Mexico (11/2) Donald Trump touts Indian Country supporters but offers no policy (11/2) Tribes urge Obama administration to take a stand on taxation (10/21) Brian Pierson: Big decision in Seminole Tribe's taxation case (09/01) Seminole Tribe wins major ruling in taxation dispute in Florida (8/26) Official in Oklahoma makes bizarre claim about HEARTH Act (08/07) DOJ sides with Tulalip Tribes in taxation dispute in Washington (08/04) Agua Caliente Band won't pursue certain taxation claims in lawsuit (06/15) 11th Circuit hears arguments in Seminole Tribe taxation case (05/13) Supreme Court won't take up Seminole Tribe's taxation case (01/13) Glen Stankee: Seminole Tribe wins ruling in state taxation case (09/23) Seminole Tribe wins ruling over state taxation at gaming facilities (09/11) Opinion: Decision signals shift on state taxation in Indian Country (09/10)
Oceti Sakowin, the largest #NoDAPL encampment in North Dakota, is not accepting new arrivals due to extreme weather conditions. Supporters are being asked to stay home. Photo from Facebook



A federal judge has agreed to move forward with a decision on the easement for the Dakota Access Pipeline but on a slower schedule than the wealthy backers of the project wanted.

Before a packed courtroom in Washington, D.C., Judge James E. Boasberg said he plans to convene hearing on the matter in early February 2017. That's a month later than Dakota Access was seeking, essentially delaying the costly and controversial project even further.

"We'll move forward the best we can," Boasberg said on Friday as he acknowledged a "full house" that included a large number of supporters of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe , whose fight against the pipeline has drawn worldwide attention.

But in ordering the Obama administration to submit a key brief by January 6, Boasberg noted that change is afoot. Republican president-elect Donald Trump will be sworn into office on January 20 and he has expressed support for the pipeline.

"None of us have any idea whether the incoming administration will make any or all of this moot," Boasberg said. He added: "It's not my business to guess."

The brief that is due in less than a month will be a response to the cross-claim that Dakota Access has filed against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers . According to the firm, the agency has already issued the easement for the final portion of the pipeline in North Dakota.

"Our argument is the decision has already been made on July 25," attorney David Debold told the court, referring to the date when the Army Corps issued a finding of no significant impact regarding the crossing at Lake Oahe along the Missouri River.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe , which has intervened as a plaintiff in the case, will also be able to submit a response by January 6. The tribes have already described the cross-claim by Dakota Access as one without "merit."

"These are complex issues," Boasberg said. "I want to give everyone a chance to be heard."

UPDATE: IF YOU'RE ON YOUR WAY WITH FIREWOOD, PLEASE COORDINATE WITH US VIA EMAIL (OCETISAKOWINCAMP@GMAIL.COM), AND... Posted by Oceti Sakowin Camp on Thursday, December 8, 2016

Oceti Sakowin on Facebook: 'DO NOT TRAVEL HERE AT THIS TIME'



The hearing came amid change in North Dakota as well. The organizers of Oceti Sakowin Seven Council Fires ), the largest #NoDAPL, said they are not accepting any new arrivals due to extreme weather conditions.

"We truly appreciate your support and willingness to be on the ground as a show of solidarity, but we are closing camp doors to new arrivals for safety reasons," Oceti Sakowin, which is located on public land managed by the Army Corps, said in a statement on Thursday. "Please continue to support through prayer and actions that you can take at home."

Those who were already planning to bring firewood to the camp are being urged to contact organizers directly via email since another winter storm is approaching.

And in another sign of solidarity, the activists who have been leading the prayer and resistance effort joined the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in asking people to go home for the holidays. With decisions on the pipeline -- both in court and as the result of a new environmental review -- still months away, supporters are being asked to wait for better weather to return.

"We ask anyone that is considering traveling to join the encampments at Standing Rock to stay home for now and instead take bold action in your local communities to force investors to divest from the project," the Sacred Stone Camp , the Indigenous Environmental Network , the International Indigenous Youth Council and Honor the Earth said in a joint statement

The Sacred Stone Camp, which is located on private land belonging to LaDonna Brave Bull Allard, will remain throughout the winter. While no new arrivals are being accepted there without approval, she has vowed to keep fighting no matter what.

"I have not changed my mind. We stand until the black snake is dead, said Brave Bull Allard, a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe who established the camp on April 1.

The #NoDAPL camps are located near the portion of the Dakota Access Pipeline that is in limbo as a result of the historic decision by the Army Corps to deny the easement at Lake Oahe. The area is of great historical and legal significance, having been the site of tribal treaty gatherings in the late 1800s. It's also a spiritual place where sacred sites, burial grounds and unique stone formations are located.

Since most of the pipeline crosses land that is now held by non-Indians, Dakota Access was able to build most of it without much opposition. But in prior stages of the case, after the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe filed the lawsuit in late July , attorneys for the firm repeatedly acknowledged that the easement at Lake Oahe was still in the air.

Once it became clear that the Obama administration was taking a much more critical look at the matter -- even President Barack Obama hinted of delays and a potential change in route -- Dakota Access altered course. The firm filed a motion for summary judgement on Monday in a bid to complete the pipeline, which was supposed to start transporting oil on January 1.

The delays are "costing us close to nearly $20 million a week" attorney Debold said in court on Friday. The pipeline so far has cost $3.8 billion, according to its backers, although recent finance efforts indicate the total costs are much higher.

The Army Corps has yet to initiate the environmental impact statement that was ordered by the Department of the Army on December 4. The process will consider whether the pipeline needs to be rerouted away from Lake Oahe.

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Oceti Sakowin, the largest #NoDAPL encampment in North Dakota, is not accepting new arrivals due to extreme weather conditions. Photo from Facebook



Is it possible for us to learn from history?

By Elizabeth Cook-LynnNative Sun News Today Columnist

A book about how the west was won ( "The Earth is Weeping" by Peter Cozzens) ended up on this desk recently and as we turn its pages we wonder if it is possible to learn from the past, recognize Americas historical crimes and try to come to grips with what we have done as a nation and what we are still doing to our own people and our environment.

For the full story go to Cannon Ball, North Dakota, as I did a couple of weeks ago. Witness with the thousands of Indians and non-Indians one of the nations biggest oil cartel rape of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservations water resource, the Missouri River. Try to go with an open mind toward the history that is unfolding there.

In one way such a book with such a title "The Earth is Weeping" seems particularly appropriate as we hear now that some 2,000 U.S. veterans calling themselves Veterans for Standing Rock , joined the protest opposing the four-state, $3.8 billion Dakota Access ipeline (Zu zu e ca Sa pa under the Missouri River) in North Dakota. Unfortunately, the president of the North Dakota veterans coordinating council has publicly called this move by Veterans of America for Standing Rock an insult."

Those of us whose relatives on the front line of the protest, with family members who came home as war/combat veterans from Americas recent wars in the middle east and elsewhere, some of them homeless, and missing arms and legs, others suffering from PTSD and other physical wounds know that these military vets who are coming to assist other warriors have the sacred right (more than most of us) to do what they know is the right thing. Dont tell them about weeping!!!! Talk to them about helping the helpless. How dare the North Dakota Veterans Coordinating Council, Russ Stabler, tell them they have no right to express their compassion and dismay?

The Sioux Nation is in a war for its very survival and no one knows more than our war veterans what it means to make a decision to fight or make peace with enemies. The fate of Americas West which is the subject of the above named rather badly written book has been decided by invading whites, Christians, Capitalists and Colonists for a long time amidst huge struggles for survival against the magic power enclaves of invaders ever since the 1776 Revolution, and it is time to stop them. This fight against the destruction of the Missouri River can be categorized as unfinished business."

Read the rest of the story on the Native Sun News Today website: Is it possible for us to learn from history?

(Contact Elizabeth Cook Lynn at elizcoly@aol.com)

Copyright permission Native Sun News

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Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 9

By Elena Kosolapova- Trend:

The European Commission removed all Kazakh airlines from the EU Air Safety List, Kazakh investment and development ministry reported.

The EU Air Safety List is the list of airlines that do not meet international safety standards, and are therefore subject to an operating ban or operational restrictions within the European Union.

All airlines certified in Kazakhstan are cleared from the list, following further improvements to the aviation safety situation in the country.

Earlier the so-called black list of unreliable airlines included all the airlines of Kazakhstan, except for Air Astana.

The removal from the Air Safety List will allow Kazakh airlines to launch flights to Europe. Meanwhile they will have to pass a mandatory audit of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to carry out such flights.

Follow the author on Twitter: @E_Kosolapova
After Pakistan's foreign ministry chief Sartaj Aziz was said to have declared that there was inadequate evidence against Indian "spy" Kulbhushan Jadhav, the government has demanded his immediate release saying that there was not even a shred of evidence to prove the allegations against Jadhav.

Twitter

The government also officially said for the first time that it had issued as many as eight note verbales for consular access to Jadhav. Pakistan though is yet to respond to India's request.

"We have seen conflicting media reports about this issue. This is a pattern we have seen in the past as well. Government has always maintained that Pakistan's allegations against Jadhav, an Indian national and a former Indian Navy officer, were completely baseless," said MEA spokesperson Vikas Swarup.

AFP

"Even after more than nine months of keeping him wrongfully and illegally in custody, Pakistani authorities have not found a shred of evidence against him. We demand immediate consular access to him in accordance with relevant international conventions and his earliest release from wrongful confinement. We have also sent eight note verbales to the Pakistan foreign office on this issue," he added.

Aziz, adviser on foreign affairs to the Pakistan Prime Minister, reportedly told Parliament that the government has been provided with "insufficient evidence" against Kulbhushan Jadhav who was arrested in March this year after allegedly entering Pakistan from Iran.

Twitter

Pakistan foreign ministry though later denied the report. "There is irrefutable proof against Kulbhushan Yadav who had also made a public confession in March this year," a Pakistan foreign office spokesperson said in a statement.

"The adviser had said that the investigations regarding the network of Kulbhushan Jadhav are ongoing and the dossier shall be completed upon conclusion of the investigation," the statement said. The government also said that it was closely following up the case of Indian prisoner Hamid Ansari and that it had already issued 42 note verbales to the Pakistan foreign office.
Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi today compared Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Roman emperor Nero-who fiddled while Rome burnt and also called the decision of demonetisation foolish. Rahul Gandhi accused PM of nefariously banning notes to benefit a bunch of people like e-wallet company Paytm, reported ANI.

"The idea behind a cashless economy is that a few people must get maximum benefits from these (cashless) transactions, this has damaged the nation," the Congress leader said at an opposition protest against the currency ban on the Parliament's premises, ANI said.

AFP

"If they let me speak in the Lok Sabha I will expose this nexus. How PayTM is actually 'Pay to Modi," Rahul said, making it abundantly clear he was accusing the PM of having a nexus with some corporates. Rahul also said that PM is hardly concerned with the suffering of people due to the chaos, the country has descended in.

"He is laughing, having a nice time while the people of the country are suffering," said Rahul.

E-wallet companies, especially Paytm, have a seen a giant boost in their users since Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes were banned by the PM on November 8.

AFP

While the PM's party and a section of people have hailed the high value notes' ban as "bold", Rahul and other opposition leaders beg to differ.

"This is not a bold decision, it is a foolish decision which has been taken without any due consideration. It has devastated the poor, farmers and daily wage workers. We want to have a discussion (in Parliament). We want a vote (in Parliament). The government doesn't," the Congress vice president said.

Rahul Gandhi is also accused PM of shifting goal post while providing reasons for the decision of demonetization.

"The PM's narrative has changed. He started by saying it (currency ban) is against black money, then (against) terrorism, then (against) counterfeit currency and later (against) cashless economy," the Congress vice president said.
Family and friends torn apart by Islamic State and the offensive on Mosul meet after fleeing their homes. The following images are heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time as loved ones reunite with each other following their escape. Here's hoping for peace in the region.

A displaced Iraqi father, who fled the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul, is hugged by his displaced daughter as they meet for the first time since they fled Mosul, upon the father's arrival at Khazer camp, Iraq

REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

A woman holds up a white flag as she runs to greet her relative in Mosul, Iraq.

REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic

A displaced Iraqi man, who fled the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul, holds his daughter to be seen by her grandmother through a fence at Khazer camp, Iraq.

REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

Displaced Iraqi grandparents, who fled the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul, are hugged by their displaced grandchildren as they meet for the first time since they fled Mosul, upon the grandparents' arrival at Khazer camp, Iraq.

REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

A woman holds up a white flag as she greets her relative in Mosul, Iraq.

REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic

A displaced Iraqi man, who fled the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul, is kissed by his mother through a fence at Khazer camp, Iraq.

REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

Displaced Iraqi people, who fled the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul, hug each other as they meet for the first time since they fled Mosul, at Khazer camp, Iraq.

REUTERS/Khalid al Mousily

Displaced Iraqi people, who fled the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul, hug as they meet for the first time since they fled Mosul, at Khazer camp, Iraq.

REUTERS/Khalid al Mousily

A displaced Iraqi woman, who fled the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul, hugs her daughter outside their tent at Khazer camp, Iraq.

REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

People see their relatives who had fled from Mosul at a fence surrounding Al-Khazer refugee camp, east of Mosul, Iraq.

REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudaini

People see their relatives who had fled from Mosul at a fence surrounding Al-Khazer refugee camp, east of Mosul, Iraq.

REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudaini

A displaced Iraqi child, who fled the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul, looks through a tent in Khazer refugee camp, east of Mosul, Iraq.

REUTERS/Alaa Al-Marjani

Displaced children who had fled from Mosul stand with their family in line to receive aid at Al-Khazer refugee camp, east of Mosul.

REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudaini

People see their relatives who had fled from Mosul at a fence surrounding Al-Khazer refugee camp, east of Mosul, Iraq.

REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudaini

People see their relatives who had fled from Mosul at a fence surrounding Al-Khazer refugee camp, east of Mosul, Iraq.

REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudaini

People stand at a fence surrounding a displacement camp to see their relatives who had fled from Mosul, at Al-Khazer refugee camp, east of Mosul, Iraq.

REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudaini

People see their relatives who had fled from Mosul at a fence surrounding Al-Khazer refugee camp, east of Mosul, Iraq.

REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudaini

People see their relatives who had fled from Mosul at fence surrounding Al-Khazer refugee camp, east of Mosul, Iraq.

REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudaini

Displaced Iraqi people, who fled from Mosul because of Islamic State violence, meet their relatives in Khazer refugee camp, east of Mosul, Iraq.

REUTERS/Alaa Al-Marjani

People see their relatives who had fled from Mosul at a fence surrounding Al-Khazer refugee camp, east of Mosul, Iraq.

REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudaini

Displaced Iraqi people, who fled the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul, meet their relatives in Khazer refugee camp, east of Mosul, Iraq.

REUTERS/Alaa Al-Marjani

People see their relatives who had fled from Mosul at a fence surrounding Al-Khazer refugee camp, east of Mosul, Iraq.

REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudaini

People see their relatives who had fled from Mosul at a fence surrounding Al-Khazer refugee camp, east of Mosul, Iraq.

REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudaini
Japanese car maker Lexus has unveiled a car that broadcasts graphics and multi-coloured animation on its body. So if you have a colourful personality, then this car is totally for you.

Image Credit: Lexus

The Lexus LIT SI Sedan has three modes that drivers can choose from. The sedan is said to interact with the sounds and people in its vicinity. The first mode called Attract Mode shows a loop of colourful graphics which highlight the strong lines of the SI and play into its bold styling. The second mode is Music viz which syncs any song playing in your stereo to the LED lights. The third mode, Gesture mode, lets drivers control the animations displayed on the vehicle using hand movements.

Image Credit: Lexus

Lexus has strategically placed each of the almost 42,000 LEDs on the car by hand. The luxury car also produces 175,000 lumens when fully lit up, and, if stretched out, the LED strips can stretch a mile and a half long.

Image Credit: Lexus

Lexus has not yet clarified whether or not they will offer it to the public.
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Dec. 9

By Huseyn Hasanov  Trend:

A delegation of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR) has arrived in Turkmenistan to get acquainted with preparation process for presidential election, scheduled for February 2017 in the country, the Turkmen Foreign Ministry said in a message.

Turkmenistans Foreign Ministry hosted a meeting with Lusine Badalyan, OSCE/ODIHR senior election adviser, and Vladimir Misev, OSCE/ODIHR election adviser.

During the meeting, a discussion was held on the organization of elections in accordance with the generally recognized principles and norms of international law on holding elections.

It was noted that the ODIHR has a great positive experience in election observation and assistance for activities of legislative bodies, said the message.

During the visit, the OSCE/ODIHR delegation is expected to have meetings at the Turkmen parliament, Ministry of Justice, Central Commission for Elections and Referenda, as well as with representatives of political parties and public organizations of Turkmenistan.

Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov has been elected twice for the position of the countrys president. During the presidential election in 2012, 97.4 percent of voters cast their ballots for Berdimuhamedov.

Turkmen president is elected for a period of seven years, according to new amendments to the countrys Constitution.
Trumps EPA Pick Is Skeptical of More Than Just Climate Change



As Oklahoma attorney general, Scott Pruitt sued the federal government to prevent rules about air and water pollution from taking effect.



By Robinson Meyer December 08, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " The Atlantic " - Throughout the long campaign, and in the long month that has followed, President-elect Donald Trump sounded some odd notes about the environment. He rejected the scientific fact of climate change, calling it a hoax or a fraud. He repeatedly announced his intent to repeal all of the Obama administrations environmental regulations. He lamented, wrongly, that you couldnt use hairspray anymore because it damaged the ozone layer. And then, out of nowhere, he met with Al Gore, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for educating the public about the dangers of climate change. While the broad strokes of Trumps policies were never in doubt, there was often enough bizarreness to wonder what he would do with the powers of the Environmental Protection Agency. On Wednesday, those questions were all but settled. Trump has chosen E. Scott Pruitt, the attorney general of Oklahoma, to lead the EPA, according to early reports. In a certain light, Pruitt is an inspired choice to lead the EPA, as he has made fighting the agency a hallmark of his career. His own website calls him a leading advocate against the EPAs activist agenda. The significance could not be more clear: As he promised on the trail, Trump will likely use the powers of the presidency and the legal expertise of Pruitt to block or weaken the Obama administrations attempts to fight climate change.

And Trump will be able to try for more than that. For what distinguishes Pruitts career is not just his opposition to using regulation to tackle climate change, but his opposition to using regulation to tackle any environmental problem at all. Since he was elected Oklahomas attorney general, in 2010, Pruitt has racked up a sizable recordimpressive in its number of lawsuits if not in its number of victoriesof suing the EPA. Many of these suits did not target climate-related policies. Instead, they singled out anti-pollution measures, initiated under previous presidential administrations, that tend to be popular with the public. In 2014, for instance, Pruitt sued to block the EPAs Regional Haze Rule. The rule is built on a 15-year-old program meant to ensure that air around national parks is especially clear. Pruitt lost his case. Last year, he sued to block a rule restricting how much mercury could be emitted into the air by coal plants. He lost that, too. And early in his tenure, he sued to keep the EPA from settling lawsuits brought by environmental groups like the Sierra Club. That one was dismissed. He has brought other suits against EPA anti-pollution programslike one against new rules meant to reduce the amount of ozone in the airthat havent been heard in court yet. While ozone is beneficial to humans high in the atmosphere, it can be intensely damaging when it accumulates at ground level, worsening asthma and inducing premature deaths. The American Lung Association calls it one of the most dangerous pollutants in the United States.

All this is not to say that Pruitt has omitted climate regulations from his litigation. His most common target has been the Clean Power Plan, the Obama administrations set of Clean Air Act rules meant to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. The Clean Power Plan is Obamas main mechanism for pushing the United States to meet its pledge under the Paris Agreement. Pruitt began suing the EPA to block the Clean Power Plan more than two years ago. Now, Oklahoma is one of the 28 states challenging the agency in court, and it helped succeed in getting the Supreme Court to block the rules in February. As I wrote in September, there are valid legal reasons that lawmakers might oppose aspects of the Clean Power Plan. Lawrence Tribe, President Obamas old law-school mentor, argued in court that he believes some of its provisions go too far in asserting federal power. A cap-and-trade component is particularly controversial. But Pruitts understanding of the bill seems not entirely legally minded in two significant ways. First, Pruitts knowledge of global warming appears lacking, at best. Earlier this year, for instance, he wrote in the National Review that scientists continue to disagree about the degree and extent of global warming and its connection to the actions of mankind. While this sounds reasonable, it is not true. The overwhelming consensus among scientists who study the Earth is that humans are largely to blame for the planets warming. Climate scientists have understood this to be the case since at least the early 1990s, and since then scholarly consensus on the issue has only strengthened. The majority of scientists also believe that global warming will be quite harmful; the scientific debate about its degree and extent is only about how bad it will be and how soon its consequences will kick in.
Populism In America: "Follow The Money" By Charles Hugh-Smith December 08, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - If you want to understand today's populism, don't look to the mainstream media's comically buffoonish propaganda blaming the Russians: look at the four issues listed below. One of the most disturbing failures of the mainstream media in this election cycle was its complete lack of historical context for Trump's brand of populism. If you consumed the mainstream media's coverage of the campaign and election, you noted their obsession with speech acts (as opposed to concrete actions), personalities and conspiracy theories pinning American populism on Russian propaganda. The mainstream media dismisses populism by pushing two absurdly ignorant narratives: 1. Populism (we're told) always leads to authoritarian rules and/or fascism (i.e. Nazism). All populist movements are therefore tarred with the Nazism brush: no good could possibly come from Populist movements because they always lead to fascism. This is convenient for the apologists of the embattled status quo, but it's utterly false: America's enormous populist movements have never led to fascism. 2. Since the status quo is wonderful and America's economy is strong, dissent or populism cannot be home-grown--it must be the work of the Devil, in the guise of "foreign propaganda." Notice the classic propaganda ploy being deployed here: since dissent is impossible in a regime as well-managed and prosperous as America's status quo, populism must be driven and controlled by evil foreign agents. This is laughably absurd: America's populist movements, including the present one, have been revolts against the concentrated wealth and power of self-serving status quo elites. If the mainstream media actually employed well-informed analysts rather than empty-headed politically correct parrots, you might have learned that America has a long and rich history of populism that did not lead to authoritarianism or fascism. Mike Swanson of WallStreetWindow.com and I recently discussed Populism and political realignments in a 34-minute podcast : Charles Hugh Smith on The Mainstream Media and the Populist Global Revolt . There have been several major populist movements against the ruling elites: Andrew Jackson's election in 1828 stemmed from such a revolt, and the Populist Party (a.k.a. People's Party) and Socialist Party movements of the late 1800s and early 1900s were progressive/left-wing reactions to the enormous concentrations of wealth and power in the elites of the day. Both movements attacked the money and credit mechanisms of the elites: in Jackson's case, the target was the Second Bank of the United States; in the Populist Party era, the issue was free silver, i.e. the expansion of the money supply via issuing silver coinage. There are two dynamics at work beneath the surface of populist movements. One is a transformation in the dominant mode of production, i.e. the organization and ownership of the productive assets that power economic growth, and the second is the political realignment that results from a transformation in the mode of production. In the 19th century, agrarian interests that were losing power to industry and banking/ finance typically found expression in populist movements. Such movements included an elite faction that saw its power and wealth being threatened by new elites. For example, England's landed gentry resisted the political and economic power of industrialists, who sought an expansion of the engines of their wealth: global trade and a poorly paid, mobile urban workforce. Mike mentioned a seminal book, Golden Rule: The Investment Theory of Party Competition and the Logic of Money-Driven Political Systems , which proposes there is actually only one party in America: the property party, i.e. those who own the productive assets of the nation. The winds of change can be understood by tracking which wealthy factions are funding the two political parties. Author Thomas Ferguson makes the case that Franklin Roosevelt won the presidency partly as a result of the financial support of large multinational corporations with global interests. Roosevelt's opponents were typically domestic companies that depended on cheap labor and stiff tariffs to keep out competition. The current era of populism is perhaps best typified by Bernie Sanders , who raised a phenomenal $234 million from individuals, with Political Action Committees (PACS) contributing a thin sliver of $6.3 million to his campaign. There is no better proof that today's populism is deep-rooted and broad-based than Sanders' astounding $234 million contributions from individuals, not elites. Please name me another presidential candidate who raised 97% of their funding from small donors. Hillary Clinton raised a gargantuan $1.3 billion,of which $188 million came from Super-PACs. A tiny percentage of her total funds came from small donors; her campaign raised $556 million and the Democratic Party's (elitist) fund-raising committees ponied up another $544 million. ( source ) Trump's campaign raised about 27% of its funds from small donors, compared to the Romney campaign's 6%. Today's populism has drawn funding from individuals and enterprises who have been left out of globalism's massive increase in elitist wealth. If we look for issues that crossed party lines, i.e. that drew support from both Sanders and Trump supporters, we find four core issues: 1. Anti-globalism 2. disgust with the Establishment's self-serving corrupt elites, i.e. anti-elitism 3. Economic nationalism 4. Anti-endless-neocon-wars, drone strikes, foreign entanglements Issues 1, 3 and 4 were encapsulated in Democrat George McGovern's 1972 campaign slogan come home, America, a message disdained by today's Democratic Party elites, who have skimmed hundreds of millions in campaign contributions from global finance and corporate interests. Take a look at these charts of U.S. corporate profits and the decline of labor's share of GDP , and ask: isn't the source of today's populist disgust and anger at America's ruling elites rather obvious? Is it coincidence that corporate profits skyrocketed from about 2001, right when labor's share of GDP fell off a cliff? If you want to understand today's populism, don't look to the mainstream media's comically buffoonish propaganda blaming the Russians: look at the four issues listed above and these two charts. Mike Swanson and Charles Hugh Smith on The Mainstream Media and the Populist Global Revolt (34 minute podcast). For what it's worth, my copy editor reckons Inequality and the Collapse of Privilege ($3.95 Kindle ebook, $8.95 print edition) is my best book. It is, if nothing else, highly relevant to today's economic/social schisms. Check out both of my new books, Inequality and the Collapse of Privilege ($3.95 Kindle, $8.95 print) and Why Our Status Quo Failed and Is Beyond Reform ($3.95 Kindle, $8.95 print). For more, please visit the OTM essentials website . The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Information Clearing House editorial policy.
James Mattis Is a War Criminal:

I

Experienced His Attack on Fallujah Firsthand





By Dahr Jamail

December 08, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " Truth Out " - Retired marine General James Mattis, who retired from being the head of CENTCOM in 2013, has become known recently for his stance against what he calls "political Islam."

"Is political Islam in the best interest of the United States?" Mattis said at the far right-wing Heritage Foundation in 2015. "I suggest the answer is no, but we need to have the discussion. If we won't even ask the question, how do we even recognize which is our side in a fight?"

Another controversial aspect of his selection that much of the media is focusing on is the fact that in order to get the job, Mattis would need Congress to pass new legislation to bypass a federal law stating that it has to have been seven years since defense secretaries have been on active duty. Congress has only bypassed that law once in US history, and that occurred over 50 years ago.

More importantly, Mattis, known to some by the nickname of "Mad Dog," has shown a callous disregard for human life, particularly civilians, as evidenced by his behavior leading marines in Iraq, comments he made about enjoying fighting in Afghanistan because "it's fun to shoot some people. You know, it's a hell of a hoot," and myriad other problems.

Mattis' Role in the Haditha Massacre

While Mattis has ample military experience -- serving as NATO's supreme allied commander and with more than 40 years in the Marine Corps, his nickname seems apt.

He also said, when speaking to a group of soldiers about how to behave in Iraq during a 2003 speech, "Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet."

But more importantly, he is clearly responsible for carrying out and/or aiding and abetting in several war crimes.

In November 2005 US marines in Iraq committed a massacre of 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians. The slaughtering of unarmed men, women, children and elderly people, shot multiple times at close range, was retribution for a roadside bomb attack on a convoy of marines. The war crimes were extremely well documented and the atrocity garnered international attention.

When it came time to bring the marines responsible for the massacre to justice, Mattis was the convening authority over the eight charged with crimes at Haditha.

Mattis went on to dismiss all of the charges leveled against the marines who had been accused of killing the civilians and of the eight originally charged, only one still faces possible prosecution, but one can guess how that will end up.

Mattis' Role in Fallujah

Mattis was the head of Camp Pendleton's 1st Marine Division in Iraq and played a lead role during both of the US sieges of Fallujah in 2004.

During the April 2004 siege, more than 700 civilians were killed by the US military, according to Iraqi doctors in the city whom I interviewed in the aftermath of that attack.

While reporting from inside Fallujah during that siege, I personally witnessed women, children, elderly people and ambulances being targeted by US snipers under Mattis' command. Needless to say, all of these are war crimes.

During the November siege of Fallujah later that same year, which I also covered first-hand, more than 5,000 Iraqi civilians were killed. Most were buried in mass graves in the aftermath of the siege.

Mosques were deliberately targeted by the US military, hospitals bombed, medical workers detained, ambulances shot at, cease-fires violated, media repressed, and the use of depleted uranium was widespread. All of these are, again, war crimes.

At that time I broke the story of the US military's use of white phosphorous, an incendiary weapon similar to napalm in its ability to burn all the way down to the bone. The use of white phosphorus was a violation of international law, given that it was unleashed in the city during a time when the Pentagon itself admitted to at least 50,000 civilians still being present.

More than 200,000 civilians were displaced from their homes during the November siege, and over 75 percent of the city was destroyed.

The horrific legacy of depleted uranium contamination continues, with stillbirths and birth defects still occurring at astronomical rates, creating a situation so extreme that some Iraqi doctors are calling it a genocide.

Life Under Attack by Mattis-Led Forces

In this moment, as we countenance Mattis' planned ascension as secretary of defense, I'd like to share an excerpt from my book Beyond the Green Zone. Taken from a chapter about the April 2004 US siege of Fallujah, this report offers a clear view of the war crimes over which Mattis presided, including the deliberate targeting of innocent civilians, widespread collective punishment and more:

***

We rolled toward the one small clinic where we were to deliver our medical supplies. The small clinic was managed by Maki al-Nazzal, who was hired just four days ago. He was not a doctor. The other makeshift clinic in Fallujah was in a mechanic's garage. He had barely slept in the past week, nor had any of the doctors at the small clinic.

Originally, the clinic had just three doctors, but since the US military bombed one of the hospitals and were currently sniping at people as they attempted to enter or exit the main hospital, effectively, there were only these two small clinics treating the entire city.

The boxes of medical supplies we brought into the clinic were torn open immediately by the desperate doctors. A woman entered, slapping her chest and face, and wailing as her husband carried in the dying body of her little boy. Blood was trickling off one of his arms, which dangled out of his father's arms. Thus began my witnessing of an endless stream of women and children who had been shot by the US soldiers and were now being raced into the dirty clinic, the cars speeding over the curb out front, and weeping family members carrying in their wounded. One 18-year-old girl had been shot through the neck. She was making breathy gurgling noises as the doctors frantically worked on her amid her muffled moaning. Flies dodged the working hands of doctors to return to the patches of her vomit that stained her black abaya.

Her younger brother, a small child of 10 with a gunshot wound in his head from a marine sniper, his eyes glazed and staring into space, continually vomited as the doctors raced to save his life while family members cried behind me. "The Americans cut our electricity days ago, so we cannot vacuum the vomit from his throat," a furious doctor tells me. They were both loaded into an ambulance and rushed toward Baghdad, only to die en route.

Another small child lay on a blood-spattered bed, also shot by a sniper. The boy's grandmother lay nearby, shot as she was attempting to carry children from their home and flee the city. She lay on a bed dying, still clutching a bloodied white surrender flag. Hundreds of families were trapped in their homes, terrorized by US snipers shooting from rooftops and the minarets of mosques whenever they saw someone move past a window.

Blood bags were being kept in a food refrigerator, warmed under running water before being given to patients. There were no anesthetics. The lights went out as the generator ran dry of fuel, so the doctors, who had been working for days on end, worked by light provided by men holding up cigarette lighters or flashlights as the sun set. Needless to say, there was no air-conditioning inside the steamy "clinic."

One victim of the US military aggression after another was brought into the clinic, nearly all of them women and children, carried by weeping family members. Those who had not been hit by bombs from warplanes had been shot by US snipers. The one functioning ambulance left at this clinic sat outside with bullet holes in the sides and a small group of shots right on the driver's side of the windshield. The driver, his head bandaged from being grazed by the bullet of a sniper, refused to go collect any more of the dead and wounded.

Standing near the ambulance in frustration, Maki told us, "They [US soldiers] shot the ambulance and they shot the driver after they checked his car, inspected his car, and knew that he was carrying nothing. Then they shot him. And then they shot the ambulance. And now I have no ambulance to evacuate more than 20 wounded people. I don't know who is doing this and why he is doing this. This is terrible. This has never happened before. And I don't know who to call because it seems that nobody is listening."

The stream of patients slowed to a sporadic influx as night fell. Maki sat with me as we shared cigarettes in a small office in the rear of the clinic. "For all my life, I believed in American democracy," he told me with an exhausted voice. "For 47 years, I had accepted the illusion of Europe and the United States being good for the world, the carriers of democracy and freedom. Now I see that it took me 47 years to wake up to the horrible truth. They are not here to bring anything like democracy or freedom.

"Now I see it has all been lies. The Americans don't give a damn about democracy or human rights. They are worse than even Saddam." I asked him if he minded if I quoted him with his name. "What are they going to do to me that they haven't already done here," he said.

Another car skipped over the curb outside and a man who was burned from head to toe was carried in on a stretcher. He surely died shortly, as there was no way this clinic could treat massive burns. Maki, frustrated and in shock, said, "They say there is a cease-fire. They said 12 o'clock, so people went out to do some shopping. Everybody who went out was shot and this place was full, and half of them were dead."

More than 20 dead bodies had been brought to this clinic during the last 24 hours of the "cease-fire." Shortly after this, another car skidded to a stop, and a man hit with cluster bombs was unloaded. "The Americans have been using cluster bombs often here," Maki tells me somberly. "And of course they love their DU [depleted uranium]."

***

It is clear that Trump's secretary of defense selection of Mattis, an unprosecuted war criminal, is yet another egregious act against justice and the rule of international law.

Mattis was a high-level marine commander overseeing both sieges of Fallujah who then played an active role in making sure eight marines involved in a massacre walked away from any appropriate punishment.

These are just a few of his highlights from Iraq.

Imagine what he could do to the rest of the world.
Rolling Back the Empire: Washingtons Proxy-Army Faces Decisive Defeat in Aleppo





By Mike Whitney

December 08, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " Counterpunch " - Syrian Army helicopters dropped leaflets on parts of eastern Aleppo on Sunday warning anti-government fighters to surrender while they still had the chance. Hundreds of jihadists have already laid down their weapons and surrendered while a hardline corps of deadenders continue to fend off the rapidly advancing army.

The situation is looking increasingly hopeless for the ragtag group of insurgents that have lost more than half the territory they held in just the last week. Every attempt theyve made to break through Syrian Army lines has been repelled leaving them to defend a few shrinking districts where they will either surrender or die.

On Sunday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov delivered an ultimatum to the remaining militants that clarified the position of the Syrian government and its allies. he said:

Those groups which refuse to leave eastern Aleppo will be treated as terrorists. By refusing to walk out from eastern Aleppo they will in fact go ahead with armed struggle. We will treat them accordingly, as terrorists and extremists, and support the Syrian army in its operation against such armed gangs.

US Secretary of State John Kerry has made every effort to stop the fighting to protect US-backed jihadists that are trying to topple Syrian President Bashar al Assad. Unfortunately, a proposal that was accepted by both Kerry and Lavrov concerning the withdrawal of fighters in Aleppo, was rejected by higher-ups in the Obama Administration ending the prospects for a negotiated settlement. Lavrov expressed his frustration in comments to the media where he said:

They have withdrawn their document and have a new one. Our initial impression is that this new document backtracks, and is an attempt to buy time for the militants, allow them to catch their breath and resupply. The same thing happened with our agreement of September 9. Its difficult to understand who makes decisions there, but apparently there are plenty of those who want to undermine the authority and practical steps by John Kerry.

According to Reuters, the Syrian Foreign Ministry said it would now accept no truce in Aleppo, should any outside parties try to negotiate one. Meanwhile, Russia and China vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution on Monday calling for a week-long ceasefire. Simply put, this is the end of the line for the US-backed terrorists that have laid to waste much of the battered country and killed more than 400,000 people. And while Aleppo may not be the decisive turning point in the ongoing conflict, it does put all of the main population centers and industrial hubs back under regime control.

More important, the recapturing of Aleppo is a major setback for Washington and its jihadist-breeding allies. (US, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar) US plans for redrawing the map of the Middle East to meet its economic and geopolitical objectives has been defeated by a courageous and determined coalition (Syria, Iran, Russia and Hezbollah) that has methodically routed or exterminated the foreign-backed opposition and reestablished both state security and the sovereign authority of the elected government to control its own affairs.
Are Sanctuary Cities Legal? By Judge Andrew P. Napolitano December 08, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - Last week, President-elect Donald Trump re-emphasized the approach he will take in enforcing the nation's immigration laws, which is much different from the manner of enforcement utilized by President Barack Obama. The latter pointedly declined to deport the 5 million undocumented immigrants in the United States who are the parents of children born here  children who, by virtue of birth, are American citizens. Trump has made known his intention to deport all undocumented people, irrespective of family relationships, starting with those who have committed crimes. In response to Trump's stated intentions, many cities  including New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco  have offered sanctuary to those whose presence has been jeopardized by the president-elect's plan. Can they do this? Here is the back story. Under the Constitution, the president is the chief federal law enforcement officer in the land. Though the president's job is to enforce all federal laws, as a practical matter, the federal government lacks the resources to do that. As well, the president is vested with what is known as prosecutorial discretion. That enables him to place priority on the enforcement of certain federal laws and put the enforcement of others on the back burner. Over time  and with more than 4,000 criminal laws in the United States Code  Congress and the courts have simply deferred to the president and permitted him to enforce what he wants and not enforce what he doesn't want. Until now. Earlier this year, two federal courts enjoined President Obama  and the Supreme Court, in a tie vote, declined to interfere with those injunctions  from establishing a formal program whereby undocumented people who are the parents of natural-born citizens may lawfully remain here. It is one thing, the courts ruled, for the president to prioritize federal law enforcement; it is quite another for him to attempt to rewrite the laws and put them at odds with what Congress has written. It is one thing for the president, for humanitarian reasons or because of a lack of resources, to look the other way in the face of unenforced federal law. It is another for him to claim that by doing so, he may constitutionally change federal law. Trump brilliantly seized upon this  and the electorate's general below-the-radar-screen disenchantment with it  during his successful presidential campaign by promising to deport all 13 million undocumented immigrants currently in the United States, though he later reduced that promise so as to cover only the 2 million among them who have been convicted in the United States of violating state or federal laws. Enter the sanctuary cities. These are places where there are large immigrant populations, among which many are undocumented, yet where there is apparently not a little public sentiment and local governmental support for sheltering the undocumented from federal reach. Trump has argued that these cities are required to comply with federal law by actively assisting the feds  or at least not aggressively resisting them. Thus the question: Are state and local governments required to help the feds enforce federal law? In a word: No. The term "sanctuary cities" is not a legal term, but it has been applied by those in government and the media to describe municipalities that offer expanded social services to the undocumented and decline to help the feds find them  including the case of Chicago's offering undocumented immigrants money for legal fees to resist federal deportation. As unwise as these expenditures may be by cities that are essentially bankrupt and rely on federal largesse in order to remain in the black, they are not unlawful. Cities and towns are free to expand the availability of social services however they please, taking into account the local political climate. Enter the Supreme Court. It has required the states  and thus the municipalities in them  to make social services available to everyone resident within them, irrespective of citizenry or lawful or unlawful immigration status. This is so because the constitutional command to the states of equal protection applies to all persons, not just to citizens. So the states and municipalities may not deny basic social services to anyone based on nationality or immigration status. The high court has also prohibited the federal government from "commandeering" the states by forcing them to work for the feds at their own expense by actively enforcing federal law. As Ronald Reagan reminded us in his first inaugural address, the states formed the federal government, not the other way around. They did so by ceding 16 discrete powers to the federal government and retaining to themselves all powers not ceded. If this constitutional truism were not recognized or enforced by the courts, the federal government could effectively eradicate the sovereignty of the states or even bankrupt them by forcing them to spend their tax dollars enforcing federal law or paying for federal programs. Thus the Trump dilemma. He must follow the Constitution, or the courts will enjoin him as they have his predecessor. He cannot use a stick to bend the governments of sanctuary cities to his will, but he can use a carrot. He can ask Congress for legislative grants of funds to cities conditioned upon their compliance with certain federal immigration laws. All of this is part of our constitutional republic. By dividing powers between the feds and the states  and by separating federal powers among the president, Congress and the courts  our system intentionally makes the exercise of governmental power cumbersome by diffusing it. And since government is essentially the negation of freedom, the diffusion of governmental powers helps to maximize personal liberty. About Judge Andrew P. Napolitano. A graduate of Princeton University and the University of Notre Dame Law School, Judge Andrew P. Napolitano is the youngest life-tenured Superior Court judge in the history of the State of New Jersey. He sat on the bench from 1987 to 1995, during which time he presided over 150 jury trials and thousands of motions, sentencings and hearings. He taught constitutional law at Seton Hall Law School for 11 years, and he returned to private practice in 1995. Creators Syndicate, Inc.  2016 The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Information Clearing House editorial policy.
NYT, WaPo Fake News Still Bringing Real Guns to Iraq, Killing Thousands By Robert Barsocchini December 08, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - Fake news propagated by the US government and collaborating organizations such as the New York Times and Washington Post helped create an environment in which the US was able to illegally invade Iraq in 2003, killing at least one million and possibly upwards of two million people, including the deaths of some 4,500 US soldiers, according to a meta-study by Nobel-winning Physicians for Social Responsibility. Just this November, nearly 6,000 people were killed in Iraq thanks to the conflicts that are still raging due to the invasion (which is ongoing), and it was not an atypical month  even more were killed in October. Regarding the fake news that laid the groundwork for the US war of aggression, award-winning journalist Robert Parry notes that, for example, Judith Miller of NYT and Washington Post editorial page editor Fred Hiatt repeatedly stated the fact of Iraqs hidden WMD as flat fact and mocked anyone who doubted the group think.' Parry also traces the use of fake news by these outlets and the government to the present, raising interesting legal questions about whether and how the individuals who perpetrate fake news should be punished, and to what extent they are protected by the US first amendment. Trevor Timm of The Atlantic cites a Supreme Court decision which ruled that speech is protected unless it is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action.

According to the highest UN officials and many others (including most of the world), the invasion of Iraq was a lawless action, which would make statements directed to precipitating it ineligible for protection under US law. The next question that arises would be how to punish the offenders of the illegal speech. Sticking to US legal precedent, we may note that the US, at Nuremberg, executed Germans who it determined had issued fake news in service of creating the conditions for Germany to invade other nations. And though the death penalty has since been eradicated in most of the world, it has not been in the US. Parry notes that none of the fake-news peddlers have yet faced any legal recourse for their apparent crimes. Hiatt, for example, remains the Posts editorial-page editor continuing to enforce conventional wisdoms and to disparage those who deviate. Miller and others maintain similar positions. People at these outlets have recently begun to express that there should be limits on fake news. However, they have only made such statements in reference to others, not themselves, perhaps illustrating the level of regard they have for the thousands of US soldiers and million-plus Iraqis that have died and are dying thanks in part to the fake news they disseminate. Robert J. Barsocchini is an independent researcher and reporter who focuses on global force dynamics and has served as a cross-cultural intermediary for the film and Television industry. His work has been cited, published, or followed by numerous professors, economists, lawyers, military and intelligence veterans, and journalists. Updates on Twitter . The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Information Clearing House editorial policy.
Donald Trump Will Cause US Power to Collapse



Election of Republican 'speeds up decline' of America, claims Nobel Prize-nominated professor



By Harriet Agerholm December 08, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " The Independent " - A sociologist credited with predicting the fall of the Soviet Union has warned that US global power is in a phase of accelerated decline under the leadership of Donald Trump  and will collapse while the property mogul is the White House. Norwegian professor Johan Galtung is known as the "founding father" of peace studies as a scientific subject and is recognised for correctly predicting numerous historical events, among them the Tiananmen Square uprising in China and the September 11 attacks. He attracted controversy in 2000 when he predicted US global power would collapse by 2025. But under the Bush administration he revised his forecast for the collapse to 2020. Now, he says that reality that is materialising following election of the bombastic billionaire. Mr Trumps election on an anti-immigrant platform coincides with one of the final phases of the decline predicted in the social scientists 2009 book The Fall of the American Empireand then What? where he forecast the rise of facism before the country's power receded. The President-elect has vowed to deport three million illegal immigrants as soon as he enters office and build a wall along the American border with Mexico. He told Motherboard the election of Mr Trump "speeds up the decline", although he qualified the statement, saying: "Of course, what he does as a President remains to be seen." Dr Galtung added that the President-elect's critical attitude to Nato also indicated the US would cease to be a superpower. The Republican has previously indicated the US might not come to the aid of those in the alliance if they failed to meet the designated defence spending. The collapse has two faces, Dr Galtung told the tech news site, Other countries refuse to be good allies and the USA has to do the killing themselves, by bombing from high altitudes, drones steered by computer from an office, special forces killing all over the place. "Both are happening today, except for Northern Europe, which supports these wars, for now. That will probably not continue beyond 2020, so I stand by that deadline. Yet Xenia Wickett, head of the US and Americas programme at think-tank Chatham House told The Independent it was "totally unrealistic" to believe the US would stop being a global power by 2020. "The US is a global power for many reasons. It has the strongest military in the world, it has the most robust soft power in terms of its universities, [...] in terms of its companies and in terms of the reach of its media. It also remains the biggest economy in the world. The idea that any of these things are going to change in the next four years is unrealistic." The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Information Clearing House editorial policy.
Africas richest man, Aliko Dangote has shut down his $500 million factory in Tanzania owing to high business costs and a fall out with the government over tax exemptions. Dangote was invited to Tanzania to do business by former President Jakaya Kikwete in 2014 and was promised access to cheap natural gas to power the factory.

As a result, the Dangote factory was sited at Mtwara where natural gas is extracted. The end of Kikwetes administration has spelled trouble for the factory as the government of John Magufuli has reneged on many of the original agreements, refusing to provide cheap natural gas for the factory. Dangote then retaliated by importing coal from South Africa despite Tanzania having substantial coal deposits.

Magufulis administration eventually banned the importation of coal, a policy which seemed specifically targeted at Dangote. The government has said Tanzanian coal is of higher quality than South Africas and therefore saw no need to allow companies import it. The factory now spends as much as $4 million per month on diesel

Despite Dangotes protests, government officials say they have upheld all the incentives such as tax holidays granted to Dangote by the former administration.

Unofficial sources say many of the incentives granted to Dangote were unconstitutional and have been scrapped and the decision to close the factory is an attempt to force the governments hand.
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Dec. 9

By Huseyn Hasanov  Trend:

Russian oil and gas company Tatneft and the Turkmen state concern Turkmenneft continue talks to conclude a new contract, the Oil and Gas Complex of Turkmenistan said in a message.

The contract envisages rendering services to rehabilitate wells in oil-rich areas.

In addition, the company plans to expand cooperation in such areas as the supply of oilfield equipment, chemicals, base oils.

Tatneft has been cooperating with Turkmenneft since 2010 under the previous contract for providing services. In accordance with the contract, oil production has been restored at 32 wells.

Overall, more than 144,000 tons of additional oil has been produced since 2010, the message said.
The Federal government has said it has concluded plans to launch an application that will help Nigerians monitor the activities of the present administration.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, announced this on Thursday at a meeting with Resident Information Officers (RIOs) from Ministries, Departments and Agencies in preparation for the launch.

According to him, the app which will launched in Abuja on the 15th of December will be called the Federal Government Information App (FGIAPP).

The minister said the launching of the app would stop the misrepresentation and dissemination of falsehood on activities of the present administration.

We as a government and as Information Ministry will leverage on the unique technology to inform the world about what we are doing.With this new app it means anybody anywhere the world will get to know what we are doing, the real time of what is happening in Nigeria at least from our own end and perspective.

The activities of the present administration is hugely under-reported, hence the need to align with the global trend in information sharing.

The government is doing so much yet people keep saying they do not know because we are not communicating through the right channel. hence the new app will bridge the gap by using the social media to tell the world what the government is doing, the Minister added.

In his remark, the App developer, Olawole Falope, alleged that most of the information being put out about Nigeria was either false or fabricated, hence the need for the government to reverse the trend.

The truth is if you heard only one side of the story, you make your decisions based on just one side. Its about time that our great nation Nigeria starts to speak, he added.
The captain of a charter boat in Florida, USA contacted the Coast Guard when made an unusual catch  a kilo of cocaine floating off the coast of Miami.

Mark Quartiano was fishing with charter clients about some distance off the Miami coast on Wednesday when he and his crew spotted a package floating in the water.

The package was caught with a net and brought aboard only to be discovered as a kilo of cocaine.

Quartiano, who posted the find on Instagram, said it was the first time he had found the illicit drug in his 40 years of fishing.

Ive found marijuana, but never cocaine like this, Quartiano told the Miami New Times.

Quartiano said the package was turned over to the Coast Guard when he returned to shore.
The Lagos State Government on Thursday said it was ready to roll out Lake Rice on December 15 to Lagosians at N13,000 per 50 kg towards the Yuletide celebrations.

The sale will come as succour for millions of Lagosians who like their counterparts in most parts of the country have had to pay over N20,000 for a bag of rice, mostly imported.

Sanni Okanlawan, Special Adviser on Food Security to Governor Akinwumi Ambode, made the disclosure in Lagos during the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) National Agriculture Stakeholders Summit.

Mr. Okanlawan said that sales of the rice would be made at all the 57 Local Government Areas (LGAs) and Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) in the state to ensure proper distribution.

Lake Rice is the acronym of both Lagos and Kebbi States joint product which will be out to the public on December 15 at the rate of N13,000 per 50kg bag as it is already subsidised by the government.

To make it more available, the rice will be sold at the 57 LGAs and LCDAs for easy accessibility and to guard against unwanted persons diverting the product.

The state government has put in place a committee that will ensure that Lagosians have the best Christmas celebration, that is why we are offering the wholesome and well packaged rice, Mr. Okanlawan said.

The special adviser also said that the state had established a Department of Agribusiness, an Agriculture Trust Fund and Commodity Exchange Market to be set up soon.
THE Department of State Services has arraigned three persons before a Magistrates Court in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, for the killing of an employee of the Niger Delta Development Commission, Miss Sophia Horsefall.

The suspects were said to have committed the offence on November 8, 2016, at Rumukparale in the Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of the state.

They were arraigned on three counts bordering on murder.

The defendants, who were identified as Sotonye Martin, Innocent Oluche and Wachukwu Ugochuckwu, were accused of stabbing their victim to death with a jackknife.

The counsel for the DSS, Mr. C.S. Eze, said Martin (first defendant) lured and killed Horsefall at the residence of Oluche, the second defendant in the matter.

Eze told the court that the victims corpse was buried in a shallow grave, adding that Martin and Oluche invited the third defendant (Ugochukwu), a spiritualist, to the shallow grave to perform some rituals and tie the spirit of the victim.

He added that the victim had an eight-year-old daughter before she was killed.

The charges read, That you, Sotonye Martin, Innocent Oluche and Wachukwu Ugochukwu, on the 8th day of November 2016, at Rumukparale, in the Obio/Akpor LGA, within the jurisdiction of this court, did conspire among yourselves to commit felony to wit: murder of Sophia Horsefall, a member of staff of the NDDC, thereby committing an offence contrary to Section 324 of the Criminal Code, Law of Rivers State, 1999.

That you, Innocent Oluche and Wachukwu Ugochukwu, on the 8th day of November 2016, at the place described above, did kill Sophia Horsefall, a member of staff of the NDDC, by stabbing her to death with a jackknife, thereby committing an offence contrary to Section 316 and punishable under Section 319 of the Criminal Code, Law of Rivers State, 1999.

That you, Sotonye Martin, Innocent Oluche and Wachukwu Ugochukwu, on the date and at the place described above, abetted the murder of Sophia Horsefall, a member of staff of the NDDC, thereby commiting an offence contrary to Section 322 of the Criminal Code, Law of Rivers State, 1999.

The defendants pleas were not taken.

The Chief Magistrate, F. Alikor, ordered that the accused be remanded in custody.

Explaining that the court had no jurisdiction over the matter, the chief magistrate directed that the case file be transferred to the Directorate of Public Prosecutions and adjourned the matter indefinitely.

Source: Punch
The Lagos State Police Command has said it is presently on the trail of the 10-man gang of kidnappers who abducted three persons at the Isheri Osun area of Lagos.

The gang had on Friday last week stormed the quiet community and abducted two men and a woman without any resistance from neighbours.

The gunmen were said to have stormed Aver Winning Avenue, Isheri Osun in the evening and abducted two landlords and a woman simply identified as Mama Michael.

The hoodlums were said to have arrived the area on foot through a bush path separating the community from FESTAC town.

The latest abduction brings to at least six persons that were allegedly kidnapped in the metropolis in seven days.

Three persons were abducted from their homes at Epe area of the state earlier last week.

THISDAY gathered that the Isheri gunmen are now asking for the sum of N6 million as ransom from the families of victims, threatening to kill the victims if their demands are not met.

Source: Thisday
A plan by the Federal Government to ensure a 48-hour cargo clearance is being threatened, as the multi-billion naira scanners purchased some years ago are rotting away at seaports and land borders.

Disturbed by the situation, the House of Representatives yesterday resolved to investigate the N9.2 billion contract awarded for the provision of the scanners.

Cargo scanning, also known as non-intrusive inspection (NII), is a non-destructive method of inspecting and identifying goods that enhances Customs clearance processes.

Importers and clearing agents at Apapa, Tin Can, Warri, Calabar and Port Harcourt ports are feeling the pangs of delayed clearance, as cargoes are now subjected to manual or physical inspection, leading to high stock of goods awaiting inspection for several days.An importer in Lagos, who preferred anonymity, told The Guardian that the delay was costing them much because after seven days if you have not cleared your cargo, you will pay demurrage and the longer the goods are delayed, the more money you pay.

Demurrage, which is the penalty or fee payable to the vessel owner for failure to load or discharge the ship within the time agreed, ranges between $75 and $200 daily.

The source noted that the increase in demurrage would make the commodities more expensive as importers will pass on the burden of the additional costs to the final consumers.

The failure of the scanners is also impeding international trade, as importers will either resort to bringing in their goods through neighbouring countries such as Benin Republic (Seme border) or resort to smuggling, thereby depriving government of the necessary funds it requires for economic development.

The Destination Inspection Agencies (DIAs) had handed over the imports checks to the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) in December 2013, but three years after, a large number of the scanners have been abandoned due to malfunctioning.

The Guardian gathered that the Federal Government earmarked money for the maintenance and replacement of the scanners, but the Customs is yet to access the funds.

At Apapa port, thousands of cargoes are lying in the premises waiting for inspection. The Customs officers were carefully examining the containers through manual process, which is tedious and time-consuming, The Guardian discovered during a recent investigation.

The Public Relations Officer, Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Wale Adeniyi, who confirmed the poor state of the scanners, told The Guardian that the agency was constrained by a lack of funds to carry out maintenance on the facilities.
Weeks after millions of South Koreans took to the streets to demand her resignation, President Park Geun Hye has been impeached by South Koreas Parliament on Friday morning. President Park ran into trobled waters following revelations that her close friend exercised remarkable powers with her knowledge.

Her confidantes powers were as wide ranging as influencing government policies as well as using her influence to demand billions of dollars from multinationals.

President Park was largely expected to resign but South Koreas Parliament moved a motion for impeachment on the grounds of violating the laws of the constitution. 238 of the 300-member Parliament voted in favor of her impeachment, well above the two-third majority required. Her impeachment still remains subject to an affirmation by the Constitutional Court which.

The countrys Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, an ally of Ms. Park, will serve as acting president in the interim. Ms. Park is the countrys first female President.
Nigerian musician, Wizkid has canceled his homecoming concert earlier slated for December 2016.

Wizkid has had a massive year and broke into the international scene with huge collaborations with Chris Brown, Tinie Tempah and Drake.

He has managed the rare feat of staying relevant in the music industry without putting out an album throughout the year.

His homecoming concert would have been his first concert in Nigeria this year but he revealed that he had to cancel the concert due to health reasons.

He revealed that extensive tours throughout the year had taken a toll on his health and his doctor insisted that he cancel all other shows for the rest of the year.

Its a bit of a damper for thousands of fans who were looking forward to the concert but Wizkid has promised to hold the concert next year.
Scott Zulpo is facing stiff competition.

He's adding a senior project manager, a network analyst, and a help desk worker to his 55-member IT staff at BCU, a Vernon Hills, Ill.-based credit union where he is vice president of IT. He plans to add even more people in 2017 to keep up with an increasing demand for tech-driven innovations.

"The challenge is twofold -- first finding talent, and then determining if that talent has the skills, experience, and personality to thrive in the position," says Zulpo, who's mindful that "the cost and impact of not hiring an 'A' player is huge."

Zulpo has his work cut out for him. He's hiring at time when few IT professionals are out of work, so competition for tech talent is fierce. The unemployment rate for tech workers is about 2%, according to reports on recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Moreover, Zulpo is seeking the same skills that many of his fellow IT leaders also need. Computerworld's Forecast 2017 survey of 196 IT professionals found that both project management and technical support were among the top 10 most sought-after skills among survey respondents who said they plan on adding head count in the new year.

"The IT labor market is still very hot. The candidate is very much in the driver's seat," says Jason Hayman, market research manager for IT staffing firm TEKsystems.

Hayman cites a government report that estimates that 500,000 to 1 million IT jobs go unfilled every year, but notes that some analysts say the figure is closer to 2 million. He says there's a classic supply-and-demand scenario working here, with demand for talent far exceeding supply. "The takeaway is there aren't enough of these workers," he says.

Here's a look at the top 10 most in-demand tech skills, as determined by the 29% of respondents to Computerworld's Forecast 2017 survey who said they plan to increase head count in the next 12 months.

If you're a manager looking to hire people with these skills, be prepared -- it could take a while to find the right person. If you're an IT pro in possession of these skills, congratulations: Your services are in demand. If you intend to refresh your tech skills for 2017, start taking notes -- this is where the action will be in the upcoming year.

Computerworld

Programming/application development

35% of respondents with hiring plans said they will be seeking people with this skill in the next 12 months.

Developers and programmers continue to be leading players in the IT world, with hiring managers citing programing and application development as the top skills they will be seeking in the upcoming year.

"Companies are still developing software and applications," says Jack Cullen, president of IT staffing firm Modis. Companies need tech pros who can customize off-the-shelf applications, work on APIs and integration points, and even develop proprietary software -- yes, that's still happening, even in the age of SaaS (software as a service). Systems need to be maintained and updated, which further sustains the need for developers and programmers.

Because of the strong demand for these specialists, organizations have to pay top dollar to attract talent. In fact, Cullen says he sees employers trying to entice top candidates to leave their current positions by making them offers that exceed their current salaries by upwards of 15%.

Help desk/technical support

35% of respondents with hiring plans said they will be seeking people with this skill in the next 12 months.

BCU's Zulpo is looking for a new service desk manager to replace someone who recently left. He says he knows he's competing with many other employers as he tries to recruit help desk talent, but he still has high standards for this hire.

"We're looking for someone who not only can handle tickets coming in, but can help us bring in best practices, policies and procedures," Zulpo says.

Help desk staff remains in high demand because technology is so pervasive, says Rafi Khan, the former CIO at Riverside Community Care and now a senior consultant at Open Minds, a health and human services management consultancy.

That's also why it's critical to find the right people for these jobs. Even though support technician is sometimes seen as an entry-level position, Khan says companies often require candidates to have broad knowledge about different hardware and software systems so they can handle requests from all over the organization.

IT staffing firm Robert Half Technology lists help desk and desktop support professionals (especially Tier 2 and Tier 3 personnel) among the most in-demand tech workers for 2017. It says annual salaries range from $36,000 to $51,750 for Tier 1 workers, and from $60,000 to $80,500 for Tier 3 professionals.

Security/compliance/governance

26% of respondents with hiring plans said they will be seeking people with this skill in the next 12 months.

As manager of information management systems at the Central Pension Fund, Gregory Drauch oversees nine people who support 70 employees at the Washington, D.C., nonprofit organization. He says he's now assessing what skills he needs for the upcoming year but already expects to add security competencies to the mix.

"Security is an ever-evolving threat, and it takes work to make sure your own skills are up to date," he says.

As an IT leader at a small organization with a small tech team, Drauch sees the need for all IT staffers to have security proficiencies so that infrastructure and data security become routine parts of everyone's duties. "If it's not built in from the start, security is much more difficult to incorporate effectively," he says.

Drauch plans to hire a consultant to help him strengthen the organization's security posture and engage a managed security service provider for penetration testing. He hopes to use both to train existing team members in current best practices and security technologies -- because the high salary that a full-time security professional commands in the current market is a stretch for an organization of Central Pension Fund's size.

Karsten Scherer, the global analyst relations lead at TEKsystems, says even companies that are able to pay top dollar have trouble finding seasoned security professionals, particularly individuals with recognized credentials such as the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP). "There are far fewer people in the market than there are jobs for them," he says.

Cloud/SaaS

26% of respondents with hiring plans said they will be seeking people with this skill in the next 12 months.

Peter Danchak has been in IT for more than 25 years, the past 16 at Data Recognition Corp. (DRC), where he's now a systems administrator. Over the years, he has seen several companies, including his own, migrate more and more infrastructure to the cloud.

Danchak now works mostly with cloud technologies, supporting integration and engineering the architecture needed for a cloud environment. He says he gained the necessary skills through independent study and company-sponsored training -- and those skills have been welcome additions to his resume.

"The cloud environment is growing so fast, it's creating many new opportunities for businesses and workers," Danchak says.

There's no single skill associated with cloud computing or SaaS; rather, companies are looking for a range of experiences and skills in candidates for cloud-related positions, says Sean Dowling, a partner at talent acquistion firm WinterWyman and manager of recruiting strategy in the firm's technology contract staffing division.

"Cloud architects, software engineers with cloud or AWS [Amazon Web Services] experience, DevOps engineers -- you see [ads for those people] all day long," he says, noting that help-wanted posts for system administrators and network engineers who have cloud experience are also plentiful.

Business intelligence/analytics

26% of respondents with hiring plans said they will be seeking people with this skill in the next 12 months.

As manager of data analytics for North Carolina healthcare system Mission Health, Arun Murugesan has seen his team grow from two people to 35 in just a few years. He expects to hire 15 to 20 people in the next couple of years as his organization seeks to gain greater insights from the data it collects.

"There has been a huge surge in [the number of] people harnessing the power of data," he says. Healthcare companies have put a particularly high premium on BI and analytics skills, but the insurance and financial services industries, the retail sector, and other industries are also driving demand for these specialists.

"Companies want to mine their data to gain a competitive advantage," says John Reed, senior executive director of Robert Half Technology, explaining that companies need tech pros who can turn data into insights that senior leaders can use to understand buying patterns and industry trends and ultimately drive business strategy.

Top candidates for BI and analytics jobs often have math, engineering, and statistical backgrounds, Reed says. They know how to use specific BI tools and are skilled in data-related programming languages such as SQL. They're also business-savvy and are able to mine the data to show ways to improve revenue or cut costs or otherwise deliver competitive advantages.

Web development

26% of respondents with hiring plans said they will be seeking people with this skill in the next 12 months.

The internet is the vehicle that organizations use to connect employees, clients, partners and customers, so it's not surprising that the job of web developer remains a staple in the IT team, and that talented web developers continue to be in demand even as companies add social and mobile platforms to their portfolios.

WinterWyman's Dowling says companies are hiring both full-time web developers and contractors at a fast clip. Employers are particularly interested in technologists skilled in front-end development, so they're searching for people with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript expertise.

"The website is your storefront; you need a slick interface that supports content and connects with other systems," Dowling says.

Companies are continually updating and innovating in this area, Dowling says, and that's one of the big reasons why web development expertise is among the top 10 most sought-after skills.

According to recent statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, demand for web developers will grow significantly faster than demand for other tech professionals. According to BLS estimates, by 2024 the number of web development jobs is likely to have grown 27% from 2014 levels, translating into 148,500 additional jobs. The average projected rate of growth for all IT jobs in that same time frame is 12%.

Computerworld

Database administration

25% of respondents with hiring plans said they will be seeking people with this skill in the next 12 months.

Database administration "is a skill set that is not going away," says Kitty Brandtner, who connects Chicago-area companies with IT talent through her role at recruiting firm LaSalle Network. Case in point: Brandtner says there's not a month where her firm doesn't see demand for SQL programmers and other skills related to database administration.

According to the most recent statistics from the BLS, it's a good time to be -- or become -- a DBA (database administrator). The agency has pegged the rate of growth in employment opportunities for these professionals at 11% from 2014 to 2024 -- a pace that would add an additional 13,400 jobs.

Employers expect top DBAs to have a range of skills. Proficiency in data modeling and database design rank high, as does the ability to ensure database performance and data integrity, recruiters say.

DBAs also need to understand the user experience to ensure that data is of good quality from the time it is input, says Michelle Beveridge, CIO at Intrepid Group, an adventure travel company. Beveridge has one database administrator on staff and may hire another in a year or so. She says based on the market for this position, she's already expecting a challenge.

"It's hard to find DBAs who can put themselves in the shoes of the user as a means to improving data quality," Beveridge says. "Many DBAs think in terms of data rules, mandatory input requirements and data structures rather than close examination of the business processes behind the data collection."

Project management

25% of respondents with hiring plans said they will be seeking people with this skill in the next 12 months.

Over the past 18 months, BCU's Zulpo set up a project management office with a half-dozen professionals to shepherd the credit union's growing number of projects. He says he's now looking to add one more professional to his staff to keep up with the volume of work.

His expectations for this candidate are high: He's looking for someone with a PMP (Project Management Professional) certification, a master's degree and a track record of successfully managing projects, as well as the ability to collaborate with various business partners and juggle multiple projects.

"This is a highly visible person," Zulpo says, and given his lengthy list of desired qualities, he knows he might need three to six months to fill the position. But a lengthy search is worth the trouble because hiring that wrong person would be costly -- a situation that "that applies to all our positions across IT."

Zulpo's comments mirror what other hiring managers are saying about project management, according to TEKsystems' Hayman. They expect candidates to have certifications and solid experience. Moreover, candidates must show they understand the technical and functional elements of the role and that they can communicate with people and lead teams. And on top of that they must be good cultural fits, too.

Computerworld

Big data

25% of respondents with hiring plans said they will be seeking people with this skill in the next 12 months.

Companies are inundated with information harvested from various sources, and they need experienced people to extract insights and value from the wealth of structured and unstructured data they have amassed, says Matt Leighton, director of recruiting for Mondo.

Leighton says companies want big data pros who are able to build out current data sets and have experience in specific technologies such as Hadoop and Oracle. They're also looking for engineers and architects who know big-data-oriented computer languages, such as Scala. And they want people with experience in specific industries, because industry experience helps big data professionals derive insights and value from the firehose of data.

Mobile applications and device management

21% of respondents with hiring plans said they will be seeking people with this skill in the next 12 months.

Several years into the mobile revolution, mobile initiatives are still top of mind for IT leaders and their companies: Expertise in mobile apps and mobile device management are still among the 10 most sought-after IT skills, and 35% of the respondents to Computerworld's Forecast survey said they plan to increase spending on mobile applications in 2017, making mobile the No. 2 spending priority for the year.

Reltio, a data management firm in Redwood Shores, Calif., doesn't deploy its own mobile apps, yet managers still need staffers who understand mobile, says Ramon Chen, who oversees personnel and recruiting as chief marketing officer and head of product management.

"We want our existing platform and applications to deploy in a browser-responsive manner, meaning the same code knows when it's running on mobile and that it should display in a mobile-friendly way," he says. And for that to happen, he needs IT employees with mobile app development know-how.

Reltio currently doesn't have mobile-only job titles. Instead, it expects all of its developers to have mobile skills as part of their repertoires. Chen is, however, currently seeking two specialists -- a user interface (UI) designer and a senior UI designer -- to help the company carry out its strategy of delivering on mobile and, more specifically, to help create the best user interfaces and user experiences.

"We want someone who doesn't just design [the mobile app] but also manages it once it's built and in use," he says. "These people need to be customer-facing, too, to be able to get feedback about what [users] like and don't like."

Chen's approach to hiring for these positions, and for mobile skills overall, mirrors the strategies of other IT leaders. He says he wants candidates with the required skills, but he also wants people who fit culturally. Yes, he concedes, it's tough to land people like that in a job market where competition for mobile talent is fierce. But he's willing to take upwards of three months to find the right individuals.

This story, "10 hottest tech skills for 2017" was originally published by Computerworld .
Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Dec. 9

By Demir Azizov  Trend:

Foreign ministers of five Central Asian countries and the US discussed the prospects of cooperation for 2017-2018 in the C5+1 format during their meeting in Hamburg, the Uzbek Foreign Ministrys press service said.

The meeting was held as part of the foreign ministers participation in the OSCE Ministerial Council meeting in Hamburg.

During the multilateral meeting, the sides discussed the current state and prospects of cooperation within the C5+1 format in 2017-2018, as well as the implementation of projects in the sphere of regional security, economic development and environmental protection in the Central Asian countries.

During the Hamburg meeting, foreign ministers of the Central Asian countries and the US Secretary of State John Kerry noted their mutual interest in further development of cooperation through this format.

The C5+1 format was created in 2015. The US Secretary of State John Kerry had a meeting with foreign ministers of all five Central Asian countries (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) in New York in September 2015.
Private homebuilder Brandywine Homes has purchased 3.2 acres of vacant land in Escondido, Calif., on which it plans to build custom homes and a self-storage facility. Its the companys first ground-up self-storage development, according to a press release.

The property at 2319 Cranston Drive is in the Kit Carson neighborhood, about 30 miles northeast of downtown San Diego. The storage facility will sit on 1.74 acres and contain 586 units in two structures: a two-story, 66,831-square-foot building over a basement and a single-story, 11,236-square-foot building.

The property will also include 24 parking spaces with loading areas, 6-foot-high masonry screen/noise walls along the eastern and southern boundaries, and a 6-foot-high masonry block wall and wrought-iron fencing along the western boundary. Ornamental landscaping will include a 20-foot landscape buffer along property boundaries adjacent to residents. Four custom homes will be constructed on the property on 12,602- to 14,000-square-foot lots.

"We're excited about moving into a new, up-and-coming arena of real estate with this project," said Mark Whitehead, principal in charge of construction. "We chose this property because of its convenient location with easy accessibility for many residents, and we're confident it will add value to the neighborhood."

The property has housing developments to the north and east and is surrounded by commercial centers. One of the oldest cities in San Diego, Escondido is growing rapidly, the release stated.

Based in Irvine, Calif., Brandywine Homes has more than two decades of experience in developing infill sites. Founded in 1994, the family-owned and -operated company has built or developed more than 60 communities totaling $1.1 billion in revenue.
Update 1/23/17  The Shreveport City Council is expected to decide on Tuesday whether to allow Southern Storage Centers to expand the Brookshires structure on Fern Avenue. If approved, the South Highlands Storage Center and Retail Shoppes project would expand the building from 23,000 to nearly 80,000 square feet, which exceeds the recommendation put forth by the metropolitan planning commission last month, according to the source. The commission recommended an expansion cap of 34 percent of the total property.

Lennard recently submitted plan changes based on planning feedback and community concerns. Those plans indicate a smaller first floor than initially proposed at 51,340 square feet, which would be 49 percent of the lot. The second floor would bring total square footage inside the building to 79,260, the source reported. In addition, plans now also include five retail spaces that would front Fern Avenue, including outdoor patio seating. The developer also indicated hed install a 60-foot green space with oak trees and a pathway.

Were trying to accommodate the community and their concerns, Lennard recently told planners. Weve been trying to be a good neighbor.

Though the commission recommended the project, planners contended the proposed footprint was too large for only self-storage, calling it a sterile use of the property. Commission director Mark Sweeney said the sterile tag doesnt apply with the addition of retail and the green space, according to the source. Theyve really turned the corner on that initial recommendation, Sweeney said. The new site plan is more compatible with the neighborhood.

Amid continued opposition from some residents, Dallas-based Spirit Realty Capital Inc. has expressed reservations about the facilitys design. The real estate firm owns the former El Chico and Campbell TV spaces, which are connected to the Brookshires building. Asset-management director Tyler Sorenson indicated the project would detrimentally impact the ingress/egress of Spirits property, in an email to the council clerk.

According to documents Lennard provided the commission, Brookshires is willing to sell the property only if it isnt turned into a fast-foot restaurant, grocery store or other retail business that sells food, the source reported.

12/9/16  The Shreveport, La., Metropolitan Planning Commission voted 8-1 yesterday to recommend approving a plan to convert a former Brookshires grocery store to a two-story self-storage facility. Southern Storage Centers is in the process of acquiring the Madison Park property, and though current zoning allows self-storage as a use, the operator needs city-council approval to expand the 20,000-square-foot structure, a source reported.

The commission voted favorably despite opposition from residents in the nearby Broadmoor neighborhood, who would prefer a mixed-use retail development that would bring more sales-tax revenue, according to a source. The structure hasnt been an active retail site for about 20 years and is currently used by Brookshires as a training facility. Southern Storage CEO Ricky Lennard told the commission the $3 million project would wind up generating up to $100,000 in annual property taxes.

Lennard also indicated the company has 65 customers within a mile of the property who would be able to use the new facility rather than an existing location on Ellerbe Road. Though the land parcel itself would be the operators smallest, the expanded building would be the companys largest. "I've been watching that Brookshire's for years, and no one has done anything with it," he told the commission. "We feel like we could be a good neighbor and build something good in it."

Rob Broussard, president of the Broadmoor Neighborhood Association, argued that no other uses have come before the city because Brookshire's hadnt offered the structure for sale. "We believe [the self-storage facility] would lower property values," Broussard told the commission. "Build it within the confines of the structure, and I won't have a problem with it."

Two neighboring business owners spoke in favor of the project. "We're struggling right now," said Charles Klepper, who operates an Exxon gas station next to the building. "Some of us are doing well, some aren't. But we need some economic development. I'm for this; this is great."

Robert Baucum, owner of the adjacent restaurant Marilynns Place, told commissioners Lennard has been receptive to allowing overflow parking from the eatery to use the propertys excess space. Lennard also said he could accommodate Krewe of Highland, a local Mardi Gras group, to continue to use the property to stage its floats, according to a source.

Southern Storage Centers operates six self-storage facilities in Louisiana, including four in Shreveport.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 9

Trend:

The Uzbek Central Election Commission (CEC) has approved the final results of the presidential election, in which Shavkat Mirziyoyev was elected the countrys president for the next five years, the CEC press service said.

The country held early presidential election Dec. 4.

Mirziyoyev was the countrys acting president after the death of the first Uzbek President Islam Karimov, who passed away after suffering a stroke on Sept. 2.

The Central Election Commission of Uzbekistan has resolved to consider Shavkat Miromonovich Mirziyoyev elected as the president of the Republic of Uzbekistan, reads the CEC message.

As previously reported, more than 15.9 million voters, or 88.61 percent of all voters who participated in the voting, cast their ballots for Mirziyoyev.

Overall, more than 17.94 million people, or 87.83 percent of all voters cast their votes.
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Inflation remains the primary concern for the worlds central banks, which have engaged in the broadest and fastest tightening regime in history, according to Alejandra Grindal, chief economist at Ned Davis Research.
Toronto-based software company Symbility Solutions Inc. announced yesterday that it has been chosen by the P&V Group, a cooperative insurance group based in Belgium, to create claims adjudication solutions for the latters insurance agents and brokers.Symbility specializes in developing insurance claims solutions, particularly for the property and health industries.The P&V Group is one of the largest insurers in Belgium, utilizing independent insurance brokers and agents to service institutional and retail clients (both in public and non-public sectors).Through this partnership, the P&V Group can now offer Symbility products such as Symbility Claims Connect, Symbility Mobile Claims and Symbility Video Connect through its distribution channels and brands.We are very pleased to further expand our global footprint and presence in Belgium by working alongside the P&V Group, one of the leading and oldest insurers in the country, said Symbility Solutions CEO James Swayze.We continue to see demand for new and innovative technologies that are efficient and transparent in the claims adjudication process. In working with the P&V Group, our solutions will be leveraged across 100s of distribution channels and support a wide range of different stakeholders in the process.We are thrilled to be providing world-class software solutions to our vast network of industry stakeholders that ensures our customers receive an unparalleled experience, added Symbility manager of technical inspection and external networks Patrick Cautaerts. We look forward to using Symbilitys collection of solutions to support our different brands and distribution channels across the country.
The driver of a Baltimore school bus that careened into a transit bus, killing him and five others, was speeding, had a history of previous crashes and had a seizure the week before, national investigators said Wednesday.

Glenn Chappell was driving about 57 mph in a 30-mph zone  nearly twice the speed limit  when he struck a Ford Mustang from behind before colliding with an oncoming Maryland Transit Administration bus last month, according to the National Transportation Safety Boards initial report.

Chappell was driving the school bus for AAAfordable LLC of Baltimore, which held a contract with Baltimore City Public Schools until Nov. 21 of this year. No children were on board at the time of the crash.

The transit bus driver and four passengers were also killed. Eleven people were injured.

Reports referencing Chappells previous crashes and other incidents said Chappell had seizure-like episodes. Chappell had an actual seizure just a week before the Nov. 1 crash.

In addition, while Chappell had a medical certificate allowing him to drive the school bus, he had not filed it with the Maryland Vehicle Administration, which made it illegal for him to be driving the bus, the report said.

Chappells wife told investigators after an earlier crash that he had been taking medication for seizures when he got into an accident two years ago.

Chappell had been driving buses since 2008. He began working for AAAfordable in 2014, but took a break between April and August of this year, during which time he drove for other bus companies.

Shawn Braxton, who was behind the wheel of the Ford Mustang, was shocked to learn that Chappell had both a history of car crashes and a known medical condition.

Thats just crazy, Braxton said in an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Im upset about it, and saddened because he felt the need to continue to drive the bus even though he had a medical condition, and Im saddened that the bus company kept him hired because he had a medical condition and they should have been monitoring him, he said.

Mayor Catherine Pugh, who was sworn in Tuesday morning, said in a statement that she is very concerned about the way bus drivers are cleared for duty.

We entrust the lives of our children to these public servants, so we need to make sure they are up to the task, Pugh said.

Dr. Stephen Richards, director of the Southeastern Transportation Center at the University of Tennessee, who reviewed the preliminary report, said the lack of communication between the MVA and the school system about Chappells outdated medical certificate could be an area that needs attention.

The fact that no certificate had been turned in, and the public agency that kept track of that certificate  had recognized that he should not be driving, thats where the breakdown occurred, Richards said. If theres lag time before the entire system caught it with that, they may need to look at that and enact some safeguards.

George Bogris, an attorney representing AAAfordable, did not immediately return a call and email seeking comment.

Del. Kumar Barve, who chairs the Maryland House Environment and Transportation Committee, said the report reflected a failure of the school system, and added that he planned to have the legislative committee briefed on the NTSB report.

Baltimore schools spokeswoman Edie House-Foster said in a written statement that the school system is continuing to work diligently to review and tighten processes and practices related to bus contracts.

The safety of our students, the adults who staff school buses and other drivers and passengers is our top priority, she said. House-Foster declined to comment further.

Associated Press Writer Brian Witte in Annapolis, Maryland contributed to this report.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Personal Auto Education Maryland
Massachusetts lawmakers have given final approval to new safety rules for amphibious sightseeing vehicles, more commonly known as duck boats.

The bill was enacted by the House and Senate during informal sessions.

The measure would require all duck boat operators to separate the responsibilities of driver and tour guide. It also calls for blind spot cameras and proximity sensors on all the vehicles.

The legislation was filed following the April death of 28-year-old Allison Warmuth, who was struck and killed by a Boston Duck Tours vehicle while riding a scooter near Boston Common.

The company has since announced that it will no longer allow duck boat drivers to narrate tours.

A spokesman for Republican Governor Charlie Baker said he was looking forward to reviewing the bill on his desk.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Massachusetts
A Bangladesh government-appointed panel investigating the cyber-heist of $81 million from its central bank in February found five officials at the bank were guilty of negligence and carelessness, the head of the panel told Reuters on Thursday.

In his first detailed comments on the inquiry since a report was submitted to the government in May, former central bank governor Mohammed Farashuddin said the officials were low to mid-level and were not directly involved in the crime.

They were negligent, careless and indirect accomplices, he said in an interview in his office. The committee came to the conclusion that the heist was essentially committed by external elements.

Bangladesh has so far refused to make the inquiry report public saying it wanted to deny perpetrators knowledge of the investigation into one of the worlds biggest cyber heists.

It was not immediately known if Bangladesh had shared the report with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, the main agency investigating the crime.

Farashuddin did not name the officials he found were negligent. A senior central bank official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said no action had been taken against any employee since the inquiry report had not been made public.

Bangladesh Bank spokesman Subhankar Saha declined comment.

Although over 10 months have passed since the heist, there have been no arrests and no word on who carried out the complex heist.

Hackers used stolen credentials to try to transfer nearly $1 billion from Bangladesh Banks account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York through the SWIFT transaction system. Many of the transfer orders were blocked or reversed but $81 million was sent to accounts in a branch of Rizal Commercial Banking Corp (RCBC) in the Philippines.

The money eventually went into the sprawling casino industry in the Philippines and most of it remains untraced.

Like Bangladesh police investigators, Farashuddin said the inquiry panel also found the hackers may have exploited loopholes in the banks online security when technicians hooked up the central banks local money transfer system with SWIFTs international payments network late last year.

SWIFT has denied charges that its technicians were responsible for exposing Bangladesh Banks systems to hackers.

Reuters has reported earlier that Bangladesh Bank had not protected its computer system with a firewall, and used second-hand $10 electronic switches to network computers linked to SWIFT, weaknesses that the hackers may also have exploited.

Farashuddin said that RCBC was responsible for allowing the stolen funds to be withdrawn and disbursed into the casino industry. Bangladesh has said it wants RCBC to compensate it for its losses.

RCBC has said Bangladesh Bank was negligent in letting the initial security breach take place there, and hence the Manila-based bank need not pay any compensation. So far only about $15 million of the stolen funds have been recovered.

Farashuddin said his personal opinion was it would be better to make the inquiry report public, since it would make clear that some local officials were negligent but not responsible for the heist.

If the government would publish, then Bangladesh Banks position would be strengthened, he said.

Bangladeshs law minister said earlier this week that his government would share the findings of the inquiry with Philippine authorities.

(Writing by Krishna N. Das; editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

Related:

Topics Cyber
Policyholders of American Family Mutual Insurance Co. (AFMIC) have voted to approve the companys plan to convert its corporate structure to a mutual holding company.

Madison, Wis.-based American Family said it received 84.5 percent support for the conversion from votes cast by proxy or in person, surpassing the required 75 percent.

The conversion to a mutual holding company, previously approved by the Wisconsin Office of the Commissioner of Insurance and American Familys board of directors, will become effective upon issuance of a certificate of authority by the Wisconsin Office of the Commissioner, which is expected on or shortly after Jan. 1, 2017.

Under the new structure, American Family Insurance Mutual Holding Co. will become the groups new parent company, with AFMIC becoming a stock subsidiary company wholly owned by the mutual holding company.

American Family said the approval will provide the company with the additional flexibility it needs to pursue future customer-driven opportunities. These include investing in and/or acquiring non-insurance companies that specialize in products and services that proactively protect customers from accidents and injuries, such as smart-home technology and distracted-driving prevention. The conversion also better positions American Family to acquire other mutual insurance companies.

A mutual holding company also retains American Familys nearly 90-year history as a company owned by its policyholders. Policyholders of AFMIC will have the same membership rights they have now, while membership rights will also be extended to policyholders of certain other subsidiaries who underwrite property/casualty products sold by American Family agents.

While a mutual holding company structure would allow American Family to consider the sale of stock to raise capital, it has no plans do so. Any initial sale of voting stock would require prior approval of the mutual holding company board and members, and the Wisconsin Office of the Commissioner of Insurance.

Coverage, premium rates and claims handling under existing American Family insurance policies are unaffected by the change to a mutual holding company. Company and agent operations are also unaffected.

Nearly 210,000 AFMIC policyholders voted on the conversion plan, for a response rate of approximately 6 percent. That response rate is consistent with proxy votes of other financial services companies, according to AST Fund Solutions, a firm that specializes in conducting and tabulating proxy votes and assisted American Family in its effort.

Source: AFMIC

Topics Oklahoma Wisconsin
Specialty Program Group, a holding company for specialty insurance brokers and underwriting facilities, has acquired the assets of Global Marine Insurance Agency.

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Based in Traverse City, Mich., Global Marine is a national brokerage firm specializing in providing insurance solutions to the boating community including boats, yachts, mega yachts, personal watercrafts, marinas, boat dealers and commercial marine vessels.

Headquartered in Summit, N.J., Specialty Program Group focuses on expanding program underwriting and specialty businesses.

Source: Specialty Program Group

Topics Mergers & Acquisitions Excess Surplus Michigan
Keystone Insurers Group announced the addition of three more agency partners in Michigan: Nulty Insurance Agency, Ottawa Kent Insurance and Mason-McBride Inc.

Keystone recently expanded into Michigan, adding Saginaw Bay Underwriters, which has offices in Saginaw, Bay City and Midland.

Nulty Insurance, with locations in Kalamazoo, Otsego, Iron Mountain and Buchanan, was established in 1945 by TG Nultys grandfather and currently employs more than 50 professionals. The agency has experienced a steady growth in new business with diverse hiring and leadership promotion and benefits consultation for the Affordable Care Act. TG Nulty joined the agency as a producer in 1998 and became president in 1999.

Ottawa Kent has four locations in the Grand Rapids area, in Jenison, Sparta, Holland and Byron Center. The agency was established in 1973 by Mike and Matt Haverdinks father. Today, it has more than 50 employees and conducts business around the state. Mike Haverdink serves as president and Matt Haverdink is vice president. The brothers became agency owners in 1996.

Mason-McBride Insurance Inc. in Troy was established in 1916. President W. Michael McBride joined the agency in 1984. His brother, Scott P. McBride, joined in 1988 and is the current chief operating officer. Jamie Parry, executive vice president, joined as a principal as part of the integration of Summit Risk Management in 2006.

Agency principals and staff are active members of the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (Big I). Four past and current presidents of the state association are from Mason-McBride. Mike McBride currently serves on the Big I national board representing the state of Michigan, and he serves as chairman for the Trusted Choice board. The agency writes business in many states across the country and boasts a staff of more than 30 employees.

Keystone has around 300 independent agency partners in 11 states.

Source: Keystone Insurers Group

Related:

Topics Carriers Agencies Michigan
Authorities on Wednesday charged two juveniles in an East Tennessee wildfire that killed 14 people and destroyed or damaged more than 1,700 buildings in an iconic tourism spot at the foot of the Great Smoky Mountains.

Officials offered few other specifics about how they think the two started a fire that leveled buildings into charred scraps, carving a deadly path through the Gatlinburg area.

People scrambled in terror to try to flee on foot or drive out of the inferno that often cloaked them from all sides, shooting hot embers through the winds. Some spent days hoping for good news about their missing loved ones. Many learned they would soon be planning funerals.

The juveniles face aggravated arson charges in the fire in the Chimney Tops area of Great Smoky Mountains National Park on Nov. 23. That fire grew amid drought conditions and ultimately rode winds exceeding 87 miles per hour into the Gatlinburg area early last week. Authorities have not yet announced a dollar amount on the damaged caused by the wildfire.

The two are being held in the Sevier County juvenile detention center.

Our promise is that we will do every effort to help bring closure to those who have lost so much, said Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Director Mark Gwyn.

The juveniles are from Tennessee, but not Sevier County, where the fires spread. Otherwise, officials said state law prevents releasing more information about them.

Karyssa Dalton, a 19-year-old whose grandmother Pamela Johnson remains missing in the blaze, said the two should be held accountable, even though theyre young.

I mean, what if somebody came through their town, and set their town on fire, and lost their loved ones, and lost all their homes? Dalton said. Its not fair.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park Chief Ranger Steve Kloster said the public was critical in offering investigators information through a tip line. Previously, the National Park Service said it believed the fire was human caused, and set up a tip line for people to call if they hiked that trail on Nov. 23, or knew anyone who did.

The investigation is ongoing and more charges could come. Its also possible that the case could be transferred to an adult criminal court, Dunn said.

The juveniles are entitled to a detention hearing within 72 hours in which a juvenile court judge will decide to hold them without bond, hold them with bond, or release them, Dunn said.

Dunn constantly said everything was part of the investigation when asked for details.

Asked if others could be charged in the fire, Dunn repeated that everythings on the table.

We dont know, he said.

On Wednesday, Gatlinburg residents and business owners were allowed to move back into homes and establishments permanently. They had been allowed to visit during daytime hours since last Friday.

The city is slated to open to the public on Friday morning. Though swaths of the city were decimated, the main downtown strip appears to have been spared.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Catastrophe Natural Disasters Wildfire Tennessee
By Dalga Khatinoglu

Iran signed three heads of agreements (HOA) with Anglo-Dutch Shell to study South Azadegan with less than 6 percent oil recovery rate and Yadavaran with 8 percent oil recovery rate as well as the countrys second major gas deposit Kish field with 1.4 trillion cubic meters of sour gas reserves.

Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) sector still remains one of Irans major challenges in upstream sector.

Azadegan and Yadavaran as well as Yaran field are joint between Iran and Iraq, called West Karoon block with 64 billion barrels of oil in-situ reserves, accounting about 8 percent of the countrys total oil in-situ reserves. The recovery rate of this block is about 6 percent in average, namely in normal situation, Iran is able to produce only 6 percent of the reserves. The country plans to increase this rate to 25 percent.

In total, the recovery rate of Irans oil fields is about 25 percent.

Fiscal Year Recoverable oil reserves Life of reserves New in-situ reserves discovery Oil production Billion barrels Billion barrels Billion barrels 2006/2007 138.2 85 9.26 1.480 2007-2008 137.6 84 2.841 1.497 2008/2009 137 84 9.719 1.466 2009/2010 151.2 94 1.04 1.433 2010/2011 154.6 95 1.5 1.439 2011/2012 156.5 96 1.68 1.424 2012/2013 156.5 127 2.12 1.037 2013/2014 157.5 128 - 1.030 2014/2015 158.4 125 2.29 1.023

Iran has injected about 580 bcm to oil fields during 1995-2016, but the figure is two times less than the demanded volume to maintain oil production level. According to a research conducted by Irans Oil Ministry, seen by Trend, for extracting each extra barrel of oil, about 85 cubic meters of gas re-injection is needed and the cost of production, transit and injection of each cubic meter of gas is less than 3 cents. Then, re-injection of gas to oil fields is very profitable, while 80 percent of the re-cycled gas is recoverable.

Increasing the recovery rate of oil by injecting gas and polymer or water flooding can increase the life of field, production volume and cumulative output relatively, but Iran needs new technology, modern studies and new method of drillings, etc to boost the recovery rate of fields. For instance, Water may be effective for oils that are lighter in density, but it only results in a 10% extraction rate for reservoirs containing heavier oils, according to International Energy Agency (IEA).

For instance, currently French giant is studying Irans biggest gas field, South Pars, joint with Qatar.

The sides have produced 3.4 trillion cubic meters (tcm) of gas from this field with more than 50 tcm reserves cumulatively. Currently, Iran and Qatar produces about 350 bcm/y altogether from South Pars, while Iran plans to increase its production from the current 160 bcm/y to 290 bcm in 2021.

The Iranian section of the gas field holds 13 trillion m3 of gas and 18bn barrels of condensates and the pressure of reservoir is expected to fall in 2023. Total is studying the behaviour of field and needed technologies and the method of recovery rate increasing ways, but initially, compressors and 20,000-metric ton platforms  ten times heavier that the current platforms there  are needed for maintaining the gas and gas condensate output.

According to the IEA, 30-70 percent more oil could be recovered from mature oil reservoirs through the use of enhanced oil recovery technologies by 2040.

EOR market is expected to reach $283 billion by 2020, according to a research, published by Hexa Reports.

Regarding $583 billion aglobal investment in upstream oil and gas sector in 2015 and $1.8 trillion total investments in energy sector, the EOR market perspective is quite bright and huge.

Currently, above 80 percent of Irans active oil fields are in their second half-life and naturally lose 8-12 percent of their productivity each year. On the other hand, Iran has introduced 49 oil and gas fields for foreigners to be developed. Adding a percent on Irans average oil recovery rate equals producing more 7-8 billion barrels of oil.

Dalga Khatinoglu is the head of Trend Agency's Iran news service, follow him on Twitter: @dalgakhatinoglu
Chattanooga, Tenn.-based Reliance Partners, a provider of commercial insurance focused on the transportation and logistics space, has announced the opening of the companys new Birmingham, Ala., location.

Eddie Claridy will lead the new Reliance operation locally in Birmingham. He is a Leeds, Ala., native and has been with Reliance Partners since early 2016. Claridy is familiar with the Birmingham market having previously served as vice president for 3PL industry giant Access America Transport. Claridy continued to manage the Birmingham branch for Coyote Logistics following the Coyote/AAT merger and later through Coyotes acquisition by UPS in 2015.

According to Chad Eichelberger, president and COO of Reliance Partners, the company plans to aggressively invest in jobs in Birmingham.

Reliance Partners is a commercial insurance agency that was founded in 2009. The company serves as a brokerage and consultant for the transportation, logistics and warehousing industries.

Topics Mergers & Acquisitions Alabama
A Stanford University graduate student claimed in a federal lawsuit that the school failed to adequately investigate and discipline a former student who was a known sexual predator while attending the college and sexually assaulted her and other female students between 2011 and 2014.

The woman who sued was identified in court documents filed this week only as Ms. Doe and said she was assaulted in 2014 by the student identified as Mr. X when she refused his demands to perform sexual acts.

The lawsuit said her allegations against the male student were confirmed by a university investigation later that year. The woman is seeking a jury trial and unspecified monetary damages.

Stanford was already being investigated by federal authorities for its handling of sexual assault cases before the lawsuit was filed.

The alleged assaults listed in the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco happened before Stanford swimmer Brock Turner attacked an unconscious woman near a trash bin in January 2015.

Turners high-profile case drew widespread condemnation after a judge sentenced him to six months in prison, prompting California to approve two laws requiring longer sentences for sexual assaults of unconscious victims.

In another alleged assault detailed in the lawsuit, the man identified as Mr. X is accused of entering the dormitory room of an undergraduate student, choking her until she was unconscious and raping her.

Stanford between 2011 and 2014 received multiple reports about sexual assaults by the male student but Stanford effectively ignored those reports, the lawsuit said. The male student has since graduated from Stanford, the lawsuit said.

Stanford in a statement declined to comment on the details in the lawsuit, citing laws that protect student privacy, but said the university will defend itself and file a response in court soon.

Stanford also suggested its ability to respond to allegations about the male student was limited because one or more alleged victims did not cooperate with university investigators.

Without the cooperation of victims, regrettably the university is very limited in what it can do, the statement said. Nonetheless, we provide support to sexual assault survivors and will investigate and adjudicate cases if survivors later change their mind.

Turner served half of his sentence and moved back to his home state of Ohio in September, where he registered as a sex offender.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Lawsuits California Education Universities
California Senate Bill 863 may have contributed to decreases in medical payments per workers compensation claim in 2013 and 2014, according to a study by the Workers Compensation Research Institute.

The WCRI study shows medical payments per claim in California decreased 4 percent in 2013 and then 3 percent in 2014 for claims with more than seven days of lost time at 12 months of experience, mainly driven by decreases in payments per claim for non-hospital services.

Californias experience differed from most of the other 17 states WCRI studied since in many states, medical payments per claim grew from 2012 to 2014, Ramona Tanabe, WCRIs executive vice president and counsel, said in a statement. The decrease in medical payments per claim in California likely reflects the impact of SB 863 provisions.

SB 863 reduced the fee schedule rates for services at ambulatory surgery centers in 2013. Following this policy change, the average ASC facility payment per claim decreased 27 percent from 2012 to 2014, according to the study.

Starting in 2014, the law began phasing in the use of a fee schedule based on Medicares resource-based relative value scale for professional services over a four-year period. WCRI reported that prices paid for primary care services increased while prices paid for specialty care decreased in 2014 and 2015. These changes are consistent with the policy goal.

Other reform provisions outlined in the study that may have contributed to decreases in medical payments per claim include: eliminating separate reimbursement for implantable medical devices, hardware, and instruments for spinal surgeries; requiring a $150 fee to file liens against an employees workers comp benefits and a $100 activation fee for liens already filed; and establishing an independent medical review process.

Among other study findings:

California had higher medical payments per claim compared with many other study states.

Payments per claim for hospital services remained stable from 2009 to 2014 in California.

WCRI studied medical payments, prices, and utilization in 18 states, including California, looking at claim experience through 2015 on injuries that occurred mainly in 2009 to 2014.

Related:

Topics California Trends Claims Workers' Compensation
Il 12,7% degli studenti non arriva al diploma, perche abbandona precocemente gli studi. Il 9,7% del totale, quasi un diplomato su 10 nel 2022, senza le competenze minime necessarie per entrare nel mondo del lavoro o dellUniversita. Inoltre, il 23,1% dei 15-29enni in Italia si trova in un limbo, fuori da ogni percorso di lavoro, istruzione o formazione: il numero dei Neet e il piu alto dellUe, oltre il doppio di Francia e Germania.

Lo rileva Save the Children che, nel nuovo rapporto Alla ricerca del tempo perduto, la definisce dispersione implicita ed e connessa allimpoverimento educativo e alla poverta materiale.

Il rapporto Save the Children

In vista della riapertura delle scuole, lassociazione segnala alcuni deficit strutturali a livello nazionale e locale, in termini di spazi, servizi e tempi educativi, mettendo in luce un paradosso: laddove la poverta minorile e piu alta, e sarebbe dunque importante unofferta formativa di qualita, la scuola e piu povera, privata di tempo pieno, mense e palestre.

Il rapporto segnala una forte disparita geografica nelle dispersione implicita, che risulta piu alta in Campania, al 19,8%. Save the Children cita i dati Invalsi del 2022: se si guarda alle competenze nelle singole materie, in Campania, Calabria e Sicilia piu del 60% degli studenti non raggiungono il livello base delle competenze in italiano, mentre quelle in matematica sono disattese dal 70% degli studenti in Campania, Calabria, Sicilia e Sardegna.

Labbandono scolastico nella maggior parte delle regioni del sud va ben oltre la media nazionale (del 12,7%), con punte in Sicilia (21,1%) e Puglia (17,6%) e valori decisamente piu alti rispetto a Centro e Nord anche in Campania (16,4%) e Calabria (14%).

E un dato di fatto, evidenzia poi Save the Children, che vi sia un correlazione tra livello di apprendimento e alcuni indicatori strutturali, apprezzabile guardando i dati in positivo: nelle province dove lindice di dispersione implicita e piu basso, le scuole primarie hanno assicurato ai bambini maggior offerta di tempo pieno (frequentato dal 31,5% degli studenti contro il 24,9% nelle province ad alta dispersione), maggior numero di mense (il 25,9% delle scuole contro il 18,8%), di palestre (42,4% contro 29%) e sono inoltre dotate di certificato di agibilita (47,9% contro 25,3%). Servirebbero  stima lorganizzazione  1 miliardo e 445 milioni per garantire il tempo pieno in tutte le classi della scuola primaria statale.

Unofferta adeguata di spazi e di tempi educativi  sottolinea  puo contribuire efficacemente a ridurre le disuguaglianze educative territoriali: Proprio dove i bambini, le bambine e gli adolescenti affrontano, con le loro famiglie, le maggiori difficolta economiche ce al contrario maggior bisogno di unofferta educativa piu ricca.

Per questo  osserva Raffaela Milano, direttrice dei Programmi Italia-Europa di Save the Children  chiediamo al nuovo governo che si formera un investimento straordinario che parta dalla attivazione di aree ad alta densita educativa nei territori piu deprivati: investire il 5% del Pil, al pari della media europea, vorrebbe dire rendere disponibili circa 93 miliardi, contro i circa 71 stanziati nel 2020.
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Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 8



By Khalid Kazimov  Trend:



An Iranian diplomat has expressed his countrys support for launching the North-South corridor, saying that the transportation corridor will allow a significant reduction in transportation time and costs.



Iranian Ambassador to Russia Mehdi Sanaei has said that the corridor will reduce the distance between Asia and the Europe by 40 percent as well as 30 percent saving in costs for transporting goods between the two continents, Mehr news agency reported.



Speaking at a conference on the North-South transportation corridor in Moscow, he said that the corridor will contribute to boosting regional trade ties and cooperation.



He added that the transportation corridor will enjoy a multiple mode of transportation including railroad, shipping routes as well as roads to carry cargoes between India, Central Asia as well as Persian Gulf and Europe.



Elaborating on efforts made in his country aimed at launching the corridor, the diplomat added that increasing the capacity of the corridor requires further investment and efforts.



In addition to constructing railways and roads, it is of high importance to develop the ports located along the railways and roads in the corridor particularly on the Caspian Sea coasts and Daghestan, he said.



In order to complete the North-South Transportation Corridor, Iran is expected to construct two inland railroad sections in northern parts of the country, Qazvin-Rasht (175 kilometers) as well as Rasht-Astara (162 kilometers) railways.



In the meantime, Azerbaijan has launched a project to extend its railway into Irans territory through the border city of Astara which is in its final stages and is projected to come on stream in the near future.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 9

By Emil Ilgar  Trend:

Iran has threatened to downgrade the diplomatic ties with the UK, the Islamic Republic's state TV IRIB reported.

Iran's reaction came in return to British Prime Minister Theresa Mays recent statement, where she said she s "clear-eyed" about the threat posed by Iran to the security of the Gulf and wider Middle East, in a speech in Bahrain.

She added that the UK would work with Arab Gulf states to counteract Iran's "aggressive regional actions".

Alaeddin Boroujerdi the Chairman for the Committee for Foreign Policy and National Security of Parliament said that in case the UK continues its divisive policy in the region, Irans parliament would vote again on downgrading the diplomatic relations, from having a UK ambassador in Iran to charge d'affaires.

Iran's parliament passed a bill in 2011 on downgrading the diplomatic ties with theUK, which led to closing the embassies on both sides. The countries resumed the ties on the charge d'affaires level during Hassan Rouhanis presidency, later upgrading to normal diplomatic relations.
The seminars run from 8pm to 10pm at Corrin Mart, Fermoy, Co Cork, on December 13, and at the Newpark Hotel, Kilkenny, on December 14.

Farmers are invited to attend the meetings for free. The aim is to help farmers preparing for audit under the Bord Bia Sustainable Dairy Assurance Scheme and the Beef and Lamb Quality Assurance Scheme.

Quality assurance and traceability play a major role in the promotion of Irish food to consumers and food buyers worldwide, said Billy Goodburn of ICOS Skillnet.

Obtaining quality assurance signals a farmers commitment to consistently high standards of production. It also requires documentation of records, most of which are legal requirements, as proof of the standards and practices that the farmer has worked hard to put in place.

Sometimes a farmer has really good procedures but if they arent properly documented and recorded, which may lead to issues at audit. This programme is aimed at family farms with a particular invite for the person or people who keep and prepare paperwork for the Bord Bia inspection.

It is a step by step programme which shows the correct process for preparation of records and farm documents for audit.

The two events form part of a pilot information and advisory scheme funded by ICOS Skillnet held in conjunction with Bord Bia.

The meetings will be addressed by a consultant veterinary practitioner who will outline the regulatory requirements. A Bord Bia auditor will bring farmers through the process of completing key farm records on a step by step basis.

People will also hear from locally based farmers who will share their experience of the quality assurance audit.

A typical quality assurance audit involves an overall visual inspection of the farm including the milking parlour and dairy where applicable, depending on the audit scheme, said Mr Goodburn.

It also examines livestock welfare arrangements including cattle housing, treatments administered and withdrawal dates. Health and safety measures, hygiene and pest control are also reviewed.

Overall, it is a thorough process which promotes confidence among consumers at home and abroad around the acknowledged high quality of Irish farming and Irish foods.

There are more than 52,000 producers and 120 processors and packers certified as members across Bord Bia Quality Assurance Schemes.
Directly and indirectly, it accounts for around 340,000 jobs in the economy, and this employment is spread regionally around the country.

The 12.5% corporation tax rate has been instrumental to Irelands success in attracting such investment, but the pro-business environment (amongst those who matter) and the quality of the labour force have also contributed. However, Irelands economic model is now under pressure from a number of different sources.

US president-elect Donald Trump has pledged to cut the US corporation tax rate from 35% to 15% to encourage US multinationals to divest overseas and come back to the US; the UK could well take its rate down towards 10% over the coming years in response to the possible Brexit impact on foreign investment in the UK; Ireland is currently appealing the Apple state aid ruling by the EU Commission; and the Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB) has reared its ugly head again.

The CCCTB is an attempt to eliminate corporate tax avoidance by Brussels through the use of transfer pricing and other mechanisms that have the effect of locating profits in countries with the lowest corporation tax rates.

This has the effect of depriving some countries of much-needed tax revenues, and gives other countries a dubious tax boost.

The basic aim of the CCCTB proposal is to make sure that every country utilises similar transfer pricing and other mechanisms and ensuring that there is a common methodology for assessing how much tax corporations should pay in the jurisdictions where they create economic activity.

The Commission opened a public consultation into its proposed scheme for a CCCTB last year, ahead of its relaunch this year.

It is now very much back on the agenda and is creating considerable concern for policy makers here.

Without the UK as a strong ally at the EU table, Irelands position will be weakened as it strives to fight it off.

Regardless of what happens with the CCCTB, and even if Ireland can veto it, the reality is that at a global level, the OECD and the EU are hell-bent on ensuring that corporations pay their fair amount of tax in the jurisdictions where they should.

In an environment where the legacy of the great recession is still being felt, and faced with the expenditure implications of ageing populations, the pressure to maximise tax revenues will only intensify. Ireland is very much in the firing line.

The 26.3% GDP growth rate in 2015 has not helped.

The implication for Ireland is that the ability to attract investment from overseas is becoming pressurised and we will really need to focus on non-tax forms of competitiveness, such as public services, information technology infrastructure, physical infrastructure, and most importantly the quality of education and the labour force.

Faced with these challenges it is more important than ever that we nurture and support our beleaguered SME sector.

Our economy will inevitably become more dependent on this sector. SMEs do not have it easy in Ireland.

A research paper from the Central Bank this week showed just how disadvantaged SMEs are in relation to the high cost they are forced to pay for bank credit.

The tax system also still discriminates against self-employed SME owners, despite the derisory changes in the recent budget.

Many SMEs in the retail and agri-food industries are also now under pressure from the sterling-induced cross-border shopping craze.

There is a myth that fortunes can be saved by travelling north to do the grocery shopping. It is a myth, unless one wants to binge on alcohol.

Those who travel north of the border to achieve derisory savings, and ultimately end up worse off, cannot afford to complain about unemployment and under-funded public services.

They are contributing to those problems.
It is here that 27-year- old entrepreneur Garret Flower is hard at work at his latest venture Parkpnp  the new app and website that aims to become the Airbnb for parking in Ireland and beyond.

Launched last year, Parkpnp is an online marketplace for parking that allows homeowners and businesses to list, advertise and generate income from their unused or under-utilized parking spaces while saving drivers the headache of finding a decent spot with average savings of 50%.

Users can list their spaces completely for free and choose to list per hour, per day, per week, per month, or a variation of the four, he explains over coffee.

You can set it at any price you feel comfortable with and you can use your mobile or do it on the web. In essence, Parkpnp is a marketplace that allows people to make money from their parking space.

The new business marks something of a departure for Flower. For the past four years, he has focused on the running of Krust bakery, the company he founded with co-owner Rob Kramer, but after buying a car for the first time last September, he came up with the idea for Parkpnp and decided to dive headfirst into the tech world.

My first day out driving, I went to a party in Ranelagh with my girlfriend and we were driving around in circles for 20 minutes looking for parking. I remember seeing all of these open spaces in front of peoples houses, businesses as well.

I started thinking why cant I park there for a few hours and pay them? How come there isnt a way to do that? I thought there must be a way and decided to try my hand at building a marketplace for it.

Encouraged by the success of the likes of Spot Hero and Parking Panda in the US, Flower partnered with fellow entrepreneurs Daniel Paul and Daniel Ramamoorthy and set to work on building Parkpnp. They now employ eleven people with plans to double that number over the coming twelve months.

Its quite big for a new company, I suppose. We have 5 internal developers which is quite unique for a start-up. Weve sales and marketing people ready to go.

Donal OHagan is our Head of Commercial Operations and has been in the parking industry for over 20 years. Our development agent Mike Brennan has been great also. All in all, its a great team.

While similar start-ups have been gaining traction in other countries, Flower is confident that Parkpnp offers unique features that can help differentiate it from their competitors.

Theres two parts to Parkpnp. Theres the residential side, but theres also a commercial side to our business. We install hardware and software at the entry and exit points of car parks and when you drive in you scan your ticket like you would at the airport, he says.

This means you dont have to take a ticket, that you dont have to pay with cash or coins at the end, and you get your receipt sent to you automatically.

The hard work seems to be paying off. This year, the company raised 500,000 in seed money with investments from Powerscourt Capital and Enterprise Ireland and last month they were a finalist in ESBs Spark of Genius Award at the Web Summit in Lisbon  an experience Flower enjoyed immensely.

It was great. We got to go to the Web Summit and had a stand for a day. We met so many people from around the world who we got to discuss our business with and we also got to network with a lot of potential future investors.

Having set up Krust with Kramer when he was just 23, Flower has been through numerous setbacks along the way and is sympathetic to the difficulties that face many fledgling start-ups. His advice to budding entrepreneurs in the early stages of building their businesses is to keep the faith and dont be afraid to challenge yourself.

The first thing is to be confident in what you are doing. Second thing, is to be bold, try things that you are uncomfortable with, but you know you should do. I think a lot of people have common sense, and have business sense but they have this mentality of I cant do it. Its important to have that belief in yourself.

2017 is shaping up to be a big year for Parkpnp. Plans are in place for an intensive Dublin rollout and the company already has their eyes on other European cities.

We want to be the go to solution for parking for residential and commercial parking lot operators and hotels. I see us expanding across Dublin in the next twelve months. Weve seen hundreds of spaces listed across the city and weve seen places pop up in five different countries which is really exciting.
Revenues at Cartoon Saloon, which picked up the Oscar nomination in 2014, saw revenues jump by 23%, or 500,000, to 2.7m.

Cartoon Saloon was established in 1999 and today employs around 70 people.

Chief executive Gerry Sherrin yesterday described last year as being a good year for the studio without doubt.

He said the increase in revenues came from increased activity pushing the studio to full capacity. That activity included production starting on The Breadwinner, of which Angelina Jolie is the executive producer.

At the end of last year, the firm was sitting on accumulated profits of 653,122 with staff costs last totalling 1.38m. Mr Sherrin said the positive trend in the companys finances has continued into 2016 as the revenues from licensing of Song of the Sea around the world can take a number of years to flow through.

The Song of the Sea launch has been very much staggered from country to country and this continued into 2016.

It only opened in the cinema in China and Japan in August and the income stream is stretched out across the various windows of cinema, digital and streaming and will eventually go to TV and will hopefully continue for many years after this, he said.
The displays will provide more viewing while a virtual home button will be buried in the glass in the the lower section. The new phones will only come with wraparound displays using organic light-emitting diode technology, according to the sources.

Samsung needs the Galaxy S8 to be a hit after suffering through the Note 7 debacle that tarnished its brand, led to an embarrassing recall and may cost the company more than $6bn (5.6bn).

The worlds biggest smartphone vendor is already under pressure from Chinese vendors while Apple is said to be planning to adopt thinner screens which use less power than liquid-crystal screens while also offering deeper colours.

While Samsung is targeting a March release of the S8, that could be delayed until April. Samsung is adopting tougher testing procedures in the wake of the Note 7 debacle that could push back the launch by about a month, one of the sources said.

Since the phones have a record of burning up, it needs time for these phones to be verified as safe. How safe the phones turn out to be is more important than any hardware innovation, said Greg Roh, an analyst at HMC Investment Securities.

It will take about a month or two for people to actually start opening their pockets.

Samsung shares have nonetheless soared 42% this year.

For years, manufacturers have been seeking ways to reduce the size of bezels  which frame the screen and typically provide space for speakers, buttons, and cameras  in order to make smartphones smaller while increasing the size of their displays.

Samsung is not the first to do away with the feature. Apple moved to a pressure-sensitive home button with the iPhone 7 that provides a vibrating sensation when pressed instead of an actual click.

Apple plans to ship at least one iPhone using its new screen next year, featuring a new look that extends glass from the display to the devices back and edges.
Mr Rohan says the payment delays are adding to cashflow pressure on farmers, who have endured two years of unprecedented income pressures.

Theres massive annoyance at the off-hand way the terms of the Farmers Charter are being breached here, said Mr Rohan.
The 58-year-old was being cross-examined by the State yesterday on the eighth day of her trial.

The Offaly GP is charged with unlawfully killing 11-year-old Emily Barut, who was profoundly disabled, at their home at Emvale, Bachelors Walk, Tullamore. It is alleged she killed her by an act of gross negligence involving the administration of an excessive quantity of chloral hydrate on Saturday, September 15, 2012.

She has pleaded not guilty and is on trial at the Central Criminal Court.

She said she had administered chloral hydrate when her daughter became upset at 2am and 6am. She said her daughter then had a massive fit after 11am.

So, you decide you need to do something to stop this fit? asked Tara Burns, prosecuting.

I was standing there with her, not there with my logical medical head on me, she replied.

I was working with my emotional mind, as a mother, looking at my baby, thinking I am going to have to stop this fit.

She said that chloral hydrate was the only anticonvulsant she had.

Ms Burns said the drugs use as an anticonvulsant might be at issue.

Ms Scully said she had looked up the medical literature and found a residential centre in Britain where chloral hydrate was used for children with epilepsy.

Theyre giving it, a 10ml dosage to children Emilys age every four to six hours, so it is documented, she added.

I think, faced with that horrendous fit she was in, I was thinking: What can I give her? she explained.

She was asked why she had brought the bottle of chloral hydrate to the bedroom, rather than filling the syringe at the kitchen sink.

My child is in the room in the middle of this fit, she replied.

Im not going to stand in the kitchen and fill a syringe. Im running to try to get back to her.

She said it was really quite a stressful situation, describing it as pandemonium: If youre in a hospital, you dont have that emotional contact that I have with my Emily so youre not standing back and thinking.

Ms Burns questioned her about the aftermath of Emilys passing, when she wrote a suicide note and made two attempts to take her own life.

Can I suggest to you that the reason for that action was an acknowledgement by you after Emilys death that you had been a cause of her passing? she asked.

I wasnt the cause, she replied. I did not cause Emilys death. Its so hurtful to hear that.

She said she and her daughter were just tied together, that she had slept beside her all her life.

It was put to her that she had accepted she had given her too much in her voluntary statement to gardai.

I gave Emily too much in relation to what I normally gave her, she replied. I would not normally give two doses in one sitting. Thats what I meant by that.

Ms Burns suggested that her actions afterwards supported a proposition that she had felt responsible for Emilys death.

No I didnt. I wanted to go with Emily, she said. Emily came before anything in my life.

The barrister then asked her to explain two portions of the note.

If anyone thinks Im awful for doing this, you should have listened to poor little Emily crying the last eight days. I love her dearly, Bernie, she read from the envelope in which the note was found.

I meant, if anyone thinks Im awful for killing myself. Im talking about as the doctor, who was working with people who had committed suicide and I was letting them down, replied Ms Scully.

I was very distressed after seeing her suffer so much and I couldnt save her. I wanted to save her.

Ms Burns then read from the letter: I do not want to die. I can not let Emilys suffering continue. I cant watch it any longer. The pain is too big, the struggle each day is too hard, the loneliness and isolation too much.

Ms Scully said she meant that she could not let Emilys suffering continue elsewhere: I can not watch this world without her. The loneliness and isolation would be too much without her. I did not have my thoughts clearly organised on paper.

Ms Burns noted that she had an absolute love for Emily and had attempted to have her treated with dignity during her life.

However, she suggested: Your conduct after the event doesnt seem to equate with a respect for Emily in terms of letting her peacefully pass. There instead seems to be, by your actions, an acknowledgement that this is laid at your door.

Ms Scully didnt agree: I had lost my reason for living. I had lost my Emily. I left Emily in my bed where she wanted always to be.

She said Emily was always happiest in that bed, on her chest: I laid her peacefully on my bed. I did not want to go on. I did not want to live after Emily was gone.

She said shed had a life of sleep deprivation, of pain, of watching her suffer: I had this beautiful little baby. She was like my little bird with a broken wing. My job was to protect her, and not just medically, as her mother.

She said they had suffered so much at the hands of services that were not there: We were forced back into our little shell. I created a little world at home for her. It was her beautiful little world.

Ms Burns said that evidence of a nice conversation shed had with her partners daughter; her tone of voice in a recorded call to the poisons centre; and her bringing the bottle and syringes back to the kitchen afterwards suggested someone who was together.

I wasnt OK after Emily died, she said.

The trial continues before Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy and a jury of seven women and five men.
Tehran, Iran, Dec. 9

By Mehdi Sepahvand  Trend:

Iranian Ambassador to Azerbaijan Javad Jahangirzadeh met with Azerbaijani Defense Industry Minister Yavar Jamalov, ILNA news agency reported December 9.

During the meeting the parties expressed satisfaction with the development of cooperation in the area of defense and insisted on continuing the trend.

The two sides also discussed the development of cooperation in the field of defense technology and increase of mutual visits of military officials.
The woman, now aged 28, said they chatted and had tea before moving to the bedroom. She said she was shocked afterwards and felt guilty.

On the fifth day of the case yesterday  where the woman is claiming damages against the former priest  she also alleged that, when she was drunk on a youth trip to Cologne, Germany, to see the pope, the then school chaplain performed oral sex on her in a house where other students were also staying.

The woman has sued alleging that, between 2004 and 2007, she was repeatedly and wrongfully physically and sexually assaulted, falsely imprisoned and sexually abused, and subjected to sexualised behaviour by the then Catholic chaplain and teacher in her secondary school in the South East.

She has sued the priest, as well as the school and the local bishop. They have all denied the claims. The school contends it is not vicariously liable for any alleged actions of the priest and contends the diocesan bishop is liable. The woman is also seeking aggravated damages against the former priest. The former priest has denied all claims.

Under cross-examination yesterday by Miriam Reilly, counsel for the priest, the woman, referring to the trip to Cologne, said she was getting sick on the bathroom floor because she had been drinking and the chaplain helped clean up after her.

She said she was lying on an air mattress the chaplain was using in the house, and he allegedly performed oral sex on her.

She said the son of the host family was on the couch in the same room.

The woman also detailed how, when she was either in transition year or fifth year at school, the priest drove her to the woods on a Christmas Eve and performed oral sex on her.

She said she was in the priests house exchanging Christmas gifts when there was panic as his mother arrived at the house.

She said she had to run out the front door as the priests mother drove around to the back door.

She told the court she ran down the priests driveway to the road and the priest, who had allegedly been texting her to see where she was, drove to meet her and they went to a wooded area where, she says, he performed oral sex on her. Afterwards, he drove her to the local town, where she met her parents and other relatives for a Christmas Eve dinner.

Asked why she could not remember whether it was when she was in transition or fifth year at the time, the woman broke down in tears.

She disagreed with counsels contention that she had made up the story and said she knew it happened.

She said it was a short visit and they were together for less than an hour and he mentioned he had a lot on because it was Christmas Eve.

The case before Mr Justice Robert Eagar continues today.
The Department of Housing yesterday released figures showing there were 1,023 families in Dublin living in emergency accommodation in November, down 1,026 in October.

Independent Dublin City councillor Christy Burke visits homeless people at night, providing them with food, sleeping bags, and hygiene packs as part of the group Inner City Helping Homeless. On Wednesday night he counted 152 rough sleepers on the capitals streets, 25 of whom were women.
Jason Aherne got so drunk when he stayed up until the early hours to watch a Conor McGregor fight that he ended up leaving his home carrying a machete.

Judge Sean O Donnabhain wondered if he could ban the man with the machete from watching McGregor fights, as it seemed to over-excite him.

Jason Aherne, aged 28, of 6 Bridevalley Park, Fairhill, Cork, was appealing a four-month jail sentence at Cork Circuit Appeals Court yesterday.

Sergeant John Dwyer said Aherne was seen at 10am on December 13, 2015.

He was staggering from side to side on the footpath carring a large machete. He threw it on to a nearby green area as the gardai approached, said Sgt Dwyer.

He had no recollection of the incident when spoken to by gardai about it later.

He had no recollection of having the knife or being arrested.

Judge O Donnabhain asked: Is this person McGregor likely to be fighting again between now and the summer?

Frank Nyhan, state solicitor, said he had just been informed by a colleague that the Mixed Martial Arts fighter had decided to take paternity leave and would not be fighting again until September 2017.

At Cork District Court, Aherne was sentenced to four months in prison.

Paula McCarthy, defending, appealed the severity of the sentence yesterday and said that while the appellant carried the machete on the morning, he did not produce it to anyone.

Ms McCarthy said it was not offered as an excuse but he was extremely intoxicated at the time which was put forward as a partial explanation of his behaviour on the morning.

It had been submitted at the district court that the man was suffering from episodes at the time and thought there was someone outside his front door when in fact there was nobody there.

Aherne pleaded guilty to carrying the machete on the day.

Judge O Donnabhain agreed to suspend the sentence on condition that the accused would keep the peace for the next 12 months.

Conor McGregor fought Jose Aldo on the night, famously knocking him out cold in 13 seconds.
Donal Daly, defence solicitor, said during an appeal of a jail term that the accused had been on drugs at the time but has largely stayed out of trouble for the past three years.

Damien OBrien, aged 44, from Cork City but now living at 34 St Colmans Park, Macroom, Co Cork, appealed the five-month sentence for the assault.
Fianna Fail TD Fiona OLoughlin was responding to opposition raised by students and youth representatives to the income- contingent loan scheme on which debate about funding the third-level system has been largely focused.

It is one of the options set out in the report on higher education funding produced by experts, chaired by Peter Cassells. But the presidents of the Union of Students in Ireland (USI), Irish Second-level Students Union (ISSU), and Trinity College Dublin Students Union told the Oireachtas education committee that such a system would burden young people with debt before even graduating, and deter those from poorer families from going to third-level.

ISSU president Jane Hayes-Nally, a fifth-year student at St Marys High School, Midleton, Co Cork, said her parents are already looking for ways to help her with college fees so she will not have to start a career in debt.

My parents dont want to see their children burdened with masses of debt that will impact the rest of their lives. If five of us go to college, we would have a debt of 100,000 hanging over one family, she said.

National Youth Council of Ireland deputy director, James Doorley, said if we have learned anything from the recent past, it should be not to heap high levels of debt on people. He said it is fine to say that student fees would not begin to be repaid until after a graduate reaches a certain income, but with no guarantee those thresholds would not be changed, people might think about taking a low-paid job instead of getting into debt by going to third level.

Ms OLoughlin rejected the suggestion of Sinn Fein education spokeswoman, Carol Nolan, that many committee members are dismissing the option of a fully publicly-funded system, for which USI president Annie Hoey argued.

The committee chair said the TDs and senators are not limited to any one of the three options in the Cassells report, which considered the impact of the massive cuts to third-level funding of the past decade at a time when student numbers have significantly increased.

Were open to a hybrid or other options. We have asked Peter Cassells to come back with a view to teasing out all the different options, she said.
Abina Ring, 51, lost her daughter Sarah Hines and her children Reece, 3, and five-month-old baby Amy, when they were murdered by John Geary at their home in Newcastle West, Co Limerick on November 15, 2010.

The 37-year-old murdered his ex-partner and their five-month-old daughter because she had left him. He also killed Ms Hines three-year-old son Reece, and her friend Alicia Brough, 20, because they happened upon the scene.

In an interview with the Limerick Voice student newspaper, Sarahs heartbroken mother spoke for the first time about how she has been coping with her devastating loss.

Ive been living day to day, my children keep me going, said the mother of six.

Originally from Milford in Co Cork, John Geary was given four concurrent life sentences for the murders in 2013.

Ms Ring says her grief is compounded by her fear of what might happen when Geary is released.

He will get out; hes probably thinking about it already. How will my boys react? she asked.

Life should mean life. He might be an old man by the time hes free, but he can still hurt someone, she added.

The grieving mother suffered a heart attack after finding out the details of her daughters murder.

The guards told me all the details because they thought John was going to plead not guilty, and they wanted to prepare me for what was going to come up in court. I started getting pains down my arm. It was the shock of what I had been told.

The heartbroken mother has warned how violence can visit anyones doorstep: You see things like this on the news and think thats not going to happen to me. But it could happen to you, your sister, your daughter, your neighbour, your friend.

I think Sarah would tell people to be careful. If you dont feel safe, get out. If you see someone in an abusive situation, help them.

Its believed Geary became obsessive after the relationship fell apart months before the murder.

He always wanted to know where she was and who she was with, Abina recalled.

She believes more can be done to prevent more tragedies like Sarahs.

There should be a registry for people with a violent history. That way, when you bring someone into your home, you can see who they are, she added.
The teenager died after his motorbike collided with a car at approximately 1.20pm at the junction of Killbarron Park and Cromcastle Rd in Coolock.

He was brought to Beaumont Hospital where he was later pronounced dead. The female driver of the car was also brought to Beaumont Hospital with what were believed to be minor injuries.
He made the comment during a Seanad debate on the stand-off, insisting the Governments position has been misrepresented by drug company Vertex to imply the State will not negotiate over the Orkambi drug price.

Speaking 24 hours after attending an EU health ministers meeting on pharmaceutical drug costs and a day after Taoiseach Enda Kenny said Vertex was ripping off the taxpayer, Mr Harris said the firm was using patients as pawns. And while he emphasised the Government is open to genuine negotiations when it again meets with Vertex shortly, he said this was only possible if the firm engages on the pricing concerns.
The announcement was hailed by Chernobyl charity crusader, Adi Roche, who made the suggestion during her address to the UN General Assembly earlier this year to mark the 30th anniversary of the accident.

Her call was backed by the Belarusian government, and subsequently by 30 other countries, and the move was finally sanctioned by the UN yesterday.
The first American to orbit the Earth has died. John Glenn was the last surviving member of the original Mercury astronauts. He would later have a long political career as a U.S. senator, but that didn't stop his pioneering ways, NPR reported.

Glenn made history a second time in 1998, when he flew aboard the shuttle Discovery to become the oldest person to fly in space.

Glenn was 95 when he died; he had been hospitalized in an Ohio State University medical center in Columbus since last week.

Glenn had been battling health issues since a stroke a few years ago. His death Thursday was confirmed by Hank Wilson, communications director of the John Glenn College of Public Affairs at the Ohio State University.

President Obama said that Glenn's trailblazing showed "with courage and a spirit of discovery there's no limit to the heights we can reach together." The president said, "John always had the right stuff, inspiring generations of scientists, engineers and astronauts. ... On behalf of a grateful nation, Godspeed, John Glenn."

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said, "Senator Glenn's legacy is one of risk and accomplishment, of history created and duty to country carried out under great pressure with the whole world watching. The entire NASA Family will be forever grateful for his outstanding service, commitment and friendship."
The finding is contained in the first Major Trauma Audit Report 2014-2015 which focuses on the most severely injured patients in the Irish healthcare system.

Writing in the foreword to the report, Dr Conor Deasy, chair of the audits governance committee and Dr Colm Henry, HSE group lead for acute hospitals, warn of high numbers of trauma patients going to hospitals that cannot provide necessary and definitive care.

The Irish Association of Emergency Medicine (IAEM) echoed this concern in their response to the report saying it confirms that 40% of severe head injuries are not treated at neurosurgical centres in Ireland, despite clear evidence of much better outcomes for such patients.... in England this figure is 15%.

Among the reports other main findings were:

More than 50% of major trauma patients incurred their injuries following low falls (less than 2m), followed by road traffic collisions at 21%. Of 2,967 severely injured patients in 2015, 1536 were injured as a result of low falls;

While the greatest number of deaths were due to low falls, the highest death rate was associated with major trauma patients who had suffered blows (46% in 2015) and asphyxia/drowning (31%);

23% of major trauma patients had severe head injuries;

30% of patients had to be transferred to another hospital for ongoing care as their care needs could not be provided by the initial receiving hospital;

Just 11% of patients were seen by a consultant in the emergency department within 30 minutes of arrival. Just 9% were received by a trauma team.

The report points out the NHS clinical advisory group (2010) recommended that trauma teams in major trauma centres should be led by a consultant and by an experienced registrar at trauma units. However, the report notes that trauma teams are not widely utilised in the reception of major trauma patients...yet have been shown to be associated with better process metrics and outcomes.

The reports authors say it is timely that the Department of Health Strategic Advisory Group on development of trauma networks has been established to advise on how such a trauma system might be developed in Ireland.

It makes a series of recommendations including that clear national guidance is needed to support hospitals in developing trauma teams; that the audit should be used to quality assure and improve major trauma care in Ireland; that health services need to take account of the high incidence of older patients sustaining major trauma and that patients have equity of access to expertise to maximise outcomes.
TAKING charge of a great newspaper, even temporarily, provides opportunities and pleasures that other walks of life do not. One involves supervising the daily discussion on what should fill the next days opinion, or leader column.

Readers might imagine that some forensic analysis takes place on the profound issues facing the nation. And that is sometimes true. But in my experience, 49 years and counting, the decision on the next days editorial normally sums down to a handful of considerations a) what are the topics that are judged to be most relevant to, or interesting for, the audience? b) what has the paper said before on the subject, and should that position be altered? c) is there anything new to say? d) is the point of view being proposed capable of being argued and defended, even if it is unpopular?

There is usually a team of contributing writers with experience and responsibilities across the media spectrum. But such journalists tend to have common characteristics. They are voracious readers, they have a grasp of the history and social position of the title, they have opinions which do not tend to the bland, and they are argumentative. They dont like secretive organisations, or the excessive display or demonstration of power. They are, in short, the awkward squad asking difficult questions, and should be cherished for that.

During my first week after the departure of the previous editor I wanted us to poke some gentle fun at the creators, bright people without a doubt, of an algorithm which made financial trades based on prevailing sentiment on social media. This was post-Brexit, but pre-Donald Trump. My main writer that day told me, and it still makes me smile, algorithms and I are not on speaking terms.

His answer was instinctively robust and correct at a human level but avoided the enormous challenge to society and democracy which is arising from the combination of mathematical programming and artificial intelligence which can adapt to experience, and the automation which is being, and will be, delivered from that Faustian pact.

Already it is close to impossible to have a sentient relationship with many of the companies and corporations which provide essential services to us. They do not exist physically on the high street; navigating their increasingly complex websites and apps produces an experience and sense of alienation which is beyond the wildest imagination of Kafka. They are faceless and formulaic and ineffective in their treatment of customers and citizens. Small wonder, then, that the body politic takes any opportunity on offer to strike back at the establishment. We can expect more of the same, and deservedly so.

Philip Larkin, the misogynistic, discontented, but brilliant British poet took this view of history in Annus Mirabilis:

Sexual intercourse began

In nineteen sixty-three

(which was rather late for me) 

Between the end of the Chatterley ban

And the Beatles first LP.

Technology, for me, began in 1983 with the burgeoning power of the internet, and for some 30 years I was an apostle for the optimistic visions of the likes of digital sage Nicholas Negroponte from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. If I had been a Game Of Thrones character it would have been as a member of the Faith Militant, the muscular organisation (loosely based on the 16th century Catholic Church) which defined itself as an army that defends the bodies and souls of the common people.

I hear similar lofty claims from giant corporations. I dont want to pick on Google because they are, in many ways, an easy target, being best in breed. And theyve been very good to Ireland. And when I have met members of their staff I have liked them.

But please do look at their company philosophy https://www.google.ie/about/company/philosophy, often summarised as Dont be evil.

Then read The Googlization of Everything (And Why We Should Worry). This is easily available online. You can find it through Google. Although this book, by Siva Vaidhyanathan, is several years old (an early internet joke, no doubt thoroughly outdated by hip programming mathematicians, makes one internet year the equivalent of seven years for the rest of us) it still has resonance, particularly in its analysis of how, without much debate or challenge, we have allowed Google to become the lens through which we watch the world. And how our own intellectual skills have been overwhelmed by pace of change.

I once saw the arrival of personal and mobile computing as a liberating and democratic benefit which would enable every person to become better informed, more articulate, and engaged with society. I was an early convert to the concept of hive mind until I observed that it had turned into hive rabble with the opprobrium attached to any unconventional or unpopular opinion generating the digital equivalent of what was known as rough music in the 16th to 19th century. Perhaps we should have Anti-Social Media Orders, an ASMO rather than an ASBO?

When a Bishop of Durham (jokingly) told me that all technology was the Devils work I smiled at the humour, and told him he was wrong.

When my daughter was at university she told me that she had 4,700 friends on Facebook. I replied that I could count the number of friends I have on the fingers of two hands. Friends are people you can rely on when the chips are really down, who will take you in and protect you, and will only give you their judgement when they think you are ready and capable of receiving it. They are people with whom you have some shared legacy of experience. Everyone else is an acquaintance, at best.

When Twitter arrived (2006) I felt that what we would gain in speed of communication would be destroyed by self-aggrandisement, babble, clamour and falsehood. It is little wonder that it is the primary weapon of political propaganda from Asia to the Americas. The peer-to-peer pressure it introduces is a significant contributor to mental health and welfare problems. Too many people are drawn like moths to the flame.

So, this is a lament for a lost opportunity to improve the human condition. And a concern that we are much closer to dystopia than utopia.

Algorithms which make decisions  be they financial, or commercial, or military, or political, based on volumes of social media sentiment  have the seeds of mutually assured destruction engrained within them.

Politicians, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel as recently as October, in her well-intentioned but futile plea for algorithmic decision-making to be publicly transparent, are recognising too late that rapid technical advance has become a malign, and not benign, experience.

Meanwhile profit-driven corporations know the threat that AI poses but are not candid in explaining it. It is no coincidence that we are fascinated by the likes of Dolores and Maeve in Westworld, and Mia and Niska in Humans. They are the next generation on from the replicants of Blade Runner and the grandchildren of Hal 9000 in Arthur C. Clarkes Space Odyssey. Science Fiction writers, from HG Wells onwards, have been consistently accurate in predicting the future. It is simply a matter of timing.

No fate but what we make is the paraphrase of Sarah Connors punchline in Terminator where a self-aware superintelligence system called Skynet brought the world to destruction. What was thought pure fantasy in 1984 appears less unrealistic by the day. Disaster can come in many forms to an interconnected world.

Its time for our leader writers, and all of us, to get on speaking terms with algorithms.

Alison OConnor is away. Allan Prosser is acting editor of the Irish Examiner
****

This article has been subject to a clarification:

Alan Shatter: Clarification

This article includes the following sentence: In the course of the mishandling of Maurice McCabes complaints, a Garda Commissioner and a Minister for Justice had to resign. We acknowledge that the then Minister for Justice referred to is Mr. Alan Shatter. Our report relates to the inquiry carried out by former Judge Iarfhlaith ONeill. We are happy to clarify that the reference to mishandling Sergeant McCabes allegations was not directed at Mr. Shatter and to restate that the Court of Appeal ruled that Mr Shatter had not been afforded a fair hearing and that his rights had been breached in the conduct of the inquiry resulting in the Guerin Report and that the OHiggins Commissions findings were that Mr. Shatter had dealt with the issues raised by Sergeant McCabe appropriately and properly. The Irish Examiner does not, and never has, disputed Mr. Shatters integrity and honesty.

****

DOES Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald want to find out the whole story in relation to how garda management moved against whistleblower Maurice McCabe?

Or will she, and the Government, be happy throwing a few morsels of truth to the great unwashed, hoping that all else will disappear into the ether?

On Wednesday evening retired judge Iarfhlaith ONeill delivered his report to the Department of Justice. He was examining two protected disclosures, from Superintendent Dave Taylor and Sergeant Maurice McCabe, which allege there was an orchestrated campaign in senior garda management to bury McCabe by blackening his character. The next step is expected to be the setting up of a statutory inquiry, but how wide or deep will such an inquiry go?

Mr McCabe had highlighted malpractice in criminal investigations and abuses of the penalty points system. By 2013-2014, he was a horrendous pain in the neck to senior management.

He was also doing the State some serious service with his whistleblowing. The issue is whether there was an attempt to destroy him.

The alleged campaign centred on briefing both media and politicians that Mr McCabe was a person of ill repute, including totally groundless claims that he was guilty of crimes of a grievous nature. That is about as low as you can get in character assassination.

If such a campaign was conducted, serious questions arise. What politicians were briefed with false and scurrilous information? If, for example, the then justice minister Alan Shatter was thus briefed by any senior garda, it raises the uncomfortable issue of trust between a police force and its political masters.

We already know that Mr Shatter was briefed by former garda commissioner Martin Callinan about an innocuous road traffic incident involving Indepedent TD Mick Wallace. We also know that, in a carpark rendezvous, Mr Callinan briefed the chair of the Public Accounts Committee John McGuinness about Mr McCabe.

Mr McGuinness has said he was told Mr McCabe was not to be trusted, and he put the briefing in the context of the vile stories circulating about Mr McCabe. The TD said he didnt believe any of it and he holds Mr McCabe in the highest esteem. What other briefing went on?

A statutory inquiry would presumably also examine the role of the media in this affair. Did elements of the media become players, their reporting coloured by briefings from the force? Were some in the media too closely aligned to garda management? How balanced was the reporting on what was unfolding between garda management and Mr McCabe?

Superintendent Taylor, who was head of the garda press office at the time in question, has claimed he himself was central to the media element of the alleged campaign.

In 2013-2014, he was head of the garda press office. His evidence, and any evidence surviving from his phones or personal computers, would be vital to an inquiry. He has been suspended on an unrelated, disputed issue for 20 months. He no longer has access to the phones and laptop he possessed while at the press office. Those items are in garda custody.

There is another element to the whole affair and how exactly it is addressed will give an indication as to whether or not the Government wants the whole truth to tumble out.

One element of the disclosures examined by Judge ONeill concerned Mr McCabes allegations that there were attempts to attack his character at the OHiggins Commission, which examined his claims of malpractice within the force.

This, Mr McCabe says, represented a continuation of the campaign to blacken him.

Last May, on publication of OHiggins, this newspaper revealed that there had been attempts at the commission to attack McCabes motivation in bringing forward his claims.

As a result, Gsoc is now investigating what went on behind the closed doors of OHiggins. The only problem is Gsoc is not entitled to the transcripts of what was a private hearing, and must apply to the High Court to access them.

On December 19, Gsoc will apply to the High Court to grant access. According to legal sources, the chances of success are only fair to middling.

If Gsoc cant get access to the transcripts, it will be one more potential scandal swept under the carpet. Nothing more to see here folks, move along.

Now, however, Minister Fitzgerald has an opportunity to get access to the full truth. If she deems that the OHiggins element of Mr McCabes disclosure be included in the proposed statutory inquiry, access to the transcripts will be quite possible.

The Commission of Investigation Act makes provision for transcripts to be made available to a tribunal if one is established to inquire into a matter all or part of which was within the commissions terms of reference.

The law in this area hasnt been tested, but if the political will was there to access the truth it would certainly be worth examining.

The big question concerns the political will. In the course of the mishandling of Maurice McCabes complaints, both a garda commissioner and a minister for justice have had to resign.

A thorough examination of what went on in the OHiggins Commission, and as well in Garda HQ, might lead to the door of the current commissioner. Is the Government prepared to risk any damage to the commissioner? It was unfortunate to lose one head of police, it might be downright careless to lose two.

In a functioning democracy such political considerations might be dismissed, but it remains to be seen whether the will is there to let the chips fall where they may as the truth tumbles out.

As long as any of the insidious stuff that lurks in the garda culture remains untouched, the scandals of the last few years are doomed to be repeated.
Features Asia is in the Grip of a Transnational Crime Crisis  But Governments Look Away

Main Image: Poppy growing in Shan State. / Steve Tickner / The Irrawaddy

The immense demand for methamphetamine (ice), ecstasy and new psychoactive substances among the wealthy urban residents of East Asia and beyond has revitalized organized crime in the region.

The scale of recent drug seizures in underground laboratories in Chinas Guangdong province alone is staggering  and its jumped by 50 percent in the last year. In January 2015, for instance, 2.2 tonnes of solid and liquid methamphetamine destined for Shanghai were uncovered in the coastal county of Lufeng. In May that year, 1.3 tonnes of ketamine and 2.7 tonnes of its precursors were found in the city of Yangjiang, disguised as black tea bound for Southeast Asia.

Responding to the challenges posed by organized crime groups are a handful of capable law enforcement agencies; a patchwork of cross-border mutual legal assistance agreements; and a fledgling regional security response from Asean. These agencies struggle to have an impact on the scale of criminal enterprise in the region. They are also constrained by concerns about sharing intelligence with potentially compromised police, customs and military services.

Crime and Connectivity

In 2013, the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimated that crime groups earned about US$90$100 billion a year from illicit sources. Narcotic production and trafficking in drug precursors were the most lucrative, followed by illegal wildlife and timber trading. UNODC found human trafficking, illegal e-waste disposal, maritime crimes ranging from piracy to illegal fishing, counterfeiting of medicines and high street products and underground gambling were the most damaging crimes.

Its easy, then, to see why the burden of transnational crime is often borne by the poor people of Southeast Asia. A growing demand for timber and wildlife products puts pressure on cash-strapped communities to collude with criminal groups in extracting and marketing these resources. And the Japanese yakuza and triads or black societies in Taiwan, Hong Kong and South Korea also seek opportunities to dump e-waste in under-regulated jurisdictions.

Southeast Asias lucrative markets, combined with the availability of and demand for consumer and medicinal products, have proved irresistible to criminal enterprises.

This is illustrated by the fact that cross-border movement of illicit products into and out of Southeast Asia, often via India and China, has intensified in recent years. This is due, in part , to free-trade agreements between ASEAN and these countries, as well as the massive upgrade of the regions infrastructure and connectivity now under way.

Chinas One Belt, One Road initiative, the IndiaBurmaThailand Trilateral Highway and the Trans-Asian Railway are all speeding up change and development in transport and commerce in the region. Yet a 2016 UNODC assessment noted that, despite the existence of thriving networks of cross-border criminals, a fully operational framework on tackling cross-border crime does not exist.

Organized Crime in East Asia

Organized crime groups in East and Southeast Asia are diverse and often ephemeral. Some, such as the triads of southern China, have survived since the 19th century. Others form and disband in a generation or less.

The defining feature of organized crime is that it offers protection services  the enforcement of contracts  for illicit markets. In circumstances where state-led conflict-resolution is weak, it can provide similar services as legal institutions.

Law-enforcement agencies now routinely observe convergence and connectivity among different Asian crime groups. Former ethnic or linguistic distinctions once associated with traditional organized crime groups, for instance, are now blurred. And major Chinese and Japanese crime groups are increasingly connected with Mexican, West African, Iranian and South Asian crime groups.

This reflects the impact of the globalization of trade and the increasing wealth of China, India and the region. Opportunities abound for expanding into industries or locations unhampered by existing protection providers.

Strategic violence still plays a crucial role in enforcing contracts in illicit markets and establishing distribution markets. Hong Kong triads, such as the Sun Yee On, merged with or rented local protection services in China and Southeast Asia as China opened up its economy.

These looser macro-criminal networks are often referred to as red-black in Chinese, a euphemism for collaboration between the criminal world and corrupt elements of the state. This occurs at the county level in China or at the sub-state level in the Golden Triangle, as the tri-state confluence of Burma, Laos and China is known.

The Triangle is now also known for the mass production of amphetamine-type stimulants, such as ecstasy, built on the older tradition of opium production and heroin refinement.

Along with amphetamine-type stimulants, ice pills and heroin are transported from production areas in northeast Burma in modest quantities of a kilogram or less  below the prevailing legal threshold for trafficking  to markets in Bangkok, Yangon or Kunming. This method, known as ants moving house ,  earns the successful smuggler US$2,000 per run.

Larger amounts may be diverted via Cambodia for trans-shipment to highly profitable markets such as Australia and Japan, where premium wholesale prices beckon.

Ineffective Law Enforcement

The lack of effective action to suppress problems such as illegal drugs, counterfeiting and wildlife extraction reflects Aseans relatively weak integration with regard to security problems. Until theres a sense that Asean is a community with a shared fate, effective coordination to combat organized crime is likely to be little more than window dressing.

Most Asian governments have given economic development priority over concerns about illicit trade and organized crime. Progress against organized crime will remain ad hoc unless this changes.

Worthy but nonsensical aspirations to be a drug-free region by 2015, set out at the 2010 Asean Ministerial Meeting on Transnational Crime, and the Work Plan on Combating Illicit Drug Production, Trafficking and Use adopted in 2010 by the seventh Asean Ministerial Meeting on Transnational Crime, signal this weakness.

Alternative policies that seek to regulate recreational drugs and the pursuit of harm-reduction strategies would help undercut the profits of criminal groups. Policies that reorient consumer choices to undercut the goods and services organized crime provides would also help.

The key to effective suppression of organized crime will be the action of the Asean+3 group (the three being China, Japan and South Korea).

Chinas awakening to the high cost of fake and often dangerous products, as well as the perils of using ice for the young, should help reduce the scale of organized crime activities in the region. Chinese-led restrictions on the export of precursor chemicals  effective from late 2015  could be significant if followed by India and Asean.

Harsh alternatives are brutal and undermine the rule of law. Attempts to curtail demand by resorting to extrajudicial police killings may have popular appeal, but as with former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatras controversial 2003 war on drugs, Philippine President Rodrigo Dutertes campaign against drug pushers may ultimately serve to consolidate crime groups, raise protection costs and temporarily displace activities to less hostile locations.

By December 3, Dutertes war on drugs had seen 2,028 drug crime suspects killed during police operations while 3,841 deaths had been attributed to vigilantes. The high risk of homicides involving vigilantism shows the campaign is out of control and corrosive of the independence of courts.

Any hope of reducing the impact of transnational crime will depend on reducing the demand for illicit products as well as enhancing the legitimacy and effectiveness of law enforcement.

Roderic Broadhurst, Chair professor, Australian National University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
Asia Aid Groups Descend on Indonesia Quake Zone; Deaths Reach 102

Rescue teams use heavy equipment to dig through a collapsed building following a strong earthquake in Meureudu market, Pidie Jaya, Aceh province, Indonesia, December 8, 2016. / Darren Whiteside / Reuters

MEUREUDU, Indonesia  Humanitarian organizations descended on Indonesias Aceh province Thursday as the local disaster agency called for urgent food supplies and officials raced to assess the full extent of damage from an earthquake that killed more than 100 people.

Volunteers and nearly 1,500 rescue personnel concentrated their search on the hard-hit town of Meureudu in Pidie Jaya district near the epicenter of the magnitude 6.5 quake that hit before dawn Wednesday. But the small number of heavy excavators on the scene meant progress was slow. Humanitarian assessment teams fanned out to other areas of the district.

National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said the death toll had risen to 102 and warned it could increase. Search teams were using devices that detect mobile phone signals within a 100-meter radius to help guide their efforts as they scoured the rubble. The disaster agency said more than 750 people were injured.

We have to move faster to search and rescue possible survivors, said Iskander Ali, a Pidie Jaya official.

Those killed included very young children and the elderly. Mohammad Jafar, 60, said his daughter, granddaughter, and grandson died in the quake but he was resigned to it as Gods will.

He was getting ready for morning prayers when the earthquake hit. He said he and his wife managed to push their way out through the debris. Another man said he found his 9-year-old daughter alive beneath a broken wall at his neighbors house.

Thousands of people are homeless or afraid to return to their houses. Nugroho said more than 11,000 people have been displaced and are staying at shelters and mosques or with relatives. About 10,500 homes were damaged and dozens of mosques and shop houses collapsed.

Killer quakes occur regularly in the region, where many live with the terrifying memory of a giant Dec. 26, 2004, earthquake that struck off Sumatra. The magnitude 9.1 quake triggered a devastating tsunami that killed more than 100,000 Acehnese.

Sulaiman, a Disaster Mitigation Agency official in Aceh, said staple foods for women and babies are most urgently needed. He said medicines are sufficient because assistance is coming from the army, police, state-run companies and local governments.

Whats badly needed now are staple foods such as rice, cooking oil, salted fish, and other foods, said Sulaiman. He said people had complained about a lack of clean water, but the problem has been tackled and electricity supply is returning to normal in many areas.

Nugroho, at a news conference in Jakarta, listed as urgent food and clothing, specialist doctors for victims suffering fractures, medical equipment, temporary shelters and heavy excavation equipment.

The Indonesian government sent 50 tons of urgent aid to Aceh, including 10 generators, tents, folding beds, baby supplies, and body bags.

Every aid and civil society organization is piling into the area with as many boxes of rice, instant noodles, blankets, and other aid as they can shift, said Paul Dillon, a spokesman for the International Organization for Migration, which has an assessment team in northern Aceh.

It will take at least two more days before theres a fuller picture of how many people are displaced, he said.

The military is setting up an emergency field hospital and sending two dozen doctors, and the Health Ministry is sending a medical team and medicines. The Red Cross sent aid such as water trucks on Wednesday and humanitarian group CARE is leading an assessment team of four international aid groups to avoid duplication of efforts. Aid groups and others are also appealing for donations.

Pope Francis, who was speaking at St. Peters Square for a Catholic holiday, said he wanted people to know he was praying for the victims of the earthquake, their loved ones, and those left homeless.

The US Geological Survey said the earthquake was centered about 19 kilometers (12 miles) southeast of Sigli, a town near the northern tip of Sumatra, at a depth of 17 kilometers (11 miles). It did not generate a tsunami. Aftershocks have rattled the area.

The worlds largest archipelago, Indonesia is prone to earthquakes due to its location on the Pacific Ring of Fire, an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin. The 2004 quake and tsunami killed a total of 230,000 people in a dozen countries, most of them in Aceh.
Burma Arakan Lawmakers Upset With Low 2017 Budget

An ANP lawmaker speaks to civil society organizations in Rangoon in July 2016.

RANGOON  Arakan National Party (ANP) lawmakers were not happy about a low fiscal year 2017 Arakan State budget proposal from the Union government, with local sources highlighting the states struggle with both widespread poverty and ongoing conflict.

For fiscal year 2017, which begins on April 1, the national government proposed a 142 billion kyat budget for Arakan State, which is 3 billion kyats less than the previous fiscal year.

Our Rakhine region is poor, and they all know it, ANP lawmaker U Pe Than told The Irrawaddy. They often say that Rakhine needs to have more development and stability. They know this region has communal conflict in part because this region is so poor.

Arakan State is one of the poorest regions in the country. Because of the intense need for development, the Union government should assign a larger budget to Arakan State than last year, U Pe Than added.

Lawmakers said they are waiting for a response from the Union government, and they expect that a larger budget will eventually be approved.

Our region is the poorest region, so we cannot understand why they would reduce our budget, said U Pho Min, the Arakan State parliament vice house speaker.

Arakanese lawmakers also complained that the current budgeting process is not based on a federal system, which would permit ethnic regions to have greater fiscal control. According to the 2008 Constitution, the Union government is assigned the power to make state-level budget decisions.

Were not even allowed to know how much money they are making by selling our states natural resources, said U Pho Min. There must be more transparency. And we should have an opportunity to spend the revenue from our natural resources on development within our own region.

Although the Union government builds infrastructure projects in Arakan State, the state does not have power to choose which projects are implemented.

For fiscal 2017, Rangoon Division was budgeted over 400 billion kyats, nearly three times the amount assigned to Arakan State. Arakanese lawmakers believe this budget difference illustrates how the national government feels about ethnic regions.

Theyre spending a lot of the national budget on the Yangon region, said U Pe Than. But this region is developed already. At the same time, they give very little money to our ethnic region. This will only widen the development gap between the urban center and our state.

We need to reduce the gap between Yangon and the state regions, he added.

We want the Union government to give more power to the states, said Pe Than, so we will keep pushing for a more federal system.
Burma Rangoon Govt to Upgrade Markets With More Space for Relocated Roadside Hawkers

Thanzay Market in Lanmadaw Township, Rangoon. / Myo Min Soe / The Irrawaddy

RANGOON  During its current term, the Rangoon divisional government has pledged to upgrade all 176 markets in the commercial capital and establish centers for hawkers currently working along roadsides.

Well upgrade 176 markets within our term because many markets are in Rangoons downtown area. We need car parking spaces as well as hawker centers in order to create convenience, said Rangoon Division chief minister U Phyo Min Thein at a press conference on Thursday.

The event was held at the Rangoon Town Hall and promoted the Rangoon Living Street Experience scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, which aims to raise public awareness of community-based improvements to the historic Rangoon cityscape.

In Rangoons municipal areas, markets are operated under the supervision of the citys municipal authority, better known as YCDC (Yangon City Development Committee). The committee recently relocated more than 1,600 street vendors to a newly designated Strand Road night market in the third week of November.

Hawker centers are intended for those who [currently] sell things by the roadside. Very soon, we will also upgrade Mingalar Market to have hawker centers and car parking, said Daw Hline Oo Maw, member of YCDC.

According to the YCDC, registered street vendors number over 6,000 across the citys four townships in the downtown gridLanmadaw, Latha, Pabedan and Kyauktadawith more than 1,000 such individuals operating stalls in each township.

The relocation of street vendors was carried out to regulate traffic woes on 11 major downtown streets: Anawrahta, Bogyoke, Mahabandoola, Pansodan, Merchant, Shwedagon Pagoda, Sule Pagoda, Latha, Lanmadaw, Phone Gyi and Strand roads. Selling goods along these 11 major roads has been prohibited as of Dec. 1.

Remaining street vendors in Kyauktada Township will be relocated to Bank Street between Strand Road and Maha Bandoola Street, she said. The Strand Road night market is now also open from 6 a.m. to 11 a.m. for sellers of meat and vegetables.

In relocating to the night market, we prioritize eateries and fruit shops. We also prioritize street vendors on the main street and we allow them to sell in lanes. The night market is now open in the morning, as well as from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m., Daw Hline Oo Maw said.

However, dozens of individual street vendors have complained that they were not provided sufficient space to sell their goods. Despite warnings from chief minister U Phyo Min Thein of legal action against selling goods on the citys major roads, many street vendors remain.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko
Burma U Thein Sein Wins Award for Leadership During Burmas Transition

President Thein Sein attends the opening ceremony of a new terminal at Yangon International Airport in March 2016 shortly before power transfer to the NLD government. / Pyay Kyaw / The Irrawaddy

RANGOON  Former Burmese president U Thein Sein was among the winners of the third Asian Cosmopolitan Awards given out by the Economic Research Institute for Asean and East Asia (ERIA) in Japan.

An announcement on the ERIA website said the former general U Thein Sein earned the Grand Prize for his leadership during Burmas transitional period while the Economic and Social Science Prize was awarded to Professor Masahisa Fujita, a Japanese economist. The Cultural Prize was awarded to Herman Van Rompuy, the first full-time President of the European Council and an accomplished Haiku poet, for his Haiku poetry, an Asian art that promotes harmony and mutual understanding.

The prizes will be awarded at a ceremony in Nara Prefecture, Japan, in January 2017.

U Thein Sein became the President of Burma in 2011 when the countrys military ceded power that they had seized in 1962. Despite its claims to be a civilian government, the majority of Thein Seins cabinet came from military backgrounds.

He led the ruling military proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party that came to power in 2010 through an election that was widely considered fraudulent by observers. The party only managed a humiliating 10 percent of the vote in the 2015 election in which Daw Aung San Suu Kyis National League for Democracy party won a landslide victory.

During his early days in office, U Thein Sein was praised as a reformist for his efforts to bring low-cost SIM cards to the country, which had cost up to US$1,500 in the past. But his vow to fight poverty largely failed.

Under his administration, Burma saw serious sectarian violence between Muslims and ethnic Arakanese in the western part of the country that led to the rise of Buddhist nationalism across the country. The conflict left a troubled legacy for his successor U Htin Kyaw, the President of the National League for Democracy government, when he assumed office in March.
Iraqi troops who briefly seized a Mosul hospital believed to be used as an Islamic State base were forced to withdraw from the site, but managed to establish a base for army tanks nearby after days of fierce back-and-forth fighting, Reuters reported.

The rapid advance into the Wahda neighborhood where the hospital is located marked a change of tactic after a month of fighting in east Mosul in which the army has sought to capture and clear neighborhoods block by block.

The ferocity of the fighting reflects the importance of the army's push from southeast Mosul towards the center, their deepest advance in a grueling seven-week offensive to crush Islamic State in Iraq's largest northern city.

The soldiers seized Salam hospital, less than a mile (just over 1 km) from the Tigris river running through central Mosul, on Tuesday but pulled back the next day after they were attacked by six suicide car bombs and "heavy enemy fire", according to a statement by the U.S.-led coalition supporting Iraqi forces.

Coalition warplanes, at Iraq's request, also struck a building inside the hospital complex from which the militants were firing machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, it said.

The soldiers involved in the action are at the spearhead of a U.S.-backed, 100,000-strong coalition of Iraqi forces including the army, federal police, Kurdish peshmerga fighters and mainly Shi'ite Popular Mobilization forces battling to crush Islamic State in Mosul.

In another part of Mosul already recaptured by government troops, Iraqi police fired shots in the air and threatened to whip crowds with a hose as residents tried to overrun the first distribution of aid by UN agencies inside the city.

The distribution aimed to reach 45,000 people in total at several locations. As word of the aid spread, residents of the Zuhour neighborhood flocked to a boys' primary school chosen as a distribution point.

Hundreds surged forward against just a handful of men pushing to close the gate. They burst through, and began climbing over the walls and pushing in through the exit until the police, firing shots in the air and wielding long sticks, managed to regain control.

Saad Salih, 56, came in an electric wheelchair, pushed by a neighbor because there was no electricity in Mosul to charge it. "We need everything," Salih said.
Burma UN Urges State Counselor to Visit Maungdaw

Displaced Rohingya Muslims in Maungdaw Townships Kyee Kan Pyin village, northern Arakan State in November. / The Irrawaddy

RANGOON  The UN appealed to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to protect all of Burmas residents regardless of their ethnicity, religion, gender or status and to visit troubled townships in northern Arakan State to reassure civilians in a statement released Thursday.

Special advisor to the UN Secretary-General on Burma Vijay Nambiar said the State Counselor should listen to her inner voice and ask the people of Burma to rise above their ethnic, religious and other differences and to advance human dignity, harmony and mutual cooperation between all communities.

I also appeal to Daw Suu to visit Maungdaw and Buthidaung [townships] and reassure the civilian population there that they will be protected, he said.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyis government has denied allegations by international organizations of rape, extrajudicial killings and arson against the Muslim Rohingya minority by the Burma Army during security operations in northern Arakan.

The governments generally defensive rather than proactive approach to providing security to the local population has caused frustration locally and disappointment internationally, said Vijay Nambiar.

In a Dec. 2 interview with Channel News Asia the State Counselor said, I would appreciate so much if the international community would help us to maintain peace and stability and to make progress in building better relations between the two communities instead of always drumming up calls for bigger fires of resentment.

Vijay Nambiar also echoed comments made by former UN secretary-general and head of the Arakan State Advisory Commission Kofi Annan last week in asking Burma to operate within the rule of law and calling for unimpeded humanitarian and media access.

He acknowledged questions of the composition and mandate of the 13-member state-level investigation commission recently set up by President U Htin Kyaw to investigate the Oct. 9 attacks and following clashes with security forces.

The advisor said that he hoped the commission would conduct its work in a credible and independent manner to build confidence among the local population and to reassure the wider international community.

The statement also expressed disappointment at conflict between Burma Army and ethnic armed groups in Shan and Kachin states and the risk it poses to the countrys fragile peace process.

Vijay Nambiar urged Burmas government and military to show humility and respect for the minority groups and for all parties to get back to the negotiating table and said that the UN was ready to help support this process.
Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighters have edged even closer to Syria's al-Bab with the support of the Turkish Armed Forces, Foreign Minister Mevlut Chavushoglu said on Friday, Daily Sabah reported.

"We have sent a team of our experts and a U.S. troop to Manbij. We will continue all operations until we are sure that the YPG has withdrawn to the east of the Euphrates River," he said.

On Aug. 24 morning, the Turkish Air Force, with the support of the coalition aircraft, launched an operation to liberate the city of Jarabulus from the IS militants in northern Syria, near Aleppo.

The operation was dubbed the Shield of the Euphrates. Syria has been suffering from an armed conflict since March 2011, which, according to the UN, has so far claimed over 500,000 lives.

Militants from various armed groups are confronting the Syrian government troops. The IS, YPG and PYD are the most active terrorist groups in Syria.
Friday, December 9th, 2016 (9:00 am) - Score 1,079

Internet, email and website hosting provider Tollon, which has been servicing customers in the United Kingdom since 1997, has been acquired by rival business ISP Elite for an undisclosed sum.

Details are still a bit thin on the ground, although Elite informs us that Tollons service should continue to operate as usual under the new leadership team and they will then be merged into Elites brand. Furthermore there are plans to redesign Tollons core network and implement a whole new cloud infrastructure estate across multiple Data centres.

Existing customers can also expect to be offered the opportunity to upgrade via a more diverse product range (e.g. business grade broadband, leased lines, SIP Trunking, VoIP, data centre solutions, KVM and VMware cloud).

Matthew Rogers, Elites Head of Business Development, said: Tollon is an extremely dynamic company, one that has been led by technological innovation throughout the years. Furthermore, Tollon has strived to deliver some fantastic products to great customers, supported by true industry professionals. We will be focusing on offering customers a diverse portfolio of technology solutions over the next few months which everyone is extremely excited about.

David Simmons, Managing Director, added: One of the most important parts of any company acquisition are the staff. Elite are very fortunate that the Tollon team share the same core values as Elite, and have worked together on projects for the last few years. We will see some key individuals joining the Elite team who will each bring their own unique and valued skill-sets. The staff have already proven to be a true asset whilst integrating with Elite employees.

End.
Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2017

There may be a lot of question marks heading into the first year of Donald Trumps administration, but we do know one thing for sure. He has been given a blue print for cybersecurity, thanks to the recently released report from the Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity. President Obama put together the nonpartisan commission in February 2016 to investigate the state of cybersecurity in the U.S. and to recommend the actions that should be taken by the government and the private sector. Its an impressive group of cybersecurity professionals and experts.

The Commission came up with 16 recommendations and 53 associated action items, ranging from having the private sector and government collaborate on a roadmap for improving the security of digital networks, with attention paid specifically to DDoS attacks and spoofing, to focusing on the cybersecurity of SMBs, to improving cybersecurity research efforts.

Cybersecurity is something that everyone must strive for, and the Commission pointed that out, as Craig Kunitani, COO and CTO at Security Mentor, told me in an email comment:

The inclusion of Imperative 3, Prepare Consumers to Thrive in the Digital Age, in the Commissions report, demonstrates the significance of providing security awareness training for the general public. The report goes on to say Raising cybersecurity awareness has long been a core aim of U.S. cybersecurity strategy, and the notion that consumer awareness about cybersecurity should be heightened is broadly accepted. The report provides broad guideline recommendations for government steps to achieve this goal for the general public. Nevertheless, the nation already has an ongoing history of successfully securing commercial sector employees by companies that provide effective engaging security awareness training. Training all employees in all aspects of security practices must remain a priority for businesses moving forward. This is imperative.

The report would like to see the new administration make cybersecurity awareness training a priority in the first 100 days. Also, the Commission would like to see the government bring in 100,000 ethical hackers to defend the infrastructure from cyberattacks.

It is quite a comprehensive report, touching on almost any cybersecurity issue you can think of  and maybe even some you didnt. The FIDO Alliance pointed out one such recommendation:

An ambitious but important goal for the next administration should be to see no major breaches by 2021 in which identity  especially the use of passwords  is the primary vector of attack.

Eliminating the need for passwords in five years? Thats the only way you can eliminate password-related data breaches. That will be a massive undertaking, and I hope it can be accomplished. Ive discussed many times the danger of passwords, but I worry that they are too ingrained into our digital identities, and that it will take longer than five years to move past them or make them totally secure.

As Nathan Wenzler, principal security architect at AsTech Consulting, said to me via email:

The Commissions report outlines a number of critical recommendations for addressing many of the fundamental security concerns and shortcomings we find here in the U.S. I am optimistic that these recommendations are taken to heart and acted upon.

I hope that Trump agrees and follows the Commissions recommendations.

Sue Marquette Poremba has been writing about network security since 2008. In addition to her coverage of security issues for IT Business Edge, her security articles have been published at various sites such as Forbes, Midsize Insider and Toms Guide. You can reach Sue via Twitter: @sueporemba
Circumcising a boy before they reach an age where they can decide for themselves is ethically unacceptable, doctors in Denmark have said. The Danish Medical Association made the recommendation Friday, stressing that the procedure should be an informed, personal choice, and warning against possible complications. The doctor even released a press release about their recommendation.

Circumcision Is Ethically Unacceptable According To Doctors In Denmark

According to IBT, having a boy undergone the process of circumcision before they reach an age where they can decide for themselves is ethically unacceptable." doctors in Denmark have said. The Danish Medical Association made the recommendation Friday, stressing that the procedure should be an informed, personal choice, and warning against possible complications.

A press release said that only when there is an express medical need should a circumcision be performed on boys under the age of 18. "To be circumcised should be an informed, personal choice," Lise Mller, the chairwoman of the doctors' association's ethics board, said. "It is most consistent with the individual's right to self-determination that parents not be allowed to make this decision but that it is left up to the individual when he has come of age."

Independent reported that doctors stopped short of calling for an all-out legal ban on the procedure, which is currently allowed but remains relatively rare in Denmark, because it said the move could have too many negative consequences.

We have discussed it thoroughly, also in our ethics committee," Ms Mller said. "We came to the conclusion that it is difficult to predict the consequences of a ban  both for the involved boys, who could for example face bullying or unauthorized procedures with complications  and for the cultural and religious groups they belong to."

Male Circumcision Fact

Male circumcision is the removal of the foreskin from the human penis. In the most common procedure, the foreskin is opened, adhesions are removed, and the foreskin is separated from the glans. After that, the circumcision device is placed, and then the foreskin is cut off. Topical or locally injected anesthesia is occasionally used to reduce pain and physiologic stress.
Carfentanil has been linked to a dozen of overdoses and health emergencies in Western Canada, and now it has made its debut to Toronto, police confirmed. For the first time, Toronto police found carfentanil laced in street drugs just a day after officials confirmed the deadly synthetic opioid had been found in Ontario.

Carfentanil Is A Synthetic Drug Used To Sedate Elephants

Carfentanil has been linked to 15 deaths in Alberta this year. According to Metronews, a 20-microgram dose of the drug is enough to kill an average person. Carfentanil is used to sedate large animals, like elephants, and is very deadly to humans.

Toronto Public Health's Dr. Rita Shahin said about the drug: "In very tiny doses, it can be deadly. Use of just a small amount of a drug containing carfentanil can cause an overdose, and likely a fatal overdose."

Carfentanil overdose is a problem in the United States, as well. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency reported one three-week span in Ohio recorded 236 overdoses and 14 deaths linked to the drug, according to Global News.

Carfentanil Is 10,000 Times More Toxic Than Morphine

The tasteless drug cannot be detected by sight or smell. Carfentanil is a very powerful opioid 10,000 times more toxic than morphine and 100 times more toxic than fentanyl.

Steve Watts, inspector from the Toronto Police Drug Squad said: "We're concerned from a public health perspective. Even very seasoned opioid users would obviously be at risk."

"It's a whole other level above fentanyl. We're going to have to monitor it in a wide-based approach including health professionals," Watts added.

An investigation found that carfentanil can easily be bought online from China-based companies, where the drug is not controlled. Canada has the second highest per capita prescription drug rate in the world. Health officials are calling for the declaration of publich health emergency due to this crisis.
Ohio lawmakers on Tuesday passed the controversial "Heartbeat Bill" that would ban abortions. If the heartbeat of a fetus can be detected -- which usually occurs about six weeks into a pregnancy, the Heartbeat bill can be applied. Some are calling this bill as "Trumpmania."

Ohio Lawmakers Claim They Would Make Abortion Illegal

Acording to CNN, the state legislators had considered the bill in previous years but it never passed the Senate. "A new President, new Supreme Court justice appointees change the dynamic, and that there was a consensus in our caucus to move forward," Ohio Senate President Keith Faber, a Republican from Celina, told reporters after the final vote.

What will happens to the bill depends on Republican Gov. John Kasich, who has 10 days to decide whether to veto the legislation. If Kasich signs the Heartbeat Bill, or if he does nothing within 10 days, the measure would become law early next year. Which means as early as next year, the lawmakers will prohibit such abortions even in cases of rape or incest.

A veto would stop the bill unless three-fifths of the state House and Senate vote for an override.

Should the bill become law, a court battle likely would ensue. The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio already has said it would press a legal challenge. The becomes a law if it will undergo the usual 5 steps:

Step 1: Introduction

Step 2: Committee Process

Step 3: The Floor

Step 4: Concurrence

Step 5: The Governor

'Heartbeat Bill' Would Make Abortion Illegal

The bill could challenge Supreme Court decisions that found that women have a constitutional right to abortion until around 24 weeks. As reported by Forbes, similar bills have failed, as they rightly should. They beleive that the bill violates current constitutional standards for abortion rights, and similar measures in Arkansas and North Dakota have already been struck down by federal courts.

Accordig to Vanity Fair, Kasich may choose not to court the controversy. But despite largely steering clear of reproductive issues during the Republican primary, the governor has a long record of undermining womens rights. As the Post reported in March, Kasich has signed 17 anti-abortion measures into law since becoming governor in 2011.
According to the first systematic assessment, released on Wednesday, Polar bear numbers could drop a third by mid-century. This is due of how dwindling Arctic sea ice affects the worlds largest bear.

Number Of Polar Bears To Drop By A Third Due To Sea Ice Melts

According to reports, there is a 70 percent chance that the global polar bear population  estimated at 26,000  will decline by more than 30 percent over the next 35 years. This is a long period that corresponds to three generations, the study found led by Eric Regehr of the US Fish and Wildlife Service in Anchorage, Alaska. As climate change causes global temperature to increase and the polar ice caps to melt, it will affect the population numbers of the bears.

Climate change and its effect on the Arctic sea could cause polar bear numbers to fall by a third by 2050. According to Wired, polar ears depend on sea ice to live, using it as a floating platform to hunt seals. The study combined 35 years of satellite data on Arctic sea ice with all known shifts in 19 distinct polar bear groupings across four large eco-zones, scattered across the Arctic. This allowed the scientists to project three population scenarios for polar bears up to the mid-21st century.

Global Warming:The Culprit

The culprit is global warming, which has raised the regions surface temperatures by more than two degrees Celsius, which is equal to 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, compared to the pre-industrial era level, twice the global average. On current trends, the Arctic could see its first ice-free summers sometime in the 2030s, according to climate scientists.

It was announced this week bye the US National Snow and Ice Data Center that sea ice off Antarctica and in the Arctic is at record lows for this time of year. Arctic sea ice, which usually expands in winter, is at a record low of 10.25 million square kilometres (3.96m square miles). Anders Levermann, a professor at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, told Reuters that the low sea ice is a result of global warming and "an extraordinary departure from the norm".
Amid many rumors chasing The Big Bang Theory this time lets focus on the truth.

The popular sitcom is reportedly taking a break. TBBT Season 10 Episode 11 will be aired on Dec. 15 instead of its original schedule, Dec. 8.

Fans need not worry as the Thursday slot wont be left empty. CBS is going to show "The Military Miniaturization" rerun, which was the 2nd episode of the current installment. This will be a great opportunity to the viewers who missed the said chapter. They can catch up with the comedic brilliance of their favorite characters and still laugh to their hearts content.

With the delayed airing of the latest episode, the strong followers of the series are surely dismayed but hey, we got the scoop here.

When The Big Bang Theory season 10, episode 11 premieres, it will welcome Bernadette (Melissa Rauch) and Howards (Simon Helberg) first child. Titled The Birthday Synchronicity, Howard will finally prove that he can be the best father despite growing up without a dad beside him. Howards dad, Sam, left him during his early years. Howard may be anxious of the situation but now that he has a child of his own to nurture, we bet our cards that hell be one awesome daddy.

The impending episode will also see Amys (Mayim Bialik) attempt to get her boyfriend in the mood for sex. Interestingly, the couple agreed to make love at least once a year, specifically on Amys birthday. It looks like it may not happen this year since everyone will be pretty excited and busy with the arrival of Bernadette and Howards baby.

In an interview, executive producer Steve Molaro explained why the program wanted Amy and Sheldon to have sex on an annual basis.

As far as this being some sort of sellout or giant shift in the character, I think its lines like that that allow us to have such a momentous occasion, but it still can feel very much like Sheldon and Amy  Sheldon saying that we did this thing, but were only going to do it once a year is an example of us holding the character intact, even when something this monumental happens, he said.

Its gonna be a thrilling comeback for the crazy group of CBS hit show.

Whats next? The cancellation rumors have been debunked already by series creator Chuck Lorre and confirmed its eleventh season. What about the alleged spin-off for Jimmy Parsons?

Previously, a spin-off series on Sheldon Coopers life was reportedly being discussed. As the source noted, CBS may feature a young Sheldon Cooper, played by Jim Parsons, as he grows up in Texas.

At this writing, that spin-off remains a speculation. The actor nor the network validated the news. Lets just focus on the bright side then. The Big Bang Theory lives on and thats what matters most.
Cyber threats have become one of the most delicate issues in the U.S. since there has been many of these operations that have targeted not only major companies as Twitter or Netflix, but also the White House and the DNC. Since Donald Trump was elected as the new president, cyber security has been the field in which he has showed its biggest ignorance, to the point in which many believes that under his period in the government, America could live one of its worst moments in this area. In order to overcome avoid this to happen and protect the U.S. from cyber threats, here are possible plans that the president-elect could have.

Choosing the Best Cybersecurity Adviser Is Priority Number One

Although Donald Trump has an incredible amount of details that can be criticized, the thing about cyber security is more about how has shown his ignorance on the topic more than the ignorance itself, because obviously, he will not have the proper knowledge in many different issues that he must be aware of being president.

Giving this situation, the most important move he must do is to pick the best adviser in this field, considering that hes probably going to be the one who takes real actions to fight cyber threats, and Trump will only be the one to sign the papers and take the credit. And this is not because of hes Donald Trump, this is something that even Bill Gates would have to do if he became the U.S. chief of state.

Some weeks ago, it was reported that people as Rudolph Giuliani or John McAffe could be some of the candidates that would take this position. While one is known for his job as the major in New York, the other is a cyber security expert who the hackers group Anonymous endorsed him and said that he should be the guy in charge.

However, Donald Trump chose some days ago the former military intelligence leader Michael Flynn to be the national security adviser, a strong position in the government that could also occupy the cyber security area, although is not a 100 percent sure. Nevertheless, if Flynns leadership also extends to this field, it is possible that the U.S. position against cyber threats would be more aggressive than ever, since hes characterized not only for being the co-founder of consulting firm Flynn Intel Group, but also for having very concrete view on cybersecurity: is better to attack than defend.

Train And Hire More Than 90,000 Hackers

Of course, this has been one of the most controversial plans that Donald Trump have revealed about protecting the U.S. against any form of cyber threats, considering that hackers are not seen precisely as boy scouts. However, the truth is that many important companies and agencies have these people as workers, and their capacity for this kind of jobs has been more than great so far.

In fact, it has been known that many of the persons who participated in the Stuxnet worm attack to the Iranian Nuclear Facilities were regular hackers. In fact, some of them even were what is usually called "geeks", having Lego constructions next to the computer in which they were doing the operations, and that kind of weird things.

In order to make this possible, Donald Trump will have to avoid that these hackers go to the private sector, which has the main attractiveness of offering much more money. In fact, this has been one of the main problems that many agencies has faced since hackers are more likely to go working for tech companies or general industries. However, this is the field in which Donald Trump have to take advantage of his knowledge and make hackers to work for the government.

Working With China To Fight Against Cyber Threats

This is probably the most controversial decision that Donald Trump could make in order to protect the U.S. from cyber threats, giving the fact that his stance on Chinas position in cyber security is skeptical, to say the least. Four years ago, the president-elect wrote on Twitter that the Chinese were hacking White Houses computers, and he said during a debate with Hillary Clinton that China could be the one behind the DNC hack instead of Russia.

Getting to this point, the fact that the Chinese government had offered Trump cooperation against cyber threats, represents a very delicate situation for the president-elect, considering the political and diplomatic consequences that each of the possible answers to this proposition could have for the republican

In fact, many believes that this would ironically mean one of the biggest cyber threats that the U.S. could suffer, since there are people who assure that a cooperation between the two nations in this area would mean the risk of letting the enemy come inside, considering that the fear of Chinese spies have been so famous that even Huawei was framed by this suspicious. The thing is that if these people are wrong and Trump accepts the proposition, cyber security would get stronger than ever counting with Chinese help.
IBM announced that it launched beta testing for its IBM Watson for Cyber Security program.

IBM Watson For Cyber Security

According to First Post, more than 40 global clients in industries as varied as education, healthcare and financial services, have joined the beta testing program. Watson AI provides cyber security services to these companies. Among the clients are included Avnet, California Polytechnic State University, SCANA and Sun Life Financial, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Smarttech, the University of Rochester Medical Center and the University of New Brunswick.

According to the ZDNet, as part of the beta testing program all these companies are fighting cyber crime using Watson AI cognitive computing capabilities. The AI will help security experts to identify and prioritize various cyber threats. Thanks to the artificial intelligence, security analysts could make better and faster decisions.

IBM Watson supercomputer uses natural language and machine processing to extract the relevant data from huge amounts of information. Many security professionals believe that emerging cognitive technologies will make an important impact in the field of combating cyber crime.

The Future Of AI Cyber Security

According to Sandy Bird, Chief Technology Officer, IBM Security, implementing cognitive security technologies is still in its early stages. However, it is estimated that over the next three years this adoption will increase three fold.

During the next years, tools like Watson for Cyber Security will mature. While only seven percent of security experts are currently using cognitive solutions, these artificial intelligence (AI) based cyber security tools are expected to soon become pervasive in security operations centers.

IBM Watson can use its AI capabilities in order to determine if a security event matches with the behavior of any known cyber crime campaign or malware. Watson can extract the relevant background information in case that discovers any match. Then, it implements known approaches for tackling the cyber attack or malware.

By providing contextual information, the IBM Watson supercomputer can also help at identifying suspicious behavior. This will allow a security analyst to better evaluate the situation in order to decide if the suspect activity is indeed malicious.

Over thirty five billion security events are monitored every day by IBM security in more than a hundred and thirty countries. More than three thousand security related patents are owned by IBM.

According to Read IT Quick, the Watson for Cyber Security product went already through several revisions. The machine learning-driven software comes with embedded key functionalities that are enabling automation of the transactional work and other primary tasks carried out by security analysts. For instance, Watson can do the parsing the sheer number of system alerts raised during security operations, in a more effective and efficient way.

Additional data inputs are constantly being machine-learnt thanks to the artificial intelligence capabilities. The machine learning helps continuously build upon previous knowledge continuously.

A world of possibilities will open up with the transition of the IBM Watson for Cyber Security platform to the real world. The platform will become familiar with real-life scenarios, where the variables are and harder to control. This will prepare it to tackle real-life cyber threats, including DDoS, ransomware, malware and other forms of attacks.
Beijing China Auto-Show featuring the Mercedes-Benz E-Class (Photo : Getty Images)

The sales of Mercedes-Benz luxury cars in China are reported to have grown 28 percent this year after the company revamped its car designs to a more sporty look. As part of boosting sales and the drive to manufacture more products locally, Daimler AG plans to also make Mercedes-Benz electric cars in China.



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There are about 429,000 Mercedes-Benz cars sold in 2016, a better figure than expected. To keep this trend going, Mercedes is looking into producing electric cars and batteries in the Chinese local market.



Hubertus Troska, a board member of Diamler, said: I am confident that Mercedes in China will show a decent performance next year. Sales of the C-Class in the past year were phenomenal, and we cannot build enough GLCs."



Mercedes aims to have more than 10 models of its all-electric vehicles as part of its portfolio by 2025. To keep sales going, Mercedes is planning to produce their EQ-Class electric vehicles at the end of the decade.



Troska, however, declined to tell if there is a start date of production in China.



The efforts to reduce pollution in China have led authorities to come up with a new system of incentives so that customers will be enticed to buy zero emission cars. According to Troska, they are considering a trading system similar to a system in California.



Troska also stated that they are continuing to invest in both battery-powered electric cars and hybrid-type cars. Although there isnt an official decision, Daimler is also considering building a battery factory in China as an option.



Although China introduced a 10 percent tax on luxury cars that cost more than 1.3 million yuan, Troska said that this will not significantly affect sales, as potential customers were already prepared to pay high prices for top-of-the-line Mercedes models.



Overall, most Chinese customers still prefer SUVs and sedans, and the company relies on this taste for the future of its China business.


The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) holds a Top Safety Pick+ event each year to determine the safest vehicles in the auto industry and honor the automakers for their endeavor in improving the aspect of safety in their creations. This year, Honda Ridgeline dominates the pickup segment in IIHS Top Safety Pick Awards as no other pickup was able to receive the honor.

The First Pickup With Top Safety Pick Award

Apparently, being the only one to receive the Top Safety Pick+ award in the annual IIHS event is not the only feat the 2017 Honda Ridgeline was able to accomplish. According to a report from Auto Evolution, the Top Safety Pick+, which is the highest award in the annual IIHS event, is an honor that no other pickup in the entire auto industry has been given. Not even the Ford F-Series that are currently the best-selling models in the segment has been able to come close to at least the second highest award. This means that the 2017 Honda Ridgeline made history for being the first to earn such recognition.

How The Ridgeline Did It

The 2017 Honda Ridgeline was able to accomplish the feat thanks to several factors. "The Ridgeline was named a Top Safety Pick+ because it had good-rated headlights, available front crash prevention system with automatic braking and also a good rating in the small overlap frontal crash test," said Russ Radder, spokesman for the IIHS in a report from Trucks. It may not seem much but these are the aspects that pickup automakers failed to focus on.

What This Means For Honda

"We are excited Ridgeline is the first and only pickup truck with the highest safety honor from IIHS. The Ridgeline, like all Honda models, are engineered with safety in mind, including addressing the new stringent IIHS requirements", said the automaker in a report. Honda may not be the best in the pickup segment but it is deemed the safest. The honor speaks for itself and shows how much Honda cares for its patrons.
"Teen Mom OG" star Farrah Abraham is apparently attracting more enemies as "Teen Mom 2" star Kailyn Lowry recently slammed her on Twitter. Following the altercation that happened between Abraham and Amber Portwood during the "Teen Mom OG" reunion aired Monday, Dec. 5, Lowry took to social media to react about the now infamous TV personality.

The "16 and Pregnant" season 2 alum bashed Abraham on Twitter while the "Teen Mom OG" reunion was airing earlier this week. Lowry, who was revealed to be a dear friend to Portwood, has taken her stand against Abraham asking her if there was anything nice that she could say about anyone. As it turned out, Abraham has also been talking about Lowry in her post "Teen Mom OG" reunion interviews which provoked the latter to question her on social media.

The ex-adult film star was quick to respond to Lowry's post, writing: "@KailLowry yes real people who aren't fake puppets of @mjfree production company. Thanks for asking sweety hope you stay out of the drama." Again, Lowry stood up for herself as she reminded Abraham where her dismay was rooting from. She replied: "@F1abraham hard to stay out of it when you bring my name into interviews & say I got pregnant to stay relevant."

Rewinding back, Abraham previously accused Lowry of getting pregnant for the second time so she can stay famous. However, fans of Lowry claim that the former's comment was irrelevant as Lowry was already married and a star of the reality show when she got pregnant again. Abraham's comment even backfired at her when some "Teen Mom" followers bashed her and claimed she was only jealous since she got stuck at being single.

Following the exchange of bitter words between Abraham and Lowry on Twitter, a fan then inserted himself in the conversation defending Lowry as he asked Abraham if she got into adult films to stay relevant. The feud then grew even bigger as more Kailyn-followers responded to the tweet, dropping revelations about how Abraham became an "irresponsible mother and being."

After realizing that the majority of "Teen Mom" fans support Lowry on her stand, Abraham stopped replying and later played victim in an interview. "I never said anything and I have no idea why she's causing a fight to get attention," Abraham said in her chat with Radar Online. "I'm over all the other Teen Moms and I'm bored with their antics," she continued.

Meanwhile, Chelsea Houska, whom Abraham also bitter-talked along with Lowry, chose to be mature about the issue and kept silent. Her father Randy, on the other hand, stood in defense of Chelsea and joined the Twitter confrontations as he posted, "#hilarious I wonder exactly which TM would do ANYTHING to be famous. Chelsea flies so far under the radar, @MTV forgets about her #teenmom2."


In 2010, Chris Bertish paddled into 25-foot waves en route to a win at the Mavericks Surf Contest. The said contest is an annual competition at one of the world's most famous (and nastiest) big-wave breaks. The South African Chris Bertish began his attempt to be the first person to cross the Atlantic Ocean on a stand-up paddleboard on Tuesday morning.

Know The Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's oceans with a total area of about 106,460,000 square kilometers (41,100,000 sq mi), slightly more than half that of the Pacific Ocean. It covers approximately 20 percent of the Earth's surface and about 29 percent of its water surface area. It separates the "Old World" from the "New World".

The Atlantic Ocean occupies an elongated, S-shaped basin extending longitudinally between Eurasia and Africa to the east, and the Americas to the west. As one component of the interconnected global ocean, it is connected in the north to the Arctic Ocean, to the Pacific Ocean in the southwest, the Indian Ocean in the southeast, and the Southern Ocean in the south.

Chris Bertish Begins Paddle Boarding Voyage Across Atlantic Ocean

His route is planned, first to gliding out of the Agadir Marina of Morocco, on the northwest coast of Africa, shortly before sunrise. According to The Bulletin, the first five days, as he becomes accustomed to the paddleboard and fights to avoid being blown back to land, will be the hardest, he said  90 percent of the challenge, in fact, by his estimate.

Ive been hearing that Im nuts all my life, and I wouldnt want it any other way. Ive been proving people wrong all of my life. But Ive always wanted to push the boundaries because thats where the magic happens.

Bertish can expect to battle rough seas, sun exposure and tricky tides and currents, as well as unforeseen obstacles. He had been waiting weeks in Morocco for the perfect window of weather conditions to begin, and on Tuesday, he concluded that it had arrived. His expected route will take him to the Canary Islands, across the Atlantic Ocean to Anegada of the British Virgin Islands, and then finally to a finish in Florida.
Volvo Cars, seeking to rev up digital projects such as autonomous driving and concierge services, has hired Atif Rafiq as its senior vice president IT and chief digital officer (CDO). Rafiq is joining the Swedish car maker from McDonalds, where he became the burger chains first CDO in 2013. He replaces Klas Bendrik, senior vice president of IT, who will assist with the transition and leave the company.

Volvo said in a statement that Rafiq will oversee the companys digital transformation, which includes adding consumer-facing applications and digital touchpoints, as well as enterprise systems supporting the companys products, processes and services. The main challenge? Developing cars that are autonomous, electric and connected, says Hakan Samuelsson, president and chief executive, in a statement.

The automotive industry is changing rapidly, Samuelsson says. This means that Volvo must also change rapidly. Part of this involves rethinking how customers buy Volvos cars and then how they interact with them once they have bought them. Atif is ideally qualified to speed up our development in this area.

Downshifting to digital

Volvo has embarked on several technology initiatives that seem progressive compared to other big-brand car manufacturers. The company is piloting a service that uses Bluetooth-enabled digital keys to let customers lock and unlock their vehicles from a mobile app.

[ Related: Customers digital behavior drives CIOs to partner with CDOs, CMOs ]

The same digital key technology powers Volvos Concierge Services, in which car-owners use a mobile app to request that third-party service providers fill up, wash or service their cars in other ways. Volvo began piloting this program in the Bay Area with 300 owners of new Volvo XC90 SUVs and S90 sedans in November.

Most ambitious of all is its self-driving car pilot, Drive Me. Beginning in 2017, 100 customers will drive Volvo XC90s equipped with Volvos IntelliSafe Autopilot technology on Swedish roads, with a goal for broader adoption by 2020. Volvo has also struck a $300 million alliance with Uber to develop self-driving cars.

Rafiq, who in a Dec. 2 LinkedIn post pointed to those initiatives as a reason for taking the role:, Speed, more than size, matter in this era. Tesla demonstrated that fact and Volvo is nibling [sic] at the heels while also being ahead when it comes to scale and the finer aspects of building cars. This bodes well for Volvos future in the dynamic automotive sector, which is pivoting to a new era of mobility.

Beefing up digital at Mickey Ds

Rafiq has extensive experience preparing for his new CDO role. At McDonalds, Rafiq launched on-demand delivery, piloted power charging stations and upgraded its mobile app with check-in and other capabilities. Rafiq also introduced digital ordering and table service in more than 2,600 locations worldwide. The service, which relies on Bluetooth technology to show workers where a customer is sitting, is expanding to 14,000 restaurants. And Rafiq conceived of the companys omnichannel strategy and facilitated a new CRM system supported by the companys first large scale database of customer profiles and relationships.

[ Related: Warning: CDOs can be hazardous to your CIOs health ]

McDonalds lured Rafiq from Amazon.com, where he led the Kindle units direct publishing business. He previously held general management positions at Yahoo and AOL. Rafiq was also the co-founder and CEO of content management startup Covigna and has advised, invested and served on the boards of over 10 startups.

Action around the CDO role is heating up, as Rafiq is one of several digital chiefs hired in recent months.

Emaar Properties hired Alaska Airlines CIO Veresh Sita to inject digital into its real estate developments. GE Energy Connections named Steven Martin CDO in November. Sprint on Monday hired Comcasts Rob Roy as its CDO. Grocery chain Kroger Co. Tuesday announced that Yael Cosset would succeed Kevin Dougherty, who is retiring in January, as its CDO. Cossetis currently chief commercial officer and CIO of 84.51.
Illegal steel factories dodge China emissions laws (Photo : Getty Images)

Environmental pollution is a menace, a rather uncontrollable one. Commercial, domestic and industrial mechanism require energy. In order to provide environment-friendly cheaper goods, the World Trade Organization held a meeting.



According to ABC News, dignitaries from 46 countries including the U.S., China and other European Union Nations joined together to strike a deal. The proposal of introducing over 200 environment-friendly goods could contribute to a trade of $1 trillion per annum.



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European Union Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said that it is important to show that trade and environment should go hand in hand. Unfortunately, there was no consensus on the issue due to China's last-minute proposal of a list of goods which wasn't discussed earlier.



The New York Times reported that Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zeybecki said that China presented a list which wasn't well studied and many countries were concerned about its contents.



Zeybecki also pointed out that the process of trading development is relatively slower between New Zealand and Canada on one side and Japan and Taiwan on the other.



The envoys returned to their countries to reconsider the agenda.



Commissioner Malmstorm told the press that the deal was important for environmental reasons and the members were also determined to show the world their conviction for the trade, but things didn't turn out well.



Another member discretely told that China's new list came in at 11 a.m., Sunday, when other members had already agreed upon many other points.



Malmstorm also said that all countries had their reservations regarding China's last-moment deal, as it was impossible to negotiate over the new proposal in a couple of hours.



Vice President of National Trade Council Jake Colvin called the failure a disappointment for American Business Community and added that China has missed the Chance to minimize its own environmental issues and be a part of a global trade.






Today

Mostly sunny and windy. High 69F. Winds WNW at 20 to 30 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph.

Tonight

Clear. Low near 45F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph.

Tomorrow

Except for a few afternoon clouds, mainly sunny. High 72F. Winds light and variable.
China's Extraordinary Tech May Not Be Good Enough for Renewable Energy Programs

Terrestrial photovoltaic power project built in Yantai (Photo : Getty Images)

China has been the center of attention in the world for the past two decades, not only due to its progress in tech, but also its environmental pollution. China is said to be among the top polluters in the world.



Live Science says that air pollution in Beijing is beyond the index in terms of air quality measurement. The even more horrifying impacts were seen on public health. People had to wear masks to work.



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The city's air contains poisonous gases which could lead to serious respiratory problems and many other

viral infections.



China acted and geared up to clean its atmosphere. According to The Wall street Journal, the country was constructing two wind turbines every hour in the past years to ensure maximum renewable energy.



China is ambitious enough to achieve the target of clean environment, but the coal-suited electric grids are not upgraded and are not compatible with solar and wind energy equipment.



China is the world's largest producer for environmental friendly energy. Last year's analysis showed that it generated solar power amounting to 43 gigawatts and wind power amounting to 130 gigawatts.



Yet the recent problem is a drawback for future projects. Paolo Frankl, head of the International Energy Agency's renewable-energy division, said that the government should have issued a policy to slow down. Due to the downfall in its economy, China's five-year plan won't turn out to meet the power demand.



Tech Wire Asia shared a graph of energy mix of China, according to which, coal is the largest producer of energy in 2016. Almost half of the wind power remains undistributed and, as a result, wasted.



In the current scenario, China's claim to having a clean and carbon emission-free environment till 2030 seems very hard to do.






An Alipay user pays through a bar code scanned from his mobile phone. (Photo : Getty Images)

Alibaba's Ant Financial Services Group continues with its efforts to raise Alipay's presence worldwide as it announced on Tuesday, Dec. 6, its collaboration with three banks and a payments company in Europe in a bid to expand its operations in the region.



The Wall Street Journal reported that London-based Barclays PLC, France's BNP Paribas SA, Italy's UniCredit SpA and Swiss firm SIX Payment Services have agreed to work with Ant Financial, enabling it to increase the number of European merchants that accept payments made through Alipay online-payments platform.



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The move came as the Internet finance company is pushing to expand its operations worldwide, with the aim to set a payments platform to rival Mastercard Inc and Visa Inc.



According to data from market research firm iResearch, Alipay, which has more than 450 million users, handled nearly half of the estimated $738 billion online payments made by Chinese consumers last year. Alipay accounts are linked to users' bank accounts which they can use to pay taxi fares, buy movie tickets, book hotels and pay mutual funds.



Alibaba said in June that Alipay has processed an average of about 153 million online transactions daily, in the first quarter, which is almost 10 times more than PayPal Holdings Inc., nearly as many as Mastercard and around 60 percent of the volume of Visa, the industry leader.



Its partnership with European financial institutions has placed Alipay closer to its goal of being accepted by one million users in three years.



Ant Financial said that as of September, Alipay was used by consumers at nearly 100,000 overseas merchants in 70 countries. In Europe, merchants scan bar codes when Alipay users pay, similar to the process done in in-store payments in China.



Alibaba's financial affiliate is looking into the potential revenue from the growth of Chinese outbound travel, which continues to expand overseas. The World Travel & Tourism Council said that Chinese tourists spent about $215 billion abroad last year, an increase of 14 percent from 2014.



Alipay's new partnership is an addition to existing partnerships with French and German payments companies that include Ingenico Group SA and Concardis GmbH, and Frankfurt airport retailer Tripidi in Europe.



The financial affiliate has also expanded Alipay's operation in Asia and in the U.S. Last month, it launched an investment in the online payments arm of Thai conglomerate Charoen Pokphand Group. In the U.S., the company is working with First Data Corp. and VeriFone Systems Inc.


Steve Burton has decided not to renew his contract with "The Young and the Restless," which sparked speculations that he is coming back on "General Hospital" to take his role again as Jason Morgan. However, Billy Miller currently has the character. Will he exit GH for Burton?

Steve Burton is no longer playing Dylan McAvoy in Y&R after his contract ends this month. That and a recent Twitter post from the actor revived the longtime rumors that he will signing up with "General Hospital" again.

"Never say never is what I have learned," Steve Burton wrote on Twitter. This was actually a response to a fan's tweet saying how hard it would be to watch his remaining scenes at "The Young and the Restless" now that his contract nears it end.

Never say never is what I have learned. :) https://t.co/YLxBChRvod  Steve Burton (@1SteveBurton) December 7, 2016

Steve Burton's post has been interpreted by some fans as a hint that they will still see more of him on daytime television. Other fans, meanwhile, hope that he has changed his mind and will stay as Dylan McAvoy in Y&R.

Meanwhile, if Steve Burton is going back on GH, what will happen with Billy Miller? The idea of having Burton as Jason Morgan seemed possible until it was confirmed that Billy Miller renewed his contract with "General Hospital" last October, which will last until next year, via Celebrity Dirty Laundry.

So unfortunately for GH fans who prefer Steve Burton as Jason Morgan, it seems unlikely to happen anytime soon. Still, who knows GH might be able to have two Jason Morgan and make a storyline that would revolve around who is the imposter or not?

Do you think Steve Burton will stay in "The Young and the Restless" or come back to "General Hospital"? Share your thoughts below and catch "General Hospital" every day at 2:00 p.m. on ABC.
In September 20, 2016, Angelina Jolie filed a divorce on his now ex-beau, Brad Pitt. A lot of Brangelina fans were shocked and saddened because of this news. Now, they are battling for the custody of their six children. And because of this, the two reportedly got into a war because Jolie purposely reveals to the public about Pitt's private therapy session and demanding more time with their children.

According to Hollywood Life, the legal team of Brad Pitt accused the 41-year-old actress, that she intentionally shows to public the court papers regarding Pitt's therapy and the visitation schedule to their kids to punish him. Lance Spiegel (Brad Pitt's Attorney) discussed the details about the demand of Pitt to have more time with their kids to Jolie's Lawyer, Laura Wasser, in which, Jolie files for "October Stipulation." This is reportedly the reason why the confidential court order leaked to the public.

In addition, Spiegel says that; October Stipulation was unauthorized, and it should not be filed on the court unless it is necessary to do so. The details about the information needs to be kept in private to protect both camps, as well as their six children. Pitt's Attorney further added that; the 52-year-old actor has done his part on the agreement papers, and Jolie has no reason to publicly files the information of the court.

Spiegel thinks that Jolie is only doing all of these to "punish" and "hurt" her ex-husband, as these information are really confidential and never meant to be discussed in public. The divorce issues and battle for the custody of their children seems to be the reason why the two has gotten into war. However, for Jolie's camp, there is no confirmation that she purposely leaked the said informations.

On the other hand, Jolie is said to be rude to other people after her messy divorce and she is pushing her brother James Haven. While, Pitt says that his greatest love is Jennifer Aniston, not Angelina Jolie; reveals by one of his former bodyguard. Previous report from Jobs & Hire.
Matt Damon will be the star of the upcoming ancient Chinese movie, "The Great Wall." However, his role is said to be an issue regarding culture and diversity, as he reportedly "stole" the role form one of the Chinese actor due to "whitewashing."

According to Damon, his character on the film is not sort of whitewashing. The original concept of the story is respectively meant to be in form of white character (non-Asian) from the beginning. And so, his role leads to some misunderstanding. Damon explains that he did not take the role from other Chinese actors, shared by Huffpost.

One of the known Chinese actress, Constance Wu also reacts to the movie and tweeted just after the first trailer was released; "Our heroes don't look like Matt Damon," and then, Wu tweeted again and says that; racist myth should not continue and stop the belief about white's saving the world.

But the Director of the film, Zhang Yimou, defended Damon and the film and further explains that; people seems to be confused about the movie's plot. The whole point of Damon's character is intended to be white, it said to be as "white-savior" not "whitewashed," as these two has differences.

The movie is an ancient tale from Chinese culture, in which the Chinese armies fights the ancient monster. Damon's role is a swashbuckler, (though, at first he was thought to be a thief) he helps the Chinese armies to fight with the monster. Basically, his overall role is not referred to as "whitewashing." The movie "The Great Wall" is produced by Chinese company and Hollywood. Other casts in the movie are: Willem Dafoe, Jing Tian, Pedro Pascal, and Andy Lau. "The Great Wall" will premiere this coming February 2017.

In another report from Jobs and Hire, rumors about future sequel of "Jason Bourne," circulates. Matt Damon, plays the role of Jason Bourne, and he will have a possible encounter with Jeremy Renner, plays the role of Aaron Cross.
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson cleared that the US government views on Saudi Arabia are not reflective of his own views. Johnson toured in Saudi Arabia despite dispute.

Boris Johnson once accused Saudi Arabia as being a "puppeteer in proxy wars." He explained that it was his own views and does not reflect the views of the US government.

According to The Guardian, Saudi Arabia has been a partner of United Kingdom in their fight against terrorism. The site explained that Johnson's remark was an embarrassment.

"There are politicians that abuse religion for their own political objective. This is the biggest problem in the region," Johnson said.

"That is the reason why the country has proxy wars being fought all the time. There is no strong leadership in the country. That's why Saudi and Iran are puppeteering and playing proxy wars," he added.

However, this does not stop Boris Johnson's tour in the Middle East. BBC reported that former Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind said that the jury is out for Johnson.

He explained that if Boris Johnson wants to continue being the foreign secretary he must control his temper. The site reported that Johnson will head to Saudi Arabia on Sunday.

UK Prime Minister Theresa May believes that Johnson's remarks where his own personal view. May explained that "Johnson will have the opportunity to set out Britain's desire to strengthen ties with Saudi Arabia, supporting Yemen's military controversy."

Boris Johnson may not be one of the best leaders of the US. Being an effective leader could be hard but Jobs & Hire has given tips on how to spot the right leader.

The site reported that there are two kinds of leadership strategy called dominance and prestige. They explained that dominant leaders tend to emphasize their role as a leader. On the other hand, leaders who focus on prestige aspire to be a role model. It might be hard to define what kind of leader Boris Johnson is, it is for the reader to decide.
Pope Francis holds his speech during the Ordinary Public Consistory at St. Peter's Basilica on November 19, 2016 in Vatican City, Vatican. (Photo : Franco Origlia / Stringer)

Christmas is already in the air and the Vatican is now ready to give people Christmas cards with images that Pope Francis has handpicked himself. For this year's Christmas, the beloved Pope has chosen the fourteenth-century painting that is found inside a church in Assisi, Italy.



The painting done by Giotto dl Bondone, an Italian artist shows a nativity scene with the Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph, angels, shepherds and all the animals, which include lamb, goat and cow, present. However, with the distinct detail, there is just this one thing that makes the masterpiece a little bit odd and makes it more unique, Huffington Post reported.



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What makes it unique to other nativity scene is the presence of two baby Jesus Christ. One of which is held by the Virgin Mother and the other is being held by a woman just right below the bed where Mary is seated.



The two Jesus Christ present in the masterpiece was never been a mistake. In fact, the two images of Christ show his two natures, which are being human and divine, the National Catholic Register posted. Glotto painted Jesus twice in order to express what he believes in and also to share that belief to other people as well. The babies are also wrapped in rugs representing how Jesus came into the world just to become the bearer of the sufferings of all mankind.



The inspiration behind the making of this art is Saint Francis of Assisi and his love to share the story behind how God has come into flesh through Jesus Christ and His birth scene. St. Francis of Assisi said as written in his biography, the nativity scene was made "to do something that will recall the memory of that Child who was born in Bethlehem, to see with bodily eyes the inconvenience of his infancy, how he lay in the manger and how the ox and ass stood by."



Describing Pope Francis' Christmas cards for 2015.




China has Won the South China Sea Struggle against the US, says Ambassador

Ambassador Wu Haitao (Photo : UN)

The situation in the South China Sea is being resolved to China's advantage and according to China's desire for bilateral consultations, said Ambassador Wu Haitao, China's Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations.



He told an audience at the 71st UN General Assembly on Oceans and the Law of the Sea that because of to the joint efforts of China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the situation in the South China Sea is developing in a positive direction favoring China and has been brought back to the right track of dialogues and consultations China has insisted on in the past.



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"We hope that states concerned will work together with China to seek a solution to the dispute through negotiations and consultations and maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea," said Wu.



"The so-called 'Arbitration on the South China Sea' was null and void with no binding power whatsoever," he pointed out.



"China does not accept it, did not participate in it and does not recognize it to uphold the international rule of law. That page of the so-called 'arbitration' has been turned over."



Ambassador Wu claimed China will act as a defender of the rule of the international maritime law, a builder of a harmonious maritime order and a promoter of the sustainable marine development.



"We look forward to continuing to strengthen cooperation with all countries in order to further promote the protection and sustainable use of the oceans and seas."



He also pointed out that "China highly values the peace and stability in the South China Sea" and has "always taken a constructive and responsible approach in addressing the issue.



In China's favor is the Philippines' volte-face in its relationship with the United States. This sudden and steep deterioration in relations with the Philippines can be traced to the anti-American bias of president Rodrigo Duterte.



Duterte has long been criticized for either being a communist sympathizer or a member of the Beijing-oriented New People's Army fighting to overthrow the government.



His first official visit as president, this to communist Vietnam, and his visit to China, are reinforcing the perception among a growing number of Filipinos that Duterte plans to transform the Philippines into a communist state.


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DroneDefender Anti-Drone Rifle is Getting an Upgrade to Make it Deadlier to Small Aerial Drones

DroneDefender. (Photo : Battelle)

The DroneDefender man-portable, anti-drone rifle used by U.S. troops to shoot down ISIS aerial drones in Iraq is being improved by its maker, Battelle, a non-profit research and development organization based in Ohio.



Battelle said it's working hard to develop a more compact, lighter and more capable version of DroneDefender that will be even more effective on the battlefield.



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The 6.8 kg DroneDefender, which is carried and aimed like an infantry rifle, works by interrupting the frequencies that enemy unmanned aerial systems (UAS') operate on to shoot down the UAS.



The Department of Homeland Security and the Defense Department together ordered 100 DroneDefenders earlier this year, and the weapon is being used by the Army in Iraq. The military has ordered more of the systems.



"The system that we generated was in proactive response to a need that we saw coming," said Dan Stamm, manager of counter-UAS programs for Battelle.



"Understanding the potential threat that was out there, we generated the version one (DroneDefender) on our own. When the realization started occurring that this was indeed going to be a threat, our solution may not have answered all the challenges, but it answered a vast majority of them.



"Now, we're spending our own investment to close up additional challenges and threats that may be received by our users."



He said the next iteration of DroneDefender will be significantly lighter weight and smaller in size. It will also be more streamlined and efficient in power consumption. Researchers are also looking at expanding the range of frequencies the device can disrupt.



In October, the U.S. military reported shooting down an ISIS aerial drone over Iraq. If confirmed, this event will be the first shoot down of its kind for the U.S. military in a combat zone.



Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James said U.S. Air Force troops shot down a small, weaponized UAV operated by ISIS. James, however, didn't specify the type of drone shot down or the type of weapon used by the Air Force.



But photos made public later by Iraqi media show a flying wing drone equipped with a small camera in its nose. The white painted drone showed no signs of being hit by bullets.



As for the weapon used by the Air Force, the likely suspect is DroneDefender.



DroneDefender comes with a companion radar system that detects and tracks the small and hard to detect drones. The radar system consists of two, 18 kg components and can be carried in two rucksacks.



When assembled, the radar provides 360 degree coverage, detecting drones from several kilometers away. DroneDefender is then brought into play.


Sears posts another

loss as sales slide

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill.  Sears, the one-time standard bearer for U.S. retail, has posted quarterly losses for more than a year now, and sales continue to slide as the company shutters poorly performing stores.

The companys cash situation, which has led in the past to clashes with suppliers, is an ongoing concern. Cash and cash equivalents fell another 12 percent from last year at this time, to $258 million.

On Thursday, Sears said it had $174 million remaining in a $1.97 billion revolving credit facility.

In the spring, Sears said it was exploring its options for its Kenmore, DieHard and Craftsman brands, in addition to its vast real estate holdings.

It continues to do so.

The Hoffman Estates, Illinois, company, which also owns Kmart, lost $748 million, or $6.99 per share, in the most recent quarter.

Los Angeles officials sue retailers over ad practices

LOS ANGELES  Los Angeles prosecutors Thursday sued four national retailers, accusing them of duping shoppers into believing they got bigger discounts than they actually did.

The separate lawsuits alleging deceptive advertising were filed against J.C. Penney, Sears, Kohls and Macys, according to the Los Angeles city attorneys office.

California law bars retailers from advertising a higher original price unless the product was sold at that price within three months of the ad.

Sears and J.C. Penney declined to comment. Kohls and Macys did not immediately respond to messages for comment.

Small businesses see post-election surge

NEW YORK  Small business owners had a post-election surge in optimism and say they are stepping up their plans to hire new workers.

Thats the finding of a survey released Thursday by Wells Fargo & Co., which questioned 602 small business owners from Nov. 11 to 17.

Just over half the owners surveyed said they believed actions by the administration of Republican President-elect Donald Trump and Congress will make their companies better off. Sixty-one percent believed Trump will focus on issues important to them as business owners.

Greece to distribute money to the needy

ATHENS, Greece  As thousands of Greeks protested against government spending cuts during a general strike that crippled the country Thursday, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras announced one-off measures to ease the burden on pensioners and island residents.

Tsipras said the government would distribute a total of 617 million euros this Christmas to some 1.6 million low-income pensioners, replacing a holiday bonus scrapped by Greeces bailout creditors.

Tsipras said the cash would come from a larger-than-expected surplus in Greeces primary budget, which excludes the cost of servicing the countrys crippling debt.

The Associated Press
An Arctic blast will send temperatures plummeting in the Triad and Northwest North Carolina.

Todays forecast calls for sunny skies and a high temperature of near 39 degrees in Winston-Salem, 38 in Mount Airy and 26 in Boone. Tonights low will be around 21 degrees in Forsyth and Surry counties, and around 14 in Watauga County.

The wind-chill factor in Winston-Salem will make the high temperature of 39 feel like 30, said Barrett Smith, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Raleigh.

The wind-chill factor describes how cold people feel and what happens to the body when people are outside in cold, windy conditions, the weather service said.

The high temperatures in Forsyth and parts of Northwest North Carolina will be about 15 degrees below normal, said Smith and Jack Ruckman, a weather service meteorologist in Blacksburg, Va.

A cold front moved through North Carolina on Thursday, dropping temperatures after sunset into the 20s, Smith said. In addition, a high-pressure system moving south from the northern plains states such as North Dakota, South Dakota and Iowa, brought Arctic air into the southern Appalachian mountains Thursday night.

The cold air will reach into the Carolinas and other Southeastern states today, the weather service said. The frigid conditions will cover two-thirds of the United States, from Montana to the Eastern Seaboard, said Rich Jaworski, a meteorologist with Accuweather.

Its coming this way (to central North Carolina), Smith said. It will be quite cold when it gets here.

The frigid weather comes 12 days before winter begins on Dec. 21.

The weather service in Blacksburg cautioned residents in Ashe and Watauga counties Thursday about the low temperatures. The wind-chill factor tonight in Boone could reach 5 to 10 degrees below zero, Ruckman said.

That could be a chilly situation very quickly, he said.

Ruckman advised residents who go outdoors to wear layers of protective clothing such as heavy jackets or coats, hats, scarfs and gloves.

Drought persists

This weeks rain didnt relieve the drought in much of North Carolina.

The U.S. Drought Monitor showed that 83 percent of Forsyth County and the northwestern counties, including Watauga, are in a moderate drought. Watauga County was in a severe drought last week.

Since Dec. 1, Forsyth has received 1.17 inches of rain and Watauga has received 2.18 inches of rain, the weather service said.

Nearly the entire South remains abnormally dry, and more rain is needed before the droughts demise can be declared, said Mark Syoboda, who directs the National Drought Mitigation Center in Lincoln, Neb.

In North Carolina, air pollution will not be a problem today.

The N.C. Division of Air Quality has issued a code green alert today for Forsyth, Stokes, Davidson, Davie, Guilford and parts of central North Carolina. The green alert means that air quality is considered satisfactory and air pollution poses little or no concern.
WASHINGTON  Fake news leads eventually to real tragedy. It almost got there Sunday when an idiot brought a loaded assault rifle into a Washington pizzeria, firing at least one shot, in an attempt to self-investigate a preposterous made-up conspiracy theory.

No one was hurt  this time. But the same kind of thing will happen again, thanks to the poison being dispensed by alt-right and white-supremacist propagandists. They concocted news stories out of whole cloth during the campaign in an attempt to destroy Hillary Clinton and those closest to her. Is anyone surprised that some people take these paranoid fantasies as gospel truth? Im not.

President-elect Donald Trump makes matters worse by trumpeting facts that are non-factual. To the extent that he shapes the post-truth media landscape, he shares responsibility for the consequences.

The made-up story that inspired Sundays incident grew out of the hack of Clinton campaign chairman John Podestas emails. There were a number of exchanges between Podesta and the owner of Comet Ping Pong, a pizza parlor. Suspicious? Not in the least. Comet is located in the affluent neighborhood that is home to much of the political establishment. And anyone involved in politics knows that campaigns basically run on pizza.

Also, quite a few of Podestas hacked emails had to do with food. Apparently, he likes to eat well. How sinister.

In any event, cynics writing on sites such as Facebook, Reddit, Infowars and Inquisitr spun these innocent facts into a dark, hydra-headed conspiracy involving the alleged trafficking and sexual exploitation of young children. Hidden rooms and secret tunnels were supposedly involved, and no, I am not making this up. Other people made it up, and some gullible readers swallowed it.

Among the believers, apparently, was Edgar Maddison Welch, 28, of Salisbury, N.C., who allegedly walked into Comet Ping Pong waving around a loaded AR-15-style assault rifle. Fortunately, employees and customers were able to flee. Welch allegedly fired at least one shot before surrendering to police, who said he had a second firearm with him in the restaurant and a third in his car. He is charged with assault with a deadly weapon.

Police said Welch told them he came to the nations capital to look into the ridiculous child trafficking story. He reportedly barged into the pizzerias kitchen to search for the entrance to the nonexistent secret tunnels.

Yes, this is all as crazy as it sounds. But the lives of those who happened to drop by Comet Ping Pong or any of the neighboring businesses on a chilly Sunday afternoon were put in real danger by the purveyors of fake news. Morally, those propagandists should be in the dock along with Welch.

Legally, of course, those who make up such stories are protected by the First Amendment. The only way we can shield ourselves from toxic conspiracy theories is to denounce them and disown those individuals and media outlets who spread them. In other words, we can use shame as a disinfectant. Yet next month we will inaugurate as president a man who  in this regard, at least  is without shame.

Trump is the Old Faithful of fake news. He started his late-blooming career in politics by claiming, falsely, that President Obama was not born in the United States. He said that thousands and thousands of Muslims in New Jersey cheered the 9/11 attacks, which was not true. He charged, absurdly, that Obama and Clinton were the founders of the Islamic State. He touted a ridiculous National Enquirer story alleging that Sen. Ted Cruzs father had something to do with the JFK assassination. He repeatedly said, falsely and without evidence, that there was something seriously wrong with Clintons health. Apparently stung at having lost the popular vote to Clinton, he claimed that he would have won it if not for widespread voter fraud  which simply did not take place, according to officials in the states he cited.

Trump has not, to my knowledge, spoken or tweeted about the pizza scandal, although his chosen national security adviser, Gen. Michael Flynn, did send a tweet about purported Sex Crimes w Children. But the president-elect seems not to realize that it is now in his self-interest to renounce fake news and its creators. Soon, after all, he will be the source of the official story about basically everything.

In a post-truth world, how will we know hes not cooking the economic books? Or that every foreign policy move isnt designed to further his business interests? Or that his Cabinet doesnt practice witchcraft?

Real news and true truth still matter. As Trump will discover.
Have you heard the one about the man sitting on top of his house after a flood?

A boat approaches and its skipper invites the man to ride along to safety.

No, thanks, the man replies. Im waiting for God to save me.

Another boat approaches and the same offer receives the same reply.

A helicopter pauses and drops a ladder.

No, thanks. Im waiting for God to save me.

The waters rise and the man drowns. In the hereafter, he approaches the throne and cant help himself:

God, why did you let me drown? I was waiting for you to save me!

The Almighty replies: I sent you two boats and a helicopter, whaddya want?

The old joke crossed my mind last week as I vacationed in the Bertie County town of Windsor. It was inundated by rising flood waters from the Cashie River after Hurricane Matthew in September, but the waters have now receded. The alpaca, zebra and emu have been returned to the mini-zoo and the quiet boardwalk leading to the river, a kayakers paradise, looks none the worse for submersion.

But several businesses remain closed in Windsor, some for good. The inundated library has been stripped bare of books and shelves. And this may have been my last stay in the towns only inn, a warm and comfortable oasis. After four floods in 10 years, the owner says shes had enough and will sell the inn or auction off its effects next year.

The 2013 documentary If You Build It portrays Bertie County as struggling, not only with poverty and an obscenely dysfunctional educational system, but with a local leadership structure that fears relinquishing power to outsiders. An acquaintance in town confirmed this analysis and cited high-schoolers who have never been taught how to multiply and divide or, in some cases, even how to endorse checks.

The joke also crossed my mind on election night, as I followed the returns with anchor Katie Couric and her panel of Washington insiders on Yahoo News. One of her guests was Bo Copley, a plain-spoken, unemployed coal miner from West Virginia who received media attention earlier this year after passionately advocating for his state, his family and his livelihood to candidate Hillary Clinton.

Referring to his year-long unemployment, Couric asked Copley if he had considered government-subsidized retraining programs to help him learn new skills.

I feel like Im led by the Lord and I want to do what he wants me to do, Copley responded, so were kind of just waiting on him to point me in the right direction, then well pursue those avenues once we know that were going in the direction that he wants us to go in.

Bo. Buddy. The Lord sent you two boats ...

But change is hard, especially when your job fits and your children are happy where they live. Change is hard in a state like North Carolina, where sharply-curtailed benefits often dont allow the unemployed the leisure to wait for the Lords guidance.

I drove south to Little Washington and strolled past busy art galleries and coffee shops before standing in line at Bills Hot Dogs to get two (all the way but onions). I took my lunch to a bench on the northern bank of the Pamlico River, watching the boats sway and the sunshine sparkle in the water. Foot traffic was vigorous. City employees with brushes and rollers freshened up the vibrant blue paint on the rails by the riverwalk. There had been some flooding, I was told, but it did little damage and receded quickly.

An earworm kept repeating the lines from a 1984 Springsteen song:

Theyre closing down the textile mill across the railroad tracks

Foreman says these jobs are going, boys, and they aint coming back

President-elect Donald Trump has promised to bring those jobs back, though, along with a former social order.

As I drove toward Southport, I heard on the radio Trumps claim to have saved 1,000 Indiana manufacturing jobs at the bargain price of $7 million. I later learned that Indiana manufacturer Carrier offers employees a generous, four-year re-education program to develop new skills in a field of their choice, reporter Ethan Wolff-Mann wrote for Yahoo Finance. The program has awarded 38,000 degrees since 1996 and currently has 7,000 enrolled.

I spent the night in Southport before hiking in the Nature Conservancys lush Green Swamp Preserve  a story for another day  then heading for home.

Whats the difference between Windsor, deadlocked in poverty and dysfunction, and Little Washington, which seems to be thriving? I asked a friend, an economist who lives in the area.

Washington has a plan, he told me. Windsor doesnt.

Washington leaders have committed to recruiting new businesses and industry. They decided to listen. To diversify their economic base. To invest. To let outsiders in. To sail toward a bright future rather than cling to a stagnant past.

They took the boat.
The News & Record of Greensboro published this editorial Monday.

A Franklin man who has allegedly confessed to setting wildfires that ravaged western North Carolina said he endangered scores of lives and vast swaths of natural beauty and private property because, well, why not?

According to court documents, Keith Mann, 49, told a U.S. Forest Service agent that he set two fires on Oct. 27 and Nov. 22 that scorched 16 acres in the Nantahala National Forest because I was just bored. News reports also say Mann was so depressed after his wife left him that he simply wanted to see something burn.

What can you be after hearing something so reckless and self-centered but deeply saddened  and outraged?
The Pirate Bay (TPB) is one of the most resilient torrent sites since 2003. (Photo : YouTube / Official10s)

The Pirate Bay (TPB) is facing another case in Swedish courts. A coalition of multimedia conglomerates is aiming to get torrent sites blocked by Internet Service Providers in Sweden.



Nordisk Film, Warner Music, Sony Music and Universal Music are legally fighting piracy in Sweden once again as they push for an ISP blockade against The Pirate Bay. TPB has already faced the same case in 2015 and won but the group has filed an appeal which has been reopened recently.



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The difference now is that The Pirate Bay will be facing the case in a new court. TPB will be legally battling the media groups in the new Patent and Market Court in Sweden, Torrent Freak reported.



Sweden has had the new court along with the Patent and Market Court of Appeal since September 2016. They were established because of the growing need for versatility in handling cases regarding intellectual properties and piracy.



Since the case was reopened due to the appeal filed after it was won by the ISPs, the new case will be heard by the Patent and Market Court of Appeal. If the media groups win, TPB and other torrent sites could be blocked by ISPs in Sweden which will make it hard for people to access them at all even with a VPN.



If The Pirate Bay does go down, it will still take time for the courts to decide which other torrent sites will also be blocked. Alphareign is a rising TPB alternative which aims to be a proxy for Kickass Torrents too, Techworm reported. It can be used to search for the latest "The Walking Dead" and "Game of Thrones" torrents.



KAT alternatives have popped up after it was taken down but only some of them are actually useful. The Pirate Bay is still one of the top torrent sites but users are afraid that it might be shut down as well.



Alphareign can be used for those who do not want to browse the best torrent sites. TPB will still live on even if the ISPs do block them in Sweden.



Find out how to download torrents in The Pirate Bay through the video below:






With decades of teaching experience in several capacities in Texas and over the past three years with The Flowertown Blossoms in Summerville, Anicia D. Brown is dead set on handing youngsters the tools to master stage acting and production, while also imparting impactful life lessons along t Read moreFlowertown Blossoms preaching the value of teamwork
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TeleSur |  

The decision to drop advertising from the far-right mouthpiece came on the back of a No Money for The Right campaign.

German companies are the latest to pull their advertising from website Breitbart, whose former director, Steve Bannon, is now President-elect Donald Trumps chief strategist. The companies, including car manufacturer BMW, are concerned that the website  known as a mouthpiece for Trumps campaign and anti-immigrant rhetoric  is promoting racism and white nationalism.

BMW, Deutsche Telekom, supermarket franchise Rewe and the European-wide restaurant chain Vapiano have all pulled their advertising and distanced themselves from the controversial website, which recently ran headlines such as Would You Rather Your Child Had Feminism or Cancer and Hoist It High And Proud: The Confederate Flag Proclaims A Glorious Heritage.

The withdrawal from the companies comes after a social media campaign kicked off in Germany with the hashtag #KeinGeldFuerRechts, meaning No Money for The Right. A similar campaign, #StopFundingHate, has been used against the hate campaigns of British outlets the Sun, Daily Mail and Daily Express.

Deutsche Telekom said that executives very much regret their association with the far-right outlet, commenting that company does not tolerate discriminatory actions or statements in any way, a representative told AFP.

Similarly, the major restaurant chain to pull its ads said,  The positions held by Breitbart.com contrast with Vapianos values, such as openness and tolerance.

Other companies including Kelloggs and one of the worlds largest advertising agencies, AppNexus, have also pulled their advertising from the website.

Breitbart already operates a website out of London and is reportedly planning to open up in Germany and France, which will be holding elections next year.

Across Europe, there is growing support for far-right candidates who are aiming for Trump-like victories in what has been dubbed the post-truth era of politics.

Frances far-right leader Marine Le Pen called Thursday for cuts to free education for foreign children. Today the United States, tomorrow France, she said following Trumps shock presidential win.

via TeleSur



Related video added by Juan Cole:

Late Night with Seth Meyers:  Hey! A Message to Media Normalizing the Alt-Right


Maisie Williams attends the 68th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards at Microsoft Theater September 18, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo : Getty Images/Alberto E. Rodriguez)

"Game of Thrones" actress Maisie Williams, the actress who famously plays Arya Stark in the hit show, has become the latest victim of cyber attack and invasion of privacy. One of her personal photos, which originally was never intended for public consumption, became viral on Reddit causing a major buzz.



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The topless picture was intended to be shared only with the actress' inner circle. The undated image shows the actress wearing only black bikini bottoms while sitting cross-legged on a rock. While her back is turned to the camera with her hair tied in a loose topknot, her features are seen in profile as she casts a glance over her shoulder.



A separate image apparently captures the teenage star as she undresses with a group of friends close to the ocean. The images have emerged over the weekend.



While the actress' rep confirmed that the images are real and legit, it was also pointed out that there is nothing sexual or explicit about them. The pics were lifted from the actress' private Facebook account, the actress's representative told Page Six.



An unidentified Reddit user claiming to be a Williams' friend even posted a heavily Photoshopped screenshot without any identifying information to prove the origin of the photos. The actress has not offered any comment as to how the photo from her private account wound up on Reddit.



The talked-about image is from the 19-year-old actress' recent visit to Japan. She was in the country to protest the nation's practice of hunting dolphins, as well as their use in stage shows.



Earlier, Williams was seen at the London premiere of "Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them" on Nov. 15, Daily Mail reported. Apparently, taking a break from Arya Stark's costume from the upcoming season of "Game of Thrones," the actress looked gorgeous in a tartan mini skirt that she teamed with knee-high socks and black heels for her jaunt down the vast blue carpet.



Watch the video below to see Arya Stark seek revenge for the murder of her brother Robb and mother Catelyn:






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By IMEMC |  

Palestinian lawmaker Mustafa al-Barghouthi, on Tuesday, said the legitimization of settlement outposts, by the Israeli Knesset, is a war on the Palestinian people.

In a press statement, the leader of the Palestinian National Initiative said that the misappropriation of private Palestinian land in favor of illegal settlements amounts to a death sentence against the longed-for Palestinian State.

According to the PNN, he slammed the Israeli government as a fascist body that enforces policies of apartheid, racial oppression, and land grab across the occupied Palestinian territories.

Al-Barghouthi called for a unified national strategy to face up to the Israeli occupation, and for ceasing all forms of normalization and coordination with such a colonizing entity.

According to al-Barghouthi, Palestinians should no longer lay a bet on stalled peace talks with the Israeli occupation and the so-called two-state solution, dubbing them as signs of hypocrisy and an involvement in Israeli crimes against the Palestinians.

The Palestinians are determined to retrieve their freedom and dignity no matter the price, he vowed.

An Israeli bill legitimizing illegal settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank passed its first reading in the Knesset on Monday, with 60 MKs voting in favor of the bid, while 49 vetoed it.

The bid will culminate in the legalization of 4,000 settlement units, along with dozens of other isolated houses and will also bring about a legalization of 3,125 illegal settlement units established on Palestinian lands, covering an overall area of 5,014 dunams.

(Edited for the IMEMC by chris @ imemc.org)

Via IMEMC
The Arkansas Supreme Court [official website] on Thursday overturned [opinion, PDF] a ruling that allowed all married same-sex couples to get the names of both spouses on their childs birth certificate. The court found [AP report] that the law did not violated equal protection by acknowledg[ing] basic biological truths. The justices found that the state of Arkansas has a vested interest in listing biological parents on birth certificates. The concern by those opposed is that there has never needed to be any proof that the father listed on the birth certificate is the actually biological father. The attorney for the same-sex couples has not yet decided whether to appeal to the US Supreme Court.

The rights of same-sex couples, and same-sex parents in particular, have been particularly contentious of late. In October Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore was removed from the bench [JURIST report] for issuing an order preventing magistrate judges of that state from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, in direct contravention of a federal order requiring same. In September the North Carolina Court of Appeals affirmed [JURIST report] a lower courts dismissal of a claim by two former magistrates that their rights were violated by 2014 guidance memos from the Administrative Office of the Courts that said they could be fired if they refused to perform same-sex marriages. Earlier that month, tens of thousands of people marched in Mexico [JURIST report] to protest a same-sex marriage recognition proposal. In August, the Belize Supreme Court struck down [JURIST report] a law banning sodomy, declaring it unconstitutional and adversely impactful to the LGBT community.
The European Commission [official website] on Thursday announced [press release] plans to take action against seven member states for failing to fulfill their obligations under EU law when they did not set up penalty systems to deter manufacturers from violating the legislation, particularly after Volkswagen (VW) [corporate website] was investigated for implementing software in its vehicles that could cheat emissions tests. The Commission will take action against Germany, Luxembourg, Spain and the UK because they issued approvals for VW vehicles and did not enforce the provisions on penalties against the manufacturer after it was discovered they cheated the emissions tests. Germany and the UK have further been accused of not disclosing to the Commission information it requested concerning nitrogen oxide emissions and Volkswagen irregularities. Notices were also sent to Czech Republic, Greece and Lithuania because they have not introduced penalty systems against car manufacturers in their national laws.

VW is facing legal difficulty around the world over the emissions scandal. South Korea announced Wednesday that it plans to fine [JURIST report] VW over false advertising. In October, A Spanish court ordered [JURIST report] Volkswagen to pay damages to a VW vehicle owner who purchased his car in 2011. A US judge approved [JURIST report] a $14.7 billion settlement in October between VW and the US Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission, the state of California and car owners who filed a class action lawsuit over the companys emissions scandal. In September a German court said VW faces over USD $8.2 billion [JURIST report] in damage claims from investors. That same month, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission sued [JURIST report] VW and its local subsidiary for misleading customers. In August a district court in Germany ruled [JURIST report] that a collective complaint against VW may move forward. Like US-style class-action lawsuits, the collective complaint was launched on behalf of multiple investors who lost money following the diesel emissions cheating scandal. Last March the US FTC filed suit [JURIST report] against VW for false advertising.
Lebanese lawmakers took steps on Wednesday to overturn a law [press release] that allows rapists to avoid prosecution if they marry their victims. Article 522 of the penal code was ratified in the 1940s and maintains that those found guilty of rape could be sentenced for at least seven years but that charges could be lifted if the rapist marries the victim. Activists have lobbied for the laws revocation for years and claim that the law empowers rapists and further victimizes those who have been assaulted. The Lebanon parliament will have to vote on the motion to abolish the law.

The rights of women and girls continues to be an international rights issue. Last month Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said that the government would withdraw a controversial bill that may have allowed men to marry girls under 18 [JURIST report] without being guilty of sexual assault. In September Human Rights Watch [advocacy website] accused [JURIST report] Nepal of not doing all it could to prevent child marriages, finding that over 37 percent of girls are still being married before age 18. In April the UN Special Rapporteur for human rights in Cambodia, Rhona Smith, appealed [JURIST report] to the country to strengthen the protection of its women and the rights of its indigenous peoples. In June the UN Working Group on Discrimination against Women in Law called [JURIST report] on the worlds governments to take quick, effective steps towards ensuring women are granted equal rights to health, including reproductive and sexual health. In July Gambia and Tanzanias governments announced [JURIST report] the end of the practice of child marriage along with prison sentences for those who continue the tradition.
The Dutch disctrict court of Haarlem [official website] said [Press release, in Dutch] Friday that Geert Wilders, the leader of the Dutch right wing political party, Party for Freedom [party website], has been convicted of inciting discrimination. The incident in question happened in March 2014 during a political rally, where Wilders promised to lower the number of Morrocans in the Netherlands. The court ruled [decision, in Dutch] that there were limits to the right to free speech and that Wilders as a leader of a political party had a duty not to polarize society. The court further stated: If a politician crosses the line, that doesnt mean free speech is being restricted. A crime cannot be protected by the right to free speech. The court decided not to impose any prison sentence or fine, as requested by the prosecution, as they held that the conviction itself was enough punishment. Wilders has said that he will appeal the conviction.

The trial started [JURIST report] in October without the presence of Wilders himself and he was reportedly facing up to a year in prison if convicted. The Dutch prosecutor started an investigation [JURIST report] into the allegations in 2014 after receiving more than 6,400 complaints about the remarks made by Wilders. In 2011 Wilders was also accused of hate speech [JURIST report] for saying he hated Islam, comparing the Koran to Mein Kampf and for creating the controversial movie Fitna among others. He was acquitted of all charges on that occasion.
[JURIST] The US Senate [official website] voted on Wednesday to pass the 21st Century Cures Act [bill], which will allow the Food and Drug Administration [official website] to fund more medical research and speed up access to new drugs. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) [official website] said the bill would provide more funding [Congressional report] towards research for cancer, Alzheimers Disease and rare diseases. He also said that the bill will support resources to combat the opioid epidemic and help Americans with mental illnesses]. The bill received bipartisan support and passed [Reuters report] by a vote of 94-5. Those who did not support the bill, such as Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT) [official website] say that it gives the pharmaceutical industry too much power. The 21st Century Cures Act received bipartisan support in the US House of Representatives [official website] last week, where it passed [JURIST report] by a vote of 392-26. Before becoming law, the bill must be signed by President Obama [official website], who has supported [NYT report] the bill from the beginning.

Health care has been a major topic over the past year. In November the US House submitted a motion [JURIST report] requesting the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit delay any further action on the appeal of the district court ruling against the Affordable Care Act. Early that month the District of Columbia Council approved a Death with Dignity bill [JURIST report] that would allow terminally ill patients to end their own lives with a physicians help. During the election Colorado voters rejected [JURIST report] an amendment that would have created the states first universal health insurance program, with over 80 percent of voters voting against the amendment. In October a federal court blocked [JURIST report] a Mississippi law disqualifying Medicaid benefits for non-therapeutic abortions.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad Al Hussein [official profile] on Thursday expressed concern [press release] over proposed legislation in Israel that would retroactively legalize the Israeli outposts constructed on privately-owned Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank. Currently there are about 570,000 Israeli settlers living in 130 settlements and 100 outposts in the West Bank. The legislation, which was approved in the first of the three readings by the Israel Parliament [official website] on Wednesday, would allow [JURIST report] for the construction of 4,000 settler homes. To be considered legal, the construction of these settlements would have be carried out in good faith [TOI report] as defined by the legislation. Peace Now [advocacy website], an Israel-based rights group supporting a two-state solution in the region, refers to the bill as grand law robbery [Al Jazeera report] that will deal a devastating blow to the two-state solution. According to the High Commissioner:

In enabling the use of land privately-owned by Palestinians for Israeli settlements without the owners consent, this legislation would violate international law according to which Israel, as the occupying power, must respect the private property of Palestinians, regardless of whether or not compensation is provided.  All Israeli settlements[whether formally authorized or otherwise]are clearly and unequivocally illegal under international law and constitute one of the main obstacles to peace

Zeid said that the implementation of this bill would negatively impact the reputation of Israel and should alarm all those interested in seeing respect for international law, and all those who wish for a lasting peace for all the inhabitants of Israel and Palestine.

Recent conflicts between Israel and Palestine [HRW backgrounder] over settlements in the occupied West Bank have raised concerns over possible human rights violations. Last month the Israel High Court of Justice (HCJ) [official website] ruled that the controversial Amona settlement in the West Bank must be dismantled [JURIST report] by December 25. Earlier the same month Israels Ministerial Committee for Legislation unanimously approved [JURIST report] the Formalization Bill to legalize the West Bank outposts, which was intended in part to stop the evacuation of Amona outpost. In March the spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) [official website] expressed concern [JURIST report] over the apparent extra-judicial execution of a Palestinian man in the West Bank. In January Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] urged [JURIST report] businesses to cease operations in Israel settlements. In August 2015 UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged both sides of the conflict [JURIST report] to reconcile and move towards peace after an attack occurred in the West Bank village of Duma, where Jewish extremists allegedly set fire to a Palestinian home while a family slept inside. In April 2015 HRW alleged [HRW report] that Israeli settlement farmers in the occupied West Bank were using Palestinian child laborers in dangerous conditions in violation of international laws.
A UN report [report, PDF] released on Thursday stated that failure by parties in eastern Ukraine to implement the Minsk Agreements has led to numerous human rights violations against Ukrainian civilians. This has mainly become a concern for those who live near the contact line between the government and armed groups in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The report documented information based on 176 interviews with witnesses and victims. It details not only the dangers of those who live near this contact line from military engagement, but also the threat of mines and the restrictions on their freedom of movement. Over the three-month period of the report, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission recorded 32 civilian deaths and 132 injuries resulting from the conflict. Since April 2014 the conflict has resulted in roughly 2,000 civilian casualties and between 6,000 and 7,000 injuries. The report found [UN press release]:

It is of deep concern that Government forces and armed groups operating in civilian areas do not take all feasible precautions against the effects of fighting, resulting in damage to schools, kindergartens, and medical facilities. Ukrainian military forces and armed groups continue to be positioned in civilian homes and buildings in villages and towns adjacent to the contact line. Agricultural land used for military purposes and contaminated by mines and explosive remnants of war has a detrimental impact on peoples access to livelihoods.

There is also a serious concern of displacement. The UN is asking that the government take greater care in shielding these citizens and investigate human rights violations committed in the course of the armed conflict, noting insufficient progress in holding perpetrators from its own ranks to account.

Russia and Ukraine have been in conflict since the annexation of Crimea [JURIST backgrounder] in March 2014. In July Amnesty International and Human Rights released the 56-page report detailing how Ukrainian government officials and Russia-backed separatists in the Ukraine have subjected citizens to [JURIST report] prolonged, arbitrary detention, torture, or other forms of inhumane treatment, including refusing necessary medical attention. In June the UN human rights office reported that the human rights situation in Ukraine remains troublesome [JURIST report] following two years of conflict with Russia. In February Russia filed suit [JURIST report] against Ukraine over Ukraines default on $3 billion in bonds. A Ukrainian official said in January that the nation plans to sue Russia [JURIST report] in the International Court of Justice on claims of financing terrorism. Last August a Russian military court sentenced [JURIST report] two Ukrainian activists to substantial jail time for the charge of conspiring to commit terror attacks. In March of last year the EU committed to stand by its policy of refusing to recognize Crimeas annexation [JURIST report].
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel [official website] delivered a letter [PDF] to US President-elect Donald Trump Wednesday signed by many US mayors warning of the potential economic losses Trump could cause if he repeals Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) [official website]. DACA allows undocumented young immigrants to remain in the US if they arrived before they turned 16 and are currently working, pursuing higher education or serving in the military. The letter, which was signed by the Mayors of New York City, Los Angeles and San Francisco among others, warned [press release] that repealing DACA could result in a loss of $9.9 billion in tax revenue over four years and $433.4 billion in US gross domestic product over 10 years. Emanuel wrote:

Ensuring DREAMers can continue to live and work in their communities without fear of deportation is the foundation of sound, responsible immigration policy. Ending DACA would disrupt the lives of close to one million young people, and it would disrupt the sectors of the American economy, as well as our national security and public safety, to which they contribute. We encourage your Administration to demonstrate your commitment to the American economy and our security by continuing DACA until Congress modernizes our immigration system and provides a more permanent form of relief for these individuals.

US Immigration law [JURIST backgrounder] and immigrants rights has been hotly contested in the aftermath of DACA and Obamas 2014 executive action [JURIST report] on immigration reform. In early December 2014 17 states filed suit [JURIST report] against the president for his executive action, asserting that the order was an attempt to re-write law, a power designated solely for Congress. Later the same month a district court found parts of the same executive order unconstitutional [JURIST report] based on a finding of a violation of separation of powers and the Take Care Clause of the constitution. Last week the US House of Representatives passed [JURSIT report] a funding bill that contained amendments that would block the executive order, and remove funding from the presidents DACA program.
Jennifer Lawrence and James McAvoy attend a Global Fan Screening of 'X-Men Apocalypse' at BFI IMAX on May 9, 2016 in London, England. (Photo : Getty Images/Jeff Spicer)

Principal photography is about to begin on the new untitled "X-Men" film. The next installment in the hit series will begin production in May 2017 at the MELS Studios in Montreal.







President of MELS Studios Michel Trudel confirmed the good news to the Le Journal de Montreal, as cited by Movie Web. He revealed 20th Century Fox would return to the studio for the next "X-Men" movie, which is the same location where "X-Men: Days of Future Past" and "X-Men: Apocalypse" were filmed.



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"They will start shooting in May and they will occupy Studios 2 and 3 of MELS for several months," Trudel revealed. "We are very pleased that they have agreed to return to Montreal. They enjoyed their two previous shooting experience with us and they were very satisfied with our facilities and talent of the Quebec film industry."



Trudel went ahead to say that they had two and a half months of negotiations with the people of Fox. He added that he personally went to Los Angeles this October and convinced them.



Though it remains unclear which of Fox's upcoming mutant-related projects it could be, many believed that it is director Josh Boone's upcoming "The New Mutants" film. In May, producer Simon Kinberg said in an interview with Collider that they were eyeing spring of 2017 as a potential production date.



Kinberg also confirmed Professor Charles Francis Xavier (James McAvoy/Patrick Stewart) will be brought back for the spin-off. He revealed that the sequel film will be set in the 1990s and will follow the angst-driven adventures of a diverse group of teens that include Scots girl Wolfsbane, Native American Danielle Moonstar, Cannonball, Brazilian ladies man Sunspot and Russian teen Magik. Also in the mix is an alien named Warlock.



Not much is known about "The New Mutants" aside from that fact that it will serve as a major departure from the previous "X-Men" installments. The spin-off film will reportedly offer a young-adult horror-inspired style that is described as "Stephen King meets John-Hughes."



"The New Mutants" is intended to hit theaters in Spring 2018. Check out the video below for more information:






German baby food maker Hipp has acquired full control of operations at a milk production facility in northern Germany, which was previously operated as a joint venture with dairy cooperative DMK.

The Herford Milchwirtschaftliche Industrie Gessellschaft (MIG) plant had been used for the production of DMKs Humana infant formula, in addition to other milk products.

A Hipp spokesperson told just-food the terms of the transaction, which was effective from 2 December, are not being disclosed. MIG will continue to make products as before but without Humana, the spokesperson said. Hipp has now taken full control of the plant, which currently has around 500 employees, in agreement with DMK.

The spokesperson declined to discuss what would be manufactured at Herford or whether Hipp might be involved in manufacturing products for DMK at the site in future.

Hipp, based in southern Germany, produces a range of products using organically-produced raw materials including baby milks, baby foods and drinks and exports to more than 50 countries.

DMK did not respond to requests for comment about its plans for the continued production of Humana.

DMK told just-food in the summer it was involved in talks with Hipp about the future ownership of the Herford facility.

The announcement came just days after the cooperative said it would push ahead with a major cost-cutting programme to free up EUR60m (US$63.3m) by the end of the year in response severe challenges faced by the dairy industry.

The announcement was followed by confirmation of a generational change in DMKs leadership team following the decisions of CEO Dr Josef Schwaiger and chairman Otto Lattwesen to step down.
Iraqi Army soldiers do battle in Mosul. (Photo : Getty Images)

Attrition will decide the bloody battle for Mosul in favor of the Iraqi Ground Forces of the Iraqi Army and its allies despite the army and its coalition forces losing more men than ISIS since their offensive to retake this city began last Oct. 16



Up until the first week of December, the United Nations estimated Iraqi Army combat deaths alone at close to 2,000 men since the offensive was launched. The UN gave no estimates of combat deaths among coalition allies such as the Kurdish Peshmerga. It also gave no figure for deaths among Iraqi paramilitary units or Sunni fighters.



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Combat death among Iraqi Army allies will push total coalition deaths to above those suffered by ISIS, or ISIL, as the Americans are wont to call them.



While ISIS deaths are difficult to estimate with any certainty, the Iraq Army that has led the assault into Mosul estimates killing over 2,000 ISIS fighters. Not included in this toll are fighters killed by U.S. and coalition airstrikes that pummel ISIS almost everyday.



While the Iraqi Army coalition has lost more men than ISIS, there is no doubt the Iraqis will ultimately win the battle because of their sheer numerical superiority.



At the start of the Battle for Mosul, U.S. and Iraqi Army intelligence placed the total number of ISIS defenders at over 5,000 men.



There are over 120,000 men of the Iraqi Security Forces and their allies surrounding Mosul. At least 25,000 are involved on the attack on this city.



Of this total, 54,000 belong the Iraqi Security Forces; 40,000 to the Kurdish Peshmerga; 14,000 to paramilitary units; 9,000 to various Sunni fighting groups and 5,000 from other minorities including Christians, Turkmen and Yazidis.



A loss ratio of one ISIS fighter killed to one anti-ISIS fighter killed will mean the ISIS forces defending Mosul will be almost completely wiped out by early 2017.


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Produced and marketed by Samsung Electronics, the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 is a discontinued Android phablet smartphone. (Photo : YouTube/Watch Mojo)

Users who have not handed in their Galaxy Note 7 devices could see their units being disabled next week as an update from Samsung rolls out to a carrier in the US.



Several months after the Galaxy Note 7 started to catch fire and ultimately caused the device to be recalled and then scrapped, it appears that some customers have not given up their handsets. To make sure that all such devices are handed back to Samsung, the company has been launching a series of updates that curtail the use of the phablet.



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Another update which is due roll out to customers using US Cellular on Dec. 15, is going to stop the Note 7 from charging, effectively disabling it, The Verge reported. After the customer reported the alert pertaining to the upcoming update to The Verge, and they followed up with Samsung and US Cellular no response was got from these companies.



Additionally, there is also no indication as to whether the same measure will be rolled out via other carriers in the US but it is likely to happen. If the update on Dec. 15 does stop the Note 7 from charging it will be the latest in a set of measures adopted by Samsung to force customers to turn in their handsets. Previous updates have caused the Note 7 to stop charging once it reaches 60 percent, while Samsung in Canada has cut the device off from Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and cellular networks.



Meanwhile as Samsung tries to get customers to hand in their Note 7 device it has been going full steam ahead with trying to identify the problem that caused some handsets to burst into flames. Even as results of Samsung's investigations are awaited this month a consulting company stated that the battery was just too big. After tearing down the device they found that the big battery in the Note 7 had very little room to expand as it heated up and this eventually caused chemicals within it to catch fire, Instrumental Technology reported.



As a result of the scrapping of the Note 7 this, Samsung has witnessed a huge loss. There are now reports that Apple's share of the US smartphone market has risen substantially compared to last year which is bound to put further pressure on Samsung which is its main rival.



Vital facts about the Galaxy Note 7 recall






The first of 12 planned Tuo Chiang corvettes for the Republic of China Navy. (Photo : ROCN)

China is angered at a bill passed by the United States Congress that would renew military ties with the Republic of China (Taiwan), and is telling the United States to abide by the four decades-old One China Policy that recognizes China as the one true Chinese state.



On Dec. 10, China again reaffirmed its unyielding opposition to official and military relations between the United States and Taiwan in any form, as well U.S. arms sales to Taiwan.



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"China's stance is consistent and clear, and well known to the international community," said the Ministry of Foreign Ministry Affairs of China through its spokesperson, Lu Kang.



The ministry also commented on the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for the fiscal year 2017 passed by the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives.



The NDAA was approved by the Senate on Dec. 8 in a 92-7 vote after the bill had cleared the House of Representatives last week. It now goes to President Barack Obama (who opposes the bill) for signing.



Political analysts in Washington believe Obama has no choice but to sign the NDAA into law since the bill enjoys the overwhelming support of the Congress.



Whether the unpredictable President-elect Donald Trump will vigorously enforce the law is a huge unknown but remains quite likely given his ongoing rhetoric slamming China for taking away American jobs and stirring up trouble in the South China Sea.



NDAA is a United States federal law specifying the budget and expenditures of the United States Department of Defense.



The NDAA for 2017 includes content promoting exchanges between military officers of the United States and Taiwan. Taiwan was elated at the bill passing both Houses of Congress, and this mood was reflected by Taiwanese media.



The conference report accompanying the bill calls on the Pentagon to implement a program for exchanges between senior officials and officers from Taiwan and the United States to improve military relations between them.



The report defines exchanges as activities, exercises, events or observation opportunities between Taiwan and U.S. military officials.



Exchanges should be focused on seven areas: threat analysis; military doctrine; troops planning; logistical support; intelligence gathering and analysis; operational strategies, techniques and procedures; and humanitarian aid and disaster relief.



The report defines "senior officers" as active military personnel and "senior Pentagon officials" as those on the level of assistant defense secretary and higher.



China's foreign ministry said the Taiwan issue concerning China's sovereignty and territorial integrity is the most important and sensitive issue to China-U.S. relations.



It urged the United States to abide by the One China policy, the commitment it made and the principles of the three Sino-U.S. Joint Communiques.



"The U.S. side should cautiously handle the issue and not to turn back the wheels of history, so as to avoid disturbance to the China-U.S. relations," said the ministry.


Three others were injured in the explosion targeting a security checkpoint near Al-Salam mosque

At least six policemen were killed and three others were injured early Friday morning in a bomb blast in Giza governorate's Haram district, Egypt's Ministry of Interior announced.

An Egyptian militant group called "Hasm" ("Resolve") claimed responsibility on Friday afternoon for the bombing in a statement issued on their website.

The interior ministry's statement said that the blast killed two police officers, a low-ranking policeman and two conscripts.

Three other policemen were injured and were transferred to hospital.

According to security sources who spoke with Ahram Arabic website, the explosive device was planted in a car parked next to a security checkpoint near Al-Salam mosque in Haram Street.

The device was detonated remotely, the sources added.

The "Hasm" group, which is believed to be connected to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, has claimed a number of attacks on police checkpoints in recent months.

The Giza prosecution is currently investigating the incident.

Facebook activated a safety check feature for users living near the site of the blast, allowing them to let family and friends know that they are okay.

According to reports, this is the first time the feature has been activated in Egypt.

Attacks against security forces have become common in recent years but are concentrated in North Sinai, where Egypt's army and police are battling an entrenched Islamist insurgency.

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LINCOLN  Nebraskas presidential electors are getting deluged with messages trying to sway them before they vote for Republican Donald Trump later this month, but state law has already tied their hands.

If any of the five electors defy the majority of Nebraska voters who picked Trump, a 2014 law would instantly remove them from the position and prevent Secretary of State John Gale from accepting their ballot.

Even so, several of the electors said theyve been shocked to receive so many pleas urging them to vote for Democrat Hillary Clinton or even another Republican. The electors, chosen at the state GOP convention, will formally cast their votes at the Nebraska Capitol on Dec. 19.

Elector Craig Safranek of Merna said he received roughly 1,000 emails in a three-day period after his name was posted on an online elector list a few weeks after the election. Now, he receives 40-50 a day. Safranek said he traded emails with a man in Australia and fielded messages from high school students in Michigan.

Most are copy and paste notes from groups making a long-shot attempt to defeat Trump through the electoral college, Safranek said. He said he eventually stopped reading them and now sends them to his junk folder.

My thought is, its really not up to me, said Safranek, a small-business owner and Trump supporter. In Nebraska, the people voted for Trump. If any of these electors vote against who their state picked, theyre kind of taking away the peoples voices. I hope they catch some hell for that.

Elector Chuck Conrad said he has received so many calls that he stopped answering his phone when he sees a number he doesnt recognize. He said he still reads all of his emails, letters and Facebook messages to make sure they dont contain any threats. None have so far.

Its kind of crazy, said Conrad, a warehouse manager in Hastings and longtime GOP activist. For you and everyone else, the election ended on Nov. 8. For me, its still going on until Dec. 19.

Nebraskas 2014 law requires at-large electors to pledge that they will vote for the candidate who received the most statewide votes and district electors to vote for the winner in their districts. The secretary of state then has to inspect each ballot to confirm they followed their pledge. If the ballot is unmarked or violates the pledge, the elector automatically forfeits the office.

Elector John Dinkel of Norfolk said most of the messages urging him to vote against Trump have come from out of state. Roughly one-fourth were from Nebraska residents, he said, while most others originated in California, New York, and other progressive coastal states.

They range from extremely polite to pretty aggressive, said Dinkel, who owns a farm implement dealership. Some people are almost hysterical.

Dinkel said he supported Florida Sen. Marco Rubio in the GOP primary but switched to Trump after Rubio dropped out of the race. As an elector, he said he absolutely, positively plans to vote for Trump.

A commitment is a commitment, he said. Short of some felonious act or something thats way out of left field, we should support the candidate who won the vote in each state.

Elector Phil Belin said he has fielded calls, emails and letters from 20-25 people, all in Nebraska, urging him to switch his vote. He said he still plans to follow the law requiring him to cast a ballot for Trump, and believes all electors should adhere to what voters in their states decided.

Ive had some good discussions with folks and tried to use this as a launching pad for a more civil discourse, said Belin, an Omaha attorney. For everyone whos reached out to me, Ive tried to reach out in kind. We need to get past the ugliness of this campaign. That was the most discouraging thing to me.

Belin said he didnt support Trump in the GOP primary and still has concerns about the president-elect, but cast a ballot for him in the general election in hopes that he would surround himself with more traditional conservatives. He said he was happy Trump appointed former Republican rival Ben Carson to a cabinet position.

Nebraskas fifth elector, Paul Burger of Kearney, did not return email and phone messages.
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Egyptian and Greek armed forces concluded this week "Medusa 2016" joint military drills in Greece, a spokesperson for the Egyptian military announced on Friday.

According to the spokesperson, units from Egyptian air and naval forces participated in the drills with Greek forces, which were held in the southeast Aegean Sea and on the island of Crete from 5 to 8 December.

Egypt's Chief of Staff Mahmoud Hegazy attended the exercises along with Greek Chief of Hellenic National Defence General Staff Evangelos Apostolakis and a number of Egyptian and Greek commanders.

Egypt has carried out 30 joint military exercises in 2016 with 20 Arab and African countries, as well as European countries including France and Russia.

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A bomb targeting a police vehicle on a road in Egypt's Kafr El-Sheikh killed a civilian motorist who was in the vicinity of the explosion and injured three policemen Friday evening, Egyptian news channel Al-Nahar Al-Youm reported.

The four were transfered to Kafr El-Sheikh hospital.

This is the second bombing targeting police to take place in Egypt on Friday, as another explosion killed six policemen in Giza's Haram district earlier in the day.

An Egyptian militant group called Hasm claimed responsibility for the Giza bombing in a statement issued on their website.

The interior ministry's statement said that the Giza blast killed two police officers, a low-ranking policeman and two conscripts.

Three other policemen were injured and were transferred to hospital.

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Turkish-backed rebels launched an assault on city of al-Bab in northern Syria held by the Islamic State (IS) militants on Friday, opposition fighters said, and Turkish warplanes hit dozens of Islamist militants targets in support of the offensive.

Hundreds of Arab and Turkmen fighters involved in the assault took control of at least two villages west of al-Bab, the fighters said. Turkish state media said late on Thursday that Ankara had sent 300 Turkish commandos to northern Syria as a reinforcement.

The operations are the latest in Turkey's "Operation Euphrates Shield", a military incursion launched three and a half months ago in support of the rebels, and meant to push both IS militants and Kurdish fighters back from the border.

The Turkish army said its air strikes on Friday morning destroyed 34 IS targets, including militant bases, shelters, vehicles mounted with guns, and ammunition depots. Ten targets had also been hit the day before.

The military also said the rebels it backs had seized control of an important highway between the towns of al-Bab and Manbij, around 50 km (30 miles) to the east.

"There is a major assault under way," a fighter with the Turkmen Sultan Murad brigade speaking from inside Syria said. "God willing we will break (IS) resistance this time. Very powerful troops were sent last night."

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict through a network of sources in the country, confirmed there was an increase in the number of Turkish troops with the Euphrates Shield forces and that they were shelling heavily on Friday as they attempted to advance on al-Bab.

The Observatory said explosions triggered by IS had caused casualties in a village close to al-Bab. It also said it had received information that 12 civilians were killed and 10 wounded as a result of air strikes and bombardment by Turkish forces targeting al-Bab.

The advance of the Turkish-backed forces potentially pits them against both Kurdish fighters and Syrian government forces in an increasingly messy battlefield.

Al-Bab is of particular strategic importance to Turkey, partly because Kurdish-dominated militias have also been pursuing a campaign to seize it.

Ankara is determined to prevent the Kurdish YPG militia, which it sees as a hostile force, from joining up cantons it controls along the Turkish border, for fear that would stoke Kurdish separatism at home.

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When you hear people say, I dont want to vaccinate my kid. Why would I give them autism? Its hard not to get upset and meet your patients with some judgment.

John and Carly were middle-class Americans that had a lot of misconceptions about vaccines  mostly from the media. They loved their two-year-old daughter Leslie and wanted the best for her. They didnt understand that we wanted the same thing. They met me with resistance when I told that there must be an issue because I couldnt find Leslies vaccination records.

Theres no issue. She isnt getting vaccinated. She never has and never will, they stated matter-of-factly. I blinked twice and slowly let the judgment fade from my mind. Surely, there had to be a good reason for this. Why are you opposed to vaccines? I asked. Weve honestly never been asked that. Most docs just shake their heads at us, give us a speech and move on, they replied.

I worked with them to understand what their reservations were. It seemed that their concerns stemmed from media articles linking vaccines with autism and neurocognitive issues. They were also skeptical about the government and CDC recommendations because they worried about the motives behind official vaccination guidelines. I pulled up the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia and went to the vaccine education center and walked through what all of the vaccines contained and adverse effects. The CHOP site has real evidence-based info negating any correlation between vaccines and autism, and its not sponsored by the CDC.

I also talked to them about what diseases the vaccines would prevent and how not immunizing puts their kid of spreading diseases to immunocompromised children. They seemed to finally come around when I said, Im not just saying all of this as a medical student but as someone who doesnt want to see your kid get life-threatening meningitis or polio.

I was amazed at how much they were willing to listen and go through every ingredient and potential side effects for all of the vaccines Leslie needed. They opposed getting all of the required vaccines right away but agreed to start her on a late vaccination schedule. John and Carly thanked me repeatedly for taking the time to sit with them and educate them. They told me that they were often met with discrimination when health care workers found out that they were anti-vaxers. They never felt as though they could adequately explain their hesitations.

My call to action to anyone dealing with anti-vaxer parents is to take the time to understand and address their uncertainties. While some parents will not be easily convinced, it is worthwhile to spend the extra time to hear them out and educate them.

The author is an anonymous medical student who blogs at Naked Medicine.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
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On Tuesday, November 29, President-elect Donald Trump named Dr. Tom Price, a former orthopedic surgeon, current Republican congressman, and chair of the House Budget Committee, as his pick for Secretary of Health and Human Services.

The same day, the American Medical Association issued a press release enthusiastically endorsing Price for the position.

The next day, Dr. Andrew Gurman, the president of the AMA, came to my hospital to give grand rounds. He was shouted down by protestors in the audience, who demanded an explanation for his organizations support of a public official committed to dismantling the Affordable Care Act and revoking the health insurance of millions of people.

Dr. Gurman did not attempt to defend Dr. Prices policies  some of which are extreme  offering only that the two of them have been friends for 25 years and that Price is a good man.

He did not add any provisions to the AMAs endorsement or even try to answer the nagging question on everyones mind: How could the body that purportedly represents Americas doctors back a politician whose proposals are so hurtful to their patients?

If Americans have learned anything from this past election cycle, its that endorse and condone dont necessarily mean the same thing (see: Exhibit A). But its safe to say the AMA endorsed Price not just because he is a good man, but because it agrees with at least some of his policies.

So rather than talk about what kind of person Dr. Price is, lets look at what Representative Price the lawmaker proposes for his overhaul of the U.S. health care system:

Dr. Price wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act, the major legislative achievement of the Obama presidency. Not just modify it, as Trump has hinted at in recent days, but abolish it and replace it with something very similar to the tried-and-failed free market model of the past several decades.

He also wants to reverse the expansion of Medicaid that happened under Obamacare, which gave millions of low-income Americans access to health care and reduced the uninsured rate to 8.6 percent. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that this cut would result in 14 million people losing their health insurance.

Speaking of Medicaid, Price is proposing a whole new way to fund the safety net program using block grants. Currently, Medicaid is a cost-sharing agreement between states and the federal government; they split the bill, no matter how many people are insured or how costly their care is. Block grants would cap the amount the federal government is willing to contribute, leaving it to states to divvy up the funds and make up the difference. No matter how you look at it, block grants represent a massive cut to Medicaid, for which the poorest will suffer.

Price wants to defund Planned Parenthood. Yes, nearly every Republican member of Congress wants to defund Planned Parenthood, and history has shown that its easier said than done. But with majorities in both houses, a Republican president, and Price leading HHS, they may finally get their wish.

Lastly, and perhaps worst of all, Price dreams of turning Medicare into a voucher system, handing over a sum of money to beneficiaries to buy their own insurance from private companies. This plan would essentially eliminate the popular government-payer program as we know it. Remember the widely-mocked Keep government hands off my Medicare protests during the Obamacare rollout? Get ready for Round 2.

There is no reason to believe Dr. Price as HHS chief wouldnt enact these proposals if he wanted to; there is little standing in his way. So how can the AMA, an organization that supported the Affordable Care Act and whose mission statement includes the betterment of public health, offer a good-faith endorsement of this vision for American health care?

I am sure Dr. Price is a good man; frankly, it is irrelevant. The AMA owes its constituency  doctors and patients alike  a better explanation.

Eric Beam is an internal medicine resident who blogs at The Long White Coat.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
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Tests and exams are the most challenging part of campus life, especially when it is in medical school where students will frequently encounter different types of examinations. One of the things which makes it special is that in medical school, exams are not only given as a written examination but also as oral and practical examinations in which students must face their instructors. Most of the time these are external examiners from other medical schools, with challenging questions from any area of study that the examiners desire to ask. The difficulty, stress, and anxiety is far greater than a written exam.

In addition, the highly competitive curriculum, intense academic competition, excessive demands on coping abilities in physical, emotional, intellectual, financial and social terms and many more possible factors contribute to the high level of stress in medical school. When it comes to the final exam, in finishing medical school and to become a medical doctor, which is called a qualification exam in Ethiopia, it is not hard to wonder how stressful, anxious, and difficult the environment will be for medical students.

Stress is known to modulate the activity of the autonomic nervous system and central nervous system in a way so as to cope up with the stress and to get adapted to it. And under optimal stress, a student often does bring out his or her best. However, extremes of stress can result in irritability, loss of sleep, loss of interest in food, considerable worry, headaches and stomach pain  all of which can be responsible for highly deteriorating performance and stress induced disorders which are not uncommon in medical school.

We all may at some time or other have heard of that a medical student who only studies a couple of hours for exams, seems not to be stressed and is happy looking, who scores well every time. We stand in awe of those who seem to breeze through without undue effort and seem to need very little in the way of studying to nail an exam. For the rest of medical students, especially during final exams, they shape their behaviors and develop ways to cope with all the stresses they face in ways which could be esoteric or less esoteric.

Many students need to talk to friends, particularly non-medical school friends, about their struggles in medical school to relieve the stress, to share their worries or find some time to go away from their environment, to forget for a moment. But there are also some students who rather prefer to keep themselves away from everybody, even a loved one, during exam times, preferring to walk a couple of miles alone, or to spend time somewhere silent and beautiful in order to relieve stress and to concentrate.

On top of all these, almost all medical students ultimately need family support. A single two-minute phone call from the family is the utmost in motivation and reduction of stress and anxiety. There are also other ways which medical students use to reduce stress or to displace themselves from the anxiety they face. Some will write poems, participate in organizations (including religious organizations) or associations, workout in the gym or some, like me, spend time drawing.

These are some of the ways medical students here in Ethiopia (and I imagine other places as well) prepare for and face the most challenging final examinations. It also helps to keep in mind that the struggle and amount of work to qualify allows us to become part of one of the respected professions in the world.

I believe that internal motivation is the most important thing medical students need on the journey to meet their dream. In addition, it helps to plan for and think about the post exam excitement and celebration to stay motivated. Once all of that is completed, the excitement that comes after all of this work is almost unexplainable. Aside from joy of the success and the celebration, having time without thinking about exams and sleeping or doing daily activities without exam stress is an extreme relief.

But the saddest thing is that not all medical students make it through, a few finding it necessary to have the stress of taking courses (and final examinations) over again. The consolation offered by classmates, other friends and family, is helpful when this happens.

After being qualified, the excitement is so delightful and the most stimulating time for medical students, to realize the fruit of the long run and the hardship of the learning environment. Then, during the break given between the end of school and the beginning of internship, students try to make the best of it by planning for trips with family or friends, cheering, partying, and having fun, which is some small measure of relief for the stress they had previously encountered.

Finally, after coming back from break, students enjoy the satisfaction and thrill of the working environment on the ward and to finally be called doctor.

Yohannes Mengistu is a medical intern in Ethiopia. This article originally appeared in Physician Family.

Image credit: Yohannes Mengistu
The winners for last Friday's LISD Very Merry Christmas Parade have been announced.

The winning entries include the following:

- Best Dance Squad: Centeno Elementary School

- Best Cheerleader Unit: Santa Maria Elementary School Cheerleaders

- Best School and Live Band: Christen Middle School Band

- Best Float: State Patrol and Investigation Services LLC

- Best Military/Law Enforcement Unit: Martin High School ROTC

- Judge's Award: Martin High School Band

- Superintendent's Award: Vidal M. Trevino School of Communications and Fine Arts Float

A Christmas tree lighting ceremony was held following the parade. Martin High School All-State Cross Country Runner Abril Escamilla had the honor of lighting the 40 ft. Christmas Tree.

The Laredo Independent School District wishes to thank all of the parade participants who made the annual Christmas Parade and Tree Lighting Ceremony such a success.
A Laredo judge sentences a man accused of sexually enticing a minor to 15 years in prison.

Last year, Lake Jackson resident Michael James Corsten started up an internet relationship with who he thought was a parent of a minor. He then arranged a trip to Laredo for the purpose of having sex with the 14-year-old minor.

Upon his arrival, police arrested and charged Corsten with attempting to entice a minor with unlawful sexual activity, to which Corsten pled guilty.

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Marina Garcia-Marmolejo ordered Corsten to 15 years in prison. Corsten will also serve 20 years of supervised release following his prison term.

Corsten will have to comply with requirements designated to restrict his access to children and the internet, and he will register as a sex offender.
A Saudi soldier was killed in a landmine blast near the kingdom's border with Yemen, the interior ministry said on Friday.

The explosion struck a Border Guards water tanker at 6:00 pm (1500 GMT) Thursday in Saudi Arabia's southern Jazan region, the ministry said.

It said Huthi rebels from Yemen were responsible for the blast.

The border guard was the latest of at least 110 Saudi soldiers and civilians to die in the country's south since the kingdom launched a coalition to battle Yemeni insurgents in March 2015.

Most Saudi casualties have been from retaliatory cross-border rocket attacks or combat.

But there have also been previous deadly mine blasts in Jazan.

In Yemen itself, more than 7,000 people have been killed, mostly civilians, since March last year according to the United Nations.

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Over the last five years, Kilkenny has been setting the bar for other counties in the way it tackles issues that affect older people, and finds new ways to enhance their quality of life.

In 2011, Kilkenny Age Friendly Alliance launched its first strategic plan. The plan was built around a consultative process and a baseline study carried out with older people in Kilkenny.

Last Thursday, we began a new chapter in the process, with the launch of the Kilkenny Age Friendly County Strategy 2017 - 2022. The vision set out aims to make Kilkenny 'a great place to grow old in, enjoyed and appreciated by everyone' and to make Kilkenny a county 'that enables its people to age with security, dignity, and the capacity to participate as citizens to their fullest potential'.

The document, which was launched at an event in the Parade Tower of Kilkenny Castle, is the culmination of a lot of hard work. Outgoing chairman of Kilkenny Age Friendly County Alliance Nickey Brennan thanked all the various people, bodies, and stakeholders for their hard work and commitment.

Kilkenny is rightly seen as one of the leading Age Friendly counties in Ireland as a result of the scale of engagement which the Alliance has developed with its multiple stakeholders, he said.

Mr Brennan praised the HSE for the way it has 'enthusiastically engaged' with the Alliance to identify new ways to help older people cope with health issues and stay longer in their own homes. He also acknowledged Kilkenny County Council's 'strong commitment' towards older people here.

"Right now, there is a clear age-friendly ethos built into the activities of Kilkenny County Council, and for that I applaud all the staff of the council led by three different chief executives since the launch of our first strategic plan, he said

I am thrilled that my successor, as chairperson of the Alliance from today, is the current Kilkenny County Council CEO Colette Byrne, once again emphasising the commitment of our local authority to their support for older people's welfare."

Hugh O' Connor of Age Friendly Ireland praised Kilkenny for leading the way.

It took a few counties to start this off, and Kilkenny, together with some others, like Louth, were the first counties, he said.

They took the risk  frontrunner counties who successfully piloted and tested this. It is now up and running in all 31 local authority areas.

So it's wonderful that Kilkenny has been an innovator for the city and county  but also an innovater for all of Ireland.

It's wonderful to be part of the success story, he said.

Shane Winters of Age Friendly Ireland complimented Nickey Brennan for his leadership and drive.

Nickey has been an absolute powerhouse in terms of driving the concept forward  not just in Kilkenny, but nationally, he said.

Other counties are quite envious of the work that has been done here.

He also paid tribute to and to Mary O' Hanlon, outgoing chairman of the Kilkenny Seniors Forum. Ms O' Hanlon said engagement had been positive.

It is good to see it written down, and then it will be even better to see it implemented, she said.

Chief Executive of Kilkenny County Council Colette Byrne said she looked forward to her new role in the Alliance. She praised the ambitious plan being launched, and said it would need all agencies on board.

I look forward to working with all of you and continuing the excellent work that has been done, she said.

It falls on us now to work together collectively and make progress over the next six years.
HANOI, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Here's a snapshot of Vietnamese dong exchange rates in the official market and indicative SJC gold prices in Hanoi at 0055 GMT.

Dec 9 Dec 8 USD/VND mid-point 22,117 22,115

USD/VND interbank 22,630/22,650 22,645/22,650 SJC gold (mln dong/tael) 36.08/36.50 36.10/36.52

NOTES: As of Jan. 4, 2016 the State Bank of Vietnam has begun setting the mid-point rate on daily basis, allowing dollar/dong transactions to move in a band of +/- 3 percent around the mid point. The dong's exchange rate against other currencies is not restricted by a band. Interbank quotes are indicative bid/ask prices.

One tael is equivalent to 37.5 grams or 1.21 troy ounces. SJC gold prices are quoted by state-owned Saigon Jewelry Co, the gold manufacturer.

Interbank offered rates are indicative, quoted from market sources.

For Vietnam market overview click on: Vietnam's bonds market auctions: Bonds auction results: (Compiled by Hanoi Newsroom)
HANOI, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Here's a snapshot of Vietnamese dong exchange rates in the official and unofficial markets, indicative SJC gold prices in Hanoi and interbank offered rates at 0421 GMT.

Dec 9 Dec 8 USD/VND mid-point 22,117 22,115 USD/VND interbank 22,590/22,600 22,645/22,650 USD/VND unofficial 23,130/23,180 23,080/23,150 SJC gold (mln dong/tael) 36.07/36.49 36.10/36.52

Interbank offered rates Overnight 3.9-5.0 3.7-4.3

1 week 4.1-5.0 4.0-4.4

1 month 4.4-5.0 4.4-5.0

3 months 4.9-5.1 4.9-5.1

NOTES: As of Jan. 4, 2016 the State Bank of Vietnam has begun setting the mid-point rate on daily basis, allowing dollar/dong transactions to move in a band of +/- 3 percent around the mid point. The dong's exchange rate against other currencies is not restricted by a band. Interbank offered rates are the latest indicative bid/ask prices, quoted from market sources.

One tael is equivalent to 37.5 grams or 1.21 troy ounces. SJC gold prices are quoted by state-owned Saigon Jewelry Co.

For more interbank rate fixings released at 0400 GMT, click on .

For Vietnam market overview click on: Vietnam's bonds market auctions: Bonds auction results: (Compiled by Hanoi Newsroom)
KIEV, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Ukraine's largest steel mill, owned by ArcelorMittal , accused local law enforcement agencies on Friday of disrupting the business with unwarranted inspections.

Paramjit Kahlon, chief executive of the Kryvyi Rih mill, was quoted by Interfax Ukraine as saying the agencies - which he did not identify - had interrogated management at the business.

"It's clear pressure on us to share things with certain persons," he was quoted as saying, without elaborating.

"There's big pressure from law enforcement bodies. I don't know if it comes from their own initiative or from some political force, but it brings large risks to the stable work of the business."

The allegations from one of the largest foreign investors in Ukraine could be embarrassing for the government, which is seeking to prove to Western backers and businesses its commitment to eliminating corruption and cronyism.

"Today the leaders of the country are making all efforts to attract investment to Ukraine. But I am afraid that this might not happen ... The situation with ArcelorMittal is a benchmark for other investors," Kahlon was quoted as saying.

He said the company had sent a complaint to prosecutors.

The prosecutors were not immediately available to comment.

The Kryvyi Rih mill produced 6.3 million tonnes of steel and 5.3 million tonnes of rolled products in 2015.

ArcelorMittal, which has spent $10.4 billion on the mill since acquiring it in 2005, is the kind of large foreign company whose investment Ukraine is anxious to attract to shore up its war-torn economy, which is emerging from two years of recession.

Ukraine's leadership, which came to power after massive pro-European street protests in 2013-2014, promised to implement reforms in exchange for a $40 billion bailout package led by the International Monetary Fund.

Some key steps have been taken, including the launch of an online wealth declaration tool to boost transparency around the source of officials' income, but a September poll showed 85 percent of Ukrainians do not believe the broader fight against corruption has been effective.

(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; Editing by Alessandra Prentice and Mark Potter)
BEIJING, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) , the country's biggest lender by assets, said on Friday it has signed a 10 billion yuan ($1.45 billion) debt-for-equity swap with Shandong Gold Group to reduce the company's debt burden.

This deal marked ICBC's first debt-for-equity swap since Beijing launched the scheme in October in a bid to reduce its $18 trillion in corporate debt, equivalent to 169 percent of domestic output. Shandong Gold Group, China's second biggest in terms of gold production and gold reserves, will see its corporate leverage lowered by 10 percentage points after the debt swap, ICBC said in a statement. ($1 = 6.8990 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting By Shu Zhang and Nicholas Heath; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)
US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter landed in Afghanistan Friday on an unannounced visit, as uncertainty lingers over President-elect Donald Trump's strategy on America's longest war with no end in sight.

Carter is expected to meet Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and American troops on his last official trip to Afghanistan before he hands over the reins to Trump's pick for Pentagon chief, the hardline retired general James Mattis.

Carter's visit comes as concerns mount over growing insecurity in Afghanistan, where around 10,000 US troops are assisting struggling Afghan forces to combat a resilient Taliban insurgency along with Al-Qaeda and Islamic State militants.

"#SecDef arrives in Afghanistan to visit troops, receive an update on efforts to support Afghan security forces & meet with senior officials," Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said on Twitter.

Afghanistan got scarcely a passing mention in the bitterly contested US presidential election -- even though the situation in the conflict-torn country will be an urgent matter for the new president.

Trump has given surprisingly little details on his expected foreign policy, with even fewer specifics on how he will tackle the war in Afghanistan.

The Taliban are ramping up nationwide attacks despite the onset of winter, when fighting usually ebbs, even as international efforts intensify to jumpstart peace talks.

Carter landed at Bagram Airfield, the largest US military base in Afghanistan, where four Americans were killed in a suicide bombing in November, in a major breach of security.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the bombing inside the heavily fortified base, north of the capital Kabul, which left 16 other US service members and a Polish soldier wounded as the insurgents step up attacks on Western targets.

Fifteen years and hundreds of billions of dollars since the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, the security situation in the country remains fraught and Afghan security forces are struggling to contain the conflict.

One of the most important questions facing Trump on Afghanistan is how many American troops will stay in the country, observers say.

President Barack Obama was forced to slow a planned withdrawal of US troops in the face of Taliban gains, and about 8,400 will remain in the country when he leaves office early next year.

Mattis, whose nicknames in the military include "Mad Dog" and the "Warrior Monk", has led troops in Afghanistan and has previously criticised Obama's plan to pull forces from the country.

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(Kitco News) - Gold could continue to weaken next week as rumors persist that China is unofficially restricting gold imports into the country.

Earlier this week, reports circulated suggesting that international banks, licensed by the government to bring gold into the country, are having difficulties with their imports.

According to these banks, the Peoples Bank of China is taking a longer time to approve each importing transaction. Some of the banks have reduced or even outright stopped importing gold into the country as a result.

Many analysts noted that the central bank is trying to unofficially restrict gold coming into the country in an effort to curve the high level of capital outflows from the nations investors.

While this has the potential to disrupt the gold market, at a seasonally important time, some analysts said they do not see this as an effective long-term policy.

Simona Gambarini, commodities economist at Capital Economics, said that Chinas gold imports are only a fraction of the nations trade deficit. According to research firm Thomson Reuters GFMS, Chinas gold imports amount to about 4% of total imports.

Chinas gold import curbs come almost a week after gold investors had to deal with rumors that the Indian government may be looking into restricting gold imports to crack down on its growing black market economy.

Gambarini said that she is following the India market a lot closer as this could cause a bigger disruption in the global gold market. Gold plays a much bigger role in India, where the yellow metal is the nations second biggest import, just behind oil.

Gambarini said that the Chinese rumors could spook some investors, who are already negative on gold, but that so far she sees this as a limited factor.

Right now, I think this is a local story as lower imports are driving up premiums, she said. It is still early days and we will have to wait until we get Decembers trade data to see the impact this unofficial policy has had on the gold market.

However, long-term, Gambarini said that the gold market could be in for some difficult times if the two largest gold-consuming nations curb their gold demand in 2017. Unprecedented physical demand in China and India helped stabilize gold prices in the last three years.

By Neils Christensen of Kitco News; nchristensen@kitco.com

Follow @Neils_C
Dec 9 (Reuters) - Recruiter SThree posted a 2 percent fall its full-year gross profit on Friday weighed by an 8 percent fall in Britain and Ireland hurt by a slowdown in finance and the public sector partly due to Britain's vote to leave the EU.

Adjusted pretax profit for the year to Nov. 30 is expected to be slightly above the top end of market guidance of 37.3 million to 39 million pounds.

Fourth-quarter gross profit in constant currency fell 12 percent, a steeper fall that the 9 percent drop seen in preceding two quarters.

SThree said it was focusing on expanding its UK and Ireland business placing people in science and engineering jobs, given the challenging market conditions in the finance and energy markets.

It currently generates 75 percent of its gross profit outside the UK and Ireland.

"Looking ahead to 2017, global political and macro-economic uncertainties have increased across a number of our key regions," CEO Gary Elden said in a statement.

(Reporting by Esha Vaish in Bengaluru)
* Oct exports down 0.7 pct y/y

* Oct industrial output down 0.6 pct vs Sept

LJUBLJANA, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Slovenian exports, the main driver of the country's economy, fell by 0.7 percent year-on-year in October, mainly because sales to other European Union members declined, the statistics office said on Friday.

It also said exports in the first 10 months of the year rose by 3.6 percent compared with the same period of 2015.

Analysts said exports are expected to rise in coming months as economic indicators in the EU remain favourable. The European Central Bank said on Thursday the euro zone economy was expected to expand 1.7 percent next year versus the 1.6 percent forecast earlier.

"Economic activity is still relatively good ... so I expect Slovenia's GDP growth will surely be above 2 percent this year," said Igor Masten, a professor at Ljubljana's Faculty of Economy.

He added that export figures were reflected in industrial output, which fell by 0.6 percent from September to October, although October industrial output was up by 6.6 percent compared to October last year.

"It is possible that exports are down mainly due to lower prices of export products which have decreased after a fall of global raw material prices," Masten said.

Euro zone member Slovenia, which narrowly avoided an international bailout for its banks in 2013, exports about 70 percent of its production, mainly to other EU members, particularly Germany, Italy and Austria.

The government expects the economy to expand by 2.3 percent this year and by a further 2.9 percent in 2017, pushed up by increases in exports and household spending.

(Reporting By Marja Novak, editing by Larry King)
(Adds detail and context)

By Padraic Halpin

DUBLIN, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Ireland's central bank will reduce the pace of bond-buying under the euro zone's quantitative easing stimulus programme and is confident it can remain in the scheme until its scheduled end in December 2017, a source familiar with the matter said on Friday.

The source said the central bank would reduce the pace of purchases -- which have stood at around 1 billion euros a month recently -- by around 50 percent.

This should allow it to avoid exceeding the amount of eligible Irish debt that can be purchased and continue to benefit from the nine-month extension of QE announced by the European Central Bank on Thursday.

Ireland's 10-year government bond yields rose to a two-week high of 0.98 percent on Friday , up 4 basis points on the day, while most other euro zone equivalents fell.

A spokeswoman for the central bank said: "The Central Bank will manage the implementation of the purchase programmes carefully, so that the impact of the programme parameters, or any changes in these parameters, would be as smooth as possible."

National central banks purchase their own government debt under the ECB's bloc-wide stimulus programme.

Estimates from the likes of Cantor Fitzgerald and Societe Generale on Friday showed that, at the current rate of purchase, the central bank would have to stop buying bonds by March because of limits on the amount of a country's debt and individual bonds that can be bought under QE.

The ECB said on Thursday that changing those limits raised legal constraints.

Ryan McGrath, an analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald, said the Irish government could also alleviate the problem by issuing new debt early next year, or by swapping some legacy floating-rate debt, related to the bailout of Anglo Irish Bank, for new bonds that would be eligible for ECB purchase.

Ireland is not alone in potentially running into limits.

One of the bloc's weakest economies, Portugal, may also be headed for an early exit from the scheme unless its central bank scales down purchases, analysts at Societe Generale said.

Portugal was the only other euro zone country to see its bond yields rise on Friday , stretching the gap with German equivalents to nearly 350 basis points , close to its widest level in 10 months.

(Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Writing by John Geddie; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
North Kitsap girls soccer keeps state tourney streak alive

Four teams  North Kitsap, Bremerton, Olympic and Sequim  came away victorious in the first round of the Class 2A West Central District tournament.
Nicolas Pirsoul writes in the Herald:

Isis, Al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, and other terrorist organisations are all inspired by a particular understanding of Islam: Salafism. Salafism is an extremist, literalist, and intolerant form of Sunni Islam. Its origins are hard to trace, but it is commonly argued that 13/14th century theologian Ibn Taymiyyah strongly influenced the development of modern Salafi thought nearly five hundred years later.  In Belgium, my country of birth, the March 22 bombings which killed 32 civilians and injured over 300, revealed two major issues: the strong presence of Salafi ideology in Belgian Sunni mosques on the one hand and the ignorance and leniency of Belgian authorities towards this issue on the other. These two major problems are also evident in many other Western nations. Indeed, a number of Belgian investigative journalists have exposed the radical discourse of several preachers in Brussels and other cities. These Salafi-minded discourses are heavily at odds with values such as democracy, freedom of speech, or religious tolerance.

These preachers are not terrorists but they provide the environment for extremism to flourish.

First, it is important to recognise the existence of a problem and not to underestimate it. The recent hate speech controversy, involving a cleric from the at-Taqwa mosque in Manukau, is only the tip of the iceberg and follows a well-established pattern of other events involving Salafi clerics preaching in New Zealand, such as Egyptian cleric Sheikh Abu Abdullah a couple of years ago. It would be naive to think that our nations Sunni oriented mosques are immune to Salafi ideology and its intolerant and sometimes violent interpretation of Islam.

We are far from immune.

Second, it is important to understand and adopt the right attitude towards the problem of Islamic extremism. Extremism thrives on division. Mainstream stereotyping and discrimination against Muslims has helped Salafism, and its Manichean worldview, to grow in Europe. It is therefore critical that New Zealand should remain an inclusive and tolerant nation by embracing its diverse Muslim community. The majority of Muslims, conservatives or not, reject violence and intolerance. They are allies in the fight against terrorism. By creating a New Zealand model of multicultural citizenship, where Kiwis of all ethnic groups and faiths live with and are supportive of each other, we can become a role model for the world and avoid replicating other nations mistakes.

Well said.

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German police said Friday they have detained a 29-year-old man suspected of having carried out bomb attacks that struck a mosque and an international convention centre in the eastern city of Dresden.

No one was injured in the September attacks that hit the city, which is the birthplace of the anti-immigration and Islamophobic PEGIDA movement.

Investigators raiding two sites secured items that could be used to build explosives, police said, adding that forensic tests show that "the DNA traces secured are consistent with the DNA of the suspect".

Bild daily identified the suspect as Nino K. and said he had spoken at a PEGIDA rally in the summer of 2015, railing against "criminal foreigners" and "lazy Africans".

The attacks occurred just days before Dresden was due to host national celebrations to mark 26 years since the reunification of East and West Germany.

The first homemade bomb damaged the door of the mosque while the imam and his family were inside.

The second blast struck at the main venue for the German reunification anniversary festivities.

Dresden, a Baroque city in Germany's ex-communist east, has become a hotspot for far-right protests and hate crimes after more than a million asylum seekers arrived in Europe's biggest economy since 2015.

In an annual report outlining progress since reunification, the government warned in September that growing xenophobia and right-wing extremism could threaten peace in eastern Germany.

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Nearly 400 migrants stormed across the border between Morocco and the Spanish enclave Ceuta on Friday, slightly injuring two police officers, authorities said.

They forced their way through two entry points in the tall fence that surrounds the enclave, in an assault that also injured three migrants, local authorities told AFP.

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Czech lawmakers voted Friday to ban smoking in cafes and restaurants starting next May, following in the footsteps of much of Europe, but the chain-smoking president still needs to sign off the decree.

"I hope we side with the civilised countries," Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said ahead of the vote in the lower house of parliament.

Eighteen other European countries already have such a law, which would come into effect in the Czech Republic on World No Tobacco Day 2017.

The bill still needs approval from the senate and President Milos Zeman, a chain-smoker. Last year he said he probably would not use his veto.

Smoking has already been outlawed in most public places in the country since 2005.

Electronic cigarettes will be exempt from the ban, and smokers will still be able to light up on cafe and restaurant terraces.

Seventy-eight percent of Czechs back the measure, according to a recent opinion poll in the country of 10.5 million people.

The EU member has 2.3 million smokers, including around 250,000 minors. Some 18,000 Czechs die every year from smoking-related causes.

All EU countries have adopted measures to protect citizens from exposure to tobacco smoke but national measures differ considerably in extent and scope.

Some of the strictest measures have been introduced in Ireland, Britain, Greece and Spain.

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The Master Sgt. John Prince of Knoxville, TN, the Operations Sergeant of the 489th Civil Affairs Battalion, U.S. Army Reserve, looks for the house number of a home destroyed by wildfires in Gatlinburg, TN, while completing a damage assessment of the property to provide to emergency management authorities, December 5, 2016.
Positive energy and joy prevail as World Disability Day is marked in Egypt by an unprecedented gathering of wheelers, highlighting their achievements and gearing up for further challenges

"We always say that we dont elaborate on words, but rather we walk the talk, and today this is exactly what we are doing," a beaming Mai Zein El-Din says as she took to the podium before taking a step back to bring forward her amazing staff.

Mai is a shining example of an extraordinary lady who refused to be defined by a tragedy.

Three years ago, after her son Hassan had an accident that saw him confined to a wheelchair, after which she was determined to see changes in how Egypt accomodates people in such situations.

She founded Al-Hassan Foundation for the Inclusion of Differently-abled People.

Over the course of three years, the foundation opened multiple doors and provided endless possibilities for people confined to wheelchairs and others whom they refer to as "differently-abled."

On 3 December, World Disability Day, the positive connotation of the term "differently-abled" was clearly demonstrated in Cairo, where the country's largest gathering of wheelchaired persons assembled in an event at Zamalek's Gezira Youth Centre.

The event was attended by officials from the ministries of social solidarity and youth and sports, who collaborated with Al-Hassan Foundation and the country's leading running community, Cairo Runners, to showcase an array of amazing people who overcame hurdles and challenged perceptions of people with disabilities in Egypt.

"I am so happy that this event is taking place, and I will be at the head of the runners today," a smiling Malak, one of the participants, told Ahram Online as she was getting ready to line up for the first-ever run dedicated to wheelers in Egypt.

"It gives us great pleasure to be here today as part of the celebration of World Disability Day, especially as Cairo Runners will focus this coming season on differently-abled sectors of the community to shed more light on their endeavors, so for us, today is just a beginning," Cairo Runners' Aya Safwat told Ahram Online.

Malak is one of the many wheelers sponsored and encouraged by Al-Hassan Foundation in the field of sports. The 13-year-old girl was confined to a wheelchair before becoming a globetrotting swimming champion.

"Today we present our Paralympic heroes with custom-made wheelchairs, and others with accessible means of transportation to facilitie their movement on the streets. It is a highlight of our cooperation with the Egyptian ministries of social solidarity and youth and sports," says Islam Abu Ali, brimming with energy.

Islam is a staggering example of an accomplished member of the community of wheelers. At the age of 24, his spinal cord was damaged in a car accident, which forced him into a wheelchair.

Islam now the dynamo of the foundation. He works as a business development manager for the organisation, and used to hold a leading position at a major Egyptian industrial company before he decided to dedicate all his time to Al-Hassan.

He also is a swimming champion, leading a full life of activities and sports, and featuring as a motivational speaker at events across the country.

He stresses that the way Al-Hassan approaches its goals is informed by the fact that almost 80 percent of its staff are wheelers.

"We know where the gaps are, and we aspire to fill them."

"It is here that I learned how to make use of my skills, capitalise on my talents and make a profession out of both," Fatima told Ahram Online as she proudly presented her colourful collection of embroidery and crochet production.

Fatima is another example of how Al-Hassan not only serves as a charitable foundation, but also supports the inclusion of differently-abled persons in society, helping them pursue their goals in whichever field they choose.

A representative of the foundation explained that what started with 200 people on board has reached 2,000 members, boasting many projects and dreams, some of which already accomplished, while others are on the way.

They not only focus on providing tailored solutions, facilities and rehabilitation for persons in wheelchairs, but also providing their families with assistance to overcome the challenges faced by their loved ones.

Among the foundation's projects is an outreach programme for kids, efforts to help the inclusion of wheelers in sports, spread awareness about the challenges they face, and create a massive database for all who are interested in taking part in "Encouraging the Success of Egypts Differently-abled Community."

Life on Wheels, a booklet that chronicles the journey of a wheeler and presents an all inclusive database and guide, will be published and distributed for free by 1 January.

" I am so happy today as we see this massive gathering of wheelers from 27 governorates in Egypt, it has never been clearer that nothing is impossible for persons in wheelchairs, they are our pride and joy, our inspiration," concluded May Zein Eldin.

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By Park Jae-hyuk



Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) denied an allegation that Maersk Line is no longer considering the Korean shipper for membership in the 2M Alliance, the world's largest container-shipping alliance made up of Maersk and Mediterranean Shipping Company.



According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), Thursday (local time), Maersk spokesman Michael Storgaard said, "The parties have discussed the possibility of HMM joining the 2M as an operating partner and have now decided to look at other cooperation possibilities."



Storgaard also told The WSJ that "the two companies are now exploring a more limited agreement involving putting containers on each other's ships and Maersk taking over some of HMM's charter deals."



Korea's local news outlets interpreted the spokesman's words as meaning that HMM was not going to be allowed to join the alliance.



HMM, however, said Friday the talks about joining are ongoing and the company regards the "limited agreement" as another type of alliance.



"Global alliances, such as Ocean Three, G6 and CKYH, have their own types of agreements," an HMM spokesman said. "The agreement we are negotiating with 2M is not that different from those of other global alliances."



The spokesman complained about Maersk talking about the deal before the agreement, because the parties promised to keep the details secret.



"We expect the deal will be completed by the early next week," he said. "We will announce the result in detail then."



Financial Services Commission Chairman Yim Jong-yong said Dec. 1 that the deal will be completed around Dec. 10.



HMM has continuously denied reports of foreign news outlets that its alliance deal has failed.



The Journal of Commerce and WSJ reported last month that HMM failed to join the alliance, citing an official at Maersk.



Industry sources think the rumors are because customers keep pressing Maersk to reject HMM's application joining.



After the shipping crisis, caused by the collapse of Hanjin Shipping in August, global customers lost confidence in Korean shippers.



Some sources criticize the Korea Development Bank's (KDB) decision to approve HMM for restructuring, not its rival Hanjin.



The KDB, in accepting HMM's restructuring plan, imposed the condition of it joining the alliance. In July, HMM signed a memorandum of understanding with the 2M alliance and avoided court receivership.



"We are still waiting for the result of the deal," a KDB spokesman said. "We cannot say anything, as we do not know how the deal will be completed."




By Kim Tae-gyu



The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) was found to have committed wrongdoings in recruitment in 2014 when Governor Choi Soo-hyun was in charge.



The FSS recently sent an email to its employees to disclose the results of an internal investigation on the recruitment issue and admitted that there were irregularities in hiring an attorney, a son of former lawmaker Lim Young-ho.



However, the organization has come under criticism for having failed to dismiss the younger Lim. It also did not investigate former Governor Choi, who started a career as a bureaucrat the same year as the former lawmaker.



When the FSS employs lawyers, internal rules stipulated that they should have at least one year of experiences but the requirement was scrapped in 2014.



Back then, Lim had just graduated from law school and among newly employed lawyers he was the only one with no practical experience. FSS Deputy Governor Lee Sang-koo, who is suspected of being responsible, resigned recently due to the scandal.



"We carried out an audit beginning late October into some alleged unfair acts. There is circumstantial evidence that Lee changed criteria and scores of candidates several times," the FSS said.



The FSS plans to come up with disciplinary measures against those who responsible but the punishment will not affect the junior Lim or former Governor Choi.



"We do not have any right to investigate former chiefs," an FSS official said.



Choi was supposed to work as an advisor for the FSS until the end of this year but he quit last month.



Choi took office just after President Park was inaugurated in late Feb. 2013 but he prematurely resigned from the top job in Nov. 2014 in the wake of various incidents including a massive leak of people's private data by financial firms.



During his 20-month term, Choi was famous for a relentless push on financial companies to prevent scams and fraud by their employees. As such, the fraudulent recruitment angers people more.



The elder Lim was a lawmaker between 2008 and 2012 as a member of the minor opposition Liberty Forward Party, which was merged with the Grand National Party, now the governing Saenuri Party, in 2012.



The bureaucrat-turned-politician proactively took issue with U.S. buyout fund Lone Star's acquisition and disposal of the Korea Exchange Bank, now a part of KEB Hana Bank.



He now works for Korail, the country's railroad operator, as a supervisor.




By Yoon Ja-young



Demand for imported beef is rapidly rising, while that for relatively expensive local beef is decreasing following the implementation of an anti-graft law.



According to the Korea Customs Service, imports of beef recorded 320,219 tons between January and October this year, surging 28.4 percent from a year ago.



Imports from the United States surged especially, jumping 47.6 percent from a year ago to 131,466 tons. Imports of Australian beef, which makes up the biggest share in the imported beef market, meanwhile, increased 14.9 percent to 162,794 tons.



Behind the surging beef imports is the anti-graft law, which went into effect in September. It restricts government officials, journalists and private school teachers from receiving paid for meals costing more than 30,000 won ($25.7) or a gift of over 50,000 won.



The measure hit restaurants that served local "hanwoo" beef, as it is difficult to meet the 30,000 won price cap with relatively expensive meat. It also changed traditional holiday gifts. Hanwoo was one of the most popular gifts for the traditional holidays of Chuseok and Lunar New Year's Day, but the 50,000 won price cap made Koreans think twice before choosing it. As a result, demand for hanwoo has been falling while imported beef has been increasing its market share. Korean beef, which made up 50.1 percent of the market in 2013, dropped to 46.2 percent last year.



Market watchers expect that imported beef will continue to substitute for hanwoo due to the law. As consumers increasingly prioritize price, demand is also likely to be affected. The Nonghyup Research Center expects the market share of local beef to fall below 40 percent this year.



Retailers report that imported beef has already caught up with hanwoo in sales. According to a retail outlet E-Mart, hanwoo took 45.2 percent of its beef sales so far this year as of November, which is smaller than the 54.8 percent market share of imported beef. This compares with two years ago when hanwoo took up 54.9 percent of sales. The sales of hanwoo at E-Mart fell 12.7 percent this year as of November.



"Though the price of hanwoo has been falling recently, consumers still think it is expensive, and an increasing number of them are switching to imported beef," said Oh Hyun-jun, an E-Mart hanwoo buyer.




Philippines Department of Trade and Industry Secretary Ramon Lopez speaks with The Korea Times on the sidelines of the ASEAN-Korea Centre's Invest Philippines seminar at the Plaza hotel, central Seoul, Tuesday.

/ Courtesy of ASEAN-Korea Centre



By Nam Hyun-woo

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte's rule will help foreign investors shake off anxiety about investing in the country, putting to rest external worries about political instability, says the country's Department of Trade and Industry Secretary Ramon Lopez.

In his Dec. 6 visit to Seoul for the ASEAN-Korea Center's Invest Philippines seminar, the secretary sat down with The Korea Times to address how the strong leader's ruling expedited the country's war on corruption, which would help foreigners feel more secure about investing.

"The President is a most passionate ambassador of investment promotion, because every time he talks to the business sector, he guarantees investors that he will honor and protect them by fighting corruption," Lopez said. "That's the kind of assurance to bring back security."

Since he took office, Duterte has been aggressive in fighting crime, executing many criminals. However, the bloody campaign has created rumors that the country is unstable and dangerous to travel, leading to concern about investment.



However, the secretary said people should not be confused with Duterte's economic policies and those against criminals.

"The baseline of the current policies is that having freer trade flow will create more decent jobs for the majority of Filipinos and Duterte has a clear objective on what will benefit Filipinos," Lopez said.

"For example, we're not changing policies as far as ASEAN is concerned. We have a free trade area and are trying to expand it to the RCEP. He knows these are things that will improve relationships with other countries."

RCEP stands for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, a China-led free trade agreement between Korea, China, Japan, Australia, India, New Zealand and 10 member ASEAN countries.

"Aside from the discipline, the current administration has been employing various socioeconomic policies, Lopez said. "Through that, investors can experience differences such as shortening the processing of many things (related to business)."

President Duterte has set up a 10-point socioeconomic agenda, containing details on maintaining current macroeconomic policies, including fiscal, monetary, and trade policies; pursuing the relaxation of constitutional restrictions on foreign ownership to attract foreign direct investment; accelerating annual infrastructure spending to account for 5 percent of GDP; investing in human capital development by matching skills and training to meet the demands of businesses and the private sector.

"In terms of lowering taxes, we are looking for balanced taxation, by reducing tax leakages and lowering corporate and personal income taxes from 30-31 percent to 25 percent," the secretary said.

The Philippines' GDP grew 7.1 percent in the third quarter. In the second quarter it stood at 7 percent, signaling an upbeat start for the administration. In the past two years, the country's foreign direct investment (FDI) influx has been hovering around $5.8 billion, which Lopez attributed to investors' strong confidence in the country's solid macroeconomic fundamentals.

"Also its per capita income is growing and the population is also growing," Lopez said. "We are at the sweet spot of demographics with more young people employed and becoming a huge consumer base."

In a recent report, the Korea Center for International Finance assessed that the Philippines' fast growth contained risks because it was not backed by the manufacturing sector and the country's FDI might be limited down the road.

More than 60 percent of the country's GDP is occupied by service sectors, while it depended on imports in terms of capital goods and consumer goods.

The country is also aware of the risks and plans to enhance its manufacturing sector through various programs.

One of them is the Comprehensive Automotive Resurgence Strategy (CARS) Program, designed to build automotive parts. Lopez said the CARS program was expected to create about 200,000 direct and indirect jobs in the industry, and needed new investment in manufacturing parts not available now.

As of May, bilateral trade between Korea and the Philippines stood at $4.05 billion annually.
President Park Geun-hye / Korea Times file



By Lee Han-soo

President Park Geun-hye has added her name to the list of "disgraced" Presidents of South Korea as the National Assembly endorsed her impeachment motion on Friday. Here are her predecessors whose reputations were damaged significantly after being embroiled in ugly scandals triggered by themselves, close friends or family members.





Former President Syngman Rhee / Courtesy of Twitter

Syngman Rhee (Aug. 15, 1945-April 26, 1960)

The lineage of presidential disgrace goes back to Syngman Rhee, South Korea's first President. He stepped down on April 26, 1960, after a series of nationwide protests over a vote-rigging scandal linked to the presidential election on March 15, 1960.

Public anger reached its peak after a student protester was killed by a police tear gas canister in Masan on April 14, 1960. After resignation, Rhee lived in exile in Hawaii, where he died on July, 28 1965.





Former President Park Chung-hee / Courtesy of Twitter



Park Chung-hee (Dec. 17, 1963-Oct. 26, 1979)

Park Chung-hee is the father of incumbent President Park Geun-hye. He came to power through a military coup on May 19, 1961, and became Korea's third President on Dec. 17, 1963.

He is credited with the country's dramatic economic rise, but is also criticized for his iron-fisted governing style. He amended the Constitution and gained unrestricted power in all three powers of the government.

His dictatorship faced a strong backlash, but he put this down with brute force. In the process, many anti-Park politicians, activists and students were tortured or killed.

His wife, Yuk Young-soo, was assassinated by a Japanese-born North Korean on Aug. 15 1974. And Park was assassinated by his spy chief on Oct. 26, 1979.

It was confirmed that the spy chief informed him of an "inappropriate relationship" between his eldest daughter, Park Geun-hye, and Choi Tae-min, a cult leader and father of Choi Soon-sil, the central figure in the ongoing corruption scandal, but he ignored the warning.





Former President Chun Doo-hwan / Korea Times file Former President Roh Tae-woo / Korea Times file



Chun Doo-hwan (Sept. 1, 1980-Feb. 24, 1988) and Roh Tae-woo (Feb. 25, 1988-Feb. 24, 1993)

After Park Chung-hee's assassination Choi Kyu-ha, then Prime Minister, became the nation's first acting President. His presidency lasted less than a year because Army General Chun Doo-hwan grabbed power in a military coup on Dec. 12 1979.

Chun's regime faced a violent uprising in Gwangju in May 1980 and the solider-turned-politician responded with a bloody crackdown. He also raked in huge illegal gains while in office. Amid intense pressure for him to adopt a democratic governing system, Chun promised to find his successor through a nationwide presidential election.

Roh Tae-woo became the nation's first democratically elected president in February 1988. Roh is credited with keeping the momentum of economic growth and the successfully hosting the 1988 Seoul Olympics. But he is also criticized for a brutal crackdown on his political foes. It later turned out that Roh was as corrupt as his predecessor.

Chun and Roh stood trial on charges including bribery, mutiny and treason, and were given lengthy jail sentences.





Former President Kim Young-sam / Korea Times file



Kim Young-sam (Feb. 25, 1993-Feb. 24, 1998)

President Kim Young-sam was credited with commanding Korea's largest anti-corruption campaign. His two predecessors were jailed for corruption and other charges during his time in office. He is also credited with boosting transparency of the nation's financial transaction system. But his feats were overshadowed by a series of ugly scandals involving his son and confidants.

During his presidency, the cozy relationship between business and politics was brought into the limelight for the first time.

In 1997, the bankruptcy of Hanbo Steel caused a domino bankruptcy of numerous companies, including Kia Motors and constructor Hansin. The nation's credit rates dived, dealing a devastating blow to its foreign currency reserves.

This led Kim's administration to accept a $58 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund.

Kim's reputation was also tarnished by an influence-peddling scandal involving his son, for which Kim apologized publicly.





Former President Kim Dae-jung / Korea Times file



Kim Dae-jung (Feb. 25, 1998-Feb. 24, 2003)

President Kim Dae-jung became the first South Korean to receive Nobel Prize (in peace) in 2000. He was touted for boosting the inter-Korean relationship with his "Sunshine policy," but he was also trapped in a corruption scandal toward the end of his presidency.

His reputation was damaged by an influence-peddling scandal involving his two sons, for which he delivered a public apology and left his own Millennium Democratic Party.





Former President Roh Moo-hyun / Korea Times file



Roh Moo-hyun (Feb. 25, 2003-Feb. 24, 2008)

President Roh Moo-hyun is credited with ending the era of authoritarianism. But his reputation suffered toward the end of his term, like his predecessors, after being embroiled in a corruption scandal involving his elder brother and billionaire friends.

The prosecution investigated the scandal after his resignation. Amid widening probe and criticism, Roh jumped to his death from a mountain cliff behind his house in Bonghwa, North Gyeongsang Province, on May 23, 2009.





Former President Lee Myung-bak / Korea Times file



Lee Myung-bak (Feb. 25, 2008-Feb. 24, 2013)

Lee Myung-bak was embroiled in a fraud scandal even before he was elected President. And his leadership was also badly damaged by protests over imports of allegedly unhealthy beef from the United States in 2008.

While Lee has never the target of investigation by the prosecution, his elder brother, close friends and confidants were punished for various illegal acts.
Park makes a third public apology on Nov.29, with a conditional offer to resign if the parliament arranges a stable power transfer. / Korea Times file



By Hong Dam-young

It was an explosive saga. And it ended up throwing scandal-rocked President Park Geun-hye into a state of vegetation on Friday with the National Assembly endorsing an impeachment motion against her.

Here are major events, in chronological order, demonstrating how the President fell from grace to scandal-tarnished disgrace.

July 26: Cable news channel TV Chosun reports that the presidential office forced conglomerates to donate almost 80 billion won ($71.8 million) to Mir Foundation, a newly founded non-profit organization aimed at promoting Korean culture to the world.

The report says An Chong-bum, Park's former senior secretary for policy coordination, used his power in the fundraising.

Local media raises suspicion about why such a dubious foundation was established and who ran the organization.

Sept. 20: Newspaper Hankyoreh reports that Park's longtime friend Choi-Soon-sil established and ran Mir and another non-profit organization called K-Sports that also received donation from the businesses.

The report raises suspicions about whether Choi used her ties with Park to extort donations from the businesses to establish the two foundations she controlled.

The presidential office immediately denies Choi's alleged involvement in the coercive fundraising.

Oct. 19: The president of Ewha Womans University resigns, alleging that the university gave special treatment to Choi's daughter, Chung Yoo-ra, in admission and grading.

Oct. 20: Choi's close aide Ko Young-tae reportedly exposes Choi and Park's close relationship, saying, "Choi's favorite hobby is changing Park's speech drafts."





Cable TV channel JTBC reported on Oct. 24 that advance drafts of the President's speeches have been found on Choi's tablet computer. / Screencaptured from the Internet



Oct. 24: Cable TV channel JTBC reports that advance drafts of the President's speeches have been found on Choi's tablet computer.

The report adds that Choi also had access to classified material about national security and foreign affairs.

This decisive incident proves Choi's link to Park, increasing suspicion that Choi held undue influence on Park and meddled in state affairs.

Oct. 25: Park, who had initially denied the allegations surrounding Choi, makes a public apology and admits her ties with Choi.

Park says she had merely sought advice from her longtime friend about speeches and public relations issues.

Oct. 27: The special investigation probe team on the scandal is launched.

Oct. 29: The first massive anti-president rally is held in central Seoul, calling for Park's resignation.







Oct. 30: Choi returns to Korea from Europe and is arrested without warrant at Incheon International Airport.

Nov. 4: Park makes a second public apology, but denies any wrongdoing in the scandal. Park says she will accept prosecutors' investigation into her action. Park's support rate drops to record-low 5 percent.

Nov. 6: Two of Park's aides Two of Park's aides  An Chong-bum and Jeong Ho-seong, a former secretary for presidential affairs,  are arrested on charges including extortion, power abuse, and leaking classified information to Choi.

Nov. 11: Police arrest Choi's close aide Cha Eun-taek Police arrest Choi's close aide Cha Eun-taek  a well-known company director  on charges of using his ties with Choi and other senior government officials to win lucrative projects.

Nov. 12: Hundreds of thousands of people protest in a third anti-president rally in central Seoul calling for Park's removal.

Nov. 20: Prosecutors cite Park as an "accomplice" to Choi, saying they believe Park was involved in bullying businesses into donating billions of won to Choi's two foundations.

It is the first time the prosecution has named an incumbent President as a "criminal suspect".

Nov. 29: Under increasing pressure to resign, Park makes a third public apology, with a conditional offer to resign if the parliament arranges a stable power transfer.

Opposition lawmakers criticize the offer as a stalling tactic to win back dissenters from her ruling party who support impeachment.





More than 2 million people protest across the nation on Dec. 3 for the sixth straight weekend of demonstrations. It is the biggest protest in the country's history. / Yonhap



Dec. 3: More than 2 million people protest across the nation for the sixth straight weekend of demonstrations. It is the biggest protest in the country's history.

Also on the same day, opposition lawmakers vow to vote for Park's impeachment on Dec. 9.

Dec. 6: Lawmakers question the leaders of the country's biggest businesses in a rare televised hearing about their alleged behind-the-scenes deals with Choi, and to learn whether the presidential office forced them to donate to Choi's two foundations.

Attendees include the chiefs of Samsung, Hyundai Motor, Lotte, and LG.

Dec. 7: The National Assembly hearing questions key witnesses and suspects related to the scandal, including Choi's two aides The National Assembly hearing questions key witnesses and suspects related to the scandal, including Choi's two aides  Cha Eun-taek, and Ko Young-tae  and Choi's niece, Jang Si-ho. But Choi and Choi's daughter do not attend.

Dec. 9: The impeachment bill is passed with more than 200 lawmakers voting on her impeachment, fulfilling the required two-thirds of the 300-member Assembly.

Park's Presidency is suspended and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn takes over as interim leader.


Following is the summary of a motion submitted by the opposition parties to the National Assembly to impeach President Park Geun-hye.  ED.



By Chung Hyun-chae



The impeachment motion, submitted by 171 opposition part and independent lawmakers and passed at the National Assembly, accused President Park Geun-hye of 13 breaches of the Constitution and other laws.



It said the violations were so serious that she was unfit to be head of the state.

Most of them were related to Park's confidant Choi Soon-sil and her associates who have pulled the strings behind President Park for their own benefit.



Park allowed Choi and her close friends to meddle in state affairs, which is against the sovereignty of the people and representative democracy guaranteed by the Constitution.



This was possible because Park handed over to Choi piles of presidential and governmental documents containing confidential information, thereby divulging official secrets.



Using her close relationship with the President, Choi has been the real power behind the scenes. She intervened in the appointment of high-level officials including former Vice Culture Minister Kim Chong, former Culture Minister Kim Jong-deok and former Korea Creative Content Agency CEO Song Sung-gak.



Such an intervention is a breach of the National Public Service Law.



The President gagged the press to prevent reports on corruption allegations involving presidential aides.



Cheong Wa Dae pressured the local daily Segye Ilbo to sack its then-chief Cho Han-gyu after the newspaper reported on the shadowy links between the President and Chung Yoon-hoi, Choi's husband, in 2014.



The impeachment motion also contained Park's dereliction of duty to protect the lives of the people, saying she was absent from official duty for the crucial first seven hours after the Sewol ferry began sinking on April 16, 2014, which eventually killed 304 people.



The 40-page motion also stated that Park committed abuse of power, bribery and extortion by forcing private businesses to make donations to the Mir and K-Sports foundations, which were under Choi's control.



She is also suspected of forcing Hyundai Motor Group and KT to sign a contract for advertising with a company run by Cha Eun-taek, a visual artist who was a close associate of Choi.



Park allegedly helped an acquaintance of Choi win a contract with Hyundai Motor, and pressured POSCO Group and Grand Korea Leisure to work with The Blue K, a paper company run by Choi.



With suspicions that the companies accepted such demands, including fundraising for the two foundations, in return for business favors, the opposition parties added bribery allegations against the President.
How candlelight revolution' has changed Korean politics forever

By Jung Min-ho

When news revealed that President Park Geun-hye and her confidant had rattled the very foundation of the nation's democracy with an influence-peddling scandal in late October, few politicians dared to mention the word, "impeachment," for fear of a backlash.

In protest, around 20,000 people took to the streets near Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul with lit candles, Oct. 29. Even then, few people thought that the number would increase to more than 2.3 million in just six weeks in streets across the country.

The "candlelight revolution," which led the National Assembly to impeach the President, Friday, shows the Constitutional clause, "All state authority shall emanate from the people," has more than just a literal meaning, said Shin Yul, a political science professor at Myongji University.

"It would have been impossible without the power of candlelight. Lawmakers were probably under enormous pressure to follow the obvious opinion of their voters," he said.

Instead of depending on politicians to determine their fate, voters voiced their opinion with candles and placards. Some politicians initially disregarded the move and its power. Rep. Kim Jin-tae of the governing Saenuri Party famously said that the "candles will be blown out when winds blow," but they have not.












By Kim Bo-eun



The Constitutional Court received the baton on President Park Geun-hye's impeachment from the National Assembly after the motion against her was passed, Friday.



Rep. Kweon Seong-dong of the Saenuri Party, the chief of the National Assembly Legislation and Judiciary Committee, who will defend the impeachment during the court hearings, submitted the resolution to the court.



The court then convened an emergency meeting of justices to discuss its hearing plan. It said the first may begin as early as the end of the month. The court named Judge Kang Il-won as the chief justice of the case. The court also requested the President to submit her written defense by Dec. 16, a preliminary step before hearings.



The court is required to make a ruling within six months.



But the decision may not come fast, because a number of factors could pose obstacles including an independent counsel investigation into the scandal surrounding her and her confidant Choi Soon-sil, which will be taking place at the same time.



Some observers say it may be difficult for the court to make a ruling before the investigation is concluded, as the allegations are yet to be confirmed as true. The court's previous ruling on the impeachment of former President Roh Moo-hyun was different in that the facts had already been established when the ruling took place. It took only 63 days.



Others believe the special prosecutor's probe into the scandal will not affect the court's ruling because the justices will reach a conclusion independently.



The judges will examine whether the President violated the Constitution and laws by letting Choi, who does not hold a government post, meddle in state affairs, handing over classified state information to her, extorting money from conglomerates to benefit Choi, and not being on official duty on the day of the Sewol ferry disaster.



They will be able to examine related evidence. However, an obstacle in the process may be the law on the Constitutional Court which prevents it from requesting records of a case which is currently undergoing investigation or a trial.



This will make it difficult for the impeachment ruling to take place before the independent counsel's 100-day investigation ends.



The court may summon Park for the hearings, which she can refuse to attend.



Another obstacle may be the retirement of judges.



At least seven justices of the nine-member panel are required to make a ruling, and at least six of them need to support the impeachment for it to be accepted.



However, two members' terms will expire in January and March, respectively. The President holds the right to appoint the justices, but she has been suspended from duty.



But it is not clear whether the prime minister, who will be the acting president, will be able to appoint new judges.



The scope of the acting president's authority is not clear. Among legal experts, there is a prevailing view that it is inappropriate for someone temporarily acting as the president to appoint justices who hold six-year terms.



If new members are not appointed soon enough, the ruling could be made with only seven members. Considering that the seven are mostly conservative, there is the possibility that more than one of them may oppose the impeachment and rule against it. Moreover, if one of the seven justices is unable to take part, the court's ruling will be indefinitely suspended.




Egyptian archaeologists excavating the Mortuary Temple of King Amenhotep III in Luxor have unearthed a number of statues of the goddess Sekhmet, daughter of the ancient Egyptian sun god Re, project director Hourig Sourouzian told Ahram Online on Thursday.

"They are of great artistic quality" Sourouzian said of the statues, which were found in four parts, including three busts and one headless torso, in the Kom El-Hettan archaeological area on Luxor's west bank.

Sourouzian oversees the work of the Colossi of Memnon and Amenhotep III Temple Conservation Project, which is working to save the remains of the more than 3,000 year-old temple and eventually restore its dispersed artefacts to the site, to be presented in their original layout.

The project director said her team found the Sekhmet pieces in very good condition, buried in the temple's hypostyle halla roofed structure supported by columns. Several other statues of the goddess have been found previously on the same site.

According to Mahmoud Afifi, head of the Ancient Egyptian Antiquities Department at the Ministry of Antiquities, the lion-headed goddess Sekhmet was charged with defending her father Re against enemies.

The many statues of the goddess in the temple of Amenhotep III would also have been intended to protect the ruler from evil and disease, Afifi told Ahram Online.

"All statues of the goddess are now stored in warehouses supervised by the Ministry of Antiquities for security reasons, Afifi said, adding that when excavations at the temple are completed and the site is opened to visitors, the statues will be placed back in their original setting.

In addition to the statues of Sekhmet, Sourouzian's team have uncovered large pieces of sphinxes carved in limestone, as well as a small torso of a deity in black granite, within the vicinity of the funerary temple's third pylon.

The sphinxes are in a bad state of preservation and will need to be treated before being exposed, she said.

Egypt's Minister of Antiquities Khaled El-Enany is set to travel to Luxor on Monday, to inspect the newly discovered statues and attend the opening of a temporary exhibit to celebrate the 41st anniversary of the Luxor Museum.

The exhibit will display a collection of 40 artefacts discovered by archaeologists on the Colossi of Memnon and Amenhotep III Temple Conservation Project.

The artefacts will include a collection of amulets, Greco-Roman coins, remains of clay pots and religious stelaestone tablets or columns erected as tombstones or boundary markers.

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Bedlam breaks out at the National Assembly main hall in Seoul, March 12, 2004, with a clash between lawmakers approving and disapproving of the impeachment of then-President Roh Moo-hyun. The vote was eventually carried out and the impeachment motion was passed. / Yonhap



By Kim Rahn

Both President Park Geun-hye and former President Roh Moo-hyun were impeached. Politicians who initiated the impeachment motions all claimed the moves were inevitable to defend the "constitutional order."

However, there are big differences between the two in terms of why the impeachment was sought, how the presidents responded to the motion, and how the public reacted to the situations, among others.

Reason for impeachment

Roh was impeached on March 12, 2004. The then-opposition Grand National Party, the predecessor of the Saenuri Party, sought the impeachment for his supportive comments about his Uri Party after the National Election Commission concluded the comment was in violation of the Election Law.

The impeachment motion also stated that Roh should be held responsible for corruption involving his aides, as well as for the poor economic situation he allegedly caused.

But Roh was not under investigation for any of the accusations.

For Park, the impeachment was ignited by the influence-peddling scandal involving her and her confidant Choi Soon-sil. The prosecution identified Park as an "accomplice" and "suspect" in the scandal, saying she was involved in the abuse of power, coercion, extortion and sharing confidential presidential documents. The impeachment motion included all these allegations.

Candlelit protests

After the impeachment motion was passed for Roh, citizens began candlelit protests  not in favor of the impeachment but against it.

People called for the annulment of the impeachment in rallies for about half a month from the day of the impeachment vote at various locations across the country including the Gwanghwamun area in Seoul.

Participants said that the cause of Roh's impeachment  violation of the Election Law  was not that grave to suspend the head of state from duty and that the opposition parties pushed ahead with it for their own political interests. Public surveys showed nearly 70 percent of people were opposed to the impeachment.

In Park's case, to the contrary, citizens held candles not to defend the President but to denounce her. Millions of people have taken to the street across the nation every Saturday since the end of October, calling for her resignation over the scandal. The mass protest was the main force that led to the impeachment motion.

A recent survey showed 81 percent of people supported Park's resignation.

Impeachment vote

On the day of the impeachment vote, Roh made a public apology, saying he was sorry for causing problems. Park, on the other hand, has remained silent since her third public apology over the scandal on Nov. 29.

At the National Assembly for Roh's impeachment in 2004, anti-impeachment lawmakers attempted to prevent the voting, physically clashing with pro-impeachment lawmakers, shouting and throwing chairs and nameplates.

Despite the scuffle, the voting was carried out. Of the 271 Assembly members, 195 took part in the voting and 193 of them consented to the impeachment.

Such a clash, however, was not seen in the 2016 voting, largely because of the National Assembly Advancement Act adopted in 2012 to prevent violence and railroading of bills by ruling parties.

Out of the 300 Assembly members, 299 participated in the vote and 234 of them approved impeaching Park.
By Jun Ji-hye

The overwhelming vote in favor of the impeachment of the scandal-ridden President Park Geun-hye, Friday, is expected to affect the deliberations of the Constitutional Court.

Among a total of 299 lawmakers in attendance, 234 voted for the motion, while 56 voted against. There were two abstentions and seven nullified votes.

The result means that a considerable number of members of the ruling Saenuri Party, who have stood by Park, also voted for the motion in addition to 171 opposition and independent lawmakers and some 40 ruling party members who do not support the President as well as National Assembly Speaker Chung Sye-kyun.

Park is completely stripped of power if the Constitutional Court concurs that she committed a crime that makes her unfit to serve as head of state, after up to six months of deliberations.












After being impeached by the National Assembly, President Park Geun-hye looks down as she convenes her last Cabinet meeting Friday, right before the vote that suspended her from office. She apologized to the nation again, and asked ministers to minimize any vacuum in government, and to work on the economy. / Korea Times photo by Ko Yeong-kwon



By Kim Hyo-jin



The National Assembly passed the motion to impeach President Park Geun-hye over a corruption scandal, Friday.

Park was suspended from office at 7:03 p.m. immediately after the result was officially delivered to the presidential office, and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn began working as acting head of state.



The President's fate is now in the hands of the Constitutional Court, which is expected to make a ruling on whether the impeachment was valid in a few months.



Park is the second Korean president to be impeached after the late President Roh Moo-hyun in 2004. Roh was able to return to office thanks to wide public support after the Constitutional Court overturned the Assembly's decision.



The impeachment motion, signed by 171 opposition and independent lawmakers, passed overwhelmingly with 234 in favor, 56 against, two abstentions and seven invalid votes in the 300-member Assembly. Pro-Park lawmaker Choi Kyung-hwan of the ruling Saenuri Party was absent.



This well exceeded the necessary approval of two-thirds of the 300 lawmakers required for its passage.



The overwhelming passage of the impeachment motion came after millions of people took to the streets to hold rallies demanding Park's resignation over the last six weeks.



The President said she humbly accepts the Assembly's decision, but indicated that she will not step down and will await the ruling by the Constitutional Court.



"I will calmly respond to an impeachment trial at the Constitutional Court and an independent counsel investigation in accordance with the procedures stated in the Constitution and the related laws," she said in a statement.



Acting President Hwang held an emergency Cabinet meeting and said, "Under all circumstances, we will maintain the stability of the country. All civil servants must do their utmost to prevent any gaps in the areas of diplomacy, security and the economy."



A verdict by the nine judges on the court could take up to six months. But speculation is high that it will take less than this. Legal experts say their deliberations could be faster, citing the 2004 precedent of former President Roh, and the rising concerns over a vacuum in state affairs.



The court took 63 days to review the case of Roh, who was impeached for alleged breach of political neutrality by the then opposition parties, and exonerate him. However, some pundits say it could take longer than this as there are more legal issues to be deliberated on.













National Assembly Speaker Chung Sye-kyun bangs the gavel to declare the passage of the impeachment motion against President Park Geun-hye during a plenary session of the National Assembly, Friday.

/ Korea Times photo by Seo Jae-hoon



The opposition submitted a joint motion to impeach Park, Dec. 3, stating her alleged constitutional and law violations including abuse of power, coercion, bribery and dereliction of duty on the day of the Sewol ferry sinking, which claimed more than 300 lives.



The prosecution previously identified Park as an accomplice of her confident Choi Soon-sil in late November, labeling her a criminal suspect. Choi was indicted on charges of abuse of power, extortion and attempted fraud after extorting tens of millions of dollars from conglomerates to set up two foundations she controlled, and interfering with state affairs after gaining access to classified government documents.



The public has shown overwhelming support for Park's impeachment, while she remained reluctant to resign immediately. A Gallup poll conducted Friday showed 81 percent of respondents backing the impeachment with 14 percent opposed to it. Weeks of candlelit rallies against Park have grown larger, with 2.32 million joining the latest nationwide protest.



The motion had been supported by three opposition parties and Park dissenters in the ruling Saenuri Party.



A total of 165 opposition lawmakers earlier vowed to resign if the motion was voted down as a sign of their determination. An anti-Park Saenuri Party faction, consisting of about 40 lawmakers, had expressed their intention to vote for impeachment.



Park loyalists, who failed to stalemate the impeachment, are expected to be quickly incapacitated in the ruling party. The pro-Park leadership of the Saenuri Party had pushed for a timetable for the President's resignation in April and an early presidential election in June, but to no avail amid aggravated public sentiment.



"I'm deeply sorry and I ask forgiveness from the public as the ruling party leader," Saenuri Party Chairman Rep. Lee Jung-hyun, a die-hard ally of Park, said after the vote. Lee said he will resign to take responsibility as soon as the party comes up with plans to fill his vacancy.



Political pundits view it is now inevitable for the ruling party to be reorganized, centering on anti-Park lawmakers. They have vowed to reinvent the conservative bloc by getting rid of Park's supporters in the wake of the corruption scandal.



Rep. Choo Mi-ae, chairwoman of the main opposition Democratic of Korea (DPK), welcomed the result of the vote, saying "It's a victory of the people and history will remember it."



Vowing to stabilize state affairs in the post-impeachment stage, she suggested that the National Assembly form a consultative body with the government and hold a 30-day extraordinary session to review policies implemented by Park.



Choo said she will wait and see how acting President Hwang will fill in the leadership vacuum, taking a step back from her earlier position that he should resign, too, taking responsibility for the botched administration.



Floor leader of the minor opposition People's Party Park Jie-won echoed such a view, saying priority should be put on making the national system function again.

He urged the Constitutional Court to promptly proceed with its review while calling on Park to step down voluntarily beforehand.



Defense Minister Han Min-koo ordered the military to tighten its vigilance against possible North Korean provocations after the impeachment vote.



"North Korea could raise military tension in an attempt to worsen the political crisis in the South and test U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, as Pyongyang has no idea what his policy toward it will be," Han said.



Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se also ordered diplomats in overseas missions to stay focused on their duties and not be swayed by instability from the impeachment of the president.



Domestically, top diplomats from the U.S., China, Japan and Russia were invited to the ministry in central Seoul and briefed on the impeachment and related situations.
Moon Jae-in Ban Ki-moon Lee Jae-myung Ahn Cheol-soo



By Jun Ji-hye





Political parties are shifting their focus to an early presidential election, which may be inevitable after President Park Geun-hye was impeached by the National Assembly, Friday.

Political observers are raising the possibility that the 19th presidential poll may take place in March or April at the earliest, or August at the latest.

It could take place even earlier  if the scandal-ridden President declares her decision to step down soon, the election could be conducted in early February according to the Constitutio, which stipulates that the election should be held within 60 days of a president's departure.

The drama of deals and power struggles for the next election has already begun.

According to a Gallup poll on potential presidential candidates, released Friday, Moon Jae-in, former chairman of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, tied for first place, garnering 20 percent support.

Seongnam Mayor Lee Jae-myung, who has gained popularity among young voters with his street speeches criticizing Park, came third with 18 percent, up 10 percentage points from last month.

Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo, former leader of second largest opposition People's Party, took the fourth place with 8 percent, while South Chungcheong Governor Ahn Hee-jung was fifth with 5 percent.

Right until the impeachment vote took place, the ruling Saenuri Party was severely divided between those loyal to the President and those who did not support her. While the anti-Park faction members joined forces with the opposition parties for the vote, Park loyalists made every effort to prevent it.

The tremendous strife in the governing party could lead to it splitting up, observers point out. If this happens, it will mark the first time that two conservative candidates could be running in the presidential poll since 1987.

Given that the opposition bloc is currently divided into three parties  the DPK, the People's Party and the minor opposition Justice Party  there is the possibility that multiple presidential candidates could run in the election.

Members of the anti-Park faction are already talking about disbanding the Saenuri Party.

"The Saenuri Party should take a step toward its dissolution to take responsibility for this mess," Rep. Choung Byoung-gug said during a radio interview.

Debates on whether and how to amend the Constitution could be another factor in the next presidential election.

Politicians from rival parties mostly agree that the current five-year, single term presidential system, introduced in 1987, should undergo some changes, but their views are different in regard to when and how it should be done.

Some want to begin a national discussion on a constitutional revision now, while others say it is more proper for the next president to push for the revision after being sworn in. The latter noted that what the nation needs now is passing through a crisis sparked by the presidential corruption scandal at the earliest possible date, rather than getting into time-consuming and complicated debates over the constitutional revision.

There are also various opinions on how to change the presidential system _ some are calling for introducing a four-year, two-term presidency, while others are focusing more on a way of decentralizing the president's power. One option they are demanding is introducing a "semi-presidential" system, under which the president would be responsible for foreign and national security affairs, while the prime minister would be responsible for domestic affairs.

Eyes are also on which choice U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will make regarding any possible presidential bid.

Ban, who finishes his term of office, Dec. 31, is known to be planning to return home in mid-January. He repeatedly left open the possibility of a bid, fueling speculation he may run as a pro-Park candidate for the Saenuri Party.

His bid has reportedly been backed by President Park and her supporters in the ruling party, and he had consistently ranked first in various opinion polls about who is the most qualified for the presidency.

But since the corruption scandal involving the President broke out in late October, his popularity has been falling as well in recent polls.

According to sources, Ban may deliver a message to the public upon his return, during which he may try to distance himself from Park.
Protesters in front of the National Assembly, Seoul, welcome the passage of the motion to impeach President Park Geun-hye, Friday. Thousands of citizens gathered at the Assembly to pressure lawmakers to vote for the motion.

/ Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul



By Choi Ha-young

People finally forced President Park Geun-hye from her post in what is being called a historic "candlelight revolution."

Thousands of protesters who were holding a protest rally at the National Assembly on Yeouido, Friday, welcomed the passage of an impeachment motion against President Park. Some were filled with tears, while others shared high fives and took selfies.

From early morning, about 10,000 people gathered in front of the Assembly, braving the cold weather. They urged the legislative body to put an end to Park, who has been on the verge of resignation over the influence-peddling scandal involving her longtime friend Choi Soon-sil.

Some stayed there all night from Thursday, making funeral streamers to symbolize the end of Park's life as a politician.

Kim Hye-young, 57, a lecturer, took leave to see the historic moment. "We will hold a family party tonight," she said. "We are very happy but we just finished a midterm. Now we have to prepare for the finals," said Kim, who participated in all of the rallies at Gwanghwamun Square on the previous six Saturdays.

"I was so tired because of the continuous candlelit rallies, but all of my fatigue has been cleared by this news," said Kim Jeong-im, 52, who came with friends.

People said they will go to the Gwanghwamun candlelit rally this Saturday as well, and gather in front of the Constitutional Court, which will make a final ruling on the impeachment.

"From now on, citizens will not keep silent about corruption and injustice. All of the accomplices must be punished," Kim said.

Protesters specified their next goals _ pressuring the special investigation team to thoroughly investigate the scandal and hold Park accountable for her wrongdoings.

"The next step is to imprison Park," said Kim Jeong-seon, 49, from Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province. "In the end, we should remove previous wrongdoers, including prosecutors, those in the media and chaebol, and pro-Park politicians. If it doesn't go well, I am always prepared to take to the streets with a candle."

Another start

"The candlelit rallies won," said Oh Deul-yi, 47, a housewife from Goyang, Gyeonggi Province. "The lawmakers did their best, considering all of their different political interests. Now, this is another start," she said.

Oh, who also went to the six rallies in Gwanghwamun Square, said she will continue to protest, but now in front of the Constitutional Court. "It's very cold, but this is nothing compared to the pain of the victims of the Sewol ferry disaster."

Kim Mi-seon, 45, came here with her six-year-old son. "Politicians will never be able to ignore the people again," she said, playing a vuvuzela with her child. "This is a good precedent that government officials lacking responsibility should be punished."

Despite the impeachment motion passage, many people still claim Park should step down immediately. "Park is hiding behind the law, which is very cowardly," said Lee Hye-ryeon, 26, a jobseeker. "The law exists to improve people's lives, not to protect criminals."

Meanwhile, police blocked rally organizers from installing stages, and didn't allow protesting farmers to drive their tractors to the Assembly, which led to three people being injured.
Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, center, presides over a Cabinet meeting -- his first job as acting head of state -- at the government complex in central Seoul, Friday. / Yonhap



By Kang Seung-woo

Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn said Friday, following the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye, that he will do his utmost to stabilize state affairs as the nation faces many serious challenges.

He also said the government will listen to the people's voice and reflect it in running the country.

Hwang assumed interim presidential power earlier in the day after the National Assembly voted in favor of impeaching the scandal-ridden President Park. Until the Constitutional Court finishes reviewing the legality of the impeachment, which may take up to 180 days, he will lead the government.

"There are growing concerns that we are losing momentum in running state affairs amid the recent political turmoil," Hwang said in a nationally-televised address from the government complex in Seoul.

"In this grave situation, the government must stop state affairs from going adrift and the country from suffering an administrative vacuum."

In the wake of the corruption scandal, in which Park's confidant Choi Soon-sil used her ties with the President to obtain funds and favors, the embattled head of state had rarely focused on state affairs before being impeached. After the scandal broke, she issued three public apologies and even pledged to step down after the Assembly came up with a stable power-transfer plan.

Hwang, who also served as justice minister under Park, vowed to maintain strong military readiness against North Korea's threats.

"This year, North Korea has modernized its nuclear and missile weapons through a series of tests, so the government will work closely with the international community to resolve the issue, while remaining on high alert," he said.

This year, the Kim Jong-un regime carried out two nuclear tests in January and September along with a series of ballistic missile tests.

Right after the impeachment vote, Hwang called Defense Minister Han Min-koo and asked him to pay extra attention with regards to national security.

"North Korea may take advantage of our political uncertainties and undertake some sort of provocation," he said.

However, his office said that the acting president has no plan yet to raise the country's alert level unless the North's military shows any specific moves.

Following the national address, he also convened a National Security Council meeting to discuss security issues.

Concerns are rampant that the leadership crisis may adversely affect the nation's diplomatic landscape.

"A new administration will kick off in the United States soon, and the international atmosphere is quickly changing. I will focus efforts on protecting our national interests by maintaining close ties with our allies including Washington," said Hwang, who also talked with Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se about Seoul's sanctions programs against Pyongyang.

Hwang also vowed to keep a watchful eye on the overall economy so that the impeachment does not adversely impact the country's financial and foreign exchange markets. Korea will also make efforts to maintain the country's credibility on the global stage, the acting president added.

Since late October, massive candlelit rallies have been held every Saturday across the nation calling for Park's immediate resignation. In addition, she has been out of touch with the media and even from her Cheong Wa Dae staff.

"The government will listen to the public voice and consider it in leading the country," Hwang said, adding that the administration will closely communicate with the Assembly on various issues ranging from security to the people's livelihood and economic recovery.

The opposition parties have called for Hwang to step down, to take joint responsibility for the current crisis.

"I feel strongly responsible for the current situation as a prime minister who has assisted the President. I truly apologize for it," he said.
South Korea's defense chief ordered the military to tighten vigilance against a possible North Korean provocation after parliament voted to impeach President Park Geun-hye Friday, the ministry said.

Defense Minister Han Min-koo called a teleconference with the top military commanders following Park's meeting with Cabinet ministers that began at 5:00 p.m., according to a ministry official.

Immediately after the result of the vote was announced, Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn called the minister and said, "The military should stay focused on countering any provocations by the North in times of political uncertainties," the official said.

The prime minister will act for the president who will be suspended pending a Constitutional Court review.

The South Korean and U.S. forces have mobilized more surveillance and unmanned reconnaissance planes and are ready to instantly respond if there are any signs of provocations by the North, he said.

"North Korea could raise military tension in an attempt to worsen the political crisis in the South, though there are no specific signs yet," another official said.

The ministry also said the plan to deploy a U.S. advanced missile defense system, known as THAAD, in the nation by 2017 will not be affected by the impeachment.

"All policy decisions have been made and only the process for execution remains for the deployment," the ministry said. Seoul and Washington agreed in July to install a THAAD battery here to defend against growing missile threats from the North.

On Friday afternoon, the National Assembly passed the impeachment motion by a vote of 234 to 56 over an influence-peddling scandal involving Park and her close confidante. (Yonhap)
By Nam Sang-so



The Showa Tonankai (Southeast Sea) Earthquake occurred exactly three years after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. It was a 7.9 magnitude quake which triggered a nine meters high tsunami that caused serious damage along the coast of Wakayama Prefecture. A total of 26,000 houses were completely destroyed by the tremor, and a further 3,000 houses were gutted by the tsunami.

The Supreme War Council (SWC) of Japan immediately issued a media blackout and kept the disaster a complete secret from the general public for fear of losing the will to fight a war. The SWC further ordered the people in the disaster areas not to talk about the catastrophe to others. The strict military order for confidentiality hampered the neighboring governments of prefectures to help the victims.

A few weeks later, the people living in central Japan saw an American bomber fly away without dropping a bomb. While the two white contrails left by the plane were fading in the sky, we school children saw thousands of white leaflets flying around in the sky, slowly flickering down. The palm sized fliers landed all over the place. With other children, I too ran out to pick them up. I was 12 years old. It read in black Japanese brush writing; "We'd like to express our sympathies for the victims of Tonankai earthquake. What kind of sympathy would you like to have the next time?"

Teachers hastily confiscated them saying that it was one of the deceptions of the fiendish Americans. It was a foolish attempt to seal the mouths of elementary school children and war exhausted Japanese people who were shocked and riled at the cheating government. The disaster victims censured the military government severely; we had to keep our mouth sealed enduring all the difficulties without getting emergency relief aid. Now our enemy knew of the tragedy while our neighbors didn't. "The next sympathy from the U.S. was two atomic bombs dropped six months thereafter.

Seventy years after I saw the American fliers flying around in the wind, Tokyo Shinbun dated December 24, 2014 slid under the door of a hotel in Tokyo where I was staying, which detailed the 1944 disaster in three full pages; Catastrophe was a Military Secret: holding the mortifying thought for 70 years, military censor hides the miseries of 1944 earthquakeAs if on cue, on Dec. 13, 2014 the Act on the Protection of Specially Designated Secrets came into force. It is a law in Japan allowing the government to designate defense related information as special secret.

The World Press Freedom Index, which measures the degree of freedom enjoyed by the media, published by Reporters With-out Border reports that Japan ranked as low as 72nd among 180 countries surveyed. South Korea ranked 70th. China ranked 176th and North Korea, the worst at 179, a notch above the bottom of Eritrea in Africa.

The old story of how the Japanese government deceived their own people in order to deceive an enemy refreshes me when I read the news that South Korea has agreed on the General Security of Military Intelligence Agreement with Japan in order to directly exchange military intelligence about North Korea.

The writer is a Japanese-English-Korean translator whose email address is sangsonam@gmail.com
In 2036, two young Koreans would have to support one old Korean person and 30 years after that in 2065, the ratio would be down to one for one. Last year's ratio was five to one.



The nation's population will peak at 52.96 million in 2031 in a super-slow, piecemeal climb from 51.01 million last year. The more dismal outlook can be found further into the future, in 2115, when the population could drop to 25.82 million, the level seen in 1960 as the baby boom generation was peaking. Seen at least in terms of a population sizable enough for a nation, Korea's extinction doesn't sound just fictional.



These gloomy numbers are contained in the latest every-year population forecast made by Statistics Korea. The stats are calculated on the assumption of the prevalence of the current rates so there are built-in margins of error. But all said and done, the unmistakable conclusion is that Korea is a super-aging society that requires a more active regimen aimed at stabilizing or reversing the downward spiral.



Adding a chilling factual weight is the forecast of the aggregate birthrate, which was estimated to be 1.41 per woman over the period of 2001 to 2010, in the previous survey five years ago. The latest number is 1.32. The significance of this drop is that the government's effort to boost the birthrate has not worked despite 80 trillion won spent over the past 10 years. The government has ambitiously doubled the annual budget to 20 trillion won but it remains to be seen how effective this will turn out, considering the lackluster results so far.



Best capturing the "population cliff" is the collapse of the "economically productive" population covering the ages of 15 to 64. In 2015, Korea topped the members of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) for the economically matured but is expected to hit a fast downward spiral starting next year and end up at rock bottom in 2065.



Together with a strong and tailor-made population-boosting policy, a review of the pension system should be given priority, while the overhaul of the current military force structure should be worthy of a careful look to move to an efficient, technology-oriented formula. Also meriting an immediate and positive approach is the adoption of a pro-immigration policy to welcome foreign workers, optimized for their smooth assimilation without causing conflicts of nationalists against immigrants raging in advanced countries.




Let rule of law guide nation out of this mess



People made a demand and their representatives have risen up to their masters' call.



That was how the National Assembly passed a motion to impeach President Park Geun-hye in a strong bipartisan vote Friday.



The day was not one for celebration but one of hope that our democracy can work.



For now, that hope is all the country has to see through a challenging road ahead. But there is a sense that that is good enough to finish this journey and rise above the sea of utter hopelessness the nation has been trapped in.



The impeachment came weeks after the nation was shocked by Park's admission that she had privatized her mandate, sharing it with her friend Choi Soon-sil who edited presidential speeches and appointed top officials.



More revelations followed in a deluge: Park had also extorted billions of won from conglomerates for Choi, who acted as if she were the president, and invited an outside stylist to coif her hair during the crucial initial hours after the Sewol ferry began sinking with hundreds of high school students on board.



These are included in the charges against Park but perhaps one that is not cited in the list is her biggest and most unforgivable crime: a breach of the people's trust.



The driving force that enabled Park's impeachment was people power: hundreds of thousands of them filled downtown Seoul and marched to the presidential office. Remarkably, they were peaceful with few reported injuries, setting the example that peace can be a more powerful tool than blunt weapons.



Only once before has the nation taken this path. In 2004, the late President Roh Moo-hyun was indicted by the legislature for allegedly electioneering for the ruling party ahead of a general election. Still, it was a chaotic time with state affairs put on hold. This time, the rule of law should be respected as strictly as ever to minimize any confusion.



As stipulated by law, Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn should play the role of acting president.



His two important jobs will be to ensure the Constitutional Court deliberates impartially without any undue pressure on Park's impeachment, and to prepare as impartial umpire for a presidential election that should come within two months if the incumbent head of state leaves office before the end of her given term.



Hwang should also mind state affairs in close consultation with the National Assembly.



For President Park, it is imperative to cooperate with a special prosecutor's investigation to get to the bottom of this unsavory affair. It is lamentable that she insists on her innocence, draining national energy by engaging in dubious acts and damaging the office of the presidency.



True, the situation is dire, but it is worth reminding ourselves as a nation that we have overcome many challenges. We must not falter at this one.




Two suspected drug smugglers, Itobo Egede and Munirudeen Ikumapayi, have been arrested with 1,300 parcels of substance suspected to be cannabis worth N62.4 million by Operatives of the Federal Operations Unit, FOU, Zone A of the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS.

The suspects, who were handed over to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, Lagos Command for further investigation and prosecution, were arrested in different locations at Sagamu, Ijebu-Ode Expressway, Ogun State and Gbeaji Customs check-point, Seme Expressway in Lagos State.

According to the Customs Area Comptroller, CAC, of the Command, Haruna Mahmod, who was represented by Acting Deputy Comptroller, Administration, Adamu Abubarkar, the suspected substance with Duty Paid Value, DPV, of N62.4 million, was heading for Cross River State before it was intercepted by eagle eyed officers of the command through intelligence gathering.



Receiving the suspects, Principal Staff Officer, PSO, of NDLEA, Chief Superintendent of Narcotics, CSN, Lawal Opeloyeru Isiaka, assured that the substance would be subjected to scientific examination after which the suspects would be charged. Customs officers refused to collect bribe from soldiers Egede Narrating his ordeal to Vanguard, Egede said he was a taxi driver from Cross River State and had come to Lagos to visit her sister, who is a police woman.

According to him, when I wanted to go back, I went to the bus stop, stopped buses that were travelling to Calabar before this one finally stopped for me. I told them that I was going to Calabar and they asked me to pay N10,000 but I pleaded with them before they agreed to collect N4,000.

There were two soldiers inside and a driver and were carrying a lot of goods but I managed to sit.

When we got to Ijebu-Ode, Customs officers at a check point stopped us. When we opened the booth and they saw the goods, they started beating me and subsequently arrested me and the driver and put us inside their patrol van. Along the line, I didnt see the driver again. They now brought me to their office.

I dont know about the driver now. I was carrying N100, 000 my sister gave me but the soldiers asked me how much I had on me so that they would give the Customs officers to release us. I then gave them N50,000 to bribe the Custom officers but they refused to collect the money from the soldiers. The soldiers did not give the money back to me. I dont know what happened to the two soldiers thereafter.

Vanguard gathered, through a security source, that the soldiers were handed over to the military authority for in-house disciplinary action as it is the usual practice between the military and para-military agencies.

I did not know I was carrying drug Ikumapayi Another suspect, Ikumapayi, who claimed to be a commercial bus driver plying Osun-Lagos route, said he did not know that the parcel one woman gave to him in Lagos to deliver to Osogbo, Osun State, was not actually the clothes she claimed.

According to him, I was loading my bus at Oshodi when one woman came with a parcel concealed in a wrapper and asked me to deliver it to someone in Osogbo, Osun State. I charged her N2,000 but she gave me N1,000 which I collected. She also gave me the phone number of the receiver and collected my phone number too. But I did not check the parcel before taking off.

As usual, while going, any police check point I passed, I gave them N50, N100 but when I got to Customs road block, they stopped me and searched all the goods loaded inside. Everybody showed his or her own. So they asked me to open that one. When I opened, they discovered that it was drug. I did not know that I was carrying trouble because; I did not check the bag.

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The SLFP does not condone the continuation of the Emergency Regulations (The Public Security Ordinance) more than a day necessary

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PRESS RELEASE

China Pushes Ahead Toward Its Fusion Energy Test Reactor

Dec. 8, 2016 (EIRNS)The progress Chinese fusion scientists are making in experiments in their EAST (Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak) reactor in Hefei has reinforced their confidence to proceed in the design of their next-step Chinese Fusion Engineering Test Reactor (CFSTR), scheduled to come on line in 2025. Recently, EAST set a world record in a 100-second burn in a high-density hydrogen plasma. "It is a milestone event," said Professor Luo Guangnan, deputy director of the EAST facility, "a confidence boost for humanity to harness energy from fusion."

The South China Morning Post article states that China is "the only nation increasing funding for fusion," noting the U.S. MIT Alcator shut-down. "China is the only nation in the world increasing its budget for fusion research," said Dr. Luo. "The funding in Europe has been dwindling, a proposal for the construction of new research facilities in the U.S. was rejected by Congress, and progress in Japan has also stagnated." As a result, "In each of our experiments in recent years, the number of foreign participants easily exceeded 100," said Luo. The article reports that Chinese fusion scientists are "leaving other nations in the dust."

"It is hoped that the proposal for CFETR construction can be approved by the government within the next five years," Chinese fusion pioneer, Dr. Wan Yuanxi, said at an international fusion conference last month. The Chinese Fusion Engineering Test Reactor would go into operation in 2030, generating 200 Megawatts of electricity initially, and then be up-graded in the following decade to around a Gigawatt. Although the conservative approach would be to wait and see the results of ITERs first fusion experiments before taking the next step, ITERs first plasma experiments are now delayed to 2025, China is not going to wait, but plans to move into the stage of an engineering a reactor, confident that ITER will reach its goals.

An interview with Dr. Wan on the history and goals of Chinas fusion program is in the March 11, 2011 issue of EIR.
PRESS RELEASE

Lavrov: Syrian Army Suspends Combat Operations In Aleppo

Dec. 8, 2016 (EIRNS)Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, today, that the Syrian army has suspended combat operations "as a yet another and the biggest one so far operation to evacuate the civilians willing to leave the place is underway there," he said, reported TASS. "There are some 8,000 people in the column. Thats a huge operation and the withdrawal route is five kilometers long."

Lavrov also reported that he had had a telephone conversation and two short meetings with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry while in Hamburg, Germany. "An agreement was reached to organize a meeting between military experts and diplomats in Geneva on Saturday," he said, to work on the withdrawal of militants from the few neighborhoods that they still control.

"As for Jabhat al-Nusra, the United States is seeking to spare it. Moreover, during all our talks, the Americans tried to word agreements in such a way that would leave al-Nusra out and deliver it from reprisals,"

Lavrov said.
PRESS RELEASE

Trump Foreign Policy Advisor in Moscow

Dec. 8, 2016 (EIRNS)Carter Page, reputedly a foreign policy advisor to President-elect Donald Trump, is in Moscow. Carter, who has been very outspoken in his support for improving relations with Russia, told Sputnik he was planning to meet with businessmen and "thought leaders."

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabko told reporters, "No, I have no comments on this. As of this morning, there are no plans to hold meetings in the Foreign Ministry."

A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and a former intelligence officer who has gone into the oil consultancy business, Page had considerable experience dealing with Gazprom when he worked in Moscow in the past. Page founded his own investment fund, Global Energy Capital, in 2008; his other partner is former Gazprom executive Sergei Yatsenko.

Speaking to Sputnik in October, Page said that

"many of Americas core national interests overlap significantly with the strategic priorities of Russia. But unfortunately, an arrogant foreign policy in Washington has quite often failed to consider Americas own fundamental priorities." "Russia without question could have significantly contributed to better outcomes if a genuine relationship based on mutual respect had been effectively forged,"

Page said, noting that Russia and the United States could join forces in fighting Islamic extremism, de-escalating the situation in Ukraine, and working inside potential conflict zones in Asia.
The raw, initial reaction to Trumps nomination has subsided; now many young adults are processing how they might be affected by the new administration. Students expressed their support on Twitter for DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals immigration protection measure, sharing tweets such as #WithDACA I dont feel like I need to hide. A Muslim girl in Plano, Texas, had her hijab forcibly removed, and LGBTQ youth-focused suicide prevention hotlines have experienced a spike in call volume following Trumps victory.

If only millennials ages 18 to 29 voted on Nov. 8, Hillary Clinton would have beaten Donald Trump 55% to 37%, according to the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement. After the election, high school students not old enough to vote staged mass walkouts, in Los Angeles, Maryland, Arizona and New York, as means of protest.

Young adult authors, whose books are geared toward teens, spoke with The Times over the phone and via email, expressing an intensified desire to create literature for teenagers who are in search of escape or, perhaps, a sense of belonging.

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Jason Reynolds, National Book Awards finalist, co-author of Black Lives Matters-inspired All American Boys

I think that young people specifically at times like this do want to act, but theres also a blockade there. Theres a wall there, for lack of better words. And that wall usually has a lot to do with language. What books can do is serve as the map. Its the instruction manual not on how to do a thing, but how to identify the parts of you that you had a hard time articulating verbally and physically.

If you take a book like All American Boys, the truth of the matter is that young people have been protesting in this country since its been around. John Lewis during the civil rights movement was 19 years old. This is not a new phenomenon. But what John Lewis was able to use back in the day was a comic book called Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story. And that comic book in the 1950s is what gave him the instruction manual, a tour guide on how to actually get a firm grasp and a better sense of articulation.

Brendan Kiely, co-author of All American Boys

We went to a school in Brooklyn last year to speak about All American Boys, a book about protest, and discovered a protest in action  around the treatment of students of color in particular, but also of many marginalized groups. So what other choice could we make but to join them? Thats who we write for.

Young people are often introduced to the world outside themselves through the media they consume, and I think theyre eager to get to know the world beyond whats familiar to them. So its no surprise to me that young people would feel immediately inspired to act and feel deeply and wholly the need to create change where they see injustice. And so, as someone who recognizes that, I feel like its especially important to honor that spirit as Im working on my next projects for that market. Its not that Im trying to galvanize students. Im trying to galvanize the spirit that they already have and their desire to act.

Maureen Johnson, founder of YA for Obama, co-host of political podcast Says Who, and author of the Shades of London series

After this election, Im even more grateful that I write YA. A lot of kids are (rightly) terrified by this result, for so many reasons. The Trump election has left so many kids devastated and feeling hopeless, and they need adults they know to encourage them and offer support and let them know that this is not hopeless. They dont have to give in. They will write the history of Trump. Trumps legacy is in their hands. The next wave of American politics? Its them. As much as I can encourage them to get involved now, I will. And some kids just need to know that not everyone voted Trump, because they may live in places where all the adults they know are Trump voters.

Also, YA readers give me a lot of hope because they tend to read widely. They are aware of the importance of diversity. They know what consent means. They are, in fact, far more advanced than a lot of politicians.

David Levithan, author of Boy Meets Boy and Two Boys Kissing

I think if weve learned anything about the progress of LGBT+ rights in the past decade its that equality comes from empathy, and empathy comes from sharing stories with each other. And whats great about YA is that its heart beats with empathy and its blood runs with empathy. Its about teaching teens not to see themselves as an other and also not to see the people around them as others  if society tries to divide us, then YA literature tries to draw us closer.

Meredith Russo, author of If I Was Your Girl

I wrote If I Was Your Girl because I wanted young trans people to feel hopeful, to have faith in the basic goodness and decency of the people around them. I wanted them to have faith that things are getting better. That sentiment seems foolish now. Naive. Despair is tempting, but one thing stops me from giving in to it: the emails and messages I receive weekly from teenagers who say my book touched them. They still need me. They still need us. So as tempting as it is to hunker down and go into survival mode, we have to remember that we have a responsibility to young people to preserve their sense of stability and hope.

Nicola Yoon, National Book Awards finalist for The Sun Is Also a Star

Even before [the election] it was important to write for some of the voices we havent heard as much throughout the years. LGBTQIA voices we havent heard as much of, in young adult literature they dont really get to be main characters. Black and brown and Asian voices are often the sidekicks, but dont usually have the starring role.

But with the rhetoric we see now, its more important not just for the kids who are feeling at risk but for everyone else too. I think books breed empathy. Its hard to hate when you understand and have a window into their world.

Ive definitely heard from a lot of readers and tweets too thanking me for telling the story of an undocumented immigrant. What gets lost in a lot of discussions is the humanity of immigrants. People talk about building walls and how many people have been deported, and it becomes a political discussion with statistics. But theyre people. We are talking about actual human beings with the same hopes and dreams as everyone else. Theyre goofy in the same way and talented and dreaming about things and lazy in the same way and happy in the same way  they are just like everyone else.

Marie E. Andreu, former undocumented youth and author of The Secret Side of Empty

I wrote The Secret Side of Empty because I wanted people to come at the issue of the undocumented with some compassion. Most people dont have deep, meaningful conversations with undocumented people, and many dont even know any (or dont know that they know any). I wanted people to see the human side of the experience. When I was undocumented, I wished that people would understand the fear, the uncertainty. I wanted to create understanding in people willing to listen.

Jeff Zentner, author of The Serpent King

Writers for young people have an increasingly important job, because in many respects theyll have to help provide youth with a moral counterbalance to the statements and positions of the president of the United States.

Kathleen Glasgow, author of Girl In Pieces

I have always been driven to write fiction for young adults, because thats a time in life when you might be at your most emotionally vulnerable and need to find yourself in books. But in times like these, when the fabric of what we thought was hopeful and possible turns out to have an ugly, ugly seam, the drive might intensify. Because books provide solace, books become a lighthouse in a storm, for anyone of any age.

Traci Chee, author of The Reader

When I set out to write The Reader, a YA fantasy about magic, pirates and books, I wanted to explore the idea that reading and writing can reshape the world. Knowing how to use words is powerful. Knowing how to reach people is powerful. Thats something I think about whenever I sit down to write, now more than ever. Some days theres so much bad happening in the world that its hard to focus. But theres still work to do, I think, still stories to write and maybe lives to change. Despite whats going on around us  or maybe because of whats going on around us  I have to believe my words make a difference, however small, for the readers who need them.

David Arnold, author of Mosquitoland and Kids of Appetite

I remember being a teen and thinking the world was against me. It wasnt, of course, I was just experiencing that pretty standard Nirvana-fueled teen angst. Thing is, there are teens who feel that way today, only its not just angst  its turning on the television and hearing the leaders of the country saying, You dont look right, you dont love right, you dont worship right. And I just want to tell these kids, Hey. Youre perfect just as you are. And sometimes the world is an ugly place. But it can also a beautiful. I guess thats why I write. To try and show some of that beauty, and to try and make them feel a little closer to being OK with who they are.

Nic Stone, author of the forthcoming Dear Martin

I got into writing YA because when I was a YA, I never really saw books with people like me in them. I wanted to remedy that for kids who are like the kid I was.

And now Im even more adamant about achieving that. I spoke with a 16-year-old African American girl just a couple of days after the election, and she was having a really hard time. Really, what this election tells kids of color and LGBTQIA+ kids and Muslim kids and immigrant kids is that theres an astonishingly high number of people in this country who, at best, dont care about them, and at worst, hate them over things about themselves they cant change. I feel like now more than ever, its vital that marginalized voices are the heroes in books because its one of the few major ways we can make sure these kids have something to cling to for hope.

Heidi Heilig, author of The Girl From Everywhere

To be honest, its been a real mental-health disaster And all I think I can write about is ways to fight back and real-life action items. It feels indulgent almost to tackle work of fiction when the real life villains are so looming and threatening. It seems hard to not pay attention to that.

But Ive had three requests for sensitivity reads a couple days after the election from authors who want to make sure they arent getting it wrong. Its good to see people moving towards understanding.

Stampler is the author of the YA novel Little Black Dresses, Little White Lies.
The governor of Michigan signed a legislative package Friday that allows cars without steering wheels or drivers to be tested on the states highways.

The plan is to make the state the epicenter for driverless vehicle technology, said Gov. Rick Snyder.

Florida already allows testing of completely driverless cars. With the new law, Michigan and Florida now are the most liberal states on laws governing driverless car technology.

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The bills drew strong bipartisan support as Michigan, the home of the U.S. auto industry, attempts to establish itself as a leader in driverless technology.

Most driverless car development to date, however, has been conducted outside Detroit, mostly in Silicon Valley and Pittsburgh.

In California, though, a human is required to be aboard driverless cars for vehicle testing, and the vehicle must be equipped with a steering wheel and brake pedals. The California Department of Motor Vehicles is considering changes to driverless car rules.

Lobbyists from Google and other companies with a stake in driverless car development are pushing California to ease up on current regulations.

The new Michigan laws will also allow testing of driverless car ride-hailing services, and permit truck platooning.

In platooning, big rigs use automated driving technology to follow each other closely enough to ride in the draft of the vehicle in front of it, saving fuel. A human driver ready to take control will be required in each truck.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued federal safety guidelines in September for testing of driverless cars. While the agency left it to states to decide what to allow on their highways, it urged the states to coordinate their regulations to avoid a patchwork of rules that could hinder driverless car development. The federal agency believes that automated vehicles hold the potential to significantly reduce traffic injuries and deaths.

russ.mitchell@latimes.com

Twitter: @russ1mitchell
As a cook at a Carls Jr. restaurant in Santa Monica, Rogelio Hernandez, 71, has been flipping burgers for more than two decades. He said his wages have remained stagnant for years, though he did receive a raise of 25 cents an hour a month ago to $11.75 an hour.

Everybody is struggling, he said in an interview. The work is not OK with the low salaries we get.

Like many Carls Jr. workers, Hernandez isnt a fan of president-elect Donald Trumps pick of Andrew Puzder to serve as secretary of Labor. Puzder is chief executive of CKE Restaurants Inc., the California-based parent company of Carls Jr., Hardees and other fast-food chains.

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Nope, nope  very bad, said Hernandez, speaking through a translator. Hes going to give us a lot of work with a very low salary.

His opinion is shared by other low-wage earners and activists who regard Puzder as an opponent to efforts to raise the minimum wage and secure other pro-labor rights. Their dislike of Puzder unites them with a group of unlikely bedfellows  far-right immigration skeptics whose criticism of the fast-food executive is equally passionate but fueled by entirely different concerns.

On Thursday, the hashtag #NeverPuzder started trending on Twitter, promoted by staunch immigration critics like Ann Coulter and Mark Krikorian. They are criticizing CKEs heavy reliance on immigrant labor to staff its restaurants, saying that the company shuns U.S. citizens in favor of cheap labor coming primarily from Latin America.

Andy Puzder favors robots and illegal aliens over American workers, wrote Scott Greer, a columnist for the conservative site the Daily Caller, on Twitter. Republicans should block his nomination.

Puzder, 66, has voiced opposition to efforts to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour from its current $7.25, arguing that it would result in widespread layoffs. But he has denied that he is in favor of robots and self-serve technology replacing all workers, saying that the human touch is still necessary in fast food.

At CKE, Puzder has defended the company against accusations from its own employees that it engages in unfair pay practices. The company has fought complaints in recent years from managers who alleged they were denied overtime pay and that CKE encouraged them to work on vacation days.

CKE is part of an industry in which labor violations are common, and the company actually ranked better than most fast-food chains on the basis of Department of Labor investigations, according to a recent analysis by Bloomberg BNA.

Still, labor activists see Puzder as the wrong choice to lead the Labor Department.

Puzder is a pro-boss, anti-worker CEO, said Mary Kay Henry, who heads the Service Employees International Union, in an interview. She said Puzder has helped lead the race to the bottom in terms of wages.

I think its another nomination that shows Donald Trump is completely out of touch with what working Americans need, she said.

Representatives for Puzder didnt respond to a request for comment.

CKE said in a statement that Puzder has distinguished himself as a tireless advocate for economic policies that create jobs and opportunities.

The company, which was founded in Anaheim and is based in Carpinteria, near Santa Barbara, said that upon Puzders confirmation, it would work toward a seamless and orderly transition of corporate leadership.

david.ng@latimes.com

Twitter: @DavidNgLAT

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Television network NBC introduced former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger as the new star of The New Celebrity Apprentice at a media event Friday, but reporters were fixated on the boss who wasnt in the room: President-elect Donald Trump.

Controversy swirled around Trumps plans to retain his executive producer credit  and financial ties  with the NBC reality show as he transitions to his new role running the country.

Trump has drawn criticism for the number of business entanglements that he may bring to the White House.

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Some media observers say his ongoing role with the show presents a potential conflict of interest for NBC because its news division covers Trump and his administration. NBCs parent company, Comcast Corp., also has business pending in Washington and might have an interest in keeping the show on the air out of fear of retribution from Trump.

NBC is put in a difficult position, said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. NBC doesnt want to be in the position of paying the president of the United States a substantial sum of money. They will stress division between entertainment and news. But it doesnt look good.

NBC will not pay Trump directly. Instead, the network pays a license fee for the show to the production company, which is now Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. MGM confirmed Trumps ongoing financial arrangement but declined to comment further.

MGM owns The Celebrity Apprentice and The Apprentice show formats. It maintains a direct financial relationship with Trump and Mark Burnett, the producer who created the show in 2004.

Trump has said he has 50% of Burnetts stake in the show. Trump and Burnett could share at least $150,000 an episode for the producer credits as well as revenue from advertising, one former network executive estimated. In addition to a fixed fee, Trump gets a portion of the profits from the show.

NBC ordered 13 episodes this season and is preparing to launch The New Celebrity Apprentice on Jan. 2 with Schwarzenegger stepping in as the shows boardroom judge. The actor turned politician replaces Trump as the lead character who decides the fates of various contestants.

Schwarzenegger, at the NBC event Friday, said he wasnt concerned about Trumps ongoing ties to the show. Schwarzenegger, who did not support Trump in the election, said he called and congratulated Trump on his victory.

I knew from the beginning [Trump] was going to be executive producer of the show, his credit is on there, Schwarzenegger said during the event at Universal Studios. Its no different [from] when I was running for governor and I became governor, my credit as starring in Terminator stayed the same.

But Schwarzenegger put his film career on hold while he was governor.

Schwarzenegger also joked that the roughly 50 reporters assembled for the event were acting like political journalists because they are asking so many questions about Trump.

His campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, during an appearance Friday on CNN defended Trumps decision to remain an executive producer on Celebrity Apprentice, saying presidents have a right to do things in their spare time.

Hes a very transparent guy. Everyone can see what hes doing, and the fact is that he is conferring with all types of experts who tell him what he can do and not do as president of the United States, Conway said.

NBC is heavily invested in the success of Celebrity Apprentice. Last week it announced that billionaire Warren Buffett, Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, model and TV producer Tyra Banks, actress Jessica Alba and Patrick Knapp Schwarzenegger, the former governors nephew, will serve as boardroom advisors to Schwarzenegger.

On Friday, contestants, including Nicole Snooki Polizzi of Jersey Shore fame and boxer Laila Ali, the daughter of the late champion Mohammad Ali, attended the NBC red carpet extravaganza along with Banks.

NBC could benefit from the controversy because it could encourage more viewers to watch the 12-year-old program.

But the situation once again puts NBC in an awkward spot. The networks often soft treatment of Trump was a source of criticism during the campaign. NBC cut its direct financial ties with Trump 18 months ago after he announced that he was running for president.

The Apprentice was a huge moneymaker for NBC and Mark Burnett. MGM consolidated the rights to Celebrity Apprentice by acquiring Mark Burnett Productions for more than $500 million in recent years.

It was The Apprentice that introduced the real estate mogul into the homes of millions of Americans each week, burnishing his image as a business success and catapulting his political career.

Burnett, now the head of TV for MGM, reportedly has consulted with Trump on inauguration events and is expected to help orchestrate Trumps Inauguration Day festivities. He declined to comment.

Burnett and NBC were at the center of a dust-up in October after the leak of a 10-year-old Access Hollywood recording that contained the president-elect and former NBC personality Billy Bush making lewd comments about women. After the NBC tapes rocked the campaign, a former Apprentice show producer said on Twitter that additional footage existed of Trump making derogatory comments about contestants on The Apprentice.

Cameras rolled during the hundreds of hours of boardroom scenes on the reality shows set, which was constructed at Trump Tower in New York. MGM refused to release the outtakes, citing confidentiality agreements.

Trump has said he will discuss his plans for his family business holdings in a news conference next week.

On Friday, an NBC News executive speaking on the condition of anonymity said the network will mention Trumps executive producer status on the Celebrity Apprentice whenever the show itself is covered on Today or other programs. But there are no plans to have a disclaimer about the association in general news stories about Trump.

The secret of Trumps getting away with all this is [that] there are four or five things like it each day, Sabato said. The media cant cover them all and nothing will stick. .. Its going to be the longest four years at least since World War II.

meg.james@latimes.com

@MegJamesLAT

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Coca-Cola said Friday that Chief Executive Muhtar Kent will step down next year and be replaced by Chief Operating Officer James Quincey.

The worlds largest beverage maker is under pressure to grow as people around the world drink less soda, including its flagship Coke. The Atlanta-based company reported in October that its third-quarter profit fell 28%. The company also makes Sprite, Fanta and Dasani water.

Kent will leave the CEO job on May 1 but will continue as chairman of the board. He has been CEO of the company for about seven years.

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Quincey, 51, has been with the company for about 20 years. He was named president and chief operating officer last year.

Shares of the Coca-Cola Co. rose 1% to $41.53 before the stock market in New York opened Friday.

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Since election day, Ellen Komp of cannabis advocacy group California NORML said shes received at least a dozen emails and calls from employees asking whether marijuana is now exempted from employer drug tests.

The closing line in almost every email response: I wish I had better news.

Recreational use of marijuana is now legal in California, but the new law states that employers still have the right to maintain a drug- and alcohol-free workplace and can keep policies that prohibit the use of cannabis by employees and prospective workers.

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Employment lawyers say most companies theyve spoken with plan to maintain their current drug screening procedures, which prohibit cannabis.

The problem that California employers will have ... is you have a state law that allows uses for recreational purposes, but of course you still have the federal law that makes it illegal, said Michael Kalt, partner at law firm Wilson Turner Kosmo and government affairs director for the state council of the Society for Human Resource Management organization.

Employer drug testing first gained steam during the Ronald Reagan administration, which required federal employees to get screened as part of the presidents campaign against drugs. Other employers soon followed.

A standard drug screening today for federal workers will test for five different substances  cocaine, amphetamines, PCP, opiates and marijuana, said Barry Sample, senior director of science and technology at Quest Diagnostics Employer Solutions, which handles drug testing for many employers.

But advocates and even drug-testing experts say marijuana poses unusual challenges for a job applicant. Marijuana can show up in urine or saliva tests several days after use, and those concentrations found arent necessarily indicative of usage patterns, Sample said. Theres also no clear consensus on how much marijuana is considered too much to drive safely.

In the case of alcohol, we have a roadside test, said Mark A.R. Kleiman, professor of public policy at New York University. Not true for cannabis.

Even medical marijuana, legal in California since 1996, is not exempted under employer drug testing policies. In 2008, the California Supreme Court ruled that because marijuana is still considered illegal under federal law, employers do not have to accommodate their employees medical marijuana use, even if it is during non-work hours.

California NORML, the cannabis advocacy group, is currently lobbying for legislation to change that, said Komp, the groups deputy director.

The situation is more extreme and urgent for medical patients who dont have the option of using it or not, she said.

Later, the group will push to exempt recreational marijuana use from employer drug screenings as well, Komp said.

Until then, employees should be familiar with their companies drug policies and not just assume that procedures have changed, said Tamar Todd, director of legal affairs at Drug Policy Alliance, an advocacy group and major backer of Proposition 64, which legalized recreational marijuana use in California.

Employment lawyers are telling companies to update their employee handbooks to clarify that drug screenings will still test for marijuana.

Companies in safety-sensitive transportation industries, such as trucking, as well as fields that deal with heavy machinery, like construction firms, are especially unlikely to loosen policies, as well as businesses that contract with the federal government, lawyers said.

Aerospace giant Boeing Co. said in a statement that its policies on marijuana usage are not affected by state laws that have legalized marijuana, citing its work with the government.

As a federal contractor, The Boeing Companys Drug Free Workplace policy is based on federal standards which define marijuana as an illegal drug, the company said. Therefore use of marijuana by Boeing employees is prohibited.

The company, which employs about 14,000 people in California, said it conducts pre-employment drug screenings and can also test employees after accidents, based on reasonable suspicion or randomly when it is required by Department of Transportation regulations or contract.

Boeing said it has not experienced significant differences in attracting or hiring job candidates in other locations where marijuana has been legalized, such as Washington. Boeings Commercial Airplanes division is based in Seattle.

But that has been a problem for some companies in pot-legal states.

Bob Funk, chief executive of staffing agency Express Employment Professionals, said finding skilled workers such as electricians and welders is already a nationwide problem and is further compounded by alcohol or marijuana tests.

Screening for marijuana has always been an issue, he said, but it has become more acute because of the legalization of it.

Were having a challenge finding those good people in those states, Funk said.

Though Quest Diagnostics has gotten some inquiries from companies in Washington or Colorado that were interested in changing their employee drug tests, only a handful of those ended up doing so, Sample said.

One cannabis company in Colorado eliminated its drug policy all together. OpenVape once had a boilerplate human resources policy on drugs, though without any references to marijuana, said Chris Driessen, company president.

But after Colorado legalized recreational marijuana sales in 2014, OpenVape decided to take another look at its policy.

It didnt really reflect our values as a company, Driessen said.

The company replaced it with a strict impairment policy, in which employees that are impaired in any way  whether thats because of drugs, sickness or lack of sleep  are encouraged to go home and return when theyre rested.

It does not vilify or demonize any form of drug use, Driessen said. If there continues to be an issue, then we certainly do address that and intervene, but we try in every way possible to intervene and reach out, than discipline and escalate the HR process.

He said the company occasionally has had to step in and bring people back into the flock, but that there has not been a major disciplinary infraction.

Though its unlikely that all companies will eliminate drug policies, legal experts and advocates say loosened drug screening for marijuana is already happening in some industries.

Certainly in California, theres a recognition in some sectors that there are a lot of marijuana users  who are highly valued employees, said Todd of the Drug Policy Alliance. Employers have learned youre going to really diminish your work pool if you toss those people aside [whose] job performance is not impacted by cannabis use off the job.

samantha.masunaga@latimes.com

For more business news, follow me @smasunaga

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Insurance crime investigators are raising alarms over a device that not only lets thieves break into cars that use keyless entry systems but also helps start and steal them.

Investigators from the National Insurance Crime Bureau, a not-for-profit organization, said in an interview they obtained what they called the mystery device from a third-party security expert at an overseas company.

So far, the threat here may be mostly theoretical. The crime bureau said it heard of the device being used in Europe and had reports that it had entered the U.S., but said there are no law enforcement reports of a car being stolen using it in the United States.

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During a two-week time period, NICB investigators tested 35 different makes and models of cars using the car-hacking device and were able to start and drive away about half the vehicles.

Among the vulnerable cars were the 2015 Ford Edge, 2016 Chevrolet Impala, 2013 Volkswagen Jetta Hybrid and the 2017 Toyota Camry, NICB Chief Communication Officer Roger Morris said.

The device is actually two sets of equipment. When the unsuspecting victim parks and locks the car, a thief standing not far away holds the first device, which is used to pick up and amplify the electronic signal as it is sent between the car and the key fob.

That signal is relayed to a second device, which tricks the car into thinking that the key fob is near the car. That disarms the security system, unlocks the door and authenticates the engine to start.

Weve now seen for ourselves that these devices work, insurance organization President and Chief Executive Joe Wehrle said in a statement. Maybe they dont work on all makes and models, but certainly on enough that car thieves can target and steal them with relative ease.

Car thefts in the U.S. peaked at 1.66 million vehicles in 1991, then fell 58% to 699,594 in 2013 thanks to law enforcement efforts coupled with advances in car-security technology, according to the organization. In 2015, 707,758 cars were reported stolen in the U.S., a 3.1% increase from 2014.

One executive for a tech-security company said he has seen surveillance footage in various states that appears to show car thieves using hacking technology to gain entry to cars and has spoken to multiple people who have claimed to be victims of this type of technology.

That official, Peter Yorke, CEO of Voyomotive, said dozens of people in San Francisco have had some type of hacking technology was used to gain entry to their vehicles.

San Francisco Police Officer Carlos Manfredi said the department was not aware of that.

I havent heard of this technology, its new to me, Manfredi said. Its possible its happening but from a police standpoint, we need proof.

In Long Beach, Police Lt. Joe Gaynor said he has heard about the technology, but his department has never recovered a hacking device that has been used to break into or steal cars.

Yorke said this latest technology is just one of several hacks that enable people to gain entry to a vehicle and start it. He believes the security problem is getting worse and that car manufacturers are going to be hard-pressed to find a fix.

Representatives from Volkswagen declined to comment. Representatives from Toyota, Ford and Chevrolet did not respond to inquiries.

Rich Selsted, 60, a San Francisco-based pharmaceutical executive, said his car has been stolen once and broken into more than twice by people using keyless hacking technology.

Less than a year ago, he saw suspects unlocking his 2015 Audi Q5 on a surveillance camera outside his home at 3 a.m. with what appeared to be a device used to hack into cars. Selsted said the suspects stole his phone charger, the cars owners manual and a first-aid kit.

melissa.etehad@latimes.com

Follow me on Twitter @melissaetehad

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A request by State Farm to block an order requiring it to issue more than $100 million in premium refunds will be considered next week in San Diego County Superior Court.

California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones, citing authority of the states landmark Proposition 103, ordered the Bloomington, Ill., insurer in November to issue the refunds and lower its homeowner and rental insurance rates.

State Farm maintains Jones does not have the legal authority to issue the refunds and disputes how the rate reductions were calculated. The commissioners order is scheduled to take effect Tuesday.

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Judge Katherine Bacal on Thursday scheduled a Dec. 16 hearing to consider a request by State Farm to stay the order while a lawsuit it has filed challenging the commissioner is heard in court.

The legal case stems from a move last year by advocacy groups Consumer Watchdog and the Consumer Federation of California to challenge a proposed rate increase by State Farm.

State Farm had said its proposed 6.9% increase for homeowners and rental insurance was needed to cover the additional risk of wildfires. After the advocacy groups challenge, an administrative law judge agreed earlier this year that State Farms data showed no increase in wildfire losses.

In November, Jones signed off on the judges recommendation that the requested increase was not valid, that its previously approved rate wasnt justified and that customers should be refunded money for being overcharged on premiums.

Jones has ordered State Farm to reduce its homeowners insurance rate by an average of 5.4%, its renters insurance rate by an average of 20.4% and its condominium insurance rate by an average of 13.8%.

In November, Jones said the mandated reductions would result in refunds of more than $100 million and save California consumers $78.6 million annually.

andrew.khouri@latimes.com

Follow me @khouriandrew on Twitter
Drivers on the Hollywood Freeway where it emerges from the Cahuenga Pass and curves along the northern edge of Tinseltown are treated to a spectacular view of a skyline that for decades remained frozen in time.

Now, 30 years after the launch of a redevelopment effort aimed at bringing the spiritual heart of Los Angeles back, that skyline is changing at breakneck speed as new buildings clamber skyward. This explosive resurgence is just the latest reinvention of a community that has adapted itself to the demand of its times over and over again.

In the beginning, it was all farmland, set on the remnants of the old Spanish ranchos of La Brea and Los Feliz. In the early 1900s, it became a retreat for well-to-do Midwesterners, whose country homes lined Prospect Avenue. Soon the motion-picture production industry followed, the stately homes and pepper trees made way for commercial buildings, and Prospect Avenue became Hollywood Boulevard.

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Movie studios sprang up on Sunset, Gower and Melrose, while radio studios clustered along the Vine Street corridor; the TV studios would would eventually join them. It was a company town. And then the company left town.

All the major studios except for Paramount eventually decamped for the Valley or the Westside. The rise of the DJ meant that the large studios necessary for live radio performances were now obsolete. On the TV side, it was the opposite: More complex filmed programs needed larger studio spaces. The premieres at the Chinese Theater continued, but the Brown Derby closed, and even the Oscars left town in 1961. The Golden Age of classic Hollywood was over.

Hollywoods decline became so pronounced that the city set up redevelopment efforts that would set the stage for todays renaissance. An act of God also contributed: After a methane explosion at the Ross Dress for Less in the Miracle Mile, the Red Line subway was rerouted through Hollywood to avoid the pockets of gas below Wilshire Boulevard. That alignment would allow planners to provide incentives for developers to build dense projects near Hollywoods three new subway stations.

The plan kicked into high gear with the Hollywood & Highland complex, where the Oscars would make their return to Hollywood, and has continued with a boom in hotel, apartment and creative space construction. The industry that takes its name from the neighborhood has also made a comeback here: Netflix has signed a lease in a new office tower on Sunset, and Viacom has moved into the newly renovated Columbia Square (once the home of CBS Radio). It may not quite be a new Golden Age, but its a pretty decent next act.

Neighborhood highlights

Boom times: It can be an exciting time to live in Hollywood, as the neighborhood transforms into a dense, transit-oriented urban neighborhood.

History you can touch (and taste): From the forecourt of the Chinese Theater to the martinis at Musso & Frank, among all the changes there are still plenty of places where you can commune with the spirits of Hollywood past.

Neighborhood challenges

Not-in-my-historically-important-backyard: Where one person sees exciting boom times, another sees a threat to an old way of life, and so Hollywood has become the epicenter of L.A.s latest NIMBY movement. Whichever way the vote goes on the anti-development measure on next years ballot, its unlikely the controversy will be settled once and for all.

Expert insight

Paul Wylie, president and broker of LAMERICA Real Estate, is a former Hollywood resident and business owner who has seen the area improve dramatically in recent years.

[Hollywood] used to be a very secondary choice for people, despite being centrally located, said Wylie, who lived there during the 1970s and 80s. It was a struggling area back then, but now you are seeing more families, more children, more restaurants.

Wylie points to improvements in the public school system as one of the areas draws. Gardner Street Elementary, he said, has seen its reputation improve immensely over the last three years.

Market snapshot

In October, based on two sales, the median price for single-family homes in the 90028 ZIP Code was $579,000, down 31.9% year over year, according to CoreLogic. The median sale price for condominiums, based on two sales, was $643,000.

Report card

Within the boundaries of Hollywood is Gardner Street Elementary, which scored 863 out of 1,000 in the 2013 Academic Performance Index. Selma Avenue Elementary had a score of 790, and Vine Street Elementary scored 736. Hubert Howe Bancroft Middle and Joseph Le Conte Middle scored 764 and 765, respectively. Hollywood Senior High had a score of 762, and Helen Bernstein High scored 634.

hotproperty@latimes.com
Its never been easier to launch a wildly profitable online media empire. Whether youre an aspiring mommy blogger or political pundit, $10 gets you a URL and online storage. Fill out a short form and copy-paste some code to get ads on your website.

Lure in some readers and youll have no trouble making money.

Every 1,000 visitors earns you at least a dollar or two with traditional banner ads sold through Google  boxes typically pitching products that readers have browsed online. But the same readership generates three times the income through recommended content ads. Usually displayed in a familiar grid, they couple crazy headlines with scintillating pictures  a must-click combination dubbed chum.

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Its that mix of ads that significantly funds much of the Internet, including major media websites LATimes.com, Bloomberg.com and Newsweek.com.

But the advertising technology companies that offer these easy-to-use services impose few regulations, inspiring sites that publish fake news to maximize revenue.

They take advantage of a general rule in online publishing: the crazier the story, the greater the interest. Capitalizing off this years presidential election, they post exaggerated political news articles  some with made-up quotes and details  that millions of consumers cant resist opening.

Al Sharpton ditching the U.S. because of Donald Trump? President Obama banning the national anthem at sporting events? Anything to get more attention on Facebook  and more income through recommended content ads.

Thwarting fake news is now a major focus of the tech industry. Facebook, where the stories spread, has pledged to combat misleading publishers.

But its the ad networks that can do more to stop fake news. They hold the power to remove the financial incentive for trafficking in deception.

The rise of chum

Years ago, the only way for a publisher to sell an ad was to work directly with an advertiser. Google, AOL and others realized that this was expensive and cumbersome for both sides and built huge businesses simplifying the process through software. With just a few clicks, advertisers now automatically place messages across many publications at once. Hundreds more tech firms including Content.ad in Irvine and AdSupply in Culver City followed suit.

Israel-founded companies Taboola and Outbrain brought the lucrative recommended content ads to the forefront about a decade ago, hoping to assist publishers in two ways. Publishers can buy chum on other sites, luring readers to help fulfill viewership promises made to their own top advertisers. And publishers can get a revenue boost by housing a grid of chum links on their own stories.

It has been an effective combination for reputable sites and misleading ones.

Businesses will spend more than $30 billion on non-video online ads in the U.S. alone this year. Advertisers pay dimes or pennies each time their message gets clicked. The tech companies in the middle split the proceeds with websites that run the ads. Publishers tend to get a bigger portion the larger and more prominent they are, sometimes higher than 50%. Entrepreneurs in the misleading news business have said the pennies add up to tens of thousands of dollars in monthly income.

To advance their businesses and promote an open market, most ad technology providers set a low bar for joining, meaning that even the crummiest content can be a pathway to income. And by taking advantage of Facebook and Google, where users may click on links without considering their validity or source, millions of readers can be wrangled by a small operation creating a few stories a day.

Many ad tech firms vet sites for child porn, hate speech, violent content or illegal drugs. But checking for accuracy of information hasnt been a consideration, which is why a Conservative101.com article with a headline claiming that Sharpton was leaving the U.S. continues to absorb ad money.

A fake story and its funders

In the weeks before last months presidential election, more than 100,000 Facebook users promoted articles that claimed or implied that Hollywood star Tom Hanks had endorsed Trump for president.

Misleading articles stated that Hanks  who supported Hillary Clinton  had pledged to vote for Trump, a man the actor described to the BBC in October as a self-involved gas bag. Hanks publicist declined to comment for this story.

Conservative101.com, ReaganCoalition.com, WorldPoliticus.com and a several other websites that published Hanks-Trump stories produce mostly legitimate stories. But they generate inconsistent viewership, relying on the viral posts for the bulk of their traffic, according to an analysis by research firm SimilarWeb. As much as 90% of the hundreds of thousands of monthly visitors to their publications arrive by clicking on a Facebook link, SimilarWeb data show.

The six websites with Hanks-Trump stories use more than a dozen advertising software providers including Revcontent, Google and Teads, according to tech analysis firm BuiltWith. Others suppliers are Adblade, Amazon.com Associates, Criteo and Spoutable.

Some ad companies didnt respond to requests for comment. Nearly all the rest said theyre wary of judging fact and fiction.

AdSupply Chief Executive Justin Bunnell questioned whether stating that Hanks endorsed Trump represents an accidental inaccuracy or intentional deceit. Being the arbiter in that case is not a position he finds comfortable or financially sound.

Its not practical to have an elaborate vetting process, Bunnell said. Im not giving out security clearances here.

Hes also unsure about the trade-offs. Does monetizing fake news harm Americas free market and democratic values more than banning such a business?

I like to do things for the net good of society, but the deeper I look into this, its a more thorny situation, Bunnell said.

Content.ad Chief Revenue Officer Michael Rosenberg said the 45-employee Irvine company isnt an industry leader so its monitoring what bigger players do before setting policy.

Pressure for change

Advertisers and more highly trafficked publishers are increasingly urging ad networks to clean up their acts. Media critics and politicians want action too. They fear that misinformation leaves readers ill-equipped to make decisions. Violent consequences were highlighted last week when a man allegedly brought a rifle to a Washington, D.C., pizzeria that fake news websites had pegged as a haven for pedophiles.

How deceiving a website must be to rise to the level of offensive remains a matter of debate.

Police last week shut down a street near Comet Ping Pong, a Washington, D.C., pizzeria that was the subject of fake news stories claiming that it was the center of a child sex ring. (Jim Lo Scalzo / EPA )

There may be little consensus on which sites and pages are fake news, but frankly those same concerns were raised about hate and even pornography, said Benjamin Edelman, a Harvard University associate business professor who studies Internet operations. Sanctioning them is doable and probably not that hard given the concentration of fake news on a modest number of sites.

Some are making adjustments. The top two online advertising companies, Google and Facebook, have banned fake news sites from using their ad services. DoubleVerify, which provides a tool for advertisers to restrict where ads run, released a new filter for fake news websites.

ShareThrough is keeping tabs on its customer list for websites that cross a line. Revcontent is expanding beyond a ban. As early as next year, it wants to provides ratings of advertised links describing a websites quality and political slant. Data analysis and reader feedback would fuel the measurements.

Providing more information is how you empower people, said Revcontent CEO John Lemp, who vowed to donate any profit tied to fabricated news.

Its unlikely that any action by ad technology suppliers or social media services would fully thwart purveyors of deliberately fake news. Advertising industry executives say there will always be bottom-feeders who will supply websites trafficking in pirated content, illicit drugs and worse.

Theres also the element of human nature. Advertisers want eyeballs and people are more likely to click on racier content. Though established news organizations may filter out the tawdriest ads, other sites will run them and profit from them.

Lots of junk is there because thats what people call on, said Mike Rosenberg, chief revenue officer at Content.ad.

By running the same types of ads as large media companies, misleading online publishers have given themselves a familiar look that readers may struggle to differentiate from traditional news sources. Until major publishers drop such ads in favor of new business models or focus more heavily on direct sales, the fake news ecosystem and the confusion between fact and fiction is left to endure.

Inside the ad tech industry, the ongoing focus on changing the shape, fonts and sizes of ads to garner more clicks suggests that chum is still evolving, not vanishing.

Its continued existence also shows that it works. Ad tech firms have little reason to change a product that customers are buying.

Chum brings in the viewers that advertisers covet, sometimes without revealing where they came from. In many cases the transactions run through an opaque system that leaves advertisers unaware of the sites on which their ads appeared.

Soylent, Lowermybills.com, Wisebread, Nucific and other Southern California companies whose ads came up alongside Hanks-Trump stories didnt comment on their involvement. Others said they plan to seek increased transparency and more assurances about where their ads get placed.

Fake news sites probably perform as well as a real news website, so I dont think it makes an impact on my bottom line, said lifestyle blogger Andrew Wise, who paid for a link to his LifeTailored.com website on AmericanReviewer.coms Hanks-backs-Trump story. That being said, from an ethical perspective, I would prefer to work with a business that prohibits fake news.

paresh.dave@latimes.com / PGP

Twitter: @peard33

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Theyre some of the brightest students in the country  a group of wunderkinds known for hacking their way through any problem thrown at them. So what could possibly stump a Stanford University student?

Government bureaucracy, it seems.

In a lecture hall nestled in Stanfords Environment and Energy building, dozens of engineering, science and arts students were put through the bureaucratic wringer this year when they took Hacking 4 Defense and Hacking 4 Diplomacy.

The courses  taken for credit and taught by Stanford instructors  let teams of students choose from a list of real problems plaguing the government, paired them with sponsors from the Defense or State departments, and tasked them with not just finding a solution, but coming up with a viable product that the government would actually use.

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It was really humbling, said Katie Joseff, 21, a human biology major who took Hacking 4 Diplomacy this fall. My team had to make lots of pivots because over and over again our assumptions just werent correct. We had to first break through the bubble of Stanford, then Silicon Valley, then California, then the U.S.

The problems included finding ways to track objects in orbit to prevent space collisions, developing tools to assess the effectiveness of peacekeeping forces, and in Joseffs case, designing a platform for a coordinated response to the Syrian refugee crisis.

Like many students, Joseff went in thinking there would be an easy technological fix: Perhaps an app that would enable nongovernmental organizations to communicate with refugees, or a platform on which NGOs could share information with each other, or another app through which refugees could send feedback to NGOs.

But after interviewing more than 100 people in the sector, she realized that apps arent the answer to everything. In fact, some 200 apps had already been developed to help with the refugee crisis, and only two of them were in use.

With each interview, Joseffs team learned that many NGOs already had ways of reaching refugees  they didnt need another app. They also learned that NGOs are reluctant to share information on a platform because so much of their data is sensitive. And if refugees had a way of sending NGOs feedback, who exactly would that information go to? Was there even enough personnel to handle the information?

People are obsessed with hacks and hackathons, and they think they can solve these issues with technology, Joseff said. But we learned that the human element is still needed.

The classes come at a time when Washington is trying to forge deeper connections with Silicon Valley, with the hope that the regions tech-savvy and innovative streak will rub off on government agencies.

Students at Stanford Universitys Hacking 4 Diplomacy meet outside a classroom. (David Butow / For The Times )

The Department of Defense opened its Defense Innovation Unit in Mountain View  Googles stomping ground  last August. The State Department created the role of ambassador to Silicon Valley this year and appointed the director of its Strategy Lab, Zvika Krieger, to the post (Krieger teaches Hacking 4 Diplomacy alongside Stanford professors). The Department of Homeland Security last week held a meeting with local tech start-ups to offer funding to companies developing technologies that the department can use. And earlier this year the Obama administration invited representatives from Silicon Valleys top firms to Washington to brainstorm ways to fight the militant group Islamic State online.

So much of what were doing is at the intersection of policy and technology, said Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken, who visited the Hacking 4 Diplomacy class in November. At the same time, many of us dont have the background and expertise when it comes to tech. We need technologists and innovators in the room just to tell us whether we need technologists and innovators in the room.

Stanford University has a reputation for being a breeding ground for technological innovators, counting among its alumni founders and executives of Google, Yahoo, PayPal, Netflix, LinkedIn and Instagram. Long synonymous with Silicon Valley, the university is often the first stop for tech firms looking for engineering talent  and the place where hot companies such as Snapchat got their start.

Class instructors admit there was some trepidation over how Hacking 4 Defense and Hacking 4 Diplomacy might be received by students, given the schools history as a hub for private-sector tech, and the general distrust between Silicon Valley and the federal government. Leaks by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden and the high-stakes encryption fight between the FBI and Apple have heightened longstanding tensions between two vastly different cultures, which both believe they know whats better for the world.

But they were surprised to learn that, far from being cynical, students were drawn to the opportunity to solve some of the toughest problems facing the country and the world.

Over 10 weeks, students in each class wrapped their heads around the bureaucratic workings of the Defense or State departments, interviewed at least 10 stakeholders a week, and learned the Lean LaunchPad method  an approach to start-ups and entrepreneurship that helps company founders identify markets for their products. For many, it was the first time theyd used the skills learned in school to tackle real-world problems. And nearly all butted up against challenges that technology alone couldnt fix, and were forced to throw out their ideas again and again.

Zvika Krieger, center, an instructor of Hacking 4 Diplomacy at Stanford University, speaks to students during one of the final classes of the semester. (David Butow / For The Times )

They all think theyre the smartest kids on the face of the earth, and they kind of are, said Steve Blank, creator for the Lean LaunchPad method and adjunct professor at Stanford who co-taught both classes. Thats why its so much fun to watch them get smacked down by reality.

In Hacking 4 Defense, students also bumped up against the realities of global problems.

Rachel Olney, a 23-year-old mechanical engineering masters student who took the class in spring, was part of a team that was tasked with creating a sensor to help Navy divers monitor their physical health while underwater.

We thought, We can do this, this is an engineering problem, she said. We were thinking about casting sensors into rigidified silicone, or we were going to build this app and it would be wonderful.

But when she pitched this to Navy divers, they were put off by the idea of wearing sensors that would track their movement. After dozens of interviews, her team realized the reason divers needed sensors to begin with was because every time they moved from deep water to shallower depths  which they had to do to get their GPS location  the decompression put stress on their bodies.

So we realized if we could reduce the number of decompressions divers do, wed be solving the health problem, and they wouldnt need a wearable sensor, Olney said.

Olneys team mocked up manufacturing specs for GPS buoys that divers could deploy below the water on their behalf, and they built a prototype of the product, too. Not all teams get as far, which is fine, Blank said. The class isnt a start-up incubator, or a government internship, or even a recruitment drive for the Defense and State departments (although government sponsors hope it will open students eyes to careers outside of Silicon Valley).

The entire class is open source, which means anyone can use or build on what the students come up with. Students are expected to have a minimum viable product they can get into the hands of potential users. But the bulk of their grade is based on how well they applied the Lean LaunchPad methodology to their problems.

Hacking 4 Defense has already been green-lit at Stanford for next quarter, and the class will next year expand to UC San Diego, the University of Pittsburgh, Georgetown University and James Madison University.

Its diplomacy counterpart is wrapping in December, and the school and State Department will evaluate its success after final student presentations.

Joseff and her team ultimately decided to work on a tool that would let refugees self-govern (although they ran out of time during the 10-week course to develop it). She isnt sure if she will continue to develop her teams products once the class ends, nor does she know if she wants to work for the government. But the class has been a jolt for her.

Its refreshing, she said. Being in Silicon Valley, a lot of my friends want to go to Google or Apple, but this class shows people they can also work in public service. I used to watch the news about Syrian refugees and feel paralyzed and hopeless. But this class has helped me realize I can have a bigger impact.

tracey.lien@latimes.com

Twitter: @traceylien

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In 1915, Pablo Picasso acquired a small Cubist still life painted by his casual friend and acolyte, Diego Rivera.

The young Mexican artist, 28, had been traveling through Europe and living in Paris for years, and he and Picasso were neighbors in Montparnasse. A small but powerful surprise haunts his little still life, on view in an unusual new exhibition about the dialogue between the two artists that opened last Sunday at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

The tabletop is covered by a turquoise-green decorative cloth, similar to the patterned designs Matisse was making after his return from Tangiers. In the center, a yellow, white and red bottle of sweet Anis liquor opens out like a Cubist fan, next to a triangular black inkwell pierced by the blade of a tall purplish pen.

Sand is mixed into some pigments. A technical experiment, the rough surface compares actual textures with illusionistic ones, like the painted wood-grain table that Rivera also surely borrowed from Picasso.

Picasso acquired Riveras Cubist Composition (Still Life With Bottle of Anis and Inkwell) in 1915, and it hasnt been publicly exhibited or published until now. (Marc Domage / FABA) (Photo  FABA Photo: Marc Domage)

Amid the still lifes faceted planes, however, Rivera also painted something strange  one or maybe two wine glasses that overlap. One appears white (light reflected on glass), the other wood grain (the table refracted through glass); a mottled green circle of tablecloth pierces each. Their conjoined forms produce an unexpected double-image  not just wine glasses but a human skull.

The gesture is sly. Riveras painting knits together two robust traditions  a common European still-life symbol for lifes vanity, plus a distinctly Mexican version of the deaths head motif, which dates back before the European conquest to Aztec, Mixtec and even Mayan art.

Riveras home country, 5,000 miles from Paris, was then deep into a bloody peasant revolution  a convulsive civil war that would drag on for another five years. It was plainly on the artists mind.

Except for a brief 1910 visit, Rivera was absent from Mexico for the wars duration. But the painter was no stranger to its long-simmering motivations.

He was born in the once absurdly rich silver-mining hill town of Guanajuato, scene of some of the most horrific abuses of the Spanish viceroyalty after the European conquest. The familys house was just up the street from the market warehouse where the slain leaders of the 1810 Mexican War for Independence had their severed heads strung up by Bonaparte forces loyal to New Spain.

The small paintings admixture of traditional and avant-garde French, Spanish and Mexican elements is thus remarkable and revealing. Cubist Composition (Still Life With Bottle of Anis and Inkwell) adds a subtle but inescapable political dimension to Cubisms otherwise formal investigations, which focused on principles of representation and abstraction.

Heres another surprise: The Rivera painting, which has remained in Picassos family ever since he acquired it a century ago, has apparently never been publicly displayed  or even published  before now. The LACMA exhibition will be seen only in Los Angeles and Mexico City (it travels to the Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes in June), so dont miss the unprecedented chance for a look.

Oddly, however, neither the object label nor the exhibition catalog mention the skull. Nor does either text offer any interpretation of what the picture might suggest.

Instead, the focus is fixed on details of the artists biographies  on how Picasso got the Rivera painting and what Rivera got in return  plus their formal experiments with materials and techniques for re-imagining representational painting. Both are important, but neither is enough.

Picasso and Rivera: Conversations Across Time is uneven that way. There are wonderful objects to see. But sometimes a viewer is left hanging.

Part of the reason is structural. The exhibition is organized like a graduate school art history lecture, where slides of different artworks are projected side-by-side to compare and contrast. The show juxtaposes actual paintings, sculptures and drawings, not photographs; but the binary system creates a closed loop that has trouble breaking out.

For instance, its easy to read visual similarities and divergences in the Cubist faceting of paired landscapes. Picassos earthy color and schematic architecture in a bracing painting from the crucial summer he and Georges Braque spent painting side-by-side in the French Pyrenees couldnt be more different from the explosive burst of light in Riveras semi-rural scene, where the sun breaks through fog over a viaduct and factory smokestacks.

But the Rivera, painted in an industrializing town just outside Paris, is finally more closely informed by the work of Robert Delaunay than Picasso. The pairing is peculiar  as is the colorful little still lifes juxtaposition with a fine Picasso drawing in black ink and watercolor, when its vibrant palette owes so much to Juan Gris.

The shows structural organization is reductive, simplifying arts layered density. Thats counterproductive, working against the very complexity that makes Picasso and Rivera such brilliant, enduring artists.

In five sections, the show means to tell the story of the relationship between the two artists, as well as the relationship between the art of antiquity and their individualized forms of Modern artistic expression. The aim is not without merit.

Both artists began their training in tradition-minded academies  Picasso at Barcelonas Academy San Fernando, Rivera at Mexico Citys Academy San Carlos. With great facility they both drew from plaster casts of Greco-Roman sculptures, as academies everywhere taught.

Picassos Venus de Milo drawing, done when he was about 14, focuses like a laser on her naked upper torso and perky bosom. Riveras, executed at about 16, shows the armless sculpture lying on its back on the ground  European Classicism toppled. Picasso the ladies man and Rivera the anti-colonialist are announced, at least in general terms.

Then comes the essential Cubist room. Its one of two major highlights in the show, partly because great Cubist paintings are rare in L.A. museum collections.

Pablo Picasso, Student With Newspaper, 1913-14. (LACMA) (Photo  The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Diego Rivera, Sailor at Lunch, 1914. (LACMA) (Photo courtesy Museo Casa Estudio Diego Rivera y Frida Kahlo, Guanajuato)

This selection of 10 includes Student With Newspaper (1913-14), its inebriated young man crowned by a jaunty beret, his face derived from a bleary-eyed, West African Wobe mask. Bold block-letters spell urnal, a fragment of journal, also wittily evoking urinal. Mixed materials of plaster, sand, crayon and paint  a delirious experiment  connect it to Riveras still life.

Riveras magnificent Zapatista Landscape will join the show in February, following a prior commitment to a Paris exhibition. (LACMAs exhibition remains through May 7.) Its an astounding mountain of Cubist structure cobbled together from the revolution-minded iconography of a serape, sombrero, straw mats and peasant gourds all anchored by the vertical slash of Emiliano Zapatas rifle.

The catalog, however, is determined to emphasize the paintings formal properties at the expense of its meanings. Rivera is said to have been furious that Picasso stole a new foliage technique from Zapatista Landscape for use in the shrubbery in one of his own paintings  shrubbery he later painted out.

I suspect, though, that draining the political power of Riveras motif for simple decorative ends might have had something to do with the Mexicans anger toward the Spaniard. The Zapatistas were hell-bent on agrarian reforms, fueling the revolution. Riveras landscape foliage wasnt just any shrubbery, and Picassos theft could easily be seen as an affront to a painting that stood as a resolute repudiation of Spanish colonialism.

The catalog even mistakenly says that Picassos discovery of his own native antiquity, shown by his use of forms from the art of ancient Iberia, predates his Cubist phase, while Riveras use of pre-Columbian motifs occurred afterward, beginning in 1921. The claim is disproved by the unmentioned skull in Riveras Cubist still life.

In the 1920s, after World War I and the Mexican Revolution were over, what shifted in Picassos and Riveras work was the artistic balance of power. For Picasso, that meant formal play derived from ancient Iberian sculpture, which reflected his Spanish heritage, mixed with Greco-Roman formats. For Rivera it meant greater prominence for pre-Columbian painting and sculpture.

The show juxtaposes the monumental, tunic-wearing graces of Picassos Three Women at the Spring, his first Neo-Classical painting, with the Lansdowne Artemis, an imposing first-century Roman sculpture of a Greek deity.

Meanwhile the frontal, bilateral symmetry of Riveras Flower Day, its central figure wrapped in the red, white and green of the Mexican flag, valorizes the vendor stooping beneath the massive basket-load of calla lilies, their phallic golden stamens transforming the white blossoms into sombreros. The painting faces similarly designed basalt sculptures of the Aztec female water-deity, Chalchiuhtlicue, personification of fertility.

Diego Rivera, Flower Day, 1925. (LACMA) (photo  Museum Associates/LACMA)

Water deity (Chalchiuhtlicue), Mexico, Aztec, 1200-1521. (LACMA)

The 15 pre-Columbian sculptures form the shows other highlight. All but one are on loan from the peerless collections of Mexico Citys National Museum of Anthropology and the Diego Rivera Museum-Anahuacalli, the modern Aztec temple housing his mammoth collection of nearly 60,000 ancient artifacts. LACMA deputy director Diana Magaloni, who co-organized the show with director Michael Govan and several specialists, is former director of the Anthropology Museum and arranged the exceedingly rare loans.

In a nutshell, then, the shows story arc goes like this: The two artists both started with Greco-Roman antiquity, then went Modern; finally, they synthesized the radically new with the venerably old, forming a kind of Modernist Classicism  Picassos based on European models, Riveras on American ones.

After bloody, bitter wars, a destabilized present was undergirded with indigenous foundations. That story is already pretty well-known, of course, so points off for lack of originality. But extra credit for all those impressive highlights.

The Lansdowne Artemis, 1st century BC or AD, Roman, marble. (LACMA) (photo  Museum Associates/LACMA)

Pablo Picasso, Three Women at the Spring, 1921, oil on canvas. (LACMA) (Digital Image  The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA / Art Resource, NY)

------------

Picasso and Rivera: Conversations Across Time

Where: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., L.A.

When: Through May 7; closed Wednesdays

Information: (323) 857-6000, www.lacma.org

christopher.knight@latimes.com

Twitter: @KnightLAT

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Paris production designer Jean Rabasse has never been inside the real White House, but hes evoked its history for the new film Jackie, starring Natalie Portman, nonetheless.

I really wanted to be sure that I could face American people and say, This is the American White House in 1963,  he said. We worked on a lot of details, but it was important to feel that we were very realistic.

During his career, Rabasse has created both realistic and surrealistic worlds. A graduate of the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-arts in Paris, Rabasse gained worldwide recognition when he designed the sets for the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Albertville, France, in 1992. Soon after, he served as production designer on the 1995 cult classic The City of Lost Children, a steampunk fairy tale directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro. Rabasse earned an Oscar nomination for evoking 17th century France for 2000s Vatel, and has designed sets for everything from film to opera to Cirque du Soleil. What I like doing, he said, is to go to a new universe.

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 Jackie follows First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, played by Natalie Portman, after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

What inspired you to work on Jackie?

It was totally different for a French guy [to be] doing the White House and the JFK funeral. It was actually amazingly difficult. We had to go very quickly in our research and we found so beautiful the presentations in the American [History] museum, the White House Museum, the JFK Museum. Even from Paris, you have access to a lot of photography and blueprints.

So you built the 1963 White House in Paris?

Yes, it was at Luc Bessons new studio. Its called the Cite du Cinema near Paris in Saint-Denis. The funny thing about the White House and [First Lady] Jackie [Kennedy] was that Jackie had an American interior architect-designer, but also a French decorator. Jansen is a French company in Paris, so part of the decoration, the fabric, the furniture at the White House came from the French company. So, for example, the curtains in JFK and Jackies bedroom comes from Paris, and we could re-create those curtains.

What went into reproducing the CBS special A Tour of the White House With Mrs. John F. Kennedy?

We had a lot of discussion about the VFX. Do we want to put the image of Natalie Portman inside the real tour, or are we shooting our own CBS tour? So the final decision was a mix of different technology. And the journalist is the real one, and part of the set is real. So it meant we had to be absolutely exact with the very accurate model of the house, the chandelier. Everything had to be exactly the same to be sure that when Jackie is walking through the White House, you dont see the difference between the real CBS tour and our CBS tour.

Did you use any original artifacts?

No, everything is a reproduction. We added all the very precise details about the desk of JFK, and we reproduced everything, even the model of the boat. We even re-created the newspapers to be sure that we were close to what Jackie used to read. We really tried to create something very intimate with Jackie. [Director] Pablo Larrain shot Natalie Portman very close up; he did the same with the props. It was important. It says a lot about that woman. And so we tried to make the emotion stronger through those details.

Were you going for total historical accuracy?

Talking with Pablo, it was clear that he wanted not to make a realistic reconstruction, but to give the spirit of that period, of the 60s, and the specific moment of the White House with Jackie.

How did you capture that?

It was very important with Pablo to define the palette of color. We wanted a lot of white and pale color for the walls, the carpets, things like that. And for details of furniture and costumes, we wanted very bright color. So we did a very specific color palette.

What was the most rewarding part?

The director is Chilean; the director of photography, costume designer, production designer are French. So its a big challenge for us. And to see that Americans recognize that Jackie, that White House, for us, its a beautiful response.

See the most read stories this hour 

calendar@latimes.com

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A new movie from Martin Scorsese. A new release date for Michael Keatons The Founder. And a possible new inductee into the EGOT club.

Welcome to the Gold Standard, the newsletter from the Los Angeles Times that helps guide you through the ins and outs of the awards season leading up to the Oscars.

Im Glenn Whipp, The Times awards columnist and your newsletter host.

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SILENCE BROKEN ON SCORSESES LATEST

When the pope shakes your hand and tells you he hopes that your film bears much fruit, everything else  critics groups, career callbacks, splashy openings  kind of falls by the wayside.

Of course, youre still obliged to do all those other events. Filmmaker Martin Scorsese recently turned up in Los Angeles and, later, San Francisco, to show his new movie, Silence, to academy and guild members and the press.

Scorsese received a standing ovation from those attending a splashy screening Sunday in Westwood. What else were they going to do? People were applauding before the film had even started. When it was done, many were left astonished. They had just watched perhaps the most challenging film the celebrated director has ever made, a probing and deeply spiritual examination of faith tested by the seeming silence of God. A best picture nomination seems the least people could do in response.

I wrote about Silence here, updating my Oscar predictions to include the late-breaking film. Silence is not an easy movie to watch at times, nor is it one that is easily processed when youve finished viewing it. I would expect many academy members to come away confounded. But those who open their hearts to the film will probably put it in the No. 1 spot on their ballots. Theres nothing else like it among the contenders. Silence is a film for the ages.

FINDING THE FOUNDER SOONER THAN EXPECTED

Youve heard of pop-up restaurants and pop-up museums. But what about a pop-up movie?

Thats the curious vibe surrounding The Founder, the story of maverick businessman Ray Krocs acquisition and expansion of the McDonalds fast-food chain. The film, which stars Michael Keaton as Kroc, opened Wednesday on one screen at the ArcLight Hollywood for a one-week awards-qualifying run. It will return to theaters in a wider engagement on Jan. 20.

As recently as Sunday, the Weinstein Co., the movies distributor, had advertised that The Founder would open Friday. Prior to that, a limited release date had been set for Dec. 16. Before that, it was to open Aug. 5, a date that Weinstein Co. Co-Chairman Harvey Weinstein said would show that award-caliber movies should be able to open any time of year and be successful.

I spoke to Weinstein here at length about the reasons for the release date shifts, as well as his hopes for the movie. The Times film critic Justin Chang praised the film, saying that it turns the unlikely subject of a fast-food chain into a quasi-religious satire, a parable of American striving and, ultimately, a study of artisanal integrity gradually caving in to commercial compromise. You can read his review here.

Lin-Manuel Miranda could be joining the EGOT club this year. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times )

CAN LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA ADD AN OSCAR TOO?

Are you ready to make room in the EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony) club for Lin-Manuel Miranda? The mastermind behind the Broadway sensation Hamilton is on track to add the final awards puzzle piece with one of his original songs for the Disney animated feature Moana. Mirandas soaring anthem How Far Ill Go topped iTunes downloads chart over Thanksgiving weekend, giving it the inside track to become the latest Disney number to win the Oscar for original song.

I took a look at the Oscar categories for original song, score and animated feature, making my nominations predictions here. His toughest competition will likely come from the musical La La Land. Once you see it, you might find it hard to dislodge this song from your brain.

Feedback?

Id love to hear from you. Email me at glenn.whipp@latimes.com.

Cant get enough about awards season? Follow me at @glennwhipp on Twitter.

glenn.whipp@latimes.com

Twitter: @glennwhipp
Carrie Fisher on Princess Leia: Shes like a superhero

(Robert Carter / For The Times)

Actress and writer Carrie Fisher has died after suffering a cardiac episode during a flight from London to Los Angeles on Dec. 23. Prior to the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Fisher spoke to The Times about the film, Princess Leia and her Star Wars legacy. Below is an excerpt from a story originally published on Dec. 4, 2015.

Fisher would know what it takes to make a lasting legacy in this franchise. The first few precious moments of A New Hope follow the angry revolutionary pulling together a contingency plan to smuggle spy documents off a spaceship. Unafraid of being taken hostage by the nefarious Empire, Princess Leia blasts the invading Imperial Stormtroopers. Leia shoots first.

In captivity, Leia proceeds to throw some truly galactic shade: Darth Vader, only you could be so bold, Gov. Tarkin, I should have expected to find you holding Vaders leash. I recognized your foul stench when I was brought on board, and the classic, Arent you a little short for a Stormtrooper?

While Han Solo shirks responsibility and Luke Skywalker fumbles around with his evolving, boyish perception of the hero, Leia gets things done. When her own rescue goes awry, she grabs the blaster herself and finds a way out. Shes not just a princess but a radical fighting for freedom under a tyrannical empire.

She had contempt for and worked with men, and I liked that, Fisher says. There was something human about her. It showed that she could do whatever she needed to do, and if she could do that, then everybody could do it. People identified with her. Shes like a superhero.

Kennedy, who took over the reins for Lucas in 2012, agrees. When Princess Leia hit the scene in 1977 she was a pretty formidable character. I give George [Lucas] a huge amount of credit, she says. Leia really held her own. We used that as kind of a touchstone for why it was so important to have a strong female character and hopefully many more strong female characters in the Star Wars universe.

The new film reintroduces Leia 30 years after the war. Shes no longer a princess but a general. And shes still very much in command  still walking and talking, Fisher says. She doesnt have any mortal wounds or disease. But, she warns, things have happened that have been difficult.

Fisher was mum on the rest of her characters details but didnt mind sharing a moment of nostalgia she felt on the set of the new film:

Youre so self-conscious, youre exhausted before you get out of your trailer. I was in my trailer in the back and I heard Harrison. I recognized how his boots sound, and I heard him say, Is Carrie here? That was funny. That was like were back on Star Wars campus.

In response to this reporters surprise that the actress who brought to life Princess Leia  general of the new resistance  was self-conscious, Fisher let out a guffaw. I think everyone thinks the same way, only [some] people pretend better. Im going to do badly this time. I look like .... The new people are better. What am I going to do? My hair looks bad again.

Fisher may still get nervous, but that doesnt change her legacy. Nor did it stop her tenacious response about the recent kerfuffle over her characters notorious bikini. A frustrated father in Deptford, Pa., went viral in a Fox 29 report over a Target store selling Princess Leia action figure toys dressed in the divisive slave Leia ensemble (a metal two-piece the character was forced to wear while prisoner to character Jabba the Hutt). The man was perturbed it was being sold in the toy aisle and flustered over how he was going to explain the toys chain to his daughters.

How about telling his daughter that the character is wearing that outfit not because shes chosen to wear it. Shes been forced to wear it, Fisher advises. Shes a prisoner of a giant testicle who has a lot of saliva going on and she does not want to wear that thing and its ultimately that chain, which youre now indicating is some sort of accessory to S&M, that is used to kill the giant saliva testicle. Thats asinine.

Truly the contempt for the scruffy-looking nerf-herders of the world is very much alive and well in Fisher.

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John Glenn, astronaut, senator and the first U.S. citizen to orbit Earth, passed away Thursday at 95. In Philip Kaufmans film The Right Stuff, based on the book by Tom Wolfe, Ed Harris plays Glenn. The clean marine with an undiscovered talent for PR, as then-Times film critic Sheila Benson described Glenns depiction in her original review, was at the heart of one of the movies most satisfying moments. This review was first published in The Times on Oct. 21, 1983.

----------------

Director/screenwriter Philip Kaufman has reached into Tom Wolfes The Right Stuff, a hyperventilated account of Americas entry into the space age, and pulled out a plum.

In a brash, beautiful, deeply American film, Kaufman has combined the resources and ingenuity of movie making with the freewheeling, damn-the-conventions style of of the New Journalism and come up with a generous, high-spirited look at the bravery and lunacy that was that era.

The movies irreverence will raise more than a few eyebrows, because Kaufman uses anything that works for his Carnival of Astronauts: low comedy, Brechtian savagery and conventions from the most romantic American movies about pilots and flying. Fortunately, all of it, well almost all of it, works; the extraordinary flying footage matches seamlessly with actual NASA documentary work, and the actors seem uncannily true to the spirit of their models.

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Like the book, the film lies poised between two ideals of bravery. The most righteous right stuff is the private property of Air Force test pilot Chuck Yeager, played by Sam Shepard in a manner guaranteed to fill the gap created when Gary Cooper left us.

Yeager is the self-sufficient man of the West (and of the last frontier: space), full of repose and distance, yet most certainly not lacking in the juices of life. The movies warmest moments are not when an orange-red space capsule hurtles into reentry but when Yeager and his spirited, sultry wife Glennis (Barbara Hershey, relaxed and marvelous) tease and spar with each other at the pilots bar before racing home on horseback under a desert moon. Its the nicest sexuality the screen has had in years, written and played by adults who understand the the voltage of understatement.

In a scene that may be the pictures emotional highlight, Glenn gives his wife full permission to run L.B.J. off their property.  Sheila Benson

Its fortunate that Shepard has as much charisma as he does, because he will bear the brunt of the films heavy myth making. Yeager, first man to break Mach I (forget, please, the specious, memorable Breaking the Sound Barrier) is in Wolfes eyes the pure hero, possibly the only allowable one, and Kaufman, to a lesser degree, indulges in this too.

The real-life astronauts who demand so much of our attention have a hold on rightness, true enough, but theirs is so mixed up with the hoopla and hype of the space program that you feel Wolfe was split between adulation and faint recoil.

The split permeates the film too. Its obvious that in Shepard/Yeager we have the truest of the true blue, so we slough back to him periodically until he puts his test pilots OK on the astronauts efforts. They may be Spam in a can, lying there in their windowless capsules, but they fly that way knowing the lethal potential of the job. (The scene of astronauts revolt until their German spaceship designers give them a window and a hatch they can blow open from the inside is one of the great details of this gorgeous mosaic.)

For the body of the film, however, we are with the astronauts and their wives, whom Kaufman is at some pains to keep as the films emotional ballast. He has cast them all brilliantly. Of the fliers, we get to know four chiefly: Scott Glenn as Alan Shepard Jr., first man in space, oscillating between iciness and high school humor; Ed Harris (an actor on the ascendancy this year) is Marine pilot John Glenn, the clean marine with an undiscovered talent for PR. The ill-fated Virgil (Gus) Grissom is marvelously played by Fred Ward. And Dennis Quaid as Gordon (Gordo) Cooper  robbed perhaps of his full moment of triumph in the films version of his space ride but shortchanged nowhere else in the picture  has a sweet, unshakable sureness.

The remaining astronauts  Scott Paulin as Donald (Deke) Slayton, Charles Frank as Scott Carpenter and Lance Henriksen as Walter (Wally) Schirra Jr.  are each fine, but their characters are barely sketched in for us.

Outstanding among the astronaut wives is Mary Jo Deschanel as Annie Glenn. (She is the real-life wife of the films superlative cinematographer, Caleb Deschanel.) Two scenes between Annie, afflicted with a pronounced stammer, and her husband carry the feeling of the astronauts and their wives as a devoted unit. In the most memorable one, Glenn, just off the launching pad from his postponed flight, gets a call from a terrified Annie. L.B.J. (lustily played by Donald Moffat) has served notice that he will arrive at their house to publicly comfort her during this travail. The idea of national television horrifies her. In a scene that may be the pictures emotional highlight, Glenn gives his wife full permission to run L.B.J. off their property if she doesnt want him there.

(Its a satisfying moment, but at the same time there is a hint of the limits of the film as an emotional document if this is the moment that audiences cheer most wildly.)

Funniest is the discovery...at their first press conference that ol John (Glenn) has the makings of a silver-tongued and un-shut-up-able orator.  Sheila Benson

Veronica Cartwright has a vitriolic scene as Grissoms wife, humiliated and furious when, after Grissom loses his capsule and very nearly his life, she feels that they are given extremely short shrift by the military instead of the perks of a heroic homecoming. Its a shrewish moment that you wish could be balanced by more insights into the pilots quieter, more private moments. But the film has so much to cover that this may just be a forlorn hope.

Pamela Reed has one of the fullest wives roles as Trudy Cooper, sturdy enough to take her children and leave the harrowing life at the air base (where 62 men have died in test-flight crashes in 36 weeks) and staunch enough to come back when Gordo needs her for the proper NASA wife-and-family profile.

After their selection, their tests, both painful and humiliating, their work in simulators and in weightless chambers, the astronauts begin to work, not as rival branches of the service, but with a certain grim unity. Best of their moments is the German scientists confrontation, funniest is the discovery by the other six at their first press conference that ol John (Glenn) has the makings of a silver-tongued and un-shut-up-able orator.

From the moment the press, them little root-weevils in Yeagers words, are introduced to the seven, the comedy gets lower. And broader. (As played by a commedia dellarte troupe known as i fratelli Bologna, the permanent press corps seems to have one body and limitless legs, arms and cameras. It is a delicious touch.) The enemies seem to be less the hustling Russians, ahead of us at every turn, than the amazing stupidity of the pols at the top and their minions at the bottom.

Through all of this, the seven fliers struggle to be regarded as pilots, not as mere passengers in their crafts, and, indeed to be allowed to fly at all, becomes crucial (NASA sends one chimp ahead of them on a flight).

Finally, we are there, in that incredibly cramped capsule, for two of the astronauts triumphs: Shepards first American sub-orbital success and the one to pluck up the nations spirits, and Glenns full-world circles in which the capsule malfunctions (nearly burning up its occupant during re-entry) but the man does not.

Kaufmans unorthodox choice for his special-effects team produced some of the films most amazing flight scenes, the simulation of Yeagers test flights and the feeling during Glenns orbits of the capsules true dangerousness and eccentricity. Instead of using the established special-effects houses, Kaufman hired Gary Gutierrez (who did the title sequences for The Black Stallion as well as the pre-title sequence in One From the Heart) for the majority of the flying effects. (Gene Rudolf is credited as the visual consultant.) And for the view of earth from space and impressionistic views from space, Kaufman chose avant-garde San Francisco filmmaker Jordan Belson. The results are extraordinary and link the flight sequences to some of the equally daring narrative jumps that The Right Stuff makes.

Not all the daring works. One notion, involving aborigines during Glenns orbit over Australia, is carried one step too far. (The aboriginal actors include David Gulpilil of Walkabout.) The link between spiritual astronauts among the aborigines and the spacemen is a wonderful notion, but turning the sparks from their burning ballads into Glenns mysterious fireflies is a poesy that fails when it becomes so literal. And Royal Danos sepulchral figure in black, the ever-present reminder of the pilots closeness to death, is another too-fanciful character.

Finally, we are brought full circle to Yeager, intercut as he sneaks up in the skies to try to break the Soviets altitude record in that needle-nosed NF-104. His feat of singular bravery is played against an all-stops-out reception for the Mercury astronauts, headed by L.B.J. at the Houston Astrodome, which culminates in a presentation of Sally Rand and her fan dance.

A look passes between the seven men during this fluttering performance, made more lyrical than tawdry, and we can speculate on what it means, but Im not sure if we have been given the information to read it correctly. Like some of the fliers jargon, especially screwing the pooch, its something we want to understand, we think we understand, but we may not really have caught precisely.

But there is no missing the closing image, underlying the grace and heroism of the single pilot. It is myth making at its most potent, even though it may undercut the impact of Kaufmans broad-scale view of the era.

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Movie recommendations from critics Kenneth Turan, Justin Chang and other reviewers. Click title for full review.

Arrival Amy Adams stars in this elegant, involving science fiction drama that is simultaneously old and new, revisiting many alien invasion conventions but with unexpected intelligence, visual style and heart. (Kenneth Turan) PG-13.

Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened This superb documentary directed by Lonny Price covers a rich swath of emotional and creative ground as it tracks the unexpected failure of theater gods Stephen Sondheim and Hal Princes hugely anticipated 1981 Broadway collaboration Merrily We Roll Along. (Gary Goldstein) NR.

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The Eagle Huntress A portrait of a 13-year-old Kazakh girl from Mongolia who defies eons of tradition by learning to hunt with fierce golden eagles is a documentary so satisfying it makes you feel good about feeling good. (Kenneth Turan) G.

The Edge of Seventeen Hailee Steinfeld gives a superb performance as a high-school misfit in Kelly Fremon Craigs disarmingly smart teen dramedy, the rare coming-of-age picture that feels less like a retread than a renewal. (Justin Chang) R.

Elle Paul Verhoevens brilliantly booby-trapped new thriller starring Isabelle Huppert is a gripping whodunit, a tour de force of psychological suspense and a wickedly droll comedy of manners. (Justin Chang) R.

The Founder Michael Keaton gives a performance of ratty, reptilian brilliance as Ray Kroc, the American salesman who turned a California burger stand into the global fast-food behemoth that is McDonalds, in John Lee Hancocks shrewd and satisfyingly fat-free biopic. (Justin Chang) PG-13.

The Handmaiden The most absorbing feature in years from the South Korean director Park Chan-wook (Oldboy) is a teasingly witty and elegant puzzle-box of a thriller about two women (played by Kim Tae-ri and Kim Min-hee) pursuing their destinies in 1930s Japanese-occupied Korea. (Justin Chang) NR.

I Am Not Your Negro As directed by the gifted Raoul Peck, this documentary on James Baldwin utilizes the entire spectrum of movie effects, not only spoken language but also sound, music, editing and all manner of visuals, to create a cinematic essay that is powerful and painfully relevant. (Kenneth Turan) NR.

La La Land Starring a well-paired Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, writer-director Damien Chazelles tuneful tribute to classic movie musicals is often stronger in concept than execution, but its lovely and transporting all the same. (Justin Chang) PG-13.

Land of Mine Explosive devices that can detonate at any moment are intrinsically dramatic and this Danish World War II film makes good use of that plot mechanism, but it has a whole lot more going for it as well. (Kenneth Turan) R.

Loving Beautifully acted by Ruth Negga and Joel Edgerton, this involving, socially conscious Jeff Nichols drama shows the personal lives of the interracial couple whose marriage led to the 1967 Supreme Court ruling that anti-miscegenation laws were unconstitutional. (Kenneth Turan) PG-13.

Manchester by the Sea Powerful, emotional filmmaking that leaves a scar, Kenneth Lonergans drama starring Casey Affleck and Michelle Williams is both heartbreaking and heartening, a film that just wallops you with its honesty, its authenticity, and its access to despair. (Kenneth Turan) R.

Moonlight Superb filmmaking and an exceptional level of emotional honesty universalizes a very specific coming-of-age experience, that of a gay black man growing from child to adult starting in 1980s Miamis crack cocaine epidemic years. (Kenneth Turan) R.

Things to Come The great Isabelle Huppert and director Mia Hansen-Love combine for a film about a woman newly on her own. Its quiet satisfactions very much sneak up on you. (Kenneth Turan) PG-13

See the most-read stories in Entertainment this hour 
In the raucous R-rated comedy Office Christmas Party  opening Friday with an ensemble cast including Jennifer Aniston, Jason Bateman, T.J. Miller, Courtney B. Vance, Olivia Munn and Kate McKinnon  the employees of a struggling branch of a tech company throw a massive, booze-fueled holiday party in a desperate attempt to impress a prospective client and save their jobs. Here, the films co-directors, whose previous comedies include Blades of Glory and The Switch, explain the process of creating perhaps the wildest, most debauched Christmas party ever to grace the big screen.

We were looking for a universal idea, something that felt like a common experience that we could sort of bring our own bent to. We were in a meeting with our manager around the holidays, batting around ideas, and he was talking about the idea of an office Christmas party because wed all just been to them. We all jumped in and suddenly it was sort of like 1 plus 1 equals 3.

That night is so rife with danger and high stakes and tension, the opportunity to do an ensemble comedy around it was exciting to us. Its such a charged night for so many people. Its the one night of the year where the caste system sort of breaks down and people live honestly with each other, for good and for bad, which is why it has this destructive potential. Youre always one drink away from ruining your professional life.

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When we were younger, office Christmas parties were more celebrated. It used to be OK to let your hair down and maybe even humiliate yourself and then still show up to work the next day. But in the litigious world we live in, with HR and social media, youre not allowed to let chaos and craziness into the workplace anymore. So now an office Christmas party can be an act of rebellion. It almost becomes anthemic.

 Jason Bateman, Olivia Munn, Jennifer Aniston, Jamie Chung, Kate McKinnon and Courtney B. Vance star in Office Christmas Party.

From the beginning, we said, If you shoot a movie at a party, it had better be a party you want to hang out at. In a weird way, the party  that euphoric, out-of-control environment  is the sort of star of the movie, so one of our biggest challenges was creating that energy every day. We watched early John Landis and Harold Ramis movies, kind of going back to that sort of tone and sense of humor that we had always liked from the late 70s and early 80s.

Having thrown a lot of wrap parties together, we actually threw a party like we would throw a party. Weve been to a lot of bad versions of an office work party, where youre stuck at a bar with an executive producer who you really arent interested in talking to. We wanted to make sure that the lighting was good, that the music was loud, that everybody got served  or over-served  and there was a lot to look at.

We were literally going to work in a party for two months. We had 300-plus extras who were with us for the whole shoot, and we built this massive set on two side-by-side soundstages, essentially duplicating two floors of the old IBM building in Chicago. It was totally immersive. When you walked on the set, even though it was spring in Atlanta, it felt like a non-stop Christmas party in downtown Chicago.

Getting yourself into that party vibe day after day after day  your reality starts to change. It was almost like a Las Vegas casino with no clocks. It had its own energy.

Josh Gordon and Will Speck, co-directors of Office Christmas Party. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times )

Its hard when youre throwing a party to get the momentum right. You dont want to peak too soon but you also dont want to take too long to get to it. So early on we charted this idea of the party having stages: Theres the part where not enough people have shown up and its not good. Theres the point at which it starts to tip and people start to invite people that probably shouldnt have been invited. And then it has to go someplace outrageous.

We thought, What havent we seen? What are images that we can put onscreen that can make people go, Id definitely want to go to that party. And that became the third-act section we call Mayhem, when the company really starts to lose its way, people realize theyre maybe not going to have a job tomorrow, and they start to trash the place. The vending machine gets thrown out the window. Theyre jousting with Christmas trees.

The scene where Courtney B. Vances character, Walter, swings from the Christmas lights really represented the high-water mark of the chaos of the party, and we knew that was a must-land stunt. We tested it for weeks before we shot it, but still, the extras were totally freaked out. They thought the guy had really injured himself.

The shoot was a huge amount of fun. The extras were amazing in terms of re-entering the same set every day and really bringing that party to life. For the sequences where theres music and dancing, we did it all live. We were all having such a good time that it didnt feel that hard to suddenly turn on a celebration.

What made it the most fun was the actors. T.J. Miller likes to have a good time, and it got chaotic whenever he showed up. Weve never met anyone quite like him. We went into a bar once with him in Atlanta after shooting and it was like being with Bill Clinton. Within 5 or 10 minutes, he had 100 people focused on him. He just has this magnetic thing where you just want to have fun around him.

Were people really partying on the set? Sadly, no. At 8 in the morning, I dont think anyone wants to drink or smoke anything  they just want to get through the scene theyre shooting and figure out whats going to be for lunch.

But by the time we got to the wrap party, I think people were sort of pent up and ready to actually have real drinks in their cups. It got a little bit big and out of control.

Ultimately, we wanted to get to a holiday movie through an R-rated comedy. We tried to combine the R-ratedness with a lot of heart and humanity  its an R-rated movie but its got its heart in the right place. Theres that feeling of Christmas that you sort of cant avoid even while youre Xeroxing your butt in front of your co-workers.

Office Christmas parties have become sort of an endangered species. A draw for us was the idea of the movie being sort of a rallying cry that maybe weve gone too far, maybe we need to bring this tradition back a little bit.

After Animal House, people started rushing fraternity houses again after them not being very popular in the early 70s. Our hope is to be responsible for a lot of people getting fired at their office Christmas parties next year.

 as told to Josh Rottenberg

josh.rottenberg@latimes.com

Twitter: @joshrottenberg
Powerful women have always captivated the world, from Cleopatra to Catherine the Great, but this year their stories felt more vital than ever.

Hillary Clintons historic presidential run fell short, but she still has the distinction of being the first woman to win the nomination of a major party. Germanys Angela Merkel remains one of the most prominent and influential world leaders, and each time Michelle Obama delivers a speech, her supporters clamor for the first lady to run for office.

But when fiction tackles iconic women, it too often misses the mark, as 2011s bland Margaret Thatcher biopic, The Iron Lady, proved all too well. Two 2016 projects bucked that trend, drawing complex portraits of the steely women at their center.

Jackie, Pablo Larrains stylish film examining Jackie Kennedy in the immediate aftermath of the assassination of her husband, President John F. Kennedy, introduces us to a woman amid a seemingly insurmountable crisis.

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Guided by an impeccable performance by Natalie Portman, the audience sees the first lady through new eyes. She is a widowed wife of an unfaithful husband, a newly single mother, who suddenly finds herself unemployed, evicted and alone as the entire world watches.

In the Netflix series The Crown, we meet another woman who was expected to put on a brave face and overcome profound grief.

Claire Foy plays a young Queen Elizabeth II as she ascends to the throne after the death of her father, King George VI, and is forced to learn that her own sense of self comes second to God and country.

In both Jackie and The Crown, the protagonists learn to accept that their true power lies in the ability to maintain their flawless facade while working tirelessly behind the scenes to protect their legacies.

For Kennedy, that means planning a funeral that will single-handedly memorialize her husband and shape the narrative around their time in the White House. For Elizabeth, that means dressing down elder statesmen and repeatedly disappointing those closest to her in order to preserve the integrity of the monarchy.

Both The Crown and Jackie exhibit the difficulty of being a woman in power in the 1950s and 60s, how women had to present as docile while doing the dirty business of politics.

Viewed through the lens of 2016, these tales of strong women who predated the rise of second-wave feminism are revelatory not necessarily because they show how far weve come, but because theyre evidence of how far we still have to go.

See the most-read stories in Entertainment this hour 

libby.hill@latimes.com

Twitter: @midwestspitfire
At Base Coat, a new nail salon in Los Angeles Arts District, clients are greeted with tea fortified with beautifying herbs such as rose hip, lemongrass and horsetail.

They get to recline in chairs covered with handmade Turkish mud cloth and have their hands and feet soothed with organic scrubs and their nails painted with non-toxic varnishes. And they get to let their manicures and pedicures dry on a patio while enjoying an aloe-based punch spiced with turmeric.

This wellness-based approach to getting your nails done was conceived by Tran Wills, who opened the first Base Coat in Denver three years ago. During her pregnancy, Wills said she felt nauseated by the fumes in a regular nail salon and started looking for a non-toxic space.

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I started wondering, Why doesnt this exist? said Wills, one of the founders of Base Coat.

The 1,800-square-foot salon, opened last month around the corner from restaurants and cafes including Bestia and Blue Bottle Coffee, is dedicated to all things non-toxic, which is why you wont find gel tips being applied here. Instead, the company has its own brand of nail polishes in 100 colors with no formaldehyde, parabens, camphor or cellophane  ingredients that can trigger allergies  an no animal testing.

The lotions and scrubs used are formulated by artisanal beauty brand Fig + Yarrow. Also onsite is what co-founder Ali Elman describes as a real beauty bar with kombucha on tap, an offering of elixirs and tonics for overall wellness and, when a beer and wine license is approved, light cocktails that will have a beautifying component. (Another co-founder, Sarah Simon, is the founder of the Simon Collective, which owns health-forward eateries including the Butchers Daughter in Venice.)

Base Coats interior is in clean, crisp black, white and gold with accents of brass and wood. There are eight manicure and seven pedicure stations set among Moroccan-inspired lighting and tilework.

Were in that market between the chop shops in the strip malls and the high-end spas and hotels, said Elman. We want to give the experience of luxury to our customers but not have those very expensive prices.

A second Los Angeles Base Coat is scheduled to open in the spring in West Los Angeles. Prices range from $30 to $50 for manicures and $40 to $60 for pedicures.

Base Coat, 704 Mateo St., Los Angeles, basecoatnailsalon.com

image@latimes.com

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Walking through the doors of the Ebell of Los Angeles building on Lucerne Boulevard, you cant help but be filled with a sense of nostalgia. Perhaps its the walls, which are intricately wood-paneled, or the ceiling painted in hues of gold and aqua, or maybe its the jaw-dropping Persian rugs placed through the space.

Its a hearty feast for the eyes and a nod to the Sumner Hunt-designed buildings grandeur. With an abundance of construction going on in the city, there arent as many older places left in Los Angeles that are preserved with an air of Old World elegance. But the Ebell  a 122-year-old social club founded by women with a roster of about 440 members today  appears to be a living representation of that, blending the past and the present.

With a busy calendar of events, the club, which is named in honor of noted educator Adrian Ebell, became a spot for Angelenos looking to explore the arts as well as educational and philanthropic efforts. (During its heyday, Judy Garland auditioned at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre, while Amelia Earhart made her final major public appearance at the Ebell before attempting her flight around the world.)

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For the last three years, the clubs annual Charter Day luncheon, which celebrates its charter and honors its founders, has offered members an opportunity to show off one of the Ebells treasures, the clubs staggering costume collection. The archive of clothes dates back to the 1800s and includes about 900 pieces such as dresses, hats, handbags and other accessories.

For the Oct. 24 lunch, Loyce Braun, the clubs current president, said she wanted to honor this years election, especially because Hillary Clinton made history by being the first female presidential nominee to be backed by a major U.S. political party. So this years fashion show highlighted clothes and accessories from the late 1800s and early 1900s, the era of working toward womens right to vote.

In the efforts they made to preserve the clothes, it shows that they had a sense of their place in history and wanted it to be remembered.  Loyce Braun

Clothes were important even to the rather blue-stocking ladies who founded the Ebell of Los Angeles, Braun said. In the efforts they made to preserve the clothes, it shows that they had a sense of their place in history and wanted it to be remembered.

Braun said her favorite piece from the collection is a velvet burnout suit from 1889. The suit represents a clear marker between womens constraints and women being opened up to opportunities, she said.

Ultimately, the suit, deeply embellished and with intricate boning and other standout pieces in the archive are symbolic of different generations and the style choices those L.A. women made. Pucci dresses, vibrantly colored silk velvet coats, lace tea dresses from the 1920s and much more are included in the collection.

Fashion selections ranging from hats and parasols to lace-up boots and metallic mesh handbags are stored in adjacent annexes of the building. Boater hats are kept in a corner of one accessories closet, and shelves are lined with feathered fascinators. A single box is filled exclusively with sleeping caps.

About seven years ago, Braun learned of the Ebells fashion collection when she came across a club member who was setting up a vignette of pieces to accompany an exhibit of historic furniture.

Inside the clothing closet are an assortment of vintage hats at the Ebell of Los Angeles building in Los Angeles. (Christina House / For The Times)

Many of these pieces had been locked up and forgotten, Braun said. Seeing them sparked my interest.

Braun got more involved and began regularly showing pieces from the collection to complement the clubs luncheons and other activities. As membership and interest ebbed and flowed over the years, so did the interest in the collection.

After Braun took over as the clubs costume curator, she began to reassemble the collection, which she said felt like a treasure hunt. The collection was comprehensively inventoried by [Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising] in the late 1990s, which left us with a thorough list, she said.

However, because the Ebells building is large and cavernous, members continued to find other sartorial treasures, some stuffed into plastic bags.

Denise Parga, a retired attorney whos now costume curator for the Ebell, stumbled upon a gaucho hat that likely hadnt been touched in decades. To keep its shape, the hat had been stuffed with newspapers dating from the 1950s.

Parga also discovered a mannequin-filled closet that hadnt been opened in years. Without meaning to, she and other Ebell members became archaeologists.

Chloe Ginsburg and her mother Denise Parga are photographed after a vintage fashion show at the historic Ebell building in Los Angeles. Parga is the costume curator for the longtime L.A. social club. (Christina House / For The Times)

Parga and her daughter, Chloe Ginsburg, became interested in the Ebell collection after they were asked to model in the fashion show two years ago. The two now make regular visits to meet with the costume committee and continue cataloging and restoring the clothing trove.

Parga said preserving the pieces has allowed her to return to fashion, a field she worked before becoming an attorney decades ago. The mother and daughter proudly displayed the repair work they made to a dress from the 1920s and showed off another intricately embroidered black-and-gold piece from the same era, explaining that they added a kick pleat to it.

Whoever wore this dress had a lot of fun and did a lot of dancing, Parga said, revealing the restored dress that looked like it could be hanging on a rack at Lily et Cie in Beverly Hills or displayed in a museum.

Ginsburg, who has studied costume design, also has a deep appreciation for the archive of sartorial goodies. We understand quality and appreciate detail, she said. Its so wonderful to be able to care for pieces that you would otherwise never be able to touch in a museum.

While they have enjoyed perusing the archive, Parga and Ginsburg said they also have wondered about the stories of the donors of these frocks, accessories and other pieces, likely fashionable Ebell members who came long before them.

We imagine the women who wore the pieces, who were daring enough, Ginsburg said. These were women with outsized personalities.

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There are more than a few fashion trends that dont age well  scrunchies, leg warmers, low-rise denim.

But Los Angeles native Yvonne Niami has largely built her L.A.-based womens wear brand, N:Philanthropy, around something that gets better with time  raising money for animal welfare and pediatric cancer research.

Philanthropy is built into the brands DNA and, as part of the process, allows shoppers to wear their hearts on their sleeves  in style.

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I wanted to create a line that felt cool and edgy but still had a give-back component, says Niami. I love the idea of people in their 20s buying our clothes and knowing that theyre giving back.

Niamis intention for N:Philanthropy enables the brand to give money to support two local nonprofit organizations: Childrens Hospital Los Angeles and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Los Angeles. Ten percent of the brands net proceeds go to these organizations, yielding $200,000 in 2015 and $325,000 (so far) in 2016.

N:Philanthropy joins other fashion companies that incorporate a philanthropic angle into their business practices.

Ventura-based Patagonia, known for its outdoor clothes, has been donating like this for more than 20 years. (Most recently, it was in the news for donating $10 million from Black Friday sales to nonprofit groups working to protect the environment.) And L.A.-based Toms, which makes shoes, eyewear and other goods, has had a buy-one, give-one model since it started in 2006.

The 2-year-old womens ready-to-wear line N: Philanthropy is known for its dressed-up, funked-up casual wear  a buttery soft tee with studs at the shoulders ($92), sweatpants with a wrap-around belt reminiscent of espadrilles ($128), as well as the kind of going-out pieces that dont look out of place at, say, a school drop-off.

Also, in the mix are a fringed vegan leather skirt ($158) and a red slip dress ($194), which might sound vampy but come across as elevated and easy-going thanks to their sophisticated lines. Selections from the line are available at Planet Blue, Madison, Bloomingdales and at nphilanthropy.com.

Brands like N:Philanthropy make me proud to be a model and to use my platform to do something for the world.  Elsa Hosk

The brands commitment goes beyond official donations, with Niami working philanthropy into her staffs routine.

On a recent Thursday afternoon, for example, Niami and her team werent at their downtown headquarters. Instead, they were doing their monthly volunteer work at Childrens Hospital.

The charitable intent also influences N:Philanthropys ad campaigns. The brand cast model Elsa Hosk, a Victorias Secret Angel, because of her work as an activist for Fair Girls, a Washington, D.C.-based organization devoted to helping survivors of human trafficking.

Brands like N:Philanthropy make me proud to be a model and to use my platform to do something for the world, Hosk says. This is the future  brands taking responsibility and giving back.

Hosk isnt alone in her prediction. Were at the crux of a new world, says Susan McPherson of McPherson Strategies, a consultancy that advises brands on philanthropy, social good and corporate sustainability. It used to be that companies would write a check or buy a table at a gala. Now, investing in corporate responsibility is an opportunity to differentiate yourself in the market and attract the best employees.

Its also the right thing to do, she adds.

For N:Philanthropy, it has also been a good move for business.

The merchandise is great on its own, but the philanthropic aspect is an added bonus, says Brooke Jaffe, operating vice president and fashion director of womens ready-to-wear for Bloomingdales.

Celebrities have been quick converts. In the past 2  years, photographers have snapped Kylie Jenner, Vanessa Hudgens and Alessandra Ambrosio, among others, in clothes from N:Philanthropy.

Niami, a mother of two, says she and her team sweat the details to make the clothes friendly to a wider variety of shapes, citing perfectly placed straps on a mostly backless top so wearers dont have to skip putting on a bra.

It all makes for a line that feels effortless in its stylishness, and Niami says the only time the brands mission has interfered with the product has been for a good cause.

We moved away from black faux furs, says Niami, Because people kept thinking they were real.

Enter N:Philanthropys blush-pink faux fur jacket ($220), a socially responsible statement that makes a fashion statement as well.

image@latimes.com

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Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc is like no other wine on Earth. If youve had so much as a sip of this New Zealand white, then you already know this. Pungent, herbaceous, redolent of grass and gooseberries, of Key lime and passion fruit and torn tomato leaves, renowned, if thats the word, for its olfactory associations with cat pee, its one of the most recognizable, aromatically peremptory wines in the world.

Almost against the odds, it became a global commodity, a white-wine wildfire started three decades ago by brands like Montana (now Brancott Estate), Cloudy Bay and Kim Crawford, filling supermarket and liquor store shelves, bodegas and BevMos. The style was so successful that it was seized upon by large wine companies such as Gallo, Constellation and Pernod Ricard, who ramped up production to a global scale, resulting in a kind of Marlborough Industrial Complex, with crop levels maximized and harvests mechanized, with commercial yeast strains and sugar additions bringing everything into balance and consistency. Discussions of flavor, texture and regional identity were secondary; tons per hectare, price per gallon and cost analyses became the order of the day.

So imagine youre the brothers Giesen  Marlborough winemakers Theo, Alex and Marcel  and you wanted to make a Sauvignon Blanc that stood out from all that? What if you had acquired vineyards, farmed them organically and seen the vines that issued the fruit that went into the wines that filled the shelves get older and more compelling than could simply be conveyed in a mass-market bottling? What if your wine was inherently more interesting than what the commercial paradigm demanded? What if it was capable of exhibiting sensory realms outside of, lets say, the merely uric? And exactly what were your options when the worlds perception of the most important wine in the playbook was seemingly indelible?

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Many New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc producers face a similar dilemma: the country amounts to one of the worlds great conservatories for the variety, and yet in a sea of similarity, how do such wines find voice?

It was a stylistic clutch in a way, says winemaker brother Marcel Giesen. The Marlborough style was something we were all aware of; could there be a textural, mineral side? Would the earth have a loud enough voice to be heard? That was relatively unknown.

New Zealand is a small country with a wide range of climates and terroirs. Most of it is cool, but regional differences are as stark and dramatic as those between, say, St. Estephe and St. Joseph. At Ata Rangi in Martinborough, for example, a North Island region just 90 kilometers across Cook Strait from Marlboroughs coastal vineyards, Helen Masters grows Sauvignon Blanc that bears no resemblance to Marlborough iterations. Her yields, for starters, are minuscule, owing in large part to the spring winds that disrupt flowering; free-draining soils keep canopies thin, which means that the fruit is exposed to more sunlight, burning off the chemical precursors that cause green flavors. Masters hand-harvests everything, conducts her fermentations without commercial yeasts, and even gives the wines a bit of skin contact.

The result is a Sauvignon of remarkable textural complexity, deeper, drier, more mouth-filling, the aromas more given to citrus and fennel bulb than parsley and pee. And in place of the sweet fruit is a savory minerality, and so much vibrant acidity that a recent group of visiting German buyers mistook the wine for Riesling, which secretly pleased Masters; with a Marlborough wine, no one would make such an error.

Three hours by car north of Martinborough lies Hawkes Bay, the only region in the country where Bordeaux and Rhone varieties have a fighting chance at ripening in the country. The warmer climate changes the Sauvignon Blanc profile again; here it is much more tropical, its warm tone augmented by additional lees aging. Or at least they have options. At Elephant Hill, for example, just a stones throw from Cape Kidnappers on the south bend of the bay, viticulturist Jon Peet makes multiple vineyard picks to get different levels of ripeness for his Sauvignon, a palette of flavors to work with, and not a gooseberry in sight. Theres some herb, to be sure, but its off in the distance; whats foregrounded is a pure, mineral bath of flavor, a saline, wet-stone texture that is naturally sapid and hunger-inducing.

In Marlborough too, wineries such as Greywacke, Te Whare Ra, Dog Point and Fromm have chipped away at the mold, producing dramatically distinct Sauvignon Blancs that hint at the regional style before departing from it  even Cloudy Bay makes a rich, oak-inflected Sauvignon called Te Koko that bears little resemblance to the wine that launched the region onto the international stage.

But none has gone quite so far as Giesen. The brothers produce no less than eight Sauvignon Blanc bottlings, drawing in large part from a diligent exploration of their older vineyards, from the seaside plantings of Wairau to the gently rolling slopes of the Southern Valley.

In 2008 Giesen had one of its largest harvests ever, and with it an opportunity to bottle some of the more distinctive sites in special bottlings. This was so successful that in subsequent years they farmed parts of their older vineyards for smaller yields; the harvested fruit was fermented with indigenous yeasts and aged in large German oak barrels (called Fuder) which lent some roundness, suppleness, and a bit of spice to the texture. The following year they produced a barrel fermented Sauvignon Blanc called the August 1888 named after their grandfather (who was a wine steward, well before it was fashionable).

The quantities of these wines are still minimal, dwarfed by the Giesens 700,000-case commercial bottling; but theyll help to broaden the stylistic definition of a once narrowly defined category and dispel any lingering notions that the countrys Sauvignon Blanc can all be painted with the same broad brush.

Where to find:

Mainstream Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc is fairly easy to come across if you need an introduction to this odd and unique white wine: $12 to $15 gets you in the door with supermarket brands such as Brancott Estate, Kim Crawford and Villa Maria. For $20 or a bit less you can access more carefully crafted wines from the likes of Craggy Range, Palliser and Ata Rangi in Martinborough, Elephant Hill in Hawkes Bay, and Marlborough producers such as Greywacke, Dog Point and Cloudy Bay; Fireside Liquors in Santa Monica, Hi Time Wine Cellars, Wine House, and Woodland Hills Wine Merchant all carry an array. K&L Wine Merchant, which has the best selection of the Giesen wines, is a standout for its range  its New Zealand buyer, Ryan Woodhouse, brings in a number of very good New Zealand brands through its direct import program.
On Monday, three days after 36 people died in a fire at an Oakland warehouse, city building code inspectors sprang into action.

They descended on five other warehouses that authorities suspect are housing people illegally. Some of the properties, like the one gutted during a Friday night concert, had been the subject of complaints about building and safety code violations. None are permitted for residential living.

By Thursday, one of those properties had been cited, and inspectors planned to return to the other warehouses, public records reviewed by The Times show.

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The inspections follow the growing scrutiny Oakland officials are facing over what many consider an inadequate response to safety concerns at the Ghost Ship warehouse, the scene of the deadliest fire in modern California history.

These questions were heightened when officials revealed that no building code enforcement inspector has been inside the warehouse in at least 30 years despite the fact that, according the city records, the building and its adjoining lot had been the focus of nearly two dozen building code complaints or other city actions.

Moreover, a source in city government said Thursday that the address for the warehouse was not listed in the Oakland Fire Departments database of buildings requiring inspections, raising questions about whether that agency examined the Ghost Ship.

The citys Fire Prevention Bureau is required to conduct annual inspections of all commercial buildings and multi-family residences, according to city ordinance. Officials have yet to release any fire inspection reports regarding the warehouse.

Mayor Libby Schaaf vowed to strengthen Oaklands building and fire inspection programs and to crack down on code violations, but said the city would not conduct witch hunts against its employees or agencies responsible for investigating building and safety complaints.

I want to be clear we will not scapegoat city employees in the wake of this disaster, Schaaf told reporters Wednesday. Rather, we will provide them the guidance, clarity and support they need and deserve to do their jobs.

The interim director of the citys Planning and Building Department said the agencys building code inspectors go into buildings only when the owner seeks a permit or if officials receive a complaint. The city, which is home to more than 400,000 people, has 11 building code enforcement inspectors, director Darin Ranelletti said.

Over the past three years, the department investigated at least three of the complaints at the Ghost Ship warehouse that appeared to assert that structures had been built inside without permits or that the property was being used as a residence. Most of the other complaints cited illegal parking and mounds of debris piled up on the sidewalk and in an adjoining vacant lot.

A building code inspector visited the warehouse 15 days before the fire to investigate complaints of trash and debris piled outside and an illegal interior building structure. But the inspector was unable to get inside, triggering questions about whether a more aggressive investigation would have identified the multiple building code violations inside the structure  including unpermitted electrical work, makeshift residences and a staircase made partially of pallets  and possibly prevented the tragedy.

Planning and Building Department reports released Wednesday indicate that on Nov. 21 the city sent a violation notice to the property owner demanding that debris outside the building be cleaned up, but the notice did not request access inside the warehouse.

The citys top building official also appears to have changed his story about the details of that investigation. Ranelletti told reporters Wednesday that the inspector was trying to enter a fenced lot next to the building, not the warehouse itself. The warehouse and lot are separate parcels, but they are adjoined and owned by the same person.

Ranelletti provided a different version of events at a news conference the day after the fire, saying, We had an inspector attempt to enter the building and at that time was not able to secure access to the building.

City spokeswoman Karen Boyd explained the discrepancy Thursday.

It wasnt clear until later that there were two properties and that the inspectors inability to gain access referred to the lot, not the warehouse building, she said.

Questions about the competence of Oaklands building inspection agency arose five years ago. An Alameda County Grand Jury in 2011 released a scathing reportaccusing the citys building services division of mismanagement and having haphazard policies about conducting building inspections.

The grand jury found that agency was riddled with poor management, lack of leadership, and ambiguous policies and procedures. It added that the agency had inconsistent standards on code violations and that the violation notices sent to property owners were late and hard to understand. In addition, inspectors treated property owners in an unprofessional, retaliatory and intimidating manner.

Schaaf, who was a city councilwoman at the time of that report, said many of those concerns were quickly addressed, and she noted that the city also has been criticized in the past for being too aggressive with building code inspections.

The Ghost Ship warehouse was owned by Oakland resident Chor N. Ngs trust and zoned exclusively for commercial use. It housed an artists collective and, according to former residents and those who frequented the building, had unpermitted living quarters inside and hosted concerts and other events.

The catastrophic fire appears to have triggered a wave of warehouse inspections by Oakland code enforcers.

Inspectors were sent to the addresses of five warehouses allegedly used as alternative housing. Most of the properties had records of past complaints that included blighted conditions, unpermitted work and illegal squatting.

By Thursday, public records show, one of those properties had been cited for unspecified violations. The other buildings include a 6,600-square-foot warehouse on Oaklands west end industrial center that local residents call Death Trap  a label they said a city inspector used when inside the building in 2011.

The records show the Magnolia Street property, built in 1925 and zoned for industrial use, was the subject of repeated complaints and investigations in 2011. It had alleged alterations without permits, graffiti, trash and debris and substandard housing. The case regarding the blight complaints was closed in September 2011 when the property was cleaned up. However, a housing habitability complaint remained open until January 2014 when it was closed as unable to verify.

 The citys planning and building department only goes into buildings when the owner seeks a permit or if officials receive a complaint.

A new inspection was conducted Thursday after the city Fire Department filed a complaint.

Oakland records show another warehouse blocks away also was listed for inspection Monday. On Wednesday the 1,000-square-foot building, a single-story green structure built in 1930, was found in violation of housing codes. A violation notice was mailed to the owner on Thursday.

The property, last zoned to house a hydroponics office, was cited twice in 2015 for illegal habitation, including a complaint of 20 squatters occupying the site.

phil.willon@latimes.com

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It was, as the duck hunters say, a bluebird day in the Sacramento Valley  sunny and warmish, barely a cloud in the sky. I stood on the edge of a harvested rice field, squinting into a drainage ditch. The water was maybe a foot deep.

Suddenly, a tail fin belonging to a salmon way too big for these shallows broke the surface, then disappeared. Peering into the water, I could make out a male and female, perhaps as large as 25 pounds. What on earth were winter-run Chinook doing here, in a ditch next to a rice field, when they should be making their way up the Sacramento River to their spawning grounds?

They got lost, said my guide, Jacob Katz, a senior scientist with CalTrout, a nonprofit engaged in improving fish populations. They zigged when they should have zagged.

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Miles southwest of here, after swimming under the Golden Gate Bridge and through the Sacramento Delta, these endangered fish made a wrong turn. Instead of bearing right in the Sacramento River, they turned left into a system of agricultural drainage canals and ended up many miles later in dead-end ditches like this. Each year, despite rescue efforts of the Department of Fish and Wildlife, hundreds end up dying, without spawning, at the edges of Sacramento Valley rice fields.

Young salmon heading downstream to the ocean have it even worse. If they survive to the age of migration, the fast-moving Sacramento River provides them with little food and refuge from predators. Other disasters befall them; in 2014 and 2015, most salmon eggs were wiped out by high water temperatures in the river, a result of the drought and a mechanical flaw in a temperature control device at Shasta Lake that was supposed to release enough cold water to save them.

Tuesday, I visited a couple of projects in the Sacramento Valley that are aimed at helping salmon on both ends of the life cycle. They are collaborations between farmers and environmentalists, two groups that are often at each others throats in the never-ending battle over who is entitled to Californias precious water supply.

Its just a blessing to work with these people, said second-generation rice farmer Bryce Lundberg, at a breakfast that included Katz, farmers and officials from various water districts and state agencies. Our future is tied to the environment. The health of birds and fish is tied to the health of farms.

::

The environmental awakening of the Sacramento Valleys rice farmers was more or less forced upon them. Traditionally, farmers burned the rice stubble left in their fields after harvest. But that cheap and dirty practice was outlawed by the state in 1991.

Many took to flooding their fields to help the leftover rice straw decompose. This had the effect of creating what scientists call surrogate wetlands, attractive to all manner of ducks and geese whose populations had dramatically shrunk because their winter habitat, the Sacramento Valleys wetlands, had been engineered out of existence with levees, canals and dams.

All that human intervention had allowed farms and cities to flourish, of course. But it was hell on birds and fish.

Transforming hundreds of thousands of once-burnt acres into wetlands helped revive an important migratory stop along the Pacific Flyway. It was good PR for farmers, who could also charge duck hunters hefty fees for using their land. The ducks tend to catch on quickly.

They hang out in the wildlife refuges during the day where they cant be hunted, said Lewis Bair, general manager of Reclamation District 108, one of the states oldest water districts, as we drove along the edge of a flooded rice field. Then they move to these fields to eat after dark.

Several years ago, scientists at UC Davis got an idea: What if they figured out a way to get young salmon back into those wetlands, too? Before all the levees and canals were built, juveniles would come down the river from Redding, spilling over the banks into the flood plain to fatten up for the treacherous journey to sea. Instead of being shunted down the food-scarce Sacramento River as they are now, the fry could take some time to bask in the shallow, bug-filled waters of the rice paddies.

This experiment, dubbed the Nigiri Project (after that sushi favorite, salmon on rice), is in its fifth year, and is showing promise. Its still unclear, however, whether the flood-plain fatties have a better chance of making it back to spawning grounds as adults.

Weve done this with 5,000 or 10,000 fish, and theres no way to recover enough of them to draw scientific conclusions, said Katz. Hed like to do it with half a million fish, but has not been able to get permission from various government agencies. There are a lot of politics involved, and its sensitive.

Last year, the Natural Resources Defense Council filed a lawsuit against the federal Bureau of Reclamation and Sacramento Valley rice farmers (whose water rights are nearly iron-clad) for mismanaging water at the expense of the endangered Chinook.

Theres a line that is being walked here, Katz said. Fish need water, and there needs to be resolution about water rights and the Endangered Species Act. But in the meantime, theres lots of projects that are good for fish, good for the environment and good for farmers. And its in everyones interest to build those now.

::

My last stop of the day was a construction project on a private farm in the Yolo Bypass, a swath of farmland 40 miles long and 3 miles wide between Davis and Sacramento that protects Sacramento from severe flooding. Wallace Weir, a $13-million barrier, will allow for improved flood control, but will also prevent adult salmon, like the ones I saw, from straying to their deaths in drainage ditches.

Reclamation District 108 General Manager Lewis Bair at Wallace Weir in the Yolo Bypass. The project will help with flood control and save endangered salmon that have strayed from the Sacramento River into drainage canals. (Robin Abcarian / Los Angeles Times )

The day after my visit, Katz told me, he returned to the ditch to find salmon in water so shallow, their backs were exposed. This makes them easy prey for river otters, who gorge on the eggs and leave the carcasses for coyotes, vultures and deer.

When off-course salmon reach Wallace Weir, they will be directed into a maze-like tank with a mechanical, perforated floor that will lift the heavy adults up to biologists who will pluck them out of the water with slings and load them into trucks for return to the Sacramento River.

Its not exactly a sustainable way to save the salmon, but given that human intervention has pushed them to the edge of extinction, its the least we can do for now.

robin.abcarian@latimes.com

Twitter: @AbcarianLAT

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The room for rent last summer inside the converted warehouse at 1919 Market St. in West Oakland had all the magic of an artists colony that Sam Code wanted.

Code, who sang and played guitar in bands, was drawn to the three floors of lofts connected by a network of ladders, hidden nooks and crannies, bright skylight and the paintings, mannequins and screen prints that revealed the imagination of everyone inside.

But something about the warehouse also left Code anxious: the long, dark hallways and just two exits for more than 100 residents.

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I knew right when I walked in that it wasnt safe, Code said. But there was something romantic about it.

In the end, his desire for a creative community lured him to move in  that and the cheap monthly rent of just $400.

It was a precarious decision, but one faced by uncounted people in need of cheap housing in one of the nations most expensive places.

Artists and young people like Code have long been drawn to Oaklands flourishing cultural scene in a region known for technology and the riches it produces.

But soaring Bay Area housing costs are forcing some into dangerous living conditions. Tragedy struck one of those artist residences last week when 36 people died after a fire ripped through the illegally converted Ghost Ship warehouse in Fruitvale during a concert.

The horrific event could lead city officials to go after illegally converted warehouses across Oakland, especially as evidence mounts that building inspectors knew of numerous problems with the Ghost Ship property but didnt take action.

Already, Oakland tenants housed in similar spaces are receiving eviction notices, and Mayor Libby Schaaf announced that the city is considering new fire and emergency exit regulations for its buildings. But any decision to condemn residences where artists are living illegally or force their owners to bring them up to code has led to worries that Oakland might hemorrhage more artists as housing costs continue to rise.

The states housing shortage has hit the Bay Area hard. Between 2010 and 2014, the region added about 446,000 private sector jobs but only 54,000 new homes. Oakland, where more than a fifth of all residents live in poverty and median household income is $25,000 less than neighboring San Francisco, is especially vulnerable to displacement and gentrification pressures caused by the regions rising wealth and lack of housing.

Oakland has long been a Bay Area artists haven, even more so since the tech boom fueled a frenzied real estate market in San Francisco, where the median home value is now $1.1 million. The surging costs have pushed San Francisco artists across the bay to Oakland where they compete with existing residents as well as low-, middle- and even upper-income San Franciscans driven out of the city for limited housing.

Rents in Oakland grew by 68% between 2007 and 2015, a major report on housing affordability showed this year. The median one-bedroom apartment in Oakland now costs $2,200 a month, the fourth-highest of any market in the country. And more than half of city rental households are rent burdened, meaning they spend 30% or more of their income on housing costs, according to U.S. Census data.

Joy Newhart, who was evicted from a converted warehouse in Oakland deemed unsafe by the authorities. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times )

Oaklands artists are feeling the burden. In a city-sponsored survey last year, the majority of the 900 artists polled said workspace and housing costs presented the biggest challenges to being an artist in Oakland. Nearly half said they were on month-to-month leases in their houses and workspaces, putting them at risk of displacement, the survey found.

The story of 1919 Market St. could serve as its own cautionary tale about what could happen when city officials take action against illegally converted warehouses.

In January, after receiving reports of a leaky roof and tangled exposed wiring, Oakland city officials condemned 1919 Market. The warehouse had never received a permit for people to live there.

Code, 30, was evicted and lived at a friends house for 10 days. He moved to another artist community and ran into problems there before moving again last month to a home less than two miles from Ghost Ship. Code and his partner now share $1,525 a month in rent, nearly doubling what he paid at 1919 Market. Code and other former residents are suing their former landlords, who have denied wrongdoing in court filings.

The solution, I do not think, is to shut down these spaces, Code said of 1919 Market and other illegally converted warehouses. I had resources I could fall back on. Thats not the case for everyone.

Others have had more difficulty. Joy Newhart, a 60-year-old dancer and choreographer also evicted from 1919 Market, paid $600 a month to live and work there. Since the buildings closure, she has been unable to find stable living.

Last spring, she moved in with friends, one of whom assaulted her and harmed her animals, she said. Then she moved into motels. Over the summer, she went to the East Coast, traveling between Philadelphia, Atlantic City, N.J., and Washington D.C. Ultimately, she moved back to the Bay Area and is now staying with other friends.

After her eviction, Newhart had to move her computer equipment into storage, which forced her to lose her small income from producing videos of corporate events. She now lives solely on the $1,200 a month she receives in federal disability payments and is considering moving to Crescent City near the Oregon border for more affordable housing.

Newhart blamed the citys building department for being callous to the fate of residents evicted from 1919 Market.

Yes, there were fire problems. Yes, there were electrical problems. Yes, there were problems with all of those things, Newhart said. But they could have worked with us to keep us within our homes. They didnt need to throw us out on our asses and make us all homeless and destroy our lives in so many ways.

Now, a developer is turning 1919 Market into a 63-unit apartment complex designed for young professionals who will pay higher, market-rate rents. The building is located less than a mile from Ubers planned, new Oakland corporate headquarters.

City officials say they understand the worries within the artistic community about their response to the Ghost Ship fire.

Im very much concerned that we not become knee-jerk and overreact in a way that leads to massive displacement, said Oakland City Council President Lynette Gibson McElhaney. Its really important that we do not add more injury to this incident and this community so that people dont feel terrorized and then get kicked out onto the street.

Gibson McElhaney said she was examining models from around the country, including New York City, that aim to encourage artist residences to comply with building codes. She added that the City Council planned to look at increasing penalties on landlords operating unpermitted spaces and whether to devote more resources to the building department and code enforcement.

Last year, Schaaf created a new housing inspection program to encourage tenants to report unsafe situations without fear of a landlords increasing their rent to repair hazardous conditions.

This week, Schaaf announced that the city had received $1.7 million in philanthropic donations to support artist housing and is reconvening an artist housing task force. Schaff said she recognized the pressures artists were facing.

The arts are at the center of vibrant and diverse communities, and are critical to neighborhood health and well-being, yet artists and cultural organizations are increasingly vulnerable to instability and displacement, Schaaf said in a statement.

Still, advocates say balancing safe living spaces with affordability is a problem no one in the city has figured out how to solve.

I dont know that theres anybody who has come up with a silver bullet yet, said Robert Gammon, a senior editor at Oakland magazine who has written about housing concerns in the wake of the fire. If they had, we wouldnt be having this discussion.

A view though a hole in the fence next to the warehouse at 1919 Market Street. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times )

liam.dillon@latimes.com

Follow me at @dillonliam on Twitter

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The winners of three L.A. school board races next March will have to help run a system facing a long-term financial crisis, lagging academic performance and declining enrollment.

Still, 15 people want the jobs and this week turned in paperwork that they hope will get them on the ballot.

The election could prove pivotal because the seven-member board is divided on key issues, including the growth and monitoring of independently operated charter schools. L.A. has become a widely watched battleground for competing special interests and conflicting visions of reform, so campaign spending is expected to be in the millions of dollars.

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Wednesday was the deadline for turning in petitions that are part of the process for getting on the ballot, and 15 of the 19 who had signed up to run followed through. Signatures on some petitions still need to be verified, so its possible that the final list of candidates will shrink.

In two of the three seats on the ballots, incumbents are running for reelection.

In District 4, which stretches from West Los Angeles into the west San Fernando Valley, current school board President Steve Zimmer is seeking a third term. He is expected to receive strong support from employee unions, and draw well-funded opposition from donors who oppose union-backed candidates and want to limit union influence.

Whats not yet clear is where the major non-union money will go. Attorney and former teacher Nick Melvoin is one possibility. Another is Allison Holdorff Polhill, a parent and former board member of Palisades Charter High School. Its possible that both will draw significant resources from the same group of donors.

In early campaign filings, Melvoin led all candidates with $161,742 raised, but the biggest spending is likely to come in independent expenditures, either from the teachers union or from its opponents. This spending is not controlled by the candidates.

Also in the District 4 race is parent Gregory Martayan, who describes himself in election filings as a police specialist based on his experience as a reserve police officer who served as a liaison with the Armenian community.

In District 2, the non-union money will go to longtime board member Monica Garcia. Shes likely to receive support from some district employee groups, but not from the teachers union.

The teachers union still is deciding whether to engage in a costly, uphill battle to unseat Garcia, whose district stretches out from downtown.

Also in the race are parent activist Carl Petersen, who recently ran unsuccessfully for a board seat in the west San Fernando Valley; perennial Republican candidate Manuel Manny Aldana Jr.; veteran Roosevelt High School teacher Lisa Alva, and education and immigrants rights attorney Miho Murai.

District 6, in the east San Fernando Valley, is open because one-term incumbent Monica Ratliff opted to run for L.A. City Council. Four years ago, Ratliff, a teacher running without union muscle, beat the odds against an opponent with comparatively unlimited resources.

Kelly Fitzpatrick-Gonez now hopes to make that move from teacher to board member in this district, though she could turn out to be the well-funded candidate in the race. The seventh-grade science teacher, who works at a charter school, could pull in support from pro-charter forces. In the last election, the political arm of the California Charter Assn. was the primary conduit for non-union money.

The teachers union is backing community activist Imelda Padilla, who serves on the countys Commission for Women and works for a grant-writing firm.

Also in the race are Gwendolyn R. Posey, a parent who has been involved in county efforts to improve early childhood education; Jose Sandoval, who in filing papers described his background teaching families about the importance of spaying and neutering pets; Araz Parseghian, a parent and loan officer, and Patty Lopez, who just lost her bid for reelection to the state Assembly.

Candidates needed at least 1,000 signatures from registered voters in their districts, unless they paid a $300 filing fee, which cut the required number of signatures in half.

howard.blume@latimes.com

@howardblume

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For decades, some Malibu property owners have made it hard for the public to reach public beaches.

On Thursday, the California Coastal Commission fined two of those property owners more than $5.1 million for denying surfers, sand castle builders, kite flyers, sun bathers, yoga enthusiasts and other beachgoers access to the sand that is theirs by state law.

In one of those decisions, the commission had battled for nine years with Dr. Warren M. Lent and his wife, Henny, before unanimously approving Thursdays cease-and-desist order for the couple and fining them about $4.2 million for diverting a public easement to private use at an expensive oceanfront rental they own at Las Flores Beach.

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Commissioners described the Lent case as very egregious and a flagrant violation of state law because the couple had long refused a commission request to remove an unauthorized gate, fence, stairway and deck that blocked an easement required by a coastal development permit issued to a previous owner. The fine was far more than the $950,000 recommended by the agencys staff.

This represents an attitude we often see in Malibu  that the shore is our private backyard, said Commissioner Mark Vargas, who made the motion at Thursdays hearing for a $4.185-million fine. Its clear that they are dragging this on as long as they can and damaging the publics right to use the beach.

In the second action, commissioners approved an amicable settlement with the owners of the Malibu Beach Inn at Carbon Beach, which is known as Billionaires Beach.

Under the agreement, owners Simon and Daniel Mani, who are West Hollywood real estate investors, must build two long-required stairways to the sand, install a $425,000 signalized crosswalk near the hotel and pay $200,000 in fines as well as $300,000 to a local conservation agency.

The penalties are the first that the powerful land use agency has imposed on property owners for violating beach access provisions of the California Coastal Act.

State legislators granted the commission the authority to level fines in 2014. Because of the deterrent effect, the agency usually resolves access violations far short of imposing a financial penalty.

The commissions decisions will eventually provide much-needed access points to two Malibu beaches that have long been walled off to the public by tightly spaced homes.

This represents an attitude we often see in Malibuthat the shore is our private backyard.  Coastal Commissioner Mark Vargas

Agency officials say that 19 of 29 public easements for beach access in Malibu remain closed. Some property owners and residents have tried to deter the public from going to the beach by hiring security guards, putting up fake no-parking signs, painting curbs red and locking or blocking access ways.

In the Lent case, the commission issued a coastal development permit in 1979 for the construction of a two-story house at 20802 Pacific Coast Highway. According to commission records, the original owner obstructed the required easement with a gate, fence, private stairway and a deck without permits.

At the time, the commission had no enforcement plan or compliance officers to make sure permit recipients complied with conditions.

Agency officials said the Lents bought the house in 2002 and have knowingly refused to remove the obstacles to correct the violations since they were notified by the commission in 2007. Under the law, the current property owner is responsible for fixing access permit violations.

Commission officials said the couple made money at the publics expense by, in effect, converting the easement to private use.

A beachgoer walks along Carbon Beach in Malibu, also known as Billionaires Beach. The Malibu Beach Inn is seen in the left background. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times )

For years, the couple rented the house out to vacationers for about $1,000 a night and advertised on real estate websites that the romantic, gorgeous property has access to a private beach.

According to the case, the Lents spent nine years arguing against the removal of the obstructions, saying they never installed them and never desired to keep the public out.

We were not trying to block the easement, but trying in good faith to resolve the situation, Lent, a plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills, told the commission.

Alan Block, the Lents attorney, said fines were not appropriate because the couple inherited the violations. He added that his clients were willing to pay a $100,000 fine and remove the obstacles.

Commission officials say they sent some 30 warning letters to the Lents and repeatedly discussed the matter with the couple or their attorneys but could not reach an agreement. They added that the easement was feasible and ready to be opened except for the Lents constant refusal to remove the gate, fence, stairs and deck.

The nine-year fight with the Lents involved several government agencies, said Commissioner Mary Shallenberger. The public lost during that time while the private property owner gained.

According to commission records, the Malibu Beach Inn involved the owners failure to build two public stairways at an adjacent state beach parking lot that was required by a coastal development permit issued in January 1988.

The permit allowed the original owners, Marlin Miser and Martin Cooper, to build the 47-room Malibu Beach Inn at 22878 Pacific Coast Highway at Carbon Beach near the Malibu Pier.

Records show that Miser and Cooper never built the stairway. Neither did Hollywood moguls David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg after they bought the inn in April 2005.

They received a violation notice from the commission in 2007 after applying for a coastal development permit to remodel the hotel.

Agency records show that the violations were not resolved by the time Geffen and Katzenberg sold the inn to the Mani Brothers Real Estate Group in May 2015 for $80 million.

When the commission learned of the sale, it advised the owners of the permit violations and they and their attorneys worked with the agency to reach a settlement.

dan.weikel@latimes.com

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Its a tried and true technique of prosecutors to go after low-level criminals and turn them against their bosses.

In federal court Thursday, a onetime Los Angeles County sheriffs deputy convicted of obstruction of justice and conspiracy took the witness stand in the case against his former top boss: retired Sheriff Lee Baca.

Mickey Manzo, who now works at a Home Depot, said he was testifying in exchange for a potential reduction of the 24-month sentence he received in 2014 when he was convicted, along with five others, of taking part in a plot to thwart an FBI investigation into abuse and corruption in the sheriff-run county jails. Manzo is expected to start serving his sentence early next year.

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Through Manzo and other witnesses, prosecutors are attempting to establish that Baca was personally aware of and involved in the events of the summer of 2011, when they allege the sheriff and his subordinates conspired to obstruct federal authorities.

A lawyer for Baca told jurors this week that the evidence does not connect the former top lawman to any crimes committed by the rank-and-file deputies and pinned the blame on former Undersheriff Paul Tanaka, who has also been convicted in the case and sentenced to a five-year prison term.

Manzo recounted from the witness stand the steps he took after deputies found a cellphone on an inmate at Mens Central Jail, who they discovered was feeding information to the civil rights squad at the FBI office in Los Angeles. Manzo testified that he was ordered by a lieutenant to interview the inmate and to record the conversation, so that the lieutenant could play the tape for the executives.

Who did you understand the executives to mean? Assistant U.S. Atty. Brandon Fox asked.

The sheriff and the undersheriff, Manzo responded.

When the recording was played at a meeting the following morning, Manzo recalled Tanaka becoming enraged over the FBIs investigation. Baca, he said, was not openly angry but did give a clear set of orders to the group of subordinates before departing. The sheriff ordered that the inmate was to be isolated and protected and that the group should learn everything about the FBI investigation, Manzo testified.

Speaking clearly and confidently, Manzo said Baca was kept in the loop as sheriffs officials tried to interfere with the FBI.

After a sheriffs deputy did not adhere to an order from Tanaka restricting visits to the inmate and allowed FBI agents into the jail to speak with the man, Manzo said he watched as his supervisor nervously walked into Bacas office to alert him of the mistake.

Manzo testified that his supervisor later said Baca had not been upset by the news  a description defense attorneys indicated they will home in on when they cross-examine Manzo on Friday.

Throughout Manzos testimony, Fox played audio excerpts from the many interviews sheriffs officials conducted with the inmate informant as they tried to decipher what the FBI was investigating. While Baca was not present for the interviews and is never mentioned, Fox hopes jurors will conclude he had set the operation in motion and was guiding it.

Earlier on Thursday, jurors heard from Bob Olmsted, a retired Sheriffs Department commander and an early whistleblower about problems with excessive force in county jails.

Olmsted, who unsuccessfully ran to replace Baca after the sheriff announced his retirement in 2014, testified that he spoke to Baca three times to alert the sheriff about significant problems and force issues at Mens Central Jail in 2010 and 2011. Baca brushed him off and never gave him a chance to fully lay out his concerns, Olmsted told jurors.

The force issues that are going on are out of control, Olmsted said he cautioned Baca in a 10-minute meeting in the sheriffs office. There are going to be lawsuits like crazy.

Under cross-examination by a defense attorney, Olmsted said Tanaka had told him of ambitions to one day be sheriff and be sheriff for the next 15 years, and that the undersheriff and other department brass sometimes colluded to keep Baca in the dark about goings-on in the department.

joel.rubin@latimes.com

victoria.kim@latimes.com

For more news on the public corruption trial of former L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca, follow us on Twitter: @joelrubin and @vicjkim
California Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris has doubled down on prosecuting three men behind the classified ad website Backpage.com, releasing a trove of company emails to support pimping charges after a Sacramento County judge said he was inclined to reject the case outright.

Judge Michael Bowman had said in a tentative ruling last month that the federal Communications Decency Act shielded Backpage from prosecution over the content of users ads. The judge let both sides submit new arguments before issuing a final decision, expected to be released Friday.

To salvage the case, Harris office filed 74 pages of briefing and internal emails obtained from its investigation into Backpage, which the attorney general has derided as the worlds top online brothel. Prosecutors contend the evidence shows the website knowingly profited from prostitution, and that site operators were not passive publishers but entered into the realm of content creators.

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The case largely hinges on whether the court views former owners James Larkin and Michael Lacey and the current CEO, Carl Ferrer, as publishers of third-party content or creators.

The state claims the latter and cites the example of two affiliated websites, Evil Empire and Big City.

On Evil Empire, profiles were made with altered content from Backpage users ads  unbeknownst to the users themselves  and linked to the original Backpage.com ads, prosecutors allege.

On Big City, prosecutors contend that Backpage ads were used to create pages resembling dating profiles. Staff would remove a disclaimer text that said requests for donations were for companionship, not sex, and also decide whether the user was interested in men, women or everyone, according to court papers.

In one email, Backpages operations manager offered instructions to moderators of Big City, apparently on how to alter the original ads: Rates can be listed if sex acts are not; sex acts can be described if rates are not, the email said. The two, however, should never appear together.

Backpage gave conflicting answers about its relationship to Evil Empire, according to the emails. One user emailed Backpage and asked that her phone number be taken down from Evil Empire, but the company told her the sites were not affiliated. However, when an El Paso police detective inquired about the relationship between the sites, Ferrer told a staffer to give transparency. The staffer described the site as Backpages in-house ad directory.

Before the release of the emails, Bowman, the judge, had said that republishing material was not the same as creating it, and he upheld the immunity enjoyed by publishers for posting material from third parties.

The victimization resulted from the third partys placement of the ad, not because [of] Backpage profiting from the ad placement, Bowman wrote.

Harris said the emails and other evidence show the trio used the multiple platforms to exploit vulnerable women and children and enrich themselves. Backpage earned more than 90% of its revenue from its adult ads, which sometimes offer thinly veiled prostitution of women and minors and coded sexual language, prosecutors alleged.

The state asked the judge to proceed with a preliminary hearing where prosecutors can fully present their evidence.

Ferrer, 55, has been charged with pimping a minor, pimping and conspiracy to commit pimping. The sites two former owners, Larkin, 67, and Lacey, 68, were each charged with conspiracy to commit pimping.

All three have pleaded not guilty.

Filed on Sept. 26, the case is the most vigorous effort yet to blunt Backpage, which was founded in 2004 and is now owned by a Dutch company that lists Ferrer as its sole partner.

From the outset, the trios attorneys have attacked the prosecutions legal foundations.

The charges the state asserts amount to a brazen effort to intimidate or shut down an online publisher by using all the criminal sanctions at the A.G.s disposal, despite that she has no authority whatsoever to do so, defense attorney James C. Grant wrote.

Lacey and Larkin also launched a counter-strike against Harris, saying she overstepped her legal authority to score political capital in the weeks before the Nov. 8 election.

Kamala Harris has won all that she was looking to win when she had us arrested, Lacey and Larkin wrote. She issued her sanctimonious public statement, controlled her media cycle and got her perp walk on the evening news.

This story will be updated.

matt.hamilton@latimes.com

Twitter: @MattHjourno.

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Charter school founder Steve Barr has abandoned his bid to unseat Eric Garcetti, helping the mayors campaign as he seeks a second and final term.

Barr, of Silver Lake, announced in a Facebook post Wednesday night that he was no longer running, saying he and others are still reeling from the presidential election.

Citing the need for better public schools, affordable housing and homelessness solutions, Barr wrote, We need real debate on these complicated issues. I could not find that path in the short time and quick turnaround, between our nightmare of a national election, and March 7th. I am so sorry to have let you down.

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Barr could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Wednesday was the deadline for filing the required allotment of signatures with the city to secure a spot on the ballot.

Candidates had to submit 500 valid voter signatures, or 1,000 if they wanted to avoid paying a filing fee. Barr did not pay the fee, according to the city clerks update on candidate petitions. On his Facebook page, Barr said he gathered about 900 signatures. However, he never turned in his petitions.

Barr raised just $17,923 and spent $33,527 on his mayoral bid, according to the most recent campaign reports filed with the city. Candidates typically need at least $1.5 million to launch a serious campaign.

Garcetti has raised $2.25 million, while Mitchell Schwartz has collected about $255,000.

Barr founded Green Dot Public Schools, a nonprofit chain of charter schools. His June announcement that he would seek the mayors office prompted speculation that education would emerge as a key issue in the mayors race.

His candidacy also came amid a push by local activists to expand charter schools after complaints about issues at the Los Angeles Unified School District.

In the short term, Barrs decision to drop out provides an immediate boost to Schwartz, a former political strategist who helped Barack Obamas 2008 campaign and is also challenging Garcetti.

Schwartz issued a statement Thursday calling Barr an old friend who has distinguished himself with his efforts to improve education for our most disadvantaged children. I was looking forward to his contribution to this civic conversation.

Barrs withdrawal also means Garcettis record could face less scrutiny during the election.

This isnt going to be a serious race, thats the bottom line, said political consultant Eric Hacopian, who isnt representing anyone in the mayors race.

Garcetti consultant Bill Carrick disputed Hacopians characterization of the race.

Were going to take it seriously and run a serious campaign, Carrick said, adding that he was surprised by Barrs departure from the race.

Hacopian sees similarities between Garcettis reelection bid and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosas 2009 reelection. In that race, Villaraigosa faced just one semi-serious contender, attorney Walter Moore. Moore garnered attention for his anti-immigrant message and received 26.3% of the vote.

Both homelessness and violent crime have increased since Garcetti took office. The mayor has also clashed with some activist groups and faces questions from business groups about whether hes fulfilled his pledge to boost the citys economy. At the same time, Garcetti has garnered praise for passing an earthquake-retrofitting law and securing new taxes to help pay for homeless housing and new transit lines.

Others who submitted signatures by the deadline to run for mayor include San Fernando Valley activist David Hernandez and Studio City Neighborhood Council member Eric Preven.

Twenty-two people submitted petitions to run for a northeast San Fernando Valley seat on the City Council, which was vacated by former Councilman Felipe Fuentes in September. An additional 29 turned in signatures to run for seven other council seats.

The list of all candidates could still shrink as officials in the city clerks office verify voter signatures on each petition. Those who lack sufficient signatures will not qualify for the ballot.

No one filed to run against City Atty. Mike Feuer, all but guaranteeing him victory in his bid for a second and final term.

Would-be candidates still have the option of mounting a write-in challenge to Feuer or other city incumbents. But in L.A. city elections, that strategy is an extremely unlikely path to victory.

In a statement, Feuer, who was first elected to the post in 2013, said he is honored once again to have the opportunity to serve the people of Los Angeles.

Times staff writer David Zahniser contributed to this report.

dakota.smith@latimes.com

Twitter: @dakotacdsmith

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Investigators have ruled out a faulty refrigerator as the cause of a fire that killed 36 people in an Oakland warehouse last week.

Earlier in the week, officials had said the refrigerator and other appliances were being examined as possible causes of the fire. But Jill Snyder, an ATF official, said Friday that electronics engineers had ruled out the refrigerator as a cause of the blaze.

The cause remains under investigation, but Snyder said its possible a definitive cause might never be known. She also said there was no evidence the blaze was intentionally set.

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Earlier in the week, the Oakland fire chief acknowledged that she cant say whether the warehouse was even in the departments database.

Right now, we are looking through our records, Fire Chief Teresa Deloach Reed told CNN on Thursday. I cant tell you anything right now about that warehouse.

1 / 24 The ruins of the Ghost Ship warehouse in Oakland, the site of a fire that killed at least 36 people, are seen from above on Dec. 5. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) 2 / 24 Debris litters the inside of a warehouse where a fire killed 36 people during a club-style party. (David Butow / For The Times) 3 / 24 A firefighter walks through the burned-out Oakland warehouse on Saturday. (David Butow / For The Times) 4 / 24 Firefighters walk through a debris-strewn warehouse where a fire killed at least nine people in Oakland. (David Butow / For The Times) 5 / 24 A drone flies over investigators outside Oaklands Ghost Ship warehouse, where 36 people died this month in one of the worst fires in modern California history. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) 6 / 24 Titus Cromwell, 4, places a flower from his familys garden near the scene of the Ghost Ship warehouse fire in Oakland. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times) 7 / 24 In the days after the Ghost Ship fire in Oakland, hearts dedicated to victims were hung from a nearby tree. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times) 8 / 24 Daryl Norman, 63, of Oakland stops by the scene of the fire on his way to church in Oakland. I had to come see for myself, he said of the 36 victims. God bless them. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times) 9 / 24 People stand at the perimeter holding flowers while watching crews remove material from what remains of the Ghostship warehouse fire, that burned and killed at least 36 people in the Oakland neighborhood of Fruitvale. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) 10 / 24 An art installation near the scene of the Ghost Ship fire. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times) 11 / 24 People pay their respects Dec. 11 near the scene of the warehouse fire. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times) 12 / 24 Mourners observe a moment of silence for the lives lost in the Ghost Ship warehouse fire at the Oakland Museum of California on Friday evening. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles TImes) 13 / 24 ATF agents map the scene of the fire investigation Friday at the Ghost Ship warehouse in Oakland. (Francine Orr/ Los Angeles Times) (Francine Orr / Los Angeles TImes) 14 / 24 Rain falls on the memorial for victims of the Oakland warehouse fire. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles TImes) 15 / 24 Hillary Morse, 22, of Oakland mourns the loss of two of her close friends in the warehouse fire in Oakland. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times) 16 / 24 Jacob Ramirez, 4, left, looks on while his grandmother Eva Ramirez, 52, consoles Hillary Morse, 22, right, of Oakland near the site of the warehouse fire in Oakland. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times) 17 / 24 Flowers, candles and notes, memorializing those killed and injured in the Ghostship warehouse fire that burned and killed at least 36 people in the Oakland neighborhood of Fruitvale. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) 18 / 24 A makeshift memorial of flowers and candles stands Dec. 4 near the site of the Oakland warehouse fire. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times) 19 / 24 A man who identified himself as Ben P. reads cards on Sunday at a memorial near the site of the blaze. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times) 20 / 24 Kristen Grzeca, a music teacher at Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts, hugs Monina Sen Cervone, director of world music and dance at the school, on Sunday at a makeshift memorial for victims of the warehouse fire. A 17-year-old victim was one of Grzecas students. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) 21 / 24 After attending church, Teionna Cunningham of Oakland leaves flowers near the site of the fire. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times) 22 / 24 A Seventh Day Adventist group prays on Sunday near the scene of the fire on 31st Avenue in Oakland. (David Butow / For The Times) 23 / 24 Flowers are left near an Oakland warehouse where a fire broke out during a concert, killing 36 people. (David Butow / For The Times) 24 / 24 Dino Graniello, left, and Jessie Xenakis light candles near the scene of a warehouse fire in Oakland that killed at least two dozen partygoers. (David Butow / For The Times)

Prior to the chiefs statement, a source in city government said Thursday that the 31st Avenue address was not listed in the fire departments database of buildings requiring inspections. Thirty-six people died in the structure while attending an electronic dance party last weekend.

I cant answer how that warehouse slipped through the cracks and that it bypassed our system  or how it bypassed the citys system, Reed told the news network. But everybody is at the table right now trying to figure out what happened.

The citys Fire Prevention Bureau, led by Reed, is required to conduct annual inspections of all commercial buildings and multifamily residences, according to city ordinance. Officials have yet to release any fire inspection reports regarding the warehouse.

On Wednesday, city officials revealed no building code enforcement inspector had been inside the warehouse in at least 30 years.

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf promised this week to strengthen the citys building and fire inspection programs. She also vowed to crack down on code violations but said the city would not conduct witch hunts against its employees or agencies responsible for investigating building and safety complaints.

The citys Planning and Building Department investigated at least three of the complaints at the warehouse over the past three years. The complaints appear to assert that structures had been built inside without permits or that the property was being used as a residence. Most of the other complaints cited illegal parking and mounds of debris piled up on the sidewalk and in an adjoining vacant lot.

A building code inspector visited the warehouse 15 days before the fire to investigate complaints of trash and debris piled outside and an illegal interior building structure.

But the inspector was unable to get inside, triggering questions about whether a more aggressive investigation would have identified the multiple building code violations inside the structure and possibly prevented the tragedy.

FULL COVERAGE: Deadly Oakland warehouse fire 

The Ghost Ship warehouse was owned by Oakland resident Chor N. Ngs trust and zoned exclusively for commercial use. But former residents and people who visited the building have said the warehouse housed an artists collective and unpermitted living quarters inside, and hosted concerts and other events.

The deadly fire appears to have triggered a surge of warehouse inspections by Oakland code enforcers  a development that has caused concern among many Bay Area artists, who say rising housing costs are driving them out of the region.

Oakland resident Jimi Woodliff said he runs into artists frequently through his work at a marijuana dispensary, and understands the predicament.

Obviously the city could totally kick people out, the 30-year-old said. But its not just peoples work studios, its their home.  They dont make a lot of money. Theyre called starving artists for a reason.

On Thursday, the Oakland City Council approved an emergency declaration to help fund response and recovery efforts. City workers already have begun assisting businesses affected by the fire.

Artists who worked inside the warehouse also may be eligible to receive federal loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration.

veronica.rocha@latimes.com

For breaking news in California, follow @VeronicaRochaLA on Twitter.

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UPDATES:

2:40 p.m.: This article was updated with ATF comments on the investigation.

This article was originally published at 9:20 a.m.
Most Californians give high marks to their public universities and colleges but worry they are too expensive, according to a statewide survey released Thursday.

The majority of Californians surveyed by the Public Policy Institute of California support more money for public higher education, but they disagree over how to raise it. Three-fourths reject tuition increases  which are being considered for next year by the University of California and Cal State University  but a majority said they would back a statewide bond for construction projects.

Higher taxes for higher education are supported by 68% of Democrats, 20% of Republicans and 42% of independents, according to the survey.

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Mark Baldassare, president of the San Francisco-based nonpartisan institute, said what most surprised him was that Californians still see college affordability as the top problem facing the states higher education system.

Tuition levels more than doubled after the 2008 recession, but the UC and Cal State systems have frozen them for the last six years despite mounting budget pressures. And the cost of Californias public colleges remains lower than comparable institutions across the nation, according to state finance officials.

How are we going to make sure Californians are going to afford the cost of higher education is first and foremost on peoples minds, Baldassare said. Theres a strong belief that the state needs to invest more.

Nearly three-quarters of those surveyed  spanning all political parties, race, ethnicities, incomes and education levels  said they believed that college costs prevent qualified and motivated young people from pursuing higher education and backed making community colleges tuition-free. An even greater share  82%  supported more scholarships and grants for students.

The Public Policy Institute of California surveyed 1,711 California adults in English and Spanish from Nov. 13 to Nov. 22. The surveys margin of sampling error was 3.5 percentage points.

Only a small percentage supported state funding increases alone. Nearly half said new dollars should be combined with wiser use of current funding.

The survey results heartened student leaders fighting proposed tuition increases. Ralph Washington Jr., president of the UC Student Assn., said he hoped UC leaders would pay heed to the public sentiment and find alternative ways to raise the additional money needed for next year. Although UC provides substantial financial aid, he said, it does not cover all costs  forcing many students to work and struggle to afford good housing and food.

Students believe that the biggest barrier to diversity on campus and success is affordability, he said. If the public believes in giving us more money, give us more money and we can prevent tuition increases.

UC spokesman Ricardo Vazquez said, while the university shared public concerns about costs, a robust and progressive financial aid program covers all tuition and fees for nearly 60% of California students, with many also receiving money for expenses such as housing and food. About a third of tuition dollars are funneled directly into financial aid, he said.

Cal State Chancellor Timothy P. White said he was encouraged that an independent survey confirmed widespread public support for Cal States goals of achieving adequate funding, student diversity and higher graduation rates. He reiterated that he did not want to impose tuition increases  which could amount to $270 annually  and hoped that policymakers would fill the budget gap of about $167.7 million between expected state funding and the needs of the university.

Im very pleased to see that this report emphasizes the role of the state government in doing its fair share to support our ability to teach students and to get them to degree, White said. This is about the common good.

Nearly all respondents to the survey agreed that higher education was important to Californias quality of life and economic vitality over the next two decades  though Democrats, African Americans, Latinos and Asians held those views more strongly than Republicans and whites.

Two-thirds of Californians said all three systems of public higher education were doing good or excellent jobs. They gave the UC and Cal State systems higher approval ratings than they got in a 2011 survey.

But it is uncertain whether that public support will translate into more state money for the two systems, which have been excluded from funding increases that voters have approved over the years for community colleges and primary and secondary schools.

Competition for state money may also grow more intense under a new president, if Donald Trump makes good on campaign pledges to abolish Obamacare and deport immigrants  including students  who came into the country illegally. State costs for healthcare and services to immigrants could soar.

Were in a new era, said Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles), who has made higher education a priority in recent years. A Trump administration  may seek to undermine our progressive gains in California.

State Assemblyman Jose Medina (D-Riverside) vowed to fight for more money for higher education as chairman of the Assemblys higher education committee.

A well-educated workforce is critical for the vitality of our state, and I will continue to champion policies improving the accessibility and affordability of higher education, Medina said in a statement.

H.D. Palmer, spokesman for the state finance department, said it was too soon to say how much Gov. Jerry Brown planned to propose for higher education in his budget blueprint for next year. But he said that Brown has shown a demonstrated commitment to higher education by restoring more than $2.1 billion to the Cal State and UC systems since 2013, returning them to pre-recession funding levels.

Such efforts may have been noticed. In the Public Policy Institute of Californias 2011 survey, 31% of those interviewed approved of how Brown handled higher education, compared with 45% today. Approval of the Legislatures performance on higher education doubled over the same period.
HBOs Silicon Valley actor T.J. Miller was arrested early Friday on suspicion of battery on a car service driver in the Hollywood Hills, police said.

The car company driver reported the attack about 1 a.m. in the 6900 block of Camrose Drive, said Officer Jenny Houser, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Police Department. The driver requested a private persons arrest.

It didnt happen in front of officers, Houser said.

Officers investigated the report and arrested Miller.

The 35-year-old was cited on the misdemeanor offense and released on his own recognizance, Houser said.

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Police did not release further details about the battery allegation. Houser declined to name the car service.

On Thursday, Miller sat down with Conan OBrien to promote his new movie, according to Millers Twitter account.

Millers new film, Office Christmas Party, was released Friday in theaters. He is also set to host the Critics Choice Awards on Sunday at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica.

Miller is best known for his role as Erlich Bachman in the quirky Mike Judge show Silicon Valley. Miller plays the owner of a home that serves as headquarters for a fledgling start-up.

He also played Ryan Reynolds characters reluctant friend in the superhero flick Deadpool.

veronica.rocha@latimes.com

For breaking news in California, follow @VeronicaRochaLA on Twitter.

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A homeless woman was arrested on suspicion of kidnapping a 4-year-old girl from a Trader Joes in Santa Rosa.

The incident occurred Thursday at the Trader Joes at the Santa Rosa Market Place, according to a press release from the Santa Rosa Police Department.

Police allege that Tina Szczepanek, 41, of Lake County, walked into the store and grabbed a girl who was shopping with her mother.

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Szczepanek went into Trader Joes and grabbed the victim, who was putting one of the small shopping carts away by the main entry/exit doors, police said. The mother of the victim was at the checkout stands and watched as the victim was putting the small cart away.

Witnesses told police Szczepanek said, She is mine, before walking out of the store. The mother followed her and demanded the girl back, police said. Szczepanek did eventually put the girl down and was later arrested.

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Congress is setting up the next budget showdown for early in Donald Trumps new administration, agreeing on a stopgap measure to fund the government only through April 28.

The House on Thursday overwhelmingly approved the temporary spending bill, ending its work for the session as lawmakers dashed off for the holidays.

Final passage by the Senate was expected by Fridays deadline. It hit a hurdle after Democrats sided with Rust Belt lawmakers seeking to preserve health and pension benefits that are in jeopardy for retired miners.

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This is Bernie Sanders plan to lead Democrats out of the wilderness 

Even so, two weeks before the Christmas holiday, lawmakers could be wrapping up the 114th Congress as one that will be notable not for big accomplishments but for concluding without too big of mess.

There was even a nod to bipartisanship, as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) joined a tribute to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, who is retiring after three decades in Congress.

Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, returned to Washington for the tribute, noting this was not the speech she had hoped to give, having lost the White House to Trump. She said Reids legacy will be the Affordable Care Act and other legislation that became law under his watch.

Harry has fought for the simple but powerful idea that, yes, we are all created equal, she said.

Republican leaders had hoped to fund the government through the end of the fiscal year next September, to clear the new year for the incoming Trump administration.

Congress agrees to waive most California Guard bonus repayments 

But the president-elects team indicated they preferred a stopgap funding measure, siding with congressional conservatives who argued that an earlier deadline would allow Trump to put his own stamp on government spending.

The April deadline all but ensures a budget brawl early in the Trump administration, when the new White House and the GOP Congress could be focused on other priorities.

Democrats called on Trump  who campaigned on promises to coal state voters  to intervene to help the miners.

The United Mine Workers benefit fund risks insolvency, and miners and their dependents were set to lose health coverage at the end of the month.

Proposals in Congress called for extending coverage for five years, but the stopgap measure allows for a four-month extension to April.

Its really appalling, said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco, who voted against the spending package.

Sen. Charles E. Schumer of New York, the incoming minority leader, said, Were challenging the president-elect: Follow through on what you campaigned on.

The legislation also provides $4.1 billion in disaster funds for Hurricane Matthew and $170 million for Flint, Mich., and other communities to upgrade drinking water infrastructure and address public health concerns.

lisa.mascaro@latimes.com

Twitter: @LisaMascaro

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Shes the first socialist elected to the Seattle City Council in 100 years, and she campaigned on a platform that included rent control, a revenue-raising tax on millionaires and a $15-an-hour minimum wage. Now, Kshama Sawant is raising eyebrows well beyond the Northwest.

As of this week, more than 20,000 people  many of them presumably Donald Trump supporters  have signed two Internet petitions demanding her impeachment after Sawant called for disruptive demonstrations at Trumps inauguration on Jan. 20.

Sawant, an India-born, second-term council member who was once arrested during a march to support the $15 minimum wage, had told a post-election crowd that Trump is racist and that demonstrators at the inauguration should shut it down.

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Within days, her office was flooded with several thousand calls, emails and texts, many sent by self-declared Trump supporters, Sawant reported.

Get the hell out of my country while you can, wrote one detractor. Stop being a terrorist here! You need to go back where you came from, wrote another. Yet another typed: Drop dead and go back to turbanville.

Sawant, a controversial leftist even in liberal Seattle (where Hillary Clinton won 87% of the November vote), sees threats and recall efforts as part of the job description. Elected officials have a moral duty to speak out on injustices, she said. In a piece she recently wrote for CounterPunch magazine, Sawant, who campaigned for Bernie Sanders and later for Green Party candidate Jill Stein, wrote:

My first grim thoughts as I saw some of the [recent] horrifying emails was that I will be far from the only person targeted after the dangerous rise of Donald Trump.

We must bring together millions of progressive workers and young people to build a wall of mass resistance against Trump and to defend immigrants, women, Muslims, LGBTQ people and all others targeted by his presidency.

That mid-November commentary apparently inspired more emails and helped propel the petition drives.

One petition, started by an ex-con in Southern California, has gathered more than 3,000 signatures in recent weeks. Jameyson MacDonald, a Trump supporter from Whittier, says he started his petition on change.org after reading about Sawants call for protests at the inauguration.

As she clearly has no respect for the Constitution of the United States or the laws of this nation, she is not fit to hold an office whose sworn duty is to protect such, he says in the petition.

As of Friday afternoon, 3,225 had signed up in support of having her resign or face impeachment  though the petition has no legal power and will merely be handed over to Seattles mayor in hopes he might take action, MacDonald says.

The petition is doing better than his 2015 effort to end legal discrimination against reformed ex-felons in the workforce. MacDonald, who served 15 years for a drug conviction, says hes still having trouble getting a job 25 years after his last crime. The petition, however, got only two signatures.

Over at thepetitionsite.com, meanwhile, 19,044 have signed a petition to remove Sawant from office. It was launched by a Seattle-area woman, Carron Chernobieff, who could not be reached for comment. It, too, will end up in the hands of Seattle Mayor Ed Murray, who has worked with Sawant on a number of legislative initiatives, including tenant rights and the successful effort to set a $15 minimum wage.

Lets send a message to our local Mayor, the petition states, that she should step down from her position or be impeached. It is not appropriate for elected officials to call for protests.

A petition signer from Iowa agreed the councilwoman must go, but wanted Sawant to know that Trump voters are not evil people. That was followed by several others who suggested Sawant be deported.

Sawants office said she was not available for comment on the recall petitions. But shes been through this before, and has weathered the political storm. Three years ago, a petition to oust her for supporting a special interest group  poverty-level workers seeking a $15 minimum wage  drew 352 signatures and then faded.

This time around, petition signers are calling her a terrorist, a danger to our society and a criminal who should be locked up.

It seems no perceived offense is overlooked. On Friday, one petition signer blamed Sawant because in Seattle Parking was nonexistent and [lacks] public transportation on Sunday.

Anderson is a special correspondent.

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The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in January that only a jury has the constitutional authority to find a murder so heinous that its perpetrator deserves to be executed. But Alabama continues to use a system in which trial judges can override a jurys recommended sentence of life in prison without parole and turn it into a death sentence. How is that constitutional?

Thats what lawyers for Ronald Bert Smith asked the Supreme Court, which unfortunately refused to give Smith an answer Thursday, and so Alabama put him to death. Its outrageous that the Supreme Court failed to step in to clarify why Alabamas death penalty system does not conflict the courts directives about the role of juries in deciding who dies.

The jury doesnt make the final call in Alabama... The judge overrode the jurys recommendation and sentenced [Ronald Bert Smith] to death.

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Smith was convicted in 1995 of killing a store clerk during an early morning robbery. Under Alabamas death penalty system, after a jury finds someone guilty of murder, it then must decide if the killing involved an aggravating factor, such as committing a particularly brutal murder, or killing for financial gain or while fleeing arrest. Absent such a determination, the defendant is ineligible for the death penalty. If the jury finds that the crime clears that bar, it then considers potentially mitigating factors., such as the killers age, personal history and capacity to recognize the criminality of his actions. If a majority of the jury decides that the mitigating factors outweigh the aggravating factors, then it must recommend a sentence of life without parole. Smiths jury did just that in a 7-5 vote, but under court rules in effect at the time, the jurors offered no details on why.

Unfortunately for Smith, the jury doesnt make the final call in Alabama. That is left to the trial judge, who conducts his own hearing and, factoring in the jurys recommendation, makes his own findings of aggravating and mitigating factors and determines whether the person should live or die. In Smiths case, the judge overrode the jurys recommendation and sentenced him to death.

In January, however, the Supreme Court ruled in Hurst vs. Florida that such a system violates the Constitution because the 6th Amendment requires a jury, not a judge, to find each fact necessary to impose a sentence of death. The underlying principle is a simple but important one: People accused of crimes should have their fates decided by a jury of their peers. The Hurst decision tossed Floridas death penalty system into disarray, and the state has tried to rewrite its law while faced with the possibility of new sentencing hearings for nearly 400 condemned inmates. In Delaware  the only other state that allowed judicial overrides  the state Supreme Court recently ruled that Hurst made its system unconstitutional, a decision that ended the death penalty there unless the Legislature recrafts its law.

Smith argued before the Alabama Supreme Court that his death sentence was unconstitutional under the Hurst decision, but the court sided 7-1 with the state, which had argued that because the jury found Smith guilty of an aggravating circumstance, the requirements under Hurst were met and the judge could impose the death sentence. Thats a preposterous argument  it cherry-picks one of the jurors preliminary determinations and ignores their ultimate conclusion that Smith should be sentenced to life without parole. It also ignores the fact that the judge based his decision on his own findings, not on what the jury found. On its face, the power the judge wields seems to conflict with the Supreme Courts Hurst decision.

Capital punishment is, at its core, immoral. In practice it has been meted out disproportionately to poor people of color, and has been manipulated by craven prosecutors and lying witnesses. In Alabama, where trial judges are elected, the Equal Justice Initiative, a human rights advocacy group, has reported that judicial overrides increase during election years, which implies that some of these death sentences may be imposed not because of the facts of the case, but because of the judges desire to crow about how tough they are on crime.

Such fundamental flaws create make the courts in general, and Alabamas in particular, an unreliable system for determining who should live or die. As long as the death penalty exists, its application must be subject to the strictest review and respectful of fundamental constitutional rights. The 6th Amendment guarantees the right to a trial by a jury of ones peers, and the courts have ruled that the finding of facts that lead to a death sentence is the purview of those peers, not the judge. The Supreme Court needs to shut down Alabamas skewed and unfair capital punishment system.

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When Californians endorsed the Legislative Transparency Act on Nov. 8, they probably had little understanding of the technical aspects of the measure. It was the general idea that was attractive: that lawmaking in Sacramento ought to be as transparent and accessible to the public as is technologically possible.

So its disappointing that only a month after the initiative passed, legislators are already attempting an end run around the provision in the new law that says bills must be in print in their final form for 72 hours before they can be put to a vote. On Monday, the first day of the new two-year session, legislators adopted two immigration-related resolutions that had been printed that very day.

So didnt that violate the new law? Absolutely not, says the legislative leadership, because resolutions are not bills, but statements of opinion. Bills are proposed laws.

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That may be a legally defensible position, but it is a pretty clear violation of the spirit of the new law. As is another exemption endorsed by Assembly members when they adopted their new rules Monday: constitutional amendments. Under the new rules, when legislators vote to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot, they would not need to abide by the 72-hour provision.

But, wait, theres more. The most egregious interpretation says that the final form of a bill  which is when the 72-hour provision is supposed to kick in  is not when a bill leaves the house of origin, but when the second house votes on it. So according to the Assembly interpretation, bills would be exempted from the 72-hour rule in the first house altogether.

(The Senate, to its credit, has published no such rules regarding Prop. 54 exceptions.)

That interpretation is highly questionable. The coalition of good government groups that backed Proposition 54, including California Common Cause, California Forward and the League of Women Voters, thinks so too. In a recent joint letter to legislative leaders, they said the 72-hour requirement applies to any house that is passing a bill. This is the only logical and internally consistent interpretation based on the language, ballot materials and purpose of Section 8 of Article IV of the Constitution, they wrote.

Some state lawmakers didnt like Proposition 54 from the start, fearing the 72-hour rule would limit their ability to get controversial bills passed because it would give lobbyists three days to work over on-the-fence legislators. But why shouldnt lobbyists and other stakeholders have a right to see legislation and express their opinions to legislators before a vote?

Much of the Democratic-controlled legislatures resistance to this measure focused on Charles Munger Jr., the billionaire conservative political donor who backed it. But who cares what the politics were of the man who was behind it? It was an effort to improve transparency in lawmaking that earned the backing of good government advocates and, ultimately, Californias voters.

When the legislature returns to Sacramento next month, we hope they will soften their hardheaded stance on Proposition 54 and embrace its spirit of transparency.

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When they open an account at Wells Fargo, consumers may miss the fine print stating that any disputes with the bank have to be resolved through arbitration. Not that Wells Fargo gives them a choice: If they want to open a savings account, they had to agree (with limited exceptions) not to take the bank to court.

But what consumers couldnt have anticipated is that Wells Fargo would use this agreement to insulate itself against class-action lawsuits when the bank fraudulently created entirely new accounts in their name without their knowledge or consent. Thats what the company has been doing since its employees created more than 2 million such accounts, then paid the fees generated by the new accounts by surreptitiously dipping into the customers legitimate accounts. And astoundingly, the courts have sided with the bank, ruling that even the question of whether a dispute must be arbitrated had to be resolved by an arbitrator.

Wells Fargo, which has refunded the fees generated by the fraudulent accounts, argues that it is committed to resolving customers complaints without going to arbitration. The bank also notes that those consumers remain free to go to small claims court (where the maximum award in California is $10,000).

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But Wells Fargo shouldnt even have the ability to invoke arbitration  a process that has been notoriously skewed in favor of the businesses that demand it  over accounts the bank created behind its customers backs.

Lawmakers should bar banks from requiring arbitration over disputes related to accounts customers didnt seek to create, as Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks) have proposed. State Sen. Bill Dodd (D-Napa) is proposing similar relief for Wells Fargos customers in this state. Meanwhile, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has proposed an even broader approach: a rule prohibiting banks from blocking future customers from bringing class-action lawsuits. The CFPBs rule would restore the deterrent effect that the threat of class actions can have on banks. Thats a more extreme step, but Wells Fargos actions in the wake of its unauthorized accounts scandal make it seem reasonable  and necessary.

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I have been appalled by the swastikas, homophobic propaganda and lynching references mushrooming across the country, but the danger felt theoretical until recently, when I became a victim of hate speech from a patient.

My patients kidneys were failing and we needed to know why. After wheeling, dealing and pleading, my intern and I persuaded the MRI techs to do one last scan before they went home for the weekend. My heart beating triumphantly, I raced to update the patient.

To be honest, I was dreading the conversation as he was a certified curmudgeon, but I felt relieved when I found him prattling pleasantly with some nurses. As I told him about the upcoming scan, he exploded.

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Health care workers soothe frustrated and frightened patients every single day. This was different.

Thrusting his finger in my face, he screamed, Your kind are so disorganized. You should have figured out that I needed the MRI hours ago. Im gonna get you fired.

His words cut to the quick. There was little question that I was being addressed differently because of my brown skin and beard.

Though cantankerous, he had been civil with my white colleagues. My blood pooled in my legs. I felt dizzy with rage. In a poorly constrained growl, I explained that he was in danger, that I was doing my best to take care of him and that he needed to reciprocate the respect that we were giving him. He replied that he had shown me ample respect by letting me speak to him in the first place.

Unwilling to continue the conversation, I silently helped wheel him to the MRI and left the second my services became unnecessary. I was seething within.

Could he not see how hard I was working for his benefit? Is my humanity subservient to my identity as a physician?

Health care workers cannot simply walk away from sick patients even if they spew hateful words. Duty is duty, but we also cannot allow ourselves to be degraded. Ask any physician of color and you will probably hear stories worse than mine. In recent weeks, my colleagues and I have noticed an uptick in hate speech. Some patients have refused to let doctors and other health care workers of color touch them, commanded us to leave the country and accused us of terrorism. As someone here from India with a work visa and hopes of getting a green card, these are unsettling incidents.

Most often, we respond to hate speech with avoidance or even appeasement. Reliance on patient-satisfaction scores for compensation can force abused health care providers to tolerate hateful words.

In the past, I have shrugged off casual racism a number of times to preserve a therapeutic relationship. There was the time a patient asked me to speak in English because of my Indian accent and the time another patient asked me to fetch him curry. I convinced myself that I was being professional by being thick-skinned.

The skins of health care workers are thickened by social, financial and legal security. I worry that the same hateful words that glance off my thick skin will go on to hurt a more vulnerable person  a recent South Asian immigrant working at minimum wage, for example. By signaling that it is OK to address minorities with hateful words, we leave the most vulnerable among us open to attack. Part of me still feels embarrassed at having lost my cool with my patient, but I am also glad that I let him know that his verbal abuse will not be left unchallenged.

In a time when white nationalists are holding meetings openly in a federal building, hate speech is inescapable in the hospital. Trainees should be prepared to navigate these challenges. Senior physicians and nurses have an important role to play. They must express solidarity and teach younger colleagues like me what to say, what to do and where to draw the line. Above all, we need to dispense with the notion that enduring sexist, racist or homophobic slurs silently is an element of professionalism.

The day after my patient threatened to have me fired, I had to return to work and resume caring for him. I did my best to respect his humanity and, although still grumpy, he remained civil. I pray that compassion and empathy prove to be the antidotes for prejudice.

Pranay Sinha of Hamden, Conn., is in his third year of residency in internal medicine at Yale-New Haven Hospital. This piece originally appeared in the Hartford Courant.
We were in the middle of the Book of Esther, where the new queen is being prepared by the eunuchs of the court for a fateful meeting with the king. Ive got the movie, Kirk Douglas said, eyes sparkling as he imagined a scene playing out.

Whats the movie? I asked.

Well, I play one the of the court eunuchs, he said. I dress her and undress her. Only Im not really a eunuch!

For the last 20 years I have studied Bible once a week with Douglas. In those years he lost his youngest son to a drug overdose, endured the heartbreak of seeing his grandson imprisoned for dealing drugs, watched his son Michael win a lifetime achievement award (What does that make me? Winner of some posthumous prize?), marked 50 years with his wife, Anne, and struggled with his legacy and mortality. On Friday he turned 100.

Several years ago I asked why he was studying the Bible at this stage of his life. It is the best book of stories in the world, he replied.

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It is difficult to imagine what it means to live a century, world-famous for most of it. His relatively modest Beverly Hills house is filled with gifts from other world-famous people. I admired an ornate hand mirror on my first visit. Oh, Anwar Sadat gave that to me, he said, offhandedly. Once youve partied with Frank Sinatra and John F. Kennedy, you arent easily excited.

I asked him once if he remembered Jackie Robinson. Do I remember him? Do I remember him? he scoffed. Rabbi, I was 4 years old when women got the vote. When on a hot day I said how much I appreciated air conditioning and guessed that as a kid hed probably relied on a block of ice and a fan, he fixed me with a half-comic glare and said, Who had a fan?

Douglas was a notoriously pugnacious star who projected a burning, internal anger on the screen. I still see glimpses of that smoldering ire as he reads certain sections of the Bible or discusses political events when we meet; it was not entirely acting. A doctor who treated many Hollywood stars confided to me that Douglas was among his toughest patients. He once punched a hole in my wall because he had a cold, he told me. As if germs had some nerve inconveniencing Kirk Douglas. He could also be openhanded and brave on behalf of the underdog. His orneriness was part of what enabled him to insist that blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo get sole screen credit for Spartacus in 1960.

Those sharp edges have softened over time. I dont know if studying made him nicer or he was nicer so he studied, his son Michael told me several years ago. But you are seeing him at his kindest.

Several years ago he and Anne sold much of their precious art collection to fund a foundation that has built more than 400 school playgrounds all over California. They have attended, together, the opening of every single one. They have given away tens of millions, notably to schools and the Motion Picture Home for the Aged.

Douglas has survived a heart attack, a stroke and a helicopter crash. He reads the Bible for its stories of struggle, and feels an affinity for the more troubled characters. When my book on King David was optioned by Warner Bros., he lamented being too old to play him in the movie. David, he told me, was his kind of complicated character, noble, strong and sinful. Douglas often recounts something a rabbi told him when he first began to study Judaism: that he loved being Jewish because it was so dramatic.

Facing his mortality, Douglas told me about sitting with his mother at the end of her life some 75 years ago. She held his hand and told him not to be afraid, that everyone dies. He had an extremely contentious relationship with his father, but he adored his mother and she adored him. When my boy walks, he remembers her telling her friends, the earth trembles.

Now when he walks, he trembles. He complains, but mostly with amazement that he is 100.

Several years ago I asked why he was studying the Bible at this stage of his life. It is the best book of stories in the world, he replied, then added, At this point it is all about God, people and charity, and I have my doubts about God, but none about charity and people.

Studying Judaism for years has softened him, but not dampened his drive to know more, and do more. It has turned him outward to the world. That same day as I was leaving he walked me to the door and said, Come back soon. The sun is setting and there is still a lot to learn.

Rabbi David Wolpe is the senior rabbi at Sinai Temple and the author of eight books, including David: The Divided Heart, which is being developed into a movie.

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President Obama on Tuesday delivered his final defense of the nations counter-terrorism strategy. He rightfully claimed progress on a number of fronts, including the death of Osama bin Laden, an end to waterboarding and the effective use of drones to kill terrorists. Just one week after the Islamic State-inspired attack in Columbus, Ohio, he also reiterated that there is no war between the United States and Islam. Islamic State and Al Qaeda, he said, do not speak for Muslims everywhere.

To me and many of my former colleagues at the Central Intelligence Agency, such pronouncements reflect Obamas greatest blind spot in his fight against terrorism: he has been unwilling to acknowledge that Islamic ideology plays a role in what motivates terrorists to strike. Meanwhile, men like Imam Bujar Hysa, a jailed cleric in Albania, frame the war on terrorism quite succinctly: Islam can coexist with other religions, but with democracy? No!

Hysa isnt an anomaly. He is a Salafist Muslim  a sect also called Wahhabi  who follows an ultraconservative set of beliefs propagated by Saudi Arabia and other Sunni Arab nations. Wahhabis do not believe in a separation of church (mosque) and state. For them, government should be made up of religious clerics  and only clerics  that use the Koran to justify their decisions.

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Are we at war with the whole of Islam, or should we be? Of course not. But Islam is a faith in crisis.

President-elect Donald Trumps chosen national security advisor, Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, has tried explaining this  albeit in impolite terms  by saying that Islam is a political ideology based on a religion.

Flynns poorly worded warning stems from experience, and he knows what happens when religious leaders take over governments. Women face widespread discrimination. Gay people are imprisoned or killed. Dancing, music and other forms of art are banned. And those who criticize Islam or convert to Christianity face prison or death.

However, what causes the most alarm to national security experts is the Wahhabi objective of global conquest. Islamic State and Al Qaeda are terrorist groups built on Wahhabi ideology. They want to govern the world under sharia law, and they are more than willing to achieve their goals through force. Islamic State is known for beheading its victims or burning them alive. And as we saw in Columbus, theyre inspiring legions of supporters.

Which brings us back to Imam Hysa and his home nation Albania. The tiny Balkan country has a majority-Muslim population that  until recently  had a tradition of moderate, tolerant Islam. But the country is in the midst of Wahhabi radicalization, spread by Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf donors. The result? More than 100 citizens of Albania are now confirmed to have fought for Islamic State. Thats roughly the same number as those sent from much larger nations such as Italy and Spain.

Albania is not alone. The easiest targets for Wahhabis are smaller countries and places where poverty and corruption run deep. Consider the struggling nation of Kosovo. Radical clerics and secretive associations have turned a once-tolerant Muslim society into a font of extremism.

In Afghanistan too, Saudi Arabia and its virulent strain of Islam are wrecking havoc.

Terrorism experts understand that larger, more stable nations are under threat as well. In Germany, the government recently launched a massive raid on the Wahhabi missionary group The True Religion because of its ties to Islamic State. This crackdown followed a wave of attacks on the German people last summer. In the words of Berlins Interior Minister, Islamic terrorism is Germanys greatest domestic security threat. In a controversial step just days ago, German Chancellor Angela Merkel added her vocal opposition to the full-faced veil  a Salafist requirement for female worshipers.

The United States has also suffered the consequences of Islamist extremism and those inspired by the radical ideology. We remember San Bernardino. Boston. Ft. Hood. Little Rock. Garland. Chattanooga. Ft. Dix. Orlando. Shanksville. New York. Washington.

Muslims have every right to sit at the American table if they support the Constitution. We should all proudly acknowledge brave women and men like my former CIA colleague who led our nations war on terrorism for more than 15 years; hes Shiite Muslim. This officer  whom I cant name because hes still officially under cover was ruthless in his hunt for radical killers, and he deserves a medal for his years of sacrifice.

Are we at war with the whole of Islam, or should we be? Of course not. But Islam is a faith in crisis, and to deny that certain strains of the religion are contributing to global instability is to deny reality.

After eight years as president, Obama still doesnt understand that.

With luck and wisdom, President Trump will fare better. My hope is that he and others in his administration will go out of their way to embrace loyal Muslim Americans, even as they publicly acknowledge that this proud faith is struggling to shed itself of a cancerous evil.

Bryan Dean Wright is a former CIA ops officer and member of the Democratic Party. Follow him on Twitter @BryanDeanWright.

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To the editor: Lawyer Liz Jackson attacks the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act. I co-sponsored this bipartisan legislation, along with Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.), to protect Jewish college students from discrimination. (The Anti-Semitism Awareness Act would damage free speech rights on campus, Opinion, Dec. 6)

The Obama administration has ruled that Title IV of the Civil Rights Act protects Jewish students from anti-Semitic discrimination. However, if anti-Semitism is undefined, that portion of the Civil Rights Act is rendered meaningless.

The State Department has issued a definition of anti-Semitism it uses to evaluate the human rights records of other countries. It would be hypocritical if we failed to use the same definition domestically.

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The State Department definition makes it clear that a statement is not anti-Semitic merely because it harshly criticizes the government of Israel. In contrast, opponents of the definition frequently make statements defending the killing of Jews as an appropriate response to Israeli government actions. Others call for the liquidation of Israel and the ethnic cleansing of the Middle East of virtually all Jews.

These statements are classified as anti-Semitic under the State Department definition, as they should be.

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks)

..

To the editor: The ancient Hebrews included in the sacred texts of the Bible stinging criticisms of the leaders of Israel by the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos and Micah, who spoke against the social and economic injustices of the time.

Were they anti-Semitic?

The state of Israel, like any other country, is accountable for the treatment of its people. Palestinians cannot be silenced by falsely labeling their struggle for survival as anti-Semitism.

Doris Isolini Nelson, Los Angeles

..

To the editor: As a supporter of the two-state solution myself, I feel that what Jackson fails to understand is how the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel all too frequently plays out on college campuses in the form of anti-Semitic speech and incidents. Its one thing to encourage a different approach by Israels democratically elected leaders; its altogether different to demonstrate against the entirety of existence of said country.

While relatively more mild in scope, one recent alarming anti-Semitic incident took place at UCLA in March 2015. There, a student seeking confirmation to a student government post was asked, Given that you are a Jewish student and very active in the Jewish community, how do you see yourself being able to maintain an unbiased view?

Delegitimizing is wrong. Demonizing is wrong. Disagreeing is OK.

David Alpern, Long Beach

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook
The European diplomat crunched celery from his Bloody Mary at the hotel bar. Hundreds of donors to a conservative think tank buzzed around the lobby, awaiting a speech from Vice President-elect Mike Pence in the presidential ballroom.

This is the place, the diplomat said amid the rumble of Tuesday night activity, declining to allow his name to be used as he recounted the many powerful people in Washington who suddenly want to hold meetings or events here, at President-elect Donald Trumps newest hotel.

In a way, its a bit of hype, he said.

Trump and hype have long gone together, as evidenced by the $100 cocktail on the hotel menu that combines rye and vodka with a modicum of caviar and a raw oyster.

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Until his improbable political journey, however, Trumps style had been mostly absent from the nations capital, a city he vanquished by mocking its values, expertise and conventions.

Now Washington, where just 4% of the voters chose Trump, must decide how to adapt to the man who will not only run the White House, but have his name prominently affixed to a landmark hotel just a few blocks away.

Transitions of power are part of life here, but Trump is a unique figure who ran against the establishments of both parties, calling into question the very underpinnings of the city.

We are the nations capital, and we need to be respectful of the president and give the president all of the honors of the office, said Elissa Silverman, a city council member. But as a city, I would say we have different values.

Unlike California, whose distinct government and culture sit across the country in opposition to Trump, Washington cannot live apart from the next president. Its workers, its subways and its reason for being depend upon the federal government, which Trump will soon control.

In some respects, the Trumpification of Washington has already begun:

A new casino opened this week, just south of the city across the Maryland border, a serendipitous tribute to the first former casino magnate to occupy the White House.

Foreign governments have begun holding events at the Trump International Hotel  including a Hanukkah party co-hosted by the Azerbaijani embassy  raising questions about whether Trump and his family are profiting from such goodwill gestures.

Politicians and think tanks who once shunned Trump are crafting new polemics, reconsidering old opinions and hosting symposiums designed to win his favor and demonstrate their influence.

Trump, though, is holding the city at some degree of distance, spending most of his transition period in New York, where his wife, Melania, and son Barron intend to remain through the end of the school year. His daughter Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, both key advisors, are said to be house-hunting in the Washington area.

Meantime, some locals have mounted small signs of resistance, like the city council deliberations over whether to cut funds for inauguration parades, the newly purchased rainbow flags suddenly cropping up in Pences neighborhood to make a statement about his history of opposing gay rights, and residents rushing to patronize a local pizza place that has become the focus of a bizarre, false conspiracy story, which alleged the shop was tied to a Democratic child-sex ring.

As a city, I would say we have different values.  Elissa Silverman, a city council member

The city council debate came after Silverman raised questions last month about the city spending more than $300,000 to build a heated, glass-enclosed viewing stand for the inaugural parade, as it did for President Obamas swearing-in four years ago.

I dont think we should be building this Cadillac Escalade, fully loaded stand, she said in an interview.

She lost that battle. The local government thought it unwise to provoke a man who enjoys the art of retaliation.

That does not guarantee the viewing stand will be fully used, however. Another city council member, Yvette Alexander, recalled that thousands of people called the District Building eight years ago seeking tickets for the first black presidents parade. This year, she has yet to field a single call.

The city was majority African American when President Obama took office, and, despite some demographic shifts, remains majority minority, one of several factors in local voters rejection of Trump.

But even as Alexanders constituents opposed Trump overwhelmingly, and even as Trump bashed Washington mercilessly, Alexander does not think the city needs to live in perpetual conflict with the next president.

She makes a distinction between Big Washington  the metaphor for Congress and the federal government that politicians love to attack  and Little Washington  the actual city of police officers, trash collectors and others who make it possible for Big Washington to function.

Mayor Muriel Bowser tried to emphasize some of those differences when she went to Trump Tower on Tuesday to chat with the president-elect for an hour. Her top priority: Money to fix the districts ailing subway system, an issue on which she might find some common ground with Trump.

Still, the Little Washington continues to operate far differently from Trumps vision for America. The city council voted this week for a bill that would add $250 million a year in business taxes to guarantee parents two months leave to care for newborns and adopted children, one of the most aggressive family leave policies in the country. It approved a minimum wage hike this year that will escalate to $15 by the year 2020.

Many of Trumps and Pences newest neighbors say they are proud of such progressive policies.

Earlier this month, Pence moved into a white two-story house with forest-green shutters in the citys affluent Chevy Chase neighborhood. Its a short-term arrangement until he moves into the official vice presidents residence at the U.S. Naval Observatory next month.

Carls Jr. head is selected to be Trumps Labor secretary 

Peter Fenn, a Democratic strategist who lives a few houses away, was walking his dog Dakota past the house one recent day. He pointed across the street, to the home of Sylvia Burwell, who serves as Obamas secretary of Health and Human Services. He gestured down the block, to the home of a high-ranking official at Planned Parenthood.

He knew of only one conservative in the neighborhood, Fenn said, the director of a super-PAC who has ties to the Koch brothers.

Fenns home and car still display Hillary Clinton logos. But he said he and his neighbors are not trying to re-litigate the election with the newly pressed rainbow flags on their houses. They delivered Pence a note asking him for a meeting, which Fenn insisted was a welcoming gesture.

But they are also making a statement, pointing to Pences history of supporting a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, his opposition to laws protecting gays from discrimination, and a law he supported as Indiana governor that would have allowed businesses that cited religious objections to deny services to gay and transgender people.

This isnt a cheap shot, Fenn said. Those are about fundamental issues.

noah.bierman@latimes.com

Twitter: @noahbierman

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Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders built a fiercely loyal California following during the election, regularly selling out events and packing his rallies with devoted supporters, some of whom trekked to other states on his behalf.

But when the former Democratic presidential candidates hopes for the nomination were dashed, Sanders and his allies worked to parlay some of that enthusiasm into electoral success elsewhere, hoping to advance progressive causes and candidates in one of the most liberal states in the nation.

Observers say Sanders made a real impact in the races he boosted directly or indirectly  an organization launched with his blessing raised six-figure sums for some candidates  an effect that could multiply if the movement the senator began continues to grow.

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In the run-up to the November election, Sanders endorsed several like-minded state and local candidates in California, including them on fundraising drives that went out to his coveted list of supporters nationwide.

Our Revolution, the political group he started to propel down-ballot candidates to victory, also made a major drive in the state by endorsing a total of 17 ballot measure campaigns and candidates for city council up to Congress.

Its results in California were lukewarm: Of those campaigns, six lost. Among the most high-profile, Proposition 61, a drug-pricing initiative vociferously backed by Sanders went down to defeat as did Jane Kim, who ran for state Senate with Sanders backing. But representatives from those campaigns say Sanders and his allies had an outsize impact that helped them stay competitive.

The group counts among its victories a congressional seat won by Nanette Barragan, an Inland Empire Assembly race that elected progressive attorney Eloise Reyes and mayoral races in Berkeley and Stockton.

In the run-up to the November election, Our Revolution raised more than $1.3 million  about 11% of that went to California races.

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We were a newborn national organization fighting in 106 candidate races and 35 ballot initiatives, said Shannon Jackson, executive director of Our Revolution, which launched Aug. 24. We started out hitting the ground running and we had only 76 days until the general election.

While Jackson says the group is completely separate from Sanders, its stated mission echoes many of the priorities Sanders highlighted in his presidential campaign. While Sanders handed over the reins of the organization to former campaign manager Jeff Weaver after launching it, the group draws on Sanders popularity and his vast digital network of supporters to fuel much of its efforts.

We were born from the Bernie 2016 campaign, and so thats what we are moving forward with, that energy and trying to make it a legacy and a long-lasting movement, Jackson said.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks to a sold-out crowd in a Glendale, Calif. theater last week. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times )

Barragan, a former Hermosa Beach councilwoman who was considered an underdog in her race for Congress, scored an endorsement from Our Revolution. She ultimately won by two percentage points against Isadore Hall, a fellow Democrat and state senator.

Her campaign consultants credit Our Revolutions support with helping her get there.

They were flying the airplane and building it at the same time, and the airplane flew really well, said Mike Trujillo, a Democratic consultant for Barragan.

Following the endorsement, Sanders and Our Revolution included Barragan on a handful of fundraising emails to supporters, asking donors to split small donations among various slates of candidates across the country.

In the end, Trujillo said, those combined efforts netted the campaign more than $350,000 in the final weeks of the campaign.

It was critical, said Trujillo, who also attributes a noticeable uptick in volunteers to the emails.

The money helped Barragans campaign open a second office, hire more staff and increase its advertising buys through Election Day. The six-figure total came from more than 45,000 individual donations from all over the country, an average of $6.22 a contribution.

Kim, who embraced Sanders call for free college tuition in her race for state Senate, endorsed Sanders in the presidential primary and received his support in return.

Sanders, who campaigned for Kim several times, helped her stay competitive in her race against Scott Wiener, a well-funded opponent widely seen as the more business-friendly Democrat.

In total, Wiener and the independent expenditures supporting him outspent Kim and her allies by more than $2 million.

When you are being outspent at that kind of ferocious pace, to wake up in the morning and realize, Wait a minute, were getting a lot of small contributions today,its definitely Christmas in October, said Eric Jaye, whose firm, Storefront Political, worked on Kims campaign.

Overall, emails sent by the Sanders campaign and Our Revolution raised about $180,000 for Kim, much of it in odd denominations of $2.46 or $4.55 because of the way both groups fundraised for multiple candidates at a time.

Kim ultimately lost by three percentage points, but Jaye says the support Sanders and Our Revolution lent to her campaign was tremendously helpful.

Was it enough to make up the difference? No, Jaye said. But it was a potential model of how a mass citizens movement might create greater parity in this political system thats awash with cash.

During the campaign for Proposition 61, which Sanders stumped for repeatedly and which was similarly pitched as a David and Goliath-style battle, Our Revolutions main role was in encouraging its supporters to turn out to rallies up and down the state.

Michael Weinstein, president of the Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which sponsored the measure, said the crowds were extremely energized and enthusiastic supporters of Sanders.

What Ive seen since the election is his full-throated endorsement of continuing to build that movement, Weinstein said. How many people will answer that call and what will it become? No one can know. But I think its been off to a great start.

As it looks toward the 2018 and 2020 elections, the group hopes to establish state-based chapters that can steer priorities locally, Jackson said. Responding to earlier controversy over the group being founded as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, which critics said ran counter to Sanders opposition against allowing unlimited money in politics, its board has promised to disclose all donors giving more than $250. It also plans to create a political action committee that would allow more direct coordination with down-ticket candidates.

Eventually, Jackson said, Our Revolution would like to move beyond email fundraising and provide more organization and training for candidates and activists alike.

And, he adds, California will continue to be a major focus for the Washington, D.C.-based group, in part because the top-two primary system and the dominance of the Democratic party in the state provides a clearer path for a progressive resurgence.

I like that it is an opportunity for more progressive candidates to go against the moderate Democrats. Its the responsibility ofthe Bernie Nation to make sure that those candidates are supported.

Jaye predicts that as left-leaning activists dig in their heels against a Trump administration, movements like Sanders will become even more important.

The threats are so acute and the Democratic Party establishment on some levels is under such pressure that these movements, I think, will continue to go forward and will have a greater impact in the next election, Jaye said. The idea of Our Revolution putting something out there that Bernie Sanders would want you to do, its a powerful thing.

christine.maiduc@latimes.com

For more on California politics, follow @cmaiduc.

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Updates on California politics
The water policy measure overwhelmingly passed by the House of Representatives on Thursday to build long-term water infrastructure across the Golden State is headed for a showdown with outgoing Sen. Barbara Boxer, who plans to mount a filibuster in the Senate on Friday as one of her final acts in Congress.

The overall bill  which Boxer co-authored  authorizes hundreds of water projects across the country, including new infrastructure to fix lead issues in Flint, Mich., and projects connected to the Los Angeles River, Salton Sea and Lake Tahoe. It also includes plans to increase water flowing from the Sacramento Delta to San Joaquin Valley farmers and Southern California.

The California provisions were added to the bill Monday and reflect years of negotiations among Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Californias 14 Republican lawmakers and a handful of Democrats.

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Boxer is vehemently opposed to the added language, called a rider, which she says is an end-run around the Endangered Species Act and its protections for salmon and the nearly extinct delta smelt.

Whats so ironic for me is its my legacy bill that has a horrible rider on it. Its a miserable feeling because I love the bill and I hate the rider, she said.

She seems prepared to take her fight into the weekend as the Senate attempts to go home for the year. She hinted with a smile she may need a lot of time to just explain what this rider does.

If Boxer objects to the vote being called, procedural rules would allow her to speak for hours and keep senators from leaving for the year.

The bill passed the House 360-61, and representatives headed for the exit soon after. Thirty-six of Californias 53 House members supported it. Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Orange) did not vote. The 16 California Democrats who voted against the bill mostly represent the Delta and Bay Area and were upset by such a substantial last-minute policy addition to the bill that was not considered through the normal public committee process.

The bill is expected to be called up for a vote in the Senate sometime Friday or early Saturday morning. House members left for the year after voting Thursday, so even if the Senate opted to gut or amend the California section, its likely too late to make changes.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said earlier this week that President Obama does not support some of the California provisions in the bill but will look at the bill in its entirety if it passes before making a decision whether to sign or veto.

Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Turlock) called the California sections a true compromise after numerous failed attempts, noting that even those backing the bill arent entirely happy with it.

Weve got a long way to go, but this is a great first step and will provide some relief during another tough drought year, he said.

Described as drought relief, the proposal focuses on environmental restrictions that have at times limited water flow from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to its dry southern neighbors.

At issue is that the measure would allow officials at state and federal water management agencies to exceed the environmental pumping limits to capture more water during storms. Those limits have been a pet peeve of water contractors, including the Westlands Water District and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which complained of water supplies lost to the sea during last winters heavy rains.

Federal biologists have said certain levels of water flowing through the delta are vital for native fish, which have suffered devastating losses during the states prolonged drought, and help maintain the quality of the deltas freshwater supplies. In short, if fish are determined to have enough water, or are not near the pumps, the excess water could be sent to the south.

Rep. Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) characterized it as placing political wants above science to go around federal law.

When an act of Congress specifically supersedes peer-reviewed biological opinions that are the very mechanism of how the Endangered Species Act gets implemented, that is a grave undermining of the act, Huffman said.

Asked if her colleagues would have any choice but to support the bill given the large vote margin in the House, Feinstein said, Thats a good assessment. Well have to see.

Feinstein and Boxer have long disagreed on how to legislatively address the states water needs, but for years both have publicly said they wanted to find a bill upon which they could agree. Feinsteins move adding the language Boxer opposes to a bill the retiring senator spent years finding consensus on has led to tension in the final days of the pairs 24-year working relationship.

Despite the overwhelming House vote, Huffman is still hopeful Boxer and other senators upset with the California addition (or other portions of the bill) will be able to block it.

There are linkages and possibilities here that prevent this from being a slam dunk at this point, Huffman said. Im not saying Im not worried, I am. But, I think theres still a lot of fight left in those of us who think this is terrible policy and dont like having it jammed down our throats.

While ebullient about the vote margin on his side of the building, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) also warned against assuming the bill will pass the Senate.

Were all very excited, but were going to hold our breath until the president signs it, he said. We dont want to celebrate too soon.

sarah.wire@latimes.com

Follow @sarahdwire on Twitter

Read more about the 55 members of Californias delegation at latimes.com/politics

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A month after his victory in one of the greatest upsets of American political history, the country remains deeply divided over Donald Trump and his prospects as the countrys 45th president.

Roughly 4 in 10 Americans approve of Trumps cabinet picks and his performance so far, according to a new study by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center.

And although views of Trump have improved somewhat since the campaign  on both sides of the political divide  he remains a lot less popular than previous presidents-elect, according to Pews research and other recent surveys.

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Good afternoon, Im David Lauter, Washington bureau chief. Welcome to the Friday edition of our Essential Politics newsletter, in which we look at the events of the week in the presidential transition and highlight some particularly insightful stories.

STARTING OFF WITHOUT A HONEYMOON

The Pew study is worth looking at more deeply because it puts a spotlight on a key element of Trumps transition: So far, hes not getting the kind of honeymoon that past presidents-elect have received.

Part of the reason is obvious  most Americans didnt vote for Trump: He got about 46% of the popular vote, while Hillary Clinton got about 48% and smaller-party candidates took the rest.

But thats not the full explanation. Bill Clinton didnt win a majority, either, in his three-way race against George H.W. Bush and Ross Perot in 1992. Yet in Pews survey after that election, he started out with the approval of just over 6 in 10 Americans. George W. Bush lost the popular vote, narrowly, to Al Gore in 2000, but he started out with approval of about half of Americans, with almost 6 in 10 approving of his Cabinet picks.

Trumps lower standing so far reflects continued doubts that Americans  even many who voted for him  have about his suitability for the job. Almost two-thirds in Pews survey called him reckless, while just over 6 in 10 said he has poor judgment and nearly 7 in 10 called him hard to like.

At the same time, people on both sides of the partisan divide perceive the country as deeply divided, and they dont see much sign of Trump trying to heal the breaches.

The share who see strong conflicts in the U.S. between blacks and whites, young and old, Democrats and Republicans all have risen between 2012 and now, Pew found.

By a margin of 54%-31%, Americans said Trump had done too little to distance himself from white nationalist groups who say they support him. And more than 8 in 10 Americans said Trump needs to be more cautious about the kinds of things he says and tweets.

GOVERNING FROM THE RIGHT

Trump appears to recognize that the countrys divisions could be a problem for him. Starting with his victory speech on election night and continuing through the past several weeks, he has made some conciliatory statements aimed at those who oppose him.

He has softened his language on immigration and climate change, saying he had an open mind on that issue.

But he has been inconsistent on that score. His conciliatory remarks have alternated with tweets and campaign-style rallies in which he often has lashed out at perceived enemies.

More importantly, as Evan Halper wrote, his selections for Cabinet posts have presaged a far more conservative government than his rhetoric might suggest.

Cabinet picks like Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama as attorney general, Rep. Tom Price of Georgia at Health and Human Services and, this week, Scott Pruitt, the Oklahoma attorney general, for the Environmental Protection Agency, will all come into office with detailed, highly conservative agendas. Based on their past positions, they will want to roll back not just policies adopted by President Obama, but, in some cases, programs that date back to the elder George Bushs administration a generation ago.

Trumps transition team on environmental issues, for example, is led by a man with close ties to the Koch brothers who, as recently as this past summer, often was dismissed as a figure on the political fringe. Now, hes near the center of power.

All that raises questions for voters about what to expect from the new administration. Republican elected officials have struggled with how to balance support for the president-elect with adherence to long-standing party principles that he appears to be discarding, as Lisa Mascaro reported.

Democrats have a different dilemma: Should they work with Trump on any of his plans, seeking to moderate them when possible, or would any cooperation improperly normalize a politician who should be considered beyond the acceptable limits, as many liberal activists argue?

Al Gores brief meeting with Trump this week, is being held up by many Democratic activists as a prime example of what not to do. As Halper wrote, many Democrats believe Gore was played.

Meantime, Trump is moving quickly to finish his Cabinet picks. On Thursday, he announced his choice for Labor Secretary, Andy Puzder. The head of the fast-food company that owns Carls Jr. and Hardees, Puzder has been a strong opponent of Obama policies on minimum wages and healthcare, as Jim Puzzanghera noted.

He also has been a big supporter of moves to reform the nations immigration laws and allow businesses to employ more immigrant labor. That could set up a fight within Trumps new administration between business leaders, represented by the new Labor secretary, and advocates of immigration restriction led by Sessions.

MIXED MESSAGES ON CHINA

Immigration is not the only issue on which the transition team has sent conflicting signals. Trump often says he likes to be unpredictable, and world leaders are starting to get a taste of what that means.

The biggest example so far came with his telephone conversation with the president of Taiwan. The call appears to have been carefully planned by GOP figures who wanted to send a message to China that the U.S. would expand its support for Taiwan, which the government in Beijing considers a renegade province.

But rather than say that publicly, Trumps top aides insisted that the conversation  the first in decades between a U.S. president or president-elect and a Taiwanese leader  was merely a courtesy call. That left Chinese officials struggling to figure out what to make of it all, Jonathan Kaiman and Jessica Meyers reported from our Beijing bureau.

Then, this week, Trump named Gov. Terry Branstad of Iowa as ambassador to China. As Barbara Demick and Tracy Wilkinson reported, Branstad is what the Chinese call lao pengyou, an old friend, who has known Chinese President Xi Xinping since Xi was a mid-level Communist Party official visiting Iowa on a trade mission three decades ago. He also was an early supporter of Trumps in a key state.

The president-elect has not tried to explain  or even acknowledge  the contradictory messages. Thats left Chinas leaders and American voters to wonder whether relations between two of the worlds biggest powers will now be warmer or more tense.

A FEW OTHER STORIES OF NOTE

The debate about fake news suddenly got very real in Washington this week when an armed man showed up at a popular local pizza shop, firing at least one shot before surrendering to police. As Cathy Decker and Mike Memoli wrote, the man told police he had gone to the restaurant to investigate a bizarre story that had spread through the Internet during the campaign.

The story falsely claimed that the pizza shop was the center of a Democratic child-sex ring. It may seem absurd, but workers at the pizza shop and other businesses up and down the block have been receiving death threats.

Sen. Barbara Boxer brought to a close four decades in public life this week with her farewell speech in the Senate. As Decker reported, she defended politics as a noble profession, urging colleagues to keep fighting for their ideals. (Of course, Boxer isnt leaving quietly and has said shell spend her final hours in Washington mounting a filibuster over a water bill.)

And Obama gave one of his final speeches, as well  this one about counterterrorism. As Memoli and Bill Hennigan wrote, the president, over the last eight years, has built a huge, secretive and lethally effective counterterrorism machine. Now hes facing the prospect of turning the drones and other covert weapons over to a successor whose judgment he doesnt trust.

White House officials insist they have put in place restrictions that limit how those counterterror efforts can be used. The problem, as Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) noted to reporters at a breakfast this week, is that most of those restrictions were imposed by executive order, not legislation, and they can be overturned the same way.

Thats an unfortunate legacy for Obama, Schiff said, adding that now we go into a new administration where the door is left so wide open that theres no meaningful congressional limitation on the president-elects ability to go to war.

LOGISTICS

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That wraps up this week. My colleague Christina Bellantoni will be back Monday with the weekday edition of Essential Politics. Until then, keep track of all the developments in the 2016 campaign with our Trail Guide, at our Politics page and on Twitter @latimespolitics.

Send your comments, suggestions and news tips to politics@latimes.com.
You dont need fancy genome-sequencing or brain-imaging equipment to know that some of the people we know and love are just a little, well, out there.

We used to call these people worriers, creative types, eccentrics or loners. Like the rest of us, they seem to have come into the world with some recognizably fixed personality settings: Theyre friendly or moody or dreamy or disorganized. Theyre just more extremely so.

Increasingly, weve come to acknowledge that some people who occupy the outer fringes of those character types have psychiatric disorders that stand in the way of their living the lives they want. At some point, the pronounced traits theyve had from the start got nudged over an invisible line by age, adversity or lifes escalating demands.

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They have a mental illness: depression, attention deficit disorder, bipolar depression, schizophrenia.

This notion  that mental illnesses are largely inborn personality traits that get pushed into extreme territory by life experience  has just gotten some high-tech confirmation from researchers at UC San Diego.

Aggregating the genetic profiles of close to 261,000 people, a UCSD team led by neuroscientist Chi-Hua Chen has identified six regions of the human genome that are significantly linked to specific personality traits. And when they compared the genetic regions linked to certain personality traits with the genetic sites that can be linked to certain psychiatric disorders, they found some remarkable points of overlap.

Take, for instance, neuroticism, one of the big five personality traits that psychologists use to measure and describe the fixed behavioral tendencies that collectively make up our personalities. Someone who scores high in neuroticism is generally given to negative emotions such as sadness or anger or dread, whereas someone who scores low on this trait has a generally sunny disposition.

Psychologists have known for many years that high levels of neuroticism predispose a person to depression and anxiety. But Chen and her team found that, in the huge population for which they had detailed genetic information, the places on the genome where variations predicted neuroticism were the same places where variations appeared that were linked to major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder.

The UCSD team also found a link between extraversion  a tendency to be talkative, friendly and highly social  and attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Several of the sites on the genome that Chens team found to be associated with extraversion were the same sites that genetic studies have linked to ADHD.

Chens team also found openness, another of the five traits that psychologists use to define our personalities, to be closely linked to schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. In these large groups of people studied, the researchers found that those who are intellectually curious, highly creative, risk-taking and generally open to new experiences tend to have genetic variations in predictable places on the genome. But they also found that people with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder tend to have genetic variations in those same places on the genome.

To hunt for these patterns, called genome-wide associations, the UCSD team combed through data from four large troves of genetic data. Those came from the commercial genomics service, 23andMe; from the Europe-based Genetics of Personality Consortium; from British-based Biobank and from Decode Genetics, an Iceland-based human genetics company.

The groups findings were published this week in the journal Nature Genetics.

Scores on two of the big five personality traits did not show any association with mental illnesses. Those were agreeableness (an inclination toward cooperative and compassionate behavior) and conscientiousness (a tendency to act responsibly and exercise self-discipline).

Findings like this might go a long way toward confirming some of our gut instincts about some mental disorders  that schizophrenia and bipolar disorder seem to be concentrated among creative types, and that ADHD might just be too much of a thing  friendliness  that we usually value highly. But they should also help confirm the idea that nature deals us with some very strong behavioral predispositions that nurture  the circumstances in which we live  can only channel in different directions.

melissa.healy@latimes.com

Follow me on Twitter @LATMelissaHealy and like Los Angeles Times Science & Health on Facebook.

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To say Vyvy Hoang has the heavy schedule of a 22-year-old college student would be a seriously deficient characterization.

The full-time business student at UC Irvine gets up at 8 a.m. most days to make it to her 9 a.m. classes. Then, she makes her way to work in the early afternoons.

But shes not the average student working a retail or restaurant jobto pay for tuition, textbooks or social events.

At 2 p.m. most days, shell open up Eiswelt Gelato, a Westminster gelato shop that she owns and operates. She has seven employees, and though her parents help some nights  they also stepped up initially financially  most of the time, the responsibility belongs to Hoang.

Shell often have to tackle homework assignments or study from a back room during her shifts, which can last more than eight hours, when the store isnt busy. Its a balancing act that doesnt seem to daunt the young entrepreneur.

The German native, who is of Vietnamese descent and moved to the United States in 2008, said she wanted to bring the gelato tradition to California. The name Eiswelt made perfect sense, she said, because the word means ice world in German.

She said the treat is popular in her home country, even though it originated in Italy.

"[In Germany] gelato is about a euro per scoop, so around here, I thought ice cream was pretty expensive at $5 or $6 a scoop, said Hoang, who lives in Westminster. I wanted to bring something cheaper over to my new home but still hold onto that tradition.

A euro is roughly equal to the U.S. dollar.

Gelato is made with whole milk while ice cream is made with cream, she said. The textures can also be different, because gelato is kept at a warmer temperature than ice cream.

At age 20, Hoang began seriously thinking about opening her own gelato shop after being inspired by her parents, who owned an Asian market in Germany when she was a child.

Last year, at 21, she opened Eiswelt Gelato with the financial boost from her mother and father. The shop sells frozen treats shaped as cute characters and animals.

Ive always had the roots of business, Hoang said, adding she wanted to bring a unique touch to her shop. I wanted to do something new and create somewhere cute, where girls can hang out. Other ice cream shops, guys meet up on their motorcycles. But the guys get pretty excited over our gelato too. Its pretty funny to watch.

The frozen treats are scooped and then formed into pigs, teddy bears, dogs and characters like Pikachu from Pokemon, if requested. Special characters will also be created for holidays, like Jack Skellington, the main protagonist of the 1993 film The Nightmare Before Christmas, around Halloween and a turkey around Thanksgiving.

Hoang said she thought of creating the cute shapes not only to cater to her female customers, but also because the visual representation of food plays a larger role today, especially on social media.

Nowadays with Instagram and Facebook, everyone takes pictures of their food, she said. I think food always has to be presentable now.

The shop serves about 22 rotating flavors of gelato, including strawberry, matcha green tea, birthday cake, red velvet, black sesame and Thai tea. Each flavor is made in-house, usually nightly, Hoang said.

Prices range from $3.50 to $5.50, depending on the size of the treat and if its shaped to be a character.

Drinks and floats are also sold.

Chau Hoang, Vyvys father, said he is proud of his daughters determination and success.

She knew about business a long time ago, said Chau, who works mainly at a Vietnamese grocery store. Some days shell tackle everything. I cant help all the time because I need time off too.

The daughter said she is usually reserved and doesnt tell many people about her business. Only a few close friends know about the shop, she said.

But that hasnt stopped people from flocking to Eiswelt Gelato, located in an unassuming strip mall in Westminsters Little Saigon neighborhood. Lines can be out the door on weekends, and many patrons will take photos and post about the shop on social media.

I hear people tell me they drove two hours or five hours to be here, Vyvy Hoang said, adding she has plans for expansion. I just think thats crazy. I never expected that.

Eiswelt Gelato is at 9605 Bolsa Ave. in Westminster. Hours are 2 to 10 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays; 2 p.m. to midnight Fridays; 1 p.m. to midnight Saturdays; and noon to 10 p.m. Sundays. For more information: instagram.com/eisweltgelato.

brittany.woolsey@latimes.com

Twitter: @BrittanyWoolsey
Carlos Salgado doesnt see borders. Or, rather, 2016 is the year he feels more comfortable crossing them.

Its something he does both literally and figuratively as one of the main flag-bearers of Alta California cuisine, a creation of Mexican American chefs in Southern California who, in the last few years, have been fusing the skills and techniques honed in Californias fine-dining kitchens with the flavors and pride of their Mexican roots.

Mexican food, Salgado says, is the definitive cuisine of our region, which was once part of the countrys northern territory. And while it might not seem to align with our understanding of what is authentic Mexican food, its really no more different than dishes from the state of Yucatan in the south are different from those of Baja in the north.

Culturally and agriculturally, California is Mexico, Salgado said on a recent Friday night, sitting on a bench near the front door of his highly acclaimed ode to Alta California, Taco Maria, inarguably the best restaurant in Orange County right now. Inside the intimate OC Mix space, a sold-out dinner with Enrique Olvera, Mexicos legendary modern Mexican chef, is underway, culminating the restaurants unprecedented third-anniversary guest-chef dinner series.

"[California] just so happens to be occupied by many, many different cultures and races and nationalities, but the history is so profoundly Mexican that I think its a naturally emerging inspiration.

You can taste the inspiration of the rich culture of Salgados parents homeland merging with the dedication to seasonal ingredients he learned working at Michelin-ranked restaurants in the Bay Area in things like Salgados tortillas, crafted from heirloom corn imported from small Mexican farmers and nixtamalized on site at his 3-year-old Costa Mesa restaurant.

Or in his tangy aguachile, which sometimes appears on Taco Marias nightly tasting menu, with raw marinated seafood bobbing around in Baja California olive oil with kumquats or cucumbers and whatever market sprouts and herbs were available that day.

For Olveras guest-chef dinner, the two collaborated on a tasting menu that began with a quintessential Alta California-style amuse bouche  local uni with a dollop of seaweed-infused guacamole atop a crunchy, fatty square of snacky chicharron. The main courses took Southern Californias Asian food influence even further: a slightly crispy Chinese-inspired bao filled with slow-cooked beef birria that could have passed for a fancy salbute; and Peking duck breast, accompanied by pickled vegetables and a teriyaki sauce sweetened by Latin Americas unrefined cane sugar, piloncillo.

"[Taco Maria is part of] this beautiful and vibrant food culture in Southern California thats mixing different flavor combinations, Olvera, who owns the groundbreaking 16-year-old restaurant Pujol in Mexico City, said while sitting with Salgado outside Taco Maria. I think theres a beautiful thing about not caring about where things come from in a cultural sense.

To both Olvera and Salgado, modern, or nuevo, Mexican food is somewhat of a myth. Traditional Mexican food has historically been driven by the agriculture of the region, and the modern ideas currently pushing the limits of the cuisine both in Mexico and the U.S. are really just old ideas coming back to the forefront, albeit filtered through uncommon global connections only todays chefs could make.

Theres no nuevo, Olvera insists. Traditional Mexican food is whatever the community does with what is produced that day. It cant be traditional if it was not produced that day.

A lot has changed in O.C. dining in the five years since Taco Maria launched as a gourmet food truck before going brick-and-mortar in 2013. And despite an insistence on making everything in-house day of, chefs like Salgado havent always been this secure with the urge to experiment.

The U.S. is notorious for upholding the idea that Mexican cuisine can only be only quick, affordable grub  wet burritos and cheese-loaded, hard-shell tacos undeserving of fine china or a glass of wine  something Salgado witnessed first-hand growing up in his familys hole-in-the-wall Mexican-American restaurant, La Siesta, which has served Orange for almost 40 years.

Even in Mexico when Olvera first started Pujol, he says, Euro-centric restaurants dominated the upscale landscape and Mexican food had been relegated back into homes and small family-run restaurants called fondas.

I saw [my parents] martyr themselves against these perceptions that people have not just against Mexicans but against Mexican food, and it was infuriating. I knew that I was not going to accept those notions, Salgado says.

I thought if we take the position that Mexican food is as valuable as any of Europe or Asias cuisines and we humbly held it and made no apologies and cooked with our sensibilities and were warm and welcoming and did good consistent work, we could help to push forward this idea that Mexican food isnt only cheap working-class food.

Moving away from making luxury versions of tacos and other identifiable (what Salgado calls format) Mexican dishes, Taco Maria has carved its own niche within the growing Alta California landscape.

In addition to being the only restaurant of its style and caliber in Orange County (in L.A., there are about a half-dozen eateries of varying price points that represent the movement), Salgado earns accolades for using Taco Maria to express his values and ever-evolving worldview, which includes continuing to explore what it means to be Mexican American in these political and cultural times.

After three years serving tasting-menu meals from inside his small food-court-situated restaurant, this year, more than ever, he sees a world without borders, one where Southern California is merely an extension of Baja California, and by proxy, all of Mexico.

A literal border might remain between the two countries, but by crossing that border to cook with all-star chefs in Mexico and inviting those chefs to cross the border and cook here, hes continuing a powerful cultural exchange that goes back centuries.

This falls guest-chef dinner series  which also included Tijuana chef Javier Plascencia and Diego Hernandez, who cooks in the heart of Baja wine country  is a reflection of the symbiotic exchange of ideas that has long defined border cuisine. And its one that will continue to push modern Mexican cuisine into the future.

I feel more Mexican now than Ive ever felt. I also feel more proudly Mexican American than Ive ever felt, says Salgado. Growing up I felt like Im not really Mexican and Im not really American and what am I? The same can be said for the restaurant.

How offensive are our interpretations of Mexican food to Mexicans? At the same time, Americans have their ideas about what Mexican food should be, and so of course Taco Maria isnt Mexican. Its both and its neither. Its about the spaces between ... I think.

---

SARAH BENNETT is a freelance journalist covering food, drink, music, culture and more. She is the former food editor at L.A. Weekly and a founding editor of Beer Paper L.A. Follow her on Twitter @thesarahbennett.
The second annual Breitling Huntington Beach Airshow will feature the famed Blue Angels fighter jets and the Snowbirds, a popular military jet demonstration team from Canada.

The announcement was made Tuesday at the International Council of Air Shows convention in Las Vegas.

Next years Huntington Beach show will be held from Sept. 29 to Oct. 1.

This years flyovers in October were performed by the Air Force Thunderbirds and the Breitling Jet Team. The Thunderbirds will return for the 2018 show, it was announced Tuesday.

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Barbara Caruso, a media representative for the city, said the Blue Angels and the Snowbirds will be the only jet team performances in 2017, but the show will also include air aerobic acts. She said further details will be released as the event gets closer.

The Blue Angels was formed in 1946 by a group of aviators from the Navy and Marine Corps. The six-jet team travels the country performing death-defying air shows that are meant to mirror the flying techniques used in the military, Huntington Beach air show director Michael McCabe said in an interview Tuesday.

Because of the danger inherent in the groups routine, McCabe said, the Blue Angels rehearse more than 130 times before they set off for their touring season, which involves about 35 shows from March to November.

Their spectacular demonstrations will thrill the young and young at heart, McCabe said in a news release. If you havent seen them, the grace of the Snowbirds followed by the precision of the Blue Angels will leave you breathless.

The nine-jet Snowbirds team was formed in 1971 by the Royal Canadian Air Force and is also considered one of the most renowned in the world.

McCabe said the group mostly performs air shows in Canada but chose Huntington Beach as one of its few U.S. destinations next year.

In order to land the prestigious Blue Angels, McCabe said, the event organizers had to go through a long process, including applying to the Pentagon two years in advance.

McCabe said the Pentagon tirelessly scrutinizes each event before giving its approval, with safety and the popularity of the show in mind.

He added that the Pentagon chose the Huntington Beach event in large part because of how successful the city was with its inaugural air show this year.

McCabe, in presenting an overview to the City Council last month of the 2016 show, estimated that 550,000 people attended. The Orange County Register has reported that safety and security costs associated with the event exceeded $200,000.

Police spokeswoman Jennifer Marlatt said there were no policing issues during the 2016 show and that the department has not yet begun preparing for next years event.

In October, as Surf City geared up to present the air show as part of its stable of major annual events  including the U.S. Open of Surfing  McCabe described the community as the perfect location for the show.

The physical plan, the layout, the long, sandy beach  what better site could there be for an air show? he was quoted as saying.

Admission to the show is free. A portion of the vendors proceeds will go toward the Aerospace Educational Foundation of Huntington Beach, a nonprofit dedicated to fostering education in the aerospace industry.

McCabe believes the 2017 program will be even better than this years.

I think it will exceed it in every measurable way and thats a huge success, he said.

benjamin.brazil@latimes.com

Twitter: @benbrazilpilot
Last week I predicted the fight over the high-rise Museum House project  approved by the Newport City Council  would get ugly, and it has.

Its war, as the developer, Related California LLC, goes to battle against Line in the Sand (an offshoot of SPON, Still Protecting Our Newport) and a Santa Ana-based nonprofit group, Citizens against High Rise Urban Towers.

And anticipating $21.7 million in developer fees for schools and public safety, the Newport Beach Police and the Newport Beach Fire Fighters associations are also in the mix, supporting the project with a mailer and urging residents not to sign SPON referendum petitions.

Now, convincing the majority of council members and public safety unions to support this project is one thing, but convincing an entire city the project is a good idea is another, especially with the anti-high-density-development voter sentiment weve seen the past two election cycles.

So its not surprising project supporters are aggressively fighting referendum efforts.

But the battle is getting a bit bizarre.

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On Dec. 2, two mystery men at Westcliff Plaza collected signatures supposedly for the referendum, but they didnt appear to be from either legitimate group, and didnt have the approximately 1,100 pages the council required be attached to the petitions.

One of the potentially bogus petitioners was questioned by Line in the Sand member Tim Stoaks, who is my neighbor and friend.

When the guy refused to provide any background info, Stoaks called the cops, who took the mans drivers license information and nothing more, according to Stoaks.

It was only when a Daily Pilot reporter showed up, that the bogus petitioner absconded.

These guys were back this week, only this time they were trying to convince people to rescind their signatures supporting the referendum.

At best these shenanigans are unscrupulous, and at worst, could they be a form of fraud?

I talked to police union President Vlad Anderson since his union is front and center in this controversy now.

He said he doesnt agree with anything that breaks the rules or anyone compromising our credibility.

I wondered when the union got involved in supporting Museum House.

Anderson said discussions started with union consultant Peter Mitchell about three months ago.

I shared my concerns with NBPD Chief John Lewis.

Is there an investigation into all of this?

Were seeking clarification here to see if any laws are in play, said Lewis.

He assured me the department takes all calls seriously and will continue to look into this.

On Dec. 3, Newport residents also found tags hanging on their doors paid for by OCMA Urban Housing LLC, an affiliate of Related Cos. of California, with a form to rescind petition signatures, and a website, savethemuseum.com.

When I visited the site Dec. 5 there was something labeled a Rogues Gallery picturing 10 Line in the Sand members, including Stoaks and longtime community activist Jean Watt.

The following day, Rouges Gallery was replaced with Meet the Grinchs [sic] Trying to Steal Christmas.

This past week I also received a robo call, two more fliers and saw a TV ad, all in support of the project.

With his aggressive campaign in play I had a few questions for the land use consultant for the Museum House, Patrick Strader.

How much would the developer spend fighting referendum efforts, and what political consultants  if any  had been engaged?

Was his organization behind the bogus signature-gathering?

And how much had the developer and Strader donated to independent expenditures (IEs,) political action committees (PACs) and council candidates this election season in Newport?

Strader would only agree to an interview if I also touted the benefits of his project in this column.

When I explained the column dealt with the referendum fight, not the merits of the already-approved project, I never heard back.

Could this referendum battle get uglier?

You bet.

Worried about potential harassment against volunteers seeking petition signatures, Line in the Sand shared concerns with Newport City Manager Dave Kiff.

Our intent is to protect the public forum so that signature-gatherers can work in all public spaces and private property, where they are exercising their first amendment rights without harassment, wrote Kiff

Kiff confirmed hes discussed the harassment concerns with the city attorney, staffers and police and welcomes calls to his office and the nonemergency number of the NBPD to report incidents.

Moving forward, referendum supporters should only sign petitions where the approximate 1,100 required city pages are present and go to the Line in the Sand site lineinthesandpac.com, for listings of legitimate signature-gathering locations.

Collecting signatures for a referendum shouldnt be this messy. The referendum process is being blatantly corrupted.

Will the council do anything about it?

Voters are watching.

--

BARBARA VENEZIA lives in Newport Beach. She can be reached at bvontv1@gmail.com.
Catch up with the cheetah, the worlds fastest land animal, on a wildlife tour to Namibia that explores regions where the endangered animals live.

Marcy Mendelson, a conservation photographer and National Geographic contributor, will lead the 13-day trip available one time only in summer. Game drives take participants to private land and national reserves.

There also will be visits to Sossusvlei, where desert lovers can hike one of the tallest sand dunes in the world; and to Fury Road, where the Mad Max movie was shot. Participants will visit Palmwag along the way, tracking rhino, and search for cheetah in Etosha National Park.

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Dates: July 2-14

Price: $4,875 per person, double occupancy, for a group of six participants (single supplement $350); optional scenic flight is $215. Included are game drives, activities, entrance and park fees, accommodations, aircraft transfers and specified meals. International airfare not included. Book by Jan. 27.

Info: Cheetah Watch or email Marcy Mendelson

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Boko Haram has been torn in half and has steadily lost territory to the Nigerian forces that have pounded away at the extremist group, with government leaders at times claiming that the insurgency had finally been put down.

But a pair of suicide bombings Friday in a busy marketplace in Madagali, Nigeria, quickly underscored the difficulty in quashing the extremist militia, which authorities quickly blamed for the blasts.

At least 30 people were killed, the worst attack in months. Authorities said the bombers appeared to be teenage schoolgirls who likely picked the busiest market day of the week to attack.

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Though weakened, Boko Haram remains capable of devastating attacks on soft civilian targets such as markets, bus stations and camps for people displaced by the grinding conflict.

Like many of Boko Harams previous bombings, the attacks Friday in Adamawa state were carried out by female suicide bombers, concealing explosive vests under the long flowing garments worn by most women in the the countrys northern territory, where the majority of the population is Muslim.

And the attack seemed calculated to kill as many civilians as possible, targeting a crowded section of the market on the busiest day of the week around lunchtime.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack, but Boko Haram usually doesnt issue statements on its attacks.

Nigerias National Emergency Management Agency confirmed the blasts and said scores were killed. A military spokesman told local media that 30 were killed and 67 were injured by the attackers.

Madagali is in the north of Adamawa state, close to Boko Harams remaining stronghold in the Sambisa Forest. The town suffered a similar attack at a nearby bus station last December, an incident that also killed 30 people.

The conflict in northeastern Nigeria has driven an estimated 2.6 million people from their homes and has led to widespread starvation, with farmers unable to plant crops, fishers unable to fish in Lake Chad and traders unable to transport goods. Last week, the United Nations doubled its humanitarian appeal for the region to $1 billion for emergency food to target 6.9 million people in desperate need of help.

Around 75,000 children could starve to death unless donors respond swiftly to the crisis, the U.N. has warned.

Only two years ago Boko Haram commanded a vast swathe of territory in the countrys northeast. It set up an Islamic state and swore allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr Baghdadi.

Since then the Nigerian extremist militia has lost almost all its territory and has splintered into two factions, one led by Abubakar Shekau and the other, which is more closely identified with Islamic State, led by Abu Musab Barnawi.

The Barnawi group was critical of the Shekau group for attacks it believed had killed too many civilians, a security analyst reported, after the split was revealed in August.

Nigerias military has been bombing the Sambisa Forest for months, but army chief of staff Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai last month said ground forces had begun advancing into the area to drive out the extremists.

According to a military account, an operation code named Final Rescue has been launched to rescue a group of schoolgirls kidnapped from Chibok village in 2014. There were 276 girls kidnapped. While some escaped, and 21 girls were freed in October, 196 are still missing, some believed to have been killed in Nigerian air strikes on the Sambisa Forest.

Woman and children rescued by Nigerian soldiers rest at a refugee camp in Yola, Nigeria. (Sunday Alamba / Associated Press )

Advancing forces have attacked a series of Boko Haram camps in the forest, seizing ammunition, rifles, anti-aircraft guns, drugs and military vehicles, including tanks. Security forces encountered Boko Haram ambushes and booby traps during the operation.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said last week that hundreds of Boko Haram fighters had been surrendering to Chadian forces, part of a multinational force fighting the extremists. He said that multinational forces were preparing a coordinated operation to finally eliminate the group.

Nigerians military has repeatedly claimed to have killed Shekau, mostly recently in August. But in September Shekau released a video saying he was still alive.

To the despot Nigerian government: Die with envy. Im not dead, Shekau said in the video.

The insurgency has been festering for more than a decade, with the number killed uncalculated.

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Defense Secretary Ashton Carter made an unannounced visit to Afghanistan on Friday, saying the U.S. remains committed to supporting the Afghan government against a resilient insurgency.

The United States presence  demonstrates to the world that America is and will remain committed to a sovereign and secure Afghanistan, the Pentagon chief said at a news conference with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.

It was Carters last visit to Afghanistan before he is expected to be replaced by retired Marine Gen. James Mattis, President-elect Donald Trumps choice for Defense secretary.

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Carter said President Obamas decision this year to expand the mandate of the approximately 10,000 U.S. troops remaining in Afghanistan had helped Afghan forces hold off insurgents in several areas.

The U.S. troops are deployed to advise and train Afghan soldiers and police but have been called into combat duty multiple times over the last two years as Taliban insurgents and their allies make gains.

The U.S. military estimates that the Afghan government controls slightly less than two-thirds of the population, insurgents hold 10% and the remainder is contested.

Carter said the U.S. and international allies remained committed to funding the Afghan security forces through 2020.

Trump has said little about his plans for Afghanistan but has expressed opposition to what he termed U.S. nation-building projects.

Carter and Gen. John Nicholson, commander of international forces in Afghanistan, appeared to suggest that the U.S. should sustain its involvement in a country where it has invested hundreds of billions of dollars and lost more than 2,200 service members since 2001.

Current plans call for about 8,400 U.S. troops to remain in Afghanistan until the end of 2017.

Ghani praised the U.S. commitment to Afghanistan.

The Afghan people recognize its enemies and friends, Ghani said. The U.S. is our friend, and we appreciate its sacrifices.

Faizy is a special correspondent.

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BEIJING  When Ma Wenfeng was a boy, his father earned so little money growing wheat and corn that the family mainly ate mantou, a steamed bread that is a staple of the poor. The last thing he would have dreamed of was becoming a farmer.

Now it is his greatest ambition to start a farm, but not in China, a country where the very word for farmer, nongmin, is synonymous with peasant. Many Chinese farmers are long past retirement age but still tilling tiny, inefficient plots of land.

Motivated by the search for big expanses of land with abundant supplies of clean water, Chinese are looking far afield  to the United States, Chile, Brazil, Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria and Australia.

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Were the worlds fastest-growing economy, with a huge demand for agricultural products, said Ma, who works as an analyst for a Beijing-based trade association, CnAgri. When we look overseas, we see large tracts of land where you can operate a farm that makes sense economically.

From an economic standpoint, Chinese investment in farmland has impeccable logic. One oft-cited statistic is that China has 20% of the worlds population and just 9% of its arable land.

Throughout Chinese history, our land was never enough, said Tian Zhihong, a professor of international agriculture at China Agricultural University.

China suffers from chronic drought and desertification, and has compounded its problems in recent decades by polluting the land or paving it over in a headlong rush toward economic development. The Ministry of Land and Resources in December revealed the results of a five-year study (previously kept secret): 8 million acres of farmland, or roughly 2% of the countrys arable land, is too polluted for farming.

From exploding watermelons to cadmium-tainted rice, both the result of excessive fertilization, domestic food scandals have made foreign-grown foods more popular in China.

We want to bring American sunshine, land and water back to China, said Zhang Renwu, a businessman who owns two farms in Utah growing alfalfa to feed dairy cows.

Chinese companies are acquiring farmland where they can  many countries ban the sale of land to foreigners  or forming partnerships with farming enterprises overseas.

When Chinas largest pork producer, Shuanghui International Holdings, last year paid $4.7 billon for its U.S. counterpart, Smithfield Foods Inc., it also acquired more than 100,000 acres of farmland in Missouri, Texas and North Carolina. (Virginia-based Smithfield didnt disclose how much farmland was covered by the purchase, but just one subsidiary had reported it owned more than 100,000 acres in the three states.)

In Australia, a Chinese-led consortium acquired a sprawling 200,000-acre cotton plantation known as Cubbie Station, complete with what is said to be the largest irrigation system in the Southern Hemisphere.

Legend Holdings, the parent company of computer maker Lenovo Group, formed a subsidiary called Joyvio in 2012 to grow fruit abroad. Joyvio has invested in operations in Chile growing blueberries, kiwis and grapes and is scouting for new investments.

These investments are contentious both at home and abroad. The Chinese government is sensitive to criticism that it has allowed too much farmland to be paved over for apartments and shopping malls and that it has dragged its feet on long-overdue changes to modernize agribusiness.

Communist Party doctrine maintains that the country should provide itself with 95% of its own grain, and Mao Tse-tung preferred to let people starve in the 1960s rather than import food. Although President Xi Jinping has backed away somewhat from quotas for grain self-sufficiency, the underpinning ideology remains.

The historic notion of food security and self-sufficiency is an incredible source of legitimacy for the Communist Party. This is, after all, a party of peasants that came to power during times of famine, said Jim Harkness, former president of the Minneapolis-based Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.

In a paper published in 2012, the Canada-based International Institute for Sustainable Development confirmed the existence of 54 Chinese projects overseas covering almost 12 million acres. (Land Matrix, an activist group that compiles information on the sale of farmland, found nearly double the amount of overseas land being farmed by the Chinese.)

Chinas farmland investments take many forms. Large state-owned enterprises are investing in plantations in Tanzania, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Zambia, among other countries, to grow corn, rice, cassava and sesame. Some products are sold locally and some are exported to China.

Smaller Chinese entrepreneurs have leased farms across the border in Russia as part of a deal with Moscow. Unlike in Africa, where the employees are local, Chinese have crossed the border into Russia as well. At least 30,000 Chinese farmers were reported to be working last year in Birobidzhan, the Siberian region carved out in the 1930s by Josef Stalin as a Jewish Autonomous Region, according to figures released during a trade fair last year in the northeastern Chinese province of Heilongjiang.

Liu Jianping, an entrepreneur from Heilongjiang, who is farming on 40,000 acres in the Russian Far East, said Russia has large tracts of arable land without enough farmers.

The Russians have to let their lands lie idle, he said. They need people who know how to grow crops.

But Chinas interest in farmland often provokes anxiety, conjuring visions of a dragon devouring the worlds resources to feed its 1.3 billion people.

A furor erupted when a Hong Kong newspaper in September published a news release from a quasi-military Chinese company, saying it intended to farm up to 11,562 square miles of Ukraine, long referred to as the breadbasket of Europe.

A farm that size would account for an area as large as Belgium or Armenia.

China land grab sees it given control of 5% of Ukraine, accused of neo-colonialism, read a headline several months ago in Britains Daily Telegraph.

The Chinese company, Xinjiang Production & Construction Corps, quickly removed the offending news release from its website, and Ukraine issued a denial. The arrangement, however, has proceeded but with a far smaller amount of land being farmed under a 50-year lease. The Chinese agreed to develop irrigation systems in exchange for favorable terms on importing crops, mostly wheat, grown on the land.

Chinas Africa moves have been particularly contentious, with accusations that the Chinese are exploiting the much-colonized continent.

Zimbabwe now a full-fledged Chinese colony, read a headline in the Zimbabwe Mail in November about Chinese-owned wheat, soybean and tobacco fields on the outskirts of Harare, the capital.

Many countries prohibit foreign ownership, and in others there is strong opposition to selling land to the Chinese. So new Chinese investments are increasingly being structured as long-term leases or with promises to use Chinas economic muscle to build infrastructure in exchange for favorable purchase prices.

When you say China is involved, it is like pushing a red button, said Deborah Brautigam, a professor at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington. There is a China effect.

China is far from the worlds largest investor in agriculture. The United States still ranks first, with Britain, South Korea, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Singapore all holding investments larger than or rivaling Chinas.

But China is closing the gap fast. Its direct foreign investments in the sector that includes farming (along with fishing and forestry) totaled nearly $5 billion at the end of 2012, almost double where they were two years earlier, according to Commerce Ministry data.

It is only the last two years that the big agricultural companies are going overseas in a big way, and I think you will see much more, said Ma, the CnAgri analyst.

He believes the main issue is the inefficiency of farming in China today. According to figures compiled by his association, imported rice, corn, wheat and soybeans are all less expensive than the China-grown crops.

Farming in China is backward. Most farmers are over 50 years old, poorly educated and trying to earn a living on 10 mu [1.65 acres] of land, said Ma, who notes that his father, nearly 70, is still farming.

He said the Chinese government should provide pensions that would allow the elderly farmers to retire so their land could be farmed more efficiently on a larger scale.

Until then, said Ma, if you want to farm profitably, you have to go abroad.

barbara.demick@latimes.com
South Koreas national legislature on Friday voted to impeach President Park Geun-hye, the latest and most dramatic development in a mushrooming political scandal that has sent millions into the streets in protest.

The decision, supported by members of Parks own conservative ruling party, suspends the presidents power in favor of the prime minister, Hwang Kyo-ahn.

Hwang will assume a caretaker role as head of state while a constitutional court decides whether to remove Park permanently, a process that could take months.

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With the impeachment motion passing the national assembly, we have solved a lot of the chaos of the nation, National Assembly Speaker Chung Sye-kyun said after the vote.

The impeachment caps Parks rapid descent in recent weeks after allegations that a longtime confidant  a woman who had no official role in the government  accessed classified material and used her influence to extort donations from large business conglomerates.

Controversy about the case, which has roiled presidential politics here and engulfed the nations news coverage, prompted South Koreans to join massive and historic public vigils in recent weeks.

1 / 6 South Koreas lawmakers attend a plenary session to vote on the impeachment bill of President Park Geun-hye at the National Assembly in Seoul. (Kim Hong-Ji / Associated Press) 2 / 6 Lawmakers queue up to cast their votes in a polling station at the National Assembly in Seoul. (Chung Sung-Jun / Getty Images) 3 / 6 South Koreas Prime Minister and acting President Hwang Kyo-Ahn, center, speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the government complex in Seoul after parliament passed a motion of impeachment. (Jung Yeon-Je / AFP/Getty Images) 4 / 6 South Korean President Park Geun-hye speaks during an emergency Cabinet meeting at the presidential office in Seoul. South Korean lawmakers earlier on Friday impeached her, a stunning and swift fall for the countrys first female leader amid protests that drew millions into the streets in united fury. (Baek Sung-ryul / Associated Press) 5 / 6 Protesters gather as police surround them during a rally urging the impeachment of South Koreas President Park Geun-hye outside the National Assembly in Seoul. ( AFP/Getty Images) 6 / 6 Anti-Park activists react after the South Korean parliaments successful impeachment of President Park Geun-hye, outside the National Assembly in Seoul. (Ed Jones / AFP/Getty Images)

The protests started small but have swelled over the last several weekends, with as many as 2.3 million taking the streets across the country last week to call for Parks ouster.

The president had been set to leave office in February 2018 after an election in December. Her approval ratings have remained in single digits in recent weeks.

Despite the political pressure to resign, it was far from a certainty that the legislature would vote to impeach Park. The opposition parties do not have enough members in the National Assembly to reach the two-thirds vote they needed to remove Park, requiring some support from her party. Adding to the drama, Friday was to be the lawmakers last scheduled workday of 2016.

Opposition leaders had expected defections from the ruling party against Park, whose father was a military dictator who ruled South Korea in the 1970s.

The scandal centers on the longtime confidant, the daughter of a deceased cult leader with his own close ties to the president.

The confidant, Choi Soon-sil, remains jailed on an array of charges. As a result of the scandal, two presidential aides have been accused of abusing their power, and a music video director is accused of using ties to Choi to win lucrative contracts from state agencies and private companies.

Prosecutors have said Park is a suspect in the case, though she enjoys immunity from prosecution in standard criminal cases as president. She would probably retain that immunity as the court decides her fate.

Park has acknowledged making management mistakes in her office but has denied acting outside the publics interest or doing anything to enrich herself.

Stiles is a special correspondent.

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UPDATES:

11:19 p.m.: This article was updated with a comment from National Assembly Speaker Chung Sye-kyun.

This article was originally published at 11:10 p.m.
The impeachment Friday of South Korean President Park Geun-hye was welcomed by millions of people who had been protesting for weeks but opened a new chapter of uncertainty.

For one, a constitutional court is now deciding if the impeachment was warranted, leaving open the possibility that Park, who is now on suspension, could keep her job.

If she departs for good, the country would hold its next presidential election within two months, raising questions about whether Parks ruling conservative party would have time to rehabilitate its image or opposition parties would be ready to field candidates. There is already speculation about a presidential run by Ban Ki-moon, the outgoing United Nations secretary-general.

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Also in limbo are the futures of those involved in the scandal that led to Parks unraveling. Her longtime confidant Choi Soon-sil  a woman who had no official role in the government  remains in jail on a variety of charges related to allegations that she accessed classified material and used her influence to extort donations from large business conglomerates.

Park is a suspect in the case, according to prosecutors, though she enjoys immunity in standard criminal cases as long as she remains president, even with the suspension. That is not the case for two presidential aides accused of abusing their power or a music video director who allegedly used his ties to Choi to win lucrative contracts from state agencies and private companies.

The prime minister, Hwang Kyo-ahn, will now assume a caretaker role as head of state while the constitutional court decides whether to remove Park permanently, a process that could take months.

1 / 6 South Koreas lawmakers attend a plenary session to vote on the impeachment bill of President Park Geun-hye at the National Assembly in Seoul. (Kim Hong-Ji / Associated Press) 2 / 6 Lawmakers queue up to cast their votes in a polling station at the National Assembly in Seoul. (Chung Sung-Jun / Getty Images) 3 / 6 South Koreas Prime Minister and acting President Hwang Kyo-Ahn, center, speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the government complex in Seoul after parliament passed a motion of impeachment. (Jung Yeon-Je / AFP/Getty Images) 4 / 6 South Korean President Park Geun-hye speaks during an emergency Cabinet meeting at the presidential office in Seoul. South Korean lawmakers earlier on Friday impeached her, a stunning and swift fall for the countrys first female leader amid protests that drew millions into the streets in united fury. (Baek Sung-ryul / Associated Press) 5 / 6 Protesters gather as police surround them during a rally urging the impeachment of South Koreas President Park Geun-hye outside the National Assembly in Seoul. ( AFP/Getty Images) 6 / 6 Anti-Park activists react after the South Korean parliaments successful impeachment of President Park Geun-hye, outside the National Assembly in Seoul. (Ed Jones / AFP/Getty Images)

Recently Ive had the privilege of seeing the future of a mature South Korea as I witnessed your peaceful gatherings and the democratic way in which you expressed yourselves, Hwang told the nation after the vote. I will listen closely to what you have to say, so that your voices will be reflected, as much as possible, in government affairs.

One things seems certain: Having discovered their power in the massive street rallies that propelled the National Assemblys impeachment vote, ordinary citizens will continue to play a major role.

The representatives heard the voice of the protesters, said Lim Jibong, a law professor at Sogang University in Seoul. They shouted, in one voice: Early retirement for the president. Impeachment for the president.

Kyung Moon Hwang, a history professor at USC and a Korea expert, called the chain of events a sign that South Koreas democracy is actually quite healthy.

This is a form of democracy that you really dont see going on anywhere else in the world, activism on a really large scale, he said.

On Friday, six weeks after the scandal became a mainstay of media coverage, thousands of people gathered outside the assembly building to cheer the impeachment vote, which was only possible because dozens of members of Parks own party turned against her.

Irony was in the air: Parks father, Park Chung-hee, ruled the country as a military dictator beginning in the 1960s.

He ruled through the beginning of its economic boom until his assassination in 1979. Democracy eventually followed, along with the continued rise of South Korea as an economic and cultural powerhouse.

The country has since hosted an Olympics and faced down a severe economic crisis. In recent years, it has felt the pain of slower growth and anxiety about income inequality and opportunity for young people.

As president, Park Geun-hye was both helped and hurt by her fathers legacy. Her supporters were nostalgic for him. Her critics saw an authoritarian streak in her aloof governing style.

Somehow President Park has become kind of a symbolic figure for everything that is wrong with Korea, said Ryan Song, a law professor at Kyung Hee University.

I call it the national pastime in Korea: blame the government for everything, he said.

Park apologized three times before the impeachment vote, to no avail, and again on Friday.

I want to sincerely apologize to the people of the nation for this large-scale national chaos theyre experiencing due to my carelessness and deficiencies, especially amid the security and economic difficulties our country is currently going through, she said.

Stiles is a special correspondent.

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A far-right Dutch politician who has made attacks on Islam his signature issue was convicted Friday of inciting discrimination  but the court ordered no penalty, and more serious hate-speech charges were dropped.

The trial of Geert Wilders, whose Party for Freedom is leading in polls ahead of parliamentary elections set for March 2017, had been closely watched not only in the Netherlands, but elsewhere in Europe, where far-right populist parties have seen a surge of support.

Public attitudes about Islam, immigration and cultural assimilation are likely to have a strong bearing on elections next year in Germany and France, in addition to balloting in the onetime liberal stronghold of the Netherlands.

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Wilders, a flamboyantly theatrical figure, was charged in connection with remarks at a March 2014 appearance during a municipal election campaign, in which he encouraged a crowd of supporters to shout demands that fewer Moroccans be allowed in the country.

When they responded with raucous chants, he smiled and promised to take steps to fulfill that aim. The scene was shown on national television.

The three-judge panel Friday declined to impose a penalty -- and dropped the more serious charge of hate speech, instead convicting Wilders of inciting discrimination and insulting a group.

The 53-year-old politician denounced the verdict and said he would appeal. He quickly took to Twitter to brand the courts finding as madness and asserted that half the Netherlands shared his views.

Wilders has adopted a public stance on Islam that was long considered well outside the countrys political norms, including advocating a nationwide ban on the Koran and the closing of Islamic schools.

There has been public pushback against his most hard-line views. The trial was triggered by nearly 6,500 complaints received by police, and the court proceedings included testimonials from Dutch Moroccans who said they felt threatened and demeaned by Wilders comments. The prosecution had sought a fine of 5,000 euros, or about $5,280.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who heads a rival liberal party, demanded that Wilders renounce his remarks about Moroccans, and said he would otherwise refuse to join with him in any coalition government -- a common political arrangement in the country.

At his trial, held in a tightly secured courtroom outside Amsterdam, Wilders invoked a free-speech defense. But the presiding judge said his words had collectively dismissed as inferior Dutch citizens of Moroccan descent, and chided him for using his prominence to sow divisiveness.

Moroccan-born American academic and author Anouar Majid, who has written several books about Islam in the West, said far-right parties were reaping political gains from anxiety over Europes wave of immigration.

This attitude  and you find echoes of it in the recent election in the United States  comes from a sense that people are losing control of their culture, their tradition and their heritage, he said.

In countries like the Netherlands and France, he said, discrimination and a lack of economic opportunity tended to contribute to immigrant-descended communities holding themselves apart from the mainstream, he said  leading to yet more friction and animosity.

Its a vicious cycle, Majid said.

Morocco was a colonial-era Dutch ally, and many Moroccan and Turkish nationals came to the country as guest workers in the 1960s and 1970s, with larger numbers arriving later under family-reunification measures. Muslims make up some 5% of the Netherlands population of about 17 million.

While Holland has long been known for a tolerant worldview encompassing legal prostitution and some of Europes least stringent drug laws, relations with the countrys Muslim community have been increasingly fraught for more than decade.

Negative attitudes were crystallized by shock over the gruesome 2004 slaying of filmmaker Theo van Gogh, a critic of Islam, by a Dutch citizen of Moroccan descent. In the same era, Somali-born activist turned Dutch parliamentarian Ayaan Ali Hirsi, who eventually left for the United States, came under sustained threat when she crusaded against female circumcision and other Muslim mores she described as barbaric.

More recently, Dutch authorities have been alarmed by the numbers of radicalized young citizens joining the ranks of Islamic State, and by the spectre of returning fighters and suspected sleeper cells in the country. While Holland has not suffered large-scale terror strikes such as those that have hit neighboring Belgium and France, authorities have for the past several years assessed the terror risk as high.

Authorities on Friday announced the arrest of a terror suspect in the port city of Rotterdam. Dutch news reports said police had seized an assault rifle, cash and an Islamic State flag.

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With Islamic State driven from its last urban stronghold in strife-ridden but energy-rich Libya, fresh turmoil is brewing over control of lucrative oil installations.

And a polarizing military figure who once enjoyed close U.S. support  Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar  is at the heart of the unfolding struggle.

The North African country is splintered by an array of rival armed groups, some of them loyal to one of two competing governments. Haftar has carved out a powerful fiefdom independent of the weak but internationally supported administration in the capital, Tripoli.

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Three months ago, forces loyal to Haftar seized the main terminals at the heart of Libyas oil crescent, a concentration of oil-shipping ports and facilities on the Mediterranean coast. That gave him and his ally, a rival government based in the countrys east, control over crucial oil exports, which currently amount to about 600,000 barrels of crude a day.

That grip has not gone unchallenged. This week, Haftars forces  the self-styled Libyan National Army  beat back a series of attacks by a loose coalition of armed groups based in western Libya. The attackers consisted of a mishmash of Islamist fighters and some backers of the Tripoli government, including a militia leader named Ibrahim Jadran, who headed a semi-official force that formerly controlled the oil facilities.

Few expect the fighting to end any time soon  but in the meantime, Haftar, who is based in Libyas second city, Benghazi, has seen an exponential leap in his personal power and prestige in the months that the oil terminals have been under his thumb.

Its been a huge boost for him, and really shifts the momentum to his advantage, said Frederic Wehrey, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for Peace. He has credibly shown the international community hes guarding the oil fields, and the oil is flowing, with revenue going into central coffers. Its an enormous card that hes been able to play.

Born in 1943, the field marshal  a title conferred on him by the eastern government, not recognized by the Tripoli one  has faced reversals of fortune before. In fact, they have defined Haftars long career.

A onetime key lieutenant of dictator Moammar Kadafi, who was killed in 2011 after being ousted in a popular uprising, Haftar fell out of favor after commanding Libyan forces on the losing side of a 1980s conflict in the neighboring African state of Chad. He fled into exile in the United States, and from a base in northern Virginia, cultivated close ties with the Central Intelligence Agency.

He returned to Libya to fight on the side of anti-Kadafi forces, but failed to achieve the degree of influence he had hoped for in the power struggle that erupted after the dictators downfall.

In 2014, he again burst into view when he went on national television to outline his plan for national salvation, launching a wide-ranging battle against Islamists who then held sway in Benghazi and other eastern towns and cities.

Backed by a number of former military commanders and an impressive array of military hardware left over from Kadafis time, Haftar won popular backing by doing what the then-central government could not: largely restoring stability in Benghazi and other eastern towns, where a local Al Qaeda affiliate, Ansar al Sharia had staged a chaotic campaign of assassinations and bombing attacks.

Confident and charismatic, Haftar has demonstrated an astute grasp of regional political forces at play. He won the support of Egypts President Abdel Fatah Sisi, whose stridently anti-Islamist views dovetail neatly with Haftars, and of the United Arab Emirates, another avowed enemy of the Islamists.

Haftar is also well-positioned to take advantage of a newly assertive Mideast stance by Russia. He has made several trips to Moscow this year, most recently last month, when he was photographed in a Russian-style fur hat as he headed to high-level official meetings.

Russian news reports said he may have submitted a wish list of weapons if a U.N. arms embargo applying to all parties in Libya except the Tripoli government was lifted.

And Haftar and his allies are said to have been heartened by the incoming U.S. administration of President-elect Donald Trump. Analyst say Haftars inner circle believes the new American president may tilt away from the Tripoli government, which has some Islamist-leaning elements  even if that means breaking with the United Nations and Europeans.

The Tripoli government is in a very weak position in relation to Haftar, and thats a big turnaround, said Richard Reeve, a Libya expert at Britains Oxford Research Group, an independent think tank. Hes a force to be reckoned with.

Though the field marshal will probably stay in the spotlight and continue to flex his military muscle, Libyas other power struggles havent gone away.

The battle against Islamic State in the coastal city of Surt, though unrelated to the struggle for the oil installations Haftar controls, sapped the strength of powerful militias based in the western city of Misrata. The seven-month campaign to retake Surt ended this week when the Misratans and their government-allied supporters finally cleared out the last square city block Islamic State fighters were holding.

Islamic State, although ejected from its only urban redoubt in Libya, nonetheless remains a threat, according to analysts and the U.S. military, which oversaw coalition airstrikes against Islamic State positions.

Theres still ISIS in Libya, Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis said after Surt was declared free of the militants, using another acronym for the group. They are out in the desert, they are underground, they have blended into the population, and they are going to be a challenge for the Libyan government in the future.

Amid Libyas volatile political landscape, Haftars wider ambitions may be limited by unpopularity outside his eastern sphere of influence. In other parts of the country, he is despised for both his American links and his past as a Kadafi confidant and enforcer, with Islamists holding him in particular disdain.

But some of Haftars backers aspire to greater powers for him, with some suggesting that the entire country would benefit from emergency military rule  presided over by the field marshal.

His opponents accuse him of being another Kadafi, of wanting to take Libya back to a military dictatorship, Wehrey said. Hes a military man through and through, and he wants to have a seat at the table  hes emerged as the indispensable power broker in Libya.

laura.king@latimes.com
MEXICO CITY -- From his naming on the Forbes magazine list of the worlds richest billionaires, to his frequent supposed sightings and magical escapes, Joaquin El Chapo Guzman has been a larger-than-life drug lord who reached mythical proportions in Mexican narco folklore.

He rose from a simple low-level trafficker from Sinaloa, the cradle of Mexicos opium and marijuana trade, to become the nations most powerful and elusive fugitive.

For Mexicans, the capture of Guzman, reported Saturday to have occurred in a joint operation by Mexican marines and U.S. federal agents in the Sinaloan coastal city of Mazatlan, is somewhat akin to Colombias killing of Pablo Escobar -- or even the U.S. elimination of Osama bin Laden.

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His luxurious life on the run was the stuff of legend. More than once, he was reported to have entered a fancy restaurant, ordered cellphones confiscated, dined lavishly, then picked up everyones check.

PHOTOS: Inside the condo where Joaquin El Chapo Guzman was captured

So apparently untouchable was he, that his young beauty queen wife traveled uncontested by authorities to Los Angeles to give birth to twin girls in 2011.

In recent years, Guzman extended the operations of his Sinaloa cartel to an estimated 50 countries across Latin America, Africa and Europe, even hooking up with one of the most notorious Italian mafias, the Ndrangheta.

This gives us the dimension of who was El Chapo Guzman, said Jose Reveles, author of several books on Mexican drug-trafficking.

Given Guzmans folk hero status, the constant rumors of his presence across borders and time zones, and his ability to bribe local officials to look the other way, it was difficult for some officials not to accord Guzman a grudging respect.

Guillermo Valdes, the former head of Mexicos National Security and Investigation Center who authored a book on his countrys drug trade, called Guzman an exceptional leader -- a business genius.

I think that El Chapo is a person with a leadership capacity and a strategic vision that the other narcos dont have, and they recognize that, Valdes told the Spanish newspaper El Pais. Hes a very intelligent person, with a great capacity for listening. With a great ability to seduce people, as well as a large imagination ... and creativity.

The U.S. government offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to his arrest. The Mexican government was offering a reward of 30 million pesos, or about $2.3 million. There were many reported near misses, including a supposed appearance in Baja California in 2012, days before Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in the region.

There is some disagreement over Guzmans actual birth date, but the U.S. State Department puts it at Dec. 25, 1954, making him 59 years old. Interpol lists him as 56. The U.S. government lists him at 5-foot-8 and 165 pounds, but others say he is about 5-foot-6, hence his nickname El Chapo, or Shorty.

To many Mexicans, guessing Guzmans whereabouts had become a popular and macabre parlor game -- a kind of cartel Wheres Waldo? Mexican security officials, meanwhile, conducted numerous searches in vain, contributing to the mystique of bad man as wily trickster--and burnishing his reputation as a folk antihero.

A popular narcocorrido, or song glorifying the drug world, by a Mexican group called Los Buitres (The Vultures), captured the life that so many here assumed Guzman was living and the legend that had grown up around him:

He sleeps at times in homes

at times in tents

Radio and rifle at the foot

of the bed

Sometimes his roof is a cave.

Guzman does seem to be everywhere.

Many other Mexicans not seduced by Guzmans outlaw image still believed that the Sinaloa cartel was a businesslike operation that didnt prey upon innocents as much as other cartels like the Knights Templar, famous for its extensive extortion racket in the state of Michoacan; or the Zetas gang, which has terrorized regular people with extortion, kidnapping, human trafficking, and which has a penchant for killing that seems, at times, to be unmoored from any sort of human scruples.

Yet it was Guzmans decision to move into territory controlled by those other groups that led to some of the most bloody fighting in the last three years in states that had until then been relatively peaceful.

Guzman was born in Badiraguato, an isolated municipality in Sinaloa, the Pacific Coast state notorious for its untameable badlands and multi-generational web of drug producers and smugglers. He grew up poor, working on his grandfathers farm, and was reportedly adamant about never returning to the life of a Mexican peasant.

A former mistress, Zulema Hernandez, told writer Julio Scherer long ago that Guzman was kicked out of the house by an abusive father. He is believed to have left school after the third grade.

Like many in Sinaloa, Guzman had family members with connections to the drug trade. In his case, it was Pedro Avila Perez, a founder of the Sinaloa cartel, which had long grown and distributed Mexican marijuana and heroin, but by the 1980s branched out into smuggling Colombian cocaine into the U.S.

Guzman got his start overseeing drug production on local farms. He then began handling the planes, boats and trucks used to smuggle the South American cocaine into Mexico.

By 1989, deaths and arrests, plus good luck and ambition, had put Guzman and his cousin, Hector Palma, at the top of the cartel sector that moved as much as 24 tons of cocaine into the U.S. each month. But Guzmans power was challenged by a faction led by the Arellano Felix family, based in Tijuana. Guzman sent dozens of gunmen to attack the Arellanos at a party in Puerto Vallarta in 1992, killing nine people.

Less than a year later, the Arellanos sent gunmen to ambush Guzman at the Guadalajara airport, but instead killed the cardinal of Guadalajara, Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo. Much about the shooting remains unclear, but one theory holds that the bishop was mistaken for Guzman.

The death of the bishop sent shock waves throughout Mexico and beyond. The Mexican government had long been viewed as lax in its punishment of drug lords, if not occasionally complicit with them, particularly with Guzman, who was said to enjoy protection from some of the countrys top law enforcement officials.

Public pressure forced the government to crack down. Guzman was arrested in Guatemala a couple of weeks after the shooting.

He was transferred to a maximum security federal prison in Guadalajara, where he lived comfortably. But when faced with extradition to the U.S., he apparently decided to flee.

On Jan. 19, 2001, according to the State Department, Guzman escaped from the prison allegedly with the assistance of prison officials.

The U.S. government summarized the next chapter of his life bluntly: While on the run from Mexican authorities, says the official profile on the State Departments Narcotics Reward Program website, Guzman-Loera has reestablished himself as a high-ranking member of the Mexican drug trade.

He emerged, apparently, as a wiser, battle-tested chief executive eager to prove he was still on top of his game. As the Mexican federal government got more serious about fighting the drug war, Guzman relied more on corrupt local officials for protection. He created a mobile stealth operation and probably benefited from the largess of wealthy Colombian traffickers who saw his operation as the most stable and well-managed of the Mexican cartels.

In the late 1990s, he is believed to have added methamphetamine to the Sinaloa gangs portfolio, arranging the shipment of precursor chemicals from Asia to Mexicos Pacific Coast, and setting up mega-labs for meth production throughout rural Mexico.

Guzmans unbridled ambition and lust for expansion brought predictable, and tragic, clashes with other big-money, big-ego drug lords. That was a key driver of the bloody nightmare that plagued the country during the six-year term of Mexican President Felipe Calderon, from 2006 to 2012, and continues to plague it, to some extent, today.

Guzmans desire to control the drug transit route through the city of Juarez was the likely reason for the 2004 assassination of Rodolfo Carrillo Fuentes, the head of the Juarez cartel, which had formerly lorded over the city. The slaying unleashed a long and bloody struggle for that city. Guzman would later clash with his former allies in the Beltran Leyva drug organization, and engage in a brutal war for territorial control with the paramilitary drug group known as the Zetas.

The fight to stay at the top came at a tremendous personal cost for El Chapo. Year after year, friends, family and associates were killed by drug-world rivals, or in shootouts with police and the military, or arrested and sometimes extradited to the United States.

The prize was unfathomable wealth, and an empire that extended into hundreds of U.S. cities, and into lucrative drug markets in Europe and Asia. His influence, it seemed, was everywhere: In February of last year, the Chicago Crime Commission declared Guzman to be Public Enemy No. 1, for the drugs he was believed to be pumping into the crime-ridden metropolis, even though he probably never set foot in the place.

richard.fausset@latimes.com

wilkinson@latimes.com

Cecilia Sanchez of the Times Mexico City bureau contributed to this report.
All material is subject to strictly enforced copyright terms & conditions and cannot be repurposed or reproduced.  19882022 Latin American Financial Publications Inc.
John Glenn, who was the first American to orbit the Earth and last surviving member of the American seven"Right Stuff"Mercury astronatuts, passed away on Thursday in Ohio. Glenn who was also a long-time senator died at the age of 95.

According to a report from Reuters, Glenn took his last breath at the James Cancer Hospital at Ohio State University as stated by Hank Wilson, a spokesperson for John Glenn College of Public Affairs in the university. Glenn also helped established the institution.

Glenn was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012 by President Barack Obama. The president stated that the nation lost the icon due to Glenn's passing.

In a statement, Obama also said that Glenn has been inspiring next generation of engineers, scientists, and astronauts who will bring people to Mars and beyond. Not just visit, but stay.

President-elect Donald Trump also expressed his condolences on his Twitter account, saying the nation lost one of the greatest airspace pioneers.While Ohio'a governor John Kasich said Glenn was Ohio's greatest hometown hero.

Before joining NASA, Glenn spent 24 years in military service. After the Pearl Harbor attack, he was later transferred to the Marine Corps and became a pilot in World War II and the Korean War.

On February 20, 1962, he made a history by becoming the third American and fifth human in space.

Glenn didn't only make the U.S orbit the Earth three times. He helped restore American pride after the domination of the Soviet Union in space exploration in the early 1960s. His photo was on the cover of TIME and LIFE magazine. After that, he was labeled as a national hero.

Even during the exploration, millions of Americans stayed tune to their radio and watched television, and gathered at New York's Grand Central Terminal to follow the mission. They heard the voice of NASA saying"Godspeed, John Glenn"during the launch of Friendship 7 capsule from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

He returned to space again in the shuttle Discovery in 1998 when he was 77 years old, making him the oldest person to fly to space, Bloomberg stated.

He was a senate member for 24 years and ran unsuccessfully for the presidency in 1984.

RIP John Glenn. Your legacy lives on.
South mountain middle school

South Mountain Middle School in Allentown (Courtesy photo)

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The gun a 14-year-old Allentown girl is accused of bringing to her city middle school belonged to an aunt's boyfriend, according to the girl's family.

At a court hearing on Thursday, the girl's stepfather named the man he says had the gun, and testified that the man no longer lives with the family.

On Dec. 1, South Mountain Middle School officials found a loaded handgun in the girl's locker, after students reported the weapon to staff.

Senior Deputy District Attorney Craig Scheetz on Thursday declined to answer questions about the identification or any possible charges the gun's reported owner may face.

Defense attorney Andrea Olsovsky also declined to comment after the hearing.

The revelation in the case was made during a hearing Thursday before Judge James Anthony, and the girl's mother and her stepfather were in court with her for the hearing.

The South Mountain Middle School student was due for a contested adjudication hearing, but that was rescheduled for next Thursday after Scheetz said he did not have the handgun available to bring to court.

The gun is at a Lehigh County ballistics lab, Scheetz said.

Thursday's hearing was open to the public, after the girl's detention hearing last Friday was held behind closed doors. Pennsylvania law allows open hearings for juvenile defendants ages 14 or older who are charged with a felony.

The teen is currently being held in a juvenile detention facility, and Olsovsky tried to have the girl sent to a shelter facility, which is less restrictive, or sent home with GPS monitoring.

The girl has no prior referrals to juvenile probation, and the girl's father testified prior to her arrest she was "fun-loving" and a good student.

"We've never had a problem with her," he said.

Juvenile probation requested the girl remain in detention until next week's hearing, and the judge agreed.

Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
An eyesore building at a critical entrance to the city of Bethlehem is set to be razed so apartments and stores can rise in its place.

The former bar and restaurant at 1338 E. Fourth St. on South Side had its water turned off back in 2005 and has long been in the city's crosshairs.

Just last month, the Bethlehem Planning Commission voted to declare the property blighted as part of Mayor Bob Donchez's push to get eyesore buildings across the city cleaned up and redeveloped. The property is still moving through the blight certification process.

On Thursday, the building owner Raj Nagra, was before the planning commission pitching $1.5 million plans to raze the building and construct a three-story apartment and retail building in its place.

The location is at the city's start of the "Eastern Gateway," the neighborhood surrounding East Fourth and Williams street, dubbed a potential front door of the city.

A few years ago the area rose to importance with city officials looking to give the area a boost to match its surroundings, which include Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem, Lehigh Valley Industrial Park VII, the South Bethlehem Greenway and the Bethlehem Skateplaza.

The building is "badly in need of redevelopment and it's hopefully going to spur more redevelopment in the area," said project engineer Rick Rosebery, of Maser Consulting.

The commission signed off on the land development plans that call for 3,373 square feet of retail space on the first floor and a total of eight apartment units on the upper floor. The city is requesting that Nagra add awnings or other decorative elements to break up the facade of the building.

Nagra has applied for the apartments to be designated as low-to-moderate income housing. No tenant for the retail space has been identified.

Nagra said he hopes to start construction in 2017.

Sara K. Satullo may be reached at ssatullo@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @sarasatullo and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Jhamaer Keyes once blamed a heart condition for preventing him from showing up at his Northampton County criminal trial.

But Friday his attorney had a different reason: fear of a white justice system.

"The anxiety there must be to face a jury can be overwhelming," said defense attorney Anthony Rybak "He perceives the climate in the United States today, it's absolutely present that there's an undercurrent of racism and unfairness for people of African American descent."

The 30-year-old Winslow Township, New Jersey, man was sentenced Friday to 16 to 31 months in state prison for endangering Bethlehem Township police officers and skipping his trial. Keyes is black.

Fear of white authorities helps explain why Keyes got in trouble in the first place, Rybak said. Keyes fled police during a drug sting on Sept. 28, 2015, at the Value Place hotel in Bethlehem Township.

"He was scared," said Rybak. "There's enough news stories about black individuals getting involved with police and getting hurt that I think that is part of the reasoning why he did what he did."

Keyes was accused of injuring two officers when he drove away, although Rybak disputed the severity of the injuries.

Keyes checked himself into the hospital on July 6, 2016, the day testimony was supposed to begin in his criminal trial. He failed to show up for court on July 7, too. Northampton County Judge Emil Giordano ordered Keyes to pay $482 to cover the costs of bringing in jurors for two days for no reason.

Rybak said Keyes has suffered from undiagnosed anxiety and depression. He's now medicated and his fears are more in control.

"I'm truly accountable for my actions," Keyes said. "I want to accept it and move forward with my future. Ultimately I want to be a better dad to my son and be a better role model to my family and friends."

Northampton County Senior Judge Leonard Zito sentenced Keyes to 13 to 31 months in prison for fleeing the police, endangering each of the two officers and using a rental car without permission.

He ordered Keyes to pay back $8,000 for damage he caused to a Bethlehem Township police car and $9,500 in damage to a car parked next to his. Zito said Keyes fled police on Route 191 and Route 22 at speeds over 100 mph.

"The behavior of Mr. Keyes on the date these crimes were committed was very bizarre, very dangerous, not only for the police officers for other citizens," Zito said. "He was involved in a high speed chase that had all the ingredients for disaster."

Giordano imposed a consecutive 90-day sentence for contempt of court after Keyes admitted he had no legitimate reason to skip his trial.

Assistant District Attorney John Obrecht asked for a significant punishment because Keyes wasted the time of the 12 jurors and court employees and showed no respect for the justice system.

"I find it personally offensive and I think this court should too," he said.

Giordano stopped short of imposing the statutory maximum of six months in prison because he believes Keyes has legitimate mental health issues.

"I accept your apology," Giordano said. "It's clear to me you're a different person by virtue of the effect of your medications."

Keyes completed a course to become an electrician this year. He was formerly a manager at a Foot Locker shoe store, Giordano said. Keyes can't be released from prison until he comes up with the $482 to cover the cost of empaneling the jury.

Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @RudyMillerLV. Find Easton area news on Facebook.
Do you recognize Bethlehem's 'baby Jesus' thief?

The "baby Jesus" statue is seen in the Nativity scene in Bethlehem's Payrow Plaza, along Church Street between City Hall and the Bethlehem Area Public Library. It was stolen about 2 a.m. Dec. 4, 2016, and delivered, with damage to one leg and a hand, to St. Luke's Hospital in Bethlehem Township, according to city police. (Courtesy photo | For lehighvalleylive.com)

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A thief accused of stealing a baby Jesus statue from a Bethlehem Nativity scene has been identified, city police announced Friday.

The female was caught on surveillance video at 2 a.m. Dec. 4 taking the infant statue from the Nativity owned by the Chamber of Commerce, which is on display at Bethlehem's outdoor Payrow Plaza between City Hall and the library.

Bethlehem police released photos and a description of the thief, and asked for the public's help in identifying her. On Friday, police said the person had been identified, but did not release her name.

The female will be charged next week with theft and institutional vandalism, police said. Police said the suspect was at the Nativity 24 hours before the theft.

"This appeared to have been a planned event," police Chief Mark DiLuzio said in a news release.

The baby Jesus statue was recovered at the St. Luke's Anderson Campus in Bethlehem Township, with damage to the one leg and hand and a note mentioning the names of dogs that DiLuzio said "made no sense."

The damaged statue was repaired and returned back into the nativity scene.

The chief thanked all the citizens who called in information and tips.

Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Pennsylvania's Commonwealth Court is upholding a Lehigh University professor's code violations for allowing his South Bethlehem property to fall into disrepair.

But that doesn't mean that Bethlehem's legal battles with Alvin Kanofsky, 77, of Bethlehem are over. Kanofksy has other pending appeals.

The city of Bethlehem has spent years citing the Lehigh physics professor in hopes of getting him to repair the old Goodman Furniture building, 30 E. Third St.

Kanofsky recently said he was fired from his job at Lehigh but university officials said Friday he is still employed by the school.

The city has declared the prominent South Bethlehem building and its adjacent vacant lot blighted, laying the groundwork for taking it through eminent domain.

The building, which Kanofsky bought for $139,500, is currently valued at $82,000. Estimates obtained by the city place structural repairs at $400,000, although that does not include the costs of weatherproofing or mold remediation.

Thursday's ruling by Senior Judge Dan Pellegrini deals with Kanofsky's appeal of an August 2015 code citation over an eastern wall of the prominent South Bethlehem building that was close to collapsing.

In the months since the first citation, the wall became such a danger to the public the city spent over $137,000 to hire a contractor to stabilize the building.

After the 2015 citation, Kanofksy was given 15 days to repair the wall, which he failed to do, and then he was fined. He appealed the citation to the code appeal board, which found him in violation Sept. 24, 2015.

Kanofsky then appealed to Northampton County Court and a hearing was scheduled March 14, 2016. Kanofsky asked for a continuance, which was denied, and he did not show up for the hearing where his appeal was denied.

Pellegrini upheld the lower court ruling noting that Kanofsky, who represented himself in the appeal, appeared to be trying to argue that the court erred in finding him responsible and it was the city's fault.

"This argument is without merit," Pellegrini writes. "First, Kanofsky is admittedly the owner of the building and he failed to appear at a hearing of this matter, let alone attempt in any way to rebut the testimony and evidence presented by the city."

Kanofksy did not immediately return a phone message left Friday. Kanofsky has argued in hearings and court filings that the city and a neighbor have caused the damage. He claims he is taking steps to repair the building.

Kanofsky operated a flea market out of the Goodman building for a short time, but since then it has mostly been used as storage. The building has no electric or water service now.

Pellegrini also dismissed Kanofsky's arguments contesting the blight designation because the appeal solely deals with the March 14, 2016, trial court ruling.

In August, Northampton County Senior Judge Leonard N. Zito fined Kanofsky about $30,700 for failing to maintain his building and ordered him to serve five days in prison. Kanofsky has appealed that sentence as well.

While Bethlehem's legal battle with Kanofsky continues to play out in the courts, the city is trying to secure money to seize the building and sell it to a qualified developer through a request-for-proposal process.

The Bethlehem Redevelopment Authority voted in November to apply for a $500,000 gaming grant to create a revolving loan fund to fix up blighted properties and the old Goodman building would be the top priority. Money repaid from the loans would be reinvested into blight remediation projects.

Authority Executive Director Tony Hanna said Friday that the application should be reviewed in January with a decision expected by the end of March. The authority estimates it would take 18 months to select a developer and make the repairs.

Bethlehem Mayor Bob Donchez has made cleaning up blighted properties a top priority of his administration by acting aggressively to entice property owners to clean them up or sell them.

But the city's blight program has lacked the funds to act on many of what it deems to be the biggest eyesores, like the Goodman building and the former Miller Wholesale paper building, 810 W. Monocacy St.

Previously, the city only budgeted $100,000 annually for blight.

Next year's city budget includes $500,000 of bond and federal grant dollars to take on blight. That means if the authority wins the gaming grant Bethlehem would have a $1 million fund to clean up problem properties.

Sara K. Satullo may be reached at ssatullo@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @sarasatullo and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
A Bethlehem man is accused of assaulting his girlfriend following a heated dispute at their city apartment.

Joseph Charles Gibson, 26, of the 700 block of Broadway, at 11 p.m. Wednesday allegedly began arguing with his girlfriend. He then grabbed her by her hair and proceeded to punch her several times in the face, police said.

The victim then ran to a friend's house, but when she returned, Gibson allegedly was gone. Police said he returned just before 3 a.m., forced his way into a room and pushed the victim into a door, as well as grabbed her shirt.

The victim complained to police about pain, but court records don't specify if she sought medical treatment. It's unclear what the argument was about.

Gibson is charged with simple assault and harassment. He was arraigned before District Judge James Narlesky, who set bail at 10 percent of $5,000.

In lieu of bail, Gibson was taken to Northampton County Prison.

Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached at pholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @pamholzmann. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
A man involved in an attempted bank robbery in 2001 in which a garda lost his life had his driving licence restored at last weeks sitting of Portlaoise Circuit Court.

Kevin Lynch (47), with an address at 2 Russell Court, Russell Square, Tallaght, Dublin 24, was put off the road for 20 years and jailed for ten years, after a stolen BMW he and a number of others were travelling in was intercepted by gardai in Abbeyleix on December 7, 2001, as they were on their way to rob the local AIB.

They were intercepted and the car rammed by a garda jeep, and Lynch was arrested.

He was sentenced to ten years prison for conspiracy to rob, and suspended from driving for 20 years.

A detective sergeant lost his life as a result of the incident.

Applying for the restoration of the driving licence last week, defence for Mr Lynch said the appellant had been released from prison in 2010 and had worked as a car park attendant since. He has now been offered work as a driver.

Taking the witness box, Mr Lynch said he was trying to get his life back together and had been offered work with a courier company.

He said he was very sorry for the offences for which he had been jailed.

Judge Keenan Johnson told him that he seemed to be making an effort to turn his life around, and agreed to lift the driving disqualification.

Mr Lynch had previously applied for the restoration of his licence last October, but on that occasion there were State objections and Judge Johnson ruled that he was not satisfied with the application.
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Nigel Farage, the rise of populism across Europe, economic hardship, racism and Roy Keanes sudden departure from Saipan.

All featured in a hard-fought Naas derby final of the County Kildare Inter-Schools Debating Competition for the Michael Rigby-Jones Memorial Shield, which is sponsored by the Leinster Leader.

Naas CBS faced off against St Marys on Thursday night, on the motion that Brexit would be good for the EU.

It was an intelligent, lively and well-researched contest between two evenly-matched teams in front of a full house of partisan supporters at the boys school.

The home team of captain Conor Bergin, Robert Quinn and Daniel Mooney proposed the motion and the main thrust of their argument that Britain was never a good European team player, and the EU as a whole would be better off without them. Like Keane, an EU departure could facilitate a new lease of life for the rest of the squad.

They argued that Britain has opposed progressive European social policy on issues including human and workers rights, which could be progressed more easily in the absence of the UK.

Britain, said the CBS team, wanted the benefits of membership without the responsibilities.

Defending Rigby-Jones champions St Marys - team captain Gemma Robothom, Mia Sherry and Aoife Ryan - came out strongly against the motion.

Captain Gemma memorably likened the EU to a boyband - with Germany as the strongest member, Harry Styles; Niall Horan as Ireland, looking for the lend of a fiver, and the departed and lamented Zayn Malik as Great Britain, without whom nothing would be the same. And nobody, she warned, would go on to have a strong solo career on their own.

The St Marys team spoke of the ripple effect that Britain leaving the EU would have on the rest of the European economies. They also spoke passionately about how racism against immigrants had been a powerful factor in the Brexit vote, and how this ideology is also spreading across the continent.

Runners up Daniel Mooney, Robert Quinn, Conor Bergin of Naas CBS

Chairperson of the adjudicating panel, Elizabeth Connelly, said it had been a very good debate, with the speakers showing genuine knowledge of the issues. She and fellow panel members, Orla OConnell and Dan Boland, ruled, however, that the motion had been lost, with the St Marys team retaining the trophy.

Certificates were awarded to all competitors in this years competition. Reece Sheridan of Pipers Hill Community College and Aedhamair Blennerhasset of the Holy Family Secondary School, Newbridge, were named best non-finalist speakers.

The Shield awarded at the competition is named after its first sponsor, industrialist Michael Rigby-Jones, who founded the Irish Ropes factory in Newbridge. He tragically lost his life in the 1972 Staines air crash.

Chairperson Laura Coates, deputy editor of the Leinster Leader, said that this newspaper is proud to continue its long association with the competition, which has been such a vibrant and vital part of school life in Kildare since the 1960s.

She thanked the timekeeper, Som Hlongwane of Naas CBS; the adjudicators and organising committee members Patricia OCallaghan and Treasa Ui Riagain, for contributing to the success of this years event.
A number of Naas families are facing into a search for new accommodation, having been told the homes theyve been renting are to be sold.

Letters informing them of the decision have been issued to the tenants of the housing development of Cill Corbain.

The houses are immediately adjacent to the unopened Naas Shopping Centre, and the letters came from Marshalsea.

Marshalsea is the property development company which constructed the Shopping Centre  which was due to open exactly seven years ago.

Many of the adults living there are originally from Bangladesh and some have been living there for more than 10 years. In some cases they have young children attending local schools.

They are concerned that they may be forced to leave Naas and then try to find alternative schools for their children and perhaps alternative employment.

Some of them told the Leader that it will not be easy to find new houses in the Naas area because there is a shortage of suitable accommodation, some of which is being let for up to 1,500 a month.

Some of us have children; effectively there are no houses in Naas because many landlords do not want us when they hear we have families. We have contacted people who are letting houses and when they hear they are dealing with a family they dont call back. Our children have started school here and we would like them to continue to going to school in Naas, said Abdul Khalek.

Another resident Fairoz Ahmed, who has two daughters attending the Mercy convent Primary School, said the residents would he happy to live there in the event of a sale if the new owner would be prepared to rent the houses - but they dont know it this will happen.

We have lived here a long time but were finding its difficult to get houses when youve children. Ive lived in Ireland for nearly 16 years and about half that in Cill Corbain. A two bedroom apartment in Naas could cost 1,300 a month. The situation means our children are not allowed to live in a house, he added.

There are 20 adults living in the estate and almost as many children. Most are native of Bangladesh but are citizens of Ireland. Some of them have contacted Kildare County Council to seek housing.

They have also contacted Fianna Fail TD James Lawless who has written to Marshalsea seeking to have the tenancy arrangements maintained at least until a sale takes place.

Ive written to Marshalsea and they ve agreed to look at this as option. They are good tenants but private property is private property and I understand if they need to sell, that is their (Marshalsea) business, Mr Lawless told the Leader.

No response was forthcoming to a request for a comment from Marshalsea.
He is known as the "slippery imam." In the eighth circle of hell  that of cunning and deception  of Islamist preachers, Bassam Ayachi is not the worst, but he is the most elusive, the one who has never been caught. Before him, there was Abu Hamza the Egyptian, a figure in the "Londonistan" of the late nineties. Nicknamed "Captain Hook" after losing an eye and two hands in Afghanistan, he was sentenced to life in prison in the United States. There was also his compatriot Omar Abdel-Rahman, the "blind sheikh," who was found guilty of inspiring and participating in the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993 and who died in US custody in 2017. Finally, closer to home, there was Olivier Corel, aka the "white emir," a French-Syrian imam now under house arrest in the south of France.

Mr. Ayachi, our "slippery imam," is also Franco-Syrian, born in Aleppo in 1946. Like "Captain Hook," he was seriously injured, but in a bomb attack attributed to the Islamic State (IS) group. He lost his right arm.

He appeared in a French court from April 5 to 8, but it had nothing to do with the ongoing trial of the November 2015 attacks. The 16th chamber of the Paris criminal court, which specializes in terrorism cases, accused him of links with a Syrian rebel group. The hearing provided an opportunity to shed some light on this elusive character. He has never before been seen and heard at such length, with the exception of a 2015 documentary by director Stephane Malterre ("In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Jihad").

More on this topic What you need to know about Paris attacks and the situation in France

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Sitting in the front row facing the three magistrates, never weary despite his 75 years and the rigors of fasting for Ramadan, the imam in blue sneakers, gray tracksuit, green parka and white beard, explained himself in relation to the accusations. He is accused of having performed, upon his return to Syria between 2013 and 2018, responsibilities within the Syrian rebel group Ahrar Al-Cham, considered by the French prosecutor's office as a terrorist organization but not listed by the European Union, the UN or the United States. While in the Idlib region, Mr. Ayachi ran an Islamic court and a training camp. He is also said to have had links with the now-defunct Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda, the Al-Nosra Front.

The imam, who says he only performs religious functions, admitted to these facts, but put forward two arguments. Firstly, that Ahrar Al-Sham was in no way a terrorist group. The second, more disconcerting claim was that his contacts with extremists had the hidden purpose of informing the French and Belgian intelligence services. In fact, even though the relevant services refuse to comment on the subject, his work as an informant is proven. Strange story, strange trial, strange defendant.

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So whos still up waiting for the Sleaford result then?

This would be the sort of seat where, in recent years, wed have without question lost our deposit.

We just managed to retain it last year in the General Election, polling 5.7%.

So what would be a good result for us?

Well, anything above that would be good.

Very good would be double figures.

Absolutely miraculously excellent would be exceeding the results we had in 2010 and 2005  18.2%.

What does the party do when they are already focused on a highly winnable by-election in a held seat and another one happens? During the coalition years, we might have just ignored it, but this was an opportunity to try out new things in an area which had voted to Leave. So we sent a couple of our acest campaigners up there  Lincolnshire lad Ed Fordham who has form for inspiring the troops and pulling off unexpected results, and Yorkshires Ian Horner. They led a fantastic team of East Midlands activists who delivered an incredible campaign.

They have been thinking not just of the result tonight, but of the legacy they leave for the county and other local elections in the future. They have been creative and insurgent and had lots and lots of fun. We are having the time of our lives was something I heard time and time again from those involved in the campaign.

Twitter is reporting a collapse in the Labour vote to below deposit level. That might well mean that we end up moving up a place or even, at a long shot, two places.

Heres a flavour of what Twitter is saying.

Source in the count the "Lib Dems are doing better than expected" #sleafordandnorthhykeham  Politico Daily (@Politico_Daily) December 9, 2016

Labour braced for tough night. Source tells me "Leave voters say we're backsliders, and Remainers say we're sell-outs" #sleafordbyelection  Tamara Cohen (@tamcohen) December 8, 2016

Ok Labour's vote looks like it has collapsed. Blue collars going UKIP, remainers Lib Dem. This is like Scotland #sleafordandnorthhykeham  Mo. (@mohammedahmed85) December 9, 2016

The turnout is really low, even for a by-election in December  just 37%.

Itll be a while before we know anything, but lets hope we have some encouraging news to wake up to.

And thanks so much to our marvellous candidate, Ross Pepper, to great campaign managers Ed and Ian and everyone who has taken part. The East Midlands region has really come together and, after the trauma of the coalition years, has discovered that campaigning can be fun again.

Four of the five Council by-election results are in. We stood in two of them and where we stood we did well.

Madeley (Newcastle under Lyme) result:

IND: 64.8% (+64.8)

CON: 15.8% (-7.1)

LDEM: 10.6% (+10.6)

LAB: 8.8% (-35.5)

UKIP and Grn didn't stand.  Britain Elects (@britainelects) December 8, 2016

University & Scotforth Rural (Lancaster) result:

LAB: 34.9% (-0.5)

GRN: 28.1% (-4.4)

CON: 24.2% (+0.5)

LDEM: 12.8% (+4.4)  Britain Elects (@britainelects) December 8, 2016

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
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A SIGNIFICANT milestone has been achieved for third level education locally as the University of Limerick and Mary Immaculate College has joined forces in one programme.

The Mayor of the City and County of Limerick, Cllr Kieran OHanlon, has officially launched a Liberal Arts programme, to be jointly offered by UL and MIC.

Each institution has been offering successful BA programmes for decades, but this ambitious, far-reaching project will offer students a wider range of choices making it the largest jointly delivered programme in Ireland.

From September 2017, up to 700 students will enrol in an enhanced liberal arts programme, with an offering of 19 different subjects  from politics to psychology and public administration  allowing students a combination of more than 150 pathways.

Launching the programme, Mayor OHanlon congratulated both institutions on three years of combined efforts to reach this stage.

This joint offering makes Limerick the place where students will find an arts and social sciences programme that is tailored to their specific needs, one that offers them the most exciting content, and which is taught in ways that empower them, he said.

The four-year honours degree programme with three years on campus and one year on work placement and/or study abroad.
LIMERICK City and County Council is to move to ban sulky racing on its roads.

It comes after an impromptu race caused chaos on the Tipperary Road recently, with the incident captured on mobile phone, and viewed tens of thousands of times.

Speaking at this weeks transport committee meeting, the councils manager in the metropolitan district Kieran Lehane proposed changing the by-laws to outlaw the horse-and-kart racing.

Having seen this video, I am satisfied there is a need to act in this area, he said.

Mayor Kieran OHanlon said: Sulky racing is an affront to civilised society. You could have a family who need to get to hospital in a hurry, and they cannot because someone has chosen to take over the road.

Head of the Limerick traffic corps, Insp Paul Reidy, Henry Street garda station, warned: We are waiting for a fatality to occur if we do not take action. This is reckless and hazardous behaviour.

Sinn Fein councillor Seighin O'Ceallaigh said he has spotted boys as young as three and four years old riding sulkies.

The problems are more acute than the racing of a sulky. It is something we need to take very seriously. I see horses left for dead, tied up. It is a bad reflection on us as a city, he said.

Former detective garda, Cllr Sean Lynch warned of criminal elements involved in these sulky races, and said because of the huge sums of cash involved, these horses are in fact very well fed, and very well bred.

Limerick is following in the footsteps of Kilkenny County Council which outlawed sulky races 12 months ago.
GARDAI are appealing to homeowners in rural parts of county Limerick to ensure their homes are properly secured following a spate of burglaries over the past ten days.

Investigations are underway following break-ins to houses in Ballylanders, Gallbally Kilfinane, Kildimo Croom, Broadford and Castlemahon.

Houses in Limerick city have also been targeted  with several burglaries reported at the weekend.

According to gardai, significant damage was caused at a number of houses as the culprits smashed windows or doors to gain entry.

Most of the break-ins happened during daytime hours or in the early evening,

Quantities of cash and jewellery were stolen from several houses while power tools and a TV were stolen from a house in Kildimo. Heating oil was stolen from a tank which is located outside another house.

Inspector Luke Conlon, head of the Bruff garda district, says hes surprised at the sudden spike in burglaries.

There was a five-week period where we had no burglaries and its only in the last week or so that they have occurred, he said adding that the time of year could be a factor.

Insp Conlon is urging homeowners to remain vigilant over the coming weeks,

People often go away and leave the house in darkness and it looks like they are empty. If you see a house with lights on and the house next door has no lights on which are you going to target? People need to be mindful when they are leaving their properties that they close windows and lock doors, he said.

Meanwhile, a manhunt is continuing after a safe containing a significant quantity of cash was stolen from the post office at Old Pallas earlier this week.

While the alarm was raised at around 3am on Wednesdsay, it is understood the culprits  believed to be four men  were inside the premises for some time and had fled by the time gardai arrived.

The safe was removed from the premises, it would have been heavy enough to remove, I believe, so it took three or four of them to do it, said Insp Conlon who is appealing for anyone with information on a silver Audi car and trailer which were used by the raiders to come forward.

Local councillor Noel Gleeson says he was shocked when he heard what happened.

You dont want to hear about these things happening  especially to a family owned business in a quiet rural area. I condemn it and I hope the perpetrators are caught quickly, he said.

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact Bruff garda station at (061) 382940.
GARDAI have confirmed that a body found in the search for a missing Limerick woman is that of Maria Hennigar.

Ms Hennigar, 35, originally from the Fr Russell Road, was reported missing from Doolin in November.

Gardai in Ennistymon had appealed for assistance in locating Maria, a freelance film-maker who lived alone and was last seen at Doonmacphelim, Doolin sometime around the first week in November.

She had been living in the Doolin area for the past six months and was missed by a concerned neighbour who reported not having seen here for a time, probably three weeks.

Large numbers of people, including family and friends, the Irish Coast Guard, Clare Civil Defence and Gardai, had taken part in searches to locate her.

A body was later reported as having been found in Kilcolgan, Co Galway.

A garda spokesperson confirmed this Friday: The body of Maria Hennigar has been recovered.

Ms Hennigars family was informed on Thursday night and have thanked those that took part in the searches.
A REPORT launched by Minister for Housing Simon Coveney shows that the Limerick Regeneration programme had a 12m impact on the local economy in 2015.

Launched at Innovate Limerick on Roxboro Road on Friday morning, the 320-page report reviews the progress of the Limerick Regeneration Framework Implementation Plan, which was launched in September 2013.

The report states that 300 jobs have been created as a direct result of programme funding; there was 12.2m total employment income impact in 2015; increased attendance at school; 50% of new homes are either completed or at design stage; and there are safer communities working in partnership with communities, policing and CCTV.

Addressing more than 200 local leaders, Minister Coveney said that the findings in the report represented an important milestone in its progress. When the 2013 plan was launched, it projected a budget of 293m; 253m to be spent on physical works, and 40m to be spent on economic and social projects. It is estimated that around 260m has been spent so far.

Minister Coveney, launching the Regeneration review, says there is no more ambitious regeneration project in Ireland @Limerick_Leader pic.twitter.com/eL3dWhEZfa  FINTAN WALSH (@FintanYTWalsh) December 9, 2016

The problems faced in Limerick when the Implementation Plan started were real and challenging and are still being addressed. But the progress and the level of investment already made are also real. We need to build on the success achieved to date and continue collaboration across all agencies and community interests, so that all the recommendations you have set out in the review can be delivered, he stated.

Limerick City and County Council chief executive Conn Murray said that the results so far have been encouraging, adding that there is still a considerable journey to travel.

Fr Pat Hogan, Southill, delivers honest, powerful speech on the effects and outcomes of Regeneration in the city @Limerick_Leader pic.twitter.com/imArtxXFqP  FINTAN WALSH (@FintanYTWalsh) December 9, 2016

The physical regeneration of the programme has been accelerated since the launch of the framework plan. This momentum must be sustained to complete the rebuilding programme.

Carmel Kirby, of Regeneration, said that the work being carried out by the councils frontline services is paying off. We can continue the important work of cooperating with the communities themselves and working with public and private sector agencies to meet our targets and even further improve the quality of life for the people.

For more, pick up the Limerick Leader Monday tabloid
Dec 9, 2016, 8 AM

Two reindeer help the United States Postal Service deliver letters to Santa with this charming Dec. 3 postmark from Gaylord, Mich.

By Michael Baadke

The previous Postmark Pursuit column, in the Dec. 12 Linns Stamp News, included about a dozen pictorial postmarks offering Christmas, Diwali, and winter themes.

The festivities continue in this weeks column, which presents a new batch of postmarks for the holidays.

The Geiger Postal History Foundation of Gaylord, Mich., is sponsoring a postmark that includes two happy reindeer providing a little extra horsepower to a familiar-looking United States Postal Service mail delivery truck.

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The truck has a few added elements, such as an inscription that reads Letters to Santa, plus a map of Michigans lower peninsula depicting the location of the 45th parallel, which runs just south of Gaylord.

The Dec. 3 postmark also includes the wording, Halfway to the North Pole 45th Parallel Station.

To obtain this postmark, which has been granted a 30-day extension, address your request to:

HALFWAY TO THE NORTH POLE 45th PARALLEL Station, Postmaster, Box 9998, Gaylord, MI 49735-9998, Dec. 3.

The following cancels are also available:

PAGEANT Station, 18 W. Central, Springfield, MN 56087-9998, Dec. 9. (Square postmark with flying dove, Nativity Pageant 2016.)

CHRISTMAS IN A RAILROAD TOWNE Station, Postmaster, 500 S. Seventh St., Opelika, AL 36801-9998, Dec. 9. (Circular postmark showing Santa Claus.)

MIFFLINBURG Station, Postmaster, 10 N. Fourth St., Mifflinburg, PA 17844-9998, Dec. 9-10, 12. (Christmas symbols including church in Seiffen, Germany, Christmas nutcracker, Christmas candle pyramid; Christkindl Market 2016, Germanys Craft Capital.)

HOLIDAY Station, Postmaster, 236 Coolidge Memorial Road, Plymouth, VT 05056-9998, Dec. 10. (Circular postmark with six large snowflakes.)

ALLAIRE VILLAGE Station, Postmaster, 66 Main St., Farmingdale, NJ 07727-9998, Dec. 11. (Village buildings, Christmas at Allaire.)

CORINNA BICENTENNIAL Station, Postmaster, 15 Exeter Road, Corinna, ME 04928-9998, Dec. 11. (Stewart Free Library belfry with clock, Corinna, Maine Bicentennial 1816-2016.)

STATE OF INDIANA 200th ANNIVERSARY Station, Postmaster, 201 S. Sugar St., Brownstown, IN 47220-9998, Dec. 11. (County map of Indiana with Jackson County highlighted, star to indicate location of Brownstown, The Bicentennial 1816-2016, Harvesting Our History and Cultivating The Future.)

50th ANNIVERSARY Station, Postmaster, 2635 Napa St., Vallejo, CA 94590-9998, Dec. 16. (Submarine silhouette, California grizzly bear in front of missile, two orbiting electrons.)

HAPPY HOLIDAYS Station, Postmaster, 208 Main St., Wing, ND 58494-9998, Dec. 19. (Santa Claus head in circular postmark with wavy lines.)

50th ANNIVERSARY Station, Postmaster, 401 Market St., Camden, NJ 08103-9998, Dec. 20. (Submarine silhouette, USS Guardfish SSN-612.)

The following cancels were granted 30-day extensions:

COSTA MESA Station, Postmaster, 1590 Adams Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92628-9998, Nov. 11. (Saluting soldier silhouette, four stars, Distinguished Medals of Honor.)

INDIA ASSOCIATION OF ST. LOUIS Station, Attention: Retail, 1720 Market St., Room 2033, St. Louis, MO 63155-9998, Nov. 20. (Gateway Arch, illuminated diya [candle], Om symbol within ornate rounded framework.)

CHRISTMAS IN ODESSA Station, Postmaster, 312 Main St., Odessa, DE 19730-9998, Dec. 3. (Nutcracker and mouse king within round frame decorated with holly and pine.)

CHRISTMAS IN THE VILLAGE FESTIVAL Station, Postmaster, Box 9998, Roscommon, MI 48653-9998, Dec. 3. (Light pole with garland decoration, 39th annual.)

CHRISTMAS PARADE Station, 1601 Long Beach Blvd., Unit 1, Ship Bottom, NJ 08008-9998, Dec. 3. (Open clam shell filled with wrapped gifts, A Shell of a Christmas, 37th annual.)

VICTORIAN STROLL Station, Postmaster, 400 Broadway, Troy, NY 12180-9998, Dec. 4. (Wreath forming O in Troy, Thirty-fourth annual.)

ALLAIRE VILLAGE Station, Postmaster, 66 Main St., Farmingdale, NJ 07727-9998, Dec. 4. (Village buildings, Christmas at Allaire.)

Share information by writing to Postmark Pursuit, Box 4129, Sidney, OH 45365.

Instructions for requesting postmarks

Linns subscribers can see complete instructions for requesting postmarks here.
Who was Milan Stefanik and why is he on stamps of three nations?

Apr 30, 2021, 7 AM

This 1945 Czechoslovakian 30h Gen. Stefanik stamp (Scott 293) was issued during the period when the Soviet Union tolerated a coalition unity government in Czechoslovakia.

On May 3, 2003, France and Slovakia participated in a joint stamp issue, producing these stamps (France Scott 2942 and Slovakia Scott 428) to honor Gen. Stefaniks achievements as an astronomer.

This Slovakian 40h Gen. Stefanik and Tomb stamp (Scott 34) was issued in May 1939 to mark the 20th anniversary of Stefaniks death.

Three definitive stamps depicting astronomer, philosopher, soldier, and statesman Gen. Milan Stefanik: a 1935 50-halleru green stamp, a 1936 60h dull-violet stamp, and a 1939 60-halierov dark blue stamp. The 1935 and 1936 issues are from Czechoslovakia (S

By Rick Miller

Shown in the first slide above are three stamps commemorating astronomer, philosopher, soldier, and statesman Gen. Milan Stefanik.

The 50-halleru green stamp perforated gauge 10, left, was issued May 19, 1935. The 60h dull violet stamp in the center is perforated gauge 12 and was issued in 1936. Issued March 30, 1939, the 60-halierov dark blue stamp at right is also perforated gauge 12.

All three stamps are inscribed Ceskoslovensko, but the stamps at left and center are Czechoslovakia stamps (Scott 208 and 217), while the stamp at right is from Slovakia (23A).

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The Czechs and Slovaks are Western Slavic people who began moving into Central Europe from the Black Sea area in the sixth century.

The Czech language and the Slovak language form a dialect continuum in which most dialects are mutually intelligible.

Culturally, the Czechs have been a more urban people with a fairly strong tradition of religious nonconformity, while the Slovaks have been more rural and agrarian and more conservatively loyal to the Roman Catholic Church.

As part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until 1918, the Czech lands were governed by Austria, while Hungary ruled in the Slovak lands. Before independence, the Czech lands were known as Bohemia and Moravia.

In 1918, it became obvious that the Dual Monarchy was losing World War I, which was likely to result in the fall of the Habsburg Empire. Czech and Slovak nationalists united in the Czechoslovak National Council to work for independence.

The council, which would evolve into the provisional government of independent Czechoslovakia, was primarily led by two Czechs, Thomas Garrigue Masaryk and Edward Benes; and one Slovak, Gen. Stefanik.

Milan Rastislav Stefanik was born July 21, 1880, in Kosariska, Slovakia. Atypically for a Slovak, he was a protestant and his father was a Lutheran pastor.

Educated in Slovakia through secondary school, he went to Prague in the Czech lands for his university education. At Charles University, he studied philosophy, astronomy, optics, mathematics, and physics. He received a doctorate in philosophy in 1904.

In 1904, Stefanik traveled to Paris and found employment at the Observatoire de Paris-Meudon, the leading observatory in the world at the time.

Through hard work and talent, he became acknowledged as one of the premier astronomers of his day. He traveled the world to view eclipses and other astronomical phenomenon, visiting South America, Central Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Tonga, Fiji, and Tahiti.

To observe astronomical phenomena without being obstructed by the thick sea level atmosphere, he became an accomplished mountain climber to view the heavens from the tops of mountains.

After accepting French citizenship in 1912, in his travels he served as an unofficial diplomat, working closely with French and foreign diplomatic personnel.

On May 3, 2003, France and Slovakia participated in a joint issue honoring Stefaniks achievements as an astronomer. The French 0.50 stamp (Scott 2942), perforated 13, and the Slovakian 14-koruna stamp (Scott 428), perforated 11, are shown in the slider above.

The main building of the Observatoire de Paris-Meudon can be seen in the background. The red, white, and blue colors above the observatory represent both the French and Slovakian flags, as well as Stefaniks work in spectral analysis of the suns corona.

World War I started in August 1914 with Austro-Hungary allied with Germany and the Central Powers. Stefanik saw the defeat of Austro-Hungary as a catalyst for Czechoslovakian independence.

Accepting a commission in the French army, he took aviation training and became a military pilot. He flew Farman reconnaissance aircraft on the Western Front and later, in 1915, on the Serbian Front.

He was a founding member of the Czechoslovak National Council in 1916 and served as its vice president. His diplomatic contacts from his time as an astronomer greatly aided the councils work for Czechoslovak independence. He was promoted to the rank of general, and in 1917 was named a Grand Officier de Odre national de la Legion dhonneur.

In 1917, Stefanik began organizing Czech and Slovak prisoners of war in Italy and Russia who had been fighting for Austro-Hungary into pro-Allied Czechoslovak Legion troops.

This greatly enhanced the Czechoslovak National Councils standing with the Allies and led directly to its recognition as the provisional government of independent Czechoslovakia.

The Bolshevik coup in Russia in November 1917 left the Czechoslovak Legion troops in Russia trapped behind Bolshevik lines. Stefanik worked for and organized their withdrawal eastward across Russia and Siberia to the Pacific coast for evacuation via Vladivostok.

While in Russia, the Czechoslovak Legion organized a postal system and even issued its own stamps. A Czechoslovak Legion Post 50-koruna Armored Railroad Car stamp (Scott 2) is also pictured above.

After independence was established, Stefanik served as minister of war in the Czechoslovakian government. He worked closely with the French and Italian military missions present in Czechoslovakia to help restore order and establish the countrys boundaries.

On May 4, 1919, he was flying home to Slovakia from Italy in an Italian military plane. The plane crashed while attempting to land near Bratislava, Slovakia, killing all four Italian crewmen and Stefanik.

The cause of the crash was never officially determined, but it could have been shot down by hostile Hungarian Communist forces or caused by pilot error or mechanical failure.

In May 1939, Slovakia issued a set of four Gen. Stefanik and Tomb stamps (Scott 34-37) to commemorate the 20th anniversary of his death.

The 40h stamp from the set (Scott 34) is illustrated in the slider above. The shooting star above the tomb represents both his career as an astronomer and his meteoric rise and fall.

In his lifetime, Stefanik was firmly committed to Czech and Slovak unity. He failed to foresee the inherent tensions in the union that would lead ultimately to its breakup in 1939 and again in 1993.

The Czechs were generally more urban, better educated, and less religious than the Slovaks. The Slovaks tended to resent what they saw as Czech domination of the government and other institutions in the republic.

When Nazi Germany liquidated what remained of Czechoslovakia in March 1939, Slovakia became a nominally independent republic allied to the Germans.

The 60h dark blue Gen. Stefanik stamp shown in the first illustration had been prepared but not issued by the Czechoslovak postal authorities.

The Slovak government took possession of the stamps and issued them for use in the Slovakian postal system.

After Germany was defeated in 1945, the Czech and Slovak lands were reunited as Czechoslovakia, albeit under Soviet occupation. Under pressure from the Western Allies, the Soviets briefly tolerated a coalition unity government in Czechoslovakia.

Six Czechoslovakian definitive stamps in a set of 16 (Scott 293-304) issued during this period featured Stefanik. The 30h stamp from this set (Scott 293) is shown above.

On Feb. 25, 1948, the Soviet Union forced the resignation of President Edward Benes and the non-Communist members of his government, and Czechoslovakia became a one-party Communist dictatorship.

Communist rule in Czechoslovakia collapsed in 1989, once again exposing the fault lines between Czech and Slovak nationalism.

Attempts to reconcile differences were unsuccessful, and the republic was peacefully dissolved into its constituent parts effective Jan. 1, 1993.

Today, Stefanik is revered as a patriot and a pioneering astronomer in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and France.

The 1945 Czechoslovakian 30h Gen. Stefanik stamp (Scott 293) that is the last in the above slider was issued during the period when the Soviet Union tolerated a coalition unity government in Czechoslovakia.
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The European Union will soon let Ukrainians and Georgians visit the bloc without needing a visa after diplomats and lawmakers struck a deal on Thursday to end an internal EU dispute that had been holding up the promised measures.

Agreement on a mechanism for suspending such visa waivers in emergencies ends mounting embarrassment for some EU leaders who felt the bloc was reneging on pledges to ex-Soviet states it has promised to help as they try to move out from Moscow's shadow.

European Council President warned on Wednesday that the EU was risking its credibility by failing to reward Georgia and Ukraine for painful reforms. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko hailed "encouraging news from Brussels".

The prospect of easier travel to Western Europe has been used by governments in Kiev and Tbilisi to win popular backing for painful, EU-sponsored reforms. But EU leaders got cold feet about opening doors to 45 million Ukrainians after the public backlash which followed last year's refugee crisis in Europe.

Facing strong challenges from anti-immigration parties in elections next year, leading powers France and Germany demanded strong controls before any visa deal. Late-night talks resulted in the European Parliament conceding that governments can reimpose visa requirements quickly, without lawmakers' approval.

"Europe is delivering," the conservative leader in the EU legislature, Manfred Weber, tweeted after the deal. Georgia, with only 5 million citizens, has long been seen as ready for visa liberalization but has seen its hopes held hostage by EU hesitation over Ukraine, which is bigger, closer and currently stuck in conflict with Russia.
Organizers estimated around 7,000 demonstrators had gathered in front of the National Assembly by 8:30 p.m.

Many of the protesters were younger office workers from the nearby financial district who had come out after work in their suits and carrying backpacks or briefcases. One 31-year-old who works for a brokerage said, "I wanted to support the impeachment motion and came here along with two of my colleagues. I'm going to come here after work every day until Park is impeached."

Protesters braved driving rain in front of the National Assembly in Yeouido on Thursday evening, a day before lawmakers vote on a bill to impeach President Park Geun-hye.

Organizers asked the National Assembly open its premises to the public and install screens outdoors to broadcast the vote live. But National Assembly Speaker Chung Sye-kyun said representatives of the major parties agreed not to give the public access to the premises because of the right of lawmakers to vote according to their conscience "should not be interfered with."

Police barricaded the building with buses from 8 p.m. to keep the demonstrators out. Police told protesters not to come within a 100-m radius, but demonstrators formed a human chain around the main gate of the National Assembly shouting "you are surrounded!" and "impeach the president!"

The protest lasted until around 10:30 p.m. Organizers said demonstrators will gather again at 1:30 p.m. on Friday when lawmakers vote on the bill.

Some die-hard Park supporters also gathered in Yeouido on Thursday. Around 60 members of hardline conservative groups held a press conference in front of the National Assembly in the afternoon to voice their opposition to the impeachment motion.

They claimed that radical leftwing forces were inciting the public and pressuring even the ruling Saenuri to oust Park. The supporters said they will launch a drive to get 1 million people to join the Saenuri Party and reform it.

Around 200 members of a group supporting Park rallied in front of Saenuri headquarters seeking to stop the impeachment process.
North Korea's top official in charge of dealing with the U.S. told prominent American figures in informal talks in Geneva last month that Pyongyang will "refrain from taking measures that could harm bilateral relations" until the Donald Trump administration's policies can be assessed.

But Choe Son-hui, the director of North American affairs at the North Korean Foreign Ministry, warned annual joint military exercises between the U.S. and South Korea in February will be an exception.

The Geneva meeting was the first contact between the two sides since the U.S. presidential election. Those at the meeting included Joel Wit, the editor of the 38 North website at Johns Hopkins University, and Robert Einhorn, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Also present was North Korea's deputy ambassador to the UN Jang Il-hun.

According to documents related to the meeting, Choe said North Koreans were equally "surprised" by Trump's election win as the American public and added that she had to work late into the night to explain the results to her superiors.

She conceded that she knows little about the U.S. president-elect and that it would be better to refrain from comments until she could assess him further.

Choe repeatedly asked the Americans how long it would take for the Trump administration to work out its North Korea policies. They told her "at least a few months" and Choe replied Pyongyang will not take any action that would "shut the doors in relations with the U.S."

Radio Free Asia said that seems to mean the North will refrain from additional nuclear tests or missile launches.

Choe said North Korea's response would be "very tough" if Seoul and Washington go ahead their annual joint military drills in February.


Chinese exports of fuel to North Korea surged more than sixfold on-year in September, the Tokyo Shimbun reported on Thursday citing customs statistics. The North imported 22,800 tons of aviation fuel, gasoline and diesel.

The daily quoted a source in the North as saying that the North seems to have used most of it at an air show in Wonsan on Sept. 24-25, which featured MiG-29 and Su-25 fighter jets.

Back in March, the UN Security Council in principle banned countries from exporting aviation fuel to the North but made exceptions for fuel for civilian jets and humanitarian purposes.

But there is clearly a loophole. "It's difficult to check whether the North is importing jet fuel for fighter jets and just claiming to use it for civilian aircraft," a source said.

In fresh sanctions imposed last month in response to the North's latest nuclear test, the UNSC again failed to ban the sale of jet fuel to Pyongyang completely.


John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, died today (Dec. 8). He was 95.

The former astronaut and U.S. senator was being hospitalized at the Wexner Medical Center at Ohio State University in Columbus when he died. In 2014, Glenn suffered a minor stroke, affecting his vision, after undergoing heart-valve replacement surgery.

"We are saddened by the loss of Sen. John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth. A true American hero. Godspeed, John Glenn. Ad astra," NASA wrote on Twitter. [John Glenn: An American Hero's Greatest Moments]

John Glenn, seen sitting beside his Friendship 7 Mercury capsule before his historic flight in 1962, died on Dec. 8, 2016. (Image credit: NASA)

John Glenn's Mercury mission was the first American space flight around the world. (Image credit: Karl Tate, SPACE.com Contributor)

The last of NASA's original seven astronauts to die, Glenn circled the world three times on board the Mercury capsule "Friendship 7" before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean on Feb. 20, 1962.

"Zero-g and I feel fine," Glenn reported to the ground five minutes into the flight. "Oh, that view is tremendous."

Thirty-six years later, at the age of 77, he returned to orbit aboard the space shuttle Discovery, becoming the oldest person, worldwide, to fly into space.

A colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps who flew combat flights during World War II and the Korean War, Glenn served for 25 years as a U.S. senator representing his home state of Ohio. He was honored with the Congressional Gold Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honors awarded by the United States.

Glenn was named an astronaut in April 1959, two years after he set a transcontinental speed record flying a jet from California to New York in three hours and 23 minutes. On his historic flight in 1962, Glenn made three revolutions of the Earth on board the Mercury-Atlas 6 orbital mission in just four hours and 55 minutes.

"During my [three-orbit] flight, I was able to perform basic research experiments, which helped contribute to what we know about humans in space," Glenn told me in November 1996. "The primary scientific objective of my [Mercury flight] was to determine the reaction of the body's senses to weightlessness."

The historic mission, which came after orbital missions by two Russian cosmonauts and sub-orbital launches by two of Glenn's fellow Mercury astronauts, also established the United States as a contender for the first time in the space race with the Soviet Union. [In Photos: John Glenn, First American in Orbit]

"There was a strong feeling in this country that we needed to surpass the Soviet's advances and regain our position at the top," Glenn told me. "It is hard to imagine the strength of those convictions today  especially with the collapse of the Soviet Union  but you can bet they were a strong motivator for America."

The successful flight made Glenn an instant hero. Deemed too valuable to the country to risk flying on another rocket, Glenn served as an advisor to NASA until 1964.

"Since I was not going to be on active flight status, I stayed on with NASA for a couple of years to plow my experience back into the program and then went on to other pursuits," Glenn said.

He retired from the Marine Corps the following year to run for the Senate.

Winning his third campaign in 1974, Glenn served for four terms, becoming chief author of the 1978 Nonproliferation Act, chairing the Government Affairs Committee from 1978 until 1995, and sitting on the Foreign Relations and Armed Services committees and the Special Committee on Aging.

In 1984, he ran and lost in the Democratic primary to be a candidate for the President of the United States.

On Feb. 20, 1997, 35 years to the day after he first orbited the Earth, Glenn announced that he would retire from the Senate. Eleven months later, NASA confirmed his return to space to study how microgravity affects aging.

"I'm proud to have been part of the beginning of America's space program, and needless to say I'm excited to be back and I am honored and privileged," said Glenn at a Jan. 16, 1998 press conference announcing his second flight. "The important thing is the opportunity that this gives to take us in some new directions with research. I think that is really what we are kicking off."

For almost nine days, from Oct. 29 through Nov. 7, 1998, Glenn and his six STS-95 crew mates on board Discovery completed 134 orbits, conducting 80 medical and material research experiments, and deploying and retrieving a free-flying science platform.

John Glenn works with an experiment inside the Spacehab module aboard space shuttle Discovery in November 1998. (Image credit: NASA)

On his touch down, Glenn had logged a total of nine days, two hours and 39 minutes off the planet on his two history-making spaceflights.

"I took a little lapel pin that I had on my first flight  took it up again on [the space shuttle] flight  and that has been one of my prized possessions because it has been on both flights along with me," Glenn told me in 1998.

John Herschel Glenn, Jr., was born in Cambridge, Ohio on July 18, 1921. He attended Muskingum College and began flying lessons, earning his pilot's license in 1941. Glenn left college before earning his degree (though he was awarded a Bachelor of Science in engineering from Muskingum in 1962) and enlisted in the Naval Aviation Cadet Program. He was commissioned in the Marine Corps in 1943.

Bestowed with the Distinguished Flying Cross and NASA Distinguished Service Medal, among many other awards, Glenn was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1976, the International Space Hall of Fame in 1977 and the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame in 1990.

The NASA John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field in Cleveland, Ohio was renamed in his honor in 1999. Two Ohio roadways bear his name, as do at least eight grade schools located across the country.

In 2014, the U.S. Navy christened the USNS John Glenn, a mobile landing platform, for his service as an aviator and astronaut. In 2006, Ohio State University founded the John Glenn College of Public Affairs. In May 2016, the country's second international airport was renamed for John Glenn in Columbus, Ohio.

Blue Origin, a commercial spaceflight company founded by Amazon's CEO Jeff Bezos, named its orbital-class launch vehicle the "New Glenn" in September 2016.

In 1999, Glenn collaborated with Nick Taylor to author his biography, "John Glenn: A Memoir" (Bantam Books). He was portrayed in the 1983 feature film "The Right Stuff" by actor Ed Harris, in the 2016 ABC limited event series "The Astronaut Wives Club" by Sam Reid, and in the upcoming Fox feature film "Hidden Figures" by Glen Powell.

In March 2001, Glenn took a turn playing himself, making a cameo appearance on the NBC TV sitcom "Frasier."

In 1943, Glenn married the former Annie Margaret Castor of New Concord, Ohio. Together they had a son, Dave and daughter, Lyn and two grandchildren.

Follow collectSPACE.comon Facebook and on Twitter at @collectSPACE. Copyright 2016 collectSPACE.com. All rights reserved.
Through dogged determination, Jon Larsen has become driven to find space particles, which date back to when our sun was a baby, in the urban sediment that collects in the guttering of building rooftops. And, after he convinced a British planetary scientist to study his findings, years of work have finally paid off.

In 2011, Larsen reached out to Matthew Genge, of Imperial College London, with his plan to find dust particles in this seemingly unlikely place. Though distinguishing space particles from the zoo of man-made dust particles in a city environment was considered too difficult, the hurdle didn't deter Larsen.

"It was an amateur scientist, a chap called Jon Larsen who's actually quite a well-known jazz musician in Norway, who got interested in this and started collecting all the debris that ends up in the gutter," Genge told Seeker. After going through the debris found in the roof guttering from buildings in Oslo, Paris and Berlin, Larsen would send photos of interesting particles he'd find to Genge and, despite his pessimism that Larsen would ever uncover this unlikely quarry, he eventually struck gold.

RELATED: Robots That Have Collected Interstellar Dust

Now, with Genge's assistance, the pair have identified hundreds of particles that fell from space and have origins dating back to the birth of the solar system. Larsen documents his micrometeorite discoveries as part of Project Stardust.

"Imagine somebody who has been sending you pictures every other week of something, and every time you look at them, you're like 'no, no, no, that's not it' and then after 5 years they send you a picture and it actually is the thing that you're looking for... that was the moment I went 'oh, my God! I should pay more attention to this guy!'" Genge added.

"He's put in so much work. He went through 300 kilograms [660 lb] of sediment from gutters. That's pretty incredible."

As described in research published in the journal Geology, the duo identified 500 particles of dust that originate from asteroids and comets. But finding these cosmic artifacts in the dirt was just the beginning; their research has revealed some profound science about the space dust that is falling onto our heads right at this moment and could add another layer to our understanding about the building blocks of planets.

Our solar system is filled with dust from collisions between asteroids and venting from comets. The most visible sign of this dust encountering Earth are the meteor showers that light up the upper atmosphere as Earth orbits though one of the many dusty trails left behind these interplanetary vagabonds. However, the tiny particles that rain through the atmosphere as "shooting stars" burn up completely, leaving only a bright flash in their wake. Their journey comes to an abrupt end as a blaze of super-heated glory.

"These particles [in gutter sediment] are almost definitely not coming from meteor showers as that dust comes in too fast  it comes in at maybe 30 kilometers per second [67,000 miles per hour]  and it completely evaporates in the Earth's atmosphere," said Genges.

RELATED: Interstellar Dust Discovered Inside NASA Spacecraft

The gutter particles are thought to enter the atmosphere at a speed of around 12 kilometers per second (27,000 miles per hour) where atmospheric heating does inevitably heat up the particles, but the dust survives the fall. Judging by their size of around 0.3 millimeters, these are likely the fastest dust particles to survive the hot atmospheric entry, noted Genges. Through analysis of the 500 specimens, the researchers found there to be a mix of particles that originate from asteroids and others that originate from comets.

"We have found dust particles that we think come from comets and they are subtly different from those that come from asteroids ... they are carbon rich. Whereas the ones from asteroids look similar to the material from meteorites, that are also from asteroids," he added.

Separating the cosmic particles from plain old gutter dirt is no easy task, but the researchers used an important trait found in these space particles to their advantage  they contain minerals that make them magnetic. So, by magnetically separating the dirt under the microscope, these particles could be found.

"These [particles] are very similar to the cosmic dust from deep sea sediments," said Genges. "The main difference is that these are very young. Because they've been largely collected from roofs on commercial buildings, those buildings have their gutters cleaned at least every 3-5 years, so we know these [particles] have landed on Earth at least in the last 5 years. Whereas the particles found on the seabed are up to 50,000 years old. These are a sample of what's landing on Earth, practically today."

RELATED: Meteorites Peppered With Ancient Supernova Star Dust

As this dust has fallen to Earth within the last 5 years, the researchers could even deduce how the solar system dust falling on Earth has changed over the last million years. The dust found in city gutters contains fewer crystals than the dust that has been found in million-year-old ice Antarctica, for example, but the particles are remarkably similar to cosmic dust that fell onto Earth in medieval times.

According to an Imperial College London press release, the researchers think that the changes in dust particle structure could be down to very small orbital changes in the solar system's planets over millions of years. The slight gravitational disturbances likely change the trajectory of the interplanetary dust, causing it to hit the Earth's atmosphere at different speeds and angles. These slight changes can therefore influence how much heating is caused by atmospheric entry which, in turn, influences the size of the particles that make it to the ground and influence the shape of the crystals inside the microscopic grains.

In short, these tiny cosmic grains of dust hold an incredible amount of information about the state of the planets' orbits when they hit Earth, but they are also the very tiny fossilized remains of our solar system, emerging directly from the material in the nebula that went on to form our sun and the planets.

"The actual materials of comets and asteroids have a very long history; they date back to the birth of our solar system four and a half billion years ago," said Genges.

When Oscar Wilde composed his famous quote, "we are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars," little did he know that, one day, a Norwegian amateur scientist would be looking for star dust in the gutter.

Original article on Seeker.
London may be known for its drizzly weather, but in 1952 the city's quintessential fog cover turned deadly, and no one knew why  until now.

For five days in December 1952, a fog that contained pollutants enveloped all of London. By the time the dense fog cover lifted, more than 150,000 people had been hospitalized and at least 4,000 people had died. Researchers now estimate that the total death count was likely more than 12,000 people, as well as thousands of animals. Despite its lethal nature, the exact cause and nature of the killer fog has largely remained a mystery. Recently, a team of researchers has determined the likely reasons for its formation.

Researchers have for a long time connected emissions from burning coal with the killer fog, but the specific chemical processes that led to the deadly mix of pollution and fog were not fully understood. To determine what turned the fog into a killer, an international team of scientists from China, the U.S. and the U.K. recreated the fog in a lab using results from laboratory experiments and atmospheric measurements from Beijing and Xian, two heavily polluted cities in China. [In Photos: World's Most Polluted Places]

Study lead author Renyi Zhang, an atmospheric scientist at Texas A&M University, said that sulfate was a big contributor to the deadly London fog. Sulfuric acid particles, which formed from the sulfur dioxide that was released from the burning of coal, were also a component of the fog. The question was, How did sulfur dioxide get turned into sulfuric acid?

"Our results showed that this process was facilitated by nitrogen dioxide, another co-product of coal burning, and occurred initially on natural fog," Zhang said in a statement. "Another key aspect in the conversion of sulfur dioxide to sulfate is that it produces acidic particles, which subsequently inhibits this process."

The natural fog contained larger particles, Zhang explained, with the smaller acidic particles evenly distributed throughout. When those fog particles evaporated, an acidic-haze was left covering the city.

The 1952 killer fog led to the creation of the Clean Air Act, which the British Parliament passed in 1956. Researchers still consider it the worst air pollution event in European history.

The air of cities in China, which is often heavily polluted, has a chemistry that's similar to the killer fog in London, Zhang and his colleagues found. China has battled air pollution for decades, and it is home to 16 of the world's 20 most polluted cities, according to the researchers. For instance, air pollution in Beijing often far exceeds the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's acceptable air standards.

The researchers said that the main difference between China's smog and the killer London fog is that China's haze is made up of much smaller nanoparticles. Also, the formation of sulfate is only possible with ammonia, the scientists added.

"In China, sulfur dioxide is mainly emitted by power plants. Nitrogen dioxide is from power plants and automobiles, and ammonia comes from fertilizer use and automobiles," Zhang said. "Again, the right chemical processes have to interplay for the deadly haze to occur in China. Interestingly, while the London fog was highly acidic, contemporary Chinese haze is basically neutral."

A better understanding of air chemistry is key to developing effective regulatory actions in China, Zhang said.

"We think we have helped solve the 1952 London fog mystery and also have given China some ideas of how to improve its air quality," Zhang said. "Reduction in emissions for nitrogen oxides and ammonia is likely effective in disrupting this sulfate-formation process."

The research was published online Nov. 9 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Original article on Live Science.
When you think of cannibals, you may picture the headline-grabbing psychopaths who, every so often, commit horrific crimes.

But elsewhere in the animal kingdom, cannibalism might involve a self-sacrificing mother or a hungry fetus snacking down on its siblings.

Now, Bill Schutt's "Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History" (Algonquin Books, 2017) shows just how prevalent, and just how diverse, cannibalism is among animals.

In one example, Schutt tells how the black lace-weaver spider (Amaurobius ferox) feeds her offspring her own eggs  and then her own body. In "an extreme act of parental care," she lowers herself onto her hungry little progeny, who then eat her alive and drain her of bodily fluids, Schutt writes. In another saga, Schutt describes how embryonic sand tiger sharks (Carcharias taurus) chow down on their siblings while still in the womb, making this shark the only known species to consume embryos in utero.

Schutt, a biology professor at Long Island University (LIU-Post) in New York and a research associate in residence at the American Museum of Natural History, recently spoke with Live Science about nature's colorful array of cannibals and what people's fascination with such cannibals may mean. (His answers have been edited for clarity and length.)

Bill Schutt, and the cover of his new book. (Image credit: Jerry Ruotolo)

Live Science: How did you become interested in the topic of cannibalism?

Bill Schutt: I've always had a real interest in both natural history and the macabre, which is certainly why none of my friends or relatives were surprised that, once I became a zoologist, I chose to study bats. Likewise, nobody was shocked that my first nonfiction book, "Dark Banquet" [Crown, 2008], was all about blood-feeding creatures. [Photos: Best Wild Animal Selfies]

Basically, I enjoy investigating subjects that seem horrific or disgusting (or both), then writing about them through the eyes of a zoologist. The topic of cannibalism seemed like an interesting topic to work on after blood feeding. And when I found all sorts of misinformation and an unfortunate, but understandable emphasis on sensationalism and gore, cannibalism turned out to be a perfect subject for me.

Live Science: What surprised you the most during your research on cannibalism?

Schutt: I was surprised at how common cannibalism is across the entire animal kingdom. There are literally thousands of species, from microbes to monkeys, that consume their own kind for all sorts of reasons that make perfect evolutionary sense. This isn't abnormal behavior. It's absolutely normal, and this also holds true in some of the most infamous cases of human cannibalism  the Donner Party, for example. [The Donner Party was a group of American pioneers who traveled west by wagon in the 1840s, only to become stuck in the Sierra Nevada during the winter. They resorted to cannibalism to survive.]

Live Science: Your book aims to debunk some common myths about cannibalism. What were some of the most prevalent myths you encountered?

Schutt: That cannibalism in the animal kingdom is rare and [that] it only happens in instances where you're dealing with abnormal behaviors, such as captive conditions or a lack of food. That was the party line among scientists for a long time, until probably starting in the 1970s, when they discovered that all sorts of different animals cannibalize for many different reasons that had nothing to do with stress or a lack of food. That, to me, was really interesting.

Live Science: You mention in your book that cannibalism serves a variety of functions in animals. Could you elaborate on a few?

Schutt: Cannibalism is sometimes done as an act of parental care. There are spiders, for example, that lay eggs that have not been fertilized, called trophic eggs, just for their newly hatched spiderlings to eat. But when these run out, the mother calls her offspring to her by drumming on their web. As she hunkers down, they climb all over her body and then they eat her alive, leaving a husk-like corpse.

Another function of cannibalism is that it helps animals survive in stressful environmental conditions. If there's suddenly a lack of alternative food options, many species will eat their young in order to survive to mate another day.

Live Science: What is the biggest difference between human and animal cannibalism?

Schutt: Western cultures, or those cultures that have been influenced by them (whether voluntarily or not), decided long ago that human cannibalism is probably the ultimate taboo. In societies where that concept wasn't determined to be a taboo or where Western rules weren't imposed on individuals, ideas about cannibalism turned out to be very different. For example, until relatively recently, there were indigenous groups in South America where people were as mortified at the concept of burying their dead as Western missionaries and anthropologists were about consuming their own departed loved ones.

In nature, there are no culture-generated rituals to either promote or fear. In many fish species, adults can be a million times larger than their own eggs. As a result, most fish exhibit about as much individual recognition of their offspring as humans do a handful of raisins. [Creative Creatures: 10 Animals That Use Tools]

Live Science: You also investigated whether the human taboo against cannibalism was biological or social. What did you find?

Schutt: I definitely came away thinking that there are aspects of both. It's no secret that culture plays a huge part in determining whether something is permissible (and even sacred) or forbidden. But I also came away with an understanding that there may very well be strong selection pressure for humans not to eat other humans.

One selection pressure against cannibalism in humans comes from diseases called spongiform encephalopathies, such as kuru, which destroy the brain and are always fatal. As with other versions of this disease  which can infect mink, sheep and, perhaps most infamously, cows  the human form can be caused by consuming infected tissue, especially nervous system tissue.

So cannibalism may have dire consequences for humans. Some researchers have even hypothesized, using computer modeling, that cannibalism  and the spread of a kuru-like disease  may have sped up the ultimate demise of the Neanderthals.

Live Science: Why do you think cannibalism continues to fascinate us? What does that fascination say about us?

Schutt: I think our deep fascination with the topic of cannibalism stems from the fact that, since the dawn of Western culture, we've been taught that it's arguably the worst thing that a person can do to another person. That in itself makes it both horrifying and interesting.

Add this ultimate taboo to the fact that most of us love a good scare, and you have an explanation for why Hannibal "the Cannibal" Lecter was voted the greatest screen villain of all time by the American Film Institute.

We're all fascinated with food as well, and with human cannibalism, I suppose many of us are dealing with the ultimate in scary food.

Really, the theme of this book is that you start off with these preconceived notions of what cannibalism is, and then when you explore it more, you find out that it is something completely different. That it makes all sorts of sense, in some ways, and that the examples that you find in the animal kingdom can be used to explain the circumstances behind some of the more infamous examples of human cannibalism. You can then look at those examples in a completely new light. That's one thing I'd like to get across.

"Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History" will be available on Feb. 14, 2017, and is available for pre-order now.

Originally published on Live Science.
Piles of history

(Image credit: Photo by John Beck)

A number of artifacts with inscriptions have survived the destruction of the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud. Live Science showed photographs of some of the inscriptions to scholars who were able to identify what they say. In this high res image a statue, with carved remains of legs, can be seen sticking out of a pile of destroyed artifacts.

The inscription beside the legs tells the story of how the Assyrian King Ashurnasirpal II (reign 883859 B.C.) founded a monkey colony at Nimrud. The king received female monkeys as tribute from lands near the Mediterranean coast and bred them with male monkeys that he also obtained (or already had) to found the colony. The inscription says that "herds of them in great numbers" lived at Nimrud.

[Read the full story on the surviving ancient inscriptions.]

A world unknown

(Image credit: Photo by John Beck)

This inscription describes who Ashurnasirpal II was and who his father and grandfather were. It also describes the lands he conquered and the palace he built at Nimrud. The text on this inscription is one of at least eight known examples of this inscription from the ancient world. A translation was published in 1991 by Albert Kirk Grayson. "I built this palace for the eternal admiration of rulers and princes (and) decorated it in a splendid fashion," part of the inscription says (translation by Albert Kirk Grayson). Sadly most of the palace was destroyed by ISIL.

Surviving modern war

(Image credit: Photo by John Beck)

This work of art was actually restored sometime before the war and somehow survived the destruction of Nimrud by ISIL. It shows a winged genie, a common motif in ancient Assyrian art. The inscription on the work of art records that it is the property of Ashurnasirpal II.

[Read the full story on the surviving ancient inscriptions.]

Ancient copyright

(Image credit: Photo by John Beck)

Another surviving work of art, albeit badly damaged. Iraq archaeologists have arrived on site and hope to clean and put back together the surviving art. In ancient times this inscription was also copied multiple times. It says that the artwork is "(Property of) the palace of Ashurnasirpal, vice-regent of Assur, chosen of the gods Enlil and Ninurta, beloved of the gods Anu and Dagan, destructive weapon of the great gods, strong king, king of the universe, king of Assyria" (translation by Albert Kirk Grayson)

Old and beautiful

(Image credit: Photo by John Beck)

This tablet also survived the destruction of Nimrud. Grant Frame, a professor of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations at the University of Pennsylvania, notes that in ancient times it was also copied down multiple times. "After the name and titles of the king, it summarizes his conquests and then records the building and decoration of a palace at Nimrud," Frame said.

Damaged but survived

(Image credit: Photo by John Beck)

While ISIL's destruction spree at Nimrud was horrible a number of artifacts still remain. If you look closely at the bottom right portion of this picture you can see another inscription that survived the onslaught. As archaeologists conserve, record and photograph the surviving artifacts more information on what survived will become available.

[Read the full story on the surviving ancient inscriptions.]
A statue with carved remains of legs can be seen sticking out from a pile of destroyed artifacts in Nimrud. The inscription beside the legs tells the story of how the Assyrian King Ashurnasirpal II (reign 883859 B.C.) founded a monkey colony in the ancient city.

A number of artifacts with inscriptions survived in the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud, after the Islamic State group (also known as ISIS) destroyed the site.

The group targeted Nimrud, along with many other historical sites in Iraq and Syria, in an attempt to eradicate the history of the Assyrians, Shiite Muslims, Kurds and other peoples who live in Iraq and Syria. Countries and groups around the world have condemned this destruction of cultural heritage as a war crime.

Live Science showed photographs of some of the surviving inscriptions to scholars who translated or deciphered their meanings. The inscriptions tell a number of stories about the AssyrianKing Ashurnasirpal II (reign 883859 B.C.), including the lands he conquered, the treasures he took, the palace he constructed and the ancestors he had. [See Images of the Ancient Assyrian Inscriptions at Nimrud]

All the surviving inscriptions found so far are written in the king's name, who turned Nimrud into his capital, building a vast palace in the city.

For instance, one story, inscribed on a statue that ISIS had tried to destroy, tells of a monkey colony that Ashurnasirpal II bred at Nimrud, stating that "herds of them in greatnumbers" lived at Nimrud during the king's reign. The inscription also tells of how Ashurnasirpal IIcaptured lions and kept them at Nimrud.

ISIS is under siege in Mosul, Iraq, and the group's remaining territories in Syria and Iraq are shrinking. So the monkey-colony inscription, and its tale of a time when Nimrud was a flourishing place filled with life, may survive far longer than the terrorist group that tried to destroy the statue bearing the inscription.

Nimrud's surviving inscriptions

The Iraq army retook the ancient city of Nimrud (also known as Calah or Kalhu) and surrounding areas on Nov. 13. Photographers who have visited the site, including photojournalist John Beck, have revealed the devastated remains of the ancient city. [Photos: Restoring Life to Iraq's Ruined Artifacts]

Grant Frame, a professor of Near Eastern languages and civilizations at the University of Pennsylvania who is an expert in Neo-Assyrian (ninth to sixth century B.C.) writing, examined some of the images captured by Beck and others. Frame told Live Science what the inscriptions, in general, say, noting that the surviving texts were duplicates of original versions; multiple copies with similar text were made in ancient times.

Monkey colony

The monkey colony is perhaps the most interesting story that Ashurnasirpal II tells. "The section here is a summary of the areas in the west  in Lebanon and Syria  who gave him tribute and the bringing of animals, monkeys and lions, to his capital city of Kalhu [another name for Nimrud]" said Frame.

At least eight "copies" of this monkey tale have been found in the past by archaeologists and historians, Frame said. The Assyrian historian Albert Kirk Grayson published a translation of these texts in 1991 in the book "Assyrian Rulers of the Early First Millennium BC" (University of Toronto Press).

Grayson translated these eight copies as reading, "I brought them [the monkeys] to my land Assur. I bred herds of them in great numbers in Calah [and] displayed [them] to all the people of my land."

That mention of breeding in great numbers appears even though the translation mentions only the female monkeys. This means that the king already had, or also received, male monkeys and got the newly acquired female monkeys to breed with them. [Photos: New Archaeological Discoveries in Northern Iraq]

The inscription also mentions how Ashurnasirpal II captured lions. "With my outstretched hand and my fierce heart, I captured 15 strong lions from the mountains and forests. I took away 50 lion cubs. I herded them into Calah and the palaces of my land into cages," the inscription reads, as translated by Grayson.

Surviving ancient stories

The surviving inscriptions tell more tales from Ashurnasirpal II's reign, including the pride he felt for his palace.

Two of the surviving inscriptions, Frame said, preserve part of a text in which Ashurnasirpal II says that, at Nimrud, "I founded therein my lordly palace. I built this palace for the eternal admiration of rulers and princes [and] decorated it in a splendid fashion. I made [replicas of] all beasts of mountains and seas," placing the animal replicas in the palace doorways, as translated by Grayson.

ISIS largely destroyed the palace, although a bit of it appears to have survived, said Clemens Reichel, a curator at Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum, who viewed some of the photographs.

Two other inscriptions were found written on two surviving works of art  one showing a winged genie and the other, which is damaged, seeming to show multiple male individuals. These works of art contain a widely used ancient text that modern-day scholars sometimes call a "standard inscription," Frame said.

The two inscriptions indicate that Ashurnasirpal II owned these works of art: "[Property of] the palace of Ashurnasirpal, vice regent of Assur, chosen of the gods Enlil and Ninurta, beloved of the gods Anu and Dagan, destructive weapon of the great gods, strong king, king of the universe, king of Assyria," as translated by Grayson.

Original article on Live Science.
The Foreign Ministry has put 60 submarine components on a watchlist to deter North Korea from further developing submarine-launched ballistic missiles, a spokesman said Thursday. The North apparently succeeded in test-firing an SLBM in August.

The watchlist includes high-tensile steel for cylindrical submarine hulls, acoustic sound-control coating and underwater communication systems, periscope video systems, and navigation radar.

Another goal of the latest sanctions is to prevent North Korean submarines from launching torpedo attacks by evading South Korean and U.S. surveillance. The list also includes mine detection sensors, torpedo loading racks, torpedo tubes, and torpedo decoy launchers.

This watchlist is unilateral at the moment but Seoul will try to bring other countries on board.
The mummy of a child discovered in a crypt beneath a Lithuanian church harbors the oldest sample found to date of the virus that causes smallpox, a new report said.

But the researchers' analysis of the virus, called the variola virus, suggests that smallpox first appeared in humans much more recently than thought, the researchers said. Scientists had thought that smallpox was an ancient disease that plagued humanity for millennia.

The researchers drew their conclusion by taking virus from the mummy of the child, who lived between 1643 and 1665, and comparing that strain against variola viruses that date to the mid-1900s. The differences, or mutations, that the researchers found suggest that the strains shared a common ancestor that first arose between 1588 and 1645, the researchers said. That time period was filled with human exploration, migration and colonization  activities that could have spread the virus worldwide, the researchers noted. [Tiny & Nasty: Images of Things That Make Us Sick]

More studies are needed to confirm that the smallpox virus indeed arose that recently, but if it did, this would cast doubt on the previously suggested idea that people in ancient Egypt had smallpox. Although 3,000- to 4,000-year-old Egyptian mummies have pockmark scarring, a symptom of smallpox, these scars could have also come from measles or chickenpox, said the study's first author, Ana Duggan, a postdoctoral fellow at the McMaster University Ancient DNA Centre in Canada.

If smallpox had arisen thousands of years ago, the researchers would have seen a high degree of diversity between the viruses that they compared, Duggan said. "We don't see that," she told Live Science.

In addition, the researchers' analysis of the mummy's virus also suggests that the two known forms of the virus  variola major and variola minor  likely split from each other after the English doctor Edward Jenner famously developed the first smallpox vaccine, in the late 1700s, the researchers said.

The finding about the major-minor split is "by no means conclusive, but it opens the idea that maybe this split between the major and the less virulent, minor strain was an evolutionary response to the vaccine," Duggan said.

Child mummy

Researchers have been studying several mummies found in the crypt of the Dominican Church of the Holy Spirit in Vilnius, Lithuania, since the 1930s. But the authors of the new study are the first to figure out that one mummy, of a child between ages 2 and 4, contained the smallpox virus.

It's unclear whether the child was male or female, but the researchers did establish, through radiocarbon dating, that the child lived about 360 years ago. Smallpox outbreaks were happening across Europe at that time.

Smallpox once killed about three out of every 10 people who got it. The illness could also lead to disfigurement and blindness. Smallpox is the first and so far only human disease eradicated by vaccination, Duggan said.

The researchers' sample of the variola virus taken from the mummy was badly disintegrated, but the scientists rebuilt it by comparing it to existing variola sequences, and also using DNA sequences from the mummy's skin, the scientists said.

Smallpox origins

The scientists said they are hopeful that the findings will help virologists trace the background of smallpox and other viruses. [27 Devastating Infectious Diseases]

"We still don't know when smallpox first appeared in humans, and we don't know what animal it came from. And we don't know that because we don't have any older historical samples to work with" study co-author Edward Holmes, a professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Sydney in Australia, said in the statement.

The new study puts "a new perspective on this very important disease, but it's also showing us that our historical knowledge of viruses is just the tip of the iceberg," Holmes said.

The study was published online today (Dec. 8) in the journal Current Biology.

Original article on Live Science.
Staff unions at Liege Airport-based ASL Aviation Belgium, formerly TNT Airways, have issued a strike call covering the peak period up to Christmas, in protest at what they describe as deteriorating relations with management since the sale of the company to ASL Aviation Group earlier this year.

The general secretary of SETCa, one of two unions to back the call to industrial action, confirmed to Lloyd's Loading List that negotiations were currently taking place with management to avoid the extremity of a strike, which could take whatever form we judged to be appropriate within the legal framework.

A long list of union grievances include those related to pilots career development, the training of crews, salaries, and working conditions.

ASL Airlines Belgium serves FedEx-TNT's Liege hub with around 40 aircraft serving 65 airports daily, mostly operating on intra-European routes.

A spokesman for the Dublin-based aviation group told Lloyd's Loading List that conciliation was the best option for all concerned and that the airline was ready and willing to talk with staff representatives.

He added: ASL believes that all of the issues can be resolved and has asked for an immediate start to negotiations aimed at bringing matters to a swift conclusion that is acceptable to both parties. This offer of immediate conciliatory talks is in the best interests of the airlines customers and also its staff, who would not wish to face the possibility of industrial action in the run up to Christmas.
Local News, National & World News, Community, Charity & Cause, Press Releases

By Long Island News & PR Published: December 09 2016

Food, water, medical supplies and other donations from New Yorkers will be delivered to assist those devastated by Hurricane Matthew in Haiti.

Albany, NY - December 8, 2016 - Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and Consul General Peter Helder Bernard, Esq. of the Consulate General of Haiti in New York today announced food, water, medical supplies and other donations from New Yorkers will be delivered to assist those devastated by Hurricane Matthew in Haiti.



Photo courtesy of Governor's Press Office.
School & Education, Local News, Press Releases

By Long Island News & PR Published: December 09 2016

Uniondale School Districts Uniondale High School Show Choir teacher Ms. Lynnette Carr-Hicks received national recognition by the Give a Note Foundation & 21st Century Fox.

Uniondale, NY - December 8, 2016 - Uniondale School Districts Uniondale High School Show Choir teacher Ms. Lynnette Carr-Hicks recently received national recognition by the Give a Note Foundation and 21st Century Fox, who honored her with the coveted MusicEd Idol award. The MusicEd Idol award is given to a handpicked selection of 20 music educators from across the nation who have inspired their students to reach higher and dream bigger.



The District is extremely proud of Ms. Carr-Hicks for being recognized with the MusicEd Idol Award, said Uniondale School District Superintendent Dr. William K. Lloyd. Her passion for helping students succeed has guided the Uniondale Show Choir to attain national and international fame, and it has established a high standard of excellence throughout the District each year.



To receive the award, Ms. Carr-Hicks was nominated by members of the Uniondale School District community as a leader in music education. As part of the MusicEd Idol award she will receive a $1000 grant from the Give a Note Foundation and 21st Century Fox for Uniondale High Schools music education program. She also attended the National Association for Music Education Conference in Texas to receive the award for her contributions to music education.



Im honored to be able to participate in the National Association for Music Education Conference and contribute to the next generation of music education, said Ms. Lynette Carr-Hicks. This award not only reflects the incredible, inspiring progress of the Uniondale Show Choir, but the students dedication which made it all possible.



For additional information regarding Uniondale School District please visit the districts website or call 516-560-8800.
School & Education, Local News, Community, Charity & Cause, Home & Garden, Press Releases

By WFSD News Published: December 09 2016

Students from Matthew Van Hornes 12th-grade carpentry class assisted Habitat for Humanity with the construction of a home in Mastic Beach.

Under the guidance of Mr. Van Horne and Habitat for Humanity workers, students were tasked with tearing out and installing new insulation for the home.

Mastic Beach, NY - December 8, 2016 - In what has become a semi-annual tradition of helping members of the William Floyd community, students from Matthew Van Hornes 12th-grade carpentry class assisted Habitat for Humanity with the construction of a home in Mastic Beach.



Photo courtesy of WFHS.

Under the guidance of Mr. Van Horne and Habitat for Humanity workers, students were tasked with tearing out and installing new insulation for the home. They also performed demolition on the front porch and began framing up a new one. Students also met the future owners who thanked the students personally for their help. The home is expected to be finished later this month in time for the holidays.

I feel that its important for the program to assist in any way that we can in giving back to the local community, said Mr. Van Horne. Its also a wonderful opportunity for the students to visit an actual job site where tradespeople such as plumbers, electricians and carpenters can also lend their expertise.

The Building Trades & Construction Academy is one of six Career and Technical Education Academies at William Floyd High School designed to help students become career and college ready.

Building Trades & Construction offers a two-year program that combines hands-on skill development and technical training providing students with a basic understanding of the competencies needed to perform as an entry-level carpenter, carpenters apprentice or carpenters helper.

Additional possible career paths include window/door installation, kitchen/bath installation, general contractor, drywall installation, rough carpenter, finish carpenter, roofer, masons apprentice, electricians apprentice and more.

Student that complete the program possess the entry-level skills needed for the construction industry and can also continue on to post-secondary education. Students who successfully complete the program have the opportunity to earn advanced college credits through SUNY Delhi.
Family & Parenting, Pets & Animal, Nature & Weather, Local News, Community, Charity & Cause, Health & Wellness, Press Releases

By Long Island News & PR Published: December 09 2016

This year's first cold weather is here and that means it's time to give special attention to your pets!

Nassau County, NY - December 9, 2016 - This year's first cold weather is here and that means it's time to give special attention to your pets!

1. There's no place like home

The best strategy, of course, is to keep your pets indoors during cold weather. Outdoor cats are especially susceptible to hazards like frostbite, getting lost, or being exposed to diseases. If you don't want to be outside, your pet probably doesn't want to be, either.



2. Keep close

When you do venture outdoors with your dog, keep them on-leash. Snow and rain can wipe away familiar scents, causing your dog to become lost or disoriented. If you live in a very cold area, unsupervised dogs also run the risk of falling through thin ice near ponds or other frozen bodies of water.



3. Bundle up!

A fur coat isn't all the protection your pet needs from the cold, especially if she is short-coated, a puppy, or a senior. She might be much more comfortable in some warm winter-wear, such as a sweater, jacket, or booties. Look for coats or sweaters that cover from neck to tail and aren't restrictive or uncomfortable. When indoors, be sure she has a warm, draft-free spot to rest in with lots of bedding. And to keep her skin and coat in tip-top shape from the dry winter air, brush her more frequently than usual, and never shave a long-coated dog during the winter.



4. Warm as toast

Wrapping your pet up in an electric blanket all day might sound like a good idea, but leaving an animal unattended with an electric item is a recipe for disaster. SnuggleSafe Pet Heating Pads can be warmed in the microwave and retain heat for 12 hours. They are excellent for tucking in your pet's bedding at night, giving her an extra bit of snuggly warmth as she nods off to dreamland.



5. Potty problems

When it's cold or rainy out, pets might resist going to the bathroom outside. (And really - wouldn't you?) Work with them to try to keep them comfortable while they do their business - a jacket or rain slicker might help, as would holding an umbrella over them to keep them dry.



6. Check for cat cargo

When the temperature drops, chilly kitties will look for any warm place to curl up. This includes under the hoods of cars where they can be seriously injured or killed when the car starts. A trick to evict stowaways is to bang on the hood of your car loudly a few times before you enter. Any slumbering felines will be frightened by the noise and escape before you start your car.



7. (Don't) chill out

You should never leave your pet unattended in a car on a cold day. The winter weather turns your car into a rolling refrigerator - great for keeping your groceries chilled, but terrible for keeping your pet safe. If it's cold outside, leave your animals warm and safe at home.



8. Dry them off

When coming in from a winter walk or play session, dry your pet off thoroughly and take extra care to wipe her legs, paws, and stomach. Pets in snowy climates can pick up salt, antifreeze, or other dangerous chemicals on their pads and lick them off, making them sick. Ice and salt can also cause their pads to crack and bleed, so look them over thoroughly after all outside adventures.



9. Gimme shelter

Pets should not be kept outside during the cold months. However, if you absolutely must leave them outdoors for a limited amount of time, create a shelter for them to retreat to. It should be dry, clean, and well-insulated (straw works well to trap heat), and protect them from the wind and elements. And be sure to frequently check their water bowl to be sure they have plenty of fresh (not frozen) H2O.



10. Stay healthy

Animals with fragile immune systems - including kittens, puppies, and senior pets - might be more susceptible to illness during the change of seasons. If you suspect your animal has a cold weather-related illness, take them to see the vet right away.



To Report Animal Cruelty call 516-THE-SPCA, email or use the online form



About Nassau County SPCA

Located in Nassau County, New York, The Nassau County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is a 501(c) (3), nonprofit organization originally designed to protect animals in the county from abuse and neglect, and to provide basic welfare. We hold special authority to enforce NYS Agriculture & Markets Law, and all other state and local humane laws. We are the only animal protection agency officially designated to operate within the county's borders.



The NCSPCA is a volunteer organization dedicated to the rescue, care and placement of needy animals. The Society is run entirely by unpaid volunteers and its operations have been historically funded through contributions solicited from the public and through corporate grants.



\The NCSPCA receives no public funding, is in no way affiliated with, a subdivision of or funded by any other local, state or national organization and every contribution, large or small, helps to provide the critical care needed to help homeless, abused and neglected animals in Nassau County. The continued success of each program relies entirely on donations. No money given to any other spca organization aids or benefits the NCSPCA. Your generous contribution will help the NCSPCA in all of its efforts. Visit www.nassaucountyspca.org
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Twelve days after launching the latest assault on Nov. 15, forces fighting on behalf of Bashar al Assad captured approximately a third of total rebel-held territory in the northern sector, positioning them to tighten the siege. These forces have been making steady gains on that front, expanding their control to approximately three quarters of rebel-held districts and reaching the Old City by Dec. 7. Some observers have described the recent advances as the biggest setbacks for the rebels since 2012. Unless insurgents are somehow able to break the siege, the fall of Aleppo to Assads forces seems all but assured.

Approximately 250,000 civilians have been trapped in rebel-held Aleppo, more than 80,000 have fled since the assault last week, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

A diverse array of local and foreign militias fighting on behalf of the Assad regime is supplanting the Syrian Arab Army (SAA), and these militias, backed by artillery and Russian air power, have played crucial roles in recent victories. Operations planning is coordinated in a joint command center (photo 1) with senior Iranian, Syrian, Russian, and Lebanese Hezbollah military personnel.

The IRGC and Iranian-backed Shiite militias have been instrumental in imposing the siege on Aleppo this past summer after a year-long offensive, and have done the heavy lifting in defeating two major Islamist-led insurgent assaults in the southwestern and western sectors of Aleppo since August, the latest of which was launched in late October and failed in early November. Pro-Assad Syrian militias and the SAA have been making steady gains in the northern sector since late summer. Also backed by heavy artillery and Russian air power, these forces have led the recent breakthrough in the northern districts.

In early October, regime forces in Aleppo numbered 5,000, according to The Wall Street Journal. These figures may have included pro-Assad Syrian militias as well as SAA, as the former are frequently blanketed as regime forces in Western media.

SAA and pro-Assad Syrian militias are predominantly positioned in the western, northern, eastern, and southeastern fronts directly adjacent to the city, according to pro-regime media outlets, social media accounts, and footage from press and individual accounts. The Syrian government forces include the Republican Guard, the 4th Mechanized Division, SAA special operations forces, and also reportedly the Interior Ministrys special forces and Syrian marines.

Pro-Assad Syrian militias that are participating in Aleppos siege include the Tiger Forces, Desert Hawks Brigade, Baath Brigades, Imam al Hujja Regiment, Junud al Mahdi, Imam al Baqir Brigade, the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, and the Quds Brigade (pro-regime Palestinians who resided in Aleppo refugee camps).

By late October, additional contingents of Desert Hawks and Tiger Forces militias arrived, according to Janes. In late November, the pro-regime media outlet Al Masdar reported the arrival of 1,000 soldiers from the Social Nationalist Party and Syrian marines from Latakia. The latters report, however, may be inflated. The estimated number of Syrian forces and SAA could now stand between 6,000 and 10,000.

Russian ANNA News, which reports from the ground, credited the Tiger Forces, led by the notorious Air Force Intelligence Directorate officer Suheil al Hassan (AKA The Tiger), with leading the breakthrough in Hanano district last week immediately following a coordinated assault from all fronts, forcing the insurgents to concede a third of territory.

The Assad regime and the SAA, which faces serious manpower shortage, are heavily dependent on foreign and Syrian militias. These militias act independently and do not necessarily answer to the central Syrian authority  of which there is very little left. The bigger Syrian militias, such as the Tiger Forces and Desert Hawks Brigade, run their own fiefdoms with impunity, as discussed by Tobias Schneider in War on the Rocks. Some of these militias have developed relations with Iran and Russia.

Imam al Hujja Regiment, Junud al Mahdi (Soldiers of the Mahdi), and Imam al Baqir Brigade (Shiified members of the Sunni Bekara clan, according to Aymen al Tamimi) are backed by Iran. The former two recruit out of the Syrian Shiites towns of Nubl and Zahra. State-affiliated Iranian media reports that 10 Syrian Shiites have been killed in Aleppo in the past month. Funeral photos (photo 2) are consistent with the flag of Imam al Hujja Regiment (photo 3), and a photo surfaced in early December of a fighter donning the militias patch (photo 4). The group, established in early 2016, openly displays its Hezbollah affiliation, as noted by Tamimi. Junud al Mahdi, an older militia established in the early phases of the conflict that has recruited from Nubl and Zahraa, also has some forces in the eastern Aleppo operation (Photo 5). These two groups are examples of the IRGCs efforts to establish a Syrian Hezbollah network.

While Russian sappers are clearing mines in east Aleppo, Russian military personnel have been on the ground with the SAA (photos 5 and 6), indicating advisory missions. A Russian Colonel who was advising Syrian forces was killed in Aleppo on Dec. 7, according to The Daily Beast. Photographs of Russian personnel with Syrian militias have increasingly surfaced in the past several months, such as the Quds Brigade, and, as highlighted by Bellingcat, other militias including Aleppo-based Baath Brigades and the Imam al Baqir Brigade (which also has operational links to Iran). These indicate the Russian militarys cultivation of direct relationships with Syrian forces and militias.

The IRGC-led Shiite expeditionary forces are predominantly positioned south of the city and are holding positions on the outskirts of the city to the west and southern countryside.

IRGC Qods Force operatives are active, as this branch executes Iranian strategy in Syria and has organized the Shiite militias fighting in Aleppo. Ground Forces commanders have been killed during the past month, suggesting that they continue planning operations and leading IRGC-backed militias into combat. Several Iranians below the rank of commanders have also been killed, indicating that contingents continue to deploy, though on a lower rate than the peak surge of approximately 3,000 deployed between September 2015 and May 2016, as estimated by Ali Alfoneh and Michael Eisenstadt in The Washington Institute.

The bulk of ground troops in the IRGC-led expeditionary force now include Lebanese Hezbollah, the Afghan Fatemiyoun, Pakistani Zeynabiyoun, and several Iraqi contingents.

According to the Russian Izvestia newspaper, which quoted a retired Syrian army general, Hezbollah boosted the total number of its forces in Syria to 5,000 and is preparing to launch an operation in Idlib after capturing Aleppo city. The figure has not been confirmed and could be inflated. However, Al Masdar, quoting a Syrian army source in Aleppo, also reported a buildup of Hezbollah and Iraqi Harakat al Nujaba in southern Aleppo countryside for a push toward Idlib.

Hezbollah fatalities spiked between mid-October and mid-November as they contributed to repelling the opposition-led offensive west of the Aleppo, losing more than 40 troops, according to data compiled by Ali Alfoneh. Since that battle, Hezbollah fatalities have dropped significantly.

The total number of Fatemiyoun contingent in Syria is believed to be between 3,000 and 6,000, and Zeynabiyoun between 1,000 and 2,000.

Both units have also seen spikes in fatalities in the battle west of Aleppo, losing 23 and 15 between October and early November, according to Alfoneh. These fatalities continued during the siege on Aleppo: Fatemiyoun has lost 25 and Zeynabiyoun 7 since early November. These forces are fighting to wrestle control of Seikh Saeed district in south Aleppo city proper, which has changed hands several times.

The Iraqi contingents include Harakat al Nujaba, Imam Ali Brigades, Asaib Ahl al Haq, Harakat al Abdal, and the Dir al Wilaya Brigades. These IRGC-backed units are part of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), which have recently been established as a legal, separate military institution by the Iraqi Parliament. Iraqi militias do not regularly announce fatalities publicly.

The largest Iraqi group in Aleppo is Harakat al Nujaba (an offshoot of Asaib Ahl al Haq formed to fight in Syria) and has 3,000 forces of its Ammar Yasser Brigade stationed there, according to militia head Akram al Kabi. Close to Iranian leadership, the militia has operated as the largest contingent in Aleppo for more than a year.

The Imam Ali Brigades, also an offshoot of Asaib Ahl al Haq, has operated in Aleppo in the past year as well, and its forces in the area have shifted in and out to other fronts, such as to Palmyra in July in advance of an assault.

Harakat al Abdal is a relative smaller contingent that has operated in Aleppo province for some time, according to social media posts. It is an offshoot of the Seyyed al Shuhada Brigades  itself an offshoot of the Hezbollah Brigades, as noted by Phillip Smyth of The Washington Institute.

Dir al Wilaya Brigades is a small group that issued its first public statement in March 2015, though its affiliation could not be immediately confirmed. The militia started volunteer roll calls in Syria in September, and announced deployment of forces to Syria in early November (Photo 9). It announced training exercises were held in Hamdaniya Stadium in Aleppo prior to participating in operation (photo 10).

Asaib Ahl al Haq has lost at least two senior commanders in Syria since September. A commander was announced killed in Syria on Nov. 29 as the battle for Aleppo was underway, according to a social media announcement, though it was not immediately confirmed whether he died in Aleppo. A senior commander who was close to IRGC Qods Force chief Qassem Soleimani was confirmed killed in Aleppo in late September.

IRGC-backed Iraqi militias are expected to pour more resources into Syria as territory held by the Islamic State shrinks in northern Iraq. PMF officials have already openly announced this, and have reached an agreement with the Iraqi Prime Minister to secure the border with Syria, possibly a staging ground to push into eastern Syria.

The IRGC-led Shiite militias are meanwhile planning operations in the southern Aleppo countryside to advance toward neighboring Idlib province in order to lift the siege of the Shiite towns of Fua and Kufriya. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has already given that order, according to Kabi, though these plans may wait until Aleppo is fully retaken.

This could be the next step of the IRGC-backed expeditionary force after Aleppos fall. While taking the last major urban area of Syria would be a huge victory for the pro-regime coalition, few are under the illusion that it would mean the end of the war. Jihadists and rebels still control strongholds in Idlib and pockets in Hama and Damascus, not to mention the Islamic State territory in eastern Syria.

Victory in Aleppo would enhance the pro-Assad coalitions hands in potential negotiations. The citys fall signals a new phase in the Syrian war reminiscent of a classic insurgency, in which pro-government forces hold major urban areas and insurgents control territory in the countryside. Meanwhile, as state institutions have broken down, the power structure in pro-Assad Syrian territory is that of a weak central authority that does not have a monopoly on violence and is dependent on alliances with militias and warlords who control their own fiefdoms.

Tehran is content with this scenario, and can sustain its international Shiite proxy model as long as it recruits foreign fighters. The Kremlin has been openly cultivating relations with militias and the Syrian military. Both Iran and Russia have established a direct presence on the ground to project power and are cultivating relationships with militias and stakeholders in the new Syrian regime to advance their long-term interests.

Amir Toumaj is a independent analyst and contributor to FDD's Long War Journal.

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New Delhi : The Supreme Court today upheld the maintainability of appeals filed by Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala against the 2007 award of the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal (CWDT) on sharing the river water. A three-judge bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra said that all the appeals filed by the southern states against the Tribunal's award are maintainable, though the Centre had asserted that the apex court had no jurisdiction to hear appeals against the award of the tribunal. "We hold all the appeals maintainable. Interim order to continue. List the matter for further hearing on December 15," a bench also comprising justices Amitava Roy amd A M Khanwilkar.

On October 18, the apex court had directed Karnataka to keep supplying Tamil Nadu with 2,000 cusecs of water till further orders. The bench had also said it would first go into the issue of maintainability of appeals filed by Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala against the award of tribunal and then hear arguments on the report filed by the Supervisory Committee formed to assess the ground realities in the Cauvery basin region. The Centre, through Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, had raised a preliminary objection claiming that the CWDT award amounted to a final decree in the dispute and the apex court had no jurisdiction to hear appeals against the award of the tribunal.

But the states had contended that their appeals were maintainable saying the Supreme Court had the jurisdiction to adjudicate the appeals filed by the state against the award of tribunal and that no statute can take away the appellate powers of the apex court under Article 136 of Constitution. However, Puducherry supported the stand of the Centre that the appeals filed by Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala are not maintainable. PTI
From Brexit and Trump to Italy, Brazil and the Philippines, 2016 has been a year of political upheaval and theatrics. And it isn't over yet. South Korean President Park Geun-hye is embroiled in an influence peddling scandal that has outraged the country and likely numbered her days in office. She has offered to step down from office in April 2017-10 months before her term is slated to end-but lawmakers in the National Assembly instead introduced an impeachment bill, which gets a vote Friday December 9. While Park's political fall looks inevitable, Korea's political issues needn't derail its other positive drivers. For global investors, whether or not you own any Emerging Markets stocks, this is another lesson in the importance of thinking long-term and not getting hung up on short-term events.

The movement against Park appears more about her actions (which you can read all about here), not a broader distaste with the government or the state of society. After decades of chaebol (Korea's huge, family-run mega conglomerates/corporate fiefdoms) dominating political decisions and the economy, corruption has emerged as the societal cause du jour (see this summer's draconian corruption bill), and Park appears a victim of the times. The scandal also coincides with some economic softness, as a slowdown in global trade hit export-oriented businesses hard. In response, the country's largest sectors-which account for a fifth of GDP and employ nearly 15% of the workforce-have undergone significant corporate restructuring. More recently, scandals at several chaebol only further weighed on sentiment.

South Korea has also faced some geopolitical uncertainty in recent months. Besides long-running issues with North Korea, which has made progress in its nuclear program, new tensions with China have arisen as South Korea recently deployed an advanced US missile system. In addition, Donald Trump's victory made many call into question the future of Asia's trade relationship with the US given his campaign rhetoric and dismissal of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. There is also a potential domestic political headwind, as the legislature's opposition party favors tax hikes, with eight different proposals put in the supplementary budget bills. With one of the world's stronger fiscal positions (40% debt to GDP), such a move makes little economic sense, but the negative fallout is likely short term.

However, these developments are mostly well-known, and while they may have weighed on equity performance a bit, Korea has performed largely in line with EM for the year. Most importantly, they don't negate the country's solid economic drivers, which should matter more to forward-looking stocks than a political scandal. Korean GDP grew 2.6% y/y in Q3, bolstered by steady domestic consumption. Steepening yield curves globally benefit Korea's financial sector, boding well for future lending-and thus, growth. Plus, reality is better than most folks appreciate. Global trade isn't in the dire shape many fear, China hasn't had an economic "hard landing" (and one doesn't look likely), and the Western developed world continues driving global growth. With these conditions unlikely to reverse for the foreseeable future, Korea looks poised to benefit and may even surprise to the positive-not difficult given how negative sentiment currently is.

Markets move most on the gap between reality and expectations, and all year, they've been resilient to political upheaval. Stocks got over Brexit in two trading days, Trump in a few hours, and Italy's referendum in a few seconds. Brazilian stocks thrived throughout ex-President Dilma Rousseff's impeachment trial this year. Korea should be similarly resilient, reiterating this important lesson-one investors should keep in mind throughout next year's busy geopolitical calendar.
Rolling Back America's Empire: Washingtons Proxy-Army Faces Decisive Defeat in Aleppo

Syrian Army helicopters dropped leaflets on parts of eastern Aleppo on Sunday warning anti-government fighters to surrender while they still had the chance. Hundreds of jihadists have already laid down their weapons and surrendered while a hardline corps of deadenders continue to fend off the rapidly advancing army.

The situation is looking increasingly hopeless for the ragtag group of insurgents that have lost more than half the territory they held in just the last week. Every attempt theyve made to break through Syrian Army lines has been repelled leaving them to defend a few shrinking districts where they will either surrender or die.

On Sunday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov delivered an ultimatum to the remaining militants that clarified the position of the Syrian government and its allies. he said:

Those groups which refuse to leave eastern Aleppo will be treated as terrorists. By refusing to walk out from eastern Aleppo they will in fact go ahead with armed struggle. We will treat them accordingly, as terrorists and extremists, and support the Syrian army in its operation against such armed gangs.

US Secretary of State John Kerry has made every effort to stop the fighting to protect US-backed jihadists that are trying to topple Syrian President Bashar al Assad. Unfortunately, a proposal that was accepted by both Kerry and Lavrov concerning the withdrawal of fighters in Aleppo, was rejected by higher-ups in the Obama Administration ending the prospects for a negotiated settlement. Lavrov expressed his frustration in comments to the media where he said:

They have withdrawn their document and have a new one. Our initial impression is that this new document backtracks, and is an attempt to buy time for the militants, allow them to catch their breath and resupply. The same thing happened with our agreement of September 9. Its difficult to understand who makes decisions there, but apparently there are plenty of those who want to undermine the authority and practical steps by John Kerry.

According to Reuters, the Syrian Foreign Ministry said it would now accept no truce in Aleppo, should any outside parties try to negotiate one. Meanwhile, Russia and China vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution on Monday calling for a week-long ceasefire. Simply put, this is the end of the line for the US-backed terrorists that have laid to waste much of the battered country and killed more than 400,000 people. And while Aleppo may not be the decisive turning point in the ongoing conflict, it does put all of the main population centers and industrial hubs back under regime control.

More important, the recapturing of Aleppo is a major setback for Washington and its jihadist-breeding allies. (US, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar) US plans for redrawing the map of the Middle East to meet its economic and geopolitical objectives has been defeated by a courageous and determined coalition (Syria, Iran, Russia and Hezbollah) that has methodically routed or exterminated the foreign-backed opposition and reestablished both state security and the sovereign authority of the elected government to control its own affairs.

On Tuesday morning, AMN News reported that the Syrian Army had captured 85 percent of East Aleppo. Dozens of insurgents have been killed in sporadic fighting while hundreds more have surrendered. It appears that the battle of Aleppo is about to end and the Syrian Army is on the verge of total victory.

By Mike Whitney

Email: fergiewhitney@msn.com

Mike Whitney lives in Washington state. He is a contributor to Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion (AK Press). Hopeless is also available in a Kindle edition. He can be reached at fergiewhitney@msn.com.

 2016 Copyright Mike Whitney - All Rights Reserved Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors.

Mike Whitney Archive

 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.




Trump Debunks Notion of Russia Interfering in Americas Electoral Process

Claiming it is utter nonsense. Not a shred of evidence suggests it. Irresponsibly blaming Moscow for hacking DNC emails or any other type interference in Americas electoral process reflects longstanding Russia bashing.



In response to being named Time magazines person of the year, Trump told the publication that accusing Russia is politically motivated. I dont believe it. I dont believe they interfered, he said, adding:

I believe that it could have beenany one of many other peopleIt could have been some guy in his home in New Jersey.



DHS, DNI and Hillarys claims werent supported by evidence because none exists. Accusations without proof are baseless. Legitimate tribunals would dismiss cases without it.



DHS and DNI claiming Russia tried influencing Americas presidential election outcome was hokum. Utter rubbish! Shameless Big Lies. Responsible parties knew it all along. Media scoundrels promoted what they should have condemned.



Russia is a convenient punching bag, vilified for its sovereign independence and Putins anti-imperial, anti-war, multi-world polarity agenda.



Ranking House Intelligence Committee Democrat member Adam Schiff shamefully criticized Trump for contradict(ing) our intelligence professional and carry(ing) water for the Kremlin.



Republican House Homeland Security chairman Michael McCaul, a member of Trumps national security team, lied about nonexistent Russian cyberattacks, nonsensically claiming interference with Americas electoral process, saying:



Its (nonexistent) hacks and attacks should be a wake-up call and a call to action. There needs to be consequences to these actions. On the international stage, if we dont respond and show them that there are consequences, the bad behavior will continue.



Obama indicated a proportional response was coming. Nothing so far. Hopefully Trump will extend outreach to Putin, following through on saying both countries should cooperate in combating terrorism and find ways to get along.



McCaul is part of Washingtons neocon infestation, rabidly anti-Russia. We cant allow foreign governments to interfere in our democracy, and when they do so we must call them out on it and respond forcefully, publicly, and decisively, he ranted.



The United States should respond to cyber attacks in a way that will make our adversaries think twice before they do it. again.



His committee plans introducing what he calls serious (cybersecurity) reform, without further elaboration on what he intends.



Russia bashing wont end once Trump succeeds Obama. Hopefully hell go the other way and seek normalized ties - in the interest of world peace and stability.

By Stephen Lendman

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com

His new book as editor and contributor is titled Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.

http://www.claritypress.com/Lendman.html

He lives in Chicago and can be reached in Chicago at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.



Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to The Global Research News Hour on RepublicBroadcasting.org Monday through Friday at 10AM US Central time for cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on world and national topics. All programs are archived for easy listening.

 2016 Copyright Stephen Lendman - All Rights Reserved Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors.

 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.




MARTINSVILLE  The New College Institute (NCI) is under new leadership.

Chief Academic Officer Leanna Blevins, who had been serving as acting executive director, was hired by NCIs board on Friday to be the permanent executive director.

Blevins has been with the institute since it opened 10 years ago and previously worked for the New College of Virginia, the group that worked to establish in Martinsville-Henry County a new higher education institution that would provide local access to four-year degrees.

Also, the board elected state Sen. Bill Stanley, R-Franklin County, as its new chairman after approving bylaws changes enabling a state lawmaker to serve in that role. Stanley has been on the board for about four years.

The leadership changes come as NCI strives to chart its future course in providing higher education opportunities for students from the area and beyond.

Leannas done an excellent job over the years, said board member Naomi Hodge-Muse. We feel we can move forward with confidence in her leadership.

Its an honor and privilege to continue to serve NCI and this community alongside my esteemed colleagues among faculty and staff members, Blevins said after the meeting.

Blevins has a bachelors degree from Virginia Tech and both a masters degree in education and a doctorate from U.Va.

The vote to hire Blevins as executive director was unanimous following a motion by board member Janice Wilkins of Patrick County.

NCI had been without a permanent chief executive since William Wampler retired from state service last July. Wampler, who represented the Bristol area in the state Senate from 1988 to 2011, was hired to lead NCI after he decided not to seek re-election. Officials said at the time that as a lawmaker, Wampler was a major supporter of establishing the institute.

After interviewing applicants and not finding what it thought was the right one to lead NCI, the board earlier this year suspended the search until a course for the institutes future could be charted. That process is continuing. (See related story.)

Blevins did not apply for the executive directors job at that time. However, she said Friday that she wants to see progress that the institute has made continue.

She will be NCIs third executive director, following Wampler and Barry Dorsey, a former college president who also had worked for the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia. After retiring from NCI, Dorsey now runs a consulting firm.

Over the years, Leannas done an excellent job, said board member Naomi Hodge-Muse. We feel we can move forward with confidence with Blevins at NCIs helm.

Blevins received a standing ovation from the board.

Its an honor and a privilege to continue to serve NCI and this community alongside my esteemed colleagues among NCIs faculty and staff members, she said after the meeting.

Blevins was earning an annual salary of $98,586. Republican state Sen. Bill Stanley of Franklin County, who the board elected as its new chairman on Friday, said Blevins new salary has not yet been finalized but she will receive a pay increase.

Stanley said he believes having a legislator as chairman of NCIs board is important in dealing with state funding issues and helping to keep the institute and its needs in the minds of General Assembly members.

The organization's future had been in question for several months. The Harvest Foundation, a community nonprofit, agreed in 2006 to commit $50 million to create NCI, on the condition that it would become a school able to give four-year degrees. There is still $26 million left under that grant, but the Harvest Foundation informed NCI in September that in order to get the money, New College would either have to develop into a new four-year college or university or become a branch of an existing state university. Harvest agreed to provide $450,540 for costs through Dec. 31. A final decision is due Jan. 31.

In their October meeting, board members heard multiple proposals. The first involves becoming a satellite campus of Longwood University. The second would be to keep NCI as a multi-university center. The third involves sharing governance with similar schools in Southern Virginia, including the Southern Virginia Higher Education Center in South Boston and the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research in Danville. The fourth option would be to become affiliated with the Virginia Community College System.

As a result of being elected board chairman, Stanley said he no longer will pursue the Republican nomination for state attorney general in 2017. He said he believes helping to chart NCIs future course so it can better educate Southern Virginia residents is more important right now.

I am dedicated to the task at hand, which is transforming NCI into a 21st century state-of-the-art college that provides the best educational opportunities for our community, Stanley wrote in a prepared statement, and making NCIs forward-looking and innovative approach to workforce training and college education platforms to be a magnet to draw industries to our area that will return Southside as the leading economic driver of Virginias new economy.
RIDGEWAY - Children twirled with joy evident on their faces during the Da Capo Virginia Collaborative Concert earlier this week at Magna Vista High School.

It was the semester finale for Da Capos Vivo program, whose 70 to 80 students are in special needs classrooms in Henry County schools, and about 15 students who take Da Capos music classes at First Presbyterian Church.

The concert, like the music classes, incorporated vocals, percussion instruments and hand, foot- and body-created percussion to make music.

Family members and friends of the students filled the high school auditorium during the concert, whose theme was African music. Students marched in to Siyahamba and assembled. Some sat in chairs on the left side of the auditorium and in wheelchairs in the center, and others stood on the risers at the right.

An early song used snapping, clapping and foot stomping to sound out wind, rain and storm.

Obwisana comes from a rock game played by kids, Da Capo Founder and Executive Director Tracee Prillaman explained. She was assisted by Suzanne Travis.

Its based in Ghana, and it says, Ouch, the rock has crushed my hand, Prillaman said of the Obwisana. There were no rocks around, but students used xylophones and sticks in rhythm with the song.

During Tuimbe and other songs, two little boys got up from their seat and danced in circles, arms waving in the air. Several in their seats and wheelchairs also started rocking in time to the music.

With Sikiliza, several stood and danced, and many played shakers and bells.

To a recording of Brand New by Ben Rector, students lifted and lowered parachutes to the tune. Some hopped gleefully to the music. Others gripped the parachutes tightly as their helpers guided their arm movements in time to the beat.

Prillaman told the audience that she teaches students to use our music to make a difference in your day. On our shirts it says Love it, learn it and live it. I think these kids definitely love it. I know they have learned it, and today was their chance to live it with all of you.

At the end of the concert, the students lined up in the hall above the auditorium to receive the congratulations of the people in the audience.
COLLINSVILLE  The work on Meadow View Elementary School continues, Director of Facilities Maintenance Keith Scott said at a Henry County School Board meeting Thursday night.

Theres a lot of activity going on out there, a lot of equipment out on the site, Scott said.

Section B footers have reached completion and the construction team currently is building foundation walls on section A. Both sections A and B serve as classrooms, while section C includes the media center. Construction on section C will begin soon, Scott added.

Additionally, the main entrance to the school has been roughed in.

While the progress mostly has remained on schedule for a mid-year opening in the 2017-18 school-year, weather could alter the constructions timeframe.

Weve been pretty fortunate up until last week when we saw a little more weather coming along, Scott said.

Even though rainfall occurred during the week, the crews made noticeable advancements at the site.

Weve got grading work that continues on the parallel with Route 108, so thatll be part of the turning lanes, Scott said.

As far as the school building itself goes, its coming along nicely. According to Scott, block is being laid.

Steel is set to start arriving around Dec. 21, Scott said. So if everything goes well, we may see some structure starting to take place by the first of January.

Continuing with the progress, a committee recently narrowed the brick color down from five or six options to two top choices.

They will be building another sample for those two with some different color mortar, Scott said. So we can narrow that choice down and get the brick on order as well.

At the meeting, the board awarded a contract to Southwestern Virginia Gas Company in the amount of $325,000 to extend natural gas services to the school site. That amount is estimated, and Henry County Public Schools will only be charged for the costs that are incurred by the gas company during the construction of the line. The line is set to begin at the Applied Felts location.

Natural gas will be provided to the school as the energy source for the heating boilers and the domestic hot waters, Scott said.

Vice Chairman Curtis Millner visited the site Thursday morning. At first, he was skeptical.

I thought it was too muddy, Millner revealed. I didnt want to go up and interfere with things.

However, after venturing out, Millner felt happy he stopped by.

I was very impressed with the progress thats being made, Millner said.
A red-white-red signal of hope and positive change; a red-white-red signal today goes from Austria to all the capitals of the European Union.

So said the self-satisfied liberal Van der Bellen in his victory speech after winning the election for the ceremonial post of President of the Austrian Republic.

This election contest eventually took four rounds before a winner could finally be named. The first election, with six candidates, ended as a disaster for the candidates of the two governing parties - the social democrats and the Christian democrats - who jointly received less than 23 per cent of the votes. Three outsiders - the right-wing opposition candidate Hofer, and the independents liberals, Van der Bellen and Irmgrad Griess - came first, second, and third respectively. This lead to the fall of the social democratic Prime Minister Faymann.

The second round of this first election, however, was cancelled through the courts in May due to irregularities in the election process. The result of this contest was very narrow, with the liberal Van der Bellen receiving only 31,000 votes more than the far-right candidate Norbert Hofer.

The re-arranged second round elections were scheduled for October. But in a farcical situation (caused by technical problems with faulty glue) it had to be postponed once more.

The election was finally held on 4th December, and in the name of stability the results were immediately accepted by all parties. Van der Bellen won with a margin of 350,000 votes (53,8%), on a relatively high turnout of 74%, in an unexpectedly clear victory.

Norbert Hofer - Photo - Photo: FJ MorgenbesserThe international media emphasised the Austrian result as being a sign of hope after the shocks of Brexit and Trumps presidential victory, and also after the victories of pro-Russian presidential candidates in Moldova and Bulgaria.

A recent comment piece in The Guardian reflects this relief. After writing scornfully about the angry white male working-class (interesting how for these people the working class only exists when they have to underline their own self-supposed cultural superiority), the author has a positive message for the Establishment:

Rather than seeing Clinton and Van der Bellen as anomalies, blips in an inevitable trend towards populist radical right dominance, liberal democratic parties and politicians of all persuasions should learn lessons from their successes. () Copying populist messages may work for one or two elections, if that, but will inflict lasting damage on liberal democracy in the long run. The vast majority of the people are looking for convincing and consistent policies that address the realities of todays challenges in an inclusive and positive way.

Let us address these realities.

Coalition of interests

The campaign of Van der Bellen was the most heterogeneous political campaign that has ever been seen in a developed capitalist country. It was orchestrated and financed by the leading bank, the Raiffeisenbank - a financial giant that dominates not only vast swathes of the economy, but is closely associated with the conservative party, dominating the political and cultural life in the majority of the 2,000 towns and villages in the country. It also controls a corporate media group of leading daily papers and news magazines.

At the same time, the heads of the major parties - the social democrats and the conservatives - called for support for Van der Bellen. Similarly with the leaders of the main unions and the heads of the Catholic and Evangelic church. All the intellectuals came out for Van der Bellens campaign, including pop stars. The liberal opposition party, NEOS, a split from the conservative OVP, called for a vote for Van der Bellen. The Greens, the party that nominated Van der Bellen, put all their weight behind the campaign.

For the first time, there was the newly seen phenomena of a dirty campaign financed by a liberal industrialist, who warned of mass layoffs and bankruptcies in the case of a Hofer win, which was described as being the start of Oxit, the Austrian exit from the EU.

On top of all of this, there were hundreds of initiatives of individuals, trade unionists, school students, etc. that campaigned for Van der Bellen; or rather, who wanted to do anything to stop the far-right from taking office in the Hofburg, the office of the Federal President.

So we can see that behind this supposedly glowing victory for the establishment candidate there are a whole array of conflicting interests and ideas, and no coherent political programme at all.

Exit polls give a clear indication of this; 42 per cent of the voters of the elected president did so for one only reason: to the stop the right-winger taking office. This is also reflected in the increased voter participation. In May, Van der Bellen won 200,000 votes from those who abstained in the first round of the elections; now, in December, his campaign convinced another 170,000 to participate who had previously abstained. The only motivation for these people was to block the right-winger.

Following the 4th December vote, this unique alliance has outlived itself and is now ancient history.

Hofer wins over the angry

On the other side there was Norbert Hofer,the candidate of the right-wing FPO. His voters want a break with the political system of the Second Republic. But also here for different reasons.

His candidature in reality was also a coalition of contradictory forces - but in this case all linked to one single party, the right-wing FPO, which has been leading all the polls for two years now.

We see that the lower the average income of area, the higher the share of the votes for Hofer. 85% of blue-collar workers voted for him. The main reasons given by his voters for supporting him wanting a change in politics (62%)and to protest against government policies (34%). By contrast, only 8% of the voters for Van der Bellen named these two motives.

It is clear that the FPO has galvanised this protest vote - which is strong amongst the working class, but also amongst layers of the petit bourgeoisie - and is using it as a lever to carry out anti-working class policies. The party apparatus wants to be back in government, which it participated in between 2000-2007. That government was characterised by harsh attacks on the living standards of the masses. This lead to a split and a fall in popular support for the party, which back in the mid-2000s polled less than 10% and was basically reduced to its core supporters of the so called third camp, the national liberal bourgeois camp. On the base of a renewed grand coalition that was re-established in 2007, the FPO for ten years was able in elections to accumulate all the discontent in society.

Break up of national unity policies

The ruling grand coalition is de facto a government of national unity that manages a country that is stuck in a permanent crisis. For five uninterrupted years, unemployment has been on the rise, with 450,000 now unemployed, the highest rate since the end of the Second Word War. Incomes for the working class have stagnated for two decades; precarious employment and house prices have risen steeply. New labour contracts brought in since the crisis of 2008-09 offer an average of 30% less than those from before the crisis.

Saving the banks was the governments top priority in recent years, with a bill of nearly 20 billion euros so far. Parliamentary investigations into corruption and mismanagement did not provide any conclusions. At the end of the day, the different departments of the establishment look out for each other.

The tops of the trade unions are fully integrated into this system of national unity. They did not lead any social protests for many years, and they act as an executioner for the attacks on living standards. This has led to a growing impotence on the factory floor for these nominally mighty organisations.

Despite all the efforts to maintain the political situation and provide stability, therefore, the accumulated contradictions in society are seeking to find an expression. And at the moment they do so by strengthening the FPO  for the simple reason that all other avenues are blocked.

The strategy of the FPO consists of waiting until the system of institutionalised class-collaboration falls under its own weight. It is clear that over the last months the leadership the FPO was given an indication from leading sectors of the bourgeoisie that they should get ready for taking government responsibility. Its leaders have since adopted a more responsible language and have also changed some important political promises. For example, they have even embraced pro-EU policies, including in details like the call for an open labour market.

Traditional parties in crisis

Meanwhile the social democracy and the conservative parties are in a state of open crisis. It is clear that the consistent postponement of the presidential election acted as a brake on the process of the governments fragmentation. In the name of institutional stability, the elections were postponed three times. Now that this hurdle has been overcome, we will see how the governments crisis develops after its Christmas break. The most probable outcome is for new early elections to be held in the coming year.

This perspective is based on the fact that the once large popular parties are constantly losing support. The conservatives poll less than 20 per cent; the social democrats could stabilise with the new Prime Minister at around 25-27 per cent. But the FPO constantly stands at well above 30%. So waiting till 2018 will only lead to the situation deteriorating further.

The big industrialists are getting nervous, as all economic indicators in the country are becoming worse than in the main export market, Germany. Meanwhile, in Eastern Europe, Austrian imperialism is having greater and greater problems as a result of political risks, with the new reality of nationalist governments in a series of countries that dare to conduct policies that take into account the interests of their own corrupt bourgeois, instead of accepting that foreign capital calls the shots, as it has done in the past.

Everything is set for a political realignment through early elections. The majority of capitalists are clearly pushing for a bourgeoisie block government of the FPO and the conservative OVP. They want to improve the position of Austrian capitalism, with all its deteriorating indicators of competitiveness in terms of the main export industries.

This perspective leads to the prospect of open civil wars within the social democracy and the conservatives. In the conservative party, the party leader is deeply unpopular. Several factions would like to challenge his leadership. These factions have the support of the majority of the party, and also of the leading capitalists like Raiffeisenbank. So whilst this bank was fully behind the election of Van der Bellen for the presidency, it has constantly built up the young foreign minister Sebastian Kurz as the new party leader at the same time.

Surviving through racist demagogy

Kurz is a black canvas; he has been a minister for years, but has carefully managed not to get involved in the daily dirty business of politics. He started as a liberal, unsuccessfully rebranding the conservative party as the choice of the jeunesse doree [the gilded youth]. Later, Kurz and other conservative ministers demagogically used the refugees crisis to advance a policy of cuts and attacks on democratic rights, justified with an openly racist agenda. In the absence of any terrorist attacks, a state of emergency has been advocated with technical arguments like refugee levels above 37,500 per year would trigger the collapse of the health system. If this argument were true, then as little as a simple flu-virus could send the country into a state of bankruptcy, chaos and anarchy.

These conservative ministers are attempting to connect with the mood amongst the most backward layers of society, promote new laws and initiatives that are all linked to racist arguments. HC Strache, leader of the FPO, who was told by the capitalists to demonstrate his responsibility in representing the common interests of the bourgeoisie, even lamented openly how he is the real racist and not those demagogues within the conservatives.

On the other hand, the SPO and the union apparatuses are increasingly orienting towards forming a coalition with the FPO themselves. This means breaking with the status quo of the last 30 years in which the far-right FPO have been excluded from the political game. In Vienna, this conflict over the tactical orientation of the party is leading to an on-going civil war in the party, which has dominated the city for a century, only interrupted by the period of fascism.

It is not yet clear whether these political reorientations inside the old political formations, triggered by the approaching end of the national unity strategy, will temporarily stabilise the government, or if they will sped up the process of open conflicts. In the absence of an upswing in the economy, which is excluded, it is clear that the programme of national unity is finished; it is now only a matter of waiting for the official death-certificate.

No working class expression

After another decade of class collaboration in government and in the factories, the organisations of the working class are deserted. They lack even the most basic content, and refuse to talk about concrete action or independent class policies. As a result, the bureaucratic apparatuses are left to pursue tactical reorientations in order to somehow cling to power.

It is obvious that the political Left is completely shattered by the processes taking place. The election campaign of Van der Bellen accelerated this ongoing isolation and impotence of the Left, with all individuals and organisations once more retreating to an open political support of this liberal as the lesser evil. Van der Bellen used the space he was granted to put forward right-wing gestures and policies. He leaned on the so-called traditions of rural Austria, openly embraced the deadly Frontex-regime, advocated cuts on public spending, and specifically called for unity, even throwing his weight against those who wanted to fight an offensive campaign and stage demonstrations against Hofer. Only after the election did he clearly state that his victory is a victory for the stability of the system, for austerity, and for the European institutions. So the year 2016 also marks the capitulation of the left to liberalism.

But the real news is this: the victory of Van der Bellen indicates that the ruling class has chosen what it thinks is a reliable and tested candidate to lead Austria during the collapse of the political premises of the Second Republic - that of peaceful class collaboration. This was the main idea of Van der Bellens backers in the bourgeoisie and the bureaucracy of the labour movement. Whereas the Raiffeisenbank played a big part in his campaign, on the other hand they are preparing the bourgeois-bloc government. At the same time, many leading trade unionists openly backed Van der Bellen, while at the same time fighting for a reorientation of the social democratic party to form a coalition with the right-wing FPO.

So 2016 marks also the year in which the precarious structures that have managed to hold since the outbreak of the capitalist crisis of 2008 finally collapsed. We, as Marxists, understand that this is a prior condition for the working class to achieve an independent political expression. Only in this way can the malaise in society be overcome: by a victorious class war against capitalism.
The Berkshires are a popular destination for people living in all of Massachusetts and beyond for it's picturesque landscape, shopping, and several popular ski resorts. Cape Cod has its beaches full in the summer, but in the winter Berkshire County has the slopes and plenty of fresh powder.

An ideal Berkshire rental is often hard to come by, especially when looking to book last minute. That's where The Gatehouse comes in - a large, beautiful home in a picturesque location and currently available now through Christmas Eve and select dates in January. The home is located on Golden Hill in Lee, and considered the 'gatehouse' to upscale Erskine Park.

The Gatehouse boasts eight bathrooms, four bedrooms, and comfortably sleeps up to 15 people. The home is generously updated and filled with unique details including Brazilian Cherry floors, porcelain plank tiles, and Jerusalem stone. Additional features include an outdoor patio/grill area, a wood burning stove, and several over-sized windows to enjoy the surrounding views. The home is a short drive to several ski resorts including Butternut and Bousquet, as well as shopping at the Lee Premium Outlets.

The rental is currently an average of $799 per night (with a 21% discount for stays over 1 week) with a three-night minimum. The Gatehouse has a full five stars from three satisfied customers on Airbnb.com.


Staff at a Cambridge public school have found anti-Semitic graffiti, including swastikas, painted in multiple bathrooms.

Cambridge Rindge and Latin School told parents on Wednesday that staff at the school had found images of a swastika along with hateful language in three different boys bathrooms at the high school. Anti-Semitic graffiti was discovered in two girls bathrooms.

School officials, in a public letter posted on the Cambridge Public Schools website on Thursday, said they reported the graffiti to the Cambridge Police Department and to Attorney General Maura Healey's hate crimes hotline. Counseling was made available to students, and students discussed the incidents in school. School officials also reached out to the Anti-Defamation League.

"The incident at the high school is an affront to the school's core values of diversity, opportunity and respect," wrote Cambridge Public School Superintendent Kenneth Salim.

The Anti-Defamation League has documented an uptick in hate-related crimes since the presidential election, both in Massachusetts and nationally. Healey started a hate crimes hotline in response to that uptick. According to the FBI, anti-Semitism is the most common type of religiously motivated hate crime.
SPRINGFIELD -- A 59-year-old city man arrested in a February raid that police touted as a "HUGE Heroin Seizure" saw his drug trafficking case dropped this week as the legal fallout over videos showing a former narcotics detective threatening two teenage suspects continues.

The Dec. 6 document filed by prosecutors to end the case against Orlando Soto says the case was dropped because it is "not in the interest of justice" to pursue it. That is language prosecutors most often use in filings to end cases without a trial or plea deal.

The prosecution's decision to abandon the case follows a failed bid in November to resolve it through a plea agreement.

The Soto case is one of dozens affected by the involvement of Officer Gregg Bigda, a former narcotics detective who played a key role in Soto's arrest and the investigation that led to the raid.

Bigda returned to work at the Springfield Police Department this week after a 60-day suspension over his February interrogation of the juvenile suspects. He is now assigned to the records bureau.

In the videos, recorded Feb. 27 in holding cells at the Palmer Police Department, Bigda and Detective Luke F. Cournoyer are seen questioning two of four teens accused of stealing an undercover police vehicle. Bigda threatens violence against both of the boys, and threatens to plant drugs on one of them.

Defense attorneys have used the videos to call Bigda's credibility as a witness into question in a number of unrelated cases, including Soto's. Prosecutors, meanwhile, have reported that Bigda may not be available to testify.

In early November, Assistant District Attorney Amy D. Wilson and defense lawyer Stephen E. Shea asked Hampden Superior Court Judge John S. Ferrara to accept a plea by Soto to a lesser charge and sentence him to the eight months he had served awaiting trial.

Soto had initially been charged with heroin trafficking in the amount of 36 to 100 grams and violation of a drug-free school zone. Under the plea agreement, Soto would have pleaded guilty to the lesser offense of possession of heroin with intent to distribute. The violation of a drug-free school zone charge would have been dropped.

One of the primary reasons given for the proposed plea agreement was Bigda's role in the case.

But Ferrara would not accept the sentencing recommendation, so the case went back in line for trial.

Ferrara said his choice would have been to impose a sentence of three years in state prison. He cited Soto's past criminal record, as well as the amount of drugs police allegedly seized -- over 3,600 bags of heroin -- as a reason he would not accept time served as a sentence.

Shea filed a motion to dismiss the Soto case based on Bigda's involvement, but the motion was not heard because the case was dropped.

Wilson told Ferrara in November Bigda "may or may not be available to testify in the future." She said Bigda was the police contact of a confidential informant who made heroin buys from Soto.

Bigda was also part of the team that executed a search warrant in the case, and Bigda wrote the affidavit to get the search warrant, she said.

"I understand the problems with Detective Bigda," Ferrara said at the time, adding that he understood consideration was offered to Soto to prevent a situation that "may be embarrassing to the police department."

Before Ferrara rejected the plea agreement, he asked Wilson if the case could be made against Soto without Bigda's testimony. She said Bigda would be needed to testify about a number of issues in the investigation and arrest.

She said if the case went to trial there would be a risk of acquittal -- whereas the plea agreement would result in a conviction on Santos' record.

"The driving force behind this is Detective Bigda's involvement," Shea, the defense lawyer, said at the plea hearing.

He said Soto's case was heard by a Hampden County grand jury after Springfield police had the footage of Bigda's interrogation of the teens in Palmer. He said in a motion to dismiss that he would argue the tape -- which, echoing other attorneys, he said calls Bigda's credibility into question -- should have been presented to the grand jury.

When Soto and a co-defendant were arrested in February, the Springfield Police Department issued a press release with pictures of the drugs allegedly confiscated and the suspects' booking photos.

"Time for Heroin dealers to take a hint ... don't deal in Springfield," police spokesman Sgt. John Delaney wrote in the release.

Police said Soto was arrested Feb. 24 when search warrants were executed at his home and that of a relative. Wilson said police had information about Soto selling heroin, and that a confidential informant made buys from Soto Feb. 14 and 21.

Police were told Soto kept small amounts of heroin at his home at 351 Oakland St. and kept larger amounts at his relative's home at 222 Orange St.

At Orange Street, police said they forced entry after knocking and found 3,649 bags of heroin as well as personal papers belonging to both Soto and his relative, Daisy Aviles, who was also charged with heroin trafficking, Wilson said.

At Oakland Street, where officers forced entry after knocking, police said Soto and another man fled out a window onto the roof. The other man came back in, but police had to go out on the roof to arrest Soto, Wilson said.

Aviles' case was also dropped by the prosecution. Soto has said all the drugs at both homes were his.

Soto has been held in lieu of $10,000 bail while awaiting trial.
SPRINGFIELD -- Former astronaut and U.S. senator John Glenn, who died Thursday at age 95, visited Springfield twice in 1983 while campaigning for the presidency.

In April he spoke at the Massachusetts Democratic State Convention at the Springfield Civic Center. The Sunday Republican's coverage of this visit was unenthusiastic, with columnist Loye Miller Jr. saying the candidate was "loping along lackadaisically, as if to the beat of some different political drummer."

"As a peerless Marine flier, Glenn daily came to grips with life-threatening missions, both in combat and peacetime, long before he flew in space," he wrote. "Yet in his second career, in American politics, there is no sign of a killer instinct."

Glenn returned in November to give a speech on foreign and military policy at Springfield Technical Community College. He was cut off when college President Andrew Scibelli whispered in his ear that police had received a report that there was a bomb in the building. That turned out to be a hoax.

Glenn supporters drove voters to the polls during the Massachusetts primary March 13, 1984, as seen in a photo from the time. Glenn won just 7.2 percent of the Massachusetts vote and dropped out of the presidential race three days later.
police-car-lights.jpg

Police departments across the state are ramping up their patrols during the holiday season as part of a "Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over" campaign.

(Associated Press)

EASTHAMPTON -- If you plan on driving drunk or drugged through Easthampton during the holiday season, you might want to think twice.

The Easthampton Police Department will deploy extra patrols during the coming weeks as part of a statewide "Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over" campaign, said Chad Alexander, the department's public information officer.

"We want to make sure everybody stays safe," said Alexander. "We would rather give somebody a courtesy ride home in the cruiser than have to pull them over. We don't want anybody to get hurt."

Alexander said revelers should plan for a sober ride home before going out to celebrate. Options include making use of Uber, a taxi, or a designated driver.

"If you need to leave your car in one of the downtown lots overnight, we're not going to tow you," he added.

People who host parties are asked to keep an eye on their friends: "If someone you know has been drinking, please don't let that person get behind the wheel. Take their keys, take them home, or help them arrange a safe way home."

He also said motorists should buckle up on every trip, and put their cell phones away while driving.

Around 200 local police departments will take part in the campaign, thanks to a special grant from the state's Executive Office of Public Safety and Security.

Massachusetts has tough drunken driving laws, with a first offense bringing an automatic license suspension, with hefty fines and possible jail time for a criminal conviction.
You have 20 seconds to get them to say "Wow" and ask for more, otherwise you have lost your audience. Whether that be an investor, customer, potential employee or business partner. In order to achieve "wow" there is a simple framework that all effective communicators understand.

To be effective when pitching your start-up "you have 20 seconds to be compelling or you might as well go home". That was the core piece of advice that Bill Reichert from Garage Technology Ventures, a Silicon Valley based VC Fund, highlighted in his presentation at the 2016 StartCon Event that ran this past weekend in Sydney.

By Paul Towers

Full Story: http://anthillonline.com/creating-effective-startup-pitch-according-bill-reichert-garage-technology-ventures/

***

Building a successful company is a challenge that is met through several structured steps. Here are some of the proven steps http://www.matr.net/stepstosuccess.phtml
Working to create a clean and balanced energy portfolio that will provide for a safe and reliable energy future. Learn more at http://www.NorthWesternEnergy.com/BrightFuture
Idaho is one of 37 recipients that will use a $1.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to expand registered apprenticeships throughout the state in health care, information technology, advanced manufacturing and energy.

Full Story: http://labor.idaho.gov/news/NewsReleases/tabid/1953/ctl/PressRelease/mid/3872/itemid/3035/Default.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1
It can be tough to place student teachers in rural schools. The trainees often struggle to find housing and can be daunted by rural isolation. With fewer student teachers, rural schools miss out on a major source of employees.

A Montana education advocacy group and the Montana University System hope a new scholarship program can draw more people into small towns that typically struggle to hire teachers. The Montana Rural Education Association will offer about 20 $1,000 scholarships to college students to student teach in schools with projected teacher shortages, funded from MREA school membership fees.

MATT HOFFMAN [email protected]

Full Story: http://helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/rural-schools-group-offering-student-teaching-scholarships-to-combat-teacher/article_54cbec88-d16a-579f-8df3-aae6bb622f1c.html
Les ministres ont pris note de la fake news concernant la nomination de Gabriel Louis de la Tremoille comme Consul de Maurice en France, de la promulgation de la Light Rail Fares and Light Rail Tickets Regulations 2019 entre autres.

1. Cabinet has agreed to the promulgation of the Light Rail Fares and Light Rail Tickets Regulations 2019 which relate to payment and issuance of tickets through electronic means and provide for offences related to fare evasion. The Regulations also make provision for the free travel of senior citizens, students and disabled persons on board the light rail.

Cabinet also noted that a two-stage approach would be adopted with regard to the fares,

inter alia, to be charged on light rail:

(i) for adult, Rs 20 for a single-stage trip and Rs 30 for a two-stage trip; and

(ii) for child, Rs 11 for a single-stage trip and Rs 16 for a two-stage trip.

Cabinet further noted that the feeder service would be free of charge, pending the introduction of the Electronic Ticketing System on feeder buses, for all passengers as from 6 January to the end of February 2020.

2. Cabinet has taken note of the recommendations of the Technical Committee set up to look into the immediate difficulties being faced by the Sugar Industry, pending the outcome of the study being undertaken by the World Bank in the sugar sector.

Cabinet has agreed to the following recommendations:

(a) the Sugar Insurance Fund Board would extend the financial support given to small planters for Crop 2018 to other categories of producers, namely, large planters and millers;

(b) as regards the Portable Retirement Gratuity Fund (PRGF), employers in the Sugar Cane Industry would, for past years of service of their employees up to 31 December 2019, compute the amount due as lump sum on the basis of the provisions of the relevant Remuneration Orders or enactment. As from 1 January 2020, the contribution would be according to the prevailing rate of the PRGF and the computation of gratuity for their years of service post 31 December 2019 would be in accordance with the provisions of the Workers Rights At. In this respect, the regulations to be made by the Minister of Labour, Human Resource Development and Training would cater for the rate to be applicable for the PRGF and would further provide for a benchmarking with a view to ensuring that the employees in that sector are not worse off; and

(c) an Inter-Ministerial Committee comprising the Ministry of Agro-Industry and Food Security, the Ministry of Energy and Public Utilities and the Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning and Development has been set up to determine the remuneration for bagasse for Crop 2019.

3. Cabinet has taken note of the determination of the sugar price for insurance purpose for Crop 2019 by the Ministry of Agro-Industry and Food Security which are as follows:

(a) Planters/Metayers Rs10,823 per ton of sugar

(b) Millers Rs10,000 per ton of sugar

The sugar price of Rs10,823 for the planters/metayers also includes the value for molasses which is estimated around Rs823 per ton of sugar.

4. Cabinet has taken note that following the fire outbreak at Cite Longere Tole, Baie du Tombeau, on 25 December 2019, four houses had been damaged and arrangements were made for the opening of the Baie du Tombeau Community Centre to accommodate the victims and for the provision of meals to them. Appropriate allowances are also being paid to the fire victims. In addition, the National Empowerment Foundation would arrange for the construction of temporary housing units for the victims at the same site.

5. Cabinet has taken note of fake news being circulated to the effect that Government has appointed a certain Mr Gabriel Louis de la Tremoille as Consul of Mauritius in France. To set the records straight, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade, in consultation with the Prime Ministers Office, is issuing a communique to deny this information. The French Embassy is being informed accordingly and a police enquiry has also been initiated.

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Man cheated by cousin in US$7m scam

From:Shanghai Daily | 2016-12-09 01:46

A businessman, cheated by his cousin in a 50 million yuan (US$7.3 million) investment scam, then allegedly fell victim to fraud again, being swindled out of nearly 4 million yuan, according to Baoshan District prosecutors.

Wang Dahai, from the eastern city of Jinan, was allegedly cheated by his cousin Wang Jinbao, who lives in Shanghai, out of 50 million yuan to buy an abandoned mine in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in February 2015.

Then at a banquet in March 2015, Wang befriended Ma Wen, who claimed he was a close friend of Shanghai police and promised to use his ties with them to help Wang, prosecutors said.

Wang was said to have then come to Shanghai to report his situation to police, but still gave Ma nearly 4 million yuan between March and November as fees to bribe and treat police, to help him get his money back.

Ma has been arrested and is facing a fraud charge, prosecutors added.
China to ease restrictions on foreign investment

From:Xinhua | 2016-12-08 09:45

Chinese authorities are considering revising the countrys guidance catalogue for foreign investment, cutting the number of restrictive measures to 62 from the previous 93.



The National Development and Reform Commission, the countryOs top economic planner, yesterday published a revision draft on its website to seek public opinion on the changes.

The easing rules on foreign investment came amid government efforts to push use of the Onegative listO approach, which identifies sectors and businesses that are off limits or restricted for investment.

The Onegative listO approach is a common practice adopted in many countries to manage foreign investment. China first piloted the rules in the Shanghai free trade zone in 2013.

Earlier official data showed foreign direct investment to the Chinese mainland rose 4.2 percent year on year to reach 666.3 billion yuan (US$97 billion) in the first 10 months of the year.
MedyMatch Technology, a company based in Tel Aviv, Israel, leverages artificial intelligence, deep learning, and computer vision technologies to offer patient-specific clinical decision support. Their application helps radiologists and emergency room physicians to detect signs of intracranial hemorrhages, which are difficult to diagnose by standard analysis of imaging data alone. The Medgadget team recently had an opportunity to speak with Gene Saragnese, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of MedyMatch, to discuss their technology and its significance in depth.

Prior to joining MedyMatch in January of 2016, Gene was the Chief Executive Officer of Philips Imaging and a member of Philips Healthcares Executive Team. A graduate of Rutgers College of Engineering in New Jersey, he has also previously served as GE Healthcares Chief Technology Officer and has held management roles with GE, RCA, Martin Marietta, and Lockheed Martin. Our interview with MedyMatchs lead executive is given in full below.

Zach Kaufman, Medgadget: Gene, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us on behalf of MedyMatch! To start us off, I thought I would offer you an opportunity to highlight any features or applications of the technology that Medgadget readers might find of particular interest or importance.

Gene Saragnese, MedyMatch: MedyMatch will make available several applications to be utilized in the acute care setting. The first application, for clinical research, is for the detection of intracranial hemorrhage. Upon regulatory approval, it will be utilized as a second read by physicians, to identify areas of suspected bleeds. MedyMatch integrates seamlessly into the hospital workflow by extracting medical images from the PACS, processing in the cloud, and returning annotated images to the PACS for viewing by the physicians. In initial preclinical trial results, MedyMatch achieved a ~97% sensitivity with 90% specificity, and a ~96% Negative Predictive Value (NPV) for intracranial hemorrhage detection on hundreds of thousands of non-contrast CT slices.

Medgadget: MedyMatch relies on Deep Vision technology, as you term it, to aid radiologists and emergency room physicians in identifying intracranial hemorrhages related to brain trauma and strokes, which are difficult to detect by looking at medical imaging scans directly. What types of abnormalities and indications are medical professionals most susceptible to missing in analyzing imaging data with the human eye?

Saragnese: Extensive studies have been performed on this topic. Research summarized by the National Institutes of Health in January 2012 indicates there are a wide range of causes.

Medgadget: With what frequency do errors in medical imaging diagnosis occur using status quo techniques?

Saragnese: In some cases, the detection of a brain bleed is difficult. Studies have shown that the error rate in the detection of brain bleed by emergency room physicians is estimated to be between 20-30%. Additionally, studies have shown 80% of medical imaging diagnosis errors are evident, but remain unnoticed by the physician.

Medgadget: You mention that MedyMatch will be made available as a prioritization algorithm operating within radiological PACS systems, and I understand that you are aiming to enable implementations with computer assisted detection (CAD) tools as well. Can you tell us a bit about how the different forms the technology might take will vary from one another in terms of their applications, direct users, and benefits?

Saragnese: MedyMatch is a near zero footprint solution. We do not sell workstations, viewers, or imaging systems. Rather, we simply process patient studies that are either sent to a server on the premises or directed to a secure, HIPPA-compliant cloud. Patient studies are annotated and regions of interest are marked before being reinserted into the customers current PACS system for consideration by the physician. It is foreseen that the algorithm can also advise the PACS system in the background of a potential finding. This signal will be considered as part of the prioritization process in PACS.

Medgadget: Are the deep vision algorithms involved in identifying hemorrhages suited only for acute, patient-specific investigation, or can the technology be utilized to offer proactive, population-level information as well?

Saragnese: MedyMatch has developed a generalized deep learning platform. This means that we will be able to apply the companys technology, techniques, and methods to a wide range of clinical areas. The application of the technology is virtually limitless. However, MedyMatch is not a clinical research company, so applications are to be built where variability in reader performance can be reduced, thereby improving patient outcomes while reducing overall healthcare costs.

Medgadget: Regarding the algorithms themselves, what types of non-imaging data are integrated into the deep learning and computer vision analysis? How does that supplemental data help to inform diagnoses beyond traditional CAD tools?

Saragnese: Traditional CAD considers imaging data, while Deep Vision (deep learning and computer vision) techniques consider the whole patient. Data such as EMR, genomic, lab results, etc., can all be integrated into the data set that the algorithms consider. The more data, the higher the probability for a more personalized assessment.

Medgadget: Once the MedyMatch system produces its insights, what is the role of the radiologist or physician in interpreting the outputs?

Saragnese: MedyMatch will never replace the radiologist or physician. MedyMatch is a visual clinical decision support tool to provide a second set of eyes. MedyMatch can only assess a patient; the final diagnosis will always be the responsibility of the doctor.

Medgadget: Is there an opportunity for users of the system to integrate their feedback in an effort to continue to fine-tune the software once in use? From my basic knowledge of deep learning, I know that the algorithms involved are rarely static and, in fact, generally continuously improve as they encounter new and wide-ranging data sets. Is it reasonable to expect that MedyMatch could be getting better as it sees more broad use?

Saragnese: Continuous learning is at the very heart of the intellectual property of the company. In fact, the concept of feedback in A.I. was pioneered by MedyMatch and discussed in our patent filings. Real world feedback is critical for improvement. MedyMatch has been compared to Waze in healthcare; just as user feedback optimizes which driving routes are recommended to users, so too will the MedyMatch feedback mechanism assist in the development of the next generation of algorithms required for patient assessment.

Medgadget: Is MedyMatch designed to be local or cloud-based software, or some combination depending on the specific implementation? Are there limitations due to computational processing power or other factors as to how and where the technology can be used?

Saragnese: MedyMatch can be deployed in either a cloud or on-premises solution. Limitations of performance are self-designed and are usually limited by budget availability and local infrastructure. Customer expectations are reasonable, and patient studies can be processed in just a few minutes.

Medgadget: I imagine that identifying hemorrhages is only the first of many potential applications of the 3D deep vision platform that you have developed. Do you see an opportunity to apply the technology as a patient assessment tool for other diseases? If so, what might those solutions look like and how far away might they be?

Saragnese: MedyMatch has developed a generalized deep vision platform capable of considering the full richness of medical imaging along with any other patient data. This platform and A.I. approach will facilitate rapid discovery and decision support development. In addition, MedyMatchs has core IP in continuous learning. This IP will allow MedyMatch to harvest only the right data to very cost-effectively accelerate continuous learning and accuracy. Platform and continuous learning will rapidly propel MedyMatch into adjacent decision support opportunities. Yes; there are significant opportunities to apply our technology to other acute diseases. Product development is currently underway, and we expect to see our next generation of applications to be made available over the course of 2017.

Medgadget: MedyMatch states one of its main objectives to be reducing healthcare costs. Can you describe how leveraging artificial intelligence based image classification software for clinical decision support might ultimately reduce the cost of care?

Saragnese: Our goal is to deliver A.I.-based, patient-specific, clinical decision support applications to improve quality and outcomes while reducing healthcare costs. To accomplish this, we consider all of the multidimensional patient data (i.e., raw imaging concurrently with other relevant patient data at the leading edge of machine learning technologies). We want every physician to be a life-saving expert, every time. This is what drives us forward every day. MedyMatch is committed to improving real-time decisions in the acute care setting with a laser focused on those decisions in the emergency room which have the largest impact on outcomes and healthcare cost. Stroke decision support is our initial focus area due to the need to make rapid, accurate, and timely decisions. We must create capacity to care for more patients with less resources per patient, as well as access to care everywhere in the world. We at MedyMatch are committed to improving quality and reducing errors through A.I.-based decision support. This in turn will improve outcomes and reduce costs.

Medgadget: As the holiday season approaches and this year comes to a close, what can we look forward to seeing from MedyMatch in 2017?

Saragnese: Our intent is to continue to reapply our A.I. platform capability to new and diverse clinical problems with interest in continuing to build out capability in the acute care ER setting with a natural extension into trauma. Structured problem solving and collaboration are key to realizing the full potential of Deep Vision. With the right partners and data, there is a strong desire and potential to address more chronic diseases, such as neurodegenerative disease, cerebrovascular disease, and PTSD. The pipeline of potential treatments will require definitive complementary diagnosis and prognosis. This is an ideal challenge for deep machine vision and learning.

Medgadget: Thank you again, Gene, for sharing your thoughts with us! Our best wishes to the MedyMatch team, and we look forward to following along with your progress!

Saragnese: Youre welcome!

Link: MedyMatch homepage
China, UK back young entrepreneurs

From:Shanghai Daily | 2016-12-08 09:38

China and the UK will implement a program to connect young entrepreneurs from the two countries from next year.



Wu Chen, deputy director of The Great Britain China Center, the British partner behind the initiative, told Shanghai Daily yesterday the first steps toward realizing cooperation include talking to potential partners, determining mechanisms of cooperation and working out concrete programs.

The initiative is jointly fostered by the All-China Youth Federation and was announced at the Sixth China-UK Young Leaders Roundtable, an event during the Fourth Meeting of the China-UK High-Level People-to-People Dialogue in Shanghai.

Encouraging exchanges of entrepreneurs and organizing startup competitions are just some of the ideas at this stage Wu said.

Were looking to bring British universities and government organizations working to promote innovation on board because theyre interested in cooperating with China.

Pei Huan, deputy secretary-general of the China Foundation for Youth Entrepreneurship and Employment and a panelist at the roundtable, said the foundations first overseas China Community for Youth Entrepreneurship will open in London tomorrow.

He said the community underlines the growing interest and efforts in establishing incubators benefitting young entrepreneurs from both countries.

Pei said the incubator, run by London-based Cocoon Networks, will help startups access foreign markets and drive international equity investment.

Representatives from politics, NGOs and business at the roundtable discussion also suggested establishing joint venture capital funds between China and the United Kingdom.
by John Motavalli , Columnist, December 7, 2016

Although some observers estimate programmatic TV advertising will be a $17 billion industry by 2019, we may be getting ahead of ourselves a bit. Consider that only about 42% of cable homes are even one-way addressable at this point, allowing cable operators to send targeted messages to select demos. While Time Warners Full Service Network of the 90s promised two-way TV, less than half the homes in America are even one-way addressable now. Why? Because fancy cable boxes command fancy prices, and it hasnt been cost effective.

So, while we wait for programmatic TV to become a big deal, we do take note of interesting efforts to take cable advertising beyond the local/national ad buy straightjacket it has been in.

I spoke this week to Kristin Dolan, former COO of the powerhouse cable operator Cablevision, who together with partner Ben Tatta, Cablevisions former media sales president, have founded a new company  605. The name comes from the original code name, Dataco Venture, with the initials DCV, which are Roman numerals for 605.

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This is an audience measurement and analytics operation that was formed through the acquisition of Analytics Media Group (AMG), which helped President Obama's team target its ad messages in both of his presidential campaigns. Since the $9.8 billion sale of the cable giant to the Altice Group, Dolan Family Ventures has been investing in select properties. Other AMG clients include Uber and Walmart.

This is an opportunity to make cable ads more relevant, Dolan commented, adding that most cable advertising is limited to selectivity based on age and gender. Through a select use of detailed census data, info from VOD or DVR usage, and Web use, 605 promises a much more targeted ad opportunity. But not wanting to compete with its clients, 605 is not a seller of media. It does work with media companies to help them target tune-in spots better.

The Web site says: 605 introduces data and analytics to make planning less of an art and more of a science. We use models to identify targets for your product, service or cause. We use data from tens of millions of TV set-top boxes and online ad networks to anonymously match your most promising targets with their actual viewing habits to find the best way to reach them. We are constantly analyzing our data and enhancing our models, matching, and targeting to ensure you always have the best plan.

Dolan mentions another company, Invidi, which has been around since 2000 but only recently launched a technology called satellite switching, which uses cheaper low-orbit satellites and available transponders to switch out broadcast TV ads, based on key audience segments. In a November interview with Beet.TV, Invidi CEO Dave Downey said the technology could introduce ad addressability to as many as 30 million homes in the U.S. But Invidi is focused now mostly on the international market, where satellite TV has much higher penetration than in the U.S.

I covered media on a quotidian basis in the 80s and 90s and, back then, utopian claims for what two-way TV could accomplish seemed to be issued on a daily basis. Two different experiments from Time Warner proved it was possible, the 1990s' Full Service Network and the much earlier 1980s' Qube system in Columbus, Ohio. But in each case, the experiments fell apart because the hardware was way too expensive  in the case of FSN, it was more than $1,000 for the two-way box. Try to amortize that over millions of cable customers.

Back then, the imperious Time Warner chairman Gerald Levin stated that he would stake his career on the success of the FSN. Hes long gone now, and what we see happening these days are much more practical and affordable ways to make cable advertising better.
by Tanya Gazdik , December 8, 2016

Pet products company Worldwise has extended its partnership with lifestyle design firm Kathy Ireland.

The agreement will go another five years. The companies have been working together for three years to design and develop the Kathy Ireland Loved Ones collection of pet products.

The collection has a wide range of products including dog and cat bedding, cat scratchers, collars and leads, toys for cats and dogs and food and water bowls. New items from the collection will debut throughout 2017 and are available at pet specialty, mass market and online retailers nationwide including Amazon.

The items are defined as solution-based home decor friendly pet products, which are intended to help make pets welcome in any area of the house.

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Ireland previously had a line of clothing and home goods exclusively at the discount retailer Kmart. She still has a line of furniture at the retailer. The Kathy Ireland Worldwide brand includes fashion, fine jewelry, intimate apparel, skincare, accessories, weddings, home and office and is available at for all markets and price points.

The former model and actress welcomed Elizabeth Taylor's dogs, Gracie and Delilah, into her home after Taylors death, and they are the inspiration for many of her pet care products.

Worldwise, Inc. brands include SmartyKat, TrustyPup, Petlinks, goDog, Hear Doggy!, SHERPA and Guaranteed On Board. The companys focus is on sustainably produced items. Their motto is Better products. Better planet.

Worldwise is currently a holiday contest where consumers can enter to win products both for themselves and also for their favorite pet charity.
by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, December 8, 2016

Google released the Penguin 4.0 update in September after promising that no others would follow. This update, probably one of Google's most important final updates, weights links to sites in real-time. As Google bots crawl the Web and discover links, the algorithm evaluates and stores each, creating a database of information that it can draw from to make decisions.

Penguin also devaluates spam and adjusts ranking based on signals rather than affecting the entire site. The real-time doesn't mean that rankings changes instantaneously occur to pages when new links connect, but rather that Google devaluates them and have "less positive impact."

That's how Stone Temple CEO Eric Enge describes it. His consulting firm tracks the changes and makes recommendations to search engine marketers that are looking to optimize content and campaigns that runs on mobile and desktop devices.

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After being live for a few months, Enge notes that the algorithm processes data "more in real-time" compared with previous versions because "sites dont have to wait until a major update or refresh of the algorithm to see positive or negative effects."

This is especially good news for Web sites with Penguin-penalized pages "because they don't need to wait for the next time Google bots crawl the page to see a correction, he writes. "Changes and updates to the algorithm are now made without necessity of an entire update. These changes will be seamless and largely invisible to us."

The latest update addresses new link types, adjusts ranking weights, and improves the process of collecting link signals, he explains.

The types of links targeted by Penguin include Web and article directories, international links, bad anchor text mix, coupon codes, poor quality widgets, affiliate spam, other non-editorial links, and request removal first links.

Engage writes that getting better-quality links to the page should improve its ranking. Among a list of options, he also suggests removing bad links regularly by using tools such as Bing WMT, Open Site Explorer, Majestic, Ahrefs, and Google search Console -- and building a list of the backlinks to the site and categorize the link sources such as blogs, multi-link pages, rich anchor text and comment links.
by Steve McClellan @mp_mcclellan, December 8, 2016

Dentsu Inc. reported this week that net sales for its Japanese operations fell 6.1% in November.

The decline comes as the company is dealing with two scandals including a probe by the Japanese government looking into the firms labor practices in Japan in the wake of a suicide that the government has linked to excessive overtime put in by the deceased Dentsu employee.

Also, the Tokyo-based holding company acknowledged in September that it overcharged a number of clients including Toyota for media buying services. The company has launched an internal investigation into the matter. Both the pricing and workforce problems are limited to Japanese operations so far, the company has said.

The biggest net sales decline in November occurred within the firms marketing/promotion sector, which was down about 44% versus November 2015. A Dentsu rep stated that the factors contributing to the decline in Marketing/Promotion can be attributed to the absence of large projects such as Tokyo Motor Show 2015, however the figure still remained above the companys planned budget.

TV sales were down about 1% while digital was up nearly 14%. Magazines dropped about 12% while OOH was up 3%.
by Philip Rosenstein , Staff Writer, December 9, 2016

A new Pew Research poll assessing the Donald Trump transition shows a vast majority of the public is still distressed with the prospect of his presidency.

Mirroring what we saw during the general election, a mere 37% of the public believes Trump is well qualified for the Oval Office, which he enters in a month. That is a measly 5 point increase from October.

As far as how he will act in office, a majority is still apprehensive. A strong 65% say that Trump is reckless, 62% find him to have poor judgment and 68% agreed that he is hard to like.

Not only does Trump have dangerously low approval ratings and voters sport a terribly low opinion of his temperament, he also has an incredibly weak overall mandate.

With over 200 million registered voters in the United States, Trumps less than 63 million votes isn't much of a mandate, particularly when 63% of the country doesnt deem him qualified for the position of president.

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Trump won around 31.5% of all registered voters, and will now lead our nations executive branch -- with a climate-change denier as head of the EPA, a pediatric neurosurgeon as HUD chief and noted Islamophobe as his chief national security adviser -- to name a few of his mind-bending administration picks thus far.

For context, no incoming president has faced this sort of dearth of support from his constituents. At this point in Obamas transition, he had a 72% approval rating as far as explaining his policies, Trump is at 41%. George W. Bush, in January 2001, had a 50% approval in his elucidation of his policies.

While Trump is the legitimate president-elect, one wonders why he has not done more to assuage opponents of his presidency that he can bridge the divide. Holding a press conference would help, particularly since he would have to personally answer the many questions that matter deeply to many Americans, such as:

- How will you approach your promise to deport illegal immigrants?

- What health care plan will replace the Affordable Care Act?

- How will you change immigration laws, particularly for visitors coming from Muslim-majority countries?

- What will you do about the rise in hate crimes across the country?

Weve had indications of what he may do on many of these issues, but his positions have shifted significantly since being elected. Talking more directly to the country will not only help his approval ratings, but prepare us for the type of leader we will have for the next four years.
by Kaila Colbin , Featured Contributor, December 9, 2016

The ad started showing up in my Facebook feed in the past weeks: Subscribe to the New York Times, it said. Fact-based reporting.

In our current post-truth era, fact-based is now a unique value proposition.

Post-truth was actually the Oxford Dictionaries 2016 Word of the Year -- a headline that sounded so much like, Did you know the word gullible isnt in the dictionary? I struggled to believe it.

According to Oxford, the term started spiking in use between May and June of this year, going from being a peripheral term to being a mainstay in political commentary. So its easy to think this is a new phenomenon, especially with the recent mudslinging over fake news and whether it cost Hillary Clinton the election.

I think Donald Trump is in the White House because of me, said Paul Horner, in a recent interview with the Washington Post. The 38-year-old Horner is responsible for such falsehoods as the Amish committing their vote to Trump and Obama invalidating the election results through executive order.

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Of course, Horner isnt the only one taking advantage of our propensity to click on shocking headlines that either reinforce our deepest beliefs or satisfy our deepest desires. The town of Veles, in Macedonia, has become a hotspot for fake news, with a group of teenagers generating ad revenues from wildly inaccurate stories about Clinton being indicted in 2017 or the Pope endorsing Trump.

Neither Horner nor the Macedonians would be anywhere without Facebook, the main conduit for discovery of their stories. And so Facebook generally, and Mark Zuckerberg personally, have come under fire. The week of the election, Zuckerberg said just about 1% of Facebook posts have fake news, and the idea that it could influence the outcome was pretty crazy. A week later, he backpedaled, outlining in a Facebook post new measures to address the issue, such as stronger detection and third-party verification.

On The Verge, Walt Mossberg says Facebook has no excuse: it can and should wipe out fake news. But all of these culprits -- Horner, the Macedonians, even Facebook itself -- are only the latest actors in a long history of systemic disregard for facts. In August 2015, David Webber published in Quartz an interview with Googles in-house philosopher, Luciano Floridi: [O]ne of the first search results when you Google What happened to the dinosaurs? is a website called Answers in Genesis. It explains that the Bible gives us a framework for explaining dinosaurs in terms of thousands of years of history... Luciano Floridi, known as the Google Philosopher, thinks thats fine. Google has never claimed to deliver the best information. Googles search algorithm is designed for efficiency: To provide the results users are most likely looking for and to move them on to their next site as quickly as possible.

A few paragraphs on, Webber delivers the zinger: In other words, Googles search engine is indifferent to truth.

We should no more stop at Google than at Facebook. Writing in The New Yorker, Nicholas Lemann cites Platos cave, Trojan horses and Shakespeare as evidence that this problem has been going on for centuries. But Google is the one who has trained us: trained us to look online for the truth, and believe what we find there.

Should Google and Facebook take responsibility for how people are likely to interpret the content they serve? Absolutely. But we are complicit. It has always been and will always be up to us to exercise discernment and judgment in what we choose to believe.

And that is the scary part. The true culprits are us.
by Laurie Sullivan @lauriesullivan, December 9, 2016

Artificial intelligence has become a source of data for advertisers and their agency partners to identify consumer behavior. The idea is that machines can solve complex problems without having to be taught.

Google's artificial intelligence company, DeepMind, and the AI collaboration group of companies like Microsoft and individuals such as Elon Musk, OpenAI, in separate announcements earlier this week said each would make their technology available to researchers and developers or anyone else wishing to use it.

The independent moves by DeepMind and Open AI mark the beginning of a trend in the technology industry that will benefit advertising and media, as discussed at the MediaPost Search Insider Summit Friday in Deer Valley, Utah.

During the panel on using artificial intelligence to support ecommerce and search, Jacob Loban, senior partner and managing director at MediaCom, said the company's been working with Microsoft to gain insights across applications and agents like Cortana and chatbots to gain insights about consumer behavior.

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Connectivity across machine learning and AI remains in its infancy, but when connected the industry will see a significant change in the way search functions, Loban said. He referred to it as "semantic mapping on steroids." Marketers will gain a better understanding of consumers. Search will become more personalized with tailored results.

The tailored results will include personality. The AI data will give personality to chatbots, otherwise they are dump, said Sid Shah, director of business analytics for advertising solutions at Adobe

Andrew Poon, VP of product management for Search at Yahoo, said marketers can gain a lot of information through conversational interfaces, but they can only add value after getting to know the user better.

Poon said giving the bot personality that matches the user helps to make the connection. "That personality and relationship is important," he said.
University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers and collaborators are working to predict, before treatment, whether an aggressive type of breast cancer will respond to chemotherapy.

In a study presented at the 2016 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, researchers report they developed a model that can predict which triple negative breast cancer patients will respond to chemotherapy. Katherine Hoadley, PhD, a UNC Lineberger member and assistant professor in the UNC School of Medicine Department of Genetics, said the model was moderately successful at predicting response, but more work is needed to improve its accuracy.

"Our goal was to identify a gene expression signature pattern in cancer cells that might be able to help us predict who's going to respond to chemotherapy prior to actually giving the treatment," said Hoadley, the study's first author.

Triple negative breast cancer is a particularly aggressive breast cancer type that has no targeted treatments. Patients with this disease do have higher response rates to chemotherapy, however, compared with some other subtypes. While targeted treatments are designed to attack specific molecular features that help drive cancer, chemotherapy more widely attacks all rapidly dividing cells.

Hoadley said knowing in advance which triple negative breast cancer patients will respond to chemotherapy could help physicians determine the best course of treatment.

To develop the prediction model, researchers analyzed the expression of genes from breast cancer samples drawn from 389 patients before treatment, and they also drew upon data on how those patients responded to treatment. They split the sample data into training and test sets. Gene expression signatures were analyzed in the training set to identify the signatures that best associated with a complete response to treatment. They then used the signatures they uncovered to determine the ability to predict response in the remaining samples.

They found the model could predict which samples had a complete pathologic response for 68 percent of patients who actually did achieve pathologic complete response to the treatment. And for patients who did have residual disease after chemotherapy, the test successfully indicated they did not have pathologic complete response for 64 percent of those cases.

Hoadley said the researchers will continue to work on the model to improve its accuracy. She said they plan to include other features of cancer cells in their model, such as molecular indicators of how the immune system is responding to the cancer, genetic mutations and the number of copies of each gene.

"If we can validate our model in future data sets, our work could help us identify patients who are likely to respond to existing, or even less, chemotherapy and those who could benefit from more chemotherapy or novel approaches," she said.

In addition to Hoadley, other authors include: Terry Hyslop, PhD; Chris Fan, MS, Donald A. Berry, PhD; Olwen Hahn, MD; Sara M. Tolaney, MD, MPH; Charles M. Perou, PhD; and Lisa Carey, MD.

This project is supported by and the National Cancer Institute and the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Susan G. Komen supported the collection of biopsies at UNC. Hoadley is supported by a grant from Susan G. Komen.
Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) and Magee-Womens Research Institute (MWRI) have discovered molecular changes in the primary tumor of breast cancer patients who developed brain metastases. The finding is expected to lead to improved diagnosis and targeted therapies.

The results, to be published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Oncology and presented this week at the 2016 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, indicate that patients' treatments should be tailored not only for the original breast cancer, but also the brain tumors, said Adrian Lee, Ph.D., director of the Institute for Precision Medicine, a joint effort by UPMC and the University of Pittsburgh, and director of the Women's Cancer Research Center, a collaboration between UPCI and MWRI.

"The brain is a common and catastrophic site of metastasis for breast cancer patients," said Lee. "Our study showed that despite the large degree of similarity between the initial breast tumor and the brain metastatic tumor, there were enough alterations to support comprehensive profiling of metastases to potentially alter the course of treatment."

There are many types of breast cancers, and about 20 percent of them are identified as HER2-positive, meaning the cancer cells have more of a protein called HER2 that causes the cells to grow faster than those with normal levels of the protein. These patients' cancers typically respond to targeted therapies. However, breast cancer patients with brain metastases who are identified as HER2-negative do not respond favorably to the same therapies.

Lee's research team set out to determine if there were molecular differences in the primary breast tumors and their patient-matched brain metastatic tumors that would enhance treatment options.

Little research is available because there are few opportunities to study primary breast tissue with their patient-matched brain metastases. The research team tested tumors from 20 patients from two academic institutions, the University of Pittsburgh and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. Among the discoveries was that the primary tumor initially identified as HER2-negative actually switched to HER2-positive in the metastatic brain tumor.

"This now means we can screen for presence of HER2 so that we can change and target the therapy to improve outcomes for our patients," said Dr. Lee.

Additional authors on this study are Nolan Priedigkeit, B.S., Yijing Chen, B.S., Ahmed Basudan, B.S., Rebecca J. Watters, Ph.D., Roby Thomas, M.D., Peter C. Lucas, M.D., Ph.D., Rohit Bhargava, M.D., Ronald L. Hamilton, M.D., Shannon L. Puhalla, M.D., Nancy E. Davidson, M.D., Steffi Oesterreich, Ph.D., and Adam M. Brufsky, M.D., Ph.D., all of UPCI; Ryan J. Hartmaier, Ph.D., and Juliann Chmielecki, Ph.D., both of the Foundation Medicine, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Damir Vareslija, Ph.D., and Leonie Young, Ph.D., both of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland; and Jose P. Leone, M.D., of the University of Iowa.

This research was supported by the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, National Cancer Institute grant P30CA047904, Fashion Footwear Association of New York, the Shear Family Foundation, Magee-Womens Research Institute and Foundation, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, National Institute of General Medical Sciences grants 2T32GM008424-21 and 5F30CA203095, and the Irish Cancer Society Collaborative Cancer Research Centre grant CCRC13GAL.

Several of the authors disclosed conflicts of interest, which can be viewed on the JAMA Oncology publication.
Chinas role in future globalization has become a key topic at the Melbourne Conference of Boao Forum for Asia on Dec 7 and 8, with over 300 attendees from over 10 countries.

Despite the global economic slowdown and a rising anti-free trade trend, Chinas Belt and Road initiative has opened a new path for economic globalization, conference guests said.

After the 2008 financial crisis, world economy and globalization hit a block, and are struggling amid impacts from the Greek debt crisis and Brexit in recent years.

According to Zeng Peiyan, vice-chairman of Boao Forum, the current anti-globalization trend is mainly caused by discord among international rules, financial distribution mechanism, internal adjustment of economies, and increasing economic globalization.

Indian representative Sudheendra Kulkarni, head of the Observer Research Foundation, said the emergence of Asia and developing countries has changed the global landscape, and Chinas Belt and Road initiative will benefit the Asian-Pacific region.

Australian Minister for Revenue and Financial Services Kelly ODwyer said the China-Australia free trade agreement has unlimited potential, and Australia has already benefited from the agreement in agriculture and services.

Linda Yueh, head of the China Growth Center at Oxford, said China, as the second-largest world economy, has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty in the past 30 years, making great contributions to the world economy and economic globalization.

Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jennifer Shipley said it was the right moment for New Zealand and Australia to join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. China has demonstrated great leadership in win-win cooperation with other regional countries.

Secretary-General of Boao Forum Zhou Wenzhong said leaders expressed their will to push forward progress in the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) at the APEC Economic Leaders Meeting, showing that FTAAP is a vision and consensus for all Asia-Pacific countries.

Chinese leaders have expressed the concept of a destined human community at many international occasions, an ultimate goal for economic globalization, and many at the conference agreed.
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The researchers investigated the brain metastasis incidence in the period after a series of drugs were approved to treat HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer, starting with trastuzumab, also known as Herceptin, in the United States in 1998.Studies have shown that trastuzumab combined with postoperative chemotherapy has increased overall survival for HER2-postive breast cancers by 37%. It works by targeting a protein on the surface of a breast cancer cell, human epidermal growth factor 2 (HER2), that promotes cancer cell growth.Researchers sought to identify the proportion of women diagnosed with HER2 positive metastatic breast cancer who subsequently developed brain metastases within two years of their initial diagnosis. Of women initially diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute between 2000 and 2007, 30% of women had developed brain metastasis within two years of diagnosis, and this proportion increased to 55% among women seen between 2008 and 2011. In similarly diagnosed women seen at UNC Hospitals between 2012 and 2014, 38% had developed brain metastasis within two years."Treatment for this disease has evolved, but we still have a lot work to do," said the study's first author Shlomit Shachar, a former clinical fellow at the UNC School of Medicine who works as a medical oncologist in Haifa, Israel. "The brain is a site that needs increased attention, both for the prevention and treatment of brain metastases."The risk of death in patients whose breast cancer had spread to the brain was more than twice that of patients who had experienced metastasis to other areas of the body. Risk of death was the same for all three cohorts of patients."We were surprised to see that nothing really improved with regard to spread of disease to the brain," Shachar said, even in years after new targeted treatments had been approved in the United States.Anders said there are limitations in the study in that the project compared outcomes for patients treated at two different institutions. Larger, population-based studies are needed, Anders said, to draw definitive conclusions about brain metastasis incidence in the targeted treatment era for HER-2 positive breast cancer."We really need to think about what is allowing cancer cells to hone to the central nervous system," Anders said. "What we want to know is: Is there a way to add an adjuvant therapy to standard therapy to prevent brain metastasis?"Source: Eurekalert
On behalf of the Greek government, Deputy Foreign Minister Ioannis Amanatidis today, Thursday, 8 December, received His Holiness Pope Tawadros II of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt, at Athens Eleftherios Venizelos international airport. His Holiness is carrying out an official visit to our country, at the invitation of the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece.

The Deputy Minister stated that the visit of the head of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt is historic and constitutes a high point in and proof of the excellent relations between Greece and Egypt.

A representative of His Holiness participated in the Athens Conference (18-20 October 2015) for Religious and Cultural Pluralism and Peaceful Coexistence in the Middle East, which was held by the Foreign Ministry, under the auspices of Foreign Minister Kotzias, while in September 2015 he took part in the International Meeting of Christian and Muslim Religious leaders and their representatives, within the framework of the interfaith dialogue the Ecumenical Patriarchate is carrying out between Christianity and Islam.

There will be discussions with His Holiness regarding the potential for carrying out actions that will help towards the peaceful coexistence of all of the faiths in the wider Middle East region, as well as regarding the protection of religious and cultural heritage.

Consequently, the first visit of the Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt to Greece will bring positive results for the further tightening of relations not just between the Churches, but also between our peoples.
UPPER THUMB  Cold temperatures arrived Thursday and are expected to remain well into next week. Along with the frigid temperatures, some accumulating snow is likely.

A winter storm warning was issued by the National Weather Service for much of West Michigan late Wednesday, where some parts of the state were predicted to receive more than 10 inches of lake effect snow.

A separate weather system is supposed to reach the Thumb by Sunday. Some projections have the region receiving up to seven inches of snow before the end of Monday.

Prior to the snow, a string of very cold days are ahead for the area, so be prepared.

Temperatures dipped into the 20s Thursday and will remain that way for several days, with highs in the low 30s and lows in the low 20s into Monday. Tuesday is expected to get worse, with a high in the low 20s and a low dropping into the single digits. It is expected to remain that way through next Thursday.

During stretches of this type of cold, Huron County Emergency Services Director Randy Miller suggests people keep an eye on family, neighbors and pets to make sure they are sufficiently warm.

With the snow, combined with expected high winds, roads will become icy and slippery and could cause visibility problems.

In that case, slow down, get your lights on, keep your distance from the cars in front of you, drive within the road conditions and if you need to go someplace, leave a little earlier to get there safe, Miller said.

Additional weather preparedness information is available online at www.Ready.Gov/winter.
Aetna Inc. operates as a health care benefits company in the United States. It operates through three segments: Health Care, Group Insurance, and Large Case Pensions. The Health Care segment offers medical, pharmacy benefit management service, dental, behavioral health, and vision plans on an insured and employer-funded basis. It also provides point-of-service, preferred provider organization, health maintenance organization, and indemnity benefit plans, as well as health savings accounts and consumer-directed health plans. In addition, this segment offers Medicare and Medicaid products and services, as well as other medical products, such as medical management and data analytics services, medical stop loss insurance, workers' compensation administrative services, and products that provide access to its provider networks in select geographies. The Group Insurance segment offers life insurance products, including group term life insurance, voluntary spouse and dependent term life insurance, group universal life insurance, and accidental death and dismemberment insurance; disability insurance products; and long-term care insurance products, which provide the benefits to cover the cost of care in private home settings, adult day care, assisted living, or nursing facilities. The Large Case Pensions segment manages various retirement products comprising pension and annuity products primarily for tax-qualified pension plans. The company provides its products and services to employer groups, individuals, college students, part-time and hourly workers, health plans, health care providers, governmental units, government-sponsored plans, labor groups, and expatriates. Aetna Inc. was founded in 1853 and is based in Hartford, Connecticut.
This is a current list of the top 250 companies by market capitalization on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX). Learn more .

Many investors understand the reasons for having a diversified portfolio. One way to accomplish this is to diversify within an asset class. For equity investors in the United States this can mean investing in both growth and value stocks.

It can also mean investing in international stocks. And when investors want to do this, they need look no further than our neighbor to the north. Canada has a range of stocks for investors to consider. This article will focus on strategies that investors can use when looking to invest in Canadian stocks.

Why Buy Canadian Stocks?

There are a few reasons for investors to consider Canadian stocks as part of their diversification strategy:

A Large Natural Resources Sector  The sheer size of the country and its location lets investors know that it is an area rich in natural resources. This also means that the country has a source of current and future wealth.

An Advanced Skills-Based Economy  In this regard, Canada is similar to other western nations. The difference is that it is not as common to find these skill-based professions in a country with so many natural resources.

Stability  Canada is not exempt from any problems that impact the global economy. However, the country is known for stable financial and business policies that have kept the economy relatively stable. This Goldilocks economy has meant that many Canadian stocks havent enjoyed the outsized growth of some U.S. equities. However, it also comes with a bit of protection against downside risk.

How Have Canadian Stocks Performed?

According to S&P Global Market Intelligence, there was a time when U.S. stocks and Canadian stocks performed nearly identically. Heres a graph that shows the performance of the S&P 500 Index vs. the TSX Index



Source: S&P Global Market Intelligence

You can see that with a couple of exceptions, the two indexes performed remarkably similar. That all changed around 2012 and Canadian stocks became less attractive.

Source: S&P Global Market Intelligence

This disparity is widely due to one sector, technology. However, Canadian technology stocks have been on the rise. And in 2022, the country is benefiting from renewed interest in materials stocks as well as a spike in commodity prices.

What Are the Best Sectors of Canadian Stocks?

For different reasons finance, materials, and energy stocks are among the best performing stocks as of September 2022. Heres a brief overview of each sector and some of the top names for investors to consider.

Financial  Similar to the United States, Canada has a strong banking industry. Many Canadian banks have a track record of solid performance that can provide long-term value to a portfolio. And several of these stocks pay dividends with attractive yields for investors.

This sector makes up the largest percentage of the TSX at roughly 30%. And the Royal Bank of Canada (NYSE:RY)is the top-weighted constituent in the TSX. Beyond the Royal Bank of Canada some of the other top-performing Canadian financial stocks include:

Materials and Mining  Canadian stocks can be an ideal choice for investors looking to diversify into gold and precious metals without owning the physical metal. Canada has a large natural resources sector. So, its not surprising that there are a number of gold mining companies with Canadian origins. This sector also gives investors exposure to other components in the mining and agriculture sectors. This sector makes up approximately 11.5% of the TSX. Some of the top Canadian materials and mining stocks include:

Energy  Canadian stocks offer both traditional fossil fuel-based energy stocks as well as some renewable energy stocks. This sector makes up approximately 18.5% of the TSX. Some of the top Canadian energy stocks include:

Technology  As mentioned earlier, technology stocks have largely been the domain of the United States. As evidence of this, information technology stocks make up only about 5.5% of the TSX. However, there are a few Canadian companies that have become stars in the new economy being created. Some of the more popular names include:

What Are the Risks of Investing in Canadian Stocks?

One concern about investing in Canadian stocks is that they can be heavily weighted towards cyclical industries. For example, as of February 2022 financials (33.5%), energy (14.8%) and industrials (11.7%) made up nearly 60% of the index. That may be too much for some investors particularly because those sectors all tend to correlate roughly the same way as the economic cycle. But as a long-term play, Canadian stocks are worth considering with a small part of your portfolio.

How to Buy Canadian Stocks

Buy Individual Stocks on a Stock Exchange

Hundreds of Canadian stocks have dual listings on either the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) or the NASDAQ. This is the most convenient way to get exposure to Canadian stocks because there are no barriers to stock ownership. These shares can be purchased in U.S. dollars directly from the exchange just like purchasing a U.S. stock.

However, for a full list of the best Canadian stocks, investors should look at the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX). The TSX is one of the oldest stock exchanges having been founded in 1852. Its also the third largest stock exchange in North America in terms of market capitalization.

The Toronto Stock Exchange includes approximately 1,500 companies. It allows investors to trade stocks, investment trusts, exchange-traded products, bonds, commodities, futures, options, and other derivative products. All transactions on the TSX are executed in Canadian dollars.

Invest in a Mutual Fund or ETF

There are many mutual funds and exchange-traded funds that supply exposure to Canadian stocks. Some funds supply exposure to both U.S. and Canadian stocks. Other funds hold just Canadian stocks. Some examples of those include:

BMO S&P/TSX Capped Composite Index ETF

Horizons S&P/TSX 60 Index ETF

Vanguard FTSE Canada All Cap ETF

As with investing in any asset class, investors need to consider their investment objective, time horizon and risk tolerance before choosing a fund that fits their needs. Investors will also want to pay attention to the funds fee structure to ensure youre making the most efficient use of your capital.

The Final Word on Investing in Canadian Stocks

Investing in Canadian stocks is one way for investors to add diversification to their portfolio. MarketBeat provides a list of the top Canadian stocks that trade on the TSX. This is Canadas version of the NYSE or NASDAQ in the United States and includes many of the same stocks.

Thats one advantage of investing in Canadian stocks is that many have a dual listing which removes many of the obstacles that can come with investing in international stocks.

However, investors should be aware that many of the best Canadian stocks are in highly cyclical industries which can lead to underperformance when those sectors are out of favor. Still, due to their relative stability and in some cases an impressive dividend, Canadian stocks may have a place in an investors portfolio.
AutoZone, Inc. retails and distributes automotive replacement parts and accessories. The company offers various products for cars, sport utility vehicles, vans, and light trucks, including new and remanufactured automotive hard parts, maintenance items, accessories, and non-automotive products. Its products include A/C compressors, batteries and accessories, bearings, belts and hoses, calipers, chassis, clutches, CV axles, engines, fuel pumps, fuses, ignition and lighting products, mufflers, radiators, starters and alternators, thermostats, and water pumps, as well as tire repairs. In addition, the company offers maintenance products, such as antifreeze and windshield washer fluids; brake drums, rotors, shoes, and pads; brake and power steering fluids, and oil and fuel additives; oil and transmission fluids; oil, cabin, air, fuel, and transmission filters; oxygen sensors; paints and accessories; refrigerants and accessories; shock absorbers and struts; spark plugs and wires; and windshield wipers. Further, it provides air fresheners, cell phone accessories, drinks and snacks, floor mats and seat covers, interior and exterior accessories, mirrors, performance products, protectants and cleaners, sealants and adhesives, steering wheel covers, stereos and radios, tools, and wash and wax products, as well as towing services. Additionally, the company provides a sales program that offers commercial credit and delivery of parts and other products; sells automotive diagnostic and repair software under the ALLDATA brand through alldata.com; and automotive hard parts, maintenance items, accessories, and non-automotive products through autozone.com. As of August 27, 2022, it operated 6,168 stores in the United States; 703 stores in Mexico; and 72 stores in Brazil. The company was founded in 1979 and is based in Memphis, Tennessee.
The term of the 182-member Gujarat assembly ends on February 18 next year.
Global Payments Inc. provides payment technology and software solutions for card, electronic, check, and digital-based payments in the Americas, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific. It operates through three segments: Merchant Solutions, Issuer Solutions, and Business and Consumer Solutions. The Merchant Solutions segment offers authorization services, settlement and funding services, customer support and help-desk functions, chargeback resolution, terminal rental, sales and deployment, payment security services, consolidated billing and statements, and on-line reporting services. This segment also provides an array of enterprise software solutions that streamline business operations of its customers in various vertical markets; and value-added services, such as point-of-sale solutions, and analytic and engagement tools, as well as payroll and human capital management services. The Issuer Solutions segment offers solutions that enable financial institutions and retailers to manage their card portfolios through a platform; and commercial payments and ePayables solutions for businesses and governments. The Business and Consumer Solutions segment provides general-purpose reloadable prepaid debit and payroll cards, demand deposit accounts, and other financial service solutions to the underbanked and other consumers, and businesses under the Netspend brand. It markets its products and services through direct sales force, trade associations, agent and enterprise software providers, referral arrangements with value-added resellers, and independent sales organizations. The company was founded in 1967 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
Nabors Industries Ltd. provides drilling and drilling-related services for land-based and offshore oil and natural gas wells. The company operates through five segments: U.S. Drilling, Canada Drilling, International Drilling, Drilling Solutions, and Rig Technologies. It provides tubular running, wellbore placement, directional drilling, measurement-while-drilling (MWD), equipment manufacturing, and rig instrumentation services; and logging-while-drilling systems and services, as well as drilling optimization software. The company also offers REVit, an automated real time stick-slip mitigation system; ROCKit, a directional steering control system; SmartNAV, a collaborative guidance and advisory platform; SmartSLIDE, an advanced directional steering control system; and RigCLOUD, which provides the tools and infrastructure to integrate applications to deliver real-time insight into operations across the rig fleet. In addition, it manufactures and sells top drives, catwalks, wrenches, drawworks, and other drilling related equipment, such as robotic systems and downhole tools; and provides aftermarket sales and services for the installed base of its equipment. As of December 31, 2021, the company marketed approximately 301 rigs for land-based drilling operations in the United States, Canada, and in 20 other countries worldwide; and 29 rigs for offshore platform drilling operations in the United States and internationally. Nabors Industries Ltd. was founded in 1952 and is based in Hamilton, Bermuda.
National Bank Holdings Corporation operates as the bank holding company for NBH Bank that provides various banking products and financial services to commercial, business, and consumer clients in the United States. It offers deposit products, including checking, savings, money market, and other deposit accounts, including fixed-rate and fixed maturity time deposits. The company also provides commercial and industrial loans and leases, such as working capital loans, equipment loans, lender finance loans, food and agriculture loans, government and non-profit loans, owner occupied commercial real estate loans, and other commercial loans and leases; non-owner occupied commercial real estate loans consisting of loans on commercial properties, such as office buildings, warehouse/distribution buildings, multi-family, hospitality, and retail buildings; small business administration loans to support manufacturers, distributors, and service providers; term loans, line of credits, and real estate secured loans; residential real estate loans; and consumer loans. In addition, it offers treasury management solutions comprising online and mobile banking, commercial credit card, wire transfer, automated clearing house, electronic bill payment, lock box, remote deposit capture, merchant processing, cash vault, controlled disbursements, and fraud prevention services, as well as other auxiliary services, including account reconciliation, collections, repurchase accounts, zero balance accounts, and sweep accounts. As of January 20, 2022, the company operated through a network of 81 banking centers located in Colorado, the greater Kansas City region, New Mexico, Utah, and Texas. It also operates 121 ATMs. The company was formerly known as NBH Holdings Corp. and changed its name to National Bank Holdings Corporation in March 2012. National Bank Holdings Corporation was incorporated in 2009 and is headquartered in Greenwood Village, Colorado.
In a pair of congressional hearings about the Navy's embattled littoral combat ship program this month, service program managers and oversight officials fielded tough questions about unexpected increases from ship unit costs -- from $220 million to $470 million over the course of the program -- and concerns about a planned block buy of upgraded frigates based on the same design.

But the panel also revealed new details about the cause and scope of a series of engineering casualties that have sidelined five of the eight active littoral combat ships in a little more than a year.

In testimony on Thursday before the House Armed Services Committee's subcommittee on oversight and investigations, Naval Surface Forces Commander Vice Adm. Thomas Rowden revealed that the most recent casualty, damage to the USS Montgomery when it transited southward through the Panama Canal, was at least in part due to failure on the part of canal engineers not to follow the Navy's instructions on how to guide it through the narrow passage.

The Oct. 29 mishap was the second time an Independence-class LCS, with its wider trimaran design, had been damaged passing through the canal. The USS Coronado had also required repairs after a canal transit in early 2014.

"When we took the first ship through and there was some damage associated with it, we sent a team down to the Panama Canal to talk about how we needed to take these ships through the canal," Rowden said.

"The modifications that needed to be made to put the lines up and pull the ship through the canal," he added. "Unfortunately with the most recent transit, that was not executed. We've gone back to them and we're going to get it squared away in the future, but we know how to get the ships through the canal safely and if we we execute the procedures as we outlined them, we won't have any problems with that in the future."

Prepared testimony by Rowden and Sean Stackley, assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition, revealed that the earlier engineering issues sustained by the Montgomery Sept. 13, days after its commissioning, were related to deficiencies in production as the ship sailed away from the yard. Sea water had seeped into the steering hydraulic system for one of the four waterjets, requiring a drain and flush of the system to restore it to full functionality

"The root cause assessment determined that the cooler had not failed, but rather contamination was introduced into the system most likely in conjunction with the repair of a component external to the hull in the period between delivery and sailaway from the building yard," Stackley and Rowden wrote. "The shipbuilder has since implemented an improved procedure for waterborne waterjet hydraulic work."

Another casualty was related to a failure in design, they said. The USS Milwaukee, which broke down during an Atlantic transit last December and had to be towed 40 miles back to Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story, Virginia, after the crew tried to execute an emergency stop of the gas turbine engines while all four engines were running at full power. The high-speed clutch sustained "excessive wear" in the maneuver, damaging both it and the combining gear.

"I'll call it a mistime in terms of software controlling the system," Stackley said Thursday. "That was not discovered until the USS Milwaukee was en route to her home port and we tripped over this failure, and the clutch burned out."

The shipbuilder for the Milwaukee and the other monohull littoral combat ships in the Freedom class, Lockheed Martin Corp., and the gear manufacturer, RENK, are testing design modifications this month to fix the problem. Stackley said the following ships in the Freedom class would receive the modifications, though the first two were made using a different gear manufacturer and are not affected.

In one other case, an LCS casualty was determined to be the result of a shipbuilding problem, according to testimony. The USS Coronado, an Independence-class ship that broke down at the end of August, experienced a failure of a flexible shaft coupling connecting the right-side main propulsion diesel engine reduction gear and the stern tube during a transit from Hawaii to Singapore, Stackley and Rowden wrote.

Shaft misalignment was found to be a contributing factor, and the Navy made plans to replace the coupling in the Coronado and following ships in the class with a new design validated by Naval Sea Systems Command.

The two remaining casualties, affecting the Freedom-class ships Freedom and Fort Worth, were both found to be the result of crew error. The Fort Worth broke down in Singapore in January in one of the most serious casualties sustained by an LCS to date. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, a Republican from Arizona, told the committee Dec. 1 that the damage took 184 days and $5.6 million to fix.

That, Rowden and Stackley said, was caused by improper alignment of the lube oil service system that damaged three of the five bearings in the ship's combining gear.

The other user error casualty affected the USS Freedom in July. "Improper corrective action" to address a failure of the Freedom's main propulsion diesel engine seawater pump mechanical seal resulted in a breach, flooding the engine with sea water and causing corrosion and damage. That repair, McCain told the committee, would cost the Navy $12 million.

These problems caused the Navy to conduct an engineering stand-down of all littoral combat ships in September with a review of current training procedures and retraining for engineers. The Navy Surface Warfare Officer's School is conducting an ongoing review of LCS training to revise and update the curriculum.

Testimony on Thursday before the House by J. Michael Gilmore, the Pentagon's director of Operational Test and Evaluation, suggested the Navy should have known crew training was insufficient before the casualties occurred, citing surveys given to sailors participating in LCS full-mission testing.

"'The tasking would be easier to complete if the equipment didn't constantly break  As equipment breaks, we are required to fix it without any training,'" Gilmore said. "Those are not my words, those are the words of the sailors who were doing the best they could to try to accomplish the missions we gave them in testing."

"Who's accountable for that? They were not well-trained," McCain demanded in the Dec. 1 hearing.

"One of the things we found, and that I directed, was that we started to import much more of the training that we had been relying on our vendors to provide to our sailors on the ships," Rowden said. "And so given the fact that we have pulled that engineering training in, that we are moving to get the curriculum necessary, I think we're in a much better place going forward."

Congress is now considering the Navy's proposal of a "block buy" of 12 frigates, which would be sturdier and offer more capability than the LCS. Proponents of the deal argue buying in bulk would save the Navy money, while detractors worry that such a buy would lock the service into purchasing ships that many still believe are not effective or reliable.

-- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck.
U.S. warplanes carried out a deliberate bombing of a hospital Wednesday at the request of Iraqi forces who were under attack from Islamic State fighters in the building, a military spokesman said Thursday.

The incident took place amid fierce fighting around the Al Salem hospital complex, the largest in eastern Mosul, as Iraqi Security Forces sought to expand their foothold in the stronghold of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, said Air Force Col. John Dorrian, a spokesman for Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve.

The Iraqi forces managed to take the building but then were driven back to nearby positions that were more defensible, Dorrian said in a video briefing from Baghdad to the Pentagon. As they continued to take fire from the hospital, the Iraqi forces requested the airstrike, which was approved by the U.S.

Initial assessments of the airstrike did not give U.S. officials "any reason to believe civilians were harmed," Dorrian said, but a complete analysis was "very difficult to ascertain with full and total fidelity."

Dorrian said U.S. officials were making assessment of the effects of the airstrike and the decisions that led up to it, but no decision has yet been made on whether to launch a formal investigation.

The U.S. has frequently condemned the bombing of hospitals by Russian and Syrian air forces in rebel-held areas, but Dorrian said the U.S. airstrike in Mosul was conducted only after the Iraqis requested it and officials determined that ISIS fighters were firing from the building.

The U.S. issued the following statement on the incident, using the term ISIL, another acronym for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS:

"On Dec. 7th, after Iraqi forces continued to receive heavy and sustained machine gun and rocket propelled grenade fire from ISIL fighters in a building on the hospital complex, they requested immediate support from the coalition. In support of the Iraqi Security Forces, coalition aircraft conducted a precision strike on the location to target enemy fighters firing on Iraqi forces."

The coalition also said it "takes all feasible precautions during the planning and execution of airstrikes to reduce the risk of harm to non-combatants."

The hospital complex was less than a mile from the Tigris River running through the center of the city. Reaching the Tigris from the east was a key goal of the Mosul offensive that began on Oct. 17.

Mosul was now "completely surrounded," Dorrian said, and ISIS fighters were cut off from resupply and reinforcements. ISIS has been able to build up significant stores of weapons, ammunition and supplies since taking Mosul more than two years ago, but "those resources are finite and are being depleted," Dorrian said.

The airstrike on the hospital was believed to be the first known incident of the U.S. deliberately targeting a medical facility in Iraq, Syria or Afghanistan.

In October 2015, a U.S. AC-130 gunship fired repeatedly on a Medecins Sans Frontieres hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, which had been overrun by the Taliban. At least 42 civilians were killed.

A formal investigation by the U.S. military concluded that the Kunduz airstrike was a mistake caused by poor intelligence and poor coordination by the air and ground troops, and was not deliberate.

-- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com.
The Pirates reportedly spent the bulk of the Winter Meetings fielding offers on center fielder Andrew McCutchen, but GM Neal Huntington said at the end of yesterdays Winter Meetings that its now unlikely that McCutchen is moved this winter, as MLB.coms Adam Berry writes.

Our intent coming in here was to have Andrew McCutchen in our lineup going forward, Huntington explained. No one changed that. Its unlikely that someone changes that going forward. Were not going to close the door, but were not going to be making calls.

Thats not a definitive statement that McCutchen will be in Pittsburghs Opening Day lineup come April, but it certainly casts further doubt on the possibility of a McCutchen trade. The larger question surrounding the former NL MVP may now focus on where hell play in 2017, as there have been multiple suggestions that the Pirates prefer to play Starling Marte in center field while moving McCutchen to a corner slot.

Both the Nationals and Rangers were linked to McCutchen over the past week, with Washington in particular reported to be in heavy pursuit. The Nats, though, shifted course and opted to secure a younger, more controllable piece  and one that enjoyed a markedly better 2016 season  in picking up Adam Eaton from the White Sox. Texas, meanwhile, re-signed Carlos Gomez to a one-year deal (though the team could still fit McCutchen into the lineup, from my vantage point). Huntington acknowledged that he did speak to other teams about McCutchen, but the GM also labeled his asking price as significant, Berry writes.

The decision to hang onto McCutchen may well prove to be shrewd. Hes still controlled for another two seasons by way of a $14MM guarantee in 2017 and a $14.75MM club option for the 2018 season. McCutchens .256/.336/.430 batting line represented the worst full offensive output of his exceptional career, and he turned in the highest strikeout rate and lowest walk rate hes posted as a Major Leaguer. Questions about his defensive performance have been chronicled at length. That made it difficult for the Bucs to secure the premium return they sought for the longtime face of the franchise, but a rebound in 2017 could allow the Bucs to land such a return if McCutchen is marketed either next July or next offseason, depending on the teams performance next year.

Huntington admitted that he listened to offers on multiple players with one and two years of team control remaining, which is an unfortunate but often necessary course of action for small-market clubs like the Pirates. As such, its certainly plausible to expect that the Bucs could yet make a deal later this winter, even if McCutchen isnt the player that is shipped out. Tony Watsons name came up in rumors this past week, for instance, and others fitting that description on the Pittsburgh roster include Juan Nicasio, John Jaso, Jordy Mercer, Jared Hughes and Antonio Bastardo (as can be seen over at Roster Resource). Bill Brink of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported earlier this week that the Pirates were willing to pay a portion of Bastardos $6.25MM guarantee in 2017 in order to facilitate a trade.
Visitors to Mcity will find a new self-guided, 15-passenger tour bus showing off the latest developments at the showcase for connected and automated vehicles at the University of Michigan.

The bus is one of those developments: It represents the first ARMA vehicle to operate in the U.S.

Its manufacturer, French firm NAVYA, introduced the vehicle at the facility in Ann Arbor on Friday, while also joining U-M in announcing their collaboration.

NAVYA is becoming an affiliate member of the Mobility Transformation Center, which runs Mcity at U-M's North Campus Research Center.

"The ARMA at Mcity supports the university's interrelated missions of research and education," said S. Jack Hu, U-M vice president for research, in a news release. "It also underscores the importance of international collaboration as we work with companies from around the world to help society realize the substantial benefits in safety and sustainability promised by connected and automated vehicles."

The state of Michigan took a separate step toward the advancement of automated vehicles on Friday when Gov. Rick Snyder signed Senate Bill 995 in Dearborn. The bill allows operation of autonomous vehicles on Michigan roads, instead of just testing.

The legislation also creates the Michigan Council on Future Mobility within the Michigan Department of Transportation to make future recommendations on statewide policy recommendations on regulatory issues that could impede new development.

Michigan is just one state in a race to establish itself as a cornerstone to autonomous vehicle innovation and development. It branded itself Planet M in June, when Snyder and other state leaders said they were prioritizing the retention of automotive innovation in Michigan even as the industry stood on the edge of change.

One study released in early 2016 said that the sales of connected vehicle technology could triple to $137 billion by 2021.

The ARMA shuttle at U-M will provide fully automated, self-guided tours of Mcity and support research,including through TechLab at Mcity, the university's incubator for mobility startups. Students will be able to work with it, and MTC and NAVYA will also explore potential joint research opportunities.



Using the ARMA for automated, self-guided tours at Mcity will help to educate visitors about the potential of autonomous vehicle technology, said MTC Deputy Director Carrie Morton in a news release. It will particularly aid in studying how automated vehicles could help people connect to mass transit easily.

NAVYA raised $34 million in funding this fall to build out its team, technology and sales, according to reports about the company. The funding is coming from two strategic backers, public transportation provider Keolis and automotive parts group Valeo, reported TechCrunch.com. Reports estimate NAVYA's value at $222 million.

Meanwhile, its competitors in autonomous shuttle buses include IBM and its Olli, produced in part with 3D printers in Arizona, and the Mercedes-Benz Future Bus.
YPSILANTI, MI - After providing 50 Thanksgiving dinners for college students in need, Swoop's Food Pantry is answering the call again this holiday season.

Started last fall by Eastern Michigan University student Haley Moraniec, the food pantry is putting together 48 holiday meals for students as it continues to expand in its second year.

With 22 percent of the students visiting Swoop's experiencing housing instability, Moraniec said the need for a stable source of food is very real, and is never more apparent than during the holiday season.

"I would say that all students can benefit from this, but a lot of invisible barriers that students face to college success has come out from this project," she said. "About 22 percent of students have indicated they are experiencing housing instability -- that could mean they are actively homeless, that they are couch surfing at a friend's house or going from shelter to shelter. A lot of them say that they just lost their job, so this is just a temporary resource for them or that they ran out of meal plan money for the week."

Swoop's Student Food Pantry is a campus-based organization that is run by a leadership board consisting of EMU faculty, staff, students and alumni volunteers. Its mission is to provide EMU students in need with food assistance and additional resources to positively affect well-being and college success.

In a little more than 14 months, Swoop's has had around 1,800 visits from 600 unique visitors. The pantry has given was a little more than 28,000 pounds of food during that time.

Moving the pantry to its new, expanded quarters in Pierce Hall on the east side of campus to better serve students, Moraniec said giving students a comfortable space to get food when they need it has remained her top focus and priority.

"When I first started the pantry, I wanted to make sure it was a comfortable space because I know that going hungry can be extremely stigmatizing," said Moraniec, who is now a graduate student at EMU. "It can be difficult for students to actually reach out for help. Trying to normalize it and making sure everyone feels welcome coming here is important."

There is no eligibility requirement to receive food from Swoop's, Moraniec said, only that students must be enrolled at EMU. The pantry does provide food to the community at-large on a one-time basis, before referring them to other community resources.

About 10 volunteers have given their time to put the holiday baskets together, which are going to be distributed on Friday, Dec. 9. The baskets consist of a turkey or ham, oranges, mixed nuts, hot cocoa, stuffing, scalloped potatoes and green beans.

Working with students in need has been an eye-opening experience for volunteer and EMU senior Mariel Berdin, who has been with Swoop's from the beginning.

"Before working with the pantry, I didn't even know that was an issue," she said. "It's opened my eyes and made me realize there are students struggling and not a lot of people know about it.

"For me, it's students coming in feeling very grateful," she added. "I know some of them get really emotional. You can always tell how sincere they are that we provide this kind of service on campus."

If you are interested in helping or donating to Swoop's, contact the pantry by email at swoopspantry@emich.edu or by phone at (734) 487-4173. You also can support Swoop's Student Food Pantry at Eastern Michigan University by donating online.


SALINE, MI - The Michigan woman behind the viral "Kohl's Cash" rant meant for her video to simply be seen by friends and family on her personal Facebook page.

Amanda Bell

But when a friend told Amanda Bell she should make her video public to anyone, she thought it was an interesting idea but had no idea how to do it. That same friend then walked her through the steps.

Twenty-two million video views later, Bell's 90-second video has become the latest viral sensation on the internet. The video features Bell using a Snapchat filter to retell an experience she had a Kohl's recently.

"The video itself was just made to be funny between friends and myself," Bell said. "We send Snapchats to each other throughout the day just to keep the day lively and fun."

The 33-year-old mother of two from Saline said the response to the video has been inspiring because of the positive feedback she's received from people who are now watching her other videos.

The positive feedback has been much needed for Bell who says she began posting videos earlier this year as an outlet to deal with her emotions while she was going through a divorce. After being married for eight years, Bell said the divorce is nearly final and she's thankful the proceedings have been extremely civil as she and her ex-husband remain friends.

"I was going through a lot of hard times. No matter what it is, it's still hard. It's emotionally hard; it's change," Bell said. "I started making videos on my phone as a way to release a lot of emotions and feelings."

A blessing in disguise

Bell said she had everything that she thought she was supposed to have in life - a family, dogs, a house, and cars. But in the end, her relationship didn't work out.

"Outside of a white picket fence, I had all of that. So for it to have not worked, you feel like a failure. So it takes a lot to wrap your brain around that and you're not (a failure)," Bell said.

When her video about Kohl's went viral, Bell says she made other personal videos public as well and was blown away by the response from viewers. It was a relief to know that other people were sympathetic to her struggle and that her videos were providing relief for others along with Bell herself.

"It was a blessing in disguise," Bell said. "I feel like this was that answered prayer. I finally got back what it was I was asking for. I don't feel alone in going through this journey."

Since then, she's created a YouTube channel and a Facebook page for her #keepinitreal videos that explore struggles in life with family and day-to-day happenings. Although her videos have been seen by millions of people, Bell hasn't sought to capitalize financially on her success.

"This was in no way for money. What I'm getting out of it in my life is way greater than that. I can go to work and make money," Bell said. "What I get back from people on social media with love and support, I can't get paid for that."

She said she simply wants an outlet to express her feelings and a connection with others going through similar circumstances.

While Bell isn't looking for money, Kohl's has reached out to her and is in the process of sending her some gifts because of how much the company enjoyed her video.

"If it ended right there after Kohl's responded, that would have been great," Bell said. "I love that they found the humor in that."

New content

Now that there are new eyes on her videos, Bell admits she feels some pressure to try to be funny when she uses the Snapchat filters, but says it's a struggle because at first, she was just trying to entertain her friends.

The video that's been seen by 22 million people on Facebook literally took her mere minutes to make, so it's not like she has an exact formula in place to create viral content.

Bell says she is making a conscious effort not to just post a video for the sake of putting something new up. When she publishes new content, she wants it to come from real emotion that she's having about the events in her life.

"I want to be represented for who I am and the real me. That's the whole point of the channel," Bell said.

First and foremost, Bell says she's still a mom and has to keep her house in order. So while she may want to produce more content, she has to focus on her family first. That also means not being able to keep up on all the newfound publicity she's receiving.

At night, once she's had a chance to take a few minutes for herself, Bell says she gets online to read comments and interact when possible with people who send her messages and reach out to her. Her story has been publicized by national media outlets and her video about Kohl's was picked up by Ellen DeGeneres' video website.

Still, Bell says she's not worried about the buzz her video gets from media outlets. She just wants to help people who're going through tough times to know they're not alone and there's a place they can go to laugh and talk about their struggles.

"I just want to uplift people, I want to inspire people, I want to make people laugh and brighten their day," she said.
Ypsilanti_City_hall.jpg

The Ypsilanti City Hall.

(Tom Perkins | For The Ann Arbor News)

YPSILANTI, MI - The Ypsilanti City Council will soon consider a new local law that would prevent police or city staff from inquiring into immigrants' status unless directed to do so by federal law.

It's partly designed to alleviate fears immigrants have in reporting crimes committed against them, or coming forward as witnesses.

The ordinance ordinance is similar to, but not the same as, the "sanctuary city" model. Sanctuary cities won't prosecute immigrants solely for violating federal immigration laws.

The proposed Ypsilanti law reads, "No law enforcement or other agent of the city of Ypsilanti shall inquire into the immigration status of any person who interacts with a governmental agency, or ask for their Social Security number or other information that would disclose an individual's immigration status."

Council Member Pete Murdock, who is developing the language, said there's no reason for officers to be asking about immigration status during the investigation of a crime that an immigrant didn't commit.

"The real issue here is the immigration community is often fearful going to public officials because they don't want to get immersed in immigration issues. They're less likely to report crime, less likely to be witnesses, and historically, where these are passed, you get better relationships," he said.

The ordinance also states that the city will train law enforcement officers to be compliant with the ordinance, and the city will work with its immigrant community to help design the training.

Murdock noted that four percent of the city's population is classified as "foreign born."

The city's Human Relations Commission also recently changed its discrimination policy to state that city officials cannot discriminate based upon immigration status.

City employees now cannot refuse service based on "perceived race, color, religion, national origin, immigration status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression age, marital status, having a disability status, familial status, educational association, source of income, height or weight, or religion."

In Michigan, Detroit is a sanctuary city, and Hamtramck has in place a similar ordinance.

Murdock said the ordinance will likely be on council's Jan. 10 agenda.
BAY CITY, MI -- Bay City Mayor Kathleen Newsham admits her city has been put in an awkward situation.

She, like most people, didn't even know a multi-use pavilion for Wenonah Park was on the wish list of Bay City's Downtown Development Authority. So, when she found out a $1 million gift was quietly secured to build the structure, she didn't know what to think.

Kathi Newsham

"Of course, it's exciting when you have someone who wants to give you $1 million," she said. "How can you not be excited about that?"

But as the public slowly learned more about the project the list of questions grew. Then a petition against the pavilion started. And soon, it became one of Bay City's most divisive projects in the past decade.

"The problem now is that no one believes anyone," Newsham said. "All of this could have been handled much better."

Now city officials have a careful balancing act ahead of them. They don't want to miss out on a $1 million donation, but they also want to make sure everyone's voices are heard and the pavilion is an appropriate project for the downtown park.

"We have to tread carefully," Newsham said. "I worry if we miss out on this $1 million donation, what's that going to say about us? But I also know there's a group of people who are angry and oppose this pavilion."

The Wenonah Park pavilion, funded by an initial $1 million private donation from the Nickless Family Charitable Foundation, is a 5,000-square-foot, double-roofed structure that's proposed to be built in the southeast corner of the downtown park, directly west of the Delta College Planetarium.

The project was dreamt up by Candace Bales, executive director of the Bay City DDA, but ultimately carried out by Mike Bacigalupo, chief operating officer of the State Theatre and a member of the DDA board.

Bacigalupo was approached by Jack Kidwell, one of his State Theatre board members who also serves as the agent for the Nickless Foundation, who asked him if there were any projects Bay City was looking to accomplish because he had a foundation looking to grant funds.

Without consulting the DDA or the city, Bacigalupo offered up the pavilion project. He said "there was no sense in going anywhere or to anybody until we knew we had the money."

He later had a meeting with Janet Nickless, chairwoman of the Nickless Foundation, in Wenonah Park to show where the pavilion would be built. Kidwell then pitched the seven-member foundation board, which awarded the project $1 million.

Bacigalupo then met with Bay City Manager Rick Finn, who guided him in getting the public process ready. Since April, three public meetings have been held with regard to the pavilion. The DDA board votes on the issue next Wednesday, Dec. 14, at 7:30 a.m. at the Wheeler Room in the Doubletree Hotel. If approved, it then goes to the Bay City Planning Commission and then to the Bay City Commission, which has the final say. Those votes aren't expected to take place until after the new year.

Bacigalupo didn't do anything wrong in getting the ball rolling on the pavilion, but Newsham and other city officials wish he would have handled things differently.

"In retrospect, things would have been much different today if Mike would have presented this to the right people first," Newsham said. "Even after the money was secured, if he could have stood up and explained how this all came to be, I think things would have been much better.

"People in this town don't like learning about things right before they're going to vote for approval."

David Terrasi

Commissioner David Terrasi, 2nd Ward, said he feels mislead. Up until this point, he thought the foundation approached Bacigalupo with the idea of building a pavilion in the park.

"I'm just disappointed," he said. "The song and dance I kept hearing was that (the foundation) wanted this pavilion and that's why there's money -- not that it was pitched to them."

Terrasi, whose ward represents a portion of downtown, including Wenonah Park, said if there was an opportunity for grant funds for a public project, a group of community members should have been involved.

"There was never enough community input with this project," he said. "There needs to be more people at the table -- and people who aren't directly tied to downtown."

Finn, Bay City's manager, doesn't see anything wrong in the way Bacigalupo handled the pavilion project up to this point.

"Regardless of who does what, they don't have to be initiated or receive approval by the city or DDA," Finn said. "I don't want to send a message in any way that people have to come forth to the city with every idea if they think they can get some grant money."

Bacigalupo admits that he would have done things differently, looking back on how the process has played out so far.

"I would have talked to certain people first," he said, declining to name those people. "Prior to the pitch, or accepting money, I would have consulted with other people. So, lesson learned."

In addition to his role at the State, Bacigalupo was hired earlier this year as the city's special events coordinator where he makes $16 per hour. Hours vary, but tend to be higher in the summer months when there are more events. Deputy City Manager Dana Muscott said he could work 20 hours one week and four another week.

Newsham said she was unaware that the city was planning on hiring him earlier this year -- his employment didn't require approval by the City Commission -- but feels he's the right person for the job.

"It does paint a perception that maybe he is involved in too many things with the city and the park, and people may not like that, but on the other hand, he's very good at what he does," she said. "We could be getting a really good deal for everything he does."

Bacigalupo's employment with the city is at-will, meaning the city can dismiss him at any time for any reason. The State Theatre has an agreement to manage operations Wenonah Park, like the free Wednesday night concerts during the summer.

Lynn Stamiris

Newsham expects more discussions among the City Commission -- which has the final say on the pavilion project -- in the coming weeks. Commissioner Terrasi said while he has concerns about how the project was presented, he feels it's a positive project that he could support. Commissioner Lynn Stamiris, 1st Ward, who also represents a portion of downtown Bay City, said he's leaning on the history of the park, which at one time had a pavilion near the water in the northwest quadrant of the park.

"I'm trying to remain neutral on it for now, but I tend to be a historical person," Stamiris said. "I've told the commission before, if we don't keep tracking where we've been, how do we know where we're going? It's something to think about."
Camry_Teaser_9A32FBA7171E5C1CB4430C5B06DEBA85C3D92CBB.jpg

(Toyota)

Toyota will debut its 2018 Camry in January at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

The Japanese automaker was short on details in announcing the plans, only providing a sentence under the headline "Prepare to Stare," which came with a teaser shot of the car's taillights. The Toyota Camry has been America's top-selling car for 14 consecutive years.

Judging by the teaser photo, it looks like Toyota has changed up the design of the taillights and other aesthetics.

The car will go on sale sometime in 2017. Toyota already has a live stream page set up for the big reveal at the Cobo Center. People can sign up to be instantly notified when the unveiling takes place.

Press preview days for the 2017 show kick-off Jan. 9-10, industry days are Jan. 11-12. The NAIAS opens to the public Jan. 14-22. Unveiling announcements are expected to heat up in the coming months as the auto show nears.
WATERFORD TOWNSHIP - Police are seeking help identifying a suspect wanted for an armed robbery that took place at a Waterford Township business last week.

The suspect entered Check Into Cash, 4998 Highland Road, armed with a gun around 6:15 p.m on Dec. 2, according to police.

He then turned off the lights, escorted a clerk to the rear of the business and made off with an undisclosed amount of money before leaving through a back door.

Police described the suspect as a tall, skinny male wearing all black, including black gloves. The robbery was caught by a surveillance camera and can be viewed above.

Investigators with the Waterford Township Police Department ask anyone with information regarding the incident to contact Detective Allen at 248-618-6068. An anonymous tip line is also available at 248-674-COPS.
DETROIT -- Human remains, including those of a woman, were found in a vehicle that was set on fire and parked at a vacant elementary school in West Bloomfield about 1:30 a.m. Friday, WDIV-TV, Channel 4 News reports.

Channel 4 reports police are treating it as a crime scene and have identified two people of interest.

The victim or victims have not been identified by police.

Representatives at the West Bloomfield Police Depart wouldn't immediately comment when contacted Friday morning, but said a statement or comment would be forthcoming Friday afternoon.

Police told multiple media outlets the victim found in the car is not 28-year-old Danielle Stislicki, a Farmington Hills woman who disappeared after leaving her job at Metlife in Southfield Friday, Nov. 2.
A city rich in nightlife, Riga has a lot more than that. Famous for its historical sites. A walk through this old city will take you past hundreds of ornate buildings with intricate facades.

The historical sites you should visit

Old city Riga

Its a 2 hour walk down the city. You will know about all Rigas history as you stroll the cobbled streets and squares. Riga is a city of good coffee, jazz, full of small delicious pastries and stylish cafes. You will walk past the splendid House of Blackheads located next to the Town Hall Square, and past the walls of fortresses and towers go into St. Peters Church and the Dome Cathedral. Then you will continue walking to the famous clock LAIMA and through a lovely opera park, you will head to the magnificent Riga Opera House.

Museum of the occupation

The Museum of the Occupation of Latvia is an historic educational institution located in Riga, Latvia. It was established in 1993 to exhibit artifacts, archive documents.

House of Blackheads

One of the most magnificent buildings in Town Hall Square is the House of Blackheads, which once hosted a brotherhood of foreign merchants and now serves as both a museum and concert hall.

Some Unexplored places in India that are breat..

Adventurous activities in Interlaken!!!

7 Must-Visit places to eat in Pune!!!
It has now been revealed by Motorola that they are going to launch the first metal phone named Moto M in India on Tuesday on 13th of December through media event. The officials have wondered the perfect extension availability of the smartphone once it launches in the India market with a better response. it has been noted as a fact that the Motorola metal smartphone Moto M was firstly launched in November in China as a first visionary performance as far the phones is concerned around the globe.

It has been informed by advisers of the smartphone technology that this phone would surely acknowledge the welcome of Indian bidders for the smartphone as it's virtual standard surely attracted many eyes in the nationwide scenarios that are going on to look after the virtual welcome of the phone either in face of acceded price value or same existing value in form of Indian national rupee value as far it's purchasing price and response rate across India is concerned, though.

The people have surely been excited in case of Moto m yet there curiosity has risen in accordance with the cost of the same phone which was around 1999 CNY when it arrived in China last month thus the people hoping that it won't go high then it's ultimate core in the transformed value of Indian National rupee that is to say around 19,700 thus it would be easily available and been purchased with easily by those who are interested in this first metal phone by Motorola indeed.

In this way, let's hope that the Moto M smartphone would witness a great influence in India when it get the launch on 13th of December so we hope that people do excite and have their craze which shall help on to increase the virtual identification and response rate all across India after it's great impact in the global market and technical trade on the core of its virtual spitting and attraction at large.

Chrome 55 for Android Brings New Offline Download Attribute, Spell checker and Extra

RBI eases two-factor authentication norms for online transaction up to Rs 2,000

Bingo M2 Smart Band with OLED display, heart rate sensor
[December 09, 2016] Billion March IoT Industry with the Taiwanese leading Institute for Information Industry

Billion Electric, the leading provider of Smart City and IoT (Internet of Things) solutions, showcased its innovative IoT Gateway (News - Alert) during the "Promote IoT Ecosystem and Create Various Business Opportunities Seminar" hosted by the Institute for Information Industry (III), Ministry of Economic Affairs of Taiwan. Billion also announced to officially enter the PV Energy Industry starting from the beginning of 2017. This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161209005160/en/ Jason Liao, the Product Marketing Manager of Billion Electric Co., discussed how upstream and downstream suppliers should leverage on each other's technical know-how to form value-added IoT solutions for different vertical markets. (Photo: Business Wire) Durng the seminar, Billion introduced the new Smart Universal Gateway - SG6300NXL, enabling a flexible, easy-to-integrate platform via the well-defined API for system integrators to develop their desired backend application. Supporting wired (RS485/PLC/Ethernet) and wireless (ZigBee (News - Alert)/Wi-Fi/3G/4G) communication protocols, SG6300NXL services as an adaptive gateway to significantly shorten the SI development timeline through the integration of front end sensory data and the back-end web-based management system.



As the global networking equipment supplier, Billion shared its in-depth insights of IoT communication development in two vertical markets: Smart Energy Management (SEMS) and Smart Streetlight Control Solutions (LCMS), which have been widely implemented at a diversity of facilities across the globe, including residential apartments, households, factories, buildings, chain stores, solar power plants, streetlight. These two solutions are highly scalable for the integration with existing any BMS and CMS systems to empower the correct architecture. "Upstream and downstream suppliers should leverage on each other's technical know-how to form value-added IoT solutions for different vertical markets. From backend application development to user interface design to hardware integration, the comprehensive IoT ecosystem can provide sustainable, mutual benefits for a broad range of software and hardware developers and service providers," said Jason Liao, the Product Marketing Manager of Billion Electric Co.

Following the expansion of its Energy and Light Control Management Systems presence in Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia and other ASEAN regions, Billion aims to broaden its product diversity to penetrate into PV Power Plants and PV Energy Monitoring System developments with an expected revenue increase of 10% brought by the new business venture. About Billion Billion Electric Co. (TAIEX: 3027) is a leading global provider of ICT solutions. We enhance life and communication efficiency through a better-connected world. Billion is committed to acting as responsible corporate citizens, innovative enablers for the information society, and collaborative contributors to the industry through creating maximum value for worldwide telecom operators. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161209005160/en/

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East India Securities' research report on Venkys





We have been expecting a subdued performance during 2QFY17 on account of weak chicken prices throughout the quarter, especially in the month of Aug and Sept as compared to 1QFY17. However the performance was even below the subdued expectations, especially at profitability levels. The company witnessed 32% higher total revenues on yoy basis, better than our estimates. This was led by Oilseed business which contributed around 46% of the sales, grew by strong 40% during the quarter. Animal Health Products which also witnessed a good growth of 38% and contributed 9% of sales. Poultry & Poultry Products business which contributed 45% of the business, also posted a growth of 25%. This was purely account of volume growth as company cannot keep inventory of broilers, hence kept selling even at loss.



Valuation

After two quarters of strong performance, this was a disappointing quarter. This was on lower chicken prices during most part of the quarter. The companys performance depends a lot on volatile chicken prices. During Q3FY17, post demonetization chicken prices cracked and went down way below cost of production. Considering Q2FY17 disappointing performance and expected a bad Q3FY17, we have revised FY17 and FY18 earnings estimates downwards. Our downwardly revised TP is Rs 561 (10x FY2018E EPS). The stock of the company has corrected recently on account of declining chicken prices. Now it offers 26% upside from current levels. Hence, we maintain our Accumulate on the stock of the company.



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Disclaimer: The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts/broking houses/rating agencies on moneycontrol.com are their own, and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.

The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts/broking houses/rating agencies on moneycontrol.com are their own, and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.

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ICICI Direct's research report on Tata Steel





Tata Steel UK has reached an agreement with trade unions on a number of proposals that would structurally reduce risks and help secure a more sustainable future for its UK business. The proposal will need employees approval. As per the agreement, the company, in the near term, will start consultation with its employees on a proposal to close the British Steel Pension Scheme (BSPS) to future accrual. Employees would be offered a competitive defined contribution scheme. The company and trade unions have also agreed on the principle that subject to structural de-risking and de-linking of BSPS from the business, Tata Steel UK will continue the existing blast furnace configuration in Port Talbot until 2021. Further, based on achieving the necessary financial performance and cash flows as per the transformation plan of the UK business, the company will continue to invest across UK sites to enhance the competitive position of Tata Steel UK in European steel industry.



Valuation

As part of the agreement, all parties are cohesively working towards making Tata Steel UK a sustainable business in the longer term horizon. The proposal on pensions & other changes in employment terms are part of the ongoing transformation plan the business is undertaking. On domestic business front, we marginally tweak our FY17E, FY18E numbers. We value domestic operations at 6.5x FY18E EV/EBITDA and overseas operations at 5x FY18E EV/EBITDA. We value the stock on SOPT basis and arrive at a target price of Rs 425 with HOLD rating on the stock.



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Disclaimer: The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts/broking houses/rating agencies on moneycontrol.com are their own, and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.

The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts/broking houses/rating agencies on moneycontrol.com are their own, and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.

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Coles and Woolies have both had a tough year.

They not only faced increased competition from German discounter Aldi, but a price war as well. And as if these werent enough to worry about, there is one more threat to their earnings: swipers.

Swipers are people who steal at supermarkets by using a DIY checkout to pay for their groceries. Australian National University criminologist Emmeline Taylor coined the term. According to Taylor, one third of customers regularly steal when using a DIY checkout.

And the most common way to do it? The carrot trick. That is, swiping a pre-packaged carrot bag instead of a more expensive item.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald: Coles and Woolworths wont discuss the scale of losses through their self-scan service tills but Dr Taylors research reveals how carrots uncovered just how many shoppers were underpaying for fresh produce.

Coles and Woolies may be unwilling to discuss their losses, but Professor Larry Neale, from Queensland University of Technology, estimates they could number in the billions of dollars each year.

The gig came to light when an Australian supermarket noticed they were selling more bags of carrots than what they had in stock. And supermarkets thought those self-checkout machines would save them money

Yet there is one retailer that is not worried about swipers: Amazon.

They have just unveiled their first Amazon Go, a new brick and mortar grocery store. The big deal about Amazon Go: no cash registers.

Thats right; customers can just pick up the items they want from the store and leave.

No waiting, no queuesno carrot trick.

The way it works is shoppers scan their Amazon app when walking into the store. Once in the store, they get tracked as they pick up purchases, and the virtual basket adds the items up. Once they finish shopping, they can just leave the store. The technology adds up the items and bills them through their Amazon account.

Amazon is expected to land in Australia next year, and the impact on the Australian retail landscape could be huge. The company is set to launch an online supermarket and bricks-and-mortar stores. Could Amazon Go be part of its strategy?

Having such an effortless payment system, like Uber, could give Amazon a significant lead in the retail sector.

In the US, Amazon holds 50% of the countrys online retail market share, and is on track to have 10% of the overall US retail market in 10 years.

Australian retailers are already making preparations for the arrival of Amazon. Earlier this month, Wesfarmers Managing Director Richard Goyder told The Australian Financial Review that unless Australian retailers reduced costs  and improved stores, distribution and fulfilment  new players such as Amazon would have a significant impact on profitability.

In March last year, Goyder warned that Amazon would eat all our breakfasts, lunches and dinners.

According to Citi analyst Craig Woodford, Amazon could reach $3.54 billion in revenue, which would represent around 14% of all online sales and 1.1% of all Australian retailing.

One thing is for sure: the Australian retail landscape may look a lot different next year.

Swipers beware  your days are numbered.

Cheers,

Selva Freigedo,

Contributing Editor, Money Morning

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The chronicle of a life split between urban Manhattan and rural Montana.
Our seminary in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia is named St. Charles Borromeo Seminary. However, most Catholics do not know about this great saint whose feast day is on November 4th. He was the Archbishop of Milan from 1564 until 1584...
Its Thursday night. The long-awaited rain has arrived and Im at the Morgan Hill Library logged into the Web using the (fairly) new wireless access. Wi-Fi (wireless fidelity) at the library is free and a snap to use: just open a Web browser, enter your library card number and PIN, and youre in. If youve forgotten your library card or dont have/never got a PIN, that isnt a problem either. Just go the front desk and the staff will help you out (one catch: youll need a California drivers license or some other form of photo ID).

Since the end of October, Morgan Hill Library  along with all of the other Santa Clara County libraries  has free high speed wireless Internet access for laptops, PDAs and other mobile devices. It had become apparent that the librarys wired PCs with Internet access were straining to keep up with demand in both the adult and childrens sections. Tuesdays were particularly busy since the Morgan Hill Library is not open on Sunday or Monday and wait lists for the networked PCs were necessary. The waiting time could be as long as 45 minutes, but patrons were patient.

With Wi-Fi the issue is resolved. Rosanne Macek, the community librarian in Morgan Hill, received her first report on wireless usage indicating over 50 logins in January and the feedback has been uniformly positive. Macek wants to get the word out and encourage Wi-Fi use. More good news: wireless will only get better in the new library which is taking shape behind the current library and is opening this summer. The construction plans call for about 20 study tables in the new library that will allow users to connect to power sources. According to Macek, this is a huge improvement over what we have now since there are just a couple of spots where a user can plug into a power outlet in our current building.

What about privacy and security concerns using wireless? These are real issues and the library addresses them openly and directly. The initial login page tells Wi-Fi users that the wireless system is not encrypted and thus not secure so the library cannot guarantee the protection or privacy of personal information. Simply put, you dont want to be entering your social security number or downloading personal or financial information. For children, the wireless network also incorporates a filtering product which will block Web content and Web sites that might be objectionable. Macek explained that the filtering is accomplished by checking date of birth against the library card number which is entered at login and the software is implemented on the childrens side of the library.

Another challenge with the wireless system is the need, from time to time, for tech support. Users bring in a variety of laptops and wireless devices and the library staff try their best to answer questions. Macek explains that the real challenge is the variety of hardware and software that is used by library patrons  each with its own unique configuration. A couple of patrons have brought in older laptops and didnt realize that a wireless adapter was needed for Wi-Fi access. In practical terms: the newer the laptop, the fewer the technical issues.

Maceks boss, Melinda Cervantes is in charge of all Santa Clara County libraries and, like any good manager, is looking ahead. She noted that for a very small investment, online services have expanded beyond the cabled network of computers in fixed spaces to wireless access from all corners of the library. Patrons are free to roam the stacks, draw up a chair or sit down at a table to surf the Net. In the future, Cervantes wants library employees to use wireless devices to text message answers to customer questions, locate books in the stacks and inventory collections.

Word is getting out about free wireless in the Morgan Hill library. Check it out!

Robert Boyd is a member of the Morgan Hill Library, Culture and Arts Commission. Meetings are held on the second Monday of each month at 7:00pm in the Morgan Hill City Council chambers. Reach Boyd at [email protected] or at (408) 554-5398.
Auto burglary

A thief or thieves broke the rear window and entered a gray Scion parked on Cochrane Road. The incident was reported 9:02 a.m. Nov. 25.

A thief or thieves broke into a 2014 Ford Escape and stole paperwork and a gift card. The crime was reported 10:32 a.m. Dec. 3.

Stolen vehicle

Someone stole a 1990 Nissan Sentra from a location in Morgan Hill. The crime was reported 4:09 a.m. Nov. 27.

A thief or thieves stole a silver 2009 Toyota Corolla from a parking spot on the 2800 block of Vista Del Val. The crime was reported 8:19 a.m. Nov. 27.

Grand theft

The exhaust system was stolen from a white 2012 Dodge 3500 pickup on the 17000 block of Condit Road. The crime was reported 3:47 p.m. Dec. 1.

Petty theft

A man and woman tried to steal merchandise from Staples, 1023 Cochrane Road, by concealing the items in an oversized bag. Police arrived and arrested the thieves before they could leave the store. The crime was reported 8:29 p.m. Dec. 1.

Vehicle stop

Police tried to make a traffic stop on a silver BMW 5 series in the area of Monterey Road and Dunne Avenue, but the driver refused to yield to officers commands and lights. Officers pursued the vehicle south and onto westbound Middle Avenue in San Martin, then to Santa Teresa Boulevard southbound. The chase eventually turned back around to northbound Monterey Road, and police caught up with the BMW on West Edmundson Avenue in Morgan Hill where a patrol car overtook the vehicle with a PIT maneuver. At times, the chase exceeded 90 mph. The driver of the BMW was arrested on a DUI warrant, and on suspicion of evading police, among other offenses. The chase began 12:16 a.m. Dec. 3.

Disturbance

A witness reported a man and his pit bull dog were terrorizing feral cats on Digital Drive. The man would use a laser pointer to lure the cats out from a dark corner so that his dog could attack the felines. The disturbance was reported 11:10 p.m. Dec. 4.

All subjects are innocent until proven guilty. Information is compiled from public records.
The Morganton City Council at its regularly scheduled meeting Monday unanimously approved two economic development programs that could create as many as 132 new jobs in town, according to information from the city. The city is working with Burke County and Burke Development Inc. on both of the programs.

The first is called Project Stop, which is an application to the North Carolina Department of Commerce for a $1 million building reuse grant. If awarded, the grant would require a 5 percent ($50,000) local government match, which would be a 2.5 percent split between the city and the county, according to information from the city.

The project is in conjunction with a yet-to-be named existing company that plans to invest $6 million in expansion by adding a new production line and 100 new full-time jobs, according to Morganton.

The second program is called Project Seating, also an application for a building reuse grant. If the $320,000 grant is approved, it also would require a 5 percent split match ($16,000) from the city and the county. The project is with an existing furniture manufacturing company on Hogan Street and could add 32 new full-time jobs, according to information from the city.

Councilman Forrest Fleming said he hoped the councils actions at the Monday meeting would ease the concerns of those who are worried about the councils commitment to economic development.

The council also held three public hearings at Mondays meeting. The first resulted in an approved motion to adopt a resolution authorizing the filing of an application with the Local Government Commission for approval of an installment financing contract for paving projects at the Department of Public Safety, CoMMA, the Greenway and Mountain View Recreation Center. Thus, another motion was approved to award the contract to First Citizens Bank in the principal amount of $1.065 million at 1.6 percent interest for a 54-month term.

The second public hearing resulted in an approved motion to adopt a text amendment to the Morganton zoning ordinance changing parking within the central business district to require no parking, either off-street or on-street, for any use. The amendment does not mean that parking will not be required in the city, but that businesses are not required to have parking on the same property as the business, which is difficult to obtain downtown.

The third public hearing resulted in an approved motion to adopt a resolution authorizing the filing of an application with the Local Government Commission for approval of an installment financing contract for phase II of the Community House renovation project. The city has awarded a $1.127 million bid for WC Construction in Winston-Salem for construction. Also in regard to phase II of the Community House project, the council awarded a contract to Glazer Architecture for design and engineering services for $52,750 and has awarded financing to Branch Banking and Trust at 3.23 percent for a term of 15 years in the amount of $1.29 million.

The council set dates for two more public hearings for the Jan. 9 meeting. The first will consider a petition from Crescent Communities LC for the annexation of three separate tracts on or near North Green Street. The tracts include 37 acres behind the Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market shopping center, an outparcel at the shopping center totaling 0.279 acres at 1015 N. Green St. and a 12-acre tract beyond the intersection of St. Marys Church Road. All three tracts are within the citys extraterrestrial jurisdiction. Officials with the city indicated that Crescents desire for these properties to be included in the citys fire district was one of the main reasons for the petition.

The other Jan. 9 public hearing will consider an economic development incentive for Molded Fiberglass, which plans to invest $8 million and add 20 new jobs, according to information from the city. The incentive is 50 percent of new taxable investments over a three-year period. The company plans to expand by up to 20,000 feet and add new machines and equipment at its Reep Drive facility. The company currently has 183 workers.

At Mondays meeting, the council decided to make a change regarding its professional lobbyist services. The city will change from Manning Fulton Skinner to Smith Moore Leatherwood. According to the city, the move comes after Michelle Frazier, the attorney who has worked most closely with the city over the past few years, moved from Manning Fulton Skinner to Smith Moore Leatherwood. The city thanked Manning Fulton Skinner and department head John McMillan for services rendered.

The contract with Smith Moore Leatherwood will be a $50,000 fee for professional lobbyist services concerning both the legislative and executive branches of the state government for the 2017 calendar year, which includes a long legislative session.

Staff writer Justin Epley can be reached at jepley@morganton.com or 828-432-8943.
A trooper with the North Carolina State Highway Patrol crashed a state-owned vehicle on Antioch Road in Morganton on Nov. 29 after running off the roadway and striking a tree.

According to a report from Highway Patrol, Verlin William Vinson, of Conover, was driving east on Antioch Road from U.S. Highway 64 toward Race Track Street when his vehicle struck a tree and came to rest in the roadway.

The vehicle, which is registered to the North Carolina Department of Public Safety/Highway Patrol, is a 2016 Chevrolet. The vehicle sustained $32,845 worth of damage and was not drivable after the accident. Vinson was estimated to have been traveling at 30 mph in a 55 mph zone and the estimated speed at impact also was 30 mph. Tire impressions started 57 feet before impact and the vehicle travelled 31 feet after impact.

The report indicated that drugs or alcohol were not a factor in the crash. Also, there were no vision obstructions and Vinson did not have any restrictions on his driver license, although a physical condition was indicated.

The vehicle was towed to enforcement by B&W Towing. According to the report, a determination of fault either will come from the insurer or a state court. The vehicle is insured by Travelers Insurance. Sgt. D.W. Church with Highway Patrol investigated the accident and submitted the report on Dec. 2.
The thing I like most about Twitter is that your views can be challenged, often by complete strangers. As long as it doesnt turn you into a ditherer, having second thoughts can be therapeutic. No one gets it right all the time.

I tweeted that figures this week from van hire company Northgate (NTG) were disappointing and noted that the chief executive is leaving. The shares leapt, however, prompting me to advise against chasing them higher. They have been on a long slow decline for the past 12 months and I would like more evidence that the company has turned the corner.

One follower put forward some evidence to the contrary: strong net asset value, cash generation, a well-covered high yield, a clear strategy, improving markets and a low price/earnings ratio.

Ive revisited the latest pronouncement and I still feel uneasy. Im nervous when profits go down and shares go up.

Pretax profits slipped from 42.8 million to 40 million in the six months to 31 October, with the underlying figures slightly worse. Yet the shares have recovered from a low of 311p at the end of June, reached after a 12-month slide, to push towards 500p this week. They gained 40p on the day the results came out.

On the positive side, a decline in the performance of the UK business has been halted and the political situation in Spain, the other major area for Northgate, has improved. Ireland has grown steadily. Northgate is confident enough to raise the interim dividend from 5.1p to 5.7p.

I wonder if this is a good time to be changing chief executive, with Bob Contreras standing down after nine years, first as finance director and then as CEO. As a replacement is already appointed to take over in only a months time, I get the feeling that the board is itself dissatisfied with the performance of the company. If so, it should have acted quite a bit sooner. Contreras intends to pursue his various other interests. I always treat that phrase with great suspicion.

I dont think that Northgate is a bad investment, just that any improvement in prospects is already included in its share price. Meanwhile there is no room for further disappointments. By all means hold if you are already in but if youre thinking of buying I would hope for a better opportunity. If that doesnt happen, too bad. There are plenty more investments to look at.

The End of Globalisation?

The end is nigh. Not the end of the world but the end of the world as we know it. Thats the message of a book published this week, and although I dont entirely accept all the arguments in it I do think serious investors should read it because it is thought provoking and challenges conventional thinking.

The Retreat of Globalisation by fund manager Gervais Williams suggests that the Brexit vote and the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States are part of a fundamental shift away from globalisation. Barriers between countries are going up, and not just on the Mexican border.

Major upheavals have happened before. Williams cites the changes under Margaret Thatcher, although that was a UK phenomenon rather than a global one.

One assertion will interest investors. One is that we will see more dead wood companies that have outlived their time crashing to earth and the scope for new vibrant ones to break through will improve.

When Trading is Just Gambling

The UK Government has decided to clamp down on trading in contracts for difference (CFD) for retail customers. Cyprus has done likewise and Germany, a big market for CFDs, has followed. Other European countries may well do so.

Ive seen the usual references in the press to CFDs being an investment. Lets be clear. Buying shares in companies such as IG Group (IGG) and CMC Markets (CMCX) is an investment  though one that looks a lot less appealing since the shares in both companies fell heavily this week.

CFDs themselves, like spread betting, are a gamble, not an investment. Dont worry if you dont know that CFDs are. You arent missing anything vital.

Rodney Hobson is a long-term investor commenting on his own portfolio; his comments are for informational purposes only and should not be construed as investment advice.
Brokers own a larger share of the mortgage pie, according to recently released statistics.Mortgage brokers funded 33% of mortgages currently held by Canadians, according to Mortgage Professionals Canadas Annual State of the Residential Mortgage Market in Canada report.Thats up from 30% in both 2015 and 2014 respectively.Brokers increased their share of purchases in 2016 to 43% -- up from 42% a year ago. They did, however, concede a chunk of the renewal and refinance business this year, owning 25% (-2% year-over-year).For all current mortgages on homes, 56% were obtained from a bank, Will Dunning, MPC chief economist, said in the report. Mortgage brokers had a 33% share, credit unions were the source for 7% of these mortgages, followed by 2% from life insurance or trust companies and just 2% reported obtaining their mortgage via an other source.Despite brokers increasing their share by 3%, bank representative share remained relatively unchanged at 56% -- down from 57% last year.Credit unions, however, continue to see their share dwindle.Those financial institutions have seen their share fall from 9% in 2014 to 8% in 2015, and finally to 7% this year.Measured as a share of total mortgage principals, for purchases during 2016, banks account for 49%, mortgage brokers for 45%, and the other categories of mortgage professionals account for 6%, Dunning said.
Spooky sites Fall is the season of holiday spectacle in Moorpark. In December, of course, Pinedale Road transforms into Candy Cane Lane and dazzles visitors with Santa splendor. But for those who...

Local hula group inspires global connections When the pandemic ushered everyone indoors, Moorpark resident and longtime dancer Lisa Rauschenberger decided to get people back outsidesocially distanced, of course. She began to hold weekly hula lessons at...

Teens face high stakes in the Oval Office A press room befitting Americas commander in chief was set up inside the Reagan Library in Simi Valley. Journalists and others gathered inside. Ladies and gentlemen, I need you all...
The most important part of hiring a superintendent is a district knowing what is it and what it wants to accomplish.

That was the message Center for Reform of School Systems President and CEO Cathy Mincberg had for members of the 2017 Midland ISD school board Tuesday night.

During an evening workshop, Mincberg told current and future board members that hiring a superintendent will be one of the three most important jobs it has -- engaging the community and determining academic policies are the other two. And for Midland ISD, which has struggled with academic performance for about a decade, finding a reform-minded superintendent is incredibly important.

Mincberg, though, said she is optimistic this newly constituted board will be up to the task because board members realize the districts flaws and appear very serious about reversing its course.

They have admitted out loud that fixing student achievement is a big deal here, Mincberg said. They said we have to change things.

The board expects to make some decisions as far as what it wants to accomplish moving forward at a two-day workshop in January. In the mean time, board members completed two training sessions in the past couple weeks -- the first being a Texas Education Agency-mandated program for districts struggling with chronically lower-performing campuses.

Board President Rick Davis called that program the best training hes received in his eight years on the board. He said after Tuesdays training with CRSS that it is important board members complete the process of determining what the district wants to be before communicating to the search firm about the type of person who would be appropriate.

Education reform has been a hot topic in Midland during the last year. A series of community meetings helped roll out the Educate Midland collective impact organization. While in its infancy, Educate Midland is expected to complement the work happening inside the district as Midland attempts to climb the ladder in terms of performance and achievement.

Interim Superintendent Rod Schroder at his first meeting with board members in September provided academic performance indicators that showed Midland ISD trending well behind similar-sized districts. Education Resource Group and GreatSchools.org data offered evidence of Midland ISDs inability to keep up with the largest school districts in the state.

Mincberg, whose CRSS organization has been training school board members since 2002, said MISDs standing wont impact its ability to get a quality candidate. She said MISDs standing will get it an activist superintendent who likes to tackle challenges.

She warned board members to expect a small pool of quality candidates, that the average term for a superintendent is three years and the salary base for the average superintendent of a large school district is around $281,000 (former MISD Superintendent Ryder Warren made $264,999, according to the TEA). She also said the person you want is happy with the job he or she it currently at.

A good superintendent will go to an unattractive place if they think they can change the world, Mincberg said.
For a year, leaders of the Texas Tech University System have made clear that in 2017 they planned to ask the Texas Legislature to allow them build a veterinary school in Amarillo.

But now, about a month before the Legislature convenes, the system confirmed that those plans are on hold.

In response to questions about the future of the school, system spokesman Brett Ashworth told The Texas Tribune that the system has placed the veterinary school on pause. He wouldnt comment further or elaborate on what that means, and its unclear how long that pause will last. But the decision calls into question whether Tech will be able to get approval to open the school when the Legislature is in session for the first half of next year.

The Tech system has said the school would help West Texas address a shortage of large-animal veterinarians. But it faced fierce resistance from the Texas A&M University System, which has the only current veterinary school in the state. Tech had wanted to open its school in 2019. In September, the city of Amarillo chipped in $15 million from its economic development fund to kickstart the idea.

But the plan has generated mixed reviews. The staff of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board said in July that the state doesnt need another traditional veterinary school, arguing the cost would outweigh the benefits. Tech, however, has said that its school would be unique and focus largely on bringing veterinarians to rural areas. The coordinating board was receptive to that possibility.

Meanwhile, Texas A&M University System officials have said that expanding their schools reach would be a more efficient way of meeting the states needs. On Wednesday, A&M System Chancellor John Sharp reiterated that argument. He said A&Ms veterinary school is already expanding its services to West Texas through its West Texas A&M University campus.

I think its clear to everyone that the veterinary school at Texas A&M has already addressed the concerns that Texas Tech is talking about, Sharp said. There is no need for another veterinary college in Texas.

Now, the future seems uncertain. The Tech System Board of Regents will meet in mid-December and could provide more clarity for if, or how, the system should move forward. Meanwhile, the system is also working to develop a dental school in El Paso, which it hopes will open in 2020.

The vet school idea does have some powerful support. State Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, said Wednesday that he thinks its a great idea but shouldnt be treated like an economic development project for his area.

Any project like that should stand on its own in terms of the statewide needs and academic advantages for the state, he said.
Da Nang City authorities have decided to stop Project 922 after encountering many problems in implementation of the programme, which provides funds to talented graduates and staff to study abroad.



Vo Ngoc Dong, director of the Da Nang Department of Internal Affairs, said the city authorities would seek other ways to promote talented staff.Dong said many legal problems arose during implementation of the programme, which was costly to develop.In many cases, students were trained in one major but were used in another. Since they do not have jobs in which they were trained, they do not work at full capacity.Besides, many students found it difficult to adapt to the new working environment and new posts. Very few people can work in teams to optimize their capacity.Dong admitted that with the current law, it is difficult to arrange jobs in the civil service system for the people who complete overseas training.In principle, only people who have excellent marks both at Vietnamese schools and at the overseas university can be hired at state agencies without the need to take the civil service examination.Many participants in Project 922, however, had to take the exam, and many failed.However, it would be a waste of human resources if the city authorities did not employ them because billions of dong were spent to fund their studies.As a result, those who failed the exam work for state agencies under fixed-term labor contracts and had to repeat the exams.Da Nang City authorities also cited the need to cut out waste in the organization.A report from city authorities showed that 36 posts at city agencies were cut in 2015, and the figure will be 30 this year.It would be unreasonable to continue spending money on training civil servants and cut the number of jobs at the same time.When asked what Da Nang would do to attract talented staff once Project 922 stops, Dong said organizing short-term training courses would be a solution.The city may invite leading experts, both Vietnamese and foreign, to host short-term refresher courses to improve their knowledge.Within the framework of Project 922, city authorities have sued 17 people who refused to return to Da Nang to work for city agencies after finishing training courses. The city won 12 of the cases.
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Ready or not, winter is here in Texas. Some could say the Lone Star State totally forewent the fall season and just jumped right into winter from summer, but hey, freezing temps blew in with a fury.

How did Texas respond? Not well, according to Twitter.

"Texas doesn't experience winter often, but when it does, it drops 55 degrees overnight," Feliz Navi-Paul shared.

"Texas: 'We just aren't going to have winter this year...' Also Texas: 'Oops jk it's snowing!'" Riley Fisher tweeted.

SOUTH'S WINTER FORECAST: What winter 2016-2017 will look like for the south

With many of the tweets whining abut the dramatic drop in temperature, some were quick to point out the complaining habits of Texans towards the weather.

"People in Texas complain when it's too hot all summer, then complain about being too cold in winter," $heff said on Twitter.

Yes, people complain, but Texas really jumped head first into winter this season without a gradual build-up.

And according to weather reports, these freezing temps aren't going anywhere. The National Weather Service has issued a freeze warning in effect from midnight Thursday night to 9 a.m. Friday. This means that after highs on Thursday being in the 50s for southern cities, like Houston, the temperatures will gradually decrease as the day goes on.

And if you're thinking the sun will help, think again. Clouds will occupy the skies for the majority of the day and very strong winds of 20 to 30 mph from the north will continue through Thursday, making the chilly temperatures feel even colder.

GET THE FULL REPORT: This is what the weather will look like for this weekend

Time to pull both of your sweaters from your closet and start layering up!
Warwick Analytics Expands to Portugal

London-based predictive analytics specialist Warwick Analytics has opened an office in Lisbon, Portugal.



The company's software is based on work by the University of Warwick, informed by more than a decade of academic research. The business was spun out in 2011 and now also has offices in China, the US and Germany.



The new office will work with companies in manufacturing and services sectors on issues from preventing products from failing, to predicting the factors which drive a positive customer experience. CEO Dan Somers (pictured) comments: 'We are a fast-growing technology company developing the latest cutting-edge analytics. Lisbon has an outstanding talent pool in experienced software developers so it was a natural choice to expand there'.



Web site: www.warwickanalytics.com .




New members inducted into Institute of ...
Sonora's Historic Red Church View Photos

The second weekend of December is coming up and many Christmas events are planned throughout the region.

The Tuolumne Park and Recreation District will host a two day Christmas Craft Fair and the Tuolumne Christmas Parade is at 6pm tomorrow. Details are here.

Summerville Parent Nursery School is hosting their Annual Christmas shop this Friday and Saturday.

Sierra Repertory Theatre will perform Another Night Before Christmas at the East Sonora Theatre and at the Fallon House in Columbia they continue with Irving Berlins White Christmas. Murphys Creek Theater is performing Looking Over the Presidents Shoulder and the Mountain Melody Womens Chorus will perform at the Union Congregational Church in Angels Camp.

Calaveras Performing Arts Center in San Andreas is presenting Christmas Cabareta collaboration between the G.N.A.T. P.A.C. (Geeks, Nerds, Artists and Thespians of the Performing Arts Center) and the Artists Formerly Known As CHS Choir. After the removal of choir class from our offered curriculum last year, the Choir class officers voted to donate the remaining funds in their class account to the Calaveras Performing Arts Center. More details about the event are here.

The Polar Express continues at Railtown 1897, details are here.

A list of all the Saturday events are in our community event calendar here. Events include Breakfast with Santa in Jamestown, the annual Santas Gone Hawaiian event as reported here, a childrens holiday party at the Ebbits Pass Moose Lodge, free holiday gift wrapping for senior citizens from 10AM -2PM at the IOOF Lodge in Sonora, details here.

At Courthouse Park a nonpartisan rally is inviting the community to stand in support of Net Neutrality. Details are here. It is also the 2nd Saturday art night in Sonora and at 5 p.m. at the historic Red Church there will be a tree lighting and remembrance service. Each gift given through Tree of Lights enables Adventist Health Hospice to continue to reach patients when and where they need it most by providing compassionate end-of-life hospice care, details are here. The schedule of Santas appearances in Downtown Sonora is here.

Saturday and Sunday this weekend and next weekend Columbia will celebrate A Miners Christmas. Also in Columbia, meet Santa and Mrs. Claus at Grandmas House. Sunday in Columbia is the 34th annual Las Posadas Nativity Procession, a Spanish tradition that re-enacts the biblical story of Mary and Josephs search for shelter on the original Christmas Eve. Since 1983 the people of Columbia have put on their own version of Las Posadas each December  with a distinctive 1850s flavor. Details are here.

Next Week: Click on a date for more events coming up S M T W T F S 11 10 11 12 13 14 15
Dead trees along HWY 108 View Photos

Auburn, CA  Two area counties have secured funding from the Sierra Nevada Conservancy (SNC) to aid in the tree mortality crisis and protect watershed health.

The SNC Governing Board has approved $3.1 million in grants for ten projects that will decrease wildfire risk, lessen tree mortality, and restore forest and watershed health in the region. Projects in Tuolumne and Mariposa counties will get some of that funding. The conservancy outlines the money usage here:

Tuolumne County  The Lyons-South Fork Watershed Forest Resiliency Project, $496,000: This grant to the Tuolumne Utilities District will complete forest thinning and fuel reduction treatments on 200 acres within the Stanislaus National Forest in Tuolumne County. These treatments will enhance forest health and resiliency, reduce fire hazards, allow for this forest to better withstand ongoing drought and bark beetle attacks, and protect critical ditch and flume infrastructure which act as the primary drinking water conveyance system for 90 percent of the residents of Tuolumne County. This grant will complete a portion of a larger project covering 733 acres of forestland across multiple landowners within the South Fork of the Stanislaus River watershed.

Mariposa County  Gentry Creek Watershed Restoration Project, $498,985: This grant to the Yosemite-Sequoia Resource Conservation and Development Council will treat approximately 300 acres of mixed-conifer timberland owned by 23 separate property owners, and is surrounded by U.S. Forest Service- and Bureau of Land Management-managed lands. The project area has suffered 80 percent visible bark beetle mortality, a figure that is expected to rise to 90 percent by 2017. The project will fall and remove all dead trees, and remaining slash will be masticated and spread on the forest floor. These activities will return the project area, which serves as the headwaters for Gentry Creek, a major tributary of the North Fork of the Merced River, to functional forest land that will aid in the protection of the downstream water supply.

The U.S. Forest Service reports 102 million trees have died statewide since 2010 and 95% are in the Sierra Nevada region. Sierra forests are the source of more than sixty percent of Californias developed water supply, but these forests have experienced rapid and significant change, says Jim Branham, Executive Officer for the Sierra Nevada Conservancy. The grants that were awarded by our board today are great examples of the kind of work we need to be encouraging across the entire Sierra to protect the source of Californias water.

The Sierra Nevada Conservancy has funded 32 Proposition 1 projects to date totaling $9,881,830 that support the restoration goals of the Sierra Nevada Watershed Improvement Program.
Local sales tax payments for the 15 participating entities within the Plainview Heralds circulation area continue to fall short of last years record pace, according to Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar.

On Wednesday, Hegar announced local sales tax allocations for December 2016, which represent retail sales in October by businesses which file on a monthly basis. Those payments are reported to the state in November and returned to the local governments in December.

While most area communities have taken advantage of the local option to assess between 0.25 percent and 2 percent on most retail sales, on top of the 6.25 percent added by the state, only three counties in the area assess local sales taxes  Castro, Hale and Swisher. They all assess at 0.5 percent, which is the minimum. The maximum allowed is 1.5 percent.

Combined payments for the 15 entities in December are down 10.7 percent from December 2016, although annual payments-to-date are down a more modest 4 percent. In November, payments were down 10.6 percent for the month and 3.5 percent for the year-to-date.

Much of the difference can been attributed to record sales tax numbers posted in 2015 due to unusually heavy activity associated with wind energy construction across the region along with most residential and commercial structures being reroofed after damaging hailstorms during spring 2015. Retail activity along with sales tax collections have returned to more traditional levels in 2016, local and area officials report.

2015 was a great sales tax year for Plainview and Hale County in part because of roofing activity, the movement of wind turbine components and several commercial construction projects, explains Mike Fox, executive director of the Plainview/Hale County Economic Development Corporation. While it has been a challenge to keep pace in 2016, we are still trending in a positive direction since the Cargill closure.

Looking ahead to 2017, projects such as the planned Hale Community Wind farm, the business park and the Conrad Lofts construction projects should keep our momentum going in the right direction, Fox said.

Linda Morris, executive director of the Plainview Chamber of Commerce, agrees that the adjustment in sales tax revenues was not unexpected. It is something we have known was going to happen, given the exceptionally strong year we experienced in 2015. Also, the harvest got started a little late, and many peopled didnt get started with holiday shopping quite as early since this year.

While down from, December sales tax payments are stronger than October which saw payments down by an overall 16.4 percent.

In December, the 15 entities are receiving combined payments of $561,817 which is down from $628,976 in December 2015. Seven of the cities and counties are showing increases in their monthly payments with eight showing declines.

For the year-to-date, collections total $7,572,729 in 2016, down from $7,891,665 during the same period in 2015. Payments are up for nine entities and down for six.

The largest month-to-month increase in December was posted by Edmonson which saw its payment soar 249 percent, climbing from $1,219 in December 2015 to $4,255 this payment cycle. Swisher County showed a gain of 55 percent, rising from $10,924 to $16,883. Castro Countys payment rose by 24 percent, from $11,751 to $14,569. Tulias payment rose 10.7 percent, from $25,361 to $28,074. Also posting gains are Kress, up 6.4 percent, Hale Center, 5.3 percent; and Hart, 3.5 percent.

Lockney showed the largest percentage loss, falling 32 percent. Its payment fell from $13,324 to $9,060. Floydada fell 21 percent, from $37,483 to $29,625. Abernathys payment retreated 20.4 percent, from $16,531 to $13,156.

Others entities showing declines were Olton, off 18.6 percent; Hale County, 18.4 percent; Plainview, 11.3 percent; Petersburg, 2 percent; and Silverton, 0.1 percent.

The cities of Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, El Paso and San Antonio continue to see significant increases in sales tax allocations, Hegar reported. The cities of Houston, Sugar Land and Plano saw noticeable decreases in sales tax allocations.

Current payments for area taxing entities and change from December 2015, and payments-to-date and percentage change include:

--Abernathy, $13,156, -20.4%

--Castro County, $14,569, 24%

--Edmonson, $4,255, 249.1%

--Floydada, $29,625, -21%

--Hale Center, $7,397, 5.3%

--Hale County, $115,689, -18.4%

--Hart, $3,558, 3.5%

--Kress, $976, 6.4%

--Lockney, $9,060, -32%

--Olton, $11,464, -18.6%

--Petersburg, $3,516, -2%

--Plainview, $298,620, -11.1%

--Silverton, $4,973, -0.1%

--Swisher County, $16,883, 54.5%

--Tulia, $28,074, 10.7%
When state legislators convene in January, public school funding will be one of their top priorities. As State Rep. Ken King (R-Canadian) is quick to point out, funding public education is the only constitutional duty of the Texas Legislature.

Although Gov. Greg Abbott has forewarned state agencies to begin looking at cutting budgets by about 4 percent over the next biennium, King assured local and area school officials that he would watch out for the innovative Communities in Schools program.

That pledge was made Wednesday while the District 88 representative visited Estacado Middle School to learn about the program for at-risk students as it has been implemented in Plainview ISD and nearby Dimmitt ISD.

Estacado Principal Ritchie Thornton, in explaining the CIS program, noted, It connects and engages those students who might not otherwise be engaged.

In the past, Plainview ISD utilized both the traditional program which met with students during school as well as the ACE program which provides activities before and after school. The grant for the traditional program has since expired and was not renewed, but the ACE is now in the first of a multi-year funding cycle. It serves 173 students at Estacado and 160 at Thunderbird.

Dimmitt ISD has both the traditional and ACE programs. It was able to leverage available grant funds by picking up a larger funding share locally. We saw it making such a large difference for Dimmitt that we decided to do whatever it took to keep it going, explains Dimmitt ISD Superintendent Bryan Davis. Dimmitt uses both traditional and after school programs on the elementary, junior high and high school level. Its a great thing for us with activities ranging from peer tutoring to college readiness for both juniors and seniors.

During a recent FASFA information program, Dimmitt school officials initially planned to use a single room but had to expand to three rooms due to the large turnout. We have been able to take these kids on trips for mentoring with different businesses, and we have seen a tremendous improvement on issues ranging from academics to behavior.

Staff members working with the CIS program are able to make home visits as well as work with students in classroom settings with an aim at reducing the dropout rate while keeping at-risk and Title I students more engaged in the educational process.

King admitted that the program appears to be helping level the playing field between rural and urban school districts, which is one of his primary goals. Im certainly going to watch this program, and I agree that we all should be advocating for more programs like this which are making a difference for our kids. It makes no sense to cut local programs that are keeping kids engaged and encouraging them to stay in school.

King represents rural school districts in the 17 counties included in District 88.

According to Lubbock-based CIS of the South Plains, which oversees CIS programs in this region, the CIS site coordinator works with volunteers, partners and the local community to provide students with the resources they need to succeed both inside and outside the classroom. CIS is cost-effective  for less than $200 annually per student, CIS is able to provide a comprehensive range of community services.

Concerning the dropout problem, CIS explains that troubled students and their families often have a hard time accessing and navigating through the maze of public and private services. Through a school-based coordinator, CIS brings local resources inside the public school setting, where they are accessible, coordinated and accountable.

The programs five basic tenants are that each child needs and deserves:

--A personal one-on-one relationship with a caring adult

--A safe place to learn and grow

--A chance to five back to peers and community

--A marketable skill to use upon graduation

--A healthy start and a healthy future.

Denise Bocanegra is CIS coordinator at Thunderbird and Elena Azua is at Estacado.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced a deal Friday with state employee unions that would allow Connecticut to dodge a fiscal iceberg by holding down annual pension costs otherwise set to spike over the next 16 years.



But to get that relief, Connecticut would shift at least $13.8 billion in estimated pension expenses owed before 2032 onto a future generation.



Under the deal, the state still would pay hefty pension bills for the next 16 years, with annual costs rising from $1.6 billion to $2.2 billion over that period. But pension expenses that were supposed to drop as low as $300 million per year after 2032 would hover close to $1.7 billion in the 2030s and 2040s.



The plan does not affect benefit levels for current or future retirees, nor does it change workers pension contributions.



The plan allows the state to spread pension fund investment losses or gains deeper into the future. This would make pension costs less volatile. But if Connecticut consistently struggles to make its investment targets, annual costs could rise beyond targeted levels.



The agreement, which echoes some aspects of a plan Comptroller Kevin P. Lembo unveiled in January, also calls for the State Employees Retirement Commission to adopt a more conservative, 6.9 percent return on state investments to better reflect current financial markets.



The State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalitions governing board ratified the deal on Thursday. The matter still must be considered by the General Assembly.







Could CT survive a $6 billion pension bill?







I am very grateful to SEBAC leadership that we were able to reach this much-needed and forward-looking agreement, Malloy said Friday. It was incumbent upon us to reform this system before facing the fiscal crisis that could have resulted from a $4 billion to $6 billion annual pension bill.



Union leaders also praised the deal.



The agreement is a responsible way to move the state employee retirement system toward stability  protecting members retirement security, said AFT Connecticut President Jan Hochadel. Its also a traditional approach that creates a clear path to paying off past obligations  making it good for the public too.



Real pensions play an important role in Connecticuts economy by supporting jobs and generating purchasing power in our communities, said Salvatore Luciano, executive director of Council 4 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. This agreement is part of a larger policy imperative by our unions to create retirement security for all.



Though the deal doesnt affect pension benefits for current and future retirees, the administration and unions are continuing to negotiate. Malloy approached the unions earlier this year asking for more traditional concessions, such as wage and benefits givebacks.



For now, though, the agreement shifts a heavy burden to a future generation on the argument that this one simply cannot afford to pay the full burden it faces.



On paper, Connecticuts annual contribution to the state employees pension  currently $1.6 billion  would rise to $3.3 billion over the next 16 years. But that hinges on pension investments achieving, on average an 8 percent return, which state officials, economists and others have said no longer is a realistic assumption.



A study the administration commissioned in 2014 from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College showed that state contributions to the employees pension could skyrocket if the return, for example, is closer to 5.5 percent per year.



Under that scenario, the annual cost would hit $3 billion by 2025, $4 billion by 2029, $5 billion by 2030, and approach a whopping $6.6 billion by 2032.



If Connecticut could survive that, though, past mistakes would have been corrected and the annual contribution would plunge dramatically, down to $300 million or less.



But Malloys budget director, Office of Policy and Management Secretary Ben Barnes said an annual payment topping $6 billion would be suicidal to state government, forcing unsustainable tax hikes and unprecedented cuts to vital programs.



Under the new agreement, this years $1.6 billion annual cost essentially would remain flat next fiscal year. It originally was supposed to increase by about $84 million. But after that it would rise steadily until it reaches $2.2 billion in 2022.



It could remain there  depending on how pension investments fare  until 2032.



It would drop below $1.8 billion in 2033 and, from there, it would remain close to $1.7 billion through at least 2046.



The new arrangement would come at a cost to the state, an expense that accountants and other analysts typically refer to as a lost investment opportunity.



Because the deal would reduce overall state pension contributions between now and 2032, Connecticut would have less pension resources to invest over that period. The state not only must make up for those deferred contributions after 2032, but also attempt to replace the investment earnings those unmade contributions would have returned.



The Malloy administration did not release an estimate Thursday of that lost investment opportunity. But a spokesman said the cost could be calculated in the coming weeks after an actuarial analysis of the new pension funding plan is completed.



This plan could be approved, under current legislative rules, without a vote from lawmakers, provided neither the House nor Senate vote to reject it within 30 days after the 2017 session begins on Jan. 4.







Workers benefits, deductions dont change







Though negotiations reportedly are continuing between unions and the administration, this agreement does not affect benefits paid to retirees.



It also does not require existing employees to contribute more for their pensions, something the Senate and House Republican caucuses recommended last April.



About one-quarter of all state employees contribute nothing toward their pension benefit. Most others pay 2 percent, which is still well below the national average of 7 percent.



Republican legislators recommended that all state workers in non-hazardous duties contribute 4 percent of their pay toward pensions.



Barnes said Friday that administration officials met for informal discussions with SEBAC on several occasions recently, and we have more meetings scheduled.



State employee union leaders note that workers agreed to wage freezes, higher health insurance costs and new pension restrictions in concessions deals in 2009 and 2011.



State government should increase taxes, they say, on wealthy households and major corporations to mitigate its budget woes.







Will pension costs exceed target limits?







Though the deal tries to limit spiking pension costs, there are some factors that still could produce larger-than-anticipated increases in the state budget.



About half of the costs associated with making up for past underfunding would be passed on to Connecticut taxpayers after 2032 and paid off over the following 25 years.



But the deal also asks future taxpayers to help whenever pension fund investment fall short of the 6.9 percent assumed return.



Currently, such losses must be offset by higher contributions made before 2032. The new arrangement allows the state to spread this burden out for 25 years after any losses occur.



This could be a recurring problem given many economists and financial analysts expectations for states pension fund investment returns.



Further complicating matters, because the employees pension fund has large unfunded liabilities, it can experience cash-flow challenges. Given that, some of the investments must be short-term and easily converted to cash, and such investments often yield a low return.







CT saved little for decades







The governor, Lembo and state Treasurer Denise L. Nappier have been warning for more than a year that Connecticuts poor history of saving for retirement benefits  a problem that goes back seven decades  would pose huge challenges over the next 15 years.



Connecticut saved nothing between 1939 and 1971  and very little until the early 1980s  to cover pensions promised to state employees.



Even after it began saving in earnest, it frequently contributed less than the full amount recommended between the early 1980s and 2011.



The cost of these past actions can be seen in the current budget and in future projections.



For example, 82 percent of this years $1.57 billion payment into the state employees pension fund, almost $1.3 billion, is to cover contributions or investment earnings not made or achieved in the past.







Fix was expected in the 80s and 90s







The state was supposed to have solved most of its pension problems in the 1980s and 1990s, but failed to do so despite the huge revenue boost that came from enacting a state income tax in 1991.



In 1986, shortly after Connecticut had begun major contributions to the state employees pension fund and created a revised tier of reduced pension benefits for new workers, the system had enough assets to cover 40 percent of its long-term obligations. Analysts typically cite 80 percent as a fiscally healthy ratio.



But over the last three decades, Connecticut has made little lasting progress in shoring up the fund.







According to the last actuarial analysis, issued in November 2014, the state had enough assets in its workers pension fund to cover 42 percent of its long-term obligations.







Several developments ate away at Connecticuts progress.







Gov. John G. Rowland struck deals with unions in 1995 and 1997 that allowed Connecticut to defer significant contributions annually. (Malloy and the unions undid those deals and went back to full pension funding in 2012 and have made full payments every fiscal year since.)



Five times between 1989 and 2009, the state paid senior workers incentives to retire early  which eased pressure on the budget but drained extra resources from the pension fund.



The state traditionally has assumed returns of 8 percent or more on pension fund investments. But since the last recession ended, critics in financial services and academic circles have recommended much smaller targets, generally between 3 and 5.5 percent, pointing to the yield on long-term U.S. Treasury bonds.






MERIDEN  City Manager Guy Scaife is drafting a plan to reinstate a disability pension for police officers with under 10 years of service, saying the citys failure to offer the benefit creates recruitment and retention challenges.



While City Council finance committee members supported the change, two councilors expressed concerns about changing a negotiated benefit less than a month before negotiations on a new contract begin.



In a presentation to the finance committee Wednesday night, Scaife said the city eliminated the benefit in 2011 expecting that other municipalities would be making similar changes. The disability pension for police officers with under 10 years of service was one of four benefits eliminated in 2011. An annual cost of living adjustment, retiree health insurance and the shift from a defined benefit to a hybrid defined benefit and defined contribution plan. The other benefits cut accounted for about 90 percent of the savings due to the changes, while the disability pension accounted for less than 10 percent of those savings.



Scaife said the police department is aware of five officers interviewing for other jobs, four of whom indicated the absence of a line of duty disability plan was a significant factor in their decision to apply elsewhere. Scaife also noted that the cost to replace an officer can range from $45,000 to $99,000.



Part of the issue, Scaife said, is that officers get hired and trained in Meriden and look for jobs elsewhere after their two-year obligation to the department ends. Those candidates are extremely desirable to other agencies because they do not require training.



Scaife recommended reinstating the disability pension for officers with under 10 years of service as soon as possible. The cost to reinstate the benefit for the 29 officers affected would result in an annual increase of $32,000 to the budget, with no fiscal impact on the current years budget. The move would incur an average cost increase of $1,140 per police officer.



Scaife asked the finance committee to approve the change.



To have more conversations about this, theres nothing else the chief can say, I can say. The personnel is in support of this, Scaife said.



Finance committee Chairman Miguel Castro, who favors the change, instructed Scaife to draft a formal resolution the committee could vote on at its next meeting.



Republican Councilor Lenny Rich called the change a no-brainer.



We have people that are going out of their way to leave Meriden as soon as possible... We have 29 officers that are under 10 years and all 29 could leave tomorrow. They are all under the same gun and we put them under the gun and made a mistake and didnt give them this benefit, Rich said.



Although not on the finance committee, Council Majority Leader Brian Daniels and Minority Leader Dan Brunet were in attendance. Both expressed hesitancy to alter the contract outside of the usual bargaining process.



It seems to me odd, for lack of a better word, that we would start unilaterally changing the terms of the existing contract when we are going to start renegotiating that package next month, Daniels said.



ltauss@record-journal.com 203-317-2231 Twitter: @LeighTaussRJ






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The Meriden Fire Department held its first medal ceremony at the Augusta Curtis Cultural Center. Two firefighters and two engine companies were honored. Firefighter Bryan Finch received the Medal of Honor. Engine Company 3, Group 4, received a Unit Citation for its response to a Jan. 1 house fire. Firefighter Robert Rochette was awarded the departments Purple Heart after he was injured while responding to a house fire in September 2015. Engine Company 2, Group 2, received a Unit Citation for its response to the same fire.



Southington police will hold their 9th annual Stuff-A-Cruiser event today. Officer Thomas Gallo said the event was started nine years ago by an officer trying to help out one family who had their Christmas literally stolen away from them. The event grew into an annual tradition. Officers, family members, cadets and other police department employees will collect toys and gifts outside Wal-Mart, 235 Queen St., from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.



The Wallingford Symphony Orchestra will share the stage with two school choruses in a two-part Holiday Concert on Sunday at the Paul Mellon Arts Center on the campus of Choate Rosemary Hall.



The Meriden City Council decided Monday to apply for a $200,000 federal Environmental Protection Agency grant to clean up the abandoned Meriden-Wallingford Hospital. If its awarded, the city would have to pitch in $40,000. Some councilors questioned why the expense should be the burden of the taxpayers and not MidState Medical Center, which operated the old Cook Avenue hospital before moving to its Lewis Avenue location.



The Wallingford Town Council is scheduled to discuss a tax incentive program intended to encourage commercial and residential development in the downtown Incentive Housing Zone. The five-year program would offer a 100 percent tax break in the first two years, a 75 percent abatement in the third and fourth years, and a 50 percent abatement in the fifth year.



The new Cheshire Community Food Pantry has larger storage areas, loading docks and an office. Located at 175 Sandbank Road, the 6,000-square-foot, $1.1 million facility will provide food to about 300 individuals.



The environmental programs at the Wallingford Public Library offer a chance to explore issues that affect communities near and far. The series of programs will continue, mainly on Tuesdays, from Jan. 10 through June 6, 2017. Programs begin at 6:30 p.m.



A French cable producer that bought Q-S Technologies last June recently paid $2.5 million for a building at 95 Research Parkway in Meriden. This is a good sign for a potential business expansion there, said Economic Development Director Juliet Burdelski.



A group formed by families who lost children in the Sandy Hook school shooting has started a new public service campaign designed to teach people to recognize the warning signs of someone who may be contemplating gun violence. The Know the Signs campaign from Sandy Hook Promise includes the launch of a new two-minute video public service announcement designed to show how easy it is to overlook at-risk behavior.



We didnt like this week



While last years lower fuel prices helped to reduce the gap between what struggling Connecticut families can afford to pay for energy and what they actually paid, there are concerns that fuel prices may be higher this winter as more people need emergency assistance.






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A franchisee attempting to open a new kind of Taco Bell restaurant in downtown San Antonio is suing its landlord for allegedly ignoring its lease agreements and obstructing efforts to open the restaurant.

San Antonio Taco LLC formed to operate a Taco Bell Cantina restaurant  claims landlord Mike Litofsky of Main Street Properties has intentionally interfered with the formation of its franchise agreement by refusing to fulfill the terms of its lease signed with the previous owner of the historic Sol Frank building at 517 E. Houston St.

San Antonio Taco alleges Litofsky and Main Street Properties have also threatened to find other tenants to fill the space. Its seeking an injunction against Litofsky to prevent the developer from seeking new tenants for the three-story building and a judgment demanding the lease terms be enforced.

Litofsky and Main Street Properties failed and refused, and still fail and refuse, to perform the lease according to its terms, San Antonio Taco said in a lawsuit filed in Bexar County court Tuesday.

Instead, the defendants in an effort to strong-arm (San Antonio Taco) to renegotiate the lease, have threatened to take all steps to aggressively interrupt its business and oppose any request for a liquor license made by San Antonio Taco, the plaintiff said.

A lawyer for San Antonio Taco did not return calls requesting comment.

State District Judge David Canales issued a temporary restraining order Thursday preventing Litofsky and Main Street Properties from speaking with potential tenants to fill the buildings two remaining floors, Litofsky said in a phone interview.

Litofsky declined to discuss specific allegations made in the lawsuit because he said he has not had time to fully review the case. However, he said San Antonio Taco had a pending agreement to occupy the space but didnt fulfill portions of the agreement, nullifying the lease.

They didnt live up to their obligations and terms of the commitments they made, Litofsky said. I think theyre just playing legal chess to try to get back into the deal."

Click here to read the full story on ExpressNews.com or turn to Fridays Business section for the full story.

jfechter@express-news.net
Millions of Bay Area residents who arent enamored of the stinking water that has recently been coming out of their taps can rejoice  the musty smelling liquid wont kill them or even make them sick.

That, at least, is what the experts say. And, as if that news wasnt cause enough for celebration, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission officials said Thursday that they will immediately stop pumping the malodorous, algae-infused water into peoples houses.

Its nothing thats harmful to humans, but it does have an earthy odor to it, said Steve Ritchie, the commissions assistant general manager for water. Therefore, we will shift our water sources.

The stink-water problem, which generated a fair amount of complaints, began Nov. 28 when district officials decided to draw down San Antonio Reservoir, in Alameda County, which was filling up fast with rain water.

The commission began pulling 30 million gallons a day from San Antonio, which is east of the Sunol Valley, and mixing it in with Hetch Hetchy reservoir water, which normally accounts for 85 percent of the water provided by the utility.

San Antonio is one of five reservoirs run by the commission, which serves 2.6 million customers in San Francisco, San Mateo and portions of Santa Clara and Alameda counties. The problem was, the reservoir was infused with blue-green algae, which injected a type of Actinobacteria known as geosmin into the drinking water. Geosmin is also known for giving beets an earthy taste.

Dozens of people began complaining about a musty aroma and odd flavor. Although blue-green algae can become toxic in high concentrations, San Francisco Department of Public Health officials assured water authorities that the amount of geosmin was not enough to cause health problems, Ritchie said.

Normally this time of year, biological growth would be low because temperatures go down and algae doesnt grow as much when it gets cold, Ritchie said. We dont know why the algae is there. We just know it is there.

Ritchie said the commission cut the flow from San Antonio on Thursday and began replacing it with water from the San Andreas and Crystal Springs reservoirs.

We test the water throughout the system hundreds of times a day, Ritchie said. We are now going to add this compound on a more routine basis to the list of things we test at our reservoirs.

Peter Fimrite is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: pfimrite@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @pfimrite
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Jennifer Mendiola could dance like no one else. She had a little goth flair.

And next year, she would have been Dr. Mendiola when she received her doctorate in health psychology from UC Merced.

The Sacramento natives family confirmed Wednesday that Mendiola, 35, died in the fire that ravaged a warehouse in Oakland during an electronic music show Friday night. She was one of 36 people to perish.

Until Wednesday, Mendiola was considered missing. That was torture for her husband, Jean-Thierry Mendiola.

Its agony to watch him suffer, said his sister, Anna Mendiola. Hes so desperate.

The couple had been married for eight years. They separated a few months ago, but were in marriage counseling in hopes of reconciliation. During the separation, she dated Micah Danemayer, a 28-year-old electronic musician who also died in the fire.

When they were together, she and her husband loved to go to 80s-themed venues to dance. She was the star.

Whenever she danced, everyone in the room would stop what they were doing and look at her, because she was the most beautiful thing in the room, Anna Mendiola said.

For the past few years, Jennifer Mendiola had split time between the couples Oakland home and UC Merced, where she was on the verge of completing her studies.

Its just horrifying. She was almost finished. She had all her coursework done, Anna Mendiola said. You cant even imagine how tirelessly she worked.

She hoped to become a professor in health psychology, said a colleague at Merced, Ruben Castaneda. She did her undergraduate studies at San Francisco State University and earned her masters in psychology at California State University Sacramento.

She was always happy, smiling, bright, Castaneda said. She was a great academic, always working really hard on getting research done. She had a very clear path and focus on what she wanted to do.

He recalled their first year in the graduate program, when they were among a dozen students who had to present a research project to a faculty panel. The intimidation factor was off the charts.

We were all extremely nervous, but she was kind of the one who kept us together, Castaneda said. We held practice sessions with each other. She was kind of there for us and really helped us through that first year.

We did great. Thanks to her, we had plenty of practice before we actually had to stand there and give it.

As she worked on her doctorate, Mendiola gave talks and wrote papers on topics ranging from social relationships and loneliness to emotion regulation during chemotherapy for breast cancer. She also co-authored an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times on risks faced by Latinos who resist getting flu shots.

In between all that, she found time to travel overseas. This year, she visited Thailand and Istanbul.

She was fearless, Anna Mendiola said. But she didnt view it that way. She just viewed herself as living life.

And she had an amazing sense of style, her sister-in-law said. She could go into any thrift store and in minutes find the coolest and most amazing thing to wear there. ... She had that little goth flair, you know?

A memorial page on Facebook is filled with tributes and photos  showing Jennifer smiling, at parties, decorating a Christmas tree. And theres a message from a friend: Dont ever stop dancing!

Jenna Lyons and Sarah Ravani are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: jlyons@sfchronicle.com, sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JennaJourno, @SarRavani
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Peter Wadsworth was a true eclectic  an artist, entrepreneur, computer expert and walking, talking encyclopedia of knowledge and trivia.

He was also the only one of the 36 people who died in the Dec. 2 fire in Oakland who had lived in the doomed Ghost Ship warehouse. The rest were guests whod come for the electronic music show.

He was a walking catalogue of correct factual knowledge, said Swan Vega, 33, an artist who also lived at the warehouse-turned-artists-collective. He was like our Dumbledore  our wise wizard. He was a genius. He was pure intelligence.

You could catch Pete in the hall, she said, and suddenly realize you have been engaging in the most interesting conversation you've had in a month, when you need to go to work.

Wadsworth, who was 38, was identified Friday by the Alameda County coroner.

Friends said he had been trying, unsuccessfully, to find other lodging and to move out of the building at 31st Avenue and International Boulevard, which had not been approved for residency. It was not clear if he was attending the music show at the time of the fire or if he was simply at home.

A longtime friend, Tammy Tasoff, said Wadsworth was trying to get a marijuana-infused salsa company off the ground, a timely endeavor given the states legalization of pot. He was also an artist who created replicas of Egyptian sculptures. And in the past, he worked at a company involved with drones.

Tasoff said she was studying to be a dentist, and that she intended to hire Wadsworth, who was like my brother, to be her office manager.

He was very eclectic and very, very sweet and loving, she said.

Wadsworth was from Boston, studied psychology at Harvard University and Reed College, and worked for a time as a designer for a small theater company in Boston, according to his Facebook page.

Kierstan Streber, who once shared an apartment in San Franciscos Haight-Ashbury with Wadsworth and three others, recalled a very eccentric, very very intelligent friend who was a little unusual.

She said he had wanted all of his friends and acquaintances, even casual ones, to stay in touch with each other. An email she received from Wadsworth in 2013, and held on to, proved to be telling.

Im really surprised no one has shared emergency contact information, he wrote. God forbid anything happens to any of us (but) accidents do happen and no one wants to be in a situation where we cant help when its most needed.

Steve Rubenstein and Kimberly Veklerov are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: srubenstein@sfchronicle.com, kveklerov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @steverubesf @kveklerov
The would-be shipper of coal from the Port of Oakland, a company controlled by a longtime friend of Gov. Jerry Brown, has sued Oakland for outlawing coal handling and storage within its borders, saying the ban interferes with interstate commerce and with federal authority over the transportation of hazardous substances.

The City Council unanimously passed the ordinance in July with the support of environmental groups, who said coal trains emit hazardous dust particles, and burning coal releases carbon dioxide that worsens global warming. In August, Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation by Sen. Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, prohibiting the state Transportation Commission from funding future coal-handling ports, though it would not affect Oakland.

The suit was filed in federal court Wednesday by a company called Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal, which had signed a contract with the city in 2013 to build a $250 million shipping terminal as part of a 130-acre development at the site of the former Oakland Army Base. The coal would be shipped by rail from Utah and could amount to 10 million tons a year, more than three times as much coal as California ports now send overseas.

Restricting any commodity on political grounds puts a cloud of uncertainty over the entire project, said Phil Tagami, chief executive of California Capital and Investment Group, which controls the shipping company. What will be the next commodity to which the council objects?

Tagami has been a friend of Browns for 20 years and owns the seven-story building near Oakland City Hall where Brown and his wife, Anne Gust Brown, were married in 2005. As mayor of Oakland, Brown appointed Tagami to the Oakland Port Commission in 2000, and as governor he has named Tagami to the California Lottery Commission and the state medical board.

Brown has also been a leader in Californias efforts to combat global warming by reducing carbon pollution. In signing the ban on state funding of future coal ports, he praised Oaklands action and said the states goal should be to eliminate the shipment of coal through its ports.

The lawsuit contends opponents fears of coal-dust pollution are exaggerated.

The ports of Long Beach, which exports coal, and Pittsburg, which ships the coal product petcoke, have kept emissions in check by using insulated coverings on their shipping terminals, lawyers for Tagamis company said. They said pollution-control technology would keep emissions from the Oakland port negligible.

By prohibiting the local export of coal, one of the most commonly transported commodities in the United States, Oakland is imposing unconstitutional burdens on interstate commerce, the lawyers argued. They also said the ban violates exclusive federal authority over rail transportation and the designation of hazardous substances.

The Sierra Club, which backed the Oakland ordinance, denounced the lawsuit.

Private developer Phil Tagami wants to overturn the will of the people so that he can make a profit on coal, which poses a health, safety and climate risk to Oakland, said Jessica Yarnall Loarie, a lawyer for the environmental group. We plan to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the city to make sure that this terminal never ships coal.

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf declined to comment on the lawsuit. But in a May 2015 letter to Tagami, quoted in the suit, Schaaf told the developer he should respect the owner and publics decree that we will not have coal shipped through our city.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @egelko
We all know that if life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. But what do you do when life gives you boredom? You tango with a stranger, of course. The Wall Street Journal reported that there is a Facebook group that helps strangers get together at airport gates, Starbucks or anywhere else where they might be stranded and do that ol dance thing. So maybe it takes a village to do the tango.

Top tweet

John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, has died at the age of 95. Not a fan, Trump said. I like astronauts who actually make it to the moon.

That was a news flash from Funny or Die, creating a little fake news of its own after Glenns death on Thursday. President-elect Donald Trump actually did a nice tweet, calling Glenn a great pioneer and a hero.

Number

of the day

$14.6

million

Thats at least how much money from Donald Trumps campaign has gone to Trump-owned businesses for such things as air travel and event rentals. Bloomberg reported that the president-elect put $66.1 million of his own money into his campaign.

The Daily Briefing is compiled from San Francisco Chronicle staff and news services. See more items and links at www.sfgate.com. Twitter: @techbriefing
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A 19-year-old San Jose State University freshman was arrested on suspicion of committing multiple acts of sexual battery on campus, police said.

Huaien David Kong was arrested Thursday after police received a tip from a member of the campus community after surveillance photos were released of the suspect carrying a skateboard.

The university has had six cases of sexual battery reported since Oct. 17, three of which happened since Nov. 30.

Kong is believed to be responsible for an attack that occurred in the universitys Student Union at 4:25 p.m. Monday, as well as additional unreported batteries.

These disturbing incidents have caused understandable anxiety in our community, San Jose State University President Mary Papazian said in a statement sent to students.

All the victims were students.

Police are investigating whether other suspects could be affiliated with the university.

Leads provided over the past few days are being pursued and police foot patrols have been intensified around campus, Papazian said.

The university reported 11 cases of sexual battery in 2015. The number of sexual battery cases has increased to 17 in 2016.

While there is no indication that we are experiencing a significant year-to-year increase in these crimes, even one case is too many, Papazian said.

The university plans to install 24 new security cameras to be used as an investigatory tool, as well as enhanced lighting. The university will also add six more police officers to its campus police force, bringing the number to 26.

Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani
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"Pulgas," or flea markets, are the epicenters for shopping, dancing and altogether socializing for many San Antonio families, and are the subject one photographer used to capture "the beating heart" of the city.

Raised in Los Angeles but based in San Antonio, artist Arlene Mejorado's ongoing Pulga Series is one of her latest projects used to "engage her art with the social environment," according to her website.

RELATED: Beautiful ballerina photo shoot inspired by Donald Trump's 'negative' rhetoric, artist says

Regardless of location or culture, the 28-year-old University of Texas at Austin graduate said she feels outdoor market places serve as an "energetic vortex of bursting life that permeates both the synchronicity of social order and the unpredictability of chaos."

With her camera focused on the Poteet Flea Market, 20 minutes south of San Antonio, Mejorado said she worked to capture "people that exist outside of pop culture's visual consumption and 'photogenic' socialites."

RELATED: Local artist is turning the San Antonio Spurs into 'amazing' pieces of fine art

Mejorado's photography depicts the lively scenes around the pulga booths that can be experienced any given weekend in San Antonio: people chatting, drinking and dancing in the middle of the bargaining.

When Mejorado approached her subjects, she was greeted with "skeptical" or "reserved" responses, she said.

"Their initial reaction was to joke and say: 'Why are taking a picture of me, I'll break the camera/se va romper la camera,' " she said. "I think there's a sentiment there about invisibility and being unaccustomed to being in front of the lens."

The photographer her trip to the flea market was more than snapping photos.

"The key is to engage and have conversations with people," she added. "Everyone has a story that's one of my favorite things.

Mejorado's photos were part of an exhibition at R Space, curated by Lady Space Gallery and R.L. Rodriguez for the Fotoseptiembre 2016 a few months ago, she said.

RELATED: San Antonio man collects thousands of empty bullet casings to create awesome art canvases

"This digital exhibit brings visibility to the daily resilience, thriving community, and vibrant beauty that exist in the pulgas on the outskirts of the city," Mejorado explained on her website. "The faces and culture she encounters in these spaces represent the beating heart of San Antonio."

Click through the gallery above for a glimpse of Mejorado's work.

mmendoza@mysa.com

Twitter: @MaddySkye
Selling tamales in South Texas isn't a tough pitch, but a local H-E-B worker went ahead and added her own flair to the task and social media is eating it up.

Sung to the tune of James Brown's classic "Get Up Offa That Thing," the unnamed H-E-B employee has the internet dancing and ready to buy whatever she's selling  in this case, tamales  after Facebook user John A. Castillo caught the show in a video that is now racking up views.
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Frozen at sea is actually a good thing, if you experience it aboard the Disney Wonder.

And even though it snows twice during the Broadway-caliber production of Frozen, A Musical Spectacular, you wont need to pack your parka for this cruise out of Galveston. But be sure to pack your pirate paraphernalia (more on that later).

Cinderella and Snow White wannabes, tots in tiaras and moms in Mouseketeer ears packed into the Walt Disney Theater for the world premiere of Frozen. Unlike other ships theaters, the elegant Art Deco inspired theatre boasts perfect acoustics and unobstructed views. I didnt want to miss a thing, so I arrived early to get a good seat.

The 55-minute show is a spectacle indeed. Frozen, two years in the making, was adapted from the blockbuster animated film. Kelly Benton, the shows producer, said there were many creative challenges involved in the adaptation. But when Disneys creative folks combine the latest in technology and animation with live theatre, the skys the limit. State of the art visuals, stunning sets, exquisite costuming, transformational scenery, dramatic lighting and dazzling special effects kept me on the edge of my seat throughout the entire production.

More Information If you go: www.disneycruise.com 888-325-2500 Travel tips: Pre-book popular activities online prior to sailing, such as Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique appointments and Disney character "meet and greets." Sign up for a complimentary gingerbread house workshop at Guest Services as soon as you're onboard. Itineraries from Galveston: Disney Wonder offers four- to seven-night cruises from Galveston Port to Caribbean destinations including Cozumel, Grand Cayman, the Bahamas, Jamaica, Key West, Nassau and Castaway Cay (Disney's private island) through Jan. 20, before relocating to Port Canaveral for spring 2017 cruises. Tack on a few days before or after your cruise to explore Galveston Island. www.galveston.com 888-425-4753. See More Collapse

Frozen reached an emotional crescendo when Elsa sang the show-stopping hit, Let it Go. Goosebumps broke out across the audience.

I was in awe of Michael Currys dynamic Japanese puppetry, which is similar to his sophisticated puppets from the Broadway production of The Lion King. With this technique, the large puppet is held in front of the actor, with its feet connected to the actors feet, synchronizing their movements.

While Frozen is the cruises crown jewel, there are lots more exciting new enhancements onboard this newly-revamped 2,713-passenger ship. Theres something for everyone regardless of age. With so many new features, you can be busy all day and still not experience everything.

Tiaras, sashes and wands reign

Kids from 3 to 12 can channel their inner princess or pirate in the ships new Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. Little girls can be Cinderella, Snow White, Aurora, Belle, Elsa, Anna, Tiana, Jasmine  or even Tinker Bell.

Pampered little princesses get the royal treatment in the boutique with packages that include glamorous hairstyling, shimmering makeup, fanciful nails  and for the finishing touch, Pixie Dust, applied by a Fairy Godmother-in-training. With the Under the Sea Package, they are transformed into Ariel, complete with a mermaid tail and hair ornament. The magical beauty salon has the perfect spell for everyone who has ever dreamed of becoming their favorite Disney storybook character.

Prices for Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutiques magical transformations begin at $19.95 for the Royal Knight Package (little boys are a bargain) and go up to $499.00 for my favorite, the Disney Princess Signature Package, which includes a deluxe tiara, Swarovski crystal encrusted Cinderella dress, sash and more. Theres even a Disney Frozen Package for $164.95. But regardless of which package your little princess chooses  the memories created are priceless.

Pirates in the Caribbean

Kids and their parents dressed in pirate attire rocked the balmy night away at Mickeys Pirates In The Caribbean Party followed by a lavish fireworks show on the top deck.

Mickey made a grand entrance zip-lining high above the crowd. They went wild when he landed on stage, joining other Disney characters, all decked out in serious pirate gear.

This was the big night theyd all been waiting for. Between the pulsating music and frenzy, you could feel the excitement and electricity in the air.

Families really got into the pirate action. It was hard to tell who was having more fun  the kids or the parents. Guests went overboard creating outrageous pirate ensembles. Pirate moms in tight corsets, dads in dreadlocks wearing eyeliner and eyepatches, sashes, bandanas and hoop earnings. One creative dad cleverly perched a stuffed parrot on his shoulder.

Robert Sherer, a computer programmer by day and re-enactment costume designer by night, went to extreme measures for Pirate Night. After extensive research on period clothing, this dad extraordinaire designed and sewed all of his familys pirate costumes.

One embarrassed mom confessed that she had to pack an extra large suitcase just for her familys pirate props and paraphernalia.

Disney dining

My taste buds were never bored with Disneys signature rotational dining program where every night I dined in a different restaurant venue with a different theme and menu.

Tianas Place, the newest and most exciting culinary addition, is getting rave reviews. The eatery, inspired by the animated film The Princess and the Frog, is reminiscent of a traditional New Orleans supper club. Guests are given Mardi Gras beads and invited to join the Second Line procession meandering through the dining room to the sounds of the Crawfish Crooners Dixieland jazz band. The menu is a blend of classic Cajun, Creole and Southern cuisine. I started dinner with Boudin Sausage Fritters followed by Sauteed Gulf Shrimp and Grits. For dessert, I indulged in decadent Buttermilk Beignets with a Chocolate Espresso Dipping Sauce.

After five Disney cruises, Animators Palate is still my favorite restaurant. I love the crisp, graphic black and white decor with splashes of color. The paintings and walls come alive, along with other visual surprises during the new dinner show, Animation Magic. Guests drawings, made with colored markers on their paper placemats, are magically animated and become part of the show. I got a big kick out of seeing my stick figure drawing skipping and dancing side-by-side along with beloved Disney characters. And, we all got artist credits at the end of the show.

After the kids are tucked into bed, mom and dad can enjoy a romantic evening in Palo, the adult-only restaurant with panoramic views. My dinner in this upscale contemporary Italian eatery started with a generous antipasto, Fried Calamari appetizer, followed by Roasted Rosemary-rubbed Rack of Lamb, and ending with a divine chocolate souffle with a vanilla bean chocolate sauce  a splurge worth the calories and the $30 surcharge.

Sailing with Santa

What can be more adorable than a Goofy Santa or a Pluto reindeer? Between Mickeys Tree-Lighting Magic, Deck the Deck Holiday Party, Santas Winter Wonderland Ball, Storytime with Mrs. Claus, Dickens-inspired carolers and Disney character greetings, guests will be hopping from one holiday happening to the next.

There was space still available at presstime this week and its not too late to book your Very Merrytime Cruise on the Disney Wonder. I cant think of having more family fun than spending Christmas or New Years Eve sailing with Santa.

So bring your inner pirate and princess along and enjoy cruising with Mickey and all the Disney characters. Youll go home with WONDER-ful memories that will last a lifetime. Its hard to believe this all started with a mouse.

Whats new on the Disney Wonder

Dont worry, Disney kept many of the classic cruise favorites, and with a little help of some Pixie Dust, the Disney folks added some new exciting features, activities and amenities.

Here are some new highlights not to miss on the recently re-imagined Disney Wonder.

The biggest news of all is Frozen, a Musical Spectacular, the stage adaptation of the animated film hit Frozen.

Marvel Super Hero Academy. Warning: Once your kids discover this interactive high tech area in the Oceaneer Club, they wont want to leave. Here, they can meet, interact and learn important life lessons from their favorite Marvel super heroes. Through various activities with Spider-Man, the Black Widow and Captain America character building is emphasized along with teamwork.

Tianas Place  inspired by classic French Quarter supper clubs, the eatery serves up some mighty fine Creole, Cajun and southern cooking. Cant beat the buttermilk beignets!

After Hours is an adult area with three venues including Azure  a cool contemporary South Beach vibe club; the Cadillac Lounge has a very retro RT 66 ambiance with over-stuffed leather chairs and hubcap tabletops; Crown & Fin offers a traditional English pub serving specialty beers.

Animators Palate, an Animation Magic dinner show, has some outrageous visual tricks up its sleeve.

Bibiddi Bobbidi Boutique, where kids can channel their inner pirate or princess and get a magical makeover.

Dorys Reef , a poolside splash zone for toddlers.

Daisy De-Lites adds a whole new spin and fresh approach to light and calorie conscious poolside dining with salads, soups and wraps.

Petes Boiler Bites gyro station with tasty toppings is a big hit.

Follow writer Michelle Newman on Twitter or Instagram: @travelyenta
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I lost track of how many times I've cruised to Cozumel. On previous visits I always took the choppy 45-minute ferry ride over to Playa Del Carmen on Mexicos mainland. By the time I arrived, I was usually seasick. Not a fun way to start off a

l-o-n-g bus trip to Chichen Itza, Tolum or Coba to wander through ancient Mayan ruins.

This time, on my Disney Wonder cruise, I decided to do something different. I stayed in Cozumel to explore the area near Punta Langosta, the port where the ship docked. I was eager to see what Cozumel had to offer and get a taste of the local culture.

Viangy Rocha Jimenez, my terrific guide from Explora Caribe Tours, met me at the ship. She planned a customized itinerary focusing on Cozumel's cultural highlights.

More Information If you go Disney Cruise Line: www.disneycruise.com Cozumel & Riviera Maya tourism board: Cozumel: www.cozumel.travel Explora Caribe Tours:http://m.explora-tours.com www.visitmexico.com See More Collapse

After slathering up with mosquito repellent, we set out on our excursion and were on our way to a little gem  Pueblo del Maiz, a re-created ancient Mayan village. I never heard of it since it's usually not offered on cruise shore excursions. The Pueblo is a bit under the radar; ironically, European tourists have discovered it.

After entering Pueblo del Maiz, visitors are blessed by a Mayan priest during a welcome ceremony. Then an offering is made to Hunal-ye, the Mayan God of Corn. Mayans made pilgrimages traveling great distances in their dugout canoes for sacred ceremonies and made offerings to their powerful gods. Cocoa beans were so valuable, that they were used not only for a chocolate beverage, but for ceremonies and currency as well.

Before embarking on a journey back in time, visitors can have their faces painted with natural pigments. Sacred copal (tree resin) incense is burned to purify visitors before entering the Pueblo.

The Mayans harvested sap from the chicle tree and used it for chewing gum - about 1,000 years before Wrigley's caught on. Mayan warriors and hunters discovered that gum kept them hydrated by increasing their salvia flow in the steamy tropical jungle. In the chicle camp, a demonstration was given showing how chicle sap is extracted from the Chicozapote tree, boiled, then dried in the sun to make natural chewing gum. After tasting the bland, wax-like gum, I understood why we now have flavored chewing gum.

The pueblo compound is comprised of seven palapas, or traditional thatched huts. Each one has a specific purpose and provides a glimpse into the ancient Mayan lifestyle and customs. Interactive, hands on activities are provided through out the Pueblo to experience authentic village life.

In the tortilla palapa, I learned how to make homemade corn tortillas and even tried making one on a traditional comal. Delicious fresh salsa made from tomatoes, cilantro, peppers and ground pumpkin seeds is slathered on top of piping-hot fresh tortillas.

I tasted local honey and a refreshing hibiscus beverage in another palapa, as stingless bees swarmed all around me. Viangy assured me that they were harmless. I was surprised to see a colony of Melipon bees and learned that the Mayans were beekeepers. They raised the bees not only for honey, but also for medicinal purposes.

In the cocoa palapa, I watched toasted cocoa beans ground into paste followed by tasting the traditional sweet beverage.

Feather art and elaborate feathered headdresses were an important part of the Mayan culture. I couldn't resist capturing a colorful Kodak moment wearing one of the huge headdresses.

The sisal palapa's exhibit shows how the ingenious Mayans used the fibers from the agave plant to make sisal cord that was woven into sandals, baskets and other useful objects.

Follow Michelle Newman on Twitter or Instagam: @travelyenta
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Albany

Gov. Andrew Cuomo told reporters at The Egg on Thursday that he has spoken to federal investigators about the corruption scandal that has resulted in the indictments of his former top aide Joe Percoco, former SUNY Polytechnic President Alain Kaloyeros and six businessmen after the charges were made public in September.

"I have talked to them about the case that they're bringing  the case that they've brought," he said.

Responding to follow-up questions, Cuomo said he did not believe he would be called as a witness, but "I think the question is more it's up to the defendants in who they call in their defense," he said.

Cuomo's Chief of Staff Melissa DeRosa issued a follow-up statement after the Q&A had ended: "As part of our continuing cooperation, the governor voluntarily made himself available and shared his knowledge of facts potentially relevant to the case. Out of respect for the pending matter, we will have no further comment," she said.

In his first exchange with reporters at the Capitol since May, Cuomo responded to a number of other topics.

Asked whether there will be a special session with the Legislature by the end of year  in which lawmakers could push for a pay raise beyond their $79,500 base pay in exchange for ethics reforms and other items  the governor left the door open but said it appeared doubtful. "I don't know that we will achieve enough progress to have a special session but we are still talking," he said, referring to Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan.

Cuomo repeated his desire to curb lawmakers' ability to earn outside income, which he believes has been the root cause of numerous corruption cases that have swept through the Legislature in recent years.

"There are very few legislative cases of bad actions that don't come back to that conflict, so that outside income is significant," he said.

Asked about President-elect Donald Trump's cabinet picks and the possibility that New York's social programs  especially health care  could see a drop in federal support, Cuomo said he would adopt a wait-and-see attitude. "But if they go with classic conservative governmental theory of passing (too much of the costs of) those programs to the high-needs states, it's going to be a serious problem," he said.

Cuomo also weighed in on the internecine fighting going on within the state Senate's Democrats, saying it's nothing new.

"They have tensions and personal animus and factions that predate my election," Cuomo said of the chamber's 32 Democrats, who are split three ways. "You have personal rifts, you have personal agendas that have gone on for years."

rkarlin@timesunion.com  518-454-5758  @RickKarlinTU
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DANBURY  Within a few hours Friday morning, a person in need could get a haircut, an eye exam, some warm clothes and a free meal.

These were just some of the services offered through Community Service Project Connect at Western Connecticut State University, which introduces the homeless, those at risk of becoming homeless and others in need to businesses, nonprofit organizations and governmental agencies that can help.

The beauty of today is that any client that comes through the door is being helped, said Daryle Dennis, Westerns interim vice president of Multicultural Affairs & Affirmative Action Programs.

About 150 attendees wandered through the Bill Williams Gym from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. gathering information on housing options, legal services and other programs.

The event started nine years ago when homeless shelters and service agencies teamed up with Western to offer one place for the homeless to come get help and information. The university was an ideal spot because it is centrally located, on a bus line and big enough to fit all of the agencies and clients.

This year, the free event expanded to help anyone who needs services, not just the homeless. As part of the the expansion, the event changed its name from Homeless Project Connect to Community Service Project Connect.

I think as the new format grows, more clients will come out, Dennis said.

About 32 organizations attended and about 70 students volunteered to serve food, distribute clothing and escort the clients to the agencies tables.

New this year was a childrens area where kids can play with Western students while their parents explore the different services.

Justin McClain, a freshman from New Haven, was among the student volunteers.

Where Im from, I see a lot of people who dont have much, and I have a lot, he said. I wanted to help.

He said the event is a great idea.

Its benefiting everyone, McClain said. There isnt anyone here who isnt satisfied and Ive talked to everyone.

Lyn Meyers, treasure of the Danbury Lions Club, said the organization has been involved since the event began, offering free eye exams.

Meyers said about 10 percent of those examined are referred to a doctor for treatment, but its good for everyone to have their eyes checked.

Were enjoying being here as usual and well be happy to be here again next year, he said.

Katrina Cessna, a staff attorney with Connecticut Legal Rights Project, Inc., which provides legal services to low-income adults with mental health conditions, said the event is a great way to connect with people in a neutral environment and inform them of their rights.

This is a good way to reach some of the most hard-to-reach people who are eligible for our services, Cessna said. Its about empowering the population, letting them know their rights and letting them be their own advocates.

She said she hopes similar events spread throughout the state.

The more things there are like this the better, especially with services being threatened with budget cuts, Cessna said. Its nice to know people are still getting access to them.

kkoerting@newstimes.com; 203-731-3345
WASHINGTON  Fairfield County may not look exactly like a heartland America district, but that isnt stopping U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., from leading the House Democratic effort to win back blue-collar voters who went decisively for Republican Donald Trump in the presidential election.

When Democrats have a majority in the House, its because we win in places like Virginia, Ohio and North Carolina, Himes said. I am really interested in making sure that the Democratic exercise in the next election cycle is one of addition, not subtraction.

Himes won election this month as chairman of the New Democrat Coalition, a moderate Democratic subcaucus that believes in ideas over ideology, as its website states.

The coalition will have 54 members when the 115th Congress convenes, including U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Esty. Thats about 27 percent of the 194 Democrats taking House seats next month. In the election, Democrats picked up six seats, but it was not enough to upset the GOPs majority  240 seats in January.

The New Democrat Coalition is separate and distinct from its sister Blue Dog Coalition, which appears to be a bit more conservative with a name rooted in the old Southern Yellow Dog Democrat. (Southerners in days gone by, it was said, would vote for a yellow dog if it were on the ballot as a Democrat.)

Himes ascension to the coalitions leadership dovetails with the Democratic Partys introspection on how former Secretary of State and U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton  long favored to win  lost the election to real estate developer and reality television star Trump.

Clinton won the popular vote by more than 2 million ballots but lost the key battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin  all traditional redoubts of white, blue-collar Democratic voters.

Himes insists the differences between moderate Democrats and the partys progressive wing led by Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., are not monumental.

Theres a different emphasis and we have different backgrounds, but were brothers in arms, Himes said. But that doesnt mean well always agree on everything.

NDC members tend to have some experience in business, Himes said. They stand really at the nexus of economic growth and progressive politics.

Surprising champion

Himes beat out two Democratic House competitors to win the groups chairmanship. But most of his 4th Congressional District seems distinct from the Midwestern jurisdictions that Himes and other moderates say they need to win in 2018. Only four of the 17 towns in the district  Monroe, Trumbull, Oxford and Shelton  went for Trump.

In many ways, Himes fits the profile of the elite insider that pundits say blue-collar voters turned against.

As a well-tailored former Goldman Sachs vice president, hes comfortable clinking glasses with the yacht club set in Greenwich and Westport. But thanks to his birth and early years in Peru and Colombia, where his father worked for the Ford Foundation and UNICEF, Himes also is comfortable addressing audiences in Spanish.

Himes for the most part is a center-leaning but ultimately loyal Democrat, earning ratings of 80 percent from the Clean Water Action environmental group and the liberal Americans for Democratic Action. The American Conservative Union, on the other hand, grouped Himes in the coalition of the radical left.

Hes proven himself unafraid to bolt the partys majority on issues such as revising Dodd-Frank, the 2010 law he helped craft that brought an unprecedented level of federal oversight to Wall Street.

And he has been an unabashed free-trade supporter, voting in June to give President Barack Obama fast-track authority to negotiate the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal  which has not been approved by Congress. Critics, including Trump, assail such treaties as thinly veiled license for corporations to offshore U.S. jobs.

I find it kind of astonishing that (Himes and moderate Democrats) didnt learn their lesson, said Douglas Sutherland, Fairfield County branch chairman for the progressive Democracy for America. Pushing free-trade deals was critical to our losing this election.

dan@hearstdc.com
GREENWICH  A rash of larcenies in the east end of town is continuing, with numerous vehicles broken into and burglaries reported.

Police released details Thursday on the latest in a spate of vehicular thefts that has plagued a neighborhood near the Stamford city line since last year.

Four cars were entered over the weekend on Halsey Drive and Florence Road. One wallet with cash was stolen, along with personal items. All but one of the vehicles were unlocked, said police spokesman Lt. Kraig Gray.

The patrol officers are very aware that persons are going through cars at night. Theyre looking for an easy score  it only takes a second to look inside a car, open it, and steal a wallet, the lieutenant said. If anyone sees someone acting suspicious near a car, they should call police.

The rash of thefts from vehicles in the east end of town has been unnerving to residents. It has apparently been happening so frequently that it has just become the new normal, one told Greenwich Time. Even though the break-ins may be relatively minor, it is still happening very frequently and is an invasion of privacy that leaves residents feeling unsettled and unsafe in a community where we shouldn't have to worry about criminals walking around our streets at night on a regular basis.

Police said it appeared likely that some car-thefts arent even reported to the department.

In June, several cars on nearby Hassake Road and other streets near Havemeyer Lane were the target of a thief or thieves. In November of 2015, three teens from Stamford were detained in connection with a number of thefts from cars. Three cars on Hassake Road, Amherst Road and MacArthur Drive were discovered with cell phones and money stolen from them. The teens names were not released because of their age.

In addition to car thefts, two recent burglaries were reported in the North Mianus section of town.

On Serenity Lane, a rear door was forced open, and a wallet with cash was stolen, along with portable electronics. The burglary was reported on the evening of Dec. 3.

A home on nearby Benenson Drive was also targeted by a burglar or burglars this weekend. Specifics on the case were unavailable this week.

Robert.Marchant@scni.com
1 Concern over e-cigarettes: Soaring use of e-cigarettes among young people is now a major public health concern, according to a report published Thursday from the U.S. surgeon general. It is the first comprehensive look on the subject from the nations highest public-health authority, and it finds that e-cigarettes are now the most commonly used tobacco product among youths, surpassing tobacco cigarettes. E-cigarettes, which turn nicotine into inhalable vapor, can harm developing brains of teenagers who use them and also can create harmful aerosol for people around the user, the report said, citing studies in animals. Adolescent brains are particularly sensitive to nicotines effects and can experience a constellation of nicotine-induced neural and behavioral alterations, the report said. It urged stronger action to prevent young people from getting access to e-cigarettes.

2 Officer, suspect die: A second Georgia police officer has died a day after being shot alongside a fellow officer while responding to a domestic dispute report. Charles Patterson, president of Georgia Southwestern State University, said in a statement Thursday that Officer Jody Smith died from his injuries. Smith had been airlifted to a hospital after the shootings Wednesday in Americus, Ga., about 130 miles south of Atlanta. Also killed in the attack was Americus police Officer Nicholas Smarr. Fellow officers said the two men had been close friends since boyhood. The suspected gunman, Minquell Lembrick, was found dead Thursday morning at a home where he was hiding. A telephone tip led police to the residence. Americus Police Chief Mark Scott said it appeared Lembrick shot himself as the first officers arrived.
CASS CITY  The search for a new Cass City Village manager will start sometime in 2017.

Village Manager Peter Cristiano announced recently he plans to retire the first part of next year, but his actual end date might be later in that year.

He had hoped to retire in February 2017, but a project in the heart of the downtown may delay that. Some village officials would like him to stay until the construction of the new grocery store next to the village hall is underway.

Tuscola County Economic Development Communications Director Vicky Sherry said Mark Molter plans to break ground on the grocery store in April 2017 and complete it in November 2017.

I need to talk more with the village council about my retirement before anything is decided, said Cristiano, 73.

Cristiano took over as village manager in July 2005. He brought a wide-range of skills to the village when he was hired, some of which included as former city administrator of Southfield, helping launch some technology companies as well as working in the communication industry.

We worked together well over the years even though we are different. Im more of the bean counter (financial aspect), and Peters aspect is more of programs, entrepreneurship, and a dreamer of what could be. We blended that, said village Clerk Nanette Walsh. We didnt always agree. We balanced each other  a yin and yang professional relationship. That was a good way to explore options.

Cristiano moved to the Casville area when he retired. He didnt stay idle for long. When the village of Cass City was having problems finding another administrator he offered his services  on what was suppose to be a temporary basis. He ended up staying because he enjoyed what he was doing.

Its a great town and community. Ive enjoyed my time here, but its time to retire. I want to take some time for myself, he said. I want to do something different. Im not sure what that will be yet.

Some of the accomplishments since Cristiano has been at the helm include: the construction of the Dairy Farmers of America plant, construction of an arsenic treatment plant as well as several infrastructure projects in the 11 years on the job.

The town is in great shape and Ive enjoyed my time here, Cristiano said. When I retire, I want to do some traveling, and enjoy my grandchildren. Im also thinking about going back and getting my PhD.

My mind is just as sharp as it was back when I was in my 30 and 40s, and I want to keep it that way.

He graduated from Syracuse University as well as Wayne State University.
BAD AXE  County planners discussed a medical marijuana-related law this week pertaining to dispensaries, which will go into effect later this month.

At the Huron County Planning Commission meeting Wednesday night, planners briefly discussed Act 281 and what it entails.

Act 281 is an act to license and regulate medical marijuana growers, processors, provisioning centers, secure transporters and safety compliance facilities. The Act will become effective Dec. 20.

The Act will:

 Provide for the powers and duties of certain state and local government officers and entities.

 Create a medical marijuana licensing board.

 Provide interaction with statewide monitoring system for commercial marijuana transactions.

 Provide immunity from prosecution for marijuana-related offenses for persons engaging in marijuana-related activities in compliance with the act.

What this means is Huron County could have dispensaries, but the decision will be left with local municipalities.

Under the act, the villages have to opt-in to allow them, Randy Miller, Huron County Emergency Services director, said. Under the law, you actually have to have a law that says you can have them. They are not allowed by the statue unless you say you can have them.

In the past, the countys board of commissioners passed an ordinance saying Huron County as a whole would follow state and federal guidelines  meaning marijuana is not legal for any use.

We dont have anything in our ordinances at all dealing with medical marijuana, Jeff Smith, director of planning and zoning, said.

Marijuana is not legal for recreational use in Michigan and is still considered federally illegal. In 2008, Michigan voters approved the drug for medical purposes.

At this point, this law changes your ballgame slightly, Miller said.  You would actually have to pass an ordinance saying you allow it, where you allow it, how you allow and what form you would allow it.

We should be prepared for it because it is opt-in and it is something that the townships and cities have to do on their own, Miller added. They get to decide where these are placed in their comfort levels if they want them.

Miller urged planners to look at Colorado and how growth operations have become a corporate-run business.
The Kansas City Southern rail line's annual Holiday Express train brought Christmas spirit to Port Arthur on Thursday evening. The train's cars were transformed into Christmas displays with model railroads, lights and other decorations. Santa Claus also made an appearance.

The KCS Charitable Fund raises money every year to purchase gift cards for the Salvation Army to purchase warm clothing for children. The gift cards are donated to the local Salvation Army at each stop on the tour.
The New Caney mechanic who scammed dozens of customers out of hundreds of thousands of dollars will spend 10 years in prison for the crime.

Richard Sisney, 61, pleaded guilty to first-degree felony aggregate theft days before he was set to appear in front of a jury in late October. Sisney faced up to life in prison, but prosecutors agreed to a 10-year sentence in exchange for his guilty plea.

Judge Paul D'amico, of Montgomery County Court-at-Law 5, sentenced Sisney Thursday on the charge. He was taken into custody in the courtroom.

Prosecutors said this criminal case is one form of justice for Sisney's multiple victims.

"This has been going on for years," Prosecutor Jim Prewitt said. "I'm relieved that there's some justice here for the victims who lost a lot of money from his various scams."

One of Sisney's victims watched as a bailiff put him in handcuffs. John Wyscarver, a former supervisor with Homeland Security, said he gave Sisney $20,000 in 2005 to swap an engine after his three quarter-ton diesel truck was hit from behind.

But when Wyscarver got the truck back, he immediately noticed problems.

"It turns out it might not have been a new motor," said Wyscarver, adding that the leaf springs in the truck were also rusted out.

"I spent more money rebuilding it than what I paid him. It wouldn't have been so bad, but my wife and I are raising our granddaughter. He put her life in jeopardy."

Lieutenant Joseph Sclider, commander of the Montgomery County Auto-Theft Task Force, said Wyscarver's story is like many others who complained about Sisney's auto shop.

"He had been duping some customers with not putting the correct parts he had initially told them, switching engines and all kinds of craziness going on," Sclider said. "This was not just a one-time offense."

When the task force got wind of Sisney's illegal doings, they launched an investigation into his business. A quick check with the county tax office showed Sisney had multiple title issues with vehicles he was working on.

Sisney ripped off the customers in three phases, court documents show: inducement, delay and excuse, and confrontation. He would promise an unsuspecting person that he would perform vehicle repairs or restoration, take their payment and later offer excuses for why the job was not done.

"I don't know if we really brought closure to the victims," Sclider said. "They were out a lot of money."

Wyscarver said he was unable to recover his money from Sisney in a civil suit. As for Sisney's 10-year sentence:

"He needs to serve every bit of it," Wyscarver said. "I wish he had gotten more."

Sisney's defense attorney was not available for comment.
NEW CANAAN  An app to track school buses, a learning management system and virtual reality headsets may all be a reality for New Canaan students next year. As budget season approaches, Superintendent Bryan Luizzi listed these technological advances among some of the items he would like to see factored into next years budget.

According to Luizzi, about 82 percent of the New Canaan school budget goes toward teacher salaries and benefits. The majority of the rest covers things like school maintenance and transportation. But the superintendent said there is some wiggle room to add new programs and technology to the schools.

Theres a few percentage points left for innovation, Luizzi said. Were looking at the opportunity to work around more technology in the curriculum.

Included are virtual reality headsets to give students a chance to interact with the material they are learning.

Instead of reading about the crossing of the Delaware, they put on a headset and can sit next to Washington, said Luizzi, listing virtual lab experiments and even exploring on a cellular level as other possibilities for the headsets. I think the experiential opportunity is going to transform the way students learn.

The district has been sampling products and looking at vendors for the program, which would likely start in middle school and high school science classes.

Luizzi would also like to see more Chromebooks  laptops that utilize web-based programs  available in Saxe Middle School. Currently, teachers can sign out a cart of Chromebooks for classes to use for the day. Luizzi would like a cart in each classroom, so students can use the netbooks seamlessly in each class. Cloud technology would allow students to use different Chromebooks throughout the day while accessing the same materials.

Were looking at that model at the middle school to allow them to seamlessly use technology, Luizzi said. This lets curriculum be the focus, as it should be. Technology is not the event; the event is learning.

In addition to the VR headsets, Luizzi would like to integrate a learning management system across the district so students from kindergarten through 12th grade can submit assignments and access class materials in one place. He is working with the districts transportation director to create an app to help parents track their childs school bus.

Besides technology, the district is looking at staffing increases to accommodate the eight- grade class, the largest in the district, as they move up to the high school. Luizzi said he would like to add additional support staff, as well, particularly math support at the middle school.

Weve been meeting, talking and looking where our needs are, Luizzi said. We work hard to be good stewards of our districts money.

ekayata@hearstmediact.com; @erin_kayata
Courtesy photo /Webb County Sheriffs Office

Webb County sheriffs deputies arrested Thursday a local man who had been wanted by authorities for 15 years on sexual assault charges.

At around 9:30 p.m., deputies pulled over a 2003 Ford Escape near the intersection of Mines Road and Big Ben after the driver failed to yield the right of way, almost colliding with the deputies, the Sheriffs Office said.
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To her family, Vanessa Plotkin was Ness. Or rather, HappiNESS, MessiNESS and SuperNESS.

I had fun with her name, said Gary Plotkin, Vanessas father. She was so good-natured, lovely and accepting. Shes in all of our hearts.

In the hours after the Oakland warehouse fire, the UC Berkeley juniors family struggled to reach her. The 21-year-old wasnt answering text messages or phone calls.

The last message her mother had received from her, the day of the fire, was an emoji with heart eyes and a heart.

The next morning, her twin sister Victoria kept calling from New York City. She had last heard from Vanessa around 11 p.m. Friday, a half-hour before the tragedy that took 36 lives.

On Tuesday, authorities confirmed that Plotkin had died in the fire along with her roommate and friend, Jennifer Morris, also a junior at UC Berkeley. Plotkin, of Lakewood in Los Angeles County, was studying sociology.

We are beside ourselves, Gary Plotkin, said. This is just like a nightmare. I cant believe it.

At a vigil Thursday on the UC Berkeley campus, Victoria Plotkin expressed her shock and devastation at losing her twin.

Vanessa was my twin sister, she was my best friend, she said. She was my light. She was my sun.

We had just moved her here in August, said her mother, Valerie Plotkin, and I didnt expect to be coming back for this type of gathering. She continually inspired me.

Her family posted homages to her online. Her brother, Gavin Plotkin, uploaded an artistic shot of Vanessa. She stared defiantly at the camera, eyebrows arched and hair pulled up in a half bun.

I love you baby sis, you will remain forever in my heart, he said.

Sarah Ravani and Lizzie Johnson are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com, ljohnson@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani @LizzieJohnsonnn
A Houston man was sentenced Friday to four years in prison after pleading guilty to starting a fire at a mosque on Christmas Day.

Gary Nathaniel Moore, 38 of Houston, was arrested last year in connection with a fire at 2 p.m. on Dec. 25 at a storefront mosque in the 1200 block of Wilcrest.
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Anne Sung and John Luman are facing off Saturday in a runoff election to become a trustee on the Houston Independent School District's board.

The runoff follows a four-person election in November, when none of the candidates earned more than half of the votes for the District VII seat, long held by Harvin Moore.

Moore announced in August that he would resign from his term a year early after serving for 13 years, so the eventual winner will serve through the end of 2017. The district includes the River Oaks, Briargrove and Memorial areas.

Sung, 37, received more than 46 percent of the vote in November, and Luman, 51, earned about 29 percent.

Sung, who ran previously for the seat but lost to Moore in 2013, has the backing of the Houston Federation of Teachers. She used to teach in the Houston school district, after working as a Teach for America corps member in the Rio Grande Valley.

Luman, an attorney and lobbyist, received Moore's endorsement. He's been an active member of Briargrove Elementary School's parent-teacher organization.

Both candidates have pledged to ensure financial accountability in the school district and to invest in preparing students for the workplace and college.

Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday. More information can be found at HarrisVotes.com.

Separately, HISD trustee Greg Meyers, who represents District VI, said in November that he would also resign at the end of the year, one year before his term expires. He is vacating his position because he plans to move outside the school district.

The school board will decide whether to appoint a successor for Meyers or hold a special election after he submits his letter of resignation, HISD board President Manuel Rodriguez Jr. said Thursday.

A successor would need to be appointed within 30 days after Meyers submits his letter, and a special election would need to be held within 90 days.

Meyers has been on the board representing an area that includes the Energy Corridor and Sharpstown since 2004. He is one of the longest serving trustees.
Midland County Precinct 2 Constable Mark Wohlekings blood alcohol concentration was more than three times the legal limit when his vehicle rolled over during a November incident in Gaines County, according to a Department of Public Safety report.

The rollover took place on Nov. 18 as Wohleking was traveling on U.S. Highway 62. The report, according to DPS, states the driver, later identified as Wohleking, said he feel asleep at the wheel and began drifting off the roadway. He overcorrected and steered to the left, re-entering the roadway. He then entered into a broadside skid before rolling, according to the report.

DPS then reported toxicology results showed that the driver had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.262 (0.08 is the legal limit). A contributing factor of the accident was DWI (under the influence of alcohol, according to the DPS report. Wohleking was then taken to the hospital, according to DPS.

Wohleking turned himself in to the Gaines County Jail at around 5 a.m. Thursday, according to officials with the Gaines County Jail. He later paid bond and was released.

Wohleking surrendered in response to a warrant for the driving-while-intoxicated incident, according to jail officials.

Wohleking is the second Midland County constable to be arrested this year. Theodore Macklin, who at the time was the constable of Precinct 3, was arrested in August on a Class A misdemeanor charge of family violence - assault causes bodily injury, according to a previous Reporter-Telegram article.

Macklin later pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor offense of official oppression, related to a 2014 arrest. He surrendered his license and was defeated in the November general election.

Midland County Attorney Russell Malm, while not speaking directly to the Wohleking case, said the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement would not take any action until there is resolution in a case in which a crime has allegedly been committed. He said that if a misdemeanor case ends with someone pleading no contest or pleading guilty or with a guilty verdict, then it would be up to TCOLE to file an action to suspend or terminate a law enforcement officials license.

Even if a persons license is suspended or terminated, the person can still remain in office but could not perform as a peace officer, he said. It would take a legal action to be filed to remove a person from office.

Wohleking did not respond to messages left at his office on Friday,
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AUSTIN  Three top board members overseeing the troubled Texas veterinary agency said Thursday theyre resigning after a scathing review prompted recommendations for change including a sweep of the boards membership.

The president, vice president and secretary of the nine-member board made their announcement on the same day that the Texas Sunset Advisory Commission recommended that current board members terms end Sept. 17, 2017.

The Sunset Commission also proposed specificity in the composition of the board, which is appointed by the governor and currently must have six veterinarians and three public members.

Under the proposal, the board would have to include veterinarians with shelter and large-animal experience and a veterinary technician.

They felt that if the Sunset Commission wanted them to go, they would just go now, said Rudy Calderon, acting interim director of the State Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners, of the members who resigned.

Calderon said that the officers, who made their announcement at a Thursday veterinary board meeting, also cited harsh criticism by members of the Sunset Commission.

They had been acting in good faith, Calderon said of the board members.

Those who resigned included Roland Lenarduzzi, board president, of Alvin; Joe Mac King, vice president, of Dallas; and Dan Lee Craven, secretary, of Crockett. They were appointed to the board before Gov. Greg Abbott took office, but Abbott this year designated Lenarduzzi as presiding officer.

The Sunset Commission, which includes lawmakers and public members, reviews state agencies and makes recommendations for change to the Texas Legislature.

Sunset Commission staff in reviewing the veterinary agency said it hadnt properly carried out basic responsibilities such as proper fiscal management, enforcement and ensuring oversight of controlled substances meant for animals.

Among proposals, aside from those affecting board membership, the Sunset Commission recommended changes in how the agency handles complaints and tight reporting of controlled substances.

The Sunset Commission also directed the veterinary board to abide by a ruling that a shelter veterinarians care for rescued animals was outside of its purview.

The small, struggling agency had heightened its workload when it became entangled in a legal battle when it pursued a case against veterinarian Ellen Jefferson, founder and board member of San Antonio Pets Alive! and executive director of Austin Pets Alive!

Oversight of shelter veterinarians has ramifications for the no-kill movement, and the issue is expected to be considered by the Legislature that convenes in January, along with the Sunset recommendations.

Together, all of these changes should ensure Texans  and their loved pets  get the veterinary board they deserve, said Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, who has championed the need for change at the agency he has described as being in a shambles.

Watson wants to ensure the needs of the no-kill shelters for innovative practices as they deal with large numbers of animals are taken into account in state oversight of veterinary medicine.

Elizabeth Choate, director of governmental relations and general counsel for the Texas Veterinary Medical Association, said Thursday was a difficult day for the veterinary board members.

While there are some valid concerns on the part of the Sunset Commission they need to address, we are sorry to lose the veterinarians who resigned today. They are well-intended, diligent veterinarians who served their profession and seek to protect the animals of the state, Choate said.

pfikac@express-news.net
SAN ANTONIO  A man in his late 20s suffered minor injuries Friday morning after rolling his vehicle into a tree on Wurzbach Parkway, according to police.

Police responded to the crash shortly before 12:40 a.m. Friday near the intersection of Wurzbach Parkway and Northwest Military Drive, where the accident occurred.
A 14-year-old high school student is recovering after an incident at Hug High School in Reno, Nev. Wednesday. He has been identified as Logan Clark by his father, Justin Clark.

At roughly 11:30 a.m. Clark was seen on campus brandishing a knife and lunging at fellow students. According to the Reno Gazette-Journal, the boy can be heard saying, "Back up, back up" before school staff alerted students to flee the scene. (Story continues below.)
WASHINGTON - A North Carolina man was arrested Sunday after he walked into a popular pizza restaurant in northwest Washington, D.C., carrying an assault rifle and fired one or more shots, D.C. police said.

The man told police he had come to the restaurant to investigate "PizzaGate," a false conspiracy theory related to Hillary Clinton that spread online during her presidential campaign.

The incident caused panic, with several businesses going into lockdown as police swarmed the neighborhood after receiving the call shortly before 3 p.m.

Police said 28-year-old Edgar Maddison Welch, of Salisbury, North Carolina, walked in the front door of Comet Ping Pong and pointed a firearm in the direction of a restaurant employee. The employee was able to flee and notify police. Police said Welch proceeded to discharge the rifle inside the restaurant.

He has been charged with assault with a dangerous weapon.

Police initially said it was unclear what the motive for the shooting was but many in the neighborhood had suspected it might be related to "PizzaGate."

The popular family restaurant, was swept up in the onslaught of fake news and conspiracy theories that was prevalent during the presidential campaign. The restaurant, its owner, staff and nearby businesses have been attacked on social media and received death threats.

Startled patrons rushed out of the restaurant, taking shelter in nearby businesses that remained locked down for more than an hour.

Vivek Jain, of Potomac, Maryland, was eating lunch inside Banana Leaf, a nearby Indian restaurant, when Comet patrons came rushing inside. He said Banana Leaf was locked down for about 90 minutes.

"A bunch of people ran in from Comet and said a man walked in with a gun," Jain said.

About 45 minutes later, he said, he saw a man walking backward out into the street with his hands in the air. He said the man lay down on the street, and "he was immediately picked up by the police and taken away."

Police said in addition to the assault rifle, they also recovered two firearms inside the restaurant; an additional weapon was recovered in Welch's car. Bomb-sniffing dogs and at least one armored vehicle were present at the scene.

The restaurant's owner and employees were threatened on social media in the days before the election after fake news stories circulated claiming that then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and her campaign chief were running a child sex ring from the restaurant's back rooms.

Even Michael Flynn, a retired general who President-elect Donald Trump has tapped to advise him on national security, shared the stories. None of them were true.

But the fake stories and threats persisted, some even aimed at the employees' children. The restaurant's owner was forced to contact the FBI, local police, Facebook and other social media platforms in an effort to remove the articles.

James Alefantis, the owner of Comet Ping Pong, did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment Sunday.

Last month, citing its policy against posting the personal information of others, Reddit banned the "pizzagate" topic.

But it didn't stop the harassment and nearby businesses have received threats as well, according to police.

On Sunday, after spending more than an hour on lockdown with employees and customers, Matt Carr, the owner of the Little Red Fox market and coffee shop, which is located next to Comet Ping Pong, said his business started getting threats last weekend.

They got 30 to 40 calls before they stopped answering calls from blocked numbers, he said. "One person said he wanted to line us up in front of a firing squad."

The threats were all tied to the Comet Ping Pong accusations online, he said. "There's some old painted-over symbol on the marquee that they claim is an international symbol of pedophilia, and that there are underground tunnels. ... There's some video on YouTube that has almost 100,000 views and talks about me, the owner of the Little Red Fox, by name.

"This was our worst fear," he said, "that someone would read all this and come to the block with a gun. And today it happened."

Nearby bookstore Politics and Prose was in the midst of a book event when they saw police converging on the block, said Bradley Graham, a store co-owner.

Like other businesses on the block, they had gotten threats recently, he said, and were planning to meet with police Monday afternoon "because we had feared that what, up to now, had been simply despicable menacing verbal attacks online or on the phone might escalate."

He said the businesses are hoping to get more police protection, "and we would also hope that law enforcement authorities will be prompted to take additional measures to shut down the sites where this hateful material is being spread, and also measures to try to trace the menacing phone calls.

". . . We're all rather shaken," he said.

"Political figures have the means to deal with conspiratorial allegations and threats, but your neighborhood mom and pop shop does not," Carr said later in an email. "I make coffee and breakfast burritos for a living. This is out of our league."

On Sunday, Gareth Wade, 47, and Doug Clarke, 50, were sitting down for pizza and beer at Comet when they spotted a commotion. All of a sudden, "the server said someone just walked in with a shotgun," Wade said.

"A man had just walked into the building, passed us into the back of the building, he seemed to have a shotgun or a rifle-type of [gun] and said we ought to vacate the building," Wade recalled the server saying.

They rushed out of the restaurant and had planned to head to Politics and Prose, where Clarke's wife and 5-year-old took shelter, but they got separated.

Clarke and Wade were met by a heavy police presence when they attempted to join up.

"Police said you can't go to the bookstore," Wade said. They ended up behind a nearby police barricade.

Meanwhile, Clarke was trying to reunite his son with a present he'd received for his fifth birthday this weekend, a stuffed lion that they were forced to leave inside the restaurant.

"He's kind of shaken up about the whole thing," Clarke said. "We've been talking a lot about it and trying to help him understand. That he was a man with a weapon, weapons are bad - he was not a nice person."

---

The Washington Post's Steve Hendrix contributed to this report.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection/AP Photo/U.S. Customs and Border Protection

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U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents confiscated approximately $2.1 million in liquid methamphetamine Monday weighing 66 pounds during a traffic point inspection in South Texas.

The seizure happened Monday afternoon at the Kingsville Station in Sarita, which is about 178 miles south of San Antonio, when a pickup came up to a checkpoint on U.S. Highway 77 North for an immigration inspection.

A canine alerted agents to something suspicious and the vehicle was sent in for a more thorough inspection, according to a news release.

RELATED: Man killed in far West Side apartment shooting was 32, suspect still at large

The agents discovered three large bags of liquid meth hidden inside a false compartment inside the gas tank, the release said.

A hazardous materials team had to respond to the scene to help claim the narcotics.

The driver, a U.S. citizen, was arrested and will be turned over to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

RELATED: NTSB to hold hearing on balloon crash that killed 16 people near Lockhart, Texas

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twhite@mysa.com

Twitter: @tylerlwhite
Emily Denman Thuss made a career of being a San Antonio community activist.

After her childhood home was razed to make way for an apartments on French Place at Main Avenue, Thuss, her sister Molly and others founded the Monte Vista Historical Association in 1973 to preserve the community and prevent developmental intrusion.

It was just one of the numerous endeavors that she undertook during her life to help the city of San Antonio, according to family and friends.

Thuss died Monday after a brief illness. She was 71.

She had a long history of being involved in various things, said her son Charles Thuss III. She was always politically conscious. I think she understood the world as it was and she was determined to make it a better place.

Thuss came from a distinguished legal and ranching family. She earned a bachelors degree from Stanford University, majoring in English and minoring in Spanish. She returned to San Antonio, where she met her husband, Dr. Charles Thuss Jr., a pathologist, and started a family.

She had a strong interest in housing preservation and conservation. Her civic leadership earned her an induction into the San Antonio Womens Hall of Fame in 2014.

Thuss co-chaired the construction of the first Habitat for Humanity home erected exclusively by women and was one of the founders of the first Habitat ReStore.

More Information Emily Denman Thuss Born: June 10, 1945, San Antonio Died: Dec. 5, 2016, Boerne Preceded by: Parents Leroy Denman Jr. and Fannie Lee Denman; husband Dr. Charles Thuss Jr.; and son Carter Thuss. Survived by: Partner Tommy Adams; sons Charles Thuss III and daughter-in-law Octavia, Wendel Thuss and daughter-in-law Natalie, and Andrew Thuss; sisters Molly Branton and brother-in-law Jim, Deirdre Glober and brother-in-law George, and Destine Holmgreen and brother-in-law Alan; and seven grandchildren. Services: A memorial service and life celebration will be at 11 a.m. Jan. 6 at Christ Episcopal Church, 510 Belknap Place. See More Collapse

Emily was a lovely lady who definitely had a big heart for folks, said Stephanie Wiese, vice president of Habitat for Humanity of San Antonio. Emily felt very passionate about rehabilitation in San Antonio communities and keeping things out of landfills.

Thuss also chaired the San Antonio Housing Trust and served on the San Antonio Zoning Commission.

In 2002, Thuss and her partner Tommy Adams came up with the idea for a book on the craftspeople behind the restorations of many area landmarks. She was executive editor of The Building Arts of South Texas: Stories of Endangered Building Arts & the Craftsmen Who Keep them Alive, said author Barbara Dean Hendricks.

pdanner@express-news.net
Puzzled as he was by the odd request, President Jefferson Davis gladly gave a Texas general the toughest job in the Confederacy on Dec. 11, 1863.

As a member of the West Point class of 1846, Samuel Bell Maxey roomed with Thomas Jonathan Jackson, who went on to become the legendary "Stonewall." Another close friend at the academy was a hard-drinking cadet, who kept his nose buried in novels rather than textbooks, named Ulysses S. Grant.

It did not take Maxey long to learn that he was not cut out for a career in the military. Repulsed by the blood and gore of the Mexican War, the young lieutenant resigned from the service to study law. In 1857, he moved from Kentucky to Paris, Texas, and went into practice with his father.

When Texas seceded in early 1861, the elder Maxey took his son's place in the state Senate while Sam went to Richmond to ask permission to organize a Confederate regiment. The result was the 9th Texas Infantry, a highly decorated outfit he personally led in hard-fought campaigns across Tennessee and Mississippi.

His hopes of a Rebel triumph crushed by the catastrophic fall of Vicksburg in July 1863, Maxey requested a transfer to the Indian Territory. As the South inevitably succumbed to the Yankee onslaught, maybe he could keep the conquerors out of Texas.

At the beginning of the war, federal forces had abandoned the Indian Territory. However, over the past two years, they had retaken more than half of the poorly defended region.

In addition to his duties as military commander, Gen. Maxey also inherited the herculean responsibilities of superintendent of Indian affairs. Thousands of red allies, who had cast their lot with the Confederacy, depended upon him for food and other necessities of life.

Keenly aware the tribal elders were thinking about switching sides, Maxey addressed a February 1864 meeting of the Grand Council of the Six Confederate Nations. He apologized for the suffering caused by his indifferent predecessor and vowed to honor the terms of their original agreement. Swayed by his sincerity, the chiefs chose to stick with the South.

Maxey next turned his attention to the white troops, whose numbers were decreasing by the day. Demoralized by rations unfit for human consumption, a shortage of weapons and petty bickering among their officers, a dozen or more deserted every night.

Maxey sacked the trouble-making subordinates and improved the grub but understood what the soldiers needed most  a good, hard fight. The enemy obliged by launching a winter offensive against the Rebel rearguard in Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas.

Ordered to strengthen the Confederate contingent in Arkansas, Maxey mobilized a brigade of Choctaws and his best white troops. Though exhilarated by the prospect of combat, he worried that in his absence in the Indian Territory might be the target of a surprise attack.

A chance encounter at Poison Spring on April 18, 1864, resulted in a major engagement. Two thousand blue-coats squared off against 1,800 Rebs with Arkansas going to the winner.

The battle was decided 15 minutes after the first shot, when Maxey expertly turned the enemy flank. The Union soldiers panicked and stampeded like terrified cattle for Missouri leaving the Texas general not only covered with glory but also the proud owner of 170 wagons of much-needed supplies.

But it was all downhill after Poison Spring, as the Confederacy drowned in the rising tide of history. The last significant skirmish in the Indian Territory occurred in September 1864, and Maxey's final assignment took him to Texas five months later.

The weary warrior went home to Paris in May 1865 and formally surrendered that July. To reclaim his American citizenship and the right to practice law, Maxey swore allegiance to the United States and waited for his pardon application to be processed.

But Maxey was blacklisted by Jack Hamilton, the provisional governor of occupied Texas, who had hit it in for West Point graduates that had gone South. Only after Gen. U.S. Grant stuck his neck out for his old friend did the pardon come through in the summer of 1867.

Eighteen years later during his second term in the United States Senate, Maxey returned the favor. In defiance of public opinion in his home state, where compassion for the former commander of the Union army was tantamount to treason, he voted to give the destitute ex-president a government pension.

Preferring principle to popularity, Sam Maxey did not apologize for the generous and gutty gesture. "Now that he needs friends," he said of Grant, "I stand by him as he stood by me in 1867 when I needed friends."

Dec. 15 deadline for Christmas orders of Bartee's books and column collections. Order today at barteehaile.com or by mail at P.O. Box 152, Friendswood, TX 77549.
To the editor:

On Wednesday, every freedom-loving American remembered Pearl Harbor the same way that we will never forget Sept. 11, 2001. Coincidentally, it was the 14th anniversary of my younger brother's death at a Cuban hospital. An event that I will never forget as well.

My husband and I are very grateful for the words of "encouragement" that we have received from friends and neighbors in reference to Fidel Castro's death. Since we live in a community where there is a scarcity of Americans of Cuban heritage, for years I have felt it was my duty to enlighten American-born citizens about what was going on 90 miles off the Florida coast. Through the years, I have experienced an attitude of "What do you know?" or simply "Who cares?"

Well, in one of my trips to Cuba to visit the family, I was "invited" to a meeting at the police headquarters. Not knowing what it was all about, one of my brothers begged me: "Be careful with what you say, because we will suffer the consequences." My husband and my brother accompanied me to the "interview." One of the questions I was asked was: "What do the people in your town in the U.S. think about Cuba?"

My answer, 25 years ago, was straight from my heart: "I live in a small town where most people don't even know where Cuba is, and those who do don't care." The "interview" ended amicably with an invitation to dinner, which I declined. I believe that we have come a long way in our community.

So, what do I know? I know what it was to live for 16-plus years in a pre-Castro Cuba, and I know what it was to live under Castro for two years, eight months and nine days. I know what it was to be called "worm" and "lackey of the imperialism" for over 17 years and been banned from visiting my family, only to be allowed the privilege of living with them for 4-1/2 days, with a special "visa" for the right amount of money. But I have written about all of this for over 47 years, so, that's water under the bridge.

More Information VOICE YOUR OPINION The Courier welcomes all letters and suggest a 300-word limit. All letters are subject to editing. Send letters to Letters to the Editor, The Courier, 100 Ave A, Conroe, Texas 77301. Letters must include name, address and phone number for verification purposes. See More Collapse

Therefore, I want to tank you today for publishing Monday Charen's column talking about the 60 years under Fidel Castro and the complacency with his system by the American media. I have known that she does a lot of research on her subjects and this column was right on the money. God bless her for being in "my" side.

As we get ready to celebrate the birth of Our Lord, I wish every fellow Christian a very blessed one. And to every American who really loves and cares for this country, whether Republican or Democrat, or whose faith is other than Christian: Happy holidays.

Chiqui Sentmanat

A weasel of a news day

To the editor:

Hmmm, Monday must have been a slow news day in Conroe. Twenty five percent of the Courier's front page text was devoted to the great news that Pacific Fisher Weasel was making a comeback in Washington State! I had worried a lot about the weasel problem in Washington State lately so I was really glad to see that as front page news. Hmmm. Yep, slow news day.

Lloyd Linton

Montgomery
Earlier this month, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott took to Twitter to announce his intent to crack down on a growing number of colleges that have issued statements or adopted policies of support for undocumented immigrant students.

Texas will not tolerate sanctuary campuses or cities, Abbott wrote. I will cut funding for any state campus if it establishes sanctuary status.

His statement demonstrates a staggering disregard for facts and sound public policy.

First, the governors threat to defund state colleges flies in the face of federal policy that discourages immigration enforcement actions around sensitive locations such as hospitals, churches, schools and colleges.

Carrying out immigration enforcement in classrooms undermines public safety. Students will think twice about reporting crimes to campus police, fearing any interaction with law enforcement may ultimately result in their deportation or that of a relative. Such concerns have led many law enforcement agencies, including the San Antonio Police Department and Bexar County Sheriffs Department, to draw a line between police work and immigration enforcement.

Second, Abbotts vow to force colleges to share information with immigration officials ignores that federal law prohibits universities from simply handing over a students private information, with few exceptions.

Perhaps most perplexing about Abbotts threat is that such rhetoric ignores Texas role as a leader in encouraging and investing in undocumented college students.

In 2001, Texas became the first state to adopt a law allowing undocumented students to pay in-state tuition rates and qualify for state grants to attend public universities. That law, known as the Texas Dream Act, allows undocumented immigrant students to pay in-state tuition rates if they graduated from high school or received a GED in Texas, and sign an affidavit affirming that they will seek legal residency.

More recently, Texas fought with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund to ward off a legal challenge to the Texas Dream Act in state court.

A 2011 study by the Center for Public Policy Priorities found that among undocumented students who entered public universities in 2007 under the Texas Dream Act, the degree completion rate was 63 percent, higher than the overall statewide rate of 59 percent.

Now the governor is resorting to political rhetoric to deter and dissuade undocumented students from higher education, ignoring their contributions and contradicting the states past practices.

Perhaps Abbott subscribes to the theory that if you make life miserable for young immigrants, they will self-deport. Such theories ignore reality. Students who came here as children arent about to leave the only country they have ever known. Nor are they about to stop working. Instead, young immigrants who are bright and talented enough to make it to college will be pushed deeper into an underground economy where employers will exploit them. How does that help Texans?

There is no formal definition of a sanctuary city or a sanctuary campus. The terms are little more than political rhetoric never defined in federal or state law.

It should be the mission of every institution of higher education to provide a supportive, safe environment for all students. Given the recent uptick in hate speech and crimes across the country, it should come as no surprise that many universities are seeking to reassure their immigrant student population.

Since November, hundreds of college presidents have signed a statement in support of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, including leaders from the University of Texas System and the University of Houston. Does the governor intend to block funding from our states flagship universities?

Abbotts stance is not principled, logical or even that conservative. Instead, its plain mean.

With a sorely underfunded public school system, a child welfare system on the verge of collapse, and waning oil and gas revenues, Texans should be able to depend on leadership focused on our most pressing priorities, not on social-media bullying and political grandstanding.

Marisa Bono is MALDEF Southwest regional counsel.
I was fortunate to have been born in San Antonio, just three blocks from the Alamo, and to have attended Catholic grade school on the River Walk. To witness so many Christmases there was magical.

Two weeks before Thanksgiving, city workers would plant a huge wooden utility pole with rebar in the shape of a Christmas tree in front of the Alamo. Evergreen branches were stacked to form a thick green tree. Huge foiled gift boxes were hung as ornaments, colorful strands of lights flowing from the top to bottom. It was crowned with a huge white blinking star. As a kid, I wanted to jump the white picket fence encircling the tree and snatch one of the boxes.

Along Houston and Commerce streets, white snowflakes hung from curb to curb, trimmed with green garland. The streets would twinkle at night. The huge jolly Santa, perched on a chimney atop Joskes, waved at every boy and girl in Alamo plaza. Joskes window displays were all aglow, and the one facing Alamo Plaza had a running train inviting everyone to Fantasyland, where imaginations came alive  our holiday version of Disneyland.

St. Marys, St. Josephs and San Fernando Cathedral, all with the aroma of evergreens, featured side altars adorned with fresh Christmas trees, the stable of Bethlehem at the base. Statues of the Holy Family awaited the child in the empty manger who would be born Christmas Day.

We received Christmas cards ever year, many in Spanish, printed in bold letters  Feliz Navidad. I always wondered who this guy Felix Navidad was and why he sent us so many cards. Was he Moms secret boyfriend?

On Christmas Eve, Mom would get out the 10-cent glass ornaments she bought at Solo Serve, along with a strand of 12 Christmas lights. The best part of Solo Serve was going to the snack bar with no chairs, just counters, and ordering the worlds smallest tamale and soda in a paper cone cup for 15 cents. You could smell the steamy tamales as the lady opened the porcelain steamer oven.

Dad and I would go to Handy Andy on Houston Street. The Christmas tree lot would be nearly empty, and Dad would offer 75 cents for a 4-foot Christmas tree, all he had in his humble budget. I was so proud to help pick out the discounted tree.

We lived in a strip mall on Nolan Street; half the rented space was Dads barbershop, the other half was our one-room home. On Christmas Eve, I would go to the barbershop, open the Coke machine and grab a 6-ounce bottle. I placed the Coke next to a plate of Moms homemade oatmeal cookies by the tree as a snack for Santa. In the morning, the Coke bottle was empty and crumbs were left on the plate.

On Christmas Day, I would serve Mass at St. Marys. Father Isidore Garcia, fresh out of the Oblate seminary, would preside. He was my best friend. I was fortunate to have known him. I always wondered what priests get for Christmas. Thank you, Father, for being my friend.

We were poor, but somehow Mom and Dad sent my brother, Sonny, and me to Catholic schools. Now I realize our 24/7 Christmas presents were our parents, Joseph and Carmen Melendrez. This will be Moms 95th Christmas. Mom has Alzheimers, and I am her sole caregiver. I talk to Mom about our San Antonio Christmases, and she smiles, sometimes with a twinkle in her eye. I am blessed.

There was nothing like a San Antonio Christmas.

Merry Christmas and Feliz Navidad to Felix Navidad!

Rick Melendrez, a San Antonio native, lives in El Paso.
State lawmakers have taken a significant step toward addressing the perpetual crisis at Child Protective Services, approving raises for 7,000 workers and the hiring of an additional 800 staffers.

The raises will make a difference right away to help address the extraordinary high levels of turnover at this most-important agency. Roughly 6,000 front-line workers will receive $12,000 raises while managers, special investigators and others will receive pay increases of up to 20 percent.

The importance of this investment cant be underscored. As we have noted before, the starting pay for a typical CPS worker had been about $33,000. Not surprisingly, turnover among CPS workers with the Department of Family and Protective Services has surged, ranging from 57 percent in Dallas to 31 percent in San Antonio last year.

When a worker leaves the agency, other workers have to pick up those cases. When workers start leaving CPS in droves, the agency falls into a dangerous tailspin. It creates a logjam of vulnerable kids who may or may not be seen in a timely manner despite reports of abuse. Its not uncommon for caseworkers to juggle 30, 40 or even 50 cases at a time. That has led to kids going weeks without a CPS worker visiting them  despite reported dangers.

The hope is these raises will entice more workers to stay with the agency and make it easier to fill new and open positions, which will lead to fewer caseloads and better visitations. By investing in CPS workers, the state is investing in its most vulnerable kids.

If the story ended there, we would close on this hopeful, positive note. But the story goes on. It always does with child welfare in Texas.

Nothing, it seems, comes easy in Texas when it means doing right by vulnerable kids. Just days before state lawmakers approved these emergency funds for CPS, state officials continued to fight much-needed improvements in the foster care system.

In federal court, Attorney General Ken Paxton is fighting 56 recommendations from two court-appointed special masters. The recommendations followed last years scathing decision from U.S. District Judge Janis Graham Jack, who ruled Texas foster care system is unconstitutional because children almost uniformly leave state custody more damaged than when they arrived.

Some of the recommendations from the special masters include limiting caseloads to  gasp!  roughly 14 to 17 cases per worker, halting the use of group homes where so much sexual abuse occurs, and banning the use of state offices as emergency housing for kids.

Paxton has argued the recommendations are too expensive and tantamount to a de facto receivership.

This is one of those arguments where Texas loses even if Paxton wins in court.

The states children would be served  truly served  if officials accepted the recommendations, and their costs, and began fixing a foster care system that is obviously broken.

There are some signs this could happen. Gov. Greg Abbott has approved $8 million in funding for a startup program to move foster kids from hospitals to new, less-restrictive housing that should better meet their needs.

Importantly, state Sen. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown, has authored a reform bill and called on making foster care an emergency legislative item in January.

We strongly encourage lawmakers to follow Schwertners lead. This isnt just another issue. Its make or break in the lives of our most vulnerable children.
WASHINGTON  With the help of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., House Republicans moved closer Thursday to achieving their long-sought goal of undermining the Endangered Species Act to deliver more water to California farmers, with the overwhelming passage of a popular water infrastructure bill.

The bill, which moves to the Senate, contains a legislative rider inserted by Feinstein and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, that would allow the incoming Trump administration to increase pumping from the states rivers by overruling biological opinions from fish and wildlife agencies that protect salmon, smelt and other native fish that are nearing extinction for lack of flowing rivers.

The nearly 100-page rider, filled with dense, technical language dictating operation of Californias water system, blindsided retiring Sen. Barbara Boxer, who plans a last-ditch effort in the Senate to block the entire Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act, which she co-authored.

Boxer has rounded up support from Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and other West Coast senators but will need 41 votes to prevent the bill from getting beyond the Senate.

Killing the popular infrastructure bill is an uphill climb, but Boxer said the vote will be close.

On Thursday, the House passed the bill 360-61, with Bay Area Democrats powerless to stop it. It authorizes billions of dollars in water projects across the nation, including a fix for lead poisoning for the municipal water system in Flint, Mich., and elsewhere. It also contains a raft of California projects, including rebuilding levees to protect Sacramento from flooding, restoring wetlands to reduce flood risk around San Francisco Bay, and reducing pollution of Lake Tahoe.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., specifically hailed the rider for delivering much-needed water relief to Californians. McCarthy said the rider would prevent water from being sent out to sea by being left to flow in rivers, and will increase pumping.

Feinstein said she introduced the rider to forestall worse legislation under the Trump administration. But McCarthy and other San Joaquin Valley Republicans promised that more such legislation can be expected next year, when it will no longer face a veto from President Obama. President-elect Donald Trump has promised to turn on the taps for the states farmers.

The rider came out of years of closed-door negotiations between Feinstein and powerful San Joaquin Valley Republicans to address Californias five-year drought. These efforts have repeatedly foundered over GOP insistence on weakening protections for endangered salmon, smelt and other fish.

Feinstein and House Republicans insisted that the rider does not violate the Endangered Species Act, because it contains language saying that nothing within the legislation shall violate existing environmental law.

But Boxer and Bay Area Democrats said that such general clauses will not override the bills direct authorizations that mandate higher water deliveries.

When an act of Congress specifically supersedes peer-reviewed biological opinions that are the very mechanism of how the Endangered Species Act gets implemented, that is a grave undermining of the act, said Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael.

Doug Obegi, a water lawyer with the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group, pointed to three sections of densely technical text that he said explicitly authorize the Trump administration to violate the biological opinions under the Endangered Species Act. He said there is no question that if the bill is enacted, it is going to be headed to court. It is wholly inconsistent with state law.

Carolyn Lochhead is The San Francisco Chronicles Washington correspondent. Email: clochhead@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @carolynlochhead
Mayor Ed Lee responded to financial shortfalls that seemed to arise overnight by telling department heads on Thursday they must trim their budgets and not hire new staff. He also said some big plans to tackle homelessness would be curtailed.

There was some good news for tree lovers, however. The mayor will not block voters approval of a $19 million set-aside for the city to take back care of its street trees from property owners. And he will fund some free City College tuition and legal defense for immigrants in the country illegally who are facing deportation, though not at the levels sought by proponents of either program.

Lees rebalancing plan addresses the shortfall left by the failure of a proposed sales tax hike on the November ballot that would have generated around $100 million for transportation and $50 million for homeless services annually. The two-year budget adopted by the mayor and supervisors in July assumed it would pass.

I took into account all the needs and put forward a plan to deal with all of them in what I feel is a fair and reasonable way, Lee said in a statement Thursday. There are always tough decisions that need to be made in a rebalancing budget, but this takes into account what voters and residents have advocated for.

Lees budget fix would partially backfill the $50 million hole for homeless services with $20 million devoted to those services instead. That money would come come from new federal funding and anticipated revenues from a higher real-estate transfer tax, a measure passed by voters in November.

Among the services that will take a hit are expanded mental health services, more housing subsidies for seniors and people with disabilities, and an expansion of the Homeless Outreach Team, which connects people living on the street with services and temporary beds.

Supervisor Mark Farrell, chairman of the Budget and Finance Committee, criticized that proposal as insufficient and said the mayor should have made more of an effort to find more money for homeless services, even if that meant withholding additional money for City College.

I agree with the vast majority of this rebalancing plan, but I think its a massive mistake to deplete our effort to get our homeless off our streets and instead fund free City College, Farrell said. Our public tax dollars should be going toward some of the most pressing issues in our city, and I simply believe public safety and our homelessness are much more important to the residents of San Francisco than free City College.

Lees proposal calls for allocating an extra $3 million annually to City College to further the goal of making it free  the specifics of who and what that money will go toward will be worked out over the next few months  but the number is far less than the $14 million annually sought by supporters of the idea.

While the Board of Supervisors passed a nonbinding resolution in July agreeing to pay for free City College with the increased transfer tax revenue, the tax measure was written so the money would go into the citys general fund, which only requires a simple majority  not a two-thirds majority  to pass.

Supervisor Jane Kim, who championed the free City College idea, criticized the mayor for raiding transfer tax revenues to make up for the sales tax loss.

We can and must remain committed to our promise to make City College free for all San Francisco residents, Kim said. This promise wasnt contingent on both the real estate transfer tax and the sales tax passing. ... Instead of raiding our fund, lets work on a progressive revenue measure together this year which can pass.

Lee also is proposing an extra $3 million annually to fund private immigration attorneys to represent the anticipated swell of immigrants facing deportation under President-elect Donald Trumps gauzy immigration policy  but refused to allocate money to fund the public defender to represent detained immigrants facing deportation. The $3 million will come from the citys reserves.

Supervisor David Campos has criticized Lees refusal to fund the public defender, whose participation Campos says is necessary to ensuring universal representation. Campos has proposed legislation that would give community legal groups $2 million and the public defenders office $2.6 million.

Backers of a new voter-approved soda tax can also rest easy, at least for now. They pledged the money would be used for health and nutrition programs. But like the transfer tax, the soda tax was written so it only required a simple majority to pass, meaning the money would go into the citys general fund. For now, Lee has not proposed diverting the revenues for non-health related purposes, as some had feared.

Arguably the biggest loser in Lees plan is transportation  there is no immediate effort to backfill the $100 million hole left by the failure of the sales tax.

Lee can execute much of his proposal unilaterally. He doesnt need board approval for budget cuts. However, he does need the board to vote on his proposal to increase spending for immigration services. The board will also vote Tuesday on Kims proposal to allocate $9 million for City College. Lee has indicated he wont veto that measure  but will simply draw it out over three years.

Even with the changes, the city, which operates a $9.6 billion annual budget, is still projected to face a $119 million deficit for the 2017-18 fiscal year and $283 million for the year after that. That is not unusual because budgets for future years are based on projected revenues. When expenses outpace revenues, deficits arise.

Long term, city officials will have to contend with a slowing economy and revenues. In five years the city is projected to face a $848 million deficit, much of it stemming from pension costs and infrastructure projects.

Lees rough plan for addressing that deficit is to reduce salary and pension costs  negotiations with labor unions will begin next year  and to require city departments to decrease their budgets and to hold back on fully funding capital projects. Lee is also hoping for good news  a large part of his plan relies on the city bringing in higher-than-projected tax revenues.

Emily Green and Heather Knight are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: egreen@sfchronicle.com, hknight@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @emilytgreen, @hknightsf
KANSAS CITY, Mo.  The worlds favorite punter got a taste of his own medicine. Marquette King has become something of a celebrity for his antics this season, from dancing after punts to spiking a penalty flag Sunday.

On Thursday night, he chased down Tyreek Hill in the end zone after a punt return for a touchdown and had some words for him. That drew a penalty flag, and then King had to watch Kansas City tight end Travis Kelce do the Bronco dance that King did against Denver, riding an imaginary horse.

King was not in the locker room after the game when reporters entered.

The main question he could have answered was why he punted the ball to the middle of the field for Hill. Maybe the crowd chanting Hills name beforehand fired him up and he took it as a challenge.

We definitely did not want to do that, said Raiders head coach Jack Del Rio.

The play came on a do-over after Kings initial punt was nullified by a penalty on Taiwan Jones for running out of bounds in coverage.

There was a questionable ruling on (Jones) going out of bounds on his own, Del Rio said. We had to re-kick to a really dangerous guy. We didnt want to kick it to the middle of the field. Hes too dangerous to give him that many opportunities.

Osemele hospitalized: Raiders left guard Kelechi Osemele was scratched from the starting lineup 90 minutes before kickoff because of illness. Del Rio wouldnt go into specifics, but said it was bad enough that Osemele was hospitalized Thursday morning.

We think we have a handle on it, Del Rio said.

Osemele flew home with the team.

The 6-foot-5, 330-pounder had not missed a game this season after signing with the Raiders in the offseason.

Rookie Vadal Alexander took Osemeles place in the lineup and rotated with Jon Feliciano. The absence was a big blow for an offensive line that has allowed a league-low 13 sacks this season. Although Carr was sacked only once, he was under quite a bit of pressure.

Oakland was already missing starting defensive tackle Stacy McGee and starting safety Karl Joseph.

Cant catch a cold: It was a rough night for the receivers. Michael Crabtree and Seth Roberts had numerous drops, and then Crabtree left the game late with an injured ring finger. He was getting X-rays after the game.

Roberts finished with two catches on nine targets for 12 yards.

Obviously, we didnt do enough, quarterback Derek Carr said. We all took turns.

Briefly: The Chiefs had been 4-78 all-time when they committed three or more turnovers in a game. Make that 5-78.  Khalil Mack has recorded a sack in eight straight games. Thats tied for the longest streak in Raiders history (with Lance Johnstone in 1998). ... Alex Smith had two completions on passes of 30 yards or more in the air. That matched his total for the first 12 games. ... Hill, a rookie, became the first player in Chiefs history to record a rushing touchdown, a receiving touchdown, a punt-return touchdown and a kick-return touchdown in his career, let alone a season. ... Kansas City linebacker Derrick Johnson left with a ruptured Achilles tendon in the second quarter, and the Raiders quickly answered with their only touchdown drive. The guys rallied, Kansas City head coach Andy Reid said. The defense played phenomenal football in the second half.

Vic Tafur is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer.
Total Wine & More Winery Direct Partner of the Week

Louis Bouillot Brut

France, 750ml

A richly textured sparkling wine that tastes very much like Champagne! With beautifully texture and flavor, this could easily be mistaken for Champagnes at twice the price. Displaying apple and pear aromas and flavors, medium-body with a creamy yet dry, complex finish. Great value! Enjoy as an aperitif with chicken or seafood or on its own. All harvesting and sorting is done by hand. Burgundy's house of Louis Bouillot was founded in 1877 by Jean Bouillot, a wine and spirit merchant who named the label in honor of his father.

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Winery Direct items are identified in our stores by the yellow shelf tags. We offer more than 8,000 wines in a typical store  including more than 2,000 Winery Direct items, many exclusive to Total Wine & More.

Find the Wine of the Week at Total Wine & More's San Antonio locations:



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Editors Note: This content is made possible by Total Wine & More. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of The San Antonio Express-News' or mySanAntonio.com's editorial staff. Learn more about our advertising products at www.hearstmediasanantonio.com.
1 Wounded stranded: Seventy severely wounded Syrians, including 16 children, have been prevented from getting life-saving treatment since Jordan closed its border with Syria six months ago, an official from the medical aid group Doctors Without Borders said Thursday. Some of those patients have likely died, said Marjan Besuijen, a project coordinator for the group. Besuijen urged the Jordanian government to allow the evacuation of the most severely wounded Syrians to the kingdom, basically giving them a chance to survive. Jordan sealed the border in June, in response to a deadly cross-border attack on its security forces by Islamic extremists. Government spokesman Mohammed Momani said Thursday that Jordan allows critical cases to enter the kingdom for treatment. Besuijen said a Doctors Without Borders surgical ward in the Jordanian border town of Ramtha has stood virtually empty since the border closure.

2 Philippines reversal: The Philippine defense secretary said Thursday that it is highly unlikely his country will allow the U.S. military to use it as a springboard for freedom of navigation patrols in the disputed South China Sea to avoid antagonizing China. Delfin Lorenzana said U.S. ships and aircraft could use bases in Guam, Okinawa or fly from aircraft carriers to patrol the disputed waters. Under President Rodrigo Dutertes predecessor, Benigno Aquino III, some U.S. aircraft and ships stopped in the Philippines on the way to patrolling the disputed waters to challenge Chinas territorial claims. Duterte, who took office in June, has taken steps to mend ties with China and became hostile toward the Obama administration after it raised concerns over Dutertes deadly crackdown on illegal drugs. Asked if the Philippines will continue to host U.S. ships and aircraft patrolling the disputed waters, Lorenzana said Duterte will not likely allow that to happen.
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LACK of maintenance has seen the iconic Birchenough Bridge being turned into a one-way passage for vehicles weighing less than 25 tonnes as assessments of the structure revealed that it could pose danger to motorists if weight restrictions were not enforced, The Manica Post has learnt.

A boom gate at each end of the bridge prevents more than one large vehicle from driving across at any given time.

There are cracks on both ends of the bridges tarmac entry points while the structure shakes each time heavy vehicles drive past.

The ageing Birchenough Bridge  a key tourist attraction  is evidently crying out for attention.

Locals who use the bridge daily as they walk or drive to and from the business centre, work and school are therefore now living in fear of having the 377-metre long structure crumble underneath them.

In fact, pedestrians now fear for their safety to the extent that they run past the bridge to avoid being on the structure concurrently with heavy trucks.

The bridge connects the road between Mutare and Masvingo as well as Buhera and Chipinge districts.

Birchenough Bridge is one of the oldest bridges in the country.

Foundations were commenced in April 1934 and were ready for steelwork in November.

The arch span was completed on June 17th, 1935, and the concrete roadway was practically complete at the end of September, 1935.

The iconic arch bridge was designed by Engineer Ralph Freeman and was built by Dorman Long.

The structure was named in honour of businessman, Sir John Henry Birchenough, who served as chairman of the Beit Trust.

However, lack of maintenance over the years has seen the structure weakening with the passage of time.

The bridges structures have also suffered battering from Cylones Eline and Idai-induced floods.

Around March 2019 when Cyclone Idai hit the country, Save River threatened to flood the bridge.

Locals and an employee at the bridges boom gate told The Manica Post that they have never witnessed any maintenance work being carried out on the bridge.

We have not seen any maintenance works being carried out on this bridge. Misplaced or not, there is genuine fear among locals that the bridge might collapse anytime, said the boom gate worker who declined to be named citing protocol.

When contacted for comment, Manicaland Provincial Road Engineer, Atherton Zindoga said it was safe to continue using the existing structure under the current load restrictions.

It is safe to use the existing structure under current load restrictions.

We are watching the structure. An assessment was carried out and we are enforcing weight restrictions.

We have two options. The first one is to renovate the existing structure so that it can carry loads as required.

The second one is to build a new structure next to the existing one. Both options require funding and unfortunately the funds are not available at the moment. We have applied for a grant from the Government of Japan, said Eng Zindoga.

The debate on whether to construct a new structure or refurbish the existing is not new.

In 2018, the then Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister, Jorum Gumbo, ruled out the rehabilitation of Birchenough Bridge as he highlighted that it would be more economical to erect a new structure with a bigger carrying capacity.

Minister Gumbo told road authorities in Manicaland back then that while repairing the bridge would cost US$35 million, a new bridge would cost US$40 million.

He said the Government would rather construct a new bridge that is broader to allow the smooth flow of traffic.

In 2018, the Emerged Railways Properties who manage the iconic Victoria Falls Bridge introduced a toll fee for all vehicles crossing the bridge as a means of raising funds for the maintenance of the historic structure.

 Manica Post

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Vivek Murthy pointed out that science shows the use of nicotine products by young people is unsafe.

WASHINGTON, D.C.  Yesterday, the U.S. Surgeon General said the soaring electronic cigarette usage among young adults is a major public health concern, the Washington Post reports. While Vivek Murthy indicated more research is needed, the government should restrict youth from using the product.

We know enough right now to say that youth and young adults should not be using e-cigarettes or any other tobacco product, for that matter, Murthy said. The key bottom line here is that the science tells us the use of nicotine-containing products by youth, including e-cigarettes, is unsafe.

Use of e-cigs has skyrocketed among U.S. young people to become the most commonly used form of tobacco in 2014. Since 2011, the number of middle school and high school students using e-cigarettes has grown threefold. Among those between the ages of 18 and 24, usage has doubled.

As an industry, electronic cigarette makers, while in favor of minimum age requirements, have insisted that they have not and do not market to minors. However, public health advocates have found some do go after the youth market with bubble gum and pina colada flavors, as well as aggressive marketing campaigns.

In order to address tobacco in America, we need a multipronged approach, Murthy said. Whats at stake here is really protecting the next generation from nicotine addiction and tobacco-related disease.

In 2014, NACS issued a statement of position that encourages stores selling e-cigarettes to adopt, as a best practice, a policy of treating these products as age-restricted and subjecting them to the same age-verification procedures as those applicable to tobacco products.


By Jerri-Lynn Scofield, who has worked as a securities lawyer and a derivatives trader. She now spends most of her time in Asia researching a book about textile artisans. She also writes regularly about legal, political economy, and regulatory topics for various consulting clients and publications, as well as scribbles occasional travel pieces for The National.

Just in case daily news headlines havent already convinced you that alls far from well in these United States, the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) yesterday released a depressing set of statistics, Mortality in the United States, 2015. These show that for the first time in 23 years, overall life expectancy declined in the US in 2015, as compared to 2014, for total population, males, and females.

Overall life expectancy at birth for the total U.S. population comprising both males and females declined from 78.9 years in 2014 to 78.8 years in 2014 (as shown in Figure 1 below). For females, life expectancy dropped from 81.3 years in 2014 to 81.2 years in 2015, whereas for males, life expectancy decreased from 76.5 years in 2014 to 76.3 years in 2015.

Figure 1. Life expectancy at selected ages, by sex: United States, 2014 and 2015

Notes: Life expectancies 2014 were revised using updated Medicare data; therefore, figures may differ from those previously published. Access data table for figure one.

SOURCE: NCHS, National Vital Statistics System, Mortality.

Ten Leading Causes of Death

From 2014 to 2015, the 10 leading causes of death heart disease, cancer, chronic lower respiratory diseases, unintentional injuries, stroke, Alzheimers disease, diabetes, influenza and pneumonia, kidney disease, and suicide remained the same as in 2014 (as shown in Figure 3 below [Jerri-Lynn here: I have retained the original numbering for these figures]). More than 74% of all deaths in the United States in 2015 are due to these 10 leading causes.

From 2014 to 2015, death rates increased for 8 of 10 leading causes of death while declining for only 1: cancer, decreasing by 1.7%. For influenza and pneumonia (a combined category), the death rate remained essentially unchanged.

With respect to each of the eight others, the rate increased 0.9% for heart disease, 2.7% for chronic lower respiratory diseases, 6.7% for unintentional injuries, 3.0% for stroke, 15.7% for Alzheimers disease, 1.9% for diabetes, 1.5% for kidney disease, and 2.3% for suicide.

The Washington Post reports that the pop in the death rate for Alzheimers disease up 15.7% from 2014 to 2015 may be largely due to improved reporting.

Figure 3. Age-adjusted death rates for the 10 leading causes of death in 2015: United States, 2014 and 2015



1 Statistically significant increase in age-adjusted death rate from 2014 to 2015 (p < 0.05).

2 Statistically significant decrease in age-adjusted death rate from 2014 to 2015 (p < 0.05).

NOTES: A total of 2,712,630 resident deaths were registered in the United States in 2015. The 10 leading causes accounted for 74.2% of all deaths in the United States in 2015. Causes of death are ranked according to number of deaths. Access data table for Figure 3.

SOURCE: NCHS, National Vital Statistics System, Mortality.

Unintentional Injuries: Opioids, Alcohol, Distracted Driving

Now, its been several years since I used to pore over the figures in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (which one of my neighbors, a specialist in treatment of HIV when such a diagnosis was almost inevitably fatal, received). So call me morbid but what jumps out at me here is the pronounced increase in unintentional injuries, from 40.5 per 100,000 of population in 2014 to 43.2 in 2015, a rate of increase of 6.7%, second only to that for Alzheimers disease.

As The Post reports:

A year ago, research by [Princeton economist Anne] Case and Angus Deaton, also an economist at Princeton, brought worldwide attention to the unexpected jump in mortality rates among white middle-aged Americans. That trend was blamed on what are sometimes called diseases of despair: overdoses, alcoholism and suicide. The new report raises the possibility that major illnesses may be eroding prospects for an even wider group of Americans. Its findings show increases in virtually every cause of death. Its all ages, said David Weir, director of the health and retirement study at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. Over the past five years, he noted, improvements in death rates were among the smallest of the past four decades. Theres this just across-the-board [phenomenon] of not doing very well in the United States.

The headline of an article in the MIT Technology Review paints a stark and depressing picture, Business Big Pharma and Distracted Driving Are Killing Americans Early in quoting Jiaquan Xu, the principal author of the new report, who told Stat that hes particularly troubled by the rate of increase in unintentional deaths:

Motor vehicle accidents have gone up 6 percent, he explains. Accidental poisoning increased 13 percent. And 97 percent of accidental poisoning was from drug overdoses and alcohol, he added, citing the opioid epidemic as a particular problem.

The Technology Review piece further backs up its vivid headline with this analysis:

Opioid abuse has become a serious public health issue in the U.S., with addiction to the drugs leading to greater risk of overdose. Precise figures for opioid-related deaths arent included in the report, but they accounted for 28,000 lost lives in 2014, and Xu clearly worries that an appreciable chunk of the rise in accidental poisoning may be attributed to them. While people are working to develop drugs that could end the problem, for now common opioids like Oxycontin are still being prescribed regularly. Meanwhile, statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently showed that 35,092 people died in crashes on U.S. roads during 2015, up from 32,744 in 2014. Accidents where distracted drivingthe result of, say, texting on a cell phone or fiddling with the car stereowas cited as a reason rose by 8.8 percent year-on-year. While autonomous cars may go some way to solving that in the long-term, experts have warned that semi-autonomous vehicles may yet cause the figures to rise in the near future (Links omitted; I direct interested readers to the main article for these.)

The statistics hint at an underlying level of increasing misery. As is unsurprising in a publication so named, Technology Review looks to technology for solutions:

Theres a small glimmer of hope lurking in the report, though. Deaths due to cancerthe second-biggest cause of death in the U.S.actually fell by 1.7 percent in 2015. Thats partly due to increasing awareness of the disease, but also thanks to tireless research efforts to create new therapies. Hopefully causes of unintentional deaths will soon benefit from innovation, too.

Im afraid I dont share this optimism.
Electron highway inside crystal (Nanowerk News) Physicists at the University of Wurzburg have made an astonishing discovery in a specific type of topological insulators. The effect is due to the structure of the materials used. The researchers have now published their work in the journal Science ("Robust spin-polarized midgap states at step edges of topological crystalline insulators").

Topological insulators are currently the hot topic in physics according to the newspaper Neue Zurcher Zeitung. Only a few weeks ago, their importance was highlighted again as the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm awarded this year's Nobel Prize in Physics to three British scientists for their research of so-called topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter.

Topological insulators are also being studied at the Departments for Experimental Physics II and Theoretical Physics I of the University of Wurzburg. However, they focus on a special version of insulators called topological crystalline insulators (TCI). In cooperation with the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw and the University of Zurich, Wurzburg physicists have now achieved a major breakthrough. They were able to detect new electronic states of matter in these insulators.

Step edges on topological crystalline insulators may lead to electrically conducting pathways where electrons with opposite spin spin move in converse directions -- any U-turn is prohibited. (Image: Thomas Bathon/Paolo Sessi/Matthias Bode)

Step edges direct electrons

The central result: When crystalline materials are split, small atomically flat terraces emerge at the split off surfaces which are separated from each other by step edges. Inside these structures, conductive channels for electrical currents form which are extremely narrow at just about 10 nm and surprisingly robust against external disturbance. Electrons travel on these conductive channels with different spin in opposite directions - similar to a motorway with separate lanes for the two directions. This effect makes the materials interesting for technological applications in future electronic components such as ultra-fast and energy-efficient computers.

"TCIs are relatively simple to produce and they are already different from conventional materials because of their special crystalline structure," Dr. Paolo Sessi explains the background of the recently published paper. Sessi is a research fellow at the Department of Experimental Physics II and the lead author of the study.

Moreover, these materials owe their special quality to their electronic properties: In topological materials, the direction of spin determines the direction in which the electrons travel. Simply put, the "spin" can be interpreted as a magnetic dipole that can point in two directions ("up" and "down"). Accordingly, up-spin electrons in TCIs move in one and down-spin electrons in the other direction.

It's all about the number of atomic layers

"But previously scientists didn't know how to produce the conductive channels required to this end," says Professor Matthias Bode, Head of the Department for Experimental Physics II and co-author of the study. It was chance that now got the researchers on the right track: They discovered that very narrow conductive channels occur naturally when splitting lead tin selenide (PbSnSe), a crystalline insulator.

Step edges on the fragments' surfaces cause this phenomenon. They can be imaged using a high-resolution scanning tunnelling microscopy, or more precisely, the height of the corresponding step edges. "Edges that bridge an even number of atomic layers are totally inconspicuous. But if the edges span an odd number of atomic layers, a small area about 10 nm in width is created that has the electronic conductive channels properties we were looking for," Sessi explains.

Pattern breaks off at the edge

Supported by their colleagues from the Department of Theoretical Physics I and the University of Zurich, the experimental physicists were able to shed light on the origin of these new electronic states. To understand the principle, a little spatial sense is required:

"The crystalline structure causes a layout of the atoms where the different elements alternate like the black and white squares on a chessboard," Matthias Bode explains. This alternating black-and-white pattern applies to both squares which are adjacent and squares situated below and on top one another.

So if the crack of this crystal runs through different atomic layers, more than one edge is created there. Seen from above, white squares may also abut to other white squares along this edge and black squares to other black squares - or identical atoms to identical atoms. However, this only works if an odd number of atomic layers is responsible for the difference in height of the two surfaces.

Backed by calculations

"Calculations show that this offset at the surface is actually causative of these novel electronic states," says Paolo Sessi. Furthermore, they prove that the phenomenon of the spin-dependent conductive channels, which is characteristic of topological materials, occurs here as well.

According to the scientists, this property in particular makes the discovery relevant for potential applications, because such conductive channels cause low conduction loss on the one hand and can be used directly to transmit and process information in the field of spintronics on the other.
Find the newest releases to watch from National Geographic on Disney+, including favourite documentary series and films Free Solo, The Rescue, Shark Beach with Chris Hemsworth and The World According to Jeff Goldblum.
A Clonmel man who heads up the St Vincent de Paul's annual national appeal has said that funds are vital to help those in dire need this Christmas.

Businessman Kieran Stafford said the country's 'invisible' people, those who feel forgotten by society, are facing an uncertain Christmas.

The vice-chairman of the St Vincent de Paul said Irish people have always been extremely generous but a similar response is needed this weekend to maintain funds.

"We must ensure that we have enough funds to see these families over Christmas and into the new year", he said.

Mr Stafford said the society is not seeing any let-up in the number of people seeking help, even though they are constantly told that things are on the up.

"We are not seeing any evidence of that in the people we are visiting and those we are helping on an on-going basis", he stated.

And he said the key areas where people were suffering were with food, fuel and paying bills. And in rural areas people were approaching the society looking for help in meeting the costs of hospital, doctor and clinic appointments.

"People are also struggling to meet education costs, from primary to secondary to third level", he said.

Mr Stafford, a long serving member of the society in Clonmel who is now national vice-president, remarked that there are signs of economic improvement in some larger urban areas but the difficulties remain in rural areas and smaller towns.

"There is no difference in the number of people coming to us looking for help. But this is no surprise to us as we are meeting people every day, every week, all year long. We sit down and listen to their story and assist them anyway we can. We have been doing for 170 years and unfortunately it is no different now to what it was last year, two years ago or five years ago."

And while he emphasised that the support of the Irish public had been magnificent and donations remained consistent with previous years, if that level of support didn't continue the society wouldn't be able to address the needs of the famiies it helps at Christmas and into the new year.

"People are still coming to us in very difficult circumstances. People who have lost their jobs, lost their businesses, who have big families and are struggling to provide a decent Christmas for them.

"And these people feel that no one is interested in listening to their stories, they feel they don't have a voice. We are very privileged to be invited into their homes and to listen to their stories and to provide assistance whatever way we can.

"Some groups want to embrace the upturn in the economy, and certainly there has been an upturn for many people, but we cannot forget those who are still struggling and in such difficult circumstances".
Cashel couple Breda Lambe and Paddy Cooney's love story began two years ago and over 8000 miles away in Australia.

It was love at first sight for Paddy when he saw Breda in a bar in Darwin  he knew he wanted to marry Breda there and then. Unfortunately it wasnt all plain sailing for this couple as Paddys visa was to expire the next day and he had to return home to Ireland.

The couple spent the next three weeks talking everyday on the phone and Paddy just knew that he had to return to Australia to be with Breda. A few weeks later Paddy returned and the couple were engaged after five months. Two years later and the couple now live in Cashel with their baby daughter Emily.

The big day.

Now the build-up to their big day is featured in the RTE series 'Don't Tell the Bride' which will be shown next Thursday, December 15 on RTE 2 at 9.30pm.

Breda wears the trousers in this relationship and doesnt let Paddy get away with much. So how will she cope when Paddys wedding plans are revealed will the best day of her life turn into one of her worst nightmares?

For this Tipperary man, he dreams of getting married in the BOG! Yes thats right the BOG! What every girl dreams off. Something his Offaly Bride will not be expecting.

Paddy picks the dresses.

And thats not all this groom has up his sleevewith the help of Best Man Ronan and Groomsman David, Paddy plans on transforming a country pub CAR PARK in Offaly into Shenanigans, the pub in Darwin where he and Breda first met.

An Australian touch to the celebrations.

Crossed hurleys for the happy couple.

Paddy predicted that organising the perfect wedding would be a walk in the park but with a ceremony in a bog, a reception venue filled with snakes and kangaroos and the Brides arriving to her wedding on a TURF CUTTER, will Paddy really pull off Bredas dream wedding or will this day get dragged through the mud?!
A bipartisan duo of House lawmakers introduced a bill Thursday that would push Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to engage in more credit risk-sharing transactions.

The bill, by Reps. Ed Royce, R-Calif., and Gwen Moore, D-Wis., would require the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which controls the companies in conservatorship, to "engage in significant and increasing credit risk-transfer transactions."

Fannie and Freddie started engaging in risk-sharing deals in 2013 in an effort to limit taxpayer losses and transition to a new housing finance system that will presumably eventually be approved by Congress.

But lawmakers want investors to take on more of the initial losses on the securities they sell and for the government-sponsored enterprises to increase and diversify the types of risk-transfer transactions they develop.

"Congress should encourage Fannie and Freddie to increase the amount and the types of credit risk transfer transactions to the maximum level that is economically and commercially viable. Doing so is not only compatible with housing finance reform, it eases the way for future action," said Royce in a press release.

The risk-sharing deals are also thought to be a positive for price discovery and to gauge investor appetite. Investors have largely stayed away from mortgage-backed securities since the crisis unless they are guaranteed by the GSEs.

The bill would require the FHFA director, a position currently held by former North Carolina Congressman Mel Watt, to start developing a plan to increase the volume of risk-sharing deals within a year of the bill's passage and to increase the types and amount each year. The legislation also calls for the deals to try and convince investors to take on 4% of the credit risk starting from the first-dollar loss.

The bill would also require the FHFA to develop a pilot program for lenders with less than $10 billion in assets so smaller investors can also participate in the risk-sharing deals and it amends commodities rules so Fannie and Freddie could create credit-linked notes to transfer risk.

"I think this bipartisan legislation builds on the good work the FHFA has done in housing finance. Together, I am confident we will collectively pave the way for a stronger, more stable housing market for all Americans," said Moore.
#Hybe Q3 Hybe posts highest Q3 revenue ever Hybe, the entertainment company behind K-pop superstars BTS, on Thursday reported a revenue of 445.5 billion won (US$314 million) for the third quarter of the year, up 30.6 percent...
The Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization is proposing a standard for the maintenance and sharing of commercial and multifamily real estate rent-roll information. It is designed to support all types of income-producing property, including office, industrial, retail, multifamily, assisted living, self-storage, mobile home parks and hotels.

The standard includes 87 fields of property and financial data as well as an easy way to maintain and share the data through widely used, secure technology.

Basic information such as tenant names and types of tenants, contract rents amounts, lease start and end dates, unit numbers and square footage, is essential to analyzing the value of commercial real estate. A property's income is determined by adding up all the rental payments received from the tenants and deducting operating and capital expenses. And the income is used to value a property and determine how highly leveraged it is.

Yet it is not always available to portfolio lenders and end investors.

Even Regulation AB II, which mandates disclosure of all kinds of loan-level information for commercial mortgage bonds, does not require disclosure of rent rolls.

Jim Flaherty, chairman of the working group that developed the standard, said that standard access to this kind of information will benefit CMBS investors.

"Unlike rating agencies and B-piece buyers, who get full rent rolls during the offering process, CMBS Investors do not currently get rent rolls in useable formats," said Flaherty, who is also chief executive of CMBS.com. "CMBS investors need rent roll data to accurately assess collateral value and, therefore, the value of the bonds."

"In a typical CMBS, investors only receive limited information about a few of the biggest tenants. A prospectus will say how much space is leased and when the lease ends, but they don't even provide the rent."

Industry members and the public are invited to comment on the draft standard; final adoption is expected in February 2017 at a commercial real estate conference of the Mortgage Bankers Association in San Diego.
Iraqi experts were trained on cyber defence at the Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara, Turkey to improve their expertise and technical knowledge and to contribute to the strengthening of Iraqi national cyber defence capabilities. This course was supported by the Science for Peace and security (SPS) Programme and took place from 21 November to 2 December 2016.

Addressing Iraqs needs

This training course aimed at Iraqi system/network administrators was tailored specifically to Iraqs needs by focusing on its cyber security and defence requirements presented to NATO. Overall, 16 civil servants from the new Iraqi Computer Incident Response Team (CIRT) were trained during the course.

The hands-on training programme included both theoretical sessions as well as practical laboratory exercises of core aspects of cyber defence, including cryptanalysis, prevention of data exfiltration, advanced digital forensics, and conducting vulnerability assessment.

Mr Aldulsamad, Director of the CIRT, remarked we appreciate the broad approach that covered cyber security as a whole because it enabled each expert to be exposed to areas that are very different from the one they specialise in, together with the security implications that they have to be aware of in order to be better equipped at tackling their everyday challenges.

The course focused on raising cyber security awareness and provided the trainees with the expertise and technical knowledge to help increase resilience of their national networks. Upon their return, the trainees will be able to apply the gained knowledge in the daily operation of their institutions thereby significantly contributing to the strengthening of Iraqi national cyber defence capabilities.

The co-director for this advanced training course, Mr Murad Assafi (National Security Council of Iraq), expressed his satisfaction with this training for the CIRT cyber defence experts and proposed a follow-up training stating that a further training would be very useful, allowing Iraqs institutions to benefit from the expertise of METU lecturers.

Contributing to Iraqs defence capacity building

The SPS training was delivered as part of the Defence Capacity Building (DCB) Initiative endorsed by Allied leaders at the 2014 NATO Summit in Wales. Upon the request from the Iraqi authorities, the SPS Programme rapidly reacted and provided this tailor-made, high-level expert course, significantly contributing NATOs strategic objectives in the area of defence capacity-building, noted Dr Deniz Beten, Senior SPS & Partnership Cooperation Advisor.

The SPS Programme provides strong support to the DCB Initiative. Currently, the programme supports several activities in this area. This is the second SPS activity implemented under the DCB Package for Iraq. The SPS Programme also assists Iraq through a multi-year project in the field of counter-IED, composing of expert training and related specialist equipment.
(Natural News) The insidious assumption behind the fake news accusations being flung far and wide by the fakestream media (CNN, NPR, WashPost, NYT, MSNBC, etc.) is that somehow the corporate media has a divine monopoly on facts.

The assumption is ludicrously demonstrated when MSNBC rolls out convicted liar Brian Williams to decry fake news. Youd be hard pressed to find any fake news propagandist who churned out more fake news than Brian Williams and hes still working at MSNBC! [B]ack in early 2015, Breitbart News presented a list of at least 32 times that NBC News let Williams present such fake news to the American people  lies and disputed stories  including his false claims about being in a helicopter that was hit by an RPG, reports Breitbart.com, one of the new media giants accused of publishing fake news by the collapsing lamestream media.

Williams also made up stories about Seal Team 6, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Pope, Hurricane Katrina, quitting college, rescuing a puppy from a house fire, and more, Breitbart continues.

If the media establishment only tells the truth, why are so many of their news reports obviously faked?

If the corporate-run media really had some sort of divine monopoly on facts, then none of us would be able to find examples of laughably fake news on their websites, would we? Yet even the Washington Post has now been exposed for, if you can believe it, faking a news story about fake news!

Any honest investigation can go right down the list: CNN, NYT, WashPost, HuffPost, LA Times, USA Today, NPR, MSNBC, Fox News and so on every one of these news organizations has run genuinely fake news while claiming it was fact.

Its not even difficult to find examples of these organizations deliberately fabricating fake news in order to alter the outcome of the recent election. Nearly all of them reported, for example, some variation of the absurd claim that Donald Trump cant win the election.

These are also the same fake news organizations that obediently and enthusiastically repeated Obamas fabricated claims about Obamacare. Remember If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor? Or how about the claim that Obamacare will save American families $2500 a year, on average? Not only were these glaring examples of fake news, they were known to be false at the time they were published by the corporate-run media.

Another way the media fakes the news: Censorship of important stories they dont want you to learn

And then there are the stories the entire fakestream media censors because they dont want anyone to learn about actual facts. As a particularly egregious example, it is an established fact that CDC scientist Dr. William Thompson publicly admitted to falsifying scientific data at the CDC to obscure the statistical link between vaccines and autism in African-Americans. That is not only indisputable, its also an incredibly important piece of news for the health of all Americans.

Did the fakestream media cover that story? Not by a long shot: They censored it.

Every single fakestream media organization across the country obediently blackballed the story. The censorship was obviously coordinated, deliberate and malicious. Remember, censorship of important facts is another way the insidious corporate-run media lies to its misinformed viewers.

Hilarious videos of CNN staging fake locations, fake missile attacks and fake seafaring

CNN has forever used fakery, theatrics and false reporting to influence public opinion rather than report the news. Perhaps the most hilarious example of dishonest CNN fakery is the Charles Jaco video from the first Gulf War.

In order to pretend to be covering the Gulf War from a live set in Saudi Arabia, CNN built a Saudi stage in the USA and faked a SCUD missile attack on its news anchor Charles Jaco. Hilarious, as the video shows below, while Charles Jaco grabs a gas mask, his co-anchor grabs a helmet (see the 7:00 mark in the video below). Its funnier than a really bad SNL skit!

Remember, this was all broadcast as CNN Live, where CNN literally pretended this was all real and true.

Faking the news is a specialty of CNN, and there are countless examples of the network going out of its way to stage fake sets, fake locations and even use actors following mass shootings to make sure the proper narrative is delivered to the public. For example, this video interview reveals a comprehensive collection of CNN news fakery such as the bizarre moment when CNN anchors try to pretend they are not in the same parking lot.

That incident, detailed in this UK Daily Mail article, involved a CNN anchor and guest desperately trying to pretend they were broadcasting live from distant locations when, in reality, they were in the exact same parking lot. (This is evidenced by the simple fact that the exact same vehicles pass behind them, in the exact same sequence)

CNN frequently uses green screens to fake locations. The hilarious video below shows CNN building an entire fake ship on a green screen set to try to create the illusion that their reporter is on the scene in the Black Sea, covering US war ships near Ukraine. During the hilariously bad fake set report, the CNN journalist even points off in the distance behind him to try to make the green screen illusion more convincing:

Youll discover another jaw-dropping compilation of fake, scripted news from the mainstream media in this next video, covering media fakery involving the Gulf War, the defamation of Ron Paul, 9/11 attacks, Bin Laden and more:

The entire Sandy Hook mass shooting narrative was deeply layered in all sorts of CNN fakery, including the use of actors who were told to read lines to the cameras while sobbing uncontrollably for maximum effect. In one case, a cheerful white man is laughing it up in the background, then when signaled to approach the microphone to speak on camera, starts hyperventilating and crying while reading his obviously scripted lines. (The guy turns out to be a professional actor.)

In the same video, shown below, another actor is caught on a hot mic asking, Do you want me to read the card? right before sobbing on camera, playing the part of a grieving parent.

Yet another Sandy Hook theatrical fake news hoax was the use of David Wheeler, a professional actor, as both a grieving parent and a SWAT team sniper. As with all the other actors rolled out for CNNs cameras, this professional actor performed a scripted role in order to evoke a powerful emotional response with the sole purpose of repealing the Second Amendment (a necessary step before America can be overrun and controlled by radical leftist communists). The way he carries his sniper rifle (upside down, by the magazine) makes it laughably obvious to anyone familiar with firearms that he has absolutely no clue how to carry a rifle

The corporate-run media has done nothing but fake the news for decades

Search YouTube for terms like CNN green screen or crisis actors or Sandy Hook or faked news and you can spend hour and after watching clear examples of outlandish news fakery by the mainstream media. It doesnt take long for any intelligent, clear thinking individual to realize the mainstream media has been faking the news for decades. CNN, in fact, can be best described as a fake news theater organization pretending to be engaged in legitimate journalism.

I even recorded a podcast on this very subject, discussing all the news fakery weve all been subjected to over the years by the deliberate fabrications of the corporate-controlled media.

Come to think of it, you probably need to go back and revisit what you think is really true about many historic events covered by the lying media: Oklahoma City, 9/11, Sandy Hook, the assassination of JFK and even the nuking of Japan in World War II. In every case, what was reported by the lying mainstream media was a scripted narrative, not a serious investigation into what really happened.

Listen to my podcast to learn more or click here to hear it on Health Ranger Report:
Friday, December 09, 2016 by: Robert Jonathan Tags: oil pipeline , Trudeau This article may contain statements that reflect the opinion of the author

(Natural News) Canadas legacy Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus approval of two controversial pipeline projects earlier this week has angered allies in the environmentalist cohort and in the indigenous community.

Environmental groups began condemning the decision as Mr. Trudeau was making his announcement late Tuesday afternoon, but the prime minister said that the pipeline expansion did not contradict his pledges to improve environmental protection and mitigate climate change, the New York Times explained.

Said one activist, Trudeau should be ashamed today using middle class workers as cover to wreak havoc on our water, climate and property rights.

With this announcement, Prime Minister Trudeau has broken his climate commitments, broken his commitments to Indigenous rights, and has declared war on B.C., added a Greenpeace official.

The pipeline decisions made news in part because Trudeau is a politician who has generally bought into the narrative advanced by the worldwide man-made climate change or climate disruption rebrand, which previously operated under the consensus theories of global cooling or global warming.

As Natural News recently revealed, Whether they call it anthropogenic warming, global warming or climate change  just follow the money. What its really about is control of all energy on earth, while bilking billions from lucrative carbon credit schemes.

Greens disappointed in green light for pipelines

On Tuesday, Trudeau approved the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion, a project that will carry oil from Alberta to British Columbia and then on to Asia, and Line 3, that will transport oil from Alberta to Wisconsin.

Green activists vow to sue in court to block both projects; once the lawyers get involved, it could be years, if ever, before construction actually gets underway.

To be built by Kinder Morgan, the 715-mile Trans Mountain Pipeline alone would reportedly increase output to 890,000 barrels a day, tripling existing capacity. Enbridges 1030-mile Line 3 is designed to double the current 380,000 per day volume. Each of these projects has a price tag of about $6 billion.

The decision we took today is the one that is in the best interests of Canada. It is a major win for Canadian workers, for Canadian families and the Canadian economy, now and into the future, Trudeau said in his announcement.

Trudeau rejected a third pipeline project known as the Northern Gateway, a separate pipeline from Alberta to British Columbia.

The Liberals under Trudeau ousted Conservative Prime Minster Stephen Harper in the October 2015 general election, ending Harpers nine-year rule. Pierre Trudeau, Justins father, served as the countrys prime minister from from April 20, 1968, to June 4, 1979, and again from March 3, 1980, to June 30, 1984.

The pipeline decisions point to a careful balancing act on energy by the Trudeau government, which has announced plans to levy a nationwide carbon tax that could make it a leader in the global battle against climate change and has pledged to phase out coal-fired power, the Wall Street Journal detailed.

Former apolitical entrepreneur Kevin OLeary, one of the stars of ABCs Shark Tank (and its Canadian precursor Dragons Den) is considering a run for the wide-open position of Conservative Party leader as a possible stepping-stone to seek the prime minister job himself. OLeary, a.k.a. Mr. Wonderful, has blasted Trudeaus tax-and-spend and business-unfriendly policies. He has expressed the belief that the incumbent will serve just one term, along with arguing that Canada needs leaders with actual business acumen and experience. The next election is scheduled for October 2019, although a parliamentary system also provides for early elections if circumstances dictate.

OLeary has characterized Justin Trudeau as a giant meat grinder of taxpayers money and no match for master negotiator Donald Trump, the U.S. president-elect, when it comes to trade policy.

Sources:

TheHill.com

CBCNews.com

NYTimes.com

WSJ.com

Inquisitr.com
Friday, December 09, 2016 by: Robert Jonathan Tags: Big Pharma , Donald Trump , vaccines This article may contain statements that reflect the opinion of the author

(Natural News) When it comes to vaccine mandates, it remains to be seen if President-elect Donald Trumps vow to make America great again also includes making America healthy again. In short, will he use the power of his office to try to protect heath freedom by reining in mandatory inoculations?

If so, it will require some serious swamp draining. The entire institutionalized regulatory establishment in the form of The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and its and international and state counterparts are aggressive proponents of mandatory vaccination, including a no-exception policy for families.

Abolishing vaccine mandates could be on the Trump agenda. As far as health-related reforms, however, the repeal and replace of Obamacare (otherwise known as the profoundly misnamed Affordable Care Act) is expected to be one of the first orders of business for Trump and the Congress. That will require some heavy lifting.

If you dislike your vaccine, do you have to keep it?

Even raising the possibility of the toxic side effects, and/or merely having an open mind about vaccines, has prompted outrage (faux or otherwise) from the media and its approved array of experts, perhaps because of the all advertising money it rakes in from Big Pharma. According to the media echo chamber, no scientific evidence exists that vaccines, for example, cause autism.

You may recall during the September 16, 2015, nationally televised GOP presidential debate that CNN tried to push Trump into the full-on anti-vaxxer camp. Citing the example of an employee whose vaccinated newborn wound up with autism, Trump mentioned that doses should be administered over a two- or three-year period rather than all at once.

To the horror of the conventional-wisdom-obsessed media (the same folks who assured the U.S. and the world that Hillary Clinton was a lock to win the presidency), then-candidates Ben Carson and Rand Paul, both of whom are medical doctors, agreed with Trump on the same national stage that vaccinations should be given incrementally.

Even Green Party candidate Jill Stein of recount fame, an MD herself, had to backpedal furiously in August after seemingly equivocating on vaccine safety.

Democrat Hillary Clinton, the recipient of more campaign donations from drug companies than any other candidate in the 2016 election cycle, is an advocate of mandatory vaccinations.

Over the years, Trumps Twitter feed raised questions about how vaccinations are administered by the medical community. Im not against vaccinations for your children, Im against them in 1 massive dose. Spread them out over a period of time & autism will drop! he tweeted in September 2014.

A 1905 U.S. Supreme Court case, Jacobson v. Massachusetts, established the legal precedent for mandatory vaccinations, when a Cambridge clergyman unsuccessfully objected to a law that required him to get a second smallpox vaccination after a bad reaction the first time around. Reasonable health regulations generally fall under the so-called police power of the government, in which courts tend to give substantial deference. It is within the police power of a State to enact a compulsory vaccination law, and it is for the legislature, and not for the courts, to determineThe matured opinions of medical men everywhere, and the experience of mankind, as all must know, negative the suggestion that it is not possible in any case to determine whether vaccination is safe, the majority opinion declared.

Because of the untimely death of Justice Scalia, one vacancy exists on the Supreme Court, which is split 4-4 (roughly) between conservatives and liberals. It will be interesting to see if Trump nominates a health freedom supporter from among the 21 potential picks that he released during the campaign and thereby perhaps revisit the 100-plus year old ruling.

Sources:

NVIC.org

Supreme.Justia.com
An oil-control moisturizer containing Policosanol (by Sabinsa), Aloe vera extract and niacinamide as its active ingredients was effective in controlling oiliness of the skin, according to a study published in the European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

The formula, developed by Sami/Sabinsa, was evaluated in 17 subjects with express facial oiliness. The subjects were asked to apply the oil-control moisturizer to the face in a circular motion on cheeks, forehead and nose once a day for a period of two weeks.

At the end of two weeks of the study period, volunteers using oil-control moisturizer cream showed beneficial effects in the form of reduction in shine on skin, improved skin softness, smoothness and moisturizing effect. Application of this oil control moisturizer is beneficial for oily skin to control excess oiliness of the skin with no reported adverse effects.

Following usage of this oil control moisturizer for two weeks, sebum secretion levels on the forehead skin significantly decreased. There were no complaints of dryness or irritation of the skin during the study, which is notable since consumers often observe those effects with many oil-control skin care products.

This study establishes the use of our patented Policosanol ingredient and gives formulators a way forward for an effective natural solution when it comes to sebum control, anti-acne and oil-control formulations," said Shaheen Majeed, marketing director for Sabinsa.
The Coca-Cola Company today announced its plan for James Quincey, president and COO, to succeed current Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Muhtar Kent effective May 1, 2017. Kent will continue as Chairman of the Board of Directors. The Board intends to nominate Quincey to stand for election as a director at the 2017 annual shareowners meeting in April.

The move is part of Coca-Colas long-term growth plan that requires a thoughtful and orderly succession planning process. I have been engaged with our Management Development Committee and the full Board on talent development and succession discussions throughout my tenure as CEO. We are certain that James Quincey is prepared for these new responsibilities and is the absolute right choice to lead our company and system into the future," Kent said.

The elevation of Quincey, 51, to Coca-Colas the top position comes at a time of important evolution for the company, which has refocused its core business model of building strong global brands, enhancing sustainable customer value and leading a strong, dedicated franchise system. Quincey was named Coca-Colas president and COO in August 2015. In 2016, he rolled out a new international operating structure and leadership team to make the company more efficient and effective at the local levels, helping its operating units become faster and more agile.

The succession plan highlights the companys commitment to diversifying its interests to compensate for declining soft drink sales. The carbonated beverages category has taken a hit due perceived negative health connotations around obesity and sugar intake and many brands looking to stake a new claim to consumers purchases are turning to natural alternative sweeteners that carry consumer associations of health benefits, such as fewer calories, lower glycemic indexes and notable absences of certain other ingredients that appear to be falling out of favor.

In describing Quincey, Kent said: I know that his vast industry knowledge, expertise with our brands, values and system, coupled with an acute understanding of evolving consumer tastes, make him the ideal candidate to effectively lead our company and bottling system. James has the strategic vision and inspirational leadership to usher in the next phase of growth for our great business."

What I find extremely important about that comment is Quinceys acute understanding of evolving consumer tastes." It is no secret that consumers taste are changing and shifting consumer demands have led to immense innovation in the beverages category with the current trends led by the emphasis on health and wellness. (Check out INSIDERs Formulating Better-For-You Beverages" Digital Magazine to find out how product developers are improving nutrition by adding more of the things consumers wantlike nutrients, vitamins, minerals and natural" ingredient alternativesand less of the things they dontlike added sugars and preservatives.)

Throughout his 20-year career at Coca-Cola, Quincey has shown leadership in addressing consumer changes by expanding product offerings, introducing smaller package sizes, and most recently, driving systematic portfolio reformulation to reduce added sugar with more than 200 initiatives in progress.

These initiatives are extremely important as serving sizes and added sugar content are two critical issues facing the food and beverage industry.

In May 2016, FDA unveiled new requirements for the Nutrition Facts label of packaged foods, including the reporting of a products added sugar content. This new attention to added sugar intake on packagingas well as consumer demand for sweeteners that are natural, sustainable and healthfulprovides brands the opportunity to increase use of alternative sweeteners when developing or reformulating products.

Equally important are the new requirements for serving sizes that more closely reflect the amounts of food that people currently eat. What and how much people eat and drink has changed since the last serving size requirements were published in 1993. By law, the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act requires that serving sizes be based on what people actually eat. For packages between 1 and 2 servings, such as a 20-ounce soda, the calories and other nutrients will be required to be labeled as 1 serving because people typically consume it in one sitting.
Those who want to ride along Mars One and its Mars colonization plan will have to wait a little longer as the company recently announced a five-year delay on its controversial mission. The new timeline suggests that the first Mars colonizers will leave Earth in 2031 instead of 2026 and reach Mars by 2032.

One of the main reasons for the delay is the company's need to raise more funds for the Mars colonization mission. Apparently, the movement of the project has taken longer than expected; thus, the Dutch venture had to be postponed.

"Of course the whole Mars One team would have preferred to be able to stick to the original schedule, but this new timeline significantly improves our odds of successfully achieving this mission roadmap," Bas Lansdorp, Mars One CEO, said in a press release.

In line with the mission, Mars One will also conduct astronaut selection and training. The number of applicants will be trimmed down by 2017.

The project has been delayed several times since it was announced in 2012. Some MIT researchers say that in order for the project to work, it needs a ton of money and technological advancements, but it would still be fatal for the first Mars colonizers who will participate in Mars One. Meanwhile, some reports accused the company of misleading the public, according to The Verge.

Like most missions to Mars, Mars One seems ambitious at first. However, if financial and technical plans are in place, it could prove to be feasible. A good example is Elon Musk's spaceflight company SpaceX, who also has plans to colonize Mars. But backing up his ambitious dream is a process that could actually make it work like the effort to mine materials on Mars that could be transformed to fuel and building a rocket that could bring humans to Mars called the Mars Colonial Transporter (MCT).

Mars One has also presented some pre-Mars colonization move like the planned Mars rover to land on the red planet in 2018. Mars One plans to send and fix Mars habitation system afterward starting in 2022.
"Believe lies long enough until they become real" may be a scary truth after all. Stories describing events that never happened, or fake news, have been so prolific in the past few months, even to the point that tech giants such as Google and Facebook vowed to do something about them.

But are people really so gullible? The answer appears to be yes -- even if the fake news is too obvious to believe.



According to New Scientist, the best circumstance is to observe the recent U.S. elections that led to the controversial win of President-elect Donald Trump and how it impacted the rise of trends in history.



An analysis by journalist Craig Silverman said the top 20 fake stories in circulation of his time overtook the top 20 stories from top publishers in the country. Meanwhile, Paul Horner, a publisher of fake news, believes Donald Trump won because of fake news.



He told the Washington Post that his "followers don't fact-check anything -- they'll post everything, believe anything."



Silverman added that his study involving rumors back in 2014 led him to see that shares and social interactions around fake news articles are too immense versus those that debunked them. Meaning it seems fake news stories are engineered to appeal to hopes and fears and aren't constrained in reality.



Interestingly, it appears this trend goes way back. Researchers found out that early on that the more rumors are told, the more they seem plausible. This means that a rumor out of mild suspicion can drastically change public opinion.



This was demonstrated empirically in 1997 when researchers in the United States quizzed college students on what statements they thought were true or false. They figured out that just repeating the statements at a later date were enough to increase the likelihood that they're believable.



However, there remains to be hope, even in small numbers. A recent study had U.S. high school students see pictures of what appears to be "deformed" flowers near the ill-fated Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Less than 20 percent had doubts about the source of the photo, and 40 percent considered it strong evidence regardless of the lack of information.



Sadly, a lot of students also tend to place huge trust on search engines and even think the top results were true. This can be a cause of alarm as fake news can appear on the top parts of Google search results.
People have always been a fan of dystopian media -- the idea of Big Brother, dystopian literature, and even dystopian films. However, China may be at the top of it all because of its Social Credit System.



In hindsight, it may appear to be every Orwellian paranoiac's "worst nightmare." Sadly, the technology to make this happen is very well within our reach, so how can this impact society?



According to Futurism, the move itself is controversial enough. The Chinese government is planning to implement a system that gives and collects the financial, social, legal, and political credit "ratings" of students into a social credit score.



The idea behind everything seems something straight out of science fiction. However, it's beginning to take shape. In fact, Futurism added that for a nation that has a more or less "openly totalitarian" approach to governance, the move to install a social credit system shouldn't be all too surprising.



According to Financial Times, proponents of the idea are already testing the various aspects of the system. They are to gather digital records of citizens, specifically financial behavior. The social credit score system will determine whether or not a citizen can avail themselves of certain services.



Wang Zhicheng of Peking University told the Wall Street Journal the country has a way to go before it "assigns" a score to everyone. After all, it needs to work the accuracy of the data.



This means, while it may take time, it may only take a matter of time before the data of around 1.4 billion people eventually get consolidated in a social credit system. This appears to be something straight out of Orwell, where the score of citizens get to be the basis for access to services such as travel and education to loans and insurance.



Although the Wall Street Journal reports that supporters have their reasons. For instance, it may arrive at a unitary system to grant citizens access to financial services as 1.3 billion Chinese citizens don't own credit cards.



They also assured that the system "would allow the trustworthy to roam everywhere under heaven while making it hard for the discredited to take a single step."
In yet another battle against a possible loss of its species, nature seems to be at the losing end once more. This time, with one of the world's most iconic animals, the giraffes of Africa.

In an official press release sent to Nature World News on Dec. 8, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) -- the world body in charge for the global Red List of Threatened Species -- has declared giraffes officially in danger of extinction. The announcement was made as a result of a new assessment of giraffes conducted by the world's leading experts.

Because of the overwhelming incidence of illegal hunting and the loss of natural habitat partly due to farming and the enduring war in northern Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia in the border area with South Sudan, the giraffe population in Africa has significantly dwindled by 40 percent in the last three decades. This resulted to the species moving from the "Least Concern" category to "Vulnerable" on the IUCN Red List.

In an interview with BBC News, Dr. Julian Fennessy, co-chairman of the IUCN giraffe specialist group, stated that the creatures are undergoing a "silent extinction."

"While there have been great concern about elephants and rhinos, giraffes have gone under the radar but, unfortunately, their numbers have been plummeting, and this is something that we were a little shocked about, that they have declined by so much in so little time," Fennessy said.

Despite living in supposedly government protected wildlife environments, such as national parks and wildlife reserves, the safety of giraffes are not guaranteed.

"In protected areas, we're still seeing giraffes threatened by poaching," Dr. Megan Strauss, who recently completed a study in Tanzania's world-famous Serengeti National Park, told Wild Nature Institute. "Poachers in Serengeti target giraffes with snares hung in the tree canopy and this has contributed to a substantial decline in their numbers."

The world's leading giraffe researchers and experts are working harder than ever, spending their life's work to save the last of giraffes of Africa, and they are urging everyone to do the same. Dr. Anne Dagg, a distinguished pioneer of giraffe research who dedicated almost 50 years to the conservation of the tallest land mammals said, "We must act now to ensure that these magnificent creatures never become extinct."
In 2014, only 16 percent of rural homes in the Southeast Asian country of Myanmar have access to electricity. But a new initiative from the Myanmar government and its private partners plans to provide electricity to the whole country in part by using off-grid solar energy.

The new power source could supply electricity to rice farms and lighting streets and residences, with the goal of bringing electricity to the whole country by 2030, The Guardian reports.

Companies are contributing to the development of off-grid solutions in the country. Myanmar Eco Solutions, a for-profit renewable energy firm, recently set up a solar-powered irrigation system for rice farmers in the southern Myanmar region near Pathein.

Laos-based solar developer Sunlabob also installed solar mini-grids in 11 villages in the provinces of Shan and Chin. The system enables residents to power low-voltage electrical items such as lights, small televisions and mobile phones.

"Our original idea was to supply solar home systems because they are relatively affordable," Ben Frederick, head of operations from Myanmar Eco Solutions, told The Guardian.

According to Inhabitat, off-grid solar could help make electricity accessible to communities across Myanmar, as traditional alternative power sources like diesel generators are far too expensive for poverty-stricken areas in the country. Despite being the largest country in mainland Southeast Asia, Myanmar still ranks 148th of 188 countries on the United Nation's benchmark development index, with the highest levels of poverty concentrated in rural areas, World Bank reports.

Currently, almost all of Myanmar's off-grid projects are either government-funded or donated. Panasonic recently installed a Power Supply Container in the settlement of Yin Ma Chaung using charity funds via Mitsui & Co. The off-grid station generates 2.82 kilowatts of energy for the settlement and nearby villages.

According to The Guardian, the Yin Ma Chaung area is populated by deadly snakes, and the life saving anti-venom needs to be refrigerated. Without electricity, the anti-venom is stored in coolers that frequently break down, resulting in deaths of about 500 per year.

To alleviate the problem, a portion of the newly installed solar power systems is currently being used for a new community refrigerator that would keep doses of the anti-venom chilled.
Scientists are examining the potential of nitrogen in ancient rocks to detect life on other planets, Mars in particular.

Nitrogen is one of the essential nutrients of life on Earth. Some organisms are capable of breaking down chemical bonds in nitrogen gas into molecules that other organisms can use.

According to Astrobiology Magazine, the process, which is called nitrogen fixation, involves breaking down powerful chemical bonds that hold paired nitrogen atoms in the atmosphere and using the single nitrogen atoms to create molecules (such as ammonia) that serve as a building block of many complex organic molecules, which includes proteins, DNA and RNA.

Based on its role in the Earth's chemistry, Eva Stueken, an astrobiologist at the University of Washington in Seattle, is determining if nitrogen in 3.8 billion-year-old rocks from the Isua Supracrustal Belt in Greenland could be bio-signatures of life on Mars. The study was recently published in the journal Astrobiology.

Previous research interpreted that organic carbon molecules in these ancient rocks are biogenic -- the results of which had been controversial since the widely accepted date for earliest life has been only 3.5 billion years.

"It is possible to make organic carbon even in the absence of life," Stueken said. "So those studies have been viewed with skepticism by some researchers, and an independent biosignature was needed."

Stueken focused on relatively high nitrogen levels found in mineral biotite in the Isua rocks, the nitrogen concentrations of which are similar to what could be found in modern mud, and determined if the amount of nitrogen could result from abiotic sources.

According to Stueken, abiotic processes may have been much more important to nitrogen fixation than biological ones. She developed a model of abiotic nitrogen processes that could have played a role in early Earth and found that such abiotic processes alone could not explain the nitrogen levels contained in the Isua rocks.

"The results provide more evidence of an early origin of life on Earth -- before 3.8 billion years ago," Stueken said, adding that nitrogen abundances could be a useful tool in for upcoming Mars missions.
In a shocking discovery of a lifetime, a Chinese paleontologist has discovered a fossilized tail of a rare baby feathered dinosaur in the most unlikely of places -- a marketplace in Myanmar.

According to a report from NPR, Lida Xing, a paleontologist at China University of Geosciences in Beijing, was visiting a local market in northern Myanmar in 2015 when he stumbled upon the rare find. A market vendor offered him the fossil, saying that it was a plant. However, Xing immediately knew that the feathered object in the chunk of amber was more valuable than a plant, and was, in fact, from a baby dinosaur.

"I have studied paleontology for more than 10 years and have been interested in dinosaurs for more than 30 years. But I never expected we could find a dinosaur in amber. This may be the coolest find in my life. The feathers on the tail are so dense and regular, this is really wonderful," said Xing.

After years of analysis, the findings of Xing and his colleagues from China, the U.K. and Canada was recently published in the journal Current Biology.

According to the study, the tiny tail in the amber belongs to a coelurosaur, a feathered dinosaur species that existed about 99 million years ago. The study noted that the tiny tail belonged to a young coelurosaur which is about the size of a sparrow, but if fully grown, could be as big as an ostrich.

Tagged with the nickname "Eva," the scientists said that coelurosaurs are related to two other bigger dinosaur species: Tyrannosaurus rex and Velociraptor.

However, what makes the fossil tail extra special is that it was attached to bones in the spines. The scientists observed that the feathers on the tail were spread on the side, allowing it to swing back and forth in a whip-like manner.

"A lot of baby birds look kinda creepy, to be honest. This one was probably fairly cute and fuzzy. Not your terror-of-Jurassic-Park type," says Ryan Mckellar, co-author of the study. It's a spectacular little glimpse. It gives us, basically, a pathway that gets us to modern feathers."
Former US Senator and famed NASA astronaut, John Glenn has died at the age of 95. In a report by The Columbus Dispatch, Glenn had been hospitalized at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus. Reasons for his hospitalization were not disclosed.

Glenn gained popularity after his February 1962 Friendship 7 Mission. He was the first American to orbit planet Earth. Before him, four other people had been sent out to space, two of which were also Americans. Unlike Glenn's full orbit of the earth, the four astronauts only performed suborbital flights. Glenn's trip had paved the way for human exploration in space.

"Senator Glenn's legacy is one of risk and accomplishment, of history created and duty to country carried out under great pressure with the whole world watching," stated NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, adding, "The entire NASA Family will be forever grateful for his outstanding service, commitment and friendship."

Glenn was the last surviving member of the Mercury Seven group, which marks the end of an era. Other members include Scott Carpenter, Gus Grissom, Gordon Cooper, Deke Slayton, Wally Schirra, and Alan Shepard.

During the mission for Friendship 7, Glenn had orbited planet earth approximately three times in just under five hours. In his memoir, Glenn described the sunset from his orbit as "spectacular" and that it was "an understatement for the few second's view."

In the year 1998, Glenn was one of the oldest people to head into space. He was selected as a crew member for the SGS-95, Space Shuttle Discovery. The nine-day mission involved crew members conducting medical experiments on Glenn to study the effects of space on the human body.

As a tribute to the pioneer, former President Barack Obama had released the following statement:

"With John's passing, our nation has lost an icon and Michelle and I have lost a friend. John spent his life breaking barriers, from defending our freedom as a decorated Marine Corps fighter pilot in World War II and Korea, to setting a transcontinental speed record, to becoming, at age 77, the oldest human to touch the stars. John always had the right stuff, inspiring generations of scientists, engineers and astronauts who will take us to Mars and beyond -- not just to visit, but to stay. ..."

Glenn was married to former Annie Margaret Castor of New Concord, Ohio. The pair married in 1943 and had a daughter, Lyn, a son, Dave, and two grandkids.
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors government oversight committee voted Thursday to issue a subpoena compelling a reluctant UC Berkeley structural engineering professor to explain how he vouched for the foundation of the now sinking Millennium Tower.

Before the unanimous vote to subpoena Jack Moehle to testify and produce records, Supervisor Aaron Peskin called the measure rather extraordinary.

Moehle had served as a city peer review adviser on the Millennium project. He also served as a peer review adviser on another tower project that was ultimately abandoned, after experts warned it could sink dramatically.

Moehle has not returned calls seeking comment on the new developments, but earlier told NBC Bay Area that he was surprised there was no geotechnical review of the project.

Moehles colleague on the peer review process wrote a letter in 2006 in which he stressed that no one asked him or Moehle to account for the Transbay transit project slated to be built next door to the Millennium.

It is that project that Millennium blames for destabilizing its foundation. A foundation that is not tied to bedrock.

In an email Moehle sent to Peskin on Wednesday, the professor wrote that he was sorry he had not been able to attend earlier hearings on the Millennium project.

Certain contractual matters have restrained me in that regard, Moehle told Peskin, but he did not elaborate.

Im not sure what that means, Peskin said to the committee before the vote, because ultimately he was the citys peer reviewer. I dont know that he has any contractual restrictions.

Moehle had been one of two structural engineers who reviewed the structural aspects of the foundation of the 58-story building, which is now sinking and tilting. No expert reviewed the findings of the geotechnical engineers for the project.

Peskin had strong support from two colleagues on the panel.

I think the public deserves to know what the heck happened, Supervisor Norman Yee said in support of the subpoena action.

That may be a challenge.

Moehle told Peskin that he will testify if commanded to do so, but he will be unavailable for nearly all of next month as he will be attending a seismic conference in Chile. That gathering is slated for Jan 9-13.
A South Bay high school teacher has been arrested on suspicion of having a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old male student, police said Thursday.

Trudy Hill, 32 and who teaches at Santa Teresa High School in San Jose, has been placed on leave, school officials said. The educator surrendered to detectives at the San Jose Police Department on Thursday, where she posted bail and was released, officials said.

Hill was also arrested for sending harmful matter to a minor and oral copulation, police said. No other victims have been identified, according to police.

East Side Union High School District Superintendent Chris Funk said the district is assisting and cooperating with the police investigation.

No other information was immediately available.
Christmas came early for dozens of South Bay elementary school students.

Thirty students from the Cupertino Union School District were treated to a holiday shopping spree Thursday morning.

Each student boarded a bus to Target with a volunteer and was let free to spend $245 on clothes and shoes.

Each of the schools select children who they think would benefit from this, said Barbara Nunes, president of the Cupertino Quota Club, an international service club. Many of the students were selected based on financial need.

Days before the trip, each student and a parent or guardian was asked to provide the childs clothing and shoe size and clothing needs. On Thursday at the store, a volunteer helped little ones pick out their favorite jackets, sweaters, pants, hats, shoes, socks and pajamas.

After hours of shopping, student were treated to lunch at the YMCA and surprised with a visit from Santa.

Cupertino Quota Club hosts fundraisers each year to sponsor the shopping spree. The Cupertino Rotary Club also donated, as well as Target.

Thursday marked the 20th annual holiday shopping spree.
Artists, musicians and performers across the Bay Area have come together in the wake of the devastating Oakland fire, planning a spate of remembrance and fundraising events dedicated to the 36 victims who perished at the Ghost Ship warehouse.

Among the fundraisers are several benefit concerts. As many have pointed out, it was a shared love of music that brought the diverse crowd out last Friday for a Golden Donna concert. Several of the victims were musicians, including Cash Askew (Them Are Us Too) and Chelsea Dolan, also known as Cherushii from Berkeley radio station KALX.

All benefits listed below are contributing to the Gray Area Foundation for the Arts fire relief fund.

Friday: The Arlene Francis Center in Santa Rosa is hosting a benefit concert that features live performances from Joshua James Jackson, Attacrobat, Horders and Living in the 90s. Check out the Facebook event for more information.

Saturday: Hemlock Tavern in San Francisco will host a benefit concert with a roster that includes the Creepers, Religious Girls and Weed Alien. This show is 21+. For more information, check out the events Facebook page.

Sunday: Grammy Award-nominee Moby is DJing at the Mezzanine in San Francisco. The concert also features Lights Down Lows Richie Panic and DJ CZ. In addition to music and dancing, the Mezzanine will also be home to a silent auction and raffle, with prizes including VIP festival tickets and signed memorabilia. Tickets are selling fast over on EventBrite.

Dec. 14: At the Fox Theater in Oakland, several Bay Area artists and journalists will take the stage on Dec. 14 for a night of music and stories. The concert  fittingly dubbed Oakland United  includes Boots Riley (The Coup), Christopher Willits, Dan Deacon, Gabe Meline (KQED) Geographer, Hieroglyphics, Jay Som, Josette Melchor (Gray Area), and Primus, among others. See ticket information here.

Dec. 17: Elis Mile High Club in Oakland will host performances from Zack Bateman and the Coal Minds, Blatherskite, Toxic Shock Syndrome, and more. There will be baked goods for sale, as well as original art. The concert was changed from its original location at Independent Brewery due to interest and demand.

Dec. 18: The Chapel of Chimes in Oakland will be hosting a 4-hour long afternoon musical community gathering that pays tribute to the Oakland fire victims, as well as other notable community members who were lost in 2016. Kitka, Tyrell Williams, Sarah Cahill and others will be performing. Check out the Facebook event page for more information.

There are also several ways to help artists who may be displaced as a result of the fire, including residents who previously lived at the Ghost Ship. Amoeba Records has compiled a list of several of those fundraisers.

This list will be updated to with additional benefits as they are announced. If you know of an event happening, pleaser email or text NBC Bay Areas Contra Costa County reporter, Gillian Edevane, at Gillian.Edevane@NBCuni.com or (669) 263- 2895.
Jennifer Kiyomi Tanouye, 31, of Oakland last texted her dad about 6 p.m. on Friday night. She was on her way to paint nails as part of a regular underground nail bar she helped out with at music venues. This venue was on East 31st Avenue in Fruitvale, at a warehouse now infamously known as the Ghost Ship.

She and her dad, Court Tanouye, had been exchanging messages about when and where to hand over some dog toys she had left at his house in Alamo, Calif., belonging to her pooch, Jejune. Father and daughter didnt get specific, but they were supposed to meet Saturday morning for breakfast, Court Tanouye said.

"Pure and Beauty"

Instead, his daughter, who liked to be called Kiyomi, which means pure and beauty in Japanese, died Friday night in a tragic fire. She was one of 36 people, a collection of artists and musicians, whose lives were taken in the countrys deadliest blaze since 2003.

Thats where she wanted to be, Court Tanouye said in an interview on Friday, a day before a private memorial at a Bay Area temple for her. She was a big part of that community and instrumental in the music scene. She would have been there regardless. These musicians cant afford expensive venues. At this point, being angry isnt going to change anything. It wont help us heal.

Her mother, Tomoko Tanouye added: This has nothing to do with Buddhism. This is who we are.

Court Tanouye

Anger Won't Help Us Heal

There is plenty of anger to go around: At the city of Oakland for not inspecting the warehouse in the last 30 years and at the main lease holder of the space, Dereck Ion Almena, who has said he is sorry, but who had been told by friends his collective was full of junk and faulty wiring over the years. A makeshift staircase inside the warehouse, illegally converted to a living space, was one factor, firefighters said, in preventing party goers from escaping quickly enough.

But thats not what the Tanouye family wants to think about. They are all, including brothers Kevin, 26, and Chris, 29, helping each other, in grieving and putting on a funeral.

Chris Tanouye is working on his eulogy. Hes likely to touch on the time his older sister took him to a Velvet Teen concert in San Francisco for the first time when he was 17  and without parents. We ate Vietnamese food, I got to hang out with college kids. She was so inviting. I felt so cool, he recalled. She also took him to Lalapalooza in Chicago. I had so much fun. I will cherish that trip.

Kevin Tanouye called his sister genuine. She was always there to help, he said, including a time recently when he was designing a T-shirt and she tried to put him in touch with someone in the know about making his idea happen.

Jennifer Kiyomi Tanouye/Facebook

Cool Sister, Genuine Soul

Tanouye lived her early years in Japan and England before moving to the Bay Area and attending Monte Vista High School in Danville, where her family remembers her taking on controversial causes, like supporting the Gay Straight Alliance Club. She then attended Mills College in Oakland, where she graduated with a degree in biology, as well as minors in film and music, her family said. She was a music manager for the music-recognition app, Shazam, in Redwood City, and she was an early organizer of the Mission Creek Festival in Oakland. She often fought for causes that she believed in, like taking to the streets, for example, to protest the Iraq War.

Photographer Bob Lapine flew in from Utah to take pictures the Ghost Ship warehouse, where his son, Edmond Lapine, 34, died. Theres a lot of things I wish I had said to him. Its just tough, he said.

Doing This Together

The Tanouyes got a call from their daughters friend at 3:55 a.m. Saturday about the fire. They hopped out of bed and drove to the scene, checking out hospitals and getting no answers until 12:30 a.m. Sunday that she had died. They had picked up her dog in the meantime, which is where Jejune is now, together with the small Tanouye clan. They are filled with sadness, but they are helping each other work through the grief.

We are all hurt, Court Tanouye said, but were doing this together.

To read a Q&A about Tanouye on the Work It Berk blog in 2012, click here.
A water main dating back to 1895 in San Francisco broke early Friday, causing flooding and water to seep into the Moscone Center and the unfinished MTA subway line, as well as shutting down streets and snarling traffic in the bustling area all day, city officials said.

The 12-inch main break at Howard and Fourth streets was first reported at 2:41 a.m., a fire dispatcher said. A utilities spokesman said crews responded at 3:15 a.m.

The affected water main was pressurized, so crews were struggling with erosion late Friday. The SoMa intersection was expected to reopen by late afternoon, but it is expected to be closed into the night.

Often, age causes water main breaks, but such incidents are more common in colder months, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission officials said.

"The pipe was originally put in in about 1895 so as most folks around the city know we do have aging infrastructure as old as the city," said Suzanne Gautier with the SFPUC.

NBC Bay Area

In fiscal year 2013, crews replaced 6 miles of pipes, while 9 were replaced in 2014, 12 in 2015, and 15 in 2016, Gautier said. However, 53 water main failures have been reported in the first 6 months of this year, with most occuring in January.

"The PUC has taken an aggressive goal of repairing or replacing about 15 miles of pipe per year although clearly we havent caught up with all the vulnerable ones," said Suzanne Gautier with the SFPUC.

On Friday, the sound of jackhammers pierced the air as frustrated drivers, like Samuel Gonzalez, tried to maneuver through the gridlock.

He spent over one hour simply trying to get out of San Francisco, so he could get his family home to Fresno, Gonzalez said.

"It's really bad  the kids are hungry, theyre crying," he said.

Water Main Break Floods Into Moscone Center, Subway

One commuter spent 30 minutes trying to get out of an area garage while another spent the same amount of time just trying to cross four blocks.

Muni was not affected, according to spokesman Paul Rose.

Water was shut off to about 200 customers in the area, including a senior home, as crews sought to repair the break. But all water service was restored before 8 a.m.

The SFPUC said that many water lines cross the neighborhood, which is why service wasnt impacted for a long time.

As of Friday evening, drivers were able to turn right off Howard Street, but officials encouraged people to avoid the area because turns are not possible on the opposite side of the road and several blocks in the neighborhood have been impacted.
Appearing jovial and relaxed, Donald Trump plunged back into election politics Friday, a full month after he won the presidency, thanking Michigan voters and prodding Louisiana Republicans to turn out for Saturday's Senate runoff election.

Trump regaled supporters in Grand Rapids with a lengthy recitation of his victories in a string of battleground states, including Michigan, which had not previously backed a Republican presidential candidate since 1988.

"They forgot about you people," Trump said of his Democratic opponents. "In four years they're not going to forget. But it's not going to work because you're not going to forget."

Several protesters were removed from his rally at DeltaPlex Arena, prompting the president-elect to declare at one point, "Get 'em out of here."

Trump introduced Betsy DeVos, his choice for education secretary, who hails from West Michigan, and announced that Andrew Liveris, the chief executive of Dow Chemical, would lead a national manufacturing council. Liveris told the audience that Dow would soon bring a new research-and-development center to Michigan.

In Louisiana, the incoming president addressed a large crowd at an airport hangar, and at one point tossed his trademark "Make America Great Again" hat to a supporter. He noted that he'd been named Time's "Person of the Year" and asked the crowd if the magazine should go back to its former "Man of the Year."

Gauging the boisterous response, he declared the answer was yes.

Trump campaigned for Republican John Kennedy, the state treasurer who faces off Saturday against Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell, a Democrat, for the seat of retiring Republican Sen. David Vitter. Neither won a majority in the November primary, leading to the runoff. Polls have shown Kennedy with a comfortable lead.

While candidate Trump was often at odds with the establishment wing of his party, the incoming president has been broadly supported by GOP leaders since the election. And he is trying to consolidate any lingering factions, most immediately in Louisiana, where a victory by Kennedy would cement the party's four-seat advantage in the new Senate.

"We need John in Washington," Trump said, speaking in front of a lectern that urged voters to "Geaux Vote. Vote GOP." Trump said he needed Kennedy to help him enact his agenda.

In private, people close to Trump said he was expected to name yet another Goldman Sachs executive to his White House team. The president-elect's National Economic Council is to be led by Gary Cohn, president and chief operating officer of the Wall Street bank, which Trump repeatedly complained during the election campaign would control Hillary Clinton if she won.

Washington state Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a member of the GOP House leadership team, emerged as a leading candidate to head the Interior Department, according to a person involved in the transition.

Major decisions remain for Trump, most importantly his choice for secretary of state. The deliberations have become a source of tension within his transition team, with chief of staff Reince Priebus said to be backing Mitt Romney while other advisers oppose the idea of selecting the 2012 GOP nominee, given his fierce criticism of Trump during the campaign.

Trump announced that Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor who was an early favorite, was no longer under consideration.

On a busy Friday, Trump also spoke by telephone with Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who broke with protocol during the campaign to publicly endorse Hillary Clinton and said afterward she would not maintain "a diplomatic silence in the face of attitudes of racism, sexism, misogyny or intolerance of any kind."

Sturgeon's office said she used Friday's call to emphasize the "values Scotland and the United States share." Trump's transition team described the conversation as a "short congratulatory call."

Trump brimmed with optimism during his two rallies, eager to begin implementing his agenda.

Come January, Trump told the crowd in Michigan: "The American people will be in charge. Your voice, your desires, your hopes, your aspirations, you will never again fall on deaf ears."

He rattled through some of the major themes of his campaign, vowing to renegotiate faulty trade deals, repair roads and bridges and "build a wall" to guard against unlawful immigration.

"We have people coming into our country by the thousands, thousands and thousands of people and now I don't have to campaign so I don't have to say Hillary's going to increase it by 550 percent," Trump said in Baton Rouge. "No, I don't have to say it anymore. Isn't it nice?"

Trump's day also included a meeting at his New York City tower with House Speaker Paul Ryan to discuss policy priorities.

"We are really excited about getting to work and hitting the ground running in 2017," Ryan said after the morning meeting.

Meanwhile, there apparently is a split over the next head of the Republican National Committee. Current chairman Priebus is heading to the White House to be chief of staff.

Priebus is said to support Michigan Republican Party chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel for the post, though other senior officials are backing Nick Ayers, an aide to Vice President-elect Mike Pence. McDaniel addressed the Michigan crowd before Trump took the stage but no RNC announcement was made.
Facebook has faced backlash after fake news sites used the platform to spread misinformation about the nominees during the 2016 presidential election. But the social media giant's chief operating officer said Thursday the impact fake news had on the election has been exaggerated.

There have been claims that it swayed the election, and we don't think it swayed the election,'' Sheryl Sandberg said in an interview on NBC's "Today" show.

Sandberg added that Facebook takes its responsibilities seriously and is looking into ways to keep fake news from spreading online without compromising freedom of expression.

During the election, fake news sites masked as informative websites published stories making untrue claims, including Pope Francis endorsing Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton running a sex ring out of a Washington, D.C., pizzeria. The latter led one man to bring a military-style rifle to the pizza shop in a misguided attempt to rescue child sex slaves he thought were held inside.

Edgar Maddison Welch is now facing jail time after opening fire inside Comet Ping Pong. He told The New York Times "the intel on this wasn't 100 percent," but wouldn't dismiss the online claims.

A few weeks after the election, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg detailed a new initiative to combat the diffusion of fake news. He wrote that he plans on "improving Facebook technical ability to detect misinformation, making it easier for users to report stories as untrue, working with fact checking organizations to create third-party verification and labeling stories that other users have flagged as false," NBC News reported.

While on "Today," Sandberg also revealed Facebooks top global stories in 2016. The American election dominated for the second year in a row as Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton took center stage internationally.

Sandberg said that she thought the new Facebook Live feature allowed Americans to engage with the political process in a way they hadnt before. By being able to live stream clips from the debates, for example, the electorate had unprecedented access to political discourse at all hours and regardless of location. Sandberg also said Facebook Live has given the Black Lives Matter movement visibility that catapulted the civil rights protesters into the spotlight.

Black Lives Matter has been happening for years, Sandberg said. This was the first year it broke into top 10 on Facebook, and we think that's partially because the power of live helps people bear witness."
A man was killed and three people, including a young child, were injured in a crash caused by a shooting Thursday afternoon in the Englewood neighborhood on the South Side.

A 31-year-old man was letting a passenger out of his vehicle about 4 p.m. in the 7100 block of South Morgan when an unknown person approached and began shooting, Chicago Police said. The man was involved in a crash with three other vehicles as he tried to get away.

Firefighters and police were initially called about the crash, authorities said.

The man was found inside his vehicle with a gunshot wound to his chest and pronounced dead at the scene, according to police and the Cook County medical examiners office. A 21-year-old woman who was inside his vehicle was taken to Saint Bernard Hospital with minor injuries in good condition.

A 63-year-old woman and 5-year-old boy who were inside another vehicle involved in the crash suffered injuries that were not life-threatening, police said. The woman was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn and the boy to Comer Childrens Hospital. Both of their conditions were stabilized.

Alexander Griffin was standing steps away from the accident when it happened.

There was a kid, I pulled him out of the car, cause the grandmother asked me to get him out, Griffin told NBC 5. She [the grandmother] was in painI a mean painI had to get on my knees to pray.

Lucy Moore said she held the boy to calm him down and waited for the ambulance.

[I] explained to him what was going on, with the situation, because he was really terrified, she said. [I told him] Just be a big brave man for grandma, cause she needs you to be brave right now.

The conditions of both the woman and the child had stabilized Thursday night, officials said.
A teenager was shot in Chicagos University Village neighborhood early Friday.

The 17-year-old boy was riding in an SUV near the intersection of West Roosevelt Road and South Union Avenue just after midnight when he was shot in the chest, according to police.

Police said neither the victim nor a friend he was riding with are documented gang members. The teenager was sitting in the white SUVs backseat when it sprayed by bullets, police said.

The teenager was transported to Northwestern Memorial Hospital where he was reported to be in stable condition Friday morning.

It is the second shooting near the campus at University of Illinois at Chicago in less than 24 hours. On Thursday, police say a man fired shots at officers just a few blocks away.

With no gang ties, police say it is unclear of the motive behind the shooting.

Investigation into the incident is ongoing.
Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. says President elect-Donald Trump offered him the job of education secretary, but that he turned it down for personal reasons.

Falwell tells The Associated Press that Trump offered him the job last week during a meeting in New York. He says Trump wanted a four- to six-year commitment, but that he couldn't leave Liberty for more than two years.

Falwell says he couldn't afford to work at a Cabinet-level job for longer than that and didn't want to move his family, especially his 16-year-old daughter.

Trump announced Wednesday he had selected charter school advocate Betsy DeVos for the job. Falwell says he thinks DeVos is an "excellent choice."

Trump spoke at the Christian university in Lynchburg, Virginia, in January and Falwell later endorsed him.
Brooke Shields' gift list is sweetening a Vermont family farm's sale of maple syrup.

The 109-year-old Robb Family Farm in Brattleboro says it's seen a 60 percent jump in sales since the actress listed the syrup among her 12 best holiday gifts for women published in People Magazine's holiday gift guide last month.

Shields told the magazine: "We go through a lot of maple syrup in our house."

The Robbs got an email from a writer at People saying a celebrity was recommending their syrup in the gift guide, but they weren't told who it was.

"So I was concerned who the celebrity might be for obvious reasons," said Helen Robb laughing. "But she kept telling me it was a good celebrity, that it was fine. And I thought, but your good and my good might differ. But we were pleased when it was Brooke."

Shields' list includes the $14.95 pint-sized tin of syrup, a skincare travel set, a scarf, a necklace, a book, pens and $100 Hermes playing cards.

The Robbs sell their maple syrup at their farm store, a local store and online to customers around the country.

They sell it in a number of different containers  plastic and glass jugs. But ever since the photo of the retro State of Vermont syrup can with the images of two men in a horse and sleigh collecting sap appeared in People, the Robbs have sold at more cans than usual, at least 80.

The family is expanding its maple operation after getting out of dairy farming five years ago because of low milk prices paid to farmers. They now raise beef cattle. Last year, they made over 800 gallons of syrup.

They were almost out of the sweet stuff when the orders started coming in from People readers, Robb said. "Cross our fingers we have enough," her son, Charles Robb Jr., added.
Actor T.J. Miller, known for the HBO series "Silicon Valley" and the movie "Deadpool," was arrested on a battery charge Friday after a driver for a car company demanded his arrest, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

Police received a call around 1 a.m. Friday and responded to the 6900 block of Camrose Drive in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, said Officer Drake Madison of the LAPD.

The victim was a driver for an unnamed car company, who demanded a citizen's arrest, Madison said.

The LAPD's Hollywood Division arrested Miller, whose full name is Todd Joseph Miller, for battery, Madison said. His bail was set at $20,000, but he was released on his own recognizance.

Miller is in the movie "Office Christmas Party," which was released Friday.
New Haven city officials have given the remaining homeless people living at campsite next to the Mill River by East Rock Park the deadline of Thursday, Dec. 15 to pack up and leave.

One couple is not sure where to move next.

The generator in their makeshift tent made out of a blue tarp is how Richard and Lora tryi to keep warm in the winter months.

Her father gave us the generator and a small little heater, Richard said.

Especially being a married couple out here, its hard. Its hard to get a place, Lora said.

Theres no anything for married couples, Richard added.

This campsite near an Interstate 91 off ramp along the river has been this couples home since April.

With us, it's landlords, Richard said when asked why they live at this campsite.

I get a partial Social Security check and when my check goes up, the rent goes up, he said.

The husband and wife learned Wednesday they have until next Thursday to pack up.

Lora said she isn't sure what they will do next.

New Haven Mayor Toni Harps spokesperson, Laurence Grotheer, said city agencies are working to relocate the remaining residents at the campsite.

Community non-profits, like the United Way of Greater New Haven, are also stepping in to help.

I think were all working on the same understanding that the bulldozer will come and those folks are going to lose their homes, Chief Impact Officer Amy Casavina Hall said.

In the last month, United Way has helped three people move from the homeless camp into new housing, Hall added.

I think we can and must do better than have people live in an unsafe place, she added. "Its not fit for wintertime.

After recently helping clean up piles of trash, Richard said it is not fair the city is forcing him and his wife to move by next week.

The messes that we cleaned up out here, none of us in this campsite had anything to do with that, he said. We get kicked out everywhere. We get treated like the rotten people that are out here -- some of them -- were not.

The couple said they have initiated the process with the United Way in hopes of finding new housing.

The city is still considering what to do to clean up the area that is on city park land, Grotheer said.
The retired Hartford police officer who is purportedly seen kicking a handcuffed suspect lying on the ground in a dashcam video linked to an investigation into possible excessive force has been arrested and charged with assault, according to Hartford police.

Sgt. Sean Spell, 46, was arrested on Thursday night for his involvement June 4 in the excessive force case during the arrests of Ricardo Perez and Emilio Diaz, both of Hartford.

Perez's mug shot shows a swollen eye and bandages. The photo of Diaz shows a gash in his head and he has five staples in his head. He also had abrasions to his back and right knee.

Spell wrote in his incident report that Diaz had been spitting blood that was leaking from a forehead wound onto another officer during his arrest.

"Diaz was spitting out blood out of his mouth towards me," Spell wrote in the report, filed the day after the arrest of Diaz and Ricardo Perez. Diaz was kneeling and handcuffed when Spell approached the suspect, the report said.

"I told Diaz to stop spitting blood and to lay down prone, or I would force him down, which he refused to comply," Spell wrote in the report. "Not being in possession of latex gloves, I used my right foot forcefully onto the back side of Diaz's head, and forced him to the ground."

The incident reports details the accounts of all officers involved in the arrest of the two men, who were accused of leading police on a chase in a stolen a Toyota Camry from Hartford to West Hartford.

Perez led officers through several residential streets before the chase ended on Flatbush Avenue in West Hartford when officers deployed "speed sticks," according to Deputy Police Chief Brian Foley and a Hartford police report.

As officers approached the car after the chase, Perez hit a Hartford detective with the car, according to police, and hit four Hartford Police vehicles during the pursuit of the vehicle.

A dashcam mounted in a West Hartford Police cruiser appears to show Hartford officers kicking or stomping one of the suspects, who was in handcuffs, according to police.

Spell said he "detected a strong, distinct odor of PCP emanating from Diaz, which usually involves violent behavior."

Officer Stephen Barone wrote in his incident report that after the arrest, police found PCP and marijuana while searching the Camry.

Hartford police obtained the dashcam videos from the state's attorney, who is investigating the incident to avoid any conflict of interest.

Perez and Diaz had to be hospitalized and Hartford Police said they launched a preliminary investigation the next day when the suspects' bruised and cut faces appeared in mugshots and raised concerns in the department.

The report from Hartford Police said Perez violently struggled with officers and a West Hartford officer, Carlo Faienza, used a stun gun, but it did not affect the suspect, so an officer punched Perez in the torso.

Faienza wrote that Perez "appeared to be under the influence of something and was showing signs of enormous bursts of strength by keeping his hands underneath his body."

In June, attorney Corey Brinson filed notices on behalf of Perez and Diaz, alleging police used excessive force when arresting Diaz and said they were physically beaten and mentally traumatized.

Brinson told the Hartford Courant that his "client denies spitting blood at anybody."

Spell has been charged with second-degree breach of peace and third-degree assault. He was released and is due in court on Dec. 21.

He was part of the department for 20 years retired following the pursuit.
The governor and the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition have reached an agreement to fully fund the states pension obligations and the plan will go to the state General Assembly for approval.

A statement from Gov. Dannel Malloy says the state will make modifications to help avoid the fiscal cliff the state would otherwise face in the coming years.

The state of Connecticut has an unfunded liability of nearly $15 billion, according to the governor, and inaction could have resulted in state payments from the General Fund eclipsing $4 to $6 billion for each year in the 2030s, according to the governor.

Senate Republican Leader Len Fasano released a statement, calling the plan an incomplete bailout of a pension system that is "completely out of control."

"Simply refinancing our debt is not the structural change we need to change the direction of our state. This package will add billions of dollars in new costs onto taxpayers beyond what is reflected in the governors summary. Its not a solution and taxpayers deserve better," Fasano said in a statement.

He said the state needs to not only look at how to pay past debts but also make structural changes to state benefits to get future spending under control.

Malloys office says the state would have had to make drastic cuts to services or unprecedented tax increases to cover the shortfall.

I am very grateful to SEBAC leadership that we were able to reach this much-needed and forward-looking agreement. It was incumbent upon us to reform this system before facing the fiscal crisis that could have resulted from $4 to $6-billion-dollar annual ARC payments, Malloy said in a statement. This agreement does not alter employee benefits or employee contributions in any way  it simply allows the state to fully fund its obligations at realistic amounts that will end with Connecticut resolving the unfunded liability and emerging with a system that is fully funded. We are holding true to the ideal of improving the financial landscape for future generations.

The state employee retirement system was funded at 41.5 percent as of June 30, 2014. Illinois has the nation's least funded pension system at 42 percent.
Newtown Superintendent of Schools Joseph Eradi said the anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre will be marked by a full day of classes and quiet reflection.

The Connecticut Post reports that Eradi sent an email to parents saying he's certain many families will join him "in finding private space for personal reflection as the Newtown community continues to recover from an unconscionable act of violence."

On Dec. 14, 2012, a gunman entered the school and shot to death 20 first graders and six educators.

Eradi said school staff, if requested, will provide talking points for parents to help with personal conversations with their children.

Leaders of the town's Interfaith Clergy Association are expected to lead a private prayer with staff before classes begin.
A new video released by the Department of Transportation shows the moment a freight train derailed in New Britain on Tuesday afternoon.

City officials are already estimating the cost of clean up to be in the thousands.

"The police officers is the biggest costs that we saw with the traffic details, blocking off the traffic, re-routing everyone and we had that happening for about seven hours," Mayor Erin Stewart told NBC Connecticut Troubleshooters.

City firefighters, the Department of Public Works employees and Health and Building Code officials have logged long hours too.

So far, the mayor says the rough estimate for cleaning up the debris is at least $10,000. Its unclear whether the burden will go back to taxpayers.

"Its a question of who do you seek reimbursement from? Is it Pan Am, is it Cherry Hill Construction, is it third party contractor still a lot of moving parts. The good news is, it is not going to cost as much as we initially anticipated because Cherry Hill construction is bringing in their equipment and theyre using their crews to do that clean up so alleviating a lot of the public works cost we could have occurred," Stewart added.

Massachusetts-based Pan Am railways owns the 24-mile track and Cherry Hill Construction leases the freight cars. A city spokesman in New Britain said they havent reached out to either.

Cherry Hill Constructions owner tells NBC Connecticut Troubleshooters by phone that the incident wasnt their issue.

The track was last inspected one day before the accident, according to a Pan Am spokesman.

Pan Am's crews and the Federal Railway Administration are investigating the two black boxes, train rails and cars to figure out what happened.
Join NBC 5 and The Salvation Army in helping make the holidays bright for more than 50,000 children and special needs adults in the DFW area at The Salvation Army Angel Tree.

The deadline has passed for returning angels to the 11 malls, but you can still return any of the 2,100 angels that haven't been returned.

Angels and gifts can be returned to the Salvation Army's Christmas Centers:

9216 Harry Hines Blvd.

Dallas, TX 75235

299 E. Felix Street

Fort Worth, TX 76115

The gifts will be distributed in Dallas, Tarrant, Collin, Denton, and Ellis counties. Families that qualified for assistance have been given appointments to pick up their gifts at one of 13 locations.

For more information about the Salvation Army Angel Tree, click here: www.salvationarmydfw.org

Advertising sponsored in part by:
Erika and Eva Sandoval will be able to share the uncanny connection twins are said to have, but a grueling 17-hour surgery has ensured that they can soon do that safely.

The 2-year-old twins from Antelope, California, were born conjoined, but as of Wednesday were separated by surgeons at Lucile Packard Childrens Hospital Stanford. The surgery began on Tuesday and lasted through early Wednesday, hospital officials said.

The girls are in stable condition, hospital officials said Thursday, although they remain in the intensive care unit.

Erika and Eva's mother, Aida Sandoval, was overcome with emotion as she spoke to reporters Thursday afternoon. In Spanish, she said that her first words upon seeing the girls emerge from their respective operating rooms were, "You're missing your other part, my daughter. Where is your sister?"

"It still seems very surreal when I see one on one side and the other one on the other side," Aida Sandoval said. "But it brings us all joy to see them, that it happened, that it was a dream come true for everybody."

Dr. Gary Hartman, a pediatric surgeon who led the medical team that performed the lengthy, complicated procedure, recalled meeting the girls' parents, Aida and Arturo Sandoval in 2014. They had just learned that their twins were conjoined and were experiencing "multiple anomalies," he said.

Erika and Eva Sandoval will be able to share the uncanny connection twins are said to have, but a grueling 17-hour surgery has ensured that they can soon do that safely.

"From that moment forward, the goal of the family and of all of the providers here at Packard has been the same goal that we have for all of our children  and that is that we end up with two happy, healthy girls," Hartman said.

Anyone who met Eva and Erika Sandoval prior to Tuesday's surgery "can testify to the happy part. That is entirely the fault of the Sandovals," he quipped.

"We think that this week we made a big step toward the healthy part," Hartman explained.

Aida Sandoval's pregnancy was overseen by Lucile Packard's perinatal center. She was 32 weeks along when the girls were born via emergency C-section, according to Hartman.

Eva and Erika have spent the first two years of their lives closely monitored by Stanford doctors and others closer to the Sandovals' home in Antelope.

"They were basically joined at the pericardium  which is the sac that covers the heart  joined at the sternum, joined at the liver, they shared parts of the ... small and large bowel, and they shared most of the pelvic organs," said pediatric surgeon Dr. Matias Bruzoni. "So for us it was a big challenge, but little by little and with the help of a lot of people  we were able to, from the top down, finally separate them."

[NATL-BAY] A Successful Surgery for 2-year-old Conjoined Twins Erika and Eva Sandoval

On Tuesday, too, Eva and Erika's surgery depended on about 50 experts in pediatric surgery, orthopedics and anesthesiology as well as plastic surgeons, radiologists, urologists, and more.

Bruzoni said that once the girls were separated, the medical team split into two groups for Eva and Erika's reconstruction phases, which lasted longer than the separation.

"Everyone is very focused on the separation and all the questions are about the separation," Hartman said. But it "doesnt matter if you get them separated, if you can't get them reconstructed and get them closed."

Hartman admitted that he was extremely concerned about Erika, the smaller twin. "She basically kept getting smaller. The more calories we gave her, the bigger Eva got," he said.

Doctors were worried about her ability to make it through the "stress of the surgery," but Hartman said the girls were reconstructed so well that Erika has already been taken off the ventilator and is recovering faster than Eva.

Hartman joked that he took it upon himself to add levity to the complex surgery.

"I wanted each girl to have half of [their] belly button so for the rest of their life they can look at that half a belly button and think, 'That was where I was connected to my sister,'" he said. "So that's the goofy thing."

The Sandovals knew, going into Tuesday, that Erika and Eva faced an estimated risk of mortality of up to 30 percent, Hartman said

But Aida and Arturo Sandoval stuck by their decision.

"Once you see them, you know their personalities are different," Arturo Sandoval said. "They [got to] have their own lives."

To that, Aida Sandoval added that it was difficult to watch one child feel sick and seek rest and sleep while the other was healthy, happy and wanted to play. She recalled one of the girls experiencing pain when plastic surgeons used tissue expanders to stretch their skin, but her sister simply wanted to "crab walk."

Expressing gratitude to the doctors at Stanford for supporting them, Aida Sandoval said that she had heard "how peaceful it was" in the operating rooms during Eva and Erika's separation and reconstruction.

Now, however, the girls' mother is excited to get "more gray hair."

"They always say, 'When you have twins, you're going to go crazy because one's over here, the other's over there," Aida Sandoval said. "I want to go chasing after one that way and then go chasing after the other. Thats something I do look forward to doing."
The number of mumps cases in Johnson County has jumped to 37, and a dozen more are suspected. Nearly half are in the Keene Independent School District.

District officials say they are doing all they can to protect students, and that includes a large vaccination drive this week.

Superintendent Ricky Stephens says Keene Elementary School is practically ground zero, which is what parents, administrators and county health officials feared most when the outbreak started.

"Some of them are relatives, but the most common thing is that they are students in the same school. This is what is a concern to us," Dr. Elvin Adams, with Johnson County Health Authority.

County health officials believe a family trip to Arkansas is how the virus got to North Texas. It's part of a larger outbreak that has hit schools in almost every state this year.

"Mumps is highly contagious, so yes this is kind of a new wrinkle," said Lisa Magers, with the Cleburne Independent School District.

With a few weeks left in 2016 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there are 3,832 cases and counting. That is nearly triple the number last year.

Mumps can look like the flu and spreads through infected saliva. With water fountains off-limits, students are being given bottled water. And additional wipe-downs continue at all Keene ISD schools, where those infected with the disease have already been pulled from class.

There's no word from the CDC as to why this outbreak has been so severe.

People who lack the proper immunizations are at the highest risk of getting the mumps. On Tuesday, Keene ISD vaccinated 74 people, including about 10 children.
Actor Judge Reinhold apologized to the Dallas police for "wasting their time" following an arrest at Dallas Love Field Thursday afternoon for disorderly conduct.

Dallas police said they were called to the airport by the Transportation Security Administration "regarding an individual causing a disturbance by refusing to submit to a screening at the appropriate checkpoint area."

The 59-year-old actors lawyer, Dallas attorney Steve Stodghill, told The Dallas Morning News Reinhold passed through security but was stopped when his bag set off an alarm. Stodghill told DallasNews.com that when TSA agents asked to pat Reinhold down again, he questioned the procedure since he had already cleared the scanner without incident.

Reinhold was transported to Lew Sterrett Justice Center and charged with the class C misdemeanor.

Reinhold's attorney released a statement Friday on behalf of the actor.

"I have to say that the past 48 hours have been the most unusual, hair-raising and regrettable two days of my life. At best, it's a cautionary tale.



No matter how seemingly harmless a medication can be, don't ever introduce anything into your body chemistry when you're about to travel. I was prescribed the antibiotic Cipro for a respiratory infection the night before a flight.



Within 20 minutes of taking it I looked like I'd been bitten by Spiderman and blew up like the Macy's day parade. Thankfully, against my protest, my wife called 9-1-1. Paramedics arrived with epinephrine and super-Benadryl and took me to the hospital for observation. They gave me Zantax and Prednisone to ward off any recurrence of the reaction while in flight.



I was calmly told that if my wife had not called 9-1-1 there was a good chance I may not have made it there.



Rescheduled flights for the next morning. Successfully walked through the TSA scanner only to be told by a trainee that it looked like I had a mysterious shape in by backpack. This turned out to be a dense stack of DVD and CDs I ALWAYS carry without incident.



Because of my bag I was told I had to get the pat down.



It was then I started to argue with TSA over something I had no control over. Never a good idea.



Two Dallas police officers came over and gave me every opportunity to keep my mouth shut. I didn't comply with the pat down or their suggestions. This led to my arrest. I knew better, I just didn't do the right thing.



I feel especially embarrassed about self righteous indignation when I've enjoyed 30 years of support and camaraderie with law enforcement.



I want to apologize to the Dallas police for wasting their time today. I want to acknowledge TSA's experienced agents as well as the recent influx of trainees that seem unprepared to detain people."

Reinhold is best known for his roles in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High," "Gremlins," the "Beverly Hills Cop" series and "Ruthless People." He is also known for his role as the "close-talker" Aaron on NBC's hit series "Seinfeld."
The Texas Rangers are investigating a deadly shooting involving Allen police Thursday afternoon.

Police responded to the 200 block of South Arbor Road at about 4:30 p.m. for a domestic disturbance call.

While officers were there, a man came out of the house and fired shots at the officers, according to police.

The officers returned fire, and struck the man, who was taken to the hospital, where he died from his injuries.

His identity was not released, but police said he was a man in his 60s and is a resident at the home.

A spokesperson for the Allen Police Department said the officers had been called to that residence several times before, and the man was known to officers.

No police officers were injured during the incident. However, the spokesperson said all officers involved with the incident have been placed on administrative leave per department policy.

The Texas Rangers are investigating the shooting, according to Allen police.



Friday, they could be seen combing for clues in the front yard of the home as well as the homes of neighbors.
The Tacoma, Washington, city manager is the lone finalist for the Dallas city manager job, Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings announced Friday after a special Dallas City Council meeting.

The council will officially vote Wednesday on whether to appoint T.C. Broadnax to replace retiring Dallas City Manager A.C. Gonzalez.

From about 100 applicants, five finalists interviewed in-person for the job this week with Dallas City Council members.

"It was obvious to us as we discussed this that the council, I think, can come together as one to support Mr. Broadnax," Rawlings said.

Broadnax, 46, has Texas connections. He was an assistant city manager in San Antonio for six years prior to serving nearly five years in Tacoma. He received a masters degree in public administration from the University of North Texas in Denton in 1993.

"I believe that we found our Dak Prescott of the city manager world," said Dallas Councilman Erik Wilson. "He's going to be able to come in and deliver what he's done before in San Antonio and what he was able to do in Tacoma, Washington. I have faith that he will be able to do those same things."

Councilwoman Tiffinni Young said she was impressed that Broadnax went out on his own during his Dallas visit to explore underserved areas of Dallas. She said constituents who met him at a public event Tuesday were also impressed.

"They talked about having a fresh set of eyes, having someone who was really energized, someone who seems to have a good rapport with everyone who walked up to him. So, I felt like that was important to listen to the voices of our constituents who took the time to come out," Young said.

Gonzalez announced in May 2016 his intent to retire in January 2017. He was unanimously appointed as city manager in January 2014, after serving nearly a year as interim city manager.

Monica Alonzo, the highest ranking Hispanic person on the Dallas City Council, said she supports Broadnax, too.

"We're going to work with Mr. Broadnax and he's going to work with us in the experience that he has," Alonzo said.

The final five candidates are below.
A woman trying to break up a domestic violence dispute was shot at a Fort Worth home Thursday night, according to police.

Police said at about 7:25 p.m. they were called to a reported shooting at a home in the 7500 block of Kingsmill Terrace.

A man and his girlfriend were having an argument, and the man's sister tried to "diffuse" the situation, but that's when her brother shot her, police said.

She was rushed to John Peter Smith Hospital with critical injuries, according to MedStar spokesman Matt Zavadsky.

Police have identified the male suspect, but said he left the house prior to police arriving, so he is not in custody at this time.

This is a developing story, check back for updates.
As the wind-chill struck the mid 20s Thursday afternoon, an old white, blue, and orange bus pulling up to the Interstate 45 underpass was a sweet sight for the residents who currently call the Dallas bridge home.

The bus, piloted by John Little, is the Metro Relief mobile soup kitchen that many of them have come to look forward to.

"With the mobile soup kitchen, we can pull up wherever they're at and serve, said Little, whos been a leader at Metro Relief for some time.

The group, based in The Colony, makes the drive to downtown Dallas or Fort Worth in their bus three times a week to offer up food, donated clothes and company to the homeless residents of the cities.

On frigid days like Thursday, Little said the need for help has become clearer than ever.

"This guy earlier that I met, he sleeps on the sidewalk, he said. No tent, no coverings or anything. He puts a plastic bag over him and blocks himself with his clothes."

The homeless situation in the Metroplex is one that communities have struggled to find solutions for.

So, CEO Austin Bonds started Metro Relief five years ago to help the countless other nonprofits in the area bring relief directly to the homeless population.

Now as the need grows, so does the group.

Metro Relief just got a State Farm community grant; one of only 40 organizations in the country to receive it and one of thousands to apply for the money.

With the help, the group has started outfitting two more buses to make into mobile soup kitchens for use in DFW and as they try to expand to other communities.

Little said their goal is to gain the trust of members of the homeless community in order to better empower them to seek solutions to a better life, though he said thats certainly a big job.
Police said they're investigating three armed robberies that happened in Oak Cliff early Friday morning.

1300 block of North Beckley Avenue

Dallas police said two people wearing masks and armed with a silver pistol and an AK-47 robbed a Walgreen's at 12:40 a.m.

2300 block of Britton Drive

Police said people suspected in an armed robbery drove away in a gray sedan at 1:15 a.m.

700 block of Melba Street

Three males wearing masks went into a home and robbed a person at gunpoint at about 2 a.m., according to police. They drove away in a sedan.

Police have not yet said if the robberies are related.
If you've ever dashed through Union Station clutching a beverage (and trying not to spill it as you hustled for your train), chances are good your drink was of the water or coffee ilk.

That's what plenty of commuters are busily sipping each morning at the Alameda Street landmark, a Art Deco-Mission Revival wonder that's been both a movie star and Southern California's main railway hub since its grand opening in 1939.

But the libation of choice at the tower-proud building will change up over three December nights, all Friday nights, when Union Station's first-ever Cocoa Concerts take the stage.

The free shows aren't fully comprised of songs about the sweet, seasonal drink (though there might be a few drinkly ditties in the mix); rather, the nights are all about great holiday-style songcraft from excellent regional acts.

Time each night? Six p.m. is go time, 8 p.m. is bow-thank-you-goodnight time.

As for the cocoa end of evening? There's a "cocoa bar" where the pay-nothing nomness will be on the chocolate-y flow. "Nomness," of course, means something that's full of nom, or deliciousness, and cocoa more than qualifies here.

Each of the nights is a bit different, with a holiday sing-along led by Music Companie on Dec. 9, some yuletide swing with the California Feetwarmers on Dec. 16, and La Picante's salsa-riffic Christmas rhythms on Dec. 23.

This is all happening on the south patio, so bring a wrap or a jacket or hat; that cocoa may warm your hands, but your neck, arms, and head need some cozy love, too.

Also? Ugly holidays sweaters are encouraged attire (there's a contest, yep).

But do pack a cute hat, as the Naughty & Nice photo booth will record your outfit for prosterity. Also? Santa will be posing for selfies, so keep that in mind as you select your most chic stocking cap.

He'll be styling, of course. You should be styling, too.

Above all, show to all of this sweet freeness for a toy and help out the Spark of Love Toy Drive from the Southern California Fire Fighters. Nothing's sweeter than helping others out, not even a sweet seasonal drink.
A Corona businessman is devastated after thieves drove off with his entire mobile detailing business from in front of his home. Now he's asking for the public's help finding the stolen trailer with all of his equipment.

Tobias Sims, the owner of Marquez Mobile Detailing, worries about his family's future. With Christmas around the corner, he fears he will miss out on job opportunities.

"Basically that is my only source of income," he said. "It helps provide food on the table for my son."

About 7 a.m. Wednesday, two men stole his $2,000 trailer, which is essentially to his entire business.

"I just felt like heartbroken that my life had been taken away from me," he said. "Saved a lot to get that equipment to start my own business."

A neighbor's surveillance camera caught different angles of the two thieves as they drove away with the trailer using an older model blue and gray pick-up truck.

Sims parked the trailer right next to his home and never thought someone would take it.

"It's not safe even on private property," he said.

Other family members are also furious because they know how much that detailing business means to Sims and his 5-year-old son.

"Karma will get back to you guys and it won't be good," said Sims' cousin, Obie Clark.

Sims says he didn't have insurance so he's now looking for another job. He's hoping anyone with information about this case will call Corona police.

"I do RVs, concrete cleaning," he said. "That was my life right there. They took the tools of me making my source of income just out the door."

Sims established a GoFundMe account to help pay for a new trailer.
The girlfriend of an Oakland warehouse fire victim experienced a Facebook miracle in a time of crippling grief when hundreds of social media users helped her track down a special year-old photograph of the two of them.

Saya Tomioka's boyfriend Griffin Madden, 23, was among 36 people who perished in a fire at the Ghost Ship warehouse Friday. Amid her mourning for the loss, she turned to social media in an attempt to find the person who captured a a photo of the couple during a trip to New York City last June.

It had been Tomioka's first time in Times Square, she recalled in a Facebook post published Sunday. Tomioka and Madden were mid-embrace when a photographer captured the moment.

I've always longed to find this particular photograph and thank the photographer, she wrote in the post. Friends, possibly with your help, I can be reunited with this photograph, this treasured memory that I'll always keep in my heart.

Tomioka acknowledged that finding it would be akin to a Facebook miracle, but wrote it would be something to lift her spirits.

After being shared more than 300 times, the post made its way to Arken Avan, a professional photographer who is known for taking pictures of couples in New York's bustling city center. After a quick search through his photo collection, Avan zeroed in on the now famous photo and send it to Tomioka.

Two people shared that post with me yesterday, my NYPD friend I know from Times Square, and some of Sayas friends, Avan told NBC Bay Area, on how he heard about the photo search.

After 300+ shares, & GF of an #OaklandFire victim found the photo she was searching for. (PC:@arkenavan) pic.twitter.com/pe05q7eZ6O  Gillian E. (@GillianM925) December 8, 2016

He told Tomioka he remembered that exact moment.

I actually remember this moment  young lady was holding pretzel in her hand and young man had lipstick on his cheek, he wrote in a message to her. "What a beautiful and adorable couple I thought at that moment. I'm sorry for your loss and hope you will keep these pictures for memory, forever.

He says also plans to share the photo on his @NewYorkFaces Instagram, in honor of Madden.

Tomioka has since taken to Facebook again, describing the agony of learning about the devastating fire and having to wait for days until crews recovered Madden's body and identified him.

"I thought that I'd feel better when the waiting ended, but instead, I felt dissatisfied. I felt like I hadn't found you---yet," she wrote.

But Avan's photo helped bring a "glimpse of your light back into my life," Tomioka said. "With the infinite help from our families, friends, and strangers, I finally found you."

Avan's photograph came at the end of a June 2015 evening that included Madden and Tomioka laughing hysterically over "The Book of Mormon" and haggling over a pretzel. After finding the photo, Tomioka said she "sobbed" and "immediately laughed uncontrollably."

She continued: "Life is so strange. I've lost you, but I've never felt stronger in my life. Through our many years of love and growth, I learned how to be strong from you."

NBC Bay Area's Rhea Mahbubani contributed to this report.

Officials allowed media a closer look Tuesday at the burned Oakland warehouse where 36 people lost their lives late Friday.

Gillian Edevane covers Contra Costa County for NBC Bay Area. Contact her at Gillian.Edevane@NBCuni.com or at (669) 263-2895.
Police spent Thursday night raiding two restaurants in southwest Miami-Dade where authorities say drug dealing, prostitution and illegal gambling were on the menu.

The restaurants - Kareta Kafe and El Cortadito, both on Bird Road - were raided by Miami-Dade Police after they received a Crime Stoppers tip, officials said.

"Narcotics sales, mostly cocaine in both establishments, gambling payoffs from the machines and alcohol violations," said Miami-Dade Police Lt. Joe Gonzalez. "You had several ladies that would come to your side and ask you to buy them a beer. That beer was ten dollars. And then after that it would lead to conversations of propositions for sex."

Carolina Hernandez, 39, 47-year-old Ileana Medina and 31-year-old Yusimi Ponce-Garcia were arrested and charged with possession and distribution of cocaine, while 35-year-old Yanelis Lamont was arrested on three counts relating to gambling activities inside.

The arrests come after an undercover investigation dating back to September, in which a detective purchased multiple bags of cocaine from employees.

NBC 6 cameras were rolling as officers were seen escorting several handcuffed suspects out of Kareta Kafe. Police say the restaurants are owned by the same person, who was not present at the time of the arrests.
Miami Beach Police are searching for an armed suspect behind a violent robbery at an Alton Road apartment building.

The robbery happened back on Nov. 29 at the building at 1346 Alton Road, Miami Beach Police officials said Friday.

Police said the victim was walking to his building when he noticed another man following him. The suspect approached the victim from behind, pulled out a gun and demanded the victim's property.

After the suspect received the victim's property, he pistol-whipped the victim in the head which caused the gun to fire, police said. The suspect fled the scene in an older model green four door car, police said.

The victim told NBC 6 Friday that his wallet and cell phone were taken.

"The guy push me, he say 'give me your wallet, give me your wallet, give me your wallet, give me the phone,'" victim Romeo Suhul said. "I go 'hey take it, take it.'"

Police released video of the suspect outside the building in the hopes of catching him. Anyone with information is asked to call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS.
About a dozen people on board a popular Miami bus tour got an unwelcome part of their tour on Friday when the vehicle they were on caught fire.

Chopper 6 was over the scene on the MacArthur Causeway eastbound, where a bus from Pirate Duck Tour was heavily damaged near the intersection of Star Island.

Passengers said the fire was in the back of the vehicle, near the emergency exit, so they had to escape out the side.

"We come out of the water, we've done the water bit and we're driving along and then suddenly there was smoke...and flames in the floor," passenger Chris Busk said.

Miami Beach Fire Rescue units responded and quickly extinguished the fire.

"Just got off very quickly, well not too quickly, hanging on to the railings going down from the steps and then everyone was told to move further away in case it exploded, that's what they were worried about," passenger Joan Daswell said.

Miami Beach Police said no one was hurt in the fire but it was causing traffic delays.

A bus from a separate tour company later stopped to pick up the stranded site seekers and take them back to the Pirate Duck Tours headquarters.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.
The annual Seminole Hard Rock Winterfest Boat Parade is floating through South Florida this weekend to celebrate its 45th anniversary.

Hundreds of thousands of lights, blaring music, celebrities, and more will adorn the parade of Comics & Cartoons Rockin' the Night Away-themed showboats and megayachts.

The parade will float down the New River in downtown Fort Lauderdale traveling east to the Intracoastal Waterway, then north toward Pompano Beach.

Local drivers are urged to plan ahead as the following bridges will be closed during the parade.

7 th Avenue Bridge - Up: 6:20; Down: 8PM

- Up: 6:20; Down: 8PM Andrews Bridge - Up: 6PM; Down: 8PM

Up: 6PM; Down: 8PM Las Olas Boulevard Bridge - Up: 7PM; Down: 9PM

- Up: 7PM; Down: 9PM Sunrise Boulevard Bridge - Up: 7:20PM; Down: 9:30PM

Up: 7:20PM; Down: 9:30PM Oakland Park Boulevard Bridge - Up: 7:40PM; Down: 10PM

- Up: 7:40PM; Down: 10PM Commercial Boulevard Bridge - Up: 8PM Down: 11PM
U.S. intelligence officials have accused Russia of hacking into Democratic officials' email accounts in an attempt to interfere with the presidential campaign. The Washington Post reported Friday that the CIA has concluded that Russia aimed specifically to help Donald Trump win the presidency.

Congressional officials briefed on the hack confirmed the Post's report to NBC News Saturday.

According to the Post, by mid-September, White House officials mulled over its approach to publicly blame Moscow without being accused of bolstering Clinton's campaign. Officials decided to seek bipartisan support and set up a secret meeting with the so-called Gang of 12  a group of ranking members from the House and Senate  on intelligence and homeland security, the Post reported.

After administration officials laid out evidence allegedly showing Russia's role in cyber-intrusions against Democratic organizations and individuals, according to several U.S. officials, the consensus for action was split down party lines.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, according to the Post, citing officials, "raised doubts about the underlying intelligence and made clear to the administration that he would consider any effort by the White House to challenge the Russians publicly an act of partisan politics."

The Post said the CIA presented its assessment to senators last week. The newspaper's report cited anonymous U.S. officials who were briefed on that closed-door meeting.

The Kremlin has rejected the hacking accusations.

Trump's transition team, in a statement Friday night, dismissed the Post's report, noting that the CIA "are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction."

"The election ended a long time ago. ... It's now time to move on and 'Make America Great Again,'" it added.

In the months leading up to the election, email accounts of Democratic Party officials and a top Hillary Clinton campaign aide were breached, emails leaked and embarrassing and private emails posted online. Many Democrats believe the hackings benefited Trump's bid. Trump has downplayed the possibility that Russia was involved.

President Barack Obama has ordered intelligence officials to conduct a broad review of election-season cyberattacks, the White House said Friday.

The review, led by intelligence agencies, will be a "deep dive" into a possible pattern of increased "malicious cyber activity" timed to the campaign season, White House spokesman Eric Schultz said. The review will look at the tactics, targets, key actors and the U.S. government's response to the recent email hacks, as well as incidents reported in past elections, he said.

The president ordered up the report earlier this week and asked that it be completed before he leaves office next month, Schultz said.

"The president wanted this done under his watch because he takes it very seriously," he said. "We are committed to ensuring the integrity of our elections."

Schultz said the president sought the probe as a way of improving U.S. defense against cyberattacks and was not intending to question the legitimacy of Trump's victory.

"This is not an effort to challenge the outcome of the election," Schultz said.

Obama's move comes as Democratic lawmakers have been pushing Obama to declassify more information about Russia's role, fearing that Trump, who has promised a warmer relationship with Moscow, may not prioritize the issue.

Given Trump's statements, "there is an added urgency to the need for a thorough review before President Obama leaves office next month," said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., senior Democrat on the House intelligence committee. If the administration doesn't respond "forcefully" to such actions, "we can expect to see a lot more of this in the near future," he said.

The White House said it would make portions of the report public and would brief lawmakers and relevant state officials on the findings.

It emphasized the report would not focus solely on Russian operations or hacks involving Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and Democratic National Committee accounts. Schultz stressed officials would be reviewing incidents going back to the 2008 presidential campaign, when the campaigns of Sen. John McCain and Obama were breached by hackers.

Intelligence officials have said Obama and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney were targets of Chinese cyberattacks four years later.
What to Know One person was killed when the crane came crashing to the ground amid high winds Feb. 5

Investigators say the crane operator failed to secure the machine properly the night before it fell

The operator's license was suspended by the buildings department, and the agency has filed a case to permanently revoke his license.

The operator at the controls of the 565-foot crane that crashed to the ground amid high winds earlier this year has been found at fault for the mishap that killed one person on the ground.

The city Department of Buildings said Friday that a series of errors on the part of the crawler crane operator caused the massive piece of equipment to come crashing to the ground on Feb 5. Mot importantly, investigators found that he failed to secure the crane properly the night before it fell and that the equipment's massive boom was lowered at an improper angle that morning, causing it to become unstable and topple over.

The operator's license was suspended by the buildings department, and the agency has filed a case to permanently revoke his license. The operator will no longer be able to operate cranes in New York City.

The crane operator involved in this incident acted recklessly, with tragic results," said Buildings Commissioner Rick Chandler. "The actions were taking should send the message to everyone in the construction industry that safety must come first."

In the deadly February crane collapse, the 565-foot boom crashed to the ground, killing David Wichs, a Harvard-educated man who lived on the Upper West Side. It also crushed cars and injured others.

Mayor de Blasio called for greater regulation of cranes in the city following the collapse.

Since 2010, New York City has fined and disciplined dozens of crane operators and revoked the licenses of at least 14 of them.
Two men have been arrested near the George Washington Bridge toll plaza in connection with a possible kidnapping plot, officials from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said.

Ishmael Castejon-Gulzar, of Atlanta, Georgia, and Ricardo Coacio Reyes, of Norcross, Georgia, were arrested by Port Authority police officers Friday. The 24-year-old and 30-year-old were charged with kidnapping, carjacking, aggravated assault, criminal possession of a weapon and criminal restraint.

Castejon-Gulzar and Reyes are being held at Bergen County Jail, police said. Bail was set at $2 million each.

Westbound traffic on the upper level of the bridge was stopped for 15 minutes in connection with the arrest, officials said.

Port Authority Police Officer Brian Ahern received information regarding a vehicle with persons wanted for a reported kidnapping heading toward the George Washington Bridge at around 10 a.m., authorities said.

Ahern and Officer James O'Neil situated themselves near the bridge's toll plaza, where they saw the vehicle in question with Georgia license plates. The men confirmed the Toyota was the car in question after observing from behind and pulled over the vehicle, which had two men in the front and a backseat passenger.

All three occupants were removed from the car. Authorities said that the front seat passenger was later identified as the victim, a 39-year-old man from Gwinnet County, Georgia. Police recovered a loaded 9 mm glock handgun form the vehicle.

The victim told police that he was driven from Georgia to New York against his will by Castejon-Gulzar and Reyes in an apparent kidnapping. He reported that he was stabbed in his left leg before the men began the drive to New York.

The victim was taken to Englewood Hospital for his injury, and the car was impounded, police said.
A New York City group is hoping to dissuade overly jolly drinkers from flooding the streets by posting phony signs stating that the yearly SantaCon bar crawl has been canceled.

Signs reading "SantaCon Canceled" were spotted in Williamsburg and the East Village Friday ahead of the annual bar crawl, which is set to take place in Gramercy, Midtown and the East Village Saturday. Members of New York City Residents claimed responsibility of the signs and said they hoped the faux signs will encourage SantaCon organizers to call off the event.

"Our goal is to unite the city," a representative for the group said. "I have not spoken to a single New Yorker who enjoys SantaCon."

Anti-SantaCon organizer John Daniels said it all started three years ago after he got fed up seeing a SantaCon Santa Claus vomit on a pile of garbage near Starbucks at Astor Place.

"I walk by ten minutes later and that same Santa Claus is having a lewd sex act on that same pile of garbage."

But organizers of the bar crawl don't seem to be budging and have posted a disclaimer on their site that the posters are "misinformation."

"Reports that SantaCon has been canceled are not true," the group said on its website.

Unlike in prior years, there is no real route for the crawl. Rather, revelers will gather in the plaza outside the Flatiron building before moving to one of about 50 bars and venues.

See the full list of bars here.

At last year's SantaCon, five people were arrested and more than 100 red-suited participants were issued summonses, the Daily News reports.
As he sat down for an interview with Time magazine for his "person of the year" profile, Donald Trump explained his tough view on illegal immigration by retrieving a copy of the Long Island newspaper Newsday and pointing to a blaring headline: "Extremely Violent Gang Faction."

The article focused on the killings of five teenagers from the same New York City suburb and suspicions that the slayings were the work of a street gang, MS-13, that has roots in El Salvador and has been linked to at least 30 killings on Long Island since 2010.

"They come from Central America. They're tougher than any people you've ever met," Trump told the magazine. "They're killing and raping everybody out there. They're illegal. And they are finished."

That tough talk was welcomed - and created new worries - in the suburban community plagued by the gang violence.

Just months ago, advocates for immigrants were lamenting publicly that a string of disappearances of Hispanic high school students in Brentwood, New York, hadn't gotten enough attention from authorities while they were happening.

Now, they are worried that the president-elect's attention will mean a crackdown that goes far beyond gangs.

"It's not a good thing," said Maryann Sinclair Slutsky, executive director of the immigrant advocacy group Long Island Wins. "I don't know why he's picking Long Island. The entire immigrant community is terrified. All immigrants in that community feel uncomfortable. There's profiling going on and whether they are totally upstanding citizens, they are going to feel targeted in some way."

Gang-related violence in Brentwood got renewed attention in September when best friends Nisa Mickens, 15, and Kayla Cuevas, 16, were found beaten to death in a residential neighborhood near an elementary school.

Within a few weeks, the skeletal remains of three other Brentwood teens were found hidden in secluded areas of the hamlet. Miguel Garcia-Moran, 15, disappeared in February. Oscar Acosta, 19, was reported missing in May. Jose Pena-Hernandez, 18, vanished in June.

Police suspect all the killings were committed by members of local offshoots of the MS-13 street gang, which has already left a trail of corpses on Long Island.

Some of the people accused in those crimes were in the U.S. illegally.

In one of the most heinous killings, in 2010, three teenage MS-13 members shot a 19-year-old woman and her 2-year-old son in the woods over an imagined slight of the gang's honor. Two were El Salvadoran citizens who were illegally in the U.S. at the time they killed the pair, as was Heriberto Martinez, the MS-13 leader convicted of authorizing the murders. Another of the killers was a U.S. citizen.

In July, four MS-13 members were charged with killing four men in Brentwood and neighboring Central Islip between 2013 and 2015. Two of them were citizens of El Salvador. One had illegally re-entered the U.S. after previously being departed. A second was in proceedings to be deported.

Suffolk County Sheriff Vincent DeMarco, whose office is involved in the probe of this year's killings in Brentwood, said there is "no question" that gangs were recruiting young immigrants who had crossed into the U.S. without authorization. Brentwood, he said, "is becoming a border town."

"I don't think anyone would argue with the president-elect and Homeland Security removing criminal alien gang members from the streets of Brentwood. I think the residents of Brentwood deserve it," DeMarco said.

Trump has called for increased border security and deportations of undocumented immigrants with criminal records, but he hasn't unveiled specific details yet on his plan.

Suffolk County Police Commissioner Tim Sini said as part of a local law enforcement crackdown on the gang, six MS-13 members have been taken into federal custody and are expected to be charged under racketeering statutes. More than 50 others have been charged in state courts.

Sini won't identify any of the more than four dozen suspects, or say what they did. He insists the sweeps have resulted in a drop in violent crime.

He wouldn't comment on Trump's remarks.
Lets face it: Millions will be sharing gifts and cookies with family and friends at holiday parties all season long. But millions will also be without a festive meal, presents under the tree and spiked eggnog.



If youre looking to spread some extra special holiday cheer and want to step back from the glitz and glam, we've got some community volunteering options for you. After all, there is a lot of work to be done across the tri-state. Here are a few great places to get started, remote opportunities included.

New Jersey

Color A Smile | Morristown, NJ

Let the elderly, our troops overseas and all those in need of a smile know you're thinking about them by drawing and sending your masterpiece via Color A Smile. This is ideal for those who want to volunteer but are short on time or can't get out of the house. Color A Smile sends thousands of drawings out to those in need every month, simply print or create your own illustration and mail to the disclosed address. Find out more here.

New Jersey Veterans Memorial Homes | Paramus, Menlo Park, Vineland

Volunteers can visit any of the three locations to cheer up NJ's vets with companionship, treats and joy. Each facility has its own volunteer coordinator. To volunteer in Paramus call (201) 634-8504. To volunteer in Menlo Park call (732) 452-4133. To volunteer in Vineland call (856) 405-4213. Remember, laughter goes a long way. More info here.

Jersey Cares | Statewide

A superb organization for those living in any NJ county. Their volunteer calendar is packed with mentoring opportunities for children and teens, tutoring programs, marketplaces and food pantries. Mobile Meals is also in effect throughout NJ, so keep an eye for one near you. Jersey Cares is always updating their calendar with new events too. Find out about being a Winter Shelter Helper and more here.

New York

Barc Shelter | Brooklyn, NY

Dog lovers unite! Volunteers can swing by Barc Shelter in Brooklyn Monday-Saturday to walk the many pups in need of a home. Morning dog walking hours are Tuesday-Saturday 9:30 a.m. to noon. Evening dog walking hours are Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Because of the many people who volunteer at Barc Shelter, dog walking is on a first come, first serve basis. Groups can also contact the shelter to get involved. More info here.

Volunteer New York | Westchester, Rockland, Putnam

A particularly exciting opportunity at Volunteer New York is the Stuff A Stocking event, happening now through Dec. 16. On Mondays from 9 a.m.-5 p.m., volunteers can swing by their Tarrytown location to stuff a stocking for a child or adult living in poverty this holiday season. Talk about giving the gift of love and joy. For more opportunities, click here.

New York Cares | Statewide

Search your location, your availability and the issues you care most about to find the perfect volunteer opportunity for you. Everything from career mentoring to coat drives, food pantries and senior care is available. Take your pick to get started right away. Details here.

NYC Service | New York City

With winter weather on its way, many New Yorkers are going to be in need of assistance removing snow and shoveling. Volunteer to shovel snow for the elderly or disabled this winter by answering a few quick questions. The city will contact you once you're approved and an opportunity to help comes up. Find out more about snow shoveling and other NYC volunteer opportunities here.

Connecticut

Volunteer Connecticut | Statewide

CT could not have made volunteering any easier. Simply click here to view a list of towns in the state. Once you select a location, you'll be directed to an epic selection of volunteer opportunities in that area. Help Hampton Stuff the Sleigh, assist at holiday food banks in New Haven, or volunteer at Danbury Hospital. The options are endless.

Hands On Hartford | Hartford, CT

A great way to join Hands On Hartford in their effort to serve the needy is by checking out their Items of the Month, where they list products you can fund or drop off. To make it even easier, they've created a wish list on Amazon, where volunteers can purchase items to be sent directly to the organization. A list of other volunteer opportunities in Hartford is available here.

Connecticut Humane Society | Newington, CT

Thinking about giving a furry friend to a loved one this holiday season? Why not hang out with some animals in need at the Connecticut Humane Society. Opportunities range from fostering pets in your home to volunteering at the shelter and caring for the adorable pets. Find out more here.

To volunteer elsewhere across the country, visit Feeding America to connect with a food bank near you.
The nation's first elected Somali-American lawmaker says a D.C. taxicab driver harassed her and called her "ISIS" after she visited the White House this week.

Minnesota state Rep.-elect Ilhan Omar detailed the incident on her Facebook page Wednesday. She said the cab driver called her ISIS, lobbed sexist taunts and threatened to remove her hijab during a brief ride on Tuesday after a White House meeting on criminal justice reform.

Omar, 33, said she is troubled by growing animosity toward Muslim people.

"I am still shaken by this incident and can't wrap my head around how bold being [sic] are becoming in displaying their hate towards Muslims," she wrote.

She did not provide any information about the driver and said in a response to a comment on her post that she planned to report the incident to authorities once she returned home to Minneapolis.

Her campaign staff did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Muslims across the country say they are facing a surge of anti-Muslim attacks after the election of Donald Trump, who spoke during his campaign about banning Muslims from entering the country and increasing surveillance of mosques.

[NATL] Top News Photos: Pope Visits Japan, and More

The Council on American-Islamic Relations has tracked more than 100 anti-Muslim incidents across the country since Nov. 8.

In nearby Montgomery County and Maryland as a whole, reports of hate crimes have spiked, officials said. The crimes have been directed at racial and ethnic minorities, women, immigrants and the LGBT community.

Omar immigrated to the United States after spending part of her childhood in a Kenyan refugee camp. She won a Minnesota House seat this fall and described her win as a success for many people.

"This really was a victory for that 8-year-old in that refugee camp," she told NPR. "This was a victory for the young woman being forced into child marriage. This was a victory for every person that's been told they have limits on their dreams."
A New Jersey assemblyman is calling for Gov. Chris Christie to veto the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority's approval of a $225,000 severance package for its outgoing executive director.

Republican Assemblyman Chris Brown asked for Christie to reverse the decision made by the CRDA's board Tuesday  the same day the state said it would drop the $3,000 gifts the Municipal Utilities Authorities gives to its outgoing board members as part of its takeover, according to the Press of Atlantic City.

Brown was one of several Atlantic City officials to criticize the state for allowing the $225,000 payout to go through while nitpicking at the $3,000 MUA gifts.

To read full article, click here.

For more information, visit Philadelphia Business Journal.
Lawyers for a former Pennsylvania congressman are asking a judge to consider his years of public service before sentencing him in a federal racketeering case.

Sixty-year-old Philadelphia Democrat Chaka Fattah is being sentenced Monday for using government grants and charity funds on campaign and personal expenses.

In a court filing Thursday, his lawyers called the two-decade sentencing recommendation from prosecutors "unnecessarily harsh."

Prosecutors say many of Fattah's financial crimes stem from an illegal $1 million loan he took to fund his failed 2007 mayoral run.

His lawyers want the judge to consider Fattah's creation of educational charities that helped low-income students attend college.

Fattah served in Congress for 22 years and resigned after his June conviction. His son is serving a five-year prison term in an overlapping bank fraud case. [[238427591, C]]
Montgomery County became the first government in the region to declare a "Code Blue" emergency this fall, warning residents Thursday of potentially deadly weather this weekend.

The alert began Thursday night and runs through 9 a.m. Monday, the county said in a statement.

"A Code Blue Cold Weather Declaration is made in Montgomery County when winter conditions pose a threat of serious harm or death to individuals without shelter," the statement said. "A Code Blue is called when the combination of air temperature and wind chill is anticipated to be 20F or less." [[405596606, C]]

NBC10 First Alert chief meteorologist Glenn "Hurricane" Schwartz issued a warning of his own earlier Thursday when he said two "arctic blasts" were incoming for the region.

"When you add in the wind, it will feel close to 10 degrees Friday and Saturday mornings," Schwartz wrote in a blog post.

More information for Montgomery County residents can be found on the county website.
Hundreds of law enforcement officers from around the country came to Atlantic City on Monday to pay their final respects to a state trooper killed in a crash.

Police officers from as far away as Michigan were part of a huge contingent that filed past the casket of Trooper Frankie Williams as part of services in Boardwalk Hall. Williams was then laid to rest at Holy Cross Cemetery along Harding Highway in Mays Landing.

New Jersey state Trooper Frankie Williams, hailed as one of our best and brightest young troopers, received a sendoff of the highest honor as his mother as well as longtime law enforcement officers from past and present said their public goodbyes. Williams, 31, died this week after his vehicle was stuck head-on.

The 31-year-old rookie trooper died in a head-on crash along Route 55 in Millville on Dec. 5. He was responding to reports of the car that struck him driving erratically in the moments before the crash. The second car's driver, Dr. Lloyd Rudley, died at the scene.

Williams, of Egg Harbor Township, was assigned to the Port Norris Station. He was a member of the 156th State Police Class which graduated on Jan. 29, 2016. NJSP called him a "bright and promising trooper."

Williams grew up in Lakeland, Florida before moving to New Jersey. Donna Wood, Williams' former neighbor, told NBC10 he was always fearless, even as a boy.

"I know that child that grew up and I knew he was doing something that he was passionate about," Wood said, while fighting back tears.

After Williams moved to South Jersey he earned a degree in criminal justice from Rutgers at Atlantic Cape Community College. He was in the process of getting his Masters degree prior to his death. [[405006266, C]]

"He without a doubt was one of the best students I've ever had," said Williams' former professor Dean Wyks.

About 150 people gathered Thursday night at Leesburg Volunteer Fire Company, 550 Main Street, Leesburg, NJ 08327 for a candlelight vigil.

Williams was often described as a "hero" at the proceedings and many spoke of his kindness.

Trooper Cara Spinosa, who graduated with Williams from the State Police Academy in January, said Williams was a genuine guy and "no matter what, he always had our back."



In August, Williams responded to a parking lot in Pilesgrove Township after a person reported a toy poodle was inside a vehicle with only one window open about an inch. The trooper saw the dog was lying on its side inside a crate and in obvious distress from heat stroke.



After breaking the window with his baton, he gave the dog water, and it was taken to a veterinary hospital in critical condition. The dog eventually became stable, and authorities charged its owner with animal abuse.



Williams got married in September and is survived by his wife, Kimberly Williams.



"We are devastated by his passing, but he can rest assured that we will embrace his family as they will always remain a part of our state police family," said Col. Rick Fuentes, the head of the state police.

The exact cause of the deadly wreck remained under investigation Friday.
A surgeon says a complicated procedure to separate conjoined South Texas infants went well and the girls face several months of hospital care.

A statement from Driscoll Children's Hospital in Corpus Christi says the 10-month-old sisters were recovering Wednesday in pediatric intensive care.

Dr. Haroon Patel led Tuesday's 12 hours of surgery to separate Ximena and Scarlett Hernandez-Torres.

Patel says the operations, with a team of medical specialists, went smoothly.

The girls, born last May 16, shared a colon and bladders. Their identical triplet sister, Catalina, was born without serious health issues.

The hospital staff has cared for the conjoined girls since they were transferred to the Corpus Christi facility hours after birth.

Patel says a team of specialists had been working for months to prepare for the surgery.

A hospital statement says doctors have a positive outlook for the children's recovery. The girls will require additional surgeries as they grow.

Grand Prairie brothers Owen and Emmett Ezell, born conjoined in July 2013, were separated at Dallas' Medical City Children's Hospital in August of that same year and sent home from a rehab center in April 2014.

The boys, who were joined from the breast bone to the belly button, are now learning to talk and are quickly approaching their third birthday. The boys are now big brothers to sister Ella Rae Harper Ezell and are expected to enter preschool in the fall.
Arctic Blast No. 1



As indicated in my long-range winter forecast, the super-mild December of last year will NOT repeat itself. In fact, December 2016 should end up with temperatures below normal (last December was 13 degrees ABOVE normal). The first of the Arctic blasts will be moving in for this weekend, with another, even colder one, coming later next week.



The first blast has already affected much of the country to our west. This map from today shows a huge area of waaaay below normal temperatures that entered the country across the Northern Rockies and Plains. Those are the areas in pink, with the edge of the Arctic air in purple.







Now, look at what happens to the Arctic air by Saturday morning: the entire East Coast gets slammed with January-like temperatures.







When you add in the wind, it will feel close to 10 degrees Friday and Saturday mornings. Thats plenty cold.



Arctic Blast No. 2



But this weekends chill wont be as extreme as the next blast. Take a look at the same type of map as the one above, and see the difference. And look at the scale on the right-MUCH colder.







By next Thursday, daytime temperatures may not get out of the 20s, and wind chills could be near or even below zero. Now, thats cold!



Another Polar Vortex Invasion?



Now, take a look at the differences in the upper-air maps. For this, we need to look at all of North America to see the full pattern. First is the current map, and then the map for next Wednesday.







The dark blue blob on the bottom map represents what is known as the Polar Vortex. Its an area of waaaay below normal pressures high up in the atmosphere. The Polar Vortex is not a new discovery, and is always on the map somewhere in the world. It just became a commonly used term a couple of years ago, when one of this things came all the way down to the Great Lakes, leading to a super-cold outbreak. The one next week doesnt look quite as extreme.



The other important feature is the big area of red and purple in Alaska (upper left of the picture). Thats an area of pressures waaaay ABOVE normal. The combination of that giant HIGH and the Polar Vortex allows air from the North Pole, and even Siberia, to come down into the U.S. As long as this type of pattern holds, it will be extremely cold, especially in the middle of the country.



What About Snow?



This is not the type of pattern that leads to big snowstorms in our part of the country. But it does bring in enough cold air to give us chances for snow at times. In general, the farther north you go in our area, the greater the snow chances. But with Arctic air around, the rain/snow line can shift pretty far south.



Here are three different computer model maps for late Sunday/Sunday evening. All three suggest at least a chance of mainly light snow.



[[405488976, C, 410,309]] [[405489016, C, 410,309]]



In these cases, warmer air moves in for Monday, so any snow would change to rain (at least from the Philadelphia area and south).



Then, another weak system looks to move in around Wednesday, ahead of Arctic blast No. 2.



[[405489106, C, 410,309]] [[405489216, C, 410,309]]



We would never expect identical solutions that far ahead of time, but the above two models are similar. And, as of now, the Wednesday threat appears to have more potential for at least some snow accumulation.



Winter is here, folks. Dont let the calendar fool you!
Investigators said Friday an arrest has been made in the case of an 18-month-old baby girl found dead in an Alpine motorhome: the boyfriend of the toddler's mother.

The San Diego County Sheriff's Department (SDSO) confirmed that Wiliey Foster, 26, was arrested by homicide detectives and the Fugitive Task Force in connection with the death of Leah Brown-Meza.

On Tuesday, at around 12:05 p.m., the tot was found not breathing in a motorhome parked on a property in the 300 block of Hunter Lane. The girl's 21-year-old mother told deputies she woke up to find Leah unresponsive and called authorities for help. Paramedics tried to revive the toddler, but she was later pronounced dead.

Investigators said the toddler had injuries on her body; it is unclear if those injuries -- which officials did not detail -- are related to her death.

Lt. Kenneth Nelson, with the SDSO's Homicide Detail,said Foster's parents live at a house on Hunter Lane. The motorhome where Leah and her mother were staying was parked at the property. Nelson said investigators are still trying to determine whether Foster lived in the motorhome with his girlfriend and her daughter or if he was staying at the main house where his parents live.

Foster was arrested at the Hunter Lane home just before 8 a.m. Friday.

Nelson said investigators suspect Foster in the death of the toddler based on evidence found at the scene, statements made by witnesses and the injuries found on Leah's body.

The SDSO said he will be booked into San Diego Central Jail on one count of murder. Nelson said additional charges could be filed at a later time.

According to court documents obtained by NBC 7, Foster has a criminal record. In August 2012, he was convicted of felony burglary and receiving stolen property. He was sentenced in September 2012 to three years of probation. He served 180 days behind bars and was ordered to pay $17,774 in restitution.

NBC 7 spoke with neighbors in Alpine Friday who said they had no idea anyone was living in the motorhome parked at the home on Hunter Lane. Many neighbors said they were heartbroken to hear of baby Leahs death.

I think I can speak for all of my neighbors: we feel sad for the baby, and families, and everything, Alpine resident Leonard Dover said. Its a sad day.

The autopsy report for Leah has been sealed, but SDSO officials said her manner of death was classified as a homicide. The toddler died from multiple blunt force trauma but no further details were immediately released.

The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information can call the SDSO's Homicide Detail at (858) 974-2321, or after hours at (858) 565-5200. Tipsters can also call Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477 and remain anonymous.

NBC 7 confirmed that Leahs family planned to gather at dusk Friday at the home of the toddlers maternal grandfather and hold special vigil to pay tribute to the little girl.
At least one person was injured in a crash involving a motorcycle on a major freeway in Kearny Mesa Thursday evening, the California Highway Patrol (CHP) confirmed.

The crash happened at approximately 4:43 p.m. on the southbound Interstate 805 near the State Route 52.

One person was transported to the hospital with unknown injuries, San Diego Police (SDPD) said.

No other information was immediately available.

Check back for updates on this breaking news story.
Encinitas and Solana Beach will be getting more than $91 million to address safety and environmental issues related to bluff and beach erosion.

The Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act (WIIN Act) was passed by the House of Representatives on Thursday.

The bill will affect issues related to water resources, dams, harbors and other projects in the country, including increasing the water deliveries to farmers in the San Joaquin Valley.

Darrell Issa, of the 49th Congressional District praised the project, saying he was excited to get started.

He released the following statement:

"I am proud to deliver on a top priority for the communities of Encinitas and Solana Beach. Erosion of the beaches and bluffs in our area have presented significant safety concerns we can correct through the careful work of the Army Corps of Engineers and our local and federal leaders. Just this week, I had the pleasure of meeting with Mayor Zito of Solana Beach where he stressed what an incredible difference this project will make for the future safety and economy in our area. Today I am excited to move this project forward. In addition, the WIIN Act makes crucial investments in our nation's water infrastructure and prioritizes drought relief for California. We still have much work to do on California's water problems, but this bill presents good solutions that will help ensure the longevity of our water infrastructure and help fix erosion issues that have plagued our coastal communities."
After a week of testimony from witnesses and investigators, a San Diego judge ruled Friday that Jahi Turner's stepfather will be tried in the toddler's shocking disappearance 14 years ago.

The two-year-old boy was reported missing from a South Park playground in April 2002. His body or remains have never been found.

Now, Jahi's stepfather, Tieray Jones, will be tried on charges of murder and the infliction of child abuse resulting in death. If convicted, he faces 25 years to life on each charge.

Prosecutors called various witnesses who testified as to what they saw in the playground area of the park at 28th and Beech on April 25, 2002.

Jones called 911 on that day to report that his stepson vanished after he had stepped away to purchase a soda from a park vending machine.

Through the testimony of several witnesses and investigators, prosecutors have attempted to show how Jones' story changed throughout the day. Details including whether he had brought the child's cup to the park and what time he and his stepson had left their apartment that morning varied according to some testimony.

Deputy District Attorney Nicole Rooney said inconsistencies in the defendants story indicate that something terrible happened to Jahi Turner in that apartment.

Nobody ever saw Jahi Turner alive after Monday April 22, 2002, Rooney said. We had numerous witnesses in the complex, at the park all around town who saw the defendant and who saw the defendant without Jahi Turner.

Jones' attorneys told NBC 7 they did not hear a "smoking gun" in the prosecution's case.

Defense attorneys Alex Ozols and Vik Monder said the only new evidence presented by the prosecutors this week was a controlled phone call recorded in March 2015. They say all other evidence was available to investigators and prosecutors in 2002.

They also pointed out that police found no physical evidence in Jones' military housing apartment.

They say their client has professed his innocence since the beginning.

The 911 call and a recorded interview with San Diego Police were entered into evidence Wednesday. Prosecutors also played a controlled phone call between Jahi's mother Tameka Jones and Tieray Jones that police coordinated in 2015.

Jones entered not guilty pleas following his March 2016 arrest. He was the last person to see Jahi Turner alive before the two-year-old boy was reported missing.

Hundreds of volunteers and police officers spent weeks looking for Jahi near the playground. Law enforcement officers raked through 5,000 tons of garbage at the Miramar Landfill, but came up with nothing.

Jahi's mother was deployed with USS Rushmore the day her son was reported missing.

Listen to the full 911 call here.

Watch the recorded police interview with Jones here.

Click here to read the search warrant.

[G] Photos of 2-Year-Old Jahi Turner, Missing Since 2002
Officials at a prison in San Diego County are investigating a video that has gone viral: A group of inmates  some holding cellphones  filmed their own version of the Mannequin Challenge."

On Nov. 13, a YouTube user dubbed tben916 posted a video on YouTube titled Mannequin Challenge: Prison, which shows inmates at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility (RJDCF) in Otay Mesa, California, taking part in the viral video trend where people hold still  as if they were frozen in time  while a moving camera films the scene.

The one-minute clip starts with inmates holding still in the bathroom, including one sitting on the toilet. It is unclear who is recording, but the camera then moves into what appears to be living quarters, showing an inmate holding a cellphone, a fake fight scene and an inmate reading. The video ends with another inmate in his bunk, also holding a cellphone.

On Thursday night, Terry Thornton with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, confirmed that the footage had been shot inside the RJDCF. She said officials at the prison are still investigating the incident, including how inmates obtained cellphones, which are not allowed in prison.

The RJDCF is located at 480 Alta Rd. The Warden is Daniel Palermo, who has worked there since 2006.
A rocket that took former NASA astronaut and United States senator John Glenn into space to orbit Earth in 1962 was built in San Diego.

Glenn died on Thursday at the age of 95 in a hospital in Ohio.

He made history in 1962, becoming the first American to orbit the Earth in the Mercury-Atlas 6, a rocket built at a local company during the Cold War.

Ken Kramer, a former NBC 7 employee highlighted the news coverage on the rocket in a video.

NBC 7 spoke with Francis French on Thursday, a space historian at the San Diego Air and Space Museum in Balboa Park who worked with Glenn.

"Up until this day we've always had one of the original Mercury 7 around. The numbers have dwindled over the years and it's a really sad day. We've now lost that final ability to remember what it was like to be the very first American to be chosen into space. We've closed a door on history today which is very very sad," French said.

Although the company has long been demolished, the legacy of San Diego's part in the historical event still lives on.

[NATL] The Life of Astronaut John Glenn
The D.C. government faced a setback Thursday for one of its major redevelopment plans. A federal three-judge panel ruled in favor of citizens who sued the city regarding their development plan for historic, 25-acre McMillan reservoir site in Northwest.

Citizens say contracting laws werent followed and the redevelopment plan is flawed. They also complained that the project fails to address zoning, historic preservation and environmental issues. Instead, citizens say they want more open park land on the site.

City officials told News4 they would address the issues raised by the court and seek to continue the project.

The setback comes just a day after D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser held a ceremony in favor of new efforts to save the iconic McMillan Reservoir towers from falling apart.

Ward 5 Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie said that most citizens support the redevelopment. What the redevelopment entails has yet to be decided.

The McMillan filtration site opened in 1905, but has been closed for decades.
Georgetown's Waterfront Park, where people jog and take walks along the Potomac River, is also the place where a man sexually assaulted a woman Oct. 19, according to U.S. Park Police.

"It's definitely something that's been concerning to a number of students on campus just because a lot of students walk out and about in the area," Georgetown University student Kaylan Coke said.

Its the fifth similar crime reported in Georgetown since August. On 35th Street, a man with a knife grabbed a woman, covered her mouth and threw her down before she scared him away, police said. A few blocks away, a man exposed himself to a woman. On 37th Street, a woman was grabbed. And on Potomac Street, a man inappropriately touched a woman on the steps of a home.

"One sex assault is troubling to the community, so when you have three or four, it's a concern," ANC Commissioner Ed Solomon said.

He helped set up a community crime meeting with police Wednesday night. Police are stepping up patrols in Georgetown, he said.

Their patrols are becoming more visible, and we're getting more patrols for the Christmas season as well.

Councilmember Jack Evans, who represents Georgetown and attended the crime meeting, said sexual assault in Georgetown has gone up since last year.

"They're up 100 percent from last year, he said. Ten instead of five is a significant increase."

D.C. police said there were 328 sex abuse cases reported in the city by this time in 2015 -- the exact same number as this year. That's an average of almost one per day.

Evans pointed out how dark parts of Georgetown are at night. There's a proposal identifying almost 60 locations for new light poles, he said.

"I was driving home last night and there weren't lights, he said. Can't we just get people to turn on their lights at night, because it lights up the street."

Evans also reminded people to avoid walking alone at night if possible and to pay attention.

"If you do see a person or persons that cause you concern, walk out in the middle of the street," he said.
A former teacher in Montgomery County, Maryland, has been convicted of sex abuse charges after he took photos up a student's skirt with his cellphone.

A judge on Tuesday found 38-year-old Todd Michael Scriber of Gaithersburg guilty of two counts of sex abuse of a minor, The Washington Post reports.

Scriber was arrested after a 14-year-old student told investigators that while she was staying after school at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School to retake a test on Oct. 2, 2015, she saw Scriber point a phone under her skirt.

The girl said she jumped back and distanced herself from the science teacher, News4 previously reported. She finished the exam and told her family about the incident, police said. Her report launched the investigation into Scriber, police said.

Detectives found several photos of other students on Scriber's phone that authorities said he took without their permission.

Four days after the incident, a detective talked to Scriber, who allowed him to look at photos on his phone, police said. When Scriber realized the detective was looking at the photos that showed "various areas of the female anatomy," he tried to grab the phone away.

Police previously said they identified three students in those photos, including two 17-year-old girls and one 16-year-old girl.

Ramon Korionoff, a spokesman with the county prosecutor's office, says Scriber faces as much as 25 years in prison on each count when he is sentenced in January.

He was allowed to post $10,000 bond, according to online court records.

Scriber was put on leave by the school district when officials learned of the allegations. He is no longer an employee, the Post reported.
Many federal employees will get a small Christmas gift from President Barack Obama.

Obama authorized a 2.1 percent pay raise for civilian agency employees so their raise will match that of Defense Department employees. Obama said in August that these workers would get a 1.6 percent raise but opted on Thursday to boost the amount by 0.5 percent.

The president said he reconsidered the raise  which follows a three-year pay freeze  in part due to "current and projected economic conditions."

"In light of the decision of Congress to provide a 2.1 percent pay increase for military personnel in 2017 and reconsideration of current and projected economic conditions, I have concluded it would be appropriate to revise my original alternative plan," he wrote in a letter submitted to the House and Senate and published by Federal News Radio.

An employee making $75,000 will see a $1,575 boost before taxes.

The nation's largest federal employee union, the American Federation of Government Employees, applauded Obama's decision.

Federal employees certainly deserve this modest boost in their pay, following years of pay freezes and miniscule increases that have left them worse off today than they were at the start of the decade, union president J. David Cox Sr. said in a statement. This pay adjustment will help employees pay their bills, reduce their debts, and cover the everyday costs facing working-class Americans.

The raise will take effect in January.
When an unexpected illness forced a Maryland couple to cancel a cruise, they were relieved to have travel insurance, but the insurance company denied a refund because of that life-threatening illness.

Betty and Walter Savoy of Accokeek always purchase travel insurance for their cruises, which they have been taking for 38 years.

Always get travel insurance and we never had to use it, Betty Savoy said.

Their 39th cruise was supposed to be a river cruise through Germany and to Amsterdam. They booked their trip and purchased travel insurance from the same two companies they've always used.

However, at a routine doctor's visit weeks before, Walter Savoy had a biopsy out of precaution. Two weeks after purchasing travel insurance, he got the diagnosis.

He said, Guess what? We can't go, Betty Savoy said. And I said, Why? And he said, I have prostate cancer, and it's aggressive, and they want to start treatment right away.

The Savoys quickly canceled the trip and filed an insurance claim, but it was denied due to a "pre-existing condition."

According to CSA Travel Protection, its definition of a pre-existing condition is something "that occurs at a time when the plan was not in effect ... for which you ... received, or received a recommendation for, a diagnostic test.

At the time I purchased it, we had no clue and nothing had been said of that nature, Betty Savoy said.

NBC4 Responds reached out to the travel insurance company and the travel agency.

In a statement the insurance company, CSA Travel said, in part, it "regrets that based upon the insurance policy terms and conditions we were unable to meet their expectations."

However, the travel agency, Vacations to Go, did respond to their loyal customers and refunded the entire cost of the cruise: $4,998.

Walter Savoy is getting better and plans to finally go on that cruise with his wife soon. They will take out travel insurance like always, except theyll use a different insurance company.
U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch will visit a mosque in Northern Virginia next week amid a sharp increase in hate crimes that target Muslims.

Lynch is scheduled to visit the All Dulles Area Muslim Society Center, aka The Adams Center, in Sterling on Monday morning.

She will travel to New York the following day for a discussion with gay, lesbian and transgender youth at Harvey Milk High School, and to visit the Stonewall Inn and Stonewall National Monument.

FBI statistics released last month show reported hate crimes against Muslims rose by 67 percent in 2015 to their highest number since the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

There were 257 reported incidents of anti-Muslim bias in 2015, compared to 154 the year before.

Lynch has said the numbers should be "deeply sobering for all Americans."

Many attendees of the mosque, which is one of the largest in the D.C. region, told News4 last month they worry Trump will ban Muslims from entering the country.
If it's true that an army travels on its stomach, will better snacks keep passengers loyal to one airline?

Delta Air Lines is rolling out new free snacks for customers in the main cabin, including brand-name yogurt bars and pretzels. Some will come in larger portions than before because, Delta has figured out, that's what customers crave.

The menu move comes about a year after United Airlines brought back free snacks by offering noshes like stroopwafels  a gooey Dutch confection  and better coffee. Earlier this year, American Airlines restored free snacks on domestic flights.

Airline executives say they're focusing on both big and little things in the battle for customers.

Delta said Thursday that beginning next week it will retire the airline's brand of peanuts and pretzels and replace them on longer flights with Snyder's of Hanover pretzels, Squirrel honey-roasted peanuts and NatureBox yogurt bars.

Fans of the Biscoff cookies need not fret  those are staying.

Delta also is testing free sandwiches and other meals in economy on some flights between New York and California.

The company stopped selling food on its flights in 2005, The New York Times reported at the time.

For decades, air travelers took it for granted that they would be served meals as part of their ticket price. Airlines gradually took away that perk to save money, but came off looking Scrooge-like.

Continental Airlines claimed it would save $2.5 million by no longer giving away pretzels in 2011. That year parent United Continental Holdings Inc. earned $840 million.

Airlines today seem even more financially healthy enough to feed their customers: Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines Inc. earned $4.5 billion last year.
Lynnfield Police in Massachusetts continue to investigate an incident involving two "very young" students aboard a METCO school bus taking students to and from Summer Street Elementary School.

"I can confirm there was an incident on our METCO bus and two employees involved in the program are no longer employed by Lynnfield Public Schools," Superintendent of Schools Jane Tremblay said Thursday.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Children and Families confirmed it is looking into it.

"The department received a report and we are investigating," Andrea Grossman said.

According to investigators, the age of the students involved is presenting some issues in the investigating, including proving criminal intent. Investigators said if the students were older, or adults, charges including indecent assault and battery would be under consideration.

"I can't believe it, I have been working around here for a year and half and the most we have had is some bad weather and some branches thrown around, never anything like this," Tucker Harding, a Lynnfield resident said.

Late Thursday, Superintendent Tremblay identified those terminated as Ms. Leo Masamba, a METCO coordinator and Ms. Wanda Hines, a METCO bus monitor/coordinator.

Tremblay said an e-mail was sent home to parents. Citing federal and state law, Tremblay said she couldn't comment on if the students in question had returned to school.
Springfield, Massachusetts police say a man has been stabbed while using an ATM in the city that's right across the street from a state police barracks.

Police say the victim was attacked in a Bank of America ATM at about 6 a.m. Friday. He was cut on his hand and slashed on his back during a struggle. He was taken to the hospital but police says the injuries are considered minor.

His name has not been released.

The suspect ran away and there have been no arrest announcements. He was described as about 5-feet, 11-inches tall and was last seen wearing a blue hooded sweat shirt.
A Vermont man lost consciousness after attempting to rescue his three dogs from a fire Thursday morning.

Douglas Rounsevelle was at a neighbors place when he learned that his home, located along Conway Court in Coventry, Vermont, was on fire, according to state police.

Rounsevelle tried to enter the home to save his dogs, but lost consciousness. He was soon rescued by Newport firefighters.

He was transported to North Country Hospital and released soon after.

The fire caused about $100,000 in damage and remains under investigation. Officials said it does not appear suspicious.
Police in Andover, Massachusetts are investigating a double shooting that left two men hospitalized Thursday evening.

Around 10:22 p.m., two Andover men arrived at Lawrence General Hospital with gunshot wounds. They are currently being treated for serious injuries.

The victims were shot at Shawsheen Plaza, located at 209 North Main Street in Andover. A friend had driven them to the hospital afterwards.

Police said an investigation is ongoing, but did say that the victims may have been specifically targeted.

No word on motive or possible suspects at this time.

Police are asking anyone with information to contact the department.

"We do not believe that there is any danger to the community at large," Chief Patrick Keefe said. "Right now, this investigation is just beginning, and we greatly appreciate everyone's patience while the victims are tended to and we work to determine who is responsible for this act of violence in our community."
"You dont take things for granted like you used to," Manchester Police Officer Ryan Hardy said.

It was after 10 oclock on a Monday night when we arrived at Hardys Manchester home. He was just getting ready for work. He had already given his two little boys a bath, tucked them in, and kissed his wife Amanda goodnight.

"Everything has a little bit more meaning, especially when you know youre leaving to go back into that environment of the unknown," He said.

Hardy is the Manchester police officer you can hear on a chilling radio call from May 13, 2016.

"Shots fired, shots fired, Ive been hit," he yells.

Over the radio, his fellow officers heard Hardy gasping for air and still describing the suspect who shot him in the face and in the back.

"White male, long hair, trench coat," he said.

For the first time since that day, Officer Hardy is telling necn what its like to be back on the streets and back to the job that almost took his life.

Hardy says "there was never any doubt in my mind" about coming back.

He says that that feeling was solidified just hours after the shooting. As Hardy was rushed to a Boston Hospital, he says the support along the way gave him strength. Local and State police officers stood at attention along his route while cruisers with blue lights flashing escorted the ambulance all the way to the hospital.

"Its a surreal feeling to go from a moment of hopelessness and despair to knowing that everyone is there for you and would do anything it takes to make sure you get back on your feet," Hardy said.

Hardy spent three months recovering and then came back to work, of course, with Amandas blessing.

"I love doing what I do and she didnt at any point think I wasnt going to return," Hardy said.

He admits the first time out alone was tough.

"Somethings make you more uneasy than others until you fully work through everything," Hardy said, but added that "Everything feels back to normal."

Whats different is his perspective each time he gets out of his cruiser.

"Making car stops, responding to alarms, different calls that we do every single night, and in an instant it changes," Hardy said. "Thats definitely the biggest thing thats changed is thinking of how youre going to handle the situation if it does turn into the worst day ever."

And with every response, Hardy realizes "the worst" could happen again. Making the little things in life that much better.

"You know, always just take a second and cherish what you have," Hardy said.

There was never any question for Officer Hardy that he would go back to patrolling the streets of Manchester, New Hampshire, after being shot.

But the events of that violent early morning in May will always be with him.

He took our crew back to Ferry Street on Manchesters West Side to the spot where he was shot.

"He was walking north towards us," Hardy said as he recalls the moment that he saw a man matching the description of a bank robbery suspect from the night before.

"I decided to pull onto Ferry Street here," Hardy said.

What came next was previously unimaginable.

He got out of his cruiser to question the man and within seconds  "The hairs on your neck stand up and I knew something bad was about to happen," Hardy explained. "It was like being stuck in cement you just cant move fast enough to get out of the way" - the man pulled gun and opened fire. It was an instant that would change Hardys life forever, and the breathless moments after were all captured on his radio.

"As soon as the gun goes bang everything sped up and it was training, auto pilot, whatever you want to call it," Hardy said. "It was really just survival mode at that point, just getting away from the threat that was trying to take my life."

While he tells his story, his physical scars are visible.

"The first one was in the cheek here and ultimately it came out the back of my neck," Officer Hardy said as he pointed to a scar on his right cheek.

The second bullet hit him in the back as he ran for his life.

With four wounds from two bullets, Hardy managed to call for backup and warn his fellow officers.

"White male, long hair, trench coat," he called over his radio.

"I wanted to make sure that everyone know exactly what to look for so they could stay safe," Hardy said during our interview.

After the radio call, he finally found his way to the front end of his cruiser and ducked for cover, counting the seconds until help arrived.

"It was only 30 seconds or a minute, but seems like forever when youre out there," Hardy recalled.

The suspect, Ian MacPherson, shot another officer before being captured.

In a press conference at the station on the night of the shooting, Manchester Police Chief Nick Willard called it one of the darkest days in the history of his department.

"I believe there was grace shining down on Officer Hardy  but you cant discount his warrior spirit and his will to survive," Willard said.

"When we sign up for this we know of the dangers that are out there, but we all do it for a reason," Hardy said.

A reason strong enough to bring Hardy back to work within three months, not because its his job, but because to serve and protect is his lifes mission.

"I believe in what we do and making our community better and thats why I do it," Hardy said.

Both Hardy and the other officer who was shot that morning received awards for their bravery.

MacPherson is charged with attempted murder. His case is still pending.
Boston Police say a tow truck driver was shot early Friday morning in Jamaica Plain and the search is on for a suspect.

A tow truck employee from Peter's Towing in Dorchester, Massachusetts was shot just after 4 a.m. He was a passenger in a tow truck when the shooting occurred on Parker Street.

He and a co-worker were doing an overnight detail at a housing complex. The victim just started the job days ago. The workers were patrolling the area to look for anyone parked without a permit.

The towing company tells necn their workers were approached by two men who said "You have no business being here."

Then there was some sort of fight and shots were fired.

The victim was taken to the hospital for life-threatening injuries, but is expected to survive.

Peter's Towing says there are always two people in a tow truck in the overnight hours for safety reasons.

Neighbors tell us violence in this area is becoming too common.

The gunman has not been caught.
Advice from Michelle Morgan, senior associate at Gardner Leader

Uber, Hermes, Deliveroo, all high profile cases which have at the heart of them the issue of employment status.

The employment status of an individual is important for a number of reasons.

For example, certain important legal rights only apply if an individual is an employee.

The question of whether an individual is an employee is not easy to answer.

The cases regarding employment status go back many years, but it remains impossible to set down a clear set of defining criteria against which an individuals status can be definitively determined.

The glut of cases over the years, and particularly in recent months, demonstrates just how vexed an area this is, and as such we are waiting with baited breath as to the decisions in the upcoming Uber case and HMRCs investigation into Hermes.

Hermes investigation

HMRC has decided to investigate delivery company Hermes, after its workers complained of low pay and the misclassification of their status as self-employed.

The investigation comes in light of the allegations made last month, relating to Hermes failure to pay its workers the national living wage rate of 7.20 an hour on the basis that it has classified these drivers as self-employed rather than employees.

As self-employed persons, the drivers are not entitled by law to receive the national living wage, nor are they entitled to other employment benefits such as holiday pay, sick pay, pension, maternity leave or the right not to be unfairly dismissed.

The allegations echo recent media coverage of delivery company Deliveroo, and a case involving a number of cycle courier businesses that is expected to be heard at an employment tribunal shortly.

But HMRCs intervention in the issue of self-employment has been seen as particularly significant.

Hermes has said that it was confident in the legality of our self-employed courier model and would cooperate fully with any investigation, should there be one.

But the case serves to highlight the growing challenge for the Government in investigating organisations that have classified

individuals as self-employed, given the uncertainty over this area of the law, and the fact a number of test cases are currently awaiting judgment.

The investigation into Hermes coincides with a separate announcement from HMRC that it would scrutinise employment arrangements relating to freelance workers who were being used to fill what would otherwise have been permanent roles.

If an organisation is found by HMRC to be in breach of existing laws, it could be fined up to 100 per cent of the tax owed.

The Treasury said it is currently owed more than 300m in lost national insurance contributions.

Additionally, the employer could be liable for employment tribunal claims for non-payment of holiday pay, national minimum wage and pension contributions if the status of the individual is found to be that of an employee as opposed to self-employed.

Prime Minister Theresa May recently announced a review of workers rights, amid concerns that almost half a million Britons could be wrongly classed as self-employed.

The review will look at whether the national living wage is being undermined, and what changes in legislation may need to be implemented as a result.

As such, it is worth bearing the points raised above in mind if you engage self-employed persons within your business.

By Michelle Morgan, senior associate in the Employment team at Gardner Leader solicitors in Newbury, Thatcham and Maidenhead. Follow @Gardner Leader or contact Tel: (01635) 508080, www.gardner-leader.co.uk.

Michelle joined Gardner Leader last month and is an employment solicitor with over 10 years experience, latterly in a leading national law firm. If you have any questions about employment issues, please contact her.
Founder of Crossways children's home was remarkably powerful character," says son

FORMER actress and child welfare campaigner Coral Atkins has died at the age of 80.

Miss Atkins, who grew up in Bucklebury and Kingsclere, died in the Sue Ryder ward of the West Berkshire Community Hospital on Friday morning after a short battle with cancer.

She made a number of appearances on TV and was best known for her role as Sheila Ashton in the 1970s drama A Family at War.

However, it was for her tireless work in setting up and running a home for disadvantaged children at Crossways, Hoe Benham, in 1971 that she will be locally remembered.

Her son, Harry Whitehead, said he will remember his mother as a forceful personality who became a major part of Newburys recent history.

Born in London in 1938, Miss Atkins moved to Bucklebury at an early age with her parents.

She was a pupil at Shaw House School, Newbury, before moving back to London to become an established actress on stage and on the small screen.

However, at the age of 35, Miss Atkins decided to leave the profession at the height of her fame to raise funds and set up the home for disadvantaged youngsters.

In total, she cared for 37 children at Crossways and another home in Gloucestershire.

The 19-bed thatched cottage set in two-acres of grounds, which she renovated herself, eventually closed in 1996 after a string of public fundraisers over the years.

It never stopped being a battle from start to finish, explained Mr Whitehead.

When she decided to set up the home she had no university education and no experience in child care.

She went on a child psychology course in Manchester and then moved back to where she grew up to set up the home.

She had to battle for funds and also against social services, who wanted to move children on continuously.

According to Mr Whitehead, the public perception of his mother was far from the truth.

She always said she didnt have a maternal bone in her body, which goes against the popular perception of her, he said.

She would say Im not that great with a child but Im great with a child in need.

The story of the Coral Atkins Children's Home at Crossways was told in TV drama Seeing Red, starring Sarah Lancashire and screened on ITV in 2000.

Remembering his mother, Mr Whitehead said: She was a remarkably powerful character.

She was completely fearless as she faced the end of her days, telling me 'theres no tragedy in an 80-year-old woman dying.

She is survived by her son and two grandchildren, four-year-old Nila and Bran, aged one.

The funeral will be held at 1.30pm on Tuesday, December 20, at St Nicolas Church, Newbury. All are welcome.
Further action threatened into the new year

AWE workers in Aldermaston and Burghfield have staged a second 24-hour strike and are threatening more in the new year, in an ongoing row over proposed pension changes.

The dispute centres around the threat to close the defined benefit pension scheme and substitute it with what unions are describing as an inferior alternative.

The strike came after Unite  the UKs largest union  had its counter proposals rejected by AWE management.

It followed the first one-day strike on Monday, November 14.

Unions say the proposed changes would leave workers thousands of pounds out of pocket.

AWE staff also lobbied the Houses of Parliament and made appointments to see their local MP to raise their case.

The dispute has been given an extra edge by accusations that the Ministry of Defence broke pension promises made a quarter-of-a-century ago, when the workforce was transferred to the private sector.

The Unite regional secretary for the South East, Jennie Formby, said: Our members wont be starved into submission by a hardline management  and the prospect of further strikes is very much on the cards when we enter 2017.

Unite regional officer Bob Middleton added: Unite is sending out a clear message to employers across the land: Dont mess with workers pensions  otherwise you will have a fight on your hands.

Our members solidarity is strong and further industrial action is on the cards in the run-up to Christmas and the New Year, unless the management starts to negotiate in a constructive fashion.

Unite members have voted by 92 per cent for strike action and by 97 per cent for industrial action short of a strike.

Currently, AWE scheme members pay 10 per cent of their salary into the scheme and the employer pays 26 per cent.

Under new proposals, employees will be able to pay from three per cent to nine per cent; with AWE paying from seven per cent (if an employee pays three per cent) to 13 per cent (if an employee pays nine per cent or more).

AWE plc, which employs about 4,000 people, is a consortium of two American-owned companies, Lockheed Martin and Jacobs Engineering, and UK-listed Serco.
Store declared safe despite large crack in brick pillar

A stricken Tesco store was open for business again this morning (Friday) despite damage from a dramatic vehicle collision.

The incident happened around 5pm last night when a car mounted the pavement and smashed into a store pillar, causing damage to a CHAIN charity Handybus and other vehicles and leaving gaping cracks from the top to bottom of a brick pillar.

The Everland Road store was evacuated as firefighters used specialist equipment to cut two people free from the wreckage of the car which struck the store front.

A Thames Valley Police spokeswoman, Hannah Jones, said: We were called following reports of a car colliding with several other vehicles as well as the wall of the Tesco store."

Two pumps from Newbury fire station, together with a heavy rescue unit from Reading, attended the scene and a spokesman for South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS), David Gallagher, said an elderly man and woman were taken to the Great Western Hospital in Swindon, Wiltshire, after being cut from the wreckage.

A nurse who had been shopping in the store stopped to help at the scene.

CHAIN Handybus co-ordinator Ted Angell said: "Our community bus was parked in Tesco some way from the store. No one was in the bus and fortunately the driver was in Tescos - all of which was a great relief for us.

"The bus was hit by a car at some force  enough to move the bus against two adjacent cars. The car then went on some 10 metres to hit another car and Tescos wall. Goodness knows how it got that far considering the force that the bus took."

He added: "It looks as if we have lost our community bus for some time, at a busy time of year when a lot of elderly and less mobile people are reliant on our services. I have a feeling it might be a write-off. But more importantly we hope that those injured in other cars make a full recovery."

Tesco has issued the following statement: "Police are investigating the incident at our Hungerford store and we are supporting them with their enquiries. Our thoughts and best wishes are with those involved in the incident."

Tonight's Victorian Extravaganza was indirectly affected after Tesco management reportedly cancelled an agreement to site a giant carousel in the car park following the incident.

PHOTOGRAPH ROYAL BERKSHIRE FIRE AND RESCUE SERVICE
By Express News Service

VIJAYAWADA: In normal times, the Swaraj Maidan Rythu Bazar is a throbbing vegetable market in the heart of Vijayawada. It wakes up at 4 am as farmers and traders bring in their produce to sell and customers queue up at daybreak. Things are frantic all day long.

But demonetization of high-value currency notes on Nov. 8 put this market of many small deals on a rollercoaster ride, with volumes touching rock bottom. When footfalls dwindled due to the scarcity of small currency notes, two micro ATMs  one from Andhra Bank and the other from IDFC  were rushed to the market as a crisis alleviation measure and a semblance of a business hub was kept alive.

On Thursday, a full month after demonetisation, the situation was back to square one, however,. The micro ATMs were removed and e-PoS machines, supposed to usher India into the cashless age, haven't made their appearance yet.

Now nobody has cash to buy anything here.

I buy vegetables and fruits here every weekend. All I have is these Rs 2,000 notes. Who will give me change for Rs 2000 in this bazaar? A Badri Narayana, a customer, asked when New Indian Express visited the market.

He buys vegetables worth Rs 300 a week normally, but on Thursday he spent over Rs 1,400, buying supplies not only for himself but for his neighbours as well. He said he was confident he would be recompensed.

Its tupical of Indias fabled talent for jugaad (innovation), which is keeping markets like Vijayawadas Rythu Bazar ticking even if only at a minimal level.

Everyone is bringing Rs 2,000 notes. Who has change for Rs 2000? said Ramesh Babu, the estate officer of the Swaraj Maidan Rythu Bazar. Sellers cant sell and buyers cant buy. A majority of the vendors are suffering huge losses due to decay of vegetables.

But what about those micro ATMs and e-Pos machines?

The officer said the micro ATMs were pulled out in anticipation of the arrival of e-PoS machines. But the cashless contraptions were delayed and the market is back in limbo. So the administration asked for the micro ATMs back but they had been sent elsewhere in the meantime.

A few km from the rythu baazar, stands Andhra Pradeshs largest flower market, the Rajiv Gandhi Wholesale Market. Unlike at the Rythu Baazar, vendors here seemed more optimistic. Their business, which spiralled down dramatically soon after demonetisation, is showing signs of improvement, though the situation is still far from normal. The Flower Merchants Association president Shaik Jani said the new Rs 500 notes have helped florists keep things going. Some traders were quick to switch over to Paytm or Vodafone's M-Paisa. And the prices too are showing signs of rising again.

VIJAYAWADA: In normal times, the Swaraj Maidan Rythu Bazar is a throbbing vegetable market in the heart of Vijayawada. It wakes up at 4 am as farmers and traders bring in their produce to sell and customers queue up at daybreak. Things are frantic all day long. But demonetization of high-value currency notes on Nov. 8 put this market of many small deals on a rollercoaster ride, with volumes touching rock bottom. When footfalls dwindled due to the scarcity of small currency notes, two micro ATMs  one from Andhra Bank and the other from IDFC  were rushed to the market as a crisis alleviation measure and a semblance of a business hub was kept alive. On Thursday, a full month after demonetisation, the situation was back to square one, however,. The micro ATMs were removed and e-PoS machines, supposed to usher India into the cashless age, haven't made their appearance yet. Now nobody has cash to buy anything here. I buy vegetables and fruits here every weekend. All I have is these Rs 2,000 notes. Who will give me change for Rs 2000 in this bazaar? A Badri Narayana, a customer, asked when New Indian Express visited the market. He buys vegetables worth Rs 300 a week normally, but on Thursday he spent over Rs 1,400, buying supplies not only for himself but for his neighbours as well. He said he was confident he would be recompensed. Its tupical of Indias fabled talent for jugaad (innovation), which is keeping markets like Vijayawadas Rythu Bazar ticking even if only at a minimal level. Everyone is bringing Rs 2,000 notes. Who has change for Rs 2000? said Ramesh Babu, the estate officer of the Swaraj Maidan Rythu Bazar. Sellers cant sell and buyers cant buy. A majority of the vendors are suffering huge losses due to decay of vegetables. But what about those micro ATMs and e-Pos machines? The officer said the micro ATMs were pulled out in anticipation of the arrival of e-PoS machines. But the cashless contraptions were delayed and the market is back in limbo. So the administration asked for the micro ATMs back but they had been sent elsewhere in the meantime. A few km from the rythu baazar, stands Andhra Pradeshs largest flower market, the Rajiv Gandhi Wholesale Market. Unlike at the Rythu Baazar, vendors here seemed more optimistic. Their business, which spiralled down dramatically soon after demonetisation, is showing signs of improvement, though the situation is still far from normal. The Flower Merchants Association president Shaik Jani said the new Rs 500 notes have helped florists keep things going. Some traders were quick to switch over to Paytm or Vodafone's M-Paisa. And the prices too are showing signs of rising again.
Aishik Chanda By

Express News Service

KOHIMA: Even a month after demonetisation, scrapped Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes are being widely circulated throughout Nagaland.

The insufficient provision of new Rs 500 notes and hike in businesses during the festive season of Hornbill and pre-Christmas are the main reasons for the acceptance of old notes.

"A very few ATMs in Kohima town and vicinity are disbursing new Rs 500 notes. The old notes are accepted and returned as change precisely due to shortage of new notes. As more new notes come, use of old notes will go down," hoped Naomi Ao, owner of a restaurant in central Kohima.

According to government estimates Nagaland has been visited by over 80,000 tourists in the last one week. The acceptance of old notes has given the tourists a window to 'dump' their old notes which are not being accepted elsewhere.

"I was travelling from Delhi to my hometown Tinsukia in Assam and came to visit Hornbill Festival. I had several old notes, which I have spent on buying shawls at Hornbill Festival and liquor in Kohima," said Jeet Borthakur, a tourist.

This was rampant even though the SBI ATM in Kisama heritage village, where Hornbill Festival is being held was one of the few ATMs where special provision of Rs 500 notes were made keeping in mind the tourist inflow.

"A special provision of filling the ATM with new Rs 500 notes was done in Kisama heritage village keeping in mind businesses generated due to tourist inflows during Hornbill festival," a bank official at the bank kiosk in Kisama said.

However, traders in Kohima and vicinity say they accept the old notes only when the amount of purchase is close to the amount of old note offered. "If a person buys close to Rs 800 or Rs 900 and offers Rs 1,000 notes, how can I ask him or her to give me in Rs 100 notes when we know new Rs 500 notes are also scarce. So, we accept it. However, if the purchase is Rs 100 or Rs 200 and he or she offers Rs 500 or Rs 1,000, we don't accept it," said Veronica Ao, a trader in Old NST area of Kohima, where night-bazaar is held every night for the ten days of Hornbill festival.

The traders who have accepted the old notes during the tourist season say they will deposit the old notes after Hornbill festival is over.

"I would take all my old notes and deposit them after Dec 10, when Hornbill gets over. I am also trying to push off my old Rs 500 notes to customers as much as I can," said Hinotoli, an eatery owner. Exchange of old notes were stopped after November 24.

However, others feel they will be able to 'push' the old notes to the rural areas of the state where ATMs or banks are scarce. "Many villages have never seen a bank or an ATM. The old notes maybe sent there gradually over commerce with the farmers," said wholesale dealer Santosh Singh in Kezieke area of Kohima.



KOHIMA: Even a month after demonetisation, scrapped Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes are being widely circulated throughout Nagaland. The insufficient provision of new Rs 500 notes and hike in businesses during the festive season of Hornbill and pre-Christmas are the main reasons for the acceptance of old notes. "A very few ATMs in Kohima town and vicinity are disbursing new Rs 500 notes. The old notes are accepted and returned as change precisely due to shortage of new notes. As more new notes come, use of old notes will go down," hoped Naomi Ao, owner of a restaurant in central Kohima. According to government estimates Nagaland has been visited by over 80,000 tourists in the last one week. The acceptance of old notes has given the tourists a window to 'dump' their old notes which are not being accepted elsewhere. "I was travelling from Delhi to my hometown Tinsukia in Assam and came to visit Hornbill Festival. I had several old notes, which I have spent on buying shawls at Hornbill Festival and liquor in Kohima," said Jeet Borthakur, a tourist. This was rampant even though the SBI ATM in Kisama heritage village, where Hornbill Festival is being held was one of the few ATMs where special provision of Rs 500 notes were made keeping in mind the tourist inflow. "A special provision of filling the ATM with new Rs 500 notes was done in Kisama heritage village keeping in mind businesses generated due to tourist inflows during Hornbill festival," a bank official at the bank kiosk in Kisama said. However, traders in Kohima and vicinity say they accept the old notes only when the amount of purchase is close to the amount of old note offered. "If a person buys close to Rs 800 or Rs 900 and offers Rs 1,000 notes, how can I ask him or her to give me in Rs 100 notes when we know new Rs 500 notes are also scarce. So, we accept it. However, if the purchase is Rs 100 or Rs 200 and he or she offers Rs 500 or Rs 1,000, we don't accept it," said Veronica Ao, a trader in Old NST area of Kohima, where night-bazaar is held every night for the ten days of Hornbill festival. The traders who have accepted the old notes during the tourist season say they will deposit the old notes after Hornbill festival is over. "I would take all my old notes and deposit them after Dec 10, when Hornbill gets over. I am also trying to push off my old Rs 500 notes to customers as much as I can," said Hinotoli, an eatery owner. Exchange of old notes were stopped after November 24. However, others feel they will be able to 'push' the old notes to the rural areas of the state where ATMs or banks are scarce. "Many villages have never seen a bank or an ATM. The old notes maybe sent there gradually over commerce with the farmers," said wholesale dealer Santosh Singh in Kezieke area of Kohima.
By Express News Service

BENGALURU: Union Information and Broadcasting Minister M Venkaiah Naidu took strong exception to Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhis comment calling demonetisation a foolish move.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken a revolutionary step to end corruption, black money and counterfeit currency coming from Pakistan. Is taking action against black money a foolish move? Naidu asked while speaking to reporters here on Friday.

Members of JD(U) performing

a mock funeral of an ATM machine

during their protest against

demonetisation in Bengaluru on

Friday| VINOD KUMAR T

The then Congress government did not take any action to end black money and Manmohan Singh presided over the monumental mismanagement of the country. The Congress government was a collaborator in all scams and corruption during its rule and now they are making baseless allegations against the government that took adequate measures before announcing demonetisation of `500 and `1000 currency notes, he said.

The Union minister accused opposition parties of disrupting proceedings in Parliament . They are not allowing proceedings inside Parliament and are protesting outside, near Gandhi statue. It is an insult to democracy and to (Mahatma) Gandhi, he said.

He appealed to opposition parties to allow proceedings in the House as many Bills, including the Disabled Persons Reservation Bill, have to be tabled. If the opposition thinks demonetisation is a foolish move, the best way is to debate it in Parliament and expose the government, he said.

BENGALURU: Union Information and Broadcasting Minister M Venkaiah Naidu took strong exception to Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhis comment calling demonetisation a foolish move. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken a revolutionary step to end corruption, black money and counterfeit currency coming from Pakistan. Is taking action against black money a foolish move? Naidu asked while speaking to reporters here on Friday. Members of JD(U) performing a mock funeral of an ATM machine during their protest against demonetisation in Bengaluru on Friday| VINOD KUMAR TThe then Congress government did not take any action to end black money and Manmohan Singh presided over the monumental mismanagement of the country. The Congress government was a collaborator in all scams and corruption during its rule and now they are making baseless allegations against the government that took adequate measures before announcing demonetisation of `500 and `1000 currency notes, he said. The Union minister accused opposition parties of disrupting proceedings in Parliament . They are not allowing proceedings inside Parliament and are protesting outside, near Gandhi statue. It is an insult to democracy and to (Mahatma) Gandhi, he said. He appealed to opposition parties to allow proceedings in the House as many Bills, including the Disabled Persons Reservation Bill, have to be tabled. If the opposition thinks demonetisation is a foolish move, the best way is to debate it in Parliament and expose the government, he said.
R Sivakumar By

Express News Service

CHENNAI: The demise of Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa would take the sheen off the floor of the Assembly where she had been a roaring lion pouncing on the Opposition Benches with prompt replies, retorts, questions and counter-questions, never hesitating to throw or accept challenges.

Even when she was in the Opposition, Jayalalithaa on occasions stormed into the House making members on the Treasury Benches anxious, since she had a history of tearing them apart on any issue, be it Cauvery River water row, Mullaiperiyar Dam, Katchatheevu or the attacks on Tamil Nadu fishermen.

Known for throwing barbs, firing salvos and blunting the oppositions charges with scathing criticism and witty responses, the late AIADMK chief never buckled under pressure.

For instance, a battery of charged up DMK members made 63 interventions when she spoke in the House on July 31, 2006. This shows the extent of resistance she faced from the Treasury Benches.

It was a memorable experience for us. She was unstoppable even when the vocal DMK members tried to stop her by firing too many posers and sarcastic comments during her speech on that occasion. The former Chief Minister did stand tall and give it back, recalled a senior official of the Tamil Nadu Assembly.

On the first day of February in 2008, Jayalalithaa, then the Leader of Opposition, made a surprise entry into the Assembly before winding up the discussion on the Governors Address.

Making a scathing attack on the DMK for allegedly compromising Tamil Nadus interests in the Cauvery issue, she tore into the partys claim of forming an expert committee to pursue it. Jayalalithaa questioned the legal expertise of the members on the panel leaving the DMK members running for cover. Brushing aside their jibes, she went on to register her strong views on the issue.

Then there was the ferocious challenge she threw at DMDK founder Vijayakant during an acrimonious fight on the floor of the House in February, 2012. Rubbishing the DMDKs claims that it did contribute to the victory in the 2011 Assembly elections as an alliance partner, Jayalalithaa dared Vijayakant to contest a bypoll due then and win the seat  Sankarankoil.

It was one of the rare moments when our leader got provoked. She was unstoppable in attacking Vijayakant and his party members, a senior AIADMK legislator recalled.

He noted that the angry Chief Minister even predicted the beginning of the end of the DMDK saying that good times for the party were over.

She did not even spare DMK treasurer MK Stalin. Once she teased him for being called as Thalapathy (army general) by his party colleagues. People call him Thalapathy. But he is backtracking and hiding, she ribbed.

However, she had never crossed the Lakshman Rekha of the rules and conventions of the House.

She remained unperturbed amid the pandemonium on her last day in the House on September 2 when the DMK members resorted to unrelenting slogan shouting after a barb from Jayalalithaa.

The Tamil Nadu Assembly is bound to miss her debating skills in the days to come.

CHENNAI: The demise of Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa would take the sheen off the floor of the Assembly where she had been a roaring lion pouncing on the Opposition Benches with prompt replies, retorts, questions and counter-questions, never hesitating to throw or accept challenges. Even when she was in the Opposition, Jayalalithaa on occasions stormed into the House making members on the Treasury Benches anxious, since she had a history of tearing them apart on any issue, be it Cauvery River water row, Mullaiperiyar Dam, Katchatheevu or the attacks on Tamil Nadu fishermen. Known for throwing barbs, firing salvos and blunting the oppositions charges with scathing criticism and witty responses, the late AIADMK chief never buckled under pressure. For instance, a battery of charged up DMK members made 63 interventions when she spoke in the House on July 31, 2006. This shows the extent of resistance she faced from the Treasury Benches. It was a memorable experience for us. She was unstoppable even when the vocal DMK members tried to stop her by firing too many posers and sarcastic comments during her speech on that occasion. The former Chief Minister did stand tall and give it back, recalled a senior official of the Tamil Nadu Assembly. On the first day of February in 2008, Jayalalithaa, then the Leader of Opposition, made a surprise entry into the Assembly before winding up the discussion on the Governors Address. Making a scathing attack on the DMK for allegedly compromising Tamil Nadus interests in the Cauvery issue, she tore into the partys claim of forming an expert committee to pursue it. Jayalalithaa questioned the legal expertise of the members on the panel leaving the DMK members running for cover. Brushing aside their jibes, she went on to register her strong views on the issue. Then there was the ferocious challenge she threw at DMDK founder Vijayakant during an acrimonious fight on the floor of the House in February, 2012. Rubbishing the DMDKs claims that it did contribute to the victory in the 2011 Assembly elections as an alliance partner, Jayalalithaa dared Vijayakant to contest a bypoll due then and win the seat  Sankarankoil. It was one of the rare moments when our leader got provoked. She was unstoppable in attacking Vijayakant and his party members, a senior AIADMK legislator recalled. He noted that the angry Chief Minister even predicted the beginning of the end of the DMDK saying that good times for the party were over. She did not even spare DMK treasurer MK Stalin. Once she teased him for being called as Thalapathy (army general) by his party colleagues. People call him Thalapathy. But he is backtracking and hiding, she ribbed. However, she had never crossed the Lakshman Rekha of the rules and conventions of the House. She remained unperturbed amid the pandemonium on her last day in the House on September 2 when the DMK members resorted to unrelenting slogan shouting after a barb from Jayalalithaa. The Tamil Nadu Assembly is bound to miss her debating skills in the days to come.
K Shiva Shanker By

Express News Service

HYDERABAD: Victim locating cameras, dogs which can smell out people, special debris cutters are some of the devices being employed by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel to rescue people and retrieve bodies from the debris of the collapsed building at Nankramguda in Hyderabad.

However, it was the prior experience of the personnel that came handy as they rescued Rekha (25), a worker at the building, and her son Deepak (3) who were found to be stuck under narrow space between collapsed pillar and ground.

Both Rekha and her son who were living in the cellar of the under-construction building was located by the victim locating cameras.



Kuldeep, deputy commandant, NDRF told Express that they breach the wall and insert victim locating camera which relays images to screen in hand.

"As the woman and kid were slim, they survived. Had it been me under the pillar, I would have died," said another NDRF personnel, who was of medium built.



To rescue them, the personnel carefully chalked out concrete from the pillar. "We made an opening in the size of a window to take them out of debris," said another NDRF personnel who did not want to be named.



Another person who was found a few feet away from the woman and the kid had died, he added.

The personnel said they can take out the body, after clearing more debris or else the concrete will further crash.

HYDERABAD: Victim locating cameras, dogs which can smell out people, special debris cutters are some of the devices being employed by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel to rescue people and retrieve bodies from the debris of the collapsed building at Nankramguda in Hyderabad. However, it was the prior experience of the personnel that came handy as they rescued Rekha (25), a worker at the building, and her son Deepak (3) who were found to be stuck under narrow space between collapsed pillar and ground. Both Rekha and her son who were living in the cellar of the under-construction building was located by the victim locating cameras. Kuldeep, deputy commandant, NDRF told Express that they breach the wall and insert victim locating camera which relays images to screen in hand. "As the woman and kid were slim, they survived. Had it been me under the pillar, I would have died," said another NDRF personnel, who was of medium built. To rescue them, the personnel carefully chalked out concrete from the pillar. "We made an opening in the size of a window to take them out of debris," said another NDRF personnel who did not want to be named. Another person who was found a few feet away from the woman and the kid had died, he added. The personnel said they can take out the body, after clearing more debris or else the concrete will further crash.
By Express News Service

HYDERABAD: A housewife and a boy were rescued and three bodies were recovered from the debris of the under-construction building that collapsed at Nanakramguda here, last night.

A housewife, Rekha (25), and her son Deepak (3) were rescued alive from the debris of the building today by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel.

Rekha is suffering from hip bone fracture and her son is injured in head. Doctors at Continental Hospital, where the two were admitted, said that there is no threat to the woman's life.

NDRF personnel, who are involved in the rescue operation, used victim locating camera to spot and rescue Rekha and Deepak.

The bodies of Paidamma (47), Gowrieshwari (18), and an unidentified man which was badly injured, were retrieved from the debris.

Five families of construction workers were living in the building that belongs to one Satyanarayana of Tolichowki. The families hail from AP and Chhattisgarh.

Rescue operations are still underway at the site.

LATEST UPDATES:

#buildingcollapses: NDRF teams to utilise latest #technology to locate victims under debris by using #cameras, @NewIndianXpress  Mouly Mareedu (@Mouli_TNIE) December 9, 2016

#BuildingCollapse: police say building owner Sattu Singh is absconding, one of his family members is detained by cop, @NewIndianXpress  Mouly Mareedu (@Mouli_TNIE) December 9, 2016

The body of a man was retrieved, at close to 9am on Friday, from the debris on the site of a seven-storey building that collapsed Thursday night in Nankramguda, Hyderabad. The body was taken to Osmania General hospital.

Earlier, a woman, Rekha and her son were rescued alive from the rubble by NDRF personnel at around 5.15 AM on Friday. They were taken to a private hospital in Gachibowli for treatment.

NDRF personnel and Telangana Police started rescue operations at around 10PM on Thursday and operations are still on.

Ten people who were members of a family from Vizianagaram in Andhra Pradesh were working and living at the building site for the past year. All 10 are feared to have been trapped beneath the debris.

At least four others, hailing from Chhattisgarh, also lived and worked on the site. These four include Rekha and her child.

Names of the victims feared trapped under the building's debris.

Komatapalli Polinaidu, 32 years, (ChilakaPalli) Komatappal, Venkata Lakshmi 28 years, (ChilakaPalli) Neteti Sabaya, 38 years, (ChilakaPalli) Neteti Tydamma, 35 years, (ChilakaPalli) Neteti Gowri, 14 years, (ChilakaPalli) N Shankar, 18 years, (ChilakaPalli) Piridi Pollinaidu, 30 years, (Subhadra) Piridi Narayanamma (reportedly pregnant), 23 years, (Subhadra Piridi Mohan, 3 years, (Subhadra) Durga Rao, 22 years (Ravam)

#UPDATE One dead in Hyderabad building collapse, rescue operations continue pic.twitter.com/tMzFJr5yJq  ANI (@ANI_news) December 9, 2016

Rescue operations are underway by five teams of National Disaster Response Force who rushed to the spot along with teams of fire, police and GHMC.

Excavator clearing concrete of G+5 building which crashed at #Nanakramguda #Hyderabad close to 13 workers lived in it @NewIndianXpress pic.twitter.com/57Ttz4B3ZE  ShivaShankerK_TNIE (@Shanker_TNIE) December 8, 2016

The building owner took permission to construct G+5 building, but built a G+7 building, with a penthouse, GHMC officials said. The locals claimed that the construction was completed in eight months. The building also has a cellar. Laying of tiles and plumbing work was being completed. Cyberabad police commissioner Sandeep Shandilya said at least 10 people were trapped.

Home minister Naini Narasimha Reddy, minister Padma Rao, GHMC commissioner B Janardhan Reddy and other officials rushed to the spot to oversee rescue operations. Meanwhile, chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, who is New Delhi, directed the GHMC to take necessary measures to rescue those trapped.

Watch video of rescue ops, post collapse, below:

One Lakshmi, hailing from Vizianagaram, said her brother Polnaidu, his wife Vijaya Lakshmi and their three-year-old son lived and worked in the building. In tears, she told Express she had spoken to her sister-in-law just half an hour before the collapse.

T Venkateshwar Rao, watchman of a nearby building, said he had dinner with the families of those in the building at around 8 pm. The incident occurred at around 9.25 p.m.

All of us had dinner there. The watchman of the building used to stay there with his wife and daughter. Other workers used to stay in the cellar of the building. It was shocking when I went to check after the building crashed. It collapsed like a pack of cards, Venkateshwar Rao said, adding close to 13 people stayed in the building.

A youngster who stays in the nearby apartment said he was among the first to alert the police about the incident. Rescue operations are still going on well past midnight and excavators were clearing the rubble.

More than 10 ambulances were on standby near the crash site.

HYDERABAD: A housewife and a boy were rescued and three bodies were recovered from the debris of the under-construction building that collapsed at Nanakramguda here, last night. A housewife, Rekha (25), and her son Deepak (3) were rescued alive from the debris of the building today by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel. Rekha is suffering from hip bone fracture and her son is injured in head. Doctors at Continental Hospital, where the two were admitted, said that there is no threat to the woman's life. NDRF personnel, who are involved in the rescue operation, used victim locating camera to spot and rescue Rekha and Deepak. The bodies of Paidamma (47), Gowrieshwari (18), and an unidentified man which was badly injured, were retrieved from the debris. Five families of construction workers were living in the building that belongs to one Satyanarayana of Tolichowki. The families hail from AP and Chhattisgarh. Rescue operations are still underway at the site. LATEST UPDATES: #buildingcollapses: NDRF teams to utilise latest #technology to locate victims under debris by using #cameras, @NewIndianXpress  Mouly Mareedu (@Mouli_TNIE) December 9, 2016 #BuildingCollapse: police say building owner Sattu Singh is absconding, one of his family members is detained by cop, @NewIndianXpress  Mouly Mareedu (@Mouli_TNIE) December 9, 2016 The body of a man was retrieved, at close to 9am on Friday, from the debris on the site of a seven-storey building that collapsed Thursday night in Nankramguda, Hyderabad. The body was taken to Osmania General hospital. Earlier, a woman, Rekha and her son were rescued alive from the rubble by NDRF personnel at around 5.15 AM on Friday. They were taken to a private hospital in Gachibowli for treatment. NDRF personnel and Telangana Police started rescue operations at around 10PM on Thursday and operations are still on. Ten people who were members of a family from Vizianagaram in Andhra Pradesh were working and living at the building site for the past year. All 10 are feared to have been trapped beneath the debris. At least four others, hailing from Chhattisgarh, also lived and worked on the site. These four include Rekha and her child. Names of the victims feared trapped under the building's debris. Komatapalli Polinaidu, 32 years, (ChilakaPalli) Komatappal, Venkata Lakshmi 28 years, (ChilakaPalli) Neteti Sabaya, 38 years, (ChilakaPalli) Neteti Tydamma, 35 years, (ChilakaPalli) Neteti Gowri, 14 years, (ChilakaPalli) N Shankar, 18 years, (ChilakaPalli) Piridi Pollinaidu, 30 years, (Subhadra) Piridi Narayanamma (reportedly pregnant), 23 years, (Subhadra Piridi Mohan, 3 years, (Subhadra) Durga Rao, 22 years (Ravam) #UPDATE One dead in Hyderabad building collapse, rescue operations continue pic.twitter.com/tMzFJr5yJq  ANI (@ANI_news) December 9, 2016 Rescue operations are underway by five teams of National Disaster Response Force who rushed to the spot along with teams of fire, police and GHMC. #BuildingCollapse: Workers trapped under debris, officials take up rescue operation, @NewIndianXpress pic.twitter.com/zP3P8Ol00g  Mouly Mareedu (@Mouli_TNIE) December 8, 2016 Excavator clearing concrete of G+5 building which crashed at #Nanakramguda #Hyderabad close to 13 workers lived in it @NewIndianXpress pic.twitter.com/57Ttz4B3ZE  ShivaShankerK_TNIE (@Shanker_TNIE) December 8, 2016 The building owner took permission to construct G+5 building, but built a G+7 building, with a penthouse, GHMC officials said. The locals claimed that the construction was completed in eight months. The building also has a cellar. Laying of tiles and plumbing work was being completed. Cyberabad police commissioner Sandeep Shandilya said at least 10 people were trapped. Home minister Naini Narasimha Reddy, minister Padma Rao, GHMC commissioner B Janardhan Reddy and other officials rushed to the spot to oversee rescue operations. Meanwhile, chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, who is New Delhi, directed the GHMC to take necessary measures to rescue those trapped. Watch video of rescue ops, post collapse, below: A seven storeyed under construction building collapsed in #Hyderabad, @NewIndianXpress pic.twitter.com/Syzvp5aa1Y  Mouly Mareedu (@Mouli_TNIE) December 8, 2016 One Lakshmi, hailing from Vizianagaram, said her brother Polnaidu, his wife Vijaya Lakshmi and their three-year-old son lived and worked in the building. In tears, she told Express she had spoken to her sister-in-law just half an hour before the collapse. T Venkateshwar Rao, watchman of a nearby building, said he had dinner with the families of those in the building at around 8 pm. The incident occurred at around 9.25 p.m. All of us had dinner there. The watchman of the building used to stay there with his wife and daughter. Other workers used to stay in the cellar of the building. It was shocking when I went to check after the building crashed. It collapsed like a pack of cards, Venkateshwar Rao said, adding close to 13 people stayed in the building. A youngster who stays in the nearby apartment said he was among the first to alert the police about the incident. Rescue operations are still going on well past midnight and excavators were clearing the rubble. More than 10 ambulances were on standby near the crash site.
Fayaz Wani By

Express News Service

SRINAGAR: Two top Lashkar-e-Toiba militants were killed in 42-hour long encounter with security forces in Arwani village in South Kashmirs Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir on Friday.

The 42-hour-long encounter between militants and security personnel at Hassanpora area of village Arwani in Anantnag district ended this forenoon, J&K Special Director General of Police Coordination, Law and order, Dr S P Vaid told Express.

He said in the gunfight, two Lashkar commanders, who were both locals, were killed. Three AK-rifles along with other incriminating material was recovered from the encounter site.

Vaid identified the slain LeT militants as Majid Zargar and Rahil Amin.

Zargar, who was one of the wanted militants in the Valley, hailed from Qaimoh area of South Kashmirs Kulgam district while Amin hailed from Vessu area of Anantnag district.

Sources said one of the bodies of militants was severely burnt.

Families of both the militants claimed the bodies and performed their last rites.

Police, paramilitary and army men had cordoned the village and encircled a residence house in the area on Wednesday evening after receiving information about the presence of a group of militants there.

As the security personnel entered the house for conducting searches, militants hiding there fired indiscriminately on them. The security men had to retreat and engaged the militants from outside the house, a police official said.

He said the security personnel fired mortar shells and other ammunition towards the militant positions to end their resistance. The militants continued to change their positions due to which the encounter prolonged and continued for two days and ended today.

Many houses were damaged during the gunfight.

A youth Arif Ahmad Shah was killed in firing near the encounter site last evening.

The locals said he was killed after security men fired on people, who were protesting near the encounter site and clashed with them.

Police, however, said the youth was killed by a stray bullet.

Meanwhile, clashes erupted between youth and security personnel at many places in South Kashmir comprising four districts of Anantnag, Kulgam, Shopian and Pulwama. During the clashes, security personnel fired tear smoke shells and resorted to heavy baton charge to disperse the youth, who were pelting stones on them.

South Kashmir has been the epicentre of the over four-month long unrest in the Valley triggered by the killing of 21-year-old Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani on July 8.

The clashes between youth and security personnel also took place at many places in downtown Srinagar and some parts of North Kashmir. Many people were injured in the clashes.

SRINAGAR: Two top Lashkar-e-Toiba militants were killed in 42-hour long encounter with security forces in Arwani village in South Kashmirs Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir on Friday. The 42-hour-long encounter between militants and security personnel at Hassanpora area of village Arwani in Anantnag district ended this forenoon, J&K Special Director General of Police Coordination, Law and order, Dr S P Vaid told Express. He said in the gunfight, two Lashkar commanders, who were both locals, were killed. Three AK-rifles along with other incriminating material was recovered from the encounter site. Vaid identified the slain LeT militants as Majid Zargar and Rahil Amin. Zargar, who was one of the wanted militants in the Valley, hailed from Qaimoh area of South Kashmirs Kulgam district while Amin hailed from Vessu area of Anantnag district. Sources said one of the bodies of militants was severely burnt. Families of both the militants claimed the bodies and performed their last rites. Police, paramilitary and army men had cordoned the village and encircled a residence house in the area on Wednesday evening after receiving information about the presence of a group of militants there. As the security personnel entered the house for conducting searches, militants hiding there fired indiscriminately on them. The security men had to retreat and engaged the militants from outside the house, a police official said. He said the security personnel fired mortar shells and other ammunition towards the militant positions to end their resistance. The militants continued to change their positions due to which the encounter prolonged and continued for two days and ended today. Many houses were damaged during the gunfight. A youth Arif Ahmad Shah was killed in firing near the encounter site last evening. The locals said he was killed after security men fired on people, who were protesting near the encounter site and clashed with them. Police, however, said the youth was killed by a stray bullet. Meanwhile, clashes erupted between youth and security personnel at many places in South Kashmir comprising four districts of Anantnag, Kulgam, Shopian and Pulwama. During the clashes, security personnel fired tear smoke shells and resorted to heavy baton charge to disperse the youth, who were pelting stones on them. South Kashmir has been the epicentre of the over four-month long unrest in the Valley triggered by the killing of 21-year-old Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani on July 8. The clashes between youth and security personnel also took place at many places in downtown Srinagar and some parts of North Kashmir. Many people were injured in the clashes.
By Express News Service

In the days after Narendra Modi sprang his demonetisation surprise on black money hoarders and small people alike, fruit seller Ashok Prasad would raise his eyebrows if a buyer picked up a kilogram of applies and came up with a Rs 2000 note to pay for it.

Who had change for Rs 2000 then? The question has not gone away in the 30 days we have lived in the age of demonetisation. Who has change now?

Prasad has a shop in Kankarbagh, Patnas prominent market quarter. Sales have been low all month, as they have been almost everywhere else in the country. But the customers have not stopped coming. And they pick up a bag of applies and out comes the pink note.

Now Prasadji just tells them to go away.

A buyer Mukesh Kumar had such an experience on Thursday when New Indian Express visited kankarbagh for a month-after assessment of what has been wrought by the big D.

Having received the expected response from Prasadji, Mr Mukesh Kumar told me his party of the story: The ATMs are still giving this note only. Most ATMs in Patna are either shut or defunct, and the rest dispense only Rs 2,000 notes. Its been a daily crisis for me.

Prasadji knows it all too well. He said the past 30 days have wrought mayhem in retail markets all over Patna. There are ATMs of five banks in the vicinity of Kankarbagh and not one dispenses anything but the pink thing.

Im not against notebandi (demonetisation) at all, Prasadji assures me. I support any drive against black money. But we should have enough notes Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. Which vegetable seller in Patna uses PayTM or has a swipe machine?

This is India, and we are in Bihar.

In the days after Narendra Modi sprang his demonetisation surprise on black money hoarders and small people alike, fruit seller Ashok Prasad would raise his eyebrows if a buyer picked up a kilogram of applies and came up with a Rs 2000 note to pay for it. Who had change for Rs 2000 then? The question has not gone away in the 30 days we have lived in the age of demonetisation. Who has change now? Prasad has a shop in Kankarbagh, Patnas prominent market quarter. Sales have been low all month, as they have been almost everywhere else in the country. But the customers have not stopped coming. And they pick up a bag of applies and out comes the pink note. Now Prasadji just tells them to go away. A buyer Mukesh Kumar had such an experience on Thursday when New Indian Express visited kankarbagh for a month-after assessment of what has been wrought by the big D. Having received the expected response from Prasadji, Mr Mukesh Kumar told me his party of the story: The ATMs are still giving this note only. Most ATMs in Patna are either shut or defunct, and the rest dispense only Rs 2,000 notes. Its been a daily crisis for me. Prasadji knows it all too well. He said the past 30 days have wrought mayhem in retail markets all over Patna. There are ATMs of five banks in the vicinity of Kankarbagh and not one dispenses anything but the pink thing. Im not against notebandi (demonetisation) at all, Prasadji assures me. I support any drive against black money. But we should have enough notes Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. Which vegetable seller in Patna uses PayTM or has a swipe machine? This is India, and we are in Bihar.
Anand ST Das By

Express News Service

PATNA: Allahabad High Courts stern observations on triple talaq have revived the political race in Bihar about secularism. BJP on Friday accused both Lalu and Nitish of keeping quiet on the issue due to their appeasement politics with Muslims.

Both (Bihar Chief Minister) Nitish Kumar and (RJD chief) Lalu Prasad Yadav are silent on the issue of triple talaq due to their overriding concern for vote bank politics. They are the opportunist players of such appeasement politics, said senior BJP leader and former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi.

Allahabad High Court observed in a recent order that triple talaq is cruel and most demeaning and that it impedes and drags India from becoming a nation. The court also asked if the Muslim Personal law could be amended to lessen the sufferings of Muslim women.

Modi also targeted Nitish Kumar on the latters continuous stress on womens empowerment, asking: If you can impose prohibition in Bihar on the call of a few women, why cannot you gather the courage to

oppose triple talaq? He accused Kumar and his main ally Lalu Prasad Yadav of not supporting Muslim women in their struggle against triple talaq and polygamy due to vote bank politics. Over 90 per cent Muslim women oppose triple talaq and polygamy, but Bihars ruling leaders have no concern for their desires, said Modi.

RJD leader Bhai Birendra defended his party, saying: There is no denying the fact that our leader Lalu Prasad Yadav is the champion of secularism. Those terming the valued notion of secularism as vote bank politics are simply displaying their communal bent. Birendra, however, said RJD is still studying the Allahabad High Court order and would come up with a suitable view soon.

On the issue of Modi questioning the 50 per cent reservation for women in the states local bodies ensured by the Nitish Kumar government, JD(U) spokesperson Neeraj Kumar said BJP leaders if they so wanted, could openly come out in opposition of the legislative measure.

PATNA: Allahabad High Courts stern observations on triple talaq have revived the political race in Bihar about secularism. BJP on Friday accused both Lalu and Nitish of keeping quiet on the issue due to their appeasement politics with Muslims. Both (Bihar Chief Minister) Nitish Kumar and (RJD chief) Lalu Prasad Yadav are silent on the issue of triple talaq due to their overriding concern for vote bank politics. They are the opportunist players of such appeasement politics, said senior BJP leader and former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi. Allahabad High Court observed in a recent order that triple talaq is cruel and most demeaning and that it impedes and drags India from becoming a nation. The court also asked if the Muslim Personal law could be amended to lessen the sufferings of Muslim women. Modi also targeted Nitish Kumar on the latters continuous stress on womens empowerment, asking: If you can impose prohibition in Bihar on the call of a few women, why cannot you gather the courage to oppose triple talaq? He accused Kumar and his main ally Lalu Prasad Yadav of not supporting Muslim women in their struggle against triple talaq and polygamy due to vote bank politics. Over 90 per cent Muslim women oppose triple talaq and polygamy, but Bihars ruling leaders have no concern for their desires, said Modi. RJD leader Bhai Birendra defended his party, saying: There is no denying the fact that our leader Lalu Prasad Yadav is the champion of secularism. Those terming the valued notion of secularism as vote bank politics are simply displaying their communal bent. Birendra, however, said RJD is still studying the Allahabad High Court order and would come up with a suitable view soon. On the issue of Modi questioning the 50 per cent reservation for women in the states local bodies ensured by the Nitish Kumar government, JD(U) spokesperson Neeraj Kumar said BJP leaders if they so wanted, could openly come out in opposition of the legislative measure.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Admitting that there are challenges for migrating to cashless transactions, the chief ministers panel headed by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandra Babu Naidu on Thursday stated the panel was looking at low-hanging fruits like Aadhar and Android phones for promoting the electronic payment system.

We are trying to address the issues by studying and adopting the best practices available world over. Our first target is to grab low hanging fruits like the Aadhaar platform and the high penetration of Anroid phones, said Naidu.

After holding its first meeting in Mumbai where the members interacted with senior RBI officials and top bankers, Naidu and NITI Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagaria briefed the media about the progress on cashless transactions.

Banks have assured that they will push POS machines in a big way and in this the government would provide all assistance. Once the system is rolled out to a reasonable level, market forces will take over, said Naidu.

The chief minister stated that sub-committee would meet on a day-to-day basis and submit its report to the government in a weeks time.

NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant and Information Technolofy Secretary Aruna S were present during the media briefing.

NEW DELHI: Admitting that there are challenges for migrating to cashless transactions, the chief ministers panel headed by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandra Babu Naidu on Thursday stated the panel was looking at low-hanging fruits like Aadhar and Android phones for promoting the electronic payment system. We are trying to address the issues by studying and adopting the best practices available world over. Our first target is to grab low hanging fruits like the Aadhaar platform and the high penetration of Anroid phones, said Naidu. After holding its first meeting in Mumbai where the members interacted with senior RBI officials and top bankers, Naidu and NITI Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagaria briefed the media about the progress on cashless transactions. Banks have assured that they will push POS machines in a big way and in this the government would provide all assistance. Once the system is rolled out to a reasonable level, market forces will take over, said Naidu. The chief minister stated that sub-committee would meet on a day-to-day basis and submit its report to the government in a weeks time. NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant and Information Technolofy Secretary Aruna S were present during the media briefing.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: With the winter session of Parliament in a limbo ever since it started, a visibly upset President Pranab Mukherjee upbraided the Opposition for disruptions, telling them in no uncertain terms that their strategy was tantamount to gagging of the majority by the minority.

President Mukherjee was almost in his previous avatar when as Leader of the Lok Sabha, he would lose his cool over the disruptions caused by Opposition parties and by the members of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh over the demand for creation of Telangana.

Like a school teacher, the President lectured the members of the Opposition parties that the House ran on 3-Dsdebate, dissension and decision and said there was no scope for disruption in a parliamentary democracy. Disruption is totally unacceptable in Parliamentary system. People send representatives to speak and not to sit on dharna. Not to create any trouble on the floor, he said while delivering a lecture on electoral reforms on the Defence Estates Day Lecture.

The President even cautioned the Opposition that prolong disruption of Parliament could come back to haunt them. It means you are hurt, you are gagging the majority. The majority never participates in this disruption. Only minority comes to the well, shouts slogans, stops the proceedings and creates a situation in which the Chair has no option but to adjourn the House.

This is totally unacceptable, he said. The Presidents sharp rebuke came even as the Opposition members holding placards held a dharna terming the demonetisation decision of the government, taken a month ago, as a black day. Advising the Opposition to find some other platform and not Parliament to register their protest, Mukherjee said, For demonstration, you can choose any other places. But for Gods sake, do your job. You are meant to transact business. You are meant to devote your time for exercising the authority of members, particularly Lok Sabha members over money and finance.

He, however, clarified that it was not the leaders of his erstwhile Congress party he was targeting, since it was everyones responsibility to have a functioning Parliament.

NEW DELHI: With the winter session of Parliament in a limbo ever since it started, a visibly upset President Pranab Mukherjee upbraided the Opposition for disruptions, telling them in no uncertain terms that their strategy was tantamount to gagging of the majority by the minority. President Mukherjee was almost in his previous avatar when as Leader of the Lok Sabha, he would lose his cool over the disruptions caused by Opposition parties and by the members of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh over the demand for creation of Telangana. Like a school teacher, the President lectured the members of the Opposition parties that the House ran on 3-Dsdebate, dissension and decision and said there was no scope for disruption in a parliamentary democracy. Disruption is totally unacceptable in Parliamentary system. People send representatives to speak and not to sit on dharna. Not to create any trouble on the floor, he said while delivering a lecture on electoral reforms on the Defence Estates Day Lecture. The President even cautioned the Opposition that prolong disruption of Parliament could come back to haunt them. It means you are hurt, you are gagging the majority. The majority never participates in this disruption. Only minority comes to the well, shouts slogans, stops the proceedings and creates a situation in which the Chair has no option but to adjourn the House. This is totally unacceptable, he said. The Presidents sharp rebuke came even as the Opposition members holding placards held a dharna terming the demonetisation decision of the government, taken a month ago, as a black day. Advising the Opposition to find some other platform and not Parliament to register their protest, Mukherjee said, For demonstration, you can choose any other places. But for Gods sake, do your job. You are meant to transact business. You are meant to devote your time for exercising the authority of members, particularly Lok Sabha members over money and finance. He, however, clarified that it was not the leaders of his erstwhile Congress party he was targeting, since it was everyones responsibility to have a functioning Parliament.
Harpreet Bajwa By

Express News Service

CHANDIGARH: Many customers were seen returning empty-handed from the banks and ATMs on Thursday as there was no cash in banks and 90 per cent ATMs in Punjab have a notice outside No-Cash. The bank branches are getting cash but not enough to meet their requirements and the banks are now rationing cash to the customers.



We did not get cash in the morning but got a few lakh rupees in the afternoon. So the customers were given token in the morning. But we are giving maximum of Rs 10,000 to a customer, said a private bank official in Sector 34. A manager of private bank in Mohali said, We got only Rs 15 lakh in cash today (Thursday ) and that also in Rs 2000 notes. I told the staff not to give more than Rs 10,000 per customer thus we will be able to accommodate at least 150 customers.

The situation is no different in the nationalised banks in the state. The customers at a nationalised bank in Sector 17 said they are not getting enough cash. We have not enough cash, so we are not giving more than Rs 6,000 for a customer, said the branch manager. On being asked to a bank official in Sector 17 whether the bank will allow its customers to withdraw Rs 24,000 from their accounts, he said, We got limited cash, so instead of Rs 24,000, we are only giving Rs 10,000 so as to cater to more customers.

People say that they have to make payments to domestic helps, grocery shops, milk and newspaper vendors and car cleaners but they have no money to make payments as these people are demanding money only in cash. Seema Sharma, a home-maker, said, I had to pay tuition and school fees of my two children, electricity and water bills, buy groceries, milk and vegetables and pay my maid. The bank gave me just Rs 10,000 which is not enough. The maid, vegetable and newspaper vendors say give them in cash, so what to do, she says.

While in Faridkot, irate farmers locked down the staff of a Cooperative Bank inside the building on Wednesday. The police rushed to the bank and got the staff released. The farmers alleged that for the last ten days, they have been standing four to five hours daily to get cash from their accounts but did not get a single penny.

CHANDIGARH: Many customers were seen returning empty-handed from the banks and ATMs on Thursday as there was no cash in banks and 90 per cent ATMs in Punjab have a notice outside No-Cash. The bank branches are getting cash but not enough to meet their requirements and the banks are now rationing cash to the customers. We did not get cash in the morning but got a few lakh rupees in the afternoon. So the customers were given token in the morning. But we are giving maximum of Rs 10,000 to a customer, said a private bank official in Sector 34. A manager of private bank in Mohali said, We got only Rs 15 lakh in cash today (Thursday ) and that also in Rs 2000 notes. I told the staff not to give more than Rs 10,000 per customer thus we will be able to accommodate at least 150 customers. The situation is no different in the nationalised banks in the state. The customers at a nationalised bank in Sector 17 said they are not getting enough cash. We have not enough cash, so we are not giving more than Rs 6,000 for a customer, said the branch manager. On being asked to a bank official in Sector 17 whether the bank will allow its customers to withdraw Rs 24,000 from their accounts, he said, We got limited cash, so instead of Rs 24,000, we are only giving Rs 10,000 so as to cater to more customers. People say that they have to make payments to domestic helps, grocery shops, milk and newspaper vendors and car cleaners but they have no money to make payments as these people are demanding money only in cash. Seema Sharma, a home-maker, said, I had to pay tuition and school fees of my two children, electricity and water bills, buy groceries, milk and vegetables and pay my maid. The bank gave me just Rs 10,000 which is not enough. The maid, vegetable and newspaper vendors say give them in cash, so what to do, she says. While in Faridkot, irate farmers locked down the staff of a Cooperative Bank inside the building on Wednesday. The police rushed to the bank and got the staff released. The farmers alleged that for the last ten days, they have been standing four to five hours daily to get cash from their accounts but did not get a single penny.
Prasanta Mazumdar By

Express News Service

GUWAHATI: Baichung, a dreaded Meghalaya insurgent leader who survived at least a dozen police encounters in the past few years, gave up arms on Friday.

The police said the surrender of Baichung alias Nikam Ch Momin meant it was all over for the notorious Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) in which he was the second-in-command.

The 35-year-old Baichung surrendered before South Garo Hills Superintendent of Police Anand Mishra at Baghmara. He deposited one 5.56 X 45 HK-33 rifle, 120 live cartridges and one magazine among others.

He survived at least a dozen encounters. His surrender to police means it is the end of GNLA. Now, only the nails are to be hit into the coffin, Mishra told Express.

Meghalaya rebel leader Baichung along with his son and wife | EPS

The last of the encounters Baichung survived was a few days ago at Dabalgre in which two insurgents were gunned down by the police. Mishra said the GNLA was left with just around 25 members but mostly without much firepower.

Recently, all terror-generated funds belonging to Baichung were detected by the police. In this case, two persons were also arrested and two bank accounts freezed. Cornered by the intensive police

operations, crackdown on terror money, arrests of overground workers and simultaneous opening up of a channel for negotiation by civil society groups resulted in his surrender, which has broken the backbone of GNLA. Now, only its elusive chief Sohan D Shira remains of some importance, the SP said.

Formed in 2009 by a former Meghalaya Deputy Superintendent of Police Pakchara R Sangma alias Champion R Sangma, the GNLA is fighting for a sovereign Garoland. It earned notoriety by regularly carrying out the abductions and killings of traders and others.

GUWAHATI: Baichung, a dreaded Meghalaya insurgent leader who survived at least a dozen police encounters in the past few years, gave up arms on Friday. The police said the surrender of Baichung alias Nikam Ch Momin meant it was all over for the notorious Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) in which he was the second-in-command. The 35-year-old Baichung surrendered before South Garo Hills Superintendent of Police Anand Mishra at Baghmara. He deposited one 5.56 X 45 HK-33 rifle, 120 live cartridges and one magazine among others. He survived at least a dozen encounters. His surrender to police means it is the end of GNLA. Now, only the nails are to be hit into the coffin, Mishra told Express. Meghalaya rebel leader Baichung along with his son and wife | EPSThe last of the encounters Baichung survived was a few days ago at Dabalgre in which two insurgents were gunned down by the police. Mishra said the GNLA was left with just around 25 members but mostly without much firepower. Recently, all terror-generated funds belonging to Baichung were detected by the police. In this case, two persons were also arrested and two bank accounts freezed. Cornered by the intensive police operations, crackdown on terror money, arrests of overground workers and simultaneous opening up of a channel for negotiation by civil society groups resulted in his surrender, which has broken the backbone of GNLA. Now, only its elusive chief Sohan D Shira remains of some importance, the SP said. Formed in 2009 by a former Meghalaya Deputy Superintendent of Police Pakchara R Sangma alias Champion R Sangma, the GNLA is fighting for a sovereign Garoland. It earned notoriety by regularly carrying out the abductions and killings of traders and others.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: With all efforts to impress upon China to support Indias candidature for the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) coming to naught, Foreign Secretary Dr. S. Jaishankar said the entry bid should be seen as developmental aspiration and Beijing should dissuade from giving it a political colouring.

The Foreign Secretary was speaking at a dinner hosted as part of the India-China Think Tank Forum. Dr. Jaishankar also touched upon Chinas obstruction to get Jaish-e Mohammad Chief Masood Azhar in the proscribed list of UN designated terrorists under its 1267 Sanction Regime and the expansion of the UN Security Councils permanent membership.

Contending that both the countries should be supporting each other on implementation of our Paris Agreement commitments, Jaishankar said: In Indias case, predictable access to civilian nuclear energy technology is key. The broad basing of the nuclear technology control group is also helpful to a more representative international order. Keeping in mind this solidarity of major developing states, it is important that China view this as a developmental aspiration and not give it a political colouring.

The two countries, the Foreign Secretary said, had their areas of interests and influence largely confined to their own immediate region. But with the growth in their capacities, they have started to intersect more, including in comparatively distant areas. And for larger global good he insisted that the two countries should pay great attention to strategic communication to avoid misunderstanding and promote greater trust and cooperation.

As diverse and pluralistic societies, we both face threats from fundamentalist terrorism. Yet, we do not seem to be able to cooperate as effectively we should in some critical international forums dealing with this subject. Even on sovereignty, surely there can be more sensitivity and understanding, Jaishankar said in his oblique reference to Beijings technical hold on proscribing of Azhar, a move seen to be done at the behest of Pakistan where the JeM Chief is said to be hiding.

Seeking broad basing of international forums like the UNSC the Foreign Secretary said that our actions in respect of the reform of the UNSC are in contrast to our approaches to usher in a more equitable international economic order.

NEW DELHI: With all efforts to impress upon China to support Indias candidature for the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) coming to naught, Foreign Secretary Dr. S. Jaishankar said the entry bid should be seen as developmental aspiration and Beijing should dissuade from giving it a political colouring. The Foreign Secretary was speaking at a dinner hosted as part of the India-China Think Tank Forum. Dr. Jaishankar also touched upon Chinas obstruction to get Jaish-e Mohammad Chief Masood Azhar in the proscribed list of UN designated terrorists under its 1267 Sanction Regime and the expansion of the UN Security Councils permanent membership. Contending that both the countries should be supporting each other on implementation of our Paris Agreement commitments, Jaishankar said: In Indias case, predictable access to civilian nuclear energy technology is key. The broad basing of the nuclear technology control group is also helpful to a more representative international order. Keeping in mind this solidarity of major developing states, it is important that China view this as a developmental aspiration and not give it a political colouring. The two countries, the Foreign Secretary said, had their areas of interests and influence largely confined to their own immediate region. But with the growth in their capacities, they have started to intersect more, including in comparatively distant areas. And for larger global good he insisted that the two countries should pay great attention to strategic communication to avoid misunderstanding and promote greater trust and cooperation. As diverse and pluralistic societies, we both face threats from fundamentalist terrorism. Yet, we do not seem to be able to cooperate as effectively we should in some critical international forums dealing with this subject. Even on sovereignty, surely there can be more sensitivity and understanding, Jaishankar said in his oblique reference to Beijings technical hold on proscribing of Azhar, a move seen to be done at the behest of Pakistan where the JeM Chief is said to be hiding. Seeking broad basing of international forums like the UNSC the Foreign Secretary said that our actions in respect of the reform of the UNSC are in contrast to our approaches to usher in a more equitable international economic order.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Before the Rajya Sabha was adjourned for the day due to lack of quorum, opposition party members continued their attack on the government over demonetisation on Friday too. Now the House will meet on December 14.

Amidst protests on demonetization, angry opposition protested government's move to slash import duty on wheat from 10 per cent to zero. They alleged that this was meany to benefit multinational firms. This led to adjournment of the House till noon after the House proceedings for the day started at 11 am.



Opposition members from Congress, SP, BSP, JD (U), left amongst other members alleged that the governments decision to slash import duty on wheat from 10 per cent to zero will hit the farmer hard as the country already has enough buffer stock. The move ahead of the winter wheat crop will help MNCs to dump cheap wheat from US, France and Ukraine in the country, they said.

However, reacting to opposition claims, food minister Ram Vilas Paswan said there was no shortage of wheat in the country and the decision was taken to cool down domestic prices which has shown an upward trend in recent weeks. Paswan said wheat prices are on the rise in last few days. This is not a permanent decision, he pointed out.

Raising the issue, CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury said he had given a notice under rule 267 to suspend business of the day to discuss the decision that will ruin Indian farmers while MNCs will rake in super-profits. He said the farmers are already hit hard by demonetisation as they are unable to buy seeds and fertiliser due to cash shortage.

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said "unfortunately the opposition members are not allowing the House to function. The President also appealed to members to do their job by allowing the House to function. They should be ashamed of themselves and take his advise to allow important issues to be discussed."

As enough number of members did not assemble even after ringing of the bell twice, Kurien adjourned the House for the day, within minutes of its recovening, citing lack of quorum. As per the rules, at least 10 per cent of the total strenght of the House is required to be present for quorum. In the case of 245-member Rajya Sabha, the quorum number is 25.

NEW DELHI: Before the Rajya Sabha was adjourned for the day due to lack of quorum, opposition party members continued their attack on the government over demonetisation on Friday too. Now the House will meet on December 14. Amidst protests on demonetization, angry opposition protested government's move to slash import duty on wheat from 10 per cent to zero. They alleged that this was meany to benefit multinational firms. This led to adjournment of the House till noon after the House proceedings for the day started at 11 am. Opposition members from Congress, SP, BSP, JD (U), left amongst other members alleged that the governments decision to slash import duty on wheat from 10 per cent to zero will hit the farmer hard as the country already has enough buffer stock. The move ahead of the winter wheat crop will help MNCs to dump cheap wheat from US, France and Ukraine in the country, they said. However, reacting to opposition claims, food minister Ram Vilas Paswan said there was no shortage of wheat in the country and the decision was taken to cool down domestic prices which has shown an upward trend in recent weeks. Paswan said wheat prices are on the rise in last few days. This is not a permanent decision, he pointed out. Raising the issue, CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury said he had given a notice under rule 267 to suspend business of the day to discuss the decision that will ruin Indian farmers while MNCs will rake in super-profits. He said the farmers are already hit hard by demonetisation as they are unable to buy seeds and fertiliser due to cash shortage. Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said "unfortunately the opposition members are not allowing the House to function. The President also appealed to members to do their job by allowing the House to function. They should be ashamed of themselves and take his advise to allow important issues to be discussed." As enough number of members did not assemble even after ringing of the bell twice, Kurien adjourned the House for the day, within minutes of its recovening, citing lack of quorum. As per the rules, at least 10 per cent of the total strenght of the House is required to be present for quorum. In the case of 245-member Rajya Sabha, the quorum number is 25.
By Express News Service

The Prime Minister is appealing to everyone to adopt cashless methods to make small or big deals. And it seems the ATMs across the nation have been taking the lead ever since the demonetisation drive began. They are absolutely what PM wants the economy to be  cashless. Express takes a look at the situation at some major cities

Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh

ATMs are replenished once a day in Vizag a little after noon. We checked out ATMs in Akkayyapalem, Dondaparthy, Shankar Math, Fourth Town, Seethampeta, Asilmetta Junction, Siripuram, Maddilapalem, Gurudwara Junction on Thursday. We found most of them had run out of cash within a few hours Express found Thursday. According to SBI manager D Sharath Babu, of the total 1,104 ATMs, 104 are yet to be calibrated. Yet, a majority of the customers are going back empty-handed.

Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh

We checked out ATMs in Governorpet, Arundelpet, Sitharampuram, Suryaraopet, Chuttugunta, Machavaram, Gunadala, Israelpet, Labbipet, One Town, Panja Centre on Thursday. The story is the same as in Vizag: ATMs run out of cash within a couple of hours after they are replenished. To the fortunate few who do make it to a loaded ATM, they continue to dispense D2000 notes. We found that banks are loading only D2 lakh in each ATM,that too in D2000 notes. To make it more difficult for citizens, micro ATMs have been removed from Rythu Bazaars where most people buy their vegetables.

Bengaluru, Karnataka

The ATM locations we recced were at HSR Layout, Koramangala, Cunningham Road, Sanjaynagar, Mysore Road, Chandra Layout, Vijaynagar, Rajajinagar, Okalipuram, Sahakara Nagar Main Road, Majestic, High Court, Ambedkar Veedhi Road, Basaveshwaranagar, SG Playa, Rajarajeshwarinagar. Ninety per cent of the ATMs were still not dispensing cash. We found that the main denomination available continues to be the D2000 note. Twelve ATMs we checked out gave out D100 and one disgorged the new D500 notes.

Mysuru, Karnataka

Express checked out 25 ATMs located on seven busy roads within the central business district of Mysuru. Sixty per cent of them had no cash. We found cash in only 11 ATMs. Among these, six were giving out only D2,000 notes. The Devaraj Urs Road, the main commercial street, has five ATMs: SBI, Kotak Mahindra, Karnataka Bank, State Bank of Patiala and Indus Bank. Cash was available only at Indus Bank. Vinobha Road, has four ATMs and except State Bank all were dry. And working ATMs have only D2000 notes.

Raipur, Chhattisgarh

We checked out ATMs in the residential areas of Telibandha, Civil Lines, Katora Talab and Pandri in the evening of Thursday. No less than 11 of the 24 ATMs either had no cash or were not in service.

Functioning: 13

Out of cash: 11

Nagpur, Maharashrtra

The Civil Lines area of Nagpur houses most of the state and central government offices in the city including the High Court and the RBI. The Assembly complex, ministers bungalows, guest houses of MLAs are located in this area. The Civil Lines area has 20 ATMs. We checked out these ATMs between 6 pm and 7 pm on Thursday. As many as 13 of the 20 ATMs attached to banks were close at 6 pm. Among the rest, only two were operational. The others either did not have cash or allowed only their own customers.

Kochi, Kerala

We recced 92 ATMs the busy hubs of Kochi: Edappally, Kacheripady, Kadavanthra, Kakkanad, Kaloor, Marine Drive, Menaka, MG Road, Padma Jn, Palarivattom, Panampilly Nagar, Pullepady and Vyttila. We found only 46 functional, though barely. The other 46 had no sign of life. And of the 46 functional ATMs, things were far from normal compared to the pre-Nov. 8 days. Only five had Rs 100 notes and another five D500 notes. The remaining 36 ATMs had only D2000 notes.

TPuram, Kerala

The ATM picture was brighter in Thiruvananthapuram. A majority of the ATMs were functional but they were short of 100 notes. Only 23 ATMs had D100 notes available. Seven of the ATMs were either shut down or sported out-of-service tag.

Functioning: 52

Out of cash: 19

Chennai, Tamil Nadu

New Indian Express checked out ATMs at Chelliamman Nagar, Athipet, ICF colony, MGR Puram, EVK Sampath Road, Vepery, Ekkaduthangal, Teynampet on Thursday evening and found that 90 per cent of them were either out of order or had no cash to yield. Not much change since day 1 of demonetisation. One out-of-towner said, Ive been fooled by brightly lit ATMs on my way home that have no queues. I stop and step in only to find the machines gleefully declaring that theres no cash to be had for love or for money.

Hyderabad, Telangana

The Express recce of ATMs was carried out over a 3 km area from 4 pm to 6 pm on Thursday. We covered BS Maqtha, Somajiguda, Raj Bhavan Road, Khairatabad, Lakdikapul, Chintal Basti, Anand Nagar Colony, Banjra Hills Road No. 1, Begumpet, Necklace Road. Thirty days since demonetisation, the Great ATM Quest continues for Hyderabadis. Most of the ATMs sport no cash, out of service signs. Or theres a security guard shooing people away with a cash nahin hai bhai!

Bhubaneswar, Odisha

We checked out ATMs at Jharpada, Laxmi Sagar, Satya Nagar, Kharavela Nagar, Station Square, Ashok Nagar, Bapuji Nagar, Forest Park, Unit II, Unit III, Unit IV in Bhubaneswar

Functioning: 21

Out of cash: 4

Chandigarh, Punjab/Haryana

Thirty days after demonetisation was let loose on the country, 90 per cent of the ATMs in Chandigarh continue to be out of cash. Tempers are beginning to flare up as citizens with payments to make are fed up of the queues in banks and no-cash signs hung at ATMs. Banks are continuing to ration cash to customers and the ATMs are not being replenished as much as needed. News came in from Faridkot on Wednesday that irate farmers locked down the staff of a cooperative bank inside the bank.

The Prime Minister is appealing to everyone to adopt cashless methods to make small or big deals. And it seems the ATMs across the nation have been taking the lead ever since the demonetisation drive began. They are absolutely what PM wants the economy to be  cashless. Express takes a look at the situation at some major cities Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh ATMs are replenished once a day in Vizag a little after noon. We checked out ATMs in Akkayyapalem, Dondaparthy, Shankar Math, Fourth Town, Seethampeta, Asilmetta Junction, Siripuram, Maddilapalem, Gurudwara Junction on Thursday. We found most of them had run out of cash within a few hours Express found Thursday. According to SBI manager D Sharath Babu, of the total 1,104 ATMs, 104 are yet to be calibrated. Yet, a majority of the customers are going back empty-handed. Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh We checked out ATMs in Governorpet, Arundelpet, Sitharampuram, Suryaraopet, Chuttugunta, Machavaram, Gunadala, Israelpet, Labbipet, One Town, Panja Centre on Thursday. The story is the same as in Vizag: ATMs run out of cash within a couple of hours after they are replenished. To the fortunate few who do make it to a loaded ATM, they continue to dispense D2000 notes. We found that banks are loading only D2 lakh in each ATM,that too in D2000 notes. To make it more difficult for citizens, micro ATMs have been removed from Rythu Bazaars where most people buy their vegetables. Bengaluru, Karnataka The ATM locations we recced were at HSR Layout, Koramangala, Cunningham Road, Sanjaynagar, Mysore Road, Chandra Layout, Vijaynagar, Rajajinagar, Okalipuram, Sahakara Nagar Main Road, Majestic, High Court, Ambedkar Veedhi Road, Basaveshwaranagar, SG Playa, Rajarajeshwarinagar. Ninety per cent of the ATMs were still not dispensing cash. We found that the main denomination available continues to be the D2000 note. Twelve ATMs we checked out gave out D100 and one disgorged the new D500 notes. Mysuru, Karnataka Express checked out 25 ATMs located on seven busy roads within the central business district of Mysuru. Sixty per cent of them had no cash. We found cash in only 11 ATMs. Among these, six were giving out only D2,000 notes. The Devaraj Urs Road, the main commercial street, has five ATMs: SBI, Kotak Mahindra, Karnataka Bank, State Bank of Patiala and Indus Bank. Cash was available only at Indus Bank. Vinobha Road, has four ATMs and except State Bank all were dry. And working ATMs have only D2000 notes. Raipur, Chhattisgarh We checked out ATMs in the residential areas of Telibandha, Civil Lines, Katora Talab and Pandri in the evening of Thursday. No less than 11 of the 24 ATMs either had no cash or were not in service. Functioning: 13 Out of cash: 11 Nagpur, Maharashrtra The Civil Lines area of Nagpur houses most of the state and central government offices in the city including the High Court and the RBI. The Assembly complex, ministers bungalows, guest houses of MLAs are located in this area. The Civil Lines area has 20 ATMs. We checked out these ATMs between 6 pm and 7 pm on Thursday. As many as 13 of the 20 ATMs attached to banks were close at 6 pm. Among the rest, only two were operational. The others either did not have cash or allowed only their own customers. Kochi, Kerala We recced 92 ATMs the busy hubs of Kochi: Edappally, Kacheripady, Kadavanthra, Kakkanad, Kaloor, Marine Drive, Menaka, MG Road, Padma Jn, Palarivattom, Panampilly Nagar, Pullepady and Vyttila. We found only 46 functional, though barely. The other 46 had no sign of life. And of the 46 functional ATMs, things were far from normal compared to the pre-Nov. 8 days. Only five had Rs 100 notes and another five D500 notes. The remaining 36 ATMs had only D2000 notes. TPuram, Kerala The ATM picture was brighter in Thiruvananthapuram. A majority of the ATMs were functional but they were short of 100 notes. Only 23 ATMs had D100 notes available. Seven of the ATMs were either shut down or sported out-of-service tag. Functioning: 52 Out of cash: 19 Chennai, Tamil Nadu New Indian Express checked out ATMs at Chelliamman Nagar, Athipet, ICF colony, MGR Puram, EVK Sampath Road, Vepery, Ekkaduthangal, Teynampet on Thursday evening and found that 90 per cent of them were either out of order or had no cash to yield. Not much change since day 1 of demonetisation. One out-of-towner said, Ive been fooled by brightly lit ATMs on my way home that have no queues. I stop and step in only to find the machines gleefully declaring that theres no cash to be had for love or for money. Hyderabad, Telangana The Express recce of ATMs was carried out over a 3 km area from 4 pm to 6 pm on Thursday. We covered BS Maqtha, Somajiguda, Raj Bhavan Road, Khairatabad, Lakdikapul, Chintal Basti, Anand Nagar Colony, Banjra Hills Road No. 1, Begumpet, Necklace Road. Thirty days since demonetisation, the Great ATM Quest continues for Hyderabadis. Most of the ATMs sport no cash, out of service signs. Or theres a security guard shooing people away with a cash nahin hai bhai! Bhubaneswar, Odisha We checked out ATMs at Jharpada, Laxmi Sagar, Satya Nagar, Kharavela Nagar, Station Square, Ashok Nagar, Bapuji Nagar, Forest Park, Unit II, Unit III, Unit IV in Bhubaneswar Functioning: 21 Out of cash: 4 Chandigarh, Punjab/Haryana Thirty days after demonetisation was let loose on the country, 90 per cent of the ATMs in Chandigarh continue to be out of cash. Tempers are beginning to flare up as citizens with payments to make are fed up of the queues in banks and no-cash signs hung at ATMs. Banks are continuing to ration cash to customers and the ATMs are not being replenished as much as needed. News came in from Faridkot on Wednesday that irate farmers locked down the staff of a cooperative bank inside the bank.
By PTI

MAHARAJGANJ (UP): A 47-year-old Slovenian national was arrested on Friday while he was allegedly trying to cross over to India through the Indo-Nepal Border at Sonauli with expired visa papers, police said .

Robert Doekel, who was on his way to Goa from Nepal, was arrested on Thursday night by the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), one of Indias central armed police forces, after they discovered that his visa papers had expired, said Sonauli check-post in-charge Raj Prakash Singh.



A case has been registered and the Intelligence Bureau has been informed, he added.



Sonauli is located on the Indo-Nepal Border and is the most popular transit point between the two countries.

MAHARAJGANJ (UP): A 47-year-old Slovenian national was arrested on Friday while he was allegedly trying to cross over to India through the Indo-Nepal Border at Sonauli with expired visa papers, police said . Robert Doekel, who was on his way to Goa from Nepal, was arrested on Thursday night by the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), one of Indias central armed police forces, after they discovered that his visa papers had expired, said Sonauli check-post in-charge Raj Prakash Singh. A case has been registered and the Intelligence Bureau has been informed, he added. Sonauli is located on the Indo-Nepal Border and is the most popular transit point between the two countries.
By Express News Service

BENGALURU: Union minister for information and broadcasting M Venkaiah Naidu took strong exception to Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi's comment calling demonetisation a foolish move.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken a revolutionary step to end corruption, black money and counterfeit currency coming from Pakistan. Is taking action against black money a foolish move?" Naidu asked while speaking to media persons here on Friday.

Congress government did not take any action to end black money and Manmohan Singh presided over the monumental mismanagement of the country, he said. The Congress government was a collaborator in all scams and corruption during its rule and now they are making baseless allegations against the government that took adequate measures before announcing demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes.

The Union minister accused opposition parties of disrupting proceedings in the parliament and talking about it outside. "They are not allowing the proceedings inside the parliament and are protesting outside, near Gandhi statue. It is an insult to democracy and to (Mahatma) Gandhi. The opposition is acting in a childish manner,'' he said.

He appealed the opposition parties to allow the proceedings in the House as many important bills, including disabled persons reservation bill, have to be tabled. "If the opposition thinks that demonetisation is a foolish move, the best way is to debate in the House and expose the government,'' he said.

Temporary pain

On the problems faced due to demonetisation, the minister said, "With demonetisation a revolution is in evolution. Any revolution means some initial problems and it would take some time (to end those problems). Government is alive to all such issues and is taking appropriate measures.''

Asked about many deaths related to demonetisation, the minister shot back saying, "During Congress regimes in Karnataka and Maharastra many farmers committed suicide due to distress.'' The minister went on to say what is being witnessed now is a "temporary pain for long term gain.''

BENGALURU: Union minister for information and broadcasting M Venkaiah Naidu took strong exception to Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi's comment calling demonetisation a foolish move. "Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken a revolutionary step to end corruption, black money and counterfeit currency coming from Pakistan. Is taking action against black money a foolish move?" Naidu asked while speaking to media persons here on Friday. Congress government did not take any action to end black money and Manmohan Singh presided over the monumental mismanagement of the country, he said. The Congress government was a collaborator in all scams and corruption during its rule and now they are making baseless allegations against the government that took adequate measures before announcing demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes. The Union minister accused opposition parties of disrupting proceedings in the parliament and talking about it outside. "They are not allowing the proceedings inside the parliament and are protesting outside, near Gandhi statue. It is an insult to democracy and to (Mahatma) Gandhi. The opposition is acting in a childish manner,'' he said. He appealed the opposition parties to allow the proceedings in the House as many important bills, including disabled persons reservation bill, have to be tabled. "If the opposition thinks that demonetisation is a foolish move, the best way is to debate in the House and expose the government,'' he said. Temporary pain On the problems faced due to demonetisation, the minister said, "With demonetisation a revolution is in evolution. Any revolution means some initial problems and it would take some time (to end those problems). Government is alive to all such issues and is taking appropriate measures.'' Asked about many deaths related to demonetisation, the minister shot back saying, "During Congress regimes in Karnataka and Maharastra many farmers committed suicide due to distress.'' The minister went on to say what is being witnessed now is a "temporary pain for long term gain.''
By Express News Service

HYDERABAD: Against the backdrop of allegations that the builder of the collapsed building at Nanakramguda here is a close aide of Telangana transport minister P Mahender Reddy, municipal administration minister K T Rama Rao announced that the government would not spare anybody responsible for the building collapse incident.

"We will not spare anybody, however, big he may be. Builder of the building is absconding, now. We have already set up police teams to arrest the builder, whose negligence is responsible for this dreadful incident," KTR announced, soon after visiting the accident site here in the morning.

However, transport minister Mahender Reddy denied the allegations that the builder of the collapsed building is his associate. "The builder is not my close aide. I have nothing to do with him. Stringent action will be initiated against him," Reddy said.

Meanwhile, KT Rama Rao, who has been supervising relief and rescue operations being carried out at the collapsed building, said the State government announced an ex gratia of Rs 10 lakh to the next to the family of those killed in the building collapse incident.

"Injured persons are being treated at a corporate hospital. The government will bear the expenses of their treatment. Rs 1 lakh will be paid to the family of each injured person, he added.

The municipal administration minister suspended the deputy municipal commissioner as well as the assistant town planning officer of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) for their alleged involvement in the violation of rules in the construction of the collapsed building. In fact, a total of 13 labourers belonging to five families, are underneath the debris it is feared. NDRF teams are conducting the rescue operations by using ultra-modern equipment like victim location detectors and robot cameras to identify the survivors.

On the other hand, Andhra Pradesh government too announced Rs 10 lakh ex-gratia for the families of the deceased persons, Rs 5 lakh for the grievously injured and Rs 2 lakh for injured persons as some of the victims hail from North Andhra region of AP.

HYDERABAD: Against the backdrop of allegations that the builder of the collapsed building at Nanakramguda here is a close aide of Telangana transport minister P Mahender Reddy, municipal administration minister K T Rama Rao announced that the government would not spare anybody responsible for the building collapse incident. "We will not spare anybody, however, big he may be. Builder of the building is absconding, now. We have already set up police teams to arrest the builder, whose negligence is responsible for this dreadful incident," KTR announced, soon after visiting the accident site here in the morning. However, transport minister Mahender Reddy denied the allegations that the builder of the collapsed building is his associate. "The builder is not my close aide. I have nothing to do with him. Stringent action will be initiated against him," Reddy said. Meanwhile, KT Rama Rao, who has been supervising relief and rescue operations being carried out at the collapsed building, said the State government announced an ex gratia of Rs 10 lakh to the next to the family of those killed in the building collapse incident. "Injured persons are being treated at a corporate hospital. The government will bear the expenses of their treatment. Rs 1 lakh will be paid to the family of each injured person, he added. The municipal administration minister suspended the deputy municipal commissioner as well as the assistant town planning officer of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) for their alleged involvement in the violation of rules in the construction of the collapsed building. In fact, a total of 13 labourers belonging to five families, are underneath the debris it is feared. NDRF teams are conducting the rescue operations by using ultra-modern equipment like victim location detectors and robot cameras to identify the survivors. On the other hand, Andhra Pradesh government too announced Rs 10 lakh ex-gratia for the families of the deceased persons, Rs 5 lakh for the grievously injured and Rs 2 lakh for injured persons as some of the victims hail from North Andhra region of AP.
By Express News Service

KOCHI: Former classmates of Jisha of Perumbavoor, who was killed after a rape, approached Kerala High Court on Friday supporting a petition seeking CBI probe into the case.

The petitioners, Rita Balachandran, Anu V Kuttan, Soumya CD and Bincy Jose stated in the petition that they were close friends of Jisha during 2010-2013 while they were pursuing LLB course.

They also sought to implead in the petition filed by the victim's father seeking CBI probe into the case. "We support the contentions of the victim's father. We also feel discontent in the manner in which the investigation is conducted and the final report was filed." The petitioners argued that the real culprits have gone scot free. A fair and proper investigation is warranted in the case to book all the culprits behind the curtain, said the petitioners.

"We being close friends of the victim, are shocked by the cold-blooded murder. We had been closely following up the case. Our statements were also recorded by the cops" the petitioners said.

Jisha, a 29-year-old law student at the Government Law College, Ernakulam, was found murdered on April 28, 2016 at her home near a canal in Perumbavoor in Ernakulam. It went on to become the most publicized crime case during the Assembly elections in the state in May.

KOCHI: Former classmates of Jisha of Perumbavoor, who was killed after a rape, approached Kerala High Court on Friday supporting a petition seeking CBI probe into the case. The petitioners, Rita Balachandran, Anu V Kuttan, Soumya CD and Bincy Jose stated in the petition that they were close friends of Jisha during 2010-2013 while they were pursuing LLB course. They also sought to implead in the petition filed by the victim's father seeking CBI probe into the case. "We support the contentions of the victim's father. We also feel discontent in the manner in which the investigation is conducted and the final report was filed." The petitioners argued that the real culprits have gone scot free. A fair and proper investigation is warranted in the case to book all the culprits behind the curtain, said the petitioners. "We being close friends of the victim, are shocked by the cold-blooded murder. We had been closely following up the case. Our statements were also recorded by the cops" the petitioners said. Jisha, a 29-year-old law student at the Government Law College, Ernakulam, was found murdered on April 28, 2016 at her home near a canal in Perumbavoor in Ernakulam. It went on to become the most publicized crime case during the Assembly elections in the state in May.
By Express News Service

CHENNAI: More than nine years after the exposure of the clandestine operation of a telephone exchange from former union telecom and IT minister Dayanidhi Marans house in Chennai, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday filed a chargesheet against him and his brother, Sun group chairman Kalanidhi Maran.

It is learnt that a chargesheet has also been filed against K B Brahmanandam and MP Velusamy, both former chief general managers of Chennai Telephones, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited; V Gowthaman, then additional personal secretary to Dayanidhi Maran; S Kannan, the chief technical assistant of Sun TV and KS Ravi, electrician of Sun TV.

CBI investigation revealed that altogether 764 telephone numbers were allegedly provided to Dayanidhi Maran by BSNL Chennai Telephones and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited, New Delhi. No bills were allegedly raised for all these facilities and thereby caused loss worth to the tune of Rs 1.78 crore to both BSNL and MTNL, said CBI.

Interestingly, a probe into the illegal telephone exchange started in 2011, nearly four years after getting complaints that a 'virtual' telephone exchange was allegedly set-up at the then telecom minister's house for facilitating data transfer from Sun TV.

The agency had recommended action to the then telecom secretary in 2007, but the department allegedly did not give its nod in the case.

Finally, CBI filed a preliminary inquiry in the case in 2011.

The telephone lines were not ordinary telephone lines but high end ISDN, capable of carrying huge data thus facilitating faster transmission of TV news and programmes across the globe.

CBI in its report to the then telecom secretary alleged that these lines were for use of large commercial enterprises to meet special needs such as video conferencing or transmission of huge volume of digital data for which heavy fee is charged but Sun TV got it for free.

It was only in July 2013 that CBI filed a case against Dayanidhi Maran and BSNL officials for allegedly allotting high-speed telephone lines to Maran's residence in Chennai which were extended to his brother's channel.

CHENNAI: More than nine years after the exposure of the clandestine operation of a telephone exchange from former union telecom and IT minister Dayanidhi Marans house in Chennai, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday filed a chargesheet against him and his brother, Sun group chairman Kalanidhi Maran. It is learnt that a chargesheet has also been filed against K B Brahmanandam and MP Velusamy, both former chief general managers of Chennai Telephones, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited; V Gowthaman, then additional personal secretary to Dayanidhi Maran; S Kannan, the chief technical assistant of Sun TV and KS Ravi, electrician of Sun TV. CBI investigation revealed that altogether 764 telephone numbers were allegedly provided to Dayanidhi Maran by BSNL Chennai Telephones and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited, New Delhi. No bills were allegedly raised for all these facilities and thereby caused loss worth to the tune of Rs 1.78 crore to both BSNL and MTNL, said CBI. Interestingly, a probe into the illegal telephone exchange started in 2011, nearly four years after getting complaints that a 'virtual' telephone exchange was allegedly set-up at the then telecom minister's house for facilitating data transfer from Sun TV. The agency had recommended action to the then telecom secretary in 2007, but the department allegedly did not give its nod in the case. Finally, CBI filed a preliminary inquiry in the case in 2011. The telephone lines were not ordinary telephone lines but high end ISDN, capable of carrying huge data thus facilitating faster transmission of TV news and programmes across the globe. CBI in its report to the then telecom secretary alleged that these lines were for use of large commercial enterprises to meet special needs such as video conferencing or transmission of huge volume of digital data for which heavy fee is charged but Sun TV got it for free. It was only in July 2013 that CBI filed a case against Dayanidhi Maran and BSNL officials for allegedly allotting high-speed telephone lines to Maran's residence in Chennai which were extended to his brother's channel.
By Express News Service

CHENNAI: Chief Minister O Panneerselvam on Thursday wrote his first letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It was about the consecration of St Antonys Church at Katchatheevu, which was postponed from December 7, following the demise of former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa.

Pointing out that while 100 pilgrims from Ramanathapuram had sought permission to attend the event, the Centre had accorded political clearance only to 20 people from Tamil Nadu. Chief Secretary P Rama Mohana Rao had written to the Foreign Secretary about this recently.

Panneerselvam said since the church is of significant cultural and religious significance to lakhs of fishermen from Tamil Nadu, many of them were keen to participate in the ceremony. I request you to kindly direct the Ministry of External Affairs to facilitate the participation of all fishermen devotees from Tamil Nadu who wish to participate in the consecration ceremony, without placing any restriction on the numbers, the letter read.

CHENNAI: Chief Minister O Panneerselvam on Thursday wrote his first letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It was about the consecration of St Antonys Church at Katchatheevu, which was postponed from December 7, following the demise of former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa. Pointing out that while 100 pilgrims from Ramanathapuram had sought permission to attend the event, the Centre had accorded political clearance only to 20 people from Tamil Nadu. Chief Secretary P Rama Mohana Rao had written to the Foreign Secretary about this recently. Panneerselvam said since the church is of significant cultural and religious significance to lakhs of fishermen from Tamil Nadu, many of them were keen to participate in the ceremony. I request you to kindly direct the Ministry of External Affairs to facilitate the participation of all fishermen devotees from Tamil Nadu who wish to participate in the consecration ceremony, without placing any restriction on the numbers, the letter read.
By AFP

At least 50,000 Islamic State jihadists have been killed by the US-led coalition since it began operations in Iraq and Syria in late 2014, a senior US military official said Thursday.

A relentless operation using planes and drones from a dozen or so members of the anti-IS coalition since August 2014 has conducted some 16,000 air strikes against the jihadists in Iraq and Syria -- two-thirds of them in Iraq.

In addition, the coalition has provided training and weapons to local forces fighting IS.

"I am not into morbid counts but that kind of volume matters, that kind of impact on the enemy," the official said, calling the 50,000 number a conservative estimate.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the air campaign had been the "most pristine" ever in terms of avoiding civilian casualties, with almost all the bombs dropped so far being smart weapons that can be steered to a precise target.

The coalition tally of civilians killed in the operations is 173 -- though critics say the real figure is far higher.

The official said the coalition had diminished IS's ranks to such a level that the simultaneous attacks being waged on Mosul in Iraq and Raqa in Syria -- the jihadists last remaining major power centers -- have been possible.

Coalition spokesman Colonel John Dorrian said earlier that in Mosul, IS was turning to adolescent fighters as its hardcore warriors got wiped out.

"As this effort goes on with each passing day, Daesh has fewer fighters and fewer resources at their disposal," Dorrian said in a videocall, using an Arabic IS acronym.

He added the jihadists appeared to have run out of armored suicide car bombs, and estimated "many hundreds" of fighters had been killed in Mosul.

"It doesn't mean that it's not still an extraordinarily dangerous situation. They are not going to go quietly, but they are going to go."

The coalition has previously said it "does not use a casualty count as a measure of effectiveness in the campaign to ultimately defeat (IS) in Iraq and Syria".

Despite this assertion, such figures are periodically announced.

Airwars, a London-based collective of journalists and researchers, uses local sources, photographs and media accounts to keep a detailed list of every known coalition air strike.

They have praised Pentagon efforts at accountability compared with other actors in Syria such as Russia and the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. But the group says the number of likely civilian deaths from coalition strikes is 1,957 at a bare minimum.

At least 50,000 Islamic State jihadists have been killed by the US-led coalition since it began operations in Iraq and Syria in late 2014, a senior US military official said Thursday. A relentless operation using planes and drones from a dozen or so members of the anti-IS coalition since August 2014 has conducted some 16,000 air strikes against the jihadists in Iraq and Syria -- two-thirds of them in Iraq. In addition, the coalition has provided training and weapons to local forces fighting IS. "I am not into morbid counts but that kind of volume matters, that kind of impact on the enemy," the official said, calling the 50,000 number a conservative estimate. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the air campaign had been the "most pristine" ever in terms of avoiding civilian casualties, with almost all the bombs dropped so far being smart weapons that can be steered to a precise target. The coalition tally of civilians killed in the operations is 173 -- though critics say the real figure is far higher. The official said the coalition had diminished IS's ranks to such a level that the simultaneous attacks being waged on Mosul in Iraq and Raqa in Syria -- the jihadists last remaining major power centers -- have been possible. Coalition spokesman Colonel John Dorrian said earlier that in Mosul, IS was turning to adolescent fighters as its hardcore warriors got wiped out. "As this effort goes on with each passing day, Daesh has fewer fighters and fewer resources at their disposal," Dorrian said in a videocall, using an Arabic IS acronym. He added the jihadists appeared to have run out of armored suicide car bombs, and estimated "many hundreds" of fighters had been killed in Mosul. "It doesn't mean that it's not still an extraordinarily dangerous situation. They are not going to go quietly, but they are going to go." The coalition has previously said it "does not use a casualty count as a measure of effectiveness in the campaign to ultimately defeat (IS) in Iraq and Syria". Despite this assertion, such figures are periodically announced. Airwars, a London-based collective of journalists and researchers, uses local sources, photographs and media accounts to keep a detailed list of every known coalition air strike. They have praised Pentagon efforts at accountability compared with other actors in Syria such as Russia and the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. But the group says the number of likely civilian deaths from coalition strikes is 1,957 at a bare minimum.
By AFP

ZAGREB: Serbian chocolate bars offered to small children by Croatia's president have left a bad taste in the mouth between the two former foes, as relations sour to levels not seen since the 1990s war.

"Chocolategate" started with Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic visiting a kindergarten in the Adriatic city of Dubrovnik and handing out the treats to the delighted kids.

However, while it was a sweet gesture, there was one major problem: some of the chocolate came from Serbia.

And the president could not have picked a worse day to hand out Serbia chocolate as it was on December 6, the 25th anniversary of a crucial battle to defend the besieged Dubrovnik from Serb forces at the start of Croatia's 1990s independence war.

Furious parents complained their children should not have been given Serbia chocolate on that day of all days.

"This is what he (my son) got from Kolinda's hands, her photo and a Serbian chocolate bar," one of the parents wrote on Facebook.

"Isn't that sad, on the day of Dubrovnik defenders."

Grabar-Kitarovic publicly apologised a day later and said she did not personally check the sweets.

"I was extremely disappointed since I personally support the campaign 'Let's buy Croatian'," she told reporters, and vowed a similar thing would not happen again.

"We will apologise to parents who received these chocolate bars and send Croatian products."

Her move also provoked anger in Serbia where several ministers and media slammed what they described as racism from the Croatian head of state.

"An example of incomprehensible racism," said Labour Minister Aleksandar Vulin, urging a reaction from the European Union, of which Croatia is a member.

"What sort of normalisation of ties can we talk about when a simple chocolate bar can provoke this ethnic intolerance?" commented Commerce Minister Rasim Ljajic.

Croatian Serbs also criticised Grabar-Kitarovic's move.

"These chocolate bars will be remembered as chocolate bars of shame," Croatian Serb leader Milorad Pupovac told N1 television on Friday.

"It is unacceptable and shameful," he said.

Ties between the two former Yugoslav republic have plummeted to their lowest level since Croatia's 1991-1995 war.

During the conflict, Belgrade politically and militarily backed Croatia's rebel Serbs who opposed the country's proclamation of independence.

Belgrade and Zagreb have been constantly trading accusations over war crimes committed by their forces during the 1991-1995 war but also World War II.

ZAGREB: Serbian chocolate bars offered to small children by Croatia's president have left a bad taste in the mouth between the two former foes, as relations sour to levels not seen since the 1990s war. "Chocolategate" started with Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic visiting a kindergarten in the Adriatic city of Dubrovnik and handing out the treats to the delighted kids. However, while it was a sweet gesture, there was one major problem: some of the chocolate came from Serbia. And the president could not have picked a worse day to hand out Serbia chocolate as it was on December 6, the 25th anniversary of a crucial battle to defend the besieged Dubrovnik from Serb forces at the start of Croatia's 1990s independence war. Furious parents complained their children should not have been given Serbia chocolate on that day of all days. "This is what he (my son) got from Kolinda's hands, her photo and a Serbian chocolate bar," one of the parents wrote on Facebook. "Isn't that sad, on the day of Dubrovnik defenders." Grabar-Kitarovic publicly apologised a day later and said she did not personally check the sweets. "I was extremely disappointed since I personally support the campaign 'Let's buy Croatian'," she told reporters, and vowed a similar thing would not happen again. "We will apologise to parents who received these chocolate bars and send Croatian products." Her move also provoked anger in Serbia where several ministers and media slammed what they described as racism from the Croatian head of state. "An example of incomprehensible racism," said Labour Minister Aleksandar Vulin, urging a reaction from the European Union, of which Croatia is a member. "What sort of normalisation of ties can we talk about when a simple chocolate bar can provoke this ethnic intolerance?" commented Commerce Minister Rasim Ljajic. Croatian Serbs also criticised Grabar-Kitarovic's move. "These chocolate bars will be remembered as chocolate bars of shame," Croatian Serb leader Milorad Pupovac told N1 television on Friday. "It is unacceptable and shameful," he said. Ties between the two former Yugoslav republic have plummeted to their lowest level since Croatia's 1991-1995 war. During the conflict, Belgrade politically and militarily backed Croatia's rebel Serbs who opposed the country's proclamation of independence. Belgrade and Zagreb have been constantly trading accusations over war crimes committed by their forces during the 1991-1995 war but also World War II.
By AFP

BERLIN: German police said Friday they have detained a 29-year-old man suspected of having carried out bomb attacks that struck a mosque and an international convention centre in the eastern city of Dresden.

No one was injured in the September attacks that hit the city, which is the birthplace of the anti-immigration and Islamophobic PEGIDA movement.

Investigators raiding two sites secured items that could be used to build explosives, police said, adding that forensic tests show that "the DNA traces secured are consistent with the DNA of the suspect".

Bild daily identified the suspect as Nino K. and said he had spoken at a PEGIDA rally in the summer of 2015, railing against "criminal foreigners" and "lazy Africans".

The attacks occurred just days before Dresden was due to host national celebrations to mark 26 years since the reunification of East and West Germany.

The first homemade bomb damaged the door of the mosque while the imam and his family were inside.

The second blast struck at the main venue for the German reunification anniversary festivities.

Dresden, a Baroque city in Germany's ex-communist east, has become a hotspot for far-right protests and hate crimes after more than a million asylum seekers arrived in Europe's biggest economy since 2015.

In an annual report outlining progress since reunification, the government warned in September that growing xenophobia and right-wing extremism could threaten peace in eastern Germany.

BERLIN: German police said Friday they have detained a 29-year-old man suspected of having carried out bomb attacks that struck a mosque and an international convention centre in the eastern city of Dresden. No one was injured in the September attacks that hit the city, which is the birthplace of the anti-immigration and Islamophobic PEGIDA movement. Investigators raiding two sites secured items that could be used to build explosives, police said, adding that forensic tests show that "the DNA traces secured are consistent with the DNA of the suspect". Bild daily identified the suspect as Nino K. and said he had spoken at a PEGIDA rally in the summer of 2015, railing against "criminal foreigners" and "lazy Africans". The attacks occurred just days before Dresden was due to host national celebrations to mark 26 years since the reunification of East and West Germany. The first homemade bomb damaged the door of the mosque while the imam and his family were inside. The second blast struck at the main venue for the German reunification anniversary festivities. Dresden, a Baroque city in Germany's ex-communist east, has become a hotspot for far-right protests and hate crimes after more than a million asylum seekers arrived in Europe's biggest economy since 2015. In an annual report outlining progress since reunification, the government warned in September that growing xenophobia and right-wing extremism could threaten peace in eastern Germany.
By AFP

BEIRUT: Syrian government artillery bombarded the fast-shrinking rebel enclave in the heart of Aleppo on Friday despite its ally Russia's announcement of a new humanitarian pause, a monitor said.

Air strikes halted on Thursday evening following Moscow's announcement but shelling continued throughout the night and into the morning, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

An AFP correspondent in the rebel-held enclave reported hearing the boom of artillery through the night.

"There was heavy shelling of several besieged districts and fierce fighting, particularly in Bustan al-Qasr," one of the biggest districts still in rebel hands after the army's blistering three-week offensive, Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

After talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry in the German city of Hamburg on Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced a pause in the army's assault to allow for the evacuation of some of the tens of thousands of civilians trapped in the now tiny rebel enclave.

The army has recaptured 85 percent of the eastern sector of the city which the rebels had held since summer 2012.

"I can tell you that today combat operations by the Syrian army have been halted in eastern Aleppo because there is a large operation under way to evacuate civilians," Lavrov said. "There is going to be to a column of 8,000 evacuees."

In Washington, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Lavrov's announcement was "an indication that something positive could happen".

The army's bombardment of rebel-held districts killed at least 18 civilians on Thursday, according to the Observatory, a Britain-based monitoring group which has a wide network of sources on the ground.

BEIRUT: Syrian government artillery bombarded the fast-shrinking rebel enclave in the heart of Aleppo on Friday despite its ally Russia's announcement of a new humanitarian pause, a monitor said. Air strikes halted on Thursday evening following Moscow's announcement but shelling continued throughout the night and into the morning, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. An AFP correspondent in the rebel-held enclave reported hearing the boom of artillery through the night. "There was heavy shelling of several besieged districts and fierce fighting, particularly in Bustan al-Qasr," one of the biggest districts still in rebel hands after the army's blistering three-week offensive, Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP. After talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry in the German city of Hamburg on Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced a pause in the army's assault to allow for the evacuation of some of the tens of thousands of civilians trapped in the now tiny rebel enclave. The army has recaptured 85 percent of the eastern sector of the city which the rebels had held since summer 2012. "I can tell you that today combat operations by the Syrian army have been halted in eastern Aleppo because there is a large operation under way to evacuate civilians," Lavrov said. "There is going to be to a column of 8,000 evacuees." In Washington, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Lavrov's announcement was "an indication that something positive could happen". The army's bombardment of rebel-held districts killed at least 18 civilians on Thursday, according to the Observatory, a Britain-based monitoring group which has a wide network of sources on the ground.
By AFP

CAIRO: The Islamic State group has threatened Egyptian followers of the mystical Sufi strand of Islam after claiming it beheaded two of their clerics in its Sinai Peninsula stronghold.

The group's affiliate in Egypt released pictures last month of a scimitar-wielding executioner beheading two elderly men it accused of "divination," a practice traditional Islam forbids.

Relatives identified one of the two men as Suleiman Abu Heraz, a Sufi sheikh in his late 90s. The second man was identified as one of his disciples.

Their bodies have not been found.

In the latest edition of the IS weekly newsletter Al-Nabaa issued on Thursday, a militant identified as the head of the jihadists' "morality police" in the Sinai warned Sufis to renounce their beliefs.

He said Abu Heraz and fellow cleric Qatifan Breik Eid Mansour were executed for "professing knowledge of the occult".

"We tell all Sufi lodges, sheikhs and followers inside Sinai and outside that we will not allow the presence of Sufi orders in the Sinai or Egypt," he was quoted as saying.

Reports of Abu Heraz's murder drew condemnation from Muslim clerics in Egypt and abroad.

Egypt's top Sunni authority, Al-Azhar, denounced his killing as "an ugly crime."

The Islamic State group follows the puritanical Salafist school of thought -- the dominant one in Saudi Arabia -- which views some Sufi practices as heretical.

Salafists accuse the Sufis of polytheism -- the greatest sin in Islam -- for seeking the intercession of saints and visiting their graves.

Jihadists have blown up Sufi mausoleums across the Islamic world from Afghanistan to Mali.

Many Muslims in Egypt and elsewhere regard the Sufis as part of the mainstream.

The head of Al-Azhar, Ahmed al-Tayeb, practises Sufism, as have many leading Sunni Muslim clerics over the centuries.

CAIRO: The Islamic State group has threatened Egyptian followers of the mystical Sufi strand of Islam after claiming it beheaded two of their clerics in its Sinai Peninsula stronghold. The group's affiliate in Egypt released pictures last month of a scimitar-wielding executioner beheading two elderly men it accused of "divination," a practice traditional Islam forbids. Relatives identified one of the two men as Suleiman Abu Heraz, a Sufi sheikh in his late 90s. The second man was identified as one of his disciples. Their bodies have not been found. In the latest edition of the IS weekly newsletter Al-Nabaa issued on Thursday, a militant identified as the head of the jihadists' "morality police" in the Sinai warned Sufis to renounce their beliefs. He said Abu Heraz and fellow cleric Qatifan Breik Eid Mansour were executed for "professing knowledge of the occult". "We tell all Sufi lodges, sheikhs and followers inside Sinai and outside that we will not allow the presence of Sufi orders in the Sinai or Egypt," he was quoted as saying. Reports of Abu Heraz's murder drew condemnation from Muslim clerics in Egypt and abroad. Egypt's top Sunni authority, Al-Azhar, denounced his killing as "an ugly crime." The Islamic State group follows the puritanical Salafist school of thought -- the dominant one in Saudi Arabia -- which views some Sufi practices as heretical. Salafists accuse the Sufis of polytheism -- the greatest sin in Islam -- for seeking the intercession of saints and visiting their graves. Jihadists have blown up Sufi mausoleums across the Islamic world from Afghanistan to Mali. Many Muslims in Egypt and elsewhere regard the Sufis as part of the mainstream. The head of Al-Azhar, Ahmed al-Tayeb, practises Sufism, as have many leading Sunni Muslim clerics over the centuries.
By Associated Press

NEW YORK: Mick Jagger's representatives say the rock legend has welcomed the birth of his eighth child.

Jagger, the 73-year-old frontman of the Rolling Stones, was on hand Thursday at a New York hospital when girlfriend, Melanie Hamrick, gave birth to the couple's son. According to a statement, both parents are "delighted" and "mother and baby are doing well."

Jagger already has seven children  Georgia, James, Jade, Elizabeth, Lucas, Karis and Gabriel  who range in age from their 40s to teenagers.

He became a great-grandfather in May 2014 when Jade's daughter, Assisi, gave birth to a baby girl.

Hamrick is a 29-year-old ballerina who has performed with the American Ballet Theatre in New York. They began dating after the suicide of fashion designer L'Wren Scott in 2014, Jagger's partner of 13 years.

In May, fellow Rolling Stone Ron Wood became a father again at 68 after his wife, Sally Humphreys, gave birth to twin girls.

Jagger and his bandmates recently released "Blue & Lonesome," the iconic rock group's first album in 11 years. The 12-track set includes covers of blues songs from Jimmy Reed, Little Walter, Eddie Taylor and more.

NEW YORK: Mick Jagger's representatives say the rock legend has welcomed the birth of his eighth child. Jagger, the 73-year-old frontman of the Rolling Stones, was on hand Thursday at a New York hospital when girlfriend, Melanie Hamrick, gave birth to the couple's son. According to a statement, both parents are "delighted" and "mother and baby are doing well." Jagger already has seven children  Georgia, James, Jade, Elizabeth, Lucas, Karis and Gabriel  who range in age from their 40s to teenagers. He became a great-grandfather in May 2014 when Jade's daughter, Assisi, gave birth to a baby girl. Hamrick is a 29-year-old ballerina who has performed with the American Ballet Theatre in New York. They began dating after the suicide of fashion designer L'Wren Scott in 2014, Jagger's partner of 13 years. In May, fellow Rolling Stone Ron Wood became a father again at 68 after his wife, Sally Humphreys, gave birth to twin girls. Jagger and his bandmates recently released "Blue & Lonesome," the iconic rock group's first album in 11 years. The 12-track set includes covers of blues songs from Jimmy Reed, Little Walter, Eddie Taylor and more.
By Associated Press

SEATTLE: Washington on Thursday became the first U.S. state to sue the agrochemical giant Monsanto over pervasive pollution from PCBs, the toxic industrial chemicals that have accumulated in plants, fish and people around the globe for decades.

Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee and Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced the lawsuit at a news conference in downtown Seattle, saying they expect to win hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars from the company.

"It is time to hold the sole U.S. manufacturer of PCBs accountable for the significant harm they have caused to our state," Ferguson said, noting that the chemicals continue to imperil the health of protected salmon and orcas despite the tens of millions of dollars Washington has spent to clean up the pollution. "Monsanto produced PCBs for decades while hiding what they knew about the toxic chemicals' harm to human health and the environment."

PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, were used in many industrial and commercial applications, including in paint, coolants, sealants and hydraulic fluids. Monsanto, based in St. Louis, produced them from 1935 until Congress banned them in 1979.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, PCBs have been shown to cause a variety of health problems, including cancer in animals as well as effects on the immune, nervous and reproductive systems.

Monsanto did not immediately return an email or phone message seeking comment Thursday. In response to a similar lawsuit filed last year by the city of Spokane, Washington, Monsanto said a previous incarnation of the company produced the PCBs, which it said "served an important fire protection and safety purpose."

"PCBs sold at the time were a lawful and useful product that was then incorporated by third parties into other useful products," Charla Lord, a company spokeswoman, wrote. "If improper disposal or other improper uses created the necessity for clean-up costs, then these other third parties would bear responsibility for these costs."

Several other cities  including Portland, Oregon, and Oakland, Berkeley, San Jose, Long Beach and San Diego, California  have also sued Monsanto over PCB pollution, the Attorney General's Office said. Those cases are ongoing.

Ferguson, a Democrat, pointed to internal Monsanto documents that show the company long knew about the danger the chemicals posed. In 1937, an internal memo said testing on animals showed "systemic toxic effects" from prolonged exposure by inhaling PCB fumes or ingestion. In 1969, a company committee on PCBs noted, "There is too much customer/market need and selfishly too much Monsanto profit to go out."

"There is little probability that any action that can be taken will prevent the growing incrimination of specific polychlorinated biphenyls ... as nearly global environmental contaminants leading to contamination of human food (particularly fish), the killing of some marine species (shrimp), and the possible extinction of several species of fish eating birds," a committee memo said.

Nevertheless, Monsanto told officials around the country the contrary. In a letter to New Jersey's Department of Conservation that year, Monsanto wrote, "Based on available data, manufacturing and use experience, we do not believe PCBs to be seriously toxic."

Ferguson said that infuriated him. He noted that his great-grandparents settled along Washington's Skagit River in the late 19th century. The Skagit was one of more than 100 water bodies in the state listed in the lawsuit as being polluted with PCBs.

"That river, the Skagit River, which my family depended on to a great degree in the 19th century as they homesteaded here, is now contaminated by PCBs, as are the fish," he said. "That makes me mad."

Ferguson said his office had been in touch with counterparts in other states, but it remained unclear if other states would follow Washington's lead in suing the company.

Washington's lawsuit seeks damages on several grounds, including product liability for what it described as Monsanto's failure to warn about the danger of PCBs; negligence; and even trespass, for injuring the state's natural resources.

___

SEATTLE: Washington on Thursday became the first U.S. state to sue the agrochemical giant Monsanto over pervasive pollution from PCBs, the toxic industrial chemicals that have accumulated in plants, fish and people around the globe for decades. Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee and Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced the lawsuit at a news conference in downtown Seattle, saying they expect to win hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars from the company. "It is time to hold the sole U.S. manufacturer of PCBs accountable for the significant harm they have caused to our state," Ferguson said, noting that the chemicals continue to imperil the health of protected salmon and orcas despite the tens of millions of dollars Washington has spent to clean up the pollution. "Monsanto produced PCBs for decades while hiding what they knew about the toxic chemicals' harm to human health and the environment." PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, were used in many industrial and commercial applications, including in paint, coolants, sealants and hydraulic fluids. Monsanto, based in St. Louis, produced them from 1935 until Congress banned them in 1979. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, PCBs have been shown to cause a variety of health problems, including cancer in animals as well as effects on the immune, nervous and reproductive systems. Monsanto did not immediately return an email or phone message seeking comment Thursday. In response to a similar lawsuit filed last year by the city of Spokane, Washington, Monsanto said a previous incarnation of the company produced the PCBs, which it said "served an important fire protection and safety purpose." "PCBs sold at the time were a lawful and useful product that was then incorporated by third parties into other useful products," Charla Lord, a company spokeswoman, wrote. "If improper disposal or other improper uses created the necessity for clean-up costs, then these other third parties would bear responsibility for these costs." Several other cities  including Portland, Oregon, and Oakland, Berkeley, San Jose, Long Beach and San Diego, California  have also sued Monsanto over PCB pollution, the Attorney General's Office said. Those cases are ongoing. Ferguson, a Democrat, pointed to internal Monsanto documents that show the company long knew about the danger the chemicals posed. In 1937, an internal memo said testing on animals showed "systemic toxic effects" from prolonged exposure by inhaling PCB fumes or ingestion. In 1969, a company committee on PCBs noted, "There is too much customer/market need and selfishly too much Monsanto profit to go out." "There is little probability that any action that can be taken will prevent the growing incrimination of specific polychlorinated biphenyls ... as nearly global environmental contaminants leading to contamination of human food (particularly fish), the killing of some marine species (shrimp), and the possible extinction of several species of fish eating birds," a committee memo said. Nevertheless, Monsanto told officials around the country the contrary. In a letter to New Jersey's Department of Conservation that year, Monsanto wrote, "Based on available data, manufacturing and use experience, we do not believe PCBs to be seriously toxic." Ferguson said that infuriated him. He noted that his great-grandparents settled along Washington's Skagit River in the late 19th century. The Skagit was one of more than 100 water bodies in the state listed in the lawsuit as being polluted with PCBs. "That river, the Skagit River, which my family depended on to a great degree in the 19th century as they homesteaded here, is now contaminated by PCBs, as are the fish," he said. "That makes me mad." Ferguson said his office had been in touch with counterparts in other states, but it remained unclear if other states would follow Washington's lead in suing the company. Washington's lawsuit seeks damages on several grounds, including product liability for what it described as Monsanto's failure to warn about the danger of PCBs; negligence; and even trespass, for injuring the state's natural resources. ___
By PTI

COLOMBO: President Maithripala Sirisena, who came to power on a pledge to root out government corruption, today conceded the menace was still widespread in Sri Lanka with more than 50 per cent of tender procurements being dodgy.

Adressing an anti-corruption meeting two years after he was elected on a campaign pledge to end corruption, Sirisena said he "regrets" that organised bribery was still prevalent.

"I regret to say that organised bribery and corruption is still taking place in government institutions," he said.

The Sri Lanka president, who has ordered investigations into alleged widespread corruption under his predecessor Mahinda Rajapaksa, said he does not want to take names because those he would name will "go on strike from tomorrow".

Sirisena referred to a strike recently by customs officers against the installation of a CCTV system designed to discourage money changing hands illegally.

"Such is the level of resistance and I am told that officers who refuse to cooperate with organised corruption are sidelined and not given any work by their superiors," he said.

"We say call tenders to prevent corruption, but in reality we know that the tender procedures are also corrupt. It happens in over 50 per cent of the time. Even the technical evaluation committees are corrupt," Sirisena said.

Sirisena ousted Rajapaksa in January last year, accusing him and his family of corruption. He has also often criticised the national unity government under Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Rajapaksa ruled Sri Lanka for nine years beginning in 2005. He was popular among the country's majority ethnic Sinhalese for leading the military's brutal defeat of the Tamil Tigers, ending a 25-year civil war in 2009.

But he was increasingly criticised for failing to allow an investigation of alleged war crimes by the military, while also facing mounting allegations of corruption and nepotism.



COLOMBO: President Maithripala Sirisena, who came to power on a pledge to root out government corruption, today conceded the menace was still widespread in Sri Lanka with more than 50 per cent of tender procurements being dodgy. Adressing an anti-corruption meeting two years after he was elected on a campaign pledge to end corruption, Sirisena said he "regrets" that organised bribery was still prevalent. "I regret to say that organised bribery and corruption is still taking place in government institutions," he said. The Sri Lanka president, who has ordered investigations into alleged widespread corruption under his predecessor Mahinda Rajapaksa, said he does not want to take names because those he would name will "go on strike from tomorrow". Sirisena referred to a strike recently by customs officers against the installation of a CCTV system designed to discourage money changing hands illegally. "Such is the level of resistance and I am told that officers who refuse to cooperate with organised corruption are sidelined and not given any work by their superiors," he said. "We say call tenders to prevent corruption, but in reality we know that the tender procedures are also corrupt. It happens in over 50 per cent of the time. Even the technical evaluation committees are corrupt," Sirisena said. Sirisena ousted Rajapaksa in January last year, accusing him and his family of corruption. He has also often criticised the national unity government under Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. Rajapaksa ruled Sri Lanka for nine years beginning in 2005. He was popular among the country's majority ethnic Sinhalese for leading the military's brutal defeat of the Tamil Tigers, ending a 25-year civil war in 2009. But he was increasingly criticised for failing to allow an investigation of alleged war crimes by the military, while also facing mounting allegations of corruption and nepotism.
Food deals, seals and the 'Karate Kid': Can't-miss events this weekend

Get your fill at area restaurants, watch some seals, laugh at a comedy show, take in a concert and maybe even leave Newport County for some fun.
The ability to stimulate neural circuits with very high precision light to control cells -- optogenetics -- is key to exciting advances in the study and mapping of the living brain. In the current state of the art, spatially patterned light projected via free-space optics stimulates small, transparent organisms and excites neurons within superficial layers of the cortex.

However, light scattering and absorption in neural tissue cause light penetration to be extremely short, making it impossible to employ free-space optical methods to probe brain regions deeper than about 2 mm.

In "Patterned photostimulation via visible-wavelength photonic probes for deep brain optogenetics," published today by SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, in the journal Neurophotonics, principal author Eran Segev of professor Michael Roukes' group at Caltech, along with coauthors from Caltech, Baylor College of Medicine, and Stanford University, describe a solution. The article is available via open access.

Their approach combines nanophotonics and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) in an implantable, ultra-narrow, silicon-based photonic probe to deliver light deep within brain tissues. This minimally invasive technique avoids major tissue displacement during implantation.

Using techniques of optogenetics, a protein in the brain serves as a sensory photoreceptor and can be controlled by specific wavelengths of light. These combined techniques provide a new approach to stimulation of brain circuits with remarkable resolution, enabling observation and control of individual neurons.

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These breakthroughs present widespread and promising applications for the neuroscience and neuromedical research communities. From characterizing the role of specific neurons and identifying neural circuits responsible for behavior to enabling new methods of operant conditioning through reward-induced circuit activations, optogenetics has become a new path for neuroscientists seeking advances in research capabilities.

The article appears in a special section in Neurophotonics, Brain Mapping and Therapeutics, with Shouleh Nikzad, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech, serving as senior guest editor. The special section is part of an SPIE partnership with the Society for Brain Mapping and Therapeutics (SBMT), serving as a multidisciplinary approach for using advanced technology to solve neurological disorders and disease and to understand neuroscience. The effort was initiated during Nikzad's term as SBMT president in 2015.

David Boas of Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, is the editor-in-chief of Neurophotonics. Launched in 2014, Neurophotonics is published digitally in the SPIE Digital Library and in print. The journal covers advances in optical technology applicable to the study of the brain and their impact on basic and clinical neuroscience applications.

The SPIE Digital Library contains more than 458,000 articles from SPIE journals, proceedings, and books, with approximately 18,000 new research papers added each year. Abstracts are freely searchable, and a number of journal articles are published with open access.
Discovered in the 1970s, tumor suppressors are among the most important proteins in the body. A master regulator of growth -- "the guardian of the genome" -- the p53 protein monitors cell growth for errors. We rely on suppressors like p53 to defeat cancer before it takes root. Indeed, cancer cells cannot survive unless p53 is mutated or non-functioning.

Not surprisingly, the gene that encodes p53 is the most frequently mutated gene found in human cancers. Most p53 gene mutations prevent p53 from being functional. In new research appearing in eLife, scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) focused on certain "loss of function" p53 mutations, and found that the mutant proteins they generate can act to promote cancer growth and metastasis, not halt it.

The variants studied are truncated - "they lack roughly half of the domains, or units, of the full-length p53 protein, specifically the domains that enable full-length p53 to enter the cell nucleus and bind DNA, both essential in its normal tumor-suppressor function," says CSHL Associate Professor Raffaella Sordella, who led the research in a collaboration with Professor Scott Lowe, a former CSHL colleague now at Memorial Sloan Kettering.

Until the CSHL-led research, the studied variants were presumed unimportant. In studies in cell culture and living mice, the team performed an array of experiments demonstrating that p53 proteins truncated after the 6th protein-coding segment, called exon 6, "no longer function as tumor suppressors but instead promote cancer by directly altering the functions of mitochondria," according to Sordella. Mitochondria are the tiny energy factories found in great abundance throughout the cell's cytoplasm.

By studying data on human tumors, the team learned that the truncated p53 proteins were most likely to be found in what Dr. Sordella calls "the hardest cancers" - ones that resist treatment and are likely to reappear even if surgically removed. Indeed, abundance of exon 6-truncated p53 proteins seems to predict bad outcomes even in cancers treated early and aggressively.

The studied p53 mutations are similar to another truncated version of p53, discovered by Sordella's team in 2014. Called p53 (the Greek letter "psi"), this mutated form of p53 is also missing domains that enable it to enter the nucleus and bind DNA. Instead, it localizes to the mitochondria and promotes tumor progression and metastasis. Unlike the exon 6-truncated p53 protein, however, p53 is the result not of a DNA mutation but rather an alternatively spliced RNA copy of the p53 gene's DNA message.

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The similarities observed by Sordella's team led them to explore whether the cancer-promoting impact of the two truncated p53s could be traced to the same mechanism. The team's experiments revealed that it was.

Like p53, exon 6-truncated p53 appears to promote cancer by locating to mitochondria, where it docks with a membrane protein called Cyclophilin D (CypD). The latter regulates the opening of tiny pores in the mitochondria membrane. When exon 6-truncated p53 or p53 interact with CypD, the inner mitochondria pores open only for a brief time, having the effect, Sordella believes, of altering mitochondrial functions. And this, she further suspects, is what leads to the cancer-promoting effect that both truncated versions of p53 seem to engender. In fact, the team found that cancer cells harboring mutations that lead to the production of the exon 6-truncated p53 are dependent on p53 and CypD.

"Remarkably, despite 40 years of research and over 80,000 publications on p53, our new findings show that it still holds mystery and promise," Sordella says.

"It seems that by changing mitochondrial function, the variants are priming cells to reprogram themselves," Sordella adds. Specifically, cells that are normally epithelial - for instance, cells that line the lung or pancreas - undergo a change of type, taking on the characteristics of mesenchymal cells. Such cells are liable to break loose from their moorings in tissue and move via the circulation to other parts of the body. This is thought to be a prime enabling factor in cancer metastasis. Sordella says the team's findings could lead to improved cancer therapies. "These mutations are strong candidates for targeting by precision medicine. The frequency of exon-6 truncating mutations in fact is comparable to other precision medicine targets such as the EGFR oncogenic-mutations found in lung cancer. We have begun discussing with several pharmaceutical companies ways in which we can use our newly gained knowledge to develop treatments that will make a positive difference for many cancer patients."

Sordella and her collaborators plan to take the new findings from the bench to patients. "It is our goal to screen patients for the presence of these mutations and treat with p53  signaling inhibitors, such as small molecules inhibiting CypD, according to their tumor genotype. Our hope is that this will extend and perhaps save lives."
The National Institutes of Health has awarded researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Health System a five-year, $2.9-million grant to launch a new center, one of only 8 in the country, for diabetes translation research. The centerthe New York Regional Center for Diabetes Translation Research (NY Regional CDTR)also includes faculty from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai and the New York Academy of Medicine and will serve as a collaborative hub for investigators conducting studies on pre-diabetes, diabetes and its complications.

The two principal investigators on the grant are Elizabeth A. Walker, Ph.D., R.N., professor of medicine and of epidemiology & population health at Einstein, and Judith Wylie-Rosett, Ed.D., R.D., professor and division head of health promotion and nutrition research in the department of epidemiology & population health, and Atran Foundation Chair in Social Medicine at Einstein.

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"Our overall goal is to improve the health of people who have diabetes or are at risk for developing it, with a focus on low-income communities and various racial and ethnic groups that are disproportionately affected by the disease and poor access to care," says Dr. Wylie-Rosett. "Einstein and Montefiore have a long-standing commitment to social justice, and this center provides a way for us to share our research expertise with others trying to reduce health disparities and promote health equity."

Members of certain ethnic and racial groupsincluding Latinos/Hispanics, African-Americans and Asian-Americansface a higher risk for developing diabetes than do non-Latino white adults. They are also at increased risk for diabetes-related complications, such as lower limb amputations, vision loss and kidney failure. In addition, diabetes is 70 percent more common in high-poverty neighborhoods than in more affluent ones. This regional research center will concentrate on improving diabetes prevention, care and diabetes self-management education among these groups through research activities.

"Our center will support and promote collaborative, innovative programs of research to tailor diabetes interventions for different ethnicities and age groups and to reduce obesity, a major risk factor for diabetes, and make the best use of electronic medical records and telecommunicationefforts aimed at prevention of diabetes and its complications," says Dr. Walker.

"We are particularly excited that the center will include the newly-created Latino Network for Diabetes Translation Research, a joint effort with investigators from the NIH-funded Hispanic Community Health Study (HCHS)/Study of Latinos (SOL)," adds Dr. Walker.

Consultative resources within the NY Regional CDTR will support diabetes prevention and control research: across the lifespan; in population health and health systems; and for intervention research methods including biological, behavioral, psychological and social factors.
20 to 40 percent of the patients with multiple myeloma - a type of leukaemia - have a defect in the ribosome, the protein factory of the cell. These patients have a poorer prognosis than patients with intact ribosomes. At the same time, they respond better to a drug that already exists. These are the findings of a study by the Laboratory for Disease Mechanisms in Cancer at KU Leuven (University of Leuven), Belgium.

Multiple myeloma (MM, also known as Kahler's disease) is a blood cancer whereby the plasma cells in the bone marrow start proliferating malignantly. MM cannot be cured and is most common among older people. Various treatments exist to temporarily suppress the disease, but the challenge is determining to which treatment the patient will respond best.

Doctoral student Isabel Hofman (KU Leuven) discovered defects in the ribosome of MM patients. "The ribosome is the protein factory of a cell. In MM patients, one part of the ribosome is produced less in 20 to 40 percent of the patients, depending on how aggressive the cancer is. We suspect that their cells are still producing protein, but that the balance is somewhat disrupted. In any case, we found that these people have a poorer prognosis than MM patients with an intact ribosome," explains Professor Kim De Keersmaecker, head of the KU Leuven Laboratory for Disease Mechanisms in Cancer.

One possible treatment for MM is the use of proteasome inhibitors. "The proteasome is the protein demolition machine in a cell. There's a type of drugs, including Bortezomib, that inhibits its functioning. How the defects in the ribosome influence the proteasome is not quite clear yet. But we discovered that patients with a defective ribosome respond better to Bortezomib. In other words, their poorer prognosis can be offset by this treatment. On the basis of these findings, we can now develop tests to identify defects in the ribosome and thus determine which therapy will have most effect in a specific patient."

The notion that cancer is related to ribosome defects is a relatively new concept in science. "A few years ago, we discovered defects in the ribosome of patients with acute lymphatic leukaemia. Now we know that the same applies to MM. In all likelihood, this will also hold true for other types of cancer. Our next research goal is finding out for which cancers this is the case, how the link between ribosome and proteasome works, and what the possibilities are of drugs that target the ribosome itself."
IBM (NYSE: IBM) Research today announced the creation of the prototype IBM Multi-Purpose Eldercare Robot Assistant (IBM MERA) done in collaboration with Rice University. IBM MERA is a first of a kind Watson-enabled application designed to help assist the elderly and their caregivers. IBM Research also has plans to work with Sole Cooperativa, an independent healthcare provider in Italy, to instrument senior housing with sensors to monitor day-to-day activities of its residents.

According to the United Nations, the number of people aged 60 years or older is projected to grow by 56 percent worldwide by 2030. To help improve eldercare resulting from this rapidly growing demographic, IBM Research has opened a new "Aging in Place" environment in its ThinkLab in Austin designed to mimic the types of interactions elders may have in their homes. By leveraging IBM MERA, the Internet of Things, and other cognitive-powered technologies, IBM can study how data from atmospheric, motion & falling, audio and olfactory sensors could be used by the ecosystem of caregivers to potentially improve healthcare and wellness as physical or environmental conditions change.

"Now is the time to invest in, care for, protect, and empower our aging population so they can live more independent lives," said Arvind Krishna, Senior Vice President, IBM Research. "Our new research on 'embodied cognition,' which can combine real-time data generated by sensors with cognitive computing, will explore how to provide clinicians and caregivers with insights that could help them make better care decisions for their patients."

Multi-Purpose Eldercare Robot Assistant

IBM created the prototype robot with students and faculty from Rice University's departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Psychology, and it is being hosted inside the IBM "Aging in Place" research environment. IBM MERA will be used to help study innovative ways of measuring an individual's vital signs, such as heart rate, heart rate variability and respiratory rate; answer basic health-related questions; and, determine if an individual has fallen by reading the results of an accelerometer.

Running on the IBM Cloud and a Softbank Pepper robot interface, IBM MERA uses IBM Watson technologies and CameraVitals, a technology designed at Rice University that calculates vital signs by recording video of a person's face. These technologies allow IBM MERA to obtain fast, noninvasive readings on a patient's heart and breathing measurements that can be done multiple times per day. Combined with IBM Watson Speech to Text and Text to Speech APIs, the camera can also view if a fall has occurred and provide information for caregivers.

IBM MERA is also designed to interact with individuals using IBM Watson Speech to Text, Text to Speech and Natural Language Classifier APIs so we can study how they could receive answers to health-related questions (e.g. "What are the symptoms of anxiety?" or "What is my heart rate?").

"The Multi-Purpose Eldercare Robot Assistant represents the powerful impact that results when leaders in academia and private industry bring their best to bear on pressing societal issues," said Rice Provost Marie Lynn Miranda. "We are delighted to work with IBM on this critical research project, which provides an opportunity for our students and faculty to collaborate with IBM's best Age and Ability researchers at the IBM Research Lab in Austin."

Creating Smart Senior Living Residences

In Italy, Sole Cooperativa is planning to work with IBM to create smart spaces for its senior residents that will leverage the Internet of Things and IBM cognitive computing to identify changes in physical conditions or anomalies in environmental readings, and is designed to inform caregivers of changing situations.

For example, by monitoring atmospheric readings, such as carbon-dioxide and carbon-monoxide levels, Sole will use IBM technology to determine the room someone is in and how long they remained, and then leverage cognitive systems to help build a contextual understanding of a normal day (e.g., what time do they get up and go to bed, or how many meals do they eat and at what time). By integrating data from other sources, including traditional databases and streaming sensor data, Sole will be equipped with holistic views of their residents.

"This new system will be designed to help our residents live safely and independently for as long as possible," said Roberta Massi, President, Sole Cooperativa. "By better understanding a person's routines and surroundings, we can identify potential risks, personalize care and deliver precise recommendations that improve their quality of life. We can also more effectively improve our business operations by ensuring our staff is more focused on helping residents and patients as potential medical issues arise."

Source: IBM
JETS of plasma traditionally used in arc welding could soon be used to kill cancer cells and heal wounds.

Researchers at the University of South Australia have found that cool jets of plasma stimulate cells in the bodies of mice, helping to close wounds or kill tumours.

Dr Endre Szili from the Future Industries Institute at the University of South Australia said researchers were able to use plasma to influence the operations of cells.

Weve found that under some circumstances, you can use the plasma to directly intervene with certain cellular signalling processes, which is quite important for driving a whole range of biological and physiological processes, he said.

Recently weve shown that plasma can be used to deliver signals into a solid tumour and weve shown that youre able to trigger cell death within the cancer mass.

This could potentially explain how plasma could be used as a targeted therapy, because you can aim the plasma just at the site of the tumour.

The ability to target with plasma is one of its major upsides compared to laser or radiation therapy, the most common current forms of treatment.

Plasma arc welding, traditionally used in materials processing, uses heated ionised gas to transfer an electrical current to worked pieces of metal.

Unlike conventional arc welders, the plasma jets being researched for medical use are cool to the touch and can be applied to skin.

Thats a significant advantage compared to other current therapies such as radiation therapy where you have a significant percentage of patients where their skin actually gets damaged by the treatment, Dir Szili said.

Plasma jet therapy works by activating oxygen and nitrogen molecules in the air using a bench top plasma unit.

These reactive molecules  collectively known as RONS - are part of the cellular signalling process.

Long thought to be detrimental to the health of the body and a contributor to ageing, RONS have now been shown to have benefits if levels are carefully monitored.

Now that research has progressed, people have realised that you actually need RONS to survive, so the cells in your own body actually manufacture their RONS, and they help in the cellular signalling processes and can also help in the fight against diseases, Dr Szili said.

But its still necessary to be able to control the dosage of the plasma generated RONS into the tissue mass, because these RONS can also be damaging to cells.

In order to safely deliver RONS to cells, the Future Institute has developed a hydrogel dressing (right) which can be used to indirectly apply plasma to tissues in the body.

Were taking quite a cautious approach, so what weve done is weve used the plasma to activate these dressings which are usually applied to wounds, Dr Szili said.

What this does is removes the potentially quite damaging shorter lived and highly reactive oxygen and nitrogen species because theyre filtered out.

Then you have the longer lived reactive oxygen and nitrogen species which are left reactive, and they can also be quite beneficial for stimulating wound healing.

The mice trials were completed earlier this year and are expected to progress to pigs in 2017, with human trials as close as 36 months away.
According to renowned neurologist Oliver Sacks, "music can move us to the heights or depths of emotion, but the power of music goes much further." To hear and experience music's potential, members of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute campus and local community are invited to a multimedia concert and lecture focused on the links between music and health, sponsored by the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies (CBIS) and the

Department of the Arts. The event will be held on Dec. 8, from 4:30 to 6 p.m. in the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) Concert Hall.

The program's full title, Musica Humana/Musica Universalis, is part of [email protected], an initiative that infuses education with the artsby offering more opportunities to study artistic disciplines, like music, while expanding pedagogy and research with arts-inspired approaches to conceptual thinking.

"Art_X is designed to help Rensselaer students discover the art in science and technology, as well as the science and technology in art," said Michael Century, professor of new media and music in the Department of the Arts in the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (HASS).

Century, who curated and will moderate and perform on the upcoming program, noted that the project is the outcome of a musical component of the Knowledge Innovation Program (KIP) of the Office of Research, which is focused on drug discovery for Alzheimer's disease, led by protein engineering expert Peter Tessier, who serves as the Richard Baruch M.D. Career Development Professor at Rensselaer.

In 2015, Rensselaer created a seed fund to support multidisciplinary research at the private university. The funding is part of the KIP initiative, which aims to broaden the multidisciplinary reach of research teams and position those teams to be competitive in securing external funding.

"Music has served as a vital stimulus to health and well-being from times immemorial, with distinctive aspects varying across cultures," Century said.

Drawing on the musical philosophy of classical antiquity, Century organized the program around the diverse ways music has been understood as reflecting both the harmony of the cosmos (Musica Universalis) and the inner harmony of the human body (Musica Humana). He also took cues from Tessier's initial initiative to research the history of musical therapies used in neurological conditions such as dementia, broadening the scope of the program to include a multimedia blend of music performances, videos on present-day music therapy, and spoken word narrative.

The program features compositions from the European, North Indian, and Native American music cultures, highlighting Grammy-award winning bansuri player Steve Gorn, and Al and Jake George from the Cayuga Nation, who will explain the relationship of their performances to the concert theme in spoken introductions. Members of the Rensselaer community who will perform in addition to Century include soprano Kimberley Dolanski, multimedia artist Eric Miller, a first-year Ph.D. student in electronic arts, and computer science undergraduate Jon Patsenker '18.

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During the program, scientific and therapeutic content will also be conveyed in video clips, featuring commentaries by the celebrated late neurologist Dr. Oliver Sacks. Sacks, a physician, best-selling author, and professor of neurology at NYU School of Medicine who passed away last year, chronicled the mysteries of the human brain for almost four decades. In his publication Musicophilia, Sacks explored the cognitive miracles of music.

"I love how the upcoming innovative programwhich is Michael Century's brainchildhighlights the powerful and inspiring role of music in human thought and memory," said Tessier, whose work is pushing the frontiers of protein engineering toward fighting devastating diseases and addressing human health and quality of life. Tessier's research focuses on designing, developing, and optimizing a class of large therapeutic proteins, or antibodies, that hold great potential for detecting and treating human disorders ranging from cancer to Alzheimer's disease. Tessier also serves as a professor of chemical and biological engineering and is a member of the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies.

"This concert is an unprecedented collaboration among HASS, Engineering, EMPAC, and the Office of Research," said HASS Dean Mary Simoni, who is also a technologically savvy composer, arts administrator, pianist, and music theorist. "With an Art_X steering committee comprised of faculty and staff from across campus now in place, we're poised to energize teaching and research at the intersection of the arts and sciences. Stay tuned for more!"

Launched in Fall 2015, [email protected] is introducing learning opportunities throughout the curriculum, from interdisciplinary lectures at the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) and the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies (CBIS), to incorporating design considerations into engineering courses. But it might be said the initiative is rooted in earlier decisions to further develop music at Rensselaer.

The upcoming Musica Humana/Musica Universalis concert is vital to The New Polytechnic, an emerging paradigm for teaching, learning, and research at Rensselaer. The New Polytechnic is transformative in the global impact of research, in its innovative pedagogy, and in the lives of students at Rensselaer.
A new study published by University of Toronto researchers suggests that women who have never smoked are susceptible to Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and that African American women are particularly vulnerable. Seven percent of never-smoking older African American women and 5.2% of White older women have Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), compared to 2.9% of never-smoking older white men.

COPD is the third leading cause of death in the USA and smoking is the biggest risk factor for the disease. However, approximately one-quarter of Americans with COPD have never smoked.

"Some of women's greater vulnerability to COPD may be due to physiological differences. When we took into account height (a proxy for lung size), the odds of COPD among women compared to men were less elevated. However, we still found women had approximately 50% higher odds of COPD compared to white men even when we adjusted for height, education, income, and health care access" said lead author, Professor Esme Fuller-Thomson, Sandra Rotman Endowed Chair and Director of the Institute for Life Course & Aging at the University of Toronto's Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work. "Hormones may also play a role. In addition, women are more likely to have been exposed to second-hand smoke from spouses who smoke."

The study used a representative sample of 129,535 Americans aged 50 and older who had never smoked. The sample included 8,674 African American women, 2,708 African American men, 80,317 white women, and 37,836 white men, drawn from the 2012 Behavioural Risk Surveillance. The study was published online this week in the International Journal of Chronic Diseases.

"African American women had, by far, the highest prevalence of COPD among older adults who had never smoked. We found that after adjusting for income and education levels, the odds of COPD among African American women compared to white men declined by more than half. We cannot determine causality with this data set, but poverty is associated with increased exposure to toxins, such as second-hand smoke in work-places and air pollution in inner city environments. Future research needs to investigate if these factors play a role in the greater vulnerability of African American women" commented co-author and recent MSW graduate, Rachel Chisholm.

Fuller-Thomson adds "Primary care physicians and other health professionals should consider screening all their older patients for COPD, including those who have never smoked. Women, particularly African American women, have an unexpectedly high prevalence of COPD. Earlier detection of COPD has been found to improve patient outcomes in both the short and long-term and is therefore an important clinical goal."
A type of brain scan could act as a diagnostic tool in Parkinsons according to a new study published in the scientific journal Radiology.

Nottingham University Hospital researchers, funded by the charity Parkinsons UK, used an MRI brain scan to study changes in a pigment in the part of the brain affected by Parkinsons.

In 69 participants, they found that a brain scan, which can detect this pigment, allowed them to accurately identify those with mild or moderate Parkinsons, highlighting the potential of this technique to diagnose and track the condition.

Brain cells affected by Parkinsons contain a pigment called neuromelanin, which gives the cells a characteristic dark colouring. As those cells are lost in people with Parkinsons, the pigmentation is reduced. Recent research has suggested MRI brain scans may be sensitive enough to detect this change.

However, there are many different machines and methods for taking MRI brain scans, which could affect how accurate the technique is at detecting Parkinsons. The Nottingham team developed ways to standardise results from different types of machines to increase the accuracy of the technique. They also discovered that the technique may be sensitive enough to monitor the progression of Parkinsons.

Dr Beckie Port, Senior Research Communications Officer at Parkinsons UK, said:

This research is hugely promising. There is no definitive diagnostic tool for Parkinsons at the moment; instead, the condition is diagnosed by specialists after investigating symptoms and monitoring how they progress over time. Sometimes a specialist will suggest a type of brain scan, such as a DatSCAN, but these scans alone cannot make a definite diagnosis of Parkinsons, so they are not commonly used. In time this research could reduce the delays and distress that many people experience whilst they wait for a confirmation of whether or not they have Parkinsons. Further, larger scale studies of the brain scan, that also follow the condition as it progresses, will help to determine how accurate this technique as a definitive diagnostic test for.

Dr Stefan Schwarz, an expert in neuroradiology at the University of Nottingham, said:
Jennifer Lycette, M.D., understands the importance of treating patients with cancer at home in their in rural communities. It allows them to spend more time with their families and to focus on their treatment and recovery, not traveling.

Lycette and other physicians who treat these patients are keenly aware of the numerous challenges they encounter. Consequently, they are strongly committed to ensuring rural patients have access to the latest targeted therapies and other cutting-edge treatment options.

When faced with a breast cancer patient with underlying mental illness who was reluctant to try standard cancer treatments, Lycette asked herself an important question: "What good were targeted therapies when her coexisting mental illness prevented her from taking them?"

Lycette outlines this and other concerns while sharing one patient's profound struggle in a New England Journal of Medicine "Perspective" paper published today titled, "Neglected -- Cancer Care and Mental Health in Rural America."

An oncologist with the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute, Lycette treats patients in the coastal community of Astoria, Oregon. Astoria, like many other rural settings in the United States, has a severe shortage of psychiatric health care providers. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, approximately 4,000 Mental Health Professional Shortage Areas, defined as having less than one psychiatrist per 30,000 people, were identified in the United States in 2016. In reviewing what was available for the citizens of Clatsop County, of which the city of Astoria is a part, she found a disappointing zero psychiatrists per 100,000 people.

Lycette's recounting of this patient's experience demonstrates the terrible impacts of insufficient or nonexistent psychiatric care. In her commentary, Lycette notes her inability to reach her patient with mental illness marked " ... the saddest final chapter in the devastating story of untreated mental illness, the true neglect."
Psoriasis is well-known for causing too many skin cells on elbows, knees, and across the body, but people living with psoriasis may also be at an increased risk of heart disease. Effects of overactive immune cells in the skin can spread system-wide and inflame arteries, causing heart attacks and strokes. Treatment of psoriasis and its deadly comorbidities costs an estimated $135 billion annually in the United States, and up to $26,000 per patient, according to the National Psoriasis Foundation. For the 1 in 50 people worldwide living with psoriasis, there is an urgent need to understand how painful, thickened skin can lead to such fatal complications.

Two new studies out of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine describe how the inflammatory response to psoriasis can alter levels of several immune system molecules, ultimately increasing a person's risk of thrombosis, which can include fatal blood clots.

The studies intersect at a particular molecule called interleukin 6, or IL-6. Psoriasis patients have high levels of IL-6 in their skin, and researchers thought it might be causing the disease or its cardiovascular comorbidities. Patients with congestive heart failure also have high blood levels of IL-6. The molecule is known for triggering overactive immune responses in the skin, like the one that causes overproduction of skin cells during psoriasis.

"We wanted to pursue the mechanisms by which skin inflammation contributes to cardiovascular disease," said Nicole Ward, PhD, associate professor of dermatology at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. "In multiple mouse models, we showed removing IL-6 reduced cardiovascular risk, but did not get rid of psoriasis unless combined with other interventions."

In psoriasis clinical trials, blocking IL-6 hasn't been successful. Trial results show IL-6 inhibitors don't reliably improve skin, and can even cause spontaneous psoriasis in people who didn't have it before. Said Ward, "Eliminating this one molecule just isn't good enough."

In a recent study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation Insight, Ward turned her attention to a protein called MRP14, which has been used to predict heart attack risk in certain populations. People with autoimmune diseases like psoriasis have high levels of MRP14 in their blood, and the gene encoding MRP14 is located near psoriasis genes. Ward and colleagues suspected MRP14 could be contributing to both skin inflammation and cardiovascular disease comorbidities in psoriasis patients. The researchers deleted the gene encoding MRP14 in mice with psoriasis, hoping it would reduce thrombosis.

"The disappointing result was that after two years of work, it had no effect on skin inflammation or cardiovascular comorbidities," said Ward. "The MRP14-deficient psoriasis mice were completely the same as the regular psoriasis mice - they all had similar levels of skin inflammation and thrombosis."

But in science, negative results are still results. The researchers looked for mechanisms that could explain the findings. The MRP14-deficient psoriasis mice still had lots of IL-6 in their skin, plus two other pro-inflammatory molecules, called IL-23 and IL-17. Ward hypothesized that IL-23 and IL-17 could be part of a "workaround" mechanism in the mice that compensated for a lack of MRP14 and sustained skin inflammation.

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"IL-23 and IL-17 are the targets for all the newest psoriasis drugs," said Ward. The two molecules have emerged as critical mediators of autoimmunity, and can be leveraged to improve psoriasis skin. When the researchers blocked these molecules in their genetically modified mice, skin inflammation and thrombosis disappeared. Not only that, IL-6 in the skin went down. Said Ward, "We discovered that blocking IL-23/IL-17 decreased skin-derived IL-6 in MRP14-deficient psoriasis mice and reversed the thrombosis." But, the researchers had decreased IL-6 indirectly, and wanted to see what happened to psoriasis mice when they eliminated IL-6 directly, not via other molecules. "There aren't straightforward approaches available to block IL-6 in mouse models," said Ward. "So we spent months genetically engineering our psoriasis mice to lack the gene encoding IL-6." Using her newly created IL-6-deficient psoriasis animals, she was able to demonstrate that the thrombosis was gone. However, the mice still had psoriasis skin inflammation.

In a second study, published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, Ward identified several immune system molecules impacted by the genetic deletion of IL-6 in her psoriasis mice. Said Ward, "We were surprised to see compensatory increases in other pro-inflammatory molecules that we know are critically involved in sustaining skin inflammation. It is possible that these factors also increase in psoriasis patient skin and explain why they do not respond clinically to IL-6 blockade." Similar to her other experiments, the immune system had used a compensatory mechanism to sustain psoriasis-like skin inflammation in mice without IL-6. The IL-6-deficient mice still had psoriasis, just like the patients in the clinical trials.

The team had successfully separated psoriasis and cardiovascular disease outcomes. Ward concluded that while blocking IL-6 may not prevent psoriasis on its own, its levels are central to thrombosis events triggered by skin inflammation. The findings may also help explain how alternative immune system molecules could circumvent certain psoriasis treatments.

"Not everything works all the time in science," said Ward. "You have to dig deep and find something interesting from the experiments that don't work out the way you want them to." The next step for the researchers will be to determine how IL-6 interacts with blood and vessel wall components related to thrombosis. Together, the studies could pave the way for new treatments to lower the risk of heart disease in people living with psoriasis.
A genomic analysis study by Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey investigators and other colleagues has identified recurrent genomic alterations in a subset of breast cancer that are typically associated with a form of thyroid cancer and an intestinal birth defect known as Hirschsprung disease. Data from the study, conducted in conjunction with the Avera Center for Precision Oncology in South Dakota and Foundation Medicine in Massachusetts, are being presented as part of a poster presentation during the 2016 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium being held this week.

"The precision medicine approach involving DNA sequencing to pinpoint specific alterations that can be targeted with anti-cancer therapies is becoming an alternate treatment avenue for those with resistant cancers. But there are still some subsets of disease that are elusive to this approach. Such is the case for triple-negative and recurrent breast cancer," notes the study's lead investigator Kim M. Hirshfield, MD, PhD, medical oncologist at Rutgers Cancer Institute and assistant professor of medicine at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. With that, investigators wanted to apply a new genomic sequencing approach to help identify a subset of breast cancers that may respond to therapies already-approved for the treatment of patients with other cancers. At focus are powerful drivers of cancer growth known as 'fusion genes' that are often missed by standard sequencing approaches.

"Breast cancer contains many complex genomic rearrangements - almost like shifting words in a sentence. The new sentence will pass the 'spell check,' as all the words are correct, but now there is a whole new meaning to the sentence," notes Rutgers Cancer Institute Associate Director for Translational Science, Chief of Molecular Oncology and Omar Boraie Chair in Genomic Science Shridar Ganesan, MD, PhD, who is another investigator on the study. "These genes may be targeted with the right therapies, but we need to identify them first."

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Using advanced genomic sequencing techniques, 8,119 breast cancer cases were examined for 315 cancer-related genes. Arrangements in a gene known as RET were identified in 22 cases and further evaluated for tumor development and treatment response in laboratory models. Mutations and rearrangements in RET are typically associated with subsets of thyroid cancer. Similar and newly-described RET rearrangements were observed in this breast cancer cohort. Expression of these rearrangements in normal cells caused the cells to form tumors. They cause activation of cellular pathways that support tumor growth and survival. Like thyroid cancers with these alterations, RET- altered breast cells were also killed by RET-targeting drugs. The effect was related to the specific type of rearrangement present. Treatment of a patient with a RET-altered breast cancer with a RET-targeting drug caused a rapid clinical response, supporting the idea that these alterations are targetable in breast cancer.

"Even if these actionable genes are only found in a minority of breast cancer cases, the clinical impact may still be quite powerful, and we can get to work on developing therapeutic clinical trials," notes Dr. Ganesan, who is also an associate professor of medicine and pharmacology at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Dr. Hirshfield agrees. "By further pinpointing certain nuances of aggressive and lethal forms of breast cancer, there is an opportunity to save more lives."

Source: Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey
Germany is investigating whether Volkswagen's sportscar brand Porsche used software to disguise exhaust emissions, the country's car industry regulator said on Thursday, in a fresh blow to VW's attempts to move on from a 15 month-old scandal.



Germany's Motor Transport Authority, KBA, said it was examining software that can measure the angle of a car's steering wheel.



At stake is whether Porsche used software to detect whether its cars were being subjected to laboratory tests, using this information to switch to a less polluting emissions pattern than would occur under normal driving conditions.



Porsche was not immediately available for comment.



VW admitted in September 2015 to using illegal "defeat device" software in the United States to disguise the true level of toxic emissions from diesel engines, sparking the biggest business crisis in its history.



It has agreed to a multi-billion dollar settlement with U.S. authorities and is spending billions more to refit vehicles and speed up development of electric cars.



The KBA is already conducting a similar investigation into VW's Audi brand, which supplies engines to Porsche.



Germany's WirtschaftsWoche was first to report on Thursday that Porsche was being subjected to a probe.
: British national Christian Michel, the alleged middleman in the AgustaWestland chopper deal, told CNN-News18 on Friday that he had never met former Air Force chief SP Tyagi who was arrested by the CBI on Friday.Michel, however, admitted to meeting the former IAF chiefs cousin Sanjiv alias Julie Tyagi at a party. He was introduced to me as a person who was working in the energy sector and an influential person. I was never told formally that the Tyagis were working for Agusta or helping Agusta in the chopper deal, Michel told CNN-News18.Tyagi was arrested on Friday along with Julie and lawyer Gautam Khaitan for alleged corruption in the Rs 3,600-crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal case.The Rs 3600 crore to supply 12 VVIP helicopters from AgustaWestland came under the scanner after Italian authorities alleged that bribe was paid by the company to clinch the deal. Tyagi has been accused of influencing the deal in favour of AgustaWestland during his tenure as the IAF chief. He has repeatedly denied the allegations.Michel had written to the CBI in August 2016, expressing willingness to join the probe but had requested that the CBI withdraw a pending red corner notice against him and that he be allowed to keep a video recording of the interrogation.On December 2, a Delhi court issued a fresh non-bailable warrant against Michel after the prosecution submitted that the alleged middleman was out of India.In a December 4 interview to CNN-News18, Michel said he was afraid of being arrested on landing in India. Will not accept plea bargain if offered. I have feel I am being targeted in this case. I am too small. I have never met the Gandhis, AK Antony (then defence minister) and Pranab Mukherjee (then finance minister), Michel had said.
: Former Air Force chief SP Tyagi, his cousin Sanjiv alias Julie Tyagi and lawyer Gautam Khaitan were on Friday arrested by the CBI for alleged corruption in the Rs 3,600-crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal case.Sources said they will be produced in court on Saturday.Tyagi, who retired in 2007, was questioned by the CBI extensively in the past in this case. "This is the first time that a former IAF chief has been arrested by the central probe agency," official sources said.The Rs 3600 crore to supply 12 VVIP helicopters from AgustaWestland came under the scanner after Italian authorities alleged that bribe was paid by the company to clinch the deal. Tyagi has been accused of influencing the deal in favour of AgustaWestland during his tenure as the IAF chief. He has repeatedly denied the allegations.Here are some other key players in the Rs 3600-crore deal:- SP TYAGI: Former Air chief allegedly reduced flying ceiling of the helicopter from 6,000m to 4,500m (15,000ft) which put AgustaWestland helicopters in the race for the deal- SANJEEV AKA JULIE TYAGI: SP Tyagis cousin allegedly accepted illegal gratification for exercising influence through corrupt and or illegal means.- DOCSA TYAGI: SP Tyagis cousin allegedly accepted illegal gratification for exercising influence through corrupt and or illegal means.- SANDEEP TYAGI: SP Tyagis cousin allegedly accepted illegal gratification for exercising influence through corrupt and or illegal means.- Gautam Khaitan (who was formerly associated with Aeromatrix Info Solutions Pvt. Ltd): The facilitator who ED says eventually brought money to India through Mauritius route for payment of illegal gratification.- PRAVEEN BAKSHI (WORKING CEO OF AEROMATRIX): Has admitted his company played an important role in the channelising of money for illegal gratification...[and Finmeccanica] have brought money through this company by way of fictitious/over invoices.- GIUSEPPE ORSI (FINMECCANICAS FORMER CHIEF): Was sentenced by the Milan appeals court to four-and-a-half years in jail for false accounting and corruption in the sale of VVIP choppers.- BRUNO SPAGNOLINI, CEO OF AGUSTAWESTLAND: Sentenced to jail 4 years for false accounting and corruption in deals.- GUIDO RALPH HASCHKE: Alleged middlemen who got 51 million euros from Agustawestland to swing the contract.- CHRISTINE SPLIID: Is believed to have made several trips to India on Christian Michel's behalf, according to a news report and met key Indian accused involved in the deal.
Tourists stranded in #Andaman due to bad weather: IAF rescue operations underway pic.twitter.com/QMGirWs68t  ANI (@ANI_news) December 9, 2016

Tourists stranded in Andaman due to bad weather: Indian Coast Guard rescue operation underway (Pic: ICG) pic.twitter.com/8fCDWiHzs9  ANI (@ANI_news) December 9, 2016

Relief effort is now in full swing and there should not be any problem.We have enough assets there: DK Sharma,Navy PRO on #Andaman pic.twitter.com/cDZ2OPMJ0w  ANI (@ANI_news) December 9, 2016

Rescue operations of around 1,400 stranded tourists in two islands of Andamans due to cyclonic weather began this morning as the Navy, Coast Guard and Union Territory administration jointly undertook a major evacuation drive.Governor of Andaman & Nicobar Jagdish Mukhi said, Things will be better by tomorrow, till then instructed hotels to not charge tourists for stay and food. There is no causality because of this weather. All tourists are safe and they all are in hotels.A defence official said three choppers of the Indian Air force landed at Havelock island, as the weather improved today, and brought back 17 people in the first shuttle.Six naval ships, two of these from Coast Guard, sailed out in the morning hours from Port Blair for the rescue operations, the official said.The operation began in full swing as the weather improved with the sun shining, four days after the cyclonic weather stranded thousands in two islands of Havelock and Neil.All tourists are safe and their needs are being taken care of by the administration.Located about 40 km from here, Havelock and Neil islands are the most popular tourist attractions of Andamans, and the worst affected."A decision has been taken that hotels, where tourists are stranded, will not take room rent from them, besides giving them food and water for free," Deputy Commissioner of South Andamans Udit Prakash Rai had said yesterday.
Beijing: China on Thursday refused to comment on a proposal being pushed by India and Russia to swap natural gas between the countries, including Myanmar, saying it was not aware of the details and preferred to know the reactions of other parties involved.



ONGC Videsh Ltd Managing Director Narendra K Verma said yesterday in New Delhi that India and Russia were in talks to swap natural gas with Myanmar and China respectively as an alternative to build a USD 25-billion pipeline, which would be the world's most expensive.



Currently, Myanmar sells gas to China through an existing pipeline. But according to the proposal, if Russia provides equivalent gas to China, then India can reverse the flow of gas from Myanmar to China and bring that gas to India. In effect, Russia will supply gas to China and in return China will give its share of gas from Myanmar to India.



"I have noticed this. But we don't know the details," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told reporters when asked about the proposal.



"I suggest you check with other relevant parties Russia and Myanmar," he said declining to outline China's stand yet.



India and Russia had in October signed an initial pact for building a 4,500-6,000 kilometre-long pipeline from Siberia to the world's third-biggest energy consumer.



But Verma said talks are on with Russian gas monopoly Gazprom for the alternative swap arrangement.



A smaller and economical pipeline from Myanmar will need to be build into eastern India for importing that gas. For the arrangement to see the light of the day would require China and Myanmar to come on board.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court (SC) on Friday raised tough questions on demonetisation and asked what measures are being taken by the government to reduce inconvenience to people.



The apex court also asked the Attorney General to frame basic question of law in demonetisation case which have to be argued.



On the context of cooperative banks, the court asked the Centre to respond to whether district cooperative banks can be allowed to accept deposits in demonetised currency notes or not and whether it is inclined to fix a minimum assured amount out of Rs 24,000 a week for withdrawal.



SC also asked government to respond on whether it will extend use of demonetised notes in govt hospitals.



SC asked Centre to respond on Wednesday.






Mumbai: It is not so good news for people who have kept old Rs 500 notes to buy railway, metro or bus tickets as the government has decided to advance its last usage date from December 15 to December 10.



A notification was issued by the finance ministry indicating the changes.



In its FAQs (frequently asked questions), the Reserve Bank of India on Thursday said using old Rs 500 notes will be discontinued with effect from December 10 midnight at railway ticketing counters, to buy tickets of government or public sector undertaking buses and to pay catering services on board during travel by rail.



It will also be discontinued for making payments to buy tickets for travel by suburban and metro rail services.



But the old Rs 500 notes will be accepted in government hospitals for medical treatment and pharmacies in government hospitals to buy medicines with doctor's prescription till December 15 as stated earlier.



It will also be accepted at milk booths operating under authorisation of the central or state governments, at crematoria and burial grounds, in all pharmacies on production of doctor's prescription and proof of identity and to purchase LPG cylinders.



The old Rs 500 notes will also be accepted to buy entry tickets for monuments maintained by the Archaeological Survey of India.



The few other areas where old Rs 500 notes will be accepted are: for paying fees, charges, taxes or penalties, payable to the central or state governments including municipal and local bodies; towards utility charges for water and electricity; for court fees and fees up to Rs 2,000 per student in central and state government, municipal and local body schools.
New Delhi: Former Air Force chief SP Tyagi, his cousin Sanjiv alias Julie Tyagi and lawyer Gautam Khaitan were on Friday arrested by the CBI for alleged corruption in the Rs 3,600-crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal case.



Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government had in February 2010 signed a contract with UK-based AgustaWestland to purchase 12 AW101 helicopters for the Indian Air Force for Rs 3,600 crore.



These choppers were supposed to be used for flying the President of India, the Prime Minister, and other such VVIPs.



AgustaWestland CEO Bruno Spagnolini and Guiseppe Orsi, chairman of AgustaWestland's parent company Finmeccanica, were arrested by Italian police in February 2013 on charges of paying bribes to win the deal with the IAF.



Several IAF officers including its former chiefs came under the scanner.



After Spagnolini and Orsi were arrested, the UPA government put a hold on the deal. Former defence minister AK Antony ordered a CBI probe into the matter.



Timeline of the case:



August 1999 - The Indian Air Force (IAF), which is responsible for carrying out VVIP communication duties, proposes replacement of Mi-8 helicopters due to operational constraints.



March 2002 - A global request for proposals issued.



November, 2003 - Concerns were raised on single-vendor situation in a meeting taken by Atal Bihari Vajpayee's PMO. A few recommendations were also made to change some requirements to accomodate more vendors.



March, 2005 - IAF changes crucial requirements in the chopper acquistion, including altitude requirement that qualifies Agustawestland to complete.



September, 2006 - With consulation from Manmohan Singh's PMO tenders were issued to six vendors. Requirement of choppers was also revised upwards from 8 to 12.



January 2010 - The Cabinet Committee on Security clears proposal to acquire 12 helicopters for use of VVIPs after a long process that involved change in some parameters, evaluations and and negotiations.



February, 2010 - Ministry of defence (MoD) concludes contract for supply of 12 AW-101 VVIP helicopters with Britain's AgustaWestland.



February 2012 - Media reports about allegations of unethical dealings in helicopter procurement appear. MOD seeks factual report from Indian embassy in Rome.



February, 2013 - Italian Police arrest Giuseppe Orsi, CEO of Finmeccanica, parent company of AgustaWestland, as part of bribery investigations into the chopper deal.



February, 2013 - MOD initiates action for cancellation of contract and puts on hold payments to company. Issues a formal show cause notice to AgustaWestland seeking cancellation of contract and taking other actions as per the terms of the contract and the integrity pact. Investigation handed over to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).



February, 2013 - CBI registers a preliminary enquiry (PE) against 11 people, including former IAF chief SP Tyagi, and four companies.



March, 2013 - CBI registers a first information report (FIR) against Tyagi and 12 others for alleged criminal conspiracy and cheating in the chopper deal.



November 2013 - AgustaWestland officials meet MoD officials to present their case. The company nominates Justice BN Srikrishna for arbitration. It submits its reply to the final show cause notice before Nov 26 deadline.



January, 2014 - The Indian government terminates the agreement on grounds of breach of the Pre-contract Integrity Pact (PCIP) and agreement by AgustaWestland.



September, 2014: Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrests businessman Gautam Khaitan on allegations of kickbacks in the Rs 3,600-crore AgustaWestland chopper deal.



October, 2014: An Italian court acquits former chairman of AgustaWestland Mr Orsi and former AgustaWestland head Bruno Spagnolini. Sentenced to a 2-year jail term on the false accounting charge.



April 7, 2016: Mr Orsi sentenced to 4.5 years in jail for false accounting and corruption by an Italian court. Bruno Spagnolini was also handed a four-year jail term on the same charges. The court also decided to confiscate belongings of the two men worth 7.5 milion euros ($8.5 million).



April 27, 2016: Christian James Michel, the middleman in the AgustaWestland deal, tells CNN News18 he is willing to come to India to face the authorities. He also wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene. In his letter to Modi, he claimed that he is willing to share evidence related to the AgustaWestland case with the investigating agencies.



He denied reports of him and his father being close to the Gandhi family.



May 2, 2016: CBI begins grilling former Indian Air Force chief Air Chief Marshal SP Tyagi over his alleged links with middlemen.



December 9, 2016: SP Tyagi, his cousin Sanjiv alias Julie Tyagi and lawyer Gautam Khaitan arrested by the CBI on corruption charges.
New Delhi: Hours after defence minister Manohar Parrikar attacked West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee in a letter, Didi was quick to respond and said: "During my long political and administrative life, I have never seen such misuse of a respected organisation," referring to the army.



"They don't know how to write a letter to a chief minister," she said.



A surprised Mamata also said that her complaint was not against the army but the government and its policies. Taking a dig at Parrikar, she said: "I take strong exception to your wild assertion that my remarks had impacted the morale of the armed forces. Your remarks about the chief minister of a state are near defamatory."



Referring to her December 1 letter wherein CM Mamata had accused the Centre of creating a situation "worse than Emergency" by deploying Army personnel at Palsit and Dankuni toll plazas on NH-2 in West Bengal without informing her government, Mamata said: "I had, in essence, pointed out loud and clear that your ministry had not taken state's permission for deployment of armies in civil areas simultaneously at different places."



Hitting out at the Centre, Mamata said that the government paid no heed to Kolkata Police's objection.



"Earlier, we offered full cooperation but this ministry made a departure. Written clearance from the state government should be invariably obtained before initiating any such exercise.



Manohar Parrikar had on Friday, in a letter, to Mamata Banerjee expressed pain over dragging the Army into a controversy after she accused the Centre of creating a 'coup-like situation in West Bengal.



"I have been deeply pained by your allegation, your allegation in this regard runs the risk of adversely impacting the morale of armed forces and the same was not expected from the person of your standing and experience in public," he had written.




Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar's letter to WB CM Mamata Banerjee, expresses pain over dragging the Army into controversy pic.twitter.com/LVAsdoscsl

 ANI (@ANI_news) December 9, 2016

Letter has not reached WB CM and its already leaked to media. We will give a befitting reply when it comes:Derek O Brien on Manohar Parrikar pic.twitter.com/yIvMFRUwk5  ANI (@ANI_news) December 9, 2016

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Friday wrote a letter to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and expressed pain over dragging the Army into a controversy after she accused the Centre of creating a 'coup' like situation in West Bengal.West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had on December 1 accused the Centre of creating a situation "worse than Emergency" by deploying Army personnel at Palsit and Dankuni toll plazas on NH-2 in West Bengal without informing her government."I have been deeply pained by your allegation, your allegation in this regard run the risk of adversely impacting the morale of armed forces and the same was not expected from the person of your standing and experience in public," he wrote.Further, Parrikar asserted that Indian Army is one of the most disciplined institution of our country dedicated to the safety and security of the nation.Attacking CM Mamata Banerjee for her statement, Parrikar said, "Political parties and the politicians may have the luxury of making wild and unsubstantiated allegations against each other, but one needs to be extremely careful while referring to armed forces." As per Trinamool Congress' Derek O' Brien, the letter has not reached the West Bengal Chief Minister.Reacting to the letter, TMC leader Sukhendu Shekhar said, "We have all respect for Indian Army. We have also submitted the detail on how Army was depolyed. What the Defense Minister has written is totally rubbish."
New Delhi: In the middle of heavy duty English and Hindi barbs from the treasury and Opposition benches in the Lok Sabha on Friday, the sound of Mathiakku added some lighter moments to the heated exchanges over the issue of demonetization.



CPM MP from Kerala A Sampath had decided to give voice to his protest against demonetization but in his mother tongue Malayalam.



'Mathiakku' in Malayalam means - stop it. Sampath was asking the Government to stop the inconvenience of demonetization.



What made it interesting was Bangla speaking MPs from TMC, Bhojpuri speaking MPs from RJD, Assamese speakers from Congress all joined in the slogan of 'Mathiakku' amidst laughter from treasury, Opposition and speaker too.



Sampath's exact slogan was "Aiyye Aiyye Manakkedu,

Ambambe Manakkedu

Mathiakku, Mathiakku

Olichottam itu Mathiakku "



He translated it for CNN-News18- are you not ashamed of yourself? Why are you running away from a discussion? Stop it.



Sampath said he did not want to lose the opportunity of highlighting the problems surrounding demonetization even though they were in his mother tongue.



"It is for the benefit of my constituency and so I decided to raise the slogan in Malayalam," Sampath said.



On the non Malayalam speaking MPs joining him Sampath said, " just as there is no barrier in music, a slogan that is lyrical and rhythmic can also be enjoyed by most human beings. I being from the south don't understand ghazal, yet I enjoy it. Similarly all MPs enjoyed my slogans and so joined in."



Sampath's regional turn soon inspired TMC to launch slogans in Bangla and BJP MPs and Ministers including Ram Vilas Paswan congratulated him.



The purpose of Sampath's slogan was solved when Speaker adjourned the house.
officially closed its acquisition of professional social networking serviceon Thursday.The companies were in talking terms about the deal since the last six months.The deal was initiated in June when the CEOs of Microsoft and LinkedIn,and, came together with a vision of creating the worlds most valuable professional network for their users.As we build for the future, our commitment to our mission, vision, values and your experience remain unchanged. Our members still come first and creating economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce has never been more important. Jeff Weiner posted as a note of officiation in a blog post LinkedIn will remain unchanged for its users as a part of the deal and will only look to leverage Microsofts expertise to provide an even better experience in the future, says Weiner.The deal was finalised as thecleared the acquisition on the condition that Microsoft allows other professional social networks to use its Office applications in the future.Following this, the governments of US, Canada, Brazil and South Africa also gave their approvals to the
Samsung Electronics Co Ltd will supply semiconductors to U.S. electric car maker Tesla Motors Inc, South Korea's Electronic Times reported on Friday citing unnamed sources.



Samsung would contract manufacture chips for self-driving features in Tesla vehicles, the paper reported, without putting a value on the order.



The South Korean firm has been trying to build auto-related sales for components such as semiconductors and displays in a push to develop a new growth engine. Samsung in November said it would acquire Harman International Industries (HAR.N) for $8 billion in a bid to grow quickly in the automotive market.



Samsung did not immediately comment on the report, while Tesla could not be immediately reached for comment.
Washington: At least 50,000 Islamic State jihadists have been killed by the US-led coalition since it began operations in Iraq and Syria in late 2014, a senior US military official has said.



A relentless operation using planes and drones from a dozen or so members of the anti-IS coalition since August 2014 has conducted some 16,000 air strikes against the jihadists in Iraq and Syria -- two-thirds of them in Iraq.



In addition, the coalition has provided training and weapons to local forces fighting IS.



"I am not into morbid counts but that kind of volume matters, that kind of impact on the enemy," the official said on Thursday, calling the 50,000 number a conservative estimate.



The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the air campaign had been the "most pristine" ever in terms of avoiding civilian casualties, with almost all the bombs dropped so far being smart weapons that can be steered to a precise target.



The coalition tally of civilians killed in the operations is 173 -- though critics say the real figure is far higher.



The official said the coalition had diminished IS's ranks to such a level that the simultaneous attacks being waged on Mosul in Iraq and Raqa in Syria -- the jihadists last remaining major power centers -- have been possible.



Coalition spokesman Colonel John Dorrian said earlier that in Mosul, IS was turning to adolescent fighters as its hardcore warriors got wiped out.



"As this effort goes on with each passing day, Daesh has fewer fighters and fewer resources at their disposal," Dorrian said in a videocall, using an Arabic IS acronym.



He added the jihadists appeared to have run out of armored suicide car bombs, and estimated "many hundreds" of fighters had been killed in Mosul.



"It doesn't mean that it's not still an extraordinarily dangerous situation. They are not going to go quietly, but they are going to go."



The coalition has previously said it "does not use a casualty count as a measure of effectiveness in the campaign to ultimately defeat (IS) in Iraq and Syria".



Despite this assertion, such figures are periodically announced.



Airwars, a London-based collective of journalists and researchers, uses local sources, photographs and media accounts to keep a detailed list of every known coalition air strike.



They have praised Pentagon efforts at accountability compared with other actors in Syria such as Russia and the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. But the group says the number of likely civilian deaths from coalition strikes is 1,957 at a bare minimum.
Owen"FatMeat" Dawson,38, of Monroe, passed away unexpectedly on Saturday, December 3, 2016. Owen is survived by his wife, Kelly Bush Dawson. He leaves to cherish his memories son, Jacob Wynn and daughter Scarlett Rae.Born in Norfolk onSeptember 8, 1978, he was the son of Harry and Nancy Dawson. Owen was preceded indeath by a nephew, Liam Burkholder. He is also survived by a step-daughter,Megan Hopkins; two sisters, Stephanie (Tim) Burkholder, Charlie (Kevin) Osborne;mother and father-in-law, Belinda and Donnie Bush; a brother-in-law, Chris Bush;a sister-in-law, Kim Davis; an uncle, Buddy Dawson; many nieces andnephews and two special friends, Ben Hartsook and Matt Burnette.Owen loved fishing andhunting and his union brothers, IBEW Local 70. He was also a member of the Lynchburg South Moose Family Center #1727.A celebration of life willbe held at 4:00 p.m., Saturday, December 10, 2016 in the chapel of Heritage FuneralService by Pastor Brad Mullinax and Rev. Michael Fitzgerald. The family willreceive friends after the service at the funeralhome.Please consider a donation to the fund set up for Jacob's education at Temple Christian School P.O. Box 970 Madison Heights, VA 24572, attention Jacob Dawson education fund.Heritage Funeral Serviceand Crematory, (434) 239-2405 is assisting the family. Memories and thoughts maybe shared with the family atwww.heritagefuneralandcremation.com
The consensus in Israel is that the relationship between the Jewish state and the United States is going to improve in a Trump administration, says former Israeli ambassador to the U.S., Zalman Shoval.

On a recent visit to Washington, D.C., Shoval told me that he believes Donald Trump and his cabinet picks so far have a more realistic view of the Middle East than President Obama, who from his first days in office, perhaps before, believed it was his calling to fix once and for all, all matters between the U.S. and the Arab and Muslim worlds, as expressed in his Cairo speech. ... This gives Trump in the hearts and minds of more than a few Israelis a head-start.

Shoval said he believes the issue of a Palestinian state  the objective of U.S. foreign policy over several administrations  has become less concerning than the regional and international threat posed by a nuclear Iran. He likes recent statements by secretary of defense-designate Gen. James Mattis about the way forward in dealing with an unstable Iran, believing Mattis recognizes that as important as it is to defeat ISIS, the real threat in the Middle East is Iran.

Its not only the nuclear deal that bothers Shoval, though he believes Iran will eventually have a bomb, unless it is stopped. It is also bothersome that Iran continues with its terrorist activities, subsidizing anti-American and anti-Israel groups around the world because radical mullahs think their god has ordered them to do so. That makes any kind of diplomatic agreement with nations Iran regards as infidels impossible.

Even when the battle for Mosul is over and victory has been declared over that ISIS stronghold, Shoval believes, what it really will mean is that the Iranians and the Shia are going to be the real victors. They will continue their attempts to build a territorial corridor all the way to the Mediterranean along with Hezbollah, which is not only a threat to Israel, but also something the so-called moderate Arab states look at with a great deal of concern.

Shoval says he hopes the incoming Trump administration realizes that Iran cannot be a partner with the United States in the Middle East even if from time to time it seems like that because of whats happening in Syria. Ultimately, Iran is a great danger.

People like former President Jimmy Carter have a different worldview. In a recent op-ed for The New York Times, Carter called on President Obama to recognize a Palestinian state before he leaves office. Carter also called on the United Nations to pass a resolution setting the parameters for resolving the conflict.

I believe in miracles, but for the U.N., or anyone else, to resolve a conflict in which one side thinks it has a heavenly mandate to destroy the other is not where most people would see as a good starting point for conflict resolution. Carter continues to trade off his one success  the peace agreement between Egypt and Israel. But getting one thing right with a unique combination of leaders, one of whom  Anwar Sadat  was assassinated by Islamic fanatics for making peace with Israel, is like an astrologer wanting credit for one prediction that came true while ignoring hundreds that didnt.

Shoval disagrees with those who think the Israel-Palestinian status quo is not sustainable. He believes it is, otherwise a Palestinian state would mean Hamas and Hezbollah would be just 20 minutes away from Jerusalem and in a position to overwhelm Israel.

In his book, The Field of Fight, Michael Flynn, Trumps pick to head the National Security Council, writes about President Obama: I find it simply incredible that an American president should believe a strategic alliance with Iran to be more attractive than our traditional embrace of Israel. Our new leaders need to reverse that, pronto. We will need Israel if were going to defeat the radical Islamists, and above all, the Iranians.

This is the opposite of wishful thinking.

Thomas is a columnist and Fox News contributor. Contact him through his website, CalThomas.com.
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The Golden Age, the Silver Age, and beyond: the different eras of comic book history explained

What do people mean when they refer to the Golden Age, Silver Age, Bronze Age, and beyond?
John wins Rising Star

John captured the coveted title and won $250,000. In a hardfought Christmas-themed battle against second place winner, Teriann Baker, John gained the final approval from both the judges as well as the voting at home audience. Baker earned $150,000, however, both contestants received trophies, handsets from corporate partner Huawei, a year free service on Digicel Play and mobile services.

Speaking of her performance John stated: Before every performance I silently battled anxiety, but when my name was announced as the winner of the 2016 Digicel Rising Stars, I felt like I was in the eye of a hurricane.

I am grateful to everyone in the Digicel Rising Star team who truly made my experience unforgettable and helped me grow into a calm confident performer.

I plan to celebrate by keeping the ball rolling. My fans can expect good quality music from me with the same touch of versatility I exhibited in the competition, John said in a media release.

She thanked her supporters both past and present who never cease to encourage me. The finals of the competition opened with a stellar performance from the 2015 Rising Star, Angela Didier.

Also performing was Digicel Staff Star winner, Allana Salandy who stayed in Christmas theme with her rendition of Oh Holy Night
SHANNONS BODY FOUND

The Trinidad and Tobago Police Service issued a press release last night identifying two men - Matthew Maharaj and Dale Seecharan - as being persons of interest in the investigations into the murder of 20-year-old Banfield. Last night, police sources said that two men, one from El Socorro and the other from San Juan surrendered to police.

The search continued late last night for a third suspect. Assistant Commissioner of Police (Crime) Irving Hackshaw told Newsday that a manhunt was launched for all persons involved in the murder and he assured, no stone would be left unturned in the pursuit of suspects.

Police sources revealed that the two men who are among 14 persons employed at the warehouse and store, failed to show up for work on Tuesday and also failed to contact owner of the company Ishmael Ali as to the reason for their no-show. Officers spent several hours interviewing staff members of the store hours after a foul odour led to the discovery of Banfields bloated corpse on the third floor.

Rumours that she was stuffed in a freezer, were dismissed by investigators.

Banfield was last seen alive shopping at Pennywise and IAM and Co Ltd on Monday afternoon after leaving work at Republic Banks Independence Square, Port-of- Spain branch. According to police, at about 1 pm yesterday, a security guard employed with IAM & Co went in search of the source of a foul stench which was believed to be caused by a dead rat. He later discovered Banfields swollen body on a shelf, beneath a pile of boxes and bags littered around her. She was clad in her bank uniform. Near the body were her lunch bag and Pennywise bags containing items she purchased on Monday.

Relatives including Banfields step-father who is a police officer went to the scene and positively identified her body. At about seven oclock last night, Banfields body was removed to the Forensic Science Centre in St James where an autopsy will be done today. While police were at the scene, Charlotte Street had to be cordoned off to keep back onlookers, most of whom appeared stunned as news of the discovery of Banfields body being found reached them.

In the southland, dozens of equally shocked persons could be seen standing on the pavement on High Street in San Fernando listening to news alerts on television sets and radios inside several businesses which reported on the discovery of the body. Businessmen along Charlotte Street said they noticed a foul stench permeating the area since Tuesday but they thought nothing of it believing it to be some dead animal stuck in drains beneath the pavement.

Reacting to news of the discovery yesterday, a close relative of Banfield told Newsday that CCTV footage showed Banfield entering the IAM & Co branch on Frederick St and made her way north towards Pennywise on Monday evening. The footage shows she went to Iam first and then to Pennywise. I was on the phone with Shannon at 4.50 pm on Monday and I asked her if she got everything and she answered, yes. Banfield told her relative that she was now heading towards the San Juan taxi stand en route to their home in Santa Cruz. The relative described Shannon as a loving person and that the entire family was left stunned on the news that she was found dead as they had been praying day and night for Banfields safe return to her McCarthy Street, Cantaro Village, Santa Cruz home.

(Additional reporting by Marlene Augustine)
Opendoor Is Laying Off

Almost a Fifth of Its Workers
(Newser)  Current and former black employees of CNN and Turner Broadcasting filed a class action lawsuit against the companies and their parent company, Time Warner, this week, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. The employees allege racial discrimination. CNN producer DeWayne Walker sued the network individually in January, claiming he was skipped over for promotions for more than 13 years because he's black. "As a result of the current discrimination lawsuit filed on behalf of DeWayne Walker ... we have uncovered stories involving abuse of power, nepotism, revenge, retaliation, and discrimination," says Walker's lawyer, Daniel Meachum.

Walker is not a plaintiff in the class action lawsuit; just two plaintiffs are named in the lawsuit, but Meachum says 20 to 30 other unnamed people told him of their experiences, which prove "a company-wide pattern and practice" going back more than two decades, he says. The lawsuit alleges that black employees receive "disproportionately lower scores on evaluations" and are also discriminated against when it comes to compensation, promotions, and terminations. It also alleges that black employees have been subjected to racial slurs from their superiors. Two other black CNN employees have sued the network for discrimination this year, the Hill reports. Meachum tells LawNewz that since his lawsuit was announced, 20 to 30 additional people have requested to become part of the class. (Read more racial discrimination stories.)
(Newser)  Two women shared extremely personal stories of rape in the UK House of Commons on the United Nations' International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women Thursday. Their stories left fellow MPs in tears, but it was Scottish MP Michelle Thomson, who represents Edinburgh West, whose words are being widely reported. In her "extraordinarily clear-eyed and articulate account," as Quartz calls it, Thomson said that the crime happened 37 years ago in the woods when she was 14, that she knew the attacker, that it happened "mercifully quick," and that she went home and told no one. "I was crying. I was cold. I was shivering. ... I didn't tell my mother. I didn't tell my father. I didn't tell my friends. And I didn't tell the police. I bottled it all up inside me." (See the video here.)

In the end Thomson never told her mother, which she says was "possibly cowardly" but also "an act of love" to protect her, reports the BBC. She did feel a "duty" to tell her husband when they got married 12 years later, but she says it wasn't until her 40s that she finally sought help through therapy. She says that while her self-esteem was damaged for years, and that she felt "spoiled" and disgusted by herself, she now knows that rape isn't about sex but rather "it's about power and control, and it is a crime of violence." And, she adds, "I'm not a victim; I'm a survivor." Her colleague, Labour MP Tracy Brabin, said she was raped by a stranger at 20, reports the Gazette and Herald, but she says she was "one of the lucky ones" because he got locked up. (This rape survivor worked with a man accused of rape.)
(Newser)  In January, Donald Trump will apparently be at the top of the executive branches of both the United States of America and Celebrity Apprentice. MGM has confirmed to Variety that Trump will be credited as an executive producer of the reality show's relaunched series, though he's been replaced as host by Arnold Schwarzenegger. Trump's name will appear in the credits after that of show creator and MGM president Mark Burnett, according to Variety, which estimates that Trump's compensation per episode "is likely to be in the low five-figures, at minimum."

Trump says he will be leaving his businesses "in total" to focus on running the country, though he hasn't publicly discussed the Celebrity Apprentice role. "Mr. Trump has a big stake in the show and conceived of it with Mark Burnett. Additional details regarding his business interests will be shared December 15th," a transition team spokeswoman said in a statement to the Hollywood Reporter. Trump is unlikely to be doing any actual work on the show: The AP notes that while a TV producer's tasks vary, "the credit also can be given as a so-called vanity perk and for compensation without actively working on a project." (Read more Celebrity Apprentice stories.)
(Newser)  Erica Lafferty, daughter of slain Sandy Hook Elementary School principal Dawn Hochsprung, wants Donald Trump to cut his ties with a man who claims the 2012 Connecticut mass shooting didn't really happen. Radio host Alex Jones, who also runs the Infowars website, "has fanned the flames of a hateful conspiracy theory," Lafferty writes in an open letter to the president-elect, urging him to "denounce it immediately and cut ties with Alex Jones and anyone who subscribes to these dangerous ideas." Jones has claimed the 2012 shooting that killed 20 kids and six adults was "synthetic, completely fake with actors." More recently, Jones has been spreading the PizzaGate conspiracy theory and spoke of "investigating" it in person days before a gunman actually did so, reports People.

"You've appeared on Jones' radio show, praised his 'amazing' reputation, and promised him that you 'won't let him down,'" writes Lafferty, whose mother was killed trying to stop the school gunman. "Now he's claiming you've personally called to thank him after the election, and will be on his show again soon. It's unacceptable." Her letter, first released the week after Trump won the election, is now being circulated with an added petition by advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety as the anniversary of the Dec. 14 massacre approaches. (Another Sandy Hook conspiracy theorist was arrested this week for allegedly threatening to kill the parent of a murdered child.)
(Newser)  Some leading Senate Republicans are on a "direct collision course" with Donald Trump over the election, according to the Washington Post. The GOP senatorsincluding prominent Trump critics John McCain and Lindsey Grahamare planning to launch an aggressive and wide-ranging probe of alleged Russian meddling in the election and other cyberattacks. The Obama administration has accused Moscow of hacking American political sites to interfere with the election, but in a Time interview this week, Trump, who has praised Vladimir Putin and promised to improve relations with Russia, disagreed. "I don't believe they interfered," he said. "It could be Russia. And it could be China. And it could be some guy in his home in New Jersey."

House and Senate Democrats may find themselves allied with Senate Republicans on the issue: Democrats wrote to President Obama this week asking for a classified briefing on "Russian or Russian-related interference or involvement in our recent election," including the spreading of fake news stories, the Guardian reports. The Post reports that administration officials say they had planned to brief senators on Russian hacking on Thursday but had to cancel when the Senate Intelligence Committee broadened the scope of the hearing. Reuters reports that there's a second Russian issue that could cause clashes between senators and Trump: On Thursday, a bipartisan group of 27 senators wrote to the president-elect calling for him to take a hard line against Moscow's "military land grab" in Ukraine. (Read more Donald Trump stories.)
(Newser)  An inmate serving a life sentence who escaped from a maximum-security South Carolina prison and allegedly stabbed a police officer while on the run was recaptured after a locked door stopped him from getting into a school, authorities say. Michael Allen Williamson, 47, was caught at Northside Christian Academy in Lexington at 10:30am Thursday, about 13 hours after the stabbing, investigators say. A parent at a nearby different school saw Williamson dressed in all black with a black stocking mask and told the police officer at the school, the AP reports. Police say Williamson ran from the officer and tried to get inside the school, but the doors were locked. He then sat down on a bench and surrendered without fighting.

Williamson was discovered missing from McCormick Correctional Institution in the western part of the state around 8:50pm Wednesday. Forty minutes later, he was accused of stabbing Columbia police officer Ashley Hardesty, who had been investigating a report of shoplifting in a Walmart, police say. Her protective vest deflected many blows, but Hardesty was treated for two stab wounds to her arm and shoulder and released from the hospital Thursday morning. McCormick Correctional Institution is about 80 miles from the Walmart and the trip is down a number of country roads. Investigators believe Williamson escaped from the prison inside a food delivery truck. It's not clear whether the inmate, who's 19 years into a sentence of life without parole for armed robbery and assault with intent to kill, had any help. (Read more prison break stories.)
(Newser)  A man who killed an Alabama convenience store clerk more than two decades ago was put to death Thursday night, an execution that required two consciousness tests as the inmate heaved and coughed 13 minutes into the lethal injection. Ronald Bert Smith Jr., 45, was pronounced dead at 11:05pm, about 30 minutes after the procedure began at the state prison in southwest Alabama. Smith was convicted of capital murder in the Nov. 8, 1994, fatal shooting of Huntsville store clerk Casey Wilson. A jury voted 7-5 to recommend a sentence of life imprisonment, but a judge overrode that recommendation and sentenced Smith to death. Smith, who pistol-whipped Wilson and shot him in the head, replied, "No ma'am" when asked by the prison warden if he had any final words.

US Supreme Court justices put the execution on hold twice Thursday as Smith's attorneys argued for a delay, saying a judge shouldn't have been able to impose the death penalty when a jury recommended he receive life imprisonment. Four liberal justices said they would have halted the execution, but five were needed to do so. As the execution began, Smith heaved and coughed repeatedly, clenching his fists and raising his head, the AP reports. A prison guard performed two consciousness checks before the final two lethal drugs were administered. During the first one, Smith moved his arm, according to the AP. He slightly raised his right arm again after the second consciousness test. The state prison commissioner said he did not see any reaction. "We do know we followed our protocol. We are absolutely convinced of that," Alabama Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn said. (Read more execution stories.)
(Newser)  South Korean lawmakers on Friday impeached President Park Geun-hye, a stunning and swift fall for the country's first female leader amid protests that drew millions into the streets in united fury. Once formal documents are handed over to the presidential Blue House later Friday, Park will be stripped of her power and her No. 2, Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, will assume leadership until the country's Constitutional Court rules on whether Park must permanently step down, the AP reports. Park later apologized to the nation for "negligence" in a scandal that led to her fall. She said Friday at a meeting of her Cabinet that she takes seriously the voices of protesters and Parliament's actions to impeach her.

The Constitutional Court has up to 180 days to decide on Park's fate. She will be formally removed from office if at least six of the court's nine justices support her impeachment, and the country would then hold a presidential election within 60 days. National Assembly Speaker Chung Sye-kyun said the bill on Park's impeachment was passed by a vote of 234 for and 56 opposed, with seven invalid votes and two abstentions. That well surpassed the necessary two-thirds vote needed in the 300-seat assembly, with the opposition getting strong support from members of Park's party. The handover of power prompted the prime minister to order South Korea's defense minister to put the military in a state of heightened readiness to brace for any potential provocation by North Korea. (Read more Park Geun-hye stories.)
(Newser)  Using Twitter to attack a private citizen is about as presidential as firing spitballs, Donald Trump's critics said after he took to social media in a feud with a union chief. The president-elect is being accused of cyberbullying Chuck Jones, the United Steelworkers Local 1999 leader who criticized how he handled a deal to save jobs at a Carrier plant in Indianapolis. "When you attack a man for living an ordinary life in an ordinary job, it is bullying," Nicolle Wallace, George W. Bush's former communications director, tells the New York Times. "It is cyberbullying. This is a strategy to bully somebody who dissents. That's what is dark and disturbing." Jones says he received threats from Trump supporters after the Wednesday night tweets.

Analysts worry that Trump will continue to attack people on Twitter after he takes office, potentially stifling criticism. Such attacks are "beneath the dignity of the office," presidential historian Robert Dallek tells the Times. "He doesn't seem to understand that." In other coverage:

At the Carrier plant, Jones' supporters condemned the tweets. "A lot of people just think it's crazy we have the president going on Twitter, going after private citizens," Carrier worker TJ Bray tells Business Insider. "Hopefully he can be more presidential."

Jones says Trump exaggerated the number of jobs that would be saved at the plant. On Thursday, he told CNNMoney that for union members, there's another big problem with the deal: Much of the $16 million the company promised to invest in the plant will be spent on automation, meaning robots will end up doing many of the saved jobs.

Jones tells the Washington Post that workers were "devastated" to discover they were losing their jobs after all. He says he isn't bothered by the attention. "I've been doing this job for 30 years. In that time, people have threatened to shoot me, to burn my house down. I'm not a macho man, but Im just used to it," he says. "What I can't abide, however, is a president who misleads workers, who gives them false hope. We're not asking for anything besides opportunity, for jobs that let people provide for their families."

BuzzFeed reports that Trump's behavior appears to be a violation of Twitter's rule that "you may not incite or engage in the targeted abuse or harassment of others," though the policy is unevenly enforced, and the fact that Trump is weeks away from becoming the most powerful person in the world puts Twitter in "tricky and unprecedented territory."

The Guardian reports hours before Trump's tweets about Jones, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey admitted that his feelings about Trump's prolific use of the service were "complicated." He went for a glass-half-full approach: "I think it's an important time for the company and service," Dorsey told the Code Commerce tech conference. "And having the president-elect on our service, using it as a direct line of communication, allows everyone to see what's on his mind in the moment. I think that's interesting. I think it's fascinating."

(Read more Donald Trump stories.)
(Newser)  A populist and anti-Islam Dutch lawmaker was found guilty Friday of insulting and inciting discrimination against Moroccans, a conviction that Geert Wilders slammed as a "shameful" attack on free speech and an attempt to "neutralize" him. Judge Hendrik Steenhuis said the court wouldn't impose a sentence because the conviction was punishment enough for an elected lawmaker, the AP reports. Wilders was not in court for the verdict that came just over three months before national elections; his Party for Freedom is narrowly leading a nationwide poll of polls and has risen in popularity during the trial. Wilders quickly released a video message slamming the judgment and vowing to appeal. "Today I was convicted in a political trial which ... attempts to neutralize the leader of the largest and most popular opposition party," Wilders said. "They will not succeed."

Before the hearing, Wilders had tweeted: "Whatever the verdict, I will continue to speak the truth about the Moroccan problem, and no judge, politician, or terrorist will stop me." The prosecution centered on comments Wilders made before and after the Dutch municipal elections in 2014. At one meeting in a Hague cafe, he asked supporters whether they wanted more or fewer Moroccans in the Netherlands, which sparked a chant of "Fewer! Fewer! Fewer!"to which he replied, "We'll take care of it." Wilders was acquitted at another hate speech trial in 2011 for his outspoken criticism of Islam. "This [verdict] gives the Moroccans who felt like victims a renewed belief in a democratic society," says the president of the Euro-Mediterranean Center for Migration and Development. (Read more Netherlands stories.)
(Newser)  President Obama wants a "full review" of allegations that Russia interfered in the US election via hacking to be completed before he leaves office, reports Politico. Homeland Security adviser Lisa Monaco made the announcement Friday, noting that the review would also cover threats from outside Russia, per the Huffington Post. The resulting report will be shared with members of Congress, but Monaco didn't say whether it would be made public. The move likely won't please Donald Trump, who again this week dismissed the allegations against Moscow.

The White House accused Russia of attempting to interfere in the election back in October, but offered no evidence. The allegations came after breaches of the Democratic National Committee, notes the Washington Post. A research group has since claimed that 15 million Americans perused fake election news spread from Russia. "We may have crossed into a new threshold and it is incumbent upon us to take stock of that  to understand what this means, what has happened and to impart those lessons learned," Monaco says. Republican senators previously announced their intention to investigate Russian hacking claims. (Read more hacking stories.)
(Newser)  Anyone planning to attend the Women's March in Washington on the day after the inauguration may need to look out for updates. The original location for the eventwhich has been widely publicized on Facebook (138,000 or so saying they'll be "going," another 227,000 are "interested")was to take place at the Lincoln Memorial, but there's now a glitch, per the Guardian: The inaugural planning committee, working through the National Park Service, has a "massive omnibus blocking permit" for the memorial, the Washington Monument, and other "large swaths" of the national mall and Pennsylvania Avenue. This locks down these spaces for the Jan. 20 festivities, as well as for set periods before and after, meaning no protesters allowed. Attorney Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, who often goes to bat for DC protesters, objects to the move.

"This is public land," she said, per ABC News. "[The NPS has] done a massive land grab, to the detriment of all those who want to engage in free speech activities." NPS spokesman Mike Litterst blames logistics, with inaugural setup beginning on Nov. 1 and takedown not done till March 1. "Theyre construction zones, effectively," he says. He also says the NPS received protest permit requests from 20 groupsabout four times the number of previous inaugurations. The Washington Post notes that permits aren't issued to groups until the inaugural committee decides what spaces it's not using. A rep for the Women's March group says they've already "secured another location," yet unnamed. (Maybe stymied protesters could hang out with Elton John.)
(Newser)  It's no surprise to anyone who's set foot in an REI that outdoor recreation is big business, but thanks to a rare show of congressional unity, we're about to find out exactly how big. The Denver Post reports the Rec Act was passed unanimously by both the House and Senate last month. And it was signed into law by President Obama this week, Outside reports. Through the Rec Act, the Bureau of Economic Analysis will come up with official numbers for the outdoor recreation industry's economic impact. That includes its contribution to the GDP, how many jobs it creates, and the consumer spending it generates. In its own study a few years ago, the industry estimated its own value at $646 billion, including 6.1 million jobs and $80 billion in taxes.

But with official government numbers, the outdoor recreation industry will be able to "even the playing field," in the words of one outdoor advocate, with other industries competing for the use of public lands, including mining and timber. While those industries have "concrete federal statistics" to back up their arguments, outdoor recreation advocates had been stuck with anecdotes. Outdoor recreation can be immensely important to local economies, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reports. One expert found rock climbing alone brought $7 million into a single Tennessee county last year. Protecting natural resources is vital to that. One sponsor of the Rec Act says he'll be able to tell other legislators: "Look at the incredible contribution to your Wyoming/Montana economy from outdoor recreation. Lets not jeopardize that by ramping up how much fossil fuel extraction is going on here." (Read more outdoors stories.)
President Obama's assessment on Tuesday regarding the campaign against terror was told in a rather optimistic light. However, many have expressed their utter disagreement regarding the anti-terror campaign President Obama had during his reign.

During the assessment, President Obama extended his thanks to the U.S. military for their contributions to weaken the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. The latter caused citizens to express the doubts they have about the foreign policy President Obama had in the first place as reported by USA Today. Some believe that it was a rather contradicting matter since the policy affected the U.S. by bringing in refugees and might have actually promoted terror instead of smiting it. Thus further questioning the Obama Legacy.

Moreover, the recent assessment also triggered analysts to re-assess President Obama's anti-terror campaign. According to National Review, President Obama may have re-won the Iraq war and weakened ISIS significantly if and only if the Mosul offensive succeeds. In addition, thanks to the Obama legacy, President Donald Trump will come into power with a weakened ISIS which is a plus for President Obama. However, Iran will grow to be a stronger adversary in the Afghanistan war that seems far from ending at present.

To dig deeper, in the past eight years, it is true that President Obama managed to kill off Osama bin Laden during his time as president, however, shortly after that ISIS became a massive threat to global security. Eventually, attacks started taking place in Paris, For Hood, Brussels, Boson, Orlando and more cities suffer further. It is true that President Obama was able to slow down the progress of Iran's Nuclear Program which is definitely a big threat given that the wars involving these countries are getting worse every day.

Despite being slowed down, it also comes with a catch, which might be even worse for everyone in the long run which definitely scars the Obama Legacy. Slowing down Iran's Nuclear Program means it will become more powerful once completed, and President Donald Trump will have to deal with that in the future as reported by Town Hall.

Many believe that President Obama's legacy is mixed, there were things done right and some have gone horribly wrong. Some of the worse mistakes might even affect everyone in the long run. Stay tuned to News Everyday for more news and updates.
[File photo]

The city of Shanghai held a publishing ceremony for a specialized textbook designed for school boys on Wednesday, the very first of its kind in China.

"Little Man", published by Shanghai Educational Publishing House, focuses on boys around ten years old. The book aims to help them understand sexual physiology and sexual psychology and enhance their self-protection ability and responsibility.

With a total of six chapters, the textbook introduces a wide range of basic knowledge including the topics of "What is the difference between a boy and a girl?", "Why am I a boy and not a girl?", "What does a father mean to a son?", "How can we get along with nature?" as well as "Why do we need to have awareness about investment and money management?".

It also uses many paintings and designs some interactive games to attract the young readers.

A textbook specialized for girls is now being compiled, said the Shanghai Educational Publishing House.

A father-son public class was also held on the same day, themed "I'm a boy, I'm independent and responsible".

Chen Laixiu, teacher of the class, introduced the idea that a father's love and influence are indispensable in boy's growth. The class aims to raise fathers' awareness of their responsibility in their role in raising their sons to be brave and independent through their guide.

Wu Zengqiang from the Shanghai Student Psychological Health Research Center said that since boys and girls have big differences in physiology and psychology, it is necessary to give them individualized teaching.
Peter Parker makes an exciting tease of his look and the movie's vibes as Sony Pictures releases a teaser trailer of the upcoming "Spider-Man: Homecoming" film on Dec. 7. A 17-second clip displays a new ensemble of Spider-Man as a present from Iron Man himself, Tony Stark. A full trailer is announced to be released a day after, during the "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" show.

After his charming debut in "Captain America: Civil War", the young Marvel hero now plays a spinoff of his own character, which is portrayed by Tom Holland. The actor signed up for at least three installations of the movie, and six general Marvel Cinematic Universe featuring, as reported by Polygon.

The clip shows Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau), Stark's driver and bodyguard, looking for a case after seeing Parker in a different and presumably old suit. "This is the coolest thing I've ever seen!", exclaims Parker, who seemingly gets enlivened after receiving the upgraded suit from Stark with a note saying, "A minor upgrade". The teaser then reveals a gliding Spider-Man, wearing a highly innovated costume with no less than a pair of "wings".

MCU fans immediately recognize the suit as very closely affiliated to the classic Spider-Man look in the original 1962 Marvel comics. These arm web-wings were primarily designed by creator Steve Ditko, together with Stan Lee, but were gradually eliminated by John Romita, who took over the character in the late '60s, according to Yahoo! News. The hero will technically still not be able to fly, but the "wings" definitely add up to the action as it allows him to glide between structures.

The Marvel stand-alone movie of the youthful Spider-Man will crash the cinemas on July 7, 2017. But before that, a full trailer will be released tomorrow, Dec. 8, at 11:35 p.m. ET on ABC.
A town hall event called "The Messy Truth" hosted by Van Jones of CNN last Tuesday featured former Senator Rick Santorum and Republican strategist Ana Navarro. Santorum ignited a strong argument between him and Navarro, and later triggering netizens, after he advised a Dreamer to leave the US as a solution to potential deportation.

Upon discussing one of the sensitive issues on the elimination of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) by President-elect Donald Trump, Santorum responds thoughtlessly to the question of a Mexican "Dreamer." It's a term used to describe undocumented people brought to the United States - which ignites the reaction of the audience and fellow republican guest, Navarro herself.

During the event, Jones calls on Elizabeth Vilchis, who was brought to the US by her parents at the age of seven, and now a mechanical engineer; hence a Dreamer. She comes up and asks advice from the former senator regarding her future, considering the fact that she has already built a life and has been serving the country for almost a decade. "I stand to lose all the work that I've done if the new administration decides to end DACA.", expresses the young undocumented lady, who is concerned about the possibility of losing her career and worse, deportation, as reported by The Daily Good.

Santorum, however, after starting his response with a story about his undocumented father, addresses Vilchis saying, "You have the ability to go to any other country right now." His statement implies that she could leave the US as a solution to her dilemma and of many.

He is then interrupted by Navarro, who, in turn, thanks Vilchis for the contributions she is making to the country. "This is your country, no matter what he says, no matter what anybody else says," emphasizing that Vilchis belong to America. Santorum is further heard to articulate the words "That's not what the law says" amidst Navarro's speech.

Not long after, people expressed their dismay on Santorum's regards. Several comments were posted on social media, including Navarro's added stand point.

Yes. Santorum's response made me cringe. I am confident most Americans will see ppl like @LizVilchis love our country and make it better. https://t.co/6th910N1V6  Ana Navarro (@ananavarro) December 8, 2016

DACA is a federal program instituted by President Barrack Obama, which allows undocumented individuals to be able to work in the US. During a CBS' "60 Minutes" interview with the newly elected president last November, Trump reveals that he is planning to deport two to three million undocumented immigrants starting January. This highly alarmed the affected individuals, especially the youth.
Remembering Pearl Harbor attack in its 75th Anniversary since Japan attacked the United States in the beautiful islands of Hawaii. The former 17-year-old Robert Coles aboard USS Bagley 75 years ago, now a war veteran visits the World War II Historic Pearl Harbor.

Japan made a surprise attack on the Hawaiian island last December 7, 1941, and claimed 2400 American lives. This by far became the most tragic event in American History that every men and woman, wounded and scarred, stood up to pick the fallen.

In the entire world, there are only at least 150 survivors of the Pearl Harbor attack and most of them traveled to commemorate the event on its 75th anniversary as they think no one might come on its 80th. On the eve when hopes are gone for the present United States with its current political plight, these men and women make America still honorable.

New York Historical Society curator, Mike Thornton said, "For New York, Pearl Harbor was the beginning of galvanizing to become a very mobilized, war-oriented city." He shared that New York Harbor and Pearl Harbor shares common ground with most of the ships that sank, and most of the cargos from the US to the island started in the City.

The Pearl Harbor attack shocked New York much than the rest of the world. "All of the supplies and planes were shipped out of here," Thornton said. And continued, "and we were also a great training destination for troops."

War veteran Robert Core said that commemoration of the Pearl Harbor attack is an event where people, perhaps his age, can unite America. At his age turning 93 next year, the patriotism lives on in him not just looking back to what the United States was but how the country will be in the future.

This is the very value on why America stands as a strong nation from its humble beginning to the present day. There might be thousands of changes in the world but it does not bring along the changing concept of the American Dream.
Fairbanks, AK (99707)

Today

Mainly cloudy with snow showers around in the morning. High 14F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of snow 40%. Snow accumulations less than one inch..

Tonight

Overcast. Low 8F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph.
Enthusiasm unabated in China nearly 20 years after the schoolboy wizard first cast his spell on the world

Late at night in Beijing on Nov 24, as the temperature continued to fall to its forecast -5 C, and as the usual din in the streets of the city's Sanlitun area began to abate, an unusual scene began to unfold. Every now and then, strange figures in twos and threes strolled into the square, in the middle of which was a giant brown suitcase in front of a billboard for the movie Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

Almost all these people wore black gowns, striped scarves of scarlet - and gold, green, silver, yellow, black, blue and bronze - and ties in the same matching patterns. Some wore carrot-shaped earrings, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows necklaces, or silver badges saying "Head Boy" or "Head Girl". Tucked inside their bulky sleeves and bags were exquisite wands.

The square was abuzz with their chatter, and they eventually headed for the warmer confines of an underground cinema, the Megabox, where they lined up to get preordered tickets for Fantastic Beasts from a group that calls itself the Room of Requirement. The film premiered on the Chinese mainland after midnight.

Harry Potter fans gathered in Beijing to watch the movie Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Photos Provided to China Daily Lin Pin, a cosplayer and PhD student at Peking University. Harry Potter fans help each other adjust their fittings. Fellow Harry Potter cosplayers at a wedding of one of their members in November 2015.

Once they had secured their tickets, these die-hard Harry Potter fans chatted with one another and took photos.

A total of 102 fans from all walks of life attended the premiere that night. Some traveled from Tianjin especially for the party. It was the third activity this year organized by the Room of Requirement, a society named after the room in the Harry Potter novels. It was started in February, when fans from all over China gathered in Shanghai for a memorial event for Alan Rickman, the British actor who played Professor Snape, and who died in January.

"It's amazing to make so many friends who love Harry Potter books," says Zhang Ruoxi, 26, one of the organizers of the activity. "It feels like a lot of witches and wizards hide among ordinary people, and when you raise your wand they will respond to you."

Zhang is an engineer. Other Potter fans included an architect, a doctor, an editor, a student and a traffic police officer.

"When you put on the gown, no matter who you are or what you do, you are just one of us, equal and being cared for and loved as a Harry Potter fan," says Liu Zhujie, 18, another organizer of the activity. Liu, from Shanghai, recently started university studies in Beijing.

It is difficult to say how many Harry Potter fans there are in China, but since 2000, when the Chinese version of the first book came out, nearly 20 million copies of the series have been sold. When the last book of the series Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was published nine years ago, there were 1 million copies in the first print run of the Chinese version.

The Chinese version of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child was published on Oct 29, and since then all 300,000 copies have been sold and the publisher is printing more.

British author J.K. Rowling's Potter novels have played a significant role in the lives of many Chinese readers, especially those of the only-child generations. Not only did they grow up with Harry, Ron and Hermione, but they have also formed great friendships as a result of a shared enthusiasm.

One of the most outlandish things that Lin Pin, now 28, has done relating to Harry Potter was in 2003 when he started high school in Fujian province. Lin had special feelings for Harry Potter because when he was attending middle school a close family member died, reflecting the experience of the fictional British schoolboy Harry, both of whose parents died when he was an infant.

"Rowling's stories gave me very important comfort and accompanied me as I went through pain and sadness," Lin says.

In the summer of 2003, Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix was published. To read the story as early as possible, Lin went online for the first time in his life to buy his first English novel, and he devoured it no time. In the book, his favorite adult character Sirius Black, Harry's godfather, dies. Lin was so saddened by this that he wrote a poem in memory of him.

At high school, Lin took part in a poetry recital contest. All the other students chose well-known classic poems, but Lin recited the poem he wrote for Sirius Black. Not only that, but he bought a gown online and was dressed like Harry Potter when he was stepped onto the stage.

"It was the first time that I cosplayed Harry," Lin says. "It was also the first time that anyone had done cosplay in our county."

Lin says the sincerity in his poem touched many in the audience, whether they had read the books or not.

But his antics were regarded as offbeat, particularly because many teachers and students at the time knew nothing of the stories, let alone the fictional character Sirius Black.

"For me, it is a very precious memory. Although the character is fictional, I expressed sincere feelings in my poem that touched many in the audience," he says.

Later, he often cosplayed Harry Potter with other fans, especially after he went to Beijing. Some say he is the person in China who looks most like Harry Potter.

Lin is now a PhD student at Peking University and will graduate next year. As a student in the Chinese Department he wrote a paper on Harry Potter when he was a junior undergraduate.

In nearly 40,000 characters he analyzed the reasons for the popularity of the novels worldwide, rejecting the view of many critics that Harry Potter books are children's books that are either too naive for adults or too dark for children. He dug out the deeper meaning behind the metaphor of the magic world Rowling had created. Lin says her books have helped form his worldview.

With characters like crazy girl Luna and the twins Fred and George, the books have encouraged him to be himself regardless of what other people think, he says.

"Luna is my favorite character in the novels. She shows us there are so many different kinds of people in the world. We should respect people who are different from us, embrace diversity and treat others fairly."

That worldview and ethos is shared by many Harry Potter aficionados, among them Yin Pingping, 29.

"After I finished reading The Casual Vacancy I was very much touched by Rowling's humanist spirit," she says.

"She is so consistently sincere with herself and readers. In the Harry Potter series she writes about discrimination against non-pureblooded witches and wizards, and the slavery of house elves. She expresses her opposition to racism, sexism and hierarchy through the stories in the magic world. And in The Casual Vacancy she expresses such ideas more directly."

Like many Harry Potter fans, Yin was immediately drawn into Rowling's magic world once she started reading the first book in the series.

In 2003, when cases of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) were reported in Beijing, Yin was a high school student in the capital. Because of SARS schools were closed, so Yin spent six months studying at home and communicating with schoolmates on the school's bulletin board system.

"We built a section especially devoted to Harry Potter and made a lot of friends," she says.

Three years later when she arrived at Fudan University in Shanghai, she felt lonely because many of her schoolmates in the city had known each other since primary school.

At the suggestion of a roommate, Yin printed some advertising fliers in an effort to gather Harry Potter fans, but without success.

So she knocked on dormitory doors, one after another, looking for "comrades" in different classes.

Finally she recruited about 30 first-year students, a number that narrowly passed the requirement of the university to set up a new club.

Despite some skepticism, the university eventually granted Yin's application and she became the leader of the Harry Potter Fan Society at Fudan University, the first in China.

To better organize activities for members, she had to give up training with the women's softball team at the university and the Japanese course she had planned to take.

Before the last Harry Potter book came out in 2007, the society had more than 400 members. Regular activities included the annual performance of a play adapted from the novels - or an original play - in November, a reading club each week and a costume ball on Halloween.

"Unlike many other societies, we gathered together because we love the books rather than to build up relationships for our future, as many students do at university," Yin says. "So I am glad that our society kept a space for people like us. And it also showed how tolerant the school was. We received a lot of interviews, including some by foreign media."

The society gave Yin many things, including a romantic relationship. But what she cherished above all, she says, was the spirit she got from the books of Harry Potter: courage, responsibility, love and friendship.

"I started reading Harry Potter when I was 11 years old. At the most important moments of my life, when I was disappointed in love, failed in examination, or couldn't find a job, I would always go back to the books, where all the questions have solutions."

Lin's feelings are similar.

"I read Harry Potter stories from the spring of 2001 to the summer of 2007, between the ages - 12 and 18, while characters in the books Harry, Hermione, Ron and Luna - grew up from 11 to 17. In my youth their company was irreplaceable."

So irreplaceable that some diehard fans have used Harry Potter as the theme for their weddings, with Harry Potter books or stuffed owls as decorations, and borrowing from the book for their marriage vows.

Lin analyzes the popularity of the Harry Potter series from another perspective, saying: "It's very precious because many die-hard fans, including me, are the only child of our families, without brothers or sisters."

"But we have made many friends because of this common interest. We communicate both online and offline, transcending the limit of space or the connection of blood."

The Room of Requirement is a good example. Zhang and Liu have made more than 270 friends online.

"When you go traveling, just put on your gown and you will be received by friends in every city," Zhang says.

"When I decided which university I wanted to go to in June, I found the gate of the world was open wide to me. Instead of remaining in Shanghai and spending my whole life there, I decided to come to Beijing. And when I arrived I didn't feel lonely at all, because I knew there was a group of people like me living here."

yangyang@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily European Weekly 12/09/2016 page1)
The Communist Party of China's decision to implement strict governance and a sweeping anti-corruption campaign can help it provide constructive solutions to global problems while dealing with domestic challenges, a senior Chinese official said on Dec 5.

"China has entered a historically critical moment. We are becoming rich but not rich, and internationally we are becoming strong but not strong," said Yuan Shuhong, deputy director of the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council at a seminar in Brussels, Belgium.

In recent years "corruption and other challenges, such as weakening the Party's leadership and loosening Party governance, have become rampant", he said.

Yuan said strong determination has led to lasting efforts to fight corruption with an iron fist and uphold the strict governance of the Party.

Yuan is leading a CPC delegation to the European Union to discuss October's Sixth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee. The delegation is updating think tank experts and party leaders in the European Parliament.

"With its historicial and current complexities, China must have a leadership core to overcome the challenges at home and abroad," Yuan said at the seminar, organized by the Brussels-based Foundation for European Progressive Studies.

Yuan said the Party must abide by strict political discipline to ensure its leadership of China's national renewal.

"And these efforts could help us live up to the expectations of the international community to position China to play a constructive role worldwide," he said.

New Party theory, a leadership reshuffle and plans for coming years are anticipated at the Party's 19th National Congress next year.

"In doing so, we lend our ears to our friends to ask them to pass along ideas and suggestions to improve the governance of the CPC," said Wang Xueyong, deputy director-general of the Bureau for Western European Affairs of the International Department of the Central Committee of the CPC.

fujing@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily European Weekly 12/09/2016 page13)
Mumbai:

In a shocking a shocking revelation bother of Mumbai youth Tabrez Tambe, 28-year old, lodged a complaint with Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) Police on Friday suspecting that Tabrez has joined the terror-outfit ISIS.

Brother of Mumbai youth Tabrez Tambe registered a complaint stating that his brother Tabrez Noor Mohammad Tambe.

Tabrez had left the country to visit Egypt and Libya, has joined ISIS and a complaint in this connection has been lodged at Kalachowki unit, Mumbai of the ATS by his brother, Mumbai ATS chief Atul Kulkarni informed on Friday .

Tabrej is believed to have joined ISIS with one of his friends Ali who is from Saudi Arabia. Tabrej was in contact with Ali since last few years as both had worked together in Riyadh, the officer said. ATS has registered an offence under sections of 16,18,18(B), 20,38,39 of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).

Further investigation is underway. Last month, the Lok Sabha was informed that NIA and state security agencies have so far arrested 68 supporters of dreaded terror outfit ISIS in various parts of the country.

According to Minister of State for Home, Hansraj Ahir a total of 50 people have been arrested by security agencies during the current year of whom 11 belonged to Maharashtra. ISIS is using various platforms to propagate its ideology and to attract recruits from across the world, he had said
New Delhi:

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has written a letter to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to express pain over dragging the Army into controversy.



Taking strong exception to the recent controversy regarding the activities of Indian Armys Eastern Command in West Bengal, the defence minister insisted that the army was carrying out regular activities with all formalities in order.



I have been deeply pained by the allegations as reported in the media. If only you had enquired with the concerned agencies of the State Government, you would have come to know the extensive correspondence between Army and the state agencies including joint inspections of the sites carried out by them, Parrikar said in his letter.

Dated Dec 8, the letter concerns to the high pitch political drama, which ensued between the night of Dec 1 and 2, where the West Bengal CM declared that she will stay put in her office until the illegal deployment of Indian Army is not removed from toll plazas in Kolkata and 18 other districts in the state.



While the Indian Army claimed that it was a regular exercise being carried with prior information, Banerjee accused Centre of creating emergency like situation in the state.



Political parties and the politicians may have the luxury to make wild and unsubstaintiated allegations against each other but one needs to be exteremly careful while referring to the armed forces, Parrikar said in the letter.

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New Delhi:

The Winter Session of Parliament entered the day 18 on Friday. The deadlock over oppositions demand for PM Narendra Modis clarification in both Houses of the Parliament and objection over cut in import duty on wheat marred House proceedings.



It has been over a month since PM Modi announced the ban on the old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes to curb black money and corruption in India.



Meanwhile, the Lok Sabha session also took the final call in Bhagwant Mann video case and suspended the leader for the rest of the Winter Sesssion.

The AAP leader is accused of putting the security of the Parliament House by live streaming the security measures at building entrance last year.



The committee of the issue had recommended that Mann should be suspended for the Winter Session for the act.

Read more:

Those who were 'epicentre of scams' for 60 years talking of 'Earthquake': BJP's response to Rahul Gandhi

Opposition terms zero import duty on wheat as anti-farmer, anti-national



Here are the live updates:

2:35pm: Rajya Sabha adjourned till December 14

12:30pm: My speech on demonetisation will cause earthquake, says Rahul Gandhi (Read full story here)

12:13 pm: Lok Sabha adjourned till Dec 14, 11:00am

12:10pm: Parliament security breach matter: Motion adopted in Lok Sabha to suspend AAP MP Bhagwant Mann for remaining days of Winter Sesssion

12:06pm: Rajya Sabha adjourned till 2.30 pm as uproar over demonetisation continues

11:35am: Lok Sabha adjourned till 12:00pm

11:31am: Rajya Sabha adjourned till 12:00pm

11:30am: Opposition raises slogans - Kisan virodhi yeh sarkar nahin chalegi -2 (Anti-farmer govt will not continue)

11:26am: Jairam Ramesh questions the cut in import duty of wheat if their are enough wheat supplies (Read story here)

11:23am: Union Min of Food & Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan clarifies in RS, "we have enough food grain"

11:20am: Govt needs to rethink on demonetisation or farmers will have to bear huge losses, they'll be ruined: Mayawati in RS

11:16 am: You have to accept that demonetisation is an anti-national decision, Sitaram Yechury (CPIM) says in Rajya Sabha

11:15am: They are ruining the Indian 'annadata' (farmers) through demonetisation, Sitaram Yechury (CPIM) says in Rajya Sabha

11:07am: Lok Sabha adjourned till 11:30am over ruckus on demonetisation

11:00am: Opposition says not happy with Govt's attitude inside the Parliament



11:00am: Opposition meeting in Parliament ends with conclusion that they'r ready to participate in discussion and Rahul Gandhi to attend Lok Sabha

10:40 am: Opposition leaders to meet Lok Sabha Speaker shortly



10:25am: Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah & Law Minister TB Jayachandra meet Home Minister Rajnath Singh in Delhi

Delhi: Opposition Leaders' meeting underway in the Parliament pic.twitter.com/X9hLM27RFV  ANI (@ANI_news) December 9, 2016

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Mumbai:

Bollywood actor Aamir Khan says he never feels the burden of being called a perfectionist as he does not believe in the tag.



His meticulous choice of films,attention to details has given him the title of MrPerfectionist but superstar Aamir Khan feels it is not a correct name for him and says he should rather be called Mr Passionate.

"It puts no pressure on me because I don't believe in the title. So that title is an inaccurate title. The correct title that fits me is not Mr Perfectionist, it should be Mr Passionate, that is what I am," Aamir told reporters during a group interview.

Also Read: Dangal title song is out in powerful voice of Daler Mehndi, Pritam and Amitabh Bhattacharya

The actor, who will be next seen in Nitesh Tiwari's sports-based drama "'Dangal", says in a creative field of films, there are varied opinions and it is not possible to find perfection.

"Perfection according to me does not exist. Their is no such thing. Certainly not in the creative field. There are so many different opinions, so how can there be a perfect idea?"

Aamir says for him perfection in a shot is not about being technically faultless but more about capturing the heart of the scene. "When I am in a shot there are many elements that need tobe right.

There are lot of technical problems because of whicha shot has to be done again. I don't look for technical perfections. "What I look for in a shot is whether one has been able tocapture the heart of the moment. Then you see the shot, you feel that it happened and everything fall in place."

"'Dangal" also starring Sakshi Tanwar, Fatima Sana Sheikhand Sanya Malhotra, will release on December 23.

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New Delhi:

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday failed to get an appointment with Prime Minister to flag concerns about pending issues of the state, prompting Congress to wonder whether Narendra Modi will do same with the chief ministers of Goa and Maharashtra.

Siddaramaiah, however, discussed these issues like sanctioning of drought relief funds and the Mahadayi water dispute in detail in a meeting with Karnataka MPs.

I had sought an appointment with the PM to discuss specifically about pending issues like drought relief and Mahadayi water dispute. But I did not get an appointment from him, he told reporters after the meeting with the state parliamentarians.

The state government has sought drought relief of Rs 4,702 crore for the 2016 rabi season and flood relief of Rs 386 crore.

A memorandum has been submitted and a central team has assessed the situation, but still funds are not yet released, Siddaramaiah said.

He said central funds are yet to be released for big projects for housing and irrigation.

Out of 41 MPs, around 30 of them participated in the meeting including two Union ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and Ramesh Jigajinagi, BJP leaders B S Yedurappa and Prahalad Joshi.

Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Mallikarjuna Kharge, Jairam Ramesh, K Rehman Khan, Oscar Fernandes were among Congress leaders present in the meeting.

After the meeting, Kharge said, I am surprised and sad that PM has not given an appointment to the chief minister despite writing letters 2-3 times. Will he behave like this with chief ministers of Goa and Maharashtra?

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New Delhi:

Gujarat Police seize new notes worth Rs 76 lakh in Surat on Friday. 4 people have been arrested in this matter. Police is investing the matter.

In another case in Haryana, Crime branch seized new notes worth approximately Rs 10 lakh during search operations near Gurugram, on Thursday night. Investigation is going on in this matter.

Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 8 announced that Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes would be discontinued as a legal tender.

Since November 8, many case of bulk cash being seized came to light.

Gujarat: Police arrest 4 people carrying new notes worth Rs 76 lakh in Surat. Police investigating the matter. pic.twitter.com/dtFforsRzb  ANI (@ANI_news) December 9, 2016

Haryana: Crime Branch seized new notes worth Rs 10 lakh (approx) during search op near Gurugram, last night. Investigation underway. pic.twitter.com/cgTtyZ6CgB  ANI (@ANI_news) December 9, 2016

FULL COVERAGE: BLACK MONEY CRACKDOWN

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New Delhi:

Rajasthan High Court on Friday struck down State Governmentas notification to provide five per cent quota to Gujjars and other Backward Classes.A



The Rajasthan Assembly, in September, had passed separate Bills providing five per cent reservation to Gujjars and other communities under Special Backward Classes (SBC) and 14 per cent to Economically Backward Classes (EBC) of unreserved categories.



Five communities -- Banjara/Baldiya/Labana, Gadiya Lohar/Gadoliya, Gujar/Gurjar, Raika/Rebari/Debasi and Gadariya/Gadri/Gayari a were included in the Bill for 5 per cent quota under SBC.



With the passing of the Bills, the State had exceeded the 50 per cent limit of reservation laid down by the Supreme Court as the reservation under Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and OBC categories remains unchanged.



Vasundhara Raje-led previous BJP government had in 2008 passed a Bill providing 5 per cent reservation to SBC and 14 per cent to EBC but it was stayed by the High Court. This time the government decided to bring in separate Bills for both the categories.

Rajasthan HC struck down State Govt's notification to provide 5% quota to Gujjars & other Special Backward Classes: Shailendra Singh, lawyer pic.twitter.com/X5yaFcZe6N a ANI (@ANI_news) December 9, 2016

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New Delhi:

Former Chief of the Air Staff of the Indian Air Force Shashindra Pal Tyagi was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday in the Rs 3,600 crore AgustaWestland choppers deal case.

Shashindra Pal Tyagi is accused in an Italian Investigation into bribes paid to secure a Helicopter Contract. According to the unverified testimony of an Italian businessman, Air Marshal Tyagi accepted illegal payments to change the technical specifications of the helicopters which favored Augsta Westland which was finally awarded the deal.

Air Marshal Tyagi was born in Indore on March 14, 1945. Before becoming Air Chief Marshal, he was commanding the Western Air Command of the Air Force.

Also read | CBI arrests former Air Force Chief SP Tyagi, 2 others in AgustaWestland case

Tyagi was commissioned in the fighter stream of the IAF on December 31, 1963. Former Air Force chief has seen action in 1965 and 1971 wars.

Air Chief Marshal Shashindra Pal Tyagi took over as the 20th Chief of Air Staff of the Indian Air Force from 31 December 2004. He did his schooling from St Xavier School in Jaipur.

In the rank of Air Marshal, Tyagi was appointed as the SASO of Central Air Command for short period of time. He took charge of the AOC-in-C of Central Air Command not soon after. He is among the few officers to have the achievement of commanding three Air Commands, Central, South Western and Western Air Command.

The initial years of Tyagis career in the Air Force, Tyagi flew Gnats with No.23 Squadron and later served with Hunters of No.27 Squadron. He was one of the pioneer batch of eight pilots selected for conversion on the Jaguar Interdiction aircraft when it was launched in 1980s. Whilst training at Lossiemouth, he was one of the two Indian pilots chosen for a Photo Recce Course at Coltishall with No.41 Squadron RAF.

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Bhopal:

Opposition Congress on Friday staged a walkout from the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly after the partys demand for a debate on the deaths of malnourished children was turned down.

As soon as the Zero Hour began, senior Congress member Ramniwas Rawat demanded that an adjournment motion for a debate on malnourished children should be taken up. He pointed out that Congress had been demanding a debate on the issue for the last two days.

Claiming that malnutrition was claiming the lives of 80 children in the state everyday, Rawat said as the winter session of the assembly is coming to an end today, the issue of utmost importance should be taken up for discussion.

However, Speaker Sitasharan Sharma said the issue will not be taken up as Rawat, whom he had invited to his chamber yesterday, did not meet him to facilitate a debate on the issue.

Replying to the Speakers statement, Rawat said, You are alleging that I did not come to your chamber yesterday. I allege that you do not want a debate on the deaths of malnourished children. However, the Speaker asked him not to level baseless allegations as it was against the decorum.

I do not level allegations and I do not intend to do so, Rawat responded. State Assembly Affairs Minister Narottam Mishra intervened saying the Opposition always disrupted the proceedings of the House.

He said when Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan was replying to the debate on earlier adjournment motion in connection with the farmers plight after demonetisation the issue raised by the oppositionCongress members had left the House in the middle of CMs address two days ago.

The minister said when Rawat sought listing the issue for the debate, senior Congress member Mahendra Singh Kalukheda had stood up and told the House that the issue could be taken up in the next session.

He claimed that after Kalukhedas advice, Rawat did not press for the issue yesterday. Raising the point of order, the minister urged the Speaker to give a ruling on the unruly behaviour of the

opposition.

The Speaker then said that malnutrition issue cannot be taken up for debate and reiterated that he invited Rawat to his chamber but he did turn up for a meeting on the issue.

However, Rawat continued to press for an adjournment motion on the issue. He was joined by the acting Leader of the Opposition Bala Bachchan.

Rawat alleged that the Chair was doing the work of the government. Thereafter, the Congress members walked out of the House.

Outside the House, Rawat claimed, 10,000 children below six years have died in the state between July and October this year, which accounts for 80 kids deaths per day.

This has brought disgrace to MP nationally and internationally, he said, adding that when their demand for debate was not accepted, they staged a walkout.

Bachchan said the government is shying off from the debate as it wants to avoid criticism. We want the government to save the children, he added.

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New Delhi:

Government on Friday withdrew the exemptions it had given to people after demonetisation. On December 8, it announced that the deadline for use of old Rs 500 notes for purchasing railway, Metro and bus tickets is December 10. A day after, government shortened the deadline for same to December 9 midnight.

Narendra Modi-led government had earlier allowed the use of demonetised notes towards payment of utility bills, buying petrol, mobile recharge and others after it announced scrapping of old Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes.

Since then the deadline has been extended twice. The government has been continuously reviewing the policy by granting exemptions to make it easier for citizens major heavy cash crunch.

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Country's president thanks China for debt write-off, saying he is optimistic for the future of the continent

Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma says China's decision to write off his country's debts will now give the West African republic breathing space to focus on other priorities.

China made the debt cancellation move at the start of the president's six-day visit to the country that marks the 45th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two countries.

"We welcome such a pronouncement because it is helping us out of a very difficult situation. Giving us this relief will help us address other important issues," he says.

Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma says the country's economy is now on target to grow 4.7 percent this year and by 5.4 percent in 2017. Wang Zhuangfei / China Daily

Sierra Leone's was one of the fastest growing economies in Africa in the past decade but was hit by two devastating events, the collapse of the price of iron ore, its main export, and the Ebola epidemic, which killed 3,590 people. Its GDP contracted 21.5 percent in 2015.

Koroma, who was speaking at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, says the crisis facing the country was extremely challenging.

"It has been very difficult but with the support of friends like China we have been able to roll out programs of recovery to restore our utilities, get our services back and provide support for our private sector to get the market properly operating again," he says.

Koroma, who has been president since 2007, says the economy is now on target to grow 4.7 percent this year and by 5.4 percent in 2017.

"This shows that although, yes, it has been difficult, the measures adopted, including austerity ones, have resulted in things taking shape and in the not too distant future we will be able to restore ourselves to pre-Ebola status and become one of the fastest growing economies in the world again."

One of the biggest investors in Sierra Leone is Shandong Iron and Steel, which owns the country's Tonkolili iron ore mine. It ceased production during the Ebola crisis but resumed activity last year. The president made a visit to Shandong on Dec 3.

"We need to visit them to encourage them to scale up their activities. The projections they have made before they are not currently hitting. We are therefore looking for assurances," he says.

Koroma welcomed China's commitment to Africa and, in particular, Chinese President Xi Jinping's trebling of funding support to $60 billion (55.6 billion euros; 47.4 billion) at the second Forum on China Africa Cooperation Summit (FOCAC) in Johannesburg in December last year.

FOCAC has itself enhanced the relationship between China and Africa with President Xi escalating it to the highest level of comprehensive strategic and cooperativity partnership and giving his support for Africa playing a bigger role internationally, he says.

During his visit an agreement was also signed by the two sides to support the establishment of a center for disease control in the country.

"Ebola is new to us all, including China at the time, and we have learned lots of lessons and are still learning. There is no complete study on Ebola but this is an opportunity for us to continue to study the virus."

Koroma, who was a senior insurance executive before he became president, believes in developing a market-led approach to Sierra Leone's development.

"We have an open market and we want to create an environment that is friendly and supportive to external investors. We are not an exclusively a Chinese market. We have other players but it seems that the Chinese are getting an upper hand," he says.

Koroma says he hopes some Chinese manufacturing - particularly in resources processing - will now move to Sierra Leone as it has done to some other African countries such as Ethiopia, famous for Chinese shoemaking.

"We believe that should be the next step. These are the issues we are now looking at," he says.

The president says he is also optimistic for the future of the continent, despite the commodities recession denting the frequently vaunted "Africa Rising" narrative of the last decade.

"The future of Africa is still bright. We still have the world's largest supply of arable land, are home to a good number of mineral resources. Oil and gas is discovered regularly and we have marine resources in abundance. We just need to develop them to the fullest," he says.

andrewmoody@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily European Weekly 12/09/2016 page15)
Washington:

Hillary Clinton has issued a stern warning against the proliferation of fake news, branding it an epidemic with real world consequences that must be addressed in order to protect the nations democracy.

The Democrat Clinton lost last months presidential election to Republican Donald Trump in a shock upset, with several Trump critics arguing that the prominence of fake articles shared on Facebook and other social media may have affected the outcome.

The phenomenon nearly turned deadly this week when a rifle-wielding man entered a pizza restaurant in Washington saying he wanted to investigate a fake news story that wrongly stated the Comet Ping Pong restaurant was a center for child abduction linked to Clinton and a top advisor.

Its now clear that so-called fake news can have real world consequences, Clinton told current and former US lawmakers on Capitol Hill where she attended a ceremony for outgoing Democratic Senate minority leader Harry Reid.

This isnt about politics, or partisanship. Lives are at risk, she said as she blasted the epidemic of malicious fake news and false propaganda that flooded social media over the past year.

The danger must be addressed quickly, she stressed. Its imperative that leaders from the private sector and the public sector step up to protect our democracy and innocent lives.

Clintons remarks were part of her second public address since her concession speech the day after the election.

This is not exactly the speech to the Capitol I hoped to be giving after the election, she quipped to an audience that gave her a standing ovation as she took the stage.

But after a few weeks of taking selfies in the woods, I thought it would be a good idea to come out.

Afterward Clinton ignored reporters questions about whether fake news stories had cost her the election.

The pizzagate story that Clinton referred to was widely shared before the November 8 vote.

No one was injured when 28-year-old Edgar Maddison Welch strode into Comet Ping Pong, packed with families on a Sunday afternoon, and fired off a round from his AR-15.

Police quickly arrested him, discovering two more weapons, and said he had told them he drove up from North Carolina to personally investigate the fake story.

But it raised to a new level the danger of the profusion of false news stories and rumours spread over the internet and in social media, much of it aimed at fortifying the views of various political and social groups.

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New Delhi:

In a significant development, India and influential East Asian nation Vietnam on Friday signed a civil nuclear cooperation agreement, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserting that it will further strengthen the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries.

The two countries also signed three other agreements to enhance aviation links, to jointly work in the area of energy efficiency and promotion of parliamentary cooperation.

The four pacts, aimed at boosting the relations, were signed here in presence of Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and visiting President of Vietnams National Assembly Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan after their talks on enhancing the ties.

Ngan, who is leading a Vietnamese Parliamentary delegation, also met the Prime Minister who said the Agreement on Cooperation in Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy will further strengthen the comprehensive strategic partnership between India and Vietnam.

Modi recalled his earlier meeting with Ngan in Hanoi during his visit to Vietnam in September. He said that Ngan, as the first woman to head the National Assembly of Vietnam, is a source of inspiration to women across the world.

Modi welcomed increased Parliamentary interactions between India and Vietnam, and called for instituting an exchange programme for young parliamentarians of the two countries.

Cooperation Agreement between the Lok Sabha of the Republic of India and the National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam

The civil nuclear agreement with Vietnam, an influential East Asian nation, comes close on the heels of India signing a similar pact with Japan. Vietnam is the 14th country with which India signed the civil nuclear deal.

From the Indian side, the MoU on civil nuclear cooperation was signed by Sekhar Basu, Secretary of Department of Atomic Energy, while Pham Cong Tac, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology, signed it from the Vietnamese side.

The two countries had earlier in 1986 signed a pact in the civil nuclear field which was limited to training. However, the new agreement is broadbased and encompasses research on nuclear reactors, sources said.

The cooperation in research on nuclear reactors will get activated once India gets membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, they added.

An MoU on Promotion of traffic between Vietnam and India and sharing of best practices in airline operation, ground handling procedure and management was also signed between Air India and Vietjet Aviation Joint Stock Company.

Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), a PSU under the Power Ministry, and Vietnam Electricity (EVN) signed an MoU on Developing a Partnership to Jointly Work in the Area of Energy Efficiency.

It was signed by Satish C Mehta, Senior Advisor in EESL, and Duong Quang Thanh, Chairman of Vietnam Electricity.

Mahajan said the Agreement on Cooperation in Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy is a remarkable development and a testimony to two countries willingness to give greater substance to their recently upgraded Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.

The Speaker pitched for enhanced engagement between the two countries and specified sectors like defence, security, energy, exploration, non conventional energy as some of the key areas of mutual benefit. India and Vietnam can mutually benefit from each others strength, she said.

Referring to South China Sea over which China is laying an absolute claim and is in confrontation with Vietnam and some other East Asian countries, Mahajan said India has persistently maintained that sea lanes of communication passing through that maritime area are critical for peace, stability, prosperity and development.

She recalled Indias statement following the recent award of Arbitral Tribunal on South China Sea issue and reiterated its known position for resolving disputes through peaceful means without threat or use of force and by exercising self-restraint in the conduct of activities that could complicate or escalate disputes affecting peace and stability.

As a State Party to the UNCLOS (UN Convention on the Law of the Sea), India has called on all parties to show utmost respect for the UNCLOS, which establishes the international legal order of the seas and oceans, Mahajan said.

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A father's plea to help his cancer-stricken daughter embroiled him in controversy. The truth was uncovered by journalistic diligence.

Within half an hour on Nov 30, I went on a personal roller coaster between feeling mildly good about myself to feeling duped. It was all because I had forwarded an article on WeChat.

The article detailed the difficulties faced by Luo Er, a reporter in Shenzhen, whose 5-year-old daughter, Luo Yixiao, was in intensive care for leukemia. He mentioned the treatment could cost between 10,000 yuan ($1,500; 1,390 euros; 1,186) to 30,000 yuan a day. But instead of explicitly asking for a donation, he said forwarding his article would suffice, as a third party would pay 1 yuan each time it was reposted.

I normally refrain from doing such "good deeds" but Luo's status as a journalist, his recounting of the details of his daughter's situation and his noncoercion in seeking public support lent it credibility. Most crucial of all, my brother recently died of colon cancer, and I had a reflex of empathy for Luo.

Little did I know that when I was reposting it to my friends on the app, the piece was being debunked: Luo had three properties in the city where real estate prices are sky high. He had vastly exaggerated his financial need.

The whole thing was a scam concocted by a company whose goal was to accumulate eyeballs.

I quickly deleted my post, feeling bad about anyone who might have lost money because of my impulsive act. But I also thought things weren't as clear-cut as they were made out to be.

Thanks to the timely reaction of local media and relevant organizations, the truth emerged the next day. And indeed, it was not all black and white.

The medical condition of Luo's daughter was accurate. In China, it would be a gross violation of ethics for a parent to make up such a claim. It would be seen as a curse on one's child.

Luo indeed has three properties - one in Shenzhen, where the family resides, and two in neighboring Dongguan. The Dongguan apartments have not been issued ownership permits yet, which makes resale a bit hard. And all three units are far from being highly valued.

Luo's monthly salary is 4,000 yuan, and he is the only breadwinner in his household. It seems the family is on the lower end of the middle-class spectrum.

Luo's deal with a marketing firm was not complicated. The company would pay him a minimum of 20,000 yuan and a maximum of 500,000 yuan for the total number of repostings, accounting for the 1 yuan donation.

But I still cannot figure out whether the donations from readers of the post would go to the firm or to Luo. Anyway, a total of more than 2 million yuan was raised before Luo told people to stop sending money.

Now comes the part I would like to dwell on: the amount needed.

The hospital has revealed that the total cost so far for the treatment of Luo's daughter is around 100,000 yuan, and insurance has covered most of it, with Luo paying some 20,000 yuan out of his own pocket. This was later confirmed by Luo himself.

This is an amount most Chinese families can afford - even without putting up any asset for sale.

In the past year I have learned firsthand that money is often not the make-or-break factor in treating a cancer patient. Most people have the notion that the more money we can spend, the more likely our loved ones can be saved. But in most cases that I know, this is not true.

Sure, some treatments are costly and not covered by insurance. But the cruel truth is, the miracle cure is simply not there yet for any amount of money. The rate of cancer survival depends on early diagnosis.

I got Opdivo, a very expensive drug, for my brother two days before he passed away. The doctor told us that it works well for most patients with skin cancer. For others, the likelihood of a cure is very limited. Now, my sister-in-law wants to donate the remaining medicine to someone who cannot afford it.

But the change of hands must be authorized and explained by a doctor, I insist, because I fear the recipient may be misled by the high value of the drug into thinking it is a panacea.

I honestly believe that China's medical system covers most who need help and the few who fall through the cracks can be helped by philanthropy, including online donations in small amounts.

Judging from all the reports, I have a feeling that Luo did not set out to dupe anyone.

When his daughter was taken into an intensive care unit, it was natural for him as a father to feel sudden despair. He exaggerated the amount needed probably because he was trying to cover future medical costs. Also, as he said, he never expected his article to go viral. Most such pleas never leave one's circle of acquaintances.

There is a streak in the Chinese mentality that favors exaggeration and simplification. Luo may be an example of it, but those who accuse him of various "sins" and "crimes" seem more culpable. They rely on hearsay instead of conducting investigations. The road to the moral high ground is always crowded with people who think in either/or terms.

I salute those who uncover fabrications of "good deeds".

About a year ago, there was a father's post about his drive with his teenage son to the western part of Sichuan province. The son was suffering from altitude sickness, but the father didn't understand. By the time they sought help at a local hospital, it was too late.

The story was presented as a cautionary tale for travelers from low altitudes who are unaware of such risks. There was not a whiff of financial gain. But the hospital that was mentioned dutifully checked its records and found no such incident.

To date, I have no idea what the hoax was about. Maybe it was a novelist who forgot to state he was writing fiction.

In the age of the internet, even a token gesture of giving 1 yuan or forwarding a post requires a certain familiarity with journalistic ethics and properly vetting and double-checking things. I just don't know whether this is a sad or glad turn for the public.

By Dec 1, Luo, along with Tencent, the online platform where the fund was raised, and other relevant parties issued a statement that the money would be returned - every cent of it.

Contact the writer through raymondzhou@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily European Weekly 12/09/2016 page22)
Chinese students will have better chances of obtaining top-notch dual China-UK degrees - and at a lower cost - thanks to an initiative advancing student mobility and educational exchanges between the countries.

The China-UK Association for the Humanities in Higher Education joined forces with 12 top-tier universities to strengthen academic ties and promote people-to-people exchanges.

"We should take full advantage of the cluster competency of the alliance to forge a multilateral academic collaboration model," says Minister of Education Chen Baosheng, who witnessed the formation of the alliance in Shanghai.

Chen says the collaboration strives to help schools attract talented international students, and improve global visibility and prestige.

The top schools include Tsinghua University, Peking University, Oxford University, the London School of Economics and the University of Cambridge's Needham Research Institute.

In addition to joint research projects and forums, universities will offer teaching and research activities comprising double degree programs, summer schools and research trips for prospective students.

The Young Scholar Forum serves as the core cultural and academic exchange avenue for the association, with the Young Talent Program set up to encourage students to tap into innovative projects and startups.

Among the latest efforts is the LSE-Fudan Institute for Global Public Policy, a school preparing future leaders, and contributing to global governance and public affairs. The double degree program to be rolled out next year will feature cross-disciplinary teaching and recruit master's students from China and abroad.

"With China making strides on the international stage, we see pressing needs for talented people who will be able to properly present our stances in global arenas such as international organizations. That, in part, propels us to establish this joint program," says Jing Yijia, vice-director of foreign affairs at Fudan University and a professor at the School of International Relations and Public Affairs.

A collection of scholarships is up for grabs for students to relieve their financial burdens, Jing says. The school is also mulling the possibility of offering students the option to take all courses in China but still be able to earn two degrees, which would further trim tuition fees and living expenses.

"I managed to access research opportunities at two institutions and diversify my education," says Che Rui, a recent graduate with a dual master's degree in global media and communications from Fudan and LSE, a predecessor program that dates to 2007.

Che, who now works for a well-known securities broker in Shanghai, says the double degree gives him a competitive edge in the job market.

With the aid of the dual degree programs, universities can pool educational resources and use complementary teaching expertise to build study programs that they otherwise wouldn't be able to offer, according to Katherine Morton, professor and chair of Chinese international relations at the University of Sheffield.

"Many Chinese students come to study at our university each year, and I expect the number to grow. It's highly important that we have such a dialogue mechanism, and we'll get more exchange programs up and running," she says.

China remains the largest source of international students studying in the UK. According to the British Council in June, one in three non-EU students studying in the UK in 2014-15 were from China.

hewei@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily European Weekly 12/09/2016 page25)
Event will showcase products from creative firms, help boost exports and attract more Chinese visitors

Copenhagen was selected to co-host Beijing Design Week 2018, which will put Danish design on display before a large international audience.

"I am certain that this will benefit Copenhagen's creative firms, help boost exports and attract more Chinese visitors to Denmark," Frank Jensen, lord mayor of the Danish capital city, said at the First China Denmark Regions and Cities Forum in Beijing on Dec 6.

Beijing Design Week is China's leading design festival, organized by the Ministry of Culture and the Beijing Municipal Government. It has been held every year from late September to early October since 2011.

Frank Jensen (left), lord mayor of Copenhagen, and A. Carsten Damsgaard (right), Denmark's ambassador to China, ride on bikes in Beijing. Provided to China Daily

Previous co-hosts included London, Milan, Dubai, Amsterdam, Seoul and Barcelona. An estimated 5 million visitors come to Beijing Design Week every year.

Copenhagen will invite Danish organizations and companies in the design industry to be part of the co-hosting effort, Jensen said. Everything from artistic design and gastronomy to innovative urban planning and computer game programming, will be included.

Copenhagen will also have an exhibit in Beijing's 798 art district during Design Week 2018, as well as launching events throughout the Chinese capital, in the same way events are presented in Denmark.

"We intend to use Beijing Design Week 2018 as an opportunity to make design an even bigger part of our efforts to promote Copenhagen and encourage more people to visit here," says Mikkel Aaro-Hansen, managing director of Wonderful Copenhagen, the city's official tourism bureau.

Market analysis by the bureau found that design is an important motivation for Chinese travelers' decision to visit the city. About 80 percent of people from China who visit Copenhagen report being interested in buying Danish design products.

Jensen was among the Danish guests visiting Beijing and took part in the First China Denmark Regions and Cities Forum on Dec 5 and 6. The forum had about 400 attendees. Danish Minister for Nordic Cooperation and Gender Equality Karen Ellemann, together with Li Xiaolin, president of the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, witnessed the signing of six cooperation agreements - on agriculture, wastewater treatment, dairy and organic farming, tourism and finance - between Chinese and Danish commercial and municipal partners.

"Both Denmark and China are trying to engage with more local-level governments to enhance the bilateral partnership," says A. Carsten Damsgaard, Denmark's ambassado to China. "During this two-day forum, the Danish competencies in sectors that are prioritized in the Chinese government's reform plans will be showcased and discussed by stakeholders."

Enhanced cooperation at the local political level is at the center of Sino-Danish bilateral relations. At the political level, a letter of intent was signed between the Harbin government in Heilongjiang province and the Royal Danish Embassy on deepening agricultural cooperation, along with a joint action plan between the Beijing Municipal Tourism Commission and Wonderful Copenhagen, to promote tourism.

In a memorandum of understanding between government and business, Zhaoqing city in Guangdong province joined hands with the Danish pump manufacturer Grundfos to equip two new hospitals with the latest wastewater treatment solutions.

Europe's leading milking operator and equipment manufacturer S.A.Christensen & Co inked two memorandums of understanding on dairy farms and organic farming with its local business partners in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region and Hebei province.

renjie@chinadaily.com.cn

( China Daily European Weekly 12/09/2016 page28)
As part of global expansion, Chinese smartphone giant awaits regulatory approval for latest deal

ZTE Corp said on Dec 6 that it would spend up to $101.3 million (94.4 million euros; 79.5 million) to purchase a 48 percent stake in a leading Turkish telecom company, as the Chinese telecom equipment-maker ramps up efforts to expand its business in the country.

The company, based in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, said in a filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that the deal, once completed, would make it the largest shareholder of Netas Telekomunikasyon AS. The Turkish Armed Forces Foundation will hold 15 percent.

The acquisition is awaiting approval from the Competition Board of Turkey.

Visitors look at smartphones at ZTE Corp booth at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. In the first nine months of this year, ZTE's revenue exceeded $10.35 billion, a year-on-year growth of 4.4 percent. Provided to China Daily

"Netas is one of the largest telecom system integration companies in Turkey. Its abundant local client resources will help us grow a presence there," ZTE said, adding that the transaction will be paid for with internal funds.

Founded in 1985, ZTE is the second-largest telecom equipment manufacturer in China, after Huawei Technologies Co. It supplies telecom products and services to customers in more than 160 countries and regions.

Netas, founded in 1967, posted revenues of $371 million for the 2015 fiscal year. Its customers span telecom carriers, banks, and government agencies, ZTE said.

Xiang Ligang, CEO of the telecom industry website cctime.com, says Turkey, given its geographic location, can serve as a steppingstone for ZTE to expand in the Middle East region, where demand for telecom infrastructure is rising.

"It is difficult for Chinese telecom companies to crack foreign markets on their own, due to concerns over information security," Xiang says.

"The investment in Netas will help ZTE better localize its products and reduce the trouble of directly dealing with local clients."

Investors responded differently to the move by ZTE, which is listed in both Hong Kong and Shenzhen.

The company's stock jumped 3.12 percent in Hong Kong to close at HK$12.56 ($1.62; 1.51 euros; 1.27) on Dec 6, while its Shenzhen-traded shares declined 0.24 percent to close at 16.29 yuan.

Fu Liang, a telecom industry analyst, says ZTE is accelerating its global expansion as it tries to out-compete its rivals by migrating to post-4G telecom technology and the Internet of Things market.

In the first nine months of this year, ZTE's revenue exceeded 71 billion yuan, for year-on-year growth of 4.4 percent. The firm is also seeking growth in the smartphone sector, launching both premium and budget handsets around the world.

Thanks to its inexpensive smartphone devices, ZTE has become the fourth-largest smartphone vendor in the United States by shipments, with a 7 percent market share, according to research firm International Data Corp.

masi@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily European Weekly 12/09/2016 page27)
Man euthanized in the Netherlands because he was an alcoholic

Mark Langedijk decided that his life of abject alcoholism was hopeless and no longer worth living. The Dutch man was euthanized by his general physician at his parents home, reports The Independent Online. According to Marks brother Marcel, he was killed by lethal injection on July 14 of this year, after 21 failed attempts at rehab within eight years.

I was particularly angry at Mark, recalls Marcel. At first we did what most people do; help. My parents especially have done everything humanly possible to save Mark.

The Netherlands legalized euthanasia 16 years ago for hopeless cases of unbearable suffering.

The news outlet quotes British Conservative Member of Parliament Fiona Bruce as saying the incident was deeply concerning and yet another reason why assisted suicide and euthanasia must never be introduced into the UK.

What someone suffering from alcoholism needs is support and treatment to get better from their addiction  which can be provided  not to be euthanised, she added. It is once again a troubling sign of how legalised euthanasia undermines in other countries the treatment and help the most vulnerable should receive.

It is not a solution, but in fact a bad precedent.

Clinical psychologist Dr. Greg Bottaro of the CatholicPsych Institute warns that this case sends the wrong message to those struggling with mental illness, as quoted by the CatholicNewsAgency. By putting this out there in this public mindset, it calls into question even more the people who are in despair and it gives them greater reason to believe that its worth giving up, he said.

A depressing development

In the U.S., five states have legalized euthanasia: California, Oregon, Montana, Washington, and Vermont. And the list of nations that allow assisted suicide/euthanasia is growing: Switzerland, Germany, Japan, Canada, Netherlands, Belgium, Colombia, and Luxembourg. Many are choosing death, citing nothing more than depression as the reason. In Belgium, even children have the right to choose their own demise. Even though euthanasia is not legal in Britain, Neurologist and Professor Patrick Pullicino claims that when doctors in hospitals there withdraw treatment from the elderly, this equates to the assisted death of hundreds of thousands of patients, as stated by NationalRightToLifeNews.

Down the wrong path

Are we now living in the dystopian future as described by Aldous Huxley in his 1931 novel Brave New World? Unfortunately, in many ways, the answer is yes. For instance, the pervasive use of drugs to control and suppress emotions is a present day reality that was presaged in that work of fiction. Another disturbing example is the advent and ascendancy of physician-assisted suicide. In Brave New World, euthanasia is a universal imperative for all at age sixty. Such draconian measures have not been overtly enacted in todays world, but society is creeping in that direction.

To many liberty-minded individuals, the right to determine ones own destiny should include the right to end ones life, especially when dealing with a dire and incurable condition, and when that condition includes severe pain and suffering. Others believe that every human life is sacred and that no one has the right to end a life. This issue is complex and involves many philosophical, religious, spiritual, societal, and moral considerations. Opinions may vary, but one thing is clear: when the decision to pull the plug is made by a state bureaucracy, abuses will abound. If governments can

exercise such ultimate power regarding life and death, can we really be free, or is freedom just an illusion?

Sources:

Independent.co.uk

NationalRightToLifeNews.org

CatholicNewsAgency.com

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BRIDGEPORT  For years, Ryszard Klos has made custom moldings when the larger kitchen renovation projects his Easton-based company Klos Deluxe Construction worked on required it.

We produced moldings but very little, Klos said. Last year, though, he began thinking about expanding the molding aspect of his business. When he heard there was a showroom in North Carolina that specialized in moldings, he asked his friend Dariusz Franek, owner of Stamford-based Darek Franek Construction, if he wanted to check it out.

The two jumped on their motorcycles and spent a day in North Carolina at the showroom. They returned home with a plan to go into business together.

We know architects, contractors  a lot of clients, Franek said. They asked around and many people seemed excited about the idea of having a local company that specialized in custom and high-end moldings.

Two months ago, the men officially incorporated their business, CT Moldings, with the state. They are now converting an East End building into a manufacturing facility, showroom and offices for the venture.

Klos said their plan is to offer not only custom moldings, but also replicas of existing moldings in a home. We can do any kind of design, he said.

Franek said they also plan to offer other services besides moldings, like custom floorboards or siding. They plan to have as quick a turnaround time for their orders as they can.

If somebody needs molding right away, we will be able to do it, Franek said.

Franek said they ordered several machines from Germany and North Carolina that should help them achieve that goal. The machines were going to have are very fast, very modern and will produce a high-quality finished product, he said. The important thing is it has to be high quality.

The company will also offer installations of their product. The cost of that service will be given upon request and would depend on the job.

Franek said they chose to open their business in Bridgeport because of its location, the low startup costs and easy access to Interstate 95. He said Bridgeport officials have proven helpful during this process.

(Bridgeports) less expensive thats for sure, but what we found out is that the (staff) in the city were so friendly, he said.

Its been a good experience so far, Klos added.

Franek said he knows the orders may not pour in right away, but expects that it will pick up once word of the companys existence spreads. It will help that they have plenty of connections in the regions construction and home renovation business.

The men hope to be open for business in the spring.

ktorres@hearstmediact.com; 203-330-6227
Barbara Poole said that during Marion Roths five years as director of the Ridgefield Chamber of Commerce, she always figured a way to help people, and now that she is recovering from ovarian cancer those people have not forgotten.

Since Oct. 18 and early this week, Poole has raised $22,647 through a GoFundMe web page from 193 contributors. She hopes to generate at least $30,000 to cover most of Roths medical expenses.

There is a small-town love in Ridgefield, and you can see it in the way weve been able to raise funds, Poole said of the outpouring of support in the upscale suburb of nearly 25,000 people.

She said Roth has been desperate to pay her bills since she lost her job as an office manager at a Ridgefield business in September and then underwent cancer surgery at Danbury Hospital about three weeks later. She has been undergoing chemotherapy since then, but that the treatment has been complicated since she has Type-1 Diabetes.

Financially, Roth, who has an adult son, Justin, and daughter, Lindsey, has had to rely on her COBRA insurance and unemployment benefits.

Poole, a 20-year Ridgefield resident, said the tumor was treated in stage one and there is a very, very good chance that, like many people with this condition, she will survive for 10 years and beyond.

Poole, a longtime friend and breast cancer survivor, posts updates and photos of periodically, which has boosted support. Recently a friend of Roths who had attended high school with her in DeKalb, Illinois, made a donation.

People bring her food every night, she said. People know Marion. Whenever Ive gone shopping with her, there is somebody who stops her every five minutes.

Poole said Roth, who directed the local chamber from 2008 to January 2014 and has lived in town for 27 years, was instrumental in generating customers Main Street, the pedestrian-friendly small business retail district.

She developed remarkable programs for the retail merchants, many of whom are not part of chains, to boost their business. She came up with ways to get customers in the door, said Poole, who founded and directs Serengeti Scholars, which makes school more accessible for students in Tanzania.

Contributions for Roth can be sent to www.gofundme.com/help-marion-roth-fight-cancer.
Tajik President Emomali Rahmon to visit India

Delhi,National,Diplomacy, Thu, 08 Dec 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Dec 8 (IANS) Tajikistan's President Emomali Rahmon will be on a state visit to India December 14-18, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Thursday.

This will be the sixth visit of President Rahmon to India. During his last visit to India in 2012, the two countries elevated their bilateral relations to the level of a long-term strategic partnership. Bilateral relations span cooperation in a wide spectrum of areas - political, economic, health, human resources development, defence, counter-terrorism, science and technology, culture and tourism.

President Rahmon will arrive in New Delhi on December 16 after visiting Kerala. His official engagements would be on December 17 in New Delhi, when he will meet the Indian leadership including President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The President will host a banquet on December 27 for his visiting Tajik counterpart, said a ministry statement.

--IANS

and/vd
Explore New Zealand in 'Lord of the Rings' style

Delhi,Cinema/Showbiz, Fri, 09 Dec 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Dec 9 (IANS) To celebrate 15 years of New Zealand being the real Middle-earth, Tourism New Zealand has come up with a unique way for tourists to explore the country by re-imagining it through the eyes of "The Lord of the Rings" characters.

The journey engages consumers through a unique quiz designed to discover which character they would be. Consumers will be provided with a character inspired journey throughout New Zealand with an itinerary on Tourism New Zealand's official website.

Ace filmmaker Peter Jackson says that since the release of "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" in 2001, nothing has changed in New Zealand.

"New Zealand has such a variety of landscapes from lush green forests, to soaring mountains. The grandeur of these landscapes saw tourists flock to our shores, and made a huge impact on the tourism industry," Jackson said in a statement.

"New Zealand is the perfect Middle-earth and a real place that visitors can experience for years and years to come," he added.

Sharing his love for the country, actor Ian McKellen said: "This is the Middle-earth I had always pictured. How can New Zealand not bewitch anyone who visits?"

According to Skyscanner survey, New Zealand emerged as a favourite among Indian travellers, witnessing a growth of 52 percent in travel searches from last year.

--IANS

sas/nv/dg
China's support for Pakistan not against India: Chinese academic

Delhi,National,Indo-Pak/Pakistan,Diplomacy, Fri, 09 Dec 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Dec 9 (IANS) China's support to Pakistan, Beijing's all-weather friend, is not designed to be against India, a prominent Chinese academic said here on Friday.

Speaking at the first ever "India-China Think-Tanks Forum: Towards a Closer India-Pakistan Developmental Forum", Ye Hailin said that China's support to Pakistan was because of the growth of extremism and terrorim in that South Asian nation.

Ye, Chief Editor of South Asia Studies at the National Institute of International Strategy, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that if China did not support Pakistan at a time when extremism and terrorism were rising, the region would have to face serious problems.

He made it clear that China's ties should not be seen as designed against India.

The India-China Think-Tanks Forum was set up through a memorandum of understanding signed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to China in May last year.

--IANS

ab/vd
Vietnam parliamentary delegation calls on Speaker

Delhi,National,Politics,Diplomacy, Fri, 09 Dec 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Dec 9 (IANS) Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on Friday held a meeting with a parliamentary delegation from Vietnam at Parliament House, said an official.

The Vietnamese delegation is led by Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, the Chairperson of the National Assembly of Vietnam.

According to an official release, four memorandums of understanding were signed between the two countries on issues like cooperation in peaceful use of atomic energy, sharing of best practices in airline operation and partnership to jointly work in the area of energy efficiency.

The release said: "Mahajan observed that with India's 'Look East' policy evolving into an 'Act East' policy, this region (Vietnam) has assumed even greater importance in India's strategic thinking and economic engagement."

At the meeting, Mahajan recalled the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Vietnam in September.

"Mahajan said that the two Prime Ministers have decided to elevate bilateral 'Strategic Partnership' initiated in 2007 to a 'Comprehensive Strategic Partnership'," said the release.

"Noting that 2016 marks 30 years of bilateral civil nuclear cooperation, Mahajan said the Agreement on Cooperation in Peaceful Use of Nuclear Energy is a remarkable development and a testimony to two countries' willingness to give greater substance to their recently upgraded Comprehensive Strategic Partnership."

Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan said that the ongoing visit of her delegation will further consolidate and strengthen bilateral relations between the two countries, the release said.

--IANS

spk/nir/bg
Civil n-pact among three India-Vietnam agreements signed

Delhi,National,Indo-Pak/Pakistan,Diplomacy,Business/Economy, Fri, 09 Dec 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Dec 9 (IANS) A civil nuclear agreement was among four agreements signed between India and Vietnam on Friday in the course of the visit of Vietnam National Assembly's President Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan to India.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the new civil nuclear agreement between India and Vietnam will boost ties with the Southeast Asian nation seen as a crucial partner of New Delhi in that region.

"The Prime Minister said that the bilateral Agreement on Cooperation in Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, being signed today (Friday), will further strengthen the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between India and Vietnam," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup told the media after Ngan called on Modi here.

The agreement was decided during Modi's visit to Hanoi in September this year, when India raised its relationship with Vietnam from "Strategic Partnership" to "Comprehensive Strategic Partnership".

It was the first prime ministerial visit from India to Vietnam after Atal Bihari Vajpayee's visit in 2001.

In a joint statement issued following that visit, both Modi and his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Xuan Phuc "expressed satisfaction at three decades of bilateral cooperation in the use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes pursuant to the agreements signed by the two countries in 1986".

Friday's agreement is also important given that Vietnam is India's country coordinator for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), a region which is the focus of India's Act East Policy.

In November, India signed a civil nuclear deal with Japan during Modi's visit to Tokyo. The other countries with which India now has civil nuclear agreements include the US, Russia, Australia, Canada, France, Britain, South Korea, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Namibia and Argentina.

The new agreement on Cooperation in Peaceful use of Atomic Energy was signed by Sekhar Basu, Secretary in the Department of Atomic Energy, and Pham Cong Tac, the Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Science and Technology here on Friday.

A parliamentary cooperation agreement was also signed between Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and Ngan.

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between Air India and Vietjet Aviation Joint Stock Company for promotion of traffic between Vietnam and India and sharing of best practices in airline operation, ground handling procedure and management.

Another MoU was signed between India's Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) and Vietnam Electricity (EVN) on developing a partnership to jointly work in the area of energy efficiency.

In his meeting with Ngan on Friday, Modi also called for increased interactions between the parliaments of India and Vietnam and the institution of an exchange programme for young parliamentarians between the two countries.

"The Prime Minister recalled their earlier meeting in Hanoi during his visit to Vietnam in September 2016," Swarup said.

"He said that Ngan, as the first woman to head the National Assembly of Vietnam, is a source of inspiration to women across the world."

--IANS

ab/vd
30 killed, 67 hurt in Nigeria suicide blasts

Nigeria,Terrorism, Sat, 10 Dec 2016 IANS

Abuja, Dec 10 (IANS) Thirty people were killed and 67 injured in the suicide blasts which rocked a crowded market in Madagali district of Nigeria's northeastern state of Adamawa on Friday.

Badare Akintoye, a military spokesman confirmed two female suicide bombers carried out the attacks, Xinhua news agency reported.

The explosions occurred simultaneously at the opposite ends of the local market in Madagali, causing buyers and sellers to run for safety.

Sani Datti, spokesman of the country's National Emergency Management Agency said the 67 injured were taken to the state-run Michika General Hospital for treatment, a statement said.

The market at which the attacks took place is a weekly one that sells grains, vegetable and animals every Friday.

The blasts occurred at the animal and grains sections of the market, according to Yusuf Mohammed, a senior district official.

Adamawa State police spokesman Othman Abubakar said investigation is underway on the attacks. Madagali is located 276 kilometres from the state capital, Yola.

In August 2014, the district was one of several towns seized by terror group Boko Haram but it was recaptured by the military in March 2015.

Two female suicide bombers who were members of the Boko Haram group killed at least 30 people and 16 injured when they attacked a busy motor park in Madagali on December 28, 2015.

--IANS

sku/
The Carnival of Nuclear Energy 337 is up at Neutron Bytes

MZ consulting  A new study by UNSCEAR shows that there is more radiation coming from coal plants than nuclear plants  and that workers mining the rare earths required for solar and wind are subject to higher doses than nuclear workers.

Report of the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (24 pages)

They calculated the collective doses to defined population groups resulting from one years global and regional electricity generation by each energy technology, integrated over specific time periods. The second metric consisted of the relevant collective doses divided by the amount of electricity generated by each technology. The reference year used for the comparisons was 2010.

The Committee estimated that the contribution from the coal cycle was more than half of the total collective dose to the local and regional public from the discharges due to a single years global electricity generation. That estimate was based on the assumption that the discharges originated from modern coal plants. The nuclear fuel cycle, on the other hand, contributed less than a fifth. The contribution from the coal cycle comes from discharges of natural radionuclides (primarily radon and its radioactive progeny) during coal mining, combustion of coal at power plants and coal ash deposits. Similarly, almost half of the exposures of the global public from the nuclear fuel cycle result from discharges of natural radionuclides during uranium mining and milling activities. These values depend on the share of each technology in total electricity production; in 2010 the coal cycle contributed about 40 per cent, the largest amount. Although radon and its progeny are relatively important contributors to the collective doses to the public for both the nuclear fuel cycle and the coal cycle, the associated individual doses are small compared with doses due to inhalation of radon and its progeny at levels that occur naturally in homes.

The Committee found, however, that the contribution of a given technology to the exposures of the global public was not simply a function of how much electricity that technology generated.

The Committee also assessed occupational exposures. The largest collective dose to workers per unit of electricity generated resulted from coal mining, because of exposures to naturally occurring radionuclides. Of all the collective doses evaluated, both to the public and to workers, the exposure of workers from coal mining made the largest contribution, although it has fallen over time because of improving mining conditions. By far the largest collective dose to workers per unit of electricity generated was found in the solar power cycle, followed by the wind power cycle. The reason for this is that these technologies require large amounts of rare earth metals, and the mining of low-grade ore exposes workers to natural radionuclides during mining.

Forbes- James Conca  Illinois Sees The Light  Retains Nuclear Power

The Illinois State legislature passed The Future Energy Jobs Bill (SB 2814) with less than an hour remaining in the legislative session, allowing Exelons Clinton and Quad Cities nuclear power plants to remain open. This will save 4,200 jobs and over 22 billion kWhs of carbon-free power each year, more than all of the states renewables combined.

Nextbigfuture  Coal to nuclear conversion can rapidly address 30% of CO2 emissions

High temperature nuclear reactors can replace the coal burners at several hundred supercritical coal plants in China. The lead of the pebble bed project indicates that China plans to replace coal burners with high temperature nuclear pebble bed reactors.

HTR-PM are modular reactors that will be mainly factory mass produced. The first one is taking 6 years to make. The reactor module will head towards about two years to build when they are making them by the dozen.

Nextbigfuture  Chinas HTR-PM (high temperature pebble bed nuclear reactor) project is squarely aimed at being a cost-effective solution that will virtually eliminate air pollution and CO2 production from selected units of Chinas large installed base of modern 600 MWe supercritical coal plants.

It is a deployment program with the first of a kind commercial demonstration approaching construction completion and commercial operation by mid to late 2018. Major parts of the machinery will be able to be merged into the existing infrastructure.

The current critical path item is the completion of the steam generators  one for each of the two reactors. The shells and internals have been completed, but the final stages of attaching the piping to the thick-walled, large diameter pressure vessels will delay site delivery until sometime close to the middle of 2017.

Nextbigfuture  In graduate school at the University of Wisconsin, Rachel Slaybaugh began studying the Boltzmann Transport Equation  a single equation that describes where all of the neutrons are in a nuclear system, Slaybaugh explains. Anything in a nuclear system starts with where all of the neutrons are, so it lets you figure out everything else.

Working with the equation can be challenging, so Slaybaugh developed expertise in creating algorithms and software to solve the equation faster and more efficiently, which ultimately can be applied to designing and modeling new nuclear technologies.
The Xian H-20 is a subsonic stealth bomber design of the Peoples Liberation Army Air Force, due to enter service in the future. It is a strategic project for china. The aircraft will feature a wing design similar to that of the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit, with components already being manufactured. Analysts note that the bomber may enter service by 2025, and will seek to replace Chinas existing fleet of Xian H-6K bombers.

Admiral Yin said the H-20 stealth bomber will certainly be on par with the United States Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit. He noted China has gained some experience in stealth technology from the development of Chengdu J-20 and the Shenyang J-31 stealth fighters, so the material and design isnt a big problem.

The US B-2 entered service in 1997 as the second aircraft designed to have advanced stealth technology after the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk attack aircraft

The US Northrop B-2 is capable of all-altitude attack missions up to 50,000 feet (15,000 m), with a range of more than 6,000 nautical miles (6,900 mi; 11,000 km) on internal fuel and over 10,000 nautical miles (12,000 mi; 19,000 km) with one midair refueling.

According to the China Daily, Chinese military officials have made clear intentions to develop a strategic bomber capable of striking targets beyond the second island chain without aerial refueling, while carrying a payload of at least 10 tons

Chinas first stealth bomber will be developed and produced by Xian Aircraft Industrial Corporation, the same firm that makes the H-6K.

The H-6K has a range of about 3200 nautical miles.

Chinas decision to go ahead with its own stealth bomber seems to have been triggered by its failure to buy Russias supersonic Tupolev Tu-22M3 variable-sweep wing, long-range strategic and maritime strike bomber developed by the Tupolev Design Bureau.

This Russian bomber has a combat radius of 2,400 kilometers and can carry up to 24,000 kilograms of bombs and missiles.

Western military analysts said China needs the H-20 to deny the U.S. from entering the First Island Chain from Alaska to the Philippines, and to cement its military leadership in Asia.



SOURCES  Wikipedia, China topix
In an obvious reference to President Muhammadu Buharis perceived penchant for blaming the Jonathan administration for Nigerias woes, Ben...

As 2017 approaches let me warn that if we waste it blaming previous admins as we did 2016, we will move from recession to economic collapse!  Ben Murray-Bruce (@benmurraybruce) December 9, 2016

In an obvious reference to President Muhammadu Buharis perceived penchant for blaming the Jonathan administration for Nigerias woes, Ben Murray Bruce has advised the Federal Government not to waste time blaming the previous administration if the nation must not witness economic collapse.Bruce is the senator representing Bayelsa East constituency, Bayelsa State, on the platform of PDP.Taking to his twitter account on Friday, Bruce had written: As 2017 approaches let me warn that if we waste it blaming previous admins as we did 2016, we will move from recession to economic collapse!This is the tweet:
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The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), has rejected the proposed bill seeking to establish Christian Courts in the country.

The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), has rejected the proposed bill seeking to establish Christian Courts in the country.Rev. John Hayab, who is the Public Relations Officer of the body, argued that the bill might trigger religious crisis.In place of the Christian Court Bill, Hayab urged the lawmakers to make laws that will unite Nigerians, rather than further divide them.This Christian Courts Bill cannot help us, that is why we are voicing it out.This thing is not really what Nigerians want now, he declared.Hayab also noted that the traditional religion worshippers were entitled to rights of worship as enshrined in the constitution, adding that what if they wake up tomorrow and demand that there must be court for the pagans?
Human Rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), has called on the Federal Government to adopt an aggressive policy to recover looted funds and ...

Human Rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), has called on the Federal Government to adopt an aggressive policy to recover looted funds and stop asking for loans.Falana said this on the side line of an event to mark the International Anti-Corruption Day organised by the U.S. Embassy in Abuja on Thursday.He said, People have stolen our money, why are you begging them to return it? We need to fight them and collect the money; we do not need loans that will mortgage the future of our country.The government is asking for a loan of $29.6 billion and we have more than that to recover.He called on the U.S Government to intervene and also urged anti-graft agencies to enhance cooperation to ensure the recovery of such funds.He said that the Federal Governments current plan to recover stolen loots of past administrations would not get the country out of its economic crisis.He said, For instance, $458 million has been forfeited in the U.S.; Nigeria has filed an application before the High Court in Jersey where the money was traced to.But the U.S. Government has filed an objection to the release of the money to the government of Nigeria, claiming the money should be paid to the U.S Government to be managed for Nigeria.We also have some money to collect from the Swiss Government; the Swiss Government is illegally saying that they are not going to release this money unless the World Bank is ready to supervise the management of the fund.Unfortunately, the government (Nigeria) is not challenging such violations of our sovereign rights as a nation.Unless the Federal Government is prepared to adopt an aggressive policy against western governments and their very corrupt financial institutions, we are not going to come out of this mess.He said that the Federal Governments request for loans would be detrimental to the future of the country.Falana further called on Nigeria media to join the campaign of the return of the countrys looted wealth.He said, The Financial Times Magazine of the UK wrote an editorial asking the UK Government to release not less than one billion pounds instead of giving us aid; the Nigerian media should join the campaign.(NAN)
Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai has denied paying Fulani herdsmen to instigate the Southern Kaduna crisis.

Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai has denied paying Fulani herdsmen to instigate the Southern Kaduna crisis.His media aide Samuel Aruwan, at a news conference yesterday, reiterated that El-Rufai did not pay the herdsmen, to either appease or arm them, as widely reported in the media.The Senator representing Kaduna South, Danjuma Laah, accused El-Rufai of paying the Fulani herdsmen for killing his constituents.According to Aruwan, El-Rufai has continued with the peace efforts of former Governor Patrick Yakowa, and will do whatever is legitimate to secure lasting peace in the area.He noted that the late Yakowa tried to foster reconciliation with affected Fulani communities, to stem the spiral of vengeance and reprisals.Yakowas efforts were not sustained after his death and violence persisted. When it became our responsibility to provide security for the state, we re-established these contacts so that those who felt they lost in the 2011 violence could let go.The quest for peace and the imperative of stemming human suffering require leaders to explore conventional and unusual means to build peace. That is why the Kaduna State government is combining security action with dialogue and peace-building efforts in Southern Kaduna, Aruwan said.
Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia Photo credit: Punch A Lagos State High Court in Ikeja on Thursday varied the conditions attached to the ba...

Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia

Photo credit: Punch

A Lagos State High Court in Ikeja on Thursday varied the conditions attached to the bail granted Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia and Chief Godwin Obla (SAN), who are facing charges of bribery and unlawful enrichment.The serving judge and the SAN were arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on November 28, 2016 on 30 counts before Justice Hakeem Oshodi.Following their not guilty plea to all the charges, Justice Oshodi granted them bail on self-recognisance with a condition that they must each deposit N20m and their passports into the custody of the chief registrar of the court.Justice Oshodi said the bail would be revoked if the defendants failed to meet the conditions within seven days.The case was eventually adjourned till January 9, 2017.But Justice Ofili-Ajumogobia and Obla, together with their lawyers, Mr. Wale Akoni (SAN) and Mr. Ifedayo Adedipe (SAN) respectively, appeared before Justice Oshodi on Thursday, with separate applications seeking the variation of the bail terms.Akoni and Adedipe told Justice Oshodi that their clients had found it impossible to raise N20m each as ordered by the court and urged the court to vary the terms.In the application filed on her behalf by Akoni, Justice Ofili-Ajumogobia said the N20m imposed on her was excessive.She said she had no such funds particularly as the EFCC had placed a No Debit Order on her bank accounts since the commencement of investigation into the case, adding that she had been living only on the goodwill of her family and friends.Akoni urged Justice Oshodi to allow his client to deposit the N20m in bail bond rather than cash.On his own part, Obla, through his lawyer, Adedipe, also described the N20m he was ordered to deposit as excessive, noting that the sum involved in the charge against him was N5m.He urged the court to allow him deposit the N20m in an insurance bail bond or to deposit N5m cash.We humbly pray My Lord to vary the condition that the second defendant should deposit N20m to the registrar of the court. We are passionately appealing for that. We are willing to even submit an insurance bond to demonstrate our willingness.We dont have that money now but we plead with Your Lordship most passionately to grant this application and pray that my learned friend will not oppose it, Adedipe told Justice Oshodi while arguing his clients application.Both defendants also prayed the court to order the EFCC to immediately transmit their passports to the chief registrar of the court as ordered by the judge.Responding, however, the EFCC lawyer, Mr. Rotimi Oyedepo, confirmed the receipt of the defendants applications, adding that a further affidavit to the applications was served on him on Thursday.Specifically, he said though he was not inclined to opposing Justice Ofili-Ajumogobias application, the defendant raised serious issues touching on his personality in the further affidavit to which he needed time to respond to.Ordinarily, we would have loved to react on oath to the issues raised but if the applicant is willing to abandon that further affidavit, I will leave the application to the overriding discretionary power of the court, Oyedepo said.Akoni subsequently withdrew the further affidavit.Ruling on the applications after standing the matter down for hours, Justice Oshodi said he was inclined to exercise his discretionary power in favour of the defendants more so as the EFCC had not opposed the applications.He granted the prayer by Justice Ofili-Ajumogobia and Obla to execute a N20m bail bond with the chief registrar of the Lagos State High Court rather than deposit cash within seven days from Thursday.He also ordered the defendants to swear to affidavits of means.Justice Oshodi, however, said the defendants prayer seeking an order directing the EFCC to immediately surrender their passports to the court registrar was not well founded because the passports were already in the custody of the court.He adjourned the case till January 9, 2017.In the charges, the EFCC alleged that Obla, while appearing in a suit numbered FHC/L/C/482c/2010 before Justice Ofili-Ajumogobia, offered a gratification of N5m to the judge to allegedly induce the judge to refrain from acting in the exercise of her official duties as a public officer.Obla, the EFCC claimed, paid the money from the account of his company, Obla & Company Limited, with the United Bank for Africa, to Justice Ofili-Ajumogobia through the bank account of Nigel & Colive Ltd in Diamond Bank Plc.The EFCC claimed that the judge and the SAN acted contrary to sections 64 (1) and 97 (1) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, No. 11, 2011.But they both pleaded not guilty to the offence.In 24 out of the 30 counts, Justice Ofili-Ajumogobia was accused of unlawfully enriching herself as a public officer contrary to the provision of Section 82(a) of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State No. 11, 2011.The judge was accused of receiving a total of $793,800 in several tranches from different sources between 2012 and 2015 so as to have a significant increase in your assets that you cannot reasonably explain the increase in relation to your lawful income.The judge was further accused of forging a deed of assignment between County City Bricks Development Co. Ltd and Nigel & Colive Ltd dated July 5, 2010, which the EFCC claimed was purportedly prepared and signed by Charles Musa & Co.The offence is said to be contrary to Section 467 of the Criminal Code, Cap C17, Law of Lagos State of Nigeria 2003.In count 30, the EFCC accused Justice Ofili-Ajumogobia of giving false information to one of its operatives, Lawal Abdullahi, on October 19, 2016, by allegedly claiming on the telephone to be on admission at Gold Cross Hospital, Bourdillon Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, while she was not there.The offence is said to be contrary to Section 39(2)(a) of the EFCC (Establishment) Act, 2004.
The Lagos State Government on Thursday said it was ready to roll out Lake Rice on December 15 to residents at N13,000 per 50kg towards t...

The Lagos State Government on Thursday said it was ready to roll out Lake Rice on December 15 to residents at N13,000 per 50kg towards the Yuletide celebrations.The Special Adviser on Food Security to Governor Akinwumi Ambode, Mr. Sanni Okanlawon, made the disclosure in Lagos during the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry National Agriculture Stakeholders Summit.Okanlawon said that sales of the rice would be made at all the 57 Local Government Areas and Local Council Development Areas in the state to ensure proper distribution.He said, Lake Rice is the acronym of both Lagos and Kebbi States joint product which will be out to the public on December 15 at the rate of N13,000 per 50kg bag, as it is already subsidised by the government.To make it more available, the rice will be sold at the 57 LGAs and LCDAs for easy accessibility and to guard against unwanted persons diverting the product.The state government has put in place a committee that will ensure that Lagosians have the best Christmas celebration, that is why we are offering the wholesome and well packaged rice.The special adviser also said that the state had established a Department of Agribusiness, an Agriculture Trust Fund and Commodity Exchange Market to be set up soon.The governments efforts were in alignment with the Federal Governments diversification drive from a mono-economy to agriculture.(NAN)
Security has been beefed up in Rivers State, especially Port Harcourt, ahead of the legislative rerun in Rivers State.

Security has been beefed up in Rivers State, especially Port Harcourt, ahead of the legislative rerun in Rivers State.Heavily armed operatives were seen in over 30 police vans along Aba Road while hundreds of them, clutching rifles, were seen moving towards the state police command on Moscow Road.It was gathered that the security operatives were coming into Rivers from different states ahead of the election on Saturday.Some of the security agents, who were mainly regular and mobile policemen, were seen purchasing soft drinks and other food items outside the command while waiting for their accommodation.Confirming the influx of security operatives into the state, the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Mr. Nnamdi Omoni, explained that the policemen were in Rivers to ensure that nothing went wrong during Saturdays election.We (police) are fully ready for the election on Saturday. As you can see, our men are fully on the ground and will be working hand-in-hand with other security agencies.This is to ensure that there is no breakdown of law and order during the election, he added.Earlier in a statement, the state police spokesman maintained that there would be a total restriction of movement of persons and vehicles from 12 midnight on Friday till 8pm on Saturday, both on land and waterways.Omoni said in the statement that the police and other security agencies would patrol all parts of the state to ensure strict compliance.There is, however, anxiety in the state as some residents of Port Harcourt and Obio/Akpor streamed to various banks to withdraw money mainly for food that would last through the weekend.Long queues were observed at ATM points in different banks along Olu Obasanjo Road in the state capital, even as some bank customers complained of their inability to withdraw cash without delay.Some residents were also observed streaming into supermarkets and stores to purchase food in large quantities.A resident of Port Harcourt, who identified herself as Josephine Udoma, said she had to buy enough foodstuffs to last for at least a week, adding that she was not sure of what Saturdays election would bring to the people of the state.This election should come and go. It is surprising that we are still talking about election that should have been concluded in 2015. People are afraid because of what they have heard from about the election.It was hectic getting money from the ATM and when I eventually did, I had to buy enough foodstuffs that will serve me for at least one week because we dont know what will happen during and after the election, Udoma added.Meanwhile, the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, has called on the Nigerian Army, the navy, air force, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps and others to synergise with the police to ensure a violence-free parliamentary election in the state.Idris made the call in Port Harcourt on Thursday during his one-day working visit to the state ahead of the rerun.Addressing police officers and other security agencies, Idris stated that a fair collaboration among the security personnel deployed for the election would strengthen security operations and ensure the completion of the exercise.While assuring the police on duty of their welfare, Idris warned policemen not go beyond the areas of their operations in order for the force to check the activities of impersonators.
The Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led national caretaker committee of the Peoples Democratic Party said in Abuja on Friday, that the All Progressi...

The Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led national caretaker committee of the Peoples Democratic Party said in Abuja on Friday, that the All Progressives Congress has declared war on the people of Rivers State over Saturdays rerun election in the state.It said the declaration that supporters of the APC should slap anyone that slaps them was a declaration of war by their leaders.It also described the presence of the top echelon of the APC in the state on Thursday at its mega rally, where it said they incited their supporters against the PDP, as unfortunate.A statement issued by the Spokesperson for the faction, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, said the APC supporters and their leaders behaved like garrison commanders.He alleged that the APC did not also spare other voters in the state as he alleged that it ordered their armies to attack them during the Saturday re-run elections.Adeyeye said, This open declaration of war on the people of Rivers State is only reaffirming our earlier position and fear that all the actions and body language of the APC since it took over power in May, 2015 is gearing towards erasing democracy and installing full blown dictatorship in Nigeria.The National Chairman of the APC, Chief John Odigie Oyegun, addressing a very scanty crowd at the so called Mega Rally in Port Harcourt, Rivers State openly incited the members and supporters of his party saying If they push you, push them back. If they slap you, slap them back. As you can see, we came in full force, the whole federal might is here.As if that was not enough, the Governor of Kano State, Alhaji Umar Ganduje who is also the Chairman of the APC, Rivers State Re-Run Campaign Committee said, If they shoot at you, take cover and shoot them back.This is very sad and a complete reversal of all the democratic experience we have built and nurtured in Nigeria in the last 16 years.
Two female suicide bombers killed 30 people at a local market in Madagali, Adamawa State, north-east Nigeria, military and other officials...

Two female suicide bombers killed 30 people at a local market in Madagali, Adamawa State, north-east Nigeria, military and other officials said on Friday.Madagali lies some 276 kilometres from the Adamawa State capital, Yola.The town, which is close to neighbouring Borno State, was one of several others held by Boko Haram at the height of the groups brutal insurgency.The latest blast is the third in Madagali, following attacks by two female suicide bombers on December 28, 2015, at a busy motor park.The spokesman of the 28th Task Force Battalion of the Nigerian Army, Badere Akintoye, said the two teen female suicide bombers sneaked into the busy market and detonated themselves in the middle of it.For now 30 were confirmed dead and (an)other 67 injured and have been evacuated to Michika hospital, the army major said.Local sources had earlier said two female suicide bombers detonated the bombs at the grains and second hand cloths section of the market, Friday noon, killing dozens of people.The Chairman of Madagali Local Government, Yusuf Muhammad, described the attack as a setback to relative peace enjoyed by residents who resumed normal commercial and social activities following successful military operations.Mr. Muhammad called on the federal government to deploy soldiers to the surrounding areas where he said Boko Haram insurgents had set up camps.
The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a suit seeking the removal of the Governor of Cross River State, Ben Ayade, on the basis of alleged ...

The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a suit seeking the removal of the Governor of Cross River State, Ben Ayade, on the basis of alleged age falsification and loss of membership of his party, the Peoples Democratic Party.The appellant, Mr. Joe Agi (SAN), alleged that Ayade had lost his membership of the PDP as of the time he was sponsored by the party for last years election due to the governors alleged consistent failure to pay his dues.Agi had participated, along with other aspirants, in the December 8, 2014 governorship primary of the PDP, which produced Ayade as the party candidate in last years election in Cross River State.He had challenged the judgment of the Court of Appeal, Abuja, delivered on February 5, 2016, upholding the earlier decision of a Federal High Court in Abuja, which dismissed his case.He had further appealed to the Supreme Court, asking it to reverse the judgment of the appeal court.But in a unanimous judgment of its five-man panel led by Justice Bode Rhodes-Vivour, the Supreme Court on Friday held that the suit was devoid of merit.A member of the panel, Justice Clara Ogunbiyi, who read the lead judgment, held that the issue of the status of a persons membership of a political party was an internal affair of the party, which a court of law could not determine.She affirmed the decision of the Court of Appeal which held that the status of a persons membership of a political party was not justiciable.She held that the court could not question Ayades membership of the PDP, the party having, through its secretary in Cross River State, confirmed at the trial court that he had paid all his dues and that he remained a member of the party.The pertinent question to pose is that who, between the appellant (Agi) and the first respondent (the PDP), has the vires (power) to decide who is a member of the party, she held.She said, contrary to Agis submission, the fact that the word cleared was embossed on Ayades membership card shows that he had paid all his dues, as stipulated in Section 8 (10) of the PDPs Constitution.She said that as provided under Paragraph 48 of the of the PDPs Guideline for Primary Election 2014, the decision of the National Executive Committee of the party, stating through the state chapter of the party that Ayade was a member of the party, was final and binding on all aspirants who participated in the December 8, 2014 primary.She ruled, As I earlier said, a political party is a voluntary association and its decision is binding on its members, even if it is deemed unreasonable.The decision of the party on issue like this is final. The court will not substitute its will with that of the voluntary association, whether it is reasonable or unreasonable.She also held that the allegation of age falsification is rooted in criminality, which the appellant failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt as required by law.She added that for age falsification to serve as a disqualifying factor for any person running for the office of the governor, it must be proved that it was done with the intention to meet the minimum of 35-year-old constitutional requirement for any person seeking to occupy the office.The appellant claimed that Ayade had falsely represented his date of birth in his nomination form submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission and other records as March 2, 1968 and March 2, 1969.But in her judgment, Justice Ogunbiyi said that neither of the dates of birth which placed the age of the governor at either 45 or 46 as of the time he was nominated by the PDP to run for the office of the governor, conferred any undue advantage on him.She added, The second respondent (Ayade) was said to have stated his date of birth in his nomination form to INEC as March 2, 1968.That means that he was 46 years old as of the time he was nominated and that was 11 years above the constitutional requirement of 35 years.By March 2, 1969, the second respondent would have been 45 years old as of the time he was sponsored by the first respondent (the PDP). He would still have been 10 years above the constitutional requirement age of 35 years for office of the governor.The appellant has failed to prove the intention of the second respondent to circumvent the law in order to ensure his compliance with constitutional age requirement.She held that sections 14(b) and 15(2) of the constitution of the party, as well as Section 31(2),(5) and (6) of the Electoral Act which provided for disqualification of any aspirant seeking political office, were to ensure compliance with requirement of mandatory age for the office of the governor under sections 177(b) and 182(1) of the Constitution.She ruled, I endorse the judgment of the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division. This appeal is devoid of any merit and it is hereby dismissed.
Left-wing media morons praise Fidel Castro as a reformer rather than the mass murderer he really was

Fidel Castro is one of the most twisted men in modern history. A vicious dictator whose rule over the country of Cuba forced millions of citizens to flee to the United States, Castro is seen as a truly awful person by every logical human being on the planet. Sadly, there are a lot of leftists who somehow view Fidel Castro as a revolutionary hero, reformer and beloved icon instead of the monstrous dictator that he actually was.

Its hard to understand a situation that makes Castro anything but awful, but thats the Regressive Left for you. Theyre always finding bogus ways of turning horrible human beings into heroes. From Castro to Che Guevara, the leftists of the world continue to find people to admire within the realm of communism and socialism. Even in the face of facts about how evil Castro was, idiots on the left try to turn a negative into a positive and lie to themselves in the process.

Tammy Bruce of The Washington Times breaks down why this is such a terrible idea, stating, There is no religious freedom in Cuba  there was room for only one god and that was Fidel. There was no free press, of course, no personal freedom, only fear. The actual number of those killed by the Castro brothers and their murderous associate Che Guevara can never be known only because of the number of disappeared opponents, gays, academics and the educated.

Healthy societies can not grow under the likes of Castro. Communism is an economic disaster and should be treated as such, but the foolish people on the left refuse to accept the fact that any aspect of American life  including free market capitalism  is a good thing, so they lie to themselves about how good of an idea communism  or even socialism  really is.

It is vital that all of us go out of our way in order to show the Regressive Left just how maniacal Fidel Castro was. Not only was he a bad person by conservative standards, he also held values that directly infringed on what modern liberals believe. The fact that they continue to rally around him as if he were some sort of lovable hero is baffling, to say the least, but at this point, we should expect hypocrisy and idiocy from these folks.

Capitalism is the only method that truly benefits the people. Communism is terrible. Socialism is terrible. Castro is terrible.

Sources:

FreeBeacon.com

Breitbart.com

WashingtonTimes.com
Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike yesterday told the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris that the withdrawal of his chief security...

Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike yesterday told the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris that the withdrawal of his chief security officer (CSO) exposed him to danger.The governor urged the police chief to transfer the Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Operations, Steven Hasso, and the Commander of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Akin Fakorede, for alleged compromise in the states security for partisan reasons.Wike spoke when he hosted Idris at the Government House in Port Harcourt, the state capital.The governor regretted that without consultation, the police high command allegedly took sides with Hasso, who he said attempted to invade Government House with All Progressives Congress (APC) supporters.Wike said he was shocked by the statement from the Office of the IGP that his CSO was withdrawn for alleged misconduct.He insisted that contrary to the IGPs claim, the CSO only stopped Hasso and APC supporters from invading Government House.Wike said: The moment you touch my CSO, you are telling me that you are ready for me. As I sit, I am empty; I have no protection.When people start to embarrass the governor, take his CSO without information, it is completely wrong. What you have done is the highest disrespect to the Office of the Governor.I am pleading with you, my life is important. I will take any CSO you bring to me This is a matter of security and protection; it is not what you treat with levity.The governor warned the police chief against politicising the security of the rerun, adding that after the election, there will still be governance.He cautioned the police high command that Rivers State residents would support an unbiased police, but warned that the people would resist any attempt to use security agencies for what he called untoward electoral action.Wike said: If the police want a free and fair election, the police will get free and fair election.The governor berated the police for declaring a state-wide curfew without consulting the states Security Council.He reminded Idris that he had written several letters to his office without getting a reply.Wike accused Fakorede of distributing SARS uniform to suspected APC thugs.Idris said he was in the state to ensure a peaceful rerun.He urged the people of Rivers State to support the security agencies to deliver peaceful polls.
Kellyanne Conway

Kellyanne Conway, campaign manager for President-elect Donald Trump gives a thumbs up as she arrives at Trump Tower, Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2016, in New York. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

HAMMONTON -- A South Jersey anti-fascist group has joined the ranks of those opposing Kellyanne Conway's appearance at the upcoming Christmas parade in Hammonton.

South Jersey Antifa, a local chapter of the global network that opposes racism, fascism and oppression, announced late Wednesday its plans to protest the former campaign advisor to President-elect Donald Trump.

"She is not an acceptable role model and we call on the Hammonton Fire Department to drop her. It's shameful that the fire department is turning their annual parade into a platform for right-wing sexism," the group said in a statement.

Conway -- who hails from Atco, in Camden County, and graduated from high school in Hammonton -- was invited by town leaders to be grand marshal of the parade.

A request for comment left with her press office was not immediately returned. The South Jersey anti-fascist chapter could not immediately be reached for additional comment.

"I don't play politics with the Christmas parade," Hammonton Councilman Mickey Pullia, also a lieutenant with the town's fire department, told NJ Advance Media on Wednesday. "This is not a political event in any way, shape or form."

Hammonton residents and others from around South Jersey expressed concern over Conway speaking and being awarded a key to the city, stating that the annual Christmas parade is no place for politics.

"Conway made headlines by claiming mothers should not take jobs at the White House just days before the parade. Her next role appears likely to be pushing the xenophobic far-right agenda that Trump campaigned on," the South Jersey Antifa statement continues.

On its Facebook page, the chapter describes itself as "dedicated to resisting fascist political groups in South Jersey. Our aim is to protect immigrants

, Muslims, LGBTQ+ and all who are threatened ."

Pullia said Conway accepted the offer to attend early this week and, when asked, said parade organizers have no plans to rescind the invitation.

"It's a Christmas parade. We're just trying to have some holiday fun," Pullia previously said. "Enjoy it."

Saturday's parade in Hammonton begins at 7 p.m. along Bellevue Avenue.

Greg Adomaitis may be reached at gadomaitis@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @GregAdomaitis. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
FORT LEE - Port Authority Police officers stopped a car on the George Washington Bridge on Thursday that they say carried two suspected kidnappers who drove here with their victim from Georgia.

Ishmael Castejon-Gulzar, 24, of Atlanta and Ricardo Coacio Reyes, 30, Norcross, Ga. are accused of kidnapping and are being held in the Bergen County Jail on $2 million bail, authorities said. (Port Authority Police Department)

The 39-year-old victim had been stabbed in the leg at an undisclosed location shortly before he was kidnapped Tuesday, authorities said.

The man, whose name was not released, was taken by ambulance to Englewood Hospital, where he was being treated, police said.

The incident came to the attention of police in New York and New Jersey on Thursday morning after police in Gwinnet County, Ga. received a call from a resident stating a family member had been kidnapped on Tuesday and driven to New Jersey, according to Joe Pentangelo, a spokesman for the Port Authority Police Department.

"The family member told police the kidnappers and victim were on the New Jersey Turnpike headed toward the George Washington Bridge," Pentangelo said.

Pentangelo said the victim had been threatened with a black semiautomatic handgun throughout the two-day trip up Interstate 95 to New Jersey.

Gun recovered from alleged kidnappers. (PAPD)

The caller described the car as a 2014 Toyota Camry with Georgia plates.

"The Port Authority police officers took up positions near the toll plaza and soon saw car with Georgia plates," Pentangelo said. "They positioned themselves behind the Toyota, confirmed that it was the car in question, and they pulled the vehicle over."

Officers stopped the car about 10 a.m. on the westbound side of the bridge and ordered the three men out.

The victim had been seated in the passenger seat as one suspect drove the car and the other sat directly behind the victim, the spokesman said.

A loaded 9mm Glock pistol was recovered from the car, according to police.

"The victim informed police that he was the victim of a kidnapping and was driven from Georgia to New York against his will by the suspects," Pentangelo said. "The victim reported that he had been stabbed in his left leg before they began the drive to New York."

The suspects were identified as Ishmael Castejon-Gulzar, 24, of Atlanta and Ricardo Coacio Reyes, 30, Norcross, Ga., the spokesman said.

The suspects were charged with kidnapping, carjacking, aggravated assault, criminal possession of a weapon and criminal restraint. They were each held on $2 million bail.

Pentangelo said he did not know why the alleged kidnapping occurred or how the family member who called police became aware of the alleged crime.

"All of that is under investigation," Pentangelo said.

Westbound traffic on the upper level of the bridge was stopped for about 15 minutes as police arrested the suspects, removed the victim and impounded the vehicle.

Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
CLEMENTON -- A borough man and former U.S. Marine who completed tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan hasn't been seen in nearly a week and his family is hoping to find him before his birthday on Saturday.

Lance James, 28, of Clementon, was last seen on Dec. 3, 2016. (Photo provided)

Lance James, who will be turning 29, was last heard from on Dec. 3, family said, adding that attempts to contact him via cell phone and social media have been unsuccessful.

"No one has seen or heard from him since Saturday. It is not like him to go this long without checking in," sister Jessica Hassan said Friday. "He is a local in the area and hangs out locally. He has not shown up to work and did not call out -- again very unusual for him."

Family said James -- who doesn't own a vehicle and has a 5-year-old daughter who lives with her mother -- went to the Hide-A-Way Tavern, in Clementon, Friday night and returned home afterward.

A roommate said he left home Saturday and hasn't returned since, while James' employer said he hasn't called out of work nor been in for any shifts. Clementon police could not immediately be reached for comment Friday morning, but family said searches of the area thus far have not turned up anything.

James enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in 2007 and served one year in Iraq and another year Afghanistan before getting out of the service in 2012. He returned home to Clementon after his tours of duty, with family saying Friday that James suffers from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

"He has completely disappeared without a trace, no contact with family or friends," Hassan said.

According to family members, James is approximately 5 feet 8 inches tall, 180 pounds with brown hair, a red/brown beard and "distinctive" tattoos. He also often donates blood in Cherry Hill.

Readers with information regarding James' whereabouts are asked to contact Clementon police at 856-783-2759.

Greg Adomaitis may be reached at gadomaitis@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @GregAdomaitis. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
MAURICE RIVER TWP. -- As Victoria Williams heard "My God How Great Thou Art" sung at Trooper Frankie Williams' vigil, she knew her son was sending his love.

"My son was a hero from the day he was born, he was born Feb. 14, he was my heart from that day," she said.

Her son was the New Jersey State Police trooper killed Monday night in a head on collision.

Victoria Williams has a new family to care for her, the New Jersey State Police.

"I just want you to know that I love you and the way you care and appreciate my son because I appreciate what you have done for me," she said through tears. "Every time I fall you pick me back up."

Hundreds of mourners assembled for a candlelight vigil Thursday night in the Leesburg section of Maurice River Township at Leechester Hall and Leesburg Volunteer Fire Company. Williams, 31, was stationed nearby in Port Norris.

"We just thought that if we did a candlelight vigil that might be a way to let the family know we were thinking about them and their son and their husband," said Deputy Mayor Patti Gross of Maurice River Township. "The way things are with law enforcement, sometimes I don't think they get the appreciation that they deserve so we thought it would be a great opportunity to not only show the support they have but to let them know that they are very much appreciated."

Millville Police Department Chaplain Gerritt Kenyon spoke during the ceremony about his dealing with Williams -- when the trooper pulled him over six weeks ago in nearby Port Elizabeth. Williams saw his police chaplain hat and the two had a conversation about it.

"I found in those moments one of the kindest men, who took the time -- instead of my thanking him he was thanking me and what I represented to the departments," Kenyon said.

Williams let him off with a warning and, as he left, one of Kenyon's passengers shouted thanks to Williams for being so kind.

"When I came down driving this evening I cried, I cried, because he represented New Jersey's finest, he represented the finest of the Williams family but he represented the best of this part of Cumberland County where the lord had permitted him to come and to serve," Kenyon said.

Leesburg Volunteer Fire Company worked with Williams the night before the fatal accident. There was a two-car crash on Route 47 and, according to Leesburg Fire Chief Bud Hughes, Williams was very professional and very concerned about the safety of the responders on the scene.

"He was a guy that cared about what he did, he wanted to be a trooper and he went out a hero," Hughes said.

Williams graduated from the academy in January and was assigned to Port Norris Station. Col Rick Fuentes described Williams as an exemplary trooper that had the promise of a great career. He graduated with a degree in criminal justice in 2012 from Rutgers-Camden. He got married in October to his wife Kimberly, his childhood sweetheart.

The trooper was driving northbound on Route 55 outside Millville when he crashed into a Toyota Corolla driven by Lloyd Rudley, 61, of Elmer. Rudley was driving southbound on Route 55 when he crossed the center median and drove into Williams' car.

Prior to the accident, witnesses called 911 about an erratic driver on Route 55. The red car, matching the description of Rudley's Corolla, was reported to be swerving and even hitting a tractor trailer before the crash.

Authorities declared Rudley dead at the scene and flew Williams to Cooper University Hospital in Camden, where he was pronounced dead.

Don E. Woods may be reached at dwoods@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @donewoods1. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
EAST ORANGE -- East Orange paid a police department employee $200,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging an officer masturbated on her couch during a visit to discuss department business at her residence in 2007.

The department employee alleged in her lawsuit that she complained to East Orange internal affairs and was assured the officer would be suspended, but that never occurred.

The woman alleged in the suit that she was humiliated and subjected to a hostile work environment when rumors of the alleged incident circulated in the department.

The $200,000 settlement was paid out in June 2014, but recently came to light when the details were reported on NJ Civil Settlements, which provides a partial list of settlements paid by New Jersey government agencies and their insurers to those who have sued them.

In settling the case, East Orange did not admit any wrongdoing and none of the allegations were proven.

The woman alleged in her lawsuit that the officer visited her home in January 2007 to discuss a business matter. She left the room and returned to find the officer masturbating, the lawsuit said.

She asked the officer to stop, but he continued until he ejaculated on her love seat and his gun, which he had removed from its holster, the lawsuit said. The officer allegedly told her not to speak to anyone about the incident.

Rajeev Dhir may be reached at rdhir@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @googasmammoo. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
JERSEY CITY -- Police say the driver of the tractor trailer seen crashing into the gazebo in Hamilton Park last night told them he did it on purpose.

Bruce E. Dunbar, 46, of Jefferson, Maine, was arrested and charged with criminal mischief last night after the crash. Cops said he seemed disoriented and "non-cognitive" but passed a field sobriety test, according to a police report.

The crash happened at about 10 p.m. A witness told police he saw Dunbar heading south on Jersey Avenue, which ends at the park at Ninth Street, when he ran the stop sign and continued into the park, driving between 5 and 10 m.p.h.

"Dunbar ... stated he crashed his truck on purpose," the police report says.

The driver told police he was on his way to nearby BJ's Wholesale Club to deliver bottled water.

The gazebo sits about 200 feet inside the 5-acre Downtown Jersey City park. There does not appear to be extensive damage to the structure. There are no reported injuries.

Jon Cheroff, 34, was at the park this morning to bring his dog Lucky, a lab/pit bull mix, to its dog run. Cheroff hadn't heard about last night's crash.

"Wow," he said when he saw pictures of the aftermath.

Cheroff wasn't surprised to hear no one was injured. The park is "pretty quiet" during late evening hours, he said.

"There might be people walking home, cutting through," he said. "Not hanging out."

The tractor trailer was towed to a nearby lot. The driver refused medical attention, according to police.

Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.
JERSEY CITY -- A man who has been charged with arson in a similar fire is in critical condition following a two-alarm blaze that ripped through a vacant home early Friday morning, officials said.

Two police officers patrolling the neighborhood near Martin Luther King Drive first noticed the fire at about 2:30 a.m. The officers called for the fire department to respond to 585 Bramhall Ave. and several other cops arrived at the scene, according to a police report.

Firefighters extinguished the blaze that is believed to have started on the first floor of the 2.5-story home while police officers helped evacuate neighboring buildings, police said.

After the blaze was extinguished, firefighters found a 60-year-old man on the top floor of the building suffering from severe internal burns and smoke inhalation, the report states.

Jersey City spokeswoman Jennifer Morrill said the victim was transferred to Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, where he remains in critical condition.

The home was vacant, with a padlock on the front door Friday morning. Morrill said the 60-year-old has been rescued twice recently from similar fires in Jersey City. He was charged with arson in one of those fires, she said.

Four police officers were additionally brought to JCMC for smoke inhalation after the blaze. One of those officers also suffered a knee injury and another a back injury, the police report states.

Morrill said the fire was ruled an arson and remains under investigation.

The man was first charged with setting a fire inside a vacant home on Stegman Street in January, Morrill said. Authorities at the time said he set papers on fire on the first floor of the building to stay warm while he slept upstairs.

Then in March, he was found inside a burning home on Dwight Street, Morrill said.

At the scene this morning, firefighters could be seen examining the building and locking the front gate. Several shopping carts scattered on and around the property with charred paneling from the home littering the front lawn.

Caitlin Mota may be reached at cmota@jjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter @caitlin_mota. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.
JERSEY CITY -- When 11-year-old city boy Tyler Machado was diagnosed with Burkitt lymphoma last year, Make-A-Wish New Jersey chose to make his No. 1 dream come true.

Tyler wants to visit Cuba.

The island nation is where his paternal grandfather emigrated to America from in the 1980s, and it's where the man's family still lives. So, no pricey toy or trip to Disneyland for Tyler. He wanted to visit his grandfather's home.

His mom, Genesis Ramos, said the boy did not hesitant when asked what he wanted more than anything else.

"There was no question," Ramos, 30, told The Jersey Journal. "He wants to meet his great-grandparents."

Tyler has learned about Cuba and his relatives from chats with his grandfather. Richard Machado, Tyler's dad, said he was touched by his son's wish.

"It's extremely overwhelming," said Machado, 31, of Union City. "It's a proud moment."

Tyler, whose cancer is now in remission, lives in the Heights with his mom, her boyfriend, Edwin Valentin, and Tyler's older brother, Thomas Valentin, 13. The family gathered at Macy's in the Newport Centre mall today -- Tyler wore a tuxedo -- as part of the department store's national "believe day." Macy's donates $1 to Make-A-Wish for every letter to Santa dropped off at the store or posted on the Macy's website during the campaign, and today the amount is doubled to $2.

Make-A-Wish says Tyler is the first child from New Jersey the group is sending to Cuba, and by the time he makes the trip, he may be the first child in the nation to go.

There's no date set yet for the trip, which he will make with his mother, her boyfriend and Tyler's brother

Jim Murphy, of Make-A-Wish New Jersey, called Tyler's particular request a challenge to make a reality. Murphy shied away from commenting on the current state of relations between United States and Cuba, saying only that Tyler's wish was "timely."

President Obama has moved to relax restrictions on commerce and trade with Cuba, actions that have been sharply criticized by President-elect Donald J. Trump. Trump has threatened to terminate any deal the nations have made.

The fragile detente is not on Tyler's mind, of course. The 11-year-old is aiming for simple pleasures when he makes the trip.

"I want to see my family. I want to drive a car," he said.

Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.
BAYONNE -- State Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto and Assemblyman Nicholas Chiaravalloti have asked the Office of the State Auditor to audit the Bayonne school district following news that the district's own internal audit found a $2.2 million deficit in its 2015-2016 operating budget.

The Office of the State Auditor operates within the nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services in the state Legislature to conduct financial and performance audits of state agencies, certain school districts and different districts of the judiciary.

"I look forward to working with the school administration and the board members on this matter. Hopefully the community can have a full understanding of the budget shortfall's impact," said Chiaravalloti, D-Bayonne.

The assemblyman added that he is working with the Bayonne school board to make sure the shortfall does not "imminently impact the education of Bayonne students."

City officials issued a statement last week announcing the $2.2 million deficit discovered in the 2015-2016 school budget, saying the board had miscalculated its spending on salaries for that year.

Reached this week for inquiries about how the deficit went unnoticed until now, school board Business Administrator Leo Smith deferred all questions to board president Joseph Broderick, saying only Broderick is authorized to answer questions about the matter.

Broderick, who came onto the board in January, told The Jersey Journal he was "disappointed" to find out about the deficit for the previous school year.

"It hurts us certainly," he said, adding that the board is still in the process of coming up with a plan as to how to deal with the deficit.

Broderick said the deficit was the result of a "bookkeeping error," but couldn't get much more specific than that, saying he is still learning about what happened.

Asked if any district employees would lose their jobs, Broderick said such a move would only be considered after exhausting all other options, such as halting plans for any new projects.

Members of the board's finance committee were to meet yesterday with the accounting firm that conducted the internal audit, and more details will be known about the situation today, Broderick said.

Broderick couldn't be reached for comment on the call by Prieto, D-Secaucus, and Chiaravalloti for a performance audit by the Office of the State Auditor. The board president also couldn't be reached as to whether the current school year's budget is on track to incur a further deficit.

News of the deficit comes amid an ongoing struggle by the Bayonne teachers union to obtain a new contract from the board after not having one since last July.

The state Department of Education is currently conducting its own audit of the 2015-2016 Bayonne school board budget. DOE spokesman David Saenz Jr. told The Jersey Journal the DOE is well aware of the results of the board's own internal audit. It's not known when the DOE's audit will be completed, he said.

Jonathan Lin may be reached at jlin@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @jlin_jj. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.
JERSEY CITY -- For Dorothy Bradshaw and Rebecca Hodges it didn't matter who you were, their door was always open.

The mother and daughter often cooked meals for friends and family and there was nothing bad to be said about the women, one friend recalled.

"They were just beautiful, beautiful women," said the friend, who asked not to be identified out of respect for the family. "Everything about them was beautiful."

Bradshaw, 76, and Hodges, 56, were brutally murdered inside their Randolph Avenue apartment on Monday night. Hodges' son, 36-year-old Kevin Hodges, has been charged with stabbing the two to death with a sword, meat cleaver and knife.

The friend said the mother and daughter were well known in their community for having an "open-door policy." Both always had a smile on their faces.

But when the woman heard Kevin Hodges was charged with murdering his mother and grandmother, she said she "couldn't believe it" and the 36-year-old must not have been in the right mind.

"He wouldn't hurt a fly, he's such a nice young man," she said. "They loved him unconditionally, he loved them unconditionally."

Authorities said they were called to apartment 205 at 305 Randolph Ave. at about 8:25 p.m. on reports of a woman screaming for help. Police gained entrance to the apartment from the fire escape and found Bradshaw and Rebecca Hodges unresponsive with multiple stab wounds.

Both were pronounced dead at Jersey City Medical Center and Kevin Hodges was arrested not far from the home, officials said.

Lamar Scott, who identified himself as a family member, previously told The Jersey Journal Kevin Hodges, his mother and grandmother were a "dynamic trio."

"They loved one another and shared a bond outsiders hoped for. He and his family deserves this time to mourn and grieve," he said in a statement.

A motive for the gruesome murders has not been identified and funeral arrangements have not yet been announced. Their deaths were the latest of alleged domestic violence murders in Hudson County this year.

Caitlin Mota may be reached at cmota@jjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter @caitlin_mota. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.
FRENCHTOWN -- A councilwoman-elect in Frenchtown is drawing criticism for the way she characterized a recent arrest by police in a Facebook post.

Several commenters took issue with Liz Johnson's injection of race into the arrest when she called the occupants of a truck pulled over by police as "pot-smoking African Americans toting a gun with hollow-point bullets known for doing extensive damage to cops."

One who disputes the description is Police Chief Chief Al Kurylka, who Johnson appeared to have been quoting in her post Thursday morning, which was a recap of the previous nights' council meeting.

"That was definitely not said by me," Kurylka said Friday.

He said race was never a part of the Nov. 22 arrest and Johnson's post was not indicative of his comments, were taken out of context and the post make his department and officers look terrible. "We do not stand for this," he said.

Johnson did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NJ Advance Media. However, she defended the post in subsequent comments. Johnson, a Democrat, won a seat on the borough council last month and takes office in January.

On Nov. 22, police arrested a 23-year-old Virginia man on marijuana possession and firearms charges - a gun police say was loaded with hollow-point ammunition. They pulled over a tractor trailer he was driving on Harrison Street for being overweight.

A police blotter item posted on the police department's website describes the arrest. It does not mention the suspect's race.

The chief said Friday two people were in the truck but only one was arrested. And he added both young men were cordial and professional and the arrest was routine.

On Thursday morning, Johnson wrote on a Frenchtown group page:

"In the department of 'you think it can't happen here,' Chief Al Kurylka reminds us it definitely can. He says recently Ofc. Young pulled over an overweight truck barreling down Harrison Street near the school. The drivers just happened to be pot-smoking African Americans toting a gun with hollow-point bullets known for doing extensive damage to cops (think: retaliation for all the shootings of blacks during traffic stops going on across the country). While the two men were arrested, the stop went without incident, giving credence to the premise, that while it could happen here, it's the way Frenchtown responds to a crisis that makes us a tad different than the rest of the country (my theory anyway)."

In a lengthy comments section that continues to be added to, some came to Johnson's defense, but some sharply rebuked her words.

"As someone who recently elected you to office, I strongly urge you to revise this post," wrote Alex Vidor.

He also posted, "...why do you encourage me to 'think: retaliation for all the shootings of blacks during traffic stops going on across the country'? I will not think that! I will not think that, because it is exactly that kind of thought that escalates traffic incidents into tragedies.."

Dave Slagle reacted in all caps: "ANYONE IN PUBLIC OFFICE SHOULDN'T SPEAK THAT WAY OPINION OR NOT. NOBODY SHOULD SPEAK THAT WAY PERIOD. IS THIS THAT HARD TO COMPREHEND?"

Said Mark Sodapopinski Popielarski, "You're a local official, i feel your narrative should be from a local standpoint citing current & past experiences in the community not a national point of view.

And Terry Hall: "I agree that Liz unnecessarily underscored the race of the offenders and may not understand that what she wrote is inflammatory, but does she deserve the degree of hostility that some people expressed?"

In response, Johnson posted: "Sorry you're offended by this, but I've reported it the way the chief explained it, in which he specifically said the bullets have been used in targeting cops. And unfortunately, race has played a huge issue in the series of fatal shootings as a result of traffic stops."

"I can't change what's going on in this country or that it's playing out here. Elected or not, my goal is to keep people informed, whether it's good news or not," Johnson wrote.

On Friday, over the phone, Kurylka said he was not going to get into a replay of exactly what he said at the meeting, but the Facebook conversation and Johnson's post specifically is not representative of of his remarks in any way.

Mayor Brad Myhre then weighed in online, writing in the comments, "The quick synopsis of the meeting that was provided is not a complete and accurate description of the meeting."

Myhre said meeting minutes are available to the public and once available they will be posted on the town's website. And He called for restraint "before rushing to judgment about our police department our council."

"Our Chief of Police stated unequivocally that Frenchtown will not tolerate such remarks and I completely agree!" the mayor wrote.

Kevin Shea may be reached at kshea@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter@kevintshea. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Lambertville bridge.jpg

LAMBERTVILLE - The Delaware River Towns Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau has received two grants totaling $35,000 to assist the chamber in its marketing efforts.

The New Jersey Division of Travel and Tourism gave the chamber a $25,000 grant, while Visit Bucks gave it a $10,000 grant.

"The Delaware River Towns chamber is excited about the opportunity to expand our marketing efforts to reach far and wide to attract visitors to our beautiful river towns," said Executive Director David Morgan. "Most importantly, the dual grants allow us to market our towns on both sides of the river as the ultimate weekend destination and anti-mall experience."

The funds will be used to draw more visitors to the area from the New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C areas.

The goal of the marketing campaigns will be to increase consumer spending both during the week and on weekends. The effort will include seasonal advertising campaigns, as well as through digital marketing throughout the year, according to a news release.

Previously known as the Greater Lambertville-New Hope Chamber of Commerce, the not-for-profit organization announced its new name in March. It moved into new offices in November.

The Chamber currently represents 400 members in Lambertville, New Hope, Stockton, Centre Bridge, Frenchtown, Lumberville, Washington Crossing and Point Pleasant.

For more information, go to www.DelawareRiverTowns.com or call 609-397-0055.
TRENTON -- A second man wanted in the fatal shooting of a Trenton man in August was captured by authorities in Florida Wednesday after a months-long manhunt.

Freilyn J. Delacruz, 36, of Trenton, faces charges for murder, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose and unlawful possession of a weapon in the shooting death of 32-year-old Jonathan Jimenez, the Mercer County Prosecutor's Office said Friday.

Alberto A. Perez, 37, was arrested and charged with the same offenses in August, authorities said. Both men have an Anderson Street address.

Late on Aug. 5, officers responding to a shooting in the area of Cummings Avenue found Jimenez lying in the street, unconscious and unresponsive, authorities said. He had a gunshot wound to his chest and was taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Warrants were issued in August for Delacruz, and for months, Mercer County Prosecutor's Detective Kevin Searing, Sheriff's Detective Sgt. Jeremy Stewart and the U.S. Marshals Service attempted to locate him.

Delacruz was discovered earlier this week in Mexico and arrested and deported, authorities said. He was then taken into custody in Miami, Florida, on Wednesday, pending extradition to Mercer County. Bail has been set at $750,000.

Cristina Rojas may be reached at crojas@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @CristinaRojasTT. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
TRENTON - A Kentucky man received probation Friday for an incident in which he traveled up to New Jersey, picked up a 13-year-old girl and took her to Philadelphia earlier this year.

Lance Jyrkinen, 19, of Owensboro, Ky., was initially charged with sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child in March. He pleaded guilty only to the endangering charge in exchange for probation.

Lance Jyrkinen

The charges stemmed from a two-day incident that started in late February. Police have said Jyrkinen met the 13-year-old Hamilton girl online months earlier and the two of them began talking regularly.

At the end of February, Jyrkinen traveled from Kentucky to Hamilton to meet the girl. Prosecutors initially said they had sex, but those charges have been dropped.

The girl's family reported her missing on Feb. 29 and police started a massive search for the teen.

Around the same time she was reported missing, Jyrkinen and the girl took a train into Philadelphia, where they were located by police two days later. Police have said they followed a long trail of social media that the teens left behind.

During a sentencing for Jyrkinen Friday, his attorney, Tom Belsky, said the 19-year-old had a "rough life growing up," and that he took responsibility for his actions.

Superior Court Judge Darlene Pereksta sentenced the teen to probation and ordered him to have no contact with the 13-year-old or her family. Jyrkinen was expected to be released from jail following the sentencing, according to prosecutors.

Anna Merriman may be reached at amerriman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @anna_merriman
TRENTON - A New Jersey State Prison corrections officer has been charged with accepting bribes to smuggle drugs into the prison after an investigation into several overdoses at the Trenton facility, prosecutors said Friday.

Michael Marrero, 33, of Camden County, was charged Tuesday with official misconduct, money laundering, conspiracy to distribute drugs, bribery and conspiracy to use certain electronic communication devices in correctional facilities.

The New Jersey Department of Corrections launched an investigation after the series of heroin overdoses was reported, Mercer County prosecutors said Friday. They did not say how many overdoses were reported.

Marrero has been working as a corrections officer for seven years and has an annual salary of $67,422, according a spokesperson from the department of corrections. He has been suspended with pay since his arrest, the spokesperson said.

Marrero is accused of smuggled heroin, suboxone, marijuana, tobacco and a cell phone into the jail for inmates, according to prosecutors.

Witnesses gave information to investigators on how the contraband had been smuggled into the jail, prosecutors said.

Marrero is being held on $50,000 bail.

Marrero appeared in court briefly for a bail hearing Friday but family members said they would obtain their own attorney and planned to post bail, according to prosecutors.

Anna Merriman may be reached at amerriman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @anna_merriman
TRENTON - Three teenagers accused of shooting to death a 15-year-old boy in June, were linked to the killing through shell casings and bullets found at the scene, Mercer County prosecutors said Friday.

Two of the teens, Jashawn Smith, 18, and Juprie Wadley, 19, appeared in court for a bail hearing Friday. The third suspect, Wilson George, 19, is in custody but has not had his first hearing yet.

All three men are facing charges of murder and conspiracy to commit murder for the June 11 slaying of 15-year-old Maurice Wimbush-Jalaah. They were taken into custody the day of the shooting but were charged on Dec. 7, six months later.

On Friday, Assistant Prosecutor William Fisher outlined the case, including the reason why there was gap between the shooting and the charges.

Fisher said that lab tests recently came back which linked bullet casings found at the scene to two of the guns that were found with the suspects the same day, leading to the Dec. 7 charges.

The case started in the early afternoon on June 11, when police were called to a Prospect Village apartment parking lot for a report of shots fired. Once there, they found Wimbush-Jalaah lying on the ground with a gunshot wound to the upper chest, Fisher said Friday. He was taken to the hospital but reported dead a short time later.

Police found shell casings and bullets at the scene, including one that was lodged in a parked Buick in the area, Fisher said.

Other police officers, who were on their way to the parking lot noticed three men running away from the scene on Calhoun Street. One of the three men - later identified as George - dropped a sweatshirt by a car, which was parked along the street, according to prosecutors.

Police ordered the three men to the ground but were only able to grab one of the men, who was later identified as Wadley. They searched Wadley and found a gun in his pants, Fisher said. Officers also looked at the sweatshirt that George dropped by the car and found another gun, according to prosecutors.

Officers caught up to Smith a short time later and found him trying to discard a third handgun, Fisher said.

George evaded police but was arrested a few days later on drug charges, police have said.

Police linked the bullets and casings found at the scene to the gun in the sweatshirt and the gun found on Smith, according to officers.

In interviews Smith admitted to going to the Prospect Village apartments with Wadley and George, Fisher said. Smith told police he heard gunfire and fired shots in the area, according to prosecutors.

Similarly, Wadley admitted to having a handgun and told police that there was a shooting and, "a lot of guns were fired," Fisher said.

Surveillance videos of the area show three men walking up to the apartments prior to the shooting and then the same three men leaving the area after the shooting, according to prosecutors.

Tom Belsky, an attorney who represented both men at their hearings Friday, said that, "many shots were fired." He added that there was no evidence to suggest that the bullets that killed Wimbush-Jalaah actually came from guns carried by Smith or Wadley.

A judge maintained the bails for both men at $1 million Friday.

Anna Merriman may be reached at amerriman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @anna_merriman
HIGHLAND PARK -- A woman was seriously injured on Friday after being struck by a car near Raritan and 5th avenues, according to police.

The woman, who was not identified by police at this time, was struck by the car at around 9 a.m., officials said.

Police only said that the driver of the car was a man. No further information was made available.

The woman was taken to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital for injuries that were described as serious, according to Capt. Scott Golden, of the Highland Park Police Department.

Police shut down a section of Raritan Avenue between 5th and 6th avenues. Officers were in the street diverting traffic.

No charges have been filed as the investigation into the matter remains ongoing, Golden said.

Spencer Kent may be reached at skent@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @SpencerMKent. Find the Find NJ.com on Facebook.
FREEHOLD -- An Ocean County man already serving a 35-year sentence for murder was found guilty by a jury Friday of robbing and killing a supermarket employee in 2013.

Alan Bienkowski, 57, of Toms River, was found guilty of murder, felony murder, armed robbery, unlawful possession of a weapon, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, certain persons not to possess a weapon and receiving stolen property, the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office said.

The verdict followed a six-week trial. The all-female jury also found three aggravating factors, including Bienkowski's murder conviction earlier this year, that would warrant a sentence of life without parole.

Bienkowski is set to appear before Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Ronald Reisner on Dec. 15 for sentencing.

During the trial, it was learned that 56-year-old Michael Wells, of Point Pleasant, arrived at Dutch Prime Foods in Long Branch just before 4 a.m. on April 10, 2013. As he walked to the front door to open the business, he was hit in the back of the head by Bienkowski, who robbed him of cash before fleeing on foot, authorities said.

Wells chased after Bienkowski and they came face-to-face in the backyard of a nearby Cleveland Avenue home. Bienkowski, armed with a stolen gun, shot and killed Wells, authorities said. His body was discovered around 7:50 a.m. by the homeowner.

A joint investigation by the prosecutor's office and Long Branch police resulted in Bienkowski's arrest on May 16, 2013.

A year later, authorities say a man who had moved in Bienkowski's former Manchester Township home found a gun buried in the yard. Police determined the gun had been stolen in 2010 and was the murder weapon.

In April of this year, Bienkowski was sentenced to 35 years for the 2012 killing of 76-year-old Anthony Verdicchio. The two men were neighbors in the Pine Acres Manor Mobile Park in Manchester when Verdicchio was struck in the head 14 to 16 times with a hammer and then robbed of some of his belongings.

Cristina Rojas may be reached at crojas@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @CristinaRojasTT. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
MOUNT OLIVE -- A township man accused of prostituting a 17-year-old girl in Mount Olive is facing more charges after investigators learned of another victim, authorities said.

Michael Keenan, 23, of Mount Olive, was arrested on Thanksgiving morning after a teen girl told authorities she was led to engage in prostitution by Keenan between Nov. 11 and Nov. 21, Morris County Prosecutor Fredric M. Knapp and Mount Olive Police Chief Stephen Beecher previously said in a news release.

Keenan drove her to hotels in Mount Olive to engaged in prostitution and kept a portion of the proceeds, authorities said. He was charged with human trafficking, promoting prostitution and endangering the welfare of a child in connection with this victim.

Keenan was arrested again on Dec. 8 after investigators from the prosecutor's office, Mount Olive and Washington Township learned he drove another 17-year-old girl to hotels in Mount Olive to engage in prostitution, authorities said. He also allegedly kept a portion of the proceeds for himself.

Keenan's facing a second set of human trafficking, promoting prostitution and endangering the welfare of a child charges in connection with this girl, they said.

Keenan is being held in Morris County Correctional Facility on two separate bails of $150,000 and $250,000. He's also been issued a Nicole's Law restraining order barring him from having contact with the girls.

Anyone with information about this incident may contact Detective/Supervisor Marshall Wang of the Morris County Prosecutor's Office Sex Crimes/Child Endangerment Unit at 973-285-6200.

Justin Zaremba may be reached at jzaremba@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JustinZarembaNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
NEWARK -- The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark is helping resettle refugees from wars in a number of countries, including Syria, NorthJersey.com reported Thursday.

More than 50 refugees, including from Iraq, Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, will be settled in 2017, according to the archdiocese's Catholic Charities organization. They will be placed in Essex and Hudson counties.

As of June, more than 2,800 Syrian refugees had settled in the United States in the previous eight months, including 24 in New Jersey. In 2015, 75 refugees entered the state. Also by June this year, 18 refugees from Iraq and 53 from Afghanistan have been settled in New Jersey.

The settlement of refugees became a contentious issue in this year's presidential campaign, with some candidates criticizing President Obama's plan to admit 10,000 Syrian refugees this year.

Gov. Chris Christie, himself a onetime GOP candidate, fulfilled a campaign promise and withdrew New Jersey from the settlement program. But people who assist refugees described the move as a largely symbolic act that had little impact on refugee settlement, which is governed by federal regulations.

"We've not experienced any effect of the governor's words," the Rev. Seth Kaper-Dale of the Reformed Church of Highland Park, which belongs to an interfaith coalition that has helped 14 refugees so far this year, told NJ Advance Media in June.

"We have an irrelevant governor. It's just hot air."

Paul Milo may be reached at pmilo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter@PaulMilo2. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
State Trooper Frankie Williams, 31, was killed in an on-duty crash on Monday, December 5.

TRENTON -- New Jersey State Trooper Frankie Williams will be laid to rest Monday following a funeral service at Atlantic City's Boardwalk Hall.

The rookie trooper died on December 5 from injuries sustained in an on-duty crash on Highway 55 in Millville.

Authorities say Williams was responding to a report of an erratic driver, when a man traveling the other way crossed the grassy median and hit his marked troop car head-on, tangling the two cars in a wreck that took both their lives.

The 31-year old trooper was hailed as a "leader and a role model" who had just graduated the academy in January.

A private viewing will be held from 8 to 10 a.m. for friends and family, followed by a separate viewing for law enforcement from 10 until noon, according to a notice posted by the Adams-Perfect funeral home in Northfield.

Law enforcement officers from across New Jersey and the U.S. are expected to turn out to pay their respects.

Funeral services are scheduled for noon at Boardwalk Hall, located on Pacific Avenue in Atlantic City.

The trooper will be interred at Holy Cross Cemetery in Mays Landing.

S.P. Sullivan may be reached at ssullivan@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
TOMS RIVER -- Police are providing extra security at Toms River High School North Friday and conducted searches with dogs earlier this week after two threatening messages were found at the school in recent weeks.

"This was done out of an abundance of caution and not as a result of us believing there was ever any credible threat," according to a post on the police department's Facebook page.

The most recent message was found Dec. 6 scribbled on a bathroom way saying "do not come to school 12/9 boom boom," police said. School staff notified police

Police said another threatening message was left on the same wall during the last week of November.

Threats at High School North On December 6th High School North staff was made aware of graffiti written on a bathroom... Posted by Toms River Police Department on Friday, December 9, 2016

The Ocean County Sheriff's Office conducted the searches the K-9 units since the incident was first reported, police said.

"If the perpetrator is identified, the police department will be filing all appropriate criminal charges," Toms River Police Chief Mitchell Little said, according to the Facebook post.

Authorities believe a student is behind the incident and are following up on several leads.

School officials said they will also discipline the person responsible.

Rajeev Dhir may be reached at rdhir@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @googasmammoo. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
By Seth Kaper-Dale

Everyone knows it costs a lot of money to live in New Jersey.

Our pitiful minimum wage makes it near impossible for too many people to afford a decent place to live.

Instead of hovering in the $8 range, we should be heading to $15 an hour as fast as possible. The state Assembly and Senate brought a bill to Gov. Chris Christie calling for minimum wage hike, which he vetoed in August. At that time Senate President Stephen Sweeney said, "we will do the right thing and introduce a constitutional amendment to incrementally raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour by the year 2021."

Democrats have talked about how they'd let the people of New Jersey decide about the wage increase, but talk is all it seems to be.

Some Democrats, including Sweeney, have started to insist that there be carve outs for farm workers and younger workers. Based on these demands, the $15 per hour plan looks like it could miss being voted on by the Assembly in time to be place on the ballot in 2017.

Many legislators who claimed to support the minimum wage hike saw voters get behind them during the elections. But creative infighting is allowing those same elected officials the chance to get off the hook from their commitment -- a commitment troubling to many business owners who are often political donors.

Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto, who had originally lead the charge by introducing a bill which called for an immediate increase to $15, has refused to call out members of his own party that stand in the way. These actions show that Democrats put party over people and still cater to the wealthy, who always seem to come first in a capitalist economy.

Sometimes hard choices need to be made. It's time to make the minimum wage decision thinking about the needs of those who are "last," instead of always letting the needs of "the first" win the day.

The truth is that wealthy campaign donor's voices are being heard above workers, labor unions and activists from working class neighborhoods.

Senate and Assembly members who have pushed for a no-carve-out minimum wage increase, and who criticized the governor for his veto this summer need to follow through and get this done -- or they should face the consequences at the polls.

Allow the Constitutional Ballot Question on a $15 minimum wage to move forward unhindered, without carve outs.

If Sweeney and others are now backtracking on $15 per hour, then have the guts to make your arguments to New Jerseyans over the next 12 months after you've called for the Ballot Question. That would be an honest approach. What isn't honest is to support $15 when it helps your chances at the polls, and then to ditch it when it might work against your self-interest.

Rev. Seth Kaper-Dale, co-pastor at the Reformed Church of Highland Park, is the Green Party gubernatorial candidate.

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When all that is ordinary in this world dulls and our own normal responses fail us, we often turn to art. Whether it is the words on a page, the rhythm of a song, an image in a photograph, or paint on a canvas, art often speaks to us when all else falls silent.

Rick Allen, acclaimed Def Leppard drummer, has been sharing his ingenuity in music, photography and art since his youth. Allen's art, unique jewelry and wrapped drums are currently being showcased exclusively in Wentworth Gallery locations throughout the country, including Metro DC, South Florida, Atlanta, the Philadelphia metro and in Short Hills, New Jersey.

Tomorrow, Saturday, December 10th 2016 from 5:00pm-8:00pm his signature drums, originals, limited editions, mixed media originals and sculptures will be on showcase. Allen will be making a special appearance at the event. Premiering at this presentation is Rick Allen's Art to Wear Collection. Each exquisite piece, including earrings, cuffs, necklaces and more, are custom crafted and individually numbered and signed as part of a Limited Edition of only 99.

Allen explains, "As an artist I see beauty in many things. I see beauty in music, art, photography and people. My new Art to Wear is another path for me to express my creativity and share my interpretation of the beauty I see in all things. Wearable art is a way to take a unique piece of art that has a story, and make it your own".

A portion of the proceeds from each sale will be donated back to Project Resiliency's Warrior Resiliency Program, sponsored by his charity foundation the Raven Drum Foundation. Each purchaser will receive a limited- edition hand-signed Commemorative Purple Heart piece.

As a teenager, at age 15, Rick Allen became the drummer for Def Leppard. In 1984, at the height of global fame and success, Allen had a near-fatal automobile accident that changed his life. Allen lost his arm, but courageously continued with his musical career as a drummer. Allen transformed personal tragedy into a spiritual metamorphosis.

Allen used his own experience to reach out and connect with others. Rick began giving support to others all over the world by sharing his personal experiences and his love of drumming. Over the past 13 years Rick has reached out to teenage cancer patients, children with special needs, at risk youth in crisis, families of domestic violence and veterans who have served in Vietnam, Desert Storm, Iraq and Afghanistan. Rick and his charity foundation, the Raven Drum Foundation, help wounded warriors. In 2002, Rick was awarded the Humanitarian Award by Maria Shriver's Best Buddies of CA. In 2012, Allen was also awarded the prestigious Wounded Warrior Project's Carry It Forward Award.

I recently had the opportunity to speak with Rick Allen about the upcoming showcase and his passions as an artist, musician, photographer, and humanist.

You have talked about your passion for art as something you have had since you were a young boy. Do you think you always know you're an artist growing up?

Allen: "My passion was rekindled when I was inspired by my youngest daughter. She sat down to do an art project with no fear. She was in the moment and going with it. She was not trying to make everything perfect. It was art. Let it be what it wants to be."

Rick spoke to the fluidity of creativity and creating art outside of the realms of our comfort zones. He explains, "Being an artist is also interchangeable. If you take photographs you may often write. If create music, you may be creative in art."

Is there a common thread or theme in this collection?

Allen: "Hope. Hope for the future. Life has changed. I have a family of my own. I had my first daughter. My second daughter then came along. Its about hope for the world they will inherit."

Do you have a favorite piece in the collection?

Allen: "The wearables. I like the patinas very well and the way they look after you've worn them for a while. I like the new drum art. It is something I have been doing for a while. I started painting them up and you can still play them."

What artists inspire you? Whose work influences you?

Allen: "I really like Peter Max and his use of colors. I like surreal artists - Salvador Dali. I am really open to anybody's ideas."

Do you have a favorite Def Leppard song?

Allen: "I loved to play Rocket. The new record Let's Go was fun to play. We Belong is a great song to play."

I understand your wife, Lauren Monroe, recently released a song, Give, that you co-produced?

Allen: "Yes, she is always writing. She is quite a musician."

I also read that you're a vegetarian?

Allen: "I am actually a vegan. After my accident, it seemed that I had left a trail of devastation behind so I decided to change that. I certainly haven't got it all figured out. I can call you when I do. I try."

You have spoken openly and bravely about your struggles. You talk about your car accident and the way it has affected your journey.

Allen: "My accident affected me deeply. It was awful at the time. Interesting enough, I never imagined it would become a blessing in my life."

What advice do your offer to anyone at a low point in their life or career?

Allen: "Be of service and help to someone else."

Allen elaborated in speaking of his work with wounded warriors and those that suffer from PTSD. "It is a two way street," Allen explains adding that when we are of service to others, we benefit in turn. "I am doing for them of course but in reality I am doing it for the both of us."

"How can young artists make the greatest contribution to society?"

Allen speaks of the significance of creative process as being equally important as the work that is created. He explains, "Whether its art or music or writing or doing whatever you do, its about the intention behind it."

Allen (pictured above in his studio) notes the important of intention in creating art.

Rick Allen's collection will be on display tomorrow evening and is available for acquisition. Whether you may be a fan of Def Leppard, an admirer of art, or an individual interested in his story threaded throughout his work, the collection is a fascinating and diverse expression of his spirit.

The exhibit is complimentary to the public. RSVPs are strongly recommended. The Wentworth Gallery is located at The Mall at Short Hills, 1200 Morris Turnpike in Short Hills, New Jersey.

For more information about this event, email the gallery at shorthills@wentworthgallery.com or to reach the gallery directly and to RSVP, call 973-564-9776
State Trooper Frankie Williams, 31, was killed in an on-duty crash on Monday, December 5.

TRENTON -- Gov. Chris Christie has ordered flags lowered in New Jersey on Monday in honor of a state trooper killed this week in the line of duty.

Frankie Williams, 31, died from injuries sustained in a Monday crash while on patrol in Cumberland County.

Authorities say the rookie trooper was responding to a report of an erratic driver on Highway 55 in Millville when a man traveling the other way crossed the grassy median and hit his marked troop car head-on, tangling the two cars in a wreck that took both their lives.

"Trooper Williams made the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of the citizens of this state," the governor said in a statement on Friday.

"He served with courage, professionalism, and a commitment to the finest ideals and traditions of the New Jersey State Police. It is with profound sadness that we mourn the loss of Trooper Williams, and we extend our deepest sympathy to his family, friends, and fellow law enforcement officers."

In an executive order signed Friday, the governor called for the U.S. and New Jersey flags be flown at half-staff in remembrance.

A funeral for the trooper is planned in Atlantic City on Monday.

A private viewing will be held from 8 to 10 a.m. for friends and family, followed by a separate viewing for law enforcement from 10 until noon.

Law enforcement officers from across New Jersey and the U.S. are expected to turn out to pay their respects.

Funeral services are scheduled for noon at Boardwalk Hall, located on Pacific Avenue in Atlantic City.

Hundreds gathered at a candlelight vigil on Thursday to pay their respects to Williams and his family. His mother, Victoria Williams, said her son was "a hero from the day he was born."

S.P. Sullivan may be reached at ssullivan@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
WASHINGTON -- Former New Jersey Gov. Christie Whitman joined a bipartisan lineup of former Republican and Democratic officials and a number of watchdog groups in urging President-elect Donald Trump to put his financial empire in the hands of an independent manager.

Whitman, who opposed Trump in the presidential election, was joined by a fellow former GOP governor, Arne Carlson of Minnesota, and three former Republican members of Congress on a letter that was released Friday.

Another signatory was Peter Schweizer, president of the Government Accountability Institute, which was chaired by Stephen Bannon, according to Internal Revenue Service filings. Bannon, who Trump named a top White House aide, also ran the Breitbart website that is a favorite of white supremacists. He later served as chief executive of Trump's presidential campaign.

The letter urged Trump to set up a blind trust for his holdings rather than turn them over to family members, some of whom are advising his presidential transition.

"By combining your presidency with your family business enterprises, you will create ongoing conflict of interest and credibility problems for your presidency," the letter said. "Questions will regularly arise as to whether your domestic and foreign policy positions are being taken on behalf of the interests of the American people or the financial interests of the Trump family, which will necessarily diverge on numerous occasions from those of the nation as a whole."

Trump said he will announce Dec. 15 what arrangements he will make concerning his financial holdings. The extent of his investments remains unknown to the public; during the campaign, he broke with decades of precedent and refused to disclose his income tax returns.

His presidential transition team did not respond to a request for comment.

During the campaign, Whitman said Trump employed "hate mongering and racism" and did not represent "the best of my party or what is good for the country I love."

Almost two dozen Democratic U.S. senators, including Cory Booker, have introduced a resolution urging Trump to sell his investments or put them in a blind trust to avoid running afoul of the U.S. Constitution. The constitution's emoluments clause prevents government officials from accepting "any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state."

Still, 69 percent of U.S. adults in a Bloomberg Politics poll released Wednesday said Trump could keep his businesses even if it meant he and his family could profit from his actions as president. Just 26 percent said he should sell them.

Others signing the letter included Norm Eisen, chief ethics officer under President Barack Obama; Richard Painter, chief ethics officer under President George W. Bush; and former Federal Election Commission Chairman Trevor Potter, who served as counsel to 2008 GOP nominee John McCain's presidential campaign and now is president of the Campaign Legal Center in Washington.

"The last thing President-elect Trump should ever want is a never-ending battle over the conduct of his personal business affairs," Potter said.

Groups backing the effort included Common Cause, Public Citizen and the Center for American Progress, founded by Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta.

Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook
rabbi629

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, of Englewood, seen in this 2014 photo, caused a stir on Twitter when he posted photos of himself with Steve Bannon, one of Donald Trump's closest advisers whose Breitbart News attracts an anti-semitic following.

Prolific author and celebrity Orthodox Rabbi Shmuley Boteach of Englewood is taking heat for posing with photos Wednesday night with someone many Jews believe is the enemy: Steve Bannon, senior adviser to Donald Trump.

Bannon is a self-described "economic-nationalist," but he led Breitbart News, a website containing anti-Semitic and racist blog posts that attracts readers who are openly hostile to women, minorities, Jews and Muslims.

Hobnobbing at Trump Tower, Boteach tweeted this photo of himself with Bannon Wednesday:

The response was swift and withering. Some entries:

Joanne Cook responded: "@RabbiShmuley @KFILE Rebbe, you are a fool. And you bring shame on my children's relatives who died in the camps."

Jonathan Friedman: "@RabbiShmuley this man told his ex wife he didn't want his kids going to an LA private school b/c too many Jews. This is shameful."

The one-time congressional candidate fought back, and got some support from a man whose Twitter biography champions the death of multiculturalism:

I feel bad for you, Rabbi, for having to deal with all these neurotic Jews in your replies! So much kvetching over nothing!  Hofer Kebab Removal (@AustrianRight) December 8, 2016

Boteach's affinity for Trump or his positions is not new. He and Trump agree President Obama's Iran nuclear deal was a disaster. U.S. Sen. Cory Booker's vote to support the deal drove a wedge between Booker and the rabbi, who had a longtime friendship.

Trump supporter and casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, who has called the Iran deal "an issue of paramount importance to me personally," has funded groups and individuals opposed to the agreement, including Boteach's World Values Network.

Boteach said despite the criticism, he has no regrets sharing the photo with his 240,000 followers.

"I had a meeting with Steve Bannon to discuss taking a strong position on human rights, and he was extremely gracious in listening to me," he told The Auditor.

He scorned his Twitter critics for comparing Bannon to Adolf Hitler, saying such comments "trivialize" the Holocaust.

Did they talk about the white nationals and racists that flock to Breibart? Yes, "to the extent that Breitbart is simply a forum for them," he said.

"For all of my hatred of white supremacists and racists, they are not what my people are most threatened today. It's Iran saying they are going to annihilate the Jewish people. ISIS is a more serious threat than these racists."
Atlantic City skyline

A view Atlantic City's skyline in 2010.

(John Munson | The Star-Ledger)

TRENTON -- It's the latest issue to raise eyebrows in Atlantic City.

The state's Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, the agency that oversees casino funds and revenue in the city, announced Tuesday that its executive director, John Palmieri, will step down at the end of the year and receive a $225,000 severance -- equivalent to one year of his salary -- as stipulated in his contract.

The agency added that Palmieri will be replaced by his deputy director, Christopher Howard, who will earn $175,000 a year under a two-year agreement.

But the announcement came on the same day that Jeffrey Chiesa, a former U.S. senator and longtime ally of Gov. Chris Christie who was recently tapped to oversee the new state takeover of Atlantic City's government, vowed to veto $3,000 bonuses that members of the city's Municipal Utilities Authority had given themselves.

Then, on Thursday, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Howard, the agency's incoming director, has ties to both Christie's office and George Norcross III, the south Jersey powerbroker who has been been one of the governor's biggest Democratic allies.

State Assemblyman Chris A. Brown has called on Christie to overturn Palmieri's severance package, according to a report by the Press of Atlantic City.

"This is another example why families have lost faith in their government," Brown (R-Atlantic) told the newspaper. "We shouldn't pay someone's salary to leave his job."

Brown also was dismayed by Howard's hiring, according to the Inquirer report.

"It appears we are willing to cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars so that political insiders and cronies get jobs off the backs of working families," Brown told that newspaper.

Brown did not immediately return a message from NJ Advance Media seeking comment Friday.

Karen Martin, a spokeswoman for the agency, stressed that the severance was a negotiated part of Palmieri's contract when he was hired in 2011.

"After leaving his mark on the city, John decided to step down at a time he thought made sense for him and the authority," Martin added in a statement to NJ Advance Media. "We wish him the best in his next pursuit."

Still, city council president Marty Small said the issue is another example of how Christie's administration has been "hypocritical" with Atlantic City. The Democrat, a frequent critic of the Republican governor, noted how the takeover gives the administration the authority to break union contracts to help cut costs in the city.

"Mr. Palmieri is a very nice man. He's highly qualified and he did a great job," Small told NJ Advance Media. "If it's in his contract to get that severance package, it's contractual. But you can't have it both ways when the state says there are things in public worker contracts they don't like."

As for Howard's hiring?

"I don't know the guy," Small said when asked about Howard's ties to Christie and Norcross. "But nothing surprises me."

Christie's office did not immediately return a message from NJ Advance Media seeking comment.

Howard, an attorney who graduated in 2010 from the Rutgers-Camden Law School, was appointed the agency's deputy executive director in August.

From 2013 to 2014, he was an associate at powerful South Jersey law firm Parker McKay, where Philip Norcross, one of George Norcross's brothers, is managing shareholder and chief executive officer.

After that, Howard worked as an assistant counsel and then associate counsel in the Authorities Unit of Christie's office, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Philip Norcorss is a lobbyist for New Jersey American Water, one of the private water companies seeking control of Atlantic City's utilities authority.

Critics have argued that Christie's push for the state takeover of the city was largely about control of the authority. Christie has said the takeover was needed because the city's leaders could not get their finances in order.

Philip Norcross did not immediately return a message from NJ Advance Media seeking comment Friday.

Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @johnsb01. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.
Trial of Will Smith's shooter: Defense investigator says witness may have gotten things wrong
New rule - no, old rule - when shots are fired, don't leave your wife behind
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.
If your home came with unhappy surprises like leaks, cracks, broken mechanical systems, or other defects, the financial responsibility might not be yours alone.

What if something was wrong with your house at the time of purchase and someonethe seller, the property seller's real estate agent, or the inspectorcould have or should have told you about it beforehand, but failed to do so? Such problems can come to light days, weeks, or years after the sale, leaving you angry and wondering whether you really have to shoulder the entire financial burden.

In such cases, you might actually be able to ask the responsible person to pitch in, and take the matter to court if they don't. Ideally, you'll be able to resolve matters without filing a lawsuit suit. To give you a picture of what might be ahead, however, this article will analyze:

who might be held legally responsible, and

whether going forward with a lawsuit makes sense.

Minor Home Defects or Natural Aging Aren't Grounds for a Lawsuit

You probably knew when you bought the house that it wasn't in perfect condition. Some problems, such as a crack in the front walk, might have been obvious. Others, such as aging plumbing, the seller might have told you about in the course of the sale. (In most states, laws require home sellers to disclose all "material" defects to prospective buyers.)

Your home inspector, assuming you hired one, probably also told you about a few problems.

Then after the sale, your home probably continued its normal process of aging and decaying, leaving you to deal with the consequences. None of these sorts of issues provide any grounds upon which to run back to the seller to complain.

Will your insurance company cover the damage? If so, there may be no need to take action on your own. For how to work with your insurance company, see After the Fire or Disaster: Dealing with Your Insurance Company.

Could the Home Seller Be Held Legally Responsible?

Even if you think you've been wronged, you can't sue everyone who was involved in the sale of your home. The home seller is the first one to consider, of course.

As mentioned, nearly every U.S. state has laws requiring sellers to advise buyers of certain defects in the property, typically by filling out a standard disclosure form before the sale is completed. (This responsibility remains even if you bought the house "as is.")

The form usually asks the seller to state whether the property has certain features (like appliances, a roof, a foundation, systems for electricity, water, and heating, and more) and then to rate or describe their condition. Some states' disclosure laws are more comprehensive than others, and if a feature isn't on the list, the seller might not be required to speak up. Also, the seller isn't usually required to scout out problems.

If there's clearly a place on the form where the seller should have stated a problem but denied it, your job is to try to figure out whether the seller in fact knew about it. For example, if the seller patched over or hid problem areas, or if the neighbors have told you about the seller's efforts to deal with a problem, the evidence is on your side.

And even if you're in one of the few states with no mandated seller disclosures, it might be possible, particularly in an egregious situation, to sue the seller for:

negligence

fraud

breach of contract

breach of warranty, or

negligent misrepresentation.

Could the Seller's Real Estate Agent Be Held Legally Responsible?

Some states' laws make sellers' real estate agents liable for failing to disclose problems they observed or were told of by the sellers, though often their duties are fairly limited. Check your state's disclosure laws and try to figure out whether the problem would have been apparent to the broker, but not to you, before the sale.

Could Your Home Inspector Be Held Legally Responsible?

Hopefully, you got a home inspection before buying. In theory, the inspector should have spotted problems that the seller wasn't aware of, or was turning a blind eye to. If the inspector missed problems that an expert (a professional peer) should have noticed, the inspector might be on the hook; that is, legally liable.

Read over your inspection report to see what it said about the area in question. Some buyers are embarrassed to find that the problem is spelled out right in the report, or falls within an area that the inspector rightfully excluded from the report. But in other cases, the inspector failed to meet basic standards of professional competence.

Do You Have a Solid Case?

Once you've figured out the possible responsible parties, you'll want to know whether their actionor inactionmight entitle you to compensation. If your situation meets the criteria below, you might have a good case. We've collapsed a few legal principles into this list, but it will apply to most situations in most U.S. states.

The defect was there before you bought the home. The seller couldn't have hidden problems that didn't exist during the period of ownership. Again, problems that started post-purchase or that are a natural result of the home's aging or your lapses in maintenance are yours to deal with. Of course, determining when a problem started can get complicated. For example, a blockage in your sewer line could be a new problem, or it could be a recurrence of a long-time issue with roots growing into the pipes. You might need a professional's analysis. But if the problem could have started before you bought the house, keep reading.

The seller couldn't have hidden problems that didn't exist during the period of ownership. Again, problems that started post-purchase or that are a natural result of the home's aging or your lapses in maintenance are yours to deal with. Of course, determining when a problem started can get complicated. For example, a blockage in your sewer line could be a new problem, or it could be a recurrence of a long-time issue with roots growing into the pipes. You might need a professional's analysis. But if the problem could have started before you bought the house, keep reading. It's not an obvious defect that you could have seen yourself before buying. If there was a huge crack running across the living room ceiling at the open house and you've only now decided to bring it up, no dice. But if the crack was hidden by a false ceiling, the matter might be worth pursuing. Don't worry if your inspector should have seen the problem. That just means you've got a potential claim against the inspector, too.

If there was a huge crack running across the living room ceiling at the open house and you've only now decided to bring it up, no dice. But if the crack was hidden by a false ceiling, the matter might be worth pursuing. Don't worry if your inspector should have seen the problem. That just means you've got a potential claim against the inspector, too. No one told you about the defect before the sale, or someone actually lied to you about it. The responsible party might have been the seller, the seller's agent, or the inspector, as explained above.

The responsible party might have been the seller, the seller's agent, or the inspector, as explained above. You relied on the lies or nondisclosures. This one's usually easy. If, for example, you took the seller's word that a remodel job was up to code in deciding to buy or in setting your price, you acted in reliance.

This one's usually easy. If, for example, you took the seller's word that a remodel job was up to code in deciding to buy or in setting your price, you acted in reliance. You've incurred monetary damage as a result. Your costs of repairs or related damages (such as destruction of your personal property due to a flooded basement, or a decrease in your property value due to an undisclosed environmental hazard) will become legally speaking, the "damages" that you may collecteven if you haven't paid any out-of-pocket costs yet (for example, you need a new foundation but haven't actually hired a contractor to build it). But don't expect to collect damages that go beyond the house itself, such as for your pain and suffering or lost time.

Your costs of repairs or related damages (such as destruction of your personal property due to a flooded basement, or a decrease in your property value due to an undisclosed environmental hazard) will become legally speaking, the "damages" that you may collecteven if you haven't paid any out-of-pocket costs yet (for example, you need a new foundation but haven't actually hired a contractor to build it). But don't expect to collect damages that go beyond the house itself, such as for your pain and suffering or lost time. You're within any appropriate deadlines ("statutes of limitation"). Every state puts limits on how long you have, from the date you discover a problem or reasonably should have discovered it, to sue someone. The legislators don't want you dragging the seller into court 20 years after the sale, when no one recalls what happened. Most statutes of limitations are somewhere between two and ten years, but this will depend on where you are and what type of claim you have.

Even if you think you meet the above criteria, remember that in an actual lawsuit, it will be your job to convince a judge. Hence the more evidence you can start gathering, the better.

Legal Basis for Filing a Lawsuit

In legalese, you could potentially sue someone based on any of the following principles, or some combination of them:

Again, the law in your state will govern which theory might best fit your case.

Where to Sue Over Home Defects

Your main options for actually filing a lawsuit include:

small claims court, if the damages are under a certain limit, or

state court.

Filing in small claims court allows you to proceed with your case without a lot of the expensive administrative hassles of a "regular" lawsuit. You can represent yourself (in some states, attorneys are actually forbidden), the rules are typically not as rigid, and your case should be resolved relatively quickly.

However, every state places a dollar limit on the amount of damages you can sue forusually somewhere between $1,500 and $15,000. To find your state's exact limit, see 50-State Chart of Small Claims Court Limits. Even if your damages are over the limitfor example, if the repairs cost $8,000 and the limit is $5,000bringing a suit for $5,000 and forgetting about the rest might make economic sense because you will save time and attorney's fees.

If the amount of monetary damages you're asking for exceeds the small claims court limit, your next option is filing suit in state court, most likely with the help of an attorney.

Some attorneys will take this type of case on a contingency basis, meaning you don't pay a fee upfront but pay a large percentage (30-40%) of the damage award. You might still be responsible for paying court costs and other fees, plus expenses such as the attorney's phone calls and postage. Or, the court may award reimbursement of attorney's fees as part of your damages.
After decade as top Democrat, departure comes while party is stuck in the minority

WASHINGTON (AP)  Sen. Harry Reid bid farewell to the Senate Thursday after 30 years in the chamber and more than a decade as top Democrat, a remarkable run during which he shepherded key Obama administration legislation including the sweeping health care law.

But Reid leaves with his Democrats stuck in the minority despite his best efforts, and Republicans and President-elect Donald Trump making plans to repeal President Barack Obamas signature law as their first order of business next year.

In an uncharacteristically lengthy and personal farewell speech on the Senate floor, Reid warned of a new gilded age ahead and lamented how the Senate has changed. He cautioned colleagues to temper use of the filibuster, otherwise, it will be gone.

I hope that everyone would do everything they can to protect the Senate as an institution, he said. As part of our Constitution, it should be given the dignity it deserves.

Later, at a ceremony to unveil his portrait, Reid was lauded by Vice President Joe Biden and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, as well as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Reids successor as Senate minority leader, New York Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer. The audience was full of political leaders past and present, from Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Obamas first chief of staff, to former Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson, who retired after criticism for supporting the health care law.

Reid recognized both as he spoke of a high point of his Senate career, that first congressional term under Obama, when Democrats briefly commanded control of the House and a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. That allowed them to push through a raft of legislation including the economic stimulus, the health care bill and a financial overhaul.

Reid declared it the most productive legislative session in history. We worked so hard. We delivered big-time, he recollected.

One by one, Biden, Clinton and the rest paid tribute to the soft-spoken, stoop-shouldered Reid, a taciturn master of the inside game, whose legislative prowess was responsible for all those victories and more.

Thats you, Harry  always, always there, Biden said.

Clinton, making her first visit to Capitol Hill since losing the presidential race, said of Reids new portrait: The more fitting portrait will be the one that goes in the dictionary next to the word fighter.

And an emotional Schumer added: I am telling you there is no one, no one, no one better to have in your corner.

The portrait, painted by a young artist, Gavin Glakas, who once worked on Reids staff, shows the senator in a typical posture: seated at his desk at work.

Earlier, the 77-year-old gold miners son from tiny Searchlight, Nevada, reminisced about rising from a hardscrabble beginning to the heights of Capitol Hill and his dream job serving as Obamas point man in Congress.
If you've been around Northwest Indiana long enough, you might remember when Bethlehem Steel opened its Burns Harbor plant. It was in 1964.

In 2014, the plant celebrated 50 years of steelmaking. This time, however, the owner was ArcelorMittal.

It was a big investment a half century ago. If it wasn't the last new integrated steel mill built in the United States, it had to be one of the last ones built here.

Bethlehem Steel thought long and hard about that plant before building it.

How long, you ask? Longer than you might believe.

I glanced today at the Dec. 8, 1906, front page of The Lake County Times to see what was happening 110 years ago. A lot, as it turns out.

The body of Maurice Quinn was recovered the night before from the Hammond grain elevator. He had been covered by 6,000 bushels of wheat. With grain up to his neck, despite efforts to rescue him, he told his co-workers, "I guess it's all off, fellows," and died.

Adolph Valene, who had left Chesterton in 1905, was murdered in a Tucson, Arizona, saloon by a man named Wander, who had been released from jail the morning of the murder. Wander found Valene in a saloon, demanded $2 from Valene, then drew his revolver and severed Valene's windpipe withe the bullet.

Albert D.W. Erskine, president of the First National Bank of East Chicago and of the Indiana Harbor State Bank, sold his bank stock.

From Stevens Point, Wisconsin, came the story that Tony Burke, a locomotive engineer, was sent to an insane asylum after a wreck at Woodville, in Porter County, in which 62 immigrants lost their lives.

And Bethlehem Steel, as you probably figured out, was considering its options in Northwest Indiana.

The steel giant, which filed for bankruptcy on Oct. 15, 2001, built its plant along the shoreline in Porter County.

But in 1906, it had been considering land in Lake County. Robertsdale was considered an option.

"Good factory sites are still to be secured in this neighborhood and the Bethlehem Steel works, eager to settle in the Calumet region, will probably locate there," the story said.

If the company had built in the Stiglitz Park neighborhood, it would have dug a canal from the plant to Lake Michigan, something it wouldn't have to do if it built on Lake Michigan.

"Stiglitz Park is situated on the streetcar line running between East Chicago and Whiting, and the establishment of the factory there would mean that Robertsdale would after all not be the material gainer that it was at first thought it would be," the story said.

The steelmaker also considered options in what became Beverly Shores, but finally settled for its Burns Harbor location, with agents buying up land for the massive plant in the 1950s.

Nearly half a century passed from the time Robertsdale was being considered in 1906 before the new plant in Northwest Indiana finally opened.
Local union members are rallying around a United Steelworkers union local president from Indiana that President-elect Donald Trump lashed out against on Twitter, after he called into question the number of Carrier Corp. jobs saved from outsourcing to Mexico.

Trump personally attacked USW Local 1999 President Chuck Jones, tweeting "If United Steelworkers 1999 was any good, they would have kept those jobs in Indiana. Spend more time working-less time talking. Reduce dues" and "Chuck Jones, who is President of United Steelworkers 1999, has done a terrible job representing workers. No wonder companies flee country!"

Jones had pointed out that the deal would save 800 jobs, not the 1,100 claimed, and that his Indianapolis factory still would lose 550 jobs. He told MSNBC Thursday that after Trump's tweets he immediately started receiving death threats, including from angry callers who demanded to know if he had children and warned him to watch out for his kids.

USW members across Northwest Indiana voiced their support for Jones, posting statements like "I support USW LU 1999 President Chuck Jones" on Facebook and tweeting with the hashtag #ImWithChuck.

"Our Union and the union movement believe an injury to one, is an injury to all," USW D7 Rapid Response Coordinator Jerome Davidson said. "When a robber baron, now president-elect, attacks one of our own, the USW will always stand up and fight back."

Indiana AFL-CIO President Brett Voorhies said other union members across the state stood with Jones, who represents workers at the Carrier furnace factory being downsized.

"What president-elect Trump did was not only petty, it was void of basic leadership skills expected from a representative of the American people," Voorhies said. "How can a man whose feet have never hit the shop floor call out a man who's career is centered around supporting working people? Donald Trump pulled a dog and pony show last week at Carrier when he touted falsified information to hopeful Hoosiers fooled into thinking he was their champion."

Voorhies said Carrier was in fact still laying off 1,370 workers at its Indianapolis and Huntington plants, which is why Jones was upset.

The USW described Jones as a hero who fought to preserve the jobs. The union was told it couldn't equal the $65 million in annual savings that would come with a move to Mexico unless Carrier workers agreed to make $5 an hour with no benefits, USW President Leo Gerard said.

"Chuck Jones is someone who is standing up, fighting for his members, refused to accept that Carrier was just going to get to walk away," Gerard said. "He and his membership made this a national issue. Every time a politician wanted to talk about the economy, Chuck Jones and his local talked about Carrier moving to Mexico for $6 an hour and telling us to our face in a warehouse 'nothing personal, we're going because we can make more money.'"

Gerard said he was saddened by the attack on a fellow USW member.

"Because we have a president who clarified the facts, the President of the United States decided that he should call them names," he said. "I'm terribly disappointed, and I'm also angry."

USW District 7 Director Mike Millsap said no American company, unionized or not, could compete with $3 an hour wages in Mexico. He said the union hopes Trump makes good on his campaign trail pledge to impose a 35 percent tariff on any companies that offshore productions and continue to sell their products in the United States.

"The only thing Chuck was trying to do was straighten out the facts," he said. "Pan coil production is still going to Mexico and they're still going to ship it to the United States because there's no market for it in Mexico."

The #ImWithChuck hashtag trended on Twitter Thursday, attracting the support of politicians and even "Lethal Weapon" star Danny Glover.

"For the last 30 years (Jones has) been a vigilant supporter of workers' rights," Glover said in a video statement posted online. "He's been trying to save jobs and keep jobs in his community and in his country. We're right behind you brother."
DYER  Windmill Brewing Co., the Dutch-themed craft brewery that opened last year in Dyer, is now canning its beer and looking to distribute it across the Tri-Town area.

Windmill cans 12-ounce six-packs and 16-ounce four-packs of Pale Dutch Boy American Pale Ale, Mosaic Tessellation Saison, Exit Buddy New Zealand-hopped Pale Ale, and Single Double Tripel Belgian Double IPA.

Currently, the brewery is only making the beers available in its brewpub at 2121 Gettler Street, but is hoping to soon sell it at liquor stores and bars in the area.

"We're pretty small so just keeping up with demand there is keeping us plenty busy. We hope to expand this soon starting with the immediate Dyer/Schererville/St. John/Munster area," said owner Justin Verburg, who launched the craft brewery with Jeremy Ward and Scott Vander Griend. "Long term, I hope to distribute throughout the state of Indiana and also over the border in Illinois."

Craft beer has been booming in Northwest Indiana and nationwide. The Brewers Association estimates that 5,000 breweries, mainly small and independent, are now in the United States and that they grew by 8 percent last year.

Windmill started out last year only serving beer on tap, but has grown to the point where it invested in a canning machine, which some small breweries only rent because of the capital expenditure involved.

"Based on some feedback from customers we may switch up the packaging on some of our lower Alcohol By Volume beers to a 16 oz. can format instead of the 12 oz. cans," Verburg said. "Our canning machine is really flexible to accommodate different can sizes."

More growth and varieties of canned beer are on tap.

"We're hoping to do Galactose, our vanilla bean milk stout soon, Two If By Citra, our New England-style IPA, and 40 Hulking Giants our imperial milk stout," Verburg said.
Troy Webdell, maestro of the South Shore Orchestra, thinks Valparaisos Memorial Opera House is an optimum venue for him and his symphony for more than just the space and acoustics.

Its got a great history and is a great location right there in downtown Valparaiso, he said. Its perfect for families to have maybe a dinner beforehand, then come to see the show. Its just a very nice atmosphere.

South Shore Orchestra will perform its holiday pops concert at Memorial Opera House on Dec. 16. Webdell described his musical selections for their holiday pops show as family oriented.

The orchestra is slated to perform a diverse collection, ranging from 19th/20th Century German composer/violinist Friedrich Seitz Violin Concerto No. 2 in G. Major to 18th/19th Century classical German composer/ conductor Carl Maria von Webers Clarinet Concertino and the Christmas chestnut Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.

Also expected to be performed are some modern-day favorites.

Theres something for everyone, from old holiday standards to the new type of holiday music, Webdell said. For example, theres music from the Disney movie Frozen, so the kids will really like that.

A pair of solo performers, South Shore orchestra clarinetist Shelly Sager and Webdells daughter, violinist Mia Webdell, will also have their moment in the spotlight at this years pops concert. The 12-year-old violinist is making her orchestral debut in the show.

Part of whats unique about it is that were featuring local musicians (to perform solo with the orchestra) and not bringing in big artists, Maestro Webdell said. Were featuring Shelly as part of the orchestra family, and Mia, being my daughter, adds another family aspect to it.

While Webdell hopes concertgoers have a unique experience at the pops concert, the show is also special for the maestro and his musicians.

We get to perform music that a lot of us grew up with, he said. We get to play standards like Rudolph, and theres holiday sing-a-longs, which is making music with everybody. 

FYI: South Shore Orchestra's Holiday Pops Concert will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 16 at Memorial Opera House, 104 E. Indiana Ave., Valparaiso. Tickets are $21 for adults, $18 forstudents and seniors. Call (219) 548-9137 or visit MEMORIALOPERAHOUSE.COM.
CROWN POINT  Crown Point police this week became the latest agency to begin sharing crime data through an online mapping project on The Times' website.

The Crown Point Police Department recently joined the Northwest Indiana Public Safety Data Consortium, giving residents opportunity to learn more about crime in their neighborhoods. People can log on to the Regional Crime Report webpage at nwi.com/regionalcrimereport.

If someone hears sirens going down the street, this can give them an idea of whats going on in their neighborhood, said Assistant Police Chief Jim Janda.

Crown Point's addition to the consortium brings the number of Region agencies involved to 17. The consortium is led Indiana University Northwest assistant professor Joseph Ferrandino.

Crown Point police's mapping data, which extends back to January and is updated weekly, includes serious crimes such as robbery, burglary, theft, battery, operating while intoxicated arrests, shots fired and more.

The maps shared at the Regional Crime Report page are limited to what each department chooses to make public.

Department discretion was key, Janda said.

It was something we were a little bit hesitant about when it first started. Most people dont want others to know whats going on in their homes, Janda said. Then once we talked with Dr. Ferrandino and learned about the program, we decided to jump on. We want to be as informative as we can with the public.

The Northwest Indiana Public Safety Data Consortium, a privately funded shared mapping system that began in 2012 is administered by IUN, costs participating law enforcement agencies no extra money. NIPSCO donated $20,000 to license the mapping program. The department is tasked with uploading weekly crime reports to the system.

Other departments involved in the mapping tool include Cedar Lake, Dyer, East Chicago, Gary, Griffith, Highland, Lake Station, LaPorte County, Michigan City, Munster, Portage, Porter County, Schererville, St. John, Valparaiso and Whiting.

LaPorte County and Michigan City share a map on The Times' website. Gary police have two separate maps available on the website  one for homicides and another for all other crime.

Hammond police maintain a separate crime map, available on the department's website. Though a member of the consortium, Merrillville police post monthly crime maps created by Ferrandino's team on the department's website.

Crown Point also was drawn to the consortium because member agencies can share crime data and can use internal maps to detect crime patterns across the Region.

Its good for jurisdictions to see what each other has going on, Janda said.
EAST CHICAGO  Police are urging gas station patrons to use caution following a robbery Wednesday outside the GoLo gas station at 4502 Indianapolis Boulevard.*

A man told police he was leaving the gas station about 7:10 p.m. Wednesday when he was approached from behind by a tall man wearing a black leather jacket with tan sleeves and a black hooded jacket, according to East Chicago police Lt. Marguerite Wilder.

The victim told police the man, who covered his face with a bandana type scarf, demanded money and proceeded to go into the victim's pocket before fleeing southbound through the alley, Wilder said. The victim was not injured, she said.

"Police are cautioning patrons to be observant of people standing outside ... as they exit and enter," Wilder said. "Don't hesitate to call police for any suspicious activity."

Anyone with information about this incident is asked to contact Detective Miguel Pena at (219) 391-8318.

* Editor's note: This story has been updated from a previous version.

A story published Dec. 9 incorrectly stated the date of a robbery in East Chicago. The robbery occurred Wednesday, Dec. 7. The Times regrets the error.
VALPARAISO  Sentencing was postponed Friday after a question arose about whether a 38-year-old Valparaiso man would need to register as a sex offender after pleading guilty to possessing child pornography.

Defense attorney Larry Rogers said it was his understanding during the plea negotiations that his client, Paul Blanton, would not need to register.

This was the same understanding initially from the adult probation department, he said, but that changed when the office prepared a pre-sentence report for the case.

The sentencing before Porter Superior Court Judge Bill Alexa was postponed until Jan. 27.

Blanton is accused of hiding his cellphone in a teenage girls bedroom in an attempt to film her naked.

The girl told police she came into her room in July 2014, after taking a shower, and noticed a crayon box out of place with something inside, according to court documents. She found a black cellphone inside with the video mode running.

She stopped the recording and played it back, observing herself coming into the room and changing into clothes, police said. She also saw Blanton placing the phone inside the box and leaving the room.

While Blanton initially denied any knowledge of the incident, he later admitted to placing the phone in the girls room to see if she was cutting herself, police said. He then said he used the phone recorder to see her naked.

Blanton was originally charged with child exploitation and possession of child pornography.
HOBART  Driving on 61st Avenue in Hobart should be much easier and safer now that the third phase of a massive road construction project is substantially completed.

Brandon Towle, of Butler, Fairman & Seufert, told the Board of Public Works and Safety on Wednesday the roundabout created at the Wisconsin Street intersection is finished, and all of 61st Avenue and a portion of Wisconsin Street closed during construction are now open.

He said Washington Street remains closed because of the project, but it should become available for traffic before Christmas.

In addition to the roundabout, the project widened and reconstructed 61st to three lanes between Arizona Street and Ind. 51.

Other features are lighting improvements, regional stormwater detention and sewer and water line extensions.

Mayor Brian Snedecor said he is very happy with what's been accomplished on 61st Avenue, and other city officials said they also are pleased with the improvements.

It looks nice, City Councilman Jerry Herzog said.

Adding to the enhanced safety expected from the recent roadwork, the project will help promote more economic development in Hobart, city officials said. It also will assist the St. Mary Medical Center with the addition of a direct route off 61st to the hospital's emergency services.

Construction for the third phase kicked off in August 2015, and work to finish the project will resume in the spring. That includes creating a concrete divider near the St. Mary Medical Center, sidewalk improvements and landscaping.

City Engineer Phil Gralik said the sidewalk along the road will be closed over the winter

Prior to starting the third phase, it took about six years to secure the $13 million needed for the project's design and construction.

Planning the improvements involved the city collaborating with several entities, including U.S. Rep. Pete Viscloskys office, Lake County officials, the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission and St. Mary Medical Center.
PORTAGE  The review and update of the citys ordinances has turned up some real puzzlers, like why was driving banned on Keller Avenue or Fairview Avenue after a rainfall.

The latest batch of revisions was presented to the council last week by City Attorney Gregg Sobkowski, who said the ban on driving on the two streets was passed in 1990, apparently when the streets had serious flooding problems during rains, but no one was sure. The council lifted the ban.

The review process has been underway for about a year. Among the other changes recently approved were ordinances that dealt with dangerous animals, disorderly conduct, land excavation permits, the councils rules of procedure and taxi cab licensing.

The dangerous animal ordinance followed the example of the countys ordinance. One of the changes dealt with the process for determining what is a dangerous animal, requiring dangerous animals registration and that owners post signs warning of a dangerous animal.

One of the problems the city has is housing dangerous animals until a determination is made whether they are to be returned to the owner. If, after a review by the animal control officer and the police chief, the animal is considered too dangerous, it can be euthanized, even if the owner is appealing the case.

We put our animal control workers in dangerous situations all the time, Mayor James Snyder said.

The city negotiated a new contract with the county for storing animals that does not involve additional cost to the citys taxpayers but, instead is covered by the money already paid in county taxes. The city is awaiting the final wording of the contract, which wont take effect until the new shelter is ready.

Clerk-treasurer Christopher Stidham said it will cost a little more to transport animals to the new shelter, but it will be worth it because it is a much better facility.

Sobkowski said the disorderly conduct language was updated because the old ordinance sounded like something out of 1900. Land excavation permits were covered under two sections of the code with different provisions. The confusion was eliminated by eliminating one ordinance.

The code said the council was to follow Roberts Rules of Order for conducting its meetings, but Sobkowski said those rules can be confusing and too formal. Besides, he said, the council never followed them anyway. The new ordinance simply gives the council the power to determine its own procedures.

The purpose of the taxi cab ordinance was to reduce the licensing fee from $500 a year to $25. Councilwoman Sue Lynch said the city has only one licensed taxi company, and it faces competition from Uber, which doesnt have to pay the city anything. Councilman Mark Oprisko said he didnt think the city should charge anything for someone who already is a taxpaying resident of the city.

In addition to the license fee, the taxi company would pay $50 to have each vehicle inspected by the city under the proposed ordinance. Police Chief Troy Williams said the money goes into the departments continuing education fund, but with only one company, the town is not collecting big money.

Snyder said the city eliminated the license fees on cats and dogs to encourage people to comply, making up the loss by doubling the fines when a violation is discovered. He suggested something similar for taxi companies, which might encourage more companies to file. The city would still inspect the vehicles.

The council voted 6-1 to send the ordinance back to committee to debate whether to charge a fee. Lynch said action on the changes would have to be approved in January because the existing license expires in February.
UNION TOWNSHIP  The Salt Creek Commons community is stepping up to offer help to two families displaced Thursday afternoon by fires.

A fire in the 400 block of Sturgeon Road was called in about 2 p.m. and killed Barbara Conrick, 64. She called 911 to report the fire, but was unable to get out of the house she shared with her son and his fiancee.

The fire destroyed her home and spread to the one next door, badly damaging the home of the Pilla family.

Porter County Coroner Chuck Harris said Barbara Conrick died of smoke inhalation. The manner of death has not been determined.

The cause of the fire has been ruled "undetermined," Union Fire Rescue Chief Tim Beach said.

The state fire marshal and the Porter County Fire Investigation Strike Team, along with the Indiana State Police and the Porter County Sheriff's Department, investigated.

Beach said Conrick apparently had suffered from some type of health condition that limited her mobility, but did not know the details of her health.

The Rev. David Benning of Wheeler United Methodist Church said Conrick was a member of his congregation. He said she had been attending regularly until about six to nine months ago and said he believes she had been ill.

"She was a sweet lady and knew her Bible well," Benning said. "We learned a lot from her."

Benning said Conrick had an artistic flair and often helped with projects around the church.

Neighbors and friends have stepped up to help both families who lost all their belongings.

Gofundme accounts have been established for each family, and the public is invited to donate clothes, household items and gift cards to both.

Heather Aydelotte Szakacs grew up just down the street from the Conrick family and knows them well.

She said Barbara Conrick's son Duane and his fiancee, Brandie, recently moved in with her because she was having health issues.

"She was a sweet lady," Aydelotte Szakacs said.

She said nothing was able to be salvaged from their home and the survivors immediately need clothes and toiletry items, but other donations would be accepted.

For those who do not want to donate online, the Conrick Family Benefit Account has been established at Horizon Bank, Aydelotte Szakacs said. Funds will go directly to the family to help offset funeral expenses and to purchase household items that were destroyed in the fire, she said.

Samantha Bailey is heading up efforts to help the Pilla family, whose home next door was badly damaged and is not livable.

Bailey said the family of four has only the clothes they were wearing, so clothes and Walmart gift cards would be welcome donations.

Anyone wishing to donate items is asked to take the items to Wheeler United Methodist Church, 305 North St., in Wheeler, Benning said. He said clothing, food and gift cards will be collected. No cash will be accepted at the church.

If the church is not open, donors are asked to call Patti Stout at (219) 508-2259, to arrange a time to drop them off.
EAST CHICAGO  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has canceled Saturday's scheduled open house for residents to discuss the USS Lead Superfund site cleanup, citing the potential lapse in federal funding beginning at midnight Saturday.

Several news outlets reported a vote on funding for the federal government was expected late Friday.

The news came just one day after the citys mayor, Anthony Copeland, announced the EPA had informed him that lead exceeded its standard for drinking water in 18 out of 45 homes it has tested.

EPA has tested water at 43 homes, not 45, a spokesman said Friday.

The testing was conducted in zones 2 and 3 of the USS Lead Superfund site in the Calumet neighborhood, the middle and eastern parts of the neighborhood, where high levels of lead and arsenic contaminants were found in the soil.

The agency has no plans to expand the testing program elsewhere in the Superfund site or the rest of the city, EPA spokesman Peter Cassell said Friday.

City Attorney Carla Morgan said the city does not have adequate funding to carry out further testing nor does it have the ability to duplicate the EPAs methods at this time. According to the city, this type of sequential testing costs about $5,000 per household but The Times could not independently verify the costs.

Copeland told residents Friday he sent letters to Gov. Mike Pence and governor-elect Eric Holcomb seeking an emergency declaration because of the lead crisis in the city's Calumet neighborhood.

Members of a community strategy group who met with Copeland on Friday said they hope the request helps bring more resources into the city as residents deal with the fallout from living on land contaminated with lead, arsenic and other chemicals left behind by decades of industrial activity.

"We are just really excited that the people have won today. The people have won today," said the Rev. Cheryl Rivera, a member of the group and director of the Northwest Indiana Federation of Interfaith Organizations.

A Pence spokeswoman on Friday said the governor's office has received the letter and is reviewing the request, without elaborating on a timeline.

The EPA test results "reaffirms the need for the entire site's drinking water to be tested as community groups have been requesting, said Debbie Chizewer, one of the attorneys at Northwestern University Pritzker Law Schools Environmental Law Clinic working on behalf of residents. "Now it's even more pressing."

'Parallel with Flint now'

Preliminary EPA data show elevated lead levels in the water supply for a number of homes prior to the EPA's excavation work. The testing was initially carried out to see if the EPAs construction work would disturb the service lines that carry water from the mains in the street to the yards in the homes.

When lead, or galvanized iron, service lines are disturbed, small particles of lead can break off and get into the drinking water, according to the city.

Like many older cities across the nation, East Chicago has a large percentage of service lines made of lead. It is likely that many homes in East Chicago have service lines that are made of, or contain, lead. Lead plumbing components in some homes could also cause increased lead levels, according to the city.

Now, The Indiana Department of Environmental Management is working with the city to adjust corrosion control levels. The treatment reduces lead leaching by forming a protective coating on the interior of the pipes, according to the city.

Thomas Frank, a member of the Duneland Environmental Justice Alliance and a board member for the Southeast Environmental Justice Task Force, said Friday the city and EPA began testing water because of residents' demands.

Frank said residents want the program extended throughout the city.

Ray Mosley, a member of the strategy group, said he felt progress is being made. He said he hoped the same resources Flint, Michigan, has received will now be made available to East Chicago.

"The lead has been found in the water," he said. "Our site is parallel with Flint now."

However, Kaplan said this week the results are preliminary and do not indicate if there is a widespread problem. He advised concerned residents to consider using a water filter like the ones distributed by the state of Michigan earlier this year in Flint.

Filters certified to remove lead or ones labeled National Sanitation Foundation-53 certified filters are considered highly effective at removing high concentrations of lead, according to the EPA.

Soil sampling in zone 2 will continue into winter as weather permits, according to an EPA fact sheet, but cleanup efforts have been suspended for the winter in zones 2 and 3. The agency excavated dirt at 55 properties, including 17 in zone 2 and 38 in zone 3 this year.

To date, EPA has sampled 476 of the 596 properties in zone 2. The agency received access agreements to sample 418 of the 468 properties on zone 3.

EPA tested indoor dust in many households in the Superfund site, and is offering indoor cleaning to residents in homes where dust tested above screening levels, according to a fact sheet.

Continued dialogue

Sheilah Garland, a member of the strategy group, said Friday the mayor also invited residents to meet weekly to discuss the lead crisis.

She said the group was happy the mayor made a request for an emergency declaration, "so there will be greater funding to address the ongoing crisis that just seems to continue to unfold," Garland said.

Maritza Lopez, of East Calumet, said the meeting with Copeland and his staff was productive and residents will continue seeking support.

"We've got to stay behind this and continue with the other agencies as well. It's our livelihood," she said.

Akeesha Daniels, of West Calumet, extended the invitation to meet weekly with city officials to residents of all three cleanup zones in the Calumet neighborhood and of the Nicosia Senior Building, a North Side public housing facility where some residents also have tested positive for lead.

Rivera said the group also asked to review the budget for the East Chicago Housing Authority, which is continuing its efforts to relocate more than 1,000 residents. The city plans to demolish the complex, which sits in the footprint of the former Anaconda lead smelter. USS Lead, a second smelter, operated just south of the complex.
A Bronx teen suing the NYPD after several officers beat him has settled the lawsuit with the city.

Jateik Reed and his lawyers claimed he was wrongfully stopped-and-frisked by police officers in the Bronx back in January 2012, and they say what followed was an outrage.

Reed was hit with police batons and kicked by NYPD officers  and it was all caught on cell phone and building surveillance video.

Jateik Reed  who was 19 at the time  and his friends were walking on East 167th Street when police officers approached and searched Reed.

When he tried to get away, multiple officers jumped on him and beat him. Some continued to kick him after him was apprehended.

Police officers said he had crack and marijuana on him and that's why he was stopped.



No drugs were recovered, and the charges against the teen were dropped.

Nearly five years later, the city and the NYPD has settled with Reed for $400,000. His mother and brother, who say they were arrested after they went to the precinct to complain, have also reached a settlement with the city.

The NYPD did not have a comment for NY1. The city's law department simply says settling the matter was in the best interest of the city.

The Reed family and their lawyers are now calling for all of the officers involved to be fired by the NYPD.
With the rise of hate crimes since Election Day, parent activists want New York City Department of Education to take action to combat discrimination in the schools. NY1's Education Reporter, Lindsey Christ, filed the following report.

Parents, activists, and elected officials took to the steps of the Department of Education on Thursday to demand all 135,000 public school employees to be trained in how to fight bias.

"If anywhere they need to be able to reach out and get resources and support, it's within our schools," says Tiffany Jones of The Black Institute.

The advocates say that following the caustic presidential campaign, many families feel targeted.

"We are under attack right now in so many ways, and the chilling effect from insensitive comments by staffers and teachers in our schools," says City Council Member Carlos Menchaca. "Or kids bullying other kids, and no one doing anything about it is really eroding the trust and the safety that our kids need to learn in our schools."

The City Council this week passed a resolution reaffirming the city's commitment to remain a so-called Sanctuary City, a safe haven for immigrants, regardless of their legal status.

The NYPD says hate crimes have soared 115 percent in the city since Election Day, a spike that some advocates blame on emboldened supporters of President-elect Donald Trump.

Parents and elected officials say they don't have numbers showing an increase in such incidents in schools, but anecdotal evidence suggests it's a problem.

About half of the 1.1 million students are from immigrant families and about 10 percent are Muslim. The advocates say they also worry about bias against Jewish students, LBGTQ students, and female students.

A spokesperson says the schools chancellor believes all schools should be safe havens but would not commit to requiring all staff undergo training.

The city says it has hired nearly 500 new guidance counselors, social workers, and mental health consultants over the past two years.

However, Maria Gil says her six daughters are struggling after the election and do not feel comfortable talking about it at school.

"There's not an administrator, there's nobody in the schools that can give the support to these little children," says Gil.
Donald Trump returned to the city from another "Thank You" rally late Thursday night, but he's due in Louisiana for another event.

The president-elect is set to attend a Get Out the Vote rally in Louisiana, where a Senate runoff election is being held Saturday.

Trump is scheduled to bring his "Thank You Tour" to Michigan Friday night.

Speaking in Des Moines, Iowa Thursday night, Trump told supporters about his plans to lower taxes, lift regulations and create jobs.

The newly minted Time Magazine Person of the Year also took issue with the publication's reference to him as "President of the Divided States of America."

"They give me this honor, then they have to go, a little bit of this stuff, a divided nation. I said, 'I haven't been president. What are you saying that for?'" Trump said. "We are going to bring the nation together, we're going to bring the nation together. We're not going to have a divided nation."

Before heading to Iowa, Trump visited the campus of Ohio State University. He met with the victims of last week's car-and-knife attack at the school.

Trump also announced that he's nominating fast food CEO Andy Puzder for Labor Secretary.

Puzder's company owns chains like Hardee's and Carl's Junior. He has been a critic of higher minimum wages.
President-elect Donald J. Trump may have leapt from reality-show success to the highest echelons of political power.

But that does not mean he is ready to give up the reality-show part just yet.

Although Mr. Trump is not starring in NBCs coming season of The New Celebrity Apprentice, the president-elect is still involved: Mr. Trump will be credited as one of the shows executive producers, a spokeswoman for Mark Burnett, the creator of the Apprentice franchise, said on Thursday.

MGM, Mr. Burnetts studio, declined to comment on what the president-elect would be paid for his participation in the new season, which will feature Arnold Schwarzenegger as the shows power-wielding businessman. But in the past, Mr. Trump has held as much as a 50 percent stake in The Apprentice, and received payments from the shows international editions and a short-lived version that starred Martha Stewart.

Mr. Trump has a big stake in the show and conceived of it with Mark Burnett, Hope Hicks, the president-elects spokeswoman, said on Thursday. Ms. Hicks confirmed that she was referring to a financial stake.
For the past six years, federal prosecutors said, two former Chinese diplomats living in the New York area brought numerous construction workers to the United States from China on diplomatic visas, ostensibly to do repairs on Chinese government buildings.

But according to an indictment unsealed on Thursday, the workers were also forced to work private projects and were threatened with the loss of their homes in China if they refused to do so.

The indictment, in Federal District Court in Brooklyn, accused the former diplomats, Dan Zhong, who served at the Chinese Consulate in New York from 2001 to 2006, and Landong Wang, who worked at the Chinese Embassy in Washington from 2001 to 2007, of bringing the workers from China on so-called A2 or G2 visas.

While the workers did work at diplomatic missions, court papers say they were forced into debt bondage contracts and made to work on several outside projects, including at least two private homes, in Queens and on Long Island.
ALBANY  Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said on Thursday that he had met with federal prosecutors about the corruption case brought against some of his close associates, including Joseph Percoco, a longtime aide whom the governor viewed as family.

Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, said the interview had involved the sprawling indictment involving bribery and bid-rigging in state projects worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Ive talked to them about the case that theyre bringing, said Mr. Cuomo, who has not been accused of wrongdoing. The case that theyve brought.

Pressed for details, Mr. Cuomo said the meeting was in preparation for Joes case, in preparation for the case that they were indicting against the nine defendants.
Less than a decade after its cable-access appearance, flexing was showing up in music videos, and flex D.J.s were getting radio play. One of Mr. Grays dance troupes competed on the MTV program Americas Best Dance Crew in 2009. Even Madonna featured flex dancers on her tours.

People in the flex community were thrilled to see the form reaching more viewers, but popular success came with its own set of concerns. For one, some crowds seemed more interested in the sheer physical spectacle of the routines rather than their narrative force. Then there was the matter of money: Even as flexing flourished, many of its practitioners werent seeing a dime.

I was thankful to see flexing get its due, but at what cost? Mr. Gray said. Flexing isnt some kind of background dance. It should be the star of the show.

Two and a half years ago, just as he was grappling with those anxieties, Mr. Gray was presented with an extraordinary proposal: a flexing showcase at the Park Avenue Armory staged by the renowned theater director Peter Sellars. It was the opportunity of a lifetime for Mr. Gray and his group, but he was nervous about the reception.

Think about that audience: Theyd be older, richer, whiter, he said. I was honestly worried they wouldnt understand it.

The performance however, ended up dovetailing with the Black Lives Matter movement and was something of a watershed for flexing. During the early planning stages in summer 2014, Eric Garner and Michael Brown were both killed by police officers, igniting widespread protests across the country. Consumed by grief and indignation, Mr. Gray and his team completely overhauled plans for the show. Rehearsals became a space for healing, which, in turn, became part of the artistic process.
For members of the Handel-industrial complex, its showtime. From now until you-know-when, choirs singing the Messiah will give canned holiday music a run for its money. Malcolm J. Merriweather, 31, who made his professional solo debut at 10 singing the Messiah in Buffalo (he took home $10), will be paying it forward on Dec. 17, when he conducts the nearly century-old Dessoff Choirs in a sing-in with audience participation at the Union Theological Seminary in Manhattan. Mr. Merriweather, who begins most Sundays in his 15th-floor apartment in Harlem, is an accomplished baritone as well as the choirs musical director. He is also an assistant professor and director of choirs at Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music of the City University of New York.

REST, RELAX This year is the first that I dont have a church job on Sundays. I was for four years the choirmaster at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. But I left that position to focus more on a project I have in Haiti, where I need to be in Port-au-Prince on any given weekend to work with my choir there.

RISE, WORK OUT I usually get up at 8:30 or 9. I like to sleep in a little bit. Since I dont have a church job, Ive been getting up and exercising, with an energy drink for an appetizer. That usually entails going to the gym  I go to the Y.M.C.A. at 135th Street  or I like to do some cardio work on the stairs in St. Nicholas Park. Its very steep.
One morning in September, a line of people turned up at City Hall to speak about a truth that is beyond public dispute: When people are being questioned about possible involvement in crimes, the interrogation should be recorded from start to finish.

Until recently, the custom was for detectives to question a suspect until they had extracted admissions of guilt, and only then turn on the cameras.

Afterward, everyone would go to court and argue about what happened before the camera went on. Now, 22 states and the District of Columbia require that the entire interrogation be recorded.

Not New York, however, one of the capitals of progressive America. Also, of wrongful convictions: In just the last decade, the city and state have paid out tens of millions of dollars to innocent people sent to prison, a startling number of them because of false confessions.
For the last several weeks, discussions of the ways a Trump presidency will affect life in New York City have revolved largely around questions of inconvenience, when they might have been better cast as questions of sustainability. Congestion in Midtown will seem like a board-game problem if fears about drastic federal cuts to social services are borne out, at a time when New York, like other major cities, faces a growing homelessness crisis. Conveniently, Donald J. Trumps naming of Ben Carson as his choice to run the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development provides us with a vehicle in which we might drive closer to some of the more darkly imagined consequences.

Mr. Carson, a neurosurgeon with no real policy experience, brings with him to the management of a $50 billion agency intended to serve the poor a certain antipathy toward fair housing law, a distaste for social engineering and a belief that the poor are best served by their own gumption.

Recently I spoke with Stephan Russo, the executive director of the Goddard Riverside Community Center, a social service agency in New York, seeking to take the measure of his anxieties. Goddard oversees about 600 of the states approximately 50,000 units of supportive housing, apartments in which the formerly homeless can live affordably, with counseling and other forms of assistance on site. A tenant pays no more than 30 percent of his or her income, so if an apartment rents for $1,000 a month, the occupant might pay $200 with the additional $800 coming from HUD subsidies. As a landlord, Goddard alone is on the receiving end of $8 million in these subsidies annually. If they begin to take them away, Mr. Russo told me, the effects would be catastrophic.

Indeed, the nightly shelter population in the city, which stands at about 62,000, could theoretically almost double. The situation is already so dire that the city has increased its reliance on the frowned-upon practice of renting hotel rooms for homeless people. In January, the mayor committed to phasing out cluster housing, another maligned and desperate arrangement in which the city ends up housing homeless people in apartments that are in terrible shape and command high rents. (Cluster housing came under scrutiny again the other day when two young girls were burned to death, by steam, while napping, the result, apparently, of malfunctioning radiators.)
A Brooklyn woman who was found unconscious behind the wheel of a running car died on Thursday after being taken to a Staten Island police station from a hospital, the police said.

The woman, 34, was apparently under the influence of drugs and alcohol when she was found passed out on Wednesday evening near the entrance to the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, according to the police and online court records. Officers from the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority Police found her in the drivers seat of her 2010 Hyundai Elantra around 6:06 p.m. at Lily Pond Avenue and Major Avenue.

She was taken in police custody to Staten Island University Hospital. A spokeswoman for the hospital confirmed that the woman had been treated at the hospitals north campus and released. But she declined to answer further questions, citing patient privacy law and the police investigation.

The woman was then transferred to the 120th Precinct station house, where she was booked on charges of driving while impaired by drugs and alcohol. She had been scheduled to appear for her arraignment on Thursday in Criminal Court on Staten Island. Instead, she was found unconscious in her holding cell.
For a theatrical evening with a gloomy title, The Dead, 1904, based on the celebrated James Joyce story (absent the date, of course), makes for an unusually sparkling affair. Unless you glide among the upper echelons of New York society, you are not likely to attend a holiday gathering in a more sumptuous setting this season.

This immersive theatrical adaptation of Joyces story is presented at the American Irish Historical Society, on a splendid stretch of Fifth Avenue, near the Metropolitan Museum. (This Irish Repertory Theater production is presented by the society in association with Dot Dot Productions.) The building, originally a private residence from 1900, is a grand one. The rooms on the second floor, in which most of the action occurs, are lit by chandeliers that shed mellow golden light on intricately molded wood and plaster. (Perhaps grander than the rooms in the novella, but whos complaining?)

Ushered upstairs by the maid, Lily (a suitably scattered Clare OMalley), who may offer a breathless word of welcome, you are offered sherry or whiskey in a dainty crystal glass, and find yourself mingling with roughly 40 audience members and observing (or interacting with) the characters.
They deemed our place unsafe and that it was not up to code, he said.

Roman Clark, a spokesman for the Baltimore Fire Department, said a complaint on Monday had prompted the investigation. Both the Fire and Housing Departments investigated the building and found numerous safety and housing violations.

The Housing Department condemned the building and boarded it up, Mr. Clark said.

No city officials are going to say they approve of illegal parties held in decrepit warehouses, but some acknowledge privately that underground spaces are part of how cities work and are likely to remain so.

What we consider before using anonymous sources. Do the sources know the information? Whats their motivation for telling us? Have they proved reliable in the past? Can we corroborate the information? Even with these questions satisfied, The Times uses anonymous sources as a last resort. The reporter and at least one editor know the identity of the source. Learn more about our process.

In the aftermath of the Oakland fire, Mayor James Kenney of Philadelphia and the commissioner of the Department of Licenses and Inspections sent out a joint news release calling on warehouse owners and managers to make sure their spaces are safe.

The citys Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy said in a statement that it understands that artists are resourceful in identifying spaces that meet their distinct, creative needs, adding, our priority remains their and the publics safety.

We are concerned about exactly what happened in Oakland, said Karen Guss, a spokeswoman for the Licenses and Inspections Department, but there is no way this city or any city of size is going to be able to address these issues on their own.

New York also has a long history of transforming buildings and warehouses into arts and music spaces. But gentrification of the areas most fertile to the enterprise  like Bushwick, an industrial pocket of Brooklyn  means that semipermanent spaces similar to the Ghost Ship have become rarer.

A task force that inspects legal and illegal spaces for compliance was convened after the Happy Land Social Club in the Bronx was set on fire in 1990, killing nearly 90 people. This September, officials from the Police, Fire and Buildings Departments descended upon the abandoned Gowanus Bay Terminal, where a party for 4,500 people was to be held. After an inspection, it was determined unsafe and the party was canceled, according to a spokeswoman for the mayor. Over the summer, a 6,000-person site in East Williamsburg was shut down permanently after repeated violations.
WASHINGTON  An Alabama inmate was put to death by lethal injection on Thursday after a deadlocked Supreme Court refused to stay his execution, The Associated Press reported. The inmate, Ronald B. Smith, had been sentenced to death by a judge despite a jurys recommendation of life without parole.

The courts four more liberal members  Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen G. Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan  said they would have granted the stay. They gave no reasons but presumably believed there was merit to Mr. Smiths challenge to Alabamas death penalty system, the only one in the nation that allows such judicial overrides.

Mr. Smith was convicted in 1995 of murdering Casey Wilson, a convenience store clerk, the previous year. By a vote of 7 to 5, the jury rejected the death penalty and recommended a sentence of life without parole. The judge overrode that recommendation, sentencing Mr. Smith to death.

In January, the Supreme Court struck down Floridas capital sentencing system, which also allowed judicial overrides of jury recommendations of life sentences. The Sixth Amendment requires a jury, not a judge, to find each fact necessary to impose a sentence of death, Justice Sotomayor wrote for the majority in the case, Hurst v. Florida. A jurys mere recommendation is not enough.
WASHINGTON  With self-congratulatory zeal and smiles all around, huge bipartisan majorities in Congress have just passed legislation to speed the discovery of cures for killer diseases. At the same time, Republican leaders have been devising a strategy to undo the Affordable Care Act, which has done more than any law in a generation to treat people with those diseases.

It is a real contradiction, said Dr. Otis W. Brawley, the chief medical officer at the American Cancer Society.

In recent years, few major bills have commanded as much support as the 21st Century Cures Act, which sailed to passage by votes of 392 to 26 in the House on Nov. 30, and 94 to 5 in the Senate a week later. Once it is signed by President Obama on Tuesday, as the White House has said it will be, the law will allow for money to be pumped into biomedical research and speed the approval of new drugs and medical devices. It also includes provisions to improve mental health care and combat opioid abuse.

This is the most significant legislation passed by this Congress, the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said on Thursday. By contrast, he once referred to the 2010 health law as the single worst piece of legislation that has been passed in the last half-century.
But rarely has Mr. Trump used Twitter to express his ire at people like Mr. Jones, the president of United Steelworkers Local 1999, who described himself on Thursday as just a regular working guy. With the full power of the presidency just weeks away, Mr. Trumps decision to single out Mr. Jones for ridicule has drawn condemnation from historians and White House veterans.

When you attack a man for living an ordinary life in an ordinary job, it is bullying, said Nicolle Wallace, who was communications director for President George W. Bush and a top strategist to other Republicans. It is cyberbullying. This is a strategy to bully somebody who dissents. Thats what is dark and disturbing.

Robert Dallek, a presidential historian, called the verbal attack unprecedented and added: Its beneath the dignity of the office. He doesnt seem to understand that.

Frank Sesno, a former CNN Washington bureau chief and now the director of the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University, said Mr. Trumps willingness to weaponize his Twitter feed, especially against people who are not political rivals, could produce a chilling effect on people willing to publicly criticize the president.

Anybody who goes on air or goes public and calls out the president has to then live in fear that he is going to seek retribution in the public sphere, Mr. Sesno said. That could discourage people from speaking out.
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Shares of newly public fintech companies Upstart Holdings (NASDAQ: UPST), SoFi Technology (NASDAQ: SOFI), and Lemonade (NYSE: LMND) were plunging today, down 5.2%, 9.3%, and 3.1%, respectively, as of 1:25 p.m. ET. It wasn't a good first half of the trading day for growth stocks in general, as investors may be worried about the Federal Reserve meeting today, in which the Fed is widely expected to raise interest rates by 75 basis points and give commentary on the rate hike outlook into next year. The decline even took hold of SoFi, which handily beat revenue and earnings estimates just yesterday, as the stock gave back all of its post-earnings gains, and then some.
Clean Power Plan or not, there will be something in the future on carbon control. So theres no question that the industry is moving forward with cleaner energy, he said. We will not be building large coal facilities. Were not stopping what were doing based on the new administration. We need to make long-term capital decisions. I dont think the course will change.

But company-driven shifts alone will still not be enough to create the steep drop-off in carbon pollution that scientists say is necessary. The use of wind power grew by more than 100 percent between 2010 and the end of 2015, while the use of large-scale solar grew by more than 20 times in that same period, according to the Energy Information Administration. But renewable sources, excluding hydroelectric power, still only represent a small fraction of the American energy economy, providing just a little more than 7 percent of the countrys electricity.

Carbon dioxide emissions peaked in 2007 at six billion metric tons, declining slightly to 5.4 billion metric tons by 2014. But they would need to decline to about 4.8 billion metric tons annually by 2025 and 1.2 billion metric tons annually by 2050 if the United States is to meet its pledges under the Paris accord.

To get there would require reducing emissions about 5 percent per year over the next decades. In order to reduce that fast, we would need to be avoiding new fossil fuel infrastructure and actively shutting down old fossil fuel infrastructure before the end of its natural life, said Andrew Jones, the director of Climate Interactive, a research firm. Thats not possible without aggressive federal policy.

At the same time, analysts are skeptical that Mr. Trumps efforts to roll back the climate change rules would bring back the tens of thousands of mining jobs that have been lost in the market shift away from coal, let alone create large numbers of new jobs. Electric utilities like American Electric Power turned away from investing in coal largely because of the glut of cheap natural gas, thanks to hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

The market defines the opportunities for coal, said Kevin Book, an analyst with ClearView Energy Partners, a nonpartisan research firm. Electric utilities that have shut down coal plants are not going to reopen them. Mines that have been mothballed because they are not economic are not going to be taken out of mothballs.
OTTAWA  When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau meets on Friday with the leaders of Canadas provinces and territories to work out a national carbon pricing plan, Donald J. Trump will also be in the room, in a manner of speaking.

The president-elect has expressed skepticism about climate change, support for the fossil fuel industry and a desire to pull the United States out of the Paris climate accord. That has raised a big question for Canada: Can it move forward with a carbon policy if America is headed in the opposite direction?

Mr. Trudeau certainly wants to push ahead. His government wants every province and territory to adopt a plan to reduce carbon emissions by putting a price on them  either through a tax on fossil fuels or a cap-and-trade system of emission allowances for industry. If they refuse to do one or the other voluntarily, he has warned, the national government will impose a plan on them.

Many of Mr. Trudeaus political rivals argue that it would be irresponsible to move ahead now with carbon pricing in Canada if the United States will not be doing the same thing. But carbon-tax proponents say the opposite, that Canada could gain a competitive advantage by acting before its much larger neighbor.
BEIRUT, Lebanon  Russian officials said Thursday that the Syrian Army had stopped combat operations in the divided city of Aleppo in order to evacuate civilians, but residents of the rebel-held enclave reported that after a day of intense bombardment, fighting was continuing.

Russias foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, said that the pause would allow for 8,000 civilians to be evacuated, after forces loyal to the Syrian government recaptured three-quarters of the territory rebels had held for four years.

Mr. Lavrov, who spoke on the sidelines of a meeting of foreign ministers in Germany, did not offer specifics on an evacuation plan. But civilians inside the remaining rebel-held districts of eastern Aleppo were in a state of panic after a day in which rescue workers said 150 airstrikes had killed at least 50 people and in which residents said they were unable to flee because of the intense combat.

Residents said by telephone that they could hear drones and tank fire and that they feared government forces were closing in on the few neighborhoods still held by rebels. Several said they had not heard of evacuation offers and begged to be told of any chances to escape.
Madonna takes the world by storm in her Rebel Heart tour. Mozart in the Jungle travels to Italy as Season 3 begins.

Whats on TV

MADONNA: REBEL HEART TOUR (2016) 9 p.m. on Showtime. An unapologetic, lingerie-clad Madonna works the runway and the stripper pole in this concert special, which ventures onstage and behind the scenes of her seven-month, 55-city Rebel Heart tour. The playlist runs from Like a Virgin and True Blue to Iconic and Bitch Im Madonna. Katy Perry dances along.

Whats Streaming
TOUSSAINT LOUVERTURE

A Revolutionary Life

By Philippe Girard

Illustrated. 340 pp. Basic Books. $29.99.

Any number of books have been written over the centuries about the leader of the Haitian slave revolution, but Toussaint Louverture, by Philippe Girard, is only the second in English to draw deeply on the original documents. The book is superb, though perhaps not in every way. And the greatest of its virtues is to stand knowledgeably and disputatiously in the shadow of its predecessor, the first of the extensively researched books in English, which was The Black Jacobins, from 1938, by C.L.R. James, the West Indian Marxist. The Black Jacobins was more than superb. It was a masterpiece. But 1938 was long ago.

James wanted to show that oppressed people are capable of taking their destiny into their own hands, given the right circumstances. On the sugar and coffee plantations of Frances Saint-Domingue colony  which eventually renamed itself Haiti  the African slaves were oppressed in the extreme. And yet once the French Revolution had broken out and the gospel of the Rights of Man had radiated to all corners of the universe, and once the European powers had fallen anew into interimperialist war, the extremely oppressed saw their opportunity. They found a leader in LOuverture. They found allies among the rebelling working people of France (in Jamess interpretation). And beginning in 1791, they started the only successful slave revolution in the history of the world.

James saw in this something larger yet  a remote early stage of the anticolonial revolution in Africa, which, as he predicted, was going to break out in the years after he wrote his book. And he saw the beginnings of the black revolution in still other parts of the world. His Black Jacobins was in those respects a revolutionary tract aimed at the future, and not just an inquiry into the past. It was a literary achievement too  one of the very few works in English (Edmund Wilsons contemporaneous To the Finland Station is another) to reflect the influence of Jules Michelet, the most thrilling of the 19th-century historians of the French Revolution. Michelet was a master of moral condemnation, and C.L.R. James, likewise.

But all of this is what Philippe Girard wants to avoid. Girard does not wish to contribute to a revolutionary program, not in a 1930s version, nor in any of our versions from today. He is a professor at McNeese State University in Louisiana, and his intention is merely to reveal the experiences and motivations of LOuverture himself. This has led him to dig into a great many more antique documents from France and Haiti than were available to James, and quite a few more documents than came under examination by a more recent biographer, Madison Smartt Bell. New facts turn up by the spadeful in his book. Old falsities crumble into dust. Now and then he climbs atop his heap of discoveries and judiciously grants himself license to conjure out of his own imagination scenes that surely must have taken place, even if the documentary evidence is lacking.
King was Bainbridges assistant for 23 years, and he undertook this book in part because of her refusal to consider an autobiography. Chances are he would have felt the need to write it anyway, since one of his principal goals is to correct Bainbridges self-constructed public mythology, the sustained heightening of her life in her published work and in interviews about that work. King often seems more exasperated than awed by his subject, and he emends with relish, cutting down to life-size Bainbridges version of, say, being shot by her ex-mother-in-law: The gun wasnt a shotgun or even a revolver, but an air pistol. It wasnt a bullet that was fired, but a pellet. It did not bring Beryls ceiling down and it would not have killed her. In the biographys final sections, King occasionally enters the narrative in a Boswellian fashion. He lacks anything like his subjects impressive concision, but he does succeed in offering a vivid and detailed  and often harrowing  story.

Doe-eyed and gorgeously cheekboned, Bainbridge could nonetheless feel physically unattractive. Her impossibly romantic view of love may, King argues, have developed in reaction to her parents unhappy marriage. She fiercely desired mens love and never felt reassured that she had it. I dont see how you can love and not be jelous, she once wrote in her journal, with her incorrigible spelling.

In 1954, after a tense series of breakups and reconciliations, she married the painter Austin Davies. He was in most ways a bad choice, given his stated desire to devote all the force of my emotional life to his art. They had two children and lived in Liverpools bohemian district, while Davies taught art (his students included the young John Lennon) and Bainbridge made a fitful start at writing fiction. They divorced in 1959.

Before, during and after the marriage, there were other men: the German prisoner of war; the married antiques dealer; the fat physics professor; the married American medical student; the single American urban planner. Most shambolically, during the mid-1960s, Bainbridge got involved with the Scottish writer Alan Sharp, by whom she had a daughter. Pathologically promiscuous (his own description), Sharp continued to romance his two wives, one current and one former, along with one of Bainbridges Liverpool girlfriends. For a while he also infected Bainbridge with his show-off-ish prose style, from which she had freed herself by the time she put him into a 1975 novel called Sweet William.

In her later years, Bainbridge turned to incidents from the British past for subject matter, including Dr. Johnsons relationship with Mrs. Thrale and the sinking of the Titanic. But for much of her career she drew on her own experience, from her days at the Liverpool Playhouse to her part-time job in a wine warehouse. She went about such autobiographical mining with more daring than most novelists: In Another Part of the Wood, she allowed a 6-year-old boy modeled on her own son to overdose on another childs medication.
THE FEUD

Vladimir Nabokov, Edmund Wilson, and the End of a Beautiful Friendship

By Alex Beam

201 pp. Pantheon Books. $26.95.

In 1964, Vladimir Nabokov published an English translation of Pushkins Eugene Onegin, regarded by many as the supreme treasure of Russian poetry, in an edition that spanned four volumes. The poem took up a fraction of their 1,895 pages. From the bowels of his dictionary, Nabokov dislodged words that might as well have been invented. If youre looking for mollitude, ancientry, shandrydans, agrestic, muzzlet and scrab, all in one poem, your search is over. Yet, for some reason, to translate Pushkins robust Russian word for friend, Nabokov reached for pal. The volumes were also heavy on extras  sermons on prosody, disquisitions on usage, vitriolic reproofs of all the strained translations of Pushkin out there.

For a quarter-century, the literary critic Edmund Wilson, Nabokovs pal, had remained publicly silent about Nabokovs fiction. So when Wilson panned the translation in The New York Review of Books, he plunged to absolute zero a friendship that had been cooling only gradually. The ensuing quarrel drew in a crowd of what Alex Beam calls 1960s eminentos, from Robert Lowell and Christopher Ricks to the historian Alexander Gershenkron.

In The Feud, Beam deems Wilsons 6,600-word appraisal an overlong, spiteful, stochastically accurate, generally useless but unfailingly amusing hatchet job. Beams own account is unfailingly amusing, not overlong, winningly useless and not entirely free of spite for Wilson, who, based on the evidence Beam provides, seems to deserve it.
Back in 1985 that set the tone. Mongolia. Utterly out there. Grass. Ponies. Wrestling. Forgotten. Of no importance. Genghis Khan maybe. A brute. Otherwise, a place consigned to geographical oblivion in the minds of most.

That was then. Now, thanks in large part to the restored reputation of Genghis and the many successor Khans  a restoration achieved in no small part thanks to the literary diligence of Jack Weatherford  Mongolia has come roaring back, being currently a highly modish place to visit (tourism has tripled in the last decade), a place to revere, be amazed by and in awe of. As a minuscule country that for a few shining centuries  rather like Britain, six hundred years later  expanded and held sway around a goodly part of the globe, from Vietnam, Burma and China to Hungary, Thrace and Poland.

Weatherford (an anthropologist whose fathomless wellsprings of curiosity once led him to clerk in a Capitol Hill porn store to write a book that remains discreetly unlisted on the Also By page here) would like us to believe that those centuries of Mongol rule did indeed shine, and were, as far as imperial adventures go, among the best of their kind.

It was in an earlier best-selling volume that Weatherford persuasively argued that the 25-year blitzkrieg mounted by Genghis and his cavalries  who, in the most extensive war in world history beginning in 1206, swept mercilessly and unstoppably over the Altai Mountains to their west and the Gobi Desert to their south  brought civilization, fairness, meritocracy and avuncular kindliness to legions of undeserving satrapies across Eurasia. Those who believed Genghis to be a tyrant of monstrous heartlessness have thus lately come to think otherwise: Weatherfords writings present us revisionist history on a grand scale, but one as scrupulously well researched (with ample endnotes) as such an intellectual overhaul needs to be.

Now, with Genghis Khan and the Quest for God he has taken his thesis still further, arguing with equal fervor and conviction that the Khan, though godless himself, favored total religious freedom for his subjugated millions. While his empire encompassed Muslims, Buddhists, Taoists, Confucians, Zoroastrians, Manichaeans, Hindus, Jews, Christians and animists of different types (Weatherfords passions for lists can sometimes seem like stylistic overkill), he was eager that all should live together in a cohesive society under one government. No walls to be built, no immigration bans, no spiritual examinations.
THE REVOLUTIONARIES TRY AGAIN

By Mauro Javier Cardenas

269 pp. Coffee House. $16.95.

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This debut novel, 12 years in the writing, is a welcome example of how fiction can have urgency, how its still one of the greatest forms for tackling the incommensurable. What is literature, the narrator asks, quoting Czeslaw Milosz, which does not save nations or people? and answers: Songs of drunkards. Filled with gutsy, syntactic panache, Cardenass story charts the lives of a group of boys who graduate from a Jesuit high school in Guayaquil, Ecuador  Antonio, Leopoldo and the lusty Facundo Cedeno. After studying in the United States, Antonio leaves the sundress-speckled parks of San Francisco to return to the political morass that is Ecuador after a phone call from Leopoldo; they finally have a shot at running for political office. The novel carries forward in the tradition of the Latin American Boom, particularly following Mario Vargas Llosa, who ran for president in Peru, as well as Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Alfredo Bryce Echenique, but updating the outdated notions about women being either lovers or part of the furniture. Two chapters are written in Spanish, an assertively cosmopolitan gesture recalling the immigrant Nabokovs use of French and Russian. This is an original, insubordinate novel, like his grammar, like his syntax, but fabulously, compellingly readable, with endearing characters like Leopoldos grandma, who would tie a white plastic bag on her head like a wig and perform King Lear for him at her farm, proclaiming in unintelligible English, Blo win, crack you cheek, rage! Blo!

COLONEL LAGRIMAS

By Carlos Fonseca

Translated by Megan McDowell

218 pp. Restless. $15.99.

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Beware, reader, in these pages you will experience vertigo, anxiety and joy. You will become a ghostly presence in a Borgesian world, a camera obscura, where mathematics is a secret weapon, and memory the object of an archaeological pursuit. Loosely inspired by the eventful life of the French mathematician Alexander Grothendieck, Fonseca has created a gorgeous opera prima. Its narrator is obsessed with the colonel, an elderly man who one white winter afternoon in the Pyrenees chooses to sit down to write the story of his life. The narrator as stalker and spy addresses the reader in the first person plural, implicating us as part of the collective of snoops. The colonel is a little lazy and suspiciously aristocratic, he squanders time over insignificant things, likes sweets a little too much and takes naps a little too often. He conjures alchemical divas in his dreams, and is busy writing a collective autobiography of iconoclasts, a megalomaniacal catalog of other peoples lives. Colonel Lagrimas is playful and experimental in the tradition of writers like Calvino and Queneau. Fonseca employs the magic of perspective and shifting angles to summon a Cubist portrait of a very sleepy, insouciant old man who witnessed some of the great political events of the 20th century, from the Spanish Civil War to Vietnam. Take your naps, our colonel exhorts, . . . the moments of creation are different from those of work. Deftly translated, the voice remains sedate, elegant, whispered even; we wouldnt want to wake the colonel.
The designer Lia Tjandra has overseen the creation of an extraordinary series of documents that demand an unapologetic level of attention and engagement. As Solnit rightly says in her introduction, maps demand work, and this kind of cerebral work can be exhilarating. (This does, its true, render it all the more frustrating when a center portion of some of the maps is obscured by the books well.)

If the title conveys not just vitality but an ominous inevitability, thats surely no accident. This is a work that, like its predecessors, isnt in the business of rosy nostalgia: The trilogy as a whole grapples with what Solnit terms urban domination in the colonial sense, along with the fact that our cities have been marked, scarred and built by tragic history. To say that the editors have a point of view is to understate the case. Indeed, what theyve embarked on can only be called an act of radical curation. Solnit, an accomplished and influential thinker, tackles her subject with characteristic frankness and pugnacity. From the books first pages, theres no doubt about her impassioned rage at the grinding wheels of hypergentrification and the resulting blows to diversity and culture.

She also addresses New Yorks infuriating sense of self-importance. In her introduction, Solnits evident irritation at the citys smug provincialism is in conflict with her need to acknowledge its place in our collective sense of self. To discuss New Yorks decline as an art power, a center of finance, a beacon of enlightened culture, one must first acknowledge and dissect the mythology, itself a sort of tribute. Also, as should be clear to everyone by now, New York doesnt admit to the concept of bad publicity.

This directness feels necessary; you cant have a Virgil who doesnt know his way around. The books tone winds up being less revisionist than matter-of-fact, although at times the necessity of stripping away centuries of nostalgia-fueled lore results in a hectoring didacticism that credits the reader with neither curiosity nor wisdom. But whether or not you bridle at being educated, you will learn  from, say, the Mother Tongues and Queens map (compiled with the Endangered Language Alliance) or a map that acts as a comprehensive guide to the citys history of riots. When Garnette Cadogan describes the pleasures of being a walker in the city, or Alexandra T. Vazquez offers an ode to the D.J. Alex Sensation, you may feel not only piqued, intrigued and angered but moved.

When youre dealing with the close quarters demanded by first-person narration, its inevitable that you wont warm to all your interlocutors equally. Thats a city for you. The irony is that the scale of any metropolis, and perhaps especially New York, is often most easily captured by a single voice. What might be called the canonical New York texts  by Jane Jacobs, E.B. White, Joseph Mitchell, Vivian Gornick  tend to succeed largely because of the consistent point of view of one speaker. To try to capture a citys scope through the more literal means of maps and facts winds up diminishing its monumentality by hinting at what cant be done.
Airlines expect 27.3 million U.S. passengers to fly around the world this holiday season, nearly 3% more than last year. And for each passenger boarding their flight, there is no more important priority than taking off and landing safely.

Given the high volume of flights especially during peak travel season, the airlines overall seem to deliver a safe travel experience for air travelers. Though the last three years have been marked by high-profile coverage of airplane crashes and missing aircrafts, the reality is that airlines are extremely safe and only getting safer. This is due in large part to the continued innovation that makes commercial flights the most efficient and safe mode of travel in the world. But one accident or one life lost is one too many, so the question will always be: what can we do to make commercial flight even safer?

According to Boeing's 2015 Statistical Summary of Commercial Jet Airplane Accidents, 2015 commercial air travel saw 28 total accidents based on 27 million departures. That is slightly more than one out of one million, according to government's definition of an accident. While this seems relatively safe, we still deem these odds too high. This statistic leaves us asking why -- in today's connected world - the accident rate is not even lower? Despite all the advances in technology, arcane practices still used by airlines result in incidents that leave safety regulators scratching their heads and air passengers questioning how safe they really are on their next flight.

For example, Malaysia Airlines flight 370 went down more than two and a half years ago, and we still don't know what happened. The events that transpired, which could offer valuable lessons to be used to keep future flights safe, remain shrouded in mystery. Even for the more recent Egypt Air Flight 804 - which crashed into the Mediterranean on its way to Cairo from Paris in May, 2016 - the exact cause of the crash remains unknown.

The search for such crash sites and the flight data recorders for these aircraft - critical to identifying what transpired in the event of an accident - is largely guesswork in many cases. The search teams used the same estimates we have been relying for decades, despite the superior technology that exists and is readily available today. As we know all too well, this results in multi-million dollar searches for lost aircraft accompanied by the agonizing wait endured by family members, left totally in the dark about the fate of loved ones.

There are really only two possible options to begin investigating the cockpit voice and flight data immediately following an incident. The first, which is incredibly challenging, would be to fit aircraft with deployable recorders - recorders which eject while the aircraft is in flight or as it is crashing. This possibility is intellectually intriguing but is wrought with challenges. It takes us back to a 20th century concept of operations, still having to locate and recover the recorders, which takes time and resources. Additionally, deployable systems can and have deployed at the wrong time over populated areas, and if the incident occurs in mountainous or difficult to access terrain, the deployable does no good.

The other possibility is to stream the recorder data from the aircraft while it is in flight. This offers the value of not only providing the actual location of the aircraft, but also an understanding of how it is - its real-time status. Data can be streamed as a result of a "trigger" that might occur during a flight incident. Or, data could simply be streamed throughout the flight for routine flight status information.

Either way, having immediate access to this data on a secure server is the 21st century solution and the most efficient way for accident investigators to immediately begin their evaluation of an incident. Some companies even now offer systems that will stream flight data in real-time to provide a reliable solution to the problem of missing aircraft.

We have made remarkable strides in commercial aviation safety, limiting incidents to a one-in-a-million probability. But that is still too high and there is more to be done. We have the technology to make airline travel even safer - and we need to use it.

Mark V Rosenker is the 11th Chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). He is also a member of the board of directors for FLYHT Aerospace Solutions.

See original article on Fortune.com

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Seven new paperbacks to check out this week.

FIRST BITE: How We Learn to Eat, by Bee Wilson. Illustrated by Annabel Lee. (Basic Books, $16.99.) So much of what forms our chaotic relationships with food  our likes and dislikes, willingness to experiment and even our nostalgic attachments  we develop as infants. But rather than view food habits as fixed and immutable, Wilson lays out strategies to gradually unlearn troubling behaviors and tastes.

DRAGONFISH, by Vu Tran. (Norton, $15.95.) A troubled Vietnamese refugee in Oakland suddenly leaves behind her husband and reappears in Nevada; as he searches for his wife, he is dragged through both Las Vegass ugly underbelly and the horrors of her past. Our reviewer, Chris Abani, called Trans novel a renegotiation of terms in which the past is not a place of nostalgia but one that carries all the trauma of war, and the present is not enough to mitigate that.

BATTLING THE GODS: Atheism in the Ancient World, by Tim Whitmarsh. (Vintage, $16.95.) In the roughly 1,000-year period Whitmarsh studies, godlessness was one of a number of acceptable religious views. Religion, for the Greeks, was part and parcel of civil engagement; it was not until they were absorbed by the Roman Empire that society became largely Christianized, and godlessness scorned.

THE MARK AND THE VOID, by Paul Murray. (Picador, $17.) In the midst of the Irish banking crisis, Paul, a thwarted novelist, asks to shadow Claude, a French analyst in Dublin, at work, as inspiration for a new project. But what Paul really has in mind is a setup for a heist: Hes looking to reverse his fortunes by robbing a bank, not literary success. The deeply amoral financial sector is a prime target for Murrays rollicking caper.
He maintains a kind of upbeat morbidity while describing a database of extinct creatures genomes, everything from mammoths to giant beavers: Tough decisions have to be made about what species to save outright, what species to save for later by freezing genetic data that may come in handy, and what species to, with due respect, allow to perish, as has been the norm on this ever-changing planet for billions of years. Yet work to revive particular species inevitably comes off as the sort of hubristic scientific thinking that got us into this Anthropocene era to begin with. Biello notes complications. Say we brought back sky-darkening flocks of passenger pigeons, extinct since 1914: Would we need to revive the American chestnut trees (gone by way of an invasive fungus) that provided their food?

Cities might be our greatest invention as creatures; they are where we herd, reflecting how we think, our shining hope as far as handling our own growth is concerned. How we manage the metabolic intake and output of cities is likely to determine the way that future archaeologists debate the merits of human civilization in whatever comes after the Anthropocene. To consider cities, Biello travels to China, talking to a lawyer at the local environmental protection bureau in Rizhao, a city on the Yellow Sea coast that hopes to be carbon neutral one day. I dont know when we will succeed, but we will move in that way, the lawyer says. Biello examines ways China uses waste as an energy source  America take heed, or mourn, given the Trump administrations stated attitudes toward carbon reduction  as well as the Chinese governments trade-off of shoddily built nuclear power plants for less smog.

The Unnatural World is detail-packed, almost to a fault, but a dramatic high point comes when Biello recounts how a man living in the United States (him) fares as an Anthropocenic Homo sapiens, which is either really impressive or really distressing, depending on your scruples: The average American uses 90 kilograms of stuff each day, day in and day out. We consume 25 percent of the worlds energy despite being 5 percent of the worlds population. We lust for the latest gadget, which hides away minerals wrested from beneath the Congo, among other places, deep in its innards.

Managing the Anthropocene, then, comes down to issues of economic inequality, and given the tech obsession in wealthier nations, its hardly surprising that a book by a first worlder dwells on technological fixes like geoengineering. (I found myself imagining an Anthropocene that ends well when Bruce Willis in his spaceship saves us all.) In Germany, Biello meets Victor Smetacek, who attempted in 2009 to dust the Indian Ocean with 20 metric tons of iron sulfate, in the hope that proliferating plankton blooms would suck carbon from the atmosphere. He and his team were forced to turn back, for fear of plankton farming unleashing another greenhouse gas (methane), or perhaps causing an ocean dead zone. In the New Jersey Palisades, Biello inspects a carbon injection process, in which carbon dioxide is sucked from the air and pumped underground, filling sandstone crevices, a sort of reverse frack. In this case, as in most geoengineering schemes in the Anthropocene, environmental fixes beget concerns, which (perhaps) beget new fixes.

Eventually, Biello winds up looking to Silicon Valley for a titanium bullet. Vinod Khosla, the billionaire who co-founded Sun Microsystems, exhorts us to seek, in Biellos words, rare innovation, the kind of black swan idea that goes on to have extreme impact  though this is how venture capitalists think as opposed to scientists, who rely on communities of data gatherers. Experts are as good as dart-throwing monkeys, Khosla declares. Then, as if jet-lagged, Biello concludes with thoughts on Pope Francis (for his cautionary words on technology) and Elon Musk (for being Musk). We are living in a quest that he has devised, Biello writes about Musk, even if it isnt entirely original to him  electric cars and solar power to clean up this planet and rockets to spread life to another one.
From the Baltic to the Black Sea a dreadful cycle of reprisal and counterreprisal left millions of dead. How many we will never know for sure, but some three million people probably died in the Russian Civil War alone. Anti-Semitic pogroms had long been known in Russia, but now they spread into the former Austria-Hungary as Jews were blamed, inconsistently, for being capitalists and Bolsheviks, or, in an ancient charge, for killing Christ. In Western Russia and Ukraine alone, 100,000 Jews were murdered in the second half of 1918.

What we now call ethnic cleansing became acceptable. The Turkish government had already connived at the Armenian genocide during the war. In the early 1920s, as Greece tried to seize a huge piece of Anatolia, it became the turn of the Turks to suffer attacks for who they were. The Greek prime minister Eleftherios Venizelos, in the grip of his dream of reconstituting the Greek empire of the classical world, sent his troops to land in Asia Minor. The atrocities started almost at once. The Turks responded in kind. Under Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) they rallied their forces and drove the Greeks back to the sea. In the Treaty of Lausanne the new republic of Turkey and the Allies agreed to a population exchange. Some 1.2 million nominal Greeks (distinguished by religion and not by language or culture) left Turkey while 400,000 equally nominal Turks went the other way, accompanied by scenes of people drowning and starving that are reminiscent of Europes southern edges today.

Historians have tended to blame these and other such horrors on the brutalizing effects of World War I, but Gerwarth argues convincingly that it is not as easy as that. Finland, which had been neutral, had one of the bloodiest civil wars of all. The dispiriting conclusion to draw from The Vanquished is how easily what we think of as the restraints of civilization can break down.

Even when peace of a sort was re-established, the fires of extreme nationalism died down but did not go away, and the language of political leaders in certain countries continued to resonate with talk of enemies and metaphors of war. Mussolini called Bolshevism a gangrene or cancer that had to be excised. Fears of disorder, civil war and Bolshevism remained and fueled the rise of fascism. Constitutional and democratic governments, especially in Germany and the newly emerged states in the center of Europe, never quite managed to shake off the charge that they were weak and, perhaps worse, boring.

Defeat proved to have what Gerwarth calls a dangerous mobilizing power. Right-wing nationalist leaders promised to undo this shame and recover lost territories and peoples. Hitler vowed to break the chains of the Treaty of Versailles. No matter that Germany was not that badly treated  and certainly not as badly as German leaders had treated Russia in the 1918 Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. The myth of the stab in the back  that traitors at home, whether left-wingers, liberals or Jews had prevented German forces from fighting on to victory  helped undermine the German republic and fostered dreams of vengeance. On the winning side, both Japan and Italy believed that they had not gained enough. Japanese increasingly felt humiliated. Mussolini excoriated the mutilated victory that had not given Italy everything it wanted.

It is too easy to blame the peace settlements, however. What happened to Europe had deeper causes. Without that war, existing structures would not have crumbled as they did. Indeed, the empires might have survived. (In retrospect that might not have been such a bad thing, especially if they had continued to reform themselves as they were already doing before 1914.) Since the disintegration of the Soviet Union, we have learned again that winding down empires is not easy.

There are other tantalizing questions as well. What if the United States as the new power on the international scene had joined the League of Nations and used its great economic and political influence to rebuild Europe, as it did after World War II? The Vanquished is an excellent guide to help us think again about such issues.
 Germany could become the next focus of Russias campaign to destabilize Western democracies as national elections approach next year, German officials said in the wake of a series of online attacks.

A kind of pressure is being exercised on public discourse and democracy here, which is unacceptable, the countrys spy chief said.

And ThyssenKrupp, the German steel conglomerate, said it was the victim of a massive cyberattack by hackers in Southeast Asia, in which trade secrets were stolen.
Barring other changes in F.C.C. regulations, the Transportation Department wants the airlines to tell passengers before buying a ticket whether calls are allowed in flight. The idea is to provide fair warning to a potential passenger that she may have to listen to the guy next to her fighting with his mother or taking part in a conference call.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that this might be a first step by aviation regulators toward allowing in-flight calls. A spokeswoman for the Transportation Department said in an email that it had become concerned that the F.C.C. would lift its in-flight cellular ban, or that changes in Wi-Fi technology might prompt the airlines to change their policies.

She said the public would have 60 days to comment on the proposal.

Consumers deserve to have clear and accurate information about whether an airline permits voice calls before they purchase a ticket and board the aircraft, Anthony Foxx, the transportation secretary, said in a statement announcing the rule. The proposal, he added, would ensure that air travelers were not unwillingly exposed to voice calls.

For its part, the F.C.C. did not respond to an emailed request for comment.

Airlines for America, an industry lobbying group, does not believe the Transportation Department should regulate how people use their phones, said Vaughn Jennings, a spokesman.

We believe airlines should be able to determine what services can be safely offered in flight and make those decisions based on what is in the best interests of their passengers and crew members, he said

Individual airlines suggested that no changes were on the horizon.

The terms and conditions of our free Fly-Fi high-speed internet do not allow Wi-Fi calls to be made in flight, a spokesman for JetBlue, Philip Stewart, said. And we do not have plans to install technology on our aircraft that would enable cellular calls in the air.

Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines and Alaska Airlines all told The Associated Press that they had no plans to allow voice calls. An Alaska Airlines spokesman told The A.P. that the carrier had surveyed passengers several years ago and had gotten a strong reaction that phone conversations would be an unwelcome intrusion during flights.
If the nations pharmaceutical executives thought Donald J. Trump would grant them a reprieve from scrutiny over high drug prices, he made them reconsider that idea in the last few days.

Im going to bring down drug prices, he told Time magazine in an interview published on Wednesday. I dont like whats happened with drug prices.

Biotech stocks promptly fell nearly 3 percent on Wednesday. They recovered slightly on Thursday and Friday, but the comments remained a warning blow for an industry that had rallied in the weeks after the election, on the assumption that Mr. Trump and a Republican Congress would be friendly to the nations drug makers. Suddenly, it looked as if pharmaceutical companies might join Carrier, Ford and Boeing as targets of Mr. Trumps ire.

But unlike those other companies, many drug makers have already been taking steps in recent weeks to insulate themselves from future attacks. Some have pledged to limit price increases. Others offered plain-spoken critiques of drug pricing. And the industrys two main lobbying groups have pushed ahead with major campaigns intended to win back the narrative.
At the helm

My office, a light sky blue with curved windows and white plantation shutters, is on the second floor. For 30 years, besides working in yacht sales, Ive captained yachts and commercial vessels involved in everything from oil exploration to whale watches. I have boating memorabilia all around, which seems to draw customers interest.

Nautical to-dos

I keep Post-its up to remind me about whats happening with boats Ive sold. One has the name of a boat that was picked up here by a crane and loaded onto another ship for delivery to Alaska. The ship was traveling to Ensenada, Mexico, and then Victoria, British Columbia, where it was unloaded. From there it traveled under its own power, operated by the new owners captain. I went online and tracked the speed and course of the ship it was on and sent frequent updates to the new owner.

Image Mr. Fallon Credit... Josh Ritchie for The New York Times

Maritime news

I found about 15 old boating magazines at an antique store, bought them all and had two framed  the whole magazines, not just the covers. Our customers all read boating magazines, and a few will look at these and say 1945! or 1941  look at this! They cost 35 cents each back then.

From times past

I got my first United States Coast Guard captains license in 1973, an old merchant marine style with a sketch of a steamship. Its been replaced by a red passport type. The older ones look nicer, but the newer one is more practical.
I had pepper on the brain this week, so much so that when I was thinking about a simple butter sauce for some halibut fillets, peppercorns, many of them, had to be part of the picture.

Actually, I have pepper on the brain more often than you would think. I suppose that makes me a bit of a pepper nerd, but to me its a fascinating subject.
Almost all my favorite meals this year were made by people from far away, who left behind the countries of their birth to make a life in this one. By choice or necessity, they turned to the kitchen and became quiet ambassadors for the food of their childhoods.

This kind of cooking is built on that most profound of flavors, memory. It comes in a sip of shikanjabeen, a slush of mint and lime that reaches back to the streets of Lahore, Pakistan; in a perfect palata, the dough slapped and stretched in a technique learned decades ago from a trishaw driver by the Irrawaddy River in Myanmar; in a tamal, hibiscus-red and sweet as cake, a Christmas wish from Puebla, Mexico.

How lucky New Yorkers are, to have all the world inside their city, if they know where to look.

Below, in descending order, are the places where, in the tumult of 2016, I found the greatest comfort.

1. Burmese Bites

The menu is only three dishes long at this stand at the Queens International Night Market. Each is $5, and a wonder: palata, as rich as Indian paratha but pulled nearly sheer, like Malaysian roti canai, and served plain, for dredging in scarlet curry, or with curry already hidden inside; and ohno kaukswe, a noodle soup fattened by coconut milk, with fish sauce in the depths and lime lancing the surface.
Overturning the Obergefell ruling would be a tall order according to Dale Carpenter, a constitutional law professor at Southern Methodist University who is in a same-sex marriage himself and generally identifies as a Republican. Test cases, he said, could evolve from some of the religious-based challenges in Oregon, Colorado and Mississippi, and Texas legislators are flirting with bills that would require state officials to enforce the states Bill of Rights, which defines marriage as something that only occurs between a man and a woman. Nonetheless, Professor Carpenter said it was unlikely the Supreme Court would reopen debate or reverse itself in the next four years  even if the makeup of the court became increasingly conservative.

Laurence H. Tribe, a constitutional law professor at Harvard Law School, called the Obergefell ruling, a decision as close to being etched in stone as any Supreme Court decision in recent years.

Still, those facts have not kept some gay and lesbian couples from feeling anxious about their future under a Trump administration  fears they are sharing on Twitter and Facebook, and on websites like Reddit, Curve and Vice. In a Vice article headlined Why Im Marrying My Partner Before Trump Can Take My Rights Away, Zach Brooke, a freelance writer in Wisconsin, wrote: The morning after Donald Trump was named president-elect, my partner and I calmly discussed how his presidency might affect us personally. We concluded that the possibility of future same-sex marriage restrictions is very real, and that if we wanted to get married, the time is now or never.

Mr. Brooke added, We dont know how dark the future will be for LGBTQ individuals in the four years to come, but we do know it will be harder to dissolve existing marriages than to prevent new ones, and wed rather not take our chances.

What seems to trouble some of these gay and lesbian couples the most are not the specific positions taken by Mr. Trump, but those of his more conservative supporters.
Joe Davino, 20, is a builder at Tree Top Builders in West Chester, Pa.

Q. How did you get this job?

A. I studied carpentry at a vocational-technical high school in Connecticut. My first two years I built furniture and cabinets, and junior and senior year I remodeled an attic and put an addition on a house with a team. I had the highest grades in my carpentry program and was salutatorian of my graduating class. Also, I came in third in a national carpentry competition. That gave me the confidence to apply to Tree Top Builders.

When did you know you wanted to enter construction?

From an early age. As a kid, I was always building with Legos. In grade school, I knew I wanted to build houses, and when it was time for high school, I knew trade school was the way to go. I thought Id get a degree in natural resources afterward. I tried college for a semester, but it wasnt for me.
Video Audio Time code Shot of landscape. Title: Deh\u2019Subz, Afghanistan Girls walking to school. Title: Razia Jan Founder, Zabuli Education Center Title: The Zabuli Education Center is the village\u2019s first school for girls. Razia: Slow down! Cant you see there are kids? Is that necessary, brother? 0:00:00 0:20:00 0:39:00 Pashtana drawing on chalkboard, students laughing Class beginning. Nazima enters. Student: Oh, Pashtana! Pashtana: My fianc\u00e9 is tall with a giant head. I try to hold his hand but I cannot reach. Student: Pashtana! I\u2019m telling you, Teacher Nazima is coming! Nazima: Behave yourselves, girls. 0:50:00 Interview with Pashtana Title: Pashtana 7th Grade Pashtana: My biggest hope is to finish school. That\u2019s how my life will turn the corner, and ill be on my way. The best way I can help my mother with her problems is to graduate as soon as possible. But I\u2019m worried there are people around me who will try to stop me. 01:15:00 Pashtana fetching water Pashtana home with family Pashtana: My mother says as long as we\u2019re clean, it doesn\u2019t matter that we wear old clothes. My mother has good morals. Pashtana: Mother, is the tea ready? Fatema: Yes. Pashtana: On my way to school Uncle Mawon stopped me and told me to wear the burqa. He said school is no good for me. What should I say to him? Fatema: Ignore him. Just focus on your studies. I don\u2019t want you to end up blind like me blind to everything happening in the world. As long as I\u2019m alive I won\u2019t let anyone stop you. It doesn\u2019t matter what your uncle says. I registered you with the blood of my heart. It is a great school. 01:47:00 Little boy in street, tank drives by. Bell ringing and children going to class. Man riding bicycle. Interview with Said. Title: Said Village Elder Said: When this school was fist built people were very suspicious about it. There were people who wanted this to be an all-boys\u2019 school. Of course, there were people who wanted to destroy the whole school. Even a few weeks ago they said boys should share it. 03:18:00 Girls checking bags at school entrance Pashtana and others enter room with Nazima and others Bag checker: Hey, don\u2019t go without being searched. Did you get searched? Nazima: Welcome. Welcome, girls. Sit down. One of you here, one of you there. We\u2019ve asked you girls to come here because you all have fianc\u00e9s. Pashtana, you\u2019re engaged too? Pashtana: To my Uncle\u2019s son. Nazima: Is he your first cousin? Is he in school? Pashtana: I don\u2019t know. I\u2019ll only accept him if he\u2019s in school. I won\u2019t marry him unless he graduates from high school. Nazima: Is that why they want you to stop coming to school? Pashtana: Yes 03:43:00 Interview with Pashtana Pashtana: God says all humans should be educated and keep learning as long as they can. I dropped at my brother\u2019s feet and begged him to stay in school. I don\u2019t want anything else. I\u2019ll do anything. I\u2019ve done a lot for my family and now I need some loyalty. If you don\u2019t let me go to school then just kill me. That would be much better for me. 04:32:00 Men pushing bikes down road. Shot of landscape. Razia enters 9th grade class Close-ups of student reactions to Razia\u2019s story Razia holds flower and speaks to class. Razia: You\u2019re so loud that I can hear you voices outside. Student: We were studying. Razia: Forgive me, I\u2019d like to talk to the girls this period. Razia: I once visited with a girl in London. Student: Teacher Malakhat? Razia: No, Malala. The girl from Pakistan who was shot. She was a teenage girl just like you. She was on a bus home from school. Taliban gunmen stopped the bus. They asked the girls, \u201cWhich one of you is Malala?\u201d Everyone was silent. But because everyone looked they knew it was her. They shot her. Student: Why did they shoot her? Razia: She spoke out and said, \u201cI have the right to study.\u201d \u201cI have the right to laugh.\u201d I have the right to play.\u201d \u201cAnd I have the right to study anything I want.\u201d That\u2019s why the Taliban shot her. Nobody has the right to prevent girls from getting an education. Studying is not a sin. 05:19:00 Landscape. Pashtana looking out window. Title: One day on the way to school Pashtana tried to kill herself by eating rat poison. Pashtana: When my fianc\u00e9\u2019s father came to the house to see me he was so angry with me. He asked me, \u201cWhy did you do this?\u201d \u201cIt would\u2019ve been better if the poison had killed you.\u201d 07:06:00 Zia in his office. Title: Zia Headmaster Zia: Auntie. Call Pashtana from her class. Pashtana\u2019s is in 7th grade. Zia: This is a big problem for us. Woman: I know- they took her straight to the hospital from here. Thank God she\u2019s okay. Zia: Come in. Pashtana: May I come in? Zia: Please sit down. It\u2019s a problem for us that you ate poison and then came to school. So tell me from the beginning exactly what happened. Pashtana: My uncle told me I couldn\u2019t go to school. He said, \u201cNow that you\u2019re engaged you can\u2019t go to school anymore.\u201d \u201cNobody in our family goes to school.\u201d \u201cI\u2019ll do anything,\u201d I told him. \u201cI\u2019ll even wear the burqa if you want me to. When I said this they started beating me. I ate the poison because when they were beating me I knew they\u2019d never let me go to school. Zia: Everybody says the Zabuli School is a very good school. If something bad happened then what would people say? There are girls in 7th, 8th, and 9th grade who are engaged and they don\u2019t like their fianc\u00e9s. Their families have forced them to get engaged as well. They might hang themselves in the bathroom and die. Our reputation in this village would be destroyed. I don\u2019t need students like that here. Pashtana: Please, sir. I won\u2019t do it in the future. I\u2019m so sorry. I will never ever do this again. I\u2019ll ask my family to come in. I\u2019ll ask my mother. Please, don\u2019t expel me. Zia: I will call them. Pashtana: Please, Honorable Headmaster all of my hope is in this school. Zia: They must guarantee me before you\u2019ll have permission to be here. You may go now. 07:49:00 09:01:00 Pashtana leaving school. Landscape. Man opens gate. Title: Two Weeks Later Meeting between Pashtana\u2019s mother and Razia. Razia: Your daughter, Pashtana, tells me you\u2019re having some family problems. What\u2019s going on? Fatema: Pashtana was forced to get engaged. I told her this happens to everyone. At least it\u2019s your cousin, not a stranger. Razia: You should be proud of your daughters. They\u2019re doing very well in their lessons. Fatema: That\u2019s great. Relatives tell me all the time that my daughters should not be in school. But I don\u2019t listen. I\u2019ll let them do whatever they want to me. But I won\u2019t let them prevent my daughters from going to school. 10:21:00 Announcing students\u2019 grades. Distributing report cards. Nahid: Dear students, please be quiet. Pay attention. We are announcing your results. Nahid: Smile. You\u2019re getting your report card. Teacher: Pashtana? Pashtana is ranked fifteenth. Congratulations, my dear. 11:38:00 Interview with Pashtana Pashtana: When my father said I could go to school I thanked God that I\u2019m still alive. Plus, my friends would be sad because I\u2019m the funny one in class. 12:25:00 Girls filing out of school Fade to black Razia: I can see the changes among these girls. I think the confidence that they have, the courage that they have. And it\u2019s so powerful for me to look at that and feel that yes, there is a success, there is a success in these girls lives. 12:25:00
He liked me. I really, really liked him. I wouldnt call it a crush. A crush is like a joke. He was quiet, and he had a gentle soul.

A couple of years later, when his birthday came around again, he said he wasnt feeling too well, so I went to his house. He lived with his parents, and I didnt really like going to his house, because it took a lot of lying to my parents to go there. We sat on the couch and watched music videos on MTV. The British-Irish boy band, the Wanted, came on with their song All Time Low, and I got so excited because it was my latest obsession.

I love this song! I said. What do you think? But he just shrugged his shoulders. He was kind of indifferent. I was so naive. I didnt notice how sick he was. I didnt want to notice. I just kept talking and talking.

I left after three hours, but after that I found myself checking on him constantly, every 30 minutes or so. He kept saying he was fine. But a few days later, he ended up in the hospital. When I went to visit him, it was a shock  I had never seen a sickler before. I saw the yellow eyes. I saw how skinny he was.

He kept wincing from the pain, but putting up a brave act. Theyre saying my kidneys are failing and stuff, he finally said. I was so freaked out.

A few mornings later, I planned to go back and bring him some Ogbono soup, his favorite. Its a concoction of ground African bush mango seeds, cooked onions and crayfish with dark, leafy vegetables swimming in bright red palm oil. The plan was for my mom to make it but to say that I made it. So we began cooking the soup. Then we boiled water to cook semolina flour for fufu to go with it.

All the while, I kept calling him, but he wasnt answering. So I called one of his friends, and we planned to go together. I packed the soup and fufu and drove over to his friends house. When I got there, his friend told me to come in and sit down. And thats how I got the news he died.
RE: FIRST WORDS

Laila Lalami wrote about the identity politics of whiteness, as white people begin to see themselves as a distinct group.

What an insightful analysis of the rise of whiteness identity concurrent with whites loss of majority status in this country. There are strengths that can come from group identity, as well as the inevitable failures and missteps from which the entire group may be stereotyped.

As a white man originally from the Midwest, I know firsthand the discombobulation my white brethren are finding with the switch from the default race to status just one of many minorities in America.
TRENTON  A professor at City College of New York is going to jail in connection with a protest of New Jerseys bear hunt, which is nearing the end of its scheduled season.

A municipal court judge on Thursday ordered the psychology professor, William Crain, of Dutchess County, N.Y., to spend 10 days in jail in Sussex County, N.J., beginning on Jan. 6.

Professor Crain, 72, admitted he refused to return to an area set up for protesters when he walked along a road near a weigh station in Fredon, N.J., where hunters were bringing their bears in October. It was his seventh arrest connected to protesting bear hunts.

Bears, like humans, have families, emotions and individual personalities, the professor told Judge James J. Devine. Like us, each bear wants to live. These defenseless animals need our help.
ALBANY  An international commission on Thursday gave its final approval to a pact that will regulate the water level and it hopes repair the ecosystems of Lake Ontario.

The pact, known as Plan 2014, was fiercely debated by communities surrounding the lake and its outlet to the Atlantic Ocean, the St. Lawrence River. It is along that waterway that the Moses-Saunders hydroelectric dam regulates the water level of the lake, using protocols established in the 1950s, and its more than 700 miles of coastline.

The plan modernizes those decades-old controls, allowing more fluctuation in lake heights and dips, something supporters say is necessary to restore vulnerable wildlife and habitat that have been damaged by an artificial placidity in the lake.

But opponents of Plan 2014 have feared that the new protocols, setting higher highs and lower lows, could devastate coastal towns with severe floods or inflict costly flood-prevention measures on communities that cannot afford them. They also questioned how a more volatile lake might affect property values and taxes.
Last year, 99,196 students in the citys traditional public schools, or nearly 10 percent of students, were classified as being in temporary housing, according to data from the New York State Technical and Education Assistance Center for Homeless Students, known as NYS-TEACHS, which is funded by the State Education Department and administered by Advocates for Children, a nonprofit group. At the same time, 6,249 students, or roughly 7 percent, in city charter schools were in temporary housing.

The major cause of the disparity, most people agree, is the way charter schools admit students. By law, charter schools admit students by lottery, and most hold their lotteries in April. Many receive more applicants than they have seats available. So, if a family moves between April and September, or in the middle of the school year, and is looking for a school seat in a new neighborhood, they will often be unable to get one in a charter. District schools, in contrast, more easily allow children to move between them.

Charter enrollment will always disadvantage kids in temporary housing, Jennifer Pringle, the director of NYS-TEACHS, said. You have a kid whos placed in a shelter where the local traditional public school is co-located with a charter school, she explained. You can enroll midyear in the traditional public school, but you cant enroll in that charter school if they dont have available seats.

Homeless students are also distributed unevenly among the citys traditional public schools. There are schools with very few, or no, homeless students, and there are neighborhood elementary schools which, because of overcrowding, will not admit a student in the middle of the year.

However, in at least 21 of the 29 geographic school districts in the city that have charters, every charter had a lower percentage of students in temporary housing last year than the average among the traditional public schools in the same district. In District 9 in the Bronx, for example, which had the highest concentration of students in temporary housing, 23 percent of students in the traditional public schools were in temporary housing last year, according to data from NYS-TEACHS. Most charters there had percentages of homeless students in the single digits. Icahn Charter School 6 and South Bronx Classical Charter III had the highest percentage, 12 percent.
To the Editor:

Re John Glenn, 1921-2016: American Hero of the Space Age (front page, Dec. 9):

With the passing of John Glenn, America has lost a true hero. He will be remembered above all as a daring astronaut who, to borrow a phrase from John Gillespie Magee Jr., slipped the surly bonds of Earth, and danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings, becoming the first American to orbit the planet on Feb. 20, 1962, and then, 36 years later, the oldest person to travel into space.

He was also a Marine who defended his country in war; a test pilot who flew the first transcontinental flight that averaged supersonic speed; a United States senator who served with both distinction and integrity; and an educator at Ohio State University. He leaves behind a breathtaking legacy of service to his country.

Godspeed, John Glenn.

STEPHEN A. SILVER

San Francisco

To the Editor:

I was lucky enough to have a bad cold on the day of John Glenns Mercury launch in 1962, and got to stay home from first grade and watch history unfold on TV. That set in motion my decades-long love affair with the space program and aviation.

When his fellow aviator Chuck Yeager passes, our country will truly have lost its last two great heroes. I cried upon hearing of Mr. Glenns death and am saddened by the knowledge that the majority of kids in todays instant-celebrity world probably never heard of him.
The United Nations estimates that between 1987 and 2012, the Lords Resistance Army, the Uganda rebel group, killed more than 100,000 people, kidnapped between 60,000 and 100,000 children and forced more than 2.5 million people to flee their homes in Uganda, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic. Now theres a chance for justice in the International Criminal Court for some of the crimes the group has committed. Unfortunately, the court is facing defections at a time when its role is more vital than ever.

On Tuesday, prosecutors presented opening arguments in the trial of one of the Lords Resistance Armys senior commanders, Dominic Ongwen, who is charged with 70 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The trial will resume in January.

The court began investigating the group in July 2004, following a request from the Ugandan government. In 2011, President Barack Obama sent United States Special Forces to central Africa to assist in capturing the groups notorious leader Joseph Kony, who nevertheless remains at large and is believed to be holed up in Sudan. In January 2015, Mr. Ongwen, who had run afoul of Mr. Kony and feared for his life, turned himself in.
Nobody knows yet what Donald Trump is going to do to immigration enforcement. Only a month has passed since the election, and the president-elect is no different from the candidate: erratic, self-contradictory, hazy on principles and policies.

But states and cities that value immigrants, including the undocumented, do not have the luxury of waiting and hoping for the best. They are girding for a confrontation, building defenses to protect families and workers from the next administration.

They fear that Mr. Trump, who ran on a pledge of mass deportation, dehumanizing immigrants and refugees, will remove humane discretion from immigration enforcement. They understand that not all unauthorized immigrants are criminals, that not all should be detained or deported and that the country cannot enforce its way out of its failure to reform unjust immigration laws.

But they know that the nativist ideologues and white nationalists around Mr. Trump are itching for him to be merciless. They know that if he does anything close to what he has repeatedly vowed to do  set dragnets for millions of unauthorized immigrants, triple the number of enforcement officers, immediately revoke President Obamas administrative actions shielding young people from deportation and pull federal funds from cities that defend immigrants  their prudence will have been justified.
President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos has been a looming presence in daily life for as long as most Angolans can remember (AFP Photo/ALAIN JOCARD)

Luanda (AFP) - Angola is expected to formally announce the end of President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos' controversial 37-year rule Saturday, and name a successor to lead the ailing African oil-producing country.

News of the veteran leader's impending retirement, announced on state radio on December 2, has made front page news in Angolan newspapers all week.

But the ruling Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), in power since 1975, has officially remained silent on the matter.

On Saturday, on the 60th anniversary of its founding, the party is expected to confirm that Dos Santos, 74, will not seek another term as president in the 2017 party elections.

It will also likely announce that he will be succeeded as head of the party by his current defence minister, Joao Lourenco, 62.

Angola does not directly elect a president, but rather the leader of the winning party automatically becomes head of state.

In all likelihood, the retired general Lourenco will succeed Dos Santos - one of the longest ruling leaders in Africa - after the party elections next August.

The departure, announced in a closed-door meeting of the MPLA's central committee last week, does not come as a complete surprise.

Dos Santos himself announced in March his intention to end his political career.

"President Dos Santos had been planning to step down in 2018," said Alex Vines, Africa program director at the British think tank Chatham House.

"But I think a combination of Angola's economic conditions and less good health brought his plans forward."

After years of spectacular growth thanks to an oil boom, like many crude-producing nations Angola has suffered a sudden downturn in the last two years due to a prolonged drop in oil prices.

Last week, national oil company Sonangol, managed by Dos Santos' daughter Isabel, announced it would not be paying out dividends to the state this year - a first for the country's main source of foreign currency.

Story continues

- 'Nothing will change' -

While it will be a new page in the history of Angola, the departure of the former Marxist guerrilla fighter is unlikely to shake up the running of the country.

This is to the chagrin of critics who have been denouncing Dos Santos' "dictatorship" for years.

"Nothing will change with people who, when they could have, didn't dare - whether out of fear or self-interest - to make a difference," said journalist William Tonnet, a critic of Dos Santos.

Expected successor Lourenco is an ex-artillery general who was trained in the former Soviet Union. He is seen as a true son of his party, as is interior minister Bornito de Sousa, who is expected to become his deputy.

"These are two apparatchiks, two pure products of the party who remain under its control," said Benjamin Auge of the French Institute of International Relations.

"The room to manoeuvre will be extremely limited. They will defend the president's record, without starting a revolution."

However, Angola-watchers notice both men do not have ties to the oil industry, a sector considered to be closely guarded by the president's family.

"Joao Lourenco is one of those rare leaders in the MPLA who hasn't dirtied his hands in this corruption business," said activist Nuno Alvaro Dala, who was recently convicted and then pardoned for an alleged coup attempt.

Some have suggested that Dos Santos's retirement was purposefully instigated by a hostile faction within the MPLA.

The announcement could be "the expression of discontent within the party, particularly over the position of the president's children," said Didier Peclard, a professor at the University of Geneva.

"If that were the case, then hypothetically it could be a way of precipitating a transition."

Award-winning journalist and writer Rafael Marques refuses to believe this, and disputes the idea of a more palatable faction within the inner circle of the MPLA.

"Angolans will move from one dictator to the next," he said. "Change is not coming tomorrow."
A few days ago I was in the capital, taking a last look at the White House under the present occupant, and trying to imagine Washington after all its sacred real estate is under new management.

The air was crisp and clean. The monuments were aglow and festive. The inscriptions behind this great experiment of a nation were as stirring as ever. But there was no escaping the incoming blizzards of a man who will govern by Twitter tyranny and the blunt force of an impulsive executive office.

One day, the president-elect took a shot at the First Amendment, urging deportation and prison for anyone whose freedom of expression includes burning a flag. Another day, he was played by a 93-year-old lobbyist, Bob Dole, working as an agent for a foreign government, Taiwan. And as I left, the soon-to-be most powerful person in the world was bullying a union man who dared to challenge him.

It struck me, as a citizen-tourist from one Washington visiting the other, that it will take all the sentiments embodied in marble to contain the dangerous excesses of Donald Trump. Most everything inscribed in stone will be tested.
To the Editor:

Re I Am a Dangerous Professor (Sunday Review, Dec. 4):

Along with George Yancy, I am on the Professor Watchlist. I have taught at John Jay College of the City University of New York for 30 years and never had students complain that I stifled their views. What put me on the list was clearly some of my publications on Huffington Post about global warming and terrorism (since global warming is obviously a hoax).

The list is clearly an effort to intimidate professors from speaking truth to power. Instead, the list itself should be mocked. All of my friends are congratulating me for being on it and asking if I can put in a good word for them.

Once, a right-winger, responding to one of my articles about global warming, called me a liberal, left-wing nut job. That seems spot on.

CHARLES B. STROZIER

Brooklyn

To the Editor:

George Yancys complaint that his inclusion on a watchlist of professors who allegedly promote a leftist agenda is intended to shame him into silence is tone-deaf. Well founded or not, political criticism by a group that has neither government power nor official authority is no more Orwellian than criticism of Steve Bannon for his association with alt-right anti-Semitism and white supremacy.
It was hard to keep the characters in Mad Max: Fury Road and the cosmonauts in the 2017 movie Life safe. The first group of characters were in a post-apocalyptic hell, the second colonizing a space station, and all of them needed all-in-one, all-weather, all-sustaining garments.

The costume that I designed for each role anchors a life-support system. Charlize Therons and Tom Hardys characters were relentlessly assaulted by the elements as they roared across the Namib Desert in Mad Max, facing drought, sand storms and extreme heat. Clothing that can protect against these rapid changes is necessary to their survival  and it may someday be for us as well.
The toll among Burmese, Sudanese, Somali, Lebanese, Pakistani, Iraqi, Afghan, Syrian, Iranian and other migrants is devastating: self-immolation, overdoses, death from septicemia as a result of medical negligence, sexual abuse and rampant despair. A recent United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees report by three medical experts found that 88 percent of the 181 asylum seekers and refugees examined on Manus were suffering from depressive disorders, including, in some cases, psychosis.

The worlds refugee crisis, with its 65 million people on the move, more than at any time since 1945, knows no more sustained, sinister or surreal exercise in cruelty than the South Pacific quasi-prisons Australia has established for its trickle of the migrant flood.

Australia, like Europe but on a much smaller scale, faces a genuine dilemma: What to do about desperate migrants trying by any means to gain asylum? Their journeys across the world have fueled rightist movements in many developed societies. Anxiety, whether related to jobs or terrorism, is high and, as Donald Trump demonstrated, scapegoating is effective. Approaches to the crisis have varied. Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, has taken in more than a million. But the Australian government argues that toughness is the only way to prevent the country from being overwhelmed.

It has stopped the boats and the Indonesian smugglers behind them: This is the essence of Australias case. The government says it has prevented deaths like those in the Mediterranean, where more than 4,000 migrants have drowned this year. By turning back the queue jumpers, a phrase that resonates in a nation devoted to a fair go for all, it has safeguarded Australias right to select who gets to people a vast and empty country. The official vow that those marooned on Manus and Nauru will never live in Australia has assumed doctrinal vehemence.

In Peter Dutton, the immigration minister, the country has its own little Trump. Last May he portrayed the asylum seekers as illiterates bent on stealing Australian jobs, and he has suggested mistakes were made in letting in too many Lebanese Muslim immigrants. His soft bigotry resonates with enough voters to sway elections.

At the same time, Manus and Nauru are a growing embarrassment to Australia, a party to all major human rights treaties. There is an increasing realization that this is unsustainable, Madeline Gleeson, an Australian human rights lawyer, told me.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull knows this and needs a way out. After Omid Masoumali, a young Iranian, burned himself to death on Nauru this year, a cartoon by Cathy Wilcox captured Australias shame. Above a man in flames was the caption Not drowning.
I cherish women, Mr. Trump has said. But this is not the same as recognizing womens equal humanity. As Ruth Bader Ginsburg, quoting a California judicial opinion, told the Supreme Court in 1971, the pedestal upon which women have been placed has all too often, upon closer inspection, been revealed as a cage. When we declare that men will always be brutes and women can only shrug from on high, we engage in what President George W. Bush once called the soft bigotry of low expectations.

Feminists critique of male power has long been caricatured as hatred of men. But it is feminists whose fight is motivated by the belief that men can be better, if we can make clear that they, too, benefit from a safer, more equal and more just world. We have little choice but to try  men still control so much, and besides, many of us love them.

Our intimate lives, where we are the most vulnerable and the least rational, are the hardest to reconcile with politics. And the very idea that men and women can and should be equal partners is only a generation or two old. Most of us, even now, are just making it up as we go along.

In 1996, Gloria Steinem offered a theory about why so many people hated Hillary Clinton: She and the president are presenting, at a very high, visible level, a new paradigm of a male-female relationship. And that is very much resented. Mrs. Clinton was pilloried for her ostensibly traditional choice to stay with her unfaithful husband. It would come back to haunt her. This year, renewed attention to accusations against Bill Clinton did nothing to dispel the notion that all men are pigs, effectively defusing the many accusations against Mr. Trump. Theyre crazy. Thats men.

Or as Melania Trump put it in an interview after the Access Hollywood video surfaced: Sometimes I say I have two boys at home  I have my young son and I have my husband. But I know how some men talk, and thats how I saw it.

The Trump marriage offers some pretty basic math on what women can expect from men. In 2005, months into his third marriage, Mr. Trump acknowledged that in some quarters, marriage had changed. Theres a lot of women out there that demand that the husband act like the wife, and you know, theres a lot of husbands that listen to that, he said in a radio interview. Mr. Trump, he made clear, was not one of those husbands. I mean, I wont do anything to take care of them, he said of his future offspring. Ill supply funds and shell take care of the kids. Its not like Im gonna be walking the kids down Central Park.
This simple but consequential action is something that President Obama can do now, and it is something that he can do unilaterally.

Why is this so important?

Many people do not realize that the roughly 500-page summary of the Senate report that was declassified and made public at the end of 2014 is only a small part of the story. The full report remains classified. It is one of the largest reports in Senate history, and it is by far the most thorough account of what happened during a dark period when waterboarding and other brutal techniques were used and given legal cover  a decision by the George W. Bush administration that President Obama wisely reversed.

While we are not allowed to discuss the contents of the full report, we can say that it contains volumes of new information  information that leads to a more complete understanding of how this program happened, and how it became so misaligned with our values as a nation. Most important, the full report contains information that is critical to ensuring that these mistakes are never made again.

However, that written history is in jeopardy.

In 2014, Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, then the chairwoman of the Intelligence Committee, sent the full report to the Obama administration, asking relevant departments and agencies like the C.I.A., Defense Department, State Department and Department of Justice to read it, and to make use of it in their training materials. However, after Republicans took control of the Senate, the new chairman, Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina, took the unusual step of trying to recall the full report that Senator Feinstein had distributed  to prevent it from ever being widely read or declassified. In this effort, Senator Burr has written to President Obama, insisting that the full report not only be returned but that it should not be entered into any executive branch system of records.

Since then the full report has been locked in limbo, with the Obama administration unwilling to even open the document, but also unwilling to return it to Senator Burr.
Among global elites, Donald J. Trumps recent phone call with Taiwans president has induced fear on a scale seldom matched since Ronald Reagans Evil Empire speech. The Sydney Morning Herald warned that the phone call risks provoking a cold war between the United States and China with potentially catastrophic economic and security implications. The fright appears to confirm the narrative formed earlier this year by headlines like Donald Trump Terrifies World Leaders.

The fear is real. Mr. Trump has indeed terrified foreign leaders with his America first mantra, his promises to enlarge the American military and his tough talk on everything from the Islamic State to Air Force One. The good news is that his administration can turn this fear to the benefit of the United States.

During the last eight years, President Obama showed what happens when the worlds greatest power tries strenuously to avoid giving fright. He began his presidency with lofty vows to conciliate adversaries, defer to the opinions of other countries and reduce Americas military commitments. Consequently, he received rapturous applause in European capitals and a Nobel Peace Prize. In the real world of geopolitics, however, the results have been catastrophic.

Mr. Obamas passivity in the face of provocations and his failure to enforce the red line in Syria led Russia, China and other adversaries to seek new gains at Americas expense. His promises to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan satisfied the cosmopolitan chatterers of Stockholm, Paris and New York, but they deflated American allies in Baghdad and Kabul, and emboldened adversaries in Iran and Pakistan. So severe was the damage that he had to send troops back to Iraq in 2014, and had to abort his plans to withdraw all American forces from Afghanistan before leaving office.
Thats what happened after Mr. Trump, tweeting on Tuesday, threatened to cancel what he said was a $4 billion order for a new Air Force One from Boeing. Boeings shares fell, the company issued a statement and it scrambled to get on the phone with Mr. Trump and others. The Pentagon, Air Force and White House all made statements. The congressional delegation from Washington State, where Boeing has a big presence, put out a news release saying the project will support good-paying jobs throughout Northwest Washington. Reporters converged on a plant to gauge worker morale.

By that time Mr. Trump and his phone had moved on. Was Mr. Trump trolling Boeing because he was annoyed at its chief executive? Was he holding federal government contractors to account? Or did he make money on Boeings stock slump? Nobody knows. On Tuesday, his spokesman said Mr. Trump sold his stock in Boeing last summer, but offered no proof.

Mr. Trump has tweeted more than two dozen times so far this week, mostly about his own press coverage and public appearances. He didnt tweet about the worsening carnage in Syria, the 36 people killed in the Ghost Ship fire in Oakland, Calif., news that the Pentagon tried to bury an internal report documenting $125 billion in wasteful spending, or even most of his own cabinet appointments.
To the Editor:

Re A Foolish Power Grab in Congo, (editorial, Nov. 21): The continued violent protest due to the intended postponement of presidential elections has led to the death of dozens of Congolese. If President Joseph Kabila were to extend his term, there would be further violence which could lead to the death of millions of people, such as in the Congolese conflict of 1998 to 2003. I have seen firsthand the suffering and deprivation of human rights in the resulting influx of refugees to neighboring countries. When I conducted my Ph.D. research in Tanzanias Nyarugusu Camp, refugees from Congo and the Great Lakes region told me their stories of torture, trauma, rape, hunger, insecurity  and the neglect of the international community.

It is the responsibility of the state to protect its population. Since the Congolese government is failing to do so, its citizens should therefore be protected by the international community. As stated in the United Nations Responsibility to Protect resolution, established by the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 60/1 (2005): Each individual State has the responsibility to protect its populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. In the event of a states manifest failure to do so, the United Nations confirmed that the international community was prepared to take collective action in a timely and decisive manner.

BENEDICTA OBODORUKU

Brookville, N.Y.
The Ohio Legislature passed a bill on Tuesday to ban abortion at six weeks, with a shout-out by the top Senate Republican, Keith Faber, to the incoming president. Donald J. Trumps election motivated Republicans, who had introduced similar bills before without getting them across the finish line, Senate President Faber suggested. He also said of the bans prospects of being upheld in court, I think it has a better chance than before.

At the moment, a ban on abortion at six weeks remains clearly unconstitutional, as it has been for 43 years, ever since the Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade in 1973. One other state  North Dakota  enacted a six-week abortion ban three years ago to test the boundaries of Roe, but that law was struck down in court. Maybe Ohios Republican governor, John Kasich, will cite the result in North Dakota as reason to veto this new measure. But as Senator Faber suggested, its no longer an entirely sure bet that a state ban on abortion at six weeks can never stand. If a Trump presidency includes multiple Supreme Court appointments, women seeking abortions may find the earth shifting beneath them.

Republican-led states will be ready for any such shift. They have been passing abortion restrictions at a fast clip since 2011, when half the Statehouses came under Republican control. Last July, the count stood at 334 new restrictions enacted over the last five years in 32 states, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Most of the laws arent outright bans on abortion in the first trimester (when more than 90 percent of the procedures occur). Instead, they target late-term abortions, or wrap abortion providers in red tape, or regulate the provision of drugs that induce medical abortions.

Most of these laws were not written to directly flout Roe. Instead, they aimed to test the Supreme Courts willingness to whittle away at womens access to abortion in the name of protecting their health. But in June, the Supreme Court rejected the whole premise, in striking down a Texas law that required clinics to be outfitted like surgical centers and abortion providers to have admitting privileges at local hospitals. The American Medical Association, among others, told the court that these provisions served no medical purpose and did nothing to improve the health and safety of women. Abortion is a relatively safe procedure to begin with, and if states want to do more to minimize the risk to women, the medical evidence shows, they should ensure access to abortion in the early stages of pregnancy. Five justices accepted these clear findings, and abortion rights advocates celebrated a major victory.
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - Dec 8, 2016) - Canada Coal Inc. (the "Company" or "Canada Coal"), (TSX VENTURE:CCK) Further to the Company's news release dated November 18th, 2016, Canada Coal wishes to confirm the terms and status of its non-binding letter of intent (the "LOI") with Honu Inc. The agreement with Honu is non-binding and contains no proposed terms or compensation for any potential transaction between the two parties. The LOI provides for a 90-day period of exclusivity, which will allow both parties to exchange information and maintain confidentiality as each party seeks to determine whether mutually beneficial business opportunities may exist. The LOI would not meet the definition of a COB Agreement or an RTO Agreement, as those terms are defined in TSX Venture Exchange policies. The Company will update the market if and when the relationship with Honu advances to anything more material, or if the LOI terminates (whether by mutual agreement or upon the expiry of the 90-day term). Should any specific transaction be agreed to among the parties, the issuer may be subject to a further trading halt, and additional requirements pursuant to TSX Venture Exchange policies.

About Honu Inc.

Honu was incorporated in 2013, and began commercial sales in the spring of 2015. Honu is the Hawaiian name for the green sea turtle, which represents longevity, peace, good luck, humility, and "the spirit within" to the Hawaiian people. These principles have been adopted and are held sacred by Honu Inc. and its production team. The company operates a 23,000-square foot indoor grow and operates a processing facility with an additional 21,000-square feet of operation. Honu produces flower, oil, concentrates and award winning edibles.

Honu is a Tier 3 licensed cannabis grower and processor in Washington State. It employs state of the art growing, curing and extractive technology to ensure that only the highest quality standardized cannabis products are marketed under its award winning Purple Turtle brand.

Honu Inc. began legally selling cannabis products into the Washington market in April 2015. In 2016, Honu was honoured as having the "Best Cannabis Brand Design 2016" in an online poll published by the Marijuana Business Association (MJBA). In the same year, its Coconut Snowballs were chosen as the best sweet edible recreational cannabis product. For more information about the company's business, please refer to the Honu website at: http://www.honu-inc.com

On behalf of the Board of Directors

R. Bruce Duncan, President and Chief Executive Officer

"Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release."

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS: This news release contains forward-looking statements, which relate to future events or future performance and reflect management's current expectations and assumptions. Such forward-looking statements reflect management's current beliefs and are based on assumptions made by and information currently available to the Company. Investors are cautioned that these forward looking statements are neither promises nor guarantees, and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause future results to differ materially from those expected. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and, except as required under applicable securities legislation, the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances. All of the forward-looking statements made in this press release are qualified by these cautionary statements and by those made in our filings with SEDAR in Canada (available at www.sedar.com).
Last Sunday the public editors column addressed the fraught discussions around the use of the term alt-right. Using the column as a springboard, one reader took issue with another term used frequently in The Timess pages.

Language choice in media (especially the NY Times) is extremely important and highly influential on our collective consciousness. I would like to point out that for many years the NY Times has had an inconsistent editorial policy on the use of the term assisted suicide and it has become a matter of great importance to clarify this issue. A physicians efforts to help terminally ill people bring their lives to a dignified conclusion should be referred to as assisted dying. This is not a minor semantic point. Presently there are four European countries that allow physicians to assist people who are not terminally ill in ending their lives. Canada has recently passed a yet to be implemented federal law that will also allow this practice. It appears from the experience in Europe that all cases of non-terminally ill people pursuing this assisted dying path have a major psychiatric disorder from which they are seeking relief. Unlike efforts to help terminally ill people this activity when applied to non-terminally ill people can legitimately be called assisted suicide and should be strongly condemned by all physicians and the health care establishment at large. My point is that there is a clear reason to distinguish the terms assisted dying and assisted suicide. The ethical, moral and public policy implications of making this distinction should make this a high priority for the NY Times editorial staff. Richard Krugley, Far Rockaway, N.Y.

We asked the editor overseeing standards, Phil Corbett, whether The Times has had discussions around the terms use. He said, Im aware that theres debate over these terms, but we havent come up with any style rules as of yet.

The public editors column also recently addressed how much an Op-Ed story should disclose about its author. A piece in Sundays Times Magazine on a Palestinian refugee camp in East Jerusalem similarly raised readers eyebrows regarding a piece of information it did not include: the name of the organization partly financing the project.

Why was it not disclosed in the recent article by Rachel Kushner about the Shuafat refugee camp that her experience at the camp was organized and coordinated by Breaking the Silence, a political NGO largely funded by Europe whose stated goal is to end the occupation? You are promoting a political agenda by neglecting to expose the bias underlying her observations. Howard Brown, North Kingstown, R.I.

In the piece, Kushner notes, I was invited on an extensive tour of the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and was asked to choose a subject to write about, for a book to be published next year. We asked the magazines editor, Jake Silverstein, to talk about the storys provenance:

The writers who are contributing pieces for the book are not being paid for their work. Their travel expenses are being covered through the advance that HarperCollins paid for the book. The editors of the book, the authors Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman, have worked with a number of individuals and organizations within Israel on this project. Among them is Breaking the Silence, which helped to administer some of those travel costs in the region, and which also made additional general contributions toward travel costs for Chabon and Waldmans project. Breaking the Silence had no direct involvement with Kushners reporting or writing from Shuafat.

The public editors take: I found Kushners magazine story to be an exceptional piece of reporting and writing, one that didnt seem to be carrying anyones political agenda. That said, the wiser choice would have been to make clear the role of Breaking the Silence in the project. Disclosure ahead of time is better than questions afterward.

Another reader also finds The Timess performance coming up short  though her complaint is not about the news coverage.

When the reader tried to pay for her Times subscription, the online payment system refused to accept her last name. The reader notified The Timess customer service department, explaining, My card is working and I think it goes without saying that my surname is too. But she got this reply: Our Credit Card system has a minimum of three characters for the first and last name. The reader then came to us.

Are you or your colleagues aware of this glitch in the system that targets Asians far more than any other group  I am thinking only of those I know personally, besides myself, with surnames of insufficient length (Ha, Lo, Le, Li, Ma, Oh, Si, Wu...). I reiterate that I think it is ridiculous. Aimee Ng, New York City

Ng also noted that the problem has yet to be fixed, so we reached out to Eileen Murphy, the head of communications at The Times, for comment.
Can a studio apartment ever seem as spacious as a loft? That depends on how clever you are at planning. Because when youre downsizing to 800 square feet from 2,500, every inch counts.

Frans and Dalal Preidel learned that last summer, after they sold the sprawling Flatiron loft where they had lived for more than a decade and bought a studio apartment in Kips Bay. Their intention was to turn it into a pied-a-terre; their main residence would be a large waterfront house in Sea Cliff, N.Y. But designing and building that house would take a couple of years, and in the meantime the apartment  a dated postwar studio with a tiny kitchen, low ceilings and a single closet, for which they paid about $610,000  would be their primary home.

Coming from a big loft, we really liked the idea of a large open living space, said Mr. Preidel, an associate real estate broker with Brown Harris Stevens in New York. To get that feeling, we needed to keep the living room as open as possible and make everything else squeeze into tight spaces.

Using SketchUp, 3D modeling software, Mr. Preidel designed a new layout with a reconfigured kitchen, hidden storage, space for a king-size bed and sliding doors that can be closed for privacy or opened to create a loftlike ambience. Ms. Preidel, a retired banking director with an eye for design, focused on finishes, including seven-inch white oak planks from Siberian Floors, white bianco Brazilian marble counters from Artistic Tile and striking graffiti-patterned shower tiles from the Tile Spark.
While they live in dormlike conditions, Ms. Jackson and her roommates are not in college anymore. They are gainfully employed 20-somethings, trying their hardest to make living in New York City affordable. Each pays under $1,000 a month, toward a total rent of $3,750. Moving to another borough would afford the foursome much more space for less money, of course, but like many newcomers, they are willing to make certain sacrifices to stay in Manhattan.

Like many luxury buildings, theirs required that they use an approved temporary wall company to create the extra bedrooms, and the partition cost them over $1,000, Ms. Jackson recalled. This didnt include doors, which the building would have allowed, but the roommates decided the added costs, including installation, were too much. They had hoped to eventually install doors themselves, as well as fill the gap between the top of the new wall and the ceiling, but design solutions have so far eluded them.

The situation is not uncommon. When it comes to finding a safe, convenient place to live, young professionals confront one of the harshest realities of New York City real estate: Its almost impossible to live in a nice apartment  and still have enough money to dine out occasionally  without tacking on a few more bedrooms, adding more roommates and relinquishing some privacy.

Most of these bedrooms and subdivided living rooms, however, do not meet the citys formal definition of such spaces. The New York City Housing Maintenance Code requires that all bedrooms have a window and be at least 80 square feet in area, and a living room must have natural light.

According to a spokesman for the Department of Buildings, a permit is required whenever there is a change in the layout of an apartment. For large rental buildings, landlords are required to have a registered architect or professional engineer submit the plans to the buildings department, and should not install the wall until a permit is issued.
Ms. Guzman describes leaving the neighborhood as traumatic and one of the most difficult moves of my childhood. Her family bounced from New Jersey to East New York in Brooklyn and, later, to Sunset Park in Brooklyn, where we found some semblance of stability, she said.

Former tenants of the razed buildings, including those who were children at the time, will be given preference for an apartment in the housing lotteries. They must provide government-issued identification as proof of residency and meet income and eligibility requirements. An informational sheet for former tenants is available on the website of Essex Crossing, which is being developed by Delancey Street Associates.

James Yolles, a spokesman for Delancey Street Associates, said in a statement that the developer is working to develop a list of those who identify themselves as former site tenants.

The city, however, is not trying to locate former tenants, nor will it provide housing subsidies for them should their income not meet the minimum requirement. We are not actively seeking residents, said Juliet Pierre-Antoine, a spokeswoman for the Department of Housing Preservation and Development. Instead, We are going to have them come to us.

So the task of finding people falls on the shoulders of people like Harriet Cohen, the chairwoman of the Seward Park Area Redevelopment Coalition, a community group commonly referred to as Sparc. It feels like were the guardians of the site tenants, Ms. Cohen said.

Sparc has held vigils, distributed postcards and set up a Facebook page to locate people. But 50 years is a long time and there are a lot of Jose Ramirezes, Ms. Cohen said. The group has compiled a list of some 200 former tenants.

Edward Delgado, a member of Sparc whose family was displaced from the site when he was 15, found a childhood friend from the neighborhood on Facebook. But she lives in Alaska. Now 64 and nearly blind, Mr. Delgado doesnt live far from his old home, but he misses long-demolished shops. There was the bodega on Clinton Street where he worked as a delivery boy and met the girl who would one day become his wife. It wasnt like we lost our apartment, he said. It was like we lost our home, our community.
Today the volcano that straddles the border between China and North Korea is tranquil. Hot springs simmer on the surrounding peaks, wild blueberries grow on its green slopes and a crystal-clear pool called Heaven Lake fills its crater.

But Mount Paektu, as the North Koreans call it, is only asleep. When it last awoke about a thousand years ago, the so-called Millennium Eruption unleashed one of the most violent volcanic events in recorded human history. And when North Korean scientists recorded a swarm of tiny earthquakes rumbling beneath the volcano from 2002 to 2005, they were so concerned that the reclusive country eventually contacted the West for help.

The result was a rare collaboration of scientists from North Korea and researchers from countries with which it has hostile relations.

Officials in Pyongyang first reached out in 2011, and after two years of planning the project was set. In 2013, volcanologists from the United States and Britain met researchers in North Korea to investigate Mount Paektu and its magma plumbing.
The companies, bought by Steve Ballmer, the previous Microsoft chief executive, were hauled up to Microsofts headquarters outside Seattle, where they never fit in. (In fairness to Microsofts methods, thats also what happened with Skype, an $8.5 billion deal made in 2011 that is regarded as a success.)

Image

As Nick writes, LinkedIn is more like the 2014 purchase of Mojang, the maker of the popular game Minecraft. Neither was that acquisition meant to make up ground in an existing industry, nor did it result in the acquired company being uprooted. In LinkedIns case, the current Microsoft chief Satya Nadella appears to be happy to let it stay on its own turf, with as much of the existing team as possible remaining in place. In other words, they will be home and happy instead of out on LinkedIn, looking for another job.

But there is more to it than that with LinkedIn, and not just because the purchase more than three times the size of the Skype deal  previously Microsofts biggest purchase  or because of the sites popularity as a job-hunting tool.

Mr. Nadella is taking Microsoft from its roots in software for personal computers and computer servers into the new era of cloud computing and mobile devices, increasingly with artificial intelligence acting as an intermediary.

LinkedIn matters to Microsoft for both the A.I. talent it has on its staff and the huge amount of data it holds on its users. A.I. generally works better when it has large and varied data sets from which to draw information.
What was your initial reaction to Tiny Beautiful Things?

I read it on a flight back to Los Angeles and cried so hard. I think two flight attendants said: You know that Big Fat Greek girl? She is unstable. I was a wreck. They kept checking on me, Are you O.K.? I ate all my feelings, landed and then called Tommy and said, We have to get this book. So we reached out to Cheryl through social media, and she happened to be coming to L.A. the next day. Unbelievable.

She was on the verge of stardom when she took this nonpaying gig.

Cheryl was a published author, making a living  meager  at writing. She walked around for weeks, asking friends: Should I do it? Should I not do it? She made a list of the pros and cons, and ultimately decided to do it  and this is what speaks to me  she said, Because I wanted to. That is a common thread in her advice: Do what is right for you.

So while you were adapting the book, Tommy was directing Hamilton? That must have been surreal.

He said, Hey, come see my rehearsal for the show called Hamilton, and I was like: Well, that sounds boring. Sure. So I went, and Renee [Elise Goldsberry, who played Angelica Schuyler] and Lin [-Manuel Miranda, the shows creator, who played Alexander Hamilton] were rehearsing the going-backward scene when Renee reveals that she has been in love with Hamilton from the moment she met him. I watched Tommy put that scene together. I kept telling myself: You have now realized that your friend is a genius. You must continue to treat him the same.

In Instant Mom, your 2013 best seller, you write about adopting your daughter, Ilaria.

Katie Couric actually told me to write the book. She said, Think of the kids that you can get adopted. Almost every day we will get a letter, a tweet, a Facebook post or meet someone who will say, I read your book, and we have adopted a child.
DETROIT  The recount of the presidential election ended on Wednesday night as abruptly as it had begun. By Thursday, workers were packing away canvas bags of ballots, board records and tables and chairs. A legal battle halted proceedings before all of Michigans votes were counted again, but not before a flood of perplexing peculiarities emerged.

An effort to recount the votes here and in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin led by Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate, was never viewed as very likely to change Donald J. Trumps election to the presidency, but it revealed something else in stark terms: 16 years after a different presidential recount in Florida dragged on for five agonizing weeks, bringing the nation close to a constitutional crisis, recounts remain a tangle of dueling lawyers, hyperpartisanship and claims of flawed technology.

States still have vastly different systems for calling recounts and for carrying them out. Counting standards are inconsistent from state to state, and obscure provisions, like one in Michigan that deems some precincts not recountable, threaten to raise more public doubt about elections than confidence. Some of the most basic questions  is it better to count by hand, or with a machine?  have not been settled.

And the process is endlessly mired in political and legal maneuvering; some days this week, the legal fight was playing out in the three states, seemingly simultaneously, in nearly every level of state and federal courts, while partisan leaders held dueling news conferences.
Good morning.

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Since the lofty idealism of the 1960s, the goal of making college affordable for all Californians has been in dogged decline.

Tuition at both the University of California and California State systems has tripled over the last 15 years. And now, leaders of both institutions are pondering another increase.

The result, according to a new survey, is that many Californians no longer see a path into public higher education.

The study by the Public Policy Institute of California found that 85 percent of Californians surveyed now think that tuition costs at the states public colleges and universities present a problem.
CHICAGO  For hours, the body lay where it had landed, just steps from the wooden sign someone had put up  a painted gun with a red slash through it.

Inside a nearby house, Lee Baez had heard the gunshots in the darkness and got up to move his car so his fiancee would not have to walk past the body as she left for work before dawn.

Down the block, Sandra Harris rose later to care for her ailing 85-year-old mother and saw the body, by then draped with a sheet.

After the authorities finally carried away Lee Martin, the 43-year-old man who was shot in his head and back and died here on Walnut Street in the middle of an August night, another neighbor emerged to scrub the red streaks off the sidewalk.
BEIJING  Iowas governor, Terry Branstad, hopes to be Americas next ambassador to China, and if he is confirmed as President-elect Donald J. Trumps envoy in Beijing, his new home there may be just three hours drive from a transplanted patch of his home state.

Plans are afoot to build a model farm in northern China inspired by one in Iowa that Xi Jinping visited in early 2012, before he became Chinas president. The idea has highlighted Mr. Xis peculiarly long relationship with the Midwestern state and with Mr. Branstad, who was Iowas governor from 1983 to 1999 and then returned to office in 2011.

The farm is still just a proposal, according to Chinese officials and Iowans involved in the discussions. But in a few years visitors to Chengde, in Hebei Province, may be able to stop at an Iowa-style farm, perhaps even including a replica of the home that Mr. Xi visited. And these days, anywhere that Mr. Xi visits has official pulling power in China.

There is a strong desire, somewhat, to retrace President Xis footsteps and also to understand how we do things, because President Xi has held us up as an example, Grant Kimberley, whose parents farm in Iowa hosted Mr. Xi and inspired the proposed model, said in a telephone interview. Im sure its a motivation for the project.
Everyone in Hong Kong can see that the central authorities, including the top leaders in the country, have been very supportive of my work over all these years, he said, a denial that he was dropping out because of Beijings disapproval.

In a statement, the Chinese governments Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office said it was regretful of Mr. Leungs decision not to run and praised his contribution in upholding national sovereignty and stability in Hong Kong.

Mr. Leung was accused last week of waging a coup as he tried to unseat four elected pro-democracy legislators with a legal challenge over the way they took their oaths of office. An earlier judicial review he initiated disqualified two separatists from taking places in the legislature, but his move to challenge the four seated lawmakers, who do not advocate Hong Kongs independence from China, was seen as a broader crackdown on opposition.

The six politicians targeted by Mr. Leung were among more than 10 who inserted political statements into their oaths of office in October. Two of them, the pro-independence Sixtus Leung and Yau Wai-ching, added an alternative name for China that many see as derogatory and pledged allegiance to the Hong Kong nation, prompting a rare legal intervention from the Chinese government.

The timing of this is an attempt to relieve pressure in society against the governments suppression of legislators, said Nathan Law, who is among the four legislators whose qualification for office is being challenged. There may be a stick following the carrot. We must not let our guards down.
TOKYO  A United States Marine Corps fighter pilot whose jet crashed into the Pacific Ocean during a training exercise in Japan on Wednesday has been confirmed dead, the Marine Corps said on Thursday.

The pilot, Capt. James Frederick, 32, ejected from his F/A-18C fighter jet. His body was recovered from the sea by the Japanese navy, known as the Maritime Self-Defense Force, the Japanese Defense Ministry said.

The cause of the crash was still unknown, the Marine Corps said in a statement.

Captain Frederick belonged to the First Marine Aircraft Wing, which is based on the island of Okinawa in southern Japan and at Iwakuni on the main Japanese island, Honshu. About 50,000 American military personnel are stationed in Japan, where the United States has maintained bases since the end of World War II.

Captain Frederick was on a regularly scheduled training exercise, the Marine Corps said, without elaborating. Our deepest condolences go out to the family and friends of the pilot, it said.
HONG KONG  Fourteen governments urged Myanmar on Friday to allow a full resumption of aid to a predominantly Muslim part of Rakhine State, as the United Nations described an apparent escalation of what activists have called a humanitarian crisis there.

The United Nations also reported on Friday that thousands of people in the northern part of the state, a conflict-torn border area, have not had access to health services or food assistance for two months and that close to 22,000 Muslims had arrived in neighboring Bangladesh since Nov. 1.

The main ethnic group in the northern part of Rakhine is the Rohingya, a persecuted Muslim minority whose members are barred from citizenship in Myanmar, which is mostly Buddhist.

As friends of Myanmar, we are deeply concerned by the humanitarian situation in the northern part of Rakhine, the diplomatic missions of Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the United States said in the statement on Friday.
But many more Filipinos applauded Mr. Duterte, and said the victims had deserved to be punished. Slaughter might be harsh but I guess for drug peddlers, they deserve it, said Daphnie A. Diamola.

Their comments help explain why recent polls show more than 80 percent of Filipinos support the outspoken Mr. Duterte and his policy. Here are excerpts from other comments, lightly edited. (The Facebook posts can be viewed only in the Philippines.)

Filipinos say the government must address the scourge of drugs and addiction.

We in the slums of Manila who have been living in constant fear for the past ten-plus years because of the denial of the previous administration that we are becoming a narco state feel safer. You do not have the right to tell that you dont feel safe if you havent experience violence from drug infested areas!!!  ANN MENDOZA via nytimes.com Before innocent people are dying every day because of these drug addicts and pushers are earning billions of pesos and dollars. For us, better to kill these drug pushers and drug addicts than them killing the innocents.  JAH RASTAFARI via Facebook Killings was made by drug lords and their runners and hit men. Police visibility was doubled or tripled and that is way better than the past six years of agony and pain created by Aquino administration and their narco supporters.  JHUN BARREY GELACIO LAGGUI via Facebook

The dangers of unchecked drug violence in poor communities in the Philippines had grown unacceptable for many people.

Im from the famous district of Tondo. So far so good. I feel safer nowadays. If only you had seen Tondo through my eyes when drug dealings are much of a common scene in our everyday lives. Not until Duterte came. The thugs who mock our laws are the ones who are more afraid during these days.  AGAPITO BAGUMBAYAN via Facebook As far as I know, if youre a law-abiding citizen, nothing happens to you. Thats how we are in Davao, which is the among the nations most peaceful cities despite being multi-ethnically diverse and being in Mindanao island, and where our president was once a mayor, and we are very proud of it.  JOHN PAUL II, PHILIPPINES via nytimes.com comments

Still others fear for their lives and worry the situation in the Philippines will get only worse.

The situation here, though, is not like in a war zone. It is worse. While you can still live out your day, go to work, eat outside, and go back home after the day is done, you have no idea when such an incident may happen to you or your loved ones. You do not know whether to trust the police or not. You try to ignore the fear, but it is there.  JAN MICHAEL A. RIVERA via nytimes.com Friends of mine have had friends and relatives killed. Never have I seen such impunity from my government. Rodrigo Duterte has a razor-focused vendetta and it is misguided and cruel and uneducated and vile, and in its wake is the Filipino peoples sense of humanity.  JOSEPH PASCUAL via Facebook Poor people linked to drugs are killed, while big time drug lords/rich people linked to drugs get to flee the country or get the benefit of the doubt or due process.  TINA QUINALAYO via Facebook Contrary to what a lot of my fellow men here say, no, we do not feel safer in the Philippines. Life is not better. The peso is depreciating much faster than other Asian currencies and the culture of impunity makes you wonder whos next. The fear of drug lords is replaced by the fear of police.  HONEY DE PERALTA via Facebook

Supporters of the policy applaud the apparent effectiveness of the ruthless police tactics.
The cost-benefit analysis of whether to pay a bribe, he explained, "depends on how many people around me I think are also engaged in corruption.

If most people are honest, he said, paying a bribe is a risky endeavor. There are relatively few people interested in accepting one, and many willing to report bribery to the authorities. In that scenario, the equilibrium favors honest dealing.

But if everyone around you is paying bribes, the cost-benefit tradeoff flips, he continued. As more and more people engage in corruption, youre better able to find willing partners in crime. And the benefits of staying honest decline, because everybody is cutting in front of you in line to see the doctor, or winning the contracts that you might have had a decent chance of getting.

A new equilibrium will take hold  one that favors dishonest dealings.

That kind of corrupt equilibrium is the background to South Koreas current scandal. Although the idiosyncrasies of the accusations against Ms. Park have grabbed global attention, the case is just the latest in a series of major corruption scandals that have erupted in the country.

In 2014, after the Sewol ferry disaster killed 302 people, including 250 high school students, an investigation revealed the ferry owner had colluded with government officials to evade safety checks. In January of this year, Prime Minister Lee Wan-koo resigned in a bribery scandal. And there have also been major scandals involving the chaebols, which are family-owned business conglomerates that hold considerable power in South Korea.

In fact, during her campaign and presidency, Ms. Park had presented herself as someone who could take on that corrupt system. Unmarried and childless, she highlighted her lack of close family as an asset to her presidency because so many previous scandals had involved steering assets to children or spouses. After the Sewol disaster, Ms. Park promised to attack the layers of corruption that had contributed to it.

But it now appears that Ms. Choi took advantage of the presidents isolation to gain influence over her and exploit that connection for financial and other benefits. Instead of fighting the countrys layers of corruption, the president now looks very likely to leave office disgraced and tainted by them herself.
SEOUL, South Korea  For her nearly four years in office, President Park Geun-hye of South Korea cooperated closely with the United States, particularly when it came to dealing with her volatile neighbor, North Korea.

A vote on Friday to impeach her now throws both her country and American policy in the region into deep uncertainty, as the Norths nuclear program advances and the incoming administration of Donald J. Trump deliberates over whether to adjust Washingtons stance on how to best contain North Korean aggression.

Ms. Park, a conservative, had adopted a tough approach toward the North, focusing on stronger sanctions. Her administration had also agreed to deploy an American advanced missile defense system that infuriated the Chinese.

Yet her deep unpopularity  the result of a scandal over influence-peddling that led members of her own party to want to oust her  increases the odds that the next election will be won by an advocate of friendlier relations with China.
LEE JAE-MYEONG, 51

Mayor of Seongnam

A rising star among progressives, Mr. Lee calls himself the Bernie Sanders of South Korea. But he is more like President-elect Donald J. Trump in one respect: He uses Twitter, too. He has a huge audience there and has used his pointed comments to attack Ms. Park and her policies. He was one of the first major politicians to address the crowds of antigovernment demonstrators who have filled central Seoul on recent weekends. He says that Ms. Park should be handcuffed on criminal charges the moment she leaves office. Like the other progressives listed here, his positions on the approach to North Korea and missile defense are similar to Mr. Moons. Mr. Lee worked in a factory as a teenager and did not attend high school, but he taught himself, winning admission to a college and later passing the bar exam. Before running for mayor, he worked as a lawyer defending labor activists and political dissidents.

Image Ahn Cheol-soo. Credit... Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images

AHN CHEOL-SOO, 54

Peoples Party leader

A millionaire software mogul who leads a small opposition party, Mr. Ahn became a political star for his plain talk about equality and justice and his searing criticism of the existing political parties and big business. Bill Gates wouldnt have become Bill Gates if he were born in South Korea, Mr. Ahn once said, accusing Samsung, Hyundai and other major corporations of creating zoos where they have shackled small entrepreneurs with slavelike contracts. Once considered a top contender for the 2012 election, he withdrew his candidacy, throwing his support behind Mr. Moon, with whom he has since parted ways. A medical doctor by training, Mr. Ahn made a fortune developing antivirus computer software. He says he wants to heal a country disillusioned with what he calls a corrupt and out-of-touch political and corporate elite.

Image Park Won-soon. Credit... Ed Jones/Agence France-Presse  Getty Images

PARK WON-SOON, 60

Mayor of Seoul

As mayor of the capital, Mr. Park is considered the second most powerful elected official in South Korea after the president. A former human rights lawyer, he is seen as a leader of the civil society movement and founded the countrys most influential civil and political rights group. He has won many landmark legal cases, including South Koreas first sexual harassment conviction. He also campaigned for the rights of so-called comfort women, Korean sex slaves who were lured or forced into working in brothels for the Japanese Army during World War II. A tireless critic of what he calls growing social and economic inequality, he has pulled no punches in attacking Ms. Park, supporting huge rallies against her. Last month, he showed up at a meeting of cabinet ministers and shouted at them to choose between the people and the president.
KABUL, Afghanistan  On his last planned trip to Afghanistan as defense secretary, Ashton B. Carter on Friday said that the United States remained committed to the country even as the war here has worsened.

The unannounced visit by Mr. Carter was part of his round-the-world trip to thank deployed U.S. troops for their service over the holidays as well as meet with allies, the Pentagon said in a statement.

In Afghanistan, Mr. Carters remarks were seen as an attempt to quell concerns over how the transition in Washington could affect the American presence here at a time when the Afghan forces, which have taken heavy losses, have shown the need for sustained help.

Even with the Taliban threatening major cities and Islamic State affiliates gaining a foothold in Afghanistan, the war did not feature much as an issue during the United States presidential campaign. And with his security team still forming, President-elect Donald J. Trump has disclosed little about how he will tackle a conflict that remains a bloody stalemate even as the war enters its 16th year.
AMSTERDAM  Geert Wilders, the far-right politician who is seen as a likely contender to become prime minister when Dutch voters go to the polls next year, was convicted on Friday of inciting discrimination and of insulting a group for leading an anti-Moroccan chant at a political rally in the Netherlands.

The three-member judiciary panel found that Mr. Wilders, the leader of the Party for Freedom, violated Dutch law with his remarks on March 19, 2014, but it elected not to convict him of inciting hatred, and it imposed no punishment, rejecting the prosecutors request to fine him 5,000 euros, or about $5,300.

Mr. Wilders was found to have violated laws on inciting discrimination and group offense when he led a crowd at a political rally around the time of municipal elections in The Hague in chanting, Fewer, fewer to the question Do you want more or fewer Moroccans in this city and in the Netherlands?
BERLIN  When a 19-year-old medical student was found raped and drowned in the university city of Freiburg in October, it was seen as a sad and awful crime, but a local one. Beyond a few tabloids, the story failed to make national headlines.

But when the Freiburg police announced last Saturday that they had arrested an Afghan refugee for the crime, reaction was swift and bitter. The Facebook page of Freiburgs local newspaper was flooded with comments about Rapefugees, suggesting that such cases require special SHOWERS to be set up again.

Some national news organizations picked up the news of the arrest of the suspect, an Afghan teenager who arrived in Germany last year without his family. The mass-circulation Bild newspaper ran it under the headline How Do We Handle This Truth?

But only after Chancellor Angela Merkel and members of her cabinet weighed in on the fierce debate over that question did the countrys leading public broadcaster, ARD, pick up the story, which it had originally judged did not meet the threshold for national news.
The idea that Europeans and Russian opponents of the Kremlin are sexual deviants with a taste for pedophilia is a strange but recurring theme in Russian propaganda. The Russian ex-wife of a Norwegian man gained wide attention in state media, for example, with fabricated claims, made after she lost a child custody battle in Norway, that her former husband dressed up their 4-year-old son in a Putin costume and raped him.

Foes of the Kremlin have sometimes picked up the same ugly club and used it to beat Mr. Putin, as did Alexander V. Litvinenko, a former K.G.B. agent who died in London in 2006 from poisoning by a highly toxic radioactive isotope. Four months before his death, which a British inquiry ruled was probably state-sponsored murder approved by Mr. Putin, Mr. Litvinenko published an article that, without any evidence, asserted that the Russian president was himself a pedophile.

Mr. Bukovsky, who was a close friend of Mr. Litvinenko, said he had strongly urged him not to publish. I was very angry with him, Mr. Bukovsky recalled, noting that in many ways Mr. Litvinenko, despite his ferocious hostility toward the Kremlin, still had the mind-set of a security officer and could not understand the difference between truth and operational information.

On the dark web, an area of the internet that requires special software and authorization codes to enter, suspected Russian hackers openly offer to plant evidence of pedophilia as a way to destroy an enemy.

Ill do anything for money, promised an advertisement placed by a hacker who offered to ruin your opponents, business or private persons you dont like. I can ruin them financially and or get them arrested, whatever you like. Boasting that it was possible to destroy both individuals and businesses, the hacker added, If you want someone to get known as a child porn user, no problem. He gave a price, denominated in Bitcoins, of around $600 per job.

Paulo Shakarian, the chief executive officer of IntelliSpyre and the director of the Cyber-Socio Intelligent Systems Laboratory at Arizona State University, said his team had analyzed the advertisement and concluded that it was probably posted by a Russian (or at least a Russian-speaking) hacker. He said the price was in the normal range of what hackers demand for character assassination.

No matter what the court in Britain decides, Mr. Bukovsky has already had his reputation  and, by association, that of other Kremlins critics  trashed in Russia. Russian state television, in a report on the case, described the dissident as a lover of child porn.

Mr. Bukovsky complained that European countries that expect clarity and follow rigid procedures easily fall prey to the dirty tricks of a regime that excels in hiding its tracks and creating confusion. They are very good at using the West against the West, he said.
CAIRO  A bomb ripped through a security checkpoint on the outskirts of Cairo on Friday, killing six police officers and wounding three others, officials said, in the latest in a series of deadly attacks this year.

The bomb detonated next to a large mosque in Cairos twin city, Giza, less than two hours before hundreds flocked to the area for Friday Prayer.

The militant group Hasm, or Decisiveness, which has claimed responsibility for previous attacks at Egyptian security checkpoints, said it had carried out the bombing. The claim could not be verified.

Militants have frequently targeted Egyptian security forces since the military ousted the Islamist president, Mohamed Morsi, in 2013 and subsequently killed hundreds of his backers.
JERUSALEM  After years of obfuscation and a high-profile dispute concerning an esteemed New York rabbi who converted Ivanka Trump, Israels rabbinical authorities announced this week that they would convene to establish clear criteria for recognizing Orthodox conversions done abroad.

The rabbis also said that under the new criteria, Ms. Trumps conversion, which had been in some doubt in Israel, likely would be considered legitimate.

More broadly, advocates of the rabbinical reform said they hoped the outcome of the discussions, to start in coming days, would resolve an issue that has long vexed Israels relationship with American Jewry.

The growing divide between Israels increasingly strict religious establishment and the more liberal, non-Orthodox branches of Judaism that attract the majority of Jews in the United States has been vividly illustrated in recent years by disputes over rituals. But even some Americans who have undergone Orthodox conversions to Judaism have encountered trouble getting approval to marry  or divorce  in Israel.
Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, said family members had reported that they had lost contact with men aged 30 to 50, echoing several interviews The Times conducted in which Aleppo residents said their males relatives were arrested or forced to join the army.

Given the terrible record of arbitrary detention, torture and enforced disappearances by the Syrian government, we are of course deeply concerned about the fate of these individuals, Mr. Colville said.

He also said that two members of the pro-government forces that took over Aleppos al-Halk neighborhood were reported to have summarily shot four men in front of their families on Sunday because they were suspected of working with the opposition.

The last two weeks have seen the fiercest bombardments yet of rebel-held districts. Those still inside describe chaos and intense crowding in some areas as people scramble for shelter. They said wounded people and bodies were left in the streets with no one to help them.

Here, what is believed to be the charred body of a rebel fighter can be seen in retaken Bab al-Hadid.
In her story book, Mrs. Kuenzel writes that her saddest childhood memory was when her fathers grocery store fell on hard times and her parents had to sell their two-story home in the small farming town of Lafayette, Minn. Her parents and their seven children moved into two bedrooms behind the store. Looking back at her parents difficult lives, Mrs. Kuenzel said in a recent interview, I think I appreciate them more than I did at the time.

Mrs. Kuenzel gave up her job as a nurse when she married a farmer, Dennis, who died in 2013. She described farming as round-the-clock work. But writing her story, she said, helped her see that she had dealt well with the hardships and created a good life for her four children. I made it, so I guess I was O.K., Mrs. Kuenzel said. She also realized what is most important  and it was a comfort to share those lessons with her children, six grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Among those lessons: the importance of focusing on the positive, hard work and treating people right.

Storytelling also can benefit terminally ill patients by addressing their need to feel that life has purpose. One end-of-life treatment is called Dignity Therapy, which was developed by Dr. Harvey Max Chochinov, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Manitoba. During a 30- to 60-minute audiotaped session, a therapist will ask patients questions about their most important accomplishments, the experiences that made them feel most alive and their hopes for loved ones. Patients can give the transcribed interview to friends and family.

Lori P. Montross-Thomas, a psychologist in the La Jolla community in San Diego, who was trained as a dignity therapist by Dr. Chochinov, said she recalled one man who had talked about an arduous hike with friends. After bad weather set in that day, he told her, he walked ahead to the base camp. He remembered the joy on his friends faces when he greeted them with hot chocolate. These patients may have lost the ability to be in physical control, but when they share that kind of story, their body goes back there, said Dr. Montross-Thomas, an assistant professor at the University of California, San Diego. And they get to share the stories of their strengths with loved ones.

In several studies of dignity therapy, patients reported an increased sense of purpose and meaning. A study of family members of patients who had died said the transcripts consoled them while they grieved.

Hearing a parents story may be as important to the adult child as it is to the older person telling it. Bill Erwin, 69, who lives in Durham, N.C., interviewed his father, using a tape recorder, many years ago. He said he cherished the story about how his grandfather peddled pianos from the back of his truck to rural households in Hope, Ark., during the Depression. Thats how he made enough sales to keep the lights on at his music store, Mr. Erwin said.

It is a story of resourcefulness that Mr. Erwin is passing on to his two sons. He says he regrets not collecting more stories from his parents, and he wants to ensure his sons dont have similar regrets  so now he is writing his own life story vignettes. And Mr. Erwin, a retired communications executive, has started a new business: creating personal-history videos for other families.
In general, how much prison time should be given if someone is killed during a violent crime?

Opponents, however, argue that those convicted of a crime  especially a violent crime  should serve their full sentences, and that longer prison terms have contributed to the nations historic crime reductions in recent years.

For advocates of prison reform, the question is who should be diverted from jails and prisons, and who among the 2.2 million locked up should be freed?

The question is critical in the discussion of prison reform because people convicted of violent crimes make up more than 50 percent of inmates in state prisons, where the majority of the nations prisoners are housed, according to the Justice Department.

While the American Civil Liberties Union has called for a reduction of the prison population by half by 2020 through the overhaul of sentencing laws, others say efforts should be focused on releasing  and treatment for  low-level drug offenders and people with mental illnesses.

But that would go only so far. In a report released Friday, the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law said that any reduction in prison population would likely need to involve the release of some violent offenders after they have served sufficient time in prison and no longer pose much of a threat.

We explore the issue of sentencing in the four cases below.
Many of the people selected by President-elect Donald J. Trump for his cabinet have views that are at odds with those of most Americans. And in some cases, their perspectives also clash with those of most people who identify as Republicans. Here are some examples.

Tom Price Health and Human Services Secretary

Mr. Price, a Republican congressman from Georgia, has advocated legislation to ban federal funding for Planned Parenthood.

Federal funding of Planned Parenthood Price U.S. 36% Oppose 57% Support Republicans 67% 27% Democrats 13% 82% Source: New York Times/CBS News Poll, January 2016

Mr. Price is also a strong opponent of abortion. He has voted to ban health coverage and federal funding for abortion, and was a co-sponsor of a bill that would grant fetuses equal protection under the 14th Amendment.

Whether abortion should be legal in most or all cases Price U.S. 32% Illegal 64% Legal Republicans 60% 35% Democrats 13% 84% Source: Quinnipiac University Poll, November 2016

Mike Pompeo C.I.A. Director

Mr. Pompeo, a Republican congressman from Kansas who would advise the president on intelligence collection as director of the Central Intelligence Agency, has urged Congress to re-establish the bulk collection of Americans domestic calling records, pushing for a fundamental upgrade to Americas surveillance capabilities.

Government monitoring communications of American citizens Pompeo U.S. 40% Acceptable 57% Unacceptable Republicans 39% 59% Democrats 44% 55% Source: Pew Research Center survey, January 2015

Betsy DeVos Education Secretary

Ms. DeVos, a philanthropist, activist and Republican fund-raiser, has been an outspoken proponent of school vouchers, which would allow students to attend any school, public or private, using taxpayer money. Her stance is supported by Mr. Trump, who proposed a $20 billion federal voucher program during the campaign.

Choice to attend private schools at public expense DeVos U.S. 31% Favor 57% Oppose Republicans 46% 46% Democrats 16% 71% Source: PDK/Gallup poll, September 2015

Jeff Sessions Attorney General

Mr. Sessions, a Republican senator from Alabama, has prioritized tougher immigration policies and has said that immigration is hurting the job prospects and wages of American workers. As the leader of the Justice Department, he would have significant power in administering immigration law.

Effect of illegal immigrants on American jobs Sessions U.S. 25% Take jobs away 65% Take jobs Americans dont want Republicans 46% 48% Democrats 12% 79% Source: CBS News poll, October 2016

Scott Pruitt Environmental Protection Agency Administrator

President Obamas efforts to counter climate change would most likely be challenged by Mr. Pruitt, the Oklahoma attorney general, who has fought regulations aimed at combating climate change and positioned himself as an ally of the fossil fuel industry.

Limits on carbon emissions from U.S. power plants aimed at reducing future global warming Pruitt U.S. 31% Oppose 63% Favor Republicans 42% 53% Democrats 23% 74% Source: New York Times/CBS News Poll, November 2015

Andrew F. Puzder Labor Secretary

Mr. Puzder, a fast-food executive, has argued that a federal minimum wage increase would reduce employment opportunities for those who need them the most.
Transparency International, an anticorruption watchdog, monitors the relationship between politics and money around the world. Measuring corruption is difficult and subjective, but in 2015 the group compiled a Corruption Perceptions Index that ranks 168 countries based on the perception of corruption in the public sector.



The lowest ranked nations were, according to the group, all plagued by conflict and war, poor governance, weak public institutions like police and the judiciary and a lack of independence in the media.
DANA POINT  The gates through the center of an exclusive oceanfront community  the focus of a six-year legal battle over public access to the popular Strand Beach  were taken down Thursday morning.

Their removal is a victory for the California Coastal Commission, the Surfrider Foundation and others who have fought to open access to the beach from the gated Strand at Headlands community.

City officials removed the wrought iron gates after an 8-4 vote Wednesday by the Coastal Commission, which rejected Dana Points recommendation to put up retractable sliding gates to enforce hours when public access is restricted  from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m.

Instead, commissioners said the city should use a rope or chain to prevent access during the prohibited times.

(The) development was approved with the condition of open access, Commissioner Effie Turnbull Sanders said during the meeting. Now youre trying to change that condition.  Seems to me to be a proactive way of excluding people from the beach.

City Councilman Joe Muller and Steve Kaufman, an attorney hired by the city to deal with the Strand litigation at the Coastal Commission, questioned the use of a rope or chain, saying it would be easy for someone to stoop under it or climb over it.

Muller also told commissioners the city has done everything required under an April settlement with the agency. The city has provided signs for beach and trail access, installed bike racks and benches near gates and trails, and agreed to a $300,000 public outreach program in partnership with the Ocean Institute and Surfrider Foundation.

The gates have been open 24/7 since that time, he said.

The city has agreed to the hours requested by the commission and Surfrider, and were proud to have played a role in helping put our differences aside, Muller said.

The city has spent about $1.2 million in the court fight over public access and this week agreed in a settlement to reimburse Surfrider Foundation for $150,000 in legal fees.

Dana Point also has agreed to enter into mediation with developer Sanford Edward over his claim that the city had overbilled him $670,000 for legal fees.

The citys dispute with the Coastal Commission and Surfrider Foundation began in 2009, when the City Council approved an ordinance to limit beach access hours through the neighborhood after requests by Edward and some homeowners. City officials argued that they didnt have to follow the Coastal Act of 1976, which requires that developments provide beach access.

The Coastal Commission and Surfrider Foundation fought the city in court, saying the ordinance could set a precedent limiting beach access throughout California. A court ruled in the publics favor in 2011.

In recent years, issues relating to beach access in such places as the Carbon Beach section of Malibu and Martins Beach near Half Moon Bay have become contentious, pitting landowners against public interest groups. Public access proponents say any gate to developments at those beaches is a violation.

Mary Joan Swartzbaugh was walking her dog, Brinkley, Thursday morning when she noticed the gates were gone.

The minute I saw the gates were down it was hallelujah, said Swartzbaugh, who lives in nearby Niguel Shores. I think the public has a right to beaches in California. Its our heritage, and we pass it down to younger generations.

We need to preserve that for eternity.

Cristine Lindenfelser, president of the Strand at Headlands homeowners association, said residents never had a voice in the debate and have mistakenly been targeted with animosity by others.

Residents at the Strand have never been against beach access, she said. We just want the community and beachgoers to be safe at night when the beaches are closed.

Contact the writer: 714-796-2254 or eritchie@scng.com or on Twitter:@lagunaini
IRVINE  For the first time in 12 years, Irvine will have no nonwhite members on its City Council  and that follows an election in which six of the 11 council candidates and two of the five mayoral candidates were of Asian descent.

The council lost its only nonwhite member in Steven Choi, who was elected to the Assembly after serving four years as mayor.

Such election results buck the demographic trend in this fast-growing master-planned community. A Register analysis of recent census figures indicates Irvine now is  or soon will be  the largest city in the continental United States with an Asian plurality, meaning the city has more Asian than white residents.

Asian studies experts say having a white-only City Council isnt much of a concern as long as the elected officials understand and serve the needs of different ethnic communities.

I think most elected officials in Irvine are good at recognizing and celebrating diversity and how multicultural this city is, said Mary Anne Foo, an Irvine resident and executive director of the Orange County Asian and Pacific Islander Community Alliance. But its nice to have diversity and the council reflect what the community looks like.

Ian Daelucian, 33, who immigrated from Vietnam when he was 9, said he ran for the City Council because he wants to bring diversity to local government. Having like-minded members on the council doesnt produce innovative ideas or promote changes, he said.

Mayor-elect Don Wagner said the look of the council doesnt matter. The racial makeup of the new council was coincidental more than anything, he said, and the council could have easily had a few Asians on it if the situations were a bit different.

People who are moving to Irvine and changing the demographic face of this city want the same things everybody else does, such as a safe city, good public schools, smooth traffic and high-paying jobs, Wagner said. Thats something that crosses all races, all nationalities and all demographics.

Political experts speculate the Asian candidates split up ethnic voting blocks, diluting their influence.

A snapshot of the Nov. 8 election may show Irvine has taken a step back from breaking what some call the bamboo ceiling. But having so many Asian candidates running is a positive sign, said James Lai, an associate professor of ethnic studies and political science at Santa Clara University.

Irvine appears to be following other California suburbs, such as Cupertino and Monterey Park, where demographics and councils have shifted from majority white to majority Asian, he said.

Irvine is where Cupertino was 15 years ago, Lai said.

Irvine has grown steadily since its 1971 incorporation, as a result of its abundance of new homes, public schools and quality of life. Its share of Asian residents has climbed more quickly, attracting immigrants and second-generation families from more traditional ethnic enclaves.

Asian residents accounted for roughly 8 percent of Irvines population in 1980. That number jumped to 18 percent in 1990 and 30 percent in 2000, according to census data.

The Asian population hovered between 35 percent and 40 percent for much of the past decade, before surging to more than 45 percent of the citys roughly 257,000 residents last year, according to American Community Survey estimates.

Irvine had its first Asian-American City Council members in 2004, when South Korean immigrants Sukhee Kang and Steven Choi were elected. Kang served as mayor from 2008 through 2012, and Choi for the last four years.

In many ways, it was great to see Sukhee Kang and Steven Choi create a pathway for future Asian candidates, saidLinda Vo, an Irvine resident and Asian American studies professor at UC Irvine.

Kang and Choi had a strong base outside the Asian community. Kang said his heritage helped him win the tight 2004 council race, but added that the South Korean voting block by itself was too small to get him elected.

Until a few decades ago, Asian candidates in Los Angeles and San Francisco typically relied on their own ethnic communities because they were considered outsiders, Lai said. They failed because Asian voters didnt turn out and they canceled each other out.

Now, in transformed suburbs like Cupertino, politicians reach out beyond their own ethnic communities to build coalitions, Lai said.

Thats a sign of political maturity, where its become a norm for Asian Americans to run and not knocking each other out, he said.

Electing someone like Choi and Kang not only sets a precedent, but also helps fellow Asians get appointed to city commissions and committees, which are selected by the City Council, experts say. These jobs provide future candidates with experience and political connection.

It creates a pipeline for future elected representatives, Lai said. Thats why you have to transform institutions from within, not from the outside.

Activists are also trying to encourage more Asians to vote. Studies show Asians among all races have the largest gap between the adult population and those who turn out to vote, Lai said.

Part of the reason is more than 40 percent of foreign-born Asians arent naturalized citizens. Language is another barrier for some immigrants when they try to understand candidates and measures on the ballot.

But Asian voters are becoming more active, said Foo, whose alliance focused on encouraging young Asian parents in Irvine to vote this past election. Chinese voters flocked to candidate forums at their community centers in Irvine.

What youll see in the future is  youll see more Asian Americans running for office and get elected, Vo said. But you cant expect a change overnight.

If Asians take over the majority on the Irvine City Council, racial tension could surface, Lai said. White residents may feel left out and question whether the council represents their needs, he said.

I do think Irvine will go through some tipping point, Lai said. Getting one or two (Asian council members) is great, but when they become the majority, thats when it becomes more tense. We saw that in Cupertino, in Monterey Park, but they got over it.

Contact the writer: tshimura@scng.com
SAN CLEMENTE  U.S. Border Patrol agents seized methamphetamine and hashish valued at nearly $474,000 from a truck at an Interstate 5 checkpoint near San Clemente on Wednesday, authorities said.

Around 7 p.m., agents encountered a 2005 Nissan Frontier driven by a male Mexican national who was illegally residing in the U.S, the Border Patrol said in a statement.

After an initial inspection, the driver was referred to secondary inspection, where a Border Patrol drug dog alerted agents to the front doors of the truck.

Agents discovered 59 bundles of methamphetamine and two bundles of hashish inside three duffel bags, the statement said. In all, about 73 pounds of methamphetamine and about 4 pounds of hashish were seized.

The man, who was not identified, was arrested for narcotics smuggling and turned over to the Drug Enforcement Administration, along with the drugs. The vehicle was seized by the U.S. Border Patrol.

Contact the writer: 714-796-7767 sschwebke@scng.com Twitter: @thechalkoutline
Can Oxford Preparatory Academy in Chino be saved? Should it?

The answer is no, according to the superintendent of Chino Valley Unified School District, which chartered the school five years ago but whose board unanimously rejected its request for a charter renewal.

This Editorial Board believes the answer is yes. So does Oxfords school board, which decided Tuesday night to appeal its charter denial to the San Bernardino County school board. We recognize the problems that a state audit turned up involving Oxfords founder  who is no longer associated with the school  but its not as though San Bernardino County has such a surfeit of high-performing schools that the best of them should be shut down.

Clearly, there is something special about Oxfords instruction. It has regularly been one of the countys top-scoring schools. It was the countys highest-scoring charter school and the top K-8 school overall on this years California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress math and English tests. Parents who send their children to Oxford are wildly enthusiastic about the education theyre getting.

But theres that audit, which accused founder Sue Roche of laundering school funds through for-profit entities run by friends and family members. The allegations have been forwarded to the District Attorneys Office. Even if charges were to be brought, even if she were to be found guilty of something, thats no reason to shut down Oxford  any more than Rialto Unified School District should have been shuttered because a district accountant stole $1.8 million in lunch money and was sentenced to five years in jail.

Nor should it be used as an excuse to attack the organizations top-scoring campuses here in Orange County, in Mission Viejo and Lake Forest.

Animosity toward charter schools appears to be rising among unions that hold sway at traditional public schools. The vitriol between Chino Valley Superintendent Wayne Joseph and Oxford leaders clearly has become personal.

The superintendents claim that Oxford is forever tainted is silly. Its not smart to throw the students out with the bath water, even if that water has been tainted. Better to replace it with fresh water.
In Part 2 of the two-episode premiere of Bravos Top Chef, we head straight to the first Elimination Challenge.

One chef is already gone, and another one will pack his or her knives at the end of the episode. Thats two chefs down after the first few days of competition.

Our recap is focused on local chef Shirley Chung, co-founder of Twenty Eight in Irvine. In Season 14, the Newport Beach resident is back for redemption after placing fourth in Season 11.

Warning: Spoilers ahead:

Elimination Challenge: The 15 remaining chefs meet guest judge, Frank Lee, a master of South Carolina lowcountry cuisine. They share a shrimp boil, and go over the next task: a team challenge that pits the rookies against the veterans. Each team dines on a traditional South Carolina meal prepared by local chefs Carrie Morey and Benjamin BJ Dennis. The family style meal serves as inspiration for a Southern feast each team is tasked to create for the judges.

Chungs dish: While shopping at Whole Foods Market, Chung said she was inspired by the conch stew served at Dennis home. It reminded her of an oyster stew her grandmother used to make for Chinese New Year. Her mind set, she orders 26 oysters from the seafood counter.

Shopping mayhem: The producers play up the disorganization of the rookies, who are about to blow their $500 budget because theyre not communicating well with each other. It seems like no one is happy, Chung says of the rookie team. But, hey theyre rookies.

Big error: The rookie team dined with Morey, who is essentially the Queen of Biscuits in Charleston. However, the team opts not to make biscuits. Later on, sharp-tongued host Padma Lakshmi would call it a glaring omission.

Judges thoughts: Chung serves the judges a pork and oyster stew with a mix of potatoes and sweet potatoes, topped with pork cracklings. Its a combination of sea and land together, she tells the judges. Guest judge Kevin Johnson says Chungs oysters and the pork belly were perfectly cooked.

Final decision: The veterans win for executing one of the best family-style meals on Top Chef, head judge Tom Colicchio said. The individual win goes to Casey Thompson, appearing in her third Top Chef season. She is commended for her tasty spin on collard greens.

Packing Knives: Chef Annie Pettry goes home for her undercooked tomato tart. She is penalized for delivering a raw crust and poor menu planning as two hours was not enough time to execute a tart.

Next week: Mise En Place is back. Plus, a seven course meal challenge.
COSTA MESA  In a video clip recorded by a student, a psychology instructor at Orange Coast College told her class that the election of Donald Trump was an act of terrorism  prompting an official complaint from the schools Republican Club.

Olga Perez Stable Cox told students in her popular human sexuality class shortly after the election: We have been assaulted.

One of the most frightening things for me, and most people in my life, is that the people who are leading the assault are among us, said the instructor who is in her 30th year at the college. It is not some stranger from some other country coming in and attacking our sense of what it means to be an American and the things that we stand for. And that makes it more painful. 

We are way beyond Republicans and Democrats, and were really back to being (in) a civil war  and I dont mean it in a fighting way, but our nation is divided as clearly as it was in Civil War times, she told the students. And my hope is that we will get some good leadership to help us to overcome that.

On Monday, the Republican Club posted the video on its Facebook page. Coxs remarks then were distributed via Facebook and other social media.

She did not return messages for comment on Thursday.

The union that represents Cox defended her and said any students involved in the recording violated school and state codes and could be punished. Meanwhile, some Orange Coast College students and their supporters called it a blatant example of liberal bias on American campuses.

Shes using her power as a teacher who gives grades, with a captive audience, to basically scare and shame students, said attorney Shawn Steel, who on behalf of the schools College Republicans filed a complaint with Orange Coast College on Nov. 30.

Its alarming. Its scare-mongering. Its irrational. Its a rant. And it doesnt belong in the classroom, said Steel, a past chairman of the California Republican Party.

The student who videotaped the instructor, he added, was well within his or her First Amendment rights.

Steel wants the instructor to apologize to her students and take an anger-management class, and for a dean to send out a letter to the faculty saying it needs to treat students with respect.

But Rob Schneiderman, president of the Coast Federation of Educators, AFT 1911, which represents the schools faculty, sees it differently.

This faculty member is known for her open and engaging ways in class, open to all sides of the issues, he said. Its unfortunate that this student chose to not engage in an open dialogue, which she encourages.

Orange Coast College President Dennis Harkins said Thursday that the school is investigating Steels complaint, and will look into the context of the instructors comments and whether it was in response to a question or an issue raised in class. Also, the school is looking into the students secret taping.

Orange Coast College supports the respectful discussion or discourse of ideas and opinions that exist between students, faculty and staff or the community, Harkins said. One of the real purposes of the college experience is to share and interact with people who have different opinions on complex issues.

Joshua Recalde-Martinez, president of the schools College Republicans, called Coxs comments an example of leftist indoctrination in the classroom.  We heard many stories at OCC. We had an instructor the day after the election cancel his class. He was sobbing in the classsroom. 

Our goal in sharing that video is to protect the students and their rights, he said. OCC is supposed to be a school of diversity, equity and inclusitivity, and her comments do not allow for that.

Juan Gutierrez, Orange Coast Colleges spokesman, said there may be an upside to all this:

Were looking at it, in the long run, as a teaching moment.

Contact the writer: rkopetman@scng.com and Twitter@roxanakopetman
What makes a great Orange County workplace?

Part of the Orange County Registers annual Top Workplaces contest is a survey of those people who toil for arguably the best bosses around. Pollsters for the contests manager, Workplace Dynamics, each year ask employees to grade their employers on 23 key characteristics of any great place to work.

I tossed into my trusty spreadsheet the Workplace Dynamics survey results for Orange County and the nation from the past two years. I wanted to learn what workplace traits were universal strengths at highly ranked employers and where there was a distinct difference in opinion, locally vs. nationally.

Remember, these are the opinions of workers at some of the best-rated places to work around the county and nationwide. So were parsing shades of excellence, not problem areas.

I found that the workplace qualities that got broad-based high marks were right out of Management 101: Boosting Employee Morale.

PLEASE SEE! Illuminate Education: Profit sharing, lean management drives startup

Traits that got strong nods of approval from 4 out of 5 workers surveyed locally and nationally at top workplaces were: companies with strong values and ethics; managers who are helpful and listen to workers concerns; executives who appreciate hard work; and employers that offer meaningful work and value a balance between work and the rest of their staffs lives.

The topics with less geographical agreement were equally telling.

Optimism of Orange County workers the past two years ran above the national norm. Significantly, a greater share of locals felt their workplaces had little negativity and their employer was going in the right direction.

In large part, this may reflect the strong performance of the regional economy. It could also be because Orange Countys top workplaces were seen as a bit better-run.

More local employees told the survey that their companies did things efficiently and well and that there was good inter-departmental cooperation. Many Orange County companies are younger and smaller than is typical nationwide, and these firms may not have the traditional barriers to efficiency that many older institutions develop.

It didnt hurt that Orange Countys top-ranked employers seem to be slightly better communicators than their national peers. The survey found local workers more frequently said they felt well-informed about important decisions, plus their senior managers better understood how the company operated. Again Im guessing size matters, as the flow of information is often easier at more modest-size organizations.

The bottom line is that local workers want to feel engaged at a successful company. But note that Orange Countys top workplaces didnt outscore their national rivals on all counts the past two years.

Especially with perceptions of compensation.

Local workers gave comparatively lower marks to their bosses for their benefits packages and fair pay. Thats no major surprise when you consider how relatively expensive it is to live here.

In addition, local employees were not as thrilled about the formal training they received. Could it be that innovative companies, like many based in Orange County, often move too quickly to have established in-house education programs?

Orange County provides workers and their bosses one distinct challenge: Its not cheap to run a business or work here. So staying in the county has to be about more than cash. If not, move to Texas or Nevada or anywhere more affordable.

As this poll of highly rated workplaces shows, the way employers treat their staffs is as critical  if not more powerful  as the pay package in the construction of a great environment for employees.

And since being a humane boss is an inexpensive perk, operating a fun and fair workplace in these penny-pinching days is cost-effective too.

Contact the writer: jlansner@scng.com





DID YOU MISS?
RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA  Hoping to gain recommendations from Coto de Caza in a more organized fashion, Lisa Bartlett, chairwoman of the Orange County Board of Supervisors, tasked seven residents with representing the communitys voice on the Coto de Caza Planning Advisory Committee, which held its first meeting Wednesday night at the Regional Bell Tower Community Center.

Bartlett was at the meeting to swear in the seven committee members, who also went through Brown Act training

All seven members were briefed on six current projects within the community before hearing eight public speakers offer their thoughts on an Oak Grove development that proposes 13 luxury homes on land that currently is designated for the Coto Equestrian Center and the old Merryhill School site.

Oak Grove LLC, a subsidary of O Hill Capital in Newport Beach, wants to combine 2.2 acres of land from the equestrian center with the current school site and rezone it from Community Center Commercial to Low-Density Residential.

Oak Grove has already demolished one of the barns on the equestrian center property. Robert O Hill, president of Oak Grove, said the demolition was needed to start the rezoning process. The newly-formed CPAC could make a recommendation to the county regarding the Oak Grove development after a presentation and public hearing at a future meeting.

On Wednesday night, the seven-member committee heard arguments from both sides, but could not take any action because the item wasnt on the committees agenda.

Though one barn has been demolished, O Hill said that Oak Grove has taken out a use preservation easement to keep the remaining 24.1 acres as equestrian use forever, tasking the county and the California State Horsemans Association as the two beneficiaries to enforce that policy.

O Hill also said he would put $1.6 million in improvements to the current equestrian center, including construction of a new 34-box stall plaza barn.

Weve never seemed to have the funds until recently, with the promise of getting this $1.6 million worth of planned improvements, said Robin Borders of Cinnabar Equestrian Solutions LLC, which manages the equestrian center. We look forward to having that done; its much needed.

But residents countered by saying Oak Grove has not been very neighborly, and O Hill has used his majority ownership of the Silver-Bronze Corporation  made up of shareholders who collectively own the equestrian center and nearby country club  to accelerate the process of building the homes.

Residents also fear that new residents in the luxury lots will complain about the noise, smell and dust coming from the center, as some of the lots will back up to within 30 feet of existing buildings.

Ken Agid, a resident since 1972 who has been heavily involved in the development of Coto de Caza, said the equestrian aspect permeates the entire character of the community.

By placing largehouses within 30 feet of occupied stalls is an incompatible use being introduced and will cause friction between homeowners who are paying $2 million for houses with respect to obnoxious environmental issues of flies, dust, noise and odors, Agid said.

CPAC will meet once per month on the first Wednesday of the month. Official site and time  and when the committee will place the Oak Grove proposal on its agenda  are yet to be determined.

Contact the writer: npercy@scng.com
SANTA ANA  Representing himself in his ongoing capital murder trial, Steven Gordon continued Thursday to use his questioning of parole agents to get what he referred to as payback against those he believes didnt do a good enough job of supervising himself and fellow sex offender Franc Cano.

Gordon, who has admitted to playing a role in the kidnapping and killing of four prostitutes, argued that had parole agents paid more attention to him and Cano, they could have prevented some of the slayings.

Throughout his trial, Gordon has been most aggressive when questioning law enforcement, particularly parole and probation officials. On Thursday, he saved his most heated questions for state parole supervisor Maryanne Larios, who oversaw the parole office in Anaheim when Gordon and Cano were being monitored by ankle GPS units.

In late 2013, in the midst of the killings, Gordon said he had a heated conversation with Larios about the terms of his parole. The conversation ended, Gordon said, with his threatening payback, a phrase that he argued should have raised further questions.

Two murders had already been committed before that night and I made that comment to you, Gordon said as he questioned Larios. Well, here comes your payback right now.

Gordon was first on parole for kidnapping his wife and child, then for cutting off his ankle monitor and leaving the state. Because of an earlier conviction for molesting his nephew, Gordon is a lifelong sex offender registrant.

Gordon and Cano, close friends, routinely slept behind an Anaheim automotive business where Gordon worked. Because sex offenders are generally not supposed to hang out together, Gordon said their close relationship should have raised more alarms amongst parole and probation officials.

Two sex offenders were doing these crimes under your supervision and you didnt do a damn thing about it, Gordon told Larios, ending his questioning before she had a chance to respond.

In his questioning of parole agent Felicia Johnson, who supervised both Gordon and Cano until 2011, Gordon alleged she had given the pair permission to sleep in the same area.

Johnson testified the only time she recalled the restrictions on parolees sleeping near each other being lessened was in late 2011, when a serial killer was targeting homeless people in Orange County and transient parolees were advised to pair up for safety.

State parole agent Douglas Radtke, who said he took over supervising Gordon and Cano when Johnson took a medical leave in 2012, testified he regularly checked the GPS data from the two mens ankle monitors to make sure they werent going to areas such as schools or parks, from which they were barred.

Radtke acknowledged he never compared Gordons and Canos GPS data.

Police investigators later used the GPS tracking information and cell phone data to place Gordon and Cano in to the same location as the four women they allege the men killed: Kianna Jackson, 20; Josephine Vargas, 34; Martha Anaya, 28; and Jarrae Estepp, 21. Only the body of Estepp has been found.

Gordon has placed most of the blame for the killings on Cano, who has pleaded not guilty and is being tried separately. If convicted, both face the death penalty. Gordons trial continues Friday.

Contact the writer: semery@scng.com
The wife of Pacific Investment Management Co. co-founder and billionaire Bill Gross is seeking a divorce after 31 years of marriage and their joint work on a charitable foundation that gave away almost $800 million.

Sue Gross said the couple have irreconcilable differences in a petition filed Nov. 22 in Los Angeles County Superior Court. The filing contained no further details, stating that Sue Gross is as yet unaware of the nature and extent of the couples assets and obligations.

The couple married in 1985. It was Bill Grosss second marriage. Their William and Sue Gross Family Foundations donations includes a gift in January of $40 million to create a school of nursing at UC Irvine. The foundation also donated $38 million to Doctors Without Borders and $23.5 million to Duke University, according to a statement by UC Irvine.

Gross, 72, is worth an estimated $2.1 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

He co-founded Pacific Investment Management Co. in 1971 and led investing at the asset management firm until he resigned in 2014 amid a clash with other executives at the firm. Gross, who now runs the $1.7 billion Janus Global Unconstrained Bond Fund, sued Newport Beach-based Pimco last year for hundreds of millions of dollars, contending he was ousted by a cabal of colleagues who sought to avoid paying his $200 million bonus.

Seth Lubove, a spokesman for Gross, declined to comment on the divorce petition. Sue Grosss lawyer, Laura Wasser, didnt immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment.

Wasser, of Wasser, Cooperman & Mandles, has represented numerous Los Angeles celebrities and their spouses. Her clients included Angelina Jolie, Britney Spears, Maria Shriver and Kim Kardashian.

Under California law, all assets acquired during a marriage are considered community property and are divided equally in a divorce unless theres a prenuptial agreement specifying otherwise.

In New York its different, its an equitable distribution, Wasser said in an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek last year. Here you can sit on the couch and eat bonbons while your husbands at work, and youll still get half of everything.

Gross said in an interview earlier this year that his wife handled their charitable giving.

Sues in charge of that, Gross said. She spends all her time looking for opportunities, a lot of it local. I report to her.

In an investment outlook from August, Gross said his son with Sue, Nick, was one of Californias first test tube babies, conceived by in vitro fertilization, when he was born in 1988. He has two older children, now in their 40s, with his first wife.
Using an ordinance meant to target unlicensed or bandit taxis, the Los Angeles Police Department has been arresting hundreds of ride-hailing drivers in undercover sting operations. In 2013, when Uber and Lyft first entered the L.A. market, a mere 4 percent of bandit taxi arrests were against ride-hailing drivers. Today, that figure tops 40 percent, with over 240 ride-hailing drivers arrested just last year.

Heres how the stings go down. Posing as ordinary pedestrians, undercover officers wave down cars with Uber logos. The drivers who stop typically think the person either needs help or can download the app on the spot. If drivers pull over, officers tell them they dont have the Uber app but offer to pay in cash. Drivers who accept the fare are then met almost immediately by squad cars and handcuffs. No wonder some Uber drivers caught in a sting have called the citys tactics entrapment.

The rise in arrests just so happens to coincide with plummeting demand for traditional taxis. In just three years, the number of taxi rides has plunged by almost a third. Drops were even starker in Hollywood and downtown L.A., where the number of trips fell by 44 percent.

Incredibly, the funding for the sting operations is provided entirely by taxi rides. As part of a deal reached back in 2006 to aggressively crack down on bandit cabs, each licensed taxi has to pay a $30 monthly fee.

That fee was also accompanied by a 20-cent fare hike, so that drivers could pass the cost onto their riders.

This year, the city budgeted nearly $850,000 for its sting operations. In other words, Los Angeles is taxing consumers on behalf of taxis so it can crack down on their competition.

According to some estimates, there may be upwards of 3,000 bandit taxis in Los Angeles. By comparison, the city caps the number of licensed cabs at over 2,300. Those figures suggest that although bandit cabs are outlawed, they satisfy an unmet, pent-up demand for transportation. Notably, bandit taxis have long been popular in ethnic communities underserved by traditional taxis, like in the citys Koreatown. But instead of easing restrictions to allow more transportation options to serve more communities, the city launches routine crackdowns. Since Los Angeles began its Bandit Taxicab Enforcement Program a decade ago, police have made nearly 8,500 arrests and impounded more than 6,000 vehicles.

Los Angeles is just one of many flashpoints between incumbent taxis and their competitors. A new Massachusetts law will tax Uber and Lyft rides, in order to bail out the flailing taxi industry in Boston. In October, a federal appeals court ruled in favor of ride-hailing drivers in Chicago and rejected a demand for a bailout by Milwaukee taxi owners, after the city lifted its cap on cabs. A taxi permit, Judge Richard Posner wrote, does not create a right to be an oligopolist.

Thankfully, with the rise of Uber, more cities are keen to scrap burdensome regulations.

Two years ago, San Diego lifted its limit on taxi permits, which, thanks to artificial scarcity, could fetch upwards of $140,000 on the secondary market. In Orange County, Supervisor Todd Spitzer has proposed deregulation to make it a level playing field for Uber, Lyft and traditional taxis.

For just one example of how liberalization can work, consider Minneapolis. Ten years after the city deregulated its taxi industry, taxi licenses are up 185 percent, while the number of cab companies has more than quadrupled.

Just imagine how economic opportunity would accelerate if regulators would stop slamming the brakes on entrepreneurs.

Nick Sibilla is a writer at the Institute for Justice.
John Glenn died at the age of 95 on Thursday. He was a pilot, senator and last living member of the Mercury 7 astronauts that were documented in The Right Stuff.

BORN

July 18, 1921,

Cambridge, Ohio

DIED

December 8, 2016

EDUCATION

Studied engineering at Muskingum College in New Concord, Ohio.

FAMILY

Wife: Annie Glen, 1943-2016

Children: 2 sons

A NASA photo of John Glenn relaxing during the training of the Mercury Human Spaceflight Program in the 1960s.





1. GLENN FOUGHT IN WWII AND KOREA

Glenn was a highly-decorated Marine pilot.

59 combat missions in the South Pacific during World War II.

90 combat missions in the Korean War some of the earliest models of new jet fighters. In the last nine days of fighting in Korea he downed three MIGs in combat.

For his ability as a pilot and astronaut he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross six times.

2. HE SET SUPERSONIC RECORDS

On July 16, 1957, then Marine major John Glenn became a national hero by setting a transcontinental air-speed record.

The test flight was crucial in testing the longevity of the J-57 jet engine on an F8U-1P Crusader.

The record setting flight was nonstop from NAS Los Alamitos California to NAS Floyd Bennett Field in New York at a speed of 725.55 mph. Glenn bested the previous record by 15 minutes.

3. GLENN WAS THE THIRD AMERICAN IN SPACE

In 1958 Glenn was one of 508 pilots tested for what became the Mercury program, an accelerated response to the Soviet Unions successful launch of the first satellite in 1957.

On February 20, 1962, Glenn piloted the Mercury-Atlas 6 Friendship 7 spacecraft on the first manned orbital mission of the United States. Launched from Cape Canaveral. Glenn completed a successful three-orbit mission around the earth

Maximum altitude of approximately 162 statute miles

Orbital velocity of approximately 17,500 miles per hour.

Glenns Friendship 7 Mercury spacecraft landed approximately 800 miles southeast of Cape Canaveral in the vicinity of Grand Turk Island.

Mission duration from launch to impact was 4 hours, 55 minutes, and 23 seconds.
Every Monday morning when the California Legislature is in session, the early Southwest flight from John Wayne Airport to Sacramento is filled with our local state senators, Assembly members and an assortment of lobbyists and staffers headed to the Capitol.

Assemblyman Tom Daly, D-Anaheim, has been the lone Democrat surrounded by conservative lawmakers on many of those flights over the past two years.

For years, Orange County voters have predominately elected state representatives who are in the minority in Sacramento.

That has resulted in some challenging realities for our communities. Too few of our leaders have had a seat at the table to influence policy decisions that directly impact our neighborhoods and the services we need to stay safe and healthy. Orange County receives the lowest share of tax revenue of any county in the state. And there are surely untold ideas that never made it off the ground because our elected leaders lacked the political support to make them happen.

This year, Orange County is in a different position. In addition to veteran leadership under Assemblyman Daly, Orange County voters made history this year by helping Democrats secure a supermajority in both the Assembly and Senate.

Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva, D-Fullerton, ousted Republican incumbent Young Kim and returned to the capitol this week after spending the past two years as a school teacher in her hometown of Fullerton. When she served in the Capitol from 2012 to 2014, she was able to move an aggressive agenda focusing on education, veterans and good jobs. Her efforts working with the veteran community, for example, established some funding and a location for a veterans cemetery in the city of Irvine  work she will hopefully be able to continue now that shes back in Sacramento.

Senator Josh Newman, also a Democrat, was elected in a close race to fill the seat left vacant by termed-out Republican Senator Bob Huff. Newman, an Army veteran and Yale Graduate, also is a longtime advocate for veterans, and he brings a bold voice rooted in community.

This week, he pushed his daughter Cecily in a stroller through the Capitol along with family and friends to be sworn in to his first elected office.

A supermajority allows Democrats to enact urgent laws immediately and override a governors veto, among other things.

If Republicans are thinking about this election from a purely partisan perspective, then they will be spending the next two years looking for gotcha moments to put both of these leaders on their heels.

I would like to suggest a better way. We have a unique opportunity in Orange County because of the recent election to make a broad and significant impact on programs that affect our communities, and the ability to mobilize resources that will improve the health and safety of our neighborhoods.

Assemblywoman Quirk-Silva and Senator Newman will need input and support from our entire community so they can represent all of us.

So lets get behind them as they work for all of us in Orange County and support their efforts to make our communities a priority in the halls of the state Capitol.

Jennifer Muir Beuthin is general manager of the Orange County Employees Association.
PARIS  Russia said late Thursday that the Syrian military has suspended its combat operations in eastern Aleppo to allow civilians to leave the city and that it had reached agreement with the United States to negotiate the safe departure of rebel fighters.

A senior U.S. State Department official here traveling with Secretary of State John Kerry said that neither of those assertions could yet be confirmed but that Kerry was in contact with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

There were conflicting reports from inside Aleppo, where some residents reported a sudden quiet, but others said neighborhoods were still under fire. On Wednesday, as many as 150 elderly residents of Aleppos Old City were evacuated by the government in a joint operation with the International Red Cross.

Lavrov, speaking to Russian journalists in Hamburg, said a much bigger evacuation was underway. Yet another and the biggest operation so far  to evacuate the civilians willing to leave the place is underway there, he said, according to Russias state-owned Tass news agency. There are some 8,000 people in the column. Thats a huge operation, and the withdrawal route is 5 kilometers (about 3 miles) long.

Kerry and Lavrov met twice Thursday morning in Hamburg, where both were attending an international conference. Kerry left at midday for Paris, and the two spoke again by telephone during the afternoon, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the diplomatic contacts.

The White House, which has long been skeptical of Moscows sincerity in its discussions on Syria, reacted guardedly. Our approach to this situation from the beginning has been to listen carefully to what the Russians say but scrutinize their actions, press secretary Josh Earnest said.

Last summer, the United States suspended military and diplomatic expert talks with Russia in Geneva over a possible cease-fire in Syria when the government siege of eastern Aleppo began with assistance from Russian air attacks. A ferocious government ground offensive in the last few weeks, with hundreds of reported civilian deaths, has retaken all but about a quarter of the territory the opposition once held in the city. Up to 200,000 civilians, and several thousand rebels, are said to remain there.

Lavrov said that he and Kerry had reached agreement to restart the Geneva talks on Saturday to determine the ways and methods of a final settlement of the eastern Aleppo problem through the departure of all militants and those civilians residents, who will wish to do so, from there, the Russian news agency Interfax reported from Hamburg.

The State Department official said the resumption of expert talks had been discussed but had not yet been finalized as of late Thursday.

The immediate Kerry-Lavrov discussions are about evacuating Aleppo and determining the timing, the safety and where opposition fighters and civilians are going to go, the State Department official said. France will host a meeting here Saturday morning of the United States and other governments in Europe and the region to discuss the process.

The hope is that talks in Geneva will move quickly to a Syria-wide cease-fire that will allow humanitarian aid deliveries to hundreds of thousands in besieged communities across the western third of the country, and to restart political talks between the opposition and the government of President Bashar al-Assad over a political transition.

After more than a year of start-and-stop negotiations have failed to halt the carnage in Syria, optimism was tempered. If that occurs, we obviously would welcome that development, Earnest said. It wont be some sort of accident or coincidence  it will be the product and the result of skilled, principled, tough, tenacious diplomacy and much of the credit will go to Secretary Kerry.

But well see what happens, he said.
U.S. life expectancy is in decline for the first time since 1993, when HIV-related deaths were at their peak. But this time, researchers cant identify a single problem driving the drop, and are instead pointing to a number of factors, from heart disease to suicides, that have caused a greater number of deaths.

A study on mortality rates released Thursday by the National Center for Health Statistics showed that Americans could expect to live for 78.8 years in 2015, a decrease of 0.1 from the year before. The overall death rate increased 1.2 percent  thats about 86,212 more deaths than those recorded in 2014.

Dr. Peter Muennig, a professor of health policy and management at Columbia Universitys Mailman School of Public Health, said in an interview that the decline was a uniquely American phenomenon in comparison with other developed countries, such as Japan or Sweden.

A 0.1 decrease is huge, Muennig said. Life expectancy increases, and thats very consistent and predictable, so to see it decrease, thats very alarming.

Q. Whats causing the decline?

For researchers, the numbers reflect a culmination of problems. Eight of the top 10 causes of death showed an increase in death rates, including those from heart disease, diabetes and kidney disease. Deaths from Alzheimers disease rose 15.7 percent, unintentional injuries rose 6.7 percent and suicide rose 2.3 percent.

The infant mortality rate, often the marker researchers use to gauge the health of a population, rose slightly, but Dr. Jiaquan Xu, one of the authors of the study, said that the rise was not considered significant.

Muennig said that popular theories for the cause of the decline, including an increase in obesity rates and an opiod epidemic, fail to explain a problem that feels broader.

If you actually dissect the data, neither of those arguments hold, he said. This report slams it home that this is really a mystery.

Q. Is there any positive news?

Xu said that the studys lone bright spot showed a decline in deaths from cancer, by 1.7 percent.

Thats the only part thats good news, he said.

Q. How does race play a factor in life span?

The study is further confirmation of a decline in health in different racial populations. Death rates among non-Hispanic black males rose 0.9, and 1 percent among non-Hispanic white males. Rates for non-Hispanic white females rose 1.6 percent.

Rates for non-Hispanic black females, Hispanic males and Hispanic females held steady from 2014 to 2015.

Muennig said that a decline in the health of working class whites was a major contributor to the latest survey results. Life expectancy for whites has stagnated or dipped in recent years, fueled by vulnerability to drug and alcohol abuse, suicide and economic distress.

Its not happening to black people, Muennig said. That group used to have a huge and growing disparity with whites, but that gap has radically narrowed.

In 2014, the life expectancy gap between black and white people closed to 3.4 years, the smallest on record.

Q. What about income?

Thursdays survey did not break people down by income or education level, but past research has shown that as the gap between the rich and poor in America widens, people of different income levels can expect to live for different lengths of time.

In February, researchers at the Brookings Institution analyzed life expectancies for men who were among the top 10 percent of earners, and those who were among the bottom 10 percent. For men born in 1950, life expectancy for poorer men was 14 years shorter than for those among the rich.

Muennig said that researchers suspect that the strain of income inequality in the United States  and the stress that this causes  could be a major contributing factor to the uptick, but it has been hard to prove beyond one thread of research that studies how earned-income tax credits can help improve the health of people with low incomes.

Q. Does sex play a factor?

Yes. According to the data, life expectancy for females remains consistently higher than it does for males. In 2015, the difference in life expectancy between females and males increased to 4.9 years in 2015, up from 4.8 years in 2014.

Q. What do these numbers mean for the future?

Xu said in an interview that the decline doesnt necessarily show a trend, but that the numbers are cause for concern.

If a year from now if this situation continues, Xu said, its definitely a problem for public health.
The most amusing part of the Trump transition has been watching its effortless confounding of the media, often in fewer than 140 characters.

One morning, after a Fox News report on lefty nuttiness at some obscure New England college  a flag burning that led a more-contemptible-than-usual campus administration to take down the schools own American flag  Donald Trump tweets that flag burners should go to jail or lose their citizenship.

An epidemic of constitutional chin tugging and civil libertarian hair pulling immediately breaks out. By the time the media have exhausted their outrage over the looming abolition of free speech, judicial supremacy and affordable kale, Trump has moved on. The tempest had a shorter half-life than the one provoked in August 2015 by a Trump foray into birthright citizenship.

Trump so thoroughly owns the political stage today that the word Clinton seems positively quaint and Barack Obama, who happens to be president of the United States, is totally irrelevant. Obama gave a major national security address on Tuesday. Lt. Gen. Michael Flynns son got more attention.

Trump has mesmerized the national media not just with his elaborate cabinet-selection production, by now Broadway-ready, but with a cluster of equally theatrical personal interventions that by traditional standards seem distinctly unpresidential.

Its a matter of size. They seem small for a president. Preventing the shutdown of a Carrier factory in Indiana. Announcing, in a contextless 45-second surprise statement, a major Japanese investment in the U.S. Calling for cancellation of the new Air Force One to be built by Boeing.

Pretty small stuff. It has the feel of a cabinet undersecretary haggling with a contractor or a governor drumming up business on a Central Asian trade mission. Or of candidate Trump selling Trump steaks and Trump wine in that bizarre victory speech after the Michigan primary.

Presidents dont normally do such things. It shrinks them. Then again, Trump is not yet president. And the point is less the substance than the symbolism.

The Carrier coup was meant to demonstrate the kind of concern for the working man that gave Trump the Rust Belt victories that carried him to the presidency. The Japanese SoftBank announcement was a down payment on his promise to be the greatest jobs president that God ever created. And Boeing was an ostentatious declaration that he would be the zealous guardian of government spending that you would expect from a crusading outsider.

What appears as random Trumpian impulsiveness has a logic to it. Its a continuation of the campaign. Trump is acutely sensitive to his legitimacy problem, as he showed in his tweet claiming to have actually won the popular vote, despite trailing significantly in the official count. His best counter is approval ratings. In August, the Bloomberg poll had him at 33 percent. Hes now up to 50 percent. Still nowhere near Obamas stratospheric 79 percent at this point in 2008, but a substantial improvement nonetheless.

The mini-interventions are working, but theres a risk for Trump in so personalizing his coming presidency. Its a technique borrowed from Third World strongmen who specialize in demonstrating their personal connection to the ordinary citizen. In a genuine democracy, however, the endurance of any political support depends on the larger success of the country. And that doesnt come from Carrier-size fixes. It comes from policy  policy that fundamentally changes the structures and alters the trajectory of the nation.

I alone can fix it, Trump ringingly declared in his convention speech. Indeed, alone he can do Carrier and SoftBank and Boeing. But ultimately he must deliver on tax reform, health care, economic growth and nationwide job creation. That requires Congress.

The 115th is Republican and ready to push through the legislation that gives life to the promises. On his part, Trump needs to avoid needless conflict. The Republican leadership has signaled strong opposition on some issues, such as tariffs for job exporters. Nonetheless, there is enough common ground between Trump and his congressional majority to have an enormously productive 2017. The challenge will be to stay within the bounds of the GOP consensus.

Trump will continue to tweet and the media will continue to take the bait. Highly entertaining but it is a sideshow. Congress is where the fate of the Trump presidency will be decided.

Charles Krauthammer is a columnist for The Washington Post.
T.J. Miller has an encouraging message for those who, like him, are bummed about the recent election results.

Here we are, in the midst of this exact time, and America needs a movie that is about people just coming together and partying, the tumbleweed-haired comedian says with palpable sincerity  and the fact that he has a movie coming out called Office Christmas Party.

Just, like, letting it go for a night  and in this case, for the holidays. Everybody gets back to work on Monday, which in this case is the year 2017.

Everything to me, right now, is kind of getting America to just chill for a second, adds the super-hot, 35-year-old star of TVs Silicon Valley and a host of other projects, from cartoons to Deadpool movies to Steven Spielbergs next sci-fi epic, Ready Player One. Drink too much eggnog, go kind of nuts over Christmas  instead of fighting, just watch the movie and fall asleep in the middle of it, everybody, you know? Have that much Honey Baked Ham in the afternoon.

Or you could throw a literally office-demolishing orgy like the Chicago branch of Zenotek does in the movie. Miller plays the benign stoner head of the Windy City operation, Clay Vanstone. He inherited his share of the company from his recently deceased father, as did his mean sister Carol (Jennifer Aniston).

Carol hates Clay. And is the corporations interim CEO, and wants the board to make that position permanent. She arrives in Chicago shortly before the holidays to order Clay to lay off all of his employees and close the underperforming branch. Unless, with the help of the only competent people in the vast, two-floor office  Jason Batemans chief technical officer Josh and Olivia Munns lead systems engineer Tracey  Clay can close a lucrative deal with buttoned-down potential client Walter (Courtney B. Vance).

So, with only hours to pull it off and directly against Carols no-parties directive, they invite Walter to the most epic office Christmas blowout they can come up with. And that they do competently, complete with live reindeer, a frozen slip-and-slide luge, gallons of liquor and clouds of cocaine snowflakes.

A glorious, embarrassing and, in any other office, career-killing good time is had by all the contentious Zenotek employees, not to mention the random revelers who come in off the street to the bacchanal.

Clay is like, it doesnt matter if the guys in legal hate the guys in HR, tonight all of us are partying, Miller says. They all have to not only save the company, but its like people over profit. You need a work culture that people are excited to go to, and they need a steam-release valve every once in a while.

Its fortuitous timing that were rolling out this movie that is not only a comedy that can let people laugh and take a break from their own minds, but also one about, Hey, I dont care who you are or what you do or what your beliefs are, but tonight we need to throw the greatest party of all time, he says. And I dont know; we couldve used a couple more reindeer and maybe one more computer server falling out of a skyscraper window, but we came close to being the greatest.

A bit of Clay was actually modeled on a boss Miller had. While he was honing his comedy skills at Chicagos famed Second City theater, his day job was legal secretary at a Loop law firm.

Incredibly, that law firm is still in business, and you can actually spot the building that houses it in a scene behind Miller and Bateman crossing a bridge over the Chicago River. Miller recalls leaving his cubicle back in the day to stare out the window at that bridge while contemplating his future.

I would think, Well, whats this going to be? he says. I work every single night doing stand-up, Second City, sketch comedy, all of it; will any of this lead anywhere? Then suddenly, Im looking up at that building next to Jason Bateman, getting ready to do this movie that Im starring in with people that Ive always looked up to creatively, so that was pretty fun.

Atlanta, where the production shot the party interiors, was not so much fun as was simulated onscreen.

Yknow, legally, Hollywood isnt as cool as Zenotek, the Denver native says. I get asked that question a lot for Silicon Valley: Are you actually smoking real marijuana? And its kind of like, not really, because you sort of cant party so that we can present you with a movie that makes you laugh and gets you in the mood to party.

That held until the productions slightly premature wrap party. Or so Miller has heard, anyway.

Thanks to my insane work ethic, I went and did stand-up that night, he says. But apparently, life imitated art.

It was actually before the end of the movie, so when people went back to work on Monday.  No one was like, You were so drunk you threw up all over your leg and then spread the throw-up all over your shirt so it looked like an outfit. There was no judgment about that stuff. It was just, Great night, huh? I think we need more of those nights, especially right now.

Millers not worried about getting stereotyped as a partying tech boss due to his roles in this film and Silicon Valley; Deadpools Weasel is a weasel who hes been promised will have more guns in the sequel, and he describes his Ready Player One character as a more humorous and talkative Boba Fett type.

I dont think Im getting pigeonholed in tech jobs, but I am getting pigeonholed in playing characters  and this is art imitating life  that have no business being in business, he says. Silicon Valleys Erlich is totally unqualified and a complete blowhard who talks his way through situations. Clay is the result of nepotism, and although hes good-natured, clearly Josh is the one running the branch.

So I think Im starting to get into that typecasting, which again is art imitating life. Thats me in Hollywood. Me being in this business is a joke, but somehow I keep getting jobs.

Contact the writer: bob.strauss@scng.com
A nation of laws

Re: Santa Ana now officially a sanctuary city [News, Dec. 7]: One of the defining elements of a nation is its sovereign borders. Along with borders are laws regarding immigration which govern how citizens of other nations are allowed to cross borders and enter other countries. Our nation has borders and immigration laws that are intended to preserve and enforce our sovereignty. Santa Anas declaration that it is a sanctuary city, and will not comply with our immigration laws, sends a troubling message to both our youth and those who illegally immigrate to this country. If we are a nation of laws, as President Obama is so often quoted, then laws cannot be selectively enforced. So-called sanctuary cities are breaking various federal immigration laws and the Santa Ana city officials who are upholding these policies should be held legally accountable.

 Arnold Gregg, Anaheim

Sends the wrong message

It seems reasonable that the City Council of Santa Ana has proclaimed it a sanctuary city. It is logical to welcome and protect people that are here illegally and commit crimes, and make the taxpayers of Santa Ana pay for the defense of those folks. Why not put out the welcome mat for the folks that have broken the law? I am sure that the documented and undocumented, law abiding, hard working people of Santa Ana want to have those criminals as their neighbors and are even willing to part with their money to protect them.

 Louie Kish, Santa Ana

Missing the point

Re: Get real about climate [Letters, Dec. 6]: Critics of Joel Kotkins climate change column totally missed the point. He was not trying to prove or disprove man-made global warming. He was pointing out that whether you believe or disbelieve in man-made global warming, the feel-good policies of California leaders are doing very little to decrease global warming while hurting the poor and middle class in a major way. The slow train to nowhere and failed solar companies are just the most obvious examples of poor policies that have no benefit to the climate.

 James Haynes, Irvine

A different kind of hike

Re: How should California Democrats use their supermajority? [Opinion, Dec. 6]: The Democrats should legislate a hike  hike out of town.

 Bill Rodriguez, Aliso Viejo
SEOUL, South Korea  South Koreas Parliament voted Friday to impeach President Park Geun-hye, an aloof conservative who took a hard line against North Korea and rose to power with strong support from those who revered her father, military dictator Park Chung-hee.

The vote against Park, the nations first female leader, followed weeks of damaging disclosures in a corruption scandal that has all but paralyzed the government and produced the largest street protests in the nations history. Her powers will be suspended as the Constitutional Court considers whether to remove her from office.

Park has been accused of allowing a shadowy confidante, the daughter of a religious sect leader, to exercise remarkable influence on matters ranging from choosing top government officials to her wardrobe, and of helping her extort tens of millions of dollars from South Korean companies. The scandal, which gained national attention less than two months ago, has cast a harsh light on collusion between the presidency and big business in one of Asias most dynamic economies.

A total of 234 lawmakers voted for impeachment, well over the required two-thirds threshold in the 300-seat Parliament. The vote was by secret ballot, but the results indicated that nearly half of the 128 lawmakers in Parks party, Saenuri, had joined the opposition in moving to oust her.

Thousands of people who had gathered outside the Parliament building in the frigid cold danced, cheered and blew on horns when the news was announced.

My heart is beating so fast, said Han Joo-young, 47, an executive at a nonprofit organization who had come from Paju, north of the capital. I am so touched that people who are usually powerless can have so much power when they come together.

The impeachment motion, accusing Park of extensive and serious violations of the constitution and the law, will be taken up by the Constitutional Court, which has six months to decide whether the charges are true and merit her ouster.

Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, a former prosecutor and staunch defender of Park, will serve as acting president in the meantime. If the court votes to remove Park, South Korea will hold an election for a new president in 60 days.

The political turmoil ushers in a period of uncertainty as South Korea faces a slowing economy, a growing nuclear threat from North Korea and a more assertive China. Park had adopted a tough stance toward the North, focusing on stronger sanctions, and had agreed to deploy a U.S. advanced missile defense system that infuriated the Chinese.

Her unpopularity increases the chances of a liberal candidate winning the next election, possibly upending her North Korea approach and steering the country closer to China.

Domestically, her undoing provides the latest example of how corruption and influence-peddling remain entrenched at the top echelons of political and corporate life in South Korea.

The nexus of industry and political power has fueled South Koreas transformation from a war-torn agrarian country into a global economic powerhouse, yet the ties between government and business have yielded recurring corruption scandals.

Park, 64, came to power in early 2013, backed mostly by older Koreans who had hoped she would be a contemporary version of her father, often viewed as the modernizer of South Korea.

Instead, she became the least popular leader since the country began democratizing in the late 1980s, according to recent polls. Critics said she was authoritarian and used state power to muzzle critics while shielded by a coterie of advisers.

The vote for impeachment in the National Assembly, South Koreas Parliament, was a victory for both the opposition and the huge crowds of South Koreans who filled central Seoul for the past six weekends demanding that she resign or face impeachment. Recent surveys showed that a vast majority of South Koreans agreed with the demonstrators.

It is a victory of the peoples will and Koreas democracy, said Kang Won-taek, a professor of political science at Seoul National University. It is Koreas glorious revolution, achieved without blood and without any serious violence.

The last time South Koreans took to the streets to kick out an unpopular leader, in 1960, they had to fight bloody battles with police officers armed with rifles.

That uprising forced Syngman Rhee, the countrys founding and authoritarian president, to resign and flee into exile in Hawaii. Vice President Lee Ki-poong, a Rhee confidant who was at the center of a corruption scandal, and his family ended their lives in a group suicide as mobs approached their home in Seoul.

In subsequent decades, when South Koreans demanded more democracy, their military dictators, including Parks father, brutally suppressed them through martial law, torturing and even executing their leaders.

In 1987, violence erupted again as people took to the streets to demand free presidential elections, forcing the military government to back down.

This time, in a sign of how much South Koreas democracy had matured, peaceful crowds achieved their goal without a single arrest. Increasingly large numbers of protesters gathered in the capital, including about 1.7 million people Saturday  the largest protest in South Korean history.

Park became the first South Korean president to lose an impeachment vote since 2004, when the National Assembly moved to impeach Roh Moo-hyun for violating election law. Two months later, the Constitutional Court ruled that Rohs offense was too minor to justify impeachment and restored him to office. But Park faces much more serious accusations.

Still, it is difficult to predict when and how the Constitutional Court will rule on Parks fate.

Removing her would require the votes of at least six of the nine Constitutional Court judges. Among the current judges, six were appointed by Park or her conservative predecessor, or are otherwise seen as being close to her party.

The process, which may include hearings, will buy time for Parks embattled party to recover from the scandal and prepare for the next presidential election if the court decides to unseat her.

If a liberal candidate wins the next election, the plan for the U.S. missile deployment could be in trouble. Although none of the politicians cited as potential presidential candidates have specified that they would reverse the plan if elected, liberals have criticized the deployment, saying that South Korea should pursue a more balanced diplomacy between Washington and Beijing.

That may present a challenge for the incoming administration of Donald Trump, as he deliberates over whether to adjust Washingtons approach toward North Koreas advancing nuclear-missile program.

Shortly after the impeachment vote, Hwang, the prime minister, warned that North Korea may try provocations to incite domestic unrest in the South during its transition period. Han Min-koo, the defense minister, ordered the military to heighten vigilance against the North.

Park joins the ranks of South Korean leaders who have been disgraced near the end of their terms, with their relatives or aides implicated in corruption scandals. An exception was Parks father, who was assassinated in 1979 at the height of his dictatorial power and before anyone dared to bring corruption charges against him.

His and subsequent governments had favored a handful of family-owned conglomerates with tax benefits, lucrative business licenses and buy-Korea and anti-labor policies. In return, the businesses were accused of returning the favors with bribes and suspicious donations.

Through the years, top corporations have been rocked by recurring corruption scandals, including the one that implicated Park and her confidante, Choi Soon-sil.

In 1988, business tycoons were hauled into a parliamentary hearing to be questioned about millions of dollars they gave to a foundation controlled by military dictator Chun Doo-hwan.

The scene repeated this week, when nine business leaders, including Jay Y. Lee, the vice chairman of Samsung, and Chung Mong-koo, the Hyundai chairman, appeared at another parliamentary hearing to be questioned about millions of dollars they gave to two foundations controlled by Choi.

Choi has been indicted on charges of leveraging her influence with Park to extort the money from the businesses. Prosecutors have also identified Park as a criminal suspect, a first for a president, although she cannot be indicted while in office.

The businessmen admitted giving the money, confirming that the requests had come directly from Park or her aides.

Hur Chang-soo, chairman of GS Group and the head of the Federation of Korean Industries, the pro-business lobby group that coordinated the donations, put the situation this way: It is difficult for businesses to say no to a request from the government. Thats the reality in South Korea.

Some analysts saw the vote and the huge protests as a repudiation of the entire system.

This impeachment is not only an impeachment against Park Geun-hye but a judgment against the conservative party and the post Cold War order that has maintained power in South Korea for so many years, said Kim Dong-choon, professor of sociology at Sungkonghoe University in Seoul.
A new president usually lifts all boats in his party.

But Donald Trump lost California by a 2-1 margin, the worst loss for a major-party presidential nominee here since 1936. The Republican share of the states voters is 26 percent and shrinking, and the party faces a deep divide on how to reverse its fortunes.

Many say the party needs to soften its posture on undocumented immigrants and social issues to attract more Latino, Asian and young voters.

Others, particularly in the GOPs traditional voter base, counter that Trumps victory nationwide is proof that a stronger stance is called for.

At stake is the very relevance of the Republican Party in California.

Logically, they cannot win elections the way theyre going, said Raphael Sonenshein, executive director of CSU Los Angeles Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs. But if they go a different direction, its going to create a big fight within the party.

The dilemma reared its head Dec. 5, the first day of the state legislative session.

The 72 Democrats in the Assembly and Senate all voted for a resolution critical of President-elect Donald Trumps various campaign proposals on immigration. Two Republicans supported it, voting with Democrats, and 19 abstained. Only 17 Republicans stood with the incoming GOP president and voted against it.

The bill (said) a lot of good things about the contributions of immigrants, said Sen. Janet Nguyen, R-Fountain Valley, a Vietnamese immigrant who abstained. Im a product of that.  My family was on welfare and I have held minimum-wage jobs. Not everybody who is on welfare is abusing the system.

While she objected to the combative approach of Democrats, she supported many aspects of the resolution. Republicans, she said, should focus on common ground for all Californians.

We need to be able to talk about health care and education, and continue to talk about jobs and the economy, she said.

Nguyen, a former county supervisor and city council member, is one model for Republican success. While her working-class district has more Democratic voters than Republicans and more Latino voters than Vietnamese, she easily beat former Assemblyman Jose Solorio, a Latino Democrat, to claim her seat in 2014.

Nguyen supports a pathway to legal status for most of those in the country illegally and empathizes with families fearful of being broken up because of deportation.

Redlands John Berry, a California coordinator for the Tea Party Patriots, is on the other side of the GOP divide. He wants undocumented immigrants deported.

Republicans need to take tough stances on social issues and immigration, he said. Like so many Republicans, Im very frustrated with the California Republican Party. They dont stand up for anything.

He said Tea Party activists knocked on 15,000 doors in his hometown on behalf of Trump.

Our key issue was illegal immigration, and our people were well-received, Berry said. He believes the issue can attract Latino and Asian citizens to the party, arguing that Trump did better with those groups than Mitt Romney did four years ago.

Exit polling by the National Election Pool, whose data are used by TV networks and The New York Times, found that 29 percent of both Latinos and Asians voted for Trump. Romney received 21 percent of the Latino vote and 18 percent of the Asian vote, according to the group.

As they establish their roots in this country, they see how illegal immigrants are hurting the country, he said, saying undocumented workers undercut wages, among other things.

But others dismiss that part of the National Election Pools exit polling, calling it an unreliable outlier in measuring minority voter sentiment. Sonenshein is among those who favor Latino Decisions bilingual polling of Latino voters, which showed 18 percent favored Trump nationwide.

A ground plan

Jim Brulte, chairman of the California Republican Party, is intensely aware of the need to connect better with the growing populations of Latinos (now 28 percent of the states voting-age citizens) and Asians (11 percent).

Sitting on a post-election panel last month, Brulte laid out the future demographics in stark terms: Of Californians who will reach voting age in the next decade, 52 percent are Latino and 11 percent are Asian. Just 16 percent of Latinos and 23 percent of Asians now register as Republican, he said.

We didnt get in trouble overnight, he said at the event, held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. It took 30 years. And were not going to be out of trouble overnight.

California is not historically a Democratic stronghold. Since 1920, its voted for the Democratic presidential nominee 13 times and the Republican 12 times. It voted for the Republican every election from 1968 to 1988.

But its gone with the Democrat each year since. Every statewide elected official, including the governor and both U.S. senators, is a Democrat, and the states congressional delegation skews heavily Democratic, 39-14. Democrats also picked up four seats this election in the state Legislature, giving the party a two-thirds supermajority in both chambers.

California is a state that wants to vote Democratic, Brulte said at the event. Its going to be that way for a long time. Its been trending that way for a long time. And now the Democrats get to own it. Im fascinated by who theyre going to blame when the economy cycles down and the mythology that we have a balanced budget exposes itself.

But hes also not sitting idly on the sidelines.

Our plan has been to rebuild from the ground up, he said.

That means tilling the fields at the school board, city council and county supervisor level. While demographic changes have pushed Democrats to within 4 percentage points of Republicans among voters in the traditional GOP stronghold of Orange County, all five of the county supervisors are Republicans  as are the vast majority of city council members.

Republicans, who have a dedicated organization called Grow Elect to recruit and support Latino candidates, also boast that they now have two Latino Republicans on the school board in heavily Democratic Santa Ana.

Republicans also hold all five seats on the board of supervisors in San Diego County, where Democratic voters outnumber Republicans.

Part of the GOPs success on the local level has to do with the relative absence of partisan immigration and social issues. In that, lies a lesson.

The challenge going forward is to find issues that the base and the rapidly growing new voter group agree on, Brulte told the Register. He pointed specifically to charter schools as a winning issue for low-income areas and to GOP-favored initiatives to create jobs.

The way you grow any organization is to focus on the issues that unite you and divide the other side, he said.

If we can ever figure out how to get it right, we will provide a road map for the country, he added. Because the country is looking a lot more like California.

Transcendent candidates

But having a strategy and actually turning around the steady declines are two different things. Thats especially true with illegal immigration rooted as a central issue for much of the GOPs traditional base and unlikely to be easily reconciled between the two Republican factions.

For internal reasons, its going to be quite difficult for them to change in California, Sonenshein said.

Immigration aside, the states voters gave plenty of other signals in November that they prefer left-leaning policies, approving ballot measures legalizing recreational marijuana use, increasing gun control and banning plastic bags.

But examples of what has worked for California Republicans come up repeatedly, and they are often stories of individuals like Nguyen who transcended political partisan labels by tapping directly into the gestalt of their communities. San Diegos Kevin Faulconer and Fresnos Ashley Swearengin, both Republican mayors of Democratic cities, are among others mentioned as doing the same.

You spend all this time discussing what the party should do and then somebody shows up and runs with a message different than the party and they win, Sonenshein said, citing both Trump and former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger as such renegades.

After Romneys 2012 loss, the Republican Party produced a road map for the future that called for numerous changes, including an approach to immigration reform that would appeal more to Latinos and social policies that were more in tune with young voters.

Trump turned his back on many of those recommendations  as well as some more traditional GOP positions, including free trade  and created his own winning formula.

You dont create a candidate by talking about direction the party should go, Sonenshein said. The candidate shows up and defines themself.

Contact the writer: mwisckol@ocregister.com
SANTA ANA  A 23-year-old man wanted on suspicion of fatally shooting a boy in Santa Ana in 2011 is in custody after he was found in Mexico, police said Friday.

Jesus Canales was 18 and a Santa Ana resident when he was accused of shooting 16-year-old Alberto David Miller in the 300 block of East Washington Avenue, Santa Ana police said.

Canales bicycled away from the scene, police said, and has been on their most-wanted list ever since.

In February 2012, a felony arrest warrant was issued in an Orange County court after Canales was charged with murder, street terrorism, committing murder for the benefit of a criminal street gang and intentionally discharging a firearm resulting in death, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigations. A federal arrest warrant was issued in July 2012 after he was charged wtih unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.

Authorities had periodically asked for the publics help in finding him.

One other man was arrested; police said they believe he and Canales approached a group of people and asked about gang affiliations before Canales shot the victim multiple times.

Investigators discovered that Canales was in the state of Michoacan, in Mexico, and he was detained by Mexican authorities on July 14. He was taken to Mexico City to await extradition, the FBI said. On Thursday, he was turned over to Santa Ana homicide detectives at Los Angeles International Airport and was later booked into jail in Santa Ana.

Contact the writer: 714-796-7865 or afausto@scng.com
After a three-year hiatus, Orange County-based metal band Atreyu came back mightily in 2014, performing in front of thousands of patrons at some of the largest hard rock and heavy metal festivals across the country, including the Aftershock Festival in Sacramento and Slipknots Knotfest in San Bernardino.

It renewed its energy in front of hometown crowds with an intimate 250-capacity gig at one of its old haunts, Chain Reaction in Anaheim that September, and it wrapped up 2014 with two sold-out shows at the Observatory in Santa Ana in December, where it also filmed the live music video for its newest single, So Others May Live, in front of a rowdy live audience. It was those back-to-back evenings that gave the band members the idea to curate a homegrown two-day festival in mid-December, a time where things are normally quiet locally.

It just ended up being a really fun weekend and it was nice to end the year playing some home shows so close to the holidays when it seems like everyone is in town just hanging out with really nothing to do, drummer and vocalist Brandon Saller said during a recent interview. Working with the promoters at the Observatory, Atreyu was able to put together its very own rock, metal and hardcore music festival dubbed Foundation Fest at the concert venue, which will take place Dec. 16-17.

With the first installment, Atreyu recruited local talent, adding bands from Orange County, Los Angeles and the Inland Empire to both evenings. The first night includes sets by Adamantium, Death By Stereo and Aeges, while night two features The Word Alive, Assuming We Survive and Capsize, with Atreyu headlining both shows.

I think Foundation Fest will always have a bit of an emphasis on local music, Saller said. That was kind of the concept behind the name of it since our band started in Orange County, and for the most part, Orange County is the foundation for a lot of these bands.

The hope, Saller said, is to start small with just four bands per evening in the main concert room and to grow the Foundation Fest into a larger annual event. There will be numerous vendors on site as well, selling clothing, artwork, like Atreyu bassist Porter McKnights limited-edition photo prints, and stocking-stuffers perfect for last minute Christmas shopping, Saller added. Theyll also have Texas-style barbeque for sale courtesy of Bandit BBQ out of Oceanside and Korean BBQ fresh from the Kogi food truck.

Were really trying to encourage people to come a little early, check out the vendors, grab some barbeque, a drink and just hang out, he added.

Last year, Atreyu released its sixth studio album, Long Live, its first record since 2009s Congregation of the Damned. The album was well-received by fans, a fact that Saller said is not lost at all on the members of the band including McKnight, vocalist Alex Varkatzas, lead guitarist Dan Jacobs and rhythm guitarist Travis Miguel.

The break we took was really necessary, but we didnt know what to expect when we came back, Saller said. There just came a time where all five of us were on the same page again and were still kind of reflecting on these last two years and we realize that were really fortunate to have the love from fans that we do. To come back and to have people still care and to have people still be excited, thats a big thing and no band should ever just expect that.

As the group is approaching its 20th anniversary, Saller said that the most recent show at Chain Reaction was really the key to kicking the now thirtysomethings back into peak performance mode.

We needed to start back out with something like that to get the spirit going, he continued. Theres nothing more in-your-face than a show like that where you have all these people slammed into a room, its 150 degrees, everyone is sweaty and you cant breathe. Thats the surefire way to get your blood pumping. Sometimes you just have to be served up to the wolves again. We had to do that before we did Knotfest and really get our nose back to the grindstone before hitting a big stage and just remind ourselves of where we started and why we started in the first place.

With the new album, the chemistry returned rather quickly as the guys aimed not to put too much pressure on themselves, not dissect their work to death and to create something that was representative to where they were at in the moment.

This record has the most energy that an Atreyu record has had in quite a long time and you can feel that locomotive chugging along, Saller said. Theres definitely that vibe and that energy to it that could have only come from us just letting the music happen and not forcing it.

Foundation Fest will officially end the touring cycle for Long Live and the band members plan on being semi-quiet in 2017 as they work on new material and also pursue their individual endeavors. Sallers rock band Hell or Highwater will have a new album out in March and is opening day two of the annual Musink Fest at the OC Fair & Events Center in Costa Mesa on March 18.

Contact the writer: 714-796-3570 or kfadroski@ocregister.com
WASHINGTON  President-elect Donald Trump made many sweeping promises on his way to victory on Election Day. After he takes the oath of office on Jan. 20, here are five of the most difficult and five of the easiest promises to keep:

The difficult ones

 Prevent U.S. companies from moving jobs to other countries.

Companies move to other countries to pursue higher profits, and Trump cannot force them to stay. The question is whether he can make it profitable to do so. It is difficult because labor is much cheaper in other countries. Carrier pays workers at its Indiana factory an average hourly wage of $23  roughly four times what it plans to pay workers with the same jobs in Mexico.

Trump has promised tax cuts and regulatory relief, but those are minor expenses for most companies, particularly in comparison to their payrolls. Trump also has threatened to impose new taxes on imports, but he cannot target particular companies. Any such tariffs would have to be broad  and therefore broadly painful.

 Revive U.S. steel-making and coal-mining industries.

The productivity of the U.S. coal industry has increased roughly tenfold since the end of World War II. The work that once required 10 miners now requires just one. Steel making has undergone a similar transformation. That is by far the most important reason employment in both industries has declined precipitously. Most of those jobs are never coming back.

Demand for coal has also declined thanks to a revolution in the production of natural gas and, to a lesser extent, other alternative energy sources. This, too, is a development that Trump lacks the power to reverse.

 Increase U.S. economic growth to more than 4 percent a year.

There are only two ways to increase economic growth: Increase the number of workers, or increase productivity, the amount the average worker produces. The news is not good on either front. The growth of the U.S. workforce is slowing as baby boomers retire and families have fewer children. And Trump has promised new restrictions on immigration, limiting another source of workers. At the same time, productivity has increased over the last decade at an average annual pace of just 1.3 percent  and there is little evidence that faster growth is in the offing.

The result is that annual economic growth has averaged 2.1 percent in the six full years since the last recession, and is on a similar trajectory this year. There are few obvious means for Trump to deliver on his promise.

 Invest in infrastructure to create jobs.

Trump will find bipartisan support in Congress for his proposal to create jobs and stimulate the economy by building and repairing highways, bridges, water systems and other public works. But many Republicans may balk at a big spending program that adds to the federal budget deficit.

Some Democrats will resist Trumps proposal to offer tax breaks to private companies in return for infrastructure investments, notably because the federal government is able to borrow money at exceptionally low rates. Democrats are also likely to resist efforts to waive environmental rules or prevailing-wage protections for construction projects.

 Build a border wall.

Trump promised to build a great, great wall on our southern border and have Mexico pay for that wall. Fulfilling this promise would be difficult, though perhaps not impossible if Trump stretches the definition of wall.

Fences already exist along hundreds of miles of the border. Mexico has said it will not pay for a wall. And even if it did, Trump would probably need approval from Congress to spend money. Trump could do much to beef up border security on his own. Congress would support increased border security and the installation of more fencing, but construction of a wall would meet resistance from both parties.

The easier ones

 Withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Trump pledged that on his first day in office he would give notice that the United States intends to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade agreement the Obama administration negotiated with other Pacific Rim nations that is awaiting ratification.

Though Trump has the authority to carry out this promise, other participants, including Japan and Australia, have expressed hope that he will reconsider. If not, they may pursue regional trade deals that exclude the United States.

 End the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

The program, which President Barack Obama announced to protect undocumented immigrants who entered the country as minors, was created by presidential fiat and it can be ended just as easily. Trump has repeatedly promised to do so. He has not said whether he will deprive current participants of protection, or simply prevent new enrollments.

 Allow the Keystone XL pipeline to move forward.

Pipelines that run between the United States and Canada must obtain presidential approval. In November 2015, Obama refused to grant permission to the Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry oil from the tar sands of Canada to the southern edge of Nebraska, where it would connect to existing pipelines.

Trump has encouraged the company behind the project, TransCanada, to submit a new application once he takes office. He also has suggested, however, that TransCanada should share its profits with taxpayers.

 Nominate a Supreme Court justice.

Trump says that in his first 100 days, he will begin the process of selecting a replacement for Justice Antonin Scalia from his list of 21 judges who will uphold and defend the U.S. Constitution.

This promise will be easy to keep. Just winnowing the names of court candidates could qualify as beginning the process of replacing Scalia, who died in February.

 Reduce federal business and personal taxes.

Trump has promised to reduce federal taxation of businesses and households. Congressional Republicans have expressed support for a broadly similar approach. The details have derailed past efforts to overhaul the tax code, but Republican control of both Congress and the White House increases the chances that Trump will succeed.
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09/12/2016 - New international guidance on fighting corruption in the development sector goes into effect today, backed by more than 40 countries, with progress on agreed recommendations to be monitored by the OECD Working Group on Bribery and the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC).

Launched on International Anti-Corruption Day, the OECD Recommendation for Development Cooperation Actors on Managing Risks of Corruption calls on countries to create or improve systems for avoiding and responding to corrupt practices in the management and delivery of aid by development agencies and private firms. Anti-corruption systems should include codes of ethics, whistleblowing mechanisms, financial controls and sanctions for misconduct, among other elements.

The new guidance responds to calls for more effective responses from international development agencies to cases of corruption involving aid. It should ensure more checks and balances at a time when public-private partnerships in the aid sector are increasing. The Recommendation applies to the 41 countries party to the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention and the 30 DAC members.

Development activities are very often accompanied by different forms of corruption, which cause the loss of billions of euros being channelled into private pockets instead of countries in need, said Drago Kos, Chair of the OECD Working Group on Bribery in International Business Transactions. This new guidance will help development agencies around the world to detect potential corruption cases and eradicate corruption.

Corruption in the aid sector steals from the worlds poorest and most vulnerable people and is a stain on our efforts to reach global development goals. Donor countries, aid agencies and developing countries have a common interest in doing everything we can to reduce it, said DAC Chair Charlotte Petri Gornitzka. As we try to grow the aid pie with more private sector involvement, the help of the OECDs anti-corruption experts will be invaluable in fighting misconduct.

The Recommendation is the result of a DAC decision to update its 1996 Recommendation on Anti-Corruption Proposals for Bilateral Aid Procurement, extending its scope beyond procurement to reflect the growth in new partners and new channels for aid disbursement. It will contribute to how donors respond to Sustainable Development Goal 16 making it their responsibility to do no harm with their development interventions.

The OECD Working Group on Bribery will monitor the implementation of relevant sections, such as those relating to prevention measures and sanctions, in the context of its monitoring for the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention. The DAC will develop a complementary monitoring mechanism.

The OECD Anti-Bribery Convention establishes legally binding standards to criminalise bribery of foreign public officials in international business transactions and provides for a host of related measures that make this effective. It is the first and only international anti-corruption instrument focused on the supply side of the bribery transaction.

The Working Group on Bribery  made up of the 35 OECD countries plus Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Colombia, Russia and South Africa  comprises the Parties to the Convention. It conducts a systematic programme for monitoring implementation of the Convention. Typical examples of foreign bribery involve bribing officials in foreign countries to obtain public contracts for building infrastructure.

The new Recommendation:

Suggests measures to prevent and detect corruption in projects financed by official development assistance (ODA).

Details sanctions to be provided in ODA contracts to enable agencies to respond adequately to cases of corruption.

Advises countries international development agencies to work towards corruption risk management systems that include codes of ethics, whistleblowing mechanisms, financial control and monitoring tools, sanctions, coordination in responding to corruption cases.

Download the Recommendation:

http://www.oecd.org/corruption/oecd-recommendation-for-development-cooperation-actors-on-managing-risks-of-corruption.htm

More information about OECD work on corruption: www.oecd.org/corruption

More information about OECD work on development: www.oecd.org/development

For further information, journalists should contact the OECD Media Office, +33 1 45 24 97 00.
posted by , ,

It's not Wole Soyinka. It's not Adebayo Ogunlesi. It's not Muhammadu Buhari. It's not Aliko Dangote. It's not Akinwumi Ambode.





It is the former CBN governor and current Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi. He's one of the very few people who my respect for grows bigger each year. In fact, I had almost no admiration/respect for him when I first knew about him in the year he was appointed by Goodluck Jonathan to head CBN. I remember how I used to strongly criticize him for finding fault with the very government he's meant to closely work with. "Couldn't he had confronted the president privately about the missing $20 billion oil money, why make it a public affair that won't help resolve anything but make him an enemy of the very people who employed him?" "That's just plain being immature." "He talks too much." Those were some of the things I said against him.





Today, he's my best Nigerian (outside of my family and close friends).





He's got a clean and corruption-resistant reputation. He speaks the truth and with impartiality. And the one that most endears him to me is that he is very hardworking and extremely intelligent. Last year I worked on a research work that got me reading some of his published papers. They were so un-Nigerian in depth of research, thoroughness and technical + practical soundness. He is unlike the other Nigerians who head public service. I greatly wish that our Statistician General will emulate him.





Yesterday, I read through his last week presentation that got the newspapers and media at large rattling. I downloaded it. And it is the best, both in design and content, I have come across in the Nigerian economic and policy space. All he said made perfect sense. I even learned a lot as regards data presentation and analysis. He's so very good and despite being an Emir, still diligently thorough. He's my new role model.





Obviously, the government cares more about perception management than being on the side of truth. So as usual they've been quick to say that the Emir is mistaken and not in on all the facts. But anyone who reads his presentation will know that he is not mistaken and his conclusions are strongly data backed.





I am glad to still have a Nigerian based Nigeria I can 100% hope to be like. And perfect to discover this at a time I'm still trying to pack the broken fragments of huge respect I used to have for Wole Soyinka, checking for which might still be worth keeping.
Dec 9 (Reuters) - Fitch Ratings affirmed the United Kingdom's long-term foreign and local currency issuer default ratings at 'AA', citing the sterling's international reserve currency status among others.

The ratings agency said on Friday that the referendum vote to leave the European Union has brought in a period of heightened political, economic and institutional uncertainty.

(Reporting by Abinaya Vijayaraghavan in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)
Im sorry to spoil the opening credits surprise of Nocturnal Animals, but viewers should know what theyre getting into.

As the credits roll, a series of naked obese women dance while glitter falls around them. At first it seems like an empty provocation, but the sequence does at least bear some narrative relevance.

As the film pulls back, its revealed that these women are part of a video installation at the opening exhibition party of a luxurious Los Angeles art gallery. Throughout the exhibit, the women of the videos lie facedown and naked, on display for the detached discernment of L.A.s rich and beautiful.

Writer/director Tom Ford, who adapted Nocturnal Animals from a novel by Austin Wright, is a fashion designer and longtime denizen of numerous art scenes. And on the one hand, his dancing naked women sequence appears to be an indictment of the excesses, exploitations and absurdities of the art world. But on the other, it kind of embodies exactly the thing hes critiquing. Is the scene exploitative body-shaming or a satire of those who would do so, and does it ultimately matter either way?

All of this is to say that Nocturnal Animals is a deeply frustrating film that will draw a broad swath of reactions. But you cant fault the movie for not being upfront. It enervates right off the bat.

The owner of the L.A. gallery is Susan (Amy Adams), who is wealthy but unhappy. Shes married to a square-jawed and adulterous alpha male played by Armie Hammer. She hangs around with frivolous people who are equally unhappy but better medicated.

Susan receives a copy of an unpublished manuscript from her first husband, Edward (Jake Gyllenhaal). The book is called Nocturnal Animals, based on a nickname Edward had once given Susan.

OK, so the plot of this movie, what is actually happening, could be summarized as this: Amy Adams reads a book and remembers things.

But the movie lives in three tiers. 1. Susan reads her ex-husbands book. 2. The book is depicted on screen. 3. Susan recalls her marriage to Edward in flashbacks.

The fictional story within the movie is the most enjoyable stretch. Its a harrowing road thriller in which family man Tony (Jake Gyllenhaal again but with a beard this time) tries to save his wife (Isla Fisher, who looks a lot like Amy Adams) and his teenage daughter (Ellie Bamber) when theyre run off an isolated stretch of Texas road by a car full of scary rednecks (including a downright feral Aaron Taylor-Johnson). The bad guys menace and threats of sexual violence make Nocturnal Animals, at least briefly, a tight and terrifying genre exercise.

The story within the story also allows for a predictably terrific performance by Michael Shannon, who plays the sweaty, creepy and ethically suspect detective who helps Tony look for his wife and daughter.

The movie eventually switches gears to a revenge thriller, and its an effectively and satisfyingly trashy one. Yet, its hard to shake that its still just a fiction within a fiction. Its difficult to care about the outcome for these characters, no matter how skillfully Ford and his editor, Joan Sobel, integrate the fiction into the rest of the film.

Worse still, the events of Edwards novel matter to the rest of the plot only in terms of metaphor. This country-fried horror movie is really a fantastical representation of Susan and Edwards imploding marriage. Susan betrayed Edward once, and the novel is both his revenge and a repudiation of the kind of man Susan thought him to be.

This idea, of using a book as a weapon, is sort of fascinating in theory, but those looking for a conventionally satisfying thriller are going to leave hungry. This is an intellectual exercise, and not a very successful one. It leaves big questions unanswered but is never weird or abstract enough of a film to pave over plot holes with dream logic.

That said, if Fords script is a bit of a headache, his filmmaking is typically sublime.

Nocturnal Animals is going for an aesthetic that falls somewhere between Hitchcock and Lynch, and its thick with noir pleasures: Seamus McGarveys shadowy cinematography, Abel Korzeniowskis old-fashioned score.

In the end the film is, at least partially, a withering critique of the emptiness of aesthetics that is itself an empty exercise in aesthetics. Which makes it a clever film but not necessarily a good one.

Nocturnal Animals

Grade: C

Cast: Amy Adams, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Shannon, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Armie Hammer, Laura Linney, Michael Sheen

Director: Tom Ford

Rating: R for violence, menace, graphic nudity and language

Running time: 1 hour, 56 minutes

Theaters: Aksarben, Bluffs 17, Majestic, Oakview, Twin Creek, Village Pointe
Total exposure to O&G sector stood at $16.1bn or 17% of core capital.

Fitch has revised its sector outlook for Singapore banks to negative, in view of soft macroeconomic conditions that it expects to persist in 2017.

This, it said, could place broadening pressure on asset quality and dampen earnings over the next year.

The ratings agency notes however that Singapore banks solid credit profiles  characterised by steady funding and liquidity positions, strong loss-absorption buffers and healthy profitability  support its stable outlooks for their ratings.

Here's more from Fitch:

Credit-Quality Pressures Remain: Key stress lies in the oil & gas sector which we expect will continue to exert moderate pressure on banks asset quality in 2017. Prolonged economic weakness could lead to broader asset-quality risks which may also affect small- and mediumsized businesses.

However, we believe the downside risks to be manageable. Banks combined exposure of SGD16.1bn to the troubled offshore support services represented 17% of their core equity Tier 1 (CET1) capital at end-September 2016.

Banks targeted lending in China  focusing on top-tier state-owned enterprises (SOEs), large corporates, foreign investment enterprises and short-term trade loans  suggests risk from China would be well-contained on the whole. On the housing loan front, we believe proactive macro-prudential measures and strong household balance sheets should contain the risk of a sharp deterioration in loan quality.

Softer Profitability: We expect banks profitability to weaken slightly in 2017, driven by higher credit costs and a subdued domestic lending environment. This is balanced, however, by their diversified revenue, with core non-interest income forming close to 40% of operating income 

of which more than half represented recurring fee income over 2012-2015. Banks should enjoy some NIM uplift from higher short-term rates which tend to track the US Fed funds rate.

Story continues

Solid Capitalisation: Singapore banks capital standing remains solid, with fully loaded CET1 ratios ranging between 12.4%-13.5% at end-September 2016. We expect capitalisation to remain stable despite modestly higher risk-weight charges that will affect the banks from 1 January 2017, aided by healthy internal capital generation. Our internal stress tests show that sound capital buffers should enable Singapore banks to weather a significant deterioration in credit quality.

Disciplined Funding: We expect Singapore banks to retain their domestic deposit franchise strengths. Their sound Singapore dollar LCR stood in excess of 200% for 3Q16, and their Singapore dollar loan-deposit ratios had improved to 86.0% by end-September (June: 88.7%, March: 87.2%). The banks all-currency LCR averaged a comfortable 132% for 3Q16.





More From Singapore Business Review


Blackstone Districts Nite Owl is celebrating its second year in business the way Nite Owl would, with fried cookies, 80s music videos, Jell-O shots and free merchandise. Five percent of the events sales will be donated to InCommon Community Development.

The party takes place Saturday starting at 7. The first 20 people to ask a bartender after the party begins will receive the choice of a free Nite Owl shirt or a calendar made by the bars employees. The kitchen will serve free fried Oreos and Nutter Butter cookies, as well as classic daquiri-flavored Jell-O shots.
LINCOLN  There was doubt. There was maybe even resignation. But Amber Rolfzen steeled herself that as long as Nebraska had living breath, the defending NCAA champions had a chance.

So as Penn States explosive outside hitter Simone Lee took to the air to deliver the crushing blow to No. 2 Nebraskas repeat hopes, Rolfzen leapt to meet her, turned back the shot and saved the Huskers season.

A foothold finally gained, Nebraska built on that momentum and ripped away Fridays NCAA regional semifinal from No. 13 Penn State 23-25, 23-25, 26-24, 25-19, 15-6 in the latest adrenaline-doused chapter of one of college volleyballs best rivalries.

Nebraska (30-2) escaped the Nittany Lions thanks to a balanced attack. Briana Holman led the Huskers with 17 kills and seven blocks, while Amber Rolfzen had 15 kills, Kadie Rolfzen added 14 kills and Andie Malloy had 13.

You saw two great programs going at it, Nebraska coach John Cook said. In some ways, I was just in awe of watching the whole thing like a spectator. Just trying to enjoy the moment because that was a great match.

In Saturdays 3 p.m. regional final, Nebraska will face Washington (29-4) for the second straight year in the elite eight. The No. 8-seeded Huskies swept Arizona 25-15, 25-22, 25-18 in Fridays second regional semifinal in Lincoln.

But that seemed far away early on Friday. As morning trickled into afternoon, the 8,240 fans who filled the Devaney Center despite an 11 a.m. start had every reason to believe the Nittany Lions had picked the regional semifinal to play their best match of the season and snap NUs four-match winning streak in the series.

The Huskers had no answer for Penn State outside hitter Ali Frantti, who consistently tooled shots off Nebraskas blockers to the tune of 16 kills in the first two sets on her way to 21 on the day.

Franttis heroics helped Penn State rally for comeback wins in the first two sets. The junior scored three straight kills to erase Nebraskas 22-20 lead in the first set, and after the Huskers tied it 23-23, Frantti delivered the opening set to the visitors with her ninth kill and a solo block of Amber Rolfzen.

Frantti, who had a combined 14 kills and hit .108 in the two regular-season matches against the Huskers this season, added seven kills in the second set, five of which came after NU led 22-19. Her final swing that set, a gem of an attack on an out-of-system set from Lee, sent Penn State into the locker room with a 2-0 lead.

I thought she was focused and played real hard, Penn State coach Russ Rose said. Every team has a game plan, and part of our game plan came out in positive matchups. But she would rather win the match than have better statistics.

As Frantti quieted with two kills in the third set, it looked like Lee would drive the Nittany Lions to one final comeback and the sweep. Nebraska again led 22-19 when Lee scored three kills in a 5-0 run to give the Nittany Lions two match points at 24-22.

Im not going to lie, Amber Rolfzen said. Its not that I didnt have confidence, but I was like, OK, this might be it. So just take that point, give it our all.

After Rolfzen fought off the first one with a kill out of the middle, Lee got a swing to deliver Penn State the match. The junior, who had a match-high 22 kills, took flight from the left pin, but her blast caromed off Rolfzens inside hand and bounced back to the Nittany Lions side of the floor.

I know when it was 23-24, Simone was their big go-to, the Husker blocker said. I just knew that they were going to set her so I just made a big, explosive move and took away her go-to shot.

Two kills by Mikaela Foecke on the following rallies made it a 4-0 Husker run to end the third set.

After being outblocked 15-8 over the first three sets and outhit by Penn State in each of the first three sets, Nebraska had stayed alive, extending the match beyond the Huskers doubt, and perhaps beyond the Nittany Lions composure.

I just think some kids faded by the disappointment of not winning the third game, Rose said, and Nebraska was buoyed by that excitement. Hey, emotion is a big part of sports, especially college sports.

Said Cook: I think what turned it was winning Game 3 so close. I think we relaxed and we become the one that was hunting instead of being hunted, and we play best when were that way.

If there was any question Nebraska had snatched the momentum, it vanished in a fourth set when the edges in serving, passing, blocking and defending all belonged to the Huskers. Nebraska led 19-10 after a triple block from Holman, Malloy and Kadie Rolfzen, cruising into a fifth set that turned out to be a formality.

Nebraska setter Kelly Hunter, listed at 5-foot-11, got her hands over the net for a solo block of Penn States 6-2 Tori Gorrell, to break a 3-3 tie in the fifth. From there it unraveled for the Nittany Lions, who got just five kills from Frantti over the final three sets.

Foecke fired an ace to give Nebraska a 9-4 lead, and libero Justine Wong-Orantes served the Nittany Lions to pieces as the Huskers scored the final six points of the match.

I think at the end, those last three games, we forgot the first two, Hunter said. Just came out and our energy, it was awesome, and just the way we would celebrate was so fun. I think when we do that, the bigger plays keep coming for us. Not that were cheering the big plays, but were making them happen.

Nebraska learned the lesson the hard way last month, losing in five sets at Minnesota after holding a match point in the third set. Momentum is slippery, and once NU lost it in Minneapolis, it became vapor, ungraspable.

The Huskers found it by the fingertips Friday, specifically on Amber Rolfzens block. They went on to an unforgettable win that kept alive the chance for this team to become the first in program history to win back-to-back national titles.

That might be the loudest Ive ever heard Devaney, Cook said. My ears are ringing right now. That used to happen a lot in the Coliseum. It hasnt happened that often here, but it was loud, and (the fans) were into it.

Penn State (24-10) ......... 25 25 24 19 6

At Nebraska (30-2) ......... 23 23 26 25 15

PSU (Kills-Aces-Blocks): Lee 22-0-3, Frantti 21-0-6, Washington 10-0-7, Reed 4-0-3, Gorrell 3-0-3, Thelen 2-0-3, Weiskircher 1-3-0, White 0-1-0, Pierce 0-1-0. Totals 63-5-25.

NU: Holman 17-0-7, A. Rolfzen 15-0-4, K. Rolfzen 14-1-4, Malloy 13-0-4, Foecke 9-3-2, Hunter 2-0-3, Albrecht 1-3-0, Wong-Orantes 0-2-0. Totals 71-7-24.

Set Assists: PSU, 62 (Detering 40, Weiskircher 14, White 4, Lee 2, Frantti 1, Gorrell 1). N, 60 (Hunter 50, Wong-Orantes 5, K. Rolfzen 2, Foecke 1, A. Rolfzen 1, Maloney 1). Att: 8,240

Washington advances with another win over Arizona

Washington returned to the NCAA tournament regional finals with a 25-15, 25-22, 25-18 win over Pac-12 rival Arizona.

It was the Huskies third win over the Wildcats this season.

Arizona stayed close with Washington early in the first set, tying the score at 5-5. But the Huskies pulled away with a 9-2 run in the middle of the set and scored match point on a block from Crissy Jones.

The Wildcats and Huskies traded the lead early in the second set, and Washington fell behind 17-14 at one point. But the Huskies scored five straight points to retake the lead and gave up just five points down the stretch.

Arizona kept the score tight early in the third set, too, but Washington closed with a 7-3 run to finish off its third straight NCAA tournament sweep.
Trauma means more than physical injuries sustained in car wrecks. It can be emotional abuse or stressors such as poverty and racism.

Local officials hope more Omaha residents learn about the types of trauma and how to treat trauma victims so the city becomes a safer community.

Mayor Jean Stothert issued a proclamation Friday that Omahas New Years resolution would be to become a community trained to deal with trauma.

Nearly 100 health-care professionals, first responders, nonprofit workers and public school administrators attended a kickoff seminar at Project Harmonys headquarters near 120th and Q Streets. Project Harmony is a child advocacy center that coordinates with various agencies to protect children.

Organizers hope 22,000 Omahans  about 5 percent of the population  will attend the training.

Training sessions already have been scheduled in the next few months with school districts, state agencies and community organizations. The public also can attend training in order to meet Project Harmonys 22,000-person goal.

Gary Slutkin, founder of Cure Violence, an organization that views violence as a public health problem, was the keynote speaker for Fridays event.

Violence, he said, is like a disease  it can be transmitted by the example of others, it can occur in waves and it can appear in clusters in cities. The most effective way to decrease violent acts, Slutkin said, is to have peers exert a positive influence on others.

Epidemics are worked from the inside out, he said. Once you have the right people talking to the right people, things can cool down.

In Stotherts remarks, she noted her background as a critical care nurse and that her husband is a trauma surgeon.

We have both seen and treated trauma in its most recognized form of critical, physical injuries, she said. However, trauma takes many forms. Through awareness, training and services, we can address the causes of trauma, and most importantly provide the care necessary to help people of all ages recover.

Stothert said its estimated that 48,000 children from kindergarten to grade 8 in Douglas and Sarpy Counties have suffered a traumatic event.

Deb Anderson, director of connections at Project Harmony, said she hopes Omaha continues to be known as a safe place for families.

We want the statistics in Omaha to be different, she said.

At least six training sessions already have been scheduled for the public. For more information or to schedule additional sessions, people may contact training specialist Jessica Kroeker at 402-595-1326 or via jkroeker@projectharmony.com.
LINCOLN  Sydney Thieszen has never known a day of freedom as an adult.

Authorities arrested him at the age of 14 for firing the pistol that ended the life of his 12-year-old sister. A year later, a judge gave the Henderson, Nebraska, teenager a life term.

That was almost 29 years ago.

On Friday, the Nebraska Supreme Court gave Thieszen hope that he may someday walk out of prison.

Thieszens lawyer successfully argued he is entitled to a new sentence that gives him a meaningful opportunity for release under a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down automatic life terms for juvenile killers.

The Nebraska Supreme Court rejected the states opposition to Thieszens motion for post-conviction relief and ordered a new sentencing hearing to take place in coming months.

Hes anxious to get on with his case and have the sentencing hearing, said Jeff Pickens, director of the Nebraska Commission of Public Advocacy and the lawyer who represents Thieszen.

Its unclear if Attorney General Doug Peterson will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case. His office declined comment Friday.

Assistant Attorneys General Corey OBrien and Erin Tangeman tried to convince members of Nebraskas high court that Thieszen already has a chance to earn his release under his current sentence. After serving 30 years in prison, they argued, Thieszen would qualify for a recommendation from prison officials that his life sentence be commuted to a definite number of years.

The states attorneys said since 1969, a total of 29 inmates convicted of first-degree murder have had their life terms commuted to a term of years.

The high court wasnt convinced.

The judges pointed to their earlier ruling in a similar juvenile case, which held that life in prison in Nebraska equates to life without parole. Under current sentencing guidelines, inmates must serve half of their terms to become parole eligible.

Because there is no way to compute one-half of a life sentence, an offender sentenced to life imprisonment in Nebraska for first-degree murder is not eligible for parole, Judge Max Kelch wrote, quoting the wording from the earlier opinion.

And commutations of killers convicted of first-degree murder have become increasingly rare. The last one took place in 2013, and the former inmate was sent back to prison months after his release for sexually molesting a child.

The Supreme Court ordered a new sentencing hearing for Thieszen to take place before York County District Judge James Stecker.

Reached by phone Friday, Thieszens adoptive father, Edwin Thieszen, said he didnt want to discuss the ruling. But in 1996, the father said his son deserved to spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Society doesnt have to worry about a ... murderer out on the street, Edwin Thieszen said.

In a landmark case called Miller v. Alabama, the U.S. Supreme Court determined that juveniles lack fully formed brains, which can make them susceptible to impulsive violence and negative peer pressure. They also cannot fully comprehend the consequences of their actions.

With treatment and programming, however, juvenile offenders also have a greater likelihood of successful rehabilitation, the court ruled.

In response to the ruling, the Nebraska Legislature changed the law so that juveniles convicted of first-degree murder can no longer be automatically sentenced to life. Instead, judges must consider terms from 40 years to life.

A subsequent ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court applied the decision in Miller v. Alabama retroactively to juvenile killers already in prisons across the nation.

Nebraska has 27 killers who were juveniles when sentenced to mandatory life terms. About half have been given new sentences that give them a chance for release, albeit when most of them would be of retirement age.

Lawyers for some of those inmates have since challenged those sentences as de facto life terms. The state supreme court is weighing those challenges.

The circumstances that led to Thieszens crime followed an all-too-familiar pattern.

He has said he doesnt know the identity of his birth father or where he was born. Authorities removed him from the custody of his mother after she committed sadistic abuse against the boy, including throwing him in a swimming pool before he could swim, locking in him closets and trying to burn his eyes with a lighter.

In 1979, he was sent as a foster child to Edwin and Joyce Thieszen in rural Henderson. The couple, who had three biological children and two other adoptive children, adopted him in 1983.

He could not adjust to the strictures and structure of the Thieszen household. He acted out, got in trouble at school and molested a younger foster child in the home.

Psychological evaluations would diagnose him with conduct disorder and impaired ability to feel empathy. He also was shown to have above average intelligence.

On Sept. 17, 1987, he came home from school and discovered a note from his mother that said would be physically punished for his latest violation. He quickly made a plan to run away before his parents returned, and grabbed a .22-caliber pistol from the bedroom of an older brother.

But when his 12-year-old adopted sister, Sacha, caught wind of his plan, she threatened to tell. He struck her in the head with a wooden dowel, thinking he could knock her unconscious.

Instead, she stood over a bathroom sink, bleeding. So he pulled the gun from his waistband and shot her in the head. He then lifted the girl, placed her in the bathtub and shot her two more times.

He fled the family farm in the couples van. Authorities found the 14-year-old boy four days later sleeping in a post office in Salina, Kansas.

He was initially charged with first-degree murder, but in 1988, the prosecution offered a plea bargain and Thieszen pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and a related weapons charge. Although he was sentenced to life in prison, under the terms of second-degree murder, he would have been eligible for parole, perhaps after serving about 20 years.

But in 1994, the state Supreme Court overturned dozens of second-degree murder convictions  including Thieszens  because malice had not been proven as an element of their crimes. Thieszen opted for a new trial, hoping he would get a manslaughter conviction. Instead, the jury convicted him of first-degree murder.

At his 1996 sentencing hearing, a tearful Thieszen told his family members he was sorry for what he had done. He said he realized what he had taken from Sacha.

And then the judge gave Thieszen an automatic life term.
DES MOINES, Iowa  China may be filling the role Hillary Clinton once did at Donald Trumps rallies.

Trump appeared to turn the worlds most populated country into a favorite foil Thursday during his thank you rally in Iowa. He accused the nation of devaluing its currency in a bid to harm American manufacturers, and he said the country was not doing enough to help with the menace known as North Korea.

That, Trump said, will all change soon.

They have to play by the rules. And, I know its time that theyre going to start, Trump said to the crowds delight. Were all in this together, folks, we have to play by the rules.

Trumps criticism of China comes a few weeks after he waded into what some believe is dangerous diplomatic territory by talking to the Taiwanese president. China objected. The talk violated a longstanding U.S. diplomatic protocol. (China does not recognize Taiwan as an independent country, believing it is a province.)

It also came the day after it was formally announced that Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad would be Trumps ambassador to China. Trump said he was banking on Branstad to improve this nations ties with China.

Iowa was the third state on Trumps thank you tour of battleground states, behind North Carolina and Ohio. The president-elect is visiting states that played a key role in his victory last month over Democrat Clinton.

Trump spent a good chunk of his speech reveling in his victory last month, noting gleefully that pollsters had it wrong. He also promised the crowd that he would create so many jobs and so much opportunity for workers that working men would have to come home and confer with their wives over which job they would take.

We have a movement the likes of which this world has never seen before, he told the crowd.

Trump also took a not-so-subtle jab at famed investor Warren Buffett, a Democrat who lives in neighboring Nebraska and who supported Clinton.

Trump noted that he won all of Nebraska, including the Omaha-based 2nd Congressional district. Nebraska goes twice and we won it twice, Trump said, appearing to reference the fact the state is one of only two that splits its electoral votes based, in part, on the three congressional districts

There was a lot of people in Nebraska, a lot of wealthy people fighting us. That didnt work ... they were busing people all over the place, and we still won both of them, Trump said.

Buffett provided voters rides to polling sites on Election Day via Omahas famed tourism bus known as Ollie the Trolley.

More than 4,500 hardy souls braved the cold to attend the rally at the Iowa Events Center. The crowd size was impressive considering that Trump was competing with the Iowa vs. Iowa State game, which was going on at the same time. The game may explain why people began to trickle out about 20 minutes into Trumps 45-minute speech.

The rally had a softer and kinder tone than his more abrasive campaign rallies. Not once did he bash Clinton or any other person by name. There were no build the wall chants. At one point, the crowd tried to get a U-S-A chant going, but it appeared to die for lack of enthusiasm.

Trump also did not engage in any extensive press bashing, and he did not give his supporters an opportunity to boo the media.

In fact, he used humor to call out four protesters who interrupted the rally with cries of No Trump, no KKK, no fascists.

Thats OK. I think theyre actually on our side. They just dont know it yet, he said.

Trump appeared with both vice president elect Mike Pence and Branstad on the stage. Trump appeared to go out of his way to underscore how difficult Branstads new job could be in the coming months and years.

Trump introduced Branstad after his pointed criticism of China and after Trump noted that Branstad has pleaded with him not to say anything bad about China in past visits to Iowa.

He would always say, Mr. Trump, Donald, dont say anything bad about China because I have so many friends there. I like them and they like me and we do well with China, said Trump, recalling his previous conversations with Branstad.

Trump said that he had many people who vied for the job because, in part, ambassadors live like kings. But, he said, Branstad was his pick because he believes Branstad will get the job done.

He knows how to deliver results. He will deliver results just like he has been delivering results for 23 years to the great farmers and the people of Iowa, said Trump, referencing Branstads years as governor.

Branstad then took the stage, but spoke only briefly. I am very proud to serve America in this very important role, thank you very much, said Branstad.
LINCOLN  A legal dispute that tests the limits of what records the judiciary can withhold from the public now awaits a final decision by the Nebraska Supreme Court.

The high court heard oral arguments this week in the states appeal of a lower court ruling that said judicial branch continuing education materials must generally be disclosed under the Nebraska open records law. State Court Administrator Corey Steel had refused to turn over such records, arguing that they are exempt from the law.

Also at stake is $32,000 in attorney fees the district court ordered the state to pay Les Veskrna of Lincoln, who sued to obtain the records.

The case involves a request to review the education material judges use to guide them in deciding child custody disputes. Veskrna is an advocate for shared parenting, pointing to research that indicates children do better when they spend significant amounts of time with both parents in cases of divorce or separation.

Veskrna and others believe judges in Nebraska generally grant the majority of parenting time to mothers by default. He wants to see if the judges have relied on training that is biased against fathers.

Media of Nebraska, an umbrella group of news organizations that includes The World-Herald, has filed a friend-of-the-court brief urging the high court to rule in favor of greater governmental transparency.

Assistant Attorney General David Lopez argued that while governmental records are generally considered open under state law, the Nebraska Legislature granted an exception for judicial education records. The exception, he argued, is contained within a separate law that allows court officials to manage judicial continuing education, including the confidentiality of records.

Under questioning by Supreme Court Judge William Cassel, however, Lopez acknowledged that no such written policy regarding confidentiality of records exists. Rather, it has been the practice of court administrators not to disclose education records and to permit only judges to attend training meetings.

Lopez also argued that the judicial branch has exclusive supervisory control over its continuing education records. Finally, he said the high court also could reverse the decision of Lancaster County District Judge Susan Strong on the basis that continuing education is so closely intertwined with a judges decision-making process it should be considered privileged information.

Omaha lawyer Steve Grasz, who represents Veskrna, told the high court that his client isnt seeking the sorts of in chambers records judges use to reach their decisions. Clearly such records are confidential.

But none of the 18 exceptions to the open records law designated by the Legislature includes administrative court records, Grasz said. Continuing education materials ideally help inform judges so they can better make decisions in individual cases.

Certainly the parents in this case would have the right to know who is providing basic judicial education and the basics of what theyre teaching, he said.

Disclosing such records would provide the additional benefit of increasing the public trust in the states system of justice, Grasz argued.

In addition to ruling in favor of Veskrna, the district judge also ordered the state to pay attorney fees in the amount of $32,000. The state wants the high court to reverse that order as well.
The Papio-Missouri River Natural Resources District board has approved an agreement with Sarpy County officials for the county to build a short hiking and biking trail on Bellevue land.

The land where the trail will be situated is maintained by the NRD for a West Branch Papillion Creek flood prevention levee and channel improvement project, officials said.

The 10-foot-wide, 900-foot-long trail will be built along 42nd Street east of Raynor Parkway and near the Ashford Hollow SID. The trail will be built and maintained by Sarpy County.

The trail is a part of an overall trail system being built in Ashford Hollow, officials said.

Also, the board has OKd an agreement with Papillion and La Vista to share the costs for improvements to the Portal Road Drainageway.

The project extends across the boundary between La Vista upstream to the north of Portal Road, and Papillion downstream south of Portal Road west of 96th Street, officials said. The drainageway empties into the nearby West Branch Papillion Creek.

The drainageway stabilization works estimated cost is $307,122, officials said. The districts cost for the project is $127,122. Papillion and La Vista each will pay $90,000.
Part of a Millard alternative high school was evacuated Friday morning after smoke was reported in some classrooms.

Douglas County 911 dispatchers said the evacuations occurred at Millard Horizon High School around 7:45 a.m. only in the section of the school building where the smoke had been reported.

Fire alarms did not sound in the school situated near 208th and Q Streets, dispatchers reported, possibly because the smoke may not have been thick enough to set off detectors.

Firefighters reported no smoke and no flames on approach to the school. Firefighters did report an electrical-burning smell in some classrooms after inspecting the scene.

Later, firefighters reported that the electrical-burning smell may have come from a science classroom.

Students who arrived after firefighters were kept outside briefly before being allowed into the school.

No injuries were reported.
LINCOLN  Douglas County must pay attorney fees to a lawyer who handled the final appeal of a man convicted in the 1970 booby-trap bombing that killed an Omaha police officer.

The Nebraska Supreme Court ruled Friday that Douglas County District Judge James Gleason abused his discretion when he refused to order payment to Timothy Ashford. The Omaha lawyer claimed about $7,400 in fees for work he did on the final post-conviction motion filed by David Rice before his death earlier this year.

The judge had agreed to appoint Ashford to represent the indigent Rice, who went by the name Mondo we Langa. But the judge later called the appeal frivolous and rejected Ashfords claim for payment.

The Supreme Court judges said once a court appoints a lawyer to a case, reasonable fees must be paid. The high court ordered the case back to Douglas County District Court for the assignment of fees but said a different judge must now handle the matter.

Omaha Police Officer Larry Minard died when a suitcase filled with dynamite exploded as he responded to a 911 call reporting a woman screaming inside a vacant house.

The death, during a period of racial tension in Omaha, touched off a massive hunt for those responsible. Several days after the explosion, Rice and Ed Poindexter turned themselves in to police.

At their joint trial, a 15-year-old former member of the Black Panthers, Duane Peak, testified that he had planted the bomb and called 911 at the direction of Rice and Poindexter.

Both men consistently claimed the were innocent, and they have been portrayed as political prisoners by some advocates. The advocates say the men were framed, via false testimony and withheld and tampered evidence, for their radical views.

Rice died in March at the infirmary of the Nebraska State Penitentiary after a lengthy respiratory illness. He was 68.
A 7-year-old Lincoln boy who was struck by a pickup truck at a school crosswalk Thursday remained in critical condition Friday.

The boy was hit just before 8 a.m. near Saratoga Elementary School on 13th Street just south of South Street.

Aiden Crouse was struck by a northbound 1999 Dodge Ram 1500 pickup as he was crossing 13th Street at the crosswalk near the school, police said.

The driver of the pickup was identified as Aryon Mosco, 22, of Lincoln.

Aiden was taken to Bryan Medical Center West with life-threatening injuries, police said. The hospital said Friday night that it had no updated information on his condition. The child lives about two blocks east of the school and about one block west of the hospital.

Mosco told police that he was approaching the crosswalk at about 10 to 15 mph when he spotted the boy on the east side of the street near the crosswalk. Police said in their report on the accident that Mosco told them he was about 4 feet from the south edge of the crosswalk when Aiden darted in front of his pickup.

Mosco said he attempted to apply his brakes to avoid striking the boy.

Mosco and his two passengers did not report any injuries, police said.

South 13th Street from South to Saratoga was closed for about four hours while authorities investigated the scene, police said.
TRS, BJP are two sides of same coin: Rahul Gandhi in Telangana

AP CM Naidu will not be probed in cash for vote scam

Hyderabad

oi-Anusha

Chandrababu Naidu, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh will not be investigated in the cash for votes scam. The High Court of judicature at Hyderabad for the states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh on Friday struck down an order of the Anti Corruption Bureau's special court which had ordered an investigation against Naidu.

Naidu moved the High Court against the order of the lower court. Y S R Congress party MLA Ramakrishna Reddy had filed a petition before the ACB court seeking probe against Naidu earlier this year.

The cash for votes scam had rocked the assemblies of both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh in 2015. The TDP was accused of trying to buy votes for cash during the MLC elections.

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Story first published: Friday, December 9, 2016, 13:19 [IST]
As Amma lay in hospital, how AIADMK avoided a split on caste lines

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

Chennai, Dec 9: When Jayalalithaa lay in hospital strapped to an ECMO device at the Apollo Hospital in Chennai, there was hectic activity to elect a successor.

The Gounder and Thevar communities which are the most influential caste groups in the AIADMK did try to make a push to ensure that their candidate would be the chief minister.

When Jayalalithaa lay in hospital strapped to an ECMO device at the Apollo Hospital in Chennai, there was hectic activity to elect a successor. The Gounder and Thevar communities which are the most influential caste groups in the AIADMK tried to make a push to ensure that their candidate would be the chief minister.

While O Paneerselvam was a natural choice since he has been de-facto chief minister twice in the past, the name of Thambidurai, the deputy speaker in the Lok Sabha did the rounds too. Thambidurai belongs to the Gounder community and was a strong contender for the post.

Sasikala wanted to avoid a split:

As the discussions at the Apollo Hospital began, all the MLAs of the AIADMK were told to assemble at the party headquarters. There were five ministers at the hospital who held discussions about a successor in the presence of Jayalalithaa's close aide, Sasikala Natarajan. Thambidurai had become a strong contender for the post of chief minister, but Sasikala, espite being inclined towards him decided against it.

She felt that at the moment there should be no change in the party structure. She felt that Paneerselvam had stepped in for Jayalalithaa twice in the past and this precedent ought to continue. Despite the group supporting Thambidurai making a strong pitch, Sasikala managed to talk them out of it.

She felt that the existing system must continue to avoid any kind of split especially at such a difficult time. She even rejected demands that new persons must be inducted into the cabinet. Once the decision was made, Paneerselvam went to the party headquarters and announced that Jayalalithaa had passed away.

All the MLAs were given four pieces of paper to sign. One was a resolution to elect unanimously Paneerselvam as the leader of the party in the legislature, while the other was intimating the governor about the decision. The other two papers were letters to the secretary of the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly and the Centre.

OneIndia News
BSNL scam: CBI files chargesheet against Maran; says Rs 1.78 crore lost to taxpayer

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

The Central Bureau of Investigation today filed a chargesheet against former Telecom Minister, Dayanidhi Maran in connection with the telephone exchange scam. The chargesheet was also filed against Marian's brother Kalanithi and others.

The CBI which is probing the case has also named two BSNL General Managers and Marian's then personal secretary. The CBI has alleged that there was a loss of Rs 1.78 crore to the exchequer and in the chargesheet the Marans have been booked under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Indian Penal Code.

The chargesheet states that between June 2004 and December 2006 there were about 364 telephone numbers/lines installed at the Maran residence at Gopalpuram in Chennai.

During the months of December 2006 and September 2007 about 353 telephone lines had been installed at the the Ist Avenue Boat Club Road, Chennai, Marans new residence. There were 10 post paid mobile connections with vanity numbers in respect of nine numbers were given to a private television channel. This order was given by Maran orally when he was the telecom minister, the CBI has also alleged.

[Also Read: Aircel-Maxis: Maran's likely to tamper evidence, says ED]

The CBI further states that these connections were given under the service category and there was no bill that had been raised. The high speed telephone lines had benefitted the television channel owned by Maran's brother Kalanithi, the CBI also alleged. No payments had been made for the installation and there were no rental charges for these connections which included ISDN-PRA-BRA, broadband, leased circuits with optical fiber cable laying, connecting both the residences, the CBI has also alleged.

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Story first published: Friday, December 9, 2016, 17:38 [IST]
Cauvery: Tribunal award can be appealed against rules SC

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

New Delhi, Dec 9: The Supreme Court today ruled that the appeals filed by Karnataka and Tamil Nadu challenging the award of the Cauvery Waters Tribunal are maintainable. While holding that the appeals can be heard, the court set the next date of hearing to December 15. This order comes as a major relief for Karnataka as it had always contended that the award of the Tribunal was unfair. Had the court today ordered that the appeal filed by the state was not maintainable, then the award of the Tribunal would have become final.

Both states had challenged the order of the Cauvery Waters Tribunal dated February 5 2007. The Centre had opposed the appeals stating it is not maintainable. The tribunal in its final award had determined the usable quantum of water of the Cauvery at 740 tmcft. Karnataka is entitled to 270 tmcft, Tamil Nadu to 419 tmcft, Kerala 30 tmcft, Puducherry 7 tmcft, and 14 tmcft is meant for environmental purposes, the tribunal had said.

The Union government contended that the decision of an inter state water tribunal is considered as a decree passed by the Supreme Court. The tribunal had delivered its final award on February 5, 2007. The Centre contends that once the tribunal's order is published it partakes the shape of a Supreme Court order.

Under Article 262 (1) and (2) of the Constitution the power of the Supreme Court is eclipsed after the Tribunal formed under the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act,1956 has adjudicated over the issue. Such decisions cannot be challenged, the Centre also contended. Karnataka however contended that it had challenged the award before the same was published on February 19 2013.

The contention made by Karnataka was supported by Puducherry which has also challenged the award of the tribunal. Tamil Nadu said that Section 6(2) of the Inter State Waters Dispute Act of 1956 cannot oust the Supreme Court's constitutional appellate powers under Article 136 of the Indian Constitution.

OneIndia News
No one has guts...: Junior defence minister's reply to China question

Beijing-Islamabad ties not against India, says Chinese academic

India

oi-IANS

By Ians English

New Delhi, Dec 9: China's support to Pakistan is not designed to be against India, a prominent Chinese academic said here on Friday.

Speaking at the first ever "India-China Think-Tanks Forum: Towards a Closer India-Pakistan Developmental Forum", Ye Hailin said that China's support to Pakistan was because of the growth of extremism and terrorism in the South Asian nation.

Ye, Chief Editor of South Asia Studies at the National Institute of International Strategy, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that if China did not support Pakistan at a time when extremism and terrorism were rising, the region would have to face serious problems.

He made it clear that China's ties should not be seen as designed against India.

The India-China Think-Tanks Forum was set up through a memorandum of understanding signed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to China in May last year.

IANS
Delhi HC raps city police over Najeeb Ahmed case

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

New Delhi, Dec 9: The Delhi High Court on Friday lambasted the Delhi Police over progress in missing JNU student Najeeb Ahmed case.

The court asked city police as to how can a man "vanish suddenly"?, reported news agency ANI.

27-year-old M.Sc. student, Najeeb Ahmed, went missing on October 15 following a scuffle allegedly with ABVP members the night before.

Ahmed was beaten up by a mob of students, reported to be from Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), on the night of October 14 after a student named Vikrant had gone to his room at Mahi-Mandavi hostel to campaign for the post of mess secretary.

Last month, Mahi-Mandvi hostel is said to have received a letter by a woman claiming that she has information about Najeeb Ahmed's disappearance.

The letter also claimed that the mysterious woman had seen Najeb Ahmed at a market in Aligarh. Najeeb had managed to flee from where he had been locked down and sought her help. She further mentioned her address where she could be contacted. When the Crime Branch reached to the given address in the letter, no one could be found.

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Story first published: Friday, December 9, 2016, 21:51 [IST]
Ties with China and why Vijay Gokhales appointment as Foreign Secretary is important

FS Gokhale calls on Pompeo, assert that Pakistan must deny safe haven to terrorists

Harsh Vardhan Shringla appointed as the new foreign secretary

Don't give India's NSG aspiration a 'political colour': Jaishankar tells China

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

New Delhi, Dec 9: Terming India's bid for membership of the Nuclear Supplies Group (NSG) as "development aspiration", Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar on Friday said China should not give the issue a "political colour".

Speaking at the "India-China Think-Tanks Forum" in the National Capital, the Foreign Secretary also raised the issue of terrorism and described it as a common threat faced by both India and China.

India and China face threat from terrorism but don't seem to agree on important issue at major platforms: Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar  ANI (@ANI_news) December 9, 2016

He said both countries are unable cooperate effectively in international forums on the issue of terrorism.

"As diverse and pluralistic societies, we both face threats from fundamentalist terrorism," he said.

Jaishankar said India-China border has remained "generally peaceful" in recent times due to policy parameters and guiding principles for a boundary settlement.

"Inevitably, challenges that emanate from differential logistical capabilities and a lack of commonly agreed line of actual control continue," news agency ANI quoted Jaishankar as saying.

During the Plenary meeting of the NSG , in June this year, China had stonewalled India's bid to get entry into the group on the grounds that it was a not a signatory to the NPT.

On the terrorism front, India had objected to China blocking New Delhi's move to place JeM chief Masood Azhar in the UN sanctions list.

India has time and again also raised concerns over the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor which passes through Pakistan Occupied Kashmir.

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Story first published: Friday, December 9, 2016, 21:22 [IST]
FBI pays ISIS recruit a visit in Kolkata

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

New Delhi, Dec 9: Mohammad Masiuddin alias Musa, the suspected ISIS recruit from West Bengal had visitors from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Musa who was interrogated by the National Investigation Agency had revealed that he had plotted attacks on US Nationals in Kolkata.

His interrogation also revealed that he was in touch with one of the attackers of the Dhaka Cafe attacks that took place earlier this year. The FBI team has been questioning several such recruits as part of its global study on the ISIS.

The revelations made by Musa suggest that his network was not restricted to India alone. He was in touch with several operatives from Bangladesh including Abu Sulaiman who had carried out the Dhaka Cafe attacks.

Musa further revealed that he had planned a major attack on US nationals in Kolkata. He said that this was a plan that was hatched by the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, Bangladesh or the JMB. The JMB has tied up with the ISIS to form a Bengal Caliphate which includes modules in India and Bangladesh.

Musa according to the NIA had played a very big role in the network of the ISIS and JMB. He was used to spread the propaganda of the outfit through social media sites. He would get in touch with various persons across the globe and tell them why the ISIS propaganda is important in today's scenario.

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Story first published: Friday, December 9, 2016, 8:12 [IST]
Five years of demonetisation: Notes in circulation on rise; so are digital payments

Govt, Oppn blame each other for disruption in Parliament

India

oi-PTI

New Delhi, Dec 9: With the winter session of Parliament set to be a washout, the government and the opposition today accused each other of being responsible for it.

Attacking the Centre, Congress leader Ambika Soni said everyone wants Parliament to function, but it is the government's responsibility to ensure its smooth functioning.

"Who does not want Parliament to function?... But it is the prerogative of the government to run it. The Prime Minister should come, sit in the House and listen to the proceedings. Is it not a duty of the Prime Minister to hear what the opposition MPs have to say?" Soni asked.

BSP leader Mayawati said the Prime Minister should come to the House for discussion. She also demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into demonetisation as, she said, there was a lot of talk about irregularities.

CPI(M) leader Md. Salim said the MPs have been coming to Parliament as they want a discussion, but it is the government that should take the initiative to break the logjam.

Refuting the opposition charges, Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said the ruling party has been ready for a debate from the start of the session itself.

"We have been requesting, persuading opposition parties for it," he said, adding the Congress, Communist parties and the Trinamool Congress did not allow functioning of the House.

He said these parties should apologise to the people for not allowing Parliament to function for 16 days. Kumar said that even yesterday, the Congress had scuttled the attempt to hold proceedings by calling it a 'Black Day'.

He claimed the opposition party was now talking about debate as it felt moral pressure against disrupting proceedings. Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi also questioned the opposition parties.

"What has been happening since November 16 till now, what is it, if not disturbance?" he asked. He said the government has been ready for a debate.

PTI
Havelock Island: Armed forces kick into action to rescue stranded tourists

India

oi-Anusha

The Indian Armed Forces have stepped up rescue operations for the stranded tourists on Havelock Islands in Andaman as a cyclonic storm approaches.

The Indian Navy, Air Force and the Indian Coast Guard along with state administration have begun rescue and evacuation operations.

Six ships of the Indian Navy and two coast guard ships sailed out from Port Blair at 9.30 am on Friday. Three IAF helicopters have been pressed into action for evacuation purposes as well. Over 1,000 tourists, of whom 320 are foreign nationals, have been stranded owing to bad weather in and around Havelock Island.

[Also Read: Andaman requests air sorties as cyclonic storm approaches]

All air and sea transport to the island was ceased on Monday due to bad weather. The Indian Meteorological Department has issued warnings of cyclonic storm to the Andaman Islands.

OneIndia News
From being a victim of terrorism to exploring global solutions: India praised at UN's Counter Terrorism meet

Cabinet approves MoU between India, Denmark in field of Water Resources Development and Management

Dr. Rinky Kapoor- One of the best celebrity cosmetic dermatologists

No one has guts...: Junior defence minister's reply to China question

India-Vietnam sign agreement on cooperation in peaceful use of atomic energy

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

New Delhi, Dec 9: President of the National Assembly of Vietnam Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, who is on an official visit to India, called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi today.

Recalling their earlier meeting in Hanoi in September 2016, Prime Minister Modi said that Ms. Ngan, as the first woman to head the National Assembly of Vietnam, is a source of inspiration to women across the world.

Mrs. Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, President of the National Assembly of Vietnam met PM @narendramodi. pic.twitter.com/fduG5AuMsR  PMO India (@PMOIndia) December 9, 2016

The Prime Minister also hailed the bilateral Agreement on Cooperation in Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy between India and Vietnam and said it would further strengthen the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries.

During the bilateral meeting, the two countries also signed three other agreements -- to enhance aviation links, to jointly work in the area of energy efficiency and promotion of parliamentary cooperation.

The agreement between the India and the Vietnam on cooperation in peaceful use of atomic energy was signed by Dr. Sekhar Basu, Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy, India and Dr. Pham Cong Tac, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology, Vietnam.

The cooperation agreement between the Lok Sabha and the National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam was signed by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan.

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Story first published: Friday, December 9, 2016, 22:54 [IST]
Is demonetisation unconstitutional? SC defers hearing to Jan

India

oi-Vicky

New Delhi, Dec 9: The Supreme Court on Friday framed questions for adjudication to decide on whether demonetisation was unconstitutional or not. The SC said that the matter would take time to adjudicate and hence decided to post the matter in January. The court added that it could place the matter before a 5-judge Bench.

When the bench sought to know what the benefits of demonetisation was, the Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi said that it was to fight the menace of black money. The AG also sought to know if the SC had the power to decide on the government's fiscal policy.

During the course of arguments, prominent lawyer Prashanth Bhushan told the court that there is still no cash in most ATMs, and that they have not been caliberated yet. He told the court that cooperative banks were being discriminated.

The Centre however made it clear to the court that it will not relax the ban on cooperative banks from accepting deposits in old notes. "We will also not let these banks issue new notes," the AG informed the court.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Friday, December 9, 2016, 13:20 [IST]
A worker is seen at the central processing facility of the Rosneft-owned Priobskoye oil field outside the West Siberian city of Nefteyugansk A worker is seen at the central processing facility of the Rosneft-owned Priobskoye oil field outside the West Siberian city of Nefteyugansk, Russia, August 4, 2016. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin

By Dmitry Zhdannikov and Darya Korsunskaya

LONDON/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Italian bank Intesa Sanpaolo is expected to provide a consortium of Qatar and commodities trader Glencore with sizeable funds to help finance their purchase of a stake in Russian oil company Rosneft, two sources familiar with the transaction said.

Intesa declined to say whether it was helping finance the deal, announced by the Kremlin, which said on Wednesday it had sold a 19.5 percent government stake in Rosneft (ROSN.MM) for 10.5 billion euros (8.8 billion) to Qatar's sovereign wealth fund and Glencore (GLEN.L).

The bank, Italy's biggest retail lender, has deep ties in Russia and advised state-owned Rosneft on the sale of the 19.5 percent stake.

Wednesday's announcement showed the Kremlin can lure big foreign investors to its oil sector despite political risks associated with Russia, which is locked in a stand-off with the West over conflicts in Ukraine and Syria.

"Russia's upstream is now firmly back on the map as an attractive place to invest despite more than two years of EU/US sanctions," said Michael Moynihan, Research Director for Russia at Wood Mackenzie.

But some Russian financial and industry sources raised questions about the deal. The sale valued Rosneft's assets at considerably less than it paid to acquire similar assets in the past, according to Reuters calculations.

It is also unclear exactly what Glencore's status in the Rosneft ownership structure will be and there are questions about where Rosneft will find the volumes of oil it agreed to sell to Glencore as part of the deal.

Italy has maintained close ties with the Kremlin despite European Union sanctions on Russia over the conflict in Ukraine.

Glencore stands to benefit from access to additional Rosneft volumes for its trading business and this should help it compete with rival Trafigura, which has been Rosneft's preferred trading partner.

Glencore, whose stock rose 3 percent on Thursday to an 18-month high, said it would finance part of the deal by putting up 300 million euros of its own equity.

Story continues

It also said that other than its modest equity injection, it would not have any economic exposure to the shares in Rosneft, Russia's top oil producer. It did not say who would have the exposure instead.

VALUE FOR MONEY?

Several oil market participants told Reuters that for Rosneft to provide Glencore with the additional 220,000 barrels a day set out in the deal, it would probably have to reduce volumes going elsewhere.

"Since Glencore has become a shareholder, it will definitely want preferential rights to buying oil and oil products," said a trader on the Russian oil market. "It's very possible Trafigura will have to give up its leading position."

Rosneft declined to comment on the allocation of volumes.

The deal was announced days after Russia and OPEC -- dominated by Saudi Arabia and its allies Qatar, the UAE and Kuwait -- agreed on coordinated output cuts to support oil prices.

Rosneft had been under pressure to secure a sale of the stake to help replenish the state budget, hit by an economic slowdown worsened by the international sanctions.

But this meant selling at a time when, with world oil prices low, the value of oil assets is far below historical levels.

Russia sold its share in Rosneft's oil production for about half the price at which Rosneft has previously acquired domestic oil production assets, according to Reuters calculations based on publicly-available data.

The amount which Qatar and Glencore paid per barrel of production can be earned back by selling that production in about a year, the calculations showed.

When Rosneft bought Russian producer TNK-BP in 2013, it paid a price that would have taken just over two years to earn back, according to the calculations.

"The way it works out is that the state, in the shape of Rosneft, buys expensive assets, and then sells off the combined assets for several times less. It's clear there's a strategic miscalculation," said a source close to the Russian government, on condition of anonymity.

Rosneft declined to comment on the value of the deal.

(Additional reporting by Gleb Gorodyankin and Olga Yagova in MOSCOW, Karin Strohecker in LONDON, Andrea Mandala Silvia Aloisi and Stephen Jewkes in MILAN, Writing by Dmitri Zhdannikov and Christian Lowe, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
Justice Katju moves SC for early hearing of contempt case

India

oi-PTI

New Delhi, Dec 9: Former Supreme Court judge Justice Markandey Katju today moved the apex court seeking early hearing of a contempt case against him for allegedly using "intemperate" language and "scandalising" the judiciary.

A bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi agreed to look into the submission made by senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan, on behalf of Justice Katju, who mentioned the matter for early hearing, saying it should be listed before the winter vacation. To this, the bench said, "You file a proper application and we will look into it".

Dhavan said that he has already file the application. On November 11, the apex court had issued contempt notice to Justice Katju after taking note of Katju's statement in a blog and said that it constituted a serious assault on judges and not on the judgement.

Justice Katju had appeared in the court following its October 17 direction asking him to be present and debate his Facebook post criticising an SC verdict by which the convict in Soumya rape case had escaped gallows as he was acquitted of the murder charge.

It had asked him to appear before the court to point out the "fundamental flaws" in the case. The issue of contempt was raised after the bench had dismissed the review petitions filed by the Kerala government and the mother of Soumya challenging the acquittal of the convict of the murder charge.

Justice Katju had protested against the decision to issue contempt notice and said the judges were threatening him and it was not proper for them to behave in such manner with a former judge of the apex court.

He was summoned as he in his blog had claimed that there was "grave error" in the judgement acquitting the accused in the murder case and he was asked to assist the bench during the hearing of the review petition.

PTI
Blow to Nitish Kumar as 5 of 6 MLAs from JD(U) join BJP in Manipur

Manipur cabinet decides formation of 7 new districts

India

oi-PTI

Imphal, Dec 9: Manipur government, led by Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh, has decided to form 7 more new districts, bifurcating the existing 9 districts of the state, a state cabinet secretariat source said today.

The decision for formation of seven new districts was taken in a state cabinet meeting chaired by the Chief Minister last evening at the CM's secretariat, the source said.

"Manipur will now have 16 districts and the decision for formation of 7 new districts was taken for administrative convenience and to enable the state government take up development works effectively even in the remote and underdeveloped parts of the state," the chief minister told PTI over phone this morning.

The newly formed districts are Kangpokpi, Tengnoupal, Pherzawl, Noney, Kamjong, Jiribam and Kakching, the cabinet secretariat source said.

Posting of the new Deputy Commissioners and Superintendents of Police for the newly formed districts were also effected in the government order issued yesterday, the source said.

Manipur earlier had 9 districts - Imphal West, Imphal East, Bishnupur, Thoubal, Ukhrul, Senapati, Tamenglong, Churachandpur and Chandel. The chief minister explained that inauguration of the new districts would be taken up as soon as possible before the announcement of state assembly elections by the Election Commission of India.

The move came in the backdrop of the United Naga Council (UNC) launching economic blockade in Manipur for more than one month since November one last in protest against the formation of Sadar Hills (Kangpokpi) and Jiribam districts.

PTI
Navy copter makes emergency landing in Goa

India

oi-PTI

Panaji, Dec 9: Indian Navy's Chetak helicopter attached to INS Hansa base in Vasco made an emergency landing in South Goa today after it developed a technical snag.

Both the pilots on the carrier landed safely, a senior naval official said. "The Chetak helicopter developed low oil pressure. Any variation in oil temperature of a helicopter can cause a snag.

The pilots adopted emergency procedures and landed safely in South Goa," Indian Navy's Flag Officer Commanding Goa Area (FOGA) Rear Admiral Puneet Bahl told.

The helicopter landed at a property owned by Lalit Group of Hotels in South Goa's Canacona village at 7.15 AM. Bahl said a team of Navy officials has been sent to the spot, which is around 60 kms away from INS Hansa base.

He said both the pilots on board Chetak were safe and they followed correct emergency procedures prescribed in such a situation. "We have sent a team which will investigate and only after that we will come to know the exact reason for the possible snag," Bahl added.

PTI
Target missed- Why the slip by Lashkar chief Dujana will prove costly

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

New Delhi, Dec 8: The security agencies almost had their man. Abu Dujana, the dreaded Lashkar-e-Tayiba chief in Kashmir had been cornered on Wednesday. He however managed to give the security agencies the slip. This slip was a costly one considering Dujana's track record which suggests that he is an expert at masterminding terror attacks.

Dujana was inducted into the Lashkar-e-Tayiba and made its chief with a specific purpose of wrecking havoc in the Valley. From masterminding the Udhampur attack to organising a hit on 8 CRPF personnel at Pampore, Dujana ensured that an already troubled Jammu and Kashmir remained on the boil.

Abu Dujana is known for his brazen style of functioning. This is the second time that he has managed to give the slip. At the funeral of terrorist held at Pulwama in May 2016, Dujana out there in the open giving the people a sermon. He had called upon the locals to take the fight to the Indian army. Lift up your guns and fight against the Indian army, he said before a crowd. Before the agencies could realise how big this man was in the Lashkar-e-Tayiba he managed to give them the slip.

A costly slip:

Dujana has been involved in two major attacks in the past year. He masterminded the Udhampur and Pampore attacks in which 8 CRPF personnel were killed. An Intelligence Bureau dossier on the 26 year old clearly suggests that he is a menace, armed and dangerous.

The dossier further goes on to state that he joined the Lashkar-e-Tayiba when he was 17. His rise in the outfit has been meteoric. A resident of Gilgit-Baltistan, he operates out of the Pulwama region in South Kashmir. His planing and style of execution had impressed his bosses who appointed him as a deputy to Abu Qasim.

Following the death of Abu Qasim, Dujana became the obvious choice to lead the outfit in Kashmir. His main target is the Indian army. All his attacks are directed against the armed forces in Kashmir as he believes that it is the armed forces which is coming in the way of their so-called Kashmir struggle. His name featured in several attacks which also include the ones at Pampore and Udhampur.

In fact he was the one who had planned the Udhampur attack in which two BSF personnel had died. When Mohammad Naved one of the terrorists was caught alive, he confirmed to the police that the attack was masterminded by Dujana and Qasim.

The investigations being conducted into the recent Pampore attack has also found that it was Dujana who had masterminded the attack. There is currently a reward of Rs 8 lakh on his head and a massive manhunt has been launched to track him down.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Friday, December 9, 2016, 8:45 [IST]
Crow instigating a fight between two cats leaves netizens in splits

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Teen commits suicide in Delhi

India

oi-PTI

New Delhi, Dec 9: A 15-year-old girl allegedly committed suicide after her mother did not respond to her request for Rs. 500 in southwest Delhi's Palam area, police said today.

The Class IX student killed herself in Mahavir Enclave area of Palam, police said.

"There was a marriage party in her friend circle and she demanded Rs. 500 from her mother. Her mother did not respond to her request after which she was little disturbed," a senior police officer said.

No suicide note was found from the spot. Her father is a daily wages worker and her mother works as a domestic help.

Further details in the case are awaited.

PTI
The terror groups that threaten the US and why Lashkar made it to the list

10 killed in twin blasts suspected to be triggered by Boko Haram

International

oi-PTI

Yola, Dec 9: Police say two explosions have ripped through a market in northeast Nigeria's Madagali town, and a survivor says the blasts have killed at least 10 people.

Boko Haram Islamic extremists are blamed for the Friday morning's attack on the edge of the group's Sambisa Forest stronghold, which Nigeria's military has been bombing ahead of ground assaults.

Since the military has dislodged the extremists from towns and villages this year, the insurgents have been attacking soft targets.

Survivor Ahmadu Gulak says the two explosions struck simultaneously at opposite ends of the market selling grains and vegetables. He says he counted at least 10 bodies and many wounded people being ferried to a nearby hospital by ambulance. Police spokesman Othman Abubakar confirms the blasts but says he has no toll of victims yet.

PTI
Defense Secretary Carter makes surprise visit to Afghanistan

International

oi-PTI

Bagram Air Base (Afghanistan), Dec 9: US Defense Secretary Ash Carter today made an unannounced visit to Afghanistan to consult with military commanders and deliver a pre-holiday pep talk to US troops.

It is Carter's last planned trip to Afghanistan before handing off his Pentagon responsibilities to his designated successor, retired Marine Gen James Mattis. Carter is scheduled to meet later in the day with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.

The US has about 10,000 troops in Afghanistan to train and advice Afghan security forces combating a resilient Taliban insurgency. US special operations forces are hunting down al-Qaida and Islamic State militants.

Carter's visit comes amid concerns that despite improvements in Afghan government defenses, Taliban forces are gaining leverage and are continuing to use neighbouring Pakistan as a sanctuary.

By US estimates, the Afghan government controls slightly less than two-thirds of the country's population.

Trump taps 'Mad Dog' Mattis to be Defence Secretary

The Taliban holds sway over about 10 per cent, and the remainder of the population is "contested." US commanders have praised Afghan soldiers for taking the lead in battles against the less-well equipped Taliban, but they have been suffering heavy casualties across the country.

Prior to Carter's arrival, his press secretary, Peter Cook, said Carter wants to get a full rundown on operations. "In his meetings with senior Afghan officials, the secretary will discuss the growing capabilities and resilience demonstrated by Afghan security forces in recent months," Cook said.

"He will also discuss ongoing efforts to continue building Afghan combat capacity including aviation." President Barack Obama had planned to reduce US troop numbers to about 1,000 by the time he left office in January, but he scrapped that approach in the face of Taliban gains.

The US military has been in Afghanistan since it led an invasion force in October 2001 to overthrow the Taliban regime. The US has suffered more than 2,200 deaths in Afghanistan, including more than 1,800 killed in action, since the war began.

President-elect Donald Trump has not said how he will approach the Afghanistan problem but has denounced what he calls US nation-building projects.

AP
Pak off the FATF grey list doesn't mean it's not under scrutiny anymore: MEA secretary

Pakistan, Iran look to revisit gas pipeline agreement

International

oi-IANS

By Ians English

Islamanad, Dec 9: Pakistan has shared with Iran amendments to gas sale and purchase agreement (GSPA) to extend implementation schedule and revise pricing under the $1.35-billion gas pipeline project.

A senior government official on Thursday told Dawn that the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet has not yet allowed the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources to start formal negotiations with Iran over fresh pricing.

He said the ministry requested the ECC in July this year to revive a committee to start formal talks and "we are still waiting for the approval".

The petroleum ministry told parliament a few days ago that for the Iran-Pakistan (IP) project to be implemented in the extended period, "amendment to the GSPA was required". It said a draft amendment had been shared with Tehran that agreed to negotiate it along with some other changes.

The official explained that the two key amendments were required to be made in the GSPA that had been "under suspension" for a few years. These proposed changes related to extension in timelines under the original agreement Pakistan should have completed the pipeline on its side by Dec 31, 2014 and gas flows should have started with effect from Jan 1, 2015.

Secondly, the pricing formula has to be revised based on latest market situation, prevailing prices from competitive sources and international best practices. Both Tehran and Islamabad wanted extension in dates and prices that would trigger a series of actions in line with best international practices.

The talks on the project were revived after a few years of suspension in March this year during the Iranian president visit to Pakistan. The two sides agreed to GSPA amendment for extension of time to finalise workable implementation schedule, price negotiation as per review clause in GSPA and Iranian proposal regarding amendments to the GSPA.

Iran has told Pakistan that the pipeline segment on the Iranian side will take about one-and-a-half years to complete.

Pakistan has stressed the need for setting the right timelines targeting early completion yet adequate provisions and flexibility for long-term measures and all eventualities towards achieving an amiable financial closure and construction.

Pakistan is currently building the 700-kilometre Gwadar-Nawabshah gas pipeline through Chinese assistance.

IANS


US will stick with Afghanistan for years to come: Carter

International

oi-PTI

Bagram Air Base (Afghanistan), Dec 9: US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter today said that America will stick with Afghanistan for years to come as a new US president takes over what is already America's longest war.

In a joint appearance in Kabul with Afghanistan's president, Ashraf Ghani, Carter said the US cannot afford to give up on Afghanistan after more than 15 years of US involvement, the deaths of more than 2,200 US troops, and the expenditure of hundreds of billions of dollars.

"The interests we are pursuing here are clear and enduring," he said, citing the goals of preventing another 9/11-type of attack on American soil and helping Afghanistan attain enough stability to remain a long-term security partner for the US and the West.

"To have a stable security partner that is eager and willing to work with the United States is an asset for the future for us," Carter said.

Carter was making his last planned trip to Afghanistan before handing off his Defence Department responsibilities to his successor. President-elect Donald Trump has nominated retired Marine Gen James Mattis for the post.

Trump has not said if or how he will alter the US course in Afghanistan, but has denounced what he calls US nation-building projects. The US has about 10,000 troops in Afghanistan to train and advise Afghan security forces combatting a resilient Taliban insurgency.

US special operations forces are hunting down al-Qaida and Islamic State militants. Carter's visit comes amid concerns that despite improvements in Afghan government defences, Taliban forces are gaining leverage and are continuing to use neighbouring Pakistan as a sanctuary.

By US estimates, the Afghan government controls slightly less than two-thirds of the country's population. The Taliban holds sway over about 10 per cent, and the remainder of the population is "contested."

The top US commander in Afghanistan said today "the fundamental logic" of the US counterterrorism mission is solid, suggesting it should continue after the change of administrations.

"Our policy of having an enduring counterterrorism effort alongside Afghan partners is, in my view, very sound a something that we need to continue," Army Gen. John Nicholson told a news conference in Bagram.

Appearing alongside Nicholson, Carter said that having "a stable security partner that is eager and willing to work with the United States is an asset for the future for us." US commanders have praised Afghan soldiers for taking the lead in battles against the less-well equipped Taliban, but they have been suffering heavy casualties.

Before Carter's arrival, his press secretary, Peter Cook, said Carter wanted to get a full rundown on operations. He said Carter would discuss "the growing capabilities and resilience demonstrated by Afghan security forces in recent months," as well as efforts to build "Afghan combat capacity including aviation." President Barack Obama had planned to reduce US troop numbers to about 1,000 by the time he left office in January, but he scrapped that approach in the face of Taliban gains.

PTI
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On Thursday, Rep. Sam Johnson, a Republican from Texas and chair of the Social Security subcommittee, introduced legislation to significantly cut Social Security.

The bill introduced by Johnson, who was recently acting Chair of the Ways and Means committee, slashes benefits, adds means testing, and would raise the retirement age from 67 to 69.

For most workers, the bill would cut Social Security benefits substantially. As Michael Linden, associate director for tax and budget policy at Center for American Progress, pointed out on Twitter, a letter from Social Securitys Office of the Actuary calculated workers making around $50,000 would see checks shrink by between 11% and 35%.

Nearly every income bracket would see a reduction, save for the very bottom. People making around $12,280 in 2016 who have worked for 30 years would see an increase of around 20%. But young people making the same amount would be hit hard by the changes. If they had 14 years of work experience by 2016, they would see their benefits cut in half.

The plan would also cut entirely cost of living adjustments (COLA) for retirees earning above $85,000.

If nothing happens, Social Security will start to lose its ability to pay benefits in full in the 2030s. However, Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo notes that by 2090 it will still be paying at 74%.

Democrats, expectedly, are not pleased with Johnsons plan, preferring strategies like increasing taxes above the Social Security capbillionaires pay the same amount as someone making less than $118,500or raising the Social Security tax itself. There has, however, been a bipartisan effort for a payroll tax to help keep Social Security funded. For now, Congress will deliberate on Johnsons proposal in 2017.

Correction 12/10: An earlier version of this article stated Johnson was still the chair of the Ways and Means Committee. He is no longer acting chair.

Ethan Wolff-Mann is a writer at Yahoo Finance focusing on consumerism, tech, and personal finance. Follow him on Twitter @ewolffmann.

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by  Graham Pierrepoint



Its a platform that has helped to create much in the way of headlines relating to the US President-elect in the past 18 months, yet it seems that Donald Trumps ability to use Twitter may be taken away from him following a recent tweet that may construed as having incited unwanted calls to an Indianapolis factory worker. Despite the fact that Trump may have used Twitter to rally support and corral media controversy alike on his route to becoming President-elect, there is a chance within Twitters own rules that he may have violated their terms of use.

According to reports citing the Washington Post, it appears that Mr Chuck Jones of Indianapolis  who represents United Steelworkers  was alleged by Trump on Twitter to have done a terrible job representing workers, and that it was no wonder that companies were fleeing the US. According to reports, Jones stated that he received numerous unsolicited calls from strangers inquiring about various elements of his private life, which may have potentially been spurred on by those following Trumps regular social media use.

Twitter famously sticks by its rules and it has allegedly repeated that their terms with regard to the inciting or engagement of targeted harassment  and some media outlets suggest that Trumps recent use of the platform could contravene the websites rules. Anyone in the know about Trump and his campaign will already be well aware that the President-elect is no stranger to Twitter  and while Barack Obama has had his own account set up and run during his time as President, it is not currently clear just how much access, or say, Trump will have over his tweets when he comes to take office in early 2017.

Is it likely that Twitter will suspend or remove Trump from their platform entirely before he comes to take office next year? It is perhaps too early to say  but Twitter has not slackened on their policies in the past as a result of celebrity or status  meaning that they could potentially flex their rule muscles and penalize Trump before he ascends to office. While its not clear whether or not Twitter will endeavor to quash Trumps usage at this stage, it will certainly be interesting to see whether or not they feel that the politician should be directly brought to task for the complaints made by Jones  but it will certainly be interesting to see if they follow through on their regulations!
by  Graham Pierrepoint



Of all the people to return to the headlines this year, few may have expected that former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair would make such a vocal return to the front pages of the British press  after all, it has been more than a few years since the statesman last held office and proved to be quite the divisive leader. This year, however, he has made his way back into media attention as a result of both his opinions on the recent EU referendum and the verdict reached by the recent Chilcott Report  which advised that Blair could have acted alternatively in the face of then-potential war with Iraq. Since then, the ex-head of state has maintained that he acted in good faith on the information he was provided, and has since changed his focus to weighing in on Brexit  to the extent where reports advise he may be moving closer to Westminster once more, albeit in a non-frontline capacity.

This week, it has also emerged that a number of MPs are to make further motions to hold Blair to account for his role in the Iraq war in 2003. The Chilcott Enquiry established a number of truths relating to the way in which Blair acted via George Bush during the early 00s, and MPs from six different parties including the SNPs Alex Salmond look set to propose that a further inquiry takes place to establish a number of the key facts surrounding Blairs position at that time.

The proposal is being backed by high-ranking party members and is looking to set up a parliamentary committee to draw comparison between Blairs public evidence to the Chilcott Enquiry and conservations and actions he may have taken in private. This has likely been mounted in response to the lack of direct action taken against Blair despite an enquiry that took seven years to fully complete  and many MPs from several parties are keen that the ex-Prime Minister should receive some form of retribution if his part in making decisions on the Iraq War were judged to have been improper. It is certainly likely to be a popular decision with much of the public, as Blair remains a divisive figure as a result of his part in Iraq  but will such a committee be drawn up, and will it help bring closure to those searching for it?
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By PETER S. KINJAP : Commentary

MANY current Papua New Guinean parliamentarians are highly respected individuals in their own areas, successful in business, education or public service.With such backgrounds, they routinely attract great respect. This drive their popularity and ability to attract votes when they make known their political aspirations. Voters put their trust in these people.But when politicians attain public office, their pronouncements, decisions and actions at times may attract criticism and opposition. Politicians must be able to face such scrutiny when they decide to come out of their private life and become public figures.Many parts of PNG have misconceived perceptions of leadership. We mix Melanesian leadership style with Western leadership. In Melanesia, a leader is one who owns many pigs, marries many wives and contributes greatly to society in terms of wealth-sharing andproblem-solving.With the introduction of the Westminster government system, the perception of leadership was different. PNG's democratic system provides that any politician or public office holder who is not performing should be able to be questioned by any member of the public.Recently, many local youths have been led to believe the tribal system or Melanesian perspective should prevail and many lives have been lost in related violence. Injuries have been sustained and homes and families have been destroyed.This mostly happens when the information on the Western perspective is not disseminated. When we want to raise issues in social media forums (the only medium left for us to openly discuss and express ourselves) some people turn to personal attack or seem tooppose every idea put forward.To post a question about government services and start debating and creating discussion is not wrong. But in PNG, it seems to be.Some people think we should respect politicians and not criticise them on social media. Well, I hold the opinion that you can respect them as an individual but as politicians they are answerable to questions by any member of the community.Holding onto the Melanesian ways of respecting even non-performing public office holders or politicians is totally unacceptable.Lets demand what is rightfully ours while still respecting them as private citizens and successful people in their own right.Lets know our rights and insist that politicians should act in our interests and then we can accord them our respect.The more we confuse traditional respect with present day bad behaviour, the more we compromise with corruption.There is a clear distinction between a Melanesian leadership perception and a Western perception. The more we confuse ourselves with Melanesian and Western perceptions, the less government services we see in the communities and the more corruption is rightin front of us.Corruption is a real threat to the growth of the nation. It is a double-edged sword that hangs over our head.Together we must fight against corruption for a better PNG tomorrow.
Komfie Manalo, Opalesque Asia:

Over the past several years, Australian retail investors are adopting alternative investments, not just moms and dads, but also more the advisory market and the bank distribution platforms. More research and consultants now understand the value of alternatives, including CTAs which after the global financial crisis added value during that time with their low correlation to mainstream asset classes.

"That put them on the map," said Jonas Daly, Head of Distribution at Bennelong Funds Management at the recent Opalesque Australia Roundtable. "That really was the time from which on people have been educated on the benefits of those types of structure."

Daly added that "particularly pensioners and retirees are looking for an allocation to the market but without the volatility of equities. So, those [alternative] type of funds have been popular."

Advisors and dealers more focused on 'goals based advice

Pengana Capital's Director and CIO Nick Griffiths agrees with Daly. Also Pengana has moved distribution more from an institutional investor focus to a retail and high net worth investor focus about five years ago for the very same reasons. "Over the last few years we have also increasingly seen dealer groups and adviso......................

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Currently: Cash Looking to: Buy @ 108.337



As of 3/21/21 @ 9:21pm EST: 108.857



LAST WEEK: We suggested buying dips in USDJPY to 108.337 and holding for a run up to 111. We suggested honoring stops on longs on a close below 107.75.



UPDATE: The USDJPY is up early on Monday after trading sluggishly all last week. We still feel the cross will trade down to 108.337 (or lower).

No changes to last weeks trade recommendations.
Opalesque Industry Update - The US Senate passed the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, expanding the Russia-specific Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012 worldwide. William Browder, leader of the global Magnitsky Justice campaign, said: "The adoption of the Global Magnitsky Act is a revolution in the fight against corruption and impunity. This legislation will scare human rights abusers and kleptocrats around the world. It is also the beacon of hope for numerous victims of injustice and brazen corruption around the world. Finally, it is a recognition of the power of the sacrifice of one man who stood against the entire evil state machine." The Senate vote on Global Magnitsky comes after the passage of the bill in the House of Representatives last week. It now goes to the President for his signature. The Global Magnitsky Act was sponsored in the Senate by Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Ranking Member of the Foreign Relations Committee, and John McCain (R-Ariz.), Chairman of the Armed Services Committee. It was sponsored in the U.S. House by Representative Chris Smith, Co-chairman of the US Helsinki Committee (R-New Jersey), and Representative Jim McGovern, The Co-Chairman of the Lantos Human Rights Committee (D-Massachusetts). The bi-partisan legislation is named after a Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who testified against corrupt Russian officials implicated in the US$230 million theft, and was arrested by some of the implicated officials, tortured and killed in police custody at the age of 37. The Global Magnitsky Act widens sanctionable offences to include significant acts of corruption. The Global Magnitsky Act creates consequences for corrupt officials and human rights abusers in any country around the world by denying them entry into the United States and access to US financial institutions. Senator McCain said: "Last month marked the seventh anniversary of the murder of Sergei Magnitsky at the hands of Vladimir Putins Russia. Sergeis torture and murder is an example of a problem that is unfortunately all too common and widespread in Russia and many parts of the world today: the flagrant violations of the rule of law and basic human rights." "The Global Magnitsky Human Rights and Accountability Act, which is on its way to becoming law, will  send a clear message that if you violate the human rights and civil liberties of others, the United States will hold you accountable. In passing this legislation, we honor the life and memory of Sergei and affirm our commitment to all those fighting for freedom around the world," said Senator McCain. Senator Cardin said: "With todays passage of the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, the United States has added a critical tool to our diplomatic toolbox, making clear that gross violators of human rights and those who engage in serious acts of corruption cannot escape the consequences of their actions even when their home country fails to act. Perhaps most importantly, passage of this legislation is a reminder to all those around the world who have the courage to stand up against corruption and human rights abuses, that the United States stands with them in solidarity." Congressional passage of Global Magnitsky has been part of the Senates vote on the National Defense Authorization Act for 2017 fiscal year. It comes on the eve of two related days: December 9th is International Anti-Corruption Day and December 10th is Human Rights Day. The Global Magnitsky Act authorizes the President to impose sanctions on any foreign individual the President determines is responsible for significant acts of corruption, extrajudicial killings, torture, or other gross violations of internationally recognized human rights committed against individuals seeking to promote human rights or to expose illegal activity carried out by government officials. Global Magnitsky sanctions on these individuals include (a) prohibiting or revoking U.S. entry visas or other entry documentation; (b) freezing and prohibiting U.S. property transactions of an individual if such property and property interests are in the United States, come within the United States, or are in or come within the control of a U.S. person or entity. In determining whether credible evidence exists to apply sanctions, the President must consider requests made jointly by the Chairperson and Ranking Member of certain Congressional committees. Global Magnitsky also requires the President to report annually to Congress regarding actions taken pursuant to the bill.
From Counterpunch

"A shining city on a hill," Ronald Reagan called America (by way of the Puritan authoritarian John Winthrop). "We are great because we are good," Hillary Clinton said during the campaign (via Tocqueville). Michelle Obama, earlier this year: "This right now is the greatest country on Earth."

You may have heard of "mansplaining," which is when a dude patronizingly explains something to a woman, often concerning a subject about which she knows more than he does (c.f., rape culture, workplace discrimination, etc.). Other spin-off portmanteaus mocking pompous people of privilege include whitesplaining (white person explains racism to black person), straightsplaining, Millennialsplaining, and even (during the primaries) Bernie-splaining.

May the victory of Donald Trump mark the long overdue death of Ameri-splaining -- when American leaders like Clinton and Obama (and not a few ordinary citizens) pretentiously declaim our nation's supposed exceptionalism to people in countries that do a better job than we do.

First and foremost, I'd like to thank Trump for his campaign slogan: Make America Great Again. Granted, he wasn't talking to blacks and other oppressed segments of society for whom the past is more about pain than nostalgia. Trump's campaign was aimed at whites. Nevertheless, Trump deserves credit for acknowledging that -- at least at this time -- America is not so great. "A Third World country," he calls us. Keep reading and you'll see that he has a point.

The first step is acknowledging that you have a problem.

Problems? Where to start?

Our economic structure sucks. We're the world's richest nation. But because we also have the most horrendous wealth inequality, most Americans are poor. According to the UN, our poverty rate is worse than 17 of the 19 OECD countries. We have the highest rate of childhood poverty. But the rich pigs in charge don't care. Which is why we have the worst social safety net.

Maybe we should stop letting people die of cancer because they're poor before Ameri-splaining human rights to Iran, where free RouhaniCare for everyone (!) rolls out in 2018. Similarly, we might want to stop executing children before telling the Iranians they're wrong to do the same thing.

Our infrastructure is outdated and poorly maintained. It would take an additional $3.6 trillion to bring our existing highways, bridges, dams, sewers, water pipes, rail and so on up to code -- yet spending on repairs is at a 30-year low. That doesn't count the $500 billion or more it would cost to build a high-speed rail system like they have in Europe and Japan -- you know, modern countries.

Rather than harassing China over their ridiculous little fake islands, perhaps U.S. officials could invite the brilliant civil engineers creating a high-speed train system to Tibet, complete with pressurization like a plane as it soars through and around some of the biggest mountains on the planet, to show us how to bring our trains into the 21st century.

What is with us? Why do we talk down to the rest of the world from the depths of the lowest swamp below the moral high ground? At his penultimate State of the Union address, President Obama Ameri-splained to Russia's Vladimir Putin over his "aggressive" annexation of Crimea. At the time, the U.S. was in its 14th year of occupying Afghanistan and its 12th of occupying Iraq. It was bombing the crap out of Yemen. Obama's death drones were killing thousands of people, most of whom he thought were innocent.

When you stop to imagine what we look like to the rest of the world, we're lucky we got away with just one wee 9/11.

Will Ameri-splaining continue under Trump? You'd think not, but since he's already swiveled 180 degrees on so many other issues, he easily could revert to Bush-Obama-style triumphalism from his current, refreshing pessimism. The difference now is, no one -- not even here in America where no one reads anything -- can possibly take the U.S. government seriously when it scolds some country for, say, torturing people. Whereas Obama condescendingly tells his successor that torture doesn't work (but not that it's immoral, or that he still allows the CIA to use it), Trump has said of waterboarding "I like it a lot."

The United States has always been corrupt, savage and brutal. It has always been wildly dysfunctional and hypocritical. But now, thanks to a president-elect who is loudly ignorant and utterly devoid of impulse control, the mask is off. The horrible truth about the United States can no longer be denied.

Trump epitomizes truth in advertising. We're a nasty, crappy country.

President Trump suits us fine.
From Dispatches From The Edge

President-elect Donald Trump's off the cuff, chaotic approach to foreign policy had at least one thing going for it, even though it was more the feel of a blind pig rooting for acorns than a thought out international initiative. In speaking with Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Trump said he wanted "to address and find solutions to the county's [Pakistan's] problems."

Whether Trump understands exactly how dangerous the current tensions between Pakistan and India are, or if anything will come from the Nov. 30 exchange between the two leaders, is anyone's guess, but it is more than the Obama administration has done over the past eight years, in spite of a 2008 election promise to address the on-going crisis in Kashmir.

And right now that troubled land is the single most dangerous spot on the globe.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars over the disputed province in the past six decades and came within a hair's breadth of a nuclear exchange in 1999. Both countries are on a crash program to produce nuclear weapons, and between them they have enough explosive power to not only kill more than 20 million of their own people, but to devastate the world's ozone layer and throw the Northern Hemisphere into a nuclear winter with a catastrophic impact on agriculture worldwide.

According to studies done at Rutgers, the University of Colorado-Boulder, and the University of California Los Angeles, if both countries detonated 100 Hiroshima size bombs, it would generate between 1 and 5 million tons of smoke that within 10 days would drive temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere down to levels too cold for wheat production in much of Canada and Russia. The resulting 10 percent drop in rainfall -- particularly hard hit would be the Asian monsoon -- would exhaust worldwide food supplies, leading to the starvation of up to 100 million plus people.

Aside from the food crisis, a nuclear war in South Asia would destroy between 25 to 70 percent of the Northern Hemisphere's ozone layer, resulting in a massive increase in dangerous ultra-violent radiation.

Lest anyone think that the chances of such a war are slight, consider two recent developments.

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Two, long, boring years before every presidential election we hear a constant barrage of empty promises. Candidates will say whatever voters want to hear, but then once elected, they change their views and do a position switch. The result is that we get the same old prototypical leaders over and over again. It happens because "the system is rigged," as George Carlin said. Our so-called "democracy" is a sham, a big joke. Voting does not change anything significantly, and it is understandable why many individuals do not even vote or vote for a third party.

We political readers love the political writers who eloquently articulate the problems, but change is not going to happen until large numbers of us unite and work toward a common goal. We have to focus on the solution.

Everyone who was very displeased with both Trump and Clinton for different reasons in the recent election should work together to take all money out of politics. We have to demand that every political party that garners one percent of the voters has a right to be heard when the Republicans and Democrats have their debates. In the final three months of any presidential and state legislative election, we can restrict the debate to the 7 largest political parties. We have to demand that all TV and radio political advertisements be outlawed, as we implement public financing of all national and state elections. Naysayers may think that these are far-fetched ideals, but then nobody expected that Bernie Sanders would become so popular, or that Donald Trump would be elected President.

Imagine how much more interesting the recent presidential election debates would have been if they had included not just the Republican and Democratic parties, but the Libertarian Party, the Green Party, the Constitution Party, the Socialist Party, and the Communist Party. We could have a more informed citizenry, an educated populace, if all the major parties could be represented. People could then actually vote their conscience, and not the lesser of two evils.

As it is now, whoever gets the most campaign money is most likely to get elected (and reelected), so our so-called "public servants" end up selling themselves to the highest bidder, the largest donor, because there are prestige and financial perks in being a politician. Public financing of all elections is the only way to create a genuine democracy.

Any member of the Libertarian, Green, or Constitution parties (the three largest third parties) could easily write this article, advocating the empowerment of the largest political parties. It is also interesting and significant that none of these three major third parties proposes a neo-conservative (or neo-liberal) foreign policy, as both the Republicans and Democrats do.

Skeptics might think that if we give an equal voice to every political party that gets one percent of the registered voters, it is possible that there could be 100 different parties, which would be too overwhelming for citizens to choose from. But that is unlikely because getting one percent of the voters to join a national or state political party is no easy task. Furthermore, in the final 3 months of any election, the debate could be restricted to the 7 largest parties that garnered at least one percent. So why not just limit the debate to the largest 7 from the get-go? Because we need to hear from all the political groups in our society, whether we agree with them or not. Those fringe groups did not just emerge out of a vacuum. There is a reason that they exist. If we listen to them deeply, they may listen to us as well. Minor parties can become major parties if they are given a voice, heard by all.

From the BernieSanders.com website, the following segment of Bernie's campaign speech articulates our dire predicament: "Six years ago [2010], as a result of the disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision, by a 5-4 vote, the U.S. Supreme Court essentially said to the wealthiest people in this country: you already own much of the American economy. Now, we are going to give you the opportunity to purchase the U.S. government, the White House, the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House, governor's seats, legislatures, and state judicial branches as well. The Citizens United decision hinges on the absurd notion that money is speech, corporations are people, and giving huge piles of undisclosed cash to politicians in exchange for access and influence does not constitute corruption."

Large numbers of people are now realizing more than ever that the Electoral College system for electing a President has to be abolished. In the distant future, in my opinion, we should implement proportional representation for a unicameral national legislature, as the undemocratic US Senate is eliminated altogether. Isn't it amazing that California and Wyoming have the same number of U.S. Senators, though California's population is about 70 times greater? Eliminating the U.S. Senate, however, may require a new national constitution down the road, but that should not be our current focus. It is just something to think about.

Working one state at a time to change the third-party ballot-access laws in each state has not worked. A better strategy now is to get one U.S. Senator or one U.S. House Representative to propose a bill, and once proposed, we should expose every federal legislator who obstructs it or refuses to support it. Just reversing Citizens United will not empower the major third parties. Please join me in urging all national third parties to unite for this purpose.

Furthermore, we need thousands of activists writing to all the federal legislators who are most likely willing to introduce this bill, as we organize protests in every major city, focusing on the obvious solution. Years ago, it was often heard, possibly from the Moral Majority: "Don't criticize the system unless you have a better solution!" They were right. But we have a solution. We just need to collectively focus on it. Here is a sample letter that can be written to lawmakers:

Dear Honorable Senator or Honorable Congressman/Congresswoman

Please introduce the following bill to Maximize Democracy in our nation:

Any national political party that garners at least one percent of the registered voters in the nation should have a right to participate in presidential debates. In the final 3 months of a presidential election, the televised debate should be restricted to the 7 largest national political parties. For example, if only 5 parties have captured at least one percent of nationally registered voters, then the debate would be between those 5.

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The Farmland Preservation Program in Suffolk County on Long Island, New York, was a breakthrough for farmland preservation not only on Long Island but across the United States.

The visionary, first-in-the-nation program, predicated on the then-new idea when it was initiated in 1974 of purchase-of-development rights from farmers, has been emulated across the nation.

Thus it is shocking that an environmental organization based on Long Island has brought a lawsuit challenging the implementation of the program.

The program has been the key to saving the important and historical farming industry on Long Island and keeping Suffolk a top agricultural county in New York State--and has since led to similarly vital farmland preservation elsewhere in the U.S.

However, in October, a New York State Supreme Court justice ruled in favor of a lawsuit brought by the Long Island Pine Barrens Society with its office in Riverhead, Long Island, which claimed that allowing "structures" on preserved farmland, permitted by amendments to the program approved by the Suffolk legislature, was not legal. Suffolk County is appealing this decision by Justice Thomas Whelan.

If the ruling is allowed to stand it would "effectively gut the Farmland Preservation Program," says Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone. "If farmers can't do the things necessary to run a successful operation, we can't have farming here anymore."

At a press conference two weeks ago, outrage was expressed over what has happened. Among those present were numerous Suffolk County legislators including Dwayne Gregory of Amityville, the presiding officer of the legislature, Sarah Anker of Mount Sinai, Rob Colarco of Patchogue, Kate Browning of Shirley, Dr. William Spencer of Centerport, Kevin McCaffrey of Lindenhurst, Leslie Kennedy of Nesconset, Bridget Fleming of Noyac, and Al Krupski of Cutchogue.

The attendance of lawmakers from all over Suffolk County demonstrated, said Rob Carpenter, administrative director of the Long Island Farm Bureau, "that this is not just about the East End--this is countywide."

Indeed, having farms in Suffolk County has long been integral to the county.

Mr. Carpenter, in his comments, stressed that "farmers need to have the ability to change with the times." They need to have "structures for farm equipment, to protect animals" and greenhouses, among other buildings.

Mr. Krupski, who led the press conference and is a fourth-generation Suffolk County farmer, said: "There is great diversity in agriculture, and not everyone understands what is needed to operate a productive farm or agricultural operation. Agriculture is changing. Different farming techniques, new technology and methods are emerging, along with the opportunities they present. Infrastructure needs may change. We need to adapt to accommodate these changes if we want to preserve agriculture and farming."

John v.H. Halsey, president of the Peconic Land Trust, headquartered in Southampton, said the Land Trust "is very concerned about the recent court ruling and its impact on our local working farms so important to Long Island's jobs and tourist economy." Suffolk's "landmark" Farm Preservation Program "is about assuring the future of farming and agricultural production first and foremost" and, "Agricultural production by definition includes structures like barns, greenhouses and fences. Such structures are essential to the business of farming, and do not just benefit the farmer, but also the public, residents and visitors alike, who are afforded access to a wide variety of locally grown products, including food, wine and horticultural products. In short, agriculture is a central component of Long Island's history and community character from which all benefit."

Farmer Mark Zaweski of Riverhead, a member of the Suffolk County Farmland Commission, said the lawsuit "has far-reaching consequences to the already burdened Suffolk County farmers. Equipment storage buildings, greenhouses to start young seedlings for early market sales as well as high tunnels to prolong the growing season are of utmost importance in today's evolving agricultural industry". For equine and any animal production, shelters are required by law." If the ruling sticks, "farmers who have sold their development rights will have a difficult time continuing on, and those that haven't will not even consider entering into the program, which then leaves those farms for possible development into more homes and subdivisions."

The Suffolk County Farmland Preservation Program, conceived by County Executive John V.N. Klein, utilizes the then novel idea of purchase of development rights from farmers. Farmers are paid the difference between the value of their land if kept in agriculture and what it would bring if sold off for development. In return, the land is kept in agriculture in perpetuity. Some 10,636 farmland acres have been saved in Suffolk County through the program.

"The original intent of the program was to be a working land program," notes Mr. Carpenter, a veteran of the Long Island Farm Bureau.

The lawsuit is misguided and needs to be overturned to save Suffolk County as a place of working farms and to prevent attacks on copies of the Suffolk Farmland Preservation Program across the country.

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From Counterpunch

Syrian Army helicopters dropped leaflets on parts of eastern Aleppo on Sunday warning anti-government fighters to surrender while they still had the chance. Hundreds of jihadists have already laid down their weapons and surrendered while a hardline corps of dead-enders continue to fend off the rapidly advancing army.

The situation is looking increasingly hopeless for the ragtag group of insurgents that have lost more than half the territory they held in just the last week. Every attempt they've made to break through Syrian Army lines has been repelled leaving them to defend a few shrinking districts where they will either surrender or die.

On Sunday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov delivered an ultimatum to the remaining militants that clarified the position of the Syrian government and its allies. he said:

"Those groups which refuse to leave eastern Aleppo will be treated as terrorists. By refusing to walk out from eastern Aleppo they will in fact go ahead with armed struggle. We will treat them accordingly, as terrorists and extremists, and support the Syrian army in its operation against such armed gangs."

US Secretary of State John Kerry has made every effort to stop the fighting to protect US-backed jihadists that are trying to topple Syrian President Bashar al Assad. Unfortunately, a proposal that was accepted by both Kerry and Lavrov concerning the withdrawal of fighters in Aleppo, was rejected by higher-ups in the Obama Administration ending the prospects for a negotiated settlement. Lavrov expressed his frustration in comments to the media where he said:

"They have withdrawn their document and have a new one. Our initial impression is that this new document backtracks, and is an attempt to buy time for the militants, allow them to catch their breath and resupply. The same thing happened with our agreement of September 9. It's difficult to understand who makes decisions there, but apparently there are plenty of those who want to undermine the authority and practical steps by John Kerry."

According to Reuters, "the Syrian Foreign Ministry said it would now accept no truce in Aleppo, should any outside parties try to negotiate one." Meanwhile, "Russia and China vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution on Monday calling for a week-long ceasefire." Simply put, this is the end of the line for the US-backed terrorists that have laid to waste much of the battered country and killed more than 400,000 people. And while Aleppo may not be the decisive turning point in the ongoing conflict, it does put all of the main population centers and industrial hubs back under regime control.

More important, the recapturing of Aleppo is a major setback for Washington and its jihadist-breeding allies (US, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar). US plans for redrawing the map of the Middle East to meet its economic and geopolitical objectives has been defeated by a courageous and determined coalition (Syria, Iran, Russia and Hezbollah) that has methodically routed or exterminated the foreign-backed opposition and reestablished both state security and the sovereign authority of the elected government to control its own affairs.

On Tuesday morning, AMN News reported that the Syrian Army had captured 85 percent of East Aleppo. Dozens of insurgents have been killed in sporadic fighting while hundreds more have surrendered. It appears that the battle of Aleppo is about to end and the Syrian Army is on the "verge of total victory."
For me, it's the last straw. I'm referring to the nomination of Scott Pruitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). His nomination confirms the fact that the U.S. government has entirely lost its legitimacy.

Here I'm not just referring to the idiosyncrasies of an antiquated U.S electoral system. It's not just that we will again find ourselves under an administration demonstrably unsupported by the majority of U.S. citizens. (Donald Trump lost the popular vote by 2.7 million votes.)

No, my claim is more stark. It is that the Pruitt nomination evokes the right to revolution as outlined in the Declaration of Independence.

Pruitt is the Oklahoma Attorney General who hates the EPA and has made a career out of suing it for what he calls regulation "overreach." By that he means laws expressing excessive concern about climate change -- an issue he considers "far from settled."

As a climate-change denier, Pruitt (and the entire Republican Party) not only sets himself against the conclusions of 97% of climate scientists. He also contradicts the will of virtually the entire world as expressed in the recently concluded COP 22 climate meeting in Marrakesh, Morocco. There the Congress of Parties agreed on the necessity of strict regulations of carbon emissions in order to avoid climate catastrophe threatening to deprive our grandchildren of a humanly inhabitable planet.

Such irrational imposition of personal bias on the entire world evokes memories not only of Hitler's Third Reich, but urgent recollection of the brave words of the Declaration of Independence. There Thomas Jefferson described the purpose of government and the circumstances that remove its lawful status. Jefferson wrote:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness, that to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it..."

In the context of a Pruitt EPA appointment, Jefferson's relevant points include:

All of us (not just fetuses) have the basic right to life. The purpose of government is to secure that right. When governments destroy the basic right to life, they lose legitimacy. The people then have the duty to overthrow them.

With the nomination of Scott Pruitt, Mr. Trump promises to make human life as we know it impossible. Pruitt thus becomes the embodiment of a genocide far worse than Adolf Hitler's. Hitler incinerated six million Jews, communists, socialists, gypsies, homosexuals, and other "misfits." Pruitt's nomination signifies the intention of the Trump administration to incinerate us all -- or at best to leave our grandchildren with nothing but a planetary wasteland.

The question now remains what to do about this unprecedented disaster.

Setting aside Jefferson's suggestion of armed revolution, it means we all must at least find our voices and denounce the emerging Fourth Reich. As Dr. King said, "A time comes when silence means betrayal." In addition, responding to Trumpism entails getting out of our comfort zones, taking to the streets, and working every day to save the planet for posterity.

I have my plan of response. What's yours?
From Consortium News



Saudi King Salman bids farewell to President Barack Obama at Erga Palace after a state visit to Saudi Arabia on Jan. 27, 2015.

(Image by (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)) Details DMCA



If someone wants to become somebody in Official Washington, there are certain lies that you must assert as undeniable truths, almost like flashing a secret sign to gain entry to an exclusive club. For instance, you must say that Iran is the world's "chief sponsor of terrorism" though that is patently false.

The problem is that a much bigger sponsor of terrorism is Saudi Arabia, with some competition from Qatar, but those two Gulf states are extremely wealthy U.S. "allies" and their hatred of Iran is shared by Israel, which possesses the most intimidating foreign lobby in Washington. So, deviation from the "Iran-chief-sponsor-of-terrorism" mantra marks you as someone who is not part of the club and never will be.

Yet, while lies may be the mother's milk of Official Washington, there are severe costs paid by the American people and even more by the people of the Middle East who have suffered from the bloody consequences of this particular lie because it has been at the root of a series of misguided U.S. interventions, which themselves have spread widespread terror.

The U.S. government allied itself with Saudi Arabia in building the modern Islamic terrorism movement in the 1980s when the Reagan administration went in 50/50 with Saudi Arabia to finance and arm the Afghan mujahedeen -- a project costing billions of dollars -- to fight a merciless war against Soviet troops defending a leftist, secular regime in Kabul.

That war not only opened the gates of Kabul to the likes of Saudi jihadist Osama bin Laden and the Taliban but it created the methodology and means for the Saudis to expand their Sunni proxy wars against various Shiite "apostates" and secularists across the region.

Though hailed in U.S. propaganda as noble freedom fighters, the mujahedeen routinely sodomized, tortured and murdered captured Russian soldiers and put Afghan women back into prehistoric servitude. After the Taliban prevailed in 1996, they castrated Afghan President Najibullah and hung his mutilated body from a light pole. In the years that followed, there were plenty of public beheadings for violating the Taliban's fundamentalist teachings, which were shared by Saudi officialdom.

From the "successful" Afghan experience, the Saudi intelligence agency recognized the value of using Sunni fundamentalist fanatics as the tip of the spear in wars against Middle East secularists and Shiites, including Shia Islam's spinoffs, such as Alawites and Houthis.

The Saudis also recognized the value of influencing Official Washington, which the kingdom had tried to do by creating its own lobby based on spreading around lots of money. But that Saudi effort was blunted by Israel and its lobby, which didn't want to share its unmatched influence over the U.S. government.

So, the Saudis found it easier to "rent" the Israel Lobby by developing covert ties with Israel and quietly paying Israel billions of dollars. The Saudi dollars, in effect, replaced the money that Israel had been getting from Iran during the 1980s when Israel brokered Iran's arms sales. As part of the Israeli-Saudi under-the-table alliance, the two countries agreed that Iran and the so-called "Shiite crescent" -- stretching from Tehran through Damascus to Hezbollah neighborhoods of Beirut -- were their joint strategic enemies.

Behind the combined clout of politically influential Israel and financially powerful Saudi Arabia, the script was written for U.S. politicians, pundits and officials to recite: "Iran is the chief sponsor of terrorism."

This dogma is repeated again and again, including by retired Generals James Mattis and Michael Flynn, President-elect Donald Trump's choices for Defense Secretary and National Security Advisor, respectively. But the terror groups that Americans fear most, such as Al Qaeda and Islamic State, are supported by Saudi Arabia and other Gulf States, not by Iran.

Hillary Knew Well

And this reality is well known to senior U.S. officials even though it is never openly acknowledged. For instance, classified documents provided to WikiLeaks included diplomatic cables from then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and top advisers recognizing that violent jihadist groups were raising millions of dollars from Saudi Arabia, an inconvenient truth that even The New York Times has finally recognized.



U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meets with Saudi King Abdullah in Riyadh on March 30, 2012.

(Image by [State Department photo]) Details DMCA



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By Naveen Thukral

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - India could face tight wheat supplies in the weeks ahead as 400,000 tonnes of Ukrainian cargoes, booked for December, are expected to be delayed, traders said, just when the South Asian country was boosting stockpiles.

India on Thursday scrapped its 10 percent import duty on wheat after droughts in the past two years depleted stocks and raised prices, a move traders said could lift overseas purchases to their highest in a decade.

India, which has been snapping up Australian and Black Sea wheat cargoes in recent weeks, was expecting the shipments from Ukraine to arrive this month, but traders now say they might reach India by January.

Ukraine is in the middle of peak corn exports while wheat shipment season is nearly over.

"Ukrainian exporters are giving more importance to ship corn. Ships to load wheat are just waiting," one New Delhi-based trader said.

The late arrival of ships from the Black Sea could make it difficult for Indian ports next month when Australian wheat cargoes are also due.

"Everything will arrive at the same time and Indian ports will not be able to handle such influx," said one Singapore trader, who is among the suppliers hit by delays.

"We will have delays in unloading ships."

In the past month, Indian importers have purchased about 500,000 tonnes of wheat, largely from Australia, as the country continues its large import programme.

Elsewhere, Philippine mills recently bought 50,000 tonnes of Australian wheat at about $202 a tonne, free on board, for shipment in January, traders said.

(Reporting by Naveen Thukral; Editing by Manolo Serapio Jr.)
Please protect our democracy by casting your presidential electoral vote for the winner of the national popular vote, Hillary Clinton.

The United States is the only democracy that elects the leader of all the people, the President, through a mechanism such as the Electoral College. While the Electoral College itself is in the US Constitution, how states allocate electoral votes and how individual electors vote is not. This places great responsibility on electors like you to fulfill the purposes of this election process.

The main purpose of our presidential-election process is to select a person of high qualifications and to prevent the selection of a person lacking in knowledge or personal and professional integrity. The President also should not have foreign entanglements and foreign governments should not influence our political discourse. And it's not just about the person - in selecting their President the people express their will regarding the actions they want that person to take.

Votes are still being counted, but we know that Hillary Clinton received at least 2.7 million more votes nationwide than Donald Trump. However, since our population is not evenly distributed, Donald Trump was able to win victories by tiny margins in 3 states (Wisconsin by .9%, Michigan by .2%, Pennsylvania by .8%, subject to recounts). In those states, Donald Trump had at most 87,504 more votes than Hillary Clinton and, under a winner-take-all allocation, would receive 46 electoral votes. Nationwide, Hillary Clinton only needs 38 electoral votes to reach 270 and win.

This is an electoral process based on geography, not the political will of the people. It can, however, be modified to reflect the political will of the people and you can do that in this election. Thirty-eight true patriots who are now designated as Trump electors can do it by voting for Clinton instead.

Donald Trump exhibits a lack of knowledge about the complexities of modern domestic and foreign policy and has never held any elective office. His personal behavior and demeanor is offensive to millions at home and abroad. His business history is one of repeated law violations, lawsuits, civil settlements and bankruptcies. He refuses to release his federal income-tax returns so we must assume he has something to hide. He does business in many countries from which complete disinvestment is virtually impossible. Many of those businesses would present targets for terrorist attacks or opportunities for political pressure to be applied. He bragged of his ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, has received millions from his businesses in Russia and our national-security professionals believe Russia illegally invaded U.S. private email and database files for the purpose of influencing this election.

Finally, at least 65 million Americans do not want him to carry out his stated intended actions as President. Donald Trump is, therefore, everything our election process is supposed to protect us from as President of the United States. We cannot subvert our democracy by allowing 87,504 votes in 3 states to "trump" 2.7 million votes across 50 states and the District of Columbia. Please let the will of the people be done. The world is watching.
It is highly likely that the Trump administration will move to have the U.S. deploy weapons in space. If this happens, it will be profoundly destabilizing, setting off an arms race and, also likely, leading to war in space.



For decades there's been interest by U.S. administrations -- the Reagan administration with its "Star Wars" plan a leading example -- in placing weapons in space. But that has alternated with some administrations more-or-less opposed, the Obama administration an example.



Still, no matter the administration, since work at the United Nations began in 1985 on a treaty seeking, as its title declares, the Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space, the U.S. has not supported it. Canada, Russia and China have been leaders in urging passage of this PAROS treaty, and there has been virtually universal backing from nations around the world. But by balking, U.S. administration after administration has prevented its passage.





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Noam Chomsky, now 88 years old, made his career studying linguistics at MIT. Harry Belafonte, 89, became the King of Calypso, popularizing Caribbean music in the 1950s. Yes, the two men come from different worlds, but they share something important in commona long commitment to social justice and activism. Belafonte used his fame to champion the Civil Rights movement and Martin Luther King Jr., and also helped organize the March on Washington in 1963. Chomsky protested against the Vietnam War, putting his career on the line, and has since become one of Americas leading voices of political dissent.

On Monday, these two figures appeared onstage for the first time together. Speaking at Riverside Church in NYC, before a crowd of 2,000 people, Chomsky and Belafonte took stock of where America stands after the election of Donald Trump. Naturally, neither man looks forward to what Trump has to bring. But theyre not as glum about the future as many other voters on the left. Chomsky especially reminds us that America has made great strides since 1960. The United States is a far more civilized country overall. And its much easiernot to mention less dangerousto effect change today than a half century ago. Its just a matter of getting out there and putting in the hard work. Meanwhile, Belafonte urges us to have a rebellious heart and leaves with this spirited reminder, theres still some ass kicking to be done!

via @JohnCusack

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Noam Chomsky vs. William F. Buckley, 1969

Noam Chomskys Wide-Ranging Interview on a Donald Trump Presidency: The Most Predictable Aspect of Trump Is Unpredictability
Global Conveyor Market by Manufacturers, Regions, Type and Application, Forecast to 2021

http://www.globalinforesearch.com/goods.php?id=2345[url]

http://www.globalinforesearch.com/goods_all.php

http://www.globalinforesearch.com/goods_all.php

"A conveyor is a common piece of mechanical handling equipment that moves materials from one location to consumer goods. Conveyor allows quick and efficient transportation for a wide variety of materials, which make them very popular in the material handling and packaging industries. Many kinds of conveying are available, and are used according to the various needs of different industries.In this report, we mainly do research and analysis for power & free conveyors, Programmable Conveyors and Precision Indexing Conveyors."Published by: GIR (GlobalInfoResearch)Catalog: Machinery & EquipmentPublishing Date: Nov 2016Single User License: USD 3480Corporate Users License: USD 4680Delivery time: 24 hoursPages: 110Tables and Figures: 143Full information [url]Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Conveyor in Global market, especially in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversATSDaifukuBosch RexrothBeckhoffDestacoDurrFives GroupRichardsWilcoxDornerSFISSIIdeallineMotion Index DrivesAllied Conveyor SystemsPACLINEMarket Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversNorth America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America, Middle East and AfricaMarket Segment by Type, coversPower & Free ConveyorsProgrammable ConveyorsPrecision Indexing ConveyorsMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoElectronic IndustryAutomobile IndustryConsumer goodsOtherThere are 13 Chapters to deeply display the global Conveyor market.Chapter 1, to describe Conveyor Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Conveyor, with sales, revenue, and price of Conveyor, in 2015 and 2016;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2015 and 2016;Chapter 4, to show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Conveyor, for each region, from 2011 to 2016;Chapter 5, 6, 7 and 8, to analyze the key regions, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 9 and 10, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2011 to 2016;Chapter 11, Conveyor market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2016 to 2021;Chapter 12 and 13, to describe Conveyor sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, appendix and data source.BettySales DirectorE-mailbetty@globalinforesearch.comTel: HK:00852-58197708 USA:0013479661888Add: Room 1902 Two International Finance Centre 8 Finance Street, Central Hong KongWebsite:GlobalInfoResearch is a customer interest-based suppliers. Is in the best interests of our clients, they determine our every move. At the same time, we have great respect for the views of customers. With the improvement of the quality of our research, we develop custom interdisciplinary and comprehensive solution. For further development, we will do better and better.GlobalInfoResearch will with excellent professional knowledge and aexperience to carry out all aspects of our business. At the same time, we will fully look for information, to give a more comprehensive development.GlobalinforesearchRoom 1902 Two Interational Finance Centre 8 Finance Street,Central Hong KongUSA:0013479661888 HK:00852-58197708Email Id: marco@globalinforesearch.comWebsite:
Computational Biology Market Roadblocks In Drug Development Could Turn into Opportunity Global Industry

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http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/computational-biology.html

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

https://tmrresearch.blogspot.com/

The benefit of computational biology in using highly complex biological data to discover and gain a clear understanding of medical phenomena, significantly eliminating the need for human candidates to test drugs in developmental stage will boost the demand for these solutions globally. Transparency Market Research (TMR) states that the market will exhibit a remarkable double digit CAGR over the next few years and rise to a valuation of US$2.9 bn by 2018.Request a PDF Brochure with Report Analysis:Computational biology, also commonly referred to as bioinformatics, makes use of algorithms to establish the relationship between biological systems with the help of biological data that is impossible to be understood without computation analysis and modeling. For instance, the DNA and RNA sequencing done by new devices is so fine that not even a 0.001% of this data can be seen by human eyes. The use of computational biology to create simulation models for the fields of pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics have significantly helped several drug research and development projects in the recent past. This has compelled many pharmaceutical companies across the globe to adopt computational biology solutions.In this blog post, TMR analysts answer certain questions to present a clear perspective of the market for readers concerned with the future growth prospects of the market.Q. What is the key driving force for the market?A. Development of new drugs is a highly expensive process. The vast expenses incurred in the entire process of introducing a drug to the market, involving steps such as research, clinical tests, and approval applications, each equally expensive as the actual manufacturing process, make failure of a drug development project a critical loss for struggling pharmaceutical companies. It is estimated that the cost of introducing a new drug to the market is over US$3 bn. Failure of a drug development project, the resultant loss of investment, and the eventual chances of bankruptcy are thus the key factors driving the global demand for computational biology solutions.Q. What are the key challenges faced by the market?A. As the biological data being analyzed/processed in computational biology solutions is collected from a number of sources, it lacks standardization. For effective usage of biological data across a number of data processing tools, it is also necessary that the tools are compatible with each other. Moreover, the storage of unstructured data is also a huge challenge for market players. The integrated analysis of highly complex genomic and biomedical research data leads to complex statistical challenges.Also, as new genomes continue to be added to databases, the resulting misannotations also lead to several data processing challenges. Moreover, there is also a significant shortage of skilled scientists who are excel in both computers and biology. These factors are collectively hampering the global demand for computational biology tools and services.Q. Is the state of investment promising in the global computation biology market?A. Yes. The market is expected to exhibit a highly promising rate of growth in the next few years. As such, the focus of large and small investors on this field has significantly increased and private and public bodies are encouragingly investing in the field. Presently, a significant chunk of investments in the market are provided by government bodies. Significant funds are being invested by government bodies in healthcare and education domains to encourage the adoption and enhance capabilities in the field of computational biology. The improvement brought about by computational biology solutions in the process of drug development is the key aspect that forms the basis of these investments.Browse Research Report on Global Cancer Diagnostics Market:About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Browse market research blog:
Forensic Technologies and Services Market Global Products Types and Application in 2019

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http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/forensics-technology.html

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https://tmrresearch.blogspot.com/

Used for the identification, examination, and evaluation of physical evidence gathered from a crime scene, forensic technologies are highly sought in the defense and the homeland security sectors. At an exceptional growth rate of 12.40% during the period from 2013 to 2019, the demand for these technologies are likely to register a strong growth over the next few years. According to Transparency Market Research (TMR), the opportunity in the global market for forensic technologies to expand from US$8.3 bn in 2012 to a value of US$17.6 bn by the end of 2019.In this blog post, TMR analysts answer significant queries about the worldwide market for forensic technologies:What factors will shape the future of the global forensic technologies market?Predominantly, the escalating crime rate, coupled with the sophistication of crime, has the most prominent influence on the global market for forensic technologies. Over the years, the sophistication of crime has evolved drastically. The prevalence and supply of illicit drugs have increased to great extent. Nowadays, almost every week, a novel type of illicit drug is synthesized, creating severe issues for experts in the examination of the evidence. Due to this scenario, developers of forensic technologies are being exposed to a whole new set of promising opportunities, which is likely to boost the market substantially in the long run.On the flip side, the decline in the government expenditure on forensic services in almost all economies will reflect negatively on this market over the next few years. However, the impact of this factor will not be much strong as the demand for these technologies will largely be unaffected in the near future.Which of the regional market will take the lead in the coming years?North America, which is the leading contributor to the global market for forensic technologies, will retain its position in the forthcoming years; however, its share in the overall market will decline sharply.Asia Pacific, on the other hand, will gain significant momentum in the next few years. DNA profiling, specifically, will witness a remarkable rise in the demand over the years to come. The untapped status of this region is alluring key market players, which are increasingly engaging into partnerships, mergers, and acquisitions with local participants.What are the most favored strategies among leading players?For business development, leading companies are relying on advancements in technologies. Recently, Bio-Rad, a global leader in forensic technologies, introduced Prime PCR probe assays for quantitative amplification. These new assays are to be utilized in qPCR gene expression analysis for human genomes. With this addition to their product portfolio, the company hopes to expand its client base.Other prominent players in this market are GE Healthcare Life Sciences, SPEX Forensics, Pyramidal Technologies Ltd., Eurofins Medigenomix Gmbh, LGC Forensics, and NMS Labs Inc.Browse Full Research Report with TOC @About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Browse market research blog:
Global Handheld Gimbal Industry 2016 Market Overview,Manufacturing & Development

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http://www.qyresearchreports.com/report/global-handheld-gimbal-industry-2016-market-research-report.htm

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Qyresearchreports include new market research reportGlobal Handheld Gimbal Market 2016 Industry, Analysis, Research, Share, Growth, Sales, Trends, Supply, Forecast to 2021" to its huge collection of research reports.This report on global Handheld Gimbal market is a comprehensive study that takes account of the historical data, presents the current scenario, and predicts the future. The forecast period of the report is from 2016 to 2021. The report has been curated via extensive primary and secondary research, and is aimed at helping players in the global Handheld Gimbal market to gain ground against their competitors. It also includes highly useful information for new and emerging players to make their mark over the market. It does so by highlighting the mergers and acquisitions that have been sealed by the key players in the recent past, and their strategies for future of the global market for Handheld Gimbal. The company profiles section contains valuable details such as individual product portfolio, production capacity, competitors, revenue, and gross margin.Download The exclusive Sample of this report:To present a comprehensive overview of the global Handheld Gimbal market, the report carefully segments it based on various parameters such as geography, product type, services and others. The report also provides the values of each of these segments and individual growth rates during the forecast period. The dominant as well as emerging trends have been picked out. With handful of tables, charts, and graphs, the report carries extensive pictorial representation to support its findings.One of the key pointers of this report on global Handheld Gimbal market is its evaluation of several factors that are primed to influence the growth rate during the forecast period. The report also catches some of the emerging trends in this market which will give a head-start to the players into the future, before their competitors.Table of Contents1 Industry Overview of Handheld Gimbal1.1 Definition and Specifications of Handheld Gimbal1.1.1 Definition of Handheld Gimbal1.1.2 Specifications of Handheld Gimbal1.2 Classification of Handheld Gimbal1.3 Applications of Handheld Gimbal1.4 Industry Chain Structure of Handheld Gimbal1.5 Industry Overview and Major Regions Status of Handheld Gimbal1.5.1 Industry Overview of Handheld Gimbal1.5.2 Global Major Regions Status of Handheld Gimbal1.6 Industry Policy Analysis of Handheld Gimbal1.7 Industry News Analysis of Handheld GimbalBrowse Complete Report with TOC @2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Handheld Gimbal2.1 Raw Material Suppliers and Price Analysis of Handheld Gimbal2.2 Equipment Suppliers and Price Analysis of Handheld Gimbal2.3 Labor Cost Analysis of Handheld Gimbal2.4 Other Costs Analysis of Handheld Gimbal2.5 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Handheld Gimbal2.6 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Handheld Gimbal3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Handheld Gimbal3.1 Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Handheld Gimbal Major Manufacturers in 20153.2 Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Handheld Gimbal Major Manufacturers in 20153.3 R&D Status and Technology Source of Global Handheld Gimbal Major Manufacturers in 20153.4 Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global Handheld Gimbal Major Manufacturers in 20154 Capacity, Production and Revenue Analysis of Handheld Gimbal by Regions, Types and Manufacturers4.1 Global Capacity, Production and Revenue of Handheld Gimbal by Regions 2011-20164.2 Global and Major Regions Capacity, Production, Revenue and Growth Rate of Handheld Gimbal 2011-20164.3 Global Capacity, Production and Revenue of Handheld Gimbal by Types 2011-20164.4 Global Capacity, Production and Revenue of Handheld Gimbal by Manufacturers 2011-20165 Price, Cost, Gross and Gross Margin Analysis of Handheld Gimbal by Regions, Types and Manufacturers5.1 Price, Cost, Gross and Gross Margin Analysis of Handheld Gimbal by Regions 2011-20165.2 Price, Cost, Gross and Gross Margin Analysis of Handheld Gimbal by Types 2011-20165.3 Price, Cost, Gross and Gross Margin Analysis of Handheld Gimbal by Manufacturers 2011-20166 Consumption Volume, Consumption Value and Sale Price Analysis of Handheld Gimbal by Regions, Types and Applications6.1 Global Consumption Volume and Consumption Value of Handheld Gimbal by Regions 2011-20166.2 Global and Major Regions Consumption Volume, Consumption Value and Growth Rate of Handheld Gimbal 2011-20166.3 Global Consumption Volume and Consumption Value of Handheld Gimbal by Types 2011-20166.4 Global Consumption Volume and Consumption Value of Handheld Gimbal by Applications 2011-20166.5 Sale Price of Handheld Gimbal by Regions 2011-20166.6 Sale Price of Handheld Gimbal by Types 2011-20166.7 Sale Price of Handheld Gimbal by Applications 2011-20166.8 Market Share Analysis of Handheld Gimbal by Different Sale Price Levels7 Supply, Import, Export and Consumption Analysis of Handheld Gimbal7.1 Supply, Consumption and Gap of Handheld Gimbal 2011-20167.2 Global Capacity, Production, Price, Cost, Revenue, Supply, Import, Export and Consumption of Handheld Gimbal 2011-20167.3 United States Capacity, Production, Price, Cost, Revenue, Supply, Import, Export and Consumption of Handheld Gimbal 2011-20167.4 EU Capacity, Production, Price, Cost, Revenue, Supply, Import, Export and Consumption of Handheld Gimbal 2011-20167.5 China Capacity, Production, Price, Cost, Revenue, Supply, Import, Export and Consumption of Handheld Gimbal 2011-20167.6 Japan Capacity, Production, Price, Cost, Revenue, Supply, Import, Export and Consumption of Handheld Gimbal 2011-2016For Latest QYResearchreports Press Release Visit @About Us :QYresearchreports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations.Contact US:Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-618-1030Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
New report sheds light on Global Fetal Bovine Serum Industry 2016 Market Analysis &Technology

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http://www.qyresearchreports.com/report/global-fetal-bovine-serum-market-by-manufacturers-regions-type-and-application-forecast-to-2021.htm

http://www.qyresearchreports.com/press-releases.htm

Qyresearchreports include new market research reportGlobal Fetal Bovine Serum Market by Manufacturers, Regions, Type and Application, Forecast to 2021" to its huge collection of research reports.This study on the global Fetal Bovine Serum market is collated by compiling information through both secondary and primary research. Hence, the information is collected from journals, white papers, databases, and up-to-date press releases. The study also comprises the factors driving and inhibiting the development of the global Fetal Bovine Serum market. The key opportunity areas and trends prevalent in this market have also been compiled in this study. The current size of this market and its predicted size by the end of the forecast period has also been highlighted through this study.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @The report has been studied in terms of key segments and sub-segments. The currently leading segment and the reason for the growth of that particular segment has also been included under this study. Hence, an extensive analysis of the global Fetal Bovine Serum market has been encapsulated on the basis of estimations of key market segments in the forecast horizon. In addition, the technological developments that took place in the market and our predicted to take place in the coming years have also been presented through this study.The projections given in this report on the global Fetal Bovine Serum market have been made by analyzing the markets future potential and prevalent trends. The markets growth in the geographical areas has also been studied in detail under this report. The top region in this market and the reasons for the growth of the market in that particular region have also been compiled. Moving further, the report present the competitive landscape of the global Fetal Bovine Serum market. Under this section, the prime strategies of the players, the strengths and weaknesses, and their contributions in the growth of the global Fetal Bovine Serum market have been highlighted. These players are also evaluated on the basis of attributes such as revenue, gross, product overview, and contact information.Table of Contents1 Market Overview 11.1 Fetal Bovine Serum Introduction 11.2 Market Analysis by Type 21.2.1 North America-sourced 31.2.2 South America-sourced 41.2.3 Australia-sourced 41.3 Market Analysis by Applications 51.3.1 Scientific Research 61.3.2 Industrial production 61.4 Market Analysis by Regions 71.4.1 North America (USA, Canada) 71.4.2 Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy) 91.4.3 Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Australia) 121.4.4 Latin America, Middle and Africa 151.5 Market Dynamics 161.5.1 Market Opportunities 161.5.2 Market Risk 161.5.3 Market Driving Force 16Browse Complete Report with TOC @2 Manufacturers Profiles 172.1 Thermo Fisher 172.1.1 Thermo Fisher Profile 172.1.2 Product Picture and Specifications 182.1.3 Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share 192.1.4 Contact Information 192.2 GE Healthcare 202.2.1 GE Healthcare Profile 202.2.2 Product Picture and Specifications 212.2.3 Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share 212.2.4 Contact Information 222.3 Sigma-Aldrich 222.3.1 Sigma-Aldrich Profile 222.3.2 Product Picture and Specifications 232.3.3 Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share 242.3.4 Contact Information 242.4 Merck 242.4.1 Merck Profile 242.4.2 Product Picture and Specifications 252.4.3 Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share 262.4.4 Contact Information 262.5 Moregate BioTech 262.5.1 Moregate BioTech Profile 262.5.2 Product Picture and Specifications 272.5.3 Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share 282.5.4 Contact Information 282.6 Gemini 292.6.1 Gemini Profile 292.6.2 Product Picture and Specifications 302.6.3 Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share 302.6.4 Contact Information 312.7 Atlanta Biologicals 312.7.1 Atlanta Biologicals Profile 312.7.2 Product Picture and Specifications 322.7.3 Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share 322.7.4 Contact Information 332.8 Tissue Culture Biologicals 332.8.1 Tissue Culture Biologicals Profile 332.8.2 Product Picture and Specifications 342.8.3 Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share 342.8.4 Contact Information 352.9 Bovogen 352.9.1 Bovogen Profile 352.9.2 Product Picture and Specifications 362.9.3 Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share 372.9.4 Contact Information 372.10 Biowest 382.10.1 Biowest Profile 382.10.2 Product Picture and Specifications 382.10.3 Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share 392.10.4 Contact Information 402.11 Internegocios 402.11.1 Internegocios Profile 402.11.2 Product Picture and Specifications 412.11.3 Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share 422.11.4 Contact Information 422.12 RMBIO 422.12.1 RMBIO Profile 422.12.2 Product Picture and Specifications 432.12.3 Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share 442.12.4 Contact Information 442.13 Biological Industries 442.13.1 Biological Industries Profile 442.13.2 Product Picture and Specifications 452.13.3 Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share 462.13.4 Contact Information 462.14 PAN-Biotech 462.14.1 PAN-Biotech Profile 462.14.2 Product Picture and Specifications 472.14.3 Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share 482.14.4 Contact Information 482.15 VWR 48For Latest QYResearchreports Press Release Visit @About Us :QYresearchreports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations.Contact US:Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-618-1030Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
New free card-outlining software for screenwriters and storytellers

http://ultraoutliner.com

http://ultraoutliner.com/blog/show?id=2

http://ultraoutliner.com

A new free innovative outlining software "ultra_outliner" for storytellers (screenwriters, novelists and any others) is released. It is based on paper-cards outlining. The strongest point is that despite to existing alternatives, it does not try to cover all the story development process, but focuses only on outlining stage and makes it perfect.- ultra_outliner is simple, you can start using it just immediately after downloading. As soon, as it is not enough, detailed documentation reveals new extremely useful features.- ultra_outliner supports three most valuable outlining aims: characters, plots and sequentially story presentation. You can use one or all.- ultra_outliner is flexibly customizable. It supports internalization, colour schemes and card templates. Do not adopt yourself to software, adopt software for yourself.- ultra_outliner uses modern technologies. It is fast, responsive, cross-platform and stable and quickly developing.- ultra_outliner uses Final Draft .fdx format for data exchanging. Import and export your outline between any screenwriting software.You can download it on official site, and in blog section you can also read tutorialThe software developer, Yuri Blokhin explains, that while studying screenplay writing craft with Hollywood handbooks and writing a few screenplays he faced necessity of outlining stage. He used himself many different methods (outlining lists, pictures, Visio drawings and others), different software (writing, outlining, screenwriting), but finally was disappointed and came to paper cards. By the way, it was what the screenwriting gurus (like Robert McKee and Syd Field) were advised in their books.The lead developers professional experience covered game development, 3d-modelling and development of graphical applications so the base concept was to combine ideas of Hollywood screenwriters, paper outlining, and concept of 3d software. It was published and beta-tested in a few private writing communities with getting positive response.ultra_soft small company was created to present and support the product.ultra_softGovorova str., 15, Moscow, Russiapress@ultraoutliner.comYuri Blokhin
AeroMACS Gains Momentum with Worldwide Activities and Achieved Milestones

AeroMACS Worldwide Activities & Milestones

www.wimaxforum.org

The WiMAX Forum and its member companies have advanced AeroMACS through participation in events and technical meetingsCLACKAMAS, OR  December 8, 2016  The Aeronautical Mobile Airport Communications System (AeroMACS) has gained growing momentum this year with the WiMAX Forum and its member companies raising awareness to a diverse audience about the value of this wireless broadband technology for the airport surface and furthering the deployment of AeroMACS. The WiMAX Forum attained this through a wide variety of activities around the globe, which include hosting, presenting, and participating in events and technical meetings; achieving important milestones; and more. Collaboration among key players in aviation and wireless industries demonstrates support of AeroMACS as a vital industry standard.In 2016, the WiMAX Forum hosted five AeroMACS events: seminars in the US and China, a webinar, and exhibition booths at important industry events. The latest seminar and exhibition was at the ATCA 61st Annual Conference in October in the DC area. The 2nd annual AeroMACS 2016  National Harbor was well received with discussions on the latest developments for applications, certification, security with Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), deployments, and more. In September, the WiMAX Forum hosted its 3rd annual AeroMACS Track at Wireless China Industry Summit, which is key to a fast-growing market in China. Additionally, the WiMAX Forum hosted the Expect Enormous Changes in Aviation Performance with AeroMACS Certification Webinar in late March, which informed over 80 attendees of how AeroMACS is the technology of choice to provide wireless connectivity on the airport surface. View the webinar recording here. The WiMAX Forum also exhibited at the ACI-NA/World Conference in Montreal in September, connecting with airports.In addition to hosting events, WiMAX Forum leadership presented and participated in various aviation events this year, underscoring that AeroMACS supports innumerable applications in a protected aviation spectrum band that benefit all stakeholders in the aviation industry. The participation in 2016 includes the following:Dr. Nima PourNejatian, WiMAX Forum CTO, presented Aviation Internet of Things and other topics at Industry of Things World USA in February in San Diego, CA, USA.WiMAX Forum President Declan Byrne and CTO Dr. Nima PourNejatian presented "AeroMACS: How to Warrant Interoperability" and Brian Crowe, WiMAX Forum Aviation Working Group (AWG) Vice Chair and Hitachi Senior Advisory Engineer, presented Proposed AeroMACS PKI Specification is a Model for Global and National Aeronautical PKI Deployments at Integrated Communications Navigation and Surveillance (ICNS) Conference in April in Washington, D.C.In June, WiMAX Forum President Declan Byrne participated in the 7th U.S.-China Aviation Summit, which was an excellent opportunity to engage with Chinas senior aviation leaders in substantive discussions on aviation policies, commercial opportunities, trade opportunities, and best practices in Chinas growing aviation sector.WiMAX Forum President Declan Byrne presented AeroMACSA Licensed Wireless Broadband TechnologyImproving the Safety, Capacity, and Efficiency of the Airport Surface at ACI-NA/World Annual Conference in September in Montreal.WiMAX Forum President Declan Byrne and industry experts participated in a panel discussion on the FAAs effort to position AeroMACS as an enterprise solution for bringing wireless broadband connectivity to airports at Avionics for NextGen 2016 in September in Washington, D.C.The WiMAX Forum leadership and its members also participated in a number of technical activities to advance the AeroMACS standard. Throughout the year, WiMAX Forum COO Rich Hawkins and some AWG members attended International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) CP Working Group S meetings to collaborate and help successful completion of the Manual on the Aeronautical Mobile Airport Communications System (AeroMACS). In July, Rich Hawkins participated in the AEEC AeroMACS Working Group Meeting in London to assist in developing an ARINC project paper and other technical aspects of AeroMACS for the safety and regularity of flight services. In November, the WiMAX Forum along with its member companies participated in the AEEC AeroMACS Working Group in Annapolis to develop an aircraft IP-based transceiver.As well as events, the WiMAX Forum and its members have achieved significant milestones this year. In April, the WiMAX Forum member company Telrad Networks received Wave 1 AeroMACS Certification at Powertech Labs Inc., the WiMAX Forum AeroMACS Designated Certification Lab in North America. As the first to have AeroMACS equipment certified to Radio Conformance Testing (RCT), Telrad Networks has been a crucial part of the validation process, which has ensured more efficient testing for RCT. In May, engineers at NASAs Glenn Research Center in Ohio successfully transmitted data to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Bombardier Global 5000 testbed using AeroMACS. The FAA and Hitachi collaborated to conduct the demonstration, and AeroMACS provided near real-time updates before takeoff. The full article can be found here.Other organizations have recognized the value of AeroMACS as well with their publications. Honeywell published the AeroMACS: Its a Real-time GPS, but Better article in May. And, EUROCONTROL published the AeroMACS factsheet in June.Our activities this year has led to the growth of AeroMACS. Thank you to our member companies that have invested in this initiative, conveying their belief in the value of AeroMACS, said Declan Byrne, WiMAX Forum President.For questions regarding AeroMACS or the WiMAX Forum, please contact Alessandra Rocha at Alessandra.Rocha@WiMAXForum.org.About the WiMAX ForumThe WiMAX Forum is an industry-led, not-for-profit organization that certifies and promotes the compatibility and interoperability of broadband wireless products based upon IEEE Standard 802.16. The WiMAX Forums primary goal is to accelerate the adoption, deployment and expansion of WiMAX, AeroMACS, and WiGRID technologies across the globe while facilitating roaming agreements, sharing best practices within our membership and certifying products. WiMAX Forum and WiGRID Certified products are interoperable and support broadband fixed, nomadic, portable, and mobile services. The WiMAX Forum works closely with service providers and regulators to ensure that WiMAX Forum Certified systems meet customer and government requirements. For more information, visitWiMAX Forum9009 SE Adams Street, Suite 2259Clackamas, OR 97015-2259
African Utility Week returns to Cape Town in May and showcases how community scale projects are the continents energy future

Expo and conference to focus on major industry trends

http://www.african-utility-week.com

The power and energy landscape in Africa is undergoing significant change says Evan Schiff, African Utility Week event director, adding that current trends include the availability of private investment for power and energy projects, the fast development of energy storage, renewable energy is becoming cheaper, gas that is an increasingly attractive mode of power generation in Africa, and that in the next 10 years, nuclear will become an increasingly important mode of base-load power generation.The investment, trade and development opportunities in the sub-Saharan Africas electricity sector are estimated at $835 billion of capital investment, $490 billion for generation capacity and $345 billion for infrastructure.Real world doers share their expertiseThe 17th annual African Utility Week is the leading conference and trade exhibition for African power, energy and water professionals and takes place from 16-18 May 2017 at the CTICC in Cape Town. The event will gather over 7000 decision makers from more than 40 countries to source the latest solutions and meet over 300 suppliers. Along with multiple side events and numerous networking functions the event also boasts a seven track conference with over 300 expert speakers.The conference programme will once again address the latest challenges, developments and opportunities in the power and water sectors: ranging from generation, T&D, metering, technology and water. These include two exclusive plenary keynote sessions featuring the most sought-after international speakers. Says Evan: we are known for consistently gathering a group of industry elite real world doers who share their expertise from grid to socket, best practices for effective power and water supply. Once again, we will not disappoint.KPMG is diamond sponsorAlready leading global advisory firm KPMG has confirmed that it is returning to African Utility Week, this time as its exclusive diamond sponsorship. KPMGs commitment to create agile utilities in the energy sector across Sub-Saharan Africa, has motivated the firm to take up a diamond sponsorship opportunity at the 2017 African Utility Week says Ahmed Jaffer, Chairman of KPMG in South Africa and the Head of Power and Utilities. He adds: African Utility Week is a great platform that attracts key decision makers within the sector.The African Utility Week expo offers an extensive technical programme sessions that are CPD accredited, free to attend, hands-on presentations that take place in defined spaces on the exhibition floor. They discuss practical, day-to-day technical topics, best practices and product solutions that businesses, large power users and utilities can implement in their daily operations.New platform: Energy Revolution AfricaAnother strong trend in the sector says Evan Schiff is that the energy consumer is becoming more aware of their environment and how their power is generated and distributed, whether they are a residential home, a mine, a village, a shopping centre or manufacturing plant. Cleaner, more affordable energy generating options will increasingly become the norm rather than the exception. All these factors will mean that the utility as we know it will not look the same within 10 years change will happen. We are therefore launching Energy Revolution Africa, a new platform for community scale projects.Energy Revolution Africa will provide a unique forum for solution providers to meet with the new energy purchasers such as metros and municipalities, IPPs, rural electrification project developers and large power users, including mines, commercial property developers and industrial manufacturers. The latest innovations and projects in the sectors of renewables, future technology, energy efficiency, micro/off-grid and energy storage will be showcased.More side events as part of the African Utility Week platform include: African Power Finance & Investment Forum: Financiers and project owners will hear from expert speakers who will identify the key trends impacting project finance in regional energy markets with updates on and insights into market opportunities, sources of capital, financing instruments and access to project finance. A featured session on regional power integration will explore new methods of developing cross-border power projects on a PPP basis, explore the opportunities for investors, and show how regional power integration can substantially save capital investment costs. The Gas-to-Power World Congress reflects the continuing transformation of the energy ecosystem in Africa and beyond. Gas and renewables are perfect partners to help address an array of future energy challenges, including climate change, energy security and energy finance, currently three of the worlds largest and most important challenges. The event will look at new business and investment opportunities in gas-to-power, energy infrastructure, FSRU, LPG and LNG. The Utility CEO Forum is held as a 3-day by invitation only board meeting alongside African Utility Week, where the men and women who lead and guide Africas power and water sectors discuss the path of transformation. Discussions centre on areas of co-operation, development plans and the advancement of regional centres of excellence throughout Africa. The Nuclear Power Africa Conference features expert speakers who will address the myths and realities, latest technologies, regulatory and financing challenges and the economic spin offs created by a nuclear new build programme. Nuclear stakeholders and prospective suppliers will gain first hand insights into prospects for new jobs, training programmes, and the business opportunities created by the localisation of the supply chain of a nuclear new build. The fourth edition of the African Utility Week Power Industry Awards brings together 800 of Africas most renowned power and water industry professionals. The Power Industry Awards is the leading gathering to recognise, reward and celebrate the successes of Africas power and water sectors during 2016/17. Africa Utilities Technology Council: Telecommunications/ICT conference track programme to be presented that will cover topics such as: IT/OT convergence, IP networks and utility telecoms network performance measures. The AUTC content will continue in three dedicated sessions  one each in the T&D, Metering and Water tracks of the main strategic conference. - Power Africa - Women in Power Lunch- West African Investment Breakfast Briefing- East African Investment Breakfast BriefingIndustry supportApart from KPMGs diamond sponsorship, long-running supporters and industry stalwarts EPG and Landis+Gyr are also back as platinum sponsors while Conlog, Poweroad, Vodacom and Sensus are gold sponsors again.Dates for African Utility Week and Energy Revolution Africa:Conference and expo: 16-18 May 2017Awards gala dinner: 17 May 2016Site visits: 19 May 2016Location: CTICC, Cape Town, South AfricaAfrican Utility Week and Energy Revolution Africa are organised by Spintelligent, leading Cape Town-based trade exhibition and conference organiser, and the African office of Clarion Events Ltd, based in the UK. Other flagship events in Spintelligents power portfolio are East African Power Industry Convention (EAPIC), West African Power Industry Convention (WAPIC), iPAD Rwanda Power & Mining Investment Forum and iPAD Cameroon Energy & Infrastructure Forum.Senior communications manager: Annemarie RoodbolTelephone: +27 21 700 3558mobile: +27 82 562 7844Email: annemarie.roodbol@spintelligent.comWebsites:Postal address: PO 321, Steenberg, 7947, South Africa
New Advisor to Help Launch Spanish-Language Program for Small Business Development Center

Claudia Shah

www.edc-vc.com

The Small Business Development Center of Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties (SBDC), which provides free one-on-one consulting to help strengthen the bottom lines of area companies, has recently added a bilingual advisor with experience helping Spanish-language businesses. The new advisor, Claudia Shah, will help launch a Spanish-language program designed to strengthen the capacity of the SBDC to service Spanish-language businesses throughout Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. The SBDC is a program of the Economic Development Collaborative-Ventura County.Shah has over 23 years experience working in different industries and internationally, from manufacturing to financial institutions, in both Colombia and in the United States. She currently works with the Lead Center SBDC in California servicing mainly the East LA area, providing consulting and outreach services, and sharing expertise in administrative, social media, marketing/sales and human resources.Claudia has extensive experience in general business which she shares with business owners working to develop a strategy for growth. Shes very talented at guiding a business owner through the process of establishing a plan, and developing actionable steps to translate the company strategy into a company culture, said Ray Bowman, director of the SBDC of Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties. Her fluency in Spanish, coupled with her years of servicing Spanish-language companies in East Los Angeles, will help us broaden our capacity to service a wider range of businesses.An alumna of Universidad EAFIT, Shahs studies included business administration, human resources, finance, internal control and marketing. Prior to her current position, Shah was an HR consultant and spent over eight years in the role of human resources vice president for a credit union.The SBDC is funded by the SBA and provides professional business assistance at no cost to businesses. Participating businesses are required to follow a well-defined scope of work and report their economic successes. These SBA milestones are defined as job creation, increase in sales, capital investment, jobs retained and business started.EDC-VC is a private, nonprofit organization that serves as a business-to-government liaison to assist businesses in Ventura County by offering programs that enhance the economic vitality of the region. For more information about the Small Business Development Center, loan programs, manufacturing outreach and international trade program, or other services available to small businesses through EDC-VC, contact Bruce Stenslie at 805-384-1800 ext. 24 or bruce.stenslie@edc-vc.com. Or visitEDC-VC1601 Carmen Drive, #215, Camarillo, CA 93010
Servo Motors and Drives Market worth 15.92 Billion USD by 2022

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The latest research report "Servo Motors and Drives Market by Offering (Motor & Drive Component, Software & Service), Type (AC/DC, Linear Servo Motor, Adjustable Speed Drives), Voltage Range, MoC, Communication Protocol, Industry, and Geography - Global Forecast to 2022", The servo motors and drives market is expected to grow from USD 10.26 Billion in 2015 to USD 15.92 Billion by 2022, at a CAGR of 6.25% between 2016 and 2022.Download Report Brochure:This report provides the market size and future growth potential of the servo motors and drives market across different segments such as offering type, voltage range, material of construction, communication protocol, industry, and geography. The study identifies and analyzes the market dynamics such as drivers, restraints, opportunities, and industry-specific challenges for the market. It also profiles the key players operating in the servo motors and drives market. The advancement and rapid growth in automation is expected to drive the servo motors and drives market. The base year considered for the study is 2015 and the market size forecast is provided for the period between 2016 and 2022.The servo motors and drives ecosystem includes raw material suppliers such as Northland Resources AB (Sweden), British Steel Corp. (London), and Nippon Steel Corp. (Japan); manufacturing & packaging; automobile manufacturers; system integrators; distributors such as Camloc Motion Control Ltd. (U.K.), BCS Motion Inc. (U.S.), and Gefran (Italy); and end user industries.The AC servo motors is expected to hold the largest share in the servo motors and drives market between 2016 and 2022. The high capability and dynamic functionality of AC servo motors is the major reason behind its increasing use in various industries such as automotive, and food processing, packaging, among others.The packaging industry uses automation for a wide range of operations. The various application of servo motors and drives in the packaging industry includes electric injection molding machine, hybrid injection molding machines (plastic injection molding machines, CNC machines), and others.The APAC held the largest share of the servo motors and drives market in 2015. The reason for this growth is increasing industrial activity along with the demand for faster and accurate motors and drives to achieve a higher production output. The increasing demand for energy efficient production processes coupled with the need of software systems is fostering the growth of the servo motors and drives market.Need sample report pages:MarketsandMarkets is the largest market research firm worldwide in terms of annually published premium market research reports. Serving 1700 global fortune enterprises with more than 1200 premium studies in a year, M&M is catering to a multitude of clients across 8 different industrial verticals. We specialize in consulting assignments and business research across high growth markets, cutting edge technologies and newer applications. Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model  GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors.Mr. RohanMarkets and MarketsUNIT no 802, Tower no. 7, SEZMagarpatta city, HadapsarPune, Maharashtra 411013, India1-888-600-6441
Liberty Office Suites Announces New Shared Office and Coworking Space in Parsippany, New Jersey

Business owners, entrepreneurs, and freelancers now have more options to rent office space in New Jersey with the opening of Liberty Office Suites new Parsippany location.Liberty Office Suites Parsippany center, located on the third floor of 181 New Road, is expected to open in mid-January, 2017. At around 15,000 square feet, the location will be home to 40 private offices, 4 conference rooms, and one large training room.For years, clients have enjoyed the benefits of coming to work at Liberty Office Suites Montville location, with all the advantages of a well-appointed office space without the high cost, says Ron Soussa of Liberty Office Suites. Now we can make even more clients happy with the addition of our new office space in Parsippany, New Jersey.Office Space, Coworking Environment, Plus a Whole Lot MoreWhat sets Liberty Office Suites apart are the additional amenities provided to clients. This includes valet dry cleaning service, food delivery prepared by Kettlebell Kitchen, and sheltered parking.Were also bringing something new to the Parsippany location, continues Soussa. One new feature will be larger, furnished suites  with phone and WiFi  capable of accommodating teams of up to 25 people in a true co-working environment.An intangible benefit of renting shared office space are the connections made with other people. Through connections made at Liberty Office Suites, people have been able to cultivate friendships and professional relationships that can last a lifetime.Our team will do our very best to cultivate the same atmosphere at our Parsippany location that you can find at our Montville location, says Soussa. Clients keep coming back to Liberty Office Suites because of the family atmosphere that exists, with spur of the moment gatherings, access to the kitchen for coffee, or a chat with an office neighbor all helping to facilitate valuable connections.Clients of Liberty Office Suites Montville location will be able to make an easy transition to the new Parsippany location, if they find that address to be more convenient.If you would like to know more about office space for rent in New Jersey at our new Parsippany location, call us at 973-265-2900.-30-Contact:181 New Road, Suite #304Parsippany, New Jersey 07054973-575-6080Services@LibertyOfficeSuites.comIf you are looking for office space for rent in New Jersey that is affordable, beautiful, and available for long-or short-term lease, we have just what you need at Liberty Office Suites. We have two great locations, one at 330 Changebridge Road in Pine Brook, New Jersey and the other at 181 New Road, Parsippany, New Jersey. Both locations offer a wide variety of private offices as well as office space to share.181 New Road, Suite #304Parsippany, New Jersey 07054
World Kidney Function Tests Market Propelled by Increasing Incidence of Kidney Damage

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Transparency Market Research has published a new report within the healthcare IT domain. The report, titled Kidney Function Tests Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2015  2023, presents a holistic snapshot of this market in order to help the reports users visualize a successful strategy to achieve a formidable position for themselves.As per the report, the global kidney function tests market is primarily driven by the growing prevalence of chronic kidney diseases across the world. One of the major causes of this rise in patient numbers is the increasing geriatric population that is suffering from renal fibrosis. Another factor responsible for the higher demand for kidney function tests is the rising number of individuals diagnosed with diabetes. Other factors that are directly responsible for the causation of kidney diseases or kidney failure are complications such as high blood pressure and multiple renal disorders.Read Full Report:It was stated by the World Health Organization in the past that more than 1.4 mn patients per year undergo renal replacement therapy. Additionally, the organization stated that this number is increasing by nearly 8% every year.At the same time, the global kidney function tests market may also be hampered by the growing number of restrictions related to healthcare expenditure and stringent regulatory pressure regarding the use of certain methods in kidney tests.From a geographical perspective, the global kidney function tests market is led by North America, followed by Europe. Both regions have advanced in the global kidney function tests market owing to the higher prevalence of kidney-related issues and the presence of a fully established healthcare industry, complete with the latest infrastructure. This applies to the U.S. more than other countries.At the same time, the future of the global kidney function tests market will have the rapid growth rate of the Asia Pacific market as a major driving factor. The Asia Pacific kidney function tests market is growing owing to a growing patient base suffering from blood pressure and diabetes, both of which can lead to renal complications.Download exclusive Sample of this Report:Some of the key categories in the global kidney function tests market are dilution and concentration tests, physical and visual examination of urine, and clearance tests. Apart from these, another common form of renal tests includes the assessment of urine to separate various minerals and other substances, such as sodium, phosphate, glucose, potassium, and amino acids.The key players in the global kidney function tests market are Pfizer Inc., ManRos Therapeutics, Endocyte, Inc., IC-Meditech, Plexxikon Inc., Eli Lilly and Company, Ipsen S.A., Kadmon Corporation, LLC, Otsuka Holdings Co., Ltd., Discovery Biomed, Inc., Baxter International Inc., Galectin Therapeutics, Inc., and F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd.Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a U.S.-based provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. TMRs global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among others. Each TMR research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations.Contact us:Transparency Market Research90 State Street,Suite 700,AlbanyNY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Global Secondary Refrigerants Market: Estimates and Forecasts by 2026

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/11698

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IntroductionMaintaining the desired liquid levels in a refrigeration plant is a very essential part of scrutiny and maintenance of the system. Proper liquid levels help to maintain optimum performance and reduce the energy consumption. Secondary refrigerant is a fluid that is used to transfer heat from the substance that is being cooled by heat exchanger. After being cooled, this liquid is transferred from a series of pipes to the cooling load location and is then returned to repeat the entire process. This process includes pump, condenser, compressor and chiller (heat exchanger). Secondary refrigerants are also known as heat transfer fluids. The major factors that needs to be given special attention while selecting the secondary refrigerant for the particular application are toxicity, flammability, corrosion and cost. The secondary refrigerants must be environmental friendly and should not cause any problem to the material. Air conditioning and other high temperature applications use chilled water while low temperature applications use glycols, brines and oils as secondary refrigerants. Other applications of secondary refrigerants include concentrated solar power and heating, ventilating & air-conditioning (HVAC) systems. Revenue generated from sales of secondary refrigerants is expected to increase at a moderate CAGR over the forecast period.Secondary Refrigerants Market DynamicsThe growing industrialization across the globe is expected to drive the demand for secondary refrigerants over the forecast period. The increasing manufacturing sector is expected to increase the demand for secondary refrigerants, which in turn is expected to drive the global secondary refrigerants market over the forecast period. The oil & gas industry is expected to witness substantial growth in the near future, will be another driving factor for secondary refrigerant market. The chemical and pharmaceutical plants use these fluids to maintain the temperature of furnace and equipment in the process. These are also used as heat recovery fluids and coolant in these industries. The growth in these industries is expected to drive the market for secondary refrigerant. Development of water-based and bio-based heat transfer fluids is also anticipated to positively affect the growth of secondary refrigerant market.Secondary Refrigerants Market SegmentationSecondary refrigerants market can be segmented on the basis of types as aqueous solutions and non-aqueous solutions. Secondary refrigerant market can be segmented on the basis of product such as mineral oils, silicone and aromatics, glycol-based fluids and others. On the basis of end-use industry it can segmented as oil & gas, food and beverages, pharmaceuticals, chemical, plastics and others. The global secondary refrigerants market can also be segmented on the basis of regions as North America, Latin America, Western and Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific region, Japan, and Middle East and Africa.Secondary Refrigerants Market: Regional OutlookGlobally, Europe is expected to dominate the secondary refrigerant market due to the development in solar plants which is mainly attributed to increasing energy requirements. This energy is further consumed in major industries which is expected to drive the industry penetration in Europe. However, Europe is expected to lose some share due to the high growth of Asia-Pacific over the forecast period. Developments in renewable energy sector is also expected to drive the demand for secondary refrigerants in Japan and China. North America is anticipated to witness stable growth due to sluggish growth in end-use industries. Revenue generated from sales of secondary refrigerants in Middle East and Africa is also projected to increase at a high CAGR over the forecast period.Request for Sample Report and Table of content @:Secondary Refrigerants Market: Major PlayersSome of the key players identified in the global secondary refrigerants market are The Dow Chemical Company, Exxon Mobil Corporation, Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Eastman Chemical Company, BP PLC, BASF SE, Chevron Corporation and Huntsman Corporation.The research report presents a comprehensive assessment of the market and contains thoughtful insights, facts, historical data, and statistically supported and industry-validated market data. It also contains projections using a suitable set of assumptions and methodologies. The research report provides analysis and information according to market segments such as geography, technology and applications.About Us:Persistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact Us:Persistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA - Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.commedia@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Global Organic Peroxide Market: Expected to Provide Suitable Growth by 2026

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An organic compound that is having two oxygen atoms together is known as an organic peroxide. Organic peroxide undergoes self-accelerating decomposition and thus, result in rapid burning and explosive decomposition. Organic peroxide is available in various forms including solid, pastes or liquids. Few materials such as mineral spirits (odourless in nature), water and some of the phthalate esters do not react with organic peroxide. These materials are used to dilute organic peroxide. Diluted organic peroxides offer stability when exposed to physical shock or heat, as compared to the undiluted organic peroxides. Moreover, diluted organic peroxides are safer to handle, produce and use for further applications. In addition, organic peroxide is used as curing agent, high polymer initiator, cross-linking agent, accelerator, catalyst, hardener, activator and promoter. However, usage of activator and accelerator needs to be checked as these substances might result in accident, when mixed with organic peroxide.Organic peroxide application as a chemical in various industries has increased significantly in the recent past. Globally, companies are engaged in development of efficient organic peroxide solutions catering to the varied needs of consumers across different applications of organic peroxide. For instance, Arkema Inc. offers a range of organic peroxide under Luperox Solar to ensure fast crosslinking of encapsulating resins. Rubber and plastic industry are among the top users of organic peroxide. Owing to increasing research and development leading towards product development, the organic peroxide market is expected to witness significant growth in the next five to six years.Organic Peroxide Market Segmentation:Organic peroxide market segmentation includes organic peroxide classes, application and region. On the basis of organic peroxide classes, the segmentation includes ketone peroxides, dialkyl peroxides, diacyl peroxides, peroxyesters (peresters), hydroperoxides, peroxydicarbonates (percarbonates) and peroxyketals. Based on various applications, the organic peroxide market is segmented into paints, coatings and adhesives, construction, consumer goods, construction, cosmetics, automotive and transportation, packaging and paper, plastics and chemicals, electrical and electronics and renewable energy.Geographically, organic peroxides market is segmented into Western Europe, North America, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific excluding Japan, Japan, Latin America, and Middle East and Africa (MEA). Asia Pacific excluding Japan is expected to witness significant growth in the near future. This is attributed to rising demand for organic peroxide in packaging and paper along with chemical industry. Also, China is anticipated to account for maximum demand for organic peroxide in Asia Pacific region. Rising demand for organic peroxides in applications such as adhesives, coatings and plastics primarily in North America is bolstering the market growth, which is expected to be dominant over the next five to six years.Organic Peroxide Market Dynamics:Increasing demand for renewable raw materials owing to demand for clean and safe environment as well as product development is fuelling the organic peroxide market growth. In addition, growing chemical industry in countries such as China, Indonesia and India is anticipated to bolster the demand for organic peroxide in the next five to six years. Advancements in processing industry are expected to fuel the organic peroxide market growth in the near future. In addition, industralisation is one of the prominent factor leading towards growing demand for paper and textiles, coating adhesives, and plastic and chemical.Safety, handling and transportation of organic peroxide is a major concern restricting the market growth. However, companies are focused on developing varied packaging options for organic peroxide handling in order to avoid any hazardous while transportation.Request for Sample Report and Table of content @:Organic Peroxide Market Key players:Some of the players in the organic peroxides market include Arkema SA, Akzo Nobel N.V., Vanderbilt Chemicals, LLC, Suzhou Hualun Chemical Company Ltd, Akpa Kimya Ambalaj Sanayi Ve Ticaret Ltd STI, Novichem, United Initiators, Pergan GmbH, MPI Chemie BV and Solvay SA. Developing smooth and safe supply chain resulting in less lead times is a key focus area for organic peroxide companies across the globe.About Us:Persistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact Us:Persistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA - Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.commedia@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Global Plasticisers Market:Expected to Witness a Steady Growth by 2026

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A plasticiser is a chemical substance which is added to another material, usually a plastic, to make it flexible, resilient and easier to handle. There are more than 300 different types of plasticisers out of which around 50-100 are currently used commercially. The most common plasticisers are phthalates and adipates. Plasticisers are added to a polymer matrix to increase its flexibility and enhance its chemical properties in the final plastic product. Addition of a plasticizer can lower the glass transition temperature, melt viscosity and elastic modulus of the polymer. Plasticisers are additives which increase the plasticity or fluidity of a material. Plasticisers also enhance the properties of materials such as concrete, clays, and other related products.Plasticisers Market: Drivers & RestraintsBio-based plasticisers are produced from vegetable raw materials and are used as an alternative of petroleum based plasticisers. In order to assure sustainability, end users are looking for safe, bio-degradable and non-phthalate-based plasticisers. Decreasing supply of harmful phthalate and increasing consumer awareness are factors limiting growth of the global market. At the same time, ban on phthalate-based plasticizers in consumer goods, food packaging material and medical products have led to the development of eco-friendly bio-based plasticizers. Higher cost of bio-plasticizers as compared to phthalate-based plasticizers is a key challenge faced by the bio-plasticizers market players.Plasticisers Market: OverviewPlasticisers are the most commonly used additives in the global plastic market. The global plasticiser market exceeded 8 Mn metric tons by 2014 end. The most dominant application areas of plasticisers are plastics and polyvinyl chloride (PVC). Efforts are in progress by different regulatory authorities to promote environmental friendly products which have led to an increase in the demand for bio-plasticizers in developed regions. Phthalate-based plasticizer was prominent and represented more than 75% share in the global plasticisers market. However, stringent government regulations and increasing health concerns of the consumers, stimulated the demand for bio-plasticisers which is currently a significant trend in the market.Plasticisers Market: Region wise OverviewGeographically, global plasticisers market is classified into regions viz. North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific Excluding Japan (APEJ), Japan, Middle East and Africa (MEA). By 2015 end, North America held the largest share in the global market due expanding application in flourishing industries of healthcare, chemicals and packaging. Europe all together is an established market due to stable growth in manufacturing and healthcare industry. In Western Europe countries, around 1 Mn tons of phthalates are produced annually, out of which approximately 0.9 Mn tons of phthalates are used to plasticize PVC. Overall, Western Europe, APEJ and North America are projected to hold more than 75% share in the global plasticiser market.Plasticisers Market: Key PlayersThe key research institutes in global plasticisers market are Eastman Chemical Company, BASF SE, Sigma-Aldrich Co. LLC, Perstorp Holding AB, Exxon Mobil Corporation, PolyOne, Supreme Plasticizers, Vertellus Specialties Inc., KLJ Group to name a few.Request for Sample Report and Table of content @:The research report presents a comprehensive assessment of the market and contains thoughtful insights, facts, historical data, and statistically supported and industry-validated market data. It also contains projections using a suitable set of assumptions and methodologies. The research report provides analysis and information according to categories such as market segments, geographies, accessories and applications.About Us:Persistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact Us:Persistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA - Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.commedia@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Global Friction Modifier Additives Market: Impact of Existing and Emerging Market by 2026

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Global Friction Modifier Additives Market: OverviewFriction modifier additives are polar molecules added to lubricants for the purpose of minimizing light surface contacts such as sliding and rolling, which might occur in a given machine design. Friction modifiers are also known as boundary lubrication additives.Esters, fatty acids (natural and synthetic), as well as some solid materials such as graphite and molybdenum disulfide are used for the purpose of friction reduction. The molecules in these materials have a polar end (head) and an oil-soluble end (tail). Once placed into service, the polar end of the molecule finds a metal surface and attaches itself. If you could see the orientation of the molecules on the surface, it would appear something like the fibers of a carpet, with each molecule stacked vertically besides the other.These molecules provide a cushioning effect when one of the coated surfaces connects with another coated surface, as long as the frictional contact is light. If the contact is heavy, then the molecules are brushed off, eliminating any potential benefit of the friction modifier additive.All in all, friction modifier additives affect the frictional properties between two rubbing surfaces and thus preventing scoring, reduce wear and noise, and also helps in preventing micro pitting in industrial gear lubricants.Global Friction Modifier Additives Market: SegmentationThe global friction modifier additives market can be segmented on the basis of raw material, application, and region.On the basis of raw material, the global friction modifier additives market can be segmented into: esters, natural and synthetic fatty acids, graphite, and molybdenum disulfide, etc.On the basis of application, the global friction modifier additives market can be segmented as: gasoline engine oils, automatic & manual transmission, tractor hydraulic systems, power steering, shock absorbers, and metalworking applications, etc.On the basis of region, the global friction modifier additives market can be segmented into: North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific Excluding Japan (APEJ), Japan, and Middle East and Africa (MEA).Global Friction Modifier Additives Market: Drivers and RestraintsRising consumer inclination towards enhancing fuel efficiency of vehicles, variations in transmission fluids and temperatures, continuing requirements for extended hardware durability, specification changes driven by OEMs are some of the key factors expected to drive the growth of the global friction modifier additives market over the forecast period.Rising raw material prices, reduction of drain intervals, and export/import laws and regulations are some of the factors restraining the growth of the global friction modifier additives marketGlobal Friction Modifier Additives Market: Region wise OutlookThe global friction modifier additives market is projected to witness a considerable growth in CAGR from 2016 to 2026. Currently, North America and Western Europe are the matured market for friction modifier additive suppliers. However, Asia-Pacific, and MEA are expected to become lucrative regional market for key players operating in the global friction modifier additives market. FMI forecast the market in Asia-Pacific region is expected to grow at fastest CAGR over the forecast period.Request for Sample Report and Table of content @:Global Friction Modifier Additives Market: Key PlayersSome of the key players identified in the global friction modifier additives market are: BASF SE, AkzoNobel N.V., Afton Chemical Corporation, Chevron Oronite Company, LLC, Archoil, Vanderbilt Chemicals, LLC, Croda International Plc, and Evonik Industries, etc.About Us:Persistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact Us:Persistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA - Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.commedia@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Global Automotive Gas Cylinder Materials Market: Snapshot by 2020

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Global Automotive Gas Cylinder Materials Market: IntroductionGas cylinders are used for storing fuel such as CNG, hydrogen etc. in automobiles. Based on their performance and type of material used, these cylinders are segmented into five major types, including type I, type II, type III, type IV and type V. Usually, the automotive gas cylinders are made up of materials including steel, aluminum, glass fibre, aramid fibre, carbon fibre and HDPE. Type I cylinder contains all metals like steel or aluminum. Type II cylinders are made from metal liner, partially wrapped with carbon fibre, glass fibre or aramid fibre. In type III cylinder, metal liner is fully wrapped with carbon fibre, glass fibre or aramid fibre and type IV cylinder is composed of plastic liner fully wrapped with carbon fibre or mixed fibre. Type V cylinder exists basically with full composite material construction, however this type of cylinders are yet to be introduced on commercial scale.The deployment of cylinders made from composite materials is expected to increase over the forecast period as it reduces weight of the vehicle, leading to increased fuel efficiency. Type IV composite cylinders are expected to emerge as most attractive cylinder type owing to properties such as light weight, corrosion resistance, easy portability and high durability.The alloying elements such as manganese, silicon, chromium, nickel, molybdenum and vanadium are also added in steel based cylinders in minute amount for integrating various physical characteristics in the material. Growing demand for CNG and alternatively fueled vehicles is expected to create significant demand for automotive gas cylinder materials over the forecast period.Global Automotive Gas Cylinder Materials Market: DynamicsGovernments across the world are highly focused to reduce emission of greenhouse gases. CNG vehicles emit less greenhouse gases as compared to vehicles that are fueled with other fossil fuels. With increasing demand for CNG vehicles, demand for CNG cylinders is also expected to increase, creating proportionate demand for materials used in cylinder manufacturing.Factors such as higher initial cost of vehicles that run of CNG is expected to restrain the global automotive gas cylinder materials market over the forecast period. Additionally, hydrogen run vehicles are still in development phase. Growth in R&D activities is expected to develop hydrogen as a viable fuel over the coming years, further creating significant growth opportunities for automotive gas cylinder materials market.Global Automotive Gas Cylinder Materials Market: SegmentationGlobal automotive gas cylinder materials market is segmented on the basis of product type and region. On the basis of product type, the global automotive gas cylinder materials market is segmented into steel, aluminum, HDPE, carbon fibre, glass fibre, aramid fibre and others. Owing to their light weight and enhanced physical and chemical characteristics, composite materials are expected to gain traction by the end of 2026.Request for Sample Report and Table of content @:Global Automotive Gas Cylinder Materials Market: Region-wise OutlookThe global automotive gas cylinder materials market is segmented into seven key regions, including North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Middle East and Africa, Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) and Japan. With large fleet size of vehicles running on CNG, Asia Pacific and North America are expected to represent significant shares in the global automotive gas cylinder materials market by end of 2016.Global Automotive Gas Cylinder Materials Market: Key PlayersSome of the key players reported in the value chain of automotive gas cylinder materials market include 3M, Beijing China Tank Industry Co. Ltd., CleanNG, CNG Cylinders International, Cobham plc, Faber Industrie S.p.A., Luxfer Gas Cylinders, Quantum Fuel Systems LLC., Everest Kanto Cylinder Ltd. And MCS Technologies GmbH.About Us:Persistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact Us:Persistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA - Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.commedia@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Global Workforce Analytics Market Trends, Regulations And Competitive Landscape Outlook to 2020

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Workforce analytics is a combination of software and methodology that implements statistical models to worker-related data, allowing company leaders to develop human resource management (HRM). Workforce analytics helps to analyze the efficiency of the employees/workers in an organization. It has many applications such as identification of a need for new departments and positions, physical risks to employees in specific positions, job satisfaction of the employee etc.Request Sample Report @The major driving factor of workforce analytics market is increasing business competitiveness that simultaneously demands for workforce analytics to get a better business result. Changing work dynamics is another driver of workforce analytics market. The workforce analytics market expected to witness the fastest growth over the forecast period. This growth can be attributed to growing need to make smarter decisions about the talent. However, lack of awareness in the organization is expected to be a major restraint of workforce analytics market.The study segments the global workforce analytics market on the basis of type, deployment type, organization size, applications and regional segment. Different key types included in workforce analytics market are solutions and services. From which services are further categorized into consulting services, system integration services, and managed services. Consulting services is one of the leading segments and expected to witness rapid growth over the forecast period.Purchase a direct copy of report with TOC @Based on application, workforce analytics market is segmented into BFSI (banking, financial services, and insurance), energy & utilities, government & public sector, retail, healthcare, telecom & IT, travel & hospitality and others. BFSI application segment accounted for largest share of the overall market in 2014. This growth can be attributed to growing industrialization worldwide.Major regional segments analyzed in this study include North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa, further bifurcation of the region on the country level, which includes U.S., Germany, UK, France, China, Japan and India. North America dominated workforce analytics market owing to the availability of a large number of analytics vendors in this region.Browse the full report @Some of the key players in workforce analytics market which include company overview, product portfolio, and recent developments such as acquisitions, mergers, expansion or product launch. In this report companies including Genpact Ltd., Visier, Inc., Cornerstone OnDemand, Inc., WorkForce Software LLC, SAP Success Factors, Kronos, Inc., Aquire, Inc., Workday, Inc., PeopleStreme Pty. Ltd., Towers Watson & Co., Peoplefluent companies, Oracle Corporation, and Tableau Software, Inc.This report segments the global workforce analytics market as follows:Global Workforce Analytics Market: Type Segment AnalysisSolutionsServicesConsulting ServicesSystem Integration ServicesManaged ServicesGlobal Workforce Analytics Market: Deployment Type Segment AnalysisPublic CloudPrivate CloudGlobal Workforce Analytics Market: Organization Size Segment AnalysisLarge EnterpriseSmall & Medium-sized EnterpriseGlobal Workforce Analytics Market: Application Segment AnalysisBFSI (Banking, Financial Services and Insurance)Energy & UtilitiesGovernment & Public SectorRetailHealthcareTelecom & ITTravel & HospitalityOthersGlobal Workforce Analytics Market: Regional Segment AnalysisNorth AmericaU.S.EuropeUKFranceGermanyAsia PacificChinaJapanIndiaLatin AmericaBrazilMiddle East & AfricaAbout US:Syndicate Market Research provides a range of marketing and business research solutions designed for our clients specific needs based on our expert resources. The business scopes of Syndicate Market Research cover more than 30 industries including energy, new materials, transportation, daily consumer goods, chemicals, etc. We provide our clients with the one-stop solution for all the research requirements.Contact US:Joel John3422 SW 15 Street,Suite #8138Deerfield Beach,Florida 33442United StatesToll Free: +1-855-465-4651 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-386-310-3803Email: sale@syndicatemarketresearch.comWebsite:
Natural Refrigerants Market Sizing with Competitive Landscape by 2020

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The refrigerant is a fluid that acts as a coolant. The natural occurring refrigerant is the best alternative used for fluorocarbon refrigerants. Natural refrigerant includes carbon, ammonia, hydrocarbons. These refrigerants have zero ozone depletion prospective compared to conventional refrigerants. These refrigerants have the broad range of applications including cold storage, freezing, commercial and industrial refrigeration etc.Browse free request sample report:The major driving factor for natural refrigerants market is growing awareness about global warming and other environmental issues caused due to the synthetic refrigerants. Adoption of natural refrigerants in the various end- industries is expected to fuel the growth of the market. However, the high cost of installation of refrigeration systems may hinder the limit of the market.In order to give the users of this report a comprehensive view on the natural refrigerants market, we have included a detailed value chain analysis. To understand the competitive landscape in the market, an analysis of Porters Five Forces model for the natural refrigerants market has also been included. The study encompasses a market attractiveness analysis, wherein product segments and application segments are benchmarked based on their market size, growth rate, and general attractiveness.Request for TOC atThe study provides a decisive view on the natural refrigerants market by segmenting the market based on product types and applications. All the application segments have been analyzed based on present and future trends and the market is estimated from 2014 to 2020. Ammonia, carbon dioxide, hydrocarbons and others are the product segment of this market. Key application markets covered under this study includes industrial, commercial, domestic, stationary air conditioning and other refrigeration applications. The regional segmentation includes the current and forecast demand for North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Middle East and Africa with its further bifurcation into major countries including U.S. Germany, France, UK, China, Japan, India, and Brazil.On a geographical basis, Europe dominated the global natural refrigerant industry due to the strict government regulation on the use of HCFC (hydrochlorofluorocarbons) and HFC (hydrofluorocarbons) refrigerants. Asia Pacific is a fastest growing market for natural refrigerants due to rapid growth in the usage of natural refrigerants.Browse the full report atThe report covers detailed competitive outlook including company profiles of the key participants operating in the global market. Key players profiled in the report include The Linde Group, Airgas Inc., Sinochem Group, Tazzetti S.P.A., Shandong Yukon Chemical Industry Ltd., Puyang Zhongwei Fine Chemical Co. Ltd., HA-Gas International, A.S. Trust and Holdings and GTS S.P.An amongst other. The detailed description of players includes parameters such as company overview, financial overview, business strategies and recent developments of the company.The report segments the global natural refrigerants market into:Global Natural Refrigerants Market: Product Segment AnalysisAmmoniaCarbon dioxideHydrocarbonsOthersGlobal Natural Refrigerants Market: Application Segment AnalysisAir ConditioningCommercialDomesticIndustrialStationaryOthersGlobal Natural Refrigerants Market: Regional Segment AnalysisNorth AmericaU.S.EuropeUKFranceGermanyAsia PacificChinaJapanIndiaLatin AmericaBrazilMiddle East & AfricaAbout US:Syndicate Market Research provides a range of marketing and business research solutions designed for our clients specific needs based on our expert resources. The business scopes of Syndicate Market Research cover more than 30 industries including energy, new materials, transportation, daily consumer goods, chemicals, etc. We provide our clients with the one-stop solution for all the research requirements.Contact US:Joel John3422 SW 15 Street,Suite #8138Deerfield Beach,Florida 33442United StatesToll Free: +1-855-465-4651 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-386-310-3803Email: sale@syndicatemarketresearch.comWebsite:
North America and Europe Maintain Strong Foothold in Global Biological Machines Market, Says TMR

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Transparency Market Research offers an in-depth research study about the global biological machines market. The extensive research report discusses the trends and dynamics impacting this market and the nature of the regulatory framework in several parts of the world impacting it. The research report, titled Biological Machines Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2013 - 2019, provides the readers with an accurate and exact account of the market and shares a thoroughly researched report to help the readers in making well-informed business decisions. The research report has been compiled using primary and secondary data.Read Full Report:Biological machines, also known as cellular systems, have been developed for performing several types of functions such as sensing, protein expression, information processing, and actuation in a micro-environment. These machines also perform the function of being used as tools for making biological repairs, synthesis and sensing, implants for drug release, and to mimic organs for drug testing. The market for biological machines is also being fueled by the growing collaborative efforts between biotechnology and engineering firms. Currently, this market is in its nascent stage, with mammoth research and development projects underway.Other than healthcare, biological machines are used in several other fields. For instance, researchers from the Imperial College London developed a new biological wire with proteins, whose primary function is to interact with DNA to act like the wires in an electrical circuit. This wiring comes with an ability to be re-engineered multiple times to generate several connections amongst DNA components. Such kind of DNA re-wiring in yeast is expected to help in improving the performance of several tasks such as tracking environmental conditions in the production process of biofuels and detecting pollutants and contaminants in water supplies.Download exclusive Sample of this Report:Researchers are also working on designing new organs with the help of biological robots that can be implanted in the human body to sense glucose levels in the blood stream. These innovative approaches are expected to revolutionize diabetes management in the coming years. These robots are also being used to perform nanoscale tasks within the human body. Furthermore, biological machine technology is also being deployed to manufacture retinal implants, cortical implants, sensory systems, nanotube electrodes, auditory system, and other such products.Geographically, this market is spread over regions such as North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Rest of the World. Currently, Europe and North America have a strong foothold in the global biological machines market. The market for these machines is growing at a slower pace in developing countries due to a lower acceptance level and poor healthcare infrastructure.Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a U.S.-based provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. TMRs global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among others. Each TMR research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations.Contact us:Transparency Market Research90 State Street,Suite 700,AlbanyNY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Automotive Sensors Market Revenue Predicted To Go Up by 2020

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Sensors are use in detecting, measuring or recording physical phenomena and subsequently responding by transmitting information, initiating changes or effecting system control. Automotive sensors is integrated part of vehicle system and is designed to detect, transmit, analyze and display vehicle performance information within internal and external environment of the vehicle.Sensors have a widespread use in all type of automobiles right from two wheelers to heavy duty lorries. Some of the most common automotive application of sensors is found in wipers, lighting, dashboard, rain sensors, sunroof, parking, seat, climate, tilt alarm, tail gate release, tailgate close, trailer management, rear door, anti theft alarm, immobilizer and radio. With increasing popularities of vehicle automation and demand of concept cars around the globe, most of the research and development (R&D) attention of automotive industries is towards development of advanced automotive sensors such as MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) sensors, wireless sensors and radar sensors. According to BMW (Germany based automobile company), 90% of the future car innovation will be focused on the advanced and efficient use of electronics in automotive., It is also evident in most recent development of automotive sensors technology such as pre-emptive technology and Conti APIA (integrated stability, collision avoidance, occupant protection). Sensors in automotive application such as emission control, battery control and occupant detection is witnessing escalating growth in recent years.Based on the application automotive sensors can be broadly categorised under powertrain vehicle security system, body electronics, safety and control, telematics and others. On the basis of technology the automotive sensors are broadly categorized as temperature sensors, pressure sensors, level/position sensors, NOX sensor, speed sensors, MEMS sensors, magnetic sensors, oxygen sensor, inertial sensors and others.The automotive sensors are one of the fasted growing sectors in automotive industry with growth rate in double digit, especially in OEM (original equipment manufacturing) section. North America remains the largest market for automotive sensors market, followed by Europe and Asia Pacific. Germany leads the European market and China and Japan leads the Asia Pacific market. The growth is expected to be highest in Asia Pacific mainly attributed to growing economy of some of the other Asia Pacifics nations such as India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Philippines.The continuous development in electronics sensors application and technology, the rising concern for safety, increasing demand of automation in automobiles, demand of concept cars from high income consumers and increasing use of sensors in hybrid semi hybrid and electric cars are boosting the demand of automotive sensors market. Lack of aftermarket for sensors is one of the chief restraints in the developing market of automotive sensors.Development in the field of Advance Driver Assistance Systems(ADAS) and hybrid and electric vehicle are showing promising the future opportunities for automotive sensors market.Request for Sample Report and Table of content @Some of the major players operating in the automotive sensors market include Analog Devices, Inc., ATI Industrial Automation, Denso Corporation, Robert Bosch, Gmbh, Sensata Technologies, Inc., Asahi Kasei Corporation, Freescale Semiconductor, Inc, Maxim Integrated, Infineon Technologies AG, Measurement Specialties, Tekscan, Inc., Texas Instruments Incorporated and GE Measurement and Control Solutions.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA - Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.com
X-Band Radar Market Valued at US$ 7 Bn by 2026

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According to a new market report published by Future Market Insights titled X-Band Radar Market - Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment, 2016 - 2026, the global X-band radar market was valued at US$ 4.6 Bn in 2015 and is expected to register a CAGR of 3.8% from 2016 to 2026 to reach US$ 6.9 Bn by 2026. Growth of the global X-band radar market is primarily driven by increasing need of advanced security and surveillance systems across the world.Increasing significance of weather and climate predictions, and aviation safety is propelling the demand for X-band radar market globally. X-band radars help improve aviation safety and increase the operational efficiency of the entire air transport industry. Besides, they also provide alerts on floods through continuous monitoring of rainfall. Vendors such as Saab Group and Northrop Grumman Corporation recently introduced weather monitoring radar.Inability to adjust quickly to track a stream of separate missiles is one of the factors restraining the growth of the market. Sea-based X-band radar can be supported by a land-based early warning radar in case of an event of an attack. These radars could help X-band radars by identifying a definite location for Sea-based X-band Radar (SBX) to focus on. However, aiming and re-aiming the giant radars beam is a clumsy process. This inhibits X-band radars ability to bend swiftly enough to track a range of different missiles.Request Free Report Sample@On the basis of type, the global X-band radar market is segmented as mobile X-band radar and sea based-X-band radar. The mobile X-band radar segment was valued US$ 3.1 Bn in 2015 and is anticipated to register a CAGR of 4.1% during the forecast period 20162026. The sea-based X-band radar segment was valued US$ 1.5 Bn in 2015.X-Band Radar Market: Region-wise SegmentationNorth America, the largest market for X-Band radar, was valued US$ 1.5 Bn in 2015and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.1% during the forecast period of 2016-2026. In North America region, ARL-E long range radars developed by Northrop Grumman Corporation have witnessed traction in their adoption by the U.S. government. These radars have enhanced the U.S. Armys C4ISR capabilities.Western Europe region is expected be the second largest market of global X-band radar, followed by Eastern Europe. Ground Master 400 radar, developed by the Raytheon Company is very popular in this region.Send An Enquiry@Key Players in X-Band Radar MarketKey players of the global X-band radar market include Northrop Grumman Corporation, Raytheon Company, Saab Group, Japan Radio Company Limited, Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd, Furuno Electric Co.,Ltd, Terma A/S, Detect, Inc., Reutech Radar Systems, and ProSensing, Inc.Leading players in the global x-band radar market are focusing on the development of end-to-end products and services such as logistics, infrastructure and maintenance, and providing support to their clients. Companies such as Saab Group, Raytheon Corporation, DeTect, Inc. serve both domestic and international government customers as a prime contractor and subcontractor of defence and related programmes.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comPress@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Mechanical Keyboards Market Is Expected To Generate Huge Profits by 2016 - 2020

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Mechanical keyboards will continue to witness stellar demand, owing to their growing application in PC gaming. Global revenues are anticipated to reach US$ 637.3 Mn in 2016.New PC games continue to lure consumers, fuelling higher demand for mechanical keyboards compared to membrane keyboards globally. While enhanced features of mechanical keyboards, such as improved response time and tactility will continue to foster demand, their high cost can pose challenges to widespread adoption. Declining sales of desktop PCs will also have a restraining effect on global mechanical keyboard market.By application, gaming segment will remain dominant, accounting for over 50% revenue share in 2016. Demand for mechanical keyboards from the gaming segment is anticipated to remain strong in North America and Europe. The gaming segment accounted for a market share of nearly 67.1% in Europe in 2015, and is anticipated reach a value of US$ 321.5 Mn in 2016.Request Free Report Sample@Region-wise, North America and Europe are estimated to be the largest markets for mechanical keyboards, collectively accounting for more than 70% of the marketplace in revenues, in 2015. North America is anticipated to lead the market with over 40% of the total market revenues, followed by Europe. The U.S. will dominate the N. American market, with over 90% of the revenue share. Growing inclination of European manufacturers toward adoption of technologically advanced products is expected to create a lucrative market for mechanical keyboards in 2016.Demand for mechanical keyboards for gaming is strong in Europe, whereas whereas the office and industrial segment account for bulk of the demand in Asia Pacific and other emerging regions.Send An Enquiry@Some of the major mechanical keyboard players include Logitech International S.A., Razer Inc., Corsair Components Inc., Roccat Studios Inc., SteelSeries ApS, Bloody (A4tech Co Ltd.) and Rapoo Corporation (Shenzhen Rapoo Technology Co.) Some of the major switch manufacturers include ZF Friedrichshafen AG  Cherry, Kaihua Electronics Co. Ltd., OMRON Corporation, Trantek Electronics Co. Ltd.  TTC, and Huizhou Greetech Electronics Co. Ltd.Long-term Outlook: Global mechanical keyboard market is projected for twofold growth during the forecast period 20162020 to reach US$ 656 Mn, registering a double digit CAGR of 17.9%. Global mechanical keyboard consumption is expected to increase at a CAGR of 16.9% over 20162020.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comPress@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Online Clothing Rental Market Value to US$ 1,952.4 Mn by 2026

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Future Market Insights delivers key insights on the global online clothing rental market in a new report titled, Online Clothing Rental Market: Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment, 20162026. In terms of value, the global online clothing rental market is expected to register a CAGR of 9.8% during the forecast period owing to various factors, which are analysed in detail in this report.Growth of the global online clothing rental market is driven by increasing preference for fashion and brand consciousness among people across the globe along with rising internet penetration. Consumers are preferring online purchase of clothes due to availability of a large variety at a discounted price. This is fuelling the demand for online rented clothes globally. Changing consumer lifestyles and increasing demand for designer dresses, party wear, and dinner suits is expected to intensify the growth of the global online clothing rental market in the next 10 years. Increasing urbanisation along with rising personal disposable income in regions such as the Asia Pacific are driving the overall growth of the global online clothing rental market.High profitability margins, ease of resource availability, and rising economic opportunity in developing nations are some factors encouraging new players to venture into the global online clothing rental market. Established players in the global online clothing rental market are expanding their product portfolio and are focussing on product innovations and change in target segments, which is creating robust competition in the market.Request Free Report Sample@Segmentation highlightsThe global online clothing rental market is segmented on the basis of Demography (Women, Men, Kids); Price Range (Premium, Mid, Low); Type (Western Wear, Ethnic Wear, Others); End User (B2C, B2B); and Business Model (Peer-to-Peer Model, Standalone Model, Hybrid Model).The Women demography segment is expected to register a CAGR of 9.5% during the forecast periodThe Peer-to-Peer business model segment was valued at US$ 656.4 Mn in 2015 and is expected to account for US$ 712.2 Mn by the end of 2016, witnessing a Y-o-Y growth rate of 8.5% over 20162020Regional projectionsThe global online clothing rental market is segmented into the seven key regions of North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, APEJ, Japan, and MEA. Markets in North America, Western Europe, and APEJ are expected to record high growth rates in terms of value between 2016 and 2026. Amongst all the regions, North America is estimated to account for a comparatively higher value share in 2016. Western Europe is another major market for online clothing rentals. The entry of online luxury fashion due to rising internet penetration is expected to drive market growth in this region. In the APEJ region, increasing personal disposable income is a key driver for sustained growth of the online clothing rental market, and the APEJ market is expected to register a CAGR of 10.1% during the period 2016-2026. The online clothing rental market is expected to witness significant growth over the forecast period in countries such as India, the ASEAN countries, Australia, and New Zealand.Send An Enquiry@Vendor insightsThis report covers detailed profiles of key players operating in the global online clothing rental market. The report presents key strategies, key developments, product offerings, and market performance of leading companies. Some of the top companies profiled in the global online clothing rental market report are Rent the Runway, Poshmark, Elanic Services Pvt Ltd., Dress & Go, GlamCorner Pvt Ltd., Envoged, Etashee, Secoo Holdings Ltd, and Secret Worldwide.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comPress@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Tail Light Assemblies Market to Record an Impressive Growth By 2026

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Styling is a concern area among consumers, which is leading towards new product development by vehicle manufacturers to suit the varied need of consumers. Technological advancements such as intelligent lights, blind spot detection and brake assist system among others are leading towards demand for improved tail light assemblies in order to support the newly designed products. Proper maintenance of parts and accessories is gaining significant traction among consumers. This is majorly attributed to growing concerns for safety, which has an indirect impact on the tail light assembly design. Thus, tail light assembly manufacturers are focused on developing innovative and efficient tail light assemblies catering to the need of customers in compliance with safety standards. Proper designing of tail light assemblies is essential as tail lights installed on the assembly guide the person about turn, brake and slow or stop motion of the vehicle. Indication of proper light is essential as it would help in avoiding accidents and allow driver of the trailing vehicle to make necessary changes in driving. Also, development of LED illuminated tail lamps is another key focus area among tail light assembly manufacturers. Demand for flexibility, energy efficiency, less package space and weight, enhanced light output has led tail light manufacturers to develop such products, which is anticipated to further drive the demand for tail light assemblies that are compatible with such products.Tail light assemblies market is segmented on the basis of tail light assembly parts, tail light assembly price, tail light assembly location, tail light assembly material, tail light assembly design, tail light assembly light, tail light assembly fit, tail light quantity sold, tail light assembly light source and vehicle body type. On the basis of tail assembly parts the market is segmented into tail light, tail light cover, tail light lens, tail light guard, tail light trim, tail light circuit, tail light panel and others. On the basis of tail light assembly price, the market is segmented into less than US$ 50, between US$ 50 and US$ 100, between US$ 100 and US$ 250, between US$ 250 and US$ 500, between US$ 500 and US$ 1000 and above US$ 1000.On the basis of tail light assembly location, the market is segmented into passenger side, driver side, driver and passenger side and others. Based on the type of tail light assembly material, the market is segmented into plastic, stainless steel, steel, aluminum, plastic lens, metal and others. Tail light assembly design segmentation includes slotted, cutouts, black-outs, solid and others. Tail light assembly type id of different types namely brake light, parking light, side marker and others. Tail light assembly market is segmented on the basis of product fit, which includes universal and direct fit. On the basis of quantity sold, the market is segmented into individual, set of 2, set of 4 and set of 6. Based on the type of light source, the market is segmented into halogen, LED, incandescent and halogen/LED. Based on the vehicle body type, the market is segmented into sedan, crew cab pickup and hatchback.Geographically, tail light assemblies market is segmented into seven regions namely North America, Western Europe, Japan, Asia Pacific Excluding Japan, Middle East and Africa and Latin America. Among all the aforementioned regions, Asia Pacific excluding Japan is anticipated to witness demand for tail light assemblies, which is primarily attributed to growing number of vehicle sales in countries such as China and India.Growing vehicle demand is one of the key factors fuelling the demand for automotive lighting. This is further leading towards demand for tail light and thus, tail light holder. In addition, technological advancements to ensure compliance with technology and material used to make tail light assemblies have led towards development of efficient tail light assemblies in recent years. Since, tail light is one of key essentials in a vehicle, continuous research and development along with new product development by players operating in the market is expected to fuel the tail light assemblies market growth in the near future. In countries such as China and India, premium priced product owe a small share as compared to mass products available in the market. This might lead towards adoption of low price products among the vehicle manufacturers. Thus, restricting the market growth of technically advanced products, which are of high price.Request for Sample Report and Table of content @Some of the players that manufacturer tail light products include Dorman Products, Inc., TYC Brother Industrial Co., Ltd, Stanley Electric Co., Ltd., Osram GmbH, General Electric (GE), Koito Manufacturing Co. Ltd, Magneti Marelli S.P.A, Hueck & Co., Ichikoh Industries Ltd. and Hella KGaA.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA - Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.com
Tail Light Holder Market Set to Grow Exponentially During 2016 - 2026

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Automotive lighting is gaining significant traction among manufacturers in terms of design modifications. This is further supported by government regulations related to lighting in a vehicle and due importance to vehicle safety. Increasing production of automotive coupled with increasing consumer expenditure on vehicle in terms of looks is contributing significantly towards growth of the automotive lighting market across the globe. Automotive lighting components include interior light, headlights, sidelights, off road lights, taillights and compact lights among others. Tail lights hold a significant market share in the overall automotive lighting market, which is anticipated to increase in the near future. Demand for advanced tail lights including indicator lamps ensuring clear covering is anticipated to increase, which is expected to fuel the demand for such tail light holders in order to meet the vehicle manufacturers specifications.Styling is a concern area among consumers, which is leading towards new product development by vehicle manufacturers to suit the varied need of consumers. Technological advancements such as intelligent lights, blind spot detection and brake assist system among others are leading towards demand for improved tail light holders to support the newly designed products. Furthermore, vehicle manufacturers are developing as eye-catching appearance tail lights, which is supported by development of tail light holders that offer proper synchronisation between front and rear lights. Thus, resulting in improved road safety and driver comfort. Also, introduction of organic LEDs (OLEDs) is latest technology driving the demand for advanced tail light holders catering to the demand for advanced products among consumers.Tail light holder market is segmented on the basis of holder application, terminal gender, terminal design, terminal material, vehicle type and holder type. On the basis of holder application, the tail holder market is segmented into application of tail light for combination lamp and three sockets w/wiring. Based on the terminal gender, the tail light holder market is segmented into male and female. Similarly, on the basis of terminal design, the segmentation includes socket and pressure contact. Terminal material is of different types namely brass, plastic and tin. Different vehicles for which tail lights holders are used include commercial vehicle and motorcycle. Tail light holders are of two types vehicle specific and not vehicle specific. Geographically, tail light holder market is segmented into seven regions namely North America, Western Europe, Japan, Asia Pacific Excluding Japan, Middle East and Africa and Latin America. Among all the aforementioned regions, Asia Pacific excluding Japan is anticipated to witness demand for tail light holders, which is primarily attributed to growing number of vehicle sales in countries such as China and India. In addition, low labour cost and manufacturing cost is anticipated to contribute towards increased production of products such as tail light holder in these countries.Globally, increasing concerns regarding vehicle quality is leading towards consumer inclination for vehicles with long life span and efficient vehicle products along with accessories. This is anticipated to drive the demand for products such as tail light holder and other lighting components. Growing vehicle demand is one of the key factors fuelling the demand for automotive lighting. This is further leading towards demand for tail light and thus, tail light holder. In addition, technological advancements to ensure compliance with technology and material used to make holder have led towards development of advanced tail light holder in recent years. Furthermore, introduction of OLED lighting, bend lighting with LED technology and laser light technology is anticipated to revelotionise the tail light holder market dynamics. This is attributed to demand for efficient holder to be compatible with such lights. Thus, fuelling the tail light holder market growth. Large number of tail light holder manufacturers at regional level has resulted in high bargaining power of component suppliers to the automotive manufacturers, which might lead to quality compromise. Thus, hampering the growth of tail light holder market to a certain extent.Request for Sample Report and Table of content @Some of the players in the automotive lighting market include Stanley Electric Co., Ltd., Osram GmbH, General Electric (GE), Koito Manufacturing Co. Ltd, Magneti Marelli S.P.A, Hueck & Co., Ichikoh Industries Ltd., Valeo, Zizala Lichtsysteme GmbH, Koninklijke Philips N V. and Hella KGaA. The tail light holder market is fragmented with large number of players at regional level, however top or tier 1 vehicle manufacturers are engaged in long term agreements with their tail holder suppliers.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA - Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.com
Michigan Governor Rick Snyder signed a series of bills related to self-driving cars into law on Friday, making the state most-associated with the American auto industry the first to regulate autonomous vehicles.

Snyder actually signed four separate bills on Friday, each of which has an effect on the testing, development, and safety of driverless cars. The new laws amended the Michigan Motor Vehicle requirements and adjusted a preexisting law that effectively barred automated driving throughout the state.

One of the bills, SB 996, allows for the deployment of on-demand networks of self-driving cars, so long as they are operated by motor vehicle manufacturers. In other words, companies like Apple AAPL Alphabet GOOGL, and Uber wont be able to send out driverless vehicles right now, but Michigans own Ford F and General Motors GM could (Also read: Forget Lawsuits, Uber Drivers' Days Are Numbered).

A spokesperson for the Michigan Department of Transportation would later clarify to Recode that the new law only allows carmakers to deploy on-demand networks, but tech companies like those mentioned could eventually be considered vehicle manufacturers if they meet certain requirements.

Nevertheless, companies like Google and Apple have made their concerns that the deck is stacked in favor of traditional carmakers quite clear. In fact, John Krafcik, the head of Googles driverless car segment, penned a letter to the Michigan legislature earlier this year.

While the current bill coming out of the Senate may be suitable for traditional motor vehicle manufacturers, we are concerned that ambiguities [in definitions] could be read to exclude other innovative AV (autonomous vehicle) technology companies such as Google from operating in the state, he wrote.

Apple has also pointed out that traditional carmakers are allowed to test their autonomous vehicles on public roads without special permissions, whereas technology companies have to seek regulatory approval first.

Story continues

The tides are clearly shifting in favor of driverless cars, but its obvious that the old-school automakers are not ready to give up their market share to the Googles and Apples of the world. In a state like Michigan, where Ford and GM presumably still hold significant lobbying power, its no surprise that self-driving car regulations would favor these companies.

Nevertheless, Michigans new laws are a step in the right direction. States are incredibly important to anything transportation-related, and hopefully Michigans action will get other statesand the federal governmentmotivated to pass their own laws soon.

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Industrial Dryers Market to Maintain Healthy CAGR During 2016 - 2026

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Process of removing moisture from any substance can be done by dryers. Industrial dryers are mainly deployed to reduce moisture level during bulk material processing. Different type of dryers such as air dryers, spray dryers, infrared dryers etc. are used for removal of moisture from various substances. Basic principle of industrial dryers is to draw moisture from internal parts of each particle to the surface, utilizing one or all heat transfer mechanism from amongst conduction, convection and radiation. An industrial dryer is composed of numerous components which include  electric motor, fan, tube coil, stainless steel frame etc. Depending on their end-use, different kind of industrial dryers are employed for different applications. As an example, spray dryers are mainly used in the food processing industry while fluid bed dryers are largely utilized in pharmaceutical industry. Further, there are different kind of controlling methods available for industrial dryers which include manual, feedback, feedforward, model based and microprocessor based control.Drying is an important unit operation used across various end-use industries such as food processing, paper, pharmaceutical, apparel, chemical, dairy etc. Upsurge in different end-use product demand & industrial development is the crucial factor boosting the demand for industrial dryers, in turn, propelling the overall growth of global industrial dryers market. Also, increasing use of dryers automation system is pumping their growth in the global market. Development of various efficient technologies such as intermittent drying, impulse drying etc. are further adding to the growth of global industrial dryers market.High operational and energy cost is an important factor restraining growth of the global industrial dryers market. One of the key challenges associated with the global industrial dryers market include less knowledge about selection criteria of a particular industrial dryer for a particular application. Usage of latest drying technologies such as superheated steam drying is the key trend observed in the global industrial dryers market. Superheated steam drying is a primary technology used for its low energy consumption & better product quality.The global industrial dryers market can be segmented on the basis of type, operating pressure, drying medium, number of stage and end-use industries. On the basis of type, global industrial dryers market can be segmented into batch dryers, rotary dryers, spray dryers, conveyor dryers, flash dryers, fluid-bed dryers and others. On the basis of operating pressure, global industrial dryers market can be segmented into vaccum and atmospheric. On the basis of drying medium, global industrial dryers market can be segmented into air, superheated steam and flue. On the basis of number of stages, global industrial dryers market can be segmented into single & multi stage. On the basis of end-use industries, global industrial dryers market can be segmented into chemicals, food & beverage, oil & gas, pharmaceutical, pulp & paper, agriculture etc.The global industrial dryers market is segmented into 5 key regions namely North America, Latin America, Middle East & Africa, Asia-Pacific and Europe. North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific are anticipated to remain key regions in the global industrial dryers market throughout the forecast period. Asia-Pacific is expected to witness the fastest growth due to rapid industrial development.Request for Sample Report and Table of content @The key players involved in the manufacture of industrial dryers include Carrier Vibrating Equipment, International Process Equipment Company, Thermal Product Solutions, The Grieve Corporation, Central Air Compressor, FEECO International Inc., Thompson Dryer, Glatt, GEA, Metso, SSP etc.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA - Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.com
Global Bluetooth Modules Market Shares, Demands, Premium Applications, Key Opportunities Forecasts to 2021

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Global Bluetooth Modules Industry 2016 Market Overview, Size, Share, Trends, Analysis, Technology, Applications, Growth, Market Status, Demands, Insights, Development, Research and Forecast 2016-2020.The research report is a brief inquiry into the state of the global Bluetooth Modules market. An evaluation of the current market situation, historical growth, and future opportunities for progress has been presented in the publication. The market intelligence report further assesses the shares, key marketing strategies, and product portfolio of the prime players operating in the global Bluetooth Modules market.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @The study presents an outline of the global Bluetooth Modules market based on key parameters such as regions, products, technology, application, and end user. The projected volume and revenue growth of the global Bluetooth Modules market during the forecast period has also been mentioned in the report. The report further offers an insight into the prime geographical segments of the global Bluetooth Modules market and provides details about their past and present shares. The trends prevalent in the market have also been highlighted in the report. The study further presents an assessment of the factors that are expected to impact the growth of the market in a negative or positive way. The global Bluetooth Modules market has been thoroughly analyzed with regard to the respective market segments and forecast period. Each year within the respective timeline has been briefly studied in terms of the value of the product in the regional as well as global market.To present a clear understanding of the global Bluetooth Modules market, the competitive landscape has been evaluated and put forth along with the value chain analysis. Information on ongoing and initiated research and development projects and investments in innovation has been provided in the report as well.Browse Complete Report with TOC @Table of Contents1 Bluetooth Modules Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Bluetooth Modules1.2 Bluetooth Modules Segment by Types1.2.1 Global Production Market Share of Bluetooth Modules by Type in 20151.2.2 Type I Overview and Price1.2.2.1 Type I Overview1.2.2.2 Type I Price List in 2015 and 20161.2.3 Type II1.2.3.1 Type I Overview1.2.3.2 Type I Price List in 2015 and 20161.2.4 Type III1.2.4.1 Type I Overview1.2.4.2 Type I Price List in 2015 and 20161.3 Bluetooth Modules Segment by Application1.3.1 Bluetooth Modules Consumption Market Share by Application in 20151.3.2 Application 1 and Major Clients (Buyers) List1.3.3 Application 2 and Major Clients (Buyers) List1.3.4 Application 3 and Major Clients (Buyers) List1.4 Bluetooth Modules Market by Region1.4.1 North America Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.2 China Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.3 Europe Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.4 Japan Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.5 Taiwan Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.6 Korea Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.5 Global Market Size (Value and Volume) of Bluetooth Modules (2011-2021)1.5.1 Global Bluetooth Modules Production and Revenue (2011-2021)1.5.2 Global Bluetooth Modules Production and Growth Rate (2011-2021)1.5.3 Global Bluetooth Modules Revenue and Growth Rate (2011-2021)2 Global Bluetooth Modules Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Bluetooth Modules Production and Share by Manufacturers (2015 and 2016)2.2 Global Bluetooth Modules Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2015 and 2016)2.3 Global Bluetooth Modules Average Price by Manufacturers (2015 and 2016)2.4 Manufacturers Bluetooth Modules Manufacturing Base Distribution and Product Type2.5 Competitive Situation and Trends2.5.1 Expansions2.5.2 New Product Launches2.5.3 Acquisitions2.5.4 Other DevelopmentsFor Market Research Latest Reports Visit @About UsQYReseachReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYReseachReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact Us1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
Study on Global LED Flashlight Market Manufacturing Verticals, Plans, Costs, Emerging Projects & SWOT Analysis

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report "Global LED Flashlight Industry Report 2016" to its huge collection of research reports.This study on the global LED Flashlight market is collated by compiling information through both secondary and primary research. Hence, the information is collected from journals, white papers, databases, and up-to-date press releases. The study also comprises the factors driving and inhibiting the development of the global LED Flashlight market. The key opportunity areas and trends prevalent in this market have also been compiled in this study. The current size of this market and its predicted size by the end of the forecast period has also been highlighted through this study.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @The report has been studied in terms of key segments and sub-segments. The currently leading segment and the reason for the growth of that particular segment has also been included under this study. Hence, an extensive analysis of the global LED Flashlight market has been encapsulated on the basis of estimations of key market segments in the forecast horizon. In addition, the technological developments that took place in the market and our predicted to take place in the coming years have also been presented through this study.The projections given in this report on the global LED Flashlight market have been made by analyzing the marketas future potential and prevalent trends. The marketas growth in the geographical areas has also been studied in detail under this report. The top region in this market and the reasons for the growth of the market in that particular region have also been compiled. Moving further, the report present the competitive landscape of the global LED Flashlight market. Under this section, the prime strategies of the players, the strengths and weaknesses, and their contributions in the growth of the global LED Flashlight market have been highlighted. These players are also evaluated on the basis of attributes such as revenue, gross, product overview, and contact information.Browse Complete Report with TOC @Table of Contents1 Industry Overview of LED Flashlight 11.1 Definition and Specifications of LED Flashlight 11.1.1 Definition of LED Flashlight 11.1.2 Specifications of LED Flashlight 21.2 Classification of LED Flashlight 21.2.1 Rechargeable LED Flashlight 31.2.2 Non-rechargeable LED Flashlight 31.3 Applications of LED Flashlight 41.4 Industry Chain Structure of LED Flashlight 51.5 Industry Overview and Major Regions Status of LED Flashlight 51.5.1 Industry Overview of LED Flashlight 51.5.2 Global Major Regions Status of LED Flashlight 71.6 Industry Policy Analysis of LED Flashlight 71.7 Industry News Analysis of LED Flashlight 92 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of LED Flashlight 112.1 Raw Material Supplies Analysis of LED Flashlight 112.1.1 Plastic housing 112.1.2 Light source 122.1.3 Switch and controls 122.1.4 Metal housing 132.1.5 Battery 132.1.6 Lens 142.2 Equipment Suppliers and Price Analysis of LED Flashlight 142.3 Labor Cost Analysis of LED Flashlight 142.4 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of LED Flashlight 172.5 Manufacturing Process Analysis of LED Flashlight 183 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of LED Flashlight 193.1 Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global LED Flashlight Major Manufacturers in 2015 193.2 Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global LED Flashlight Major Manufacturers in 2015 203.3 R&D Status and Technology Source of Global LED Flashlight Major Manufacturers in 2015 213.4 Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global LED Flashlight Major Manufacturers in 2015 224 Global LED Flashlight Overall Market Overview 234.1 2011-2016E Overall Market Analysis 234.2 Capacity Analysis 264.2.1 2011-2015 Global LED Flashlight Capacity and Growth Rate Analysis 264.2.2 2015 LED Flashlight Capacity Analysis (Company Segment) 264.3 Sales Analysis 284.3.1 2011-2015 Global LED Flashlight Sales and Growth Rate Analysis 284.3.2 2015 LED Flashlight Sales Analysis (Company Segment) 284.4 Sales Price Analysis 304.4.1 2011-2015 Global LED Flashlight Sales Price 304.4.2 2015 LED Flashlight Sales Price Analysis (Company Segment) 304.5 Gross Margin Analysis 324.5.1 2011-2015 Global LED Flashlight Gross Margin 324.5.2 2015 LED Flashlight Gross Margin Analysis (Company Segment) 32For Latest QYResearchreports Press Release Visit @QYResearchReports.com is an unimpeachable source of market research data for clients that comprise acclaimed SMEs, Chinese companies, private equity firms, and MNCs. We provide market research reports on various categories such as Energy, Chemicals, Alternative and Green Energy, Manufacturing, Machinery, Pharmaceuticals and Materials, and Glass.QYResearchreportsContact Us1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United States+1-518-621-2074866-997-4948USA-Canada Toll freesales@qyresearchreports.com
Global Solar Concentrated Photovoltaic Market Shares, Elegant Growth, Advancements & End-Users 2016

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Global Solar Concentrated Photovoltaic Industry 2016 Market Overview, Size, Share, Trends, Analysis, Technology, Applications, Growth, Market Status, Demands, Insights, Development, Research and Forecast 2016-2020.The research report is a brief inquiry into the state of the global Solar Concentrated Photovoltaic market. An evaluation of the current market situation, historical growth, and future opportunities for progress has been presented in the publication. The market intelligence report further assesses the shares, key marketing strategies, and product portfolio of the prime players operating in the global Solar Concentrated Photovoltaic market.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @The study presents an outline of the global Solar Concentrated Photovoltaic market based on key parameters such as regions, products, technology, application, and end user. The projected volume and revenue growth of the global Solar Concentrated Photovoltaic market during the forecast period has also been mentioned in the report. The report further offers an insight into the prime geographical segments of the global Solar Concentrated Photovoltaic market and provides details about their past and present shares. The trends prevalent in the market have also been highlighted in the report. The study further presents an assessment of the factors that are expected to impact the growth of the market in a negative or positive way. The global Solar Concentrated Photovoltaic market has been thoroughly analyzed with regard to the respective market segments and forecast period. Each year within the respective timeline has been briefly studied in terms of the value of the product in the regional as well as global market.To present a clear understanding of the global Solar Concentrated Photovoltaic market, the competitive landscape has been evaluated and put forth along with the value chain analysis. Information on ongoing and initiated research and development projects and investments in innovation has been provided in the report as well.Browse Complete Report with TOC @Table of Contents1 Industry Overview1.1 Basic Information of Solar Concentrated Photovoltaic1.1.1 Definition of Solar Concentrated Photovoltaic1.1.2 Classifications of Solar Concentrated Photovoltaic1.1.2.1 Technology- HCPV1.1.2.2 Technology-MCPV1.1.2.3 Technology- LCPV1.1.3 Applications of Solar Concentrated Photovoltaic1.1.4 Characteristics of Solar Concentrated Photovoltaic1.2 Development Overview of Solar Concentrated Photovoltaic1.3 Enter Barriers Analysis of Solar Concentrated Photovoltaic2 Solar Concentrated Photovoltaic International and China Market Analysis2.1 Solar Concentrated Photovoltaic Industry International Market Analysis2.1.1 Solar Concentrated Photovoltaic International Market Development History2.1.2 Solar Concentrated Photovoltaic Competitive Landscape Analysis2.1.3 Solar Concentrated Photovoltaic International Main Countries Development Status2.1.4 Solar Concentrated Photovoltaic International Market Development Trend2.2 Solar Concentrated Photovoltaic Industry China Market Analysis2.2.1 Solar Concentrated Photovoltaic China Market Development History2.2.2 Solar Concentrated Photovoltaic Competitive Landscape Analysis2.2.3 Solar Concentrated Photovoltaic China Main Regions Development Status2.2.4 Solar Concentrated Photovoltaic China Market Development Trend2.3 Solar Concentrated Photovoltaic International and China Market Comparison Analysis3 Environment Analysis of Solar Concentrated Photovoltaic3.1 International Economy Analysis3.2 China Economy Analysis3.3 Policy Analysis of Solar Concentrated Photovoltaic3.4 News Analysis of Solar Concentrated Photovoltaic4 Analysis of Revenue by Classifications4.1 Global Revenue of Solar Concentrated Photovoltaic by Classifications 2011-20164.2 Global Revenue Growth Rate of Solar Concentrated Photovoltaic by Classifications 2011-20164.3 Solar Concentrated Photovoltaic Revenue by ClassificationsQYResearchReports.com is an unimpeachable source of market research data for clients that comprise acclaimed SMEs, Chinese companies, private equity firms, and MNCs. We provide market research reports on various categories such as Energy, Chemicals, Alternative and Green Energy, Manufacturing, Machinery, Pharmaceuticals and Materials, and Glass.QYResearchreportsContact Us1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United States+1-518-621-2074866-997-4948USA-Canada Toll freesales@qyresearchreports.com
CIGS Thin-Film Solar Cells Market Will Continue to Grow by 2026

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CIGS stands for copper indium gallium selenide, it is a thin film solar cell that is used to convert sun rays into electrical energy. CIGS thin film solar cells are manufactured by the process of depositing a thin layer of indium, copper, selenide and gallium on plastic backing or glass, having electrodes on the back and front to collect current. CIGS has a high absorption coefficient and absorbs sunlight strongly, so a thin film of this material is required to obtain the same electric energy as that of semiconductor materials. The thin-film photovoltaic technologies consists of three mainstreams namely amorphous silicon, cadmium telluride and CIGS. Like other materials in the thin-film photovoltaic technologies, CIGS is also flexible, that allows them to get deposited on the flexible substrates. Also the best performance of the solar cells comes from the glass deposited cells, as all the technologies use high temperature depositions. The performance of polysilicon-based panels are higher than these glass based technologies of solar cells, though advances in CIGS low temperature deposition is trying to erase these performance difference up to a great extent. CIGS Thin-film solar cells market is expected to expand at a healthy CAGR in the forecast period.Request to Sample Report @The increasing market of solar panels and cost efficiency of electricity generated by solar panels as compared to other sources of energy is driving the CIGS thin-film solar cells market. Also the increased efficiency of CIGS thin film solar cells and the reduced time required to produce the electricity as compared to its counterparts technologies is further contributing in the growing CIGS thin-film solar cells market. Moreover, the rising concerns amongst people for environmental safety is bolstering the CIGS thin-film solar cells market.However, the initial high cost of CIGS thin film solar cells and the complexity and technicality associated with its manufacturing can hamper the growth of global CIGS thin-film solar cells market.Global CIGS Thin-Film Solar Cells Market: SegmentationOn the basis of film thickness, the global CIGS thin-film solar cells market can be segmented as follows:1-2 micro meters2-3 micro meters3-4 micro metersOn the basis of deposition technique, the global CIGS thin-film solar cells market can be segmented as follows:Electrospray depositionChemical vapour depositionCoevaporationFilm productionOn the basis of the end-use industry, the global CIGS thin-film solar cells market can be segmented as follows:AutomobilesElectronics and electricalEnergy and powerOthersThe global CIGS thin-film solar cells market can be divided into seven regions, namely North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific, Japan and Middle East and Africa. North America is a dominant region in the global CIGS thin-film solar cells market owing to its presence in the energy and power sector. Asia Pacific ranks second in the market share of global CIGS thin-film solar cells market because of the growing electronics and electrical industry. The flourishing automobiles industry in Europe is the major cause to map this region in the global CIGS thin-film solar cells market. Latin America is also gaining importance in this market due to the investments of this region in the energy and power sector. Middle east and Africa is at a nascent stage in the global CIGS thin-film solar cells market but is anticipated to have a considerable CAGR in the forecasted period.Request to view Table of content @Some of the key players in the global CIGS thin-film solar cells market are:Trina Solar LimitedTata Power Solar Systems LimitedSuniva IncSolarWorld AGPionis Energy Technologies LLCJinkoSolar Holding Co. LtdBorg IncAlps Technology IncItek EnergyThe research report presents a comprehensive assessment of the market and contains thoughtful insights, facts, historical data, and statistically supported and industry-validated market data. It also contains projections using a suitable set of assumptions and methodologies. The research report provides analysis and information according to market segments such as geography, technology and applications.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each PMR Syndicated Research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemical, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With a wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports strive to serve clients and satisfy their overall research requirement.For information regarding permissions, contact:Persistence Market Research305 Broadway,7th FloorNew York City, NY 10007United StatesTel: +1 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWebsite:media@persistencemarketresearch.com
December 2016 Inventory Business Gets a Hand, in a Good Way

https://www.imagicinventorysoftware.com/

New York, NY-7/12/16. Stock taking allows business to find how much inventory has gone missing. Missing stock can then be claimed as a tax deduction, but the process of checking can cost more. In that newest update to iMagic's Inventory Software aims to reduce the time it takes a company to perform the inventory check."Our customers had just accepted that stock takes were a waste of time," announces Jon Walker, official representative of iMagic Soft. "When we looked into the details we found that it was simply too time consuming for most businesses to perform, they would actually be losing money on the time taken. We worked on the problem and developed a solution in our latest update to iMagic Inventory, our software system for managing inventory."Updates are available to existing customers, who receive a year of updates on purchase. The December update also includes a print preview for choosing invoice styles, GUI updates on reports and the toolbar, automatic purchase price updates when receiving stock and various bug fixes.Once the inventory is counted it can be recorded directly into the system, this not only records the current level of stock, but also updates the recorded stock and at the same time builds up a report showing the discrepancies. The report is invaluable, allowing accounting to claim back lost stock on tax returns.This inventory software creates invoices, quotes, track customers and stock. A wide range of reports are available as well as multiple user access and barcode support.About iMagic SoftwareFor over 20 years, iMagic understands that their business is not just about producing software products and computers but people who need the products that they will provide. From their initial offerings that helped solve different problems for multinational companies such as IBM, Barclays Bank, and Telstra, they now provide software products that help even the playing field for smaller family owned businesses who cannot afford their own customized, automated invoicing systems that are more expensive and have cumulative fees when bought with competitors.Contact:Jon WalkerNew York, NYiMagic develop reservation and business booking software. There products include inventory software, hotel software, restaurant reservation software, tour reservation software and kennel booking software.iMagicAustralia Glen Forrest 5 Outtrim RdJon Walker padsubmit@imagicsoft.com
Get Quality Primary Homework Help from Instant Assignment Help

Instant Assignment Help ventured in the online service of providing primary homework help some time ago and has delivered excellent results since its inception. They are presently operational in the UK, US, UAE and several other countries. The team of writers associated with them is highly experienced in their respective fields and thrives to provide high-quality assignment writing services to all the primary school students registered with them. To ease the learning task, the team is consistently developing methods that would prove beneficial and easy for the primary school goers.Since primary school students lack the understanding of various subjects, they fail to give a well-written homework which leads to scoring poor grades. In such a circumstance, they can take assistance from the online primary homework help which is provided by various academic writing services these days. Instant Assignment Help being one of such services provides the students which an organised document that is worked upon according to the prescribed guidelines. The academic writers available with them are knowledgeable about the subject and provide assistance in different subjects that are a part of the primary school curriculum.Instant Assignment Help is working with a mission to provide professional writing assistance to the primary school students, understand their homework problems and develop ways to help them out in learning their subjects. There are various other services and additional benefits provided by their team. Take a read through them:1. Free quality assurance report2. Plagiarism free and authentic documents3. On time delivery4. Free live chat facility with experts5. Proofreading, referencing and unlimited revisions6. Ease of access through mobile Apps available for Android and iOS devices7. Affordable costs and discounted pricesRegistering with Instant Assignment Help is extremely hassle-free and a user-friendly process. Interested students can register themselves on their website, provide the necessary details and choose the subject and the price according to their requirements. After this, the customer support team will then contact you for the order confirmation and subsequently the order will be delivered on the prescribed date. Students then have the option to get the documents reconsidered in case they need to make some changes in it.Instant Assignment Help offers professional primary school homework help at economical prices so that there remains no cost burden on the students during their academic years. Moreover, their writers have developed easy learning techniques for the students so that they can learn at their pace. This online assignment writing service has set a high benchmark among its peers in terms of customer satisfaction, superior quality documents and strong work ethics. They have received immense appreciation and appraisals for their services and in the long run, aim to help the students to achieve academic excellence.Instant Assignment Help provides primary homework help to the students based in the US, UK, UAE, Malaysia and other countries globally. Read this write-up to know more about their services which they provide to the students.Instant Assignment HelpGlobal Academic Research Ltd.Cardiff Bay Business Centre,Lewis Rd, Ocean Park,Cardiff, United KingdomCF24 5BSSouth Glamorgan
ThoughtSphere Inc. announces selection by Senju USA, Inc. to support its clinical program with data integrations and analytics using the ClinDAP and ClinACT solutions

http://www.thoughtsphere.com

www.thoughtsphere.com

December 8, 2016, Santa Clara, CA  ThoughtSphere, Inc. announces that its innovative ClinDAP and ClinACT clinical data integrations and analytics platforms have been selected by the American division of Japanese research-based pharmaceutical company Senju Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd, Senju USA, Inc. Senju will benefit from solutions that make managing, interpreting, visualizing and analyzing data from its clinical program simpler and, in turn, enhance its clinical research processes, investments and intelligence.ClinDAP is a unique source-system agnostic data aggregation platform specifically designed for clinical research, and ClinACT is the only holistic solution for RBM, Central Data Monitoring, Analytics and CRO Oversight.We are passionate about helping sponsors harness the power of their data, from all disparate sources, so that data can drive clinical research decision-making processes, explains Sudeep Pattnaik, founder & CEO of ThoughtSphere. Our mission has been to tackle the four Vs of clinical data-volume, variety, veracity, and velocity and give innovative biopharmaceutical organizations the power of big data science to get the robust and timely insights that are required today for compliance and effective trial conduct. We are very pleased to build this relationship with Senju USA, Inc. and put them at the leading edge of clinical informatics.ThoughtSphere has radically changed the way clinical data is aggregated and integrated with the ClinDAP platform. The ThoughtSphere clinical data lake ClinDAP offers advantages over the more old-fashioned approaches, such as connectors and manual integration, because it does not require a connection to a source system and speeds the transformation process. ClinACT then serves as an intelligence layer that surfaces the integrated data for centralized monitoring, analytics, dashboards and holistic RBM and oversight.ENDSFor more information about ThoughtSphere and solutions visitAbout ThoughtSphereFounded by clinical information and technology industry experts with over 30 years of experience from the leading global CRO and eClinical providers, ThoughtSpheres mission is to streamline and empower the clinical trials process by eliminating the two biggest challenges--integration of disparate clinical and operational data and making it accessible for use with existing tools for analytics and visualization. With this innovative platform, biopharma, medical device sponsors and CROs can reduce and optimize clinical development costs, aggregate operational and clinical data to enhance efficiency and effectiveness in the clinical trial processes and gain near real-time actionable insights. The product suite includes ClinDAP, the source-system agnostic next-generation data integration platform; ClinACT, the interactive visualization and analytics platform that enables RBM and CRO Quality Oversight; and SPACE, the integrated site budgeting, payments and contracting solution. At ThoughtSphere, we believe we can deliver on the promise of big data to drive health innovation. For more information, visitThoughtSphere Inc.2901 Tasman Drive,Suite 222, Santa Clara,CA 95054Telephone: 408.898.9828Media ContactScott Girling-HeathcoteThoughtSphere Inc.+44 1477 539539thoughtsphere@scottpr.com
Smart Packaging Market Size, Share, Analysis, Report and Forecast to 2022

According to Stratistics MRC, the Global Smart Packaging market is accounted for $28.96 billion in 2015 and is expected to reach $45.03 billion by 2022 growing at a CAGR of 6.5% from 2015 to 2022. The high R&D costs and lack of sustainable E-Packaging products are the major challenges faced by the players. Advancement in printed technology is the opportunity that resides the market growth. Limited user awareness, high rate and accessibility are the restraining factors for smart packaging. The key drivers include change in consumer lifestyle, food consumption and demand for smart packaging.Some of the key players in the market include BASF SE, E. I. Du Pont De Nemours and Company, Amcor Limited, RR Donnelley, Multisorb Technologies Inc., Sealed Air Corporation, Stora Enso OYJ, Huhtamaki Group, Meadwestvaco Corporation, Reynolds Group Holdings, Bemis, Rexam PLC, ACREO, Graham Packaging Company INC., Blue Spark Technologies, Crown Holdings Inc., Timestrip Plc., Novalia and Ball Corporation.Technologies Covered: Active Packagingo Gas Scavengers Ethylene (Ethene) Scavengers Oxygen Scavengerso Corrosion Controlo Moisture Controlo Antimicrobial Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP) Intelligent Packaging (IP)o Tracking Deviceso IndicatorsVerticals Covered: Personal Care Healthcare Pharmaceuticals and medical device packaging Food & Beverageso Meat and Poultryo Sea Foodo Dairyo Others Automotive Industrial product packaging Others Verticalso Logistic/transit packagingo Electronic equipmento Consumer PackagingApplications Covered: Securityo Electronic Article Surveillanceo Security Printing Specialized labels Security Holograms Loggingo Pressure data loggerso Temperature data loggerso Shock and vibration data loggerso Other Logging Temperature Monitoring Dispensing Systemso Precision medical sprayso Precision inhalerso Adhesive dispensers Indicators RFID Trackingo Unit Load Trackingo Package Tracking Temperature ControllersRegions Covered: North Americao USo Canadao Mexico Europeo Germanyo Franceo Italyo UKo Spaino Rest of Europe Asia Pacifico Japano Chinao Indiao Australiao New Zealando Rest of Asia Pacific Rest of the Worldo Middle Easto Brazilo Argentinao South Africao EgyptWhat our report offers:- Market share assessments for the regional and country level segments- Market share analysis of the top industry players- Strategic recommendations for the new entrants- Market forecasts for a minimum of 7 years of all the mentioned segments, sub segments and the regional markets- Market Trends (Drivers, Constraints, Opportunities, Threats, Challenges, Investment Opportunities, and recommendations)- Strategic recommendations in key business segments based on the market estimations- Competitive landscaping mapping the key common trends- Company profiling with detailed strategies, financials, and recent developments- Supply chain trends mapping the latest technological advancementsWe offer wide spectrum of research and consulting services with in-depth knowledge of different industries. We are known for customized research services, consulting services and Full Time Equivalent (FTE) services in the research world. We explore the market trends and draw our insights with valid assessments and analytical views. We use advanced techniques and tools among the quantitative and qualitative methodologies to identify the market trends. Our research reports and publications are routed to help our clients to design their business models and enhance their business growth in the competitive market scenario. We have a strong team with hand-picked consultants including project managers, implementers, industry experts, researchers, research evaluators and analysts with years of experience in delivering the complex projects.STRATISTICS MRC17049 King James Way, Gaithersburg,MD, 20877, USA
IT Market in BRIC to grow at a CAGR of 11.72% over Forecast period 2015-2019

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http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=E&repid=246203

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Albany, NY, Dec 09: IT can be defined as an integrated platform that includes hardware, software and IT services. The role of IT in an organization is to integrate various business processes and thus ensure smooth flow of information and processes. IT also helps organizations align their business processes with various technologies. The IT market in BRIC countries has picked up a good start after the recession in the late 2000's and has been a growing market since then. The government initiatives in BRIC countries are supporting the growth of IT market in these regions.The IT market in BRIC to grow at a CAGR of 11.72 percent over the period 2014-2019. This report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the IT market in BRIC for the period 2015-2019. The market is segmented into the following segments: Hardware, Software, and Services.TechNavio's report, IT Market in BRIC 2015-2019, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. It covers the market landscape and a detailed discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Get a Sample Research PDF with TOC:Key Vendors- Accenture- Cognizant- Digital China Holdings- HP- Huawei Technologies- IBM- Lenovo GroupOther Prominent Vendors- Acer- AsiaInfo Linkage- AsusTek- Atos Origin- Capgemini- China National Software- Cisco Systems- Dell- HCL Infosystems- IBS- Infosys- National Computer- Neusoft Group- Microsoft- Oracle- SAP- TCS- Wipro Infotech- XeroxEnquiry at:Key Questions Answered in this Report- What will the market size be in 2019 and what will the growth rate be?- What are the key market trends?- What is driving this market?- What are the challenges to market growth?- Who are the key vendors in this market space?- What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors?- What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?ResearchMoz is the worlds fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMozs service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators.Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-621-2074Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn at:
Travel & Tourism Industry in Top 5 Emerging Markets Expected to Reach a Value of $2.174.2 Billion in 2020

Travel & Tourism Industry Analysis

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http://www.marketresearchhub.com/report/travel-and-tourism-top-5-emerging-markets-industry-guide-2016-report.html

http://www.marketresearchhub.com/

Albany, New York, December 9, 2016: A recent report titled Travel & Tourism Top 5 Emerging Markets Industry Guide-2016, is the focus of a new analysis added to the vast portfolio of Market Research Hub (MRH). The study provides top-line data and analysis on the top 5 emerging countries from travel and tourism industry. With extensive five year forecasts, future growth predictions of the market are also analyzed. The report compares data from Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa.Request For Sample Report:As tourism is one of the main resources for any country that features historical, mythological and natural tourist spots, it is no wonder to say that all the BRICS countries are the best tourist destinations in the world. China and India have been the global driving force in the travel and tourism industry. A large arrival of tourists from Asia has been driving the western market, which has resulted in market growth in those countries. According to the report, these countries have contributed $1,377.5 billion to the global travel & tourism industry in 2015, along with a CAGR of 9.7% between 2007 and 2011. The top 5 emerging countries are expected to reach a value of $2,174.2 billion in 2020, with a CAGR of 9.6% during the forecast of 2015-20 period.Further, market observers of the developments happening in BRICS group have stated that there is a remarkable improvement in tourism in previous years. Geographical individualities, unique flora and fauna have added glitters to these ever charming tourism destinations. The travel and tourism industry consists of revenues generated by passenger airlines, passenger rail, food service, hotels, travel intermediaries & casinos as well as gaming. Currently, China is the leading country among the top 5 emerging nations with market revenues of $1,051.8 billion.The report state that, being a highly populated country in the world and also the land that has been in history records for more than two eras, China is one of the booming economies in terms of tourism & travel. In the year 2020, it is also further expected to lead the travel & tourism industry with a value of $1,662.1 billion, followed by India and Brazil with expected values of $232.1 and $171.4 billion, respectively.Browse Full Report with TOC:Market volumes are classified by the number of hotels in a country or region. Travel intermediaries is now part of the business that assists in selling travel products and services to customers.About Market Research Hub:Market Research Hub (MRH) is a next-generation reseller of research reports and analysis. MRHs expansive collection of market research reports has been carefully curated to help key personnel and decision makers across industry verticals to clearly visualize their operating environment and take strategic steps.MRH functions as an integrated platform for the following products and services: Objective and sound market forecasts, qualitative and quantitative analysis, incisive insight into defining industry trends, and market share estimates. Our reputation lies in delivering value and world-class capabilities to our clients.90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (US-Canada)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Email: press@marketresearchhub.comWebsite:
Biological Drugs Market is Anticipated to Grow US$ 287 Billion by 2020 End

Biological Drugs Market, Biological Drugs, Biological Drug Market

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http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/2997

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Biological drugs are typically derived from living cells and are used in the prevention and treatment of various diseases such as cancer, blood disorders, auto-immune diseases, and other medical disorders. Biological drugs have more complex structures compared to that of conventional drugs.Request to view Table of Content @The global biological drugs market was valued at US$ 161,056.5 Mn in 2014 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 10.1% from 2014 to 2020, to reach US$ 287,139.7 Mn by 2020.Globally, the biological drugs market is witnessing significant growth due to the increasing prevalence of chronic diseases and growing geriatric population. In addition, health and awareness initiatives by various government associations are also supporting the growth of the biological drugs market. However, high costs of biological drugs and patent expiry of blockbuster drugs impede the growth of the biological drugs market. Moreover, risks of adverse effects associated with biologic injectable drugs also inhibit the growth of the market.The global biological drugs market is anticipated to grow from an estimated US$ 161,056.5 Mn in 2014 to US$ 287,139.7 Mn by 2020 at a CAGR 10.1% during the forecast period.North America dominates the global biological drugs market. This is due to increasing use of biological drugs in the treatment of diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and other chronic diseases in the region. In addition, several clinics in the region are focusing on biological drugs for the treatment of various diseases.The biological drugs market in Europe is growing due to increasing aging population in the region. For instance, according to a UN report, elderly people accounted for 23.2% of the total population in Germany in 2000, and the number is expected to reach 33.2% by 2025. Aging can lead to certain disorders such as age-related macular degeneration and glaucoma, which require effective biological drugs for their treatment.Low manufacturing costs in Asia are attracting biopharmaceutical companies to invest in the region, supporting the growth of the biological drugs market. Moreover, governments of some Asian countries are also supporting the growth of the biological drugs market by providing funds to life sciences research institutes and biotech companies for the construction of R&D and manufacturing facilities.Request to view Sample Report @Novartis AG, Pfizer Inc., GlaxoSmithKline plc., and Merck & Co., Inc. are some of the leading players in the global biological drugs market. Other major players in the market include Abbott Laboratories, Baxter International Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Eli Lilly and Company, Biogen Idec, and Amgen Inc.The global biological drugs market is segmented as follows:By therapeutic protein Enbrel Lantus Neulasta Avonex NovoLog Rebif Humalog Aranesp Epogen Levemir Victoza Betaseron Neupogen EyleaBy monoclonal antibody (mAb) Humira Remicade Rituxan Avastin Herceptin LucentisBy vaccine Prenvar 13 Gardasil Fluzone Varivax CervarixBy geography North America Europe Asia Rest of the World (RoW)About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated research, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Consumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients business needs.PMR stands committed to bringing more accuracy and speed to clients business decisions. From ready-to-purchase market research reports to customized research solutions, PMRs engagement models are highly flexible without compromising on its deep-seated research values.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA - Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.commedia@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Nine Hertz is Positioned Among the Top 10 IT Firms In India

The Nine Hertz

http://www.itfirms.co/top-mobile-app-development-companies-in-india/

IT Firms, a leading technological platform, has crowned The Nine Hertz among the top 10 IT companies in India for delivering excellent web and mobile app development solutions along with customer satisfaction. IT Firms helps its clients discover the best companies that coincide their requirements and deliver quality solutions. In addition, it is very much careful, stringent and neutral at conducting this kind of surveys. They follow a fine set of criteria to assess an IT firm and the scale includes the earlier experience and the performance in the recent years. They use a few unique parameters to weigh the candidature of the top 10 smartphone app development companies in the country. Thereafter, they finalized a list of top 10 smartphone app development companies for hiring and The Nine Hertz easily made it among the top ten.The Nine Hertz got this decoration because all their rigorous endeavors aim at the customer delight. Having their esteemed clients in more than 14 countries, they have proved their excellence through delivering highly scalable and customer-centric services year after year. Serving more than 450 clients across the globe, Nine Hertz makes its presence in the top countries like USA, Canada, UAE, Australia, etc. Besides, they have made their successful presence via publishing original and engaging content on various technological platforms including Casio, Reliance Jio, Tech cocktail, Siemens, and Pepsi are the top clients of The Nine Hertz.The core area where The Nine Hertz drives excellence consists of iPhone app development and Android app development. Apart from this, they are very efficient in delivering top-notch Web development, Open Source development and Salesforce development, etc. They have also set the milestone of delivering more than 1000 projects to its clients all over the world since their inception in the IT industry.To know more information about the story:About The Nine Hertz:The Nine Hertz is a leading IT company providing services like Mobile app development, Web development, Web design etc to all over the world. We started our journey in 2008 and offering quality services in many countries like USA, UK, Australia and India etc. In this wonderful Journey of 8 years. We have established the strong relationship with top industry competitors like Amazon, Microsoft etc. We are ISO 9001: 2008 certified company that have built a good reputation for providing best results according to the customers requirements, in their budget.The Nine HertzNarendra Singh+1-315-381-4100Contacttheninehertz.com7278, East Galbraith RoadCincinnati, Ohio 45243United States
Neurostimulation Devices Market to Spread a Predictable Worth of US$ 10,445.7 Million by 2020

Neurostimulation Devices Market, Neurostimulation Devices, Neurostimulation Devices, Neurostimulation Device market

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http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/2824

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Neurostimulation technology involves the use of microelectrodes to activate elements of the nervous system. It involves the use of a neurostimulation device - a battery-powered stopwatch-sized device - which is surgically implanted in the brain and delivers electric signals at scheduled time intervals to the nervous system. These electric signals develop tingling sensations (paresthesia) in the damaged nerve and helps chronic pain and neurological disorders. In chronic pain conditions, these electric signals block the pain messages from the damaged nerve from reaching the brain. These devices are gaining importance in the management of chronic conditions such neuropathic pain, nociceptive pain, Parkinsons disease, epilepsy, and depression. Neuropathic pain occurs due to nerve damage, while nociceptive pain arises from diseases such as diabetes, cancer, and arthritis. These devices are mostly used in cases where systemic drug therapies are not effective.Request to view Table of Content @The global neurostimulation devices market was valued at US$ 5,088.9 Mn in 2014 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 12.7% from 2014 to 2020, to reach US$ 10,445.7 Mn by 2020.The global neurostimulation devices market is witnessing significant growth due to increasing prevalence of chronic pain and rising incidences of neurological diseases. Moreover, rising awareness about various neurological diseases, growing geriatric population, and increasing investments in research and development of innovative neurostimulation devices are also driving the market. However, availability of alternative treatment therapies for neurological diseases and side-effects of neurostimulation therapy inhibit the growth of the market. The global neurostimulation devices market is anticipated to grow from an estimated US$ 5,088.9 Mn in 2014 to US$ 10,445.7 Mn by 2020 at a CAGR of 12.7% during the forecast period.In North America, the neurostimulation devices market is growing due to increasing incidence of neurological diseases such as Alzheimer and Parkinsons disease. Moreover, initiatives taken by various government and private associations for increasing awareness about various chronic pain and neurological disorders and rising investments in the research and development of novel neurostimulation devices in North America is driving the market in the region.The neurostimulation devices market in Europe is growing due to initiatives taken by various governments to improve healthcare facilities in the region. Furthermore, increasing incidences of chronic pain and neurological diseases and growing aging population are also boosting the growth of the Europe neurostimulation devices market. According to WHO, every year, neurological disorders affect one-third of the population in Europe, and approximately 1% to 2% of the population is diagnosed with psychotic disorders. According to the NHS England - a government organization primarily involved in the improvement of healthcare services in England - approximately 8 million people suffered from chronic pain in the U.K. in 2010, and the number reached 14 million in 2012.Asia Pacific represents the fastest-growing region in the neurostimulation devices market. This is primarily due to growing aging population in various countries such as India and China. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) - an organization involved in biomedical and health related research activities - approximately 110 million people in China were aged 65 years and above in 2011 and the number is expected to reach 330 million by 2050. In India, approximately 60 million people were aged 65 years and above in 2011 and the number is expected to reach 227 million by 2050.Request to view Sample Report @Medtronic, plc, St. Jude Medical, Inc, Boston Scientific Corporation, and Cyberonics, Inc. are some of the leading players in the neurostimulation devices market. Other major players of neurostimulation devices market include Cochlear, Ltd., NDI Medical, LLC, NeuroPace, Inc., NeuroSigma, Inc., and MED-EL.The global neurostimulation devices market is segmented as follows:By device type Implantable device External deviceBy implantable devices Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) Deep brain stimulation (DBS) Sacral nerve stimulation (SNS) Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) Cochlear implants (CI) Gastric electric stimulation (GES) OthersBy external devices Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) OthersBy application Pain management Parkinsons disease Urinary and fecal incontinence Epilepsy Hearing loss Gastroparesis Depression OthersBy geography North America Europe Asia Pacific Rest of the World (RoW)About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated research, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Consumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients business needs.PMR stands committed to bringing more accuracy and speed to clients business decisions. From ready-to-purchase market research reports to customized research solutions, PMRs engagement models are highly flexible without compromising on its deep-seated research values.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA - Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.commedia@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Cooperation of the companies ProSign GmbH and DRAGO Automation

PACcubes Station PCR-STA31-MC1 and ultra-compact I/O Modbus RTU I/O modules

http://paccubes.de/

http://pro-sign.de/

http://www.drago-automation.de/

ProSign GmbH and DRAGO Automation combine their competences and develop a strong all-in-one product including the PACcubes Station and ultra-compact I/O modules. The PACcubes Station PCR-STA31-MC1 will be available in February 2017 and it will be compatible with the ultra-compact I/O Modbus RTU I/O modules from the company DRAGO Automation. That means, the compact, universal I/O modules will be joint with the graphically programmable head station of the PACcubes series.The I/O modules and the PACcubes Station can be programmed with the graphical programming system PACstudio, which uses technical signs and symbols, just like all other PACcubes products. By the companies cooperation, an integral system solution is developed, which can solve customer-specific measurement tasks and at the same time is easy to use, as for graphical programming with PACstudio, no programming language has to be learned.The PACcubes Station PCR-STA31-MC1 features a high-performance ARM Cortex-A7 processor with 1.2 GHz and a DDR3 internal memory with 1GB RAM. The PACcubes Station is equipped with a UMTS interface to communicate with the Internet of Things over MQTT to do monitoring tasks and perform remote maintenance. The programming takes place over MQTT function blocks, which can easily be configured.With an installation width of only 6.2 mm, the Modbus RTU I/O modules are especially slim. Furthermore they offer high measuring resolution and a wide temperature range. That is why they are suitable for complex field and control tasks and stands out because of the especially fast measurement data conversion and field-bus provision.To learn more about the PACcubes Station and the I/O modules, please visitandThe German software engineering company ProSign Process Design GmbH is developer of the graphical programming software iCon-L as well as all programs resulting from that software framework like miCon-L, test.con and the automation solution PACcubes. ProSign has many OEM partners with who they distribute controllers for different conditions and requirements with programming software which is exactly tailored to the controller.ProSign Process Design GmbHWerner-Heisenberg-Str. 139106 MagdeburgKatja Lehmann
Tibbo Technology Announces new TIDE Release 5.03.03 that features TiOS Simulator

New Tibbo IDE (TIDE) release 5.03.03 includes a Tibbo OS (TiOS) Simulator. The Simulator implements a virtual TiOS device incorporating virtual Ethernet interface, virtual EEPROM, virtual flash memory, virtual MD button, buzzer, and status LEDs, as well as virtual LCD and keypad.The Simulator makes it possible to test-drive TIDE and TiOS, as well as run and debug Tibbo BASIC and C applications, without having to commit to a purchase of a physical Tibbo device.The Simulator can be found here: WINDOWS START > Tibbo > Tibbo IDE > TiOS Simulator. You can also start TiOS Simulator from within TIDE: Debug > Start TiOS Simulator.Once the Simulator is running, it appears in the Device Explorer as any other TiOS device would. To write an app for the Simulator, select the SIMULATOR platform and set the Simulator as the debug target.TIDE 5.03.03 is distributed with a number of test projects written specifically for TiOS Simulator. You can find them here: (My) DocumentsTIDESamples.Tibbo is an international company group leading in hardware and software solutions for the Internet of Things, IT infrastructure management, industrial and building automation, remote monitoring and service, physical access control, and data center management.9F-3, No.31, Lane 169, Kang-Ning St., Hsi-Chih, New Taipei City, Taiwan 22180
Home Infusion Therapy Devices Market to Spread a Predictable Worth of US$ 26,747.8 Million by 2020 End

Home Infusion Therapy Devices Market, Home Infusion Therapy Devices, Home Infusion Therapy Device Market

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Home infusion therapy facilitates intravenous at-home administration of medicines into the patients body through needle and catheter. The therapy is prescribed by physicians and administered by trained healthcare professionals. It is used when oral medication is not effective for the treatment of diseases such as cancer and gastrointestinal diseases. It is also used in the treatment of diabetes, cystic fibrosis, dehydration, and acute infections. Home infusion therapy reduces time spent by patients in hospitals, nursing homes, and clinics.Request to view Table of Content @The global home infusion therapy devices market was valued at US$ 15,905.1 Mn in 2014 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 9% from 2014 to 2020, to reach US$ 26,747.8 Mn by 2020.The therapy is used to administer drugs, antibiotics, nutrients, and other fluids into the veins on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, depending on the patients condition. Home infusion therapy is an effective and safe alternative against conventional hospitalization for the treatment of diseases. This is due to convenience and friendly environment at the patients home, which helps in faster recovery from diseases. Home infusion therapy includes total parenteral nutrition, infusion antibiotic therapy, hydration therapy, IV steroid therapy, chemotherapy, enteral therapy, and pain management. Some major infusion devices used for administration of medicines are infusion pump, intravenous equipment, and needleless connectors. Infusion pumps are categorized as ambulatory infusion pump, large volume infusion pump, and syringe infusion pump.Globally, the home infusion therapy devices market is witnessing significant growth due to the expanding home care market for infusion therapy and increasing application of infusion devices for relieving pain. Moreover, rising aging population, increasing number of chronic diseases, and technological advancements in infusion devices are also supporting the growth of home infusion therapy devices market. However, increasing risk to patient safety and occurrence of mistakes while using infusion devices as well as issues related to reimbursement policies for home infusion therapy inhibit the growth of the market. The global home infusion therapy devices market is anticipated to grow from US$ 15,905.1 Mn in 2014 to US$ 26,747.8 Mn by 2020 at a CAGR of 9% during the forecast period.In North America, the home infusion therapy devices market is growing due to increasing number of patients with chronic diseases such as cancer, AIDS, and diabetes. In addition, growing aging population is also supporting the growth of home infusion therapy devices market in the region.The home infusion therapy devices market in Europe is growing due to increasing aging population and rising popularity of non-hospital procedures in the region. Furthermore, increasing number of chronic diseases which requires home infusion therapy, such as cancer, diabetes, and AIDS, is also boosting growth of the Europe home infusion therapy devices market. According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) - a branch of the National Institutes of Health - around 3.4 million new cases of cancer and 1.7 million deaths from cancer were reported in Europe in 2012. Moreover, according to the Oxford Journals, approximately 7 37,747 men and 5 76,489 women died from cancer in Europe in 2013. Furthermore, according to the European Diabetes Leadership Forum 2012, Copenhagen, about 35 million adults in Europe were suffering from diabetes in 2011, which is anticipated to rise to 43 million by 2030.Asia represents the fastest-growing market for home infusion therapy devices. This is primarily due to growing aging population and cost effectiveness of home infusion therapy. In addition, rising popularity of non-hospital procedures and increasing prevalence of chronic diseases in the region is further driving the market. According to the National Home Infusion Association, home infusion therapy is more cost-efficient compared to hospitalization treatment. For instance, home infusion therapy cost nearly US$ 200 a day compared to less than US$ 2,000 a day in a hospital. According to the Wisut Jaijagcome/East-West Center, the number of people aged 65 years and above in Asia was 207 million in 2000 and the number is expected to reach 857 million by 2050.Request to view Sample Report @Hospira, Inc., B. Braun Melsungen AG, Caesarea Medical Electronics Ltd., Fresenius Kabi AG, and Smiths Medical are some of the leading players in the home infusion therapy devices market. Other players in the home infusion therapy devices market include CareFusion Corporation, ICU Medical, Inc, JMS Co. Ltd., Baxter, and Terumo Corporation.The global home infusion therapy devices market is segmented as follows:By Type of Device Infusion pump Intravenous set Needleless connectorBy Infusion Pump Volumetric infusion pump Syringe infusion pump Insulin infusion pump Enteral infusion pump Ambulatory infusion pump Patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) infusion pump Implantable infusion pumpBy Application Anti-infectives/antibiotics Enteral nutrition Specialty pharmaceuticals Total parenteral nutrition (TPN) Pain management Chemotherapy Hydration infusion pumpBy Type of Disease Diabetes CancerBy Geography North America Europe Asia RoWAbout UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated research, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Consumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients business needs.PMR stands committed to bringing more accuracy and speed to clients business decisions. From ready-to-purchase market research reports to customized research solutions, PMRs engagement models are highly flexible without compromising on its deep-seated research values.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA - Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.commedia@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
New Study Reveals Bladder Cancer - Opportunity Analysis and Forecasts to 2017 | Researchmoz

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Bladder Cancer - Opportunity Analysis and Forecasts to 2017" to its huge collection of research reports.The bladder cancer market has remained largely unchanged in the past 10-20 years. However, significant expansion is expected starting in 2016, with the introduction of several new therapies that are projected to fuel market growth. In addition, bladder cancer has a robust early-stage pipeline that will contribute to market growth beyond the forecast period of 2012-2017. Currently, the bladder cancer market is dominated by generic chemotherapy and immunotherapy.Though initially effective, toxicity and lack of clinical efficacy in improving overall survival have left the door open for more tolerable and effective drugs to be developed. In the past, bladder cancer has not been an area of focus for pharmaceutical companies, but that is rapidly changing as more companies focus on the bladder cancer market, recognizing the high level of unmet need and relatively clear regulatory path. During the forecast period, the market landscape will begin to change dramatically with the introduction of targeted immunotherapies. These drugs will provide much-needed alternatives to bladder cancer patients who have not benefitted from traditional treatments.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Scope- Overview of bladder cancer, including epidemiology, etiology, pathophysiology, symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment guidelines.- Annualized bladder cancer therapeutics market revenue, annual cost of therapy and treatment usage pattern data from 2012 and forecast for 5 years to 2017.- Key topics covered include strategic competitor assessment, market characterization, unmet needs, clinical trial mapping and implications for the bladder cancer therapeutics market.- Pipeline analysis: comprehensive data split across different phases, emerging novel trends under development, and detailed analysis of late-stage pipeline drugs.- Analysis of the current and future market competition in the global bladder cancer therapeutics market. Insightful review of the key industry drivers, restraints and challenges. Each trend is independently researched to provide qualitative analysis of its implications.Table of Contents1 Table of Contents1.1 List of Tables1.2 List of Figures2 Introduction2.1 Catalyst2.2 Related Reports2.3 Upcoming Related Reports3 Disease Overview3.1 Etiology and Pathophysiology3.1.1 Etiology3.1.2 Pathophysiology3.1.3 Clinical Staging3.2 Prognosis3.3 Quality of Life3.4 Symptoms3.5 Diagnosis4 Epidemiology4.1 Disease Background4.2 Risk Factors and Co-morbidities4.2.1 Smoking is the most significant risk factor for bladder cancer4.2.2 Up to 25% of male bladder cancer cases are due to occupational exposure to aromatic amines4.3 Global and Historical Trends4.3.1 Incidence, Mortality, and Five-Year Prevalence4.3.2 Relative Survival4.3.3 Disability-Adjusted Life Years and Years of Life Lost4.4 Forecast methodology4.4.1 Sources used4.4.2 Forecast assumptions and methods4.4.3 Sources not used4.5 Incident/Prevalent Cases of Bladder Cancer4.5.1 Incident Cases of Bladder Cancer4.5.2 Age-Specific Incident Cases of Bladder Cancer4.5.3 Sex-Specific Incident Cases of Bladder Cancer4.5.4 Age-Standardized Incidence Rates of Bladder Cancer4.5.5 Incident Cases of Bladder Cancer by Stage at Diagnosis4.5.6 Five-Year Prevalent Cases of Bladder Cancer4.6 Discussion4.6.1 Epidemiological Forecast Insight4.6.2 Limitations of the Analysis4.6.3 Strengths of the Analysis5 Current Treatment Options5.1 Overview5.2 Product Profiles- Major Brands5.2.1 Intravesical Bacillus Calmette-Guerin5.2.2 GemCis (Gemcitabine/Cisplatin)5.2.3 Mitomycin c5.2.4 Valstar (Valrubicin)5.2.5 Javlor (Vinfluinine Ditartrate)Make an Enquiry of this report @About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
High Cost of Lymphoma Treatment may Hamper the Growth of Lymphoma Treatments Market

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Lymphoma is a kind of blood cancer which occurs when B or T lymphocytes and leukocytes grow abnormally. In addition, it also occurs if these cells survive longer than their normal life cycle. Lymphoma generally occurs in lymph nodes, bone marrow, spleen, blood and other organs which form a part of the lymphatic system. Lymphoma is of two types namely hodgkin and non-hodgkin. Hodgkin lymphoma develops in the lymph nodes of the lymphatic system. Non-Hodgkin lymphoma is the most common type of lymphoma and develops in related tissues of the lymphatic system and lymph nodes.View Exclusive Global Strategic Business Report:The common symptoms of lymphoma are swelling of lymph nodes, fever, weight loss, night sweets, anorexia, itching, dyspnoea and fatigue. The common tests applied for the diagnosis of lymphoma are immunophenotyping, FISH (Fluorescence in Situ Hybridization) testing and flow cytometry. Radiation therapy, chemotherapy and monoclonal antibody therapy are performed on the patients suffering from lymphoma. Among all these treatment options, the most common method to treat lymphoma is chemotherapy.Since chemotherapy destroys the cancer cell by obstructing its division process, it acts as one of the key method for lymphoma treatment. These medicines travel throughout the body while during the course of medication. Various drugs that are used for the treatment of lymphoma include Adcertis (brentuximab), Arranon (nelarabine), Adriamycin (doxorubicin), Decadron (dexamethasone), Baycadron (dexamethasone), Deltasone (prednisone), Dexamethasone Intensol (dexamethasone), Dexpak Taperpak (dexamethasone) and Folotyn (pralatrexate). Other drugs used include Prednicot (prednisone), Roferon-A (interferon alfa-2a), Solurex (dexamethasone), Leukeran (chlorambucil), Zema Pak (dexamethasone), Velcade (bortezomib), Sterapred DS (prednisone), Thioplex (thiotepa), Velban (vinblastine) and Trexall (methotrexate).Rise in the incidence of lymphoma throughout the globe is expected to drive the growth of lymphoma treatments market. According to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, in 2012, around 700,000 people suffered from lymphoma in Canada alone. The government of various nations such as the U.S. and Europe has amplified their funding in R&D for the development of lymphoma treating drugs which would further augment the growth of lymphoma treatments market. Moreover, they have started many programs for patient awareness about lymphoma and its treatments.Despite all these advantages, various side effects of chemotherapy would hamper the growth of lymphoma treatments market. These side effects include hair loss, nausea, vomiting and fatigue. In addition, high cost of this treatment may also hamper the growth of lymphoma treatments market. Moreover, few nations such as the U.K are not providing reimbursement for every lymphoma treating drug which may also hamper its growth lymphoma treatments market.In 2013, North America accounted for the largest share of global lymphoma treatments market. This is due to the fact that most of the key players who are engaged in developing and manufacturing lymphoma treating drugs are domiciled in the region. In addition, favorable government funding in the region has also contributed heavily in capturing the largest revenue share. During the forecast period 2014 to 2020, Asia-Pacific is expected to grow at the highest CAGR owing to rising incidences of lymphoma in the countries such as China, Malaysia and India.Browse Research Report:In addition, increasing disposable income coupled with rising healthcare expenditure would further accentuate the growth of lymphoma treatments market in the region. Major players operating in lymphoma treatments market include Abbott Laboratories, Eli Lilly and Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, ABIOGEN PHARMA S.p.A., Johnson & Johnson, Aeterna Zentaris, Inc. and Merck & Co., Inc. among other significant players across the globe.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Contact UsTransparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Aasaanjobs, a platform for job seekers and employers.

Aasaanjobs - Better Jobs Better Lives.

Aasaanjobs is an online marketplace for entry-level and blue collar jobs headquartered in Mumbai. It is also a platform that enables recruiters and job seekers to interact seamlessly. Dinesh Goel, founder of Aasaanjobs recognized two recurring problems in the job market. First was restricted access to a trustworthy database of candidates in the entry level and blue collar job segments. Second was the unorganized hiring process. This prompted the IIT alumni Gaurav Toshniwal, Dinesh Goel, and Kunal Jadhav to explore and create a repository of data containing information about jobs and candidates in this segment.Aasaanjobs aim is to create a digital identity for job seekers in this disorganized market. This can be achieved through various technological products which the company offers and by helping the aspirants in fulfilling skilling needs as well as get a job, say Dinesh Goel.This companys two-way match making algorithm filters its database to only connect the candidates whose profiles and job expectations meet the clients requirements. It makes the entire process fast, effective and much convenient for job seekers and recruiters as well.Aasaanjobs has mobile apps for job seekers, partners and for employers. Each one is uniquely designed with easy to use interface which facilitates a smooth and frictionless job marketplace for all stakeholders involved. Talking about its website, for users, it is easy to understand and operate. This company is also working on making the website vernacular in order to cater to the diversity in language.This startup has raised fundings from Aspada, IDG and Inventus. The current round of funding is utilised to expand its presence in other cities like Bangalore, Chennai, and Kolkata. The funds are also used to build a sustainable, scalable product to effectively help the target audience.Wondering how aasaanjobs will survive in the market when its competitors are Naukri and Shine who are the top players in this segment? On this Dinesh Goel said Aasaanjobs USP makes his company to stand out from the crowd. Its innovative technology-backed solutions that solve the problem of recruitment in a number of ways. He stated that the startup offers a multilingual website to reach out to people with a diverse background as well as a WAP website to engage with candidates who are still using feature phones. It has also created as assessment module for candidates that can be accessed through both mobile and web platforms.Adding to its bouquet of services, AasaanJobs, introduces a unique hiring feature called 'The Interview Plan', which guarantees to provide only relevant candidates for employers to interview for any job profile. "The Interview Plan is a progressive approach towards upgrading the conventional recruitment process by automating it. The model is extremely efficient. It's like a wallet, in that the employer purchases certain credits (number of interviews) and uses them to hire multiple profiles and then recharges the same if required. Moreover, our massive network of 1500+ partners, comprising manpower agencies, colleges and training institutes, actively take up the mandates posted by different employers, enabling faster TATs," said VP, Sales and Marketing, Aasaanjobs, Siddharth Gupta.On 31st October, Aasaanjobs launched its latest service in IT recruitment as part of its plan to expand its verticals in job search and employment. This startup is providing job roles in IT sectors across multiple cities in India. The job profiles that are included under the new IT recruitment service are Java developer, Dot net developers, network engineers, hardware engineers, etc.Aasaanjobs.com is a platform where recruiters meet candidates. Our algorithms filter through our database to display only the candidates matching a recruiters job requirement, making the whole process quick, easy and convenient.Aasaanjobs Office: 022-44446666Unit No:4, B Wing, Krislon House, Opposite Marwah Center, Military Road, Off Saki Vihar Road, Mumbai - 400072
Global Data Center Network Infrastructure Industry Will Grow Steadily At A CAGR Of 4.74% During The Period 2016-2020

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Data Center Network Infrastructure Market 2016-2020" to its huge collection of research reports.Data centers are used to house an enterprise IT infrastructure. In data centers, networking is the process involved for interconnecting physical and network-based devices. It enables communication between the server and storage infrastructure for the transfer of data between each other, in an external network, or across the internet.Technavios analysts forecast the global data center network infrastructure market to grow at a CAGR of 4.74% during the period 2016-2020.Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global data center network infrastructure market for 2016-2020. To calculate the market size, the report considers the revenue obtained from components such as network switches, routers, storage networking and others (application delivery controller, WAN optimization, and firewall appliances).The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:AmericasAPACEMEATo Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Technavio's report, Global Data Center Network Infrastructure Market 2016-2020, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendorsArista NetworksBrocade CommunicationsCisco SystemsJuniper NetworksHPEDellOther prominent vendorsA10 NetworksAgema SystemsAllied TelesisArray NetworkAvago TechnologiesAvayaBlack Box Network ServicesCheck Point SoftwareCitrixEdgecore NetworksEricssonExtreme NetworksF5 networksFortinetFujitsuH3C GroupHuaweiLenovoMellanox TechnologiesMoxaNECNETGEARNokia (Alcatel-Lucent)OraclePalo Alto NetworksPenguin ComputingPLANET TechnologyPlexi NetworkPLUMgridQCT (Quanta Computer)QLogicRiverbed (Thoma Bravo)Silver PeakSuper Micro ComputerTelco SystemsMarket driverIncreasing transition to high-speed data center switching portsFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challengeHigher port cost and traditional networking flexibility challengesFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trendIncrease in installation of white-box infrastructureFor a full, detailed list, view our reportKey questions answered in this reportWhat will the market size be in 2020 and what will the growth rate be?What are the key market trends?What is driving this market?What are the challenges to market growth?Who are the key vendors in this market space?What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors?What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?Make an Enquiry of this report @About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Nuclear Waste Management to Become Crucial as Emerging Economies Increase their Existing Nuclear Capacity | Researchmoz.us

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Nuclear Waste Management Market By Waste Type (Low Level Waste, Intermediate Level Waste, High Level Waste) and By Nuclear Reactor Type (Boiling Water Reactors, Gas Cooled Reactors, Pressurized Water Reactors, Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors, and Others) - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth Trends, and Forecast 2016 - 2024" to its huge collection of research reports.This research study analyzes the nuclear waste management market in terms of revenue (US$ Mn). The nuclear waste management market has been segmented on the basis of waste type, nuclear reactor type, and geography. The regional segments have been further divided into 12 sub-segments that comprise nine countries which are major players in the global nuclear waste management market. For the research, 2015 has been taken as the base year while all forecasts have been given for the 20162024 period. Market data for all the segments has been provided at the regional as well as country-specific level for the 20142024 period. The report provides a broad competitive analysis of companies engaged in nuclear waste management services.The report also includes the key market dynamics such as drivers, restraints, and opportunities affecting the global nuclear waste management market. These market dynamics were analyzed in detail and are illustrated in the report with the help of supporting graphs and tables. The report also provides a comprehensive analysis of the global nuclear waste management market with the help of Porters Five Forces model. This analysis helps in understanding the five major forces that affect the market structure and profitability of the global nuclear waste management market. The forces analyzed are the bargaining power of buyers, bargaining power of suppliers, threat of new entrants, threat of substitutes, and degree of competition.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @The report provides detailed insights into the nuclear waste management business globally. There are currently numerous drivers for the nuclear waste management market. One of the most prominent drivers is the stringent norms and regulations to reduce harmful emissions globally, mandating higher investments in nuclear power projects. Apart from this, nuclear waste management market would benefit from several planned nuclear decommissioning projects. Market attractiveness analysis was carried out for the nuclear waste management market on the basis of geography. Market attractiveness was estimated on the basis of common parameters that directly impact the market in different regions.Growth in the market for nuclear waste management can be attributed to high focus on increasing energy requirements and achieving power supply targets. The market has received further impetus from rising environmental concerns to reduce harmful emissions. Regulations related to usage of efficient fuels and environmental concerns are building the next wave of nuclear waste management services. These regulations would have a significant impact on the nuclear waste management market. Currently, the growth potential for nuclear waste management market is in Europe, followed by Asia Pacific. Both Europe and Asia Pacific have more number of nuclear reactors and thereby, generate significant quantities of nuclear wastes. This would drive the market for nuclear waste management in the next few yearsThe nuclear waste management market has been segmented in terms of waste type, nuclear reactor type and geography. By waste type, the nuclear waste management market has been segmented into low level waste, intermediate level waste, and high level waste. By nuclear reactor type, the market has been segmented into boiling water reactors, gas cooled reactors, pressurized water reactors, pressurized heavy water reactors, and others. The nuclear waste management market was analyzed across four geographies: North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Rest of the World. Europe, held the largest market share (41.3%), followed by Asia Pacific (30.1%) in 2015. Rising awareness about the need for nuclear power and huge investments in nuclear power projects are the primary drivers for the nuclear waste management market in Europe. The market in Rest of the World experienced sluggish growth in 2015.Regional data has been provided for each sub-segment of the nuclear waste management market. Key market participants in the nuclear waste management market include Areva SA, Augean Plc, Bechtel Corporation, BHI Energy, Perma-Fix Environmental Services, Inc., Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Co., Stericycle, Inc., US Ecology, Inc., Veolia Environmental Services, and Waste Control Specialists, LLC.Nuclear Waste Management Market: By Waste Type- Low Level Waste- Intermediate Level Waste- High Level WasteNuclear Waste Management Market: By Nuclear Reactor- Boiling Water Reactors- Gas Cooled Reactors- Pressurized Water Reactors- Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors- OthersNuclear Waste Management Market: By Region- North America- U.S.- Canada- Mexico- Europe- France- Russia- Rest of Europe- Asia Pacific- China- Japan- Rest of Asia Pacific- Rest of the World- Argentina- South Africa- OthersMake an Enquiry of this report @About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
LNG Bunkering Market - Global Industry Analysis 2025

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The global LNG bunkering market is still in the initial phase of development. As a result, there are only a few notable players in this growing market. This market is capital intensive as building LNG bunkering terminals at trading ports requires significant capital investment. Moreover, port locations may act as an entry barrier for some companies, states a new report by Transparency Market Research (TMR). This is compounded by the fact that nearly all LNG suppliers offer standard fuel grades, leaving little room for achieving product differentiation. LNG bunkering companies usually enter into long-term LNG supply agreements with plant operators, thereby making it difficult for them to switch to any other LNG supplier for a fixed period of time.The consumption of LNG is restricted to a few ports. LNG producers are collaborating with ship operating companies to develop LNG bunkering facilities at major international ports. The bargaining power of suppliers is expected to be medium in the coming years owing to an increase in the supply of LNG as a bunker fuel in major shipping centers of the world. Some of the companies operating in the industry are: Harvey Gulf International Marine LLC, Gasnor AS, Korea Gas Corporation, Royal Dutch Shell plc, and Gazpromneft Marine Bunker LLC.Get Free PDF Research Brochure for more Professional and Technical Insights:Emphasis on Lower Emissions Drives Demand for LNG Bunkering FuelLNG bunkering is the only feasible option available that not only complies with MARPOL regulations but also meets the NOx emission control area (NECA) and sulfur emission control area (SECA) requirements. LNG fuel offers lower ship emissions as compared to traditional bunker fuels. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) also assists international ports in building the infrastructure for LNG bunkering.LNG is more economical than marine gas. Several new LNG plants are being constructed, which is creating a positive outlook for the market. The demand for LNG bunkering fuel is exceptionally high from offshore support vessels and ferries, says TMR. Since the exploration sector is growing, the consumption of LNG bunker fuel is also increasing.Lack of Bunkering Infrastructure Restricts Market GrowthLNG is supplied as a bunker fuel in a limited number of ports. LNG bunkering facilities are not even available in major ports of the world. Thus, the inadequate bunkering infrastructure restricts the adoption of LNG bunker fuels. Additionally, the bunkering infrastructure required for using MDO/MGO as marine fuel is already present in all major ports of the world. The availability of these fuel grades in all the bunkering ports of the world is expected to threaten the global LNG bunkering market. The IMO has enforced the energy efficiency design index, which sets minimum energy efficiency requirements for ships constructed after 2013. Since these ships are specifically designed to consume less marine fuel, the demand for bunker fuel is expected to slow down.The large bunker storage requirements in LNG fueled vessels require double the on-board space as compared to conventional diesel engine fuels. Many safety requirements need to be met while LNG bunkering is done. As LNG bunkering is still in its initial stages of development, companies have to spend significant amount of time and capital in training crew members. All these factors could considerably hamper the growth of the market.Expansion of ECAs Create New Growth Opportunities in LNG Bunkering MarketThe rising concerns regarding sulfur emissions are expected to result in a possible declaration of new ECAs. The Gulf of Mexico, Turkish Straits, Sea of Japan, and Strait of Malacca are anticipated to be declared as ECAs in the near future, states a TMR analyst. This is expected to propel the demand for LNG bunkering, creating new growth opportunities in the market.According to the report, the global market opportunity in LNG bunkering is expected to rise to US$11.77 bn by 2025 in terms of revenue. In terms of volume, the global LNG bunkering market is projected to cross the 22,500 kilo tons mark by 2025. On the basis of end use, the tankers segment is expected to lead and account for 33.1% of the market by 2025. Europe, followed by Asia Pacific is expected to lead in the global LMG bunkering market by 2025.This information is based on the findings of a report published by Transparency Market Research titled LNG Bunkering Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2014 - 2025.The global LNG bunkering market is segmented as follows:End-Users:Container VesselsTankers VesselsBulk & General Cargo VesselsFerries and OSVGeography:North AmericaEuropeAsia PacificRest of the WorldTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Transparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Global Utility Infrastructure Security Market Size, Shares, Growth, Demands and Forecast 2015-2019

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Albany, NY, Dec 09: Utility infrastructure constitutes a major part of critical infrastructure. The number of critical infrastructures worldwide would see a marked increase during the forecast period. These include oil and gas manufacturing sites, water distribution and sanitation sites, nuclear facilities, and energy maintenance sites. These infrastructures are considered high-value construction projects and, therefore, security has gained paramount importance among various countries because of a considerable increase in cyber-attacks over the years. Increased online criminal activity has forced various countries to impose strict regulations to secure their critical infrastructures.Physical security involves securing an organization's data, hardware, network, and programs from external threats; it helps organizations preserve their brand value and protects them from external threats such as burglary, data theft, and terrorism. Government organizations and enterprises worldwide are increasingly adopting a variety of hardware devices and software to ensure physical security of their business-critical data. This stems from increased criminal activity in recent years.The Global Utility Infrastructure Security market to grow at a CAGR of 4.53 percent over the period 2014-2019. Cybersecurity focuses on protecting an organization's network from hackers and other network intruders. It has gained increased traction among government institutions and enterprises, which involve transmission of huge volumes of confidential data; these data could be the financial data of an organization.Get a Sample Research PDF with TOC:This report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the Global Utility Infrastructure Security market for the period 2015-2019. To calculate the market size, the report considers the revenue generated from the sale of the following applications:- Surveillance systems- Access control systems- Perimeter intrusion prevention systems- Security software- Cloud-based servicesThe Global Utility Infrastructure Security market is segmented based on the following:- End-user: Oil and Gas and Electricity- Products: Physical Security and CybersecurityTechNavio's report, Global Utility Infrastructure Security Market 2015-2019, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. It also covers the market landscape and lists growth prospects. The report includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key Regions- APAC- Europe- Latin America- MEA- North AmericaKey Vendors- Axis Communications- Bosch Security Systems- Honeywell Security- Lockheed Martin- NICE Systems- Schneider ElectricEnquiry at:Key Questions Answered in this Report- What will the market size be in 2019 and what will the growth rate be?- What are the key market trends?- What is driving this market?- What are the challenges to market growth?- Who are the key vendors in this market space?- What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors?- What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?ResearchMoz is the worlds fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMozs service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators.Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-621-2074Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn at:
Customizing Solutions Becomes Norm for UPS Manufacturers in India as Industries Struggle to Bridge Power Gap

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "India Regenerative Uninterruptible Power Supply Market, By Product (Regenerative Converter, Sinusoidal PWM, Matrix Converter), Technology (Spindle Drives, Decanter Centrifuges, Elevators, Others), and Application (Pharmaceutical Industry, Food & Beverage Industry, Steel Industries, Oil & Gas, Mining Industries, Paper Mills, Others) -Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth Trends, and Forecast 2016 - 2024" to its huge collection of research reports.This research study analyzes the market for regenerative uninterruptible power supply (UPS) in India in terms of revenue (US$ Mn). The regenerative UPS market in India has been segmented on the basis of product type, technology type (braking application), application, and geography. The geographical segmentation includes four zones  major players in the India regenerative UPS market. The report features a detailed regional segmentation with market growth forecasts for the 20162024 period (major players in the India regenerative UPS market). For the research, 2014 has been taken as the base year, data for 2015 is estimated, while all forecasts have been given for the period from 2016 to 2024. Market data for all the segments has been provided at the zonal level from 2016 to 2024. The report provides a broad competitive analysis of companies engaged in the regenerative UPS business in India. The report also includes the key market dynamics such as drivers, restraints, and opportunities affecting the regenerative UPS market. These market dynamics were analyzed in detail and are illustrated in the report with the help of supporting graphs and tables. The report also provides a comprehensive analysis of the regenerative UPS market in India with the help of Porters Five Forces model. The analysis helps in understanding the five major forces that affect the structure and profitability of the market. The forces analyzed are bargaining power of buyers, bargaining power of suppliers, threat of new entrants, threat of substitutes, and degree of competition.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @The high-level analysis in the report provides detailed insights into the regenerative UPS business in India. There are currently numerous drivers of the market. The most prominent drivers include growing industrial sector, rising demand for power, high industrial power deficit, and integrated services provided by regenerative UPS suppliers. Growth dynamics of Indias manufacturing industry by various zones are also considered for market analysis. Market attractiveness analysis was carried out for the regenerative UPS market in India on the basis of application. Market attractiveness was estimated on the basis of common parameters that directly impact the market in different zones.The regenerative UPS market in India has been segmented into four zones: East Zone, West Zone, North Zone, and South Zone. Regional data has been provided for each sub-segment of the regenerative UPS market in India. Key players in the market include Emerson Network Power (India) Pvt. Ltd., Riello PCI India Pvt. Ltd., Yaskawa Electric India Pvt. Ltd., Hitachi Hi-Rel Power Electronics Pvt. Ltd., Sew-Eurodrive India Pvt. Ltd., Bonfiglioli Transmissions Pvt. Ltd., and ARVI Systems & Controls Pvt. Ltd. The report provides an overview of these companies, followed by their financial details, business strategies, and recent developments.Regenerative Uninterruptible Power Supply Market: By Product- Regenerative Converter- Sinusoidal PWM- Matrix ConverterRegenerative Uninterruptible Power Supply Market: By Technology- Spindle Drives- Decanter Centrifuges- Elevators- OthersRegenerative Uninterruptible Power Supply Market: By Application- Pharmaceutical Industry- Food & Beverage Industry- Steel Industries- Oil & Gas- Mining Industries- Paper Mills- OthersRegenerative Uninterruptible Power Supply Market: By Region- East Zone- West Zone- North Zone- South ZoneMake an Enquiry of this report @About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Global Travel Vaccines Market to grow at a CAGR of 7.78% over Forecast period 2015-2019

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Albany, NY, Dec 09: Vaccines are biological preparations that provide immunity to a particular disease by stimulating the immune system. The vaccines can be administered orally, intra-nasally, or through injections in both adults and children. Government bodies such as the CDC and the NHS have mandated the vaccination of emigrants traveling to disease-prone areas to prevent the spread of infectious agents through them.The Global Travel Vaccines market to grow at a CAGR of 7.78 percent over the period 2014-2019. Based on composition, the Global Travel Vaccines market is divided into two segments: Mono Vaccines and Combination Vaccines. This report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the Global Travel Vaccines market for the period 2015-2019. To calculate the market size, the report considers revenue generated through the sale of various vaccines administered to actively immunize against meningococcal disease, Japanese encephalitis, rabies, typhoid, yellow fever, hepatitis B, and hepatitis A.Get a Sample Research PDF with TOC:The report also presents the vendor landscape and a corresponding detailed analysis of the top vendors in the Global Travel Vaccines market. In addition, it discusses the major drivers that influence the growth of the market. It also outlines the challenges faced by the vendors and the market at large, as well as the key trends that are emerging in the market.TechNavio's report, Global Travel Vaccines Market 2015-2019, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the Americas, and the EMEA and APAC regions; it also covers the Global Travel Vaccines market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key Regions- Americas- APAC- EMEAKey Vendors- GlaxoSmithKline- Merck & Co.- Novartis- SanofiOther Prominent Vendors- Beijing Minhai Biotechnology- Bharat Biotech- Bio Med- Crucell- CSL- Dynavax Technologies- Emergent Biosolutions- Green Signal Bio Pharma- Hualan Biological Engineering- Imunoloski Zavod- Indian Immunologicals- Janssen Pharmaceuticals..............Enquiry at:Key Questions Answered in this Report- What will the market size be in 2019 and what will the growth rate be?- What are the key market trends?- What is driving this market?- What are the challenges to market growth?- Who are the key vendors in this market space?- What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors?- What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?ResearchMoz is the worlds fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMozs service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators.Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-621-2074Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn at:
Competitor Analysis: Biosimilar & Biosuperior Therapeutic Antibodies 2016 | Now Available at Researchmoz.us

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Competitor Analysis: Biosimilar & Biosuperior Therapeutic Antibodies - 2016 Update" to its huge collection of research reports.This Competitive Intelligence report about Biosimilar & Biosuperior Therapeutic Antibodies updates the competitive landscape of biosimilar therapeutic antibodies as of May 2016. The report evaluates the the first wave of biosimilar recombinant monoclonal antibodies in comparison with the corresponding originator antibodies and biosuperior antibodies against the same target. The report also describes the next wave of potential biosimilar versions of therapeutic antibodies loosing patent protection in the time frame of 2019  2023. The report specifically lists for each target the branded products with their 2015 sales and up-side indications in development, as well as biosuperior and biosimilar antibody drug candidates in development.The report includes a compilation of marketed, approved and currently active projects in research and development of biosimilar and biosuperior therapeutic antibodies against commercially and clinically validated targets relevant for the first wave of biosimilar antibodies (VEGF, TNF, Her2, CD20, EGF-R). Relevant first wave originator therapeutic antibodies are Humira, Enbrel, Remicade, Avastin, Lucentis, Eylea, Herceptin, Rituxan/MabThera and Erbitux. Second generation therapeutic antibodies against these targets such as Symponi, Cimzia, Cyramza, Perjeta, Arrzera are also subject of biosimilar activities.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @The report also addresses the slowly emerging second wave of biosimilar antibody activities against originator therapeutic antibodies such as abatacept, alemtuzumab, denosumab, eculizumab, omalizumab, pavilizumab, tocilizumab, and ustekinumab.Competitor projects are listed in a tabular format providing information on:- Drug Codes,- Target/Mechanism of Action,- Class of Compound,- Company,- Product Category,- Indication,- R&D Stage and- additional comments with a hyperlink leading to the source of information.About Competitor Analysis Series:The Competitor Analysis Series delivers NO-FRILLS, but concise information about the pipeline of R&D projects for targets, diseases, technologies and companies at low prices. The information is provided in a tabular format and fully referenced.Make an Enquiry of this report @About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Dyebath Additives Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2016 - 2024

Dyebath Additives Market

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Dyebath Additives Market: OverviewDyebath additives are chemical compounds which are added to dyebaths to enhance color fastness, fabric scouring, dye leveling & dispersing and brightness. Electrolytes, chelating agents, reducing agents, optical brighteners and dispersing agents are types of dyebath additives which are used in the textile industry. Sodium chloride, sodium sulfate, EDTA (ethylene diamine tetra acetic acid) and sodium dithionite are the commonly used dyebath additives used in textile dyeing processes. Mordants are used in several dyeing processes to increase the uptake of dye by the fiber, making mordants a category of dyebath additives.Hardness caused due to the presence of heavy metal ions in dyeing chemicals hinder the textile dyeing and cleaning process. These heavy metal ions can reduce the dye adhesion and cleaning effectiveness of the fabric. Improper dye adhesion causes fading of garments. Dyebath additives such as chelating agents increase the color fastness of dyes on textiles. Additionally, the presence of metal ions result in precipitation of dye pigments which causes variations in dye shades. Chelating agents and electrolytes help in restricting dye precipitation. Dyebath additives therefore help in proper dye leveling, dispersion of dye pigments and dye adhesion.View Exclusive Global Strategic Business Report:Versene, a brand of chelating agents, produced by the Dow Chemical Company, deactivates the metal ions thereby preventing their undesirable reactions in textile processing stages. The use of Versene in silk increases soap effectiveness and in synthetic fibers, it enables fabric scouring. In case of direct dyes and vat dyes, chelating agents used in dyebath additives enhance the optical brightness of the fabrics.Dyebath Additives Market: Trends and OpportunitiesThe growth of the fashion industry involving the extensive use of textured and dyed fabrics is a major consumer of dyebath additives. Furthermore, the increasing demand for dyed fabrics required in automotive and domestic upholstery & furnishing is responsible for the growth of dyebath additives market. The exponentially increasing world population is driving the growth of the textile industry. Fabric dyeing to cater to this increasing demand of clothes is a prominent end use of dyebath additives. Furthermore, use of dyebath additives in paper and leather industry is fuelling the growth of this market. However, the increasing environmental pollution due to release of certain dyes such as reactive dyes is expected to impede the growth of this market in the coming years. The growing population and GDP of countries, owing to the economic recovery are expected to open new areas of opportunity for the dyebath additives market. Additionally, the growing paper based dyes and specialty dyes are expected to exponentially increase the end uses for dyebath additives within the forecast period.Dyebath Additives Market: Regional OutlookChina and India dominate the textile dyeing market. These countries are large scale consumers of dyebath additives. Germany and Switzerland are major consumers of dyebath additives due to the flourishing textile dyeing industry in these countries. Additionally, countries such as Turkey, Brazil, Japan, Thailand, the Republic of Korea and the U.S. are the major export markets for dyebath additives. Asia Pacific is expected to be the largest and the fastest growing market for textile dyes due to the high volume of textiles traded in the near future.Dyebath Additives Market: Companies Mentioned in the ReportThe major companies manufacturing dyebath additives include Amitech Inc, Apollo Chemical Corp, Burlington Chemical Co, Chimista Specialty Chemicals, LLC, Dyetech, Inc and Dow Chemical Co, Huntsman International LLC, Intersac Group and Piedmont Chemical Industries Inc and Neochem Technologies among others.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insights for decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.TMRs data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With extensive research and analysis capabilities, TMR employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques to develop distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.Contact UsTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
New Survey on PharmaPoint: Heart Failure - Global Drug Forecast and Market Analysis to 2025 | Researchmoz

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "PharmaPoint: Heart Failure - Global Drug Forecast and Market Analysis to 2025" to its huge collection of research reports.GlobalData estimates sales of Heart Failure (HF) therapeutics to be approximately $3.2B across the 7MM in 2015, encompassing the US, 5EU, and Japan. The HF market will grow at a strong CAGR of 13.5% over the forecast period, reaching sales of $11.5B by 2025. The 7MM chronic HF market size in 2015 was $3.1B, and is expected to increase to $10.1B by 2025 at a CAGR of 12.7%. The US was the largest market for chronic HF therapies, contributing 61.2% of total sales in the base year. GlobalData expects uptake of Novartis Entresto to be the strongest driver of the chronic HF and total HF markets in the 7MM, reaching peak sales of $5.9B in 2022. The acute HF market is expected to increase from just $188.1M in 2015 to $1.5B in 2025, at a CAGR of 23.0%. Japan dominated the acute HF market in the base year, 2015, accounting for 86.0% of market share. However, with the launch of several acute HF add-on therapies in the forecast period, the US will take over as the acute HF market leader, contributing 68.7% of sales to the acute HF market by 2025.HighlightsKey Questions Answered- The level of unmet needs in the HF market is significantly high. Will the pipeline drugs fulfil these unmet needs of the market? Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) interviewed by GlobalData provide insights and highlight opportunities for drug developers.- The HF market is crowded with cheap, generic, me-too drugs, making it a particularly difficult market to penetrate. The current late-stage pipeline consists of several chronic HF therapies, and three novel acute HF therapies. How will the market be impacted by the launch of these drugs? Which of the marketed and pipeline drugs will have the highest peak sales at the highest CAGR, and why?- Will Entresto become the new standard-of-care in the chronic HF market? What are the main barriers a new therapy faces when entering the HF market?To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Key Findings- The major drivers for growth across the 7MM in the HF market during the forecast period will be the launch of the first-in-class angiotensin receptor blocker/neprilysin inhibitor (ARNi), Entresto, marketed by Novartis, as well as the launches of two acute HF therapies, Cardiorentis ularitide and Novartis serelaxin.- KOLs interviewed by GlobalData opined that Entresto has potential to replace ACE inhibitors as the first-line therapy for HF, however they expect this to occur towards the end of the forecast period.- In other interviews, KOLs highlighted that the greatest unmet need in the HF disease space is the need to develop efficacious therapies for HF with preserved ejection fraction (HF-PEF) and acute HF.- High cost of new drugs and the reluctance of cardiologists to prescribe these new drugs are the major barriers for growth in the HF market during the forecast period.Scope- Overview of HF, both chronic and acute, including epidemiology, etiology, pathophysiology, symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment guidelines.- Annualized HF therapeutics market revenue, annual cost of therapy and treatment usage pattern data from 2015 and forecast for ten years to 2025.- Key topics covered include strategic competitor assessment, market characterization, unmet needs, clinical trial mapping and implications for the chronic and acute HF therapeutics markets.- Pipeline analysis: comprehensive data split across different phases, emerging novel trends under development, and detailed analysis of late-stage pipeline drugs.- Analysis of the current and future market competition in the global HF therapeutics market. Insightful review of the key industry drivers, restraints and challenges. Each trend is independently researched to provide qualitative analysis of its implications.Reasons to buyThe report will enable you to -- Develop and design your in-licensing and out-licensing strategies through a review of pipeline products and technologies, and by identifying the companies with the most robust pipeline. Additionally a list of acquisition targets included in the pipeline product company list.- Develop business strategies by understanding the trends shaping and driving the HF therapeutics market.- Drive revenues by understanding the key trends, innovative products and technologies, market segments, and companies likely to impact the HF therapeutics market in future.- Formulate effective sales and marketing strategies by understanding the competitive landscape and by analysing the performance of various competitors.- Identify emerging players with potentially strong product portfolios and create effective counter-strategies to gain a competitive advantage.- Track drug sales in the 7MM HF therapeutics market from 2015-2025.- Organize your sales and marketing efforts by identifying the market categories and segments that present maximum opportunities for consolidations, investments and strategic partnerships.Make an Enquiry of this report @About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Osteoporosis Drugs Market is Anticipated to Increase to US$14.8 Billion by 2022 End

Osteoporosis Drugs Market, Osteoporosis Drugs, Osteoporosis Drug Market, Osteoporosis Drug

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The global osteoporosis drugs market is witnessing significant growth due to rising geriatric population and changing lifestyles impinging bone health. Prevalence of osteoporosis is high among people aged 60 years and above. Moreover, increasing the prevalence of osteoporosis in postmenopausal women, growing awareness about osteoporotic care, and increasing investment in drug discovery and development are also driving the growth of the market. However, there are various side effects and complications associated with osteoporosis drugs such as heartburn, irritable bowel syndrome, nausea, and ulcers in the stomach or esophagus. Furthermore, patent expiration of osteoporosis drugs also inhibits the growth of the market.The osteoporosis drugs market is anticipated to grow from an estimated US$11,226.1 Mn by the end of 2015 to account for US$14,786.7 Mn by 2022 at a CAGR of 4.0% during the forecast period.Request to view Sample Report @The global osteoporosis drugs market is estimated to be valued at US$11,226.1 Mn by the end of 2015 and is expected to expand at a CAGR of 4.0% from 2014 to 2022, to account for US$14,786.7 Mn by 2022.In North America, the prevalence of osteoporosis is high primarily due to increasing geriatric population, growing obesity, and rising prevalence of lifestyle associated diseases in the region. According to the National Osteoporosis Foundation, in 2013, approximately 54 million people in the U.S. aged 50 years and above were affected by osteoporosis and low bone mass. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in the U.S., approximately 250,000 hip fractures are associated with osteoporosis.In Europe, increasing aging population, changing lifestyles, and increasing consumer awareness about osteoporosis care are driving the growth of the osteoporosis drug market. According to the International Osteoporosis Foundation, approximately 5.5 million men and 22 million women suffered from osteoporosis in 2010. Moreover, according to International Osteoporosis Foundation, approximately 27.5 million people in Europe suffered from osteoporosis in 2010 and the number is expected to reach 33.9 Mn by 2030.However, the growth of osteoporosis market in Asia Pacific is much due to rising geriatric population and changing lifestyles in the region. Osteoporotic patients have a higher risk of hip fractures, owing to a major cause of morbidity and mortality. According to the International Osteoporosis Foundation, by 2050, approximately 50% of the worlds osteoporosis hip fractures would occur in women in Asia. In addition, according to a study on Epidemiology in Osteoporosis in Japan by the National Centre for Biotechnology Information, in 2011, approximately 15 million people suffered from osteoporosis in Japan.Request to view Table of Content @Eli Lilly and Company, F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Ltd., Merck & Co. Inc., Novartis AG, Amgen, Inc., Actavis plc, Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd., and Pfizer, Inc. are some of the major players of osteoporosis drugs market.The osteoporosis drugs market is segmented as follows:By drug type Bisphosphonates Parathyroid Hormone Therapy Drugs Calcitonin Selective Estrogen Receptors Modulators (SERMs) RANK Ligand InhibitorsBy geography North Americao The U.S. Europeo Germanyo Franceo The U.K. Asiao Chinao Japano India Rest of the World (RoW)About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated research, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Consumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients business needs.PMR stands committed to bringing more accuracy and speed to clients business decisions. From ready-to-purchase market research reports to customized research solutions, PMRs engagement models are highly flexible without compromising on its deep-seated research values.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA - Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.commedia@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
OPEC's agreement last week to cut oil production is creating an opportunity for U.S. oil producers to get crude into the hands of very valuable customers: Asian crude buyers.

The members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries have vowed to cut a collective 1.2 million barrels a day and are asking other oil producers to reduce output by 558,000 barrels a day.

The long-awaited output limits are expected to make it possible for U.S. producers to ply the expensive, complicated route to Asia from the United States. The stage was set when the United States lifted a 40-year-old ban on exporting American crude last December. Since then, much of the oil has gone to Europe, but now industry heavyweights are attempting to extend those exports to Asia, a region whose oil consumption is growing.

"It is still in the testing phase. The export ban was lifted last last year, and since then, we're seeing this evolution of the U.S. export industry, as there's this period of exploration to figure out how best to get these exports out, how to make this work economically," said Matt Smith, director of commodity research at tanker-tracking firm ClipperData.

This week, Reuters reported that British oil giant BP (London Stock Exchange: BP.-GB) was using its global shipping and trading network to embark upon an ambitious four-month pilot project of sorts: charting a 16,000-nautical-mile sea route involving seven tankers and a number of transfers to profitably get crude oil from Texas to Asia.

The largest crude carriers can't dock in U.S. ports, so shippers have to spend more time  and money  to transfer cargoes to bigger ships at offshore facilities. According to Reuters' analysis of shipping data, the route went like this:

BP used tankers capable of carrying 800,000 barrels to transport crude to much larger tankers offshore

Those bigger tankers sailed around South Africa  they're too big to pass the Panama Canal  to Malaysia, where their oil was distributed across Asia.

Additional transfers brought the cargo to Thailand and Australia .

Story continues

The operation involved about 3 million barrels of oil worth about $150 million, a small fraction of the global crude trade. However, the conditions are falling into place to make more shipments like this worth the investment.

Tanker rates are expected to fall as OPEC output reductions leave the market supplied with more vessel capacity than it needs. Those lower rates will offset the added costs of getting U.S. crude off the Gulf coast on smaller ships and transferring it to large vessels.

"If OPEC actually institutes their cuts, there's no doubt that tanker rates are going to fall, especially" rates for VLCC rates," said Andrew Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates.

The United States has built up its infrastructure to bring crude to the Gulf in recent years, Lipow said. That makes it easier for a big integrated oil company like BP to buy up U.S. crude from a number of sources and lump it into a big shipment.

Another key is the difference in price  known as the spread  between U.S. crude and other, typically more expensive international benchmarks such as Brent and Dubai crude. All of those prices have increased following OPEC's production cut, but the less U.S. crude rises relative to Brent and Dubai crude, the more attractive it becomes to overseas buyers.

"Recently, due to the OPEC decision, that has blown that spread out again and that will only further serve to incentivize higher exports," Smith said.

It's difficult to say just how wide the spread needs to be, because U.S. crude exports have been rising even when the spread is fairly narrow, he added.

U.S. oil is also attractive because it is easier to refine than other crude oil, analysts said.





More efficient drilling methods attained during the more than two-year downturn will also make it possible for U.S. producers to compete on price, according to John Kilduff, founding partner at energy hedge fund Again Capital.

"Given how you keep driving these costs down in some of the more prolific shale plays, it doesn't matter what the spread is," he said. "If there's enough meat in the profit margin, they're going to send it no matter what the spread is," he said.

There are still challenges ahead. On Friday, Reuters reported that top exporter Saudi Arabia would meet its obligations to reduce output by cutting its shipments to the United States and Europe more deeply than its shipments to Asia. That shows the Saudis are determined to defend their market share in Asia.

Still, analysts see an opening for more high-quality U.S. crude to make its way to the region.

"With these cuts," Kilduff said, "it's a big opening for more U.S. oil to go out that way."





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Shavers Market is Expected to Witness Significant Growth of US$30 Billion by 2020 : PMR

Shavers Market, Shavers, personal grooming products, personal grooming products, men personal grooming products

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Focus on personal grooming is one of the key drivers for the global shavers market. Emphasis on clean-shaven look among men in urban areas is creating demand for shaving products.The global shavers market is also fuelled by the increasing trend of body hair removal among women. Shaving is an economical method of removing body hair as compared to waxing. PMR estimates this trend to fuel the shavers market during the forecast period.Request to view Table of Content @The global shavers market is anticipated to expand at a CAGR of 7.9% during the period 2015-2020 and reach a valuation of US$ 30 Bn by 2020.One of the key restraints for the shavers market is the recent trend of sporting facial hair. Whether it is a moustache, stubble or full-grown beard, men are expressing themselves through their facial hair. PMR opines that this trend can adversely impact the prospects of the shavers market during the forecast period. Low adoption of shavers by women in developing countries can also pose challenges for the global shavers market.On the basis of product type, the global shavers market is broadly segmented into electric and non-electric. Non-electric shavers account for the bulk of the demand for shavers globally. The non-electric shaver segment had a share of 73.6% in 2014, which is anticipated to increase to 79.9% by 2020.The non-electric shaver is further sub segmented into blades & accessories, safety razors, and cartridge razors. Blades & accessories dominated the non-electric shaver segment in 2014, and it is anticipated to remain the most dominant segment through 2020 as well. PMR estimates blades and accessories sub-segment to be worth US$ 10.8 Bn by 2020.Electric shavers accounted for a market share of 26.4% in 2014, however, due to the high cost of electric shavers, it is anticipated that this segment will lose some of its market share to non-electric segment.On the basis of end-users, the global shavers market is broadly segmented into male and female. Shaving products are predominantly used by males, and this segment was worth US$ 16.1 Bn in 2014. PMR estimates this segment to expand at a CAGR of 7.5% through 2020 and reach a valuation of US$ 24.6 Bn. The female segment, on the other hand, is projected to expand at a CAGR of 9.8%. This is due to the growing inclination among females towards shaving various body parts, such as legs and armpits.Latin America to Witness Highest CAGR through 2020Latin America is anticipated to be the most lucrative region for the global shavers market in terms of compound annual growth rate. The shavers market in Latin America is anticipated to expand at a CAGR of 17% through 2020 and reach a valuation of US$ 10.8 Bn. Latin Americas market share, which was around 22% in 2014, is anticipated to increase to 36.2% by 2020. Robust demand for shaving products from Brazil is driving the shavers market in Latin America.Europe is the most lucrative market for the global shavers market in terms of market value. The shavers market in Europe is anticipated to be worth US$ 8.1 Bn by 2020. Other key regions include North America and Asia Pacific.On the basis of distribution channel, the shavers market is segmented into supermarkets and hypermarkets, online retail, and others (drugstores, beauty specialists, and department stores). The others segment is the dominant distribution channel for shavers market and it accounted for 68.7% market share in 2014. Owing to the proliferation of smartphones and attractive offers, the online retail segment is anticipated to witness the fastest CAGR of 12.5%.Request to view Sample Report @The key players in the global shavers market include Panasonic Corporation, Conair Corporation, Koninklijke Philips N.V., The Procter & Gamble Company, Energizer Holdings, Inc., Spectrum Brands Holdings, Inc., Wahl Clipper Corporation, Super-Max Group, and SOCIETE BIC.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated research, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Consumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients business needs.PMR stands committed to bringing more accuracy and speed to clients business decisions. From ready-to-purchase market research reports to customized research solutions, PMRs engagement models are highly flexible without compromising on its deep-seated research values.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA - Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.commedia@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Cable Management System Market (Cable Tray, Cable Ladder, Raceway, Cable Trunking, Cable Conduit, Cable Connector) - Worldwide Manufacturing Investigation, Size, Trends Forecast 2024

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This report on the global cable management system market provides analysis for the period from 2014 to 2024, wherein 2015 is the base year and the years from 2016 to 2024 are the forecast period. Data for 2014 has been included as historical information. The report covers all the prevalent trends and technologies playing a major role in the growth of the cable management systems market over the forecast period from 2016 to 2024.It also highlights the various drivers, restraints, and opportunities expected to influence the markets growth during the said period. The study provides a holistic perspective on market growth throughout the forecast period in terms of revenue estimates (in US$ Bn) across different geographies, which include North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), Middle East & Africa (MEA), and Latin America (LATAM).The presence of a high-capacity network necessitates cable management and protection. The selection of an appropriate cable management system for routing is a major step in enhancing the network performance in the long term. The cable management system should offer the maximum protection and routing capabilities while also enabling fast deployment in current and upcoming network infrastructures. Other factors, such as ease of reengineering, expansion capabilities, and flexibility for future installations, play an acute role in ensuring network profitability.Read more :Today, companies offer various systems to protect and route cabling from entrance to termination points. A vast range of cable-management products has been introduced in recent years, providing the user with a greater choice of designs, materials, and installation methods. North America dominates the overall market for cable management systems globally, owing to surging industrialization in this region. Within the market for construction applications in North America, the commercial segment has witnessed large investments toward the construction of commercial structures such as hotels and offices.This research report provides in-depth analysis of the global cable management systems market on the basis of product, material, and end-use industry. The cable management systems market based on product includes cable tray, cable ladder, raceway, cable trunking, cable conduit, cable connector, cable gland, cable chain & reel, cable lug & tools, cable duct, and others (cable tags and markers). On the basis of material, the market is segmented into metallic and non-metallic. The cable management system end-use industry segments are IT & telecom, manufacturing, energy & utility, health care, logistics & transportation, mining, oil & gas, and construction.In terms of geographical regions, the report segments the global cable management systems market into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa (MEA), and Latin America; the regions are analyzed in terms of revenue generation. The report provides cross-sectional analysis of the global cable management systems market in terms of market estimates and forecasts for all segments across different geographic regions.The report also includes competitive profiling of major players engaged in the development of cable management systems. The major business strategies adopted by these players, their market positioning, and their recent developments have also been identified in the research report. This report also provides market positioning analysis of the major players in the cable management systems market based on their 2015 revenues.Some of the major players profiled in the report include Schneider Electric SE, Legrand SA, Thomas & Betts Corporation (ABB Ltd.), HellermannTyton Group PLC, TE Connectivity Ltd., Marco Cable Management, Chatsworth Products, Inc., Cooper Wiring Devices (Eaton Corporation), Allied Tube & Conduit (Atkore International Holdings Ltd), Niedax Group, Vantrunk International, Panduit Corp., Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc., and Enduro Composites, IncAbout UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Geothermal Power Generation Market - Technology Analysis & Industry Insights 2024

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Plants making use of this technology, pass the water that gets heated by the earths surface through a heat exchanger. Thus, binary cycle plants enable the efficient use of geothermal resources and will open many new doors of opportunities in the market.APAC Accounts for the Highest Installed Capacity of Geothermal Power PlantsThe APAC region has the highest installed capacity in the world, followed by North America. The market in the APAC region is expected to grow at a 7.28% CAGR between 2013 and 2019. The market in the Rest of the World looks promising, states a TMR analyst, owing to capacity additions and likelihood of future investments. The availability of high temperature resources in these areas is also a reason why the market is expected boom in the coming years.On the basis of technology, the global geothermal power generation market was led by the flash plants segment in 2012. 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A2P SMS Market for BFSI Manufacturing to Display 8% CAGR 2023 appreciations to Increasing Employment Rate

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The Switzerland A2P SMS Market for BFSI Industry report provides the analysis of the Switzerland A2P SMS market for BFSI industry for the period of 2013  2023, where in period from 2015 to 2023 is forecast period and 2014 is considered as the base year. The report precisely covers all the major trends and technologies playing a major role in the BFSI A2P SMS market growth over the forecast period. It also highlights the drivers, restraints and opportunities expected to influence the market growth during the said period. The study provides the holistic perspective on the BFSI A2P SMS market growth, throughout the above forecast period in terms of revenue (in US$ Mn) in Switzerland.Get More Information:The market overview section of the report demonstrates the market dynamics and trends such as drivers, restraints and opportunities that influence the current nature and future status of this market. Impact analysis of key trends has also been provided for every driver, restraint and opportunity, in order to give a thorough analysis of the overall competitive scenario of the market. Moreover, the report provides the overview of various strategies and the winning imperatives of the key players in the Switzerland A2P SMS market for BFSI industry and analyzes their behavior in the prevailing market dynamics.The report segments the Switzerland A2P SMS market for BFSI industry, on the basis of applications into pushed content services, customer relationship management (CRM), promotional campaigns, interactive services, and other (inquiry related) services. Thus, the report provides in-depth cross segment analysis for the Switzerland A2P SMS market for BFSI industry and classifies it into various levels, thereby providing valuable insights on macro as well as micro level.Browse The Press Release:GMS, Dialogue Communications Ltd., Infobip Ltd., FORTYTWO Group Ltd., Silverstreet BV, Symsoft AB, Beepsend AB, Ogangi Corporation, Syniverse Technologies, LLC, AMD Telecom S.A., and mBlox, Inc. are some of the few major players operating within the Switzerland A2P SMS market, which have been profiled in this study. Details such as financials, business strategies, recent developments, and other such strategic information pertaining to these players has been duly provided as part of company profiling. Below is the list of acronyms used in the report:o A2P  Application- to- persono CRM  Customer Relationship Managemento OECD  Organization for Economic Cooperation and Developmento SDFB  Swiss Design Institute for Banking and Financeo FINMA  Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authorityo FDPA  Federal Data Protection Acto FMIA  Financial Market Infrastructure Acto FIDLEG  Swiss Financial Services Acto FINIG  Financial Institution LawAbout UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
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Advancement in technology and new inventions have largely contributed to the steady growth of the global inertial sensors market. Taking into account the size, share, growth, and development of the overall market, the research report analyses the numerous segments and provides sharp insight on the same. The inertial sensors industry is highly diversified and fragmented and each section has been scrutinized to identify the trends, top performing segments, opportunities, barriers, and drivers during the forecast period of 2012 to 2018.The report also lists the leading companies operating in this space and focuses in detail on individual market contribution, current products and those in the pipeline, strategies, and initiatives.PDF Sample For Latest Advancements and Technological breakthroughs is @It also covers the value chain, product and market life cycle, new product launches, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and Porters five forces analysis.Overview of the inertial sensors marketOn the basis of type, the market for inertial sensors can be segmented into Attitude Heading and Reference Systems (AHRS), Inertial Navigation Systems/Inertial Navigation Units (INUs), and Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs). The various components of inertial sensors include accelerometers, gyroscopes, encoders, magnetic sensor, and GPS. The sensors have a wide range of applications across numerous commercial and noncommercial sectors such as transport, agriculture, healthcare, devices and machinery (commercial), air force, navy and military (defense), and aerospace.Being small, accurate and affordable, the market for inertial sensors has grown at a substantial pace. Their growing use in consumer electronics has significantly impacted the growth. Devices such as tablets, mobile phones, gaming stations, remote controls, and laptops use a combination of accelerometers, magnetometers, and gyroscopes. Growing awareness regarding personal health and rising popularity of healthcare devices such as pacemakers and patient monitoring devices has led to increased demand for inertial sensors in medicine. In motor vehicles, the sensors are used in car safety systems, and the booming global automotive industry has had a direct impact on the demand for sensors.The market is poised for future growth due to mounting use of inertial sensors in aerospace and military sectors in the Asia-Pacific region. Extensive use of its artificial intelligence to reach a location with no digital interference is a major reason for its application in these two fields.Even though leading players such as Kongsberg Gruppen and Trimble Navigation Ltd. have been constantly increasing production, the expanding competitive landscape has propelled the inertial sensors market.Companies mentioned in the market research reportThe research report features a host of companies, both established and new entrants, which operate in the inertial sensors market. These include Atlantic Inertial Systems INC., Advanced Navigation, Epson Electronics America, Inc., Bosch Group GmbH, IXBLUE, Heidenhain Corporation, VectorNav Technologies, Freescale Semiconductors, Shanghai Maixun Hangyi Inertia Technology Co., Ltd., ST Microelectronics, and Systron Donner Inertial.Market Insight can be Viewed @This market research report analyzes the following geographies:North AmericaAsia PacificEuropeRest of the WorldThis report gives you access to decisive data such as:Market growth driversFactors limiting market growthCurrent market trendsMarket structureMarket projections for the coming yearsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Transparency Market Research90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Renewable Energy In Mining Industry - Analysis, Size, Share 2016 - 2024

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The mining industry traditionally relies on the conventional fossil based sources of energy such as diesel, oil and natural gas to fulfill the energy demand. The industry is now competing with the increased prices of the fuel which leads the operator to operate on less operating margins. The mining industry is expanding its wings into new remote locations to meet the emerging demand of the energy. Typically use of large diesel equipments on mining site resulting in a dependency on the diesel fuel. As maximum locations for mining are in remote areas making it difficult to provide grid connectivity, increasing its reliability on on-site generation.The emerging demand for the energy and volatility in the market price of conventional fuel are the main drivers for the renewable energy in mining industry. Additional cost of setting equipments for generation from renewable sources and low capacity utilization factor are the major constraints for the industry. Allocation of new mines, innovative technologies used in locating resources and rising demand for resources bring new market opportunities for the new players to invest in the market.Get Free PDF Research Brochure for more Professional and Technical Insights:Renewable Energy In Mining Industry: SegmentationThe renewable energy in mining industry can be segmented on the basis of technology used for power generation on site. Majorly solar and wind technology can be used on mining sites to provide power. Solar power can be directly converted into electricity through photovoltaic cells and concentrated solar power technique. Today photovoltaic cells provide 0.1% of the total global electricity production. Photovoltaic is a commercially reliable and viable technology with a huge potential for the long term growth across all the world regions.Photovoltaic technology is further segmented into crystalline silicone, thin film and concentrator technologies. Crystalline silicone technology contributes about 85-90% to the global market for solar. Crystalline silicone is further divided into multi-crystalline and single-crystalline. Thin film is further divided into amorphous & micromorph silicone, cooper-indium diselenide, cadmium telluride and copper indium gallium diselenide. Concentrator technology uses optical concentrator system which focuses solar radiation onto high efficiency solar cells. This technology is under development phase.Large wind farms consist of hundreds of wind turbines connected to the power transmission network. The earths surface heats and cools unequally resulting in the creation of atmospheric pressure zones that make air to flow from high pressure zone to low pressure zone. This wind is used to rotate the turbines of the large wind mills for power generation. The amount of generation depends on the velocity of the wind where the wind farm is installed. Wind turbines are majorly classified into horizontal axis and vertical axis turbines. A horizontal axis turbine has its blade rotating on the axis parallel to the ground whereas vertical axis has its blade rotating on the axis perpendicular to the ground. The cut in speed for the wind turbines is in the range of 10-16 kmph and is defined as the minimum speed at which the blades will rotate and generate usable power.Renewable Energy In Mining Industry: Region-wise OutlookIn the Asia Pacific region China and India are the major countries using above stated technologies for power generation. In the European region Germany, France and United Kingdom are the major users of the solar and wind technologies in power generation. In the North American region the United States and Canada are the major countries generating power from solar and wind.Key players in providing renewable energy in mining industry are Gamesha, E.ON, Vestas, Siemens, Iberdrola Renewables, General Electric, NextEra, Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd., First Solar and Hanwha SolarOne among others.Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Transparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Intelligent Energy Storage Systems - Internet of Things (IoT) Technology benefitted the Industry - Analysis 2024

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Intelligent energy storage systems are a smart network of various energy storage units in a complex that help users enhance their total energy savings. They accept the input from multiple energy storage units and render them usable as just one unified energy storage. This also allows the various individual energy storage units to function separately without any interference from the central intelligent energy storage unit. This provides multiple energy saving streams for users, which is the main reason why intelligent energy storage systems are increasing in demand.The report on the intelligent energy storage systems market examines the market from all angles, shedding light on its competitive dynamics, segments, and the key trends influencing the growth trajectory of the market in the near future. The performance of the intelligent energy storage systems market in various regions is profiled to provide a complete overview of the regional dynamics of the overall market. Major players in the market are also profiled to alert users of the best opportunities for collaboration as well as their major competitors.Get Free PDF Research Brochure for more Professional and Technical Insights:Intelligent Energy Storage Systems Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe major driver propelling the global intelligent energy storage systems market is the increasing awareness about the importance of reducing the consumption of electricity. Since renewable energy has not yet been commercialized to the optimum level, conservation of the available energy has emerged as the best way to deal with the current energy shortage. This is likely to remain an influential factor in the development of the intelligent energy storage systems market in the near future.Decline in the prices of batteries and other necessary components has also boosted the availability of intelligent energy storage systems in the last few years. Technological advancement in battery technology has also given a boost to the market.The increasing demand for smart infrastructure and smart electronics and the rising incorporation of various Internet of Things (IoT) technologies have benefitted the intelligent energy storage systems market. Users are becoming increasingly aware about the availability and benefits of smart energy management systems due to the increasing popularity of the IoT, which has helped increase the demand for intelligent energy storage systems.Intelligent energy storage systems are also scalable, which adds to their appeal. Individual users can install intelligent energy storage systems in their residence, industries can apply them to manufacturing plants or even across the supply chain, and utilities can incorporate them in power grids. This has given a boost to the adoption of intelligent energy storage systems and will continue to be a major driver for the market in the coming years.Intelligent Energy Storage Systems Market: Geographical OverviewNorth America is the leading region in the global intelligent energy storage systems market. The early incorporation of the IoT in North America, particularly the U.S., has helped the market prosper in this region. The establishment of smart grid infrastructure in the U.S. has also helped the intelligent energy storage systems market.Europe and Asia Pacific are the other major regional markets for intelligent energy storage systems. The dynamic economies in Asia Pacific are expected to come to the fore in the intelligent energy storage systems market in the coming years, with governments in countries such as China and India proactively attempting to encourage energy conservation initiatives.Key players in the global intelligent energy storage systems market include Alevo, Beacon Power, ABB, Green Charge Networks, azeti Networks, NEC Energy Solutions, and CODA Energy.Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Transparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Stretch and Shrink Film Market: Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE) Material to be the Leading Segment

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Stretch and Shrink Film Market: SnapshotThe global stretch and shrink films market was valued at US$14.1 bn in 2015 and is projected to reach US$21.1 bn by 2024. The sales revenue is expected to rise at a CAGR of 5.2% during the forecast period, owing to the increased demand for packaged foods and beverages. Over the last few years, the industry has witnessed the emergence of multiple players operating globally. However, Transparency Market Research has found that there is an increasing shift in dynamics towards market consolidation.Download PDF Brochure for this Report:TMR Predicts Limited Growth for Stretch and Shrink Films in Food and Beverages SectorBy product type, the stretch and shrink films market is led by shrink films and the segment is estimated to be most preferred product type throughout the forecast period owing to the rising applications of light-weight packaging films.The low density polyethylene (LDPE) material segment is the leading contributor to the growth of stretch and shrink films market. However, it is projected to lose significant market share to other materials such as PVC, linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE), and polypropylene.Based on end use, the food and beverages sector leads the stretch and shrink films market but is expected to lose market share by the end of the forecast period owing to the mature nature of the industry when it comes to the use of stretch and shrink films.North America, Europe to Lose Market Share to Asia Pacific by 2024On the basis of geography, the global stretch and shrink films market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa (MEA).Asia Pacific is expected to lead the market throughout the forecast period and also register the fastest growth. The stretch and shrink films markets in North America and Europe are rather mature and are expected to lose a significant share of the global market to Asia Pacific. Asia Pacific offers new opportunities for players engaged in manufacturing stretch and shrink films as the region has been witnessing an increase in investments in the manufacturing sector, rapid pace of urbanization, and rising disposal income. Key players operating in developed stretch and shrink films markets such as North America and Europe are focusing on APAC in order to multiply their revenue by optimally utilizing the cheap resources available in India and several ASEAN countries.Browse Press Release:Europe is expected to witness sluggish growth over the forecast period. Nevertheless, Germany and France are expected to continue contributing to the overall sales of stretch and shrink films in the region. The presence of organized retail outlets in the region is the key factor driving sales in Europe.In MEA, the sales of stretch and shrink films are expected to witness moderate growth during the forecast period, with most of the demand stemming from GCC countries.Key participants in the stretch and shrink film market include Anchor Packaging, Berry Plastics, AEP Industries Inc., Bemis Company Inc., Dow Chemical Company, E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Co (DuPont), FUJI Seal International Inc, and Intertape Polymer Group Inc.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Learn details of the Advances in Portable Oxygen Concentrators Market Forecast and Segments, 2016-2026

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According to a latest report published by Future Market Insights titled Portable Oxygen Concentrators Market: Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment, 20162026, the global portable oxygen concentrators market is anticipated to register a CAGR of 7.8% between 2016 and 2026 in terms of value.Portable oxygen concentrators supply oxygen to patients suffering from respiratory diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases. The concentrator separates nitrogen and oxygen from air in the environment and then supplies 95% pure oxygen to patients. POCs are easy to carry as they are smaller in size compared to stationary concentrators. Moreover, POCs are of great use to mountaineers and travellers in places where oxygen is inadequate.According to Future Market Insights, the global portable oxygen concentrators market is likely to witness substantial growth owing to increasing prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, growing consumer awareness for oxygen therapy devices, and a changing consumer lifestyle. Further, adoption of new technologies in medical devices, increasing government expenditure towards healthcare and medical devices development and production, and a rise in investment by companies manufacturing homecare products is likely to boost the growth of the global portable oxygen concentrators market during the forecast period (2016  2026). However, high product costs and stringent FDA regulations pertaining to medical devices are some of the factors likely to restrain the growth of the global portable oxygen concentrators market during the forecast period.Request Free Report Sample@Segmentation highlightsThe global portable oxygen concentrators market has been segmented on the basis of Product into Continuous Flow Portable Oxygen Concentrator and Pulse Flow Portable Oxygen Concentrator; and on the basis of End User into Hospitals, Homecare, Ambulatory Surgical Centres, and Travel Agents.The Pulse Flow Portable Oxygen Concentrator product segment is projected to be valued at US$ 1890.3 Mn by 2026, registering a CAGR of 9.0% over the forecast periodThe Homecare end user segment is projected to be valued at US$ 1820.5 Mn by 2026 and is likely to witness a CAGR of 9.0% over the forecast periodRegional market projectionsThe global portable oxygen concentrators market is segmented into the seven key regions of North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, APEJ, MEA, and Japan. Growing geriatric population consequently increasing the requirement for homecare settings particularly in high income countries with increasing number of patients suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases is expected to result in significant growth of the North America portable oxygen concentrators market. The North America region is expected to report incremental opportunity of US$ 781.7 Mn between 2016 and 2026. Evolution of health insurance system is expected to contribute largely to the revenue generation potential and attractiveness of the Eastern Europe portable oxygen concentrators market. Rising adoption of portable oxygen concentrators in chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases patients for better care is expected to fuel revenue growth in the Japan portable oxygen concentrators market over the forecast period. High product cost of portable oxygen concentrators is expected to hamper sustainable adoption in the APEJ region. Lack of product awareness is expected to hamper market growth in the APEJ and MEA regions.Send An Enquiry@Vendor insightsThe report profiles some of the top companies operating in the global portable oxygen concentrators market such as Koninklijke Philips N.V., Inogen Inc., Chart Industries Inc., Resmed Inc., Invacare Corporation, Drive DeVilbiss Healthcare, Precision Medical Inc., Besco Medical Co. Ltd., Oxus America, Inc. (Oxus), Foshan Keyhub Electronic Industries Co. Ltd., O2 Concepts LLC, and GCE Group. Key strategies adopted by leading market players in the global portable oxygen concentrators market include product approvals and commercialisation, efficient entry into markets in emerging countries, and adoption of latest innovative technologies in healthcare, thus strengthening regional proficiency and addressing customer needs effectively. New product launches, product innovation, and geographical expansion are anticipated to form the core of these strategies during the forecast period.About Us  Future Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centers in the U.S. and India.Contact Us:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way,Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage,New York 10989,United StatesTel: +1-347-918-3531Fax: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Global Drilling Machines Market Boosted By High Demand For Fabricated Metal Products

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The latest report, titled Global Drilling Machines Market 2016-2020, is a holistic snapshot of the current scenario that manufacturers and distributors of drilling machines are following. The report encapsulates all drivers, restraints, opportunities, and trends currently influencing the global drilling machines market as well as a forecast of what the market is likely to be till 2020.According to the report, the global drilling machines market is expected to expand at a healthy 5.7% CAGR within a forecast period from 2016 to 2020. Listed in the report are the many drivers that are collectively responsible for this growth rate. The primary driver among these is the growing demand for fabricated metal products. The industries of construction, automotive, and machine parts manufacturing are the core end users demanding a greater proportion of fabricated metal, and the current positive growth rate they are showing is reflecting directly on the global drilling machines market.However, the global drilling machines market is being held back by the downswing in European demands for manufacturing. The recent economic meltdown in Europe had dealt a massive blow to the overall demand for machine tools, thereby cutting down their manufacturing considerably. While the European economy is currently recuperating, the demand available for the global drilling machines market is still not at a positive rate from this region. One key trend that the report discusses in details is the ratio between the use of high speed steel tools and carbide tools.For Sample Copy, click here:The advancements in technology in the global drilling machines market are also allowing a greater scope of applications for modern drills. They can be used on tougher surfaces that previously were difficult to drill through with conventional drill bits.The report elaborately discusses the global drilling machines market based on its regional segmentation. The key regions explained within this report include the Americas, the EMEA, and Asia Pacific. The report also compares the scope of growth in the global drilling machines market among the various regions as connected to their economic positions and rate of improvement. It takes into account, for instance, the current rate of industrial evolution in Asia Pacific which is a promising region for the expansion of many industry verticals.The key players operating within the global drilling machines market currently, include DATRON, DMTG, DMG MORI, and SMTCL. Apart from them, the market also includes other prominent vendors also mentioned in the list, including Cameron Micro Drill Presses, Ernst Lenz Maschinenbau, Fehlmann, Fives Landis, Forma, Gate Machinery International, Hsin Geeli Hardware Enterprise, Kaufman, LTF, Microlution, Minitool, MTI, Roku, Scantool, Taiwan Winnerstech Machinery, Tongtai Machine & Tool, and Yamazaki Mazak.To order report Call Toll Free: 866-997-4948 or send an email on sales@marketresearchreports.bizMarketResearchReports.biz supports your business intelligence needs with over 100,000 market research reports, company profiles, data books, and regional market data sheets in its repository. Our document database is updated by the hour, which means that you always have access to fresh data spanning over 300 industries and their sub-segments.State Tower90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948(USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
Atmospheric Water Generator Market - Global Industry Analysis 2023

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Atmospheric water generation refers to the technique of obtaining water of various purity grades from the atmosphere. Atmospheric water generation has risen in demand rapidly in the last few years owing to the steady fall in the availability of fresh water. Atmospheric changes caused by global climate change have resulted in average temperatures rising all over the world, leading to a decline in the amount of fresh water available to humans for residential as well as industrial purposes. This is expected to continue in the coming years, with the per capita availability of water expected to drop steadily in the coming years. Rising awareness regarding the ill effects of these factors has helped boost the global atmospheric water generation market.Atmospheric water generation is primarily done in two ways: cooling condensation and wet desiccation. Of these, cooling condensation is by far the largest segment of the global atmospheric water generator market. Cooling condensation systems function by concentrating humid air and cooling it down to temperatures that turn the water vapor into dew. The ease of use of this system and its high efficiency have made it the preferred system in the global atmospheric water generator market.Get Free PDF Research Brochure for more Professional and Technical Insights:On the other hand, wet desiccation atmospheric water generators utilize hygroscopic compounds to soak up water from the air, and then separate the water from the compound to acquire pure water. Various substances, including brine, reactive lithium halides, and silica gel, can be used in wet desiccation atmospheric water generators. Though demand for wet desiccation systems is rising, the global atmospheric water generator market is expected to be thoroughly dominated by the cooling condensation segment in the coming years.Global Atmospheric Water Generator Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe major driver propelling the global atmospheric water generator market is the rising acknowledgment of the adverse effects of climate change on global availability of freshwater. Human activities, such as rapid industrialization and urbanization, have also had a part to play in the exacerbation of global climate change. As a result, several governments around the world have shown a keen interest in establishing atmospheric water generation infrastructure for both residential and commercial needs. The easy operation of atmospheric water generators and their high output ratio means that widespread residential application of atmospheric water generators is feasible, which could ameliorate the problem of water shortage significantly.Despite the dominance of cooling condensation systems in the global atmospheric water generator market, the wet desiccation segment is expected to enjoy rising demand in the coming years. The major reason for this is that cooling condensation systems require high amounts of electricity, which can entail yet more damage to the environment in countries that havent yet utilized renewable sources to their full capacity. The lower power requirement of wet desiccation systems will thus propel the segment in the coming years, aided by R&D into improving the performance of substances used to soak up water. This remains a highly lucrative research avenue for players in the atmospheric water generator market.The preexisting utilization of water desalination as a useful means of acquiring water from the environment is a major restraint on the atmospheric water generator market. However, the cost advantage and higher efficiency of advanced atmospheric water generators will help the market for the latter overtake the water desalination market in the near future.Global Atmospheric Water Generator Market: Regional OverviewThe dynamic industrial sector in developing Asia Pacific countries, allied to the rampant urbanization seen in the region, has played a major part in propelling the global atmospheric water generator market. The rising need for fresh water will keep this regional market among the leaders in the global atmospheric water generator market. Along with Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa is also expected to emerge as a major player in the global market. The drastic water scarcity in this region and the high costs of establishing large-scale desalination plants will ensure steady demand for atmospheric water generation from this region.Major players operating in the global atmospheric water generator market include Saisons Technocom Pvt. Ltd., Dew Point Manufacturing, WaterMaker India Pvt. Ltd., Island Sky Corporation, Atlantis Solar, Air2Water LLC, etc.Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Transparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Concerns Over Shielding Aircrafts To Boost Construction Of Military Aircraft Hangars

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The publication is titled, Global Military Aircraft Hangars Market 20162020. The report is an overview of the prevalent trends and the present scenario, historical growth trajectory, and future prospects of the global military aircraft hangars market. It further presents an analysis of the elements that are expected to inhibit or boost the growth of the market. A brief evaluation of the competitive landscape and the shares, key marketing strategies, and products of the companies operating in the market has also been offered in the report.According to the report, the global military aircraft hangars market is expected to register 3% CAGR from 2016 to 2020. A military aircraft hangar refers to a secure building that shelters unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), helicopters, and aircraft. These aircraft hangers are constructed using concrete and metals. The global military aircraft hangars market is expected to be driven by the development of military infrastructure in remote islands. The demand for aircraft hangars is likely to intensify as they are the prime resource to develop, operate, strategize, and maintain a fleet of combat aircrafts.Numerous countries across the globe are focusing on developing military units and aircraft hangars in remote areas as it is strategically important for the army during combat and war situations. For instance, since the advent of World War II, the United States Department of Defense has built military infrastructures in remote areas to protect themselves during emergencies. Furthermore, the Indian government has built military hangars and base in Assumption island at Seychelles to gain advantage for maritime and defense purposes in West Africa.For Sample Copy, click here:The report further states that the global market for military aircraft hangars market is expected to witness a significant growth over the forthcoming years owing to the construction of aircraft hangars in museums for public display. One of the prime purposes of buildings hangar museums is to encourage the public to join the armed forces by elucidating the military capabilities before them. However, the high initial costs and costs associated with the maintenance of the hangars in the military bases is anticipated to threat the progress of the market.Based on product, the global military aircraft hangars has been bifurcated into fixed installation and portable installation. Between these two, fixed installation accounted for the leading share in 2015 and is expected to maintain a lead until 2020 owing to the growing need to shield military aircraft from direct sunlight and severe weather changes.Geographically, the market has been classified into Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Asia Pacific, and the Americas. EMEA led the market in 2015 and is expected to maintain a dominance in the market over the forecast period. This growth can be attributed to the geopolitical situation in the region, rising terrorist activities, and concerns over maritime security. Some of the leading companies manufacturing military aircraft hangars are Rubb Buildings, DIUK ARCHES, Contrack Watts, Alaska Structures, and AECOM.To order report Call Toll Free: 866-997-4948 or send an email on sales@marketresearchreports.bizMarketResearchReports.biz supports your business intelligence needs with over 100,000 market research reports, company profiles, data books, and regional market data sheets in its repository. Our document database is updated by the hour, which means that you always have access to fresh data spanning over 300 industries and their sub-segments.State Tower90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948(USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
Global Mulch Film Market  Size, Share, Growth, Segment, Trends and Forecast, 2015  2021

Global Mulch Film Market

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Mulch Film Market (Clear/Transparent, Black, Colored and Degradable) Analysis: Global Industry Perspective, Comprehensive Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Segment, Trends and Forecast, 2015  2021Global Mulch Film Market to reach USD 4.2 Billion by 2021, growing at a CAGR of 6.3% during 2016-2021.The report covers forecast and analysis for the mulch film market on a global and regional level. The study provides historic data of 2015 along with a forecast from 2016 to 2021 based on revenue (USD Billion). The study includes drivers and restraints for the mulch film market along with the impact they have on the demand over the forecast period. Additionally, the report includes the study of opportunities available in the mulch film market on a global level.Request Sample Report:In order to give the users of this report a comprehensive view on the mulch film, we have included a detailed competitive scenario and Type portfolio of key vendors. To understand the competitive landscape in the market, an analysis of Porters Five Forces model for the mulch film market has also been included. The study encompasses a market attractiveness analysis, wherein Type segments are benchmarked based on their market size, growth rate, and general attractiveness.The study provides a decisive view on the mulch film market by segmenting the market based on types. All the types have been analyzed based on present and future trends and the market is estimated from 2015 to 2021. Key type segments covered under this study include clear/transparent, black, colored and degradable. The regional segmentation includes the current and forecast demand for North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Middle East and Africa with its further bifurcation into major countries including U.S. Germany, France, UK, China, Japan, India, and Brazil. This segmentation includes demand for mulch film based on individual applications in all the regions and countries.Browse detail report at:The report covers detailed competitive outlook including the market share and company profiles of the key participants operating in the global market. Key players profiled in the report include BASF SE, British Polythene Industries PLC, AEP Industries Inc. and Armando Alvarez Group, Britton Group, ExxonMobil Chemical, Ab Rani Plast Oy, Plastika Kritis S.A., Group Barbier, Britton Group, Kuraray Group, The Dow Chemical Company, Trioplast AB and Novamont S.p.A.This report segments the global mulch film market as follows:Global Mulch Film Market: Application Segment AnalysisClear/TransparentBlackColoredDegradableGlobal Mulch Film Market: Regional Segment AnalysisRead Report TOC:North AmericaU.S.EuropeUKFranceGermanyAsia PacificChinaJapanIndiaLatin AmericaBrazilMiddle East & AfricaAbout A to Z ResearchA to Z Research is a single destination for all the industry, company and country reports. We feature large repository of latest industry reports, leading and niche company profiles, and market statistics released by reputed private publishers and public organizations. A to Z Research is the comprehensive collection of market intelligence products and services available on air. We have market research reports from number of leading publishers and update our collection daily to provide our clients with the instant online access to our database. With access to this database, our clients will be able to benefit from expert insights on global industries, products, and market trends.Contact US3422 SW 15 Street,Suit #8138,Deerfield Beach,Florida 33442, USATel: +1-386-310-3803GMTTel: +49-322 210 92714USA/Canada Toll Free No.1-855-465-465Email: martin@atozresearch.comWebsite:
Impact of Existing and Emerging North America Outbound Medical Tourism Services Market Trends And Forecast 2016-2026

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According to a new report published by Future Market Insights titled Outbound Medical Tourism Services Market: North America Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment, 20162026, the North America outbound medical tourism services market is expected to reach a market valuation of US$ 15.53 Bn by 2016 end and this is likely to increase to US$ 150.36 Bn by 2026.According to Future Market Insights, factors such as a large ageing baby boomer population, large uninsured population, and better technology and wider treatment options are expected to drive the revenue growth of the North America outbound medical tourism services market over the forecast period. Economic factors such as rising rate of health insurance premiums, high cost of medical treatments in the U.S., and parallel tourism with medical treatment are expected to boost the growth of the North America outbound medical tourism services market between 2016 and 2026. The other factors impacting the North America outbound medical tourism services market are long waiting time for specialist appointments in the U.S. and increasing preference for non-conventional treatment options. The demand for cosmetic correction procedures and dental treatments has been significantly high in the U.S. market in recent years, making North America the most lucrative regional market for outbound medical tourism services. According to the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, the U.S. was the largest market for cosmetic procedures in 2015.Request Free Report Sample@Lack of effective follow-up care on returning home, rampant medical malpractices in medical tourism destinations, proliferation of superbugs in medical tourism destinations, problems associated with language barriers, and privacy concerns are some of the challenges anticipated to restrict revenue growth of the North America outbound medical tourism services market over the forecast period.Segmentation highlightsThe North America outbound medical tourism services market is segmented into the following therapeutic applications  Cosmetic Surgery Treatment, Dental Treatment, Cardiovascular Treatment, Orthopaedic Treatment, Cancer Treatment, Fertility Treatment, Weight Loss Treatment, Spinal Surgery Treatment, Neurology Treatment, and Other General Treatment.The Cosmetic Surgery Treatment segment is estimated to be valued at US$ 3,760.9 Mn by 2016 endThe Cancer Treatment segment is anticipated to register a CAGR of 22.0% over the forecast periodThe Orthopaedic Treatment segment is estimated to create absolute $ opportunity of US$ 1,658.9 Mn in 2017 over 2016Regional forecastThe North America outbound medical tourism services market is segmented into the two top countries of U.S and Canada. U.S. is projected to occupy a major share in the North America outbound medical tourism services market in terms of value. The U.S market is anticipated to be valued at US$ 14.98 Bn by the end of 2016. In terms of value, U.S. is expected to be the dominant regional market by 2026 end and is expected to register a CAGR of 25.7% over the forecast period. Canada is expected to have comparatively less market potential for outbound medical tourism services, registering a CAGR of 18.1% over the forecast period.Send An Enquiry@Vendor insightsThe report profiles some of the top companies operating in the North America outbound medical tourism services market. Leading market players featured in the report are Apollo Hospital Enterprise Limited, Bumrungrad International Hospital, KPJ Healthcare Berhad, Christus Muguerza Hospital, WorldMed Assist, Mednamaste, and Global Medical Tourism Inc. Major market players are adopting strategies such as market expansion and strategic alliances to maintain their market share. Some of these companies are also adopting strategies such as backward integration to support their core business of medical tourism. Companies are offering services such as insurance and financing for medical tourism and are looking to expand their global footprint by enhancing their foreign customer base.About Us  Future Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centers in the U.S. and India.Contact Us:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way,Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage,New York 10989,United StatesTel: +1-347-918-3531Fax: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Elastomeric Coatings Market: Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecasts 20162024

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Elastomeric comes from the term an elastomer. Elastomer can be defined as a polymer having viscosity along with elasticity and fragile inter-molecular forces. It is a rubber-like polymer that shows its elasticity property at the time of loading. It is also one of the coatings used in roof coating. It is widely used for the purpose of repairing and to extend the life of the roof or the surface on which it is applied. Heating and cooling of roof surfaces cause cracks and weakening of the surface. Thus, elastomeric coating expands and contracts, resulting in an extraordinary protection in any season throughout the year.Request Free Sample Report @On the basis of end-user, the global elastomeric coatings market is segmented as industrial, textile, marine, and others. Based on the technology used, the global market is segmented as water-borne and solvent-borne coatings. On the basis of composition, the global market is segmented as acrylic, silicone, polyurethane, and butyl. Of which, acrylic, silicone, and polyurethane segments are the most dominating segments in the elastomeric coatings market in the building & construction industry. These types of compositions vary irrespective to the technical specification. On the basis of application, the global elastomeric coatings market is further segmented as floor coating, roof coating, wall coating, and others.Increasing building and constructional projects, high elasticity, crack fixing ability, reliable waterproofing feature, and extraordinary qualities of elastomeric coatings compared to conventional coating methods are some of the factors driving the growth of the global elastomeric coatings market. In addition, the increasing demand for energy-efficient cool roof concept may boost the elastomeric coatings market in the near future. Increasing population and advancements in new technologies related to the coatings may impact the growth the elastomeric coatings market in a positive way. Moreover, growing awareness of elastomeric coating process in the construction sector, fairly priced, easy handling, and reliable performance are the leading growth factors driving ht global elastomeric coatings market around the world.Request Report TOC (Table of Contents) @North America is leading player in the global elastomeric coatings market. High demand in Asia Pacific is anticipated to be the major growth driver of elastomeric coatings market. In addition, increased industrial production of elastomeric coatings of raw materials in China also boosts the growth of the market in Asia Pacific. Furthermore, Europe is anticipated to witness a steady growth owing to the stringent government regulations over VOC emissions from coatings and saturated end-user markets. The Middle East and Africa is expected to experience considerable growth in the elastomeric coatings market in the near future.Some of the major plays dominating the elastomeric coatings market are Henry Company, The Dow Chemical Company, Nippon Paints, The Sherwin-Williams Company, BASF SE, PPG Industries, Inc., The Valspar Corporation, Clariant AG, Jotun A/S, and Dulux Australia. Other key players influencing the global market are Rodda Paints, 3M, Univar Inc., BEHR Process Corporation, Progressive paints, and Axalta Coating Systems LLC.Browse detail report @Elastomeric Coatings Market: Regional Segment AnalysisNorth AmericaU.S.EuropeUKFranceGermanyAsia PacificChinaJapanIndiaLatin AmericaBrazilMiddle East and AfricaVisit Our Blog :About UsZion Market Research is an obligated company. We create futuristic, cutting edge, informative reports ranging from industry reports, company reports to country reports. We provide our clients not only with market statistics unveiled by avowed private publishers and public organizations but also with vogue and newest industry reports along with pre-eminent and niche company profiles. Our database of market research reports comprises a wide variety of reports from cardinal industries. Our database is been updated constantly in order to fulfill our clients with prompt and direct online access to our database. Keeping in mind the clients needs, we have included expert insights on global industries, products, and market trends in this database. Last but not the least, we make it our duty to ensure the success of clients connected to usafter allif you do well, a little of the light shines on us.Contact US:Zion Market Research4283, Express Lane,Suite 634-143,Sarasota, Florida 34249, United StatesTel: +49-322 210 92714USA/Canada Toll-Free No.1-855-465-4651Email: sales@zionmarketresearch.comWebsite:
Now Available Global Logistics Outsourcing Market Forecast And Growth 2014-2020

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Logistics outsourcing, most commonly known as third-party logistics is a process or operation of sub-contracting industrial functions like cross-docking, inventory keeping, warehousing and transportation to a third party or supply chain management provider. Third party logistics providers include raw material suppliers, distributors and other value-added service providers. These services are generally integrated and used together to provide end-user convenience. The decision for outsourcing logistics by a parent company is generally dependent on company size, complication of logistics and relative economic benefits of outsourcing.Logistics outsourcing includes contracting of material management, supply chain management, distribution management, shipment packaging and channel management. E-business web portals and stores are in extensive need of on-clock dispatch and delivery services offered by outsourced logistics providers. The advantages associated with the logistics outsourcing market are  improvement of suppliers capability due to the use of information technology, specialization of operation, focus on core competencies and uniform growth. However, lack of monitoring control over logistics and risks associated with vendor reliability are some of the drawbacks of this market.Request Free Report Sample@Regions across the globe with an attractive logistics outsourcing market, in terms of contract logistics, include North America and Southeast Asia. RoW (Rest of the World) is showing growth in inter-regional logistics. Major factors driving the development of logistics outsourcing market are globalization, time-proportional economy, presence of virtual organizations, improved customer awareness, strategic concerns to achieve more flexibility and better IT infrastructural support. On the other hand, loss of logistics, poor transportation, local protection regulations and lack of post-outsourcing measurements are some of the factors hampering growth of this market.The global logistics outsourcing market is segmented on the basis of service type, transport media used and geography. The market can vary in service type as simple service, combined service, consulting service and value-added service. On the basis of transport media used to handle logistics, it can be classified into air freight, ocean carriers, railways and trucking. The market can be categorised on the basis of geography into North America, Latin America, Asia-Pacific, Japan, Western Europe, Eastern Europe and Middle East & Africa.Globalized product availability, demand for product individualization in terms of logistics, on-time delivery, just-in-time inventory, agility in time response transport, big data analytics and atomization of shipment are some of the global market trends guided by technological innovations like remote tracking and monitoring using RFID tags and EDI-based location of the shipment. Analytics based on big data is providing better accuracy of frequency of tasks and decision-making capabilities. There is a continuous insourcing trend by online retailers (like Amazon.com) for inventory so as to be more cost-effective and unified in terms of operations, and to emphasize on outsourcing for end-product transportation services only. These technological up gradations continuously enhance services provided by outsourced logistics providers.Send An Enquiry@Exel Logistics (U.K.), Menlo Worldwide Logistics (U.S.), FedEx (U.S.), Ryder Logistics (U.S.) and Tibbett and Britten (U.K.) are some of the key outsourced logistics providers. These companies have a wide global presence and provide multi-sector services. They are continuously trying to reach influential market and customers by means of removing bottlenecks related to international shipments and reducing cost through geographical spread of inventory. The market in Asia-Pacific region shows a steady and consistent growth through service innovations by companies, so as to attract economic customers. The companies need to shift their focus from integrated services to offering broad range of products & services portfolio. With more focus on growing B2C sector, the scope for logistics outsourcing will extend towards value-added and specialized services.About Us  Future Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centers in the U.S. and India.Contact Us:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way,Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage,New York 10989,United StatesTel: +1-347-918-3531Fax: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Medical Tourism Market, 2014-2020 by Segmentation: Based on Product, Application and Region

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Medical tourism is one of the most dynamically growing industries today. Considered to be the direct impact of globalisation of healthcare, medical tourism certainly exhibits strong growth potential globally. However, based on FMIs research, the market of medical tourism is expected to concentrate within most of the emerging economies of the world.As developing nations are increasingly heading toward technological advancement and quality services in the medical and healthcare sector, the global medical tourism market is anticipated to witness robust growth over 2014-2020, predominantly in Asian countries.The top treatments people travel abroad for, include cancer therapy, cardiovascular surgeries, orthopaedic treatments, dentistry, cosmetic surgeries, reproductive treatments, weight loss therapies, health screenings, and medical tests and scans. In severe cases, a sizeable patient population also seeks second opinion from specialist doctors out of their countries.Request Free Report Sample@Key DriversHigh treatment costs and lengthy waiting times for medical procedures, being the two major factors in driving medical tourism, are also supported by easier and cheaper international travel. While the U.K.s population prefers to travel abroad for bypassing long waits, patients from the U.S. travel outside for availing of treatments at cheaper costs.Medical excellence along with international accreditation are the key factors fuelling a majority of international patient flow, eventually boosting international medical tourism. Currently, over 600 medical departments and hospitals all over the globe are accredited by the U.S. Joint Commission International (JCI). The number of accredited facilities is projected to increase almost by 20% each year. This is another important driver associated with the market growth.Developing countries, with ever-evolving innovation and demonstrable achievements in medical research are estimated to accelerate the approaching medical tourist flow over the forecast period. Growing healthcare investments by various government and private sectors are also anticipated to further bolster the market growth.Key RestraintsHowever, medical tourists are highly prone to a wide variety of health risks after they return. The conditions may include TB, paratyphoid, amoebic dysentery, deep vein thrombosis, and more; usually caused due to poor post-operative care and inadequate rest. This could affect the market to some extent.Stringent documentation processes, issues related to visa approval, and limited insurance coverage are reportedly some of the most deterring factors for the global market.Global Medical Tourism Market: SegmentationFMIs research on the global medical tourism market offers a six-year forecast, segmenting the market on the basis of type of medical treatment and geography.On the basis of the type of treatment, the market is segmented into cosmetic treatment, cardiovascular treatment, fertility treatment, dental treatment, orthopaedic treatment, and other general treatments.On the basis of geography, the market is segmented into Asia pacific, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, North America, and South America.Regional OutlookSome of the prominent medical tourism centres across the globe include Thailand, India, South Korea, Taiwan, Costa Rica, Israel, Brazil, Turkey, the Philippines, Dubai, Singapore, Malaysia, Mexico, Poland, Canada, and the U.S. According to Patients Beyond Borders, the global medical tourism market is currently growing at an impressive rate between 15% and 25%, and the flow of patients seeking cross-border treatment options will be the highest in Mexico. South and Southeast Asia are expected to dominate the global market in the near future.Based on MTAs recently released Medical Tourism Index, there are 41 countries participating in the global medical tourism market. While India broadly secures #1, Israel ranks #1 in the quality of services and facilities.India is renowned for specialist cardiac surgeries, while Singapore is a popular medical tourism destination owing to the expertise in complicated surgical procedures. Thailand has been a popular destination for medical tourism and millions of patients have travelled to Thailand since 2006. It is also the top cosmetic surgery centre globally.Malaysia offers state-of-the-art medical infrastructure and treatments by highly skilled medical professionals, making it another sought after centre among medical tourists. With economically affordable treatment options and favourable government initiatives, Malaysia is anticipated to acquire one of the top market positions in the global medical tourism market, during the forecast period.Visit For TOC@Key Players: Global Medical Tourism MarketSome of the top key players in the medical tourism industry include Asian Heart Institute (India), Apollo Hospitals (India), Prince Court Medical Centre (Malaysia), Gleneagles Hospital (Singapore), Min-Sheng General Hospital (Taiwan), Samitivej Sukhumvit Hospital (Bangkok), Raffles Medical Group (Singapore), Clemenceau Medical Centre (Lebanon), Bangkok Hospital (Thailand), Bumrungrad International Hospital (Thailand), Fortis Healthcare Ltd. (India), Wooridul Spine Hospital (Korea), KPJ Healthcare Berhad (Malaysia), Anadolu Medical Centre (Turkey), and Asklepios Klinik Barmbek (Germany).While these players rank amongst they compete on the basis of exceptional service quality, optimum patient comfort, and relatively reasonable costs for various treatments. Several facilities are also undergoing mergers, acquisitions, affiliations, and joint ventures for delivering enhanced medical care, thereby strengthening their market positions. A few prominent examples of highly productive collaborations include the collaboration between Bumrungrad International Hospital (Bangkok) and IBM Watson for better cancer care, and the collaboration of Anadolu Medical Centre (Turkey) with Johns Hopkins Medicine (U.S.).About Us  Future Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centers in the U.S. and India.Contact Us:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way,Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage,New York 10989,United StatesTel: +1-347-918-3531Fax: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Four-year-old chimpanzee Manno, rescued by Animals Lebanon from a zoo in Duhok, Iraq after being trafficked from Syria, sits in a transport crate before his flight to Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Kenya (AFP Photo/)

Ol Pejeta (Kenya) (AFP) - Separated from his mother shortly after birth, Manno the chimpanzee was smuggled to Iraq and spent his days smoking cigarettes handed to him by amused zoo visitors and posing for pictures.

The four-year-old would also be dressed as a child and fed soda and sweets -- giving him near permanent diarrhoea -- before being locked in a small cage every night in a private zoo in the Kurdish city of Dohuk.

Then came help from several conservation groups, and Manno's days as a spectacle -- and smoker -- are now over after arriving at a chimpanzee sanctuary in Kenya a week ago.

"On the trip between Dohuk and Erbil airport, the convoy carrying him was, at the closest, about 20 kilometres (12 miles) from Mosul," where fierce battles are under way between the Iraqi army and the Islamic State group, said Daniel Stiles of the Project to End Great Ape Slavery (PEGAS).

After several days travelling in a small wooden box, Manno arrived on November 30 at the chimpanzee sanctuary within the Ol Pejeta conservancy at the foot of Mount Kenya, which has been taking in endangered chimpanzees since 1993.

"Before joining the other chimpanzees, he has to remain in quarantine for a while," to ensure that Manno does not have any diseases that could be transmitted to the reserve's 36 other residents, said Stephen Ngulu, a veterinarian and the chimp sanctuary's director.

To avoid unsettling the delicate balance within the troop, and the creation of deadly rivalries, Manno will be slowly introduced to the other chimps before joining them in their one square kilometre of fenced territory.

Manno, who is believed to have been born in a zoo in the Syrian capital of Damascus, has not had any contact with his own kind since at least the end of 2013 when he was illegally sold to the Dohuk zoo for $15,000 (14,000 euros).

In the meantime, Manno happily swings on ropes and plays with stuffed animals and balls in his room.

Story continues

"He plays, he moves around constantly, he is very excited by what we give him," said Ngulu. "He doesn't seem to be depressed."

- 'Conservation failure' -

Unfortunately for many of the other chimps in the sanctuary, that is not the case.

Many of them have been traumatised after experiences that make it impossible to return them to their natural habitat of tropical forests in the Congo basin and west Africa.

Poco, 36, one of the oldest males in the sanctuary, was rescued from a cage of less than one cubic meter in a garage in Burundi. Another called George was a pet in South Africa whose owners could no longer handle as the chimp grew older.

Others were seized in airports while being smuggled from one place to another.

The sanctuary "is not a natural environment, but it's a whole lot better than what those chimps experienced in the first part of their lives," said Richard Vigne, Ol Pejeta's director.

He sees the existence of the chimp sanctuary as a sign of "conservation failure" regarding the species, whose current population is estimated to be no more than 250,000. Chimpanzees are listed as in danger of extinction by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

- 'Objects of amusement' -

The main threat to chimpanzees, whose genes are 98.8 percent similar to those of humans, is poaching and the destruction of their habitat.

"Adult chimps are killed for their meat in places like central Africa, and infant chimps are (captured) with the view to their being sold on," said Vigne.

He said that while in the past chimps were mainly captured for medical testing, they have more recently become sought after as pets in the Middle and Far East, and "objects of amusement to make cash for their owners."

"When they are young... they are very cute and people like them. Then they grow up and they -- particularly if they're male -- start to become more aggressive and difficult to handle.

"That is the time they're closed in small cages because no one knows what to do with them."

It cost $10,000 (9,300 euros) to bring Manno to his new life in Kenya.

Vigne said that helping a chimpanzee in a country at war does not mean one is insensitive to human suffering.

"Others have taken the responsibility to help these people. We do what we do, with money given for that purpose.

"There are thousands of chimps across the Middle East and the Far East in the same position as Manno, and by rescuing one chimp we draw attention to the issue."
Food Safety Testing Services Market Forecast and Segments, 2014-2020

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Governments around the world have massively increased their focus on ensuring food safety. The threat of foodborne illnesses has led to stringent regulations from food testing authorities worldwide. The global food trade has increased manifold in the last decade or so, and manufacturers have become increasingly reliant on food testing mechanisms to ensure that they are following all the regulations and guidelines.The growth of the global food industry is dependent on fool-proof food testing mechanisms. Lack of proper food testing can increase the risk of food poisoning and other foodborne diseases. In the recent past, several incidents have happened wherein improper safety mechanisms have led to the outbreak of foodborne illnesses. The authorities in the developed world have enforced stringent quality checks on their food imports and many food products have been outrightly banned for failing to meet the safety guidelines. Increase in the focus on food safety has also led to product recalls from some of the leading names in the food industry.Request Free Report Sample@Positive Outlook on the Global Food Safety Testing Services MarketThe global food safety testing services market is anticipated to expand at a steady rate through 2020. Growth in developed regions, such as North America and Western Europe, and stringent regulations on the quality of food exports in developing countries are projected to be the key drivers for the growth of this market. However, lack of proper testing mechanisms in developing economies can pose a challenge to the growth of the global food safety testing services market.Global Food Safety Testing Services Market: SegmentationThe global food safety testing services market is segmented into GMOs, pathogens, toxins, pesticides, and others. Food type segmentation includes fruit and vegetable, meat and poultry, convenience food, and others. Among these segments, the food safety testing services market for pathogens is anticipated to witness the fastest growth on account of rising number of foodborne outbreaks due to Salmonella. Other segments of the global food safety testing services market are also expected to witness steady growth during the forecast period.Key Regions for Food Safety Testing MarketNorth America is currently the dominant region of the global food safety testing services market, and it is expected to remain the key region through 2020. Stringent regulations on enforcing food safety guidelines in the U.S. And Canada have fueled the demand for the food safety testing services market in the region. The enaction of Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) in the U.S. has augured well for the growth of the global food safety testing services market.Other key regions for the global food safety testing services market include Asia Pacific and Western Europe. It is anticipated that development of new food safety regulations will fuel the food safety testing services market in Asia Pacific in the next five years. It is anticipated that Asia Pacific's food safety testing services market will witness a very high growth rate in the next five years.Visit For TOC@Key Players for Food Safety Testing Services MarketSome of the leading names in the global food safety testing services market include SGS S.A. (Switzerland), Bureau Veritas S.A. (France), Lloyds Register Quality Assurance Ltd. (U.K.), and Intertek Group Plc. (U.K.)About Us  Future Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centers in the U.S. and IndiaContact Us:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way,Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage,New York 10989,United StatesTel: +1-347-918-3531Fax: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Wood Pellet Market to register a healthy CAGR for the forecast period, 2015-2025

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In order to meet the increasing demand for energy and fossil fuels alternative along with intensifying concerns for greenhouse gas (GHG), the demand for global wood pellet market is rapidly escalating. Wood pellet is a solid fuel that is produced by compressing biomass or organic matter. Usually, it is made from waste timber like sawdust, residues of forest and various industrial by products. Its length is 1-2 cm and generally the diameter is 6, 8, 10, or 12mm. At greatest, it is possible to produce 25mm wood pellet. Being extremely thick, it is produced at low moisture, which allows them to burn with high combustion efficiency. Over the other types of solid biomass available, feasibility in transportation, storability and high energy density, among many others are the advantages of using wood pellet and so, it is used as fuels for residential & commercial heating, cooking and generating power.Wood Pellet Market: Drivers & RestraintsIncreasing consumption of wood pellets and the policy support for heating/CHP application (either large scale or small scale plant) is the main driver for the wood pellet market. The increasing (heating) oil prices, carbon dioxide price, concerns over climatic change, demand for large scale electricity production gives the potential scope for the growth of wood pellet market. However, the fluctuation in feedstock prices and limitation of the availability of woody biomass are the major constraints for the wood pellet market. Other factors hindering the growth of wood pellet market are logistical barriers for the transportation, competition with natural gas, coal and other fossil fuels and fulfilling technical quality standards.Request Free Report Sample@Wood Pellet Market: SegmentationOn the basis of the feedstock, the global wood pellet market can be segmented into Forest and wood waste resources, Agricultural residues & waste and Energy crops. On the basis of types of pellet heating appliances, it is segmented into free standing pellet stoves, pellet stove inserts and pellet boilers.On the basis of application, the global wood pellet market is segmented intoIndustrial pellet for CHP/district heatingIndustrial pellet for co-firingPellet for heating residential/commercialOthersThe wood pellet market can also be segmented on the basis of density variance which is different for different brand as well as bags in which they are packed.Wood Pellet Market: Region-wise OutlookGlobal wood pellet market is foreseen to witness the highest growth in Europe, currently accounting for almost 80% of global consumption, followed by U.S. and South Korea. The export of wood pellet are mainly done by Russia, U.S. and Canada. South America, South Africa and Australia are the emerging regions for becoming the potential exporters of the wood pellet market. As per our in-depth analysis by 2020, the annual demand for woody biomass would rise to 305 million tons. Owing to this, the demand for global wood pellet market is anticipated to reach double digit million tons during the forecast period.Visit For TOC@Wood Pellet Market: Key PlayersSome of the key players of the global wood pellet market are Corinth Wood Pellets, New England Wood Pellets, Energex, OUOsulaGraanul, the subsidiary of AS Graanul Invest, Natures Flame, Green Circle Cottondale, Weyerhaeuser, Mitsubishi Corporation and many others.About Us  Future Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centers in the U.S. and India.Contact Us:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way,Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage,New York 10989,United StatesTel: +1-347-918-3531Fax: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Releases New Report on the Global Food Grade Phosphates Market

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Food grade phosphates are used for various application in the food processing industry as discoloration inhibitors, emulsifiers, and buffers. Food grade phosphates are also used in frozen meat, bakery products, milk, powdered food, cheese, petfood, cereal, dehydrated potatoes, fisheries and animal feed products. Food grade phosphates are broadly classified into blended and specialty phosphates. Food grade phosphates market is consolidated market. For instance, Prayon SA acquired Augusta, Ga., which produces various types of phosphates including sodium phosphates, calcium phosphates and potassium phosphates. Food grade phosphates are used for various applications including retention of water in the fish.Food Grade Phosphates SegmentationGlobal food grade phosphates are segmented on the basis of type, application and region. Based on the product type food grade phosphates segmentation includes sodium phosphates, potassium phosphates and calcium phosphates. Of which sodium phosphate is expected to be the dominating segment, followed by potassium and calcium phosphates. Among all the segments of food grade phosphates type, sodium phosphates segment is expected to contribute maximum revenue over the forecasted period. However, calcium phosphates segment is expected to witness fastest growth in the next four to five years due to the various benefits associated with the consumption of calcium phosphates. However, potassium phosphates is expected to experience flat growth in the forthcoming years due to the more preference of consumers to consume sodium and calcium phosphates. Based on the application, food grade phosphates are segmented into bakery, food and beverage, dairy products and meat products. Of which meat product segment is the leading segment and expected to contribute highest revenue during the next four to five years, followed by bakery segment. Bakery segment is also expected to contribute significant revenue to the overall revenue of the food grade phosphates market. Global food grade phosphates market is segmented on the basis of region into North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia Pacific excluding Japan, Middle East and Africa and Japan.Request Free Report Sample@Food Grade Phosphates: Region-wise OutlookThe global food grade phosphates market is expected to witness robust growth over the forecast period due to the rising needs of the increasing population coupled with the rising disposable income of the consumers. Globally, among all regions, North America is expected to contribute highest market share, followed by Europe over the forecast period. In North America, U.S. is expected to contribute maximum market share due the high disposable income of the consumers. However Asia Pacific is anticipated to witness highest growth owing to the rising disposable income of consumers in various countries.Food Grade Phosphates: DriversFood grade phosphates market is expected to exhibit healthy CAGR during forecast period. Major factors that fuel the growth of food grade phosphates includes growing needs of increasing population coupled with rising consumer awareness regarding the benefits associated with the consumption of food grade phosphates. Major factor that restraints the growth of food grade phosphates market are the high price associated with the food grade phosphates.Visit For TOC@Food Grade Market: Key PlayersMajor companies operating in food grade phosphates market are Aditya Birla Chemicals, TKI Hrastnik, d.d., GUIZHOU QIANLIN PHOSPHATES INDUSTRY CO.,LTD, ICL Performance Products, Prayon SA, PhosAgro, ChemSol, LLC, CRU Group, Rotel Domestic and Foreign Trade Co. Companies operating in food grade phosphates market are mainly adopting strategy to enter new markets and also to increase its production capacity. For instance, ICL Performance Products, in 2015 set up new production unit in Israel in order to cater to the rising need of the consumers in the regionAbout Us  Future Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centers in the U.S. and IndiaContact Us:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way,Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage,New York 10989,United StatesTel: +1-347-918-3531Fax: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Semiconductor Packaging Material Market: Explosive Growth in Communication and Mobile Computing Devices Across the Globe

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Semiconductor packaging material consists of material used for protecting electronic components such as ICs and semiconductors from external impact, corrosion and other similar factors. These materials are used in conjunction with various other advanced packaging technologies for packaging of integrated circuits and semiconductors.Download Free Research Brochure PDF@Semiconductor packaging material can be classified in eight sub-types which include bonding wires, organic substrates, encapsulation resins, leadframes, die attach materials, ceramic packages, solder balls and thermal interface materials amongst others. The organic substrates accounts for the largest market share in semiconductor packaging material. Organic substrates are extensively used as base materials for semiconductor packaging. Bonding wires have been used widely as packaging material for semiconductors, but recently there has been a shift towards copper bonding wires for semiconductor packaging. The market for encapsulation resins is expected to witness strong growth in the next few years since encapsulation resins are relatively novel packaging materials. The semiconductor packaging materials are application specific and available across the globe. The various packaging technologies include GA, SOP, QFN, DFN, QFA and similar others which generally depends on the end-use.The market for semiconductor packaging material is expected to witness strong growth in the next few years on account of explosive growth in communication and mobile computing devices such as tablets and smartphones across the globe. Growth in mobile devices is also anticipated to drive the demand for wafer level packages. With the continued growth in the mobile devices market the market for semiconductor packaging materials is expected to witness strong growth in the next few years. The increase in demand for semiconductor packaging material is expected to be in line with the growth in the electronics industry across the globe. The semiconductor packaging material market is currently concentrated in Asia Pacific due to vast electronic industry present in the region. With growing demand for electronics and mobile communication devices the demand for semiconductor packaging materials is also expected to witness robust growth in the next few years.Owing to the growing electronics industry in Asia-Pacific region and increased demand for mobile computing devices particularly in countries such as China, India Indonesia etc. the demand for semiconductor packaging material is anticipated to witness strong growth in these regions. Asia Pacific was the dominant market for semiconductor packaging material followed by Europe and North America. In North America, U.S was one of the largest markets for semiconductor packaging material. U.S economy has been recently recovered and has been close to pre-recession levels. Looking forward, the packaging industry in North America is expected to show stable growth in the next few years, which in turn is anticipated to drive the semiconductor packaging material market in this region. In Europe, Germany accounted for the largest market share followed by Italy, France and the U.K. The semiconductor packaging material market in North America and Europe is characterized by similar market conditions. In the Rest of the World (RoW), especially in countries such as Brazil, the market is expected to witness strong growth on account of increased demand for semiconductors from the electronics industry in this region.Some of the major companies operating in the global semiconductor packaging material market are Hitachi Chemical Co. Ltd., BASF SE, Henkel AG & Company, Sumitomo Chemical Co. Ltd., Alent plc, and Kyocera Chemical Co. Ltd., among others.Browse Full Report@About Us:-Transparency Market Research is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Contact Us:-Transparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.com
Condiment Sauces Market - Global Industry Analysis 2014-2020

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Condiment sauces are used in food to enhance taste, flavor or as a complimentary item in different dishes. It is used either as table dips or in cooking or as both. The condiments sauces market has experienced a diversified trends across different regions such as North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and RoW. The Global condiment sauces market is expected to witness rapid changes due to fast changing eating patterns across all the regions. In Asia Pacific region, the condiment sauces market is expected to grow significantly, mainly due to growing demand from leading markets such as Japan and China among others. In North America region, the leading markets are U.S. and Mexico. In Europe the leading market are UK, Germany, France and Russia among others. Brazil and Egypt are the developed markets in RoW. The emerging markets such as Mexico, Egypt, Turkey, South Africa, Poland and Peru among others are expected to witness growth in demand for sauces. Preference for fast food is another key factor that drives the demand for condiments sauces dramatically.Get More Information:The rise in consumption of condiment sauces is supported by increasing busy life style and growing urbanization in emerging markets. Moreover, the growing preference for fast food that includes condiments sauces as an important ingredient to enhance flavor is expected to drive the market in the next six years.The demand for condiment sauces is expected to grow in the markets such as Mexico, India, Egypt, Colombia and Thailand among others due to increase in the number of fast food restaurants. The major markets such as U.S., Japan, China, and Germany are expected to witness the rising demand for tomato ketchup, soy sauce and mustard sauce over the forecast period. Condiment sauces are easily available in almost all the distribution channels such as Supermarkets or Hypermarkets, Dollar Stores, Food & drinks specialists, Variety Stores & General Merchandise Retailers, Department store and convenience stores among others. However, improving lifestyles in developed countries are expected to support the growth of supermarkets and hypermarket in the next six years.Browse Full Report With ToC:The global condiments sauce market was worth USD 18,684.3 million in 2013 and it is expected to reach USD 23,395.7 million in 2020. The global condiments sauces market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 3.21% from 2014 to 2020. The growth in the market is mainly attributed to growing demand for condiments sauces in developed markets such as U.S., Brazil, Saudi Arabia, and Germany for tomato ketchup, Japan, China for soy sauces, and France for mustard sauce.By country, U.S. held the largest market share followed by Japan in 2014 and this trend is expected to remain same during the forecast period. The demand for condiment sauces in these countries is driven by busy lifestyle of people and their dependence on the fast food. The demand is supported by popularity of the condiment sauces among consumers to make traditional and authentic multi-cuisine food at home. The consumption of sauces is expected to increase in countries such as Mexico, Egypt, Turkey, South Africa, Poland, Peru, Colombia, and Denmark among others by 2020.The market size of condiment sauces for U.S. and Japan is expected to grow at a higher CAGR than that of other countries in global market. However, developed markets are expected to increase the demand for condiments sauces due to busy life style and changing eating patterns.The Hypermarkets and Supermarkets, food and drinks specialists and convenience stores are the most preferred distribution channels and are expected to maintain its leading position in distribution share of condiments sauces by 2020 followed by Cash & Carries, Warehouse Clubs and Dollar Stores, and Variety Stores & General Merchandise Retailers.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Global Arthroscopy Devices Market: What to Watch Out for in Coming Future

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Global Arthroscopy Devices Market Report 2016Report Highlights2016 Global Arthroscopy Devices Report is a professional and in-depth research report on the world's major regional market conditions of the Arthroscopy Devices industry, focusing on the main regions (North America, Europe and Asia) and the main countries (United States, Germany, Japan and China).Check complete report @The report firstly introduced the Arthroscopy Devices basics: definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain overview; industry policies and plans; product specifications; manufacturing processes; cost structures and so on. Then it analyzed the world's main region market conditions, including the product price, profit, capacity, production, capacity utilization, supply, demand and industry growth rate etc. In the end, the report introduced new project SWOT analysis,investment feasibility analysis, and investment return analysis.Avail more information from Sample Brochure of report @The report includes six parts, dealing with: basic information the Asia Arthroscopy Devices industry the North American Arthroscopy Devices industry the European Arthroscopy Devices industry market entry and investment feasibility the report conclusionOrder a copy of Global Arthroscopy Devices Market Research Report @About us:MarketIntelReports (MIR) aim to empower our clients to successfully manage and outperform in their business decisions, we do this by providing Premium Market Intelligence, Strategic Insights and Databases from a range of Global Publishers.A group of industry veterans who are well experienced in reputed international consulting firms after identifying the sourcing needs of MNCs for market intelligence, have together started this business savior MarketIntelReports.MIR intends to be a one-stop shop with an intuitive design, exhaustive database, expert assistance, secure cart checkout and data privacy integrated. It curates the list of reports, publishers and studies to ensure that the database is constantly updated to dynamically meet the targeted, specific needs of our clients.MarketIntelReports currently has more than 10,000 plus titles and 35+ publishers on our platform and growing consistently to fill the Global Intelligence Demand  Supply Gap. We cover more than 15 industry verticals being: Automotive, Electronics, Manufacturing, Pharmaceuticals, Healthcare, Chemicals, Building & Construction, Agriculture, Food & Beverages, Banking & Finance, Media and Government, Public Sector Studies.Contact us:Mayur S.Sales Manager2711 Centerville Road, Suite 400,Wilmington, Delaware, 19808United Statesmarketintelreports.comsales@marketintelreports.comTelephone: 1-302-261-5343
Global Biobanking Market to grow at a CAGR of 7.07 percent during 2015-2019: Key Vendors Beckman Coulter, Tecan, Thermo Fischer Scientific

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ResearchMoz added Latest Research Report titled " Global Biobanking Market 2015-2019 " to it's Large Report database.About BiobankBiobank is a biorepository for the preservation and collection of biological material used for diagnosis, biodiversity studies, and research. Depending on the aims of research, different biobanks store different kinds of samples such as tissues, blood, serum, DNA, and RNA. The human biobanks work by systematic collection of biological samples from patients and other members of the public. Biobanks significantly vary in size such as biobanks held in medical institutions hold relatively modest number of samples compared with a national biobank, which hold a large number of samples. Biobanks are commonly used to support research of most common types of genetic disorders, for developing personalized medicine, for stem cell research, and for maintaining and updating age demographic databases.TechNavio's analysts forecast the Global Biobanking market to grow at a CAGR of 7.07 percent over the period 2014-2019.Download free Sample PDF report with TOC:Covered in this ReportThe Global Biobanking market can be divided into two segments: Equipment and Consumables. This report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the Global Biobanking market for the period 2015-2019.TechNavio's report, Global Biobanking Market 2015-2019, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the Americas, and the EMEA and APAC regions; it also covers the market landscape and its growth prospects in the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key RegionsAmericasAPACEMEARead All Biotechnology Market Research Reports @Table of Content01. Executive Summary02. List of Abbreviations03. Scope of the Report03.1 Market Overview03.2 Product Offerings04. Market Research Methodology04.1 Market Research Process04.2 Research Methodology05. Introduction06. Overview06.1 Biobanks06.2 Types of Biobank06.3 Classification of Biobanks06.3.1 Population-based Biobanks06.3.2 Disease-based Biobanks07. Market Landscape07.1 Market Overview07.2 Market Size and Forecast7.3 Five Forces AnalysisAbout ResearchMozResearchMoz is the world's fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMoz's service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators.Contact Us:Mr. NachiketAlbany NY, United States - 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074 / Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn at:Follow me on Blogger at:
Integral Horsepower Motors Market - Global Industry Analysis 2016 - 2023

Integral Horsepower Motors Market

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Integral Horse Power Motors are electrical motors which have horse power rating of 1 or above. These motors are highly energy efficient in nature and used across various application areas. The market is expected to grow during the forecast period. The rising global awareness to save energy is driving the market for integral horsepower motors as these motors are highly energy efficient in nature. Furthermore, the industries are using these motors to save on their electrical expenditures and hence reducing their operating costs. The integral horsepower motors are divided in two categories, three phase and single phase integral horse power motors.Each of these types of motors have a wide area of applications such as refrigeration, heating and cooling, air conditioning, swimming pools, industrial applications and commercial HVAC among others. The improving economical conditions in the European regions are expected to the drive the market with the increasing demand for automotives and growing industrial applications. Furthermore, the changing government regulation in Europe and North America markets is encouraging the use of energy efficient motors. In addition, the growing awareness for alternate sources of energy such as water and waste water is also spurring the growth of integral horsepower motors. These factors are driving the growth for this market.View Exclusive Global Strategic Business Report:However, the higher initial cost of installing these motors is acting as a major barrier in the growth of this market. The market is expected to witness growth during the forecast period due to the presence of developing regions such as India and China. The ongoing industrialization in these regions will act as an opportunity for the integral horsepower motors market. Furthermore, the schemes initiated by governments to encourage the companies to upgrade their motors for higher efficiency will also act as an opportunity for the integral horsepower motors market.The integral horsepower motors market can be segmented into three categories: by types, application and region. By types the integral horsepower motors can be divided into small, medium and large motors. In terms of application, the market can be segregated into automotive industries, mining, power generation, food and beverages and HVAC segments. The automotive segment has major application for integral horsepower motors and is expected to witness steady growth during the forecast period.In terms of region, the market can be divided into grow geographical locations: North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Rest of the world. North America and Europe are the early adapters of technologies. However, the regions will witness a steady growth in this market due to the recent economic crisis in these regions. However, the Asia Pacific region is expected to witness robust growth due to the presence of developing nations such as India and China who are focusing on constant industrialization.The integral horsepower motors are dominated by several players across the globe. Some of the key players in the market include ABB Ltd, Brook Crompton, Allied Motion Technologies, ARC Systems, Danaher Corporation, Rockwell Automation, TECO Westinghouse, Toshiba Corporation, Siemens AG, Emerson Electric and Regal Beloit among others.This research report analyzes this market on the basis of its market segments, major geographies, and current market trends. Geographies analyzed under this research report include-North America-Asia Pacific-Europe-Middle East and Africa-Latin AmericaAbout Us:Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insights for decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.TMRs data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With extensive research and analysis capabilities, TMR employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques to develop distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.Contact Us:-Transparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Do you Know Recent Trends in Booming Europe Green/Bio-Based Solvents Sales Market?

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Research Beam added a report Europe Green/Bio-Based Solvents Sales Market Report: 2016 Edition Size, Share, Trends, Segmentation, Growth, Technology, Opportunity, Analysis and forecast"Description:About the Green/Bio-Based Solvents Sales MarketNotes:Sales, means the sales volume of Green/Bio-Based SolventsRevenue, means the sales value of Green/Bio-Based SolventsThis report studies sales (consumption) of Green/Bio-Based Solvents in Europe market, especially in USA, China, Europe, Japan, India and Southeast Asia, focuses on top players in these regions/countries, with sales, price, revenue and market share for each player in these regions, coveringBASFBio-AmberMyriant CorporationDow ChemicalsCargill IncorporatedGevoVertec BiosolventsFlorida ChemicalsLyondellBasellDu PontHuntsmanSolvayRequest report sample @based-solvents-report-2016-market/request-sampleMarket Segment by Regions, this report splits Europe into several key Regions, with sales (consumption), revenue, and market share and growth rate of Green/Bio-Based Solvents in these regions, from 2011 to 2021 (forecast), likeGermanyFranceUKRussiaItalySpainBeneluxSplit by product Types, with sales, revenue, price and gross margin, market share and growth rate of each type, can be divided intoType IType IIType IIISplit by applications, this report focuses on sales, market share and growth rate of Green/Bio-Based Solvents in each application, can be divided intoApplication 1Application 2Application 3For More Enquiry @Table of Contents1 Green/Bio-Based Solvents Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Green/Bio-Based Solvents1.2 Classification of Green/Bio-Based Solvents1.3 Application of Green/Bio-Based Solvents1.4 Green/Bio-Based Solvents Market by Regions1.5 Europe Market Size (Value and Volume) of Green/Bio-Based Solvents (2011-2021)2 Europe Green/Bio-Based Solvents Competition by Manufacturers, Type and Application2.1 Europe Green/Bio-Based Solvents Market Competition by Manufacturers2.2 Europe Green/Bio-Based Solvents (Volume and Value) by Type2.3 Europe Green/Bio-Based Solvents (Volume and Value) by Regions2.4 Europe Green/Bio-Based Solvents (Volume) by Application3 Germany Green/Bio-Based Solvents (Volume, Value and Sales Price)4 France Green/Bio-Based Solvents (Volume, Value and Sales Price)5 UK Green/Bio-Based Solvents (Volume, Value and Sales Price)6 Russia Green/Bio-Based Solvents (Volume, Value and Sales Price)7 Italy Green/Bio-Based Solvents Manufacturers Analysis8 Green/Bio-Based Solvents Manufacturing Cost Analysis9 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers10 Research Findings and ConclusionWith the arsenal of different search reports, Research Beam helps you here to look and buy research reports that will be helpful to you and your organization. Our research reports have the capability and authenticity to support your organization for growth and consistency. With the window of opportunity getting open and shut at a speed of light, it has become very important to survive in the market and only the fittest and competent enough can do so. So, we try and provide with latest changes in the market that can suit your needs and help you take decision accordingly.5933 NE Win Sivers Drive, #205, Portland, OR 97220U.S. & Canada Toll Free: + 1-800-910-6452UK: + 44-845-528-1300, India: +91 20 66346070Fax: +1 (855) 550-5975Email: help@researchbeam.comWeb:
Acidity Regulators Market - Global Industry Analysis 2015-2021

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Acidity regulators or pH control agents comprise of an integral part in the food additive market globally. Acidity regulators are mainly used to provide a distinct flavor to food and beverage items and increasing the shelf life of the foods as well. Acidity regulators prevent any microscopic organism from damaging the foods and increase food preservation.Get More Information:Increasing demand for acidity regulators from the foods and beverage industry is the major factor boosting the demand for acidity regulators globally. Busy lifestyle of the consumers globally has fuelled the growth for processed foods and ready to drink beverages. Owing to this factor, the demand for acidity regulators has increased significantly. In addition, advent of modern technology is also expected to fuel the demand for acidity regulators. Side effects of acidity regulators are one of the major factors restraining the growth of the acidity regulators market.Citric acid held the largest market share in 2014 and it is expected to remain the market leader during the forecast period. Asia Pacific held the largest market share in the global acidity regulators market followed by North America. Asia Pacific is also the fastest growing market for acidity regulators expanding at a CAGR of 7.6% from 2015 to 2021. Rest of the World has the second fastest growth rate for acidity regulators after Asia Pacific.Browse Full Report With ToC:Cargill Incorporated, Jungbunzlauer A.G., Tate and Lyle plc, Univar, Corbion N.V. are some of the key players operating in the global acidity regulators market.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Wafer Level Package Dielectrics Market Driven by Rising Demand for Compact Electronic Devices With High Performance and Cost Effective Packaging

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Wafer Level Package (WLP) is a type of packaging used in the semiconductor industry for the packaging of Integrated Circuits (ICs) as it is very fragile in nature and highly susceptible to contamination, which can lead to improper working of the IC. WLP finds application in the ICs used in portable consumer electronic devices; for instance, smart phones. Increasing consumer demand for technologically advanced mobile devices that are capable of performing an array of functions in a single small-end product is a major factor propelling demand for wafer level packaging technology as compared to the conventional mode of packaging in case of semiconductors, thus boosting growth of the market for wafer level package dielectrics further. Comparatively, the low cost associated with the wafer level packaging as compared to the conventional packaging technology used in case of semiconductor packaging is also a major factor expected to boost growth of the market for wafer level package dielectrics over the forecast period.Request a PDF Brochure with Report Analysis:The wafer level package dielectrics market is expected to expand at a healthy CAGR over the forecast period, and the major driving factor responsible for growth of the wafer level package dielectrics market is the rising demand for compact electronic devices with high performance and cost effective packaging in the semiconductor packaging industry. In case of conventional packaging, such as die level packaging, with the variation in size of the ICs, the cost of packaging becomes more as compared to the production cost of the ICs. On the contrary, wafer level packaging is much more cost-efficient as compared to the conventional packaging or the production cost of the ICs. The technological advancements in IC design & production are also, to an extent, propelling growth of the wafer level package dielectrics market currently. The wafer level packaging technology has certain perks over the traditional packaging technology, such as minimized electricity consumption and long battery life in case of mobile phones, and its compactness helps manufacturers design and develop ultra-thin mobile phones. However, fluctuations in some of the physical properties of the technology, such as the coefficient of thermal expansion of the materials of wafer with respect to the material of ICs, are considered as a drawback of the wafer packaging technology, which in turn might restraint growth of the market for wafer level package dielectrics.The global wafer level package dielectrics market is segmented on the basis of type of wafer level packaging, application, and region. On the basis of type, the global market for wafer level package dielectrics is segmented into FOWLP (Fan-Out Wafer Level Package), FIWLP (Fan-in Wafer Level Package), FIWLCSP (Fan-in Wafer Level Chip Scale Package), flip chip, and 3DFOWLP. On the basis of applications, the global market for wafer level package is segmented into consumer electronics, automotive, aerospace, defense, and healthcare.On the basis of geography, the global rigid plastic packaging market is segmented into seven key regions, namely North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific, Japan, and the Middle East & Africa. Among the aforementioned regions, the Asia-Pacific market is projected to grow at a promising CAGR, which is attributed to the increase in demand for smart phones globally. For instance, recently, India become the second largest user of smart phones globally, beating the U.S. This is turn is expected to drive growth of the wafer level package dielectrics market in the country. Moreover, the presence of leading semiconductor manufacturers, such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, among others, is expected to have a positive effect on growth of the wafer level package dielectrics market in APEJ over the forecast period.Some of the major players identified in the global wafer level package dielectrics market include ChipMOS TECHNOLOGIES INC., STATS ChipPAC Ltd., IQE PLC, Amkor Technology Inc., TriQuint Semiconductor Inc., Deca Technologies, KLA-Tencor Corporation, Siliconware Precision Industries Co. Ltd., China Wafer Level CSP Co. Ltd., and Jiangsu Changjiang Electronics Technology Co. Ltd.About TMRTMR is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Contact TMR90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Liquid Encapsulants Market is driven by Strong Demand in Consumer Electronics

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For electronic components firm structuring of electronic component which are shock and moisture proof are considered to be essential for smooth functioning. To avoid these issues electronics manufacturers are increasingly using products called liquid encapsulants. Liquid encapsulants provide additional protection to the electronics components liquid encapsulants are considered to be the better alternative to the molding in high volume manufacturing processes used through automated dispensing equipment. Growing consumer demand of electronics equipment and accumulative reach of technology in everyday life are considered to be the prime factors for the growth of the Liquid encapsulants market. Primarily, there are two types of liquid encapsulants i.e. glob top and dam-and-fill. In addition to the shock and moisture protection the liquid encapsulants also provide excellent film formability, high voltage resistance, impregnation, migration resistance. Some of the Liquid encapsulants are also used to provide reduce wafer warps.Interpret a Competitive outlook Analysis Report with PDF Brochure:Global liquid encapsulants market is primarily driven by the growing use of electronics and semiconductor devices in everyday life. Electronics and semiconductor devices are progressively being used in healthcare, transportation, industrial automation and consumer electronics. Global liquid encapsulants market is driven by strong demand in consumer electronics primarily driven by changing lifestyle and growing per capita income. The growing use of complex structures in semiconductors for electronic and electrical application is anticipated to drive the global lencapsulants market. Miniaturization trend of consumer electronic devices is also anticipated to catalyze the demand for liquid encapsulants. On the other hand the sluggish growth of end use sectors in few regions might acts a restraint for global liquid encapsulants market.The opportunity for the global liquid encapsulants market lies in increasing the application horizon in electronics and electrical device manufacturing. Increasing use of semiconductors in transportation and industrial automation is considered to be the major opportunity for the global liquid encapsulants market players.The global liquid encapsulants market is segmented on the basis of the material, product, application and geography. On the basis of material the global liquid encapsulants market is segmented into epoxy modified resins, epoxy resins, hardners colorants and others. On the basis of product the global liquid encapsulants market is segmented into sensors, semiconductors, integrated circuits, optoelectronics and others .On the basis of application the global liquid encapsulants market is segmented into consumer electronics, industrial electronics, automotive, industrials automation, telecommunication and others.On the basis of geography the global Liquid encapsulants Market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), the Middle East and Africa (MEA) and Latin America. Asia Pacific is considered to be the leading consumer and manufacture of global Liquid encapsulants Market by volume and value. Japan, China, South Korea and others are considered to be the major consumers of the global Liquid encapsulants Market. Followed by Asia Pacific North America is considered to be the major market for the global Liquid encapsulants Market primarily due to growth in consumer electronics segment. Europe is considered to be a leading consumer especially due to growth in application sectors such as automotive, industrial equipments and healthcare equipments. Latin America is considered to show sluggish growth in the global Liquid encapsulants market. Middle East and Africa due to its growing economies is anticipated to contribute the growth in liquid encapsulants market.Some of the key market participants in the global liquid encapsulants market are Henkel AG & Co. KGaA, Hitachi Chemical Co., Ltd., KYOCERA Corporation, Panasonic Corporation, Sumitomo Bakelite Co., Ltd., Sanyu Rec Co. Ltd., Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd., NITTO DENKO CORPORATION., NAGASE & CO., LTD., Epic Resins and Others.About TMRTMR is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Contact TMR90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Food Emulsifier Market - Global Industry Analysis 2015-2021

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The food emulsifier is one of the fastest growing segments in the food ingredients market. An emulsifier is a material that stabilizes an emulsion. Emulsifiers are used in different types of foods, such as dairy products, beverages, bakery & confectionery products, meat products and packaged foods.Get More Information:The global food emulsifier market is primarily driven by factors such as increasing food emulsifier demand in emerging countries. Many countries across the globe are expected to serve as potentially good markets for food emulsifier products. For instance, of late, the demand for emulsifier products has increased in the Asia Pacific region. China has made rapid progress in food emulsifiers market in the Asia Pacific region. Furthermore, Japan is expected to register a healthy growth during the forecast period. Meanwhile, Brazil is an untapped market and is expected to offer significant growth opportunities for distributers and manufacturers during the forecast period.Increasing health consciousness among consumers is a major factor that is driving the market of the food emulsifier globally. There has been a global rise in the drift toward healthier lifestyle and health concerns among consumers. The impact of this driver is high at present and it is expected to remain high during the next few years.Browse full Report With ToC:The global food emulsifier market has been segmented on the basis of product type into stearoyl lactylates, mono, di-glycerides & derivatives, lecithin, sorbitan esters, and others. Mono, di-glycerides & derivative are generally used in convenience foods, dairy products, bakery and confectionery and meat products among others. Lecithin is often used as a food additive. It is used to prevent certain ingredients from separating adjoined. Sorbitan esters are largely used as food emulsifiers to maintain food safety standards. They are used in low fat foods. Stearoyl lactylates are generally used in convenience foods, dairy products, bakery and confectionery, and meat products, among others.The global food emulsifier market has been segmented on the basis of application type into dairy products, convenience foods, bakery and confectionery products, meat products, and others. The presence, position, and size of the emulsifier depend on convenience foods and bakery & confectionery products. In terms of revenue, the convenience foods held the major market share in 2014. It is followed by the bakery & confectionery products, dairy products, and meat products segment, among others. The increasing demand for convenience foods is expected to drive the growth of the food emulsifiers market globally. Busy lifestyles and changing eating patterns are the factors that are driving the growth of the convenience food products segment, and this, in turn, is driving the growth of the food emulsifiers market, globally. In 2014, the convenience foods segment, which accounted for 24.1% share of the total global food emulsifier market, accounted for the largest market share compared to the other three food emulsifier applications.Based on geography the food emulsifier market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), and Rest of the World (RoW). Increasing demand for packaged foods, rise in demand in emerging countries, major application of emulsifiers in bakery and ice cream products, and preference of low fat foods among consumers are the major factors that are driving the market of the food emulsifier globally. Asia-Pacific is the most lucrative region in terms of revenue in the food emulsifier market. Countries such as India, China, and Japan are the major contributors to the market. India and China are the most populated countries in the world. Currently, the mono, di-glycerides & derivatives, sorbitan esters and lecithin are largely preferred by consumers. Therefore, the food emulsifier market in the region is expected to grow considerably towards the end of the forecast period. Moreover, France and Germany are the leading manufacturers of food emulsifiers in the region. The increasing demand for packaged foods has positively impacted the market for food emulsifiers in the region. Therefore, the demand for food emulsifier is set to grow in the region with the change in food preferences of consumers.Key players profiled in this report include Cargill Inc, Sensient Technologies Corporation, Ajinomoto Co., Associated British Foods Plc., Archer-Daniels-Midlands Company, DSM Nutritional Products AG, CP Kelco U.S., Inc., BASF, Chr. Hansen Holding A/S and Givaudan SA. among others.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Wireless Health Market Worth US$ 112.0 Billion by 2021

Wireless Health Market

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New York, December 09: Market Research Engine has published a new report titled as Wireless Health Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2015 - 2023The market is anticipated to surpass USD 112 billion in the forecast period.Browse Full Report:Wireless health is combine technique of wireless technology and medicine which is used to recover the individuals health and security. Varity of tools are used in wireless health which analyze, examine and manage the disease. It is rising field that request to introduce wireless technology in healthcare system and health research for the purpose of improving individual care and class of living. The rate of healthcare system is also reducing by using the wireless health technique. Wireless health is projected to convert the present conventional and paper based healthcare system and guarantying the superiority concern. Wireless healths also provide patient protection.North America is leading market with highest market share of wireless health market. Owing to increase in internet access in Asia Pacific, the APAC market is showing huge growth in wireless health market.The major driving factors of wireless health market are as follows:o Growing the requirement of the healthcare system industry.o Rising the healthcare expenditure.o Useful quality managing.o Correct billing management.o Accurate patient information.The Restraints factors of wireless health market are as follows:o Confidentiality problem regarding wireless health.o Safety issue.o Require standard set of rule and compensation strategy.o Problem regarding infrastructure and price.Download Free Sample Report:The wireless health market is segmented on the lines of its technology, component, application and end user. The wireless health market is segmented on the lines of its technology like WLAN/Wi-Fi, WPAN, WiMAX and WWAN. WPAN is further segmented into zigbee, Bluetooth, ant+, ultra-wide band (UWB), z-wave, RFID, RTLS, and IPS. WWAN is segmented into 3G and 4G, GPRS, CDMA and GPS. Under component segmentation it covers software, hardware and services. The wireless health market segmented on the lines of its applications such as patient-specific, physiological monitoring, patient communication and support and provider/payer-specific. Based on end user it covers providers, payers and patients. The wireless health market is geographic segmentation covers various regions such as North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, Middle East and Africa. Each geography market is further segmented to provide market revenue for select countries such as the U.S., Canada, U.K. Germany, China, Japan, India, Brazil, and GCC countries.This report provides:1) An overview of the global market for wireless health and related technologies.2) Analyses of global market trends, with data from 2013, estimates for 2014 and 2015, and projections of compound annual growth rates (CAGRs) through 2021.3) Identifications of new market opportunities and targeted promotional plans for wireless health.4) Discussion of research and development, and the demand for new products and new applications.5) Comprehensive company profiles of major players in the industry.REPORT SCOPE:The scope of the report includes a detailed study of global and regional markets for various types of wireless health with the reasons given for variations in the growth of the industry in certain regions.The report covers detailed competitive outlook including the market share and company profiles of the key participants operating in the global market.Key players profiled in the report include: All scripts Healthcare Solutions Inc. AT &T, Inc. Cerner Corporation Omron Corporation Philips Healthcare Verizon Communications Inc. Qualcomm Inc. Aerohive Networks Inc. Vocera Communications Inc. Alcatel-Lucent (U.S.)About MarketResearchEngine.comMarket Research Engine is a global market research and consulting organization. We provide market intelligence in emerging, niche technologies and markets. Our market analysis powered by rigorous methodology and quality metrics provide information and forecasts across emerging markets, emerging technologies and emerging business models. Our deep focus on industry verticals and country reports help our clients to identify opportunities and develop business strategies.Media ContactCompany Name: Market Research EngineContact Person: John BayEmail: john@marketresearchengine.comPhone: +1-855-984-1862, +91-860-565-7204Country: United StatesWebsite:Address: 3422 SW 15 Street, Suite #8942, Deerfield Beach, FL 33442, United States
Roof Coatings Market: Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecasts 20162024

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A roof coating is a monolithic fluid applied on the roofing membrane. Due to its elasticity property, it is able to elongate and return to its original form. The roof coating is the initial layer of the surface, which receives direct impact of sunlight infrared as well ultraviolet rays, rain hail, and other factors that can lead to damage of the roof. Hence, it acts as an excellent barrier for direct radiation and other natural conditions. Roof coating not only reduces and controls the room temperature but it also keeps ambience warm inside the room in winter season. Roof coatings prevent the surface from direct heat, which lessens the chances of heat getting induced below the roof surface. This ultimately reduces the energy consumption and utilization of HVAC equipment.Request Free Sample Report @On the basis of technology, the global roof coatings market is segmented as water-based coatings and solvent-based coatings. Based on the materialistic properties, the global market is segmented as elastomeric, bituminous, tiles, and metals. On the basis of end-user, the global roof coatings market is segmented as residential and commercial-based coatings. The type of the technology and material depends on consumers preference and also relates to the type of roofs. Based on the type of roof, the global market is further segmented as low-sloped roof and steep-sloped roof.Request Report TOC (Table of Contents) @Owing to factors such as rising global warming and concerns regarding environment, people are opting for eco-friendly method of roof coatings. In addition, other factors such as increasing disposable income of people in developing countries, people preferring cool roofing, and changing inclination of people towards sustainable building methods drive the growth of the global roof coatings market. Moreover, growing construction and destructive natural calamities leading to residential and commercial property damages have been a key factor for the growth of the global roof coatings market. Latest product developments, mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures are the key strategies adopted by the global market players in order to boost the roof coatings market growth.Asia Pacific is expected to be the major market player for the global roof coatings market. In addition, North America and Europe are also anticipated to witness high demand for roof coatings. Furthermore, owing to rapid growth in residential as well as commercial constructions, countries such as Brazil, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa are also contributing to the growth of the market.Browse detail report @Some of the major players influencing the global roof coatings market are PPG Industries, Sherwin-Williams, AkzoNobel NV, Valspar Corporation, Nippon Paint Co. Ltd., RPM International Inc., BASF SE, and The Dow Chemical Company. Other key players dominating the global market include Hempel A/S, Fletcher Insulation, GAF, Lloyd Insulations, Owens Corning, and Heritage Roofing.Roof Coatings Market: Regional Segment AnalysisNorth AmericaU.S.EuropeUKFranceGermanyAsia PacificChinaJapanIndiaLatin AmericaBrazilMiddle East and AfricaVisit Our Blog :About UsZion Market Research is an obligated company. We create futuristic, cutting edge, informative reports ranging from industry reports, company reports to country reports. We provide our clients not only with market statistics unveiled by avowed private publishers and public organizations but also with vogue and newest industry reports along with pre-eminent and niche company profiles. Our database of market research reports comprises a wide variety of reports from cardinal industries. Our database is been updated constantly in order to fulfill our clients with prompt and direct online access to our database. Keeping in mind the clients needs, we have included expert insights on global industries, products, and market trends in this database. Last but not the least, we make it our duty to ensure the success of clients connected to usafter allif you do well, a little of the light shines on us.Contact US:Zion Market Research4283, Express Lane,Suite 634-143,Sarasota, Florida 34249, United StatesTel: +49-322 210 92714USA/Canada Toll-Free No.1-855-465-4651Email: sales@zionmarketresearch.comWebsite:
Nanocrystalline Cellulose Market Size, Analysis, and Forecast Report 2015-2021

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Cellulose is a complex polysaccharide consisting large number of glucose units arranged linearly. Cellulose is raw material polymer used in the form of paper, cotton, board, flax etc. It is also used in production of artificial cellulose based films and threads. Nanocellulose is nano structured cellulose that includes nanocrystalline cellulose, bacterial Nanocellulose, microfibrillated cellulose. Nanocrystalline cellulose is derived from acid hydrolysis of cellulose and depends on origin and morphology of cellulose used. High strength, distinctive optical properties, nanoscale dimension, high surface area and modules are the properties enhancing its widespread applications. Nanocrystalline cellulose is rod like rigid crystals, with diameter of 10 to 20 nm. Nanocrystalline cellulose can be in the form of semisolid, liquid, gel or solid flakes.Get Sample Research Report at :Rising applications in packaging and composites industry coupled with government initiatives and increasing investment for nanocrystalline cellulose drives the demand for nanocrystalline cellulose market. Growing concern for sustainability, variable petroleum price and manufacturing cost has fuel the growth of nanocrystalline cellulose market. Another factor that contributes to the splendid growth of nanocrystalline cellulose market is unique morphology of nanocrystalline cellulose like high surface area, orientation and alignment, low toxic level and mechanical reinforcement. Nonetheless economical crisis and lack in technology leads to high cost which likely to hamper the growth of nanocrystalline cellulose market.The report provides a comprehensive view on the nanocrystalline cellulose market we have included a detailed value chain analysis. To understand the competitive landscape in the market, an analysis of Porters Five Forces model for the nanocrystalline cellulose market has also been included. The study encompasses a market attractiveness analysis, wherein product segments are benchmarked based on their market size, growth rate and general attractiveness. The report also analyzes several driving and restraining factors and their impact on the market during the forecast period.Do Inquiry before buying @The key end applications for the nanocrystalline cellulose market have been segmented as nanostructures, nanocomposite films, drug delivery and protein immobilization among others. Nanocomposite films are further segmented has monolayer films and multilayer films. Nanostructures followed by nanocomposite are the emerging segments owing to wide range of end user applications. Drug delivery and protein immobilization continues to gain traction during the years to come.Geographically, nanocrystalline cellulose market has been segmented into North America. Middle East, Asia, Africa, Latin America. North America dominates the nanocrystalline cellulose market due to technological advancements and growing demand. Moreover, Asia Pacific has a huge stake in developing market for nanocrystalline cellulose market.Browse detail report with in-depth TOC:The key players for the nanocellulose market include Innventia AB, Sappi Ltd, Borregard ASA, CelluForce Inc, Fpinnovations, American Process Inc., Kruger Inc., Diacel Finechem Ltd., Nippon Paper Group Inc., Melodea Ltd., J. Rettenmaire & Sohne GmBH (JRS) and UPM-Kymmene OYJ.The report segments of the nanocrystalline cellulose market into:Nanocrystalline Cellulose Market: Application Segment AnalysisNanostructuresNanocomposite filmsDrug deliveryProtein immobilizationOthersNanocrystalline Cellulose Market: Regional Segment AnalysisNorth AmericaU.S.EuropeUKFranceGermanyAsia PacificChinaJapanIndiaLatin AmericaBrazilMiddle East & AfricaAbout US:Syndicate Market Research provides a range of marketing and business research solutions designed for our clients specific needs based on our expert resources. The business scopes of Syndicate Market Research cover more than 30 industries includsing energy, new materials, transportation, daily consumer goods, chemicals, etc. We provide our clients with one-stop solution for all the research requirements.Contact US:Joel John3422 SW 15 Street,Suit #8138Deerfield Beach,Florida 33442United StatesToll Free: +1-855-465-4651 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-386-310-3803Email: sale@syndicatemarketresearch.comWebsite:
Genetically Modified Organisms Market - Global Industry Analysis 2015-2023

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Any organism whose genetic material has been modified using genetic engineering technique in laboratory is referred as genetically modified organism (GMO). Genetic modification of genetic material is practiced for production of specific biological product or for expression of specific physiological traits in an organism. Genetically modified organisms are produced using reproductive cloning and recombinant deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) technology. Transfer of entire donor nucleus into enucleated cytoplasm of host egg result in an offspring which is identical to its parent. Reproductive cloning generates offspring. While on the other hand, recombinant deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) technology involves insertion of multiple genes from an individual of one species into deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) of another species. The first animal produced using reproductive cloning technique was a sheep named Dolly in 1996. Since then, many animals such as pigs, dogs and horses, have been generated using reproductive cloning technique.Get More Information:Based on the species of an organism, the global genetically modifies organisms market has been segmented as follows:Micro-organismsPlantsGenetically Modified CropsCisgenic plantsTransgenic PlantsMammalsHorsePigsDogsSheepOthersInsectsMosquitoesFruit FliesBollwormsOthersAquatic AnimalsBased on the industrial application, the global genetically modified organisms market has been segmented as follows:AgricultureEnvironmental ManagementMedicineResearchHuman TherapeuticsFood Quality TraitsHuman Gene TherapyBrowse Full Report With ToC:Genetically modified organisms market involves ethical issues and thus, the market is highly regulated in majority of the countries globally. For instance, labeling of genetically modified food has become a topic of controversy in the U.S. in recent times. In addition, high risk of genetic pollution is another issue surrounding genetically modified food. Thus, ethical issues involved in the production are primarily restraining the growth of global genetically modified organisms market.Geographically, the global genetically modified organisms (GMO) market has been segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Rest of the World (RoW). North America comprises genetically modified organisms (GMO) market for the U.S and Canada. Europe comprises cumulative market of genetically modified organisms (GMO) in Germany, Italy, France, Spain, and Rest of Europe (RoE). Asia Pacific comprises cumulative market of genetically modified organisms (GMO) in China, India, Australia, New Zealand and rest of Asia Pacific (RoAPAC). Rest of the World (RoW) comprises genetically modified organisms (GMO) market in Latin America, Middle East and Russia. Presently, North America and Europe dominates the global genetically modified organisms market. Factors such as highly developed research infrastructure, well defined regulatory framework, availability of skilled scientists and exceptionally developed biotechnology sector are driving the growth of the genetically modified organisms (GMO) market in North America and Europe. Asia Pacific genetically modified organism (GMO) market is anticipated to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period from 2014 to 2020. Governments of countries such as India and China are investing heavily on biotechnology sector to boost the biotechnology industry in respective countries. In addition, India and China account for the largest population pool in the world leading to increase food in consumption needs. Rising food consumption is anticipated to drive the demand for genetically modified organism market in these countries. Ministry of Agriculture regulates the genetically modified organisms (GMO) market in China. Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and South Africa, are some of the countries in the rest of the world (RoW) region that are expected to show higher growth in the near future.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
TPA Alternative Service Concepts Earns the Honor as a Best Places to Work in Insurance for Third Consecutive Year

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Alternative Service Concepts, LLC (ASC), a national provider of workers compensation and property and casualty third party claims administration services, this week announced it earned spot #11 out of 51 in the small-size category for the 2016 Best Places to Work in Insurance by Business Insurance. This award program is a joint effort between Business Insurance magazine and Best Companies Group (BCG) that serves to identify and recognize the best employers in the insurance industry each year.This year marks Alternative Service Concepts third consecutive appearance on the list. Identifying, hiring and retaining talent is critical to the success of any company, even more so with a professional service organization such as a Third Party Administrator, said Glenn Backus, President. Working tirelessly to respond to our employees needs and making ASC a great place to work has afforded us a retention rate that is among the best in the industry -- a high retention rate allows us to deliver a consistent service to our clients with excellent outcomes.Headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, Alternative Service Concepts, LLC (ASC) is an integrity-based company delivering workers compensation, and P&C claims management expertise and customized solutions to our partners. With offices located strategically throughout the nation, ASC and its predecessors have provided workers compensation and property/casualty claims management services for over 30 years. Since its inception, ASC has built a reputation for professionalism, expertise, and efficiency, consistently exceeding client expectations. For more information, visit2501 McGavock Pike, Suite 802Nashville, TN 37214
Food Contact Paper Market: Frozen Food, Groceries, Fresh Food, Takeaway Food, Liquids, Beverages to Boost Demand!

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Food Contact Paper Market: OverviewAny paper that is intended to come in direct contact with food or other consumables is known as food contact paper. This paper is usually used in packaging edibles such as confectioneries, bakery products, dairy products, frozen food, groceries, fresh food, takeaway food, liquids, or beverages. Food contact paper is widely used across the food and beverages industry. Major market segmentation is done on the basis of type of paper and presence of coating. Three major types of paper used in food packaging include corrugated paper, kraft paper, and wrapping paper. Paper packaging materials used in packaging of liquid food and beverages have an inner lining on the surface that directly comes in contact with consumables. This is done to avoid direct contact between paper and food items and prevent spoilage of both food and paper. This type of paper is said to be poly-coated, while dry edibles can be stored in simple food-grade papers, known as non poly-coated papers.Download PDF Brochure for Emerging Market Trends atFood Contact Paper Market: SegmentationFood contact paper is used in varied packaging applications across bakeries, dairies, beverages, confectioneries, groceries, fresh food, and other applications. Packaging of fresh food, groceries, and beverages accounted for approximately two-third share of the market in terms of application in the year 2014. Fresh food packaging held substantial share of the food contact paper market, with nearly one-third of the global share in various applications, while groceries and beverages packing applications together accounted for nearly about one-third share of the market in 2014. Packaging of bakery products, takeaway food, ready-to-eat meals, frozen food, and non-liquid dairy products constituted remaining market share in terms of application. In terms of type of paper used, corrugated paper was the key product type, accounting for significant share of the market. This was followed by kraft paper, while the remaining share was occupied by wrapping paper. Wrapping paper has developed into the most popular food contact paper type during the past few years; a similar trend is expected to continue due to its easier availability and recyclability. Poly-coated papers are used in packaging of beverages, takeaway food, frozen food, and ready-to-eat meals, while rest of the market is dominated by non poly-coated paper packaging.Food Contact Paper Market: Trends and OpportunitiesThere has been growing concern over the usage of poly-coated paper in food packaging. Poly-coated papers are non-biodegradable; hence, they pose environmental concerns. Numerous key players in the market have initiated research and development projects to find a sustainable alternative to poly-coated paper to avoid environmental restraints. Growing urbanization has been chiefly driving the food contact paper market during the past few years. There has also been rising demand for good quality paper to be used in food packaging due to growing consumer awareness toward food security and health concerns. This trend is expected to further augment the food contact paper market. This, in turn, would compel producers to come up with sustainable alternatives to existing low-quality and non-biodegradable papers.Food Contact Paper Market: Geographical and Competitive DynamicsAsia Pacific is expected to be the fastest growing market for food contact paper followed by Middle East & Africa due to presence of strong middle class population in growing economies such as China, India, South Africa, and countries in ASEAN. Increasing disposable income and flourishing food and beverages industry are expected to primarily boost the market in this region. Stringent norms for food packaging in North America are likely to fuel the food contact paper market in this region. Europe is anticipated to witness sluggish growth due to stringent environmental norms in the region. Latin America is estimated to witness steady growth in the food contact paper market led by developing economies in the region such as Brazil.Major players in the food contact paper market include International Paper, HUHTAMAKI GROUP, Mondi, Smurfit Kappa Group, Georgia-Pacific, Glatfelter, Burrows Paper Corporation, Seaman Paper Company, Nordic Paper, Pactiv LLC and Cascades Inc.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Global Acrylonitrile (AN) Market 2016 - Asahi Kasei, CNPC, Sinopec, Ineos, Ascend, TSRC, DSM, Tae Kwang, CPDC, Cytec, Tungsuh, Dia-Nitrix, Luk Oil

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Acrylonitrile is an organic compound with the formula CH2CHCN. It is a colorless volatile liquid, although commercial samples can be yellow due to impurities. In terms of its molecular structure, it consists of a vinyl group linked to a nitrile. It is an important monomer for the manufacture of useful plastics such as polyacrylonitrile. It is reactive and toxic at low doses.Request for sample report atThis report provides detailed analysis of worldwide markets for Acrylonitrile (AN) from 2011-2015 and provides extensive market forecasts 2016-2021 by region/country and subsectors. It covers the key technological and market trends in the Acrylonitrile (AN) market and further lays out an analysis of the factors influencing the supply/demand for Acrylonitrile (AN), and the opportunities/challenges faced by industry participants. It also acts as an essential tool to companies active across the value chain and to the new entrants by enabling them to capitalize the opportunities and develop business strategies.Global Acrylonitrile (AN) Market Outlook 2016-2021, has been prepared based on the synthesis, analysis, and interpretation of information about the global Acrylonitrile (AN) market collected from specialized sources. The report covers key technological developments in the recent times and profiles leading players in the market and analyzes their key strategies.Access full report atThe competitive landscape section of the report provides a clear insight into the market share analysis of key industry players. The major players in the global Acrylonitrile (AN) market are Asahi Kasei (Japan), CNPC (China), Sinopec (China), Ineos (UK), Ascend (USA), TSRC (Taiwan), DSM (Netherlands), Tae Kwang (Korea), CPDC (Taiwan), Cytec (USA), Tungsuh (Korea), Dia-Nitrix (Japan), Luk Oil (Russia), among others.The report provides separate comprehensive analytics for the North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa and Rest of World. In this sector, global competitive landscape and supply/demand pattern of Acrylonitrile (AN) industry has been provided.Fior Markets is a leading market intelligence company that sells reports of top publishers in the technology industry.Our extensive research reports cover detailed market assessments that include major technological improvements in the industry. Fior Markets also specializes in analyzing hi-tech systems and current processing systems in its expertise.We have a team of experts that compile precise research reports and actively advise top companies to improve their existing processes. Our experts have extensive experience in the topics that they cover.Fior Markets provides you the full spectrum of services related to market research, and corroborate with the clients to increase the revenue stream, and address process gaps.Contact UsMark StoneSales Manager2566, Lincoln StreetPrinceton,New Jersey 08540USAPhone: (201) 465-4211Email: sales@fiormarkets.comWeb:Blog:
Global Styrenic Block Copolymers (SBC) Market 2016 - Lee Chang Yung, Sinopec, Kraton, TSRC, Dynasol Elastomeros, Versalis, Sibur, Asahi Kasei, Kuraray, KUMHO, LG

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Styrenic block copolymers (SBCs) are the largest-volume market of the family of thermoplastic elastomers (TPE). TPEs have rubberlike properties, but process as thermoplastics. As with other thermoplastic elastomers, styrenic block copolymers are characterized by their ability to be processed as thermoplastic materials while possessing the physical and mechanical properties characteristic of filled vulcanized elastomers.Request for sample report atThis report provides detailed analysis of worldwide markets for Styrenic Block Copolymers (SBC) from 2011-2015 and provides extensive market forecasts 2016-2021 by region/country and subsectors. It covers the key technological and market trends in the Styrenic Block Copolymers (SBC) market and further lays out an analysis of the factors influencing the supply/demand for Styrenic Block Copolymers (SBC), and the opportunities/challenges faced by industry participants. It also acts as an essential tool to companies active across the value chain and to the new entrants by enabling them to capitalize the opportunities and develop business strategies.Global Styrenic Block Copolymers (SBC) Market Outlook 2016-2021, has been prepared based on the synthesis, analysis, and interpretation of information about the global Styrenic Block Copolymers (SBC) market collected from specialized sources. The report covers key technological developments in the recent times and profiles leading players in the market and analyzes their key strategies.Access full report atThe competitive landscape section of the report provides a clear insight into the market share analysis of key industry players. The major players in the global Styrenic Block Copolymers (SBC) market are Lee Chang Yung (Taiwan), Sinopec (China), Kraton (USA), TSRC (Taiwan), Dynasol Elastomeros (Spain), Versalis (Italy), Sibur (Russia), Asahi Kasei (Japan), Kuraray (Japan), KUMHO (Korea), LG (Korea), among others.The report provides separate comprehensive analytics for the North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa and Rest of World. In this sector, global competitive landscape and supply/demand pattern of Styrenic Block Copolymers (SBC) industry has been provided.Fior Markets is a leading market intelligence company that sells reports of top publishers in the technology industry.Our extensive research reports cover detailed market assessments that include major technological improvements in the industry. Fior Markets also specializes in analyzing hi-tech systems and current processing systems in its expertise.We have a team of experts that compile precise research reports and actively advise top companies to improve their existing processes. Our experts have extensive experience in the topics that they cover.Fior Markets provides you the full spectrum of services related to market research, and corroborate with the clients to increase the revenue stream, and address process gaps.Contact UsMark StoneSales Manager2566, Lincoln StreetPrinceton,New Jersey 08540USAPhone: (201) 465-4211Email: sales@fiormarkets.comWeb:Blog:
Cardiac Prosthetic Devices Market 2015-2022 Growth Trends and Forecasts

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The new research report on Cardiac Prosthetic Devices Market offered by DecisionDatabases.com provides Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast Till 2022.Get Free Sample Copy @The report on global cardiac prosthetic devices market evaluates the growth trends of the industry through historical study and estimates future prospects based on comprehensive research. The report extensively provides the market share, growth, trends and forecasts for the period 2015-2022. The market size in terms of revenue (USD MN) is calculated for the study period along with the details of the factors affecting the market growth (drivers and restraints).A glimpse of the major drivers and restraints affecting this market is mentioned below:A. Drivers> Rising geriatric population> Technologically advanced productsB. Restraints> High cost of implantationFurthermore, the report quantifies the market share held by the major players of the industry and provides an in-depth view of the competitive landscape. This market is classified into different segments with detailed analysis of each with respect to geography for the study period 2015-2022.The comprehensive value chain analysis of the market will assist in attaining better product differentiation, along with detailed understanding of the core competency of each activity involved. The market attractiveness analysis provided in the report aptly measures the potential value of the market providing business strategists with the latest growth opportunities.The report classifies the market into different segments based on type. These segments are studied in detail incorporating the market estimates and forecasts at regional and country level. The segment analysis is useful in understanding the growth areas and probable opportunities of the market.Leading Segment in this market:By Geography  North AmericaView More about Cardiac Prosthetic Devices Market Research Report @The report also covers the complete competitive landscape of the worldwide market with company profiles of key players such as Abbott Laboratories, Abiomed, Inc., AtriCure, Inc., Boston Scientific Corporation, Edward Lifesciences Corporation, Medtronic, Inc., Siemens Healthcare, Sorin Group and St. Jude Medical, Inc. A detailed description of each has been included, with information in terms of H.Q, future capacities, key mergers & acquisitions, financial overview, partnerships, collaborations, new product launches, new product developments and other latest industrial developments.Major Table Of Contents:1. INTRODUCTION2. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY3. MARKET ANALYSIS4. CARDIAC PROSTHETIC DEVICES MARKET ANALYSIS BY TYPE5. CARDIAC PROSTHETIC DEVICES MARKET ANALYSIS BY GEOGRAPHY6. COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE OF THE CARDIAC PROSTHETIC DEVICES COMPANIES7. COMPANY PROFILES OF THE CARDIAC PROSTHETIC DEVICES INDUSTRYOrder a Complete Cardiac Prosthetic Devices Market Research Report @DecisionDatabases.com is a global business research reports provider, enriching decision makers and strategists with qualitative statistics. DecisionDatabases.com is proficient in providing syndicated research report, customized research reports, company profiles and industry databases across multiple domains.Our expert research analysts have been trained to map clients research requirements to the correct research resource leading to a distinctive edge over its competitors. We provide intellectual, precise and meaningful data at a lightning speed.3rd Floor,Fountain chambers,Nanabhai Lane,Fort, Mumbai - 1E-Mail: sales@decisiondatabases.comPhone: +91 99 28 237112Web:
Halal Products Market: Multi-Lateral Agreements in Trade to Bolster Industry

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The global halal products market is a very promising and highly diversified market and ranges from products such as food and beverages to personal care and pharmaceutical products. The global halal products market is predicted to touch US$10.51 trillion by 2024 from US$2.70 trillion in 2015, rising at a whopping 16.20% CAGR between 2016 and 2024.Transparency Market Research (TMR), a market intelligence company, throws light on the top products in the market and the reason for their dominance. In addition, the extent of this market in key geographic areas has also been presented.Get a Sample PDF:Q. What factors will drive and impede the development of the global halal products market?The increasing population of Muslim community and the growing disposable incomes of individuals in the top Islamic nations will be the prime factors providing impetus to the development of the global halal products market. In addition, the utilization of halal products by the non-Muslim community will also bode well for the development of this market. Furthermore, the improvement in the sector of retail will also positively impact the development of the overall halal products market. This is due to the enhancement in the halal certification standards and the selling of halal certified products by retail outlets. The multi-lateral agreements in trade have also had a positive impact on the overall growth of this market.Contrariwise, the absence of uniformity of halal standards may become a roadblock in the development of the market in the long run. This is because the Islamic regulatory bodies differ from country to country and this is why the definition of halal varies from nation to nation. Hence, the products being accepted under the Halal Certification Board of one nation might not get accepted in another nation, thus impeding the growth of the overall market.Q. Which product and regional segment led the market and how will they tread by the end of the forecast period?On the basis of revenue, the segments of primary meat and processed food and beverages held a key share of approximately 50% in the market in 2015 and are predicted to experience a huge demand by the end of 2024. On the other hand, the segment of pharmaceuticals held the second position in the market in the same year, however, this segment will experience a drastic decline in the coming years.The Asia Pacific halal products market is predicted to hold a dominant share owing to the proliferation of Muslim community and the penetration of numerous certified manufacturers in this region. Nation-wise, India, Brazil, and the U.S. are the top exporters of halal products globally. Collectively, the halal products market in both the Middle East and Africa and Asia Pacific constituted a share of 80% in 2015. On the other hand, the growth of this market in Europe will also be exponential owing to the increasing Muslim community in nations such as the UK, France, and Germany in the Western European region.Q. Which players lead the sectors of food and beverages, chemicals and materials, and cosmetic and personal care?The top player in the food and beverage segment of the halal products market is Nestle S.A, while Reckitt Benckiser Group plc. caters halal products within the sector of chemicals and materials. On the other hand, Unilever is the prime player catering halal products in the segment of cosmetic and personal care.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Pre-Registration, Filing Rejected/Withdrawn, Phase Iii, Phase Ii, Phase I, Preclinical, Discovery By Migraine - Pipeline Review, H2 2016

https://goo.gl/9NPbcC

"Migraine - Pipeline Review, H2 2016" The Report covers current Market Trends, Worldwide Analysis, Global Forecast, Review, Share, Size, Growth, Effect.Description-Global Markets Direct's latest Pharmaceutical and Healthcare disease pipeline guide Migraine Pipeline Review, H2 2016, provides an overview of the Migraine (Central Nervous System) pipeline landscape.Migraine is a disorder characterized by repeated attacks of severe headache. A migraine headache causes throbbing or pulsating pain, usually on only one side of the head. These headaches are often associated with nausea, vomiting, and extreme sensitivity to light and sound. Symptoms include problems speaking, tingling in face, arms, and shoulders, pain behind one of the eyes and pain that gets worse with routine physical activity.Get Sample Report With TOC @Report HighlightsGlobal Markets Direct's Pharmaceutical and Healthcare latest pipeline guide Migraine Pipeline Review, H2 2016, provides comprehensive information on the therapeutics under development for Migraine (Central Nervous System), complete with analysis by stage of development, drug target, mechanism of action (MoA), route of administration (RoA) and molecule type. The guide covers the descriptive pharmacological action of the therapeutics, its complete research and development history and latest news and press releases.The Migraine (Central Nervous System) pipeline guide also reviews of key players involved in therapeutic development for Migraine and features dormant and discontinued projects. The guide covers therapeutics under Development by Companies /Universities /Institutes, the molecules developed by Companies in Pre-Registration, Filing rejected/Withdrawn, Phase III, Phase II, Phase I, Preclinical, Discovery and Unknown stages are 1, 1, 12, 14, 14, 20, 8 and 2 respectively. Similarly, the Universities portfolio in Preclinical and Discovery stages comprises 1 and 3 molecules, respectively.Migraine.Scope- The pipeline guide provides a snapshot of the global therapeutic landscape of Migraine (Central Nervous System).- The pipeline guide reviews pipeline therapeutics for Migraine (Central Nervous System) by companies and universities/research institutes based on information derived from company and industry-specific sources.- The pipeline guide covers pipeline products based on several stages of development ranging from pre-registration till discovery and undisclosed stages.- The pipeline guide features descriptive drug profiles for the pipeline products which comprise, product description, descriptive licensing and collaboration details, R&D brief, MoA & other developmental activities.Reasons to buy- Procure strategically important competitor information, analysis, and insights to formulate effective R&D strategies.- Recognize emerging players with potentially strong product portfolio and create effective counter-strategies to gain competitive advantage.- Find and recognize significant and varied types of therapeutics under development for Migraine (Central Nervous System).- Classify potential new clients or partners in the target demographic.- Develop tactical initiatives by understanding the focus areas of leading companies.- Plan mergers and acquisitions meritoriously by identifying key players and its most promising pipeline therapeutics.- Formulate corrective measures for pipeline projects by understanding Migraine (Central Nervous System) pipeline depth and focus of Indication therapeutics.ResearchMoz is the worlds fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMozs service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators.Researchmoz Global Pvt. Ltd.90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United States,Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free),Tel: +1-518-621-2074
Top 6 Benefits of Wearable Technology

Today billions of devices feature wearable technology and around 83% of experts believe that the internet of things will have beneficial effects on the everyday lives of the public by 2025. Already, in 2016 82% of wearable technology users in America have said that wearable technology has had a positive impact on their lives.Fashion StatementMany wearable technologies today symbolise fashion and wealth. An example of this is the Apple Watch, at a very expensive price tag this watch incorporates fitness tracking and health orientated capabilities with integration with iOS and other Apple products and services. Following on from previous success of other Apple products, consumers were excited about the launch of a trendy new wearable accessory. When it was first released in April 2015 the Apple Watch quickly became the worlds best-selling wearable device, selling 4.2 million smartwatches in the second quarter of 2015 alone.Health & Fitness TrackingFitness tracking devices are a very popular accessory and have been since 2014. These fitness tracking devices, such as Fitbit have lots of benefits including: monitoring your sleep, calorie intake, calories burnt, exercise, number of steps walked in a day and number of floors climbed in a day. The Fitbit Alta prompts you every working hour to walk 250 steps by releasing a vibration on your wrist. It also allows you to read text messages on your Fitbit and will vibrate when you receive an incoming call. The Fitbit devices are perfect for the young generation that live life on the go.Improves Personal Safety & SecurityThere are numerous apps today that improve personal safety, one of which is Wearsafe; it enables you to connect at the press of a button, keeping you safe wherever you go. The app can be activated by either wearing a smartwatch or by being sent a Wearsafe tag (a tiny device that pairs with your smartphone). The app works from up to 165 feet away, it communicates your location, speed of travel and audio collected from your smartphone and shares the information with your network.Interaction & ConnectivityVarious tracking devices can alert you about incoming calls, SMS, emails and voicemails. The technology can also help you locate your phone.NavigationWith tools like Google maps supported by smartphones, users can now retrieve directions from their current location, this is extremely helpful when youre not familiar with your surrounding areas. With most smartphones now you can also share your location with individual contacts. This is a ground-breaking innovation which can help to keep users safe. The share your location function is particularly popular amongst parents who are keen to know the whereabouts of their teenage children.Personal TrainerWith fitness tracker devices it is now easier than ever for users to feel encouraged to participate in regular exercise and know what theyre doing. The fitness trackers are reliable in tracking real time exercise and for those activities that do not require hand movements to participate in a sport, the exercise can be manually inputted in to the Fitbit afterwards to ensure the activity is monitored. By entering your daily calorie consumption in to the fitness tracker apps on your phone, users can see exactly how much exercise they need to do to burn off any extra calories. With the apps prompting you to participate in more exercise the trackers act as your personal trainer.More than 72 million wearable devices were shipped worldwide last year. The future possibilities on wearable technology are endless, wearable technology has had a massive impact of peoples lives and will continue to do so over the next 3 years, with the sales forecast for wearable devices 155 million by 2019.GD Rectifiers are a UK Distributor for Infineon, a leading microelectronics company that specialise in technology that achieves more, consumes less and is accessible to everyone.The new GPS single-chip design, the XPOSYS, by Seiko Epson and Infineon Technologies, is optimised for mobile devices for the consumer market; especially mobile phones with navigation featuresFor further information on Infineon products, please contact our sales team on: 01444 243 452GD Rectifiers is a Global Manufacturer and Distributor of products, services and solutions to commercial and industrial users of power electronic components.Established in 1963, GD Rectifiers has over 50 years of extensive experience across a large range of markets, specialising in new and current technologies for industrial power control applications. An extensive product offering has built GD Rectifiers exceptional reputation as the go-to power specialist with innovative experience across: Aviation, Automotive, Rail, Medical, Industrial and Electronics markets.GD Rectifiers are an ISO 9001:2008 registered company that design and develop bespoke power semiconductor assemblies to control voltage, current and frequency for international industrial markets.GD RectifiersBentley House2 William WayBurgess HillWest SussexRH15 9AG
Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) Market to reach USD 350 billion To 2023

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http://bit.ly/2hmXxkx

MarketStudyReport.com adds Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) Market Size By End-Use (Small Businesses, Mid-To-Large Sized Businesses), By Device (Tablets, Smartphones, Laptops), Industry Analysis Report, Regional Outlook, Application Potential, Price Trend, Competitive Landscape & Forecast, 2015  2022 " new report to its research database. The report spread across 101 pages with tables and figures in it.Proliferation of Smartphones and Rollout services to further BYOD market GrowthAccording to new study based Report on Bring Your Own Device by Global Market Insights, BYOD market size worth USD 94.15 billion in 2014 is forecast to reach USD 350 billion from 2015 to 2022. The report provides granular quantitative information on market together with key BYOD industry insights. Recently BYOD has been adopted across various verticals including logistics and retail, Telecom, IT, manufacturing, healthcare, public etc. This surging adoption of this system for enhancing organizational productivity is expected to drive the market growth.Request Sample Copy @Increasing use of, tablets, and laptops is anticipated to have a positive impact on the market. Furthermore, the proliferation of smartphones and 4G LTE is expected to fuel the market growth. A smartphone is expected to be the most preferred device, as it simplifies handling of both personal life and office work. The tablet segment is forecast to witness substantial growth over 130 billion in a predicted time frame.Healthcare, financial services and insurance industry segments are predicted to be most key verticals. Moreover, both mid-to-large sized and small scale businesses have started adopting the system and are predicted to further the growth.The report discusses the in-depth analysis of the Bring Your Own Device industry at the regional level, including India, Korea, Indonesia, Taiwan, Japan, Australia, China, Singapore, New Zealand, Malaysia, Philippines, and U.S.U.S. BYOD market is expected to continue its dominance with the largest market share in the projected time frame. Asia Pacific BYOD market share is likely to witness substantial growth, at a growing CAGR of 20% during the expected period owing to lower hardware expenses, and surging smartphone penetration.Browse full table of contents and data tables @The report covers competitive analysis of the market discussing the profiles, key market strategies of major market players accumulating major market share in the market are: Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco Systems, MobileIron, Good Technology,and IBM Corporation. Increased productivity owing to growing use of personal devices is expected to trigger the market growth. Possible security threats, including device theft, challenges in tracking data and risk exposure, etc. need to be addressed to support the employees.The report features- Market Definition for BYOD along with restraints, drivers, challenges, opportunities and adoption of trends in the market- Market sizing and forecast- Segmentation of competitive market and assessments on a regional scale- Distribution channel assessment- Analysis with factors influencing the market landscape- Competitive Analysis of major market participants, company profiles and strategic activities- Pricing and substantiality trendsEnquiry before Buying @To receive personalized assistance write to us @ sales@marketstudyreport.com with the report title in the subject line along with your questions or call us at +1 866-764-2150About Market Study ReportCentralize market research purchases across your entire organization in one place.Marketstudyreport.com allows you to manage and control all corporate research purchases to consolidate billing and vendor management. You can eliminate duplicate purchases and customize your content and license management.The Green Suite #4594,Dover, DE 19901United States
Terri Horman, whose stepson Kyron went missing in 2010, has been accused of domestic violence by her partner in California, KGW reports.

Joseph Cristobal told the news station that he fears for his life. "I don't even know what she's capable of," he said.

Cristobal says Horman held a knife to his face and told him "something is going to happen to me or my family."

The Sacramento man has filed a restraining order. A hearing has been scheduled for Dec. 16 in Sacramento County Superior County. That's the same day Horman is to appear in court on gun charges.

She appears with her maiden name, Terri Lynn Moulton, in those filings.

Horman allegedly stole her roommate's gun in 2015, then failed to appear in court.

Horman was the last person to see her stepson Kyron before he went missing on June 4, 2010 just before a science fair at Skyline Elementary School. The boy's disappearance has drawn national attention and the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office said in September that the search is ongoing.

Soon after the announcement, Horman appeared on "Dr. Phil," where she claimed Kyron was abducted by a man in a white pickup.

--Eder Campuzano

503.221.4344

@edercampuzano

ecampuzano@oregonian.com
Donald Trump And Mike Pence Continue USA Thank You Tour 2016 In Des Moines

President-elect Donald Trump speaks at a Victory Tour Rally, on Dec. 8, 2016 in Des Moines, Iowa. Trump is taking time time to speak several of the states that helped him win the election.

(Steve Pope/Getty Images)

A former communications director for the Hillary Clinton campaign has launched a website that tracks President-elect Donald Trump's dealings. And because it uses a domain that originates in Afghanistan, the site has a semi-expletive name: Corrupt.af.

The "A" is for "as" and you can probably guess what the "F" stands for.

It tracks stories Matt Ortega, who worked for the campaign until June, claims point to corrupt deals and actions signed or made by Trump. Ortega told Politico that he's funding the site on his own.

Corrupt.af aggregates stories from various sources, the most recent of which is a Variety piece that details an agreement between the president-elect and NBC where Trump will keep his credit as an executive producer on the reality show "Celebrity Apprentice."

The timestamp on the post linking to the Variety piece read "7 hours ago" as of 9:30 p.m. Thursday while a banner on the main page claimed, "7 hours since the latest instance of corruption by Donald Trump."

Other stories the site links out to detail listings by agents in Trump Tower advertising the Secret Service as an amenity; Trump investing $250,000 in the parent company for Carrier; and the president-elect tapping former Goldman Sachs banker Steven Mnuchin as his Treasury secretary.

Trump's potential conflicts of interest have been a constant topic throughout the campaign and now the transition. In mid-November, the president-elect's daughter Ivanka, who held a high-ranking role in his campaign and transition teams in addition to her control over the family business, accompanied Trump to a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

The appearance of such close ties between Trump's business interests and his political privileges have many crying foul.

The corrupt.af domain is common parlance in the vein of lit, bae and fam. Incidentally, the domain for lit.af is currently taken but sits empty.

--Eder Campuzano

503.221.4344

@edercampuzano

ecampuzano@oregonian.com
Dozens of Oregon and southwest Washington schools were closed or delayed Thursday because of a winter storm that rolled into the Northwest. Some schools have decided to cancel or delay classes Friday as well.

Below is a list of of the latest closures and late openings. You can find more details on OregonLive's closures and delays page.

Portland city offices will open at 10 a.m. Friday.

***

Arbor School of Arts & Sciences - Closed

Art Institute of Portland - Two hours late. Classes begin at 10 a.m.

Athena-Weston School District: Closed

Banks School District - Closed

Beaverton School District - Closed

Bethlehem Christian Preschool: Closed

Blue Mountain Community College: Hermiston and Baker County, closed; Pendleton and Milton-Freewater on two-hour delay

Canby School District - Opening two hours late

Catlin Gabel - Closed

Cedarwood Waldorf School - Closed

Centennial School District - Closed

Central Catholic High School - 9:30 a.m. start

Childpeace Montessori School - Closed

Childswork Learning Center: Closed

Christ the King Catholic School - Closed

City Christian - Closed, no preschool. After school activities will be decided at 12 p.m.

Clatskanie School District - Closed

Columbia Gorge Community College: Closed

Concorde Career College - Scheduled morning classes will start at 9 a.m.; scheduled afternoon and evening classes will have normal start time.

Concordia University - Closed

Corbett School District - Closed; all extra-curricular events including the Winter Formal and basketball games are canceled.

Damascus Christian School - Closed

David Douglas School District - Closed

De La Salle North Catholic High - Corporate Work Study Program closed

Dufur School District - Closed

East Multnomah County Head Start - Closed

Estacada School District - Opening two hours late; buses on snow routes

Dallas School District - Opening two hours late

Dayton School District - Opening two hours late

Forest Grove School District - Closed

Forest Hills Lutheran Christian School - Closed

French American International School - Opening at 10 a.m.

Gaston School District - Closed

German International School - Closed

George Fox University - Newberg campus, Portland Center and Salem sites open at 10 a.m. Honors Program Fellowship events starting as scheduled.

Gladstone School District - Closed

Grace Lutheran School & Precious Lambs Preschool - Closed. Singing at the capitol canceled.

Gresham-Barlow School District - Closed

Hermiston School District - Closed

Head Start of Yamhill County - No morning Head Start session; Sheridan Center classes to start at 10:30 a.m.; 11:30 a.m./noon classes on schedule

Helix Schools - Closed

Hillsboro School District - Closed

Horizon Christian - Hood River - Closed

Jesuit High School - Closed

Jewell School District - Closed

Lewis & Clark College - Closed

Lake Oswego School District - Opening two hours late

Marylhurst University - Opening two hours late

Mid-Columbia Children's Council - Closed; Carson Site closed; Petersburg Head Start closed; Country Club Head Start closed; The Dalles and Wahtonka child care closed

McMinnville School District - Opening two hours late

Milton-Freewater Unified School District - Closed

Molalla River School District - All schools closed for the day. Evening activities will continue, including the Annual Singing Christmas Tree.

Montessori School of Beaverton - Closed

Mt. Hood Community College - Closed

Multnomah University - Portland campus opens at 1 p.m.; offices will be open, and classes will begin after that time

National University of Natural Medicine: Closed

Newberg School District - Opening two hours late

North Clackamas School District - Closed, athletics and activities cancelled.

North Wasco County School District 21 - Closed

NW College of Construction - Opening at 12:00 PM. Flagging class is canceled.

Our Lady of the Lake - Closed

Oregon Child Development Coalition Headstart - Closed, The Dalles and Odell centers

Oregon City School District - Opening two hours late

Oregon College of Art & Craft - Closed

Oregon College of Oriental Medicine - Campus and clinics opening at 1 p.m.

Oregon Health & Science University - Portland Campus classes delayed until 10 a.m.

Oregon Trail School District - Closed

Pacific University: All EyeClinic and EarClinci locations will open at 10 a.m. The ELC is closed.

Parkrose School District - Closed

Pendleton School District - Closed

Phagans School of Hair Design - Clackamas campus open normal hours - Portland campus opens at 12PM (noon)

Pilgrim Lutheran - Closed

Portland Community College: All campuses/centers closed. All classes/events canceled.

Portland Jewish Academy - Closed

Portland School District - Closed

Portland State University: Opening at noon. Finals originally scheduled for Thursday afternoon and evening will take place today at the same time and location.

Punkin Center, Hermiston: Early Intervention/Early Childhood Special Education preschool classes closed

Rainier School District - Closed

Reynolds School District - Closed; essential staff report when safe

Riverdale School District - Closed

Scappoose School District - Closed

St. Agatha - Closed

St. Andrew Nativity - Closed

St. Helens School District - Opening two hours late

St. Mary's Academy - Closed

St. Pius X Catholic School - Closed

Sheridan School District - Opening two hours late

Sherman County School District - Closed; all activities canceled

Sherwood School District - Closed

South Wasco County School District - Closed

St. Thomas More Catholic - Closed

Tigard-Tualatin School District - Closed

Toledo School District - Closed

Tualatin Valley Academy - Closed

Umatilla School District - Closed

University of Western States - Closed

Vernonia School District - Closed. No teacher professional development

Western Seminary - Opening two hours late

West Linn-Wilsonville - Closed

West Hills Learning Center - Closed

West Hills Montessori - Closed

Warner Pacific College - All offices and Early Learning Center Preschool open at 10 a.m.; students should contact instructors to coordinate final exam scheduling

Willamina School District - Opening two hours late; buses on snow routes

Winlock School District - Opening two hours late

Yamhill-Carlton -- Opening three hours late

Southwest Washington

Battle Ground School District - Closed including after-school activities, sporting events, concerts and Community Ed classes.

Centerville School District - Opening two hours late

Cornerstone Christian Academy - Opening at 10 a.m., Cornerstone Elementary, Middle School and Early Childhood Education program

Evergreen School District - Closed

Firm Foundation Christian - Closed

Gardner School of Arts & Sciences - Closed

Goldendale School District - Closed

Green Mountain School District - Closed

Hockinson School District - Closed

Kalama School District - Closed

King's Way Christian - Opening two hours late; no morning kindergarten or pre-kindergarten

Klickitat School District - Closed

La Center School District - Closed

Meadow Glade Adventist Elementary - Closed

Mill A School District - Closed

Ridgefield School District - Closed

Lyle School District - Closed

Mt. Pleasant School District - Closed

St. Joseph Catholic - Closed, No preschool. No Extended Care, No CYO or afterschool programs

St. Thomas More Catholic - Opening two hours late; drop-off begins at 9:30 a.m.

Stevenson-Carson School District - Closed

Toutle Lake School District - Closed

Trout Lake School District - Opening two hours late

Vancouver School District - Closed

WSU Vancouver: Opening at 10 a.m. 50th Avenue entrance is closed

Washougal School District - Closed

Wishram School District - Opening two hours late; no zero period

-- The Oregonian/OregonLive

The Oregonian/OregonLive's Noelle Crombie and Tony Hernandez contributed to this report.
Friday 9 December 2016 11:49am



Paul Hersey

Dunedin-based writers Laurence Fearnley and Paul Hersey have been granted a one-off award by the Friends of the Hocken Collections group to enable the completion of an anthology of New Zealand mountaineering writing between 1830 and 2015.

In 2016 the Friends of the Hocken Collections celebrates its 25th anniversary. This year, to acknowledge the anniversary, the Friends have made a one-off award of $10,000. The aim of the award is to support research into an aspect of historical development of Maori or Pakeha culture and society in Aotearoa/New Zealand, primarily using the resources of the Collections at the University of Otago Hocken Library in Dunedin.



Laurence Fearnley

Laurence Fearnley is a full-time novelist and non-fiction writer. Her publications include Going Up is Easy, Reach, and The Hut Builder. In 2004 Laurence was awarded the Artists to Antarctica Fellowship and in 2007 the Robert Burns Fellowship at the University of Otago.

Paul Hersey is a full-time writer, photographer, filmmaker and mountaineer. He has written several books, including Our Mountains: Journeys to New Zealands Highest Places, based on his journeys to 15 major peaks in New Zealand

President of the Friends of the Hocken Collections, Marian Hobbs, says she is delighted to announce the Award.

Im so pleased that in the Friends' 25th anniversary year we are able to support people doing such original research and using the Hocken Collections.

The Friends support and promote the world-renowned Hocken Collections (part of the University of Otago) in Dunedin, New Zealand in a number of different ways.

Hocken Librarian Sharon Dell says: The work done with the support of this Award is a chance for New Zealanders to see the richness of the Collections in relation to mountaineering throughout New Zealand, and especially in the southern alpine and fiord regions - they are significant to New Zealand, as well as the Otago and Southland regions.

The Otago University Presss Editorial Board also enthusiastically endorses Laurence and Pauls publishing proposal.

The Friends of the Hocken Collections Committee would also like to commend generally the very high calibre of applications, 17 of which were received.

For more information, contact:

Ms Sara Barham

Membership and Marketing Secretary

Friends of the Hocken Collection

Email: hockenfriends@gmail.com

Tel: 03 476 2846
Friday 9 December 2016 12:02pm

Several University of Otago researchers have gained funding to pursue innovative projects in the Neurological Foundations latest grant round announced today.

Project grants:

Dr Karl Iremonger (Department of Physiology)

$11,615

Imaging the activity of stress neurons in vivo

Using cutting-edge technology to image the activity of stress neurons in a mouse model

Excessive activation of brain stress circuitry results in high levels of stress hormones in our body, which can damage our body and brain. Our understanding of this circuitry has been limited as no study has been able to observe the activity of stress neurons in the intact brain. Using cutting-edge genetic and optical techniques, Dr Iremongers project aims to record the activity of stress neurons in freely behaving mice. Understanding how these neurons are regulated could lead to future tools that can be used to normalise stress neuron excitability in neurological conditions associated with high stress.

Dr Iremongers study is generously supported by Mr Jeremy Collins.

Dr Tracy Melzer (Department of Medicine, Christchurch)

$162,422

Individual risk of dementia: enhanced precision with cortical thickness

Investigating the individualised risk score for future dementia in Parkinsons disease patients by measuring the thickness of the brains cortical mantle

Parkinsons disease (PD) affects approximately 10,000 New Zealanders, and the incidence is increasing rapidly with our ageing population. Progression to dementia is a primary health care issue for PD patients and carers, but doctors cannot yet predict this progression. Using clinical and brain imaging data, Dr Melzer will create a method of generating an individualised risk score for dementia over time, including a measurement of the thickness of the cortical mantle in the brain. Such a unique advance in precision and personalised medicine would enable informed discussion between doctor, patient and carer about prognosis and life-choices. It would also provide a mechanism for recruiting the appropriate at risk people with Parkinsons disease into new trials of therapies aiming to prevent dementia.

Associate Professor Brian Hyland (Department of Physiology) is an Associate Investigator on another Parkinsons disease project, which is led by Professor Janusz Lipski of the University of Auckland:

Preclinical efficacy of Uptake-2 blockers in augmenting dopamine production from levodopa: implications for treatment of Parkinsons disease

Investigating the potential improvement of the effectiveness of a Parkinsons disease drug by inhibiting a mechanism in a rat brain model

$168,760

Summer studentship:

Niamh Cameron (Department of Anatomy)

Supervisor: Associate Professor Louise Parr-Brownlie

$6,000

Establishing a rat model of complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS)

Pain is an uncomfortable sensation that we all experience from time-to-time, but for one in five of us it becomes chronic and may last for many months or even years. One chronic pain condition called complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), a neuropathic pain disorder, often begins with a fracture which develops into sensitivity to touch, heat and cold. Few effective medical treatments are available. Clinicians and researchers have a poor understanding of how and why CRPS occurs. As a first step towards finding better treatments, Ms Cameron will create a model of CRPS to enable researchers to explore changes in the brain associated with chronic pain.
The National Society Daughters of the American Revolution has many available scholarships for graduating high school students, college junior or senior students as well as graduate students.

There are available scholarships in the areas of political science, history, government and economics, and medical and nursing. The DAR also has specific scholarships in English, math and science also for music along with elementary and secondary teaching fields. There are also has scholarships for students who have an American Indian heritage.
The Dow Chemical Co.s chairman and CEO on Wednesday told news anchors that hes excited for the Trump administration, while the DuPont CEO on Thursday said the incoming administration likely wont have an impact on the $130 billion Dow-DuPont merger.

I dont think it has any impact. Were very far down the road, said DuPont CEO Ed Breen in an interview after speaking to the Boston College Chief Executives Club, according to a Reuters report.

Reuters reported that Breen said he does not expect Trumps rhetoric would make the president-elects administration less likely to approve the Dow-DuPont deal.

Donald Trump Wont Block Dow-DuPont Mega Merger, reads a Fortune headline published Thursday.

The merger would result in a combined company known as DowDuPont, which would then spin off into three separate, independent businesses within 18 to 24 months: Material Sciences, to stay headquartered in Midland, along with Agriculture and Specialty Products, to be based in Wilmington, Delaware, where DuPont is currently headquartered.

The European Commission and other U.S. and global agencies reviewing the merger have cited a concern about the lack of competition that could result, notably in the agriculture industry. European antitrust regulators have halted their review at least twice to request missing data from both companies. In November, the Commission set Feb. 28, 2017, as its new deadline for a decision.

The merger delays have not discouraged Dow Chairman and CEO Andrew Liveris.

A few months shouldnt impact the value creation of a $130 billion deal, Liveris said during a conference call reporting Dows third quarter earnings on Oct. 27.

On Wednesday, Liveris appeared on CNBCs Squawk Box morning talk program during which news anchors interviewed CEOs of top companies, House Speaker Paul Ryan, Kellyanne Conway, Donald Trumps senior adviser, and others.

I think competitiveness is what this administrations all about and Im obviously for American competitiveness, Liveris said during the interview. With market access, regulatory and tax reform, he added, We can get this GDP up to 4 percent, which is what the president-elect is talking about.

Go to http://bit.ly/2hbn7p1 for the Daily News coverage of the interview.
The former top law enforcement official in the United States, Eric Holder, will serve as keynote speaker for Saginaw Valley State Universitys Martin Luther King Jr. celebration on Wednesday, Jan. 25.

Over his career, Holder was appointed to law enforcement-related positions by four U.S. presidents from both sides of the political aisle. Most recently, President Barack Obama nominated Holder as U.S. attorney general. When the 82nd attorney general took office in February 2009, he was the first black person to serve in that position. When he stepped down in April 2015, he was the third-longest-serving attorney general in the nations history.

Holder, named one of Time magazines 100 Most Influential People in 2014, visits SVSU Jan. 25 at 7 p.m. in the Malcolm Field Theatre for Performing Arts.

The event, part of the eighth annual Great Lakes Bay Regional MLK Jr. Celebration, is free and open to the public, although attendees must acquire a free ticket for admission. To pick up tickets, visit the main desk on the second floor in SVSUs Ryder Center, just inside the doors at the top of the north ramp. Individuals can acquire up to four tickets. Individuals needing more than four tickets will be placed on a waiting list.

Holder first joined the Department of Justice through the attorney generals Honors Program after earning his juris doctor degree from Columbia Law School in 1976. The New York City native was assigned to the new Public Integrity Section, where he investigated and prosecuted corruption involving officials in local, state and federal government.

Before Obama nominated Holder in 2009, three earlier U.S. presidents asked him to serve in various roles. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan appointed Holder as associate judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. In 1993, President Bill Clinton appointed Holder as the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. In 1997, Clinton appointed Holder as deputy attorney general of the U.S. At the request of President George W. Bush, Holder served as acting U.S. attorney general in 2001 pending the confirmation of John Ashcroft.

In July 2001, Holder joined Covington & Burling as a partner in the firms litigation practice group, where he represented clients in complex civil and criminal cases as well as internal corporate investigations. He returned to the firm in 2015 following his tenure as attorney general.

In October, it was announced he would serve as chairman of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, which in part will seek to move the redistricting process from a partisan process into an open and transparent nonpartisan process.

In November, he called for the abolishment of the electoral college system  used in the elections of U.S. presidents  in favor of a popular vote system. Debate about the merits of both processes heated up after Donald Trump was elected president by earning more electoral college votes despite losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton.

Visit www.svsu.edu/mlk/2017mlkcelebration/ for more information on Holders appearance.
Sofia Vergara Is Being Sued By Her Embryos and Yes, It's Time to Be Terrified

By Vivian Kane | Horror | December 8, 2016 |



Last year, Sofia Vergaras dead-eyed weasel of an ex decided to deal with his breakup in a weird, gross, very public way: he filed a complaint to earn custody of the former couples frozen embryos, then proceeded to grab at every headline possible, including writing a lengthy op-ed about the process in the New York Times. (Side note: fuck you, New York Times.)

At the time, Courtney perfectly articulated what this legal battle was really about. It wasnt about religion, or fatherhood, or a right to live. It was about control and about being super butthurt that your ex was marrying Joe Manganiello. Which I get. If my ex were marrying a Magic Mike star, Id be pretty insecure, too. Most of us would. But most of us wouldnt sink as low as possible and attempt to hold some frozen cells hostage all for the purpose of needing all the attention in the room.

And now, after more than a year and a half of letting us forget about his miserable self, Nick Loeb just upped the disgusting to an impossible (god, I wish it were impossible) degree. Hes now filed a lawsuit on behalf of those frozen embryos, which hes given the names Isabella and Emma.

To be clear, just because you give a petri dish a name, that does not make it your daughter. Also, Vergaras lawyer released a statement clarifying that those named test tubes are not embryos, but rather frozen fertilized ova. He also uses the term pre-embryos. I tried to figure out what the difference was and came up short, so forgive my inaccurate language. If anyone cares to explain the difference below, I definitely am curious.

But, curious and confusing as this may be, one thing is crystal-fucking-clear: this is despicable, and infuriating, and terrifying.

First of all, the lawsuit is filed in Louisiana, an historically pro-life state. In fact, it was named the #1 pro-life state six years in a row by Americans United For Life before being unseated this year by Oklahoma. (Congratulations on hating women the most, Oklahoma!) That in itself is scary because, in this time of potential doom for reproductive rights, this is not a court case we want to see in a state that continues to view womens rights as secondary to those of a collection of cells.

The move to Louisiana makes sense, though, since the California judge ruled in favor of Vegara last year after, among other bullshittery, Vergara pointed out that Loeb had paid for the abortions of two ex-girlfriends hed impregnated. Weird, considering Loeb is just a super moral guy who views all life definitely equally from the moment of lab-based-conception and has absolutely nothing else to gain here.

Oh, except that the grounds of the lawsuit are based in a trust that Loeb and Vergara reportedly set up for their future children (not current children again, giving them names and repeatedly calling them babies as Loeb is doing does not make them such). Loeb is proclaiming that by not being born, these fertilized ova are being denied their inheritance.

There it is. The money. Always follow the money, they say. No fucking way does Nick Loeb actually want to raise these children. Im not inside his head (thank GOD), but dollars to fancy-ass Beverly Hills cronuts hed end up getting child support for getting these things implanted in a surrogate and born. Not to mention headlines, ATTENTION (his clear true motivator), probably a book, maybe a reality show. And then theres that trust. Sure, thats in place for the daughters, but is there anyone here not rolling their eyes at the idea that it wouldnt also end up at least partially in Loebs grabby hands?

Add to that the fact that the embryos trustee, James Charbonnet, is also listed as a plaintiff in this case, and yeah, okay, keep telling me about how Loeb is basically an IRL Harrison Ford character just trying to get his family back.

This isnt about life. Its not about religion or morals or family. Its about money. Of course, its also about ego and control and how dare that woman be more more famous than him and move on so publicly, but mostly, yeah. Money.

All of that, for any lawyer-types reading, lets place under the big banner of ALLEGEDLY. (That covers my butt, right?) Obviously, Im speculating.

Except its definitely about money.

If you want to, you can read the whole detailed rundown of this awfulness over on Page Six.




Question: Donald Trump talks about the skyrocketing murder rate in Chicago. Barack Obama laments the skyrocketing murder rate in Chicago. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has bulked up the police force to deal with the skyrocketing murder rate in Chicago. So quick, can you name the American city that has the highest murder rate of any American city?

Answer: Its  not Chicago. The murder rate there, according to the FBIs most recent Uniform Crime Report, is 17.5 murders per every 100,000 residents. Instead, the murder capital of America is actually the other way from us  St. Louis. Thats where the latest murder rate is 59.3 incidents for every 100,000 city residents, the city with the sharpest spike ever for murders, says the FBI.
NORMAL  Twin City officials said Thursday they're excited Rivian Automotive is negotiating to buy the former Mitsubishi plant in Normal and bring in as many as 1,000 jobs.

"Its a mix of excitement and a sigh of relief for the amount of work that's been going into this and trying to put this deal together," said Normal Mayor Chris Koos. "The possibility for 1,000 jobs is really great news for the community."

McLean County Board Chairman John McIntyre said in a statement, The discussions with Rivian have been positive, and we are progressing towards the goal of bringing this investment to our community."

Bloomington Mayor Tari Renner said, "Were obviously excited, and its great news for our community, for jobs and our continued effort to grow our local economy."

We made great progress across the board in both Bloomington and Normal. The only step backward really was the Mitsubishi plant closing. Im very excited about all of this," he said. "Ive appreciated working on the Mitsubishi plant task force for the last year and a half.

State Rep. Dan Brady, R-Bloomington, said his "reaction was encouragement."

"The proof will be in the pudding as far as more details, but think of the major accomplishment done by so many here: We have a company that has potential to take the plant over, to be productive in the plant and create more jobs for this community. Thats certainly a plus," he said. "I look forward to helping in continued roles that I can as representative."

State Sen. Bill Brady, R-Bloomington, said Bloomington-Normal Economic Development Council CEO Kyle Ham, Normal officials and the state Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity officials deserve "a lot of credit" for the announcement.

This exciting new economic opportunity for the Bloomington-Normal area is result of some very hard work by a lot of people, and I applaud every one of them for that commitment to bring new jobs and new vitality to our community, he said in a statement.

We had always hoped that another automotive manufacturing firm would see the skilled workforce and great benefits of our area and take over the Mitsubishi site.  We welcome the interest of Rivian Automotive in McLean County and look forward to many years of a productive relationship.

Rod DeVary, who was president for United Auto Workers Local 2488 during the plant's final year, said that once completed, the deal definitely will help our economy as well as hopefully getting some of the employment back at the Mitsubishi Motors (plant) for some of the individuals who have not yet found employment and are still looking."

It sounds like it would definitely be a good deal for the area and the economy, he said.

Acting DCEO Director Sean McCarthy said in a statement, Rivian will be investing in the future of Illinois when they choose to purchase this plant."

The auto industry is the fourth-largest employer in the state, and this investment gives Illinois a significant presence in the emerging electric vehicle market, he said.

Jim Schultz, chairman and CEO of Intersect Illinois  a public-private partnership intended to spur economic development  said, "Todays announcement is a perfect example of how Illinois could leverage the high-tech assets that already exist in the state to create new jobs."

Between the electric battery research being done at Argonne National Laboratories and the workforce educational initiatives at places like Illinois State University, Southern Illinois University and Heartland Community College, Illinois has the potential to be a major player in tech-forward automobile production, he said.

U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis, a Taylorville Republican, said in a statement, "This is great news for the Bloomington-Normal community."
NORMAL  A Michigan automotive company hopes to take over the former Mitsubishi plant in Normal.

Rivian Automotive is in talks to buy the entire 2.4 million-square-foot plant and manufacture there, bringing 500 jobs by 2021 and 1,000 when at full production, the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) announced late Thursday afternoon.

The company expects to invest up to $175 million in the project by 2024.

Mitsubishi shut down production at the plant in November 2015 and laid off the last employees in May. The plant employed 1,200 before closing and about 3,000 at its peak.

"Its really rare when manufacturing leaves a community for it to come back," said Normal Mayor Chris Koos. "Its a great day for this community."

Rivian, which has locations in Detroit and San Francisco, is "an automotive technology company developing an integrated portfolio of vehicles and services to advance the shift to sustainable mobility," according to DCEO.

They will be manufacturing a vehicle and some associated technology around the platform that theyre working on," said Koos, "but its really going to be up to them to say what theyre doing.

When asked if former Mitsubishi employees might fill Rivian jobs, Bloomington-Normal Economic Development Council CEO Kyle Ham said, "Absolutely."

"They want to find the most experienced and talented people in that industry, and we have them here, he said. We hope some of those people will still be around when we get to that point (of manufacturing).

The town of Normal is expected to contribute a $1 million grant and a five-year property tax abatement for the development, contingent on Rivian meeting investment and employment projections.

An agreement between Rivian and Normal specifies that in order to receive incentives, the company must employ 35 workers by the end of 2018, 75 in 2019, 300 in 2020 and 500 in 2021. Those are "full-time employees with an average weekly salary equal to or greater than the average weekly salary in McLean County."

Weve been pretty clear from day one: Anyone that buys this plant, they need time to get it up and running again, Ham said of that timeline. The good news is theres jobs on the horizon. If theres a downside, itll be a while. We knew that going into it.

The town's agreement also requires Rivian to invest $40.5 million in the project's first five years.

Each body that taxes the site, including the Normal-based McLean County Unit 5 school district and McLean County, will be asked to approve a similar property tax abatement. Ham said that will happen over the next two weeks.

The Normal City Council will consider the agreement at 7 p.m. Monday, and Heartland Community College's board of trustees will consider one Tuesday. Rivian CEO R.J. Scaringe is expected to address the council.

Rivian is negotiating for state incentives as well, but "nothing has been finalized," said Jacquelyn Reineke, media relations director for DCEO.

Ham said he couldn't comment on negotiations between Rivian and Maynards Industries, the industrial asset auction, appraisal and liquidation company that bought the plant in June.

Koos said Rivian may close on the site in January.

"This stops the selling or demolition of this property if there was no buyer, said Ham of the announcement. Weve been able to save that from occurring, precluding the finality of all this.

Rivian also hopes to "attract suppliers to the area, which may create additional job opportunities," according to DCEO.

"Rivian also plans to designate part of the site for community use for outdoor recreation and first responder training, as well as establish partnerships for training programs with local educational institutions," according to the release.

Ham, who has served as chairman of a task force searching for a buyer for the plant, said negotiations with Rivian began four months ago and intensified in the last eight weeks.
Its right there in the title, and Rogue One proves to be most definitely a Star Wars story. As a spinoff chapter with a cast of new characters and a darker, grittier look and tone, the possibilities were endless for just how different Rogue One could be.

The wait is over and the results are in: It doesnt break the mold in terms of franchise formula, and its an enjoyable installment in the Star Wars canon. However, its not much more than that.

The title separates Rogue One from Episodes 1-7, but it feels like watching an episode of a series, despite the self-contained story. Written by Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy, directed by Gareth Edwards, it uses the same well-established cinematic language of Star Wars.

In terms of the timeline, consider Rogue One to be around Episode 3, a chapter of Rebel Alliance history briefly alluded to in Episode 4  A New Hope.

This chapter concerns a rebel effort to thwart a world-destroying weapon wielded by the Imperial forces, led by Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn), a sneering, ambitious captain, resplendent in a white cape and jodhpurs.

Continuing in the trend started by last years sensational The Force Awakens, Rogue One has a steely loner heroine at its center, Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones), the long-lost daughter of Galen (Mads Mikkelsen), a weapons scientist forced to work for the Empire.

Jyns been on her own since childhood, but her familial connections make her an asset for the Rebel Alliance fighting the Empire. Shes soon teamed up with Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), a lifelong rebel, and his reprogrammed Imperial droid, the droll K-2SO (Alan Tudyk), who offers strategic assessments with absolutely no tact or filter.

Along the way, they pick up pilot Bodhi (Riz Ahmed), spiritual warrior Chirrut Imwe (Donny Yen) and his buddy Baze Malbus (Jiang Wen). Legendary martial artist Yen steals the movie as Chirrut, a blind, bow-staff wielding worshiper of the Force.

The plot follows the standard action-adventure format about a band of plucky fighters in pursuit of a little thingamabob that might save the world. Blasting and shooting and crashing and exploding ensue.

But if you have a sense of the main events of the series, there inevitably comes a creeping sense of darkness over the proceedings, as you deduce the foregone conclusion.

Despite that pallor, the third act is a bombastic, unrelenting action sequence on the tropical beaches of the planet Scarif. Its all a bit much  the fighting is overkill, literally. A glut of heroic moments in a row drain the impact of each one individually. But the film sticks the landing on the emotional payoff beautifully.

There have been debates over whether Rogue One contains overt political messages. The franchise represents escapist blockbuster fantasy, but politics have always been central to the films conflicts, and as it is, Rogue One is decidedly for standing up to dictatorships and abuse of power.

Audiences can and will draw their own conclusions to current events in light of exhortations like save the rebellion, save the dream, and rebellions are built on hope. But Rogue One is open enough to be what you want, and if that only happens to be a very good Star Wars installment, thisll do just fine.
BLOOMINGTON  The first Bloomington police substation is in the works, and if the City Council approves, it would be in an area that could benefit from some additional police presence.

The Bloomington Police Department, in partnership with Mid Central Community Action and the West Bloomington Housing Collaborative, wants to locate a substation in a house Community Action owns at 828 W. Jefferson St.

But first, the council will need to approve leasing the house from Community Action for $12 a year. The council will consider the matter when it meets in a regular voting session at 7 p.m. Monday at City Hall.

"The new community substation reflects the Bloomington Police Department's commitment to strengthen community relations and enhance public safety," said Chief Brendan Heffner in a news release Thursday.

The substation would reduce officers' response time, increase police visibility and provide officers the opportunity to meet and collaborate with community members, he added.

"The substation would give officers from every patrol shift an opportunity to stop by there, depending on their calls for service," Heffner told The Pantagraph. "They can do their reports and eat there, but more than that, especially when weather permits, they can be out and about in that neighborhood."

Heffner added, "It's also a place where, when people see the officers, they should feel free to come talk to them."

When there is an emergency, residents still will need to call 911 because the substation will not be staffed by officers full time, he said.

"Obviously, it can reduce officer response time for calls for service in that area when we have somebody there," said Heffner said.

It would be located in an area where "we have had some serious calls for service, so our presence will hopefully deter some of that," said Heffner.

After drive-by shootings and a fire bombing in the neighborhood, a concrete barrier was erected in 1997 in the 700 block of West Jefferson Street at Allin Street.

In 2014, the council approved removing the barrier after disturbances involving late-evening gatherings of people at the barrier began after nearby Friendship Park closed. The barrier actually impeded police from patrolling the area or responding to incidents because they could not drive straight through.

"I don't want people to think necessarily that this is a high-crime area," Heffner added. "There are good people who live there. Some of the people causing crime do not live in the neighborhood. That's just where it is occurring around there."

The house was among 13 properties being purchased and rehabbed by Community Action through a $1.5 million Illinois attorney general grant awarded in 2013 to the West Bloomington Housing Collaborative, which includes Community Action, the West Bloomington Revitalization Project and Habitat for Humanity of McLean County.

The grant paid for renovating the house at a cost of $79,820.

"One of our goals for coming together as a collaborative was to enhance the safety and vitality of a neighborhood that has Friendship Park as the hub," said Community Action Executive Director Deborah White.

The $12 annual lease fee "is a symbolic gesture of commitment," said White.

The agencies behind the project also plan to use the substation as a hub for community engagement activities.

Adding substations in other areas of the city "is something we can explore after we see how this goes, especially if we can get the same lease agreement," said Heffner.
BLOOMINGTON  A contagious bacterial illness that can be life-threatening in infants and children with chronic disease has been confirmed among six McLean County residents, prompting the county health department to issue an advisory on how people can reduce their risk.

The six county residents with whooping cough, also known as pertussis, range in age from 1 month to 21 years, the health department said Thursday.

"The individuals are being treated with antibiotics and supportive care  bed rest, fever reduction and maintaining adequate fluid intake," said Lisa Slater of the McLean County Health Department. "No one is currently hospitalized."

Slater said the health department didn't know the reason for the rise in whooping cough, but said it isn't unusual for this time of year. The most recent outbreak in McLean County was in January 2015, when eight children and adults became ill.

Whooping cough is a respiratory disease that spreads easily and can cause a high-pitched cough that comes in spasms and can last for weeks if untreated. The severity of the cough can cause vomiting and fatigue.

While the disease is not life-threatening to most healthy children, teens and adults, whooping cough can cause serious illness and death among infants and young children who are exposed to the disease before their first vaccinations at 2 months or who haven't been adequately vaccinated.

That's why the health department wants everyone around children to make sure they are up to date with their immunizations.

Whooping cough is spread by droplet or direct contact with airborne respiratory secretions  generally by coughs or sneezes. Without prompt antibiotic treatment, infected people can remain contagious for as long as two weeks after the cough begins and coughing episodes can last as long as 10 weeks. Early treatment can reduce the contagious period to five days and can reduce the duration and intensity of the illness.

Anyone with a high-pitched cough should call their doctor and stay home from school or work. People with confirmed whooping cough should stay home until they have received five days of antibiotic treatment.

The health department advises that residents make sure their children are up to date with their pertussis vaccinations, which should be given when they are infants, with a booster before kindergarten and another booster before sixth grade.

Adults who didn't get a Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis) booster as a preteen or teen and pregnant women should ask their doctor about getting a Tdap, the health department said.

Residents also can reduce their risk by avoiding getting close to anyone who has a cold or is coughing, coughing or sneezing into their sleeve, washing hands frequently with warm water and soap or using alcohol-based hand gel when water and soap aren't available.
Rayonier Advanced Materials and Borregaard Gain Approvals for $135 Million LignoTech Joint Venture Dec. 9, 2016 (Press Release) - Borregaard ASA and Rayonier Advanced Materials Inc. announced today the companies have secured the necessary approvals from their Boards of Directors and the appropriate permits to proceed with the investment for construction of a new lignin facility at RYAM's Fernandina Beach site in Florida. The venture, named LignoTech Florida (LTF), will serve the growing global demand for natural lignin-based products. Lignin, a natural component of wood, is a co-product of RYAM's sulphite cellulose manufacturing process. The new operation will process the lignin into value-added products that provide environmentally-friendly alternatives to fossil fuel-based products used globally in construction, agriculture and other industrial applications. The plant is expected to be constructed at a cost of $135 million over two phases of the project. Phase one, which will deliver a lignin capacity of 100,000 metric tons, is estimated to cost $110 million. An estimated incremental $25 million will be required in phase two to increase the total capacity to 150,000 metric tons. Construction for the project is expected to begin shortly with operations beginning approximately 18 months after the commencement of construction. LTF received unwavering support from local city, county and state officials during the evaluation phase of the process. The economic and logistical support provided by local and state governments helped to bring this investment into the community and is expected to create more than 50 new high-paying jobs. A study commissioned by Nassau County determined the facility will produce an annual economic impact on the region of more than $28 million. LTF will be owned 55 percent by BRG and 45 percent by RYAM. BRG will provide its market leading technical knowledge and global sales distribution network, while RYAM will supply the raw material, site services and other support. The parties expect to finance about half of the $110 million investment for phase one. Financing will reduce the capital required by BRG and RYAM pro rata based on their ownership levels. Investment returns for the project are expected to exceed a mid-teens return hurdle for the investors. Borregaard produces advanced and environmentally friendly biochemicals, biomaterials and bioethanol that replace oil-based products. To learn more, please visit: www.borregaard.com. Rayonier Advanced Materials is the leading global supplier of high-purity, cellulose specialties natural polymers for the chemical industry. To learn more, please visit: www.rayonieram.com. SOURCE: Rayonier Advanced Materials
Poverty has many dimensions. Usually, it is associated with inadequate health resources. Poverty, which could be classified into two types  absolute and relative, can also be affected by various other factors such as social, economic and political elements.

Relative poverty is a phenomenon in which people are unable to achieve the minimum standards of living set by the government, which could be different in every country. Absolute poverty, on the other hand, can be described as the lack of basic necessities.

According to The Epoch Times, poverty has affected the country in many ways, especially the children. UNICEF revealed that the United States had the "second highest relative child poverty rate in the developed world" in 2013, where 16.7 million children were living in "food insecure households."

Aside from the children, poverty has also affected the teenagers in low-income families. That's why a 2016 survey by the Washington, D.C.-based research organization Urban Institute revealed youngsters away from home are more prone to engage in activities like drug trafficking, street gang fights and exchanging sexual favors just to get food and shelter.

Quality education is also just a mere dream for poverty-stricken communities. The U.S. education system depends upon local community funding and poor education creates inequality in society.

Brown Political Review shared a 2014 UNICEF report that states America has the sixth highest relative child poverty rate in the developed world. The stats, however, doesn't seem to reach the priority list of U.S. politicians and the major reason for this is media neglect.

According to the research, less than one percent of the media coverage addressed poverty. Moreover, no legislation has been done to reduce poverty.

Politicians are also reportedly reluctant to help the poor because the word "Middle Class" seems to be more appealing to people. The politicians talk about their policies that could benefit the middle class and people assume that it's about them.

Another reason is that the poor are the least interested in voting and politicians remain reluctant in addressing poverty. There might also be other reasons why they choose to ignore this phenomenon but justice and equality can't be acquired without looking into the issue and giving every citizen their due share in all aspects.

Do you think U.S. politicians are really ignoring to address the poverty issues in the country? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.
A 6-year-old boy with autism disorder, who went missing for more or less two to three hours after his school failed to look after him, has been found on a rooftop of an apartment several blocks from the school. The mother, Asmaa Awawda, demanded answers from her son's school as to how her son left the school premises unnoticed. Ibrahim Safi has not returned to his school since the incident and will only return if his mother is reassured that the incident will not happen again.

On Friday, Dec. 2, Ibrahim Safi who has autism syndrome was reported missing from P.S. 77 School in Brooklyn. Being diagnosed with autism, Safi has trouble speaking or communicating and is tremendously hyperactive. That's why her mother said: "You have to keep your eyes on him."

When Asmaa Awawda heard her son's news, she immediately contacted the school and asked them what, when and how Safi left the school. However, she did not get any reply from the school.

"They didn't have any answers... I want to know how my son left the school," the NBC New York quoted Awawda as saying. The mother worried so much as the boy does not know how to cross the street and that a truck or car could crash him.

It was till she was told that her son's aide during that day was permitted to leave the school half way the day to attend to classes outside the P.S. 77. So during the school day, Safari was left alone and unsupervised. The mother then assumed that this contributed to his son's unnoticed leave from the school.

Worried, the mother kept on calling the school and even her son's special aid and teacher, however even they have no idea where the boy was. It was not till NYPD Officer Christian Lopez called her and told her she knew where the boy was. Lopez, who was off-duty that time, has found Safari roaming around the hallways of an apartment building where he also happened to live in.

Lopes told to PIX11 that he heard noises in the corridor of their apartment and when he looked through the peephole, he saw a boy playing with a broomstick and trying many doorknobs. However, Lopez did not mind the child as he thought the boy was just from the apartment building. Lopez tried to check on the boy again, this time he said he saw the boy looking up towards the entryway to the rooftop, and that is when he decided to go out. At the moment the officer reached the entryway, Safi was already on the rooftop.

The mother blames the school officials on Safi's escape from them. Meanwhile, the boy is now safe and hasn't been allowed by her mom to go back to school until the school assures her that the incident will not occur again.


The Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is at the center of complaints lodged by the students' parents. Two sides have been debating over the city's education funding issues, which they said could have been avoided if the CPS didn't impose on the changes or have proposed a better system.

The CPS board passed a revised $6.4 billion operating budget that lumps special education spending with the needs of regular students. The new budget is supposed to take effect this school year but the situation has placed parents, students and teachers in a tough spot.

One mother, Jennie Biggs, is joining in the debates. She doesn't have a child with special needs but she believes that the revised school budget will short-change the other children under regular education. She said that the CPS created a scenario that is putting "special education and general education in a Hunger-Games-style competition," according to Chicago Sun-Times.

Another parent said that CPS school funding is already inadequate as it is. "[It] creating a dangerous and non-inclusive environment where the requirements for some students are pitted against the needs of all," mom Maggie Baran said, per Chicago Tribune.

Special ed funding cuts in Chicago hurting all students - parents & @CTULocal1 standing together to fight https://t.co/u9i2nkBAkO #CPSboard  Randi Weingarten (@rweingarten) December 8, 2016

Some parents believe that schools officials are likely to favor special needs education when granting budget expense. Potential legalities could arise if the special needs kids are not met and schools would logically want to avoid this at all cost.

Yet there are also schools whose special education students are currently receiving no funding nor staff support because budget funds are lacking. The parents think that the CPS is forcing school officials into making difficult decisions when lumping the budget isn't the answer to the city's funding woes.

Parents have already written Mayor Rahm Emanuel of their concerns. The Chicago Teachers Union have also organized a demonstration last Wednesday to protest the CPS budget change. Continuous board meetings have been taking place between the parents and school community until this issue is resolved.
Babies as young as 5-weeks-old suffering from lethal spinal muscular atrophy, a common cause of death among children, can be safely treated with nurs Iversen, a newly discovered novel drug that may stop the progress of the said disease. The clinical trial of the new drug showed improved survival, slow development of the sickness and in few cases displayed notable improvement in the muscle function, as per the research. The new drug is presently being reviewed by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for approval.

Spinal muscular atrophy or also called Werdnig-Hoffmann disease is a hereditary condition that causes extreme muscle weakness in babies and children. According to statistics, it affects almost 250 infants each year in the United States. Up to now, scientists have not found any cure for the disease. However a new clinically tested novel drug called nurs Iversen showed exceptional promise.

"With businesses, these infants are not only living longer but living better," Eureka Alert quoted Richard S. Finkel, MD, chief of neurology at Nemours Children's Hospital in Orlando, Fla and lead author of the research, emphasizing SMA is no longer death threats for babies. "This treatment is by no means a cure, but it is more than we've ever been able to offer these families before," he added.

For the study, 20 participating babies with SMA were injected with nursinersen treatments. The treatments were absorbed into the infants' nerve cells of the brain and spinal cord and then promote augmented production of an essential protein which is lacking in children with SMA.

Another good news is that majority of the participants was discovered to stop the progression of the disease. Babies treated with new cure showed improved motor function, enabled kids to gain abilities not present in spinal muscular atrophy type 1 which were rolling over, standing, sitting, and lastly improved survival.

Science Mag reported that out of 20 participating infants during the trial of the new drug, 13 are alive and kicking today, at between 2 and three years of age, while half of the untreated babies with this kind of disease typically die or end up on ventilators before they reach their first years. Due to the promising results of the new treatment, both European Medicines Agency and US FDA have included the drug at their fast track courses for proper drug approval.


A man dressed as Santa Claus in Forest City, North Carolina is being bashed after a mother and her son claimed that the fictional character fat-shamed the nine-year-old kid. The man in the Santa Claus costume reportedly told the child to quit eating junk.

The mother was identified as Ashley Mayse and her son was identified as Anthony Mayse. During a holiday event, the man that was dressed as Santa Claus made an un-Santa-like comment towards Anthony, who said that he talked to Santa wishing for an iPod Touch and a drone this year but Santa told him to "Lay off the hamburgers and French fries," CNN reported.

Anthony noted that he felt bad, disrespected and awful after the remark. The nine-year-old said he went out of the event then started crying because he felt so bad. The mother said that she felt sad for her son and wished that they have never attended the event so that her son was not insulted the way he was.

Anthony cried until he went to bed that night then tore the souvenir photo showing him and the mean Santa Claus, The Cairns Post reported. The man who played Santa Claus during the said event has since resigned from his post and has apologized to Anthony and his mother.

John Condrey, the city manager of Forest City, said that the man behind the Santa costume said he regretted what he did. The man has not been publicly identified. The mother reportedly wants a harsher punishment but it was not stated what she wanted.

Condrey added in his statement that a town representative has spoken to the mother of Anthony and also apologized to her. The mean Santa was supposed to have appearances for the next two Fridays and Saturdays but he reportedly informed them he would no longer provide his service as Santa Claus.

Do you think that Santa Claus was too mean to the child? Let us know what you think about this not-so-Merry incident for the holidays.
A campus police officer shot a knife-wielding teenager at a high school in Nevada as the kid was reportedly having an altercation with another student. The officer involved in the shooting has been placed on paid administrative leave while the teenager who has been shot remains under critical condition.

According to ABC News, the incident took place at Hug High School in Reno and Police Chief Jason Soto confirmed that the boy remains in critical condition at the Renown Regional Medical Center. The identity of the teenager has not been released, as well as the name of the campus police officer involved in the shooting.

Soto did not confirm the reports immediately after the shooting but said in a news conference hours after that the 14-year-old teenager had at least one knife on him and was threatening other students. The student was said to be arguing with another kid and a video of the whole incident has been recorded by some witnesses, USA Today reported.

Videos have been circulating online on Twitter and Facebook but it does not show why the teenager pulled out a knife and when exactly did he brandish his weapon. In one of the videos, the campus police officer who fired the shot was seen approaching the teen who was on the ground after he was shot.

The officer then moved something away from the teen using his feed before kneeling near the teenager and providing medical assistance as they await emergency responders. Soto also said that the teenager was first warned by the police officer and given verbal commands to drop the knife but the teen refused to do so.

Ultimately, the campus police officer fired his service weapon and struck the student, thus stopping the threat. Soto said, "Once the threat was stopped, the officer immediately began to provide medical aid to the student until emergency medical assistance arrived."

After the shooting, Hug High School was placed on a lockdown. By mid-afternoon, children were released to their parents. Reno police officer Tim Broadway noted that more than 40 students witnessed the incident and they are asking those who took videos to surrender it to the police first before it could be released to the public.

Before the shooting, no one else was injured despite reports that the shot teenager stabbed another student. Classes at Hug High School resumed on Thursday.

Counselors were available for students and staff members who need assistance. Meanwhile, the family of the student shot has been notified but they have not released any statement, as of press time.
A South Side, Pittsburgh couple is facing child endangerment charges after their two-month-old baby overdosed on methadone. Lorie Adkins and Erik Eakin found the child unresponsive on Oct. 11.

That same day, the baby was brought to Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC after going into respiratory arrest, Fox 25 Boston reported. The baby's urine indicated that he was exposed to methadone and was revived by the rescue drug Narcan, an opiate antidote that is also used on morphine, codeine, oxycodone and Vicodin overdoses.

South Side couple charged after 2-month-old almost dies from overdose on methadone https://t.co/paDstlcd2I  Pittsburgh PG (@PittsburghPG) December 7, 2016

Adkins told the staff at the hospital that she has a daily methadone intake. She believed that the baby must have overdosed from the drug via breastfeeding but the infant's medical report stated that the child's symptoms won't be that severe just by being exposed to methadone via his mother's breastmilk.

A staff of Children's Home, a local non-profit organization that caters to medically compromised babies, told a caseworker for the Office of Children, Youth and Families that the baby wasn't breastfed. Staff from Children's Home told a detective that Adkins had to feed the infant with formula while she was recuperating in the hospital because her breast doesn't produce enough milk.

Warrants of arrest have been issued for Adkins and Eakin. The couple was charged with child endangerment and recklessly endangering another person.

Methadone is primarily used as a pain reliever and shouldn't be used by people with severe asthma or breathing problems, as well as those with a bowel obstruction called paralytic ileus (intestinal blockage). Methadone overdose symptoms include slow breathing and heart rate, severe drowsiness, muscle weakness, cold and clammy skin, pinpoint pupils and fainting, Drugs.com listed.

Meanwhile, a separate methadone overdose occurred in Hagerstown, Maryland involving a five-year-old girl. Like the two-month-old baby in Pittsburgh, the girl was revived with naloxone or Narcan, the Associated Press (via ABC2 News) reported.

The girl's 31-year-old mother, Jeanie White, and her 35-year-old aunt, Tracy Bolinger, have been charged with child neglect, reckless endangerment and contributing to the condition of a child, according to court documents. The child swallowed an adult dose of liquid methadone that was left behind by Bolinger on a kitchen counter.

Authorities said that Bolinger and White were aware of the child's methadone ingestion immediately after the incident happened. The women, however, waited for more than four hours before taking the girl to a hospital.
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Yesterday Patently Apple posted a patent application report titled "Apple Invents an Improved Graphics System for Gaming or Possibly an Autonomous Drone Device." It was evident early on that this patent was not for Project Titan but rather aimed at a graphics system possibly for Apple's Metal API's or a future drone that could be controlled with an iPhone, iPad, MacBook which were listed in the patent. You're not going to drive your autonomous vehicle that way but you can a drone. This is why Apple pointed to an autonomous agent. Intel introduced a Drone at their CES keynote in 2015 and focused on its collision avoidance system using a RealSense camera; a camera Apple could easily have using PrimeSense technology. The video below is titled "Intel RealSense Collision Avoidance for Drones." How clear is that?

Apple creating an iDevice Accessory like a Drone would be super cool. I've been eyeing this device for some time now but haven't pulled the trigger yet because of how rapidly they're advancing. Now that I see that Intel focused on Collision Avoidance and that's what Apple's patent was about, I'm more convinced that this is now on Apple's radar screen. They sell them and are probably seeing the enthusiasm that consumers have for this next generation photography device dream.

By chance, today we learned via a Korean tech report that Samsung was granted a desig patent for a drone.

The report noted that "Samsung Electronics has been granted a patent on the design of a disc-shaped drone, hinting that the electronics giant may make inroads into the booming market for commercial drones, according to South Korea's patent authority Friday.

The patent was filed in April this year and formally registered earlier this month, the Korean Intellectual Property Office said.

Samsung said the drone is designed to be equipped with a camera. Unlike conventional drone designs, the Samsung drone features a circular design with a fan in the middle.

The drone's design is inspired by a "disc-shaped spacecraft," Samsung said, adding that the drone is made of synthetic resins and metallic materials.

After a little digging, Patently Apple came across some information from the Korean Patent Office. Below are a few of the granted patent design figures. This would really be a cool new device for Apple to get into as an accessory. It's good for iDevice sales and great to show off advanced cameras and photos. Will Apple actually decide to go this route? Only time will tell. But I sure hope so.





Parts of the basic information about granted patent design is noted below which was interpreted through Bing:

Design description: The drones

1) material is the resin and metal years.

2) expressed as part of part of the design with a solid design registration is a part.

If the design of the Central won three) go to the diagonal display shades of dome shape transparent materials, and is equipped with a camera on the inside of the

4) won the design motif of the ship shape of the disc. The gist of the contents of the design creation "Drones" and combined with design and creative content in the shape of the point.

Part design (M001)

(73) design lol

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

Yeongtong-gu, Suwon-SI, Gyeonggi-do, Samsung to 129



(19), Korea intellectual property Office (KR)

(12) the design Gazette (S)

(45) the announcement dated December 8, 2016

(24) date: December 2, 2016

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Iran Tops Agenda at Gulf Cooperation Council in Bahrain

12/08/16

Source: VOA



CAIRO - Arab Gulf countries wrapped up a two-day summit in Bahrain's capital, Manama, Wednesday, after discussing major regional concerns that included Iran, Yemen, Syria and Iraq.





Gulf Cooperation Council





King Hamad of Bahrain sounded a cheerful note, in his final remarks to the 37th annual summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council. The king thanked his fellow Gulf leaders for attending, along with British Prime Minister Theresa May, for her presence.



Prime Minister May addressed the summit at the final session, discussing mutual concerns over terrorism and Iran. May vowed to strengthen defense cooperation with the Gulf States, many of which were once British protectorates, noting that Britain would help them defend against what she called "Iran's aggressive regional actions."



British Prime Minister Theresa May



"Gulf security is our security. Extremists plotting terror attacks in this region are not only targeting the Gulf, but as we have seen, targeting the streets of Europe, too," May said. "Whether we're confronting the terrorism of al-Qaida or the murderous barbarity of Da'esh (Islamic State), no country is a more committed partner for you in this fight than the United Kingdom."

Iran told to stop "meddling"

GCC Secretary Abdel Latif Zayani also addressed the closing session, underlining the major threats and challenges facing Gulf States. He called for stronger defense and economic cooperation among the Arab Gulf states to counterbalance regional threats to their stability.



Zayani also insisted that Iran should stop what he called its "meddling" in the internal affairs of Gulf countries, and end its occupation of three small islands which are claimed by the UAE.



Iran and Saudi Arabia have been at loggerheads over dominance in a number of Arab countries, including Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and Bahrain. Iran has tended to support Shi'ite populations in those countries, while Saudi Arabia, conversely, has tried to bolster Sunni communities.



Saudi King Salman accused Iran of attempting to destabilize Gulf countries by using sectarian differences to foment discord.



He argues that Gulf countries must strengthen mutual cooperation in the face of blatant outside meddling (by Iran) and the mutual threats of terrorism and sectarianism that are being used to destabilize the region.

Trump a concern to Gulf State leaders

Gulf leaders have also expressed concerns in recent weeks over possible friction with the U.S. under President-elect Donald Trump, who suggested during the recent U.S. election campaign that Gulf States should pay more for their own defense and that immigration of Muslims to the U.S. should be stopped.



Despite possible frictions, however, Trump's pick for defense secretary, retired Gen. James Mattis, has indicated in the past that he supports strong U.S. defense cooperation with the Gulf States, in order to counter what he perceives as the major threat posed by Iran.
Iran calls for China to step up economic relations

12/08/16

Source: Tehran Times

TEHRAN - Iran has called for China to step up its economic relations with the country in the post-sanction era.





Iranian FM Javad Zarif speaking at Peking University on December 6, 2017

(photo by Islamic Republic News Agency)



"As China expanded its economic relations with Iran during the sanctions, the country fits for playing stronger role in the Iranian economy after the removal of the sanctions," Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture Chairman Gholam-Hossein Shafeie said during Iran-China Business Forum in Beijing on Tuesday.



"China can collaborate on establishing industrial parks in Iran's free zones," he suggested.



Non-oil trade between Iran and China amounted to $17.682 billion in the past Iranian calendar year (March 2015-March 2016), naming China as the biggest trade partner of the Islamic Republic, according to Iran Customs Administration.



China and Iran mapped out a wide-ranging 25-year plan to broaden relations and expand trade during the meeting of Chinese President Xi Jinping with his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani in Tehran in January.



The two sides discussed promoting bilateral relations of up to $600 billion over the next 10 years.



Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, accompanied by a 70-member high-ranking politico-economic delegation, started its three-leg visit to India, China and Japan late Friday to balance communications and interactions with different countries around the world.
Iran's Fashion Industry is the Latest Victim of Khamenei's War on Western Culture

12/09/16

Source: International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran

Iran's Brain Drain Spreads to Fashion Sector as Professionals Emigrate to Escape Raids and Arrests



Fashion shows have become increasingly popular in Tehran and other major Iranian cities

even while security and judicial authorities work to force the industry to comply with "Islamic standards."

ICHRI photo by Hossein Fatemi



In the latest attack on the Islamic Republic's growing fashion sector, a court in Shiraz sentenced 12 industry professionals in December 2016 to prison terms ranging from five months to six years.

An investigation by the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran has revealed that the crackdown on the sector is ongoing, is being led by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) Intelligence Organization in concert with Iran's Judiciary, and follows a decree by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei against all forms of perceived western culture.

Following raids organized by the Guards, dozens of people have been interrogated about alleged "modeling networks" while businesses have been shuttered in the cities of Tehran, Qazvin, Arak, Shiraz and Zahedan.

"After they're summoned, the authorities first order them to log into their Instagram page and delete their account," said a Tehran-based industry source who spoke to the Campaign about four colleagues who were summoned in November 2016 to answer questions about alleged "immoral" activities. "The authorities also identify people as potential targets by looking at the detainee's list of Instagram followers and contacts."

A women's dress designer in Tehran told the Campaign: "It's hard to estimate how many have been summoned and harassed by the Revolutionary Guards because it's bad for business and they're afraid of losing customers, so no one talks about it. Only a few might tell their friends that the authorities have contacted them, otherwise, they're careful not to get trapped. Probably the only way you can find out something has gone wrong is when there's a sudden change on someone's Instagram page."

For security reasons, the sources interviewed by the Campaign for this briefing paper asked to remain anonymous.

To legally work in Iran's fashion industry, people must apply for professional permits including in the fields of photography, design and hairdressing. Specialized organizations and laws regulate the industry. Members must be particularly careful not to engage in activities that could be interpreted as anti-Islamic or Western.

The internet, which is heavily filtered by state authorities, has provided industry members with an outlet for self-promotion, but it is also risky one due to the fact that social media platforms are continuously monitored by state authorities. Many members have launched pages on Instagram, which is one of the few major unfiltered Western-based social media application allowed in the Islamic Republic.

Industry members are increasingly using Instagram to promote their work, and in doing so are pushing the boundaries of permissible activities in Iran. Conservative officials are working to intimidate users into remaining within the Islamic Republic's interpretation of Islamic standards through interrogations, fines and jail time.

The increasing pressure and restrictions have forced many people to leave the fashion industry or emigrate to freely pursue their profession.



Many photographers and models have self-censored their art or left Iran to freely pursue their careers abroad.

Iranian fashion photographer Kourosh Sotoodeh immigrated to Dubai and then New York City to escape censorship in Iran.

ICHRI photo



"As in any profession, when there are restrictions [in your own country], or when there are better opportunities elsewhere, there's a greater chance you will think about emigrating," Iranian fashion photographer Kourosh Sotoodeh, who left Tehran in 2009 and settled in New York City, told the Campaign. "In the last few decades, many scientists, engineers and even businessmen have moved to countries like Turkey or the United Arab Emirates where there are fewer constraints. Photographers have been no exception in seeking better opportunities."



Mass Arrests and Heavy Prison Sentences in Shiraz

According to the Campaign's investigation, the Revolutionary Guards and Judiciary's joint crackdown on the fashion industry began in Tehran in September 2015, escalated in March 2016, and then spread to Mashhad and other cities. After questioning, many "suspects" have been referred to court for prosecution for simply engaging in their profession. In most cases, arrests are followed by the forced closure of their digital and social media pages as well as physical places of business.

Mahmoud Taravatrouy, the lawyer for eight female and four male members of the fashion industry who were recently sentenced to prison in Shiraz for engaging in their profession, told the semi-official Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA) on December 5, 2016 that his clients had been sentenced to terms ranging from five months to six years by Branch 117 of the Criminal Court. The court also banned some of the defendants from resuming their work in the industry and/or leaving the country for two years.

The defendants were charged with "promoting corruption and depravity" by publishing "indecent" and "immoral" images on the internet, organizing Western-style fashion shows, modeling, and promoting the Western culture of nudity, said Taravatrouy, adding that he would appeal the sentences.

The names of the defendants have been concealed from the press.

Taravatrouy told ILNA: "One man and woman were each sentenced to five years in prison and banned from employment in the production and design of clothes for two years after the end of their prison term. Another man was sentenced to six years in prison and banned from state employment or journalism activities for two years, another woman was sentenced to one year in prison, a husband and wife were sentenced to eight months in prison and banned from employment in the production and design of clothes and fashion photography for two years, three women were sentenced to four years in prison and banned from employment in the production and design of clothes and organizing fashion shows for two years, another woman was sentenced to six months and banned from employment in the production and design of clothes and organizing fashion shows for two years, and another woman was sentenced to five months in prison and banned from employment in the production and design of clothes and organizing fashion shows for two years. The last defendant was a man who was sentenced to two years in prison and banned from employment in the production and design of clothes and fashion photography for two years. They were all also given a two-year travel ban that would begin at the end of their prison terms."



Intimidation Campaign in Mashhad

Intelligence agents of the Revolutionary Guards have been especially busy intimidating and rounding up members of the fashion industry in Mashhad, Iran's second largest city.

"Many photographers and hair dressers would like to have a greater professional presence on social media, but the authorities are too cynical and as result many are seriously doubting whether they can continue in this business," an industry source in Mashhad told the Campaign.

"These people have no interest in politics and don't want to hurt anyone. All they want to do is carry on in a profession they love. But these summons and arrests and surveillances and threats are pushing our business underground, like alternative music," added the source.

A fashion photographer arrested in Mashhad in September 2016, currently free on bail, told the Campaign that he had been working with an official permit. "I was accused of being in an 'organized network', but there was no such thing. I was arrested on my own and I didn't know any of the other detainees."

On October 3, 2016 Mehdi Khodabakhshi, the assistant prosecutor in Mashhad, announced the arrest of three women and three men "in charge of an organized modeling network" and the closure of nine photo studios and beauty salons for "promoting promiscuous Western culture" and "destroying society's religious norms."

Officials typically link people in Iran's fashion industry to a "network" to create the impression of fighting organized criminals, and vague laws regarding artistic expression leave members of the industry vulnerable to arbitrary arrests and charges.

Hassan Heydari, Mashhad's assistant revolutionary prosecutor, said in an interview with the hardline Tasnim News Agency on September 7, 2016 that those in the modeling business were waging a "soft war" aimed at "changing Iran's identity" and if found guilty, could be sentenced to one to ten years in prison.

"We want to preserve the foundation of the Iranian family and to that end we will confront any activities in the opposite direction," he said. The [Revolutionary Guards], which has a duty to preserve the honor of the Islamic Republic, is involved in the fight against modeling," he added.

A previously arrested professional photographer currently free on bail in Mashhad told the Campaign: "I had just opened my studio with an official permit. I posted the portraits I took of some of the models on Instagram to promote my business. I had no idea I was doing something illegal and would be arrested. Then, one day agents of the Revolutionary Guards from Mashhad's Imam Reza Unit came and took me away along with all my cameras and computers and shuttered my office. I was questioned for 20 days and then released on bail. I'm waiting to go to court and meet my fate. Meanwhile my personal and professional pages on Instagram have been blocked (by the Revolutionary Guards)."

He added: "The arrest warrant included the names of nine other people. They had no connection to one another and were in the photography, clothing design, hairstyling, cosmetics and wedding service businesses."



Widening Crackdown



The 24th Islamic-Iranian Fashion Exhibition and 1st Islamic-Iranian Fashion Festival,

held in Zahedan, Sistan and Baluchistan Province, February 2016.

Security and judicial authorities confront photographers, designers and models suspected of violating state policies.





In addition to Tehran and Mashhad, fashion businesses and professionals in the cities of Qazvin, Arak and Zahedan have also been targeted by the Revolutionary Guards' Intelligence Organization.

The Rouhollah Army in Central Province issued a statement on October 18, 2016 announcing the summoning of 41 people in connection with the fashion industry in the city of Arak. Twenty-four of the people who were summoned were arrested and nine "ateliers, studios and women's beauty salons" were shut down.

Two days earlier, on October 16, the Revolutionary Guards' Intelligence Organization arrested 11 people and closed three fashion businesses in Zahedan in Sistan and Baluchistan Province. In Qazvin, local prosecutor Sadegh Niaraki confirmed the arrest of dozens of people from a "modeling network" on November 14.

"In addition to the people arrested, a large number of others were summoned, seven places of business including ateliers as well as photo and film studios were sealed, and computer equipment, cameras, laptops, flash memories, lighting equipment and other electronic devices were confiscated," he said.

Culture War



An Iranian model poses for a photo.

Photography and modeling are becoming increasingly popular among young Iranians,

even though vague laws heavily restrict the professions.

ICHRI photo by Hossein Fatemi.



In May 2016 the Campaign published a report on the Revolutionary Guards' targeting of the fashion industry. The forced closure of salons and fashion studios, deletion of social media pages and widespread arrests reported on then have continued, reflecting the larger battle launched by the Revolutionary Guards and the Judiciary-under Khamenei's direction-aimed at controlling peoples' lifestyle choices.

Since the 1979 revolution, the Islamic Republic of Iran has focused on making people conform to rigid interpretations of Islamic principles. Examples include the mandatory enforcement of the hijab, which conceals women's hair in public, segregating men and women in public, restricting relationships between the opposite sex to family or marriage, and preventing the fashion industry from promoting personal styles that could be interpreted as opposing the Islamic Republic's interpretation of Islam. But with millions of Iranians expressing themselves by sharing content online among each other and the rest of the world, state control has been diminishing.

The internet has made the state's job of suppressing new cultural trends, especially among young people, more difficult. Every day increasing numbers of Iranians using the internet are exposed to ideas and lifestyle choices that differ from state-enforced notions.



Khamenei's Decree

In a speech on May 2, 2016, Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei denounced security officials for failing to control the impact of the internet.

"I have a bone to pick with the Intelligence Ministry," he said. "Why are we letting the internet roam free? Nobody is trying to shut down cyberspace. That would not make sense. But other countries are setting boundaries to protect their culture. So why aren't we?"

Since its beginning in 1979, the Islamic Republic has been vehemently opposed to Western culture. Khamenei regularly warns about the dangers of the West's "cultural invasion" during his speeches, which often include decrees that the entire country, including all branches of government, are expected to follow.

"This is a fact I warned about many years ago and today we're witnessing its undeniable manifestations. There are hundreds of audio, visual, print and online media outlets around the world with the specific aim of influencing the minds and character of the Iranian people," he said on October 11, 2013.







Tattoo artist Siavash smokes a cigarette.

While not illegal, Islamic law is often used to denouce those sporting them.

Tattoos have been part of Iranian culture since ancient times,

but today they are often seen as copies of Western culture.

"Cultural and political influences are more dangerous than economic and security ones,"

said Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

ICHRI photo by Hossein Fatemi.





"Cultural independence means we should choose to live an Iranian-Islamic lifestyle," said Khamenei on June 14, 2016. "Today [the West] is working on making new devices in order to dominate other cultures. I am not saying we should get rid of these devices. No, these devices can be beneficial. But we must prevent the enemy from dominating us through these devices. For instance, you cannot allow the enemy to run your radio and television stations. The same applies to the internet. You cannot hand it over to the enemy. Today the enemy uses these devices for cultural penetration."

Khamenei's desire to control the internet gave the Revolutionary Guards the green light to launch attacks on any perceived threats against "Islamic-Iranian" culture, in addition to filtering and blocking content.

Less than two months after Khamenei told a group of Revolutionary Guards commanders in September 2016 that "[foreign] cultural and political influences are more dangerous than economic and security ones," four journalists-Issa Saharkhiz, Afarin Chitsaz, Ehsan Mazandarani and Saman Safarzai-were arrested along with Davoud Assadi, a marketing manager, for allegedly being part of a foreign-instigated "infiltration" plot aimed at spreading anti-Iranian propaganda.

Systematic Repression: Vague Laws and Misguided Priorities

The Revolutionary Guards' cybercrimes unit has carried out its anti-fashion operations under the code-name "Spider," an initiative that seeks to monitor social media for any content deemed inappropriate. In March 2015, Operation Spider-1 resulted in the arrest of 12 people in connection with some 350 Facebook pages allegedly promoting "corruption" and Western-inspired lifestyles.

On June 19, 2016, Judiciary Spokesman Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei encouraged the crackdown by urging local prosecutors to take swift action against alleged online manifestations of "corruption."

"We cannot sit back and allow depravity and indecency to take over our society," he said. "We will get much better results if other organizations coordinate with the Judiciary."

In May 2016, Operation Spider-2 resulted in cases being opened on more than 170 fashion industry workers, many of whom had allegedly posted photos and videos on their Facebook and Instagram pages allegedly showing themselves in "un-Islamic" poses. Some of the "suspects'" social media accounts had a few thousand to as many as half a million followers.

"In the past two years we have done a good job with Spider-1 and 2 cybercrimes operations in fighting against beauty salons and fashion houses involved in modeling activities," said Tehran Prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi on May 15, 2016. "These days the enemy tries to penetrate the minds of young people in cultural and social arenas through sexual and financial incentives. Therefore, we have to find serious solutions for these online threats."

Iranian fashion photographer Kourosh Sotoodeh told the Campaign that before he moved to New York City, the biggest problem facing his business in Iran was the lack of clear legal guidelines.

"There's no consensus among government officials on how to deal with fashion photographers and models. Professions stop growing when each person is treated differently. What was certain in Iran was that you could not take nude or erotic photos. But the law's position on all other kinds of photography is not clear," he said.

According to state budget allocations, during the Iranian year 1395 (ending March 20, 2017), 87 percent of the six trillion tomans ($1.87 billion USD) set aside for cultural affairs are to be allocated to religious and cultural organizations that are only accountable to the supreme leader and are charged with carrying out his war against all supposed Western cultural plots. The remaining 13 percent is earmarked for the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, which, with a minister appointed by centrist President Hassan Rouhani, is often accused of not doing enough to resist those plots.

By comparison, the budget for the Environmental Protection Agency, which has been struggling to deal with the potentially catastrophic impact of serious drought conditions in the country, has been given 174 billion tomans ($54 million USD).







Photo by Hossein Fatemi





The Campaign's investigations indicate that the great majority of fashion industry members who have been questioned or intimidated by the Revolutionary Guards and Judiciary have not engaged in nude or semi-nude photography or modeling-the most clearly defined illegal act in the industry.

"Most of the work the authorities condemn as 'fashion photography' are actually photos of people in normal, everyday clothes. These are natural images in the eyes of ordinary people," a Tehran-based photographer told the Campaign. "The gap between the lives and thinking of people and the authorities is so wide that really typical photos on Instagram anger the authorities, who then go after people for something so simple."

There are no official guidelines explicitly defining the Iranian-Islamic lifestyle that Khamenei promotes. Many victims of the Revolutionary Guards and Judiciary's "morality" campaigns told the Campaign that they were not aware that their work or posts on social media violated any laws. They sincerely believed that they were engaging in a legitimate profession that conveyed both their art and the lifestyles of people on Iran's streets.

Despite spending vast amounts on "religious education," the Islamic Republic continues to struggle to force its interpretation of an Iranian-Islamic lifestyle on the population. The security establishment meanwhile attempts to suppress new cultural trends by blocking them, or threatening people with arrests, never with complete success. The latest crackdown on the fashion industry again highlights the state's reliance on arbitrary interpretations of the law in the absence of legal clarity.

"There are no regulations that say how much hair a woman can expose in a photo or how large or red a woman's lips should be," Sotoodeh told the Campaign. "It's difficult to work when I don't know the limits. Even the officials have differences of opinion. They all worry about un-Islamic cultural activities, but there's no consensus about what Islamic culture is."
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Georgias secretary of state says the state was hit with an attempted hack of its voter registration database from an IP address linked to the federal Department of Homeland Security.

The allegation by Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp is one of the more bizarre charges to come up in the recent spate of alarms about voting-system hacks. He said in a Facebook post on Thursday that he had been made aware of the failed attempt to breach the firewall protecting Georgias voter registration database. The attack was traced to an Internet Protocol address associated with DHS, he said.

This morning I sent a letter to DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson demanding to know why, he said in the post.

The DHS said it had received the letter. We are looking into the matter. DHS takes the trust of our public and private sector partners seriously, and we will respond to Secretary Kemp directly, the department said in a statement.

The hacking attempt reportedly took place on Nov. 15, after the presidential election, according to the Wall Street Journal, which saw a copy of the letter.

At no time has my office agreed to or permitted DHS to conduct penetration testing or security scans of our network, Kemp wrote in his letter. Moreover, your department has not contacted my office since this unsuccessful incident to alert us of any security event that would require testing or scanning of our network.

Kemp is also asking if the department has scanned any other states in the same way.

The hacking of local election systems in the U.S. was a major concern during this years presidential campaign. U.S. government agencies, including the DHS, had found evidence that hackers were probing state voter registration systems in the months preceding Election Day.

To prevent possible tampering, the DHS was working with some states on protecting their election systems. Among the services the agency was offering were cyber hygiene scans. These scans were conducted remotely and designed to identify vulnerabilities in election-related online systems, DHS said.

Reportedly, Kemp had been resisting election security help from the federal government. Kemp said he was worried that the Obama administration was exaggerating the cyber threat to intrude on the states authority, according to Politico.

I strongly believe that the U.S. Constitution mandates that the respective states manage the elections process, Kemp said in a statement in August. I also believe it is important that every state and the federal government collaborate responsibly on best practices and the sharing of information.
President Barack Obama has ordered U.S. intelligence agencies to conduct a full review of the cyberattacks that allegedly tried to disrupt this years election, as his successor Donald Trump casts doubt over Russias possible involvement.

Obamas homeland security advisor Lisa Monaco first mentioned the need for the review while speaking to reporters on Friday morning, according to Politico.

We may be crossed into a new threshold, and it is incumbent upon us to take stock of that, to review, to conduct some after-action, to understand what this means, and to impart those lessons learned, Monaco reportedly said.

The review is scheduled to be completed before Obama leaves office on Jan. 20. It will produce a report that will be shared with members of Congress, some of whom have already been calling for a wider investigation.

On Friday, Obama deputy press secretary Eric Schultz said the review will also look into election hacking activities that took place prior to this years presidential race and will also go back to 2008. The president intends to make as much of the report as public as possible.

In October, U.S. intelligence agencies publicly blamed the Russian government for sponsoring high-profile hacks against U.S. political targets as a way to interfere with the election. However, the intelligence agencies didnt provide specific evidence to support their claims.

Among the hacks was a high-profile breach at the Democratic National Committee that some security firms blamed on elite Russian cyberespionage teams. Sensitive files from the DNC were stolen as part of that hack and then leaked online, potentially damaging presidential candidate Hillary Clintons reputation.

Russian hackers also allegedly stole emails from a Clinton aide that were later published by WikiLeaks just weeks before Election Day.

Russia has denied any involvement. But that hasnt stopped U.S. lawmakers from drafting legislation that would form a bipartisan commission to investigate the Russian governments possible role in the hacks.

The Obama administration has also considered retaliating against Russia for the alleged cyberattacks. However, President-elect Donald Trump voiced doubts about the Russian governments involvement.

It could be Russia. And it could be China. And it could be some guy in his home in New Jersey, Trump said in an interview with Time magazine conducted in late November.

On Friday, Representative Adam Schiff, California Democrat, said he approved the Obamas administration move asking for a full review of the hacking. He also called Trumps denial of Russian involved disturbing, and said the U.S. needed to respond to the Kremlins cyber meddling.

After many briefings by our intelligence community, it is clear to me that the Russians hacked our democratic institutions and sought to interfere in our elections and sow discord, Schiff said in a statement.

John Bambenek, a researcher at security firm Fidelis Cybersecurity, said the goal of Obamas review was to probably prevent Trump from further casting doubt on Russias alleged involvement in the hacks.

It does seem that President Obama wants to make a strong case that Russia was involved and potentially box President-elect Trump in on deflecting blame, Bambenek said in an email.
An intentionally-set fire destroyed an outbuilding at an abandoned Riverside business and prompted the arrest of two kids, say police and fire officials.

The building already was engulfed when the first firefighters arrived at the 10:14 a.m. blaze Thursday, Dec. 8, at 4489 Brockton Avenue, between Evergreen Memorial Park and Riverside Community Hospital.

A witness reported the smoke and said she saw two juveniles run away, Sgt. Pete Elliott said in a written statement.

The crews of two fire engines and two ladder trucks were dispatched to the incident and extinguished the flames within 25 minutes.

Both kids were detained, but released pending a review by Juvenile Court prosecutors.

Anyone with additional information may call arson investigator Zach Pettikas at 951-351-6481 or Officer Ronel Newton at 951-826-8714.
When the alarms went off at her 16-story high-rise apartment building shortly after midnight Thursday, Dec. 8, Riverside senior Karen Barrow pulled on clothes, grabbed her purse and opened her door to make for a stairway exit just like shed been told.

Seeing flames in the hall, she was forced back by deadly black smoke that made her choke, just as she heard a neighbor on Mount Rubidoux Manors 10th floor scream, Help me! Help me! I cant breathe!

I said, Where are you? said Barrow, 73. Suddenly unable to breathe herself, she retreated to her balcony while smoke seeped in under the apartment door.

Firefighters and police evacuated Barrow and many of the 184 other elderly residents  some confined to beds or dependent on wheelchairs and walkers  after the five-alarm fire broke out shortly before 12:20 a.m. at the low-income apartments for seniors and the disabled on Tenth Street.

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Fire officials said a cigarette fell from the hand of a woman using an oxygen tank and then hit the hose, sparking a fire that caused an estimated $1 million in damage to the citys tallest building, displaced more than 14 people and left two hospitalized following mild smoke inhalation.

Barrow stood on her cold balcony and called 9-1-1. Her daughter then screamed to Riverside firefighters as they arrived to tell them where the fire was.

She waited until firefighters climbed across two or three balconies  10 stories off the ground  to reach her and tell her shed be OK.

The firemen were angels dressed in black and yellow, she said. I didnt really think we were going to survive it.

The woman who was apparently smoking in bed when the fire started was one of two women hospitalized, Riverside Fire Battalion Chief Bruce Vanderhorst said.

A week after 36 people died in an Oakland warehouse fire, Riverside Fire captains Mark Thompson and Garrett Coryell  who along with Vanderhorst led the early-morning firefighting and rescue efforts  agreed the outcome could have been much worse.

Given the size of the fire and the location, Im very, very surprised someone wasnt killed, said Coryell, who added that the woman whose apartment burned got herself out.

CHAOTIC SCENE

Thompson credited the quick and massive response from nearly 80 firefighters and all but two of the citys engines, department training and building layout knowledge from medical calls, as well as residents who took shelter on balconies with all doors closed.

Police officers estimated more than 20 people were on their balconies seeking help.

Thompsons engine arrived about a minute after the fire was reported because its crew was a few streets away following another call. Two or three minutes later, Coryell and an engine truck and squad also arrived.

Vanderhorst said firefighters found a chaotic scene of residents on their balconies and the Riverside Police Departments helicopter circling overhead.

Turbulent dense black smoke and 10- to 15-foot flames were shooting from the womans 10th-floor apartment when Thompsons crew arrived.

Forced to crawl down a smoke-blackened hallway by flames two to three feet off the floor and temperatures ranging from 500 degrees to more than 1,000 degrees at the ceiling, Thompson and his firefighters dragged a hose to douse flames and cool the atmosphere so they could reach the unit, which was burning from floor to ceiling.

Its just a big giant ball of fire, he said. Even the smoke is burning.

Coryell and three other firefighters pushed into the unit next door and came upon a woman hunkered down on the floor just inside.

Firefighter/paramedic Mike Dobyns firefighter/paramedic Miguel Ahumada and firefighter Leroy Lopez picked her up and carried her out, cradled in their arms.

As they got to the door where Coryell stood, a flashover hit the hallway and everything burning reached a peak temperature making even unburned fuel in the smoke ignite. The firefighters, already on their knees from the smoke and flames, shielded her as other firefighters hosed the flames.

She was later taken to a hospital, Coryell said.

The way that apartment was burned there would have been zero survivability, he said.

NO PROTECTION

Vanderhorst said three people were rescued. Fourteen who have been displaced are staying in nearby motels through the American Red Cross, the organizations spokesman Tony Briggs said.

Riverside Police officers helped evacuate residents. One officer scooped up an elderly woman who fell on the stairs as Barrow descended nearby. He carried her to the ground. Another officer headed up and asked if there were any more people above.

Barrow told him there were.

He took those steps two at a time. He had no mask. There was no protection for him  and those police officers were all over the building, Barrow said.

She was taken to the home of her daughter, Jolene Barrow, where shell stay temporarily after the 10th floor of the building, owned by American Baptist Homes of the West, was left uninhabitable. Some residents waited at a senior center across the street until being let back in about four hours later.

Jolene Barrow and brother Andrew Barrow, a San Bernardino high school math teacher, then gathered blankets, coats, socks and other clothes and took them to the residents who were waiting in the cold.

They were freezing out there. We had to do something, Jolene Barrow said as the two sat in her dining room.

Theres people there with no family, no money, she said. Theres going to be a lot of need.

Staff writer Anne Millerbernd contributed to this report.

Contact the writer: 951-368-9444 or shurt@scng.comTwitter: @SuzanneHurt
With recreational cannabis legal in California, state leaders are taking another stab at letting law enforcement test the saliva of people suspected of driving under the influence of marijuana.

Assemblyman Tom Lackey, R-Palmdale, this week introduced a bill that would allow officers to take a spit swab from drivers whove failed field sobriety tests. Portable instruments promise to detect the presence of pot and other drugs within minutes, telling officers whether they should potentially let the driver go free or take them to the station for a blood test and possible arrest.

Driving is the most dangerous thing we do, Lackey said Wednesday. Using new technology to  get stoned drivers off the road is something we need to embrace.

Swab tests are widely used on drivers in the United Kingdom, but the process remains controversial.

Theres no clear impairment threshold with marijuana as there is with alcohol. Also, critics argue that the roadside testing device is still experimental, citing studies that show the tests are least effective at detecting impairment, in part because marijuana stays in a persons system long after its effects have worn off.

That lack of reliability  coupled with the high cost for a test that would only establish probable cause rather than clear proof of impairment  were concerns raised when similar legislation was analyzed in the past.

Lackey, a former California Highway Patrol officer who represents portions of Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Kern counties, proposed a nearly identical bill in 2015. And State Sen. Bob Huff, R-San Dimas, pushed similar legislation earlier this year. Both bills died in committee.

Lackey is hoping to succeed this time, noting an increased sense of urgency now that Proposition 64 has passed making pot legal for adults.

The ballot measure dedicates tax revenue from pot sales to help universities and the CHP develop better roadside tests. But Lackey, who opposed Prop. 64, said California cant wait that long to take action.

Ive seen the tragedy that results from impaired driving, he said. I feel like I have a responsibility to be the voice on this issue.

Lackeys bill is expected to be up for a vote in early 2017.

Contact the writer: 714-796-7963 or bstaggs@ocregister.comTwitter: @JournoBrooke
When Temeculas Taryn Murphy dug into the issue of human trafficking during a speech and debate team meeting two years ago, she decided she needed to seek healing for victims.

Now a high school senior who is home-schooled, Murphy has started her own charity called Journals for the Journey, which provides those who have suffered from trauma with a journal to process their experiences.

I started to uncover more stories about human trafficking and how closely it was affecting people here in the Inland Empire, Murphy said. I realized that journaling is therapeutic, not only for me but for so many people that I know.

Murphy has been journaling since she was 6, when her mom made time in her home-school schedule each day to write. At home years later, journaling next to her mom at the kitchen table, she had the idea to share this passion.

She really has a heart for others, Taryns mother, Kelly Murphy, said. She always likes to root for the underdog and come alongside them and make them feel comfortable. Ive always seen that in her.

Most journals are donated from Taryn Murphys family and friends, churches and local businesses. In addition to helping victims of human trafficking, Journals for the Journey extends to those who have suffered from other types of trauma, such as domestic violence, sexual abuse, children in foster care and veterans.

How does she pick which charities shell donate to? Taryn Murphy said she calls any center she can find and works with any that will collaborate with her.

Taryn Murphy gave the first set of journal donations to Su Casa, a domestic violence shelter in Long Beach that houses up to 22 people in their short-term shelter and 24 in their long-term shelter. All residents are given a journal upon arrival to aid in their transition.

Getting these journals from Journals for the Journey, they were absolutely beautiful and something for them to hold on to, said Christina Kreachbaum, Su Casas director of community outreach. It was something really gorgeous, and they want to honor whats in front of them by putting something beautiful inside of it.

Kreachbaum said writing and drawing in journals are a positive way for people to have a record of their accomplishments and track their growth.

The healing process will take time, as will filling up the pages of the journal, Kreachbaum said. Journaling becomes a part of that in helping them process their thoughts and making a plan for whats going to happen next and trying to keep it in as positive of a way as possible. It also gives them something to hold in their hands their own plans, which is very empowering.

Taryn Murphy said meeting with Kreachbaum helped her grasp the impact her charity can have. It was a great moment because it reaffirmed that the work I was doing was going to change peoples lives, she said.

Since donating to Su Casa, Taryn Murphy also has sent a shipment to Catholic Community Services in Arizona. She said she hopes to expand her outreach nationally and eventually internationally.

Journals for the Journey currently has a waiting list of over 500 journal requests. For more information on the charity or to make a donation, visit journalsforthejourney.org.

Contact the writer: community@pressenterprise.com
News that Andrew Puzder, head of CKE Restaurants, parent of Carls Jr. and Hardee, will be nominated by President-elect Donald Trump to head the Labor Department is welcome for the founder of San Bernardino-based Juan Pollo franchises.

I think that is great news. I was very concerned before the election about what was going to happen. I was planning to scale back growth, Albert Okura said. Okura founded the rotisserie chicken franchises and also owns and operates the private Original McDonalds Museum on the site of the original Speedee Service hamburger stand that the McDonald brothers devised in 1948 to replace their barbecue joint on the same site.

Puzder opposes raises in the federal minimum wage, the Affordable Care Act, and the recently court-halted U.S. Labor Department rule that would have made millions of middle managers eligible for overtime pay.

Puzder also supported Trumps positions on lowering corporate tax and reducing government regulation.

He will understand our needs, Okura said. If the government does nothing, we will do better.

Okura said he feared increased sick time-off pay that Hillary Clinton advocated.

And although individual franchise employee numbers are below the 50 required for participation in the Affordable Care Act, Okura said he believed under-funding in the insurance pools would eventually broaden the law into smaller businesses that are now exempt.

The cost would have been unbearable. It would have been better to do nothing than to expand, said Okura. The Juan Pollo chain is 25 outlets, two of them company-owned and 23 franchises, Okura said.

Okura said Californias already-in-place minimum wage increase schedule, which will increase the hourly pay to $15 an hour by Jan. 1, 2022, is the reason he doesnt add that to the list of concerns he has.

I like to call it entry-level wage, Okura said Most of my employees are high school kids who live at home with their parents.

While Carls Jr. started as a hot dog stand in Los Angeles, its post-war success leading to a chain of char-broiled hamburger restaurants follows the same narrative that created several fast-food brands in the Inland area.

McDonalds, Taco Bell, Bakers, Del Taco, Wienerschnitzel, and Naugles all have links to the Inland area, either through first restaurants or the shared ideas and opportunities of the small group of businessmen whose careers started in the area.

Puzder in 2010published a book called Job Creation: How it Really Works and Why Government Doesnt Understand It.

The Californian was one of Trumps earliest campaign financiers, serving as a co-chairman of his California finance team and organizing fundraisers well before most major donors got on board with the eventual Republican nominee. Together with his wife, Puzder contributed $150,000 in late May to Trumps campaign and Republican Party partners, fundraising records show.

As one of Trumps most outspoken defenders, Puzder frequently appeared on cable news and Twitter to talk up the benefits of having a business leader in the White House.

A week after Trumps election, Puzder said he agreed with Trumps aim to ease business regulations.

Weve reached the point where overregulation is doing meaningful damage to our businesses, he said last month at the Restaurant Finance & Development Conference in Las Vegas, citing high labor costs, increased health care costs and political and social policies as hindrances.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The five students sat at a table, repeating vowel sounds after their teacher and holding up letter cards.

Think, now show me, Tina Dugard told the first-graders at Jackson Elementary School in Riverside.

Moments later, they practiced saying sounds while tracing letters on felt paper, salt and sand trays and other textures.

Slide, climb, slide, Dugard said, moving her fingers in the shape of the letter h.

The 20-minute lesson is part of a daily reading-building strategy used in all 29 Riverside Unified School District elementary campuses.

K-2 Institute: Reading  Gateway to Learning is one of 56 programs in the state and 11 in the Inland area to win a Golden Bell award from the California School Boards Association for innovation and excellence. The winners were recognized last week at a ceremony in San Francisco.

Riverside Unifieds program uses a 10-step process and several senses to assist students who are behind in reading to catch up. They learn the sounds that go with the letters and how letters form words not just by seeing and hearing but touching and moving. The goal is to have all students reading by third grade.

Dugard, who has taught at Jackson Elementary for 26 years, said its made a huge difference in students who need the most help. She knows exactly where to start and what to do with each child to achieve results.

I think reading is like a door with a lot of locks, she said. The keys that open my door arent necessarily the keys that open your door. We have to give the students a wider variety of experiences.

The Jurupa Unified School District won recognition for ABC Music and Me, which prepares infants, toddlers and preschoolers for kindergarten by focusing on stories, songs and movement.

About 120 families have attended the free 16-week program in its first two years. The weekly hour-long classes are held at a training center next to West Riverside Elementary School.

Through songs such as Wheels on the Bus and Shiny Dinah, parents learn how to teach their children words, sounds, motions, shapes and colors.

Jose Campos, the districts director of parent involvement and community outreach, said the program builds vocabulary, forms parent-child bonds and stimulates brain growth.

Families can check out for three weeks or pay $9 for a kit that includes a CD, book with a story and instruments such as egg shakers, rattles and rhythm sticks.

Children in the program improved literacy, social, motor, math and music skills, with 88 percent showing an increase in school readiness after completing the lessons, district officials say.

The district received a $9,300 grant from First 5 Riverside, a tobacco-tax funded nonprofit, allowing it to serve an additional 75 families starting in January. The money also will pay for a pilot program to deliver the lessons in the homes of 12 families with infants and 1 year olds.

Also receiving honors was a Riverside County Office of Education program to improve learning for students with significant disabilities such as autism. About 900 preschool through adult students are referred from 19 of the countys 23 school districts. The program, which started in 2002 and is a partnership with Lakeshore Learning Materials, has been adopted by districts across the country, including public school systems in New York and Los Angeles.

A data tool known as the Student Annual Needs Determination Inventory pinpoints academic needs and is used to create individual learning plans. Teachers meet monthly to examine the data and discuss strategies to increase achievement.

There hasnt ever been a comprehensive assessment like this that gives us common data to look at for these students to drive the instruction, said Ann Vessey, the county offices executive director of special education.

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Contact the writer: 951-368-9292 orstwall@scng.comTwitter: @pe_swall
CLARIFICATION: An earlier version of this story wasnt clear on the length of time undercover officers are working at Mt. San Jacinto College. They began Dec. 6 and joined sheriffs deputies and campus safety officers. All will be on duty Dec. 18, the day a shooting was threatened.

The swift arrest this week of two students suspected of plotting a future attack on Riversides Martin Luther King High School was due in part to someone speaking up about suspicious activity, authorities say.

Since the anonymous tip was made to school authorities before school started Monday, Dec. 5, the students were detained and questioned early in the day, said Riverside Police Department spokesman Ryan Railsback. Police and Riverside Unified School District officials believe the quick response protected students and faculty from danger, according to a news release issued by both agencies Tuesday.

By contrast, someone who found a threat of a mass shooting written in a bathroom at the Mt. San Jacinto College campus in San Jacinto took a picture of it and shared it on the social media site Snapchat on Monday before campus safety officers discovered it that night and reported it to the Riverside County Sheriffs Department.

Investigators are still trying to find both the person who made the threat and the person who shared the photo under the username Carlos. The school has increased security patrols and said undercover officers have been on duty since Tuesday, Dec. 6. They joined sheriffs deputies and campus safety officers. All will be working Dec. 18, the date the graffiti said the shooting would be carried out.

Law enforcement and education officials urge students and parents to speak up if they see anything suspicious by contacting the proper authorities.

If you see something or hear of something suspicious, we want you to actually contact the law enforcement agencys dispatch center to make an official report, Railsback said. That way, we can start the investigation much more promptly.

Railsback said police officials would have preferred the tipster in the King High ordeal to contact police directly, but the tipster had the right idea by notifying school authorities, who in turn called police.

SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING

Ron Stephens is executive director for the National School Safety Center, a Westlake Village-based nonprofit that develops violence-prevention resource materials for schools.

He recalled a school he had worked with some years ago after a shooting.

The evening prior to the shooting, the student had robbed a couple of students at gunpoint, and it was that student the very next day that shot the principal and someone else, Stephens said.

His organization urges schools to communicate the see something, say something message to their students.

Corona-Norco Unified School District is among the Inland districts that embrace that philosophy. It employs programs that promote safe learning environments and empower students to feel comfortable sharing information with school personnel to maintain safe learning environments, district spokeswoman Evita Tapia-Gonzalez said via email.

In the Riverside Unified School District, all campuses have a school safety plan in place to address any incident where student or staff safety may be place in jeopardy, according to the news release that the district and police put out this week.

In Mondays instance, the school and police followed the School Threat Assessment and Response protocols they created to assess threats of violence.

Two 15-year-old freshmen were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder. They were found with knives and ammunition, but no firearms, and authorities say they were planning an attack for 2020. Charges against them have not been announced.

DONT JUST POST IT

In the Mt. San Jacinto college incident, a photograph of the threatening message  graffiti on a bathroom stall that said, December 18th 2016 I will be shooting 12 students, 4 teachers then myself you WILL (expletive) DIE  was shared across Snapchat before authorities were made aware of it.

That date is a Sunday, two days after the colleges last day of final exams.

Deputy Mike Vasquez, a sheriffs spokesman, said people who spot something suspicious should contact authorities, rather than just sharing it online.

Thats become the social norm and we understand that, but the Sheriffs Department does not use social media as a way of reporting crimes, he said.

Stephens said he encourages schools to monitor students social media presence if possible.

Its a pretty tall order to try to monitor all the social media posts out there but could be a helpful tool in the threat-assessment process, Stephens said.

Tapia-Gonzalez said the Corona-Norco school district works with local law enforcement to monitor students social media presence. The districts strong community partnerships allow people from the community to report concerning social media posts to district authorities.

Contact the writer: 951-368-9284, atadayon@scng.com, @PE_alitadayon
A judge sentenced Mike Spence  who recently was let go as San Bernardino County Supervisor Curt Hagmans chief of staff  to three years of probation after he pleaded guilty Wednesday morning to driving under the influence of methamphetamine.

Spence, 50, a West Covina councilman, was charged with one count of a misdemeanor DUI in connection with a solo car crash in June that landed him in the hospital with serious injuries.

In addition to probation, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Stacy Wiese ordered the councilman to pay a fine of $2,047, enroll in a county-approved alcohol program and attend 26 meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous or Crystal Meth Anonymous.

Spence, who was elected to the council in 2013, has admitted to struggling with alcohol and drug addiction and using both cocaine and methamphetamine. He was let go from his chief of staff post in San Bernardino County Supervisor Curt Hagmans office last month.

On June 12, less than a week after losing the primary election for the 55th State Assembly District seat, Spence was driving in the area of Azusa Avenue and Cypress Street in Covina when he crashed his rental car into a utility pole. Covina police Sgt. Gregg Peterson confirmed Wednesday that toxicology reports revealed Spence was under the influence of methamphetamine at the time of the crash.

The reports have been unavailable to the public during the investigation and court proceedings. Authorities previously had said only that the drug he was under the influence of was an illegal stimulant or narcotic.

The lab results showed that he had methamphetamine in his system, which leads us to believe that he ingested methamphetamine, Peterson said.

Spence declined to comment after exiting the courtroom Wednesday, wearing a sling around his right shoulder as the result of his last surgery resulting from the accident.

He has said he will not resign from his position on the council as a result of the charge, but he told his council colleagues and the public in a recent meeting that if it happened again he would resign.

I have not let my struggles with addiction compromise my ability to fight for taxpayers, he said during the councils Nov. 15 meeting.

Contact the writer: sbaer@scng.com Twitter: @skbaer
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General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Aseidu Nketia, is estimating that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) will devise a means to rule Ghana if it emerges winner with less Parliamentary seats.



Im not here to talk about figures but if it happens that the NDC wins with minority in parliament, we will learn the matured way of governing from experienced countries, he said.



The General Secretary, otherwise known as General Mosquito condemned a call by the NPP for the NDC to concede defeat when the Electoral Commission was yet to declare the winner.



According to him, the NPP violated the agreed process of waiting for 72 hours before election results are declared and he is happy the peace Council has condemned their actions.



Speaking to some journalists after a press conference this evening, he observed that the NDC was closing in to victory and thus encouraged NDC supporters to discard the projection by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) that they have won.



General Mosquito urged supporters to remain calm while the EC prepares to declare the results in few hours time.

Source: myradio360.com









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Thousands of dollars have been raised for Australian teenager Jamie Murphy after he was arrested in Bali during Schoolies week for posessing white powder that ended up being extremely not illegal.

Friends of the 18-year-old have bandied together to raise cash for Murphy  aiming to crowdsource the bloke $30,000 using GoFundMe. They say theyre raising the money to help the teenager move on. Mates say that the cash is intended to reimburse the legal and travel costs incurred by Murphys parents during the case.

A friend of the family, Bryanna Heard, said Jamie and his parents were extremely thankful for the help they had received from their lawyers, but said the cost had hit them hard.

She wrote on the page of the crowdsourcing effort:

This proud hardworking normal family has been left with an immense legal bill that they are unable to cover without asking for help from our incredible community. Jamie does not wish to go to the media and sell his story, but instead would be immensely grateful just to be able to rid himself and his family of these debts and move on.

The effort has received more than $6800 since it started earlier this week. Some people are not so keen.

Damn kids.

Source: GoFundMe.

Photo: Supplied.
Look, you gotta feel bad for people who do corporate social media. They bear the brunt of the horror of customer backlash without actually sharing in the incredible spoils of corporate wealth. Its a tough slog.

And theres no tougher slog than the struggle of whoever was running Queensland Rails social channels yesterday morning, when a track fault, storm damage, and a broken down train caused unbelievable chaos on the rail network. Suffice to say, there was a bit of lateness.

Byt 12:30pm there were still customers waiting half an hour for trains, and the Queensland Rail Twitter delivered a single message in return  a wordless scream into the void, a grinning emoji worthy of Jared Letos Joker himself.

After an explosion of anger from Queensland commuters, the tweet was deleted  and the company says they ultimately dont know who did it. Guess that one wasnt workshopped.

@nick__w We apologise for the emoji tweet which has now been deleted as it did not come from within our team. We are investigating asap.  Queensland Rail (@QueenslandRail) December 8, 2016

Hmm, the old WE WERE HACKED line probably doesnt hold up here. Probably just a frustrated social media executive smashed it out after reading 1000 angry tweets. Cant blame em to be honest.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the rail companys social media response was inadequate, without specifically calling out the offending emoji.

I do believe that Queensland Rail should have been more proactive in letting people know about the issues, she said. Frankly, its not good enough.

There you have it, folks. Never tweet.

Source: News.com.au.

Photo: Getty Images.
Good lord, what have we humans created? Unplug all the artificial intelligence right now, because its going to fucking murder us all.

Dont believe me? Well listen to this Christmas carol composed entirely by AI and tell me they arent out for blood. Go on, well wait.

That, my friends, is the dulcet tones of an experiment run by the University of Toronto where researchers tasked an AI with looking at a picture of a Christmas tree and writing a song relevant to what it sees.

Run on some souped up Nvidia hardware, the neural network was given 100 hours of music training, including how to compose a song before it was left to spin its nightmares.

This, together with image recognition technology birthed the monstrosity above. It will also be the last thing you hear as your family is torn apart by cyborgs on Christmas morning. Mark my words.

Ive always been there for the rest of our lives.



Source: Inverse.

Photo: Futurama.
The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture oversees restaurant inspections in the state. Inspection reports are "snapshots" of the day and time the inspections took place. In many cases, violations are corrected on site prior to the inspector leaving.

The following restaurants and other establishments in Lebanon County that handle food were inspected during the week of Nov. 13-19 and were recorded as of Dec. 2.

READ MORE:

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Nov. 18

WEAVER'S FURNITURE & BAKED GOODS

2801 E. CUMBERLAND ST., MYERSTOWN

Regular inspection.

Prepackaged baked goods not all labeled properly with the name of product, ingredient statement, net weight, distributed-by statement and/or nutritional facts.

Nov. 17

DUTCHWAY FARM MARKET

649 E. LINCOLN AVE., MYERSTOWN

Regular inspection.

Evidence of eating and drinking in the prep areas in several departments; food employees in several areas not wearing proper hair restraints, such as nets, hats, or beard covers; uncovered food stored on shelves had residue and debris that could be dislodged and enter the food; pail lids stored for re-use not easily cleaned with the gasket left in the rim; assorted food-contact items had food residue and were not clean to sight and touch in several areas; non-food-contact surfaces not cleaned at a frequency to preclude accumulation of dirt and soil; dust on overhead fixtures and vents; flies throughout the various areas of the facility.

TURKEY HILL #081

298 W. LINCOLN AVE, MYERSTOWN

Regular inspection.

Yogurt cups held at 55 F in the front display, rather than 41 F or below as required; three-bay sink had build-up of filth and food residue; thermometers for ensuring proper food temperatures are not calibrated and/or functioning properly in deli case (read 36 F compared to a calibrated thermometer reading of 41 F; metal storage bin had food residue and was not clean to sight and touch; ice machine at soda station not cleaned at a frequency to prevent the presence of mold.

Nov. 16

COUNTRY VIEW GROCERY

1941 HORSESHOE PIKE, ANNVILLE

Regular inspection.

Packaged deli meat and cheese not labeled properly with the ingredient statement and manufacturer information.

Establishments with no violations.

Nov. 17

GRAY'S APPLE RIDGE ORCHARD

144 GREBLE ROAD, JONESTOWN

Regular inspection.

Nov. 16

BRASS RAIL DELI

2824 HORSESHOE PIKE, P.O. BOX 42, CAMPBELLTOWN

Regular inspection.

Nov. 15

RITE AID #11021

469 W. PENN AVE., CLEONA

Regular inspection.
pretzels

Delta Airlines will begin serving a snack made in Pennsylvania. Flickr photo by David Lofink

(Flickr photo by David Lofink )

A snack with Pennsylvania ties will soon be served by one American airline.

Starting on Dec. 14, Delta Air Lines will begin serving Snyder's of Hanover pretzels, according to a press release by the airline.

Delta has said it will no longer serve its own brand of peanuts and pretzels in exchange for a lineup of new snacks. Those snacks include Squirrel Brand Honey Roasted peanuts and NatureBox Apple Cinnamon Yogurt Bars served on certain flights, according to a news release. The airline will continue to serve its Biscoff cookies.

Delta said the upgraded snacks are a result of "positive customer and employee feedback as the tested branded snacks and larger portions earlier this year."

The Snyder's pretzels will be served in the main cabin on flights of more than 250 miles as well as international flights.

The Snyder's-Lance company is based in Charlotte, North Carolina with significant operations in Hanover, York County.

Since the 1940s, Delta has offered complimentary snacks on board starting with peanuts. It later added pretzels and Biscoff cookies in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
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As if outrageous baggage fees, crying babies and cramped seats weren't enough to make flying unbearable, federal regulators are proposing allowing passengers to make in-flight calls.

(File)

As if outrageous baggage fees, crying babies and cramped seats weren't enough to make flying unbearable, federal regulators are proposing allowing passengers to make in-flight calls.

The proposal by the U.S. Department of Transportation would allow airlines to decide if they would allow passengers to make in-flight calls using Wi-Fi. Currently, the Federal Communications Commission prohibits passengers from making cellphone calls during flights, but not Wi-Fi calls.

Flight attendants, transportation experts and frequent flyers have slammed the proposal because in-flight calls could be disruptive.

Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, told the Associated Press that anything short of a ban on calls is "reckless." Flight attendants have said previously that they fear the calls could lead to fights between passengers who want to make calls and passengers who don't want to listen to the conversations.

"It threatens aviation security and increases the likelihood of conflict in the skies. It threatens safety for crews and passengers," Nelson said.

However, under the proposal, the department envisioned allowing the calls if airlines tell all customers about the policy when they buy their tickets. That way, a passenger will know ahead of time if their flight allows people to be yapping on their phones and could make other travel arrangements.

"Today's proposal will ensure that air travelers are not unwillingly exposed to voice calls, as many of them are troubled over the idea of passengers talking on cellphones in flight," Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in a statement.

The proposal is in a 60-day comment period.

Southwest Airlines and Alaska Airlines said they have no plans to allow voice calls. A Delta Air Lines spokeswoman noted that the carrier has opposed voice calls for several years.

United Airlines said it was reviewing the proposal and would listen to the views of customers and employees. American referred questions to the trade group. JetBlue did not have an immediate comment.
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Days after one student's Confederate flag-themed attire prompted complaints from parents and peers, officials at a western Pennsylvania high school say more students are arriving for class with similar clothing on, thrusting the school into the midst of a national debate over the meaning and appropriateness of that divisive symbol. Image via Pixabay.

Days after one student's Confederate flag-themed attire prompted complaints from parents and peers, officials at a western Pennsylvania high school say more students are arriving for class with similar clothing on, thrusting the school into the midst of a national debate over the meaning and appropriateness of that divisive symbol.

According to a statement posted on the Plum Borough School District's website Friday, 3 students arrived at the district's high school that morning wearing Confederate flag-themed clothing. This nearly a week after a lone student's "hooded sweatshirt with confederate flag insignia" prompted a community backlash and local media interest.

But while officials with the suburban Pittsburgh district said they couldn't stop the first student from exercising his right to free speech, on Friday they asked the 3 students who followed suit to remove the offending items. Of them, 2 refused and were sent home, while a third agreed and was allowed to stay in class.

"Public school districts cannot restrict students' speech, except when actual, material and substantial interference with school operation occurs," Superintendent Timothy Glasspool said in an open letter to parents.

"This attire is beginning to cause a disruption to the normal school routine," he said, adding, "We have already received in excess of 50 negative reactions to the wearing of the Confederate Flag."

Maurice Freeman, who is African American, told TribLive.com that he pulled his daughter out of class Friday "after she called and said she was scared because a number of students wore clothing adorned with Confederate flags." Freeman's daughter said there were more than 3 students involved.

"I wasn't sure what was going on," Freeman told the website. "My concern is security."

Parent Rob Williams told the Post-Gazette something similar, explaining that when he first complained to school officials about the first student's clothing last week, he warned his daughter that doing so might prompt a backlash.

"My daughter just wants to feel safe," he said. "This is a symbol that doesn't generate safety and security. It's a symbol that generates feelings of insecurity for your safety. A kid shouldn't have to go to a school in that environment."

Meanwhile, school officials said they're planning an investigation to determine "whether the wearing of a specific symbol constitutes harassment directed against one or more individual students because of a student's race, religion, ethnicity, or gender."

The Confederate flag itself has been the subject of renewed debate in the U.S. in recent years. This was particularly true after the killings of 9 African Americans at a Charleston, South Carolina church by a gunman who came to epitomize what critics call the hate and oppression built into that symbol. The gunman, 22-year-old Dylan Roof, is currently on trial and could face the death penalty if jurors decide to impose it.

In the aftermath of his Charleston massacre, the state of South Carolina removed the flag from its Capitol grounds, while a slew of similar removals followed under mounting public pressure.

The flag's presence has also sparked debates about its symbolism and history at county fairs, sporting events and now high schools.

After students at a Bloomington, Indiana, high school came to class last month wearing the flags as capes, the school's principal banned them, saying the flag had created "a disruptive, divisive environment on campus."

Critics of the decision pointed to a 1969 Supreme Court ruling extending free speech rights to all public school students. But schools maintain the right to impede on free speech under the law if it becomes disruptive to learning environments, the decision held.

At Plum High School, Superintendent Glasspool believes the Confederate flag has proven such a distraction, writing in his open letter to parents on Friday that "a student's clothing can affect the academic focus and safety of our student population."

Glasspool goes on to ask that parents discuss with their children how these symbols can cause "fear or anxiety in others," adding, "The practice of ethnic, religious, racial or gender charged symbols that profess hatred, bigotry, or oppression has no place in any learning institution and will not be tolerated in Plum schools."

But Glasspool knows the debate isn't likely to stop there.

"This isn't the end of this," he acknowledged to TribLive.com. "I have a feeling that parents of the students who were sent home will feel like their child's rights were violated."
A Perry County constable will serve a year on probation for crashing into a motorcyclist who was fleeing from state police.

Dauphin County President Judge Richard A. Lewis imposed that penalty Friday afternoon on Constable Keegan Jones, 30, of Shermans Dale, who was accused of causing the crash by pulling his vehicle into the biker's path on a Harrisburg street.

The collision occurred near Sixth and McClay streets on Sept. 23, 2015 after Wendell Wise II, 32, of Harrisburg, fled from a traffic stop.

Wise suffered severe injuries in the crash. He was still wearing a sling on his right arm when he told Lewis he didn't approve of the plea agreement offered to Jones. Court records show Wise pleaded guilty to charges of marijuana-related drunken driving and fleeing police for the incident and was sentenced to 2 years of probation.

Under the deal negotiated by First Assistant District Attorney Fran Chardo and defense attorney Brian Perry, Jones pleaded guilty to counts of reckless endangerment and careless driving. He originally was charged with aggravated assault and official oppression.

Chardo cited Jones' lack of a criminal record. "I think he acted out of a sense that...he was doing the right thing," the prosecutor said.

Perry said Jones "reacted by instinct" when he used his car to block Wise's escape route.

"I regret that day ever happened," Jones told the judge. "I had absolutely no intention of seeing anybody get hurt."

"He did, perhaps, over-react," Lewis said of Jones. "It turned out to be a big mistake."

The judge also fined Jones $1,550. Perry said Jones is suspended from his constable duties, but plans to seek reinstatement.
The Franklin County District Attorney has issued a warning involving a Readers Digest sweepstakes scam.

Unidentified callers recently have contacted county residents and told them they could be the recipients of a Readers Digest $1.5 million sweepstakes, District Attorney Matt Fogal said in a written statement Thursday night.

To win the money, the caller tells residents they must pay a processing fee and they ask for their credit or debit card information, Fogal said. He said that victims in Franklin County, that he knows of, have not given out their banking or other personal information to the callers.

If someone calls and tells residents that they have won the sweepstakes, Fogal said they should not give them any personal or banking information.

Even if the phone's caller ID says they are with Readers Digest, or a similar organization, scammers often use computer programs to disguise their phone numbers, he said.

Scammers will pose as a representative of a well-known company or contest and sound convincing as they attempt to obtain someone's credit card or bank account information, Fogal said.

Legitimate businesses do not solicit such information via telephone, he said.

Normally, scammers place calls from outside of Pennsylvania, or the U.S., Fogal said.

Anyone who believes they are the victims of a scam should contact their local police department or the Pennsylvania State Police, Fogal said.
Tiant Mitchell.png

Tiant Mitchell

A drunken man who shot a Pittsburgh police officer during a gun battle can't dodge his 30- to 60-year prison sentence for an attempted murder conviction, a state Superior Court panel has ruled.

Tiant R. Mitchell didn't do a very good job of dodging bullets during the October 2012 shoot-out on Millerdale Street, either.

The cop, Officer Andrew Baker, hit Mitchell in the ankle and buttocks, toppling him into a ditch. The bullet fired by Mitchell that hit Baker in the chest was stopped by the officer's bullet-proof vest.

Investigators said that right before the shooting Mitchell told his wife he intended to commit suicide by cop. He had also pointed a pistol at a year-old child, they said.

The state court's denial of Mitchell's appeal of his conviction and sentence came in an opinion Judge Alice Beck Dubow issued this week.

According to court filings, Mitchell became agitated because he thought a man was trying to flirt with his wife at a bar. Police responded after Mitchell fired three shots into the air while walking in the street and told his wife he wanted to die in a shoot-out with police.

Mitchell opened fire on Baker as soon as the officer pulled up in his cruiser, police said. He kept firing as the officer got out of the car and returned fire. Finally, police said, Mitchell stopped shooting and fell into the ditch, shouting, "I'm done. I'm done. I'm shot. I'm shot."

Mitchell's wife, Shawnece Moore, was struck in the hand by a ricochet.

An Allegheny County jury convicted Mitchell of attempted murder of a law enforcement officer, aggravated assault, child endangerment, reckless endangerment and weapons charges during a trial in August 2014.

On appeal to the state court, Mitchell claimed he deserved a new trial because prosecutors were allowed to introduce the testimony of an absent witness. That witness was Shawnece Moore, who couldn't be located to appear at the trial. Instead, prosecutors presented the jury with testimony she gave during a preliminary hearing.

Mitchell argued that violated his right to cross-examine prosecution witnesses.

Dubow noted that Pennsylvania law allows for the admission of preliminary hearing testimony as evidence during a trial when the witness is unavailable, provided the defendant had a chance to cross-examine that witness at the preliminary hearing.

Mitchell's lawyer extensively cross-examined Moore during the preliminary hearing, so Mitchell's rights weren't violated, Dubow concluded.
vaping e cigarettes

The government's top health official this week called for efforts to prevent e-cigarette use among young people.

(PennLive.com/file)

The government's top health official this week called for efforts to prevent e-cigarette use among young people.



"E-cigarette use poses a significant - and avoidable - health risk to young people in the United States. Besides increasing the possibility of addiction and long-term harm to brain development and respiratory health, e-cigarette use is associated with the use of other tobacco products that can do even more damage to the body," U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek H. Murphy said in a report.



The report said e-cigarette use has grown "dramatically" over the past five years, with use higher among high school students than adults. One in six high school students reported using e-cigs within the past month in 2015, the report said. The report said more high school students use e-cigs than regular cigarettes.



E-cigs are battery-powered devices which heat a liquid that typically contains nicotine, turning it into a vapor that's inhaled. There's still a shortage of information about their long-term health effects.



Doctors have said e-cig vapor is safer than regular cigarette smoke, and some adults have said e-cigs, which can deliver adjustable doses of nicotine, have helped wean them off tobacco.





But the nicotine-laced liquid also comes in assorted flavors, and the government has previously said that e-cig makers are targeting kids with their advertising.



The surgeon's general report further noted the flavorants can contain diacetyl, a chemical linked to lung disease, and the vapor contains other dangerous organic compounds and metals including nickel, tin and lead.



In August, the U.S. Food and Drug banned the sales of e-cigs to people under 18.

The new report urges parents to talk to their children about e-cigs, pointing out the danger of nicotine addiction, and risk of damage to various parts of the body including the brain.
gavel.jpg

(File photo)

WILLIAMSPORT -- Zuriel Love was an honors student at a suburban Philadelphia high school with the expectation of college, scholarships and becoming an accountant. Now, he's looking at six years in federal prison.

Love grew up in an inner-city Philadelphia neighborhood with his mother and would see his father at the most twice a year, because he lived on the West Coast. In the vacuum came a fatherly figure with a street name "Jigga," who had Love, at age 13, doing handshake drug deals on the streets of Philadelphia.

According to Love's attorney, Andrew J. Shubin, the family fought back, with his mother forcing her son to live with his grandmother in the suburbs.

While excelling in school, though, Love on weekends would stoke his relationship with Jigga and other neighborhood criminals, Shubin said.

Love picked up theft and drug charges while living with his grandmother in Montgomery County that got him a stint at Glenn Mills, a juvenile facility in Delaware County.

When Love was 17, he and co-defendant Derrick Savage were selling drugs for Jigga out of a hotel room in Williamsport.

After Jigga was killed in an accident, Love continued selling heroin and crack cocaine from Philadelphia in the Williamsport area, at times accepting weapons for drugs.

Authorities caught up with him, and in June 2014, he pleaded guilty in U.S. Middle District Court to conspiracy to distribute heroin and crack cocaine.

Before being sentenced Friday by Judge Matthew W. Brann, Love, 21, described himself as a "smart, ambitious young man old enough to understand what I did was wrong."

Assistant U.S. Attorney George J. Rocktashel said Love had opportunities most inner-city kids do not, but he chose the "path of easy money by selling drugs in Williamsport."

After sentencing Love to six years in prison followed by three years supervised release, Brann told him he has the opportunity to redeem himself but, "you have to get yourself sorted out."

The judge told Love, who is unmarried but has a 3-year-old daughter, he was once on a better path but made some horrible choices.

Brann rejected Shubin's argument for a five-year sentence such as Savage received in March 2015.

The judge said he took into consideration Love's four juvenile arrests in Montgomery County and his part in a May 2016 scheme to smuggle drugs into the Clinton County Correctional Facility, where he was held pending sentencing.

Prison telephone records implicated Love in an incident in which Suboxone, used in opioid treatment, was found in letters addressed to two inmates who also were involved in Philadelphia-to-Williamsport drug activity, Brann said.

Love and Savage are among 11 individuals indicted in what the government claimed was a minimum $1.75 million multi-county heroin and cocaine network.

The group called themselves on social media the "Tat Gang," in reference to their tattoos. Collectively they were accused of distributing at least 1,000 grams of heroin, 280 grams of crack cocaine and 500 grams of cocaine.
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(File photo)

A Hanover man has pleaded guilty to bank fraud and money-laundering charges, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania said Friday.

Matthew S. Norris, 34, admitted to executing a scheme in 2011 that defrauded GE Bank out of $157,785. He was the owner and operator of Norris Enterprises, doing business as Aerus Electrolux in Hanover.

He was accused of obtaining GE Bank credit cards in the names of 27 customers without their knowledge and inflating their incomes on the applications. He then obtained lines of credit for the customers to purchase Electrolux products, the U.S. Attorney's Office said, and charged the approved accounts for fictional merchandise sales, resulting in GE Bank depositing the loan proceeds into Norris' business account.

When the customers' monthly credit card payments became due, Norris made the payments on their behalf without their knowledge from the proceeds of the scam, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

Norris has agreed to make $157,785 in restitution to GE Bank. No date has been set for sentencing pending preparation of a presentence report.

The maximum penalty under federal law is 30 years of imprisonment, a term of supervised release following imprisonment and a $1,000,000 fine.

The investigation was conducted by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigations.
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Jasuan Johnson

Monica Gallmon started crying the second a Dauphin County prosecutor mentioned the murder of her 25-year-old son.



The Harrisburg woman was still weeping moments later after 16-year-old Jasuan Johnson pleaded guilty Friday afternoon to first-degree murder for killing Rashaad Gallmon-Queen during a drive-by shooting in the city last year.



In return for his plea, President Judge Richard A. Lewis sentenced Johnson to 35 to 70 years in state prison.



Even through the pain of her loss, Monica Gallmon showed mercy. When Lewis gave her a chance to speak, she told Johnson she is praying for him.



"I'm asking God...to please forgive him," she said, turning to Johnson. "As hurt as I am, your mother is as well."



Johnson's plea resulted from a deal negotiated by Chief Deputy District Attorney Johnny Baer and defense attorney Gary Kelley. Baer said the offer, which took a life prison sentence off the table, is typically offered to juveniles accused of murder.



Johnson told the judge on Thursday that he would accept the deal.



He was 15 when police said he shot and killed Gallmon-Queen at Fifth and Radnor streets in the city's Uptown section on Nov. 27, 2015. Baer said Johnson was riding in a car that pulled up beside another vehicle in which Gallmon-Queen was a passenger. Words were exchanged and Johnson fired multiple shots, the prosecutor said.



As Johnson stood before Lewis in shackles, Monica Gallmon told him, "This crime has shattered my world. I was a teenage mom. Every step (Gallmon-Queen) made, I was there."



Johnson said nothing when Lewis gave him the chance.



"I seriously wonder if you have any appreciation of the horrible consequences of the crime," the judge told him. "It's a tremendous amount of heartache and sorrow you have caused."



"You will be lost to your family for the next several decades," Lewis added. "That pales in comparison to the sorrow...that Rashaad's family will feel every day."








The Lebanon County District Attorney's office has announced numerous recent drug arrests.

The following three people were arrested and charged in connection to a Lebanon heroin distribution ring:

Hector Pacheco-Rodriguez, 19, sold a bundle (10 bags) of heroin to an undercover officer in the first block of South 10th Street for $60, according to the DA's office. Pacheco-Rodriguez, of the 300 block of Mifflin Street, sold two bundles for $100 in the 100 block of Willow Street, the DA's office said.

Victor Manuel Davila-Melendez, 29, sold eight bundles of heroin to an undercover cop near Third and Guilford streets on Nov. 18, the DA's office said. Davila-Melendez, of the same address, sold 10 bundles in the same location on Dec. 6, according to the DA's office.

Samuel Roberto Melendez, 40, of the same address, allegedly was present during heroin deliveries on Nov. 18 and Dec. 6.

Police served a search warrant at the Mifflin Street address and at an apartment in the first block of North Sixth street on Dec 7.

During a search of the Mifflin Street home, police said they found marijuana, cocaine and an assortment of pills in an unlabeled bottle. Police said they also found drug packaging materials and cash in the home.

A 2003 Toyota Sequoia and a 2004 Infiniti, both used to sell heroin, were seized, police said.

Pacheco-Rodriguez was charged with two counts of delivery of heroin, two counts of criminal use of a communication facility, two counts of heroin possession and possession of drug paraphernalia. He was held at Lebanon County Correctional Facility on $75,000 bail.

Davila-Melendez was charged with two counts each of delivery of heroin, possession of heroin and conspiracy to deliver heroin, as well as single counts of: posession of cocaine, marijuana and drug paraphernalia, conspiracy to commit possession of cocaine, marijuana, drug paraphernalia, oxycodone-acetaminophen, oxycontin, oxycodone and oxycodone hydrochloride.

Melendez was charged with two counts of conspiracy to deliver heroin.

Both Davila-Melendez and Melendez were held at the Lebanon correctional facility on $250,000 each.

Four city residents were charged with drug-related offenses from surveillance activity on Nov. 4 in the 800 block of East Guilford Street. Heather Skill and George Winkler Jr. allegedly went to a residence there with the purpose of purchasing heroin from Janelle Klahr. According to the DA's office, Klahr was found in possession of three bundles of heroin--roughly 30 bags--which allegedly originated from Thomas Remlinger.

Remlinger, 26, was charged with possession with intent to deliver heroin, possession of heroin, possession of drug paraphernalia and criminal conspiracy.

Klahr, 28, was charged with possession with intent to deliver heroin, possession of heroin, possession of drug paraphernalia and criminal conspiracy.

Winkler, 46, was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia for allegedly possessing 10 used syringes with the purpose of injecting heroin.

Skill, 36, was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia for allegedly possessing 22 used syringes with the purpose of injecting heroin.

A criminal complaint was also lodged against Randolph Scott Gibson, 51, of Leola, for allegedly possessing marijuana and drug paraphernalia during a prostitution sting at a motel in the 600 block of Quentin Road. Later investigation revealed that Gibson had contacted the woman after seeing an advertisement on social media and had agreed to pay $150 for sex.

Finally, Joseph R. Graves, 31, with no fixed address, allegedly sold $100 of crack cocaine to a police informant in the area of 10th and Church Street. The informant in turn provided the cocaine to an undercover police officer.

When he was taken into custody, authorities say, Graves was in possession of about nine grams of crack cocaine with a $900 street value and a cell phone.

Graves was charged with delivery of crack cocaine, possession with intent to deliver crack cocaine, possession of crack cocaine in addition to possession of drug paraphernalia and criminal conspiracy.

He was arraigned at the Lebanon County Central Booking Center and held at the correctional facility in lieu of $50,000 bail.
Amoxicillin shortage in Michigan: What parents should know

Many Michigan pharmacy shelves are bare of amoxicillin oral powder for suspension, dispensed in liquid form most often to children, amid an RSV surge.
What will happen to the 700 block of Chestnut, which features a nearly intact ensemble of fine, commerical buildings, including ones designed by Furness and Cret, but it is zoned for skyscrapers? Read more

Let us now mourn the death of Jewelers Row. No, the storied street of diamond and gold purveyors hasn't been leveled yet, but hopes for saving the distinctive shopping destination dimmed significantly last month, when Philadelphia's Historical Commission refused to designate three key buildings.

Technically, the commission said it was taking 90 more days to mull over the proposed designations, as though it had all the time in the world. It doesn't. Toll Bros., which had already obtained a demolition permit, promptly followed the commission's nonaction by submitting a plan to the city for a 29-story condo tower. That happens to be twice the height of the version it floated for public consumption this summer. The behemoth, which would stand at least 300 feet tall, will lord over the row's modest brick-fronted showrooms and workshops, dramatically altering the character of a block that was laid out in 1799.

So, as long as we're passing around the tissues, let us also take a few minutes to focus on what will likely be the next Jewelers Row-style preservation tragedy. Make no mistake: Many handsome, stoutly-built commercial buildings from the 19th and early 20th century will be lost in the next few years unless officials get serious about maintaining the city's architectural patrimony. These are exactly the sort of buildings that distinguish Philadelphia from the parade of homogenizing cities around the country.

Along with being America's oldest diamond district, Jewelers Row is part of the colonial-era tourist circuit that includes nearby Independence Hall. Yet, despite its rich heritage, and the many small businesses that populate the street, the row was never recognized as a valuable ensemble worthy of being named a city historic district. Only a handful of its buildings are individually landmarked, and those remain safe.

But the tragedy of Jewelers Row can't entirely be pinned on the commission; it is really the result of a perfect storm of municipal missteps.

The lack of historic protections was compounded by the fact that the block is zoned, like most of Center City's commercial streets, for skyscrapers (CMX-5). The Nutter-era Planning Commission had talked about correcting the mistake and down-zoning the block but never got around to it. In this booming real estate market, its skyscraper potential made Jewelers Row's idiosyncratic buildings more valuable as teardowns than venues of daily commerce.

It was the city's excessively generous property-tax abatement, however, that provided the match to light the fire. The five structures that Toll plans to demolish will now go from being taxpaying properties that provide affordable work space for small businesses to being buildings that provide exclusive residences for the elite and pay only minimal property tax.

Who will be the next victim?

My money is on a row of early 19th-century buildings on South Ninth Street, now owned by Wills Eye Hospital. Two (Nos. 225 and 227) have been "protected" on the historic register since 1976, yet they have been left to deteriorate in full public view. Last year, the city responded by declaring them officially dangerous. Wills Eye spokeswoman Cathy Moss told me in an email that the hospital was now "in the process of repair." But it is also no secret that Wills has plans to expand its campus onto the site of the houses.

Want to bet the Historical Commission will smooth the way?

The commission increasingly behaves as though preserving buildings were a distasteful chore. It not only procrastinated on the Jewelers Row nominations, it did the same with 4046 Chestnut St., a small, handsome Victorian apartment building in West Philadelphia. The delay opened the way for the owner to obtain a demolition permit for both 4046 and its twin next door.

Even when buildings are listed on the historic register, the commission often fails to protect them. The most notorious example was its 2015 decision to allow a developer to raze the Boyd Theater, the most intact of the city's art deco movie houses.

To be fair, the commission is grossly underfunded. With just five staff members, the agency can barely handle its caseload. It has largely stopped nominating buildings for designation, leaving that work to the Preservation Alliance, a nonprofit advocacy group, and a dedicated band of volunteer architectural historians. It was the alliance's campaign that made saving Jewelers Row a cause. (The group is still pursuing a legal appeal to stop the Toll project.)

Fearing that Jewelers Row won't be the last preservation tragedy, the alliance has compiled a list of vulnerable blocks that are over-zoned and under-protected. Most are beloved places that offer a mix of affordable retail space and upper-story apartments. Fabric Row. The Italian Market.

Perhaps the most endangered areas are the 20th-century commercial buildings that dominate both the landscape of eastern Center City and the booming stretch of North Broad near the newly renovated Divine Lorraine.

Long after the real estate boom had taken hold in Center City, its eastern half remained a bit tawdry and forgotten. No more. With the renovation of the Gallery and construction of the massive East Market project, developers are on the prowl for construction sites.

What will happen to the 700 block of Chestnut, which features a nearly intact ensemble of fine, commercial buildings, including ones designed by Furness and Cret, but is zoned for skyscrapers? The threat to Chestnut's 1500 block is much the same.

Last week, City Council introduced a bill to double the commission's staffing by imposing user fees on historic-renovation permits. Mayor Kenney campaigned on a promise to beef up preservation, and this bill is the result.

Its purpose is laudable, but the mechanism for increasing the commission's funding is somewhat unfortunate. In effect, the city will be taxing the very people who preserve old facades for the enjoyment of the public. Those folks are heroes, and the city should look for ways to give them tax incentives, not tax increases. Revising the property-tax abatement to make it more targeted would be one way to encourage preservation.

Along with such carrots, the city needs to stand up to developers when potentially historic properties are threatened. Many cities impose an automatic demolition delay to allow for an emergency designation review. Such a policy would allow Philadelphia to save buildings that haven't had a chance to go through the designation process.

Of course, the commission will never have time or money to protect everything. That's why it needs to set priorities. Right now, there is no inventory of worthy buildings or strategy for pursuing designations. A preservation master plan would provide one.

Making preservation policy effective isn't just about money. It's also about resisting the heady buzz of development and focusing on Philadelphia's existing assets. This boom will end someday. Let's hope we can still recognize our city when it's over.

Note: This column was corrected to clarify details about Toll's demolition permit and the tax abatement. Homeowners who qualify for the abatement must still pay taxes on the value of the land.
It was hard to miss Zaniyah Ruffin in the crowd at the State Correctional Institution in Chester.

She was the only kid there, and she was, well, adorable.

The shy, bespectacled 11-year-old from South Philly sat patiently with her mother, Tyra Herrington, as they waited Wednesday for a TEDx event about the impact of incarceration on children and families. Her stepfather was performing, and she was excited.

Without realizing it, Zaniyah was representing the 81,096 children who have a parent in a Pennsylvania state prison.

If that isn't startling enough, another number on a poster inside the jail's artificially cheery family room put it another way: That 81,096 figure is 12,696 more than the seating capacity of Heinz Field in Pittsburgh.

I've written about prisoners and their families for years, and that still blew my mind. It should everyone's.

Even before we were escorted through the prison to the event in the gym, the children's drawings that hung on the concrete walls starkly illustrated that impact.

"I want to play ball in the park with daddy," read one stick figure drawing.

"I miss daddy," read another that showed a little boy fishing with his father.

And yet another: "What I miss most about my Dad is hanging out with him."

This was the fourth TEDx event inside a Pennsylvania state prison. In 2014, a group of women known as the Lady Lifers inside Muncy Prison sang about their experiences. Their powerful song has been viewed on various sites more than a million times, and if you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZodG-sPrRE

Wednesday's event included many powerful messages, including a heartbreaking performance by Ryu Paul Snyder, who sang about the effect his parents' incarcerations had on him and his siblings. He was shuttled through 10 foster homes, and now, at 29, he's a second-generation inmate.

Zaniyah's stepdad, Quran Herrington, who is in prison for a parole violation for an earlier assault conviction, spoke of a painful telephone conversation he had with three of his children, including his 12-year-old daughter.

"When are you coming home?" she asked him, in tears. "I need you."

That simple yet searing declaration was at the heart of the day's performances.

It's clear that the toll on these families is painfully emotional.

But it is also financial - for kids, who are more likely to grow up in poverty with an incarcerated parent; for families, and for the community at large. America spends about $80 billion incarcerating 2.4 million people.

Another performer, Auditor General Eugene DePasquale, whose own father had once been incarcerated, brought that figure home.

We spend about $10,000 to $14,000 per kid per year to educate children in the state's public education system, DePasquale told the crowd. By comparison, he said, we spend close to $40,000 per inmate per year.

"As taxpayers, where would you like to spend the money?" he asked the crowd. "Up front, giving kids a shot? Or on the back end, where you're not sure what you're going to get?"

The choice seems obvious, yet our prisons are still full.

"I start with a question," said Chad Dion Lassiter, one of the performers, and president of the Black Men at Penn School of Social Work. "How do we become so adjusted to injustice?"

During a break, I asked Pennsylvania Corrections Secretary John Wetzel how to take the message and inspiration inside that room to the outside, how to convince those who still don't realize how far-reaching the consequences are of imprisoning people without the programs and support to succeed inside and out of prisons.

"It's important to tell the stories in as many ways as possible," Wetzel said. "Through numbers, through stories, through voices of the imprisoned, and those left behind."

Voices that not only need to be heard, but amplified.

When I talked to Zaniyah, she often paused and looked at her mother for encouragement before shyly whispering answers I could barely hear.

But when I asked her what's hardest about visiting her stepfather in prison, she didn't hesitate.

"Saying goodbye."

ubinas@phillynews.com

215-854-5943@NotesFromHel

Helen.Ubinas
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Osaka Maison De Gigi Opens in Sunway Velocity

Osakas dessert restaurant Maison De Gigi opens its first International outlet in Malaysia. The first pop up stall will be in Sunway Velocity, Lower Ground. If you been to Shinsaibashisu Osaka, you probably spotted the restaurant with the logo of a cat. It is a popular family restaurant in Osaka and they are in Sunway Velocity now.

However, the food they serve in Malaysia is different from the original restaurant. A Malaysian company has bought the master franchise and branding from Maison De Gigi and they reinvented the food with the help of a Korean chef as we were told. Thus, this is a brand new menu of Maison De Gigi.

Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce to you the Croffle. What is croffle? It is the hybrid of croissant and waffles and you can have it at Maison De Gigi in Sunway Velocity Mall.

We ordered the Harmony Chipechee (RM 7.90). Basically it is Croffle with filling of chicken pepperoni & cheese. The texture of their version of croffle is soft and flaky, the chicken pepperoni and cheese is flavourful so this is very addictive and delicious. This croffle is similar to Thailands 7 Elevens Croissant Sandwich Ham & Cheese. Of course, the croffle from Maison De Gigi is freshly made and tastier.

We also ordered their Nitro Brew iced coffee. Using Korean style of coffee, their coffee is strong with a little acidic after taste.

If you never tasted a Croffle before, maybe you can head on to Maison De Gigi at Lower Ground, Sunway Velocity Mall in Cheras.

Maidon De Gigi Sunway Velocity Mall Address:

Lower Ground Floor, Sunway Velocity Mall

80, Jalan Cheras, Maluri, 55100 Kuala Lumpur,

Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Wilson Ng A Father and traveler who enjoys to eat, shop, travel and taking pictures with Samsung S22 Ultra and Sony ZV-1. Im a full time blogger, youtuber and father for two. I used to travel around 17 International trips per year but now staying at home. Remember to follow us at www.instagram.com/placesandfoods and www.youtube.com/placesandfoods. For advertisements or features, contact me at [email protected] See author's posts
Rocky Mountaineer 2017 Promotion Packages

Where to travel in 2017? How about Canada? The country has been named as the Best Travel Destination in 2017 by Lonely Planets. What to do and what to see in Canada? Well, you should check Rocky Mountaineer.

What is Rocky Mountaineer?

It is regarded as one of the best rail journeys in the world, the Rocky Mountaineer is a life changing experience. This rail journey to see the famous Canadian Rockies and the Western Canadian region of British Colombia and Alberta passes through glacial lakes, snow-capped mountains and river canyons. View all of Canadas glory in a new way. Therefore, this gives another reason to visit Canada and explore the beauty it offers.

Rocky Mountaineer prides itself in its world class service. The professional hosts on board provide personalized storytelling and are experts on Canadian trivia wholl provide in depth knowledge on the region and its sites. On the Gold Leaf Service, Michelin awarded executive chefs prepare gourmet a la carte meals sourced from the finest and freshest locally sourced ingredients.

Passengers get to immerse themselves in unique activities exclusive to the region with Rocky Mountaineer. Amongst the array of adventure packed activities are helicopter tours, gondola cabin ascents and glacial exploring. Passengers also can opt to either start or end their journey with a premium Alaskan cruise. With Rocky Mountaineer, the options are limitless.

How to book Rocky Mountaineer?

The multiple award winning Rocky Mountaineer brand has had its services in Malaysia for over 2 years by partnering with Sedunia Travel Services, the General Sales Agent for this international luxury travel brand.

As the General Sales Agent, Sedunia Travel Services manage to create special deals and promotion packages. Thats why you get more extras by booking from Sedunia Travel Services.

So what are the Rocky Mountaineer 2017 Promotion Packages?

Rocky Mountaineer 2017 Promotion Packages 1

Book of our readymade packages from our selected departures by 15Dec 2017, consumer enjoy up to RM1000 per person credit bonus value which can be used to book extra nights, meals in hotels, airport pick up transfer or extra sightseeing.

On top of that guest above 55years ol will enjoy additional up to RM500 cash discount.

And if guest choose on the low season dates which is April, May and October 2017, guest can enjoy our special airfares rebate of RM1700 per person.

Rocky Mountaineer 2017 Promotion Packages 2

(Special escorted Autumn departure)

We are also excited to launch our SPECIAL ALL-INCLUSIVE GROUP DEPARTURE  10D/7N Canada Epic Journey Special Departures

(05 Oct  14Oct 2017) Start booking now. Limited seats only !!!!

All inclusive package from RM 15,700 per person

This program is specially designed to cater for guest who wish to be escorted instead of travelling independently. October is Autum season and preferred by most Malaysian travellers

Rocky Mountaineer 2017 Promotion Packages 3

Special Departure Package (05Oct  14Oct 2017) include :-

Return international and domestic ticket (Ex/n KUL)  airline subject to change

7nights Deluxe accommodation

2days luxury rail wih Rocky Mountaineer

National parks visit  Jasper NP, Banff NP, Yoho NP

Daily Breakfast, 2 lunches on board Rocky Mountaineer

Tour escort service from Malaysia

All luggage handling service

Return airport transfer pick up (Vancouver & Calgary)

Free Gift : Ogawa Touch Think Music Massage Pillow (each pax booked)

Our Package Highlight :-

Experience onboard of the most scenic train journey in the world on RockyMountaineer

Premium accommodation

Overnight in Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise (one of the most pictureque lake)

12-minutes helicopter ride

Visit Columbia Icefield the largest ice field / glacier in Canada

Price (exclude) :-x/N Pen domestic flight ticket.

Tipping estimate RM200.00 per person

Visa application fees estimate RM700 per person

Exclusive dinner at Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise RM455 per person

The Rocky Mountaineer 2017 Promotion Packages by Sedunia Travel is first come first serve basis. Book first to avoid disappointment in our opinion. For Rocky Mountaineer, you get the see one of the best sceneries in the world as well as tick off one of your bucket list. You can hit two birds with one stone. Take advantage of this promotion packages for once in a life time trip to Canada. We only live once after all.

For more details and information regarding Rocky Mountaineer visit www.rockymountaineer.com

Wilson Ng A Father and traveler who enjoys to eat, shop, travel and taking pictures with Samsung S22 Ultra and Sony ZV-1. Im a full time blogger, youtuber and father for two. I used to travel around 17 International trips per year but now staying at home. Remember to follow us at www.instagram.com/placesandfoods and www.youtube.com/placesandfoods. For advertisements or features, contact me at [email protected] See author's posts
Best friends Officer Nicholas Smarr (L) died Wednesday and Officer Jody Smith died Thursday after they were shot responding to a domestic violence call. (Photo: Georgia Bureau of Investigation)

The second officer shot responding to a domestic violence call in southern Georgia Wednesday has died, officials say, reports CBS News.

Georgia Southwestern State University Officer Jody Smith, 26, died Thursday at a Macon hospital where he was being treated for his injuries, according to a statement from the university's interim president. Smith was shot along with an Americus police officer, 25-year-old Nicholas Smarr, who died Wednesday. The officers were reportedly best friends and had graduated from high school and the police academy together.

The suspect in the shooting, 32-year-old Minquell Kennedy Lembrick, killed himself Thursday after barricading himself inside a home, officials said.

"We have just received word that GSW Public Safety Officer Jody Smith has succumbed to his injuries and has passed away," the interim president, Charles Patterson, said in a statement. "We offer our deepest condolences to his family during this very difficult time. Officer Smith was a bright, young and energetic officer, and he will be sorely missed."

Speaking Thursday before Smith's death, Americus police chief Mark Scott said that typically, two Americus police officers respond to domestic violence calls. Smarr was awaiting backup from another Americus officer when Smith heard the radio call and responded to assist, Scott said.

"He took it upon himself to respond and back up his friend," Scott said. "They are model officers. They're heroes, in my opinion."
Lora's Donuts posted this notice on Facebook to announce the Donahue Benefit. (Photo: Facebook)

An Englewood, CO, donut shop is holding a special event Saturday to benefit the daughters of a fallen Colorado State Patrol trooper.

Trooper Cody Donahue, who was hit and killed by a truck on the highway, was a frequent customer at Lora's Donuts.

In tribute to Trooper Donahue, all proceeds from Saturday's sales at the donut shop will be donated to a special fund for his daughters, KUSA TV reports.
Still image from video of suspect released by the Detroit Police. The police are asking the public for help in identifying the man on the bike, who is suspected in the murder of Wayne State University officer Sgt. Collin Rose. (Photo: Detroit PD)

Detroit Police released several video clips Thursday of a new suspect wanted in connection with the fatal shooting of Wayne State University Police Sgt. Collin Rose last month.

In the videos released by police, an unidentified man can be seen riding a bike that has a small front wheel down a street, just prior to the shooting. Two additional videos also show the man running down the street after the killing. But according to a news release from the department, investigators say they think the suspect was riding a bike at the time of the shooting.

No further details were released about the potential suspect, the Detroit Free Press reports.

The new footage comes just a day after criminal charges were dropped Wednesday against DeAngelo L. Davis, a Detroit man who was accused of shooting Rose in the head at about 6:35 p.m. Nov. 22 at Lincoln and Brainard streets in Detroit's Woodbridge neighborhood, just west of Wayne State's Midtown campus. The 29-year-old officer died a day later.
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Perhaps its fitting that as Donald Trump stocks his cabinet with cronies, misfits, and stooges, Hillary Clinton, who was favored to win the 2016 presidential election, is the one who is actually acting presidential.

After a few weeks of taking selfies in the woods, I thought itd be a good idea to come out, the former Secretary of State told the audience, to appreciative (tinged with desperation? Its possible Im projecting) laughter. Clintons self-deprecating humor shows the thicker skin needed in a president.

In case youve already forgotten, this is what a president sounds like.

Watch a short clip here via CNB News:

Clinton at Harry Reid portrait unveiling: "After a few weeks of taking selfies in the woods, I thought it'd be a good idea to come out" pic.twitter.com/YS7YhVHlNx  CBS News (@CBSNews) December 8, 2016

No Hamilton tweet poutfests for Ms. Clinton. No, Hillary Clinton can roll with the punches and poke fun at herself, even after what has to be the most painful defeat a politician can imagine, losing to someone as unfit as Donald Trump.

Its hard to watch Hillary Clinton right now, because the nation chose her over Donald Trump by at least 2.5 million votes. Donald Trump enters office with the lowest approval rating of any president-elect in 27 years, according to a new Pew poll.

The person whose character and fortitude pushed her to came out of hiding to honor Senator Harry Reid as he leaves office is the person who should have been our president. Instead we are stuck with the guy who took a call with Taiwan, praised the despotic president of Kazakhstan, and said he hoped to visit Pakistan, all while dealing with crisis after crisis of his own making, including the fallout from his choice for conspiracy artist General Michael Flynn as his National Security Adviser.

If only Santa could bring us the woman taking selfies in the woods as president.
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In Donald Trumps third stop on his post-election victory tour, the president-elect stuck closely to the teleprompter and once again patted himself on the back for winning the electoral college despite losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by nearly 3 million votes.

In the Iowa event, Trump called his supporters, a minority of the country, a movement, the likes of which our country has never seen before. He also hit the normal empty applause lines about building up the military and making the country great again.

Just when it was building up to be a complete snoozefest, protesters holding a banner reading Iowa Says No Hate gave the event a welcome jolt, before quickly being escorted out by security.

Video:

Protesters w/ Iowa Says No Hate banner getting escorted out: pic.twitter.com/KUTpkhY2rL  Steffi S. Lee (@SteffiSLee) December 9, 2016

Trump, showing marginal growth from the campaign, did not encourage his supporters to inflict physical harm on the hecklers or promise to cover the legal fees if somebody decided to knock the crap out of them. Instead, he said the protesters are actually supporters and they just dont know it yet.

Video:

After protester disrupts speech, Trump says, I think theyre actually on our side, they just dont know it yet. https://t.co/hK5DlgPdDU  ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) December 9, 2016

With Trump now refusing to stray from a teleprompter or hold press conferences, his rare and highly scripted public appearances are becoming nearly unwatchable. Trumps Thursday night event in Iowa was no exception.

Thanks to these few protesters, it was at least momentarily tolerable.
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A new PPP poll unveiled on MSNBCs The Rachel Maddow Show Thursday showed just how out of touch Donald Trumps supporters are with the real world.

On a slew of questions about simple facts, a large chunk  and, in some cases, strong majorities  of Trump supporters are simply living in a different reality.

Nearly 40 percent of the president-elects supporters believe the stock market has gone down under President Obama, despite the fact that its nearly doubled during Obamas tenure.

2. Stock market rose 11,666 points under Obama, but 39% of Trump voters think Dow is DOWN under @POTUS@ppppolls @maddow pic.twitter.com/Cx684knA7j  Timothy McBride (@mcbridetd) December 9, 2016

Trump supporters are also living in an alternate reality with respect to the unemployment rate. Even though the jobless number has gone from 7.8 percent in January 2009 to 4.6 percent last month, a whopping 67 percent of Trump voters think its actually increased.

Rachel Maddow just explained new PPP poll that shows many Trump voters are completely delusional. pic.twitter.com/zI2NO446Us  Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) December 9, 2016

Forty percent of Trump fans also believe that Hillary Clinton lost the popular vote, despite her margin over Trump exceeding 2.7 million votes. An even greater percentage  60 percent  think millions of people illegally cast their ballots for the former Secretary of State.

4. Incredibly, 40% of Trump voters think Trump won popular vote (though of course Clinton did)@ppppolls @maddow pic.twitter.com/U3Jc3htL3G  Timothy McBride (@mcbridetd) December 9, 2016

When asked by PPP whether Trump protesters are being paid by George Soros, 73 percent of the incoming presidents supporters said yes. Fifty-three percent think that votes in the state of California should not be included in the popular vote tally.

The full PPP poll will be released on Friday, but these results show what Donald Trumps conspiracy-driven campaign has done to our politics and how he has convinced his supporters that the world as it is doesnt really exist.

Americans are no longer just divided by political ideology, but also by their belief in reality.
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Donald Trumps pick as Labor Secretary telegraphs his plan to use the Executive Branch of the government to declare war on the rights and progress of US workers.

Bloomberg reported that Puzder is an opponent of raising the minimum wage and overtime pay for workers, The selection of Puzder sheds light on what direction the Labor Department might take under Trump. Puzder has a long record of spoken and written remarks on job creation. As well as opposing efforts to raise the minimum wage, hes against an Obama administration rule that would expand the number of workers eligible for overtime pay. The rule, which would affect about 4.2 million workers, was temporarily blocked by a federal judge in November.

The Trump transition team announced the nomination, Andy Puzder has created and boosted the careers of thousands of Americans, and his extensive record fighting for workers makes him the ideal candidate to lead the Department of Labor, said President-elect Trump. Andy will fight to make American workers safer and more prosperous by enforcing fair occupational safety standards and ensuring workers receive the benefits they deserve, and he will save small businesses from the crushing burdens of unnecessary regulations that are stunting job growth and suppressing wages.

As CEO of Carls Jr. and Hardees, Puzder responded to a request from his workers for better wages by exploring automating all of his stores.

For all of his talk on the campaign trail of creating good jobs, as President-elect, Donald Trump has nominated a man to run the Labor Department who is fiercely opposed to labor.

Judging from his choice of Labor Secretary, Trump appears to be planning a full-scale war on the rights of American workers. The new overtime rules that President Obama championed will be gone. The progress that has been during the Obama years will be wiped out.

Trump was very careful during the campaign. He spoke about creating more jobs and good paying jobs, but he never specified what he meant by good paying jobs. The incoming administration also points to the labor participation rate as something that needs to be improved. In Republican eyes, the way to increase the labor participation rate is to cut benefits and programs that assist the unemployed and displaced workers while at the same time lowering wages so that people have to work more hours to make the same amount of money.

All of these policies are great for corporations, but they will send the wages and real incomes of American workers to new lows.

Trump pretended to be a populist billionaire during the campaign, but now that he is president, America should prepare for the powers of the Executive Branch to be used to hold down the nations working class.
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*The following is an opinion column by R Muse*

Its fair to say most people dont have to live on a farm or raise chickens, to have heard of the idiom set the fox to guard the henhouse. Typically, if a fox does happen to gain access a henhouse, they will just grab one hen and run away; it may have killed one chicken, but it doesnt exterminate the lot of them. The idea of installing a fox in the henhouse to guard the flock is about as absurd as installing a person to protect or control resources when one knows they will exploit their position for profit.

The urban dictionary (UB) offers a fairly close example to what is about to happen to the people now that the Koch brothers are co-owners of Americas government. The UBs example of set the fox to guard the henhouse regarding government is; putting an industry insider on the board of an agency that regulates that industry. Republicans have been doing that for ages and the only thing possibly worse is putting a sworn enemy of the agency as head of said agency with the full weight and power of the Kochs federal government behind them; this is precisely what depraved Donnie is doing with every cabinet nominee.

Dastardly Donald has either found or was directed to find, people that want specific federal regulatory and protective agencies completely eliminated. Trump has signaled they will be tasked with running the agencies into the ground according to their particular bent, but one thing is crystal clear; every American citizen currently alive will be adversely affected by Dirty Dons appointees regardless of age, gender or sexual orientation. Of course the filthy rich will be spared, but even the fanatically-religious evangelicals will feel the nasty effects of a government void of protections for the citizenry.

It is difficult to imagine exactly which agencies are likely to fare the worst in Trumps America because they are all targets of the Koch brothers who have made no secret they have wanted them eliminated for over thirty years. Now, according to Trumps selection of sworn enemies of the agencies they hope to lead (to extinction), the Kochs will get their demands fulfilled and there is nothing anyone, save the Electoral College, can do to stop them.

Each of Trumps choices is, of course, unqualified to even have an informed opinion about or criticism of the agencies they hope to lead much less be put in charge. But they were not chosen because of their level of competence or expertise; they were chosen for their anger, hatred and desire to eliminate the specific agency of their contempt. It is safe to say the majority of Trumps cabinet will serve as a wrecking crew created particularly to eliminate every possible protection the people now enjoy and create conditions remarkably similar to America prior to the New Deal. It is what Trump calls making America great again and exactly where the teabaggers want to take their country back to. It is a place they wont like, but thats the price of stupid people being allowed a voice in America.

Although it is a partial list so far, these are just a few of Trumps choices to wreck a particular federal government agency.

To run the Department of Education, Trump chose an extremely wealthy woman whos only familiarity with public schools and education is being its most zealous sworn enemy. The only thing Betsy DeVos knows about public schools is that she wants them eradicated from America. She wants them replaced with taxpayer-funded evangelical madrasas (Christian schools) and for-profit corporate charter schools. It is irrelevant if charters and evangelical schools are abject failures, so long as taxpayers keep the cash flowing, they are guaranteed to generate profit for corporations and churches; it will be the new raison detre of the Education Department.

To pretend to oversee the Republican-created Environmental Protection Agency, Trump tapped a renowned anti-environmental protection crusader who wants the agency destroyed. He proudly proclaims the he is a leading advocate against the EPAs activist agenda; qualities Trump found so endearing he wants him to run the agency.

The devastating news for Americans is that in less than two months the malcontent opposed to environmental safeguards will set the EPA agenda. His funders in the fossil fuel industry have paid him handsomely over the years to contest the EPAs right to exist as the only protection the American people have to ensure their air and water is safe. In January he will begin the task his petroleum industry bosses desire more than life itself; eradication of environmental protections. The cretins only knowledge of the EPA is keeping track of how many times he challenged their regulatory authority in the courts for the petroleum industry; now he will just eliminate the agencys authority to regulate.

For secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Trump picked another incompetent who opposes government programs in general, but specifically those he claims encourage dependency; such as HUD. The retired neurosurgeon doesnt believe there is any need to fight urban blight, provide rent assistance, prevent directed segregation or help homeowners fight foreclosures; so Trump picked him to run HUD. Ben Carson even criticizes attempts to end racial segregation in HUDs fair housing practices, or what Carson calls dangerous social-engineering schemes.

Dirty Dons most recent choice, a corporate fast-food CEO for labor secretary is the death knell for a minimum wage hike in the foreseeable future. A quote in the American Prospect attributed to Kendall Fells, the organizing director for the SEIU-funded Fight for $15 said, Puzder as labor secretary is like putting Bernie Madoff in charge of the Treasury. As an aside, Trumps choice for Treasury Secretary is another story for another day, but it is tantamount to putting a Madoff-like character in charge of the Treasury.

Trumps anti-labor corporate CEO, besides wanting the workforce replaced with robotics, wants the remaining human workers to earn slave wages. Over the past seven years, roughly 60 percent of all Labor Department investigations of Puzders restaurants found violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It is safe to assume that as Labor Department secretary, Puzder will put a screeching halt to investigations into his restaurants. Then he will do his corporate CEO best to reform those damn pesky fair labor standards to favor corporate employers and punish the workforce.

This abbreviated list doesnt begin to elucidate the clear and present danger to Americans way of life going forward. Suffice it to say that no American is going to be spared some loss; because those federal firewalls, those regulatory agencies, are going to be deconstructed with extreme prejudice.

Despicable Donald Trump is not assembling a cabinet; he is creating a wrecking crew to do precisely what the Koch brothers have wet dreams about; making America great again by taking it back to the turn of the 20th Century when the people were at the mercy of the rich and powerful with no protection whatsoever.
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54% of voters voted against Trump, so the mainstream medias answer to the majority rejecting the president-elect is to try to hire more pro-Trump commentators.

It is a fact that the majority of voters voted for someone other than Donald Trump. In many industries, this would signal a clear market direction for the future, but in the world of corporate media where currying favor with the incoming administration matters more than what the audience wants to read and see, the opposite lesson has been learned.

The Washington Post reported that mainstream outlets are looking to hire pro-Trump writers and commentators, Newspaper editors say theyre on the lookout for more such writers. What happened this year is that many of the people who we count on for conservative commentary  many of whom have generally supported Republican candidates in the past  simply didnt support Trump, said Nicholas Goldberg, editorial page editor of the Los Angeles Times. I certainly believe our op-ed editor ought to be aggressively seeking smart, articulate people who have positive things to say about Trump, who are sympathetic to his point of view or who are able to explain, support and justify him to our readers.

If newspaper editors and other mainstream media outlets are having trouble finding pro-Trump commentators, that should tell them that the president-elect isnt popular. A pro point of view about an unpopular president is not going to attract more readers.

The problem is that the mainstream media has confused balance with supporting the president. The mainstream press should strive for a balance between liberal, conservative, and independent voices. It doesnt matter if all or none of those voices support the current White House.

Perhaps the reason why mainstream outlets cant find pro-Trump voices is that Trump has planted seeds of total distrust of the mainstream media among his supporters. It doesnt matter how many pro-Trump voices these outlets hire, Trump supporters are never going to trust them. By emphasizing the need for pro voices, the mainstream press will be building more distrust among their audiences.

Conservatives and liberals can both have issues with an administration, but for different reasons.

The goal of the mainstream press should not be to be pro or con. The goal mainstream outlets should be intelligence and accuracy.

By bowing to Trump and ignoring the majority voters, the mainstream media is demonstrating why most Americans do not trust them.
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A bunch of priests descended on Capitol Hill the other day looking for demons to slay, and no, this is neither metaphor nor hyperbole: they claimed they came to drive out Satan. The conclave was organized by crackpot pseudo-historian David Bartons Wallbuilders and the anti-LGBT Jefferson Gathering.

That unscrupulous scoundrel Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) even let the hypocrites into the U.S. Senate chamber, our Senate chamber, and they duly violated it. Dont miss the irony here that the Wallbuilders are tearing down the Wall of Separation so cherished by Thomas Jefferson.

Dave Kistler of the North Carolina Pastors Network said,

We got on our knees  and it sounded almost like a labor room as people were crying out to God for the revival that Chaplain Black believes is coming and that we believe is coming.

A labor room? Its hard to know where to begin.

And he was as giggly as a kid whod just had forbidden sex:

To do that in the Senate chamber was an absolutely astounding opportunity, and again it puts an exclamation point on the Senate chaplains assessment that revival is on the way and may indeed begin in the halls of Congress.

Chaplain Black, by the way, is U.S. Senate Chaplain Barry Black, who apparently prophesied a revival will sweep the nation. Well, there are false prophets everywhere. Why not in the Senate chamber?

The timing of this unholy intervention seems suspect, given that in just a few short days Old Scratch himself, in the form of Donald J. Trump, bereft of even a hint of moral fiber, will be infesting the place through his lieutenant, Mike Pence. Not to mention the paradox of dedicated servants of mammon somehow driving out the master they serve. You know what Jesus said about that.

The mind boggles.

The Founding Fathers warned against mixing politics and religion. Yet Dale Walker of the Tennessee Pastors Network proclaimed,

If God rules in the halls of legislation, its the pulpits benefit of being there, being on site and standing up and speaking the law of God to our elected leaders and praying for them. Its been the absence of the pulpits is the reason why Satan has ruled in the halls of legislation.

What is interesting about this nonsense is that this Congressional-Clergy Town Hall was organized by Wallbuilders and the Jefferson Gathering and Thomas Jefferson told William Short in an 1820 letter that,

[T]he serious enemies are the priests of the different religious sects, to whose spells on the human mind its improvement is ominous.

You see the problem if the Religious Right doesnt.

So here we have a couple of groups claiming ties to Jefferson while Jeffersons own words condemn what theyre doing. It wasnt Satan who was the enemy for Jefferson, but the priests. The priests who are now claiming to drive out Satan.

David Barton calls his group Wallbuilders and it almost seems Jefferson had him in mind when he wrote, a year later,

The religion-builders have so distorted and deformed the doctrines of Jesus, so muffled them in mysticisms, fancies and falsehoods, have caricatured them into forms so monstrous and inconceivable, as to shock reasonable thinkers, to revolt them against the whole, and drive them rashly to pronounce its Founder an impostor. Had there never been a commentator, there never would have been an infidel

Now while you can agree or disagree with what Jefferson said about Jesus versus the Christian clergy, that doesnt change what he said, and what he said condemns what Bartons group was doing on The Capitol: a Satanic frolic with the likes of Sen. Ted Cruz, Rep. Trent Franks, Sen. Chuck Grassley and Rep. Barry Loudermilk, who is a Barton disciple, Republicans all.

Jefferson told Short in that same letter, They pant to restablish by law that holy inquisition, which they can now only infuse into public opinion.

An inquisition is exactly what the Religious Right aims for, one aimed at all those who do not fit into the category of white Christian Americans. And a certain type of Christian only, as Rick Santorum, who doesnt believe in separation of church and state, has reminded us.

So the Religious Right clergy descended on Capitol Hill to drive out Satan, but when the dust cleared, Satan remained: a Senate and a House full of Republicans determined to support an evangelical inquisition against everyone who isnt like them, be they women, Muslims, gays or just other Christians whove bothered to actually read the Bible.

The First Amendment bans the establishment of a state religion yet this is precisely the notion Republicans in thrall to the Religious Right continue to foster, mocking Thomas Jefferson and the other Founding Fathers who opposed mixing religion and politics.
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Andrew Higgens published a stunningly disturbing article in the New York Times Friday morning entitled, Foes of Russia Say Child Pornography Is Planted to Ruin Them.

The Kremlin is accused of a new and particularly noxious form of an old K.G.B. dirty trick known as kompromat, the fabrication and planting of compromising or illegal material.

Thus the child porn planted on Vladimir K. Bukovskys computer. He is described as a tireless opponent of Soviet leaders and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. He faced charges that were only dropped nafter the prosecution reviewed an independent forensic report that determined that an unidentified third party had probably put the child porn on his computer. He accused the Kremlin of using this new form of an old trick to discredit an opponent.

This is the kind of cybermischief-making where Russia has proved its prowess in the Baltic States, Georgia, Ukraine and, according to American intelligence officials, in the computers of the Democratic National Committee.

Sure this is bad enough on its face, and it rings true with the allegations that the Russians interfered in the U.S. election, an accusation that in spite of all 17 US federal intelligence agencies making, President-elect Donald Trump does not believe. Or claims he doesnt believe. But since Putin already got his way with our election, the upcoming danger is to those who are investigating Russias interference.

Experts agree that there is overwhelming evidence that Russia interfered with the 2016 US presidential election. Overwhelming. Its not disputed. Its overwhelming, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) explained. Our nations seventeen federal intelligence agencies say that they are confident that Russia directed the cyber attacks, and that they were intended to interfere with the US elections process. Let that sink in.

On Wednesday, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), and House Oversight Committee, Rep. Cummings, announced that they would be introducing a bill to investigate Russias interference in the 2016 presidential election.

But Democrats are not alone in this. While many Republicans are gleefully using Machiavellian themes to justify their willing compliance with Trump, others see the dangers and realize that they could be next. And Id like to think that they are also simply patriotic.

Its pretty clear to me that Wikileaks was designed to hurt (Democratic presidential nominee Hillary) Clinton and it could be us tomorrow, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told CNN Thursday, saying he would be doing his own investigations into Russias hacking of the U.S. election.

Graham said he believes Russia did interfere with our elections and added, Im going after Russia in every way you can go after Russia. I want Putin personally to pay a price.

From the NYT article, Russias cyberwarriors serve a multitude of goals, including espionage, the disruption of vital infrastructure  as happened in Ukraine last year when nearly a quarter of a million people lost electricity after a cyberattack on three regional energy companies  the discrediting of foes and the shaping of public opinion through the spread of false information.

So if you connect the dots, it wouldnt be unexpected to see horrific accusations made against Swalwell, Cummings, Graham, or even McCain or any other elected official who supports and advocates going after Russia.

Russia is not our friend, no matter what Donald Trump has been led to believe. A friend doesnt try to destroy your countrys democratic process by hacking into one partys emails and possibly even planting or distorting an email or two (this is what they do, so its not clear to me why anyone would have reported on the hacked emails as actual emails in the first place) in order to impact an election.

The next logical question is to ask ourselves why some Republicans are so against an investigation into a foreign entity hacking their own countrys election.
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A federal judge in Wisconsin dismissed a request by a Trump supporting super PACs to the stop the recount in Wisconsin.

The Wisconsin State Journal reported:



Judge James D. Peterson last week rejected the plaintiffs bid for an immediate halt to the recount. In court hearing Friday lasting only about 20 minutes, Peterson quickly dismissed the plaintiffs claims, saying are predicated all on rank speculation.

It is crystal to me that I dont have the basis for stopping the recount, Peterson told the plaintiffs attorneys, explaining his decision to dismiss their request.

Judge Peterson rejected the same argument that the Trump allies have been using in Michigan and Pennsylvania that a recount would jeopardize the counting of the states electoral votes. It is still unclear what Trump allies are so afraid of. If the recount upholds the original election night result, it will help to legitimize Trumps presidency. If Republicans do believe that Donald Trump won the election fair and square, they should let Jill Stein spend the money and happily take results.

The effort to stop the recounts appears to be rooted in fear. It might be that Republicans themselves have some doubts over whether or not Trump won the blue states. It is extremely unlikely that the recount will be able to change the results in one state, much less three, so Republicans should be acting like they have nothing to fear.

So why are Trumps allies so terrified of the recount?
There are more than 30 people running for Charleston County School District's board of trustees this year. Here's what to know about the candidates' experience going into the election. Read moreDoes classroom experience matter in crowded Charleston County School Board race?
Emanuel AMEs former secretary is suing the church and the Rev. Norvel Goff for ending her employment after she questioned the handling of donations that poured into the church after a gunman killed nine worshippers. Read moreFormer secretary at Emanuel AME sues for unpaid wages
Though the clock is falling back, fun is still springing up all around the Lowcountry. Immerse yourself in Scottish heritage at the Charleston Scottish Games and Highland Gathering, head to Summerville for the Timrod Library's 125th birthday, or spend a night with friends celebrating Charleston Beer Week. Read moreMy Charleston Weekend: Beer, Bagpipes, and a Birthday Bash
Lauren Sausser is the Health & Science Editor at The Post and Courier. She also writes about health care issues in South Carolina.
South Carolina superintendent candidates Ellen Weaver and Lisa Ellis traded criticisms for an hour-long debate on Nov. 2, and argued over who was best suited to improve education in South Carolina Read moreState superintendent candidates spar over solutions
Gregory Yee covers the city of Charleston. He's a native Angeleno and previously covered crime and courts for the Press-Telegram in Long Beach, CA. He studied journalism and Spanish literature at the University of California, Irvine.
Deanna Pan is an enterprise reporter for The Post and Courier, where she writes about education and other issues. She grew up in the suburbs of Cincinnati and graduated with a degree in English from Ohio State University in 2012.
Syndicated and guest columns represent the personal views of the writers, not necessarily those of the editorial staff. The editorial department operates entirely independently of the news department and is not involved in newsroom operations.
There are five candidates vying for three open seats on Clemson City Council. We asked the two incumbents and three newcomers what they think is most important for Clemson's residents and council. Read moreMeet the candidates: 5 vying for 3 seats on Clemson City Council
WASHINGTON  Fast-food executive Andrew Puzder, President-elect Donald Trump's pick to be the next Labor Department secretary, turned around the Southern California-based parent company of Carl's Jr. and Hardee's with help from scantily clad women hawking oversized burgers in racy ads.

More recently, he's raised his own profile by becoming an outspoken national advocate on behalf of businesses, railing against increased government regulation, bemoaning the costs of the Affordable Care Act and serving as an economic adviser to Trump.

On Thursday, Trump announced his intention to nominate Puzder to head the department charged with ensuring workers' rights and safety  and likely to lead an effort to undo many Obama administration initiatives

Puzder said he shared Trump's belief that "the right government policies can result in more jobs and better wages for the American worker."

Puzder, 66, has criticized new federal rules expanding overtime pay and opposes the push for a $15 minimum wage. He raised eyebrows by musing about deploying increased automation to his restaurants and once slammed California's regulatory climate, saying the state sometimes treats businesses as if "we have kids working in coal mines or women working in sweatshops."

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Beginning as the personal attorney to former CEO and Carl's Jr. founder Carl Karcher, Puzder helped CKE Restaurants Inc. overcome severe financial difficulties in the 1990s, caused in part by the purchase of the troubled Hardee's franchise. He took over as chief executive in 2000.

Under Puzder's leadership, CKE defied a trend toward healthier fast-food fare by focusing on jumbo-sized hamburgers. And he pitched them to customers through provocative advertisements, including one in 2005 starring Paris Hilton eating a burger amid soap suds while washing a luxury car.

"I like our ads. I like beautiful women eating burgers in bikinis. I think it's very American," Puzder said in a 2015 interview with Entrepreneur magazine.

Complaints about the advertising campaign, "aren't necessarily bad for us" because the attention has led to increased sales, Puzder said.

But Vicki Shabo, vice president of the National Partnership for Women and Families, said Thursday that Puzder's views on women "were deeply troubling."

"He's objectified and undermined women in an effort to sell hamburgers," she said of Puzder.

CKE, headquartered in Carpinteria, Calif., has more than 3,300 locations in 42 U.S. states and 28 countries. It was acquired by private equity firm Apollo Global Management in 2010 and taken private.

The company is currently in the process of relocating its headquarters to Nashville, Tenn., near Puzder's home.

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If confirmed by the Senate, Puzder would lead a department that includes the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. and Bureau of Labor Statistics, which tracks and reports on job growth, wages and unemployment benefits.
Legislation to improve federal contracting opportunities for small businesses appears close to passage in Congress, which has included the measures in a spending bill for the Defense Department for the current fiscal year. The House and Senate are working out their differences on the overall bill.

The legislation requires officials at federal agencies to step up their efforts to award contracts and subcontracts to small businesses. It requires reviews of proposed contracts to determine if more can be done to make opportunities available to small companies.

Small business contracts have been an issue for years because of concerns that agencies award contracts to large companies that do not in turn provide enough subcontracts to smaller companies. The small business committees in both the House and the Senate also have advocated that small companies be given more chances to be primary contractors.

Additionally, the spending bill contains provisions for Small Business Development Centers to give owners help in preventing hacking and other cyberattacks. The development centers are government-sponsored hubs located around the country, many on college campuses, which give free advice and training to small businesses.

The bill also includes a five-year spending authorization for the Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs. These programs create opportunities for technology companies to do research and development for the government, and in some cases, sell the technology they develop to others.

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Congress is following its pattern of the past few years of including contracting legislation in defense spending bills.
The business world is changing faster than ever before, and the emergence of new technologies such as nanotechnology, artificial intelligence and virtual reality are blurring the lines of present and future even more.

Digital technology is transforming the face of business, and 2016 brought notable changes to how businesses are connecting, selling and adapting to the ever-changing digital world. But technology wasn't the only trend in 2016 to affect business.

Cyber threats

In 2016, more retailers began using chip-technology readers to scan cards in order to combat the increasingly savvy cyber criminals. Today, more companies are addressing cyber threats not just as a financial issue, but as a brand trust issue as well. Whereas many CEOs said keeping secure information safe was a top challenge to growth investments, many used 2016 to institute more aggressive threat prevention.

Continued power of social media

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According to Fast Company magazine, more than 2 billion active social media users exist globally, and that number is growing. While traditional businesses were slow to jump on the social media bandwagon, today, nine out of 10 U.S. companies are active on social networks resulting in increased exposure and sales.

U.S. companies began increasing social media advertising in 2015, and 2016 saw an even bigger increase. In fact, social media advertising reached about $24 billion this year, and that trend is expected to continue with social media ads making up nearly 16 percent of all digital advertising spending in the next year.

As technology continues to grow and emerge at a rapid rate, businesses around the globe will continue to adapt and change to keep up. The biggest trend of 2016 was the emergence of social media platforms that are fundamentally changing how companies reach out, interact, sell and communicate with consumers and employees.

Shifts in the economy

Global and social instability was a top concern to 65 percent of CEOs surveyed, as was the technology that accompanied major shifts in the economy.

In the U.S., the election of Donald Trump as the next president also has affected businesses both domestically and globally. A recent Washington Post article predicts the oil, coal, pharmaceutical and construction industries will see a boost because of Trump's business-friendly stance, but if he decides to repeal the Dodd-Frank financial reform act and revoke the Affordable Care Act, businesses in America must have a plan in place to adapt, experts said.

Consumer spending

In 2016, more consumers made purchases online and more than ever, they were doing it on mobile devices. Also, consumers began to make spending choices based on the types of products they buy, ranging from organic and fair-trade items to speedy delivery and delivery tracking.

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Today's buyers have more choices that are offered in a more convenient manner in everything from car buying to banking. Enterprises and businesses globally caught on this year by becoming more aggressive in offering mobile apps that provide access to services in a manner consumers found valuable and engaging.

Communication and staying on top of legislation and emerging trends are vital to the success of your company's future. It's important to take inventory of your business each year to see if new technology or other business practices can help make your company more efficient and profitable. And always, communicate any changes to your team to help ease their workplace fears and help make the transition a success.

And as for women? Our futures continue to brighten! More and more businesses want to recruit, retain and promote women than ever before. The female talent pool is increasingly regarded as a prominent and promising area for workforce planning.
First lady-to-be Melania Trump likely won't be wearing designer Tom Ford's clothes in the White House.

Some of the designers who clamored to dress first lady Michelle Obama have been mixed about dressing Mrs. Trump, a former model. Ford became the latest to weigh in on the matter during an appearance last week on "The View."

The designer was asked to dress Melania Trump "quite a few years ago" and declined because "she's not necessarily my image," he said on the ABC chat show Wednesday.

Ford is a Democrat and voted for Hillary Clinton in the presidential election, he said, before adding even if Clinton had won, she shouldn't have worn his clothes because "they're too expensive." His clothes cost a lot to make, and the president needs to "relate to everybody," he explained.

Asked if Melania Trump should wear expensive clothes, Ford replied: "I'm going to leave that to Melania."

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Ford was willing to dress first lady Michelle Obama for a London visit with Queen Elizabeth II in 2011 and isn't the first to be less enthusiastic about outfitting Mrs. Trump.

Sophie Theallat, whose designs have been worn by Mrs. Obama on several occasions, wrote in an open letter last month that she would not dress Mrs. Trump and specifically brought up politics in urging her colleagues to take the same tact.

"The rhetoric of racism, sexism and xenophobia unleashed by her husband's presidential campaign are incompatible with the shared values we live by," Theallat wrote.

The letter prompted Women's Wear Daily, which covers the fashion industry, to survey other prominent designers on the question of working with Mrs. Trump, who began modeling in Paris and Milan at age 16 before settling in New York 20 years ago.

While Marc Jacobs said he has "no interest whatsoever" in dressing Mrs. Trump, Tommy Hilfiger told the trade magazine he was willing, calling her "a beautiful woman who would make any designer's clothes look great."

Cynthia Rowley told WWD the question was "somewhat irrelevant" because Mrs. Trump can simply buy whatever she wants to wear.

"Checking someone's ethical beliefs before they're allowed to purchase, sets up an exclusionary dynamic that feeds into the exact mentality that is preventing us from moving forward in a positive direction," Rowley said.

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A Rochester man is behind bars today after authorities say he was found with drugs in his car.

Adnan Vele, 25, was arrested early Thursday after an officer on routine patrol spotted a vehicle parked in the middle of an empty parking lot of a closed business off 39th Street Northwest.

The car was running, with its headlights on and a blinker activated, said Capt. John Sherwin. The driver, later identified as Vele, was sweating and appeared nervous, the report says. A subsequent search of his vehicle allegedly turned up 13 grams of methamphetamine and a gram of heroin.

Vele was taken into custody about 1 a.m., and could be charged with third-degree drug possession and fifth-degree drug possession, Sherwin said.
WINONA  A Minnesota City man charged with sexual assault of a minor has been sentenced to three years in prison, stayed, and time already served.

Cesar Eduardo Sierra Avila, 35, entered an Alford plea of guilty in September to second-degree criminal sexual conduct-victim under 13. In exchange, one count of first-degree criminal sexual conduct-victim under 13 was dismissed at Wednesday's sentencing in Winona County District Court.

With an Alford plea, the defendant maintains innocence but acknowledges the evidence could be sufficient for a conviction.

In addition to the stayed 36-month prison term, Avila must register as a predatory offender, undergo psychological-sexual and chemical dependency evaluation/treatment, and complete sex offender treatment program.

He was ordered to serve 302 days in jail, with credit for 302 days served, and placed on probation for 25 years.

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According to the criminal complaint, the incident occurred on or about Nov. 27, 2015, when Avila took the girl into the kitchen of a home while other girls were in the living room. The assault began in the kitchen, then escalated when the suspect ignored the victim's pleas to stop and took her to a nearby bedroom. The assault stopped when a friend of Avila's returned home.

The victim told her family about the incident on Dec. 11, at which point authorities were contacted.
CLAREMONT  A steady stream of Dodge County landowners filed into the Claremont American Legion on Thursday to discuss a proposed 89-turbine wind farm in the southwestern corner of the county.

Representatives from Nextera Energy Resources, the company proposing the wind farm, were peppered with questions.

"We were curious," said Bob Fuller, who attended with his wife, Marie. "We live right next to Highway 14, and we were concerned about how close to us the turbines would be."

Their place turned out to be outside the boundaries of the proposed wind farm.

Landowner Jeff Gray said he and his father, George, have signed up to have three turbines placed on their combined 800 acres.

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"We'd sign up for more if we could," he said.

One landowner, who did not want to give his name, said, "I would not put one up.  I would have issues who has control over my land."

Jeff and Dan Palm, of Reese, Mich., attended the forum to talk to farmers who might have questions. The two brothers and their dad, Jeff Sr., have a turbine installed on their 1,000 acres east of Saginaw.

Jeff Jr. explained that three companies had spoken to them about installing a turbine on their land. Nextera paid the most.

They were asked if they heard noise from the turbine.

"On a really windy day, it sounds like a plane far away. You really have to listen for it," said Jeff Jr.

Minnesota has strict setbacks for the placement of turbines from residences.

Company representatives have been researching the county for about three years to ascertain if there is enough wind to warrant a wind farm.

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Jamie Gentile, community development manager for Nextera, explained that meteorological towers are placed on land in the region and the data they gather is used to map out a general focus area.

Within that area, landowners are approached to see if they are interested in having a turbine on their land. Then the overlap of proposed turbines and setbacks are mapped. From a territory of thousands of acres, only a relative few are considered suitable for turbines.

Each turbine takes a little more than an acre of land, which includes the access road.

Jeff Palm said that the turbines on their farm will stay for at least 20 years. He said the injection of income from the turbines was nice, especially as he and his brother are just getting established. He is 35 and his brother is 30.

According to company officials, participating landowners will share about $34 million in lease payments over the life of the project, and local governments will get about $20 million in tax benefits.

If all goes according to plan, the state Public Utilities Commission will be issuing the permit through the Wind Siting Act. The company hopes to have the project online in 2018.
A sweet deal is keeping a 19-year-old Rochester business buzzing under new ownership.

Late this past week, Thomas and Heidi Owenswith their daughter, Sarah Owens, took over the ownership of Rochester's Johnston Honey. They acquired it from the founders, Don and Sharon Johnston.

The Johnstons have moved on to another project, a vineyard in Canada. However, they wanted to keep the honey business they started in 1997 alive. Thomas Owens worked with Don Johnston at Mayo Clinicand had volunteered to help harvest honey in the past. That taste of the business was enough for the bee novice to want to take on the honey operation.

"I have a ton to learn about bees, but I had more to learn about a business. I had to tackle that first, and I now I have to educate myself more about the bees," said Owens, who still works full time at Mayo Clinic.

This fall, the Owens harvested almost 2 1/2 tons of honey in three days from their 70 hives. That filled eight, 50 gallon barrels. Since then, they have been bottling and packaging the organic honey as well as the Johnston line of lotions, hand creams, soaps and beewax candles.

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"I haven't really changed much. The Johnstons really built a good business and brand," he said.

He is working to make the business run more efficiently and has introduced some new bottle sizes at the request of customers.

Their products are on the shelves at three of Rochester's Hy-Veegrocery stores, Silver Lake Foods, Otto's Bakeryin Byron and even at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

They also take orders on their website . With the holidays coming up, orders have been coming in from all over the U.S.

While the products keep them busy during the cold months, the bees are dormant and in storage until the spring.
Civil War art will soon return to the Governor's Reception Room in the Minnesota Capitol.

The Minnesota Historical Society's Executive Council voted Thursday unanimously to return the Civil War art to the prominent Capitol location. The art is currently being restored as part of the $310 million renovation of the Capitol. The decision followed heated debate among political leaders over what to do with the art.

Rochester GOP Sen. Dave Senjem favored returning the artwork to the reception room and applauded the executive council's decision.

"Our Civil War veterans fought gallantly to save the union. Our state Capitol is a monument to their efforts and deserve to remain so throughout the history of the building," Senjem said.

But others, including DFL Gov. Mark Dayton, have raised concern about the number of Civil War paintings in the reception room. They suggested it is time to consider replacing them with art that is more reflective of the state's diverse history. The civil war paintings could still be displayed in the Capitol but in a different location.

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Dayton issued the following statement in response to the historical society executive council's vote to return the Civil War artwork.

"It's their decision to make, and I respect their decision," Dayton said.

In October, the Capitol Area Architectural Planning Board voted not to return the Civil War paintings to the reception room. That decision generated strong push back from some veterans groups and lawmakers. Last week, the Minnesota Capitol Preservation Commission voted to recommend the art be returned. Before the vote happened, Dayton stormed out of the meeting, accusing Republicans of having "hijacked" it for political purposes.

The final decision over what to do with the art rested with the Minnesota Historical Society. Their decision means that a total of six Civil War paintings will be headed back to the ornate space. Four of the paintings will be returned to the Governor's Reception Room and two others will come back to the anteroom, which is next door to the reception room.

One of the paintings displayed in the reception room is the "Second Minnesota Regiment at Missionary Ridge" by Douglas Volk. Featured prominently in the painting is Lt. Gov. Judson Bishop of Chatfield. Fillmore County Historical Society Director Debra Richardson said she was prepared to personally protest any efforts to not put the painting back in the reception room.

"(Bishop) was a wonderful soldier. He was a wonderful surveyor, engineer  a credit to Fillmore County, and we feel it's our responsibility to make sure that his story is continuously told for generations to come and that includes having the Volk painting up on the Capitol wall," Richardson said.

Two paintings that feature Native Americans will not be returning to the Governor's Reception Room. They are "Father Hennepin at the Fall of St. Anthony" and "The Treaty of Traverse des Sioux." Critics say the paintings are historically inaccurate and offensive. Those paintings will instead be placed elsewhere in the Capitol with interpretive information.

Not all of the paintings will be back in time for the re-opening of the Minnesota Capitol on Jan. 3. The Minnesota Historical Society says the Civil War paintings will be back in place early in 2017. The two Native American paintings will be returned in time for the Capitol's grand opening Aug. 11 to 13.

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Sen. Carla Nelson, R-Rochester, had vowed to introduce a bill to return the Civil War paintings to the reception room if necessary. She said she is pleased with the historical society council's decision.

Nelson added, "I am thrilled that the Minnesota Historical Society agreed to keep the historic Civil War art in its rightful place  the Governor's Reception Room, the very spot for which Cass Gilbert commissioned it at the time he designed our beautiful Capitol."
Residents are invited to a town hall meeting focused on health care costs in the individual market.

Former Rochester Republican Rep. Fran Bradley organized the event. He said he wants to draw attention to the problem and brainstorm solutions on how to do deal with skyrocketing insurance costs.

"Door knocking, I don't think I hear anything more heart wrenching and compelling than the stories I heard from people who were facing these kind of incredible increases and levels of premiums and deductibles," Bradley said.

The town hall will be from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Thursday at Wood Lake Meeting Center, 201 Woodlake Dr. S.E. in Rochester. Bradley will moderate the discussion. Minnesota House Health and Human Services Finance Committee Chairman Matt Dean, R-Dellwood, is also expected to attend.

Premiums in the individual market are slated to jump an average of 50 percent to 67 percent in 2017. Approximately 5 percent of Minnesotans purchase health insurance on the individual market. Of those, about half do not qualify for federal tax subsidies and are faced with absorbing the hefty increases. Gov. Mark Dayton and legislative leaders are negotiating a possible special session on Dec. 20 to provide assistance to people struggling with high insurance costs.

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Bradley said the discussion will be focused on short- and long-term solutions. That includes discussion on what to do with the MNsure, that state-run health insurance exchange. Bradley said he has invited Republican lawmakers to attend but the event is open to all.
The Minister of Budget and Planning, Udoma Udoma, has said that Nigerias borrowings are solely to fund infrastructure projects.

Mr. Udoma said this while briefing the Assistant Secretary for Multilateral Affairs of the Trade and Policy Department at the French Treasury, Guillaume Chabert, in Abuja on Thursday.

The minister said that investing in infrastructure was the surest way of setting the country on the part of growth and sustainable development.

He told the Assistant Secretary, who was accompanied by the French Ambassador to Nigeria, Denys Gauer, that the Nigerian government was working on a National Economic Recovery and Growth Plan tailor-made to move the countrys economy out of recession and set it on a growth path.

Our plan is that we should be able, within that plan period (2017  2020), to achieve not less than 7 per cent growth, he said.

To get out of economic recession, we will need to harness resources, by plugging revenue leakages and looking at new revenue sources in order to generate the resources required to spend our way out of recession, particularly focused on infrastructure.

He explained that while government was exploring other means of generating revenue internally, there is need to borrow, part of which has to be sourced internationally from sources that could give concessionary terms, like the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.

Nigeria, he noted, should explore the possibility of upgrading its oil revenue in order to generate the resources to spend its way out of dependence on oil.

He said this required focusing attention on reducing the disruptions in the Niger Delta region, to bring the countrys oil production back to a minimum of 2.2 million barrels per day, describing it as the fastest way to generate resources.

Government, he pointed out, cannot do it all alone, saying this was why emphasis was being place on creating an enabling environment for effective private sector participation in growing the economy.

The Minister expressed governments appreciation for the support by the French Government, particularly in terms of the various bilateral as well as multilateral support, directly and through the European Union respectively.

This is a relationship that we cherish and will like to continue to develop and enrich, he added.

The Assistant Secretary, Mr. Chabert, noted the economic challenges the country was currently facing, saying the French government would be willing to support Nigeria surmount the challenges as he said it is in our interest that Nigeria succeeds.

He promised to make some input into the countrys economic plan once the framework is made available.
Turkish artillery shelling and airstrikes killed 12 civilians, including children, and injured 10 more amid stepped up operations to oust Islamic State from the Syrian city of al-Bab, a monitoring group reported on Friday.

It confirmed that there were airstrikes in the area, which is east of Aleppo city.

Report says the army does not usually confirm civilian casualties.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights which monitors the conflict, the Turkish military and rebel groups it backs, have started a new attack on al-Bab.

Turkey dispatched 300 additional commandos to the border area on Thursday, it noted.

The Turkish operation has focused on Islamic State while also attacking Kurdish-allied groups in northern Syria, trying to prevent the Kurds from connecting territories they control.

In close proximity, the Syrian government has continued its advance inside Aleppo city, seizing most of the opposition-held pockets from rebel forces.

(dpa/NAN)
The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the election of Governor Ben Ayade of Cross Rivers State.

A fellow Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, aspirant, Joe Agi, had asked the apex court to nullify the election of Mr. Ayade for alleged false declaration of age.

The challenger asked the court to declare that Mr. Ayades emergence as the PDP flagbearer was null and void.

Mr. Agi, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria who contested the 2015 PDP governorship primary against Mr. Ayade, had challenged the eligibility of the governor to contest the primary.

But in a unanimous judgement on Friday; a five-member panel of justices dismissed the application for lacking in merit.
The United States Government on Friday called on the Nigerian Government to expedite action on the recommendation of the White Paper on last years killings in Zaria, Kaduna State.

John Kirby, Assistant Secretary and Department Spokesperson of the Bureau of Public Affairs, said the U.S. government fully agreed with the White Papers recommendations that those involved in the killings be punished.

On Dec. 5th, the Kaduna State Government in Nigeria issued a long-awaited White Paper on clashes last year that resulted in the deaths of a reported 348 civilians and one soldier.

We fully agree with the White Papers recommendation that members of the military who were involved in the unlawful killing of civilians must be held accountable and punished appropriately.

As the one-year anniversary of this tragic event approaches, we call on the federal government to be diligent, transparent, and expeditious in following through on this recommendation, he said.

Mr. Kirby said that his government was also concerned with the Papers characterisation of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) as an insurgent group.

He said the U.S. government would also want to encourage the federal government to act on the Abuja High Courts decision on December 2 for the release from prison of IMN leader, Ibrahim Zakzaky, and his wife, within 45 days.

The spokesperson said his government had, therefore, enjoined the different levels of government to evolve ways of non-violent engagement with all citizens, including minority religious groups.

We also encourage the federal government to act on the Abuja high courts decision on Dec. 2 that IMN leader Ibrahim Zakzaky and his wife should be released from prison within 45 days, as they have been held without charge since the events of last December.

As the White Paper notes, the right to freedom of worship is a cherished constitutional right in Nigeria that must be protected.

We encourage the people and the government of Nigeria to support these fundamental principles, regardless of religion, ethnicity, or region, he added. (NAN)
President Muhammad Buharis War on Corruption is focused on politicians instead of civil servants who are tasked with budget implementation , some Nigerian lawmakers have said.

The legislators are attending a legislative retreat on budgeting for health at the Pan Africa Parliament in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Today, the most beautiful houses in Abuja are owned by civil servants, whereas the anticorruption war is on politicians, said Jonah Jang, a senator and former governor of Plateau state, who has been accused of mismanaging billions of naira while he served as governor.

For his part, former governor of Abia State, Theodore Orji lamented that senators are labelled the most corrupt people in Nigeria, which in his view, is not true.

What I had in mind when I was coming to the Senate is not what I am seeing, said Mr. Orji.

I came to a senate where we are labelled the most corrupt people in Nigeria. While you cannot say we are all saints or sinners but we are not all corrupt. I said the legislators have been given power to do oversight functions in other countries.Even when you go for oversight functions, it is never implemented..most time you have to lobby the executive to implement oversight reports.

In the same vein, Lanre Tejuosho, Chairman of Senate Committee on Health, said there is no money to steal under the present administration.

There is nothing to steal because there is no new money to steal. If they are labelling members of the National Assembly as thieves, they may be referring to people before us, not this 8th senate. We are new members and there is no money to steal in this government, said Mr. Tejuosho.

In his remark, Mao Ohuabunwa from Abia said those accusing the National Assembly of corruption are ignorant of the workings of the legislature because it is not an implementing agency.

Nobody has accused the parliament of corruption unless the person does not what he is talking about. This is because the parliament is not an implementing agency. We dont have allocation to execute contract, said Mr. Ohuabunwa.

The lawmaker said the National Assembly has always been blackmailed from the outset but urged his colleagues not to shy away from doing their jobs.

What we need to do is to keep engaging the public because for them it is about tarring roads and building water borehole and we must not shy away from doing our jobs because people are blackmailing us, said Mr. Ohuabunwa.

The presidential system of government is different from the parliamentarian. If you want to run the presidential system as it ought to be, it is a very expensive venture. As far as I am concerned the National Assembly is underfunded; we dont have consultants; even committees dont have any consultants.

Another senator, Sonny Ogbu Oji, vice chairman of the appropriation committee said in comparison with the national budget, the National Assemblys budget has been on downward slide while the national budget keeps increasing.

The parliament is one of the less developed arms of government. People do not see the contribution of parliament in government, it will take some time. As long this continues we will continue to be vilified, the lawmaker said.
The death toll from Fridays suicide bombing in Adamawa has increased to 45, the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, reports.

The agency, quoting a local government chairman, also said 57 people were critically injured while 120 others were wounded in the explosion.

Yusuf Muhammed, Chairman, Madagali Local Government, Adamawa, said the critically injured were rushed to Mubi General Hospital and Yola Specialists Hospital, while those that sustained minor injuries were treated and discharged .

PREMIUM TIMES reported how two female suicide bombers struck at a local market in Madagali, Adamawa State, north-east Nigeria.

Madagali lies some 276 kilometres from the Adamawa State capital, Yola.

The town, which is close to neighbouring Borno State, was one of several others held by Boko Haram at the height of the groups brutal insurgency.

The latest blast is the third in Madagali, following attacks by two female suicide bombers on December 28, 2015, at a busy motor park.

The spokesman of the 28th Task Force Battalion of the Nigerian Army, Badere Akintoye, said the two teen female suicide bombers sneaked into the busy market and detonated themselves in the middle of it.

For now 30 were confirmed dead and (an)other 67 injured and have been evacuated to Michika hospital, the army major had said on Friday afternoon.

Local sources had earlier said two female suicide bombers detonated the bombs at the grains and second hand cloths section of the market, Friday noon, killing dozens of people.

The Chairman of Madagali Local Government, Yusuf Muhammad, described the attack as a setback to relative peace enjoyed by residents who resumed normal commercial and social activities following successful military operations.

Mr. Muhammad called on the federal government to deploy soldiers to the surrounding areas where he said Boko Haram insurgents had set up camps.
Reporters from Ivory Coast and Cameroon took the top prizes in this years African Fact-Checking Awards.

Anderson Diedri, of the website Eburnietoday.com, was named the winner of the top fact-checking award for francophone African media, for a report exposing as false claims made by the government of Cote dIvoire in a land dispute in the countrys centre.

The award for English-language media went to Arison Tamfu of the Cameroon Journal, for a report revealing that claims by the countrys President Paul Biya to have gifted laptops to each student of a public or private university in Cameroon were false.

The runners-up, named by organisers Africa Check, the continents leading independent fact-checking organisation, in a ceremony in Nairobi on Thursday, were Swazi journalist Phathizwe Mongezi Zulu, for a report for South Africas AmaBhungane and GroundUp websites on a plane acquired by King Mswati III, and Dayo Oketola, of Punch Newspaper in Nigeria, for a report into the claims of a publicly-funded communications satellite operator.

The two winners each picked up a first prize of USD$2,000, while the runners take home a prize of USD$1,000 each. The awards, hosted again this year by the African Media Initiative (AMI), were sponsored by the AFP news agency and the philanthropic, Shuttleworth Foundation.

Speaking at the awards ceremony, Africa Checks Executive Director, Peter Cunliffe-Jones, thanked the sponsors, and hosts, and the four-person jury headed by AMI CEO, Eric Chinje, and said: In a year when fact-checking has been in the news around the world, the standard of entries has been higher than ever; our winning entries show why it is so important that journalists do not just report what public figures say, but question their claims and expose those that are not true.

Mr. Cunliffe-Jones also announced that for 2017s edition of the awards, a new category has been created for the best fact-checking report published by a student journalist at a college, with a top prize of USD$500.

Events around the world this year have shown that fact-checking is becoming an essential skill for any mainstream journalist to acquire, he said.

And we hope that journalism schools around the continent will want to enter their students for these important awards.

A total of 130 entries were received from journalists in 22 countries for the awards in 2016.

Details of the 2017 awards, for working and student journalists, will be announced by Africa Check early in 2017.
The Ambassadors of the United States, United Kingdom, France and European Union on Friday expressed concern over the rising tension in the run up to the re-run national and state assemblies elections in Rivers State on Saturday.

The Ambassadors in a Joint statement urged politicians and the various political parties to give peace a chance.

We note with concern the rising tension in Rivers State ahead of elections on 10 December. We call on the leadership of all political parties and their supporters in Rivers state to allow elections to go ahead peacefully.

We encourage INEC and the security forces to perform their duties responsibly and impartially. We urge all parties to respect the electoral process and raise any grievances peacefully and through official channels.

We stress that the leaders of all parties are accountable for the actions of their members and we encourage them to urge their supporters not to use or incite violence, the envoys said in the statement.

The statement was signed by the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Paul Arkwright; United States Ambassador to Nigeria, W. Stuart Symington; French Ambassador to Nigeria, Denys Guaer, and the EU Head of Delegation to Nigeria, Michel Arrion.

The various seats available are expected to be straight battles between the ruling PDP in Rivers and Nigerias ruling APC.
President Muhammadu Buhari has condoled with families of victims of the twin bomb blasts in Madagali, Adamawa, which claimed some lives and injured several others on Friday.

The President also condoled with the government and people of the state over the unfortunate incident, assuring them that they were not alone as the rest of nation was mourning the grave loss with them.

In a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, on Friday in Abuja, Mr. Buhari restated that putting an end to this senseless loss of innocent lives remains a top priority of this administration.

According to him, over the past few weeks, the Nigerian military have made significant advancements in an offensive aimed at slamming the final nail in the coffin of Boko Haram.

This latest attack is obviously an act of desperation, but the Nigerian military will neither be distracted nor relent.

Mr. Buhari urged Nigerians to be more vigilant and immediately report any suspicious activity to the nearest security and law enforcement agency.

The battle against terrorism is a joint effort involving all citizens, both government and governed. Together, Nigerians can and will defeat the evil that is Boko Haram, he declared.

The President prayed that God would comfort the bereaved families and wished the injured ones speedy recovery.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Yusuf Muhammed, Chairman, Madagali Local Government, Adamawa, confirmed that 56 persons died and 177 were injured in the twin blasts.

Muhammed, who confirmed the development in a telephone interview, said 57 of the injured were critical and 120 minor.

He said the critically injured were rushed to Mubi General Hospital and Yola Specialists Hospital, while those that sustained minor injuries were treated and discharged .

NAN reports that the Madagali Market operates on Fridays and the two blasts occurred at the grains and second- hand clothes sections of the market.

(NAN)
A bill for an Act to Provide for the Inauguration of the President and Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, passed second reading in the Senate on Thursday.

The bill, titled Presidential Inauguration Bill, 2016, sponsored by the Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, seeks to align presidential inauguration in Nigeria with what obtained in advanced democracies of the world.

While leading the debate on the general principles of the bill, Mr. Ekweremadu explained that the bill sought to move the inauguration of the president and the vice-president from the Eagle Square to the National Assembly.

He said the new arrangement would not prevent the Chief Justice of Nigeria from swearing in the president and vice-president.

You would recall that Nigeria transformed from operating a parliamentary Westminster system to the extant Presidential system which is modelled after the U.S. Presidential system of government in 1979 and continued to the Fourth Republic from 1999 to date.

From the commencement of Fourth Republic to 2015, inauguration or swearing-in of newly elected president and vice-president took place at the Eagle Square.

This is at variance with what transpires in the United States and other democracies where their presidents and vice-presidents are inaugurated within the precincts of their parliaments.

This is a misnomer. The popular or international best practice is for the leadership of the Executive to be inaugurated within the premises of the Legislature, who are perceived as the true representatives of the people, he said.

Mr. Ekweremadu said that the bill further provided for the inauguration ceremony of the president-elect and the vice-president-elect to take place at the Arcade of the National Assembly, where the people were represented.

He further said the bill provided for the setting up of a Presidential Inauguration Committee, consisting of a serving member of the National Assembly as chairman.

He added that the committee would consist of six members drawn from the Legislature, two from the Executive, two from the Judiciary and two from Civil Society Organisations.

Consequently, the Senate approved for the bill to be read a second time after a voice vote and subsequently referred to the Senate Committee on Special Duties for further consideration.

A similar bill was sponsored by Jubril Aminu (Adamawa Central) in 2009 and was passed by the 6th National Assembly but did not receive presidential assent.

(NAN)
Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo on Thursday said President Muhammadu has directed that the National Identification Number (NIN) be used to authenticate eligible voters in future.

Mr. Osinbajo, who was represented by Ade Ipaye, the Deputy Chief of Staff to the President, said this while addressing a policy roundtable on identity at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa.

The vice-president added that the president also said NIN should be used to access health insurance, registration of SIM cards, social welfare programmes of the administration and all financial transactions.

It is the presidents charge that a NIN is used to authenticate eligible voters in the nearest future as well as in the areas of access to health, insurance, registration of SIM cards, access to the social welfare programmes of the administration and for all financial transactions.

The development of identity programmes in Nigeria will help the nation leverage on its potential to improve security of lives and property, advance service delivery and fight poverty and corruption.

Achieving full scale national identity management will therefore boost our efforts and better tracking of the movement of people while minimising issues with external border controls and terrorism.

We have an opportunity here to change and transform our country and everyone has a role to play in the growth and development of our nation through digital identity, he said.

Mr. Osinbajo expressed disappointment that the country had separated but similar identifications for its citizens collated by many agencies of government which he described as duplication and waste of resources

He said it was time to harmonise the data to save the people from the rigours of being captured many times as well as to conserve funds.

Mr. Osinbajo noted that the cost of managing disparate and unconnected bio-metric linked data bases was increasingly becoming a huge burden and needed to be streamlined.

He said this was because the government could not afford to fund the unnecessary duplication of efforts and overlapping identity functions that further depleted its scarce resources.

He said there was large benefit for integration of the identification programmes of government institutions which must be taken advantage of to get it right once and for all.

He said the president had already identified the importance of a synchronised identity system.

He said it informed the directive from the Office of the Vice-President in December 2015 for all stakeholders with independent identity management systems to consolidate, aggregate and integrate their data bases.

Mr. Osinbajo said the directive was issued as a way to accelerate and scale up the national identity system.

He stressed the importance of the meeting which was to optimise the benefits of digital identity and leveraging its use for accelerating development in the country.

Therefore, we must embrace and harness the potential inherent in digital identity to build and develop our country.

He observed that other nations had utilised identity as a foundation for transforming governance and enhancing service delivery.

Mr. Osinbajo expressed gratitude that the Nigeria Identity Management Commission (NIMC) had commenced a harmonised identity management system to ensure its completeness, accuracy, and integrity in national assets.

He said Nigeria should use its digital strategy to establish a global reputation for technological leadership and business dynamism and build digital ecosystems in which innovation could thrive.

We will invest in smart infrastructure, platforms and services , digitise our records and classify them accordingly, review and upgrade the legal and regulatory framework as we notch up the digital talent that abound.

He said that an accurate identity system with accurate data is no doubt a national asset to any country.

It is time for Nigeria to also offer this unique identity to all its citizens.

Nigeria as a global player and a developing nation must work towards leveraging digital identity as a reliable tool for uniquely identifying its citizenry and residents and accelerating socio- economic development.

The vice-president commended the World Bank and other development partners for their concern and interest in the Nigerian identity ecosystem, including integration effort and for sponsoring the roundtable.

The Director-General of NIMC, Aliyu Aziz, observed that harmonisation of data bases had started in the country since 2008 but noted that the process was slow and should be fast-tracked.

Indira Konjhodzic, who represented the Country Director of World Bank, said the organisation was happy to partner the country in the harmonisation of identification information.

She noted that many people in Africa had no identification proof and urged NIMC to make the process work.

In their presentations, a former Director-General of Unique ID Authority of India, Vijay Madan, and the Senior World Bank ICT Specialist, Zaid Safdar, urged the country to hasten its identity harmonisation.

They said such would facilitate access to credit and social services for the citizens and help in national planning.

(NAN)
Relatives of a corps member declared missing in September, Lukmon Shorunke, say the government has failed them.

While speaking to PREMIUM TIMES in separate interviews, the relatives called on the Nigerian people to plead with the authorities to intensify efforts to locate the corps member.

Mr. Lukmon was a 2015 batch B Stream 1 Corps member serving in Anka Local Government Area of Zamfara State with code number ZM/15B/110. He was declared missing on September 21 and has since not been found.

In an exclusive interview with PREMIUM TIMES, Kehinde Shorunke, a sibling of the missing corps member who spoke on behalf of the family, lamented the attitude of the federal government and the NYSC authorities towards the plight of Mr. Lukmons family.

Weve tried all our best to reach the government, all efforts remain futile. Reports have been made to different concerned agencies, visitations from one office to another have also been part of the efforts, he said.

When asked about results of other concerted efforts made by friends and relatives of the corps members towards knowing his whereabout, Mr. Kehinde explained that the family had been rendered hopeless as all efforts to know his whereabout have proven futile. He also disclosed that they were being extorted by those they have been running to for help.

Were just being extorted. Were now hopeless with regards to governments intervention. We dont mind any effort from the press. We dont mind the voice being raised again. We could only resort to

prayer, prayer, and hope, he said.

Mr. Kehinde said the actions of the government and its agencies so far have shown that the Nigerian state has failed Lukmon, who went missing while serving his fatherland.

For me and other people directly or indirectly affected, its a big yes that the government has failed us thus far. I pray we can be convinced otherwise, he said.

A colleague of Mr. Lukmons, Abubakar Abdul-karim, also lamented what he called the poor way the case was being handled by the NYSC authorities and the Federal Government. According to him, no meaningful development had been recorded about the case since September.

The only meaningful development so far was the call made by the National Youth Service Corps through the Zamfara State coordinator acknowledging that Lukmon is missing and that the case is being

handled by the legal department of the scheme, he said.

That is close to two months ago and since then, no response has been received from any quarters, he said.

He however called on well-meaning Nigerians to plead with the authorities to intensify efforts on the search for the corps member.

He also said that the Federal Government should consider the plight of his anguished family members, friends, relatives and associates.

As friends and relatives, all we want is for frantic effort to be made to bring him back just like there would have been if he was their kid or family member, he said.

PREMIUM TIMES had in October reported the case of Lukmon Shorunke, prompting the NYSC authority to reach out to some of his family members. However, friends and associates of the missing corps member said that they have not heard from officials of the scheme since then.

Tijani Ibrahim, the NYSC legal adviser who contacted the family after the story was published in October, told PREMIUM TIMES that the NYSC coordinators in Zamfara and Oyo had briefed police on the case, but that police said they would need some time to investigate the case.

The spokesperson for the NYSC, Bose Aderibigbe, did not also respond to calls to her phone.

Shorunke Olayiwola, a former student of the University of Ilorin, was declared missing in September after he left his home in Abeokuta to board a night bus to Zamfara for his final clearance.

Sources disclosed that he was on his way to Zamfara in preparation for the NYSCs batch B Passing Out Parade held on October 6.

The NYSC scheme has in recent time come under serious attacks following the deaths of corps members including Oladepo Ifedolapo Rachel, a graduate of Transport management from Ladoke Akintola

University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso, who died in Kano state last week.
An Abuja high court sitting in Maitama on Friday adjourned a no case submission hearing filed by Steve Oronsaye, former head of service until February 7, 2017.

Mr. Oronsaye was the chairman, Presidential Task Force Committee on Anti Terrorism Financing, set up by former president Goodluck Jonathan.

He was put on trial on breach of trust and diversion of N190 million made available for the committee.

At the resumed hearing on Friday, counsel to Mr. Oronsaye, Kanu Agabi,

sought the order of the court to file a no case submission, saying the prosecution had not made any case against his client.

The judge, Olasumbo Goodluck, then granted the application and ordered that the motion be filed and also be served immediately to the prosecution.

The judge then adjourned hearing in the no case submission until February 7.

At the last sitting, the prosecution closed his case after calling six witnesses to testify.

The 6th and the last prosecution witness, Hamma-Adams Bello, an officer with the EFCC, told the court that the investigation was approved by former EFCC boss,

Ibrahim Lamorde, following the receipt of two petitions against the defendant.

During cross examination by Ade Okeaya-Inneh, counsel to Mr. Oronsaye, Mr. Bello told the court that the petitioners were anonymous and their addresses were not clearly stated.

He, however, added that in spite of that, the petitions were investigated and found that Mr. Oronsaye was the sole signatory in two bank accounts of the Committee, one at Zenith Bank and the other at Access Bank .

(NAN)
The trial of a former governor of Plateau, Joshua Dariye, was on Friday stalled in an FCT High Court, Gudu, due to the absence of defence witness.

Mr. Dariye is facing a 23-count charge bordering on money laundering and diversion of ecological fund to the tune of N1.162billion.

He was present in court on Friday, the News Agency of Nigeria reports.

The defence counsel, Fidelis Kaatpo, holding the brief of Garba Pwul, told the court that two of the witnesses were yet to be served summons.

The court bailiff was unable to serve them because they were not reachable, he said.

He also said that the witnesses reside in Jos.

In his response, the EFCC lead prosecuting counsel, Rotimi Jacobs, expressed concern that unnecessary adjournments may delay conclusion of the matter.

The trial judge, Abebukola Banjoko, ordered that a fresh court summons be served on the witnesses.

She adjourned the case till Tuesday, December13 for continuation of defence.

Mr. Dariye recently decamped from the opposition PDP to Nigerias ruling APC.

The fugitive lawmaker is still wanted in the UK from where he jumped bail after he was arrested for money laundering while serving as Plateau Governor.

(NAN)
Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, have intercepted methamphetamine worth N14 billion.

The seized drug, weighing 45 kilogrammes, was found concealed inside foodstuff in a luggage meant for export to South Africa, the agency said in a statement Friday.

The discovery was made during the outward screening of a Kenyan Airways flight. A 48-year-old cook, Richard Ese, had been arrested in connection with the illegal shipment.

Methamphetamine (also known as meth, chalk, ice, crystal) is a powerful and highly addictive stimulant that affects the central nervous system. It takes the form of a white, odourless, bitter-tasting crystalline powder that easily dissolves in water or alcohol.

Nigeria has so far discovered eleven of such clandestine laboratories where the drug is produced since 2011. Five were found in Lagos State, another five in Anambra State and one in Delta State.

Ahmadu Garba, the NDLEA commander at the Lagos airport, said the suspect is assisting NDLEAs team of investigators and would be charged to court soon.

Mr. Ese, who hails from Delta State and had worked for a decade in Madrid, Spain, said he was given N1 million to smuggle the drugs to South Africa.

I was told the bag contains African food but during search, NDLEA officers discovered methamphetamine in the luggage weighing 45kgs, Mr. Ese said.

I worked in Madrid for ten years as a Chef and I am married with four children. The man that gave me the job met me in a drinking club.

In his reaction, Muhammad Abdallah, the Chairman of the NDLEA, described the seizure as a victory over drug barons.

Mr. Abdallah, a retired colonel, said the agencys efforts in addressing the problem of methamphetamine production and trafficking must be complemented by stakeholders.

He also promised to arrest other members of the criminal group.

I am very pleased with this seizure, he said.

It is a victory for Nigerians over drug barons but the Agencys efforts in reducing the drug problem must be complemented by other stakeholders.

Stiffer punishment must be meted out to those involved in methamphetamine production. On our part, the agency must continue to identify more clandestine laboratories and prosecute offenders. I want investigation to be very thorough and at the end of the day, more arrests shall be made. I want other members of the criminal gang arrested.

The NDLEA boss noted that locally produced methamphetamine is in high demand in Asia and Europe thus making the criminal trade highly lucrative, adding that that it is only logical that such a drug should attract stiffer punishment to discourage its production and trafficking.

Methamphetamine and similar drugs deserves stiffer punishment to check the proliferation of clandestine laboratories and cases of trafficking, he said.

Continued production exposes our youths to the risk of being recruited by drug barons to smuggle it out of the country. It is therefore worrisome that most seizures made are even destined to countries where drug trafficking is punishable by death.
Few hours to the National Assembly and State House rerun elections in Rivers State, the state, especially its capital Port Harcourt, remains calm and residents are going about their normal lives.

But there are still fears of possible violence when the election hold on Saturday.

The Independent National Electoral Commission will conduct rescheduled rerun elections across three senatorial districts, eight federal constituencies and 10 state constituencies in the state.

Two factors make the exercise a high risk: the animosity between Governor Nyesom Wike and his predecessor, Rotimi Amaechi, and the states notorious history of electoral violence.

The two men represent the All Progressives Congress and Peoples Democratic Party respectively.

On Friday, Port Harcourt was calm, as residents went about their businesses in several areas including Rumuola, Airforce base, GRA, Moscow Road, Abari park, Airport Road, Aba Road.

You have now seen Port Harcourt is not a war zone and it is just like any other day, said a taxi passenger, heading to Moscow Road from Abari park.

Except INEC office on Aba Road, there are hardly other spots with heavy security presence.

Between Thursday evening and Friday morning, thousands of policemen seen around Moscow Road, had been deployed to their various places of assignment.

But the fear of violence hangs in the air.

Well everywhere is calm now but there may still be violence tomorrow because the Governor (Mr. Wike) and Amaechi have taken the elections as do or die, said a young restaurant operator, echoing fears raised by other residents.

There are bad boys in this state who operate for the two of them, he added.

Speaking with PREMIUM TIMES, a civil society activist and Chairman of Partners for Electoral Reforms, Nwagu Ezenwa, said although Port Harcourt and other places in the state appeared calm, there was high sense of insecurity in the state.

Tension is not a tangible thing you can measure but there indicators, said Mr. Ezenwa. Yesterday (Thursday), night life in Port Harcourt was unusually zero; people were leaving the city; and everywhere you go people tell you be careful, know where to go.

These are indicators people feel insecure and gripped by tension, Mr. Ezenwa said.

He condemned political actors for stoking tension in the state.

Their plan is to scare people and deny them participation so that the political class can do what they whatever they want, he said.

Rivers Police spokesperson, Omoni Nnamdi, told PREMIUM TIMES 28,000 officers were deployed for the elections, assuring of readiness to ensure a violence-free polls tomorrow.
The police in Kaduna have said they did not deny anyone access to the bodies of their loved ones killed in the Southern Kaduna crisis.

The Kaduna State Police Commissioner, Agyole Abeh, disclosed this on Friday in Kaduna while parading 27 suspected criminals.

Some residents of Southern Kaduna had alleged that police refused them access to the corpses of their love ones lying in bush as a result of the recent crisis in the affected areas.

People who are involved, should come out and say, look, I have a relation lying there, honestly police will help him that I can assure you, Mr. Abeh said.

Scores of people have been killed in ethnic clashes in Southern Kaduna mainly between migrating Fulani herdsmen and host communities.

The commissioner said the police does not have enough personnel to adequately cover the vast land of Kaduna State.

He, however, added that the command will do everything possible to ensure that they respond to distress calls.

He said the 27 paraded suspects were arrested for various crimes, ranging from armed robbery, vandalism, cattle rustling and rape.

He said the command recovered live ammunitions, guns, cars and cranes from the suspects.

He noted that the command will strengthen its police community relation policy, saying, we are going to talk to the communities, youth in order to ensure that citizens of the state are kept out of danger.
Cattle rearers and farmers in Ikole Ekiti on Thursday engaged themselves in a brain storming session to find a lasting solution to the incessant clashes between them occasioned by inappropriate grazing practices.

The workshop organized by CLEEN Foundation, a non-governmental organisation dedicated to peace and security in communities, provided the parties the opportunity to air their grievances and suggest ways to a lasting solution.

At the session, attended by traditional rulers and security agencies, it was noted that the resident Fulani herders were largely peaceful and controllable, but the travelling herdsmen, who migrate from neighbouring countries, were largely responsible for the destruction of farmlands.

The parties agreed, despite occasional high tempers, that the a joint volunteer vigilante group that would include the farmers, community residents and the Fulanis be created to check the activities of the marauding herdsmen.

It was also agreed that the registration of all the resident Fulani herdsmen with the traditional rulers in their respective community should be done in line with the provisions of the anti-grazing law now in force in Ekiti State.

The session also recommended that a monthly meeting between the herdsmen, the farmers, traditional rulers and the security agencies be initiated to continually track the nefarious activities of the herdsmen.

The Chairman of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association in Ekiti State, who gave his name as Masamu, said his association was committed to the registration of all its members to help identify criminals.

According to him, farmers should raise the alarm and notify him if they discover that cows had entered their farms, so that those responsible would be held accountable.

He said the association was prepared to ensure that what had happened in the past did not reoccur.

Also speaking, the Chairman of Oke-Ako Development Association, Ikole, Osasona Oduntan, said besides the talking, the anti-grazing law recently passed by the Ekiti House of Assembly and signed by the governor should be enforced to the letter.

PREMIUM TIMES recalls that it was in Oke-Ako that herdsmen attacked and killed some people last year, prompting the reaction of the government to enact the anti-grazing law. The law, among others, forbids herdsmen to lead out their cattle for grazing between 6 p.m. and 7 a.m.

The law also restricts grazing to designated areas.

We went back to agriculture because we have no jobs after graduation, Mr. Oduntan said.

I am a graduate of international relations, but with the destruction of our farms by the cattle rearers, we are like thrown back to the unemployment market.

Delivering a lecture on Conflict Management Skills to Promoting Peaceful Co-existence, Olutoyin Falade said a synergy between the Fulani herdsmen, the farmers and other stakeholders would help to stem the tide of farmers/herders conflict in the area.

She noted that with the desertification in northern Nigeria, herdsmen were bound to move south for needed pasture to feed their cattle.

Ms. Falade said it must be admitted that the herdsmen had the constitutional right to move around the country, but the farmers must be willing to work with the herdsmen in order to work out a formula that would ensure peace in the local governments.

She urged the parties to work closely with the traditional rulers and the police to give force to the panned efforts to eradicate the destructive grazing of farmlands and the attendant violence associated with it.

Some of the traditional rulers who attended the workshop painted a gory picture of the menace of herdsmen in their domain, saying the problem had become intractable.

They lamented the uncooperative attitude of some of the herdsmen and their lack of commitment when accused of destroying farms.

The police Area Commander at Ikole, Monday Agbonika, said the Ikole Local Government is being used as a pilot to set the modalities for peaceful resolution of conflicts arising from indiscriminate grazing.

He said the recommendations arising from the workshop would be worked out and the structures established with the collaboration of all stakeholders.

He promised to ensure that the programmes outlined for dealing with the problem, including the training of volunteers to police the community, would be promptly and strictly pursued.

Speaking earlier, the Executive Director of CLEEN Foundation, who was represented by the Programme Officer, Ebere Mbaegbu, said there had been increase in clashes between herdsmen and farmers, resulting in killings, rapes, destruction of properties, armed robbery and communal violence.

He said there was need for proactive steps to be taken given the new dimension that the conflict had assumed.

He recognised the efforts of state governments at resolving the issues, but said there was room for improvement.

Improving communication between the cattle rearers and developing more accountability mechanisms are some of the key aspects of peace building that need to be strengthened by stakeholders, he said.

The Chairman of Ikole Local Government Council, Peter Samuel, promised that committees would be set up in the different communities to help coordinate and handle issues relating to conflicts between the farmers and the herdsmen.

He said the committees would liaise with the traditional rulers, who would have the data of all the Fulani herdsmen living in their communities, and the police to ensure the peace was sustained.
Students of the Ladoka Akintola University of Technology, LAUTECH, on Friday took to the streets to protest the lingering strike action by teaching and non-teaching staff in the institution.

The strike action, which started over six months ago in June was embarked upon by the workers due to the non-payment of their salaries and allowances by the owners of the university, the Oyo and Osun state governments.

The strike action has led to total inactivity in the university.

Fridays protest by the students later turned rowdy as police tried to disperse protesters.

The protest, held in front of the LAUTECH College of Health, later witnessed police officers firing shots to disperse the students.

Speaking to PREMIUM TIMES, a student of the school who begged to remain anonymous said We have been on strike since June. There have been several protests held but nothing was done; so students decided to go on a peaceful protest (today).

Police came and started shooting at students and they have started arresting students, he added.

There is no evidence yet that any of the protesting students sustained gunshot injuries.
The Supreme Court on Friday ordered the payment of N3.3 billion to local government chairmen and councillors who were relieved of their duties by former Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the former governor, now the Minister of Solid Minerals, had in 2010 during his assumption into office as governor relieved the appellants of their duties 15 months into the end of their tenures.

Mr. Fayemi had appointed caretaker committee into his government to carry out most of the functions that the local government chairmen and councillors would have done.

In a unanimous judgment read by Justice Chima Nweze, the Supreme Court held that the sack by Mr. Fayemi was illegal and unconstitutional.

Mr. Nweze ordered that the chairmen, who were unlawfully removed by the governor, be paid their salaries and other allowances for the period they were unlawfully removed from office.

Speaking outside the court, Wole Ayeni, former Chairman, Ikole Local Government and Ogunbiyi Olasunkanmi-Synergy commended the court for the good judgment.

According to them, the judiciary has come to life since this matter started many years ago.

They, therefore, commended the judiciary as the last hope of the common man.

(NAN)
Pamela White, whose son Phillip died in March 2015 in the custody of Vineland police, did not receive closure when a Cumberland County grand jury decided in June not to indict the two officers involved.

White and her pastor, the Rev. James A. Dunkins of Shiloh Baptist Church in Vineland and the Concerned Men of South Jersey group, want to know what happened to her son, and they have ideas on how to manage police-resident altercations in the future.

I just dont understand, if they dont have anything to hide and if the facts are there, why they wont release anything to the family, White said Friday.

White, her attorney Stanley King of King & King in Woodbury, Gloucester County, and the mens group held a news conference Thursday to bring awareness to the lack of cooperation they said they are receiving from the Cumberland County Prosecutors Office.

Phillip White, 32, of Vineland, died in police custody en route to a hospital after he was subdued with the aid of a police K-9 and arrested by city police officers responding to a report of a disorderly person in the 100 block of West Grape Street.

An autopsy by the state medical examiner called the cause of death PCP intoxication and the manner of death accidental, according to a statement by the Prosecutors Office.

The decision not to indict the officers followed the presentation June 8 of evidence that included witness interviews, an analysis of forensic evidence and a review of cellphone videos taken by civilians at the scene, Cumberland County First Assistant Prosecutor Harold Shapiro said.

Since that decision, family members have been trying to obtain information from the prosecutors office, particularly the autopsy report, but they have not received anything, White and Dunkins said. Last month, the family filed a civil lawsuit against the city of Vineland, the police chief and police officers.

While White waits for more answers, she has to spend another holiday season without her oldest son.

He was like any other son. If I needed him, he came, she said. He was my friend, my son. He was very gentle and kind.

Since her sons death, Dunkins and her fellow Shiloh Baptist Church members have been there for her  whether it was a shoulder to cry on or financial support, White said. All the holidays have been bad since her sons death, because he used to spend them with her, she said.

Its very difficult to live my life without him, she said.

Supporting White during Thursdays news conference was a group of 55 people, which included her younger son, Paige Alexander Waugh, 26, of Vineland, and Wayne Alexander Waugh, who helped raise Phillip White.

White said she would like more information about what happened to her son before the new year.

In the nearly two years since Phillip Whites death, the mental stress has caused his mother to be physically ill, Dunkins said.

Dunkins said White made it through Thanksgiving, but part of the reason the news conference was held Thursday was to give her a better Christmas, by letting her see that other people care.

The release of the autopsy to the family would show whether his physical altercation with the officers played any role in his death and whether he had enough PCP in his system to kill him, Dunkins said.

There also was a concern that the 15-month period between Whites death and the grand jury decision was part of a strategy in cases like this, Dunkins said.

Let it die down, out of sight and out of mind, Dunkins said Friday.

Requests also were made during the news conference to establish a community liaison board to meet with police and prosecutors to discuss how to calm the community in these types of cases, and for an independent prosecutor to be involved in cases that could divide the community.

During the news conference, White thanked everyone for attending.

It helps me have hope that we can find the truth about my son, she said.
Atlantic County Republicans have formed an exploratory committee to gauge the feasibility of a 2017 state Senate campaign for Assemblyman Chris Brown.

Egg Harbor Township Mayor Sonny McCullough announced the committees creation Thursday in a news release. Brown, R-Atlantic, would challenge Sen. Jim Whelan, D-Atlantic, in the 2nd Legislative District if he enters the race.

Atlantic County is at a crossroads, and families are looking for independent, smart leadership to represent us in Trenton, McCullough, a former state senator, said in a statement. Based on Chris distinguished and unrelenting battle to defeat North Jersey casinos, his opposition to the gas tax increase and his courage to stand up for the people of Atlantic County, even if it meant going against Gov. Christie, I believe Chris Brown should be our next state senator.

The committee includes U.S. Rep. Frank LoBiondo, former Assemblymen Ed Kline and Ken LeFevre, Atlantic County Executive Dennis Levinson, Freeholder Chairman Frank Formica, Sheriff Frank Balles and County Republican Chairman Keith Davis, the statement said.

Brown calls on Christie to overturn $225,000 CRDA severance package ATLANTIC CITY  Assemblyman Chris Brown called on Gov. Chris Christie Wednesday to overturn 

The committee will reach out to community leaders and groups and will conduct polls to measure support for a Brown candidacy, the statement said.

Brown said he was flattered people are considering him for Senate, but right now I am focused on doing the best job I can for our Atlantic County families as their assemblyman.

Atlantic County Democratic Committee Chairman Michael Suleiman said he wasnt surprised by the committees formation.

Its no surprise to anyone that Chris Brown is seeking the Senate seat, and it is laughable that a so-called exploratory committee was formed by the Atlantic County Republican establishment. Sounds like the fix is already in to me, Suleiman said in a statement. Atlantic County residents have been through enough. The last thing they need is another politician willing to do or say anything to get elected.

Fight over expanding gaming is set to continue ATLANTIC CITY  The resorts seven remaining casinos may have dodged a bullet when voters re

Under state law, the committee would have to disclose any money it raises or spends, said Jeff Brindle, executive director of the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission.

Brown, a combat veteran and former judge, has served in the Assembly since 2012. He was the top vote-getter in the 2015 Assembly race, despite being outspent nearly 4 to 1 by his opponents.
UPPER DEERFIELD TOWNSHIP  Alice Yamasakis journey to the Seabrook section of the township was sad and tragic, but it ended with something she said her family may not have gotten in other parts of the country  acceptance.

Yamasakis farming family was one of many Japanese-American families forced by the U.S. government into internment camps after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the countrys entry into World War II.

The family remained in a California camp until 1946, when it moved to New Jersey so Yamasakis father could work in a Camden County orchard. A highway project eventually claimed much of the orchard, leaving her father out of work and the family wondering about its future.

Then we heard about Seabrook, the now-85-year-old Yamasaki said.

The family moved to Seabrook in 1948. They became part of the estimated 2,500 Japanese-Americans  many of them from internment camps  who moved to the area during and right after World War II to work in the fields and processing plants of Seabrook Farms.

Yamasakis family never left, and four generations of her family still call the Seabrook area home. Many other Japanese-American families opted to settle in the area, too, and many of their descendants still live in or near the community.

The people here were very friendly, Yamasaki said of the South Jersey residents who greeted the Japanese-Americans who arrived at Seabrook. They didnt do anything towards us. We didnt have any bad feelings.

The saga of the Japanese-American migration to Seabrook caused by the war is one that is overlooked and little known, even in South Jersey, said Beverly Bradway, director of the Seabrook Educational and Cultural Center. Part of that can be attributed to the Japanese-Americans themselves, she said.

Some families talk to their children about what happened, Bradway said. They wanted them to understand that this was part of their lives, and it was unfortunate, but they were going to keep their chin up and be successful.

I see other (families) who deliberately do not talk to their children about the experience because they just want to move forward, she said. They have nothing to be ashamed of, really.

More than 100,000 Japanese-Americans underwent forced relocation to internment camps under an order signed by President Franklin Roosevelt in February 1942. The order, eventually upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, followed a general fear in the country that Japanese-Americans, although citizens, would aid the Japanese war effort. The majority of the camps were out west, with most in California, which had a significant Japanese-American population

Japanese-Americans began moving to Seabrook in 1944 when Charles Seabrook needed to solve a labor shortage at what would become the worlds largest irrigated truck farm. The Japanese-Americans came from the internment camps with the cooperation of the federal government and help from the Society of Friends.

Albert and May Ikeda lost their California farm and wound up selling most of their possessions at a decent price to a neighbor when they were interned in a camp in Arizona, said their granddaughter, Stefanie Pierce. The couple and their children left the camp in 1944, she said.

They had nowhere to go, she said.

The Ikedas and their five children wound up in Seabrook, moving into company housing that was supposed to be temporary, Pierce said.

It was terrible, Pierce said. Dusty and not very warm.

Pierce said her grandparents worked in the fields and the processing plant at Seabrook Farms and, at first, everything was great. Then the company began to grow, she said. New managerial positions were given to white people, even though many of the Japanese-Americans were qualified to hold those jobs, she said.

They were disgruntled, Pierce said.

But the people who worked at Seabrook Farms all got along, she said.

That was likely because the company was a melting pot for many different nationalities, including Italians, Jamaicans and Russians, Bradway said. Each of the different nationality groups had its own sort of village around Seabrook, she said.

These people worked shoulder to shoulder in the factory and the fields with each other, she said. They had to get along or they wouldnt have those jobs. That was an incentive.

Pierce said her family remained in the Seabrook area, with members making a living at a sewing company and the former Owens Illinois plant in Bridgeton. Pierce, 49, who lives in neighboring Deerfield Township, said the family assimilated into South Jersey.

My mother was the least Japanese person I know, Pierce said.

But Pierce is working to keep the history of the Japanese-American experience at Seabrook alive. Shes a trustee at the Seabrook Educational and Cultural Center and performs traditional Japanese folk dancing, practicing at the Seabrook Buddhist Temple.

Pierces efforts to explain and educate people about the Japanese-American experience in the internment camps and Seabrook is certainly different from those of her grandparents.

My grandparents never talked about it, she said. Persevere, they said, mouth shut, head down.

Bradway said the center especially likes to tell students about the Japanese-American experience at Seabrook. That includes having Japanese-Americans who came to Seabrook speak with students, she said.

But theres a problem facing that program  age is catching up with some of those long-time residents, she said.

Its not going to be that way in another 10 years, Bradway said.
In the face of a deadly heroin epidemic, a state lawmaker is calling on all law-enforcement officers in Atlantic County to carry the opiate antidote naloxone to help save lives.

Drug arrests in the county increased by 35 percent in the first six months of 2016 compared to the same period of 2015, according to a Drug Monitoring Initiative report.

The report states naloxone was administered 718 times between January 2015 and June 2016, with most instances occurring during the first six months of this year. Of those administrations, 634 were performed by emergency medical service personnel, while 84 were performed by law enforcement.

Deactivation pouches aim to take opioids out of the home VINELAND  There is a new way to dispose of unused prescription medications, and it doesnt 

Naloxone, commonly sold under the brand name Narcan, blocks opioid drugs from interacting with brain receptors and works against dangerous side effects  including coma and death  during an overdose.

The method of responding to overdose calls varies among municipalities across the county. But Assemblyman Vince Mazzeo is calling on acting Atlantic County Prosecutor Diane Ruberton to consider issuing a directive that all local police officers carry the life-saving drug while on duty.

Every single police officer in our county should be carrying Narcan, Mazzeo stated in the letter. At its low cost of $37.50/dose  this low cost measure to save lives is not only completely warranted, but essential.

As the countys chief law-enforcement officer, Ruberton has the authority to issue directives to local police departments. However, Ruberton said in a statement she thinks it is better to leave it to each department to decide how to carry Narcan.

The Atlantic County Prosecutors Office supports the use of Narcan by law-enforcement responders and has authorized the use of forfeiture funds by local law-enforcement agencies for the acquisition of Narcan, Ruberton said in the statement. This office has left it to each agency to determine when and how to implement the use of Narcan, based upon their available resources.

Every municipality in the county has responders who administer naloxone. Some municipalities  such as Egg Harbor Township and Absecon  have EMS personnel handle the drug instead of police officers.

Absecon Mayor John Armstrong said EMTs have the same response time as police when there is an overdose call.

If there was a lapse in the response time, we would certainly look to change our policy, he said. But Ive been told that the response time is the same.

One issue with equipping every police officer with naloxone is cost. The price of the drug has risen in recent years, but the state has renewed an agreement with Amphastar Pharmaceuticals to sell naloxone at a discounted price through a rebate program to police departments and first responders.

New Jersey became the third state to enter an agreement with the California-based pharmaceutical company when the deal was reached in 2015.

In addition to urging officers to carry naloxone, Mazzeo is sponsoring a bill that would put the drug in every high school in the state. Mazzeo chief of staff Marshall Spevak said he has been in contact with Adapt Pharma, a company that has offered to give a free carton of Narcan to any high school in the country that has requested it through the state education departments.

To get to the root problem of addiction, however, Spevak said the assemblyman and the state Legislature are continuing to work to strengthen the Prescription Monitoring Program.

For many, opioid/heroin addiction begins with a simple painkiller prescription from their doctor from some sort of injury or ailment, Spevak said.
PEMBERTON TOWNSHIP  The Pinelands Commission voted unanimously Friday to hold another public hearing and vote on whether a proposed South Jersey Gas pipeline meets its rules.

The commission could have tried to appeal a Nov. 7 state appellate panel decision that threw the fate of the pipeline back to its 15 commissioners, but after a closed session with Helene Chudzik of the state Attorney Generals Office decided against it.

The commission meeting was packed with people on both sides of the issue but dominated by pipeline opponents. It was the first meeting since the court decision.

A special meeting has been set for 9:30 a.m. Jan. 24 at the Ocean Acres Community Center at 489 Nautilus Drive in the Manahawkin section of Stafford Township, and the public-comment period will end at 5 p.m. that day, the commission announced on its website after the meeting.

Pinelands Commission keeping pipeline discussion under wraps PEMBERTON TOWNSHIP  The South Jersey Gas pipeline application is not on the agenda for Frid

After taking comments from the public, commission staff will make a recommendation to commissioners, who may vote on whether the pipeline should proceed at their February meeting.

There were not enough seats at Fridays meeting for those who showed up. Dozens of people had to stand in the lobby, and many had asked the commission to find a larger place to hold the hearing.

Pipeline opponents were angry the commissions agenda, made available on its website before the meeting, did not mention anything about the pipeline and did not give the public notice that action on it might be taken.

They also complained the commission did not take any public comment before voting on the resolution.

South Jersey Gas wants to build a 22-mile pipeline from Maurice River Township to the B.L. England Generating Station in the Beesleys Point section of Upper Township so the plant can convert from coal and oil to natural gas.

The pipeline would travel along roadsides through about 10 miles of protected Pinelands Forest Area, which is why it needs permission from the commission to proceed.

South Jersey Gas pipeline approval on hold, court says The fate of the South Jersey Gas pipeline is on hold, after a state Appellate Court decision

Commission Executive Director Nancy Wittenberg had unilaterally decided South Jersey Gas application met the commissions rules and could proceed last year, but environmental groups sued, challenging her right to do that.

A three-judge appellate panel agreed, saying the authority rests with the commissioners.

The commissioners on Friday also voted unanimously for a similar resolution on a second pipeline proposed for the northern part of the Pinelands by New Jersey Natural Gas. Wittenberg had given it the right to proceed as well, and her decision on that was also challenged in court.

Pipeline supporters who attended Fridays meeting, including representatives of several unions and two plant workers, said building it will provide needed jobs and protect the jobs of those who run the plant.

The plant will have to close if it cannot convert to natural gas.

The commissioners voted against allowing the project to proceed as a public development in 2014, then the gas company came back with an application as a private development in 2015.

Wittenberg decided the private development met the requirements of the commissions Comprehensive Management Plan and didnt need to be voted on by the commissioners, clearing the way for approval by the state Board of Public Utilities.

The Sierra Club of New Jersey, Environment New Jersey and the Pinelands Preservation Alliance then filed lawsuits.

Several on the commission today were not there for the first round of public input and for the January 2014 vote that narrowly went against the pipeline.

Giuseppe Joe Chila, a Gloucester County freeholder, joined the commission as Gloucester Countys representative in January, after former commissioner from the county Francis Witt retired.

Witt had voted in favor of the pipeline.

After the January 2014 no vote, two commissioners who voted against the pipeline were replaced by Gov. Chris Christie or by the county that made the appointment.

Great benefits of converting B.L. England remain through years of delays The many advantages to South Jersey of converting the B.L. England power plant to natural ga

Cumberland County freeholders replaced longtime commissioner Leslie Ficcaglia, of Port Elizabeth, with real estate professional Jane Jannarone, of Vineland.

Christie replaced Robert Jackson, of Middle Township, with Bob Barr, of Ocean City.

And the U.S. Secretary of the Interiors appointee to the commission, Joseph DiBello, is retiring next month. He is superintendent of the National Park Services Washington Rochambeau Revolutionary Route National Historic Trail and voted no on the pipeline in 2014.
CAPE MAY  City Manager Bruce MacLeod is set to retire at the end of the year, and the citys next mayor said finding his replacement will be one of the new City Councils top priorities.

MacLeod has filed papers to retire after his contract expires Dec. 31, according to Deputy City Clerk Patricia Harbora.

Clarence Chuck Lear, who defeated incumbent Mayor Ed Mahaney in a landslide on election day, said hiring a new city manager could take four to five months.

Cape May's next mayor looks forward after landslide victory CAPE MAY  The citys next mayor said Wednesday he doesnt plan to interfere in a police chi

We want to get together, as soon as we take office, to start the search process, said Lear, who will be sworn in Jan. 1.

In the meantime, an interim city manager will be appointed, and its likely to be someone who already works in City Hall, Lear said.

The city manager is appointed by council and is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations of the city, which has a budget of more than $17 million.

MacLeod, a city official for more than 30 years, was appointed manager in 2008. He is also the citys tax collector.

The role of the city manager became a controversial topic in this years council race.

At a candidate forum in September, Tricia Hendricks criticized Mahaney, saying the mayor overstepped his authority under the Faulkner Act.

Under the Faulkner Act, the city manager is the municipalitys executive, and the mayor is a member of the council with more ceremonial duties.

Mahaney denied the allegation.

Hendricks won the race to replace Deputy Mayor Terry L. Swain, who is stepping down from council.

MacLeod did not respond to requests for comment, and it is unclear whether his retirement had anything to do with the results of the election.

Im going to be as true to the form of government we have here, said Lear, who has never held public office. Ill be learning that anew.

City Clerk Louise F. Cummiskey is also retiring at the end of the year, Harbora said.
WOODLAND TOWNSHIP  At the age of 70, when most people are well into retirement, Marilyn Schmidt decided to save a historic Pinelands landmark that had fallen on hard times.

Shes 87 now and still has the mental energy that allowed her to faithfully restore Buzbys General Store and run it as a cafe and Pinelands resource center.

But after battling a brain tumor a few years ago and a heart condition that put her in the hospital last summer, shes closed the doors of the 151-year-old building thats been up for sale for a few years.

Its so damned annoying. My mind wants to do things, but my body doesnt respond, said Schmidt, waving her hand at the walker she uses to get around her high-ceilinged apartment above the Chatsworth store.

For much of its long life, Buzbys was a lifeline for isolated Pinelands residents. John McPhees classic 1968 book, The Pine Barrens, featured scenes in the store, which made it famous.

McPhee, a New Yorker writer and Princeton University professor, wrote about the unique culture, flora and fauna of the Pinelands and described Buzbys as the gathering place in the Capital of the Pines. Some of his reporting was done from a pine plank atop an old radiator in the store.

The book has been credited with starting momentum to preserve 1.1 million acres of New Jersey forest, resulting in the establishment of the Pinelands National Reserve in 1978 and the state Pinelands Commission, which regulates land use there, in 1979.

And while that cast Buzbys in the role of a Pinelands must-see, it didnt translate into financial success for its series of owners in the 1970s and 80s. Modern life and competing businesses made the store less central to peoples lives.

The building had been vacant almost a decade when Schmidt bought it. Bats had colonized it, and teenagers partied there.

The neighbors expected it to burn, said Schmidt of the store and living quarters, which had been built in 1865 at the close of the Civil War.

Schmidt was retired from her career as a pharmacologist with major drug companies, living in the home she had built in Barnegat Light and enjoying a writing and publishing career and a few years as Barnegat Lights tax assessor.

She developed an interest in the store after eating breakfast there during Chatsworths annual Cranberry Festivals, held during the fall harvest in October. It led to her decision to buy the building in 1996, after she couldnt convince friends to buy it.

She spent two years getting clear title to the property through foreclosure and another year renovating it, she said.

Dozens of 30-cubic-yard Dumpsters of trash and debris went out, but the original wood-and-glass candy counter and other mementos from its history stayed.

The renovation included removing underground oil tanks on the property, old kerosene tanks in the basement and asbestos shingles that had to be properly handled.

It also included getting rid of about two feet of bat guano under the attic door on the second floor. Schmidt postponed working on the roof until the baby bats were old enough to fly, she said.

The work appealed to two of Schmidts interests: the Pinelands and local history. Schmidt, whos written more than 60 books, had already published Exploring the Pine Barrens of New Jersey: A Guide and a detailed companion map.

Accounting for everything

Regardless of the buildings future, the stores history lives on in the special collections room at Stockton Universitys Richard E. Bjork library.

Schmidt donated written records and photos of the store, the bulk from the 1880s through the 1930s, to the library. The records show how residents used it as their bank, community gathering place, shipping contractor and store for generations.

The store was built by the Wade family and simply called Chatsworth General Store for its first 30-some years, then purchased by the Buzby family, who ran it during its heyday as the center of commerce and social life for Pinelands residents from 1897 to 1966.

For most of that time, it was the only store in a 10-mile radius, which was an even longer way to go in the old days when many people still used horse-drawn transportation.

Teachers got paid at Buzbys, as school vouchers show. The store owners got reimbursed by the school district.

On Dec. 2, 1897, Buzbys paid Viola M. Hankins $35 for a months work as a teacher in Woodland Township.

There is a whole range of these, said Tom Kinsella, a Stockton English professor and director of Stocktons South Jersey Culture and History Center showing stacks of similar payment slips.

There is the 1891-92 ledger showing people buying on account.

On one day in 1891, Charles Applegate bought a roast beef and West Thompson bought sugar, envelopes, tobacco and apples. Like the countless others buying at the store, the cost of the purchases was added to their running bill.

People would sometimes barter, Kinsella said, paying off parts of their accounts with blueberries or other homegrown produce.

Others bought kerosene, flour, boots, ammunition  almost anything they needed, they got there.

The store was buying 500 pounds of flour at a time, and a lot of pickles, said Kinsella. A lot of pickles must have been sold at Buzbys.

And there are the records of Buzbys sending out crates and crates of cranberries and blueberries via the Central Railroad of New Jersey that ran through town.

Occasionally there was a complaint.

Received your crates of cranberries at 5 cents a crate, read a postcard from a company dated Aug. 28, 1902, referring to 32 crates of the fruit. The handles were poor and the crates not full.

Past and future

The stores rich history and its status as a social meeting place were what drew McPhee to spend days there sitting on the radiator soaking up the scene and talking to old-timers.

Schmidt said McPhee visited the store once since she has owned it, but she wasnt there at the time. Others told her he mainly wanted to see the radiator and pine plank covering where he sat interviewing old-timers while researching his book in the 1960s.

But it had been removed in the renovation, when she put in modern heating and cooling with a geothermal system, she said. A friend whod learned of the story found a replacement radiator, complete with a pine plank cut for the seat, Schmidt said.

The timing to close Buzbys seemed right this fall. Last month she finished writing a short book, The Rebirth of Buzbys, Chatsworth General Store, which details her yearlong transformation of the old store from a ramshackle embarrassment to a destination for school trips and Pinelands history buffs.

She also succeeded in getting the store on both the national and New Jersey registers of historic places.

And despite having to sell, she has high hopes for its future, especially if the new owner reopens the cafe.

For everything that has changed in the Pinelands and the surrounding community, one thing has remained constant.

You have to go eight miles for a cup of coffee around here, she said.
Perhaps some readers thought it odd last month when the state Assembly approved a bill to prevent child marriages. Many believe thats a Third World problem, prevalent in places such as the Middle East and Africa.

Shockingly, child marriages not only happen frequently in New Jersey and other states, but no U.S. state fully prohibits them, and the U.S. government is one of the few nations resisting ratification of international conventions to prevent child marriages.

From 1995 to 2012, there were 3,481 children married in New Jersey, according to the N.J. Center for Health Statistics. Of those, 163 were between the ages of 13 and 15. As is typical globally, 90 percent of the children married were girls  and 90 percent of the children were married to adults.

Child marriages happen despite N.J. law requiring people to be 18 before marrying because two exceptions are allowed. If the parents of the child consent, children 16 or 17 may marry, even though there is no procedure to ensure parents arent coercing the child to marry. If a family requests and gets a judges approval, children 15 and younger may marry. Judges arent even instructed not to approve marriages in cases where the age or age difference would otherwise merit a charge of statutory rape.

Such allowed exceptions are the rule for U.S. states. In Massachusetts and Virginia, exceptions arent needed, since there isnt even a minimum age for marriage.

Parents give a variety of reasons for child marriages, including controlling sexual behavior, protecting the familys honor, and improving the familys economic and social status. More than 700 million women in the world today  1 in 4  were married as children, with 250 million wed before age 15.

When the United Nations this year announced an initiative to end child marriage by 2030, it documented the practices resulting increase in vulnerability to violence, maternal mortality, HIV AIDS and poverty among women and girls.

The international fight against child marriages led to two agreements to limit marriage to those 18 and older who fully and freely consent  the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Although the U.S. officially considers marriage before age 18 a human-rights abuse, the United States is among just a few nations failing to ratify these conventions.

The bill that passed the Assembly on Nov. 21 would make New Jersey the first state in the nation to eliminate all marriage before 18. It passed 64 to 0, with 34 sponsors and cosponsors.

The Senate should do likewise and Gov. Chris Christie should sign it into law. And the U.S. should go beyond posturing and add its support to eliminating the abuse of child marriage.
For the New World Order, a world government is just the beginning. Once in place they can engage their plan to exterminate 80% of the world's population, while enabling the "elites" to live forever with the aid of advanced technology. For the first time, crusading filmmaker ALEX JONES reveals their secret plan for humanity's extermination: Operation ENDGAME.

Jones chronicles the history of the global elite's bloody rise to power and reveals how they have funded dictators and financed the bloodiest warscreating order out of chaos to pave the way for the first true world empire.

Watch as Jones and his team track the elusive Bilderberg Group to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world's agenda and instigating World War III.





to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world's agenda and instigating World War III. Learn about the formation of the North America transportation control grid, which will end U.S. sovereignty forever.





Discover how the practitioners of the pseudo-science eugenics have taken control of governments worldwide as a means to carry out depopulation.





View the progress of the coming collapse of the United States and the formation of the North American Union.

Never before has a documentary assembled all the pieces of the globalists' dark agenda. Endgame's compelling look at past atrocities committed by those attempting to steer the future delivers information that the controlling media has meticulously censored for over 60 years. It fully reveals the elite's program to dominate the earth and carry out the wicked plan in all of human history.

Endgame is not conspiracy theory, it is documented fact in the elite's own words.




PUNE,India, December 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

According to the new market research report on the "Accelerometer and Gyroscope Market by Accelerometer Type (MEMS, Piezoelectric, and Piezoresistive), Gyroscope Type (MEMS, FOG, RLG, HRG, and DTG), Dimension (1, 2, and 3 Axis), Application (Low End and High End), and Geography - Global Forecast to 2022", published by MarketsandMarkets, the market is expected to reach USD 3.50 Billion by 2022. The high-end accelerometer and gyroscope market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 3.8% between 2016 and 2022, to reach USD 2.07 Billion by 2022 from USD 1.59 Billion in 2015.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160303/792302 )



Browse 69 market data Tables and 75 Figures spread through 182 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Accelerometer and Gyroscope Market"

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/accelerometer-gyroscope-market-205126447.html

Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report.

The high-end accelerometer and gyroscope market is majorly driven by the increasing defense expenditure globally; whereas, the overall market is driven by factors such as the huge demand from the consumer electronics industry; stringent government regulations for the automotive industry; the emergence of efficient, economic, and compact MEMS technology; growing adoption of automation in industries and homes; and rising demand from emerging economies.

MEMS accelerometers and gyroscopes are expected to witness the highest growth rate for high-end applications

The MEMS accelerometer and gyroscope market for the high-end applications is expected to grow at the highest rate between 2016 and 2022. This is mainly due to the growing deployment of these sensors in remotely operated vehicles, aerospace, industrial and defense sectors. MEMS accelerometers are replacing traditional accelerometers in these applications owing to the benefits of low cost, small size, and high power efficiency.

3-axis accelerometers and gyroscopes expected to hold the largest share during the forecast period

3-axis accelerometers and gyroscopes held the largest share of the overall accelerometer and gyroscope market in 2015 and the same trend is expected to continue till 2022. This is because of the growing level of integration which is driving manufacturers to integrate several functionalities in one system to reduce the number of components per device and to reduce the size and weight of the overall product, for which 3-axis devices are highly suitable.

Asia-Pacific (APAC) is the major consumer of accelerometers and gyroscopes

The APAC region is expected to hold the largest share of the global Accelerometer and Gyroscope Market in 2015. As APAC is emerging as the manufacturing hub for low-end applications such as automotive and consumer electronics, the accelerometer and gyroscope market to holds a comparatively large market share in the APAC region.

Inquiry Before Buying: http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Enquiry_Before_Buying.asp?id=205126447

The report also profiles the most promising players in the accelerometer and gyroscope market. The competitive landscape of the market is highly dynamic due to the presence of a large number of big and small players. The key players in the accelerometer and gyroscope market are Analog Devices Inc. (U.S.), Colibrys Ltd. (Switzerland), Fizoptika Corp. (Russia), Honeywell International, Inc. (U.S.), InnaLabs (Ireland), InvenSense, Inc. (U.S.), Kionix, Inc. (U.S.), KVH Industries, Inc. (U.S.), Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (Japan), Northrop Grumman LITEF GmbH (Germany), NXP Semiconductors N.V. (Netherlands), Robert Bosch GmbH (Germany), Sensonsor AS (Norway), STMicroelectronics N.V. (Switzerland), and Systron Donner Inertial (U.S.), among others.

Browse Related Reports

Motion Sensors Market by Motion Sensor Technology (Infrared, Ultrasonic, Microwave, Dual Technology & Tomographic), Embedded Sensor Type (Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Magnetometer & Combos Sensor), Application & Region - Global Forecast to 2020

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/Motion-Sensor-Market-614.html

IoT Sensors Market by Type (Pressure, Temperature, Humidity, Magnetometer, Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Inertial, Image), Network Technology (Wired & Wireless), Vertical (Consumer IoT, Commercial IoT, Industrial IoT), and Region - Global Forecast to 2022

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/sensors-iot-market-26520972.html

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About MarketsandMarkets

MarketsandMarkets is the largest market research firm worldwide in terms of annually published premium market research reports. Serving 1700 global fortune enterprises with more than 1200 premium studies in a year, M&M is catering to a multitude of clients across 8 different industrial verticals. We specialize in consulting assignments and business research across high growth markets, cutting edge technologies and newer applications. Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model - GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors.

M&M's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "RT" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets. The new included chapters on Methodology and Benchmarking presented with high quality analytical info graphics in our reports gives complete visibility of how the numbers have been arrived and defend the accuracy of the numbers.

We at MarketsandMarkets are inspired to help our clients grow by providing apt business insight with our huge market intelligence repository.

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SOURCE MarketsandMarkets
TEL AVIV, Israel and PARIS, December 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Personalized video ad platform also secures second-place position on Deloitte Israel Technology Fast 50 list

AnyClip, the world's first personalized, content-driven video advertising platform, has been ranked 14th on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 EMEA list, a ranking of the 500 fastest-growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences and energy tech companies in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). The honor is based on AnyClip's 5,141 percent revenue growth during the past four years.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160804/395634LOGO )



"As video advertising continues its path to dominance, we are confident in our ability to understand and personalize video content," said AnyClip's president and chief executive officer Gil Becker. "Bringing stakeholders experiences that are compelling, relevant and impactful will keep our company on this incredible trajectory."

"Innovation is more than technological advancement; it's also a state of mind," said Paul Sallomi, vice chairman, Deloitte LLP and global technology, media and telecommunications industry leader. "The winners of the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 program in EMEA recognize that this new type of thinking is essential for business success. We look forward to your continued leadership in introducing new tools that can enhance the personal lives of consumers and drive growth for companies worldwide."

AnyClip's placement on the Technology Fast 500 EMEA list follows the company's second-place position on the Deloitte Israel Technology Fast 50 list. In addition to the revenue growth rate recognized by Deloitte, AnyClip has significantly expanded its business globally over the past 4 years, bringing more relevant and engaging video ads to over 100 million unique users while driving billions of impressions for brands and agencies. To support this rapid growth, AnyClip also extended its corporate footprint in 2016, establishing offices in New York and London.

About AnyClip

AnyClip is the world's first personalized, content-driven video advertising platform. AnyClip identifies consumers and their preferences on the most relevant digital media and delivers them personalized, content-driven video ad experiences. This increased personalization creates deeper connections with audiences, increases ROI for brands and agencies, and opens new monetization opportunities for content owners and publishers. Founded in 2008, AnyClip is based in Tel Aviv with offices in New York and London, and is backed by Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP), Roman Abramovich, GTI Capital, and Limelight Networks. For more information, visit http://www.anyclip.com | @anyclip

About the Deloitte 2016 Technology Fast 500 EMEA program

The Deloitte Technology Fast 500 EMEA program is an objective industry ranking focused on the technology ecosystem. It recognizes technology companies that have achieved the fastest rates of revenue growth in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) during the past four years. The program is supported by the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 initiatives, which rank high-growth technology companies by location or specifically defined geographic area, and are run by the Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited's Technology, Media & Telecommunications (TMT) global industry group. More information on the program and prior year winners is available at http://www.deloitte.com/fast500emea.

Now in its sixteenth year, the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 EMEA program in 2016 included over 20 countries, including Belgium, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey and the UK. This year's winners were selected based on percentage fiscal-year revenue growth from 2012 to 2015.

In 2016, Deloitte Technology Fast 500 EMEA companies achieved revenue growth ranging from 212 percent to 28,126 percent from 2012 to 2015, with median growth of 967 percent.

About Deloitte

As used in this document, "Deloitte" refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a UK private company limited by guarantee ("DTTL"), its network of member firms, and their related entities. DTTL and each of its member firms are legally separate and independent entities. DTTL (also referred to as "Deloitte Global") does not provide services to clients. Please see http://www.deloitte.com/about to learn more about our global network of member firms.

Contact:

Ari Applbaum

AnyClip

aria@anyclip.com

+1-347-809-3314

+972-54-444-8654

Sherry Smith

Clarity PR

sherry@clarity.pr

+917-545-6493



SOURCE AnyClip
KIEV, Ukraine, December 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

DCH Group with its considerable experience of managing industrial assets (including those of chemical industry) has repeatedly expressed its interest in acquiring the shares of Odessa Port Plant PSC. In this connection it was decided to consider a possibility of participating in the enterprise's privatization tender set by the State Property Fund of Ukraine for October 14, 2016.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161208/447064 )

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161208/447065 )



On submitting an application and signing a confidentiality agreement with SPF and OPP DCH got access to information about the plant's activities including reports of consultants who had prepared the enterprise for its privatization. DCH together with PwC auditors held legal and financial auditing of Odessa Port Plant PSC.

DCH Group highly appreciates the work and efforts undertaken by the State Property Fund of Ukraine in order to prepare Odessa Port Plant PSC for the tender. Yet, while the analytical work was being done, we obtained additional information on financial and economic activities of the enterprise that was not mentioned in the text published in the official bulletin of the State Property Fund, the Privatization Details, No. 87 (1003) of October 31, 2016. This information is of great importance for the investor.

Namely, it was revealed that the actual accounts payable are not less than at $85 mln., their most pessimistic variant might exceed $350 mln. This practically increases the price of purchasing OPP for its prospective buyers to $550 mln. and more in comparison with the price of the enterprise's shares on sale at the moment. Besides, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine has warranted the enterprise's examination; enforcement proceedings were started on September 20, 2016, information on those can be found in the public record of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine.

To our deep regret the State Property Fund of Ukraine did not afford DCH representatives an opportunity to participate in the face-to-face negotiations on terms and conditions of acquiring OPP shares. As a result, our suggestions concerning controversial issues remained undiscussed, and the issues themselves remained open because their compromise solution was not developed.

Thus, the complete text of our 15 comments was sent to the State Property Fund of Ukraine in writing. Taking into account everything mentioned above, acquiring the shares of Odessa Port Plant PSC with its loss-making activities, a substantial volume of accounts payable and their constant increase, unsettled and vague situation in terms of vital issues of the enterprise's activities entails a high risk to DCH of losing its investment.

For this reason DCH Group has to withdraw from the tender for acquiring the enterprise's block of shares on conditions offered by the State Property Fund of Ukraine. At the same time DCH would like to stress its interest in future acquisition of OPP and its readiness to further cooperate on the issue.

SOURCE DCH
LONDON, December 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

External Defibrillators, Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators, Transvenous ICD, Subcutaneous ICD, Single-Chamber ICD, Dual-Chamber ICD, Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy Defibrillators (CRT-D), Manual External Defibrillators, Automated External Defibrillators, Wearable Cardioverter Defibrillators

The global defibrillators market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.3% from 2016-2020 and CAGR of 5.1% from 2020-2026. The market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.2% from 2016 to 2026. The market is estimated at $9.84bn in 2016, $12.07bn in 2020, and $16.29bn in 2026.

How this report will benefit you

Read on to discover how you can exploit the future business opportunities emerging in this sector.

In this brand new report you find 180-page report you will receive 75 tables and 93 charts- all unavailable elsewhere.

The 180 page report provides clear detailed insight into the global defibrillators market. Discover the key drivers and challenges affecting the market.

By ordering and reading our brand new report today you stay better informed and ready to act.

To see a report overview please email Sara Peerun on sara.peerun@visiongainglobal.com

Report Scope

 Global Defibrillators Market forecast 2017-2026

 Global Defibrillators National Market forecast 2017-2026, covering:

- North America:

 US

 Canada



- Europe:

 Germany

 UK

 France

 Spain

 Italy

 Rest of Europe



- Asia-Pacific:

 Japan

 China

 India

 Rest of Asia-Pacific



- Rest of the World:

 Latin America

 Middle East

 Africa

 Global Defibrillators submarket forecasts, by product, 2017-2026:

- Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators (ICDs)

 Transvenous ICDs (T-ICDs):

- Single-Chamber ICDs

- Dual-Chamber ICDs

- Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy Defibrillators (CRT-Ds)

 Subcutaneous ICDs (S-ICDs)

- External Defibrillators

 Manual External Defibrillators

 Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs):

- Semi-Automated External Defibrillators

- Fully-Automated External Defibrillators

 Wearable Cardioverter Defibrillators (WCDs)

 Global Defibrillators submarket forecasts, by end user, 2017-2026

- Hospitals and Cardiac Centers

- Pre-hospital Services

- Public Access

- Home Care

- Other-End User

 Analysis of the key factors driving and restraining the growth of the defibrillators market from 2017-2026

 Assessment of selected leading companies, examining recent performance and outlooks:

- Medtronic PLC

- Boston Scientific Corporation

- Biotronik SE & Co. KG

- St Jude Medical

- LivaNova PLC

- Zoll Medical Corporation

- Physio Control Inc.

- Cardiac Science Corporation

- Nihon Kohden Corporation

- Phillips Healthcare

Visiongain's study is intended for anyone requiring commercial analyses for the Global Defibrillators Market and leading companies. You find data, trends and predictions.

Buy our report today Global Defibrillators Market Forecast 2017-2026: External Defibrillators, Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators, Transvenous ICD, Subcutaneous ICD, Single-Chamber ICD, Dual-Chamber ICD, Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy Defibrillators (CRT-D), Manual External Defibrillators, Automated External Defibrillators, Wearable Cardioverter Defibrillators.

To request a report overview of this report please emails Sara Peerun at sara.peerun@visiongainglobal.com or call Tel: +44 (0) 20 7336 6100

Or click on https://www.visiongain.com/Report/1758/Global-Defibrillators-Market-Forecast-2017-2026

List of Organisations and Companies Mentioned in the Report

ADS, Inc.

American Heart Association

Asahi Kasei Group Company

Aurora Resurgence

Badger State Sheriffs' Association

Barcelona City Council

Bavarian Red Cross

BIOTRONIK SE & Co. KG

Boston Scientific Corporation

British Red Cross

Cardiac Science Corporation

Cyberonics Inc.

Department of Education, UK

European Heart Rhythm Association

Groveland Fire Department

Heart Rhythm Society

HeartSine Technologies

Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare

Life-Assist, Inc.

Lippert Components, Inc.

LivaNova Plc

Medtronic Plc

Metrax GmbH

MicroPort Scientific

Mountain Rescue Association

National Health Service

Nihon Kohden Corporation

Philips Healthcare

Physio-Control, Inc.

Promega Srl.

Sand Holdco PLC

Sand Holdco Limited

Spacelabs Healthcare

St. Jude Medical, Inc.

Stryker Corporation

United Nations

United States Food and Drugs Administration

World Health Organization

World Heart Federation

ZOLL Medical Corporation

To see a report overview please email Sara Peerun on sara.peerun@visiongainglobal.com

SOURCE Visiongain Ltd
DUBLIN, Dec 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Subsea Systems Market - Global Forecast to 2021" report to their offering.

The subsea systems market is projected to reach USD 17.44 billion by 2021, growing at a CAGR of 2.02% from 2016 to 2021.

Subsea systems are used in offshore oil production where subsea production systems reduce costs associated with topside facilities, while subsea processing systems work as ideal solutions for enhanced oil recovery in matured offshore wells. Increasing deepwater drilling activities all around the globe is the major driver for the subsea systems market. Increasing oil discoveries in emerging economies such as Asia and Africa are other major drivers to this market. The growth in emerging economies is attributed to increasing capital expenditures in the countries such as, China, India, Nigeria, Angola, Ghana, and Equatorial Guinea. Kenya, Tanzania, and Mozambique also provide exciting market opportunities.

Europe is currently the largest market for subsea systems, followed by South America. The fastest growing market, however, is projected to be Africa, owing to continued deepwater exploration and production activities, particularly offshore Angola. New gas discoveries and field developments in East African waters, offshore Mozambique and Tanzania will also help propel growth in the African market.

Companies Mentioned:

Aker Solutions

Dril-Quip Inc.

FMC Technologies

GE Oil & Gas

Kongsberg Gruppen

National Oilwell Varco

Nexans SA

Oceaneering International, Inc.

Onesubsea

Parker Hannifin Corporation

Proserv Group Inc.

Subsea 7 SA

Technip

Twister BV

Vallourec

Key Topics Covered:

1 Introduction

2 Research Methodology

3 Executive Summary

4 Premium Insights

5 Market Overview

6 Subsea Systems Market, By Type

7 Subsea Production System Market, By Component

8 Subsea Processing System Market, By Technology

9 Subsea Systems Market, By Region

10 Competitive Landscape

11 Company Profiles

12 Appendix

For more information about this report visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/dcrjts/subsea_systems

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

press@researchandmarkets.com

For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900

U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

Related Links

http://www.researchandmarkets.com



SOURCE Research and Markets
HOUSTON, Texas, Dec. 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Mexico's energy market liberalisation has taken a step forward, with the first transparency on forward energy pricing published by ICIS.

Market participant EKTRIA, a subsidiary of Fisterra Energy, chose the ICIS Mexico Energy Report to publish the first power swap contract offers for Mexico's power market.

The offers provide Mexican and foreign energy companies with the first transparency on energy price valuations for forward delivery  a key factor in building liquidity and creating strong investment signals as the energy markets liberalise.

"We wanted to help the market gain some pricing transparency, and chose to work with the Mexico Energy Report because it's well regarded and seen as the leading source of information for the energy industry in Mexico," said Enrique Gimenez, Managing Director at Fisterra Energy. "The story has led to a lot of enquiries  everyone wants to learn about this market."

EKTRIA offers provide a forward curve of contracts for baseload swap volumes of between 1-20MW, depending on the product, to be traded on a bilateral basis over the counter for financial settlement.

The US dollar-denominated contracts will be based on the hourly national energy component of the local marginal price for the Sistema Interconectado Nacional power grid, published daily by grid and market operator CENACE on its website.

ICIS provides global pricing and market information on power, gas and the global liquefied natural gas (LNG) markets.

The ICIS Mexico Energy Report provides exclusive news and in-depth analysis on the latest projects, prices and legislation affecting the Mexican energy sector. The report is the first English-language publication to provide the insight that global businesses and investors need to evaluate opportunities in Mexico's emerging power and gas markets.

To learn more about the EKTRIA power swap contracts click here

More information on the ICIS Mexico Energy Report can be found here.

To learn about ICIS click here.

About ICIS

ICIS is the world's largest petrochemical market information provider and has fast-growing energy and fertilizer divisions. Our aim is to give companies in global commodities markets a competitive advantage by delivering trusted pricing data, high-value news, analysis and independent consulting, enabling our customers to make better-informed trading and planning decisions. We have more than 30 years' experience in providing pricing information, news, analysis and consulting to buyers, sellers and analysts.

With a global staff of more than 800, ICIS has employees based in Houston, Washington, New York, London, Montpellier, Dusseldorf, Karlsruhe, Milan, Mumbai, Singapore, Guangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai, Yantai, Tokyo and Perth. Some 350 of ICIS's staff are journalists engaged in reporting market prices and news, and ICIS is fully committed to upholding the highest journalistic principles of verification, corroboration and authentication. ICIS has a compliance framework that along with its methodologies and business processes adheres to the requirements of the IOSCO PRA Principles.

ICIS is a division of Reed Business Information, part of RELX Group.

About Reed Business Information

At Reed Business Information we provide information and online data services to business professionals worldwide. Customers have access to our high-value industry data, analytics, information and tools. Our strong global brands hold market-leading positions across a wide range of industry sectors including banking, petrochemicals and aviation where we help customers make key strategic decisions every day. RBI is part of RELX Group Plc, a leading global provider of data, information and solutions for professional customers.

About RELX Group:

RELX Group is a world-leading provider of information solutions for professional customers across industries. The group employs about 28,000 people of whom half are in North America. RELX PLC is the London Stock Exchange listed vehicle for holding shares in RELX Group. Shareholders in RELX PLC own a 52.9% economic interest in RELX Group. RELX NV is the Amsterdam Stock Exchange listed vehicle for holding shares in RELX Group. External shareholders in RELX NV own a 47.1% economic interest in RELX Group. The total market capitalisation of the two parent companies is approximately  27.1bn/31.8bn. Its shares are traded on the London, Amsterdam and New York Stock Exchanges using the following ticker symbols: London: REL; Amsterdam: REN; New York: RUK and ENL. www.relx.com

Further information about ICIS can be found at www.icis.com.

For further information about this release, please contact:

Amy Holland

Marketing Manager, ICIS

Email: amy.holland@icis.com

Direct: +1 (713) 525 2673

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160408/353056LOGO

Related Links

http://www.icis.com



SOURCE ICIS
DUBLIN, Dec 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --



Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Medical Robots - Global Strategic Business Report" report to their offering.

This report analyzes the worldwide markets for Medical Robots in US$ Million. The report provides separate comprehensive analytics for the US, Canada, Japan, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Rest of World.

Annual estimates and forecasts are provided for the period 2015 through 2022. Also, a six-year historic analysis is provided for these markets. Market data and analytics are derived from primary and secondary research.

The report profiles 56 companies including many key and niche players such as



Accuray, Inc. (US)

Aesynt Incorporated (US)

Epson Robots (US)

Hansen Medical, Inc. (US)

Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (US)

Mazor Robotics Ltd. ( Israel )

) Restoration Robotics Inc. (US)

RST Automation LLC (US)

Smith & Nephew Plc (UK)

Stryker Corporation (US)

Titan Medical, Inc. ( Canada )

Key Topics Covered:

1. Industry Overview



2. Market Trends And Forces



3. Product Overview



4. Product Innovations/Introductions



5. Recent Industry Activity



6. Focus On Select Global Players



7. Global Market Perspective



Total Companies Profiled: 56 (including Divisions/Subsidiaries 59)



The United States (28)

(28) Canada (4)

(4) Japan (7)

(7) Europe (14)

(14) - France (10

(10 - Germany (3)

(3) - The United Kingdom (4)

(4) - Spain (1)

(1) - Rest of Europe (5)

(5) Asia-Pacific (Excluding Japan) (6)

For more information about this report visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/zkvfft/medical_robots

Media Contact:

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

press@researchandmarkets.com



For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

Related Links

http://www.researchandmarkets.com



SOURCE Research and Markets
DUBLIN, Dec 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Mesenchymal Stem Cells - Global Strategic Business Report" report to their offering.

This report analyzes the worldwide markets for Mesenchymal Stem Cells in US$ Million. The report provides separate comprehensive analytics for the US, Canada, Japan, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Rest of World.

Annual estimates and forecasts are provided for the period 2015 through 2022. Market data and analytics are derived from primary and secondary research.



The report profiles 47 companies including many key and niche players such as



Cell Applications, Inc. (US)

Celprogen, Inc. (US)

Cyagen Biosciences, Inc. (US)

MilliporeSigma (US)

Genlantis, Inc. (US)

Thermo Fischer Scientific, Inc. (US)

Lonza Group ( Switzerland )

) Mesoblast Limited ( Australia )

) Neuromics (US)

Orthofix International N.V. ( Curacao )

) PromoCell GmbH ( Germany )

) R&D Systems, Inc. (US)

ScienCell Research Laboratories (US)

Stemcell Technologies Inc ( Canada )

) Stemedica Cell Technologies, Inc. (US)

Trevigen, Inc. (US)

Vericel Corporation (US)

Vitro Biopharma (US)



Key Topics Covered:



1. MARKET OVERVIEW



Mesenchymal Stem Cells Market on a Rapid Growth Path

Current and Future Analysis

The Present and Future of MSC Therapies

Select MSC-based Therapeutics

Mesenchymal Stem Cell Research

Top 10 Countries Conducting Mesenchymal Stem Cells-based ( MSCs) Clinical Trials 2015

MSCs are Being Explored for Several New Treatment Possibilities

Widespread Commercialization of 'Off-the-Shelf' MSCs to Become a Reality

Software Companies Endeavour to Cash in on the Boom

2. MARKET DRIVERS, TRENDS & ISSUES



Development of Regenerative Medicine Accelerates Demand for MSCs

Ageing Demographics to Drive Demand for Mesenchymal Stem Cell Therapies

Global Aging Population Statistics

Opportunity Indicators

Growing Prevalence of Chronic Diseases Propels Demand for Mesenchymal Stem Cells

Key Disease Statistics

Opportunity Indicators

Estimated Percentage Breakdown for Cardiovascular Disease, Ischemic Heart Disease, Stroke, and Others (includes corresponding Graph/Chart)

Growing Volume of Orthopedic Procedures: An Opportunity for the MSC Market

Adult Stem Cell Therapies on Growth Trajectory, as Controversies Continue to Haunt Embryonic Stem Cell Research

Adult Stem Cells and Embryonic Stem Cells

A Comparison

MSCs versus Embryonic or Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

MSC Therapies

Immune to Ethical Issues Applicable to Embryonic Stem Cells

MSCs

A Potential Vehicle for 'Targeted Drug Delivery'

Stem Cell Based Bone Grafts: Promising Growth Ahead

Loopholes Associated with In Vivo Properties Constrain Therapeutic Advancements

Major Challenges Confronting Mesenchymal Stem Cell Market

Allogeneic MSCs

Offering Promise in Immunosuppressive and Tissue Repair Therapy

Administration Route Determines the Effectiveness of MSCs

3. REVIEW OF SELECT MAJOR STEM CELL VARIANTS



Adult Stem Cells

A Low Risk Investment

Adult Stem Cells Garner More Investments for Research

Low Versatility

A Major Limiting Factor for Adult Stem Cells

Hematopoietic Stem Cells

Enjoying Enduring Success

Restraining Factors

Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

An Alternative to ESCs

A Peek into the Discovery of iPS

Drug Development

A Major Application for iPS

Use of iPS for Regenerative Medicine

Establishing iPS Cell Banks

Intractable and Congenital Disease Treatments

Embryonic Stem Cells to Transfigure Medicine

Ethical Issues and Technical Hurdles Bog Down hESC Research

Lack of Safety and Efficacy Data

A Key Concern

4. MESENCHYMAL STEM CELL RESEARCH BY APPLICATION



Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Orthopedics

MSC based Models for Orthopedic Repair

Delivery of MSCs to Regions Requiring Therapy

MSCs in the Treatment of Osteoarthritis

MSCs in the Treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis

MSCs in Cancer Treatment

MSCs in Hepatology

MSCs in Neurology

MSCs in Cardiology

MSCs in Radiotherapy

MSCs in the Treatment of Diabetes

MSCs in the Treatment of Autoimmune Diseases

MSCs in Treatment of Premature Ovarian Failure

MSCs for Gene Therapy

MSC Therapy in the Treatment of Lung Diseases

MSCs for Treating Liver Disease

MSCs for Treating Multiple Sclerosis-Phase II Clinical Trial Completed in the US (2016)

MSCs in Colon Repair

MSCs in Kidney Repair

5. PRODUCT OVERVIEW



Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs)

History

What Are Allogeneic Mesenchymal Stem Cells?

Some Major Sources of Mesenchymal Stem Cells

Bone Marrow

Wharton's Jelly and Umbilical Cord Blood

Adipose Tissue

Trophoblastic Tissues

Amniotic Fluid

Developing Tooth Bud of Mandibular Third Molar

Mechanism of Mesenchymal Stem Cell Therapy

Important Features of Mesenchymal Stem Cells

Morphology

Identification/Detection

Differentiation Capacity

Immuno-modulatory Effects

Culturing

Clinical Use

Production of Clinical-Grade MSCs

Drawbacks of MSCs

6. RECENT INDUSTRY ACTIVITY



JCR Pharmaceuticals Develops TEMCELL HS

Stemedica Receives FDA Approval for Phase Iia Clinical Study for Traumatic Brain Injury

PuRec Announces Plans to Produce MSCs/RECs

Stemedica Enrolls into Phase I/IIa Clinical Study for Ischemic Stroke

JCR Pharmaceuticals Receives Pricing Notification

JCR Pharmaceuticals Awaits Approval for JR-031

Stemedica Receives FDA's Approval for Phase Iia Clinical Study

Mesoblast Announces Plans to Introduce Stem Cell Therapy Product

Stemedica Receives Patent

Stem Cell and Cancer Institute Receives IND approval

Thermo Fisher Scientific Takes Over Life Technologies

7. FOCUS ON SELECT PLAYERS



8. GLOBAL MARKET PERSPECTIVE



Total Companies Profiled: 47



The United States (25)

(25) Canada (1)

(1) Japan (2)

(2) Europe (6)

(6) - Germany (2)

(2) - The United Kingdom (1)

(1) - Rest of Europe (3)

(3) Asia-Pacific (Excluding Japan) (9)

(Excluding Japan) (9) Latin America (1)

(1) Middle East (3)

For more information about this report visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/2qzss5/mesenchymal_stem

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

press@researchandmarkets.com



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

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SOURCE Research and Markets
TORONTO, December 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

On December 9, 2016, the International Forum for Rights and Security (IFRAS), a Canada-based think tank, released a research paper titled 'Jammu & Kashmir and Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region - A Study in Contrasts'. The paper, while drawing parallels between the provinces of Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) and Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), highlights how the Indian and Chinese governments have adopted distinctly different approaches and methods to deal with comparable challenges in the two regions.

Enumerating similarities, namely a Muslim-majority local population, extremism, cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan and the disputed border, the paper concludes that as compared to XUAR, J&K today enjoys far greater political autonomy. Despite special political status granted to the two regions, the study highlights that while China's Regional Ethnic Autonomy Law has proven largely ineffective in ensuring true self-governance by ethnic groups like the Uyghurs, the people of J&K have been provided guarantees under Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, and a strong foundation to build a system of local governance.

The study also observes that though the issues confronting the Indian government vis-a-vis cross-border terrorism, separatism and the dispute with Pakistan over Kashmir, are more complex as compared to the problems faced by China in XUAR, the response of the Chinese government and its security forces against the Uyghurs has been far more overwhelming and disproportional.

The paper concludes that India has not imposed the kind of stringent controls on Muslims of the Kashmir Valley as China has done in Xinjiang, noting instead that India has gone to great lengths to protect the Kashmiri tradition, culture, and religion, unlike China that has, over the years, carried out a systematic policy of mass migration of Han Chinese to XUAR, besides cracking down on the observance of Uyghur religion, customs, practices, language and culture in Xinjiang.

The paper can be found on the website http://www.iffras.org

SOURCE International Forum for Rights and Security
DUBLIN, Dec. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Shaw Academy, the Irish-owned education technology company supported by Enterprise Ireland, has announced another milestone in its growth this year by teaching over 1.5 million students. The company which provides online live learning across a range of subjects, focused on practical skills has trebled its student numbers in the past twelve months and continues to increase turnover by on average 322% year-on-year since inception in 2011.

Co-founded by James Egan and Adrian Murphy, Shaw Academy's rapid growth is based on two simple formats: challenging the cost of education and adopting a strategy of teaching in one-to-one manner to many. Curated and developed by subject matter experts from its global HQ in Dublin, Ireland which employs 100 people, subjects taken with Shaw Academy such as Digital Marketing, Web Development and Photography are delivered live, thus ensuring the most up to date trends can be covered and students interact in real time with educators which boosts completion rates. Courses are taught across six languages, delivered in multiple time zones and geo-priced -- ensuring a global footprint.

Shaw Academy continues to drive down the cost of education and make it accessible to as many people as possible thought viral digital marketing and by forming global partnerships with major players in the e-commerce, telecom, and recruitment space enabling companies such as Adobe, Go Daddy and Vodafone to offer a four week live online course to its subscribers at minimal cost. Currently teaching 400,000 new students every month, Shaw Academy also invested on the technology front establishing a sister office in Bangalore, India in September 2015 which now employs over 120 staff tasked with enhancing the educational offering through personalisation and gamification.

Commenting on the continued growth at Shaw Academy, Co -Founder and CEO James Egan said, "We are delighted to have reached 1.5 million students already this year. We will continue to push the boundaries of delivering the highest quality education with a goal to bridge the global skills gap and make new practical skills available to millions of people."

To take a free trial with Shaw Academy, visit http://shawacademy.com/

For Further Information

Please contact John White at +353 87 6678985 or john.white@shawacademy.com

Related Links

http://www.shawacademy.com



SOURCE Shaw Academy
Partnership Pairs Sofia Connect's Deep Footprint with Megaport's Software Defined Network and Cloud Onramp Capabilities.

BRISBANE, Australia, Dec. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Megaport Limited (ASX: MP1) ("Megaport"), the global leader in Software Defined Network (SDN) - based elastic interconnection, announces that Omnix Group EAD whom it acquired earlier this year, has entered into a strategic partnership with Sofia Connect EOOD ("Sofia Connect"), a leading wholesale carrier with headquarters in Bulgaria acting as a gateway provider, linking carriers from the Balkans, Caucasus region, and the Middle East to Western Internet hubs.

The partnership enables Sofia Connect to sell Megaport's SDN services to their extensive customer base across their vast European network. Megaport pioneered the first platform that allows companies to instantly manage their connectivity from anywhere, on any device. With Megaport's SDN, customers can consume elastic bandwidth, pay for what they use, and adjust it as their business demands change.

Sofia Connect provides broadband and telecommunications services in Central and Western Europe countries as well as the Balkan Area, Ukraine, Georgia, and Armenia. Services include data transport, internet access, colocation, and hosting solutions. Sofia Connect customers will have direct, instant, scalable access to Megaport's global ecosystem of over 200 service providers, including major cloud services like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform. Megaport also provides connectivity to leading internet exchange service providers.

"Sofia Connect is a network leader in Europe and beyond," said Denver Maddux, CEO of Megaport. "Their experience and credibility make them a trusted enabler of network services in locations that extend well beyond the current Megaport footprint, reaching into cities with increasing demand for cloud networking services. Our respective footprints are very complementary and provide excellent coverage across Europe. Enabling Sofia Connect's customers with our SDN services and global footprint opens the door for new cloud use cases. It is an absolute pleasure to work with such an amazing team."

"Megaport's cloud service provider ecosystem is substantial," said Yuliy Nushev, CEO of Sofia Connect. "We are impressed with the growth of their cloud service provider ecosystem and the number of regional cloud on ramps across their network. Not only does this provide significant choice of service providers, it also enables a greater ability to localize traffic for cloud application performance and address issues of data sovereignty. Our customers demand high performance cloud connects. We are excited to empower our customers with industry-leading elastic interconnection services via Megaport."

For more information about Sofia Connect, visit http://www.sofia-connect.net/.

For more information about Megaport, please visit www.Megaport.com.

About Sofia Connect

Sofia Connect is a leading wholesale carrier with headquarters in Bulgaria, specialized in providing comprehensive connectivity solutions to carriers, ISPs and content providers of all sizes throughout the Balkans, the Caucasus and increasingly in the Middle East regions. Sofia Connect's service portfolio includes the whole range from BGP transit, remote peering, managed bandwidth, wavelength services, down to dark fibre provisioning.



Through the Caucasus Cable System, a state-of-the-art submarine cable across the Black Sea, Sofia Connect provides the fastest and safest route from the Caucasus and the northern Middle East to Europe. An increasing number of carriers in the region, including from Georgia, Armenia and Iraq count on Sofia Connect's services. With an upstream capacity in excess of 200 Gbps Sofia Connect ranks among the biggest IP transit providers in the region.

About Megaport

Megaport is the global leading provider of Elastic Interconnection services. Megaport's global Software Defined Network enables customers to rapidly connect their network to other services and data centres across the world. Services can be directly controlled by customers via their mobile devices, computer, or our open API. Megaport's extensive footprint in Australia, Asia Pacific, North America, and Europe provides a neutral platform that spans many key data centre providers across various cities.

Led by industry veteran Denver Maddux, Megaport has been built by a highly experienced team with extensive knowledge in building large scale global carrier networks and cloud connectivity. Megaport connects over 550 customers throughout its 140+ locations in 36 markets in 19 countries. Megaport is an Amazon AWS Technology Partner, Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute Partner, and Google Cloud Interconnect Partner. If you would like to learn more about Megaport, please visit megaport.com.

Supporting Resources:

Visit Megaport: https://megaport.com/

Follow Megaport on Twitter: @megaportnetwork

Like Megaport on Facebook

Follow Megaport on LinkedIn

MEDIA INQUIRIES

Megaport Contact:

Wendy Hill

wendy@sapphirecommunications.com.au

Sapphire Communications for Megaport

(M) +61 427 173 203

Sofia Connect Contacts:

MEDIA INQUIRIES : marketing@sofia-connect.net

Supporting resources:

Visit Sofia Connect at www.sofia-connect.net

Follow Sofia Connect on LinkedIn

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160510/365602LOGO

Related Links

http://www.megaport.com



SOURCE Megaport
HOUSTON, Dec. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- We would like to congratulate the recent finalists and winners of the 2016 Texas Oil & Gas Awards, which were held on Thursday, November 3, 2016, in Houston, TX.

Please see below the winners' yearbook, which has all the coverage of the event, details of all the finalists and winners interviews.
HEEREWAARDEN, The Netherlands, December 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

"The consequence of general pasteurization, which kills pathogenic but also lactic acid bacteria in milk, proves to be the cause of the global explosive growth of cancer in the last sixty years." This is what Don Elsman, author of the new book "Cancer, Cause and Prevention", claims.

Elsman says: "In recent years, the eminent oncologist Dr. Tullio Simoncini has claimed that Cancer is, in essence, caused by a yeast (Candida Albicans). It is a layer of acid which is maintained by lactic acid bacteria on, among other things, the esophagus, that prevents the yeast from adhering to and entering the body. In the absence of lactic acid bacteria, Candida adheres to and penetrates the walls into the bloodstream and spreads to all vital organs (milk glands, prostate, brain, etc.)."

Scientific evidence of this growth for example can be found in the publication: 'Mechanism of Candida transformation in response to changes of pH. Department of Microbiology, Tohoku Pharmaceutical University, Senday, Japan' -"Eight out of 12 strains of C. albicans grow in hyphal form at pH 7. Hyphal formation was inhibited in all strains at pH 4."

Several years ago, the leading U.S. physician William R. Kellas discovered that more than ninety percent of the population has Candida Albicans in its blood. About this, he says: "However, a blood culture or Candida or antibodies test is nearly useless, since nearly everyone would test positive, regardless of the presence or absence of symptoms."

Don Elsman, the 67-year-old author of the book Cancer, Cause and Prevention, has been conducting research into the development and prevention of cancer since 1993. This has recently led to his discovery that the development of most cancer is caused by the absence of lactic acid bacteria in milk. Graphs also demonstrate this convincingly.

Don Elsman compares cancer to scurvy

History proves that science regularly misses something and clings too much to existing dogmas. Physicians used to believe that the cause of scurvy was lack of exercise. Millions of sailors died from it, until in the late 18th century, it was discovered that it was caused by a vitamin C (fresh fruit) deficiency. Where cancer is concerned, such a dogma also exists.

'Prevention is better than cure'

Christopher Wild, director of the WHO agency for cancer: "The costs of cancer treatment are getting wildly out of hand, even in low-income countries. Prevention is absolutely essential, but it is being somewhat neglected currently," says Wild. One of the other authors, Bernard Stewart of the University of New South Wales in Australia, says that prevention "plays a crucial part in combating the flood of cancer cases that we are seeing across the globe."



ebook

ISBN/EAN: 978-90-826274-3-5

Title: Cancer, cause and prevention

Subtitle: breakthrough

http://www.researchpublishing.nl

SOURCE Research & Publishing bv
According to the new market research report on the "Accelerometer and Gyroscope Market by Accelerometer Type (MEMS, Piezoelectric, and Piezoresistive), Gyroscope Type (MEMS, FOG, RLG, HRG, and DTG), Dimension (1, 2, and 3 Axis), Application (Low End and High End), and Geography - Global Forecast to 2022" , published by MarketsandMarkets, the market is expected to reach USD 3.50 Billion by 2022. The high-end accelerometer and gyroscope market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 3.8% between 2016 and 2022, to reach USD 2.07 Billion by 2022 from USD 1.59 Billion in 2015.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160303/792302 )



Browse 69 market data Tables and 75 Figures spread through 182 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Accelerometer and Gyroscope Market"

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/accelerometer-gyroscope-market-205126447.html

Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report.

The high-end accelerometer and gyroscope market is majorly driven by the increasing defense expenditure globally; whereas, the overall market is driven by factors such as the huge demand from the consumer electronics industry; stringent government regulations for the automotive industry; the emergence of efficient, economic, and compact MEMS technology; growing adoption of automation in industries and homes; and rising demand from emerging economies.

MEMS accelerometers and gyroscopes are expected to witness the highest growth rate for high-end applications

The MEMS accelerometer and gyroscope market for the high-end applications is expected to grow at the highest rate between 2016 and 2022. This is mainly due to the growing deployment of these sensors in remotely operated vehicles, aerospace, industrial and defense sectors. MEMS accelerometers are replacing traditional accelerometers in these applications owing to the benefits of low cost, small size, and high power efficiency.

3-axis accelerometers and gyroscopes expected to hold the largest share during the forecast period

3-axis accelerometers and gyroscopes held the largest share of the overall accelerometer and gyroscope market in 2015 and the same trend is expected to continue till 2022. This is because of the growing level of integration which is driving manufacturers to integrate several functionalities in one system to reduce the number of components per device and to reduce the size and weight of the overall product, for which 3-axis devices are highly suitable.

Asia-Pacific (APAC) is the major consumer of accelerometers and gyroscopes

The APAC region is expected to hold the largest share of the global Accelerometer and Gyroscope Market in 2015. As APAC is emerging as the manufacturing hub for low-end applications such as automotive and consumer electronics, the accelerometer and gyroscope market to holds a comparatively large market share in the APAC region.

Inquiry Before Buying: http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Enquiry_Before_Buying.asp?id=205126447

The report also profiles the most promising players in the accelerometer and gyroscope market. The competitive landscape of the market is highly dynamic due to the presence of a large number of big and small players. The key players in the accelerometer and gyroscope market are Analog Devices Inc. (U.S.), Colibrys Ltd. (Switzerland), Fizoptika Corp. (Russia), Honeywell International, Inc. (U.S.), InnaLabs (Ireland), InvenSense, Inc. (U.S.), Kionix, Inc. (U.S.), KVH Industries, Inc. (U.S.), Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (Japan), Northrop Grumman LITEF GmbH (Germany), NXP Semiconductors N.V. (Netherlands), Robert Bosch GmbH (Germany), Sensonsor AS (Norway), STMicroelectronics N.V. (Switzerland), and Systron Donner Inertial (U.S.), among others.

Browse Related Reports

Motion Sensors Market by Motion Sensor Technology (Infrared, Ultrasonic, Microwave, Dual Technology & Tomographic), Embedded Sensor Type (Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Magnetometer & Combos Sensor), Application & Region - Global Forecast to 2020

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/Motion-Sensor-Market-614.html

IoT Sensors Market by Type (Pressure, Temperature, Humidity, Magnetometer, Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Inertial, Image), Network Technology (Wired & Wireless), Vertical (Consumer IoT, Commercial IoT, Industrial IoT), and Region - Global Forecast to 2022

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/sensors-iot-market-26520972.html

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M&M's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "RT" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets. The new included chapters on Methodology and Benchmarking presented with high quality analytical info graphics in our reports gives complete visibility of how the numbers have been arrived and defend the accuracy of the numbers.

We at MarketsandMarkets are inspired to help our clients grow by providing apt business insight with our huge market intelligence repository.

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SOURCE MarketsandMarkets
NEW YORK, Dec. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- AJC is deeply disappointed that the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) was unable to adopt today the Working Definition of anti-Semitism, due to the obstructionist role of one of its 57 member-states, the Russian Federation.

"While Russia expresses concern about anti-Semitism, at the OSCE it continued in its traditional role of spoiler, torpedoing a number of OSCE actions, including adoption of the Working Definition of anti-Semitism," said Rabbi Andrew Baker, AJC Director of International Jewish Affairs, who attended the annual OSCE ministerial meeting in Hamburg.

Baker praised German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the OSCE Chair, for "leading the painstaking effort over months to achieve agreement on recognizing the working definition." OSCE members include all of Europe, Eurasia, the U.S., and Canada.

In his closing remarks as host of the OSCE meeting, Steinmeier said that for the organization's credibility member states must take concrete action "by finally agreeing on a common definition of anti-Semitism."

AJC, the global Jewish advocacy organization, was instrumental in developing the definition more than a decade ago, and continues to lead efforts to promote its use in understanding and responding to anti-Semitism. The definition was first adopted by the European Monitoring Centre (EUMC) in 2005, and earlier this year the 31 countries that comprise the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) adopted it as well.

Over the past year, AJC has met with senior European government officials to encourage OSCE adoption of the definition. AJC maintains offices in Berlin, Brussels, Paris, Rome, and Warsaw.

"When governments recognize that the cancer of anti-Semitism harms not only Jews, but society at large, substantive efforts to combat and eradicate it will be more effective," said Baker. "A clear and comprehensive definition of anti-Semitism is critical to inform and strengthen the ability of governments to recognize the problem, while reassuring Jewish communities that, at last, they truly understand it."

The definition is an educational tool and guide for civil society monitors and government authorities to help them better understand the problem and how to combat it.

"The OSCE failure to adopt the definition is a disappointment to be sure, but the consensus support that was developed during these past months still has value," said Baker, who also serves as the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chair-in-Office on Combating Anti-Semitism. "We must build on what has already been achieved to foster its greater use by the individual states of the OSCE and members of the European Union."

SOURCE American Jewish Committee

Related Links

http://www.ajc.org


NEW YORK, Dec. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- AJC presented a donation today to help rebuild the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce, Florida, severely damaged in an arson attack in September.

An attack on any house of worship is an affront to all Americans, regardless of their religious affiliation," said Robert Silverman, AJC Director of Muslim-Jewish Relations. "Burning a mosque is a hate crime condemned by the entire American Jewish community."

Silverman traveled to Fort Pierce to present the AJC donation to Imam Syed Shafeeq Ur Rahman, director of the Islamic Center, and also to address the congregation during Friday prayers.

"When Jews were persecuted in Europe during the time of the Inquisition centuries ago, they took shelter in Islamic lands. Welcoming those refugees was an act of kindness that will never be forgotten by the Jewish people. Today, AJC is honored to give back in a small, symbolic way," Silverman told the congregation.

A suspect has been arrested and faces charges of arson and hate-crime enhancement. Federal authorities are examining whether to file charges as well. "The perpetrator should be brought to justice as swiftly as possible and to the fullest extent of the law," Silverman said.

SOURCE American Jewish Committee

Related Links

http://www.ajc.org


DALLAS, Dec. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Alerian announced the results of the December quarterly review for the Alerian Index Series. All changes will be implemented as of the close of business on Friday, December 16, 2016.

Alerian MLP Index (AMZ) and Alerian MLP Equal Weight Index (AMZE). Ferrellgas Partners (NYSE: FGP) will be removed from the AMZ and AMZE.

Ferrellgas Partners (NYSE: FGP) will be removed from the AMZ and AMZE. Alerian MLP Infrastructure Index (AMZI). No changes.

No changes. Alerian Energy Infrastructure Index (AMEI). Antero Midstream Partners (NYSE: AM) will be added to the AMEI.

Antero Midstream Partners (NYSE: AM) will be added to the AMEI. Alerian Natural Gas MLP Index (ANGI). Dominion Midstream Partners (NYSE: DM) will be added to the ANGI.

Dominion Midstream Partners (NYSE: DM) will be added to the ANGI. Alerian MLP Closed End Fund Index (AMCI). No changes.

No changes. Alerian Large Cap MLP Index (AMLI) . Antero Midstream Partners will be added to the AMLI. Plains GP Holdings (NYSE: PAGP) will be removed from the AMLI.

. Antero Midstream Partners will be added to the AMLI. Plains GP Holdings (NYSE: PAGP) will be removed from the AMLI. Alerian Mid Cap MLP Index (AMMI) . Alliance Holding GP (NASDAQ: AHGP) and Alliance Resource Partners (NASDAQ: ARLP) will be added to the AMMI. Antero Midstream Partners and Ferrellgas Partners will be removed from the AMMI.

. Alliance Holding GP (NASDAQ: AHGP) and Alliance Resource Partners (NASDAQ: ARLP) will be added to the AMMI. Antero Midstream Partners and Ferrellgas Partners will be removed from the AMMI. Alerian Small Cap MLP Index (AMSI) . Ferrellgas Partners, Noble Midstream Partners (NYSE: NBLX), and Titan Energy (OTCMKTS: TTEN) will be added to the AMSI. Alliance Holdings GP, Alliance Resource Partners, and Memorial Production Partners (NASDAQ: MEMP) will be removed from the AMSI.

In addition, each index will be rebalanced in accordance with their existing methodology. Constituent additions to and deletions from an index do not reflect an opinion by Alerian on the investment merits of the respective securities.

About Alerian

Alerian equips investors to make informed decisions about Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs) and energy infrastructure. Its benchmarks, including the flagship Alerian MLP Index (AMZ), are widely used by industry executives, investment professionals, research analysts, and national media to analyze relative performance. As of November 30, 2016, over $16 billion is directly tied to the Alerian Index Series through exchange-traded funds and notes, separately managed accounts, and structured products. For more information, including index values and constituents, research content, and announcements regarding rebalancings, please visit alerian.com.

SOURCE Alerian

Related Links

http://www.alerian.com


SOUTH JORDAN, Utah, Dec. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Alliance Health, a digital health and wellness company, today was honored as one of the best companies to work for by Utah Business Magazine. The award recognizes companies whose employees are happy, engaged and pleased with their company's benefits and culture. The award is based on multiple factors, including company size and survey responses.

"Our commitment to excellent customer experience starts with ensuring our employees are fulfilled," said Robb Lifferth, EVP of Human Resources at Alliance Health. "Today we celebrate this honor, but tomorrow we continue making improvements and taking feedback from employeesthat's how we ensure success."

The annual award was presented at an awards ceremony and luncheon at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City. The winning companies will also be featured in Utah Business magazine's December edition.

In 2016 Alliance Health added benefits and training based on feedback from its employee Net Promoter Score. The company is committed to improving the consumer experience for people living with chronic conditions. In pursuit of the goal of putting Alliance Health members first in healthcare, the company will continue to devote substantial resources toward recruiting and retaining the brightest innovators.

About Alliance Health

Alliance Health is a leading provider of digital health solutions for people with chronic conditions. With an independent network of pharmacies and condition-specific online communities, the company connects individuals to prescriptions, resources and support to help them stay on therapy.

Headquartered in South Jordan, Utah, Alliance Health is a privately held company with more than 800 team members. For more information, go to www.alliancehealth.com.

Media Contact:

Brian Watkins

801-727-0080

[email protected]

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SOURCE Alliance Health

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DETROIT, Dec. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Axalta Coating Systems (NYSE: AXTA), a leading global supplier of liquid and powder coatings, is excited to announce that it is the Presenting Sponsor of the 2017 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) Charity Preview for the second consecutive year.

The NAIAS Charity Preview, to be held on Friday, January 13, 2017, at the Cobo Center in Detroit, is consistently the largest single night fundraiser in the United States, having raised more than $5.2 million last year. Proceeds directly benefit a wide range of children's charities including The Boys & Girls Clubs of Southeastern Michigan, Boys Hope Girls Hope of Detroit, The Children's Center, Children's Hospital of Michigan Foundation, Judson Center, Detroit PAL, March of Dimes, and the DADA Charitable Foundation Fund  a fund of the Community Foundation for southeast Michigan.

"Charity Preview at the North American International Auto Show is known around the country for its fancy gowns, snazzy tuxedoes and elaborate parties, but the tremendous impact attendees and sponsors have on the lives of so many needy children remains the main star of the evening," said Sam Slaughter, 2017 NAIAS Chairman. "We're very appreciative to have Axalta return as the Presenting Sponsor for this evening of giving and celebration."

"Axalta's first-year sponsorship of the 2016 Charity Preview was a great way to support our community," said Steven Markevich, Axalta's Executive Vice President and President of Transportation Coatings and Greater China. "This time, we expect to make our presence even brighter as we partner with the NAIAS to benefit the children in our community. The Axalta team again looks forward to bringing a little color to this black-tie affair as we celebrate our Automotive Color of the Year 2017 and build on our mission of being a trusted partner in helping automakers develop the appearance and character of their vehicle brands."

Axalta will participate in many festivities during the Auto Show January 8 through 22. On Tuesday, January 10, 2017, Axalta will support the annual EyesOn Design program that benefits the Detroit Institute of Ophthalmology. Axalta is also sponsor of the Cobo Center's first NAIAS Coloring Contest. Children, ages 14 and under, are invited to color an Axalta concept car for the chance to win prizes. Winners will be selected daily, and submissions will be displayed in the shape of Axalta's logo on a wall inside Cobo Center.

2017 NAIAS Important Dates:

The Gallery  Saturday, January 7, 2017

AutoMobili-D  Sunday-Thursday, January 8-12, 2017

Press Preview  Monday-Tuesday, January 9-10, 2017

Industry Preview  Wednesday-Thursday, January 11-12, 2017

Charity Preview  Friday, January 13, 2017

Public Show  Saturday-Sunday, January 14-22, 2017

About the North American International Auto Show

Now in its 29th year as an international event, the NAIAS is among the most prestigious auto shows in the world, providing unparalleled access to the automotive products, technologies, people and ideas that matter most  up close and in one place. Administered by executive director Rod Alberts, the NAIAS is one of the largest media events in North America, and the only auto show in the United States to earn an annual distinguished sanction of the Organisation Internationale des Constructeurs d'Automobiles, the Paris-based alliance of automotive trade associations and manufacturers from around the world. For more information, visit naias.com.

Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for highlights and updates.

About Axalta Coating Systems

Axalta is a leading global company focused solely on coatings and providing customers with innovative, colorful, beautiful and sustainable solutions. From light OEM vehicles, commercial vehicles and refinish applications to electric motors, buildings and pipelines, our coatings are designed to prevent corrosion, increase productivity and enable the materials we coat to last longer. With nearly 150 years of experience in the coatings industry, the 12,800 people of Axalta continue to find ways to serve our more than 120,000 customers in 130 countries better every day with the finest coatings, application systems and technology. For more information visit axaltacoatingsystems.com and follow us @Axalta on Twitter and on LinkedIn.

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SOURCE North American International Auto Show

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Led by Blushington's CEO Natasha Cornstein, the Upper East Side location is the brand's first retail flagship, representing an evolution of the brand from a service destination to a fully integrated retail and services experience. Natasha Cornstein explains, "Today's modern woman values a luxury experience paired with artful curation. We've created an oasis for women of all ages to experience personalized makeup applications alongside expertly curated brands. Whether our customers are spending the afternoon with us, popping in for an express service, refreshing their makeup bag or discovering new brands, the Blushington experience is always rewarding."

Niche beauty brands such as Becca, Jouer and Julie Hewett, are curated carefully by Founder and Chief Creative Officer, Stephi Maron, to ensure the highest quality offerings for Blushington consumers. Products are displayed throughout the lounge, encouraging exploration and interaction with an unparalleled selection of unique brands. Stephi Maron added "I want to make beauty as accessible and enjoyable for all women. I work carefully with my team of expert artists to select the best and most essential items. Our mission is to make women feel confident and beautiful."

Blushington enlisted RPG, the renowned global design firm, to reimagine the store concept and atmosphere. Bruce Teitelbaum, Founder & CEO notes, "The environment showcases an elegant, modern and glamorous lifestyle aesthetic. We paired Art Deco detailing with elements of Blushington's signature decor to create a fresh take on their existing design."

Though new in design, this location houses the signature services Blushington Makeup & Beauty Lounge is known for. Expert makeup artists provide a wide range of offerings beyond makeup applications including eyelash extensions, faux lash applications, and brow maintenance. Now, consumers can enjoy unlimited services on a monthly basis with Blushington's exclusive Carte Blush Membership. Committed to a personalized approach from natural, everyday makeup to glamorous red carpet ready looks, Blushington caters to women who want to look and feel their very best. This attitude is inherent to Blushington's identity ensuring that every customer experiences beauty the Blushington way, where feeling pretty is priceless.

For bookings please visit www.blushington.com.

LOUNGE LOCATIONS

NEW Upper East Side, NY : 1195 Lexington Avenue

Midtown, NY : 119 W. 56th Street at Le Parker Meridien Underground

West Hollywood, CA : 8591 Sunset Boulevard

Topanga, CA : 6320 Topanga Canyon, Suite 1615

Dallas, TX : 4218 Oak Lawn Avenue

Blushington Makeup & Beauty Lounge is the premier makeup service and retail destination with locations in Dallas, Los Angeles & New York City. Blushington gives women of all ages the chance to find their pretty with professional, affordable makeup and esthetician services in a beautifully designed, chic atmosphere. Blushington transforms the professional makeup experience from a special occasion luxury to an everyday necessity with a variety of services that extend beyond makeup. Full face makeup applications, BeautyRX 40% Glycolic peels, eyelash extensions, faux lash applications, brow maintenance, touch-ups and more are available seven days a week in-store or on the go, anytime, anywhere. Experience the Blushington way, where feeling pretty is priceless. www.blushington.com

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SOURCE Blushington Makeup & Beauty Lounge

Related Links

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NEW YORK, Dec. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- WeissLaw LLP is investigating possible breaches of fiduciary duty and other violations of law by the Board of Directors of Cascade Bancorp ("CACB" or the "Company") in connection with the proposed acquisition of the Company by First Interstate BancSystem Inc. ("FIBK"). On November 17, 2016, CACB announced it had reached a definitive agreement for FIBK to acquire all outstanding shares of CACB in a cash-and-stock transaction valued at $589 million. Under the terms of the agreement, CACB shareholders will receive 0.14864 of a FIBK class A share and $1.91 in cash for each CACB share owned.

WeissLaw is investigating whether CACB's Board acted to maximize shareholder value prior to entering into the agreement. Notably, the Company recently announced positive financial results, reporting double-digit revenue and loan growth for the third quarter of 2016. Additionally, it reported net interest income of $23.8 million, gross loans of $2.1 billion, and total deposits of $2.7 billion, up $1.6 million, $158.7 million, and 185.1 million, respectively, from the previous period. Shareholder's equity also increased to $367 million. Moreover, in a conference call following the acquisition announcement, FIBK's Chief Financial Officer estimated the transaction would "increase earnings per share by 10% per year." Finally, upon completion of the transaction, CACB shareholders will own a mere 20% the newly combined company.

Given these facts, WeissLaw is investigating the Board of Directors' decision to sell CACB and whether CACB shareholders will obtain their fair and proportionate share of the Company's continued success and future growth prospects. If you own CACB shares and would like more information about your rights or our investigation, or if you have information to share with us, please contact Joshua Rubin by telephone at (888) 593-4771 or by email at [email protected].

WeissLaw LLP has litigated hundreds of stockholder class and derivative actions for violations of corporate and fiduciary duties. We have recovered over a billion dollars for defrauded clients and obtained important corporate governance relief in many of these cases. If you have information or would like legal advice concerning possible corporate wrongdoing (including insider trading, waste of corporate assets, accounting fraud, or materially misleading information), consumer fraud (including false advertising, defective products, or other deceptive business practices), or anti-trust violations, please email us at [email protected] or fill out the form on our website, http://www.weisslawllp.com/cascade-bancorp/

SOURCE WeissLaw LLP

Related Links

http://www.weisslurie.com


LONDON, Dec. 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- An IGBT is a complex device with the Darlington configuration. Using GTR as the dominant component and MOSFET as the drive component, IGBTcombines the merits of BJT and MOSFET, such as low drive power, low saturation voltage and the like.



With the development of IGBT chip technology, the maximum operating junction temperature and power density of chips keep increasing. In future, the IGBT module technology will be improved in two aspects -- chip backside welding & fixing and front electrode interconnection: 1) the technology without welding, wire bonding or liner/substrate packaging; 2) internally integrated temperature sensors, current sensors, driving circuits and other functional components.



Benefiting from the electric vehicle market and the mature IGBT technology, the global IGBT market will grow at a compound annual rate of 9% during 2014-2020 and reach USD6.5 billion in 2020. The market share of IGBTs used for consumer and white goods will gradually decrease, while IGBTs for power grid, PV, uninterruptible power supply (UPS) as well as electric vehicle will be a major growth engine in the next five years.



Thanks to the rapid development of distributed energy, new energy vehicle, charging piles and rail transit, China's potential IGBT demand is huge. In 2015, Chinese IGBT market size hit about RMB8.5 billion, accounting for about one-third of the global market. By 2020, Chinese IGBT market will garner over RMB20 billion with a CAGR of 19.4%, equivalent to nearly half of the global market.



Market Competition Pattern

In recent years, China's IGBT industry has developed rapidly under the guide of national policies and the market, and has shaped a complete industrial chain with IDM and OEM models. However, Chinese IGBT supply market is mainly controlled by foreign companies, for example, all of the top five suppliers were foreign vendors who enjoyed the combined market share of 51.9% in 2015. The advantages of European and American companies (such as Infineon, Semikron, Fairchild, etc.) are mainly reflected in power, electronics and communications, while Japanese brands (such as Mitsubishi, FUJI, Toshiba, etc.) target home appliances. China seized 1/3 of the global IGBT market share in 2015 and will master nearly 1/2 by 2020, with the AAGR of about 19%.



Subdivision of Applications:

The current saturated Chinese home appliance market will see limited incremental space in the next five years. Among white household electrical appliances, inverter refrigerators with low permeability will generate the fastest growing demand for IGBT in the next five years.



Affected by the government's development plan, China's wind power and PV industries may follow different development paths in the next five years. By 2020, China's PV installed capacity will cumulate to above 160GW, which means the IGBT demand will value RMB1 billion or so. Given the serious wind energy curtailment, China's total wind power installed capacity is planned to be 210GW by 2020, which indicates that China's additional wind power installed capacity will witness sharp drop in the next five years, so that the demand for IGBTs will shrink.



The major cities in China plan to invest RMB3.18 trillion in rail transit in 2010-2021. As for high-speed rail, China will own over 4,300 CRH trains by 2020, which will need 1.2 million IGBTs, four times that in 2015.



With the development of new energy electric vehicles, the proportion of electronic devices in a vehicle has jumped from less than 20% to over 50%, and the application of IGBTs and other power device modules has been intensified obviously. Fairchild, Infineon and ST enjoy superiority in the automotive market. BYD and Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd (ASMC) cooperate in IGBTs. By 2020, China's electric vehicle (including EV, PHEV, HEV, electric bus / truck) sales volume is expected to exceed 3 million, which will stimulate the IGBT demand to go beyond RMB6 billion.



The report covers the followings:

Overview, technology development course and trends, and applications of IGBT;

Status quo and IGBT demand trends of Chinese IGBT application market segments (including rail transit, wind power, PV, electric vehicle, UPS, home appliances, etc.)

Size, competition pattern and supply chain of Global and Chinese IGBT markets;

Development, operation and IGBT technology/business of 16 Chinese IGBT companies (including IDM, modules, OEM);

Operation and IGBT technology / business of 9 global IGBT vendors.

Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/4126828/



About Reportbuyer

Reportbuyer is a leading industry intelligence solution that provides all market research reports from top publishers

http://www.reportbuyer.com



For more information:

Sarah Smith

Research Advisor at Reportbuyer.com

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +44 208 816 85 48

Website: www.reportbuyer.com

SOURCE ReportBuyer

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BROOKLYN, N.Y., Dec. 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Codesters (@icodeinschool), a leading platform for K-12 computer science instruction, announced today its expanded partnership with CodeBrooklyn (@codebrooklyn), an initiative with Borough President Eric Adams (@BPEricAdams) to bring a computer science programs to every school in Brooklyn within seven years.

"I am proud to be working with Codesters to bring computer science to every Brooklyn student." said Borough President Adams. "Codesters is a valuable partner in our CodeBrooklyn initiative, helping us engage underserved schools and their communities. Codesters' dedication to every student's future sets the standard on how to bring coding and computer science to schools throughout Brooklyn and New York City."

Codesters CEO Gordon Smith (@gordonmsmith) participated today in a press conference during which Borough President Adams announced the findings from his 2016 CodeBrooklyn School Technology Report. The report highlights the need for increased investment in computer hardware and infrastructure in the borough's schools.

"Today's report further catalyzes our commitment to bring computer science to schools in underserved areas of Brooklyn, New York City, and the nation," said Gordon Smith, CEO of Codesters. "We share the vision of Borough President Adams and CodeBrooklyn that computer science must be taught to every student in every school, regardless of the economic circumstances of the surrounding community."

During Computer Science Education Week (December 5 - 11), Codesters will deliver Hour of Code activities to over 5,000 students, across nearly 100 schools in Brooklyn, as part of CodeBrooklyn. Nationally, Codesters will deliver more than 100,000 Hour of Code activities, driven in part by its inclusion in the recommended curriculum list on Code.org.

"Code.org has been a critical advocate for computer science, particularly through Hour of Code events happening around the globe during CS Ed Week." said Gordon Smith.

In September, Codesters announced its commitment to Title I schools at the White House Summit on Computer Science Education. Codesters is a founding content partner of the new national CSForAll Consortium (@CSforAll) and was recently added to DonorsChoose.org.

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SOURCE Codesters

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NEW YORK, Dec. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Credit Suisse AG announced today that it is reducing the Minimum Redemption Amount for early redemptions by investors of the following Exchange Traded Notes (the "ETNs") pursuant to their terms:

ETN CUSIP VelocitySharesTM 3x Inverse Crude Oil ETNs linked to the S&P GSCI Crude Oil Index ER due February 9, 2032 22542D548 VelocitySharesTM 3x Long Crude Oil ETNs linked to the S&P GSCI Crude Oil Index ER due February 9, 2032 22539T316

As described in the related pricing supplement for the ETNs (the "Pricing Supplement"), subject to certain restrictions, investors may exercise their right to redeem the ETNs by offering for early redemption at least 25,000 ETNs, or an integral multiple of 25,000 ETNs in excess thereof, to Credit Suisse AG at one time (the "Minimum Redemption Amount").

As set forth in the Pricing Supplement, Credit Suisse AG may, from time to time, reduce, in part or in whole, the Minimum Redemption Amount. With effect from the date hereof, Credit Suisse AG is reducing the Minimum Redemption Amount from 25,000 ETNs to 500 ETNs. To satisfy the Minimum Redemption Amount, an investor's broker or other person with whom they hold the ETNs may bundle an investor's ETNs for early redemption with those of other investors to reach this Minimum Redemption Amount of 500 ETNs.

Investors may exercise their early redemption right by causing their broker or other person with whom they hold the ETNs to deliver via email a completed redemption notice (as set forth in the Pricing Supplement) to Janus Distributors LLC (the "Redemption Agent") at [email protected] If the properly completed redemption notice is delivered to the Redemption Agent prior to 4:00 p.m. New York City time, on any business day, and the Redemption Agent responds by sending your broker an acknowledgment of the Redemption Notice accepting your redemption request by 7:30 p.m., New York City time, the immediately following index business day for the applicable ETN will be the applicable "Early Redemption Valuation Date". Otherwise, the second following index business day for such ETN will be the applicable Early Redemption Valuation Date. See "Specific Terms of the ETNsRedemption Procedures" in the Pricing Supplement for additional information.

If an investor elects an early redemption, and the requirements for an early redemption are met, the investor will receive a cash payment per ETN on the Early Redemption Date equal to the greater of: (A) zero and (B)(1) the closing indicative value for such ETN on the Early Redemption Valuation Date minus (2) the early redemption charge of 0.05% times the closing indicative value for such ETN on the Early Redemption Valuation Date. Subject to market disruption events, the third business day following an Early Redemption Valuation Date will be the "Early Redemption Date."

The intraday indicative value and closing indicative value for the ETNs are calculated and published on each index business day under the following indicative value ticker symbols in the chart below. The OTC Market ticker symbol for each ETN is also set forth in the chart below.

ETN CUSIP Indicative Value Ticker Symbol on Bloomberg Indicative Value Ticker Symbol on Yahoo! Finance OTC Market Ticker Symbol VelocitySharesTM 3x Inverse Crude Oil ETNs linked to the S&P GSCI Crude Oil Index ER due February 9, 2032 22542D548 DWTIIV ^DWTI-IV DWTIF VelocitySharesTM 3x Long Crude Oil ETNs linked to the S&P GSCI Crude Oil Index ER due February 9, 2032 22539T316 UWTIIV ^UWTI-IV UWTIF

Although it is not currently accelerating the ETNs at its option, Credit Suisse AG continues to have the right to do so, as described in the Pricing Supplement, and may choose to accelerate the ETNs at its option in the future, either together on the same date or each on a separate date.

For a detailed description of the early redemption mechanics, see the Pricing Supplement, which can be accessed on the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") website at www.sec.gov as follows:

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1053092/000095010316017628/dp70004_424b2-a32.htm

Only the VelocitySharesTM 3x Inverse Crude Oil ETNs linked to the S&P GSCI Crude Oil Index ER due February 9, 2032 and the VelocitySharesTM 3x Long Crude Oil ETNs linked to the S&P GSCI Crude Oil Index ER due February 9, 2032 are affected by this announcement.

There is no assurance that a trading market for the ETNs will exist at any time. If a secondary market for the ETNs does exist, the trading price of the ETNs may be influenced by, among other things, the levels of actual and expected supply and demand for the ETNs. Investors may suffer substantial losses if they are unable to sell the ETNs in the secondary market or if they are only able to sell the ETNs at prices substantially less than the price they paid, the ETNs' intraday indicative value or the ETNs' closing indicative value. It is possible that the reduction of the Minimum Redemption Amount of the ETNs, as described above, may influence the price for which a secondary buyer will purchase the ETNs. Credit Suisse AG cannot predict with certainty what impact, if any, the reduction of the Minimum Redemption Amount of the ETNs will have on the trading price of the ETNs. Investors are cautioned that paying a premium purchase price over the indicative value of the ETNs could lead to significant losses in the event the investor sells such ETNs at a time when the premium has declined from the time of purchase, is no longer present or if Credit Suisse AG accelerates the ETNs at its option. Even if investors do not pay a premium over the indicative value of the ETNs, investors could still suffer substantial losses because of the illiquidity in the secondary market.

As disclosed in the Risk Factors section and the Supplemental Use of Proceeds and Hedging section of the Pricing Supplement, we or our affiliates may have acquired or disposed of, as applicable, and may dispose of or acquire, as applicable, the futures contracts included in the S&P GSCI Crude Oil Index ER (the "Index") for each ETN, or listed or over-the-counter options contracts in, or other derivatives or synthetic instruments related to, the Index to hedge our obligations under the ETNs. The price at which such positions may be acquired or disposed of may be a factor in determining the levels of the Index. Although we and our affiliates have no reason to believe that these hedging activities will have a material impact on the level of the Index, there can be no assurance that the level of the Index will not be affected. To the extent that we or our affiliates have a hedge position in the Index, we or our affiliates may unwind a portion or all of such position during the term of the ETNs. This activity may adversely affect the level of the Index and, as a consequence, the value of the ETNs and the amount payable on the ETNs. Moreover, this hedging activity may result in us or our affiliates receiving a profit, even if the value of the ETNs declines.

Credit Suisse AG

Credit Suisse AG is one of the world's leading financial services providers and is part of the Credit Suisse group of companies (referred to here as 'Credit Suisse'). As an integrated bank, Credit Suisse offers clients its combined expertise in the areas of private banking, investment banking and asset management. Credit Suisse provides advisory services, comprehensive solutions and innovative products to companies, institutional clients and high-net-worth private clients globally, as well as to retail clients in Switzerland. Credit Suisse is headquartered in Zurich and operates in over 50 countries worldwide. The group employs approximately 47,690 people. The registered shares (CSGN) of Credit Suisse's parent company, Credit Suisse Group AG, are listed in Switzerland and, in the form of American Depositary Shares (CS), in New York. Further information about Credit Suisse can be found at www.credit-suisse.com.

This document was produced by and the opinions expressed are those of Credit Suisse as of the date of writing and are subject to change.

Copyright  2016, CREDIT SUISSE GROUP AG and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

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SOURCE Credit Suisse AG

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NASHVILLE, Tenn., Dec. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver has been honored with the group's seventh Grammy Award nomination for the 2016 album, Burden Bearer (Mountain Home Music Company). The project is nominated in the Best Bluegrass Album category.

Of this latest honor, Lawson said, "I was surprised, to say the least, but thankful because I know where all that I do comes from, and that knowledge keeps me grounded."

Bluegrass Hall of Fame member Doyle Lawson is known for high standards in every aspect of his musical career. Burden Bearer is the latest example of the exquisite precision in vocals, harmony and musicianship of Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver. The album is a musical event of Bluegrass Gospel and A Capella numbers celebrating a legacy of faith, hope, struggle and victory of the spirit. Old time renderings live alongside newly forged Gospel songs that pay tribute to timeless Gospel convention traditions.

As a teenager, Lawson met the legendary Jimmy Martin and soon realized his own dream of a career in music, inspired by the likes of Martin, Bill Monroe and others. He mastered the mandolin, banjo and guitar, and in 1963 left his home in Sullivan County, Tennessee for Nashville where he landed a job in Martin's band. A few years later, he joined JD Crowe's band, and later was a member of the Country Gentlemen. In 1979, Lawson formed his own band. Many of acoustic music's top players launched their own legendary careers under the tutelage of Lawson. Today, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver has become a significant and iconic part of American music history. The group's influence is far-reaching, and has resulted in cross-genre collaborations, including an invitation to record with Paul Simon on the So Beautiful Or So What album, produced by Phil Ramone.

Although his musical prowess encompasses a wide variety of styles from straight-up Bluegrass to Traditional Country, Doyle Lawson is undeniably the master of Bluegrass Gospel. With Burden Bearer, Lawson and his band deliver traditional convention songs delivered in DL&Q's characteristic and precise four-part harmonies, plus powerful musicianship on more Bluegrass-driven songs. The album includes new compositions reminiscent of traditional Gospel classics.

Mandolin master, Lawson, has surrounded himself with an exceptional lineup of players. Lead vocals are impeccably delivered by Dustin Pyrtle, Eli Johnston and Lawson himself. The harmony work of this group makes it clear why DL&Q has won multiple IBMA Vocal Group of the Year Awards. A noted mandolin master, Lawson always surrounds himself with top-flight players. Josh Swift (Dobro and vocals), Joe Dean (banjo and vocals) and Stephen Burwell (fiddle) round out the award-winning band.

Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver have recorded forty or so albums, (Lawson doesn't keep count!). With his band, Lawson has garnered seven IBMA Vocal Group of the Year awards and multiple Dove, ICM, IBMA, and SPBGMA nominations and awards over a career that spans decades. Lawson was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2012. He is a 2006 winner of a National Heritage Fellowship (National Endowment for the Arts). This is the second consecutive Grammy nod for the group, of its total seven career nominations.

The awards will be announced on Sunday, February 12, 2017. A complete list of nominees can be found at Grammy.com.

MEDIA CONTACTS

Claire Ratliff | Laughing Penguin Publicity

615.476.3200 | [email protected]



Ty Gilpin | Mountain Home Music Company

828.684.3066 ext. 320 | [email protected]

SOURCE Mountain Home Music Company

Related Links

http://mountainhomemusiccompany.com


NEW YORK, Dec. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Empire State Realty Trust (NYSE: ESRT) announced today that Blue Bottle Coffee, Inc. has signed a long-term lease at One Grand Central Place.

Blue Bottle Coffee works directly with farmers around the world to source the most delicious and sustainable coffees. They are dedicated to serving only the freshest java, so much so that customers are only able to purchase coffee that is less than 48 hours out of the roaster.

"Blue Bottle Coffee is a great concept and will be a tremendous amenity for our tenants and benefit from the excellent traffic from our in-building subway entrance," said Thomas P. Durels, Executive Vice President and Director of Leasing and Operations for ESRT. Durels added, "ESRT is marketing another prime retail availability of 14,500 sq. ft. on 42nd Street. Located directly opposite Grand Central Terminal and the future One Vanderbilt development, this unique offering is available for the first time in 30 years."

Marc Frankel and Jeff Roseman of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank represented Blue Bottle Coffee in the lease negotiations. Fred Posniak and Shanae Ursini represented ESRT in the transaction. The asking rent was $675 per square foot.

About Empire State Realty Trust

Empire State Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE: ESRT), a leading real estate investment trust (REIT), owns, manages, operates, acquires and repositions office and retail properties in Manhattan and the greater New York metropolitan area, including the Empire State Building, the world's most famous building. Headquartered in New York, New York, the Company's office and retail portfolio covers 10.1 million rentable square feet, as of September 30, 2016, consisting of 9.4 million rentable square feet in 14 office properties, including nine in Manhattan, three in Fairfield County, Connecticut and two in Westchester County, New York; and approximately 707,000 rentable square feet in the retail portfolio.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Federal securities laws. You can identify these statements by our use of the words "assumes," "believes," "estimates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "projects" and similar expressions that do not relate to historical matters. You should exercise caution in interpreting and relying on forward-looking statements, because they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which are, in some cases, beyond ESRT's control and could materially affect actual results, performance or achievements. Such factors and risks include, without limitation, a failure of conditions or performance regarding any event or transaction described above, regulatory changes, and other risks and uncertainties described from time to time in ESRT's filings with the SEC. Except as may be required by law, ESRT does not undertake a duty to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

SOURCE Empire State Realty Trust, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.empirestaterealtytrust.com


"This expansion is great news for Virginia Tech, as we seek to provide meaningful experiential learning opportunities, and advance our connections with the National Capital Region," said Sands. "We're fortunate to have a partner such as Excella Consulting working with us to develop tomorrow's technology leaders."

Excella's internship program, called the "Extension Center" or XC, started in 2009 as a way to give high-achieving technical students the opportunity to develop critical skills outside the classroom by working on software development projects for Excella's clients. Students work side-by-side with experienced consultants through part-time paid internships and solve problems for clients including Marriott International, Motley Fool Asset Management, the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance and the CloseUp Foundation.

"This is a huge leap forward for a program we are wildly proud of," said Steve Cooper, Founding partner at Excella. "We built this program to create the next generation of technology innovators in Virginia and this new office will give them the space and resources to do amazing things."

The new space includes 2,100 square feet of dedicated office space in the VT Corporate Research Center that will accommodate six full-time managers and 24 students.

"Our proximity to Virginia Tech gives us access to some of the most talented STEM students in the world," said Margaret Archer, Director of the Extension Center.

Since its inception, over 60 students have graduated from the XC program and gone on to pursue careers at startups, consultancies and Fortune 500 companies. The program was ranked among Vault.com's "Best Internships" for 2016, earning the #4 spot for "Best Consulting Internship".

About Excella Consulting

Excella Consulting is a leading provider of Agile software development and data and analytics solutions to clients in the federal, commercial and non-profit sectors. Since 2002, we have provided innovative solutions to DC's leading organizations including Marriott International, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the U.S. Census Bureau, CustomInk and the National Rural Electric Cooperative (NRECA). Our experts measure success by the positive impact we make on our clients, community, and colleagues.

For more information, visit: www.excella.com.

Media Contact:

Erin Grace

Excella Consulting

(703) 840-8600

[email protected]

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SOURCE Excella Consulting

Related Links

http://www.excella.com


DALLAS, Dec. 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Flowserve has posted required information regarding the Stein Litigation Settlement Notice and Documentation. For more information, visit www.flowserve.com.

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - x

SHIVA STEIN, Plaintiff, - against  JOHN R. FRIEDERY, et al., Defendant. : : : : : : : : : : : 16 Civ. 2487 (KPF) SUMMARY NOTICE - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - x



TO: ALL RECORD OR BENEFICIAL OWNERS OF COMMON STOCK OF FLOWSERVE CORPORATION.

YOU ARE HEREBY NOTIFIED that Plaintiff Shiva Stein, acting derivatively on behalf of Flowserve Corporation ("Flowserve"), and Defendants in the above-entitled shareholder derivative action (the "Action") have entered into an agreement to settle the Action.

PLEASE BE FURTHER ADVISED that pursuant to an Order of the United states District Court for the Southern District of New York entered on November 28, 2016, a hearing will be held on February 9, 2017, before The Honorable Katherine Polk Failla at 1:00 p.m. at the Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse, 40 Foley Square, New York, NY 10007 (or such other date and time as the Court may direct) (the "Settlement Hearing"), for the purpose of finally determining: (a) whether a Stipulation of Settlement dated October 28, 2016 (the "Stipulation"), and the terms and conditions of the settlement set forth in the Stipulation (the "Settlement") are fair, reasonable and adequate to Flowserve and its shareholders, and should be finally approved by the Court; (b) whether a final judgment should be entered dismissing the Action with prejudice, releasing claims as described in the Stipulation and Settlement (the "Released Claims"), and enjoining Flowserve and its shareholders from pursuing the Released Claims; and (c) whether to approve the application of Plaintiff's counsel for an award of attorneys' fees, and for reimbursement of costs and expenses. At the Settlement Hearing the Court may hear such other matters relating to the foregoing as the Court may deem necessary and appropriate. Unless otherwise defined herein, all capitalized terms have the same meanings as set forth in the Stipulation.

The Action and Settlement involve derivative claims alleging that: (1) statements made in Flowserve's proxy statement for the May 21, 2015 Annual Meeting of Shareholders (the "2015 Proxy Statement") regarding Flowserve's cash-based and equity-based incentive compensation plans were materially false or omitted material information in violation of  14(a) of the Securities Exchange Act, 15 U.S.C.  78n(a) and the applicable rules and regulations promulgated thereunder; and (2) that Flowserve's directors breached their fiduciary duties and/or violated  14(a) by granting awards to directors and certain executive officers in 2015 and 2016 under Flowserve's equity-based compensation plans and its Annual Incentive Plan because those plans had expired or were never effective.

Flowserve denies each and all claims and contentions of wrongdoing asserted directly against it in this Action. The Individual Defendants each deny each and all claims and contentions of wrongdoing with respect to the specific claims asserted against him or her in this Action.

Pursuant to the Settlement, the Defendants have agreed to take the following steps: (1) the Individual Defendants, acting as Flowserve's board of directors, will pass resolutions regarding the Flowserve 2007 Annual Incentive Plan (the "AIP"), the Flowserve 2007 Long-Term Incentive Plan (the "LTIP"), and the Flowserve Equity and Incentive Compensation Plan (the "EICP") to approve, clarify, confirm, and ratify that the AIP and the LTIP are two compensation plans that are adopted under, and have the same expiration date as, the EICP, but which are maintained separate from the EICP and pursuant to which Annual Incentive Awards and Long-Term Incentive Awards (as each such term is defined in the EICP) may be made under and pursuant to the terms of the EICP; (2) include in Flowserve's 2017, 2018, and 2019 annual meeting proxy statements the compensation discussion and analysis will contain certain disclosures within the "Elements of the Executive Compensation Program  Overview" subsection of the CD&A and within the "Tax and Accounting Implications of Executive Compensation" subsection of the CD&A; and (3) that all proxy statements  whether annual or special  issued prior to December 31, 2019 proposing to reapprove or amend the EICP or approve a substantially similar substitute plan, the proposal shall make certain disclosures, to the extent such disclosures, in the reasonable view of management, remain relevant to such plan.

At least 28 days before the Settlement Hearing, Plaintiff's counsel will file with the Court a brief in support of the Settlement and an application for an award of attorneys' fees, and for reimbursement of costs and expenses, which amount shall not exceed $560,000 in total (the "Fee and Expense Petition"). Any amounts awarded on the Fee and Expense Petition will be paid by Flowserve or by its insurers.

If the Court approves the Stipulation and the Settlement, it will enter a Judgment that, among other things, will provide for dismissal of the Action with prejudice, provide for a release of claims by Plaintiff, Flowserve, and its shareholders (including you if you are a Flowserve shareholder) as against Defendants for all Released Claims, as that term is defined in the Stipulation, enter an injunction barring Plaintiff, Flowserve, and its shareholders from pursuing any of the Released Claims, and direct Flowserve to pay Plaintiff's counsel the amount the Court awards on the Fee and Expense Petition.

If you own Flowserve stock, your rights will be affected by the Settlement. Full details about the Settlement are provided in a Notice of Pendency of Derivative Action, proposed Settlement of Derivative Action, and Settlement Hearing (the "Notice") that can be accessed and read on, and downloaded from, Flowserve's website at http://www.flowserve.com. Flowserve's website also has a copy of the Stipulation. If you have questions, you may contact Plaintiff's counsel as follows:

A. Arnold Gershon

Barrack, Rodos & Bacine

Eleven Times Square

640 Eighth Avenue

10th Floor

New York, NY 10036

(212) 688-0782

You are encouraged to review the Notice and the Stipulation.

If you are a Flowserve shareholder, you can comment on and/or object to all or any part of the Settlement or the Fee and Expense Petition. In order for the Court to consider your objections and/or comments, you need to file a notice and papers with the Court, and to submit them to counsel for the parties, on or before January 20, 2017. The Notice describes in further detail when, and to whom, your notice and papers must be submitted.

PLEASE DO NOT CONTACT THE COURT.





ENTERED BY ORDER OF THE COURT DATED: November 30, 2016



New York, NY





HON. KATHERINE POLK FAILLA

UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

SOURCE Flowserve

Related Links

http://www.flowserve.com


Steven H. Holt, former Regional Director, Public Relations, Americas for The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, has joined the boutique agency as its Chief Travel and Luxury Officer, a senior management position that will draw on his 20-plus years of experience in those categories. During Holt's tenures he has opened multiple luxury hotels, rebranded and concepted restaurants, acted as a brand spokesman to the global media and advised senior leadership on media relations and crisis management. "Steven is in a class by himself when it comes to the best in hospitality and global luxury," said Jeremy Murphy, President and CEO, 360bespoke. "He has an impeccable reputation throughout the industry and has its most envied media relationships. I have worked with him for more than 10 years and have come to know him as one of the smartest executives with the utmost professionalism, experience and taste."

As Chief Travel and Luxury Officer, Holt will lead the agency's efforts to increase the firm's clientele in those respective categories, which also comprise hospitality, dining, wine and spirits. Holt's experience with The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company included leading media relations for the brand and its many properties throughout the Americas. He will lead the agency's operations based in Beverly Hills, California.

The agency has also announced Rania Sedhom has been elevated as Chief Legal Counsel, a role in which she will continue to oversee all legal issues pertaining to the firm's business and operations.

Additionally, 360bespoke has appointed Kim Myers Robertson, a respected editorial and commercial photographer, as its Creative Director, where she will work with the company's client collection on image marketing and branding campaigns. The firm also has brought on Alexa Starr as its Director of Social Media & Engagement, drawing on the executive's interactive strategies and savvy in positioning artists and brands for Millennial audiences.

Bestselling author and journalist Sarah Rose also joins the 9-person advisory board for 360bespoke, bringing journalistic and literary experience to the agency. Her first published book, For All the Tea in China: How England Stole the World's Favorite Drink and Changed History (Viking) was a brisk seller in book stores around the country and named Book of the Week by the BBC.

"The addition of west coast leadership, three fantastic hires and a new member of our advisory board will help us continue to grow 360bespoke into an industry leader in the luxury space," said Murphy. "Steven, Rania, Kim, Alexa and Sarah all bring unique skill sets to our firm, which is a key component to our global strategy. We are very pleased to welcome them to 360bespoke."

Chief Legal Counsel Rania Sedhom has been advising 360bespoke since its April 2016 inception, and will continue to oversee all its legal affairs. "Rania was there from the start and has earned the trust and respect of our entire team," said Murphy. "She brings to us an incredible wealth of experience and deep knowledge of our firm, which she helped develop and launch."

As Creative Director of 360bespoke, Kim Myers Robertson will draw on her years of experience as a high-end commercial and editorial photographer to help clients achieve the imagery and design they desire for their brands. "Kim has a photographic eye like no other in the industry," said Murphy. "She has a keen ability to make any subject feel comfortable while capturing the most beautiful images. She is a top talent and an obvious choice to add to our growing family at 360bespoke."

Alexa Starr will oversee the firm's digital interactive strategy and execution as Director of Social Media & Engagement. In that role, she'll identify behaviors and platforms to help clients expand their marketing efforts to Millennials and social media influencers. Starr comes to 360bespoke from CORR Capital, a private equity firm where she helped identify investment opportunities.

"Alexa has established herself as a savvy executive with a deep understanding of Millennials and how they engage with brands and media," said Murphy. "It is vitally important we have someone with her expertise to advise our clients on how to reach broader audiences."

Biographies:

Steven H. Holt is a luxury branding and hospitality executive with more than 20 years of public relations, marketing and media strategy experience working with luxury brands, including 12 years at The Ritz-Carlton. Joining the company in 2004, he directed public relations, marketing and communications for its Bachelor Gulch resort, one of the flagship properties of the hotel collection. While there, he developed and executed national media for the relaunch of its signature restaurant as Spago by the Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining Group.

From there he was the key media leader for the opening of The Ritz-Carlton, Lake Tahoe and its Manzanita restaurant, created by celebrity chef Traci Des Jardins. Following the opening, Holt relocated to San Francisco where he directed media relations for three Northern California Ritz-Carlton Hotels. Moving to Los Angeles in 2013, he took over media strategy for The Ritz-Carlton Hotels of Hawaii and Colorado while also executing the opening of The Ritz-Carlton, Rancho Mirage.

Holt was later promoted to Regional Director, Public Relations, The Americas where he directed media strategy for 49 hotels in North and South America and was part of the team that created the Social Media Influencer strategy. Holt departed The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company to launch his on-going consultancy, Steven Holt Communications and joins 360bespoke as Chief Travel and Luxury Officer based in Beverly Hills, California.

Rania Sedhom is currently a Managing Partner of her own law firm, Sedhom Law Group. She also serves as Counsel for Willems Advocaten & Rechtsanwalte N.V. and is a Member of the Executive Compensation and Employee Benefits Committee, ABCNY. Additionally, she is a legal and business commentator with national appearances in print and on broadcast media, including Bloomberg Radio, The Today Show, Luxury Daily, the L.A. Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Baltimore Sun, Forbes, Inc., Business Week and CNN Money.

Kim Myers Robertson's inquisitive eye, cinematic approach and discerning point of view have drawn the attention of some of the world's best-known publications and brands, including Vogue, Elle, Marie Claire, Glamour, Moet, Covergirl and Clinique. At age 18, Myers Robertson moved to Paris to study at the Paris Fashion Institute, and then came back to New York to intern for legendary photographer Francesco Scavullo. She also continued her education at the Fashion Institute of Technology, Parsons School of Design and School of Visual Design. In addition to photography she directs video and has worked with luxury brands such as Clinique, New Beauty, Nest and Gap Kids, among others.

Alexa Starr is a young executive who previously helped identify companies, brands and talents worthy of investment at the CORR private equity firm. Her expertise stems from her youthful handle on media consumption by younger audiences.

Sarah Rose is a journalist and author, currently at work on a book about 39 women who parachuted into occupied France during World War II to arm and train the resistance. A Ungentlemanly War: The Women of Churchill's Secret Army will be published by Crown in 2018. As a reporter in New York, Miami and Hong Kong, she has covered a range of beats  cops, courts, schools, diplomacy, food, travel, celebrities, equities and labor. Rose writes The Wall Street Journal's "Dynasties" column, profiling New York's real estate billionaires, and is the dating columnist for Men's Fitness. In 2015, the Society of Professional Journalists awarded her First Place in Reporting for her feature on the last roundup of wild cattle in Hawaii.

360bespoke (www.360bespoke.com) is an all-inclusive media agency offering bespoke services in public relations, marketing, brand management, content development, media training and events. The firm was started by former CBS executive Jeremy Murphy and his CBS colleague Joe Wilson. With a very select group of first-class clients, talents, brands and endeavors in its collection, 360bespoke concentrates its experience in the luxury, travel, fashion, beauty, lifestyle and arts categories.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Joe Wilson

Chief of Staff

[email protected]

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161209/447488

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161031/434306LOGO

SOURCE 360bespoke

Related Links

http://www.360bespoke.com


Georgia Power is currently developing more than 150 MW of solar generation to serve the state's electric customers through five large-scale projects with the U.S. Army and DON. Construction of the fifth project at Marine Corps Logistics Base (MCLB) Albany is currently underway.

"Completing the third and final installment of our collaborative 3x30 solar program with the U.S. Army is a tremendous accomplishment for our company and our customers who will benefit from this energy source," said Norrie McKenzie, vice president of renewable development for Georgia Power. "Since we announced these projects in May of 2015, the Army has been a steadfast partner and truly recognizes the importance of renewable energy for the base, the community, the state and the country."

The Fort Stewart solar facility was built and is owned and operated by Georgia Power with energy delivered to the state's electric grid at or below the company's avoided cost (the amount projected it would cost the company to generate comparable energy from other sources). Including related transmission and distribution infrastructure, the solar project at Fort Stewart occupies 250 acres, utilizes approximately 139,200 ground-mounted photovoltaic (PV) panels and is estimated to represent a $75 million investment at the installation.

In coordination with the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC), Georgia Power continues to develop renewable energy as part of a diverse generation portfolio through programs designed to prevent upward pressure on customer rates. Through the company's various solar initiatives, millions of solar panels are being added to Georgia's energy landscape. Most recently, Georgia Power received approval from the Georgia PSC to add up to 1,600 MW of new renewable generation by 2021, as well as new demonstration projects to study wind and solar generation opportunities as part of its 2016 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP).

A leader in renewable development, Georgia Power was recently included in the Smart Electric Power Alliance's (SEPA) annual Top 10 Utility Solar list in recognition of solar connections to the state's electric grid in 2015 and was previously named the 2014 Investor-Owned Utility of the Year by the organization. To learn more about Georgia Power's solar programs, including resources available for residential and business customers considering solar energy, visit www.GeorgiaPower.com/Solar.

About Georgia Power

Georgia Power is the largest subsidiary of Southern Company (NYSE: SO), America's premier energy company. Value, Reliability, Customer Service and Stewardship are the cornerstones of the company's promise to 2.5 million customers in all but four of Georgia's 159 counties. Committed to delivering clean, safe, reliable and affordable energy at rates below the national average, Georgia Power maintains a diverse, innovative generation mix that includes nuclear, 21st century coal and natural gas, as well as renewables such as solar, hydroelectric and wind. Georgia Power focuses on delivering world-class service to its customers every day and the company is consistently recognized by J.D. Power and Associates as an industry leader in customer satisfaction. For more information, visit www.GeorgiaPower.com and connect with the company on Facebook (Facebook.com/GeorgiaPower) and Twitter (Twitter.com/GeorgiaPower).

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Certain information contained in this release is forward-looking information based on current expectations and plans that involve risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking information includes, among other things, statements concerning the development, completion of construction and cost of renewable energy projects. Georgia Power Company cautions that there are certain factors that can cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking information that has been provided. The reader is cautioned not to put undue reliance on this forward-looking information, which is not a guarantee of future performance and is subject to a number of uncertainties and other factors, many of which are outside the control of Georgia Power Company; accordingly, there can be no assurance that such suggested results will be realized. The following factors, in addition to those discussed in Georgia Power Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015, and subsequent securities filings, could cause actual results to differ materially from management expectations as suggested by such forward-looking information: the ability to control costs and avoid cost overruns during the development and construction of generating facilities, to construct facilities in accordance with the requirements of permits and licenses, to satisfy any operational and environmental performance standards and the requirements of tax credits and other incentives, and to integrate facilities into the Southern Company system upon completion of construction; and potential business strategies, including acquisitions or dispositions of assets or businesses, which cannot be assured to be completed or beneficial to Georgia Power Company. Georgia Power Company expressly disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking information.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161209/447616

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SOURCE Georgia Power

Related Links

http://www.georgiapower.com


GUANGZHOU, China, Dec. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Co-hosted by the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC), the United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), the World Association of Major Metropolises (Metropolis) and Guangzhou Municipal Government, the 3rd Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation (the Guangzhou Award) and 2016 Guangzhou International Urban Innovation Conference were held in Guangzhou from December 5 to 8. Together with the concurrently staged Guangzhou International Innovation Festival, the series of events were abbreviated as One Award, One Conference and One Festival.

This year's conference is themed on Global Wisdom for Local Solutions and the series of events were attended by some 800 guests.

The biennial event recognizes the top five urban innovation projects from around the world. It aims to facilitate the exchange of urban innovation experiences, learning from successful cases, and advocating scientific ideas to drive sustainable development.

"The Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation has made a very positive impact," said Parks Tau, President of United Cities and Local Governments, a co-organizer of the event.

Selected from 301 innovation projects submitted by 171 cities, the winners were: Songpa-gu in South Korea, Qalyubia in Egypt, Copenhagen in Denmark, Boston in the United States and La Paz in Bolivia.

The event is expected to enhance the communication between cities and countries, set examples for local governments and to seek solutions to global challenges such as climate change, poverty and gender inequality.

"In the past, people thought the national government could change things, but now we realize it is communication between national and local governments that makes changes," said Beate Weber-Schuerholz, Co-Chair of Guangzhou Award Jury, former mayor of Heidelberg.

Ma Peihua, Vice-chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, participated in the conference. He gave high praise to the Guangzhou Award and highlighted the profound influence of the event.

"This event has brought the wisdom of the world together and it will help our province to better implement the innovation-driven development strategy and make Guangdong an innovation hub in China," said He Zhongyou, Deputy Governor of Guangdong.

"We are focusing our efforts to make Guangzhou a hub-based networked city that can gather the global innovation resources and elements to establish a sophisticated open economic system," said Wen Guohui, Mayor of Guangzhou & Co-president of UCLG and the Metropolis.

SOURCE Guangzhou Municipal Government
MIAMI, Dec. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- HealthCare.com, a leading privately-owned website for consumers shopping for healthcare plans, today released its answers to a top 10 list of questions from consumers who are unsure what the requirements for buying health insurance will be once Donald Trump becomes president.

"HealthCare.com is receiving many, many requests from consumers seeking clarity about their insurance obligations. No one knows exactly what will happen, but there is so much news about 'repeal and replace' of Obamacare and how a new 'TrumpCare' might work, and when it might start, we thought we would release our best answers to the top questions," said Jeff Smedsrud, a co-founder of the company.

1. Am I still required to buy health insurance?

Yes. The penalty for not having health insurance is still in effect and is expected to be during the course of 2017.

2. Will the subsidy that lowers my health insurance costs be eliminated?

Not likely, although it may be changed. Many of the Republican plans call for replacing income-based subsidies with age-based subsidies.

3. Will I have to pay more for health insurance if I have a pre-existing medical condition?

No, not if you purchase a plan during the Open Enrollment Period (OEP) which ends on January 31, 2017.

4. Currently, the only place to get a health insurance subsidy is through healthcare.gov or state exchanges. Will that change?

Where you obtain a subsidy won't change during this OEP, but it is increasingly likely that the administration of subsidies will be turned over to private sector companies by 2018. Smedsrud notes, "HealthCare.gov charges insurance companies about $1.2 billion a year to administer premium tax credits. Insurance companies pass this cost along to consumers. Private companies can do it better, for less money. This alone could bring down the cost of insurance by about 3 percent."

5. Will women be charged more for health insurance than men?

No, although Congress could overturn that part of Obamacare that charges women the same as men, it is not likely to happen. Before Obamacare, women were charged more than men in most states.

6. Will the mandate to buy health insurance go away?

You still have to buy coverage in 2017, but you may not be required to starting in 2018. If the mandate is repealed, it's likely that new health insurance regulations would introduce other mechanisms to encourage all individuals to get healthcare coverage.

7. When Republicans say they will "repeal and replace" Obamacare, what does it really mean for someone who pays for their own health insurance?

The political campaign season has ended, but many politically-charged phrases are still being used. It is very unlikely Obamacare will be "repealed'" in its entirety and almost certain that parts of it will be "replaced." People who have health insurance won't be denied coverage. But those who don't have health coverage now may find it harder to buy after this OEP.

8. Will high deductibles and out-of-pocket costs go down?

Sorry, but high deductibles and consumer sharing of medical costs is a trend that will likely continue. However, there are many ways and new technology tools that help consumers become more engaged and empowered to lower health costs.

9. Will those living in states that expanded Medicaid eligibility lose their coverage?

Those enrolled in Medicaid will not lose coverage in 2017, but it could happen in 2018. Republicans plan to provide state "block grant" funds that give them discretion about how to expand (or shrink) their medical assistance programs.

10. What is the best thing for consumers to do right now?

Shop around. There are many types of health insurance plans available -- both directly from insurance carriers and on the federal and state marketplaces. In addition, there are short-term health plans for those in between coverage or believe they cannot afford more comprehensive plans, and other types of supplemental insurance plans to help fill the "gap" in high-deductible plans. Consumers should also consider whether establishing a health savings account is right for them. For consumers who are paying out of their own pocket - for example, if you are under your annual deductible - ask for a cost estimate before incurring non-emergency healthcare expenses, and shop around if possible.

"We encourage everyone to have health insurance but each person is unique and so is their health and financial situation," said Howard Yeh, president and co-founder of HealthCare.com. "Thus far in 2016, nearly three million consumers have used our website to be connected with licensed agents, federally-approved web brokers and insurance companies. We look forward to expanding our services in the months ahead."

HealthCare.com has garnered considerable praise from influential business groups for its consumer-friendly technology tools. It was also recently recognized by Deloitte as one of top 100 private and public technology companies in North America, and was ranked 6 on the Inc. 500 list for insurance firms. Earlier in the year, Red Herring honored the company for its technology achievements.

About HealthCare.com

In the past three years, HealthCare.com has emerged as one of the most-visited online health insurance destinations. The unbiased website features virtually all state-based exchange plans, federal exchange plans, many private, off-exchange plans and options for Medicare-eligible consumers. Using interactive tools and innovative technology, HealthCare.com continues to grow its services to help consumers compare health insurance costs and subsidies for free, and match them to licensed agents at national call centers, web-based entities or directly with a carrier. The goal of HealthCare.com is to help consumers easily research information, compare health insurance quotes from insurance carriers using interactive tools and innovation, and ultimately enroll into coverage. Using trusted recommendations and a comparison-shopping experience to simplify decision-making, consumers can find the right health insurance plan that fits their lifestyles. HealthCare.com is based in Miami, FL. For more information, visit www.HealthCare.com.

SOURCE HealthCare.com

Related Links

https://www.healthcare.com


MEXICALI, Mexico, Dec. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The International Association of University Presidents will hold its first semi-annual meeting of 2017 in Tijuana, Mexico, and San Diego, CA, this coming February. This unprecedented three-day meeting will hold sessions in the gateway cities with more than 50 universities represented from all over the globe.

This marks the first time CETYS University System is co-hosting a bi-lateral event which will explore topics devoted to showcasing and sharing case studies about innovation in higher education. Joining forces with international partners and Co-hosts University of San Diego and San Diego State University, a relevant part of the event will take place at their campuses, concluding at CETYS Campus Tijuana on Sunday February 3rd.

Case studies from the Europe, Asia, the Americas, Middle East and Africa will be presented to share thought-provoking ideas and successful initiatives. There will also be a focus on multi-disciplinary perspectives on business, technology, engineering and social sciences/humanities. The final session will discuss exemplary cross border partnerships from around the world.

"CETYS is proud to take a leadership role in helping put together the agenda as well as hosting this meeting," said Dr. Fernando Leon-Garcia, President of CETYS University. "We have long believed that sharing best practices in education from around the world will lead to a better educational experience for all. We take pride that CETYS is also an acknowledged innovation leader," he added.

Innovation in education is key to providing students and faculty a fuller and richer overall experience. Learnings from other universities from around the world lead to ideation and though-provoking discussions to better enrich the overall university experience.

"Holding this event in major trade and business centers of Tijuana and San Diego further underscores the fact that cooperation and understanding across borders leads to continued and sustained growth," stated Dr. Leon-Garcia.

For more information about the meeting, speakers and sessions, please visit http://www.iaup-2017.com

About CETYS:

CETYS is ranked among the top universities in Mexico and is climbing the ladder of international recognition. With bilingual and dual-degree programs, CETYS is innovative and expects academic, as well as moral, excellence from its students. Further, CETYS's location in Baja California, a region ripe with innovation, is a major draw. With a population of just over 3 million, and proximity to important cities in the United States, like San Diego, the state has 32 major universities and offers over one hundred professional degrees. The region also has an incredible tech ecosystem, with major technology parks focused on research and development.

CETYS University is the first Mexican university accredited by WASC, (Western Association of Schools and Colleges) and boasts alliances with more than 80 international universities, including: UCSD, USD, City University of Seattle and National University. CETYS already serves a diverse population from Southern California, where students from the U.S. border region commute to CETYS in pursuit of an international quality education. By 2020 CETYS University aims to be the educational institution with the best MBA program in Latin America, with a focus on entrepreneurship and engineering.

SOURCE CETYS University
NEW YORK, Dec. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Nadeem Faruqi, founding partner at Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP, a leading national securities firm headquartered in New York City, is investigating the Board of Directors of IntraLinks Holdings, Inc. ("IntraLinks" or the "Company") (NYSE:IL) for potential breaches of fiduciary duties in connection with the sale of the Company to Synchronoss Technologies, Inc. for approximately $821 million.

The Company's stockholders will only receive $13.00 in cash for each share of Company common stock they own. However, this consideration is below at least one analyst's price target of $15.00 per share.

Click here for more information: www.faruqilaw.com/IL. There is no cost or obligation to you.

The investigation focuses on whether IntraLinks' Board of Directors breached their fiduciary duties to the Company's stockholders by failing to conduct a fair sales process and whether and by how much this proposed transaction undervalues the Company to the detriment of IntraLinks' shareholders.

Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP is a national law firm which represents investors and individuals in class action litigation. The firm is focused on providing exemplary legal services in complex litigation in the areas of securities, shareholder, antitrust and consumer litigation, throughout all phases of litigation. The firm has an experienced trial team which has achieved significant victories on behalf of the firm's clients. To keep track of the latest securities litigation news, follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MergerActivity or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/FaruqiLaw.

Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP is working together in this investigation with Juan E. Monteverde from Monteverde & Associates PC.

If you own common stock in IntraLinks and wish to obtain additional information and protect your investments free of charge, please visit us at www.faruqilaw.com/IL or contact Nadeem Faruqi, Esq. either via e-mail at [email protected] or by telephone at (877) 247-4292 or (212) 983-9330. You may also contact Juan E. Monteverde, Esq. either via email at [email protected] or by telephone at (212) 971-1341.

Contact:

Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP

685 Third Avenue, 26th Floor

New York, NY 10017

Attn: Nadeem Faruqi, Esq.

[email protected]

Toll Free: (877) 247-4292

Phone: (212) 983-9330

Attorney Advertising. (C) 2016 Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP. The law firm responsible for this advertisement is Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP (www.faruqilaw.com). Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome with respect to any future matter. We are happy to discuss your particular case.

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"I experienced the seamless interaction between modern technologies and traditional culture as well as the fusion of old and new cultures in an evolving world," said one guest from Japan who gave her name as Genba. She was impressed and inspired by the cultural experience during the tour. Telling a story about China can serve as a vehicle for learning about the country's distinctive culture and is becoming a new way for the Middle Kingdom to show the world the richness of its heritage.

Experiencing a local folk custom

Commenting on his visit to an ancestor-worshipping celebration held in Zhuqiao Ancient Village, Turkish journalist Emre Demir said, "Chinese cities are becoming increasingly similar, so I'm more interested in China's countryside, a part of the country that has maintained its original and unique characteristics. You should go to the countryside if you want to truly understand Chinese culture."

There are many ancient villages with a history dating back more than 1,000 years, including Zhuqiao Ancient Village in Jinxi County. The local residents who live in these villages together do so as one large extended family in an effort to keep their folk customs intact as they are passed down through the generations. The long-standing folk customs are attracting visitors from across the world. This group of specially invited guests from abroad are enthusiastic supporters of policies that assure and assist in the conservation of cultures by maintaining the tradition of one generation teaching the one that follows. The visitors were passionate in recounting their hands-on experience when encountering the ancient traditions, including hammering glutinous rice cakes with wooden mallets, making hand-made noodles and learning engraving printing.

The beauty and splendor of Jiangxi's Wuyuan County, regarded by many as the most beautiful stretch of countryside in China, is mirrored in Huangling Ancient Village, a collection of traditional buildings clinging to the side of a cliff. Wuyuan County Rural Cultural Development chairman Wu Xiangyang said, "Huangling Ancient Village is nestled between several mountains. Our conservation measures serve to preserve the local historic architectural style as well as the traditional culture and customs and will help the village become a world-class example of heritage that deserves to be protected."

A visitor from Tunisia, who identified himself as Waleed, was especially interested in the historical traditions and cultural values that have been kept intact and alive the village. During his visit, he kept on asking the guide about the village's local folk culture and historical background. He also encouraged the local authorities to continue promoting the local cultural traditions, "It is something foreign visitors want to know about."

Memorable tour in a famous city

After visiting Tang Xianzu Memorial Hall, Waleed said, "Tang Xianzu is very famous and I have heard of him before. Today I visited his memorial hall and learned more about his life and artistic achievements." He added that this journey was well worth it, as Fuzhou has a long cultural history.

Zhang Hongxing, mayor of Tang Xianzu's hometown of Fuzhou, the small city in Jiangxi province (not to be confused with Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian province), concluded, "The ecological and cultural heritage is the biggest advantage of Fuzhou." Many foreign journalists who visit here always bring up the topic of how to let Tang culture become known around the world, and it is also a subject that the municipal government of Fuzhou has been exploring.

The mayor added by way of explanation that Fuzhou hosted 44 memorial events this year, the 400th anniversary of Tang Xianzu's death. One aspect of the city's culture that received particular attention was Tang opera, and on how to use various media to spread awareness of this unique art form. In April of this year, a group from England, the country that gave us Shakespeare, initiated a series of intensive research projects focusing on this small city in Jiangxi province and plans to delve deeper into the study of Tang Xianzu, both the person and the work, promoting the addition of Tang opera to teaching materials and international translation projects and the opening of a Tang Xianzu art foundation with the goal of developing Fuzhou into China's Opera Capital.

In addition to Tang Xianzu, Fuzhou is also home to a large number of famous Confucians including the statesman, poet, calligrapher and literary figure Yan Shu, the scholar and historian Zeng Gong and the economist, statesman, chancellor and poet Wang Anshi, whose combined works proved highly influential on Chinese history and culture. The city is teaming up with professional research firms that will conduct in-depth research into the culture that created such noteworthy individuals.

Waleed said, "Although Fuzhou is a small city, it has a long history and a strong cultural background." He expressed the opinion that the unique traditional cultural advantages can definitely help the city raise its international visibility.

Ceramic culture -- A Chinese calling card

Over 2,000 years ago, the Maritime Silk Road was an important channel for economic and cultural communication between China and the world. Jingdezhen was the point of origin for many of the goods that made the trek along the Maritime Silk Road: half of the "treasure" found in shipwrecks at the bottom of the South China Sea have been ceramic ware. After thousands of years, Jingdezhen, which is well-known across China as the Porcelain Capital, has become a necessary stop for many international travelers when they visit China. Wang Jianping, director of the town's agency for promotional development, explained that over 30,000 foreign artists create works and communicate ideas here each year.

At the base of Phoenix Mountain (in Chinese: Fenghuang Mountain) along the eastern edge of the town lies the recently developed Taoxichuan Ceramic Art Avenue, a street lined with ceramic-themed shops and museums. The avenue, a creation that was born out of the renovation of the old factory site of Yuzhou Ceramic Plant three years ago, has become Jingdezhen's new calling card. Twenty-two industrial factory buildings and a large number of kiln facilities that had been active at different times through the town's long history were renovated into a diversified set of museums, galleries, and cultural centers, while fully conserving the look and feel of the original structures.

The avenue, where many young people from across China have started a business and put their innovative instincts to work, has attracted the attention of many ceramic makers from South Korea, Japan, Mexico and the United States. A Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts student who makes his own wood carvings and sells them in Taoxichuan's night market told reporters that college students are free to open booths at the market. As a result, many students come to do business there and have started to become locally known as "Jing drifters".

Along the shop-lined avenue, you are likely to chance upon an old red-brick factory that doubles as a workshop making porcelain, refitted with renovated French doors and windows displaying the workshop's porcelain creations. A reporter from Latin America said: "In many countries outside of China, Jingdezhen is a Chinese 'brand'. Porcelain is the first thing that comes to mind for many when someone mentions China. And, when the topic of porcelain comes up, we'll certainly think of Jingdezhen. As Liu Zili, the Jingdezhen Ceramic Culture Tourism Group chairman, said to the delegation, porcelain is the universal language of mankind and has gained increasing popularity and acclaim around the world, both for the ancient artifacts and well as for the pieces of work being produced today.

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SOURCE Jiangxi Bureau of the Peoples Daily
LOS ANGELES, Dec. 8, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Film composer John Williams will conduct a performance with the Recording Arts Orchestra of Los Angeles and solo violinist Bing Wang at USC Shoah Foundation's Ambassadors for Humanity Gala on Dec. 8 in Los Angeles, honoring Mellody Hobson and George Lucas. The evening will include special appearances by James Corden from The Late Late Show, and celebrated artists and activists Harrison Ford and Kerry Washington.

Williams, a five-time Academy Award winner, has collaborated with Institute founder Steven Spielberg and George Lucas on many of the most iconic films in the history of cinema. He composed the scores for the Indiana Jones and Star Wars franchises, and won Oscars for the scores to Spielberg's Jaws, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, and Schindler's List. The latter film would inspire Spielberg to establish the Shoah Foundation in 1994.

"For more than 40 years, George and I been in awe of John's unique talent," Spielberg said. "He transforms stories on screen into even more exciting experiences or ones that are even more profoundly moving. And it is always a very special treat to hear his performances live."

About USC Shoah Foundation

USC Shoah Foundation  The Institute for Visual History and Education is dedicated to making audio- visual interviews with survivors and other witnesses of the Holocaust and other genocides, a compelling voice for education and action. The Institute's current collection of more than 54,000 eyewitness testimonies contained within its Visual History Archive preserves history as told by the people who lived it, and lived through it. Housed at the University of Southern California, within the Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, the Institute works with partners around the world to advance scholarship and research, to provide resources and online tools for educators, and to disseminate the testimonies for educational purposes. Visual History Archive is a registered trademark of USC Shoah Foundation  The Institute for Visual History and Education Reg. U.S. Pat. & Tm. Off.

Contact: Josh Grossberg 213-740-6065

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Rob Kuznia 213-740-0965

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Andy Gelb/Julia Rossen Slate PR

310-461-0111

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NEW YORK, Dec. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Stage and screen legend Julie Andrews returns for the eighth time to host the festive annual New Year's celebration with the Vienna Philharmonic, under the direction of Gustavo Dudamel, from Vienna's Musikverein.

From Vienna: The New Year's Celebration 2017, featuring the infectious melodies of the Strauss Family and their contemporaries, airs on Great Performances, Sunday, January 1 at 2:30 p.m. ET on PBS (check local listings) with an encore performance that evening at 7:30 p.m.

Maestro Dudamel is conducting the ever-popular concert for the very first time. The Vienna Singverein (Singverein der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde) concert choir and the soloists of the Vienna State Ballet return for the gala evening marking the 175th anniversary year of the Vienna Philharmonic and its founding conductor Otto Nicolai.

The filming of this year's ballet scenes was done at the Hermesvilla in Vienna. Situated in an idyllic setting in the middle of the Lainzer Tiergarten, the former imperial hunting grounds, the Hermesvilla was described by Empress Elisabeth of Austria (popularly known as 'Sisi') as her "Palace of Dreams." The palace was built for Sisi by her husband Emperor Franz Joseph and was finished in 1886. It is now 180 years since the birth of Empress Elisabeth in 1837.

Gustavo Dudamel is the youngest-ever conductor to lead the Vienna Philharmonic's famous New Year's Concert. As an internationally renowned symphonic and operatic conductor, Dudamel is motivated by a profound belief in music's power to unite and inspire. Currently serving as Music & Artistic Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Music Director of the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, his impact extends from the greatest concert stages to classrooms, cinemas and innovative digital platforms around the world.

In addition to his main posts, Dudamel appears as guest conductor with some of the world's most famous musical institutions and is set to tour Europe with the Berlin Philharmonic in 2017.

This is the largest worldwide event in classical music reaching millions of people annually through radio and television in over 80 countries. The Vienna Philharmonic's traditional New Year's program has showcased Viennese musical culture at the highest level, and since the first television broadcast in 1959, sent the world a New Year's greeting in the spirit of hope, friendship and peace. (The telecast marks the 33rd broadcast of the event on PBS.)

The annual tradition of the New Year's Day Celebration with the Vienna Philharmonic at The Musikverein is as cherished worldwide as its legendary host, actress and author, Julie Andrews. "I love coming to this wondrous city each year with its rich history, beautiful sights and its glorious musical contributions to the world, especially those by the Strauss family. As a proud Board member of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, I am especially thrilled that our talented and charismatic maestro, Gustavo Dudamel, will be conducting this year's program."

As is customary with these broadcasts, Andrews travels from her home base in the Musikverein hall itself to visit multiple picturesque Vienna landmarks, including the gym and bedroom at Hermes Villa; Otto Nicolai's study (Haus der Musik); the Imperial stables showcasing the world-famous Lipizzaner from birth to performance; and Hofburg's Sisi Museum.

Andrews and Dudamel visit the Ankerbrotfabrik complex, the home of Superar, the Sistema organization for Central Europe. Dudamel is, of course, famously a product of the Sistema music program in his native Venezuela. (In Vienna, Superar provides music lessons to about 350 kids aged 5-16.) As Dudamel rehearses the students with members of the Vienna Philharmonic, Andrews reflects on Dudamel's background and the youth program that he originated in Los Angeles, YOLA (Youth Orchestra Los Angeles).

The musical program, including "On the Beautiful Blue Danube" on the occasion of the piece's 150th anniversary, is as follows:

Franz von Suppe

Queen of Spades, Overture (Pique Dame)

C.M. Ziehrer

Right This Way, Waltz  Ballet

Otto Nicolai

Moon Chorus

The Merry Wives of Windsor

Johann Strauss

Pepita Polka

Johann Strauss

The Extravagant, Waltz

Johann Strauss, Sr.

Indian Galop

Josef Strauss

The Nasswald Forest Maiden, Landler

Johann Strauss

Let's Dance, Quick Polka  Ballet

Johann Strauss

A Thousand and One Nights, Waltz

Johann Strauss

Tick Tock Quick Polka

Eduard Strauss

With Pleasure! Quick Polka

Johann Strauss

On the Beautiful Blue Danube, Waltz

Johann Strauss, Sr.

Radetzky March

Andrews has been a frequent and luminous presence on Great Performances, starting with "An Evening with Alan Jay Lerner" (1989); "Julie Andrews in Concert" (1990); "Some Enchanted Evening: Celebrating Oscar Hammerstein II" (1995); "Back on Broadway" which spotlighted her return to the Great White Way in "Victor/Victoria" (1995); "Hey, Mr. Producer! The Musical World of Cameron Mackintosh" (1998); "My Favorite Broadway: The Leading Ladies" (1999); its follow-up "My Favorite Broadway: The Love Songs" (2001); and the restoration of the classic 1957 "Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella" (2004). She also hosted the Emmy Award-winning series Broadway: The American Musical in 2004. Andrews was recently featured in the "Great Performances' 40th Anniversary Celebration" (2013).

The Vienna State Ballet is choreographed by Renato Zanella. It provides the ensembles at both the Vienna State Opera and the Vienna Volksoper.

Great Performances is produced by THIRTEEN PRODUCTIONS LLC for WNET, one of America's most prolific and respected public media providers. Throughout its more than 40 year history on public television, Great Performances has provided viewers across the country with an unparalleled showcase of the best in all genres of the performing arts, serving as America's most prestigious and enduring broadcaster of cultural programming.

Great Performances is funded by The Joseph & Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation, the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Arts Fund, the Irene Diamond Fund, The LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust, The Agnes Varis Trust, The Starr Foundation, Rosalind P. Walter, the Kate W. Cassidy Foundation, Ellen and James S. Marcus, the Philip and Janice Levin Foundation, Petschek, and PBS. Exclusive corporate support for the concert is provided by Rolex.

From Vienna: The New Year's Celebration 2017 is produced by Karin Veitl, and directed by Michael Beyer, with John Walker as producer/writer. For Great Performances, John Walker and Richard R. Schilling are producers; Bill O'Donnell is series producer; David Horn is executive producer.

Visit Great Performances Online at www.pbs.org/gperf for additional information about this and other programs.

About WNET

As New York's flagship public media provider and the parent company of THIRTEEN and WLIW21 and operator of NJTV, WNET brings quality arts, education and public affairs programming to over 5 million viewers each week. WNET produces and presents such acclaimed PBS series as Nature, Great Performances, American Masters, PBS NewsHour Weekend, Charlie Rose and a range of documentaries, children's programs, and local news and cultural offerings available on air and online. Pioneers in educational programming, WNET has created such groundbreaking series as Get the Math, Oh Noah! and Cyberchase and provides tools for educators that bring compelling content to life in the classroom and at home. WNET highlights the tri-state's unique culture and diverse communities through NYC-ARTS, Reel 13, NJTV News with Mary Alice Williams and MetroFocus, the multi-platform news magazine focusing on the New York region. WNET is also a leader in connecting with viewers on emerging platforms, including the THIRTEEN Explore App where users can stream PBS content for free.

Website: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/

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Twitter: @GPerfPBS

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INDIANAPOLIS, Dec. 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) today presented detailed results of its phase 3 EXPEDITION3 trial at the 9th Clinical Trials on Alzheimer's Disease (CTAD) meeting. As previously disclosed, solanezumab did not meet the primary endpoint in the EXPEDITION3 clinical trial, a study of solanezumab initiated in people with mild dementia due to Alzheimer's disease (AD), and Lilly will not pursue regulatory submissions for solanezumab for the treatment of mild dementia due to AD.

"The results of EXPEDTION3 are without question disappointing," said Eric Siemers, M.D., distinguished medical fellow at Lilly. "However, Lilly remains committed to finding solutions for this devastating disease. We will continue to analyze study results and work with the external scientific community in the hopes of uncovering findings that will help shape and advance future Alzheimer's disease research."

Lawrence S. Honig, M.D., Ph.D., professor of neurology at Columbia University Medical Center and principal investigator of the EXPEDITION3 study, presented the data at the meeting.

"Alzheimer's is a challenging disease that researchers have been committed to studying for some years," Dr. Honig said. "Now is not the time to give up. While the outcome of this study is not what we had hoped for, it is reasonable to believe that disease modifying therapies to slow down the progression of Alzheimer's disease will be discovered."

A Summary of Key Results

While the study results, including many secondary clinical endpoints, directionally favored solanezumab, the magnitudes of treatment differences were small.



Primary Endpoint

Patients treated with solanezumab did not experience a statistically significant slowing in cognitive decline compared to patients treated with placebo. This finding represented an 11 percent reduction in decline (p=.095), as measured by the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-Cognitive (ADAS-Cog 14 ) subscale. The ADAS-Cog 14 measures a person's cognitive functions, including memory, attention and language abilities.1

Key Secondary Clinical Endpoints

As the primary endpoint was not met in this study, the p-values for the efficacy secondary statistical analyses were not adjusted for multiple comparisons.

Patients treated with solanezumab had a 13 percent slowing of cognitive decline (p=0.014) compared to patients treated with placebo as measured by the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). The MMSE is the most commonly used test for complaints of problems with memory or other mental abilities and can be used by clinicians to help diagnose dementia and to help assess its progression and severity. It consists of a series of questions and tests, each of which scores points if answered correctly. The MMSE tests a number of different mental abilities, including a person's memory, attention and language. 2

The Clinical Dementia Rating-Sum of Boxes (CDR-SB) scale showed a 15 percent slowing in decline (p=0.004) between patients treated with solanezumab and patients treated with placebo. The CDR-SB scale measures cognitive and functional performance  in areas such as memory, orientation and personal care  through semi-structured interviews of patients and their family members or other reliable informants. 3

Patients treated with solanezumab had a slowing of decline in complex activities of daily living compared to patients treated with placebo. This finding represented a 14 percent slowing of decline (p=.019) as measured by the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study-Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (ADCS-iADL). The ADCS-iADL scale measures a person's independent performance in complex activities of daily living such as participating in a conversation, preparing a meal or shopping. 4

A different functional measure, the FAQ (Functional Activities Questionnaire), did not show a statistically significant difference between patients treated with solanezumab and patients treated with placebo (7 percent reduction in decline, p=0.140). The FAQ scale is a different informant-based measure of functional abilities. Informants provide performance ratings of the patient on ten complex higher-order activities.5

Biomarkers

Changes in plasma a-beta were similar to those seen in previous studies, and the differences between treatment and placebo groups were statistically significant. Changes in amyloid deposition as measured by positron emission tomography (PET) imaging did not reach statistical significance between treatment and placebo groups.

Adverse events

Events more frequent in the solanezumab treatment group that were statistically significant include: spinal osteoarthritis (1.1 percent in the solanezumab group, 0.4 percent in the placebo group), dysuria (0.9 percent in the solanezumab group, 0.2 percent in the placebo group), vitamin D deficiency (1.4 percent in the solanezumab group, 0.6 percent in the placebo group), and nasal congestion (1.2 percent in the solanezumab group, 0.4 percent in the placebo group).

The incidence of vasogenic edema (ARIA-E or amyloid-related imaging abnormalityedema/effusions) was approximately 0.1 percent of patients treated with solanezumab and 0.3 percent of patients on placebo.

About Solanezumab

Solanezumab is Lilly's phase 3 monoclonal antibody being studied as a potential therapy for people with mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer's disease (EXPEDITION-PRO), preclinical Alzheimer's disease (Anti-Amyloid Treatment in Asymptomatic Alzheimer's "A4"), and Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer's Disease ("DIAN").

About EXPEDITION3

EXPEDITION3 is a multinational, phase 3 trial of solanezumab in more than 2,100 patients diagnosed with mild dementia due to Alzheimer's disease. The study includes an 18-month placebo-controlled period followed by an open label extension. Enrollment was completed in 2015 and the last patient visit for the placebo-controlled period occurred in October 2016. EXPEDITION3 is the first phase 3 trial to evaluate only people with mild dementia due to Alzheimer's disease.

About Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimer's disease is a fatal illness that is believed to start with changes in the brain that may begin 20 years or more before symptoms appear.[6] Those changes cause a progressive decline in memory and other aspects of cognition that eventually lead to dementia.

Dementia due to Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia, accounting for 60 to 80 percent of dementia cases.6 There are currently an estimated 47 million people living with dementia worldwide.7 The number of people affected by dementia is expected to be nearly 75 million in 2030 and 131 million in 2050.7 Estimates vary, but experts suggest that as many as 5.4 million Americans may have Alzheimer's disease.6

About Eli Lilly and Company

Lilly is a global healthcare leader that unites caring with discovery to make life better for people around the world. We were founded more than a century ago by a man committed to creating high-quality medicines that meet real needs, and today we remain true to that mission in all our work. Across the globe, Lilly employees work to discover and bring life-changing medicines to those who need them, improve the understanding and management of disease, and give back to communities through philanthropy and volunteerism. To learn more about Lilly, please visit us at www.lilly.com and newsroom.lilly.com/social-channels. P-LLY

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements about solanezumab, an anti-amyloid monoclonal antibody in clinical testing for treatment of Alzheimer's disease, and reflects Lilly's current beliefs. However, as with any pharmaceutical product, there are substantial risks and uncertainties in the process of development and commercialization. Among other things, there is no guarantee that future study results and patient experience will be consistent with study findings to date or that solanezumab will receive regulatory approvals or be commercially successful. For further discussion of these and other risks and uncertainties, see Lilly's most recent Form 10-K and Form 10-Q filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as required by law, Lilly undertakes no duty to update forward-looking statements to reflect events after the date of this release.

1 Liu-Seifert H., et al. Cognitive and Functional Decline and Their Relationship in Patients with Mild Alzheimer's Dementia. Journal of Alzheimer's Disease. 43 (2015) 949955

2 Alzheimer's Society. The Mini Mental State Examination. https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?documentID=121. Accessed November 2016

3 The Washington University Knight ADRC. http://alzheimer.wustl.edu/CDR/CDR.htm. Accessed November 2016.

4 Liu-Seifert H., et al. Cognitive and Functional Decline and Their Relationship in Patients with Mild Alzheimer's Dementia. Journal of Alzheimer's Disease. 43 (2015) 949955

5 Alzheimer's Association. Tools for Early Identification, Assessment, and Treatment for People with Alzheimer's Disease and Dementia. https://www.alz.org/national/documents/brochure_toolsforidassesstreat.pdf. Accessed November 2016.

6 Alzheimer's Association. 2016 Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures. http://www.alz.org/documents_custom/2016-facts-and-figures.pdf. Accessed November 2016.

7 Alzheimer's Disease International. Dementia statistics. http://www.alz.co.uk/research/statistics. Accessed November 2016.

Refer to: Media  Nicole Hebert; [email protected]; 317.701.9984

Investors  Phil Johnson; [email protected]; 317.655.6874

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OAKLAND, Calif., Dec. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Travel media company Lonely Planet announced its annual list of the top 10 most exciting places to go in the United States in the year ahead.

Best in the US 2017 (lonelyplanet.com/best-in-us), selected by Lonely Planet's travel experts, names 10 destinations poised to shine next year, whether they're up-and-coming, overlooked or offer new reasons to visit in 2017.

This year, the charming enclave of Asheville, North Carolina was named the #1 destination in the US to visit in 2017. The vibrant city is known for its welcoming, creative spirit, thriving artistic community and booming food and drink scene.

Following in second place is Western Washington, where iconic landscapes made their way into popular consciousness in Twin Peaks, the show making a comeback in 2017, and in third place is heartland hub Lincoln, Nebraska. Other notable places that made the list include the desert area of California (#4) and Texas' relatively unknown wine country (#8).

"This year's list is incredibly diverse, spanning from coast to coast, giving a panoramic tour of America," said Lonely Planet magazine managing editor Rebecca Warren. "Whether travelers want to escape to the mountains, get transported back in time or relax by the beach, these are the destinations to be excited about. Some of them are on the public's radar, while others are recently emerging, and they all offer compelling reasons to visit in 2017."

Lonely Planet's Best in the US is a highly anticipated list of cities, regions and states worth traveling to in the year ahead, selected and ranked by Lonely Planet's US destination editors, writers and travel community. The complete list is available online at http://www.lonelyplanet.com/best-in-us, featuring a video and a chance to win a weekend away for two in #1 Asheville.

About Lonely Planet:

Travel media company and the world's leading guidebook publisher, Lonely Planet, has been inspiring and informing travelers since 1973. Over the past four decades, Lonely Planet has cultivated a dedicated traveler community and printed more than 130 million books in 14 different languages to almost every destination on the planet. The brand now offers compelling travel content across various channels, including an award-winning website, guidebooks, illustrated reference books, Lonely Planet Kids, 12 international magazines, mobile apps, video and more. Visit us at lonelyplanet.com, and join us on Facebook (facebook.com/lonelyplanet), Twitter (@lonelyplanet and #lp) and Instagram (instagram.com/lonelyplanet).

SOURCE Lonely Planet
SAN ANTONIO, Dec. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Seno Medical Instruments, Inc., the company pioneering the development of opto-acoustic (OA) technology as a new tool to improve the process of diagnosing breast cancer, today announced results from two analyses of the company's European MAESTRO post-market surveillance study. The two analyses were presented at the 2016 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) in San Antonio, Texas.

MAESTRO, a controlled, multi-center, observational, post-market surveillance and clinical follow-up study, was designed to assess the diagnostic value (specificity and sensitivity) of OA to conventional diagnostic ultrasound (CDU) in suspicious masses classified as BI-RADS 4a and 4b. Investigators first performed CDU to reach a diagnosis and decision to biopsy followed by an Imagio OA examination. Two hundred female subjects with undiagnosed suspicious masses enrolled in the study.

The first analysis evaluated the correlation between OA imaging results and histologic data of breast masses and found that there was a statistically significant correlation between the OA breast imaging results and those based on histopathologic analysis.

"These studies are an important step forward in the development of noninvasive breast imaging technology. Evaluation of the Imagio system significantly included an independent analysis of the patient's pathology, unparalleled in the pre-release development of any breast imaging technology," said F. Lee Tucker, MD, FCAP and pathologist for the PIONEER study in the U.S. "The findings indicate the Imagio system can provide an accurate and noninvasive differentiation of benign from cancerous breast masses and will be an important means of reducing the number of benign breast biopsies."

The histopathological examination revealed 146 benign masses and 67 malignant masses. For each mass, five pre-determined OA features, three internal features, and two external features were evaluated. The three internal scores (vessels, blush, and hemoglobin) and two external features (capsular boundary zone and peripheral boundary zone) were summed together and separately for testing relationships utilizing traditional histopathology measures. The OA feature scores statistically significantly differentiate between benign and malignant masses and appear to correlate to histologic grade.

The second study, an interim analysis from the MAESTRO study, presented OA imaging downclassification and upclassifciation data, which showed that the Imagio system improved physicians' ability to accurately classify breast masses as malignant or benign compared to using traditional ultrasound. Results from this study were first presented at the Annual Scientific Meeting of the European Society of Breast Imaging (EUSOBI), the second largest conference in the world dedicated to breast cancer imaging, in September 2016 in Paris.

"The interim results from the MAESTRO study provide further evidence in a real-world setting, that the Imagio breast imaging system is a viable diagnostic tool to more accurately assess breast masses for malignancy compared to diagnostic ultrasound," said Ruud Pijnappel MD, PhD, Professor Breast Radiology at UMC Utrecht, Netherlands and CEO of LRBC - Dutch Reference Centre for Screening. "We believe the final results of the MAESTRO study to be presented in 2017 will confirm these interim results."

"Together, the two data presentations presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium reinforce our belief that the Imagio breast imaging system will be an important tool to clinicians to evaluate suspicious masses while providing greater comfort to the patient," said Tom Umbel, CEO of Seno Medical Instruments. "We will soon launch the Imagio system in Europe and look forward to the presenting the MAESTRO final results and the results of our pivotal trial in the US  PIONEER  in 2017."

Seno Medical Instruments expects to announce the final results from the MAESTRO study in early 2017. Results from the company's PIONEER study in the U.S. of more than 2,000 patients are expected to be announced in the second half of 2017. Seno Medical is targeting their PMA submission for the Imagio system to the U.S Food and Drug Administration in early 2017.

Seno's Imagio system co-registers and fuses opto-acoustics, a technology based on "light-in and sound-out," with diagnostic ultrasound - (OA/US). The opto-acoustic images provide a unique blood map in and around suspicious breast masses. Cancerous tumors grow relatively quickly and require significant amounts of blood and oxygen, so a network of blood vessels grows around cancerous masses. Imagio OA/US breast imaging system provides real-time images of these networks and a map of relative oxygen-rich or oxygen-depleted blood. Unlike other functional fusion technologies, Imagio uses no x-rays (ionizing radiation) or injectable contrast agents or radio-isotopes to obtain its information, thereby reducing the patient's exposure to any potentially harmful aspects of imaging.

About Seno Medical Instruments, Inc.

Seno Medical Instruments, Inc. is a San Antonio, Texas-based medical imaging company committed to the development and commercialization of a new modality in cancer diagnosis: opto-acoustic imaging. Seno's Imagio breast imaging system fuses opto-acoustic technology with ultrasound to generate functional and anatomical images of the breast. The opto-acoustic images provide a unique color map in and around suspicious breast masses while the ultrasound provides a traditional anatomic image. Through the appearance or absence of the two hallmark indicators of cancer  angiogenesis and deoxygenation  Seno believes that Imagio images will be a more effective tool to help radiologists confirm or rule out malignancy than current diagnostic imaging modalities  without exposing patients to potentially harmful ionizing radiation (x-rays) or contrast agents. Seno's platform technology may also address other disease applications in organs other than the breast, as well as assessing other breast problems, such as early response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy or hormonal treatments of breast cancer. To learn more about Seno's opto-acoustic imaging technology and applications, visit http://www.SenoMedical.com

About the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium

The San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium is an international symposium directed primarily towards academic and private physicians and researchers involved in breast cancer in medical, surgical, gynecologic, and radiation oncology, as well as other appropriate health care professionals. Approximately 7,500 attendees from more than 90 countries are expected to attend.

About Breast Cancer

According to the American Cancer Society, an estimated 246,660 new cases of invasive breast cancer, along with 61,000 new cases of non-invasive (in situ) breast cancer, will be diagnosed in U.S. women in 2016. Additionally, there are over 1.6 million biopsies performed annually1 and recent reported data noted an 81% "false positive" rate of biopsy procedures  the portion of biopsies that do not lead to breast cancer surgery.2 An estimated 40,450 women in the U.S. are expected to die in 2016 from breast cancer. Only lung cancer accounts for more cancer deaths in women.3

Media Contact

Erich Sandoval

Lazar Partners Ltd.

Tel: +1 213-908-6226

Email: [email protected]

1 J Womens Health, September 2014, Vol. 23:S1,

2 An Actuarial Analysis of Breast Cancer Screening and Follow-on Diagnostics in a Commercially Insured Population.(2014).Millman, Inc., NY. http://www.milliman.com/uploadedFiles/insight/2014/actuarial-analysis-breast-cancer-screening.pdf

3 U.S. Breast Cancer Statistics | Breastcancer.org. (2016). Breastcancer.org. http://www.breastcancer.org/symptoms/understand_bc/statistics

SOURCE Seno Medical Instruments, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.senomedical.com


TAMPA, Fla., Dec. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Nicopure Labs, LLC, the leading manufacturer of premium American-made e-liquids, releases a statement in response to the report about e-cigarette use among youth by the U.S. Surgeon General.

The U.S. Surgeon General's report, E-Cigarette Use Among Youth and Young Adults, focuses on the use of e-cigarettes by the youth population. While the majority of the vaping industry agrees that the youth should not use any nicotine product, the report fails to mention the potential tobacco harm reduction benefits of e-cigarettes in adult smokers.



"Nicopure Labs appreciates the U.S. Surgeon General's focus on understanding the vaping industry and the tobacco harm reduction opportunities presented by vaping products," said Jeff Stamler, Chief Executive Officer at Nicopure Labs. "However, we have grave concerns about the report's failure to communicate the unmistakable contribution to increased smoking cessation and the comparative reduced harm presented by vaping products with respect to conventional cigarettes. We expect much more of appointed health officials and we will continue to support reasonable regulation that reflects the potential for harm reduction that vaping products offer to many adult smokers, who otherwise would not have a viable alternative to escape the deadly grip of conventional cigarettes."

"The public would be better served if U.S. Government officials focused their energy and attention on irresponsible manufacturers, and eliminate those who use inappropriate flavor names and employ marketing strategies that appeal to the youth," said Stamler. "The FDA Deeming Rule that went into effect on August 8, 2016 to regulate vaping products does not address this issue, nor the good manufacturing practices and the safety of certain flavorings that most irresponsible manufacturers are using in their e-liquids."

The UK Royal College of Physicians took a much different approach last April and stated that vaping is about 95% safer than smoking and can be used effectively in smoking cessation. The U.S. Surgeon General's report does not mention this.

"We are extremely disappointed that the US Surgeon General Report makes no mention of the UK

Royal College of Physicians comprehensive report published earlier this year, which arrived at different conclusions about the vaping products' potential to reduce harm in various populations, including youth, while duly acknowledging potential risks," said Patricia Kovacevic, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer at Nicopure Labs. "Generally, we believe the government's repeated failure to proactively communicate comparative reduced risk of vaping versus smoking is detrimental to public health and does not meet the HHS public health mandate."

About Nicopure Labs, LLC

Operating since 2009, Tampa-based Nicopure Labs, LLC is an industry leading e-liquid manufacturer with operations in the U.S. and Europe. Nicopure Labs has recently upgraded its 110,000-sq. ft. manufacturing and distribution operations in Gainesville, Florida to include a 10,000-sq. ft. ISO 7 cleanroom. Distributing to over 90 countries worldwide, Nicopure Labs has also expanded its presence with the recent addition of a European headquarters in the Netherlands and offices in England.

For more information about Nicopure Labs, distribution or reseller information, please visit nicopure.com. For additional information regarding their premium American-made e-liquids and innovative line of vaporizer devices, please visit halocigs.com.

Media Contact:

Jessica Wyland

[email protected]

888-270-2449 ext. 7777

SOURCE Nicopure Labs, LLC

Related Links

https://www.nicopure.com


EAST HANOVER, N.J., Dec. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Novartis announced today additional analyses from the Phase III MONALEESA-2 study that show LEE011 (ribociclib) plus letrozole significantly prolonged progression-free survival (PFS) across pre-planned patient subgroups with hormone receptor positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 negative (HR+/HER2-) advanced or metastatic breast cancer, including post-menopausal women diagnosed de novo, those with visceral liver and lung metastases, and those with bone-only disease1,2.

These findings demonstrate the strength of LEE011 plus letrozole in the first-line setting, showing that treatment benefit was evident across all patient subgroups regardless of their disease burden or tumor location, including those patients with aggressive disease. Data will be presented today at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) (Abstracts P4-22-05 and P4-22-16).

"Results from the de novo subgroup of women in the MONALEESA-2 trial establish ribociclib in combination with letrozole as a meaningful treatment option in the first-line setting for this patient population," said Joyce O'Shaughnessy, MD, Co-Chair, Breast Cancer Research, Texas Oncology-Baylor Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center. "These de novo patients are often diagnosed initially with advanced breast cancer that has already metastasized, so it is critical to start them with treatments that extend time until disease progression."

"Breast cancer that has metastasized to areas such as the liver or lungs can often be more challenging to effectively treat with current standards of care," said Howard A. Burris, MD, President, Clinical Operations and Chief Medical Officer, Sarah Cannon. "We have been encouraged by the MONALEESA-2 results because treatment benefit was observed regardless of the number of metastatic sites and was maintained across all subgroups taking ribociclib plus letrozole. Our observations indicate that this novel therapy may be a promising treatment option for many patients living with advanced forms of breast cancer."

First-line ribociclib + letrozole in patients with de novo HR+, HER2 advanced breast cancer: A subgroup analysis of the MONALEESA-2 trial (Abstract P4-22-05)

A predefined subgroup analysis of the MONALEESA-2 trial evaluated the safety and efficacy of LEE011 plus letrozole versus letrozole alone in 227 patients with de novo advanced breast cancer, defined as disease found to be metastatic at the time of first diagnosis1. Because de novo disease has not been previously treated with systemic treatment for early-stage breast cancer, tumors may exhibit a different disease biology, which could result in varied responses compared to patients who experienced recurrence1. In patients with de novo advanced breast cancer, LEE011 plus letrozole reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 55% over letrozole alone (HR=0.448 [95% CI: 0.2670.750])1. The 12-month PFS rate was 82% in the LEE011 plus letrozole arm compared to 66% with letrozole alone.

Consistent with the overall study population, most adverse events were mild to moderate in severity, identified early through routine monitoring, and generally managed through dose interruption and reduction1. The most common grade 3/4 adverse events (15% of patients with de novo advanced breast cancer; LEE011 plus letrozole vs. letrozole alone) were neutropenia (55.3% vs. 0.9%) and leukopenia (21.1% vs. 0%)1.

First-line ribociclib + letrozole in patients with HR+, HER2 advanced breast cancer presenting with visceral metastases or bone-only disease: A subgroup analysis of the MONALEESA-2 trial (Abstract P4-22-16)

In separate predefined subgroups, 393 patients with advanced breast cancer with visceral metastases and 147 patients with bone-only disease were evaluated as part of the MONALEESA-2 trial. Those with visceral metastases have metastatic growth at the site of the lung or liver, and typically have a poorer prognosis than patients with non-visceral disease2. Results of these analyses show that first-line LEE011 plus letrozole was well tolerated and reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 47% (patients with visceral disease: HR=0.535 [95% CI: 0.3850.742]) and by 31% (patients with bone-only disease: HR=0.690 [95% CI: 0.3811.249]) respectively2. Treatment benefit with LEE011 in combination with letrozole was observed regardless of the number of metastatic sites and (HR=0.607 (95% CI: 0.4370.845) among patients with less than 3 metastases; HR=0.456 (95% CI: 0.2980.700) among patients with 3 or more metastases)2.

Among patients with visceral metastases the most frequent grade 3/4 adverse events (20% of patients; LEE011 plus letrozole vs. letrozole alone) were neutropenia (64.0% vs 1%) and leukopenia (20.8% vs 0.5%)2. Among patients with bone-only disease the most frequent grade 3/4 adverse events (20% of patients; LEE011 plus letrozole vs. letrozole alone) were neutropenia (53.6% vs 1.3%) and leukopenia (23.2% vs 1.3%)2.

"These additional results from the MONALEESA-2 study are very promising for women with HR+ advanced breast cancer," said Bruno Strigini, CEO, Novartis Oncology. "We believe LEE011 could significantly benefit a broad range of women as an initial treatment for metastatic breast cancer and look forward to working with global health authorities to bring this new treatment to patients."

The MONALEESA-2 study is ongoing to evaluate secondary endpoints, including overall survival. LEE011 received Breakthrough Therapy designation from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in August 2016 and Priority Review in October 2016.

About LEE011 (ribociclib)

LEE011 (ribociclib) is a selective cyclin dependent kinase inhibitor, a class of drugs that help slow the progression of cancer by inhibiting two proteins called cyclin dependent kinase 4 and 6 (CDK4/6). These proteins, when over-activated in a cell, can enable cancer cells to grow and divide too quickly. Targeting CDK4/6 with enhanced precision may play a role in ensuring cancer cells do not grow uncontrollably.

LEE011 is not approved for any indication in any market at this time. LEE011 was developed by the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR) under a research collaboration with Astex Pharmaceuticals.

About the MONALEESA Clinical Trial Program

Novartis is continuing to assess LEE011 through the robust MONALEESA ( M ammary ON cology A ssessment of LE E011's E fficacy and SA fety) clinical trial program, which includes MONALEESA-2, MONALEESA-3, and MONALEESA-7. These trials are evaluating LEE011 in multiple endocrine therapy combinations across a broad range of patients, including men and premenopausal women.

MONALEESA-2 is a Phase III randomized, double blind, placebo controlled, multicenter global registration trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of LEE011 in combination with letrozole compared to letrozole alone in postmenopausal women with HR+/HER2- advanced breast cancer who received no prior therapy for their advanced breast cancer3.

The trial randomized 668 patients in a 1:1 ratio stratified by the presence of liver and/or lung metastases at 223 clinical trial sites globally3. Patients received LEE011 600 mg/daily (three weeks on and one week off), or placebo, in combination with letrozole 2.5 mg/daily.

The primary endpoint of the trial was PFS3. Secondary endpoints included: overall survival, overall response rate, clinical benefit rate, health-related quality of life, safety and tolerability3.

In MONALEESA-2, the most common grade 3/4 (most severe) adverse events were as follows for LEE011 plus letrozole compared to letrozole alone: neutropenia (60% vs 1%), leukopenia (21% vs 1%), elevated alanine aminotransferase (9% vs 1%), lymphopenia (7% vs 1%) and elevated aspartate aminotransferase (6% vs 1%)1. The most common all-grade adverse events (35% of patients in either arm, regardless of relationship to study treatment) were as follows for LEE011 plus letrozole compared to letrozole alone: neutropenia (74% vs 5%), nausea (52% vs 29%), infections (50% vs 42%), fatigue (37% vs 30%), and diarrhea (35% vs 22%)1. Nausea, infections, fatigue, and diarrhea were mostly grade 1 or 21.

The MONALEESA-3 trial is a phase III trial evaluating LEE011 in combination with fulvestrant compared to fulvestrant alone in men and post-menopausal women with HR+/HER2- advanced breast cancer who have received no or a maximum of one prior endocrine therapy.

MONALEESA-7, the largest phase III trial of a CDK4/6 inhibitor in this patient population, is investigating LEE011 in combination with endocrine therapy and goserelin compared to endocrine therapy and goserelin alone in pre-menopausal women with HR+/HER2- advanced breast cancer who have not previously received endocrine therapy. Both MONALEESA-3 and MONALEESA-7 are fully enrolled.

About Advanced Breast Cancer

Up to one-third of patients with early-stage breast cancer will subsequently develop metastatic disease4. Metastatic breast cancer is the most serious form of the disease and occurs when the cancer has spread to other parts of the body, such as the brain, bones or liver5. Advanced breast cancer comprises metastatic breast cancer (stage 4) and locally advanced breast cancer (stage 3)5. Survival rates for women living with advanced breast cancer are lower than those for women with earlier stage disease. The 5-year relative survival rate for stage 3 breast cancer is approximately 72%, while metastatic (stage 4) breast cancer has a 5-year relative survival rate of approximately 22%6.

About Novartis in advanced breast cancer

For more than 25 years, Novartis has been at the forefront of driving scientific advancements for breast cancer patients and improving clinical practice in collaboration with the global community7. With one of the most diverse breast cancer pipelines and the largest number of breast cancer compounds in development, Novartis leads the industry in discovery of new therapies and combinations, especially in HR+ advanced breast cancer, the most common form of the disease7.

Disclaimer

The foregoing release contains forward-looking statements that can be identified by words such as "Breakthrough Therapy designation," "Priority Review," "may," "will," "exciting," "promising," "believe," "could," "look forward," "ongoing," "continuing," "evaluating," "investigating," "pipelines," "in development," or similar terms, or by express or implied discussions regarding potential marketing approvals for LEE011 or any other compound in the Novartis breast cancer pipeline, or regarding potential future revenues from LEE011 and the other compounds in the Novartis breast cancer pipeline. You should not place undue reliance on these statements. Such forward-looking statements are based on the current beliefs and expectations of management regarding future events, and are subject to significant known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. There can be no guarantee that LEE011 or any other compound in the Novartis breast cancer pipeline will be submitted or approved for sale in any market, or at any particular time. Nor can there be any guarantee that LEE011 or the other compound in the Novartis breast cancer pipeline will be commercially successful in the future. In particular, management's expectations regarding LEE011 and such other pipeline compounds could be affected by, among other things, the uncertainties inherent in research and development, including unexpected clinical trial results and additional analysis of existing clinical data; unexpected regulatory actions or delays or government regulation generally; the company's ability to obtain or maintain proprietary intellectual property protection; general economic and industry conditions; competition in general; global trends toward health care cost containment, including ongoing pricing pressures; unexpected safety, quality or manufacturing issues, and other risks and factors referred to in Novartis AG's current Form 20-F on file with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Novartis is providing the information in this press release as of this date and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this press release as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

About Novartis

Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation researches, develops, manufactures and markets innovative medicines aimed at improving patients' lives. We offer a broad range of medicines for cancer, cardiovascular disease, endocrine disease, inflammatory disease, infectious disease, neurological disease, organ transplantation, psychiatric disease, respiratory disease and skin conditions. The company's mission is to improve people's lives by pioneering novel healthcare solutions.

Located in East Hanover, New Jersey, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation is an affiliate of Novartis AG, which provides innovative healthcare solutions that address the evolving needs of patients and societies. Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Novartis offers a diversified portfolio to best meet these needs: innovative medicines, eye care and cost-saving generic pharmaceuticals. Novartis is the only global company with leading positions in these areas. In 2015, the Group achieved net sales of USD 49.4 billion, while R&D throughout the Group amounted to approximately USD 8.9 billion (USD 8.7 billion excluding impairment and amortization charges). Novartis Group companies employ approximately 118,000 full-time-equivalent associates. Novartis products are available in more than 180 countries around the world. For more information, please visit http://www.novartis.com.

Novartis is on Twitter. Sign up to follow @Novartis at http://twitter.com/novartis and @NovartisCancer at http://twitter.com/novartiscancer

References

1. O'Shaughnessy J. First-line ribociclib + letrozole in patients with de novo HR+, HER2- advanced breast cancer: A subgroup analysis of the MONALEESA-2 trial. Presented at San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS), December 9, 2016, San Antonio, Texas (abstract # P4-22-05) 2. Burris H. First-line Ribociclib + Letrozole in Patients With HR+, HER2 Advanced Breast Cancer Presenting With Visceral Metastases or Bone-only Disease: A Subgroup Analysis of the MONALEESA-2 trial. Presented at San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS), December 9, 2016, San Antonio, Texas (abstract # P4-22-16) 3. Hortobagyi G, Stemmer S, Burris H, et al. First-line ribociclib plus letrozole for postmenopausal women with HR+, HER2-, advanced breast cancer: First results from the Phase III MONALEESA-2 study. Presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress, October 8, 2016, Copenhagen, Denmark (abstract # LBA1_PR) 4. O'Shaughnessy J. Extending survival with chemotherapy in metastatic breast cancer. The Oncologist. 2005;10(Suppl 3):2029. 5. American Cancer Society. How do you determine the stage of breast cancer? Available at http://www.cancer.org/cancer/breastcancer/detailedguide/breast-cancer-staging. Accessed May 10, 2016. 6. American Cancer Society. Breast cancer survival rates, by stage. Available at http://www.cancer.org/cancer/breastcancer/detailedguide/breast-cancer-survival-by-stage. Accessed July 7, 2016. 7. Novartis Data on File

SOURCE Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation

Related Links

http://www.novartis.com


NEW YORK, Dec. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- OnDeck (NYSE:ONDK), the leader in online lending for small business, announced today the closing of a $200 million asset-backed revolving debt facility with Credit Suisse.

In addition to its other funding sources, OnDeck may now obtain funding under the new credit facility with Credit Suisse, subject to customary borrowing conditions, by accessing $125 million of committed capacity and an additional $75 million of capacity available at the discretion of the lenders.

"OnDeck has emerged as a leading provider of growth capital to small businesses around the country," said Jon-Claude Zucconi, Managing Director, Credit Suisse. "The team's innovative vision and commitment to financing is vital to expansion and growth in the small business community."

Under the facility, loans will be made to Prime OnDeck Receivable Trust II, LLC, or PORT II, a wholly-owned subsidiary of OnDeck, to finance PORT II's purchase of small business loans from OnDeck. The revolving pool of small business loans purchased by PORT II serves as collateral under the facility. OnDeck is acting as the servicer for such small business loans. The Class A Loans under the facility were rated by DBRS, Inc.

OnDeck intends to initially use a portion of this facility, together with other available funds, to optionally prepay in full without penalty or premium, the existing $100 million Prime OnDeck Receivable Trust, LLC facility which was scheduled to expire in June 2017. As a result, OnDeck will benefit from obtaining additional funding capacity through December 2018.

"This transaction marks a continuation of our financing strategy to diversify funding sources, extend debt maturities, and create additional funding capacity to pave the way for future loan growth," said Howard Katzenberg, Chief Financial Officer, OnDeck. "We are pleased to have Credit Suisse, a leading global financial institution, support OnDeck in our mission to power the growth of small business through lending technology and innovation."

About OnDeck

OnDeck (NYSE: ONDK) is the leader in online small business lending. Since 2007, the company has powered Main Street's growth through advanced lending technology and a constant dedication to customer service. OnDeck's proprietary credit scoring system  the OnDeck Score  leverages advanced analytics, enabling OnDeck to make real-time lending decisions and deliver capital to small businesses in as little as 24 hours. OnDeck offers business owners a complete financing solution, including the online lending industry's widest range of term loans and lines of credit. To date, the company has deployed over $5 billion to more than 60,000 customers in 700 different industries across the United States, Canada, and Australia. OnDeck has an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau and operates the educational small business financing website BusinessLoans.com.

For more information, please visit www.ondeck.com.

About Credit Ratings

Credit ratings are opinions of the relevant rating agency. They are not facts and are not opinions of OnDeck. They are not recommendations to purchase, sell or hold any securities and can be changed or withdrawn at any time.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and other legal authority. Forward-looking statements include statements about the intended use of proceeds from the new facility and expected optional repayment in full of the existing facility, the extension of debt maturities and the availability of additional funding capacity, all of which are dependent upon compliance with the borrowing and other conditions of the new facility, as well as information concerning OnDeck's business plans and objectives and financing plans including future loan growth. Forward-looking statements can also be identified by words such as "will," "enables," "expects", "may," "allows," "continues," "believes," "intends," "anticipates," "estimates" or similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are neither historical facts nor assurances of future performance. They are based only on OnDeck's current beliefs, expectations and assumptions regarding the future of its business, anticipated events and trends, the economy and other future conditions. Moreover, OnDeck does not assume responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of forward-looking statements. As such, they are subject to inherent uncertainties, changes in circumstances, known and unknown risks and other factors that are difficult to predict and in many cases outside OnDeck's control.

As a result, you should not rely on any forward-looking statements. OnDeck's expected results may not be achieved, and actual results may differ materially from OnDeck's expectations. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ from OnDeck's forward-looking statements are the risks that OnDeck may not be able to manage its anticipated or actual growth effectively, that its credit models do not adequately identify potential risks, and other risks, including those under the heading "Risk Factors" in OnDeck's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015, Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2016 and in other documents that OnDeck files with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, from time to time which are available on the SEC website at www.sec.gov. OnDeck undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements for any reason after the date of this press release to conform these statements to actual results or to changes in OnDeck's expectations, except as required by law.

OnDeck, the OnDeck logo and OnDeck Score are trademarks of On Deck Capital, Inc.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150812/257781LOGO

SOURCE On Deck Capital, Inc.
LIVERPOOL, Pa., Dec. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Department of Community and Economic Development Secretary Dennis Davin today continued his 'Jobs that Pay' tour at Champion Modular, Inc., a custom producer of homes and commercial structures.

"Champion is one of the many manufacturing companies that are choosing Pennsylvania as the best place to grow and flourish. We were pleased to welcome the company to its new Juniata County location this fall," said Sec. Davin. "Equally exciting as Champion's move to Liverpool is its decision to reopen a facility that had been vacant for several months and its efforts to rehire many of the workers who lost their jobs."

Of the 246 job creation commitment, Champion has already hired 55 full-time, permanent employees. An additional 70 employees will be hired in January 2017 when production commences.

Partnering with the Governor's Action Team  an experienced group of economic development professionals who report directly to the governor and work with businesses that are considering locating or expanding in Pennsylvania  Champion purchased and reopened a vacant manufacturing facility in Liverpool, Juniata County. The company has committed to investing $4.83 million in the project, which will create 246 new, full-time jobs over the next three years.

"Champion greatly appreciates the support we are receiving from the DECD and the local community in our efforts to re-open this facility," said Champion President Mark Yost. "The key to any successful business is its people, and we are extremely pleased with the caliber of the employees who have joined our Liverpool team. Collectively we look forward to producing quality homes with the custom features that customers expect."

In October, the company received a funding proposal from DCED that included a $300,000 Pennsylvania First Program grant, $492,000 in Job Creation Tax Credits to be distributed upon creation of the new jobs, and $81,000 in WEDnetPA funding for employee training.

Founded in 1953, Champion specializes in a wide variety of manufactured, modular, and park model homes, as well as modular buildings for the multi-family, hospitality, senior, and workforce housing sectors. Champion started as a single manufacturing facility in rural Michigan and grew to offer factory-built housing and other structures throughout the U.S., U.K., and western Canada. The company operates 28 manufacturing facilities throughout North America and Europe, and employs more than 4,200 people worldwide.

The 'Jobs that Pay' tour is an effort by state agencies to promote good-paying, family-sustaining jobs and career-paths available to job-seekers across the commonwealth, and to listen and learn from employers and employees about workforce development needs.

For more information on Champion, visit www.championhomes.com. Those interested in pursuing an employment opportunity at the Liverpool facility are encouraged to contact Champion at [email protected].

For more information about the Governor's Action Team or DCED visit dced.pa.gov.

MEDIA CONTACT: David Misner, 717-783-1132

SOURCE Pennsylvania Department of Community & Economic Development

Related Links

http://dced.pa.gov


THE WALL OF SHAME

"The only thing [Trump's] mouth is good for is being Vladimir Putin's c--k holster."

--STEPHEN COLBERT

"[Ivanka Trump] Your father is a racist birther. Steve Bannon an anti-Semitic opportunist. You and your husband are enabling hatred. F--- your shoes."

--BRADLEY WHITFORD

"Melania [Trump] is a hooker."

--JACOB BERNSTEIN

"And my job is to shut other white people down when they want to interrupt."

"We have to, at the DNC, provide training. We have to teach them how to communicate, how to be sensitive, and how to shut their mouths if they're white."

--SALLY BOYNTON BROWN

"And to our detractors that insist that this march will never add up to anything: F--- you! F---you!

"Yes, I have thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House."

--MADONNA

"Barron Trump looks like a very handsome date-rapist-to-be."

--STEPHEN SPINOLA

"Barron [Trump] will be this country's first homeschool shooter."

--KATIE RICH

"Hollywood is crawling with outsiders and foreigners, and if we kick 'em all out, you'll have nothing to watch but football and mixed martial arts, which are not the arts."

--MERYL STREEP

"There's a billion to one chance we're living in base reality."

[That means we're almost positively living in a simulation, like a video game.]

--ELON MUSK

"When I would deny that there was a significant racist component in some of the politics on our side, it was because the people I hung out with were certainly not. When suddenly, this rock is turned over, there is this'Oh shit, did I not see that?'"

----------------------------

"In any other scenario, Hillary Clinton's lying about her emails, and her pay-for-play relationship with the Clinton Foundation would be disqualifying issues. The only reason they're not disqualifying is because Donald Trump is a fundamentally more repellent, dishonest figure."

--CHARLIE SYKES

"I made a mistake in recalling the events of twelve years ago... I said I was traveling in an aircraft that was hit by RPG fire. I was instead in a following aircraft."

--BRIAN WILLIAMS

"I'm here to tell you if you elect me governor of this state, I will end the civil war."

--TOM BARRETT

"I would not look to the U.S. Constitution, if I were drafting a constitution in the year 2012. I might look at the constitution of South Africa. That was a deliberate attempt to have a fundamental instrument of government that embraced basic human rights, had an independent judiciary. It really is, I think, a great piece of work that was done."

--RUTH BADER GINSBURG

"Callista Gingrich. Karen Santorum. Ann Romney. Now, do you really think our country is ready for a white first lady?"

--ROBERT DE NIRO

"The death of Andrew Breitbart disproves the adage that only the good die young."

--JULIAN BOND

"The National Institute of Health has said that it is a danger to women's health and safety of their families that for 30 years to be exposed to the prospects of pregnancy."

--GWEN MOORE

"[Tea Party Republicans] have acted like terrorists."

--JOE BIDEN

"Why did- Couldn't the President have said at that moment, way back in December of last year, 'no game playing. No hostage-taking. No terrorizing this country with the debt ceiling. I'm not going to negotiate with you guys. You can't play it that way.' Could he have done that?"

--CHRIS MATTHEWS

"[T]he tea-party Hobbits could return to Middle Earth having defeated Mordor."

--WALL STREET JOURNAL EDITORIAL

"I remember distinctly an image of--we were sitting on his couches, and I was looking at [Obama's] pant leg and his perfectly creased pant, and I'm thinking, a) he's going to be president and b) he'll be a very good president."

--DAVID BROOKS

"I feel like calling her back and smackin' her around."

--FRED CLARK, DEMOCRAT

"The picture was of me, and I sent it."

--ANTHONY WEINER

"[I]f you go back to the year 2000, when we had an obvious disaster and - and saw that our voting process needed refinement, and we did that in the America Votes Act and made sure that we could iron out those kinks, now you have the Republicans, who want to literally drag us all the way back to Jim Crow laws and literally - and very transparently - block access to the polls to voters who are more likely to vote Democratic candidates than Republican candidates. And it's nothing short of that blatant."

--DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ

"This is probably one of the worst times we've seen because the numbers of people elected to Congress. I went through this as co-chair of the arts caucus. In '94 people were elected simply to come here to kill the National Endowment for the Arts. Now theyre here to kill women."

--LOUISE SLAUGHTER

"The protesters have proven today that theyre not going away. It was a pretty rough night last night. You can imagine if people said, well, we just cant fight the power. Instead, this morning, they came by tens, by hundreds, by thousands. By midday today, it was easily more than 10,000, perhaps as many as 15,000 people on the square here in Madison. Not organized by anyone, just grassroots citizens who came out just like the Minutemen in 1776."

--JOHN NICHOLS

"They're sitting on the money, they're using it for their own -- they're putting it someplace else with no interest in helping you with your life, with that money. We've allowed them to take that. That's not theirs, that's a national resource, that's ours. We all have this -- we all benefit from this or we all suffer as a result of not having it. I think we need to go back to taxing these people at the proper rates."

--MICHAEL MOORE

"Why don't we just raise the taxes and let these folks have their collective bargaining, have their union representation and go back to their jobs? Raise the taxes on the wealthy."

--DAVID LETTERMAN

"In 1933, [Hitler] abolished unions and that's what our Governor [Scott Walker] is doing today."

--LENA TAYLOR, Democrat State Senator

"So I would urge my Republican colleagues, no matter how strongly they feel -- you know, we have three branches of government. We have a House. We have a Senate. We have a president. And all three of us are going to have to come together and give some, but it is playing with fire to risk the shutting down of the government."

--CHUCK SCHUMER

"Well, when you start off with the Preamble of the Constitution, you talk about the pursuit of happiness."

--JOHN LEWIS

"I'm Rebecca Kleefisch. I performed fellatio on all the talk show hosts in Milwaukee. And they endorsed me and that's how I became lieutenant governor."

--SLY SYLVESTER

"Do you think this Constitution-loving is getting out of hand? I mean, is it a nod to the Tea Party?"

--JOY BEHAR

"We cant just leave it up to the parents."

"[Military leaders] tell us that childhood obesity isnt just a public health issue; they tell us that it is not just an economic threat -- it is a national security threat as well."

--MICHELLE OBAMA

"Actually, I did not take part in [the assassination of Sarah Palin]. I led it."

--KATHLEEN PARKER

"[The repeal of ObamaCare is] a kind of creeping genocide."

--JESSE JACKSON

"[Obama] has to realize that Mitch McConnell has virtually said so that politically he wants to cut out his heart and throw his liver to the dogs."

--DAN RATHER

"And the instructions are not to improvise a comedy sketch, but to elect a group of unqualified, unstable individuals who will do what they are told, in exchange for money and power, and march this nation as far backward as they can get, backward to Jim Crow, or backward to the breadlines of the '30s, or backward to hanging union organizers, or backward to the trusts and the robber barons.

"Result: the Tea Party. Vote backward, vote Tea Party. And if you are somehow indifferent to what is planned for next Tuesday, it is nothing short of an attempted use of democracy to end this democracy."

--KEITH "Reagan's dead and he was a lousy President" OLBERMANN

"I gotta wonder when people are gonna start wearing uniforms. I mean they've got an army out there in Alaska of militia people. You've got these guys going around acting like street thugs. I mean it isn't far from what we saw in the thirties, where all of a sudden, political parties started showing up in uniform."

--CHRIS MATTHEWS

"[Sharron Angle] is a moron on top of being evil... I'd like to see her do this ad in the South Bronx. Come here, bitch. Come to New York and do it. I'm not praying for her. She's going to hell. She's going to hell, this bitch."

--JOY BEHAR

"So people have been hurting and I understand that. And it doesn't give them comfort or solace for me to tell them, you know, but for me, we'd be in a worldwide depression."

--HARRY REID

"And to play Dick Cheney, all I had to do was find my Dick Cheney. And you can find all the villainy in the world in your own heart, and that's what an actor's job is. I always say to kids, inside you is Hitler and Jesus. And you got to find the appropriate person and bring them out."

--RICHARD DREYFUSS

"Because I live in the District of Columbia which is so predominantly Democratic, I am a registered Democrat. But I am an avowed neutral. And to put that into practice, I take my young daughter into the voting booth and she votes for me. She's now 14. We've been doing this since she was about age 4. She's now quite informed."

--BOB WOODWARD

"Sarah Palin's an idiot. Come on. This is a remarkably, stunningly, jaw-droppingly incompetent and mean woman."

"The Democrats may have moved into the center, but the Republicans have moved into a mental institution."

--AARON SORKIN

"Perhaps the greatest threat of all is the undermining of our Constitution and the systematic attack against the inalienable rights of the citizens of this nation, rights that are guaranteed by our Constitution. At the vanguard of this insidious attack is the Tea Party. This band of misguided citizens is moving perilously close to achieving villainous ends."

--HARRY BELAFONTE

"[Christine O'Donnell is] a witch who doesn't masturbate."

--JOY BEHAR

"Ah, the Tea Party, the nativist bed-wetters who somehow control our national dialogue. Yes, I call them the Pee Party, Jay, because they're always peeing in their pants about something. They're just, they're afraid of a mosque being built in New York. They're afraid of guns. You know, they think Obama, who like every other pussy Democrat has never said a single word about gun control, but they are very sure that he and his Negro army are coming after their guns. You know what? If you think that he's coming after your guns, you need to get out of your chat room and have your house tested for lead. He's not coming after your guns or your Bible or your fishing pole or your chewing tobacco."

--BILL MAHER

"That's a trade-off society is making because of very, very high medical costs, and a lack of willingness to say, you know, is spending a million dollars on that last three months of life for that patient, would it be better not to lay off those ten teachers and to make that trade-off in medical costs. But that;s called the 'Death Panel' and you're not supposed to have that discussion."

--BILL GATES

"NOT the 'whiteman's bitch'"

--IESHUH GRIFFIN

"[If Rush Limbaugh suffered a heart attack in my presence, I would] laugh loudly like a maniac and watch his eyes bug out. I never knew I had this much hate in me. But he deserves it."

--SARAH SPITZ

"You want freedom, you going to have to kill some crackers. You going to have to kill some of their babies."

--KING SAMIR SHABAZZ

"If this was Texas, which is the state that, that is directly on the border with Mexico, and they were calling for a measure like this, saying that they had a major issue with, you know, with undocumented people flooding their borders, I would say I would have to look twice at this. "But this is a state that is a ways removed from the border. And, um, it just, it doesn't make sense to me that when you google this subject, if you put in 'Arizona S.B. 1070,' that you see a picture of the governor of Arizona meeting with President Obama in May of 2010. If you have direct linkage to the president, there are already National Guard troops on the border in Arizona."

--PEGGY WEST

"Tell [the Jews] to get the hell out of Palestine. Remember, these people are occupied and it's their land. It's not German. It's not Poland. [The Jews] can go home. Poland. Germany."

--HELEN THOMAS

"After the last eight years, it's good to have a president that knows what a library is."

--PAUL McCARTNEY

"By the way, I just want to point out I'm wearing my splash shield because I was told I was going to be in the splash zone (during Harry Smith's colonoscopy on live TV)."

--KATIE COURIC

"And that Word is, we have to give voice to what that means in terms of public policy that would be in keeping with the values of the Word."

----------------------------

"Think of an economy where people could be an artist or a photographer or a writer without worrying about keeping their day job in order to have health insurance or that people could start a business and be entrepreneurial and take risk, but not job loss because of a child with asthma or someone in the family is bipolaryou name it, any condition  is job-locking."

--NANCY PELOSI

"Back in World War II, we viewed the Japanese as 'yellow, slant-eyed dogs' that believed in different gods. They were out to kill us because our way of living was different. We, in turn, wanted to annihilate them because they were different. Does that sound familiar, by any chance, to what's going on today?"

--TOM HANKS

"The 'White Right' is trying to set Barack up to be assassinated.... Here are Christians praying for God to kill Barack Obama."

--LOUIS FARRAKHAN

"I refuse to accept the notion that the United States of America is not going to lead the world economically throughout the 20th Century."

--JOE BIDEN

"Obama's critics keep blasting him for Chicago-style politics. So, fine. Channel your inner Al Capone and go gangsta against your foes. Let 'em know that if they aren't with you, they are against you, and will pay the price."

--ROLAND MARTIN

"Martha Coakley is running to fill the rest of Ted Kennedy's term, and her opponent is a far-right tea-bagger Republican."

--CHUCK SCHUMER

"I tell you what, if I lived in Massachusetts, I'd try to vote ten times. I don't know if they'd let me or not, but I'd try to. Yeah, that's right, I'd cheat to keep these bastards out. I would. 'Cause that's exactly what they are."

--ED SCHULTZ

"We also see how revved up the tea baggers are at the thought of hijacking health care reform and every chance we have at making progress in Washington."

--JOHN KERRY

"A few years ago, this guy (Obama) would have been getting us coffee."

--BILL CLINTON

"I didn't realize I had written a column defending Roman Polanski and minimized his crime - are you sure it was me? I mean, I? There is, apparently, more to this crime than it would seem, and it may sound like a hollow defense, but in Hollywood I am not sure a 13-year-old is really a 13-year-old."

--TOM SHALES

"Joe Wilson yelled 'You lie!' at a president who didn't. But, fair or not, what I heard was an unspoken word in the air: You lie, boy!"

--MAUREEN DOWD

"One awkward moment for Sarah Palin at the Yankee game... During the 7th inning, her daughter was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez."

--DAVID LETTERMAN

"I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasnt lived that life."

--SONIA SOTOMAYOR

"We all considered sexual abuse of minors as a moral evil, but had no understanding of its criminal nature."

--REMBERT WEAKLAND, Archbishop of Milwaukee 1977- 2002

"You know, you might want to look into this, [President Obama], because I think maybe Rush Limbaugh was the 20th hijacker, but he was so strung out on Oxycontin he missed his flight."

"Rush Limbaugh -- 'I hope the country fails.' I hope his kidneys fail."

----------------------------

"[Obama] told me I did a great job. The first lady said the same thing. I got a 'well done' from the president, I'm on cloud nine."

--WANDA SYKES

"Americans are looking for more government in their life, not less."

--COLIN POWELL

"[Tea Party goers are] just a bunch of wimpy, whiny, weasels who don't love their country."

--PAUL BEGALA

"I wouldn't want [gay marriage] to go to the United States Supreme Court now because that homophobe Antonin Scalia has too many votes on this current court."

--BARNEY FRANK

"Going forward, my mind will be open to every solution -- except one. We should not -- we must not -- and I will not -- raise taxes."

--JIM DOYLE, Liar

"He's a terrorist. Rush Limbaugh is a terrorist."

--JOY BEHAR

"You know, I just want to say to her (Sarah Palin), just very quickly...F--- you."

--JON STEWART

"Should I be worried about being a slave and being returned to slavery?"

--WHOOPI GOLDBERG

"I also believe that America is the greatest sin against God."

--FR. MICHAEL PFLEGER

"Those who think they can revive the stinking corpse of the usurping and fake Israeli regime by throwing a birthday party are seriously mistaken. Today the reason for the Zionist regime's existence is questioned, and this regime is on its way to annihilation."

--MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD

"We'll be eight degrees hotter in ten, not ten but 30 or 40 years and basically none of the crops will grow. Most of the people will have died and the rest of us will be cannibals."

--TED TURNER

"Look, [Mitt] Romney comes from a religion founded by a criminal who was anti-American, pro-slavery, and a rapist. And he comes from that lineage and says, 'I respect this religion fully.'"

--LAWRENCE O'DONNELL

"Mexico does not end at its borders... Where there is a Mexican, there is Mexico."

--FELIPE CALDERON

"The planet has a fever. If your baby has a fever, you go to the doctor. If the doctor says you need to intervene here, you don't say, 'Well, I read a science fiction novel that told me it's not a problem.' If the crib's on fire, you don't speculate that the baby is flame retardant."

--AL GORE

"Don't fear the terrorists. They're mothers and fathers."

--ROSIE O'DONNELL

"Is America ready for a black president? Well, I say we just had a retarded one. When did being black become a bigger deterrent than being retarded?"

--CHRIS ROCK

"Shut the f--- up! Shut up if you can't take a joke [about President Bush]!"

--BARBRA STREISAND

"Right, oh, yeah, Happy 9/11! Celebrate the day, right?"

--JAMES BROLIN, Mr. Barbra Streisand

"I think President Bush very well may have signed an authorization for the 9/11 attacks."

--KEVIN BARRETT, UW-MADISON Lecturer

"I said what I said. I am not guilty."

--SADDAM HUSSEIN

"Terri will not be starved to death. Her nutrition and hydration will be taken away."

--MICHAEL SCHIAVO

"On the eve of the election last month my wife Judith and I were driving home late in the afternoon and turned on the radio for the traffic and weather. What we instantly got was a freak show of political pornography: lies, distortions, and half-truths -- half-truths being perhaps the blackest of all lies. "

--BILL MOYERS

"I hate the Republicans and everything they stand for."

--HOWARD DEAN

"The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not 'insurgents' or 'terrorists' or 'The Enemy.' They are the REVOLUTION, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow -- and they will win."

--MICHAEL MOORE

"And there is no reason, Bob, that young American soldiers need to be going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children, you know, women, breaking sort of the customs of the--of--the historical customs, religious customs."

--JOHN KERRY

"F---ing retarded."

"[Republicans] can go f--- themselves!"

--RAHM EMANUEL

"I'm not going to have some reporters pawing through our papers. We are the president."

--HILLARY CLINTON

"It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is."

--BILL CLINTON

"And let me tell you something -- for the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country. And not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change. And I have been desperate to see our country moving in that direction and just not feeling so alone in my frustration and disappointment."

--MICHELLE OBAMA

"If asking a billionaire to pay the same tax rate as a Jew, uh, as a janitor, makes me a warrior for the working class, I wear that with a badge of honor."

----------------------------

"If you love me, you got to help me pass this bill."

----------------------------

"[F]or most of my lifetime, the United States was such a dominant economic power, we were such a large market, our industry, our technology, our manufacturing was so significant that we always met the rest of the world economically on our terms. And now, because of the incredible rise of India and China and Brazil and other countries, the United States remains the largest economic and the largest market but theres real competition out there. And that's potentially healthy. It makes -- Michelle was saying earlier I like tough questions because it keeps me on my toes. Well, this will keep America on its toes."

----------------------------

"If Latinos sit out the election instead of saying, 'We're gonna PUNISH OUR ENEMIES and we're gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us,' if they don't see that kind of upsurge in voting in this election, then I think it's gonna be harder and that's why I think it's so important that people focus on voting on November 2."

----------------------------

"We don't mind the Republicans joining us. They can come for the ride, but THEY GOTTA SIT IN BACK."

----------------------------

"We can absorb a terrorist attack. We'll do everything we can to prevent it, but even a 9/11, even the biggest attack ever... we absorbed it and we are stronger."

----------------------------

"We're buying shrimp, guys."

----------------------------

"We are the ones we've been waiting for."

----------------------------

"We talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers so I know whose ass to kick."

----------------------------

"We're not trying to push financial reform because we begrudge success that's fairly earned. I mean, I do think at a certain point you've made enough money. But, you know, part of the American way is, you know, you can just keep on making it if youre providing a good product or you're providing good service. We don't want people to stop fulfilling the core responsibilities of the financial system to help grow the economy."

----------------------------

"If you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen."

----------------------------

"It is a vital national security interest of the United States to reduce these conflicts because whether we like it or not, we remain a dominant military superpower, and when conflicts break out, one way or another we get pulled into them. And that ends up costing us significantly in terms of both blood and treasure."

----------------------------

"But I -- I think that the most important thing for the public to understand is, we're not handling any of these cases any different than the Bush administration handled them all through 9/11."

----------------------------

"One such translator was an American of Haitian descent, representative of the extraordinary work that our men and women in uniform do all around the world -- Navy CORPSE-MAN Christian [sic] Brossard. And lying on a gurney aboard the USNS Comfort, a woman asked Christopher: 'Where do you come from? What country? After my operation,' she said, 'I will pray for that country.' And in Creole, CORPSE-MAN Brossard responded, 'Etazini.' The United States of America."

----------------------------

"I hear that Dr. Joe Medicine Crow was around, and so I want to give a shout-out to that Congressional Medal of Honor winner. It's good to see you."

----------------------------

"We are God's partners in matters of life and death."

----------------------------

"[T]he Cambridge police acted stupidly."

----------------------------

"I am going to teach [my daughters] first about values and morals, but if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby."

----------------------------

"The reforms we seek would bring greater competition, choice, savings, and INEFFICIENCIES to our health care system."

----------------------------

"Over the last 15 months, weve traveled to every corner of the United States. Ive now been in 57 states? I think one left to go. Alaska and Hawaii, I was not allowed to go to even though I really wanted to visit, but my staff would not justify it."

--BARACK OBAMA
LONDON, Dec. 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Report Details

Leading Stem Cell Companies  Discover What Their Futures Hold, Benefiting Your Reputation for Commercial Insight

Who are the leading stem cell developers and producers? And what are their sales outlooks? Visiongain's updated report shows you their activities and potentials from 2016. There you discover therapies, results, trends in research and development, opportunities and revenue forecasts.



That way you explore data and discussions on cellular technologies transforming human medicine. Our study analyses 25 leading companies in the US, Europe, Israel and Asia-Pacific. There you hear how stem cell producers can progress and gain. Discover their potentials and see what the future holds.



Please read on, then, to scan those organisations and find what revenue that fast-growing and potentially large market could generate in future. See what is possible.



Forecasts and other data to benefit your authority on stem cell biotechnology

In our study you find profiles of 25 prominent stem cell companies and analyses of their industry. You explore sales results, R&D and revenue forecasting. Explore, from 2016, those firms' capabilities, portfolios and commercial prospects.



In our updated report you gain 55 tables, 24 charts and two interviews with that industry. You see our discussions with authorities from Mesoblast and Gamida Cell.



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Stay ahead, then, for knowledge on that vast, rising industry. The following sections explain how our new investigation benefits your work.



United States (US)  assess leading organisations, seeing what is possible

First our study gives you discussions, analyses and commercial outlooks for 11 US-based stem cell companies:

- Osiris Therapeutics

- Caladrius Biosciences

- Orthofix

- NuVasive

- AlloSource

- RTI Surgical

- Vericel Corporation

- U.S. Stem Cell, Inc.

- Neuralstem

- Astellas/Ocata Therapeutics

- Athersys



There you hear what the future holds for those cellular biology companies, including regulations, research trends and some revenue predictions.



Our study then analyses Asian organisations, explaining that region's potential.



Stem cell specialists based in the Asia Pacific region  what developments possible?

You also discover commercial outlooks for six top researchers, developers and producers of stem cells in the Asia Pacific region:

- Mesoblast

- Reliance Life Sciences

- Anterogen

- Pharmicell

- MEDIPOST

- Stempeutics.



Our analyses show possibilities for advancing technology and raising business performance, assessing where future sales expansion is possible. Explore regulations and see how companies progress, assessing revenue potentials.



The report then analyses Europe and Israel, showing those countries' activities and potentials.



Companies based in Europe and Israel  what successes can they achieve?

Our analysis also shows you progress and prospects for eight European and Israeli companies:

- TiGenix

- Celyad

- Apceth

- ReNeuron

- Gamida Cell

- Cell Cure Neurosciences

- Pluristem Therapeutics

- BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics.



Many opportunities arise in that industry, with high, expanding revenues possible from this decade. In our study you also explore clinical testing and plans for launching products.



Predictions for the worldwide stem cells market  see that industry's sales potential

Our report also forecasts sales to 2026 for the overall world stem cells industry. There you find revenues reaching $17.8bn in 2020, with high growth to 2026.



In our study you also gain revenue forecasting to 2026 for these products:

- Trinity Elite and Trinity Evolution

- Osteocel Plus

- MSC-100-IV

- CardioRel

- Hearticellgram-AMI

- Cartistem.



See there how applications of stem cells can perform. Find, from 2016, where those organisations can generate high sales. That industry holds vast potential.



With our report you assess how stem cell companies can compete and succeed. See what their future holds and how you can gain.



Technologies and issues shaping that industry and market  what is happening?

Our study explains stem cell technologies and forces influencing that industry and market. There you explore developments and forces, including these:

- Sales potentials of leading stem cell therapies to 2026  see what is possible

- Embryonic stem cells  potentials in tissue repair and regenerative medicine

- Autologous and allogeneic agents, including T cell therapy

- Advances in treating eye disorders, e.g. age-related macular degeneration (AMD)

- Novel treatments for cancer and other applications  e.g. diabetes and bone re-growth  including progress of clinical trials and product launches.



With that work you assess these influences, too, among others:

- Regulations for that research and its applications  see what countries do

- Umbilical cord blood  applications and approvals for that tissue and cell banking

- Mergers, acquisitions, alliances and venture capital  explore what shapes that industry and affects its future

- Non-therapeutic pharma applications  screening and toxicity studies in drug development.



In our survey you also find interviews with two companies  Mesoblast and Gamida Cell. There gain information to help you stay ahead in knowledge on challenges, progress, potentials and future trends.



See what is possible, then, for that cell-based biotechnology and explore what its future holds.



Ways Pharma Leader Series: Top Stem Cell Companies Report 2016-2026 helps you

In particular, our independent analysis gives you this knowledge to benefit your work:

- Profiles of 25 leading stem cell companies in North America, Europe, Israel and Asia  assess products, R&D, results, strategies, alliances and sales outlooks

- Revenue forecasting to 2026 for that overall world market  discover potential sales, exploring those technologies' commercial prospects

- Forecast revenues to 2026 for leading stem cell products  see how top companies' technologies can compete and succeed

- Opportunities, competition and demands  explore what affects companies, finding what influences sales and shapes organisations' futures

- Interviews with companies in that industry  find what participants say and do, helping you stay ahead in knowledge and benefit your influence.



That report, by visiongain's in-house analysts in the UK, gives knowledge to benefit your work. Its purpose is to help you save time and avoid struggles to find information. You gain analysis to benefit your plans, decisions and presentations.



Data found nowhere else, benefiting your research, analyses and proposals

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By trying our latest study on stem cells, you explore trends, R&D and sales predictions. You assess the present and future of companies. Avoid missing out on data and discussions to help you stay ahead. So please get our new report here now.

Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/3874358/



About Reportbuyer

Reportbuyer is a leading industry intelligence solution that provides all market research reports from top publishers

http://www.reportbuyer.com



For more information:

Sarah Smith

Research Advisor at Reportbuyer.com

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +44 208 816 85 48

Website: www.reportbuyer.com

SOURCE ReportBuyer

Related Links

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PHOENIX, Dec. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Eight hundred Phoenix families in need will receive enough food to supplement meals for a week plus daily essentials, thanks to a partnership between PepsiCo and Feed the Children. The event kicks off at 11 a.m. at Pilgrims Rest, 1401 East Jefferson St., Phoenix.

Today's distribution event is part of a larger initiative between the two organizations to help feed communities in cities throughout the United States and is the fourth annual event PepsiCo and Feed the Children have hosted in the Phoenix community, where more than 19 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. As the holiday season approaches, this event will allow families to reallocate their limited resources, rather than worry about where their next meals are coming from.

The receiving families have been identified and preselected by Pilgrims Rest, a local nonprofit organization.

"We believe no child should go to bed hungry in a land where there is plenty of food," said Travis Arnold, Feed the Children Interim CEO/President and COO. "But the reality is, millions of boys and girls, right here in our own backyard, face this hardship every day. Thanks to our generous partners, PepsiCo and Pilgrim's Rest today we are able to help these families rest a little easier."

Each qualifying recipient family will be given:

One 25-pound box of nonperishable food items

One 15-pound box of personal-care items

One box of AVON products

Disney books

Frito-Lay snacks

PepsiCo beverages

Life Original Cereal

Quaker Chewy Granola Bars

Quaker Standard Oats

"We love being part of the Phoenix community and are grateful for the opportunity to not only donate, but also meet these families, volunteer and spend a day giving back," said Nick Burge, zone sales director, Phoenix zone, PepsiCo's Frito-Lay division. "We are passionate about being involved with our community and taking initiatives that make a positive difference in places where we live and work."

About Feed the Children

Established in 1979, Feed the Children exists to end child hunger. It is one of the largest U.S.-based charities and serves those in need in the U.S. and in 10 countries around the world. It provides food, education, essentials and disaster relief. Domestically, it operates 5 distribution centers (located in Oklahoma, Indiana, California, Tennessee and Pennsylvania).

In fiscal year 2015, Feed the Children distributed 107 million pounds of food and essentials valued at $302 million to people in the U.S., and internationally, it sponsored nearly 24,500 children, addressing the root causes of poverty through child sponsorship and school sponsorship. It is accredited by GuideStar Exchange, the BBB Wise Giving Alliance and is rated by Charity Navigator.

Visit www.feedthechildren.org for more information.

About PepsiCo

PepsiCo products are enjoyed by consumers one billion times a day in more than 200 countries and territories around the world. PepsiCo generated more than $63 billion in net revenue in 2015, driven by a complementary food and beverage portfolio that includes Frito-Lay, Gatorade, Pepsi-Cola, Quaker and Tropicana. PepsiCo's product portfolio includes a wide range of enjoyable foods and beverages, including 22 brands that generate more than $1 billion each in estimated annual retail sales.

At the heart of PepsiCo is Performance with Purpose  our goal to deliver top-tier financial performance while creating sustainable growth and shareholder value. In practice, Performance with Purpose means providing a wide range of foods and beverages from treats to healthy eats; finding innovative ways to minimize our impact on the environment and reduce our operating costs; providing a safe and inclusive workplace for our employees globally; and respecting, supporting and investing in the local communities where we operate. For more information, visit www.pepsico.com/.

SOURCE PepsiCo

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BOCA RATON, Fla., Dec. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Podiatric Success, home of Meet the Masters and Lunchtime with the Masters, has launched a new app, making it even simpler to communicate and share ideas with today's podiatric medical and surgical professionals on the go.

"This app provides easy access and a professional outlet for today's busy podiatric physicians to discuss industry, practice and risk issues directly from their mobile devices. It provides podiatric professionals the power to have their questions answered instantly by colleagues and industry experts. It is designed to enhance the overall practice of podiatry," said Dr. Bret Ribotsky, host of Meet the Masters.

With the recent collaboration between Meet the Masters and PICA (Podiatry Insurance Company of America) to build a discussion forum allowing Pica to address the risk and practice management concerns of podiatrists head-on, coupled with the Lunch Time with the Masters video podcasts, users will now have instant mobile access to participate in discussion forums, listen to audio podcasts and watch video interviews.

The Podiatric Success app is available to download for free for iOS and Android.

About Podiatric Success-Meet the Masters

Podiatric success is an informative forum featuring video and audio interviews with leading Podiatric Medical and Surgical professionals that cover a wide range of topics effecting those involved with today's Podiatric industry. With over eight years of history and more than 380 Masters interviewed, Meet the Masters takes an in-depth look at the newest treatments and protocols currently available, including information about maintaining a successful Podiatric practice and the most up-to-date news of the trade. For more information, or for an archive of past interviews, visit us at www.podiatricsuccess.com.

About Podiatry Insurance Company of America

Based in Franklin, TN, Podiatry Insurance Company of America (PICA) is the nation's leading provider of professional liability insurance for podiatric physicians in the U.S. PICA has been protecting and supporting podiatric physicians by providing medical malpractice coverage for over 30 years. Visit us at www.picagroup.com.

SOURCE Podiatric Success

Related Links

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MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Dec. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Pure Storage (NYSE: PSTG) today announced that Vice President of Products Matt Kixmoeller will participate in a Q&A on an investor call on December 15, 2016 hosted by Aaron Rakers, Managing Director of Equity Research, IT Hardware, Stifel. The call will begin at 4:00 pm EST/1:00 pm PST.

Kixmoeller will discuss the value of NVM Express (NVMe) to data storage and specifically will highlight why Pure's NVMe offering delivers unique advantages to customers. No financial information will be shared during this call.

To Listen via Telephone: 1-888-267-2848 (US) or 1-973-413-6103 (international) with conference ID 632594.

Replay: The details for the replay of this discussion will be available until January 15, 2017 via telephone: 1-800-332-6854 (US) or 1-973-528-0005 (international) with conference ID 632594.

About Pure Storage

Pure Storage (NYSE: PSTG) helps companies push the boundaries of what's possible. The company's all-flash based technology, combined with its customer-friendly business model, drives business and IT transformation with Smart Storage that is effortless, efficient and evergreen. Pure Storage offers two flagship products: FlashArray//M, optimized for structured workloads, and FlashBlade, ideal for unstructured data. With Pure's industry leading Satmetrix-certified NPS score of 83.5, Pure customers are some of the happiest in the world, and include organizations of all sizes, across an ever-expanding range of industries.

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SOURCE Pure Storage

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LONDON, Dec. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Qihoo 360 International Advertising hosted its first Digital Marketing Seminar in London yesterday to announce its arrival.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161208/447276

At the event, Mr. David Ip, General Manager of Qihoo 360 International Advertising Unit shared the topic "Secrets to Successfully Connect Your Brand to 800 Million Chinese Netizens" with local marketers.

Being China's leading big data marketing solution for advertisers, Qihoo 360 leverages its big data analytics platform, backed by 517 million PC users and nearly 800 million mobile users in China to analyze the behaviors of Chinese consumers and showcase the opportunities for British brands, e-Commerce, hotels and retailers.

Insights on China's digital landscape were also one of the key focuses at the event to provide an overview of digital marketing trends in China, a mystery for most marketers.

Since Amazon UK unveiled its availability to Chinese online shoppers and the aviation deal was made between the UK and China authority, which will double the no. of flights between two countries, many UK businesses look eager to enhance its presence in China to grasp the opportunities from Chinese netizens and tourists.

For example, recently, Qihoo 360 collected data intelligence from the data analytics platforms, 360 Index and 360 Shangyi about purchasing preferences of Chinese online shoppers. The results show that over 90% online shoppers like clothing items, followed by gadgets (81.55%) and furniture (73.99%). In addition, most Chinese netizens who searched "UK e-Commerce" are women aged from 19 to 34 who live in Guangdong and Beijing. These data from Qihoo 360 can provide a foundation and a competitive advantage for companies to make insightful analysis before entering the China market and be connected with target customers precisely.

The arrival of Qihoo 360 International Advertising Unit in London marks the ambition of the Chinese Internet giant to help UK brands enter the China market.

About Qihoo 360

Qihoo 360 Technology Co. Ltd. is a leading Internet company in China. The Company is the number one provider of Internet and mobile security products in China as measured by its user base, according to iResearch. Qihoo 360 also provides users with secure access points to the Internet via its market-leading web browsers and application stores. The Company has built one of the largest open Internet platforms in China and monetizes its massive user base primarily through online advertising and through Internet value-added services on its open platform. Since its establishment in 2014, Qihoo 360 International Advertising Unit, the overseas advertising sole agent of Qihoo 360 has obtained over 250 advertising business customers in Hong Kong and overseas markets, which come from a wide range of industries including finance, e-commerce, travel, retail, luxury, maternal and childcare products, and more.

For more information, please contact:

Kent Fung

PR & Marketing Manager

Tel: +852 3468 7775

Email: [email protected]

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Related Links

Qihoo 360 International Advertising's Website

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

SOURCE Qihoo 360 International Advertising
SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Gigaom, the leader in emerging technology research, today announced that it will host its annual conference Gigaom AI Now in San Francisco, CA, February 15-16th. The one-and-a-half day conference, held at the Golden Gate Club, will share how companies are using AI today to drive significant ROI across every aspect of business, from administration to product development, sales and marketing, and customer experience.

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Attendees at this event will learn from world-leading practitioners how today's progressive businesses are applying the most innovative AI tools, platforms, and technologies in-house to drive revenue and improve operations across the enterprise. "In the last couple of years, AI has become the technology no enterprise can afford to ignore. It will change every department in almost every business. We have designed this event to focus entirely on how enterprises can use AI right now to improve their business in substantial ways," shared Gigaom Publisher, Byron Reese. "By attending the event, enterprises will understand the depth of existing AI solutions that are already within their means."

Through its speaker line-up, expo, and networking events, Gigaom's AI Now is designed to provide business leaders with practical, actionable, and actual insightsrevealing real business examples of how and why companies have been making strategic investments in AI to grow their organization.

Spending on AI technologies is expected to grow to $47 billion in 2020 from a projected $8 billion this year, based on a recent report from market research firm IDC. "Every industry is beginning to see the fiscal impact of AI on ROI. We're seeing some of the world's largest agencies, who manage billions of marketing dollars, partnering with tech giants to add innovative AI solutions into their services and campaigns for brands," explained Gigaom Head of Research, Tim Crawford. Human resources and workforce management have also seen the impact of AI on data-driven insights such as talent assessment, employee engagement, manager effectiveness, and team productivity. Data from Bersin by Deloitte has shown the use of people-related data to solve business problems rose to 32% this year.

From P&L to workforce and product management, attendee executives will learn how AI tools, platforms, and technologies such as machine learning, national language processing, and automation are accelerating business objectives. At the conference, presentations by leading AI practitioners will address how to employ AI, which applications are best across different business units, tactics for driving revenue, and ways to use data to move businesses forward through artificial intelligence.

Gigaom AI Now will host keynote panels on AI topics relevant to industries who are seeing the earliest return on investment. The lineup of speakers joining Gigaom AI Now includes over 25 industry experts on a variety of enterprise AI solution applications such as cognitive cloud software, workflow automation, virtual assistance, database utilization, legal implications, and several other solution areas to be announced.

Hundreds of enterprise executives, investors, entrepreneurs, and decision makers from Fortune 500 companies as well as rising leaders in technology are expected to join Gigaom's research customers at the event. "Every aspect of the event is designed to accelerate success with AI," Crawford explained. "Our attendees are those enterprise businesses ready to push the forefront of innovation through AI technology in areas of marketing, finance, retail, manufacturing, software, and even the public sector."

The conference's showcase on AI's massive business impact is part of Gigaom's focus on enabling business leaders to understand the technology trends driving enterprise markets. Gigaom will release its most recent AI research and market trends during the event through six in-depth reports written by several of its industry-leading analysts. For more information on the event, to apply for its call-for-speakers, or to register for early bird tickets to attend Gigaom AI Now, visit www.gigaom.com/ainow.

https://twitter.com/gigaom

https://www.facebook.com/Gigaom/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/gigaom

#GigaomAI

About Gigaom

Gigaom is a technology research and analysis firm. Our focus is on helping business leaders understand the implications of emerging technologies and their impacts on business, media, and society. We are forward-leaning, with a futures-oriented take on the trends and tools that are shaping the economy of the 21st century: Cloud, Data, Mobile, Work Futures, and the Internet of Things. Gigaom reaches over 6.5 million monthly unique readers, with a mobile reach of over 2 million monthly visitors. We work closely with two constituencies: innovative technology vendors seeking to understand their markets and competition, and business leaders who must assess technologies and understand trends as they impact their businesses and industries. For more information about Gigaom, visit www.gigaom.com.

Media Contacts:

Fatin Kwasny

Marketing

Gigaom

Phone: 800-292-3024 ext. 3

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Gigaom

Related Links

http://www.gigaom.com


ERLANGER, Ky., Dec. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The Residence Inn Cincinnati Airport is undergoing a multi-million dollar renovation in its guest rooms, with projected completion in spring 2017. The renovation includes all-new stainless steel appliances, kitchen tile, headboard and night stand furniture, kitchen and bathroom cabinetry, bathroom tiling and walk-in showers in studio rooms. This new look will feature a palate of light gray and beige with accents of burgundy and turquoise.

"Since 1996 our focus has always been to exceed the guest's experience at each encounter," said General Manager Michael Blanton. "Our renovation is testimony to this effort; we're excited to bring our guests an all new experience with new appliances and a modern feel for their extended stay and overnight needs."

The extended stay all-suite hotel features 150 guest rooms with spacious studio, one and two bedroom suites. Each suite features comfortable living areas, fully-equipped kitchens with full size appliances and guest room amenities all designed with the extended-stay traveler in mind. The property also has meeting space that accommodates up to 50 people.

Located at 2811 Circleport Drive in Erlanger, Kentucky, the property is conveniently located near the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport and minutes from downtown Cincinnati. To make reservations please visit www.marriott.com/cvgap or call the hotel directly at 859.282.7400. For corporate, group and meeting space inquiries, please contact their sales department by calling 859.817.5560.

About Commonwealth Hotels LLC

Commonwealth Hotels LLC was founded in 1986 and is a proven partner in providing hotel management services with superior financial results. The company has extensive experience managing premium branded full service and select service hotels. Commonwealth Hotels currently manages 35 properties with over 4,000 rooms. Additional information may be found at www.commonwealthhotels.com.

Contact:

Jennifer Schneider

Commonwealth Hotels, LLC

[email protected]

859.261.5522

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SOURCE Commonwealth Hotels LLC

Related Links

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Consolidated Revenue for Q2 FY-17 at Rs. 736.95 cr (Rs. 7.4 Billion) against Rs. 800.42 cr (Rs. 8.0 Billion) in Q1 FY-17, registering a Q-o-Q decline of 7.9%.

Consolidated EBITDA for Q2 FY-17 at Rs. 232.91 cr (Rs. 2.33 Billion) against Rs. 217.91 cr (Rs. 2.18 Billion) in Q1 FY-17, registering a Q-o-Q growth of 6.9%.

Consolidated profit after tax for Q2 FY-17 at Rs. 54.30 cr (Rs. 0.54 Billion) against Rs. 23.15 cr (Rs. 0.23 Billion) in Q1 FY-17, registering a Q-o-Q growth of 134.5%.

Mr. K. K. Singh, Chairman and Managing Director said, "At Rolta, we embarked on an ambitious journey to successfully transform from a predominantly GIS and Engineering services Company into a differentiated IP-led Software Products and Solutions organization focused on Digital Technologies. Almost a decade ago we could foresee a decline in traditional IT services due to emerging disruptive technologies which triggered this decision. I am pleased to read The Government of India's, draft National Software Policy which aims to give the right thrust and motivation to Indian IT companies to move towards software products. I expect Rolta to reap the benefits from its transformation as an early mover."

CORPORATE HIGHLIGHTS

The Company's consortium banks continue to have confidence in the Company's business fundamentals as demonstrated by their provision of additional working capital facilities to the Company over the last few months. As a result, the Company has been in a position to service overdue payable amounts to consortium banks in India. With regards to the bonds issued by the Company's wholly-owned US subsidiaries Rolta LLC and Rolta America LLC, the Company's financial and legal advisors have initiated discussions with their counterparts representing an ad hoc committee composed of the largest bondholders to discuss potential appropriate solutions to the present situation. For further information, existing bondholders should contact the Company's financial advisor Moelis & Company at the following email address: [email protected]

Defence and Homeland Security

C4ISR has been identified as a key priority for the modernization of the Indian Armed Forces with an aim to achieve synchronization in inter-service military operations. Rolta has continued to maintain its pre-eminence in the Indian Defence & Security markets as a significant provider of indigenous Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4lSR) solutions by continually enhancing its IP based portfolio. With the latest 64-bit release of this software suite, Rolta has joined just a handful of companies worldwide that have this sophisticated technology to fully exploit the latest advances in satellite and aerial imaging, and cutting edge computing platform.

Rolta has been focusing on imbibing cutting edge technology advancements and best practices around the world by way of engagements with experts, domestically & internationally. Our enhanced knowledge is then distilled into our IP in keeping with the latest trends. Rolta is now working on introducing the fourth dimension of 'Time' in its C4ISR solutions in addition to the conventional three dimensions of length, breadth and height to achieve visualization in '4D'. This will provide a hitherto unavailable, but critical operational planning capability to our Defence and Security planners and decision makers.

The Indian Armed Forces are in the process of transforming into a modern, digitised and net centric force, which implies manifold increase in spending and induction of new technologies and platform. Rolta is well poised to address large opportunities with the introduction of a new categorisation, "Buy Indian IDDM (Indigenously Designed, Developed and Manufactured", which has been given the highest priority for all future procurements in the Defence Procurement Procedure 2016. Rolta products are developed over its own IP, meet the stringent criteria for "Buy Indian IDDM" categorisation and are not dependent on foreign technology. Rolta has been invited to bid for all three "Make India Projects" announced by the Ministry of Defence so far.

As part of the 'Make India' project, the consortium of BEL and Rolta has been selected as a Development Agency for the Battlefield Management System (BMS) Project. The BMS project is progressing well and we are fulfilling our responsibilities in conjunction with BEL.

Rolta has also made significant inroads in the Homeland Security market in India by providing a full range of solutions that covers Command, Control and Mission Critical Communications to equip the police and paramilitary forces with best-of-breed technologies. As part of its on-going support to Maharashtra Police, Rolta recently ushered in the digital transformation of their mission critical communications network by deploying sophisticated digital communication systems. This has given them a tremendous boost in law enforcement as well as reaction capabilities and is likely to be a forerunner for many such transformations across the country.

Geospatial and Engineering Asset Information Management Solutions

Geospatial technology is a vital ingredient for any effective Smart City solution. With decades of expertise and leadership in Geospatial technologies, Rolta continues to develop replicable geospatially enabled Smart City Solutions which are gaining global acceptance. For example, in the Middle East, having successfully deployed a citizen facing Geospatial portal, Rolta has now been selected for two projects worth US $ 10+M. This will involve enhancing the features and functionality of the portal as well as creating digital content comprising of surface and terrain models, hydrographic data, building and transportation network, etc. for the entire country. In the Smart Transportation area Rolta was recently awarded a contract to develop an automated Traffic Services Permit System in the Middle East. Rolta's Smart Transportation solution will replace the customer's current systems for managing the application, review, response, and management of various permits. In India, an Urban Development Authority has awarded Rolta a contract for developing their Citizen centric portal in a bid to provide efficient and timely services to citizens. The Government of Maharashtra recently selected Rolta for an integrated decision support portal to be built on a scalable cloud infrastructure, with multi-year support worth US $ 2+M.

In the Smart Utility solutions space a large UK based Power Network Company continues to engage Rolta to add new features and functionality. Another, large utilities distribution company in UK, who had engaged Rolta to build their fully integrated, spatially enabled, enterprise asset management solution, recently awarded an additional contract to enhance the solution. While, a leading UK based water utility company has awarded Rolta an additional project for rationalizing and aggregating their asset information.

Leveraging on its Engineering strengths, Rolta has built an enviable track record to help asset intensive industries in their quest for digital transformation, by combining deep industry domain knowledge and cross functional technical expertise to build robust Asset Information Management systems. Recently, Rolta commenced a project to establish an "Intelligent Asset Information" solution for a world's leading process technology supplier for deployment at a major refining company in India. Similarly, in the Middle East, Rolta was recently selected by another petrochemicals conglomerate to consolidate all their process assets, comply with standards and provide centralised access to latest as-built information of their plant assets by maintenance and project teams.

Enterprise IT and Cloud Solutions

Rolta is well equipped with skills and innovative IP to provide end to end solutions starting from Advisory services, consulting and application development which has met with significant success and traction globally. Recently, a major National Insurance and Financial Services Company in the US awarded a US $ 6.2M contract to Rolta for their Data Center Transformation in order to manage their growing diverse international operations. Similarly, a major New York Regional Medical Network tasked with consolidating and integrating Data Center operations across their network awarded Rolta a $1.4M contract for their Converged System implementation. Another example includes, a global leader in the development of industrial plastics for the automotive and electronics industry was looking for Cloud transformation to meet their explosive growth. They engaged Rolta for a US $ 3.3 M contract to provide an innovative Cloud based 'pay per use' utility model that moved costs from CAPEX to OPEX.

The onset of new digital technologies has created major security concerns for various organisations across the world. A Fortune 500 Global health products distribution company signed a US $ 3.6M contract with Rolta to implement a Smart Network Security solution. Another major US restaurant chain was tasked with improving their network and mobile security across 1500 restaurants. They chose Rolta for their enterprise security and networking solutions to protect their Customers and Employees from mobile generated security threats.

Business Intelligence and Big Data Analytics

In the BI and Big Data Analytics area the Company continues with its relentless innovation which now includes significant new features and functionality. These include Industrial IoT fusion, embedded process integration, rules platform, Data Lake support, Enterprise Asset Condition Monitoring, 3D/4D Spatial visualizations, Enterprise Search & collaboration amongst other.

The Company continues to build upon its momentum with new business opportunities and major extension of scope from existing engagements across the globe. For example, a leading privately held Oil & Gas major in the US wanted greater visibility into their Maintenance, Reliability and HSE. They selected Rolta OneView to provide integrated realtime, cross functional and actionable insights to improve operational excellence. Similarly, a large European Chemicals conglomerate selected Rolta OneView for an on-going program, to gain deep insights into their maintenance, assets, reliability and critical areas leveraging data across the organization and its value chain. In APAC region, one of the petrochemicals super major after a comprehensive evaluation chose Rolta to realise their digital transformation vision. They found Rolta OneView solution to be best suited for their internal Digital OEMS (Operational Excellence Management Systems) initiative. This program has potential to span numerous facilities to provide role based actionable insights. In India, a leading Oil and Gas exploration company in India has been relying on Rolta OneView as their Enterprise Intelligence Solution for more than a year. Having seen immense benefits across their Operations, Maintenance & Reliability, Assets, Health & Safety, Business & Financial, they elected to re-engage Rolta for an 'Analytics as a Service' contract. Through this they aim to get more value from Rolta OneView by building new business value scenarios, drive collaborative insights and create new data science driven predictive analytics models.

About Rolta:

Rolta is a leading provider of innovative IP-led IT solutions for many vertical segments, including Federal and State Governments, Utilities, Oil & Gas, Petrochemicals, Financial Services, Manufacturing, Retail, and Healthcare. Rolta is recognized for its extensive portfolio of solutions based on field-proven Rolta IP tailored for Indian Defence and Homeland Security. By uniquely combining its expertise in the IT, Engineering and Geospatial domains, Rolta develops State-of-the-Art Digital Solutions incorporating rich Rolta IP in the areas of Cloud, Mobility, IoT, BI and Big Data Analytics. Rolta is a multinational organization headquartered in India and the Company's shares have been publicly traded for more than 25 years in India. Rolta GDRs are listed on the London Stock Exchange for 10+ years.

For additional information please visit www.rolta.com, or contact:

Lt. Gen K.T. Parnaik

JMD - Defence & Security Business

Member of the Board

[email protected]

Tel: +91 (22) 2926 6666

Preetha Pulusani

President - International Operations

Member of the Board  Rolta Intl.

[email protected]

Tel: +1 (678) 942 5000

Rajesh Ramachandran

JMD - Global Products & Technology Solutions

Member of the Board

[email protected]

Tel: +91 (22) 2926 6666

Ramakrishna Prabhu

Director - Corporate Affairs & CFO

Member of the Board

[email protected]

Tel: +91 (22) 2926 6666

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SOURCE Rolta India Ltd.

Related Links

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SHENZHEN, China, Dec. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Rosewholesale is the premier brand for customers looking to get wholesale prices without having to pay gross membership fees. Rosewholesale has built connection over the years with manufacturers to get the lowest prices on products, these prices are then passed down to customers with little markup. Prices are low enough to attract customers from around the world regardless of economic situation. Having many buyers offsets cheap prices allowing the company to remain profitable. Rosewholesale is always looking to increase customer satisfaction and increase transparency. Through customer feedback and polls many customers have let the company know that they want more information on tracking their packages. Today Rosewholesale is proud to announce customers wishes have been answered and a new package tracking feature is available. A new built in message function is live now and will give customers real time updates on the status of their packages.

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Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161208/447088

Regardless if a package is on route to a shopper's home, or back to the Rosewholesale for return the shopper wants to know its status. Rosewholesale has taken this into consideration and have now released a new "My Message" function to its website. The new feature will send customers real time information about when products are shipped, if a return has been received and more. Customers on the APP and in the United States will have a similar shipping reminder function built right in. Once a product is shipped the app will deliver a notification to the person phone letting them know. Both the browser and app function will eliminate people from having to open their emails and check tracking codes.

Rosewholesale just completed a successful round of holiday sales through its Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions however with Christmas approaching the website is looking to make even more sales while testing the new my message function further. With this in mind Rosewholesale and its sister site Twinkledeals will be holding a Christmas promotion. Both sites are offering a Christmas lottery where each order will enter a customer to win great prizes. Twinkledeals looks to take things further with a Christmas preview sale; all products in the promotion are $19.99 or less. Dresslily the other sister site of the Twinkledeals and Rosewholesale will be starting its own Christmas sale at a later date.

Related link:

http://www.rosewholesale.com?lkid=10247855

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/rosewholesale.com/id1148841444?mt=8

Contact:

Andy Smith

(503)928-7482

support(at)rosewholesale(dot)com

SOURCE Rosewholesale
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Dec. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Second Genome, Inc., a leader in the development of novel medicines through innovative microbiome science, announced today that it has appointed Jim Sjoerdsma as executive vice president of human resources and Brian Dowd as senior vice president of finance.

"Jim and Brian bring broad experience and creative ideas to Second Genome's leadership team as we continue to grow our microbiome profiling platform to tackle new challenges, as well as expand our pipeline programs," said Glenn Nedwin, Chief Executive Officer and President of Second Genome. "I expect that they will greatly support our continued growth in the years ahead."

Mr. Sjoerdsma brings more than 25 years of experience in human resources to his position, in which he will lead all recruitment, hiring, onboarding, training and organizational development of Second Genome employees. Prior to his current role, Sjoerdsma served in various roles in human resources for Genencor at all stages of its growth  from start-up to publicly traded to its acquisition by DuPoint BioSciences. While at Genencor, he developed a corporate culture that led to the company's recognition as a "Great Place to Work" in four countries, including awards as the top company of its size by Fortune Magazine and the San Francisco Chronicle. Sjoerdsma earned his master's degree in business administration from Nova Southeastern University and his bachelor's degree in economics and business from Cornell College. Sjoerdsma holds an executive certificate in strategy and organization from Stanford University.

Mr. Dowd brings more than 25 years of financial and transactional experience to his position, in which he will oversee all financial operations and transactional activities for Second Genome. Mr. Dowd joins Second Genome from Johnson & Johnson, where he served as the vice president, controller of Alios BioPharma, which was acquired by Johnson & Johnson through Janssen Pharmaceuticals in November 2014. Before this, he served as the chief financial officer for Mondee Inc., a private technology solution provider, and previously held various leadership roles at Codexis, Inc., including interim chief financial officer and vice president, corporate controller, during its transition from a private company to a publicly traded company. Earlier in his career, he served in several senior financial roles with VeriFone Holdings, Inc., and other technology companies. Mr. Dowd began his career as an auditor at Deloitte. He earned his bachelor's degree in business administration, accounting and finance from California Polytechnic University at San Louis Obispo.

About Second Genome

Second Genome's mission is to transform lives with medicines developed through innovative microbiome science. Second Genome has built a novel platform for microbiome drug discovery. The company has established a pipeline of therapeutic products for the treatment of inflammation and metabolic diseases. Please visit www.secondgenome.com for more information.

SOURCE Second Genome, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.secondgenome.com


Over the past year St. John the Baptist Catholic School and Church of the Holy Spirit have been working on a long term Strategic Plan for the school, to ensure the availability of a quality private, faith-based education for children in the Plattsmouth Community.

The Strategic Planning team included faculty, staff, parents, parishioners and community members who met to develop a financially secure future for the school and to ensure it would continue to be affordable for all students. The Strategic Planning team wanted to include a broad community effort therefore they hosted several Open Forum meetings, conducted individual and group interviews and engaged in discussions with parents, parishioners, staff members, faculty and benefactors. The overall goal was to create a comprehensive plan that includes building on a strong tradition of academic excellence, as well as focusing on leadership development, spiritual formation, student enrichment, financial sustainability and strong community relationships.

The Strategic Plan was a collaborative effort and now moves into the Implementation Phase to guide the school into the future. Implementation Teams have been created for each pillar of the Strategic Plan. These teams are currently meeting to develop projects that will support the implementation of the Strategic Plan. These teams will meet through December to create projects and these projects will be presented at an Open Forum meeting 6 p.m. Dec. 15. Some of the projects that are being worked on include a communications plan, a new website, a social media plan, a plan to increase the St. Johns Endowment Fund and ways to have more involvement with the community.

The Rev. Fr. Loras Grell, the current pastor of the church and administrator of the school said, Since 1884, the people in Plattsmouth desired, established and have sustained a Catholic school in this community. Our roots here run deep and have a rich history. We are now called to develop a vision for the future of this school and church and to ensure the sustainability of Catholic education for our children well into the future.

Everyone in the community is welcome to attend the Open Forum to review the Strategic Plan and to learn about the great things going on at St. John the Baptist Catholic School.

About St. John the Baptist Catholic School

The Church of the Holy Spirit and St. Johns Catholic School have been a part of the Plattsmouth community since the since 1859, with the first Church being built in 1862. The original St. John school opened in 1884 and hascontinuously served the Plattsmouth community for 132 years. The school serves 180 students in Preschool through 8th grade and has seen increased enrollment over the past three years. Academically St. Johns students score above the national average in every subject in national standardized testing and our students go onto to perform well in private and public high schools, college and in their careers. 100% of St. Johns students graduate from high school as compared to the Nebraska average graduation rate of 89.7%. The school serves students from the Plattsmouth area and surrounding communities.
NEW YORK, Dec. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of United Health Services, Inc. ("UHS" or the "Company"). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at [email protected] or 888-476-6529, ext. 9980.

The investigation concerns whether UHS and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices.

[Click here to join a class action]

On December 7, 2016, Buzzfeed published an article regarding United Health "based on interviews with 175 current and former UHS staff, including 18 executives who ran UHS hospitals; more than 120 additional interviews with patients, government investigators, and other experts; and a cache of internal documents." According to the Buzzfeed article, "[c]urrent and former employees from at least 10 UHS hospitals in nine states said they were under pressure to fill beds by almost any method  which sometimes meant exaggerating people's symptoms or twisting their words to make them seem suicidal  and to hold them until their insurance payments ran out."

On this news, Universal Health's share price fell $15.01, or 11.88%, to close at $111.36 on December 7, 2016.

The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Florida, and Los Angeles, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com

CONTACT:

Robert S. Willoughby

Pomerantz LLP

[email protected]

SOURCE Pomerantz LLP

Related Links

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The Company's Presentation Generated Interest from Multiple Leading Investment Banks

SANTA MONICA, CA, Dec. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ - Last week Signal Bay (OTCQB:SGBY) joined hundreds of small-cap companies looking to showcase their story and generate investor interest in their company. The companies hailed from many industries, and represented some of the most interesting and exciting small-cap investment opportunities in the market. Of all these companies, Signal Bay, Inc. really stood out.

"As a result of our operational success, we were invited to meet with several of the largest and most prestigious investment banks and funds in the nation," commented CEO of Signal Bay, William Waldrop. "After months of developing our unique hub & spoke model, building out an experienced and scientifically astute team, and developing a portfolio of state-of-the-art cannabis testing facilities, we are proving a business model that is showing month-over-month record sales. Investors seem to be as excited as we are as we are presented with new opportunities for growth and expansion every day."

The self-described "Woodstock" of Microcap, LD Micro was founded in 2006 with the sole purpose of being an independent resource in the microcap space. What started out as a newsletter highlighting unique companies has transformed into an event platform hosting several influential conferences annually. Marcum and SEG sponsored the significant industry event, and event which will host thousands of investors and 240 small and micro-cap companies.

Signal Bay operates state-of-the-art testing facilities and offers accredited testing methodologies that ensure the safety and potency of the nation's cannabis supply through its EVIO Labs division. As the legalization of medical and recreational marijuana sweeps across the country, demand for reliable, independent cannabis quality control testing facilities is increasing dramatically.

The cannabis testing market in the United States is expected to balloon to $850 million in size by 2020. In California alone, the market is expected to reach $300 million in 2017. Cannabis testing is critical to ensuring that cannabis, whether for medical or recreational use, is safe from pesticides, E. coli, molds, solvents and other toxins and impurities.

Many Cannabis testing labs struggle to survive simply because they lack proper technical expertise. This is not the case for Signal Bay, whose strength comes from its deep bullpen of experienced team members such as Dr. Anthony Smith, a well-respected biochemist and researcher with a PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Oregon State University. The people behind Signal Bay is a critical component of its success, a component that was highlighted in the well-received presentation at last week's LD Micro Conference.

"Lacking the scientific expertise and experience, many labs take up to a year to reach some level of accreditation, but fail to become fully accredited and remain unable to provide the full suite of services required for regulatory compliance," Waldrop continued. "Our technical experience, our well developed methods and procedures, as well as our experience and understanding of the regulatory system, enables us to get our EVIO Labs accredited and fully operational in a matter of months, rather than years."

Waldrop continued, stating that the success of his company and its unique position for accelerated growth could not have been more reflected in the enthusiastic response to their presentation at the LD Micro Conference.

"Everything is coming together to a degree that even myself and the management team couldn't have predicted," continued Waldrop.

"We knew that California was going to be the largest legal cannabis testing market so we aggressively moved to develop a footprint in that growing market from which to expand rapidly over the next 12 months. We knew that our hub & spoke model provided a unique capacity to increase efficiency and more rapidly achieve economies of scale. What we might have underestimated, however, was the extent to which states are requiring an ever-increasing level of testing rigor. These rule changes have helped accelerate our business, as well distinguish us from competitors, to a degree that even we didn't foresee. We're very pleased to share our successes and plans with the hundreds of investors at the LD Micro Conference last week in Los Angeles."

Signal Bay currently has five EVIO Labs in operation including one in California. The Company plans to add 18 more accredited EVIO Labs in the Golden State by the end of 2018. Signal Bay has seen explosive growth over the last few months, and just recently reported record sales figures for the month of October. The presentation could not come at a more pivotal time for the Company, or for the industry. The Company projects to generate over $45 million in annual revenues and operate over 30 EVIO Labs by 2020.

Legal Disclaimer: Online Media Group, Inc. is not registered with any financial or securities regulatory authority and does not provide, nor claims to provide, investment advice or recommendations to readers of this release to buy, sell or hold any securities. Investing intrinsically involves substantial risk and readers are reminded to consult an investment professional and complete their own due diligence, including SEC filings, when researching any companies mentioned in this release. This release is based upon publicly available information and, while vetted, is not considered to be all-inclusive or guaranteed to be free from errors. With respect to Section 17(B) of the Securities Act of 1933 and in the interest of full disclosure, we call the reader's attention to the fact that Online Media Group, Inc. may have received compensation from the companies mentioned in this release.

SOURCE Online Media Group Inc
ALAMEDA, Calif., Dec. 8, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Singulex, Inc., the leader in Next Generation Immunodiagnostics powered by Single Molecule Counting technology, entered into a license and supply agreement with Thermo Fisher Scientific, the world leader in serving science. The agreement provides Singulex access to Thermo Scientific BRAHMS PCT (Procalcitonin), a biomarker which, in Europe is used to diagnose systemic bacterial infection and sepsis and in the United States to aid in assessing the risk of critically ill patients for progression to severe sepsis and septic shock, and the risk of mortality in patients diagnosed with sepsis. Sepsis and systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) are potentially life-threatening complications of infection which can bring significant health and economic cost if not identified and treated early.

Singulex is utilizing their proprietary Single Molecule Counting technology to develop a sepsis and SIRS rule-out and rule-in test using the Procalcitonin biomarker for the Sgx Clarity system. The Sgx Clarity System, currently in development and not yet approved for sale, is a fully automated, Next Generation Immunodiagnostics platform designed to bring the benefits of Singulex's SMC technology to hospital and reference labs worldwide.

"The agreement with Thermo Fisher marks an important milestone in the diagnosis and treatment of sepsis and SIRS, a significant global health concern," said Guido Baechler, president and chief executive officer, Singulex. "It is also another validation of the power of Singulex's Next Generation Immunodiagnostics platform powered by SMC. Building on our proven success in cardiac troponin diagnostic analysis, our plan is to develop and commercialize sepsis and SIRS rule-out and rule-in tests for use on our Sgx Clarity System. The combination of SMC-powered utility designed in the Sgx Clarity System with the proven Thermo Scientific BRAHMS PCT know-how and biomaterials will be a major advancement for the medical community."

SMC is proven to be more than a hundred times more sensitive than currently available assay technology. This unprecedented sensitivity is designed to bring greater utility to identify sepsis and SIRS and potentially enable earlier disease detection. Earlier and more confident detection and diagnosis benefits both patient outcomes and helps reduce healthcare cost. According to the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, sepsis is considered the most expensive condition treated in the United States, costing more than $23 billion USD in 2013, and rising[1].

Thermo Fisher Scientific is a recognized leader in serving science and developing biomarkers which guide the diagnosis and management of disease. Their BRAHMS PCT biomarker is a breakthrough in the field of sepsis diagnosis. Application of SMC technology with the BRAHMS PCT biomarker will allow the identification of Procalcitonin at levels previously unachievable.

The unprecedented sensitivity and utility of Singulex's SMC technology is designed to aid physicians with earlier and more confident identification of this potentially life-threatening condition. By identifying biomarker levels with greater sensitivity than currently available tests, physicians may detect disease earlier, a critical step for patients particularly those in emergency rooms, intensive care or neonatal intensive care units.

About Singulex, Inc.

Singulex is the next generation immunodiagnostic company developing Single Molecule Counting technology for clinical diagnostics and scientific discovery. Singulex's proprietary SMCTM technology enables physicians and scientists to detect biomarkers of disease that were previously undetectable. Powered by SMC technology, Singulex's ultrasensitive lab testing services are transforming patient care from reactive disease treatment to proactive health management.

[1] National Inpatient Hospital Costs: The Most Expensive Conditions by Payer, 2013, Celeste M. Torio, Ph.D., M.P.H., and Brian J. Moore, Ph.D. May 2016; https://www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/reports/statbriefs/sb204-Most-Expensive-Hospital-Conditions.jsp

SOURCE Singulex, Inc.
NASHVILLE, Tenn., Dec. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Sitel, a leading global customer care provider, has announced its renewed participation in the United Nations Global Compact initiative, demonstrating the company's long-standing commitment to responsible business practices.

"We are thrilled to renew our commitment to the United Nations Global Compact," said Susana Vigaray, Sitel's Assistant General Counsel & Global CSR Director. "Sitel is proud of our CSR initiatives and we feel this is a significant component of who we are as a company. We encourage everyone to read Sitel's most recent report and understand how we make the United Nations Global Compact and its principles part of our company's strategy, culture and operations."

As part of Sitel's engagement in the United Nations Global Compact Initiative, the company must submit an annual Communication on Progress Report, in which the organization's actions are described to continually improve the integration of the Global Compact and its principles into Sitel's operations. This document was preceded by a Statement of Continued Support signed off by Bert Quintana, CEO and President of Sitel.

Click here to read Sitel's 2016 Communication on Progress Report.

About the United Nations Global Compact

The United Nations Global Compact is the world's largest corporate sustainability initiative launched in 2000 by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Many organizations have since joined the initiative, including businesses, governments, and labor organizations from 170 countries. For more information about the UN Global Compact, visit www.unglobalcompact.org.

About Sitel

As caring for customers becomes the differentiator that drives consumer engagement and spend, Sitel is advancing its position as a world leader in outsourced customer experience innovation. With over 30 years of industry-leading experience, Sitel's 75,100 passionate and talented associates support more than 400 clients in 48 languages from 146 facilities strategically located in 22 countries. Combining comprehensive customer care capabilities, leading omnichannel solutions and unparalleled expertise across industries, Sitel collaborates with some of the best known global brands to help consistently deliver outstanding customer experiences. Sitel is a subsidiary of Groupe Acticall. Visit www.sitel.com to learn more.

Media Contact:

Shirley Loebsack

Sitel

+1 877.95.Sitel

[email protected]

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SOURCE Sitel

Related Links

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LONDON, Dec. 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Europe (EU5) Specialty Printing Consumables Market: Scope and Methodology



The "Specialty Printing Consumables Market" report provides analysis of Europe (EU5) specialty printing consumables market for the period 20142024, wherein the years from 2016 to 2024 is the forecast period and 2015 is considered as the base year. The report precisely covers all the major trends and technologies playing a major role in the specialty printing consumables market's growth over the forecast period. It also highlights the drivers, restraints, and opportunities expected to influence the market growth during this period. The study provides a holistic perspective on the market's growth in terms of revenue (in US$ Bn), across different printing processes, products and application segments.



The market overview section of the report showcases the market's dynamics and trends such as the drivers, restraints, and opportunities that influence the current nature and future status of this market. Moreover, the report provides the overview of various strategies of the key players in Europe (EU5) specialty printing consumables market and analyzes their behavior in the prevailing market dynamics.



Europe (EU5) Specialty Printing Consumables Market: Segmentation



The report segments Europe (EU5) specialty printing consumables market on the basis of various printing process such as lithographic printing, flexographic printing, rotogravure printing and digital printing. By different product types, the market is classified into toner, ink, specialty substrate and chemicals. By application, Europe (EU5) specialty printing consumables market is categorized into office and professional application, commercial printing and publishing application and other application. Thus, the report provides in-depth cross-segment analysis for the specialty printing consumables product market for different printing processes and applications mentioned above, thereby providing valuable insights on macro as well as micro level.



Europe (EU5) Specialty Printing Consumables Market: Competitive Landscape



The report also provides the competitive landscape for the specialty printing consumables market, thereby positioning all the major players according to their presence in Europe (EU5), market attractiveness and recent key developments. This is identified as a crucial step for getting the full overview of the market through key market leaders and the strategies adopted by them. The complete Europe (EU5) specialty printing consumables market estimates are the result of our in-depth secondary research, primary interviews, and in-house expert panel reviews. These market estimates have been analyzed by taking into account the impact of different political, social, economic, technological, and legal factors along with the current market dynamics affecting Europe (EU5) specialty printing consumables market's growth.



Canon Inc., Siegwerk Druckfarben AG & Co. KGaA, Flint Group, Nazdar Ink Technologies (Thrall Enterprises Inc.), Marabu GmbH & Co KG, Sun Chemical Corporation, and Saati S.p.A. are the major players which have been profiled in this study. Details such as financials, business strategies, recent developments, and other such strategic information pertaining to these players has been provided as a part of company profiles.



Europe (EU5) Specialty Printing Consumables market has been segmented as below:



Europe (EU5) Specialty Printing Consumables Market, By Printing Process



Lithographic Printing

Flexographic Printing

Rotogravure Printing

Digital Printing



Europe (EU5) Specialty Printing Consumables Market Analysis, By Product



Toner

Ink

Specialty Substrate

Chemicals



Europe (EU5) Specialty Printing Consumables Market Analysis, By Application



Office And Professional Application

Commercial Printing And Publishing Application

Other Application



Europe (EU5) Specialty Printing Consumables Product (Toner) Market, By Printing Process



Lithographic Printing

Flexographic Printing

Rotogravure Printing

Digital Printing



Europe (EU5) Specialty Printing Consumables Product (Ink) Market, By Printing Process



Lithographic Printing

Flexographic Printing

Rotogravure Printing

Digital Printing



Europe (EU5) Specialty Printing Consumables Product (Specialty Substrate) Market, By Printing Process



Lithographic Printing

Flexographic Printing

Rotogravure Printing

Digital Printing



Europe (EU5) Specialty Printing Consumables Product (Chemicals) Market, By Printing Process



Lithographic Printing

Flexographic Printing

Rotogravure Printing

Digital Printing



Europe (EU5) Specialty Printing Consumables Product (Toner) Market, By Application



Office and Professional Application

Commercial Printing and Publishing Application

Other Application



Europe (EU5) Specialty Printing Consumables Product (Ink) Market, By Application



Office and Professional Application

Commercial Printing and Publishing Application

Other Application



Europe (EU5) Specialty Printing Consumables Product (Specialty Substrate) Market, By Application



Office and Professional Application

Commercial Printing and Publishing Application

Other Application



Europe (EU5) Specialty Printing Consumables Product (Chemicals) Market, By Application



Office and Professional Application

Commercial Printing and Publishing Application

Other Application

Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/4415248/



About Reportbuyer

Reportbuyer is a leading industry intelligence solution that provides all market research reports from top publishers

http://www.reportbuyer.com



For more information:

Sarah Smith

Research Advisor at Reportbuyer.com

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +44 208 816 85 48

Website: www.reportbuyer.com

SOURCE ReportBuyer

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SAN DIEGO, Dec. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Shareholder rights law firm Johnson & Weaver, LLP has launched an investigation into whether the board members of Stillwater Mining Company (NYSE: SWC) breached their fiduciary duties in connection with the proposed sale of the Company to Sibanye Gold Limited. Stillwater Mining engages in the development, extraction, processing, smelting and refining of platinum group metals (PGMs).

On December 9, 2016, Stillwater Mining announced it had signed a definitive merger agreement with Sibanye. Under the terms of the agreement, Sibanye will acquire all of the outstanding shares of Stillwater Mining common stock for $18.00 per share in cash.

The investigation concerns whether the Stillwater Mining board failed to satisfy their duties to the Company shareholders, including whether the board adequately pursued alternatives to the acquisition and whether the board obtained the best price possible for Stillwater Mining shares of common stock. Given the Company's outlook for future revenue and earnings growth, nationally recognized Johnson & Weaver is investigating whether the proposed deal price represents adequate consideration; moreover, one Wall Street analyst has a $21.00 price target.

If you are a shareholder of Stillwater Mining and believe the proposed buyout price is too low and you're interested in learning more about the investigation or your legal rights and remedies, please contact lead analyst Jim Baker ([email protected]) at 619-814-4471.

About Johnson & Weaver, LLP:

Johnson & Weaver, LLP is a nationally recognized shareholder rights law firm with offices in California, New York and Georgia. The firm represents individual and institutional investors in shareholder derivative and securities class action lawsuits. For more information about the firm and its attorneys, please visit http://www.johnsonandweaver.com. Attorney advertising. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.

Contact:

Johnson & Weaver, LLP

Jim Baker, 619-814-4471

[email protected]

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SOURCE Johnson & Weaver, LLP

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NEW YORK, Dec. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Attorneys in the Republic of Ireland are planning to file a talcum powder lawsuit on behalf of at least 20 women who developed ovarian cancer allegedly related to their use of Johnson & Johnson's talc-based powders, including several who are now deceased. According to a report published in the Irish Times, interest in a case was prompted by similar litigation in the U.S., including three massive verdicts awarded to Johnson & Johnson talcum powder plaintiffs involved in a centralized litigation now underway in Missouri Circuit Court in St. Louis. (Case No 1422-CC09012-01)

"As the article points out, Johnson & Johnson's talcum powders are market leaders in Ireland, as they are in this country. It's not surprising that the U.S. ovarian cancer litigation involving these products is beginning to have a global impact," says Sandy A. Liebhard, a partner at Bernstein Liebhard LLP, a nationwide law firm representing victims of defective medical devices, drugs and consumer products. The Firm is offering free legal reviews to victims of ovarian cancer allegedly related to the use of Johnson & Johnson's talc-based powders.

U.S. Talcum Powder Verdicts

Court documents indicate that Johnson & Jonson is currently named a defendant in more than 2,000 talcum powder lawsuits in state and federal courts throughout the U.S. All of these cases were filed on behalf of women who allegedly developed ovarian cancer due to the regular, repeated use of Johnson & Johnson's Baby Powder and Shower-to-Shower products for feminine hygiene purposes. The lawsuits cite studies going back to the 1970s that suggest such a link, as well as internal documents which plaintiffs say indicate that the company was aware of this danger for decades but chose not warn consumers out of a desire to protect the profits derived from sales of its talcum powders.

The nation's largest talcum powder litigation is underway in Missouri Circuit Court in St Louis, where three cases have already gone to trial. In October, the jury hearing evidence in the state's third trial awarded $70 million in compensatory and punitive damage to an ovarian cancer victim who had used Baby Powder as part of her daily feminine hygiene routine for more than 40 years. Two other Missouri trials concluded earlier this year, resulting in awards of $72 million and $55 million for the plaintiffs involved in those cases.

In October, all federally-filed Johnson & Johnson talcum powder lawsuits were centralized in a multidistrict litigation that is currently underway in the U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey. At least 60 cases are now pending in that proceeding. (In Re: Johnson & Johnson Talcum Powder Products Marketing, Sales Practices and Products Liability Litigation  MDL No.2738)

Johnson & Johnson is also named a defendant in more than 200 similar claims that have been consolidated in New Jersey's Atlantic County Superior Court. (In Re: Talc-Based Powder Products  Case No. 300)

Bernstein Liebhard LLP continues to offer free, no-obligation legal reviews to individuals interested in filing a talcum powder lawsuit for ovarian cancer. To learn more, please visit the Firm's website, or call 800-511-5092 to arrange for a free, no obligation case review.

About Bernstein Liebhard LLP

Bernstein Liebhard LLP is a New York-based law firm exclusively representing injured persons in complex individual and class action lawsuits nationwide since 1993. As a national law firm, Bernstein Liebhard LLP possesses all of the legal and financial resources required to successfully challenge billion dollar pharmaceutical and medical device companies. As a result, our attorneys and legal staff have been able to recover more than $3.5 billion on behalf of our clients. Bernstein Liebhard LLP is honored to once again be named to The National Law Journal's "Plaintiffs' Hot List," recognizing the top plaintiffs firms in the country. This year's nomination marks the thirteenth year the firm has been named to this prestigious annual list.

Bernstein Liebhard LLP

10 East 40th Street

New York, New York 10016

800-511-5092

ATTORNEY ADVERTISING.  2016 Bernstein Liebhard LLP. The law firm responsible for this advertisement is Bernstein Liebhard LLP, 10 East 40th Street, New York, New York 10016, 800-511-5092. Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome with respect to any future matter.

Contact Information:

Sandy A. Liebhard, Esq.

Bernstein Liebhard LLP

info (at)consumerinjurylawyers(dot)com

http://www.rxinjuryhelp.com/

https://plus.google.com/115936073311125306742?rel=author

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SOURCE Bernstein Liebhard LLP

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LONDON, December 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has selected ICIS LNG EDGE analytics platform as a primary data provider for launching its recent IEA Global Gas Security Review report - How flexible are LNG markets in practice?

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160408/353056LOGO )

The paper makes use of an extensive LNG EDGE database of global production outages categorised according to their various causes.

Global production growth has been impacted not only by delayed start-ups but by a variety of outages at existing liquefaction plants, many of which have been in service for decades. The Global Gas Security Review 2016, the first edition of a new annual series, examines the evolving global gas market structures and looks at the market's ability to respond to potential shocks.

Continual monitoring by dedicated teams of analysts and journalists at ICIS ensures LNG EDGE users can go beyond news headlines to uncover global and train-specific views on LNG production.

LNG EDGE provides an integrated analytics platform that fuses real-time vessel-tracking and editorial coverage with a proprietary database of infrastructure, LNG supply contracts, tenders, and plant outages, all with unprecedented levels of granularity.

To view the IEA report click here

To take a trial of the latest LNG EDGE click here

About ICIS

ICIS is the world's largest petrochemical market information provider and has fast-growing energy and fertilizer divisions. Our aim is to give companies in global commodities markets a competitive advantage by delivering trusted pricing data, high-value news, analysis and independent consulting, enabling our customers to make better-informed trading and planning decisions. We have more than 30 years' experience in providing pricing information, news, analysis and consulting to buyers, sellers and analysts.

With a global staff of more than 800, ICIS has employees based in Houston, Washington, New York, London, Montpellier, Dusseldorf, Karlsruhe, Milan, Mumbai, Singapore, Guangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai, Yantai, Tokyo and Perth. Some 350 of ICIS's staff are journalists engaged in reporting market prices and news, and ICIS is fully committed to upholding the highest journalistic principles of verification, corroboration and authentication. ICIS has a compliance framework that along with its methodologies and business processes adheres to the requirements of the IOSCO PRA Principles.

ICIS is a division of Reed Business Information, part of RELX Group

About Reed Business Information

Reed Business Information provides information, analytics and data to business professionals worldwide. Our strong global products and services hold market-leading positions across a wide range of industry sectors including banking, petrochemicals and aviation where we help customers make key strategic decisions every day. RBI is part of RELX Group, a world-leading provider of information and analytics for professional customers across industries.

http://www.reedbusiness.com

About RELX Group

RELX Group is a worldleading provider of information and analytics for professional and business customers across industries. The group serves customers in more than 180 countries and has offices in about 40 countries. It employs approximately 30,000 people of whom half are in North America. RELX PLC is a London listed holding company which owns 52.9% of RELX Group. RELX NV is an Amsterdam listed holding company which owns 47.1% of RELX Group. The shares are traded on the London, Amsterdam and New York Stock Exchanges using the following ticker symbols: London: REL; Amsterdam: REN; New York: RELX and RENX. The total market capitalisation is approximately 27.1bn GBP / 31.8bn Euro / 34.3bn USD

http://www.relx.com

Media contacts

Tara Sabanandan, Marketing Manager, ICIS

Email: [email protected]

Direct: +44 (0) 207 911 1713

SOURCE ICIS
MIAMI, Dec. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- American travelers have long imagined what it would be like to salsa, mambo and rumba the night away in Havana's many clubs or sit down for an authentic Ropa Vieja (shredded beef) and Moros y Cristianos (rice and beans). The tide has turned as Azamara Club Cruises, the boutique cruise line owned by Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. and known for its premier destination-immersive voyages allowing guests to stay longer and experience more, introduces a voyage visiting Havana, Cuba. The Azamara Quest will do a Miami, Florida roundtrip departing on March 21, 2017 for a 13-night Azaleas, Bourbon Street and Havana voyage in the Caribbean making Azamara one of the first American luxury cruise lines to visit Havana. The voyage will include visits to Key West, Florida, Tampa, Florida, New Orleans, Louisiana (2 overnights), Cozumel, Mexico and an overnight stay in Havana, Cuba.

Devoted to bringing its guests to 'bucket list' destinations, Azamara is building Havana into an existing 2017 itinerary. In time, the line looks to also add additional ports of call in Cuba into several of its itineraries.

"Destination Immersion is the heartbeat of our brand as expressed by our overnight stay in Havana, Cuba. Our guests rely on our programs to provide authentic, interactive experiences that dive deep into the cultures of the destinations we visit," says Larry Pimentel, President and CEO of Azamara Club Cruises. "We've spent years defining and refining each voyage to enable our guests to explore their favorite ports in new ways and discover hidden gems in places they've never been before. Cuba has been a destination on our radar for years and being one of the first cruise lines to bring American guests to this amazing country, is an important offering that will resonate in a real way with our loyal guests.

Culture Rich and Cafecito-fueled Experiences in Havana

Azamara has developed a variety of unique land programs to bring our guests true Destination Immersion. By spending a longer amount of time in port, including staying overnight, guests will enjoy a deeper travel experience.

As part of the line's Land Discovery offerings, guests will have a selection of experiences to choose from while in Havana that will bring to life meaningful and engaging interactions with local Cuban residents. Land Discovery tour highlights in Havana will include:

Hemingway's Havana : Explore the literary connections between Cuba and the late American novelist Ernest Hemingway on a dynamic four-hour tour that offers the chance to see where he lived, fished, dined and sipped his favorite cocktails.

Explore the literary connections between and the late American novelist on a dynamic four-hour tour that offers the chance to see where he lived, fished, dined and sipped his favorite cocktails. Old Havana City Sightseeing: Havana's city-center is jam-packed with timeworn fortresses, government buildings, historic squares, notable cemeteries and an artisan market. Sights include visits to Morro Castle, La Cabana, El Capitolio and more.

city-center is jam-packed with timeworn fortresses, government buildings, historic squares, notable cemeteries and an artisan market. Sights include visits to Morro Castle, La Cabana, El Capitolio and more. Best of Havana 8-hour Tour: Come along for a full-day, all-encompassing trip through bustling Havana , as you spend eight hours exploring the city's sprawling cemetery, notable square, artsy neighborhood, artisan market, literary connections and enjoy an authentic Cuban meal.

The line's Cuba voyage will be available for booking on Friday, December 9 in our Call Center, or on www.AzamaraClubCruises.com as of Saturday, December 10.

For more information, travelers can call their travel professional, dial 1-877-999-9553, or visit http://www.azamaraclubcruises.com/Cuba. Connect with Azamara Club Cruises on Facebook at www.facebook.com/AzamaraClubCruises, on Instagram at Instagram.com/AzamaraClubCruises, on Twitter @AzamaraVoyages or follow President and CEO @LarryPimentel. Travel agent professionals can access more information and make reservations at www.CruisingPower.com.

About Azamara

Azamara Club Cruises is a brand of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (NYSE: RCL) is a global cruise vacation company that owns and operates three global brands: Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises and Azamara Club Cruises. We also own a 50 percent joint venture interest in the German brand TUI Cruises and a 49% interest in the Spanish brand Pullmantur and have a minority interest in smaller regional brands. Together, these brands operate a combined total of 49 ships with an additional thirteen on order. They operate diverse itineraries around the world that call on approximately 490 destinations on all seven continents. Additional information can be found on www.royalcaribbean.com, www.celebritycruises.com, www.azamaraclubcruises.com, www.tuicruises.com, www.pullmantur.es, or www.rclinvestor.com.

MEDIA CONTACTS: Kelly McKenna (212) 445-8380

[email protected]

SOURCE Azamara Club Cruises

Related Links

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WAYNE, N.J., Dec. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Toys"R"Us, Inc. today announced that Chetan Bhandari, Senior Vice President, Treasurer, Toys"R"Us, Inc. will be departing the company, effective December 13, to pursue a new opportunity.

"Chetan joined the Toys"R"Us team in 2014 to help the company address refinancing challenges with near-term debt maturities. He successfully accomplished this task and, by doing so, made a significant contribution to our transformation," said Mike Short, Chief Financial Officer, Toys"R"Us, Inc. "We are grateful for his contributions and wish him well as he moves on to a new opportunity."

Toys"R"Us has a strong bench in its Finance operations and thus has named Matthew Finigan as its new Treasurer, reporting directly to Short. Finigan has been with Toys"R"Us since 2004, most recently as Vice President, Assistant Treasurer. He also worked on the company's recent, successful refinancing.

Finigan is a graduate of New York University, where he received his MBA.

About Toys"R"Us, Inc.

Toys"R"Us, Inc. is the world's leading dedicated toy and baby products retailer, offering a differentiated shopping experience through its family of brands. Merchandise is sold in 875 Toys"R"Us and Babies"R"Us stores in the United States, Puerto Rico and Guam, and in more than 765 international stores and over 245 licensed stores in 37 countries and jurisdictions. With its strong portfolio of e-commerce sites including Toysrus.com and Babiesrus.com, the company provides shoppers with a broad online selection of distinctive toy and baby products. Toys"R"Us, Inc. is headquartered in Wayne, NJ, and has an annual workforce of approximately 62,000 employees worldwide. The company is committed to serving its communities as a caring and reputable neighbor through programs dedicated to keeping kids safe and helping them in times of need. Since 1992, the Toys"R"Us Children's Fund, a public charity affiliated with Toys"R"Us, Inc., has donated more than $125 million in grants to children's charities. For more information, visit Toysrusinc.com or follow @ToysRUsNews on Twitter. Follow Toys"R"Us and Babies"R"Us on Facebook at Facebook.com/Toysrus and Facebook.com/Babiesrus and on Twitter at Twitter.com/Toysrus and Twitter.com/Babiesrus.

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SOURCE Toys"R"Us, Inc.

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Originally released in 1966, at the height of the UK blues bloom, Fresh Cream showcased the not inconsiderable talents of three of the then music scene's brightest lights: Eric Clapton fresh from John Mayall's Bluesbreakers; drummer, Ginger Baker straight from the Graham Bond Organisation and versatile bassist and musician, Jack Bruce who, at the time, had just left Manfred Mann. Collectively the three had decided to give up their roles as much sought after sidemen to form their own super group.

Coming together as Cream in the early summer of 1966, the trio moved at impressive speed to make the release of Fresh Cream in December of the same year. Highlights include the racing harmonica work-out and the call and response excitements on Muddy Waters' Rollin' and Tumblin', a spine-tingling vocal on the Willie Dixon classic, Spoonful, as well as the self-penned Sleepy Time Time, which gave Clapton a free hand to wake up all and sundry. Their rousing treatment of the traditional standard, Cat's Squirrel alerted listeners to just how well Clapton, Baker and Bruce musically complemented each other.

Fresh Cream is available to order now:

3CD + 1 Blu-Ray Audio: https://cream.lnk.to/FreshCreamCD

6LP 180g Vinyl: https://cream.lnk.to/FreshCreamVinyl

CREAM FRESH CREAM

Disc One:

FRESH CREAM Mono Album 1. N.S.U. 2:44 2. SLEEPY TIME TIME 4:20 3. DREAMING 2:00 4. SWEET WINE 3:19 5. SPOONFUL 6:30 6. CAT'S SQUIRREL 3:01 7. FOUR UNTIL LATE 2:09 8. ROLLIN' AND TUMBLIN' 4:46 9. I'M SO GLAD 3:59 10. TOAD 5:14

Session recording - mono mix: 11. THE COFFEE SONG 2:56

The Mono Singles: 12. WRAPPING PAPER 2:29 13. CAT'S SQUIRREL 3:01

A-side & B-side of Cream's 1st UK single, Reaction 591007, released 7 October 1966. 14. I FEEL FREE 2:49 15. N.S.U. 2:45

A-side & B-side of Cream's 2nd UK single, Reaction 591011, released 9 December 1966. 16. SPOONFUL Part I 2:26 17. SPOONFUL Part II 2:31

A-side & B-side of Cream's 3rd US single, ATCO 45-6522, released September 1967.

The Mono French EPs: 18. WRAPPING PAPER alternate mix 2:25 19. SWEET WINE alternate mix 3:18 20. I'M SO GLAD 3:57 21. CAT'S SQUIRREL alternate master 3:01

FRENCH EP, Polydor 27 791, released November 1966. 22. I FEEL FREE alternate mix 2:48 23. ROLLIN' AND TUMBLIN' alternate master 1:50 24. N.S.U. 2:44 25. FOUR UNTIL LATE 2:06

FRENCH EP, Polydor 27 798, released November 1966.

Disc Two:

FRESH CREAM Stereo Album 1. N.S.U. 2:45 2. SLEEPY TIME TIME 4:23 3. DREAMING 2:01 4. SWEET WINE 3:20 5. SPOONFUL 6:31 6. CAT'S SQUIRREL 3:08 7. FOUR UNTIL LATE 2:08 8. ROLLIN' AND TUMBLIN' 4:43 9. I'M SO GLAD 3:59 10. TOAD 5:12

Session recordings - stereo mixes: 11. I FEEL FREE 2:52 12. WRAPPING PAPER 2:25 13. THE COFFEE SONG 2:48

New stereo mixes: 14. I'M SO GLAD (NEW STEREO MIX) 3:59 15. N.S.U. (NEW STEREO MIX) 2:48 16. WRAPPING PAPER (NEW STEREO MIX) 2:43 17. THE COFFEE SONG (NEW STEREO MIX) 3:06 18. ROLLIN' AND TUMBLIN' (FIRST VERSION - NEW STEREO MIX) 4:53 19. SPOONFUL (FIRST VERSION - NEW STEREO MIX) 5:57 20. TOAD (NEW STEREO MIX) 5:12

All new stereo mixes previously unreleased.

Disc Three:

FRESH CREAM Early versions, outtakes and alternate mixes: 1. THE COFFEE SONG early version 2:54 2. YOU MAKE ME FEEL session outtake 2:41 3. BEAUTY QUEEN session outtake 2:38 4. WRAPPING PAPER early version 1:05 5. CAT'S SQUIRREL early version 2:27 6. I FEEL FREE early version 3:08 7. I FEEL FREE mono mix with no lead vocal 2:51 8. I FEEL FREE alternate mono mix 2:50 9. SWEET WINE early version 3:07 10. ROLLIN' AND TUMBLIN' early version 4:35 11. TOAD early version 4:19

All tracks previously unreleased except "You Make Me Feel" which was first released on the box set Those Where The Days, Polydor 314 539 000-2, in September 1997.



THE BBC SESSIONS (November 1966  January 1967):

BBC Light Programme "Saturday Club" session

Recorded at the Playhouse Theatre, London, 8th November 1966: 12. SWEET WINE 3:28 13. ERIC CLAPTON INTERVIEW 0:54 14. WRAPPING PAPER 2:31 15. ROLLIN' AND TUMBLIN' 3:04 16. SLEEPY TIME TIME 3:16 previously unreleased 17. STEPPIN' OUT 1:50

BBC Home Service "Guitar Club" session

Recorded at BBC Studio 2, Aeolian Hall, London, 28th November 1966: 18. CROSSROADS 1:55 19. STEPPIN' OUT 2:34 previously unreleased





BBC World Service "R & B Club" session

Recorded at BBC Maida Vale Studio 4, London, 9th December 1966: 20. CAT'S SQUIRREL 3:43 21. TRAINTIME 2:56 22. I'M SO GLAD 4:24 23. LAWDY MAMA 1:54





BBC Light Programme "Saturday Club" sessionR

Recorded at the Playhouse Theatre, London, 10th January 1967: 24. ERIC CLAPTON INTERVIEW 2 0:48 25. I FEEL FREE 2:55 26. N.S.U. 2:57 27. FOUR UNTIL LATE 1:54

Disc Four (Blu-Ray Audio Disc)



FRESH CREAM US Stereo Album in 24/96 Hi Resolution Audio: 1. I FEEL FREE 2:52 2. N.S.U. 2:45 3. SLEEPY TIME TIME 4:23 4. DREAMING 2:01 5. SWEET WINE 3:19 6. CAT'S SQUIRREL 3:08 7. FOUR UNTIL LATE 2:08 8. ROLLIN' AND TUMBLIN' 4:43 9. I'M SO GLAD 3:59 10. TOAD 5:12





Stereo bonus tracks: 11. SPOONFUL 6:32 12. WRAPPING PAPER 2:25 13. THE COFFEE SONG 2:49





FRESH CREAM US Mono Album in 24/96 Hi Resolution Audio: 14. I FEEL FREE 2:48 15. N.S.U. 2:44 16. SLEEPY TIME TIME 4:20 17. DREAMING 2:00 18. SWEET WINE 3:19 19. CAT'S SQUIRREL 3:00 20. FOUR UNTIL LATE 2:08 21. ROLLIN' AND TUMBLIN' 4:45 22. I'M SO GLAD 3:58 23. TOAD 5:13





Mono bonus tracks: 24. SPOONFUL 6:33 25. WRAPPING PAPER 2:28 26. THE COFFEE SONG 2:54

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161209/447534

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150324/184009LOGO

SOURCE UMe

Related Links

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BENTON HARBOR, Mich., Dec. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Today the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) announced a final decision that Samsung and LG engaged in ongoing dumping of clothes washers from China into the United States, in violation of U.S. and international trade laws. The ruling is in response to a petition filed by Whirlpool Corporation in December 2015. This decision represents an important step toward helping to ensure free trade so U.S. manufacturers can continue to create jobs, invest in new facilities and undertake research to drive innovation.

In today's ruling, the DOC announced antidumping margins of 52.51 percent for Samsung, and 32.12 percent for LG. Upon an anticipated affirmative U.S. International Trade Commission ruling in January 2017 on injury from the dumping, and any technical corrections from the DOC to account for possible clerical errors, Samsung and LG will be required to pay cash deposits at these substantial rates.

"The Commerce Department's ruling is an important victory in the continuing efforts to hold companies accountable when they systematically violate trade laws to gain a competitive advantage," said Jeff Fettig, chairman and chief executive officer of Whirlpool Corp. "We are strongly committed to the application and enforcement of trade laws, which support fair competition, a solid U.S. manufacturing base and continued investments in innovation that improve the lives of our consumers."

Today's DOC ruling outlines a long-term, pattern of serial dumping by Samsung and LG  a practice that is injuring American washer manufacturers and threatening American manufacturing jobs. Following a 2013 U.S. government dumping ruling, the companies moved their washer production to China, in an effort to avoid the orders. More recently, Samsung and LG stockpiled product in the United States and moved production from China to Vietnam and Thailand to avoid paying cash deposits on imports from China.

Today the DOC also declined to apply Samsung's dumping rate retroactively. Although Samsung was stockpiling washers to avoid dumping duties, the stockpiling did not meet the DOC's legal threshold for critical circumstances.

Enforcing trade rules helps ensure free trade for U.S. appliance manufacturers. This includes the 25,000 people working at Whirlpool Corp. across the United States  including 15,000 manufacturing workers located in nine plants across the country.

NEXT STEPS

January 10, 2017 : The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) is expected to vote on whether the dumped imports caused injury to the U.S. clothes washer industry.

To learn more about the company's U.S. investments and prior trade case, visit their website: WhirlpoolCorp.com/fair-trade.

About Whirlpool Corporation

Whirlpool Corporation (NYSE: WHR) is the number one major appliance manufacturer in the world, with approximately $21 billion in annual sales, 97,000 employees and 70 manufacturing and technology research centers in 2015. The company markets Whirlpool, KitchenAid, Maytag, Consul, Brastemp, Amana, Bauknecht, Jenn-Air, Indesit and other major brand names in nearly every country throughout the world. Additional information about the company can be found at WhirlpoolCorp.com, or find us on Twitter at @WhirlpoolCorp.

Whirlpool Corp. in the United States

More than 80 percent of the products sold by Whirlpool Corp. in the United States are assembled in the United States. The company's Clyde, Ohio, washing machine manufacturing facility not only meets America's washers needs but also exports 10 percent of the washers it makes to meet the needs of families throughout the world. In the United States, the company's investments include $1.6 billion in supply chain spending, $7.4 billion in manufacturing spending and more than $1 billion in its U.S. facilities since 2010. Whirlpool employs 25,000 people in the United States, with 15,000 of those jobs being held by manufacturing workers in its nine U.S. production plants.

Whirlpool Corp. in China

Whirlpool Corp. has a two-decade history meeting the needs of Chinese consumers through significant manufacturing and research and development investments in the country. The company has more than 20,000 employees in Beijing, Shanghai, Shandong, Zhejiang, Guangdong, and Anhui provinces. China is an important growth market for Whirlpool Corp., and the company is quickly expanding its investment in the country.

Whirlpool Corp. Additional Information

Certain statements in this press release relating to the antidumping petition, antidumping duties and the expected timing for resolution constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the federal securities laws. These statements reflect management's current expectations regarding future events and speak only as of the date of this press release. Forward-looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties, should not be read as guarantees of future performance and will not necessarily be accurate indications of whether or not, the extent to which, or the times at or by which, events will occur. Actual performance or events may differ materially from that expressed or implied in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from these expectations include, among other things, the risk that the resolution of these matters by the ITC may not be consistent with management's expectations. In addition to these risks, reference should also be made to the factors discussed under "Risk Factors" in Whirlpool Corp.'s periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Although the forward-looking statements contained in this press release are based upon what are believed to be reasonable assumptions, investors cannot be assured that actual results will be consistent with these forward-looking statements, and the differences may be material. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this press release and, except as expressly required by applicable law, Whirlpool Corp. assumes no obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161116/440561LOGO

SOURCE Whirlpool Corporation

Related Links

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PITTSBURGH, Dec. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The United Steelworkers (USW) today affirmed Local 1999 President Chuck Jones' assessment that Carrier has committed to keep only 730 union workers at its Indianapolis plant. Up to 1,300 Indiana workers still face layoff, as the company continues to implement its plan to shift production from Indianapolis and Huntington facilities to Mexico.

The USW said that Carrier's original plan to lay off 2,100 employees at the two plants has changed since President-elect Donald Trump announced a deal to keep production in Indianapolis; however, as pointed out by Jones after meeting with management, the incoming administration's assertion that it saved over 1,100 jobs is inaccurate and misleading.

USW International President Leo W. Gerard urged the President-elect to focus on addressing our nation's failed trade policies instead of attacking union leaders like Jones and implying that American workers should compete with those in Mexico earning three dollars an hour.

"We agreed with the re-importation tax Trump's campaign proposed to punish companies that outsource production from the U.S. to other countries with 35 percent tariffs on products imported here for sale," Gerard said. "Now, Carrier will receive millions in corporate welfare and still move jobs and production to Mexico. It's unsustainable."

USW District 7 Director Mike Millsap also encouraged Trump and his transition team to join the union's fight to save manufacturing workers and their communities by implementing the trade reforms he made the centerpiece of his campaign.

"At Carrier, at Rexnord and thousands of other plants in cities across the country, the future of American manufacturing and middle class jobs it provides are at stake," Millsap said. "The situation is urgent. Without a radical change in our country's approach to international trade, our jobs and our industries will continue to disappear."

The USW represents 850,000 men and women employed in manufacturing, metals, mining, pulp and paper, rubber, chemicals, glass, auto supply and the energy-producing industries, along with a growing number of workers in public sector and service occupations.

More information, contact: Tony Montana  (412) 562-2592; [email protected]

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20080131/DC12982LOGO

SOURCE United Steelworkers (USW)

Related Links

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NEW YORK, Dec. 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The Web content, search portals and social media market comprises establishments mainly engaged in publishing and/or broadcasting content on the Internet exclusively and web search portals. This does not include non-internet versions of published or broadcasted data.



The Americas was the x largest geographic region in the web content, search portals and social media market in 2016, accounting for $x billion or x% of the global market. Asia was the x largest geographic market, accounting for $x billion or x% of the global market. Europe was the x largest geographic market, accounting for $x billion or x% of the global market. The Middle East and Africa accounted for x% and $x billion, while Oceania accounted for x% of the global Web content, search portals and social media market.



Music Streaming Via Internet Radio - There has been a shift in music streaming from analog to digital. It has helped operators to cut costs by replacing the traditional operational systems using stations or satellites with internet. Also, people are shifting towards streaming music services by using online subscriptions and ad-plans and free services. For instance, Beats 1 digital radio station was launched by Apple music. Spotify and Pandora are the other popular radio stations.





Read the full report: http://www.reportlinker.com/p04442339-summary/view-report.html



About Reportlinker

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



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__________________________

Contact Clare: [email protected]

US: (339)-368-6001

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Vanguard is excited to invite members of the media and public to come see its new Roadster in person. The world premiere is scheduled for the Progressive International Motorcycle Show in New York City on December 9th.

DESIGN

Form and function have never been more complimentary. The Vanguard Roadster has a striking contemporary silhouette, the result of clear and well-informed design decisions. The lines emerged from breaking everything down into rethinking needs and solutions.

MOTORCYCLES

The Vanguard Roadster is a running prototype, with production slated for 2018. It boasts many unique features including a frameless structural engine, unitized crankcase, integrated exhaust and a tablet-size digital dashboard with rear-view camera.

The Roadster is the first of 3 motorcycles built on a common powertrain platform that will cover all riding positions: Roadster, Cruiser and Racer.

PRODUCTION

Vanguard motorcycles will be assembled in New York City at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The modular construction, based on large sub-assemblies, revisits traditional manufacturing methods. Combined with worldwide sourcing and the support of key motorcycle vendors, Vanguard will deliver exceptional value and quality.

SALES

Starting at $29,995, a premium price within reach, the Vanguard Roadster is a strong alternative to current premium motorcycles. Selected dealers are signing up to be the ambassadors of this game-changing brand.

PEOPLE

Vanguard is led by renowned designer Edward Jacobs and serial entrepreneur Francois-Xavier Terny. Together they form a dynamic team of drive and vision.

With a fresh perspective and unique approach, Vanguard promises to be a premium motorcycle brand of revolutionary effect.

The Progressive International Motorcycle Show in New York takes place December 9-11 at the Javits Center in Manhattan.

For more information about Vanguard, including photos and press inquiries, please contact [email protected].

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161111/438438

SOURCE Vanguard motorcycles
If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this





Got news tips, gossip, suggestions, complaints?E-mail us: progressivecharlestown@gmail.com We strive to avoid errors in our articles. Our correction policy can be found here
New Delhi, Dec 5 : The Rajya Sabha again witnessed uproar on Monday over demonetisation, leading to its adjournment twice in the pre-lunch session.

The upper house was first adjourned till 12 noon as opposition parties protested against the way bank customers have to struggle to withdraw their own money.

Soon after the house met at 11, Opposition leader Gulam Nabi Azad said people were suffering because of the cash crunch and the overall situation was going from bad to worse.

"Thousands of people met us during the weekend. No money is being given to them. They are suffering," he said.

Azad strongly criticised the November 8 demonetisation and said ATMs even in Parliament premises were minus cash.

"It's an important issue and should be debated," Union Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu said.

As the din continued, Deputy chairman P.J. Kurien requested the agitating members to go back to their seats, saying the "only remedy (to the problem of demonetisation) is discussion".

Nobody paid heed to his plea and Kurien adjourned the house till 12 noon amid chaos.

It got adjourned further till 2 p.m. after it reassembled at noon as the opposition members kept shouting that "people's money should be given back to them".
Seoul, Dec 6 : South Korean President Park Geun-hye on Tuesday said she will calmly accept impeachment if it is passed in the scheduled parliamentary vote three days from now.

She made the comments during a one-hour meeting in the presidential office with the ruling Saenuri Party's chairman and floor leader, Xinhua news agency reported.

Saenuri Party whip Chung Jin-suk said Park continues to consider accepting the party's call to let the President resign by next April to hold an early presidential election two months later.

Park said she will calmly accept the impeachment if it is passed through the unicameral assembly slated for this Friday, vowing to make every effort she can if the impeachment bill is approved.

Opposition and independent lawmakers handed in the bill to impeach the first South Korean female leader last Saturday.

As there are 172 legislators from the opposition bloc, at least 28 Saenuri lawmakers must endorse the bill to overcome the two-thirds threshold of the 300-seat parliament.

Park also agreed to allow the governing party lawmakers to freely vote on the impeachment motion.

Tens of lawmakers of the party's faction, who are not loyal to Park, have agreed to vote for the impeachment, raising possibility for the passage of the bill.

Saenuri Party chief Lee Jung-hyun estimated that Park seemed to prefer the April resignation to the impeachment, but the President is expected to be stripped of all powers if the bill is passed through parliament.

For the final approval, the impeachment motion is required to be upheld by the constitutional court though Park will be suspended immediately after the parliamentary passage.

The constitutional court will have as long as 180 days to rule on it, and two-thirds of the nine-judge court must endorse it to formally impeach the scandal-hit President.
Kabul, Dec 7 : At least 13 persons were detained by the Afghan special counter-narcotic police for alleged drug trafficking in five of the country's 34 provinces within a week, authorities said on Wednesday.

"Counter-Narcotics Police of Afghanistan (CNPA) have cracked 10 major drug-trafficking cases and captured 13 drug dealers involved in the cases in Kabul, Herat, Nimroz, Kandahar and Laghman provinces within the last one week," the Counter-Narcotics Criminal Justice Task Force of Afghanistan (CJTF) said in a statement.

The anti-drug police force also found drugs including 15-kg of heroin, over 530-kg of opium and 370 litres of chemical substance from the detainees, the statement said, adding the CNPA also seized 11 vehicles, 16 mobile phones and 26 rounds of different types of bullets from those arrested, Xinhua news agency reported.

After initial investigation, the CNPA has handed over the cases to the Central Narcotics Tribunal (CNT), a special Afghan court for major drug cases, the statement said.

The vast majority of the world's opium poppy, the raw element for making heroin, is cultivated in militancy-hit Afghanistan, particularly in the western and southern parts of the country, where security forces have little presence.

Some 4,800 tons of opium has been produced this year in Afghanistan, home to some 1.9 million to 2.4 million adult drug addicts, according to the latest figures released by the Afghan Ministry of Counter-Narcotics.
New Delhi, Dec 7 : The Supreme Court will on Friday hear a PIL by NGO Common Cause challenging appointment of Rakesh Asthana as the Central Bureau of Investigation's interim Director, on grounds it was arbitrary and overlooked established procedure.

A bench of Chief Justice T.S. Thakur, Justice D.Y.Chandrachud and Justice L. Nageswara Rao agreed to hear the PIL after Common Cause lawyer Pranav Sachdeva sought an early hearing.

The petitioner alleged that the government took some steps, including the shifting of former Special Director R.K. Dutta to the Home Ministry, to facilitate bringing Asthana as the interim director.

Seeking the quashing of Asthana's appointment, Common Cause has sought direction to the Central government to initiate the process for appointment of a regular director of the premier investigating agency as per the law.

The society has contended that the government has acted in a "mala fide, arbitrary and illegal manner" to ensure appointment of Asthana as interim director of the CBI.

It further says that just two days before Director Anil Sinha was to step down on December 2, 2016, Dutta was transferred to Union Home Ministry by creating a post of Special Secretary by upgrading by two layers the post of the joint secretary.

This, it said, was done to frustrate the chances of Dutta stepping into the shoes of Sinha as he was number two in the hierarchy of the investigating agency.

The petitionhas pointed out that it was for the first time in one decade that an interim director was thrust on the investigating agency. It said that the process for the appointment of Sinha's successor should have commenced well in advance.

Common Cause, in its PIL, cited the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013 and Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946, under which the CBI Director is selected by a committee comprising the Prime Minister, leader of the single largest opposition party and Chief Justice of India (or any judge nominated by him).

This shows that the "Government wanted to appoint its own choice as Interim CBI Director, even if it meant bypassing the statutory law, the norms of propriety, and the directions (of the apex court) ... in Vineet Narain's case".

It has also recalled the recent direction of the top court directing the government to appoint a full-time Director of the Enforcement Directorate in a time frame.
Panaji, Dec 8 : The BJP should sack Laxmikant Parsekar and name a new Chief Minister in Goa if it wants to continue the ruling alliance, BJP ally Maharashtrwadi Gomnatak Party (MGP) demanded on Thursday.

MGP President Deepak Dhavalikar, also a minister in the BJP-led cabinet, also said that his party was open to contesting all the 40 assembly seats if the alliance with the BJP breaks.

He also criticised the manner in which the demonetisation exercise was conducted across the country and in Goa.

"The Chief Ministership of Parsekar has been imposed on us. We have asked the BJP to change him as Chief Minister and a new Chief Minister should be sworn in if this alliance is to be taken forward to the next election," he told reporters.

Ponda MLA Lavu Mamledar said "Goa has gone back 10 years under Parsekar's Chief Ministership of two and a half years".

Parsekar was appointed Chief Minister in November 2014 after incumbent Manohar Parrikar was elevated as Defence Minister in the Narendra Modi government.

"When the alliance talks were on in 2012, we had insisted that Parrikar should be Chief Minister. But once he became Defence Minister, Parsekar was thrust upon us against our wishes," Dhavalikar said.

Reacting to Dhavalikar's statement, Chief Minister Parsekar said: "I am amazed that the MGP, which worked with me in the government for more than two years, is now making such a grievance.

"Our party does not need others to decide who would be our legislative leader. We do not interfere in MGP affairs," Parsekar said.

Political wrangling between the MGP and BJP has increased in recent times, especially with elections to the 40-member Goa assembly likely to be held early next year.

While the BJP has a simple majority of 21 seats in the assembly, the MGP has three MLAs, two of whom are cabinet ministers. The MGP was also a member of the ruling Congress-led alliance in 2007-12.

Dhavalikar also criticised the implementation of the demonetisation policy.

"While the idea to weed out black money is good, the manner in which demonetisation has been implemented, has put people in hardship," he said.
Washington, Dec 9 : US researchers said on Thursday they have discovered a tumour in a 255-million-year-old mammalian ancestor called a gorgonopsian.

The tumour, found in the extinct species's fossilised jaw, is a benign one made up of miniature, tooth-like structures, they reported in the latest issue of Journal of the American Medical Association Oncology.

Known as a compound odontoma, this type of tumour is common to mammals today. Before this discovery, the earliest known evidence of odontomas came from Ice Age-era fossils, Xinhua reported.

"We think this is by far the oldest known instance of a compound odontoma," said senior author Christian Sidor, a University of Washington (UW) professor of biology and curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture. "It would indicate that this is an ancient type of tumour."

According to the study, gorgonopsians were distant mammal relatives and the top predators the apex predator during its pre-dinosaur era about 255 million years ago.

These animals are part of a larger group of animals called synapsids, which includes modern mammals as its only living member.

Sidor and colleagues spotted the tumour when they examined wafer-thin slices of the fossilised gorgonopsian jaw, collected in southern Tanzani, to see how the tooth was nestled within its socket.

They immediately noticed irregular clusters of up to eight tiny, round objects embedded next to the root of a canine tooth. The objects within each cluster resembled small, poorly differentiated teeth, or toothlets, that harboured distinct layers of dentin and enamel.

"At first we did not know what to make of it," said Megan Whitney, lead author and UW biology graduate student. "But after some investigation we realized this gorgonopsian had what looks like a textbook compound odontoma."

In humans and other mammals, the tumour's toothlets grow within the gums or other soft tissues of the jaw and can cause pain and swelling, as well as disrupt the position of teeth and other tissues, the researchers said.

Odontomas are considered benign tumours because they do not metastasize and spread throughout the body. But given the disruptions they cause, surgeons often opt to remove them.

"Until now, the earliest known occurrence of this tumour was about one million years ago, in fossil mammals," said Judy Skog, programme director in the National Science Foundation's Division of Earth Sciences, which funded the research.

"These researchers have found an example in the ancestors of mammals that lived 255 million years ago. The discovery suggests that the suspected cause of an odontoma is not tied solely to traits in modern species, as had been thought," Skog added.
Dodge County and Washington County residents gathered Thursday evening inside of Trinity Lutheran Schools to have input during a public meeting discussing the Elkhorn River Valley Transmission Project expected to break ground post-harvest 2017.

The Transmission Project, which is a collaboration between Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) and Fremont Department of Utilities, is designed to build a new transmission line between Dodge and Washington counties.

The ERVT Project consists of a new 161kV transmission line to be built between OPPDs existing Substation 1226 (located near Hwy 91 and County Road 27) west of Blair and OPPDs existing Substation 991 (located on U Boulevard and S. County Road 26) east of Fremont. A new 69kV line will be built between existing Substation 991 and Fremont Department of Utilities existing Substation B (located on North Luther Road and US 30) in northeast Fremont.

This project is intended to improve system reliability on both the OPPD and Fremont transmission systems, information off of www.ervtransmissionproject.com says. The project should improve Fremont Department of Utilities flexibility for planned outages and augment its ability to diversify its energy options, which includes renewables. As a southwest Power Pool project, the ERVT Project should provide the necessary reliability and capacity needed to serve future growth for both OPPD and Fremont customers, and enhance economic development opportunities in and around the Fremont area, released information says.

Dannie Buelt, supervisor of substation engineering for OPPD, discussed how the power lines will be implemented. Initially, he said, the land must be prepared to handle the implementation of the ERVT Project. Trees must be removed and fences on pieces of land must be removed.

Next, foundations must be installed, followed by the erection of poles, wire stringing and property restoration, which includes minor grading, fencing restoration, compensation for property damages and the releasing of temporary easement to property owners.

While most in attendance acknowledged the overall benefit of the ERVT to Dodge and Washington counties, many had points of contention with the proposed ERVT Route  which slices alongside/through several properties. One farmer attending the hearing spoke adamantly about how the power line poles will infringe on his ability to plant crops and harvest; not to mention that he will still be taxed for the land that he cannot use.

Jake Farrell, OPPD project manager, responded by saying this is where OPPD will step in and provide compensation for landowners whose daily operations are hindered by the project.

One Dodge County resident, Julie Hindmarsh, spent a few minutes discussing some of her grievances with the crowd consisting of approximately a few dozen people.

Last fall, Hindmarsh returned to her family farm from Maryland to oversee its operation. In May, she was informed that OPPD was building power lines along a 2-mile stretch of her land. Hindmarsh doesnt have an issue with the project, just the proposed route.

I want to go on the record that I am not opposed to the concept of the ERVT project, I understand that a power line can benefit both Fremont and OPPD, she said. I am totally against the route proposed. It makes no sense for poles of this magnitude to be placed on country roads instead of along a highway.

She went on to discuss project costs, flooding issues in the Elkhorn River Valley in regard to substation placement, lack of overall transparency between OPPD and residents of the two counties; but most of all, it appeared her concerns were predominately in regard to violating the land.

A doable route change could eliminate this problem, she said. Hindmarsh proposed a route alongside U.S. Highway 30.

If they were building along an appropriate route such as Highway 30, they would still be on my land, she said. (But) There, the lines would not destroy rural beauty or integrity of our 100-year farm or interfere with farming.

OPPD moved the lines pole placement to protect homes, churches, cemeteries, wetlands and wildlife. A 100-year farm should be included in the protected category.
New Delhi, Dec 9 : She ventured into Bollywood in 2013 with Yash Raj Films' "Shuddh Desi Romance" and now, three years later, has bagged a film directed by Aditya Chopra. Actress Vaani Kapoor says that she does get nervous about her movies doing well or not, but added that it's this nervousness that ensures she does not become over confident.

"I stress, worry, get nervous and I start to over-think about a lot of things, but I think a little bit of doubt and nervousness always keeps me on my feet. Strangely, I feel that it is a good thing. It always gets me through... It (nervousness) will never let me be over-confident in my life," Vaani told IANS over phone from Mumbai.

Before venturing into Bollywood, Vaani worked as a model, though the actress says "a part of me always wanted to be an actor".

"Modelling is something I couldn't see as my forte or something that I would do for the rest of my life. It just says that it is a step closer to where I want to be, which was acting. So I thought if there's ever a chance... I was very clear in my head that I am going to make the most of it and work hard towards it," said Vaani.

Does she think her modelling career helped her to get into Bollywood?

"Yeah, because Shanoo Sharma told me that they did like my photographs. They short-listed my photographs and initially called me for a meeting and that's how it happened because I was modelling," said the 28-year-old actress.

Vaani added: "There are such pretty faces and so many more talents and people with more potential, but they never get their chance because they are not at the right place at the right time."

After "Shuddh Desi Romance", Vaani will now be seen romancing actor Ranveer Singh in the forthcoming film "Befikre", which has been extensively shot in Paris.

So what kept Vaani away from the silver screen for three years?

"I was doing my auditions for Shanoo Sharma. She used to audition me every week...Then I also (did) some acting workshops because I was never trained in acting and I thought this is the best time I could focus on acting and other skills that are required," she said.

The actress also confided that she told Aditya Chopra that, while she wasn't shooting, she could assist someone on the sets so that she could learn something.

(Durga Chakravarty can be contacted at durga.c@ians.in)
Mumbai, Dec 9 : Veteran actor Rishi Kapoor has thanked Gauri Khan, entrepreneur and wife of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, for turning actor Ranbir Kapoor's house to a home.

Rishi on Thursday took to Twitter to share that he and his actress-wife Neetu Singh are overwhelmed by the way Gauri has designed their son's home.

"Vastu" Wonderful! Gauri Khan! You have made a home out of Ranbir's house. Beautifully done! Both Neetu and me are overwhelmed. Thank you!" Rishi tweeted.

Gauri has professionally ventured into interior designing in partnership with actor Hrithik Roshan's former wife Sussanne Khan to design exclusive interior projects together. She also launched her brand new interior store named Design Cell.

On the acting front, Rishi was last seen onscreen in "Kapoor & Sons" along with actors Alia Bhatt, Fawad Khan and Sidharth Kapoor.
Mumbai, Dec 9 : Filmmaker Karan Johar has praised Aditya Chopra and says it was the "Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge" director who taught him to love the movies.

Karan on Friday praised Chopra's directorial "Befikre", which released on Friday and says the film will be a "game changer".

"Aditya Chopra taught me to love the movies and I can't wait to absolutely love his (films). This ones going to be a rule breaker and a game changer!" Karan tweeted on Friday morning.

Shot widely in Paris, "Befikre" stars Ranveer Singh and Vaani Kapoor. It is a progressive, fresh interpretation of love as viewed in the 21st century.

"Befikre" is a free-spirited, contemporary love story of Dharam (Ranveer) and Shyra (Vaani), who find love in an impulsive, engaging series of experiences. It's a story that celebrates being carefree in love. The film's trailer was launched at the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
New Delhi, Dec 9 : Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in remarks published on Friday that Indians should be ready to face "a tough period over the coming months" due to demonetisation.

Writing in The Hindu newspaper, the Congress leader also said the November 8 decision would cause grievous injury to the honest Indian while those with black money will escape with a mere rap on the knuckles.

The economist-turned-politician described as "impetuous" Prime Minister Narendra Modi's move to ban the 500 and 1,000 rupee notes and warned that this would cause severe hardships to ordinary Indians.

It has "shattered the faith and confidence that hundreds of millions of Indians had reposed in the government of India to protect them and their money", Manmohan Singh said.

The demonetisation has led to an unprecedented cash crunch across the country, with the Reserve Bank of India unable to supply adequate cash in exchange for the 86 per cent of all currency that was spiked.

This has led to long, daily queues at all banks and ATMs, both of which frequently go dry. The government has also put a cap on how much a person can withdraw from his own bank account.

Manmohan Singh, who was the Finance Minister when India unleashed economic reforms in 1991, said Modi's stated intentions behind the note ban -- fighting fake currency as well as corruption and black money -- were honourable.

"However, the popular saying 'the road to hell is paved with good intentions' serves as a useful reminder and warning in this context."

Manmohan Singh underlined that all cash was not black money and all black money was not hoarded in cash.

"More than 90 per cent of India's workforce still earn their wages in cash. These consist of hundreds of millions of agricultural workers, construction workers and so on."

He pointed out that more than 600 million Indians still lived in towns and villages with no bank and cash was the bedrock of their lives.

"To tarnish these as 'black money' and throw the lives of these hundreds of millions of poor people in disarray is a mammoth tragedy."

The demonetisation decision had breached the government's fundamental duty to protect the rights and livelihood of its citizens.

Chiding the government for introducing the Rs 2,000 note, he went on: "This brazen policy measure (demonetisation) has neither tackled the stock of black money holistically nor has it stemmed the flow of it."

He said other countries which went for currency swap did so over a period of time "and not as a sudden overnight operation".

"As someone who has experienced long lines for rationed food during war time, I never imagined that one day I would find my own countrymen and women waiting endlessly for rationed money.

"That all of this suffering is due to one hasty decision makes it even more disconcerting."

Manmohan Singh warned that the note ban can act as a negative shock to the economy.

"Consumer confidence is an important economic variable in a nation's growth prospects.

"It is now evident that the sudden overnight ban on currency has dented the confidence of hundreds of millions of Indian consumers, which can have severe economic ramifications...

"This can have rippled effect on GDP growth and job creation.

"It is my humble opinion that we as a nation should brace ourselves for a tough period over the coming months, needlessly so."
New Delhi, Dec 9 : The Lok Sabha was on Friday disrupted again, witnessing two adjournments before noon, and being adjourned for the day with ruling and opposition members sparring over the demonetisation issue.

The ruling party members were aggressively blaming the opposition for wasting people's money by not letting Parliament function and asking them to go to Jantar Mantar for a dharna.

When the house met at 11 a.m., Speaker Sumitra Mahajan welcomed a delegation from Vietnam.

She also paid tributes to the martyrs of the Parliament attack on December 13, 2001, and said the cowardly attack was foiled by brave security personnel.

As the Speaker announced taking up the Question Hour, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge was on his feet, but members from the treasury benches shouted back mentioning President Pranab Mukherjee's appeal on the majority being disrupted by the minority in Parliament.

As a verbal spat broke out, the Speaker adjourned the house till 11.30 a.m.

The scene was the same when the house reconvened, and Bharatiya Janata Party member Meenakshi Lekhi said Parliament was not the place for dharnas and opposition members should go to Jantar Mantar.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister H.N. Ananth Kumar said the opposition should apologise to the nation.

"This is not the way... when the majority wants to participate in a discussion, they are disrupting," Kumar said.

"They must apologise to the nation. They are wasting people's money," he said.

The Speaker then adjourned the house till noon.

When the house met again, the Speaker announced that Aam Aadmi Party MP Bhagwant Mann has been found guilty of video-recording Parliament's security system and has been suspended for the rest of the ongoing winter session.

Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar introduced the National Institutes of Technology, Science Education and Research (Second Amendment) Bill, 2016 amid sloganeering.

As the Speaker announced taking up of the Zero Hour, opposition members began shouting "shame shame".

The Speaker then adjourned the house till Wednesday and said: "Jao sab chhutti par (go on a holiday)".

The Lok Sabha has been witnessing disruptions since the beginning of the winter session on November 16 over the demonetisation issue with the opposition in the house demanding a debate on demonetisation under rules that entail voting.

The government has not agreed to this stating that voting will send a message that there is division in the house.

The Speaker also offered to the opposition to take up a debate without any rule, but the impasse has not been broken.

With holiday on December 12 and 13, Parliament now has only three working days left before the session ends on December 16.
New Delhi, Dec 9 : The Modi government has taken yet another step in "entangling India in a military alliance with the US", the CPI-M said on Friday.

"The terms for India being accorded the status of a Major Defence Partner of the US has been finalised during the visit of US Secretary of Defence Asthon Carter," the Communist Party of India-Marxist said.

"The status of a Major Defence Partner is equivalent to that of the close military allies of the US such as Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Japan and South Korea," it said in a statement.

"Coming in the wake of the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA), this new agreement will further encroach upon India's sovereignty

and strategic autonomy."

The CPI-M said it was strongly opposed to such military collaborations.

"The Modi government has not made the text of these agreement public," it said.

"It is imperative that these agreements which have vital implications for India's national interests and sovereignty be made available to the people."
New Delhi, Dec 9 : India is aware of reports of Pakistan's nuclear expansion and was taking all steps to safeguard India's national interest, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said on Friday.

"The government is aware of reports on the expansion of Pakistan's capability for fissile material production for nuclear weapons," Parrikar informed the Lok Sabha.

"The government continues to monitor development in this regard and is committed to taking all necessary steps to safeguard national security and respond to any threat suitably and adequately," he said.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Pakistan has 110-130 nuclear warheads while India possesses 100-120.

Meanwhile, a paper by renowned American scholars Tom Dalton and Michael Krepon, "A Normal Nuclear Pakistan", argues that Pakistan could have the third-biggest nuclear stockpile within a decade and could end up producing 20 nuclear warheads annually.

The 48-page report warns that if Pakistan continues on its current path, in 10 years it could possess a nuclear arsenal nearing 350 weapons.

The report said Pakistan operates four plutonium production reactors while India operates one.

Pakistan has the capability to produce perhaps 20 nuclear warheads annually. India appears to be producing about five warheads annually.

The report added that given its larger economy and sizable nuclear infrastructure, India can outpace Pakistan in fissile material and warhead production if it chose to.
New Delhi, Dec 9 : The Rajya Sabha after witnessing disruption on Friday over the government's decision to reduce the wheat import duty to zero per cent, got adjourned for the day in want of koram soon after it met after lunch.

During pre-lunch session, the upper house witnessed uproar and adjourned twice.

As the house met at 11, the opposition parties began shouting slogans against the government.

They accused the government of being "anti-farmer".

"The anti-farmer government will not be allowed to function," the Opposition shouted.

The house was then adjourned till noon. It was again disrupted over the same issue as it reassembled at noon and was adjourned till 2.30 p.m.

Chairman Mohammad Hamid Ansari requested the agitated members to let the house function, but his pleas went unheard.

He then asked if the members wanted the Question Hour to be taken up. On this, the slogan-shouting MPs said "no".

The Chairman, who tried to restore peace in the house, said "nothing can be done in this noise".

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said over 70 hours of the Rajya Sabha have been wasted and the opposition was not allowing the house to function even after President Pranab Mukherjee appealed to them.

"The country will not forgive them," he said.

The Chairman then adjourned the house till 2.30 p.m.

As the house met after lunch, Anand Sharma of the Congress urged Deputy Speaker P.J. Kurien to adjourn it as there was no quorum.

Kurien then directed the authorities concerned to ring the koram bell but the koram could not be completed and the house was finally adjourned for the day.
New Delhi, Dec 9 : China's support to Pakistan, Beijing's all-weather friend, is not designed to be against India, a prominent Chinese academic said here on Friday.

Speaking at the first ever "India-China Think-Tanks Forum: Towards a Closer India-Pakistan Developmental Forum", Ye Hailin said that China's support to Pakistan was because of the growth of extremism and terrorim in that South Asian nation.

Ye, Chief Editor of South Asia Studies at the National Institute of International Strategy, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that if China did not support Pakistan at a time when extremism and terrorism were rising, the region would have to face serious problems.

He made it clear that China's ties should not be seen as designed against India.

The India-China Think-Tanks Forum was set up through a memorandum of understanding signed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to China in May last year.
Chennai, Dec 9 : Superstar Rajinikanth, who will turn 66 on December 12, has requested his fans not to celebrate his birthday.

"Rajinikanth requests his fans not to celebrate his birthday," his manager Riaz Ahmed tweeted on Friday.

He added that Rajinikanth asked his fans not to put up posters and banners.

It is believed that Rajinikanth has taken this decision as a mark of respect to former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa who passed away earlier this week.

On the career front, the 65-year-old actor is busy shooting for Shankar's magnum opus, "2.o".
New Delhi, Dec 9 : The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has imposed a penalty of Rs 12,918 crore in 327 cases in less than four years, Parliament was told on Friday.

CCI has imposed a penalty of Rs 12,917.63 crore in 327 cases from 2013-14 onwards till October this year, Corporate Affairs Minister Arun Jaitley told the Lok Sabha in a written reply.

"Penalty of Rs 10,454.08 crore has been stayed by Competition Appellate Tribunal/High Court/ Supreme Court, while penalty of Rs 2,427.90 crore has been dismissed by Competition Appellate Tribunal/High Court/Supreme Court," he said.

Out of the amount of penalty imposed, an amount of Rs 29.49 crore has been realised and penalty of Rs 6.16 crore remains unpaid, Jaitley said, adding necessary actions are taken by CCI for recovery of penalties, as per provisions of the Competition Act, 2002.
New Delhi, Dec 9 : The government has earned revenue of Rs 146.5 crore through equalisation levy, put into effect from June 1 this year, Parliament was informed on Friday.

"The revenue accrued for the government exchequer through the equalisation levy amounts to Rs 146.5 crore from June 1, 2016 to December 3, 2016," Minister of State for Finance Santosh Kumar Gangwar told the Lok Sabha in a written reply.

The government introduced equalisation levy of 6 per cent on online advertisers to tap tax on income accruing to foreign e-commerce companies from India.

It was provided that a person making payment exceeding in aggregate Rs 1 lakh in a year, to a non resident, who does not have a permanent establishment in India, as consideration for online advertisement, will withhold tax at 6 per cent of gross amount paid, as equalisation levy with effect from June 1, 2016.

The levy only applies to business to business transactions.

"This is levied in line with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's base erosion and profit shifting project to tax e-commerce transactions," said Gangwar.
New Delhi, Dec 9 : A day after the AAP accused the Central government of partnering with allegedly blacklisted Britain-based banknote manufacturer De La Rue, the company on Friday refuted the charges calling them "defamatory and malicious".

"De La Rue categorically refutes the defamatory and malicious allegations about its business published in Indian media. De La Rue is not supplying paper for printing of Indian currency, and we are not associated with printing of currency in India at present in any form," a company statement said.

It added the company was not aware that it was blacklisted in India as it received no such communication.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday accused the Narendra Modi government of compromising national security by partnering with De La Rue, which AAP alleged was earlier blacklisted for working with a fake currency nexus based out of Pakistan.

AAP Delhi convener Dilip Pandey alleged that the new Rs 2,000 note is also being printed on paper supplied by De La Rue.

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had also denied the allegations and said the Ministry of Finance had no dealings with the said British company.

In its statement, the security printing and papermaking company said it does not supply currency paper and is not printing currency for Pakistan and "would never supply currency paper manufactured for one country to another".

"De La Rue is the world's leading commercial banknote printer supporting 140 countries. The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange, is a founder member of the Banknote Ethics Initiative and operates to the highest ethical standards.

"De La Rue will take appropriate steps in India to protect its reputation as the trusted currency printer around the world," it added.
New Delhi, Dec 9 : A day after President Pranab Mukherjee expressed anguish over the Parliament logjam, both houses saw more bedlam on Friday, the fourth week of a disrupted winter session.

On Friday, however, it were the treasury benches who created pandemonium in the Lok Sabha, aggressively blaming the opposition for wasting people's money by not letting Parliament function.

This led to another premature adjournment for the day.

The Rajya Sabha witnessed acrimonious scenes as the opposition derailed the proceedings over the government's decision to reduce the wheat import duty to zero per cent. They dubbed the government "anti-farmer".

Both houses were adjourned for the day amid repeated disruptions.

After the Lok Sabha was adjourned for the first time, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi trained his guns at the government saying he was not being allowed to speak.

"For the last one month I want to speak in the Lok Sabha... what is in the heart of the poor across the country about demonetisation," Gandhi told the media. "If they allow me to speak, there shall be an earthquake."

He alleged that demonetisation was the biggest scam in Indian history.

"If I say this inside the house, Modiji will not be able to sit. I want to talk about the biggest scam that has been orchestrated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi but I am being stopped from speaking."

The government and the opposition have locked horns over the note ban that has caused an unprecedented cash crunch across the country, wiping out virtually the entire winter session of Parliament.

Earlier, when the house met at 11, the ruling party members blamed the opposition for not letting Parliament function and asked them to go to the Jantar Mantar if they believed in dharna.

As the Speaker announced the Question Hour, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge was on his feet. But members from the treasury benches shouted back quoting President Pranab Mukherjee as saying that the majority was being disrupted by a minority in Parliament.

The scene was the same when the house reconvened. Bharatiya Janata Party's Meenakshi Lekhi said Parliament was not the place for protests.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister H.N. Ananth Kumar said the opposition should apologize to the nation.

"This is not the way... when the majority wants to participate in a discussion, they are disrupting," he said.

The Speaker then adjourned the house till noon.

When the house met again, the Speaker announced that AAP MP Bhagwant Mann had been found guilty of video-recording Parliament's security system and suspended for the rest of the ongoing winter session.

Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar introduced the National Institutes of Technology, Science Education and Research (Second Amendment) Bill, 2016 amid sloganeering.

As the Speaker announced Zero Hour, opposition members shouted "shame, shame".

The Speaker then adjourned the house till Wednesday, saying: "Jao, sab chhutti par" (All of you take a holiday).

In the Rajya Sabha, post lunch, Anand Sharma of the Congress urged Deputy Speaker P.J. Kurien to adjourn the house as there was no quorum.

The quorum bell was rung but the required number of MPs could not be gathered. And so the house was adjourned for the day.

With holidays on December 12 and 13, Parliament now has only three working days left before the session ends on December 16.

President Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday said disruption of Parliament was "totally unacceptable".
New Delhi, Dec 9 : The Lok Sabha on Friday adopted a motion to suspend AAP's Bhagwant Mann, who was being probed for posting a video footage of Parliament on social media, from the house for the remaining period of the winter session. His partyu slammed the move The move was recommended by a parliamentary committee, headed by BJP's Kirit Somaiya.

The committee's report, presented on Thursday, said: "The committee, after due deliberations, recommends that Bhagwant Mann, MP, be suspended for the remaining period of the current session, i.e. the 10th session of the 16th Lok Sabha."

The committee also said that there were repeated contradictions in his communications and therefore it felt that "tendering of his apology before the committee cannot be treated as unconditional apology".

It said: "The conduct of Mann is highly objectionable and exhibits his lack of basic knowledge and etiquette and the responsibilities of the office he holds. Mann has put the security of Parliament House and its occupants at risk."

Slamming the suspension, the AAP called it a "cruel attempt to silence of voice of smaller parties" in Parliament.

"It is a sad day for parliamentary democracy in India since an elected Member of Parliament has been deprived from raising issues of the voters who elected him," a party statement said.

It added that it was "highly regrettable" that the motion to suspend Mann was adopted when the house was "not in order".

The AAP alleged the sequence leading to formation of the committee appeared to be pre-planned with MPs belonging to Bharatiya Janata Party, Shiromani Akali Dal and Congress coming together in demanding stringent punishment to Mann.

"In the committee formed to decide Mann's fate, Dr Kirit Somaiya, Anandrao Adsul and Bhartruhari Mahtab - who had either presumed that Mann was guilty or had given notices against him - were nominated members of the Inquiry Committee.

"To top it all, Kirit Somaiya, who was on record demanding Mann's summary expulsion from the membership of the house on July 22 was duly appointed the chairperson of the committee," AAP said.
Bhopal, Dec 9 : An average of 82 children died everyday since July in Madhya Pradesh due to various illnesses, data provided by Health Minister Rustam Singh in the state assembly revealed.

The health Minister informed the state assembly on Friday that from July to October -- 123 days in total -- 10,171 children died in the state due to pneumonia, diarrhoea, fever and measles, among other reasons.

The Minister was answering a question raised by Congress MLA Ramniwas Rawat who asked how many children under the age of six and in the age group of 6-12 had died in the state from July? And due to what illnesses?
New Delhi, Dec 9 : The Supreme Court on Friday continued its interim order directing Karnataka to release 2,000 cusecs of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu every day as it rejected the Union government's stand that the court had no jurisdiction to intervene in inter-state river water disputes.

Rejecting the government's stand, the bench of Justice Dipak Misra, Justice Amitava Roy and Justice A.M.Khanwilkar in their judgment said that the interim order passed earlier would continue.

However, the court said: "How the final order (of February 5, 2007) passed by the (Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal) tribunal would be adjudged within the parameters of the ... constitutional provision has to be debated when we finally address the controversy pertaining to the subject matter of the Civil Appeals."

Speaking for the bench, Justice Misra noted: "When we apply the ... principles of statutory interpretation to understand the legislative intendment of Section 6(2) it is clear as crystal that the Parliament did not intend to create any kind of embargo on the jurisdiction of this Court."

"The said provision (Section 6) was inserted to give the binding effect to the award passed by the tribunal" under the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act 1956, the court said, adding that Parliament has "intended that the same (the tribunal award) shall be executed or abided as if it is a decree of this Court".

It is to be borne in mind, the court said, that a provision should not be interpreted to give a "different colour which has a technical design rather than serving the object of the legislation".

"Be it clearly stated that Section 6 cannot be interpreted in an absolute mechanical manner and the words 'same force as on order or decision' cannot be treated as a decree for the purpose for excluding the jurisdiction of this Court," the court said elaborating that "it (tribunal award) cannot be a decree as if this Court has adjudicated the matter and decree is passed".

Jurisdictional objections were raised by the central government and Puducherry.

The central government had argued that the appeals against the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal award were not maintainable as top court had no jurisdiction to examine the award which under the Section 6(2) of the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956, had the force of an order of the top court.

It had argued that therefore there could be no intra-court appeals and in fact, the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal award was at the same pedestal as the judgment of the top court.

The appeals against the February 5, 2007, award were filed by Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
Chennai, Dec 9 : The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) should probe the source of new 2,000 rupee currency notes valued around Rs 10 crore seized by Income Tax officials from a group of businessmen here, demanded a top bank union leader.

"It is baffling to know that a sum of around Rs 10 crore in new 2,000 rupee notes were seized by IT department from the premises of some businessman. Such huge volume of currency notes could not have gone from bank branches," All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA) General Secretary C.H.Venkatachalam told IANS.

According to him, bank branches get cash from their currency chest, which in turn gets money from the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) currency chest.

"The ATMs (automatic teller machine) are filled by bank branch staff if it is in bank premises. In case the ATMs are offsite then ATM operators/cash management companies collect cash from the bank's currency chest to fill up the machines.

"In some cases, the cash management companies also collect cash directly from RBI's currency chest. So the CBI has to probe as to how huge volume of new currency notes found its way to the premises of a businessman.

"One simple way is the trace the source of the seized currency notes is from their serial numbers," Venkatachalam said.

According to him, such large volume of currency notes cannot be diverted without the connivance of top officials of the banks concerned.

Venkatachalam said if the culprits are not brought to book, then confidence and faith in the banking system will go.

He said bank branch officials are being accused by general public that they are diverting new currency notes to wealthy for a commission.

"Such large sum transfers by a bank branch is not possible," he added.

Meanwhile AIBEA and All India Bank Officers' Association (AIBOA) on Friday demanded RBI to suspend cash transactions at bank branches till the currency crunch is addressed fully.

In a letter to RBI Governor Urjit Patel, AIBEA and AIBOA the unions have demanded suspension of cash transactions at bank branches till sufficient number of currency notes are supplied.

The two unions demanded RBI to announce the details of currency notes supplied by them to various currency chests/banks on a daily basis so that the allegations that some selected banks are being favoured with more currency notes and public sector banks are discriminated can be answered properly.
New Delhi, Dec 9 : A civil nuclear agreement was among four agreements signed between India and Vietnam on Friday in the course of the visit of Vietnam National Assembly's President Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan to India.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the new civil nuclear agreement between India and Vietnam will boost ties with the Southeast Asian nation seen as a crucial partner of New Delhi in that region.

"The Prime Minister said that the bilateral Agreement on Cooperation in Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, being signed today (Friday), will further strengthen the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between India and Vietnam," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup told the media after Ngan called on Modi here.

The agreement was decided during Modi's visit to Hanoi in September this year, when India raised its relationship with Vietnam from "Strategic Partnership" to "Comprehensive Strategic Partnership".

It was the first prime ministerial visit from India to Vietnam after Atal Bihari Vajpayee's visit in 2001.

In a joint statement issued following that visit, both Modi and his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Xuan Phuc "expressed satisfaction at three decades of bilateral cooperation in the use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes pursuant to the agreements signed by the two countries in 1986".

Friday's agreement is also important given that Vietnam is India's country coordinator for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), a region which is the focus of India's Act East Policy.

In November, India signed a civil nuclear deal with Japan during Modi's visit to Tokyo. The other countries with which India now has civil nuclear agreements include the US, Russia, Australia, Canada, France, Britain, South Korea, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Namibia and Argentina.

The new agreement on Cooperation in Peaceful use of Atomic Energy was signed by Sekhar Basu, Secretary in the Department of Atomic Energy, and Pham Cong Tac, the Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Science and Technology here on Friday.

A parliamentary cooperation agreement was also signed between Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and Ngan.

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between Air India and Vietjet Aviation Joint Stock Company for promotion of traffic between Vietnam and India and sharing of best practices in airline operation, ground handling procedure and management.

Another MoU was signed between India's Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) and Vietnam Electricity (EVN) on developing a partnership to jointly work in the area of energy efficiency.

In his meeting with Ngan on Friday, Modi also called for increased interactions between the parliaments of India and Vietnam and the institution of an exchange programme for young parliamentarians between the two countries.

"The Prime Minister recalled their earlier meeting in Hanoi during his visit to Vietnam in September 2016," Swarup said.

"He said that Ngan, as the first woman to head the National Assembly of Vietnam, is a source of inspiration to women across the world."
New Delhi, Dec 9 : Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on Friday held a meeting with a parliamentary delegation from Vietnam at Parliament House, said an official.

The Vietnamese delegation is led by Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, the Chairperson of the National Assembly of Vietnam.

According to an official release, four memorandums of understanding were signed between the two countries on issues like cooperation in peaceful use of atomic energy, sharing of best practices in airline operation and partnership to jointly work in the area of energy efficiency.

The release said: "Mahajan observed that with India's 'Look East' policy evolving into an 'Act East' policy, this region (Vietnam) has assumed even greater importance in India's strategic thinking and economic engagement."

At the meeting, Mahajan recalled the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Vietnam in September.

"Mahajan said that the two Prime Ministers have decided to elevate bilateral 'Strategic Partnership' initiated in 2007 to a 'Comprehensive Strategic Partnership'," said the release.

"Noting that 2016 marks 30 years of bilateral civil nuclear cooperation, Mahajan said the Agreement on Cooperation in Peaceful Use of Nuclear Energy is a remarkable development and a testimony to two countries' willingness to give greater substance to their recently upgraded Comprehensive Strategic Partnership."

Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan said that the ongoing visit of her delegation will further consolidate and strengthen bilateral relations between the two countries, the release said.
New Delhi, Dec 9 : Former Supreme Court judge, Justice Markandey Katju on Friday offered to tender an unconditional apology in a contempt case for criticising judges and their judgment in Saumya rape and murder case.

Justice Katju, in his application, which was mentioned on Friday before a bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi, has said that he has deleted all the Facebook posts and respected the judicial process and judiciary.

After senior counsel Rajeev Dhavan mentioned the application for an early hearing, Justice Gogoi said that they would consider an early hearing of the same. The former judge has sought the closure of the contempt case initiated by the top court on November 11.

Requesting the hearing of his application before court closes for winter vacations, Justice Katju, in the application, has said: "I am ready to read out the apology before the court."

A bench of Justice Gogoi, Justice Prafulla C. Pant and Justice Uday Umesh Lalit had on November 11 issued the notice to Justice Katju as to why contempt proceedings cannot be initiated against him for casting aspersion against the judges in a blog.

Justice Katju had said that top court had erred in setting aside the death sentence merely on the grounds that prosecution could not establish whether the victim had jumped from the train or was pushed out of it by the assailant.

The top court, while setting aside the death sentence, had also noted the doctors' opinion which said that injuries caused by the assailant alone could not have been the cause of the death.
Tura (Meghalaya), Dec 9 : The outlawed Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) suffered a major setback after its number two surrendered on Friday post demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.

Nikam Ch Momin alias Baichung, the second in command and wanted in several killings and extortions cases, surrendered to Anand Mishra, the police chief of South Garo Hills district, a police official said.

"It is a huge setback for the GNLA leadership. We are expecting more of them to surrender following the demonetisation," Mishra told IANS.

The surrendered terrorist deposited a Heckler & Koch-33 Rifle, 120 rounds of live ammunition, one 1 magazine, some other items besides two mobile handsets, four SIM cards and incriminating documents.

Mishra said the surrender came after Baichung survived many gunfights with police and security forces including one recently in Dabalgre area in which two GNLA terrorists were killed.

Baichung's surrender also followed the police detecting his terror fund generated by him post demonetisation. Police had arrested two civilians -- Sengchang Momin and Solly Sangma -- for depositing Rs 28,00,000 in bank accounts in Tura at the behest of Baichung.

"Under heavy pressure by police operations, crackdown upon terror money, arrests of over ground workers and simultaneously opening a channel for negotiation by civil society has resulted in this surrender which has finally broken the backbone of GNLA," Mishra said.

The GNLA, which claims to be fighting for a separate Garoland in western Meghalaya, is headed by police officer-turned-rebel Champion R. Sangma, who is now in the Shillong jail after being arrested from near the India-Bangladesh border in 2012.

It has forged an alliance with the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom-Independent.
New Delhi, Dec 9 : The quantity of wastage of food grains in Food Corporation of India (FCI) was reduced to 3,115 tons in 2015-16, compared to 18,847 tons in the previous year, Parliament was told on Friday.

In year 2013-14, the wastage was accounted for 24,695 tons, Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution C.R. Chaudhary told the Rajya Sabha on Friday in a written reply.

"Government has enough stocks of food grains to meet the demands of the Public Distribution System (PDS) and other welfare schemes," he said, adding that the stock of food grains in the Central Pool was in surplus amount.

It is about 213 lakh tons for wheat as on October 1, which is over 18 lakh tons above the stocking norms of 195 lakh tons.

For rice, the stock was over 158 lakh tons, which was about 46 lakh tons above the stocking norms of 112 lakh tons.

The storage capacity in the Central Pool is about 783 lakh tons.
New Delhi, Dec 9 : Indian Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar said on Friday that though both India and China are facing the threat of terrorism, the two countries do not seem to be cooperating effectively to fight this scourge.

Addressing the first ever "India-China Think-Tanks Forum: Towards a Closer India-China Developmental partnership" here, he said that "as diverse and pluralistic societies, we both face threats from fundamentalist terrorism".

"Yet, we do not seem to be able to cooperate as effectively we should in some critical international forums dealing with this subject."

Jaishankar's statement comes in the wake of China putting on hold inclusion of Pakistan-based terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar's name in the UN's designated list of terrorists.

In April, China had blocked India's move to label Azhar, a decision that had angered New Delhi which has been trying to convince Beijing to reconsider the decision, and in September, extended its decision to put a technical hold on the UN's 1267 Committee declaring Azhar a terrorist by three months.
New Delhi, Dec 9 : Showing zero tolerance against the encroachers polluting Yamuna river and its banks, the DDA has decided to hand over 4,500 acres of land spread over 15 villages on Yamuna banks to its Horticulture Department.

The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) move is aimed at boosting greenery along the Yamuna banks.

According to a senior DDA official, the decision was taken following a directive of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to the Authority.

The NGT said that encroachments on the Yamuna banks are a serious pollution threat.

The decision will be implemented from January 2017. This will also help enhance green cover in the national capital.

The NGT, in its January 2015 directive, had asked the DDA and the Delhi government to ensure zero-encroachment along 52-kilometre ozone belt of the Yamuna, stretching from Haryana border to Madanpur Khadar village in southeast Delhi, the official said.

The 15 villages falling in the 4,500 acres include Garhi Mandu, Usmanpur, Chiraga Somali, Nangli, Jasola, Khizrabad, Indirapat Bhogal, Bhilorpur, Okhla, Khadari, Wazirabad and Madanpur, among others.

Out of these 15 villages, four come under the jurisdiction of the Delhi Government.

The residents of these villages frequently encroach upon the Yamuna banks post monsoon every year, the DDA official added.

They usually dump garbage, waste, construct huts, make cattle shelters and do farming and also indulge in other activities, such as washing clothes with hard chemicals which pose serious water and air pollution threats.

A large chunk of the proposed 4,500 acres of the DDA land was earlier this year also used for organising Shri Shri Ravi Shankar's cultural event. The NGT had raised questions over the event, which violated its orders, and slapped a fine on Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's organisation -- The Art of Living.

The 52-kilometre stretch is very sensitive with regard to water and air pollution. Therefore, the NGT in its directive had strictly instructed the authorities to protect the size, shape and naturality of the river banks.

The decision of the NGT was also upheld by the Delhi High Court while disposing off a public interest litigation with regard to preservation of environment.

"The DDA is also spending around Rs 40 lakh annually in anti-encroachment drive to clear these vulnerable portions.

"Now it has taken a tough stand against the encroachments and given the charge of protecting the green area from encroachers to the Horticulture Department," the official said.

The Horticulture Department will develop the 4,500 acres for plantation and nurseries, which will also help it keep the encroachers away, he added.

(Sanjeev Pal can be contacted at sanjeeev.p@ians.in)
Government Officials Join Clinic Students in Asking Commandant to Withdraw Shipping Industry Proposal

Charging that the the shipping industry is benefiting from the Coast Guards circumvention of its own procedures, including two major river studies and extensive consultation with outside experts and the public, the students of the Environmental Policy Clinic of the Dyson College Department of Environmental Studies and Science at Pace University have formally requested that Commandant Admiral Paul F. Zukunft withdraw the Coast Guards proposal to establish 43 oil barge anchorages on the Hudson River.

In a letter that details internal Coast Guard protocol, the Clinic petitions the Commandant to restart the proper public process under the agencys Waterways Management: Anchorage Management Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures. On June 9, the Coast Guard published an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in the Federal Register proposing the special anchorages spread over 10 locations between Yonkers and Kingston.

New York State Senator Terrence Murphy called the student investigation a bombshell at a press conference he called to announce the Clinic findings. Joining Senator Murphy in echoing the Clinics request were Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, State Senator Sue Serino of Dutchess County and State Senator David Carlucci of Rockland County. In his remarks, County Executive Astorino stated, How amazing is it that it took students from Pace University to shame and embarrass and expose the federal government on a situation like this?

The Clinic further charged that the premature publication of the proposal triggered a Coast Guard rule that effectively shielded the agency from having to communicate with the public or participate in numerous government forums. It also allowed the agency to enable an exemption under the Freedom of Information act that can be used to deny the public internal documents, according to the letter.

This is one of the most egregious violations of public transparency and public trust I have seen in four decades working on Hudson River issues, said John Cronin, senior fellow at the Dyson College Institute for Sustainability and the Environment at Pace, and one of the faculty leaders of the Clinic. The Coast Guard essentially ran a covert regulatory process in plain sight. I suspect the Coast Guard knew the proposal would not survive the level of public scrutiny its own procedures require.

Pace student clinician Christina Thomas coordinated the 13-student team that participated in the research. The shipping industry has gained a distinct advantage over the public in the regulatory process, she said. The Coast Guard was able to decline repeated invitations to public meetings from government officials because once it published the industry proposal, its own rules conveniently barred it from talking to the public.

The research into the Coast Guard practices was a sad revelation for our student clinicians, said Cronin. But at Dyson College we put a premium on the ability of our students to focus on information-based solutions, and learn professional skills by entering the public fray. The work of our students is a prime example of what we call the Dyson Advantage of the Pace Path, which provides students the opportunity to apply classroom theory directly to real-world experience.

The Pace Environmental Policy Clinic is housed within the Department of Environmental Studies and Science of the Dyson College Institute for Sustainability and the Environment at Pace University. The Clinic trains students in professional policy and advocacy skills through hands-on casework on real-world issues. It is co-taught by Professors John Cronin and Michelle D. Land. Last May, The New York Times Editorial Board cited the Clinic for its work writing and lobbying the Elephant Protection Act, which passed unanimously in the New York State Senate.

About Dyson College Institute of Sustainability and the Environment: DCISE was established to address major issues in sustainability, resilience, the growing urbanization of the 21st century and the impact of these changes on the global environment, through multidisciplinary programs encompassing research, policy-making, education, and building greater community awareness and consensus on how to manage these issues.

About Dyson College of Arts and Sciences: Pace Universitys liberal arts college, Dyson College offers more than 50 programs, spanning the arts and humanities, natural sciences, social sciences, and pre-professional programs (including pre-medicine, pre-veterinary, and pre-law), as well as numerous courses that fulfill core curriculum requirements. The College offers access to numerous opportunities for internships, cooperative education and other hands-on learning experiences that complement in-class learning in preparing graduates for career and graduate/professional education choices.

About Pace University: Since 1906, Pace has educated thinking professionals by providing high quality education for the professions on a firm base of liberal learning amid the advantages of the New York metropolitan area. A private university, Pace has campuses in Lower Manhattan and Westchester County, N.Y., enrolling nearly 13,000 students in bachelors, masters, and doctoral programs in its Lubin School of Business, Dyson College of Arts and Sciences, College of Health Professions, School of Education, Elisabeth Haub School of Law, and Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems. http://www.pace.edu

Contacts: Bill Caldwell, 212-346-1597, wcaldwell(at)pace(dot)edu

John Cronin, 845-661-6961, jcronin(at)pace(dot)edu
SoMe Connect has been named one of Chief Marketers 2017 B2B Top Shops, a listing of the top B2B marketing agencies in the United States.

SoMe Connect is a team of digital marketing professionals with offices in Chicago and Atlanta. With years of direct industry experience, coupled with deep design and marketing skills, SoMe builds online brands with a fresh and unique approach. View their work http://www.someconnect.com/portfolio/

The agencies in B2B Top Shops are chosen by the editors of Chief Marketer, a leading publication focused on measurable marketing tactics published by Access Intelligence. In choosing agencies for inclusion in both B2B Top Shops and PROMO Top Shops, editors consider each shops depth of client work, creative acumen, analytical expertise and numerous other factors.

B2B Top Shops is an online searchable directory highlighting each agencys core services and contact information, offering users a behind the scenes look at each shops culture and client work. B2B brands, vendors and marketers viewed this easy-to-use resource on ChiefMarketer.com almost 73,000 times this year alone.

Were thrilled to be recognized by Chief Marketer. Im really proud of our team and the work we do, to also be honored by a major publication for our results is great, explains SoMe Connect (http://www.someconnect.com/) co-founder Aalap Shah. Starting my career in a completely different field, as a CPA, I am constantly amazed by what we can do for clients with Google Analytics, social media marketing, Facebook advertising and other digital marketing capabilities. We bring a fresh business-facing approach to these services and our success is based on the more relevant results we achieve.

Co-founder Madhavi Rao echoes Shahs praise, We work really hard to stay current and competitive in a changing digital environment while making this a fun place to work for both employees and clients. Weve achieved a great mix of talent and thoughtfulness and its showing in our results. I am also really proud of our team. Over the past few years weve maintained fantastic relationships with clients like Potbelly Sandwiches, Byram Healthcare, Hammacher Schlemmer, and Belgravia Realty Group. These great relationships are because of our very skilled team.

Chief Marketer, published by Access Intelligence, charts the customer journey from acquisition and engagement through conversion and retention. Via ChiefMarketer.com, print products, live events, awards programs and more, Chief Marketer offers data-driven intelligence, actionable insights, inspiring case studies and the latest technology trends to help marketers improve their campaigns and increase ROI.
FullHost, a leading Canadian web hosting provider, has today announced that all domains on their hosting platform will have a SSL certificate installed by default. This offering has been implemented in conjunction with the nonprofit project Let's Encrypt, an open certificate authority provided by the Internet Security Research Group (ISRG).

The Let's Encrypt project was initiated in 2015, achieving public release in a beta version in December of that year. Some reports indicate that the Lets Encrypt project was formed in response to security vulnerabilities revealed by Edward Snowden and other whistle blowers who claimed that governments were conducting surveillance of web traffic.

By the time Let's Encrypt left the Beta stage in April 2016, millions of website domains had activated SSL certificates through the program. The growth since that time is nothing short of astonishing, representing a growth of nearly 15.2 million domains (as of November 28th, 2016). The spike in Let's Encrypt certificates issued per day has jumped dramatically during the month of November 2016.

There are several advantages to having a SSL certificate implemented on a website. A domain with SSL/TLS enabled has the ability to encrypt traffic coming and going between the server and the visitor's browser, protecting the privacy of information being transmitted and shared. Additionally, having an SSL certificate provides higher rankings from Google and other search engines potentially increasing sales and exposure.

The proliferation of websites using SSL/TLS for added security continues to denote a change in the way website owners understand the consumers desire for trust among people browsing the web for information and products or services. If statistics are an indication, the vast majority of websites will have SSL/TLS enabled in the foreseeable future.

About FullHost

Since 2004, FullHost, a premiere web hosting provider has offered comprehensive web hosting solutions to small, medium, and large organizations across Canada and beyond. From their headquarters in Victoria BC and their data centers in Vancouver and Toronto, they are trusted by Canadians from coast to coast to deliver a best in class web hosting experience providing a wide array of options from shared web hosting and managed WordPress hosting, to managed virtual cloud and bare metal dedicated servers. To learn more about FullHost, please visit https://www.fullhost.com.
Bricksave: Real estate investing made easy Were incredibly excited to be offering real estate in what is probably the worlds most iconic city, New York. New York is one of the worlds largest centres for property development and has an incredible history of successful real estate investing.

Real estate crowdfunding platform Bricksave have launched their brand new website, as well as their first property in the City of New York. The new site includes enhanced security features, a more intuitive investment dashboard and an increased focus on catering to different investor types.

As the platform closes in on successfully funding over $2 million worth of properties, Bricksave are accompanying their new site with the launch of a new investment opportunity in New York, located in the prestigious neighbourhood of Hells Kitchen. Launching in New York is part of the companys expansion, encouraged by the popularity of previous investment campaigns, whose initial returns ended up being higher than Bricksaves initial forecasts.

Bricksave CEO Tom De Lucy commented: Were incredibly excited to be offering real estate in what is probably the worlds most iconic city, New York. New York is one of the worlds largest centres for property development and has an incredible history of successful real estate investing."

Investors looking to be a part of the crowdfunded real estate model for this New York property will now benefit from: the implementation of Stripe payment systems to guarantee secure transactions, as well as the internationally recognised identification verification system Contego, a program renowned for its rapid and secure AML and KYC checks. The site also features a new streamlined and more interactive version of the Bricksave dashboard, designed to let investors easily manage all their investments and transactions in one place, as well as keeping fully up to date with the market as it pertains to their investments.

One of the most important aspects of the new Bricksave website is the focus on providing options for a wider variety of investors. Alongside the new processes that have been implemented for those looking to invest smaller amounts, there is also a new focus on providing services and features for high-net-worth individuals and professional fund managers.

CEO Tom De Lucy added: Were always working to streamline the investment process and make it easier for both new and experienced investors. The new site really captures that goal, and this new property is the first step in expanding our portfolio range and a major part of our strategy to offer real estate from all over the world to a new market of investors.

For more information, visit bricksave.com or contact the Bricksave office at info(at)bricksave(dot)com.

About Bricksave

Bricksave is the global real estate platform that makes low-risk investment in exclusive properties around the world accessible and hassle-free. Through a hand-picked selection of unique properties in top locations around the world, such as Miami, London, Paris and more, Bricksave allows first-time investors to get access to investment deals from as little as $2,500 as well as experienced investors to easily diversify their portfolio and protect their investment. Investors can invest through the Bricksave platform in minutes and benefit from a share of rent as well as a share of capital gains resulting from the sale of the property.

Bricksave takes care of the on-going management of the property so that investors dont have anything to worry about other than enjoying competitive and secure returns. The company was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in London with an office in Buenos Aires and soon Sao Paulo. For more information, visit http://www.bricksave.com.
Practicology's 2016 report highlights US retailers' localization efforts Many US retailers have invested in websites for international markets in the last five years, however we feel there are clear opportunities to provide a more localized customer experience.

New research published by Practicology, eShopWorld and TranslateMedia, underscores the importance for US companies of localizing their websites for key international markets. Although progress is being made by companies, key areas such as localized payments options, merchandising and customer service options were often found to be poor.

The Localization Report 2016 looks at four markets for US retailers - the UK, Australia, Japan and Mexico and assesses their localization efforts in areas including: use of language across the site; merchandising and offers; mobile optimization; search engine optimization; social media; customer services; shipping and returns; pricing and payment. 25 sites were reviewed for each market, and a total of 51 US retailers and brands were included in the research.

US retailers were particularly strong at providing customer service support in local business hours, localizing pricing, and localizing their foreign language sites in the cases of Mexico and Japan. The same priority was not as evident in other English-language speaking countries, such as the UK and Australia however. Overall the findings again demonstrate the competitive advantage to be gained from intensive localization efforts.

Japanese websites of US retailers were by far the most localized, with evidence of the considerable investment by US brands in their Japanese service proposition. 96% have fully localized their product details, 80% have country-specific homepage merchandising, 64% have fully localized site navigation, 76% have country-specific offers and promotions, 88% have a Japanese customer service phone number and 96% offer returns by post to a Japanese address. US retailers offer Japanese products at a premium price, with 100% of retailers marking up prices for Japans online shoppers, in comparison to their US prices.

Other key findings for US retailers selling online in the UK, Australia and Mexico include:

Localized product details and descriptions



52% of US retailers have not localized these fully for their UK website

In contrast, 96% of US retailers selling into Mexico have done so, resulting in fully localized content becoming an expectation of the average Mexican online shopper

Homepage language and Navigation



68% have completely localized their site navigation into UK and Australian English, however as mentioned, only half have extended this fully to include product and description and other content on their UK sites

80% have fully localized their UK and Australian homepage language, with Mexican websites again coming out on top with 96%

Customer support



52% of retailers have a dedicated UK customer service phone number, and 32% offer live chat support

48% list a dedicated Australian customer service number and 68% offer customer service in Australian working hours

88% of retailers have customer service in Mexican working hours, with 84% having a Mexican phone number

Blog



The localization of blogs was poor across markets with 60% of US retailers having no localized blog on their UK or Australian websites

84% had no blog localization on their Mexican sites

Offers and promotions



60% of retailers provide UK specific promotions on their websites, 72% in the case of Mexican sites

In contrast, only 36% of US retailers selling into Australia have country specific offers, with 56% only offering the same promotions as the US parent site.

Practicology Head of Internationalization Nicola Huet said of the report findings:

We have seen US retailers invest in localizing their international websites in the last few years as a way of driving cross-border online sales growth. However, we feel that there are clear opportunities to go further, and provide a truly localized customer experience for their international customers in key markets.

eShopWorld CEO Tommy Kelly said:

The research underscores the importance of a customer-centric, localized approach. Retailers, quite literally, have to speak the language of their customers, wherever they are in the world. From the research, we see that many US retailers had the same promotion in Australia as they did in the US, in spite of differing seasons. A fully localized proposition is the only way to drive customer satisfaction, conversion and profitability.

The full report can be downloaded at http://www.practicology.com/localization2016

ENDS

Further information please contact

Joanna Perry, Head of Marketing at Practicology:

T: +44 (0)20 7323 0539 | E: joanna(at)practicology.com

Jill Farrelly, Murray:

T: +353 1 498 0300 | E: jfarrelly(at)murrayconsultants.ie

About Practicology

Practicology is a strategic multichannel consultancy with offices in London, Sydney, Melbourne and Hong Kong, founded in 2009. Were different as our consultants have all worked within retail and consumer brands, and so truly understand our clients challenges. We deliver a portfolio of strategic services, including helping clients to develop and grow their localized international ecommerce propositions. Our global client list includes AEO, Canon, Claires, Nike, Rapha, Seafolly, Selfridges, Ted Baker, Reckitt Benckiser and Wiggle. http://www.practicology.com

About eShopWorld

eShopWorld is a leading provider of brand-centric eCommerce solutions that provide global reach for retailers, and a fully localized shopping journey for consumers. Its technology enables in-country pricing models, country specific checkouts, local payment options, and global infrastructure that supports a superior shipping and returns experience. Through a single point of integration, eShopWorlds proprietary platform offers scalable access to shoppers in over 200 countries, with a strategic focus on a superior shopping experience that maximizes sales conversion to deliver growth. http://www.eshopworld.com

About TranslateMedia

TranslateMedia is a global translations agency. We deliver premium-quality localized content that communicates your brand promise and provides ROI in your global marketing campaigns. We understand trends, influencers and the innovation that is required in a rapidly changing environment and help our clients navigate these paths in international markets. Our clients are global brands in retail covering a range of categories including fashion, beauty, apparel, footwear, accessories, travel, consumer goods and sports. http://www.translatemedia.com
Lonnie G. Bunch III I am humbled to receive this award in my home state, said Bunch. Growing up in Belleville, New Jersey shaped who I am, and I am honored to carry on John Cotton Danas passion to educate Americans through institutions that are accessible to all.

Lonnie G. Bunch III, founding director of the newly opened Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), will receive the John Cotton Dana Medal for Visionary Leadership in Museums at the Newark Museums Legacy Gala on Saturday, May 13, 2017.

Originally from the Newark area, Bunch has spent nearly 30 years as a public historian, scholar and educator, and the last 10 years overseeing the Smithsonians newest museum, which stands on a five-acre site on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., adjacent to the Washington Monument.

Bunch is the second person to receive the medal named after the Newark Museums visionary founder and the foremost pioneer of modern museums. The first recipient of the John Cotton Dana Medal for Visionary Leadership in Museums was Alice L. Walton, Founder and Chair of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in 2015. The award carries significant meaning for both the Newark Museum and Mr. Bunch. The Newark Museum was the first museum Bunch ever visited as a child and years later in 1994, Bunch played a crucial role in the reinterpretation of the Ballantine House, the 1885 National Historic Landmark, which showcases the Newark Museums Decorative Arts collection.

As the founder of the Newark Museum, John Cotton Dana believed museums and their collections should be accessible to all people, not only a few. Like Dana did a century ago, the NMAAHC under Mr. Bunchs direction furthers this commitment, providing voice and relevance for all through collections that have the power to educate, inspire and transform our communities, nation and world, said Newark Museum Director and CEO Steven Kern, who will present the award to Bunch along with Gala co-chairs and board members Sarah Bonesteel, Chief Investment Officer, Retirement Business, Prudential; and Bob Doherty, New Jersey State President, Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

I am humbled to receive this award in my home state, said Bunch. Growing up in Belleville, New Jersey shaped who I am, and I am honored to carry on John Cotton Danas passion to educate Americans through institutions that are accessible to all.

The Newark Museum is one of the most influential museums in the country, with the Legacy Gala as its major fundraising event. The Museums collections rank as the 12th largest in the nation, with nearly 300,000 objects representing American art, Decorative arts, the arts of Asia, Africa, Native America, ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, and the natural sciences. The Gala also recognizes the Museums role as a national leader in museum education. The event provides essential support for the Museums education initiatives that serve more than 90,000 school children and thousands of families each year.

Mr. Bunch is regarded as one of the nations leading figures in the historical and museum community. Prior to the NMAAHCs completion and opening in September, Bunch presented seven exhibitions in galleries located in the Smithsonians National Museum of American History, including Through the African American Lens: Selections from the Permanent Collection. In addition, the museums traveling exhibition, Changing America, will be exhibited at 50 venues across the country through 2018. Bunch has held several positions at the Smithsonian, including the National Museum of American Historys (NMAH) associate director for Curatorial Affairs, assistant director for Curatorial Affairs at NMAH, and education specialist and historian at the Smithsonians National Air and Space Museum.

Bunch was appointed by President George W. Bush to the Commission for the Preservation of the White House in 2002 and reappointed by President Barack Obama in 2009. In 2005, Bunch was named one of the 100 most influential museum professionals in the 20th century by the American Association of Museums and in 2009, Ebony Magazine named him one of its 150 most influential African Americans.

For further information on the Newark Museum Legacy Gala, call 973-596-6579 or visit http://www.newarkmuseum.org.

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Liquidation Channel is an Owler Hot In 2016 winner! Weve sorted through database of millions of contributions from our community and landed on the top trending companies from around the world, said Jim Fowler, CEO at Owler. Being Hot In 2016 is an accomplishment to be proud of.

Liquidation Channel announced today it was named an Owler HOT in 2016 winner in Austin. Liquidation Channel is an Omni-channel business comprised of a home shopping TV network, an ecommerce business, and an outside sales/wholesale segment.

Owler recognizes the top trending companies in cities around the world. They filtered through more than 15 million companies and picked 4,500 award winners across 600 cities worldwide. Recipients were chosen based on several different metrics, including number of followers on Owler, insights collected from our community, social media followers, and blog posts over the past year.

Weve sorted through database of millions of contributions from our community and landed on the top trending companies from around the world, said Jim Fowler, CEO at Owler. Being Hot In 2016 is an accomplishment to be proud of.

To see Liquidation Channels company profile on Owler, go to https://www.owler.com/iaApp/158425/liquidation-channel-company-profile

About Liquidation Channel: Liquidation Channel (http://www.liquidationchannel.com) is an Omni-channel business comprised of a home shopping TV network, an ecommerce business, and an outside sales/wholesale segment. It is a global leader in direct sales of colored stones, diamonds, precious metals, and a variety of luxury goods and innovative products. LC specializes in delivering Exceptional Quality, Exquisite Designs, and Outstanding Value, while providing a low-price guarantee on each of its products. The channels unique jewelry is available online at LiquidationChannel.com and on DirecTV Channel 75 and 226, Dish Network Channel 274, Verizon FIOS Channel 159, ROKU, AT&T U-Verse 399 and 1399 (HD), Google Chromecast, Amazon Fire, and local cable channels.

About Owler

Owler is the crowdsourced competitive intelligence platform that business professionals use to outsmart their competition, gain competitive insights, and uncover the latest industry news and alerts. Owler is powered by an active community of 800K business professionals that contribute unique business insights such as competitors, private company revenue, and CEO ratings. From startups all the way to large enterprises (including 96% of the Fortune 500), CEOs, salespeople, marketers, product managers, and all types of business professionals use Owler daily.

Launched in 2014, and funded by Norwest Venture Partners and Trinity Ventures, Owler is headquartered in San Mateo, CA with offices in Coimbatore, India.

For More Information Contact:

John Wilkinson

Marketing Specialist

512- 901-0609

john(dot)wilkinson(at)liquidationchannel(dot)com
Modern Transportation has been selected by Commercial Carrier Journal as one of the leading companies in the for-hire trucking industry. Founded in 1987, Modern has been strategically positioned as one of the safest and most reliable bulk transportation carriers in the raw materials and chemical logistics sector.

For over fifty years, CCJ has conducted the industrys most comprehensive ranking of for-hire carriers. Using a blended ranking methodology, CCJ selected carriers and announced their selections during their recent annual meeting in Phoenix, Arizona in early November. "On two previous occasions, weve been recognized as CCJs 'Innovator of the Month,'" stated Moderns President, Patrick Cozzens. "Being selected for CCJs Top 250 for 2016 is another CCJ honor of which we are extremely proud."

Headquartered in suburban Pittsburgh, Modern serves the bulk raw material and chemical logistics needs of numerous clients in a multitude of manufacturing industries. Currently, Modern provides safe and reliable service from twenty-three strategically-located terminal locations throughout the Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, and the South. For more information, please visit http://www.moderntrans.com.
South Carolina DUI Attorney Steve Sumner "I am proud to join the ranks of the Best Law Firms in America. It's an exciting honor to receive and an exceptional group to be included in." - Steve W. Sumner

Attorney Steve W. Sumner has been named a Best Law Firm 2017 by U.S. News & World Report. Sumner is a DUI and criminal defense attorney serving Upstate South Carolina.

The U.S.News  Best Lawyers "Best Law Firms" rankings are based on a rigorous evaluation process that includes the collection of client and lawyer evaluations, peer review from leading attorneys in their field, and review of additional information provided by law firms as part of the formal submission process.

Clients were asked to provide feedback on firm practice groups, addressing expertise, responsiveness, understanding of a business and its needs, cost-effectiveness, civility, and whether they would refer another client to the firm.

Lawyers also voted on expertise, responsiveness, integrity, cost-effectiveness, whether they would refer a matter to a firm, and whether they consider a firm a worthy competitor.

In addition to lawyer and client feedback, law firms were asked to provide us with general demographic and background information on the law firm and attorneys, and other data that speaks to the strengths of a law firms practice areas.

Sumner currently represents clients in over 25 courts in Upstate South Carolina. These courts include Greenville, Anderson, Spartanburg, Pickens and Laurens counties; as well as the city/municipal courts of Greenville, Anderson, Spartanburg, Simpsonville, Mauldin, Greer, Fountain Inn, Easley, Clemson, Central, and Laurens.

In 1997, Sumner opened his own practice as a criminal defense attorney, with a special focus on defending clients accused of DUI, Felony DUI, all driving offenses and drug cases. He graduated from the USC School of Law in 1992 and served as a state court prosecutor from 1992 to 1994. His primary case load consisted of prosecuting DUI, Felony DUI, Reckless Homicide and Traffic offenses.
Mellow Mushroom Houston Heights Inspired by the trolley, electricity and vintage transit maps, the art of Houston Heights Mellow Mushroom honors the area's history while also invoking the bustle of the commute from the suburbs to city life.

The Houston Heights revitalization is breathing fresh air through the communities while paying respect to their roots, which is exactly what Todd Molyneux wanted to reflect when he designed this particular Mellow Mushroom. Inspired by the trolley, electricity and vintage transit maps, the art of Houston Heights Mellow Mushroom honors the area's history while also invoking the bustle of the commute from the suburbs to city life.

Artist Mike Truth Johnston created a futuristic color-block mural for the main dining room that represents the surrounding neighborhood, the city of Houston and the state of Texas. Another salute to the towns history is the life-sized trolley with functioning headlights that guests can dine in. The conductor is a representation of one of the founders of Mellow Mushroom.

To learn more about the interior of the Houston Heights Mellow Mushroom, guests can participate in an online art tour by following the directions on the plaque at the front of the store. The online tour features a description of the artworks and artists who created the masterpieces specifically for this location and connects guests with the artists online portfolios.

Its not just the art that takes visitors back through time but the menu as well. The hip vernacular of the sixties is showcased using terms such as Magical Mystery Tour and Funky Q. Chicken to describe their amazing menu items.

Not only are there Pizza and Calzones featured on the eclectic menu of Mellow Mushroom but also Hoagies, enlightened Salads and a half pound USDA Black Angus Carnie Burger. Patrons can dine Gluten free with pie crusts made from ancient grains. Veg out on the Vegan menu while enjoying delicacies such as the Thai Dye Pizza and Avocado Hoagie. The little ones can even Doodle-with-Dude on their activity filled Kids menu. All items on the Mellow Mushrooms menu are served with fresh ingredients that arrive at the restaurant daily.

Mellow Mushroom is furnished with a full sized bar supplied with four televisions for those who wish to wind down after a long stroll at the Downtown Houston Aquarium. Guests can feel free to participate in the bars music playlist with their interactive app by Mood Media. The patio is also a great place to sip on the local beers from Mellow Mushrooms bar menu, and, of course, there are a couple of television screens out there as well for those thrilling weekly games.

The food and art are not the only eclectic gems found at Mellow Mushroom. Their fashion line House of Shroom is full of fun threads that are featured by the employees and available for purchase at the restaurant. If online shopping is easier, the full collection can be accessed on their official website http://www.Houseofshroom.com.

Mellow Mushroom is open Sunday thru Thursday from 11:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. and Friday and Saturday between 11:00 a.m. and 11:00 p.m. Keep those eyes open for future dates for Trivia Night as well as Bingo Night.

For more information on this Mellow Mushroom location please visit the website at http://www.mellowmushroom.com/store/houston-heights and like us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/mellowmushroomhoustonheights.

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About Mellow Mushroom Pizza Bakers: http://www.mellowmushroom.com

Mellow Mushroom Pizza Bakers was founded in 1974 in Atlanta, Georgia. This franchise, operated under Home-Grown Industries of Georgia, Inc., is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. For over 40 years, Mellow Mushroom Pizza Bakers has been serving up fresh, stone-baked pizzas to order in an eclectic, art-filled, and family-friendly environment. Each Mellow is locally owned and operated and provides a unique feel focused around great customer service and high-quality food.

For more information on Mellow Mushroom Pizza Bakers, like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/mellowmushroom , on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/MellowMushroom , and follow us on Pinterest at http://www.pinterest.com/mellowmushroom.
Millions of roses adorn shrines and altars to celebrate The Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe observed on Monday, December 12. This religious holiday is bigger than Christmas or Easter for flower sales because everyone brings roses to church to honor the Virgin.

California Flower Mall opens 24/7 before the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe with last minute roses and church flowers to honor the Latino Catholic faithfuls' beloved Virgin. CFM is the only Downtown LA wholesale flower market open around the clock starting 4:30am Sunday December 11 thru Monday December 12, 6pm. The Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe is observed on Monday December 12.

CFM petaler Francesca Sanchez, owner of Andrews Wholesale Flowers says, This religious holiday is bigger than Christmas or Easter for flower sales because everyone brings roses or flowers to church to honor the Virgin. Gifts of roses express devotion and faith on Dia de La Virgen de Guadalupe that words alone cant begin to say. While individual DIY bargain bud shoppers are a big part of high volume holiday sales, wholesale church flower orders are equally strong. Our production of custom and off the shelf pieces to fill church orders for arrangements, arches and other floral decor pieces is the highest of the year. Sanchez adds.

Red roses are central to the story of the Virgin of Guadalupes appearance and the many miracles she performed for a Mexican peasant and Catholic Bishop in 1531. Millions of Southern California worshipers attend theatrical, flower filled masses for the brown skinned Virgen de Guadalupe. Catholic parishes and Latino Episcopal and Lutheran congregations revere her with gifts of flowers, serenades, mariachi performers and Aztec dancers. Today the Virgencita Mexicana also known as the Patroness of the Americas is recognized as a symbol of love, peace and compassion, says Monica Valencia, Los Angeles Archdiocese spokesperson. Celebrating the Virgin is predominately, though not exclusively, a Catholic tradition. Our Lady attracts worldwide appeal to those honoring the mystical, divine feminine and mother goddess traditions too, according to Anne Baring and Andrew Harvey authors of The Divine Feminine, Exploring the Feminine Face of God Around the World.

First generation Mexican-American Christine Diaz, a student at Long Beach Community College, a frequent bargain bud shopper at CFM recognizes the power of faith and flowers for Los Angeles Central and Mexican-American community. In these anxious times following the Presidential election, its important for my Latino brothers and sisters to take time to feel the love, peace and compassion the Virgin represents. The beautiful energy of fresh flowers uplifts peoples spirits and gives them comfort. Now more than ever we need to keep our faith and spirits high and flowers help me do that.

California Flower Mall Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe holiday hours are:

Saturday, December 10 - 4:30am through 7pm

Sunday, December 11 - 4:30am open around the clock until Monday December 12 - 6pm

About California Flower Mall

The California Flower Mall http://www.californiaflowermall.com, located at 825 San Pedro Street, is one of the largest DIY wholesale flower marts in Downtown L.A.s eight block Flower District community, the largest concentration of wholesale flower markets and flower businesses in the U.S. It is located in the LA Fashion District Business Improvement District.
Philanthropist Denny Sanford visited Clark County School District, marking the expansion of Sanford Harmony - a social emotional program offered by National University. The Sanford Harmony program is something I feel truly passionate about, and it gives me great pleasure to see these boys and girls find common ground and develop mutual respect and understanding for each other -- Denny Sanford

The Sanford Harmony program, a research-based social emotional learning program, has reached a significant milestone with district-wide implementation taking place in PreK-5 throughout Nevadas Clark County School District - the fifth largest school district in the country. Since its nationwide launch two years ago, Sanford Harmony, which is based on the vision of entrepreneur and philanthropist T. Denny Sanford, has expanded to thousands of schools in more than 20 states. The effort is being led by National University, a California-based private nonprofit university with among the Top Ten largest schools of education in the country.

Nationwide, more than 16,970 classrooms are currently in various stages of implementing Sanford Harmony, which represents more than 366,000 children in cities throughout the country from Los Angeles to New York City, and now in Clark County.

The Clark County School District has fully embraced the Sanford Harmony Program, said Clark County School District Superintendent Pat Skorkowsky. Through this curriculum, which is developmentally and culturally appropriate, students are afforded multiple opportunities to learn how to manage challenging situations, make responsible decisions, establish and build positive relationships, and learn how to regulate their own behaviors. This is a curriculum of acceptance, in which all students feel important. We are proud to be a part of this amazing opportunity for children which enhances and compliments the great work all teachers in Grades PreK through 5 are doing in the Clark County School District.

Mr. Sanford, who visited the Districts Aggie Roberts Elementary School Dec. 8 to observe the program being used there, said he was pleased to see children, teachers and schools embrace the program: The Sanford Harmony program is something I feel truly passionate about, and it gives me great pleasure to see these boys and girls find common ground and develop mutual respect and understanding for each other.

The rollout in Clark County School District aligns with Nevada and district efforts to support a greater emphasis on social emotional learning approaches. Nationally, the federal education law, Every Student Succeeds Act, also places a greater emphasis on academic aligned concepts that address "whole child" issues.

We are very excited to partner with Clark County School District to provide the Sanford Harmony program, which is making a very powerful difference in so many classrooms around the country, said Dr. Michael R. Cunningham, Chancellor of the National University System, which includes National University. The adoption of Sanford Harmony in the fifth largest school district in the country represents a very significant milestone in the ongoing adoption and impact of this program, and a testimony to the great vision of Mr. Denny Sanford himself.

The Sanford Harmony program is based on Mr. Sanfords vision of encouraging children to develop more positive relationships into adulthood. It was refined over more than five years by university researchers to reinforce positive peer interactions through activities and lessons that emphasize collaboration, communication and respecting differences. Initial research indicates improved academic performance, increased empathy and a more positive attitude towards school as well as reductions in stereotyping and classroom aggression.

With a campus in Henderson, Nev., and campuses throughout California, National University is leading the nationwide dissemination of the program in coordination with school districts, individual schools as well as other university members of the Sanford Education Collaborative. The program has been embraced for use by Head Start programs, Boys and Girls Clubs, private and public schools, and other organizations, such as LAs BEST, which runs after school programs. Sanford Harmony  which includes professional development training, educational resources and other materials to support program implementation  is being provided at no charge to participating schools and organizations through a combination of sources, including an initial donation by Mr. Sanford, anonymous donations and National University.

About Clark County School District

Established in 1956, Clark County School District is the fifth largest school district in the country, educating almost 75 percent of all students in Nevada with more than 320,000 students enrolled in kindergarten through 12th grade. The district encompasses 357 schools and approximately 8,000 square miles in southern Nevada and is a minority majority student district. With more than 40,000 employees, CCSD is also the largest employer in the state. http://www.ccsd.net/

About National University

Founded in 1971, National University is among the largest private, nonprofit institution of higher education in California. With more than 150,000 alumni, National University is the flagship institution of the National University System. National University is dedicated to making lifelong learning opportunities accessible, challenging, and relevant to a diverse population of students. Four schools and two colleges  the Sanford College of Education; College of Letters and Sciences; the School of Business and Management; the School of Engineering and Computing; the School of Health and Human Services; and the School of Professional Studies  offer more than 100 graduate and undergraduate degrees and 23 teacher credentials. Programs are offered at more than locations throughout California and across the nation - including in Henderson, Nevada - and are also available online. National University is headquartered in La Jolla, California. To learn more, visit http://www.nu.edu
We are committed to offering innovative services to our customers, ZRent is another great example of services we provide to our customers evolving needs, said Edward Doherty, Jr., Executive Vice President of StonehamBank.

ZRent (http://www.ZRent.net), a division of Leader Bank, is proud to welcome StonehamBank to its expanding network of financial institutions. ZRent allows financial institutions to provide online rent collection services to their landlord and small business customers, creating competitive advantage and customer loyalty for participating institutions. This new partnership will allow StonehamBank customers to take full advantage of ZRent services, enabling landlords and tenants to fully automate the rental payment process.

We are very excited to enter into this partnership with StonehamBank. We look forward to bringing all the benefits of ZRent to their customers, said Jay Tuli, the Senior Vice President of Retail Banking at Leader Bank. We hope that ZRent can continue to help automate rent payments for community banks and their customers.

We are committed to offering innovative services to our customers, ZRent is another great example of services we provide to our customers evolving needs, said Edward Doherty, Jr., Executive Vice President of StonehamBank. ZRent offers a simple and convenient solution that provides real value to our customers looking to efficiently manage their rent collection.

ZRent works by automatically deducting rent payments from the tenants bank account and depositing them directly into the landlords account. Tenants can set and forget their monthly payments, and landlords will no longer have the hassle of collecting checks and making the trip to the bank. ZRent also provides peace of mind for the landlords, who will now receive one complete payment for each unit on the same day every month. ZRent is free of charge for any landlord that banks with one of the participating institutions, currently StonehamBank and Leader Bank.

For more information on Leader Banks innovative ZRent tool, visit http://www.zrent.net, email zrent(at)zrent(dot)net, or call 781-641-8691.

About StonehamBank

StonehamBank is a full-service community bank offering state of the art products and services to residents and businesses throughout eastern Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire. In addition to providing progressive products and convenience services, StonehamBank believes in making a difference in the community through its Community Involvement Program and Charitable Foundation. Member FDIC. Member SIF. Equal Housing Lender. For more information on StonehamBank, please visit http://www.stonehambank.com or call directly at 888-402-2265.

About Leader Bank

With assets over $1 billion, Leader Bank is a nationally chartered bank founded in 2002 with seven full-service branches in Arlington, Belmont, Boston, Burlington and Cambridge. Leader Bank offers a full range of personal and business banking products including free personal and business checking accounts, commercial and residential lending products, home equity lines of credit, deposit products with highly competitive rates and free online banking and bill payment services. Visit Leader Banks website at http://www.Leaderbank.com or any one of the Banks convenient branch locations for more information. Member FDIC and Equal Housing Lender, NMLS # 449250.
The GRIT webinar is a valuable venue for Civicom to be able to exchange perspectives and important insights with industry peers.

The GRIT Report is the leading and most comprehensive bi-quarter survey of the market research industry. It is a strategic planning tool designed to help industry stakeholders understand the implications of trends in the profession as well as to guide business leaders in making the best decisions for their organizations. The first part of the webinar series will be exploring topics such as emerging methods, non-traditional sources, sample quality, automation, storytelling, and more.

Civicom will be represented by Rebecca West, Civicoms Global Vice President of Marketing Research Services. Having established Marketing Research Services for Civicom, Rebecca leads the practice and its continuous adoption and innovation of best practices in market research. Highly involved in qualitative and mobile research innovation, Rebecca has also served as the Past President of the Mobile Marketing Research Association (MMRA), and is an active participant of various insight exchange conferences and forums. Rebecca will share her expertise on both current and emerging trends on the horizon in market research, discussing the latest GRIT study with fellow industry expert insight providers.

Webinar attendees will be brought up-to-speed on current trends, the drivers of change in the market research space, and how industry players are adapting to these changes. The webinar, Findings from the Q3-Q4 2016 GreenBook Research Industry Trends Report, is scheduled on Tuesday, December 13, 2016, at 1 PM ET. Interested parties may click here to register.

About GreenBook

The GreenBook Worldwide Directories is a project of the New York AMA (American Marketing Association) Communication Services, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of the New York American Marketing Association. GreenBook provides a listing of market research suppliers in two volumes. Volume One features companies that offer online advertising, brand and media research, and specialized research for major industries such as financial, healthcare, retail, technology and telecommunications. The second volume features companies that offer qualitative research services such as focus group moderation, recruiting, interview moderating, videoconferencing, internet broadcasting, usability testing, etc.

About Civicom Marketing Research Services

Civicom Marketing Research Services offers many options to enhance the research process for marketing research professionals. Civicom is the global leader in facilitating telephone and web-enabled IDIs and Focus Groups using Civicom CyberFacility. Civicom also offers Civicom Chatterbox, an asynchronous research platform for online communities and bulletin boards, plus Civicom InSitu Mobile Research, a qualitative tool for shopper insights, audio diaries and patient journeys. Recently Civicom introduced the Civicom ThoughtLight Mobile Insights App, a qualitative mobile app for collecting richer in-the-moment insights that works with both iOS and Android. ThoughtLight includes GPS and GEO, plus off line accessibility for places where there is no data connection.

Civicom operates in over 96 countries and offers extensive translation services for marketing researchers, as well as transcription services through TranscriptionWing, and respondent recruiting through CiviSelect. All of these services are available in Spanish, as well as English, and multiple other languages.

Civicom Marketing Research Services chooses to be as dynamic as it is innovative; always listening to and acting on clients ideas and requests as they see fit. This kind of relationship has paved the way for the development and rollout of new services.

To learn more, email Civicom at inquire(at)civi(dot)com or call +1-203-413-2423.
Twenty-five journalists and eight journalism educators from around the world are coming to Arizona State University next month to participate in the preeminent training program in business journalism.

The Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism at ASUs Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication is hosting the 11th annual Reynolds Week Jan. 4-6.

Participants will hear from national experts on topics that include interpreting financial statements and discovering stories in statistics as well as the art of conducting local and national business investigations. Speakers will include high-profile journalists such as Steven Levy, author and editor-in-chief of tech-business blog Backchannel, and Leslie Wayne, a longtime former business reporter for The New York Times.

Reynolds Week serves journalists wanting a deep dive on a variety of money-related topics, and university and college faculty members who teach business journalism or are planning to incorporate money coverage in existing courses. This years journalists and professors come from 19 states, the District of Columbia, and five countries.

Reynolds Week is made possible by the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation, a national philanthropic organization that founded the Reynolds Center to improve the quality of business reporting across the U.S. Reynolds fellows receive a fellowship valued at $1,500 that covers tuition, hotel accommodation and meals.

This years fellows are:

JOURNALISTS AND REPORTERS



Jacob Barker, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, St. Louis, Missouri

Jessica Boehm, The Arizona Republic, Phoenix, Arizona

Benjamin Bathke, freelancer for Media Shift (Newport Beach, California) & Deutsche Welle (Bonn, Germany)

Brandi Bottalico, The Frederick News-Post, Frederick, Maryland

Morgan Chilson, The Topeka Capital-Journal, Topeka, Kansas

Brooks Johnson, Duluth News Tribune, Duluth, Minnesota

Oluyemisi Lanre-Idowu, TVC News Continental Broadcasting Service, Lagos, Nigeria

Erik Lorenzsonn, The Capital Times, Madison, Wisconsin

Joseph Martin, Houston Business Journal, Houston, Texas

Katherine Martin, The News Tribune, Tacoma, Washington

Anna Marum, The Oregonian, Portland, Oregon

Monica Mendoza, Denver Business Journal, Denver, Colorado

Marissa Nall, Pacific Coast Business Times, Santa Barbara, California

Allison Prang, American Banker, New York, New York

Dawn Reiss, Freelancer for U.S. News & World Report, Washington, D.C.

Lilly Rockwell, Austin American-Statesman, Austin, Texas

Emilie Rusch, The Denver Post, Denver, Colorado

Arlene Satchell, The South Florida Sun Sentinel, Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Michael Seale, Birmingham Business Journal, Birmingham, Alabama

Melody Simmons, Baltimore Business Journal, Baltimore, Maryland

Ashley Stewart, Puget Sound Business Journal, Seattle, Washington

Ian Thibodeau, The Detroit News, Detroit, Michigan

Steven Totten, Phoenix Business Journal, Phoenix, Arizona

Susan Valot, freelancer for National Public Radio, The California Report, San Francisco, California

Armine Yalnizyan, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

BUSINESS JOURNALISM PROFESSORS

Steven Adesemoye, Lagos State Polytechnic, Ikorodu, Nigeria

Kim Fox, The American University, Cairo, Egypt

Kate Gannon, University of Texas, El Paso, Texas

Allison Ludwig, University of South Carolina Upstate, Spartanburg, South Carolina

Thomas Palmer, University at Albany, SUNY, Albany, New York

Adam Tanner, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska

Eric Wilson, Wichita State University, Wichita, Kansas

Shuling Zhang, University of International Business and Economics, Beijing, China

ABOUT THE REYNOLDS CENTER

Since 2003, more than 29,000 journalists have learned to cover business better through free training from the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism. The center is at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State Universitys Phoenix campus and is funded by the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation, a national philanthropic organization founded in 1954 by the late media entrepreneur for whom it is named. Headquartered in Las Vegas, it has committed more than $145 million nationwide through its Journalism Program.

Email media enquiries to President Andrew Leckey of the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism (andrew.leckey(at)businessjournalism(dot)org) or call 602-496-9186.

RELATED LINKS

Reynolds Week - http://businessjournalism.org/category/workshops/reynolds-week/

Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism - http://businessjournalism.org/

Donald W. Reynolds Foundation - http://www.dwreynolds.org/
This recognition is further validation of the superior job the HomeSphere team has done developing its service platform and delivering strong returns for customers, as well as the company's significant potential for future growth.

Teakwood Capital, a Dallas, Texas private equity firm, today announced its portfolio company, HomeSphere, the homebuilding industrys first and only B2B digital lead generation and customer retention platform, has been selected by CIOReview as one of the 20 Most Promising Construction Tech Solutions of 2016.

Each year we recognize companies that are making a significant impact on their industry through technology, said Jeevan George, Managing Editor of CIOReview. HomeSphere seeks to solve the construction industrys most difficult technological challenges with its user-friendly, intuitive and streamlined solutions that empower market collaboration.

HomeSphere provides residential homebuilders with access to exclusive rebate opportunities and offers building product manufacturers a fail-safe strategy to develop targeted homebuilder leads. Nearly 1,900 local and regional homebuilders and 55 national building product manufacturers representing 80 brands engage on the companys digital platform.

Our team is grateful for the honor, said HomeSphere President and CEO Glenn Renner. CIOReview recognized the bright outlook for our company and the chance to create significant value for our customers  builders, manufacturers and distributors  through the implementation of technology.

In November, HomeSphere received a major growth capital investment from Teakwood Capital to expand its sales and marketing teams. The company will also seek to develop and bring to market new digital tools to connect the residential construction industry.

This recognition is further validation of the superior job the HomeSphere team has done developing its service platform and delivering strong returns for customers, as well as the companys significant potential for future growth, said Shawn Kelly, Managing Director at Teakwood Capital.

About Teakwood Capital

Teakwood Capital is a Dallas, Texas private equity firm. It invests in profitable technology-focused companies typically located in Texas and neighboring states with revenues below $25 million that are interested in accelerating growth with expansion capital and top-tier talent. The firm has deep, hands-on operating experience which is complemented by an Executive Partner team of successful ex-CXOs working closely with portfolio company management teams to create value through organic revenue growth, operational improvements, and sustainable intellectual property. For more information, visit teakwoodcapital.com.

About HomeSphere

HomeSphere is the homebuilding industrys first and only B2B digital lead generation and customer retention platform connecting a digital community of local home builders and national building product manufacturers, including 55 building product manufacturers representing 80 brands, and nearly 1,900 local and regional home builders. Leveraging exclusive, actionable market intelligence and access to sought-after relationships, HomeSpheres solutions deliver ultra-targeted business opportunities with more profit potential. For more information, visit homesphere.com.

About CIOReview

Published from Fremont, California, CIOReview is a print magazine that explores and understands the plethora of ways adopted by firms to execute the smooth functioning of their businesses. A distinguished panel comprising CEOs, CIOs and IT VPs including the CIOReview editorial board finalized the "20 Most Promising Construction Tech Solution Providers 2016" and shortlisted the best vendors and consultants. For more information, visit cioreview.com.

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Carl Mazzanti, CEO (center right) New Jersey and its vibrant business community have enabled our remarkable track record of 15 years of growth.

eMazzanti Technologies, a Hoboken-based IT consultant and managed services provider (MSP), was named as the 2016 NJBIZ Business of the Year in the 1-50 employees category at the NJBIZ awards dinner, Monday, December 5. The Business of the Year awards program is produced by NJBIZ, New Jerseys premier business news publication, and presented by EisnerAmper LLP.

This is a win for our customers and our partners who have helped us every step of the way, stated Carl Mazzanti, CEO. New Jersey and its vibrant business community have enabled our remarkable track record of 15 years of growth.

A crowd of nearly 300 people attended the NJBIZ awards dinner Monday night at The Palace at Somerset Park in Somerset, New Jersey. During the proceedings, the best companies in New Jersey in a variety of categories were honored, along with the Executive of the Year. eMazzanti was recognized for contributing to their clients business success no matter what the economic conditions.

In times of hardship, companies are searching for ways to make themselves more productive and efficient. Thanks to eMazzantis commitment to implementing IT solutions to help them gain time, they can focus on growing their business. If used effectively, this increased bandwidth equates to increased profit, making eMazzanti partners in its clients successes, states the award announcement.

Finalists and Category Winners

As the winner in the 1-50 employees category, eMazzanti shared the spotlight with several dynamic New Jersey companies. Finalists honored in the same category included Desktop Alert Inc., Essential Pharmaceuticals LLC, Health Recovery Solutions, Kimmerle Group, PerformLine and The Avoca Group. AeroFarms was the winner in the 51-100 employees category, and Calandra Enterprises claimed the award for companies with more than 100 employees.

The Business of the Year awards program celebrates New Jerseys most dynamic businesses and business leaders who share a commitment to professional excellence, business growth and the community. Finalists were chosen by an independent panel of judges including: Joseph Montemarano from Princeton University and Tony Cicatiello from the Research & Development Council of NJ.

In addition to being named the 2016 NJBIZ Business of the Year, eMazzanti was recently recognized by Hoboken Mayor, Dawn Zimmer with a proclamation highlighting the companys long-term contributions to the community. eMazzanti also celebrated its 15th anniversary in business on September 15, 2016 with an evening spectacular for customers and partners.

Related resource information:

Expand Your Business with Remote Desktop Services (Formerly Terminal Services)

2016 Section 179 Tax Deduction Opens the Door to Substantial Technology Investment

About eMazzanti Technologies

eMazzantis team of trained, certified IT experts rapidly deliver cloud and mobile solutions, multi-site implementations, 247 outsourced network management, remote monitoring and support to increase productivity, data security and revenue growth for clients ranging from professional services firms to high-end global retailers.

eMazzanti has made the Inc. 5000 list seven years running, is a 2015, 2013 and 2012 Microsoft Partner of the Year, a 5X WatchGuard Partner of the Year and one of the TOP 200 U.S. Microsoft Partners.

Contact: 1-866-362-9926, info(at)emazzanti(dot)net or http://www.emazzanti.net Twitter: @emazzanti Facebook: Facebook.com/emazzantitechnologies.
Keith Sunderlal, Alyson Segawa, Mansi Ahuja, Karen Cahill, Sabyasachi Gorai The increase in demand of US cranberries among the Indian consumers is testimony to the super fruits growing popularity. Through our multipronged awareness drive, we aim to take its unique flavor and health benefits across the nation.

With the aim to raise awareness and knowledge of US cranberries in India, the Cranberry Marketing Committee (CMC) organized seminars in New Delhi and Bangalore last week on the versatility, availability and utilization of Americas Original Superfruit among industrial ingredient users. Fresh cranberries contain Vitamin C, fiber and antioxidants, and these small berries have been favorites among health-conscious food lovers for some time.

Talking about the US cranberry industry and expansion plans in India, Alyson Segawa, Manager, International Marketing Accounts at Bryant Christie, Inc., said: The Indian market offers enormous potential for US cranberries and is being considered one of the most important export markets for the United States. This seminar is our initiative to raise positive awareness of US cranberries among trade.

Sharing the Indian perspective, Keith Sunderlal, senior consultant at The SCS Group and CMCs representative in India, stated: The increase in demand of US cranberries among the Indian consumers is testimony to the super fruits growing popularity. Through our multipronged awareness drive, we aim to take its unique flavor and health benefits across the nation.

Combined, the seminars saw participation from nearly 200 established decision makers from the food and nutrition industries, key opinion makers from the ingredients industry, and culinary experts. The highlight of the event was an insightful session on US cranberry history, industry and applications by CMCs Communications & Marketing Specialist, Karen Cahill. The program included discussions, presentations and a cooking demonstration of Indian and fusion recipes with US cranberry as the main ingredient.

During the live US cranberry recipe demonstration, celebrated Indian chef Sabyasachi Gorai said: US cranberries are an absolute delight to cook with. Their tangy-sweet taste and unique texture allows them to be the star ingredient of any preparation, ranging from drinks and appetizers to main courses and desserts. As an innovator who is always trying out new ingredients and techniques, I find US cranberries play a huge role in my experiments. US cranberries are a versatile fruit that add delicious flavor to a variety of foods, making them the ideal ingredient choice for the Indian consumer.

The CMC will continue its efforts to increase awareness of cranberries across India at the UpperCrust Food & Wine Show in Mumbai in January and the AAHAR International Food & Hospitality Fair in New Delhi in March 2017.

About the Cranberry Marketing Committee

The Cranberry Marketing Committee (CMC) is focused on promoting the use and consumption of cranberries worldwide. The CMC was established as a Federal Marketing Order in 1962 to ensure a stable, orderly supply of good quality product. Currently, CMC conducts generic promotion programs in the United States, China, India, Mexico, Pan-Europe and South Korea.

About the SCS Group

The SCS Group is an agribusiness-consulting firm specializing in marketing, international trade and communications strategy related to food, beverage and agricultural products. The firm has been a pioneer in nutrition-based marketing in the country and is organizing the US cranberries trade seminars in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore in India.
Lonely Planet named Asheville, North Carolina as the #1 destination in the US to visit in 2017

Travel media company Lonely Planet announced its annual list of the top 10 most exciting places to go in the United States in the year ahead.

Lonely Planets travel experts scoured the United States this year to choose Best in the US 2017 (lonelyplanet.com/best-in-us), 10 destinations poised to shine next year, whether theyre up-and-coming, overlooked or offer new, inviting reasons to visit in 2017.

This year, Lonely Planet named the charming enclave of Asheville, North Carolina as the #1 destination in the US to visit in 2017. The vibrant small city is known for its welcoming, creative spirit and eclectic architecture. Its thriving artistic community and booming food and drink scene  all surrounded by spectacular natural beauty  is putting it firmly on the map.

Following in second place is Western Washington, where iconic landscapes made their way into popular consciousness in Twin Peaks, the television drama making a comeback in 2017. In third place is heartland hub Lincoln, Nebraska, hosting festivals throughout the year to celebrate its 150th anniversary. Other notable or surprising places that made the list include the southern desert area of California (#4), Texas relatively unknown wine country (#8) and a picture-perfect strip of Florida coast (#10).

Lonely Planets Best in the US 2017 are the places we recommend travelers go next year, said Lonely Planet magazine managing editor Rebecca Warren. This years list is incredibly diverse, spanning from coast to coast, giving a panoramic tour of America. Whether travelers want to escape to the mountains, get transported back in time or relax by the beach, these are the destinations to be excited about. Some of them are on the publics radar, while others are recently emerging, and they all offer compelling reasons to visit in 2017.

Now in its 7th edition, Lonely Planets Best in the US is a highly anticipated list of cities, regions and states worth traveling to in the year ahead, selected and ranked by Lonely Planets US destination editors, writers and travel community. The complete list is available online at http://www.lonelyplanet.com/best-in-us, featuring a video and a chance to win a weekend away for two in #1 Asheville, plus accompanying articles on each destination.

About Lonely Planet:

Travel media company and the worlds leading guidebook publisher, Lonely Planet, has been inspiring and informing travelers since 1973. Over the past four decades, Lonely Planet has cultivated a dedicated traveler community and printed more than 130 million books in 14 different languages to almost every destination on the planet. The brand now offers compelling travel content across various channels, including an award-winning website, guidebooks, illustrated reference books, Lonely Planet Kids, 12 international magazines, mobile apps, video and more. Visit us at lonelyplanet.com, and join us on Facebook (facebook.com/lonelyplanet), Twitter (@lonelyplanet and #lp) and Instagram (instagram.com/lonelyplanet).
Weve had a great year, so as 2016 comes to a close, we want to do everything that we can to spread the love this Christmas season, said Zack Pugh, M&W Transportations Director of Communication.

Today, with the financial sponsorship of M&W Transportation, Second Harvest will run a food bank out of First Baptist Shelbyville Church. The food bank will be managed by members of the First Baptist Shelbyville congregation. The doors will open at 9:00am. Turnout is expected to be high as the Shelbyville community bands together to help those less fortunate.

For M&W, giving back to the local community is very important. M&W partners with organizations like Second Harvest frequently, providing support in whatever capacity they can. They believe that this is especially crucial during the Christmas season.

We take any and every opportunity to partner with our friends Second Harvest for events like this one! said Zack Pugh, M&W Transportations Director of Communication. Weve had a great year, so as 2016 comes to a close, we want to do everything that we can to spread the love this Christmas season.

About M&W Transportation:

M&W is a family owned third party logistics provider operating right here in Nashville, Tennessee. From humble beginnings, M&W has grown to operate more than 90 power units, 300 trailers, and 400,000 square feet of warehouse space. Guided by Christian values, M&W strives to provide dependable, cost-efficient logistical solutions to their clients while maintaining high standards of safety and professionalism.

About Second Harvest:

Founded in 2001, Second Harvest has become one of Americas biggest, and most effective food banks. They strive to create a sustainable nutritional support system for those in need. Their mission is to empower the disadvantaged with the meals they needs every day.
Hitachi Solutions Inspire the Next "We at Microsoft Dynamics recognize and understand the challenges of growing a business. That is why we developed Microsoft Dynamics 365, we want to become your partner, to assist you in growing your business."

Hitachi Solutions Philippines Corporation, a leading provider of industry specific business solutions built on Microsoft Dynamics, is pleased to host the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Launch event in Metro Manila in Philippines.

Stephen Fowler, the Sales Director for Microsoft Dynamics in Asia and Sandeep Walia, President of Hitachi Solutions Philippines Corporation will lead the unveiling of the Microsoft Dynamics 365 in the Philippines. The speakers will discuss the cloud offering and how it can benefit business with their challenges in sales, automation, customer service, business operations and how its powerful and advance analytics deliver a new and refreshing business agility to its customers. The luncheon will be held at the Shangri-La Hotel in Bonifacio Global City.

"Hitachi Philippines has been a leader in providing Industry focused solutions based on Microsoft Dynamics. We are delighted to be launching Microsoft Dynamics 365 in Philippines in partnership with Microsoft to better serve our mutual customers." Sandeep Walia, President of Hitachi Solutions Philippines.

The event will also showcase the Microsoft Dynamics 365's capabilities in handling the simplest to the most complex challenges that businesses face as they grow, and how it can be integrated to independent apps that provide a more targeted approach.

"We understand the challenge of growing a business, trying to guarantee success while balancing many aspects of its operations. We at Microsoft Dynamics recognize and understand these roadblocks and challenges. That is why we developed Microsoft Dynamics 365, we want to become your partner, to assist you in growing your business." Stephen Fowler, Sales Director for Microsoft Dynamics.

For more on information on the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Launch Event, Philippines, please visit this link: http://bit.ly/2h59GK8.

About Hitachi Solutions Philippines Corporation

Hitachi Solutions Philippines Corporation helps its customers to successfully compete with the largest global enterprises using powerful, easy-to-use, and affordable industry solutions built on Microsoft Dynamics AX and Microsoft Dynamics CRM enhanced with world class Business Analytics, and Portals and Collaboration. Recognized as the Microsoft ERP Partner of year in 2015 and 2015 and Microsoft Partner of the Year in Asia Pacific in 2015, Microsoft CRM Global Partner of the Year in 2014 and the 2014 Dynamics Global Outstanding Reseller of the Year, Hitachi Solutions Group provides global capabilities with regional offices in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, India, Japan, China, and Asia Pacific. For more information, call +63 2 823 1672or visit: http://apac.hitachi-solutions.com/.

About Hitachi Solutions, Ltd.

Hitachi Solutions, Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is one of the core IT Companies of Hitachi Group and a recognized leader in delivering proven business and IT strategies and solutions to companies across many industries. The company provides value-driven services throughout the IT life cycle from systems planning to systems integration, operation and maintenance. Hitachi Solutions delivers products and services of superior value to customers worldwide through key subsidiaries in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, India, China, and Asia Pacific. For more information on Hitachi Solutions, please visit: http://www.hitachi-solutions.com.

About Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE: 6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, delivers innovations that answer societys challenges with our talented team and proven experience in global markets. The companys consolidated revenues for fiscal 2015 (ended March 31, 2016) totaled 10,034 billion yen ($88.8 billion). Hitachi is focusing more than ever on the Social Innovation Business, which includes power & infrastructure systems, information & telecommunication systems, construction machinery, high functional materials & components, automotive systems, healthcare and others. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the companys website at http://www.hitachi.com.
Northcreek Mezzanine, Resolute Capital Partners, and founder Robert Brady announced today that they have completed the sale of BLR (Business and Legal Resources) to Leeds Equity Partners, a New York based private equity fund focused exclusively on investing in the Knowledge Industries.

Under the ownership of Northcreek Mezzanine, Resolute Capital Partners and founder Robert Brady, BLR has significantly transformed the business by breaking into new vertical markets, expanding its product portfolio, and successfully completing several acquisitionsall have positioned the company as a market leader in the industries served today.

We are very pleased to complete the sale of BLR to Leeds Equity Partners, said Barry Peterson, Managing Partner of Northcreek Mezzanine. The growth of the company and the aggressive diversification of revenue channels the past few years has created a scalable platform for success. We congratulate Leeds on closing the transaction and partnering with a great management team.

Dan and the management team of BLR embody the values we look for in a partner and those values have translated into business success, said Bill Nutter, Managing Partner at Resolute Capital. We are proud to have assisted this business in its growth and look forward to watching it continue to flourish in this new partnership with Leeds.

With over 40 years of investment in this company, it has been exciting to see how the management team has evolved the business in a way that brings extraordinary value to customers, shareholders and employees" said Robert Brady, founder of BLR.

BLR will join a newly formed entity, Simplify Compliance LLC, exclusively focused on the information and compliance solutions sector. Leeds Equity created this new entity through simultaneous negotiations and a merger of four market-leading companies: BLR and three portfolio companies owned by UCG; DecisionHealth, Argosy and CCMI. This strategic combination creates a leading provider of mission critical information, workflow solutions and services to the highly complex end markets of healthcare, human capital management, financial services, and telecommunications. Simplify Compliance will be led by Dan Oswald and headquartered in Brentwood, TN.

I am very proud of what we have accomplished during our partnership with Northcreek, Resolute and Bob Brady, said Oswald. The support and industry knowledge of our founder coupled with the business acumen of these seasoned investors allowed us to complete four acquisitions and successfully launch a wide variety of new products and category extensions during this period, which has enabled us to better serve our customers. We are excited to have found a similar partnership mindset with Leeds, sharing the same passion for driving innovative products and services for the global knowledge economy.

Covington & Burling served as legal counsel to Leeds Equity Partners. BLR and UCG were advised by JEGI, the leading independent investment bank for the global media, information, marketing, software and tech-enabled services sectors. Finn Dixon and Sherrard, Roe, Voigt, Harbison served as legal counsel to BLR and UCG. LBMC also served as an adviser to BLR on this transaction.

About Northcreek Mezzanine:

Northcreek Mezzanine brings over 75 years of experience and provides creatively structured mezzanine and senior debt investments in middle-market companies. Currently investing out of two funds with financial resources of $250 million comprised of partnership equity and funding through the U.S. Small Business Administration through its Debenture program. Northcreek targets companies with revenues between $5-$200 million and invest in a variety of transactions including leveraged acquisitions, recapitalization, growth/expansion, buyout and balance sheet re-positioning or senior deleveraging.

For additional information on Northcreek Mezzanine, see http://www.northcreekmezzanine.com/

About Resolute Capital Partners:

Resolute Capital Partners is a provider of mezzanine debt and equity for small, growing businesses throughout the United States. Currently investing out of Resolute Capital Partners Fund III, LP, a Small Business Investment Company seeking to identify lower middle market business that have established a strong market position and are poised for growth, Resolute Capital typically invests $2-$20 million in the form of mezzanine debt and equity to support acquisitions, recapitalizations and other growth needs.

For additional information on Resolute Capital Partners, see http://www.resolutecap.com/

About BLR

BLR (Business & Legal Resources) helps U.S. businesses simplify compliance with state and federal legal requirements. Expert in-house editors and an exclusive attorney network provide comprehensive, reliable state-specific information for businesses in all 50 states. Award-winning informational products  including training programs, events, web portals, reports and subscription services  give businesses of all sizes and industries the best tools available at affordable prices.

For more information on BLR, see http://www.BLR.com/
Left to right: Founders Ball Co-Chair Angelica Berrie, CareOne CEO Daniel E. Straus and Holy Name Medical Center President & CEO Michael Maron. It's particularly meaningful to be honored at this year's Founders Ball, as CareOne and Holy Name Medical Center are long-time partners in providing quality patient-centric care," said Daniel E. Straus, Chairman and CEO, CareOne, LLC.

The Holy Name Medical Center Foundation hosted the 2016 Founders Ball at The Pierre Hotel in New York, NY, on December 3rd, to benefit Holy Name Medical Center's programs and services. More than 700 friends, benefactors, dignitaries and physicians attended the annual event, which raised over $1 million - the largest event in the Center's history, both in attendance and financial support. During the evening's tribute, Daniel E. Straus, President & CEO of CareOne, LLC was presented with the Spirit of Healing Award.

The 2016 Founders Ball was chaired by Angelica Berrie, Ilan Kaufthal, and Elizabeth Straus. Angelica Berrie, President of The Russell Berrie Foundation, was the recipient of the 2015 Spirit of Healing Award. Ilan Kaufthal is Chairman of East Wind Advisors and Elizabeth Straus, Daniel E. Straus' daughter, is Executive Vice President, CareOne, LLC.

Steve Adubato, PhD, Emmy Award-winning Anchor Thirteen/WNET (PBS) and NJTV (PBS), served as Master of Ceremonies. The event also featured a musical performance by Max Weinberg, famed drummer of The E Street Band and Max and Friends, and his band.

"Holy Name and CareOne have a common mission - to provide the community with the highest quality healthcare," said Michael Maron, President & CEO, Holy Name Medical Center. "We thank Daniel E. Straus, a visionary entrepreneur, philanthropist and supporter of the Medical Center for helping to make this year's gala a record-setting event."

"It's particularly meaningful to be honored at this year's Founders Ball, as CareOne and Holy Name Medical Center are long-time partners in providing quality patient-centric care," said Daniel E. Straus, Chairman and CEO, CareOne, LLC. "Working together enables both institutions to enhance our services and improve patient outcomes. I look forward to continuing this important partnership."

For 30 years, The Holy Name Medical Center Foundation has helped raise millions of dollars for new state-of-the-art medical facilities including The BirthPlace, The Sister Patricia Lynch Regional Cancer Center, The George Pitkin, MD Emergency Care Center and The George and Amy Newman Cardiac Diagnostic Center. "In celebration of 30 years of philanthropy, we are deeply grateful for the generous support of our donors, which significantly helps Holy Name Medical Center provide the best medical care to our community," said Celeste A. Oranchak, VP, Development and Executive Director of the Holy Name Medical Center Foundation.

The event was made possible by a number of major sponsors, including The Russell Berrie Foundation, CareOne, LLC, and the Alfiero and Lucia Palestroni Foundation.

All proceeds from the Annual Founders Ball benefit Holy Name Medical Center programs and services. To learn more about the Holy Name Medical Center Foundation, call 201-833-3187 or visit holyname.org/foundation.

To view/download high-res photos, visit http://photos.holyname.org/Foundation/2016-Founders-Ball

About Daniel E. Straus

Daniel E. Straus has built a reputation as one of the most successful health care and real estate developers in the Northeast. Mr. Straus rose to prominence in the 1980s and 1990s as the successful President and CEO of The Multicare Companies, a NYSE traded corporation that grew from three health care properties, to a healthcare empire that spanned to several states in the U.S. with over 170 locations. The company was notably sold to a large health care operator in a highly publicized healthcare real estate transaction in the late 1990s.

Through CareOne, which Mr. Straus formed in the late 90s, he has developed, operated and managed more inpatient health care properties in the New York metropolitan area than any other operator. With his visionary approach to redefining healthcare, his company has become the market share leader for senior living and inpatient rehabilitation in the Northeast. Over 100,000 older adults have been cared for throughout the CareOne family of senior living and rehabilitation centers. Mr. Straus and his company have developed over $1 billion in real estate properties and transactions in the past 15 years. His portfolio of senior living properties is regarded in the industry as the standard for design and programming and has garnered national attention and awards for architectural and design elements.

Mr. Straus operates one of the largest institutional pharmacy businesses in this country, serving the needs of over 60,000 patients throughout nine states. In addition, he has founded and built InnovaCare Health, one of the largest Medicare Advantage health plans in the United States and currently serves as its Chairman of the Board and controlling shareholder. Mr. Straus also operated Aveta Health, the dominant physician practice company in Southern California, which was sold to United Healthcare in 2012.

Mr. Straus has also been as dedicated and committed to philanthropy as he has been to his business, supporting several charitable causes through his own foundation and through charitable foundations he has created in his businesses. Through his philanthropy over the years, he has been involved with many charitable endeavors benefitting many organizations in New York City and the metropolitan area.

About The Holy Name Medical Center Foundation

Since 1986, The Holy Name Medical Center Foundation encourages the philanthropic support of Holy Name Medical Center by raising awareness of the Medical Center's capabilities and inviting the community to invest in a rewarding process that is making a positive difference in the health and well-being of our community. The Foundation ensures that HNMC facilities and technology are state-of-the-art, and that programs and services continue to meet the diverse needs of our community for generations to come.

The Holy Name Medical Center Foundation and its staff are committed to increasing the generous support needed to carry out the mission of Holy Name Medical Center and the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace, the Medical Center's founding sponsor.

About Holy Name Medical Center

Holy Name Medical Center is a fully accredited, not-for-profit healthcare facility based in Teaneck, New Jersey. Founded and sponsored by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace in 1925, the comprehensive 361-bed medical center offers leading-edge medical practice and technology administered in an environment rooted in a tradition of compassion and respect for every patient. Holy Name provides high quality health care across a continuum that encompasses education, prevention, early intervention, comprehensive treatment options, rehabilitation and wellness maintenance. To learn more, visit HolyName.org.
Uncle Maddios has been a raging success across the state of Tennessee, says Matt Andrew, Uncle Maddios CEO

On Friday, December 9, Uncle Maddios Pizza celebrates its latest Grand Opening in Murfreesboro, Tennessee at the Shoppes of Northgate near Sprouts grocery store at 125 Wendlewood Drive. This is the first of six Uncle Maddios for the Nashville area DMA. Murfreesboro franchisees Michael and Lauren Eastham and their partners Julie and Rawleigh Martin plan to open three and are currently searching for locations for their 2nd and 3rd units in Brentwood, Franklin or Hermitage. Mike and Dhara Chaudhary, will also be opening three area units.

In an effort to attract an engage the Murfreesboro community, the multi-day Grand Opening celebration will include a series of specials:



Friday: free pizza to the first 1,500+ to claim the free pizza offer on Facebook

Saturday: Free pizza 11am-2pm and $2 draft beer all day

Sunday: kids eat free all day + a face painter from 11am-1pm

Monday: Maddio Monday deal of 9" pizza with three toppings and a fountain drink for $7.99

After many months of anticipation, the day is finally here, says franchisee, Michael Eastham. We are thrilled to share our love for Uncle Maddios Pizza with the community of Murfreesboro. And what better way to do that than with free pizza!?

The Easthams, who are former owners of an in-home care service for seniors, are currently site-selecting locations for their 2nd and 3rd Uncle Maddios Pizza units in Brentwood, Franklin or Hermitage.

Uncle Maddios has been a raging success across the state of Tennessee, says Matt Andrew, Uncle Maddios CEO. Were confident Murfreesboro will be no exception.

The New York-style, create-your-own, fast casual pizza concept allows guests to build-their-own pizza, choosing from one of three crusts, including a gluten-free option, and 48 toppings, six sauces, 27 vegetables and 15 meats.

Currently, Uncle Maddio's has signed franchise agreements with 65 different entities in 15 states. Many of the franchisees have previous multi-unit experience with likes of Jimmy John's, Firehouse Subs, Dairy Queen, McDonalds, Burger King, Krystal, Papa John's, Domino's and Golden Corral. The franchise is on track to have 300 restaurants open in five years.

For information on Uncle Maddios Pizza, visit http://www.unclemaddios.com. Interested franchisees can visit unclemaddiosfranchise.com or franchising(at)unclemaddios(dot)com.

About Uncle Maddio's Pizza

With more than 1,350 Pizza Makers making more than 5,000,000 pizzas a year, Uncle Maddio's Pizza is category leader of the create-your-own, fast casual pizza restaurants. Operating almost 50 locations in 15 states, Uncle Maddio's has more than 250 units in development. Uncle Maddio's pizzas are customizable, made-to-order, and served up fast for about $8. With four pizza sizes; three types of crusts, including gluten-free; six sauces and 48 fresh toppings, many vegan or organic. Uncle Maddio's has the freshest and largest menu in the category. The restaurant's unique fast bake ovens offer the most throughput in the industry and can produce 200 pizzas per hour. Uncle Maddio's also serves Foldwich sandwiches and gourmet salads - all freshly prepared as are 30 other menu items that are made on-site daily. Uncle Maddio's 'Served with Love' philosophy and restaurant is for everyone - children and families, college students, the young and the young at heart - and includes extensive community involvement. Based in Atlanta, the Uncle Maddio's management team has 50 years combined experienced in the fast-casual category.
Attorney Mark Woodbury Unfortunately, landlords often have more leverage than tenants in these kinds of disputes. Its satisfying to have a judge vindicate a tenants rights in these sorts of cases. Past News Releases RSS

Mark Woodbury, managing attorney and founder of Woodbury Legal, recently successfully defended a tenant in a case (filed in the Utah Third District Court, Salt Lake City Dept., Case No. 150908913) stemming from a residential lease dispute. According to court documents, the tenant (Woodburys client) was being sued for $30,000 for damages allegedly done to a home.

Unfortunately, landlords often have more leverage than tenants in these kinds of disputes, said Woodbury. Its satisfying to have a judge vindicate a tenants rights in these sorts of cases.

Court documents state that before the tenant left, she spoke with the leasing agent about the condition of the home, and agreed to pay for some cleaning, repainting, and yard work to be done, a cost of about $1,500 to $3,000. After leaving the home, according to court documents, the landlord demanded over $30,000 for alleged damage to the home.

My client contacted me and I advised her to offer to forfeit her security deposit of $3,000 to pay for some painting and cleaning, and to settle the case, said Woodbury. After the landlord rejected our offer, we decided to take the case to trial. After a half-day trial, the judge agreed with us, and ordered her to forfeit her security deposit of $3,000 to cover some painting and cleaning. No other damages were awarded.

About Mark Woodbury, Woodbury Legal

Mark Woodbury specializes in family law, estate planning and wills and trusts. He is a member of the litigation and criminal law sections of the Utah Bar. For more information, please call (801) 692-3606, or visit http://www.woodburylegal.org. Woodbury Legal is located at 802 Bamberger Drive, American Fork, UT 84003.

About the NALA

The NALA offers small and medium-sized businesses effective ways to reach customers through new media. As a single-agency source, the NALA helps businesses flourish in their local community. The NALAs mission is to promote a business relevant and newsworthy events and achievements, both online and through traditional media. For media inquiries, please call 805.650.6121, ext. 361.
Attorney Richard West, founder of the West Family Law Group, recently announced the family law firm has a new brand, logo, website and new office location, 7009 Dr. Phillips Boulevard, Suite 130, Orlando, FL. West has been serving the Central Florida area and the state of Florida for over 35 years, and was named Orlandos 2016 Family Lawyer of the Year by Super Lawyers and Best Lawyers in America.

West is board certified in Marital and Family Law by the Florida Bar and the National Board of Trial Advocacy. He has been in private practice for more than 30 years specializing in marital and family law. He also has extensive experience in cases dealing with complex financial matters, including the valuation of closely held corporations, professional practices and incentive stock options.

Furthermore, West has a proven history in the representation of numerous professional athletes and other public figures with the utmost regard for protecting his clients from media exposure and overly invasive discovery practices. In the family law arena, West is committed to the prompt resolution of family disputes through creative problem solving, which includes negotiation, mediation, arbitration and collaborative law.

About Richard West, West Family Law Group

Although his practice is primarily in Central Florida, which encompasses Orange, Osceola, Seminole, Brevard, Volusia and Lake Counties, Richard West handles cases nationwide. Richard is a past president and current Fellow of the prestigious Florida Chapter of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, Fellow of the International Academy of Family Lawyers, and past Chairman of the Florida Bar Family Law Section. He is AV rated by Martindale Hubbell. He is also a member of the Central Florida Family Inn of Court and the Collaborative Family Law Group of Central Florida. For more information, please call (407) 425-8878, email r.west(at)westflg(dot)com or visit http://www.westfamilylawgroup.com.
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PPPs newest national poll find that although Donald Trump is a little bit more popular than he was during the campaign, a majority of Americans still have a negative opinion of him. 43% of voters view Trump favorably to 51% who have an unfavorable view of him. On PPPs last national poll, in late September, Trumps favorability rating stood at 39/55. Trumps popularity continues to pale in comparison to Barack Obamas. Obama ends his final year in office with a 50/45 approval spread. When it comes to the question of who voters trust more to pick the new Supreme Court justice, Obama beats out Trump 52-45.

Voters dont think that Trumps Electoral College victory while losing the popular vote is really fair- 50% think the candidate who receives the most votes nationally in the election should become President, to only 37% who disagree with that concept. Over the course of the campaign we found there was a cult like aspect to Trumps support, where any idea he put forth a substantial share of his supporters would go along with. We see that trend continuing post election. 60% of Trump voters think that Hillary Clinton received millions of illegal votes to only 18% who disagree with that concept and 22% who arent sure either way.

A couple other findings related to the vote in this years election:

-40% of Trump voters insist that he won the national popular vote to only 49% who grant that Clinton won it and 11% who arent sure.

-Only 53% of Trump voters think that Californias votes should be allowed to count in the national popular vote. 29% dont think they should be allowed to count, and another 18% are unsure.

Theres been a lot of attention to the way fake news has spread and been believed especially by Trump supporters and thats borne out in our polling:

-73% of Trump voters think that George Soros is paying protesters against Trump to only 6% who think thats not true, and 21% who arent sure one way or the other. (I personally had to explain to my Grandmother that this wasnt true a few weeks ag0 after someone sent her an e-mail about it.)

-14% of Trump supporters think Hillary Clinton is connected to a child sex ring run out of a Washington DC pizzeria. Another 32% arent sure one way or another, much as the North Carolinian who went to Washington to check it out last weekend said was the case for him. Only 54% of Trump voters expressly say they dont think #Pizzagate is real.

Theres also been a lot of discussion recently about how we might be in a post-fact world and we see some evidence of that coming through in our polling:

-67% of Trump voters say that unemployment increased during the Obama administration, to only 20% who say it decreased.

-Only 41% of Trump voters say that the stock market went up during the Obama administration. 39% say it went down, and another 19% say theyre not sure.

Trumps been in a variety of fights with the media recently, and hes losing all of them:

-By a 49/40 spread, voters say the New York Times has more credibility than Trump.

-By a 48/41 spread, voters say CNN has more credibility than Trump.

-While Trumps favorability rating is negative at 43/51, Saturday Night Lives is positive at 48/33.

Trumps certainly been effective at turning his voters against the various entities hes feuding with though. Among Trump voters the Times has a 7/71 favorability spread, CNN has an 11/76 favorability spread, and SNL has a 17/61 favorability spread. The musical Hamilton has an 11/45 favorability with Trump voters, compared to 61/3 with Clinton voters.

Other notes from our national poll:

-Theres still a strong national consensus that Trump needs to release his tax returns. 59% say he needs to do that, to only 29% who say its not necessary.

-Voters are pretty split on who theyd like to see as the next Secretary of State with 20% each wanting Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney, 13% for John Bolton, 11% for David Petraeus, and 7% for Jon Huntsman. Among Trump voters the preference is strongly for Giuliani who gets 32% to 21% for Bolton, 14% for Petraeus, and 10% for Romney. Among Clinton voters support is strong for Romney at 28%, followed by Huntsman at 10% with no one else in double digits.

-Steven Bannon is unpopular among voters who are familiar with him, with 18% rating him positively to 33% with a negative opinion. The good news for Trump is that only 51% of voters are actually familiar with Bannon though. Kellyanne Conway is much better known, with 66% name recognition, and she has a narrowly positive image among voters nationally at 34/32.

-Congress is about as unpopular as ever, with only 10% of voters approving of it to 75% who disapprove. Paul Ryan has a 37/49 approval rating as Speaker and that makes him look positively popular next to Mitch McConnell who has a 16/56 approval rating nationally and is the least popular politician nationally in the country.

-Finally in these divided times we find there are some issues that Clinton and Trump supporter do agree on:

*Theres 89/8 support nationally for expanded background checks on gun purchases, including support from 96% of Clinton voters and 81% of Trump voters.

*Theres 84/8 support nationally for barring those on the Terror Watch List from buying guns, including support from 90% of Clinton voters and 80% of Trump voters.

*Theres 76% support nationally for increasing the minimum wage to at least $10 an hour, including support from 95% of Clinton voters and 54% of Trump voters.

Full results here
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Author of more than 30 works of nonfiction, including Newbery Honor books The Great Fire and An American Plague, as well as a handful of historical novels for middle graders, Jim Murphy shines a light on a chapter of his own young life in his latest book. Due from Clarion on January 3, Revenge of the Green Banana offers a humorous  more or less fictionalized  glimpse of Murphys sixth-grade year at St. Stephens, a Catholic elementary school in Kearny, N.J. The novels title refers to a prank that Jimmy Murphy and his friends plan to avenge vindictive Sister Angelica Rose, the teacher who volunteers Jimmy (the self-described worst student in our grade, if not in the whole school) to perform onstage with second graders  wearing a green banana costume. Murphy spoke with PW about how his real life fueled his latest work of fiction, and about his varied experiences with childrens publishing.

The protagonist of Green Banana bears your name, and you open the novel with a Warning that wryly turns the standard fiction disclaimer on its head, noting that everything in the book is true, and no names have been changed to protect the identity of the innocent or the guilty (especially the guilty). Is it safe to assume theres a very fine line here between real-life and fiction?

I can say that most plot elements of the novel actually happened, and all of the characters are real, though not everything in the novel occurred during my sixth-grade year  some of the events happened during my other years at St. Stephens. I did add some fictional things, but the story is mostly true.

And the obvious question: as a sixth grader, were you really forced to appear as a green banana in the second-grade performance?

I wasnt actually a green banana in a school play, but in fourth grade I was cast as the lead fireman in a production, and had to wear a hat and yellow slicker and I hated it. I rebelled, and there were long negotiations, and in the end I agreed to do it if I could bring my Mad magazines to school to read in the downtime during rehearsals, which happened. I learned at an early age that you should never give in right away  negotiate!

Given its grounding in fact, did you ever consider writing Green Banana as nonfiction?

Yeah, I kept tossing that idea around, but decided that it wouldnt be fair to write this as nonfiction. I certainly dont think some of the things the nuns at my school did were fair  but they were dealing with class sizes of more than 60, and I know I was an annoying kid and a provocateur. I was definitely a target of their physical and emotional abuse, but I always walked away  and never had any broken bones. To this day, Im not at all sure how good my education was. I am the worst speller, and I make up grammar as I go along. Still, I came out of St. Stephens a ferocious reader  and a very determined individual.

What was your first brush with publishing?

In high school and college, I wrote a bit, but I didnt think I was smart enough to become an author. I thought about becoming a childrens book editor, because I loved illustration, but I wasnt a good enough artist to illustrate professionally. My mother, who at four foot 11 inches refused to accept the word no from anyone, out of the blue invited Harold Latham, president of Macmillan and editor of Margaret Mitchells Gone with the Wind, to our house for dinner, so that I could talk to him about working in publishing. And after I graduated from college, my mother told me to write to 40 childrens book editors to make an appointment to talk with them  even if they had no job openings. But no one would hire me because I couldnt type!

Did your  or her  persistence finally land you a publishing job?

Well, Id started working for my uncle, a construction foreman, to earn some money, when one day I was called down from the 20th floor of the Grace Building in midtown Manhattan to take a phone call. It was from Jim Giblin at Seabury Press, who decided to hire me even though I couldnt type  I think he took pity on me. Jim was a fabulous mentor, and taught me how to analyze a manuscript and how to help the author make it better.

And at what point did you decide that you wanted to be writing those manuscripts?

I was doing a bit of writing while at Seabury, but at one point, toward the end of 1977, it occurred to me that all these authors I was working with were having books published with their names on them, and getting royalties, and I thought, Im going to wake up one day and Ill be 65 and it will be too late. So I left Seabury and started writing fulltime.



Was that smooth sailing from the start?

I went into being a writer with the notion that I was going to write fiction, and of course it would be brilliant. And of course it wasnt. I wrote a manuscript based on my personal experience, and sent it to Norma Jean Sawicki at Crown. She told me the story had a lot of potential, and we went back and forth, until I finally said to myself, This is hopeless. I dont know what Im doing. My manuscript was thousands of pages long  it was gigantic and out of control.

Did Norma Jean agree?

Yes, so I brought the manuscript home. And one day soon after that, I was in my office and heard the sound of the garbage truck  coming closer and closer. So I picked up the manuscript, ran outside, and placed it on top of the garbage can. And the truck took it away. When I called Norma Jean to tell her that it was gone, she said, Give me a nonfiction idea, and Ill buy it. And so I did  a book about inventions  and Crown published it as Weird & Wacky Inventions in 1978. And I was a published author.

And one hooked on writing?



I guess I was. I remember that I wanted to come up with a book idea that was unusual, so I decided to do a history of tractors, which I thought kids would like. It revolved around the illustrations  showing different views of old tractors. One day, I was telling my dad about the project. He had a very wry sense of humor, and he said, Jimmy, that sounds like its going to be a big hit  in Russia. I laughed, and realized he was right. The book was something you could drop in water, and it would sink!

So did you scrap that project idea?

Not exactly. I asked myself, What am I going to do with this? And I realized that an interesting thing about tractors, especially steam tractors, is that they exploded a lot. So I wrote a history of tractors, knitting together first-hand accounts of people who had survived tractor explosions. The book was titled Tractors: From Yesterdays Steam Wagons to Todays Turbocharged Giants, and was published by Lippincott in 1984. It got pleasant reviews, including a starred one from SLJ, and I wondered what it was that made this book work. And I realized that the key was the first-hand perspective, and from then on I knew that it was important for me to do first-person accounts.

Did you follow your own advice?

Yes, and I discovered different ways to do the first person. When I began writing The Boys War, I had lots and lots of interesting quotes, but my wife [writer and editor Alison Blank] said that the quotes Id used had created very long blocks of text, and she suggested I shorten the quotes and write them as dialogue, explaining that it was real. And thats what I did.

And that reformatting worked?

I guess so  the book did very well. I worked really hard researching that book, as I do all of my books. And it takes me a long time  usually three to five years. In this case, after my long slog researching and writing The Boys War, it was published in 1990 in the same week Ken Burnss The Civil War came out. My book was displayed in some stores right alongside his! I say that my book ran on the coattails of his book for years and years.

The luck of the timing draw?

Yes, timing can make a difference. When An American Plague came out in 2003, there was a lot of panic and discussion about the SARS virus. It made all the media headlines, which helped draw attention to my book. You just never know. When I decided to write the novel that became Revenge of the Green Banana, I initially thought I might do something fictional that would go along with current headlines  but the novel obviously became something very different.

And what can your fans expect next?

My wife Alison and I are now working on a nonfiction book focusing on the devastating social effects of leprosy. And Im also writing a novel about a girl who passes as a male soldier during the Civil War. Im able to draw on research for earlier books Ive done on the Civil War, plus am researching new material. Beyond that, Im not entirely sure whats ahead. Alison has told me that when Im writing nonfiction, I come downstairs from my office with a scowl on my face, but when I write fiction, Im happy. And shes right  I kind of relax when Im doing fiction. So that may be a good reason to focus more on that.

Revenge of the Green Banana. Jim Murphy. Clarion, $16.99 Jan. ISBN 978-0-544-73651-1
J.K. Rowlings screenplay for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Scholastic/Levine), Jeff Kinneys 11th Diary of a Wimpy Kid book, Double Down (Abrams/Amulet), Rick Riordans Percy Jackson and Magnus Chase series (Disney-Hyperion), and standalones like Monica Hesses Girl in the Blue Coat (Little, Brown) were among the top sellers over Thanksgiving weekend  the official start of the holiday season, which includes Black Friday and Plaid Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) and Small Business Saturday and Indies First (the Saturday after Thanksgiving).

Based on responses to PWs informal survey of more than two dozen booksellers around the country, indie booksellers of all stripes saw a post-election sales boost. Before the election, we were just dying, said Mary Emrich, owner of Turning Pages Books and More in Natchez, Miss. But something happened the day after the election. Our business was phenomenal. It was as if people were holding on to their money, and then said to themselves, Okay. Were going to survive this.

At Women & Children First in Chicago, customers expressed their commitment to shopping their values, said co-owner Sarah Hollenbeck. Sales at the store were up 50% for the month of November over last year. Black Friday sales were up 52%; Small Business Saturday up 42%. Were very optimistic. So far we are standing in a very good position to have an amazing holiday season, Hollenbeck added.



I felt the holiday season started right after the election, said Brein Lopez, manager of Childrens Book World in Los Angeles. We put out a selection of books that were not about the election but were about anti-bullying, how to make change in your life, and children making change in the world. That positive step actually made a big difference for people, because thats what they were looking for: how to talk to your kids about what you can do and how different results happen. Black Friday weekend at Childrens Book World was even with last year. The busier weekend there is usually the one before Thanksgiving, because so many customers travel and bring books for their family and friends.

Vivien Jennings, founder and president of Rainy Day Books in Fairway, Kans., was one of several booksellers to bristle at the notion of celebrating Small Business Saturday. We celebrate local business and indies every day of the year. We have the indie spirit every day, she noted. That said, sales at Rainy Day were up 10% for the weekend just as they have been all year. Part of that is due to changes in signage and displays. In its childrens and YA sections, Rainy Day added displays of its picks with signs indicating Top 16 YA Titles or Winners for Middle Grade Readers. We want to make it easier for people, said Jennings. Staff has also been making a point of reminding customers to shop the stores Autograph Wall of signed childrens and adult books.

Thirteen-year-old Eagle Eye Book Shop in Decatur, Ga., is one of several stores to report that they expect a banner year for 2016. We are having the best year we ever had, said owner Doug Robinson, who anticipates being up 25%. He attributed much of the growth to childrens books, especially business-to-business sales to schools, as well as online textbooks. We even had a Half Price Books move in close to us this August, said Robinson. But we have done fine with them there.

While most stores were pleased with Thanksgiving weekend sales, Larry Yoder, floor manager at The Bookies in Denver, Colo., was one of the few to report that sales were not especially good. We didnt see any real pick-up until Monday or Tuesday last week, he said. For the last four years we did $10,000 to $14,000, and we only did $7,000. This is the second year in a row where parents and grandparents are asking me to give some suggestions [for] books that are under $10 or $20. Contrasted to other years, there doesnt seem to be much interest in buying the best, just the cheapest.

Cynthia Compton, owner of 4 Kids Books & Toys in the Indianapolis suburb of Zionsville, had sluggish sales just before and after the election but her sales nearly doubled on Plaid Friday year over year. We are running about even year to date, she said, adding that December is usually huge so she anticipates finishing the year up. One trend that she anticipates could help boost sales is customers reliance on end-of-year staff favorites in picture books, middle grade, and YA for gift ideas. I believe childrens bookstores are more insulated from the national mood and even economic [downturns], said Compton. A larger concern is the continued age compression of childhood, and the lack of time we have to introduce kids to the wealth of great reading thats available to them.

OMG: Middle Grade Books on Top

As for whats selling, while middle grade is hands down the strongest category this season, no one book has emerged as the it title. Even top sellers like the Fantastic Beasts screenplay arent working everywhere. Some booksellers and their customers would have liked to have had a reissue of the book on which the movie is based available now rather than wait for March. We sold Cursed Child very well. But the screenplay of Fantastic Beasts has sold only five copies here, said Kenny Brechner, owner of DDG Booksellers in Farmington, Maine. People are not that interested in a screenplay. They are disappointed to find that that is what it is. A nice edition of the original would have sold very well.

There doesnt seem to be one driven title, said Todd Dickinson, owner of Aarons Books in Lititz, Pa., who has seen sales drop off somewhat at his store for perennial November favorites like the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid book. Sales at his bookstore surged over the Thanksgiving weekend in part due to its newly opened pop culture and gaming area, Of Dice and Pen, which has strong teen appeal. A lot of people have come in who have learned about our store through that. Some are gamers, said Dickinson, who added that its too soon to tell if the new section will pay off. Customers were also looking for a variety of titles including new picture books like Jory John and Lane Smiths Penguin Problems (Random House) and Brendan Wenzels They All Saw a Cat (Chronicle).

By contrast, A Likely Story in Sykesville, Md., a nationally designated Main Street community, is doing particularly well with Double Down, which it has had to reorder four times. Owner Debbi Scheller has also found that while adult coloring book sales have dried up since last Christmas, childrens are still going strong, particularly sales of the Wheres Waldo? The Coloring Book (Candlewick) and The Harry Potter Coloring Books (Scholastic). In fact, Scheller removed her adult coloring book titles so that she could expand both YA and childrens nonfiction. She also added a section of wrapped books that shes calling Dont Judge a Book by Its Cover.

We really depend on our local titles to generate sales, said Turning Pages Emrich. Shes not alone. On the kids side at Taylor Books in Charleston, W. Va., a locally published picture book from Quarrier Books, Mountain Christmas by Marc Harshman and Cecy Rose, is the stores leading holiday title. The Bookies is doing well with the Crime Traveler Spy School Mystery series (Flying Solo Press), a middle-grade espionage series by local author Paul Aertker. He knows how to spin a good adventure tale, said Yoder. The third book in the series, Priceless, was released this fall.

At Liberty Bay Books in Poulsbo, Wash., its local first when it comes to many bestsellers. One of Novembers big books was Craig Romans Urban Trails-Kitsap, a guide book for the family, which is published locally by Mountaineers. The stores bestselling kids series, Imaginary Veterinary (Little, Brown), is written by Suzanne Selfors at the coffee shop next store. Thats not to say that Liberty Bay doesnt do well with other titles. Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Brigitte Barragers Uni the Unicorn (Random House) is a personal favorite of childrens buyer Madison Duckworth, who has handsold many copies along with a matching plush toy from MerryMakers. Jan Bretts Gingerbread Christmas (Putnam) is selling like crazy, said Duckworth. Two years ago, when Brett visited the store, it sold more than 300 copies of The Animals Santa. The new book is prominently displayed in the front of the store, and Duckworth hopes to equal that number.

Nancy Taft, childrens frontlist buyer at Prairie Lights in Iowa City, Iowa, was one of several people to single out I Dissent (S&S), a picture book about Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, and Melissa Sweets heavily illustrated Some Writer! The Story of E. B. White (HMH) as strong holiday titles. She also anticipates strong sales for local author Michelle Edwardss picture book, A Hat for Mrs. Goldman (Random House/Schwartz & Wade).

Unfortunately, a good start doesnt necessarily ensure a strong holiday season. As Michael Herrmann, owner of Gibsons Bookstore in Concord, N.H., pointed out, its the days leading up to Christmas, and this year Hanukkah, too, that will determine how well stores do. We had a great start, he said. But its always been true that the last 10 days make [or break] the holiday season.
The Pittsburgh bookstore revival continues with a new kiosk at the airport; a discount bookseller opens in Massachusetts; a Virginia bookseller tests a new location; and more.

Arcadia Launches a Book Kiosk at Pittsburgh Airport:The press first book kiosk is now available at Pittsburgh International Airport, which has the highest per passenger spending of any airport in the country. The machine has pockets that hold a total of 150-200 copies of books when it is fully loaded. Some of the initial offerings include African Americans in Pittsburgh and Forgotten Tales of Pittsburgh.

Stax Discount Books Opens in Metrowest, Mass.: Late last month Michael Joachim, former book buyer for The Paper Store, and publishing professional Tracey McCrea opened Stax Discount Books in Marlborough, Mass. The 3,000 sq. ft. bookstore discounts all new hardcovers and paperbacks 20%. It also stocks a large number of remainders at 80% off. In addition, Stax carries greeting cards, gifts, and calendars.

Eugene, Ore., Bookseller Looking for a Co-owner to Stay Open: After seeing his rent double when his lease was renewed, Tsunami Books owner Scott Landfield is looking to raise funds to stay in business. In addition to looking for support from other Oregonians, hes seeking a partner. I dont want to close, Landfield told Eugene Weekly.

Over the Moon Bookstore & Artisan Gallery Moves: After many delays, the Virginia bookstore is now in its new digs at Piedmont Place in Crozet. It celebrated getting the last bookcases in place with an open house on December 8.

College Bookstore Supplier in Westwood, Tex., Closing: After 30 years Comet School Supplies is shutting its doors at the end of December. A competitor bought it out, according to operations manager Eddie Loflin.
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Blythe, CA (92225)

Today

Chance of a shower or two during the morning, followed by partly cloudy skies in the afternoon. High 66F. Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

Clear skies. Low 43F. Winds light and variable.
Hina Rabbani Khar served as Pakistans foreign minister from 2011 to 2013. She urged Islamabad to revive their administrations foreign policy approach of maintaining good relations with neighboring countries. She recommended that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharifs administration appoint a foreign minister and assert its control over foreign policy decision-making in the face of Pakistans powerful military establishment.

RFE/RL: Many analysts in Pakistan believe Islamabad should have not participated in the recent Heart of Asia conference in India. They argue the Pakistani delegation was not given due respect and was bombarded with accusations. What is your opinion on this?

Hina Rabbani Khar: The Heart of Asia conference was about Afghanistan. Pakistan attending the conference was to support peace and stability in Afghanistan and the region. However, in my opinion, the government should have lowered the representation. They could have sent, you know, someone of a secretary or undersecretary level [bureaucrat] rather than sending the adviser [to Pakistan Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs] Sartaj Aziz.

RFE/RL: As was evident at this conference, Afghanistan continue to accuse Pakistan of harboring the Haqqani network and the Talibans Quetta Shura for terror in Afghanistan. How can they overcome this trust deficit?

Khar: That is the most disheartening thing to see. It causes me personal grief because we had literally poised Pakistan within the region. When I was foreign minister, we tried to concentrate on relations closer to home. And I, as well as my prime minister at that time, have categorically said that Kabul is the most important capital for Pakistan. We invested a great deal of energy and effort to make Kabul as the most important capital for us. As foreign minister of Pakistan, I visited Kabul three times in two years. In contrast, I visited Washington only once. It was because we thought Kabul is more important.

What this government has been able to do is let the opportunity that came with President Ashraf Ghani go by. We lost that window of opportunity that opened when Ghani came into power. He gave Pakistan a pretty reasonable deal. He offered pretty much everything that Pakistan was asking for. I do not know the internal dynamics of the current government to be able to say what they should do to make amends, but I can say for sure that this government has not been able to sustain its relationship with Afghanistan, India, and Iran.

RFE/RL: As a former diplomat, do you have any advice for Pakistan and Afghanistan to improve relations, especially in light of the fact that President-elect Donald Trumps administration will soon assume office in the United States?

Khar: As far as the change in presidency of the United States is concerned, I do not think much will change between Islamabad and Washington. The key to stability of this region, economic growth, and the connectivity of this region certainly depends on what is going to happen in Afghanistan.

If there is no peace in Afghanistan and this conflict continues, Pakistan will continue to suffer. So I would say that whatever we can do to assist our Afghan brothers is something we should be doing. My advice to both governments would be that Pakistan should take Afghanistan more seriously than it has. For the Afghan government, I think they should focus on trying to find strategic and logical solutions to problems rather than pointing fingers at its neighbor.

RFE/RL: There have been a lot of questions over Pakistans foreign policy, including talk of Pakistan being isolated in the region as the SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) conference originally planned for November in Islamabad was canceled. Why is Pakistans foreign policy failing?

Khar: I think the foreign policy has been very lax. You know it is personal relationship oriented. I think the state of Pakistan is washed out because of this carelessness toward foreign policy management. Stark proof of this is that an institution like the Foreign Office of Pakistan goes without a political leader even today. The government has not bothered to appoint a foreign minister [for nearly four years].

RFE/RL: But it is widely believed that Pakistani foreign policy is run by the military establishment. So when foreign policy failures happen, who is to blame: the army or the civilian government?

Khar: This is a problem. I can tell you with full confidence that foreign policy is within the domain of the civilian government to direct the policy of the government of Pakistan. Well, civil-military relationship management obviously remains an issue in Pakistan. But to be fair, over here the government is at fault and not the establishment. The reason is simple: If the government leaves a hole, somebody has to fill it. By not appointing a foreign minister, the government has itself created that space. The responsibility of the management and dynamics of foreign policy falls on the government. If the government does not take this seriously, of course other entities will play its role.

as/fg
Look, Daddy. Teacher says, Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings.

That line delivered at the end of Frank Capras beloved holiday classic, Its a Wonderful Life, often springs to mind as we drop cash in a red bucket watched over by a Red Kettle volunteer swaddled against the elements.

Why? These community members are doing Gods work, raising funds to help the Salvation Army of the Quad Cities meet our communitys demand for shelter, food, clothing and other basic human needs; as well as to provide programs and opportunities for children and adults to learn life and empowerment skills.

This year, for whatever reason, there are not yet enough angels ready to do battle against hunger and need, or to help ensure that children in need get the kind of Christmas they should have.

With just over two weeks to go before the end of the 2016 Red Kettle Campaign, the Q-C area Salvation Army sent out a plea for help to the community about both its Red Kettle and its Angel Tree donations.

In a statement Tuesday, Maj. Gary Felton said, We have seen a significant decrease in bell ringers this season, both paid and volunteer. Unless someone is there ringing that bell, we usually dont receive donations. We are currently only filling about half of our shifts.

That announcement was quickly followed by another far more welcome one Thursday morning.

The Army said that donations to all the kettles in the Quad-Cities will be matched on Saturday for up to $10,000 on each side of the river. That could mean a $20,000 boost for the bistate Q-C campaign.

The timing of match day couldnt be any better for the Red Kettle Campaign, Maj. Felton said. We are noticing that lack of bell ringers and therefore are behind on donations. Every day we run further and further behind. We are cautiously optimistic we will meet our goal because of the generosity of the Quad City Community and this anonymous donor. Not only is it important to fill the buckets Saturday to win that generous match, bell ringers are needed through the end of the holiday season.

Remember, every dime counts. At this writing, the campaign was just a third of the way to its $815,000 goal. And as Maj. Felton reminds us, These donations allow us to do our work and all year round here in the Quad-Cities. The Red Kettle Campaign raises 60 percent of our annual budget and still has a long way to go. The monies collected provide shelter, food and other basic needs to families and individuals in crisis.

So be an angel. Ring bells, help at an Angel Tree table or act as a Toy Shop escort. Find out more at ringbells.org or contact Sarah Hite at 563-324-4808. Better still, make it a family affair or a service club project and give a lasting gift to our community.

Finally, if you cant be a ringer, you can still be an angel: Fill your pockets with money so you can fill the kettles as you shop to ensure the Salvation Army can provide services to all in need this coming year.
CHICAGO (AP)  The purported leader of Chicago's notorious Hobos street gang took the stand Thursday at his racketeering trial  one of the biggest in recent city history  to insist he didn't order a deadly hit on a gang associate-turned-informant to stop him from providing evidence that could put the gang leadership behind bars for life.

The trial, in its third month and expected to end by Christmas, comes as national attention has focused on a spike in Chicago violence, which authorities say frequently stems from gang rivalry; there have been more than 700 homicides this year. Prosecutors have described Gregory "Bowlegs" Chester and five alleged Hobos subordinates on trial in U.S. District Court as "an all-star team of the worst of the worst" who "terrorized" the city.

Among the co-defendants looking on as Chester testified was alleged Hobos hit man Paris Poe. Prosecutors say he fatally shot Keith Daniels in front of Daniels' screaming step-kids on April 14, 2013, days after Chester's arrest and shortly after Daniels spoke to the grand jurors who would later hand down an indictment leading to the current trial.

Asked by defense attorney Beau Brindley why he was so adamant about not ordering Daniels' murder, Chester, 39, said the two men and their families had been close.

"He was like family to me," he said. "His mother was like my mother."

The Hobos was founded by members the Black Disciples and Gangster Disciples, then established a reputation for daring robberies and for resorting to torture and murder to expand their criminal empire on the city's South Side, prosecutors have said.

But when he first took the stand Wednesday, Chester claimed no such gang as the Hobos even existed despite his full-arm tattoo emblazoned with the words  "Hobo: The Earth Is Our Turf." He insisted "hobo" referred, not to any gang, but to the nickname of a beloved dead friend.

During cross examination Thursday, prosecutor Patrick Otlewski displayed a photograph in court of Chester and another one of the accused flashing hand signs the government says were meant to be an "H'' for "hobo." Chester denied it was a gang sign, telling jurors: "That's a celebration sign."

Chester has repeatedly highlighted his severely deformed legs caused by a rare bone disease, saying it was inconceivable someone who struggled to even walk could rise to the top of a Chicago gang.

He described himself Thursday as a one-man drug dealer who smartly invested the illicit profits into a record label, concerts and restaurants.

"I'm a big time hustler," he said. "That's what I do."

To prove racketeering, the government must show the defendants coordinated their criminal activities. But Chester said his co-defendants, while friends, had no hand in his crimes and he had no hand in theirs.

Chester's decision to testify came as a surprise. Lawyers are often reluctant to let their clients take the witness stand because it opens them up to grilling by prosecutors on issues a judge would otherwise bar from trial.

Otlewski asked Chester about smuggling synthetic marijuana into the Chicago federal jail where he's held during the trial. Chester admitted he swallowed a balloon filled with the drug that a friend slipped to him during an October visit. He told jurors he needed it to deal with painful nerve damage.
An angelic young woman, possibly touched by divine phenomenon, has dramatically given birth. Sound familiar?

While it's the holiday season, this is not a Christmas story. The premise forms the backdrop to the intense, religious-themed drama "Agnes of God," which is being performed this weekend at 7:30 p.m. at Augustana College's Honkamp Black Box Theatre, in the new Brunner Theatre Center, 3750 7th Ave., Rock Island.

Summoned to a convent, a court-appointed psychiatrist is charged with assessing the sanity of a novice accused of murdering her newborn and putting the baby in a wastebasket, according to a synopsis. The Mother Superior keeps young Agnes from the doctor, arousing further suspicions. The drama shows all three women re-examining the meaning of faith and power of love, an Augustana release said.

Student director Jacob Kilburg  a senior from Goose Lake, Iowa  said the play was picked by a committee of faculty and students, and is somewhat fitting for this sacred season.

"It has a vestige underneath in the show of hope, and belief in miracles, which holds through with the Christmas season," he said Wednesday. "There is a positive side."

The three-character John Pielmeier play (which premiered in 1979 and was made into a 1985 film starring Jane Fonda, Anne Bancroft, and Meg Tilly) presents a titanic struggle between religion and science, said Mr. Kilburg, a theater arts and psychology major.

"It challenges the audience to keep an open mind, to hear both sides of the argument" regarding who had the baby and who killed it, he said. The psychiatrist and Mother Superior are "not willing to compromise their viewpoint," Mr. Kilburg said

"Is the religion side correct? Was that a child given to Agnes, or the psychological, that it was such a tragedy in her life that she's suppressing the memories?" he asked, noting both sides offer a hopeful take.

"Agnes of God"  staged with an all-student production staff and cast  features Aubrey Lyon 19 (in the title role), Emily Mason 19 (Dr. Livingstone) and Madison McCobb 20 (Mother Miriam Ruth).

This show challenged me in a lot of positive ways both academically and artistically, Mr. Kilburg said. As I am planning a career in the professional theater world, this production gives me experience that few students garner prior to graduating.

This is one of the first productions in the new Honkamp Black Box Theatre, named in honor of Heidi Honkamp Myhre 90, who died in 1997 after a battle with cancer. During her life she showed a great talent, appreciation and deep love for the arts, the college release said.

The theater  designed to give students opportunities to work in a professional setting  is in the $4.2-million Brunner Theatre Center, which opened in the fall. Mr. Kilburg directed the half-hour Susan Glaspell play "Trifles" last year in the old Black Box in Bergendoff Hall.

"It's a great addition to the Augie campus," he said of the new center. "It pushes us as students, makes us more competitive in the professional theater world. We can expand creatively; there are more possibilities for us, better equipment and a better stage."

"Agnes of God" will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Dec. 9 and 10, and 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 11. Viewer discretion is advised, as the performance contains mature subject matter. Tickets are $5 for the general public, and $3 for all students and Augustana faculty/staff, available at 309-794-7306 or augustana.edu/tickets.
EAST MOLINE  A late morning fire in an Avenue of the Cities home left a family's dog dead, but no people were reported injured.

Around 10:17 a.m., a passerby told firefighters at the fire station at 901 Avenue of the Cities that there might be a fire across the street at the house at 742 Avenue of the Cities, East Moline fire Chief Rob DeFrance said. When the firefighters arrived, they found fire on the first floor of the building.

Only the dog was in the home at the time, but three people live there, Chief DeFrance said.

"Captain America," Craig Vervaecke, the home's owner, said when asked the dog's name. "We call him 'Cap.'"

The black lab belonged to his son, Daniel, Mr. Vervaecke said. His son and wife, Constance, also live in the home.

Neither Mr. Vervaecke nor Chief DeFrance had been inside the building at the time they were interviewed, and did not know the extent of the damage.

Firefighters had torn away a portion of the single-story home's eastern wall, looking for fire, and some of the windows on that side had been knocked out. Otherwise, there was no obvious damage to the exterior of the home.

The chief said the cause and origin were still under investigation.

The family would not be able stay in the home at least for the time being, Chief DeFrance said. Living arrangements were still being determined Thursday morning.
DAVENPORT  Two anonymous donors are stepping up in a big way to help The Salvation Army's Red Kettle Campaign.

With just 16 days left, the campaign is $489,715 behind its goal of $850,000. Maj. Gary Felton, Quad Cities Coordinator for The Salvation Army, said he is extremely concerned.

A weekend challenge, however, could bolster The Salvation Army's annual campaign. According to the group, all kettle donations in the Quad-Cities will be matched Saturday, up to $10,000 for each side of the river. The anonymous challenge gift could add $20,000 to the Quad-Cities Red Kettle Campaign.

The timing of this match day couldnt be any better for the Red Kettle Campaign," Maj. Felton said.

"Every day we run further and further behind," he said. "We are cautiously optimistic we will meet our goal because of the generosity of the Quad City community and this anonymous donor.

To ensure enough bell ringers are on hand, another donor has offered to make a $5,000 donation to the campaign if The Salvation Army can fill 250 two-hour volunteer shifts on Saturday and Dec. 17.

"We have seen a significant decrease in bell ringers this season, both paid and volunteer," Maj. Gary Felton said. Unless someone is there ringing that bell, we usually dont receive donations. We are currently only filling about half of our shifts.

Help is also sought for The Salvation Army's Angel Trees, located at Wal-Marts in Silvis and Moline, in the SouthPark Mall in Moline and the NorthPark Mall in Davenport through Dec. 18. People can take the name of a child off a tree and buy a requested toy or other items for the child.

Volunteers are at the locations 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.

"Close to 1,500 families right here in the Quad Cities are depending on us," Maj. Felton said. "Every child in our community should wake up Christmas morning to find joy by having a toy under the tree."

Maj. Felton said people looking for a way to give back to the community, and make their own Christmas a little brighter by helping those in need, can volunteer for The Salvation Armys Christmas programs by visiting ringbells.org or calling Sarah Hite at 563-324-4808. Help also is needed for the Angel Tree table and as toy shop escorts.

The Red Kettle campaign provides 60 percent of the annual budget used by The Salvation Army to provide people with their basic needs, warm shelter and nutritious food, new life skills, character building  anything necessary to help community members achieve healthy, productive living.
WASHINGTON (AP)  The Senate on Thursday voted 92-7 for the annual defense policy bill.

The vote came a week after the House overwhelmingly backed the measure, 375-34, giving Congress veto-proof majorities in both chambers.

The bill now goes to President Barack Obama for his signature.

U.S. Reps. Cheri Bustos, D-Moline, and Dave Loebsack, D-Iowa City, have said the bill will help ensure the long-term success of the Rock Island Arsenal and protect more than 6,000 jobs. The bill prohibits the Department of Defense from planning or doing anything to prepare for a new round of Base Realignment and Closure.

The bill rebuffs President Barack Obama's quest to shutter the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; denies his bid to reduce the size of armed forces: and grants the troops a pay raise of 2.1 percent, larger than the one Obama recommended.

Action in the House on Thursday raised the possibility of a weekend Senate session.

A day ahead of a government shutdown deadline, the House easily passed a stopgap spending bill to keep federal agencies running through the end of April. The legislation's fate in the Senate remained uncertain due to strident opposition from coal-state Democrats.

The Republican-led House voted Thursday to approve the spending bill, 326-96.

Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Sherrod Brown of Ohio argued that a provision in the bill to temporarily extend health care benefits for about 16,500 retired union coal miners facing the loss of coverage on Dec. 31 is insufficient. The measure does not protect pension benefits despite President Harry S. Truman's 1946 guarantee to miners of lifetime health and retirement benefits.

Republicans insisted the deal was the best they could get, heightening the possibility the government could close at midnight Friday.

The spending bill passed by the House would keep the government running through April 28 and provide with $10 billion in supplemental war funding and $4 billion more for disaster relief for Louisiana and other states.

The hard-fought legislation also includes provisions to help Flint, Mich., fix its lead-tainted water system and speed up next year's confirmation for retired Gen. James Mattis as President-elect Donald Trump's defense secretary.

On a 360-61 vote, the House also passed separate legislation to authorize water projects that has sparked a major battle between environmentalists and agricultural interests over allowing more of California's limited water resources to flow to Central Valley farmers hurt by the state's lengthy drought.

House members left the Capitol until early January, capping a tumultuous, often bitter two-year session of Congress.

A conservative rebellion booted Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, from office last year. Democrats staged an overnight sit-in on the House floor protesting the GOP-led Congress' inaction on gun control. Senate Republicans refused to let Obama fill a Supreme Court vacancy after Justice Antonin Scalia died last February.

A divisive election last month was a capstone.

Tributes on Thursday to retiring senators offered a brief respite from rancor. The Senate's top Democrat, Harry Reid of Nevada, delivered a long farewell speech. Reid, who is retiring after three decades in the chamber, received testimonials and applause after an hour-plus speech.

In the Senate, the path forward for water bill is tricky as Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., is siding with environmentalists and is openly feuding with California Democratic colleague Dianne Feinstein, an architect of the California water deal. Boxer is vowing to filibuster the water projects measure over the drought provision.

Democrats groused about the provision to make it easier for the Senate to process Mattis' nomination next year. Congress needs to pass legislation to grant Mattis an exception from a law that requires a seven-year wait for former members of the military to serve in the civilian post. The provision would speed up action on the waiver, though Democrats could still filibuster it.

The underlying spending bill would buy several months for the new Congress and incoming Trump administration to wrap up more than $1 trillion worth of unfinished agency budget bills. Republicans promise an immediate infusion next year of additional money for the Pentagon.

House and Senate leaders also disagreed about whether lawmakers have enough time to approve the first major energy bill in nearly a decade.

A spokeswoman for House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said in a statement that House and Senate negotiators "were not able to come to agreement" on a variety of outstanding issues. But Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, disputed that, saying, "The reality is that the House is attempting to run us out of time in order to prevent this bill from moving forward."
A few hours later, as the sun set Tuesday evening, the trap was sprung. First came the suicide car bombs, and then the hospital was surrounded by hundreds of militants firing bursts of heavy machine gun fire and rocket-propelled grenades.

"We thought we were going to die, all we could think about was saving our lives," Pvt. Mithad Abdulzahra of the Iraqi army's 9th Division said later, as he recovered in a hospital bed in the nearby city of Irbil from gunshots that shattered his right arm. The IS fighters eventually fought their way inside the al-Salam hospital. Of the 100 or so Iraqi soldiers trapped there, nearly all were killed or wounded, he said.

Seven weeks into the Iraqi operation to retake Mosul, IS fighters are still contesting every block of Iraq's second largest city, and the battle will likely continue well into next year. The battle for the al-Salam hospital highlights the challenges Iraqi forces face as they move deeper into the city.

"Every time we would fight off one unit of IS fighters, another would appear," said Col. Haider Hatem, who was wounded early on by a sniper's bullet. He said he called in U.S.-led airstrikes but was told that the IS fighters were so close that hitting them from the air would endanger his forces.

Over the next 24 hours, the IS fighters unleashed 15 suicide car bombs.

On Wednesday morning, Iraqi special forces were pulled away from another front in eastern Mosul and tasked with launching a rescue mission. The elite force has served as the tip of the spear in the Mosul offensive, but has also taken heavy losses. The special forces eventually fought their way to the hospital, opening up a route of retreat for the embattled soldiers of the 9th Division.

"When we reached them, they barely had any bullets left," a special forces officer said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters.

As Iraqi forces retreated, U.S.-led warplanes hit both the hospital and the abandoned Iraqi army vehicles. IS often uses hospitals as bases to fire on Iraqi troops. The coalition says it is reluctant to strike them for fear of damaging vital infrastructure.

Col. John Dorrian, a coalition spokesman, said the strike was carried out at the request of Iraqi ground forces and the hospital was hit because IS fighters were using it to fire down on Iraqi troops.

In all, more than 20 Iraqi soldiers were killed in the battle, and a handful of armored Iraqi vehicles were captured by IS, the special forces officer said. An IS video posted online Thursday showed what appeared to be about a dozen destroyed Iraqi army vehicles near the al-Salam hospital. The video could not be independently verified.

The battle for the Mosul is the biggest operation Iraq has carried out since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, and comes just two years after Iraqi forces crumbled in the face of the lightning IS advance in the summer of 2014.

Iraqi forces have retaken a number of cities and towns over the past year, but few units have experience in urban combat. The 9th Division is an armored force, designed for conventional battles against other armies on open terrain. Iraq's special forces are better equipped for the street battles in Mosul, but there aren't enough of them to retake the city on their own.

Abdulzahra, the soldier who was hospitalized after the battle, says he doesn't believe his commanders will learn from their missteps. "Of course these mistakes will keep happening," he said. "They happen every time."
The blue states of America are in a depression. I don't mean the collective funk of liberal voters because they lost the election to Donald Trump.

I'm talking about an economic malaise in the blue states that went for Hillary Clinton. Here is an amazing statistic courtesy of the just-released 2016 edition of "Rich States, Poor States," which I co-authored with Reagan economist Arthur Laffer and economist Jonathan Williams:

Of the 10 blue states that Democrats won by the largest percentage margins -- California, Massachusetts, Vermont, Hawaii, Maryland, New York, Illinois, Rhode Island, New Jersey and Connecticut -- every single one of them lost domestic migration (excluding immigration) between 2004 and 2014. Nearly 2.75 million more Americans left California and New York than entered these states.

They are the loser states. They are all progressive: high taxes rates; high welfare benefits; heavy regulation; environmental extremism; high minimum wages. Most outlaw energy drilling. The whole left-wing playbook is on display in the Clinton states. And people are leaving in droves. Day after day, they are being bled to death. So much for liberalism creating a worker's paradise.

Now let's look at the 10 states that had the largest percentage vote for Trump. Every one of them -- Wyoming, West Virginia, Oklahoma, North Dakota, Kentucky, Tennessee, South Dakota and Idaho -- was a net population gainer.

This is part and parcel of one of the greatest internal migration waves in American history, as blue states, especially in the Northeast, are getting clobbered by their low-tax, smaller-government rivals in the South and the mountain regions.

By the way, pretty much the same pattern holds true for jobs. The job gains in the red states that Trump carried by the widest margins had about twice the job-creation rate as the bluest states carried by Clinton.

The latest "Rich States, Poor States" report, published by the American Legislative Exchange Council, shows a persistent trend of Americans moving from blue to red states. The best example is that from 2004-2014, the two most populous conservative states -- Florida and Texas -- gained almost 1 million new residents each. The two most populous liberal states -- California and New York -- saw an equal-sized exodus.

It's easy to understand why people might want to leave gray and rusting New York. But California? California has, arguably, the most beautiful weather, mountains and beaches in the country, and yet people keep fleeing the state that is supposed to be a progressive utopia.

What doesn't make California and New York paradise is the high cost of living -- thanks to expensive environmental regulations, forced union policies and income tax rates that are the highest in the nation, at 13 percent or more. Florida and Texas are right-to-work states with no income tax. Is it really a shocker that people would choose zero income tax over 13 percent? New York politicians know that their record-high tax rates are killing growth, which is why the state is spending millions of dollars on TV ads across the country trying to convince people that New York has low taxes. Sure. And Chicago is crime-free.

Even when it comes to income inequality, blue states fare worse than red states. According to a 2016 report by the Economic Policy Institute, three of the states with the largest gaps between rich and poor are those progressive icons New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts. Sure, Boston, Manhattan and Silicon Valley are booming as the rich prosper. But outside these areas are deep pockets of poverty and wage stagnation.

The lesson to be learned from the experimentation of the states is that the "progressive" tax and spend agenda leads to much slower growth and benefits the rich and politically well-connected at the expense of everyone else.

Trump is now promising that on a national scale, he will cut taxes, deregulate and cut wasteful government spending. In the presidential debates, Clinton disparaged this agenda as "trumped up, trickle-down economics," and she said it had never worked.

Yet prospering red states such as Florida, Tennessee, Texas and so many others keep stealing jobs and growth from blue-state America.
G'day! It's Murray here. I've put together a little quiz to test your musical knowledge. Think you can score top marks in Murray's Magic Music Quiz? Give it a go now!
The contract was signed by Ms Sabiha Derbal, chairman and CEO of SNCFT, and Ms Ramzi Imad, Progress Rails regional director of international sales for North Africa and the Middle East, at a ceremony attended by Tunisias minister of transport, Mr Anis Ghedira, and the countrys secretary of state for transport, Mr Hichem Ben Ahmed.

The first 10 locomotives will be delivered from EMDs plant in Muncie, Indiana, in September 2018 with the rest of the fleet following in November 2018. The locomotives will be used to haul phosphate trains and are designed to cope with the hot, dry and sandy conditions found in the area in which they will operate. For more information on fleet renewal projects, visit IRJ Pro.
The Rs 114.2bn ($US 1.8bn) project is due to be completed within five years and will be implemented in two stages.

The first phase involves building a 16.6km north-south line connecting the densely-populated Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation area with Swargate. This will include an 11.6km elevated section and a 5km tunnel. Stage 2 will be a 14.7km east-west line from Vanaz to Ramvadi, which will be fully elevated.

The project will be implemented by Maharashtra Metro Rail Corporation Limited (Maha-Metro), a 50:50 joint venture between the Indian government and the state of Maharashtra.

The existing Nagpur Metro Rail Corporation Limited (NMRCL) - a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) set up by the Indian government and Maharashtra - will be reconstituted into Maha-Metro.

The new joint venture will supervise work on all metro projects in Maharashtra except for those within the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.

Punes population has surged in recent years from 3.57 million in 2001 to 4.99 million in 2011, and is forecast to continue growing to 6.9 million in 2021 and 7.73 million in 2031.

The citys metro project was conceived a decade ago and the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation completed a Detailed Project Report in 2009.
10 Best Street Art Destinations in Germany

Posted at 12:44h in Germany by Sabina in Europe

For someone who doesnt have a drivers licence, Im a very outspoken proponent of road tripping.

What could possibly be more fun than packing a bag, a few friends and racing toward the horizon? Even the inevitable drama resulting from being cooped up together for hours on end has a certain romantic quality to it, at least in retrospect.

So when my friend and fellow blogger Kash asked if Id like to spend ten days driving around Germany in search of its best street art spots, I was game. One brisk October morning we loaded five bloggers into a minivan and drove off into the graffiti-covered sunset.

When you include all the detours, we drove nearly 2,000 km (1243 miles) on our #StreetArtGermany road trip. We saw ten cities, more street art than I thought humanly possible and met some incredible artists along the way. It was a fast-paced blur of spray paint and interesting conversation, but Im sure youll enjoy it as much as I did.

Id definitely recommend taking your time  a day or two is not enough to full enjoy any of these destinations. But let this serve as a short overview of the thought-provoking street art you can see all over Germany

1. Munich

Our street art road trip started in Munich  the quintessentially German capital of Bavaria. You probably know it as the home of Oktoberfest but theres a lot more to it than beer, sausages and dirndls.

Munich is the perfect place for street art lovers, as our guide Sebastian Pohl from Positive Propaganda demonstrated with a quick tour. When we asked him about the difference between street art, urban art and graffiti, he didnt mince his words.

Street art, Sebastian explained, is directly related to the place where its located. Street art is like political commentary or visual satire, forcing us to look at different places more critically. Urban art is more about aesthetic appeal, while graffiti is all about lettering and  in a way  marking your territory.

2. Stuttgart

Stuttgart is well known as the home of Mercedes-Benz and Porsche, but theres a lot more to it. Stunning architecture, delicious food and lots of nature  all these make it a fun place to visit.

My favourite place to see street art was the Hall of Fame. You will find these in many German cities and theyre a place for established artists to show off their craft, as well as a practice ground for future generations. Another great spot is the area around Nordbahnhofstrae, right by the train station.

If youre looking to explore the local street art scene at night, visit Sarah Haberkerns little gallery. She hosts lots of meet ups there  youll be able to drink beer, look at art and even meet the men and women behind the canvases.

3. Volklingen Ironworks

The Volklingen Ironworks (Volklinger Hutte in German) first came into being in 1873. It started as a steel works on the banks of the Saar river, and smelting continued here until 1986. Now its a UNESCO World Heritage site and a museum which focuses on how iron is made.

What does any of that have to do with street art? The site is host to UrbanArt Biennale, one of the biggest urban art exhibitions in the world. The last one took place in 2015, with 120 works created by 80 artists from 21 countries. Not bad, eh?

4. Mainz

I didnt actually get to see much of Mainz  only the wonderful art left behind after Meeting of Styles 2016. The Meeting of Styles network started back in 2002 in nearby Wiesbaden, and has grown a lot since then. They have put on more than 250 events worldwide, attracting half a million spectators and thousands of artists.

Tip: On your way from Mainz to Frankfurt, stop in Wiesbaden. Its one of the oldest spa towns in Europe  with fourteen hot springs still flowing  and is internationally renowned for its architecture. Meeting of Styles started there, so theres also plenty of street art around.

5. Frankfurt

Frankfurt is more than the dry financial metropolis its often presented as. Sure, its home to lots of bankers and businessmen. But there is also a strong anti-establishment undercurrent. Its no wonder  the cost of living is the highest in Germany, which can breed a lot of resentment.

The Hall of Fame on Ratswegkreisel is the perfect place to see a lot of street art if youre short on time. But theres a lot you can see around the city centre and train station. My favourite was this mural by Herankut, but if you want to see it youll have to hurry up because its soon to be knocked down.

But thats the beauty of street art  its always changing, always evolving, always being replaced by something new. It reflects life quite nicely, dont you think?

Tip: Take a small detour on your drive between Frankfurt and Cologne, and visit Eltz Castle. This medieval gem is probably the most beautiful castle Ive ever seen in my life. If youre into photography its a must-see for shots like this (my most liked Instagram post of all time).

6. Cologne

Cologne was one of my favourite stops of the whole trip. Not only because of its street art scene  the city itself is a magical kingdom come to life.

You cant miss Ehrenfeld while youre in town. This is where you will find artworks by famous street artists like ROA, Herakut, Borderline, Tika or El Bocho. But theres more  the Belgisches Viertel, northern borough of Nippes or Mulheim.

My favourite mural is in the photo above, designed by Christian Bohmer who kindly showed us around Cologne. As someone who literally spends most of their life on the Internet I could definitely relate to its message!

7. Bremen

Most of you probably know Bremen from that Brothers Grimm fairy tale. In the story a donkey, dog, cat, and rooster flee the mean farmers who own them and head to Bremen, to live there as musicians. Turns out those four farm animals were onto something!

Bremen gets the balance between historic and cool just right. My favourite area was the Viertel which is full of intricate street art and great nightlife spots.

But we got to see a lot more of Bremen than your average tourist thanks to our guides from Lucky Walls. Their company specialises in beautifying urban spaces in impoverished neighbourhoods. The photo above is an example of a mural they put together with the help of local children  the perfect way to lead those littluns down the right path.

8. Hamburg

Oh, Hamburg! I only spent one day in the city but it completely charmed me. The air is 1% oxygen and 99% pure creative energy, with fashion and art weaved through the fabric of everyday life.

Nicknamed Germanys gateway to the world, Hamburg is a cosmopolitan city  and thats particularly obvious in the street art scene. Artists from all over the world have left their mark on its streets which makes them very fun to explore.

While youre there check out Rosenhofstrae and its decorated doorways, as well as the alternative Karoviertel. Dont forget Reeperbahn  the red light district  which is full of large murals and political messages.

9. Berlin

Trying to explore Berlins street art scene over two days was mission impossible. The hipster neighbourhood of Kreuzberg, the Berlin Wall and pretty much every alley in between have all been painted over.

You dont just have to stick to central Berlin, either. I recently posted about Teufelsberg  a former NSA spy station, built over a Nazi college that couldnt be destroyed after World War II. If you have an adventurous heart this is a place you shouldnt miss.

10. Leipzig

This was my second time in Leipzig in the space of one month, and boy do I like that city! Its Connewitz district is a great place to see local street art, especially if youre into political commentary. The neighbourhood is home to Conne Island  a famous music venue and stronghold of the radical left.

Another interesting place to explore is the Spinnerei  formerly a cotton factory with 1,600 workers, now an artist community. More than a hundred artists have settled here, and you can find anything from galleries and exhibition halls to restaurants and film clubs around here.

Oh, and if you love Banksy dont forget to check out the work of Blek le Rat at Karl-Liebknecht-Strasse 7. He is widely seen as the godfather of stencil graffiti and his pour Sybille was designated a public monument by the local authorities. Its the perfect high note to end your street art journey on!

Do you like road trips and street art? Is this the kind of travel youd like to read more about on Girl vs Globe?

Disclaimer: My trip to Germany was made possible by the German National Tourism Bureau and iAmbassador. Many thanks to the #StreetaArtGermany team: Gloria from The Blog Abroad, Kash from Budget Traveller, Peter from Travel Unmasked and Mark from Trademark Pictures. Check out their fabulous blogs!
Dr. Alan F. Rumsey, P.Eng., FIRSE, has spent his entire career in railway signaling and communications, and is one of the driving forces behind CBTC (communications-based train control) for rail transit.

Recently retired from Parsons, Dr. Rumsey is an independent consultant (Rumsey Transit Systems Consulting, Kingston, Ontario). He is currently advising the Toronto Transit Commission on its CBTC program.

The following is an address Dr. Rumsey gave to an IRSE (Institution of Railway Signal Engineers) CBTC Seminar in Toronto on Dec. 1, 2016, entitled Are you a visionary or a skeptic?

Are you a person who embraces change, with original ideas about what the future will or could be like? Are you prepared to take risks to achieve this vision? Or are you a person who is cautious of change, questioning and skeptical of the presumed benefits of change? Are you reluctant to take on risks associated with change? Or perhaps you are a little of both, depending on the circumstances?

The reason for me asking these questions  and these are questions I am asking myself as well as all of you here  should hopefully become a little clearer later in my talk.

Let me start at the beginning, and go back 40 years to the early 1970s.

At that time I was pursuing an academic career at the University of Manchester Institute of Science & Technology (UMIST), in England and was completing a PhD research project into the Application of Control Techniques to Transportation Systems..

I published my thesis in 1974 and in this thesis I included the following definition of an ideal transportation system:

An ideal transportation system should be capable of moving people safely and efficiently from any given origin to any given destination with minimum delay and at a reasonable cost. Vehicles should be available on demand and should be quiet, comfortable and pollution free. A direct origin-to-destination service implies a high-density network linking all major centres of activity with frequent access points. Such a network would almost certainly be on or above ground level because of the high cost of tunnelling, and therefore must be designed so as not to intrude on the urban environment. This suggests a system of relatively small vehicles travelling on lightweight guideways. I also went on to say:

Any new transportation mode will undoubtedly be either partially or fully automatic since only by automation can full use be made of the system capacity. With a computer controlled system it is possible for vehicles to travel in safety at much shorted headways and they will no longer be required to operate on a fixed time-table since schedules can be continuously updated to suit fluctuating passenger demands.

What I was describing was in fact one vision for the future that back then was referred to as Personal Rapid Transit or PRT.

My research looked at methods of controlling such a high density, fully automated transit system, including something that at the time was referred to as the synchronous moving-cell control philosophy  not quite moving block or CBTC, but a step in that direction.

Interestingly, as part of my research I also looked at safe braking models which did not assume a brick-wall stop of the leading vehicle and noted that the smaller the safety factor, and hence the greater the capacity, the more information a vehicle would require about the preceding vehicles and hence the more complex the communication and control systems.

This vision for PRT never materialized  at least as it was envisaged at the time with automated transit vehicles running on a network of elevated guideways.

However, a future where we have autonomous road vehicles operating on our highway networks, with vehicles requested via our iPhones with an Uber-like app may not be that far away!

With respect to operating trains at less than safe braking distance to the train ahead, it is interesting to note that such a concept now features in national and international research agendas in Europe, such as the UK Railway Technical Strategy and the European Shift2Rail research initiative. There is an interesting article in the February edition of IRSE News on this topic.

In 1977, I emigrated to Canada.

At that time, the Ontario Provincial Government had invested in a company called the Urban Transit Development Corporation (UTDC) with a vision and a mandate to develop a new mode of urban transit that would fill the gap between high capacity (but expensive) subways and lower capacity (but cheaper) streetcars or light rail transit. They called this new mode an Intermediate Capacity Transit System or ICTS, and as a first step developed a Concept of Operations for such a system to meet typical urban transit needs.

This was a transit mode that ultimately was implemented in Vancouver in 1986 as the SkyTrain system. <

I do find it somewhat ironic that the subway versus LRT debate continues to this day in Toronto, and no one appears to remember that it was Ontario that actually developed a solution to this dilemma some 40 years ago, but failed to embrace the technology the way Vancouver (and other cities around the world) have.

It is interesting to note that there are now more route kilometers of Skytrain built in Vancouver over the last 30 years than route kilometers of subways built in Toronto over the last 60 years!

The vision for ICTS/SkyTrain embraced many of the earlier visions of PRT, with respect to fully automated (driverless), small, lightweight vehicles, operating on lightweight elevated guideways, with frequent stations, integrated into the urban environment.

The original Skytrain deployment on the Expo Line in Vancouver for example included:

 A new right-of-way (predominantly a lightweight, pre-cast elevated guideway structure).

 New vehicles (with steerable trucks capable of operating quietly around sharp curves).

 A new propulsion system (with linear motors capable of operating on steeper grades, independent of wheel/rail adhesion).

 A new train control system supporting short-headway, fully automated, moving-block operations (the first major CBTC application).

 A new control center.

 A new maintenance & storage facility (with a fully automated yard supporting driverless close-up and coupling of trains).

 A new Operations & Maintenance organization.

There was virtually nothing in the original SkyTrain implementation that was off-the-shelf and service-proven.

However, Skytrain had to be operational in time to support the 1986 World Exposition on Transportation and Communication in Vancouver, and it was!

This was my first experience of the benefits of one team approach to project delivery, with all parties working collaboratively to a common vision.

Also, as someone who grew up during, and was inspired by, the American Space Program in the 1960s, this was also a time where I embraced the concept of Failure is not an Option.

Going back to my original questions regarding Visionaries and Skeptics, not withstanding the successes of SkyTrain, there were many skeptics of CBTC in the early days who argued that CBTC technology was unproven, that the claims of CBTC were unrealistic, that conventional signalling systems could offer similar performance at less cost and less risk, and so on.

The industry was comfortable with fixed block, track circuit-based systems that had been around for many decades. For CBTC to become accepted as a the next generation of signalling technology, therefore took individuals with a vision to make it happen; individuals who were willing to embrace new technology systems as a means of making step-change improvements in the safety and operational efficiency of transportation systems. This included:

 The vision of the early promoters of PRT systems.

 The vision of the Ontario Provincial Government to invest in a new mode of transportation.

 The vision of Vancouver to embrace this new transportation mode and adopt a totally unproven system as the backbone to its rail transportation infrastructure.

 The vision of other major transit agencies around the world such as New York, London, Paris and Hong Kong, for example, who saw the benefits, accepted the implementation challenges, and were early adopters of this technology.

So, where are we now, and where do we go from here?

Today, I think we would all agree CBTC is a success story. And I would suggest that this is at least in part because a balance was ultimately achieved between the goal of the visionary and the often-legitimate questions raised by the skeptic.

By-and-large, the industry has now become comfortable with CBTC and moving block systems.

While the safety and operational performance benefits of CBTC are now well proven, the challenges of implementing CBTC on an operating transit system remain. As such, the current mantra in the CBTC-world is use a service-proven CBTC product with minimum adaptation. Indeed, as an independent consultant, now advising transit agencies as to the least risk approach to implementing CBTC on an operating railroad, this is a mantra I would aggressively promote.

But there is something we need to watch out for here. For those of us that have been associated with the development and deployment of CBTC over the past 40 years, we must be a little cautious.

As visionaries of the past, are we in danger of now becoming the skeptics of the future? Questioning and resisting further changes in the technology?

We live in an age where someone can spend their whole career engaged in a specific technology, only to find that at the end of their career that this technology has become obsolete and is no longer in demand. In my case, I have spent my whole career of some 40 years involved in one form or another with this technology called CBTC which is still very much in demand. While this is very satisfying, on reflection I do however have to ask the question, why is that? After all this time, why isnt CBTC obsolete already? Indeed, why do we still need conferences and seminars to discuss and debate CBTC?

I would suggest that CBTC, as it exists today, is not the end of the line. Indeed, I would suggest it is just the tip of the iceberg as to what new technologies can deliver to rail transportation systems. (Just look at the technology advances over the past 40 years in the automobile industry!)

So, my message to you all today is, by all means listen to us grey-haired old-timers, learn from our experiences, and try to avoid the mistakes we have made in the past. But more important, have the courage to create and pursue your own visions for the future.

We are fortunate to live in a world where we are no longer constrained by technology. We are only constrained by our imagination and our vision.

Go out and exploit that!
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Paraguays telecom authority Conatel has allowed Argentinas Arsat-2 satellite to commercialise its signal across the country.





An increase in demand for satellite services is expected in Paraguay following the recent direct-to-home (DTH) licence awarded to Millicoms Tigo, one of the countrys leading operators in a growing pay-TV market. In addition, other connected services rely on satellite technology in rural areas which lack cable infrastructure.We have opened a new market with the increasing demand for telecom services, said Rodrigo de Loredo, president, Arsat . Conatel has awarded us with legal rights to sell Arsat-2s signal to Paraguayan operators.The authorisation in Paraguay follows similar agreements reached earlier this year in the US and Canada . The Arsat-2 was already operating in Argentina and Chile.When our team was appointed  De Loredo has headed Arsat since the beginning of the year - the capacity of the Arsat-2 was not being used; now, 38% of it is taken and we plan to reach 52% by June 2017, added Rodrigo de Loredo.
Spartan Net, which delivers video-friendly gigabit fibre Internet to Michigan customers, is celebrating 15 years of business.





Since starting in 2001 in East Lansing, Michigan, Spartan Net has rapidly expanded to service more than 15,000 residents in Lansing and Grand Rapids. It was the first Internet provider in the Midwest to deliver gigabit fibre Internet to the home, three-plus years before Google Fiber. Our mission is to provide premium internet services using a purely fibre-optic network that enhances the experience of our customers, said Spartan Net COO Richard Laing. Our continued success is due to the tremendous efforts of our teams commitment to delivering One Step Further customer service.The companys gigabit fibre is up to 100 times faster than traditional cable or DSL Internet and has no bandwidth limitations. That means faster downloads, less buffering for video and an ultra-reliable connection. A user can download a 90-minute HD movie in less than 34 seconds.The company primarily works with developers and owners of apartment communities, offering turnkey services such as structured wiring, security cameras, door access, internet, community Wi-Fi and TV services.
With sentencing looming, convicted Russian hacker Seleznev retains new lawyer

MOSCOW, December 9 (RAPSI)  Roman Seleznev, the son of a Russian lawmaker, who was convicted on U.S. charges that he engaged in a scheme to steal and sell credit card numbers, retained a new lawyer.

I can confirm that I have been retained as Roman's new attorney, Igor Litvak told RAPSI by email.

Although Roman has been convicted it does not mean he has to stop fighting. I completely disagree with the jury's verdict and only after a brief review of the case believe there is a strong basis for appeal, Litvak said.

Seleznev was found guilty in August by a federal jury on 38 of 40 counts, including wire fraud, possession of unauthorized access devices and intentional damage to a protected computer.

Seleznev was arrested in the Maldives in 2014 and taken to the U.S. territory of Guam. Later he was transferred to Seattle and put in jail.

Russia's foreign ministry said that Seleznev was "kidnapped" as he attempted to board a plane in the Maldives.

U.S. prosecutors claim that between October 2009 and October 2013 Seleznev hacked into retail point of sale systems and installed malicious software to steal credit card numbers from various businesses. He allegedly created and operated the infrastructure to facilitate the theft and sale of credit card data, used servers located all over the world to facilitate his operation, and sold stolen credit card data on the internet. In total, Seleznev stole and sold more than 2.9 million credit card numbers, according to prosecutors.

After having been brought to Seattle, Seleznev changed a number of defense lawyers. He retained attorneys from such law firms as Fox Rothschild LLP, Garvey Schubert Barer, Corr Cronin Michelson Baumgardner Fogg & Moore LLP, Calfo Eakes & Ostrovsky PLLC. Until recently, John Henry Browne represented Seleznev.

He was scheduled to be sentenced on December 2. However, his sentencing was postponed until February 10, 2017.
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Council of Europe calls on Russia to comply with 1.9 ruling in favor of YUKOS

MOSCOW, December 9 (RAPSI) - The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe announced on Friday that it expects Russia to abide by its obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights and pay former Yukos shareholders about 1.9 billion, RAPSI learned on Friday.

In the summer of 2014, the ECHR ruled that Russia must pay 1.9 billion euros in compensation and legal expenses to former Yukos shareholders.

At the end of 2015 Russia's Constitutional Court was granted the right to recognize decisions of international courts, including Strasburg based ECHR, as non-executable. The legislation was developed taking into account the respective Constitutional Courts ruling establishing that each case of ECHR decision implementation should be reviewed individually and these decisions should be executed only on the principle of supremacy of the Russian Constitution.

The Justice Ministry believes that obligations put on Russia by the ECHR are based on the Convention of Human Rights in interpretation conflicting with the ones of the Constitution of the Russian Federation.

On November 11, Russias Constitutional Court announced that it is going to examine on December 15 a request filed by the Justice Ministry to study the ECHR ruling regarding compensation to former Yukos shareholders.

Committee of Ministers expressed its concern regarding this request. The Committee firmly reiterated the unconditional obligation assumed by the Russia under Article 46 of the Convention to abide by the judgments of the European Court, including to pay any just satisfaction awarded by the it.

The request for the Constitutional Court to review ECHRs July 31, 2014 ruling in Yukos vs Russia case was signed on October 12, according to the Ministrys press-service. It was prepared based on the Ministrys conclusion on the impossibility of following through with the ECHR ruling as well as reports of the Federal Bailiff Service and the Federal Tax Service.

The Committee requested Russia to continue cooperation and asked it to provide a translation of the Constitutional Courts ruling regarding the case. The Committee also announced that it decided to resume consideration of this case at the latest.
Russian banker Gitelsons appeal against recovery of $78.1 mln set for January 11

MOSCOW, December 9 (RAPSI)  The Thirteenth Commercial Court of Appeals will review an appeal filed by former chairman of Inkasbank Alexander Gitelson against recovery of 5.06 billion rubles ($77.6 million) from him on a lawsuit filed by the bank on January 11, court documents read on Friday.

On November 21, Gitelson appealed the November 3 ruling of the Thirteenth Commercial Court of Appeals. The court also granted an application lodged by the Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA) to collect 6.01 billion rubles ($92 million) from another ex-board chairperson, Tatyana Lebedeva, and 284.1 million rubles ($4.4 mln) from her deputy Lyudmila Samorukova.

The court held that actions committed by Gitelson, Lebedeva and Samorukova between February 1, 2007 and February 19, 2009 had caused a 7.49-billion-ruble damage ($115 million) to Inkasbank and led to its bankruptcy.

Lebedeva and Samorukova earlier also appealed the ruling.

In July 2014, the St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region Commercial Court, upon request of the Deposit Insurance Agency, the bankrupt banks insolvency administrator, charged Gitelson and two other former top managers of Inkasbank with subsidiary liability. In December 2014, a court of appeals upheld the ruling. The ex-bank managers appealed the rulings in a court of cassation. In May 2015, the Commercial Court of North-West District reversed the lower courts rulings and ordered reconsideration of the case.

Inkasbank was declared bankrupt in May 2009. The banks administrator conducted an inquiry into the circumstances of the banks insolvency. As a result, the Russian Federal Security Service received a motion to open a criminal case (premeditated bankruptcy) against the banks former management.

Gitelson was arrested in Austria in April 2013 and extradited to Russia in December.

In March 2015, Gitelson was convicted and sentenced to three years for embezzling over 2 billion rubles ($30.7 million) in public funds from Inkasbank. A court in St. Petersburg also fined the banker 500,000 rubles ($7,700).

In April 2011, Moscows Meshchansky District Court sentenced Gitelson in absentia to five years in prison and a 1 million ruble ($15,300) fine for embezzling 495 million rubles ($7.6million) from his acquaintance, MP Adnan Muzykayev.
State Duma passes bill allowing commercial courts to reject lawsuits

MOSCOW, December 9 (RAPSI)  The State Duma has passed a bill that allows commercial courts to refuse admittance of lawsuits.

The bill has been proposed by the Supreme Court.

The procedures allowing courts to dismiss lawsuits without reviewing them are specified in The Civil Procedure Code and The Administrative Court Procedure Code, but not in The Arbitration Procedure Code. The authors of the bill believe that due to the lack of specific procedure commercial courts have to review claims not eligible to be heard by tribunals and dismiss them only after examination.

The changes envisaged by the bill are aimed to optimize judicial procedure and reduce the burden on commercial courts.
DES MOINES  For six years Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds has operated under the assumption of some day running for governor.

But now, to suddenly have the office present itself due Gov. Terry Branstads unexpected mid-term departure to become U.S. ambassador to China, still came as a little bit of a shock.

Reynolds, 57, was in Mexico on a vacation with her husband, Kevin, and their family when she got word that Branstad had accepted President-elect Donald Trumps offer of the ambassadorship.

That means she is in line to become Iowas first female governor once Branstad clears the U.S. Senate confirmation process next year.

Who thought that would happen? Reynolds said during an interview in her Statehouse office Friday. I looked at Kevin and we just both kind of went wow.

Reynolds, an Osceola Republican, said Branstads appointment is an exciting, well-deserved honor that will be a capstone to an amazing, amazing career.

It is also is an opportunity for her to carry on their joint goals since 2011 of growing Iowa, reforming education and expanding career opportunities for all Iowans, she said.

Im ready, said Reynolds, who has been a team partner who Branstad has mentored to be a future governor from the time he convinced her to leave the Iowa Senate and become his running mate in 2010.

Ive had just an amazing opportunity to serve with Gov. Branstad, said Reynolds, who has been active in the national lieutenant governors association.

Not all lieutenant governors have the opportunity to be as involved in the administration as I have had, she said. Thats been very helpful and Im been very blessed to be able to have a front-row seat and be a part  good and bad  of the things that weve dealt with over the last six years.

An outline for the transition of power is being developed, she said, but theres no date set for Reynolds to take the oath of office and become Iowas 43rd governor. She said she expects the change will involve a swearing-in ceremony but not a formal inauguration procedure.

Reynolds also said its early in the process, but she wants the person she appoints as her lieutenant to be a partner who is willing to work hard to grow Iowa.

I anticipate really taking time with this. I want to talk to a lot of different individuals, she said.

The prospects of Reynolds making history by becoming the states first female governor already is causing leaders of 50-50 in 2020 to cautiously celebrate the prospects of attaining another of their organizations goals.

The groups focus is on electing women to office, but attaining that goal in this manner fulfills that part of our mission just as well, said former state legislator Jean Lloyd-Jones, a co-founder of 50-50 in 2020.

We are thrilled with the possibility of smashing that particular glass ceiling, regardless of the means, Lloyd-Jones said.

Reynolds, who has been fundraising for a future political bid, said she expects to continue the goals set by the Branstad-Reynolds administration while expanding efforts to build an innovative economy, continue education reforms and expand economic development in rural Iowa and in every single corner so no matter where an Iowan lives they have the same opportunities.

Im just excited, she added. Im excited to step in but Im so excited for the governor. Im just so proud.
Reports that President-elect Donald Trump is considering Democratic Senators Heidi Heitkamp and Joe Manchin for Secretary of Energy are surprising, but at the same time they are not.

While its almost certain that a Republican would replace Heitkamp in a special election, GOP leadership remains mired in a pre-Trump world when such political maneuvers made sense. In West Virginia, a Democratic governor would appoint a replacement should Manchin leave the Senate.

Undoubtedly, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, known widely as a brilliant tactician, is lobbying for a selection that increases his majority  thats his job.

The GOP will hold a slim majority in the next Congress. Only a few GOP defections, if and when they occur, could tip the balance on any given issue, and McConnell is looking to increase his numbers. While a 52-seat majority is good  assuming Republicans keep their Louisiana seat, 53 is better.

Political pundits, most of who never believed that Trump had a shot, would call such a choice brilliant, but it really isnt. Doing so would mean giving control of an agency vital to many of Trumps policies, including nuclear weapons modernization, to someone who endorsed Hillary Clinton and will likely hire Democratic staff and allies that dont necessarily represent conservatives.

While there is political benefit to acquiring an additional seat, the upside is limited. Fifty-three seats remain halfway across the world from the political Holy Grail of 60 votes, which is needed to end Senate debate. And reaching that number is as much, and likely more so, in the hands of Trump than McConnell.

Eleven Senate Democrats are in states that Trump won, including a trove of seats in the Rust Belt. Eight of those are up for reelection in 2018, including Heitkamp and Manchin. On the other hand, Republicans only occupy three seats in states supporting Clinton, with only Nevadas Dean Heller in the next electoral cycle.

In the case of Machins home state of West Virginia, Trump crushed Clinton by 42 points. In Heitkamps North Dakota, the gap was 36 points. Accordingly, its hard to imagine that either would oppose Trump consistently on top priorities unless Senate retirement was planned.

Much has been made about Trumps redrawing of the political map, but few understand what that means. The election taught us that the Blue Wall was a fallacy, created by politicians and their consultants who failed to recognize the vast number of disenfranchised voters in states like Michigan and Pennsylvania.

As he has proven time and time again, Trump takes his case directly to the people. He will do that in the next Congress and doesnt need an extra Republican seat in the Senate to win.

His ability to take such action will expand with each personal intervention that keeps existing jobs in America, further pressuring Rust Belt Democrats. As more and more Americans trust Trump, the establishments influence will diminish. Politics is not constrained by laws preventing the monopolization of power; it remains largely a zero-sum game.

The incoming Presidents strategic brilliance has forged a political alliance between the Bible and Rust Belts, the like of which no current Republican could have achieved. This new political reality is likely to produce real regulatory and tax reform.

While it is in McConnells interest to replace moderate and conservative Democrats with Republicans, Heitkamp and Manchin are worth their weight in gold to Trump  but only if they remain where they are.

It is in Trumps interest to have strong, dependable Democratic allies in the Senate. Per Nate Silvers recent FiveThirtyEight analysis, McConnell himself is more likely to oppose Trump than Heitkamp. And Joe Manchin is more likely to support Trump than Republican Senator Susan Collins.

Working closely with Heitkamp and Manchin would give Trump bipartisan credibility and make it harder for Rust Belt Democrats to oppose the White House. And if they were to remain obstinate, the President would take his message directly to their constituents via massive rallies and aggressive social media.

On the other hand, Trump needs loyal foot soldiers leading his agencies to implement his bold vision. The Department of Energy holds the keys to advancing the science and the technologies needed to increase American economic competitiveness and national security.

Trump supporters have long argued let Trump be Trump. Its time for the GOP Senate to trust the new Presidents instincts. Trumps multidimensional chess game and connection with the American people will carry the day  just as he saved the Republican majority in the Senate.
DES MOINES | A key Senate Republican said Thursday he expects the new GOP legislative majority will push a major reform to simplify and reduce state income taxes during the 2017 legislative session.

Sen. Jack Whitver, R-Ankeny, who will be installed as the new Senate president when the 87th General Assembly convenes Jan. 9, told a Des Moines business forum tax reform will be a top priority, along with balancing and streamlining the state budget and improving Iowa's water quality. He said the majority Senate Republicans will be focused on jobs, growth and reform next session.

"I believe one of the messages from this campaign is that Iowans feel that they are over taxed," Whitver told a meeting of the Greater Des Moines Partnership, which has simplifying and reducing Iowa corporate and personal income taxes as one of the organization's priorities.

"We will have a bill to address individual income tax this year," Whitver said. "I believe we're going to have a situation where we can have a win-win where we can put more money in the pocket of hard-working Iowans while also growing our state. We'll have that bill. What it will look like we don't know yet. We're still working on the details."

After the forum, Whitver said the state faces a challenging budget year so incoming majority Republicans will be looking for places where money can be saved to make room for tax relief. At this point, he said, it's uncertain whether taxes can be cut immediately or phased down over a period of years depending on what's doable.

"There are going to have to be areas of our budget that we're going to have to reduce to find those savings. We're looking through all of that right now," he said. "We're going to have a balanced budget so for reducing taxes we might have to find at least some short-term savings because ultimately reducing taxes is going to grow our economy, it's going to bring more taxes in. It always has when done right. But short term we're going to have to find some savings somewhere."

Also Thursday, Republicans who will hold a 59-41 edge in the Iowa House held a closed-door caucus to discuss 2017 priorities, which House Speaker Linda Upmeyer, R-Clear Lake, said will focus on water quality, education, budget issues and tax reform with a particular focus on making Iowa's personal and corporate income taxes more competitive.

"We're very interested in looking at taxes," said Upmeyer. "This is a tough year when you've got declining revenue and yet we don't want to ignore the opportunity. We're going to look, we're going to study, we're going to see what's possible."

The House speaker said she expects GOP lawmakers and Gov. Terry Branstad to agree to a fiscal 2018 state aid funding level for K-12 schools within the session's first 30 days. She also said she expects Republicans will change the forward-funding law so state aid for schools does not have to be set 18 months in advance before the Legislature and governor have a good fix on available revenue.

Rep. Jo Oldson, D-Des Moines, said lawmakers face a balancing test every session to fund priorities and address tax issues, which she cautioned is "not so easy to do" given Iowa's federal deductibility law makes rates seem uncompetitive. "It's a tricky piece to talk about reform without affecting programs," she added. "It will be hard. We will have some tough, tough decisions to make."
The Army Corps of Engineers, the federal agency responsible for investigating, developing and maintaining water and related environmental resources, recently announced that they would not allow the Dakota Access pipeline to be constructed under the Missouri River and through Lakota territory.

This decision essentially ended the Standing Rock Sioux tribes protest against the pipeline, which they claimed would both desecrate their sacred sites and cause potential environmental harm.

The Standing Rock Sioux tribe was able to achieve this victory in part because of the assistance of thousands of water protectors. In his letter of thanks, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Chairman David Archambault Jr. wrote,

Standing Rock could not have come this far alone. Hundreds of tribes came together in a display of tribal unity not seen in hundreds of years. And many thousands of indigenous people from around the world have prayed with us and made us stronger.

Thousands of people, both those within Native American communities and their non-Native allies, felt called to go to Standing Rock. But what drew that many people to Standing Rock?

As a Native American scholar of environmental history and religion, I believe that for most individuals who gathered at the site, it was a modern-day pilgrimage.

Heres why.

Idea of pilgrimage

First, what is a pilgrimage? Anthropologists Victor Turner and Edith Turner in their classic study Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture addressed that question when they researched the personal motivations of those who traveled long distances on pilgrimage.

Their answer was twofold. The Turners contended that individuals on a spiritual quest seek both an out of this ordinary world experience and a sense of community, unity or oneness with those on a similar quest. Individuals on a pilgrimage usually have these experiences both while traveling to certain places of transcendence and while at those sacred places.

Lakota scholar Philip Deloria, has also described how the transformative experience of Native American sacred places provides meaning and personal growth for individuals who journey to be in their presence. In the book American Indian Places, Deloria discusses how people are likely to return to these important places again and again.

Going to Standing Rock evolved into a pilgrimage for many Native Americans: they left their ordinary lives behind to journey to a Lakota sacred place, and participate in a larger collective action.

My cousin Renee LaPier and her daughter Modesta LaPier, for example, journeyed 2,600 miles to and from Standing Rock. As Ojibwe women, with family on the Turtle Mountain reservation in North Dakota, they felt inspired to go to Standing Rock after meeting hundreds of like-minded individuals at a water protectors gathering they organized in their hometown of Portland, Oregon.

Going to Standing Rock forced them and others to step out of their ordinary modern lives and travel to a remote rural area of the U.S. with few amenities including no cellphone coverage. And once at the site, they encountered a transformative experience. Reflecting on her experience, Renee said, Its personal. Its deeply deeply personal. Its important for all of us to stand up together.

Modern-day pilgrimage

It is not just Native Americans who have gone to Standing Rock. On Dec. 5 an estimated 2,000 U.S. veterans, both Native American and their non-Native allies, made their pilgrimage to Standing Rock in a freezing blizzard. They came from across the U.S. and other parts of the world; they represented American veterans from many conflicts and wars, including older Korean and Vietnam vets and younger Iraqi vets. They said they came to Standing Rock for peace and prayer.

What does this mean?

Religious scholar Laurel Zwissler has studied why and how young people are refocusing their personal religious practices to include religious practice with public action. She explains how they are blending their individual religious ideas and political activism into a new form of religious expression.

Zwisslers research reveals participating in protests, even those across a great distance, becomes a new place of individual and collective spiritual practice.

Many Native Americans and non-Native allies viewed going to Standing Rock as a pilgrimage. I have read hundreds of social media posts of people who were drawn to go there as a spiritual quest, reflecting on how the experience changed their sense of identity, gave meaning to their lives, provided a sense of community and transformed them forever.

Even Chairman David Archambault Jr., in an address to the veterans, said their pilgrimage had meaning because What youre doing is sacred.

I believe a modern kind of pilgrimage for Native Americans is emerging in which people travel to sites of collective action as a form of religious practice. It is true that some come for personal goals of spiritual awakening and some to journey to a sacred place. And, there are others who undertake a spiritual journey to find community, and purpose.

In the end, utilizing prayer and ceremony, they would have all experienced a pilgrimage  returning to their home different from when they left.
Castro's death not only provides communism's coda but its perfect metaphor. The world's governments are turning mental contortions over how to respond to the passing of Cuba's dictator for half a century. Untroubled by protocol concerns, the rest of the world can simply recognize the obvious
With his characteristic bluntness, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has, at least briefly, wiped away some diplomatic niceties and sent China a clear message: If Beijing wants to sit at the grown-ups' table, it will have to act like an adult.



His method for doing so? A 10-minute phone call to the president of Taiwan. But passing such a message isn't as simple as it sounds. The phone call broke a 40-year diplomatic precedent, something no U.S. president or president-elect has done since Washington withdrew its recognition of Taipei in the 1970s in exchange for closer ties with Beijing. For decades, the United States has stuck to the "one-China" policy, which says that the government in Beijing is the only legal representative of China. Yet at the same time Washington maintained its lines of communication with Taiwan, including trade deals and arms sales. This dual approach is predicated on the United States' acceptance and promotion of what is essentially a piece of elaborate diplomatic fiction.

Understanding Trump's Phone Call With Taiwan

At the risk of inciting angry letters and accusations of naivety, let me say frankly that Taiwan exists. I know because I was there last year, ahead of its general elections in January 2016. Taiwan has its own independent government, laws, military and police force. It also holds its own elections and chooses its own president. That president sent Trump a congratulatory greeting in early November after the results of the U.S. vote were in, and few eyebrows were raised in the United States or China. But a phone call is another matter entirely, one that shatters the facade of Washington's diplomatic narrative and reveals  in a way perhaps only a political outsider like Trump could  that there is clearly something silly about selling weapons to a country that, according to the official line, doesn't exist. (Or about engaging in the linguistic acrobatics needed to say that Washington recognizes one China without making claims as to which China that is.)

Diplomacy often requires subtlety and the use of careful phrasing, parsing each word and punctuation point in every sentence. At times, though, this caution seems to become an end unto itself. Even before Washington formally shifted its recognition from Taipei to Beijing, there were those in the U.S. political establishment arguing that there should not be a one-China policy at all. Instead, they said, Washington should recognize either both governments or Taiwan's alone (which itself would have forced the creation of another diplomatic fiction). Against the backdrop of the Cold War, the United States chose to follow its current path  acknowledging only Beijing  in an effort to weaken any Sino-Soviet bloc that might form and add to the pressure on Moscow's eastern frontier.

But the Cold War is over, and the Soviet Union has fallen apart. Despite Russia's actions in Ukraine, Syria and Europe, the global dichotomy between Washington and Moscow is not the same as it once was. And neither is China. From a relatively weak and isolated power in 1979, China has grown into one of the largest economies in the world whose trade and investment ties span the globe. After several massive overhauls, the Chinese military is emerging as a modern fighting force with at least some ability to project power. Chinese troops operate in the Gulf of Aden, train with Russia in the Arctic, and participate in U.N. peacekeeping missions in several different countries. China is no longer a backwater bastion against the Soviets' eastward expansion. Rather, it is a country pressing ever outward, engaging in an aggressive One Belt, One Road infrastructure and trade initiative, and solidifying its maritime claims in Asia's enclosed seas.

Playing the 'Taiwan Card'

Despite commentators' speculation that Trump was either uninformed or acting recklessly, it is highly unlikely that either Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen or Trump made the phone call without careful consideration. It is no accident that news of the conversation emerged on a Friday, when it would have less impact on global markets but was guaranteed to become the highlight of weekend talk shows. Based on recent comments made by those who advise or influence Trump, including John Bolton's January editorial in The Wall Street Journal, the new president is clearly signaling a willingness to use the "Taiwan card" to reshape the United States' relationship with China. Beijing's currency manipulation, aggression in the South China Sea, refusal to encourage North Korea to curtail its nuclear weapons program, and any number of other issues could be countered by Washington's threat to renew its recognition of Taiwan  or so the argument goes.

From China's perspective, Taiwan is, to use a worn-out phrase, a red-line issue. Any event that alters the island's status quo or pulls it further from the mainland's grasp merits an immediate and firm response from Beijing. China has already reabsorbed Macao and Hong Kong, leaving Taiwan the only holdout, unique for its history as a stronghold for the defeated Kuomintang army rather than as a colonial holding of a foreign power. The last remnant of the Chinese civil war, Taiwan's annexation by China would mark an unequivocal and final victory for the Communist Party.

But emotions are not the only things governing Taiwan's future. More than once the island has been compared to an unsinkable aircraft carrier, a base of operations from which to challenge the Chinese mainland, should a strong foreign power decide to ally with Taiwan. Like its independence, Taiwan's ties to other countries undermine Beijing's plans to control the South and East China seas. Such control  or at least, the power to restrict or deny other countries' activities in the seas  is critical to securing China's trade and economic interests. Beijing has already shown its willingness to assert its claims, via island building, in spite of international consternation and heightened U.S. naval activity in the region.

No matter how much China might rail against any change in the U.S. dialogue with Taiwan, Beijing set a precedent, however unintentionally, for Taipei's recognition when it agreed to open a relationship with South Korea in 1992. Prior to that year, most countries perceived only one government  whether in Pyongyang or Seoul  as Korea's legitimate seat of power. With the end of the Cold War, however, trade arrangements among former Soviet countries collapsed. China had also resumed its plans for economic opening and reform after briefly putting them on pause in the wake of the Tiananmen Square crackdown. Forming a relationship with the rising South Korea was an economic and political win for China, since it meant that Seoul had severed its connection to Taipei, presenting China with a way to take advantage of Korea's industrial and economic growth.

Instead of recognizing only one Korea, however, China and Russia accepted both North and South into the United Nations in 1991. In doing so, Beijing inadvertently opened the door to both sides of a civil war: Each country holds claims to the territory of the other, yet they are considered equals on the international stage. Even the United States, which has formal diplomatic ties with only South Korea, recognizes the North's existence and right to U.N. membership. Washington's concerns about North Korea have to do with disagreements over the legitimacy and policies of the government in Pyongyang, not the existence of the state itself. Taiwan, on the other hand, is currently barred from most international groups and organizations because it is not recognized as a country.

Cutting Through the Diplomatic Fog

By holding a phone call with Tsai  however brief and limited in scope it may have been  Trump has brought the issue of Taiwan's political status to the fore in a way that is sure to drive deep policy debates in the United States. But it will also raise questions about how Washington deals with the Chinese mainland. Of course, this is not the first time these issues have arisen from a U.S. presidential election. Perhaps the most notable was when Ronald Reagan criticized the United States' initial decision to break diplomatic ties with Taipei and suggested that he would rethink the decision once in office. China intervened at the time in much the same way it has now by criticizing the statement, speaking with Reagan's running mate (George H.W. Bush, a known China hand), and arguing that reality would intervene to keep Reagan from reversing Washington's warming relationship with Beijing.

Still, 1979 was a long time ago. China is a big country that demands international respect. Beijing, however, also cleverly plays on its need to "save face," the idea that dealings with China must be delicate  avoiding sensitive issues and, above all, keep from casting the country in a negative light. Chinese officials also have no qualms when it comes to roundly criticizing the words and actions of other governments, but they deride any criticism of Beijing as foreign interference. China rarely even has to enforce this untenable double standard: The United States and the West have taken it upon themselves to try to maintain a manner of dialogue that satisfies China's expectations. In the Track II talks between U.S. and Chinese figures, it isn't uncommon for the latter to berate their American counterparts while the former offer declarations of cooperation and critiques of their own government's policies.

Abandoning this approach has its consequences, though. Diplomacy does require finesse, even if there is certainly room (or an outright need) for bluntness at times. Taiwan is and will continue to be a red line for China, and Beijing will sacrifice other areas of its foreign policy to preserve the island's status, if not fully incorporate it into the mainland. Should the United States become more confrontational in its stance toward China, the effects will be felt by other countries throughout Asia, each of which is now trying to determine whether Trump's call was an accidental gaffe or a calculated signal of a shift in U.S. policy to come.

By doing what he did while still president-elect, when many still consider his comments and actions to be rash and off-the-cuff, Trump has given himself some room to walk back his rhetoric, as many of his staff began to do over the weekend. Even so, he has made his point, creating enough uncertainty in Chinese leaders' minds that they will remember it long after the media buzz has died down.
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Bindi Irwin is already missing her boyfriend Chandler Powell following his latest visit to Australia.

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The 18-year-old conservationist and television personality shared a sweet goodbye message to Powell on Instagram after he left Thursday to return to the U.S.

"You are flying back to the USA today. Dropping you off at the airport & waving goodbye, it never gets easier. Thank you for the most wonderful adventures these last few months. We even got to celebrate your 20th birthday here in Australia together, hiking through the Great Dividing Range!" Irwin captioned a photo of herself with her beau.

"I've known you since you were 16 and every day, from the very first day I met you, you've been my sunshine. I will see you again soon! Thank you for everything, you always make me smile, no matter how far apart we may be. Have fun while you're away, go find lots of manatees in Florida for me! I miss you so much already. You really do mean the world to me," she added.

Irwin and Powell, an American wakeboarder who lives outside Tampa, Fla., first met in 2013. The conservationist revealed how she and Powell make their long-distance relationship work in an interview with People in 2015.

"We talk every day and are together every two to three months," she said. "Thankfully I've found someone who is an outdoors kind of person. We'll go have adventures or picnic in the park."

Irwin had spoken about Powell's latest visit during an appearance on "Australian Today" in November. The star denied engagement rumors at the time, saying, "We're just enjoying our time together. No wedding bells yet."

"We're having fun together and enjoying the time here in Australia because he's originally from Florida. We're slowly adopting here to Australia Zoo and getting him in with all the animals. We're having a lot of fun. So it works out, but no marriage just yet. I'm 18. I'm happy," she added.

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Irwin is the daughter of late "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin and conservationist Terri Irwin

She and professional dancer Derek Hough were partnered on and won Season 21 of "Dancing with the Stars" in November 2015.
Kim Kardashian and Kanye West's marriage is doing just fine, according to close friend Jonathan Cheban.

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The 42-year-old entrepreneur dismissed reports that Kardashian and West are headed for a split in an interview with E! News at the DailyMail.com holiday party Wednesday.

"I just FaceTimed with Kim and Kanye and everyone's talking about some divorce rumors," Cheban said. "I was laughing because I didn't hear that all day, and I guess everybody else apparently here did. It's so funny to me because it's so not true."

"I don't know where people come up with stories, but it's literally hysterical. Jennifer Aniston has also been pregnant like 1,000 times, so it's kind of a joke," he added.

"They're in good spirits. I don't want to talk much about them, just because it's not my business, but I did have to say that the divorcing was kind of hysterical," the star said. "When I heard that I literally burst out laughing ... There's no divorce."

Us Weekly had reported earlier in the day that Kardashian "wants a divorce" from West. Sources said the 36-year-old reality star is "trying to build a case for full custody" of the couple's two children before she files to end the marriage.

"It will take some time before she can do anything, but she doesn't want to stay married," an insider said.

Kardashian and West married in 2014, and share 3-year-old daughter North and 1-year-old son Saint. The reality star has kept out of the spotlight since being robbed at gunpoint Oct. 2 in Paris, while West was released from the hospital Nov. 30 after more than a week-long stay for exhaustion.

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"Kanye and Kim had a stressful few months," a source told People on Tuesday. "It's been a tense time. But Kim is happy he's getting help."

"[Kim] has been] very focused on being supportive and managing the crisis that is going on," the insider added. "She is super focused on him. [She's been] the dutiful, responsible, loving spouse that one would expect."
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Peta Murgatroyd and Maksim Chmerkvoskiy celebrated the one-year anniversary of their engagement this week.

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The 30-year-old Australian and 36-year-old American "Dancing with the Stars" pros marked the occasion by dedicating intimate posts to each other on social media.

"To my best friend, with whom I get to spend the rest of my life with..... You are everything that I've always dreamed of and I can't wait for the next 50 years where I can fall asleep beside you and fall in love all over again #happyanniversary #inlove #soontobethree," Murgatroyd captioned a photo of herself and Chmerkovskiy in bed.

"Thank you @RestaurantDaniel and your incredible staff for our amazing first anniversary dinner! @petamurgatroyd loved it so much we're looking forward to making this our annual tradition #InLoveWithThisChick #TodayWasAnAmazingDay #HadToTryDesert #CardioDayTomorrow," Chmerkovskiy added to a picture of himself and Murgatroyd locking lips.

Chmerkovskiy proposed to Murgatroyd onstage Dec. 5, 2015, following their performance in the show SWAY: A Dance Trilogy. The couple confirmed in June that Murgatroyd is pregnant and expecting their first child.

"I can't wait to provide this baby with the tools to become a beautiful, kind person," Chmerkovskiy told People the same month. "And they'll have the best sneaker collection."

"I'm looking forward to nurturing something and just having the baby be the center of our world," Murgatroyd added. "I'm looking forward to putting all our energy into this beautiful soul."

Murgatroyd and Chmerkovskiy met on Dancing with the Stars in 2011. Murgatroyd sat out Season 23 due to her pregnancy, but Chmerkovskiy was partnered with television personality Amber Rose.
FLOYD | Four handguns found during a traffic stop near Floyd last week have been sent in for testing, officials say.

A Floyd County sheriff deputy found the guns after pulling over a speeding vehicle Nov. 27 on Avenue of the Saints about a mile west of Floyd, according to a statement from the department.

Officials say the westbound vehicle was going 82 mph.

The sheriff's office announced the seizure and arrests Friday morning.

A passenger, Corey Brown, 27, of Brookings, South Dakota, was charged with four felony counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm and four misdemeanor counts of carrying weapons.

The driver, Naja Wilson, 20, also of Brookings, was issued misdemeanor citations for possession of drug paraphernalia and not having a valid driver's license.

A deputy searched the vehicle after smelling marijuana, the statement said.

The handguns were sent to the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation crime lab for fingerprint and ballistics testing.

The Iowa State Patrol assisted with the stop.

 Molly Montag
Porterville, CA (93257)

Today

Cloudy skies early, followed by partial clearing. High 57F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Mostly clear. Low near 40F. Winds light and variable.
On Jan. 20, Donald Trump will be sworn in as the 45th President of the United States.

Trump will assume what many refer to as the highest office in the land, joining the likes of presidents who have come before him. The inauguration will be another important step in the nations history.
The destination bar off the beaten path has 20-year roots in Chicago's music scene but a century-long legacy as a watering hole for blue collar folk.

The Essentials: The Hideout

1354 W. Wabansia Ave. 773-227-4433

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Looks like: A Girl Scout camp rec hall complete with twinkle lights, petrified fish and hands-on opportunities to cultivate life skills

Sounds like: Acoustic guitars, noise rock, stand-up comedytake your pick.

Smells like: Nothing. It's not that kind of dirty dive.

From the outside, most people know it as a small music venue, a destination bar in a somewhat remote location. It's home turf for Chicago's alt-country bands such as Devil in a Woodpile. It's famous for its annual block parties. It's where The White Stripes played when they were just a small garage rock duo from Detroit and where Wilco came to try out new stuff that would later become "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot." It has 20-year roots in Chicago's vast music scene. But from the day it opened under its current owners, "The Hideout was always more than a music club," said Tim Tuten, co-owner of the legendary bar off North and Elston avenues.

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An Old Style sign is the only branding on the outside of the bar. (Christine Connelly / for RedEye)

Dwarfed by brick warehouses on industrial Wabansia Avenue along the Chicago River, the tiny balloon frame house looks like a scene from "Up." There's no branding except for an Old Style sign outside, and the interior is a candlelit time warp reminiscent of a Midwestern granny's house, brown walls, campy art and ancient beer cans included. It's been 20 years since Tuten, his wife Katie and friends Mike and Jim Hinchsliff took over in 1996, but the bar itself dates back to the Prohibition era. But like most bars that seem to transcend time, The Hideout is a thousand years old in stories and faces, yet a pioneer in artistic and political progressivity.

Unlike the neo-dive, last year's hottest bar trend in Disneyland versions of Midwestern authenticity, The Hideout is a true relic of working class America's neighborhood bar culture. A place for blue collar folk, built by blue collar folk, Tuten said the house went up in 1881. It was built as a boarding house for workers in the area. Throughout Prohibition, it was a speakeasy and then the Favias, an Italian family, opened The Hideout in 1947, when it went off the map again. The Tutens started hanging around in the '80s, but the steel factory workers who drank there after work weren't bothered so long as they upheld the regulars' tradition of buying everyone a round. For nearly a decade, Tuten razzed Phil Favia about what he'd do with the place when he bought the bar. "When [Phil] passed away, his wife said to me, 'Hey you used to say you were gonna buy the bar, Mr. Big Shot,' " Tuten said. He was never serious about it, but after some convincing, the Tutens and Hinchsliffs saved up and bought the place.

For the first year, it remained a weekday bar that closed in the early evening. In their spare time, they fixed it up, repairing the bones but keeping the original aesthetic. They worked even harder to maintain relationships with the regulars, who chattered about it becoming a "yuppie" bar, Tuten said. Eventually closing time was pushed back to host live roots rock shows in the back room. From there, The Hideout evolved into a place where Welding Willy could coexist and even chat with Scruffy Hipster with the art degree.

The Hideout celebrates 20 years this year. (Christine Connelly / for RedEye)

The Hideout built a following as a music venue by word of mouth. They asked bands to come play from shows they saw at Schubas Tavern and the now-defunct indie rock club Lounge Ax. Then word got out at the Old Town School of Folk Music and alt-country label Bloodshot Records. Cassette tapes from bands like The White Stripes and homemade mixtapes recorded by bar patrons began flooding in.

More like a musician's living room than a concert hall, The Hideout became a regular hangout for artists like 2017 Grammy-nominated Robbie Fulks and bands such as The Waco Brothers. It's where Wilco's Jeff Tweedy talked to Mavis Staples about recording together and where Neko Case and Cheap Trick's Rick Nielsen dropped in to play on nights Billy Corgan tested out new stuff with Zwan after The Smashing Pumpkins broke up, Tuten said.

A true gathering space for all ages, The Hideout has celebrated birthdays, graduation parties and even a Viking-themed funeral procession. Stand-up comedian Cameron Esposito got married at the venue last year. Community gathering is in the bar's bones, and according to documentation Tuten said was found this year, the building has been operating as a public house since 1916.

Reputed as a nexus for artists to test new music, the value is directly aligned with the working class sensibility. The Hideout was one of the first places where Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova tried out music from the award-winning "Once" soundtrack, Tuten said.

"When artists are trying out new material, it's like you're getting to see a craftsman work," Tuten said. "You're getting to see a songwriter actually build something in front of you.  We're a workshop."

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The Hideout came of age at the end of an era in the music industry, when booking studio time was expensive, and audience time was valuable, Tuten said. Now, anyone can make a record at home. Eventually, digital files began to replace the mountains of CDs and cassettes, but The Hideout hasn't resisted the shift to modern technology. It's embraced artists connecting roots music with electronic devices and has witnessed musicians like Andrew Bird reinvent himself from his "Bowl of Fire," rooted in traditional folk and swing, to a solo artist using samples and looping pedals.

"The music is called the roots," Tuten said. "But it's cool to see the branches of the tree."

The Hideout. (Christine Connelly / for RedEye)

Eclectic performance art of all sorts also grow on The Hideout tree, from crazy holiday plays starring the staff to Helltrap Nightmare comedy show. And sometimes the content gets political. In the early 2000s, when the Iraq War started, the back room became a practice place for The All-American Anti-War Marching Band, which later became the renowned Mucca Pazza.

Progressive politics have always been important to The Hideout owners. It's in the business plan, Tuten said. "I said I want our bar to be a place that is about music, it's about art, literature, writing, it's a conspiratorial bar where people get together and they talk about politics and the get involved in social justice movements, activism, whether that's through art or whether that's through politics," he said.

During Barack Obama's 2008 campaign, supporters met at The Hideout every weekend and traveled to Iowa, Wisconsin and Indiana going door-to-door to get the vote. Tuten said people danced in the street the night he won the election. The bar took two busloads of musicians and friends to the inauguration in Washington, D.C., and Tuten, a former high school teacher, went on to work for the Obama Administration in the Department of Education's Office of Communications and Outreach. It's hosted vigils for 9/11, the 2004 tsunami and the Haiti earthquake in 2010, but on any given day, it's just a place to talk about ideas.

"I wanted it to be The Bell-in-Hand in Boston, Fraunces Tavern," Tuten said, referencing prominent bars of the American Revolution. "We believe that revolutions came out of small places. We're not promoting liquor, we're promoting a congenial place where people can come and talk, and that's super important to us."



As factories surrounding The Hideout closed over the past two decades, the culture shifted from working class to working artist, or the "sons and daughters of the working class," as Tuten puts it. That's not just a metaphor, as he's seen kids grow up at The Hideout, some who even work there now. But overall conversation is not limited to art and politics.

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Robbie Fulks and Nora O'Connor. Fulks is nominated for two 2017 Grammys. (Christine Connelly / for RedEye)

He cites Fulks, the current resident artist who performs at The Hideout every Monday, as an example of an Ivy League-educated artist whose music is reflective of the working class people he grew up with.

"We can discuss issues at the highest level, whether it's poetry, classical music, whatever the topic is, but also we can talk about building houses and we can talk about laying bricks and we can talk about putting in wood floors and we can talk about making things by hand, and we believe those are of equal respect," Tuten said.

He attributes The Hideout's success to the owner-operated model, noting other essential bars like Delilah's and FitzGerald's in Berwyn that share the same philosophy: "This is our house." He often describes the place as "timeless and timely," which only makes sense once you're inside. Physically, it's a museum preserving what was and "what it always will be," the bar stools, the hardwood floors. But culturally, it's more like a quilting circle, an evolving patchwork of people and ideas that spans generations and builds on addressing issues of the moment. The Hideout lives on because it's a living, breathing experience.

"We're still part of the real world," Tuten said. "There can be an online community, but The Hideout is an actual place where you drink beer and you actually meet somebody and you actually embarrass yourself and you actually have to live a life."

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Four quotes from Tim Tuten that sum up The Hideout.

On being a dive bar: "A dive is something, like water, you dive into and it takes you deeper, and the deeper you go. So if we're a dive, it means we have depth. If you call us a dive bar, does that mean that you consider yourself at a higher level? Because if you consider yourself at some pretentious higher level and you're diving down, well it's good for you to come down to our level because this is the greatest roots, this is the foundation, this is the place where real people are."

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On all-ages shows: "Here at The Hideout there are people who will come to shows and they might be 22 years old and they want to see what this country thing is about, or they might be 65 and no one feels weird."

On first-time visitors: "Four bros walk into The Hideout. They come in, have some beers, and out of the four, two of them might be like, 'I gotta get back to Wrigleyville.' But one or two are like, 'I think I like this world,' and that's how guys grow up."

On being a bar owner: "Bar owners are there every night. That's super draining, emotionally and physically, so it's a hard thing to do. But as Bill Fitzgerald of FitzGerald's would tell me, 'On any given night, it's golden.'  You seek that golden moment, and you can get that in a place like this."

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Reports from Ludhiana, Coimbatore, Moradabad, Tirupur, Indore, Surat, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Hyderabad, suggest the impact of demonetisation is worsening.

Arup Roychoudhury, T E Narasimhan, Sharath Chowdary and Ishita Ayan Dutt/Business Standard report.

MUMBAI: A month after demonetisation, people wait outside an ATM in Mumbai. Photograph: Satish Bodas/Rediff.com



A month after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced nearly 86% of India's cash in circulation by value would lose their status as legal tender, the narrative has shifted from freeing the country of the scourge of black money and counterfeit cash to the need for a cashless economy and encouraging digital transactions.

Thirty days on, the initial chaos in banks and ATMs has lessened, but the lines are still there and the impact of the government decision on the economy is gradually unfolding.

UTTAR PRADESH: Villagers line up in front of an SBI branch in Mirzapur. Photograph: PTI Photo



The most comprehensive set of announcements aimed at placating the people came on Thursday, when Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced sops to boost digital transactions.

Reports from Ludhiana, Coimbatore, Moradabad, Tirupur, Indore, Surat, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Hyderabad, suggest the impact of demonetisation is worsening.

Digital transactions are at a nascent stage in most rural areas.

UTTAR PRADESH: People create ruckus at a bank that ran out of money in Meerut. Photograph: PTI Photo



Even in the metros, banks and ATMs are running out of cash too soon.

"Unless there is more supply of Rs 500 notes, the cash crunch is likely to continue. We are taking various steps to replenish ATMs and banks. It will take 10 to 15 days for the situation to stabilise," said R K Takkar, chairman and managing director, UCO Bank.

The government's assessment on re-calibrating about 200,000 ATMs to fit the new and smaller Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 notes seems optimistic.

HARYANA: Queue outside a bank in Hisar. Photograph: PTI Photo



Arguments between customers and bank executives are now regular. The situation has worsened after utilities and petrol pumps stopped accepting old Rs 500 notes.

Reports from small towns indicate the situation is alarming.

In Coimbatore, the president of the Tamil Nadu Association of Cottage and Micro Enterprises, J James, said production was down 40% compared with 15% to 20% at the start of demonetisation.

"The situation has worsened," said James, adding banks were turning away small business owners and workers.

MUMBAI: Customers wait in queue at an HDFC Bank branch. Photograph: Santosh Hirlekar/PTI Photo



These units have cash credit accounts and can withdraw up to Rs 50,000 a week; yet, they cannot get their money because banks have to meet the requirements of other customers.

Around 400,000 workers depend on these small units in and around Coimbatore and their monthly salary ranges from Rs 15,000 to Rs 35,000.

At Tirupur, which exports Rs 36,000 crore (Rs 360 billion) of knitwear a year, the situation is the same. Here, wages are paid weekly and the wage bill is Rs 75 crore (Rs 750 million) a week.

RAJASTHAN: Queue outside a bank in Bikaner. Photograph: PTI Photo

This is a story across the country, in brassware units of Moradabad, hosiery factories of Ludhiana and the diamond centre of Surat.

Small and medium enterprises are unable to pay workers on time, many have been laid off for now or are not turning up for work.

Orders are not being delivered and new orders are in short supply.

Small businesses, their customers and suppliers still depend extensively on cash.

This goes for exporters and the trucking business as well.

GUJARAT: People queue up outside a bank in Ahmedabad. Photograph: PTI Photo

Scarcity of cash has restricted the movement of trucks that carry raw material, food and finished products across the country.

What gives hope to the government and the people, however, are reports of tax officials apprehending money launderers and tax evaders.

The move would definitely provide results in the long run, said Ratnala Srikanth, a student standing in a queue at an ATM in Hyderabad.

"I am losing time, but our government may gain revenue with demonetisation. The government can use those funds for welfare measures," said T Shashidhar, also in the queue to withdraw money./p>

The RBI allows withdrawals of Rs 24,000 from savings accounts and Rs 50,000 from current accounts.

Depending on the availability of cash, banks are allowing savings account holders to withdraw up to Rs 4,000 and current account holders to withdraw Rs 6,000 at a go.

Some banks in Hyderabad have not fed their ATMs since November 8.

Economists are warning of a slowdown that will threaten India's status as the world's fastest growing economy. Even Jaitley accepts there will be a slowdown in this quarter and the next.

There are reports of around 84 deaths related to demonetisation. The Opposition has been relentless in its criticism and the winter session of Parliament has come to a halt.

"Are the benefits and stated aims of the scheme worth the economic costs and the deaths? That is what the government will need to answer eventually," said an economist, who did not wish to be named.

"The analysis will lead to even more uncomfortable questions," the economist added.
The government on Friday informed Parliament that a decision has been taken to print plastic currency notes and procurement of material has started.

"It has been decided to print banknotes based on plastic or polymer substrate. The process of procurement has been initiated," Minister of State for Finance Arjun Ram Meghwal said in a written reply in Lok Sabha to a query whether Reserve Bank of India proposes to print plastic currency notes in place of paper ones.

The Reserve Bank for long has been planning to launch plastic currency note after field trials.

In February 2014, the government had informed Parliament that one billion plastic notes of Rs 10 denomination would be introduced in a field trial in five cities selected for their geographical and climatic diversity. The selected cities were Kochi, Mysore, Jaipur, Shimla and Bhubaneswar.

Plastic notes have an average life span of about five years and are difficult to imitate. Also, currency notes made of plastic are cleaner than paper ones. Such notes were first introduced in Australia to safeguard against counterfeiting.

Replying to another question, Meghwal said it was informed by RBI in December 2015 that they have received some banknotes of Rs 1,000 without having security thread which were printed at Currency Note Press, Nashik, on paper supplied by Security Paper Mill, Hoshangabad.

Image used for representational purposes only, of an Australian plastic currency note. Photograph: David Gray/Reuters.
'Sasikala definitely has an emotional advantage over the others, but there are very seasoned politicians with a strong support base.'

'For the time being, they may toe her line.'

Dr P Sudarshan, an associate professor at the department of humanities and social sciences, Indian Institute of Technology-Madras, spoke to Rediff.com's Shobha Warrier about Tamil Nadu after J Jayalalithaa's death.

We saw Sasikala Natarajan and her family next to the late chief minister's body throughout the day of the funeral.

Does that mean Sasikala has taken over the reins of the party?

Or do you see other senior leaders staking a claim soon?

Sasikala definitely has an emotional advantage over the others, but there are also very seasoned politicians with a strong support base in their areas.

For example, a person like O Paneerselvam has his support base and network among party men.

K A Sengottaiyan might not have been in Jayalalithaa's good books, but he is a very powerful leader in the Kongu region.

These people are in the party from the days of M G Ramachandran, even before Jayalalithaa joined the party.

So I don't think Sasikala will find it easy to take over the party.

For the time being, they may toe her line.

Paneerselvam's understated nature may be an advantage for him.

People may look at him more as an enigmatic figure. If he plays his cards well, he could emerge as a strong leader.

Because the AIADMK came to power only six months ago...

That is one of the reasons for them to stick together now but there will be realignments for sure.

But then Sasikala was close to the power centre and knows about the party finances, etc.

In fact, Jayalalithaa's hold over the party had lessened in the last couple of years because of her health problems.

It is said that Sasikala decided the candidates for the 2014 and 2016 elections, and most of the MPs and MLAs owe their allegiance to her.

Does that not make her more powerful right now?

Definitely. It is widely believed that she was the person who chose the candidates.

In fact, in the 2011 elections, there was a huge controversy regarding the list of candidates. Jayalalithaa had to intervene and withdraw the list.

She herself conducted the negotiations for the alliance later on. So the accusation against Sasikala was made in 2011 also.

In 2016, we didn't see much change in the list of the candidates.

I also will not say it was a very convincing victory of the AIADMK (All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) in the 2016 assembly elections.

The margin between the AIADMK and the DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) at several places was around 1,000 votes or so.

For how long will Sasikala be able to control the party which has many seniors in it?

She will not be able to for a long time.

We also cannot forget the cases in which not only Jayalalithaa but Sasikala also is a part of.

Was Sasikala showing her strength to the party by having her family members on the dais (at the Rajaji Hall where Jayalalithaa's body was kept for the public to bid goodbye to their Amma), some of whom were thrown out by Jayalalithaa like Sasikala's husband?

Sasikala and Jayalalithaa were together for more than 30 years, and the fights they had were like the fights we see within any family.

Natarajan, though, was not allowed inside Jayalalithaa's home. But he was very much part of the play for quite some time.

He is a veteran political operator. I have a feeling he might play a more important role hereafter.

Will the party survive after Jayalalithaa because she did not allow any second rung leaders to come up?

This way, it has its own advantages and disadvantages.

There are some second rung leaders in the party, senior people with a strong base.

If they get together and decide on a consensual rule, then the government will continue.

Tamil Nadu has a strong IAS and IPS cadre and they will take care of the administration.

The question is: What will be the vision for the state?

In the last two years, we saw the government drifting aimlessly maybe because of Jayalalithaa's ill health.

Do you think the DMK will exploit this situation to attract some disillusioned AIADMK leaders to its side?

Certainly, there will be attempts, but the code of conduct by the Election Commission is also there.

I feel they (the DMK) would prefer to see the AIADMK collapse on its own.

There is also talk that the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) will take advantage to establish itself in Tamil Nadu.

They also may prefer a wait and watch approach.

My opinion is that their presence is very poor in Tamil Nadu and they have no strong leaders or cadre base here. They have not developed any youth leaders too.

Other than the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) doing some work here and there, the BJP has no cadre here.

Tamil Nadu is a strong Dravidian state and people do not like the State interfering in their religion.

What do you think the Congress is planning to do here? Rahul Gandhi visiting Jayalalithaa in the hospital and not calling on M Karunanidhi, it is said, irked DMK leaders.

Perhaps Rahul Gandhi is trying to bargain if an election comes soon.

Whatever you say, the Congress is in a better position in Tamil Nadu than the BJP though all the top Congress leaders have done nothing for the state and the party.

They tried to promote their sons and daughters.

How different were MGR and Jayalalithaa?

Jayalalithaa was a more authoritarian leader than MGR.

MGR cultivated a lot of second rung leaders who could have taken over his mantle. She did not, but created the Amma brand.

If MGR converted his fan base into party cadres, she did much better with women voters.

Like Jayalalithaa used MGR to grow in politics, do you think the AIADMK leaders will use Brand Amma for their survival?

Definitely, they will open more Amma canteens and have many more things under the Amma brand.

They are all populistic welfare measures and no other party will oppose it.

During the 2016 election, we saw M K Stalin emerge from his father Karunandihi's shadow.

Will we see Stalin emerge as the strongest leader in Tamil Nadu?

I feel he has already emerged as a strong leader in the last elections.

They (the DMK) lost because of poor planning.

More than one-and-a-half crore (15 million) voters are young people and Karunanidhi is not a leader for the Generation Next.

Even Stalin is 65 years old, but the youngsters accept him as he speaks their language and also presents himself well.

The disadvantages the DMK has are its poor record in law and order. Also, even at the lowest level, the party follows dynastic politics.

Other than the Communists and the BJP, the DMK was the only party that had some discipline and democracy.

But in the last 10, 15 years, nepotism and dynastic politics have taken over not only in the DMK's central leadership, but at every level.

This has weakened the party and that was why they lost this time.

How will Jayalalithaa be remembered?

She leaves behind a mixed legacy.

She will be remembered as a leader who touched the hearts of poor people.

She was an autocrat. She had stopped talking to the media and was brusque with her opponents.

She was not a soft politician and did what she wanted to do.

Yes, she was an excellent administrator, very decisive and well prepared all the time.

She will be remembered for her populist measures and managing law and order in the state.

There are many excesses when you think of her, but people will forgive her excesses and corruption.

The feeling among the people is: Who is not corrupt in politics?

IMAGES: TOP: Sasikala Natarajan at her 'akka' J Jayalalithaa's side.

BOTTOM: Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Sasikala at the late chief minister's lying in state.
Three Lashkar-e-Toiba militants were killed in a 36-hour gunbattle with security forces in Bijbehara area of Anantnag district in Kashmir which ended on Friday.

A civilian was also killed on Thursday by stray bullet during law and order problem.

"Three holed up terrorists eliminated; bodies of two terrorists & three weapons recovered," Army's Northern Command said in a tweet.

Army officials at Srinagar-based 15 Corps Headquarters, however, refused to comment on the operation.

A police official said two bodies were recovered from the debris of the house where the ultras were hiding.

The slain militants were both locals and identified as Majid Mohiuddin Zargar of Qoimoh in neighbouring Kulgam district and Ruhul Amin Dar of Vessu in Anantnag district.

"The bodies have been handed over to their kin for last rites," he said.

He said one of the bodies was severely burnt.

One army jawan was injured in the gunfight that began in the early hours on Thursday.

The security forces had cordoned off the area on Wednesday evening following information about presence of Lashkar-e-Toiba militants there.

A 24-year-old man was killed allegedly after being hit by a "stray bullet" near the site of encounter.

Arif Shah, a resident of Sangam area of Anantnag district, was hit by the "stray bullet" when security forces were dealing with a group which was indulging in stone-pelting near the encounter site, the official said.

However, locals alleged that Shah was killed in security forces action against protesters.

They also claimed that several other persons were injured in the clashes between protesters and security forces.

Meanwhile, Special Director General of Police, Coordination, Law and Order, S P Vaid termed the killing of Lashkar militants as a "major success" saying it had broken the backbone of the outfit.

"Both the killed militants were district commanders of Lashkar and with their killing, the backbone of Lashkar has been broken," Vaid said.

"It is a major success for the security forces," he said.

Image: Security forces had cordoned off the area and blew up the building using explosives, killing off the terrorists. Photograph: Umar Ganie
Three persons died and two others, including a minor boy, were rescued while several others are feared trapped as an under-construction building collapsed in Nanakramguda area in Hyderabad on Thursday night.

About 10 families, mostly labourers, were living in the premises of the building, according to Hyderabad Mayor B Rammohan.

Telangana Home Minister N Narsimha Reddy and several other leaders and officials rushed to the spot where rescue work is underway.

Reddy said violation of rules has been noticed in the construction of the building.

The home minister said different figures were being given on the number of persons trapped under the debris.

No body is saying exactly, he said.

State Excise Minister T Padma Rao said the number of persons trapped would be known only after the debris is removed.

Unless the slabs are removed, we can not say responsibly. Six slabs have fallen on one another. Neither I nor you can say... It would be known only after the slabs are removed, how many workers are there.

Some say six persons have died and some say seven died. Nobody knows how many were there and how many killed, but truth would come out only after the slabs are lifted, he said.

The immediate priority right now is to remove the debris and ascertaining how many were trapped, he said.

The government would act tough against those responsible for this tragedy for any violation of rules, the excise minister said.

Expressing anguish on the collapse of the multi-storey building, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao directed ministers from the city to take care of the rescue and relief operation.

He also directed officials to take the help of National Disaster Response Force personnel.

NDRF personnel along with workers of local administration are involved in the rescue operations, Greater Hyderabad Municipal Mayor Bonthu Ram Mohan said.

He said the rescue work took time as the way to the collapsed building is narrow. More machines have arrived for the operations, he said, adding some violation of rules have been found in the construction of the building.

The victims, who were rushed to the hospital, hail from Visakhapatnam, Chattisgarh and some of them are local residents, the Mayor said.

Photograph: PTI Photo
Calling for respecting each others legitimate aspirations, India on Friday said China should not give a political colour to its efforts to access civilian nuclear technology, a reference to Beijings opposition to its Nuclear Suppliers Group bid.

In his address to India China Think-Tanks Forum, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar also pitched for bilateral cooperation in dealing with fundamentalist terrorism, expressing dismay over the two countries not being able to come together on the issue at critical international forums.

His remarks are seen as a reference to China opposing Indias move to get Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar designated as a global terrorist by the United Nations.

Jaishankar also said, At a time of change, we should obviously pay great attention to strategic communication. This could help avoid misunderstanding and promote greater trust and cooperation.

Without mentioning Indias NSG bid, Jaishankar said there was a need for broad-basing the nuclear technology control group and stressed on deeper Indo-China cooperation on major global issues like implementation of the Paris climate agreement.

In Indias case, predictable access to civilian nuclear energy technology is key. The broad-basing of the nuclear technology control group is also helpful to a more representative international order.

Keeping in mind this solidarity of major developing states, it is important that China view this as a developmental aspiration and not give it a political colouring, he said.

Seeking deeper bilateral engagement, he said Let us at least respect each others strong sense of independence and legitimate aspirations while seeking accommodation and building trust.

Talking about the threat of terrorism, he said As diverse and pluralistic societies, we both face threats from fundamentalist terrorism. Yet, we do not seem to be able to cooperate as effectively we should in some critical international forums dealing with this subject.

The foreign secretary, without elaborating, also said, Even on sovereignty, surely there can be more sensitivity and understanding.

In an apparent reference to China not supporting Indias bid for permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council, he said, Though we have a commitment to a more democratic world order, our actions in respect of the reform of the UN Security Council are in contrast to our approaches to usher in a more equitable international economic order through reform of the existing multilateral institutions.

Jaishankar said there was need for greater convergence between the two sides in dealing with various regional and global issues and that both should not see each other as a competitor.

There are few precedents for the near-simultaneous rise of two major powers, that too in close proximity. When these powers have a tangled contemporary relationship, the process becomes even more complicated, he said, adding look at the similarities between India as a Leading Power and the China Dream.

Jaishankar said a narrative that both the countries have always been distant from each other was successfully created by western powers which had an interest in doing so.

Although India was among the earliest governments to establish ties and promote cooperation with the Peoples Republic of China, the three lost decades compel us to still play catch up with relationships that came very much later.

Viewed from the perspective of our bilateral ties, the progress in the last 28 years since we have normalised ties has been commendable, he said.

He said there has been peace and tranquillity at the Sino-India border while both sides agreed on political parameters and guiding principles for settlement of the boundary question.

Inevitably, challenges that emanate from differential logistical capabilities and a lack of commonly agreed line of actual control continue. But hopefully, as these gaps narrow, we will see a greater stability that would be helpful towards arriving at a final boundary solution, he added.

Talking about bilateral trade, he said there has been efforts to bridge the trade deficit which is in Chinas favour.

The foreign secretary said in recent years, Sino-India ties were projected and analysed by some quarters in primarily competitive terms.

This is an imbalanced picture, if only because it ignores the substantive cooperation that we have so painstakingly developed in so many fields, he said adding, one obstacle to developing greater common ground is an undue attachment to the concept of balance of power.

Major powers have to work with each other even if their interests diverge on some issues. Those powers who have more distance between them will be at a disadvantage in such a situation. It is in the mutual interest of India and China not to be in that predicament, he said.

The foreign secretary said policy changes on the Indian side have significantly improved the investment conditions for Chinese companies in India.

In fact, the sharpest change in FDI commitments since 2014 has been by Chinese companies  a testimony, in equal measure, to their confidence and our openness, he added.
SIOUX CITY | A man was fatally shot by a Sioux City police officer during a traffic stop in that city Wednesday after the officer reportedly felt threatened.

The officer, who has not yet been identified, was told that the passenger, Daniel Riedmann, 36, of Dakota Dunes, S.D., had an outstanding warrant and could be armed and dangerous, Sioux City Police Chief Doug Young said at a news conference Thursday.

The stop occurred at about 10:25 p.m. Wednesday at South Myrtle Street right off Tri View Ave, near the Central Mart, at 1203 Tri View Ave.

"The officers then reapproached the vehicle. Mr. Riedmann did not comply with the officer's demands to exit the vehicle. The vehicle was locked and as they were making their demands there were some furtive movements at which time the officer stepped back and discharged his service weapon striking Mr. Riedmann," Young said.

The officers administered first aid and Riedmann was transported to Mercy Medical Center--Sioux City by ambulance where he was pronounced dead a half an hour later, Young said.

Young did not know how many shots were fired or where Riedmann was shot. An autopsy will be performed Friday in Des Moines.

A handgun was found in the vehicle, Young said.

The police chief said this was the first time an officer had shot a suspect in about two years. The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation is overseeing the case.

The officer, who has been a member of the department for three years, has been placed on administrative leave, pending further investigation, he said.

The incident was captured on the police vehicle's dash cam, but it is not being released at this time.

The video will be released at an undisclosed time and date, Young said.

The driver of the SUV, a female, was pulled over because "there was an indication that there may be a wanted on the plate of that vehicle." Young did not know the relationship between the driver and Riedmann.

Authorities Thursday in Cedar rapids released dashcam video of a Nov. 1 traffic stop in which a white police officer, Lucas Jones, shot and paralyzed an unarmed black motorist, Jerime Mitchell.

The video was released after prosecutors announced Tuesday that a grand jury declined to charge Jones.

The county prosecutor defended the jury's Monday decision, saying Jones fired in self-defense during a scuffle in which Mitchell was trying to drive away.

Mitchell's supporters have criticized the decision because the grand jury never heard testimony from Mitchell, who disputes the officer's version.

In a statement Wednesday, Mitchell said Jones was combative. Mitchell says he got back in his truck to try to get away from an attacking police dog before Jones jumped on him and shot him.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.
As Parliament remained gridlocked over demonetisation, Rahul Gandhi on Friday thundered there will be an "earthquake" if allowed to speak on the "biggest scam", drawing ridicule from the Bharatiya Janata Party which said the Congress leader is best known for political "quackery", not quakes.

With earthquake being invoked metaphorically by the rival parties in an escalation of exchanges on note ban, BJP leader Sambit Patra scoffed at the Congress vice president, remarking that those who were the "epicentre" of scams for the last 60 years are now talking about earthquakes.

Gandhi accused the government of not allowing him to speak in Parliament on demonetisation, which he dubbed as the "biggest scam", and said he would reveal in the House what was behind the move to scrap high denomination notes.

"If they allow me to speak in Parliament, you will see what an earthquake is going to happen," he said.

Speaking to reporters outside Parliament, Gandhi said that his party wants debate on demonetisation so that the truth can come to the fore, but the government is running away from it.

Gandhi said that when he gets a chance to speak about demonetization in the House, "the prime minister will not be able to even sit there".

"The prime minister is giving speeches across the country but is afraid of coming to the Lok Sabha and is not willing to sit there," Gandhi said and asked what could be the reason for this "nervousness".

"Demonetisation is the biggest scam in the history of India.... I want to speak in Lok Sabha. I will tell everything there," Gandhi said.

The Congress leader was speaking after his party said in Lok Sabha that it was ready to debate the issue but the government demanded that it should first apologise to the people of the country for stalling Parliament proceedings for 16 days, leading to uproar and adjournment of the House.

Gandhi said initially the government spoke about black money, then moved to counterfeit currency and then again to a cashless society campaign.

He said, "I want to tell about the the biggest scam committed by Narendra Modi single handedly" and present the "voice of people, specially poor, who have suffered due to this move".

He said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should come to the House so that it can be discussed "what demonetisation is, who has benefited from this decision is and what it means for whom".

He added that the government had initially proposed debate on demonetization to which his party agreed but then the government backtracked.

"Those who were 'Epicentre' of SCAMS for the last 60 years talk of 'Earthquake' today!!," Patra tweeted. "He is to be reminded that He is best known for Political 'Quackery', not Quakes."

Union minister Venkaiah Naidu and fellow minister Smriti Irani also took a swipte at Gandhi.

"May this quake happen when we are not present in Parliament," Naidu told reporters in Bengaluru.

"Rahulji thinks too highly about his oratory skills and he himself knows how much his speeches appeal...As far as tremors are concerned. I think when he speaks there are tremors within Congress not outside," Irani said.

IMAGE: Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi addresses media outside Parliament in New Delhi. Photograph: Vijay Verma/PTI Photo
In a significant development, India and influential East Asian nation Vietnam on Friday signed a civil nuclear cooperation agreement, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserting that it will further strengthen the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries.

The two countries also signed three other agreements -- to enhance aviation links, to jointly work in the area of energy efficiency and promotion of parliamentary cooperation.

IMAGE: President of the National Assembly of Vietnam, Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan calling on the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi. Photograph: Press Information Bureau

The four pacts, aimed at boosting the relations, were signed in presence of Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and visiting President of Vietnams National Assembly Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan after their talks on enhancing the ties.

Ngan, who is leading a Vietnamese Parliamentary delegation, also met the PMwho said the Agreement on Cooperation in Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy will further strengthen the comprehensive strategic partnership between India and Vietnam.

Modi recalled his earlier meeting with Ngan in Hanoi during his visit to Vietnam in September.

He said that Ngan, as the first woman to head the National Assembly of Vietnam, is a source of inspiration to women across the world.

Modi welcomed increased parliamentary interactions between India and Vietnam, and called for instituting an exchange programme for young parliamentarians of the two countries.

The civil nuclear agreement with Vietnam, an influential East Asian nation, comes close on the heels of India signing a similar pact with Japan. Vietnam is the 14th country with which India signed the civil nuclear deal.

From the Indian side, the MoU on civil nuclear cooperation was signed by Sekhar Basu, Secretary of Department of Atomic Energy, while Pham Cong Tac, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology, signed it from the Vietnamese side.

The two countries had earlier in 1986 signed a pact in the civil nuclear field which was limited to training. However, the new agreement is broad based and encompasses research on nuclear reactors, sources said.

The cooperation in research on nuclear reactors will get activated once India gets membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, they added.

IMAGE: Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and her counterpart from Vietnam, Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan exchange their documents after signing an agreement on Cooperation between Indian and Vietnamese Parliament. Photograph: Vijay Verma/PTI Photo

An MoU on Promotion of traffic between Vietnam and India and sharing of best practices in airline operation, ground handling procedure and management was also signed between Air India and Vietjet Aviation Joint Stock Company.

Energy Efficiency Services Limited, a Public Sector Undertaking under the power ministry, and Vietnam Electricity signed an MoU on Developing a Partnership to Jointly Work in the Area of Energy Efficiency.

It was signed by Satish C Mehta, Senior Advisor in EESL, and Duong Quang Thanh, Chairman of Vietnam Electricity.

Mahajan said the Agreement on Cooperation in Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy is a remarkable development and a testimony to two countries willingness to give greater substance to their recently upgraded Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.

The Speaker pitched for enhanced engagement between the two countries and specified sectors like defence, security, energy, exploration, non conventional energy as some of the key areas of mutual benefit.

India and Vietnam can mutually benefit from each others strength, she said.

IMAGE: Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan steps outside Parliament House after her visit in New Delhi on Friday. Photograph: Kamal Singh/PTI Photo

Referring to South China Sea over which China is laying an absolute claim and is in confrontation with Vietnam and some other East Asian countries, Mahajan said India has persistently maintained that sea lanes of communication passing through that maritime area are critical for peace, stability, prosperity and development.

She recalled Indias statement following the recent award of Arbitral Tribunal on South China Sea issue and reiterated its known position for resolving disputes through peaceful means without threat or use of force and by exercising self-restraint in the conduct of activities that could complicate or escalate disputes affecting peace and stability.

As a State Party to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, India has called on all parties to show utmost respect for the UNCLOS, which establishes the international legal order of the seas and oceans, Mahajan said.

Vietnam is playing an increasingly important role in global economic affairs, the Speaker said, according to a press release issued by the Lok Sabha Secretariat.

With Indias Look East policy evolving into an Act East policy, this region has assumed even greater importance in Indias strategic thinking and economic engagement, she said.

India would like to work with the country to further strengthen the trend of shared values of democracy, pluralism, openness and inclusiveness to become the mainstay of international relations, Mahajan added.

She hailed the exceptional economic rise of Vietnam by grit and hard work coupled by its warm and friendly people and said it is indeed inspiring and heart-warming.

Noting that India and Vietnam have a healthy tradition of parliamentary exchanges and cooperation, she said this visit has added to the ever-growing friendship and goodwill between our two countries and their peoples.

The Parliament of India looks forward to sustaining this momentum, she told the Vietnamese delegation which witnessed proceedings of the Rajya Sabha earlier in the day.

Mahajan recalled Modis visit to Vietnam in September and noted that the two PMs have decided to elevate bilateral Strategic Partnership initiated in 2007 to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.

Ngan thanked the Speaker for the warm traditional hospitality extended to her delegation and hoped that the ongoing visit will further consolidate and strengthen

bilateral relations between the two countries.
IMAGE: STS-95 crew member, astronaut and US Senator John Glenn poses for his official NASA photo taken April 14, 1998. Glenn was the first American to orbit the earth and returned to space in 1998 aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery. Photograph: NASA Handout/Reuters



Former United States senator and astronaut John Glenn, who became the first American to orbit the earth, has died in Ohio.

He was 95.

We are saddened by the loss of Sen John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth. A true American hero. Godspeed, John Glenn, NASA tweeted immediately after his death was announced.

IMAGE: Glenn relaxes aboard the USS Noa after being recovered from the Atlantic near Grand Turk Island following his first orbit around the Earth on February, 20, 1962. The Noa picked him up 21 minutes after impact. Photograph: NASA Handout/ Reuters



Glenn died on Thursday at the James Cancer Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, where he was hospitalised for more than a week, the John Glenn College of Public Affairs announced on its website.

The former astronaut had been battling health issues after suffering from stroke a few years ago. He had undergone heart valve replacement surgery in 2014. His death was confirmed by Hank Wilson, communications director of the John Glenn College of Public Affairs at the Ohio State University.

IMAGE: Glenn enters Friendship 7 capsule with assistance from technicians to begin his historic flight to become the first American to orbit the Earth at Cape Canaveral's Launch Complex 14 in Florida. Photograph: NASA Handout/ Reuters



Glenn, who circled the earth three times, was the third US astronaut in space. He was the first to get into orbit.

Known for his small-town decency and calm heroics, Glenn was the last survivor of the original Mercury 7 astronauts. He later served for nine years as a Democratic senator from Ohio.

On February 20, 1962, when Glenn rocketed into space, it was momentous and nerve-racking. Space travel was in its infancy. Every launch and mission captivated the imagination of America.

He made history a second time in 1998, when he returned to space decades later at the age of 77 only to become the oldest person sent into space.

IMAGE: President John F Kennedy, John Glenn and General Leighton I Davis ride together during a parade three days after Glenn's historic spaceflight, in Cocoa Beach, Florida. Photograph: NASA Handout/ Reuters



Glenn was a highly-decorated Marine who flew 59 combat missions in the South Pacific during World War II. During the Korean War, he flew 90 combat missions, using different models of new jet fighters.

In 1974, he was elected to represent Ohio in the US Senate. Two years later, Glenns name was among the running-mate hopefuls for Democratic presidential nominee Jimmy Carter, but Carter ended up picking Sen Walter Mondale of Minnesota.

IMAGE: US President Barack Obama awards a 2012 Presidential Medal of Freedom to Glenn during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House on May 29, 2012. Photograph: Jason Reed/Reuters



He also campaigned in the Democratic primary for the 1984 presidential election, but ended up losing to Mondale.

He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the countrys highest civilian honour, in 2012, by President Barack Obama.
The winter session of Parliament appears to be headed for a virtual washout with the third week ending on Friday without transaction of any substantial business because of the Opposition ruckus over demonetisation and some other issues.

Lok Sabha

The 16-day-long deadlock over demonetisation in the Lok Sabha deepened on Friday with government hitting back at the agitating Opposition and demanding its apology for paralysing Parliament, trigerring fresh round of protests.

As soon as the House assembled for the day, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge rose to make some points but the Bharatiya Janata Party members latched on to President Pranab Mukherjees certain observations made on Thursday, to target the opposition party.

Soon, a verbal spat broke out between the two sides and the speaker adjourned the House till 11.30 pm.

When the House met again, Kharge said the Opposition was ready for debating demonetisation and has been continuously requesting for it.

"We are ready for debate on demonetisation and its repercussions," he said.

However, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar immediately shot back saying the Opposition has disrupted the House for 16 days and held it to ransom and they must tender an apology.

"For 16 days they have disrupted the House and held it hostage. Majority wanted to debate. But Congress, TMC (Trinamool Congress) and Left members are not allowing the House to function. The situation has reached such a stage that the President had to speak against the disruption. They must tender apology to the people of the country," he said.

Bharatiya Janata Party MP Meenakshi Lekhi said for protests and sit-ins, as suggested by the President, Jantar Mantar is the best place and not the Parliament and hence, the Opposition must apologise.

BJP veteran L K Advani, who had on Wednesday expressed his displeasure over the continuing impasse in the House, was at one point seen pacifying agitated ruling party members.

As the pandemonium continued, the speaker adjourned the House till noon.

The impasse continued when it re-assembled and Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar tabled a bill amid the din before the speaker adjourned the House for the day.

With four day holiday starting from Saturday, the House will meet again on Wednesday. The session, which has seen very little business being transacted, is scheduled to conclude on Friday next.

Earlier, the House remembered the Parliament attack of 2001 and recalled the courage of eight Delhi Police, Central Reserve Police Force and Parliament Security Service Personnel who had laid down their lives defending the people inside the Parliament complex. The speaker took up the matter today as the Lok Sabha will not meet on December 13.

Rajya Sabha

Angry Opposition protests over governments move to slash import duty on wheat to zero allegedly to benefit multinational firms forced adjournment of the proceedings of the Rajya Sabha twice on Friday.

Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party, Samajwadi Party, Janata Dal-United and Left members alleged that the move to slash import duty on wheat from 10 per cent to zero at a time when the country has enough buffer stock will hit the farmer hard. The move ahead of the winter wheat crop will help MNCs to dump cheap wheat from US, France and Ukraine in the country, they said.

Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said there was no shortage of wheat in the country and the decision was taken to cool down domestic prices which have shown an upward trend in recent weeks.

"Last few days, wheat prices are on the rise," he said, adding, "This is not a permanent decision," indicating it can be reviewed if need arises.

Minister of State for Agriculture Parsottambhai Rupala said the decision was necessitated as domestic prices were rising. The government uses market intervention to keep prices in check, he said, adding that the decision on import duty will be reconsidered if farmers faced problems.

Raising the issue, Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Sitaram Yechury said he had given a notice under rule 267 to suspend business of the day to discuss the decision that will ruin Indian farmers while MNCs will rake in super-profits.

Asserting that wheat prices in retail market were rising because of demonetisation, he said the farmers are already hit hard by demonetisation as they are unable to buy seeds and fertiliser due to cash shortage.

"He has to make distress sale," he said adding wheat is being sold at Rs 700-800 per qunital as against MSP of Rs 1540 fixed by the government.

Describing the move to reduce import duty as 'shameful act', he said it will lead to food riots and added he condemns the decision. "This is against the interest of the nation and its farmes. It is an anti-national act," he said.

Bhupinder Yadav (Bharatiya Janata Party) said another 267 notice cannot be taken up if debate has resumed and remained inconclusive on another notice accepted under the same rule. Deputy Chairman P J Kurien agreed with Yadav and said he is not allowing Yechurys motion.

BSP chief Mayawati said the decision will benefit the rich and was against the farmers, while Sharad Yadav (JD-U) said wheat prices have fallen in the world. He also questioned the need to allow imports when there were enough stocks available within the country.

Jairam Ramesh (Congress) said if the buffer stock is high, why were imports being allowed.

A good monsoon, perfect soil conditions and moisture also have created ideal conditions for a bumper wheat crop but reduction in duty would mean that the companies of US, France and Ukraine would get benefited and Indian farmers would go without any incentive, the senior Congress leader said.

"This is a slap on face of Indian agriculture in the year when it is celebrating 50 years of green revolution," he said adding that farmers have no cash to buy seeds and fertilisers.

"This is videsh uthan (benefit of foreigners) and anti-farmer," Ramesh said.

Sukhendu Shekhar Roy (Trinamool Congress) asked the Chair to take a sense of the House if an obituary reference should be made for the 111 persons who died standing in queues before banks and ATMs in the past one month post-demonetisation.

As Kurien moved to Zero Hour mentions, opposition members trooped in the Well raising anti-government slogans, shouting Kisan virodhi yeh sarkar nahi chalegi, nahi chalegi (anti-farmer government will not be tolerated), forcing him to adjourn the proceedings till noon.

When the House met at noon, the pleas of Chairman Hamid Ansari to allow the question hour to function went unheeded, with opposition members on their feet raising slogans.

Soon after he called for taking up the Question Hour, the opposition members including those from the Congress and the SP were in the Well and raised slogans. Slogans of Kisan virodhi yeh sarkar nahin chalegi rented the air as Chairman said that you cannot do this during Question Hour.

When Ansari again took up Question Hour, protesting Opposition members gave back a resounding No, while those from the treasury benches shouted 'Yes' waiving questions.

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said unfortunately the opposition members are not allowing the House to function. The President also appealed to members to do their job by allowing the House to function. They should be ashamed of themselves and take his advice to allow important issues to be discussed.

Naqvi alleged that the opposition members were only creating a ruckus ever since the start of the winter session.

"There are important issues that have been listed. These relate to the welfare of the poor, weaker sections, women, employees and disabled," he said.

Naqvi said they should either allow the Question Hour to function or take forward the debate on demonetisation which has remained inconclusive.

The pleas of Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad to the Chairman also did not yield any dividend. Some opposition also alleged that it was not the opposition, but the ruling party which is creating the uproar.

Yechury (Communist Party of India-Marxist) said the members wanted to speak on the issues of slashing import duty on wheat and demonetisation.

Ansari said, Nothing can be done in this noise.

Amid the continued uproar by opposition, he adjourned the House till 2.30 pm.

When the House reassembled, the issue of lack of quorum was raised by Congress leader Anand Sharma as a point of order.

Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman P J Kurien said he can raise the issue of quorum only when he starts the proceedings.

As he read out the private members business, Kurien raised the quorum issue and then directed the ringing of the quorum bell and taking a count of the members present in the House.

During this, Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad got up and said quorum was the responsibility of the government and if they cannot do it, then the responsibility should be handed over to the Opposition.

Naqvi said the Opposition has a role in running of the House as well as its adjournment. He also wanted to recite a couplet but the Chair said nothing can go on record so long as a decision on quorum is taken.

Following a final count after the bell was rung twice, Kurien adjourned the House for the day, within minutes after it reconvened, due to lack of quorum.

Interestingly, some Congress members present in the House left just seconds before the House had reassembled.

Photographs: PTI Photo
A recap of events that occurred in India in the past week.

An MP holds a copy of an old Rs 1,000 note during a protest to observe a 'Black Day' against note ban during the winter session of Parliament in New Delhi. Photograph: Vijay Verma/PTI Photo

Indian Space Research Organisation's PSLV C-36 lifts off from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. Photograph: ISRO

Trainee soldiers undergo obstacle training during a media visit to Army Service Corps Centre and College in Bengaluru. The visit showcased the insight into the rigorous military training. Photograph: Shailendra Bhojak/PTI Photo

Job seekers submit registration forms at Rozgar Mela 2016', organised as a part of Prime Minister Skill Development Plan, in Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh. Photograph: PTI Photo

Bajrang Dal activists burn an effigy of National Conference president Farooq Abdullah n Jammu for his remarks in support of separatist Hurriyat Conference. Photograph: PTI Photo

Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh with Yoga guru Baba Ramdev at Agenda Aaj Tak 2016 Summit in New Delhi. Photograph: PTI Photo

Officers of the Kendriya Sainik Board pin a flag in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's jacket on the occasion of Armed Forces Flag Day in New Delhi. Photograph: PTI Photo

Tourists visit a fog-engulfed Taj Mahal. Photograph: PTI Photo

Students of Everwin School in Chennai pay tribute to former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa. Photograph: R Senthil Kumar/PTI Photo

A boat carrying passengers with their motorbikes sails through the Brahmaputra river in Guwahati. Photograph: PTI Photo
On Thursday, the Business Advisory Committee of the Lok Sabha, which allocates time for the Bills and discussions to be taken up for the forthcoming week, met, but the government strategists didn't ask the members to allocate time for the GST Bills for the next week.

Business Standard's Archis Mohan and Amit Agnihotri report.

Demonetisation is on course to claim yet another victim.

The roll-out of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime is set to miss the April 1, 2017 deadline.

It looks increasingly improbable that the three GST enabling Bills -- the Central GST, Integrated GST and State GST -- could be passed in the remainder of the ongoing winter session of Parliament, which concludes on December 16.

While the GST Council is set to meet on Sunday and Monday to discuss the drafts of these three Bills, Parliament will have two holidays -- on Monday and Tuesday on account of Eid Milad-un-Nabi -- with the session left with only three days to discuss the three Bills, if the GST Council meeting manages to reach a consensus.

However, that looks unlikely.

Opposition-ruled state governments, particularly the Trinamool Congress-ruled West Bengal and Left-ruled Kerala, want the GST delayed.

They have argued that demonetisation has hurt their finances, which would not be able to withstand the pressure of the GST roll-out.

Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra on Thursday said the state government has suffered a loss of Rs 7,000 crore (Rs 70 billion) in revenue.

Opposition sources, including that in the Congress, said non-National Democratic Alliance ruled state governments were united in their demand for a delayed GST roll-out. However, they put the blame on the government for the situation,

Communist Party of India-Marxist General Secretary Sitaram Yechury on Thursday said the GST draft Bills were yet to be circulated.

"Various state finance ministers have highlighted the revenue loss because of demonetisation. The GST tax slabs were worked out on the basis of revenues of the last year. These rates, in the post demonetisation context, are meaningless," Yechury said.

Opposition parties also point out it wasn't them who were proving to be a stumbling block, but the Narendra Modi government's resolve to roll out the GST by April 1 has weakened after demonetisation.

The three GST Bills are money Bills to be taken up by the Lok Sabha.

On Thursday, the Business Advisory Committee of the Lok Sabha, which allocates time for the Bills and discussions to be taken up for the forthcoming week, met, but the government strategists didn't ask the members to allocate time for the GST Bills for the next week.

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has cautioned of a Constitutional crisis if the GST is not rolled out by mid-September 2017, the one-year validity of the GST Constitution (amendment) Bill.

However, Yechury disagreed. "This might be his interpretation, but there are ways out of that imbroglio," he said.

Constitutional expert Subhash Kashyap, a former Lok Sabha secretary general, says such a situation was unlikely to arise, but even if it does there are ways out.

The next window for the passage of the GST Bills is the Budget session, which is likely to begin in end-January, with the Budget set to be presented on February 1.

The passage of three Bills during the Budget session, which is primarily devoted to discussing Budget-related issues, could still make it possible for the government to have the GST roll-out before the mid-September deadline.

However, for this the government would need to engage with the Opposition parties, particularly the Congress.

The Congress is against the four slab tax structure.

Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi is against the upper limit of 28% as he strongly supported an 18% cap. He is of the view that any rate above 18% will adversely impact small traders and consumers and that the Congress should be seen as championing the cause of the consumers.

Photograph: Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters
As Congress President Sonia Gandhi turns 70, here's recalling her extraordinary life in pictures.

In 1968, Sonia Gandhi could not have imagined the twists her life would take when she married Rajiv Gandhi, the elder son of then prime minister Indira Gandhi, a pilot with Indian Airlines with no political ambitions whatsoever.

But fate, it seems, had other plans for her. First, her brother-in-law Sanjay Gandhi's untimely death in an aircrash in June 1980 forced her husband into the world of politics to help his mother -- 'I fought like a tigress against it,' she has said many times about that time.

Second, four years later, when her mother-in-law was shot down by her bodyguards in her home, Rajiv Gandhi was catapulted into the prime ministership and Sonia Gandhi, for whom the world of politics had been an entirely different universe, was exposed to it from up close along with her husband, who had won the biggest electoral mandate ever in India.

Fate played its cruel hand once again, in May 1991, when Rajiv Gandhi was killed in a bomb blast by Sri Lankan Tamil assassins outside Chennai.

As the Congress party looked to her for leadership, Sonia remained unmoved. She would have nothing to do with the world of politics, she was determined.

Yet, in 1998, as the Congress party hurtled from one electoral rout after another, she finally yielded to the call of the partymen and assumed the role of Congress president.

Six years later, she would lead the party to power at the head of an electoral alliance, and repeat the feat in 2009.

2014 marked the Congress' lowest point in its electoral history; yet, as Sonia Gandhi said in a recent television interview, ups and downs are part of politics. She ought to know.

From 1968, when she married into the Nehru-Gandhi family, she has observed from up close the vicissitudes of politics.

As the Congress president turns 70, here's looking back at her life since the time she was a foreign-born daughter-in-law in India's most powerful political family, to the time she emerged as one of the key players in India's politics.

IMAGE: Prime Minister Indira Gandhi lays a wreath at Shantivan, New Delhi, on May 27, 1983, on the occasion of her father and the country's first prime minister,Jawaharlal Nehru's 19th death anniversary.

To her left is a young Priyanka Gandhi, and behind her are Rahul and Sonia Gandhi.

IMAGE: Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi, photographed during a visit to the US in 1982. Rajiv was a member of Parliament from Amethi then, elected to the Lok Sabha in August 1981 after his brother Sanjay perished in an air crash in June 1980.

IMAGE: Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia settle down for a traditional meal served on a banana leaf during a tour of Tamil Nadu.

IMAGE: Rajiv and Sonia catch the sunset at the Sam sand dunes during a desert safari in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, August 9, 1985.

IMAGE: Rajiv and Sonia inaugurate a drinking water supply scheme at Challakere village in Chitradurga district, Karnataka, April 12, 1986.

IMAGE: Sonia casts her vote from the New Delhi parliamentary constituency in the Lok Sabha elections, November 1989. Photograph: PTI Photo

IMAGE: Rajiv and Sonia pose with a Punjab folk dance contingent that had called on them at the prime minister's residence in New Delhi, January 29, 1985.

IMAGE: Sonia, accompanied by daughter Priyanka, attends her first public meeting after her husband's death in his constituency Amethi in August 1995.

IMAGE: Sonia campaigns for Bollywood star Govinda, her party's nominee from the Mumbai North constituency in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, at Vasai.

The election results stunned the ruling BJP, and the Congress went on form the United Progressive Alliance with like-minded parties to rule the country for 10 years.

Photograph: Jewella C Miranda for Rediff.com.

IMAGE: Sonia, the longest-serving Congress president, visits Uttar Pradesh for an election meeting.

IMAGE: The Congress president with her son and heir apparent, party vice-president Rahul Gandhi, discuss strategy following the party's abysmal performance in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

Will the party overcome the worst phase of its existence?

Sonia believes it will.

Photograph: Reuters
MASON CITY | A retirement reception will be held from 1 to 4 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 15, in the Mason City Room at the Mason City Public Library for Terry Harrison and Joyce Colombo, two longtime library employees.

Harrison has been the historian and archivist in the History Department for 25 years. He has been involved in research for various publications and documentaries, as well as assisting patrons in their search of local history.

Colombo, head of information services, has worked at the library for more than 32 years, beginning as the assistant childrens librarian.
MASON CITY | Students showed off their accomplishments with competency based education during a visit by the Iowa Competency-based State Collaborative Thursday.

Lincoln Intermediate sixth-graders gathered in the makerspace, an area shared with the library that has sewing machines, robots and a 3-D printer, to be observed by the collaborative.

We get to showcase our work and our students hard work, said Susan Pecinovsky, executive director of curriculum and instruction. The students are engaged in learning because they have voice and choice in what and how they learn.

The Iowa Competency-based State Collaborative brought educators from other school districts to see how Mason City is implementing the program. Mason City is in the fourth year of the five-year program.

Competency-based education is a flexible and more individualized learning style that allows students to progress at their own pace using traditional and digital tools.

The program offers a simpler grading scale that emphasizes proficiency and allows learners to move on after demonstrating mastery of a particular concept or subject. The goal is to help personalize students learning.

Sara Nickel, an AEA 267 consultant for school improvement based in Marshalltown, said the opportunity to observe Mason City students is helping her get up to speed on competency-based education.

Its very innovative and very new, Nickel said.

Lincoln Intermediate to share makerspace with Mason City community Thursday MASON CITY  It was full STEAM ahead for Lincoln Intermediates makerspace on Tuesday, where

Teachers and students are enjoying the more flexible learning style.

Sixth-grader Colton Bailey was drawn to sewing. Time in the makerspace allowed him to pursue the skill and use it for home-economics style projects.

My sister got a sewing machine about a year ago, Bailey said. I fiddled around with it and started to learn how to use it.

Bailey thought sewing might be a good skill and hobby to pursue in the winter, when its too cold to be outside. Hes working on a lunch card holder or an ID sleeve to use in school.

Im learning how to make the corners more neat and strong, Bailey said.

He hopes to perfect his skills and be able to make a pillow case over the winter.

Sixth-grade science and social studies teacher Morgan Leider said the program allows students to learn new skills they might not have access to otherwise.

Sixth-grader Leighton Benn filmed and edited a video of himself cooking breakfast for a science-oriented project.

Humans are omnivores and he decided to show that through cooking, Leider said.

The project allowed him to show what hes learned in school by cooking eggs and toast. He also used tech skills by video editing.

I picked it because I like cooking, Benn said. I really enjoy projects.

Each family  a group of three classes  gets up to two and a half hours in the makerspace each week to learn new skills and work on projects.

Projects can use videos, displays and PowerPoint. With the help of tablet-controlled robots, intermediate students are also learning to code.

Mason City is one of 10 districts in Iowa who have implemented the project.

The other districts include Cedar Rapids, Collins-Maxwell, East Union, Howard-Winneshiek, Marshalltown, Muscatine, Nevada, Spirit Lake and Van Meter.

The group then visited John Adams Middle School in the afternoon to observe how students have benefited from the new program.
6:30 p.m. update

MASON CITY  Parts of North Iowa could receive up to a foot of snow this weekend, forecasters now say.

The National Weather Service now says a widespread 4-8 inches of snow is expected over northern Iowa, with more snow expected for the northern-most and northeastern parts of the state.

One of the agency's forecast models released at 4:40 p.m. Friday predicts a swath of 8-12 inches of snow from northern Kossuth County down to Waterloo. This includes much of North Iowa, including Mason City.

The snow is expected to start late Sunday morning in Northwest Iowa and move east. Forecasters say it should be over Sunday afternoon.

Southeast winds of 15-25 mph with gusts up to 30 mph are expected to make travel hazardous.

Check back at globegazette.com for the latest on this developing story.

WEATHER: Mason City orders alternate side parking for snowstorm

1 p.m. update

MASON CITY | Due to the forecast for measurable snow, the Alternate Side Parking Ordinance and Emergency Snow Route are in effect in Mason City beginning at 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 9 until further notice.

This means:

-- Parking is permitted on the odd numbered side of the street on odd numbered days of the month and on even numbered side of the street on even numbered days of the month.

- People should move their vehicle(s) from one side of the street to the other between 4 and 7 p.m. the night before.

- On cul-de-sacs bearing consecutive numbers, parking is prohibited according to the schedule for the street to which it connects.

During alternate side parking, signs prohibiting parking at all times on one side of the street only will not be enforced and alternate side parking regulations will be in effect.

- Alternate side parking regulations have no effect on streets where parking is prohibited on both sides.

- The emergency snow route, which includes First Street Northwest from Monroe Avenue to Pierce Avenue will be in effect. No parking is allowed in this area.

Alternate side parking does not apply to Highway 122 and Highway 65 south of Eighth Street South and north of Fifth Street North, nor to the business district -- the area bounded by and including all streets between Connecticut Avenue on the east, Jefferson Avenue on the west, Fourth Street South on the south, and Fifth Street North on the north.

(Exception: Parking is permitted within 100 feet of the main entrance of a commercial business on the side adjacent to the building during regular business hours.)

Check back at globegazette.com for the latest on this developing story.

WEATHER: Winter weather advisory issued for North Iowa

11:45 a.m. update

MASON CITY | Snowfall Saturday and Sunday could make for difficult driving conditions across much of the northern half of the state, forecasters say.

Officials expect 3-6 inches of snow north of Highway 30, which runs through Ames, starting about mid-afternoon on Saturday, according to a National Weather Service winter weather advisory.

As of 11:45 a.m., the forecast for Mason City still called for 4-10 inches of snow:

* 1-3 inches during the day on Saturday.

* 2-4 inches Saturday night.

* 1-3 inches during the day on Sunday.

Forecasters expect the snow last through Sunday night.

The advisory is in effect from 2 p.m. Saturday to 6 p.m. Sunday.

The advisory extends well beyond North Iowa, including much of eastern Iowa and extending down south of Des Moines.

Southeast winds of 10-15 mph with gusts up to 25 mph could cause visibility issues Saturday afternoon.

Check back at globegazette.com for the latest on this developing story.

Up to 10 inches of snow possible in North Iowa this weekend, forecasters say

10 a.m. update

MASON CITY | North Iowa could see as much as 10 inches of snow by Sunday, according to some forecast reports.

The National Weather Service predicts 1 to 3 inches during the day Saturday.

The storm should pick up after 1 p.m. Saturday with a high near 20 and wind chills as low as zero.

North Iowa should see more accumulation in the evening, with 2 to 4 inches expected and wind gusts as high as 20 mph. An additional 1 to 3 inches is expected Sunday before 1 p.m.

Snow flurries are possible Monday with a high near 21 degrees.

After Monday, the temperature is expected to drop to single digits for the remainder of the week.

AccuWeather forecasts say Mason City could see 6 to 10 inches total for the storm.

Check back at globegazette.com for the latest on this developing story.
Recently, in my Bible reading, I came to the book of Jonah (I've been working through the Minor Prophets). It struck me how remarkable this message is compared to everything else in the ancient world. Homer was a contemporary of Jonah (mid 8th century b.c.), and his epic books of the early Grecian world fascinate readers today with themes of war and peace, honor and disgrace, love and hatred. A few decades later, Hesiod would put down the definitive version of Greek mythology, starting with the god Chaos and ending up with the petty, self-absorbed deities of the pantheon. In such radical contrast, Jonah tells of the prophet's frustration with God amidst the terrors of the Assyrian threat to Israel. What is Jonah's complaint? That God has grace for the wicked. The Lord sends his prophet to preach judgment to the capital of the enemy nation. But Jonah knows the Lord intends mercy through repentance and faith. The final chapter of Jonah explores the pathos of a holy man who struggles to embrace the surpassing grace of a God who forgives the ungodly out of his own wellspring of love. As literature, where will you find something to rival this message, which is also the sacred revelation of the true and living God?

I wonder as we read our Bibles, returning to long-familiar books like Jonah, if we realize that we are encountering a message that is like nothing else in all the world. Where else will you discover that your own sin is the great problem of your life - not the sins of others and the petty squabbles about which you obsess - and that a God of love is working in you to surrender to his grace. Where else in all the world will you discover a message that tells you to rest in the mercy of God and spread his gospel of hope to all the world? The answer is that there is nothing like the Word of God in all the world. As Micah marveled right around the time that Hesiod was conjuring up tales of Zeus and his cronies: "Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in showing mercy" (Mic. 7:18). There is no God like our God. There is nothing in all the world so marvelous and true as his gospel of grace.
Uzbekistan: Human Rights Agenda for the New President

Publisher Human Rights Watch Publication Date 9 December 2016 Cite as Human Rights Watch, Uzbekistan: Human Rights Agenda for the New President, 9 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/584aa57a4.html [accessed 3 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Uzbekistan's incoming government should take concrete steps to improve the country's abysmal human rights record, Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to President-elect Shavkat Mirziyoyev. Human Rights Watch identified key reform areas, ranging from freeing political prisoners to upholding religious freedom to cooperating with UN rights bodies, that Mirziyoyev and his new administration should take on during their five years in office.

During Mirziyoyev's campaign he promised increased accountability of the government to citizens and acknowledged the lack of reform in key aspects of Uzbekistan's society, including the economy and the criminal justice system.

"During his presidential campaign, Mirziyoyev appeared to appeal to the Uzbek voters' desire for change by promising to make the Uzbek government more accountable to the people," said Steve Swerdlow, Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. "Mirziyoyev has an opportunity to begin a new chapter in Uzbekistan's history, but he'll need to address past and ongoing human rights abuses to prove that his presidency is more than just campaign promises."

This month Mirziyoyev will be inaugurated as Uzbekistan's second president. He was officially declared the winner of the December 4, 2016, presidential election although serious restrictions and denial of basic rights prevented the elections from being free or fair.

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) said that "while the election administration took measures to enhance the transparency of its workthe dominant position of state actors and limits on fundamental freedoms undermine political pluralism and led to a campaign devoid of genuine competition."

Human Rights Watch urged Mirziyoyev and his administration to take the following steps:

Free Political Prisoners: Ensure the immediate and unconditional release of all those held on politically motivated charges, including political and civic activists, journalists, lawyers, and rights defenders, and allow them to continue their peaceful activities.

Cooperate with UN Rights Bodies: Reverse the government's policy of non-cooperation with international institutions, particularly United Nations human rights mechanisms, by allowing the 14 UN human rights experts who have requested access in as many years to Uzbekistan.

End Torture: Take meaningful measures to end the torture and ill-treatment that are widespread in Uzbekistan and allow the International Committee of the Red Cross, along with other human rights groups, to operate normally in the country and monitor conditions at detention sites.

Remove Media Restrictions: Ensure genuine media freedom, including by ending the routine blocking of numerous internet websites and the harassment of journalists, and allow domestic and international media outlets, including those that have been forced to stop operating in Uzbekistan, to register and grant accreditation to foreign journalists.

Unshackle Civil Society: End the crackdown on independent groups and activists and allow domestic and international human rights organizations to operate without government interference, including by promptly re-registering those that have been liquidated or otherwise forced to cease operating in Uzbekistan, and issuing visas and accreditation for staff of international nongovernmental organizations.

Guarantee Freedom of Religion: Uphold Uzbekistan's obligations to guarantee freedom of religion or belief, including by releasing religious believers imprisoned on overbroad "extremism" charges and relaxing the restrictions on religious worship and education.

End Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Discrimination: Decriminalize consensual sexual relations between men and take steps to end homophobia and discrimination against the LGBT community.

End Forced Labor: End forced labor in the cotton sector, allow truly independent monitoring, involve independent nongovernmental organizations in assessments of the cotton harvest, and put an end to retaliation against independent activists who monitor the government's practices in the cotton sector.

Allow Independent Investigation of the Andijan Massacre: Accept the recommendations by numerous governments to allow an independent, international inquiry to investigate the killings during a protest in Andijan on May 13, 2005, and communicate to the public a willingness to allow discussions and a critical examination of the Andijan events.

Human Rights Watch also said that Mirziyoyev and his government should allow Human Rights Watch staff, including its Uzbekistan researcher, to visit Uzbekistan to discuss these issues with the new administration. "We sincerely hope that your inauguration signals a new willingness on the part of the Uzbek government to engage with international human rights organizations," the Human Rights Watch letter said.

"Uzbekistan faces serious economic, social, and security challenges," Swerdlow said. "The real test for Uzbekistan's new president will be whether he will carry out his campaign promises while improving respect for human rights."

Copyright notice:  Copyright, Human Rights Watch
EU: Pressure on Greece for Dublin returns is 'hypocritical'

Publisher Amnesty International Publication Date 8 December 2016 Cite as Amnesty International, EU: Pressure on Greece for Dublin returns is 'hypocritical', 8 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/584aa5fd4.html [accessed 3 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

European Commission pressure on Greece to improve conditions so that Dublin transfers to Greece can resume is hypocritical, as one of the main reasons why conditions for refugees in Greece - particularly on the islands - are so dire, is the EU's deal with Turkey, said Amnesty International.

The reaction comes in response to an announcement today by the European Commission that EU member states will be able to return migrants to Greece from mid-March.

"It seems that for the European Commission all roads for refugees lead to Greece. It is outrageously hypocritical of the European Commission to insinuate that Greece alone is to blame for dire conditions, when the overcrowding and insecure climate on the Greek islands are for the most part caused by the EU-Turkey deal, and compounded by the lack of solidarity from other EU countries to relocate people," said Iverna McGowan, Director of Amnesty International's European Institution's Office.

"Asylum-seekers on the Greek islands face overcrowding, freezing temperatures, lack of hot water, violence and hate-motivated attacks. While we have long called for reception conditions to improve, forcing refugees to stay on the islands only so that they can be returned to Turkey, in line with Turkey's interpretation of the deal, is inhumane. Pressure on Greece must be immediately alleviated, not increased.

Amnesty International recommends that to alleviate pressure on Greece:

Asylum seekers should urgently be transferred from the islands to the mainland;

They should be reunited with their families in other countries;

Relocation to other European countries who have committed to take refugees from Greece should be sped up.

Copyright notice:  Copyright Amnesty International
Azerbaijan: A decade in jail for graffiti activist is a shameless attempt to stifle criticism

Publisher Amnesty International Publication Date 8 December 2016 Cite as Amnesty International, Azerbaijan: A decade in jail for graffiti activist is a shameless attempt to stifle criticism, 8 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/584aa65c4.html [accessed 3 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

A 10-year jail sentence handed by the Baku Court of Grave Crimes in Azerbaijan to Bayram Mammadov, a youth activist who has been detained since May 2016 after spraying graffiti on a statue of the former President of Azerbaijan, is a shameless attempt by the Azerbaijani authorities to crush dissent out of existence, Amnesty International said today.

"Bayram Mammadov was arrested for painting a slogan on a statue, and was later tortured into 'confessing' to serious drug crimes. The charges against him were clearly fabricated with the sole purpose of punishing him for his activism. This outrageously long sentence following already prolonged, unnecessary and arbitrary detention is a blow to all peaceful activists in Azerbaijan," said Denis Krivosheev, Deputy Director for Europe and Central Asia at Amnesty International.

"The Azerbaijani authorities continue to show utter contempt to freedom of expression, and seem so determined to silence every last critic that they are willing to trample on the truth. They must also carry out an independent investigation into the torture and other ill-treatment he was subjected to."

Bayram Mammadov and fellow activist Giyas Ibrahimov were arrested on 9 May 2016, after Mammadov posted a photo on Facebook of graffiti they had painted on a statue of Heydar Aliyev, the late former President of Azerbaijan and the father of the current President Ilham Aliyev. Giyas Ibrahimov was sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment on 25 October by the Baku Grave Crimes Court for drug-related charges

Police claim they discovered around eight grams of heroin in their possession, but the activists say this was planted, and that during questioning they were only asked questions about the graffiti. Police officers repeatedly demanded that the activists publicly apologize for insulting Heydar Aliyev and subjected them to severe beatings when they refused. Their lawyer says that they were covered with bruises after being interrogated and threatened with rape. Reportedly, they were also forced to clean the police station's toilets while being filmed as a form of humiliation.

Bayram Mammadov and Giyas Ibrahimov feature in Amnesty International's 2016 Write for Rights campaign. This December millions of people around the world will call on President Ilham Aliyev to release Bayram Mammadov and Giyas Ibrahimov immediately and unconditionally.

Background

Giyas Ibrahimov and Bayram Mammadov are students and members of NIDA, a pro-democracy youth movement. The graffiti for which they were arrested read "Happy Slave Day", a play on the slogan "Happy Flower Day" which is celebrated on 10 May, the former president's birthday. On the other side of the statue the activists used obscene language in messages of political protest.

Civil society and political dissent are harshly repressed in Azerbaijan, with human rights organizations frequently harassed and persecuted. All mainstream media is under government control. Independent outlets face harassment and closure and independent journalists face intimidation, harassment, threats and violence.

Copyright notice:  Copyright Amnesty International
Sudan: Arrest of leading human rights activist underscores crackdown on dissent

Publisher Amnesty International Publication Date 8 December 2016 Cite as Amnesty International, Sudan: Arrest of leading human rights activist underscores crackdown on dissent, 8 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/584aa71e4.html [accessed 3 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

The arrest of award-winning Sudanese human rights activist Dr Mudawi Ibrahim Adam is further proof of the government's intolerance of independent voices, said Amnesty International after his employer confirmed today that state agents arrested him in Khartoum on 7 December.

He was arrested by National Intelligence Security Service agents at the University of Khartoum, where he works as an engineering professor, and taken to an undisclosed location, where he is at grave risk of torture and other ill-treatment.

He has not been informed of the reasons for his arrest or charged with any offence.

"Mudawi's arbitrary arrest underscores the government's desperate attempts to extinguish the last embers of dissent in the country. This wanton repression and disregard for human rights must come to an end," said Michelle Kagari, Amnesty International's Deputy Regional Director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes.

"The authorities must immediately and unconditionally release him and all other detainees who have been arrested arbitrarily, and take measures to rein in the excessive powers of the National Intelligence Security Service."

Mudawi, 58, has worked extensively on human rights causes throughout Sudan. In 2005, he was awarded the Human Rights Defenders at Risk Award by Front Line Defenders, a Dublin-based human rights organization.

His arrest comes at a time when at least 23 opposition leaders and supporters are in jail having been arrested in connection with a three-day stay-at-home strike called in protest against the rising cost of living and government spending cuts. The strike took place between 27 to 29 November.

It is not the first time Mudawi has been arrested. In December 2003 he was detained for eight months in connection with his work on Darfur. He was arrested again in January 2005 in similar circumstances and held for two months, before being re-arrested in May the same year and held for a further eight days.

His organization, the Sudan Social Development Organization (SUDO), was shut down by the government in March 2009.

Copyright notice:  Copyright Amnesty International
Kony's killers  are child soldiers accountable when they become men?

Publisher IRIN Author Samuel Okiror Publication Date 5 December 2016 Cite as IRIN, Kony's killers  are child soldiers accountable when they become men?, 5 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/584aa89a4.html [accessed 3 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

The trial of Dominic Ongwen, a senior member of the notorious Lord's Resistance Army, opens on Tuesday before the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Many horrors will be recounted, but the case also throws up deep ethical questions: is a child, brutalised and turned into a killer, fully responsible for his or her actions? If the abuses of government forces aren't also being investigated, at what point does it become victor's justice?

Abducted by the LRA at the age of 10, Ongwen became a protege of rebel leader Joseph Kony and was forced to witness and carry out acts of extreme violence. He will be appearing before Trial Chamber IX to answer 70 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. They include allegations of murder, rape, sexual slavery, torture, pillaging, and the conscription of children aged under 15 for combat.

It is the first time in the history of the ICC where the alleged perpetrator himself was a child soldier.

"I know it's a delicate balance. It's about accountability. It's about whether Ongwen was responsible for the atrocities or not," Herman von Hebel, the ICC registrar, told reporters on Monday in the Ugandan capital, Kampala.

Sympathy

In northern Uganda, epicentre of the two-decade-long insurgency, Ongwen is not uniformly thought of as a monster. Among many former LRA child soldiers, now back in their communities after amnesty and reconciliation programmes, there is sympathy.

Like Ongwen, they were forced to commit serious crimes, and some fault the government for not having protected them.

"He is a victim and not an abuser," Thomas Otim, a former LRA combatant, told IRIN. "Ongwen, like many of us, had to obey and execute Kony's orders. If he didn't, he could have been killed. He should be forgiven and pardoned."

Even some LRA victims agree with Otim. Sarah Angee lost her parents and relatives in an LRA attack in her northern home district of Amuru.

"As a victim and survivor, I have accepted to forgive Ongwen for the atrocities and suffering he caused," she told IRIN. "As a child soldier, he was conscripted and indoctrinated to kill, maim, rape women, mutilate, attack camps, abduct children, and other horrible atrocities."

The LRA terrorised northern Uganda between 1987 and 2006. It emerged in the tumult of a divided Uganda, in which President Yoweri Museveni's southern-based National Resistance Movement had fought its way to Kampala and overthrown the short-lived military rule of Tito Okello, an Acholi. Although the LRA was an Acholi-based movement, its victims were overwhelmingly from its own community.

In 2000, the government introduced a blanket amnesty for anyone who abandoned the group and renounced involvement in the war. Close to 30,000 took up the offer, but the government subsequently excluded the most senior commanders like Ongwen.

He is the only one of five indicted LRA figures to have surrendered, giving himself up in Central African Republic in January 2015. With the exception of Kony, the other three wanted men are believed to be dead.

Rather than the ICC's retributive justice, Angee would like to see Ongwen pardoned and, like many of the ex-LRA who returned home, enrolled in a traditional Acholi reconciliation process known as Mato Oput.

"Let the ICC leave him to come back home and be given amnesty like other top LRA commanders. He will be cleansed and reconciled with the relatives and communities that he wronged and offended during the conflict through [our] local mechanism," she said.

Meeting Ongwen

But Betty Oyella Bigombe, a senior director at the World Bank who  as a state minister for northern Uganda  worked for years to broker an end to the conflict, disagrees with the notion of pardoning Ongwen.

"I met Ongwen during the peace talks. He was the most hostile. I was very scared of him," she told IRIN. "Ongwen can't be left to get off scot-free. It's true, Ongwen was abducted. It's true, he was a victim. But, like so many others, he had an opportunity to defect. But he didn't surrender for all those years. This raises a moral question. Why didn't he?

"I am a stronger believer in forgiveness. But forgiveness has to have a limit. Forgiveness has to have reasons. Victims never really recover if justice is never there. It wouldn't be good to see Ongwen in a suit driving a car and [the victims] have nothing," she said.

"Whatever comes out of it [the trial] can be discussed," she added. "[But] I also think this is important for the existence of the ICC. The ICC was created to protect the voiceless. It acts as deterrence so that any other person who has those intentions in future should know the consequences."

Why mixed feelings?

Phil Clark, a Great Lakes expert at SOAS, University of London, believes victims' feelings toward Ongwen are mixed, and filtered through their own experiences.

"Many victims I have interviewed say they have children just like Ongwen  children who were abducted but who committed horrific atrocities, including back in their home communities. These victims therefore hate the crimes Ongwen has committed, but are sympathetic to him because of the way he was forced into the rebel ranks," he told IRIN.

Lino Owora Ogora, a transitional justice and peace-building activist based in the main northern city of Gulu, agrees with Clark over the tangled emotions stirred by the case.

"The sentiments of victims towards forgiveness can also be explained by the fact that for a long time amnesty was promoted and embraced by the people as a means of ending the conflict," he noted. "Because many commanders who surrendered before Ongwen were granted amnesty, the people feel he also deserves amnesty."

"Yes, I think the government politicised and manipulated the ICC in the war against the LRA. The government used the ICC to isolate the LRA from the international community and to officially label the LRA a terrorist organisation," said Ogora.

"How else can you explain the fact that today the same government that invited in the ICC in the first place is the same government that has turned into a bitter critic of the ICC, with President Museveni openly calling the ICC a 'bunch of useless people'?"

But Clark also faults the ICC. "As part of the pre-referral negotiations, the ICC prosecutor promised the government there would be no investigations of state actors as long as the government cooperated with the court. The Ugandan government was only too willing to cooperate. This meant the ICC would target the government's opponents such as the LRA while protecting the state from the threat of prosecution," he said.

"In the eyes of affected communities in northern Uganda, this immediately delegitimises the ICC," Clark suggested. "Local communities view both the LRA and the government as responsible for the atrocities they have suffered. Some communities even see government crimes as worse because the state  unlike rebels  is supposed to guarantee citizens' protection and security."

Government crimes

Ongwen's call to the dock on Tuesday has prompted fresh calls for investigations into alleged crimes committed by the army, the Ugandan People's Defence Force, during the long counter-insurgency war in the north, in which human rights violations were committed.

"We need a full accounting for the atrocities, where both parties involved in the conflict have to account. The absence of accountability from the UPDF side will always remain an issue if not addressed," said Joyce Freda Apio, a transitional justice expert.

"The heavy reliance by the Office of the Prosecutor on evidence gathered by Ugandan military intelligence raises concern if what is being pursued is the victor's justice," she told IRIN.

Clark said that by ignoring government atrocities "for the sake of expediency", the ICC had destroyed its reputation among the local communities.

"They see the court and the government as one and the same  and blame the court for protecting and even emboldening the state to continue committing crimes. For example, its violent crackdown against civilians in the three national elections held since the ICC intervened in Uganda."

But Bigombe, the World Bank director and former state minister, sees that as disingenuous. "There have been complaints, but no organisation has communicated to [the] ICC and said, 'Could you investigate UPDF as well?' The ICC as an institution will not deal with outcries and rumours. If there was a letter or invitation to invite ICC to investigate the UPDF for their role in northern Uganda, I would be surprised if ICC turned their back."

The Ugandan government referred the LRA case to the ICC in 2004  alleged UPDF atrocities were not in the terms of reference. However, the government argues that it has always investigated allegations against its soldiers, and those found guilty have been punished harshly.

But there was also the government's controversial strategy to force most of the population of the north into "protected villages", a policy condemned by rights groups and local politicians.

Ongwen will enter a plea of guilty or not guilty to the charges being brought against him on Tuesday. The court will then adjourn to 16 January, when the prosecution will begin presenting its evidence. It's a case Ugandans will follow with rapt attention.

A decade on from leaving Uganda, the LRA now numbers just a few hundred, operating in the remotest regions of the Congo, CAR and Sudan, but the legacy of the group's violence still casts a long shadow over people's lives.
The challenge of building "New Gambia"

Publisher IRIN Author Louise Hunt Publication Date 6 December 2016 Cite as IRIN, The challenge of building "New Gambia", 6 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/584aa9014.html [accessed 3 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Last Friday, the unbelievable happened in Gambia: after 22 years of autocratic rule, Yahya Jammeh peacefully conceded defeat in a historic presidential election. By Monday, 19 political prisoners, including former opposition leader Ousainou Darboe, had been released from jail.

It has been a head-spinning few days for the nation as it breaks free from oppression to rebuild what the incoming coalition government, headed by Adama Barrow, has branded "New Gambia".

The challenges ahead are daunting. Ensuring a safe transfer of power and reassuring the country that the new government has a strong reform plan are the immediate tasks.

But after more than two decades of misrule, Gambians are also impatient for change and the list of problems is long: a prostrate and undiversified economy, a high rate of outmigration, heavily politicised state institutions - including a military and a criminal justice system used to operating by fear.

Expectations are sky-high as so much already seems to have happened so quickly.

Coalition 2016, officially formed only one month before the election, swept to victory on Friday with 46 percent of the vote, to Jammeh's 37 percent. Independent candidate Mama Kandeh trailed on 18 percent.

Soon after the announcement that Jammeh was to stand down, delivered by the reportedly trembling chair of the Independent Electoral Commission, Gambians began pouring onto the streets, shouting for joy and dancing as car horns wailed.

Jubilation

The jubilant scenes shared through social media were a collective release. "It was like we had been under a magician's spell and the spell had just broken," said Alieu Bah, a 24-year-old activist and writer.

"Twenty four hours earlier we were in the polar opposite situation. It was like a dream. No one saw this coming, even the most optimistic of people."

The coalition's popularity was no surprise. Its two weeks of electoral campaigning had culminated in youthful and energised crowds packing streets for several kilometres in the rallies held in the urban coastal areas. But nobody expected Jammeh, who had vowed that only God could remove him from power, to accept defeat without a fight.

"People were ready for change, but knowing the type of person Jammeh is, they did not believe that he would concede defeat without contesting the results," said exiled journalist Alhagie Jobe, reporting from Dakar, Senegal. "Hopes were not high for a peaceful transfer of power."

Gambians were bracing for the worst after Jammeh, without warning, imposed a total internet and telecommunications ban at 8pm on the eve of the election. "We thought there would be Ivory Coast-style electoral violence," said Jobe, referring to a 2010-11 crisis that led to civilian massacres.

But the communications blackout ultimately failed to intimidate voters, and activists and journalists within the country published rolling results via SMS and on satellite phones, in a victory for transparency.

"Jammeh was not happy," said Jobe, who had been tortured and imprisoned for 18 months by the regime. "He fought behind the scenes. He did all he could to hold on to power, but because there was such a strong atmosphere for change he knew he couldn't stop it: the people had spoken."

What next?

There are now great hopes - and pressures - on the coalition to deliver their promise of a New Gambia, especially among youths who voted for change in unprecedented numbers.

"Youths came out and voted in this election and their voices have been heard," said Dakar-based rapper Jerreh Badjie (stage name Retsam).

Youth activist Mariama Saine said she hoped that once the new government took back all the industries owned by Jammeh, including farms and factories, there would be more employment opportunities that would provide an alternative to high-risk migration.

"Jammeh has monopolised any sector youths could fit into, now these will be areas the new government can develop for youths."

For Bah, a new referendum should be held on the constitution to guarantee the secular nature of the country, introduce term limits, and guarantee human rights, and freedom of movement.

"Jammeh also needs to be held to account," he said. "He should face justice through a fair trial."

Bintou Kamara, a Paris-based Gambian who founded an organisation to disseminate information about migration, said: "Now, there is a new window of hope for the entire population.

"Some migrants I have spoken to who are in a deplorable situation in Europe are thinking of going home. They will be empty-handed but they will be coming back to hope. There will be lots of returnees."

Freedom of speech

The most immediate change for Gambians is the ability to speak freely. Over the weekend, the scenes from former businessman Barrow's victory parade showed partying crowds and people tearing down and stamping on Jammeh's paternally smiling election banners.

Bah, one of the few activists to criticise the government through social media while living in Gambia, told IRIN that before the election he could have been arrested at any time. "People really feared for my life, but I survived. This is what it means to triumph over a dictatorship. Gambia has become a beacon of hope. This is what we want to be remembered for."

Photojournalist Alhagie Manka also needs no reminder of the brutal regime the country has just broken free from.

He was one of three journalists detained by the security forces at the start of the electoral campaign in a bid to intimidate the press and the electorate. "I was held for seven days, but they did not tell me why. They just kept asking me who I work for in the diaspora."

Commenting on what the outcome means for him, Manka said: "I am overjoyed, knowing that I have witnessed history. We have been living in hell under Yahya Jammeh, and we thank God he is leaving now, and I hope he will leave in peace."

Who's in charge?

Behind the grins, people are understandably nervous about the transfer of power.

With Barrow's inauguration not taking place until mid-January and a large military presence remaining on the streets, it's clearly a highly sensitive security matter.

Human rights organisations Amnesty International and Article 19 have called for a "safe transfer of power", but said they cannot comment further.

Sheriff Bojang, a Gambian journalist at West Africa Democracy Radio in Dakar, said there was still uncertainty about who is in charge of the military.

"It worries many people that the military hasn't said anything so far to assure the population that there is no need for concern and that the country is safe and that the will of the people will continue to prevail," he said.

President-elect Barrow is due to meet outgoing Jammeh at State House soon, and address the nation. In the meantime, the release on bail of Darboe and the 18 other political prisoners arrested during protests in April is a "positive step", according to Amnesty International.

Fatoumatta Sandeng, whose father Solo Sandeng was allegedly tortured to death by the regime for protesting in April, told IRIN the new government is "a dream come true. It means freedom for the Sandeng family. It means justice.

"We are glad that my father didn't die in vain, and his efforts - and that of all those who have contributed their part in making sure the Jammeh regime ends - have paid [off]."
South Sudan: "This fighting will continue to our children"

Publisher IRIN Author Amanda Sperber Publication Date 8 December 2016 Cite as IRIN, South Sudan: "This fighting will continue to our children", 8 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/584aa9cc4.html [accessed 3 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

David Salah sits on the South Sudan side of the Kaya river. A wooden bridge separates him from Busia, a border crossing in Uganda. He wears a black-and-red jersey and black shorts. His smile is friendly enough, but he keeps a well-worn AK-47 by his side.

Salah spent most of his early life as a student in Uganda, where he acquired the excellent English he speaks. In 2003, he moved back home to South Sudan. Since then, he has worked as a farmer in the fertile southern Equatoria region.

This is not the future he had in mind. Salah wanted to return to Uganda and study for a Bachelor of Business Administration at Makerere University. But, he says, the government would not sponsor him to go.

Salah believes the South Sudanese government keeps scholarships only for the Dinka, the largest ethnic group in the country. It is the community to which President Salva Kiir belongs, as do the majority of senior figures within his administration.

Like many non-Dinka in South Sudan, Salah thinks the government is solely dedicated to keeping the Dinka people in power. Kiir is backed by the influential Jieng (Dinka) Council of Elders and supported by military chief-of-staff General Paul Malong Awan.

To the bush

Salah is a Kakwa, a relatively small ethnic group that straddles southwestern South Sudan, northwestern Uganda, and northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Last year, he joined the rebel SPLA-IO, a movement associated with the country's second largest ethnic group, the Nuer. But the insurgency is also attracting the loyalty of existing community-based militia in the Equatoria region and beyond - anyone to challenge the Dinka's perceived hold on national power and resources.

Salah is a captain in the SPLA-IO. Asked how he thinks fighting will bring about the political resolution he wants, he laughs and says something about how this is the only way to bring about change in this part of the world.

Salah's comrade-in-arms, Samuel Denyag, was a policeman in the capital, Juba, where he says he saw ethnic chauvinism first-hand. Denyag claims his Dinka commanders fixed the books, adding dozens of ghost names to the payroll, and then shared out the proceeds among just the Dinka cops.

When South Sudan's civil war broke out in December 2013, over a contest for power between Kiir and his rival, former vice president Riek Machar, Denyag headed home to western Equatoria. He joined the Arrow Boys, a broad militia originally formed to defend the community against attacks by Uganda's notorious Lord's Resistance Army.

The LRA are gone. Now there are new threats. Local anger has long been stoked by the encroachment of heavily armed Dinka cattle herders onto farmland, and the disappearance of young men in the government's heavy-handed counter-insurgency operations.

Rebellion spreads

As armed groups bubbled up in western Equatoria in 2015, some Arrow Boy factions threw in with SPLA-IO. Denyag was one of them.

Some of these emerging armed groups looked to be absorbed into the national army under an agreement negotiated in 2015 to end the civil war. But the accord didn't last. Although Machar finally returned to Juba to join a government of national unity in April this year, three months later he was fleeing for his life, heading south through Equatoria and over the Congolese border.

Fighting followed in his wake. Yei, in southern Equatoria, was previously thought of as one of the safest places in South Sudan. But Human Rights Watch reported in October "numerous cases" of abuse by the army against civilians as they hunted for SPLA-IO supporters.

IRIN was unable to get comment from the government.

Among the most brutal of the government's forces are the all-Dinka Mathiang Anyoor militia, created by Malong. They were instrumental in the purging of Nuer neighbourhoods in Juba in 2013.

Revenge

The violence has spurred opposition, increasingly united in a sense of victimhood. It has also generated a cycle of revenge. In October, armed gunmen attacked a bus on the Yei-Juba road, separated the 21 Dinka from the other passengers, and shot them.

"The history of mass atrocities suggests that ethnic violence is normally a political tool waged for - often petty - political purposes. South Sudan is no different," researcher Alan Boswell told IRIN. "It's a political war for a new state that never fully formed, but is now being fought over as it collapses."

The brutality under way in Equatoria has forced 246,000 South Sudanese to flee to northwest Uganda in six months. Tens of thousands of them - if not more - have crossed Captain Salah's rickety bridge.

"These atrocities are not an abuse of power per se, but rather the desperation of the weak lacking true state power," said Boswell. "This is ethnic cleansing as desperation, not strength."

Lona Saima walked for seven days with her family from Yei to reach safety. In early December, she'd just been trucked from the South Sudanese border to Kuluba Transit Centre in Uganda.

"If they [the Dinka] get you, they will slaughter you like a chicken," she told IRIN. "They want to kill anyone because they don't trust you they think you are hiding rebels."

Saima has tuberculosis and hasn't been able to access medicine for two months, since war shut the hospital and supply lines down. Her body aches.

At least 85 percent of the people in the heaving camps are women and children. The men have stayed to fight and to protect their property.

Otto John Adema bucks the trend. An HIV-positive preacher with 12 children, he arrived from Torit, in southeastern South Sudan, in August. He sits against the mud brick house he built in Bidi Bidi camp, holding his baby boy.

He saw three civilians shot, but doesn't know if it was the SPLA or the rebels who did the killing. He is sure, though, that it was five SPLA-IO raping a woman in the street with a stick.

Ethnic killings have been a feature of South Sudan's civil war since it began. Kem Ryan, who was the head of operations for the relief and protection section of the UN's peacekeeping mission, has plenty of evidence.

"I have hundreds of photos from the three years of war in South Sudan of people killed, mostly civilians, many bound and executed," he told IRIN. The violence forced 200,000 people from their homes in 2015.

Genocide

The UN didn't use the terms "ethnic cleansing" or "genocide" then, but now they do.

On 11 November, Adam Dieng, the UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, said South Sudan risked "outright ethnic war" and genocide. The last time he was in the country was in 2014.

The UN Human Rights Commission said in statement on 30 November: "there is already a steady process of ethnic cleansing under way in several areas of South Sudan using starvation, gang rape and the burning of villages."

No one knows how many people have been killed in South Sudan's civil war. There are estimates of up to 300,000, but the phrase "tens of thousands" is normally used in news reports.

"The UN is the only actor in South Sudan with the capacity to collect and verify death tolls and they chose not to," said International Crisis Group's South Sudan senior analyst, Casie Copeland.

"Death tolls are important for our humanity, to raise awareness and as empirical evidence of how the war evolves."

Richard Batili also guards the bridge on the Kaya river. He sees no end in sight to this conflict. "What is going to happen will be unacceptable," he told IRIN. "This fighting will continue to our children."
UNHCR moves 1,100 out of tents, beating first snows of winter

Publisher UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Author Christos Tolis Publication Date 8 December 2016 Cite as UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), UNHCR moves 1,100 out of tents, beating first snows of winter, 8 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/584aaf054.html [accessed 3 November 2022]

Iraq refugee Kheri Mando Sliman, relieved to have left a freezing cold tent in a mountainside camp, seems pleased with the new accommodation provided for himself and his family in a temporary apartment in Volvi, northern Greece.

"It is a very nice, pleasant place here, not like the cold camp on Mount Olympus," the 34-year-old, from the mountainous Sinjar region in northern Iraq, said with a smile.

He is among more than 1,100 asylum-seekers whom UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, moved last week from the Petra Olympou camp to buildings throughout Greece.

Since the spring, they had been living in tents at Petra Olympou on a slope more than 500 metres above sea level at the foot of Mount Olympus. In late November, temperatures fell below freezing. The last bus left the government-run site as the first snow fell on the tents.

"My four-year-old daughter could not cope any more," said Kheri, whose family had fled violence in Iraq. His daughter was among the 54 per cent of the camp's population who are children.

UNHCR found small, temporary apartments and hotel rooms at special rates for the asylum-seekers in Volvi, Katerini and Chalkidona. Some due to be relocated in other European countries have been accommodated in Athens to make the preparation easier.

"My four-year-old daughter could not cope any more."

UNHCR, with funding from the European Union, has arranged 19,500 places in apartments, hotels and with host families throughout Greece for relocation candidates and vulnerable asylum-seekers.

Petra Olympou is not the only camp that UNHCR is helping the Greek authorities to close for the cold season. Kipselochori in central Greece was also deemed unsuitable for winter conditions and its former residents were moved to more appropriate accommodation. Cherso, an official refugee site in the north of the country, has been partially evacuated under the government's direction, too.

About 2,600 refugees and migrants are living in prefabricated houses provided by UNHCR in eight of more than 40 government-run sites. The UNHCR partner organization Samaritan's Purse has been distributing winter clothes such as jackets and boots in government-run sites, about 200,000 items in total.

Kheri has been getting to know his new surroundings in Volvi. His war-torn home region of Sinjar is close to the Syrian border. A far cry from the quiet, flat landscape and lake where he now lives. Kheri is from the Yazidi religious community, which is persecuted for its faith.

Daily life was never easy for his family. He earned his living by hard manual labour. Even when visiting the nearby city of Mosul, the most important urban centre in the area, at the time, he did not feel safe.

In August 2014, time ran out for Kheri and the other Yazidis in the area. With ISIS pounding the region, they fled their homes, leaving everything but their clothes behind. With his family he fled to Syria. From there they crossed into Turkey and made their way to the Greek island of Lesvos.

"By then, we had been travelling for about 14 months," he said. In July, they arrived at Petra Olympou where they suffered from the cold climate. With a roof over his head in Volvi, he faces one less uncertainty about the future.

For some, it was a bitter-sweet goodbye on the mountain. Happy to be moving to better living conditions, nonetheless they found it a wrench to be separated from people with whom they had shared a life for many months.

Like Kheri, many had spent months on the move. With the help of the Greek authorities they were persuaded to move on to various locations rather than wait for the arrangement of one single location big enough for the entire group. "UNHCR helped us very much," said Kheri, stressing that the Greek Government had treated him and his family well.

"We are all right here now," he added. "We are no longer afraid."
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No Respite for Kabul's Street Children

Publisher Institute for War and Peace Reporting Author Pazhman Pazhohish Publication Date 9 December 2016 Citation / Document Symbol ARR 561 Cite as Institute for War and Peace Reporting, No Respite for Kabul's Street Children, 9 December 2016, ARR 561, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/584ab19c4.html [accessed 3 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Eight-year-old Sohrab spends her days looking through rubbish on the streets of Kabul.

"I collect [empty] cans of Pepsi and then sell them to shopkeepers who buy these old things, and I earn so little money that is hardly enough for bread for dinner," she told IWPR.

Sohrab is one of tens of thousands of children trying to scrape a living on the streets of the Afghan capital.

Although the reintroduction of universal education is cited as one of Afghanistan's major achievements since 2001, children selling goods or begging are still a familiar sight in towns and cities across the country.

Not all of them are orphans. Many have been sent to earn a few afghanis by families with no other source of support.

Farzad, eight, said, "My father is unemployed, my older brother is disabled. I am the only one working to earn money for the family. So I'm forced to work and can't go to school."

Afghanistan is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and has its own child protection laws, but observers say these are not implemented properly.

It is against the law for children under the age of 11 to do any kind of work, and until the age of 18 they should not be employed more than 35 hours a week.

These rules are clearly not being enforced. Abdullah is among the many children who have dropped out of school to sell knick-knacks on the streets of Kabul.

"I am 13 years old and don't go to school. I want to study but can't," he said. "I sell things from a tray, and earn 200 or 300 Afghanis daily."

The United Nations children's agency UNICEF has estimated that 60,000 children were working on the streets of Kabul alone.

"This number might have now reached over 100,000," said Najibullah Zadran, the national coordinator for children's rights in the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC). Millions more children across the country were at risk of exploitation and abuse., he continued.

Fatah Ahmadzai, spokesman for the ministry of labour and social affairs, said that according to the latest government data from 2014, the country's population had reached 29 million people, of whom 14.5 million were children.

Gul Agha Ahmadi, an adviser to the ministry of education, confirmed that some 9.5 million children were currently enrolled in school.

"Before 2001 [and the fall of the Taleban], there were only one million children registered with us, all boys [because] girls had been systematically deprived of education," he said. "But this has increased to 9.5 million children, 40 per cent of whom are girls."

Ahmadzai acknowledged that this still left millions of children potentially at risk. At least two million were not on the government's radar at all.

He said that they had developed a number of programmes to help children they had identified as being at risk.

"In our long-term programmes, we identified children who had no families to support them and sent them to orphanages where they can receive training," he said. "Short-term programmes involve children who do have families, we have got in touch with their relatives and helped support them financially. We provided both small and larger loans with the cooperation of organisations so that they can solve their problems and don't have to send their children to go and work on streets.

"It's impossible to completely end the problem [of street children], but we are trying at least to decrease their number. Fortunately, the budget the government has approved for this problem by help deal with it."

Despite numerous interview requests to the ministry of finance to enquire about this budget for the coming year, they declined to speak to IWPR.

Children in this situation also face serious risk of trafficking and sexual abuse, as well as recruitment by insurgents to carry out attacks.

Sadiq Sadiqi, the spokesman of the ministry of interior affairs, said that street children faced a constant threat of violence.

"Every day, there is news that children have been kidnapped and trafficked and sexually abused," he said, adding that the security services had made numerous arrests of adults suspected of exploiting children.

There was a limit to what they could do to rehabilitate these children, he added.

"We have police departments responsible for dealing with such children, which have not done enough. But we are cooperating with various organisations and care homes, and have enrolled those children in grave need in homes where they will be both given training and helped financially."

Numerous Afghan and international NGOs also work to get children off the streets. Mohammad Yusuf, the founder of the Ashiana organization, said that they had helped more than 100,000 children complete their education, with some even going on to university.

But Sadiqi acknowledged that there were far too few institutions to find homes for all the children.

According to the ministry of labour and social affairs, there are 42 government-run care homes and training centres for vulnerable children around the country. Private charities run another 45.

Experts fear for the long-term effect that a whole generation of homeless and impoverished children will have on Afghan society.

Psychology lecturer Fawad Farzad said that the impact of such a childhood could not be underestimated.

Young people learnt from their immediate environment, he explained.

"When a child lives on the street and deals with thugs and other bad people, there's no doubt that they learn from them," he said. "Nothing can ever change them back if their fundamental education began like that."

This report was produced under IWPR's Promoting Human Rights and Good Governance in Afghanistan initiative, funded by the European Union Delegation to Afghanistan.

Copyright notice:  Institute for War & Peace Reporting
Child Marriages on the Rise in Afghan Province

Publisher Institute for War and Peace Reporting Author Sohdaba Ehrari Publication Date 7 December 2016 Citation / Document Symbol ARR 561 Cite as Institute for War and Peace Reporting, Child Marriages on the Rise in Afghan Province, 7 December 2016, ARR 561, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/584ab1f44.html [accessed 3 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Laila, a 15-year-old girl from the Gozra district of Herat, was married off two years ago. She now has a six-month-old child.

As she tried to soothe her fractious baby, she told IWPR how dissatisfied she was with her life.

"When you get married, you can't go to school, can't play with your friends and you have to forget all your own wishes," she said. "Especially when you become a mother, then a world full of problems opens up to you and you suffer for the rest your life."

Laila's mother said the family had been forced to get the young girl married off due to their poverty.

Her daughter had faced many problems while giving birth, she added.

"The doctors said she might lose her life because she was weak and small," Laila's mother continued. "We prayed to God to save our grandchild's life."

Gender rights activists in the western province of Herat warn that rates of child marriage are on the rise, despite multiple public awareness campaigns that aim to curb the practice.

The legal age for marriage in Afghanistan is 16, although it can be as low as 15 with parental consent.

According to a July 2016 UN report, more than half Afghan girls marry before the age of 19. A full 40 per cent of these marriages involve girls between the ages of 10-13 years old.

In Herat, the governor's spokesman Jilani Farhad estimated that at least half the girls in the province were married off before the legal age.

As with Laila, families often cite poverty as a reason.

Safia, a 14-year-old girl from Anjil district, said that her father had promised her in marriage in return for a wife for her brother. She was now engaged.

Playing with her green scarf, she said, "My dad exchanged me for my sister-in-law. I will get married, so will my brother."

Halima, Safia's mother, acknowledged that her daughter was too young to get married, but also explained that poverty had driven them to this situation. Afghan grooms generally pay a bride price to their in-laws, which can be extremely expensive.

"My daughter is in seventh grade at school and I know she is underage, but we were forced to trade our daughter for [a wife for] our son. The bride price is too high in Herat and we would have had to have paid 500,000 or 600,000 Afghanis (8,000 USD) for our bride."

Others say that a lack of security in many parts of the province was spurring families to marry girls off at a young age.

Fatima Baqiri, head of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) department for women's support in the western zone, said, "Due to insecurity in the districts, families try to get their daughters married earlier than they should so that they will be protected by their husbands."

Health practitioners warn that complications from repeated and early pregnancies are a serious issue.

"If a girl under 16 or 18 years old gets married, her body can't support the baby while she is pregnant and even if the child is born, it can be very weak, or the mother might die during the birth," said Saliha Seljoqi, head of Herat's maternity hospital.

"One of my patients was a 13 year-old who had been married to a 40-year-old man, and this girl was his third wife. She came to me in her ninth month of pregnancy and was at risk of death due to her young age and weakness. It was impossible for her to give birth. Eventually, I had to perform a cesarean."

Families failed to understand the health implications of such marriages, she continued.

"A 15-year-old girl came to me with her in-laws, and her problem was not becoming pregnant. Although I explained to them that she was still very young, the family didn't listen to me and made their son remarry because they had only one son and wanted him to have children as soon as possible."

Trapped in such a hopeless situation, girls sometimes try to run away or even commit suicide.

Shafiqa (not her real name) was married off against her will at the age of 14.

Her mother told IWPR, "My daughter didn't want to get married, but her father insisted on her marriage and said that she had grown up. The day she got engaged, she was very quiet but the next day she set herself on fire and we couldn't save her life, and she died."

Wiping her tears with her headscarf, Shafiqa's mother said, "Me and her father both regretted our decision, but by then it was too late."

ABUSES UNDERREPORTED

Sonita Rezai, the spokeswoman for the Commission for the Elimination of Violence against Women in Herat, said that they had registered 11 cases of child and forced marriages in the first six months of 2016. The figure for 2015 was seven and the figure for 2014 had been four.

Although these figures did indeed indicate rising levels of child marriages in the province, she emphasized that they were in no way representative of the real figures.

"There are thousands of forced and underage marriages in Herat which have not been reported," she concluded.

Mozhgan Intizar, head of the Sada women's support NGO, also said that incidences of child marriage were increasing in Herat but that official statistics were irrelevant, due to huge under-reporting.

"It's not worth discussing just the cases that have been registered. With what we see in practice the activities we do through our office, I am sure that the number is higher."

Intizar said that the AIHRC and the department of women's affairs could play a key role in combatting child marriage, but suggested they work more closely with women's councils in the districts to get help to those who needed it most.

"The main problem is the government itself because it doesn't take any direct action," she continued. "We see that most of our imams quite freely marry children off, which the government can prevent by taking these scholars to court."

Baqiri said that the central issue they faced was the lack of cooperation from local families.

Even when relatives wanted to report underage marriages they were too intimidated by fear of public shame or their elders to do so.

"Unfortunately, the law requires us not to follow up any case unless there is a complaint," she said. "There should be no need for a complaint to be made, these marriages should be considered crimes in themselves."

Once the AIHRC received a complaint they could take action in cooperation with local officials.

"The cases are sent to the department of women's affairs and police headquarters, and then finally to the courts, and these organisations cooperate with us until the cases are concluded."

Herat's department of women's affairs run a number of initiatives to combat child marriage, including public awareness programmes in partnership with local mosques and religious scholars.

Rezai said that her organization had partnered with the provincial department of haj and Islamic affairs to spread the message, while the AIHRC was also working with rights activists and religious leaders in the districts.

But provincial council member Sakina Hussaini said that imams were not always the best allies in the fight against child marriage, adding, "I myself heard from a scholar that he had carried out the marriage ceremony for his own nine-year-old daughter."

Religious experts argue that the situation is complex.

Sayed Abdul Wahid Aimi, the head of haj and Islamic affairs in Herat, said that Islam banned child marriage, although with some exceptions.

These included cases in which the parents were unable to support their daughter and were sure she would have a better life with her husband.

He argued that his department and the local council of religious leaders had always campaigned against child marriage.

"Anyone who criticizes us is entitled to his or her own opinion, but we have never been quiet, we have worked [to address this]," Aimi continued. "But tradition, culture and poverty are problems that need time and can't be solved in a day."

For now, the victims of child marriage are left with few options.

Zahra, who was 15 years old when her father exchanged her in marriage for a wife for her brother, is currently serving a long sentence in Herat's women's prison.

Her eyes full of tears, she nursed her crippled hand and leg as she explained the circumstances that had brought her there.

"I tolerated all my husband's bad behaviour after we got married, but problems really started when my brother divorced his wife, my husband's sister. My husband's behaviour to me got worse, and he found one excuse after another every day to beat me so much that I couldn't stand it anymore. One day I decided to kill myself and my child.

"When my husband wasn't home, I went to the third floor and jumped from the roof with my child. My child died, but I survived and now am in the prison with a broken hand and leg because my husband made a complaint against me for killed our child. I was charged and sentenced to 12 years imprisonment."

Crying, she said, "It was the result of getting married when I was just a child. If I had been older, my life wouldn't be so unlucky."

This report was produced under IWPR's Promoting Human Rights and Good Governance in Afghanistan initiative, funded by the European Union Delegation to Afghanistan.

Copyright notice:  Institute for War & Peace Reporting
Uzbekistan's New President  a Reformer or Another Dictator?

Publisher Institute for War and Peace Reporting Author Birgit Brauer Publication Date 7 December 2016 Citation / Document Symbol RCA 802 Cite as Institute for War and Peace Reporting, Uzbekistan's New President  a Reformer or Another Dictator?, 7 December 2016, RCA 802, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/584ab2564.html [accessed 3 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

There was little surprise when Uzbekistans interim president Shavkat Mirziyoyev won the countrys presidential election on December 4. He will now serve a five-year term as Uzbekistans only second head-of-state following the death of Islam Karimov three months ago, the autocratic leader who had ruled the country since before independence and ran it as a police state.

Although there were a total of four candidates, the outcome of the vote was widely expected. According to the constitution, Senate speaker Nigmatullah Yuldashev should have been taken up the role of acting president. He instead cited Mirziyoyev's many years of experience before ceding the role to him.

This was reminiscent of the transfer of power in neighbouring Turkmenistan in 2006, which also circumvented constitutional requirements.

The resounding victory of 88.6 per cent of the votes, just slightly less than the 90 per cent received by Karimov in March 2015, was not a good sign. It can be seen as a continuation of the previous regime.

The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which sent a full observer mission, criticised the vote as "devoid of genuine competition" and noted "significant irregularities" on election day, including ballot box stuffing and widespread proxy voting.

"The 4 December presidential election underscored the need of comprehensive reform to address long-standing systemic shortcomings. The legal framework is not conducive to holding democratic elections," the OSCE said in its preliminary findings.

Mirziyoyev, 59, had been Uzbekistans prime minister since 2003 and was formally nominated by the Karimov's Liberal Democratic party of Uzbekistan (LDPU). Mirziyoyev was Karimovs loyal ally, but always remained in the shadows.

When he became acting president in early September, the public knew exceedingly little about him beyond his past reputation of having treated farmers, governors and ordinary people very harshly. Expectations were fairly low that he would push for political and economic reforms.

It is still too early to tell in which direction Mirziyoyev will lead the country, the most populous in Central Asia with more than 31 million people.

But there has been some cause for guarded optimism.

FIRST CHANGES

On December 6, in a surprising and bold move, Mirziyoyev signed a decree scrapping tourist visa requirements for citizens of 27 other nations. It will go into effect on April 1 and allow 30 days of visa-free travel to Uzbekistan for citizens of countries including Australia, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom.

Uzbekistan, with its Silk Road history and ancient cities, has long been Central Asias biggest draw for tourists. However, obtaining a visa to this tightly controlled country has been a cumbersome process.

Removing bureaucratic obstacles will indeed contribute to opening the country to the outside world.

In fact, during the past three months of his acting presidency, Mirziyoyev has already taken several other measures that broke with longstanding policies.

He started out by taking steps towards repairing Uzbekistans deeply strained relations with other Central Asian states, marked by border crossing disputes and skirmishes. There have also been disagreements over cross-border trade as well as water and energy flows.

For instance, a longstanding dispute with Kyrgyzstan over border demarcation, which for years had caused bilateral tension and hardship for citizens on both sides, was resolved in just a few weeks.

Four Kyrgyz workers detained by Uzbekistan on a stretch of contested border territory were released in September. The following month, a Kyrgyz government delegation visited Andijan and an Uzbek delegation then went to Osh. These talks led to a provisional agreement on non-demarcated sections of the countries joint border.

Then, last week, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan signed an agreement to resume flights between Tashkent and Dushanbe for the first time in 24 years. Regular flights are to begin in January.

Mirziyoyev has also taken initial steps to boost business, which had been held back by the countrys Soviet-style command economy maintained by Karimov.

The national currency, the som, has an overvalued official exchange rate. There is also a thriving black market rate, from which certain members of the Uzbek elite are believed to profit.

He recently unveiled a proposal to liberalise the countrys strict currency market, which may reassure much needed foreign investors.

Lastly, a few days before the election, political prisoner Samandar Kukanov - who has spent more than 23 years behind bars - was released.

OPEN QUESTIONS

Although these new developments are clearly positive, there is no certainty at all that Uzbekistan is on the verge of undergoing sustained fundamental changes.

Releasing one prominent political prisoner is no indication that one of the worlds most repressive regimes is about to be dismantled.

Under Karimov, thousands of people were detained on politically motivated charges. Torture became common in prisons and police stations.

Millions of Uzbek citizens, including children, were forced to pick cotton in abysmal conditions. According to Human Rights Watch, it was Mirziyoyev, in charge of agriculture, who used to make sure the daily production quotas were met.

Other issues remain unresolved. The touchy question of the construction of the Rogun dam in Tajikistan, vehemently opposed by Uzbekistan, has not yet been addressed.

And as for the detente with Kyrgyzstan, Crisis Group reports that high-ranking Bishkek officials are deeply suspicious and stress the agreements made this autumn are provisional, warning that Uzbekistan could yet renege on them. There is also concern by international observers that the Uzbek government could begin to lose interest in its pre-election initiatives.

In Turkmenistan, the thaw that accompanied the transfer of power in 2006 was short-lived. It remains to be seen whether Uzbekistan will be different.

Birgit Brauer is an IWPR contributor and was previously its Caucasus editor. She is also a former Central Asia correspondent of The Economist.

This publication was produced under IWPR project Strengthening Capacities, Bridging Divides in Central Asia, funded by the Foreign Ministry of Norway.

Copyright notice:  Institute for War & Peace Reporting
Kyrgyz Imams Tasked With Battling Extremism

Publisher Institute for War and Peace Reporting Author Timur Toktonaliev Publication Date 9 December 2016 Citation / Document Symbol RCA 802 Cite as Institute for War and Peace Reporting, Kyrgyz Imams Tasked With Battling Extremism, 9 December 2016, RCA 802, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/584ab2ad4.html [accessed 3 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

A month ago, Kyrgyz imam Altynbek Shaidullaev took up his new position at a mosque on the outskirts of Bishkek.

The mosque, built seven years ago, is right next to Dordoi, a vast market that employs up to 20,000 people. Shaidullaev is extremely busy, teaching and conducting services for up to eight hours each day.

And getting the job was no easy matter, the 40-year-old told IWPR. He had to go through a series of checks and pass a certification exam set by the Spiritual Administration of Kyrgyz Muslims, also known as the muftiat.

These measures are part of new efforts to counter radicalism, seen as a growing problem in the Central Asian state. According to the National Security Committee, some 600 nationals have already left to fight in Syria and Iraq.

The muftiat exam focuses on assessing the imams' depth of knowledge about their religion.

Shaidullaev said that the extreme views he sometimes encountered among his congregation were usually the result of ignorance.

"Ask a radical, when did he start praying, when did he get on this path? He would say, six months or one year at most. Was he able to learn Islam in six months?" Shaidullaev said. "That's nonsense."

"Words like 'we will establish the caliphate or the Islamic State' have nothing to do with reality. Anyone saying they'll fix the country and fight corruption [that way] should first change themselves. Start with yourself," he concluded.

FIGHTING EXTREMISM

Interest in religion has been growing in Kyrgystan ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

While nearly 90 per cent of Kyrgyz nationals identify as Muslim, religious practice is still a relatively new phenomenon and many ordinary citizens remain unaware of the exact difference between faith and extremism.

Experts say that this makes citizens particularly vulnerable to radicalisation.

In the last three years, Kyrgyz authorities have begun working with the Muslim clergy to combat extremist propaganda.

According to the State Committee for Religious Affairs, 19 Muslim organisations operating in the country have been banned as extremist.

Last year, 132 people were convicted of extremism and terrorist offences, up from 116 in 2014, and 81 in 2013.

So far, the imams of half the country's 2,600 mosques have passed the muftiat exam with the rest waiting to take the exam. Those who fail are not allowed to practice.

The interior ministry also uses networks of male and female informers to observe imams as they work and report back any concerns over extremism.

"We are trying to control the main mosques, the huge ones with many thousands of visitors," said Emil Dzheenbekov, who works for the interior ministry and used to head the its anti-terrorism department.

"We cannot say that 100 per cent of imams are against radicalism," he continued. "There are some [religious] leaders, imams that support extremist ideas of some kind. There have even been members of extremist organisations among imams."

In November 2015, an imam was sentenced to 10 years in prison for inciting hatred and possession of banned literature.

The prosecution argued that Rashot Kamalov, imam of the Kara Suu mosque in souther Kyrgystan near the Uzbek border, had preached in favour of establishing the caliphate.

Several other imams from Osh and Batken regions have also been found guilty of spreading extremist and radical ideas.

Imams must also send monthly reports to their local muftiat office, detailing their sermons and giving feedback back on their congregations.

Ravshan azhy Eratov, the deputy mufti of Kyrgyzstan, said that every religious leader in the country was expected to devote half-a-dozen Friday sermons each year to explicitly preach against extremism.

"We explain what radicalism, extremism, terrorism and other dangerous ideas are," he continued. "We also speak about tolerance and Islam's true ideas."

REACHING OUT

Imams serve as community leaders and opinion-formers, especially in rural areas, meaning they have enormous potential to fight radicalisation.

But one challenge is that imams' proficiency on social media tends to be low. This contrasts with that of potential extremist recruiters, for whom the internet is an important tool.

"The technological capacity of our imams is certainly behind that of the terrorist groups," said Ikbalzhan Mirsayitov, an analyst working in the field of combating religious extremism in Kyrgyzstan.

He said that local religious leaders preferred face-or-face communication, adding, "Imams don't have the sufficient technical means to counter violent, extremist ideology."

There are some Kyrgyz preachers with a significant media presence.

Chubak azhy Zhalilov, 41, the former mufti of Kyrgyzstan and an imam at one of the largest mosques of Bishkek, has 24,000 followers on Facebook.

He also hosts a religious Q&A show on a national TV channel and is a major contributor to the most popular Muslim YouTube channel in Kyrgyzstan, Nasaat Media, which has 57,000 subscribers.

Zhalilov was at the centre of a controversy this June, when he clashed with parliamentarian Janar Akaev over a bill to extend lunch breaks for Muslim prayers.

The former mufti then claimed he wouldn't pray or even shake hands with anyone who voted against the proposed legislation, including Akaev.

The bill never passed through parliament, but feelings rose so high that the president had to intervene and the Kyrgyz National Security Committee warned Zhalilov that he was inciting religious tensions.

"Communication skills have a great impact," said theologist Indira Arslanova Aslanova said. "It's crucially important for an imam to able to speak compellingly and convincingly to catch people's attention [in the mosques]."

Aslanova was part of a 2014 commission that audited the muftiat's activities and provided recommendations to improve their effectiveness. Amongst their proposals were for members of the clergy to boost their communication skills.

"Recommendations were provided but haven't been adopted by the muftiat," Aslanova told IWPR.

She was also sceptical about the new exam process.

"The muftiat now takes the certification of imams more seriously [but] its efficiency remains to be seen, because the previous checks have led to nothing, they've been formal," she said.

Aslanova said that she saw no correlation between a proper understanding of the principles of Islam - which is what the imams are tested on - and their willingness to fight extremism.

Mirsayitov agreed, arguing that it would be of greater benefit to ensure imams received a decent wage.

"Imams must be well paid. It's a major incentive for them not to look for other sources of income [apart from working at a mosque]," he said.

Imams have no set income, relying often on part-time jobs as well as private donations for carrying out services such as weddings and funerals.

"Imams have to pretty much finance themselves. Some are engaged in farming; some are in retail. Being an imam [in Kyrgyzstan] mostly means public, volunteer work," deputy mufti Eratov said.

Underpaid imams are less motivated to get truly involved with their community, making them less likely to be able to stop potential radicalisation.

In 2014, a monthly scholarship was established in Kyrgyzstan on behalf of the president-backed Yiman Foundation under which certified imams can draw a monthly sum of 5,000 soms (72 US dollars). So far, more than 1,000 are receiving the stipend.

But Shaidullaev still believes that understanding the true nature of Islam is the best protection against radicalisation.

"Knowledge and education are the most important things. If you're not knowledgeable, you're nobody," he said. "Every conversation I have with my students starts from that point."

Timur Toktonaliev is IWPR's editor in Kyrgyzstan.

This publication was produced under two IWPR projects, Investigative Journalism to Promote Democratic Reform, funded by the European Union; and Strengthening Capacities, Bridging Divides in Central Asia, funded by the Foreign Ministry of Norway.

Copyright notice:  Institute for War & Peace Reporting
Ten days before the December 19, 2016, deadline marking the end of President Joseph Kabila's constitutionally mandated two-term limit, he still has not made any clear commitment on when or even if he will step down. At the same time, government repression against pro-democracy activists, the political opposition, largely peaceful protesters, and the media has intensified at an alarming rate.





"Imposing targeted sanctions on senior officials, especially before December 19, could help walk Congo back from the brink and deter further violent repression," said Me Georges Kapiamba, president of the Congolese Association for Access to Justice (ACAJ). "Such action would show that with each passing day, the consequences for the government will be greater."





Opposition leaders and pro-democracy activists have called for Congolese to take to the streets if President Kabila stays in office beyond his mandate. Past protests suggest that they will be met by security forces quick to use excessive and lethal force. There are risks that political leaders could mobilize the dozens of armed groups active in eastern Congo for political ends, or that the country's brittle security forces could fracture if Kabila relies on force to stay in power. This raises concerns that the country could descend into further repression or widespread violence and chaos, with potentially volatile repercussions across the region.





Earliertargeted sanctions imposed by the US on three security force officers at the forefront of violence against protesters had a notable deterrent effect and rattled those implicated, the organizations said. The US should impose targeted sanctions against more senior level officials.





In October, the EU Foreign Ministersstated that the EU would "use all means at its disposal" against individuals responsible for serious human rights violations, who promote violence, or who "obstruct a consensual and peaceful solution to the crisis." In November, the European Parliament passed a resolution calling on the EU to urgently implement targeted sanctions. The EUis due to discuss Congo and possibly move forward with targeted sanctions during its next Foreign Affairs Council meeting on December 12.





Such targeted sanctions could include travel bans, asset freezes, and the blocking of bank accounts and financial transactions linked to the individuals.





"President Kabila and Congolese officials need to be sent a strong message that violating the rights of the Congolese people is costly for those responsible," said Ida Sawyer, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. "Acting now to help prevent the situation in Congo from spiraling out of control will be critical to stability, the rule of law, and respect for fundamental human rights in Congo and throughout the region."
UN agriculture agency to support land reforms at core of Colombia's new peace deal

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 8 December 2016 Cite as UN News Service, UN agriculture agency to support land reforms at core of Colombia's new peace deal, 8 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/584ab4e240e.html [accessed 3 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

8 December 2016 - With millions of Colombian farmers affected by the violent conflict that plagued the Latin American country for more than 50 years, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) will support a comprehensive rural reform strategy, aimed at strengthening food security and peace, including measures which address issues of land access and restitution.

"There is no peace without sustainable development, and there is no sustainable development without peace, emphasizing that both have a fundamental precondition: that all citizens have access to a dignified life and food necessary to lead a dignified life," FAO Director-General Jose Graziano da Silva said yesterday in a news release.

The Colombian Government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army (FARC-EP), the main opposition group, have agreed an historic peace accord meant to end the Western Hemisphere's longest running conflict. That deal was the culmination of four years of talks between the two sides, and led to a cessation of hostilities and agreements on key issues such as political participation, illicit drugs and victims' rights, transitional justice and land rights, which was the focus of a parallel event at a meeting of the FAO Council.

Mr. Graziano da Silva stressed that "the peace agreement, proposes a profound change in the rural areas of the country. It will enable production to diversify, improve incomes and promote governance of land and natural resource tenure."

FAO's support to the peace accord's land reform plank is based on the agency's Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure, assisting the government of Colombia on safeguarding people's rights to property or access to land, forests and fisheries, which has been one of the topics of the peace agreement.

The UN agriculture agency will also offer its expertise by monitoring and evaluating of Colombia's social protection programmes. These programmes will be linked to family farming through public procurement.

Civil society and institutions that have been "historically far from the State" will have to be involved, according to Mr. da Silva, for reforms to be effective.

He added that FAO has accumulated a great amount of experience in these areas that it can offer to the Colombian Government.

At the FAO event, the Colombian Ambassador to Italy stressed that the Latin American country has more than 20 million hectares of arable land, only seven million hectares of which are planted.

Ambassador Juan Mesa Zuleta said that Colombia is among the seven countries of the world "that can best contribute" to ending world hunger, adding that the transcontinental country itself imports food from the world that "we could plant on our own soil".
Millions of 'children on the move' without protection is unacceptable  UN refugee agency chief

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 8 December 2016 Cite as UN News Service, Millions of 'children on the move' without protection is unacceptable  UN refugee agency chief, 8 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/584ab51140e.html [accessed 3 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

8 December 2016 - Highlighting the challenges confronting the protection of millions of children, many of whom are separated from their families as they flee wars and persecution, the top United Nations refugee official today called for prompt action to stave off the risk of losing an entire generation.

"[Children] are exposed to criminal smugglers and traffickers. The fact that they often have no protection - even from people traveling with them - exposes them to all types of exploitation," said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi, opening his Dialogue on Protection Challenges in Geneva today.

"We cannot accept this. We need to fight back, we need to find ways to address this situation," he stressed.

According to Mr. Grandi's Office (UNHCR), children account for 51 per cent of the total 21.3 million refugees around the world and many of them end up in detention facilities, that can have a serious impact on their physical and mental health as well as their life-long development. They also miss out on years of education as a result of displacement.

Children are also particularly vulnerable to sexual and gender-based violence, exploitation and the risk of statelessness.

In his remarks, High Commissioner Grandi recalled the commitments made by UN Member States this past September UN Summit for Refugees and Migrants and called on them to ensure that refugee and migrant children are protected.
Sides 'poles apart' on agreeing access to civilians in Aleppo, UN envoy reports

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 8 December 2016 Cite as UN News Service, Sides 'poles apart' on agreeing access to civilians in Aleppo, UN envoy reports, 8 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/584ab59b40e.html [accessed 3 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

8 December 2016 - Discussions on how to assist civilians caught in the crossfire inside war-ravaged Aleppo continue to be difficult "because the Member States that are supposed to help us get access [are] poles apart on what is happening in Syria," United Nations Senior Adviser Jan Egeland said today in Geneva.

"We are not having a united humanitarian diplomacy on the parties and we see that in a diminishing access on the ground," he told reporters after a meeting of the Humanitarian Access Task Force of the International Syria Support Group (ISSG).

The ISSG has established the respective taskforces on humanitarian aid delivery and a wider ceasefire. They have been meeting separately since early this year on a way forward in the crisis. Russia and the United States are the co-chairs of the taskforces and the ISSG, which also comprises the UN, the Arab League, the European Union and 16 other countries.

Mr. Egeland reported that the Syrian Government had approved a plan for access in order to reach 800,000 of the 930,000 people that the UN is trying to reach and that for the first time, eastern Aleppo is on the list of approved places. He acknowledged, however, that there has been a greater possibility of crossing a stable front line in November, when the UN was refused access.

He underscored that the UN has been trying to access east Aleppo every day since it was besieged on 7 July. Since then, three major plans have failed.

As winter plunges the city into freezing temperatures at night, the UN and its affiliate agencies, including the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, are anxious over their ability to provide winter shelter to the hundreds of thousands living in "a totally war-ravaged area."

Members of the press questioned Mr. Egeland about the recent attack on a Russian hospital, the practical constraints of being able to access Aleppo, the some 700 wounded and sick children who remain in the city, and the status of talks between the United States and Russia.

Mr. Egeland condemned the recent attack that left several at the Russian hospital dead, adding that so far 770 health workers have been killed throughout the war. He also referred to "desperate appeals from inside Aleppo" and said that while Russia was committed to discussing how to organize evacuations, it would not promise a pause.

He shared that in the coming hours, stakeholders would concentrate on how to make evacuations possible and hoped that co-chairs of the United States-Russia talks would be able to provide "the beginning of something better."
Libya: Security Council reaffirms full support for political agreement signed a year ago

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 8 December 2016 Cite as UN News Service, Libya: Security Council reaffirms full support for political agreement signed a year ago, 8 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/584ab68840d.html [accessed 3 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

8 December 2016 - Expressing deep concern over the serious political polarization resulting in a deterioration of the security, economic and humanitarian situation in Libya, the Security Council today reiterated its support for the United Nations envoy for Libya, who leads efforts in facilitating implementation of the political agreement signed about a year ago.

Issuing a press statement overnight, the 15-member Council also reiterated support for efforts of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) and encouraged the envoy and the Mission to intensify their efforts in facilitating implementation of the Libyan Political Agreement.

The release of the statement followed the briefing on 6 December by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Martin Kobler, who noted that implementation of the political deal has stalled.

The Agreement rests on four main principles: ensuring the democratic rights of the Libyan people, the need for a consensual government based on the principle of the separation of powers, oversight and balance between them, as well as the need to empower state institutions like the Government of National Accord so that they can address the serious challenges ahead, respect for the Libyan judiciary and its independence.

In the press statement, the Council expressed its deep concern over the challenging political and security context in Libya and the serious political polarization resulting in a deterioration of the security, economic and humanitarian situation as well as the recent escalation of violence between armed groups in Tripoli, calling on all parties to immediately heed the Presidency Council's appeal to cease fighting.

Reaffirming full support for the Agreement and calling on all parties to accelerate its implementation, the Council reiterated the importance of the continued inclusiveness of the Agreement and renewed its strong call on all parties in Libya to be part of and to engage constructively with the Agreement in good faith and with sustained political will.

The Council urged all Libyan stakeholders, especially those not currently fully engaged in the process, to work together with the Presidency Council to resolve outstanding issues and focus all Libyan efforts on rebuilding the country.
Conflict in Ukraine continues to take civilian toll  UN human rights report

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 8 December 2016 Related Document(s) Report on the human rights situation in Ukraine 16 August to 15 November 2016 Cite as UN News Service, Conflict in Ukraine continues to take civilian toll  UN human rights report, 8 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/584ab72b62.html [accessed 3 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

8 December 2016 - A new United Nations report out today has confirmed that Ukrainians living close to the "contact line" - the area between Government-controlled and armed group-controlled territory in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions - not only suffer due to fighting near their homes but also face the threat of landmines and unexploded ordinance as well as have to contend with severe restrictions on movement.

According to the Report on the human rights situation in Ukraine launched today by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), between mid-August and mid-November, at least 32 civilians were killed in conflict-related incidents and another 132 injured. Between mid-April 2014 and 1 December this year, more than 2,000 civilians are estimated to have dined while an additional 298 were killed in the crash of Malaysian Airlines flight MH-17.

Conflict-related civilian injures are estimated between 6,000 and 7,000.

"It is of deep concern that Government forces and armed groups operating in civilian areas do not take all feasible precautions against the effects of fighting, resulting in damage to schools, kindergartens, and medical facilities," noted the report.

It added that it was worrying that Ukrainian military forces and armed groups continued to be positioned in civilian homes and buildings in villages and towns adjacent to the contact line.

The report also raised concern that armed groups in the self-proclaimed "Donetsk people's republic" and "Luhansk people's republic" continue to deprive people of their fundamental rights as well as of effective mechanism for redress.

Hundreds of individuals also remain missing.

While some of them could be dead with their bodies not yet recovered or identified, "some individuals considered missing by the Government may be held incommunicado in territories controlled by the armed groups or vice versa," noted the report.

It also drew attention to a number of penal and pre-trial detention facilities in the armed group controlled and that despite repeated requests, UN human rights monitors were not allowed full and unhindered access, raising concern that those kept there may have been subjected to torture or sexual and gender-based violence.

Furthermore, disproportionate restrictions on freedom of movement across the contact line severely affect an average of 25,000 people per day, dividing families and communities.

The report also noted that agricultural land contaminated by landmines and other unexploded remnants of war had further aggravated the suffering of the population and those internally displaced continued to face challenges in availing of social security and pension payments.

According to the UN human rights office, the total death toll from mid-April 2014 stands at 9,758 with another 22,779 people injured. These figures are estimates and comprise members of the Ukrainian armed forces, armed groups and civilians.

The impact of the conflict in eastern Ukraine on the human rights situation illustrates the need for the full implementation of the provisions of the Minsk Agreements, the report states.
China's Contribution to Peacekeeping Operation: Understanding the Numbers

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Dennis J. Blasko Publication Date 5 December 2016 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, China's Contribution to Peacekeeping Operation: Understanding the Numbers, 5 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/584ab9434.html [accessed 3 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Link to original story on Jamestown website

China's participation in UN Peacekeeping Operations (PKO) has received considerable media attention for the past several years as Beijing's international profile has expanded. To be sure, of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (UNSC), China contributes the largest number of military and civilian personnel to these missions. According to UN statistics as of August 31, 2016, China provides 2,436 troops, 30 military experts, and 173 police for a total of 2,639 personnel out of just over 100,000 uniformed and civilian personnel from all countries performing PKO duties. [1] But this is not a new development and when the details below these surface numbers are examined, it becomes clear that, with the help of the foreign media, Beijing has garnered maximum political and propaganda value from a minimal investment in personnel and money.

This is Not New

Despite recent media headlines, China has been the largest contributor among the five UNSC members for well over a decade. China attained that position in March 2004 when it contributed more personnel than the previous UN Permanent Five leaders, the United Kingdom and United States. At that point Chinese personnel numbered 648 compared to 577 for the UK, 482 for the US, 330 for France, and 320 for Russia. Though numbers vary from month to month, the overall trend is clear as Chinese contributions have roughly quadrupled in size over the past 12 years while numbers for the UK and US have fallen to 337 and 68, respectively.

Though China may lead among the Permanent Five members, it currently ranks number 12 among all contributors to UN PKO missions, following Ethiopia, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Rwanda, Nepal, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Egypt, and Indonesia. The top five contributors each provide more than twice as many personnel as does China, with Ethiopia's total of 8,326 being more than three times China's contribution. As such, China's participation is important and welcomed, but not essential in manning the UN's PKO force.

Overall, China provides about three percent of the total UN PKO force and participates in 11 of the UN's 16 missions. People's Liberation Army (PLA) troops presently are dispatched on six missions: 397 in Mali (MINUSMA), 219 in the Congo (MONUSCO), 230 in Darfur (UNAMID), 412 in Lebanon (UNIFIL), 127 in Liberia (UNMIL), and 1,051 in South Sudan (UNMISS). Chinese police take part in three missions and Military Observers/"Experts on Mission" are found in six missions. Military, observers, and police personnel are combined in three of the total 11 missions (UN, August 3).

Analysis of each individual mission to which China contributes indicates it does not provide the majority of troops to any of them. For example, even the largest PLA contingent of over 1,000 personnel in South Sudan is less than eight percent of the total number of 13,723 military personnel assigned to that mission. In all other cases, China's contributions are an even smaller proportion of the total force. As significant and important as they may be, the success any of individual UN PKO mission does not depend on PLA involvement.

PKO and MOOTW

The Chinese government is understandably proud of its work in this area and publicizes China's contributions in its internal and the international media. For example, in April 2015 the Chinese Defense Ministry predicted, "By the end of 2015, the total number of Chinese peacekeepers will increase to 3,100 from the present 2,700, and China will rise to the 7th position in the 121 contributing countries of UN peacekeeping operations from the current 11th" (MOD, April 8, 2015). A noble goal indeed, and UN statistics show it almost achieved those marks in December 2015 with a total personnel contribution of 3,045 and an overall ranking of number nine, but by June 2016 its numbers dipped below 3,000.

President Xi Jinping also attracted a lot of attention when he announced at a meeting of the UN General Assembly in September 2015 that, "China will contribute 8,000 troops for a United Nations peacekeeping standby force" (Reuters, September 28, 2015). However, no details of who would man that force and exactly what it will do were released publically. A year later, the Defense Ministry spokesman could only report that China was still in the process of registering these 8,000 personnel (ChinaMil, September 30). Whatever the status and mission of that 8,000 standby force actually turns out to be, it is not the same as "raising [the number Chinese peacekeepers] to 8,000" as has been reported by some foreign media (see for example, Financial Times, November 22).

Nonetheless, for the past decade the Chinese government and military have been serious in their commitment to supporting UN peacekeeping operations. PKO missions are considered among several other tasks the PLA categorizes as "non-traditional security" or "military operations other than war" (also known as MOOTW). According to the 2013 edition of The Science of Military Strategy published by the Chinese Academy of Military Science, MOOTW is now considered to be one of the three basic ways to use force along with warfighting and military deterrence. [2] In addition to the political benefits accrued by the Chinese government, the PLA senior leadership obviously sees military benefit to having its forces participate in UN PKO missions and other "non-traditional security" tasks.

A Very Small Percentage of the PLA Conducts PKO Missions

Even with the growth in Chinese participation to UN PKO missions over the past decade, the total number of PLA personnel deployed at any one time is an extremely small fraction the total force: between 2,600 and 3,000 or roughly one-tenth of one percent of the 2.3 million active duty force. (After the on-going 300,000-man reduction is completed, if the numbers of soldiers on PKO remains approximately the same, that percentage will rise to about .12 percent). The overwhelming majority of personnel sent on PKO missions have been from the Army and many officers and noncommissioned officers have conducted multiple PKO deployments.

In the 1990s the PLA designated an engineer brigade located in Beijing to be the primary unit for PKO missions. In 2002, the PLA committed itself to provide one standard UN engineering battalion, one standard UN level II hospital, and two standard UN transport companies to these operations. The Chinese government soon thereafter, however, volunteered for missions far beyond that level of commitment. As China's participation expanded, Army units from most of the country (except from the former Nanjing and Guangzhou Military Regions) were tasked to participate in these high-profile missions. For example, units from the Shenyang Military Region's 16th and 39th Group Armies provide troops to the mission to Mali; units from the Beijing Military Region, including the 27th and 38th Group Armies, have provided units for the missions in Liberia, Congo, and South Sudan; Lanzhou Military Region's 21st GA and Xinjiang Military District units have also provided units for the Congo; elements from Yunnan and the 13th and 14th Group Armies have been sent to Lebanon; and all group armies from the former Jinan Military Region, plus most recently the 65th Group Army, have participated in deployments to Sudan, South Sudan, or Darfur.

The vast majority of units and personnel deployed to UN PKO missions have been from engineering, transport, and medical units. Their main tasks have been to construct and maintain infrastructure, such as roads, bridges, airports, water, and power facilities, perform mine clearing activities, and provide medical (including sanitation and epidemic prevention operations), search, rescue, and evacuation, and logistics support in their mission areas. While they are authorized to protect themselves if attacked, most deployed troops have not been combat troops.

However, in January 2012 the PLA sent a "security unit," likely an infantry platoon (of about 50 men) from the 162nd Motorized Infantry Division of the 54th Group Army in the former Jinan Military Region to South Sudan. [3] In late 2013 it deployed a "guard detachment," a company-size unit of 170 personnel, from the Shenyang Military Region to Mali (MOD, April 10, 2015). These units were tasked to protect other Chinese peacekeepers and protect their field base locations. One Chinese peacekeeper was killed and five other soldiers were wounded (all from the 16th Group Army) in Mali after a car bomb attack on May 31 (ChinaMil, June 3).

In December 2014, the Army deployed its first infantry battalion to the South Sudan. This 700-strong force was actually a composite force composed of personnel from a motorized infantry brigade in the 26th Group Army and two companies from a division of the 54th Group Army both in the Jinan Military Region (ChinaMil, December 23, 2014). Under the UNMISS mandate, the battalion's main mission is to "protect civilians, UN personnel and facilities, protection of humanitarian relief operations and support [Intergovernmental Authority on Development] supervision verification and other tasks in the future as needed" (Sudan Tribune, December 26, 2014). The second rotation in December 2015 apparently was a combined arms infantry battalion, reinforced with armor, artillery, and reconnaissance units, of about 700 people from the 20th Group Army (ChinaMil, December 3, 2015). Two Chinese soldiers from this force were killed in during a fight between South Sudan government and anti-government forces in July 2016 (ChinaMil, September 8). After this incident, the UN conducted a review of the action and was critical of the PLA battalion commander's performance, which was due in part to a confused command relationship. More ominously, however, there were at least two instances in "which the Chinese battalion abandoned some of its defensive positions." No further details were released to the public. The Chinese Ministry of Defense spokesman denied the allegations. [4]

To date, whether they have been engineers, transportation, logistics, medical, or infantry forces, the PLA has deployed only small units (, fendui), from platoon to battalion size, and not larger units of regimental or brigade size. Oftentimes these small units are composite organizations composed of elements from multiple units and headquarters. Personnel and units spend several months training in preparation before deployment at their home bases, in military academies, or at the PLA's Peacekeeping Center in Huairou, established in 2009 (China Daily, June 29, 2009). [5]

Units usually deploy in multiple, sequential "batches" by commercial, not military, aircraft and use commercial ships to transport heavy equipment like armored personnel carriers and engineering bull dozers and earth movers. Tours of duty have been extended from 812 months. In October 2015, the PLA sent its first contingent of four helicopters and 140 personnel to the UN mission in South Sudan traveling by sea from the commercial Tianjin port to arrive in January (Xinhua, October 10).

PKO deployments have multiple benefits for the personnel and units involved and their higher headquarters. Engineering, logistics and medical units deployed on PKO perform functions similar to those that they may be tasked to undertake in combat. Combat forces conduct patrols, armed escort, and local security in a hostile environment. Deployed PLA forces receive UN scrutiny and the attention of the Chinese and foreign media. These tasks, in unfamiliar territory surrounded by locals who do not speak Chinese, challenge small unit leaders and give them, and their troops, confidence and a sense of esprit de corps when missions are accomplished successfully. By assigning PKO deployments to so many different units, the senior PLA leadership spreads out the opportunity for multiple higher level headquarters at corps and theater level to plan for, execute, and support overseas missions, still a relatively rare assignment for most of the PLA. At the strategic level, the PLA acquires intelligence on the areas it deploys forces, learns to interact with foreign militaries and non-governmental organizations, and burnishes its reputation as contributor to "peace and stability." Because of their UN-mandated missions, however, PLA forces generally are not tasked to protect Chinese citizens, commercial entities, and investments in these foreign lands.

Other Contributions to Peacekeeping Operations

The Chinese Ministry of National Defense Peacekeeping Affairs Office establishes policies, oversees PLA participation in UN PKO missions, and interacts with foreign governments and non-governmental organizations. The Central Military Commission's Joint Staff Department Operations Bureau Overseas Operations Office conducts the actual coordination of PKO activities (81.cn, March 31).

In addition to deploying units, China has assigned two senior officers to command PKO missions: Major General Zhao Jingmin served as commander of the troops of the UN Special Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara in 2007 and Major General Liu Chao was appointed as commander of the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus in 2011.

The Chinese government also contributes funds to PKO operations expenses. According the UN statistics, the U.S. is the largest contributor, providing 28.57 percent of UN PKO operating funds, followed by China at 10.29 percent, and Japan at 9.68 percent. In dollars, out of a total $7.87 billion budget for the fiscal year ending in June 2017, that amounts to about $2.25 billion for the US and about $810 million for China. As a side note, "Countries volunteering uniformed personnel to peacekeeping operations are reimbursed by the UN at a standard rate, approved by the General Assembly, of a little over $1,332 per soldier per month," which means China gets approximately $39 million back for its personnel contributions.

Conclusion

The PLA's contributions to UN PKO missions are an excellent example of the "Three Warfares," consisting of media (or public opinion) war, psychological warfare, and legal war, in practice. By participating in UN-mandated missions, the Chinese government can maintain it has a legal basis for its actions and is not violating its long-held national policy of non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries. Both China's own media and the foreign media report on these missions, especially if PLA forces receive accolades from the host country or UN officials and when PLA soldiers are killed or wounded in the performance of their duties. The level of media attention also permits the PLA to conduct psychological operations demonstrating its commitment to UN principles and the creation of a peaceful international environment.

Yet the number of PLA participants in UN PKO is miniscule compared to the overall size of the present and future PLA. While the units involved and their higher headquarters receive benefits from these missions, these experiences, for the most part, do not replicate actual combat experience and are distributed within an extremely limited subset of the entire PLA, mainly engineering and logistics forces. The number of infantry and other combat personnel deployed on all missions over the past four years probably amounts to less than 2,000 personnel. Likewise, the amount of funds the Chinese government contributes to these efforts (less than one billion dollars) is a minor fraction of overall government expenditures ($1.4 trillion in 2014) (theglobaleconomy.com, [Accessed November 25]).

Nevertheless, China gained significant propaganda value out of its minimal investment. The trends in Chinese participation in UN PKO missions have been evident for well over a decade. They are a significant element of the PLA's long-term modernization process, but need to be kept in proper perspective. While providing some PLA units the still comparatively infrequent opportunity to operate beyond the borders of China and enhancing the PLA's confidence in itself and its prestige both at home and abroad, peacekeeping missions do not substitute for the kind of warfighting experience necessary for future mid- or high-intensity combined arms and joint operations.

Dennis J. Blasko, Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army (Retired), is a former U.S. army attache to Beijing and Hong Kong and author of The Chinese Army Today, second edition (Routledge, 2012).

Notes

Unless otherwise noted all statistics are drawn from UN publications available here: https://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/resources/statistics/contributors.shtml, https://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/resources/statistics/factsheet.shtml, https://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/resources/statistics/contributors_archive.shtml, accessed November 25. The 2001 edition of the book included only two "basic functions of the armed forces," warfighting and deterrence, so the addition of MOOTW is an important modification to previous doctrine. Daniel Hartnett, "China's First Deployment of Combat Forces to a UN Peacekeeping MissionSouth Sudan," US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, March 13, 2012. http://origin.www.uscc.gov/sites/default/files/Research/MEMO-PLA-PKO_final.pdf "Executive Summary of the Independent Special Investigation into the violence which occurred in Juba in 2016 and UNMISS response," UN, November 1, 2016, http://www.un.org/News/dh/infocus/sudan/Public_Executive_Summary_on_the_Special_Investigation_Report_1_Nov_2016.pdf Civilian police forces are trained at the China Peacekeeping Police Training Center in Langfang.

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
Armenia and Azerbaijan Flex Military Muscles While Nagorno-Karabakh Peace Negotiations Stall

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Azad Garibov Publication Date 5 December 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 190 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Armenia and Azerbaijan Flex Military Muscles While Nagorno-Karabakh Peace Negotiations Stall, 5 December 2016, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 190, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/584ab9b84.html [accessed 3 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Link to original story on Jamestown website

The meetings between the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents in Vienna (May 16) and St. Petersburg (June 20), following a dangerous flare-up of tensions on the frontline in early April 2016, produced hope for tangible progress in the long-deadlocked Nagorno-Karabakh peace process. However, the lack of progress since then and the increased ceasefire violations reveal that discussions of a real breakthrough are still premature. Although the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan are likely to meet on the margins of the OSCE Ministerial gathering in Hamburg on December 8, no one holds high expectations about the outcome of the meeting ( Commonspaces , November 16). Actually, since the end of the summer, hopes for peace seem to be replaced by increased efforts to build new military deterrence and counter-deterrence capabilities via rearming and large-scale military drills.

Immediately after the April escalation, Armenia pushed forward with the delivery of new weapons and sophisticated equipment from Russia, based on the $200 million military loan agreement from July 2015 ( Azatutyun.am , April 15). Part of it was demonstrated at the Independence Day military parade in Yerevan on September 21. Armenia particularly showcased its Iskander missiles, Smerch multiple rocket launchers (MLRS), Buk surface-to-air missile launchers and radars (albeit without any missiles), and new T-90 main battle tanks that the country previously did not possess ( ArmeniaWeekly , September 22, Janes, September 23). Yerevan also announced a deal with Russia on the delivery of six -1 "Solntsepyok" thermobaric flamethrowers (1news.az, November 14).

Among the newly acquired weapons, the Russian-made short-range ballistic Iskander missiles were the most serious addition to Armenias military arsenal, although it has yet to become clear who controls the "launch button" of this formidable weapon. Ownership of the missiles was not clarified immediately after the parade, which led to speculation that they are from the inventory of Russias 102nd military base in Armenia, which reportedly acquired an Iskander back in 2013 ( Vestnik Kafkaza , September 29). Armenia's Ministry of Defense only confirmed a month after the parade that the demonstrated missiles were Armenian property and they are indeed 500km (310 miles) range Iskander-Ms. However, it is not clear how Russia could export Iskander-Ms to Armenia, since according to the Missile Technology Control Regime (Russia is a member since 1995), the maximum allowed range of exported ballistic missiles is 300km. Moreover, the 2015 military loan agreement with Russia never included delivery of Iskanders ( Janes , September 23), and although Russia sells weapons to Armenia at discount prices, Armenia hardly possess the financial means to purchase Iskanders that cost a few hundred million USD (EDM, September 23).

In general, Russia has always been very reluctant to hand in such advanced missile technology to anyone, including its closest ally Belarus. Thus, if the major aim of demonstrating Iskanders was to deter Azerbaijan, it was also calculated to counter accusations among the Armenian public that Russia betrayed its ally during the April 2016 escalation leaving it alone against Azerbaijan, which is also armed with Russian-made weapons ( Vestnik Kafkaza , September 29).

If parading Iskanders was in part designed to frighten Baku, it achieved the opposite, generating a harsh reaction in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijani Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov instructed the Armed Forces to increase monitoring of Armenia's strategic and military facilities, to identify and prioritize new targets and be ready to destroy them if necessary (see EDM, September28), presumably Iskanders and Smerch MLRSs being among such key targets. Azerbaijan also introduced the domestically built Zerbe kamikaze drone at ADEX-2016 Defense Exhibition at the end of September, which is capable of attacking some of Armenia's long range weapons, stationed behind the line of contact (APA.az, September 21). It was also announced that Turkey has finalized delivery of 21 T-300 Kasirga multi-barrel rocket launchers (100120km engagement range) to Azerbaijan ( Azernews , September 21). Yavar Jamalov, Azerbaijan's Defense Industry Minister, also revealed that the negotiations are underway with foreign partners to bring 280-km (173 miles) range ballistic missile technology to Azerbaijan (Report.az, September 27).

Baku has made an amendment to its draft budget law, which entailed a major increase in projected military spending for 2017. According to the amended draft law, defense spending is increased to AZN 2.642 billion ($1.55 billion), a 63 percent increase from the initially proposed AZN 1,026 billion (News.az, November 17). In general, Armenia's and Azerbaijan's military spending for the past decade were the largest in the whole post-Soviet region in terms of military budget to GDP ratio. According to Bloomberg, Azerbaijan and Armenia together spent almost $27 billion on defense in 20052015 (Bloomberg, November 13).

Along with increased armament efforts, the region also witnessed new large-scale military drills over the last few months. Armenia held a number of drills in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan between the end of September and mid-November, during which artillery strikes were clearly heard from nearby Azerbaijani villages located along the line of contact (APA, September 27, APA, October 27, 1news.az, November 8). Not surprisingly, many of these drills coincided with the fiercest ceasefire violations, a number of which have significantly increased since the end of summer. Three Azerbaijani soldiers were killed in the skirmishes since September, while the Armenian side lost at least six servicemen during cease-fire violations. The period between October 31 and November 2 witnessed one of the most serious and continuous ceasefire violation along the line of contact and other bordering areas between Armenia and Azerbaijan, involving the use of large-caliber mortars, grenade launchers, and heavy machine guns, a rare event since the April escalation ( Azertag , October 31, Trend, November 3).

As a response to the exercises in the occupied territories, Azerbaijan launched large-scale drills of its own from November 12 to 18, involving 60,000 troops, fifty aircraft, 150 tanks and armored combat vehicles, and hundreds of artillery and rocket launchers and drones (Trend, November 12). This came in addition to five-day long drills of artillery and rocket troops held at the end of September (Ministry of Defense, September 26).

Thus, while the peace negotiations are effectively stalled, the focus is shifting away from peace negotiations, and toward armament efforts. Whilst receiving scarce media attention internationally, events on the front line also continue to be very tense, threatening to trigger new and more dangerous rounds of escalations in the ArmeniaAzerbaijan conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
Will Georgia's Former Ruling Party Survive the Prospect of Disintegration?

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Vasili Rukhadze Publication Date 7 December 2016 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Will Georgia's Former Ruling Party Survive the Prospect of Disintegration?, 7 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/584aba2a4.html [accessed 3 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

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On November 30, the Political Council of Georgia's former ruling party, the United National Movement (UNM) decided, after intense internal debate, that it would hold a much larger congress on January 20, 2017, than initially proposedinstead of 2,000 delegates as suggested by some party leaders, the UNM will invite 7,000 delegates from all over the country (Voice of Abkhazia, November 30).

Normally, the size of a routine party congress should not be a major debating issue. In UNM's case, however, it certainly is, as it is directly related to the question of selecting the future leader and direction of the party. Specifically, the party's formal leader, former Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has been facing a challenge to his leadership since he went into a self-imposed exile first in the US and then in Ukraine in 2013. His absence created a power vacuum within the party. Following UNM's disastrous defeat in the October 2016 parliamentary elections (EDM, October 11, November 2), the challenge to Saakashvili's leadership intensified (EDM, November 16). Among his main challengers are some of his close associates and party leaders such as Giga Bokeria, the former Secretary of the National Security Council in 20102013; Bokeria's wife Tamar Chergoleishvili, is the owner of Tabula TV; and David Bakradze, is the former Speaker of the Parliament from 20082012.

Saakashvili's challengers sought to hold a congress with a smaller number of delegates, believing that it would give them a greater chance to influence it and secure the ouster of Saakashvili and the election of a new leader, supposedly, former Speaker David Bakradze (Netgazeti.ge, November 30). The other option, holding a congress with a much larger number of delegates would require the inclusion of delegates from the country's regions, where Saakashvili has stronger support. Hence, UNM's anti-Saakashvili faction would have a much harder time ousting him. Consequently, the question of the size of the congress became a hotly debated issue, prompting pro-Saakashvili UNM activists to launch a social media campaign in order to garner enough signatures to push for a larger congress in January 2017.

Evidently, the UNM is undergoing fierce infighting. As the anti-Saakashvili faction states, UNM needs a new leader to secure its future as a successful party (Tabula.ge, November 30). But this group is certainly not motivated merely by the altruistic goal of saving the party's futureit is seeking to take over the steering wheel of the UNM. However, the goals and motivations of the pro-Saakashvili faction are also puzzling. As the former president's supporters declare, a potential ouster of Saakashvili would mean suicide for the party, since UNM is Saakashvili's creation, and hence, it cannot exist without him (Civil.ge, Geonews.ge, December 1). Such an argument raises the question whether Saakashvili's supporters imply that the UNM would disappear if its founder and current leader were replaced. After all, the success of any organization and institution is judged by its ability to outlive its founder. The ability to transfer power, peacefully and calmly, is the first sign of the health of any organization.

Moreover, can Saakashvili, who is an opposition leader in Ukraine, be also an opposition leader in Georgia? It seems like a political anomaly with no precedent in the modern political world, not to mention the enormous logistical problems of managing two opposition parties in two different countries, located hundreds of miles apart. Saakashvili's UNM supporters certainly do not seem to be concerned about either of these issues.

For now, it appears that the pro-Saakashvili faction within UNM has won, securing a larger congress in January. Most likely, this congress will also secure the reelection of Saakashvili as party leader, since most delegates from the regions strongly support him. However, this may be a Pyrrhic victory. Specifically, the November vote on the size of the upcoming congress once again revealed the deep rift within the party. Most senior members of the UNMGiga Bokeria, David Bakradze, Givi Targamadze, Goka Gabashvili, Mikhail Machavariani, Sergo Ratiani, Zurab Chiaberashvili, and othersvoted for a smaller congress, hence, for the possibility of Saakashvili's ouster (Facebook, November 30). If Saakashvili is reelected as party chairman in January, it is highly unlikely that this group of prominent party members will remain in the organization. In all probability, they may split to form their own political party. Their departure would decimate the UNM, as they represent the UNM's key intellectual and administrative resource. Even if they stay with the UNM, the rift is already too wide and too severe for the party to continue normal operation as an opposition force.

The UNM's existence as a united political party is under question. The next few months will make the picture clearer, but at this point, it is safe to say that the UNM will no longer be the same party. This will have far-reaching repercussions for Georgian politics, which has already changed significantly as a result of the October 2016 elections.

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
Wife Abandonment Syndrome: Russia's Concern About Being Betrayed by Belarus

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Grigory Ioffe Publication Date 5 December 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 190 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Wife Abandonment Syndrome: Russia's Concern About Being Betrayed by Belarus, 5 December 2016, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 190, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/584abb1f4.html [accessed 3 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

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On November 22, Vladimir Solovyov, a Russian documentary filmmaker and a TV talk show host, made a public appearance at the Palace of the Republic in Minsk. Immediately before the gathering, a dozen or so opposition-minded youths demonstrated in front of the venue, bearing slogans like "Solovyovhangman, go away!" However, many more members of Solovyov's audience heading to the meeting with their idol, fended off those demonstrators by chanting "Rossiya, Rossiya, Rossiya," calling the protesters nasty names and even engaging in fist fights with them. Some members of Solovyov's audience suggested that the critics ought to first rise up to his level and only then judge him (Tut.by, November 26).

With his trademark cynicism, Solovyov is a skilled professional and one of the principal pro-Putin opinion-molders. His Sunday talk show is widely seen by Russian-speakers inside and outside Russia, definitely including Minsk. Somewhat paradoxically, Solovyov's formative experience coincided with Gorbachev's glasnost (openness) and included three years (199092) spent in the USA.

During the meeting in Minsk, Solovyov was rationalizing the Kremlin's worldview and heaping scorn on the West  it is always ready to mentor "us" but is in fact the origin of the Inquisition, Napoleonic invasions, national socialism, and communism. He also responded to questions and notes from the audience. One of the handwritten notes read: "Take us in, like you did Crimea; we are so eager for that," to which Solovyov responded: "This is out of the question. Yours is a beautiful country and you are a wonderful people, so you ought to determine your future yourselves" (Naviny.by, November 21).

Following Solovyov's appearance, an avalanche of emotional publications and postings inundated the entire opposition media and social networks. Their refrain has magnified concern over Belarusians' susceptibility to Russian propaganda and inadequate national pride. The aforementioned note indicating some people's eagerness for Belarus to be annexed by Russia like Crimea took center stage in those discussions. One online newspaper suggested that the authorities should find the author of that note and charge him/her with undermining national statehood, in accordance with article 361 of the Criminal Code of Belarus (Salidarnasts, November 26). Occasionally, the participants of discussions tried to step back to figure out why is it that "we" are so fixated on that particular Kremlin propaganda hitman. As the Belarusian-language blogger Stas Karpau pointedly stated, "all this wailing over Solovyov is more dangerous than Solovyov himself" (Stas Karpau, November 26).

In the meantime, two talk shows on Russian TV aired episodes entirely devoted to criticism of the Belarusians, who supposedly follow in the footsteps of Ukrainians in their pending betrayal of Mother Russia. One of the episodes was aired by TV channel Zvezda, a network run by the Russian Ministry of Defense. It slammed Belarus for conniving with nationalists instigated by Poland and the USA. The second episode was aired by Channel One of Russian TV and was devoted to the book "History of Middle-Age Europe from the Fifth to the 15th C" by Oleg Trusov, a Belarusian historian. This book was criticized for an approach reminiscent of the Ukrainian Hrushevsky school of thought, according to which the true descendants of Kyivan Rus are actually the Ukrainians and/or, in Trusov's case, the Belarusians, because they used to live in "European" states such as the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In contrast, he argues, Russia is an "Asiatic" entity, hailing back to the Tatars, the entity that simply usurped the name of Rus. Unlike the first episode to which no Belarusians were invited, this one was attended by the Belarusian historian Nina Stuzhinskaya, who was appalled by the harsh verbal attacks of the talk show host. Again, the verdict was that Belarus is following in the footsteps of Ukraine and is about to betray Russia.

Artyom Shraibman, a commentator of the privately owned Tut.by news-and-analysis portal, opines that, first, two episodes on two Russian TV channels aired just two days after the November 22 LukashenkaPutin meeting in Moscow are scarcely a coincidence. If anything, this is a sign that the Belarusian leader failed to extract concessions from his Russian counterpart, be that on oil deliveries, curtailed since the beginning of the third quarter, or on border controls for automobile transit (EDM, November 9). Second, Belarus's own TV policy is rigid in that there is no non-state TV channel and that the quality of the available TV product yields much to Russian TV (Tut.by, November 27). In his turn, Dmitry Olshansky, a Russian journalist of national-patriotic strand, suggests that in Belarus, Russia is repeating the same mistake it made in Ukraine, whereby it was the West that worked at the grassroots level, while Russia was only talking to bosses; no wonder there is no organized pro-Russian movement in Belarus (Umplus, November 26).

Russia's "wife abandonment syndrome" appears to coincide with a new bout of Europe's hesitations over its Belarus policy. The November 21 visit by the European Council's Political and Security Committee showed a resumption of human rights rhetoric, whereas the practical visa simplification process launched by the EU and Belarus in 2013, expected to be effective in 2015, is still in suspense. After a year without sanctions, economic aid to Minsk is still contingent on the fulfillment of political demands and that triggers disillusionment in Europe (EurasiaExpert, November 23). Some in the Belarusian opposition continue to accuse Europe of colluding with Minsk behind the back of the opposition and obligingly inform their Western sponsors as to who in the opposition has ties to the KGB (Naviny.by, November 23). Above that, the fact that Europe's Belarus policy impasse coincides with a decline in Russian aid is a real challenge to Belarus's foreign policy.

Much like correlative conjunction exercises for students of English, Minsk has three options: both, either/or, and neither/nor. Given the structure of Belarus's economy, "both" (Russia and the West) is definitely the preferred option while "either/or" is impractical and "neither/nor," which is what the situation is heading to, may be outright hurtful. One is left to hope that practicality and realism will prevail on the part of Europe before long.

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
The Democratic Party apparently hasnt learned any lessons from recent elections, at least in regard to selecting leaders in the House of Representatives where it has lost 60 seats the past six years.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, 76, of California, was re-elected as minority leader; Rep. Steny Hoyer, 77, of Maryland, retained his position as minority whip; and Rep. James Clyburn, 76, of South Carolina, will continue as assistant Democratic leader.

Pelosi, the Democratic leader in the House since 2003, became the first female House speaker in 2006. She helped guide passage of President Barack Obamas initial legislation agenda, including his stimulus plan and the Affordable Care Act, and has been his point person in budget battles with Republicans who took control of the House in 2010.

Given the findings from the National Exit Poll, we doubt Pelosi and friends will help turn the tide for Democrats who will continue to have their fewest seats in the House  194 out of 435 with one runoff  since 1929, while losing the White House as well.

White males without a college degree voted for Donald Trump by a 71-23 percent margin. Were many misogynists?

No doubt. But many were working-class voters who once formed the backbone of the party.

(Trump) took our talking points and used them, and we didnt, said Rep. Marcia Fudge of Ohio. Rep. Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts expressed a common complaint the Democratic leadership has been more concerned with social issues than economic ones. We talk more about free-range chickens, he said, than we talk about working people.

We lost that brand, and thats the brand that gets you elected, said Rep. Tim Ryan, an Ohio Democrat who mounted an unsuccessful challenge to Pelosi.

According to the National Exit Poll, five percent fewer Millennials voted for Clinton than Obama, the possible margin of difference in Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Many sat out the election entirely, others turned to third-party candidates.

But instead of new blood, House Democrats are staying the course, largely because Pelosi is their fundraiser-in-chief, procuring more than $300 million during the past decade, and the California, New York and Massachusetts delegations control a third of the partys seats.

In fairness, Democrats have won a plurality of votes in six of the last seven presidential races, including Al Gores 2000 loss to George W. Bush, while Clinton will win the popular vote by 2.3 million, but will lose the Electoral College.

Democrats also have had more total congressional votes in 10 of the last 12 elections  four percent more in 2012 and 2014 than Republicans  but their strength has been heavily concentrated on the West Coast and Northeast.

Republicans, though, have routinely beaten them in critical down ballot state races  as well as 33 gubernatorial contests to the Democrats 15 in November  and have controlled redistricting, often using gerrymandering, the favorable redrawing of boundaries, to tighten their grip on the House. (Iowa uses a five-person independent commission to draw its map, which must be approved by the Legislature and can be subject to review by the Iowa Supreme Court.)

The result has been fewer than 50 House seats are considered competitive (95 percent of incumbents won re-election).

The polling analysis site FiveThirtyEight.com estimates Democrats would have to win 8 percent more votes than Republicans to gain a House majority in 2018 given existing districts.

The courts could even the playing field somewhat given recent rulings against gerrymandering. The U.S. Supreme Court will hear North Carolina and Virginia gerrymandering cases this week.

After leaving office, Obama plans to work with the new National Democratic Redistricting Committee to try to help Democrats take back state legislatures.

If he is to have any success, he must bring working-class voters back into the fold and again motivate the young and minorities.

Clintons campaign took working-class voters for granted. It ignored warnings from Rep. Debbie Dingell of Michigan and Madison, Wis., Mayor Paul Soglin she was in trouble with them in both states. Instead, she sought a landslide victory in Arizona. Meanwhile, billionaire Trump held rallies in economically depressed areas and ran ads aimed at the middle class.

House Democrats missed a golden opportunity to provide the party with new leadership faces. Pelosi proudly proclaimed, We know how to win elections. Weve done it in the past. We will do it again by making that differentiation.

But Democrats have not been winning elections, and if her strategy of differentiation is relying on the recent strategy while waiting for Trump to fall on his face, thats already failed. A more dynamic leadership and message would have been a better option.

 By the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, another Lee Enterprises newspaper.
Terek Cossacks Reveal Their Extensive Participation in the Annexation of Crimea

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Valery Dzutsati Publication Date 6 December 2016 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Terek Cossacks Reveal Their Extensive Participation in the Annexation of Crimea, 6 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/584abb9f4.html [accessed 3 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

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As President Vladimir Putin openly admitted to planning and executing the annexation of Crimea in 2014 (YouTube, March 15, 2015), the role of various Russian forces that participated in the takeover of the Ukrainian peninsula has increasingly come to the forefront. The scale of Russian involvement in the "free expression of people's will" in Crimea is becoming ever more transparent, as the participants of the annexation clash with each other and speak out.

One such recent scandal took place among the Terek Cossacks. The Russian government has awarded nearly 150 Terek Cossacks the Medal "For the Return of Crimea" (Za Vozvrashchenie Kryma) (Regnum, May 7, 2015). Meanwhile, a Cossack leader from the city of Simferopol, Vadim Ilovchenko, accused the leader of Stavropol Cossacks, Aleksandr Pechnikov, of cowardice. Ilovchenko stated his men surrounded and forced Ukrainian soldiers to surrender as the Russian forces paved the way for the "referendum" on Crimea's status in March 2014. By the time Pechnikov's group arrived in Crimea from Stavropol, Ilovchenko already had 70 people under his command and wanted the Terek Cossacks to become his combatants. The latter, however, refused to become the commanders subordinate and left Simferopol to be stationed in a rural area. One of Pechnikov's men, Viktor Pankratov, said that his boss was scared of taking up arms and preferred to depart to safer areas on the peninsula, where there was no fighting expected. However, Pechnikov's commander, Yevgeny Smirnov, supported his subordinate and said that the Crimean Cossacks made an impression of gamblers, who had "Barbarossa plans" (Kavkazskaya Politika, November 23).

While the small brawls between various Cossack leaders unfolded, they also spoke about the details of the Crimean operation. It transpired, for example, that over 200 Terek Cossacks were in Crimea prior to the referendum that was held on March 16, 2014. Terek Cossacks were only a part of the larger influx of Cossacks from all over Russia to the Ukrainian peninsula, and they arrived in Crimea by March 9, 2014 "to help the Crimeans." Notably, their help involved capturing and blocking Ukrainian soldiers, and suppressing the Crimean Tatars, who spoke out against the Moscow-inspired referendum on the future of Crimea (Kavkazskaya Politika, November 23).

The new Russian authorities that captured the peninsula indicated their appreciation for the Cossacks not only by rewarding them with medals and government positions. One year after annexation, the Crimean authorities announced that the peninsula would establish its own Cossack force. The initial number of Crimean Cossacks was scheduled to be 1,000 servicemen. Reportedly, 20 Cossack organizations were applying for registration on the peninsula. After the number of Cossacks reaches 5,000, the authorities said they would register them as a Cossack Force (Kazachye Voisko) (kianews.com.ua, April 23, 2015).

Although there has been hardly any military threat by Ukraine to Crimea after the annexation, the Russian authorities still chose to create a Cossack force on the peninsula. The reason for such decision soon transpired. On December 28, 2015, an estimated 25 Crimean Cossacks under the leadership of ataman Anatoly Yakovlev, along with servicemen from the Russian FSB (Federal Security Service) and the Interior Ministry's extremism-combatting unit, raided nine homes of Crimean Tatars in the village of Dolinka, in the Krasnoperekopsky district of Crimea. The reason for the raid was that unknown individuals had previously painted Ukrainian state symbols at the bus stops in several villages, including Dolinka. In the same incident, some pedestrian road crossings were repainted in the colors of the Ukrainian flagblue and yellow. Symbolic actions by supporters of Ukraine, who often turned out to be the Crimean Tatars, apparently outraged the Russian authorities on the peninsula. The Cossacks, in particular, spearheaded the harassment of the suspected individuals. According to the local Crimean Tatar activist in Krasnopersky district, Sanie Ametova, Russian officials showed reasonable restraint during the raid, but the Cossacks' behavior was marked with considerable impertinence (15minut.org, December 28, 2015).

Moscow uses the Cossack paramilitaries in Crimea as a semi-legal force that can harass and intimidate unwanted groups and bypass the usual constraints that the police and the official armed forces have. Cossacks, therefore, are part of the larger and older Russian strategy of manipulating information and extracting political benefits from such manipulation. Apart from harassing civilians, the Cossack forces, for example, participated in the hostilities in Eastern Ukraine, where they provided a cover for the Russian professional military. This helped both to shield Moscow somewhat from international criticism and to inhibit the mobilization of the Ukrainian populacesince the Russian state was not in the picture. However, using Cossacks as Russian paramilitaries comes at a price. As the Cossacks acquire their own agency and start competing with each other for government positions, funding, and other benefits, this invariably leads to scandals involving embezzlement (Kavkazskaya Politika, December 4). Besides, the half-warrior-half-civilian Cossack folk contribute to perpetuating the cycle of war that has been dominant in contemporary Russia and thereby stagnating the development of the Russian Federation as a modern state based on the rule of law.

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
Legislative Election in Gagauzia: The Autonomous Region Turns its Back on Moldova Again

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Mihai Popsoi Publication Date 7 December 2016 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Legislative Election in Gagauzia: The Autonomous Region Turns its Back on Moldova Again, 7 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/584abcd74.html [accessed 3 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

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On December 4, Moldova's Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia held the second round of its legislative election. The People's Assembly (Gagauzia's legislature) is composed of 35 members elected for a four-year term in 35 single member districts. A winner needs to gain at least 50 percent plus one vote to be elected. Of the 126 candidates registered in the race, 17 won in the first round and 15 in the runoffs. Another two districts are yet to hold their runoffs, and one district will hold a repeated election due to low turnout, which failed to reach the 33 percent threshold (Gagauzinfo.md, December 5).

The overall turnout was 42.8 percent, which was about one percent lower than in the first round. The apathy can be explained by the fact that this election has been overshadowed by the presidential election in Moldova organized just three weeks earlier. The Constitutional Court has not validated the outcome of the presidential election yet, as it waits for the conclusion of the post-electoral legal battles over the election results. This adds further anxiety to the Gagauz voters, as 99 percent of them supported the president-elect, former Socialists Party leader, Igor Dodon, mainly due to his pro-Russian message. However, this time, the Socialists failed to capitalize on their earlier electoral success in the region. In fact, the Socialists were met with hostility at town hall meetings, being told, "We supported the president, but we can manage things locally on our own" (Budjakonline.md, November 28).

Of the 32 Gagauz legislators already elected, only four are women, while 16 are incumbents, the majority being under the age of 50 (Gagauznews.com, December 6). Yet, most importantly, of the 32 legislators, only nine are affiliated with a political party (seven socialists and two democrats), the rest being independents. This indicates a very high distrust among Gagauz voters toward the national political parties. Consequently, as regional parties are not allowed under the Moldovan law (out of fear that they could spur secessionism), the Gagauz are voting in droves for independents, who are most often local businessmen, bureaucrats or intellectuals. However, once elected, these independents tend to align themselves with one of several political power houses in the region, including the camp supported by the current governor Irina Vlah, the camp of the former governor Mihail Formuzal, the Democratic party camp led by former Mayor of Comrat (the capital of Gagauzia), Nicolai Dudoglo, and finally, the Party of Socialists, which took over the electorate that the communists used to hold in the region. Governor Vlah was also elected with the support of the Socialists, so it is likely that a coalition between Vlah's supporters and Dodon's Socialists will form the future majority in the Assembly. The current speaker Dmitrii Konstantinov (a defector from the Democratic Party) is likely to hold on to his position if he is able to bring a couple more votes to the future coalition. Yet, unlike four years ago, when the Democratic Party was able to convert a large number of independents to its side and create a majority, albeit short-lived, this time the Democrats appear uninterested in investing heavily in shaping the future majority in the Gagauz legislature (Gagauzinfo.md, December 6).

The reluctance of the ruling Democratic Party, which considers itself pro-European, could be explained by the public relations fiasco it suffered in 2014, when its own members in Gagauzia had to support the region's referendum staged by local nationalists, aided by Russia, in the hope of precluding Moldova from signing the Association Agreement with the EU. The referendum of February 2, 2014, considered illegal by the Moldovan authorizes, preceded the one in Crimes by just over a month. With a turnout of over 70 percent, voters almost unanimously (98.4 percent) supported closer integration with the Russia-led Customs Union, while 97.2 percent firmly stood against closer ties with the EU. In addition, when asked about Gagauzia's future should Moldova lose its sovereignty, 98.9 percent agreed that Gagauzia should have the right to independence (Gagauzinfo.md, February 3, 2014). It remains unclear to this day whether the third question implied Moldova's potential unification with Romania or it referred to the country's supposable accession to NATO and especially the EU. Either way, despite Moldova having signed and ratified the Association Agreement with the EU, Gagauzia remains a stronghold of pro-Russian sentiment in Moldova and, by the virtue of the 2014 illegal "self-determination" referendum, it can serve as a destabilizing factor in the country. The fact that president-elect Igor Dodon stated that Moldova's integration into the European Union is only possible without Gagauzia and Transnistria provides further evidence (Interfax.ru, November 21).

This legislative election is unlikely to change much in Gagauzia as the legislators, who are serving only part time, keeping their day jobs, lack the resources and prerogatives to significantly improve the conditions in the autonomous region. In terms of geopolitical discourse, they will remain hostages of their electorate, who are heavily influenced by the Russian media, despite receiving large amounts of aid from the European Union and its member states, and virtually none from Russia (Moldnova.md, September 8). Unfortunately, these facts find it hard to reach Gagauz voters. Importantly, the Moldovan authorities have done little to integrate the Gagauz into the national political and social life. Until Chisinau makes it a national priority to address the grievances of the Gagauz autonomous region, which remains one of the poorest regions in one of the poorest countries in Europe, there is little prospect for better relations between Gagauzia and the rest of Moldova and, certainly, fewer chances of re-integration with Transnistria.

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
Europe Seeks Consolidation in the Face of Cyber and Information Threats by Russia

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Sergey Sukhankin Publication Date 7 December 2016 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Europe Seeks Consolidation in the Face of Cyber and Information Threats by Russia, 7 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/584abd524.html [accessed 3 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

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On November 23, the European Parliament adopted a non-binding resolution aimed at consolidating the European countries in countering Russian propaganda and preventing cyber attacks. The resolution included strong language stressing that the European parliament is "seriously concerned by the rapid expansion of Kremlin-inspired activities in Europe, including disinformation and propaganda seeking to maintain or increase Russia's influence to weaken and split the EU." The resolution stresses that Moscow has engaged and financed a number of subversive activities in Europe and warns that Russia's aggressive activities in the cyber domain facilitate information warfare" (European Parliament, November 23).

Moscow reacted furiously. The Editor-in-Chief of Russia Today, Margarita Simonian, condemned the declaration accusing the EU of "betraying its own democratic values and establishing obstacles to freedom of activities of key Russian international agencies." The spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova, stated: "We are sorry to admit it but the EU has not ceased demonizing Russia." She also warned that should the European Parliament conduct any practical steps in this direction, the Russian Federation would provide an adequate and decisive response (1tv.ru, November 24).

Obviously, the Kremlin is feeling irritated by the fact that both Europe's supranational institutions and many individual EU member-states have come to recognize Russia's offensive cyber operations as one of the most imminent direct threats posed to European security.

On November 10, the Polish ministry of defense adopted its Plan on Technical Modernization of the Polish Army for 20172022. The document contains a separate part dedicated to cyber security, which envisages extensive reliance on US experience. Its implementation will be based on five key pillars of which the most impressive is the creation of a "Small Pentagon"one of the most essential elements of cyber security, which provides real-time analysis of security alerts generated by network hardware and applications (Technowinki.onet.pl, November 10). Moreover, Warsaw is ready to allocate approximately 230 million euro for cyber security, as Polish Defence Minister Antoni Macierewicz has reaffirmed. The minister also assured that practical implementation of this initiative would lead toward the creation of a consolidated unit of Polish "cyber troops" (Wschodnik.pl, November 10).

Furthermore, in November, Finland and 11 other countries (including the US, Germany, France, Sweden and the Baltic States) announced the creation of a joint center for fighting cyber threats (Yle.fi November 21). The headquarters of the center will be in Helsinki, which is widely known as the European "IT Mecca." This initiative is particularly timely, given the growing number of offensive cyber attacks against both individual EU members and key European organizations and institutions. For instance, on November 25, a hacker attack on the EU Commission network, although not causing irreparable damage, once again brought to light the general weakness of the EU in the area of cyber security, its susceptibility to external threats and the absence of a palpable common strategy. This attack may have been related to the EUUkraine summit in Brussels where discussions took place on a visa-free regime for Kyiv (Cyberdefence24.pl, November 25).

A few days later, Germany was subjected to a major cyber attack that denied access to the Internet to 900,000 clients of Deutsche Telekom (112.ua, November 30). This caused a wave of anger among top-ranking German officials. Bruno Kahl, president of the German federal intelligence agency, stated that the Russian hackers' attention is focused on Europe, especially on Germany and "the cyber-attacks endorsed by Moscow aim to create political instability" (Spiegel.de, November 29).

German Chancellor Angela Merkel had already warned of potential Russian interference in next year's German elections, pointing out that the country already faced "a daily task" of responding to Russian cyber attacks and disinformation campaigns (Dw.com, November 8).

On November 9, the German cabinet adopted a new cyber security strategy influenced by "a growing number of cyber attacks against institutions, critical infrastructure, private companies and ordinary citizens, which is primarily related to the activities of China and Russia" (Dw.com, November 9). The initiative has outlined 30 strategic goals. From an institutional standpoint the creation of a Rapid Reaction Force under the umbrella of the Federal Bureau of Information (BSI), the Federal Police and intelligence services has become one of the main priorities for Germany. Furthermore, Berlin (along with Warsaw) has also identified its interest in borrowing US experience in the area of cyber security and warding off cyber threats. Particular attention should be paid to the fact that the strategy pays serious attention to such instrumental dimensions as raising awareness and research and development in the domain of cyber security that is going to be extended down to primary school level (Cyberdefence24.pl, November 29).

The German initiative fully complies with the growing dialogue between the EU and NATO on fostering ties, increasing cooperation and exchange of information in the realm of cyber security. On the other hand, this provides a beam of hope that the European Parliament's Directive on security of network and information systems (the NIS Directive) and the NATO Cyber Defense Pledge will ensure practical implementation of both previously identified and newly elaborated strategies.

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
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This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.
SARC and ICRC evacuate 150 civilians from Aleppo frontline

Publisher International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Publication Date 8 December 2016 Cite as International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), SARC and ICRC evacuate 150 civilians from Aleppo frontline, 8 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/584ac74e4.html [accessed 3 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Nearly 150 civilians, most of whom were disabled or in urgent need of care, were evacuated late night from a hospital in the Old City of Aleppo, in a joint operation by the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Dar Al-Safaa, originally an elderly home whose role expanded because of the crisis, had been accommodating patients with mental health needs or physical disabilities. Three dozen other civilians, a number of them injured, had also sought refuge there.

"These patients and civilians had been trapped in the area for days because of heavy clashes nearby and as the front line kept drawing closer," said the ICRC's Head of Delegation in Syria, Marianne Gasser, who is currently in Aleppo. "Many of them cannot move and need special attention and care. It must have been terrifying for them. Our partners from the Syrian Arab Red Crescent had been trying to reach and evacuate them since Tuesday."

118 patients were taken to Aleppo's Al-Razi, University or Ibn Khaldoun hospitals, while 30 men, women and children, were transferred to shelters in Western Aleppo. Six orphaned and very young children were amongst the evacuees.

A first evacuation mission was aborted on Tuesday because of very heavy clashes in the area. Finally, yesterday afternoon SARC, with support from the ICRC, managed to reach premises in the Al-Meshatyeh neighborhood after it was retaken by Government forces and the fighting died down.

Tragically, for some, the operation came too late: 11 people died before the SARC and ICRC team were able to reach the centre. They were either caught in the crossfire or died because they did not have access to the right medications. The SARC also evacuated their human remains, so they can be properly identified and returned to their families, and accorded the appropriate funeral rites.

The ICRC and SARC stand ready to act as a neutral intermediary between all sides, and to assist civilians in areas of heavy fighting inside Eastern Aleppo where the humanitarian situation is known to be catastrophic. The ICRC urgently calls on all parties to allow a humanitarian pause and to provide the necessary security guarantees.
Fighting hardship and disability in South Sudan: Yakobo's story

Publisher International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Publication Date 5 December 2016 Cite as International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Fighting hardship and disability in South Sudan: Yakobo's story, 5 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/584ac7c74.html [accessed 3 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

South Sudan is a difficult place to live for anyone, but especially for people with disabilities. The country has been devastated by years of conflict and a severe economic crisis, and public transport and other essential services are nonexistent. But Yakobo does not think that being an amputee makes things harder for him. "It is a daily struggle for everybody and I manage just as well. Having a prosthesis helps a lot. Without it I'd be just sitting in one place," he says.

Yakobo was a soldier in the 1990s when he stepped on a landmine and lost his leg. After the amputation he had to start a new life from scratch. He learned how to walk with a prosthetic leg through a long and painful process, and he had to find a new way to make a living in a country where opportunities are scarce.

But Yakobo is not someone who gets discouraged easily or complains about hardships. "You can do what you want in life, you just have to use your talents." Once the treatment was over, he started reselling fish at the market until he managed to put aside enough money to buy a generator and a photocopy machine. The small business feeds his family to this day.

He finds seeing so many people with disabilities begging in the street painful. "When I walk into a store I see how the owner's face changes because he thinks I'm there to beg. Sometimes he would just hand me something before I speak. But I would refuse and say, 'No, I did not come to beg, I want to buy.'" Yakobo's dream is to have a bigger business where he could employ and train people with disabilities.
Aleppo: As fighting rages, everything must be done to protect civilians

Publisher International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Publication Date 1 December 2016 Cite as International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Aleppo: As fighting rages, everything must be done to protect civilians, 1 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/584ac8174.html [accessed 3 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Syria is appealing to all sides fighting in Aleppo to do their utmost to protect the civilian population. Since the escalation in violence in Eastern Aleppo these past few days, at least 30,000 people have fled to the West of the city, while countless others are expected to have escaped in other directions. That number is likely to rise, possibly by tens of thousands.

"The people who're fleeing take a lot of risks. There is shelling, explosions and sniper fire. People have left behind virtually everything," said Ms Gasser, speaking in Aleppo.

"They must be guaranteed protection and safe passage. We appeal to all sides to ensure this. We at the ICRC are ready to help, but it's up to those who are involved in the fighting to protect civilians."

The ICRC and Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) were granted access to Masaken Hanano, one of the districts in East Aleppo, in order to assess the living conditions for people who decide to come back once it will be possible. Hanano was previously under siege and has now been retaken by government forces following heavy fighting.

"The place is deserted and there is immense destruction all along the road. Aleppo city and the southeast rural areas have already received thousands of displaced people. More people continue to arrive from the east. In a bad, very bad state. People's main wish is to return to their houses," said Ms Gasser.

People who manage to flee either left by foot for the Government-held areas in the West or crossed further north to Sheikh Maksood and surrounding areas. Most of them came from Hanano area, Haydaryee, Inzarat, Beedeen, Sakhour, Shaar, Katrji, Jabal Badro and other areas in Eastern Aleppo. They are then transported by the authorities to two collective shelters of Jibreen and Mahalej where the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, the ICRC and other local organisations have been responding with basic humanitarian aid.

The SARC dispatched mobile medical teams to treat the sick, injured and malnourished. The teams work 12 hours per day and, since 27 November, have treated over 2,500 people. As the shelters lack basic amenities, the ICRC and SARC installed emergency water tanks and sanitation facilities, and provided food, blankets and mattresses. As the situation evolves, the organisations are scaling up their response to deal with new arrivals.

"We saw buses arriving with people, more and more people. Hundreds were arriving every hour while we were there. Conditions are very difficult. People are in shock. They're tired and cold, many of them are still covered in dust and need medical help. It's heart-breaking," said Marianne Gasser said.

"It's all very basic. First of all, we need to ensure dignified conditions for these people. One of the shelters is a cotton factory, a huge hangar where some 15 thousand people will expect to be accommodated."
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BELLEVUE, Wash., Dec. 08, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Vanir Construction Management, Inc. today announced that it hired Bernie ODonnell as its Northwest Area development manager, while Scott Tomlinson, CCM, assumes a new role as executive director of technology, manufacturing and Indian Nation pursuits.



Photos accompanying this announcement are available at:

http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/a667c3e9-56f7-47b5-b1bf-0c6ff5f3a0fd

http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/2c536641-2a8c-4731-a1f1-375f01dfae7f

ODonnell will lead company operations in Washington, Oregon and Idaho on programs that include project and construction management services, public/private developments, and energy, environment and sustainability services.

During his 27-year career, ODonnell has led teams in the private and public sectors managing design and construction development projects totaling more than $1 billion. Projects that ODonnell has managed include large institutional and campus development projects at the University of Washington in Seattle and Tacoma, Wash., and a variety of large commercial projects. He has a bachelors degree in architecture from the University of Washington.

Im thrilled to be a part of the Vanir team, ODonnell said. Vanirs reputation and work in the construction management industry is widely known to be among the best. With my background in the Northwest area, I look forward to continuing Vanirs growth in the region.

Tomlinson, who has led large and complex projects in the construction management industry for more than 30 years, will transition from Washington Area manager to executive director and will remain based in Bellevue. His focus will be national, but will continue to support Northwest Area projects. Tomlinson joined Vanir in 2003 as and has served as the Washington Area manager for the past five years. Under his leadership, Vanir was awarded several key contracts, including Microsoft and the University of Washington.

Our work and focus in the technology, manufacturing and Indian Nation sectors has been an excellent opportunity for us to be a part of some exemplary projects in the Northwest region, said Tomlinson. We see a great opportunity for Vanir to serve these markets on a national level.

These changes demonstrate Vanirs belief in the Pacific Northwest and the potential for growth in the technology, manufacturing and Indian Nation market sectors, said Vanir Construction Management President Guy Mehula. Scott has done a tremendous job. He only accepted the new challenge once we found Bernie ODonnell, who we feel confident will continue to provide Vanirs exemplary service to clients.

About Vanir Construction Management

Vanir Construction Management, Inc., is one of the nations leading full-service, program, project and construction management firms. Since 1980, Vanir has provided professional services in excess of $21 billion in construction value to K-12 and higher education, healthcare, justice, water/wastewater, public buildings, transportation and energy markets. Headquartered in Sacramento, Calif., Vanir serves clients throughout the United States and has been consistently ranked by Engineering News-Record as one of the Top 50 CM Firms for more than 20 years. Visit www.vanir.com for more information.
French English

Transaction includes 3M Cogent Inc., Document Reader and Secure Materials Businesses

This strategic acquisition rounds out Gemalto Government Programs offering by adding biometric technology and ideally positions the Company to provide solutions for the promising commercial biometrics market

The purchase price of US$850 million will be financed with cash and existing credit facilities

Closing is expected to occur in the first half of 2017

This acquisition will be accretive to adjusted Earnings Per Share from the first year on a pro-forma basis

AMSTERDAM, Dec. 09, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Gemalto (Euronext NL0000400653 - GTO), the world leader in digital security, today announced that it has entered into agreements to acquire 3M's Identity Management Business for US$850 million. 3M's Identity Management Business is comprised of 3M Cogent Inc., which provides a full spectrum of biometric solutions with a focus in civil identification, border control and law enforcement, and 3M's Document Reader and Secure Materials Businesses.

Headquartered in the United States and present on 3 continents, 3M's Identity Management Business is a trusted partner to governments, law enforcement, border control and civil identification bodies worldwide. It offers world-class biometric based end-to-end solutions enabling identity verification and user-friendly authentication. 3M's Identity Management experienced and highly-skilled team of approximately 450 experts has developed proven biometrics algorithms (finger, face, iris, etc.) and is at the forefront of innovation with the latest multi-modal biometric solutions. Annual revenue of the business is approximately US$215M and profit from operations at US$58M[1].

As Gemalto pursues its expansion and prepares for the future, this acquisition both completes Gemalto Government Programs offer by in-sourcing biometric technology and ideally positions the Company to provide solutions for the promising commercial biometrics market. Our combined offers and experience in the Public sector to manage the enrolment, identification of individuals, flow of passengers and border control should contribute to stronger national security. On the commercial side, as online and mobile transactions grow, new forms of multi-factor authentication and identification are needed to complement physical ID documents. Combining market access and technologies from 3M's Identity Management Business and Gemalto will allow trusted national identities and strong biometric authentication to develop throughout the digital economy.

Once the acquisition is completed, 3M's Identity Management Business will become part of Gemalto Government Programs business which recorded a revenue of 391 million in 2015.

The closing of the transaction is expected to occur in the first half of 2017, after approval from the relevant regulatory and anti-trust authorities and employee consultation where required. After the acquisition is completed, Gemalto will retain a strong financial structure with a net debt/adjusted EBITDA ratio below 1.5. The transaction will be accretive to adjusted Earnings Per Share. As part of our long term strategy and the development of this core technology across our businesses, the acquired business revenue is expected to grow at +10% CAGR with EBITDA margins above 20% by 2020.

"Gemalto is delighted to welcome new members to its international team. 3M's Identity Management Business and Gemalto perfectly fit, solving authentication and identity management pain points across our customer segments, creating immediate increased differentiation and offering additional long term growth perspectives", said Philippe Vallee, Gemalto CEO.

Live Audio Webcast and Conference call

Gemalto presentation on this announcement will be webcast in English today at 3pm Amsterdam and Paris time

(2pm London time and 9am New York time).

This listen-only live audio webcast of the presentation and the Q&A session will be accessible from our Investor Relations web site:

www.gemalto.com/investors

Questions will be taken by way of conference call. Investors and financial analysts wishing to ask questions should join the presentation by dialing:

(UK) +44 203 367 9454 or (US) +1 855 402 7761 or (FR) +33 1 7077 0943

The accompanying presentation slide set is also available for download on our Investor Relations web site.

Replays of the presentation and Q&A session will be available in webcast format on our Investor Relations web site approximately 3 hours after the conclusion of the presentation. Replays will be available for one year.

Investor Relations



Corporate Communication



Media Relations Agency



Winston Yeo



Isabelle Marand



Suzanne Bakker M.: +33 6 2947 0814 M.: +33 6 1489 1817 M. : +31 6 1136 8659 winston.yeo@gemalto.com isabelle.marand@gemalto.com suzanne.bakker@citigateff.nl



Sebastien Liagre

M.: +33 6 1751 4467

sebastien.liagre@gemalto.com





About Gemalto

Gemalto (Euronext NL0000400653 GTO) is the global leader in digital security, with 2015 annual revenues of 3.1 billion and customers in over 180 countries. We bring trust to an increasingly connected world.

Our technologies and services enable businesses and governments to authenticate identities and protect data so they stay safe and enable services in personal devices, connected objects, the cloud and in between.

Gemalto's solutions are at the heart of modern life, from payment to enterprise security and the internet of things. We authenticate people, transactions and objects, encrypt data and create value for software - enabling our clients to deliver secure digital services for billions of individuals and things.

Our 14,000+ employees operate out of 118 offices, 45 personalization and data centers, and 27 research and software development centers located in 49 countries.

For more information visit

www.gemalto.com, or follow @gemalto on Twitter.

This communication does not constitute an offer to purchase or exchange or

the solicitation of an offer to sell or exchange any securities of Gemalto.

This communication contains certain statements that are neither reported financial results nor other historical information and other statements concerning Gemalto. These statements include financial projections and estimates and their underlying assumptions, statements regarding plans, objectives and expectations with respect to future operations, events, products and services and future performance. Forward-looking statements are generally identified by the words "expects", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates" and similar expressions. These and other information and statements contained in this communication constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of applicable securities laws. Although management of the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, investors and security holders are cautioned that forward-looking information and statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties, many of which are difficult to predict and generally beyond the control of the Company, that could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied or projected by the forward-looking information and statements, and the Company cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those estimated by the forward-looking statements contained in this communication include, but are not limited to: trends in wireless communication and mobile commerce markets; the Company's ability to develop new technology and the effects of competing technologies developed; effects of the intense competition in the Company's main markets; challenges to or loss of intellectual property rights; ability to establish and maintain strategic relationships in its major businesses; ability to develop and take advantage of new software, platforms and services; profitability of the expansion strategy; effects of acquisitions and investments; ability of the Company's to integrate acquired businesses, activities and companies according to expectations; ability of the Company to achieve the expected synergies from acquisitions; and changes in global, political, economic, business, competitive, market and regulatory forces. Moreover, neither the Company nor any other person assumes responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of such forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this communication speak only as of the date of this communication and the Company or its representatives are under no duty, and do not undertake, to update any of the forward-looking statements after this date to conform such statements to actual results, to reflect the occurrence of anticipated results or otherwise except as required by applicable law or regulations.

[1] Source: Proforma carve-out unaudited financials based on due diligence - 12 months ending June 2016

Attachments:

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Police in Phnom Penh have arrested 10 Cambodians whom they accuse of setting up an armed unit in a bid to overthrow the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen, a police spokesman said Thursday.



The 10 were allegedly members of the Denmark-based Khmer National Liberation Front (KNLF), which has been deemed a terrorist group by the Cambodian government.



They were taken into custody late Wednesday and Thursday on charges of conspiracy to topple the government, said National Police spokesman Lieutenant General Kirt Chantharith.



The move drew criticism from a human rights group, which said the arrest violated their rights and questioned the governments basis for labeling KNLF a terrorist group.



The [KNLF] movement has intended to topple the government by establishing illegal armed forces, spying on military secrets, distributing anti-government leaflets, training terrorists, and conducting training along the Cambodian-Thai border, Kirt Chantharith said.



Police also confiscated evidence that included books criticizing Hun Sen, he said



The 10, most of whom were farmers, had planned to hold a peaceful protest outside the Vietnamese embassy in Cambodias capital Phnom Penh to demand that Vietnam respect the Paris Peace Accords, Kirt Chantharith said.



Signed in 1991, the accords, which ended the Vietnam War, required the parties involved to recognize the fundamental national rights of Cambodian independence, sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity.



Many Cambodians are wary of Vietnams influence over their countrys affairs.



An estimated 1.7 million people, or one in four Cambodians, died in what came to be called the Killing Fields after the ultra-Communist Khmer Rouge took power in 1975. The regime was unseated when Vietnam invaded the country four years later.



Vietnam occupied the country for a decade before withdrawing its troops and signing the Paris Peace Agreement to restore sovereignty and stability to Cambodia.



Freedom



The KNLF says on its website that the two-year-old group consists of Cambodian nationalists and democrats who work with democratic countries and the United Nations to achieve peace, freedom, and democracy.



It says it is working to change the government through nonviolent means.



Its mission is to seek justice for and free Cambodians from Vietnamese "neocolonialism" and the dictatorship regime under Hun Sen based on international law, the Paris Peace Accords, and the rights of the Cambodian people, the KNLF said.



The front wanted to protest in front of the Vietnamese embassy to demand that it respect the Paris Peace Accords because the Vietnamese government hasnt implemented them, said a statement issued by the KNLF.



It called on local and international human rights groups "to pressure the Hun Sen dictatorship to release the demonstrators immediately.



Last year, the Cambodian government deemed the KNLF a terrorist group, claiming it was plotting to overthrow President Hun Sens government.



Police action questioned



Am Sam Ath, a senior investigator with the Cambodian human rights group Licadho, criticized the arrest, saying the 10 men had wanted to hold a peaceful protest outside the Vietnamese embassy within their rights as Cambodians .



If they want to protest against the Vietnamese embassy, it is their right, he said. They are not involved in any criminal activity.



He said the government must differentiate between demonstrators and KNLF members and questioned the basis for branding KNLF a terrorist group, arguing instead that it is a nongovernmental organization.



In April, a Cambodian court sentenced 13 KNLF members to five to nine years in prison after finding them guilty of plotting to overthrow the government, according to reports.



Of the six tried in absentia was Sam Serey, founder of the KNLF.



Rights groups had denounced the verdicts as politically motivated and lacking evidence and claimed that torture had been used to extract testimony, The Cambodia Daily reported.



The Khmer National Liberation Front is an illegal group, because it causes national security concerns, Long Dymong, spokesman of Phnom Penh City Hall, told RFA. They are extremists, and they want to topple the government.



Reported by Samean Yun for RFAs Khmer Service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.


China on Friday detained key dissidents, placing some under house arrest amid growing calls for a tougher U.S. stance on Beijing's rights record ahead of World Human Rights Day.



As rights activists and former prisoners of conscience gave testimony to a U.S. congressional hearing on human rights abuses in China, Beijing-based veteran democracy activist Zha Jianguo said he is now at home under tight surveillance.



"They've been standing guard outside my door since early this morning," Zha said. "The police called me and said that tomorrow is World Human Rights Day, and that they'll be doing this for two days."



"They said I mustn't go out," he said. "I said that's not OK, I have things to do, and you're going to deprive me of my basic right to freedom of movement on Human Rights Day?"



He said he went out on Friday anyway. "They just followed me the whole time, until I had done what I needed to do and came home," Zha said.



"They're still standing outside the door now."



He said veteran political journalist Gao Yu, who was released from jail on medical parole earlier this year, is in a similar situation.



In Washington, Jin Bianling, wife of disappeared rights lawyer Jiang Tianyong, says she is hoping U.S. politicians will step up the pressure on Beijing over her husband's whereabouts.



"I am hoping that the leaders of the U.S. Congress will get in touch with the Chinese leadership and find out where my husband Jiang Tianyong is," she told RFA before attending a hearing on human rights run by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China in Washington.



Jiang has been incommunicado, believed detained, since last month after visiting the family of detained rights lawyer Xie Dan in Changsha, Hunan province.



"My husband bought a train ticket to go back to Beijing from Changsha on Nov. 21, and he sent out a social media post at around 10.22 p.m," Jin told reporters ahead of the hearing.



"We haven't heard anything from him since."

Hope Trump will be tougher



She called on the Chinese government to release Jiang immediately.



"If he is being held under residential surveillance, we want to know where he is," she said. "We also call on them not to torture him, and to take steps to take care of his health."



Former Beijing University professor Xia Yeliang, who also attended the hearing, said many Chinese dissidents in exile are hoping for a tougher line on human rights under a Trump administration.



"When Donald Trump becomes president of the United States, it's likely that we will see a shift in policy towards China," Xia said.



"People of all ethnic groups have been targeted for persecution by the ruling Chinese Communist Party, and we want Congress ... to understand the serious failings of the current regime," he said.



Veteran democracy activist Wei Jingsheng told the hearing that he fully supports president-elect Donald Trump's idea of a trade war with China, and that such an action should have been started a long time ago.



"Since Chinese law does not guarantee human rights, it is able to keep labor prices at a very low level," Wei told the hearing.



"This has led to the relocation of U.S. companies to foreign countries, while [it] also allows Chinese goods entering the US market with low prices, resulting in unfair competition," he said.



Pressure works

Anhui-based rights activist and former state prosecutor Shen Liangqing said the government routinely clamps down on politically sensitive figures around Human Rights Day, which is also the anniversary of the detention of jailed Nobel peace laureate Liu Xiaobo in 2008.



"Of course it's highly inappropriate that they are violating human rights on Human Rights Day; it makes a mockery of it," Shen said.



"But this is business as usual for the Chinese Communist Party. They have been doing this for years as part of their stability maintenance strategy."



He said Chinese leaders care very little about international public opinion.



"They don't care about all that: they just want to make sure that all remains quiet and that there are no signs of trouble," he said.



But Uyghur dissident-in-exile Rebiya Kadeer said international pressure was the reason for her release from jail in 2005 on medical parole.



"Let us be clear," Kadeer told the hearing. "Pressure works."



She called on Beijing free jailed Uyghur scholar Ilham Tohti, his students and all Uyghur writers and reporters who contributed to his UighurBiz website.



She also called on the Trump administration to "urge China to change its repressive policy, which is the root cause of all bloody incidents in Uyghur region."



Human Rights Day falls on Dec. 10 every year, and was established in 1950 to mark the adoption of the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights two years earlier.



It is frequently used as a focal point and key anniversary for political and human rights activists in China.



Reported by Yang Fan for RFA's Mandarin Service, and by Ng Yik-tung, Sing Man and Ho Shan for the Cantonese Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.
Sculptures in downtown Chengdu are given face-masks as part of a flash protest over air pollution, Dec. 9, 2016.

Authorities in the southwestern province of Sichuan on Friday deployed riot police to clamp down on spontaneous anti-smog protests in the provincial capital, Chengdu.

Its residents, unused to the toxic brown haze that regularly engulfs more northern cities like Beijing, came out in spontaneous protest on Friday, both online and on the streets.

"The smog was very thick yesterday, and we couldn't see anything when we got up in the morning," one protester wrote on the social media service Sina Weibo.

"There are people on Chengdu's Tianfu Square protesting right now, but the riot police have been sent in," the student said. "They have sealed off the whole area, and they aren't letting anyone through."

"They won't let anyone linger in the area," the student wrote. "Some protesters are elderly people protesting against the smog, and also the Pengzhou PX plant."

Another netizen posted: "Come on, Chengdu youth! Let's start to express ourselves!

"We won't put up with this! Take to the streets! We are all guilty of producing a world like this. Come on, kids, let's stay alive!"

Photos of downtown Chengdu showed masks put on a modern sculpture of ordinary working people, while netizens posted photos of themselves with placards calling on the government to do something about the air quality.

"Let me breathe!" read one placard. "I call on the government to take action air and quality!" read another.

Bulk orders of face masks

Meanwhile, a police notice sent to local businesses warned them to be vigilant for any seeking photocopy large numbers of posters complaining about the air quality, or to buy bulk orders of face-masks.

"Apart from taking down their ID card details and a contact phone number, please contact the [local] police station immediately," the notice, signed by "Officer Zhang" at the Jitou police station, said.

The city, which has until now enjoyed relatively clean air to breathe, has been swathed in smog since last week, when around 20,000 passengers were left stranded its airport due to low visibility.

According to the World Air Quality Index, the city's air quality was at 280, considered in the "very unhealthy" range.

A Chengdu resident surnamed Feng said local people aren't used to having to wear face-masks to avoid inhaling pollutants like PM2.5 particles.

"The air pollution is very bad in Chengdu right now," Feng said. "All the traffic cops and the urban management officers are wearing face-masks, and some students are wearing them in school, as well."

"There have been some signature campaigns and protests against the smog," he said. "I didn't go there in person; I saw them online."

A resident surnamed Li said people with chronic health problems have been warned not to go outside.

"This sort of smoggy weather makes breathing very uncomfortable, and a lot of people are wearing masks to go outside now," she said.

Zero visibility in Chengdu

A third Chengdu resident, who asked not to be named, said expressways in the city had been shut down owing to poor visibility.

"On Dec. 6, visibility was basically zero ... you couldn't see a thing," he said. "It has never been this bad before."

China's cabinet, the State Council, on Monday released details of its five-year plan to address widespread pollution of the country's air, soil and water, launching a campaign to reduce PM2.5 concentrations by 18 percent in the worst-polluted cities by 2020.

Vice minister of environmental protection Zhao Yingmin vowed a "stricter-than-ever" approach to tackling pollution, including eight obligatory targets.

But environmental activists say the government needs to target pollution before it is even produced, in order for the plans to work.

Pollution is referred to the country's environmental protection agencies only after it is detected, while local authorities are finding ways to tamper with real-time data channeled back to Beijing, they say.

Experts estimate that some 350,000 to 500,000 people die prematurely per year from air pollution in China alone.

Red smog alerts were issued last week for Linfen city in Shanxi province and Hebei's Shijiazhuang, Baoding, Langfang, Xingtai, and Handan cities in the northern province of Hebei.

Beijing also issued an orange-alert smog warning, effectively ordering schools to cancel outdoor activities and suspending construction projects until last weekend.

Beijing residents woke up to thick smog last weekend, with visibility of just 500 meters in some areas, and pollution readings climbing over the 500 mark, the most hazardous to human health.

Reported by Qiao Long for RFA's Mandarin Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.
A charcoal-powered truck belches smoke as it passes over a bridge near Hyangsan in North Pyongan province, North Korea, in a file photo.

Charcoal-powered vehicles have reappeared in North Korea because most ordinary citizens cannot afford high oil prices, North Korean sources inside the country said.

Although charcoal-powered vehicles are slower and more uncomfortable than those that run on gasoline or diesel, many people use them because they offer a less expensive source of transportation, the sources said.

North Korean civilians and soldiers previously drove charcoal-powered truckswhich have not been used in the West since World War IIto deal with fuel shortages. The charcoal produces a flammable gas that powers the engine, causing vehicles to produce heaps of smoke.

They fell out of use in the 1990s and early 2000s with the increased use of gasoline, but have made a comeback as an apparent result of restricted oil flows into North Korea with the tougher economic sanctions imposed on it earlier this year as punishment for conducting nuclear tests and missile launches.

Charcoal-powered vehicles now stand in line and wait for passengers in front of the Aviation University near the Sunam and Pohang areas of Chongjin, capital of North Hamgyong province, a source from the province said.

The vehicles, which are registered in the name of the business that owns them, do this to earn money, he said.

The charcoal-driven vehicles that run in Chongjin are the Seung-ri 58 (Victory 58) models that North Korea produced, and the Chinese Hae-Bang-Ho (Liberation) models, the source said.

Despite the slow speed of the smoke-belching vehicles, many common residents use them because the fare is cheap, he said.

Since North Korean authorities have commanded residents to stop using trains, people have turned to charcoal-powered vehicles, he said, adding that they transport both people and their belongings, and goods for businesses.

No traffic tickets

There are various types of charcoal-powered vehicles, including a 20-ton heavy-duty truck, and one-ton, 15-ton and 2.5-ton freight cars, the source said.

Though regular motor vehicles are subject to fines imposed by police, charcoal-powered vehicles are not subject to traffic regulations, the source said. This keeps down the price of a ride for passengers who do not have to worry about owners passing fines on to them through fare increases.

Charcoal-driven vehicles are actually exempt from abiding by regular traffic regulations, so most of the vehicles are affiliated with military units, said another source from North Hamgyong province.

If traffic wardens do stop the vehicles, the machines spread pungent smoke around the side of the road, so they let them pass, he said.

The source noted one recent incident in which some Chinese on the other side of the border spotted a charcoal-powered vehicle. They thought something was wrong with it because of the copious amounts of smoke it was producing and yelled, North Korean people, the vehicle is on fire! to the driver as he drove along a road near Onsong county in North Hamgyong province near the border with China.

Wood as fuel

About 70 percent of the charcoal-powered vehicles currently operating have military unit license plates, the source said.

Military units that operate deep in the mountains or in rural communities can cut down trees there without the regulatory oversight of the Forest Conservancy Administration to get wood to fuel their charcoal-powered vehicles, the source said.

In a not-so-strange coincidence, the cost of wood has increased along with the price of gasoline and diesel, the sources said.

Some drivers even use corncobs coated with used oil, which is less expensive than wood, to power their trucks, but they produce dark, acrid smoke, the sources said.

Reported by Jieun Kim for RFAs Korean Service. Translated by Soo Min Jo. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay holds a press conference on the situation in Rakhine state in Naypyidaw, Nov. 16, 2016.

The Myanmar government will take legal action against a British tabloid that published a fabricated report and false images allegedly showing an army soldier torturing a Rohingya Muslim child in the countrys troubled Rakhine state, a government spokesman said Friday.

The photos and a video published Wednesday on the Daily Mails website shows a laughing soldier using a stun gun on a naked toddler who is crying and appears to roll over in pain on the ground.

Myanmar security forces cracked down on the Rohingya in the northern part of Rakhine state following deadly attacks on three border guard stations in early October. The Rohingya have accused the soldiers of extrajudicial killings, torture, rape, and arson, though the military and government have denied the allegations.

The government will respond legally and journalistically to the Daily Mail for its wrongful publication of the photos, Zaw Htay, spokesman of the Presidents Office, told RFAs Myanmar Service.

For this case, we will respond by legal means or by international journalistic procedures, he said.

At the moment, Daily Mail has not taken any responsibility for its wrongful coverage, but the damage has done by dissemination through Twitter, Facebook, and other social media, he said.

The images are from an incident that occurred in Cambodias Mondulkiri province, he said.

A Dutch man and two Vietnamese men have been arrested for torturing the boy in the photos, while a third Vietnamese man is still being sought, according to a report by state-run Myanmar News Agency (MNA).

Zaw Htay said the fabrication of the story continues to damage the image of Myanmar and its people.

The government has come under fire from western countries, the United Nations, and a few predominantly Muslim countries in Asia for its handling of the crisis in Rakhine and failure to ensure the security of the Rohingya.

Zaw Htay also said the Presidents Office is calculating the amount of damage caused via social media and will consult the attorney general about how it can seek legal recourse against the newspaper.

The Daily Mail removed the story and images by Dave Burke from its website soon after they were found to be inaccurate, but archived versions of the article are still circulating on social media, the MNA report said.

The Myanmar government has charged other outside news organizations with publishing inaccurate reports about the security operations in northern Rakhine state.



Reported by RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Kyaw Min Htun. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
A United Nations envoy on Friday urged Myanmars de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi to visit two townships in northern Rakhine state where the international organization says security forces may have committed human rights abuses against Rohingya Muslims.

Vijay Nambiar, the U.N. secretary-general's special advisor on Myanmar, issued a statement on Friday emphasizing the international bodys concerns about the situation in the state where government army soldiers conducted security sweeps following deadly attacks on three border guard posts on Oct. 9.

The soldiers have been accused of killing civilians, raping women, and setting homes ablaze in Rohingya villages in Maungdaw and Buthidaung townships.

The violence has killed nearly 90 people and forced more than 20,000 Rohingya to flee their homes and try to cross the border into neighboring Bangladesh.

Meanwhile, people of all communities in Myanmar must jointly oppose the violence, disunity and division that are being instigated by a small group of criminal elements in the region, Nambiar said in the statement.

I also appeal to Daw Suu to visit Maungdaw and Buthidaung and reassure the civilian population there that they will be protected, he said.

I call upon Daw [honorific] Aung San Suu Kyi to reflect on the situation and, as she has done on so many occasions, to listen to her inner voice and speak directly to the people of Myanmar, asking them to rise above their ethnic, religious and other differences and to advance human dignity, harmony and mutual cooperation between all communities, he said.

The Myanmar government has not yet responded to the statement.

The call was echoed on Friday by the diplomatic missions of 14 Western nations, including the United States, in a joint statement regarding their concern about the crisis in Rakhine and urging Myanmar authorities to allow a resumption of humanitarian access to the area.

This assistance is desperately needed to address serious humanitarian needs but also to begin to restore the confidence and hope that are essential to a restoration of peace and stability, the statement said.

Full and unfettered access is essential for humanitarian agencies to conduct a comprehensive assessment of current humanitarian needs in support of the governments humanitarian response, he said.

Security operations still in place

Meanwhile, security forces continue to prevent international humanitarian groups and independent journalists from entering northern Rakhine state to evaluate the abuse allegations.

The U.N. has called soldiers and border police to respect human rights and the rule of law, and for authorities to allow international humanitarian access to the areas under lockdown.

In early November, Renata Lok-Dessallien, the U.N.s resident and humanitarian coordinator in Myanmar, and several foreign ambassadors conducted a two-day visit to Maungdaw to survey the situation on the ground and talk to residents and security forces.

She called on the government to launch an independent investigation of alleged human rights abuses there.

After the November visit by nine local ambassadors and the U.N. resident and humanitarian coordinator to several of the affected areas, various U.N. agencies have voiced concerns at the deteriorating human rights situation in the state, Nambiar said.

Aung San Suu Kyi, who holds the positions of state counselor and foreign affairs minister in the majority-Buddhist country, formed a Rakhine Advisory Commission just over three months ago to review conflict resolution, humanitarian assistance, and development issues in the impoverished and divided state.

Members of the commission, chaired by former U.N. chief Kofi Annan, wrapped up a visit last weekend to Maungdaw and Buthidaung where they observed the situation on the ground.

Following the visit, Annan said the commission remains deeply concerned about reports of alleged human rights abuses, and he called for unobstructed humanitarian and media access in northern Rakhine.

A statement in late November by a U.N. official about Myanmar carrying out ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims, along with growing international criticism of the governments handling of the crisis, prompted President Htin Kyaw on Nov. 3 to form an investigative commission to examine the situation that led to the border guard station attacks and subsequent violence, as well as to verify allegations of rights abuses during security operations.

Though the appointment of the national investigation commission by the government has raised some questions relating to its composition and mandate, I hope it will conduct its work in a credible and independent manner so as to build confidence among the local population in the affected area as well as reassure the people of Myanmar and the wider international community, Nambiar said.

He also said authorities must reassure local residents they will be protected and must allow those who have fled or been displaced to return to their homes.

Senior government leaders need to send a strong message underlining their determination to protect all residents regardless of their ethnicity, religion, gender or status, Nambiar said. In this volatile situation, it is everyones responsibility to handle allegations and rumors with great care.

Reported by RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Kyaw Min Htun. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
Chinese authorities in the southwestern province of Sichuan have slapped tight restrictions on anyone planning to study at the Larung Gar Buddhist Academy following a mass demolition program that has seen thousands of student-residents evicted and sent home.



Many thousands of Tibetans and Han Chinese once studied at the sprawling Larung Gar complex, which was founded in 1980 by the late religious teacher Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok and is one of the worlds largest and most important centers for the study of Tibetan Buddhism.



Now, some 9,000 people have been expelled from makeshift dwellings that once lined the hillsides around the monastery in Serthar county, local sources told RFA.



A Serthar-based monk who gave only a single name Tenzin said the mass evictions had continued for several months straight, sending 8,000 or 9,000 people back where they came from.



"Tibetans went there to study Buddhism, but the Chinese government said they couldn't do that, and wouldn't allow them into the monastery," Tenzin said.



"Now, around 9,000 people from all over the place, including Tibetans and Han Chinese, have all gone back home, because the Chinese government says they can't stay here," he said. "They can't become resident here."



An official who answered the phone at the Dapba (in Chinese, Daocheng) county religious affairs bureau in the Kardze (Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture said anyone wanting to study Tibetan Buddhism must now pass a "political examination" administered by the police.



Tourists, visitors barred



He said the movement of potential Larung Gar students is now being restricted by authorities at the county level.



"You'll have to ask the United Front Work Department of the Serthar county government, or their religious affairs committee," the official said.



"But you'll have to pass a political examination administered by the police first; they won't grant you a permit unless you pass it."



"In the past, anyone could go there and study, but now it has got pretty big, and they are gradually bringing it under control," the official said.



"Now nobody can go there and study Buddhism without the approval of the local party committee and local government."



He said laypeople are now highly unlikely to be given the necessary permits at all.



"They are in the process of clearing out all the monks and nuns from there, including monks and nuns from here [in Dapba]."



"You'll have to go to the police and ask them, but they are only issuing permits to actual monks and nuns from here."



He said tourists and visitors are currently barred from traveling to Larung Gar.



"What are you going there for? It won't work if you are going there for tourism, or just a visit to check it out," he said. "There are no guarantees you'll make it even if you're studying Buddhist texts."



An official who answered the phone at the Sichuan provincial nationalities and religious affairs department confirmed the official's account.



"You want to go and study in Serthar? There aren't any classes left to attend in Serthar now," the official said.



Meanwhile, many monks and nuns have been subjected to "patriotic re-education" on returning back to their hometowns from Larung Gar, sources told RFA.



Video of such "classes" seen by RFA showed organized performances by Buddhist nuns, who were singing patriotic anthems to the ruling Chinese Communist Party and dancing traditional Tibetan dances.



'Beyond anyone's control'



Overseas-based Tibetan author Li Xianke said it is now hard to get reliable information about what is going on inside Larung Gar, or other teaching centers for Tibetan Buddhism.



"The channels of communication have been cut off, so we don't know exactly what problems they are having," Li said.



"I have also heard that if we in the international community kick up a fuss about the injustice of it, then the Communist Party will use this as an excuse to say that hostile foreign forces are involved, and the consequences for [former Larung Gar students] will be even worse."



"The situation is really beyond anyone's control."



He cited unconfirmed reports that have emerged of suicides by protesting Larung Gar evictees, many of whom were studying for a traditional Khenpo degree in Tibetan Buddhism, which typically takes 13 years of study to acquire.



He said while some 4,000 to 5,000 were accommodated inside the monastery, more than 10,000 had clustered in the makeshift town on the slopes outside.



"Local Tibetan officials must have their own private feelings about all of this, but they have to act in accordance with the Communist Party," Li added.



"They daren't come out and say anything, because as soon as they do, they'll lose their precious livelihoods ... They are expected to toe the Communist Party line."



Reported by Wong Siu-san and Goh Fung for RFA's Cantonese Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.
A Tibetan man who set himself on fire and died on Thursday in northwestern Chinas Gansu province has been identified as a husband and father of three who was opposed to Beijings rule in Tibetan areas of China, Tibetan sources say.

Tashi Rabten, 33, set himself ablaze on Dec. 8 at about 7:00 p.m. local time on a road leading from the Machu (in Chinese, Maqu) county center to the Machu Bridge, local sources said following the protest.



Detailed information on Rabtens identity and condition were not immediately available.



Speaking on condition of anonymity, a Tibetan living in the area told RFA on Friday that witnesses to the protest heard Rabten call out for freedom for Tibet and for the return of [exiled spiritual leader] the Dalai Lama.



He also called out for the release of the [detained] Panchen Lama, Gendun Choekyi Nyima, RFAs source said.



Following the protest, Chinese police and security officers quickly came to Rabtens home in Mema township's Terchu village to question family members, a second local source said.



They demanded that his family should say that the self-immolation had no connection with Chinese government policies, and had been carried out instead because of problems at home, the source said.



Rabtens wife and a 15-year-old daughter were then taken away by police, he said.



Some of his other relatives were also detained when they approached authorities to ask for the return of his body, he said.



Rabtens family is now being watched at home under police guard, and Chinese armed police are patrolling Terchu village in an atmosphere of heightened security, one source said.



Rabtens protest brings to 146 the number of self-immolations by Tibetans living in China since the wave of fiery protests began in 2009.



Most protests feature demands for Tibetan freedom and the return of the Dalai Lama from India, where he has lived since escaping Tibet during a failed national uprising in 1959.



Reported by Lobe Socktsang and Kunsang Tenzin for RFAs Tibetan Service. Translated by Dorjee Damdul. Written in English by Richard Finney.




Hundreds of Tibetan nuns expelled by China from Sichuans Larung Gar Buddhist Academy are being housed in a desolate camp of metal huts set up in Kardze prefecture, Tibetan sources say.



The camp, now holding more than 800 nuns, was built by Chinese authorities near Ahkyab village in Kardze (in Chinese, Ganzi), a local source told RFAs Tibetan Service.



The nuns began moving into this new facility on Dec. 1 and have been put into 700 metal-roofed houses, with one to two nuns living in each two-storey house, RFAs source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.



This is a temporary camp for the nuns expelled from Larung Gar who came originally from Kardze, he said.



Many thousands of Tibetans and Han Chinese once studied at the sprawling Larung Gar complex, which was founded in 1980 by the late religious teacher Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok and is one of the worlds largest and most important centers for the study of Tibetan Buddhism.



Many have now been expelled from the makeshift dwellings that once lined the hillsides around the monastery in Serthar (Seda) county, local sources told RFA in earlier reports.



The demolition still continues, and so does the expulsion of nuns, RFAs source said.



It is said that from 600 to 1,000 houses in the Tashi Lung valley of the Serthar complex will be torn down soon, he said.



Signs of change



Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama meanwhile spoke for the second time this week to Tibetan pilgrims traveling in India but ordered home by China.



Tibetans living in Tibet have suffered now for almost three to four generations under Chinese rule, the Dalai Lama told the group on Dec. 6, adding, But under Chinas ruthless rule, the Tibetan people have only grown stronger and more united.



China itself will someday change, and there are now growing signs of support among Chinese intellectuals for policies promoting greater autonomy for Tibet, the Dalai Lama said.



This kind of support has been difficult to measure, though, Columbia University Tibet expert Robbie Barnett told RFA.



We know that there are some scholars in China who have called publicly for talks or contact with the Dalai Lama, but I think their number is quite small, and they are considered unusually bold, Barnett said.



However, there are numerous reports of Chinese, especially from the wealthier classes, becoming very committed followers of Tibetan lamas and donating large sums of money to them, including several hundred who have attended the Dalai Lamas teachings in India each year.



That may translate in some cases to open support for his policies, Barnett said.



Reported by Kunsang Tenzin for RFAs Tibetan Service. Translated by Karma Dorjee. Written in English with additional reporting by Richard Finney.




RFE/RL Moldovan Service Journalist Natalia Sergheev and RFE/RL video producer Alexander Blumberg have been awarded the 2016 Young Adami Media Prize for Cultural Diversity in Eastern Europe for their short film Generation Emigration.

The film, which aired on Moldovas popular TV 1 channel in September, explores the growing phenomenon of mass youth emigration from Moldova, tracking the stories of three young people in search of a better life elsewhere in Europe.

Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjorn Jagland and OSCE Representative for Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatovic presented the award at a gala dinner in Kyiv on November 24. Mijatovic said, This prize puts focus on the importance of free media in the region and the important role it plays in informing people on issues of public interest, not least on integration and cultural diversity.

It is an acknowledgement of the extraordinary work of a young aspiring journalist from Moldova attentive to social challenges and changes, said RFE/RL Moldovan Service Director Oana Serafim, and proof, citing the collaboration between former RFE/RL Vaclav Havel Journalism Fellow Sergheev and Blumberg, an American, that talent doesnt have borders.

The Adami Media Prize, now in its second year, recognizes outstanding films, videos, and websites from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine that promote cultural diversity and peaceful co-existence.
Annapolis Junction, MD, Dec. 09, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Colfax Corporation (NYSE: CFX) today announced that it will hold a conference call to discuss its 2017 outlook on December 16, 2016 at 8:30 am EST. The call will be open to the public through 877-303-7908 (U.S. callers) and +1-678-373-0875 (international callers) and referencing the conference ID number 36632308, or through webcast via Colfaxs website www.colfaxcorp.com under the Investors section.

Colfaxs supplemental financial information referenced on the call, if any, will be available under the Investors section of Colfaxs website prior to the conference call. A link to a replay of the call will also be available on the Colfax website later that day.

ABOUT COLFAX CORPORATION  Colfax Corporation is a diversified global manufacturing and engineering company that provides gas- and fluid-handling and fabrication technology products and services primarily under the leading Howden, Colfax Fluid Handling and ESAB brands. Colfax is traded on the NYSE under the ticker "CFX." Additional information about Colfax is available at www.colfaxcorp.com.





CAUTIONARY NOTE CONCERNING FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS:

This press release may contain forward-looking statements, including forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements concerning Colfax's plans, objectives, expectations and intentions and other statements that are not historical or current fact. Forward-looking statements are based on Colfax's current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause Colfax's results to differ materially from current expectations include, but are not limited to factors detailed in Colfax's reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission including its 2015 Annual Report on Form 10-K under the caption "Risk Factors." In addition, these statements are based on a number of assumptions that are subject to change. This press release speaks only as of this date hereof. Colfax disclaims any duty to update the information herein.

The term "Colfax" in reference to the activities described in this press release may mean one or more of Colfax's global operating subsidiaries and/or their internal business divisions and does not necessarily indicate activities engaged in by Colfax Corporation.
U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter has made an unannounced visit to U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

Carter arrived in Kabul on December 9 and was expected to meet with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani later the same day.

It is most likely Carters last trip to Afghanistan as defense secretary before the new U.S. administration takes office next month.

Carter's press secretary, Peter Cook, told journalists that the secretary wants to discuss "the growing capabilities" of Afghan security forces and "ongoing efforts to continue building Afghan combat capacity, including aviation."

The United States has about 10,000 troops in Afghanistan on a mission to support and train Afghan security forces.

More than 2,200 U.S. troops have been killed in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion to overthrow the Taliban government there.

Based on reporting by AP and Reuters


An amateur video that has emerged on social media appears to show Iranian police officers beating a man, running over him with a motorcycle, and then firing at him.

Police said they will investigate the video posted online on November 1. It is not known when the video was recorded.

Some reports suggested that the footage was recorded in the southern Tehran neighborhood of Naziabad, which has been the scene of anti-regime protests triggered by the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was detained in mid-September by Iran's notorious morality police for "improperly wearing" her hijab.

RFE/RL could not independently verify the video.

"A special order has been immediately issued to investigate the exact time and place of the incident and identify the offenders," the police said in a statement published by Iranian media.

"The police absolutely do not approve of violent and unconventional behavior and will deal with the offenders according to the rules," the statement added.

The video recorded at night in an alley shows about a dozen purported police officers beating a man who is lying on the ground. A person who is recording the scene from a building across the street is heard cursing the aggressors.

Damn you, damn you," a male voice says in the video.

At one point, a man in police uniform riding a motorcycle appears to run over the man. Shortly after, another uniformed man beats the victim with a baton, then another one shoots him at close range.

The man initially tries to cover his head with his hands. Later, his legs appear to be motionless.

The man recording the scene is heard saying, "He died, he died."

The video comes amid a brutal state crackdown on nearly seven weeks of antiestablishment protests that erupted following the September 16 death of Amini.

Women have removed and burned their hijabs, the mandatory Islamic headscarves, while many of the protesters have called for an end to the Islamic republic. "Woman, life, freedom" and "Death to the dictator" have been among the main chants of the protesters.

The authorities have claimed that Iran's enemies are behind the unrest.

More than 250 people have been killed in the crackdown, according to rights groups. Several thousand more have been arrested, including many protesters as well as journalists, lawyers, activists, digital rights defenders, and others.

Without providing any evidence, Iran's police chief, General Hossein Ashtari, claimed last month that "counterrevolutionary groups abroad" wore police uniforms and fired into the crowds. He claimed some of the alleged fake police officers had been arrested.

Amnesty International said on Twitter that that the video was "another horrific reminder that the cruelty of Iran's security forces knows no bounds."

"Amid a crisis of impunity, they're given free rein to brutally beat and shoot protesters," the London-based rights watchdog added while calling on the UN Human Rights Council to "urgently investigate the crimes."

The shocking scenes have caused outrage among Iranians on social media with many condemning the violence.

"These brutal conditions are a sign that the establishment is on the verge of collapse," Abdollah Momeni, a prominent activist and former political prisoner, said on Twitter, adding that the violence reflected the regime's "fear of the people."

Shadi Sadr, a human rights lawyer and the co-founder of the rights group Justice for Iran, told RFE/RL that the international community needed to do more to pressure the Islamic republic to stop its crackdown on protesters.

"The actions taken by the international community so far have not deterred the Islamic republic from stopping the bloodshed," Sadr said.
The head of Russia's Chechnya region, Ramzan Kadyrov, asserts that troops based there would be happy to fight what he called "scum" in Syria if President Vladimir Putin wishes.

Kadyrov was reacting to Russian media reports claiming that two battalions of military police from Chechnya are preparing to leave for Syria to protect the Russian air base in the war-ravaged Middle Eastern country.

Kadyrov did not say whether the reports were accurate, but posted on Instagram that the troops stationed in Chechnya would be happy to deploy to Syria. He added that he would eagerly join the fight personally against "international terrorism."

"I would be happy and proud to immediately go to Syria to fight the scum" on Putin's orders, Kadyrov said. "The enemy must be destroyed in his den before his tentacles reach your land."

Russia has waged an air campaign in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad since September 2015, helping his forces steadily gain ground across the country, most recently in Aleppo, which was Syria's most populous city before the conflict began.

Kadyrov, who critics say routinely abuses human rights with impunity in mostly Muslim Chechnya, has repeatedly described himself and his troops as "Putin's foot soldiers."

Earlier this year, he told Russian state television that he had sent Chechens to infiltrate the Islamic State group in Syria and gather intelligence.

Based on reporting by AP and Interfax


Talk of strains in relations between neighbors Croatia and Serbia is back on everyone's tongues, this time over chocolate.

Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic has apologized after handing out Serbian-made chocolate (along with a signed photograph of herself) to kindergarteners to mark Defenders of Dubrovnik Day on December 6.

A Facebook post by an angry parent was published by a Croatian daily, then widely shared by tabloid media. "I had to post this so you can see what kind of country we live in...all this on Defenders of Dubrovnik Day -- bravo."

Grabar-Kitarovic's visit marked the 25th anniversary of the attack during the Croatian war on the historic port city by the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) and Serbian paramilitaries. Dubrovnik came under siege from the Yugoslav army and navy in October 1991, but the worst shelling took place two months later, on December 6.

Aside from her visit to the kindergarten, Grabar-Kitarovic also met with veterans of Croatia's fight for independence from Yugoslavia, a conflict that is still fresh in the minds of many locals.

The whole incident might not have been picked apart on social media had it not been for Grabar-Kitarovic's public apology, which has prompted teasing and mockery.

After the incident, she said she was "extremely disappointed" that the chocolates were Serbian, especially because she is a promoter of a "Let's buy Croatian" campaign. She has promised to send Croatian products to the parents whose children received the Serbian chocolates.

Her response prompted people to respond on social media.

"I didn't know chocolate had a nationality. I've just eaten a 'Belgian' #kolinda," tweeted one.

This woman made a reference to 1920s Italian-American gangster Al Capone: "Al Capone fell over taxes, Kolinda will fall over chocolates."

This man notes: "If chocolate is the biggest problem in relations between Serbia and Croatia, I'm a happy person."

This Twitter user took issue with another aspect of Kolinda's benevolence, saying, "I'm more concerned that Kolinda was handing out her photo with the chocolates."

Grabar-Kitarovic's apparent faux pas has also prompted a reaction from her political opponents.

Former Croatian President Ivo Josipovic called her message "inappropriate" because "it sends a clear nationalist message."

"This notion that a Croatian president should only advertise Croatian products is not acceptable in our globalized world," Josipovic told RFE/RL's Balkan Service.

The whole "chocolate affair" will fuel nationalists in both Serbia and Croatia, he predicted.

Another former Croatian president, Stipe Mesic, also criticized the apology, saying that if the candy was purchased in a Croatian store, the manufacturer is not important.

"I don't think there should have been any apology," Mesic told RFE/RL.

Serbian ultranationalist leader Vojislav Seselj sent a series of sexist and nationalist tweets mocking the Croatian president.

It's not the first time that one of Grabar-Kitarovic's photo opportunities has backfired.

On her visit to Canada in late November, she allowed herself to be photographed with a group of men holding a flag resembling that of the Ustasa, a brutal fascist movement that was in power under an Axis-backed protectorate during WWII.

Serbia and Croatia still have major unresolved issues related to the conflicts in the 1990s related to alleged war crimes, refugees, and the use of the Cyrillic alphabet in certain parts of Croatia.
Well it appears people can sleep a little easier in Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Uppsala.

Why? Well, because Russia announced last night that it has "no plans whatsoever" to invade Sweden.

No, really. Ambassador Viktor Tatarintsev actually made that announcement on Swedish public television.

Now the mere fact that a Russian diplomat would go out of his way to make such an announcement -- which itself suggests that an invasion of Sweden is plausible -- speaks volumes about the world we're now living in.

And oh by the way, the announcement came as satellite images suggested that Russia was moving nuclear-capable missiles into Kaliningrad -- which is just across the Baltic Sea from what?

That's right. You guessed it! Sweden!

But here's the thing. Russia is playing head games again.

By focusing our attention on potential military moves in Scandinavia, the Kremlin is distracting our attention from all its other mischief in Europe.

In fact, just hours before Tatarintsev's announcement, German intelligence reported that Russia had intensified its disinformation campaigns and cyberattacks in that country.

So why invade when you can hack? Why invade when you can destabilize with propaganda and by backing fringe parties?

Tatarintsev is probably right.

Russia isn't planning an invasion of Sweden or any other European country.

In fact, the invasion is already underway.

Keep telling me what you think on The Power Vertical's Twitter feed and on our Facebook page.
ASTANA -- A court in Kazakhstan has upheld prison sentences handed down to the former head of the Kazakh Journalists' Union, Seitqazy Mataev, and his son Aset Mataev.

The Astana City Court ruled on December 9 that their prison sentences will remain unchanged, rejecting their appeals.

Seitqazy Mataev, 61, was found guilty of tax evasion and embezzlement in October and sentenced to six years in prison.

Aset Mataev, who was director of the private KazTAG news agency before his conviction, was found guilty of embezzlement and sentenced to five years.

Both have denied the charges, and rights groups have said Seitqazy Mataev is being prosecuted on trumped-up charges in response to his work as head of the journalists' union.

Seitqazy Mataev's wife, Bayan Ramazanova, who is aiding in his defense, said the court's ruling will be further appealed.

In the December 9 ruling, the judge reduced lifetime bans on Seiqazy and Aset Mataev holding any state office or conducting commercial activity to 10-year prohibitions.


France's highest administrative court has canceled an extradition order to send Kazakh tycoon and opposition leader Mukhtar Ablyazov to Russia.

In a statement on December 9, the Council of State court said it canceled the extradition on the grounds that the request was made for political reasons.

The French government approved Ablyazov's extradition to Russia in September 2015. But the court's December 9 decision has now canceled that extradition order.

UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer said on December 7 that France must refrain from extraditing an individual to a country where there are serious grounds for believing that he is at risk of being subjected to torture.

He also noted that Russia can extradite Ablyazov to Kazakhstan, where there are serious grounds to believe that Ablyazov is at risk of being subjected to torture.

Kazakhstan has no extradition treaty with France, but has such deals with Russia and Ukraine.

Ablyazov, former head of Kazakhstan's BTA bank, is wanted by Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine on suspicion of embezzling some $5 billion.

The Kazakh tycoon, who was arrested on the French Riviera in 2013 after months on the run, says the charges against him are politically motivated.

Ablyazov was a successful businessman by the late 1990s and in 1998 was appointed minister of energy, industry, and trade.

In 2001, he formed the opposition Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan movement to challenge the rule of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev.

Ablyazov was convicted of abuse of office in 2002 and sentenced to six years in prison but was released in 2003 after promising he would not engage in politics.

By 2005 he was able to rebuild the BTA bank he founded and served as bank chairman from 2005 until 2009 when BTA filed a lawsuit against him.

Ablyazov fled the country, spending time in Russia then in Britain, where he sought political asylum.

Charges were also filed against Ablyazov in a British court and his assets there were ordered to be frozen.

In 2012, a British court ordered Ablyazov to be jailed for perjury pertaining to his financial assets and he fled the country.

Since his flight from Kazakhstan, Ablyazov is alleged to have funded opposition groups in Kazakhstan and media outlets that carried critical reports about Kazakhstan's government.

With reporting by Reuters and AP
Macedonian voters, having witnessed nearly two years of political scandal and instability, are anxiously looking to their country's long-delayed early parliamentary elections as a way forward.

The vote is scheduled for December 11. But the decision to hold it was first made in February, a year after a massive wiretapping scheme was revealed, implicating members of the ruling party in vote-rigging, widespread corruption, cronyism, and media manipulation.

The massive antigovernment protests that followed ushered in EU mediation that led to the resignation of the prime minister and the installation of a caretaker government. The early elections, announced shortly after Nikola Gruevski stepped down in January, were twice delayed.

With the arrival of the big date, we take a look at what the vote represents to Macedonian voters, and the implications it could have for their country's future.

Fight Against Corruption

There are fears that if the sidelined ruling party, the conservative VMRO-DPMNE, and its coalition partner, the ethnic Albanian Democratic Union for Integration (BDI), come out on top in the elections, high-ranking officials implicated in the scandal will never be prosecuted.

A Special Public Prosecution office (SJO), run by three women seen as heroines of the street protests, was set up in 2015 on agreement with the four main parties in parliament and the backing of the EU.

It has been investigating criminal allegations that emerged from the wiretaps, including an orchestrated campaign of illegal telephone surveillance of more than 20,000 civilians, political opponents, activists, and journalists, and the misuse of government funds.

Highest-ranking among those implicated is former Prime Minister and VMRO-DPMNE leader Gruevski, although many other high-ranking officials in the former government stand accused as well.

The SJO claims it has evidence that shows that the country's Intelligence Agency (UBK), run by Gruevski's cousin Saso Mijalkov, was behind the wiretaps.

The SJO's 18-month mandate will end in March, and a government led by the VMRO-DPMNE would be unlikely to extend its term. On the other hand, the opposition Social Democrats (SDSM) have promised to eliminate obstacles to the investigation set up by the VMRO-DPMNE, and to speed up the process.

The Democratic Path

The elections stand to have a great impact on the future of the country's judicial independence, rule of law, and free media -- all of which were placed under a microscope amid the scandal.

EU and U.S. envoys have repeatedly pointed out a lack of impartiality in Macedonia's judiciary. A June 2015 report by the European Commission accuses Gruevski of misusing the national security services to control the appointment of judges, public prosecutors, top officials in the public administration, and political opponents.

The government's overt influence on the media has also come under criticism.

Leaked recordings from the wiretapping scandal include a telling example of government pressure. The recordings appear to catch the culture minister in the sidelined government ordering the editor of the national TV station, Sitel, what to air.

International watchdogs have painted a dismal picture of Macedonia's media situation. Freedom House has designated Macedonia as "not free" in its report on press freedom and listed it among the countries that suffered the largest declines in 2015. Reporters Without Borders' World Press Freedom Index for 2016 ranked Macedonia 118th, the lowest ranking of all the Balkan states.

EU Membership

A decade ago Macedonia was considered a serious candidate for EU membership, with the main issue being its name dispute with bloc-member Greece, which objects to its northern Balkan neighbor's use of the name.

The EU's list of complaints' has expanded exponentially in the last several years.

As the VMRO-DPMNE tightened its hold and control over the country's institutions while in power, red flags were raised in Brussels. The EU's current list of recommendations has expanded to include issues in the judiciary, freedom of speech, corruption, and crime. The bloc's accession-talks invitation now rests on the precondition that these issues be addressed, notably freedom of expression and the judiciary.

The political crisis following the wiretapping scandal also prompted the EU to demand that Macedonia's political crisis be resolved, and it backed the early elections as a means of realizing that goal.

Russian Influence

The antigovernment protests attracted much attention in Moscow and increased Russian activity in Macedonia. As the country's so-called Colorful Revolution took off in April, the Russian Foreign Ministry warned of destabilization similar to that seen in Ukraine following that country's Euromaidan protests.

A web portal in Macedonia financed by Moscow, Ruska Rec, part of the Russia Beyond The Headlines project, was launched in Macedonia in 2012. Russian capital has also flowed into Macedonia, with much of it appearing to come via Sergei Samsonenko, a Russian business tycoon who was often seen at photo-ops with ruling party head Gruevski and openly supported the ruling party during the 2014 parliamentary elections.

Analysts have noted that pro-government media is often sympathetic toward Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Interethnic Relations

Relations between ethnic Macedonians and ethnic Albanians, who make up about one-quarter of the population, have been relatively calm in recent years. But the country's current multiethnic harmony could face discord.

The VMRO-DPMNE has portrayed itself as a protector of Macedonians' "ethnic rights" during campaigning, leading critics to accuse the party of inciting ethnic tensions in order to attract votes under the guise of nationalism.

The main opposition party, the SDSM, meanwhile, is challenging the history of citizens voting along ethnic lines.

Opposition leader Zoran Zaev has been actively pursuing the vote of the country's Albanian minority -- who analysts say are disillusioned by the unfulfilled promises of the Albanian political bloc, most notably the ruling party's coalition partner, the ethnic Albanian BDI.

The VMRO-DPMNE has accused the SDSM of seeking to divide Macedonia and make it a bilingual state, the latter of which Zaev says is already guaranteed by the constitution.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Balkan Service
Kyrgyzstan's December 11 referendum on amendments to the constitution has been a contentious issue since plans to hold it were announced this last summer, and it appears it will be an issue in the coming months as the country prepares for the presidential election late next year.

To look at the problems this referendum has caused and the fallout that might soon follow, RFE/RL assembled a Majlis, or panel, to discuss the possible motives for conducting the referendum and what it might mean for Kyrgyzstan in 2017.

Moderating the discussion was RFE/RL Media Relations Manager Muhammad Tahir. From Bishkek, Edil Baisalov, longtime political figure in Kyrgyzstan and also chief of staff in former Kyrgyz President Roza Otunbaeva's administration, joined the Majlis. From the United States, one of the leading authorities on Kyrgyzstan, Erica Marat, who is an assistant professor in the Department of Regional and Analytical Studies at the National Defense University's College of International Security Affairs, participated. I had my hands full trying to keep up with those two, but I said a few things also.

There are 26 proposed amendments to Kyrgyzstan's constitution. Panelists pointed out the referendum was pushed through hurriedly, leaving a lot of questions about the reasons for the changes.

Baisalov said, "I don't really think people have a very good idea of what these amendments are supposed to bring, what kind of changes."

Marat commented on the haste with which the referendum was passed and a date named for the vote, saying, "the way the constitutional referendum was imposed just shows that political process doesn't really matter, and whatever the changes in the constitution, it will benefit the political class who is in power, who wants to rule the country according to what they see as appropriate for their political interests."

That view is shared by some in Kyrgyzstan, especially those who, like Baisalov, believe that "this current constitution has built not a democracy, not a parliamentary democracy, but a very oligarchic system."

Marat went a bit further and said that "the constitution that was approved in 2010 tried to eliminate the importance of an individual and give more powers to the parliament," but "Atambaev still wanted to impose his own vision, and in the future political leaders that will replace Atambaev...can still use the constitution or interpret it the way they want."

In any case, Baisalov said, "I would not overdramatize the significance of this vote in terms of transfer of any constitutional powers from the president to the prime minister."

Baisalov, who was part of the efforts to draft the current constitution in 2010, mentioned that parts that give the prime minister more power at the expense of the presidency are natural.

"According to the current constitution, the prime minister is supposed to be the most powerful politician and leader in the country, we modeled the prime minister to be on par with the chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, or the British prime minister," he said.

That cuts to the heart of the matter going forward. If the current constitution had genuinely created a parliamentary system in Kyrgyzstan, next year's presidential election would not be terribly important.

But as it stands now, "our future depends on who is going to win the presidential election," Baisalov said.

That almost guarantees that next year's presidential campaign will be energetic and controversial and many of the complaints likely to be heard will stem from the December 11 referendum.

The Majlis looked into these issues in greater detail and also discussed other proposed amendments to the constitution, such as who can legally get married or what Kyrgyzstan's obligations to international conventions on human rights will be, or ecocide, and why these changes were included in the package voters will be asked to approve at polling stations.

Here is the full audio recording of the discussion:

Listen to or download the Majlis podcast above or subscribe to Majlis on iTunes.
Less than half of 14 major oil-producing countries have agreed so far to attend a meeting on December 10 aimed at securing their public commitment to output cuts sought by OPEC, cartel officials said on December 8.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries announced its first major output cut in eight years last month to prop up sagging prices, and said it would seek to supplement its own cuts of 1.2 million barrels a day with commitments to reduce production by producers outside the cartel by another 600,000 barrels.

However, producers outside OPEC so far have fallen short of pledging such a large cut in production. Only Russia has publicly committed to cuts, providing half the amount sought, or 300,000 barrels a day.

It is not clear where the other 300,000 barrels in cuts would come from. So far, only five non-OPEC producers -- Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Oman, Mexico and Russia -- have agreed to attend the weekend meeting in Vienna.

Brazil and Norway are no-shows, and the United States -- which consumes all the oil it produces plus some -- is a free-market advocate and was never expected to come.

Outside of Russia, only Oman and Azerbaijan have publicly stated that they are ready to cut production, though they have not specified by how much.

Kazakhstan has said it is undecided. It just started up its Kashagan field after a decade of delays, and stakeholders must start producing next year to recoup $55 billion in investment. It is expected to produce another 200,000 barrels a day in 2017.

While OPEC President Mohammed al-Sada was confident last month that more cuts would be found, OPEC sources said they may fall short of pledges, with one official estimating commitments to cut about 500,000 barrels a day.

Mexico's aging oil fields are in structural decline and it has shown no interest in further cutting its dwindling output.

Russian Energy Minister Aleksandr Novak is scheduled to chair the weekend meeting and has suggested a postponement is possible.

Robert McNally, president of energy-market consultancy The Rapidan Group, said oil producers may have grown complacent since the price of premium crude has catapulted to as high as $55 a barrel since OPEC announced the cuts on November 30.

"My sense is the fear factor is not strong enough to get countries to do anything but promise cuts that they never intend to make," he told CNBC.

"The only time you get real collective cuts, including by non-OPEC, is when prevailing prices are at rock bottom lows."

McNally said even Russia's promised cuts look iffy, given the "litany of hedges, caveats, and conditions" Novak placed on delivering them.

In pledging the cuts, Novak said "Russia will gradually cut output in the first half of 2017 by up to 300,000 barrels per day, on a tight schedule as technical capabilities allow." That statement gives Russia plenty of room to delay or fudge the cuts, analysts said.

With reporting by Reuters, CNBC, and Bloomberg


MONALEESA-2 analyses demonstrate superior PFS with LEE011 plus letrozole in pre-defined patient subgroups - from de novo to bone, liver and lung metastases - compared to letrozole alone



LEE011 plus letrozole reduced risk of progression or death by 55% over letrozole alone in de novo patients, and by 54% in patients with three or more metastases - the most aggressive form of the disease



Consistent with overall study population, m ost adverse events were mild to moderate, identified early through routine monitoring, and generally managed through dose interruption and reduction



FDA granted LEE011 Breakthrough Therapy designation and Priority Review, which may lead to faster access for US patients

Basel, December 9, 2016 - Novartis announced today additional analyses from the Phase III MONALEESA-2 study that show LEE011 (ribociclib) plus letrozole significantly prolonged progression-free survival (PFS) across pre-planned patient subgroups with hormone receptor positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 negative (HR+/HER2-) advanced or metastatic breast cancer, including post-menopausal women diagnosed de novo, those with visceral liver and lung metastases, and those with bone-only disease[1],[2].

These findings demonstrate the strength of LEE011 plus letrozole in the first-line setting, showing that treatment benefit was evident across all patient subgroups regardless of their disease burden or tumor location, including those patients with aggressive disease. Data will be presented today at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) (Abstracts P4-22-05 and P4-22-16).

"Results from the de novo subgroup of women in the MONALEESA-2 trial establish ribociclib in combination with letrozole as a meaningful treatment option in the first-line setting for this patient population," said Joyce O'Shaughnessy, MD, Co-Chair, Breast Cancer Research, Texas Oncology-Baylor Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center. "These de novo patients are often diagnosed initially with advanced breast cancer that has already metastasized, so it is critical to start them with treatments that extend time until disease progression."

"Breast cancer that has metastasized to areas such as the liver or lungs can often be more challenging to effectively treat with current standards of care," said Howard A. Burris, MD, President, Clinical Operations and Chief Medical Officer, Sarah Cannon. "We have been encouraged by the MONALEESA-2 results because treatment benefit was observed regardless of the number of metastatic sites and was maintained across all subgroups taking ribociclib plus letrozole. Our observations indicate that this novel therapy may be a promising treatment option for many patients living with advanced forms of breast cancer."

First-line ribociclib + letrozole in patients with de novo HR+, HER2- advanced breast cancer: A subgroup analysis of the MONALEESA-2 trial (Abstract P4-22-05)

A predefined subgroup analysis of the MONALEESA-2 trial evaluated the safety and efficacy of LEE011 plus letrozole versus letrozole alone in 227 patients with de novo advanced breast cancer, defined as disease found to be metastatic at the time of first diagnosis[1]. Because de novo disease has not been previously treated with systemic treatment for early-stage breast cancer, tumors may exhibit a different disease biology, which could result in varied responses compared to patients who experienced recurrence[1]. In patients with de novo advanced breast cancer, LEE011 plus letrozole reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 55% over letrozole alone (HR=0.448 [95% CI: 0.267-0.750])[1]. The 12-month PFS rate was 82% in the LEE011 plus letrozole arm compared to 66% with letrozole alone.

Consistent with the overall study population, most adverse events were mild to moderate in severity, identified early through routine monitoring, and generally managed through dose interruption and reduction[1]. The most common grade 3/4 adverse events (>=15% of patients with de novo advanced breast cancer; LEE011 plus letrozole vs. letrozole alone) were neutropenia (55.3% vs. 0.9%) and leukopenia (21.1% vs. 0%)[1].

First-line ribociclib + letrozole in patients with HR+, HER2- advanced breast cancer presenting with visceral metastases or bone-only disease: A subgroup analysis of the MONALEESA-2 trial (Abstract P4-22-16)

In separate predefined subgroups, 393 patients with advanced breast cancer with visceral metastases and 147 patients with bone-only disease were evaluated as part of the MONALEESA-2 trial. Those with visceral metastases have metastatic growth at the site of the lung or liver, and typically have a poorer prognosis than patients with non-visceral disease[2]. Results of these analyses show that first-line LEE011 plus letrozole was well tolerated and reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 47% (patients with visceral disease: HR=0.535 [95% CI: 0.385-0.742]) and by 31% (patients with bone-only disease: HR=0.690 [95% CI: 0.381-1.249]) respectively[2]. Treatment benefit with LEE011 in combination with letrozole was observed regardless of the number of metastatic sites and (HR=0.607 (95% CI: 0.437-0.845) among patients with less than 3 metastases; HR=0.456 (95% CI: 0.298-0.700) among patients with 3 or more metastases)[2].

Among patients with visceral metastases the most frequent grade 3/4 adverse events (>=20% of patients; LEE011 plus letrozole vs. letrozole alone) were neutropenia (64.0% vs 1%) and leukopenia (20.8% vs 0.5%)[2]. Among patients with bone-only disease the most frequent grade 3/4 adverse events (>=20% of patients; LEE011 plus letrozole vs. letrozole alone) were neutropenia (53.6% vs 1.3%) and leukopenia (23.2% vs 1.3%)[2].

"These additional results from the MONALEESA-2 study are very promising for women with HR+ advanced breast cancer," said Bruno Strigini, CEO, Novartis Oncology. "We believe LEE011 could significantly benefit a broad range of women as an initial treatment for metastatic breast cancer and look forward to working with global health authorities to bring this new treatment to patients."

The MONALEESA-2 study is ongoing to evaluate secondary endpoints, including overall survival. LEE011 received Breakthrough Therapy designation from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in August 2016 and Priority Review in October 2016.

About LEE011 (ribociclib)

LEE011 (ribociclib) is a selective cyclin dependent kinase inhibitor, a class of drugs that help slow the progression of cancer by inhibiting two proteins called cyclin dependent kinase 4 and 6 (CDK4/6). These proteins, when over-activated in a cell, can enable cancer cells to grow and divide too quickly. Targeting CDK4/6 with enhanced precision may play a role in ensuring cancer cells do not grow uncontrollably.

LEE011 is not approved for any indication in any market at this time. LEE011 was developed by the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR) under a research collaboration with Astex Pharmaceuticals.

About the MONALEESA Clinical Trial Program

Novartis is continuing to assess LEE011 through the robust MONALEESA ( M ammary ON cology A ssessment of LE E011's E fficacy and SA fety) clinical trial program, which includes MONALEESA-2, MONALEESA-3, and MONALEESA-7. These trials are evaluating LEE011 in multiple endocrine therapy combinations across a broad range of patients, including men and premenopausal women.

MONALEESA-2 is a Phase III randomized, double blind, placebo controlled, multicenter global registration trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of LEE011 in combination with letrozole compared to letrozole alone in postmenopausal women with HR+/HER2- advanced breast cancer who received no prior therapy for their advanced breast cancer[3].

The trial randomized 668 patients in a 1:1 ratio stratified by the presence of liver and/or lung metastases at 223 clinical trial sites globally[3]. Patients received LEE011 600 mg/daily (three weeks on and one week off), or placebo, in combination with letrozole 2.5 mg/daily.

The primary endpoint of the trial was PFS[3]. Secondary endpoints included: overall survival, overall response rate, clinical benefit rate, health-related quality of life, safety and tolerability[3].

In MONALEESA-2, the most common grade 3/4 (most severe) adverse events were as follows for LEE011 plus letrozole compared to letrozole alone: neutropenia (60% vs 1%), leukopenia (21% vs 1%), elevated alanine aminotransferase (9% vs 1%), lymphopenia (7% vs 1%) and elevated aspartate aminotransferase (6% vs 1%)[1]. The most common all-grade adverse events (>=35% of patients in either arm, regardless of relationship to study treatment) were as follows for LEE011 plus letrozole compared to letrozole alone: neutropenia (74% vs 5%), nausea (52% vs 29%), infections (50% vs 42%), fatigue (37% vs 30%), and diarrhea (35% vs 22%)[1]. Nausea, infections, fatigue, and diarrhea were mostly grade 1 or 2[1].

The MONALEESA-3 trial is a phase III trial evaluating LEE011 in combination with fulvestrant compared to fulvestrant alone in men and post-menopausal women with HR+/HER2- advanced breast cancer who have received no or a maximum of one prior endocrine therapy.

MONALEESA-7, the largest phase III trial of a CDK4/6 inhibitor in this patient population, is investigating LEE011 in combination with endocrine therapy and goserelin compared to endocrine therapy and goserelin alone in pre-menopausal women with HR+/HER2- advanced breast cancer who have not previously received endocrine therapy. Both MONALEESA-3 and MONALEESA-7 are fully enrolled.

About Advanced Breast Cancer

Up to one-third of patients with early-stage breast cancer will subsequently develop metastatic disease[4]. Metastatic breast cancer is the most serious form of the disease and occurs when the cancer has spread to other parts of the body, such as the brain, bones or liver[5]. Advanced breast cancer comprises metastatic breast cancer (stage 4) and locally advanced breast cancer (stage 3)[5]. Survival rates for women living with advanced breast cancer are lower than those for women with earlier stage disease. The 5-year relative survival rate for stage 3 breast cancer is approximately 72%, while metastatic (stage 4) breast cancer has a 5-year relative survival rate of approximately 22%[6].

About Novartis in advanced breast cancer

For more than 25 years, Novartis has been at the forefront of driving scientific advancements for breast cancer patients and improving clinical practice in collaboration with the global community[7]. With one of the most diverse breast cancer pipelines and the largest number of breast cancer compounds in development, Novartis leads the industry in discovery of new therapies and combinations, especially in HR+ advanced breast cancer, the most common form of the disease[7].

Disclaimer

The foregoing release contains forward-looking statements that can be identified by words such as "Breakthrough Therapy designation," "Priority Review," "may," "will," "exciting," "promising," "believe," "could," "look forward," "ongoing," "continuing," "evaluating," "investigating," "pipelines," "in development," or similar terms, or by express or implied discussions regarding potential marketing approvals for LEE011 or any other compound in the Novartis breast cancer pipeline, or regarding potential future revenues from LEE011 and the other compounds in the Novartis breast cancer pipeline. You should not place undue reliance on these statements. Such forward-looking statements are based on the current beliefs and expectations of management regarding future events, and are subject to significant known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. There can be no guarantee that LEE011 or any other compound in the Novartis breast cancer pipeline will be submitted or approved for sale in any market, or at any particular time. Nor can there be any guarantee that LEE011 or the other compound in the Novartis breast cancer pipeline will be commercially successful in the future. In particular, management's expectations regarding LEE011 and such other pipeline compounds could be affected by, among other things, the uncertainties inherent in research and development, including unexpected clinical trial results and additional analysis of existing clinical data; unexpected regulatory actions or delays or government regulation generally; the company's ability to obtain or maintain proprietary intellectual property protection; general economic and industry conditions; competition in general; global trends toward health care cost containment, including ongoing pricing pressures; unexpected safety, quality or manufacturing issues, and other risks and factors referred to in Novartis AG's current Form 20-F on file with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Novartis is providing the information in this press release as of this date and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this press release as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

About Novartis

Novartis provides innovative healthcare solutions that address the evolving needs of patients and societies. Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Novartis offers a diversified portfolio to best meet these needs: innovative medicines, eye care and cost-saving generic pharmaceuticals. Novartis is the only global company with leading positions in these areas. In 2015, the Group achieved net sales of USD 49.4 billion, while R&D throughout the Group amounted to approximately USD 8.9 billion (USD 8.7 billion excluding impairment and amortization charges). Novartis Group companies employ approximately 118,000 full-time-equivalent associates. Novartis products are available in more than 180 countries around the world. For more information, please visit http://www.novartis.com.

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References

[1] O'Shaughnessy J. First-line ribociclib + letrozole in patients with de novo HR+, HER2- advanced breast cancer: A subgroup analysis of the MONALEESA-2 trial. Presented at San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS), December 9, 2016, San Antonio, Texas (abstract # P4-22-05)

[2] Burris H. First-line Ribociclib + Letrozole in Patients With HR+, HER2- Advanced Breast Cancer Presenting With Visceral Metastases or Bone-only Disease: A Subgroup Analysis of the MONALEESA-2 trial. Presented at San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS), December 9, 2016, San Antonio, Texas (abstract # P4-22-16)

[3] Hortobagyi G, Stemmer S, Burris H, et al. First-line ribociclib plus letrozole for postmenopausal women with HR+, HER2-, advanced breast cancer: First results from the Phase III MONALEESA-2 study. Presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress, October 8, 2016, Copenhagen, Denmark (abstract # LBA1_PR)

[4] O'Shaughnessy J. Extending survival with chemotherapy in metastatic breast cancer. The Oncologist. 2005;10(Suppl 3):20-29.

[5] American Cancer Society. How do you determine the stage of breast cancer? Available at http://www.cancer.org/cancer/breastcancer/detailedguide/breast-cancer-staging. Accessed May 10, 2016.

[6] American Cancer Society. Breast cancer survival rates, by stage. Available at http://www.cancer.org/cancer/breastcancer/detailedguide/breast-cancer-survival-by-stage. Accessed July 7, 2016.

[7] Novartis Data on File

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MOSCOW -- A man in hiding from local authorities in Russia's Chechen republic has drafted an appeal to federal law enforcement to investigate the death threats he says prompted him to flee the North Caucasus last month.

Ramazan Dzhalaldinov appeared in Moscow before journalists for the first time since his saga began in April, after he asked President Vladimir Putin for help battling local corruption in his village. The video appeal won him prominence across Russia, but condemnation and harassment locally.

The ethnic Avar complained that villagers in Kenkhi had not received promised compensation for the destruction of their homes resulting from Chechnya's two devastating wars with Russia.

After making the accusations, Dzhalaldinov fled to neighboring Daghestan with his family when their home was burned down and they were threatened, although he returned in May after apologizing to Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov and publicly retracting his words.

Speaking to journalists while flanked by his lawyer, two prominent human rights workers, and Novaya Gazeta's North Caucasus correspondent on December 9, Dzhalaldinov said he had reached a deal with Chechen authorities to return in May, but that none of the promises from the authorities were upheld.

According to the deal, he and rights workers said, fabricated criminal charges were meant to be dropped against villagers who supported him, while there were promises that Kenkhi residents would receive the compensation they are due for the reconstruction of their village. Neither of these promises materialized, they said.

"We want this situation to be heard, how much can a man wait," asked Yelena Milashina of Novaya Gazeta. "This [press conference] is an appeal to the leadership of Chechnya regarding the restoration of the village of Kenkhi and observing the conditions of the deal that was struck with Ramazan."

"Nothing has been fulfilled, everything has been violated, what's more -- there have again been illegal actions by the Chechen police."

On November 2, Dzhalaldinov said, he was summoned by the police to the capital, Grozny, to attend a meeting that prompted him to flee the republic for the second time.

He said he and his wife met Chechnya's Deputy Interior Minister Apti Alautdinov, who scolded him for communicating with Milashina.

In allegations also written in the text of an appeal to the Investigative Committee, Dzhalaldinov said that Alautdinov told his wife that "his men would kill me." Alautdinov was also alleged to have alluded to the assassinations of critics of Kadyrov, including Sulim and Ruslan Yamadayev, journalist Anna Politkovskaya, and opposition leader Boris Nemtsov.

Dzhalaldinov wrote in his appeal: "General Alautdinov A.A. gave the examples of the Yamadayev brothers, Politkovskaya and Nemtsov, and asked me if I wasn't afraid of sharing their fate. General Alautdinov A.A. also told me that 'your Milashina is next in line' and asked if I was going to stay quiet."

Dzhalaldinov alleged that he was brought back home by the police, who confiscated his passport and telephone, throwing the latter in a river and threatening to throw him in, too. His lawyer Pyotr Zaikin said Dzhalaldinov then fled via a mountain crossing to evade detection.

Dzhalaldinov signed the text of the document addressed to Investigative Committee chief Aleksandr Bastrykin in front of journalists. His lawyer said they would seek state protection for Dzhalaldinov from the Interior Ministry.

Dzhalaldinov's wife and three of his children remain in Kenkhi because, he said, they were afraid of trying to leave.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he believes "frantic attempts are being made to pull Montenegro into NATO" before the end of U.S. President Barack Obama's term in January.

Speaking in Germany on December 9 on the sidelines of a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Hamburg, Lavrov added that "we are not interfering in this process, but I think that the unattractiveness of these frantic efforts is clear to everyone."

He said that NATO should "hold consultations" with the Montenegrin people over the Balkan country's membership bid.

In October, the government of Montenegro arrested 21 people, including two Russians and three Serbian citizens, on suspicion that they were trying to foment a coup to prevent the election of a government that supported the NATO membership drive.

Last month, NATO Secretary-General Jen Stoltenberg said whether Montenegro joins the alliance is a matter for that country and the 28 NATO member states.

"Any interference into elections in any sovereign nation is absolutely unacceptable," Stoltenberg said.

NATO issued Montenegro a membership invitation in December 2015 and signed an accession protocol in May.

The process of ratifying its membership could be completed by the spring of 2017.

Based on reporting by TASS and Interfax


Syrian government forces and their allies have continued their offensive against rebel-held parts of eastern Aleppo, despite an announcement by Russia the previous day that the offensive had been halted to allow for the evacuation of civilians.

The Syrian Army pressed on in its offensive in Aleppo on December 9 with ground fighting and air strikes in an operation to retake all of the city's besieged rebel-held east.

A Turkish-based spokesman for the Jabha Shamiya rebel group told Reuters: "Helicopters, warplanes, and rocket bombardment like every day. Nothing has changed."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, speaking on December 8, said Syrian forces had "halted" their operations in eastern Aleppo "because there is a large operation under way to evacuate civilians."

But Lavrov told journalists on December 9 that government forces had resumed fighting "after a humanitarian pause" and that the attacks would continue "as long as the bandits are still in Aleppo."

Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry earlier announced that Russian and U.S. military experts and diplomats will meet in Geneva on December 10 to evaluate the situation in Aleppo and try to reach agreements on the evacuation of civilians, the provision of humanitarian aid, and the withdrawal of antigovernment forces from the city.

The UN General Assembly voted 122 to 13 on December 9 to demand an immediate halt to violence in Syria and humanitarian-aid access in the country, including in Aleppo.

The nonbinding resolution passed by the 193-member assembly is unlikely to change the situation on the ground.

Russia voted against the resolution, saying that the text did not go far enough in detailing the role of what it termed terrorists in the conflict.

Vitaly Churkin, Russian ambassador to the UN, said the issue should be dealt with at the Security Council.

Russia, a permanent member of the Security Council, has vetoed six resolutions in the council to stop the violence in Syria, including a draft put to a vote on December 5 demanding a week-long cease-fire in Aleppo.

"This is a vote to stand up and tell Russia and [Syrian President Bashar al-] Assad to stop the carnage," U.S. Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power told the General Assembly before the vote.

In Moscow on December 9, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov expressed concern about a decision by the United States to ease restrictions on providing arms to antigovernment rebels in Syria.

Peskov said Moscow feared U.S.-provided shoulder-launched antiaircraft missiles could end up in the hands of "terrorists" and "pose a serious threat" to countries in the region and beyond.

Rupert Colville, the spokesman for the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, said up to 100,000 people were trapped in "ever-shrinking" areas of eastern Aleppo.

It was unclear exactly how many people remain and how many have fled eastern Aleppo, with Colville saying that "it is very difficult to establish the facts in this very fluid and dangerous situation."

But he said the UN had gathered evidence that "hundreds of men have gone missing" after leaving for government-held areas.

Syrian government forces have recaptured around 75 percent of eastern Aleppo in recent weeks. Rebels had controlled the area since 2012.

Russia has given Assad crucial military and diplomatic backing throughout the conflict, which began with a forceful government crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in 2011 and erupted into a civil war that has killed more than 250,000 people.

Moscow helped turn the tide of the war in the government's favor with a major campaign of air strikes that began in September 2015 and that Western governments say has mainly targeted rebels rather than Islamic State militants.

With reporting by AP and Reuters
ON MY MIND

Five years ago this weekend, tens of thousands of Russians gathered on Moscow's Bolotnaya Square in the largest anti-Kremlin demonstration since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Also five years ago this week, the Power Vertical Podcast was launched as a regular program, largely in reaction to those protests and the new political reality they seemed to portend.

Since then we've had the rise of Aleksei Navalny and the Pussy Riot Case; we've had a crackdown in Russia and the annexation of Crimea; we've had little green men and a war in the Donbas; we've had hybrid wars, cyberattacks, the Panama Papers, and a lot more.

The past decade sure has been a wild and dizzying ride.

To put it all in perspective and context, I've reassembled the lineup from the early days of the podcast for a special five-year anniversary program that will be online later today.

Joining me will be co-host Mark Galeotti, a senior policy fellow at the Institute of International Relations in Prague and a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations; my original co-host Kirill Kobrin, editor of the Moscow-based history and sociology magazine Neprikosnovenny Zapas; and one of our very first guests, Sean Guillory of the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Russian and Eastern European Studies, author of Sean's Russia blog and host of the SRB Podcast.

So be sure to join me, Mark, Kirill, and Sean later today for a look back -- and a look ahead!

IN THE NEWS

German intelligence says Russia is trying to destabilize German society with an intensifying campaign of propaganda, disinformation, and cyberattacks ahead of federal elections next year.

Leading U.S. Senate Republicans will investigate alleged meddling by Russia in the U.S. presidential election last month and potential Russian cyberthreats to the military, putting them on a collision course with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.

More than two dozen U.S. senators have urged U.S. President-elect Donald Trump not to weaken sanctions targeting Russia for its actions in Crimea and elsewhere in Ukraine.

The U.S. Congress has backed legislation giving the president new, broader authority to impose sanctions on human rights abusers worldwide, building on an earlier law that has infuriated the Kremlin. The measure, formally known as the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, passed the Senate in a 92-7 vote.

The White House says U.S. authorities will examine the around $11 billion privatization of a stake in Russian state oil giant Rosneft to determine how U.S. sanctions may impact the deal.

The World Anti-Doping Agency will release a new report today on drug use in Russian sports, building on a landmark report this summer that led to doping bans on dozens of Russian athletes.

Less than half of 14 major oil-producing countries have agreed so far to attend a meeting this weekend aimed at securing their public commitment to output cuts sought by OPEC, cartel officials said.

The head of Russia's Chechnya region, Ramzan Kadyrov, asserts that troops based there would be happy to fight what he called "scum" in Syria if President Vladimir Putin wishes.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says the Syrian army has suspended combat operations in rebel-held eastern Aleppo, Russian media reported.

The United States and Russia are "poles apart" in trying to agree on terms for evacuations from rebel-held areas of Aleppo, UN humanitarian adviser Jan Egeland says.

Britain's foreign intelligence chief says that Russia and the Syrian government are blocking efforts to end the war in Syria and defeat the extremist group Islamic State by treating all opponents of President Bashar al-Assad as terrorists.

The FSB is conducting a search of the main headquarters of the Russian Post Office in Moscow.

WHAT I'M READING

New Report: Evaluating Sanctions

The Atlantic Council has a new report by Sergei Aleksashenko, a nonresident fellow at The Brookings Institution and a former Russian deputy finance minister, on the effectiveness of Western sanctions.

"The sanctions greatest achievement is that they have been an important demonstration of transatlantic unity," Aleksashenko writes.

"The coordination of sanctions between twenty-eight EU countries and the United States is a signal foreign policy achievement, sending a clear message to Putin that the West will take a united stance against Russias invasion of a sovereign nation. Until Russia pulls its forces out of the Donbas and no longer occupies Crimea, the sanctions should stay in place. If the West wants to go beyond making a symbolic statement, and to have any hope of changing Russias behavior, it should contemplate wielding policy tools it has not yet used, including a ban on the purchase of Russian oil and gas and a freeze on the assets of state-controlled banks and companies."

Lenin's Revenge

Arkady Ostrovsky has a piece in The Economist arguing that "Putin will find it hard to reconcile Russias revolutionary past with his Tsarist ambitions."

"The centenary of the 1917 Bolshevik revolution will be extremely awkward for Russia's president, Vladimir Putin. On the one hand, the Kremlin has restored so many Soviet symbols and institutions that it can hardly ignore the foundation myth of Soviet rule. On the other, Mr Putin intensely dislikes revolutions, particularly ones that overthrow authoritarian, imperial regimes," Ostrovsky writes.

"In 2017, expect to see Mr Putin perform intellectual somersaults to square Lenins anti-imperialist drive with his own ambitions to restore imperial order."

Russia And Islamic State

In a piece in The Daily Beast, Michael Weiss argues that Russia is playing a double game with Islamic State.

"Even as Washington touts its counterterrorism partnerships with Moscow, evidence points to Putin's intelligence service practically helping the Islamic State," Weiss writes.

Putin's Words

In Intersection magazine, Yuri Lobunov, editor in chief of the independent news agency Gorod32, looks at how Putin's rhetoric has changed over the course of his rule.The story is available in English and Russian.

Construction, Then And Now

In an interesting and quirky piece in Meduza, Maksim Trudolyubov compares the construction of residential buildings in Soviet times and today.

Propaganda, Then And Now

The Economist has a leader claiming that Russian propaganda has again become state-of-the-art.

"For much of post-Soviet history Russia was seen as an outlier whose politics would inevitably move towards those of the West. After the Brexit vote and the election of Donald Trump in America, it appears the opposite is taking place: the style of politics practised by Vladimir Putins regime is working its way westward," The Economist writes.

"The last time Russia had such a role in crystallising anti-establishment ideas was in the 1920s and 1930s, after the Bolshevik revolution."

Dashed Hopes

In a thoroughly reported piece, The Guardian's Shaun Walker looks at the small Tajik town of Kommunizm and the "death of the post-Soviet dream."

"Like the rest of Tajikistan and the four other former Soviet "Stans" -- Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan -- Kommunizm is marking 25 years of independence, thanks to the slow-motion collapse of the Soviet Union in the autumn of 1991. But for all the overblown rhetoric and parades across the region, the celebrations had a bittersweet tinge," Walker writes.

"While efforts at nation building in the newly independent countries have had some success, the collapse of the planned economy and its replacement with kleptocratic regimes has meant the standard of living for most people in the region has sharply declined over the past quarter of a century."

New Report: Russian Military Capacity

The Swedish Defense Research Agency has released the latest edition of its report series, Russian Military Capability In A Ten-Year Perspective.

New Report: Russia And China: Partners Of Choice Or Necessity

Ian Bond has a new report out for the Center for European Reform on the Sino-Russian relationship.

Separatist Diplomacy

In a piece in Coda, Amy MacKinnon profiles the "honorary consul" of the so-called Donetsk People's Republic in the Czech Republic.
Another contributor to RFE/RL's Turkmen Service has been taken into custody. (More on other cases here, here, and here)

Khudayberdy Allashov has been helping us get a balanced picture of the situation in northern Turkmenistan; his version of events does not necessarily match the sanguine narrative of Turkmenistans government.

On December 3, the police arrived at Allashovs home, reportedly beat Allashov, and arrested him and his mother.

The charge was possession of "nasvai," or "nas," a form of chewing tobacco.

And "nasvai" is what I want to talk about.

Anyone who's roamed Central Asia will be familiar with nasvai; it is everywhere. Not everyone partakes in chewing nasvai, but many people do; and not just men, Ive seen older women take a pinch.

It is so common that artisans routinely make and sell special bottles and other containers so people can store their daily ration in it, and those with fancy nasvai containers love to show these off and take great pride when they receive compliments.

A Matter Of Taste

You pop a little bit onto your hand, open your mouth, tilt your head back a little, and lightly toss it into your mouth, usually so it rests under your tongue. Then you leave it there, expectorating occasionally, until the last bit loses its flavor, at which time you expel the remnants.

Some nasvai is very dry, some is moist; it depends on a persons taste.

And after plov, nasvai is probably the most debated topic in Central Asia. Everyone who uses it has an opinion on where the best nasvai comes from.

I first saw nasvai in 1990, when I was studying in Tashkent, during the days when Uzbekistan was a republic in the Soviet Union. No one ever said it was illegal, and the fact that people used it openly in public suggested that authorities did not care.

When I was traveling in Central Asia in the 1990s, it was easy to purchase nasvai at almost any bazaar -- from the border of China to the Caspian Sea, from the borders of Iran and Afghanistan well into the steppe of Kazakhstan. People had it on tables -- usually more than one variety, in fact.

I tried nasvai a few times. My instructions when I worked in the villages were "to live like the people there live, and participate in whatever they were doing."

Nasvai didn't do much for me. The first couple of times, like cigarettes for a nonsmoker, it could produce a very mild "buzz" that lasted a few seconds.

Flimsiest Excuse

In recent years, some governments -- not only in Central Asia, but in Russia for example -- have banned sales of nasvai. But few people in law enforcement ever bother to do anything about it.

This is where we return to Khudayberdy Allashov. He and his mother are being accused of possessing 11 kilograms of nasvai. Police told Allahov's wife he could face seven years in prison for it, although Turkmenistan's Criminal Code states that the possession of nasvai is punishable by a fine for the first offense and, if caught a second time, a person could face up to one year in prison.

I've said it in an earlier article, and Ill say it again now: Turkmenistan is a failing state. When someone may be put in prison for seven years for possessing a substance that is prevalent across Central Asia, a substance that not even the Soviet government prohibited, that is a sign of a desperate government.

Turkmenistan is running out of money, its people are running low on food, unemployment is climbing, and yet the government talks about a prosperous nation in an "Age of Happiness."

And after years of imprisoning perceived regime opponents on charges many international rights organizations, and others, called fabricated, the Turkmen government has come up with the flimsiest excuse yet for putting someone in prison.
Leading U.S. Senate Republicans will investigate alleged meddling by Russia in the U.S. presidential election last month and potential Russian cyberthreats to the military, putting them on a collision course with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.

Trump has shrugged off allegations that Russia had any role in the November election and wants to "get along" better with Russia, setting him apart from most of his Republican allies on Capitol HIll.

The powerful Senate Armed Services chairman, John McCain of Arizona, is readying a probe of possible Russian cyberincursions into U.S. weapons systems. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (Tennesssee), whom Trump has considered for secretary of state, also intends to hold hearings next year into alleged Russian hacking.

McCain and Senator Lindsey Graham (South Carolina) are taking the hardest line on Russia and have been highly critical of Trump for praising Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Graham plans a series of investigative hearings next year into Russias misadventures throughout the world, including allegations of Russian meddling in the U.S. elections.

Im going after Russia in every way you can go after Russia. I think theyre one of the most destabilizing influences on the world stage. I think they did interfere with our elections, and I want Putin personally to pay the price, Graham told CNN.

Based on reporting by CNN and Washington Post


TASHKENT -- Uzbekistan has exonerated its Soviet-era leader Inomjon Usmonhojaev, who was convicted during a high-profile anticorruption campaign known as "the Uzbek case" or "the cotton case" in 1989.

Usmonhojaev told RFE/RL on December 8 that he had received a letter from the Supreme Court that said his verdict and sentence had been annulled on November 18 and the probe against him had been canceled.

Usmonhojaev, 86, was the leader of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic in 1983-1988. His title was First Secretary of the Communist Party in the republic.

He was found guilty of corruption and sentenced to 12 years in jail in December 1989. In 1990, Usmonhojaev was released, but he was not exonerated.

His exoneration comes weeks after the death of Uzbek President Islam Karimov, who became leader of Soviet Uzbekistan in 1989 and ruled with an iron hand as president for 25 years following independence.

The anticorruption campaign in Uzbekistan during Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms in mid-1980s led to some 800 probes against officials in Uzbekistan and Russia.

More than 4,000 people, including former Soviet First Deputy Interior Minister Yury Churbanov, who was the late Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev's son-in-law, were jailed.


NEW YORK, Dec. 09, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hunt Mortgage Group, a leader in financing commercial real estate throughout the United States, announced today it opened an office in Charleston, South Carolina. John Beam, Managing Director, has been tapped to lead the local effort. He is also responsible for leading the firms Atlanta, Georgia office.



Beam will focus on originating agency debt, including small balance loans under the Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae Small Balance Loan Programs, as well as bridge financing through Hunt Mortgage Groups Proprietary Loan Group. Beam will divide his time between the two offices and serve clients throughout the southeastern seaboard of the United States.

The new Hunt Mortgage Group office in located at 170 Meeting Street, Suite 208, in Charleston and the phone number is 843-314-4682.

Our decision to open an office in Charleston is in direct response to the areas strong market dynamics and growing demand for multifamily financing, commented Beam. A local presence enables us to better serve the particular needs of area investors and developers. Hunt Mortgage Group has expertise in financing all aspects of commercial real estate. 

John is a skilled financial services executive with an impressive track record of success at Hunt Mortgage Group, James Flynn, President of Hunt Mortgage Group. We are confident he will successfully launch the Charleston office and be effective in serving local commercial real estate developers. Combining Johns expertise and the companys vast product array, we will quickly have a thriving presence in the region.

About Hunt Mortgage Group

Hunt Mortgage Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hunt Companies, Inc., is a leader in financing commercial real estate throughout the United States. The Company finances all types of commercial real estate: multifamily properties (including small balance), affordable housing, office, retail, manufactured housing, healthcare/senior living, industrial, and self-storage facilities. It offers Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, HUD/FHA in addition to its own Proprietary loan products. Since inception, the Company has structured more than $21 billion of loans and today maintains a servicing portfolio of more than $12 billion. Headquartered in New York City, Hunt Mortgage Group has 189 professionals in 21 locations throughout the United States. To learn more, visit www.huntmortgagegroup.com.
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The setting sun painted the sky crimson over Varina High School, where on Thursday evening dozens of family and friends held a candlelight vigil for a 2014 graduate.

Keonte Freeman Taylor, 20, was fatally stabbed early Sunday at the Motel 6 in Sandston. Its the second killing at the inn this year.

His grieving mother looked up over the crowd pointing to the rainbow that had formed on a cloud above.

Thats Keonte watching over us, said his cousin Kevon Carter. He always had that smile on his face. Our family is hurting.

Carter said Taylors son is due on Monday. Hell be named Khalif Keonte Freeman Taylor, Carter said.

Well get word to him, Carter said looking toward the violet sky.

Donte Robertson said he and Taylor had spent Friday night talking.

We just talked about life, Robertson told the crowd, and what we were going to change for each other and our kids.

Robertson just had twin girls. A neighbor said Taylor wanted to join the military, and she had just finished writing him a letter of recommendation when she was shocked by the news of his death.

QuaMesha Baptist, who attend Varina with Taylor, couldnt hold back tears as she spoke to the crowd about her friend.

We need to stop, she said stamping her feet. This right here was a big loss.

Officers were called at about 1:25 a.m. Sunday to the motel at 5704 Williamsburg Road, police said. Taylor was taken to a local hospital, where he died, police said.

There had been a party at the motel that night, vigil attendees said, when a fight broke out and Taylor was stabbed protecting several partygoers. Most of the attendees ran, but two women waited behind to make sure Taylor was cared for. The family thanked the women.

Police have charged Leslie Jerome Tyler Jr., 18, of Henrico, with second-degree murder in Taylors death. Tyler is being held in the Henrico County Jail.

Anyone with information about Sundays stabbing is asked to call Henrico police at (804) 501-5000 or Crime Stoppers at (804) 780-1000. People can also text Crime Stop the your tip. Both Crime Stoppers methods are anonymous.
Highland Springs Elementary School has been selected as the proposed site in Henrico County for an Achievable Dream Academy, a school model targeted at students who are at risk of failure that incorporates longer school days, a summer session and uniforms.

The proposal to adopt the innovative public-private partnership model at Highland Springs Elementary was put before the School Board at a work session Thursday. If adopted, it would be the fourth Achievable Dream Academy  there are currently two in Newport News and one in Virginia Beach.

In making the recommendation, Henrico Assistant Superintendent for Instruction Beth Teigen said division officials evaluated 13 schools that have struggled academically based on state and federal standards.

They considered criteria such as school capacity, how long the school has been open and the number of nearby elementary schools where students could be pulled from or moved to, should their parents opt them in or out of attending the academy.

As we consider those schools, our recommendation ... would be to look at Highland Springs Elementary School for the site for the Achievable Dream Academy, she told the School Board.

The School Board is scheduled to vote on approving an agreement in January for the academy that would open in July. An initial 285 students in kindergarten to second grade would start at the Henrico academy, with plans to expand by one grade level each year.

Highland Springs Elementary School, at 600 W. Pleasant St. in the Varina District, was partially accredited with warning by the Virginia Department of Education for the 2016-17 academic year. Seven schools across the division were denied state accreditation, a record number for Henrico.

Parents of students at Highland Springs would have to sign a contract with Achievable Dream, Teigen said after the work session. Students whose parents decide to opt them out of the academy would be transferred to another elementary school, which has not yet been identified.

Enrollment at the academy would be offered to students at the second sister school, to fill the spaces of Highland Springs students who end up not participating in the program, but the school division isnt planning on opening the academy to students across the district.

Our hope would be that all of the students there would be participating in the program, she said of Highland Springs.

Achievable Dream offers additional learning opportunities, along with etiquette training, character development and conflict resolution. While the academy would be jointly run through a public-private partnership, Teigen said Thursday the School Board would have control over all final decisions.

An additional $342,000 would need to be appropriated for the Achievable Dream Academy for the 2017 fiscal year, which would pay for a licensing agreement, professional development and additional staffing, said Ben Bowen, assistant superintendent for finance and administration.

The academy calls for several new positions, including a director of operations, student enrichment coordinator, five instructional assistants and specialists in reading and math.
GREENWICH, Conn., Dec. 09, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cross Ocean Partners announced today that Brandt Wilson has joined the firm as a Partner and Head of Hard Asset Investment Strategies. This marks Cross Oceans launch of a dedicated investment strategy focusing on hard asset classes. The hard asset investment strategy will initially focus on the aviation sector. Wilson will be based out of Cross Oceans Greenwich, Connecticut office and will focus on aviation opportunities globally.



Prior to joining Cross Ocean, Wilson was a senior managing director at Castlelake, L.P., where he was co-head of the firms multi-billion global aviation investment efforts. He acted as a portfolio manager and was responsible for the day-to-day operations of the firms aviation investments. From 2000 to 2009, Wilson worked with Cross Oceans senior management team at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where he oversaw numerous hard asset investment activities, with an emphasis on aviation opportunities. He was most recently a managing director and co-head of the firms North American Illiquid Credit Trading group. In total, Wilson has 23 years of financial services experience covering public accounting, leverage finance, bankruptcy advisory and credit and hard asset investing with 16 years dedicated to investing in aviation opportunities.

I am thrilled to partner with Brandt again and to launch a dedicated effort in the aviation finance space, said Cross Oceans Chief Executive Officer and Co-Chief Investment Officer, Graham Goldsmith. The team and I have a longstanding relationship with Brandt and believe that he will be a key contributor to Cross Ocean going forward. Furthermore, there is a clear market opportunity in the aviation sector focusing on mid-life and older aircraft and engine leasing, and we believe that his longstanding relationships and deep expertise within the aviation industry will allow Cross Ocean to differentiate itself from other market participants.

This is a rare opportunity to join such a deep team with a world-class partner in Stone Point Capital, said Wilson. We are launching our aviation strategy with a $50 million commitment from Cross Oceans shareholders, which will anchor our investing and deal sourcing efforts.

About Cross Ocean Partners

Cross Ocean Partners is a credit-focused asset management platform investing globally in stressed, distressed and structured credit investment opportunities in a broad range of asset classes, including corporate loans and bonds, hard assets, commercial real estate and liquidations. Cross Ocean currently advises more than $2.3 billion of committed capital. The firm is led by Graham Goldsmith (Chief Executive Officer and Co-Chief Investment Officer) and Steven Zander (Co-Chief Investment Officer) and is based in Greenwich, Connecticut and London, England. The company was formed in June 2015 as a partnership between the Cross Ocean management team and Stone Point Capital LLC, a leading financial services-focused private equity firm.
A large marina fire in eastern Henrico County sent flaming boats adrift on the James River and emergency crews from around the region rushing to respond Friday.

About 3:30 p.m., Henrico fire Capt. Taylor Goodman said the fire had been marked under control, but the cause still was not clear.

Henrico fire marshals will lead an investigation that could take days, or possibly weeks, said Goodman, who said it was too early to speculate about whether the fire was arson.

Tony Wolpert, who lives in a house several hundred feet from the marina, said he noticed from his window a billow of smoke near the marina about 7 a.m.

He ran down to the marina and saw some boats on fire, and smoke filled the air.

He called 911.

With no one else in sight and unsure whether anyone was aboard any of the boats, Wolpert said he ran up and down the docks screaming as loud as he could: Fire! Fire! Get out!

He said he saw at least three people get out of their boats after his warning.

One man told Wolpert he was asleep and did not realize there was a fire. The other two survivors, a couple, also were unaware of the fire, he said.

Some boats became unmoored and were floating on fire in the river, he said.

From what he first saw, Wolpert said he initially thought the marina and all of the boats would be a total loss.

But he said he was relieved to hear reports that no one was injured and called it a miracle.

Goodman said an unknown number of people were sleeping on boats at the marina at the time of the fire but that firefighters believe everyone was able to escape safely.

About 60 boats are kept at the marina, many of which are yachts, Richmond Yacht Basin president Max Walraven said.

Walraven said it appears that 11 boats were destroyed. In total, Goodman said 12 to 15 boats were destroyed or damaged.

About 30 firefighters were part of the initial response. That included crews from Henrico and Chesterfield County as well as Richmond International Airport. As local crews continued to battle the fires Friday, they were joined by Virginia Beach, Newport News and James City County firefighters.

The U.S. Coast Guard also assisted, and an official with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency arrived to assess what, if any, measures need to be taken to deal with any potential oil leaks, Goodman said.

The Richmond Yacht Basin, situated just west of Interstate 295 in Henrico, calls itself Richmonds oldest and largest full-service marina.

Mary Hertzler of Williamsburg has had a yacht with her husband, Steve, at the marina for nearly two years and said the marina is a friendly community of people who look out for one another.

She said about 12 people live in yachts at the marina, while many others have houses elsewhere but still sleep occasionally on their yachts overnight.

The Hertzlers walked to the marina on Friday unsure whether their yacht had been damaged, and they discovered it indeed was untouched.

Mary Hertzler said she was relieved and saddened at the same time, knowing that others had lost their boats. But she said the most important thing is that everyone appeared to be safe.

Mitch Romig, on vacation from Lancaster, Pa., was renting a blue houseboat at the marina for the night.

We were sleeping and heard someone running around yelling that the marina was on fire. It was pretty big already when we woke up, he said.

Once we got out, I dont know how many boats on the end were already on fire.

Its our last day of vacation. We werent expecting to get up to that.

Millie Oakley cried as she approached the scene. She has kept a 42-foot boat shes restoring at the marina for five years and already had heard that it was destroyed.
The University of Virginia has purchased the rights to use the electric output of a 17-megawatt solar power array in King William County.

When complete, the 160-acre facility will be capable of meeting 12 percent of the universitys current electric demand.

Dominion Virginia Power owns the property, known as Hollyfield Solar Facility. The project is scheduled for completion next October. The deal gives U.Va. rights to the propertys electric output for the next 25 years.

When complete, the property will feature 65,000 solar panels capable of powering 4,250 homes at peak output, according to Dominion. The Darden School of Business will use about 25 percent of the power generated at Hollyfield, helping the school reach its long-term goal of becoming carbon neutral.

The university estimates the $25 million project could reduce U.Va.s carbon dioxide output by 18,000 metric tons annually.

The project could account for as much as 15 percent of U.Va.s long-term greenhouse gas reduction goal.

The university aims to reduce its greenhouse gas output to 25 percent of its 2009 levels by the year 2025.
DANVILLE  William Wolf saw a vehicle sitting in the median as he drove to work. He stopped to see if he could offer assistance to the driver.

What Wolf saw inside was a man with a gunshot wound to the back of his head.

That led to the investigation of a double homicide by Danville police and Pittsylvania County sheriffs deputies Thursday morning.

The running vehicle parked in the median led to the discovery of the bodies of Linda Lawson Milam, 53, and Mark Steven Duncan, 57, in the 900 block of Luna Lake Road, where Danville firefighters were called to a house on fire Thursday morning.

Their deaths are the 15th and 16th homicides in Danville this year.

Wolf, a newspaper carrier, noticed the car in the median of Route 29 near Realty Road in Pittsylvania County around 2 a.m. Thursday, he said.

The vehicle was still running and had its headlights on, Wolf said. He observed the driver hunched over in the car and called 911.

When more than 10 minutes passed, he went to the vehicle to investigate.

Using a flashlight, Wolf said he observed the inside of the car and saw who police identified as Dylan Roy Milam, 25, shot dead in the drivers seat. Police said the wound appeared to be self-inflicted.

Wolf caught a glimpse of the scope of the gun inside the vehicle, he said. The barrel of the gun was pointing up at the driver.

Wolf thinks it was a short style rifle. He called 911 back with what he saw.

It turned my stomach, Wolf said. It was a pretty gruesome sight.

When Pittsylvania County sheriffs deputies arrived, they questioned Wolf, and he said he let them do their investigation.

Deputies used an emergency window punch to gain entry into the vehicle, Wolf said.

The vehicle was registered to the Luna Lake Road house, according to Danville police, who went to the address to continue their investigation.

Upon arrival, police found the house on fire and called firefighters and rescue personnel for assistance.

In the process of extinguishing the fire, members of the Danville Fire Department discovered two deceased individuals inside of the residence, according to a Danville police news release.

Linda Milam and Duncan were identified as the victims. The two had injuries consistent with gunshot wounds, according to the news release.

The bodies of all three people were transported to the Roanoke Medical Examiners Office for further investigation.

The Danville Police Department and the Pittsylvania County Sheriffs Office are working on the case, but a suspect is not being sought.

Authorities said Linda Milam and Duncan both lived at the Luna Lake Road house; their relationship to Dylan Milam was not established.
In 1984 I cast my first ballot for President Ronald Reagan, who won in a national landslide with just under 59 percent of the vote. His win in Virginia was a tidal wave at just over 62 percent  the result of a lot of hard, grassroots building that had been occurring for years.

My father, a Jewish Republican and a young lawyer, was attracted to Virginias GOP as an outsider party open to new ideas to make Virginia a better place. Once reaching voting age in the 1980s, I joined my father and thousands of other volunteers to continue the work to build a Republican Party that would eventually be trusted to lead our commonwealth.

How did those rebel Republicans fight and beat a well-funded, entrenched Democratic machine? Can we do it again? What can we learn from the last Republican takeover?

I firmly believe we can turn Virginia red again in 2020, but doing so will take a concerted effort between now and then.

The first and most important step is winning the governorship in 2017. Where we used to control them all, Republicans currently hold no statewide offices in Virginia. It is absolutely critical that not be the case come 2020.

A successful governor becomes the face of the party  someone who can introduce the party to new voters (Virginias voter rolls have grown by over 366,000 since the last Republican governor left office); someone who can demonstrate that the party cares for the commonwealths residents.

Second, Republicans have to refocus on building up our party infrastructure. A party that is stronger at the local, county and congressional levels gives all of our candidates a stronger team in the final stretch before an election.

In the past four years we have seen the Republican National Committee place thousands of full-time grassroots activists across the country. It was expensive and complicated, but it also helped elect our new president and save the House and Senate.

When my father was helping build the party in the 1970s and 80s, times were simpler but the principles from their time still work in our time. Organized and well-trained grassroots armies working hard on behalf of statewide candidates were the secret weapon that helped create the tidal wave we saw with Reagan and George W. Bush, and George Allens 17-point come-from-behind victory for governor.

We need to be willing to build, manage and invest in this type of infrastructure again if we want to be successful.

Third, Republicans must do a much better job of localizing statewide races, by understanding the different challenges and priorities of the various regions of our state.

Northern Virginia, Tidewater, Southside and Richmond all contribute to our state in very specific ways. Voters want well-paying and stable careers, safe streets and good schools. But each region presents unique challenges to a prospective governor.

For example, Virginia has some of the most prosperous counties in the nation. But Virginia is also home to 35 counties or cities where the average weekly wage is no more than 60 percent of the national average. These are hardworking but poor communities that our states recovery has missed.

Statewide, about one in 10 workers face a commute to work that is an hour or longer, but in Prince William County, one in four do. That is a lot of time in a car away from work, away from family.

A successful statewide candidate, whether for governor, Senate or president, will understand these and countless other differences and design a policy agenda that aims to instill the confidence and earn the trust of all Virginians without exception.

One last area where we can improve as a party is in speaking to the diversity that reflects the dynamism of our growing commonwealth. A Republican agenda must show more promise for all. Most importantly, Virginians share the desire to ensure a better life for ourselves, our children and our grandchildren. We are the party of opportunity, prosperity and freedom for all. We need to rededicate ourselves to championing these principles.

Its the kind of outreach and infrastructure building that originally brought me into the Republican Party even before I could vote. My father became a Republican because the local GOP was a welcoming place for a Jewish small business owner in the 1970s. And it wasnt just that the party leaders were interested in my fathers vote; they were interested in how he could help shape and grow a party that was responsive to the needs of all Virginians.

As Thomas Jefferson noted, Our greatest happiness does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but [in]freedom in all just pursuits. In short, it depends on each and every one of us having a fair shot.

I am now happily in the private sector, but as I reflect on where we are as a party and a commonwealth, I recall watching and then joining my Dad in helping build the party that ultimately elected Republicans up and down and the ballot. The 2016 election results are a reminder that it is time for us to get to work again.
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, Dec. 09, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Michael Hu, President of 2050 Motors, Inc. (US OTCQB: ETFM), today reviewed the present status and outlook for 2050 Motors for the year 2017.

Mr. Hu takes this opportunity to remind everyone that 2050 Motors is much more than just a car company. 2050 Motors is involved in all aspects of automobile technology including advanced batteries, high efficiency and alternate fuel engines, hybrid vehicles, production of graphene and composite materials.

Mr. Hu also states that the company has continued to make progress on all its projects. However, delays have occurred in China with our partner Jiangsu Aoxin New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd., for the production of the all carbon fiber electric automobiles. The reason for these delays at the Aoxin manufacturing plant have been clearly stated in two Bloomberg articles issued on August 28 and 29, 2016. The first article titled, 95% of China's Electric Vehicle Startups Face Wipeout (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-08-28/most-of-china-s-electric-car-startups-face-wipeout-by-new-rules) explains that China will only issue a very limited number of production permits to electric vehicle manufacturing companies, which will probably eliminate 95% of the existing electric vehicle companies in China. The second article titled, Waste-Truck Maker, Sportscar Startup Said Near China EV Permits (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-08-29/garbage-truckmaker-sportscar-startup-said-near-china-ev-permits) clearly indicates that Aoxin is a primary candidate to receive one of these very limited and valuable production permits. The article states, Aoxin, which produces electric-powered garbage trucks and postal vehicles, is owned by the investment arm of Yancheng, a small city in eastern Jiangsu province. The mayor had pledged to help the company obtain the EV manufacturing permit as part of the provincial push to promote the development of the new-energy vehicle industry.

Mr. Hu further comments: The China government reviewers, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), issue approvals at their own pace. Although the new Aoxin manufacturing plant has passed all previous inspections by this agency, complications have occurred due to the fact that no other company in China has ever built full carbon fiber electric vehicles before. Aoxin continues to cooperate with the NDRC for the license/permit to be issued.

2050 Motors is anxiously awaiting the arrival of the first assembly line shipment of the new all carbon fiber e-Go automobiles to the United States to schedule crash testing according to US DOT standards. This will happen as soon as the new Aoxin e-Go manufacturing plant receives its permit to produce vehicles. It should be noted that the e-Go has already passed preliminary crash testing at the famous CATARC Institute in China according to Chinese, Japanese and European standards. Please see press release titled, 2050 Motors, Inc. Announces All Carbon Fiber Electric E-Go Passes Frontal Crash Test With Impressive Results (Feb. 12, 2016)(http://2050motors.com/press-releases.html) for further details on crash testing.

Aoxin completed Phase 1 of the full carbon fiber body electric vehicle plant in China in January 2015 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wih8_xxZNgA), which continues to be updated with advanced robotic production machinery.

Aoxin has also continued to invest several hundred million dollars (USD) to complete its Phase 2 project with an additional 2.2 million square foot facility (see photos at website http://www.2050motors.com/aoxinfacility.html). In this completed facility, Aoxin will build two brand-new carbon fiber electric vehicle models for model years 2019 and 2020. Phase 2 will also include on-site manufacturing of its own vehicle batteries and other major electrical components, including electric motors and controllers.

In summary, Mr. Hu stated that 2050 Motors and its production partner Aoxin will continue their journey to the ultimate goal of producing and distributing some of the most advanced carbon fiber electric automobiles in the world.

About 2050 Motors, Inc.

2050 Motors, Inc. (http://www.2050motors.com and http://www.etfm.com), is a publicly traded company incorporated in Nevada in 2012. 2050 Motors was founded to develop and produce the next generation of clean, lightweight, efficient vehicles and its associated technologies. Some of these technologies include alternative renewable fuels, hybrid electric vehicles, advanced graphene lithium batteries and low cost carbon fiber vehicles. 2050 Motors has been successful in forming long term relationships and exclusive contracts for a variety of game changing technologies. 2050 Motors entered into an agreement with Jiangsu Aoxin New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd., located in Jiangsu, China, for the distribution in the United States of a new electric automobile, known as the e-Go EV (electric vehicle). The e-Go EV is a revolutionary new concept in the ever-evolving world of electric vehicles. It will be the only production line electric car with a carbon fiber body and parts manufactured by a new process using robotic machines which significantly reduces the fabrication time and cost of carbon fiber components. The e-Go EV will seat four passengers, have a long battery life, and high energy efficiency rating of up to 150+ MPG-E energy equivalent in urban driving due to the light weight of the vehicle. The five-passenger carbon fiber luxury sedan Ibis EV, the e-Go's big brother, will also be showcased along with the e-Go EV for future sales in the United States. See videos of completion of the e-Go EV manufacturing plant at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wih8_xxZNgA and the unveiling of the e-Go EV at the 2014 Shanghai Auto Show http://www.2050motors.com/shanghaishow.html. The company is fully reporting under the SEC EDGAR system.

Disclosure Statement

Statements in this press release about our future expectations, including without limitation, the likelihood that 2050 Motors will be able to leverage capital markets to execute its growth strategy, meet US DOT requirements, meet minimum sales expectations, will be successful and profitable in the US market, and will bring significant value to 2050 Motors' stockholders, constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and as that term is defined in the Private Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties and are subject to change at any time, and our actual results could differ materially from expected results. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or release any revisions to these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this statement or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law.


A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind.
OAK BROOK, Ill., Dec. 09, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A. M. Castle & Co. (OTCQB:CASL) (the Company or Castle), a global distributor of specialty metal and supply chain solutions, announced the execution and closing of a definitive agreement for new $112 million secured term credit facilities (the Credit Facilities).

As previously announced on November 4, 2016, the Company entered into commitment letters (each, a Commitment Letter) with certain financial institutions including Highbridge Capital, Whitebox Advisors, Corre Partners, and Wolverine Asset Management (the Financial Institutions) in order to repay outstanding borrowings and support the continuance of letters of credit, totaling $53.2 million in the aggregate under the Companys former revolving loan and security agreement with Wells Fargo Bank, National Association as lender and administrative agent (the Former Credit Agreement). The Companys new Credit Facilities will take the form of senior-secured, first-lien, term loan credit facilities in an aggregate principal amount of up to $112 million, which is $12 million greater than previously announced. In connection therewith, commitments pursuant the Former Credit Agreement have been terminated and liens granted to the collateral agent pursuant thereto have been released in full.

President and CEO Steve Scheinkman commented, These new credit facilities will enhance Castles liquidity and better position the Company to advance its ongoing efforts to capitalize on market opportunities. We are excited to have the support of the financial institutions funding the Credit Facilities.

In connection with the funding of the Credit Facilities, the Financial Institutions were issued warrants (the Warrants) to purchase an aggregate of 5,000,000 shares of the common stock of the Company, pro rata based on the principal amount of each Financial Institutions commitment in the Credit Facilities. The Warrants have exercise prices as follows: (i) 50% of the Warrants have an exercise price of $0.50 per share and will expire on June 8, 2018 and (ii) the remaining 50% of the Warrants have an exercise price of $0.65 per share and will expire June 8, 2018.

The funding of the Credit Facilities was subject to original issue discount in an amount equal to 3.00% of the full principal amount of the Credit Facilities. The Credit Facilities will bear interest at a rate per annum equal to 11.00%, payable monthly in arrears. The outstanding principal amount of the Credit Facilities and all accrued and unpaid interest thereon will be due and be payable on September 14, 2018.

About A. M. Castle & Co.

Founded in 1890, A. M. Castle & Co. is a global distributor of specialty metal and supply chain services, principally serving the producer durable equipment, commercial aircraft, heavy equipment, industrial goods, construction equipment, and retail sectors of the global economy. Its customer base includes many Fortune 500 companies as well as thousands of medium and smaller sized firms spread across a variety of industries. It specializes in the distribution of alloy and stainless steels; nickel alloys; aluminum and carbon. Together, Castle and its affiliated companies operate out of 21 metals service centers located throughout North America, Europe and Asia. Its common stock is traded on the OTCQB Venture Market under the ticker symbol "CASL".
CHARLOTTESVILLE  Supporters of Charlottesville City Council member Wes Bellamy, speaking at Thursdays Albemarle County School Board meeting, voiced admiration and argued that he should keep his teaching job. .

Bellamy, who teaches computer science at Albemarle High School, has been on paid administrative leave since late November after past tweets deemed by many to be racist, sexist and homophobic were unearthed by Jason Kessler, a Charlottesville-area blogger connected to the so-called alt-right movement.

Kessler has called for Bellamys removal from his public positions.

A handful of people spoke to the school board, while more in the audience displayed their support for Bellamy by holding up signs or standing in agreement with the speakers assertions.

After the public comment period, board member Steve Koleszar said the school board would not be immediately addressing the issue or providing any updates regarding Bellamy.

Those who spoke asked the school board to take into consideration the work that Bellamy has done for the county schools, its students and the community and to give him a second chance.

Don Gathers, a city resident and friend of Bellamys, was among them.

He did indeed make some poor choices that are truly indefensible, but I ask that you recognize and realize that our country is one of second chances, Gathers said.

Uriah Fields, a county resident, said that while he condemns the things that Bellamy tweeted , he said hes hopeful the school board will bring him back and let him do the fine job that hes done.

In addition to taking leave from his teaching position, Bellamy resigned from his governor-appointed position on the Virginia Board of Education.

During Mondays city council meeting, which also was attended by a large number of supporters, Bellamy addressed his past statements and the fallout over the past few weeks.

Im sorry for my tweets that I sent in my early to mid-20s  Im not looking to defend or justify my words. They are indefensible, he said. They dont reflect the man I am or the things I believe today.

Kate Acuff, chairwoman of the Albemarle County School Board, had announced that Bellamy had agreed to go on administrative leave amid a school board investigation.

We appreciate the concerns of those who have contacted our school division regarding social media postings that have been attributed to Mr. Wes Bellamy, a teacher at Albemarle High School, a statement from Acuff said. Many of these postings contain extremely vulgar and offensive language that directly contradicts the values of our school division. The School Board rejects these statements in their entirety.
ATHENS, Greece, Dec. 09, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Diana Shipping Inc. (NYSE:DSX), (the Company), a global shipping company specializing in the ownership of dry bulk vessels, today announced that, through a separate wholly-owned subsidiary, it has entered into a time charter contract with Koch Shipping Pte. Ltd., Singapore, for one of its Newcastlemax dry bulk vessels, Hull No. H2548 (to be named San Francisco), which is currently under construction. The gross charter rate is US$11,750 per day, minus a 5% commission paid to third parties, for a period of minimum twelve (12) months to about sixteen (16) months. The charter is expected to commence on January 6, 2017.



As previously announced, the m/v San Francisco is a newbuilding Newcastlemax dry bulk vessel of approximately 208,500 dwt.

This employment is anticipated to generate approximately US$4.23 million of gross revenue for the minimum scheduled period of the time charter.

Excluding the aforementioned vessel, Diana Shipping Inc.s fleet currently consists of 46 dry bulk vessels (2 Newcastlemax, 14 Capesize, 3 Post-Panamax, 4 Kamsarmax and 23 Panamax). The Company also expects to take delivery of one new-building Newcastlemax dry bulk vessel during the first quarter of 2017. As of today, the combined carrying capacity of the Companys fleet, excluding the two vessels not yet delivered, is approximately 5.2 million dwt with a weighted average age of 8.13 years. A table describing the current Diana Shipping Inc. fleet can be found on the Companys website, www.dianashippinginc.com. Information contained on the Companys website does not constitute a part of this press release.

About the Company

Diana Shipping Inc. is a global provider of shipping transportation services through its ownership of dry bulk vessels. The Companys vessels are employed primarily on medium to long-term time charters and transport a range of dry bulk cargoes, including such commodities as iron ore, coal, grain and other materials along worldwide shipping routes.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Matters discussed in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements. The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides safe harbor protections for forward-looking statements in order to encourage companies to provide prospective information about their business. Forward-looking statements include statements concerning plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events or performance, and underlying assumptions and other statements, which are other than statements of historical facts.

The Company desires to take advantage of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and is including this cautionary statement in connection with this safe harbor legislation. The words believe, anticipate, intends, estimate, forecast, project, plan, potential, may, should, expect, pending and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements.

The forward-looking statements in this press release are based upon various assumptions, many of which are based, in turn, upon further assumptions, including without limitation, our managements examination of historical operating trends, data contained in our records and other data available from third parties. Although we believe that these assumptions were reasonable when made, because these assumptions are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and contingencies which are difficult or impossible to predict and are beyond our control, we cannot assure you that we will achieve or accomplish these expectations, beliefs or projections.

In addition to these important factors, other important factors that, in our view, could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements include the strength of world economies and currencies, general market conditions, including fluctuations in charter rates and vessel values, changes in demand for dry bulk shipping capacity, changes in our operating expenses, including bunker prices, drydocking and insurance costs, the market for our vessels, availability of financing and refinancing, changes in governmental rules and regulations or actions taken by regulatory authorities, potential liability from pending or future litigation, general domestic and international political conditions, potential disruption of shipping routes due to accidents or political events, vessel breakdowns and instances of off-hires and other factors. Please see our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a more complete discussion of these and other risks and uncertainties.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., Dec. 09, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Santa Fe Gold Corporation (OTC:SFEG), a U.S.-based mining and exploration enterprise with emphasis on Gold, Silver, Copper and industrial metals and owner of multiple claims, including the Malone Mines Complex incorporating 20 associated mine sites and in addition, the Playas Lake Bed area of Hidalgo County, New Mexico is pleased to retain International Monetary ("IM") as its Investment Banking & Strategic Advisory firm to provide capital resources, structure financing, proprietary investor relations services (IR), advice on maximizing growth and valuation, M&A advisory and counsel to the company's management on other strategic decisions.



"International Monetary ("IM") has a highly comprehensive direct connection to the investment community which will help us quickly move forward with our strategy," said Tom Laws, CEO of Santa Fe Gold. "Their vast experience and extensive reach will aid in our overall market support and depth, which is where we have needed additional exposure to Wall Street and the right kind of mining focused investors, overall marketplace and professional help and guidance in the past."

Tom Laws continued: "International Monetary is one of the premier investment banking and consulting firms in the United States, catering specifically to small capitalization public companies. With its team of accomplished professionals serving its corporate clients, IM has the broad experience and resources to quickly facilitate financing, deliver powerful investor awareness services, tactical advisory, and bring a substantial knowledgebase to the table for strategic decision making with strong emphasis on growth".

"We are delighted to be associated with this premier Investment Banking firm in this industry at this exciting time for Santa Fe."

MB Riley, Managing Director of IM, states, "Santa Fe Gold represents a compelling and dynamic growth opportunity in the emerging mining sector, positioning the Company for significant expansion. With all-time record gold investments in 2016 and a rapidly recovering precious and base metals industry, the target market broadens each day in the U.S. and around the world."

Newport Beach-based International Monetary will provide Santa Fe Gold with a complete suite of services ranging from the preparation of corporate documents to providing advice, guidance and dedicated assistance in maximizing shareholder value.

About International Monetary

Founded in 1997, IM recognized a need to provide Investment Banking Services with the kind of speed and precision that is needed in the new Internet world and high technology economy. IM focuses on turnaround situations and rapidly growing small companies with exceptional upside potential, specializing in debt/equity financing of under $1 Billion. IM is led by a team of Managing Directors that provide a number of strategic advisory services including: Equity/Debt capital resources, structuring financing for Mergers and Acquisitions, International Licensing, Commercialization, Retail/Wholesale Product/Service Distribution, Advertising & Marketing and Shareholder Enhancement Services are all part of our extensive range of services.

To find out more about International Monetary (IM) and the services we offer, please go to www.intlmonetary.com.

About Santa Fe Gold

Santa Fe Gold is a U.S.-based mining and exploration enterprise and owns the following mining assets: The Knights Peak region of Grant County, New Mexico comprising the Malone Mines, Patanka, Hillcrest Barranca and Principal Mines altogether incorporating some twenty mine sites and all located at Knights Peak together with an extensive expanded area surrounding the Malone Mines in the southern region of Burro Mountains, New Mexico. It also owns multiple claims in the Playas area of Hidalgo County, New Mexico. The company has also acquired considerable additional resources expected to be announced in due course.

The audit of the companys financials is in the final stages of completion and review and is expected to be announced soon.

Santa Fes Exploration and Development Team continues to analyze a number of attractive, economically viable opportunities and execute on the company's acquisition program that should enable resumption of mining and production operations soon.

For more information please visit www.santafegoldcorp.com.

Forward Looking Statements

Please refer to previous announcements for all disclosures re: Santa Fe Gold's acquisition of Malone Mines, available at website.
Lucapa Diamond chief executive Stephen Wetherall said Angola is literally littered with diamonds.

The company had been operating in the country for eight years on the Lulo project, which it owns together with Endiama and Rosas & Petalas.

Before you all rush off to Angola, bear in mind Lucapa uses some clever technology and processes to find its stones, specifically x-ray transmissive (XRT) technology, he was quoted as saying by Proactive Investors.

He claimed that Lulo was now delivering the highest dollars per carat prices in the world.

Over the last eight years we have evolved the resource on alluvial diamonds to such an extent that we have been able to deliver an alluvial diamond mine, which is now delivering the highest dollars per carat prices in the world in 2016, Wetherall said.

He also said that the company had advanced its kimberlite exploration programme, identifying significant targets that would help it in its primary goal, which was searching for the kimberlite source.



Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished




CN

Canadian Minister of Environment and Climate Change Catherine McKenna and Dr. Scott Streiner, chair of the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA), announced this week that a three-member review panel has been formed to review the proposed Milton Logistics Hub Project in Ontario.

The Canadian National Railway Company (CN) has proposed the construction and operation of the hub to facilitate the transfer of containers between trucks and railcars. The project would bring about a railway yard with more than 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) of track in Milton, Ontario.

Minister McKenna has selected Lesley Griffiths to chair the review panel, and Dr. Isobel Heathcote and William McMurray will serve as panel members. McMurray is a member of the CTA and has been tasked with deciding whether the proposed rail construction should be approved under section 98 of the Canada Transportation Act.

The Agreement to Establish a Joint Process for the Review of the Milton Logistics Hub Project, signed by Minister McKenna and Dr. Streiner, outlines the review panels mandate and authority and sets forth the procedures and timelines expected in the review process.

The agreement states that the panel will assess the projects environmental impacts, consider Aboriginal tradition, note public feedback and mitigation methods; analyze any possible adverse effects of the project and identify any relevant follow-up programs to be carried out.

The scope of the review will also call for information to be gathered to assist the CTA in assessing the reasonability of the new railway lines the location, acknowledging the requirements for the railway operations and the surrounding environments that could be affected by the lines.

CN says the new logistics hub would include raised earthen berms home to native Ontario vegetation and trees to minimize issues due to noise.

Representatives say the potential addition of the hub is seen as an opportunity for Milton to play a key role in the transport of goods locally and globally.

CN expects that bringing the Milton Logistics Hub to fruition would invest $250 million into the local community and create at least 1,000 jobs in the area. The company also projects effects such as the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions as a result of moving additional goods by train.
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority expressed concern after a newspaper said more than 20 current and former DBS Group Holdings Ltd. staff were arrested in a probe in the city connected with an alleged leak of customer data.

Apple Daily reported that the city's Independent Commission Against Corruption made the arrests after client data was allegedly leaked to a telemarketing center in mainland China.

The HKMA said that it would "follow up with the relevant bank". The Singapore-based DBS said that it cooperates with law enforcement agencies, including "informing authorities when we become aware of matters which require their attention."

Telemarketers contacted DBS clients to try to get them to borrow from the bank, with the employees and the call center splitting commissions, the newspaper reported, without citing a source for its information. Some employees were sales staff who were authorized to sell loan products in branches or on the street but not by cold calling, it said.

Some employees allegedly bribed department managers to get client data, including names and contact details, Apple Daily reported.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
The euro weakened against most major currencies in the Asian session on Friday, following the European Central Bank's decision to extend its monthly bond buying program till the end of December 2017, although at a slower pace of 60 billion euros a month.

In the policy session in Frankfurt on Thursday, the Governing Council said its asset purchase program is being extended longer than anticipated, although it will slow the pace of purchases. The ECB has decided to reduce its monthly asset purchases to 60 billion euros from April 2017, from the current 80 billion euros.

The bank also kept the refi rate unchanged at a record low of zero percent, the deposit rate at -0.40 percent, and the marginal lending facility rate at 0.25 percent. The rate decision was in line with economists' expectation.

Meanwhile, the Asian stock traded lower despite the record highs overnight on Wall Street following the European Central Bank's highly anticipated monetary policy announcement.

Thursday, the euro fell 1.30 percent against the U.S. dollar, 1.06 percent against the yen, 1.01 percent against the pound and 0.41 percent against the Swiss franc.

In the Asian trading, the euro fell to 4-day lows of 1.0589 against the U.S. dollar and 1.0777 against the Swiss franc, from yesterday's closing quotes of 1.0612 and 1.0787, respectively. If the euro extends its downtrend, it is likely to find support around 1.04 against the greenback and 1.06 against the franc.

Against the pound, the euro dropped to a 3-day low of 0.8418 from yesterday's closing value of 0.8428. The euro may test support near the 0.82 region.

The euro slid to a 4-day low of 1.4213 against the Australian dollar, from an early high of 1.4251. On the downside, 1.40 is seen as the next support level for the euro.

Against the New Zealand and the Canadian dollars, the euro slipped to more than a 1-1/2-year low of 1.4765 and nearly a 1-1/2-year low of 1.3987 from yesterday's closing quotes of 1.4789 and 1.3998, respectively. The euro is likely to find support around 1.46 against the kiwi and 1.38 against the loonie.

Looking ahead, Swiss unemployment rate for November and German trade data for October are due to be released in the pre-European session at 1:45 am ET and 2:00 am ET, respectively.

At 3:00 am ET, National Bank of Belgium Governor Jan Smets will give a keynote speech at a conference on future of retail banking, in Brussels.

U.K. trade data and construction output for October is slated for release at 4:30 am ET.

In the New York session, U.S. wholesale inventories data for October, U.S. University of Michigan's preliminary consumer sentiment index for December and U.S. Baker Hughes rig count data are set to be published.

At 8:00 am ET, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, European Parliament President Martin Schulz, Netherlands Finance Minister and Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem and other officials are schedlued to speak at the 25th anniversary of Maastricht Treaty, in Maastricht, Netherlands.

At 10:15 am ET, European Central Bank Executive Board Member Benoit Coeure is expected to participate in a panel discussion on "Policy Responses: Restoring Public Trust in Economic Reforms" at a conference on "Challenges to More Sustainable and Inclusive Growth in Europe", hosted by the Council of Europe Development Bank, in Paris.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
Indian shares rose on Friday after the European Central Bank prolonged its bond-buying program by nine months to support a recovery. Gains remained somewhat capped amid a fall in rupee from a nearly one-month high.

The rupee traded weak after eight consecutive sessions of gains as investors looked ahead to next week's Fed meeting for clues into the potential pace of rate hikes in 2017.

The benchmark BSE Sensex ended the session up 52.90 points or 0.20 percent at 26,747.18, a one-month high. The broader Nifty index finished 14.90 points or 0.18 percent higher at 8,261.75, closing above the 8,250-mark for the first time since November 11.

Banks led the gainers, with Bank of Baroda, ICICI Bank and SBI rising over 2 percent each. Auto stocks were among the laggards, with Hero MotoCorp,

Mahindra & Mahindra, Eicher Motor and Bajaj Auto losing 1-2 percent.

Sheela Foam shares closed at Rs. 1,032 on the first day of listing, up 41 percent over its initial public offering price of Rs. 730 a share.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
Alan Jackson announced that he will be embarking on his Honky Tonk Highway Tour of the United States in 2017. The country music star will be joined on the bill by Lee Ann Womack at select shows.

Jackson will kick off the tour on January 20 at the Paradise Cove in Tulsa, Oklahoma. From there the tour will head to Florida, Georgia, Nevada, California and more. The tour is set to wrap up on October 28 with a show at the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. However, more tour dates are expected to be announced in the coming weeks.

Jackson celebrated his twenty fifth year in the music with his Keepin' It Country Tour in 2016. He released his twentieth studio album, Angels and Alcohol, back in July of 2015.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Entertainment News
GOP strategist Karl Rove has criticized U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's comments on aircraft maker Boeing Co.'s (BA) contract for a new Air Force One plane, saying they were inaccurate and de-stabled the stock of a major company. Air Force One is the official air plane for the U.S. President.

"First of all, there's not a contract for $4 billion, there's a contract for $170 million. It's not to build one plane, actually the goal will ultimately be to build 3 planes," Rove told Bill Hemmer, co-host of Fox News' "America's Newsroom."

"But, and look, the impulse, we want to save the taxpayers money, that's admirable. But this was fire, ready, aim in my opinion," Rove, who was Senior Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff during the George W. Bush administration, added.

Trump has asked the U.S. government to cancel the order with Boeing for the new Air Force One as its costs were out of control.

"Boeing is building a brand new 747 Air Force One for future presidents, but costs are out of control, more than $4 billion. Cancel order!" Trump tweeted Tuesday morning.

The U.S. Air Force had signed deals with Boeing to design the new presidential aircraft, including its interior, electrical and power system, and maintenance systems.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office estimated the entire program to cost about $3.2 billion from the 2010 through 2020 fiscal years, including $2 billion for research and development.

However, Rove criticized Trump for his comments. He noted that the existing contract with Boeing is to drop the technical designs and specifications the Air Force, the Secret Service and the other elements of the government want in the new fleet of Air Force Ones.

According to Rove, Boeing has already lost money on the two planes it sold the U.S. government 29 years ago and will, in all likelihood, not make much money on the new fleet of three Air Force Ones contemplated.

Rove also urged Trump to make sure his words are accurate, saying that the President-elect de-stabled the stock of a major American company.

"That stock is held by millions of Americans, by pension funds, by university endowments, by charity endowments, by ordinary people who've invested in Boeing and he said something that was not accurate that had a negative impact on that stock, " Rove said.

Nevertheless, Trump will have the power to cancel the contract with Boeing for the new planes when he takes power as the U.S. President and Commander-in-chief in January.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., is expected to be President-elect Donald Trump's nominee as Secretary of the Interior, according to numerous media reports.

A source close to the Trump transition team told USA Today the timing of the announcement of Rodgers' selection has not been determined.

McMorris Rodgers currently serves as the chair of the House Republican Conference, making her the fourth highest-ranking Republican in the House and the highest-ranking GOP woman.

As head of the Interior Department, McMorris Rodgers would play a key role in Trump's plans to open up federal lands and waters to oil and gas development.

The nomination of McMorris Rodgers would further anger environmentalists after Trump's choice of anti-regulation climate change skeptic Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency.

In a statement, League of Conservation Voters President Gene Karpinski argued nominating McMorris Rodgers would put a massive "for sale" sign on public lands.

"In Congress, Rep. McMorris Rodgers has consistently voted to prioritize drilling on our public lands and waters, including in sensitive areas like the Arctic, and even to open up our public lands for sale to the highest bidder, said Karpinski.

"Not only that, she refuses to accept settled climate science, which is disturbing but hardly surprising given that Big Polluters have spent over $350,000 to keep her in office," he added, "She simply should not be put in charge of stewarding America's wildlife, national parks and other majestic landscapes."

If McMorris Rodgers becomes head of the Interior Department, it would also open a key position in the House Republican leadership and the GOP may feel pressure to elect another woman for the role.

(Photo: Gage Skidmore)

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
ROSELAND, N.J., Dec. 09, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Emisphere Technologies, Inc. (OTCBB:EMIS) announced today that it has reached agreement with MHR Fund Management LLC, and certain of its affiliated funds ("MHR") to waive certain of the terms of the Company's existing obligations under the loan facility and various promissory notes previously issued to MHR, and the royalty agreement (Royalty Agreement) which provides for payments to MHR based on sales of the Companys Eligen B12 product, in addition to revising the royalty payment terms of the Companys existing GLP-1 (Semaglutide) Development and License Agreement (GLP-1 Agreement) with Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO).



Reduction in Principal Loan Amount. MHR agreed to revise the terms of the loan facility to provide for a permanent reduction of $7 million to the outstanding principal amount owed to MHR. This reduction will become effective upon the first commercial sale of a product under the GLP-1 Agreement.

Suspension of cash sweep and permanent waiver of existing $7M obligation to MHR. The cash proceeds sweep provided for in both the loan facility and certain of the promissory notes has been suspended until October 2018, except in certain circumstances where proceeds subject to the sweep exceed $5 million in any twelve month period. In addition, MHR agreed to irrevocably waive the application of the cash proceeds sweep that would have required payment to MHR of approximately $7 million resulting from proceeds received by the Company from Novo Nordisk in 2015.

Waiver of royalty payments and Eligen B12 sales milestone obligations. MHR further agreed to waive its right to payments owed to it under the Royalty Agreement in respect of net sales of Eligen B12 during the 2015 fiscal year, and any event of default under the loan facility or certain promissory notes resulting from the Companys failure to timely satisfy future Eligen B12 sales milestones, as specified therein.

Novo Nordisk Royalty Payment to MHR. The payment terms of the GLP-1 Agreement were revised to provide for payment by Novo Nordisk directly to MHR of a portion of any royalties payable to the Company under the terms of the GLP-1 Agreement equal to .5% of net sales for any licensed product subject to the GLP-1 Agreement.

We are most enthusiastic to have the continued financial support and latitude extended by the new debt restructuring agreement with MHR. The management team highly values their firm vote of confidence in Emispheres prospective business plan, the potential of Oral GLP-1, and the solid runway to realize the promise of additional future growth initiatives, said Alan L. Rubino, Chief Executive Officer and President of Emisphere.

ABOUT ELIGEN TECHNOLOGY

Emisphere's broad-based drug delivery technology platform, known as the Eligen Technology, uses proprietary, synthetic chemical compounds, known as Emisphere delivery agents, or carriers. Emisphere's Eligen Technology makes it possible to deliver a therapeutic molecule without altering its chemical form or biological integrity.

ABOUT EMISPHERE

Emisphere is a a pharmaceutical and drug delivery company. The Company launched its first prescription product, oral Eligen B12, in the U.S. in March 2015 and is currently engaged in strategic discussions to optimize its economic value in the U.S. and global markets. Beyond Eligen B12, the Company utilizes its proprietary Eligen Technology to create new oral formulations of therapeutic agents. Emisphere is currently partnered with global pharmaceutical companies for the development of new orally delivered therapeutics and also pursuing licensing opportunities for its oral Eligen B12 asset. For more information, please visit www.emisphere.com.

EMISPHERE SAFE HARBOR STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

The statements in this release or oral statements made by representatives of Emisphere relating to matters that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, the sufficiency of the Company's cash position, the Company's ability to enter into strategic partnerships, the Company's ability to capture market share for oral Eligen B12 or any potential products, the success of the Company's commercialization initiatives, the Company's ability to enter into and maintain strategic partnerships, the Company's ability and/or that of its partners to develop, manufacture and commercialize products using Emisphere's drug delivery technology, and other risks and uncertainties detailed in Emisphere's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including those factors discussed under the caption "Risk Factors" identified in the documents Emisphere has filed, or will file, with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"). There can be no assurance that any of the development or sales milestones in the Development and License Agreement will be met or that such milestone payments will be received or that Novo Nordisk will be able to successfully commercialize any of the product candidates. Copies of Emisphere's filings with the SEC may be obtained from the SEC Internet site at http://www.sec.gov. Emisphere expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change in Emisphere's expectations with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions, or circumstances on which any such statements are based.








WASHINGTON, Dec. 09, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Israel Project today released the following statement:

"The Israel Project today congratulated the Ohio State legislature for passing a bill designed to prevent taxpayer dollars from flowing to entities involved in Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel. The legislation passed the House by a margin of 81 to 13 and the Senate by a margin of 26 to 5.



"BDS is an anti-Semitic initiative designed to delegitimize and isolate the only Jewish state in the world. While atrocities and human rights violations are committed by governments across the world on a daily basis, Israel, a liberal democracy with universal rights, is the only country singled out by this prejudiced campaign.

"The passage of todays legislation ensures that the state of Ohio will not stand idly by while such hatred is propagated, nor will it contribute funds to the continued demonization of the only democracy in the Middle East.

"In addition to prohibiting state participation the negative campaign of BDS, Ohio proactively and positively declared its support for Israel with the passing of an amendment that allows for an increase in the amount of foreign bonds, including Israel Bonds, in which the state and county treasurers can invest. The lead sponsors of the amendment were Rep. Robert Sprague and Rep. Steve Slesnick, and it was passed with the blessing and key tactical support of Treasurer Mandel.

'BDS is deceitful; it pretends to be a campaign for human rights, but this is an unequivocal lie. It is nothing but anti-Semitism, and I am thankful that the lawmakers in Ohio saw it for what it is, said The Israel Project CEO Josh Block. This is an important moment for the people of Ohio, and I applaud them for standing in solidarity against discrimination.

"The bill was sponsored by Rep. Kirk Schuring. Gov. Kasich (R) is expected to sign the bill into law in the coming days."

Ohio is the latest of more than a dozen states to enact such a law, following the passage of similar legislation in Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and South Carolina and the signing of an executive order in New York.

About The Israel Project

The Israel Project (TIP) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan educational organization that provides factual information about Israel and the Middle East to the press, policymakers and the public. Founded in 2003, TIP works in multiple languages to provide real-time background information, images, maps, audio, video, graphics and direct access to newsmakers. To learn more about TIP, visit http://www.theisraelproject.org.
The Gujarat Assembly polls will be held in two phases on December 1 and 5, the Election Commission announced on Thursday here. ...


WESTBOROUGH, Mass., Dec. 09, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Zensar Technologies, a leading provider of digital solutions, software and infrastructure services, announced today it has been positioned by Gartner, Inc. in the Niche Players quadrant of the 2016 Magic Quadrant for Managed Mobility Services, Worldwide [G00294111] authored by Gartner analysts Katja Ruud, Leif-Olof Wallin and Eric Goodness.



According to Gartner, Managed mobility services (MMS) encompass the IT and business process services provided by external service providers (ESPs) required to plan, procure, provision, activate, manage and support mobile devices, mobile network services, related mobile management systems, mobile applications and application stores.

We believe being included in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Managed Mobility Services, Worldwide reinforces our commitment to new technologies and customer-centricity. At Zensar, our value-led customer-centricity enables our customers to embark on a successful transformation to becoming a next-gen digital workplace. Our portfolio of mobility and cloud solutions empowers clients to realize Return on Digital. As a company, we are well on our way to becoming a 100% digital enterprise ourselves. said Sandeep Kishore, CEO and Managing Director, Zensar Technologies

Pinaki Kar, President and Head, Infrastructure Management Services & Cloud Business, Zensar Technologies stated, We are proud to be recognized by Gartner for our Managed Mobility Services, which form a key component of our Digital Workplace portfolio. We feel our inclusion in this Magic Quadrant exemplifies Zensars consistent investment in managed mobility and digital workplace services as well as our commitment to bringing clients real time data to enable business innovation.

Ankit Ghosh, Senior Vice President, Global Head IMS & Cloud Practice, Zensar Technologies commented, Our customers are at the center of all our initiatives and solutions. We have integrated our experience across industries to design managed mobility solutions that provide visible outcomes. Our customers benefit from an increase in end-user productivity to make informed business decisions that drive growth.

Zensars Managed Mobility Services help leading global organizations develop and securely implement their mobility solution roadmaps as part of their digital transformation journey. Zensars Digital Workplace Services, powered by The Vinci Intelligent Managed Services Platform, provides 360 degree visibility into mobile end-user productivity, mobile application performance and overall mobile device health. Learn more at www.zensar.com.



Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Managed Mobility Services, Worldwide, 27 October 2016.

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

About Zensar (www.zensar.com)

Zensar is a leading digital solutions and technology services company that specializes in partnering with global organizations across industries on their Digital Transformation journey. A technology partner of choice, backed by a strong track-record of innovation; credible investment in digital solutions; assertion of commitment to clients' success, Zensars comprehensive range of digital and technology services and solutions enable its customers to achieve new thresholds of business performance. Zensar, with its experience in delivering excellence and superior client satisfaction through myriad technology solutions, is uniquely positioned to help them surpass challenges around running their existing business most efficiently, helping in their legacy transformation, and planning for business expansion and growth through innovative and digital ways.

Follow Zensar via:

Zensar Blog: http://www.zensar.com/blogs

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Zensar

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/zensar-technologies

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Zensar

About RPG Enterprises (www.rpggroup.com)

Mumbai headquartered RPG Enterprises is one of India's largest industrial conglomerates. With over 15 companies in its fold, the group has a strong presence across core business sectors such as Infrastructure, Tyre, IT and Specialty. Established in 1979, RPG is also one of Indias fastest growing business groups with a turnover in excess of USD 3.2 Billion, 20,000+ people and a global presence in over 100 countries.

Safe Harbor

Certain statements in this release concerning our future growth prospects are forward-looking statements which involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding fluctuations in earnings, our ability to manage growth, intense competition in IT services including those factors which may affect our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, time and cost overruns on fixed price, fixed time frame contracts, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our service contracts, withdrawal of governmental fiscal incentives, political instability, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, and unauthorized use of our intellectual property and general economic conditions affecting our industry. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the Company.
Thursday Morning Fatal Crash on Hwy 99W near Adair

The crash resulted in the death of a 40-year old Corvallis woman.



Fatal crash on Hwy 99W, possibly ice-related.

Photo: Benton County Sheriff



(BENTON COUNTY, Ore.) - Deputies from the Benton County Sheriff's Office are continuing to investigate a two-vehicle fatal motor vehicle crash involving a coupe and a pickup, about four miles north of Corvallis.

At about 8:15 a.m., on Thursday, December 8, 2016, 40-year old Laura Leong, from Corvallis, Oregon, was driving southbound on Highway 99W, south of NE Crane Lane, in a 2001 Toyota Corolla Coupe.

The highway was covered in a layer of ice.

The Toyota began to fishtail in the lane, crossing the center line, and collided with a northbound 2016 Dodge Ram 1500 pickup, driven by 59-year old Colin Gillin, also from Corvallis, Oregon.

The Toyota Corolla came to rest in the ditch on the east side of the roadway. The Dodge Ram came to rest on the east side of Highway 99W.

Medics from the Adair Village Fire Department arrived and pronounced Laura Leong deceased. Colin Gillin did not receive any injuries. The Benton County Major Traffic Collision Investigation Team arrived and processed the crash scene.

Deputies are continuing to investigate the crash and the public is asked to contact Detective Sergeant David Peterson at 541-766-6820 if they have any information.

ODOT provided detours and the highway was closed for about two and a half hours. Oregon State Police, Philomath Police Department and Corvallis Police Department assisted at the scene.

_________________________________________
MARINA DEL REY, CA, Dec. 09, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Buscar Company, Inc. (OTC: CGLD) announced today that on December 5, 2016, the Company executed an agreement to stud its mare Milania to War Front during the 2017 breeding season. Milania is currently pregnant and expected to give birth in January 2017. The Company expects to sell her offspring as a weanling at the 2017 November sale and stud her to War Front in February 2017.



War Front is North Americas #1 sire by Stake Winners and the Worlds #1 sire for 2-Year Olds Stake Winners. The True Nicks report on the mating between the two is an A++ rating which makes it an ideal pairing. War Fronts weanlings sold for an average of $580,000 in 2016 with his colt weanlings averaging $808,750. At the Keenland sale, War Front had 19 yearlings sell for an average of $633,947. Two of his progeny sold for more than $1 million and 14 sold for $500,000 or more. With the top prices of $1.9 million for a colt out of stakes winner Prize Catch (A.P. Indy) and $1.3 million for a colt out of multiple grade I winner Love and Pride (A.P. Indy).



About Buscar Company. The Company is engaged in the buying, selling and racing of thoroughbreds. The Companys focus is acquiring thoroughbreds that can race in the allowance and stakes level of thoroughbred racing; however, the Company will initially begin acquiring thoroughbreds in the claiming level of thoroughbred racing. More information can be found at www.buscarcompany.com.
DENVER, Dec. 09, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pax8, the leading value-added cloud distributor, today announced it was honored with two XCellence Awards for Best in Show and Best Booth Strategy during The Channel Companys 2016 NexGen Conference & Expo that took place this week in Anaheim, California. In winning these awards, which were voted on by NexGen attendees, Pax8 continues to demonstrate its success in enabling the next generation of solutions and technologies.



A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/81231439-6369-4503-a21d-93277df285c7

We are excited to win two amazing awards at NexGen Cloud for Best in Show and Best Booth Strategy, said Ryan Walsh, senior vice president of Partner Solutions at Pax8. Solution providers want a partner to help them understand how to transition their business to the cloud and build a successful, comprehensive, and profitable cloud practice. These awards are a testament to the accomplishments we are achieving as our partners Cloud Wingman.

The NexGen Cloud Conference & Expo is designed for the solution providers who are building business models around next-generation technologies. These early adopter, services-oriented partners are trailblazers looking to identify the cloud-based solutions which will drive new revenue and future profits.

Hosted annually by The Channel Company, the NexGen Cloud Conference & Expo was attended by technology solution providers, vendors, distributors, and CRN editors. Hundreds of attendees gathered at the conference to collaborate with trusted partners and learn strategies that will help their businesses transform into next-generation strategic service providers.

NexGen provides an opportunity for IT vendors to showcase innovation, build partnerships, and provide thought leadership about the next generation of technology, said Lisa MacKenzie, senior vice president of Events at The Channel Company. The NexGen XCellence Award winners exemplify what it means to be on the cutting-edge, dedicated to developing the technologies that will change the way we do business. We congratulate Pax8 for their innovation, and we look forward to their continued success.

To learn more about Pax8, please contact the cloud experts at (855) 884-PAX8, email info@pax8.com, or visit www.pax8.com.

To learn more about the NexGen Cloud Conference & Expo and the XCellence Awards, please visit www.nexgencloudcon.com.

About Pax8

Pax8 is the leading value-added cloud distributor offering top cloud products and solutions to the IT channel. The company is driving the business transition to the cloud through its comprehensive enablement and technology. The Pax8 cloud marketplace provides efficient and intelligent cloud product configuration so service providers can easily create and customize bundled solutions for their customers. To fuel partners success, Pax8 offers on-demand marketing programs, sales assistance and training, provisioning automation, and subscription billing. As the experts in cloud innovation, Pax8 is well-engineered to sell, assemble, and deliver quality cloud solutions to its worldwide channel of service providers. For more information, please visit www.pax8.com. Follow Pax8 on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

About The Channel Company

The Channel Company enables breakthrough IT channel performance with our dominant media, engaging events, expert consulting and education, and innovative marketing services and platforms. As the channel catalyst, we connect and empower technology suppliers, solution providers and end users. Backed by more than 30 years of unequaled channel experience, we draw from our deep knowledge to envision innovative new solutions for ever-evolving challenges in the technology marketplace. www.thechannelco.com.
The government is serious about ending family violence.

That was the message from Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi at the T.A.T.T.E Building yesterday during the national celebration of Human Rights Day.

The local commemoration of Human Rights coincided with the launch of the National Public Inquiry on Family Violence led by the Office of the Ombudsman, which is also the National Human Rights Institution of Samoa.

The Inquiry will be carried out by three commissioners including former Cabinet Minister, Tolofuaivalelei Falemoe Leiataua, Auckland University of Technologys Tagaloatele Dr. Peggy Fairbairn-Dunlop and the National University of Samoas Leasiolagi Dr. Malama Meleisea.

The public inquiry will take place throughout 2017 with the hope to stimulate a collective conversation and discussion at every level of our society on ways that will contribute to the fight in addressing the issue of family violence in Samoa. The Office of the Ombudsman under its human rights mandate can initiate a national public inquiry if the issue is a systemic or widespread violation of human rights, a media statement from the Ombudsmans Office says.

Media reports, research and statistics available on domestic violence show a common pattern that the issue of family violence is prevalent and widespread. Such violence is a human rights violation affecting our women, young girls and children.

As for the Human Rights Day, the local theme was Tulai nei ma faataua le aia tatau a ou matua, lau fanau, lau paaga ma lou uso. It translates: Arise to value the human right of your parents, your children, your partner and your brother.

Human Rights Day is the last event on the 16 days of activism calendar.

It commemorates the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, a milestone document in the history of human rights that declares to every human being rights and freedoms that are fundamental to his or her development and growth.

The theme resonates with the international theme stand up for someones rights today, places emphasis on the responsibility of the human person in exercising their rights and freedom to do so in ways that respects and takes account of the rights of others.

It encourages each and every one of us to make this world a better and peaceful place for our generations to come by standing up for one another, respecting one another, love one another and help one another.
The Alzheimers drug solanezumab has some effect on the disease after all, a top expert on the disease said at an international conference held in San Diego.

Solanezumab failed to demonstrate statistically significant evidence of clinical efficacy according to recent results from a trial, known as Expedition 3. That trial primarily measured solanezumab on its ability to slow cognitive decline in patients with mild Alzheimers disease.

A Thursday evening panel at the Clinical Trials on Alzheimers Disease conference discussed secondary results released at the conference. When these more complete results are considered along with previous trials, theres evidence of a modest benefit, said Dr. Paul Aisen of the University of Southern California.

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That benefit ranges from about 7 percent to 15 percent in delaying progression, as measured by cognitive tests and other indicators, said Aisen, who heads USCs San Diego-based Alzheimers Therapeutic Research Institute. That means the drug exerts a detectable effect on the course of the disease, but not enough for those who already show symptoms.

None of the panel members, Aisen included, described the Expedition 3 results on their own as positive. These and the previous results spell the end for solanezumab trials in those actually diagnosed with Alzheimers.

Were very disappointed that we didnt reach our primary endpoint, said Dr. Eric Siemers of Eli Lilly & Co., the company testing solanezumab. We didnt expect solanezumab to be a cure for this disease, but hoped it would slow it down. Its been a rough time. Theres been a lot of thinking about the patients.

As a result of the trial, Lilly has dropped its years-long and expensive effort to test the drug in those with Alzheimers.

One final hope

But the door isnt totally closed on solanezumab, Aisen said. While not rising to the level of significance needed to approve a drug, the total results of this and previous trials give hope that another solanezumab trial in progress may show better efficacy.

This trial, known as the A4 study, measures solanezumabs effects on those who appear to be at risk of Alzheimers, but do not show symptoms. The hypothesis, which Aisen has backed for years, is that by the time symptoms show up, the disease has already caused damage that may be irreversible. So giving solanezumab before mental deterioration is detectable may prevent this damage.

The fate of solanezumab is tied up with the hypothesis that Alzheimers is caused in large part by toxic tangles of a protein called beta amyloid. These accumulate and slowly poison brain cells so they sicken and die. Solanezumab targets this mechanism.

However, the amyloid hypothesis has been tested numerous times with beta amyloid-targeting drugs, and none have passed clinical trials.

Critics of the hypothesis, such as medicinal chemist Derek Lowe, say its time to drop amyloid drugs and look for other ways to attack Alzheimers.

Trials are underway for drugs that target another toxic protein, called tau, also thought to be involved in Alzheimers. The two hypotheses are not mutually exclusive.

Time for alternatives?

In San Diego, scientists led by Salk Institute researcher Dave Schubert have helped develop a compound based on curcumin, found in curry, that in animal models showed improved cognition. The compound, J147, also unexpectedly alleviated general symptoms of aging, the greatest risk factor for Alzheimers.

Panelist Maria Carrillo, chief scientific officer of the Alzheimers Association, said that while amyloid-targeting drugs should continue to be pursued, drugs based on other hypotheses about the disease should also be developed.

These results also stress the urgency for pushing forward even harder, Carrillo said. This is not a time to slow down. This is a time to speed up and ramp up our efforts.

Aisen said solanezumabs mechanism of action may prevent it from helping those who already manifest the disease.

The injected monoclonal antibody drug prevents buildup of beta amyloid plaques but doesnt remove those already present. So testing it in asymptomatic subjects is a better test of its efficacy.

One antibody is not the same as another antibody, Aisen said. Solanezumab ignores plaques. It targets the middle of the (protein component) peptide, and that means it binds to soluble monomeric a beta (beta amyloid).

Moreover, other amyloid-targeting drugs now in clinical trials work by a different mechanism of action than solanezumab, and those trials could well be successful, Aisen said.

I believe its supportive of the amyloid hypothesis, Aisen said. Were this an anti-fibrillar antibody, such as gantenerumab or aducanumab, then I would have expected a close relationship between plaque reduction and a cognitive clinical endpoint.

bradley.fikes@sduniontribune.com

(619) 293-1020
A top brain researcher has joined Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, bringing with him groundbreaking work on the genetics of Alzheimers disease and a team of 25 researchers.

Dr. Jerold Chun will start at Sanford Burnham Prebys on Dec. 15. He comes from The Scripps Research Institute, where he has been a professor since 2003. Chun will be professor and senior vice president of SBPs neuroscience drug discovery operations.

Chun specializes in mosaicism, the genetic differences in cells in the body, once assumed to be mostly genetically identical. A 2015 study led by Chun found that neurons in brains of Alzheimers patients had significantly more genetic variation than normal brains, including extra copies of a gene linked to the disease.

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The hire is a coup for SBP, said Dr. Paul Aisen, another Alzheimers expert in San Diego.

Hes a tremendous basic neuroscientist whos had enormous discoveries that are advancing the field, said Aisen, who heads the University of Southern Californias Alzheimers Therapeutic Research Institute in San Diego.

I think the genetic mosaicism that he has uncovered is very interesting and potentially very important for our understanding of disease and the development of treatments, Aisen said. He was interviewed at the Clinical Trials for Alzheimers Disease conference in downtown San Diego, which he helped organize.

Researcher Jerold Chun joins Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute.

Mary Ball, president and CEO of Alzheimers San Diego, said Chun will be able to give widespread support for developing drugs for Alzheimers.

I think Jerold is going to be able to further his research, and hes going to be able to further other peoples research into a drug, Ball said.

No drug on the market affects the diseases underlying course, at best, drugs may temporarily slow the mental deterioration thats a disease hallmark.

Someone of Chuns stature could have gone just about anywhere, she said, and its to San Diegos credit as an Alzheimers research center that he stayed here.

Conversely, Chuns departure takes a luminous biomedical star away from The Scripps Research Institute. It has a few other notable losses in recent years, such as the 2012 recruitment of star chemist K.C. Nicolaou by Rice University in Houston, and 2011s loss of Nobel laureate Bruce Beutler to UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.

Beutlers loss was especially poignant because he is the son of Ernest Beutler, a noted TSRI hematologist. The elder Beutler died in 2008  not surviving to see his son share the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

However, Scripps retains two Nobelists, Kurt Wuthrich and K. Barry Sharpless, and others considered to be potential winners, including TSRI President Peter Schultz. Other stars include chemist Phil Baran, chemical biologist Floyd Romesberg and structural biologist Erica Ollmann Saphire.

TSRI praised Chuns contributions.

Jerold Chuns work at TSRI has helped to characterize the basis for a number of neurodegenerative diseases  and to develop potential treatments, said James Williamson, TSRIs dean of graduate and postdoctoral studies and vice president for academic affairs.

TSRI is proud of its ability to attract talented faculty and best-in-class researchers, like Dr. Chun. It is no surprise to us that other institutions would want to recruit from our ranks, Williamson said.

As part of our commitment to renewing faculty on an ongoing basis, we recently initiated a bicoastal search for two new faculty members, and we are actively recruiting for a junior faculty member in La Jolla  this is a high priority for the Institute.

New challenge

Chun said he has enjoyed working at TSRI, a global powerhouse in basic scientific research. However, he was drawn by SBPs emphasis on translating research findings into clinical treatments.

Chun said he got received a significant budget from SBP, enough to support his team of 25 scientists, but declined to give a dollar amount.

In addition, Chun, 57, said he had reached an age where he wanted to move to a different stage of his scientific career. With their last child to leave home for college, Chun and his wife are now empty nesters, looking for new opportunities.

SBP had been interested in Chun for some time, he said. He had been contacted by a headhunter for an unidentified biomedical institute, and as his usual practice, didnt respond.

Then this summer, Chun attended a meeting on Alzheimers in the office of Kevin Faulconer, San Diegos mayor.

I ran into Perry Nisen, the CEO of Sanford Burnham, Chun said. We started chatting, and realized that yes, that headhunter had been sent out by him. So we began some informal discussions, and one thing led to another. It made sense to make this move.

One of the key items was the opportunity to really help to guide some of the therapeutic problems for neuroscience-related drug discovery, he said.

Perry Nisen, of course, came from (major drug company) GlaxoSmithKline. His vision is to ramp up the research process to translate discoveries, and Im 100 percent of that same view.

SBP welcomed Chun in a statement.

He brings a distinguished academic record and proven ability to lead world-class neuroscience drug discovery efforts to our Institute, Dr. Kristiina Vuori, president of SBP, said in the statement.

We look forward to supporting and working with Dr. Chun on his quest to create innovative solutions for the many unmet needs of patients with neurological disorders.

Many roles

Chuns research has revealed a number of roles for genetic mosaicism, not only in disease but in health.

The 2015 study found that Alzheimers patients have brains with significantly more copies of fragments from chromosome 21. The fragments carry the gene for APP, or amyloid precursor protein, which has been linked to Alzheimers.

This discovery also sheds light on the condition of those with Down syndrome, which causes mild to severe mental retardation and health problems of varying severity. Those with Down syndrome carry an extra copy of chromosome 21, or part of one. Nearly all develop Alzheimers if they live long enough.

The discoveries started in 2001, when Chun reported that developing brain cells normally produce different genomes via aneuploidy  the gain and/or loss of chromosomes.

In 2005 Chun and colleagues reported that normal human brains exhibit chromosome 21 mosaicism, containing both more and fewer than the normal two copies. About 4 percent of aneuploid brain cells had 1 or 3 copies of the chromosome, a smaller number had four copies.

In 2010 Chun and colleagues reported finding an even more widespread change in the genome of brain cells they dubbed DNA content variation or DCV.

Besides Alzheimers, Chuns work has implications for other neurological diseases, including Parkinsons, multiple sclerosis, and depression.

Chun received his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees at Stanford University. He then worked as a postdoctoral fellow at MITs Whitehead Institute under National Medal of Science winner Rudolf Jaenisch and David Baltimore, a Nobel Prize winner.

bradley.fikes@sduniontribune.com

(619) 293-1020
Big changes are in store for an outdated shopping center on El Camino Real in Oceanside that was once home to a movie theater and several popular restaurants.

Milan Capital Management, the owners of the Camino Town & Country shopping center just north of state Route 78, are planning to demolish about 84,000 square feet of commercial space and build four new buildings totaling 116,000 square feet of space, including an 83,000-square-foot grocery store.

Bret Bernard, the companys director of planning and development, declined to say what grocery store would occupy the building, but said some of the other tenants could include ZPizza and Urbane Cafe.

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This is going to replace a mostly very tired retail center, Bernard said.

The project, unanimously approved by the citys Planning Commission last week, involves the northern 13.7 acres of the 20-acre shopping center at the northwest corner of Vista Way and El Camino Real. The owners recently completed an upgrade of the southern portion of the center, which includes a Target store and two new buildings that feature popular stops like Starbucks and Habit Burger Grill.

The shopping center, including a former movie theater, was originally built in 1979, but competition from newer, larger cinemas forced the four-screen multiplex to close about 15 years ago. The closing took the life out of the center, said Oceanside Chamber of Commerce CEO David Nydegger.

Much of the northern half of the property, where the renovation is proposed, has been empty for years. It once housed an Anitas Mexican restaurant and Teris Cafe noodle house. Both of those businesses moved to new locations on the east side of El Camino Real. The Crossroads BBQ and music venue closed in 2013.

A 24 Hour Fitness gym moved to a new facility at the Carlsbad mall just south of state Route 78.

A Jo-Ann Fabrics and Crafts store housed in a building on the northwest corner of the property near Via Las Rosas will remain but will get some cosmetic improvements. It will remain open during construction, officials said.

Im excited for this, said Planning Commission Chairwoman Louise Balma, who noted that she frequently drives through the largely deserted property on her way to shop at Target.

Commissioner Curtis Busk, who said he often went to watch movies at the theater before it closed, asked which grocery store would open in the complex, but Bernard said he couldnt comment until negotiations are finalized. Some commissioners said they were worried that with the turmoil in the grocery-store business the new store may not survive for long.

I dont want a pretty, empty building, said Commissioner Claudia Troisi.

Bernard said that would not happen.

This is a new entry into the Southern California and San Diego County market, Bernard said. They are not Haggen (grocery store). They are not going away. I think you are going to enjoy them, and they are going to be there for many, many years.

Company officials added that it would not be another Walmart store and that it would be open 24 hours.

If all goes according to plan, Bernard said, demolition of the existing structures, including two circular buildings and several along El Camino Real, will begin soon and construction will follow by the end of June. More parking for a total of 1,242 spaces, drought tolerant landscaping and walkways will be included in the project.

The project will also add about 7,500 square feet of space to the existing Target store.
STUART, Fla., Dec. 09, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CPSM, Inc. (OTCQB:SWMM) the Florida based pool & spa industry aggregator today released the voting results for their Annual Shareholders Meeting.



On December 8, CPSM, Inc held its annual general meeting of shareholders. At the meeting, five matters were considered and acted upon and 82,938,960 shares were eligible to vote. All five of the resolutions were adopted. The numbers of votes cast for and against, as well as the number of abstentions to each resolution, are set forth below. The percentages are representative of the total shares cast for each proposal.

Director Nominee Vote For %

For

Vote

Against %

Against

Abstain %

Abstain

Lawrence Calarco 76,397,750 99.9991 % 0 0.00 % 707 0.0009 % Loreen Calarco 76,396,313 99.9998 % 0 0.00 % 144 0.0002 % Charles Dargan 73,428,838 96.1130 % 0 0.00 % 2,969,619 3.8870 % Jeffrey Michel 74,147,758 97.0540 % 0 0.00 % 2,250,699 2.9460 % Vote to retain Hacker,

Johnson & Smith P.A.. 76,066,374 99.0416 % 0 0.00 % 736,100 0.9584 %

A quorum was obtained representing 92.60% of those shares eligible to vote.

CPSM, Inc. is a publicly held company serving the surging pool/spa maintenance, design, and construction industry.

Safe Harbor Statement: This news release contains forward-looking statements as defined by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include statements concerning plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events or performance, and underlying assumptions and other statements that are other than statements of historical facts. These statements are subject to uncertainties and risks including, but not limited to, product and service demand and acceptance, changes in technology, economic conditions, the impact of competition and pricing, government regulation, and other risks described in statements filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All such forward-looking statements whether written or oral, and whether made by or on behalf of the Company, are expressly qualified by the cautionary statements that may accompany the forward-looking statements. In addition, the Company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof
I wont bore you with the list of automobiles that has warped my sensibilities over the years, but its safe to say the effect was profound. Throughout my career, Ive written 16 books about muscle cars and supplied photography for an additional 45 books. Ive shot every style and era of automobiles in my 25 years as an automotive photographer-journalist  and I still get a huge thrill being around and shooting muscle cars.

A number of factors spelled the end of the uber-performance era in the early 70s. But as rolling sculpture, the muscle cars from the early 1970s

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have a visual presence few automobiles can match. Broad shoulders, vivid finishes and masterful use of brightwork are some of the reasons I love to photograph them. They ooze excitement and I try to convey that when capturing their energy with a camera.

When photographing muscle cars, I resist the pretty backgrounds, such as parks and upscale homes. These cars were automotive bullies, built for blue-collar budgets and testosterone-fueled bouts with velocity.

Its a wonder any of them, and us, survived. But survived we did, and now when I am tasked with shooting a muscle car, I try to inject that rough edged, raw power and attitude that these cars embraced. To get that stance I try to use a setting that reeks of greasy fingernails and burnt rubber. Industrial settings tend to have that look in spades, and the result just looks right. So does a long, empty stretch of road or an abandoned gas station or old speed shop. Even an alley has been pressed into duty, and as long as the light is good, the car can look like a star.

Match up the vehicle with the setting and the result will be greater than the sum of its parts. Or just pretend youre a youth in the Golden Age of Muscle, flogging yet another set of rear tires with a big-block V-8.

The Mecum Auction Co. has been a world leader in staging collector car, vintage and antique motorcycle and road art sales throughout the U.S. for 28 years. Averaging one auction a month, the family-run business, headquartered in Walworth, Wisconsin, offers more than 15,000 vehicles per year. Info: Mecum.com, (262) 275-5050 and #Mecum.
A new smart phone app to be tested in Solana Beach will allow residents to electronically monitor minute-by-minute water use at their homes.

The app will flag any sudden spike in water consumption, which could indicate a broken or burst pipe, or a slow but steady increase, which might mean a pinhole leak or a loose connection.

You could shut down your water through the phone if theres a big spike, Solana Beach Assistant City Manager Dan King said this week.

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The app will show real-time water use and allow the user to compare the data by days, months and years. It also could be programmed to automatically shut off all a clients water in an emergency, saving the ratepayer from a huge bill and possibly flood damage.

It also could help the city meet the conservation goals of its state-mandated climate action plan, King said.

If approved in January by the Solana Beach City Council, the grant money will be used by HydroSmart Technologies to develop the software and oversee a pilot project in about 10 homes and one or two public buildings, possibly including Solana Beach City Hall.

Each app user will receive detailed, by-the-minute details on their water consumption, King said. However, the city will only get more general, aggregate information about residential consumption.

The city was interested more for water conservation, King said. The technology they are using for this could also potentially be used for energy tracking with things like solar or other power sources.

Solana Beach is considering forming a Community Choice Aggregation, or CCA, which would allow residents to buy electricity from sources other than San Diego Gas & Electric Co. That would allow the city to rely on a higher percentage of renewable sources such as solar and wind power.

The money for the project is from one of two $80,000 grants awarded in November by the nonprofit San Diego Foundation as part of its Smart Cities and Water Solutions Program. The other grant went to the County Regional Airport Authority to pay for sensors to monitor water condensation captured from air conditioning units in buildings and jet bridges.

For so long water users have been consuming in water-data-darkness and defenseless against significant financial water losses and water damage, HydroSmart Technologies CEO Mario Larach said in a news release. Our Smart Monitoring Platform delivers a trifecta of security, conservation and knowledge.

Solana Beach gets its drinking water from the Santa Fe Irrigation District, which also supplies water to Rancho Santa Fe.

philip.diehl@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @phildiehl
After hearing rave reviews about Slovenia, a small country that formerly comprised the northern portion of Yugoslavia, my wife and I decided to head there during our Europe trip last summer and see for ourselves if it could live up to its glowing, must-see reputation. It didnt just meet our expectations; it exceeded them. In fact, I could live there  a statement Ive rarely made about the 78 countries Ive gotten to know.

Bordered by Italy, Austria, Hungary, Croatia and a small sliver of the Adriatic Sea, Slovenia offers enough sights and adventures to fill a visit for a week or two. With only 2 million people in a country half-covered by forests, Slovenia seldom felt crowded. Its compact size made it easy for us to drive our rental car in a couple of hours or less to destinations around the country, from the majestic Alps in the north to the vineyards in the southwest, the world-class caves in the south, and the many delightful, flower-clad villages in between. We found the drivers and roads to be equal or better than in the United States.

After a few weeks in Italy, we headed for Trieste, where a deluxe bus took us directly to Slovenias capital, Ljubjana (pronounced loo bee ahna). Our love affair with the country began when we asked an elderly, well-attired couple for directions to our hotel, and as we reached the entrance a few blocks later, we spotted them patiently waiting on the corner, making sure we hadnt gotten lost. Like so many Slovenians whom we met during our visit, these kind folks embodied the old Slovenian proverb: Politeness costs little but yields much.

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Ljubjanas subtle charm captivated us, and now, looking back on our two-month Europe adventure, Ive decided that its my favorite capital city. Oddly enough, it isnt bigger, prettier or older than anywhere else, but what it does offer is an attractive, clean, uncrowded, compact, safe and affordable place to relax and enjoy life. We spent two days in Ljubjanas historic center, enjoying its pedestrian-only, cobblestone streets lined with baroque buildings, Greek-style fountains, a prominent pink church, and its plant-lined canal bordered by outdoor cafes and crossed by a series of medieval bridges. Ljubjana Castle, perched atop a nearby hill, provided an expansive view of the city and surrounding countryside, though the newly refurbished castle lacked the allure of other vintage castles.

There is much to see and do in Slovenia, but here are some of the highlights we most enjoyed:

Lake Bled: This deep-blue, spring-fed lake is one of the most popular places in Slovenia. Its known for its tourist-friendly town of Bled and the postcard-perfect views of a medieval castle perched over one end of the lake and a baroque church nestled on a small island at the other end. We spent three days exploring Lake Bled and the surrounding countryside, and while we enjoyed Bled, the nearby hikes and countryside drives were even more enjoyable. My favorite day of our entire summer trip was when we drove from Bled to nearby Lake Bohinj via a back road that wound through the mountains and past charming villages with flower-draped houses tucked away in valleys whose grassy pastures were so green that the intensity almost hurt my eyes.

River gorge hike: Less than 3 miles from Bled, Vintgar Gorge is one of the most popular hikes in Slovenia, featuring a walkway fastened to the rocky hillside just a few feet above a fast flowing, turquoise-tinted river. It meanders through a deep gorge for one mile until ending up at a lovely 40-foot waterfall. We loved this extraordinary hike, but the key to our enjoyment was avoiding the immense summer crowds by arriving early (8 a.m.).

Russian road: Thank goodness we listened to our innkeepers advice and drove on the Kranjska Gora road over the 5,700-foot-high Vrsic Pass in the Julian Alps. This turned out to be one of the best drives in Slovenia because of the majestic mountain scenery and the fascinating history of the road, built in World War I by 10,000 Russian POWs. (Look for the historic Russian shrine they built near the pass to honor their comrades who died in avalanches while building the road).

Caves: Two of the finest caves in Europe are in southwest Slovenia: Postojna and Skocjan. If you like jaw-dropping caves whose size and formations defy imagination, then dont miss both of these behemoths.

WWI Museum: As we headed southwest from Bled, we happened upon a fascinating World War I museum in the town of Kobarid. It presented the dramatic story of the biggest mountain war in the history of mankind which unfolded on tops of the towering mountains surrounding the town.

While there is much more I could say about one of my favorite countries, Ill close by saying this: If you want to tour a country with genuinely friendly, mostly English-speaking people, and you like to hike, bike, kayak, ski, drink local wines or eat farm-to-table food, then Slovenia is the place for you. Meanwhile, well be considering our next home covered with bright red and white geraniums in the Slovenian countryside.

Hansen is a travel writer and photographer in Carlsbad; www.HansenTravel.org.

If you go

Currency: Euros; mostly cash is needed; credit cards are accepted much less than in the U.S.

Electricity: 220v but most U.S. devices work OK with a simple plug adapter.

When to go: Early May or mid-September to avoid summer crowds. Book accommodations in advance, especially in the summer.

Cellphones: Check to see if your phone is unlocked; we bought inexpensive SIM cards in several countries for GPS directions and phone calls.
The body of a Marine Corps pilot missing since Wednesday has been recovered off the coast of Japan.

The Japanese Ministry of Defense confirmed to local media Thursday that a Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force vessel found the deceased Capt. Jake Frederick, the pilot of a F/A-18C+ Hornet strike fighter that crashed in the Pacific Ocean the day before.

Frederick, 32, had ejected around 6:40 p.m. local time Wednesday about 120 miles southeast of the Iwakuni Marine Corps air station during what Pentagon officials say was regularly scheduled training.

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American and Japanese rescue crews expanded the search for him on Thursday.

Our deepest condolences go out to the family and friends of the pilot. The cause of the crash is still unknown, said Marine spokeswoman Capt. Sarah E. Burns in an emailed message to the media.

Originally from Corpus Christi, Texas, Frederick had been stationed in Beaufort, South Carolina, before deploying to the Japanese island of Okinawa as part of the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing.

He appeared in an official Marine Corps video made at Miramar air station in late 2013.

I think that the biggest challenge in flying the F-18s is just the speed the aircraft moves, he said. Youre covering over 8 miles per minute going that fast. You have to be thinking so far out in front of the jet. Not only are you flying the jet, but youre trying to operate the systems to accomplish the mission  which ultimately is supporting the Marines on the ground.

At the time, he was assigned to Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron 101, the Sharpshooters.

U.S. Rep. Blake Farenthold, R-Texas, said in a prepared statement that Fredericks tragic death was a reminder of the sacrifices that are given by those who work to keep our nation safe.

In this difficult time, our prayers are with the family of Capt. Frederick. As friends of the Frederick family for many years, I know Capt. Frederick served his country with honor and dignity, he wrote.

Fredericks parents reside in Corpus Christi. His brother, a Marine C-130 Hercules pilot, is a flight instructor based in Corpus Christi.

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cprine@sduniontribune.com
The big RV from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs lumbers up to the curb.

It has made the 75-mile trip from Orange County to spend another Friday morning with San Diegos homeless veterans, in whats believed to be a one-of-a-kind VA outreach effort in the nation.

The idea: Hit the streets. Go where the homeless are. Dont wait for them to find you.

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The stage is set. Now the characters arrive.

Bo Gonzales, a retired Marine Corps gunnery sergeant, is the master of ceremonies and the heart of this weekly road show. He organizes the donuts, the plastic urn of coffee, the box of donated clothes  all meant to attract the people his group wants to help.

Hey, buddy, you want some coffee? is one of Gonzales opening lines. Once the individual has a warm foam cup in hand, Gonzales continues. Are you a veteran? Do we have you logged in?

The veterans name and Social Security number are noted on Gonzales list.

Are you getting help from the VA? That question starts a sometimes long back-and-forth between him and the homeless veteran. Usually, both end up sitting in chairs around a folding table.

And thats the point of this pilot project, which has consumed thousands of gallons of gasoline and similar hours of staff time since it started three years ago.

1 / 19 Veteran outreach specialist Bo Gonzales Jr., left, takes down information as he talks to homeless Navy veteran Patrick OConnor while near the RV, background, that a group of veteran outreach workers use to go to where the homeless veterans are in Ocean Beach. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 2 / 19 Veteran outreach specialist Bo Gonzales Jr. maneuvers the RV, he and other outreach workers use to get to where the homeless veterans are, away from the curb as he prepares to drive the RV out of downtown San Diego. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 3 / 19 Veteran outreach workers Wisner DMeza, front, Shaon Rillon, left, and Bo Gonzales Jr., set up folding tables in front of an RV the outreach workers use to get to where the homeless veterans are in downtown San Diego. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 4 / 19 Navy veteran Anthony Scott, right, who is homeless, stands next to his cart as he talks to veteran outreach worker Wisner DMeza while next to the RV veteran outreach workers use to get to where the homeless veterans are in downtown San Diego. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 5 / 19 Navy veteran Anthony Scott, right, who is homeless, looks through boxes of free clothes offered by veteran outreach workers as Tami Spinks, who said her husband was a veteran, does the same in downtown San Diego. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 6 / 19 A homeless man pours powdered creamer into the free coffee offered by a group of veteran outreach workers while next to the RV they use to get to where homeless veterans are in downtown San Diego. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 7 / 19 Veteran outreach specialist Bo Gonzales Jr., right, talks to Navy veteran Derick Minor while in front of an RV that Gonzales and other outreach workers use to get to where the homeless veterans are in downtown San Diego. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 8 / 19 Janelle Johnson, left, a case manager at Veterans Village, and Whitney Willis, an intake coordinator for Veterans Community Services, talk to homeless Navy veteran Patrick OConnor while near the RV, background, that a group of veteran outreach workers use to go to where the homeless veterans are in Ocean Beach. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 9 / 19 Vietnam War veteran Richard Primmer, 64, a Marine vet who is homeless, sits on his belongings spread out on a sidewalk next to other homeless people on K Street in downtown San Diego. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 10 / 19 Veteran outreach specialist Bo Gonzales Jr., left, takes down information as he talks to homeless Navy veteran Patrick OConnor while near the RV, background, that a group of veteran outreach workers use to go to where the homeless veterans are in Ocean Beach. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 11 / 19 The RV that veteran outreach workers use to get to where homeless veterans are, is parked next to tents used by homeless people on K Street in downtown San Diego. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 12 / 19 Vietnam War veteran Richard Primmer, 64, a Marine vet who is homeless, stands near his belongings spread out on a sidewalk next to other homeless people after he talked to veteran outreach workers in downtown San Diego. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 13 / 19 Homeless Navy veteran Derick Minor lies on his blanket covered with his belongings while next to the belongings of Vietnam War veteran Richard Primmer, right, a Marine vet who is also homeless, on K Street in downtown San Diego. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 14 / 19 Navy veteran Derick Minor, left, and Vietnam War veteran Richard Primmer, a Marine vet who is homeless, bump fists after saying they would watch out for each other and their belongings, spread out on a sidewalk behind them, while on K Street in downtown San Diego. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 15 / 19 Veteran outreach specialist Bo Gonzales Jr. right, talks to Army veteran Christopher Roberts, 54, who is homeless, while next to the RV Gonzales and other outreach workers use to get to where homeless veterans are in downtown San Diego. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 16 / 19 Vietnam War veteran Richard Primmer, 64, right, a Marine vet who is homeless, talks to veteran outreach specialist Bo Gonzales Jr. in downtown San Diego. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 17 / 19 With tents used by homeless people in the background, Vietnam War veteran Richard Primmer, 64, right, a Marine vet who is homeless, shares a laugh with veteran outreach specialist Bo Gonzales Jr. while next to the RV Gonzales and other outreach workers use to get to where homeless veterans are in downtown San Diego. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 18 / 19 Joshua, 29, a Marine veteran who didnt want to give his last name, shakes hands with veteran outreach specialist Bo Gonzales Jr. right, after the two talked in downtown San Diego on Friday. Joshua, who has been deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan, is not homeless, but came to seek veteran services. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 19 / 19 With backpack on in preparation to leave, Army veteran Christopher Roberts, 54, who is homeless, drops his right hand after saluting veteran outreach specialist Bo Gonzales Jr. while next to the RV Gonzales and other outreach workers use to get to where homeless veterans are in downtown San Diego. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune)

One, the RV is a billboard, its a visual aide. When people see it, its obviously for veterans, says Gonzales, 46. Two, its to bring non-VA agencies aboard with us and take our services to the veteran population.

The VA has 70 mobile units assigned to its 300 peer-to-peer counseling Vet Centers nationwide. The rigs were intended to service rural towns. In Southern California, they usually go to events like resource fairs.

One of Gonzales co-workers at the San Marcos Vet Center had the brainstorm to hit the streets, in the middle of the VAs national campaign to end homelessness among veterans.

When it comes to homeless outreach, we are the only ones so far utilizing the mobile vet center as dual purpose, Gonzales said.

Hopefully, one day, when we have enough substance, we will be able to forward it up to the big VA and use it as a model.

This fledgling, grassroots effort may or may not take hold nationally, but the whole spectrum of efforts to end homelessness among veterans  federal, state and local  has led to a significant dent in the problem, with San Diego reporting a nearly one-third decline and cities like Houston and New Orleans declaring victory in achieving functional zero.

Nationally, more than 78,000 housing vouchers have been issued to struggling veterans through the VA and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Still, Gonzales marshals his weekly troupe of social workers.

Theres Janelle Johnson, 25, an outreach specialist from Veterans Village of San Diego. With her clipboard, she is here to find homeless veterans who meet the requirements for her housing program.

The program  Supportive Services for Veteran Families, based on grants from the VA  provides a deposit and first months rent.

Johnson is a little bit saleswoman, a little bit gatekeeper. She needs to show she is reaching veterans, but not everyone she meets on these Fridays is eligible.

I engage people and say, Whats your living situation? Are you interested in getting off the street? Are you interested in treatment? Johnson explains.

If they say yes, Ill engage them a little more about how they ended up in this situation. If they are interested, Ill complete an application for them.

About one in 10 of the vets she meets on Fridays might be a good fit.

We could help all 10, but it just depends at what level. Am I going to be helping with what I do  full-time housing  for 10 out of 10? Maybe not. But are we going to be able to direct them to something where they can change the situation a little bit from what they are currently in? Ten out of 10.

Mario Chiarolanzio, 31, drives the RV down from Orange County, where he works at the Mission Viejo Vet Center.

The RV is also a character in this tableau. The big beast breaks down. The battery dies. Its hard to park.

She barely fits in the lines on the freeway, Chiarolanzio says. But we make it happen. I had to get it towed last week.

Tattooed and burly, Chiarolanzio is a recent Army veteran. With him is his support dog, Bandit, a tiny pooch who wears a tough-guy doggie vest with patches and pouches.

My angle is to just break the ice. Get them to come talk to us. Find out if they are a veteran and find out what resources they are going to need, Chiarolanzio said.

We dont get a 100 percent hit ratio. Its the same in any mental-health profession, he said. But the more exposure we get, the more chance we are going to run into people who are ready to take that step.

He thinks hitting the road is worthwhile.

You are more convenient to the person to do the initial contact, he said. And usually thats the hardest part, the initial contact.

Representatives from other VA units and nonprofit groups filter in and out.

The VAs Veterans Benefits Administration dispatches a worker for RV shifts.

A VA health care worker used to deploy with them, but the rough-and-tumble atmosphere of the street wasnt a good fit for clinical work.

The team started out three years ago in downtown San Diegos East Village.

Its Ground Zero for the citys street population, the sidewalks packed with homeless encampments.

The RV parks near Park Boulevard, where new condominiums and office buildings are going up alongside people sleeping on the ground.

Reaching homeless vets here isnt as easy as you would think.

Gonzales goal is to log 15 to 20 veterans on his clipboard every Friday morning during the three hours that the outreach unit is deployed. But it doesnt always work out that way.

Since the program started, his troupe has connected with a modest total of 1,500 homeless veterans.

Many, many more homeless people walk by. But these folks arent veterans, or dont want to admit to it.

Or, theyve given up.

Just around the corner from the RV unit one Friday was Noel Taylor, a 31-year-old Army veteran who said hed been homeless only a month.

He came to San Diego from Long Beach to be near his children, following a dispute with his ex-wife.

Taylor claimed he wanted to stop living in a tent. But he wasnt interested in walking the single block to the RV team to seek services.

I dont know if youve talked to too many people, but they say they have help and, not to beat around the bush, theres not as much help as they say there is, said Taylor, who was skinny and still had the cropped hair of a serviceman.

Ive tried all the VA hospitals. Im an alumni of the Wounded Warrior Project. Ive tried all that. And my income is too high, or theres a waiting list, or I have to go to a detox program, he said, explaining that he gets a VA disability check each month for injuries sustained in uniform.

Its hard. Its not as easy as it seems, Taylor added, stating frankly that he drinks too much and is bad at handling his money.

There are some success stories.

Francisco Cardona, who was a dental assistant in the Navy, showed up at the RV unit one Friday this summer.

The 34-year-old was neatly dressed in a button-down shirt and khaki pants. But he had seen darker days.

Cardona was homeless in downtown San Diego for several months after he arrived to attend college here. There was some trouble with his bank account, and he ended up on the street.

He survived by eating at shelters until someone suggested that, as a veteran, he could go to the VA hospital in La Jolla. Cardona was admitted there for four months because, he said, he was experiencing anxiety.

Cardona spoke in a low, emotionless voice, and it seemed possible that he had continuing medical issues.

However, he managed to get into a housing program in Chula Vista through December. His goal was to attend Southwestern College in the fall.

His reason for coming back to the RV unit that Friday was to check the status of his request for his military records. He needed them to apply for the GI Bill. His buddy gave him a ride to the RVs location.

So far Im doing good now. My goal is to move out on my own and find a room for rent, Cardona said.

Data on veterans homelessness offers hope but a mixed picture.

In August, the Obama administration announced that the national count is 40,000 homeless veterans on any given night  more than half of whom reside in shelters.

Thats a nearly 50 percent drop from 2010, the first year of a 5-year VA campaign to house all veterans.

In San Diego, the homeless veterans total is 1,157, based on an annual count in January. Thats a nearly 30 percent decrease from 2011.

So the trends for veterans are positive. But the VAs goal of zero remains unattained  both nationally and in military-friendly San Diego.

Also, while the number of all homeless people in San Diego stayed steady in the 2016 count, the portion that are unsheltered  in other words, living on the streets  shot up by 20 percent.

In downtown San Diego, the RV team began to see the same faces of chronically homeless vets. Gonzales made the choice this summer to branch out.

They tried Balboa Park. Some of Gonzales outreach specialists even hiked the parks brushy hillsides. But they met few veterans.

The mobile outreach program was facing some jeopardy due to low numbers.

Next up: Ocean Beach, near the pier. The RV team had more luck there.

One person who found them there was Patrick OConnor, a 50-year-old Navy veteran who initially lived in San Diego after his discharge. He returned recently after losing a job on a horse ranch in the Southeast.

OConnor said he planned to move along to another state soon, but he had been living on Ocean Beachs streets for two months.

He sat down with the RV teams housing specialists. Afterward, OConnor said he was somewhat encouraged, though skeptical about whether this help was a good fit.

A lot of times, people who are living on the streets just need time to process whatever they are working through, he said.

In other words, the problem of ending veterans homelessness remains complicated.

For his part, Gonzales plans to continue collecting the donated boxes of Dunkin Donuts and Ryan Bros. coffee every Friday.

Visitors to the RV often load up their coffee cups with thick layers of sugar and creamer  it fills an empty stomach, when theres nothing else, VA workers explained.

Right now, were in a slump, Gonzales said one Friday in October.

Ive been told that homelessness is down, especially among veterans. But theres still a percentage out there; I still want to reach out, the retired Marine gunnery sergeant said.

Theyve just been pushed out, pushed away  east, west, north and south of downtown, he said. Im still trying to go out and find exactly where they are at.

***

MEMBERS OF VA HOMELESS OUTREACH RV TEAM

San Marcos Vet Center and Mission Viejo Vet Center: (877) WAR-VETS

Veterans Benefits Administration, San Diego regional office: (619) 400-5506

Veterans Village of San Diego: (619) 393-2000

Veterans Community Services: (619) 234-0239

PATH (People Assisting the Homeless): (619) 810-8600

Courage to Call: 2-1-1 or (858) 300-1211

jen.steele@sduniontribune.com

Facebook: U-T Military

Twitter: @jensteeley
The chief of the Fresno Police Department announced Friday that while his officers use of deadly force was within policy in the fatal shooting of an unarmed teen this summer, inappropriate tactics were used before a fourth shot was fired.

Dylan Noble had already been shot three times by Officer Raymond Camacho on June 25 and was lying on the ground, when Officer Robert Chavez fired the fourth shot from a shotgun at the 19-year-old, Police Chief Jerry Dyer said in a news conference on Friday. The chief said Chavez had 14 seconds to consider using other tactics before he fired his weapon.

I recognize that time and distance can become distorted during a stressful incident, Dyer said. However, it is my belief, after reviewing all of the evidence in this case, that 14 seconds provided sufficient time to the officer to consider and employ other potential alternatives which may have minimized the need for a fourth and final round to be fired.

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The chief said he has taken corrective actions against the officer, adding that he was prohibited by law from disclosing any details.

Still, Dyer asserted that Noble posed a threat to officers and the public who were in the area at the time. Even after Noble was shot three times, he still put his right hand under his shirt into his waistband, Dyer said.

He defended the officers response to Noble, saying that overall their use of deadly force was objectively reasonable based on what they knew at the time. Officers, he said, are making split-second decisions under tense, uncertain and rapidly evolving circumstances.

Although officers are not required to use less lethal force, Dyer said he holds his officer to a higher standard.

I have wrestled with this decision perhaps more than any decision I have wrestled with as a police chief, Dyer said. I wrestled with it because I know these police officers have an extremely difficult job to do in a very dangerous environment and when you look around our country today and the number of officers being shot and ambushed and killed, it made my decision even more difficult.

Dyer said he doesnt want to lose the publics trust as well as his officers support.

That is a very, very difficult balance for a police chief and when I render a decision like I did today, he said, I try to take everything into consideration and to be as fair and objective as I possibly can in doing the right thing for the right reason for this department and for this community and I believe that I have.

As a result of the deadly shooting, all Fresno police officers will undergo training on high-risk traffic stops, including how to safely approach a wounded suspect and on using alternative tactics. The department is also reviewing its procedure on deploying police dogs on possibly armed suspects.

All department-issued rifles and shotguns will be equipped with a sling, allowing officers to easily switch to a less lethal weapon, the chief said.

The announcement follows public outrage over the officers use of force and two lawsuits filed by Nobles parents. The shooting gained national attention and sparked protests.

Attorney Stuart Chandler, who represents Nobles mother in one of the lawsuits, said he tried to attend the news conference at the police headquarters, but he was not allowed to sit down and watch.

So Chandler stood outside police headquarters with a photograph poster of Noble and listened to a news conference on his cellphone.

If the killing is consistent with Fresno police policy, he said, then Fresno police needs to change.

Chandler said the department still has not turned over all body camera footage of the shooting. He criticized Dyer for defending the officers use of force and not taking a stronger position on the shooting.

Why dont you just say what happened here was wrong? Chandler asked.

He said Dyers comments about Noble reaching for his waistband are wrong. Noble was reaching for his wound, the attorney said.

Do these officers not have legs and feet that they cant walk up to Dylan and restrain him? he said. That is pathetic policy as far as I am concerned.

City attorneys have filed documents to move the suits to federal court.

The investigation into the shooting was sparked after officers encountered Nobles pickup truck while searching for an armed suspect. They signaled for Noble to stop, but the 19-year-old did not pull over. Police chased him to a Chevron gas station, where he stopped his truck.

Footage released in July from the officers body cameras shows the confrontation between Noble and officers at the gas station.

An officer is heard yelling: Turn off the truck. Get your hands out the window. Both hands out the window. Later, an officer screams: Let me see both your hands.  Get both your hands out.

Noble exited the truck and approached, then moved away from officers, who called for backup. Officers gave 30 commands, urging Noble to show his hands, lift his hands or lie down on the ground, the chief said. The young man ignored the officers orders and carried an object in his right hand. Noble yelled that he hated his life. Noble was shot twice and he fell to the ground.

Then Noble rolled onto his back and his right hand reached into his waistband, Dyer said. The sequence of events last about three seconds before Camacho fired a third round. Noble then moved his hand away from his body, the chief said.

Chavez fired the final shot at the same time Noble moved his right hand again, Dyer said.

Noble later died at a hospital. An autopsy and toxicology report later showed that Noble had a blood-alcohol content of 0.12  1.5 times the legal limit of 0.8  and traces of cocaine.

veronica.rocha@latimes.com

For breaking news in California, follow @VeronicaRochaLA on Twitter.

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UPDATE: On Dec. 9, San Diego State University professor J. Luke Wood tweeted that he had received a very sincere apology from California Department of Education representative Bill Ainsworth, and he expected to receive a follow-up call from California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Superintendent Tom Torlakson the following week.

On Officials at the state Department of Education are investigating a complaint from a San Diego State University professor who received an angry and vulgar e-mail from a department employee in response to a study released by researchers at the school.

Community College Equity Assessment Lab at SDSU released a report this week on housing and food insecurity faced by community college students. The labs research had found a third of community college students dont have stable housing and 12 percent face food insecurity.

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J. Luke Wood, co-director of the lab, sent the report to several people at the California Department of Education, including Thomas Pacheco in the departments charter schools division.

Pacheco sent Wood a three-word sentence that began with Go and ended with yourself. The second word was unprintable.

Wood said he was taken aback by the e-mail, but he wanted to give Pacheco the benefit of the doubt to see if there was an explanation.

Suspecting the vulgarity might have been the result of an auto-correct gone terribly wrong, Wood said he called Pacheco to ask what he meant in his response. Wood said Pacheco acknowledged he sent the e-mail, then accused Wood of spamming his e-mail account.

Wood said he tried to explain to Pacheco that he had only sent the one e-mail, which had a link to his study.

According to Wood, Pacheco complained that the report was not related to his duties. The Department of Educations directory shows Pachecos works involves locating charter schools and tracking data.

Wood said that as he tried to tell him that the report was relevant because it was about education, Pacheco began talking over him by saying in a child-like manner, Blah blah blah blah before hanging up.

Wood said he called California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Superintendent Tom Torlakson to complain, but as of Thursday had not heard back.

On Tuesday afternoon, the California Department of Education acknowledged the incident with a tweet that read: We are aware that a @CADeptEd employee has been allegedly sending out inappropriate emails. We are investigating & taking immediate action.

The tweet was re-tweeted 23 times and had several responses, including from someone who created the hashtag #pottymouthpacheco.

A call to Pacheco on Thursday went directly to voicemail.

gary.warth@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @GaryWarthUT

760-529-4939
Andy Puzder, who is expected to be President-elect Donald Trumps selection for secretary of labor, penned an op-ed for the Union-Tribune in 2013 that encouraged local Congressmen Darrell Issa and Duncan Hunter to push for compassionate immigration reform.

Puzder wrote that his role as the CEO of CKE Restaurants, which owns Carls Jr. and Hardees, gave him a business perspective on immigration issues.

I have firsthand knowledge of the vital role immigrants play in growing U.S. businesses, spurring innovation and creating jobs, Puzder said. Our broken immigration system hurts individual businesses, like ours, that create jobs and thrive on economic growth. While each side in this debate has legitimate points and sincerely held beliefs, my hope is that inaction, fear mongering and political posturing will give way to rational compromise.

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Puzder praised Issa and Hunter for their work to promote border security and E-verify, which allows employers to check the immigration status of potential employees. He then encouraged them to work for bipartisan-backed reform that would include a path to citizenship:

In California, the economic benefits of Congress passing comprehensive immigration reform are immense. A little more than a decade ago, the Golden State was the worlds fifth-largest economy. Today, weve declined to eighth-largest.

Immigration reform alone cannot resolve Californias economic woes, but preserving the status quo all but guarantees further decline.

Californias agricultural industry would greatly benefit from an easy and affordable temporary worker visa program. A Partnership for a New American Economy (PNAE) survey shows that for every H-2A worker visa, more than three additional jobs were created or preserved for U.S.-born workers.

The Dream Act would provide conditional permanent residency to certain immigrants who arrived in the United States as minors and graduate from U.S. high schools. A PNAE study estimates that the 550,000 people the Dream Act would affect in California could add nearly $98 billion to the states economy and create more than 384,000 jobs in the next 20 years.

A recent study by the National Venture Capital Association found that a third of venture-backed companies that went public since 2006 had at least one immigrant founder, including companies such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Zipcar and Tesla. The victorious conquests of tomorrow  whether were building new industries, creating revolutionary products, or erecting cities of the future  will be far more difficult if we fail to address immigration reform in a reasonable and compassionate manner.

We have every right to protect our borders, and any rational immigration policy has to address effective border control. But this shouldnt blind us to the immigration debates economic issues. There is a difference between our nations legitimate concerns with respect to terrorists, drug dealers and smugglers, on one hand, and, on the other, people who want work as farm laborers in California. Our policies should reflect the reality of those differences.

I encourage Congress to pass legislation that creates a path, perhaps an arduous one, to a form of legal status for undocumented immigrants. I do this for two reasons. First, as a nation, were never going to deport more than 10 million people with families, friends, jobs and homes in our communities. A policy requiring something that will never happen is a useless policy. Second, it recognizes that for years our government sent a mixed message to prospective immigrants by poorly enforcing our immigration laws. It was as if the government was holding up a stop sign with one hand while waving people in with the other. The last 30 years have demonstrated that, if there are jobs in America, people will come here for those jobs by any means available. Providing a rational and enforceable means for immigrants to do so legally benefits everyone.

kate.morrissey@sduniontribune.com, @bgirledukate
San Diego unveiled a proposal on Thursday to allow the citys 15 permitted medical marijuana dispensaries to also sell marijuana to recreational users when that becomes legal in California in January 2018.

San Diego is the only city in the county that has indicated it intends to allow the sale of recreational marijuana, which state voters approved Nov. 8 as Proposition 64.

Any new dispensary seeking to sell recreational marijuana would need to meet the same rigorous zoning and security regulations the city applied to permitted medical marijuana dispensaries.

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Those regulations prevent dispensaries from opening near housing, schools, churches, parks and other sensitive uses, while also requiring security guards, cameras and other safety measures.

But the proposal, which the Planning Commission is scheduled to discuss next Thursday, would make several small refinements to those regulations.

Customers would need to be 21 years old  a requirement under Proposition 64  to buy recreational marijuana, while medical marijuana would still be available to those 18 and up.

The regulations would be loosened by making the definition of a park more specific, eliminating open space and riparian areas that have stymied some medical marijuana dispensary applicants.

Sign regulations would be tightened to allow only alphabetic characters spelling the name of the business. This change is in response to dispensaries seeking to add graphics of marijuana plants or related images.

Dispensaries would also face a new requirement to remove graffiti within 24 hours and keep the area surrounding their businesses free of litter.

And the regulations would clarify that delivery of marijuana would only be legal from permitted dispensaries.

The revised regulations would also prohibit the cultivation of marijuana and the outdoor growing of residential marijuana, but cultivation in secured greenhouses would be allowed.

The revised regulations come after the citys medical marijuana dispensaries had lobbied for permission to begin selling recreational marijuana if state voters approved it. Eight of those 15 dispensaries have opened, with seven others at various stages of acquiring their occupancy permits.

While we havent completed a detailed review of this proposal, the citys highly restrictive zoning for medical cannabis dispensing has proven effective at protecting the quality of life in our neighborhoods, and using the existing restrictions as the model for these new regulations is a good starting point, said Phil Rath of the United Medical Marijuana Coalition. We look forward to engaging this process moving forward to ensure the regulations are clear, enforceable and allow our members to continue to operate peacefully in our respective communities.

San Diego voters approved a local tax on recreational marijuana Nov. 8, which city officials placed on the ballot in anticipation of the approval of Proposition 64 and the city subsequently agreeing to allow the sale of recreational marijuana.

Proposition 64 made it legal for individuals to use and grow marijuana for personal use on Nov. 9. But the sale and subsequent taxation of recreational marijuana will not go into effect until Jan. 1, 2018, because thats when state licenses needed to sell it will take effect.

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Landlords are worried, with the passage of Proposition 64 that legalized possession of recreational use of marijuana by adults 21, whether or not they can still prohibit pot among their tenants.

david.garrick@sduniontribune.com (619) 269-8906 Twitter:@UTDavidGarrick
Icelandic English

On 15 September 2016 Landsbankinn hf. announced the bank would offer to acquire shares from shareholders in accordance with a buy-back programme during three specified acquisition periods. The second period was from 31 October to 9 December 2016.

During the second acquisition period Landsbankinn acquired a total of 13.759.612 own shares at a share price of ISK 10.6123, for a total amount of ISK 146.021.130.

Neither Landsbankinn's CEO nor any managing directors of the bank sold their shares to the bank during the second repurchase period.

Prior to the second acquisition period Landsbankinn held 338.071.878 own shares and upon its conclusion owned 351.831.490, or the equivalent of 1.5% of the company's issued share capital.

Landsbankinn has acquired a total of 133.521.872 own shares under the buy-back programme, or the equivalent of 0.6% of issued share capital in the company, for a purchase price of ISK 1.391.141.455. Buy-backs under the programme will amount to a maximum of 480 million shares, or the equivalent of 2% of issued share capital.

Landsbankinn offers to acquire shares from shareholders during a third acquisition period, extending from 13 February 2017 up until and including 24 February 2017. Should the above-mentioned maximum be reached before the end of the programme, the programme will be terminated.

The implementation of this buy-back programme complies with Chapter VIII of the Act on Public Limited Companies, No 2/1995.
A man carjacked a delivery woman in City Heights Thursday and later abandoned her car in Valencia Park, police said.

The company the victim works for was unknown. She was delivering packages at time of the carjacking, police said.

The woman was outside her 2007 Honda Civic, looking at her barcode scanner, when the man ran up from behind and pushed her away about 3:30 p.m. The man got into the car, which was left running, and drove away, police said.

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The Civic was found abandoned in an alley off Imperial Avenue near 53rd Street. Police did not disclose if anything was stolen from the car.

The suspect was described as black, in his 30s and 5 feet 10 inches tall. He was wearing dark clothing and a Rasta cap.

Twitter: @D4VIDHernandez
Several homes in Clairemont were evacuated Friday morning after a body and suspicious devices were discovered at a booby-trapped house.

A bomb squad set off two controlled blasts that rendered the devices safe, then discovered the items contained no explosives, police and fire officials said.

San Diego police said they were investigating the case as a suicide.

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Sheriffs court services deputies found the body when they went to serve an eviction notice at the home on Palmyra Avenue shortly before 10 a.m., a sheriffs official said.

The deputies notified San Diego police a few minutes later. The Metro Arson Strike Team bomb squad also was called in to investigate a suspicious device, San Diego Fire-Rescue Department Capt. Joe Amador said.

Police said the home appeared booby-trapped. Officers blocked the street between Limerick and Northridge avenues and evacuated residents.

The bomb squad set off the blasts about 2 p.m.

Breaking News

619-293-1710

debbi.baker@sduniontribune.com

twitter.com/Debbi_Baker
A floating dry dock thats big enough to hold any warship other than an aircraft carrier arrived at BAE Systems in Barrio Logan on Thursday, expanding the shipyards ability to repair the growing number of Navy vessels homeported in San Diego.

The 950-foot-long dry dock is the largest in California and part of a $100 million upgrade at BAE, which has about 2,000 permanent and temporary employees who repair almost every type of surface vessel used by the Navy.

The company also has added a major crane and modernized its pier space to better handle ships, including the Zumwalt, the largest American destroyer ever built. The 600-foot Zumwalt arrived in San Diego for the first time on Thursday, and it will be stationed at San Diego Naval Base.

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There are 60 warships based in San Diego, a figure thats expected to rise to 79 because of the so-called Pacific pivot. The Navy is placing more ships here so it can respond more quickly to threats and problems in the Middle East and Asia. The services expansion is expected to greatly increase upkeep and repair work at BAE, General Dynamics-NASSCO and Continental Maritime, the three large shipyards in Barrio Logan.

Having this (new) dock here enables us to support the Navys initiative under pivot west, said Bob Koerber, general manager of the BAE shipyard in San Diego. These ships are going to have to be maintained. If you dont do it here, the ships would have to go someplace else for maintenance. That would mean that sailors and their families would have to be relocated for extended periods of time.

BAE has been faring well lately. In November, the shipyard was awarded a $193 million contract by the U.S. Defense Department to perform repairs and upgrades on the Zumwalt and the Michael Monsoor, an unfinished sister ship that also will be stationed in San Diego.

The first vessel to enter the new dry dock will be the New Orleans, a 684-foot amphibious transport dock slated to be hauled out early next year.

The process is simple. BAE slowly lowers part of the dock so it fills with water. A ship is then guided inside. The dock then rises as the water is pumped out, and the ship is left sitting in a dry work space.

The new dock was built by Beihai Shipbuilding Heavy Industry in Qingdao, China. Workers there cut 148-foot sections off the ends of the dock and placed them in the core of the vessel for ocean transit.

We wanted the dry dock to be the right size and length to withstand wave action, said John Vitzthum, manager of dry-dock operations for BAE.

An ocean-going tug towed the dry dock about 7,000 miles to San Diego, where four smaller tugs guided it to BAE on Thursday.

Its easy to see the importance of the ships that we see on the news, said Eric Wertheim, an analyst at the U.S. Naval Institute in Annapolis, Maryland. But the things that keep those ships operational  the shipyards  are what make it possible for us to have a truly world-class Navy.

gary.robbins@sduniontribune.com
Why cant we solve Californias devastating housing shortage?

Perhaps its because the proposed solutions  sprawling construction, denser construction, granny flats, affordable housing mandates, and regulation exemptions  are all built on the same flawed premise: that housing must exist solely on land. And Californias combination of strict regulation and anti-density NIMBYism makes it impossible to build enough housing on land to serve our population.

So, what if we build our housing future at sea?

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If you havent heard yet of seasteading  thats the ocean form of homesteading  you soon will.

Because where else does California have to go?

Floating cities are an ancient idea; Consider Platos dialogues on the lost city of Atlantis. And communities at sea are a durable cultural trope, from the Kevin Costner film Waterworld to the BioShock video games. In this season of joy, its worth noting that the worlds hardiest seasteader is Santa Claus himself, laboring tirelessly among the Arctic ice floes of the North Pole. Less mythically, a half-century ago, L. Ron Hubbard and other leaders of the Church of Scientology created the Sea Organization, or Sea Org, a training compound of ships that mostly stayed at sea, away from the prying eyes of the authorities.

More recently, seasteading has gained ground among libertarians, particularly those who drink from Silicon Valleys dream-inducing waters. For a time, techies contemplated how to build cities far out to sea, in international waters, so they could live by their own laws.

At the forefront now is the nonprofit Seasteading Institute, which envisions such communities enabling the next generation of pioneers to peacefully test new ideas for how to live together. In 2008, the institute received high-profile backing from PayPal founder Peter Thiel, who preached for ocean communities as an escape from politics in all its forms. More recently, the venture capitalist has publicly soured on the idea, and sought to escape political reality by backing Donald Trump.

In some sense, Thiels newfound skepticism is justified. Such experiments have yet to realize the vision of urban ocean realities  its costly and complicated to build a city on the sea. Among the Seasteading Institutes findings: the open ocean may be too rough to support a city, but protected coastal waters look promising.

For California, thats good news: We have 840 miles of coast. While seasteading may sound like science fiction, its no less Star Trekian than median housing prices that exceed seven figures in San Francisco, Marin and San Mateo counties, and approach $1 million for new homes in Orange County.

While previous visions of sea cities have incorporated futuristic aquafarms or novel modes of energy production, more modest cities  with the straightforward goal of providing housing for Californians  might be more viable. One might start with boats providing badly needed housing for the states homeless population. This idea recently got a boost when former San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos suggested turning the decommissioned USS Peleliu into a shelter for his citys homeless.

Of course, Californias many land-based regulators and environmentalists would quickly raise objections to people living in coastal waters. So its vital to sell the idea not merely as a response to housing (since the housing crisis demonstrably doesnt move Californians to action or reform) but as a farsighted answer to the two problems our states leaders care most about: climate change and the drought.

A proponent of seasteading recently suggested to me that offshore housing could provide a financing base to change the economics of desalination. Plans to turn ocean water into drinking water have long been considered costly and inefficient. But man-made islands with desalination plants financed with the proceeds from offshore housing sales on those same islands might change the economics; the reclaimed water could supply these sea cities, thus offering a live experiment for a more sustainable water future.

Seasteading also could mitigate climate change. Sea-based cities would provide a dry run  OK, a wet run  for the not-so-distant future, when rising sea levels inundate Californias greatest coastal cities, forcing millions of us to learn how to live on the ocean. In this way, cities on the sea would ease todays housing problems  while furthering our climate change leadership and preparations for a watery future.

Its hard to overstate how much the ocean can teach us. Theres a great Golden State story from 1965 that Ive always loved, about a California-born teenager named Robin Lee Graham who embarked on a five-year sailing voyage around the world, eventually publishing a book called Dove and becoming a celebrity.

At sea, Graham wrote, I learned how little a person needs, not how much.

Thats a lesson all of California could learn, if were willing to build a future just off the coast.

Mathews writes for Zocalo Public Square.
Its incredibly depressing that barely more than a decade after the utter disaster of Abu Ghraib, where disgusting images of torture at the hands of American troops shocked the world, America is once again debating whether it should resume torture.

In addition to being illegal and immoral, Americas experience with torture during the George W. Bush administration showed that torture was both ineffective and counterproductive. In response, both President Obama and Congress took steps to strengthen the pre-existing legal prohibitions on torture. Even former defenders of the Bush administrations record on torture are now rejecting a return to waterboarding and other torture techniques.

Even if President-elect Donald Trump wants to resume the use of torture  though he has expressed some doubts of doing so since the election  the United States cannot and will not return to torture.

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President-elect Trump made waves during the campaign with his calls for a return to waterboarding and a hell of a lot worse. His surprise election victory sparked a great deal of concern that a Trump administration would, at the very least, attempt to resume the worst practices of the Bush administration.

Those fears may have receded a bit after Trumps recent interview with retired Marines Gen. James Mattis about possibly becoming the next secretary of defense. Trump says he was surprised that Gen. Mattis told him that waterboarding was not effective and that interrogation based on rapport building was much better.

Its impossible to predict what Trump will want to do once he assumes the presidency, but at least there is a sign that he may be backing away from one of his most extreme campaign proposals.

Gen. Mattis view is backed up by the evidence of torture throughout history and, importantly, by Americas recent experience with it during the Bush administration. An exhaustive report released two years ago by Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on the Bush administrations detention and interrogation program concluded that the program was not an effective means of acquiring intelligence or gaining cooperation from detainees and that it damaged the United States standing in the world.

Furthermore, the Bush administrations use of torture also helped fuel terrorist recruitment. One former military intelligence officer who served in Iraq wrote, I learned in Iraq that the No. 1 reason foreign fighters flocked there were the abuses carried out at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Why anyone would want to resume a program that did not work and only helped our enemies is beyond me.

Torture has been illegal in the United States since 1948. The Bush administration got around this prohibition by putting forward extremely flawed legal justifications that waterboarding and other enhanced interrogation techniques were not actually torture.

In response to the experience of the Bush administration, President Obama explicitly banned those specific techniques by executive order on his first full day in office.

Congress followed up that ban with legislation that restricted the interrogation techniques that any U.S. government employee or contractor may use to those in the Army Field Manual on Interrogation. Congress also established a strict review process for any changes to the Field Manual to ensure that prohibited interrogation techniques are not snuck in through the back door.

In addition to these new legal constraints, other practical obstacles exist to reinstating the use of torture. Former Bush administration CIA Director Michael Hayden said about Trumps proposal to resume waterboarding, if you want somebody waterboarded, bring your own damn bucket. Hayden went on to say that multiple investigations, grand juries, presidential condemnations and congressional reviews will dissuade the CIA from returning to torture.

Even if the Trump administration gets the recent laws changed, any lawyer in a Trump Justice Department will have to address the legacy of the Bush program that clearly resulted in lasting psychological harm to the detainees.

According to Alex Whiting, a professor at Harvard Law School, that reality will make it much more difficult for future lawyers to sanction these techniques as not amounting to torture, and running afoul of the pre-existing prohibitions on torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.

No system of laws can entirely restrain an individual determined to break them. But the president-elect and anyone in his administration should know that if they do engage in waterboarding or other torture techniques, they will be in unequivocal violation of the law and will likely end up in jail. The United States should not and will not resume torture.

Gude is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. He wrote this for InsideSources.com. Twitter: @kengude
As many as 3 million California residents are in the country illegally, which means the state has an extraordinary stake in President-elect Donald Trumps declared intention to crack down on illegal immigration.

It also could be a test of how far California, or any state, can go in defying the federal government.

As the Legislature reconvened briefly Monday, its two top leaders, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon and Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon, and others pledged to implacably resist Trump  to fight in the streets, as Sen. Ricardo Lara, D-Los Angeles, put it during a heated debate.

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We must be defiant whenever justice, fairness and righteousness require, Rendon said. Californians do not need healing. We need to fight.

Theres no doubt that Californias illegal immigrants are a net benefit, especially economically. They provide vital workers for difficult jobs that few of us would willingly do and they pay taxes to support services that in many cases they cannot access due to their status.

While California has taken many steps to quasi-legalize the undocumented and may do more, the rhetoric now coming out of the Capitol in effect denies their illegality and wrongly implies that they are victims of repression when the U.S. government enforces immigration laws.

Sovereign nations have an inherent right to control their borders. Therefore, its ultimately up to Congress and the president to make much-needed changes in those laws, not a state government whose overheated rhetoric makes probably meaningful reform less likely to occur by alienating residents of other states.

For all of the hand-wringing among Democrats, it should be noted that when they controlled both houses of Congress and the presidency and exercised that power on other issues, such as enacting Obamacare, they did nothing about immigration.

Its also noteworthy that when the Obama administration was pursuing a very aggressive policy of identifying and deporting illegal immigrants  perhaps hoping that it would spur congressional action  Californias Democrats didnt react with the same aint-it-awful alacrity they now exhibit.

Finally, when adjacent Arizona was defying federal law and trying to impose stricter curbs on illegal immigration, it was roundly criticized by the same California politicians who now hope their state can somehow undermine whatever Trump intends to do.

At some point, its reminiscent of the period when Southern states resisted the U.S. Supreme Courts declaration that segregated schools were unconstitutional, or the sagebrush rebellion in some Western states.

Many are old enough to remember when President Dwight Eisenhower ordered troops to escort black children to high school in Little Rock, Ark., or when Alabama Gov. George Wallace pledged to stand in the schoolhouse door to resist federal authority.

Incoming legislators took an oath of allegiance to the U.S. Constitution on Monday, and that also means obedience of constitutionally valid federal laws, even those they detest.

Walters is a columnist with the Sacramento Bee.
Dating back to George Washington, the U.S. president has relied on his Cabinet members to oversee key departments and advise him on vital issues. As President-elect Trump proceeds to name his Cabinet, two members of President Nixons administration offer their perspective on what the country needs in his presidential appointees.

If President-elect Donald Trump wants to make America great again, the selection of those who surround him on his Cabinet and staff is where greatness is born or dies. The turbulent campaign was merely prologue  grandiose plans that now must be negotiated in the cold light of reality, hoping that with strong leadership our polarized nation can come together.

While we Americans elect one person to lead, we are really picking a basket of advisers, policy makers, thinkers and planners. They can be a team of rivals, as Abraham Lincoln chose, or they can be a squad of enablers, staffers whose only function was to tell the president what he wanted to hear. It is the most elementary mistake of power  in business or politics  to listen only to your court courtiers.

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We must not forget that much of the serious, day-to-day work by the Trump administration will be done by hundreds of key presidential appointees tasked to make each department function. These are the people who can make or break a president  the deputy secretaries, assistant secretaries, agency heads who will carry out the administrations plans. Many must make significant personal sacrifices to join the Federal government, by placing their careers aside and devoting less time to family life.

This is where the heavy lifting occurs. Long hours. Hard work. This is where experience and proven talent must dominate. As Donald Trump selects those who will surround him, he needs  America needs  people who will tell him when he is mistaken, people who will stick to their guns without fear of reprisal, and people who will put principle above politics. To his credit, the president-elect has said on many occasions during the campaign that he wants our government to be serving all the people to get things done. This will be no easy task and much depends on those down the line.

While all this pre-inaugural planning was unfolding, American lost an exceptional public servant  former Secretary of Defense Melvin R. Laird, who died last month. Mel was a dear friend and mentor to many, serving as President Nixons first secretary of defense in 1969.

The backdrop was eerily similar to what we face today: we were heavily engaged in conflicts in Vietnam with no clear end in sight; our streets were rife with civil riots; relations with Russia were deeply serious and characterized as a Cold War; our military resources were stressed but courageously carrying out the commander in chiefs orders; and the citizens of our country were deeply divided.

On a cross-country flight on Nixons jet, the president-elect vented his rage on Laird. Theres only one way to fix this; Im going to announce YOU for defense secretary!

The hell you are! Laird growled back. He had worked behind the scenes to see Nixon elected president, and was looking forward to continuing to support him as a member of Congress in his 10th term.

Laird, in the tradition of many Cabinet members, had to face giving up what he loved most, representing his beloved people of the state of Wisconsin and working with valued friends, in a bipartisan way, as a member of Congress. That tradition dates back to George Washington who, once freedom was won, had to strong-arm the gentry and some gentleman farmers into government service. They would rather have remained back home.

We were among the first appointees to the Laird transition team at the Pentagon following Nixons election as president in 1968. The task of recruiting the best was our highest priority.

There have always been those who sought to be in the presidents orbit, but far more common is the man or woman who already has a full life, and reluctantly accepts an appointment out of a sense of duty and respect for the office of president. Fortunately, we have seen some of those already accept the president-elects call to duty despite prior rivalries.

When confronted by the call of duty, Laird built the biggest firewall he could. He told Nixon he would only accept if the new president promised never to interfere with any of his selections for civilian or military appointments in the Defense Department. It was an outrageous demand. Without skipping a beat, Nixon agreed.

It was the height of the Vietnam War, and Laird later said, Nixon couldnt find anyone else who wanted the damn job. But he also said, I could not tell the president-elect of the United States that I would not serve my country in this most important post. Our guess is that some of the excellent talent already identified by Mr. Trump reflect that same sense of duty.

Today as we watch the march of interviewees for Cabinet and staff posts, there are those who dont want the damn job, but fortunately say yes when duty calls. With any luck there will be a number of Mel Lairds in this critical round of appointments.

Laird strongly believed in bipartisanship, and crossed the divide between parties. In four years he pushed through dozens of key weapons programs, including the Trident submarine, the Safeguard anti-ballistic missile system, new satellites and several new military aircraft. Laird ended the draft and established the all-volunteer force. He led the fight demanding humane treatment for our POWs and MIAs.

The impact of all this remains today. Just ask any of those senior military commanders who have been tapped thus far by President-elect Trump for vital slots in his administration. They grew up better prepared because of Lairds passion for rebuilding defense needs almost a half-century ago.

As Trumps designated secretary of defense moves forward to round out his own team, he would do well to follow Mel Lairds example of leadership: selecting only those in whom he has full confidence; that they will carry out the commander in chiefs orders; and only when fully justified send forth brave uniformed personnel into harms way. Those courageous persons must have trust and confidence in the departments leadership.

We see in Gen. James Mattis the same strong characteristics possessed by Secretary Laird. The president-elect has chosen well. We support a bipartisan confirmation to give him the helm as he follows in the footsteps of other outstanding secretaries of defense. America needs people of courage and character, even some who really dont want the damn job.

Warner served as Secretary of the Navy (1972-1974) and U.S. Senator (R.Va) (1979-20 ). Capen, former publisher of The Miami Herald (1981-1989), served as Assistant to the Secretary of Defense (1970-1971) and U.S. Ambassador to Spain (1992-1993).
The newly nominated secretary of education has been criticized for supporting voucher and charter schools essentially for the wealthy. She has been accused of being a shill for parents who dont want to pay for private schools. People have been speculating whether Betsy DeVos has even been in a public school. In order to counter these public assessments, she would do well to consider educational treatments for average and lower achieving students.

Charter schools have no proven efficacy for K-8 students. High schools however, require many specialized programs and facilities.

Therefore, imagine if she created a massive expansion of high school career academies and shifted existing federal funds to pay for it. She could make attendance in these career academies voluntary to avoid the label of tracking. She can choose an existing model like Linked Learning at Berkeley or the state of Californias Partnership Academies that graduate 95 percent of their students, all of whom have an employable skill. Elevated high school graduation rates have conclusively demonstrated reductions in gangs, crime, prostitution and incarceration.

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Americas high schools are doing a fine job of college preparation. However, they are doing a miserable job of career preparation. As universities do, career academy high schools can have job placement services on their sites to aid students in finding employment.

DeVos can demand school districts perform longitudinal studies to demonstrate high employment rates of graduates. Imagine if employment became the primary criteria for success of high schools in America. Career academies are the method of creating a high skilled workforce in America. She can require high schools to give multiple diplomas. Imagine a college prep diploma and a career prep diploma. The college prep would mean completion of specified courses and the career prep would mean completion of a four-year sequence of career technical education programs.

The graduation rate can be cranked up to the 95 percent of career academies. The combination of a very high graduation rate and a high employment rate of graduates will drive down crime and incarceration rates.

She can work with the new president to give tax breaks to employers of career academy graduates. This action will create a semblance of a career preparation system in America. Trump orated that he cared about the average American. Changes in public policy are how he demonstrates that he meant what he said. Community colleges would be available for more advanced occupational education, but the focus must be on the high school where you have a somewhat captive audience.

If Trump can really bring back jobs or create new ones, we must have a skilled workforce to be able to perform those jobs. Career academies are the way to systematically organize the country to build that skilled workforce. The baby boomers are retiring and dying at an enormous rate. New technology requires more training than ever before.

Career academies provide 900 hours of career specific occupational education. The occupational education provided through career academies is the key to making American workers the best in the world. It can create pride in skills American workers used to be known for. Everyone must recognize that a highly skilled workforce is the essential element in making America great again. It would be ironic if Betsy DeVos took on the challenge of average and low achieving high school students and created a system of occupational education in America.

Wilson, Ed.D., managed career technical education programs for San Diego city schools for 30 years and authored the book Disposable Youth: Education or Incarceration?
WEST CHESTER, Pa., Dec. 09, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- This past week, President and CEO of Key Financial Inc. Patti Brennan attended the Barrons Top Women Advisors Summit held in Palm Beach, Florida. This years conference (2016) marked her 10th year listed on the Barrons Top 100 Advisors list, a distinction held by only a handful of women in the field.



A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/c18b3cba-b2cf-4f97-8677-ccb72dbb9411

Patti first earned her spot on the Top 100 nearly a decade ago in 2006. Our team was pleasantly surprised to have been placed in the rankings. It was a wonderful statement of support for the way that we run the business and the service we provide our clients. Ten years later, Key Financial continues to apply an exceptional level of service, utilizing the elements of financial planning tailored to their clients specific goals.

The Barrons Top 100 ranking is based on assets under management, revenue generated for the advisors firms, and also the advisors quality of practice. Earning a spot on the Top 100 places the nominees on a distinctive list of wealth management firms, managing more than $3.4 billion in assets under management.

This award was not awarded to Patti alone, as she is quick to credit the efforts of her dedicated team, led by her Chief Planning Officer Eric Fuhrman:

The Barrons award is highly coveted because it recognizes those who champion industry best practices. Pattis perennial recognition is a testament to her collaborative leadership style, as well as her penchant for developing internal talent with a client centric focus. When asked about the hallmarks of her success, Pattis self-effacing nature is always to assign credit squarely to her deep bench of passionate and caring associates.

Boilerplate:

A graduate of Georgetown University, Patti is a Certified Financial Planner with almost 30 years of experience providing financial advice in West Chester, PA. In addition to being President and CEO of Key Financial, Inc. she also serves on the National Advisory Board, is a Board Member of the YMCA of Greater Brandywine and Cuddle My Kids. She formerly served on the Boards of the Chester County Economic Development Council, SEEDCO and Penn Medicine Chester County Hospital.

Securities offered through Royal Alliance Associates, Inc., member FINRA/SIPC. Insurance services offered through Patricia Brennan are independent of Royal Alliance Associates, Inc. Advisory services offered through Key Financial, Inc., a registered investment advisor not affiliated with Royal Alliance Associates, Inc.

The Barrons Winners Circle Top 100 and the Barrons Winners Circle Top 1200 are select groups of individuals who are screened on a number of different criteria. Among factors the survey takes into consideration are the overall size and success of practices, the quality of service provided to clients, adherence to high standards of industry regulatory compliance, and leadership in best practices of wealth management. Portfolio performance is not a factor. Please see www.barrons.com for more information.
A few weeks ago, as national headlines about police shootings of black men and lone-shooter retaliations dominated the news  with the deaths of Alton Sterling, Philando Castile and Dallas officers all happening within 72 hours across the country  San Diego Councilwoman Myrtle Cole hosted a community meeting in District 4 focused on understanding, healing and moving forward.

The meeting drew many community members, including young residents of Southeastern San Diego, who used the opportunity to voice their concerns to Cole and police officers in attendance. Any time young people choose to be civically involved, they should be commended. I commend them.

The meeting was important because the community felt deprived of their representative downtown, and Cole hadnt strived to host a community coffee or forum of any kind of important dialogue open to her constituents for a while.

The community meeting was tense at points; Cole and attendees on all sides seemed to demonstrate frustration. But what made matters worse, at a following City Council meeting, Cole called out the young people from her meeting for being disrespectful and disruptive. And she also said, among other horrid remarks, police are stopping blacks who shoot blacks.

Its important to note that Cole is a member of the Public Safety and Livable Neighborhoods Committee, along with Marti Emerald, Chris Cate and Todd Gloria. In a memorandum earlier this year, Cole listed her public safety and livable neighborhoods committee priorities. She emphasized that she wants continued updates on vehicle stop data card findings, using the data as a resource to improve upon existing San Diego Police Department policies relating to community-oriented policing and cultural sensitivity training within the department.

My questions include, are police receiving cultural sensitivity training? Whos providing the training? And why, in many instances, isnt it working?

The other question is, wheres her cultural sensitivity training?

We cant have a representative condoning the way police approach community members  her constituents  with racial profiling tactics, and, at the same time, expect her to hold the police accountable for racial profiling. Its a contradiction.

When Cole said racial profiling is supposedly linked to black-on-black crime, was she basing that on data she received from the San Diego Police Department  meaning, data she called for in the memorandum? Or was she just giving her opinion?

The fact is District 4 residents want safe neighborhoods. Residents want to be safe from gang activity, criminal activity  and safe from police harassment, too. Yes, police harassment is in itself a safety threat that must be addressed and stopped.

Sadly, many of the young people who were willing to work with Cole by contributing solutions are the very same young people Cole offended with her remarks, and now many of them are calling for her resignation.

I felt the apology Cole released was political laryngitis and not from the heart like her statement at the council meeting. Still, if Cole stays in office, what will she do for the community? Will she demand the police tell her constituents why they are stopping them, or will police harassment continue? Will she demand police follow protocol on finding actual criminals, or will she follow the plan of law enforcement doing less work and conducting mass lockups rather than locking up actual criminals?

Most of all, will she advocate for what she says are priorities for her district?

Her lack of appropriate and necessary action, especially in these areas, are why I feel she needs to resign.

For example, urban renewal and development must happen for her own constituents in the fourth district. Gentrification is not an option. We must have new development and support upcoming entrepreneurs within the community, as well as provide jobs for those living in the community.

As someone who sits on the public safety committee, Cole should be expected to use her muscle and lead, especially being that she is the only African-American on the City Council and because she represents a district with a history of ongoing tension with police.

Its time to have a council member downtown who will represent her constituents and not downtown interests. For the past two decades, since George Stevens, we have seen sellouts and a lack of leadership. Its time to set the record straight or history will count us not present.

Harris is a local reverend and president of the San Diego Chapter of the National Action Network civil rights organization.
John Glenn, who died Thursday at 95 while surrounded by loved ones at a Columbus, Ohio, hospital, was an outsized hero by any standard. But Glenn seems especially so in an era in which so little seems black and white and so much seems to fall in gray areas. One of the worlds greatest aviators, a much-decorated hero in both World War II and the Korean War, and both the first American to orbit the Earth and the oldest ever to go into space, Glenn was a transcendent figure. Especially in the America of the early 1960s, he was a risk-taking, self-endangering model of both accomplishment and cool.

In his classic nonfiction book The Right Stuff, Tom Wolfe captured the awe and the reverence accorded Americas first astronauts and the courage the clean-cut, intensely focused Glenn displayed when he traveled around the Earth for nearly five hours in the tiny Friendship 7 spaceship on Feb. 20, 1962. It was a moment of national pride for Americans caught up in the Cold War space-race rivalry pitting the United States and the Soviet Union, which had already placed cosmonauts in planetary orbit the year before. Four million people turned out to cheer him at a New York City ticker-tape parade.

Glenn didnt care much for the 1983 movie made from the 1979 book  the small-town Ohio native felt actor Ed Harris oversold his piousness  but he didnt have to worry about his reputation taking a hit. He was in the middle of a 24-year stint as a Democratic senator from the Buckeye State in which he was held in high regard for his command of defense, weapons and technology issues. His 1984 presidential bid went nowhere  he didnt have the self-promotion skills of the most successful politicians  but he resumed his legislative career without regrets or self-pity, seeing it as the continuation of a devotion to serving America that he first displayed when he enlisted in the military shortly after the Pearl Harbor attack in December 1941.

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Thirty-six years after his first visit to space  near the end of his Senate career  Glenn went back on the shuttle Discovery. The 77-year-old was a test subject to demonstrate the effects of space travel on aging. A photo of Glenn beaming with joy as he was prepped for the flight spoke volumes about how much it meant to him.

Even in retirement, the man who shattered the transcontinental flight speed record as a test pilot with the U.S. Marines in the 1950s never lost his love of flying. Well into his 80s, he would fly his twin-engine Beechcraft Baron back and forth from Washington, D.C., to Ohio with his beloved wife, Annie, a childhood friend to whom he was married for 73 years. When he was 90, he proudly told a New York Times reporter he still had an active pilots license.

The United States became a much more complicated, more self-critical nation over the course of Glenns lifetime, as is implied by Wolfes description of him as the last true national hero America has ever made. But Glenn shouldnt be marginalized as a storied figure from a simpler time. He was an American giant who left an indelible mark on history. America and the world could use far more John Glenns.

Twitter: @sdutIdeas

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R.I.P. John Glenn: 4 reasons hes a true American hero

Remembering famed astronaut John Glenn
Regarding Council deletes controversial Regents Road bridge from planning maps (Dec. 6): Debbie Knights denial that selfish homeowners are protecting property values, citing evidence of support from Sherri Lightner, Kevin Faulconer, Barbara Bry, assumes opponents are ignorant to the reality that Lightner and Bry are La Jollans.

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The U-T welcomes and encourages community dialogue on important public matters. Please visit this page for more details on our letters and commentaries policy.

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Mail: Andrew Kleske, Reader Outreach Editor San Diego Union-Tribune P.O. Box 120191 San Diego, CA 92112-0191.

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This is why residents whose real estate is loosely identified as east La Jolla have fought the bridge. Lightner favored this segment of her constituency during her entire service on council; Bry offers no hope going forward with fair representation for the entire community.

Harry Mathis nailed it: The battle was less about smart planning ... more about a clash between property owners in different parts of UC ... (whats) been lost is a balanced community. He was booed by a rowdy crowd behaving like schoolkids, whom even President Lightner could not contain with her gavel.

Karen Binder

San Diego

* * *

Councilman Scott Sherman is right, paving more of our community open spaces with roads is futile. It would draw traffic from the freeways and put it through the neighborhoods. Solutions for mobility, such as rapid bus transit, are on the way.

Our open-space canyons are precious for education, recreation and serenity. They are our green infrastructure, filtering our air and our urban runoff. So precious are the riparian woodlands (wetlands) along the stream corridors that we must mitigate their loss three to one, and so precious are the wetlands in Rose Canyon that they serve as a mitigation bank for our city.

San Diego Canyonlands applauds Mayor Faulconer and the City Council for their stance to protect our citys canyons for the long run, for wildlife, clean air and clean water down to our beaches, but, perhaps most importantly, to maintain a high quality of life in our neighborhoods.

Eric Bowlby

North Park

Trump wont face same obstacles as Obama

Regarding Give Trump the same chance Republicans gave Obama (Nov. 24), I had to wonder just where the author has spent the last eight years.

Does he define giving Obama a chance by having the lead Republican in the Senate publicly state that he wanted Obama to be a one-term president? Or perhaps giving Obama a chance is defined by the numerous disgusting, bigoted and racist emails the many Republican officials circulated?

Trump himself had a hand in giving Obama a chance by touting the shameful Obama birth certificate fiasco, saying he had sent investigators to Hawaii and saying, you wouldnt believe what they are finding out. Perhaps he could also ask those same investigators to look for Trumps tax returns.

Trump is living proof that no matter how much money you have, it cant buy you an ounce of class and compassion.

Rob Johnson

El Cajon

Kids these days dont know what real fear is

The U-T editorial headline A neurosurgeon in charge of ... housing? (Dec. 6) is symptomatic of the lefts forgetfulness that we had a community organizer in charge of the United States. How ironic that there was no such editorial in 2008.

Then, the local section has a cupcake headline about Schools ease students fears with safe zones and bulletin boards for their dear, little, neurotic, millennial, 18-year-old hearts  the forgetfulness is that in 1945 10,000 American 18-year-olds, facing certain death, stormed the beach of Normandy to free France from Nazi occupation. No bulletin boards, no safe zones, no whining about a presidential election. My, what have we become?

Richard Cole

Encinitas

Replace the trees at the Midway boardwalk

Your article about the city receiving a $750,000 grant to plant trees to fight climate change (S.D. planting trees to fight climate change, Dec. 2) contains ambitious goals.

I would urge the consultants conducting the citywide inventory to view the area on the boardwalk that faces the Midway. For several years, I have proudly observed thousands of visitors photographing unarguably San Diegos favorite attraction from the boardwalk.

However, I have observed the area of boardwalk includes many huge planters that are empty of planted trees. This stupid neglect is an embarrassment to our fine city, and must be addressed.

James Nathenson

San Diego

City planting trees while burying the news

Mayor Kevin Faulconers carefully orchestrated tree-planting program did what it was intended to do. It got widespread publicity for a noncontroversial issue. It was right up there with motherhood and apple pie.

The release of the report on racial profiling (Study: Black and Hispanic drivers more likely to be searched when stopped by San Diego police, Nov. 24) was also carefully orchestrated to achieve just the opposite. The intent was to draw little or no reaction to this important study. The sad fact is that this scheme worked.

Kudos to City Council members Todd Gloria and Marti Emerald for raising objections about how the study was released. An onion should go to the mayor for his slick move.

Wilbur Smith

San Diego

Kids learned a lesson of who is in charge

Regarding Horton students, parents deserve apology (Dec. 7): Rebellious Horton Elementary students are banging on tables and disrupting the cafeteria. To remind these disrespectful children that she, not they, are in charge, the principal, Staci Dent, substitutes standard, but irksome, physical education drills for play time at the next three recess periods. She should be commended for her appropriate, low-key response.

Who other than American Civil Liberties Union extremists would detect human rights violations in this mundane scenario? Why, the U-T Editorial Board.

Without more information, its hard to judge whether any parents are owed an apology. But anyone with a lick of sense can see these unruly kids arent.

Jerome E. Eggers

Point Loma

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Donald Trump may not be the one uttering the words youre fired on television any time soon, but the president-elect is reportedly still in a position to make such a call on NBCs Celebrity Apprentice show.

A Variety magazine report on Thursday saying Trump will remain his title as executive producer on the show sent observers into a tailspin with mixed reactions and existential questions given the unusual situation for the future president.

For starters, former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will take over as the new host. NBC cut ties with Trump in 2015 after he launched his candidacy for president and made controversial remarks about Mexican immigrants.

Secondly, its unclear how much of a creative role or interaction hell have with the shows other producers  Schwarzenegger and show creator Mark Burnett , who back in October said he has never supported Trumps campaign.

I am not pro-Trump, Burnett was quoted saying at the time. Further, my wife and I reject the hatred, division and misogyny that has been a very unfortunate part of his campaign.

Burnett is reportedly also producing Trumps inauguration events.

The question of how much Trump will be paid for his role in the show remained unclear, as stated in the Variety story. But even as Trump takes office, he is set to be on the shows payroll. The fees will reportedly be paid by MGM, the company in charge of producing the show.

Yes. This will be a sitting president being a producer of a reality television show. Take a moment to let that sink in. Confused? Excited? Shocked? You are certainly not alone.

What do you think of Trump staying on as executive producer of the show while taking office? Email me your initial reactions.

Email: luis.gomez@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @RunGomez
You wouldnt catch me dead at the mall at this time of year. Andmy tolerance for Christmas carols, holiday television specials andincessant gift commercials has long worn thin.

But one part of the annual holiday hoopla is must-see for me;great displays of Christmas lights.

Every year, I hop in the car at least one night before Christmasto check out the light shows around the neighborhood, along withvisits to some traditional favorites.

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That list begins with the North County Baptist Church at thecorner of Seventh Avenue and Escondido Boulevard in Escondido.Nothing in this area can compare with the 1.1 million lights thatthe Rev. Clint Miller and the whole church community have put upfor the past eight years.

Barely a square inch of the church buildings and surroundingfences and trees are left undecorated. Keeping up the display ispractically a full-time job, said Miller, as church members replaceburned-out light strings with new sets donated by people in thecommunity.

About 25 percent of the lights burn out each year, which meansthe church replaces more lights than many of the best otherdisplays in the area even have. Nightly caroling adds to thefestive atmosphere.

Word has spread about the display, with tour buses coming by ona nightly basis. One group even drove all the way from Las Vegasthis year to check out the lights, said Miller.

One fellow, taken by the magic of the lights, chauffeured alimousine and brought his girlfriend up to see the display, Millerreported. He escorted her out of the car to the front of thechurch, grabbed a microphone, and in front of hundreds of visitors,dropped to one knee and asked her to marry him.

The woman said she needed to think about it.

Talk about a lump of coal in your stocking.

Bright lights:You can find nice displays oflights by driving through almost any North County residentialneighborhood.

If youre looking for special places, though, you cant go wrongvisiting Candy Cane Courts in Poway. The homes on Hickory Street,Rockrose, Butterwood and Hickory courts are all covered withmultitudes of lights, with the residents of Butterwood really goingto town. Get there from Twin Peaks Road, turning south ontoSilverset, then left on Palisades and right on SaddlewoodDrive.

The nearly 20-year tradition of Christmas Card Lane in RanchoPenasquitos continues on Oviedo, Ellingham and Renato streets, justoff Black Mountain Road, where wood cutouts of characters fromcartoons, animated movies, books and more mix with light displaysand carolers.

Other fine displays include Keith Richenbachers 70,000-pluslight show at 2815 Anaheim Glen, off Mary Lane near San PasqualHigh School, and the collection of 80,000 lights decorating 1639Knob Hill Road in San Marcos, where Santa drops by each night from6:30 to 8 p.m.

Enjoy the shows.

Contact staff columnist Jeff Frank at (760) 740-5419, fax (760)745-3769 orjfrank@nctimes.com.
TAMPA, Fla., Dec. 09, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Smithfields Helping Hungry Homes campaign partnered with Winn-Dixie this morning to provide more than 200,000 servings of protein to the Feeding Tampa Bay food bank just in time for the holiday season. This considerable donation is part of Smithfields 300th Helping Hungry Homes donation milestone tour, during which the company is donating more than one million servings to 20 food banks across the country through the end of the year. These donations are in addition to the 42 large-scale protein donations Smithfield has made across the United States in 2016.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/9078e23a-a3a1-42c6-b4b4-71113e075646

Representatives from Smithfield and Winn-Dixie presented the donation of 50,000 pounds of protein, equivalent to 200,000 servings, to the food bank during an event at which speakers discussed the importance of donations like this in West Central Florida, where 60 percent of the population is eligible for food stamps.

Throughout the months of November and December, Smithfield has traveled from coast-to-coast to food banks in Florence, S.C., Charleston, S.C., Sacramento, Calif., Kansas City, Kan., Hampton, Va., Virginia Beach, Va., Bethel Heights, Ark., Baltimore, Md., Tampa, Fla, and beyond. Smithfield continued its long history of partnering with local retailers with a history of philanthropy to make these donations and raise awareness of hunger in these areas.

Partners like Smithfield and Winn-Dixie allow Feeding Tampa Bay to provide nutritious food that creates healthy lives for the families we serve, said Thomas Mantz, executive director of Feeding Tampa Bay. In the Tampa Bay region, one in seven adults and one in four children struggle with hunger, many of whom are not able to share a meal with their families. This collaboration gives families across Tampa Bay opportunity and health  two vital components of their success.

Winn-Dixie is very proud to be a part of Smithfields Helping Hungry Homes campaign this holiday season, said Keith Newberry, Winn-Dixie district manager. We know that many in our community are in need of nutritious food, and we are very happy to support Feeding Tampa Bay through our partnerships with Feeding America and Smithfield to help fight hunger.

Smithfield is proud to partner with Winn-Dixie for this final stop on our 300th Helping Hungry Homes milestone tour to present this donation to Feeding Tampa Bay, said Dennis Pittman, senior director of hunger relief for Smithfield Foods. This year, weve traveled from Sacramento, California down to Tampa, Florida to provide more than 80 large-scale protein donations. We encourage others to get involved during this time of giving to donate food, funds, or their time to help their local food bank.

As part of its ongoing Helping Hungry Homes program, Smithfield has committed to donate more than eight million servings of protein to food banks nationwide in 2016 to help families and individuals suffering from hunger. To date, the program has provided more than 48 million servings of protein to food banks across America.

About Smithfield

A leading provider of high-quality pork products, Smithfield was founded in 1936 in Smithfield, Virginia, establishing the town as the Ham Capital of the World. From hand-trimmed bacon and slow-smoked holiday hams to marinated tenderloins, Smithfield brings artistry, authenticity and a commitment to heritage, flavor, and handcrafted excellence to everything it produces. With a vast product portfolio including smoked meats, hams, bacon, sausage, ribs, and a wide variety of fresh pork cuts, the company services retail, foodservice, and deli channels across the United States and 30 countries abroad. All of Smithfields products meet the highest quality and safety standards in the industry. To learn more about how Flavor Hails from Smithfield, please visit www.Smithfield.com, www.Twitter.com/SmithfieldBrand, and www.Facebook.com/CookingWithSmithfield. Smithfield is a brand of Smithfield Foods.

About Smithfield Foods

Smithfield Foods is a $14 billion global food company and the world's largest pork processor and hog producer. In the United States, the company is also the leader in numerous packaged meats categories with popular brands including Smithfield, Eckrich, Nathan's Famous, Farmland, Armour, John Morrell, Cook's, Kretschmar, Gwaltney, Curly's, Margherita, Carando, Healthy Ones, Krakus, Morliny, and Berlinki. Smithfield Foods is committed to providing good food in a responsible way and maintains robust animal care, community involvement, employee safety, environmental and food safety and quality programs. For more information, visit www.smithfieldfoods.com.

About Southeastern Grocers

Southeastern Grocers, LLC, parent company and home of BI-LO, Fresco y Mas, Harveys and Winn-Dixie grocery stores, is the second-largest supermarket in the Southeast based on store count. The company employs nearly 60,000 associates who serve customers in grocery stores, liquor stores and in-store pharmacies throughout the seven southeastern states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina. BI-LO, Fresco y Mas, Harveys and Winn-Dixie are well-known and well-respected regional brands with deep heritages, strong neighborhood ties, proud histories of giving back, talented and loyal associates, and strong commitments to providing the best possible quality and value to customers. For more information, visit www.bi-lo.com, www.frescoymas.com, www.harveyssupermarkets.com and www.winndixie.com.

About Feeding Tampa Bay

Founded in 1982, Feeding Tampa Bay is the largest food rescue and distribution organization in the community, serving a food-insecure population of more than 700,000 people in a 10-county area. Feeding Tampa Bay recovers surplus food donations from local growers, manufacturers, supermarkets, and organized community food drives and distributes it to those in need through a partnership network of more than 500 faith-based and other incorporated nonprofit hunger relief organizations. Over the past five years, Feeding Tampa Bay supplied more than 100 million pounds of food, enough to provide more than 3 million meals every month to those who would otherwise go hungry. www.FeedingTampaBay.org.

Media Contacts:

Hunter PR for Smithfield Winn-Dixie Feeding Tampa Bay Elisabeth Garcia Kaley Shaffer Jayci Peters (212) 679-6600 (904) 612-9441 (813) 842-7163 egarcia@hunterpr.com

KaleyShaffer@segrocers.com jpeters@feedingtampabay.org




Oslo, Norway, 9 December 2016: The Board of Directors of Targovax ASA (the "Company") has resolved to grant 420,000 options to subscribe for shares in the Company to employees under the Company's long term incentive program.

Each option, when exercised, will give the right to acquire one share in the Company. The options are granted without consideration. Pursuant to the vesting schedule, 25% of the options will vest 12 months after the day of grant (as long as the option holder is still employed). Thereafter, 1/36 of the remaining options will vest each month as long as the option holder is still employed, with the first 1/36 vesting 13 months after the day of grant. The exercise price of the options is NOK 12,39. The exercise price is equal to the volume weighted average trading price of the shares of the Company on Oslo Brs on the date of the grant. Options that have not been exercised will lapse 7 years after the date of grant.

Primary insiders in Targovax ASA have received the following options grants, according to the terms

described above:

Chief Medical Officer Magnus Jaderberg has been granted 120,000 share options. Following the grant, he holds 20,000 shares and 510,000 options in the Company.

VP Clinical Development Anne-Kirsti Aksnes has been granted 100,000 share options. Following the grant, she holds 12,000 shares and 153,000 options in the Company.

Site Manager Helsinki Tiina Hakonen has been granted 20,000 share options. Following the grant, she holds no shares and 45,000 options in the Company.

Head of CMC Berit Iversen has been granted 20,000 share options. Following the grant, she holds 7,587 shares and 90,000 options in the Company.

###

For further information please contact:

ystein Soug, CEO

Phone: +47 906 56 525

Email: oystein.soug@targovax.com



This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.


The Post remembers astronaut and senator John Glenn, who died yesterday at age 95. Glenn sat down for an extensive interview with the Post in 1975, when he was a junior senator from Ohio.

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Baby boomers may remember the day John Glenn, who passed away Thursday at the age of 95, became an American hero. It was February 20, 1962, when he orbited the Earth three times in the Friendship 7 spacecraft. That flight wouldnt seem much of an accomplishment today, but 54 years ago it marked a milestone in the American space program.

Glenn was good material for an American hero. He was modest, dedicated, and patriotic, and he appeared in the media spotlight at a time when Americans worried about Russias growing power and achievements in space. Two Russian cosmonauts had already completed single orbits of the Earth. As Glenn later said, the Soviets were using space as a selling point for communism. His flight reassured Americans that the country still had the expertise and courage to accomplish great things.

In 1998, he made history again by flying the space shuttle Discovery at age 77. In the years between, Glenn served as an Ohio senator.

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He was strongly criticized in 1964 for campaigning without any prior political experience. A Post editorial from February 22, 1964, defended Glenns decision. The editors cited his Marine Corps service and his many nonpolitical achievements. They also pointed out that Congress desperately needed young, enthusiastic, and inspired Americans like Glenn.

Glenn withdrew from the race for medical reasons shortly after that editorial, but he finally won the Senate race in 1974. The next year, the Post ran Mr. America in the Senate by Paul Healy, a lengthy interview with the junior senator. It concluded with an observation by Glenn that is relevant today:

One of the most frightening things in my campaign was cynicism toward government. It wasnt all just Watergate  its something that I think has been building for years. Polls last year showed a confidence level in Congress of only 26 percent! I think the decline started when the cost of campaigning got so high 12 or 13 years ago, and when the big lobbyists and the big spenders moved in and filled the financial gap. The little guy wonders why he should waste his $25 or $100 on anybody. He feels his voice doesnt count anymore and hes alienated.

His 25-year tenure in the Senate testifies to his ability to make voters feel that they counted. As he once said, The political graveyards are full of people who dont respond.
Recently divorced self-help junkie Bernie Bennis annoys family and friends with his live each day like its your last philosophy  but what if today really is Bernies last day on Earth?

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Bernies last day on Earth. He put on his good suit. Had a good cry. (The cry lasted two hours.) Then 10 a.m. Time to say goodbyes. Time to call those he loved and tell them they meant the world to him. Yes. The world. The world that, today, like every day for the past while, he would leave.

Best to call Susan first. That way he could say goodbye to the kids. When Susan didnt answer, he called again. This time Wendy answered. Sweet, little 6-year-old Wendy. He loved hearing her voice usually, but now he choked up. Hello? she said. He couldnt respond. Finally Wendy continued, Daddy, is it you again?

I love you, sweetie, he stammered.

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Daddy. Its okay. Youre not going to die.

Is Bernie Jr. there?

No. Hes with Frank.

Frank. Taking Bernies only son away when he was going to tell him goodbye; that was just like Frank, always thinking of himself. (Like when he married Bernies ex-wife  didnt give a damn about how Bernie would feel. Theyd only been divorced for six months!)

Is Mommy there? Yes, but  But what? I dont think she wants to talk right now. This is important, Wendy.

Shes  Wendy said. Busy.

I can call back later, Bernie said, starting to tear up. I love you, Wendy. I love you, and I love Bernie Jr., and youre both going to do just fine, okay? After Im gone?

Quit being silly, Daddy.

Bernie called his parents next. His mom answered and she didnt seem to want to talk either. Her exact words were, Bernie, quit this dying nonsense, you sound like a fool! Six or whatever months of this and Im sick of it, you hear me? Sick of it. Then (surrendering to the very last option), in a quiet but stern voice, Go out and get laid, all right? Your father did something similar when I quit giving it to him back in 80s. Bunch of pansies, the both of you.

Bernie knew they loved him. His parents. Wendy. Bernie Jr. Even Susan, but in a different way now, of course. Their harsh words (or lack of words) were just the way they were coping with the impending grief. Of his death. Of when he would be gone from this world and on to whatever was next 

Bernie had coped with his own grief in a similar way after the divorce: He bought a bottle of Jack Daniels, poured himself a shot, and managed to swallow down half of it before dumping the rest of the bottle down the drain.

Thatll show them, hed said. As if by dumping it out he was proving some victory over whoever had sold him the bottle.

Hed bought a pack of cigarettes, too, despite not being a smoker. A broken man turns to vices, he told himself. And I am broken. So grief-stricken was Bernie, he lit three of the cigarettes at once and positioned them in the spaces between his fingers. But that had been in the park; a police officer came by and told him he couldnt smoke there. And what the hell was he doing smoking three cigarettes at once? Bernie apologized and snuffed out the cigarettes, wondering what it was he was doing wrong with this grief business.

It was the self-help books, ultimately, that brought him to the revelation of his mortality. What was the line in the book? Hed read it over and over and over. Wrote it on the dry-erase board on the fridge (erasing the month-old grocery list with food for the kids who no longer lived with him). Bought wooden-block letters and arranged them above his bed (except hed forgotten a letter and so took them down in sobbing frustration. I cant even spell!). Hed tried to brand himself with the line, marking the words in blood on the skin of his forearm, but the first prick of the knife left him groaning in pain. It hurts to bleed! But what was the sentence that hed read in that book? Live each day like its your last. That was it.

Well, so he had. Every day in the last six months had been his last. Which is why he had the coroner prepared to certify his death, the embalmer ready to pretty up his corpse (there were specific instructions: for example, he wanted to be smiling so that his family remembered him as happy), and the stonecutter paid in advance for the tombstone.

BERNIE BENNIS  March 3, 1971TODAY

EVERY DAY WAS HIS LAST

*

His affairs had to be in order. After calling his family, he reconfirmed his life insurance policy and then called his lawyer. As always, the secretary answered. Oh yes, Mr. Bennis. Ill make a note of it. Hes at lunch right now. (Her legs propped up on the desk, eating a homemade turkey-cucumber sandwich, writing no notes, and looking at her boss who was in fact right there trying not to laugh.) Bernie thanked her. He thanked her graciously. He thanked her profusely. It meant a lot that she would pass along the message.

A little past noon, and what did a dying man do knowing his last day had finally come? Well, a dying man still had to eat, so he drove himself to the deli where most of the staff was familiar with him.

He sat in his car for a while, in the parking lot. Deep breath in. Deep breath out. The employees at Halulas Deli would be sad to see him go. He was a regular. (Inside the store, the cashier, making change for another customer, glanced out the front-store window. She turned around, to the kitchen, where the manager was texting on his phone. Izzy, Bernies here! Not looking up from his phone, Izzy gave her a thumbs-up.)

Bernie walked into the deli dragging his feet, staring at the floor. How to break it to them? Quick and easy, or long and drawn-out? Mumbling, he ordered the usual: French onion soup and a grilled cheese, no jalapenos. But he couldnt meet the cashiers eye. Thatll be $9.51, she said. Bernie gave her a 20 and glanced up at her.

Watery-eyed, eyebrows like two capsized boats (in an ocean of despair!), he said, Keep the change. I wont be needing it.

Thank you so much, the cashier said, looking somewhere else  anywhere else. She didnt inquire as to what he meant by not needing it.

He sat in his usual booth. The man in the booth in front of where Bernie sat craned his neck over. Bernie? Then another voice, quiet, a boys, Frank, dont.

It was Frank. And Bernie Jr.

A food-runner brought Bernies food.

Bernie immediately broke into tears that dribbled down and off his chin. (The French onion soup was plenty salty enough, but it was too late to do anything about it now.)

All three of them stood up to greet each other, and after a prolonged hug between Bernie and his son (Bernie Jr.s arms by his side, mumbling, Dad, stop.), Bernie left the deli in a hurry. Didnt touch his soup or the grilled cheese. Hed lost his appetite.

Bernies vision was blurred by tears, and in the heat of passion he drove faster than he normally would. Six miles above the speed limit. And he only put on the brakes lightly when he turned, making big, sweeping arcs into other lanes. This was a man who was soon to die! The world would just have to suffer him as hed suffered it. Grief left no room for empathy.

Six miles over, seven, eight. What a rush! The thrill of driving fast was amazing  why hadnt he ever done this before? In the movies when characters were upset or emotional they drove like maniacs, but it always seemed so reckless to Bernie, who was, as Susan had once called him, too prude. Bernie muttered this to himself in the car. Too prude.

And he drove faster, faster, and faster  10 miles over the speed limit, now. Ten miles!

By the time he came to the sharp right turn off the service road, it began to rain. It was now or never. Hed driven 10 miles over the speed limit, so why not take the (final) chance to try and drift? Like they did in the movies. Handsome, sensitive men with perfect stubble and nice form-fitting clothes that contrasted their inner misery. Yes, he would try to drift. It was now or never.

He didnt slow down. He pressed his foot hard on the brakes. And then, with reckless abandon, he yanked the steering wheel to the right.

The car skidded as it should, and then started to skid as it shouldnt; the newly wet road was too slippery and the car wiggled and wobbled and whirled full-speed off the shoulder of the road, off into the neighboring field and headfirst into a wide-trunked tree.

*

When Bernie woke, there were many lights flashing. Peoples voices could be heard as if from a great distance, but in reality they were quite near. The rain had stopped. The picture came to him in pieces at first before coming together all at once: a splintered, heavy-breasted branch from the wide-trunked tree had shattered the windshield and pierced through the headrest approximately a half-inch, at most, from his head.

He shouldve been dead. But he wasnt. Was he? It hurt to breathe a little, but yes, he was alive. Hed run headfirst into a tree at full-speed, and he hadnt died!

Bernie waited until the police cranked the door open with a crowbar to get out. One of the cops walked Bernie away from the scene to ask him what had happened. But Bernie wasnt listening. Eventually the cop put his hands on Bernies shoulders and shook him.

Mr. Bennis! Are you all right?

Am I, Bernie said. Alive?

Yes, but are you all right?

Im not dead?

No. Your car is totaled, but youre not dead. Listen, Bernie, if you need any assistance, theres an ambulance here. Just let us know.

Bernie placed a hand on his ribs and pressed down. His jaw clenched. Oof.

A different police officer drove him home. Inside the house, alone, he immediately went to the kitchen and sat down at the table. His mind was blank  or at least on a conscious level it felt so. He pulled out his cellphone and set it on the table. No voicemails. No one had called him back from this morning (meaning Susan and his lawyer), and no one had called yet to check up on him. Not that anyone would know, just yet, about the wreck.

Bernie got up and stepped over to the fridge. He frowned.

LIVE EACH DAY LIKE ITS YOUR LAST, the message on the dry-erase board read.

And what a frown it was, that frown! Bernie was certainly a crier, but frowning was different somehow. One was a release and one was quite the opposite. Something had changed. Hadnt it? He erased the last word of the message and wrote a new one in its place.

LIVE EACH DAY LIKE ITS YOUR FIRST.

He went to the table, picked up his phone, and dialed the number for his lawyers office.

Hi Bernie, the secretary said. Sorry, he just stepped out.

Thats okay. Write this down, please. I have some news.

What is it?

I had an accident today, he said. Ran into a tree.

You ran into a tree?

In my car. Not on foot. I crashed into a tree and a huge branch went through my windshield and almost killed me. I have a bruised rib, I think, but thats it. I was very lucky.

This time she scrambled to write down what he said. Im so sorry that happened.

Im not finished. I wont be needing the will drawn up. Im not dying today.

Youre  not?

No. Tell him to tear it to shreds.

O  kay. Will do.

And one more thing.

Yes?

Five seven one, six three four, nine six three seven. Thats my mothers number. I need you to call her and leave a message for me.

Um, well, its not really my job to call your mother 

Tell her I almost died. But that Im not taking her advice. Its hard to do what she suggested with a broken rib.

I dont 

Shell understand. Promise.

Bernie hung up. Immediately after he did, Susan called.

Bernie, I just got a call from the police  are you okay?

Im fine. He paused. Listen, I want to take the kids camping this weekend.

You  wait, what? Camping?

Yes. First time for everything, right?

There was the half-hope that his assertiveness might make her remember why she fell in love with him. But, and he knew this, it was never really his assertiveness that made anyone love him in the first place  it was his careful way of life.

Dont give them a choice, he continued. I think itll be fun.

Arent you  I mean, what about the? 

Dying? He paused again. After all, it was just this morning that hed been sure today would be his last day on Earth. The memory was still fresh. No. Not today, anyway. I guess you never know. But today is different. Todays my first day in a long, long time.

Bernie, are you sure youre okay? Then, Does this have anything to do with your mothers advice?

Better than hed ever been.

He didnt ask how she knew what his mom had suggested.

*

That night Bernie went to an art gallery, spent far too much money on a painting he liked, and hung it over his bed where the wooden-block letters had been for that brief, misspelled moment. It was an abstract painting  so a little less than realistic  but the colors were beautiful. And so long as you had someone to tell you what it was supposed to be, you could just sort of make out the phoenix rising from its own gritty, abstract ashes.
Boston, MA -- (SBWIRE) -- 12/09/2016 -- Stephen Hopkins was from Hampshire, England. He married his first wife, Mary, and resided in the parish of Hursley, Hampshire. They had three (3) children: Elizabeth, Constance, and Giles; all baptized there. It has long been claimed that the Hopkins family was from Wortley, Gloucester, but this was disproven in 1998 with the discovery of his true origins in Hursley.



http://mayflowerhistory.com/hopkins-stephen/



Stephen Hopkins went with the ship Sea Venture on a voyage to Jamestown, Virginia in 1609 as a minister's clerk, but the ship wrecked in the "Isle of Devils" (Bermuda). Stranded on an island for ten months, the passengers and crew survived on turtles, birds, and wild pigs. Six months into the castaway, Stephen Hopkins and several others organized a mutiny against the current governor. The mutiny was discovered and Stephen was sentenced to death. However, he pleaded with sorrow and tears. "So penitent he was, and made so much moan, alleging the ruin of his wife and children in this his trespass, as it wrought in the hearts of all the better sorts of the company." He managed to get his sentence commuted. Eventually the castaways built a small ship and sailed themselves to Jamestown. How long Stephen remained in Jamestown is not known. However, while he was gone, his wife Mary died. She was buried in Hursley on 9 May 1613, and left behind a probate estate which mentions her children Elizabeth, Constance and Giles.



Stephen was back in England by 1617, when he married Elizabeth Fisher, but apparently had every intention of bringing his family back to Virginia. Their first child, Damaris, was born about 1618. In 1620, Stephen Hopkins brought his wife and children Constance, Giles, and Damaris on the Mayflower (child Elizabeth apparently had died). Stephen was a fairly active member of the Pilgrim group shortly after arrival, perhaps a result of his being one of the few individuals who had been to Virginia previously. He was a part of all the early exploring missions, and was used as an "expert" on Native Americans for the first few contacts. While out exploring, Stephen recognized and identified an Indian deer trap. And when Samoset walked into Plymouth and welcomed the English, he was housed in Stephen Hopkins' house for the night. Stephen was also sent on several of the ambassadorial missions to meet with the various Indian groups in the region.



Stephen was an assistant to the governor through 1636, and volunteered for the Pequot War of 1637 but was never called to serve. By the late 1630s, however, Stephen began to occasionally run afoul of the Plymouth authorities, as he apparently opened up a shop and served alcohol. In 1636 he got into a fight with John Tisdale and seriously wounded him. In 1637, he was fined for allowing drinking and shuffleboard playing on Sunday. Early the next year he was fined for allowing people to drink excessively in his house: guest William Reynolds was fined, but the others were acquitted. In 1638 he was twice fined for selling beer at twice the actual value, and in 1639 he was fined for selling a looking glass for twice what it would cost if bought in the Bay Colony. Also in 1638, Stephen Hopkins' maidservant got pregnant from Arthur Peach, who was subsequently executed for murdering an Indian. The Plymouth Court ruled he was financially responsible for her and her child for the next two years (the amount remaining on her term of service). Stephen, in contempt of court, threw Dorothy out of his household and refused to provide for her, so the court committed him to custody. John Holmes stepped in and purchased Dorothy's remaining two years of service from him: agreeing to support her and child.



Stephen died in 1644, and made out a will, asking to be buried near his wife, and naming his surviving children.



BAPTISM: 30 April 1581 at Upper Clatford, Hampshire, England, son of John and Elizabeth (Williams) Hopkins.

FIRST MARRIAGE: Mary, possibly the daughter of Robert and Joan (Machell) Kent of Hursley, co. Hampshire, prior to 1604.

SECOND MARRIAGE: Elizabeth Fisher on 19 February 1617/8 at St. Mary Matfellon, Whitechapel, co. Middlesex, England.

CHILDREN (by Mary): Elizabeth, Constance, and Giles.

CHILDREN (by Elizabeth): Damaris, Oceanus, Caleb, Deborah, Damaris, Ruth, and Elizabeth.

DNA HAPLOGROUP: R1b-M269



Master Christopher Jones and several business partners purchased the ship Mayflower about 1607. Its origins prior to that remain uncertain. Its first documented voyage of record was to Trondheim, Norway, in 1609. Andrew Pawling hired the ship to take a cargo of London goods to Norway, sell them off, and buy Norway goods (lumber, tar, and fish) to return back to England. Unfortunately on the return voyage, the Mayflower encountered a severe North Sea storm and the master and crew were forced to toss most of Pawlings goods overboard to lighten the ship. The home of Master Christopher Jones: Harwich, co. Essex, England.



http://mayflowerhistory.com/



Following that, Christopher Jones seems to have stuck with safer trading routes. The Mayflower made numerous trips primarily to Bordeaux, France, returning to London with cargoes of French wine, Cognac, vinegar, and salt. The Mayflower could freight about 180 tons of cargo. The Mayflower also made occasional voyages to other ports, including once to Malaga, Spain, and twice to Hamburg, Germany.



Upon returning from a voyage to Bordeaux, France, in May 1620, the Mayflower and master Christopher Jones were hired to take the Pilgrims to Northern Virginia. This was the first recorded trans-Atlantic voyage for both ship and master, though Christopher Jones had several crewmembers, including pilot and master's mates John Clarke and Robert Coppin, who had been to the New World before.



The Mayflower was supposed to accompany another ship, the Speedwell, to America, but the Speedwell proved too leaky for the voyage so the Mayflower proceeded alone. Departing on 6 September 1620, the ship was at sea for 66 days, arriving November 9. The ship and crew overwintered with the Pilgrims and departed back for England on 5 April 1621, arriving back to England on May 6.



Christopher Jones took the ship out for a few more trading runs, but he died a couple of years later in March 1621/2. The ship was appraised for probate purposes in May 1624, and was referred to as being "in ruins." It was only valued at 128 pounds sterling, and was almost certainly broken up and sold off as scrap.



The Mayflower was hired in London, and sailed from London to Southampton in July 1620 to begin loading food and supplies for the voyage--much of which was purchased at Southampton. The Pilgrims were mostly still living in the city of Leiden, in the Netherlands. They hired a ship called the Speedwell to take them from Delfshaven, the Netherlands, to Southampton, England, to meet up with the Mayflower. The two ships planned to sail together to Northern Virginia. The Speedwell departed Delfthaven on July 22, and arrived at Southampton, where they found the Mayflower waiting for them. The Speedwell had been leaking on her voyage from the Netherlands to England, though, so they spent the next week patching her up.



On August 5, the two ships finally set sail for America. But the Speedwell began leaking again, so they pulled into the town of Dartmouth for repairs, arriving there about August 12. The Speedwell was patched up again, and the two ships again set sail for America about August 21. After the two ships had sailed about 300 miles out to sea, the Speedwell again began to leak. Frustrated with the enormous amount of time lost, and their inability to fix the Speedwell so that it could be sea-worthy, they returned to Plymouth, England, and made the decision to leave the Speedwell behind. The Mayflower would go to America alone. The cargo on the Speedwell was transferred over to the Mayflower; some of the passengers were so tired and disappointed with all the problems that they quit and went home. Others crammed themselves onto the already very crowded Mayflower.



Finally, on September 6, the Mayflower departed from Plymouth, England, and headed for America. By the time the Pilgrims had left England, they had already been living onboard the ships for nearly a month and a half. The voyage itself across the Atlantic Ocean took 66 days, from their departure on September 6, until Cape Cod was sighted on 9 November 1620. The first half of the voyage went fairly smoothly, the only major problem was sea-sickness. But by October, they began encountering a number of Atlantic storms that made the voyage treacherous. Several times, the wind was so strong they had to just drift where the weather took them; it was not safe to use the ship's sails. The Pilgrims intended to land in Northern Virginia, which at the time included the region as far north as the Hudson River in the modern State of New York. The Hudson River, in fact, was their originally intended destination. They had received good reports on this region while in the Netherlands. All things considered, the Mayflower was almost right on target, missing the Hudson River by just a few degrees.



As the Mayflower approached land, the crew spotted Cape Cod just as the sun rose on November 9. The Pilgrims decided to head south, to the mouth of the Hudson River in New York, where they intended to make their plantation. However, as the Mayflower headed south, it encountered some very rough seas, and nearly shipwrecked. The Pilgrims then decided, rather than risk another attempt to go south they would just stay and explore Cape Cod. They turned back north, rounded the tip, and anchored in what is now Provincetown Harbor. The Pilgrims would spend the next month and a half exploring Cape Cod, trying to decide where they would build their plantation. On December 25, 1620, they had finally decided upon Plymouth, and began construction of their first buildings.



Adam Paul Green was born to a multi-talented beauty queen Mother and a Father who, in addition to being a US Army Spy and a Counter-Intelligence Special Agent, was also a highly accomplished entrepreneur. Adam was taught at a young age that, in both life and business, loyalty is a requirement for success. He's had the honor of working directly with his father in several of the family businesses. In fact, this is where he learned crucial entrepreneurial skills and honed his talents with international business strategies and venture capitalism. http://www.MarketingChocolateInternational.com , http://www.AdamPaulGreen.com , http://www.ImAdamGreen.com



Adam earned his Bachelors of Science Degree in International Business and Marketing from the University of Utah. He was hand-picked by the President of the University's renowned School of Business to compete with dozens of other ambitious nationwide-graduates for the opportunity to secure a lucrative job within a prestigious Fortune 100 company.



http://www.mxicorp.com/fab/

http://www.Twitter.com/AdamPaulGreen

http://www.ImAdamGreen.com



Boston, Massachusetts General Society of Mayflower Descendant, Adam Paul Green (Ancestor Stephen Hopkins / Gen.No. 86,723) Reveals New Geneology Support Website for Local Enthusiasts http://www.AdamPaulGreen.com



About MayflowerHistory.com

MayflowerHistory.com, the Internet's most complete and accurate website dealing with the Mayflower passengers and the history of the Pilgrims and early Plymouth Colony. The website was first created back in 1994 (when the web was still mostly text!) as a simple, but complete, passenger list of the Mayflower. It has grown over the past twenty years as the author, historian Caleb Johnson, has researched and compiled material.



http://mayflowerhistory.com
Sarasota, FL -- (SBWIRE) -- 12/09/2016 -- Deepwater Hydrocarbons Exploration Market: Overview



The hydrocarbons under the ocean floor remain the only source of oil and gas that is untouched while the other oil and gas reserves are getting depleted. As a result, the oil exploration and production companies are showing great interest in using these hydrocarbons. Deepwater reserves account for approximately 11% out of all the hydrocarbon reserves on the earth's surface.



Request Free Sample copy of Research Report @ https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/sample/deepwater-hydrocarbons-exploration-market



Deepwater Hydrocarbons Exploration Market: Segmentation



The global deepwater hydrocarbons exploration market is broadly segmented into type of service, depth of exploration, type of drilling platforms, and regions. Based on the type of service, the deepwater hydrocarbons exploration market is classified into deepwater exploration, deepwater hydrocarbon production and drilling. The global market is segmented on the basis of depth of exploration into deep water and ultra deep water. On the basis of the type of drilling platforms, the deepwater hydrocarbons exploration market is divided into subsea systems, fixed platform rig, jack-up rig, spar platforms, and compliant tower rigs. The market is geographically diversified into regions such as Asia Pacific, Europe, North America, and Rest of the World.



Deepwater Hydrocarbons Exploration Market: Growth Factors



The modern technology advancements and the increasing number of companies making investments have been the major factors driving the deepwater hydrocarbons exploration market. The growing demand for conventional hydrocarbons such as crude oil and natural gas has made a significant growth in the deepwater hydrocarbons exploration market. The market growth was slow in the past due to the high cost of exploration, capital expenditure, underdeveloped technologies, and the negative profit margin. However, the scenario has changed considerably owing to the technological developments in the deepsea and ultra deepsea exploration and drilling, and high crude oil prices are making the deepsea drilling economically feasible. The technological developments and the increased R&D activities for the exploration of other unconventional hydrocarbon deepwater sources will make the market grow significantly. The factor restraining the global market growth is the increasing environmental and HSE regulations for the drilling and exploration activities. The other factor hampering the market growth is the demand for renewable and sustainable energy sources.



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Deepwater Hydrocarbons Exploration Market: Regional Analysis



The region that dominates the deepwater hydrocarbons exploration market is North America. The Gulf of Mexico and the North Sea regions have been identified as the major regions where majority of the deepsea activities are carried out since the last few years. Latin American market is also growing significantly due to the large hydrocarbon reserves in the Venezuela and Brazilian offshore. The Asia Pacific and European regions are also showing a significant growth in the deepwater hydrocarbons exploration market. The Middle East region has many deepsea reserves, hence anticipating the market growth in the coming years.



Deepwater Hydrocarbons Exploration Market: Competitive Players



Some of the key companies operating in the deepwater hydrocarbons exploration market include Oceaneering International Inc., PetroBras, Brazilian Petroleum Corporation, Schlumberger Ltd., Transocean Ltd., and Trico Marine Services Inc.



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Global Deepwater Hydrocarbons Exploration Market: Regional Segment Analysis



North America

U.S.

Europe

UK

France

Germany

Asia Pacific

China

Japan

India

Latin America

Brazil

The Middle East and Africa



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Full in-depth analysis of the parent market

Important changes in market dynamics

Segmentation details of the market

Former, on-going, and projected market analysis in terms of volume and value

Assessment of niche industry developments

Market share analysis

Key strategies of major players

Emerging segments and regional markets

Testimonials to companies in order to fortify their foothold in the market.



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Maha Energy AB (publ) Biblioteksgatan 1 SE-111 46 Stockholm www.mahaenergy.ca

Press release

Stockholm

9th December 2016

This press release is not for release, publication or distribution, directly or indirectly, in or into Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland or the United States, or in any other jurisdiction where distribution of this press release could be illegal or subject to legal restrictions. See also section IMPORTANT INFORMATION below.



Maha Energy AB ("Maha or the "Company") announces closings of acquisition of UP Petroleo Brasil Ltda (the Operator of the Tartaruga Field) and Petro Vista Energy Petroleo do Brasil Ltda.



Maha is pleased to announce the closing in escrow of its acquisition of 100% of UP Petroleo Brasil Ltda. ("UPP" or the "Operator") from TDC Engineering Inc. (the "UPP Acquisition") and 100% of Petro Vista Energy Petroleo do Brasil Ltda. (the "PVE Acquisition"; collectively the "Acquisitions") occurred today, December 9, 2016. Upon routine registration with the Province of Sergipe Commercial Board, which is expected within 10 working days, all escrow conditions will be released and closing completed at which time Maha (through its subsidiary), will become operator of the Tartaruga Field.

Upon closing of the UPP and PVE Acquisitions, Maha will have a 67.5% working interest in the Tartaruga field which is currently producing approximately (gross) 230 bbls/d. The remaining 7.5% working interest in the Tartaruga Field owned by TDC Engineering Inc. (through its subsidiary) will be closed pursuant to relevant contractual and accounting arrangements shortly after January 1st, 2017. The Company will issue a further update press release upon this event.

As earlier announced, in anticipation of these closings, the Company has been planning for a workover of the SES 107 well on the Tartaruga field. Upon release from escrow, the Company will commence securing equipment and services for the workover. The workover of SES 107 entails the removal of an existing production string and the recompletion of the well with a jet pump similar to the pump currently pumping oil on the adjacent 7-TTG well.

Jonas Lindvall, CEO of Maha Energy commented:

"We are very pleased to have finalized closing of our acquisition of the operated working interest in the Tartaruga Field in Brazil. With this major milestone, we look forward to continued organic growth at both our LAK (Wyoming) and Tartaruga (Brazil) projects as well as though future accretive acquisitions taking advantage of the current low oil commodity cycle. We will now proceed with the previously announced planned workover of the previously producing SES 107 well, which is scheduled to start in January, subject to services availability."

For more information, please contact:



Jonas Lindvall (CEO)

Tel: +1 403 454 7563

Email: jonas@mahaenergy.ca

or

Ron Panchuk

Tel: +1 403 454 7564

Email: ron@mahaenergy.ca

Miscellaneous

This information is published in accordance with the EU Market Abuse Regulation and/or the Swedish Financial Instruments Trading Act. The information was submitted for publication through the agency of the contact persons set out above on 9 December 2016, at 10:20 p.m. CET.

Maha in Brief

Maha Energy AB is a Swedish public limited liability company. Setterwalls Advokatbyra AB acts as legal adviser to the Company. FNCA Sweden AB has been engaged as Certified Adviser. The Company's auditors are Deloitte.

The Company's predecessor Maha Energy Inc was founded in 2013 in Calgary, Canada, by Jonas Lindvall and Ron Panchuk. In May 2016, the new group was formed with Maha Energy AB as parent company for purposes of the Offering and the planned listing. Jonas Lindvall, CEO and Managing Director, has 25 years of international experience in the oil and gas industry, starting his career with Lundin Oil during the early days of E&P growth. After 6 years at Shell and Talisman, Jonas joined, and helped secure the success, of Tethys Oil AB. Maha's strategy is to target and develop underperforming hydrocarbon assets in jurisdictions we are able to successfully operate. The Company operates two oil-fields, Tartaruga in Brazil and LAK Ranch, in Wyoming, US. For more information, please visit our website www.mahaenergy.ca.

Important Information

Publication or distribution, directly or indirectly, of this press release could in some jurisdictions be subject to restrictions according to law and recipients of this press release, or part of it, are required to inform themselves of, and comply with, such legal restrictions. This press release is not for release, publication or distribution, directly or indirectly, in or into Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland or the United States, or in any other jurisdiction where distribution of this press release could be illegal or subject to legal restrictions. Copies of this press release are not being made and may not be distributed or sent, in whole, or part, directly or indirectly, in violation of such restrictions. Failure to comply with such restrictions may constitute a criminal act under the United States Securities Act of 1933 (as amended) ("Securities Act") or applicable laws in other jurisdictions.
New York, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 12/09/2016 -- Safflower is an annual plant flourish in hot and dry condition, primarily in the western great plain area of the United States. It is also named as Catharanthus tinctorius L. (Botanical Name), Sallflower, False Saffron or Bastard Saffron (because of Saffron like property), American Saffron, Alazor, etc. It is from Asteraceae family and close relative of Sunflower. Safflower extract is a yellow pigment extracted from Safflower soluble in water. Safflower extract is derived by the process of extracting, filtrating, purifying, concentrating, sterilizing, spraying & drying. Traditionally, safflower extract was only used for red and yellow dyes for textile and food industry. But now a days it has a number of usage like in cooking oil, birdseed, superior quality paints and varnishes, infant formulas, cosmetic industry, protein supplement for livestock, beverages, pharmaceutical industry,



Safflower extract contain three types of pigments on the basis of composition which are extracted and separated by using different chemicals:



Red Carthamin

Safflower yellow A

Safflower yellow B



Safflower extract contain about 0.83% of red cathamin and 30% of yellow cathamadin which are extracted either by thin layer chromatography or spectrophotometric measurement. Monosaturated fatty acid (oleic) and Polysaturated fatty acid are the two type of oil present in safflower plant which is responsible for lowering the cholesterol level in the blood.



Major drivers of the Safflower extract market is the rising demand of processed foods. The increasing demand for organic and natural ingredients in processed foods is a very important driving factor. Other very important factor for the growth in safflower extract market is the multi-functionality of the product such as medicinal and colorant property. This replaces a lot of other products used in processed foods which can cause ill effects to human health. In various studies, it is found that safflower can cause adverse effect such as bleeding problems (hemorrhagic diseases, clotting disorders and intestinal ulcers), allergy, increase in sugar level in diabetic patients and miscarriages leads to restraining the market of safflower oil. The major factors which are trending the demand of safflower extract are heath consciousness of people, demand for organic food, growing cosmetic industry, etc.



There is an opportunity for companies in this industry to expand their product in transgenic safflower plant extract for producing human insulin which is having major demand in the market.



Safflower extract market segmentation is done on the basis of nature of offering, application and region. On the basis of nature of offering safflower extract market is segmented as dried powder, decoction and oil. Among these segments safflower oil is represents largest market share as it has massive use in various sectors such as pharmaceutical, food and manufacturing. Safflower extract market is segmented as pharmaceutical industry, food and beverages industry, dyes, cosmetic industry and textile industry on the basis of application. Among these industries pharmaceutical industry represents largest market share followed by food and beverages industry.



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Safflower extract market is segmented on the basis of regions into North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ), Middle East & Africa (MEA) and Japan. The leading producers of safflower extract are India, The United States and Maxico followed by Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, China, The Arab World, Argentina, Tanzania and Australia. More than 60 countries produce safflower plant but India is having half of the market share of the safflower extract mainly for domestic vegetable oil market.
New York, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 12/09/2016 -- Many industries such as healthcare, and retail are moving towards the adoption of cloud based solution rather than on-premises to reduce cost and to improve its cloud computing capabilities. Hence, companies are adopting security as a service model in order to take advantage of multi-tenancy feature, and subscription based services to reduce operational expenses.



Security as a Service is a platform through which many service vendors provide security services integrated into the corporate infrastructure in a cost effective manner. Security as a Service is growing at a faster pace due increasing demand Security as Service in email security, network security, identity and access management, compliance management, internet traffic filtering and others.



The major factor driving Security as a Service market is the need of security solutions that can manage their cloud based as well as on-premise solutions. Security as a Service includes identity access management services that includes authentication and identification services. Security as a Service helps businesses in handling cost advantages along with availability of expertise without increasing budget.



The restraint for Security as a Service market is the weak set of standards for cloud. Standards that are being followed by cloud service providers such as SAS 70 or ISO 27001 are not flawless. Still many companies are claiming usage of bad practices such as administration account sharing between various users, which increases the risk of data theft and loss. There is a need of universal set of regulations that can be followed strictly without any changes.



Security as a Service Market: Segmentation



In this Security as a Service market companies offer Security as a Service platforms and Security as a service solutions.



Segmentation on the basis of solution:

-Email Protection

-Mobile app protection

-Content filtering

-Data loss protection

-Network security management

-Others



In June 2016, Proofpoint, a Security as a Service provider has entered into the partnership with Linkedin,a professional network company to provide social media security and compliance management. This partnership will help in improving enterprise capabilities of both companies.



In September 2016, Microsoft acquired Adallom, a cloud security service provider to improve its solutions and offerings in identity and security management. This will enhance capabilities of Microsoft in on-premises and cloud security solutions.



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Presently, North America region holds the largest market share of global Security as a Service market. The market is growing comprehensively in countries such as US and Canada due to the high adoption of security solutions in order to improve third party services. The major solution vendors in this Security as a Service are from North America, creating high growth opportunity for security solutions market. Companies such as Cisco and TrendMirco are also creating solutions for this market due to the opportunities lying in this market.



The Asia Pacific region is following the North America region in this Security as a Service market is expected to have the highest growth rate in coming years due to the adoption of managed services and the growing usage of hosted and cloud based solutions in countries such as Australia and India.



In Europe region, the market for Security as a Service is witnessing slow growth rate due to the slow adoption rate of technology. Countries such as U.K. is contributing enormously towards the application of these Security as a Service platforms along with secure datacenters.



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An international team of paleontologists from China, Canada and the United Kingdom has discovered the tail of a non-avian theropod dinosaur (likely a coelurosaur) trapped in a piece of 99-million-year-old Burmese amber.

This remarkable specimen was bought at an amber market in Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin state in northern Myanmar, in 2015.

While this isnt the first time feathers have been found in amber, earlier specimens have been difficult to link to their source animal.

Amber pieces preserve tiny snapshots of ancient ecosystems, but they record microscopic details, three-dimensional arrangements, and labile tissues that are difficult to study in other settings, said Dr. Ryan McKellar, adjunct professor at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum, Canada, and co-lead author of a paper describing the discovery in the journal Current Biology.

This is a new source of information that is worth researching with intensity and protecting as a fossil resource.

The new material preserves a tail consisting of 8 vertebrae from a juvenile. These are surrounded by feathers that are preserved in 3D and with microscopic detail, Dr. McKellar added.

We can be sure of the source because the vertebrae are not fused into a rod or pygostyle as in modern birds and their closest relatives. Instead, the tail is long and flexible, with keels of feathers running down each side.

In other words, the feathers definitely are those of a dinosaur not a prehistoric bird.

According to the team, the specimen represents the feathered tail of a juvenile coelurosaur.

While it was initially difficult to make out the details of the amber inclusion, Dr. McKellar and co-authors relied on CT scanning and microscopic observations to get a closer look.

The tail is visible to the naked eye as an elongate and gently curved structure (length  3.7 cm), the researchers said.

A dense covering of feathers protrudes from the tail, obscuring underlying details, so CT scanning was employed to examine concealed osteological and soft tissue features.

The feathers suggest that the tail had a chestnut-brown upper surface and a pale or white underside.

The specimen also offers insight into feather evolution. The feathers lack a well-developed central shaft or rachis. Their structure suggests that the two finest tiers of branching in modern feathers, known as barbs and barbules, arose before a rachis formed.

Dr. McKellar and his colleagues also examined the chemistry of the tail inclusion where it was exposed at the surface of the amber.

The analysis shows that the soft tissue layer around the bones retained traces of ferrous iron, a relic left over from hemoglobin that was also trapped in the sample.

Soft tissues  presumably muscles, ligaments, and skin  are visible sporadically through the plumage, clinging to the bones in a manner suggestive of the desiccation common to other vertebrate remains in amber, the authors explained.

These tissues have largely been reduced to a carbon film, retaining only traces of their original chemical composition.

Our calculations indicate that more than 80% of iron in the sample is ferrous (Fe2+). Similar measurements have been made on vessels preserved within Tyrannosaurus and Brachylophosaurus bones and have been interpreted as indicating the presence of goethite and biogenic iron oxides produced from hemoglobin decomposition.

The researchers are now eager to see how additional finds from this region will reshape our understanding of plumage and soft tissues in dinosaurs and other vertebrates.

_____

Lida Xing et al. 2016. A Feathered Dinosaur Tail with Primitive Plumage Trapped in Mid-Cretaceous Amber. Current Biology 26: 1-9; doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2016.10.008
[NAIROBI] Providing HIV self-test kits to women seeking care in healthcare facilities could promote HIV testing among couples and male partners, a study says.



According to researchers from Kenya and the United States, men in Sub-Saharan Africa tend to have lower rates of HIV testing than women.



Thus, the researchers determined whether providing HIV self-test to women aged 18 to 39 years old who visited antenatal and post-pregnancy clinics in Kisumu, Kenya between June 2015 and January 2016 could encourage their partners to test for HIV.

Theres a greater potential for these tests to be used more widely in high prevalence countries. Harsha Thirumurthy, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

According to the study published in PLOS Medicine last month (8 November), after three months of follow-up of 600 women divided into two groups, with half receiving the kits, partner testing rate was found to be higher in those who received the kits: 90 per cent compared to 52 per cent in the other group. Similarly, couple testing rate was 75 per cent for those who received the kits and 33 per cent for the other group.



Harsha Thirumurthy, the study corresponding author from the US-based University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, says that providing self-test kits to women could be significant in achieving high HIV testing rates in men who are often harder to reach through clinics or community-based strategies.



She notes that the price of HIV self-tests is evolving and is expected to decrease over time. If that happens, theres a greater potential for these tests to be used more widely in high prevalence countries,

Thirumurthy says.



Kawango Agot, a co-author and head of Kisumu-based Impact Research and Development Organisation, says that training women on the use of self-test kits and giving them multiple kits for their partners is cost-effective and thus easily replicable in countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.



But Nelson Otuoma, executive director of the National Empowerment Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS in Kenya, tells SciDev.Net that although self-tests could promote testing among people in need of anonymity, they can be counterproductive if given to those lacking the maturity or strength to handle the results.



Some people can kill themselves if they test positive. At hospitals, people are usually prepared through guidance and counselling before and after the test, says Otuoma. The self-test kits also dont offer complete privacy as eventually, people still need to disclose their status at a health facility before they can begin treatment.

Otuoma adds that most people opt for self-tests because of the stigma associated with HIV. So this is the problem that we need to address, he explains.This piece was produced by SciDev.Nets Sub-Saharan Africa English desk.
After reassuring customers that it will launch in 2016, Elon Musk's SpaceX moves its new mission in January 2017, since one of its Falcon 9 rockets exploded in September.

At first, the launch was originally planned on Dec. 16. However, the company revised its schedule by pushing the expected date to early 2017.

"We are finalizing the investigation into our September 1 anomaly and are working to complete the final steps necessary to safely and reliably return to flight, now in early January with the launch of Iridium-1," SpaceX said in a statement. "This allows for additional time to close-out vehicle preparations and complete extended testing to help ensure the highest possible level of mission assurance prior to launch," it added.

The mission next year aims to deliver 10 communications satellites by Iridium communications to orbit. The launch will take place from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

September Explosion

In September, Falcon X exploded, destroying one of the $200 million satellites, Amos-6, owned by Israel-based satellite company, Space Communication. The company said it is still investigating the cause of the explosion.

Latest update on yesterday's anomaly https://t.co/15yMaiobpX  SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 3, 2016

Space Communication said it would either seek about $50 million from SpaceX as compensation for the accident or a free ride on another launch.

Experts working with the company have traced the explosion to a fuel tank in the second stage of the rocket. However, the main cause of the explosion has not been revealed yet.

"I still haven't heard anything official from the FAA regarding whether they approved the return to flight or not," Bill Ostrove told Mashable.

SpaceX has faced many other incidents in the past. In June 2015, another Falcon 9 broke apart less than 3 minutes after launching from Cape Canaveral. This destroyed an unmanned cargo mission to the International Space Station (ISS).

After six months since the mishap, the company successfully launched 11 satellites for the Orbcomm Company. This was the time that the Falcon 9's first stage returned for a landing at Cape Canaveral. It was the first time that a rocket attained a soft landing during an orbital launch.


A Japanese pilot before the full-scale World War II, Mitsuo Fuchida, led the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor 75 years ago, on Dec. 7, 1941. This attack stunned the the Americans and quickly advanced the U.S. into World War II.

According to CBN News, an amazing thing happened years later. Mitsuo Fuchida's life was transformed partly by the testimony of an American named Jacob DeShazer who had been his enemy and a prisoner of war in Japan.

Jacob DeShazer hated the Japanese so much that he even risked his own life for revenge as a member of the famed "Doolittle Raiders," carrying out a daring daylight bombing raid on Tokyo and other cities. DeShazer's plane ran out of fuel over the Japanese territory so he was captured and held as a prisoner for 40 months. He was then beaten, starved and tortured.

While Jacob DeShazer was in prison, he begged for a Bible from his captors. That was when he came to Christ. It was a voluntary acknowledgement that he needed God in times of darkness in his life.

Jacob DeShazer said that, "I discovered that God had given me new spiritual eyes and that when I looked at the enemy officers and guards who had starved and beaten my companions and me so cruelly, I found my bitter hatred for them changed to loving pity. I realized that these people did not know anything about my Savior."

It was amazing how God transforms a person in times of hopelessness and anger. But what is more astonishing is how He will use a person to lead one or even the worst enemy to Jesus.

Jacob DeShazer was released after the war but then he returned to Japan not as an enemy but a missionary. He came across with Mitsuo Fuchida and that was the time when he led him to Jesus. The amazing story of Mitsuo Fuchida's conversion and the two Americans who led him to Jesus is the subject of a book called Wounded Tiger by T. Martin Bennett.


Cannabis has been legalized in so many states. Some are for the recreational purpose, while some for medicinal. Currently, researchers found that a number of older folks is using marijuana.

Dr. Benjamin Han, a geriatrician and health services researcher at the Center for Drug Use and HIV Research (CDUHR) at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City, shared that "Given the unprecedented aging of the U.S. population, we are facing a never before seen cohort of older adults who use recreational drugs."

Dr. Han added that older people may use cannabis for different reasons, especially for medical purposes. However, the experts need to ensure they are not using marijuana in a hazardous manner, since older adults may be exposed to its possible negative effects, according to Health Day. Dr. Han noted that "One particular concern for older users is the risk of falls while using marijuana. However, this has not yet been studied."

In the new research that was published in the journal Addiction, the experts found that for people 50 years up, the cannabis users increased by 71 percent. The results also indicate that men who use marijuana are higher than women.

Only 5 percent of adults aged 50 and older felt that using marijuana once or twice a week was a threat to their health, the study authors reported. Dr. Han added that, "With the increased availability of legalized marijuana, there is an urgent need to understand the prevalence of its use and also its effects on older generations."

Meanwhile, in a report by The Independent, the research author and a CDUHR-affiliated researcher and an assistant professor of population health at the medical center Joseph Palamar said that for years, they have been worried about the potential effects of marijuana on the developing brains of teens. But now, they may need a bit more focus on their grandparents, who are increasingly more likely to be current users.

Palamar added that, "We found only five percent of these older adults felt using marijuana once or twice a week was a great risk to their health. Personally, I don't think we need to be very alarmed about most older people who are using marijuana, as our results suggest that only 4 percent started using after age 35."

However, the experts say that further research will be conducted. They need to study the effects of marijuana use and how it affects older people.
There was this strange storm that seemed cloud of dust and rain that hit the other side of the Syrian border, which was the place where ISIS attacked Israel, yet it did not cross the border fence into Israel at 8 a.m. on Thursday. It looked like a barrier between ISIS and Israel.

The storm stopped at the border and did not enter Israel's Golan Heights region. The place where the storm hit was close to where jihadis had attacked Israeli troops for the first time in November. The Israeli troops retaliated against the attackers on the truck. Then, the fighter jets came to the rescue and destroyed the truck, eliminating all the extremists on board.

Mirror reports that many people reacted on this unexpected phenomenon that it was God's divine intervention to safeguard Israelis against their enemies or this terror group. The storm was filmed and posted on Facebook. It has a caption that says this strange storm of what appears to be dust, rain and cloud did NOT cross the border fence into Israel.



In the Book of Numbers 14, it was written that God protects His people as it says: "...that You, Lord, are seen face to face and Your clouds stands before them, and You go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night." In Orlando Houston writing, it stated that God is protecting his chosen people yet again.

Some of the viewers of the footage also said that God is incredible and proclaimed the phenomenon is the hand of God. Margaret Tilford said that if they had cell phones before when God parted the Red Sea and led the Israelites, it would have looked like this.

Another commentator, Magda Botha, said that it is the hand of God the Almighty showing the world He is in control. The Breaking Israel News described the unexpected phenomenon as without an uncertainty the hand of God protecting Israel against her enemies, as noted by The Sun.
The Academy award-winning actor, Leonardo DiCaprio, once tackled about climate change when he received his first best actor award for The Revenant. Now, he has starred in a different role -- as an advocate on climate change in his new documentary titled Before the Flood.

The actor unveils the truth about climate change and how it has affected various countries across the world. In October, the new film was produced by and stars Leonardo DiCarprio as it focused on informing viewers on the countless negative effects of this issue. The documentary debuted via the National Geographic YouTube Channel.

Before the Flood shows Leonardo DiCaprio traveling to parts of the world such as Greenland, Sumatra, the Pacific Islands, China and other regions. Apart from aiming to let the White House get a glimpse of the documentary, they also want to show it on various college campuses across the nation.

Even before the elections, the actor wanted the previous administration to focus on curbing global warming. He said that ignoring it will result in food becoming scarce and other negative impacts like severe storm systems and flooding.

Truth About Climate Change

There are many climate change deniers today and they believe that it is just a hoax. Scientists, however, have shown growing body of knowledge backing up global warming as an event happening today as a result of increased greenhouse gases and carbon emissions.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Director Fisher Stevens showed the real-world impact of warming temperatures, from sinking cities, dying coral reefs and flooding. In the documentary, Leonardo DiCaprio wants to enforce the 2015 Paris agreement -- developing wind and solar power and reducing worldwide carbon emissions.

"I just want to know how far we've gone, how much damage we've done, and if there's anything we can do to stop it," Leonardo DiCaprio says at the start of the film, Science Alert reports.

Donald Trump Is The New President: What Now?

The newly elected U.S. President Donald Trump once denied that climate change is real. In fact, his tweet two years ago became viral recently as he said that it is just a Chinese hoax. Despite the growing body of knowledge regarding climate change and how it could negatively impact the country and the rest of the world, no one knows today if Donald Trump will ever change his mind.

Will Leonardo DiCaprio convince him about fighting and curbing global warming? In fact, the Hollywood actor contacted the president-elect.

"We presented the president-elect and his advisers with a framework - which LDF developed in consultation with leading voices in the fields of economics and environmentalism - that details how to unleash a major economic revival across the United States that is centered on investments in sustainable infrastructure," Terry Tamminen said in a statement, as reported by the LA Times. He added that the conversation focused on how to create green jobs.

The conversation, which ran for about 90 minutes, also allowed the actor to give President-elect Donald Trump a copy of his documentary. He previously gave Ivanka Trump a copy of the film in a private meeting.


Iman Abdulati is tagged as the fattest woman in the world after her weight touched the 500 kg mark. She lives imprisoned in her own house in Alexandria, Egypt. After her family made public pleas for medical support, Indian bariatric surgeon Dr. Muffazzal Lakdawala volunteered to treat her in Mumbai, India, by performing a series of bariatric weight loss surgery procedures.

However, Iman's visa application was rejected by the Indian embassy in Egypt as she was unable to visit the office for the mandatory fingerprint verification process. Later on, Iman was granted medical visa on special consideration by Sushma Swaraj, Indian External Affairs Minister.

According to Daily Star, "The officers thought that the family was bluffing and kept asking the family members to bring Iman to the embassy to scan her fingerprint." Dr. Lakdawala posted a tweet addressed to Sushma Awaraj regarding the situation. He tweeted: "Ma'am, Eman Ahmed (Egypt) 500kgs requested me 2 save her pls help me get her a medical visa as refused thru normal process @SushmaSwaraj."

The Indian External Affairs Minister tweeted back: "Thanks for bringing this to my notice. We will definitely help her." Iman's plight ended when the minister granted her medical visa under special consideration. Thanks to the efforts of Dr. Lakdawala and Sushma Swaraj, the fattest woman in the world is now all set to fly to Mumbai, India, where she will be under rigorous medical treatment for at least two years, during which it is expected that she will be losing about 400 kg of her weight.

As of now, the struggle continues as Iman's family is yet to arrange an appropriate private plane to fly her, reports Women Weekly. Traveling for the fattest woman in the world is a challenge as it is impossible for her to sit in an upright position due to the weight. Iman will need a private chartered plane with reinforced bed to get her to India so that her life-saving treatment via bariatric weight loss surgery will be started.
Samsung is scheduling the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 for an August 2017 release. 2016 was not a great year for Samsung. Samsung Galaxy Note 7 were considered hazardous due to their battery complications. Due to the fires and explosions, the sold handsets were completely recalled by the tech giant in October. This recall had a negative impact on the sales of all Samsung handsets across the world, seeing as 100+ incidents happened.

However, Samsung is not one to be easily deterred. It has already started planning the concept and release of Samsung Galaxy Note 8 sometime in 2017. Rumors suggest that the date is supposedly August. Earlier, there were rumors suggesting that Samsung intended to release Galaxy Note 8 with Galaxy S8 itself. That would put the release to early 2017, in February. The launch is going to happen in tune with the upcoming Mobile World Congress 2017 in Spain.

Fans and users across the world believed that a February release for Galaxy Note 8 would not be in the best interest of Samsung. There would be no buffer time for the consumers to forget the negative PR associated with the previous model Galaxy Note 7. The sales might be impacted if Samsung gears for an eatly release. Fresh rumours now suggest that Samsung is now going to stick to the August 2017 release itself- as is traditional for all Galaxy Notes.

Before the release of Galaxy Note 8, Samsung needs to address all battery and technical issues to make sure that the end result for consumers is safe. The company cannot afford another negative publicity stint. In other news, South Korean government is now being a part of the investigations of the infamous Samsung Note 7. The government team is going to work with the Samsung team to find out why the explosions actually happened. One leading cause is the lack of space between the battery and the metal casing. You can view the article and video for this theory HERE.

Even if Samsung plans to release Galaxy Note 8 all the way in August, Galaxy S8 will be released in February. Users may still be worried about their safety and the sales may be affected by this. Samsung needs to come up with a robust assurance mechanism to entice the fans back!
It has been more than five years when Japan quivered as a result of a massive 9.0 magnitude earthquake, which resulted in tsunami. The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster was an additional blow to the people of Japan in the time of distress. The nuclear plant suffered damage in the earthquake, which caused leakage of harmful nuclear radiations.

Recently, the Woods Hole Oceanic Institution revealed that the seawater samples collected last winter from the Tillamook Bay and Gold Beach in the west coast indicated the presence of low levels of nuclear radiations. Thankfully, the levels were calculated too low to cause any harmful impact on the human or animal population of the region.

Ken Buesseler, Woods Hole chemical oceanographer, tracked down the radiation plume in the seawater. He proposed that the nuclear radiation exposed seawater crossed the Pacific Ocean and reached the west coast. The findings were published in the Statesman Journal News Reports.

Meanwhile the Japanese government is still struggling to compensate for the environmental and economic outcomes of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. Recently released report in the Nikkei Asian Review revealed that the total cost estimate of the compensation is now swelling up to 21.5 trillion yen ($188 billion). This includes decommissioning expenses of 8 trillion yen, along with an additional 4 trillion yen for decontaminating the affected areas.

The report also states that the Japanese government has decided to sell its Tepco shares to compensate for the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster economic outcomes. Additionally, Japan industry ministry will seek contribution from various companies that enter the electrical energy retail market, along with contributions made from independent suppliers.

The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. Holdings is also busy implementing reform measures and seeking merger partners to improve its profitability after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear disaster in March 2011. Only time will reveal what other socio-economic and environmental outcomes will come out of this nuclear disaster.
As many could remember, President-elect Donald Trump during the campaign period called the climate change "hoax" that China made. The new study shows that China does not mean hoax but it is more on business and political opportunities.

As reported previously by The New York Times, Liu Zhenmin, the deputy foreign minister of China, told the reporters during the climate conference in Marrakech, Morocco, that since the 1980s, the past president of the United States Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush supported the climate change negotiations under a United Nations panel.

Thus, Bloomberg reported that China's President Xi Jinping gives emphasize on the importance of the cooperation between the two largest economies. Liu Zhenmin added that China will continue to fight the effects of climate change "whatever the circumstances."

In addition, President Liu Jinping said that the richer nations should be more responsible compared to the poorer countries as they have the capability to fight against climate change.

Meanwhile, Professor of Economics at the University of Southern California-Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences Matthew Kahn conducted a research. He said that to slow down the climate change globally is to reduce accumulated global emissions. However, the individual efforts coming from each nation are too small to "solve" the problem. Prof. Kahn wrote, "so it has only weak incentives to take costly mitigation actions and strong incentives to 'free ride' on the benefits of emission reductions by other countries."

In line with this, the angle that Prof. Kahn is looking at is that when President-elect Donald Trump decides to "cancel" the Paris Agreement and demolish President Obama's carbon mitigation initiatives following standard economic logic. Also, if the United States backs out of the commitments to reduce the national emissions, the U.S. can still benefit from the efforts of other countries.

Now, why does China press ahead with the low-carbon initiatives? Prof. Kahn's research suggested that the country has several motives. The Chinese leaders want to develop the quality of life in their nation by reducing air pollutions.

In addition, he wrote in the full article for Conversation that China will also "win large shares of promising export markets for green technologies; and increase China's "soft power" in international relations. Taking aggressive action to cut carbon emissions helps China in all three areas." The three areas would be Pursuing green and profitable export markets, reducing coal's cruel impacts and Investing in soft power.
A new laser research on a toenail of one of the men from the Franklin expedition reveals another possible reason of the sailors' death.

CBC News reported that despite claims of lead poisoning that caused the 129 Franklin crew members' demise, a new discovery using a toenail of 19th Century British sailor John Hartnell suggests that the sailor may have died due to lack of zinc.

For the study, scientists Jennie Christensen and Laurie Chan used lasers and high-energy beams from the Canadian Light Source in Saskatoon and synchrotron from the University of Saskatchewan to observe the toenail they got from the Museum of History in Ottawa and the Inuit Heritage Trust.

Using such equipment, they were able to find out Hartnell's health state, which was a severe lack of zinc. This nutrient deficiency may have caused the sailor's low immune system that eventually led to a deadly disease.

"That zinc deficiency would explain that he had a very low immune function," Chan explained. "In the tough environment, he probably contracted infections and died from [tuberculosis]."

They have also discovered that the sailors on the expedition were running low on food and supplies before it got stranded in ice. This may explain the previous claims of cannibalism among them.

"This is kind of like a Canadian myth," Chan added. "I get excited at the opportunity to work on it and talk about it. Being able to have the opportunity to work on this and try to contribute to solve this puzzle is an honour."

The expedition was set to head to Northwest Passage in 1845 but never returned. It was only until two years ago when its two ships, Erebus and Terror, were found, along with some remains by underwater archeologists.

This study was published in the Journal of Archaeological Science.
FLORENCE, S.C. When travelling through the Pee Dee, anyone entering Florence County may notice some changes along some of the countys major traffic arteries.

Eight new welcome signs have been installed with more modern design, along with the phrase Global Reach with Southern Touch.

Officials said at the December meeting of Florence County Council on Thursday that the old signs had been there for more than a decade and a new, more attractive welcome was needed.

Council business

The council finally approved a fee-in-lieu-of tax agreement with Honda of South Carolina Manufacturing for the companys forthcoming $45 million expansion.

That expansion was announced in August and includes a 115,000-square-foot-expansion that will bring 250 new jobs.

The council approved changes to a contract handling the U.S. 378 widening project thats already underway. The change will add $650,000 to the project and extend the completion date by one year. That money will come from the first penny sales tax fund.

Officials said damage caused by Hurricane Matthew brought about this contract change.

The council awarded a contract for $235,000 for a new maintenance building for the town of Scranton.
WASHINGTON

Watch the video. Walter Scott, unarmed and slow of foot, tries to run away. Police officer Michael Slager calmly fires five rounds into Scott's back. Later, Slager approaches Scott's body, not to give first aid but apparently to plant evidence of a struggle that never took place.

Now tell me: How cheap is black life in these United States of America?

A jury in North Charleston, South Carolina, could not agree that Slager committed a crime, forcing the judge in the case to declare a mistrial. Prosecutors quickly announced they will try Slager again. In the optimistic view, this week's stunning result, or non-result, means justice deferred rather than justice denied. I'm trying to be an optimist, but at the moment it's not easy.

Tell me: What does it take to get a police officer punished for killing an unarmed black man in cold blood?

The whole thing is on video, people. A passerby named Feidin Santana used his mobile phone to capture Scott's final minutes. An immigrant from the Dominican Republic, Santana gave lengthy testimony at Slager's trial.

"You ask yourself, what if there was no video? What if I wasn't there? Would we have gotten this far in this trial?" Santana asked in an ABC News interview after the mistrial was announced. "That's the way justice is over here, and we have to understand it. But it's a little bit disappointing."

Santana's phrase "over here" refers to the nation that fancies itself a beacon of freedom and equality.

The fatal encounter took place April 4, 2015, when Slager, who is white, pulled Scott over for having a busted brake light. African-Americans and Hispanics are used to such petty, harassing traffic stops. White Americans, perhaps not so much.

Slager testified that he feared for his life; Scott, he claimed, had wrestled away his Taser and was trying to use it on him. But Santana, who saw the whole thing, said there was no struggle -- and the video appears to show Slager placing the Taser next to Scott's body, as if it had been in the dead man's possession. If he did stage the crime scene, the officer demonstrated full awareness of his own culpability. Again, I ask, what does it take?

Even if you want to believe Slager's unsupported account of a struggle, no one can dispute the fact that Scott was running away when Slager gunned him down. A heavyset 50-year-old with no weapons, running as if through molasses, is hardly a clear and present danger to society. Having a broken light on one's car is hardly a capital offense. Yet Slager shot Scott five times. In the back.

Nearly half the population of North Charleston is black; Slager's jury included 11 whites and just one African-American. Notes from the jury to the judge, who is African-American, suggest there may have been one lone holdout who would not vote to convict Slager of murder or manslaughter. That's how the system works, and the outcome of Slager's next trial may be different. But still.

One miscarriage of justice, caused by one stubborn juror, would be easier to swallow if not for all the rest. Eric Garner, approached by police on Staten Island for selling loose cigarettes, was choked to death  again on video  but none of the officers involved has been charged. Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old boy, was playing with a toy gun; a police officer shot him dead within seconds of arriving on scene but faced no charges. Michael Brown was unarmed when a police officer stopped him in Ferguson, Missouri; the officer fired his weapon 12 times, killing Brown, but a grand jury failed to indict him.

No one should wonder why the Black Lives Matter movement is so relevant and necessary. It will remain so until black lives do, in fact, matter. And conservatives who claim to champion individual liberty against abusive state power should be the movement's most avid supporters.

Slager also faces federal charges for allegedly violating Scott's civil rights. That prosecution was delayed pending the completion of the state trial; now that there is to be a second state trial, presumably the federal case will be put off once again.

So it will likely fall to Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala.  President-elect Donald Trump's pick for attorney general  to decide whether to move forward with a trial in federal court. Sessions was once denied a federal judgeship because of racist remarks he had made; friends and supporters say that's all ancient history. We shall see.

Eugene Robinson's email address is eugenerobinson@washpost.com.
The consensus in Israel is that the relationship between the Jewish state and the United States is going to improve in a Trump administration, says former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Zalman Shoval.

On a recent visit to Washington, D.C., Shoval told me that he believes Donald Trump and his cabinet picks so far have a more "realistic" view of the Middle East than President Obama, who from his first days in office, "perhaps before, believed it was his calling to fix once and for all, all matters between the U.S. and the Arab and Muslim worlds, as expressed in his Cairo speech. ... This gives Trump in the hearts and minds of more than a few Israelis a head start."

Shoval said he believes the issue of a Palestinian state  the objective of U.S. foreign policy over several administrations  has become less concerning than the regional and international threat posed by a nuclear Iran. He likes recent statements by secretary of defense-designate Gen. James Mattis about the way forward in dealing with an unstable Iran, believing Mattis recognizes that as important as it is to defeat ISIS, the real threat in the Middle East is Iran.

It's not only the nuclear deal that bothers Shoval, though he believes Iran eventually will have a bomb, unless it is stopped. It is also bothersome that Iran continues with its terrorist activities, subsidizing anti-American and anti-Israel groups around the world because radical mullahs think their god has ordered them to do so. That makes any kind of diplomatic agreement with nations Iran regards as "infidels" impossible.

Even when the battle for Mosul is over and victory has been declared over that ISIS stronghold, Shoval believes, "what it really will mean is that the Iranians and the Shia are going to be the real victors. They will continue their attempts to build a territorial corridor all the way to the Mediterranean along with Hezbollah, which is not only a threat to Israel but also something the so-called moderate Arab states look at with a great deal of concern."

Shoval says he hopes the incoming Trump administration realizes that Iran cannot be a partner with the United States in the Middle East "even if from time to time it seems like that because of what's happening in Syria. Ultimately, Iran is a great danger."

People like former President Jimmy Carter have a different worldview. In a recent op-ed for The New York Times, Carter called on President Obama to recognize a Palestinian state before he leaves office. Carter also called on the United Nations to pass a resolution setting the parameters for "resolving the conflict."

I believe in miracles, but for the UN, or anyone else, to resolve a conflict in which one side thinks it has a heavenly mandate to destroy the other is not where most people would see as a good starting point for conflict resolution. Carter continues to trade off his one success  the peace agreement between Egypt and Israel. But getting one thing right with a unique combination of leaders, one of whom  Anwar Sadat  was assassinated by Islamic fanatics for making peace with Israel, is like an astrologer wanting credit for one prediction that came true while ignoring hundreds that didn't.

Shoval disagrees with those who think the Israel-Palestinian status quo is not sustainable. He believes it is, otherwise a Palestinian state "would mean Hamas and Hezbollah would be just 20 minutes away" from Jerusalem and in a position to overwhelm Israel.

In his book, "The Field of Fight," Michael Flynn, Trump's pick to head the National Security Council, writes about President Obama: "I find it simply incredible that an American president should believe a strategic alliance with Iran to be more attractive than our traditional embrace of Israel. Our new leaders need to reverse that, pronto. We will need Israel if we're going to defeat the radical Islamists, and above all, the Iranians."

This is the opposite of wishful thinking.

Readers can email Cal Thomas at tcaeditors@tribpub.com.
The April 19 cruise from PortMiami lasts five nights.

The ship will then reposition to Port Tampa Bay, offering two itineraries with calls at Havana on April 30, a seven-night sailing, and May 20, a five-night sailing.

Empress of the Seas will remain in Tampa for the 2017 summer season in the line's first summer program from there, with a series of four- and five-night cruises, including calls in Cuba.

Details of the summer itineraries will be released at a later date.

Royal Caribbean spokeswoman Cynthia Martinez told Seatrade Cruise News the company has a framework for a long-term agreement with Cuba, and is working on the details of future sailings.

The line's people-to-people experiences for passengers include exploring Old Havana and some of its most notable squares, historic neighborhoods and an artisan market, Havana's rum museum and Hemingway's former residence and favorite haunts.

Cuban culture will extend to Empress of the Seas, from cortaditos and cafe con leche in Cafe Royal to salsa music and other activities developed to bring the island to life during the entire journey.

Two other Royal Caribbean ships, Rhapsody of the Seas and Brilliance of the Seas, will cruise from Tampa during the winter.

'The Tampa Bay market has always been important to us, and the entire family at Royal Caribbean is excited to give our guests great year-round options to travel on one of our beautiful ships from a world-class port like Port Tampa Bay,' RCI president and ceo Michael Bayley said. 'We are thrilled to introduce culture-seeking travelers to Cuba from Tampa and we look forward to continuing to grow our business in Tampa for years to come.'

Port president and ceo Paul Anderson welcomed the news as 'truly historic for Port Tampa Bay to have cruises to Cuba, and we are thrilled that Royal Caribbean has chosen Port Tampa Bay to offer the largest ship to sail to Cuba from the United States.'

The 48,563gt Empress of the Seas underwent a $50m refurbishment earlier in the year after coming back to the Royal Caribbean fleet following several years of service for Pullmantur. It has double-occupancy capacity for 1,602 passengers.
Some of the 33 employees might be kept on in 2017, in order to maintain Pullmantur group activities.

Going forward, French passengers will sail on the four ships of the Pullmantur fleet in a 'Latin atmosphere with Spanish tones,' so giving up totally the French concept which had made CDF successful and, with 100,000 passengers per year, ranked it behind Costa and MSC Cruises on the French market.

The decision follows Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.'s sale of a 51% stake in Pullmantur and CDF to Madrid-based private equity firm Springwater Capital earlier this year.
The Singapore-headquartered Tsao-family owned shipping company joins over 650 existing members of the Baltic Exchange. It is the first new member to join the Baltic since SGX took it over on 8 November.

We are delighted to welcome another new Baltic member from Asia as we look to enhance growth opportunities amid the shift in seaborne trade to this part of the world, commented Michael Syn head of derivatives at SGX. One of SGXs objectives when taking over the Baltic was to grow its Asian business.

As participation in the Baltic increases, the maritime community as a whole will benefit from a more reliable and independent view of the markets, he added.

Lim Sim Keat, managing director for Transport Logistics, IMC Industrial Group, said, We are proud to become a Baltic member and help promote Singapore in global shipping.
In web alert the club said the months of December, January and February sees a peak in thieves approaching vessels anchored outside the port of Tianjin, and also the port of Dalian.

Disguised as small fishing boats the thieves usually steal bunkers, stores and spare parts. High waves interfering with radar signals and fewer crew members engaged in safety patrols during frozen nights may also be contributing factors to the higher occurrence of theft in winter, the Standard Club said.

It said the clubs correspondents at Tianjin, Huatai Insurance Agency & Consultant Service received four reports of theft from ships last winter.

In the past, Chinese ships were the usual targets. However, currently foreign ships appear to have become the focus of theft, the alert warned.

Vessels anchoring outside Tianjin were advised to take extra security precautions.
Its really starting to thrive, says Miller, the citys parks and recreation director.





Bobby Higgins. Photo by David Lewinski. If a storefront is vacant, its because its being redeveloped, says Bobby Higgins, who opened Fins Eatery and Spirits downtown with his wife last summer. Higgins was a longtime restauranteur in Royal Oak but left in search of a smaller town. He fell in love with New Baltimore and especially its people, who he describes as courteous, friendly and willing to work together.

The citys unbelievable, and I know its just going to start growing now, Higgins says.

New Baltimore is a city of about 13,000 located in Macomb County on Lake St. Clairs Anchor Bay. It was incorporated as a village in 1867 and became a city in 1931. In its early days, the village was a port and a manufacturing town, and in the late 1800s and early 1900s served as a tourist destination for Metro Detroiters. The city is now a bedroom community with a small industrial area and numerous residential subdivisions.

While its no longer a resort town like it was 100 years ago, it appears the city is once again becoming a destination.





Mayor John Dupray. Photo by David Lewinski. We are seeing more and more people coming from outside the city to visit, to see our restaurants, to shop in our shops in the downtown area, to go to our beach, to enjoy the fishing pier, to come by boat, says Mayor John Dupray.

That momentum is aided by the opening of several new businesses in the last few years, including Fins, a frozen yogurt place and trendy boutiques, among others. The city is seeking developers to construct multifunction buildings with commercial and residential space on vacant properties it owns downtown.

Local business leaders recently formed an organization for retail and restaurant owners. They hosted their first big event in November, a deer widows night out that brought hundreds of women downtown on opening day of deer hunting season. Fins owner Higgins hosts classic car nights on Mondays and bike nights on Tuesdays. A runners club makes its way through downtown on Thursdays.

Just one block from Main Street lies Anchor Bay and a public beach with a park and day docks. The city has obtained grant funding to acquire the privately-owned Schmid Marina and turn it into a public marina facility that will allow boats to dock overnight. That project would open up nine acres of waterfront to public use and could turn it into a big hotspot, says Gerard Santoro, program manager for Macomb Countys land and water resources group.

The city has been very progressive in its development, incorporating sustainability measures and ensuring new projects are done on a scale that keeps them quaint yet purposeful, Santoro says.

Its hard to believe it hasnt been rediscovered in a big way until more recently, he says, noting the citys historic downtown that offers a walkable district, housing, restaurants and new developments on the waterfront.

Like other Michigan cities, New Baltimore suffered a decrease in taxes and state revenue sharing during the recession, but the city fared better than others since it was one of the fastest growing communities from around 2000 through 2010, Dupray says. While property values were declining, the city still benefited from the influx of new taxpayers.

New home construction continues, though space is quickly running out. The citys concentration of single-family housing could pose a challenge as demographic shifts create the need for more condominiums, multigenerational housing and transitional housing for empty nesters and senior citizens, says Santoro. Some people may have to move out of the city to find appropriate housing options, he says.

In 2014, New Baltimore was ranked the number one place for homeownership in Michigan by Nerdwallet.com. The ranking was based on housing availability, affordability and population growth in places with at least 10,000 residents. In 2015, the website ranked New Baltimore as the fifth best city for young families in Michigan, citing its waterfront, downtown, economic growth and community involvement with groups like Bay-Rama. In recent years, it also has been ranked among the safest cities in not only Michigan but also the country.

Its a very family-oriented, tight-knit community, says Miller.

Lee Miller. Photo by David Lewinski.

He describes New Baltimore as a city of festivals. Any time of year, he says, theres always some large event or special activity happening. The largest is the FishFly Festival, operated for more than 50 years by the nonprofit Bay-Rama. The volunteer-run organization has provided more than $2 million to the community through scholarships, community events and other donations, including Festival Park and the land used for the citys beach and playground.

Another volunteer organization, the New Baltimore Lions Club, raised money to erect a 160-foot flagpole  the states largest  on the bay to serve as a landmark for boaters after the historic water tower was removed. It was unveiled in October.

Local officials are big fans of placemaking, an approach that guides the way they promote, protect and develop city assets like its waterfront, historic downtown, farmers market and festivals to make the city a destination for both residents and visitors.

Our goal is to make this a walkable place where people want to come, and they can live, work, dine, recreate and shop all in the same place, in a small friendly downtown area, Dupray says.

Since the city doesnt have many large employers, it serves as more of a commuter community.

A lot of people will commute to work, and when they get home and want to spend time with their families, theyre looking to come downtown for nice meal or find an activity or a program for their children to be involved in, says Miller. Were trying to create that community where they can enjoy themselves.

Next year marks the citys 150

Downtown New Baltimore was laden with shuttered storefronts when Lee Miller came to the city nearly five years ago. Since then, he says its gotten a complete facelift with the arrival of new businesses and apartments and more mixed-use developments on the way.th anniversary, so residents and visitors should expect more events and activities in celebration of the milestone.All photos by David Lewinski.
Come next year, Brooklyn, N.Y. residents will have access to their first vegan butcher shop.

Thanks to a successful Kickstarter campaign to raise $50,000, Brooklyn's Monk's Meats plans to open a store that will be modeled after an old-fashioned butcher shop but without the meat. Instead, customers will be able to buy foods created with plant-based fare called seitan  also known as wheat gluten.

Monk's Meats began its journey in 2010 in the Brooklyn kitchen of founders Chris Kim and Rebecca Lopez-Howes. The couple worked on all manner of ways to prepare seitan  "the least well-known of Asian vegetarian proteins," according to Kim. Soon they began selling their creations to local grocers and restaurants in New York Today, Monk's Meats delivers seitan-based fare  from veggie burgers to sliders to bbq mushroom sandwiches and more  to offices, homes and restaurants in all five boroughs of New York. The new butcher shop, set to open in spring 2017, will boast stainless steel counters, a deli case, a butcher's block, and other apparatus reminiscent of a traditional delicatessen, with seitan instead of animal parts as the food on offer.

RELATED: Is Vegan 'Meat' Really Healthy?

Seitan falls under the heading of a "meat analogue," an attempt to bring the taste and texture of meat to those who do not eat animal-based foods. Better known soy-based foods such as tofu and tempeh are also meat analogues.

According to yourdailyvegan, seitan's ability to approximate both the "toothy" texture and the flavor of meat make it a key ingredient in many "faux meat" products. For Kim and Lopez-Howes, seitan supplied them with an answer to the oft-asked question faced by vegans: "Where do you get your protein?"

Kim doesn't like to hear seitan described as a meat alternative. "To me, it's 'plant meat.' It's 'wheat meat,'" he says in the video below. On its own it has no taste until flavoring from different spices and salt are added.

Monk's Meats isn't the country's first vegan butcher shop. That honor belongs to The Herbivorous Butcher, in Minneapolis. The shop opened early this year and, much like Monk's Meats' plans, it went with a traditional deli look.

Almost traditional, that is. The proprietors of The Herbivorous Shop retain a sense of fun, even including a cow-shaped cutting board: "very much a cheeky joke," the shop's owners told Thrillist at the beginning of this year.

The Minneapolis shop also raised its launch funds through a Kickstarter campaign  good for $60,000  Thrillist reported.
John Glenn really wanted to be the first man in space. And from the moment he was selected as one of the Mercury astronauts, he worked diligently to stand out among his peers in the eyes of NASA's top decision makers. But in the end, it was pure luck that Glenn ended up being the first American to orbit the Earth on Feb. 20, 1962.

Glenn was the quintessential 1950s astronaut. He was a decorated Marine veteran of the Second World War and the Korean War. He was a celebrated pilot; on July 16, 1957, he broke the trans-America speed record in a Vought F8U Crusader jet aircraft when he flew from from Los Alamitos Naval Air Station in California to Floyd Bennett Field in New York in 3 hours 23 minutes 8.4 seconds, averaging 725.55 miles per hour.

He was charming, something the nation saw first hand when he appeared on "Name That Tune" alongside child star Eddie Hodges the same night the Soviet Union launched Sputnik. He was a Presbyterian. He was a family man, married to his childhood sweetheart Annie. And above all he was fiercely patriotic.

RELATED: John Glenn, American Hero and NASA Astronaut, Has Died

The media loved Glenn, and Glenn could only hope the NASA brass would feel the same way. Publicly and privately, he embodied what he thought the agency would want to put forward as its first astronaut.

He might have gone too far. In the course of their training, Glenn isolated himself from his fellow astronauts. He put work first, studied diligently and exercised daily to keep his weight under the 180 pound cutoff. He assumed the role of the group's spokesman and representative, often leaning on his media contacts to cover the other astronauts' indiscretions.
Stephen Robinson was six and a half years old when John Glenn, a former Marine Corps pilot, blasted off aboard Friendship 7 in 1962 on a nail-biting mission deemed critical to America's national security.

Thirty-five years later Robinson met his boyhood hero in a most unlikely place: Glenn, who had long retired from NASA and was about to end a 24-year career in politics, was going back into space, this time as a research subject on board Space Shuttle Discovery as part of the STS-95 mission. Robinson, now an astronaut himself, was in charge of the experiments.

"I was beyond nervous," Robinson said in an interview with Seeker. "I'm thinking 'Oh yeah, me. Here's this American icon and I'm going to tell him what to do?' But he was an expert at putting people at ease. We worked very well together and we became close friends."

It had been more than 36 years since Glenn's five-hour foray around the planet, the first by an American, but Robinson said Glenn, who was 77 when he flew on the shuttle, took to space quite naturally.

"He did not seem like a first-time flier at all," Robinson said.

During the flight, Robinson and his crewmates peppered Glenn with questions about what it was like aboard Friendship 7 and how the shuttle experience was different. "He said some stuff, but he really wasn't a backwards-looking guy ... He was much more interested in the future and thinking about what we were doing now could change the future for the better good," Robinson said.

RELATED: How John Glenn Drew the First Orbital Flight

One key difference between the flights was the number of people aboard. Friendship 7, which made three orbits around Earth before splashing down in the ocean, was a solo ship. During the STS-95 space shuttle mission, Glenn flew with six crewmates, though Robinson said the presence of a seventh was always felt - Glenn's wife, Annie.

"I've never seen two people closer or more intertwined than John and Annie," Robinson said. "There couldn't have been the John Glenn that we saw if there hadn't been Annie Glenn ... We all got to know very well and understood the power of this relationship, which as far as I could tell was really the basis of his greatness."

Another difference between the flights was Glenn's ability to actually experience weightlessness and enjoy the view from 340 miles above Earth. Glenn remained strapped in his seat during his first flight and Friendship 7 didn't have much in the way of windows.

"He was so happy. This was his dream come true - again. When we got up into orbit it was just fabulous to see this guy," Robinson said.

One night after dinner Robinson remembers going up to the shuttle's flight deck. The lights were down and Glenn was there just floating, looking out the window. "It was quiet and dark and it was beautiful out there like it always is and I said 'John, what are you doing?' He didn't even turn around. He just said 'I'm at church.'"

Glenn died on Thursday at the age of 95, the last of NASA's original Mercury Seven astronauts. He leaves behind Annie, his wife of 73 years, two children and two grandchildren.

Later in the day, Glenn's family and his colleagues at Ohio State University said Glenn had died peacefully and "left this Earth for the third time as a happy and fulfilled person."

RELATED: John Glenn, American Hero and NASA Astronaut, Has Died

Lead photo: With their feet anchored in the hatchway, John Glenn and the STS-95 crew poses for a traditional in-flight portrait. Commander Curt Brown appears at the right. Clockwise from there are pilot Steven Lindsey, payload commander Stephen Robinson, European Space Agency astronaut Pedro Duque, Japan's Chiaki Naito-Mukai and flight engineer Scott Parazynski. Credit: NASA WATCH VIDEO: Why Does a Rocket Need to Roll Going Into Orbit?
There is little doubt that non-human primates like Koko the gorilla are very intelligent. Koko, for example, uses sign language to communicate with people, telling them that she loves her pet cats, Miss Black and Miss Grey. Koko, however, is noticeably the strong and silent type, at least when it comes to speaking our language. She doesn't say a word. They may not always show it, but new research, published in the journal Science Advances, suggests that non-human primates, even monkeys down on the food chain, have the vocal anatomy to produce clearly intelligible human speech. The discovery negates a long-standing theory that monkeys, gorillas, chimps and the like do not talk as we do because they are incapable of creating the sounds required for the skill. "I hope that this new data dispels forever the widespread myth that monkeys and apes cannot speak because of anatomical limitations of their vocal tract," lead author Tecumseh Fitch of the University of Vienna's Department of Cognitive Biology told Seeker. RELATED: Monkey-Made Nut Processing Site Found Fitch, senior author Asif Ghazanfar, Bart de Boer and Neil Mathur investigated the range of movements that primate vocal anatomy could produce. Using X-ray videos, they captured and then traced the movements of a macaque's tongue, lips, larynx and more as the monkey vocalized, ate and made facial expressions. The researchers then used these X-rays to build a computer model of a monkey vocal tract, allowing them to answer the question: What would monkey speech sound like, if a human brain were in control? You can hear the results, first with the monkey model saying, "Will you marry me?" and then, "Joyeux Noel (Merry Christmas in French)." (Recordings courtesy of Asif Ghazanfar, Princeton Neuroscience Institute; Image 1 Credit: Paul Asman and Jill Lenoble, Flickr; Image 2, showing Tecumseh Fitch in his lab: University of Vienna)

The experiment worked out great, and yet we're still left with the fact that monkeys and apes do not talk as we do. The explanation turns out to be more complex, and controversial, than you might think. First, Fitch and his team believe that most mammals possess flexible, speech-ready vocal tracts. He said, "It seems clear that this type of flexibility evolved early on, for reasons other than vocalization, probably initially for food processing-manipulating and swallowing food." He suspects that humans evolved at least two important changes to our brains that give us a communication edge. Fitch explained, "We have direct connections between our motor cortical neurons and the neurons that actually control the vocal tract musculature, particularly those in charge of the larynx; and we have much more substantial connections, within our cortex, between the auditory cortex-responsible for hearing sounds-and the motor cortex, responsible for making sounds." Fitch says there are many theories attempting to explain how humans evolved both the brain and the vocal tract for speech. One of his favorites was formulated by famed British naturalist Charles Darwin, who theorized that our ancestors initially evolved to become "singing apes," or kind of a cross between gibbons and songbirds and being able to learn new songs. This musical ability, Darwin suspected, emerged first, and then later was put to use in speech.
Each finger looks like a fake rubbery Vienna sausage, but don't be fooled. This new soft robotic prosthetic hand developed at Cornell University has an extremely sensitive touch.

Called, naturally, Gentle Bot, the hand boasts complex, sophisticated components. The bot can handle challenges like grasping a coffee mug, holding an extremely ripe tomato without crushing it, and shaking a real human hand. Nice to meet you, too, Gentle Bot.

Robert Shepherd, an assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and principal investigator in Cornell's Organic Robotics Lab, headed up the bot's creation. He and his group sought to get as close as possible to human touch, ditching the motors, rigid parts, and bulkiness usually required for making a responsive prosthetic. They published a paper about the bot this week in the first issue of Science Robotics.

Their approach drew on advancements made in optics, particularly in the manufacturing of snaking optical cords called waveguides. Fiber optics are a type of optical waveguide, if that helps. Although that fabrication was once limited to large corporations and national laboratories, it's now possible for academic researchers, like Shepherd, to do their own custom printing using a multi-step soft lithography process.

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Gentle Bot's innards are quite clever. Stretchy optical waveguides containing LEDs are built right into the pneumatic fingers, allowing them to "sense" the surroundings. When the soft fingers mounted on a rigid palm flex, even a tiny bit, that affects how much the light goes into the device. Those changes are measured by a light detector, or photodiode. The internal optical cords act kind of like nerves.

"Most robots today have sensors on the outside of the body that detect things from the surface," doctoral student Huichan Zhao, the lead author on their paper, said in a university statement. "Our sensors are integrated within the body, so they can actually detect forces being transmitted through the thickness of the robot, a lot like we and all organisms do when we feel pain."

The group's tests bore that out. Gentle Bot was able to check objects for shape and texture, running its fingers over the surface of three tomatoes in a row and then correctly picking out the ripest one. Using one finger, Gentle Bot also measured the softness of various objects like a sponge, silicone rubber, and acrylic.

However, there are limitations. The hand couldn't tell the difference between the acrylic and an unripe tomato. Plus, it's currently hard to localize where a touch comes from, Shepherd told the university. Next steps could include improvements like 3D printing more complex waveguide sensors, increasing the pressure range on the soft actuators, and adding machine learning. I'm hoping we'll see this bot graduate to separating eggs. Then we can truly wave goodbye to robotic butter fingers.

WATCH VIDEO: What Is the Future of Robotic Limbs?
"I like to code, it's just really fun and interesting," enthused Amaya, a seventh-grader at West Oakland Middle School in California. "In the future, computer science might help me with my career and give me multiple options for what I want to do for my job. I might want to be a software engineer... or a chemist!"

Not many middle schoolers will tell you that they want to be a software engineer when they grow up, but Amaya has been taking computer science classes for a while now.

Through partnerships and grants from Code.org, a nonprofit aiming to increase representation of women and minorities in the tech sector, and Salesforce.org, the philanthropic branch of the San Francisco tech giant, the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) offers computer science classes in all of its schools.

Earlier this week at West Oakland Middle School, nearly a hundred students sat in a room together typing code into handheld Pocket Chip computers, the room humming with excited chatter. The event was put on by Salesforce as part of Computer Science Education Week, in which districts nationwide host events encouraging students to take an active interest in computer science. As the kids quickly punched numbers and symbols into their devices to create and program a simple computer game, there was an air of electricity you wouldn't expect to find in a typical middle-school classroom.

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"We know students love these courses. It engages their brain in different ways and they get excited about computer science in ways they don't about an algebra class or another class," Devin Dillon, Deputy Superintendent of Oakland Unified School District, told Seeker. "We've seen over a 400 percent increase in computer science course offerings in just one year, so we've really scaled this up quickly, thanks to making it a district priority."

This initiative matters in a district like OUSD, where approximately 88.2 percent of the students are non-white. People of color are largely underrepresented in the tech industry - a discouraging fact when you consider that Oakland is located mere miles from some of the world's largest tech companies in Silicon Valley.

"In the Bay Area, [computer science] is a social justice issue, so it's a no-brainer that students should have access to what drives the local economy," said Claire Shorall, Manager of Computer Science for OUSD. "There's untapped brilliance just sitting in the walls of our classrooms. As we provide an opportunity to more and more students, I expect the landscape of tech will change a lot."

The inclusion of more people of color in tech is something that Brandon Nicholson, executive director of the Hidden Genius Project, thinks about a lot. The Hidden Genius Project is an Oakland-based program that connects black male youth with the education and opportunity they need to thrive in the tech industry.

"It's important that they learn skills that can bring their ideas, their passion and their energy to bear... not to just be on a career pathway, but hopefully to thrive in their community," Nicholson remarked.

"That's not a given at this time, particularly in this city," he added, referring to the increasing number of residents that can no longer afford to live in the Bay Area, a disproportionate number of whom are minorities. "So many people are being displaced."

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As the tech industry has brought more money to the area in recent years, rent and property values in Oakland have skyrocketed. That the city is so close to these wealthy tech companies while its residents are largely unrepresented within them is an inescapable fact for those who live here.

"You meet all these different people of color in your community and you go to these companies, and they're not there," Nicholson said. "Why is that?"

He believes that diversifying the workforce will soon become a priority for the companies that want to survive.

"They're going to have to be aggressive and they're going to have to compete," he said. "They'll have to find ways to either be first or be the best. It's not going to be enough to base that paradigm on a predominantly white or white middle and upper class perspective."

The Hidden Genius Project wants to help spur this change in the tech industry, but its organizers emphasize that the focus isn't to simply training young black men to be employable in Silicon Valley - it's about encouraging them to become entrepreneurs and creators in the tech space as well.

This is a central component of OUSD's computer science program and a core initiative of Computer Science Education Week.

"I think central to our mission is for young people to create the next wave of big tech companies for themselves and for the community," Shorall explained. "Computer science is one component, but so is entrepreneurship, so is ethnic studies, so are all the other wrap-around academic experiences students have. Computer science exists within an ecosystem of what it means to be tech."

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This is also why OUSD and the Hidden Genius Project partnered with the Kapor Center for Social Justice and the Oakland Public Education Fund to create Oakland Is Beyond, a program designed to expose students to tech opportunities beyond the realm of engineering. The initiative sponsors several events for Bay Area students during Computer Science Education Week that highlight the array of jobs available in the tech industry.

"We want to elevate not just the tech space, but also the students' interests and their strengths at the same time," Nicholson said. "Beyond is all about students imagining a future for themselves that's actually rooted in the assets they bring to the table."

The idea is for kids to understand that there's room in the tech world for them to do the things that they are already passionate about.

"If you love music or health or whatever, tech is a great way to get there, and it doesn't always mean that you're an engineer," Nicholson added.

Though Computer Science Education Week is just one week out of the year, the participating programs and organizations want students to feel this motivation every single day.

"We're thinking about this as a part of the entire K-12 continuum, not just this one-off that happens one week in December," Shorall remarked. "Students get really excited by this work, so you definitely feel the push from them for these courses as a result of exposure experiences like this."

Nicholson agrees that exposure is the key.

"So many people who work at the Googles and Facebooks of the world did not imagine themselves there even three years ago, and definitely not 10 years ago," he said. "They didn't understand the range of ways to apply their skills and strengths. We're trying to build an entire ecosystem that allows for that, both in school and out of school, so kids can begin to imagine themselves in those spaces."
U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a sixth-term Republican from Washington State who is a climate change denier and an ardent opponent of regulations for greenhouse gas emissions, has been nominated by President-elect Donald Trump for Secretary of Interior.

If McMorris Rodgers is confirmed by the U.S. Senate, she would govern the management of more than 500 million acres of federal public lands, including more than 400 national parks.

Perhaps most critically, she would oversee the development of many of America's fossil fuels and renewables resources, including all of its offshore oil, gas and wind development. Federal land is the source of more than 20 percent of all the oil and gas and 40 percent of the coal produced in the U.S.

McMorris Rodgers would have the power to reverse Obama administration efforts to protect federally managed waters from oil and gas development as well as end the research into how coal mining affects the climate. Earlier this year, the Obama administration placed a three-year moratorium on federal coal leasing, and closed the entire East Coast and parts of the Arctic Ocean to offshore oil drilling.

The land the Interior Department manages stores atmospheric carbon in trees and tree roots; protects biological diversity in wilderness areas, forests and national parks; and provides water for millions of people, mainly in the West.

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McMorris Rodgers would also have wide-ranging influence over how the National Park Service and the U.S. Geological Survey communicate to the public about global warming, potentially troubling in light of her denial of climate change and climate science.

"Scientific reports are inconclusive at best on human culpability of global warming," McMorris Rodgers falsely toldthe Spokane, Wash., Spokesman-Review newspaper in 2012. "Regardless of which theory proves correct, the goal is the same  to reduce carbon emissions, we need innovation in the private sector; not excessive government regulation to stifle some industries while rewarding others. I oppose 'cap and trade' and other big government schemes because they will destroy jobs while likely having minimal impact on the climate."

McMorris Rodgers signed a 2012 pledge sponsored by Americans for Prosperity, a conservative political advocacy group funded by billionaire David Koch, promising that she would oppose any federal climate-related legislation that would raise revenue for the federal government, including a carbon tax.

Coming from Washington State, which is highly dependent on large hydroelectric dams for its electricity, McMorris Rodgers is a vocal supporter of hydropower and nuclear energy and has sponsored legislation expanding the development of small hydroelectric dams nationwide - a valuable source of renewable energy.

But she is also a major proponent of drilling public lands for fossil fuels.

The League of Conservation Voters gives McMorris Rodgers a 4 percent lifetime score out of a possible 100 in their environmental scorecard because she has voted against bills that would have required the federal government to account for the social cost of carbon in administrative actions and required federally funded projects to be resilient to the impacts of climate change.

McMorris Rodgers has supported legislation that would have opened the Outer Continental Shelf to oil drilling, and opposed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions as an air pollutant. She has also voted against tax credits for renewable electricity.

"That is not a record that is likely to inspire confidence from the environmental community," said Mark Squillace, a natural resources law professor at the University of Colorado-Boulder. "On the other hand, I don't sense that she has been a leading voice on public lands issues and so perhaps she will take a more conciliatory approach if she is confirmed as Interior Secretary."

He said that McMorris Rodgers has mostly voted with other Republicans on environmental and public lands issues.

"She also serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, but again I have not seen clear signs of leadership on energy issues, other than a pattern of consistent votes in favor of fossil fuels and against taking action on climate change," Squillace said.

In 2011, McMorris Rodgers co-sponsored a bill that would have required the Interior Secretary to sell off more than 3 million acres of public lands in 10 western states, a bill driven largely by western Republicans who believed the land served no specific purpose. Selling it would have raised more than $1 billion for the federal government, Utah Sen. Mike Lee said at the time.

RELATED: Climate Scientists Fear Trump Budget Cuts and Wonder What He Really Believes

As Interior secretary, McMorris Rodgers will oversee water management in much of the West. The department's Bureau of Reclamation operates 476 dams and 348 reservoirs across the country, and it is in charge of numerous scientific endeavors and mapping the entire globe through the U.S. Geological Survey.

Robert H. Nelson, a professor of public policy focusing on public lands management at the University of Maryland and a proponent of the federal government transferring federal public lands to the states, said that what's most notable about McMorris Rodgers' nomination is that, unlike other Trump cabinet nominees, she does not appear to be a well-known activist.

"If he had done that, he would have picked someone from a state like Utah," Nelson said, referring to Trump. "Her district, however, along with the rest of Washington State, is heavily affected by hydropower supplied from federal dams. There she has a higher profile. She has publicly supported, for example, keeping the four Snake River dams that many environmentalists would like to tear down."

Other experts and conservationists are grim about the future of public lands under McMorris Rodgers.

"Together the pro-fossil fuel team of McMorris at Interior and Scott Pruitt at EPA is a disaster in the making for efforts to reign in CO2 before we hit truly awful tipping points," said Jack Tuholske, director of the Vermont Law School Water and Justice Program. "Federal lands have enough coal, oil and gas to push us over any reasonable carbon threshold. President Obama has been fairly successful in limiting access to those resources, especially in his second term. All of those efforts could be undone with Trump's team in place."

Dominick DellaSala, chief scientist of the Geos Institute in Ashland, Ore., said McMorris Rodgers is no fan of the National Environmental Policy Act, the law that requires environmental review of new development and land management changes on federally owned land.

McMorris Rodgers is "bad but could be worse on these issues," DellaSala said. "She's not likely to champion public lands conservation issues."

Gary Wockner, director of Save the Colorado, a group advocating for conservation and preservation of the Colorado River, said McMorris Rodgers has an "extreme" anti-environment voting record.

"The U.S. Senate should do everything in its power to stop her appointment and stop Trump's impending war on the public lands, rivers, and wildlife of the West," Wockner said.

More From Climate Central:

Protection of Public Lands Cast in Doubt

Public Lands May Be America's Best Climate Defense

Offshore Wind Project to Go Live as Industry Eyes Trump

This article originally appeared on Climate Central, all rights reserved.

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Polish archaeologists have uncovered the medieval remains of three "vampires" - individuals whose bodies were mutilated before interment to physically prevent any attempts to rise from the grave.

Dating to the 13th and 14th centuries, the deviant burials were unearthed in the village Gorzyca in western Poland.

"They were found near a former bishop's residence. A Gothic cathedral once stood somewhere near the graves," Krzysztof Socha of the Museum of Fortress Kostrzyn in Poland, told Seeker.

Two skeletons, belonging to a woman and a man, bear the signs of various mutilations, carried out with sharp objects.

RELATED: Anti-Demonic Burial Found in Poland

Both skeletons had holes in the spine, most likely from someone nailing the bodies into the ground.

Buried face down - a treatment aimed to impede the individual from rising from the grave - with her knees deliberately broken, the woman is believed to have suffered from kyphosis, an exaggerated rounding of the back.
Press Release

December 9, 2016 From Venice to PHL: 'Tie A String' Exhibit Comes Home The Philippines' comeback pavilion in the 2015 Venice Art Biennale is home. On December 9, 2016, the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), and the Office of Senator Loren Legarda will open the homecoming of Tie A String Around The World - The Philippine Pavilion, which will be at the UP Vargas Museum, Diliman, Quezon City until February 18, 2017. The exhibition, curated by Patrick Flores, was the Philippines' official representation in the 56th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia in 2015, 51 years after its first participation in 1964. It features the works of Manuel Conde, Carlos Francisco, Manny Montelibano, and Jose Tence Ruiz. "Tie A String Around the World was remarkable, our powerful re-entry to the prestigious exhibition after 51 years of absence. After representing the Philippines and making an impact in the 2015 Venice Art Biennale, it is now in the country's premier state university for Filipinos to see," said Legarda, whose vision and leadership paved the way for the country's return to the Venice Biennale. Flores said that he tried to organize a pavilion that was relevant in the Philippine context as it was responsive to the global conversation. "In the process, I thought of as many after lives as possible after Venice." Flores explained that there is a specific focus on the particular situation in the West Philippine Sea that the exhibit is trying to respond to, but is not limited to this explosive political issue. Instead, it aims to encourage conversation on "what makes a common sea and where lie frontier and edge, melancholy and migration." Tie A String Around the World revolves around Conde's 1950 film Genghis Khan, co-written and designed by Francisco, screened at the Museum of Modern Art and at the Venice Film Festival in 1952, where it competed with the films of Chaplin, Clement, Fellini, Bergman, and Mizoguchi. Conde and Francisco are both national artists. The said film tells the story of the young Genghis Khan, his passage into the life of a warrior. It ends with the conqueror, perched on a mountain, casting his magisterial gaze over his dominion and promising his woman to "tie a string around the world" and lay it at her feet. This is a tale of the "king of kings" and the formation of empires that have strung the islands of the world. Genghis Khan's empire stretched from the Pacific to Europe, the largest contiguous realm ever. Montelibano's A Dashed State, a 20-minute, three-channel video with sound installation, ponders on the creation of new boundaries and territories, like the Nine Dash Line. It is a reflection of the state of our people, the state of our country, and the state of the world. Ruiz's Shoal is an interpretation of BRP Sierra Madre. The New York Times describes it as the vessel of Vietnam War vintage that "the Philippine government ran aground on the reef in 1999 and has since maintained as a kind of post-apocalyptic military garrison, the small detachment of Filipino troops stationed there struggling to survive extreme mental and physical desolation." The exhibit seeks to initiate discussion on the history of the sea and its relationship with the current world, claims to patrimony, and the struggle of nation-states over vast and intensely contested nature. It locates the Philippines in the world through its deep ties to ancient cultures, its precocious modern art, and the critical responses of contemporary art to present predicaments. Through the work of artists across generations, this history is told as a history of art and a history of the world. Tie A String Around The World was regarded as a must-see national pavilion in the 2015 Venice Art Biennale by several art institutions and international news organizations including Art Radar, Christie's, ArtsHub, and a-n The Artists Information Company. Tie A String Around the World homecoming exhibition is organized by the NCCA, the DFA, and the Office of Senator Loren Legarda, in partnership with the UP Vargas Museum. For more information, please visit vargasmuseum.upd.edu.ph and the Vargas Museum's official Facebook page, e-mail the museum at [email protected] or call at (+632) 928-19-27.
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No matter what architectural fads are in vogue, theres one constant in downtown towers: Groundbreakings are an excuse to put on a show.

And the bigger the building, the bigger the show. Which explains the cloudy fenced-off fanfare Thursday morning near the corner of First and Mission streets in San Francisco.

A groundbreaking ceremony for us architects is incredible. You pinch yourselves, said Stefan Behling of the firm Foster + Partners, lead designer for Oceanwide Center. So many projects start and then stop. When the event occurs and the cranes show up, you know its going to happen.

Never mind that buildings are still being demolished where the main skyscraper of the four-building complex will rise 910 feet. Or that a gloomy mix of drizzle and rain consigned the show to a plastic tent, shovel-ready soil waiting within a long, raised planter.

This is a complex that, when completed by 2021, will climb higher than the Transamerica Pyramid and contain more space than the nearby Salesforce Tower. So the developers wanted to kick things off in style, and more than 200 people showed up to mark the occasion.

Event staff circled among early guests with platters of carrot-coconut muffins. Two models were on display near the entrance. One, nearly 5 feet tall, was detailed enough to have small figures on view inside the windows.

Paul Chinn/The Chronicle

As for the stage, the podium was flanked by flags representing the United States and the Peoples Republic of China  a facet of the project that helped explain the large turnout.

The complex is named after Oceanwide Holdings, a Chinese firm with more than 100 subsidiaries and 10,000 employees.

Thank you for joining us for todays momentous occasion, said Xiaosheng Han, executive board director and president of Oceanwide Holdings. He predicted the complex will have a positive and lasting impact on San Francisco as well as help establish our brand.

The local politicians who followed, not surprisingly, stressed benefits over brand.

Mayor Ed Lee talked about the $44 million that will be generated for affordable housing within a 1-mile radius of the project and an overall $130 million in funding for everything from cultural programs to transportation initiatives.

District Supervisor Jane Kim made similar points, highlighting how the development fees will be used in part to upgrade playgrounds in Chinatown.

Oceanwide dug in pretty quickly, Kim said, presumably referring to the firms community outreach rather than its benefits package. As we build a high-density neighborhood, we need to ensure that theres healthy and active open space.

Every groundbreaking has variations of such upbeat rhetoric, just as there always will be coffee beforehand. But just as almond milk was an option to lighten the coffee, other aspects of Oceanwide Centers launch signaled that this is 2016.

At the global level, the remarks by Consul General Luo Linquan of Chinas local outpost emphasized the extensive economic bonds between his country and ours  perhaps an unstated rebuttal to the way President-elect Donald Trump has trash-talked China.

On the local front, Behling emphasized that the high-reaching towers will include foundations burrowed deep into the earth.

You all know the ground in this area isnt the best for towers, Behling said, a discreet reference to the problems with the foundation of the sinking Millennium Tower less than two blocks away. The (foundation) piles here will go down as much as 270 feet to bedrock.

Forty-five minutes after comments began, it was time for the main event.

Paul Chinn/The Chronicle

The speakers put on branded hardhats and grabbed their upscale shovels. They lined up behind the long planter box with Oceanwide Center Groundbreaking Ceremony spelled out in English and Mandarin.

This is the shovel part, and then we will have a photo op, event emcee Darlene Chiu Bryant of ChinaSF told the crowd.

Up went the shovels. They descended to an audible flurry of smart-phone snaps.

Shall we do it one more time?

And with that, the festivities were over and Champagne was served.

John King is The San Francisco Chronicles urban design critic. Email: jking@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @johnkingsfchron
Estimados amigos,

Les doy cordialmente la bienvenida a este Blog informativo con articulos, analisis y comentarios de publicaciones especializadas y especialmente seleccionadas, principalmente sobre temas economicos, financieros y politicos de actualidad, que esperamos y deseamos, sean de su maximo interes, utilidad y conveniencia.

Pensamos que solo comprendiendo cabalmente el presente, es que podemos proyectarnos acertadamente hacia el futuro.

Las convicciones son mas peligrosos enemigos de la verdad que las mentiras.

There are decades when nothing happens and there are weeks when decades happen.

You only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out.

No soy alguien que sabe, sino alguien que busca.

Only Gold is money. Everything else is debt.

Las grandes almas tienen voluntades; las debiles tan solo deseos.

Quien no lo ha dado todo no ha dado nada.

History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.

If you know the other and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.

We are travelers on a cosmic journey, stardust, swirling and dancing in the eddies and whirlpools of infinity. Life is eternal. We have stopped for a moment to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share.This is a precious moment. It is a little parenthesis in eternity.
Peter Wadsworth was a true eclectic  an artist, entrepreneur, computer expert and walking, talking encyclopedia of knowledge and trivia.

He was also the only one of the 36 people who died in the Dec. 2 fire in Oakland who had lived in the doomed Ghost Ship warehouse. The rest were guests whod come for the electronic music show.

He was a walking catalogue of correct factual knowledge, said Swan Vega, 33, an artist who also lived at the warehouse-turned-artists-collective. He was like our Dumbledore  our wise wizard. He was a genius. He was pure intelligence.

You could catch Pete in the hall, she said, and suddenly realize you have been engaging in the most interesting conversation you've had in a month, when you need to go to work.

Wadsworth, who was 38, was identified Friday by the Alameda County coroner.

Friends said he had been trying, unsuccessfully, to find other lodging and to move out of the building at 31st Avenue and International Boulevard, which had not been approved for residency. It was not clear if he was attending the music show at the time of the fire or if he was simply at home.

A longtime friend, Tammy Tasoff, said Wadsworth was trying to get a marijuana-infused salsa company off the ground, a timely endeavor given the states legalization of pot. He was also an artist who created replicas of Egyptian sculptures. And in the past, he worked at a company involved with drones.

Tasoff said she was studying to be a dentist, and that she intended to hire Wadsworth, who was like my brother, to be her office manager.

He was very eclectic and very, very sweet and loving, she said.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Wadsworth was from Boston, studied psychology at Harvard University and Reed College, and worked for a time as a designer for a small theater company in Boston, according to his Facebook page.

Kierstan Streber, who once shared an apartment in San Franciscos Haight-Ashbury with Wadsworth and three others, recalled a very eccentric, very very intelligent friend who was a little unusual.

She said he had wanted all of his friends and acquaintances, even casual ones, to stay in touch with each other. An email she received from Wadsworth in 2013, and held on to, proved to be telling.

Im really surprised no one has shared emergency contact information, he wrote. God forbid anything happens to any of us (but) accidents do happen and no one wants to be in a situation where we cant help when its most needed.

Steve Rubenstein and Kimberly Veklerov are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: srubenstein@sfchronicle.com, kveklerov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @steverubesf @kveklerov
Joseph Joey Matlock was what some in the music industry call a lifer.

It means Matlock, also known as Joey Casio, didnt care if people listened to him or bought his records or came to his shows. It was simply in his blood and in his soul.

He would do his music, do his art no matter what, said Calvin Johnson, founder of the record label K, where Matlock recorded some of his singles. There was never a wide interest in what he did, but it didnt seem to bother him.

While he wasnt famous, Matlock was a punk and electronica legend within the circles he traveled in Oakland and back in his former home of Olympia, Wash., where K is based, Johnson said.

Hes a real institution around here, he said.

Matlock, an Oakland resident, was among the 36 people who died in the fire at the Ghost Ship warehouse in Oakland on Dec. 2, and among the last victims identified by authorities. He was 36.

He was scheduled to perform at the event under the name Obsidian Blade.

His parents, Kathe and John Matlock, expressed relief that their sons remains had been identified. On Wednesday evening, they attended a tribute to their son, with 120 people sharing stories and crying together, they said.

People spoke of how Matlock helped them or how his music changed their lives, his father said.

He worked through the years to survive, but the music was clearly his passion, his father said Thursday. He wasnt out trying to become famous or be the worlds definition of a financial success.

The elder Matlock said he didnt always relate to his sons music.

But I have every bit of it on my computer, he said. We were comfortable and excited about Joey being whoever he wanted to be.

One song especially summed up his life, his father said, one that ended with the lyrics, Share the cup, spare the sword.

Matlock always put others first, sharing his music or the coat off his back, his father said. And he was a peacemaker.

That was Joeys life, he said.

Matlocks friends expressed similar sentiments.

He was almost a mystical creature walking through the world, said his friend, Janina Angel Bath, at a Piedmont vigil this week that was held for the presumed victims of the fire.

Matlock was definitely very punk, playing punk venues and punk shows, Johnson said. He even lived for a decade or so in the Red House in Olympia, a punk living space.

But his music more recently was based in the techno and electronic realms.

Earlier in his career, music critics described him as a musician who could make a school dance into a rave party, and a snobby nightclub into a love fest.

Tall and gangly, he was a beautiful alien, a punk in the truest sense and a digital hypnotist, others wrote.

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I have always wanted to strive to create something new, Matlock said in a 2012 interview. I have this belief that maybe is influenced by futurism, that new ideas in aesthetics may also allow for possibilities in new ideas elsewhere in human thought and change of culture.

That was his life by night. By day, Matlock was a teacher, with a resume that included a California teaching credential and a stint working at a Washington preschool, friends said.

Back in Olympia, Johnson had honored Matlock and the other victims of the fire with a fundraiser, selling Joey Casio records and donating the proceeds to a relief fund for victims.

Johnson toured with Matlock during the summer of 2011, sharing hours in the car and playing shows in Fresno, Sacramento, San Jose and Oakland. He was funny and observant of the world around him, and he could convey a lot of meaning with very few words, Johnson said.

And he never had anything negative to say.

He wasnt like one of those positive people jumping around being annoyingly positive and stuff, Johnson said. As a person, I thought he was genuinely kind and gentle.

Friends across the country mourned the loss of Matlock, who over the years performed in groups including Scream Club, with Cindy Wonderful, which also recorded with the K label.

The one thing that makes me feel better about this situation, she wrote in a Facebook post two days after the fire, is knowing that he went out amongst people who cared about him, people he no doubt cared about, doing what he loved to do.

Its tragic and sad and yet poetic in a way.

Jill Tucker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jtucker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jilltucker
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When a rock bands fireworks display exploded into flames at a crowded Rhode Island nightclub in February 2003, killing 100 people, fire safety in the nations smallest state was governed by a patchwork of mostly outdated local regulations.

As state fire official Keith Burlingame recalled, a state with 39 cities and towns had close to 80 local fire districts, each with its own standards. And virtually all of them exempted older buildings that had been in compliance with the modest regulations in effect in 1976. Unless they underwent major renovations or expansion, the regulations allowed those buildings to avoid any later safety upgrades.

All that changed after the deadly blaze at the Station nightclub. Rhode Islands response  a flurry of building inspections statewide, followed by enactment of some of the nations strongest safety laws  holds possible lessons for Oakland, where the fire that took 36 lives at the Ghost Ship warehouse revealed glaring holes in the citys fire inspection system.

As The Chronicles Matier & Ross reported Wednesday, while California law requires cities to enforce the states fire-safety standards, Oakland fire inspectors are examining only 6,000 of the 12,000 commercial buildings they are supposed to check out each year.

Despite numerous complaints about accumulated trash, graffiti and other blight at the Ghost Ship, the building had not been inspected for at least 30 years, an Oakland planning director admitted Wednesday. Residents there described seeing exposed wiring and noticing other safety hazards, including a lack of smoke detectors and alarms, before the fire that started Friday night. A city inspector visited the building Nov. 17, but he was unable to gain entrance and never returned.

In Rhode Island, the fire at the Station in the town of West Warwick galvanized state officials into action.

Republican Gov. Donald Carcieri ordered immediate inspections of all of Rhode Islands 1,712 places of assembly, including clubs, restaurants, theaters and churches. Most lacked sprinkler systems, and many had the same type of wood-framed, potentially combustible construction as the nightclub.

Elise Amendola/Associated Press

Some buildings were shut down because of fire hazards. One, a fashionable Providence restaurant, was ordered to remove antique rugs hanging from the ceiling and tabletop oil lamps  emitting just a teeny-weeny flame, the owner moaned, according to media reports. Inspectors also found a tavern in East Providence where a purported fire exit led to a fenced-in lot.

Less than five months after the fire, state lawmakers passed sweeping safety rules for nearly every building in Rhode Island, exempting only homes for one to three families, which were required to have smoke alarms. All other buildings were covered by rules for everything from mandatory sprinklers to minimum clearances for exits and emergency lighting. A trained crowd-control manager was required at every gathering of at least 250 people.

The new laws also prohibited nightclub entertainers from using pyrotechnics, like the ones that ignited flammable foam on the Stations walls, a hazard that a local fire marshal had overlooked three months earlier. And the laws required owners of old buildings to meet the new safety standards, which have been updated every three years since then in accordance with prescriptions of the National Fire Protection Association.

As a result, I think we have a far safer state, Burlingame, executive director of the Rhode Island Fire Safety Code Board, said Wednesday.

Ive been called overreaching, overbearing, draconian, said Burlingame, whose agency hears 200 to 250 appeals each year from property owners who have been cited by fire marshals. But many of those people for years did nothing to comply, and now, I think, for the most part, people are complying.

One sign of success, Burlingame said, is that a number of wastebasket fires that once might have spread to an entire building or more have been controlled quickly because of the universal presence of fire alarms, which have also helped occupants escape to safety.

One of the nightclubs owners, and the manager of the Great White band who ordered the fireworks display, were both sentenced to four years in prison for involuntary manslaughter. Lawsuits by survivors and the victims relatives against the state, the town, the club owners and the band were settled for $176 million. The federal government fined the owners $85,000 and the band $7,000 for workplace-safety violations.

The National Fire Protection Association, a nonprofit organization whose model rules are widely used by cities and states, also toughened its standards after the Rhode Island fire. The new standards require sprinklers in new nightclubs with space for more than 100 customers, periodic inspections of building exits by their owners, and actual seats rather than floor seating for indoor gatherings of 250 or more unless the owner has a special safety permit, said Jim Pauley, the associations chief executive.

Survivors and relatives of the Rhode Island victims attended committee hearings where the rules were adopted, Pauley said. Rhode Island was the first state to enact those standards into law. Now most states have them, he said.

A postfire statewide inspection blitz isnt on the horizon in California, which has a population of 39 million compared with Rhode Islands 1.05 million. Gareth Lacy, a spokesman for Gov. Jerry Brown, said the states Office of Emergency Services has been on the ground from the beginning, assisting the city and county with their emergency response and disaster recovery from the Oakland fire, but noted that enforcement of building codes is mostly a local responsibility.

Mayor Libby Schaafs office did not respond to a query about whether Oakland has any plans for stepped-up fire safety inspections.

Unlike the Rhode Island nightclub, which was licensed for all of its operations, the Ghost Ship had a city permit only as a warehouse and not for the residents who lived on both its floors. The building is still subject to safety laws, but unsafe conditions are often found in unlicensed sites, Pauley said.

If building managers arent following any of the rules that are in place, the best standards in the world are not going to make a difference, he said.

He also advised patrons of such establishments to take a close look at the exits before they enter.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com

Twitter: @egelko
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There were 36 bodies recovered from Oaklands devastating warehouse fire, but the victim count is much higher.

Among the victims are the grief-stricken families of the artists, performers, and music lovers who perished at the building known as the Ghost Ship. Some relatives of the dead didnt learn until Wednesday night, five days after the disaster, that their loved one was gone.

Traditionally, officials show up at families front doors to give them news of a death. To prevent relatives from waiting longer than necessary, and provide additional services at one location, the majority of notifications in the Oakland fire took place at the Alameda County Sheriffs Office family assistance center.

There, a small group was tasked with saying the words no one wants to hear.

In my feeling, honestly, they had the toughest job, said Alameda County Sheriff's Office spokesman Sgt. Ray Kelly.

To perform death notifications for Californias deadliest structure blaze since the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, it took a team of around five people.

Sgt. Lauren Tucker was one of those with that job, and she said it was an honor.

This is not about us, Tucker said Thursday. Its about us doing our job with compassion and empathy. This was all about us doing as best as we could for the victims and the families.

Michael Macor/The Chronicle

Sgt. Oscar Perez, one of many on the peer support team, was in the room for several notifications and said the mood was always solemn.

I was there to comfort families, provide information, hear stories about their loved ones and to listen to them, to let them know they were not alone, Perez said. Our hearts go out to the families. This was a team effort. This was a total team effort.

The process was extensive. It began when families walked through the doors and signed in with their name, contact information, the name of the unaccounted for person, and their relationship to that person.

From there, they were surrounded by counselors, chaplains, a peer support team, and officials such as Tucker who would get to know the families and learn about their loved ones. Some families spent hours there. Others were in and out of the facility for several days.

When a fire victims identity was confirmed, an official from the Alameda County Sheriffs Office broke the news to family members while a chaplain, counselor, and members of a peer support team from the sheriffs office were also on hand to provide comfort.

We really got to know the family, Tucker said. We cried with them. It was ... it was difficult.

Families had as much time as they needed for the notification process. Some spent 20 minutes in the room, some spent an hour. Some wanted to pray with chaplains, others began making calls to inform family members who werent present.

Afterward, they were ushered to another part of the building where victim advocates from the Alameda County district attorneys office and Red Cross volunteers were on hand with additional disaster services.

The sheriffs office had prepared for the worst. In the fires aftermath, calls poured in from worried relatives around the country, which gave the office an initial working list of 240 missing people, Kelly said.

The number soon narrowed considerably as some missing were deemed safe and first responders on the ground performed the painstaking process of recovery.

Saturday morning, they began searching for people by removing building debris with their hands so as not to damage bodies with heavy equipment, said Lt. Paul Liskey, an emergency manager for the Alameda County Sheriff, who coordinated much of the disaster recovery effort.

Lt. Miguel Ibarra, unit commander for the coroners bureau, was one of the boots on the ground during the search and recovery process.

We go to every length, no matter how far, to notify family, he said. The number one person counting on you is the next of kin. You owe it to them to get them their loved one without delay.

As staff worked to quickly identify bodies, family members came to the center with toothbrushes, hair brushes and other personal belongings that contained DNA to help in the identification process.

The objective was to do as many notifications in person as possible, Kelly said. In some cases, the office provided plane tickets to fly out-of-town family members to Oakland, just to sit down and talk to them and get them what they needed.

As families waited, responders felt it was their duty to give them the news as quickly as possible.

Its so hard delivering such terrible news. And at the same time, I think that some of the families got the relief of just knowing, Tucker said. It was agonizing for those families to sit there and not know.

Jenna Lyons is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jlyons@sfchronicle.com

Twitter: @JennaJourno
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After losing friends and loved ones in the Oakland fire that killed 36 people, many artists living in the citys warehouse communities fear a coming crackdown on the roll-your-own spaces that they call home  but may not be legal housing.

In Oakland and elsewhere, safety inspections have been scheduled and shutdowns by landlords are coming, according to those who live and work in spaces like the Ghost Ship, voluminous warehouses filled with artists and others who say they cant afford to live anywhere else amidst the Bay Areas continuing housing crisis.

David Keenan, the co-founder of North Oakland artists collective Omni Commons, said hes heard of at least 10 warehouse landlords who have warned their tenants theyll soon need to move out.

Because many of the makeshift residences arent up to code and are technically illegal as housing, that wouldnt necessarily involve the city or trigger a legal notice of eviction. But the end result for their inhabitants would be the same.

That is real, said Keenan, who organized a Wednesday night meeting with more than 200 Oaklanders living in similar spaces to discuss their options. That is super scary. Each one of these spaces, there usually is a hell of a lot of people who work there or live there and dont know what to do, who dont know what is going to happen to them.

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf  who has insisted she wont preside over policies that would result in mass evictions  faces a delicate political problem in preventing another disaster like the Ghost Ship but not alienating those who inhabit them and their supporters.

But its so far been the property owners, and not city agencies, who have cracked down on their own accord, fearing either legal intervention or the loss of more lives. And those who inhabit the often-illegal spaces are scrambling to make their living situations safe or else figure out how to respond.

Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle

We all know people that have been affected by this, said Joshua, a man who asked that his last name not be used lest his landlord retaliate against him. Joshua, 27, lives in a commercial building that is not zoned for residential use. He received an informal eviction notice Wednesday and has no idea where he will go next. How are we expected to function? asked Joshua, who knew people who died in the Ghost Ship fire.

Former residents described the Ghost Ship as a dangerous environment full of jerry-rigged creations by artists who paid $500 to $1,500 a month to live there, featuring a hodgepodge of electrical hookups and exposed wiring.

In response, Keenan and others  including S. Surface of Seattle, who started a sprawling guide shared online on Google Docs with advice on how to improve do-it-yourself venues  are asking for the chance to bring their own spaces up to code. The Ghost Ship was an anomaly with tragic consequences, Surface said, one that shouldnt shutter similar communities nationwide.

Theres the immediate life and safety risk of something terrible happening to a building, as we saw in Oakland, but to evict and displace people is also a life and safety risk, Surface said.

Angela Scrivani, 34, who lives in a sprawling Oakland warehouse with concrete floors and sturdy walls, said shes tried to do her due diligence in making sure her place is up to code and not a fire hazard. But still, she said, her landlord told the leaseholder that she cannot live in the space anymore and must be out by Jan. 3.

If it gets to the point where I have to move, I dont have another place to go, she said. And now were talking about hundreds of people that will be competing with me to find a space in an already inflated rental market.

In San Francisco, William Strawn, a spokesman for the citys Department of Building Inspection, said his agency has historically relied on a complaint-driven system to investigate potentially illegal communal living arrangements.

Long a haven of tenants rights, San Francisco makes it especially difficult for landlords to evict people on their own  even if they want to, said Andrew Zacks, a landlord attorney based in San Francisco.

Its not as easy as you might think for someone to just make those people go away in these illegal warehouses and office buildings and garages where people are living without approval from the government, Zacks said.

After the fire, though, the department and other city agencies are coordinating spot checks on 15 to 20 buildings identified since the Ghost Ship fire that may pose a threat to their inhabitants, Strawn said.

With more than 200,000 buildings under his departments jurisdiction, there are only so many inspectors and only so much time, he said.

Strawn said people might not call to complain about their living conditions, given the citys high housing costs.

In nearby Richmond, Mayor Tom Butt wrote in an email newsletter pledging to focus his citys resources on shutting down or fixing up illegal buildings like the Ghost Ship, which he said served an illegal and dangerous purpose.

A spokesman for the mayor said similar properties in Richmond represent a potentially catastrophic issue.

Joe Tobener, a San Francisco tenants rights lawyer, said he has received upward of 20 calls since the Oakland fire from people concerned they will be evicted from their current homes. And its not just people from these warehouses, he said, but also others living in garages, in-law spaces or converted living rooms.

There is a potential for a lot of tenants to be displaced that are living in safe units, he said. The strategy should not be get out the pitchfork, but make a safe harbor for units so that they have the Department of Building Inspection come in and look at the unit and figure out how they can make it safe.

Trisha Thadani and Michael Bodley are San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tthadani@sfchronicle.com, mbodley@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @trishathadani, @michael_bodley
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A rash of technological woes hobbling key governmental services in the Bay Area and beyond has laid bare the often rocky relationship that municipalities have with the critical digital systems that play an ever-deepening role in civic life.

Fares have gone uncollected and erroneous warrants have been issued as key functions run on decades-old software or untested new applications.

And in many cities, the simplicity and ease with which we tap a phone to summon a car or order a meal is nowhere to be seen when paying taxes or filling out forms.

With some exceptions, Californias distinction as the wealthiest state in the nation  and the home of Silicon Valley  has done little to immunize the state against the pitfalls of politics and the dense bureaucracy that some officials say make adopting new technology or fixing existing systems such a daunting process.

Fiona Ma, the chairwoman of the states Board of Equalization, said that unlike Silicon Valley, where failing  even at great expense  can be celebrated, government doesnt condone anyone ... blowing through millions of dollars on a failed project, because thats wasting taxpayer dollars, she said. Thats why government folks are slower to act and will tend towards a safe bet.

The board recently began a huge overhaul of its decades-old software used to process taxes.

Itd be great if government was nimble and quick, but unfortunately, its not set up that way, Ma said.

But today, the consequences of maintaining aging software or stumbling with newly deployed code are becoming increasingly severe, experts say, as the publics tolerance for inconvenience dwindles and governments scramble to protect themselves from hacking.

Noah Berger/Special to The Chronicle

The risk is to all of us as citizens. The risk is to trust in government, said Tim Woodbury, director of government relations at Accela, a San Ramon company that sells a variety of software systems to government agencies.

Alameda Countys public defender said last month that a recently installed court case management system resulted in wrongful arrests and imprisonments. Days before that, Muni fell victim to a ransomware attack from an anonymous hacker that temporarily shut down computers at 900 workstations in the San Francisco transit system.

Alex Heid, the chief research officer of SecurityScorecard, a firm that helps companies assess their cybersecurity vulnerabilities, evaluated Munis digital infrastructure and found evidence suggesting that the hacker may have gained entry because there are a number of applications for employees that are accessible to the public on the Internet.

There are so many doors that are ajar, broken doorknobs and cracked windows that there are several ways to crawl in, Heid said. He added that his assessment also found lingering evidence of the Conficker computer worm  a malicious program infecting the Windows operating system that was detected in the late 2000s.

Microsoft eventually developed patches to prevent Conficker from spreading. Heid said the presence of the worms signature suggests that Muni has an old system and they arent keeping it up to date.

Paul Rose, a spokesman for San Franciscos Municipal Transportation Agency, said in an email that based on initial information from federal agencies, all information pointed to a ransomware attack where a network user clicked on a link that contained the virus.

We continue to work with these agencies to fully investigate the incident and determine the specific details, Rose wrote.

Similarly, BART confirmed in September that its fare machines are running Windows 2000, a version of the operating system that Microsoft hasnt supported or updated since 2010. BART said at the time that an upgrade to a newer version of Windows is in the works, expected to be completed by the spring.

Some governmental agencies, however, are working to bring their technology up to speed with the needs of the modern public.

The San Francisco Superior Court plans to install a new case management system that CEO Michael Yuen said will let people pay citations online and collect crucial data.

The courts old case management system is expected to be largely phased out by 2018, Yuen said. First implemented 40 years ago, the system works on technology that predates the equipment available to us now, like a mouse, Yuen said. And its just unfortunate that San Francisco, in the backyard of Silicon Valley, had technology that is so antiquated.

Yuen added that the court is aware that younger generations expect efficiency.

I think that as the population of folks shifts, government has the responsibility to adequately shift with it, Yuen said. Its incumbent on us to keep up with the population of folks we serve.

San Franciscos budget has $186.6 million  just 2 percent of the $9.6 billion total  set aside for investments in tech projects, and the city has identified three key systems for replacement or upgrades.

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The central financial and accounting information system, communications infrastructure that supports public safety departments, and the system for tracking property taxes have been earmarked as major information technology projects.

Rob Lloyd, the director of information technology and chief information officer for the city of San Jose, said the natural tendency for many governments is to spend heavily on public safety or public works.

Its easier to invest in things that are more politically convenient, Lloyd said. Its easier to communicate and a simpler argument to make.

But, Lloyd said, officials who hold government purse strings are becoming receptive to the notion that tech can pay off in ways beyond saving costs or complying with regulations.

Once upon a time, (tech) was a cost center, said Lloyd, who came to San Jose in June after serving five years as chief information officer for the city of Avondale, Ariz. Now, were starting to talk more about the outcomes, about the benefits.

San Jose residents, for example, can now download the San Jose Clean app to help the city locate and remove graffiti and litter. San Francisco released its Adopt-a-Drain Web application, where residents can sign up to clean storm drains to prevent flooding.

Woodbury, the Accela executive, said that while updating government technology will remain a painstaking process, public officials are starting to realize that the need to modernize their systems will only become more urgent.

I dont think we have a choice, he said. Tech is a tool like anything else. I think most government officials see theres no going back.

Dominic Fracassa is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dfracassa@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dominicfracassa
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Even as it has spread its stores from coast to coast in an effort to keep up with Starbucks, Peets Coffee has continued to prep all of its beans in a single roastery in Alameda. That will soon change: The Emeryville company announced plans Friday to build a second roastery about 200 miles south of Washington, D.C.

At 175,000 square feet, the $58 million Suffolk, Va., plant will be even larger than the current 138,000-square-foot roastery, which produces roughly 1 million pounds of coffee a week.

Were growing rapidly as a company, which means in all parts of the country, said CEO Dave Burwick. For us its all about sourcing great beans, roasting them to perfection and getting those beans to consumers as quickly as possible.

Founded by Alfred Peet in Berkeley 50 years ago, the company has doubled in size since going private in 2012, when it was bought by JAB Holding Co. of Germany. During that period Peets purchased boutique coffee companies Stumptown Coffee Roasters and Intelligentsia. Annual revenue has grown from $395 million to an expected $800 million in 2016, and Peets coffee is now sold at 14,000 grocery stores, universities and other wholesale outlets nationwide.

Its still far smaller than Starbucks, which saw $21.3 billion in revenue in its most recent fiscal year. But the expansion signals an increasingly fierce competition in territory where Starbucks faced few well-financed rivals.

Peets successful expansion in the East will be an ongoing, increasing nightmare for Starbucks multiregionally and corporately, said Burt Flickinger, managing director of consulting firm Strategic Resource Group in New York. With Starbucks trying a number of initiatives  some of which work, some dont  what were seeing is some unevenness in quality at Starbucks. Peets, he said, had a better flavor profile and a good on-premise experience.

Outside of its West Coast base, the company has expanded with more than a dozen cafes in both Chicago and Boston and 23 in the Washington area, where the reception has been particularly good, Burwick said.

D.C. has a similar demographic to the Bay Area  a lot of affluent, upscale foodies who really appreciate good food and high-quality beverages. Plus, he has noticed a lot of transplanted Californians who are loyal to the companys ultra-dark, rich roasting style.

Burwick said Peets hopes to fill in the gap with stores between Washington and Boston, including in the competitive New York market. Especially as comparable East Coast companies like Orens Daily Roast and Hampton Coffee Co. stay small, theres room to grow there, said Flickinger. All of that lack of expansion by some of the preferred roasters in the area is creating a tremendous vacuum, and Peets will be extremely successful, he said.

But not all of Peets recent expansions into retail have been a good fit. In 2013, Peets opened stores in the Detroit, Pittsburgh and Columbus, Ohio, areas, many in former locations of Caribou Coffee, a chain Peets parent company bought in 2012. All closed by December 2014 because of low sales.

Ohio wasnt a bulls-eye for Peets, said Burwick. He points out that the companys coffee is still sold in Ohio wholesale outlets, a sector the new Virginia roastery will serve.

Its a great location that gives us access within three days to the entire East Coast and central part of the U.S., said Shawn Conway, Peets chief operating officer.

The new plants site, close to the Port of Virginia, will let the company easily import beans from growers. It will create an estimated 135 jobs, said Conway. Operations will be similar to Alameda, where orders come in for the next day by midnight, and roasters arrive at 2 a.m., working on four machines that vary in capacity from 300 to 700 pounds of beans.

Peets coffee beans spend an average of 30 days in the grocery store, and if they dont sell within 90 days, they are removed from the shelf. The industry standard is for coffee to spend between nine and 18 months in stock, Conway said.

Peets wide distribution system, including weekly truck deliveries to grocery stores, is one of the reasons that the founders of Stumptown Coffee Roasters were interested when Peets approached and ultimately bought the boutique Portland company, Conway said.

That was in October 2015, the same month Peets acquired a majority stake in Intelligentsia of Chicago, which also has a roastery in San Francisco and sleek coffee bars in New York and Los Angeles.

Theres a whole new generation of coffee consumers who by definition are seeking a variety of experiences, said Burwick, giving the examples of the spinning vinyl, nitro cold brew and quirky decor of Stumptown cafes.

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Peets has also experimented with redesigning stores. Its Marina district location in San Francisco increased sales by 60 percent after a 2015 renovation that brought in a living wall, tables made of former bowling alley lanes and a Carrara marble counter.

Though the other newly renovated stores still use paper cups with a version of Peets original tribal design and display historic snapshots of Alfred Peet, they otherwise have a uniform, if high-end, espresso-brown and beige look. The glossy photos on the display menu push them more firmly into Starbucks territory.

Loyalty remains strongest in the Bay Area, with stores in Lafayette, Oaklands Lakeshore and San Franciscos Laurel Village showing the biggest U.S. sales among Peets roughly 240 U.S. stores.

The East Coast coffee, Burwick said, wont be a watered-down version.

Were just exporting one of the most special parts of the country to the East Coast, he said.

Tara Duggan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tduggan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @taraduggan
San Jose Police Department / San Jose Police Department

A teacher at a San Jose high school had a months-long relationship with her 17-year-old male student, coercing a minor 15 years her junior with her status as an authority figure, police said Thursday.

The teacher, Trudy Hill, who taught at Santa Teresa High School, a public school in south San Jose, was arrested Thursday after surrendering to detectives, according to the San Jose Police Department.
Guillermo Arias/Associated Press

A former San Jose gang member was sentenced to 19 years in prison for his part in a crystal methamphetamine ring that distributed the addictive drug around Santa Clara County, federal prosecutors said.

San Jose resident Eduardo Arriaga, AKA Moreno, was sentenced to 228 months in prison inside a San Jose courtroom after a jury found him guilty of distributing methamphetamine and possessing firearms related to the trafficking activity, prosecutors said.
At the start of 2016, we wondered whether this would be the year in which the apologists and proudspreaders would rise up to defend themselves after a concentrated effort by the MTA and other New Yorkers to make men aware of their casual invasion of space in public. While that revolution never took place, manspreading hasn't gone anywhereaccording to a new study out of Hunter College, over one quarter of men in the subway are spreading, whether they realize it or not.

The study (which you can read in full at the bottom of the page), assessed the behavior of more than 5,100 straphangers over 21 different subway lines on different days of the week and at varying time intervals between October 6th and November 7th this year. In a previous study, they explained the parameters used to define a spread:

"Manspreading" was defined as a passenger whose legs were spread so wide apart that it precluded someone else from sitting in the space right next to him/her (i.e., taking up space for more than one person). Students were instructed to be conservative in their judgements. If a rider had his/her legs spread slightly apart - but not apart in a pronounced way- it was not considered to be a case of manspreading. To illustrate manspreading, students were shown images of riders engaged in this type of behavior.

Altogether, they observed that 26 percent of men were manspreadingand despite many men's insistence that the issue "self-corrects" as trains became busier, the study concluded that "there was no indication that male seated riders were less likely to manspread as adjacent seats filled up" and the trains got more crowded.



(Gothamist)

They also made some conclusions about how age relates to manspreading: "The occurrence of manspreading is greatest among those males in the 30-39 age group (30%) and in the 40-49 age group (29%). Another correlate of manspreading is whether or not a male passenger is sleeping. Among those manspreading, 17 percent were found to be dozing." But were they dozing, or were they just fake dozing in order to get away with spreading across three seats during rush hour?



Chris W.

On the other side of the coin, they also found that "the percent of males who stand is considerably greater than the corresponding percent of females who stand. Noteworthy is that the percent of males who stand rises steadily as the population density of the subway car increases." So although there are a lot of men spreading their legs a little wider than they should, chivalry is not quite dead yet.

The Hunter College study was directed by Sociology Professors Peter Tuckel and Mike Benediktsson, and Urban Policy and Planning Professor William Milczarski. Those professors collaborated with Hunter students in research methods and data analyses courses in the Department of Sociology and the Department of Urban Policy and Planning. They did a similar study in the spring of this year which cited a Gothamist article on the scourge of manspreading, so take everything with a grain of salt.

Check out the full study below.
A Trip Down Market Street (1906)

A Trip Down Market Street is one of the most remarkable films ever shot in San Francisco, a 12-minute slice of life filmed just four days before the devastating 1906 earthquake. It was shot by the Miles brothers, four filmmaking pioneers based in San Francisco. They put a camera at the front end of a streetcar at Market and Eighth streets and filmed the cars, streetcars, buildings, horses and carriages, and pedestrians.

The film was originally thought to have been filmed in September 1905, but historian David Kiehns remarkable detective work fixed the later date. He noticed that there was rainwater in the streets and checked weather records that showed that September 1905 was entirely dry. He also checked the car registrations, some of which dated from early 1906.

And then he scoured newspapers from the era until he was able to determine that the film was made on April 14. It turns out that this precious time capsule only narrowly survived the earthquake. It was shipped out on a train on the night of April 17. The next day, the Miles brothers office was destroyed.

Knowing the closeness of the disaster adds an extra poignancy to the film. We wonder what became of the people. We do know what became of those buildings  almost all of them were gone. So we are aware more than ever of a privileged glimpse into an earlier time.

But in a sense, the earthquake did only what time would have done in the course of more than a century, so that even without that looming tragedy, we can look and be fascinated by the fashions, the street signs, how people carried themselves and how the streets were absolute bedlam  with pedestrians walking in front of cars, horses cutting in front of trolleys, newsboys everywhere, and automobiles driving down the wrong side of the street.

The newly restored and digitized footage, available on YouTube, can be watched again and again. The images are so crisp and so vivid that you can almost smell the horses. It is the image of a vital era and of a resilient people  of a city not only about to get knocked down, but also about to rebuild, prosper and thrive.

To see A Trip Down Market Street: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YRbMMqj0qw

Runners-up

Dopamine (2003): This love story, set in San Francisco, grossed only $70,000 in its debut, but its a film that Ive returned to again and again. Directed by Mark Decena, its set in San Francisco, and for once we get the San Francisco that its residents recognize. Its not the tourist San Francisco of Victorian houses and views of the Golden Gate Bridge, but rather one of neighborhoods and local bars. And Sabrina Lloyd and John Livingston are lovely as two people with lots of emotional scars, who gradually become close and heal each other.

To see a trailer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnZb88UG_NM

Time After Time (1979): This is a time machine story, in which H.G. Wells travels from Victorian London to San Francisco in 1979. Movies in which people time-travel to the present day get more interesting as the years go by, as we realize that what we call the present day is always in flux, just one point in the flow. Malcolm MacDowell, in one of his better roles, plays the idealistic Wells, and Mary Steenburgen is the woman he meets along the way. The film is charming and fast moving, and it provides an excellent view of San Francisco in the 1970s. And it has just been released on Blu-ray.

To see a trailer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=huziaaaEd1s

Honorable mention

Milk (2008) starring Sean Penn as the San Francisco supervisor.

D.O.A. (1950): Rudolph Mates film noir.
Knowing the ending in advance is usually considered detrimental to effective filmmaking, but a smart director and screenwriter can use foreknowledge to their advantage, if they work it right. For much of the way, director Garth Davis and screenwriter Luke Davies work it right in Lion, the fact-based story of a young man who goes in search of his lost childhood.

The first half of the film is short on dialogue but eloquent in storytelling as a young Indian boy named Saroo (Sunny Pawar) gets separated from his older brother Guddu (Abhishek Bharate) one night, winds up on a decommissioned train and ends up a thousand miles from home in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta).

Unable to communicate with others because most people in the teeming city speak Bengali and he only speaks Hindi, Saroo wanders the streets and somehow survives on his own until hes rescued, sent to an orphanage, and adopted by an Australian couple named John and Sue Brierley (David Wenham and Nicole Kidman).

For much of the way at this point, we have viewed a vast and confusing world through the eyes of a lost child. Suddenly, hes on an airplane heading for Australia, looking down on the world in a scene that foreshadows the films second half and the mechanism the adult Saroo will use to search for his past: Google Earth.

Davis relies heavily on Greig Frasers cinematography to tell the story at this point  a whirl of golden butterflies circles Saroo in the opening scene, then the world becomes dark, soot-filled and misty as he looks desperately and in vain from the windows of the speeding train for some familiar landmark. Young Pawar handles his scant dialogue well enough, but we focus on his face and especially his enormous, expressive eyes to tell us about Saroos confused feelings of anxiety and curiosity in a strange new world.

Dev Patel plays the adult Saroo in the films second half. Now Saroo is studying hotel management, beginning a relationship with a fellow student named Lucy (Rooney Mara) and considering the Brierleys the only mum and dad hes ever known.

When asked about his childhood in India, his answers are vague and evasive  he says only that hes from Kolkata and doesnt remember much about that time.

And then, at a party, something seemingly irrelevant happens that flips the switch of memory in his mind, and he becomes obsessed with reconnecting with his mother and his past.

Patels performance carries the weight of the second half of the film so well, you may overlook how badly the two parts of the film are married. Now everyone talks  a lot  and as they do, the eloquence of the story is imperiled. Where Davis and Davies were able to achieve sweep and dimension in Saroos initial separation from his mother and brother, now they rely on series of quick, underdeveloped scenes that may momentarily capture our curiosity but are so fleeting we cant really invest in anything except Saroos determination to find out how he became lost all those years before.

Patel delivers a definitive, star-making performance, one that fills in all the considerable gaps in the script and reaffirms his versatility as an actor. Ill-served as he is by the dialogue, he still makes Saroo credible and heartbreaking, even as the character touches the edge of madness in his desperation to get home again. Patel has done very good work in films like Slumdog Millionaire and The Man Who Knew Infinity, but Lion catapults him to the top of his profession.

Kidman also overcomes script weaknesses that fail to establish Sues fragile character until a revelatory scene in which she releases all of her fears. The scene is powerful and only makes us wish shed been given more room to stretch elsewhere in the movie.

Where the first half of the film had power and sweep, the second half is a bunch of Post-it notes. In spite of that, and because of Patels electrifying and deeply nuanced performance, Lion ultimately delivers the emotional punch it has promised all along.

David Wiegand is an assistant managing editor and the TV critic of The San Francisco Chronicle. Email: dwiegand@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @WaitWhat_TV Follow him on Facebook.

Lion

Drama. Starring Dev Patel and Nicole Kidman. Directed by Garth Davis. (PG-13. 118 minutes.)
Minutes before he was found barely conscious lying in the street outside of an El Sobrante pool hall  the victim of what authorities called a hate-crime slaying  William Sims drank a beer inside.

Surveillance video from inside the Capri Club that captures the final moments of Sims life suggests that he was a bar regular, just the friendly, beloved musician described by friends and family.

His shirt untucked, Sims, who is black, can be seen walking through the Capri Clubs Dutch door in the early morning hours of Nov. 12 and shaking hands with a white man. He touched hands with two white women.

Leaning on the bar, he ordered a bottled beer.

How much do I owe you? Sims, 28, asked.

Three and a quarter, the white female bartender responded.

Sims rummaged a pocket, pulled out crumpled bills and change. Sims and the man he greeted inspected Sims light-colored shirt. Sims turned to go to the bathroom, but before he closed the door he said something to a person out of the frame. When he returned to stand at the bar, his shirt is neatly tucked into his dark pants.

Hip-hop music played, and Sims conversations were punctuated by his laugh. He high-fived another white person.

But minutes after he left the Capri Club, authorities have said, Sims was jumped, robbed, beaten and then shot steps from the bars driveway on Appian Way. His back pocket had been pulled out, and a bullet casing was found 3 feet from his head.

One of the suspects, Daniel Porter-Kelly, 31, is in jail charged with murder, robbery and a hate crime enhancement that could get him the death penalty. The other two suspects identified by authorities are Ray Simons, 32, of Hercules and Daniel Ortega, 31, of Novato. Both remain at large.

Sims deserves justice, and I wont stop asking questions until it happens.

But Colin Cooper, a lawyer for Porter-Kelly, will ask a court Friday to set his client free. He sees nothing that implicates his client in the evidence turned over by investigators.

Heres why: Surveillance video and a search warrant affidavit raise serious questions about whether Porter-Kelly was even present when Sims was fatally shot.

From the search warrant affidavit, a female witness said Sims was met with hostility and people in the bar were being mean to him. She told investigators that Sims was involved in an altercation with Ortega and other males behind the bar. She identified Porter-Kelly and Simons as the other males.

Yet, according to the affidavit, she also told investigators that it was Simons who fired two shots at Sims. She said the shots were fired from the car she was driving, which carried Simons and Ortega. She said Simons fired the shots when Sims ran alongside the vehicle yelling at them to stop.

She told investigators she didnt know where Porter-Kelly was at that time.

After the shooting, the affidavit says, she drove Ortega and Simons to the Antioch-Pittsburg area. She has not been arrested.

Another witness who spoke to investigators is Ortegas mother, Renee Brown, who has been arrested on suspicion of interfering with the investigation. The affidavit shows that Brown told investigators that her son called her and said he had been in a fight and that Simons had shot a man.

On the night he died, Sims and a white male friend, who was also interviewed by detectives, hung out at Eds Place, a bar on San Pablo Dam Road that is about a mile from the Capri Club. They drove 20 miles to Concord to sing karaoke at the Captains Chest Cocktail Lounge before returning to Eds Place.

At around 1 a.m., they left Eds. Sims told the friend he was going to Jack in the Box, a three-minute drive down San Pablo Dam Road, before going home. The friend didnt know Sims was going to the Capri Club, and he told investigators that Sims had said he felt uncomfortable going there due to his race.

The surveillance inside the Capri Club shows the exact opposite, Cooper said.

As Sims told the bartender goodnight, he slid his left hand into his pants pocket as he headed for the Dutch door. Another white man, also walking out, said something to Sims, who doesnt break stride.

Car keys were found in the drivers seat of Sims car and, to investigators, it appeared the vehicle had been rummaged through.

There were several Jack in the Box bags.

So far, authorities have not explained why they have deemed the case a hate crime. They also have not explained why Porter-Kelly is facing murder charges. The homicide, which occurred during a post-election wave of hate crime, is extremely troubling.

What led to Sims death? Was Sims targeted because of his race?

The public deserves a clear explanation from authorities about what went down.

Otis R. Taylor Jr. is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist whose column appears Tuesday and Friday. Email: otaylor@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @otisrtaylorjr
There is plenty of blame to go around for the devastating Ghost Ship warehouse fire, where 36 people died over the weekend. The fire was one of the countrys worst building fires in the past 50 years.

Its still early, and were learning more about what happened every day. Yet its becoming clear that the fire could have been avoided. A disturbing pattern of negligence and failure is emerging  from the officials who should have been protecting residents to the landlord to the master tenant.

On the official side, an array of agencies in both Oakland and Alameda County had investigated complaints and conditions at the warehouse over the years. There is no excuse for why those deadly conditions were allowed to continue.

Its an outrage that the building went uninspected for three decades, as Oaklands interim planning director admitted this week. That is the city of Oaklands inexcusable failure, and its one that had deadly consequences.

When an inspector did go to the warehouse  following neighbor complaints, one showed up at the building Nov. 17  there was no follow-up. Thats also something for which the city has to answer.

Its common for building inspectors to have trouble getting access to troubled properties, and it may be particularly common in Oakland.

In San Francisco, tenants in these situations can call building inspectors about issues and the citations will be delivered to their landlords. Oakland tenants dont have this protection, so they may be fearful of immediately losing their housing if they report violations. Going forward, Oakland leaders need to provide a legislative fix, so that tenants arent disincentivized from protecting themselves and others.

We also need to know whether the Oakland Fire Department completed the inspections it was supposed to make on the building. Two years ago, the Alameda County civil grand jury drew attention to big deficiencies in the Fire Departments inspection bureau, and at the time, the fire chief acknowledged the accuracy of many of the jurys findings. There are no known records of the Fire Department inspecting the warehouse for the past several years.

The Oakland police were frequently called to the warehouse. There will be questions about why they didnt do more, but police arent trained to make judgments on habitation safety in the way that building and fire inspectors are.

The extent of how much liability the city has and how much the buildings owner, Chor Ng, must assume, is one thats likely to be worked out in court.

There was a previous lien on the property for substandard, hazardous or injurious conditions. It was released in 2009, after the problems were abated. So Ng should have been aware that there had once been dangerous conditions at the warehouse.

Ng, who has not responded to press inquiries, owns other properties in Oakland that have been cited for blight.

The buildings master tenant, Derick Ion Almena, also appears to share some responsibility for this disaster.

Theres no way to make up for these incredible losses, but learning how this happened may help us to ensure it never happens again.
A toxic chemical found in drinking water supplies across California is known to cause cancer but remains unregulated. The State Water Resources Control Board has made it a priority this year to set a legal limit for the chemical in drinking water, something it has discussed since 2009.

The chemical, 1,2,3-Trichloropropane, has been detected in hundreds of wells all over California, but more than half are in the agriculturally rich San Joaquin Valley. The contamination stems from its use in pesticides.

For nearly a year, my organization has hosted workshops in communities impacted by high 1,2,3-TCP levels. I have frequently visited Arvin, a rural Kern County town south of Bakersfield, where the majority of residents are low-income, Latino workers. Crop fields and oil pumpjacks dominate the landscape. Poverty and pollution are pervasive.

When we tell residents about 1,2,3-TCP contamination and associated cancer risks, many are devastated, but seemingly unsurprised, as if this isnt the first time the government has let them down. Communities all over California are waiting for water justice. Thats why Arvin resident Bartolo Chavez drove five hours to testify before the state water board in Sacramento, urging it to take action for clean water.

Im advocating for the board to set a maximum contaminant level of 5 parts per trillion  the level at which it can be detected.

Shell Oil and Dow Chemical are also paying close attention. Their carelessness 30 years ago caused nearly all of the 1,2,3-TCP contamination we see in California, and they know they will be on the hook to pay for cleanup costs once a maximum contaminant level is adopted.

Shell and Dow manufactured D-D and Telone, two pesticides containing 1,2,3-TCP that were applied extensively to farmland prior to the 1980s. Thanks to memos uncovered by lawsuits, we know the two companies were aware that 1,2,3-TCP causes cancer and other health effects. They also knew it served no function in killing agricultural pests. The companies decided to leave 1,2,3-TCP in their products to avoid the costs to remove it.

The companies also failed to notify farmers of the health risks. As a result, farmers unknowingly injected millions of pounds of a carcinogen into the soil, from which it leached into and will remain in our groundwater for decades.

This was avoidable.

The state water board must prioritize public health when developing a new drinking water standard, but must also consider the economic impacts of water treatment and the feasibility of detecting the contaminant. In this case, there are responsible parties that can afford the costs of water treatment.

The public comment period for the proposed maximum contaminant level begins in a few weeks. People like Chavez have taken action, but Californians across the state need to urge the board to set the most health-protective level: 5 parts per trillion. You can submit comments, with subject line 1,2,3-TCP Maximum Contaminant Level, to commentletters@waterboards.ca.gov.

Asha Kreiling is the policy and communications analyst for the Community Water Center.
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Mayor Ed Lee vetoed legislation late Thursday that would have restricted short-term rentals to 60 days a year, saying it would make enforcement of the current law more difficult and less effective and would drive even more people to illegally rent units.

The legislation, passed by the Board of Supervisors last month, would have barred hosts from having paying guests in a room, house or entire apartment for more than 60 days a year.

The veto means that the current law will remain intact. That law allows hosts to rent a room in their house or apartment for an unlimited number of days, or entire homes for up to 90 days a year.

Lees veto is most likely the final word on the matter. The supervisors need eight votes to override a veto, and the legislation appears to have the support of just seven supervisors.

The bill was unexpectedly proposed by Board of Supervisors President London Breed, who had previously opposed legislation restricting short-term rentals to 60 days a year. She said she changed her stance because she wanted to give the law time to work. When she concluded that it wasnt, she proposed tighter restrictions.

Only about 1,700 out of an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 hosts in the city are now registered, making it all but impossible to enforce the current annual rental caps.

In addition to Breed, Supervisors David Campos, Aaron Peskin, Jane Kim, Eric Mar, John Avalos and Norman Yee voted for the legislation. Supervisor Mark Farrell recused himself from the vote because he has business interests in a company involved in the short-term rental industry.

If enacted, San Francisco would have had some of the most stringent restrictions on short-term rentals in the country. Lee has historically opposed tougher restrictions on short-term rentals in the past, saying they help residents make extra money and stay in the city.

Breed said that she was disappointed with Lees veto but that the mayor has finally agreed to work with me and stakeholders to look at regulations and long-term solutions. She said they will develop a working group to make recommendations by the end of February.

Avalos was more critical. Im sure Ed Lee is smart enough to understand how devastating short-term rentals have been to our housing stock, so its safe to say the mayor cares more about Airbnbs bottom line than preventing homelessness.

 Emily Green

Email: cityinsider@sfchronicle.com, egreen@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @sfcityinsider, @emilytgreen
The larder at Bar Tartine  its signature feature, the culmination of five years of fervid experimentation on the part of chefs Nick Balla and Cortney Burns  has always been reminiscent of a medieval apothecary. Mason jars filled with purple bachelor-button buds and lacy anise flowers. Bins of dried burdock-root twists and fermented pepper paste. Rows of green, magenta and gold dehydrated herb powders. It is hard not to suspect that the cure to catarrh or the bubonic plague may be stashed here.

Yet Burns, all 5-feet-nothing and compressed movement, thumps a tub of brined yacon root and says, This is our last pickle. At the end of the year, the co-chefs and partners are leaving the restaurant that made their names. A third of the larder has already been moved down the street to Motze, their 6-week-old pop-up. The remainder may be carted to the site of their second forthcoming restaurant, Crescent, if they secure the right space in time.

Its an improbable move, yet Burns and Balla have not drawn the attention of the culinary world by making easy-to-understand choices. The influence of Bar Tartines curious larder, as well as what the chefs make with it, has rippled across the country. Their next restaurants may, too.

Owned by Tartine Bakerys Chad Robertson and Liz Prueitt, Bar Tartine is one of the rarest restaurants in San Francisco, having reinvented itself four times in its 10 years of existence without faltering. It opened with classic California food, veered experimental under chef Jason Fox, returned to the subtle and seasonal under Chris Kronner and then went Hungarian-global when Nick Balla signed on in 2011.

At that time, Ballas pedigree was connected to Japanese restaurants, first as the chef of O Izakaya, followed by Nombe. He had lived in Hungary as a teenager, however, and when Robertson tapped Balla for Bar Tartine, a Japanese-inflected Eastern European fantasia spilled out from his imagination: chilled fruit soups, chicken paprikas, fishermans stew.

Balla had met Burns, a world traveler and then-private chef, at a Japanese food conference in 2010, and the two started dating just a few weeks before Ballas tenure at Bar Tartine began. A few months later, as Robertson wrote in the foreword to the restaurants 2014 cookbook, Cortney Burns came in one day to help butcher a goat ... and then never left.

When Burns officially joined the business as chef of special projects, Balla had already begun preserving and pickling, calling on both Japanese and Eastern European techniques. She intensified their research and experimentation to a degree matched only by a few restaurants in the world. The two have produced water-kefir sodas, cultured misos and cheeses, and fermented or dehydrated everything that might come their way.

Liz Hafalia/The Chronicle

With the years, their duties, as well as their ideas, have become enmeshed. The couple mirror each others creativity and their drive  despite the long hours, they often commute to work by running. Cortney is the charmer, Nick the observer. She tunnels into each project, while he keeps his gaze up, monitoring the environment around him.

Despite the fact that I hired (and paid) them to cater my wedding, I have always struggled to explain Bar Tartines food to people who have never been there, and it grows ever more personal and iconoclastic every year. Many of the Hungarian classics disappeared long ago, and the signature dishes that have emerged  smoked potatoes, beef tartare, and sprouted lentil fritters with herbed yogurt  evolve with every visit.

I dont think anything has changed for Cortney or for me as far as our core curiosities and beliefs, Balla insists. I think weve grown up a lot and learned why we do things.

Liz Hafalia/The Chronicle

Intensely savory and complex, Bar Tartines rustic style diverges from the meticulous, tweezer-and-petal plates that make up the dominant style in high-end restaurants these days. Balla and Burns are also singular in the degree they make space for the funk of preserved fish and brined radish, the aggressively verdant flavor of certain greens or the pucker of pickled green tomatoes.

To return to Bar Tartine, over and over again, is akin to following the films of Agnes Varda or the novels of Haruki Murakami: pleasure heightened by uncertainty. To love Burns and Ballas food is to know that no matter how often risks are rewarded, they never cease to be risks. Sometimes youre befuddled, say, by a decidedly unsweet dessert. More often, youre awed by a bean broth with more flavor than a slab of prime rib.

Balla and Burns have made their way into the national media circuit, recognized by almost every food editor in the country. When Michael Anthony, executive chef of Manhattans Gramercy Tavern, came to San Francisco for the first time, Bar Tartine was his first stop. His meal wasnt merely impressive, he says. It moved him. Theyre simply making the most of the things theyve purchased or grown in the area, and digging deep into trying to find new flavors and experiment with those flavors in ways that are really cool, Anthony says.

Liz Hafalia/The Chronicle

I can say for the staff of Bon Appetit, Bar Tartine is a must stop in San Francisco, says the magazines deputy editor, Andrew Knowlton. When he travels in Europe, the chefs he interviews are paying as much attention to Balla and Burns as they are to four-star Bay Area chefs like David Kinch and Christopher Kostow. As somebody who travels quite a bit, the ubiquity with which you see certain items on menus is rampant. When you run across a restaurant like Bar Tartine, where things are completely unrecognizable and youve never seen before, its so refreshing.

Aaron Patrick Adams, chef-owner of Farm Spirit in Portland, Ore., which serves a 15-course vegan tasting menu, keeps a copy of Bar Tartines cookbook on his shelf. Bar Tartine has set the bar for preservation, he says. Just like Burns and Balla, Adams has found that preserving fruits and vegetables is necessary for a year-round restaurant that sources all its ingredients locally. For a vegan chef, preservation is aesthetically essential, too. Adding fermentation adds a dimension of flavor that you really need, he says.

So why leave a successful restaurant with a beautiful space in one of San Franciscos primary restaurant rows?

As Tartine Bakery embarked on its own ambitious expansion scheme with the Manufactory, the two chefs originally planned to take over the restaurants lease and change its name to Crescent. Burns says she will always honor Robertson and Prueitt, not just for the support and freedom they offered their chefs, but for using their own reputations to give her work national resonance.

However, Balla says that the more he mulled over his discomfort with the restaurant industry  the pay inequity between waiters and cooks, the relationship between customers and workers  as well as the rising costs of doing business in San Francisco, he became convinced that the restaurant he wanted to create wouldnt fit in the existing space.

Thats why the chefs, joined by partner Jamison Wiggins, have pursued their headiest, possibly quirkiest experiment yet in Motze (pronounced moh-tsuh). Balla sees this 18-month pop-up at 983 Valencia (at 21st Street) as a creative test: How can he strip away the least environmentally sustainable and the most exploitative elements of the food business? Ethics are only one piece of the challenge. If you want to pay people well, you have to find ways to save money and have a streamlined operation, Balla says.

Recognizing the risk they were taking, the three partners sought only a little crowdfunding investment for Motze. They bootstrapped the rest, cleaning up the space and reusing every piece of equipment and storage container they could, asking artist friends to help decorate. The pop-up throws out tradition in a hundred tiny ways. Motze is staffed by just a few cooks and two so-called guides, all of whom interact with guests, allowing all employees to legally share tips  and making the experience more personal for everyone involved. To eliminate paper, the guides submit orders by writing on ceramic tiles.

Liz Hafalia/The Chronicle

Every nights prix-fixe menu costs $58, including gratuity, and the number and composition of the dishes change every day. Ballas Japanese training resurfaces, too, in the food. A recent meal there began with salmon cured in rice, a black-bean miso soup, and a mung-bean crepe folded over avocado or pork rillettes, depending on whether the diner was vegetarian or omnivorous. It culminated in a rice porridge with pork shoulder and delicata squash whose layering of acutely robust flavors would take several pages of text to describe.

Im not in control, Balla says of the menu. The produce that comes in when its ripe: It is in control. The fish skin and the bones and heads that he must find uses from: They are in control. Balla sees his own talents as the conduit for making all these things delicious. Motze has given him new confidence in his abilities. He has no idea whether it will succeed.

At the same time, the three partners may have found a new location for Crescent nearby in the Mission, and they hope that closing Bar Tartine on Dec. 31 will let them open the new place quickly, keeping as many of their core staff as they can. The prospect of starting anew, and hoping customers will embrace it the way they have Bar Tartine, scares Burns. But that fear is something to be honest about, to wrestle with and even embrace.

The momentum here has always been that there is momentum, she says.

Jonathan Kauffman is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jkauffman@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @jonkauffman
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San Francisco officials made a bold promise Friday, saying that within three years the city will eradicate the problem of family homelessness, housing 800 families and creating a no-wait system of support for those who might face the streets in the future.

Its a $30 million plan, a public-private partnership with $20 million already in the bank. And city officials and philanthropists all but guaranteed success, despite the considerable challenges ahead.

This is very straightforward, said Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff, who with his wife, Lynne, are among the major donors to the effort. It will happen.

The Heading Home Campaign will expand existing efforts to provide rapid rehousing for families in crisis, providing support and rent subsidies to keep them off the streets and out of shelters permanently, said Jeff Kositsky, director of the citys Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing.

Last year the city placed 237 families into permanent homes through rapid rehousing. Still, about 1,800 schoolchildren live in unstable situations, couch-surfing with their families or living in shelters, single-room occupancy hotels, cars or sometimes even the streets, officials said.

This is almost unbelievable in this city, in this country, and its a tragedy that affects all of us, Kositsky said. The very notion that children in San Francisco tonight have nowhere to sleep hurts my heart.

Though the number of homeless families in the city has been declining in the last few years to about 1,100  down 20 percent since 2015  officials expect that more than 800 families will need somewhere to live next year.

Currently, homeless families in San Francisco have to wait up to seven months for services and spend an average of 414 days homeless, Kositsky said. The city wants to clear the backlog by fall 2018 and reduce the maximum time a family spends homeless to 90 days.

That will include building an additional 350 units of permanent and subsidized housing for such families, Kositsky said.

The city has been trying to tackle homelessness in so many ways for so many years, said Mayor Ed Lee at a news conference to announce the initiative, held at at a city-subsidized family housing complex on Fourth Street. The efforts have been helpful, he said, but certainly still not enough.

Kositsky said the funding will enable the city to beef up strategies that have proven successful in helping homeless families find stability. That includes rapid rehousing, which seeks to move parents and children into their own place as soon as possible, even if its in another city if the family is amenable, he said.

Critics, however, have questioned the relocation strategy, saying the city needs more affordable housing, not fewer low-income families.

The city intends to cover $4.5 million of the programs costs, in addition to the $35 million already spent annually on family homelessness. Another $15 million in private funding has been raised, including $10 million from the Benioffs, which will be released if and when the city raises a matching amount.

Other private donors include tech investor Ron Conway, the Hellman Foundation, Google.org, the San Francisco Giants, Salesforce.org and the Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund.

San Franciscos school district is also involved in the campaign, helping the city identify families in need or in crisis. Interim Superintendent Myong Leigh said homeless children are more likely to be hungry or sick, to be suspended or held back a grade, or to drop out.

The Benioffs said they pursued the issue of family homeless after a 2011 Chronicle story profiled a boy named Rudy, one of 2,200 public school children in the city who were then homeless  roughly one in every 25 students.

Marc Benioff recalled his wife asking, How can this be?

Since then the Benioffs have worked with the city, donating money to create additional shelter space and provide increased services. But it was never enough, they said. The Heading Home Campaign, they said, is the all-in effort needed.

Its a specific, targeted number of children, Lynne Benioff said Friday. We know how to do it.

The city is $10 million short of its goal and is hoping companies and individuals step up to fill in the rest, Lee said.

Were not foolish enough to say well end all homelessness, the mayor said. But were smart enough to do it better ... to destroy homelessness for sections of people.

Jill Tucker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jtucker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jilltucker

Heading Home Campaign

For more information or to donate, please go to https://hamiltonfamilies.org/what-we-do/heading-home-campaign/
Michael Morris stared out at the dozens of students and faculty members gathered Thursday at UC Berkeleys Zellerbach Hall and struggled through tears as he spoke of his daughter, one of 36 people killed in the devastating Oakland warehouse fire.

[Jennifer Morris] was so precious to us, she loved music and art. Theres a part of our hearts thats missing today, Morris said.

The vigil at Zellerbach Hall Thursday honored Morris daughter and four other victims with ties to UC Berkeley, who died nearly a week ago in the fire that ravaged a warehouse at 31st Avenue near International Boulevard during an electronic music event.

Morris, Vanessa Plotkin, Griffin Madden, David Cline and Chelsea Faith Dolan were among those who perished in the fire.

Morris, 21, and Plotkin, 21, were third-year students at UC Berkeley. Madden, 23, and Cline, 24, were alums of the university while Dolan volunteered as a DJ at KALX, the schools FM radio station.

Poster boards with photos of the five victims greeted the attendees. The posters were adorned with heartfelt farewell messages to each of the victims.

I love you, one person wrote to Morris.

Keep the sick beats going, someone else wrote to Dolan.

At the start of the program, UC Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks held a moment of silence for the victims.

Students held each tightly in the audience, wiping away tears and gripping glow sticks in lieu of candles.

Family members of Morris, Plotkin and Madden took turns sharing memories of their loved ones.

Plotkins mother, Valerie Plotkin, read the last text message she received from her daughter the morning of the fire.

Her last text to me was an emoji with heart-eyes and a big heart, Valerie Plotkin said through her tears.

She was surrounded by Plotkins father, two brothers and twin sister who held her tightly as she struggled to share the loss shes been dealt.

Vanessa was my best friend, said Victoria Plotkin, Plotkins twin sister. She was my light, she was my sun.

Julia Osborne, a 21-year-old student at UC Berkeley, attended the vigil to honor Madden. The two were friends when they worked together at Cal Performances.

He was kind of quirky. He would dance around and tell jokes, Osborne said. He was a great person.

Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani
Like the television shows of the era, our notions of the 50s tend to be heteronormative and mostly black and white, a la Leave It to Beaver and Gunsmoke, Chuck Berry and Elvis. Once considered oppressive, repressive and otherwise unpleasant, this era of transformation has become chic: The decade intrigues as much as it perturbs.

Berkeley author Lucy Jane Bledsoe shows the sexy side of the 1950s in her new novel, A Thin Bright Line, based on the true story of her lesbian aunt, Lucybelle Bledsoe, for whom she was named. Once a doctoral candidate in English literature, her aunt, also called Lucy, left academia for a publishing job in New York, and then left a career as a science editor for a government lab in Chicago with a creepy Cold War acronym, the Snow Permafrost Ice Research Establishment (SPIRE).

Bledsoe dug deep and found a few friends who had known her aunt. She had a lover named Vera, who appears later in the novel. But the real Lucybelle Bledsoe is mostly a cipher, a woman who left behind only the thinnest record of her earthly existence, and almost nothing that documented her life as a lesbian.

As a character, Lucy is contradictory: She cowers in the face of queer witch hunts and threats of blackmail at work, and yet courageously befriends other gay women and pursues her love life on both sides of the color line. She can be persnickety and a perfectionist in her work, but quite daring outside of it.

Lucy, who is white, falls for Stella, a butch, cab-driving African American photographer. Much to Lucys surprise, she lets Stella photograph her in the nude  only to discover later that Stella is essentially married to another woman, living in a black gay world mostly out of reach to Lucy.

Bledsoe covers a lot of ground here, imagining her intellectual aunts relationship to the queer cultural transformations of the 1950s, as well as the paranoia of the Cold War era, typified by the seemingly real threat of nuclear war and the McCarthyite fear of Communists and homosexuals.

For example, Bledsoe gives a nod to the contributions of gay civil rights leader Bayard Rustin. Later, Lucys lover, Stella, winds up documenting key moments in the civil rights movement with her camera.

She also has a celebrity crush on Rachel Carson, whose book Silent Spring catalyzed the creation of the modern environmental movement. One of the women chasing Lucy lends her a treasured photograph of Carson, who was also a lesbian, and whose work parallels that of the ice scientists at SPIRE pioneering the use of ice cores in weather research.

Similarly, Stella gives Lucy a copy of Allen Ginsbergs Howl as a sort of high-intellect seduction aid, and there are references to James Baldwins groundbreaking homoerotic novel, Giovannis Room. Lucy meets lesbian pulp fiction writer Val Taylor on the Chicago L one evening, and is then invited to a fundraising party for playwright Lorraine Hansberrys A Raisin in the Sun, the first African American play staged on Broadway. (Yes, Hansberry was also a lesbian!).

The real-life Taylor was part of the publishing industrys 1950s explosion of lesbian pulp fiction, which also included Odd Girl Out, the first of Ann Bannons celebrated Beebo Brinker novels.

Which is all quite fun, but perhaps not entirely believable, except for the understandable crush on Carson. Bledsoe name-checks so many of the eras queer figures and signifiers that one starts to wonder what life was really like for her aunt, or any lesbian of the 1950s. Did would-be lovers really give women copies of Howl? Maybe. Would that work today? Doubtful.

The queer 50s are complex and contradictory. Gays and lesbians were persecuted: Police raided gay bars regularly, and the State Department declared homosexuals to be security risks because they could be blackmailed. Sen. Joseph McCarthy and his band of gay-baiters destroyed thousands of civil service careers through investigations, threats and firings, leading some to commit suicide.

Queers flocked to Greenwich Village and other LBGT urban meccas in search of art, love and community. As a result, Harry Hay and other gay men founded the early homophile group the Mattachine Society in Los Angeles, while Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon started the parallel Daughters of Bilitis in San Francisco (lesbophile just does not have the same ring to it, unfortunately) with four other couples. Daughters of Bilitis gets the best laugh line of this mostly serious novel: Lucys scientist boss calls them the Daughters of Beluga.

We moderns yearn for an illusory past, when things were simpler: Cars had wood panels and outrageous fins, gas was cheap, and James Dean filled the screen. Twenty-first century queers cant exactly take a time machine to the past, but we can enjoy it vicariously, through novels like Bledsoes, Todd Haynes 2015 film Carol and Sarah Schulmans The Cosmopolitans, another notable recent queer novel set in the 1950s.

Nancy D. Kates is a Berkeley filmmaker and writer. She co-produced and directed Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin. Email: books@sfchronicle.com

A Thin Bright Line

By Lucy Jane Bledsoe

(University of Wisconsin Press; 336 pages; $26.95)
President Obama has ordered a "full review" of reports of hacking-related activity aimed at disrupting or altering the presidential election, a White House official said Friday.

"We may have crossed into a new threshold and it is incumbent upon us to take stock of that, to review, to conduct some after-action, to understand what this means, what has happened and to impart those lessons learned," Obama counterterrorism and homeland security adviser Lisa Monaco told reporters Friday morning.

In October, the federal government officially accused the Russian government of trying to interfere in the presidential election by hacking "political organizations." The Democratic National Committee's servers were hacked in July, and emails from various party staffers were published on Wikileaks. In the days preceding the election, the site uploaded a new batch of emails from Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta, some of which are the source of a certain pizza-related conspiracy theory.

U.S. intelligence officials also said that prior to the election, Russian-based hackers hacked into two U.S. voter registration databases, and there has been increased post-election speculation that Russian hackers could have altered the election results in Trump's favor. (Election analyst Nate Silver declared some of these theories "probably BS.")

In late November, a group of computer scientists and election lawyers urged Clinton to challenge the election results and demand an audit of the votes in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. After raising the necessary funds, Green Party candidate Jill Stein filed for a recount in Wisconsin, and the Clinton campaign joined the effort. Trump supporters requested that a judge stop the recount, but their request was denied by a federal judge on Friday. According to the Philly Voice, the recount is more than 70 percent complete in Wisconsin and Clinton has gained just 82 votes.

Stein also filed for a recount in Michigan, which ended Wednesday night after an order by U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith, which halted the recount on the grounds that Stein does not qualify as an "aggrieved" candidate. As of Wednesday, 20 counties in the state were counting ballots. In Pennsylvania, where Stein also filed for a recount, U.S. District Judge Paul Diamond scheduled a hearing Friday regarding the request. Both Trump and the Republican party reportedly warned that the recount threatens the state's ability to certify the election before the federal deadline, December 13th.

The Washington Post reported Thursday that some Senate Republicans, including John McCain and Lindsey Graham, are ready to launch a "wide-ranging" probe of Russia's alleged interference in the election.

"I'm going after Russia in every way you can go after Russia," Graham said in an interview with CNN on Wednesday. "I think they're one of the most destabilizing influences on the world stage. I think they did interfere with our elections and I want Putin to pay the price."

President Obama wants the report to be finished by January 20th, before he leaves office.

Monaco said the report would be shared with "a range of stakeholders" including members of Congress, but may not be available to the public.

"That's going to be first and foremost a determination thats made by the intelligence community," she told reporters. "We want to do so very attentive to not disclosing sources and methods that may impede our ability to identify and attribute malicious actors in the future."

Monaco also said that internet-related dangers like hacking are among the most significant national security concerns today. The Trump administration, she said, will "inherit a rapidly-growing threat in this space across all dimensions."
Before Hillary, there was Eleanor. Both women redefined the office of first lady, a position that isnt mentioned in the Constitution or the laws of our country but that derives from the marriage contract. Both women gave that office new visibility and authority and developed their independent personas, Hillary at first through fostering a health care plan and later by focusing on women and children, Eleanor by never ceasing to promote social causes. She supported legislation for the poor and working classes, fought racism and advocated for immigrants and refugees, youth, artists and musicians, and education.

Both women were admired and praised; both were viciously maligned. Both suffered the pain and public humiliation of their husbands infidelities, and both were transformed by the experience. Both strained against gender stereotypes (the term used against ER was petticoat government). Both became icons whose celebrity was international. Eleanors story was completed triumphantly; Hillarys valiant journey continues.

Now in Vol. 3 of her definitive biography, Blanche Wiesen Cook completes her Roosevelt life cycle with Eleanor Roosevelt: The War Years and After. Its a big book, over 600 pages, and it reads like the great history that it is. My only complaints are that Cook, having overwhelming source material to work with, has clearly crammed into a few chapters the final years of ERs very active life after a close, perhaps too close, examination of the terrible years of the Great Depression.

The monumental achievement of this current volume, which may be read without reference to the earlier works, is the rich depiction of the periods contextual history, the story of an America still mired in depression, of Europe unraveling as Nazis and fascists began oppressing Jews and other minorities, contemptuously stamping out national boundaries and then conquering and plundering the smaller nations of Europe.

It is a hideous picture, which Americans (83 percent) insisted was a European problem and none of our own. The New Deal had not healed the Depression; unemployment was high; Congress, the State Department and other agencies were wary of interfering with events across the pond, even to supply our allies.

The infamous Dies Committee searched for Communist spies and terrorists, a forerunner to the McCarthy committees intimidation of citizens in the 1950s. Lynchings and poll taxes were the most visible aspects of Southern racism; Congress was bent on savaging the New Deal programs.

Anti-Semitism was given legitimacy through the preaching of Father Coughlin and others, so that efforts to rescue Jews fleeing the murder mills of Europe were callously rejected. When Sen. Robert Wagner introduced into Congress a bill to rescue 20,000 Jewish children, it was rejected. Charming children grow into ugly adults, wrote one opponent. There are few heroes in this picture of America of 1939-41.

There is one heroine  the indefatigable Eleanor, who is presented front and center against this dismal backdrop of national and international affairs. Cook has scoured not just secondary sources but also the vast archives of Eleanor and others compiled as the first lady tirelessly toured the country on speaking tours and writing for newspapers, in journals and finally books, serving as the eyes and ears for her husband, who relied greatly on her daily reports to him.

Her cohorts and allies made up a compendium of the major players of that era, both the individuals and the organizations. She befriended young people, labor leaders, the heads of NAACP and womens groups, artists; she invited them to stay, some overnight, others for weeks, even years in the White House or at Hyde Park. Eleanor cared for people as individuals, not just as representatives or symbols of a cause. She filled her life with people and their missions.

As Cook tells it, she did this, perhaps unconsciously, to ward off the deep melancholic moods induced by the grief of her early years, especially the loss of her beloved and alcoholic father, and later the betrayal by her husband. By this time, after 1939, her own children were grown and launched, most married and living in distant cities. As a mother, she experienced terror of knowing that all four of her sons were in uniform and in the battle zones during the war. As a grandmother, she filled her homes with holiday celebrations for the young that also delighted the president.

The shy and withdrawn Eleanor of Vol. 1 has become a gregarious public figure in Vol. 3. Cook depicts a tall, graceful and gracious woman who moved like a dancer, dressed simply but elegantly, and treated people from all walks of life with the same broad smile and ready friendship.

If this volume has an antihero it is Franklin, whose focus on world affairs often led to an adversarial relationship with Eleanor, whose domestic agenda sometimes clashed with his political strategies. They spoke by phone every morning when she traveled. When they were together, she undoubtedly harassed him with her demands, for instance, to save Jews from Nazi slaughter, while he refused to interfere with the indifferent and even hostile anti-Semitic leaders of his own State Department.

Eleanor could be exasperating, in which case they treated each other coolly for a time, but he still depended upon her, and she responded, respecting the constraints that her position as first lady placed on her.

During the final phases of ERs great life, after the death of her husband, during her years as the first U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, she continued the same devotion to improving human conditions, this time on a broader stage. Her best triumph came with the passage of the Declaration of Human Rights, a blueprint for the eradication of war, carnage and human suffering on the planet.

This biography reminds us that during one of the most horrific eras of American history, Eleanor Roosevelt conducted her life as a moral person, concerned for the well-being of all peoples and for peace. Like Hillary Clinton, her initial platform on the national stage was that of first lady, a wife.

Edith B. Gelles is a senior scholar at Stanfords Clayman Institute for Gender Research and a biographer of Abigail Adams. Email: books@sfchronicle.com

Eleanor Roosevelt

The War Years and After

Volume 3: 1939-1962

By Blanche Wiesen Cook

(Viking; 670 pages; $40)
He has an Irving Thalberg Award (from 1992), a net worth around $5 billion and a collection of artworks for which he seeks a home. But George Lucas has never won an Oscar, no matter that he changed the universe of filmmaking to a point where Oscar can seem archaic, or beside the point. Lucas booted us from the movie age into the digital riot on our screens. He made a novel fusion of narrative and technology best described in the name of one of his own enterprises  industrial light and magic. George Lucas turned that magic into a new norm, but is it still what he wanted it to be  fun?

Youd guess the young George must have been inspired by movies. But what meant the most to him growing up in Modesto (born there in 1944) were radio, comic books and television. Before his own father, the town stationer, yielded and bought a set, George watched TV in a friends garage, straining to get a clear picture from KRON in San Francisco. Thats how the first movies gripped him, the Flash Gordon serials, made in the 30s but precious time-fillers on local stations that didnt have enough stuff to show. It was a start for a kid who believed in the Norman Rockwell America where honest ambition would come through.

The most compelling part of Brian Jay Jones very readable book covers the years in which this kid (the stinky kid, as Francis Coppola would call him) went from a provincial, and nearly rural, childhood to studying illustration and going to film school at the University of Southern California.

He was shy there, a bit of a nerd, not very sociable or charismatic, but recognized as a talented student who might do something extraordinary. He was making arty short films at USC, and that mood led to THX 1138 (1971), a dark piece of sci-fi, sponsored by Coppola (five years his senior), but a resounding flop.

The kid kept trying, and he made American Graffiti (1973) for very little, battling against studio misgivings, but urging that high school rhapsody into life, spurred by jukebox music and a gang of young players with big careers ahead. At previews, the studio thought Graffiti was hopeless, no matter that audiences went wild. When it reached the screen, as a hit, George had the first serious money in his life and public respect  he was nominated for the script and for direction.

His head was running wild with ideas: It was Lucas who initiated what became Apocalypse Now, which was appropriated by Coppola. George was more intent on letting his Flash Gordon obsession come to fruition. Despite every Hollywood claim that sci-fi was a defunct genre, he persisted in believing that a thing he called The Star Wars could work.

The story of that film has been told many times, and its not that Jones has much that is new, but his narrative of the ordeal and triumph makes wonderful reading. Alan Ladd Jr. at Fox thought the project was viable, but then the studio turned stingy on the special effects that needed to be invented before they could be executed on screen.

Lucas used Graffiti money on just a deal memo to get a script  he hated writing and changed his mind on narrative directions and character names all the time. But George foresaw things the studio had not realized. While being squeezed on budget, and having to go to England to shoot it (he hated England), he retained sequel rights and the range of merchandising.

The film was a wonder; along with Steven Spielbergs Jaws, it inaugurated a new age of young audiences, blockbusters and magicking the impossible. That franchise was added to with Raiders of the Lost Ark and the building of an empire (rustic, grand, but surreal) at Skywalker Ranch. The ranch is enchanting, beautifully placed, and like a secure and tranquil kingdom. Lucas made a lake, imported hundreds of trees from Oregon, and created old buildings. In his head he even had a fictional scenario of how this Ranch had come to be. He sometimes said it was his best movie.

His wife, Marcia, was charged with supervising the ranch design. She had met George in Los Angeles when they were beginning film editors. Marcia was a knockout: Even his friends felt she was out of his league. She became an excellent editor who won an Oscar on Georges films as well as cutting Taxi Driver for Martin Scorsese. She seemed like a storybook companion.

But theres a chill moment in this book, from 1983, when George and Marcia tell their staff theyre getting a divorce. It comes off like something from a Lucas film where, amid spectacular effects, there isnt time to explore big emotional situations. They had been devoted, but they worked furiously and were often apart. They failed to have a child, and Marcia felt a lack of companionship or future. She would meet someone else, a stained-glass painter on the ranch. After the divorce, she never had another credit.

Jones is a good storyteller, but for the most part the Lucas empire has not assisted him. He has no input from the wives, Coppola, editor and sound man Walter Murch, Steven Spielberg, effects artist John Dykstra, or from most of the associates who made Lucasfilm what it became. Nearly all those people have had their say elsewhere, so the book is hardly fresh, but Jones is a skilled arranger of the available sources. If the second half of the story becomes a little monotonous, maybe thats how Lucas felt about later episodes of Star Wars.

In 2012, he sold out to Disney for $4.05 billion. He had a second, happy marriage by then (to Mellody Hobson, a money management executive); over the years he had adopted three children, and in 2013 he had his first biological child. He is only 72, and he does not seem a retired personality, even if he can go unnoticed at a party. He talks still of small, personal films as well as the pleasure of being a dad. There is the museum plan that roams around the country.

He does not emerge as the most interesting of men (not operating on as many levels as Coppola, with whom he has had a lifetime of alliance, dismay, recovery and rivalry). Instead, he proves that an American billionaire can be an odd, brilliant but quite ordinary fellow. Just like Thomas Edison.

David Thomson is the author of The New Biographical Dictionary of Film, now in its sixth edition, and, most recently, Television: A Biography. Email: books@sfchronicle.com

George Lucas

A Life

By Brian Jay Jones

(Little, Brown; 550 pages; $32)
Number of the day

$90.2 trillion

Thats the total household wealth in the United States for the quarter that ended in September, an increase of 1.8 percent from the previous quarter. The Federal Reserve said Thursday that real estate values increased $554 billion in the third quarter, while Americans stock and mutual fund portfolios rose $494 billion.

Snack smackdown

Delta Air Lines is rolling out new free snacks in its main cabin, including yogurt bars and pretzels. Some will come in larger portions than before because, Delta has figured out, thats what customers crave. United and American have stepped up their snack game in the last year, and now Deltas longer flights will feature Snyders of Hanover pretzels, Squirrel honey-roasted peanuts and NatureBox yogurt bars. Fans of the Biscoff cookies need not fret  those are staying. Delta also is testing free sandwiches and other meals in economy on some flights between New York and California.

Lobster goes better with Coke?

Coca-Cola might seem like the perfect fit when you have fast food or a pizza, but the beverage maker is using TV ads and social media to try to get us to have a Coke with more exotic stuff, from lobster rolls to paella. Food bloggers have even been paid to post photos on Instagram of various dishes, paired specifically with glass bottles of Coke that might appeal to the aesthetic of foodie culture.

The Daily Briefing is compiled from San Francisco Chronicle staff and news services. See more items and links at www.sfgate.com. Twitter: @techbriefing
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First, Apple promised that its $159 AirPods would ship in October. But the companys newest wireless headset still hasnt arrived. And the wait will continue.

We need a little bit more time before AirPods are ready for our customers, an Apple spokeswoman told the Wall Street Journal.

Analysts say the delay is unusual for Apple, a company that goes out of its way to buttress its marketing image and keep major products under wraps until they are dramatically unveiled. Apple showed off the wireless earpieces, which look somewhat like white plastic earrings, in September. It marketed the items with its new iPhone 7, which lacks a conventional audio jack for headphones. Since the AirPods arent available, people using older headsets with the iPhone 7 must jerry-rig the connection using an adapter that the company supplied with the new phones.

I think its a black eye, said Patrick Moorhead, president of Moor Insights and Strategy, adding he doesnt think AirPods will be in stores until January. I dont recall the last time that Apple announced something and didnt deliver it close to when they said they would deliver it.

Last month, CEO Tim Cook reportedly apologized to a customer for the delay in an email. The note, forwarded by the customer to the MacRumors website, said, We are finalizing them and I anticipate we will begin to ship over the next few weeks.

It is not clear whether Apple will ship the product before Christmas.

In September, Apple executives said the AirPods would arrive in stores in October. When that month rolled by, Apple said the shipments would be delayed further.

Apple did not respond to a request for comment on the delay or Cooks email.

Some analysts speculated that it could be a production issue.

This is pretty much a computer that fits into your ear, said Ramon Llamas, a research manager for wearables and smartphones at research firm IDC. Its a technological marvel. Its incredibly hard to pull this off.

Its also possible that the problem could be with battery life, given the AirPods small size, said Werner Goertz, a research director with Gartner. Apple said at the unveiling that AirPods could be actively used for five hours on a single battery charge, which impressed analysts at the time.

The innovation is really in the smallness of those two devices, Goertz said.

If Apple does not release the AirPods shortly, it could miss out on almost all of the holiday shopping season and lose those sales to wireless headsets that compete with AirPods, analysts said.

Apple will definitely lose sales, said Britt Beemer, CEO of Americas Research Group, which tracks consumer shopping habits.

Despite the initial delays, some analysts believe that AirPods could revolutionize the headset industry, as people use the earpieces not just to listen to music, but also to make more use of Apples voice assistant Siri for tasks like switching on the lights in their homes.

Llamas noted that demand for AirPods is expected to continue past the holidays.

In the grand scheme of things, this is a (smarter) move for Apple than to release it ... before its ready, Llamas said.

Wendy Lee is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: wlee@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @thewendylee
ATMORE, Ala.  Lawyers for an Alabama inmate who was put to death Thursday say movements he made demonstrate that he wasnt anesthetized during the execution.

Alabama inmate Robert Bert Smith Jr. was executed using an injection of the drug midazolam. Execution witnesses reported that the 45-year-old prisoner heaved, coughed and appeared to move during tests meant to determine consciousness.

Smith was convicted of capital murder in the Nov. 8, 1994, fatal shooting of Huntsville store clerk Casey Wilson.

Smiths lawyers said in an email Friday that they believe two doses of midazolam were administered to sedate him. The Department of Corrections wont say whether a second dose was given.

Alabama uses a three-drug execution protocol with the first drug meant to sedate the inmate, the second to paralyze the lungs and stop breathing, and the third to stop the heart.

Critics of a lethal injection drug that has been used in problematic executions in several states say Thursdays execution in Alabama provides more evidence that it shouldnt be used to put inmates to death.

Robert Dunham is executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. He said medical experts have repeatedly said midazolam is not designed to render a person unconscious and insensate, and witness accounts of Smiths execution indicate that it did not.

Oklahomas use of midazolam as the first in a three-drug protocol was challenged after the April 2014 execution of Clayton Lockett, who writhed on a gurney, moaned and clenched his teeth for several minutes before prison officials tried to halt the process. Lockett died after 43 minutes. A state investigation into Locketts execution revealed that a failed line caused the drugs to be administered locally instead of into Locketts blood.

Ohio and Arizona have used midazolam as the first in a two-drug protocol. Ohio inmate Dennis McGuire repeatedly gasped and snorted over 26 minutes during his January 2014 execution. The state abandoned that method afterward and has yet to resume executions. Arizona halted executions after the July 2014 lethal injection of convicted killer Joseph Rudolph Wood, who took nearly two hours to die.

Smith and other Alabama inmates argued in a court case that the drug was an unreliable sedative and could cause them to feel pain, citing its use in problematic executions.
Actor and comedian T.J. Miller, best known for his role as Erlich Bachman on HBO's "Silicon Valley," was arrested at 1 a.m. Friday morning after an alleged altercation and assault on his Uber driver, following a politically-charged argument supposedly over President-elect Donald Trump.

Miller, who also stars in the upcoming film "Office Christmas Party," was reportedly leaving the GQ Men of the Year party at Los Angeles' Chateau Marmont when he and his Uber driver got into a politically-charged discussion, according to TMZ. When the argument intensified, Miller, who is vehemently opposed to Trump, allegedly reached over and slapped the driver in the head. It was not clear if Miller's wife and party date, Kate Gorney, was present at the time.
The death of two sisters from a malfunctioning radiator at a Bronx shelter site was a "terrible tragedy," and reinforced the need for the city to end its cluster housing policy for homeless residents, Department of Homeless Services Commissioner Steven Banks said on Thursday.

"The tragedy of [Wednesday] night highlights the urgency of getting out of clusters, of getting out of commercial hotels, and getting purpose-built shelters in place throughout the city," DHS Commissioner Banks said at a City Hall press conference attended by Department of Buildings Commissioner Rick Chandler and Housing and Preservation Department Commissioner Vicki Been.

Scyle Vayoh Ambrose, 1, and her sister Ibanez Ambrose, 2, were pronounced dead at Lincoln Hospital Wednesday after a radiator sent scalding steam into the room where they were sleeping.

The girls lived with their parents, Pete and Danielle Ambrose, in a two-bedroom apartment at 720 Hunts Point Avenue in the Bronx. The Ambroses' apartment and four others in the 48-unit building were part of the city's cluster site housing program, which funds third-party service providers to place homeless families in private apartments. Started in 2000, the program has been criticized for putting residents in substandard housing at great cost to taxpayers. A 2015 Department of Investigation report found the cluster sites to be "the worst maintained, the most poorly monitored, and provide the least adequate social services to families."

Earlier this year, the de Blasio administration announced it would phase out use of cluster sites by the end of 2018.

Moshe Piller, who was named the fourth worst landlord in New York by Public Advocate Letitia James in 2015, owns the building at 720 Hunts Point. He was removed from the 2016 edition of the list and did not appear on previous archived versions of the list, which Bill de Blasio, then the city's public advocate, launched in 2010. But in 2004, the Daily News called Piller, who also goes by the first name "Morris," the "king of the slumlords."

Banks said shelter services providers decide where to place cluster site housing, not the city itself. The cluster site program at the Hunt's Point address, and an adjacent building, began in 2013.

"In 2013, I don't know what the procedure was when the city began doing business with these two buildings," he added. The Bronx DA's office launched an investigation into Piller and the building following Wednesday's explosion, according to a spokesman for that office.

Bushwick Economic Development Corporation, the provider that placed the Ambroses in the cluster site on Hunts Point Avenue, was cited in a March 2015 Investigation Department report on building and fire safety violations in cluster-site apartments, the NY Times reported.



Commissioners Rick Chandler (L), Steven Banks and Vicki Been discuss the deaths of two young sisters at Bronx shelter site. (Josh Keefe/Gothamist)

The commissioners declined to comment on the specifics of the accident that took the lives of the Ambrose sisters, citing an ongoing multi-agency investigation. The Bronx District Attorney's office is also investigating, according to a spokesman.

Been did say the city was able to inspect 35 of the building's 48 units after the incident, and all were deemed safe. Heat was turned off after the explosion, and the building's boiler, which is only four years old, was inspected and cleared. Heat was restored by midnight.

"We believe there are no safety problems in any of the other apartments," Been said.

The five families occupying cluster housing in the building, and two in the adjacent building, were moved to regular shelters after the accident.

Banks said the effort to eliminate cluster sites could not be done immediately without turning residents out on the streets.

"We have to phase it out. If we were to close it all tonight, we would have 12,000 people without shelter," Banks said. Since launching an effort to phase out the cluster site program, the city has managed to eliminate 450 of 3,600 total units.

A complaint was last made about the building to HPD in April, according to Been. After performing an inspection, the inspectors issued a violation for a defective radiator shut-off valve in a second floor apartment. Inspectors followed up on the violation and determined the issue had been quickly resolved, she said.

Been added that HPD had not received any complaints about the Ambroses' apartment since 2002. Multiple agencies, however, regularly inspect cluster sites. DHS performed a routine inspection of multiple units at the building on Monday and found "nothing untoward" in the apartment, according to Banks, who declined to say whether the radiator was part of the inspection.

Banks also said that as part of the ongoing effort to eliminate the cluster site system, the city was placing providers like Bushwick Development Corporation under contract, which will increase the city's ability to "enforce compliance with service requirements and enforce compliance with addressing conditions."

Public Advocate James was incredulous. "It is unforgivable that the City continues to enter into contracts with providers who do not ensure that these apartments are habitable, and today, we witnessed the lethal consequences of this neglect," she stated Wednesday.

However, the Daily News reported Thursday that a resident of the building's cluster site told a case worker from the Bushwick Economic Development Corporation about a broken radiator in August 2015, a complaint which was never reported to the city. The agency did not respond to requests for comment.

Although he declined to comment on the Ambrose family or the accident that took the lives of their girls, Banks did describe what he saw when he visited the Ambroses' first floor apartment with Mayor De Blasio and the NYPD Wednesday night.

"It looked like you might imagine any apartment looking where parents lived with a two-year-old and one-year-old," Banks said, adding that throughout the apartment were "expressions of love."

"It was just heartbreaking. Just heartbreaking to see."

A Gofundme page has raised nearly $10,000 for the family.
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The age-old rivalry between San Francisco and Los Angeles was nowhere in sight at the Castro Theatre on Thursday night, Dec. 8, as the San Francisco Film Society honored La La Land, the new musical film by writer-director Damien Chazelle (Whiplash). In spite of the fact that rain forced the red carpet inside to the Castros mezzanine, fans of the films leads, Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, did not let weather keep them away from seeing the stars.

Ive wanted to make movies as long as I can remember, Chazelle said before the screening. I lived my whole life thinking about movies and art, and I also played music starting at an early age. I guess at the end of the day, you write what you know and try to keep things personal. In this case, it means making films about the artistic process.

The film is a veritable love letter, both to the city of Los Angeles and to the innovative film musicals of the 1940s and 50s pioneered by performers and filmmakers like Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen. But instead of trying to merely replicate the magic of that bygone era, Chazelle sought to combine the hallmarks of the older films with a contemporary sense of dramatic grounding.

Theres a certain amount of skepticism you have to worry about, Chazelle said of audiences disbelief in film characters breaking into musical numbers. Ryan, Emma and I worked on making it as real and naturalistic as possible, making sure the numbers were justified by the emotion. I think once you make that emotion feel real, you can take the audience along on any ride.

This was the inaugural year for the film societys new SF Honors Award, which was presented to Chazelle onstage during a conversation with Stone, Gosling and the films composer, Justin Hurwitz.

The new award was made possible by a $1 million, 10-year gift by film producer and film society Vice President Todd Traina and his mother, Dede Wilsey, who were both in attendance (as were Todds wife, Katie, and brother, Trevor.)

The La La Land team was interviewed onstage by director and fellow film society board member Chris Columbus, whom Executive Director Noah Cowan playfully introduced as Mr. Doubtfire. (Columbus directed the 1993 comedy Mrs. Doubtfire, starring Robin Williams.)

I dont want to oversell it, but its an incredible film, Columbus gushed. He admitted to the crowd that he had been able to see the film only a few hours before and that he was still emotional from the experience.

I never saw a film like this coming in 2016, Columbus later said offstage. I didnt see it coming in any decade, actually.

The praise for the film was seconded by Cowan.

La La Land is the perfect movie for a film society to show, Cowan said. It says so much about the world of cinema, the world of art, the world of culture. Just by absorbing its enthusiasm for the history of this cultural medium, we feel our audiences become more enthusiastic. Its a bridge between the (filmmaking) generations.

La La Land is the third film Stone and Gosling have co-starred in, after Crazy, Stupid, Love and Gangster Squad. The two shared an easy rapport (Gosling greeted Stone with a joking Why hello, Emily, when she arrived on the carpet a few moments later than he), and both confessed to finding the musical film genre a new kind of professional challenge. When asked what new skill was hardest to hone for the filming, Stone immediately replied, The singing!

All the above! Gosling laughed in response. The piano for me was really a bit of work.

But the filmmaking process wasnt all grueling five, six, seven, eight! rehearsals. Chazelle, Gosling and Stone were given a special treat when Patricia Ward Kelly, the widow of La La Land inspiration Gene Kelly, invited them to her home to see her late husbands professional archives.

Patricia was very kind and had us over for dinner, Gosling said. We talked about Gene, she shared her experiences, her wisdom with us. She even allowed us to see a few of Genes things.

We even saw some of his handwritten notes on his scripts, Stone said. It was pretty amazing.

Following the award presentation and onstage conversation, the team ducked out of the Castro just as the sounds of the riveting opening musical number filled the auditorium for an intimate dinner with film society VIPs (including actress Connie Nielsen, filmmaker Roman Coppola and his wife Jenny) at decorator Ken Fulks Magic Factory loft in SoMa. (Fulk was traveling and unable to attend).

Traina, whose credits as producer include 2016s Tallulah (starring Ellen Page and Allison Janney) said his fascination with film began as a kid when he saw the Peter Sellers comedy The Pink Panther.

But it was when I first saw Bullitt that I knew I wanted to shoot films here in San Francisco, he added.

Traina said that the popularity and visionary leadership of Cowan was a major part of why he and his mother gave their gift to the film society, as well as a desire to continue bringing films like La La Land to San Francisco.

It just makes sense that we become a destination for these films, Traina said. We are the third largest Academy (of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) voter base, after Los Angeles and New York.

Wilsey said her love of film also began in childhood when her father, U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg Wiley T. Buchanan, made a deal with the owner of a local cinema to allow her to bypass the 18 and over rule for attendance.

I saw every musical that came there, Wilsey remembered. My kids were brought up on musicals. I even have a carousel at my house in Rutherford for my grandchildren because I loved the musical Carousel so much.

Tony Bravo is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tbravo@sfchronicle.com
A 121-year-old water main bust ed and created a gusher in the middle of one of San Franciscos busiest intersections Friday, snarling traffic from the morning commute and into the evening rush hour.

The 12-inch main running underneath Howard Street at Fourth Street broke about 3 a.m. sending a powerful stream of water busting up through the pavement and flooding the intersection.

Charles Sheehan, a spokesman for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, said the water main dates to 1895.

Generally when you have a main that dates back to 1895, when it breaks its usually age that is the cause for the main break, Sheehan said.

Workers spent Friday digging up the intersection and were continuing to work well into the afternoon to replace the busted water main. Workers hope to have the main replaced and the street patch up sometime Saturday morning.

Its going to take hours, said Rich Gonzales, superintendent for the San Francisco Water Department.

Gonzales said traffic in the area was absolutely horrible.

Businesses in the area, including Oasis Grill on Fourth Street, didnt experienced flooding or low water pressure.

Bill Spongberg, a temporary maintenance worker for the Moscone Center, said the convention center also didnt have any flooding problems, but due to the street closures, truck deliveries had to find alternate routes to access the loading docks.

Otherwise, its just business as usual except for people stopping to look at the big hole, Spongberg said.

Officials advised drivers to avoid the neighborhood near Yerba Buena Center.

Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani
A woman and a man were killed two hours apart late Thursday in San Francisco, becoming the second and third homicides in the city in two days, police said.

Police responded to the first slaying just before 9:30 p.m. in lower Pacific Heights. A 56-year-old woman was found stabbed to death on the 2000 block of Sutter Street near Fillmore Street, police said.